Transgender Student Inclusion Single Sex Colleges

Transgender student inclusion Single sex Colleges in the United States are asking one difficult question, should transgender students be allowed to attend their schools despite identifying with another gender or being born the opposite sex? Same sex colleges are arguing among themselves over how same sex colleges, as a whole should treat these students. All female colleges were created in the support of giving education to females who were unwelcomed in higher education. To give the so called, â€Å"lesser sex† greater opportunities. Now that the schools that have previously rejected those women are Co-ed we are once again looking at those who are rejected by normal society because of their gender. Students who’s gender doesn’t fit the sex assigned to them at birth or don’t fit into Society’s typical gender binary are being treated with confusion and distrust, colleges like Barnard feel these students should not be allowed in same sex college. These students are reaching out to same sex colleges of their sex or gender because they are searching for acceptance they do not find in Co-ed school systems. These students find themselves often rejected from these schools however because they identify or were born differently from the accepted females. Same sex colleges should look review their admissions policy and foster a greater inclusion. Trans students are not treated as equals. According to the New York Times Sunday review, Faculty at the college of Barnard university argue ifShow MoreRelatedProviding Support to Transgender Students On Campus Essay1938 Words   |  8 PagesLGBT population arises across the United States, colleges and universities have responded by creating positive spaces and environments for students. However, in some cases, not all populations are served adequately. A population specifically, transgender students, sometimes do not receive the same support gay, lesbian and bisexual students receive. 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Essay about Analysis of Walking Across Egypt by Clyde...

Analysis of Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton Mattie Rigsbee is the main character in Clyde Edgertons southern style novel, Walking Across Egypt. Mattie is a seventy-eight year old widow with two middle-aged children. Living alone in a small house, she makes sure that everything is taken care of. She cooks, cleans, mows the lawn, and takes up numerous responsibilities with the church. She is a very caring person with many friends and a family that loves her dearly. At the time this novel takes place, Mattie is at a turning point in her life. Confusion disturbed her, because the things that people are telling her are not the words that she is ready or willing to hear. Although begins to display some signs of aging, and her family†¦show more content†¦Besides, Im slowing down, she says to her son during lunch. The stereotypes of the elderly are influencing Matties life. She is telling herself not to do things because of her age whether or not she is physically able to do them, simply because people associate age with inability and dependence upon others. Her family and friends are expecting and encouraging this dependence. Elaine and Robert, Matties two unmarried children, along with other family and friends, are encouraging her to be what they expect a seventy-eight year old woman to be. They talk about how she needs to get rest because she is slowing down and cant keep going as steady as she seems to think. When she decided to try and help a young juvenile, Wesley Benfield, become a better person by taking him to church and offering him to stay the night with her, Robert thought that Mattie was sick. Robert was thinking about the symptoms. What condition was his mother entering? Was it a phase of some sort? Was she having some of those tiny strokes they talk about? Or Alzheimers? .... Maybe she needed a long rest. She was slowing down. (177-178) He would have to tell Elaine about this incident, because she is having the same fears as he. Pearl Turnage, Matties older sister, has given in to the stereotypes that are now plaguing Mattie, and insists that she do the same. In fact, she invites Mattie to accompany her to the funeral home where

Similarities between international and domestic human resource management Essay Example For Students

Similarities between international and domestic human resource management Essay Introduction Human resource direction has become an of import issue as more and more houses runing internationally are in demand to develop an apprehension on how to run competitively in an international concern environment ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . As the planetary playing field has become more competitory, international companies are forced to follow efficient HRM and give more focal point to their international than their domestic operations. Due to the sensitiveness of the issue, the concerned HR must turn to the cardinal issues such as the impact of globalisation, environmental influences, cultural differences, the domestic HRM policies in different states and the planetary work force involved in the action ( Armstrong, 2009 ) . The purpose of this essay is to supply a clear overview of the chief differences and similarities between International and Domestic Human resource direction. The essay will to some extent discuss the pattern of Human resource direction in a domestic and international degree together with the factors that affect this procedure. Finally, a decision will be drawn with an analysis of the research findings. DEFINATIONS OF DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGMENT When we look at the historic development of Human resource direction, we find that it evolves from the term Personnel direction. The gradual development of direction activity from disposal of forces to strategic planning of human resource, has given a competitory advantage to international companies. Personnel direction focused more on administrative maps and how to command the employee instead than perpetrate the employee to the organisation strategic planning procedure. But the present Human resource direction system is structured more on the committedness of the staff and involves the employee in the strategic planning and development procedure of the organisation. It besides stress that organisations should see their employees as assets than variable costs ( Armstrong, 2009, Torrington et Al, 2005 ) . It is non rather easy to supply a precise and exact definition of Human resource direction due to the varying and different activities it refers to. One effort made by Storey ( 1995 ) is HRM is a typical attack to employment and direction which seeks to achieve competitory advantage through the strategic development of a extremely committed and capable work force utilizing an array of cultural, structural and personal techniques. On the other manus, Human resource direction is besides defined as stand foring two activities. One is the generic term concerned with the cardinal aims of human activity, which are the staffing, public presentation, alteration direction and administrative aims, and the other activity is the Human resource attack to transport out the activities stated under the generic term one ( Torrington et al, 2005 ) . In order to clearly see the commonalties and differences shared by Domestic and International human resource direction, placing the activities which change or evolve when HR goes International is a critical point. To this consequence, a faculty developed by Morgan ( 1986 ) is helpful. The faculty nowadayss three dimensions of International Human resource direction with assorted classs of HR activities, states involved and employees in International activities. The first dimension trades with the undertakings of Human resource direction ; the procurance, allotment and use of HR which goes farther down to elaborate activities mentioned before in this paper under the generic term account for HRM. The 2nd dimension trades with three state classs ; the host state where the subordinate is located, place state of the company s headquarter, other states which are beginning of work force, finance and other inputs. The 3rd dimension is concerned with three class of employees ; Host-country subjects, Parent-country subjects and Third-country subjects. Thence, harmonizing to Morgan, The interplay between these three dimensions is what define international Human resource direction ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . At this point, it shows that the elements or issues related to International HRM pattern are complex, higher in figure and have broader range than those found in Domestic HRM pattern. In order to get by up with these complex issues the direction may necessitate to take a strategy-ethnocentric, Polycentric, regiocentric or geocentric that best fits its concern program. In ethnocentric scheme, a company uses indistinguishable Human resource scheme both at place and in its abroad concern activity. The polycentric scheme, with encompassing the thought that each state is different in every facet, gives foreign subordinates autonomy to use host state subjects and exercises local appropriate HR patterns to the subordinate s location. Regiocentric attack is when companies are structured on a regional footing and best regional patterns of HR are prescribed. Last, geocentric scheme holds an unfastened for all employment chance where, all subjects from the HQ, subordinate and 3rd state may be employed. It upholds Best individual for the occupation slogan and promotes higher company unity with less room for nationality ( Storey, 2007 ) . In the following subdivision, the paper will discourse if the HR patterns at the domestic degree can be implemented at international degree and would seek to place the factors that may ease or shackle this procedure in general. THE PRACTICE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGMENT AT DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL The increasing concern activity at international degree has shown the importance of understanding how Multinational companies can run expeditiously and efficaciously in the planetary dimension. In general, International Human resource direction involves the internationalising company in different patterns such as diverse HR activities than found in the place state, greater engagement in employees private lives, greater hazard of exposure to the human and finance involved, more external influence from the host state and greater complexness than found at Domestic HRM degree ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . An International HR director besides needs to turn to the challenges due to transverse cultural differences, planetary competition, linguistic communication and political differences when posted at international degree. Apart from the different strength degree of HR activities and strategic coordination of different concern units, both Domestic and International HRM portion same major activities of HRM. In add-on, an International Human resource director besides needs to understand the grade of soft or difficult HRM nowadays in the place base and foreign subordinates. Companies with Hard HRM policy are more concern focused and use cost minimisation systems while companies that engage the employee in engagement have Soft HRM policy ( Storey, 2007 ) . Dowling A ; Welch ( 2005 ) identified some factors that moderate the difference between International and domestic Human resource direction. Harmonizing to Dowling, these variables are cultural environment, the industry with which the Multinational is chiefly involved, the extent of trust of the multinationals on its place state or domestic market and the attitudes of senior direction in international operation. Let us discourse to what extent these variables would move as moderators between Domestic and International HRM patterns. Industry Type One of import variable that moderates International and Domestic Human resource direction is the type of industry an MNC is involved in and the international competition it faces. Puting the concern playing field in one consecutive line, allow us state we have at one terminal of the continuum a multi-domestic industry and the other terminal a planetary industry. The multi-domestic terminal designates an industry operating in assorted states but the completion in that industry type is specific to the state. While at the other terminal, the planetary industry group is about an industry that operates in different states but interlinked with other industries in the same group ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . Industries that fall under the multi-domestic construction have a free reign and are non purely controlled by the Headquarter of the MNC. They exhibit a extremely decentralized HR construction and drama CORPORAL PUNISHMENT EssayAs the planetary commercialism is increasing so has the activities of International Human resource direction becomes an of import and more complex than Domestic Human resource direction. While we acknowledge the spread outing concern activity, there is a school of idea that support and concur on the alliance of concern patterns on planetary graduated table. The thought postulates three major positions towards the pattern of Human resource direction, Universalistic, Contingency and Configuration. The Universalistic position is about placing the best criterion of Human resource pattern through assorted and uninterrupted Human resource activities while the Contingency or externally tantrum perspective suggests the demand for a mix of different policies and patterns to acquire high consequences or best HR public presentation. The Configuration position base for the interaction of concern schemes and HRM patterns used to find concern public presentation ( Beardwell and Claydon, 2010 ) . Another observation toward the HR patterns in the international degree says that, organisations runing under same environment would be compelled towards a unvarying direction pattern. This Isomorphic pull as they refer to it or isomorphism has three signifiers. Management patterns under the Coercive signifier adopt foreign HR patterns due to external force per unit area, such as force per unit areas or outlooks from the province, Legal or cultural environment. The Mimetic signifier is when companies copy HR theoretical accounts from other companies runing on the same line of concern and accept it as the standard signifier of pattern against assorted uncertainnesss. The last theoretical account is the Normative and it is a pull resulting from the professionalisation maps or widely accepted HR patterns ( Brewster et al, 2007 ) . In the practical field most organisations have been confronted with the deregulating of the market, free planetary trade and besides slow concern minutess. To this they have been forced to use unvarying and cost minimisation schemes and as these international companies apply the prescribed schemes it indirectly put force per unit area on the host state direction system to follow /copy same direction pattern ( Bratton and Gold, 2003 ) . Exile S One of import point in International Human resource direction is the motion of employees across national boundaries to foreign state assignments. These employees are termed as Exiles while Employees transferred from subordinate subdivision into Headquarterss are referred as Inpatriates ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . As the planetary concern activity of International companies increased, it demanded high commanding system and follow up of the subordinates concern public presentation. To this consequence, MNC have chosen the usage of Exiles, Parent company subjects, as a commanding mechanism by delegating them in cardinal direction places in the subordinate subdivisions of the parent company ( Bartlett A ; Ghoshal, 1989 ) . The efficiency of the deployed exile may besides depend on the adaptability the exile on his/her foreign assignment. A survey conducted by Mark Mendenhall and Gary Oddor in 1985 suggests that expatriate success and adjustment depend on several dimensions. The first is self- oriented dimension, which deals with the expat personal competency and adaptability to the foreign environment. The 2nd dimension is the others-oriented dimension, which consist of relationship development and willingness to pass on in mention to the reluctance to assimilate and larn the linguistic communication of the foreign land. The Third dimension is the perceptual dimension, which is concerned with the ability of exiles to grok the behavior of foreign subjects and the 4th dimension is cultural stamina and this is to estimate how rapidly an exile adapts to a rough environment ( Brewster A ; Harris1999 ) . Apart from parent state subjects, Nationals from host state and 3rd state are besides considered as exiles. But this paper will concentrate merely on exiles from parent state subjects to discourse the chief grounds as to why an MNC send an employee on a foreign assignment. Exiles are assigned in a foreign state as, An agent of direct control- The assigned exile is used to command the activities of the subordinate and guarantee its conformity through supervising ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005, Bartlett A ; Ghoshal, 1989 ) An agent of socialization- The exile in inquiry understands the companies values and beliefs and Acts of the Apostless as a medium to reassign these qualities of the parent company to the subordinates ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) As web builder- An exile holding a cognition pertinent to his/her occupation making will in due class bond with people in different cardinal places and together construct a web of mutuality ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) As boundary spanner- This refers to activities performed by the exile, such as garnering information that span internal and external organisational context. It would be the exiles responsibility to advance the company profile every bit good as gather information that may be of usage to the improvement of the company ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) As linguistic communication nodes- Exiles with foreign linguistic communication background would finally go an plus particularly when they repatriate to their place state ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . The advantages of utilizing exiles are chiefly to keep organisational control, international work experience and follow up the fulfillment of the company s nonsubjective by the subordinate. Whereas the disadvantage points are the job with the adaptability of exiles to the foreign environment and the high cost incurred by the parent company to the choice and preparation of exiles ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) . The procedure of choosing the right individual to the right place is important to the success of the oversees mission and it is to observe that an exiles success in one environment does non connote that the same exile will make full spreads in all fortunes ( Brewster A ; Harris, 1999 ) . To this terminal, In order to choose an exile for an international assignment, Dowling A ; Welch ( 2005 ) have set six basic factors which may help directors in the procedure. As single factors they have set Technical ability, transverse cultural suitableness and household demands are listed indispensable piece in as situational factors state or cultural demands, linguistic communication and MNE demands need to be analysed and considered in the choice procedure. In another perspective Schneider and Barsoux ( 1997 ) list nine point they believe are of import for the choice procedure. They are interpersonal accomplishment, lingual ability, ability to tolerance and get by up with uncertainness, motive to work and populate abroad, flexibleness, forbearance and regard, cultural empathy, strong sense of ego and sense of temper. ( Dowling A ; Welch, 2005 ) In general the extent of the choice standard is broad and companies need to place and see the most of import and pertinent points to the place to be filled. Decision There are assorted factors that differentiate International Human resource direction from Domestic human resource direction. The Globalization of universe economic systems has forced international companies to set and continuously change their company scheme and Human direction systems in order to last the competition. To this, the map of Human resource direction has become an of import topic as it has proved to be a critical point to the success of International every bit good as Domestic companies. In this paper assorted positions towards International Human resource direction are discussed briefly. Writers in the field are besides quoted on how the present and future form of Human resource direction is and would be. In drumhead, the paper has tried to place the chief similarities and differences between International and Domestic Human resource direction. From the literature reappraisal presented, different internal and external factors are discussed to the complexness of International human resource direction, presented the assorted reading of HRM and hold tried to demo how direction and the market would order the form of Human resource direction in general.

Midsummer Nights Dream And Lunatics Essays - Shakespearean Comedies

Midsummer Nights Dream And Lunatics In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the moon is the guiding force of madness in the play which influences the chaotic nature and lunacy of the characters. The moon seems to preside over the entire play and is a symbol of change. Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, are one example of lunatic lovers that parallel the theme of changeability. Oberon and Titania are quarreling over the possession of an Indian boy that Titania has mothered since the boy was a baby. This makes Oberon very jealous. But, Oberon doesn't help matters much with his straying after nymphs and admiring Hippolyta. This quarrel becomes so intense that it begins to affect the seasons on earth. Titania describes it as: The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world By their increase now knows not which is which, And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension; We are their parents and original. II:I 114-20 The constant changing of the earth's state in the seasons creates chaos among mother nature. In order to solve the quarrel, Oberon wants to teach Titania a lesson by telling Puck or Robin Goodfellow to use a magical nectar on her and the Athenian man called Demetrius: Fetch me a flower; the herb that I showed thee once The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid Will make man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees. II:I 172-75 In the case of the two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, they plan to meet by moonlight and elope in Athens. Egeus, Hermia's father, wishes for her to marry a man named Demetrius whom he thinks is of high stature and is fitting for his daughter as a husband. Hermia is very much in love with Lysander and chooses to directly disobey Athenian law and her father's wishes by eloping. Hermia's willingness to risk banishment from her homeland shows that love can make a person do irrational things. Helena, Hermia's friend, was once the beloved of Demetrius and if she can win back his love, then Hermia and Lysander will be free to wed. In an effort to gain the attention of Demetrius, Helena betrays the secret of her dearest friend when she informs Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander are eloping. This is another example of a "lunatic lover" in Shakespeare. Helena knows that she must keep Hermia's secret, but she cannot help but tell it to Demetrius in order to get him to notice her. Helena's love for Demetrius could cost her the friendship that she has with Hermia but when a person is so much in love sometimes he or she will risk anything. A mistake made by Puck increases the chaos and madness in the play. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and sprinkles Lysander's eyes with the potion instead. Lysander awakens and the first person he sees is Helena. Under the influence of the potion, he immediately falls in love with her. A catastrophe is created when Hermia awakens from her slumber and finds that Lysander has only eyes for Helena. A fight emerges among the two best friends when Helena says: O spite! O hell! I see you are all bent To set against me for your merriment. If you were civil and knew courtesy You would not do me thus much injury. III:II 148-51 . Puck also sprinkles the potion on Titania's eyes causing her to act like a "lovesick lunatic". When she awakens, she sees Bottom who is now an ass head, and she immediately falls in love with him. Even though Bottom is an ass head, the potion hinders her judgment and she is attracted to him anyway. Otherwise, Titania would certainly not be attracted to the ass head, Bottom, at all. In these lines, Titania talks of the repulsive Bottom as a very handsome man: Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, And stick muskroses in thy sleek smooth head, And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. IV:I 1-4 The madness of this type of love is reflected in the line, "reason and love keep little company nowadays" from Act III, Scene I (145-46). Love is blind to reason and sometimes love overpowers reason. Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream reemphasizes the connection of the lunatic and the lover, hence the phrase"lovers are lunatics": Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping

Underlying assumptions of intelligence tests Essays

Underlying assumptions of intelligence tests Essays Underlying assumptions of intelligence tests Essay Underlying assumptions of intelligence tests Essay How can intelligence be tested? Critically evaluate the underlying assumptions of intelligence tests. Intelligence is a very controversial. It is seen as an obsession in daily life and focuses on certain types of intelligence. Francis Galton was the first person to design a mental test. Galton believed that an individuals mental ability could be determined through the deviation of their performance on a simple test to the mean. He believed that the greater a persons sensory perception the more intelligence they had. However, Galton never produced a theory about intelligence testing, but paved the way for other psychologists to produce theories and tests.Spearmans (1904) theory suggested that intelligence was an innate, inherited quality. He suggested that there were two main factors that determined a persons intelligence; these were general intelligence, needed to perform all tasks and specific intelligence, which is needed to perform specific tasks .i.e., most people can drink out of some sort of cup, this needs general intelligence, however, not all people can sing in tune, this is specific intelligence.Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon (Simon and Binet, 1905) produced the first form of modern intelligence testing in 1905. The test had a practical purpose and was used to identify children who may need extra help with their school work. Due to the purpose of the test, the exercises Binet and Simon asked the children to complete were very similar to tasks the children completed within schools, i.e. measures of vocabulary, comprehension of facts and relationships and mathematical and verbal reasoning.The Binet Simon test was later modified and extended by Lewis Terman and his associates at Stanford University where it was translated for use in the United States (Terman 1916, Terman and Merrill, 1937). The test became known as the Stanford-Binet test and is still being used referred to as Intelligence Quotient; (I.Q). the I.Q. score was calculated by comparing the childs chronological age, (which means their age is years and months), with their mental age (which refers to the childs ability to solve problems of certain levels.) i.e if a child could answer questions designed for 8 year olds, but not them designed for 9 year olds, the child would have a mental age of 8.The I.Q test that is now most commonly used is know n as the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for children, or the WISC. The most frequently used test used by psychologists is the third revision of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales known as the WISC-III. David Wechsler originally developed the test, which was series of ten different problems that ranged from very easy to extremely difficult; these ten problems were also divided into two subgroups.The verbal scale that involved tasks measuring vocabulary, understanding of similarities between objects and general knowledge. The other subgroup was the performance scale, which involved non-verbal tasks such as arranging pictures in to orders, or copying patterns using coloured blocks. Many psychologists find that this definition of verbal and non-verbal tasks helpful as different between the two skills can identify particular kinds of learning difficulties, i.e. dyslexia.However, ever since the I.Q tests were introduced there have been criticisms about them. Before 1937, the mean score of wom en using the Stanford-Binet test was on average ten points lower than the average score for men. Although at first it was generally suggested that this was because women were not as intelligent as men, it was later suggested that the questions were more directed towards male dominated areas of questioning than women, for example relating questions in terms of cars, card games, mechanics, etc. which at the time was made oriented. Therefore, it was decided to eliminate this discrepancy by modifying the questions to ensure that both males and females would archive around the same average score.According to Heather, (1976) this makes the test less efficient because there may be a natural difference between the intelligence levels of men and women through out different points of history, however, by using the new these differences may not be picked up. For example if the I.Q scores were not created to produce approximately the same scores for both males and females we may be able to see why females are currently doing better academically than males.Therefore, this could limit the efficiency of I.Q testing through either historically suggesting that women were inferior to men through their lower I.Q. scores, or through influencing the tests to create equal results for both males and females. It is difficult to say whether the tests were gender bias or whether the psychologists behind the changes to the tests did this to provide unbiased results through positive discrimination towards women.Another criticism of the I.Q. tests that there is an average 10-15 point difference between the White European average and the Afro- Caribbean average, (Brody, (1992) Fagan Singer (1983) Peoples, Fagan Drotar, 1995); (Neisser et al 1996) Heather, (1976) suggests that this difference can be reduced through changing the questions to suit a more mixed ethnic group of participants. However, it was suggested that this would affect the tests Predictive Validity. By changing the tests to reduce the racial differences, but without changing the social inequalities within our society would only create a more ineffective test. In order to reduce the ethnic I.Q. score difference, society must first change their attitudes towards other cultures, especially within education/ training and jobs.How ever, Jensen, (1969) published an article called How much can we boost I.Q. and schooling achievement? within which he made a controversial suggestion that Genetic factors are strongly implicated in the average negro-white intelligence differences. The preponderance of the evidence is, in my opinion, less consistent with a strictly environmental hypothesis than with a genetic hypothesisOther psychologists including Eysenck (1971) and Herrnstein (1971) agree with Jensn. Jensen suggests that 80% of the difference between blacks and whites is due to the blacks genetic inferiority and 20% due to environmental factors. However, Jensen does not have the biological evidence to back up his claim; he also used a bias sample to carry out his study that was a mainly white population.

Brief History of Microsoft essays

Brief History of Microsoft essays Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft, the once young and eager teenager was running a small business made-up of other teenagers. Now the richest man in the world controlling an operating system practically every IBM compatible computer in the world uses. Computers are not the only things that Microsoft desires. Now they wish to influence the Internet. With all the opportunities that it offers many companies race to develop software to get people and businesses on the Internet. Many dislike the power Microsoft has come to possess and might gain more of it, but is there anything anybody can do? IBM has taken on the leader of software with an innovative new operating system known as OS/2, but will they have a chance? Microsoft may be unstoppable with its foundation, influence and power but is that enough to practically own the computerized world as we know it? Usually, when we mention Microsoft in any form we must have the registered trademark symbol right next to the word. The name is a well-known word in virtually everyone's life. Although it is the super-empire it is today Microsoft was once a small software business ran by a young Bill Gates in a tiny office. Consisting of a few young adults, they were not progressing as much as they would like too. Their competitors had it a little worse working out of their not so tidy two-story house made up of a husband and wife. The massive change occurred when a couple of IBM representatives showed up at the door of the CP/M founders only to be turned away. This was very rare to happen, since IBM was so highly respected by programmers at the time. IBM is introduced to a young man named Bill Gates. He was mistaken for an office helper but later strikes a serious offer for Microsoft products. The one program that was unavailable at the time would be an operating system soon to be call ed QDOS; a raw form of the Disk Operating System we know today. When called upon by IBM ...

Accelerating Change Management at CEB Case Study

Accelerating Change Management at CEB - Case Study Example The successes and failures of the change acceleration process have also been discussed and recommendations of how to improve the process made. CEB is one of the most prominent companies in the world and this is mainly as a result of its providing consultant services to a wide range of among the most successful companies today (Florent-Treacy, Kets de Vries & del Amo, 2010). Its success has been made possible through its ability to cater for the needs of the different corporations that seek its services and this has included a wide range of issues ranging from administration to the provision of advice concerning what to invest in and how to go through the process. A result has been that there has developed a wide variety of teams within the company that have enabled it to provide the services that are necessary to satisfy its clientele. Not only has CEB managed to expand globally, but it has also brought a unique style of management and consultancy into the market that has been sought after by a significant number of companies in the globe. CEB’s success has been attributed to its evolutionary attitude and actions, w hich have made it indispensable in the provision of services to its clients; all of which are based in different countries and environments. That these companies are based in different countries means that CEB has to ensure that it studies the new environments and make them a priority in the development of strategies that its clients can use to attain success. Through its efforts on behalf of its clients, CEB has managed to develop a unique position in the global market where it is able to adapt to different environments and advise its clients accordingly. The ever-evolving attitude that it has developed has made possible its success because this company has undergone many changes since its founding and as a young company, it has

Narrative criticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Narrative criticism - Essay Example es of narrative criticism have emerged; some people have claimed that narrative criticism is a fundamental tool in communication processes owing to the fact that it facilitates the understanding of texts and how they reflect on human life structures, thus creating a platform for information sharing and exchange (Pullman, 7). As a method of literary analysis, this approach has been a subject of negative and positive criticism. To begin with, some scholars have claimed that the application narrative criticism is majorly based on a dimension of literary analysis that allows readers to assess literary works in a holistic manner, by noting different characteristics and styles that are similar to other literary works, taking into consideration, the beginning, middle as well as the end (Powell, 3). On the other hand, some narrative critics have asserted that it is basically a method that does not focus on a holistic analysis of literary works, but rather focus on specific elements of literary works, which seem relevant to the story line or the main theme. Moreover, this group of critics has claimed the narrative criticism is a basic tool for literary analysis that engages its readers through understanding how the literary works relate with real life experiences (Byron, 13). This is usually achieved through various points of view passed by the narrators and relating them to the real life experiences of its readers. According to Allan Powell (1990), Narrative criticism can be considered a function of events. This is because in its application, a high sense of priority is given to the text from the ideas of ‘implied readers’ and ‘implied author’: The essence of implied author as well as implied reader are usually determined by signatures emerging from the text. Powell also asserts that narrative criticism is a function of events, basically due to the fact that it involves taking into consideration characters and settings of a literary analysis that forms its

Shaping Special Education Essay Example for Free

Shaping Special Education Essay The history of American special education has taken a long, ever-evolving journey to get to the place it is today. Marilyn Friend (2008) discusses how in the early twentieth century students were still not accepted into public schools. Students who had physical or mental disabilities were placed into separate classes, made up entirely of students with disabilities. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century students with a wide range of disabilities were enrolled in special education classes. Over the past century, various court cases have defined how special education has changed. In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education, gave way to questions about whether or not separating special education students from the general education population was appropriate or not. Some people believed that taking students out of the classroom gave them a label for their disability and therefore was discriminatory towards students, rather than helpful in providing services they needed to make them successful. (Friend, 2008, p. 47) Not only did educators become advocators for children’s with disabilities, so did parents. The Mills v. Board of Education (1972) sparked the determination of providing special education services for students. In response to various lawsuits against the Board of Education legislation created mandates to ensure the rights for students with disabilities. Structure of Special Education Parents continued to push for the rights of children, as well as congress. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 were laws that provided funding to states to assist them in creating and improving programs and services for children with disabilities. The Education for All Handicapped children Act in 1974 was created to allow full educational opportunities for students with disabilities. In 1986, the federal special education law was changed to include services for infants and young children. (Friend, 2008, p. 49) In 1990, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was changed to Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and more disabilities were added. The most recent change was in 2004 when provisions were added to help resolve disputes between parents, as well as the requirement for student instruction to be taught using evidence-based practices. Federal law forced educators to change their view of special education students and how to best serve their needs in the school environment. Also in 2004, President Bush and Congress wanted IDEA to align with No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 so that schools would be held accountable for making sure students with disabilities achieve high standards (Friend, 2008, p. 68). Jill Hockenbury (2000) pointed out that special education is a key part of the public education system but that there are still challenges in special education today. Critical changes that are needed in special education include constructing a defensible philosophy of education, providing effective and intensive instruction, and improving the quality of teacher training. These changes are still being worked on today. The needs of children today are demanding that teachers provide effective instruction, that’s meaningful and allows the teacher to reach all levels of development in one classroom. Trends and Issues Quality teacher training is also one of the biggest challenges facing special education and relates directly to a key topic heard a lot about in special education, which is inclusion. Inclusion centers on the belief that students with a disability should be allowed to be a part of the general education classroom. However, inclusion is difficult because of the requirement of the general education teacher. The general education teacher should be able to meet the needs of the students in his or her classroom, which can be difficult depending on the students needs. However, inclusion states that students should be in the classroom full time, receiving instruction the same as non-disabled peers, and there should be no need for pull-out. In some cases, members of a child’s IEP team may not agree on the appropriate environment for a student. With increased opportunities for teachers to have training with research-based methods and strategies, this area should be able to improve in the future. Researchers have stated that inclusion is beneficial to both students with disabilities, and those without disabilities. A study done investigating perceptions of learning of nearly 5,000 kindergarten students through 12th grade revealed that students with disabilities wanted to learn the same material, use the same books, and enjoy the same homework and grading practices as typical peers. (Friend, 2008, as cited in Klinger and Vaughn 1999) Other trends in special education include universal design for learning and differentiation. Universal design for learning (UDL) is the instructional approach that students with disabilities should have access to the curriculum. Along with UDL is the use of differentiated instruction (or differentiation) to explore the concepts of UDL further. Differentiation means that within one environment, students with multiple needs will have their needs met through various ways. UDL and differentiation should be utilized by general education teachers to meet the needs of their special education student. (Friend, 2008, p. 77) These trends are all key concepts in the world of special education. They all impact the way special education teachers should teach to meet the needs of all their students. Pat Beckman (2001) reiterated this fact stating that â€Å"improved student learning requires teachers, schools, and districts to give up unproductive traditions and beliefs, replacing them with validated practices and a full understanding of the intent of the law. † IDEA requires teachers to use â€Å"programs, interventions, strategies, and activities† that are researched based. (Friend, 2008, p. 63) As the needs of students increase, the resources provided need to increase, which is the responsibility of those providing the education. Special education has come very far since placing disabled students in their own separate classroom, but it still has a long way to go. There is much to be said about meeting the needs of special education students and reaching those administrators, parents, and educators who still do not have a full understanding of inclusion. References Beckman, Pat (2001), Access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, Council for Exceptional Children, retrieved May 28, 2012 from http://www. cec. sped. org/AM/Template. cfm? Section=HomeTEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay. cfmCONTENTID=5519 Friend, M.(2008). Special education: Contemporary perspectives for school professionals. Boston, MA: Allyn Bacon. Hockenbury, J. C. , Kauffman, J. M. , Hallahan, D. P. (2000). What is right about special education. Exceptionality, 8(1), 3-11. Obiakor, F. E. (2011). Maximizing access, equity, and inclusion in general and special education. Journal Of The International Association Of Special Education, 12(1), 10-16. U. S. Department of Education (2007) Thirty Years of Progress in Educating Children With Disabilities Through IDEA, retrieved May 28, 2012 from http://www2. ed. gov/policy/speced/leg/idea/history30. html.

Toronto Blue Jays :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Toronto Blue Jayss case study The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team was founded in the 1970s and experienced support from the fans during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1992 and 1993, the Jays won back-to-back World Series, yet in 1994, the team faced setbacks. The team had a losing streak, there was a major league baseball strike, and no World Series was played. At the same time, gambling came to Toronto, and the team had to compete for the fan's time. Also, players' salaries skyrocketed at a time when the Canadian dollar fell in value. How could the Toronto Blue Jays adjust ticket prices to improve financial performance and increase fan attendance? Situation Analysis The opening pitch of the 1999 marks the start of the Toronto Blue Jays twenty third seasons in the American League. In 1998, the Jays brought in their first winning season since 1993. The Jays plays in the worlds most advanced retractable-roof stadium. It is luxuriously called the Sky Dome. With a winning record like this and a state of the art stadium, the Jays feel their tickets are a great value because of the satisfaction fans can expect to receive from the ball game. Recommendation  · Price is that which is given up in an exchange to acquire a good or service. Price is typically the money exchanged for the good or service. Blue Jays pricing structure is based on the perceived value of the game, the entertainment, the love of baseball, and the action, not just the money.  · Inelastic demand means that an increase or decrease in price will not significantly affect demand for the product. In spite of the rising prices for the Blue Jays tickets, fans were expected to turn out in large numbers. This inelastic demand for the tickets can be attributed in large part of the fact that their teams plays so well in 1998, and another factor is that the Blue Jays fan could never stay away from their team. Another inelastic demand for the Blue Jays tickets is that there is no other locally substitute team.  · Blue Jays pricing strategies are not just a financial necessity, they are also a promotional tool used to increase fan attendance. How? At all Saturday home game and nonholiday games, senior citizens and young people up to fourteen years old can purchase tickets except for the most expensive ones.

Internet neutrality Essay

Internet neutrality enjoys a lot of support from consumers, technology companies and online companies. It is also supported by the main internet application organizations. This is mainly because they feel that the users of the internet should be in full unrestricted access to the internet applications and that they should have unregulated choice of the content they wish to view from the internet. The internet has applied the principle of neutrality ever since it was invented. An equal opportunity to access the internet is a basic concept that should be applied at all times, and thus no single user should be denied the right to access the internet. It would be not in order if the broad band carriers were allowed to use their power in the market to discriminate against the less powerful up coming carriers. The same way the telephone service providers are not allowed to dictate to the consumers whom they should call or even what to say in a telephone conversation, the same should apply to the broadband carriers, and thus they should not be permitted to misuse their power in the market to control online activities (Cerf, Para 7). Data would be controlled if internet neutrality is not allowed to continue, thus a legal mandate should be put in place to ensure that all the cable companies allow the providers of internet services unlimited access to the cable lines. Internet neutrality should be denied the right to screen, filter or interrupt the internet content unless permitted to do so by a court order. Internet neutrality should also ensure that there are laws governing digital freedoms and rights, thus the internet technology should remain open and free to all the internet users and this would enhance democratic communication (Zittrain, pp 78). Charging each and every website regardless of its market share would effectively hinder innovation and competition especially to the new small entrants into the market and thus more developments in technology would be blocked. By permitting preferential treatment of traffic in the internet, the newer and less competitive online companies would be highly disadvantaged and slow innovation would be realized in online services. In fact, most of the current major internet providers started as their operations in small garages with little capital and very great ideas, thus without internet neutrality such great ideas and innovations would never have been realized. If the internet neutrality is not maintained the internet would more or less appear like a television cable. It would be dominated by only a few companies who would be responsible of controlling the distribution and access of internet content. This would impact very negatively to some major industries and they would be faced with increased costs in order to acquire secure and fast internet facilities (Nuechterlein, & Weiser, pp 120) Conclusion The internet neutrality should be protected as it minimizes its control by the owners, it increases healthy competition and also gives others a chance to come up with innovative ideas which ushers in new technology every now and then and thus the internet remains relevant to the modern society. The neutrality of the network is very important in ensuring that a competitive and free market exists for the internet content. Work cited: Cerf, Vinton; Internet neutrality law needed (2006): Retrieved on 9th May from, http://www. infoworld. com/d/networking/internet-neutrality-law-needed-vi nton-cerf-says-577. Nuechterlein, Jonathan E. & Weiser, Philip J. ; Digital crossroads: American telecommunications policy in the internet age (2005): MIT Press, ISBN 0262140918. Zittrain, Jonathan; The future of the Internet and how to stop it (2008): Yale University Press, ISBN 0300124872.

Deception in Hamlet

There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark because deception rules the day! Deception, one of the main themes in Shakespeare’s play; Hamlet, is a major factor or characteristic that many, if not all of the characters portray. Throughout the play, almost none of the characters are true to one another, this causes chaos and drama. Within the play, there are many examples of deception, one being in scene II of act I. In this scene Claudius gives a speech, acting as if he feels sorrow and remorse over the death of his brother, and former king, Hamlet. To deceive the people, and fool them into thinking that he actually feels remorse over his brother’s death, is King Claudius’s goal. The truth however is king Claudius is the source of King Hamlet’s bereavement. In hopes that no one will suspect him of murdering his own brother, Claudius uses the â€Å"fake sympathy charade†. Even if King Claudius truly felt remorse or regret for the death of his brother, he would not have married his dead brothers wife, Queen Gertrude. Scene II of act II includes another example of deception. This scene consists of four characters, all of whom deceive the traumatized and depressed Prince and main character, Hamlet. He is deceived by; his â€Å"love†, Ophelia, his Uncle/Father, King Claudius, Ophelia’s father, Polonius, and most importantly his own Mother, Gertrude. Polonius concocts a plan to prove to King Claudius that Hamlet’s destructive behavior is due to his unreciprocated love for Ophelia. This was to be carried out by Ophelia misleading Hamlet into thinking that they are alone, in the hallway in which Hamlet spends most of his time. Meanwhile Ophelia is well aware that her father, Polonius and King Claudius are hiding nearby eavesdropping on their conversation. Also, In Act I, sc. II, Claudius and Gertrude ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlets long time friends to speak with Hamlet and find out why has been so sepulchral . After Hamlet greets them joyfully, he asks them for the reasoning behind their visit. Rosencrantz lies in his response by saying, â€Å"To visit you, my lord, no other occasion†. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not the only ones involved in this situation, making Gertrude and Claudius unfaithful to Hamlet as well because it is they who brought Hamlets friends, knowing that his friends were most likely the only ones that would be able to get information out of Hamlet. Almost all of the characters in Hamlet are unfaithful/ deceptive. They play tricks, and lie to one another. Most of the characters are â€Å"duplicitous† in the sense that they have two totally different personalities and switch back and forth, or perhaps they are one faced, and wear masks. So one side of their face is who they truly are, and the other (or the mask) is who they deceive people into believing they are.

Sizing the ComboBox Drop Down Width

Sizing the ComboBox Drop Down Width The TComboBox component combines an edit box with a scrollable pick list. Users can select an item from the list or type directly into the edit box. Drop Down List When a combo box is in dropped down state Windows draws a list box type of control to display combo box items for selection. The DropDownCount property specifies the maximum number of items displayed in the drop-down list. The width of the drop-down list would, by default, equal the width of the combo box. When the length (of a string) of items exceeds the width of the combobox, the items are displayed as cut-off! TComboBox does not provide a way to set the width of its drop-down list :( Fixing The ComboBox Drop-Down List Width We can set the width of the drop-down list by sending a special Windows message to the combo box. The message is CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH and sends the minimum allowable width, in pixels, of the list box of a combo box. To hardcode the size of the drop-down list to, lets say, 200 pixels, you could do: SendMessage(theComboBox.Handle, CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH, 200, 0); This is only ok if you are sure all your theComboBox.Items are not longer than 200 px (when drawn). To ensure we always have the drop-down list display enough wide, we can calculate the required width. Heres a function to get the required width of the drop-down list and set it: procedure ComboBox_AutoWidth(const theComboBox: TCombobox); const HORIZONTAL_PADDING 4; var itemsFullWidth: integer; idx: integer; itemWidth: integer; begin itemsFullWidth : 0; // get the max needed with of the items in dropdown state for idx : 0 to -1 theComboBox.Items.Count do begin itemWidth : theComboBox.Canvas.TextWidth(theComboBox.Items[idx]); Inc(itemWidth, 2 * HORIZONTAL_PADDING); if (itemWidth itemsFullWidth) then itemsFullWidth : itemWidth; end; // set the width of drop down if needed if (itemsFullWidth theComboBox.Width) then begin //check if there would be a scroll bar if theComboBox.DropDownCount theComboBox.Items.Count then itemsFullWidth : itemsFullWidth GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXVSCROLL); SendMessage(theComboBox.Handle, CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH, itemsFullWidth, 0); end; end; The width of the longest string is used for the width of the drop-down list. When to call ComboBox_AutoWidth?If you pre-fill the list of items (at design time or when creating the form) you can call the ComboBox_AutoWidth procedure inside the forms OnCreate event handler. If you dynamically change the list of combo box items, you can call the ComboBox_AutoWidth procedure inside the OnDropDown event handler - occurs when the user opens the drop-down list. A TestFor a test, we have 3 combo boxes on a form. All have items with their text more wide than the actual combo box width. The third combo box is placed near the right edge of the forms border. The Items property, for this example, is pre-filled - we call our ComboBox_AutoWidth in the OnCreate event handler for the form: //Forms OnCreate procedure TForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject); begin ComboBox_AutoWidth(ComboBox2); ComboBox_AutoWidth(ComboBox3); end; Weve not called ComboBox_AutoWidth for Combobox1 to see the difference! Note that, when run, the drop-down list for Combobox2 will be wider than Combobox2. The Entire Drop-Down List Is Cut Off For Near Right Edge Placement For Combobox3, the one placed near the right edge, the drop-down list is cut off. Sending the CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH will always extend the drop-down list box to the right. When your combobox is near the right edge, extending the list box more to the right would result in the display of the list box being cut off. We need to somehow extend the list box to the left when this is the case, not to the right! The CB_SETDROPPEDWIDTH has no way of specifying to what direction (left or right) to extend the list box. Solution: WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX Just when the drop-down list is to be displayed Windows sends the WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX message to the parent window of a list box - to our combo box. Being able to handle the WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX for the near-right-edge combobox would solve the problem. The Almighty WindowProcEach VCL control exposes the WindowProc property - the procedure that responds to messages sent to the control. We can use the WindowProc property to temporarily replace or subclass the window procedure of the control. Heres our modified WindowProc for Combobox3 (the one near the right edge): //modified ComboBox3 WindowProc procedure TForm.ComboBox3WindowProc(var Message: TMessage); var cr, lbr: TRect; begin //drawing the list box with combobox items if Message.Msg WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX then begin GetWindowRect(ComboBox3.Handle, cr); //list box rectangle GetWindowRect(Message.LParam, lbr); //move it to left to match right border if cr.Right lbr.Right then MoveWindow(Message.LParam, lbr.Left-(lbr.Right-clbr.Right), lbr.Top, lbr.Right-lbr.Left, lbr.Bottom-lbr.Top, True); end else ComboBox3WindowProcORIGINAL(Message); end; If the message our combo box receives is WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX we get its windows rectangle, we also get the rectangle of the list box to be displayed (GetWindowRect). If it appears that the list box would appear more to the right - we move it to the left so that combo box and list box right border is the same. As easy as that :) If the message is not WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX we simply call the original message handling procedure for the combo box (ComboBox3WindowProcORIGINAL). Finally, all this can work if we have set it correctly (in the OnCreate event handler for the form): //Forms OnCreate procedure TForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject); begin ComboBox_AutoWidth(ComboBox2); ComboBox_AutoWidth(ComboBox3); //attach modified/custom WindowProc for ComboBox3 ComboBox3WindowProcORIGINAL : ComboBox3.WindowProc; ComboBox3.WindowProc : ComboBox3WindowProc; end; Where in the forms declaration we have (entire): type TForm class(TForm) ComboBox1: TComboBox; ComboBox2: TComboBox; ComboBox3: TComboBox; procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject); private ComboBox3WindowProcORIGINAL : TWndMethod; procedure ComboBox3WindowProc(var Message: TMessage); public { Public declarations } end; And thats it. All handled :)

How to Write a Book Report

How to Write a Book Report How to Write a Book Report You might rightly think that not all critical essays writing has a logical structure. However, most college courses in England and America require composition guidelines. For the beginner, the writing technique has the advantage: it provides clear-cut rules for enhancing the effectiveness and readability of essay by stressing unity and logic. Although the rules for essays writing may appear simple in theory, they are difficult to put into practice. It is essential not to give up and to persist in trying to organize your book report writing according to the guidelines: Critical Essay Writing Every academic discipline follows college critical essay conventions that are concerned with the documentation of sources. This feature of college English essay writing which is often subsumed under the term critical apparatus. In the field of English and American literature, there are particularly strict rules of documentation, which have been published in a handbook by the Modern Language Association, the largest and most influential association. College critical essay writing is characterized by consistent and accurate critical apparatus which must contain all primary and secondary texts used for book report writing. This should enable an essay reader to retrace the sources of quotations and paraphrases. Therefore, you have to collect all necessary information concerning a text, including the author's or editor's name, the title of the book, the journal or anthology containing the essay, the year of publication, the volume, and the page numbers. Critical Essay Help The literature used in critical essay writing can be incorporated either in the form of direct quotations or as paraphrases: short passages from primary texts are usually integrated as direct quotations while larger units of meaning as paraphrases. Secondary literature is generally paraphrased, except for important, fundamental statements which require word for word quotation. The critical apparatus usually consists of footnotes and bibliography. Footnotes serve a dual function in college essay writing: first, they allow you to acknowledge the source of information or quotations and to refer to further sources; second, they permit you to expand on a thought which is not directly relevant to the general argument in the essay. The bibliography at the end of the essay is an alphabetically arranged documentation of the primary and secondary literature used for book report writing. While writing critical essay, keep in mind the above information. Using other author's information without r eference in your English critical writing will be considered as plagiarism. .com You may find it difficult to write a book report especially if you have not read the book. Yes, most of the students prefer not to read the assigned books because they have not time.We offer you to take advantage of professional book report writing service offered on our site.We know how to write a book report and we are available 24/7 to assist you with writing.In addition, you can freely read wealth of free tips on our blog! Popular posts: Biology Term Paper 3,000 Words Term Paper SFU Writing Research Papers Writing a Research Proposal Writing a Research Paper

Health Care Law Changes Reimbursement Systems Research Paper

Health Care Law Changes Reimbursement Systems - Research Paper Example This study evaluates the benefits and disadvantages of these proposed reforms. On the one hand, the reforms could improve quality of service by providing incentive for hospitals and increasing competition among them but on the other hand, ordinary citizens could also be affected because many expenses that were earlier applied against FSA and HSA accounts may no longer be possible. Medical reimbursement in the United States Introduction: The costs of health care in the United States are prohibitive and only a few people in the country can afford to avail of health care without any form of insurance. Private health insur4ance plans are available in the country and most employees have access to some form of health insurance through group insurance plans that are offered by their employers. Most people in the United States however, fall under the category of Medicare or Medicaid insurance plans to cover their health care costs. Medicaid is available to individuals who are from the poorer socio economic backgrounds and have no insurance at all. Medicare is the public health insurance program which has been formulated to provide for the health care of the elderly and the disabled. It covers individuals who are aged 65 or over, or under 65 but with certain disabilities and those of any age with permanent kidney failure (www.medicare.gov). In the year 2003, Medicare expenses cost the U.S. Government a sum of $271 billion, representing 13% of the federal budget (Frankes and Evans, 2006). The program comprises two parts – Part A which covers hospitalization and nursing facilities, and Part B which covers physician and outpatient services, laboratory charges and medical equipment. Since costs for the Medicare program were turning out to be prohibitive, changes were introduced to the reimbursement policies in 2008, in an effort to reduce some of the expenditures and thereby bring about some trimming of the federal government budget on health care. The sweeping chang es proposed reduced payments for complex medical treatment procedures by 20 to 30%. Some of the major changes which were introduced and came into legal existence in 2008 were as follows (www.seniorjournal.com): (a) reducing reimbursement for procedures such an angioplasties and implanting of drug coated stents by 33% (b) reducing reimbursement for implanting defibrillators by 23% (c) Reducing reimbursements for hip and knee replacements by 10% Reimbursement for other diseases was also cut down; hospitals and health care professionals fully reimbursed only if their patients were suffering from one of 13 diseases which have been listed. The Medicare reimbursement policies for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities were revised further in 2009, validated legally from 2010. The patients are classified into different categories based upon their clinical symptoms and payments for clinical conditions that are secondary to the major one are no longer reimbursed (Ingenix, 2009). Cost outliner p ayments have also been readjusted to 3% of total estimated payments for Inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Coverage criteria were further revised for inpatient rehabilitation facilities with several pre-conditions being exposed, such as mandating therapy treatments to begin with 36 hours of the midnight of the day the patient was admitted.(Ingenix, 2009). It may be noted that the changes which had

Political independence of FED Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Political independence of FED - Essay Example This has been contributed by the fact that politicians like manipulating and controlling these institutions for their own gains. In his lectures, Bernanke (2012) argued that central bank should be allowed to make independent decisions without political interference in order to have sound decisions. Studies have documented that political interference in the financial sector not only hinder how these institutions operate, but also interfere with how regulators enforce regulations. Financial regulators are, therefore, unable to take actions on banks that do not follow the laid down rules and regulations. When political interference is evident in the financial regulatory bodies, recognition of severity of crisis is delayed, intervention needed is also slowed and consequently raise the cost of the crisis to tax payers. Shielding financial sector from political interference helps to improve the quality of regulation and supervision. This helps in preventing financial crisis. Financial regu lators have two main purposes. First, they are mandated to protect the consumer. Second, they are also mandated to maintaining financial stability of financial institutions. When political interferences come in, these two roles of the regulator are abandoned. For instance, in 1997, political interference in the regulatory bodies of East Asia led to postponement of recognition of severity of crisis, which led to increased crisis.

Red Lobster Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Red Lobster - Case Study Example Initially, the proposition was to make an easy to utilize programming bundle that did not require exceedingly a lot of computing force. MapInfo gave the first instruments to Microsoft that permitted them to incorporate mapping usefulness in their items, particularly the mapping extra marked as Microsoft Map for Microsoft Excel as a major aspect of MS Office 95. A Geographic Information System known as GIS view shed is the aftereffect of a capacity that decides, given a territory model, which territories on a guide or rather a map can be seen from a given point or rather focuses, line or range. In the communication industry, this capacity can be utilized to model radio wave scopes and to site handset towers for cell phones. However, there are lapses included with this capacity and, without the essential information; it cant represent building statures that may influence perceivability in urban zones. It is a crucial aspect for one to precisely show observable pathway which is well known as the line of sight, LOS of the radio wave scopes with a specific end goal to secure the feasibility of supplanting existing field routines with a geographical information system view shed analysis (Monedero, et al. 2008, p. 337). An inception point equipped for supporting a line of sight of a radio wave transmitter is to be chosen, for instance, from inside the Virginia Tech grounds study region which is the best zone for source point. A view shed analysis is then performed with ESRIs ArcView geographical information system, utilizing this site as the perception point and a 30 meter determination Digital Elevation Model, DEM from the United States Geological Survey is likewise compelling for that. To check the exactness of the view shed, it is fitting to transmit at 27.5 GHz, a line of sight of recurrence that ought to have properties regularly in the wireless telecommunication industry. Also, the use of Super Pad 3.1a as a geographical information system

Why Do People Record Their Private Lives and Make It Public Essay Example for Free

Why Do People Record Their Private Lives and Make It Public Essay Anything and everything that a person posts on the internet and in the media becomes public for anyone to see. Many people in our world today enjoy putting their private lives in public. What’s the point of having a â€Å"private† life if you want to make it public to the rest of the world? There are many social media and networking websites that encourage putting everything about one’s life in public. This can range from video recording our private lives and putting it on YouTube, to writing our biographies on Facebook, to blogging about our daily lives on blogging websites such as Tumblr, Xanga, or Blogspot. This subject can even extend to celebrities and why they put their private lives on television through reality TV shows such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Real Housewives of Orange County, Laguna Beach, or The Real World. With the way that people are presenting their private lives in the media, it is obvious that people are doing this to show off their skills and talents, entertain people, make them more known and popular/become famous, or they want to influence others to do the same and follow their footsteps. As social beings we strive for recognition as well as acceptance from the society that surrounds us. Before the concept of social media via the internet, we aspired to be recognized or to be known by simple word of mouth. However, as the world around us changed, our methods of self expression became easier to spread which led to a wider audience for acknowledgement world-wide due to the accessibility of the computer. With the invention of the computer and the technological advancements of the internet, we see that anyone, anywhere can see what someone is doing, eating, or where we are the moment with which people. Youtube There are over 490 million users on the YouTube website today and there are thousands that still join daily according to the YouTube website. The point of YouTube is so that people can post videos of whatever they want online. Many users on YouTube like posting vlogs, which are video blogs about their days. People also post videos of themselves doing their special talents such as singing, dancing, telling jokes, giving advice, etc. I think many people join YouTube and do this to help them become more known and popular to eventually become famous. In an interview, YouTube user Tramy Nguyen, said â€Å"I joined YouTube and post videos up of significant events that I want to be able to look back on. I like to share my memorable events with people who were not able to attend to experience it with me. † Some people like Tramy post videos for the purpose of sharing memories, however, many other people also record and post videos to get attention. Justin Bieber is someone who got famous by posting videos of him singing at home and was founded through YouTube by the singer, song writer, and producer, Usher Raymond. There are also many people who are considered as â€Å"YouTube famous†. These people get money off of creating and posting videos on YouTube of them singing covers of songs, telling jokes, or even giving advice. The website Worldstarhiphop. com has videos posted of others fighting to get attention. Although the objective of this website was â€Å"a home for entertainment and hip-hop† it is now known as a website for others to watch fights and people getting beat up for entertainment. Above is a picture of the statistics of YouTube. Blogging Websites There are many people in the world that have online blogs from websites such as Xanga, Tumblr, and Blogspot. When it comes to online blogs, I think that people like to write about their days and treat their blogs like diaries. It is ironic that people like to keep online diaries about what goes on in their lives and what they are thinking because people like to keep journals and diaries private. It is understandable that with technology growing and expanding all around us, it is more convenient to type out our thoughts about our days and what goes on in our lives on a computer instead of writing it in a book. However, it does not make sense to be writing it online for everyone to see if you want it to be a like a private online diary. A user of Tumblr, Steven Casner, said â€Å"Blogging was like a way for me to escape reality and allow myself to fall into my own world. When I first created my online blog I wouldnt think anyone would read it. † Though people think that no one would read or find what they write on the internet, it is very easy to search these blogs up with the technology that we have today. Reality Television Reality Television is another way that people put their private lives in public. The show MTV Cribs has celebrities give tours of their homes and gives the celebrities a chance to show off their belongings and how wealthy they are. The hit show on the television network, E! , called Keeping up with the Kardashians is a show about the Kardashian family who are famous because one of the Kardashian sisters is a model. The show is basically just a camera that follows the family members around while they live their daily lives. If there was a camera following a person around all day and every day, how would that person get any privacy in their lives? The reason that this family lets cameras follow them around all day and show people how their lives are is just another way for them to boost their family’s name and get money. There are also shows like the Bachelor where people go on to find love. Can a person really find love with another person while knowing that there are other people watching their every move and know everything that goes on in their relationship? There are also shows like Maury and Jerry Springer where people go on the show to solve the drama that they may have in their lives. If you and a loved one have drama in your lives, you should probably go see a therapist about your problems instead of making it open to the public. Many times, making your problems public will make your problems worse than they already are. Facebook Facebook has become a huge phenomenon since it first started. Facebook is a social networking website where people can add their friends and family members and communicate and connect with them online by writing to them, sharing photos or videos with them, or just updating everyone they are friends with about what is going on in their lives. On Facebook, one can see a person’s biography, where a person is from, where they work or go to school, their birthdays, their emails, their phone numbers, their likes and dislikes, their backgrounds such as race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Once a person puts all of this information about themselves online, it will automatically be available to anyone on the internet, especially with the special technology that we have in our world today. I think that people in our world who have Facebooks have them because it is an easier way to contact and update their friends and family about what is going on in their lives. On Facebook, you can post status updates about how you are feeling, what you are thinking, etc for other to see. After interviewing Facebook user, Lea Abadies, she said, â€Å"I joined Facebook because I wanted a medium where I could keep in touch with my friends and see what they are up to and what is going on in their lives. I also want them to be kept up with what is going on in my life. I’m not going to lie, I also joined Facebook because it seemed like everyone has a Facebook so I gave in to the peer pressure of making an account. After interviewing Lea, I came to the conclusion that many people act upon the fact that â€Å"everyone else† is doing that act also and just give into the pressures of society. Live Streaming Websites Another way that people have a chance of putting their private lives in the public is through live streaming websites where you can stream yourself and let people watch you do whatever it is you want to do online. Websites like Tinychat. com and Blogtv. com allow users to stream themselves from their webcam and allow strangers from all around the world to watch their channel live. Many times, people use these websites so that they can just talk to random strangers because they might be bored or trying to kill some of their free time. By streaming their lives online, it may be very risky because any of the strangers who are watching you could be stalkers, pedophiles, or any other kinds of creeps in the world. By studying even just the environment that one is in while they are streaming, the so-called â€Å"creeps† could find out where you are from, what you like, or whatever else they want to know about that person which can really put the person streaming their personal lives online in danger. This also relates to people who post videos of their lives on YouTube because random people can access your video and study your environment and try hunting down the person who posted the video. This picture is a screenshot of the website Blogtv. com. You can see how many people are currently watching you, how many people are currently streaming, and how many people are currently online on the website. Twitter is another social networking website that many people like to share what they are currently up to or what they are thinking.  With twitter, you are able to have followers and follow others to see what they are currently doing. Many people update their twitters every hour just to let people know what is going on in their lives. Celebrities also use Twitter as another way to connect with their fans. I think people use twitter to update their friends about what is going on with their lives so that their friends would not have to go out of their way in asking and take the time to stay updated in a person’s life because they may have a lot of friends or followers. People do not think about the factors in putting such private information about their lives on the internet and how it may affect them in the future. The fact that everything on the internet is so public, it is very easy to search up anything with the high tech search engines that we have online such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Many times when people apply for jobs or internships, they do not realize that many job places like to do background checks online to see if they can find anything about the applicant that may enhance or lower their chances of getting that certain job. This also happens with schools or anything else in the professional field that people may want to do a special background check for. With technology growing, many people are using it to make their lives become more open to the public. Many people like to do this for the attention and also to share their hobbies or talents to others in the world. There are many different ways that people use to make their lives public whether it be through online blogging, online live streaming, social networking websites, and even reality television. Our world is turning into more of a liberal world instead of a conservative one when it comes to privacy.

The Face of Fear :: College Admissions Essays

The Face of Fear "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, '...I can take the next thing that comes along.'...You must do the thing you think you cannot do (Eleanor Roosevelt)." Every time I read these words, I am able to see the truth in them. College to me is the next step that I must take in life. Although this next step comes with much trepidation and apprehension, it is a necessary step that I must take to forever better and prepare myself for the life that I wish to lead. State University would be one of the best institutions for this, just as the choice of high school I made four years ago, Good Counsel, was the next step for me then. During high school, I have grown and changed through not only the education I have gained, but also through the activities I participated in. I have gained a lot of strengths from my time spent in high school. Although every weakness has not been erased, the next step in life will ease their numbers even more. Over the four years that I have spent at Good Counsel, I became part of many activities. Each helping me evolve as a person and become stronger yet. Simple lists could be made of every activity that I have ever been involved in but it could never express to a person what I have learned and how it helped me to grow. Every environmental club, science club, political science club, service work, and S.A.D.D. club I was part of had a very special message to deliver to me. Whether the message was one of responsibility, or a life lesson, I grew from it. The Political Science club opened me to many new experiences. It allowed me the chance to attend the Model U.N., where I was asked to address today's top world issues. This club was very beneficial to me because I was exposed to topics and ideas that I had not previously been able to discuss or learn about in a classroom situation. The science club allowed for me to experience extra educational situations as well. I took part in a hovercraf t competition, which was very educational while also allowing me the chance to work with others for a common goal.

Discuss the Extent to Which a Vegetarian Diet Is Healthy

Discuss the extent to which a vegetarian diet is healthy. To say till what extent a vegetarian diet Is healthy. First of all need to understand what vegetarian diet is and what is mean to be healthy. Among the areas of non-traditional food, vegetarian diet is one of the oldest and most common. Vegetarianism – is an ancient healing nutrition system, which has a deep philosophical meaning, and assuming certain lifestyle.Healthy meaner – a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. However, to adhere vegetarian diet have both positive and negative sides. Mainly, vegetarian diet negatively affect oldest people. Firstly, how healthy vegetarian diet is depends only on the scale of vegetarianism. Vegetarians refusing meat and all animals products, are highly at risk of vitamin B-1 2 deficiency, especially additives are necessary for females during pregnancy and for child of vegans.On the other hand, locator-vivo- vegetarians have no nutrition risk. They don't get ham iron from meat, however they insensate It with consumption of non-ham Iron from ascorbic acid (Thronged et al 1994). Generally, refusing to meat, decrease possibility to obtain coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity and conceivably even some cancers. Secondly, scientific studies have established that people who support vegetarianism are lighter in weight than their meat-eating opponents. The distinction of 1 unit of IBM was found by the EPIC study in the Oxford cohort (Spencer et al 2003).Furthermore, lower IBM decrease rate of type 2 diabetes and gallstones. In opposition, DIM start decrease rapidly over the age 60 in vegetarians and mainly in vegans, which leads to complication to control muscle mass. According to this, old vegans suffer from respiratory disorders which Influence high mortality among them. Nonetheless, the positive side of lower IBM shows in younger persons, what helps them in lifestyle move faster and be more flexible. Finally, the consumption of meat usually relates with saturated fat, when plant protein is commonly associated with fiber.To be healthy, in all ages, vegans should obtain recommended amount of protein and energy, arguments was presented by national and international recommendation for protein intake by Langley (1995). Adding to this, exceeding daily rate of energy and protein may result health adverse circumstance such as COD_ To reduce risk of CHOC, simply lifestyle changes should be made such as being physically active, eating healthy not saturated fat food and have a balanced diet. Moreover, there are some other benefits to keep your health e. G. Reduce risk of stroke and dementia.Taking everything Into account, vegetarian diet revised a plenty evidence which be able to increase your resistance to different sort of diseases, also prevent from obesity and deadly illness. In my opinion follow vegetarian diet and exclude meat from dally ration In some case brings many profits to your body and health. But, not all sort of people can stand by vegetarian diet or become vegans, in each case there is an exception such as pregnant women and old people that may adversely attest their health, and bring even more harm to their body.

The Usefulness of Accounting Estimates for Predicting Cash Flows

The Usefulness of Accounting Estimates for Predicting Cash Flows and Earnings Baruch Lev* New York University Siyi Li University of Illinois Theodore Sougiannis University of Illinois and ALBA January, 2009 * Contact information: Baruch Lev ([email  protected] nyu. edu), Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, NY 10012.The authors are indebted to the editor and reviewers of the Review of Accounting Studies for suggestions and guidance, and to Louis Chan, Ilia Dichev, John Hand, James Ohlson, Shiva Rajgopal, and Stephen Ryan for helpful comments, as well as to participants of seminars at Athens University of Economics and Business, London Business School, Penn State University, Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas at Dallas, Washington University in St.Louis, the joint Columbia–NYU Seminar, the 16th Financial Economics and Accounting Conference, the 2006 AAA FARS Midyear Meeting, and the 2008 AAA Annual Meeting. 1 ABSTRACT Estimates and projections are embedded in most financial statement items. These estimates potentially improve the relevance of financial information by providing managers the means to convey to investors forward-looking, inside information (e. g. , on future collections from customers via the bad debt provision).On the other hand, the quality of financial information is compromised by: (i) the increasing difficulty of making reliable forecasts in a fastchanging, often turbulent economy, and (ii) the frequent managerial misuse of estimates to manipulate financial data. Given the ever-increasing prevalence of estimates in accounting data, whether these opposing forces result in an improvement in the quality of financial information or not is among the most fundamental issues in accounting. We examine in this study he contribution of accounting estimates embedded in accruals to the quality of financial information, as reflected by their usefulness in the prediction of enterpr ise cash flows and earnings. Our extensive out-of-sample tests, reflecting both the statistical and economic significance of estimates, indicate that accounting estimates beyond those in working capital items do not improve the prediction of cash flows. Estimates do, however, improve the prediction of next year’s earnings, though not of subsequent years’ earnings. Our economic significance tests corroborate that accounting estimates do not improve cash flow or earnings prediction.We conclude that the usefulness of accounting estimates to investors is limited, and provide suggestions for improving their usefulness. 2 The Usefulness of Accounting Estimates For Predicting Cash Flows and Earnings 1. Introduction Financial statement information, be it balance sheet items such as net property, plant and equipment, goodwill and other intangibles, accounts receivable and inventories, or key income statement figures, such as revenues, pension expense, in-process R&D, or the rec ently expensed employee stock options, is largely based on managerial estimates and projections.The economic condition of the enterprise and the consequences of its operations as portrayed by quarterly and annual financial reports are therefore an intricate and ever changing web of facts and conjectures, where the dividing line between the two is largely unknown to information users. With the current move of accounting standard-setters in the U. S. and abroad toward increased fair-value measurement of assets and liabilities, the role of estimates and projections in financial reports will further increase.We ask in this study: what is the effect of the multitude of managerial estimates embedded in accounting data on the usefulness of financial information? straightforward. The answer is far from On the one hand, estimates/projections are potentially useful to investors because they are the primary means for managers to convey credibly forward-looking proprietary information to invest ors1. Thus, for example, the bad debt provision, if estimated properly, informs investors on expected future cash flows from customers, restructuring charges predict future employee severance payments and plant closing costs, and the capitalized portion of We say â€Å"credibly† primarily because post Sarbanes-Oxley the firm’s CEO and CFO have to certify that â€Å"†¦information contained in the periodic report fairly represents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the issuer†¦Ã¢â‚¬  3 software development costs (SFAS 86) informs investors about development projects that passed successfully technological feasibility tests and are accordingly expected to enhance future revenues and earnings. 2 This potential contribution of managerial estimates to investors’ ssessment of future enterprise cash flows underlies the oft-quoted statement by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) in its Conceptual Framewor k about the superiority of accruals earnings—mostly based on estimates—over the largely fact-based cash flows in predicting future enterprise cash flows: Information about enterprise earnings based on accruals accounting generally provides a better indication of an enterprise’s present and continuing ability to generate favorable cash flows than information limited to the financial aspects of cash receipts and payments (FASB, 1978, p. IX).On the other hand, the contribution of estimates to the usefulness of financial information is counteracted by two major factors: (i) Objective difficulties. In the current volatile and largely unpredictable business environment, due to fast-changing market conditions (deregulation, privatization, emerging economies) and rapid technological changes, it is increasingly difficult for managers to make reliable projections of business events. Consider, for example, the estimated future return on pension assets—a key componen t of the pension expense: This estimate is essentially a prediction of the long-term performance of capital markets.Are managers better predictors of market performance than investors? 3 Or, reflect on the generally large impairment charges of fixed assets and acquired intangibles (including goodwill) mandated by SFAS 121 and SFAS 142: The determination of these 2 Indeed, Aboody and Lev (1998) document a positive association between capitalized software development costs and future earnings. 3 Consider, for example, the 2001 pension footnotes of three financial institutions, Merrill Lynch, Bank of NewYork, and Charles Schwab, which report the following estimates of the expected returns on pension assets: 6. 60%, 10. 50%, and 9. 00%, respectively (Zion, 2002). The wide range of estimates (6. 6%-10. 5%) of the long term performance of capital markets reflects the inherently large uncertainty (unreliability) of the pension expense estimate. 4 charges requires managers to estimate futur e cash flows from tangible and intangible assets. In today’s highly competitive and contested markets the reliability of asset cash flows forecasted over several years is obviously questionable.Accordingly, the accounting estimates and projections underlying financial information introduce a considerable and unknown degree of noise, and perhaps bias to financial information, clearly detracting from their usefulness. 4 (ii) Manipulation. Add to the above objective difficulties in generating reliable estimates the expected and frequently documented susceptibility of accounting estimates to managerial manipulation, and the consequent adverse impact of estimates on the usefulness of financial information becomes apparent.Given that it is very difficult to â€Å"settle up† with manipulators of estimates—even if an estimate turns out ex post to be far off the mark, it is virtually impossible to prove that ex ante the estimate was intentionally manipulated—there are no effective disincentives for managers to manipulate accounting estimates. Indeed, many of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement cases alleging financial reporting manipulation concern misuse of estimates underlying accruals (e. g. Dechow et al. , 1996). Thus, the impact of estimates underlying accounting measurement and reporting procedures on the usefulness of financial information is an open question, to be examined in this study. The relevance of this examination cannot be overstated. Accounting estimates and projections underlie much of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and consume 4 A case in point (Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2004, p. c1): â€Å"Investors in Travelers have needed more than that ed umbrella protection from what has been raining on them since the company was spun out from Citigroup in early 2002. Late last month, St. Paul Travelers Cos. , †¦ announced what Morgan Stanley termed a ‘blockbuster reserve chargeà ¢â‚¬â„¢ of $1. 625 billion. The charge was about twice as large as analysts have been expecting. The insurer contends that the charge stems largely from the need to reconcile differing accounting treatments at the two companies [Travelers and its acquisition—St. Paul Cos. ]. It was just a â€Å"reserve valuation adjustment,† the company said†¦.Sadly there seems to be little reason why Travelers’ executives didn’t anticipate problems with St. Paul’s insurance methodologies†¦ Mr. Benet [Travelers’ CFO] said:†¦we recognized early on that there was a difference in some of the methodologies [to estimate reserves] that would have to be addressed. † (emphasis ours). Thus, different accounting methodologies used to estimate the same reserves, all approved by auditors, yield a difference of $1. 625 billion. 5 most of standard-setters’ time and efforts.Just consider the major issues addressed by the FASB in recent yearsâ₠¬â€financial instruments, employee stock options, fixed assets and goodwill impairment, and the valuation of acquired intangibles, to name a few—all require major estimates and forecasts in the process of accounting measurement and reporting. If these and other accounting estimates do not contribute significantly to the usefulness of financial information, the efforts of accounting regulators, and even more importantly, the resources society devotes to the generation of estimates in the process of financial statement preparation and their auditing, are misdirected.Worse yet, if financial information users are led by the estimates-based accounting information to misallocate resources, an additional dead-weight cost is imposed on society. We define and test the usefulness of estimates embedded in accrual earnings in terms of their ability to predict enterprise performance. 5 This predictive use of financial information is central to security analysis and valuation and is also a fundamental premise of the FASB’s Conceptual Framework as indicated by the quote above. Future enterprise performance is mainly reflected by cash flows and earnings.Future cash flows are at the core of asset and liabilities accounting valuation rules. Thus, for example, asset impairment (SFAS 144) is determined by expected cash flows, and the useful lives of acquired intangibles (SFAS 142) are a function of future cash flows. More fundamentally, asset or enterprise cash flows are postulated by economic theory as the major determinants of their value. Given a certain ambiguity about the specific definition of cash flows used by investors, we perform our tests with two widelyused and frequently prescribed cash flow constructs: cash from operations (CFO) and free cash flows (FCF).Much of prior related research focused on CFO. Free cash flows are central to 5 There are, of course, other uses of financial data, such as in contracting arrangements, which are not aimed at predicti ng future enterprise performance. 6 many practitioners’ valuation models (e. g. Brealey and Myers, 2003), and play an important role in research too (e. g. , FCF is a primary variable in the valuation constructs of Feltham and Ohlson, 1995). Cash flow prediction is thus a predominant element of accounting measurements and practitioners’ valuation processes.Despite the prominence of cash flows in economic asset valuation models, there is no denying that many investors and analysts are using financial data to predict earnings. The underlying heuristics are somewhat obscured; perhaps investors predict earnings first, and derive future cash flow estimates from the predicted earnings. In any case, earnings prediction is prevalent in practice, and we therefore also examine the usefulness of accounting estimates for the prediction of earnings, both operating and net income.The focus of this study is on accounting estimates, but many of the estimates underlying financial infor mation are not disclosed in the financial reports. 6 We, therefore, focus in this study on accruals, most of which are based on estimates. In particular, we distinguish between accruals which are largely unaffected by estimates (changes in working capital items, excluding inventory), and accruals which are primarily based on estimates (most non-working capital accruals). This enables us to draw sharper inferences on the effect of estimates on the usefulness of financial information.We also analyze a smaller sample of firms with data on specific estimates which we split into recurring and non-recurring to separate noise (the non-recurring estimates) from information (the recurring estimates). Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of all non-financial Compustat firms with the required data—ranging from roughly 1,500 to 3,200 companies per year—and spanning the 6 For example, General Electric reports in its revenue recognition footnote that various components of rev enues derived from long-term projects are based on the estimated profitability of these projects.GE, however, does not break down total revenues into estimates and â€Å"facts. † 7 period 1988-2005. Our tests are conducted in three stages: (1) In-sample, industry-by-industry, predictions of future enterprise cash flows and earnings, based on: (a) current cash flows only (the benchmark), (b) earnings, and (c) the set of cash flows, the change in working capital (excluding inventory), and various components of accruals based on estimates. Here we follow the regression procedures of Barth, Cram, and Nelson (2001) and find, on more recent data, results which are generally consistent with Barth et al.This is our departure point. (2) Out-of sample firm specific predictions of future cash flows and earnings using the industry specific parameter estimates of the in-sample regressions. The focus of this analysis is on the improvement in the quality of predictions brought about by the addition of estimates (accruals) to the predictors. We thus predict cash flow from operations, free cash flows, net income before extraordinary items, and operating income over various horizons: one year ahead, second year ahead, aggregate two years ahead, and aggregate three years ahead.Our results show that accounting estimates do not improve the prediction of future cash flows (both operating and free cash flows), compared with predictions based on current CFO and the change in working capital excluding inventory. However, accruals do improve next year’s prediction of net and operating income. Notably, cash flow predictions based on current earnings only are significantly inferior to those generated by current CFO, contrary to Kim and Kross (2005). In our small sample analysis, neither recurring nor nonrecurring estimates improved significantly the predictions of either cash flows or earnings.The bottom line—accounting estimates beyond those in working capital items (except inventory) do not improve the prediction of cash flows. 8 (3) Finally, we examine the economic significance of estimates. These tests complement stage two, which is based on the statistical significance of differences in the quality of alternative predictors. Since it is difficult to gauge economic significance from statistical significance, we perform various portfolio tests, where portfolios are constructed from predicted cash flows and earnings based on various predictors, some of which are based on estimates.The abnormal returns on these portfolios, generated by alternative predictors, are our gauge of economic significance. The focus here is on comparing the returns on portfolios constructed from predictions based on current cash flows only (the benchmark), with returns on portfolios constructed from predictions based on current earnings or current cash flows plus changes in working capital and estimates. The results from these tests generally corroborate the out-of-sa mple prediction tests.In practically all our portfolio tests the model that uses current operating cash flows only to predict firm performance generates higher abnormal returns than models which add estimates to the prediction process used for the portfolio formation, though most of these returns are insignificant. Furthermore, the portfolios constructed from predictions based on current cash flows only yield abnormal returns with generally lower standard deviation than the alternative portfolios which include earnings or estimates among the predictors. We caution against sweeping conclusions.We examine the usefulness of accounting estimates in terms of predictive ability with respect to future firm performance. Accounting information is used for other purposes too (contracting, national accounting), for which estimates may be useful. Furthermore, our prediction tests are based on fairly simple models. Users may be using different, more sophisticated models where estimates could pro ve to be useful. 9 Nevertheless, we believe that our findings draw attention to the significant vulnerability of financial information from the multitude of underlying estimates and projections, and to the urgent need for improving the eliability of estimates, on which we comment in the concluding section. The order of discussion is as follows: Section 2 relates our findings to available research, and Section 3 outlines our research design. Section 4 describes our sample, and Section 5 reports our prediction tests. Section 6 informs on a battery of robustness checks, and Section 7 focuses on a subsample with an extended set of accounting estimates. Section 8 reports our portfolio (economic significance) tests, while Section 9 concludes the study. 2.Relation to Available Research Our study interfaces with several active research areas, and below we comment on the relation between our work and various representative studies. We are not familiar with empirical studies which assess the impact of accounting estimates on the informativeness of financial information, but there is a substantial number of studies that examine the contribution of accruals to the prediction of future cash flows and other variables. These studies can be roughly classified into regression-based (in-sample) analyses, and out-of-sample prediction tests.An example of the former is the comprehensive work by Barth, Cram and Nelson (2001), who regress CFO on lagged values of CFO and components of accruals (primarily the changes in accounts receivable, inventories, and accounts payable, as well as depreciation & amortization and other accruals). The authors report (p. 27) that â€Å"each accrual component reflects different information relating to future cash flows†¦[and] is significant with the predicted sign in predicting future cash flows, incremental to current cash flows. Note that 10 predictive ability is assessed in this and similar studies by the significance of the estimated accrua ls’ coefficients and by the improvement inR 2. 7 An interesting extension of the regression strand is provided by Subramanyam and Venkatachalam (2007) who examine the relative explanatory power of earnings and cash flows with respect to an ex post measure of the intrinsic value of equity which uses Ohlson’s (1995) equity valuation framework, based on realized values of earnings and book values.The authors argue that such measurement of equity values avoids the necessity to assume capital market efficiency, as in Dechow’s (1994) study relating accruals to contemporaneous stock returns. Dechow documents a significant association between accruals and stock returns, but the implications of such association for market efficiency are challenged by Sloan’s (1996) findings of strong return reversals (market inefficiency) following extreme accruals.Subramanyam and Venkatachalam (2007) conclude that operating cash flows are more strongly associated with future cash flows than earnings, and that current earnings are more strongly associated with future earnings than cash flows. Regressing the ex-post equity measure on earnings and cash flows indicates that earnings exhibit a higher explanatory power than cash flows. By and large, the in-sample regression studies suggest that accruals are associated with subsequent cash flows and contemporaneous equity values, a finding we largely update and corroborate in the initial stage of our analysis (Section 5. ). However, as is argued in Section 5. 1, in-sample regressions are not prediction tests, and may even provide misleading inferences concerning prediction power. We move, therefore, to out-of-sample tests. An early and innovative out-of-sample prediction test is Finger (1994), who concludes from a sample of 50 companies with long historical data that cash flow is marginally superior to 7 Bowen et al. (1986) and Greenberg et al. (1986) perform similar regression-based, in-sample predictions. 11 ear nings for short-term predictions and performs similar to earnings in long-term cash flow predictions.However, time-series and cross-sectional out-of-sample short-term prediction tests by Lorek and Willinger (1996) and Kim and Kross (2005), respectively, show that current earnings predict more accurately future cash flows than current cash flows do. Thus, a mixed picture emerges from the out-of-sample tests, calling for further research. Note also that most previous studies, in- and out-of-sample, focus on the prediction of cash from operations, despite the fact that free cash flows (a measure included in our tests) is frequently used by analysts and investors.Barth, Beaver, Hand and Landsman (2005) provide an interesting perspective on the usefulness of accruals. Using the valuation framework of Feltham and Ohlson (1995, 1996), they examine the ability to predict equity value of various disaggregations of earnings: aggregate earnings, cash flows and total accruals, as well as cash f lows and four major components of accruals. The prediction methodology is out-of-sample in a particular sense: cross-sectional valuation models are run for each year (equity values regressed on contemporaneous earnings disaggregations), excluding each time a particular sample firm.The equity value of that firm is then predicted from the estimated coefficients of the models. Barth et al. (2005, p. 5) â€Å"†¦find evidence of some reduction in mean prediction errors from disaggregating earnings into cash flows and total accruals, and some additional reduction from disaggregating total accruals into its four major components†¦median prediction errors generally support disaggregation of earnings only into cash flows and total accruals. Overall, these findings vary considerably by industry, and appear to indicate a more consistent success for the cash flows and total accruals model than for the cash flows and disaggregated accruals model. 8 8 Studies such as Bathke et al. (198 9) and Lorek et al. (1993) also perform out-of-sample prediction tests. 12 The substantial body of research on the accruals anomaly initiated by Sloan (1996) is tangentially related to our study.This research establishes that accruals are often misinterpreted by investors: large (small) accruals firms are contemporaneously overvalued (undervalued) in capital markets, and these misvaluations are largely reversed within a couple of years. Notably, much of the accruals anomaly resides in small, thinly traded firms, which are unattractive to most institutional investors (Lev and Nissim, 2006), a fact that contributes significantly to the persistence of this anomaly. It is important to note that our focus in this study is different from the ccruals anomaly research: we do not examine investors’ perceptions of accruals, and the consequences of such perceptions. Rather, we focus on the contribution of accruals and by implication of the embedded estimates to the primary role of finan cial information—assisting users in predicting future enterprise performance. The short-term market inefficiencies highlighted by the accruals anomaly are, of course, worth noting, but they do not inform much on the presumed role of accruals—to improve the prediction of enterprise performance.Stated differently, while extreme accruals are often mispriced contemporaneously by investors, a misperception corrected fairly shortly thereafter, accounting accruals in general, prevalent in every financial report, may still enhance the multi-year prediction of firm performance. It is this fundamental role of accruals and their underlying estimates that is the main theme of our study. The lack of convergence of the extant accruals’ usefulness research makes it very difficult to draw firm conclusions.Some studies are in-sample, while others are out-of-sample; some researchers relate accruals to contemporaneous returns or equity values whereas others to future values. Some predict cash flows while others predict equity values based on models using forecasted or realized residual earnings. Our main contribution to extant research is the focus on the estimates embedded in accruals and the provision of certain closure to the usefulness of 13 accruals issue. We distinguish between accruals which are largely based on facts and those primarily reflecting estimates, to focus on the usefulness of accounting estimates.Our main tests are out-of-sample predictions, replicating what most investors actually do—predict, with no ex post information (as implicitly assumed by in-sample studies), various versions of future earnings and cash flows. The comprehensiveness of our predicted performance measures (two versions of earnings and two of cash flows), and the number of future periods examined (years t+1, t+2, and aggregate next two years and next three years) enables us, we believe, to draw general conclusions about the contribution of estimates to firm perf ormance rediction. Furthermore, our study is the first, we believe, to examine both the statistical and economic performance of accruals-based prediction models. Inferences from statistical significance are sometimes difficult to draw and generalize. Consider, for example, the Barth, Beaver, Hand and Landsman (2005, p. 5) conclusion: â€Å"we find evidence of some reduction in mean prediction errors from disaggregating earnings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (emphasis ours). While definitely interesting, this conclusion leaves open the important question of: how material is â€Å"some reduction†?Is it, for example, sufficiently large to support the current move of the FASB and IASB toward increased reliance on estimates in financial reports (fair value, stock option expensing, etc. )? Statistical significance coupled with economic significance, as provided below, allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of the evidence. 9 The focus on accounting estimates, the out-ofsample methodology, and the examination of both statistical and economic significance, all bringing certain closure to the research question, is our main contribution. 3. Research Design Examples of studies including economic significance tests are Ou and Penman (1989), Stober (1992), Abarbanell and Bushee (1998), and Piotroski (2000). 14 Our research design consists of three stages: (a) in-sample association tests of cash flows (earnings) regressed on lagged values of these variables and accruals, (b) out-of-sample forecasts of cash flows (earnings) based on these variables and accruals and (c) calculation of hedge future excess returns on portfolios constructed from the out-of-sample predicted cash flows (earnings) in stage (b).We conduct the first stage as a link to and departure from previous research by estimating cross-sectional in-sample regressions as in the Barth, Cram and Nelson (2001) study (BCN hereafter). We use several prediction constructs, primarily to distinguish between accruals largely based on facts and those based on estimates. At one extreme of the accruals disaggregation we classify all the accruals in the â€Å"operations† section of the cash flow statement into working capital changes excluding inventory (? WC*) and the remaining accruals, termed â€Å"estimates† (EST): EARNINGSCash from Working Capital Operations Change excluding (CFO) inventory (? WC*) Estimates (EST) ACCRUALS Working capital items with the exception of inventory, such as accounts payable and short-term marketable securities, are generally not materially impacted by managerial estimates,10 whereas 10 The accounts receivable change, net of the provision, is an exception, since it is subject to an estimate. But this estimate is included in our second accruals component, EST. 15 most of the remaining accruals are in fact pure estimates (e. g. , depreciation and amortization, bad debt provision, in-process R&D).At the other end of the accruals disaggregation we separate out the c hange in inventory (? INV) from the aggregate estimates (EST), given the evidence (e. g. , Thomas and Zhang, 2002) that much of the accruals anomaly resides in inventory, probably due to intentional and unintentional misestimations of this item. We further break out depreciation and amortization (D&A) and deferred taxes (DT) from other estimates because the identification of these items is possible from Compustat data over the entire sample period. This disaggregation is depicted thus: EARNINGS CFO WC* (minus inventory) ?Inventory (? INV) Dep. & Amortization (D&A) ACCRUALS Def. Taxes (DT) Other estimates (EST*) The various components of accruals along with cash from operations (CFO),11 depicted in the two exhibits above are the independent variables in the estimation models underlying our in-sample predictions. We add to these variables the cash flow statement figure of capital expenditures (CAPEX), since the dependent variables in our models are future cash flows or earnings, which are generally affected by current investment (capital expenditures). We believe 11We measure CFO as in Barth et al. (2001), namely net cash flow from operating activities, adjusted for the accrual portion of extraordinary items and discontinued operations. 16 that the addition of capital expenditures to the regressors improves the specification of the insample prediction models, and sharpens our focus on the relative performance of the accruals components, our focus of study. Indeed, the capital expenditures variable is statistically significant in most of our annual in-sample predictions models. 12 3. 1 Prediction tests Our prediction tests take the following general form.We predict two versions of cash flows (cash from operations and free cash flows) and two constructs of earnings (net income before extraordinary items and operating income) in years t+1 and t+2, as well as in aggregate years t+1 & t+2, and t+1 through t+3. To gain insight into the usefulness of estimates in predi cting firm performance, we use five prediction models with increasing disaggregation of accruals (regressors): Model 1: current CFO only—the benchmark model; Model 2: current net income (NI) only; Model 3: current CFO and the change in working capital items excluding inventory (?WC*)—namely, largely fact-based regressors; Model 4: current CFO, the change in working capital items excluding inventory ? WC*, and total remaining accruals, largely based on estimates (EST); and Model 5: current CFO, the change in working capital items excluding inventory ? WC*, the change in inventories (? INV), depreciation & amortization (D&A), the change in deferred taxes (DT), and all other estimates (EST*)—the most disaggregated model. The purpose is to examine whether the gradual addition of components of accruals 12 For robustness, we reran our predictions (reported in Table 3) without capital expenditures, and conclude that one of our inferences changes in the absence of capit al expenditures. 17 estimates to current cash flows (the benchmark) improves the prediction of future cash flows or earnings. Increasing the disaggregation of accruals should, in general, enhance the quality of prediction (from model 1 to 5), since the individual accrual components are allowed to have different effects (multiples) on the predicted values. We examine model 2 because the predictor, earnings, is a summary accounting variable that has been extensively investigated for its information content and has been used in most prior studies (e. . BCN and Kim and Kross 2005). It is important to note that the cross-sectional estimates of the five in-sample prediction models are obtained for 2-digit SIC industry groups. These industry specific estimates make the implicit assumption of constancy of coefficients across firms reasonably tenable. We implement the second stage of our research design by using the industry specific estimated coefficients from each of the above five predict ion models to calculate firm specific predicted values for cash from operations (CFO), free cash flows (FCF), net income (NI) and operating income (OI).We then calculate firm specific prediction errors as the difference between the actual and predicted values of each variable examined. The following examples of the prediction of free cash flows (FCF) will clarify our prediction procedures. A. Prediction of next year’s free cash flows, FCF (t+1) (a) Benchmark Model using CFO only (example for 1990): 1. Estimate cross-sectionally for each 2-digit industry the following regression: FCF (89) = ? + ? CFO(88) + ? . , 2. Predict for each firm in a given 2-digit industry: EFCF (90) = ? + ? CFO(89) using the previously determined industry specific estimated coefficients. . Determine prediction error for each firm in a given 2-digit industry: EFCF (90) . FCF (90) – 18 Here we predict 1990 free cash flows (EFCF(90) from current cash from operations, CFO (89) (and capital expendit ures). First, for each 2-digit industry we regress cross-sectionally free cash flows of 1989 on CFO in 1988, and obtain the estimated coefficients ? and . ? Those coefficients are then used to predict firm specific free cash flows (EFCF) in 1990, using the firm’s actual CFO of 1989. Then, a firm specific prediction error is determined by comparing the firm’s actual 1990 FCF with the predicted one.The same procedure is repeated for every firm and sample year. (b) Restricted Estimates, Model 4 (example for 1990): Estimate cross-sectionally for each 2-digit industry: FCF (89) = ? + ? 1CFO(88) + ? 2? WC * (88) + ? 3EST (88) + ? . The subsequent prediction and error determinations are done as in (a) above. Here we predict 1990 free cash flows from CFO, ? WC* (change in working capital items excluding inventory), EST (estimates), and capital expenditures (not shown in the equation). First, a cross-sectional regression of 1989 free cash flows is run on the 1988 values of CFO, ? WC*, and EST, yielding coefficients ? ? 1, ? 2, and ? 3. Then, firm specific 1990 free cash flows are predicted, using the four industry specific estimated coefficients and the 1989 actual values of CFO, ? WC*, and EST. Finally, these 1990 FCF predictions are compared with the 1990 actual free cash flows to determine the prediction error. The same procedure is repeated for each firm and sample year. (c) Expanded Estimates, Model 5 (example for 1990): Estimate cross-sectionally for each 2-digit industry: FCF (89) = ? + ? 1 CFO(88) + ? 2 ? WC * (88) + ? 3? INV (88) + ? 4 D & A(88) + ? 5 DT (88) + ? 6 EST * (88) + ? . 19The prediction and error determinations are done as in (a) above. Here we predict 1990 free cash flows from 1989 CFO, capital expenditures, and the disaggregated set of estimates (see second diagram at the beginning of this Section). Once more, we run by industry a cross-sectional regression of 1989 FCF on the 1988 values of the independent variables, estimating the ? and ? 1†¦ ? 6 coefficients (and a ? 7 coefficient for 1988 capital expenditures). The firm-specific 1990 free cash flows are predicted using these industry specific coefficients and the actual values of the independent variables in 1989.Computation of the 1990 FCF prediction error follows. B. Prediction of year 2 free cash flows, FCF (t+2) Benchmark Model (example for 1992): 1. Estimate cross-sectionally by 2-digit industry: FCF (90) = ? + ? 1CFO(88) + ? 2. Predict for each firm in a given 2-digit industry: EFCF (92) = ? + ? 1CFO(90) 3. Prediction Error for each firm in a given 2-digit industry: FCF (92) – EFCF (92) This is the prediction of free cash flows in t+2. It follows the earlier procedure with one difference: Here the cross-sectional estimate (first equation) and the forecast (second equation) involve a two-year lag (e. . , FCF in 1990 regressed on CFO of 1988). Same procedure is performed for each firm and sample year. The expanded prediction models incorpora ting disaggregated accruals follow steps (b) and (c), above. We also predict free cash flows for aggregate years t+1 plus t+2, and t+1 through t+3. These predictions are based on the procedures described above, except that aggregated future free cash flows are substituted for single year free cash flows as left-hand variables in the various models. The procedure demonstrated above for FCF is also used to predict cash from operations 20 CFO) in t+1, t+2, and aggregated future years, and to predict earnings in t+1, t+2 and aggregated future years. Two versions of earnings—net income before extraordinary items (NI) and operating income (OI)—are predicted. The various prediction models for earnings are identical to those of free cash flows described above, except that earnings in t+1 and t+2 are substituted for FCF in those models. To summarize, we perform out-of-sample predictions of two versions of cash flows and two versions of earnings from current values of CFO, curre nt values of NI, and CFO plus changes in working capital and various combinations of accruals.To evaluate the quality of the out-of-sample predictions, we compute summary measures of prediction errors derived from the firm- and year-specific estimated errors: the mean and median signed prediction errors indicating the bias in the forecasts, and the mean and median absolute prediction errors which abstract from the sign of the error and indicate forecast accuracy. The firm-specific prediction error in a given year is computed as the realized value of cash flow or earnings minus the predicted cash flow or earnings, divided by average total assets in year t. . 2 Portfolio analysis The third stage of our research design is motivated by Poon and Granger (2003, p. 491) who note: â€Å"Instead of striving to make some statistical inference, [prediction] model performance could be judged on some measures of economic significance. † We interpret their statement as saying that we shoul d not rely solely on the statistical significance of our prediction errors calculated in stage two but should also examine and perhaps even rely more on measures of economic significance.To gauge the economic significance of the contribution of estimates to the usefulness of financial information we perform a series of portfolio tests focusing on the incremental stock returns generated by the estimates-based prediction models. 21 Essentially, we use the out-of-sample predicted values of cash flows (CFO and FCF) and alternatively of earnings (NI and OI), obtained in the second stage of our analysis, to form portfolios.Specifically, for each sample year we rank all firms (across all industries) on predicted firm-specific cash flows or earnings (four rankings, two for cash flows and two for earnings), scaled by average total assets in the end of year t. We then form ten portfolios from each annual ranking and compute risk-adjusted (size & book-to-market adjusted) returns from holding t hese portfolios over several future periods. In assessing the performance of the various predictors (CFO, NI, ? WC*, accruals of estimates), we primarily focus on a zero-investment (hedge) strategy: going long (investing) in the top ortfolio (the 10% of firms with the largest (scaled) predicted cash flows or earnings), and shorting (selling) the bottom portfolio (10% of firms with the lowest predicted cash flows or earnings). The abnormal returns on these zeroinvestment portfolios indicate the economic contribution to investors of using accounting estimates as predictors. Thus, if estimates are useful to investors then portfolios constructed from predictions based on current cash flows and estimates-based accruals should consistently outperform portfolios formed from predictions based on current cash flows only.It should be noted that if markets are efficient concerning the information in accruals—a big if, in light of Sloan (1996)—and if investors select securities us ing procedures similar to our industry-based prediction models specified above, then our subsequent portfolio abnormal returns should be roughly zero. Our purpose in these portfolio tests, however, is not to examine market efficiency, rather to compare the performance of portfolio selection procedures with the estimates-based accruals against similar procedures without accruals (based on past cash flows only).We are thus focusing on the with- and without-accruals comparisons, being agnostic about market efficiency. Stated differently, the comparative abnormal hedge returns across the 22 five prediction models, rather than the statistical significance of those returns, is our focus of analysis. 4. Sample Selection and Descriptive Statistic We obtain accounting data from the 2006 Compustat annual industrial, full coverage, and research files, and use data from the statement of cash flows because Collins and Hribar (2002) suggest that such data are preferable to accruals derived from t he balance sheet.Since reporting a statement of cash flows was mandated by SFAS 95 in 1987, our accounting data span the period 1988 to 2005. 13 In the in-sample regression analysis, each year from 1988 to 2004 is a predictor year (generating the independent variables) while each year from 1989 to 2005 is a predicted year (providing the dependent variables). Thus, 17 in-sample annual regressions are estimated for each industry. Our sample selection procedure is as follows. We start with 75,571 observations with values for NI, CFO, ? WC*, INV, D&A, DT, EST, EST* and CAPEX for the current year, year t, and for NI over a three-year horizon, t-1 to t+1. Firms with all fiscal year ends are included. We control for outliers by following the procedures in Barth et al. (2001). Thus, after eliminating the top and bottom one percentile of current NI and CFO we are left with 73,324 firm-year observations. By excluding observations with market value of equity or sales of less than $10 million, or with share prices below $1, to eliminate economically marginal firms, the number of observations decreases to 51,301.By deleting observations with studentized residuals greater than 3 or less than -3, we are left with 50,288 observations. Since we conduct industry-byindustry in-sample regression analysis we require each industry to have a minimum of 600 observations over the period 1988 to 2004. This criterion reduces the sample to its final size of 13 Valid statement of cash flows data for the year 1987 are available for a relatively small number of firms not enough to do a meaningful industry-by-industry analysis. Thus, we do not use 1987 data. 23 41,124 observations.We obtain stock returns data for the portfolio analysis from the 2006 CRSP files. 14 Table 1 provides summary statistics (variables are scaled by average total assets) and a correlation matrix for out test variables. Panel A shows that depreciation and amortization (D&A) constitutes the bulk of the estimates underl ying accruals (EST): The mean (median) of D&A is 0. 054 (0. 047), close to the mean (median) of EST, 0. 059 (0. 052). The mean of net estimates (EST*), excluding D&A and deferred taxes, is quite large, 0. 019, and is driven mainly by large positive values, as the median value of 0. 04, Q1 of 0. 000 and Q3 of 0. 019 imply. CFO has the lowest while NI has the highest variability (standard deviations of 0. 129 versus 0. 149) among the various earnings and cash flow variables. In panel B all correlations are significant at the 5% level or better. We note the high negative correlations of our estimates variables, EST and EST*, with the income variables, NI and OI. However, the correlations of EST and EST* with both the cash flow variables, CFO and FCF, are much lower; positive for EST and negative for EST*. 4 We repeated all of our analyses with a sample without any outlier removal, namely where we only require non- missing values for the key variables, and at least 600 observations in e ach 2-digit SIC over the sample period 19882004. This sample consists of 65,178 observations and is substantially larger than the sample of 41,124 observations used in the analysis reported below. We find that for many industries the R-squares in the in-sample regressions are higher for the un-truncated data than for the truncated data.The forecast error results are essentially identical to the results from the truncated sample in terms of inferences but the errors are larger. The portfolio abnormal returns results exhibit similar patterns to the results from truncated data. Overall, the un-truncated data yield very similar results to those of the truncated data reported below. 24 5. Empirical Findings: Prediction Tests 5. 1 Stage one: In-sample Regressions Table 2 reports cross-sectional annual regressions, by industry, of CFO (cash from operations) on lagged values of CFO and earnings components (Model 5 in Section 3).The reported coefficient estimates for each industry are the me ans of the yearly coefficients over the 17 year period, 1988 to 2004. The significance of these mean coefficients is based on (nonreported) t-statistics calculated using the mean and standard errors of the 17 yearly coefficients, as in Fama and MacBeth (1973). We report the results for the CFO regressions so that they can be compared to the CFO results reported by BCN. The, in-sample regression results for FCF, NI and OI are very similar to those reported in Table 2. It is evident that in each of the twenty-three ndustries in Table 2 the lagged CFO and ? WC* (change in working capital minus inventory) are highly significant. In the majority of the industries, ? INV (inventory change) is also significant, as is D&A. However, DT (deferred taxes) and EST* (other accruals estimates) are significant for about half of the industries only. These results are quite consistent with BCN’s results reported in their Table 6, Panel B (note that the sum of our DT and EST* variables is the O TH variable in BCN). The fairly large R2s, ranging across industries from 0. 29 to 0. 71, are also consistent with the R2s reported by BCN.Thus, the BCN regression results over the period 1987 to 1996 hold well over our longer period, 1988-2004. Overall, the estimates indicate a strong association between CFO and lagged earnings components, raising expectations about strong out-of-sample performance as well. However, it is important to note that a regression analysis of a given variable on lagged values of that variable along with other data, as frequently conducted in accounting and finance research, is not a conclusive test of predictive ability. As noted in Poon and Granger’s (2003, p. 25 92) survey: â€Å"In all forecast evaluations, it is important to distinguish in-sample and out-ofsample forecasts. In-sample forecast, which is based on parameters estimated using all data in the sample, implicitly assumes parameter estimates are stable through time. In practice, time v ariation of parameter estimates is a critical issue in forecasting. A good forecasting model should be one that can withstand the robustness of an out-of-sample test, a test design that is closer to reality. In our analyses of empirical findings†¦ we focus our attention on studies that implement out-of-sample forecasts. A dramatic example of misplaced inferences drawn on the basis of regression analysis has been recently provided by Goyal and Welch (2007). Their focus is on the prediction of stock market returns based on a variety of variables suggested by prior studies (e. g. dividend yield, earnings-price ratio, book-to-market ratio), using in-sample regression models. After a comprehensive analysis, Goyal and Welch conclude that â€Å"these models have predicted poorly both in-sample and out-of-sample for thirty years now; these models seem unstable, as diagnosed by their out-of-sample predictions nd other statistics; and these models would not have helped an investor with access only to available information to profitably time the market† (Abstract). This important insight motivates our primary analysis which focuses on out-of-sample prediction tests. In the case of predicting stock returns, Goyal and Welch’s concern, in-sample regression results are generally weak and it is therefore not surprising that the out-of-sample predictions of Goyal and Welch perform poorly too.In contrast, in our case of predicting cash flows and earnings, the in-sample regressions (Table 2) perform well, so, whether the more realistic out-of-sample predictions of cash flows and earnings perform equally well is an important empirical issue which we examine next. 26 5. 2 Stage two: Out-of-sample Prediction Tests Table 3 summarizes our main out-of-sample prediction findings. Recall that we predict four key performance indicators: cash from operations (CFO); free cash flows, defined as CFO minus capital expenditures (FCF); net income before extraordinary items (N I); and operating income (OI).There are four prediction horizons: next year, second year ahead, aggregate next two years, and aggregate next three years. Five prediction models are examined (they were discussed and demonstrated in Section 3), where the predictive (independent) variables are: (1) CFO only—the benchmark model, (2) NI only, (3) CFO and the annual change in working capital items excluding inventory (? WC*), (4) CFO plus the change in working capital items excluding inventory (? WC*), as well as the total remaining accruals (EST) which are largely estimates based, including the change in inventory, and (5) our most disaggregated model: CFO, ?WC*, the change in inventories, depreciation and amortization, deferred taxes, and all remaining estimates. Current capital expenditure is included as an additional variable in each of the five models. We report in Table 3 four summary statistics for the prediction errors of our five models: the pooled firm-specific mean absol ute error (MAER) of each of the five models, the pooled mean signed error, or bias (MER), the mean R2s from annual regressions of firm-specific actual values of future cash flows or earnings on the corresponding predicted values, and the average over the years of Theil’s U-statistics. 5 We indicate with an ampersand (&), asterisk (*) or a hash (#) the pooled mean absolute prediction errors (MAER) which are significantly different 15 The reported Theil's U-statistic is the average of the yearly U-statistics. Theil’s U is defined as the square root of ?(actual-forecast)2/? (actual)2. The U statistic can range from zero to one, with zero implying a perfect forecast. Thus, models generating better predictions should have lower U statistics. 27 between Models 1 and 2, Models 1 and 3, and Models 3 and 4, and Models 3 and 5, respectively. 6 We have also computed the sample median signed errors, median absolute errors, and root mean square errors. Results from these indicators are very similar to those reported in Table 3 (we comment in the text on the occasional differences). Below are the main inferences we draw from Table 3, and additional analyses: 1. Prediction of cash flows. Considering the prediction of cash from operations (CFO) and free cash flows (FCF)—left two quadruples of columns in Table 3—we note that the predictions derived from net income only (Model 2) are always significantly inferior to the predictions based on cash from operations only (Model 1).This is true across the four forecast horizons and the four error summary statistics. For example, in predicting one-year-ahead cash from operations (top left panel), the MAER, MER and Theil’s U are lower for Model 1 than for Model 2 (0. 056 vs. 0. 062, 0. 001 vs. 0. 003, and 0. 58 vs. 0. 64, respectively), while the R2 of Model 1 is higher than that of Model 2 (0. 46 vs. 0. 37). The difference in the MAERs is statistically significant, as indicted by the & sign. This pat tern is evident across all eight panels reporting predictions of cash from operations and free cash flows for various horizons.Thus, for one- to three-year forecast horizons, current cash from operations is a better predictor of future cash from operations and free cash flows than current net income. This result is inconsistent with Kim and Kross (2005) findings that in one-year-ahead predictions of cash flows current earnings performs better than current cash flows. 17 16 All the absolute forecast errors (MAER) in Table 3 are statistically significant, with p-values of 0. 01 or better. The majority of the signed errors (MER) are also significant at p-values of 0. 1 or better, and many are statistically significant at least at p-values of 0. 05. The following signed errors are insignificant: Model 1 in forecasting Years 12 CFO, Models 1 and 3 in forecasting Years 1-3 CFO, and Models 2, 4 and 5 in forecasting Years 1-3 OI. 17 It is important to note that Kim and Kross (2005) use bala nce sheet items to calculate cash from operations while we use statement of cash flows data. We were able to replicate the out-of-sample prediction results of Kim and 28Moving on to Model 3, (predictors: CFO and the change in working capital items minus inventory), we note that the CFO and FCF predictions derived from current CFO only (Model 1) under-perform predictions based on current CFO and the change in working capital items excluding inventory, ? WC*. Thus, the mean absolute errors of Model 3 are significantly lower than those of Model 1 in all CFO and FCF panels, except in the FCF panel for the aggregate next three years horizon (bottom FCF panel). 18 The reported R2s and Theil’s U statistics also indicate the under-performance of Model 1 relative to Model 3.For example, in predicting one-yearahead cash from operations (top left panel), the MAER and Theil’s U are lower for Model 3 than for Model 1 (0. 054 vs. 0. 056, and 0. 56 vs. 0. 58, respectively), while the R2 of Model 3 is higher than that of Model 1 (0. 50 vs. 0. 46). Thus, for one- to three-year forecast horizons, the total change in working capital items excluding inventory is incrementally informative over current cash flows. This is relevant for our focus on the usefulness of accounting estimates, because the working capital items, excluding inventory, and with the exception of accounts receivable, are largely free of estimates.We now move to examine the contribution of accounting estimates to cash flow prediction. We do this by comparing the performance of Models 4 and 5 to that of Model 3, where Model 3 becomes now our benchmark given its superior performance up to this point. We note that CFO and FCF predictions derived from Model 4 (based on CFO, the change in working capital items excluding inventory (? WC*), as well as all other accruals including the change in inventory) and Model 5 (based on CFO, ? WC*, the change in inventories, depreciation and amortization, Kross usin g balance sheet items for our sample period.Accordingly, the difference in the results between the two studies is due to the data used. As shown by Collins and Hribar (2002), the cash from operations, and accruals derivation from the statement of cash flows is preferable. 18 Note that despite the very small difference between the MAERs of Models 1 and 3, the mean differences are statistically significant at the 0. 05 level or better (see asterisks). 29 deferred taxes, and all remaining accruals) equally perform or under-perform the predictions from Model 3 (based on CFO and ?WC*). Specifically, the mean absolute errors of Model 3 are significantly lower than or equal to the mean absolute errors of Models 4 and 5 in all the CFO and FCF panels. Furthermore, the reported MERs, R2s and Theil’s U statistics are also consistent with the under-performance of Models 4 and 5 relative to Model 3. For example, in predicting one-year-ahead cash from operations (top left panel), the MAER, MER and Theil’s U for Model 3 are either equal to or lower than for Models 4 and 5 (0. 054 vs. 0. 054 and 0. 055; 0. 001 vs. 0. 02 and 0. 002; and 0. 56 vs. 0. 57 and 0. 57, respectively), while the R2 of Model 3 is equal to or higher than the R2s of Models 4 and 5 (0. 50 vs. 0. 50 and 0. 49). Accordingly, we conclude that for one- to three-year forecast horizons the accounting estimates embedded in accruals, either as a lump sum or disaggregated, do not improve cash flow predictions over current cash from operations and the change in working capital (excluding inventory). 19 Conclusions: Neither total earnings, nor disaggregated estimates-based accruals ystematically improve the prediction of cash flows (CFO or FCF) over the predictions based on current CFO and the change in working capital (excluding inventory). This finding is inconsistent with the FASB’s conceptual stipulation that â€Å"Information about enterprise earnings†¦generally provides a better indi cation of an enterprise’s present and continuing ability to generate favorable cash flows than information limited to the financial aspects of cash receipts and payments† (FASB, 1978, p. IX), though our data start ten years after this statement was issued 2. Prediction of earnings.The two quadruples of columns to the right of Table 3 report prediction performance statistics for net income (NI) and operating income (OI). Here, the 19 These inferences do not change when we examine median signed and absolute prediction errors (available on request). 30 predictions derived from net income (Model 2) significantly outperform those based on cash from operations only (Model 1), for the one-year-ahead forecasts. For example, in predicting next year’s operating income (top right panel), the MAER of Model 2 is significantly lower than that of Model 1 (0. 057 vs. 0. 061).The R2s and Theil’s Us confirm the stronger performance of Model 2, for one-year predictions. Inte restingly, Model 2’s predictions are significantly inferior to Model 1’s in the two-years-ahead and aggregate next three years predictions (second and bottom NI and OI panels). For example, in predicting aggregate three-years-ahead operating income (bottom right panel), the MAER of Model 2 is significantly higher than that of Model 1 (0. 257 vs. 0. 253). Thus, for a one-year-ahead forecast horizon, current net income is a better predictor of future net income and operating income than current cash from operations. 0 Of the five models examined for earnings predictions, the best performer is Model 4— with three variables: CFO, ? WC* (change in working capital excluding inventory), and EST (all other accruals)—for all forecast horizons. Intriguingly, Model 5, where EST is disaggregated to several estimates-based accruals, is somewhat inferior to Model 4. Apparently, predicting from disaggregated accruals results in noisy forecasts. Conclusions: Earnings is a better predictor of near-term earnings than cash flow.Accounting accruals, when disaggregated to working capital items and other accruals, improve further the prediction of operating and net income. No further improvement is achieved from a finer disaggregation of accruals. 6. Robustness Checks 1. How good are our prediction models? 20 Our prediction models are admittedly The median absolute errors are lower for Model 2 than for Model 1 in all NI and OI panels except in the bottom two panels (for the aggregate next two and three years horizons). 31 simple—they obviously abstract from many of the complexities of real life security analysis.Nevertheless, the R2s in Table 3—derived from annual regressions of actual values (future cash flows or earnings) on predicted values—are quite large. Thus, for example, for next year’s predictions (top panels of Table 3), the R2 range is 0. 33-0. 58. As expected, the R2s drop for second year predictions, yet they are still in the reasonable range of 0. 21-0. 37. Thus, despite their simplicity, our prediction models perform reasonably well. 2. Trimming extreme prediction errors. The results of Table 3 are after trimming the top 2% of the absolute forecast errors.We also computed prediction errors after trimming the top and bottom 1% of the forecast errors and without any trimming. The resulting patterns of prediction errors (not reported) are in both cases very similar to those of Table 3. As expected, Table 3 trimmed errors are substantially smaller than the non-trimmed errors, the R2s are larger, and the Theil’s U statistics are lower, yet our conclusions regarding the relative performance of the five models equally apply to the non-trimmed errors. substantially our inferences. 3. Classification by size of accruals.Since the estimates we examine are components of total accruals, we classified the sample firms into three groups, by the size of accruals, to check whether accruals size affe cts our findings. Specifically, for each sample year we ranked the firms by the size of total accruals (scaled by total assets), and then formed three groups: the top 25% of firms (high accruals), the middle 50% (medium accruals), and the bottom 25% (low accruals). We then generated cash flow and earnings predictions for each of the three accruals g