The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe - Essay Example The narrator does not seem to be the slightest troubled by the apparent loss of both his wife and his sanity. Through the narrator, Poe leads you on with a drastic chain of events and inner thoughts. He builds the story upon his detailed description of the events that took place and leads the reader into overdrive with astonishing actions. It follows that the literary element most notable in The Black Cat is Poe’s utilization of the narrator’s point of view to advance moral and psychological investigations. This essay then considers the narrator’s first person perspective and examines the ways that it is utilized to advance the literary and narrative elements of moral structure, characterization, and narrative elements. Edgar Allen Poe’s use of the narrator’s point of view in The Black Cat furthers the story’s moral dilemma in many regards. One of the most prominent ways this occurs is in its consideration of the man’s relation with his wife. While in great degree he treats her poorly and is a dysfunctional human being, she is depicted, even through his admittedly perverse perspective, to be an upstanding and humane individual. It follows that the woman’s depiction as an upstanding individual who cares for animals functions to increase the reader’s sympathy for her after the man ruthlessly murders her with the axe. It’s also notable that the man, while feeling remorse and debilitating guilt after murdering the cat, feels virtually no such guilt after murdering his wife. In these regards, the narrative reveals an element of his psychological perversion. While this event is perhaps the most significant in terms of criminal actions, one can just as easi ly identify his torture and eventual murder of the original cat as the narrator’s most strikingly perverse and immoral acts. Poe makes excellent use of the 1st person perspective in gauging the significance of this event to the narrator’s psyche. He

Understanding Child and Young Person Development Essay Example for Free

Understanding Child and Young Person Development Essay 1.Fill in the development chart located at the back of this workbook :- †¢An explanation of the sequence and rate of each aspect of development from birth to 19 years. †¢An explanation of the difference between :- †¢The sequence of and rate of development. †¢Why this difference is important. See separate developments stages chart. Read more: Explain how children and young peoples development is influenced by a range of external factors essay 2.Write an explanation of how children and young people’s development is influenced by :- †¢A range of external factors. †¢A range of personal factors. †¢An explanation of how current practice is influenced by:- †¢Theories of development. †¢Frameworks to support development A range of external and personal factors that influences development There are many different factors that affect children’s development. These include: Gender, health, family, environment, psychological, behavioural and social and economic. Gender There is a lot of discrimination about gender and what people expect that gender to be associated with and be doing. For example people would discriminate a boy in thinking they would want to play with cars and some parents wouldn’t want their son to be playing with ‘girl toys’ for example dolls. This can impact a child’s emotional development as they may get upset if they can’t play with certain toys. Boys are usually stereotyped into being encouraged to play ball games this is because they tend to have more co-ordination. The negative impacts of this are that you would end up having girls and boys playing at different ends of the nursery. Although the positive impacts of this are that it will encourage eye foot co-ordination whilst playing ball games. This can help develop a boy’s physical development – gross motor skills. Girls tend to have better fine manipulative skills from playing with beads etc. This can help develop their physical development – fine motor skills. Health Children with serious illnesses and genetic diseases tend to look and act different to other children and they pick up on this fact. This may affect them joining in with certain activities as they may be incapable to do it for example if they are physically unable to do P.E they won’t take part. They may also lack in socialisation skills and may not be able to make friends as easy as many other children. Some children may not want to play with them as they look and act differently to them self. If their illness or disease means they need time of school to visit the hospital and if they are simply not well enough to come in this will mean they will miss out on a lot of education and socialising with other children. Family Depending on what type of family a child comes from can have a big impact on how developed they are in most areas of development. For example a child from a better well off family may have more resources at home and have a better environment to learn in from home. With a big family a child would have lots of support and would always have someone to be able to read with them and help them with homework sheets and practice writing. This can have a big help in their intellectual development as they have always got support they need and help from the whole family. They can also develop their social development from coming from a big family as they are used to be around a lot of people and have been encouraged too interact with other children and adults. There are many different types of families. These are: Extended family an extended family is a family with other relations for example uncles, aunties and grandparents. This could benefit your child’s intellectual development as t hey will have lots of support and help from extended family for example aunties and uncles. They will always have someone to encourage them to try and succeed in crawling, walking etc. Drawbacks of this are that the house may be crowded and extended family like grandparents may end up looking after ill siblings. They may also have different parenting ideas and this can affect a child’s emotional and intellectual development as they’re being told to do two different things. Nomadic family – a nomadic family is a family who travel around and don’t stay in one place for a long amount of time. This could effect their intellectual and social development as they would never get used to one school and because of all the moving around different schools would have their curriculum set out differently so they may have already done the subject in a previous school. Single parent family – a single parent family is when your parent’s aren’t together anymore or you don’t know one of your parents and you live at home with one parent. This may affect your child’s social development as they wouldn’t have a mother or father role model in their life and may find it hard to adjust with some situations as they’ve been brought up by one parent and so may have missed out on interaction with a male or female figure. If one parent had left recently in their life this may have affected them emotionally and would struggle in their development for a while until they got more used to them not being there anymore. Nuclear family – a nuclear family is 2 parents living with their 2 children. This can benefit a child’s intellectual development as they will have 2 supporting parents who are still together and siblings who can develop all areas of development faster than they would usual develop. An example being – with an older sibling they can encourage your child to do things for themselves and develop socially from always being around them. Re-constituted family a re-constituted family is when parents have split up and re married so a child has a step mom and dad. This may affect their development as the spilt of the parents may have affected them emotionally and their development may be slowed down. They also may not like their new step mom and dad which could cause lots of problems and they won’t want to visit them anymore. This may affect their emotional development as they may be worried about having to go and see them and so won’t be concentrated on work which could affect them intellectually. There are also positive impacts of this though because with step family they will have a lot more support and will always have someone to read to them. This will encourage their intellectual development. The role and responsibilities of the parents is to care for their child and look after them. Provide them with shelter, warmth, food and love so they are emotionally developed. These factors are all important for your child’s physical needs as they need warmth and food to keep them going and growing. Their physical needs need to be met before any other stage of development can take place. Environment Housing is very important as where a child lives can affect majorly how well developed they are. If a child lives in a bigger house then they have more space and most probably their own room. This gives them their own space and gives them time alone to concentrate and relax in, this can help their emotional development as if they ever had a tantrum or was angry or upset they would have their own room to go and calm down in. Having a big house could also mean they therefore have a big garden and this plays a massive part in developing your child physically and socially. This is because having their own outdoor space and being able to run around whenever they like will help them develop physically. They are also able to have friends round to play in the garden; this will help them develop socially. Where as if a child lives in a small house they might have to share a room and this would affect their intellectual development not being able to do some work on their own and have somewhere they can concentrate. They might not have a garden and this would affect their physical development in not being able to run around in their own garden. It would also affect their social as they wouldn’t be able to have friends back to come and play in the garden. Although positive impacts of having a small house and no garden are that they would be out a lot more and would have a lot of fresh air and socialising with friends at a near by park. Where a child lives does affect their development because by living near town they are able to meet friends and socialise and also most importantly be able to get to the library and other useful facilities easily. This therefore benefits their intellectual and social development as they are able to get to the library and be around books and maybe even hire new ones out. They are able to go places easily with their family and socialise, maybe even meet up with their friend and their family and go out somewhere nice in the town for example a coffee shop or restaurant. A positive impact of living in a rural area is that there is less pollution and more space for pets and fresh air. Psychological Children find it really easy to make strong attachments to carers or teachers whom they spend quite a lot of time with, this can affect their emotional development as they may refuse to do things without that certain carer being there. If this is not stopped at an early stage it may be long-lasting and this could cause problems when arriving and leaving them. Children are very capable of making multiple attachments to other people at their nursery or just people they see often and their emotional well being is catered for which in most cases is. Parents play a massive role in a child’s life; factors that may affect their emotional and social development are homosexual parents and lone parents because these children may lack in role models and may have been brought up with different moral values. Security in a child’s environment is very important because it’s what makes the child feel safe and secure in their own environment with their family. Children often feel the need to attention seek for example: a child 6 years old who is a lonely child finds out his mother is pregnant and decides to start playing up acting younger than he actually is to get the attention he wants and needs of his mother that he’s so used to. Children suffer a lot from nightmares and this is all psychological and normally about a lack of understanding of something or a fear of something unusual. This could affect their intellectual development as they may be scared often and therefore not be able to concentrate on more important things. Night terrors play a big part in affecting a child’s intellectual development as if they have a fear or are very tired they are not going to be able to concentrate on their work as they have not sleep. Parent’s need to be very careful what they are letting their children watch on television as there are lots of adult programs that a child won’t understand and may have night terrors about or try to repeat it themselves. Children need to be comforted when they get settled down and after a night terror because they are very sensitive and need to feel loved and comforted by their parents. This can help their emotional development. With a large family or family with siblings there is always rivalry and jealously among each other especially if there’s a new baby and this can affect their emotional development as they are competing who can do better. Positive impacts about having siblings is they can help younger siblings read and encourage them to be able to do things for them self. Parent’s can never compare their child to other children as it can make them feel inadequate and not good about themselves. When there’s a new baby in the family its best to keep their older siblings involved with the entire baby’s routine so they don’t feel left out and can help out and feel needed and grown up about helping out. This will build their confidence up and they will want to experiment more doing new things and this will help their intellectual and social development. A child’s fears appear very real to them and sometimes older siblings feel the need to tell them stories which will scare them and which they won’t understand which doesn’t help a child’s emotional development and it could become a repeated thing which they have a fear of and may not want to go to bed. This could cause them to be very tired and may struggle getting up, it may also affect their intellectual development as when a child is tired they are not as capable as taking part in simple activities. Behavioural There are lots of factors which pay a big part on how a child behaves. Living conditions – if a child lives in a big house they have lots of space to play in but if a child lives in a small house they won’t be able to let out all their energy and so may let it out in anger. They will also be deprived from socialising with their friends who will affect their social development. Rest and sleep – every child needs their rest and sleep, it’s important for the brain and body to relax and be ready for the busy day ahead. So when deprived of rest and sleep they will be unable to work properly and so won’t be developing to the standard they should as they will be tired. This will affect their intellectual development. Diet – if a child consists of a very unhealthy diet of sweets and e numbers they will be very hyper active and this will cause very bad behaviour. This could impact their intellectual development as they may not be able to concentrate a t nursery or home and so won’t be learning or taking part in anything new. This will also impact on their social development as while at nursery if they misbehave and choose not to join other children may not want to play with them or be friends with them because of their behaviour. General health – if a child is mentally ill they may get frustrated if they can’t do something and this can cause bad behaviour. Some children with mental illnesses need a 1 to 1 support carer to help control their behaviour. This could help their intellectual development and social as they’re learning more and spending more 1 to 1 time with adults and learning about how you should act around children. Lifestyle – a child’s lifestyle and things that are going on around them play a big part on how they choose to act. An example of this is imitating bad behaviour at nursery because they are getting more attention than that certain child. This can affect their social development as other children may not want to get involved or play with them if they are misbehaving. Children often lie to get their own way and to get attention, other children then copy thinking that its right to blame it on other people and get them out of trouble. Children who lack se lf confidence tend to be the children who misbehave and don’t have respect for others this could be from the way they’ve been brought up. This affects their social development as other children who they aren’t very nice to are not going to want to play with them. Children like to feel superior to others and show this by changing their behaviour when in situations so they can get their own way and so their in control of the situation. This could affect other children’s social development as they may be blamed for things they haven’t done and may not want to be played with. They don’t care about any one else’s point of view, as long as they are right. Lying can cause lots of problems though as it can cause violence and effect their behaviour. This may affect their intellectual development as they may not want to take part in some activities. It also encourages others to do the same which isn’t very good as their intellectual development is being affected too then. Children have lots of different ways of showing aggression some of these are through violence, not listening, putting others down, disrespect, shouting or talking very loudly, biting hitting and throwing things and frowning and moaning. This impact a child’s social development as other children may not want to play with them. When a child is angry they are immediately not aloud to join in with the activity and they are therefore missing out on learning. Most children when behaving badly are doing it to get attention, attention seeking. Some children lie so they can get what they want, others just refuse to do the work and answer back. It’s all linked to the child’s insecurity so if they know someone is watching them they will deliberately play up for the attention. This affects a child’s intellectual development as most the time they would rather get attention than do any work at all. Social and economic In families who are in poverty, social exclusion or unemployed they find it hard to stay focused on their own and their children’s health and hygiene and sometimes might not be able to feed the children or wash them. This affects a child’s emotional development and well being as if they are not looked after properly and given all the love and care they need they won’t develop properly. They may also have problems at nursery and school as other children may not want to associate or play with them, this would impact on their social development. The social class that a child comes from can have a direct impact on their development, if they have come from a lower social class they may not be able to afford resources that the child needs for their intellectual development and will have no spare time to read with the child or even play. Lots of families are unemployed and this comes with many disadvantages as it could affect their health and expectations to others arou nd them. Depending on where you can afford live could affect what school your child goes to and can get into, this could affect their intellectual development as they may not be able to get into a good school that you’d possibly have to pay for to get into. In a lower social class they may not be able to afford holidays or after school clubs/hobbies for example swimming and horse riding, this could affect their social development. Parent’s who have to work long hours may neglect their children quite a lot without even noticing, all children need to be shown lots of love and care to help their emotional development and bonding. Families in a higher social class may be able to send their children to educational games, sports and clubs which will help their physical and intellectual development. They would also be able to afford family holidays in which they could spend a lot of time with their parent’s and other children which will help their social development. Theories of development. Current practice and knowledge of development is influenced by different theories, an example of a couple of different theories are below: Cognitive Jean Piaget Piaget’s research suggests there are three basic elements to a child’s development, these stages include: 1.Schemas – is the building blocks of knowledge children develop to help them problem solve 2.There are transitions a child may go through to, these processes help a child to move from one stage to another, the equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation 3.He then suggests there are four stages of learning the Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and the formal operational stage Piaget suggests the transition stages happen at different ages which are at 18months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years, he suggests that at these ages a child is more capable or learning new things and until that age they are not able to learn these new areas until they reach this age. He believes a child will learn at these stages from doing and trying things hands on. This is where there the foundation of the curriculum has come from. Lev Vygotsky Vygotsky takes a similar stance to Piaget whereby he suggests children learn from doing and trying thingss and being hands on. However he also believes it is important for the children to socialise with other children of different ages and adults as well as ensure children play and be active to help learn new things Humanist Abraham Maslow Manlow’s theory produced a hierarchy of needs, he suggests a child must be met to help the child develop and if these needs are not met the child might not meet there potential. Therefore when working with children we must consider the hierarch of needs to help the child meet there needs and in turn this will help them develop. Factors such as food, warmth, are cared for, encouragement and respect is some of the criteria Manslow says a child needs. It could be said a child centred approach follows Manslows theory. Social Learning/ Behaviourist Albert Bandhura Banduras theory suggests children learn from others, through copying and observing how others act, play and behave. Therefore saying it is vital a child has a positive role model to learn from. Burrhus Frederic Skinner Skinners theory looks at behaviour and how operant conditioning (reinforcement) which says that a child’s behaviour can be altered through reinforcement. He found that positive reinforcement such as praise when a child receives positive reinforcement they are likely to repeat the behaviour. Skinner found that if you respond to negative behaviour they are more likely to repeat the behaviour because they are getting attention but instead ignoring the behaviour of having a time out is more likely to prevent the child behaving negatively in that way again. Psychological Sigmund Freud Freuds theory suggests that you unconscious will communicate there thinking when they do something. For example when a child lies they will smile or put their hand over their mouths as if they are trying to hide the lie Frameworks to support development See EYMP 1 question 1 for information on the EYFS framework the main framework to support development. See CYP Core 3.6 question 6 for information on other frameworks to support development including the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the children’s services core assessment. 3.Explain how to monitor children and young people’s development using different methods. You may find it helpful to use work products to illustrate your answer e.g. child observations assessments frameworks. From observing children and young people you can determine how they are developing and whether they are behind for their age, observations will help identify this to help put measures in place to aid in there development. Through observations you can identify children’s strengths and weaknesses and therefore plan to help develop their weaknesses and build on their strengths. They will also identify the child’s likes and dislikes so activities can plan planned to expand their interests and doing something they like doing they are more likely to develop at a quicker rate than doing something they dislike as they won’t be as interested in the activity. Observations will also help us pass on information to parents to the child’s progress and update the child’s profiles and learning journeys. Child profiles and learning journeys are a good way to evidence the child’s development and monitor how they are developing. Also asking the parents about their thoughts on the child’s development at home Also see EYMP 1 question 1 for information on the EYFS framework which must be used to monitor, assess the child’s development and look at moving their development to the next stage. 4.Explain the reasons why children and young people’s development may not follow the expected pattern. There are many reasons why a child’s development may not follow the expected pattern. These include a range of external and personal factors that influences development sees question two of this assignment for more information about these factors and why they might impact on the development as this question explains the social, economic, lifestyle, health, gender, psychological, behaviour and environmental factors that could mean a child’s development may not follow the expected pattern. A child’s development may be at the expected level for their physical and social development but may be below the expected level of development in communication. So a child may not be behind in all areas. A child may catch up with some support or it may just take them a little time to catch up and do it by themselves, others may not be able to due to physical or learning disabilities or emotional damage. Factors that may mean a child’s development may not follow the expected pattern include: †¢The range of external and personal factors that influences development described in Question 2 of this assignment †¢Cultural beliefs, traditions and having English as a second language †¢A child not being stimulated and socialised †¢Over protective children †¢An older sibling in the family who does everything for the child and even speaks for them †¢Learning disabilities including dyspraxia and dyslexia 5.Explain how disability may affect development. See CYP Core 3.7 for part of this answer. There are different types of disabilities that may affect development these include physical or learning disabilities. This may mean a child’s development is delayed in all areas or just one or some of the areas of developments. This could be because of the disability, because the setting is not experienced or set up to cope with the disability and/or because the child is subjected to discrimination this in turn may mean the child will not settle into the setting, feel different and lower their self-esteem and confidence. As a consequence of this there development may be affected. The disability may make cause delays in development as they physically can’t do something or there brain does not process information as it should, therefore sometimes there is little to do to ensure they are developing as you would expect a child too, however there is always something that could be done to stimulate the child physically and mentally even if it will not help them develop furth er. For example physiotherapy for a child in a wheelchair to get them moving and/or reading to a child functioning at a far lower ability such as cerebral palsy. For example if a child has dyspraxia they brain processes things differently and often they are immature and fine it difficult to decide what to do and in working out how to do it. They may also struggle with language and think about things differently. Therefore a child may struggle in understanding questions and activities, socialising, communicating what they are thinking and affect their development. All of these things can affect the child’s developments. If dyspraxia is diagnosed earlier there is a chance you can minimise a child’s development being delayed too much as measures can be put in place to help them be accepted by others and other methods of learning could be used to reduce the delay in development. A physical disability could be the child is paralysed and confined to a wheelchair; therefore making some of the common physical activities done in setting would be difficult for the child in a wheelchair which could mean a delay in physical development. The setting should think of inclusive physical activates for everybody to join in. A child in a wheelchair may feel different, labelled, and not accepted therefore can become withdrawn and not engaging in activities therefore all areas if there development may be affected. However if the child does fit, they may thrive in other development areas such as communication, social skills and fine motor skills but may find the gross motor skills difficult or due to the disability may not be able to certain physical motions such as kicking. 6.Explain how different types of interventions can promote positive outcomes for children and young people where development is not following the expected pattern. See assignment EYMP 5 questions 5 and 6 in particular as well as information in the following assignments:, CYP Core 3.3 question 23, CYP Core 3.7 question 4, 8, EYMP 4 question 5. 7.Show an analysis that explains the importance of early identification of speech, language and communication delays and disorders and the potential risks of late recognition. See assignment EYMP 5 question 3 for this answer as well as CYP Core 3.7. 8.Explain how multiagency teams work together to support speech, language and communication. See EYMP 5 question 4, EYMP 1 question 7 and CYP Core 3.6 questions 1 and 2 and CYP Core 3.5. The majority of services who work in a multi agency approach work together in the same way for better outcomes for the child whether this be to support speech, language and communication or to support children in need with issues of neglect. Therefore the above assignments cross referenced are relevant to speech language and communication. 9.Explain how play and activities are used to support the development of speech, language and communication Supporting the development and speech of language and communication is important to help the children learn how to communicate in different ways, pronounce words correctly and widen their vocabulary. An effective way of doing this with children is through play and activities and they encourage children to get involved as children enjoy playing and participating in activities especially if they are made fun. Play and activities usually involves more than one person whether this be a child/children and/or adults this will get the child to socialise with others to improve their social skills and in turn help improve their speech, language and communication. Play and activities i would do with children to support their development include: †¢Role play this encourages imagination and using descriptive words and communicating with others and helps with listening skills and taking it in turn to speak †¢Music time – this helps them learn songs whilst doing movements and understanding what things mean such as ‘wind the bobbin up’ gets the children to point to the windows, doors and clap their hands. †¢Free play – gets children to talk to others; ask for help, have conversations with other children and it helps them hear others talk. †¢Afterschool time play – When the school children come to the setting for afterschool care they love to play with the children of early years age and the younger children respond really well to this and young can see them developing when they are with them. This play helps the younger children with their speech and how to construct sentences †¢Book use of books and flash cards to read and match words to pictures, to teach children sentences, listening skills, recognise words, repeat words and enhance their vocabulary †¢Vocabulary Teaching children colours, shapes, words and doing this as part of an activity and getting them to repeat the words and i would use the different words throughout all activities to help them remembers. This could be an activity such as an arts and crafts activity or through puzzles. Activities will make it fun and the children are more likely to participate and learn. †¢I give the children praise and make time to listen to them and encourage them to communicate. If they pronounce something wrong i do not tell them they are saying it wrong as i don’t want to knock their confidence but instead i just say the word after them correctly so they can hear how it should be said. 10.An explanation of how different types of transitions can affect children and young people’s development. See EYMP 5 question 5 and verbally in CYP Core 3.2 If the transition is a positive experience for the child they are more likely to settle in, be confident and therefore like being there which in turn will help them thrive in there development. Often when a child starts at a new setting it will take them a while to settle in as it can be a very stressful time for them this can often me there may be a slight delay in there development at the stage they are at or they regress and go backwards. However this is often short lived and when they settle into the setting they soon catch up. On some occasions they take longer to catch up or need extra support to help their development. Also when moving setting the children in the new setting may be at a different stage of development and of different ages therefore if a child or other children are behind in a particular area of development, this could have an impact on other children. This also works the other way round as the children may be ahead in development and encourage others around them to develop in areas at a quicker rate as they will learn from them. 11.Evaluate the effect on children and young people having positive relationships during periods of transitions. See assignment CYP Core 3.7 question 8, CYP Core 3.5 question 2 Positive relationships help reduce stress, help them feel more comfortable and stable. During the transition period the child will meet there key worker and spend time with them to help build up a bond with them so when starting at the setting they feel more secure and as the key worker will know the child’s likes and dislikes and will therefore when starting at the setting they will be doing things like which will help reduce stress and help settle them in. This in turn which reduce the risk of the child’s development suffering. With the parents/carers permission I help children with the transition from my setting to pre-school and/or school, to ensure the transition is smooth for the child and they form positive relationships I arrange with the setting to visit with the child a couple of times and meet there key worker to help prepare them for the transition. I also ensure that I am aware of the new settings routines so I can help them prepare the child for them.

Resulting Structures of Galactic Collisions :: Essays Papers

Resulting Structures of Galactic Collisions In the visible universe, there is one type of event that is often responsible for a good deal of the varied phenomena we observe across the cosmos. A type of event whose effects are both destructive and creative. This event is the interaction of two or more galaxies. The results of a galactic interaction are so varied that each event is unique. Therefore, only a select few examples will be described in the following pages. An examination of the term â€Å"galactic interaction† does not immediately convey much in the way of understanding as to exactly what happens during one of these events. The problem is that the word â€Å"interaction† is fairly ambiguous, yet it must be so because two galaxies can interact in so many ways that literally every interaction we observe is a unique event (depending on how close one looks at the details). Changing the mass ratios, the angle of impact, or the morphological type of the progenitor galaxies can greatly influence the nature of the system after the interaction has played itself out, as we shall see. However, galactic interactions do often share many characteristics. The most notable feature associated with interacting galaxies is often the â€Å"starburst† phenomenon. A starburst is an extremely high rate of star formation over part or all of a galaxy over a cosmologically short period of time (possibly a few billion years as opposed to several billion years). Galaxy interactions cause gravitational instabilities in interstellar gas clouds, which compress the gas in the clouds and trigger star formation (Mouri 2003). When astronomers look at an ongoing starburst in a distant galaxy, they see the starburst as a bluer region than the surrounding parts of the host galaxy. That is due to the extremely hot and energetic, yet short lived, O-type stars produced in the burst, which outshine all of the other stars being born around them as well as the older, redder stars that populate the galaxy. For an example of a galaxy undergoing an interaction- induced starburst, let us look at M82, a member of a nearby group of galaxies. M82 is a rather disturbed-looking disk galaxy that is currently undergoing a massive amount of star formation in its nuclear region. The cause is theorized to be a close encounter between M82 and M81, its large neighbor, which occurred about a billion years ago (Lipscy & Plavchan 2003).

Case Study : From Saga to Proton Essay

From a financial analyst perspective, has the proton management done a good job? Based on the financial performance of PROTON from 2005 till 2009, our observation from a financial analysis perspective showed that Proton management has not done a good job as far as financial performance is concern. The Key Financial Indicators (KFIs) covers measurements such as basic earnings per share, net assets per share; dividend paid as well as retained earnings carried forward. At a glimpse, almost all the KPI of Proton shows decrement throughout the years. Basic earnings per share (EPS) fluctuated vastly from 2005 to 2009. Proton recorded highest basic earnings per share of 80.6 in 2005. However, it can be observed that Proton faced severe problems by making loss in the shares, EPS of -107.3 in 2007 and EPS of -54.9 in 2009. Besides that, there is also a report with regards the net assets per share (NAPS). This net asset indicates the price at which shares are bought and sold, and represents co mpany’s value per share. Based on the information given, we can see that the NAPS of Proton had deteriorated from 2008 to 2009. The decreasing rate of dividend paid to the shareholders simply means company did not do very well. Dividend was not paid in 2008 as Proton needs to recover from the huge loss they held in 2007. Furthermore, the Balance Sheet displayed that the total assets owned by company decreased gradually from 2005 (RM 8, 830.9) to 2009 (RM 7,098.9). Other than that, increment in inventories indicates that sales order because higher inventory indicates poor sales resulting in higher cost to be incurred thus leads to the reduction in sales volume. In conclusion, we hold the believe that  Proton management had performed badly as portrayed by its deteriorating overall performance graph between the period in low basic earnings per share, low net assets per share, lower dividend paid to shareholders, low retained earnings carried forward, low total assets and high inventories count for the year 2009. Question 2 What characteristics should a foreign partner have that will enable maximum synergies? Synergy by definition means the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. To enable synergy, the foreign partner should be able to tackle Proton’s existing weakness. For instance, PROTON’s major problem would be quality control. The public usually complaint about the overall poor quality vehicles by PROTON over the years which indirectly affecting the financial result of the company, when its sales dwindled tremendously and continuously losing market share and which subsequently eroded the profit margin of the company. Therefore, a foreign partner that is known for its excellent quality of products would be a leap to induce a positive perception of Proton among the consumers which can help boost its revenues. Next, a foreign partnership with expertise and economies of scale is necessary which can encourage the sustainability of Proton. Since it has registered net loss for 2007 and 2009 indicating high cost that could not be covered with sufficient revenue generation, it’s very much clear that Proton lacks the efficiency in managing the cost, which leads to overall loss. To overcome this problem PROTON will need a partner that can help shoulder the exorbitant costs. Also, a foreign partner well known for its good reputation would be critical in order to elevate the already weak reputation of Proton among consumers. PROTON lacks an engine or platform to expand into the SUV and MPV markets, or the 2.0-litre and above segments. PROTON may need to collaborate with a foreign partner much in the wa y BMW and PSA Peugeot-Citroen are working together to develop new engines and technologies. Hence, the foreign partner should have the technological advances which Proton lacks. Furthermore, many of the green engine technologies that are emerging as a result of rising fuel prices and global warming would dictate the direction  of automotive development, and these are beyond PROTON capabilities. On its own, PROTON has limited funds for research and development. Therefore collaborating with bigger automotive players lend research and development (R&D) capabilities would be very beneficial, particularly in production of hybrid and electrical vehicles. Question 3 What broad consideration should determine the part of proton that are worth keeping and developing and matter of operation needs to be relocated or closed down? Proton needs to reconstruct its business structure by forgoing some part of business which are not worth keeping and expand those activities which generates ample profit. After analyzing Protons overall condition, firstly, the partnership with Lotus has helped Proton in strengthening the engineering, providing Proton an edge in Europe. Since Lotus is a British company that builds sports car, they have very well developed motor engineering technology which might be a gold opportunity for Proton to move forward and create more elegant and high-performance car models. In, Lotus even appeared in the Paris Auto Show 2010 with five slick looking sport cars. In order to move forward, Proton should seriously invest in R&D with its strategic partner Lotus, to strengthen quality which they are unable to do themselves. In order to draw sales, you have to know how to attract customers. PROTON’s investment in technology; seemed insufficient as now consumer expects better performance as per value of money. Proton should concentrate its energy on overall product improvements most importantly the engine. Perodua offered DVVT engine which is fuel efficient, but for decades PROTON continued using CAMPRO engine for all the cars. The idea is that they should try creating a car with a different engine as the perception build about Proton is that it has bad engine system to begin with. Possible solutions to mitigate the problems identified are by introducing additional value improvised features which focuses on fuel efficiency, convenience and safety. Next, Proton should also focus on providing excellent after sales service at its service centre Proton Edar. It is best to expand Proton by gaining their trust and loyalty. By proving security, reliance and great servicing skills, Proton will become an attractive deal because maintenance costs of transportation with is secured by warranty is one of the most crucial point of comparison between local and foreign cars as foreign cars  provide high security and assurance over their cars. Lastly, the management of Proton need to undergo total reconstruction. PROTON owns not one, but two factories that can output a combined maximum of 1.2 million cars a year, yet it builds only 156,845 units. If proton is not going to fully utilize its plant, it is better and more cost efficient for them to lease out the space to other car manufacturers so that it can generate profit from the unutilized space rather than living it unproductive. Question 4 From a review of the 2009 National Automotive Policy, are there areas of possible collaboration with Proton in the event of short of a full merger/takeover? There are areas found that will enable possible collaboration with Proton in the event of short merger or takeover based on reviewing the 2009 National Automotive Policy(NAP). The main objective of NAP is to ensure the development as well as long term competitiveness and capability of Proton. NAP also intends to create a conducive environment to attract possible new investment to enhance the sustainability of Proton. Firstly, the government offered tax incentive for high value-added part components. Through this, the high value-automotive-part manufacturers would enjoy 10-year 100% fiscal deduction on pioneer status or 5-year 100% tax exempted Investment Tax Allowance. This particular policy gives an opportunity to the company to make an investment in Malaysia and set up an alliance with Proton. Furthermore, it can benefit both parties because the investors can enjoy an incentive while Proton can improve the quality of their products with cost reduction due to the tax incentive thereby eliminating their reputation on low quality products. Meanwhile, tax incentive on training and R&D also gives huge opportunity to the investors particularly in the hybrid vehicle market. The trend of hybrid car is potentially expanding rapidly in Malaysia and research on the hybrid technology could produce higher return of investment and collaboration with Proton will give a cost saving to the companies and support Proton to pursue on producing hybrid cars. Besides, it can be cost-competitive for them if strategic alliance is set up with Proton since its plant in Tanjung Malim can be used for assembly hub for both the collaborating companies. Next, the full liberalization of local assembled luxury passenger cars can enable other foreign or local automotive firms to freely obtain manufacturing license and hold up to 100% stake in Proton pertaining to certain conditions. This could lead to possible alliances with Proton that can improvise the company’s under-utilized plant capacity. The full liberalization on assemble of luxury car also can give an opportunity to Proton to continue operating in low cost vehicle without any stiff competition and acquire more proportion of the market. So, strategic alliance with Proton in low cost vehicle segment will give strong position in the market which will help to boost the profits of the company. The policy on excise duty structure for imported vehicles CBU and locally assembled vehicles CKD’s would encourage foreign carmakers to consider possible collaboration with Proton in order to prevent the excise duty which will elevate their cost of production and continue producing cars in Malaysian market. Question 5 What other information not included in the case could help consultant Saiful Alawi make a more meaningful recommendation? Why? In order to come out with recommendation whether an investment and/or collaboration should be considered, Saiful Alawi has several things to be considered such as automotive market outlook and the national automotive policy. Apart from those, there are few other things that might also take into consideration for the recommendation in which one of them could be financial leverage for the company. Financial leverage refers to the degree to which an investor or business is utilizing borrowed money. High leverage indicating the company or an organization could be at risk of bankruptcy if they are unable to pay their debts as well as unable to find new lenders in future. However, financial leverage is not always bad as it can increase the shareholders’ return on investment and often there are tax advantages associated with the borrowed money. Proton should be disclosed the information about the debts of the company in its financial report or in its financial indicators. This is because, it would make it easier for the users to interpret the performance of the company in terms of the total debt to assets ratio, long  term debt to assets ratio, total debt to equity ratio as well as equity multiplier and other measurements related to the financial leverage ratio of the company. Besides that, Proton should also include the measurement related to the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) of the company to know the level of profitable the company in which related to its total assets as well as the shareholders’ equity. Another thing that Saiful Alawi could take into consideration for the recommendation could be regarding the information of the opportunity of investment in other country. Other Asean countries also offered advantages and benefits of the investments in automotive industry. In Thailand, it has several hub of assembly of vehicle which very crucial for reduce transportation and distribution cost. Furthermore, Indonesia provided low labor cost and huge market capacity since the country among the highest population in Southeast Asia. Moreover, other countries also has a full pace of liberalisation and flexible in their automotive policies which the prices of the vehicle will be competitive. Finally, the other information that could help him is the environment and safety of Asean country. Malaysia is among the peaceful countries compared to others although the citizens were multiracitional. So, safety and harmonious environment is also important for the investors to make sure the stability of the operation and consistency in long-term run.

Woodlawn Case Part 3

Case Part 3 Report for the CFO There are several necessary journal entries that have been made to adjust the unadjusted trial balance. For Allowance for doubtful accounts: 1. In 2009, $ 58,621. 84 was directly written off to bad debt expense reflecting the amounts owed by customers who had gone bankrupt during the year. The journal entry would have been recorded as Dr Bad debt expense 58,621. 84 Cr Account receivable 58,621. 84 To record the uncollectable amount due to customer bankruptcy.The conditions of using the direct write-off method is either for companies in their first year of operations, or for whom uncollectible accounts are immaterial. Woodlawn does not fit either case. Therefore, it is wrong for Woodlawn to use the direct write-off method. The following journal entry is what should have been recorded, Dr Allowance for doubtful account 58,621. 84 Cr Account receivable 58,621. 84 To record the uncollectible amount due to customer bankruptcy. Therefore, the following adjust ed entry is made to correct the write-off of $58,621. 4. Dr. Allowance for doubtful account 58,621. 84 Cr. Bad debt expense 58,621. 84 To record the correction of error made in write-off. 2. Historically, bad debt has averaged out to approximately 1. 5% of revenues. Therefore, we estimate that bad debt in 2009 would be 1. 5% of revenue. The journal entry is the following, Dr. Bad debt expense 20,279. 28* Cr. Allowance for doubtful account20,279. 28 To record the estimated uncollectible amount. *(Calculation: 1. 5%*$1,351,951. 83=20,279. 28) 3. As Tim mentioned that Woodlawn has received $93,256. 1 that’s over 90 days past due since August 31, 2010. There is no journal entry needed to be done, since it had past the fiscal year end. 4. Woodlawn has not received $69,942. 13 from Erie Limited that’s past due over 90 days. But since Erie always paid its bills, there is no need to write-off Erie Limited to AFDA. No adjusted entry needed. 5. Calculation of total amount of All owance for doubtful accounts (AFDA). Assumption for calculating AFDA: we estimate the percentage for AFDA in 2010 to be 11%. This estimation is based on: 1.Based on the information Michael provided, the worse of the recession is over and current economic conditions have improved since last month. 2. Customers are paying slower then previous years due to bad economic conditions. Therefore the percentage of AFDA should fall in a range among percentages of 2008-2009, which is 4. 9%-13. 1%. We estimate 11% to be a better choice. The total amount of AFDA ending balance is 11%* $374,692. 53=$41,216. 18 In order to calculate the AFDA amount needed to adjust, we need the AFDA opening balance which is $35,000 from trial balance, the correction of error made in write-off $58,621. 4. $ 58,621. 84| $35,000 ? | $41,216. 18| ADFA ? = $41,216. 18+$58,621. 84-$35,000=$64,838. 02 The adjusted entry is made based on the previous information, Dr Bad debt expense 64,838. 02 Cr Allowance for doubtful ac counts 64,838. 02 To record the adjustment made for Allowance for doubtful accounts at the fiscal year end. For Insurance: Calculation of the adjustment of prepaid expenses at the year end: Prepaid insurance for the beginning of September 1, 2009: $9,300 Insurance from Fife Insurance:Policy Period: 2010/05/20-2011/05/20 Amount: $12,885. 48 For the period beginning at Sept, 1 2009, to year end at August 31,2010 is 103 days in total, Total Insurance expense = $12,885. 48* 103/365=$3,636. 18 Balance required at year end=$12,885. 48-$3,636. 18=$9,249. 30 Prepaid expense adjustments =$9,300-$9,249. 30=$50. 70 The adjusted entry is made based on the previous calculation, Dr Insurance expense $50. 70 Cr Prepaid insurance$50. 70 To record the adjustment of prepaid insurance