Inhibition of Alcohol Dehydrogenase Essay Example for Free

Inhibition of Alcohol Dehydrogenase Essay Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is the enzyme that is responsible for converting ethanol to acetaldehyde (the reaction is shown in Figure 13. 1). It is the enzyme responsible for the metabolism of ethanol in the alcoholic beverages we consume. Five different isozymes of ADH have been identified, and it has been shown that the enzyme has a rather broad substrate specificity and can oxidize aldehydes as well as primary and secondary alcohols. For example, ADH can also oxidize methanol (wood alcohol) and ethylene alcohol (antifreeze). The poisonous nature of these compounds results from the ADH-catalyzed conversion of these compounds to toxic products. For example, ADH converts methanol to formaldehyde, which is toxic to the optic nerve and can produce blindness. In high doses, formaldehyde may be fatal. In this study, the authors investigated the ability of formamide compounds to inhibit alcohol dehydrogenase. Only a portion of their data is presented here. The authors were able to propose a mechanism for the inhibition from the extensive data they collected using a wide variety of formamide compounds. The mechanism is shown in Figure 13. 2. Figure 13. 1: ADH-catalyzed oxidation of ethanol. 2 Questions 1. Certain individuals are more sensitive to alcohol than others. For example, women are more sensitive to alcohol than men–even when body weight and % body fat are taken into account, women become more intoxicated than men consuming an identical amount of alcohol. Using what we have learned in the enzyme chapters, give biochemical reasons that would explain why women become more intoxicated than men when consuming an equal amount of alcohol. 2. A treatment for methanol poisoning is to have the victim drink large amounts of ethanol. Why might this be an effective treatment? 3. The authors of this study studied the ability of N-1,5-dimethylhexylformamide to inhibit mouse ADH1. The activity of the enzyme was measured in the absence of inhibitor, and in the presence of 1. 0 :M inhibitor. The data are presented in Table 13. 1. Table 13. 1: Inhibition of mouse ADH1 by N,1-5-dimethy lhex ylformam ide Ethanol Concentration, mM ADH1 velocity, ) NADH absorbance/min (without i nhibit or) ADH1 velocity, ) NADH absorbance/min (with i nhibit or) 0. 20 0. 036 0. 022 0. 25 0. 042 0. 024 0. 36 0. 048 0. 027 0. 60 0. 065 0. 029 2. 00 0. 075 0. 033 Figure 13. 2: Mechanism of ADH1. The inhibitor binds as an aldehyde analog. 3 M max a. What are the K and V values for ADH in the absence of inhibitor? in the presence of the inhibitor? b. What type of inhibitor is N-1,5-dimethylhexylformamide? Explain. c. Calculate the values of and/or ’, if they are significantly different from 1. What kind of inhibitor is N-1,5-dimethylhexylformamide? Explain. ii d. Calculate the K and/or K’ (whichever is appropriate) for N-1,5-dimethylhexylformamide (Hint: You can obtain these values from and ’). 4. The authors describe the mechanism of ADH as an â€Å"ordered bi-bi† mechanism. Give a written description of the mechanism, as shown in Figure 13. 2. How does N-1,5- dimethylhexylformamide inhibit the activity of the ADH enzyme? How does N-1,5- dimethylhexylformamide differ from the â€Å"classic† inhibitors of this type that are described in our textbook? 5. The authors found that a class of compounds called pyrazoles were also inhibitors of ADH. These inhibitors bind to the E-NAD complex. What kind of inhibitor are pyrazoles? Are + these inhibitors the same or different as the formamides? 6. a. Would N-1,5-dimethylhexylformamide be an effective alternative for the treatment of methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning, assuming that it is non-toxic itself (and as an alternative to getting the patient drunk, as described in Question 2)? Would N-1,5- dimethylhexylformamide be effective even if the concentrations of methanol or ethylene II glycol were very high? (Hint: Compare the values of K or K ’, whichever is appropriate, M and K ). b. The compound 4-methyl pyrazole is currently being used as a treatment for methanol poisoning. How would the effectiveness of 4-methyl pyrazole compare with the effectiveness of a formamide treatment? Reference Venkataramaiah, T. H. , and Plapp, B. V. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, pp. 36699-36706.

Overcoming Racial Discrimination in the Heat of the Night :: Film Movie Movies

Through the film â€Å"In the Heat of the Night† racial tensions are high, but one character, the Chief of Police, Gillespie overcomes racial discrimination to solve a murder. The attitudes that he portrays in the film help us understand the challenges in changing attitudes of Southern white town towards the African Americans living there. As the film progresses, Gillespie moves from a desire to maintain peace to a realization that justice is better than peace. This is evident through two separate occasions during the film. The first event was when Virgil Tibbs was arrested solely based on the fact that he was black. After searching Virgil they found over $100 in his wallet. The second event was when the Chief arrested the suspect who stole the dead mans wallet. Since the man had his wallet, Gillespie laid the murder charge on him without further investigation. Through Virgil and the course of the film, Gillespie realizes that there is more to being a police chief than maintaining civil order. As the plot deepens, the Chief risks his neck several times to maintain a good relationship with Virgil. Through these events I feel that the Chief has overcome his racism, and can become friends with an African American. One event that proves this was when the four hoodlums were about to attack Virgil when Gillespie came to the rescue. The boys called the Chief a nigger-lover, which he just absorbed and didn’t let it get to him. In my opinion, if this same event happened a week earlier before Virgil came into the picture, Gillespie probably would’ve snapped and either arrested the boys or give them a good lashing. Another event that backs this point is when the Chief invites Virgil over to his place. Now normally this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but since Virgil was a Negro, it was a big deal. Through these events, I feel that Chief Gillespie overcame his racist ways. Through time, Chief Gillespie starts to realize that Virgil is his equal, and he learns that he can have a relationship with a black man as his equal. During the autopsy, Virgil starts to display knowledge of forensic science superior to anyone on the police force. While this is going on, Gillespie realizes that Virgil may have superior knowledge than himself. This is when the chief starts to view Mr. Tibbs as his equal. Later on in the film, the chief allows Virgil to remain in his office while the pregnant girl was telling Gillespie how Sam Carr supposedly impregnated her.

Compare and Contrast Readings Essay

You have suffered before as I have suffered, maybe not exactly as me, but you have experienced a type of suffering. Mary Rowlandson shows us what suffering is in her book called â€Å" A Narrative of the Captivity,† by creating a character who loses her six year old child due to an attack in her town Lancaster and constantly being moved. Another author, Olaudah Equiano, writes a story about another type of suffering in his book â€Å" The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,† by telling readers about him being kidnapped directly from his home and being brought into slavery. By reading these excerpts readers can see different types of suffering and how the characters handle them. â€Å"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano† articulates suffering better because there are events that most people would know about and tells how people around him are dealing with the changes. Equiano’s narrative takes place in the 1800s, when slavery started to become popular. He talks of his self becoming a slave when he was just a kid. After, serving as a slave for different people in Africa, being detached from his family, and getting shipped off to stay a slave but in a fortune country, he did not become belligerent. â€Å"I did not know what this could mean, and indeed I thought these people were full of nothing but magical arts,† (Equiano 59). Equiano thinking the men that are about to enslave him are full of magic proves how young he is, too young to be a slave. A child being a slave for the rest of his or her life is a horrific way to spend one’s childhood. He has suffered all of his life, beginning with the day he was taken away from his home but after all this he did not seek revenge, he became an author. Rowlandson’s narrative speaks on the American Indians being removed from their native land by English people. When a reader starts reading the excerpt, one might think it is only about a woman losing her children but  once you look at the details you will see how the events she describes relate to the event of Americans kicking American Indians off their land. â€Å"The occasion (as I thought) of their moving at this time, was, the English army, it being near and following them†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Rowlandson 39). The reason why readers did not know of the event from the start of the story is because the main character did not know why either. The quote gives us confirmation that the moving to different places is because of the â€Å"English army,† Americans, taking over their property . Both of these authors did a great job at helping readers view different types of suffering and how people handled it. Mary Rowlandson, the main character handles the suffering of losing her children and her home by staying connected with God, as I would. Olaudah Equiano, the main character of â€Å"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,† suffers by getting stolen from his home and brought into slavery. By looking at how Equiano deals with being a slave, it is like he just accepts what is happening and does not try to change it. Although Olaudah Equiano does not do much to change his life as a slave, he does a better job at explaining his sufferings to a point where people can relate or know a little background of the event.

Research background and motivation of ANSA - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3124 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? ANSA Automotive Limited (AAL) comprises four (4) main divisions, namely: Mc Enearney Motors, Diamond Motors, Classic Motors and Burmac Machinery. AAL represents the Automotive Sector of ANSA McAL Limited, one of the largest conglomerates in the Caribbean. This sector is one of five (5) key business sectors of ANSA McAL. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Research background and motivation of ANSA" essay for you Create order The others are Brewery; Manufacturing and Distribution; Financial Services; and Media. Mc Enearney Motors is in fact the oldest of the companies, having been established around 1918 under the name of Charles McEnearney the first distributor of motor vehicles in Trinidad. In 1989 Charles McEnearney merged with H. E. Robinson Limited and the name was changed to McEnearney Robinson. In 1992 ANSA McAL bought out the interest in McEnearney Robinson and subsequently traded as Diamond Motors. Classic Motors was formed in 1992 to represent the Honda agency, and introduced the Accord, Civic, Legend, Prelude and CR-V to the local market, and has since acquired the Jaguar and Land Rover franchises. Burmac Machinery currently markets agricultural and industrial equipment, namely the Yale and New Holland line of heavy construction equipment. They are strategically located in Port of Spain, Chaguanas, San Fernando and Tobago, with a total staff complement of approximately three hun dred and ninety (390) employees, which can be classified as permanent, temporary, contract and casual labor. These employees are categorized mainly into Technical Staff (Mechanics, Electricians etc.); Administrative/Support Staff; Sales Executives; Supervisory and Management. This can be further broken down into, as outlined in the Organization Chart of the Sector. See Appendix 1 ANSA Automotive Limited, Organizational Chart. As evident by the aforementioned Organizational Chart, each division is spearheaded by a General Manager, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of their respective organizations. At the helm of the Sector is a Managing Director who has overarching responsibility for AAL. A Board of Directors, chaired by a Chairman Automotive Division, governs the strategic direction of the sector. Additionally, the brand principals namely, Mitsubishi Corporation, Honda International and Ford USA maintain a close working relationship with the local deal ers to ensure that product and operating standards are maintained. Each division is structured into three core business units, namely, Sales, Service and Spare Parts Department. All of these business units are serviced by other core functional units, which are centralized to all four divisions. These core services include Information Technology; Finance; Internal Audit; Customs; and Human Resource Management. Key to maintaining its market position as one of the leading motor vehicle companies in Trinidad and Tobago is superior corporate growth. It is also one of its major challenges. 1.1.2 Motivation: The author has been fascinated with marketing since the late 90s. Since 1999 I have worked together with marketing in the Automobile Industry and it has always bubble my mind that the rich empirical and theoretical base which marketing rests on is not leveraged to its full potential. In my experience, marketing is often reduced to producing corporate brochures and customer seminars. Although this is important in the day-to-day operations I believe marketing has so much more to offer corporations and shareholders. 1.1.3 Rationale for the study 1.1.3.1 What is the research issue? The research issue is that marketing is not always considered of being capable of corporate growth and growth gurus, including Richard Foster, Clay Christensen, Gary Hamel and C.K Prahalad think not. In their views, marketing is too close to the immediate demands and requirements of current customers and competitors to contribute breakthrough sources for growth. However, marketing gurus Kotler Armstrong argue that there are several environmental factors pointing towards an increased importance of marketing as the driver and creator of competitive advantages and shareholder value. Doyle (2000) says that marketing-led growth is at the heart of value creation and Kumar (2004) says that managers must see marketing strategy as the driver of corporate strategy, because all value begins and ends with customers. 1.1.3.2 Why is it an issue? It is an issue because growth strategists dont see marketing in the automotive industry is capable o f corporate growth. 1.1.3.3 Why is it an issue now? It is an issue now because with the economics crisis marketing managers are asked to perform and television adds now are being advertise on how advertising on TV increase corporate growth and profit. 1.1.3.4 What could this research shed light on? This research would shed light on marketing is it capable to driving an organisation to corporate growth. Is it also an opportunity for me to develop this interest and seek ways to unlock the value of marketing in areas that are critical importance to the CEOs of today corporations. 1.2 Research Topic: This research is designed with the topic statement: An analysis and evaluation of marketing in driving corporate growth in the Automotive Industry 1.3 Aims: The aim of this paper is to offer an insight into the challenges and opportunities for leveraging marketing in achieving and sustaining competitive advantages in the automotive industry. It further seeks to unlock the value of marketing in areas that are critically important to managers. 1.4 Objectives: The objectives are to further investigate the marketing paradigm and its role in the corporate growth discussion in order to prove or disprove the dissertation hypothesis. This would be done by: To analyse the marketing strategies and its role in competitive advantages To evaluate the roles of marketing strategies in the automotive industry To provide a strategic comparison for gap analysis and To provide some strategic recommendations for corporate growth. For the Automotive Industry this dissertation will offer insights into the challenges and opportunities for leveraging marketing in achieving and sustaining competitive advantages for corporate growth. 1.5 Key Words: The key words for this proposal are corporate growth, strategic marketing and innovation. 1.6 Hypothesis Contemporary marketing and management thinkers believe that marketing should play a crucial role in driving corporate growth. This proposal is set out to evaluate the hypothesis: Marketing in the Automotive Industry: is capable of driving long term corporate growth. 1.7 Research Questions The hypothesis gives rise to the following primary research questions: What are the key strategic roles that marketing should perform in order to drive corporate growth. What are the critical success factors for marketings success in driving corporate growth? How well is marketing performing these roles? How well is marketing adhering to the critical success factors? Literature Review Conceptual Framework: Introduction This chapter examine the literature covering the topics of sustaining competitive advantages, marketing and corporate growth. The purpose of this review is to draw out the key theories, concepts and ideas around the subject marketing growth and innovation and to assess how various commentators and academics have reviewed this in the light of the changing business environment. Critical The output will be the literatures view on the key strategic roles that marketing must perform in order to drive corporate growth as well as a concrete set of critical success factors for achieving this. Corporate growth is on the top of every CEOs agenda. Executives are facing increased pressure for sustained growth while the markets are saturating and becoming more contested than ever. Most business leaders agree that growth is critical to long-term corporate success and to society at large. It is considered the most effective way of creating shareholder value, and growth also unleashes benefi ts beyond the economic. It revitalizes organisations and invigorates the people within them and finally it creates jobs in the community. However, only very few companies are able to achieve sustainable, profitable growth. Starting and sustaining profitable sales growth is a tough task. The reality is that only 10% of companies with above-average growth will sustain it for more than 10 years, Baghar et al. (1996). While the focus on the growth challenge has spurred a lot of attention in the management literature, there is one area which the author wishes to explore and that is the role of strategic marketing in the overall corporate growth discussion: Is marketing capable of driving long-term corporate growth? The marketing literature often does not hesitate to underline the importance of marketing as a discipline, and promotes the impact that marketing should have on the strategy formulation as well as on the strategic-direction ( Kerin and Varadarajan 1992). However, i f it is so obvious that marketing must play the lead role in shaping corporate strategy and hereunder the growth discussion, then why do growth experts such as Richard Foster ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦.. Prahalad dismiss this idea! And similarly, what makes the likes of Kolter believe that marketing should indeed be driving corporate growth Key environmental drivers to change Environmental change: According to Doyle (2000) four particular changes of the new information age are reshaping the environment of business and require fundamental strategic and organizational responses from management: The globalization of markets, changing industrial structures, the information revolution and rising customer expectations. Globalization of the market The new information age has seen a dramatic shift to global markets and competition. Across more and more industries, firms that are not building global operations and marketing capabilities are loosing out. Changing the industries structures The information age is changing the nature of the profit opportunities available to businesses. Many markets that were once at the very heart of the economy have ceased to offer profit opportunities for Western firms. Other new markets are rapidly emerging that offer enormous profit opportunities to companies that can move fast and decisively to capitalize on them . The Information revolution Rapid scientific and technological changes continue to radically reshape many industries. But the most dramatic and far-reaching changes of the current era result from the revolution in information technology. The Internet, together with the emergence of broadband cellular radio networks, has created an explosion in connectivity that is revolutionizing almost every aspect of business. Rising customer expectations The information age has brought a marked rise in rising customer expectations. Buyers have grown to expect higher quality, competitive prices, and better and faster service. The most important causes have been the globalization of competition and the deregulation of markets. The impact on marketing: So what does all this mean to marketing? Kotler (2003) comments that todays major economic problem is overcapacity in most of the worlds industries. Customers are scarce, not products. Demand, not supply is the problem. Overcapacity leads to hyper-competition, with too many good chasing too few customers. And most goods and services lack differentiation. In essence, the Internet, technology, and globalization have combined to create a new economy. The old economy is built on the logic of managing manufacturing industries; the new economy is built on the logic of managing information and information industries. The impact of these environmental changes on marketing is significant. Marketing rather than production skills are becoming the key strategic capability necessary to create and sustain competitive advantage, Doyle (2000). 3. Research Methodology Design: Philosophy: The field of marketing lends itself to a positivism research philosophy and also feeds into some areas of some phenomenological philosophy. The interpretation of research outcomes is subjective, with emphasis placed on the underlying meaning and understanding of phenomena. Approach: The analysis of the research will be largely qualitative, however quantitative analysis will be used to highlight patterns and make the analysis more robust. The findings will be compared to theory in context in order to describe the patterns in which it exists. An inductive approach will be used in order to develop theory as a result of the research findings, although there will be an element of deduction in that the structure of the research will based on the academic literature. The research will be performed as a series of structured interviews and questionnaires. Effort was also made to select a range of organisations with the required characteristics such as market, sizes and life-spans, so the sample has a mix of homogenous and heterogeneous characteristics. I intend to interview one management participant from each organisation and the survey participants will be at least 10 of the employees working in marketing or related areas, depending on the size of the company. The semi-structured interviews will start with an organisational questionnaire to gain company information such as number of employees, number of research staff, annual turnover, market sector, products (type, number of different products, product volume and value). The remainder will cover a series of open ended questions to discuss the marketing practices in order to gain an understanding of the approach taken, the structure and effectiveness, how and why certain strategies work whilst others are less effective. Each participant will be asked to answer identical questions, but the order of the questions will not necessarily be fixed as this may detract from the flow of the interview. The survey is intended to supplement data from interviews and sample more widely the practices and individual perceptions in the organisation. The aim is to gain an understanding of how the marketing growth works and also the opinions and understanding of the employees. The questionnaire will h ave structured questions with set responses in order to map the marketing characteristics of the organisation. There will also be open questions for participants to make comments on the various aspects of marketing growth in their organisation. The author approach to the design of the interview and survey is as follows: Preliminary framework built on the review of theory from academic literature prior to design of questionnaires and structured interviews Pilot interview restructure the questions as necessary Pilot use of questionnaire restructure the questions as necessary Interviews notes taken during recording key words and phrases and creating full record immediately after interview Survey questionnaires explained and handed out/ collected during session 3.1 Method of Data Collection and Intended Analysis I intend to perform research in my own organisation, for which I have been granted verbal access to carry out the interviews and survey. In addition, I believe that I require at least 2 further organisations to benchmark and make comparison of the marketing practices and their effectiveness. I have contacted six organisations and have obtained a verbal agreement for access from one of them so far. I am confident that I will be able to gain the required number of participating organisations, however if I have less participants I can modify my research approach and increase the number of interview and survey participants at each organisation and complete a more in-depth study. In order to make the process run smoothly and to obtain a speedy and efficient response to the surveys I intend to run one or two sessions in the organisation where all of the participants will be present and during which I will hand out and collect the questionnaires. This will both ensure a high response r ate and that the correct participants answer the survey. In addition, it will enable me to explain clearly the aims of the research control how the survey is administered and make clear the type of information required for the open-ended part of the questionnaires. Using the inductive approach, the analysis of the interviews will be mostly qualitative, with the interviews used to understand the business environment. Quantitative analysis of the questionnaires will be used to map the characteristics of the organisations and discover patterns in the responses within organisations. Consideration of the data and patterns found in all of the organisations will be used in conjunction with academic theory to try to explain the findings and answer the research objectives posed in section above. 3.2 Design 3.2.1 Validity and Reliability In the design of the research approach I have considered the following: 3.2.1.1 Internal validity Increased through use of multiple sources of evidence, structured interviews and questionnaires (both closed and open questions). The design of questions and survey will be based on understanding of the theory from the literature and pilot testing of the interview and questionnaire will be used to make sure questions are understood as intended. 3.2.1.2 External validity Multiple cases considered to examine whether findings can be generalised over a number of organisations. There is no requirement to make a statistical analysis of the results for generalisation here as the approach chosen examines practices and their effectiveness. The aim is to explain the findings and explore generalisability through a comparison of findings with theory and using Excel, charts and statistics to show the analysis of the data. 3.2.1.3 Reliability Structured interviews with questions derived from literature in order to examine cases in same way. Surveys to back up the interviews and obtain views from a wider group and questionnaires all administered at the same time and in controlled manner, explanation to ensure participants all understand research in same way. 3.3. Limitations The author recognises that this type of research has its limitations and has summarized them: The author is not a trained interviewer The sample is not representative of the population The research is only from a subset of the overall Automotive Industry 3.4 Research Ethics The interviewees and survey participants will be given a clear written description of the purpose, scope and intended outcomes of the research. The type of information required for the research will be clearly stated as will the policy for anonymity and confidentiality. The research will be carried out in a way that will ensure confidentiality of the participant organisations and the individual participants in the surveys. Some organisations which participate in the research will not be named in the dissertation, nor will some interviewees and the questionnaires will be anonymous. 4. Time Scale The plan for the research project timescales is shown in the Gantt chart below. In summary, there are the following considerations in the project plan: 4.1 Literature review Already performed background literature search to help formulate research ideas, anticipate further extensive period of research before writing the Literature Review. The final literature survey before completion of the manuscript to cover any newly published work. 4.2 Questionnaire/ Interview Design Have form of questionnaire which needs adapting for use. Intend to design the structured interview and questionnaire after the majority of the literature review is complete, will both be piloted and their design reviewed. 4.3 Interviews and Surveys Visit participant organisations to carry out interviews and surveys during August and September 2010. An efficient and rapid response is expected as surveys issued and collected whilst at the participant organisations. 4.4 Data Analysis Structured interviews with responses analysed qualitatively. Surveys coded and responses analysed quantitatively. 4.5 Dissertation Drafts Produce drafts of the dissertation sections for content discussion with supervisor throughout the timescale below, then draft dissertation will be of required standard with only minor revision required for submission. The main resource required to carry out the research is my time, I have the support of my employers to carry out this research and I will be able to take days out of work to visit the participant organisations. I have the means to visit the participants (who are all in the TT) and also to analyse the data and write up the dissertation.

Financial audits as a fraud prevention mechanism in international enterprises - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2992 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? In the last decade, international financial system has been hit several times by many different gigantic occurrences. The soonest was the subprime mortgage crisis, but the situation this dissertation will be concentrating is the failure of Enron. Mainly because the aim of this paper is to present financial audit as a fraud prevention mechanism, not the opposite. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Financial audits as a fraud prevention mechanism in international enterprises" essay for you Create order It will show relevant evidences that will try to figure out what was the main and real reason for the failure, as well as consequent failure of the company auditor Arthur Andersen. Since the auditor was one of the Big Five (at that time, together with PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG), this scandal brought the attention of a potential loopholes and poor financial reporting regulations existing at that time. Baring in mind that the fraud was detected in gigantic energy services company, with the auditor involved in scandal, authorities have made an effort to increase the control and regulation levels in order to eliminate the chance of fraud. From that time, new accounting regulations were rapidly created and old regulations renewed in order to expand the accuracy of the financial statements and reporting, especially of the large public companies. The aim was to increase the transparency, since it has the biggest role in potential fraud situations elimination. One of the first legislations that were brought up was the Sarbanes Oxley Act, which is actually a legislation for reforming accounting rules for public companies, protecting shareholders and potential investors. This act also increased the accountability of auditing firms to remain unbiased and independent of their clients. Therefore, the purpose of the following dissertation is to fully present auditing in the modern financial environment. It will present why auditing is important in financial system and assessing performance of public companies. Finally, student will explore how the auditing has developed and expanded its operations during the years. More in detail, this dissertation will have a role to closely connect auditors work with the fraud determination. Basically, auditing is meant to be a job for transparently assessing financial statements of companies and as a fraud prevention mechanism. On the other hand, based on the above mentioned example, we could draw some conclusions that auditing has failed to asses fraudulent actions in the particular example. Furthermore, the Enron scandal is a drastic example of company bankruptcy due to fraudulent management, therefore the dissertation will be mostly focused on that case study. In addition, this paper will also be closely connected to the work of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. It is a very important fraud examining association that deals on day to day basis in numerous projects. Furthermore it determines the source of failure. The role of the association is how to prevent and spot the potential fraudulent activities. In cases in which the losses have been generated to fraudulent acts, the ACFA has a role of determining who is responsible for the failure. It assesses the problem deeply, and in many cases has determined that auditors have fallen into the trap of being presented a clean financial statement in which fraudulent actions have been committed, but without the auditors notice. Finally, the dissertation has an aim to present auditing as an investment, and not a cost, in terms of transparently assessing and controlling management actions and company position throughout financial statements. Background From my point of view, a successful dissertation document should consist of parts which will bring closer the topic to different reader categories. What is meant by that is the fact that not everybody is finance major or has significant knowledge from this field, more precisely audit field. Therefore, a brief introduction to auditing history will be provided. Auditing is the profession that has existed in the commercial life in the past, but many times in different forms. One of the simple synonym for auditing could be controlling. And controlling has always existed. It has existed, since the majority of the medium and large size businesses nowadays are driven by the experienced employees, managers who are not the actual owners of the entities they work for. That is the main reason for having the control over the management. This was the general assumption of how auditing looked like in the past, but it had completely different meaning and was not called that way either. During the years, auditing was developing, while the modern financial audit became to take place from 1850. The sudden growing number of firms which ownership and consequently control were separated, provided a need for financial auditing and the development of increasingly detailed disclosure requirements for financial statements. In earlier times, audits were mainly con centrated on exploring errors or omissions in balance sheet accounts and on stemming the growth of fraud associated with the increasing phenomenon of professional managers and absentee owners. Back at that time, the actual detection of fraud had a very important role in overall audit process. As already mentioned, the companies increasingly started to grow, the awareness of the potential fraudulent actions was also brought higher on the attention list. The only problem was if it could be controlled in the same way as before. During the 20th century the focus of the audit has changed. Nowadays, we do have independent examination and expression of the opinion by something we call external auditing companies, or a qualified auditor (Power, 1997). There are two ways of determining the opinion, therefore the financial statement could provide a fair view, which is the US auditing practice, while on the other hand European auditing tends to be called true and fair view. On the other hand, fraud detection is not the primary objective of auditing process, although it is generally perceived by the wide range of professionals. The conflict between these two objectives is explained by as the expectations gap. And this gap could be simply explained that public generally intends to think that all reports signed by the auditors and have the above mentioned notions as fair and true and fair are fraud risk free (Power, 1997). On the other hands, auditors tend to enclose themselves that the ones who should be responsible for fraud prevention are actually company managers and their systems. When companies fail, like Enron did, for whatever reason (does not necessarily have to be fraud), the reaction of the public is always mainly focused on those who were controlling the statements of the company, auditors, not the ones who actually did fraudulent actions, the management. To conclude with the introductory part, in the past decade, there has been very much lawsuits against auditors because public was suspected in their negligence in not detecting the financial statement fraud. As a result, auditors did not just risked the loss of money, which amounts to large sums, but other very important fact and that is reputation. One day you are on the top, and other day a bad news comes and completely fails your business, that took decades, sometimes centuries to build. After Enron situation, auditing companies started taking much more care about their operations. From the clients they accept to every single detail. Why? Because company reputation is always at stake. Especially for the large and well known companies. We are living in the world where bad news have an unbelievable traveling speed. Auditors know that their companys reputation is always at stake. Every single small detail can have a big impact on company reputation and future. Not only on auditing co mpanies, but on audited companies as well. Auditors bear in mind the consequences their inadequacy could have on a complete financial system. It is a hard pressure on the auditors back. Hopefully, auditing companies have carefully adopted several risk management measures, as well as divided the responsibilities in order to have better quality services. Finally, the main problem is to understand the reasons why auditors have not detected financial statement fraud and if there is any possibility, suggest several improvements in the complete auditing process. In order to do so, student has to fully research cases where these situations have occurred. Literature review Financial statement fraud According to Association of Certified Fraud Examiners: Financial statement fraud involves the intentional publishing of false information in any portion of a financial statement. It usually occurs when a company overstates assets or revenue, or when it understates liabilities and expenses. (Fraud 101, 2005 e-book, p.27) This statement gives us a just a portion of what financial statement fraud actually looks like. Many times actual owners of the business, primarily shareholders or investors are actually blind to see the value of the corporate assets and the real value of liabilities when it happens to have such a fraud as Enron was. Most of the fraud related scandals have just given authorities a must to rapidly adopt new rules and acts, as Sarbanes-Oxley Act is, and all of them were financial statement fraud. Although mentioned Enron firstly seemed as a naÃÆ'ƒÂ ¯ve fraud situation, in the end resulted in the massive stockholder losses and liabilities to creditors, and the hardest situations to its employees who were left without anything, lost jobs and retirement funds. According to 2008 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, US companies have suffered a median loss of 2 million dollars to fraudulent schemes. They also note that this form of fraud is greatly different from other types of occupational fraud, since the typical goal of a fraudulent statement scheme is not to directly enrich the perpetrator, but rather to mislead third parties, such as investors, owners, regulators and etc., as to only goal profitability of an organization. In other words, it is typically driven by the company managers who are seeking to enhance the economic appearance and brand respect by covering enormous debts or other lost assets. The question is, what is in stake for them? Well of course the stocks. They would sell stock, receiving performance bonuses or on the other hand selling stock to vanish their illegal or criminal acts. In the end, management benefits indirectly from financial statement fraud. Overview of Methodology Research is a very complex and time requiring process which consists of data collection, coding, all other processes of preparing and analyzing data, including the presentation of the results. (Drucker-Godhard, 2001). In this chapter, the student will present the methodology he will be using as a direction towards successfully concluding the paper. Methodology that student will follow consists of: What research approach the student follows Which data collection will be selected Which case study method will be used How to establish the reliability and validity of the researched material Research approach The research approach is basically dependent on the pillars of a normal research process. Elements of a research process mentioned by Brannick (1997), include: Research question Research category Theoretical perspective Methodology strategy Data collection approach Data analysis Any practical research has to be in close relationship, or lets say dependent on theoretical framework or the existing concept. Having in mind that students research deals with the fraud prevention mechanisms used in auditing practices, student will start his work by taking a deeper look in the financial statements fraud and consequently the overall auditors role and their responsibilities in detecting such an occurrences The nature of the research question determines whether the study can be classified as an exploratory/casual type study (Brannick, 1997, page 7). In conjunction with the research questions, What, When, Where, Who, How and Why, the research approach will fall into the categories: Exploratory Descriptive Exploratory/Casual Since until now we have explained our research problem and researched the problem into the questions of Who, Why and How, student is of the opinion that the approach in this research should be descriptive and exploratory. In order to bring closer the these two terms, find below the relevant explanations by Sekaran: Descriptive study is undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation (Sekaran, 200, p.125). In his research, student will use the descriptive approach to describe the nature fraudulent financial statement cases, and to neglect the possibilities for how the management could have manipulated their financial figures, and very directly the auditors. In other words, how the auditors have fallen in to a trap for being presented a false figures without a notice. Furthermore, explanatory study is undertaken in order to establish correlations between a number of variables (Sekaran, 2000, p. 129). In this dissertation, this explanatory part is being driven by the relationship between the misstatement of financial reporting and the responsibility of external (independent) financial auditors. Same relationship should also give a high value answer to an important question: What was the problem with auditors not to discover the fraudulent actions in the timely manner?! Finally, when we sum up the methodology, and brought it down to descriptive and explanatory, we define it as case-based research, since our research is being followed by the real time occurrences and examples of which all of us have been witnesses. Data collection Since the most data available on the topics are from the books, articles and internet sources, secondary data will be mostly used. Furthermore, internet based video clip interviews as well as documentary films will be analyzed in order to fully research and understand the objective background of the analyzed cases. Moreover, primary data will be used as well. Student has good relationship with Deloitte d.o.o, Serbia partners and employees, since he spent the placement year in that institution, the plan is to interview employees and management position members in order to gain comments on extensive audit experiences and fraud prevention mechanisms. Furthermore, questionnaires will be sent to several companies in Serbia to evaluate the work of auditors and how did they feel it has improved their business in the post auditing period. Details of collecting primary and secondary data As mentioned before, the primary data will be collected by the student. The plan is to prepare and send questionnaires to the several companies in Serbian market. The reason for choosing Serbian market as the one that should be questioned is the fact that the student is Serbian, has spent his placement there, has good relationships with many companies and could easily gather the needed information in prescribed time. Semi structured interviews will be held with Deloitte d.o.o. employees, as well as Privredni Savetnik management (leading Serbian periodical, whose employees are auditing and accounting experts with extensive experience in mentioned topics). Secondary data will be collected from various sources. Many of the books are already collected, while others are ordered through the internet, some books are already downloaded in electronic format, while the rest of books will be used from various libraries. Concerning articles, those will be collected over the internet, which has shown a large number of search results concerning detailed topic. Details of analyzing primary and secondary data The quantitative questions that will be provided by sent questionnaires will be analyzed quantitatively. On the other hand, qualitative data, interviews with the experts and auditors will be analyzed qualitatively. Major Sections To Be Covered Introduction Background Purpose and Objectives of the paper Defining research terms Literature review Introduction to audit and its role in changing financial environment Presentation of fraud examiner, as an audit tool Exploring future accounting rules and standards (concerning audit and fraud) Research Methodology Purpose of research Primary and secondary data collection Data sources Data analysis Validity and reliability Data analysis Financial audit fraud preventing tools and its implementation concerning different industry sectors Association of Certified Fraud Examiners as the fundamental fraud prevention and detection association Case study of Enron Scandal Arthur Andersen and its role in the scandal Dismissed fraud prevention steps Responsibility determination Recommendations Executive interviews and findings Deloitte d.o.o. Serbia Privredni savetnik d.o.o., Serbia Conclusion Overall recommendations References Appendices Preliminary conclusions Since financial reporting frauds have attracted high attention from the public, and auditors were blamed to be responsible, student aim is to answer some of the most common questions: Where were the auditors to explore the fraudulent activities?, Are auditing services a bureaucratically imposed costs or a long term investment? But those are the questions of the mass public that has not made an effort to go a bit deeper into the problem. Therefore, this document will have an aim to completely and widely research this phenomena in order to proportionally redistribute the responsibilities and failures of the each sides of the counter. By beginning, the first dilemma is always why auditors have not detected fraud in the financial statements, and what is the solution of preventing these gigantic failures and happenings in the future. To achieve such a goal, student has to study all the theories which are completely relevant to the researched topic. After the theory has been completely researched and relevant practical conclusions drawn, backed up with large list of evidences, student will be able to draw an objective conclusion. And it is very important to be objective, as this dissertation should be. Because we have a decade past from the Enron failure, massive research material and unbeatable evidences. Considering the time past between the failure and dissertation research period, student has more than enough confidence in order to believe his conclusion will be objectively drawn. In the end, after the conclusion has been made, student would like to give some recommendations. Recommendations will be dedicated to auditors in order to help them in any way much faster identify the fraudulent actions, backed up with the upcoming accounting rules from this category adopted by IAS board.

Polygamy A Common Type Of Marriage - 1468 Words

DEFINITION Polygamy can be defined as a type of marriage in which more than one spouse exists in the marriage. Bigamy is the act of going into another marriage while already being married to someone else. HISTORY OF POLYGAMY Polygamy dates back to a long time ago and has been practiced for many centuries by people from different cultures and different religious beliefs and backgrounds. Centuries back, the most common type of polygamy was polygyny. No one really knows how or where polygamy originates from but there are ideas. Polygamy is more common in places that were once part of a colony. An example of such a place is Africa. Polygamy is very common in parts of Africa that were once colonized, take for example Nigeria. A reason why polygamy exists in such places is because during the period of colonization there were more women than men due to the fact that most men were off fighting wars. In such cases, ladies were married off to men who already had wives and men with more than one wives got a lot of popularity. It is also believed that polygamy originated from religion. Although there were cases of polygamy in Christianity, it was never written anywhere in the bible that a man cou ld have more than one wife. With this, there were still lots of cases mentioned about a man having more than one wife in the old testament in the Bible. Powerful men and kings had hundreds of wives and concubines. Although there were no laws regarding polygamy back then, it can be said thatShow MoreRelatedPolygamy : A Socially Sanctioned Marriage1234 Words   |  5 PagesMarriage is a publicly sanctioned union between two or more individuals. Marriage can be defined by how many people are involved, their sex and the roles they carry on. Polygamy is a well-known type of marriage and can be found in today’s society. Polygamy is a culturally sanctioned marriage involving more than two people. 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Enzymatic Regulation of the Sodium-Potassium Pump free essay sample

An investigation of enzymatic regulation of the sodium potassium pump in isolated skin of the frog, Rana Catesbiana. Electrochemical gradients are essential for biologic processes including but not limited to neuronal signaling, respiration, and osmoregulation. The Sodium-Potassium (Na/K) pump is one of the most well characterized structures for actively establishing these gradients. The current generated by the Na/K pump can be calculated by measuring the current required from an external source to bring the gradient (Voltage difference) created by the pump to zero. An increase in temperature has shown to increase the current generated by the Na/K pump with a slope of 12.5A/Co and a Q10 value of 1.72. Arginine vasotocin (AVT) also known as anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), acts to increase the activity of the enzyme regulated pump. At a constant temperature, a 10-fold increase in current was measured across the AVT treated skin in comparison to the baseline AVT absent skin preparation. We will write a custom essay sample on Enzymatic Regulation of the Sodium-Potassium Pump or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The plasma membranes of cells contain pumps that drive out sodium from the cell and incorporate potassium into the cell. Physiologically, the blood plasma has a higher sodium concentration than the cytoplasm and conversely the cytoplasm has a highly potassium concentration than the plasma. Under these conditions, the Na/K pump is acting against a concentration gradient is therefore an active ATPase dependent process. Since the pump is under enzymatic regulation, we expect its activity to be governed by typical enzyme kinetics responding directly to changes in temperature and agents (such as hormones) that manipulate enzyme activity. It is also important to note that the Na/K pump pumps a net 3 Na+ ions out of the cell for every 2 K+ in. This creates a resting voltage potential across the membrane (1). The resistance of the channel allows for the net current across the pump to be measured indirectly by introducing an external voltage equal and opposite of the resting membrane potentia l created by the Na/K pump. Using the Ussing technique, a voltage clamp and Ohms law, we can derive the current generated by the Na/K pump under various conditions (2).