The Devil Of Tom Walker And Th Essay -- essays research papers

Despite the evidence that Washington Irving uses to show his love for America in his stories, he portrays some characters in the Devil and Tom Walker and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as greedy. Irving shows concern for America by placing stories in uniquely American moments. In this essay I will prove through passages and quotes from Irving's stories that he shows his love for America in his stories and portrays some characters as greedy in the two stories. The historical settings of these stories is made apparent by the use of elements common to the revolutionary era. In The Devil and Tom Walker when Irving is describing the setting he gives an impression that it took place in America. In describing the setting he says, "It had been the stronghold of the Indians during their war with the colonists." Since the war took place in America this is one evidence of his love for America. Another is when Irving is describing the devil and he makes the point that he a particularly American devil. When the devil first meets Tom and the devil is telling him about himself he says, "I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers and the grandmaster of the Salem witches." In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow there are many American traits in the description of the setting. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been car ried away by a...

Management and Cost Accounting Assignment

B313F Management and Cost Accounting Assignment 1 Date due:29 October 2008 Weighting:15% of the total marks of the course Question 1(25 marks) Mini Case – Seto’s Storage Warehouse Paul Seto owns and manages a commercial storage warehouse. He stores a vast variety of perishable goods for his customers. Under the existing pricing policy, he has charged customers using a flat rate of $2. 40 per kilogram per month for goods stored. His storage warehouse has 10,000 cubic metres of storage capacity.In the past two years, Seto has become dissatisfied with the profitability of the warehouse operation. Despite the fact that the warehouse remains relatively full, revenues have not kept pace with operating costs. Recently, Seto approached his accountant, Albert Lo, about using activity-based costing (ABC) to improve his understanding of the causes of costs and revise the pricing formula. Lo has determined that most costs can be associated with one of four activities. Those activit ies and their related monthly costs, volume measures, and volume levels for 2008 are as follows: Activity |Cost |Monthly Volume Measure | |Send/receive goods | $80,000 |Weight in kilograms – 50,000 | |Store goods | $8,000 |Volume in cubic metres – 800 | |Move goods | $10,000 |Volume in square metres – 500 | |Identify goods | $3,000 |Number of packages – 500 |Lo has also collected last month’s information on the following 3 customers whose goods were all received on the first day of last month. |Customers |Weight of Order |Cubic Metres |Square Metres |Number of Packages | | |(Kilograms) | | | | |Sunshine Co. |20,000 |600 |30 |10 | |Best Buy Co. 20,000 |400 |20 |40 | |Chow’s Trading |20,000 |200 | 100 | 160 | Seto would like Lo to perform some analyses based on the above information and data in order to evaluate whether to use ABC. Required: a. Determine the price to be charged to each of the 3 customers under the existing pricing policy. (3 m arks) b. Based on the monthly activity cost and volume data provided, determine the amount of cost assigned to each of the 3 customers. 10 marks) c. Determine the price to be charged to each of the 3 customers using activity-based costing (ABC), assuming Seto would base the price on the cost determined in part (b) plus a markup of 40 percent. (3 marks) d. Critically discuss whether Seto’s existing pricing policy captures the costs incurred to provide the warehouse services. (5 marks) e. A cost hierarchy categorizes costs into different cost pools on the basis of the different types of cost drivers or cost-allocation bases. Describe the four levels of a manufacturing cost hierarchy under the ABC system. 4 marks) Question 2(25 marks) Antique Furnishings Ltd. is a Yuen Long based manufacturer making three unique wood products: bed-frames, coffee tables, footstools. These products are completely carved by hand by skilled craftspeople who have been trained in making these products . Since it takes about a year to train each craftsperson, the labour cost is a fixed production constraint over the short term. For the year ended 31 December 2008, the company expects to have 34,000 available labour hours. The average hourly labour rate is $25.Information regarding the current product line is as follows: Bed-framesCoffee tablesFootstools $ $ $ Selling price900 680 240 Variable costs: Direct material220 160 60 Direct manufacturing-labour costs 300 275 75 Indirect manufacturing-labour costs 80 40 21 Other indirect manufacturing costs100 80 20 Variable selling expense 20 15 10 Variable manufacturing costs are variable with respect to units produced. Variable selling expenses are variable with respect to units sold.Fixed costs: Indirect manufacturing-labour costs 80,000 Other indirect manufacturing costs 70,000 Selling & administration 75,000 Required: a. Compute the contribution margin per unit for each of the three products above. (6 marks) b. Assuming that the marke t demand exceeds the company’s production capacity for all products, determine the number of units of each product that the company should make. (Hint: You need to maximize the contribution per unit of the scarce resource. ) Calculate the profit before tax based on your determination of units of each product. (7 marks) c.Assuming that the company has a policy of devoting between 20% to 50% of its available skilled labour capacity to one product, determine the number of units of each product that the company should make and calculate the maximum profit before tax. (7 marks) d. Discuss how managers decide whether a cost is a direct or an indirect cost and describe the factors that will affect the classification of a cost as direct or indirect. (5 marks) Question 3(25 marks) DVD Express is a large manufacturer of affordable DVD players. Management recently became aware of rising costs resulting from returns of malfunctioning products.As a starting point for further analysis, Bon nie Lee, the controller, wants to test different forecasting methods and then use the best one to forecast quarterly expenses for 2009. The relevant data for the previous three years follows: 2006Return 2007Return2008Return QuarterExpensesQuarterExpensesQuarterExpenses 1$15,0001$16,2001$16,600 217,500217,800218,100 318,500318,800319,000 418,600417,700419,200 The result of a simple regression analysis using all 12 data points yielded an intercept of $16,559. 09 and a coefficient for the independent variable of $183. 22 (R-squared = . 27, t = 1. 4, SE = 1128). Required: a. Calculate the quarterly forecast for 2009 using the high-low method and regression analyses. Recommend which method Bonnie should use. (15 marks) b. How does your analysis in requirement #1 change if DVD Express manufactures its products in multiple global production facilities to serve the global market? (5 marks) c. How do we know when high correlation exists? Explain whether high correlation is the same as cause and effect? (5 marks) Question 4(25 marks) Quik Printing Inc. , is a rapidly growing company that has not been profitable despite increases in sales.It has hired you as a consultant to find ways to improve the situation. You believe that the problem results from poor cost control and inaccurate cost estimation on jobs. To gather data for your investigation, you turn to the accounting system and find that it is almost nonexistent. However, you piece together the following information for April: †¢ Production 1. Completed job 101. 2. Started and completed job 102. 3. Started job 103. †¢ Inventory values: 1. Work-in-process inventory: |March 31: Job 101 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. $ 2,000 | | Labor (960 hours ( $10)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | 9,600 | |April 30: Job 103 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |$ 1,600 | | Labor (1,040 hours ( $10)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | 10,400 | 2. Each job in wor k-in-process inventory was exactly 50 percent completed as to labor hours; however, all direct material necessary to do the entire job was charged to each job as soon as it was started. 3. There were no raw-material inventories or finished-goods inventories at either March 31 or April 30. Actual manufacturing overhead was $20,000. †¢ Cost of goods sold (before adjustment for over-or underapplied overhead): |Job 101 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | $ 2,000 | | Labor†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. | ? | | Overhead†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | |Total†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | $ 30,800 | | | | |Job 102 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ? | | Labor†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. | ? | | Overhead†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | |Total†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | †¢ Overhead was applied to jobs using a predetermined rate per labor dollar that has been used since the company began operations. †¢ All raw materials were purchased for cash and charged directly to Work-in-Process Inventory when purchased. Raw material purchased in April amounted to $4,600. †¢ Direct-labor costs charged to jobs in April totaled $32,000.All labor costs were the same per hour for April for all laborers. Required Write a report, with supporting calculations, to management to show the following: a. The cost elements (direct material, labor, and overhead) of cost of goods sold before adjustment for over-or underapplied overhead for each job sold. (14 marks) b. The value of each cost element (direct material, labor, and overhead) for each job in work-in-process inventor y at April 30. (7 marks) c. Over-or underapplied overhead for April. (4 marks)

Diabetes and Complimentary Alternative Medicine Therapies

Diabetes is one of the public health concerns which have affected many people all over the world, despite the recent advances in the field of medicine, care and management. It has been a burden to a lot of people, not only is it damaging to the people suffering from it but also damaging in terms of money. Having diabetes could lead to financial problems, as it needs to be supported and maintained by medications and treatments.Because of this, people thought of ways on how they’d be able to deal with diabetes other ways the normal doctor-medication approach. What they discovered is the Complimentary and Alternative Medicine therapies (CAM) for treating Diabetes. They found out that CAM therapies are as equally helpful in fighting diabetes as compared to medications and other medical treatments. In various researches, it was found that there is a variety of CAM therapies available in the present.These include acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, herbal remedies, high-dose mega vitamins, solitary prayer or spiritual practices, intercessory prayer or spiritual healing by others, commercial diet programs, self-help groups, relaxation/meditation, lifestyle diets, guided imagery, massage, energy healing, folk remedies, biofeedback, naturopathy, yoga, hypnosis, osteopathy, and aromatherapy (Garrow & Egede, 2006; Yeh, Eisenberg, Davis, & Phillips, 2002).These therapies are widely used not only for diabetes, but for other forms of physical problems as well, including heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, digestive conditions, allergies, depression, and many more. According to Yeh, et al, 57% of their respondents reported CAM use for the past year, and 35% used CAM specifically for diabetes (Yeh et al. , 2002). Several researches were conducted to test the efficiency of these complimentary alternative medicine therapies.They were tested on people suffering from different types of diabetes, and whether they have any effect in the person taking the CAM therapy. The se CAM therapies were then compared to the traditional way of dealing with diabetes, which is through medicines. These researchers wished to know whether these CAM therapies are actually working to help people with Diabetes problems instead of giving them false hopes that they are going to be cured. One of the notable characteristics of these CAM therapies is that it does not rip you off financially.It doesn’t necessarily have to be something ingested, it could be a mental conditioning process, an exercise fitness regimen, or a mixture of foreign methods of healing other people. Traditional methods were more on drinking pills, consulting a doctor and having treatments. With CAM therapies, you can do anything you want and still be curing yourself. Also, there are several CAM therapies one could choose from and it doesn’t have to be the same thing over and over again.However, the results of these CAM therapies are not that immediate, as compared to taking medications, wh erein you know what time its effect will last or wear off. But still, it is not advisable to replace the conventional way of treating diabetes with unproven CAM therapies (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2005). As much as possible, make sure that a CAM therapy is proven to be effective before trying it out. Based on the researches, those who used CAM for diabetes were all satisfied with it and found the therapies to be generally helpful.Also, these CAM therapies are not just for taking care of diabetes, it is used in treating other conditions. It is also dependent on which group of people uses what types of CAM. There were those who uses prayer, vitamins, exercise, meditation, herbs, music therapy and many more (Cuellar, Aycock, Cahill, & Ford, 2003). It does not limit a person to one type of therapy alone, but wide range of treatment for those who are suffering from diabetes. One implication of this is the realization that it can give to health care prov iders, since many people are satisfied with CAM therapies.On a research conducted by Cuellar, et al, it is recommended that health care providers must be aware that people using CAM are satisfied with their use (Cuellar et al. , 2003). Perhaps these health care providers would consider offering them to more patients who needs it, and introducing it to those who doesn’t know anything about it yet. In the advent of technology, there are still those people who prefer the old ways than the new ways. This does not only include our preferences, but also how we treat and solve our problems.One example is the famed diabetes, known to have afflicted serous problems to millions of people worldwide. We should not limit ourselves to medicines and other types of treatment. We can always go back to the way nature intended us to be, that’s why we could solve this matter by going back to what are directly provided by our environment. Complimentary Alternative Medicine Therapies is not about how weird you a cure could be; instead it should be about how useful it would be to those needing it.