Time Value of Money Application Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Time Value of Money Application Paper - Essay Example The following are some important concepts of time value of money: Future value of money at a particular point is equal to the original sum of money plus interest rate multiplied by original sum of money. Suppose a retirement plan financial service provider receives $100 at the rate of 8% per annum; the future value of that fund will be: Given above scenario, present value is a reverse of the future value in that it shows how much certain amount of dollar worth today. The above formula can equally be used to calculate present value, in this case it will be inverted; if the calculations involve compound interest then the amount in inner braces will be raised to a power of n. the resulting value is otherwise called discounted value. This is the cost for borrowing or lending money or can be viewed as the yield to which money can earn. This interest rate can be categorized into nominal rate of interest and effective rate of interest2. Nominal interest rate is that rate of interest not adjusted for inflation whereas effective interest rate has full effect of compounding and is adjusted for inflation. Commercial banks make good use of time value of money in all their transactions – accepting deposits, lending to firms and corporate organizations and even borrowing short-term instruments from other financial institutions. For example, if a commercial bank accepts savings from a client at 5% per annum, assuming the client deposits $200 every two months for a year; the client might unwittingly be glad for receiving the 5% in addition to security he/she enjoys from the bank. However, these funds can be lent out at 15% to a credit card company who now uses this to service its customers. The difference between 15% paid by Credit Card Company and 5% paid to this client with the commercial bank reflects the of time value of money. Using above example, credit card financial

Diversity in the Work Place Essay Example for Free

Diversity in the Work Place Essay Diversity in the work place has been a subject of contention for decades whether taken on the perspective of gender parity, in terms of race or considering factors that constitute age of the individuals at the work place. In addition, the contemporary world is changing so fast such that the factors that play role in sustainable social development in the society are generally changing. With organizations like the WLO (World Labor Organization) taking proactive steps towards ensuring equitable resource allocation at the work place for both men and women, it is a point of concern for anyone to consider the capability of women to perform the same task as do men and if they receive or should receive equal payment (Vardy et al 2008). The focal point of this paper is an in-depth scrutiny of whether women are capable of performing the same work as men and if at all they are equally paid for the same job done. In order for the paper to provide a clear view of this issue, it endeavors to analyze the values and judgments pertaining to the present human resource practices. By doing this, it will provide an insight focus on the future of these human resource practices in the work environment. Therefore the backbone of this discussion is the case of gender discrimination at the Home depot stores. Introduction Societal dynamics have put a level ground- or have endeavored to place a level ground- for both men and women to equally benefit from their achievement without discrimination. Nevertheless, the question of equal pay for equal work has persistently beleaguered the American place of work. Though federal and state laws proscribe varied pay rates based on sex, wide-ranging statistics indicate that the American woman has historically continued to receive less pay than the man. To some extent, this disparity comes about as a result of the fact that relatively more women are generally employed in fields like service sector work jobs which are traditionally less paying. On the same platform women’s rights organizations and union maintain that promotion of women employees to the executive positions on limited basis is a clear reflection of gender discrimination at the work place. Historically, professional and executive ranks in organizations have predominantly been occupied by men. Despite the fact that the latest trends show an increase in the number of women obtaining such posts, the proportion of women the population is bigger and therefore they still lag behind significantly (Conrad, 2007). Values, judgments, regarding present Human Resource practices It is worth noting that several legislative acts have been put forth to guide the present human resource practices at the work place. Similarly, these nondiscrimination laws have been intended to provide a guideline for employers to offer equal chances for women and men without discrimination. Despite these laws there is still more to be done as general trends show that there is still disparity and pay gaps. Other than these nondiscrimination laws, the central government and various states have implemented affirmative action laws since 1970s. These laws require employers should apply fairness and be just when recruiting employees and promoting. Though some business entities slowly embraced the laws they still remain to be among the most difficult issues Along with issues about a womans place in the work force, they continue to be some of the most complicated issues concerning American employers and workers (Swartz et al 2007). Gender and Sexual Orientation in the Workplace Women are playing a progressively more significant function in the workplace. Nonetheless with statistics showing that the gender disparity is still wide open, employers cannot afford to overlook gender-related matters and have to carry on with the endeavor to avert gender inequalities in the place of work. A number of legislations have been enacted to act as a guiding line for employers in the modern workplace. Thus the federal agencies have recognized the importance of making the workplace a friendly and fairly rewarding place to those who are employed there without discrimination. Among the regulations include the Equal Pay act, sex Discrimination Act and regulations like Employment Equality regulation (Vardy et al 2008). Case: Sex Discrimination Lawsuit against Wal-Mart Overview of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores, Incorporation is an American public corporation that operates a chain of large, price cut department stores. It is the worlds biggest public corporation by returns. It is also the world largest retailer with over 7,200 stores with close to 975 discount stores. Wal-mart employs about 700,000 women and counts as the largest private sector employer of women in the United States. It is only unfortunate that these women employees have had to endure conditions of unequal pay and favoritism in advancement and assignments of tasks. These inequities happen at all levels of management in the organization starting from the worker who works on hourly basis up to the one at the senior management level (Swartz et al 2007). Current Lawsuit Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Wal-Mart is presently confronted with the likelihood of compensating out billions of dollars in recompense for purportedly discriminating against the thousands of women workers. A group of courageous women came forth to claim for compensation for alleged discrimination at work. As a snapshot of the corporation, it has close to a million employees in the US and Canada. Among these employees, over 40% are female. The problem that arises is that of the 40% only and in fact less than 30% of the management positions are held by female employees. Values and Judgments Most organizations have taken a proactive stance towards creating an environment for equal opportunity devoid of gender discrimination. Globalization and the general paradigm shift that has made the idea of integration fast acceptable and worth embracing have also made it possible for organizations all over the globe to embrace the changes that call for equality at the place of work. In this manner therefore the modern organization is up on heels to create a climate of equal opportunity by coming up with models and frameworks that are specifically geared towards managing diversity. The problem that comes along this is that the contemporary working environment is heavily complicated and therefore a number of business entities, for fear of change or uncertain about the impact of change are reluctant to embrace such measures. Those embracing it are doing it at a lag pace. This arises from the complexity of the manner in which environmental issues, values, factors, and cognitions create diverse perceptions concerning fair treatment at the place of work. The group of women who advanced a case against Wal-Mart identified a number of malpractices in human resources management at the corporation. There are several tactics employed by Wal-Mart to d discriminate against women employees. These tactics are basically executed through methods ranging from pay disparities to denial of promotion (Vardy et al 2008) Unequal Pay The women decried the two pay scales used at Wal-Mart and identified it as a major hitch in human resources management practices. This practice shortchanges the women since they perform the same job and tasks just as men yet men workers are paid between five and fifteen percent more than women. On the same platform, further statistics indicate that even if the women were given a promotion into management this does not guarantee them any better as far as fair treatment is concerned. Though women at the corporation have higher ratings and longer seniority ratings on average as compared to their male counterparts, those who make it to the top management positions are still discriminated against as they receive an annual pay about $5,000 less than the man counterpart in the same position. Male management trainees receive an annual pay nearly $5,000 more than female counterparts. And the top executive positions are also not spared. Women employees holding top executive positions at Wal-Mart are exposed to discrimination. This is evident from the fact that the women employee who holds this position receives an average of about $279,800 on annual basis as compared to a male counterpart who receives more than three- quarters of this more. Methodical Denial of Advancement Despite the fact that women employees constitute more than 70% of the workforce in the corporation men dominate the ranks of management. Women only comprise less than 35% of managers and less than 20% of the managers. Lower paying jobs in the corporation are concentrated with women where they make the biggest percentage. Jobs like sales associates and cashiers are filled b y women in percentages than men. Wal-Mart is trapped in the Past Wal-Mart provides work for fewer women in administration in the present day than its competitors did in 1975. Twenty equivalent traders employed an average of 41. 6% women managers by then. Today, Wal-Mart provides employment for slightly over 30%. Today, Wal-Mart’s competitors have over 55% of management positions made up of women employees constitute (Christian et al 2006). Women encounter unreasonable barriers to promotion at Wal-Mart On average, a male employee takes about 2 years to be promoted to the rank of assistant manager, counted from the day of hire. The woman employee will be promoted to the same rank in about four years’ period. Impediments are created in the organization and hinder women from getting promotion as their male counterparts. For instance, one among the women who sued the corporations said that though she had worked for seven years at the company and managed to receive evaluations indicating â€Å"goes beyond expectations† was advised to commit herself in writing to working overnight in the stores for two years when she expressed a desire to be accorded a promotion. This was strange since the men employees were not required to undergo such process to be promoted. Key Success Factors for Women in Management positions Though women at work place have been discriminated in several ways, there are also several factors that influence women’s future career development in management. Campaigns have been staged world over by a number of organizations both governmental and non-governmental to promote education without discriminating against girls. This has made it possible for women to prosper in various management positions thus gaining representation in fields like science and other professional jobs. Women continue to excel in these areas just as men. A study was carried out in Turkey which explored the factors that play role in women’s career advancement. The study revealed that though women have a substantial representation in professional and scientific jobs, they are only represented by 4% in top management. The most significant factor that was identified as a major barrier to women’s career advancement is the cultural norms towards gender roles. Cultural norms that are bent and biased against women in the society extend into the field of management thus causing the same bias against women even in management of business entities (Conrad, 2007). Verdict In conclusion, the supreme court dealing with the issue of Wal-Mart discrimination against women is likely to suggest that the group of women be compensated by the corporation for the wrong done. The future of women performance and appraisal at the workplace looks bright since if several of such rulings are passed in favor of the wronged groups of women, other likely perpetrators of women discrimination will hold back. This will encourage the appreciation of the fact that the modern woman is capable of performing the same duty the man performs and the employing organization should find no trouble paying her for the task. Works Cited Christian, J. , Porter L. W. , and Moffitt G. â€Å"Workplace Diversity and Group Relations: An Overview Group Processes Intergroup Relations†, (2006). 9, (4). 459-466. Conrad, Alison M. (Ed) â€Å"Hand Book of workplace Diversity† 2007. Swartz L. Garden, Rowe A. , Digh P. and Bennett, M. â€Å"The Global Diversity: Supervision of an International Workforce† 2007 Vardy, F. J. J. and Morgan, J. â€Å"Diversity in the Workplace† 2008

Photography in the classroom :: essays research papers

As an innovator in the classroom, I am continually attempting to educationally challenge my students while making learning fun and interesting at the same time. I think that the techniques discussed in this course will be incredibly useful in both goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, I can see several important uses for Image Blender. In writing classes, I could have students capture a photo. Then, I could have another student write about that image. Perhaps they could describe it, tell what happens next, or even do a creative piece of writing on it. Beyond that, with Image Blender, the students could take that image a step further and alter the photo in order to write about it. In poetry courses, students might be assigned a piece of poetry that they would need to fit an image to. They could do this any way that they wanted to. Beyond this, in working with seniors on their graduation projects, there are many possibilities for integrating photos into the final presentation. As a whole the possibilities of Image Blender are tremendous.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Clay-mation movies offer so many possibilities in my classroom. First, in my writing classes, they are an easy way to help students learn how to write a script and tell a story. Students might be asked to write a creative story and then tell it using a clay-mation movie. Beyond that, I could see the possibility of teaching poetry terms through the movies. Each group could be assigned a different poetry term and they could have to explain, or demonstrate, the term using a clay-mation movie. In my Shakespeare class, students could be asked to perform a play, act, or scene from a Shakespeare play using only clay characters. All of these projects help to extend the learning of the units being taught.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Creating movies has the greatest potential in my classroom immediately. I have always had some sort of video production/play project incorporated into my 10th grade English classes. However, all of those presentations involved the students performing an extra act to a play and me videotaping. There was no post-production work done on the projects. With the addition of iMovies, students could write, direct, and produce their own video presentations. It would add a great deal of flexibility and creativity to the projects. They would really only be limited by their own imaginations. Students could do the entire videotaped segments outside of class, do the post-production work in the computer lab, and then show their videos in class.

Philippine Presidential Elections 2016 Essay

The 2016 presidential election is one of the most talked about topic of today. To date, just more than a year from now we will again be having our new set of national leaders. It is again the time when we can use our power to vote and elect the deserving person that will eventually rule our country. The scheduled date will be on a Monday, 9th day of March, 2016. As we all know, the incumbent president Benigno Aquino III is barred from seeking re-election pursuant to 1987 Philippine Constitution. Therefore, this election will determine the 16th President of the Philippines. In recent months, we have heard so many big names that can potentially be our next Philippine president. Two of the most prominent Filipino politicians has officially declared their candidacy over presidency, both with strong will and competitiveness. Without any surprise, the current Vice President Jejomar â€Å"Jojo† Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), our first guy on the list, confirmed his plans of running as president during an interview back in September 2011. The longest-serving Makati City Mayor, now the Vice President of the Philippines not only created a strong political dynasty but he also realizes his colossal visions. While VP Binay effortlessly made it to the list of possible and feasible presidential candidate, our next guy, a potical rival of the former, and the current Senate Majority Leader, Sir Alan Peter Cayetano, needed to closely monitor surveys to make sure he’s still in the running and viewed by the Filipinos as a viable candidate, according to a source familiar to Cayetano. The 43-year-old Senator from the Nacionalista Party (NP) is serious about running that he has to put together a team to work on campaign preparations. In a March 2013 interview on Morning’s @ ANC he said â€Å"I want to be the president of this country. I think I can do something great for God and his people.† Among other politicians who would possibly run, one is Sen. Ferdinand â€Å"Bongbong† Marcos Jr. of Nacionalista Party.

Factors and Hazards of Infant Development Essay

Two hazards I find important to avoid are alcohol consumption and addictive drugs. In this paper I will explain the importance of these three factors and hazards. The most important factor in an infant’s development is obtaining early prenatal care. Women should make an appointment as soon as she suspects she is pregnant (Marotz & Allen, 2012). It is not good to rely on home pregnancy tests because they are sometimes not accurate especially in the early days and weeks. A health care provider can determine if you’re pregnant or not on this visit. Also, on the visit any medical issues the mother has can be evaluated and treated (2012). As long as there is no issues mothers can be encouraged to do noncontact exercise. Exercise will help with weight gain, muscles, and believed the help with easier labor and delivery (2012). â€Å"A lack of prenatal care is often associated with an increased rate of medical complications, preterm births, low birth weight infants, fetal death, and disabilities† (p. 52). A very important hazard to avoid in infant development is alcohol consumption. This can have serious consequences for mother and fetus (Marotz & Allen, 2012). â€Å"Mothers who consume alcohol during pregnancy have a greater risk of miscarriages, still births, premature infants, and low-birth-weight infants. The incidence of fetal death is also significantly higher† (p. 58). According to Marots & Allen the mother and infant share a common circulatory system so they   3 both are affected by any alcohol that is consumed. The alcohol remains in the infants system longer than the mothers (2012). â€Å"Heavy or binge drinking is associated with a preventable condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes mental and growth retardation, behavior and learning problems, poor motor coordination, heart defects, characteristic facial deformities, and speech impairments† (p. 58-59). Another hazard to avoid is addictive drugs. Also chemicals have a major effect on development. Some of these include pesticides, fertilizers, prescriptions, nonprescription, and street drugs (Marotz & Allen, 2012). Some of the side effects of these drugs and chemicals are malformations, fetal death, premature birth, and lifelong behavior and learning disabilities (2012). â€Å"The nature and severity of an infant’s abnormalities seem to be influenced by the timing of exposure during fetal development, the amount and type of substance, the mother’s general state of health, and maternal and fetal genetics† (p. 60). Women should check with their health care provider before taking any prescription or nonprescription drugs to determine if it will be harmful for the infant. In infant development many factors and hazards are important. A woman must be very careful with everything she does. The three topics I discussed are very important to me. Seeking prenatal care will help in so many ways. The doctor can help to make sure you’re on the right track with development and also tell you what hazards to stay away from like alcohol consumption and addictive drugs and chemicals.

Why Adding Salt to Water Increases the Boiling Point

Why Adding Salt to Water Increases the Boiling Point If you add salt to water, you increase its boiling point. The temperature will increase about a one-half degree Celsius for every 58 grams of dissolved salt  per kilogram of water.  This is an example of boiling point elevation. The property isnt exclusive to water. It occurs any time you add a non-volatile solute (such as salt) to a solvent (e.g. water). But How Does It Work? Water boils when the molecules are able to overcome the vapor pressure of the surrounding air to move from the liquid phase to the gas phase. A few different processes occur when you add a solute that increases the amount of energy (heat) needed for water to make the transition. When you add salt to water, sodium chloride dissociates into sodium and chlorine ions. These charged particles alter the intermolecular forces between water molecules. In addition to affecting the hydrogen bonding between water molecules, there is an ion-dipole interaction to consider. Every water molecule is a dipole, which means one side (the oxygen side) is more negative and the other side (the hydrogen side) is more positive. The positively-charged sodium ions align with the oxygen side of a water molecule, while the negatively charged chlorine ions align with the hydrogen side of a water molecule. The ion-dipole interaction is stronger than the hydrogen bonding between the water molecules, so more energy is needed to move water away from the ions and into the vapor phase. Even without a charged solute, adding particles to water raises the boiling point because part of the pressure the solution exerts on the atmosphere now comes from solute particles, not just solvent (water) molecules. The water molecules need more energy to produce enough pressure to escape the boundary of the liquid. The more salt (or any solute) added to water, the more you raise the boiling point. The phenomenon depends on the number of particles formed in the solution. Freezing point depression is another colligative property that works the same way, so if you add salt to water you lower its freezing point as well as raise its boiling point. The Boiling Point of NaCl When you dissolve salt in water, it breaks into sodium and chloride ions. If you boiled all the water off, the ions would recombine to form solid salt. However, there is no danger of boiling the NaCl. The boiling point of sodium chloride is 2575 degrees F or 1413 degrees C. Salt, like other ionic solids, has an extremely high boiling point.

String Types in Delphi

String Types in Delphi As with any programming language, in Delphi, variables are placeholders used to store values; they have names and data types. The data type of a variable determines how the bits representing those values are stored in the computers memory. When we have a variable that will contain some array of characters, we can declare it to be of typeString.  Delphi provides a healthy assortment of string operators, functions and procedures. Before assigning a String data type to a variable, we need to thoroughly understand Delphis four string types. Short String Simply put,  Short String  is a counted array of (ANSII) characters, with up to 255 characters in the string. The first byte of this array stores the length of the string. Since this was the main string type in Delphi 1 (16 bit Delphi), the only reason to use Short String is for backward compatibility.  To create a ShortString type variable we use:   var s: ShortString; s : Delphi Programming;​ //S_Length : Ord(s[0])); //which is the same as Length(s) The  s  variable is a Short string variable capable of holding up to 256 characters, its memory is a statically allocated 256 bytes. Since this is usually wasteful - unlikely will your short string spread to the maximum length - second approach to using Short Strings is using subtypes of ShortString, whose maximum length is anywhere from 0 to 255.   var ssmall: String[50]; ssmall : Short string, up to 50 characters; This creates a variable called  ssmall  whose maximum length is 50 characters. Note: When we assign a value to a Short String variable, the string is truncated if it exceeds the maximum length for the type. When we pass short strings to some Delphis string manipulating routine, they are converted to and from long string. String / Long / Ansi Delphi 2 brought to Object Pascal  Long String  type. Long string (in Delphis help AnsiString) represents a dynamically allocated string whose maximum length is limited only by available memory. All 32-bit Delphi versions use long strings by default. I recommend using long strings whenever you can.   var s: String; s : The s string can be of any size...; The  s  variable can hold from zero to any practical number of characters. The string grows or shrinks as you assign new data to it. We can use any string variable as an array of characters, the second character in  s  has the index 2. The following code   s[2]:T; assigns  T  to the second character os the  s  variable. Now the few of the first characters in   s  look like:  TTe s str....Dont be mislead, you cant use s[0] to see the length of the string,  s  is not ShortString. Reference counting, copy-on-write Since memory allocation is done by Delphi, we dont have to worry about garbage collection. When working with Long (Ansi) Strings Delphi uses reference counting. This way string copying is actually faster for long strings than for short strings.  Reference counting, by example:   var s1,s2: String; s1 : first string; s2 : s1; When we create string  s1  variable, and assign some value to it, Delphi allocates enough memory for the string. When we copy  s1  to  s2, Delphi does not copy the string value in memory, it only increases the reference count and alters the  s2  to point to the same memory location as  s1. To minimize copying when we pass strings to routines, Delphi uses copy-on-write technique. Suppose we are to change the value of the  s2  string variable; Delphi copies the first string to a new memory location, since the change should affect only s2, not s1, and they are both pointing to the same memory location.   Wide String Wide strings  are also dynamically allocated and managed, but they dont use reference counting or the copy-on-write semantics. Wide strings consist of 16-bit Unicode characters. About Unicode character sets The ANSI character set used by Windows is a single-byte character set. Unicode stores each character in the character set in 2 bytes instead of 1. Some national languages use ideographic characters, which require more than the 256 characters supported by ANSI. With 16-bit notation we can represent 65,536 different characters. Indexing of multibyte strings is not reliable, since  s[i]  represents the ith byte (not necessarily the i-th character) in  s. If you must use Wide characters, you should declare a string variable to be of the WideString type and your character variable of the WideChar type. If you want to examine a wide string one character at a time, be sure to test for multibite characters. Delphi doesnt support automatic type conversions betwwen Ansi and Wide string types.   var s : WideString; c : WideChar; s : Delphi_ Guide; s[8] : T; //sDelphi_TGuide; Null terminated A null or  zero terminated  string is an array of characters, indexed by an integer starting from zero. Since the array has no length indicator, Delphi uses the ASCII 0 (NULL; #0) character to mark the boundary of the string.  This means there is essentially no difference between a null-terminated string and an array[0..NumberOfChars] of type Char, where the end of the string is marked by #0. We use null-terminated strings in Delphi when calling Windows API functions. Object Pascal lets us avoid messing arround with pointers to zero-based arrays when handling null-terminated strings by using the PChar type. Think of a PChar as being a pointer to a null-terminated string or to the array that represents one. For more info on pointers, check:Pointers in Delphi. For example, The  GetDriveType  API function determines whether a disk drive is a removable, fixed, CD-ROM, RAM disk, or network drive. The following procedure lists all the drives and their types on a users computer. Place one Button and one Memo component on a form and assign an OnClick handler of a Button: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject); var Drive: Char; DriveLetter: String[4]; begin for Drive : A to Z do begin DriveLetter : Drive :\; case GetDriveType(PChar(Drive :\)) of DRIVE_REMOVABLE: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Floppy Drive); DRIVE_FIXED: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Fixed Drive); DRIVE_REMOTE: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter Network Drive); DRIVE_CDROM: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter CD-ROM Drive); DRIVE_RAMDISK: Memo1.Lines.Add(DriveLetter RAM Disk); end; end; end; Mixing Delphis strings We can freely mix all four different kinds of strings, Delphi will give its best to make sense of what we are trying to do. The assignment s:p, where s is a string variable and p is a PChar expression, copies a null-terminated string into a long string. Character types In addition to four string data types, Delphi has three character types:  Char,  AnsiChar, and  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹WideChar. A string constant of length 1, such as T, can denote a character value. The generic character type is Char, which is equivalent to AnsiChar. WideChar values are 16-bit characters ordered according to the Unicode character set. The first 256 Unicode characters correspond to the ANSI characters.