The Dangers Of Smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Dangers Of Smoking - Essay Example Therefore, it will be the express intent of this author to focus upon the risk of cancer, breathing diseases, up to and including emphysema, and heart disease that smoking has been known to trigger. Moreover, the analysis will also consider the secondary health affects that smoking can visit upon the individual exposed to â€Å"secondhand† smoke or passive smoking. Through such an analysis, the far reaching and broad health impacts that smoking portends can readily be noted. Whereas many individuals are of the opinion that smoking is a dangerous process that threatens the overall health and well-being of the individual, the fact of the matter is that the overall scope of danger that smoking represents is much greater than most individuals realized. Accordingly, as a means of categorizing this danger and promoting a level of understanding with respect to the full range of damaging impact that smoking can have upon the individual, this brief analysis will consider and discuss th e litany of negative health impacts that smoking engenders. ... will make is one that I based on a logical framework of understanding the known risks which smoking provides to both the smoker and to those that inhale the second-hand smoke. Firstly, it must be understood that smoking accounts for nearly ? million deaths each and every year within the United States. This is a figure that is larger than the overall number of people that succumb to HIV/AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle death, suicide, or murders combined. As such, the overall scope of the damage that smoking can have upon an individual is profound and affects their life in a number of different ways. Most obviously, high rates of lung cancer can almost entirely be attributed to smoking. Current estimates place this number from 80-90% of all lung cancer cases; depending upon what demographic and gender is measured. Regardless of the actual number, the statistics that have been provided show that smoking is invariably attributed to high rates of lung cancer and death. Yet, this statistic oftentimes confuses individuals who assume that lung cancer is the only means through which smoking can adversely impact upon the overall health of an individual. However, smoking also increases the chances of developed coronary heart disease by up to several times the normal rate. Moreover, a vast percentage of all deaths that are the result of chronic obstructive lung disease are normally caused by cancer. Yet, of all of the health impacts that can be felt, it is the health impact of cardiovascular disease that is the most overlooked. Due to the impact that nicotine has as well as the artery hardening properties of prolonged exposure to first or second hand cigarette smoke, the narrowing of blood vessels helps to put smokers at high risk for any type of blockage or

Family Guy Connections between Family and Work Movie Review

Family Guy Connections between Family and Work - Movie Review Example The family does not have sufficient economic resources since Peter Griffin is a blue collar worker who survives as a manual laborer while his wife stays at home tutoring piano lessons. The nature of their work shows that they rely or skilled and unskilled jobs for survival and are grouped among the middle class family of the Rhode Island. According to Family Guys show, there is a gendered division of labor since Peter works on the manual works while his wife, Lois works from home as a piano teacher. The animated series shows the adventures of the family as they pursue different job obligation depending on their gender (Family Guy).The house is not clean since the family has odd kids that play different roles to maintain the humor. For instance the youngest kid, Stewie is a sadist that works upon destroying the world while the talking dog spends its whole time sipping Martin. The nature of the daily per takings automatically shows that the house is not in order.The show outlines infan cy, adolescence and mature adulthood life stages of the characters. In this case, Peter Griffin and his wife Lois are outlined as mature adulthood people sice they are raising a family and have established themselves in their different work roles in Rhode Island. Additionally, Stewie is outlined as an infant son who has adopted adult mannerisms and uses stereotypes in his speeches.Also, Meg and Chris are outlined as teenage kids who do not love schooling and are not intelligent respectively.

What an education means to me Essay Example for Free

What an education means to me Essay â€Å"Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance† says Will Durant (1885-1981) Education liberated me from ignorance and placed me in a high pedestal to wine and dines with the intellectuals and not mere men. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been, without being educated. Like they say education is expensive, then why don’t you try ignorance? A life without education is a passive one. In everything I believe â€Å"basics are the mother of all knowledge† hence, societal development is highly dependent on the literacy level of its citizen. Education to me can either be an informal education or formal education. Informal education is a type of education which is outside the school premises while those of formal are within the school settings. Informal education given to me by my parents helped me a lot and equipped me with basic skills in human relationship and communication skills on which I was able to build upon. This gave me a starter dose. As a child, the elementary school introduces me to the basic skills, information and attitude necessary to thrive in my society. I was also introduce to the principles of reading, writing and spelling and even to some basic arithmetic. I was also introduced to some forms of fine arts, elementary science and some forms of handicraft. Education taught me the creative use of my mind and how to make it work for me in all aspect of my life. It gave me the capacity and ability to evaluate information and to predict future outcomes. I can also effectively recognize and evaluate different points of view even when arguing with my colleagues or friend and not creating a kind of enmity. Education also trained me to seek out alternative solutions and evaluate them when there is need for such, this I called problem solving skills. Education gave me a better understanding of my culture and environment and also helped me to learn history of my country, and an insight into that of others. With all the knowledge and wisdom from such learning I was able to integrate that with some aspect of my life. Acquisition of information about the past and present: including traditional disciplines such as literature, history, science, mathematics was as a result of education and this influence the development of every community. Without education knowledge and history can not be passed from one generation to the other. Education also influences my religion and this has guided my beliefs and actions. The influence of education on self esteem can not be underestimated. Taking my life as a case study, I used to be someone with a low self esteem until I got to realize what self esteem is all about and its effect my actions, life in totality. The sense of well-being, i. e. my mental and physical health has greatly improved. I’m now able to acquire some values and attitude that is highly essential in the competitive and dynamic worlds of ours. The role of education in personal values is very important, because this gave me an opportunity of self-realization and self reflection which is germane to the awareness of my innate abilities and goals. Educations taught me â€Å"morals† which simply means acting in a right manner and knowing how to deal with people. Knowledge of moral practices and ethical standards acceptable by society and culture can only be achieved via education. Everything my religion taught me about morals was as a result of my ability to read, think and takes actions, which are all by-products of education. It’s often said that where there’s no law there’s no sin, hence people can only behave well when they are taught the benefits of acting right towards their fellow citizen. This simply gives capacity and ability to be a good citizen. Education is a prerequisite for an intellectual pursuit. From mine point of view is education simply makes people respect you and recognize you and your achievements. I believe there can be a professor without education and there can’t be a civilized society without education. Culture which is a way of life can only be acquired through education and exposure to the arts. Formation of healthy social and or formal relationships among and between students, teacher, others are some of the importance of education to my life. Culture is also maintain and kept from one age to the other as a result of education. My utmost view of education is that I will be able to earn a living, make the right choice, strengthening my character, becomes strong, develop my body soul and spirit and live a fulfill life. With my career I will be of use to my immediate environment. Above all education makes a better leader. I will conclude this piece by quoting the words of B. F skinner and Jack Stack which says â€Å"Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten†. – B. F. Skinner â€Å"When you appeal to the highest level of thinking, you get the highest level of performance†. -Jack Spack Reference Teachers mind resource. (2008). The meaning of education. Teacher’s mind resource. Retrieved July 9, 2008. From www. teachersmind . com

Are Eyewitness Identifications Reliable?

Are Eyewitness Identifications Reliable? Eyewitness testimony is one of the most commonly employed forms of direct evidence presented in court and is often more persuasive to juries than circumstantial evidence. Memory is often defined as the processing, storage and retrieval of information acquired through learning. Throughout your day, thousands of sights, sounds, smells and other stimuli from the external environment flood your sensory receptors. All this information, whether paid attention to or not, is briefly held in your sensory memory. Sensory memory is the entry point of memory, where new incoming sense-based information is stored for a very brief period. Short-term memory is a memory system with a limited storage capacity (7 +/- 2 items) and duration. Information is stored temporarily, and assuming that no rehearsal process is used, can be retained fairly well for the first few seconds, but for a longer time than sensory memory. After about 12 seconds, however, recall starts to decline and by 18-30 seconds almost all information disappears if it has not been renewed in some way. The duration can be enhanced if some rehearsal is involved. Long-term memory refers to memory system that stores almost an unlimited amount of information, which can be stored over a lifetime with rehearsal. It comprises of two different systems called declarative memory (specific facts and events) and procedural memory (actions and skills that have been learned previously). Recall and recognition also play a role in the process of retrieving information. Recognition is the ability to elicit stored material (memory) through the use of a cue (Eg. A photo line-up). Recall on the other hand is the ability to elicit stored material without externally providing any type of cue. The reliability of information is an important factor when it comes to identifying suspects and alleged offenders and providing a testimony at trials. Factor One – Age: During circumstances in which a child is a witness to an event, the credibility of that child and whether their testimony is reliable, is often questioned. Young children are able to testify, however they must be found competent before they can do so. The child must be able to understand the obligation of telling the truth, and the effects of lying. If the child is deemed unfit to testify, their prior statements to counsellors, doctors, or law enforcement may be used at trial. Article one: The purpose of first study conducted was to determine whether children as young as 6 or 7 years of age could understand and perform the task of identification, and whether decisional bias and committing fewer false alarms increases with age. Forty eight children were recruited, twenty five male and 23 female. The children were separated into two groups, 2 separate conditions (stealing vs. helping). They were all shown a short video individually, showing four men, dressed in identical red shirts in a soccer locker room. At the end of the video it shows one of the men walking out with two sports bags, one with a New York Yankees logo on it, which had previously been brought in by one of the other men. Each child was given instructions before and after watching the video, which were designed to frame the act, as a moral transgression (stealing) or pro-social (helping). The participants in the stealing condition were asked to identify the man who stole the bag. The others in the helping condition were asked to help the owner of the bags find him to give him a reward. After seeing the film, the participants were asked to say what they had witnessed, what happened in the film, and if they failed to mention that nature of the act (stealing or helping), the experimenter did. The children were then shown a series of photographs, presented sequentially, and for each photo, they were asked to identify whether it was or was not the man. The photos were all taken against an identical neutral background, with them being head-and-shoulders shots with each individual earing the same red t-shirt. In the end the children were asked if they had any questions and were praised for their cooperation, they were then allowed to choose a coloured pen as a reward and given a certificate of appreciation. The data supported the performance hypothesis that, younger children would apply a more negligent criterion when making eyewitness judgements of moral transgressions. The results show th at children in the younger age groups were more prone to make false alarms than children in the 11-14 years age group, and children in the youngest age group were more likely to be very sure that a person was guilty of stealing when he was not, compared to those in the older age groups. In conclusion, younger children are not as reliable when it comes to being an eyewitness to an event. Article two: There is usually a delay from the time a crime is witnessed and a suspect being apprehended, this allows the suspect to undergo a change in appearance, for example changing their hairstyle or hair colour. It is unclear how adults’ and children’s identification abilities compare when the suspect changes their appearance. In a recent meta-analysis, with simultaneous presentation, it showed that children over 5 were as accurate as adults in producing comparable correct identification rates. This study manipulated a suspect’s appearance (hair colour style) to produce ‘no change’ conditions (line-up members match the suspect’s appearance at the time of the crime) versus ‘change’ conditions (line-up members do not match the suspect’s appearance at the time of the crime). Both children and adults were tested. 239 adults were recruited from the introductory psychology participant pool at a university in Eastern Ontario, Canada, an d 96 children recruited from local elementary schools in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Upper body photos were taken resembling the suspect with short, grey hair, or dark mid-length hair. From the assortment of photos, six photos of men that matched the suspect’s description with short, grey hair and six photos that matched the suspect’s description with longer, darker hair were selected to for the line-ups. Two target-present line-ups were conducted, one line-up consisted of six photos, which consisted of five line-up members who had short, grey hair and the suspect’s photo (with short, grey hair). The second line-up consisted of six photos, which consisted of five line-up members who had longer, darker brown hair and the suspect’s photo (with longer, darker, brown hair). There were also target-absent line-ups conducted, one line-up consisted of five foils with short grey hair, with the suspect’s photo replaced with a matching male. The other line-up co nsisted of five foils with darker brown hair with the suspect’s photo replaced with a matching male. The results show that in a meta-analysis comparing the children’s and adults’ correct identification rates, children as young as 5 years of age were found to be able to select the suspect from a group of photos containing the suspect, at a rate comparable to adults. This changed however, when the suspect’s didn’t match his appearance at the time of the crime. For both children and adults’, there was a decrease in their correct identification rates when the suspects appearance changed, they both had great difficulty in correctly identifying the guilt suspect. One reason for a decrease in correct identification following a change in appearance is that eyewitnesses may use hairstyle as a key marker for identification. Overall the elimination procedure is the most effective when it comes to identification rates for both children and adults. Factor two – Stress/Arousal Witnessing a disturbing event (an act of violence) is likely to elicit arousal and to be stressful. Being under stress at the time of encoding can have an effect on the memory process, typically enhancing or preserving memory for emotional information, this can have an interesting implication for eyewitness accounts. Research has found that in the area of emotion and memory has provided evidence that stress influences the long-term memory processes. Article one: The goal of this study was to examine the subsequent effects of misinformation exposure on memory for a negative arousing to-be-remembered event encoded under stress. They adapted a slideshow, with materials from Payne et al. (2006), then added a misinformation manipulation 48 hours after encoding and 48 hour prior to memory testing. Sixty-eight undergraduate students were recruited through the university of Arizona subject pool. Participants were instructed to abstain from alcohol, caffeine, and exercise on days of experimental sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to a two (stress vs. control) and two (misinformation vs. no misinformation). On the first visit, the participants were engaged in a psychosocial stress induction (control task), after they were escorted to another room to few a negatively arousing slideshow. Participants returned forty-eight hours later to the lab to complete the second experimental visit. Upon arrival, the participants were told that they would be asked a series of questions, a totally of 60, relating to the slideshow the view previously two days ago. The questions for the misinformation condition had false information embedded as factual elements of the slideshow (e.g. â€Å"What did the boy have in his hands?† versus â€Å"What did the boy have in his hands besides his lunch?†). The questions were identical in the misinformed and non-misinformed groups to avoid inadvertently cuing one group with information that could potentially benefit the memory performance. The questions asked in this session were designed to expose the participants in the misinformation group to false information. Participants returned another forty-eight hours later after questioning, to complete the third and final experimental session, they were told that their memory of the slideshow would be tested. This was assessed using a recognition test that consisted of 136 questions, administered over a computer. The results showed that bei ng under stress prior to encoding affects memory for a negative event by enhancing subsequent memory. This finding supports the notion that stress influences encoding of aversive events, although stress alone did not moderate misinformation endorsement. Participants were less likely to endorse misinformation for the most negatively-arousing portion of the slideshow if they were stressed prior to encoding, and reported that they were aroused by the negative event. These participants had a more accurate memory for items that had been misinformed with the slideshow phase. The results demonstrate that, in regards to eyewitness memory, arousal induced by an event, in combination with activations of a stressed state, result in an enhanced emotional memory that is less vulnerable to the incorporation of false details, despite being exposed to direct misleading information. Article two: The goal of this study was to investigate how post-encoding stress will affect memory, depending on the thematic arousal of the initial learning period. Predicted that under high thematic arousal, post-learning stress would enhance memory for the central elements of an event, for example a cashbox grabbed by the burglar. Participants were recruited from Bielefeld University, 88 males, ages ranging from 19 to 37. The experiment consisted of four main stages, encoding of an event, manipulation of psychosocial stress, rehearsal of the event information and a recognition test for the event. The first stage consisted of the participants viewing a video-filmed event depicting a burglary. Participants in the high arousal condition should have anticipated to see a distressing, possibily violent incident in the video shown. However those in the low arousal condition were exposed to an event that was unlikely to be as distressing. In second stage, after encoding has occurred, a stress manipula tion was applied. About half of the participants were administered the Trier Social Stress Test, this induced psychosocial stress, the remaining participants were exposed to a non-stressful situation. In the third stage, the participants read a narrative description of the witnessed event, the description did however include items not shown in the original event. In the final stage the participants were given a yes or no recognition test that contained items that did appear in the video and those that didn’t. This study showed that eyewitnesses’ memory for an event was influenced by the combined effect of arousal during encoding and subsequent social stress, which was not related to the event itself. The results indicate that eyewitnesses are likely to experience arousal during observation of an event, they also may be exposed to social stress shortly after, like during an interrogation for example. There was no evidence that thematic arousal and/or post-event stress a ffected the participants’ memory for false post-event information. It is shown that age can have an effect on an eyewitness’s reliability, children are prone to forget things or take into account misleading information and believe it is true. With that being said their credibility is often questioned. Results show that younger children are more prone to making mistakes, and saying someone is guilty, even when they’re not, overall young children are not as reliable. Being under stress at the time of an event can have an effect on memory, however it does not effect on an eyewitnesses memory of an event. These studies show that eyewitnesses are still able to recall the events that happened, even after experiencing pre or post-event stress. At the end of the day, both can have an effect of the recall of information, and identifying the correct perpetrator. Reference List: Echterhoff, G., Wolf, O. (2012). The stressed eyewitness: the interaction of thematic arousal and post-event stress in memory for central and peripheral event information. Front. Integr. Neurosci., 6. doi:10.3389/fnint.2012.00057 Hoscheidt, S., LaBar, K., Ryan, L., Jacobs, W., Nadel, L. (2014). Encoding negative events under stress: High subjective arousal is related to accurate emotional memory despite misinformation exposure. Neurobiology Of Learning And Memory, 112, 237-247. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2013.09.008 Pozzulo, J., Balfour, J. (2006). Childrens and adults eyewitness identification accuracy when a culprit changes his appearance: Comparing simultaneous and elimination lineup procedures. Legal And Criminological Psychology, 11(1), 25-34. doi:10.1348/13553250552626 Spring, T., Saltzstein, H., Peach, R. (2012). Childrens Eyewitness Identification as Implicit Moral Decision-Making. Appl. Cognit. Psychol., 27(2), 139-149. doi:10.1002/acp.2871

The Character of Ophelia in Shakespeares Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Gunnar Boklund in â€Å"Hamlet† performs a partial-analysis on the character of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet: The only character who is presented almost entirely as a victim is Ophelia, a victim of the King’s fear and curiosity, her father’s servility and fundamental indifference to her, Hamlet’s misunderstanding of the situation and brutal treatment of her, and finally his fatal thrust through the arras in the closet scene. Her madness is, as I see it, a purely pathetic element in the play. In the world where Hamlet has been forced to act, there appears to be no room for passive and obedient innocence. It is crushed, and perishes. (123) It is the intent of this essay to examine the â€Å"passive and obedient innocence† of this victimized character, as well as many other facets of the interesting personality of Hamlet’s girlfriend – with input from numerous literary critics. The protagonist of the tragedy, Prince Hamlet, initially appears in the play dressed in solemn black, mourning the death of his father supposedly by snakebite while he was away at Wittenberg as a student. Hamlet laments the hasty remarriage of his mother to his father’s brother, an incestuous act; thus in his first soliloquy he cries out, â€Å"Frailty, thy name is woman!† Ophelia enters the play with her brother Laertes, who, in parting for school, bids her farewell and gives her advice regarding her relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia agrees to abide by the advice: â€Å"I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as watchman to my heart.† After Laertes’ departure, Polonius inquires of Ophelia concerning the â€Å"private time† which Hamlet spends with her. He dismisses Hamlet’s overtures as â€Å"Affection, puh!† Polonius considers Ophelia a â€Å"green girl,† incapable of recognizing true love: â€Å"These blazes . . . you mu st not take for fire.† He gets her assurance that she will not talk with Hamlet anymore.    When the ghost talks privately to Hamlet, he learns not only about the murder of his father, but also about the unfaithfulness and adultery of his mother. Gertrude was seduced by â€Å"that incestuous, that adulterate beast,/With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts† – Claudius himself – prior to his brother’s passing. â€Å"So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,/Will sate itself in a celestial bed,/And prey on garbage.† In the mind of Hamlet, this drastically reduces the goodness of womankind generally. Hamlet chooses to use an â€Å"antic disposition† to disguise his actions as he maneuvers to kill the one who poisoned his father in the garden.

Primal Scenes in Americana and White Noise :: White Noise Essays

Primal Scenes in Americana and White Noise Written in 1989, Frank Letricchia's essay on the overriding themes of Don DeLillo's writing offers a short but concise praise of two of DeLillo's major works: Americana and White Noise. Letricchia offers the thesis in his essay that "two scenes in DeLillo's fiction are primal for his imagination of America" (Osteen 413). It seems that Letricchia is using "primal" not to denote an animalistic sense, but more along the lines of a basic need. The first of these primal scenes takes place in DeLillo's first book, Americana (Osteen 413). In a particular part of this novel, DeLillo describes the invention of America as the invention of the television (Osteen 413). One of his characters even describes it as having "came over on the Mayflower," which Letricchia interprets as meaning not television itself came over, but the desire for a "universal third-person" (Osteen 414). Letricchia argues that television offers to modern Americans today what the Pilgrims' ships offered to immigrants on the old days: something to dream about (Osteen 414). Even DeLillo writes that "To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream," which, according to Letricchia is to say "that it is not the consummation of desire but the foreplay of desire that is TV advertising's object" (Osteen 414). Which is to say, it is not the advertisements job to make you buy something, only to make you want to buy it, a point I find to be not only accurate, but so mewhat disturbing as well. The second "primal scene" that Letricchia touches on comes from the book White Noise. In the book, there is a small but significant part in which two of the main characters drive twenty miles outside of town in order to visit a tourist attraction known as "The most photographed barn in America" (Osteen 415). While this is the surface subject of the passage, Letricchia asserts that the underlying issue at hand is actually "a new kind of representation as a new kind of excitement" (Osteen 415). In the scene from the book, the characters stand among crowds of people that are taking pictures of a very ordinary barn. One of the characters (Murray Siskind) begins a monologue about the fact that no one there has come to see the barn, but only "to be part of a collective perception" (Osteen 12).

A Financial Analysis of Next

A Financial Analysis of NEXT By Tingyu WANG AC2407 Shakil Iqbal Patel Tuesday, 1st November, 2011 CONTENTS 1. Introduction3 2. Roles of Accounting and Finance3 3. Financial Analysis4 3. 1. Discussion of NEXT4 3. 2. Finance of NEXT5 3. 3. Ratio Analysis6 3. 4. Application of roles to NEXT9 4. Conclusion10 5. References10 6. Appendices11 1. Introduction ‘Accounting is the process of recording, classifying, and reporting and interpreting the financial data. ’ (Johal et al, 2010:2). Accounting provides a key source of information about a business to those who need it, such as managers or owners.The framework makes cash and profit can be monitored, planned and controlled. It is essential to the running of any business or organization. (Jones, 2006:3). ‘Finance exists to help users to make better decisions and is concerned with the financing and investing activities of the business. ’ (Eddie et al, 2005:21). This essay will discuss the roles of accounting and fina nce within an organization and include a financial analysis of NEXT, which through the following structure: the next section identifies the roles of accounting and finance to NEXT.Section three makes some financial analysis, including the discussion of NEXT, evaluation of its finance, and ratio analysis. The fourth section is to examine the application of roles to NEXT. The final section is to make conclusion. 2. Roles of Accounting and Finance There are three main roles of accounting and finance within an organization. * Financial Accounting: Deals with the mechanistic bookkeeping progress and the preparation and interpretation of the financial accounts. For companies, it also includes the preparation of the annual report.It concludes measuring and reporting financial position, financial performance and anlaysing and interpreting financial statements. (Jones, 2006:13). * Financial Management: It is about managing the sources of finance of an organization which involves ‘manag ing the working capital (that is, short-term assets and liabilities) of a company or finding the cheapest form of borrowing. ’ (Jones, 2006:14) * Management Accounting: Covers the internal accounting of an organization. It consists of costing, budgeting, standard costing, short-term decision making, strategic management accounting, capital investment appraisal and discounted cash flow. IBID). 3. Financial Analysis 4. 1. Discussion of NEXT NEXT plc is a UK based retailer offering exciting, beautifully designed, excellent quality fashion and accessories for men, women and children together with home products. The company was founded by Joseph Hepworth in Leeds in 1864. The first NEXT shop opened on 12 February 1982. In 1986, Davies moved the headquarters from Leeds to Leicester, to be closer to the main garment manufacturers. In autumn 2009, NEXT plc launched an online catalogue for the United States offering clothing, shoes and accessories.It distributes through three main cha nnels: Next Retail, a chain of more than 500 stores in the UK and Eire; NEXT Directory, a home shopping catalogue and website with nearly 3 million active customers; and NEXT International, with more than 180 stores around the world. NEXT also has a growing website capability in more than 30 countries worldwide. (Next Corporate, 2011). In UK, there are three analogous brand companies like Top shop, Monsoon, and Aquascutum. They all operate as similar home products as NEXT, like clothing, footwear, and accessories for men, women and children and have online services and various strategies.It is obvious to increase competition to NEXT. While for NEXT, they use their influence to promote good practice and raise awareness, believe working together in partnership is the best way they can make a positive difference. Using approach to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use, minimize waste produced and increase the quality recycled, increase the efficiency of their delivery fleet h elp NEXT to increase revenues, profits, earnings per share and dividends per share from 2010 to 2011. It is believed that NEXT will have a brighter future. (IBID).According to the report in Financial Times (2011), FTSE 100 drops to fortnight-low, while NEXT was up 2. 9 percent to ? 26. 14, which plans to launch a fixed-odds sports book next year could boost group profit by 50 percent. The fact claims that NEXT have a specific operating strategy make brilliant finance performance. 4. 2. Finance of NEXT The sources of finance of NEXT were used include following: * Use of funds: According to NEXT report (2010), the company use funds for registered charities, groups or organizations and purchased a further ? 1. 4million shares at a cost of ? 28million. * Internal Sources of Finance: 1) Short-term: ? Delay payment to creditors: For NEXT, the business has more trade payables in 2011 than 2010, it delays payment to creditors can keep cash longer. ‘Suppliers are in effect offering a b usiness an interest-free loan, the period of the ‘loan’ is extended and funds can be retained within the business. ’ (Peter et al, 2008:395). ?Tighter credit control: ‘All customers who wish to trade on credit terms are subject to credit verification procedures. ’ (NEXT plc, report of 2010:79). It is possible for the business to reduce the proportion of assets held in this form and so release funds for other purposes. 2) Long-term: Retained profit: From 2009 to 2011, the profit earnings have been increasing from ? 1523. 2, ? 1615. 2, to ? 1782. 6. (NEXT, 2010: 46) The profits are retained within the business rather than being distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends, the funds of business are increased. * External Sources of Finance: (1) Long-term: ? Ordinary shares: For NEXT, the ordinary shares were changed several time at different time because of the high risks associated with this form of investment, the ordinary shareholders also re quired a comparatively high rate of return. Loans: The unsecured bank loans in 2010 is ? 75million and ? 115million in 2011. Their interest rate are ? 22. 7million and ? 24. 3million. (NEXT, 2010:47). ‘The company’s medium term borrowing facilities may be subject to early repayment if a majority of lending banks gave written to notice to the company within 30 days of the change of control. In addition, there are some security social costs. ’ (NEXT, 2010:24). This means interest will be paid only on amounts drawn and so the business will not have to pay interest on amounts borrowed that are temporarily surplus to requirements.Term loans tend to be cheap to set up and can be quite flexible as to conditions. Besides, corporate bonds are a type of long-term loans. In 2010, it is ? 520. 9million and ? 471. 2million in 2011. The decreased gearing ratio states the company has the lower risk to pay the interests on its loans. (Peter et al, 2008:399) (2) Short-term: ? Ban k overdrafts: The bank overdrafts in 2010 is ? 4. 7million and ? 10. 2 million in 2011. It represents a very flexible form of borrows and easy to arrange as the size of bank overdraft can be increased or decreased. Debt factoring: Take over NEXT’s debt collection agencies. ‘It can result in savings in credit management and create more certainty with the cash flows. It can also release the time of key personnel for more profitable activities. ’(IBID:425) 4. 3. Ratio Analysis Profitability | Year 2011| Year 2010| Gross Profit Margin| 29. 21%| 29. 26%| Net Profit Margin| 16. 67%| 15. 58%| Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)| 60. 01%| 56. 72%| Asset Turnover| 3. 60| 3. 64| The gross profit margin was decreased 0. 05% from 2010 to 2011. The lower the gross profit margin, the worse for the company.The decline in this ratio is because of the change in the cost of goods sold, the stock sell more expensive; this year more inventory wastage and fewer products selling than la st year. The net profit margin increased 1. 09% due to the expenses being controlled very well. The business can make more profit, means the bigger, the better. The ROCE ratio increased 3. 29%, which comes from the returns from the bank. It measures high efficiency the assets are used to generate profit, the bigger ratio, the better return. The asset turnover decreased 0. 04. This result is affected by the increased ROCE.The smaller, the worse for the company. Efficiency | Year 2011| Year 2010| Inventories Turnover| 55. 0 days| 46. 8 days| Trade Receivables Turnover| 56. 4 days| 55. 7 days| Trade Payables Turnover| 29. 2 days| 26. 5 days| The inventories turnover increased 8. 2 days. The more frequently stock is turned over the better. The reason of the improvement is the more inventories and lower cost of sales in 2011 than 2010. The trade receivables turnover has a slight increase as at 0. 7 days. It means more cash was tied up in trade receivables for each ? 1 of sales revenue in 2011 than in 2010.Therefore, it is bad for the company. It may because of incurring lower expenses, such as discounts allowed to customers who pay quickly in 2010. The trade payable turnover increased 2. 7 days, in the average length of time that elapsed between buying inventories and services and paying for them. This result depends on the length of credit period agreed with trade creditors. It is beneficial because the business is using free finance provided by suppliers. Liquidity | Year 2011| Year 2010| Current Ratio| 1. 28:1| 1. 37:1| Quick Assets Ratio| 0. 84:1| 0. 97:1| The two current ratios are between 1 and 2. A range from 1 to 2 is considered optimum. ’ (Patel, 2010:11). It decreased 0. 09 because of the type of the business of NEXT, the higher the ratio, the more liquid the business is considered to be, the decline is good for the company. The quick assets ratio decreased 0. 13 due to stocks removed from the numerator. ‘The optimum range is usually consider ed to be in the range 0. 75-1. 00. ’ (Patel, 2010:12). It is obvious to see that the ‘liquid’ current assets do not quite cover the current liabilities, so the business may be experiencing some liquidity problems.With the decline of the quick assets ratio, it is beneficial for the company. Capital Structure | Year 2011| Year 2010| Gearing| 49. 1%| 55. 7%| Interest Cover| 23. 7 times| 21. 0 times| ‘Broadly, the gearing range 30% – 60% is considered OK. ’ (Patel, 2010:2). The gearing decreased 6. 6%, because it has borrowed more in 2010 than 2011. ‘The higher the gearing, the higher the risk that the business will be unable to pay the interest on its loans or make repayments in times of economic recession. ’ (Jill et al, 2007:197) So, this is good for the company. The interest cover increased 2. times, because the decreasing long-term debts. ‘Generally, a figure over 2 is needed to be on the safe side. ’ (Patel, 2010:4) . It is positive for the company, the higher the level of operating profit coverage, the smaller the risk to the shareholders. Investor | Year 2011| Year 2010| Earnings per share (EPS)| 221. 9p| 188. 5p| Dividend Cover| 3. 1 times| 3. 4 times| Return on Equity (ROE)| 2. 7| 1. 7| The latest price earnings ratio (PE) is = 11. 44 (Financial Times @ 24/10/2011) The latest dividend yield is = 3. 32% (Financial Times @ 24/10/2011) The EPS increased 33. p because of particular business over time. The bigger, the better for the company. The dividend cover decreased 0. 3 times because of the proportion of earnings have been paid out as dividend is changed. ‘The more usual situation of a high value, greater than 1, shows only a proportion of the profits being paid out as dividend. The higher the figure the more profits have been retained in the business. ’ (Patel, 2010:7). The ROE was increased 1. 0. It is a very big improvement, because the company put much profit on equity hold ers than shareholders’ equity.For the company, the bigger, the better. 4. 4. Application of roles to NEXT Based on the annual report and accounts of NEXT in January 2011, it is one part of financial accounting. The financial statements such as Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement show evidence of financial accounting, because all of the finance information and financial ratios can help assessing the financial health of NEXT, and examine various aspects of financial position and performance. They are helpful to plan and control operating purposes for NEXT.By considering the main sources of finance of NEXT to examine various aspects of the capital markets and identifying the factors that must be taken into account when managing the working capital of NEXT, the business can make financing decisions on investment and new objectives and so on. These evidences can be the role of financial management. Because of the management accounting consists of costing, budge ting, standard costing, short-term decision making, strategic management accounting, capital investment appraisal and discounted cash flow. There is no evidence in this case, therefore, For NEXT, it has no management accounting. . Conclusion In order to make a financial analysis of NEXT plc, the essay was first to identify the three main roles of accounting and finance to an organization, they are financial accounting, financial management and management accounting. After that, it discussed some issues of NEXT, such as the history, size, future, economic climate and topical information and so on. Based on the NEXT annual report and accounts in January 2011, to understand how the company is financed, the report was listed some sources of finance which NEXT used, added the changes and the reasons as well.Following was the ratio analysis for NEXT, including profitability, efficiency, liquidity, capital structure and investment ratios. Through the results, it was clear to see the trend and effects on NEXT. Finally, by examining the annual report and accounts, it has applied the roles of accounting and finance to NEXT. In this case, NEXT plc applied the financial accounting and financial management. To sum up, financial analysis is the important basis for evaluating financial position and operating performance. It also realizes financial goals and the important steps to implement correct investment decisions. . References 1. Johal et al, (2010) in Patel, S. ,(2011), What is Accounting, University of Central Lancashire. 2. Jones, M. (2006), Accounting, John Wiley, Chichester. 3. Eddie McLaney, Peter Antrill (2005) Accounting: An Introduction, FT Prentice Hall. 4. Peter Atrill, Eddie McLaney, (2008), Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists, FT Prentice Hall. 5. Jill Collis and Roger Hussey, (2007), Business Accounting, Palgrave Macmillan 6. Patel, S. , (2010), A Ratio Analysis Worksheet (Part 1and 2), University of Central Lancashire. 7.Financial Times, (2011), FT SE 100 Drops to Fortnight-low, p4, 20 October 2011. 8. Financial Times, (2011), Companies & Markets: Retailers: NEXT plc, 24th October 2011. 9. NEXT plc, (2010), Annual Report and Accounts. 10. Next Corporate, (2011), About Next. Available at: http://www. nextplc. co. uk/about-next. aspx. Accessed: 25th October 2011 6. Appendices 1) Profitability Ratios: Gross Profit Margin = Gross ProfitSales * 100% FY 2010: Gross Profit Margin = 996. 93406. 5 * 100% = 29. 26% 2011: Gross Profit Margin = 1008. 73453. 7 * 100% = 29. 21%Net Profit Margin = Profit before Taxation and InterestSales *100% FY 2010: Net Profit Margin = 505. 3+25. 33406. 5 * 100% = 15. 58% 2011: Net Profit Margin = 551. 4+24. 33453. 7 * 100% = 16. 67% Return on Capital Employed = Profit before Taxation and InterestTotal Assets less Current Liabilities * 100% FY 2010: ROCE = 505. 3+25. 31693. 5-758. 1 * 100% = 56. 72% 2011: ROCE = 551. 4+24. 31792. 3-832. 9 * 100% = 60. 01% Asset Turnover = SalesTotal Assest less Current Li abilities FY 2010: Asset Turnover = 3406. 51693. 5-758. 1 = 3. 64 2011: Asset Turnover = 3453. 71792. 3-832. = 3. 60 2) Efficiency Ratios: Inventories Turnover = InventoriesCost of Sales * 365 FY 2010: Inventories Turnover = 309. 02409. 6 * 365 = 46. 8 days 2011: Inventories Turnover = 368. 32445. 0 * 365 = 55. 0 days Trade Receivables Turnover = Trade ReceivableSales * 365 FY 2010: Trade Receivables Turnover = 520. 23406. 5 * 365 = 55. 7 days 2011: Trade Receivables Turnover = 533. 33453. 7 * 365 = 56. 4 days Trade Payables Turnover = Trade PayablesCost of Sales * 365 FY 2010: Trade Payables Turnover = 175. 02409. 6 * 365 = 26. 5 days 2011: Trade Payables Turnover = 195. 52445. * 365 = 29. 2 days 3) Liquidity Ratios: Current Ratio = Current AssetsCurrent Liabilities FY 2010: Current Ratio = 1041. 2758. 1 = 1. 37:1 2011: Current Ratio = 1067. 3832. 9 = 1. 28:1 Quick Assets Ratio = Current Assets-InventoriesCurrent Liabilities FY 2010: Quick Assets Ratio = 1041. 2-309. 0758. 1 = 0. 9 7:1 2011: Quick Assets Ratio = 1067. 3-368. 3832. 9 = 0. 84:1 4) Capital Structure: Gearing = Long-termnon-currentloansTotal Assets less Current Liabilities * 100% FY 2010: Gearing = 520. 91693. 5-758. 1 * 100% = 55. 7% 2011: Gearing = 471. 21792. 3-832. 9 * 100% = 49. % Interest Cover = Profit before Taxation and InterestInterest Payable FY 2010: Interest Cover = 505. 3 +25. 325. 3 = 21. 0 times 2011: Interest Cover = 551. 4+24. 324. 3 = 23. 7 times 5) Investment Ratios: Dividend Cover = Profit on ordinary activities after taxationOrdinary equitydividends FY 2010: Dividend Cover = 364. 1108. 5 = 3. 4 times 2011: Dividend Cover = 401. 1129. 6 = 3. 1 times Return on Equity (ROE) = Profit on ordinary activities after taxationEquity Shareholders'Funds * 100% FY 2010: ROE = 364. 1133. 6 * 100% = 2. 7 2011: ROE = 401. 1232. 3 * 100% = 1. 7