Depreciation and advance prepayments

Pan Asia Airlines was founded in 1980. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the publicly traded company has routes throughout Asia and to major airports throughout Europe and North America. While Pan Asia charges a premium of 10 to 20% over its competitors, customers have not been deterred from using the airline because of the high quality of service.

A key reason for this reputation for high quality is the company's relatively young fleet of aircraft, with an average age of five years and no plane older than eight years. To maintain a young fleet, Pan Asia replaces its planes regularly to ensure that the planes are equipped with the latest technology and operate efficiently. Other airlines typically have fleets with an average age of 10 years, while discount airlines have even older fleets, with an average age of 15 years. A well-maintained aircraft can last for 20 to 25 years, or even more in some cases.

Each of five regional managers has responsibility for all investment and operating decisions for his/her region. The company evaluates each region as a profit centre. The decentralized structure allows each region to respond quickly to changes in its market.

Financially, the company has been consistently profitable in recent years. Stock analysts have projected a target price that is 20% higher than the current price of $32.50 per share, based on their projections of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization (EBITDA). Because of its solid financial performance, Pan Asia has earned a high credit rating, allowing it to borrow at a rate of 6%. Debt currently comprises about 40% of assets, while liquid assets amount to about 10% of assets, which total approximately $2 billion.

It is now February 2012. A new chief executive officer (CEO), William Chan, has been appointed following the retirement of the founding CEO. Chan has a background in mechanical engineering and previously served as Pan Asia's chief operating officer for the past 15 years. While Chan has a thorough understanding of the company's central operations, he is less familiar with other aspects of the company. Consequently, he has spent the last three months reviewing the company's marketing program, human resources, information systems, treasury, as well as accounting.

During this review, Chan has identified a few issues that he would like you, the chief financial officer, to explain to him.

1. The CEO noted that Pan Asia uses the declining-balance method of depreciation. He also noted that many (though not all) competitors use the straight-line method. He wonders whether Pan Asia should consider conforming to the majority in the industry.

2. One of Pan Asia’s manufacturers has recently started a promotion that offers a significant discount to airlines that make advance payments on their aircraft orders. The discount amounts to 15% of the regular price. To obtain the discount, Pan Asia would need to pay in full when it orders a plane, rather than when the manufacturer delivers it. Typically, the amount of time between order and delivery is two years. Chan is unsure whether he should encourage the regional managers to take up this offer. He is also wondering what the effects might be for the financial statements.

Required: Draft a memo to the CEO that addresses the issues raised.

(( Summarize it in your own words in at least one paragraph ))

Personality: Where does it come from and how does it work?

How do our personalities develop? What do we come with and what is built from our experiences? Once developed, how does personality work? These questions have been steeped in controversy for almost as long as psychology has existed.

In an article in Psychological Review, Carol Dweck tackles these issues. She proposes that our personalities develop around basic needs, and she begins by documenting the three basic psychological needs we all come with: the need to predict our world, the need to build competence to act on our world, and because we are social beings, the need for acceptance from others. (She also shows how new needs emerge later from combinations of these basic needs.)

Infants arrive highly prepared to meet these needs -- they are brilliant, voracious learners on the lookout for need-relevant information. Then, as infants try to meet their needs, something important happens. They start building beliefs about their world and their role in it: Is the world good or bad, safe or dangerous? Can I act on my world to meet my needs? These beliefs, plus the emotions and action tendencies that are stored with them, are termed "BEATs." They represent the accumulated experiences people have had trying to meet their needs, and they play a key role in personality -- both the invisible and the visible parts of the personality.

The invisible part of personality consists of the needs and BEATs. They form the basis of personality and they drive and guide the visible part. The visible part happens when the needs and BEATs create the actual goals people pursue in the world -- what people actually do.

Take the following example. Some people are conscientious; they actively pursue achievement and exercise self-discipline and perseverance. That's the visible part. Everyone has a need for competence, but how people pursue competence-whether they do so in a conscientious manner -- will depend on their BEATs (the invisible part, such as their beliefs). Research shows that some people hold the belief that their abilities are simply fixed traits. When they are confronted with a challenging task, they may choose an easier one instead because the challenging task carries a risk. It could expose their fixed ability as deficient; it could undermine their sense of competence. However, other people believe that their abilities can be developed. They are more likely to welcome the challenging task and stick to it in the face of setbacks in order to develop their competence. They display the hallmarks of conscientiousness. In other words, underlying BEATs can have a pronounced effect on the visible "personality" people display as they pursue their goals.

Temperament can also be important. For example, if children are shy or fearful it can make certain needs (such as the need for predictability) stronger than others and it can affect the way they react to things that happen to them -- both of which can mold the BEATs they develop and carry forward.

What are the implications of this theory? First, it means that our personality develops around our motivations (our needs and goals) and is not simply about traits we're born with. The theory also reveals the invisible parts of personality and shows how we can identify and address important BEATs (particularly beliefs) to promote personality change.

In short, like large, classic theories of the last century, the current theory brings together our motivations, our personality, and our development within one framework and helps shed light on processes that contribute to the well-being and human growth.

Introduction to Logic.

Section One: Identify the following fallacies of Relevance and explain how the fallacy is committed.

1. These poor children have no parents to give them Christmas presents, cook them Christmas Dinner, or to give them Christmas candy. Without help they will be out on the street homeless, cold, and desperate .If you can you should give money to our charity to help prevent this horrible human tragedy.

2. Richard Cheney thought it was appropriate to ask energy executives what energy policy the country should pursue, but of course he would he was an energy executive himself.

3. You should never point a gun at a person, because it is rude to point.

4. You children stop fighting in the back seat, or I am going to pull the car over and make you wish I had not.  

5. Four of five Americans believe that Honda builds the best car, therefore Honda builds the best car.  

6. Dennis Rodman is not a basketball player who is an asset to his team. After all, he is a sex-crazed, undisciplined, foul-mouthed, self-centered, transvestite, who has slept with Madonna. .

7. Barack Obama’s tax plan would involve taking money from the rich through taxes, and giving it to the poor through tax relief. If we were to do this then there would less a need for private charities, so people would give less money to charities. But charities allow people to do good works. So if Barack Obama’s plan is passed the moral values of Americans would decline.

8. Barack Obama’s tax plan would involve redistributing wealth and redistributing wealth is a key tenet of socialism. But we have shown in the Soviet Union that socialism failed, so Barack Obama’s tax plan won’t work.

Section Two : Identify the following fallacies of Defective Induction and explain how the fallacies are committed.                                                                                                                                                       

9. Newt Gingrich endorses this brand of underwear; it must be the best brand of underwear

10. The defendant has no alibi; no one saw him at home asleep when the crime was committed, there are no phone records to prove he was at home, and no neighbors saw him at home. We can only conclude that he was at the crime scene.

11.. I have smoked my whole life and never been sick a day, therefore smoking does not injure anyone’s health.  

12. Whenever I wear Brut cologne during finals I ace my exams.

Section Three: Identify the following fallacies of Presumption and explain how the fallacies are committed.        

13. Linebacker is a position which requires a big, quick player. Therefore Sam Mill should not be playing linebacker since he is not big or quick

14. John Elway is the best quarterback in the NFL, because the best quarterback in the NFL is John Elway.  

15. Is your drinking problem under control yet?  

Section Four: Identify these fallacies of Ambiguity and explain how the fallacies are committed.                                   

  16. The offensive line of the Panthers average 310 lb., therefore the center weighs 310 lb.

17. As Grandpa cut the turkey the juice came out running.

18. Rich people can afford to pay more for food which is why their deserts are so rich.

19. MacDonalds pays each of its workers a small amount, therefore the overall size of McDonalds’ payroll is small.

20. You should not beat your children.

Case Study - Whole Foods Market

Overview

Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain that specializes in fresh, organic produce from local sources. As an international company with locations around the world, it has a large operation to watch over and a very specific mission to uphold: to sell the highest-quality natural and organic products available.

Sticking to this goal and keeping up with the demands of a rapidly expanding business aren’t always easy, however. In order to stay committed to stocking sustainable goods, Whole Foods relies on an organizational structure that combines aspects of a mom-and-pop operation with a traditional corporate hierarchy. Thanks to this unique organizational structure, the company has been able to expand to 360 stores and hire more than 58,000 employees without sacrificing its core principles.

Whole Foods got its start when John Mackey and Rene Lawson borrowed money from friends and family to open a small natural food store in Austin, Texas. The couple soon ended up living in the market after they were evicted from their apartment for storing some of their grocery stock there. Fortunately, business began to boom once the pair took on a couple of partners and merged with another store. But they quickly faced another huge setback when the most destructive flood Austin had experienced in 70 years took its toll on the market. Along with incurring damage to their building, the store also lost all of its produce and inventory. Thanks to a massive community cleanup effort, however, the market was soon back in business.

Whole Foods has never forgotten that lesson—that having a local, grass-roots structure sensitive to drastic and sudden changes in the business environment can keep an organization nimble and responsive. In the company’s early days, the staff was small enough that everyone could do every job. While this kept things running smoothly at first, the situation had to change as the company grew and opened more stores. It divided the labor between the four partners, with each specializing in one or more of the tasks critical to the business. After designating the leaders for departments like finance, human resources, and sales, Whole Foods began to look like a big company.

But John Mackey and his partners still wanted their stores to appear like small local markets, not corporate mega-grocers. That meant they had to make tough choices, like whether they should centralize supply in warehouses or depend on separate, local suppliers in each region they had stores. Whole Foods ultimately opted for the latter option. To stay responsive to market changes, each region received its own manager and the autonomy to make certain decisions about supply sources and pricing based on the needs of that region, without being slowed down waiting for responses from the home office. This decentralized structure gives Whole Foods the flexibility to adapt to important changes without involving needless bureaucracy.

Whole Foods Market continues to expand into new markets around the world. Despite that fact, it has managed to keep what is unique about its culture and pure about its mission: focusing on great, natural sources at the local level.

Economies of scales are important in business. In the case of Whole Foods, it made sense to centralize supply and apply concepts of Supply Chain Management so that cost of inventory could take advantage of quantity discounts to lower cost of goods.

Why do you think they decided not to do that and instead, allowed local stores to handle their own supply of goods?

1) A mother takes her son to the doctor and describes the following symptoms that she has observed. The child is running a fever, has flu-like symptoms, and his lymph glands are very swollen and sore to the touch. Of what significance are the swollen and sore lymph glands?

2) A woman had a mastectomy that included the removal of axillary lymph nodes on her left side. What does she risk regarding her left arm and why?

3) A man involved in a traffic accident is rushed to the emergency room of a hospital with severe internal bleeding. Examination reveals a ruptured spleen. What is the treatment of choice and what is the likely long-term outcome (prognosis)?

4) While passing through a village on safari you notice a man with one enormous leg and one normal-sized leg. What could have caused the increased size of the swollen leg?

5) Lymphedema may occur as a complication after a radical mastectomy, in which lymph nodes have been removed. Explain why it might occur.

6) A nurse palpated enlarged lymph nodes. Describe signs and symptoms that help to distinguish cancerous lymph nodes from infected lymph nodes.

7) Describe why the prognosis of cancer is best when there is no detectable spread from the region of the primary tumor to the lymph nodes.

8) As the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) progresses, some individuals develop persistent generalized lymphadenopathy (any disease of the lymph nodes). Explain why this may occur.

9) A 36-year-old man enters the hospital in an extremely debilitated condition. He has purple-brown skin lesions (a symptom of Kaposi's sarcoma) and a persistent cough. A physical examination reveals swollen lymph nodes, and laboratory tests find a very low lymphocyte count. Information taken during the personal history reveals that he has multiple sex partners with whom he frequently engages in unprotected sex. What is likely to be the man's problem and what is his outlook?

10) A young girl requires a liver transplant due to failure of her liver to function. What is required for her to have a good prognosis and why?

11) A woman comes into the hospital emergency room complaining that she is having problems swallowing and her neck is swelling. She has a history of radiation treatment to her neck as a child for acne. What could be the problem?

12) Max is bitten by a rattlesnake while on a camping trip. His friends immediately apply ice packs to the bitten area to slow the spread of the protein-based toxin; they then rush him to an emergency facility. What treatment would be given and why?

13) A physician orders Tylenol for a temperature greater than 101 degrees F. The patient's temperature is 100.4 F. Explain the rationale for not medicating a fever of 100.4 F.

14) Nursing care of a patient with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) includes monitoring of T lymphocyte counts. Explain why.

15) After receiving penicillin intravenously, a 32-year-old male patient has an anaphylactic reaction. The nurse understands that therapeutic management includes what critical items?

16) When the white blood cell count is depressed, the classic signs of infection such as redness, heat, and swelling are not manifested. In this case, the nurse should avoid administering aspirin. Explain why.

(PLEASE ONLY ANSWER INSTRUCTIONS E-H IN BOLD)

The Gilster Company, a machine tooling firm, has several plants. One plant, located in St. Falls, Minnesota, uses a job order costing system for its batch production processes. The St. Falls plant has two departments through which most jobs pass. Plantwide overhead, which includes the plant manager’s salary, accounting personnel, cafeteria, and human resources, is budgeted at $250,000. During the past year, actual plantwide overhead was $240,000. Each department’s overhead consists primarily of depreciation and other machine-related expenses. Selected budgeted and actual data from the St. Falls plant for the past year are as follows:

For the coming year, the accountants at St. Falls are in the process of helping the sales force create bids for several jobs. Projected data pertaining to job no. 110 are as follows:

Instructions:

A. assume tha St. falls plant uses a single plantwide overhead rate to assign all overhead (plant-wide and department) costs to jobs. Use exceeded total direct labor hours to compute the overhead rate.

B. Recalculate the projected manfacturing costs for job no. 110 using three separate rates: one rate for plantwide overhead and two deparate department overhead rates, all based on machine hours.

C.The sales policy at St. Falls dictates that job bids be calculated by adding 40 percent to total manfacturing costs. What would be the bif for job no. 110 using (1) the overhead rate from part a (2) the overhead rate from part b? explain why the bids differ. Whixh of the overhead allocation methods would you recommend and why?

D.Using the allocation rates in part b, compute the under or overapplied overhead for the St, Falls plant for the year. Explain the impact on net income of assigning the under or overlapped overhead to cost of goods sold rather than prorating the amount between inventories and cost of goods sold.

E.A st. falls contractor has offered to produce the parts for job no. 110 for a price of $12 per unit. Assume the St. Falls sales force has already committed to the bidprice based on the calculation in part b. Should St. Fall's buy the $12 per unit part from the subcontractor or continue to make the parts for job no. 110 itself?

F.Would your response to part e change if the St. Falls plant could use the facilities necessary to produce parts necessary for job no. 110 for another job that could earn an incremental profit of $20,000?

G. If the subcontractor mentioned in part e is located in mexico, what additional international environmental issues, other than price, will Wilster and St. falls management need to evaluate?

H. If gilster company management decides to undertake a target costing approach to pricing its jobs, what types of changes will it need to make for such an approach to be successful?

One of Lotus Compassionate Care’s newest residents in its Residential Care Unit is Mariana Lopes, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who has only been living in Australia for a year. Six months ago, she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes widespread and chronic muscle pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and memory problems. This condition makes it difficult for her to move around at home and carry out her activities of daily living (ADLs), such as taking a shower and dressing up. Mrs. Lopes is a widow and lives with her only son, Anthony, who recently got divorced and is childless. She is left alone at home most of the day when Anthony is at work. Because of this, she decided to move into Lotus Compassionate Care three weeks ago to access their residential care services.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Lopes’ Fibromyalgia worsened due to the low winter temperatures, triggering increased pain in her legs and hips, as well as increased fatigue. She can barely get out of bed without the assistance of Laura, her individual support worker. According to Dr. James Campbell, Lotus Compassionate Care’s general practitioner, Mrs. Lopes’ condition—called Fibromyalgia flare—can last throughout the winter season, and she needs a high-level of assistance with her activities of daily living during this time.

Also, Mrs. Lopes’ native language is Spanish, and she knows little English. This has caused her to feel loneliness and social isolation because this language issue prevents her from building good relationships with Laura and other residents of the facility.

The problem is, although Lotus Compassionate Care has the capability and facilities to meet the needs of a client with Fibromyalgia, it no longer has access to:

⦁   professional interpreting and translating services,
⦁   ethnic/multicultural organisations to source and employ bilingual staff who can address language issues and provide comfort and social support to clients who are non-native English speakers, and
⦁   organisations that can provide language lessons and cultural awareness training for its staff so that they can better meet the needs of clients who are non-native English speakers.

Lotus Compassionate Care must immediately address these gaps in its networks and collaborative partnerships in line with its policies and practices which include:
⦁   Anti-discrimination practices
⦁   Code of Ethics for Residential Aged Care, particularly:
⦁   The right of individuals to be treated with respect.
⦁   The right of individuals to have their religious and cultural identity respected.
⦁   The right to an appropriate standard of care to meet individual needs.
⦁   The recognition that human beings are social beings with social needs.
⦁   Code of Conduct, particularly:
⦁   Promote and protect client’s right about diversity and equity.
⦁   Provide person-centred care that considers the individual’s culture, religious, social, emotional, and physical needs.
⦁   Training and development for staff to achieve the organisation’s goals and objectives

For the purpose of this assessment, this case study scenario is located in your state/territory. （ I live in Ashfield   NSW )

⦁   Identify three (3) needs of Lotus Compassionate Care that it must address to meet Mrs. Lopes’ needs and list them in the order of their importance.
Guidance:
⦁   The first priority must relate to addressing Mrs. Lopes’ need for daily self-care.
⦁   The second priority must relate to addressing Mrs. Lopes’ communication needs.
⦁   The third priority must relate to addressing Mrs. Lopes’ emotional needs.

Waterways Problem 01 b1-b3 (Part Level Submission)

Waterways Corporation is a private corporation formed for the purpose of providing the products and the services needed to irrigate farms, parks, commercial projects, and private lawns. It has a centrally located factory in a U.S. city that manufactures the products it markets to retail outlets across the nation. It also maintains a division that performs installation and warranty servicing in six metropolitan areas.

The mission of Waterways is to manufacture quality parts that can be used for effective irrigation projects that also conserve water. By that effort, the company hopes to satisfy its customers, perform rapid and responsible service, and serve the community and the employees who represent them in each community.

The company has been growing rapidly, so management is considering new ideas to help the company continue its growth and maintain the high quality of its products.

Waterways was founded by Will Winkman who is the company president and chief executive officer (CEO). Working with him from the company’s inception is Will’s brother, Ben, whose sprinkler designs and ideas about the installation of proper systems have been a major basis of the company’s success. Ben is the vice president who oversees all aspects of design and production in the company.

The factory itself is managed by Todd Senter who hires his line managers to supervise the factory employees. The factory makes all of the parts for the irrigation systems. The purchasing department is managed by Helen Hines.

The installation and training division is overseen by vice president Henry Writer, who supervises the managers of the six local installation operations. Each of these local managers hires his or her own local service people. These service employees are trained by the home office under Henry Writer’s direction because of the uniqueness of the company’s products.

There is a small human resources department under the direction of Sally Fenton, a vice president who handles the employee paperwork, though hiring is actually performed by the separate departments. Teresa Totter is the vice president who heads the sales and marketing area; she oversees 10 well-trained salespeople.

The accounting and finance division of the company is headed by Ann Headman, who is the chief financial officer (CFO) and a company vice president; she is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants and holds a certificate in management accounting. She has a small staff of accountants, including a controller and a treasurer, and a staff of accounting input operators who maintain the financial records.

A partial list of Waterways’ accounts and their balances for the month of November follows.

A list of accounts and their values are given above. From this information, prepare an income statement.