Free cash flow Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Free cash flow - Research Paper Example It is therefore the cash flow that remains after the firm makes investment in property, plant and equipments. Often, financial analysts consider free cash flow to be more efficient in measuring the strength of a business than the cash flow from operating activities. To remain competitive large companies and other forms of businesses will need to invest in new equipments in order to maintain its competitive nature. These investments affect the level of free cash flow that the business is able to maintain (Yuangchih, 412). â€Å"This study investigates the ability of Free Cash Flow to predict performance in capital intensive and non-capital intensive industries†. (Nunez, 120). Nunez argues that, â€Å"many financial scholars and researchers have focused on studying the effectiveness of operating cash flow as a measure of a firm’s performance although other researchers have proved that free cash flow is a better measure since it greatly considers capital intensity†. â€Å"Free cash flow as a measure of a firm’s performance is not easy to manipulate compared to the other measures such as earnings, Nunez states. He further states that, â€Å"there are various methods used by different firms in determining their actual free cash flow but there is however no specific guidance given regarding the calculation and this is because its disclosure is not a requirement by the US GAAPs†. â€Å"The few firms that report their free cash flow therefore use the operations based met hod while others use the income based method† (Nunez, 121). Nunez stresses that, â€Å"Firms that base their calculation on operations use a capital maintenance perspective whereby free cash flow is calculated as cash flow from operating activities less capital that are necessary to maintain the firm at a productive capacity and this observes the guidance provided in the International Accounting Standards Board (IAS 7)†. â€Å"The operations based method also uses a perspective

Søren Kierkegaard Essay Example for Free

Sà ¸ren Kierkegaard Essay The term existentialism has been applied to the human subject in all aspects of the individual. Through the ideas of existentialism, philosophers have looked at the existence of the human being. An existential attitude of the world is one of confusion and belief in a meaningless world. The beliefs of existentialism came about as a complete change from the beliefs of periods like the Romantic period. This philosophical view of life came about in the 19th century. These ideas could better be explained by incidents like WWII, and how if there was a god, he would not have let such destruction happen. This view on life led to the pondering on weather or not our lives had any meaning or order to them or if they were completely random and out of our control. This time brought about many different existentialist philosophers, all having very different opinions and views of the world and its meaning. (Crowell, Steven) Soren Kierkegaard was known as the â€Å"father of existentialism† with his new views of life beginning in the 19th century. The basis and the beginning of most of Kierkegaard’s work came from his views on the Danish Church. He is popularly known for his term the â€Å"leap of faith†. He referred to this term both in a person’s belief in God and in love. This is because as he would say neither of these are things we can prove or know for sure, but only something we have to have faith in, something that can be doubted. Kierkegaard also found an importance on self-introspection and the individuals’ subjective relation to a certain subject. (McDonald, William) For example, groups who believe the same basic think all look at it with there own relativity. Most of Kierkegaard’s beliefs and philosophies have to do with moral and religious issues. These issues are the basis for a new way of thinking and looking at life that would later become known as existentialism. Another early philosopher in the 19th century with many existential elements in his thinking was Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche had views that were existential, yet they differed very much from that of Kierkegaard. He questioned Christianity and many other religions that tried to give people morality in there life. (Wicks, Robert ) Nietzsche also had ideas on the value of life and the purpose of life that formed from his belief on morality and God. Most of his ideas did not become very popular and well known until after his lifetime. A decade after WWII many of his philosophical works were revived after much translation. Nietzsche views of morality were Homeric and he saw morality more as wealth, strength, health, and power and not things like charity and pity. The statement that â€Å"God is dead† is something that was used by Nietzsche in his writing. Like much philosophy, some interpretation is done in understanding what it is they mean. Some saw Nietzsche as an atheist as he thought God no longer existed. This belief leads to a feeling that nothing matters in our life and leads to a loss on any perspective on any thing. These views on life from Nietzsche may have led to his symptoms of insanity in 1879. (Wicks, Robert) Jean-Paul Sartre is one of the most well known existentialists of the 20th century. He was a novelist, philosopher, and existentialist. Sartre became interested with the ideas of philosophy early on in his life. (Flynn, Thomas) After being involved with WWII there is a shift in his views on things and he spent most of his life thinking about his existentialist ideas about free will and communism. Sartre spent much time with the idea of consciousness and the idea that reflective consciousness or the idea of self-knowledge is something that always fails. He also said how man tries to make sense of the world it lives in is its only way of proving its own existence. (Flynn, Thomas) Sartre also gives a completely new spin on the idea of free will. The idea that if there were a creator that there would be a plan for it. However, because of this free will people believe in there must be no such creator that has a plan for us. Through this, we can see that atheism was fundamental to the style of Sartre’s existentialism beliefs. Throughout history, there have been many different beliefs on the world, life, politics, and religion. In most cases there is no real say that one is better than another when it comes down to strictly opinionated views. In the case of existentialism it can be seen just through the three philosophers; Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre we can see how one philosophical idea can be approached and looked at in so many different ways. The ideas and theories that make up both philosophy and religion are so diverse and will vary between each individual person. There is no wrong answer in the work of these philosophers, or that of any other philosophers, all make valid points and allow future generations to see there work and make them think. Every human is entitled to there own belief about the purpose of life and there existential views are only important to them. It is our beliefs on life that portray how we go about living our lives and what we live for. Wok Cited Crowell, Steven. Existentialsim. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004. 11 Mar 2009 . Existentialism. Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation Inc.. 11 Mar 2009 . Flynn, Thomas. Jean-Paul Sartre. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004. 11 Mar 2009 . McDonald, William. Soren Kierkegaard . Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 1996. 11 Mar 2009 . Wicks, Robert. Friedrich Nietzsche. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 1997. 11 Mar 2009 .

The Struggle for Self-Definition in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro Essay

The Struggle for Self-Definition in Boys and Girls  Ã‚   When we are adolescents we see the world through our parents' eyes.   We struggle to define ourselves within their world, or to even break away from their world.   Often, the birth of our "self" is defined in a moment of truth or a moment of heightened self-awareness that is the culmination of a group of events or the result of a life crisis or struggle.   In literature we refer to this birth of "self" as an epiphany.   Alice Munro writes in "Boys and Girls" about her own battle to define herself.   She is torn between the "inside" world of her mother and the "outside" world of her father.   In the beginning her father's world prevails, but by the finale, her mother's world invades her heart. Although the transformation is not complete, she begins to understand and define her "self-hood." Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" immerses us into the rural country-side of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada, and into the life of an eleven year-old tom-boy.   The story unfolds how she struggles to become herself while growing up on her parents' farm.   Her father raises silver foxes for the family's meager source of income as her mother cares for their home.   Let us first look at the world she is enthralled with at the start of her narrative. Initially, Father is her world.   As she helps him care for the foxes, she does not call him Daddy; she calls him Father.   The name Father commands respect and formality.   Munro writes, ". . . I was shy of him and would never ask him questions.   Nevertheless I worked willing under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride" (112).   Although eager and happy to spend time with her father, Munro reveals here that she does not have a close relationship with her fath... ...earning from her mother, she will define herself as well.   Indeed, it is not easy growing up.   It is painfully hard to defy the person that you most admire, in this case her father.   But at some point in our young lives we must break free from the conformity of our parents' world in order to give birth to our "self."   This is what Alice Munro shows us through "Boys and Girls." Works Cited and Consulted Carscallen, James. The Other Country: Patterns in the Writing of Alice Munro. Toronto: ecw 1993 Heble, Ajay. The Tumble of Reason: Alice Munro's Discourse of Absence. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1994 Munro, Alice. "Boys and Girls." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Carl E. Bain, Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1995. Martin, W.R. Alice Munro: Paradox and Parallel. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press 1987

Psychology of Stress

The road of pain caused by a Stress-related illness 73132:Psychology of Stress Open Polytechnic Wellington Elizabeth Ross Words:2,149 â€Å"The road of pain caused by a stress-related illness†, is the name of this final assignment. A detailed case study and treatment plan for Sera-jean who has a stress-related illness. I will endeavour to propose a treatment plan to help Sera-jean manage hypertension and type 1diabetes. There will be brief outlines of the techniques I have chosen, how it works and what benefits it will be to Sera-jean overall.There will also be two relaxation ideas for Sera-jean to utilise if she so wishes. Sera-jean is aged thirty-four and is married with 3 children. She has quite a bubbly personality, easy going, diligent, hard- working, open, honest, sympathetic listener, knowledge able and a very sincere and caring person. Sera-jean and her husband had just bought a lifestyle property, so Sera-jean applied and was offered the position of lead operator in t he new plant of Individual Quick Frozen cheese department.A great opportunity to be a part of a new concept in a global organisation, Sera-jean gladly signed up and became an important part of a good team, with the aspirations to want to learn and get a good start to a new concept with great opportunities. After two years IQF had lost 30, 000 metric tonne of Pizza Hut and Dominoes orders, the plant was just unable to keep up with the orders. Machinery breakdowns, rejected product, foreign matter in product, packaging faults and with all of these malfunctions from the plant and loosing orders everyone began to wonder what would happen.Sera-jean was already becoming quite worried about what was going to happen with her department. There was no word from the company, the union or management which from all points of view was very upsetting for everyone. She was getting headaches and at times was having dizzy spells. She took two days off to have some tests done and when she returned she told us that she had hypertension and type 1diabetes. Poor Sera-jean she couldn’t understand why she suddenly had these illnesses as she had always been quite fit and healthy.Change as a stressor, when change happens your life feels out of control and it brings with it discomfort. Sudden and prolonged change frightens us you can have trouble adapting your thinking and cause confusion. When changes are imposed without any input into the process, the other aspect of change that can affect your stress level is the significance of the change on the rest of your life. Extensive research suggests that two related psychological factors can mediate an, organisms responses to the stress of change: controllability and predictability (Krantz, 1986).Perceived control is defined as the felt ability to escape avoids and/or modifies threatening stimuli (Averille, 1973). Increased predictability can help minimize the stress of making changes. The fear of the unknown is a potent stressor tha t needs reduction. Another stressor for Sera-jean that may have contributed to the hypertension is sympathomimetic agents which are the chemical substances that mimic the sympathetic stress response. Many foods contain these substances and when they are consumed it can trigger a stress response in the body, so depending on how much was consumed.Xanthincs are powerful amphetamine-like stimulants that increase metabolism which creates a highly awake and active state. They also trigger release of the stress hormones that among other actions are capable of increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen demands on the heart. Extreme, prolonged stress-hormone secretion can even initiate myocardial necrosis – that is, destruction of the heart tissue. (pp. 179 – 181). Constructive coping tactics for Sera-jean to use help manage stress.Appraisal-focused strategies; detecting and disputing negative self-talk, rational thinking, using positive reinterpretation, finding humour in the situation, turning to religion. Problem – focused strategies; active problem solving, seeking social support, enhancing time management, improving self-control, becoming more assertive. Emotion – focused strategies; releasing pent-up emotions, distracting one, managing hostile feelings and forgiving others, exercising, mediating, using systematic relaxation procedures. (pp. 114 – 131).To relax is the very foundation of any program to overcome anxiety, phobias, or panic attacks. Many other skills such as desensitization, visualization, and changing negative self-talk, build on the capacity to achieve deep relaxation. The type of relaxation that really makes a difference in dealing with anxiety is the regular, daily practice of some form of deep relaxation. Deep relaxation refers to a distinct physiological state that is the exact opposite of the way your body reacts under stress or during a panic attack.This state was originally described by Herbert Benson (pp. 81 – 103. 1975) as the relaxation response. This involves a series of physiological changes, including decreases in heart and respiration rate, blood pressure, skeletal muscle tension, metabolic rate and oxygen consumption, analytical thinking, and an increase in skin resistance and in alpha wave activity in the brain. Regular practice of deep relaxation for twenty to thirty minutes on a daily basis can produce, over time, a generalization of relaxation to the rest of your life.So after several weeks of practicing deep relaxation once per day, Teri-jean will tend to feel more relaxed all the time. There are many benefits of deep relaxation that have been documented such as the following; reduction of generalized anxiety. Many people have found that regular practice also reduces the frequency and severity of panic attacks; to prevent stress from growing in strength. Stress that is unabated may tend to build up overtime. Entering into a state of physiological quiescence o nce a day gives your body the opportunity to recover from the effects of stress.Even sleep can fail to break the cumulative stress cycle unless you give yourself permission to deeply relax while awake; increased energy level and productivity; improved concentration and memory; regular practice of deep relaxation tends to increase your ability to focus and keeps your mind from racing; reduction of insomnia and fatigue; learning to relax leads to sleep that is deeper and sounder; prevention or reduction of psychosomatic disorders, such as hypertension, migraines, headaches, asthma and ulcers; increased self-confidence and reduced self-blame.You can perform better as well as feel better when you are relaxed; increased availability of feelings. Muscle tension is one of the chief impediments to an awareness of your feelings. To achieve a state of deep relaxation, using some of the common methods such as; abdominal breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, passive muscle relaxation, visua lizing a peaceful scene, guided imagery, meditation, biofeedback, sensory deprivation, yoga and calming music. (pp. 86 – 90) Guidelines for practising progressive muscle relaxation (or any orm of deep relaxation) so the following information will definitely help Sera-jean make use of progressive muscle relaxation that is undertaken to practice regularly, including self-hypnosis, guided visualization and meditation. Aerobic or cardiovascular exercises, stretching and toning exercises would encourage your mind and body to be more active on a daily basis. Planning a set programme of relaxation methods, breathing exercises, meditation and counselling these are all shown in this assignment as a great way to help with any and all illnesses that you are experiencing.Stress is a normal part of life, but too much stress can lead to emotional and psychological and even physical problems – including heart disease, high blood pressure, chest pains or irregular heartbeats. Reducing stress can help lower high blood pressure. If stress itself is a risk factor for heart disease, chronic stress exposes your body to unhealthy, persistently elevated levels of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Stress changes the way blood clots, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.Being exposed to long periods of stress is where your body can give warning signs if there is something wrong. These physical cognitive emotional and behavioural signs of stress should not be ignored. Slowing down, if you continue to be stressed and if your body doesn’t rest you will definitely develop health problems. Physical signs; dizziness, general aches and pains, grinding teeth, headaches, indigestion, muscle tensions, racing heart, sweaty palms, tiredness, upset tummy. All mental signs; suffering from constant worry, forgetfulness and the inability to concentrate, lack of creativity, loss of sense of humour.Emotional signs; anger, anxiety, crying depression, feeli ng powerless, frequent mood swings, irritability, loneliness, nervousness, sadness. The behavioural signs; there is bossiness, along with compulsive eating you display explosive actions, and at times you show a critical attitude towards life.. How to cope with stress, eat and drink sensibly, assert your-self and exercise regularly, relax every day, take responsibility and set realistic goals and maintain positive thoughts.It takes commitment, learn and practice relaxation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, mental imagery relaxation, relax to music, biofeedback. It is time to reiterate that stress arousal involves both the mind and body interacting to form a response to an event, the event that might be external to the body or could be a memory or a thought. We will now focus on stress-management techniques that involve the mind and they are autogenic training and visual imagery and this involves the use of mental images to supplement and extend the relaxation response.T he two technics are as follows; challenging limited thinking and cognitive restructuring. There are eight limited thinking patterns; Filtering, you focus on the negative details while ignoring all the positive aspects of a situation; Polarized thinking, things are black or white, good or bad, there’s no middle ground, no room for mistakes; Overgeneralization, you reach a general conclusion based on a single incident or a piece of evidence; Mindreading, without their saying you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do; Catastrophising, you expect to visualise horrible events.Magnifying; you assume that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. Should; you have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. (p. 38) Autogenic (self-produced) training and visual imagery this is where you need to take time to practise the techniques of the exercises recommended and along with the exercises that involve you imagining a sp ecial place, like the beach or a mountain meadow. If you are to become proficient at using the techniques, then, to use it in combination with relaxation and breathing exercises would be the most beneficial to you.So when you have followed these 3 steps of muscle relaxation, controlled breathing and special place imagery have a very effective means of managing stress, or helping others manage stress. However, keep in mind that it is essential to set realistic goals; the primary goal of relaxation and imagery training is to learn the technique; the secondary goal is to influence stress-related body states, such as high blood pressure, pain, tension and nausea. It is important that people do not assess themselves as failures if they do not achieve results quickly.Change may be subtle and takes time to master. It might take the form of a better level of relaxation, or a person achieving emotional, intellectual or spiritual balance before noticing any definite physical change. In conclu sion Sera-jean had all the tools to help her understand the illnesses she had and how to best cope with them. She had got a little bounce in her step and was looking quite relaxed at times, which helped her manage her life her way. It has indeed been very informative for Sera-jean, her family and her work colleagues as she has shared her experiences, what she has ained from the treatment plan and counselling sessions as she feels that if she can help one person to be able get through what she has than it has all been worthwhile. References Girdano, D. A. , Dusek, D. E. , and Everly, G. S. , Jr. (2009). Stress in the workplace. In Controlling stress and tension. (8th ed. , pp. 245-267)). San Francisco, CA: Person/Benjamin Cummings. Furnham, A. (2006). Stress at work. In The psychology of behaviour at work (2nd ed. pp. 354-391). Hove, England: Psychology Press. Weiten, W. Dunn, D. S. , & Hammer, E. Y. (2012) Psychology applied to modern lifeAdjustment in the 21st century. (10th ed. , pp. 114-131)Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Lachman, V. D. (1983). How to minimize stress while making changes. In Stress management: A manual for nurses. (p. 172 – 199). New York, NY: Grune & Stratton. Girdano. D. A. Dusek, D. E. , & Everly, G. S. , Jr. (2009). Stress and the human environment interaction. In Controlling stress and tension (8th ed. , pp. 179 – 199). San Francisco.CA: Benjamin Cummings. Bourne, E. J. , (2010) Relaxation In The anxiety and phobia workbook (5th ed. , pp. 81 – 104) Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. Davis, M, Eshelman, E. R. , & McKay, M (2008) Exercise. In The relaxation and stress. Reduction workbook. (6th ed. , pp. 331-334) Oakland, CA: New Harbinger. Publications. Davis, M. , Eshelman, E. R. , & McKay, M (2008) Coping skills training for fears. In The relaxation and stress reduction workbook (6th ed. , pp. 187-192) Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications

Darwin and Wallace Island Finch Evolution Lab Experiment

Evolution and Natural Selection have been a recurring focus of biology throughout the years. This Particular experiment is based on Charles Darwin’s observations of finches made in the Galapagos Islands. He noted that different neighboring islands in the Galapagos had distinctly different types of finches. He theorized that this was caused by natural selection, where the environment determined the characteristics of the species in it. In the Evolution Lab Experiment, I looked at how beak size and population numbers for two hypothetical populations of finches on two different islands evolved in response to factors that I manipulated by changing environmental conditions. The specific environmental conditions that I chose to manipulate were the precipitation in the environment and the variance of the finches. However I only manipulated the precipitation and variance on Darwin Island and not on Wallace Island. I thought that if Darwin Island finches had less variance and less precipitation than Wallace Island Finches, that Darwin Island finches would be unable to effectively adapt in order to easily consume the type of seed that was a result of the lesser amount of precipitation. MATERIALS The materials required for me to complete this experiment were my laptop and my University of Phoenix Student Website. Once I accessed the University of Phoenix Student Website, I was able to access the Evolution Lab, which is the final required material. An optional material that I chose to use was a pen and paper to take notes. PROCEDURES In order for me to accurately test my hypothesis, I needed to first get to the Evolution Lab. Once I logged onto my University of Phoenix Student Website, I went to the classroom tab and clicked on Evolution Lab, which is found in week three. Once I pulled up the Evolution Lab window, I chose the button labeled â€Å"Change Inputs†. Once I arrived at the screen with the seven variables on the left and the pictures of the finches on the right, I clicked on the tab labeled â€Å"Variance†. The next step is to change the Darwin Island Finch Variance to 0. 50. I did not change the Wallace Island Finch Variance. After the Variance was set, I clicked on the tab labeled â€Å"Precipitation†. I changed the precipitation on Darwin Island to 10 centimeters and left Wallace Island Precipitation at 20 Centimeters. Since I only changed two variables in an attempt to pinpoint the cause of the results, the next step was to click the tab labeled â€Å"Done†. After I chose whether I wanted to look at the results over 100, 200, or 300 years, I clicked the tab labeled â€Å"Run Experiment†. At this point, I was ready to analyze the results and take notes if I needed to. Lastly, if I needed to extend the time the results were recorded, all I needed to do was click the tab labeled â€Å"Revise Expt. †. Then I clicked the pull down tab and changed the range from 100 to 200 or 300. DATA DISCUSSION As seen in this experiment, when the Variance was lowered along with the Precipitation on Darwin Island, the population was on average, half of that of Wallace Island where the numbers were left in the default status. I made the hypothesis that if I decreased the variance and precipitation on Darwin Island, that the finches there would be less able to adapt their beaks to accommodate the larger size of seeds and would eventually all die off. Since the graphs produced from the Evolution Lab program did not depict the species of finches on Darwin Island falling to zero, my hypothesis did not turn out to be correct. I believe that with the variance lowered to . 5 and not all the way to zero, the finches were still able to evolve, but not as rapidly as the finches on Wallace Island. In addition, since only a small amount of evolution was necessary for the finches on Darwin Island to be able to consume the larger seeds produced from a decreased amount of rain; I believe they could have survived with an even smaller amount of variance. The reason I feel that a smaller amount of variance would have sufficed is that, not only did the finches in my experiment not go extinct, but they only remained below their initial population for the first fifty years after the parameters were put into place. One aspect of the experiment that I feel could be improved upon is the lack of information on how many times a new generation was produced. I was wondering how many times the finches would have to produce offspring in order to observe evolution. I can see that it took the finches on Darwin Island fifty years to regain their initial population of 200, but I would like to know how many times in that fifty years new generations were produced so that I could connect rise in population with a number of generations so that I might be able to predict future evolution. An additional way that the experiment could have been improved would if I had given the Wallace Island finches an increased number of variance and same amount of precipitation. This would have allowed me to not only see what would have happened when the finches had a higher likelihood of evolution to the decreased amount of rain and therefore a solidified cause for the resulting population, but it would have allowed me to analyze the reverse effect and possibly predict trends. CONCLUSION Overall, I tested the effect of lowered variance and lowered precipitation of one population of finches while leaving another population of finches as the control group. I predicted that the finches with the lowered variance and lowered precipitation would become extinct. Even though my hypothesis was rejected at the end of the experiment, I learned that even with an increase in the size of their food as a result of lowered precipitation and a lowered ability to evolve, the finches on Darwin Island rebounded quite quickly.