Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Dialogic Teaching in Maths - 2538 Words

The use of questioning and paired work in Mathematics Traditionally, mathematics and language-based subjects have been seen as occurring on opposite sides of a great divide. However, in recent years teachers have realised the importance of talk across the curriculum including mathematics. This is supported by the DfEE (1999a, p11) who state that ‘high quality interactive teaching is oral, interactive and lively. It is a two way process in which pupils are expected to play an interactive role by answering questions, contributing points to discussions, and explaining and demonstrating their methods to the class.’ The recent Cambridge review reinforced the message that ‘teachers†¦show more content†¦Summerfield is a multi cultural school with the majority of pupils from minority backgrounds. The proportion of children speaking English as an additional language is well above average, with almost 25 different languages represented in the school. Ofsted als o noted that one in three pupils has learning difficulties and/or disabilities; which is well above the national average. The school worked on a year and a half form entry basis and so classes were generally small. During numeracy children were divided into three ability groups and each group was taught separately. My partner and I (Miss M) worked with the lower ability group. Ofsted (2009) noted that the ‘arrangements for teaching numeracy in smaller groups have had a dramatic effect on pupils progress, improving mathematics from a relative weakness to one of the schools strengths.’ However, doing so may mean that children know that very little is expected from them. According to Cockburn (1999, p15) ‘if a child is labelled as not being able or lacking in confidence, it may not be very long before that child ceases to perform to the best of their abilities.’ In order to ensure that we both had enough teaching opportunities we decided we would lead the class alternate lessons – whilst the other worked with a group ofShow MoreRelatedThe Method Of Instruction That Physics Teachers876 Words   |  4 PagesThe learning theory encompasses the reasoning behind why teaching and learning is approached in such a broad manner and the influences that go into the relationship in order to best benefit learning. Over time, students vary with how they best learn with the technology and ever- changing world around them. Therefore, instruction should be suited to change with it. These two articles point towards a general concession: that learning and teaching should not depend on one approach, but many directionsRead MoreJohn Hattie s Synthesis Of Approximately 800 Meta Analysis Studies948 Words   |  4 PagesThis approach is applied to the district curriculum to provide equity for my students. A dialogic approach to math discourse further suppo rts this type of learning community and promotes a learner-centered environment. The dialogic approach lacks a set of pre-determined correct responses. This method of questioning allows students to expand and alter the responses of other students. The dialogic approach to math discourse enables the teacher to employ primarily individual nominations to select participantsRead MoreThe Effects Of Classroom Talk On The Classroom2407 Words   |  10 PagesIn teaching, a large proportion of time is spent in talking and listening. As the major factor in a classroom it should become the main process by which a pupil learns. After all it is the primary method that humans use to communicate. It leads me to ask how important is it? And does what is talked about in lessons equate to the quality of learning that is happening in the classroom. On the basis of these questions, Daniels (2001 cited in Alexander, 2004:8) argues that classroom talk not only mediatesRead MoreMadison Metropolitan Scho ol District18559 Words   |  75 Pagesstrategies to render the values expressed in their practice more consistent with the educational values they espouse; record their work in a form which is readily available to and understandable by other teachers; and thus develop a shared theory of teaching by researching practice. - John Elliott What is Action Research? | Five Phases of Action Research | Starting Points | Data Collection: The 5 W s and an H | Writing Prompts for Classroom Action Researchers | Ideas for Your Final Write-up | What

Monday, December 23, 2019

The Ebola Virus Essay - 1307 Words

Disease name Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) Four identified subtypes of Ebola: (4)  · Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast (cause disease in humans)  · Ebola-Reston (cause disease in non-human primates only) Means of Transmission Person-to-person transmission Direct contact of blood, secretions, semen, vomit, diarrhea (1) or organs of infected person Sexually transmitted - â€Å"Transmission through semen may occur up to 7 weeks after clinical recovery, as with Marburg haemorrhagic fever.† (2) Direct contact of deceased body at burial ceremonies (3) Indirect Contact: touching contaminated objects such as needles Aerosol transmission: â€Å"Not implicated in human outbreaks, although transmission in†¦show more content†¦They, like humans, are believed to be infected directly from the natural reservoir or through a chain of transmission from the natural reservoir.† (3) Etiological agent: Filoviridae â€Å"Together with Marburg virus, Ebola makes up the family Filoviridae, of the order Mononegavirales ( the non-segmented, negative-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses† (5) Four identified subtypes of Ebola: (4)  · Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast (cause disease in humans)  · Ebola-Reston (cause disease in non-human primates only) General Characteristics: Appearance: thin and filamentous; comma shaped or branched (1) â€Å"Both Ebola and Lassa virus exhibit the following characteristics: (5)  · insensitivity to antiviral effects of INF  · dominant role of cellular immunity in recovery  · highly glycosylated proteins affecting immune recognition  · moderate cytopathic effects after isolation in mammalian cell culture  · proclivity for infecting macrophages  · immunosuppressive effects following infectionShow MoreRelatedEbola Virus ( Virus )1231 Words   |  5 PagesEbola was named for a small river near Maridi, Sudan. Since Ebola first appeared in 1967 there have been over 100 cases of Ebola with more than 50% of the patients dying within days of their acute symptoms. Ebola is classified as a biosafety level four agent because of its extreme pathogenicity and the lack of a vaccine or antiviral drug. Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus); Sudan virus (Sudan ebolavirus); Taà ¯ Forest virus (Taà ¯ Forest ebolavirus, formerly Cà ´te d’Ivoire ebolavirus); and Bundibugyo virusRead MoreThe Ebola Virus1631 Words   |  7 PagesThe Ebola Virus A virus is an ultramicroscopic infectious organism that, having no independent metabolic activity, can replicate only within a cell of another host organism. A virus consists of a core of nucleic acid, either RNA or DNA, surrounded by a coating of antigenic protein and sometimes a lipid layer surrounds it as well. The virus provides the genetic code for replication, and the host cell provides the necessary energy and raw materials. There are more than 200 viruses thatRead MoreEbola Virus : A Virus1009 Words   |  5 PagesBiology 101, MWF 10am Ebola Paper Ebola Virus Over the past couple years, discussion regarding the Ebola virus has gone viral and ignited chaos both domestically and abroad. Ebola is a virus that was discovered back in 1976, but has not failed to grab people’s attention in the recent years (1). It is a very fatal virus that targets the liver and blood vessel lining (10). When Ebola goes untreated it can lead to fatalities or worse off, deaths. There are 5 virus species of Ebola that are linked withRead MoreEbola Outbreak Of Ebola Virus1343 Words   |  6 PagesEnglish 1301 November 23, 2014 Ebola Discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River, Ebola’s first two outbreaks in Sudan and Zaire killed the majority, over half, of the people infected with the disease. Although the natural host reservoir of Ebola has yet to be found, the virus is believed to be animal-borne. A person gets Ebola from a wild animal and then is spread throughout the human population through person-to-person transmission. Healthcare workers providing aide for Ebola victims know that they haveRead MoreEbola Outbreak Of Ebola Virus988 Words   |  4 Pages Ebola is a virus that was discovered in 1976, but has not failed to grab people’s attention because of recent outbreaks (1). It is often a fatal viral infection that targets the liver and blood vessel lining (10). When Ebola goes untreated it can lead to fatalities. There are 5 viral species of Ebola that are linked with infecting not only humans, but also animals (2). Many animals, such as African chimps, monkeys and other primates, are suspected of being the primary source of the Ebola virusRead MoreEbola Virus1830 Words   |  8 Pagesï » ¿Ebola Virus Ebola virus (EBOV) is considered to be one of the most belligerent contagious agents and has an ability to cause highly fatal hemorrhagic fever syndrome that results in human and non-human primate’s death (NHPs) during the days of exposure. The first notification of the virus was mentioned in the Ebola River valley in Zaire for the time of an outburst in 1976. Moreover, the outbursts have appeared in Africa over the following 27 years, with death rates that differ from 50 to 90%.Read MoreThe Epidemic Of Ebola Virus Ebola1814 Words   |  8 PagesThe virus Ebola, or formally known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is something most, if not all, Americans have heard of in these past few months since it has taken American media by storm. Ebola is a severe, often fatal illness, with an astonishingly high case fatality rate. It is considered one of the world’s most virulent diseases and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people (Ebola Virus Disease). This, however, is not the only aspectRead MoreThe Epidemic Of Ebola Virus Ebola1943 Words   |  8 PagesThe virus Ebola, or formally known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is something most, if not all, Americans have heard of in these past few months since it has taken American media by storm. Ebola is a severe, often fatal illness, with an astonishingly high case fatality rate. It is considered one of the world’s most virulent diseases and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people (Ebola Virus Disease). This, however, is not the only aspectRead MoreThe Ebola Virus Essay1208 Words   |  5 Pages In the year 1976, Ebola climbed out of its unknown hiding place, and caused the death of 340 people. Fear gripped the victims faces, and uncertainty tortured their minds. The people of Zaire waited outside clinics, churches and in their homes for a treatment of the horrible disease, but ther e was no cure. They were forced to watch people die, hoping that they would be saved from the violent death of the Ebola virus. From the year of 1976 to the present date of 1996, researchers have searched forRead MoreTracking the Ebola Virus733 Words   |  3 Pages These past years I spent my time tracking the virus of Ebola as well as its various strains all over the world. At first I didn’t know of the disease, only of the mysterious deaths. I had heard a rumor of a man by the name of Monet who had become mysteriously sick with a disease that none have seen. This information led me to Nairobi, Kenya where the man was supposed to be. When I arrived at Nairobi Hospital I didn’t encounter the man of my search. I questioned a nurse, who asked not to be named

Sunday, December 15, 2019

A Dirty Job Chapter 15 Free Essays

15 THE CALL OF BOOTY Fuck puppets,† Ray said out of nowhere. He was on the stair-climbing machine next to Charlie and they were both sweating and staring at a row of six, perfectly tuned female bottoms aimed at them from the machines in front of them. â€Å"What was that?† Charlie said. We will write a custom essay sample on A Dirty Job Chapter 15 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Fuck puppets,† Ray said. â€Å"That’s what they are.† Ray had talked Charlie into coming to his health club with him under the pretense of getting him into the flow of being single. Actually, because Ray was an ex-cop, watched people more closely than really was healthy, had too much time on his hands, and didn’t get out much himself, the real reason he asked Charlie to come work out with him was so he could get to know him outside of the shop. He’d noticed a strange pattern that had developed since Rachel’s death, of Charlie showing up with people’s property shortly after their obituary appeared in the paper. Because Charlie kept to himself socially and was secretive about what he did when he was out of the shop, not to mention all the little animals that ended up dead in Charlie’s apartment, Ray suspected that he might be a serial killer. Ray decided to try to get close to his boss and find out for sure. â€Å"Keep your voice down, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"Jeez.† Since Ray couldn’t turn his head, he was talking right at the women’s butts. â€Å"They can’t hear me; look, every single one has on a headset.† He was right, every one of them was talking on a cell phone. â€Å"You and I are invisible to them.† Having actually been invisible to people, or nearly so, Charlie did a double take. It was midmorning and the gym was full of lean spandex-clad women in their twenties with disproportionately large breasts, perfect skin, and expensive hair, who seemed to have the ability to look right through him the way that everyone did when he was in pursuit of a soul vessel. In fact, when he and Ray had first come into the gym, Charlie had actually looked around for some object, pulsing red, thinking that he might have missed a name on his date book that morning. â€Å"After I was shot I dated a physical therapist that worked here for a while,† Ray said. â€Å"She called them that: fuck puppets. Every one of them has an apartment that some older executive guy is paying for – just like he paid for the health-club membership and the fake tits. They spend their days getting facials and manicures, and their nights under some suit out of his suit.† Charlie was wildly uncomfortable with Ray’s litany, talking about these women who were only a couple of feet away. Like any Beta Male, he would have been wildly uncomfortable in the presence of so many beautiful women anyway, but this made it worse. â€Å"So like they’re like trophy wives?† Charlie said. â€Å"Nuh-uh, like wannabe trophy wives. They don’t get the guy, the house, whatever. They just exist to be his perfect piece of ass.† â€Å"Fuck puppets?† Charlie said. â€Å"Fuck puppets,† said Ray. â€Å"But forget them, they’re not why you’re here.† Ray was right, of course. They weren’t why Charlie was there. Five years had passed since Rachel’s death, and everyone had been telling him he needed to get back in the game, but that’s not why he agreed to accompany the ex-cop to the gym. Because Charlie spent too much time on his own, especially since Sophie had started school, and because he’d been hiding a secret identity and avocation, he’d started to suspect that everyone might have one. And since Ray kept to himself, talked a lot about people in the neighborhood who had died, and because he really didn’t seem to have a social life beyond the Filipino women he contacted online, Charlie suspected Ray might be a serial killer. Charlie thought he’d try to get closer to Ray and find out. â€Å"So they’re like mistresses?† Charlie said. â€Å"Like in Europe?† â€Å"I suppose,† Ray said. â€Å"But did you ever get the impression that mistresses worked this hard to look good? I think fuck puppet is more accurate, because when they get too old to hold the attention of their guy, they’ve got nothing more going. They’ll be done, like marionettes with no one at the strings.† â€Å"Jeez, Ray, that’s harsh.† Maybe Ray is stalking one of these women, Charlie thought. Ray shrugged. Charlie looked up and down the line of perfect derrieres, then felt the weight of his years alone or in the company of a child and two giant dogs, and said, â€Å"I want a fuck puppet.† Aha! thought Ray. He’s picking a victim. â€Å"Me, too,† he said. â€Å"But guys like us don’t get fuck puppets, Charlie. We just get ignored by them.† Aha! Charlie thought. The bitter sociopath comes out. â€Å"So that’s why you brought me here, so I could show I was out of shape in front of gorgeous women who wouldn’t notice?† â€Å"No, the fuck puppets are fun to look at, but there’s some normal women who come here, too.† Who won’t talk to me either, Ray thought. â€Å"Who won’t talk to you either,† Charlie said. Because they can tell that you are a psychokiller. â€Å"We’ll see in the juice bar after our workout,† Ray said. Where I’ll sit at an angle so I can watch you pick your victim. You sick fuck, they thought. Charlie awoke to find not one, but three new names in his date book, and the last one, a Madison McKerny, had only three days for him to retrieve her soul vessel. Charlie kept a stack of newspapers in the house and, typically, would go back for a month looking for an obituary of his new client. More often, if the hellhounds would give him some peace, he would simply wait for the name to appear in the obituary section, then go find the soul vessel when it was easy to get into the house, with mourners or posing as an estate buyer. But this time he had only three days, and Madison McKerny hadn’t appeared in the obituaries, so that meant she was probably still alive, and he couldn’t find her in the phone book either, so he was going to need to get moving quickly. Mrs. Ling and Mrs. Korjev liked to do their marketing on Saturdays, so he called his sister, Jane, and asked her to come watch Sophie. â€Å"I want a baby brother,† Sophie announced to her Auntie Jane. â€Å"Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry, you can’t have a baby brother, because that would mean that Daddy had sex, and that’s never going to happen again.† â€Å"Jane, don’t talk to her that way,† Charlie said. He was making sandwiches for them and wondering why he always got stuck making the sandwiches. To Sophie, he said, â€Å"Honey, why don’t you go in your room and play with Alvin and Mohammed, Daddy needs to talk with Auntie Jane.† â€Å"Okay,† Sophie said, skipping off to her room. â€Å"And don’t change clothes again, those are fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"That’s the fourth outfit she’s had on today,† he said to Jane. â€Å"She changes clothes like you change girlfriends.† â€Å"Ouch. Be gentle, Chuck, I’m sensitive and I can still kick your ass.† Charlie spanked some mayonnaise onto a whole wheat slice to show he was serious. â€Å"Jane, I’m not sure it’s healthy for her to have all these different aunties around. She’s already had a hard time losing her mother, and now you’ve moved away – I just don’t think she should keep getting attached to these women only to have them yanked out of her life. She needs a consistent female influence.† â€Å"First, I have not moved away, I’ve moved across town, and I see her every bit as often as when I lived in the building. Second, it’s not like I’m promiscuous, I’m just shitty at relationships. Third, Cassie and I have been together for three months, and we’re doing fine so far, which is why I’ve moved out. And fourth, Sophie did not lose her mother, she never had her mother, she had you, and if you’re going to be a decent human being, you need to get laid.† â€Å"That’s what I mean, you can’t talk like that in front of Sophie.† â€Å"Charlie, it’s true! Even Sophie can see it. She doesn’t even know what it is and she can tell that you’re not getting any.† Charlie stopped constructing sandwiches and came over to the counter. â€Å"It’s not sex, Jane. It’s human contact. I was getting my hair cut the other day and the hairdresser’s breast rubbed against my shoulder and I almost came. Then I almost cried.† â€Å"Sounds like sex to me, little brother. Have you been with anyone since Rachel died?† â€Å"You know I haven’t.† â€Å"That’s wrong. Rachel wouldn’t want that for you. You have to know that. I mean she took pity on you and hooked up with you, and that couldn’t have been easy for her, knowing she could do so much better.† â€Å"Took pity on me?† â€Å"That’s what I’m saying. She was a sweet woman, and you’re much more pitiful now than you were then. You had more hair then, and you didn’t have a kid and two dogs the size of Volvos. Hell, there’s probably some order of nuns that would do you now, just as a holy act of mercy. Or penance.† â€Å"Stop it, Jane.† â€Å"The Sisters of Perpetual Nookiless Suffering.† â€Å"I’m not that bad,† Charlie said. â€Å"The Holy Order of Saint Bonny of the BJ, patron saint of Web porn and incurable wankers.† â€Å"Okay, Jane, I’m sorry I said that about you changing girlfriends. I was out of line.† Jane leaned back on her bar stool and crossed her arms, looking satisfied but skeptical. â€Å"But the problem remains.† â€Å"I’m fine. I have Sophie and I have the business, I don’t need a girlfriend.† â€Å"A girlfriend? A girlfriend is too ambitious for you. You just need someone to have sex with.† â€Å"I do not.† â€Å"Yes, you do.† â€Å"Yes, I do,† Charlie said, defeated. â€Å"But I have to go. Are you okay to watch Sophie?† â€Å"Sure, I’m going to take her to my place. I have an obnoxious neighbor up the street that I’d like to introduce to the puppies. Will they poop on command?† â€Å"They will if Sophie tells them.† â€Å"Perfect. We’ll see you tonight. Promise me you’ll ask someone out. Or at least look for someone to ask out.† â€Å"I promise.† â€Å"Good. Did you get that new blue pinstripe tailored yet?† â€Å"Stay out of my closet.† â€Å"Don’t you need to get going?† Ray figured that it had probably started when Charlie murdered all those little animals he brought home for his daughter. Maybe buying the big black dogs was a cry for help – pets that someone would really notice being gone. According to the movies, they all started out that way – with the little animals, then before long they moved up to hitchhikers, hookers, and pretty soon they were mummifying a whole flock of counselors at some remote summer camp and posing the crusty remains around a card table in their mountain lair. The mountain lair didn’t fit the profile for Charlie, since he had allergies, but that might just be an indication of his diabolical genius. (Ray had been a street cop, so it hadn’t really been necessary for him to study criminal profiling, and his theories tended toward the colorful, a side effect of his Beta Male imagination and large DVD collection.) But Charlie had asked Ray to use his contacts on the force and at the DMV a half-dozen times to locate people, all of whom ended up dead a few weeks later. But not murders. And while a lot of items belonging to the recently deceased had turned up in the shop in the last few years (Ray had found antitheft numbers etched on a dozen items and called them in to a friend on the force who identified the owners), none of them had been murdered either. There were a few accidents, but mostly it was natural causes. Either Charlie was devious to an extraordinary degree, or Ray was out of his mind, a possibility that he didn’t discount completely, if for no other reason than he had three ex-wives who would testify to it. Thus, he’d devised the workout ruse to draw Charlie out. Then again, Charlie had always treated him really well, and if it turned out he didn’t have a mountain lair full of mummified camp counselors, Ray knew he’d feel bad about tricking him. What if there was nothing wrong with Charlie except that he needed to get laid? Ray was chatting with Eduardo, his new girlfriend at when Charlie came down the back steps. â€Å"Ray, I need you to find someone for me.† â€Å"Hang on a second, I have to sign off. Charlie, check out my new squeeze.† Ray pulled up a photo on the screen of a heavily made-up but attractive Asian woman. â€Å"She’s pretty, Ray. I can’t give you any time off right now to go to the Philippines, though. Not until we hire someone to take Lily’s shifts.† Charlie leaned into the screen. â€Å"Dude, her name is Eduardo.† â€Å"I know. It’s a Filipino thing, like Edwina.† â€Å"She has a five-o’clock shadow.† â€Å"You’re just being a racist. Some races have more facial hair than others. I don’t care about that, I just want someone who is honest and caring and attractive.† â€Å"She has an Adam’s apple.† Ray squinted at the screen, then quickly clicked off the monitor and spun around on the stool. â€Å"So who do you need me to find?† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"An Adam’s apple doesn’t preclude someone from being honest, caring, and attractive, it just makes it less likely.† â€Å"Right. It was just bad lighting, I think. Anyway, who do you need to find?† â€Å"All I have is the name Madison McKerny. I know he or she lives in the city, but that’s all I know.† â€Å"It’s a she.† â€Å"Pardon me?† â€Å"Madison, it’s a stripper’s name.† Charlie shook his head. â€Å"You know this woman?† â€Å"I don’t know her, although the name seems familiar. But Madison is a new-generation stripper name. Like Reagan and Morgan.† â€Å"Lost me, Ray.† â€Å"I’ve spent some time in strip joints, Charlie. I’m not proud of it, but it’s sort of what you do when you’re a cop. And you pick up on the pattern of stripper names.† â€Å"Didn’t know that.† â€Å"Yeah, and there’s sort of a progression going back to the fifties: Bubbles, Boom Boom, and Blaze begat Bambi, Candy, and Jewel, who begat Sunshine, Brandy, and Cinnamon, who begat Amber, Brittany, and Brie, who begat Reagan, Morgan, and Madison. Madison is a stripper name.† â€Å"Ray, you weren’t even alive in the fifties.† â€Å"No, I wasn’t alive during the forties either, but I know about World War Two and big-band music. I’m into history.† â€Å"Right. So, I need to look for a stripper? Doesn’t help. I don’t even know where to start.† â€Å"I’ll go through the DMV and the tax records. If she’s in town we’ll have an address on her by this afternoon. Why do you need to find her?† There was a pause while Charlie pretended to find a smudge on the glass of the counter display case, wiped it away, then said, â€Å"Uh, it’s an estate thing. One of the estates we got recently had some items that were left to her.† â€Å"Shouldn’t the executor of the estate take care of that, or his lawyer?† â€Å"It’s minutiae, not named in the will. The executor asked me to handle it. There’s fifty bucks in it for you.† Ray grinned. â€Å"That’s okay, I was going to help anyway, but if she turns out to be a stripper I get to go with you, okay?† â€Å"Deal,† Charlie said. Three hours later Ray gave the address to Charlie and watched as his boss bolted out of the shop and grabbed a cab. Why a cab? Why not take the van? Ray wanted to follow, needed to follow, but he had to find someone to cover the store. He should have anticipated this, but he’d been distracted. Ray had been distracted since talking to Charlie, not just by the search for Madison McKerny, but also because he was trying to figure out how to work â€Å"Do you have a penis?† casually into the conversation with his sweetheart, Eduardo. After a couple of teasing e-mails, he could stand it no longer and had just typed out, Eduardo, not that it makes any difference, but I’m thinking of sending you some sexy lingerie as a friendship present, and I wondered if I should make any special accommodations for the panties. Then he waited. And waited. And granted that it was five in the morning in Manila, he was second-guessing himself. Had he been too vague, or had he not been vague enough? And now he had to go. He knew where Charlie was going, but he had to get there before anything happened. He dialed Lily’s cell phone, hoping that she wouldn’t be working at her other job and would do him a favor. â€Å"Speak, ingrate,† Lily answered. â€Å"How did you know it was me?† Ray asked. â€Å"Ray?† â€Å"Yeah, how did you know it was me?† â€Å"I didn’t,† Lily said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"Can you come cover the store for me for a couple of hours?† Then, as he heard her take a deep breath that he was pretty sure would be propellant for verbal abuse, he added, â€Å"There’s fifty bucks extra in it for you.† Ray heard her exhale. Yes! After graduating from the Culinary Institute, Lily had gotten a job as a sous chef at a bistro in North Beach, but she didn’t make enough to move out of her mother’s apartment yet, so she let Charlie talk her into keeping a couple of shifts at Asher’s Secondhand, at least until he could find a replacement. â€Å"Okay, Ray, I’ll come in for a couple of hours, but I have to be at the restaurant by five, so be back or I’m closing up early.† â€Å"Thanks, Lily.† Charlie sincerely hoped that Ray wasn’t a serial killer, despite all the indications to the contrary. He would never have found this woman without Ray’s police contacts, and what would he do in the future if he needed to find someone and Ray was in jail? Then again, Ray’s experience as a cop could account for his never leaving any evidence. But why, then, would he continue to pursue the Filipino women over the Internet if he was just looking to kill people? Maybe that’s what he did when he went to the Philippines to visit his paramours. Maybe he killed desperate Filipinas. Maybe Ray was a tourist serial killer. Deal with it later, Charlie thought. For now, there’s a soul vessel to retrieve. Charlie got out of the cab outside of the Fontana, an apartment building just a block up from Ghirardelli Square, the waterfront chocolate factory turned tourist mall. The Fontana was a great, curved, concrete-and-glass building that commanded views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and that had drawn the disdain of San Franciscans since it had been built in the 1960s. It wasn’t that it was an ugly building, although no one would argue that it wasn’t, but with the Victorian and Edwardian structures all around it, it looked very much like a giant air conditioner from outer space attacking a nineteenth-century neighborhood. However, the views from the apartments were exquisite, there was a doorman, underground parking, and a pool on the roof, so if you could handle the stigma of residing in an architectural pariah, it was a great place to live. The address Ray had given him for Madison was on the twenty-second floor, and so, presumably, was her soul vessel. Charlie wasn’t sure of the exact range of his unnoticeability (he refused to think of it as invisibility, because it wasn’t), but he hoped that it reached twenty-two floors. He was going to have to get past the doorman and into an elevator, and posing as an estate buyer wasn’t going to work. Ah, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If he got caught, he’d just have to find another way in. He waited by the door until a young woman in business attire went in, then followed her into the lobby. The doorman didn’t even look at him. Ray saw Charlie get out of the cab and told his own driver to stop a block away, where he hopped out, threw the driver a five and told him to keep the change, then dug in his pocket for the rest of the fare while the driver pounded on the wheel impatiently and cursed under his breath in Urdu. â€Å"Sorry, it’s been a while since I took a cab,† Ray said. Ray had a car, a nice little Toyota, but the only parking place he could find was eight blocks away from his apartment in the parking lot of a hotel managed by a friend of his, and when you got a parking place in San Francisco, you kept it, so Ray mostly used public transportation and only drove the car on his days off to keep the battery charged. He’d jumped in a taxi outside Charlie’s shop and shouted, â€Å"Follow that cab!† thus completely terrifying the Japanese family in the back. â€Å"Sorry,† Ray said. â€Å"Konichiwa. It’s been a while since I took a cab.† Then he jumped back out and caught a cab that didn’t have a fare. He sneaked quickly up the street, going from light post, to newspaper machine, to ad kiosk, ducking behind each, staying in his stealth-crouch, and achieving nothing whatsoever except to look like a complete loon to the kid standing at the bus stop across the street. He reached the underground parking entrance of the Fontana just as Charlie was making for the door. Ray crouched behind the key-card pillar. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if Charlie went for the building. Fortunately, he’d memorized Madison McKerny’s phone number, and he could warn her that Charlie was coming. In the cab on the way down here he’d remembered where he’d seen her name: on the register at his health club. Madison McKerny was one of the midmorning fuck puppets from the gym, and as Ray suspected, Charlie was stalking her. He watched Charlie fall in behind a young woman in business dress who was heading up the walk into the Fontana, then Charlie was gone. Just gone. Ray came out onto the sidewalk to get a better angle. The woman was still there, she’d gone only a couple of steps, but he couldn’t see Charlie. There were no bushes, no walls, the whole damn lobby was glass, where the hell had he gone? Ray was sure he hadn’t looked away, he didn’t even think he had blinked, and he would have seen any sudden move Charlie might have made. Reverting to the Beta Male’s tendency to blame himself, Ray wondered if maybe he’d had some kind of petit mal seizure that had made him black out for a second. Whether he did or not, he had to warn Madison McKerny. He reached to his belt and felt the empty cell-phone clip, then remembered putting his phone under the register when he’d gotten to work that morning. Charlie found the right apartment and rang the bell. If he could get Madison McKerny to come out into the hallway, he could slip in behind her and look through her apartment for her soul vessel. Just down the hall there was a table with an artificial flower arrangement. He’d tipped it over, hoping she was compulsive or curious enough to come out of her apartment to get a closer look. If she wasn’t home, well, he’d have to break in. Odds were that with a doorman downstairs, she didn’t have an alarm system. But what if she could see him? Sometimes they could, the clients. Not often, but it happened, and – She opened the door. Charlie was stunned. She was stunning. Charlie stopped breathing and stared at her breasts. It wasn’t that she was a young and gorgeous brunette, with perfect hair and perfect skin. Nor was it that she was wearing a thin, white silk robe that just barely concealed her swimsuit-model figure. Nor was it because she had disproportionately large but alert breasts that were straining against the robe and peeking out of the plunging neckline as she leaned out the door, although that would have been enough to render the hapless Beta breathless under any circumstances. It was that her breasts were glowing red, right through the silk robe, glowing right out of the dcolletage like twin rising suns, pulsating like the lightbulb boobies of a kitschy Hawaiian hula girl lamp. Madison McKerny’s soul was residing in her breast implants. â€Å"I’ve got to get my hands on those,† Charlie said, forgetting that he wasn’t exactly alone and he wasn’t exactly thinking to himself. Then Madison McKerny noticed that Charlie was there and the screaming started. How to cite A Dirty Job Chapter 15, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Transfer Pricing Mining and Manufacturing

Question: This question is a practical question requiring answers to the questions at the end of the following information. The Complete Mining and Manufacturing Company has several divisions and two of these are involved in the transfer of products. The Cleaning and Scraping Division produces raw Cruden and transfers it to the Processing Division where it is processed into an alloy. The Processing Division then sells it on the open market for $160 per unit. Currently the Complete Mining and Manufacturing Company requires all of the Cruden to be transferred from the Cleaning and Scraping Division to the Processing Division. Currently the Cleaning and Scraping Division produces 400,000 units per year and transfers it all to the Processing Division at total actual manufacturing cost plus 10%. The Cruden can be purchased and sold on the open market for $95 and all that is sent to market can be sold on the market at this price. If the Cleaning and Scraping Division sells the Cruden on the open market it will incur a variable selling cost of $5 per unit . The following details show the unit costs for the C leaning and Scraping and Processing Divisions Cleaning and Scraping Division Processing Division Transfer price from Cleaning and Scraping $77 Direct material 18 5 Direct labour 12 10 Manufacturing overhead 40 25 Total cost per unit 70 117 Manufacturing overhead in Cleaning and Scraping is 25% fixed,75% variable Manufacturing overhead in Processing is 60% fixed,40% variable Required: (a) Explain why transfer prices based on total actual costs are not appropriate as the basis for divisional performance measurement (b)Using the market price as the transfer price, calculate the contribution margin for both divisions. (c) If the Complete Mining and Manufacturing Company were to institute the use of negotiated transfer prices and allow divisions to buy and sell on the open market determine the price range for Cruden that would be acceptable to both divisions. (d)Use the general transfer pricing rule to compute the lowest transfer price that would be acceptable to the Cleaning and Scraping Division? Will this transfer price be the one that the manager of the Cleaning and Scraping Division prefers? Provide an explanation for your answer to this question. Answers: There are three pitfalls of using transfer price based on the total cost of production: Generally, performance of divisions is measured with the contribution margin of the particular division. Generally, by fixing transfer price based on the total cost of production does not account for any value based pricing of product in the market. In our case as transfer pricing is based on the cost plus pricing and way lower than that of prevailing market price of Cruden that is $95, so by doing so company artificially lowed the performance of cleaning and scraping division and on the other end performance of processing unit is exaggerated due to the same. So the best way to determine the performance of each unit is when transfer pricing is taken as market price of the goods. In this case as mentioned the cleaning and scraping division is better off by selling the product in the market rather than selling to the different unit of same company. This is only possible when there is an efficient market of the goods. The other pitfall of using full cost as transfer pricing is issue in analysis of cost behaviour. The full cost consists of variable cost and fixed cost for a particular company. So fixed cost portion of the selling unit is now converted into the variable cost for the buying unit of company. This lead to the wrong decision when analysing the cost of final product for the company. Generally, full actual costs include certain degree of inefficiencies. So if the company is using it as a transfer pricing then often they fail to provide an incentive to the management to control such inefficiencies of the systems. At the same time fixed portion of cost is allocated based on the projected annual production figure and that is just an estimate of actual production. So this will also lead to certain calculation error of getting true transfer price of the product among different units. Contribution margin corresponds to the marginal profit resulted from selling one unit of product. This is calculated as product's price minus variable costs of the manufacturing of the product. The sum total of all the contribution margin represents the profit generated by the company after paying all the fix expenses. Form the given data: Transfer price of Cruden = $95 per unit Cleaning and scraping division processing division Price of the final product sold 95 160 Variable Cost of goods sold* 60 120 (*if fix component of manufacturing cost is not taken in consideration) Contribution margin 35/95 = 36.8% 40/160 = 25.0% so from the calculation we see that contribution margin of each unit will depend on the transfer price of the product. In our case as we have taken market price as transfer price so contribution margin of the cleaning and scraping unit is higher than that of the processing unit division. The reason of this is that transfer price is the variable price of the processing unit and the more it is less will be the contribution margin. When both buying and selling parties involved in the negotiation of transfer pricing then there are different objectives of each parties. The selling parties will not accept any price lower than the lowest transfer price and buying party will not accept any price any price higher than the maximum transfer price. In our case the lowest transfer price is $90 in case of no spare capacity of production and highest transfer price will be equal to the market price of Cruden that is $95. So If Cruden is allowed to trade with open market, then negotiated price will be in the range of $90 - $95 per unit. Explanation: As mentioned that variable cost of selling Cruden in the market for cleaning and scraping division is $5 per unit. So maximum profit per unit this division can earn is $20 by selling in the open market. However, if they sell this product processing division then they can save this amount. On the other end if processing unit wants to buy Cruden from market then they need to pay at least $95 per unit. So they may consider buying Cruden at $95 form cleaning and scraping unit. So negotiated price range is $90-$95 per unit. When we look at the lowest transfer price then we look from the selling division point of view of pricing. In this case there are two scenarios: When division has spare capacity of production When division do not have any spare production capacity The lowest transfer price that selling division happy to sell is: marginal cost + opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is value of best forgone alternatives. So in case of spare capacity opportunity cost is zero and lowest price would be equal to marginal cost of production of product. However, in case of no spare capacity, opportunity cost defined as: Get the market price of product Calculate any additional cost savings if sold internally deduct (ii) from (i) for lowest transfer price In our case the product has $95 market price and $5 saving if it sold internally. So lowest transfer price would be equal to $90 if Cleaning and scraping division does not have any spare capacity. In this case selling division will not make any extra profit by selling product internally or externally. So they are happy to sale at this price. However, in case of spare capacity lowest transfer price is equal to the marginal cost of production of a unit. So in this case Marginal cost = Direct material + Direct labour + Variable overhead = 18 + 12 + 30 = $60 So minimum acceptable transfer pricing for cleaning and scraping unit is $60 per unit. This price will not be acceptable to the division manager as their total cost of production including the fix overhead is more than this price. Also this price is way lower than that of market price of the Cruden and by transferring the product at this price, performance of their unit is negatively seen by the management. Generally managerial compensation is tied up with the profit of the unit and by selling product at this cost their overall compensation will be low. So the manager will more be interested in selling the product at fair market price to the other unit. Bibliography accaglobal, 2016. TRANSFER PRICING. [Online] Available at: https://www.accaglobal.com/in/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f5/technical-articles/trans-pricing.html [Accessed 10 September 2016]. agrawal, R., 2015. Methods of Transfer Pricing (4 Methods). [Online] Available at: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/accounting/methods-of-transfer-pricing-4-methods/52954/ [Accessed 09 september 2016]. Batra, K., n.d. Transfer price: method of computational at arm's length price. [Online] Available at: https://www.charteredclub.com/transfer-pricing-methods-of-computation-of-arms-length-price/ [Accessed 10 september 2016]. Caplan, D., n.d. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING: CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES. [Online] Available at: https://classes.bus.oregonstate.edu/spring-07/ba422/management%20accounting%20chapter%2023.htm [Accessed 09 September 2016]. Don Hansen, M. M. L. G., 2007. Transfer Pricing. In: Cost Management: Accounting and Control. s.l.:Cengage Learning, pp. 350-354. Heath, H. . S., n.d. Transfer Pricing. [Online] Available at: https://www.personal.psu.edu/sjh11/BA521/NEW/Class08/TransferPricing.pdf [Accessed 09 September 2016]. Matt, 2015. How to Calculate a Transfer Price Matts Complete Guide. [Online] Available at: https://www.managementaccountingmastery.com/cima-p3-how-to-calculate-a-transfer-price-matts-complete-guide/ [Accessed 09 september 2016]. Ross, S., 2015. How is minimum transfer price calculated?. [Online] Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/063015/how-minimum-transfer-price-calculated.asp [Accessed 10 September 2016].