Wednesday, December 25, 2019

The Fight Against Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples

The Fight Against Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples It is essential that cost is minimized in any way fronts. It is recommended to look for the one which has a great reputation and offers high-quality papers at economical rates. A surprising amount of people retain from childhood the concept that there's a fixed quantity of wealth on the planet. Maintaining competitive benefit is vital to many businesses or organizations' success as a way to survive in the marketplace. Ideas, Formulas and Shortcuts for Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples Don't forget your teacher would be happier if you wrote an excellent paper no matter the sum of paragraphs it contains. In the introduction portion of the essay you should mention whether you agree or disagree. Ideally, it must be written at the previous sentence of your very first paragraph (introduction). Following that, you can proceed to compose a brief background information regarding the movie or book. What will have to be included in your essay will differ based on your level. In the event you're intimidated with critical essays, all you need to do is to ask your instructor with respect to guidelines and formatting. Before you commence writing your essay, you always ought to spend 1-2 minutes on producing tips for your answer. Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples for Dummies Lots of people are also dependent upon computer games. Using cars to commute has decreased the ordinary health of car users because they do not will need to do any physical movement. Perhaps the largest benefit is that people may work flexible hours. Firstly, it usually means that people have the chance to see different areas of the world and how people live. The Downside Risk of Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples Indeed, one ought to never underestimate the part of advanced planning when writing a college essay. Critical essays permit you to use your critical thinking abilities. Very good questionnaires are tough to construct. Introducing Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples Again you must write down the benefits and drawbacks of having a vehicle. Be balanced ad make certain the benefits and disadvantages are comparable in strength. If you previously don't forget the advantages and pitfalls discussed, decide on the best ones and add on any new and intriguing ones which you encounter in your research. If you're asked What are the pros and cons of. Exercise may also increase power and increase your threshold for pain. Deciding upon the most suitable topic is critical because the more clear the topic is, the simpler it is going to be to pinpoint the benefits and disadvantages related to it. Advantages and disadvantages are given below. Advantage Disadvantage Essay Samples at a Glance Downloading games or merely surfing the celebrity websites are a number of the uses people have discovered. The net also enables people from various cultures and background to attach with one another. Firstly, it can let a person to communicate with people in virtually any parts of the world through the internet or e-mail, without having to leave his room. Today it allows people to make statements about things happening on the other side of the world, but based only on what they have seen on the screen. The main advantage of mass media is that it may be put to use as a tool for preaching reconciliation through reconciliation programs which reach a large number of people and thus powerful. One of the disadvantage is that images and messages spread via the mass media are limited to a given viewpoint. It is quite easy to educate from others in social networking. Most importantly, mass media plays a critical part in cultural diversity by developing a cosmopolitan atmosphere.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Femininity in Eighteenth-Century England Essay - 1667 Words

Concepts of femininity in eighteenth-century England guided many young women, forging their paths for a supposed happy future. However, these set concepts and resulting ideas of happiness were not universal and did not pertain to every English woman, as seen in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the Bennet sisters on their quest for marriage, with much of it focusing on the two oldest sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. By the end, three women – Jane, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte Lucas – are married. However, these three women differ greatly in their following of feminine concepts, as well as their attitude towards marriage. Austen foils Jane, Charlotte, and Elizabeth’s personas and their pursuits of†¦show more content†¦One of the most important traits a woman could have was modesty, as it was also a symbol of her chastity. Tague states that nothing could be so graceful and becoming as modesty in wom en, that it was their â€Å"brightest and most valuble ornament† (Tague 34). A model eighteenth-century Englishwoman would have a â€Å"modest reserve, that retiring delicacy, which avoids the public eye†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Gregory 405). Once again, Jane acts accordingly. Though she is known as the fairest of the Bennet sisters, Jane does not flaunt her beauty or throw herself into the public eye for attention like her flirtatious younger sister, Lydia. For Jane, abiding by the concepts of femininity is part of her identity. Her actions and words are sincere and honest, as if being a proper lady was just being her natural self. Therefore, her happiness would be also fulfilled if she achieved happiness by society’s standards. For being such a soft-spoken, lovely woman, Jane Bennet follows the concepts of eighteenth-century femininity and is most like the ideal eighteenth-century English woman. Not only does her character follow rules, but Jane’s marriage to Mr.Bingley also shows obedience to the perceptions of femininity in her time. Jane’s choice of a husband is as much of a perfect gentleman as she is a perfect lady; he is â€Å"what a young man ought to be†¦sensitive, good-humoured, [and] lively†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Austen 53). However, following the rules too closely hurt Jane’s prospects. Her intenseShow MoreRelatedWomen s First Wave Of Feminism Essay1555 Words   |  7 Pagesthey were established. Starting with the late eighteenth century, which marks the transition from pre-industrialization to the emergence of economic development in Europe, and then closely following with the American Industrial Revolution. 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As a central form of this predominance, four hundred families, in a population of some seven or eight million people, owned nearly a quarter of the cultivated landRead MoreAlexander Pope and Women Essay example1658 Words   |  7 PagesAlexander Pope’s personal opinion will conclude with a questioning of who he truly was behind his literary persona, a thorough research provides solid evidence on his personal beliefs towards the women of the Eighteenth Century. Through a comprehensive study on the behavior of women in the Eighteenth Century, Pope’s characters in The Rape of the Lock, and his personal background, the writer’s ability to critically tear down a female’s role in society will be c larified and condoned, with the idea that hisRead MoreWomen Writers: Restoration and 18th Century1392 Words   |  6 PagesWomen Writers: Restoration and 18th Century Ballaster, Ros, Seductive Forms: Women’s Amatory Fiction from 1684–1740, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992,; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, Landry, Donna, The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women’s Poetry in Britain 1739–1796, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990 Myers, Sylvia Harcstark, The Bluestocking Circle: Friendship and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990; New York: OxfordRead MoreThe Sexuality And Gender Roles3333 Words   |  14 Pagesin the seventeenth century and then to analyse them closely throughout the eighteenth century to see how they gradually changed. Helping me to respond to the subject I will be considering the vicissitudes of: the rise in pornographic literature, the change in biological acuities, the hardening of gender boundaries through separate spheres, the transformation of sexual behaviour between men and women, the change of attitudes towards women and men concerning issues of femininity and masculinity andRead MoreCritical Review of Sex, Smallpox and Seraglios: a Monument to Lady Montagu1149 Words   |  5 Pagesmonument to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Friths article entitled Sex, smallpox and seraglios: a monument to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was written in order to show the way life was for a woman in the eighteenth century. Her article illustrates what the role of men and women were during the 18th century. Furthermore, it shows what happened to women when they broke through these societal restrictions. There were three underlying points in Friths article, she mainly focused on; the restrictions thatRead More‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women’s History’ by Amanda Vickery, Article Review1696 Words   |  7 Pagesthe theory of separate spheres insinuates some sort of pre 19th century golden age or ‘egalitarian Eden’ in a convincing manner.2 It seems unrealistic to envisage the pre-industrialist economy, as an idyllic place where women thrived.3 She confidently starts the article by pointing out that the idea of separating the public and priv ate is far from novel, this brings the reader to straight away question why it is that the 19th century is considered by many to be a pivotal stage in gendered historyRead MoreCaptain Ahab Had A Wife, By Lisa Norling1715 Words   |  7 Pagesthe gender dynamics in New England which dramatically illustrates the necessity, pervasiveness, and thus the power of ideas and the language which they are expressed (270). The book begins by describing men’s and women’s work, the local practice of patriarchal authority, and how these together fostered the emergence of the whaling industry (14). Chapter one is an introduction to whaling and the industry s impact on women. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Nantucket was a leading townRead MoreAustralia s Cultural And Social Change1517 Words   |  7 Pagescharacter’s behaviours, while other reader may find different idea thorough the whole story. This essay will discuss that contemporary Australian literature contain some ideas of Australianness such as historical legacy of connection to Europe, especially England and traditional Australian ideals. Firstly, this essay will explain Australia’s connection to Europe and Australia’s change to cosmopolitan in Dead Europe. Secondly, it will discuss between Ng’s understanding, another interpretation to Dead EuropeRead More Gender Roles Essay2315 Words   |  10 Pageswith the characteristics of being physically powerful, loyal warriors while femininity was related to marriage and procreation. In the High Middle Ages, France’s social structure deemed that a noble masculine role could include becoming either a member of the church or a knight whereas a noble female’s role primarily focused on learning a different set of domestic skills. By the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, social norms began to associate masculinity with professional skills and education

Monday, December 9, 2019

Introduction to National Health Service

Question: Discuss about the Introduction to National Health Service. Answer: Introduction Healthcare services are vital in every nation. The development of NHS with the aim to improve the health care outcomes has enhanced the quality of care services for the patient largely. It radically changed the dissemination of the information related to the patients health care (Waterson 2014). The paper is an information booklet, which concerns the National Health Service (NHS) guide and intends to provide insight into its history and status. The paper provides the details of NHS objectives and explains its role and structure. It describes the structure and role of the Department of Work and Pension (DWP) and highlights the structure and role within the hospital as well as the responsibilities of the key hospital personnel. The structure and role within a general practice will be discussed and describe the role played by the three personnel within general practise. Further, the author will discuss the aim and vision of the NHS and information on the current issues related to the NHS. The development of the National Health Service (NHS) NHS was launched in the year 1948 and is currently known to be the worlds largest health service that is publicly funded (Reynolds and McKee 2012). It was born to make healthcare services free for everyone depending upon the citizenship. This service came into effect after the release of The Beveridge report in the year 1942 named as Social Insurance and Allied services. It was during the period of World War II, that William Beveridge composed this report. The aim of the report was to end the Five Giants these are Disease, Want, Ignorance, Idleness and squalor (Waterson 2014). The development of NHS is evident in increase of its budget 10 times more than what it was in 1948 ( 437 million). In todays value it can be say 9 billion. NHS received 10 fold higher amount than this in the year 2008-2009 (Ocloo and Fulop 2012). The biggest part of the NHS is in England, which serves around population of 51 million and has employed more than 1.3 million people. NHS is financed by central taxation system by which government receives tax revenues to purchase health services for the population. However, these services are separately managed in Wales, Scotland and England (England, N.H.S. and Care Quality Commission, 2014). Structure and role of NHS Originally the structure of the NHS was called as the Tripartie System which contains the three parts, which are- primary care, hospital services, and community services (Choices, N.H.S. 2013). These services are provided by the same doctors and the same hospitals. NHS has a hierarchical system. Major structural changes occurred after the Health and Social Care Act, 2013. Figure: new structure of NHS (Source: Hjortdahl et al. 2014) The Secretary of State for Health takes entire responsibility of the department of health. The later provides strategic leadership in England for NHS, public health and Social care. NHS England plays a role by setting priorities and goals for NHS. It is the commissioner for the services of GPs, dentists, pharmacists and manages the overall budget. On the other hand the Clinical Commissioning Groups plans and commissions the health care services for the local area. The secondary care services include rehabilitive care and emergency care. The health and well being boards works to strengthen relationship between social care and health. The public health England supports local public health based on evidence (Hjortdahl et al. 2014). Structure and role of DWP in relation to health and social care DWP is a welfare system that effectively assists and guides people to gain financial independence by employment. DWP is known to be responsible for pensions, welfare, and child maintenance policy. This system is fair and affordable and it improves and increases the life chances of children. It is the UKs biggest department related to public service. It administers the State Pension as well as disability and ill health benefits to over 20 million customers (Hughes and Stewart 2013). Ten agencies and other public bodies anchor this ministerial department. This department consists of the two executive agencies, which are: The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service. The public bodies of the department are as follow: ThePensions Regulator TheHealth and Safety Executive ThePensions Ombudsman (Nakatudde et al. 2014) The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service along with the job centres operate under the network of contact centres, benefit processing centres and 1,000 Jobcentres, across the UK (Hughes and Stewart 2013). The secretary of state for work and pensions undertakes responsibility related to benefit entitlement in delegation with decision makers. The Ministry of justice runs the appeal system with help of tribunal services. The HM revenue and Customs makes decision related to child benefit, tax credits and guardians allowance. The decision makers make decision related to social fund (Nakatudde et al. 2014). According to Hughes and Stewart (2013), DWP deals with poverty issues. It encourages people with disability to work and be independent. It provides the people of pension age with decent income and promotes their retirement savings. Its role is to reduce error and fraud by giving value for money. Its role is to reduce work place injuries and death via Health and safety executive. The pension services is dedicated towards current and future pensioners and it administers the winter fuel payments, pension credit, (Waterson 2014). The Disability and Carers service offers benefits such as: Attendance Allowance Carers Allowance Vaccine Damage Payment Disability Living Allowance Personal Independence Payment (Hughes and Stewart 2013) DWPrequires the Healthcare Professionals to provide clinical information in case it is difficult to make a decision regarding the award of benefit.DWP canobtain this information by sending form BI205 (to GPs) or BI127A (to hospitals). The structure within the Hospital The Secretary of State for Health takes entire responsibility of the department of health. The later provides strategic leadership in England for NHS, public health and Social care. NHS England plays a role by setting priorities and goals for NHS. It is the commissioner for the services of GPs, dentists, pharmacists and manages the overall budget. On the other hand the Clinical Commissioning Groups plans and commissions the health care services for the local area. The secondary care services include rehabilitive care and emergency care. The health and well being boards works to strengthen relationship between social care and health. The public health England supports local public health based on evidence (Hjortdahl et al. 2014). Role of key hospital personnel The human resource staffs handle the employment issues of medical and non-medical staff. They can recruit or fire employees and make new laws. The hospital managers perform activities such as data centered activities, bringing improvement in culture, promoting quality care, developing measures for quality improvement and mandate policy systems. General practitioners treat common medical conditions. They refer patients to clinics and medical services for emergency and special treatment. They focus on patients health considering the social, physical, and psychological aspects of care. Nurses provide care to the patients by timely administration of medicines and emergency services in absence of the GP (Ocloo and Fulop 2012). The structure within a General Practice The changes focused to have the GPs control on most of the budget of NHS. The government accepted the proposal and created the clinical commissioning groups which consists of General Practioners (GP), nurses and doctors (Canivet et al. 2013). If this proposal is accepted then the doctors will be able to purchase care from providers including the private companies and willing voluntary groups. According to Bellamy et al. (2014) the government believes that this plan would favour the NHS to overcome challenges such as a growing elderly population. The NHS services were developed to meet the patients needs by effective delivery of the health care services. These services includes varying responsibilities including assessment of population needs To prioritise the health outcomes Procurement of products and services Service providers management (Higgins et al. 2014) The role played by NHS includes addressing the local health issues by patient concordance and providing treatment as per the standards of NICE commissioning boards to meet the health targets (England, N.H.S. and Care Quality Commission, 2014). NHS provides patient centered care and engages patients in decision making. NHS is playing an effective role by providing the patients with additional options and giving them control over the services and information. NHS tries to be in the best interest of the client. Without the patient consent, the NHS does not make any decision. Role of three personnel within general practise General practitioners treat common medical conditions. They refer patients to clinics and medical services for emergency and special treatment. They focus on patients health considering the social, physical, and psychological aspects of care (de Bono 2014). GPs are primary care doctors who firstly contact NHS for their community people. They help patients by identifying and addressing the early stage problems that may be cancer, infectious disease. They treat conditions such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and psychiatric illness. Intervention process includes prescribing medication, one-to-one sessions, protecting vulnerable children, carrying out audits to improve the health outcomes (Choices, N.H.S. 2013). Nurses provide care to the patients by timely administration of medicines and emergency services in absence of the GP (). The policy regulators regulate the existing policies and make new policies if required. The current aims and vision of the NHS Lord Darzi has proposed the modernisation of the NHS services. The vision of NHS is provision of quality of care rather than quantity of care. It aims to provide patient centered care. The NHS outcome framework addresses the treatment effectiveness, patient safety and experience (Loveday et al. 2014). NHS has currently predesigned its services to improve the health outcomes and expects to fit the patients in these services instead of adjusting the services according to the patients. Currently, it is planning to remodel the management layers and improve its clinical staff. In future, it will be accountable for every evidence-based outcome measures but not the process targets. The NHS commissioning board will be responsible to eliminate any inequalities in the health outcomes (Higgins et al., 2014). NHS plans to establish GP consortia as well as transfer of responsibilities from the Primary care trusts. Therefore, providing GPs with more to prioritise the health issues and accordingly allocate the funds within the population. This ensures efficient utilisation of the taxpayers money. The new system of NHS requires the providers to manage the data related to healthcare with contractual obligations (Hjortdahl et al. 2014). Currently, it aims to provide education and training for medical professionals to positively influence their work performance and enhance knowledge. According to (Ocloo and Fulop (2012) the NHS pay and staffing is subjected to the health employers. Presently, it also aims to make the system decentralised, which appears to be difficult as the ministers make the decisions related to staffing and affordability. Current issues related to the NHS According to Sunderland et al. (2013) NHS has achieved poor health outcomes in the areas of respiratory difficulties, cancer, cardiovascular diseases. The NHS system of providing the incentives based on the number of patients registered has restricted the population in rural areas from GP surgeries due to insufficient money. In addition, the consideration of prices and payments are on the basis of high quality and efficient services. It is also dependent on the treatment of the local population. Hence, the population with healthy and rich life style may exhibit better outcomes with little intervention from GP whereas; the deprived communities with excess health issues may show poor health outcomes. As per the new system of Equity and Excellence, patients are allowed to choose a consultant according to their medical condition. It in turn makes difficult for the GP while deciding for any particular treatment process for the patient. Moreover, the chosen GP might charge higher than preferred by other GP thus, leading to the overspending of the budget. Additionally, if too many patients choose particular GP, it will increase the waiting time affecting the health care outcomes. There are agreement issues between Monitor system and GP once the patient decision is considered. The other disadvantage includes the long waiting time for non-emergency services such as dental services, ambulance services etc. as well as increased cost modernised treatment facilities and technology (Reynolds and McKee 2012). The GPs are given the responsibility of co-ordinating patient care, which consumes extra time in negotiating with the other care providers for patient referrals. This financial negotiation hampers the primary responsibility of treating patients of care providers (Waterson 2014). References Banks, J., Blundell, R. and Emmerson, C., 2015. Disability benefit receipt and reform: reconciling trends in the United Kingdom.The Journal of Economic Perspectives,29(2), pp.173-190. Bellamy, J., Paleologos, Z., Kemp, B., Carter, S. and King, S., 2014.Caring into Old Age: The wellbeing and support needs of parent carers of people with disabilities. Anglicare Diocese of Sydney, Social Policy and Research Unit, Sydney. Canivet, C., Choi, B., Karasek, R., Moghaddassi, M., Staland-Nyman, C. and stergren, P.O., 2013. Can high psychological job demands, low decision latitude, and high job strain predict disability pensions? A 12-year follow-up of middle-aged Swedish workers.International archives of occupational and environmental health,86(3), pp.307-319. Choices, N.H.S., 2013. The NHS in England.NHS choices website. Available at: www. nhs. uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview. aspx (accessed on 20 May 2013). de Bono, A.M., 2014. The implications of the Francis report for occupational health in the NHS.Occupational Medicine,64(7), pp.478-480. England, N.H.S. and Care Quality Commission, 2014. NHS five year forward view.London: NHS England, pp.16-16. Higgins, A., Porter, S. and O'Halloran, P., 2014. General practitioners' management of the long-term sick role.Social Science Medicine,107, pp.52-60. Hjortdahl, M., Zakariassen, E. and Wisborg, T., 2014. The role of general practitioners in the pre hospital setting, as experienced by emergency medicine technicians: a qualitative study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine,22(1), p.1. Hughes, G. and Stewart, J. eds., 2013.The role of the state in pension provision: employer, regulator, provider. Springer Science Business Media. Loveday, H.P., Wilson, J., Pratt, R.J., Golsorkhi, M., Tingle, A., Bak, A., Browne, J., Prieto, J. and Wilcox, M., 2014. epic3: national evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections in NHS hospitals in England.Journal of Hospital Infection,86, pp.S1-S70. Nakatudde, R., Ige, T., Ibn Seddik, A. and El-Shahat, K., 2014. THE ROLE OF HEALTH MANAGERS IN PROMOTING MEDICAL PHYSICISTS IN AFRICA.MEDICAL PHYSICS INTERNATIONAL,2(1), p.27. Ocloo, J.E. and Fulop, N.J., 2012. Developing a criticalapproach to patient and public involvement in patient safety in the NHS: learning lessons from other parts of the public sector?.Health Expectations,15(4), pp.424-432. Pickard, L., King, D., Brimblecombe, N. and Knapp, M., 2015. The effectiveness of paid services in supporting unpaid carers employment in England.Journal of social policy,44(03), pp.567-590. Reynolds, L. and McKee, M., 2012. Opening the oyster: the 201011 NHS reforms in England.Clinical medicine,12(2), pp.128-132. Sunderland, M., Newby, J.M. and Andrews, G., 2013. Health anxiety in Australia: prevalence, comorbidity, disability and service use.The British Journal of Psychiatry,202(1), pp.56-61. Waterson, P., 2014. Health information technology and sociotechnical systems: A progress report on recent developments within the UK National Health Service (NHS).Applied Ergonomics,45(2), pp.150-161.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, By Samuel Clemens, Also Known As M

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, is probably one of the greatest works of American literature ever written. Ernest Hemingway even said in his book The Green Hills of Africa, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn" (Zwick). However, since Twain published Huck Finn 112 years ago, it has been the subject of much criticism, mostly all unfair. The Concord, Ma, banned the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Public Library immediately after its publication in 1885. They said the book was "rough, course, and inelegant...The whole book suited more to the slums than to intelligent respectable people" (as quoted in Clemens 285). Since the original banning of Huck Finn, it has been challenged and banned many times all over the country. Much question has been brought against Huck Finn as to its appropriateness for the reading public, and some of it rightfully so. Huck is not as strong in his morals as our parents and educators would probably like him to be. He is involved in several acts of theft. For example, shortly after the beginning of his journey along the river, he would go ashore and he "lifted a chicken that warn't roosting comfortable..." (Clemens 56). Huck smokes and cuts school. (Clemens 9 and 18) He engages in lying, when he impersonates a girl to visit St. Petersburg and when he tells the bounty hunters that Jim is white and implies that he has smallpox (Clemens 51 and 75). He lies many other times throughout the novel; Huck is a bad example to children who may read this book. Huck's plan to escape from Pap's cabin in the woods, which involves smearing pig's blood all over the cabin and making it seem like a murder had occurred, is an easy scheme for any smart youth to scare his parents with (Clemens 3 1). In October of 1997, a ninth grader in Hollister, California "borrowed" money from his parents and used it to fly to Hawaii. His mother believed that the boy got the idea from his hero, Tom Sawyer (Zwick). Critics claim that the book is full of ideas that cause impressionable children to do things like that (Ockerbloom). Opponents still have more negative arguments about the content of the book. Leslie Fielder, a literary scholar, believes that Huck and Jim engage in some type of homosexual relationship on the raft (Fielder as quoted in Clemens 416). The fact that Huck and Jim seldom wore any clothes on the raft only further substantiates this idea. Additionally, Twain intended Huck Finn to be a humorous novel. However, most of the humor, especially towards the end of the book in the Wilks brothers con, is in poor taste and "inelegant" Boston Transcript. Twain's poking fun at the Hare-lip, and the "long legged under taker" episode were not looked favorably upon at time of publica tion, but are not as much criticized now (Clemens 139 and 144). Today, the main objection to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the fact that the book contains the word "nigger" more than two hundred times throughout the novel. As recently as last February, the Pennsylvania branch of the NAACP led a charge against Huck Finn to have it removed from required and optional school reading lists. But, when considering the issues involved, one must keep in mind that this book was written in a different time from that which we live in today. There was no such thing as politically correct. The word "nigger" was a word used commonly and unabashedly back then. So, how can we hold a book written over a hundred years ago to the literary standards of today? Huck Finn is not a racist book, in spite of Huck's initial racist standpoint. Through the course of the novel, Huck gains increasingly more respect for Jim, but still shows some racist attitudes occasionally. After the disagreement with Jim over the biblical story of "ole' King Sollermum", Huck remarks that "you can't learn a nigger to argue," thus implying Jim's stupidity (Clemens 65 and 66). Throughout the book, Huck plays tricks on Jim, which are also meant to make Jim feel stupid. Towards

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Synthesis of Aspirin Essays

Synthesis of Aspirin Essays Synthesis of Aspirin Essay Synthesis of Aspirin Essay Essay Topic: Synthesis Sypnopsis In this experiment, acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized from the acidification of salicylic acid and acetic anhydride. The objective was to convert a specific amount of salicylic acid into the same amount of aspirin that was high in purity. Furthermore, the other objectives were to enable students to conduct the synthesis of aspirin, reinforce skills or recrystallisation and the technique of melting point determination. The amount of each compound should be the same because there is a 1:1 ratio between them. The purity of the synthesized aspirin was measured by determining its melting point and percent yield. Soluble impurities increase the range over which a compound melts and often decreases its overall melting point temperature1. If the experiment went as expected, a pure sample of aspirin with a high percent yield would have been obtained. The percent yield obtained was 56. 1% and the melting point was 134. 7- 136. 8. Introduction Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a versatile drug that is consumed in huge quantities worldwide. It is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with a wide range of physiological effects. The first discovery of aspirin occurred in England, in 1963, believing that the bark of willow trees with a beneficial effect in alleviating distress due to fevers, aches, and pains2. Salicylic acid was later extracted from the willow bark and it proved to be an active ingredient. Salicylic acid was synthesized from basic starting materials by 1860 which was helpful to the medicinal field but there were some problems2. Salicylic acid turned out to be irritating to the membranes of the throat, mouth, and stomach. The product had a high acidity of the compound but fortunately, successful amendments were done, namely, the replacement of the acidic phenolic hydrogen atom with an acetyl group. In 1893, a effective synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid was created, patented in 1899, commercialized under the trade name of ‘aspirin’ by the Bayer Company in Germany3. The name ‘aspirin’ was invented by the chemist, Felix Hoffman, who originally synthesized acetylsalicylic acid for Bayer3. At very low doses, aspirin is used to treat and prevent heart attacks and blood clots. At higher doses, it is used as an analgesic to reduce pain and as an antipyretic to reduce fever. At very high doses, it is an effective anti-inflammatory agent used to treat rheumatic fever, gout and rheumatoid arthritis. It is also an anticoagulant, it dissolves corns and calluses, and it provokes loss of uric acid (a toxin) but promotes retention of fluids in the kidneys. It kills bacteria and induces peptic ulcers. When ingested, acetylsalicylic acid remains intact in the acidic stomach, but in the basic medium of the upper intestinal tract, it hydrolyzes forming the salicylate and acetate ions. When ingested, acetylsalicylic acid remains intact in the acidic stomach, but in the basic medium of the upper intestinal tract, it hydrolyzes forming the salicylate and acetate ions. The exact mechanisms of its pharmacological actions are still under study. In many plants, salicylate can induce flowering. However, aspirin may cause side effects for example, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and heartburn. Theory Aspirin is prepared from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride with the help of an acid catalyst. Concentrated sulphuric acid acts as a catalyst. After preparation, the product is purified. This is especially important for chemicals that are used as food additives and pharmaceuticals. The most common method of purifying solid organic compounds is by recrystallization. When an impure solid compound is dissolved in a solvent, it is then allowed to slowly crystallize out as the solution cools. As the compound crystallizes from the solution, the molecules of the other compounds dissolved in solution are excluded from the growing crystal lattice, giving a pure solid. Crystallization of a solid is different from a precipitation of a solid. In crystallization, there is a slow, selective formation of the crystal framework resulting in a pure compound. In precipitation, there is a rapid formation of a solid from a solution that usually produces an formless solid containing many trapped impurities within the solids crystal framework. For this reason, experimental procedures that produce a solid product by precipitation always include a final recrystallization step to give the pure compound. Figure: The esterification of salicylic acid by acetic anhydride5. The -OH group of salicylic acid that reacts with acetic anhydride to form an ester-like product. The carboxylic acid group of salicylic acid remains unchanged. Acetic anhydride is used because it is cheap and forms a by-product, acetic acid. Acetic acid is non corrosive and can be recovered to produce more acetic anhydride. Procedure 2. 4g of salicylic acid was weighed and poured into a 100ml conical flask. The actual weight was then recorded. In the fume hood, 6ml of acetic anhydride was added to the salicylic acid in the flask. To this mixture, 3 to 4 drops of sulphuric acid was added, swirled to mix and then heated in a water bath for 10-15 minutes to complete the reaction. The mixture was removed from the water bath while it was still hot and then 1ml of distilled water was added from a dropper carefully to decompose the excess acetic anhydride. An additional 40ml of cold water was added and stirred with a stirring rod to induce crystallisation. The crude product was collected by suction filtration and washed with a little cold water. The crude product is relatively impure; hence it was needed to be purified by recrystallisation. A solvent suitable for this recrystallization process would be a mixture of ethanol and water. The crude product was dissolved in approximately 5ml of ethanol in a 100ml conical flask and heated on a hot plate. To the solution, 30ml of hot distilled water was added in. The solution was then warmed till all solid has dissolved. The solution was allowed to cool. A clean, dry watch glass together with a filter paper was weighed and the weight was recorded. The recrystallised product was obtained by suction filtration using the weighed filter paper. The crystals and filter paper was transferred onto the weighed watch glass and dried in to the oven (100Â °C) for 15 to 20 minutes. The crystals, filter paper and watch glass are then placed in desiccators for 5 to 10 minutes. The dried crystals, together with the filter paper and watch glass were weighed. The weight was recorded and the weight of dried, recrystallised aspirin was calculated. The expected yield of aspirin was calculated from the amount of salicylic acid used. The percentage yield of dried, recrystallised aspirin was also calculated. The melting point of aspirin was determined. Results Mass of salicylic acid Mass of filter paper and watch glass Mass of dried, recrystallised aspirin, filter paper and watch glass Mass of dried, recrystallised aspirinMass of dried, recrystallized aspirin, filter paper and watch glass Mass of filter paper and watch glass Percent yield Number of moles of salicylic acid used (mol wt of salicylic acid = 138) Expected number of moles of aspirin Expected mass of aspirin Percent yield Melting point Temperature Range134. 7 – 136. 8 Appearance The crystals are white and shiny, shaped needle-like. The crystals resemble glass wool. Discussion The results and calculations shows how much acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized compared to how much salicylic acid was used. Since there is a 1:1 ratio between the two, then the amount of salicylic acid used should be equal to the amount of acetylsalicylic acid recovered at the end of the experiment. As the result shows, this is not the case, for 1. 83g of acetylsalicylic acid was harvested when 2. 40g of salicylic acid was used. This could have some effect on the purity; for the melting point of the harvested acetylsalicylic acid which is 134. 7 – 136. 8 was not very close to the theoretical melting point. The percentage yield is only 56. 1%. Since the final product was determined not to be very pure, it is highly likely that less than 1. 83g of the product was acetylsalicylic acid. Further analysis of the product will have to be done to determine exactly how pure the product actually was. There were several problems that could have contributed to the low purity or mediocre percent yield. When dissolving the initial amount of salicylic acid in the solution of acetic anhydride and concentrated sulphuric acid, it did not completely dissolve into the solution, even when it was heated. There could also be loss of product on the filter paper. Some crystals would be stuck onto the filter paper and this might have affected the mass of the crystals. The sample may not have been completely dried out before weighing. This could have a slight impact on the results of the overall yield of aspirin because it was possible that not all of the salicylic acid was synthesized. To determine if this affected the synthesis of aspirin at all, the experiment should have been ran a second time to see if the same thing occurred. Conclusion The experiment did not go completely as expected. The reaction yielded only 56. 1% of its expected product. The purity of the aspirin was not very high, because there might be impurities in the acid used. Reference 1. Henry, Dr. Geneive. 2004. Susquehanna University. Synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). 2. The history of Aspirin, accessed 25th May 2009, 3. History of Aspirin, viewed on 13th Dec 2010, ; http://inventors. about. com/library/inventors/blaspirin. htm; 4. Theory, accessed 15th Dec 2010, 5. Dr. Carman. 2002. University of Nevada, accessed, 15 Dec 2010, ; http://tooldoc. wncc. nevada. edu/aspirin. htm; 6. Synthesis of Aspirin, accessed 13th Dec 2010, 7. Aspirin, accessed 14th Dec 2010,

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Kin Words

Kin Words Kin Words Kin Words By Maeve Maddox The other night a local television anchorman, not noted for a large or literary vocabulary, surprised me with the following: I feel such a kinsmanship with these survivors. The anchor’s sentiment was kind, but kinsmanship is out of place in modern English. Kinsmanship has an entry in the OED, and Emily Dickinson (1830- 1886) used it. It shows up on the Ngram Viewer, but at a minuscule percentage compared to the far more common kinship. And Word’s spellchecker underlines it in red. It’s safe to say that kinsmanship has been replaced by kinship as the modern English word to describe a sense of fellow feeling. A kinsman is â€Å"a blood relation,† but the word is not common in ordinary speech. It has a literary feel, as in the title Two Noble Kinsmen. Both kinsman and kinship derive from the same Old English noun: cynn, a word with several meanings, one of which is â€Å"people related by blood.† From the same word we also get kind in the sense of class or group. Kinship is what one feels for people with whom we identify in some way, people who are of the same kind as we. Here are some recent uses of kinship on the Web: Quecreek  survivor feels kinship  with Chile miners.   When two  firefighters  meet for the first time, they will  feel  a  kinship  with each  other that transcends many other examples of mutual hobbies or interests. Why do so many feel a connection - be it kinship or competition - with utter strangers just because they share a name? Kids who’ve lost limbs find kinship at Camp No Limits on Lake  Coeur  d’Alene The nouns kin and kinfolk refer to people related by blood ties: I had, it seemed to me, hundreds of kin- aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins- near the small town of Oak Hill, Ohio. By adolescence, â€Å"what to do with Eleanor† began to concern her Roosevelt kin. Arab immigrants are bound to each other by strong  family  ties, and most want to live and work  close  to  kin.   While Arthur was serving in the New York militia during the conflict, his wife privately sympathized with the Confederacy, for which many of her Virginia kinfolk were fighting. A qualitative approach was used to look into the experiences of male caregivers in offering to look after kinfolk with harsh psychological sickness. The expression â€Å"next of kin† means â€Å"the closest living relative† and is often used in a legal context: Historically, the next of kin have exercised proprietary rights in the control of dead bodies. If the person is under 18, the parent, legal guardian, custodian or next of kin may have authority to apply on the person’s behalf. Police are withholding the name of the deceased, pending notification of next of kin. Finally, the idiom kith and kin means friends and family. The noun kith is related to the archaic adjective couth, known or familiar. Kith are people one is acquainted with. Here are examples of this idiom: People helped each other and expected help in  return. This included soldiers who assumed  kith and kin  would help the wives and children they left behind. As the album title suggests, Selways songs are laced with references to his  kith and kin. I had  neither kith nor kin  in England, and was therefore as free as air.   â€Å"Mind you,† said the  old man, â€Å"even if I make good on this reef, Ive  neither kith nor kin to leave my money to.   Note: Kin is frequently used alone, but kith seems always to be linked to kin Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Regarding Re:25 Russian Words Used in English (and 25 More That Should Be)Sentence Adverbs

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Critically evalutate the evidence that criminal profiling is effective Essay

Critically evalutate the evidence that criminal profiling is effective - Essay Example It is usually carried out in a three stage process: â€Å"First, police officers collect crime scene data and forward it to a profiler; second, the profiler conducts an analysis of the crime scene data; and third, the profiler provides predictions about the type of individual likely to have committed the crime in question.† (Snook et al,, 2007, 438) There was initial enthusiasm for this approach, especially in the United States where the FBI set up a special ‘Behavioral Science Unit’ which analysed crimes and made recommendations for the application of criminal profiling in serious crime cases. From the beginning it was clear that the process involves multiple skills and multiple agencies, being a technique that combines elements of both art and science (Cook and Hinman, 1999, 230) and crosses over traditionally constructed professional boundaries. There has been discussion about some of the tensions arising from this multi-disciplinarity, and the gulf between res earchers and practitioners. (Alison et al, 2004). Critical opinion on the practice of criminal profiling has been mixed, ranging from positive evaluations to serious doubts as to whether criminal profiling is any more valuable than common sense. This paper reviews the underpinning theories behind criminal profiling, discusses its methodologies and the problems that can arise in its use, and then finally evaluates its effectiveness. Theories behind criminal profiling. Psychology is the major science behind criminal profiling and its origins can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century: â€Å"the inferring of general characteristics of a person on the basis of a limited amount of information about them, has scientific roots in psychometric testing.† (Canter, 2000, p. 3) This in turn is based on a large body of research into the variation that exists between individuals. Psychologists searched for ways of isolating small individual features which, when considered together and against a large database can predict with some degree of accuracy what type of personality a person has and how they are likely to behave in different situations. The predictions are inferred, which means they start with what is known, but move into speculation based on a number of different areas of knowledge including past experience and databases collected and collated over the years. The so-called â€Å"homology assumption† asserts that â€Å"criminals who exhibit similar crime scene actions have similar background characteristics.† (Doan and Snook, 2008, p. 61). In practice this means that investigators in a case of rape, for example, will go on the assumption that there is â€Å"a positive linear relationship between the similarities of the crime scene actions and the corresponding similarities in the background characteristics for a sample of rapists.† Any inferences that are made are deliberately not absolute statements, but are based on li kelihood and similarity: â€Å"It’s certainly possible for some characteristics to be consistent or homologous, and indeed this can be demonstrated in some cases. However, it is not a reasonable assumption in every case or even in most cases.† (Turvey, 2008, p. 540) Additional factors such as drug or alcohol use and mental illness with or without adequate medication can affect the offender’s behaviour in unpredictable ways, causing a depart at times from his or her enduring characteristics. Because of these variables, some of which cannot be known by

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The battle of Trenton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The battle of Trenton - Essay Example In fact this war served as a morale booster and gave immense confidence to the American army to continue the American revolutionary war even though American army suffered lot of setbacks earlier. One of the major significances of this war is the fact that it occurred in the Christmas night. Hessians and British troops never thought that American army may attack them on that particular day. Moreover, they never anticipated that American troops may try to cross the Delaware River under difficult and risky conditions. However George Washington took the risk of crossing this river using some boats even though the river was filled with ice blocks. British troops and the hessians were taking rest or sleeping while American troops arrived quite unexpectedly. More than one hundred British and hessians soldiers were killed in this battle and the rest were captured live. Not even a single American soldier was killed in this

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Was in my final year at high-school Essay Example for Free

Was in my final year at high-school Essay I was in my final year at high-school. I was only seventeen and the pressure of knowing that the outcome of school results would determine my whole life ahead finally got to me. I snapped. One day, in the absence of my parents, I ran away from home, hoping never to return. This was the turning point in my life. With an incomplete education on one hand, I was a lost soul, unaware of what to do or where to go. I ran into a group of people who claimed they could assist me out of this dark web I was now tangled in. They introduced me to drugs. Dosed with pills of heroin and cocaine, my life was tumbling downhill like a snowball, only gathering wrong as it rolled. It was those times where I was not even aware of what I was doing until I slept and then craved for more of the vile drugs I had already once ingested. I was a rogue who lived by my wits in a corrupt society. I had no contact with my real family and over time, these people became my new family. They led me to commit a chain of robberies, homicidal attacks a chain of crimes. Day by day, I became a wanted criminal. No conscience made me look back; I was not overshadowed by my guilt. It was only a matter of time before I was caught and sentenced to nineteen years of imprisonment. The words of Gregory David Roberts described my situation as I felt it- I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison. Two years in jail and I escaped in broad daylight and took asylum in the jhopadis of Dharavi in Mumbai. I got involved in the mafia and started a business of smuggling guns and ammunition and counterfeiting money. The money I earned was enough to pay off any heart fancying a call to the police. I was a notoriously known figure now, and probably the most wanted person in the whole of the country. Everyday I met new people interested in my business. One day to my surprise a female entrepreneur came to my office. She was gorgeous and from the moment I set my eyes on her I fell in love with her. She helped my business for six months and became a close part of my life until finally she betrayed me to the police. It seemed she was involved with them and did this for a sum of money. I was imprisoned again. It was here that I was chained beaten, stabbed and starved. I was at constant war with myself. Should I have done what I did? But it did not matter now. My companions lost sanity while I kept my nerve. I buried them and their lives into my own as it was only with their help that I was still alive. I realized through the pain and sufferings within, that even in my brutal, gory helplessness, I was still free- to hate those who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It may not have been everything but in times like those, it was all I but and it seemed like a whirlpool of possibilities. This hardest choice I thought, could determine where I may end up next and I chose to forgive. Time flew by and the nineteen years of torture soon ended. I thought and reflected upon my half-life as it began back in high-school. I thought of what I could have been- a better human being. Pondering over the thought that a life wasted is not worth living, I realized that it was time to turn over a new leaf. I penned my experiences and memories in an autobiography to ensure that young adults would make the right choices in life and would not fall in the same trap as I did. My book- Realization- as it is titled is a guide for youngsters today and has earned me fame. My life has changed ever since. Life now seems beautiful. I regret having ruined a long part of, what could have been, a fabulous journey throughout. It was an expensive realization

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Political History of Global Warming Essay -- Global Warming Climate Ch

Political History of Global Warming There is a lot of ambiguity surrounding the theory of 'global warming' and the proper political response to it. At the very center of the scientific debate on the variability of global climate is to what extent human activities influence climate change. Another unforeseeable is whether the potential impacts of climate change will be harmful or beneficial for humans, managed agriculture, and natural ecosystems. Some question the authority with which current scientific data has been given in international negotiations on the regulation of greenhouse gases. Others are convinced that immediate actions must be taken to limit the potential effects of excess greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial era. It would be difficult to credit a single event that encouraged the U.S. Government to begin a major program to investigate global climate change; instead it would best be explained as a long series of events, mostly in response to the international attention given it. The idea that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could trap heat in Earth's atmosphere was first put forward in 1898 by Swedish physicist Svante Arrhenius. But it wasn't until the late 50s that scientists within U.S. federal agencies started to participate in scientific workshops, international conferences, and international scientific research that explored the nature of Earth?s climate system and the role of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases believed to modify it. In 1965 the President?s Science Advisory Committee issued a report, Restoring the Quality of Our Environment, that identified climate change and CO2 buildup as deserving expanded monitoring and study. The... ...nal Climate Program Act, P.L. 95-367, 15 USC Â §2901 et seq., Revkin, Andrew C., and Katharine Q. Seelye, ?Report by the E.P.A. Leaves Out Data on Climate Change,? New York Times, 6/19/2003, Vol. 152 Issue 52519, pA1, 0p. Rowe, Richard, and Larry Jeffus. The Essential Welder: Gas Metal Arc elding Classroom Manual. Albany:Delmar, 2000. Suraje, Dessai, and Nuno S. Lacasta, Katharine Vincent. International Political History of the Kyoto Protocol: from The Hague to Marrakech and Beyond, International Review for Environmental Strategies Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 183 ? 205, 2003 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2006. United Nations. April 2nd, 2006. U.S. Global Change Research Information Office. 2002. Department of State: Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. April 2, 2006.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Oniomania: Psychology and Higher Income Levels Essay

This condition generally interferes with the functioning of an individual where an individual is faced with an overwhelming urge to shop. Signs include; someone being overly preoccupied with shopping (shop till you drop), excessive shopping of especially items that are not used, which eventually leads to debts, marital problems with the spouse, or even other family members such as parents. Other signs include; thinking excessively about money, feeling a rush of euphoria and anxiety when shopping, and ultimately lying about purchases made.(Krueger 1988) How it starts Oniomania has no direct cause, since there is no specific pattern to the way of life of the people who have been diagnosed with as being shopoholics. Some Psychologists speculate that this condition might generate from developmental neurobiological and cultural influences, thus early life influences such as sexual abuse might be some of the cause. It should also be noted that this condition is mostly common in the developed world, probably because of higher income levels thus more of the disposable income and a higher ease of access to credit facilities. Oniomania is also higher in women as compared to men, with a survey in the USA revealing that of those people that were diagnosed with the condition 80% were women.(Lawrence 1990) Advantages The biggest beneficiaries of shopopholism are the retailers who benefit with increased sales especially during the festive seasons. Shopoholics on the other hand benefit to some extent by having a wide variety of items that they bought to choose. They also feel elated in the experience of shopping and hide from the problems in their lives, and some even feel more gratified than even being in a relationship. It should be noted however that these benefits ultimately lead to bigger problems. Disadvantages Advantages include; financial loss, incurring huge debts, family breakdown, loss of friendships and poor work performance caused by loss of time. One can also revamp into theft and psychological trauma. How to stop it Compulsive spending may come with a host of other disorders, which include; alcoholism and eating disorder. It is important for someone who bears the symptoms to seek counseling. Works cited Roberts JA, Tanner JF Jr. Compulsive buying and sexual attitudes, intentions, and activity among adolescents: an extension of Roberts and Tanner (2000). Aboujaoude E, Gamel N, Koran LM. A 1-year naturalistic following of patients with compulsive shopping disorder. J Clin Psychiatry. 2003

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Research Survey on Use of Opportunity Cost in Project Evaluation

RESEARCH SURVEY ON USE OF OPPORTUNITY COST IN PROJECT EVALUATION AT SELECTED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN A RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTED TO THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE AMA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN BY MUBEEN FATIMA August, 2012 ABSTRACT Accounting and Economics work for two different purposes. Today managerial decision making uses economics, as well as accounting concepts, methods & practices of scrutiny given by decision sciences.Literature shows that there are four basic tools and techniques of decision making used by economists, these are; augmentation, statistical valuation, projecting, numerical study, and game theory, most of which are equally procedural in nature they helps us to gather the idea of how decisions are made in economics. Since resources are limited relative to wants, the usage of resources in one way hinders their use in other means.This implies the cost of opportunity, which is lost, is actually the profit of whose output is given up, this indicates that, lost time, satisfaction or any other benefit that provides usefulness should also be taken as opportunity cost. Opportunity cost in literature is the cost referred as the next-best choice available to a rational consumer who has to select between a number of mutually distinct projects. It is, thus the key concept in economics. It has been illustrated as conveying â€Å"the basic relationship between deficiency and choice. Yet its relation to the economic profit is seldom discussed.CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Prior research work provides us the idea that opportunity costs is one of the key differences between the concepts of economic cost and accounting cost. Being treated as a cost, opportunity cost had always been considered vital in calculation of the true cost of a project & has always effected a management accountant decision However the modern economists, particularly the Austrian school of thought treats opportunity cost as something that has neither existence nor has any importance in decision making.Though the field of economics gave birth to the concept of opportunity cost, the awareness about assessing the second best alternate is now taken over by management accounting, today this concept is being taught in academic graduate courses of economics however; in practice, the economists today emphasize on mathematical techniques in decision making there by ignoring various conceptual factors like opportunity costs and worth of projects being missed. Evaluating opportunity costs is important to find out the true cost of any project under consideration.If the financial worth of second best alternative of an investment project is low, then, overlooking that opportunity costs, gives an impression that benefits of next best alternative, cost practically nothing. The invisible opportunity costs then become one of the hidden costs of that particular project. Mr. John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher and a civil servant was the first man to give the idea of Opportunity Cost in his economic theory of free markets as well as explaining his concept of liberty and an individual and freedom of choice.Opportunity costs are thought of as the retrospective costs that cannot be recovered in the field of Economics and Corporate decision making. Opportunity costs are occasionally compared with â€Å"potential costs† which obviously are the future costs that may or may not incurr depending upon the decision taken. Both past aswell as prospective costs can be either static or dynamic Austrian school of thought pay attention to the concept of opportunity costs on both sides of the market links very deeply to the importance of finance and economic profit estimation in their model of the market process.They argue that the money of an investor having opportunity cost means that his money has many uses but the uses are not unlimited. With the assumption of a market with seamlessly exclusi ve capital goods, those goods will have no opportunity cost as every exclusive good has only one yield. In a market of seamlessly standardized capital goods, they have no opportunity cost because all of the goods are same in terms of use and benefit thus can be used equally well for each yield. In practice the calculation of project cost by an accountant is different from that of an economist.This variance is not grounded in different fundamentals on what to assess or how, but lies in the basic difference in understanding-of costs and profits. However if opportunity costs are not ignored by the economist then while calculating the GDP of Country the economist must also consider the large scale pearl diving industry in certain areas of Bahrain. Statement of the Problem The study aims to discuss the relevance of the concept of Opportunity Cost in project evaluation procedure adopted by commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain.The opportunity cost has different importance in the opinion of economists and accounts professionals and therefore the use of this concept in project costing . This research will attempt to find out importance of Opportunity cost while considering an investment proposal. Specifically it sought to answer the succeeding questions. 1. What is the status of the opportunity cost in project evaluation at Selected Commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain? 2. What are the banking operations where opportunity cost is deemed important by Commercial Banks in Kingdom of Bahrain? 3.What are the factors effecting the importance of opportunity cost faced by Commercial Banks in Kigdom of Bahrain? 4. What are the problems encountered in application of Opportunity cost concept by the Bankers while evaluating a project? Assumption The study assumed that the respondents are honest in answering all the questionnaire Significance of the Study The study is beneficial to the following: Decision Makers: the study will help the decision makers in Commercial Banking ind ustry to find the true cost of a project and therefore finding the true profit or loss generated by itFuture Researches: the study will help in relating the two concepts i. e, opportunity cost and Project Costing by using the quantitative methodology of research. It will further help in decision making and project evaluation for the accounts Managers and Economists. Scope and Limitation The aim of this study is to deliberate the significance of the concept of Opportunity Cost in project evaluation procedure adopted by Commercial banks in Kingdom of Bahrain. The opportunity cost has different importance in the pinion of economists and accounts professionals and therefore the use of this concept in project costing . The study includes Bank Officers at selected Commercial Banks working in Kingdom of Bahrain. The target population is Executives and managers (top and middle level ) who are directly involved in decision making This research focused on finding out importance of Opportunity cost while considering an investment proposalstudy is conducted in Commercial Banks of Bahrain, the responses therefore reflect the most important sector of Bahrain economy. The study is conducted in the natural settings i. during the business hours and responses are taken while the samples are on their work places, therefore 100 percent reliability of responses is not possible due to various un controllable distractions. The period covered by this study is January till December 2012. All the data is collected in Bahrain and responses therefore will represent the local population. Definition of Terms Opportunity Cost (OC) The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action (John Stuart Mil)Economic Value Added (EVA) A measure of a company's financial performance based on the residual wealth calculated by deducting cost of capital from its operating profit (Stern St ewart) EVA is also referred to as â€Å"economic profit†. CHAPTER 2 Review of Related Literature and Studies Foreign Literature Mankiw ( 2000) from Harvard University USA and the author of† Principles of Microeconomics† explained here that Economic profits are calculated by using both explicit as well as implicit costs however Accounting profits are calculated using only explicit costs.Therefore , accounting profits are higher than economic profits Neale( 2001) have found that due to forgoing opportunity costs, delayed decisions can be seen as option between certain loss and the risk of greater or zero loss. Chung, (2005)from Princeton University have conclude in their work â€Å"The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities† that economic cost of a decision relies on the cost of the project that is selected and also the profits that the second best alternative project may had given if selected.This perspective of scarcity of resource leads to the dimension of opportunity cost. Hawkins et. al ( 2008 ) in their article â€Å" Cost and benefit Analysis† are of the view that the â€Å"next best alternative† is an important concept in cost and benefit analysis (CBA). The benefits gone by not implementing the second favorite choice are known as opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are relevant in calculating costs of a project. Opportunity costs help in economic scrutiny. In financial investigation market values are used as the market price for man power has the market value same as a person’s wageThe Indian scholars are also of the view that Opportunity Cost of Idle Capacity Zero, supporting the work of (Coase 1938). The researchers of M2 Presswire publications have found that opportunity cost of ignoring the markets, have disastrous results as eBay failed to beat yahoo in this regard. Buchanan (1969 ) says that it is just to bind the term opportunity cost to this idea that only decision changing cost represents an analysis of given up â€Å"opportunities. † and to invent other vivid terms to mention ecision altering cost in a logic of choice and to the objective cost of the predictive theory. Hebert (1985 ) gave a very comprehensive idea about the market value. Yet his belief of fundamental value has quite possibly been a red-herring in the antiquity of economic analysis, according to him market value is sensitive to elements other than â€Å"on record costs† few of them are independent. Horwitz (2010) identifies the partiality of opportunity costs on either sides of the market connections so well to the importance of capital and economic calculation in the Austrian theory of the market process.Aherns (2008) says that management accountants’ most prior duty is to relate the available reserves with the future dealings of the business. Whereas this process is rather simpler in economics to determine which of the available alternates is going to pay off h ighest future cash flows Kearing et. al (2005) are of the view that multiple allocation of capital funds , commercial analysis and manufacturer side opportunity costs are all the unified part of the Austrian ideology. Woodbery (2000) says that the true opportunity cost of using the additional capability is the change in the worth of the firm's choices.By emphasizing on the state-contingent nature of best decisions, his framework distinguishes that the cost is not always identical to the present value of explicit venture or manufacturing decisions. Taylor (2005) suggests that many proficient economists may not completely comprehend opportunity cost. Frank (2005) said that comparative prices helps in finding out the comparative worth of ordained opportunities. His hypothesis is based on an indepth study of consumer indifferense curves. According to the author the economic cost is virtually the opportunity cost.Samuelson( 2009) puts stress on a close link between opportunity costs and cost of available resources. Economic cost consist of not only the noticeable monetary purchases or on record financial transactions but also more indirect opportunity costs, such as the profits on the manpower supplied by the owner of a resource company and other returns of similar nature. The factors mentioned are firmly controlled by the quotations available and demand in competitive markets. Henderson (2011), said that by â€Å"opportunity cost† of a resource, the economist mean the financial worth of the second favourite utilization of the available resource.Opportunity costs as in (Lawrance Gitman 2000) are those profits or returns that could be obtained from best alternative use of an a retained asset. So opportunity cost is the cash that shall not be obtained because of engaging an asset in project under consideration. Due to this, opportunity cost should be included as an expense or loss while doing the project evaluation. Raftery et. al(1999) writes that considerati on of opportunity cost is essential for the economist's while determining the costs. As resources are less compared to the needs, so application of resources in one profitable project hinders their use in other profitable pojectsBauman (2011) says that opportunity cost is the second best choice, he said that it is difficult to clearly frame the opportunity cost as identifying second best choices is a knotty matter. According to him the concept of opportunity cost can only be clearly defined in academic problems as in practical field a project â€Å"price to worth† calculations are complex Kimberly (1998) said that computerized accounting systems today solely emphasize on cash in and out of the firm, this eventually attracts clever dealers to dump credits that produce a big accounting profits.By the introduction of opportunity cost in persuit of calculating the true costs enforces further control on reporting process. Such concept implication helps the auditors to identify the fake earnings shown in the financial statements made in the year end. Recklies (2001) argues that from economic perspective the cost include all those expenditures that are crucial for perpetual succession of a business as as going concern, it also consist of the reimbursement for owners in shape of profit so that they maintain their investment portfolio within the firm.Marshall (2009) identifies the income as a total of personal skills, capital funds invested, assets possessed and the reputation of the business. Leeson (2008) has explained in his research work the uses if the concept of uncertainty and derives from this concept of the value of information and how it can be calculated. And emphasized upon the role of management accounting in the decision-making Berntell (2005) have focused on the optimum utilization of scarce resources like water to give maximum utility by reducing various costs and losses. For which economist must make a clear cut cost and benefit analysisDmytrenk o (1997 )has elaborated in his price to value investigation the opportunity cost of increased automation in a firm via changing the human resource by computers and equipment Caplan (2003) says that the term opportunity cost is sometimes confusing. Sometimes it is used to submit to the profit foregone from the next best option, and Often it is used to mention the difference in benefit of decision made and the benift of second favourite decision that is given up Fraker( 2006) suggests that EVA is a unique financial performance determining tool .Unlike other financial efficiency ratios, it gives a different outlook of a Bank’s financial health by including the cost of Capital employeed in the business and is more of concern to its shareholders. Shcherbakov( 2012) explains that implication of the concept of EVA is an enhanced measuring technique to find out the effect of internationalization on the commercial performance of any business King (2009) explained that Accountancy and Economics work for different purposes. He explained the multi-national corporation scenarios and compared the use of economic profits with that of accounting profitsLocal Literature (Hasan Al-Basteki 1998) worked on the use of modern Accounting techniques in the decision making in Bahrain and he concluded that not just the western world is implementing the new costing techniques but the middle east is also adopting the modern techniques Synthesis of the Literature Review The synthesis of the literature reviewed enlightens few similarities and differences with this research studies . The main similarities found in the literature are as follows i) Opportunity cost has been used in different parts of the world particularly in Banks and Construction industry ii) The No. f alternatives available influence the Opportunity Cost iii) Economic factors like inflation has effect on the project evaluation by the Banks . A closer review of these research papers show that Economists belonging to the Austrian school of thoughts are of the view that i) Opprtunity cost is not as important as Economic Profits are for economic decision making ii) Scarcity of resource is a factor which effects the decision makers approach The literature explains the significance of opportunity cost in framing the actual picture of the financial position of a company, same is the case evaluation of an investment project.Opportunity cost helps identifying the true cost of a project Opportunity cost is important in the determining the accurate financial position, hence in this research the relationship between the factors effecting opportunity cost and decision making is under study Theoretical Frame Work The study tends to explore the Opportunity cost and EVA for a given project in order to understand their relationship with each other. Very little literature is available in Economics and Accounting to determine the true profits of an organization(Denise Woodbery).The idea behind this research is t o establish the nature of relationship between Economic value added that reflects the monetory importance of a given project or in other words the economic profit and that of Opportunity Cost that reflects the accounting profit of the same project. Conceptual Frame Work The idea behind this research is to find out how effective is Opportunity cost in project evaluation perceived by the Bankers in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The data is collected and analysed to understand what status opportunity cost concept holds in project financial evaluation and its relative efficiency perceived by the bankers at selected commercial banks of Kingdom of Bahrain The study tends to explore the two concepts for a given project in order to understand their relationship with each other. The Opportunity cost as discussed in literature like any other relevant cost adds to the overall project expenditure (Ferraro & Laura O Taylor)Opportunity cost effects the total Cost of a Project , any increase in Opportuni ty cost means increase I nthe total cost of the project The higher the Opportunity Cost of a Project is the Smaller will be the net profit of it However the higher the net profit of the project is Opportunity Cost of the Project will be lower. Financial decision making tends to go for a project with smaller cost and hence inclusion of opportunity cost will alter the project cost and alter the decision ultimately.Various factors like availability of alternatives (James Raftery 1999), Scarcity of resources (Robert Frank 2005), Economic factors like trade cycle recession, inflation (Peter T leeson 2008) effects the use of opportunity cost in Project costing CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter presents the research design and methodology, sampling design, respondents of the study, research instrument, validity and reliability of the instrument, data gathering procedures, and statistical treatment of the gathered data.Research Design This study used the descriptive type of resear ch which involves assembling data which provide knowledge about the variables and then systematically tabularizing, portraying, and defining the data gathered (Glass & Hopkins, 1984). To get evidence concerning the current standing of the incidences to describe what happens in terms of change in value of the variables or settings in a state of research.. Opportunity Cost reflects the monetary importance of the next best alternative project.The study helps to find out how effectively this concept is incorporated in project evaluation procedure Research Design This is a descriptive research in which the population from which data is collected are the Management Personals from different business concerns established and working in Kingdom of Bahrain, directly or indirectly associated with the decision making and investment evaluation . Respondents of the Study The target population includes the working class particularly the managers , assistant managers and executives who work in Bahr ain and their field esponsibility include Investment Analysis ,Project evaluation and decision making of similar nature. Sample Size The sample size is 50 and the response rate is well above the international standard of quantitative research required to validate the result of the study Sampling Design There are many methods of sampling; however for this study Random Sampling is used that is from the target population a sample of 100 is collected on random basis.The study uses random sampling for convenience and to avoid bias of respondents that work in one organization have one opinion(as in cluster sampling) Research Instrument The instrument used in this study is Questionnaire, the content of the questionnaire that consist of 20 queries the first five of which are about the general information of the respondent, remaining queries for which the respondents will answer on a Likert Scale. All the queries will help to find the relation between the two variables Opportunity Cost (IV) and Decision Making (DV)Part I: Provide demographics of the respondents in terms of age , gender, educational attainment, work experience in years Part II: Provide the data about the respondents opinion on various factors that influence their decision while making financial evaluation of a project. The answers to these questions will be given on a five point rating scale. 5. Strongly Agree 4. Agree 3. Moderately Agree 2. Disagree 1. Strongly Disagree Validity of the InstrumentThe validity of instrument is carefully checked by the research committee that includes research professors, statisticians and advisors. The recommendations were incorporated. The justification of this validation was to avoid vague items and bias statements which have been correctly achieved. Reliability of the Instrument The questionnaire is pre-tested to test the reliability of it, with a small group of individualsworking in different companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in order to check their understanding of the questions.Data collection Method Questionnaire copies were distributed among bank officers in different branches of distinct commercial banks in various regions of Kingdom of Bahrain. The target respondents are expected to be acquainted with the subject and questions, included in the questionnaire. There are other methods of data collection like documentary analysis and interview however for this study survey methodology is opted. A copy of questionnaire is provided in the appendix Statistical Treatment of the DataThere are many choices of appropriate statistical methods however Correlation Coefficient as statistical method is used, so to find out the relation between the two variables. The survey form was used the Likert five point scale for the respondents to choose from as follows: [pic] Very few enterprises are using opportunity cost for just one reason. It is clearly evident that Opportunity cost related information is being used to accurately manage wide range of activi ties across a banking organization. Activities influenced by Opportunity cost calculation Activities |% of respondents | |Product Costs & Profitability |65 | |Performance Measurement |47 | |Shared Service Costing |41 | |Planning & Budgeting |40 | |Customer costing |38 | |Customer/Channel Costs & Profitability |38 | |Transfer pricing |25 | |Outcome / Output based management |25 | Expectedly, opportunity cost is used for product costing by approximately two by three of those respondants working in banking sector. It’s precision over traditional costing methods is borne out later in the survey with 87% finding that their Opportunity Cost product costs differed substantially from traditional costing methods, leading around 50% to reprice their products as a result!Validating the views expressed by Kaplan & Norton in their latest book ‘Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes’, which lays emphesisis on the importance of using Opportunity Cos to support a Balance Scorecard, nearly half of all respondents are using their Opportunity Cost data to support their Performance Management The use of Opportunity Cost to support Shared Services costing has increased in popularity over the last few years. Now that internal services are represent up to 30% of an organisation’s costs, it has become imperative to accurately reflect how those services are consumed by business units. Over 40% of respondents are using opportunity cost to support Shared Service costing, enabling them to understand who and what is driving consumption of their internal services, and thereby increasing the effectiveness of their focus an core business. These trends are repeated by those who do not yet use opportunity cost, but are planning to. They want to use opportunity cost to support Initiative |% of respondents planning to use OPPORTUNITY COST | |Product Costing |55 | |Planning & Budgeting |36 | |Customer costing |27 | |Process/Continuous Improve ment |27 | The most noticeable difference is that only 18% are planning to use the information to support Performance Measurement. This could well be because the ease of which opportunity cost lends itself to Performance Measurement is not evident until an opportunity cost is up and running.Alternatively, the respondents may be looking to introduce opportunity cost to solve a pressing business requirement, and the links between Opportunity Cost and performance metrics are not immediately apparent. Opportunity Cost for Planning The emphasis of Bankers has moved from historical costs to future costs. An enormous 94% of those questioned are now using opportunity cost, or plan to use, opportunity costs for developmental drives. Opportunity cost Planners are looking at all aspects of their organisations in order to identify improvement opportunities. Some 60% are looking to identify process improvements, with 55% looking at activity level improvements via resource planning, and 49% looki ng to affect strategy formulation. However, only 13% are questioning their organisation’s process design in a fundamental way.Consistent with historic uses of opportunity Cost planning data is being used to support a variety of initiatives, although there is a surprising focus on opportunity cost for goal setting. |Initiative |% of OPPORTUNITY COST Planners | |Shared Service Costing |51 | |Product Costing |49 | |Defining team/dept goals |27 | |Defining organisational goals |13 | Product/Service Costing and Customer ProfitabilityBy using cause and effect tracing rather than allocations, opportunity cost better reflects the value chain of how organisations consume costs and provides more accurate product, service and customer costings than achieved using traditional costing techniques. The difference in opportunity cost product costs to absorption or other allocation based costings can be dramatic. The survey shows that 87% of practitioners found that their product and service costs differed from traditional costings markedly. The majority had an average variation of between 5 and 10%, which can be dramatic at a gross or net margin level. However, a surprising number of respondents (11%) experienced variations of over 100%! |Average variation |% |Maximum variation % | |0 |13 |; 10% |25 | |1-5% |15 |10-25% |17 | |5-10% |26 |25-50% |25 | |10-15% |13 |50-75% |14 | |15-20% |10 |75-100% |8 | |; 20% |23 |; 100% |11 | Cost Reduction and Process ImprovementThat ABC can improve your bottom line is beyond doubt, with potential cost savings amounting to 25% of cost bases being identified. Some organisations are yet to find where they can reduce their costs, but it is worth noting that over 70% of those who have not identified cost savings have less than 100 activities in their model. Whilst it is important to prevent ABC models become too large and unmanageable (primarily because they can induce analysis paralysis), it is essential that a reasonable level of detail is available, so that there is sufficient information on which to make cost reducing or revenue enhancing decisions. After all, profit outcomes are the result of process design and activity workflow†¦ Maximum potential cost saving as a % of cost base |% | |0% |18 | |1-5% |21 | |5-10% |33 | |10-15% |8 | |15-20% |13 | |20-25% |2 | |;25% |5 | A variety of methods are being used to help organisations translate their ABC data into real cost reductions. Cost driver analysis is the most frequently used method for aiding cost reduction and/or process redesign, with 67% of organisations using this technique. Process mapping and benchmarking are also popular, as is repricing of products and/or services, and analysis of the value that an activity adds to an organisation. Top techniques used to aid cost reduction |% | |Cost driver analysis |67 | |Process mapping & redesign |52 | |Benchmarking |52 | |Repricing |50 | |Value adding analysis |42 | |Product rationalisation |38 | |Value chain an alysis |32 | Conclusions ABC can, and does, add value to organisations. 96% of respondents have found the experience to be beneficial to their organisations, and 98% are expecting their implementations to deliver even more positive returns on their investment in the future Level of benefit delivered by ABC |% achieved |% future | |Adverse impact |4 |2 | |Negligible benefit |22 |13 | |Moderate benefit |54 |60 | |Substantial benefit |20 |25 | Regardless of the benefit analysis above, respondents recommend the use of ABC unanimously! In particular, practitioners recommend using ABC for product costing and cost reduction, to derive the most benefits, although there is a general belief held by ABC practitioners that the methodology should be broadly used as shown below. ABC supporting |% of organisations | |Product/service costing & profitability |80 | |Cost reduction |65 | |Continuous Improvement Program |56 | |Business Process Re-engineering |55 | |Shared Services Costing |51 | |Custom er, channel or value chain analysis |44 | ABC is generating real benefits for all sorts of organisations across Australia. These benefits can only increase as more organisations are looking to start an ABC project for the first time, but the full potential of ABC will not be realised as so many existing ABC users are still not employing ABC to its full capabilities. It is important that experienced ABC companies capitalise on their implementations to achieve the maximum possible benefits.Increasing the scale of an ABC project need not be an expensive, time-consuming process. There are cost-effective solutions that combine ABC, Process Mapping and Balanced Scorecard, to produce automated, regular reports with a minimum of manual intervention. With organisation-wide implementations providing much greater cost savings, expanding your ABC project can only be advantageous to your organisation’s bottom line. CHAPTER 4 Analysis and interpretation The data collection method for this study is survey questionnaire conducted face-to-face with 51 randomly chosen Bankers from various commercial banks in Bahrain from various cities. The questionnaire includes multiple choice, open-ended, and Likert scale questions.Some questions of the survey were adopted form various previous studies (Brierly et al. , 2001; Van Triest and Elshahat, 2007; Wijewardena and Zoysa, 1999). The data collection period ranges from October 2012 to November 2012. (1) general information on the business organizations and respondents; and (2) cost and management accounting practices. Table 4. 1 Information gathered from the first part of the questionnaire. |Bank Classification |Percent | |Commercial Banks |  40 | |Islamic Banks |  10 | |Other Banks |  1 | |No. f Employees |Percent | |10 to 49 |   | |50 to 99 |  90% | |100 and more |  10% | |Age of the Banks |Percent | |10 years or less |  10% | |20 year or less |  80% | |20 years or more |  10% | In the Table 1, Bank classifica tion, position of respondent, number of employees, and age of Banks are presented. In Bank classification, the highest percentage belongs to commercial banks (5banks), and â€Å"others† includes Banks dealing particularly in investment (1 bank) 4. 1. Product costing methodsThe respondents were asked to specify the cost factors they implement in an investment project costing. According to the answers, the most widely used costing factor is Financing cost (31 respondent), followed by opportunity cost (11 respondent) and loan process cost (9 respondents). In Table 2, which shows the detailed answers to this question, the most significant points are the financing cost widely by lower managerial levels, and that of opportunity cost largely by top managerial level. Primary cause for the financing cost by banks is that they offer more of the saving accounts than fixed deposit accounts. Table 4. 2 Most important Cost elements in an Investment Project Bank Classification |Financial Co st |Loan Processing Cost |Opportunity Cost |Other | |Commercial Banks |  20 |  3 |  3 |  0 | |Islamic Banks |  6 |  3 |  5 |  0 | |Other Banks |  5 |  3 |  3 |  0 | |Total |31 |9 |11 |0 | 4. 2. Complications faced in product costing The respondents were also asked to point out the difficulties they encounter in Investment project costing. Out of 51 respondents, 22 see the limited Complexity in cost evaluation as top difficulty (43 percent), availability of alternative resources(33. 3 percent), followed by economic instability (24. 7 percent). 4. 3. Role of Opportunity Cost in Management Accounting PracticesIn another part of the survey, which was adopted from Van Triest and Elshahat (2007)’s study, respondents were asked to score the role of opportunity cost in various financial analysis on a Likert scale of 1 (no role) to 5 (major role). To evaluate the results, one sample t-test was conducted (Table 4). The results showed that pricing decisions are t he most important area where opportunity cost is deemed important at an average of 4. 16, followed by customer profitability and activity analysis at 4. 07. Performance measurement and make or buy decisions with an average of 4. 04 and 3. 96 respectively are also important areas where opportunity cost is used. However, opportunity cost is not seen important in product mix decisions, and adding or deleting products as much as other areas. Management Accounting Practicies |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1. 146 |4. 29 | |Customer profitability |  4. 08 |  1. 034 |  4. 01 | |Performance measurement |  4. 03 |  1. 071 |  3. 714 | |Activity analysis |  4. 08 |  1. 120 |  3. 793 | |Make or buy decisions |  3. 96 |  0. 62 |  3. 576 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54 |  1. 168 |  0. 289 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 47 |  1. 370 |  0. 199 | Table 4. Results of one sample t-test for use of Opportunity cost in management accoun ting practicies (Test value=3. 5) |Management Accounting Practicies |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1. 146 |4. 9 | |Customer profitability |  4. 08 |  1. 034 |  4. 01 | |Performance measurement |  4. 03 |  1. 071 |3. 714 | |Activity analysis |  4. 08 |  1. 120 |  3. 793 | |Make or buy decisions |  3. 96 |  0. 962 |  3. 576 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54 |  1. 168 |  0. 289 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 47 |  1. 370 |  0. 199 |Furthermore, the findings are compared with the results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007). The comparison indicated that two studies yielded parallel results. As seen in Table 5, first three items with the highest mean are the same. In both countries, pricing decisions, customer profitability, and performance measurement are the most prominent areas in which costing information is applied. Among the remaining four application areas, the rank of activity analysis is different. In this study, ac tivity analysis is the fourth in ranking, but it is the last in ranking in Van Triest and Elshahat (2007)’s study. Table 5. Comparison of results with the results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007) Management Accounting Practices |Mean |Rank |Mean* |Rank* | |Pricing decisions |  4. 15 |  1 |  4. 44 |  1 | |Customer profitability |  4. 06 |  2 |  4. 19 |  2 | |Performance measurement |  4. 06 |  3 |  4. 11 |  3 | |Activity analysis |4. 08 |  4 |  2. 33 |7 | |Make or buy decisions |3. 99 |  5 |  3. 5 |  4 | |Product mix decisions |  3. 54   |  6 |  3. 33 |  5 | |Adding or deleting products |  3. 50 |  7 |  2. 89 |  6 | * The results of Van Triest and Elshahat (2007) 4. 5. The ratio of opportunity cost to total cost In the questionnaire survey, the ratio of opportunity cost to total cost (O. C/T. C) was also questioned. Overall mean for all the banks is 34. 48 percent. (Table 6) was conducted to see the significant differences a mong banks. The results showed that there is a significant difference among industries (significant at 0. 10).Duncan test from Post Hoc tests showed that Commercial Banks has the highest OC/TC ratio and is significantly different than Islamic Banks and Investment Banks and miscellaneous Banks. Table 6. The ratio of opportunity cost to total cost (percent) 4. 6. The reasons for the increased interest in opportunity cost manifestation in banks dealing The respondents were asked to score the reasons for the increased manifestation of Opportunity cost in their daily dealing on a Likert scale of 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). A list of reasons was provided for the respondents so that they evaluated each. The results of one-sample t-test in Table 7 showed that decreasing profitability (4. 9) is the primary reason which increases the importance of opportunity cost. Other reasons which increase the importance of opportunity cost are increasing costs (4. 57), increasing dom estic and global competition (4. 30), and economic crises (4. 23). Actually, means of four items above 4. 00 indicate that they are all factors considered important for the increased interest in opportunity cost . This means profitability of companies is decreasing, possibly due to increasing costs, and increasing domestic and global competition. Economic crises which hit companies from time to time are also important reason for the increased interest in opportunity cost identification and implication. Table 7.The reasons for the increased interest in opportunity cost Calculation (Testvalue=3. 5) |Mean |S. D |t-test | |Decreasing profitability |  0. 566 |14. 170   | |Increasing costs |  0. 666 |  11. 929 | |Increasing domestic and global competition |  0. 940 |  6. 450* | |Economic crises |  1. 020 |  5. 399* | Significant at 0. 001 level 4. 7. Perceived importance of opportunity cost in overall Banking Operation Lastly, the respondents were asked to evaluate the per ceived importance of Opportunity cost that are utilized in banking organizations on a Likert scale of 1 (unimportant) to 5 (very important). The results of one-sample ttest in Table 8 indicated that the most important management accounting practices in decreasing order are budgeting (4. 48), planning and control (4. 33), cost-volumeprofit analysis (4. 3), target costing (4. 16), quality cost reporting (4. 09), performance measurement and evaluation (4. 02), responsibility accounting (4. 0), standard costing and variance analysis (3. 89), and strategic planning (3. 78). Transfer pricing (3. 65) is unique practice that is significantly not important based on test value of 3. 5. These findings indicate that companies perceive traditional management accounting tools still important. For example, budgeting, planning and control, and cost-volume-profit analysis are perceived the most important of all management accounting practices. Quality costing and target costing as new management acc ounting practices are utilized by the companies. However, strategic planning, and transfer pricing are perceived the least important ones. This may be due to size of the sample firms.Since the sample consists mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises (according to number of employees), some tools may be too sophisticated to be utilized. Szendi and Shum (1999) states that the larger the firm the more sophisticated the management accounting system and the more likely isthe firm to utilize sophisticated management accounting techniques and practices. Abdel-Kader and Luther (2008) also proved that large firms adopt more sophisticated management accounting techniques and practices than small firms. Table 8. Perceived importance of Opportunity Cost in routine banking operations (Test value=3. 5) |Mean |S.D |t-test | |Budgeting |0. 754 |  9. 911** | |Planning and control |0. 819 |  7. 500** | |Cost-volume-profit analysis |  0. 871 |  6. 900** | |Target Costing |  0. 849 |  5 . 820** | |Total Quality Management |  1. 115 |  3. 890** | |Performance measurement and evaluation |  1. 027 |  3. 39** | |Responsibility accounting |  1. 056 |  3. 450** | |Standard costing and variance analysis |  1. 140 |  2. 480* | |Strategic planning |  1. 011 |  2. 050* | |Transfer pricing |  1. 300 |  0. 860 | ** Significant at 0. 001 level * Significant at 0. 05 level CHAPTER 5 Summary and Conclusion The survey revealed the perceived importance of Opportunity Cost at selected commercial banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The findings are expected to contribute to the existing literature about the subject, especially in developing markets. The major findings of the study are as follows: The most vital cost element for Commercial Banks is financial cost The complexity in loan costing poses as the highest ranking difficulty due to the availability of alternative projects, Customer Activity Analysis and pricing decisions are the most important area where op portunity cost is calculated (parallel to the finding of Van Triest and Elshahat, 2007), Overall mean of the ratio of overhead to total cost is 34. 48 percent for all Commercial Banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain,The highest opportunity cost/total cost ratio belongs to non-islamic Commercial Banks, Decreasing profitability, increasing costs and competition, and economic crises are reasons which increase the importance of opportunity cost The most important use of Opportunity Cost is in Budgeting out of all routine functioning of Commercial Banks (parallel to the finding of Chenhall and Langfield-Smith, 1998) The findings indicate that Banks perceive traditional management accounting tools less important. The new management accounting practices such as strategic planning, and transfer pricing are perceived more important than traditional ones. Therefore, the banks have been calculating the Opportunity Costs for these management accounting tools. Scope for further researchSince the sampl e consists mostly of medium sized local branches of International banks , they may not reflect the applications of large scale banking corps. Secondly, the results are confined to the Commercial Banks and should not be generalized to the other sectors. Thirdly, since the survey conducted on companies operating in Bahrain , the findings may not be generalized for the worldwide policies of the Banks. For future research, whole region wide and more comprehensive survey could be conducted with the participation of more banking companies from different countries. Moreover, case studies can be conducted to make more in-depth analysis about cost and management accounting practices.