Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Workplace Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Workplace Issues - Essay Example If the employee is not working in an area that "involves public safety or sensitive government policies", the courts may disallow drug testing (Bergman and Berman-Barrett, 2008, p.70). Limiting drug testing is based on the provisions of probable cause, and the search and seizure protections in the constitution. The federal government justifies drug testing using the legal theory that the potential for harm must outweigh the damage inflicted by the loss of the subject of constitutional rights. In any event, employees in private employment should have the same protections as a government employee. Without probable cause, IE obvious intoxication, the employee should not have to submit to an invasive search of his blood or breath.  Ã‚   Employees are protected from discrimination in their compensation based primarily on the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Equal pay and compensation discrimination, 2009). The 1963 act was meant to target gender discrimination, but subsequent acts have focused on minority status, age, and disabilities (Equal pay and compensation discrimination, 2009). The 1963 Act prohibits paying different rates of pay based on gender when the employees are equal in skill, effort, and responsibility (Equal pay act of 1963, 2009). Women have argued for gender equality, and the 1963 Act was keeping with our country's tradition of fairness and reflected a fundamental shift away from the traditional roles of men and women (Persily, Citrin, and Egan, 2008, p.158). However, the equality of pay also depresses overall wages and benefits business the most. Artificially higher pay for women attracts more women to the labor pool, and this surplus of labor drives down wages (Sowell, 2004, p.163). The fact that we have co mplied with the principles of gender equality does not fairly compensate for the economic loss incurred in the labor market, and gender should not be considered as a criterion for pay equality.   

Monday, October 28, 2019

Payroll Framework Implementation

Payroll Framework Implementation The following report marks the use of the organisation and gets proper use of the organizational support for the understanding of the situation that marks the development and the operation of the organization. The concerned project consists of three prime tasks which are marked as section 1, 2 and 3. Section 1 describes the implementation of two preliminary frameworks-COBIT and COSO in the payroll failure of the Queensland healthcare system. Section 2 of the report deals with describing various frameworks required to sustain the failure, which had been implemented by the health department, IBM and other parties. Section 3 develops an understanding of 2 stages concerning System Development Life Cycle and its working in the project. Importance of payroll framework in any organisation lies in marking and demanding proper as well as smooth development of the organisational management. The management of the organization and the play of the management in terms of dealing with the organisational workers mark the smooth operation of the organisation. It can be so detected that the organization along with the workers are bound with the relation of employer and employee common thread of paying and receiving of salary and wages respectively. The opportunity in the following will be based on the understanding of the consequences if the framework of COBIT and COSO were implemented by the organization. COBIT: As supported by De Haes et al. (2013, p.320), COBIT is one of the latest version of ISACAs globally accepted framework for the proper end to end governance of enterprises and organization related to IT. The central management of the framework helps in the creating of the values in the enterprises. The prime use of the organizational support and the use of the framework is the smooth management of the leadership, guidance and practice with the use of the analytical tool that is managed by COBIT. As supported by Rubino and Vitolla (2014, p.770), the framework helps in the better management of the enterprises IT sector and makes the most of it with the smooth development of the organisation. COBIT stands for Control Objectives for Information and related Technology. This frame work helps in the better bridging of the central breach in the field of the IT department of the organisation. Cobit framework allows implementation of the success factors that could essentially guide the f ailure of the payroll system in the health department of Queensland (Chang et al. (2014, p.200). Proper and appropriate level of governance is being provided if Cobit framework had been followed in the concerned project. It helps to maintain collaboration among the employees and support the financial base of the system so that any collapse would be sufficiently handled by the Ministry of health as well as the government of the nation. COSO: As supported by Rubino et al. (2017, p.99), the framework of COSO is used by the managers of the organization for the development of the organization in terms of gaining proper view of the organizations internal control and thus makes the managers of the organization smooth and better operating ground for the operation of the organization. This framework helps in the well management of the organization operation for the better development of the organisations internal process for for development. As mentioned by Seyal et al. (2016, p.240), the COSO framework helps in well understanding of the internal environment of the organization and marks the risk of the environment in order to gain risk assessment benefits. The COSO framework also helps in the proper management of the information also helps in the management of the communication gathered from external and inter source of the organization. The policies and the procedure help in better management of the organization provided by the COSO. As supported by Gantman and Fedorowicz (2016, p.80), the use of the managerial ground of COSO helps in proper formation of strategic planning for development of organization and maintaining of the development ground in the society. Lattice: As mentioned by Rubino et al. (2017, p.200), the LATTICE framework is an obsolete one ion the proper managing of the development of the organization. The smooth operation of the organization is based on the framework of the organization in the opportunity of the organization. The framework is literally based on the smooth operation of the organization with the help of the scaffold in the organisation. The guidelines of the organization help in the marking of the organisational procedures. The system of the organization is better managed by the organizational development and organizational use of the similar guidelines for the overall development of the organization. The overall development of the organization is based on the guidelines of the organization. The overall development as based on the guidelines does not allow the managers to go out of the space and think. Rather leads in the operation of the orgnisation with fixed and close ended opportunity. As supported by Gil- Pechuà ¡n et al. (2014, p.190), the development of the organization is not well supported by the LATTICE frame because of the close ended operation. The key strategies implemented by the health department of Queensland have been to identify the end users of the proposed system, train the management and staff along with defining requirements of the business (Goosen, 2016, p.70). The objectives of the framework as provided by the health department of Queensland focused on imparting adequate training and education to the staff and enlighten them about relevant information. The payroll system being disparate, two basic systems or support frameworks have been adopted- LATTICE and Environment for Scheduling Personnel (ESP). ESP as well as LATTICE has been progressively utilized since 1996 till 2002. The solution of LATTICE was gradually becoming obsolete with the passing years since it needed a minimum amount of interventions manually for accommodating complex award along with incentive structures to be paid to the employees. Opportunities in the organisation have been developed through the implementation of the framework now approved as one of the obsolete one. The situation of the organisation was into a greater alarming position because of the use in the framework of LATTICE,  that mark the closed Indian guidelines of the organisation in the development of the organisational manager skill and knowledge on the work performed by workers of organisation.  As mentioned by Pandeya et al. (2016, p.263),  the achievement of the success in an organisation can be only possible with the help of the development in organisational use and proper management of skill the managers have. The use of the LATTICE went down because of the minimum effect on the mitigation of problems that arise in the organisation. Due to the traditional framework of LATTICE as there was no has effective mitigation procedures that the managers could have a well for the development of the organisation out of the critical situation. As mentioned by IBM is one of the control process that help in managing organisational and managerial work in a smooth and development.  The queen Queensland State Government for shared service initiative (SSI) was implemented by IBM for preparation of the organisation.  at the IBM was not the only form for information that they used for the development of the organisation but logical and SAP were also out of the,  operation of Organisation in an organisation development situation.  In 2005 the IBM was contracted by FSI for transformation of the organisation formed.  The process and procedure of IBM was of performance award interpretation in the society. The implementation of the Operation of the organisation Was bitter supported by IBM because of the eradication of the old system used by the organisation and  implementation of the system that highest tax act in SAP finance, SAP HR, for the restoring system of the organisation worker. The implementation of the word with t he help of IBM was better in chance of making proper work to bring solution will gather the employee of the organisation and maintain a proper authority in operation of the organisation which also included management and implementation on new projects of the organisation with special care and effective efficiency. Development of the study and operation of the organisation have also mention the developed organisation of structure which grows to be IBMs one of the most important factor in the development of organisation society. According to the observation of Houghton et al. (2016, p.365), among the other parties or contractors who were involved in the payroll system of Queensland health department, Corptech was much well-known and reputed one. The main objectives of Corptech have been to oversee entire implementation of health payroll strategies across all the Department of Queensland Government, commencing strategy of SAP as a Human Resource (HR) practice as well as Work brain solution and managing of prime contractor. Payroll tests have been successful by implementing the solutions of SAP HR along with Work brain solutions unlike LATTICE solution. Since there was no specific methodology of project management had been followed, hence, these solutions tended to be appropriate and the ownership, responsibilities and roles had been crystal clear to the employees as well as managers for avoiding the collapse of the system. Supported by Fair, (2016, p.52),  the first stage of the system development life cycle manages to be the System study which mark sweep elementary stage of system development life cycle.  the investigation of the system development life  cycle system study can be traced back to actually and physical system of the organisation.  This is Temple along with System study health in and listing the study referring to the problem objective terms of reference constraint aspects and effect of the benefits and impacts of the demerits of the organisation.  The use of the system study in the society and in the organisation is for the better identification of the problem and for the initiation of the project. As inferred by Ling-Chin et al. (2016, p.377), the background analysis also is done by the help of system study.  Smooth operation of an organisation is maintained and accepted by the proposal of the cycle procedures from the next step.  The study helps in better identification o f the issues and the mitigation of such issues related to the inference and findings of the work done for the development of the organisational procedure and structure. As inferred by Ioppolo et al. (2016, p.180), the feasibility studies is determined by the option and development of the organisation through which study is accepted and used for the better management of the society.  The prime and the most important objective of a study thing feasible is not to solve the problems but to identify the scope of the object to that will help an organisation to add that precede into better developmental situation and opportunities. The economic feasibility is identified for the Solving problems of an organisation we use of better economic and cost effective methods. The use of the cost effective method and proper benefit analysis of the situation smart the feasibility of the study in terms of economic condition. The organisational feasibility is 5 determination of proposed system is consistent and helps an organisation in strategic objective development. Development of the organisation depends on the understanding of system that works for the operation of an object in an organisation As inferred by Houghton et al. (2016, p.363), Social feasibility marks the situation where the objective of the organisation is accepted and enjoyed by every community of the society without causing any social issues on cultural problems. It is essential to understand the impact of the society in an organisation for detecting the development of the operation and cultural views of the organisation.  It is evident that an organisation should maintain the technical feasibility also for coping with the problems of technical issues that arises in daily operation of an organisational work. Referring to the case study, it could be concluded that the health payroll system of Queensland in Australia has failed consistently and doctors along with other health professionals were not paid or wrongly paid. This resulted in imbalanced health institutional structure of Queensland. Even political unrest erupted due to this failure in the payroll system. The governance and the project management engaged in this project of payroll failure have been hardly successful in implementing appropriate framework for overcoming the system failure. However, these frameworks have been sincerely implemented and brought about few yet relevant changes in the payroll system in Queensland. References   Chang, S.I., Yen, D.C., Chang, I.C. and Jan, D., (2014). Internal control framework for a compliant ERP system. Information Management, 51(2), pp.187-205. De Haes, S., Van Grembergen, W. and Debreceny, R.S., (2013). COBIT 5 and enterprise governance of information technology: Building blocks and research opportunities. Journal of Information Systems, 27(1), pp.307-324. Fair, M., (2016). Generalized record linkage system-Statistics Canadas record linkage software. Austrian Journal of Statistics, 33(12), pp.37-53 Gantman, S. and Fedorowicz, J., (2016). Communication and control in outsourced IS development projects: mapping to COBIT domains. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 21, pp.63-83. Gil-Pechuà ¡n, I., Pullicino, P. and Garcà ­a, M.P.C., (2014). Implementation Methodology of Effective Governance to Ensure the Quality of IT Service. In Action-Based Quality Management (pp. 175-192). Springer International Publishing. Goosen, R., (2016). The development of an integrated IT risk assessment questionnaire for internal auditors use. Southern African Journal of Accountability and Auditing Research, 18(1), pp.63-71. Houghton, R.J., White, C., Golightly, D. and Wilson, J.R., (2016). Span of control in supervision of rail track work. Cognition, Technology Work, 18(2), pp.361-378 Ioppolo, G., Cucurachi, S., Salomone, R., Saija, G. and Shi, L., (2016). Sustainable local development and environmental governance: A strategic planning experience. Sustainability, 8(2), p.180 Ling-Chin, J., Heidrich, O. and Roskilly, A.P., (2016). Life cycle assessment (LCA)-from analysing methodology development to introducing an LCA framework for marine photovoltaic (PV) systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 59, pp.352-378 Pandeya, N., McLeod, D.S., Balasubramaniam, K., Baade, P.D., Youl, P.H., Bain, C.J., Allison, R. and Jordan, S.J., (2016). Increasing thyroid cancer incidence in Queensland, Australia 1982-2008-true increase or overdiagnosis?. Clinical endocrinology, 84(2), pp.257-264 Rubino, M. and Vitolla, F., (2014). Internal control over financial reporting: opportunities using the COBIT framework. Managerial Auditing Journal, 29(8), pp.736-771. Rubino, M., Vitolla, F. and Garzoni, A., (2017). The impact of an IT governance framework on the internal control environment. Records Management Journal, 27(1), pp.81-101. Rubino, M., Vitolla, F. and Garzoni, A., (2017). How IT controls improve the control environment. Management Research Review, 40(2), pp.155-205. Sanyanunthana, K., 2016. Education Quality Development for Excellence Performance with Higher Education by Using COBIT 5. Education, 1, p.524 Seyal, A.H., Poon, S.H. and Tajuddin, S., (2016), November. A Preliminary Evaluation of ICT Centers Performance Using COBIT Framework: Evidence from Institutions of Higher Learning in Brunei Darussalam. In International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Information System (pp. 235-244). Springer International Publishing.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Essay on Uniting People in The Color Purple -- Color Purple Essays

Uniting People in The Color Purple Red, a color of hatred, a color of anger, a color of oppression. Purple, a color of pride, a color of love, a color of triumph. The clashing of colors, and the uniting of a people. Think of how much more we would see if we did not have eyes. Physical appearances rule the world; the spiritual and emotional gifts emanating from within each individual are left to live an empty existence of incessant, smother-some abuse and to die a tragic and appalling death. Through colloquial diction, emotionally and spiritually turbulent episodes, and an uninhibited, straight-forward writing style, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, astonishingly displays society's alienation of the African-American woman. Celie, a homely woman, lived a life of penetrating violence. At an early age the man thought to be her father shamelessly soiled her fourteen year old body for his own carnal satisfaction; she did "what her mammy wouldn't". With one forceful act of violence a childhood ended and a life-time of pain began. The only reason for Celie's existence was to fulfill the needs of a vile and abusive congregation of men. The white man destroyed the black man, the black man destroyed the woman. An endless cycle of rancor and insecurity dominated the lives of women who knew not of their own talents and self-worth. Bare-foot and pregnant, was the only way of life for these abandoned souls. "She ugly. But she ain't no stranger to hard work. And she clean. And God done fixed her. You can do everything just like you want to and she ain't gonna make you feed it or clothe it." Celie, sold, like a slave, into an unloving marriage, represents the indifference and ignorance of society. Celie's marriage to Mr.__... ...ug, Squeak, and Celie fled from their oppressors to the North. Celie utilized her talent of sewing to create new fashions. A talent, once employed only at her husband's call, gave her the self assurance necessary for her attainment of a better future. The death of her father served as a drastic realization. An era of abuse and vulgarity finally ended. His hold on Celie and Nettie no longer existed, they were truly free. Awaiting Nettie's return and escaping the emotional turmoil of Shug's departure, Celie ventured home. Respect from Sofia, Harpo, and even Mr._____ shocked and rattled Celie's mind. Standing up for her rights destroyed an aura of weakness and pushed her ahead to redeem a dormant spirit. Nettie's, Olivia's, Adam's, and Shug's return finalized the uniting of a family, of a town, of a nation, proving in the end we are one . . .a nation of purple.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Mechanism of Vitamin D Action

Introduction Once absorbed, active elements of vitamin D, such as calcitriol, attach themselves to intracellular receptors and then act as transcription factors so as to modulate gene expression (Holick, 2010). The vitamin D receptors are similar to thyroid hormones and steroid hormones receptors and contain DNA- binding and hormone-binding domains. According to Holick (2010), these receptors bind with the retinoid-X receptors, another intracellular receptor, forming a complex bond. This heterodimer is what binds to cellular DNA and activates a biological reaction. The biological reaction can either be the stimulation of proteins that perpetuate intestinal absorption of calcium or providing the appropriate balance of elements crucial for bone function and growth (Holick, 2010). Vitamin D and Bone Health. Numerous studies have demonstrated that vitamin D has important ramifications on bone health, not only in life, but even in the course of fetal development. For instance, DeLuca & Schnoes (1976) cite Dr. Cooper’s research that studied the key factors associated with normal patterns of skeletal growth and established that maternal vitamin D deficiency, coupled with other dynamics, inhibited bone mineral absorption during intrauterine life, and was linked to stunted childhood growth and weak bones in adulthood (DeLuca & Schnoes, 1976). Lack of vitamin D has insidious consequences on the skeleton since it inhibits the accumulation of optimal levels of calcium that is genetically prearranged for the skeleton (Holick, 2010). Watson (2013) also retaliates that once peak bone mass is reached, adults lacking vitamin D in their system will annually loose approximately 0.5% of their skeletal mass if they lack sufficient vitamin D and calcium in their systems (p.18). In addition, vitamin D deficiency can also lead to osteomalacia (DeLuca & Schnoes, 1976); a mineralization defect of the collagen matrix. This condition is often accompanied by throbbing bone pain and aching (DeLuc a & Schnoes, 1976). Holick (2010) points out another research at the University of Pittsburgh that also established a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and increased susceptibility to bone fractures. The study measured the vitamin D levels of 400 participants with hip fractures and compared the results with the vitamin D levels of 400 other healthy women. The outcome demonstrated that individuals with the lowest levels of Vitamin D were 71 percent susceptible to bone fractures compared to those with the highest levels of vitamin D. Consequently, the role played by vitamin D in sustaining bone health can never be overemphasized. Not only does it aid in mineral absorption and bone development in intrauterine growth and childhood, but is also responsible for strong bones in adults as well. References DeLuca, H, F., and Schnoes K.K., (1976). Metabolism and Mechanism of Action of Vitamin D. Annual Review of Biochemistry. Vol. 45: 631- 637 Holick, M.F., (2010). Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Clinical Applications. New York: Springer Science & Business Media Watson, R.S., (2013). Handbook of Vitamin D in Human Health: Prevention, Treatment and Toxicity, Chicago: Wageningen Academic Pub.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Commentry on Rising Fuel Prices Essay

Air travel is fast getting out of reach for relatively small town Indians. According to Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) latest figures, April 2008 saw lesser number of people flying from places like Goa, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Calicut, Srinagar and even tourist hotspots like Udaipur, Jammu and Jodhpur over same period last year. On a national basis, the growth rate of domestic passengers this year has fallen to single digit, down from the heady 30% to 40% figures recorded in past three years. While this growth was largely due to airlines offering attractive fares, the drop in passenger flow was as high as 35% in Jodhpur or 24.5% in Jammu. These figures have the alarm bells ringing as the steep hike in jet fuel prices – which have led to sharp increase in airfares – started only in April and the fall in flyers could get much worse for later months. Till April, fuel surcharge on each ticket was Rs 1,650. Now the same surcharge is between Rs 2,250 and Rs 2,900 and base fares are also much higher, making flying a fancy for many. â€Å"We are slowly reaching a situation where only flights between metros or ones originating or ending there may remain viable for airlines at these operating cost levels. State governments must come forward and offer low sales tax on jet fuel to airlines in return for an assurance that the latter would neither cut flights, nor hike fares to those places,† said a senior AAI official. In fact, the huge 30% to 40% growth recorded in past four years (after the advent of budget carriers) was substantially due to airlines rushing in with flights to places where bus and rail users could be shifted to air by the lure of low fares. But now with airfares on the rise, this connectivity is under severe threat. Airlines have already started pulling out of unprofitable centres. SpiceJet executive chairman Siddhanta Sharma gave the airlines’ perspective. â€Å"Basically flights from most small cities are short haul. On such sectors, high airfares now compete with other cheaper fares of other modes of transport and air travel becomes unviable. Only a reduction sales tax on jet fuel may help keeping such places connected as we would be able to offer competitive fares,† he said. But as state government still dilly dally on this issue, their connectivity is suffering. Cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Trichy, Patna and Rajkot witnessed much lesser domestic flights in April 2008 than last April. While fares of international flights haven’t risen as sharply, international passengers have also declined. Times of India Introduction: The Indian Aviation sector has grown by leaps and bounds over the last financial year but this seemingly booming sector is now slowing down. The above article talks about the decline in the number of air travellers from cities other than the metropolitans. The growth in the number of passengers came about because of one major reason, the introduction of low budget airlines which fly at a much lower cost. Even this effect is being negated by the rising cost of civil aviation. I will use the concepts of Choice, Necessity and Price Elasticity of Demand. The alongside diagram shows the increase in Jet fuel or aviation fuel over the last few months. It also comparatively shows how expensive travelling by car is becoming, due to the rising fuel coats. Figure 1 Concepts Involved: There are mainly three basic concepts involved in this article- ‘Choice’,’ Necessity’ and ‘Price Elasticity of Demand’. 1. Choice: In today’s day and age of cut throat competition, if we need to travel from New Delhi to Mumbai we have several options regarding as to what mode of travel that can be taken. Flying is obviously the fastest and least time consuming and according to popular belief was also very expensive. Since the introduction of low budget carriers, the cost of flying drastically reduced, as these airlines worked on a â€Å"NO FRILLS† policy meaning that they offered no service whatsoever. As a result travel by aeroplane became as expensive as travelling by a second or third class Air Conditioned compartment by the most popular mode of transport in India namely the Railways. As a Result the people travelling by rail reduced in the respective ticket brackets and the passengers aboard aeroplanes increased. People from smaller towns thus for better and quicker travel increased their journey a little bit out of choice and took a plane from the nearest airport of their departure to the airport nearest to their destination. Footnotes: 1. Financial Year- the time period between the 1st of April to the 31st of May. It is called a financial year as the government of India asks for the finances of a company between this period. 2. Low Budget Airlines- They are those airline services that operate on a lower cost due to certain in-flight service policies that they follow. As the price of aviation fuel rises so does the cost if the ticket required to sit on a plane and as a result people from smaller towns are not finding air travel to be a viable means of transportation as they found to be having a lesser income than travellers in bigger cities are resorting to the next best option for their travelling needs. 2. Necessity: A necessity in economics means a compulsion to consume a certain good or service. This applies to a lot of people who travel from larger cities by air. Maximum usage of domestic air travel is done due to some business activity. Businessmen are in vast numbers in big cities such as Calcutta or Bangalore and as a result they not only have a want to travel but this want of theirs is a need. They travel by air as it is the best and the most convenient way to get to a destination in which business has to be transacted. As a result he businessman would not care what the price of air travel is as; they gain more business in exchange for paying a higher price. 3. Price Elasticity of Demand: Elasticity of demand is the responsiveness of the demand of a commodity to a given change in the price of a commodity. We can generalise the kind of people who travel by air in two categories, one who have a highly elastic price elasticity of demand for a commodity and the other who have a relatively inelastic price elasticity of demand for air travel. People from smaller towns will be generally classified in to the first category as they use air travel as an alternative to other modes of transport and seeing a rise in the price they will happily revert back to their earlier means of travel. Travellers from large cities on the other hand will be classified into the second category. They travel by air out of necessity or because they have enough means to account for a rise in the price of air travel. As a result a change in the price will induce small town travellers to cut down on air travel while not so much affecting others from larger cities. Conclusion: Travelling by air for people in smaller towns was a better alternative and not a necessary change. As a result when price went against them, they simply chose not to fly by air. Footnotes: 1. Highly Elastic Price Elasticity of Demand – A change in demand which is related to the price of and article. It is called highly elastic as the change in demand is large due to a change in price. 2. Highly Inelastic Price Elasticity of Demand – A change in demand which is related to the price of and article. It is called highly inelastic as the change in demand is not very large due to a change in price. 3. Aviation fuel- The fuel consumed by aeroplanes. 4. Domestic air travel- Travel which is within the country. 5. Want- It is a desire to consume a good or service backed by the ability and willingness to pay for it. 6. Business- A venture taken on by an individual with the purpose of gaining a profit out of it. Bibliography: * The article was taken from the Indian newspaper â€Å"The Times of India†. Dated 2nd July it is written by a journalist by the name of Saurabh Sinha. The link to the article is: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Steep_fares_lead_to_drop_in_small-town_flyers/articleshow/3186374.cms * The footnotes and other definitions were written with the help of the book: â€Å"Economics Course Companion† written by Ian Dorton and Jocelyn Blink. * Footnotes and definitions that are not found in the book were written out of memory and previous reading from various unrelated and previously read newspapers and articles. * http://content.edgar-online.com/edgar_conv_img/2007/12/21/0001362310-07-003512_C71797C7179706.GIF