Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Bipolar Disorder The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual...

In 1957, Karl Leonhard a German psychologist coined the term ‘bipolar’ for those patients with depression that also experienced mania. In 1966, Jules Angst and C. Perris independently demonstrated that unipolar depression disorder could be differentiated in terms of clinical presentation, evolution, family history and therapeutic response. Their ideas stood the test of time and became assimilated in both the two main modern systems of classification for the diagnosis of mental disorder: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association and the International Classification of Disease published by the World Health Organization (NCBI, 2006). In 1980, the name bipolar disorder was†¦show more content†¦The ICD-10 requires two discrete mood episodes, at least one of which must be manic. In the DSM-IV a single episode of mania or a single episode of hypomania plus a single major depressive episode would warrant a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (NCBI, 2006). Bipolar disorder is characterized by severe changes in mood, thinking, and behavior, from extreme highs to lows. In its most t classic presentation, mania and depression alternate in distinctive episodes that can last anywhere from a few days to a year or more. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, patients in manic episodes experience elated, expansive, or irritable mood (Criterion A) with at least three of the following (four if the mood is only irritable): inflated self-esteem (grandiosity), decreased need for sleep; racing thoughts or flight of ideas’ rapid or pressured speech; reckless and impulsive behavior enhanced energy increased goal-directed activity and distractibility (Criterion B) (Craighead Craighead, 2013). There are recent theories that suggest that bipolar disorder is a result of the disruption of neurotransmitters in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin and glutamate. The studies suggest that dopamine function is enhanced during mania and diminished during depression (Cousin, Butts, Young, 2009). Studies also suggest that among people without bipolar disorder, dopaminergic agonists

Monday, December 16, 2019

Birdgeton Case Free Essays

Memorandum To: Mike Lewis From: Overseas Consulting Group Date: December 9th 1990 Subject: Manifolds Retention vs. Outsourcing Analysis Our team of financial analysts has taken an in depth look at the consultant’s recommendation to potentially outsource the manifold production line. Through our analysis you will see that the consultants have not considered the full financial impact that this outsourcing would have on the company. We will write a custom essay sample on Birdgeton Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is likely because the recommendation has not taken into consideration the range of costs affecting Bridgeton industries. Through our analysis it becomes clear that the decision to retain the manifold production line will be more financially beneficial to the company. We will begin with some of the assumptions of our analysis, and the conclusions from our various analyses of Bridgeton Industries Costs. Please refer to the attached excel file for detailed analysis of the numbers. We know that Bridgeton uses an absorption costing system which does not easily distinguish between fixed and variable costs. The problem with that system makes it very challenging to forecast appropriately the cost of excess capacity and furthermore the impact of outsourcing the manifold production line. Therefore the reported costs are not appropriate for this type of analysis. Our team began our own analysis of the costs to evaluate the recommendation. We began by calculating gross margin for each product, by first identifying how much overhead should be allocated to each category. We broke out the overhead by using Direct Labor (DL) as a % since most of the overhead accounts are labor related. As a result, overhead allocation for each product in 1987 is the following: Fuel Tanks 17%, Manifolds 24%, Doors 11%, Muffler/Exhausts 23%, and Oil Pans 26% for 1987. Muffler/Exhausts, manifolds and Oil Pans are both labor intensive, so under this method, they bear a higher percentage of the overhead costs. Now that Bridgeton stopped producing Muffler/Exhausts and Oil Pans, the manifold line carries an even greater proportion of the overhead costs of 46%. Therefore, the cost per manifold goes up because of the larger share of overhead it has to absorb. Please refer to the analysis file, tab 2 for 1991 forecasts. We assumed the sales and costs for each category would increase close to the same percentage as previous year. The overhead forecast required greater detailed analysis. The question is how to anticipate how much overhead would go down due to discontinuation of manifolds. In 1989, DL and direct material (DM) went down 46% and 47% respectively from the outsourcing of the other production lines. If manifolds were to be outsourced and all DL and DM were eliminated, then we are looking at approximately 44% decrease in DL and 49% decrease in DM. We assumed for the purpose of our analysis, that the reductions in DL and DM for these two year are comparable. Thus, we applied the same percentage of overhead reduction in each account to the 1989 to the 1991 overhead accounts. Once we established these overhead accounts, we then analyzed how the costs are allocated across the remaining lines. As you can see in detailed spreadsheet, the most profitable product, the fuel tanks, now has to absorb 61% of the overhead cost and its gross margin is down to 33% from 43%. The doors’ gross margin also went south from 27% to 17%. Clearly the fixed costs, which weren’t removed with the outsourcing, have eroded the profitability of all of the remaining products. The consultant’s suggestion to outsource production is actually not a good option after all. Fix costs embedded in the cost per unit won’t go away because less profitable parts are outsourced. If Bridgeton industries wants to seriously considering outsourcing the manifold line or any other some significant overhead restructuring is necessary to try and reduce the fixed cost profitability dilution. Changes to cost structure As we mentioned previously Bridgeton currently uses a single overhead pool for the entire plant that allocates costs based on direct labor hours. Since the production process of the various product lines vary greatly, this causes the overhead allocation to be inaccurate. The products have different levels of automation and manual work (refer to descriptions in exhibit 1). While one product line may be diligently working to reduce costs, another product line can simply reduce production and receive the same relative decrease in overhead costs. Also, the overhead percentage is calculated only once a year at budget time and is used throughout the entire model year. With an annual calculation, there is little to no incentive for employees to continuously reduce their costs month to month. Bridgeton should recalculate the overhead percentages on a monthly basis to be more accurate if possible. We recommend creating multiple overhead pools by taking the overhead cost elements and assigning them to the product lines that are truly driving those expenses (basically link overhead to the product). Having a product specific allocation of OH expenses will allow management to have better visibility to the product cost reduction efforts of the employees. Variable Costs, Fixed Costs Excess Capacity Ultimately the problem Bridgeton is facing is related to fixed costs due to excess capacity. Once production lines are outsourced, the remaining fixed costs in OH which are not outsourced represent the excess capacity. This is a cost problem for the company as the other products must absorb this. The two obvious solutions to this problem are to cut these costs as much as possible. Through restricting initiatives this can be made possible. The other solution would be to increase demand of existing product lines. In the case of Bridgeton industries there is a need for a strategic shift to increase that demand. Continuing cost reduction initiatives are necessary, but a strategy to differentiate Bridgeton’s products through quality, reliability, service, etc. could help increase demand and furthermore reduce the impact of excess capacity costs. Additionally if new overhead pools are created, as we recommended above, management should set standards for the activity on each product line. This will help control variable costs and keep the lines accountable for their own expenses. Supplies and small tools should only be purchased as need and overtime hours should be kept to a minimum. Fixed costs are absorbed evenly by each line, but can still be reevaluated by management. For example, a fixed asset audit can be performed to ensure that all assets that are being depreciated are truly in-service. Calculate the OH Rates The 1987 overhead rate used in the study was 435% of direct labor dollar costs. Bridgeton’s actual rate was 437% that year. Overhead rates for the remaining years are calculated below (OH / DL): As you can see the overhead rate for 199, which would be 752% without manifolds, is severely detrimental to the company financially. Clearly the consulting firm did not factor in the fixed costs associated with production when recommending the outsourcing of the manifold production line. Our conclusion is to continue producing manifolds going forward, and to adjust our cost reporting structure to better be able to analyze future strategic shifts such as outsourcing a product line. As a company if Bridgeton does not do a better job to understand the costs of the business, it will be very challenging to make the best business decisions in the long run. Calculations: GM% = (Sales – Direct Material – Direct Labor – Overhead) / Sales Product GM% = (Product Sales – Product DM – Product DL – Product Overhead) / Product Sales Product Overhead = Dept Overhead * DL Rate for product Product Costs = Direct Material + Direct Labor + Overhead DM Rate: (Direct Material / Total Direct Material) DL Rate: (Direct Labor / Total Direct Labor) How to cite Birdgeton Case, Essay examples

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Evolution and the Courts in Inherit the Wind Essay Example For Students

Evolution and the Courts in Inherit the Wind Essay The film Inherit The Wind, like all movies, presents its audiences with a slanted and biased view of the events that it depicts. The movie was biased in many aspects, and almost in its entirety in opposition of the Trial’s prosecution, giving the defense a more rational and sane appearance. The author of the original play as well as the movie director created a particular image of the event not simply to praise Darrow and Scopes, but, also, to address an issue that was, during the period in which the movie was being made, prevalent and, in a figurative sense, related; and they achieved their goal of radicalizing the movie’s main antagonists, namely, the case’s prosecution and their supporters, by making use of certain techniques not at all unrelated to the techniques used by the defense itself in the actual Scopes Trial. I believe that the movie is biased and that the documentary evidence presented in class and in the book â€Å"The Scopes Trial A Brief History with Documents† serve to support my conclusion. The movie Inherit the Wind is an adaptation with characters that, in appearance and in personal titles, are identical to the ones whom they are created to represent; namely: the actual people around whom the famous Scopes Trial revolved. This reality serves to engender an understanding as to how the movie presented its biases, and for what reasons. The film, therefore, comments upon the verdict of the actual case that it attempts to recreate whenever it presents a very open and obvious bias against one of the two sides involved in the aforementioned trial. This bias serves to, almost entirely, discredit the prosecution of the Scopes Trial, and praise the trials defense. The character representing William J. Bryan in the movie, Matthew H. Brady, portrays Bryan as a nervous, attention seeking, vociferous, overly confident and parochial in his conservatism, zealous Christian that does not want to allow the case’s defense to win because of his own pride and because of his own refusal to accept another’s point of view. In contrast, the character representing Clarence Darrow, Henry Drummond, is portrayed as an honest man, tired of being pushed to the ground by religion, seeking to win the case for the defense only through rational and non-ostentatious means. The movie also portrays the people of Dayton as being militantly against the visitors coming in from the north, and even portrays them as cult member like in the movies scene of the sermon in the woods. The movie also adds characters that did not exist in the actual trial, in its plot. The preacher and his daughter did not represent real people and, considering the depiction of the sermon in the woods, whose oration is provided by the fictional preacher, and the calling to the witness stand of the preacher’s daughter, an important witness because she was Bertram Cates’ fiance, Cates being the movie’s version of Scopes, and the vehement interrogation of the girl provided by a seemingly heartless Matthew Brady, or William J. Bryan, the movie completely slants the story and plot against Bryan and the prosecution. The defense, namely Henry Drummond and Bertram Cates, are portrayed as very innocent and honest people. Bertram Cates is arrested because of his earnest belief that the theory of Evolution should be thought in school, attempting to show Scopes as a scientific idealist, when, in truth, Scopes was not arrested as a martyr for science as much as a member of a plot. He did not, in reality, stand up and teach evolution inside the classroom because he believed in the theory; he merely responded to an add made by the ACLU, whose aim was to spark a debate hoping that it could lead to the striking down of the Butler Law; the Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of Evolution, or any other theory of creation contradicting the Biblical account, inside the classroom. The movie not only states in its introduction that it does not attempt to mount its own plot as historical fact, it also states that many of the events depicted in the movie were altered or invented. This bias in the movie is accounted for by the movies attempt to address, through its plot, criticism to the McCarthy eras excesses4. The director and playwright made use, for the radicalization of the movie and play’s antagonists, of techniques not at all alien to the realm of the Scopes Trial itself. During the opening days of the Scopes Trial, Defense Attorney Arthur Garfield Hays created a fictitious act to use for drawing parallels in between its fictitious content and the content of the Butler law. Theory of evolution EssayIt is most definitely true that Bryan was a conservative because of his religion, but it is false to assume that he was always radical. Darrow, after all, did offer his help free of charge, and did do quite a bit on his own to stoke the flames of dissent amongst Americans. Another greatly overlooked aspect of the trial was its commercial nature. It wasn’t almost at all about Scopes’s innocence, but about which of the two sides battling for the soul of America was more correct. The trial itself did little to address Scopes’ conviction. It was rather a large stage from which onlookers could be persuaded to either believe in Christianity’s accuracy or the Atheistic assumption that the Bible was interpretable therefore not possibly in direct opposition to science itself. The contention that the word of God was up for interpretation was a complete snub to the Southern Christians’ outlook on moral purity. With such a notion floating about, that the word of God is not in any one-sense definitive; what was viewed by the rural community as modern days’ propensity for godless excesses found more illegitimate gratification. This fight therefore was also one that encompassed the fear that the rural community had for the American public’s drive to rebel. Both of the sides that presented their reasoning in front of the judge deciding Scopes’ fate were in truth fighting for ulterior motives. Both sides chose to defend one aspect of a changing society’s views. This technique was a guaranteed success when it came to creating publicity, so the original planners of the event were not at all without satisfaction about what they created. In the end, the Prosecution and the Defense both had long monologues parochially accusing one another of grave crimes, and completely ignoring the real purpose of the trial. Bryan eventually led to his own downfall because of his own pride and compliance. The most grievous fact about this failure on Bryan’s part was how it was viewed as a victory for the defense. The defense was therefore not in the business of making its defendant look right, but rather, it was in the business of proving that its own opposition was wrong about the accuracy of religion. This verdict in itself would have no power to actually acquit Scopes, as it was impotent when it came to proving that the Butler law was not violated. The movie is most certainly biased. This conclusion is not only derived from the movies own admitted bias, but also from the contrast which can be made in between the events that occurred in the actual Scopes trial, and the ones shown in Inherit the Wind. First off, the movie itself draws no distinction in between the arguments made in the favor of the Butler Law. The movie presents religious arguments only, and omits any of the other arguments made by the prosecution. The prosecution’s main argument against the defendant, Scopes, was that because of his employment as a teacher, a teacher whose employers wished for him to propagate only certain ideologies, he was not legally able to teach evolution, and his actions were a breach against this prohibition leading to his being arrested for his endeavors9. The prosecution made the argument that due to the fact that taxpayer’s money was being used to fund the schools, and the taxpayers in this case were not comfortable with their children’s learning about Evolution, the law had real power to enforce the taxpayer’s will. 0 These arguments were nowhere present in the movie’s plot. The legal battle in between Darrow and Bryan surely did descend into a fight over the disputed hegemony of evolution over religion, but the movie misrepresents the case, in my opinion, when it only deals with this specific aspect of the trial. The movie itself is justified in its biased approac h to the events of the Scopes trial, but only because it attempted to shed light on the wrongs of the McCarthy era. In its simplistic approach to the case it not only contradicts documents, but it even misrepresents the positions of the prosecution and defense. Bibliography: Moran, Jeffrey. The Scopes Trial A Brief History with Documents. Bedford, 2002. Class Notes March 17-19, 2014 Kramer, Stanley. Inherit the Wind. Stanley Kramer Productions November 1960. compact disc