Taxation Law and Practice A Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Taxation Law and Practice A - Case Study Example This is in order to avoid double taxation as Joe is still going to pay income tax on this amount as part of his income. The bonus payment of $5,000 shall not be considered for this particular period. This is because it was paid to Joe on 10 July 2014 .This particular date falls outside of the financial year 2013/14 that runs from 1July 2013 to 1 July 2014. In Section 8.1 of the ITAA97, the company is allowed to deduct any amounts from its assessable income if this amount was incurred in the gaining or the production of the assessable income. In this situation, the amount paid to Joe was for his skills as a labourer. This skill enabled the company to conduct its business and hence be able to make income from its activities. It is therefore right to assume that the amount the company paid to Joe should not be taxed and is therefore a deductible from the assessable income of the company. MM have to pay employee super. The Superrannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 governs the relationship between employees and their employers. It includes details about the employer’s liability in the making of the payments. It also states how the calculation of the super guarantee charge is done. Contributions should be paid by the 28th of the month that follows the end of the quarter1. Failure to do this will result in the payment of a superannuation charge by the employers. Joe is qualified to have this payment made for him on his behalf by the company. The requirements are that the employee should be over 18 years old and they should earn more than $450 before taxation in a calendar month. Super payments are normally calculated and made after every three months. The payment of a former employee of backdated payments means that the super payments that had accrued to that employee must also be paid. The employees that are excluded from this arrangement include those who earn less than $ 450 in a month. Employees who are

The first description of Scrooge emphasises Essay Example for Free

The first description of Scrooge emphasises Essay In his visit from Marley, Scrooge is told that he has a chance and hope of escaping the same terrible fate that he himself has suffered. Marley is covered in chains which represent his greed during his time on earth and he explains to Scrooge that charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence should have been and now should be his business in order to redeem his selfish past. Marleys visit as the first ghost represents the beginning of Scrooges change of his ways and it shows Scrooge the possibility of his own redemption. The second Ghost to visit Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas past, takes him back to when he worked as an apprentice for his first employer Fezziwig. Scrooge is able to see a Christmas party held by his kind hearted boss and during this time he forgets the presence of the ghost as he is immersed in the atmosphere created by his generous employer. During the whole party Scrooges Heart and soul were in the scene. However the audience is reminded of Scrooges lack of generosity and greed before Scrooge realises that he has the responsibility to make his hard working employees happy. This is shown when Dickens explains that whilst Scrooge was speaking unconsciously he believed that the party was a great expense for giving happiness and that only with the power of money could Fezziwig make his guests happy. On the second ghosts visit Scrooge also sees himself with his first love Bella and sees that he sacrificed love for money which he now regrets as he realises his own judgment was wrong. At this point in the novel the audience is shown how Scrooge may be beginning to consider the importance of change. Scrooge is then visited by the ghost of Christmas present who shows him the Cratchits family at Christmas. On this visit Scrooge sees that he is partially responsible for the Cratchits familys welfare as he is the employer of Bob and this makes Scrooge realise the importance of sharing his own wealth and giving. Scrooge also realises that the poor make do with the little money they have but are still able to enjoy themselves and be happy. During the third ghosts visit Scrooge begins to show concern about tiny Tims welfare as he can see that the malnourished child is obviously ill and he therefore asks the ghost to tell him with and interest he had never felt before Whether tiny Tim will live. The ghost explains to Scrooge that if he does not change in the future tiny Tim will die and then repeats Scrooges words said about decreasing the surplus population. Upon hearing these words Scrooge is instantly full of remorse and this again shows the audience how Scrooges views on the poorer-nation have changed drastically since the fist three ghosts visits. Scrooges regret is then later doubled as even though he had been a cruel employer Bob thanked him for the familys tiny Christmas feast. After realising the importance of family after seeing how Bob Cratchit spent his Christmas Scrooge visited his nephew Fred and Scrooge who was embarrassed of his previous arrogance was surprised to be greeted by nephew extremely happy to see him. At this point in the novel Scrooge can see that people who should see him as a terrible person were happy to see him ,he therefore enjoys a wonderful party knowing that he is now not alone and he then sees the true value of a family who loves one another. Whilst being visited by the ghost of Christmas present the ghost presents scrooge from the folding of its robe with two children: wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. Scrooge asks the ghost if they have no refuge and again he is confronted with the words he said about the poor before his ghostly visits which Scrooge now obviously regrets. Dickens includes this as it makes the audience believe Scrooge is now changing for the better to benefit not only him, but the poorer nation as well. Finally Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas yet to come who informs Scrooge that he will die a lonely death with no concern from anyone else unless he changes his views on money and social classes. On hearing this news Scrooge proclaims that he is not the man he was and at this point the reader will also believe this as Scrooges attitude has changed as the visits from ghost progressed. He truly wants to be a different man and change for the better, not just to secure his own fate but also Tiny Tims. At the end of the novel Scrooges attitude towards money and social classes has changed greatly he believes he will live in the past present and future, take nothing for granted and be the kind hearted man that his business partner Jacob Marley wanted him to be. He is now extremely happy with his own situation with money but also willing to help others that are not so well off like his employee Bob Cratchit who he donated the Christmas turkey to as an act of good will and the charity collector.

Capital Shape Alphabet Encoding Based Text Steganography

Capital Shape Alphabet Encoding Based Text Steganography A Capital Shape Alphabet Encoding (CASE) Based Text Steganography Approach Abstract Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message. Steganography is a form of security through obscurity. Steganography algorithms uses cover media such as text, image, audio and video etc. to hide the data. User relies on change in the structure of these mediums and features of the target medium in such a manner as is not identifiable by human. In this paper we also present and evaluate my contribution to design the new approach for text Steganography and named it as CASE (Capital Alphabet Shape Encoding) approach. This approach is a combination of random character sequence and feature coding method. Keywords- Steganography; features; encoding; decoding; cover text. Steganography means conceal communication. It is derived from a work by Johannes Trithemus (1462-1516) titled Steganographia. The word Steganography comes from Greek and meaning of steganography is concealed writing. Steganography is used to transmit a message through some innocuous carrier i.e. text, image, audio or video over a communication channel in order to effectively conceal the existence of the message. Text steganography is a process to hide the secret information within text (i.e. character based) messages. Text steganography is the most difficult kind of steganography [1]. Text steganography is considered as difficult one is due to the lack of redundant information in a text file, while there is a lot of redundancy in a picture or a sound file, which can be used in steganography [1] [2]. For text steganography there are many methods available [3] [4]. Some method change format of text while some method change actual word to hide secret data. White space is used to hide secret data, in open space methods [5], while in syntactic method punctuations are used to hide secret data [5]. In acronyms method [2] and semantic method [4], actual word or phrase replacement is used to hide secret data. By using characteristics of that particular language data is hidden in Persian/Arabic Text steganography [4] and Hindi Text steganography [6]. If we use open space methods [6] or feature coding method [4] in text steganography, and if somehow format of file is changed then it results in data loss. In acronyms and semantic method, meaning of information can be changed because these methods use actual word replacement or punctuation to hide secret data. So a method is needed by which secret data survive after changing format of file and meaning of text will not changed. So considering some problems like format changing, changing meaning of secret data, etc. in existing text steganography methods; we have proposed new CASE approach for text steganography. We have used text features of English letters to hide secret data. Letters of English alphabet based on kind of round shape or curve, vertical and horizontal line are grouped in first approach. Like some letters in English language contains kind of close round shape or curve. Like some letters in English contains only one straight vertical line. In second approach, we are grouping numbers and symbols. In CASE categorization, based on different text features of English letters we categorize English letters into eight groups. We have studied the implementation some existing methods mentioned in paper [4] and we have compared these methods with proposed CASE approach. In the proposed CASE approach randomness is used but it aids to provide more security to secret information. For various existing method s and proposed CASE approach we have measured number of bytes hide, time overhead and memory overhead. Our results shows that, very less time overhead and memory overhead is required to implement proposed CASE approach compared to existing methods, and also we can hide more number of bytes using proposed approach. Required cover text size is also very small in proposed approach. In this approach, we introduce new encoding technique to hide the secret message in cover text. We will call this technique Capital Alphabet Shape Encoding (CASE). In this method every character of secrete message is encoded in the form of 8-bit binary number after that the equivalent ASCII character is replace the original character. In this the left most 0th bit will represent the alphabet group or digit/symbols group (0 value for alphabet set and 1 value for digit or symbols). In case of alphabet we made eight groups of English letters based on features of letters. While making group we consider only Capital letters of English alphabet. The left most 1st, 2nd, 3rd bit of 8 bit number represents the group number. The next 4th bit will represent the sentence case of letter. If it is 1, than it represents upper case letter and if its 0 than letter will be lower case letter. Table I, II, III shows eight bit encoding format of alphabets, digits and symbols. In this approach all alphabets are divided into groups and every alphabet has its position in corresponding group. This position will represent the last three bit of 8-bit number. By using this approach, we can hide all eight bits of one letter of secret message into one letter of cover text at a time. Table1. 8-Bit encoding format in case of alphabet 0th bit 1st bit 2nd bit 3rd bit 4th bit 5th bit 6th bit 7th bit Alphabet (0) Group no. Case Group position in alphabet Group. Table2. 8-Bit encoding format in case of digit 0th bit 1st bit 2nd bit 3rd bit 4th bit 5th bit 6th bit 7th bit digit (1) Group Position in Digit Group Always 0 Always 0 Always 0 Table3. 8-Bit encoding format in case of symbols 0th bit 1st bit 2nd bit 3rd bit 4th bit 5th bit 6th bit 7th bit Symbol (1) Always 0 Always 0 Always 0 Group Position in Symbol Group. As shown in Table1, in first group, we include neither those letters which have round shape or any curve and nor vertical and horizontal straight line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 000 bit. Candidates for this group are V, W, X, Y. In second group, we include those letters which have one or two vertical straight line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 001 bit. Candidates for this group are K, M and N. In the third group, we include those letters which have only one or more horizontal straight line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 010 bit. Candidates for this group are A and Z. In forth group, we include those letters which have both one and more than one straight vertical and horizontal line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 011 bit. Candidates for this group are E, F, H, I, L and T. In fifth group, we include those group, we include those letters which have only curve or round shape. We can use any letter from this group to hide 100bit. Candidates for this group are C, O, Q, S and U. In sixth group, we include those letters which have both curve and straight vertical line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 101bit. Candidates for this group are B, D, P and R. In seventh group, we include those letters which have curve and straight horizontal line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 110 bit. Candidate for this group is G. In last but not the least eighth group, we include those letters which have curve, and both straight vertical and horizontal line. We can use any letter from this group to hide 111 bit. Candidate for this group is J. For example if the secret letter is H then by using CASE approach it will be encoded as 00111010 and its ASCII equivalent is 58 which is given by :. After encoding, now letter : will be mixed up with the cover text. And this letter will hides all the 8 bits of original letter H into cover text. 2.1. Hiding the Message In the CASE text stenography approach, first we encode all the characters of the secret message with new proposed encoding technique which is based on the shape of the alphabet characters. Second we hide this message with the cover text by mixing it with the contents of cover text, i.e. first we encode the secret character and then we perform process of finding the ASCII equivalent of the 8-bit format of the secret character and hide it with the contents of cover text. To hide it or embed it with the cover text, we made a new technique. In this technique we encode the first three letter of the cover text by using CASE approach and then count the bits having value 1. This count value is the key value for hiding the data. After calculating the key value message is mixed up, one character of message comes after key number character of cover text and this process of embedding are repeated until whole message is hidden in the cover text. For implementation of CASE approach we develop two algorithms for hiding and retrieving which are implemented in JSP using NetBeans IDE. 3.1. Pseudo code for message hiding Procedure CASE_steno_hide (String msg, String covertext) begain; For i=0 to msg.length() ch=msg(i); encode_msg=encode_msg+char(encode(ch)); End For key_msg=covertext.substring(0,3); For i=0 to key_msg.length() ch=key_msg(i); en_key=en_key+encode(ch); End For keyarray []=en_key.toByteArray(); key=0; For i=0 to keyarray.length() IF keyarray[i] == 1 then key++; End IF End For IF key key=5; End IF For i=0,j=0 to i hidden_msg=hidden_msg+covertext.substring(i,i+k)+encode_msg(j); i=i+k+1; j++; End For return hidden_msg; End Procedure 3.2. Pseudo code for message retrive Procedure CASE_steno_unhide(String hidden_msg) begain key_msg=hidden_msg.substring(0,3); For i=0 to key_msg.length() ch=key_msg(i); en_key=en_key+encode(ch); End For keyarray []=en_key.toByteArray(); key=0; For i=0 to keyarray.length() IF keyarray[i] == 1 then key++; End IF End For IF key key=5; End IF For i=key to hidden_msg.length() encode_msg=encode_msg+hidden_msg(i); i=i+key; End For For i=0 to encode_msg.length() orignal_msg=orignal_msg+decode(encode_msg(i)); End For return orignal_msg; End Procedure Fig. 1: Numbers of bytes hide by particular method Fig. 2: Maximum cover text required to hide 200 bytes and 1000 bytes Fig. 3: Time and memory overhead of all methods. In this paper, we have proposed new approach for text-based steganography for English language texts. In this approach, we exploit the shapes of the English characters to hide secret bits. Based on our survey of the existing Text Steganography approaches, we show that our proposed approach can hide more number of bytes, it has very small cover text and required very less time overhead as compare to other techniques. Our analysis reveals that our approach imparts increased randomness in encoding because of which the same cannot be attacked easily. This approach is applicable to the soft-copy texts as well as hard-copy texts. In addition, the proposed approach is also immune to retyping and reformatting of text. However, one of the weaknesses of the proposed approach is that once known about their applicability, they can easily be attacked. Hence, it is essential to keep the application of a particular approach to a particular data set secret, while using them. 5. References M. Shirali-Shahreza, Text steganography by changing words spelling, In 10th International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology, Korea, 2008. M. Shirali-Shahreza, and M. Shirali-Shahreza, Text Steganography in SMS, In International Conference on Convergence Information Technology, 2007. F. Khan, Enhanced Text Steganography in SMS, In 2nd International Conference on Computer, Control and Communication, 2009. M. Shirali-Shahreza, and M. Shirali-Shahreza, A New Approach to Persian/Arabic Text Steganography, In 5th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on computer and information science (ICIS COMSAk06), 2006, 310-315. W. Bender, D. Gruhl, N. Morimoto, and A. Lu, Techniques for data hiding, In IBM Systems journal, vol. 35 (Issues 3 4), 1996, p.p.313-336. Available: http://www.informatik.unitrier.de/~ley/db/ journals/ibmsj/ibmsj35.html. K, Alla, and Dr. R. Shivramprasad, An evolution of Hindi text steganography, In 6th International Conference on Information Technology, 2009. B. Dunbar, A Detailed look at Steganographic techniques and their use in an Open-systems environment, SANS Institute, 2002. K. Bennett, Linguistic Steganography: Survey, Analysis, and Robustness Concerns for Hiding Information in Text, Purdue University, CERIAS Tech. Report 2004-13, 2004. A. Gutub, and M. Fattani, A Novel Arabic Text Steganography Method Using Letter Points and Extensions, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2007. L. Robert, and T. Shanmugapriya, A Study on Digital Watermarking Techniques, In International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 2, May 2009. J. Brassil, S. Low, N. Maxemchuk, and L. OGarman, Copyright protection for the electronic distribution of text documents, In Proceedings of the IEEE, VOL. 87, NO. 7, July 1999. J. Brassil, S. Low, N. Maxemchuk, and L. Oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸Gorman, Electronic marking and identification techniques to discourage document copying Text Steganography, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, VOL. 13, NO. 8, October 1995, p.p. 1495-1504. Shraddha Dulera et.al.Experimenting with the Novel Approaches in Text Steganography published on International Journal of Network Security its application (IJNSA), Vol.3, No.6, November 2011, pp 213-225.

Roman Fever :: essays research papers

Last Word When it comes to the art of conversation men and women employ different strategies when carrying on same sex conversations. In the short story â€Å"Roman Fever† by Edith Wharton, the two main characters appear to be having a battle of wits. While on holiday in Rome two people become reacquainted with each other. Both parties have lost their spouse. The dialogue opens with one speaker making light conversation. This person is simply making nonchalant statements, possibly seeking a reply with a mutual agreement about the topic. Instead the second person replies back with an implied personal ending to the statement taking the control away from the first speaker. This causes the first speaker to reflect for a moment. Well executed, the second person has once again politely changed the subject to avoid a confrontation. In the company of each other, silence is a device they both use. One uses it for opportunistic reasons, the other to conceal. When the conversation starts again it seems as if the couple is carefully setting the stage for a mental battle of, who can out do who, the classiest. This is where the genders split as to how they deal with conflict. Usually two civilized gentlemen engaged in a conversation that involves intimacy tend to keep those personal emotions to themselves. If directly asked such a question the other gentleman would probably state that he chooses not to discuss it. If men do not want to talk about a subject that involves emotions they come right out and say, â€Å"I don’t want to talk about this and that’s final†. Respecting the other man’s statement, no further discussions involving that topic would take place. As far as a strategy for control of conversation, men are not inclined to be evasive with each other. They get right to the point without a lot of chit-chat in between. Men do not try to confuse one another with inferences or misleading statements, to them it would be illogical. With reference to the two women in â€Å"Roman Nights† Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley literally battle each other in the most feminine of ways, through words. Mrs. Slade admits to her friend that Delphin did not write the letter, she did. This emotionally crushes Mrs. Ansley. Now that the topic is finally out in the open the two women prepare for a game of wits. After the first round of surprises Mrs.

chlamydia :: essays research papers

Chlamydia (STD) Æ’Ã ¦ Chlamydia trachoma is a sexually transmitted disease that is transmitted by direct contact through oral, vaginal and anal intercourse and is also transmitted to newborns through vaginal birth by an infected mother. This disease is not passed on by indirect contact, such as a toilet seat. Æ’Ã ¦ Chlamydia trachoma is biologically active in vaginal and penile secretions and fluids. Æ’Ã ¦ The usual reservoir for C. trachoma is the mucous membranes of the body found in the genital region, throat, and eyes. Æ’Ã ¦ The etiological agent of Chlamydia is C. trachomatis which has the following general characteristics: obligate intracellular parasite gram negative coccoid bacteria nonmotile intracellular does not possess a peptidoglycan layer unable to produce its own ATP. Æ’Ã ¦ The following tests are used to identify C. trachomatis: 1) ELISA test and FA test may be effective only when the bacterium is metabolically active (not infectious), these tests are used to detect group specific LPS and strain-specific outer membrane proteins 2) gram staining (negative, coccoid) 3) culture and iodine staining for inclusion bodies (used because the trachoma species of Chlamydia cannot be stained with iodine because it does not contain glycogen) 4) Serological tests that detect high titer IgM antibodies indicates a recent infection (used in adults, cannot distinguish between current and previous infections, not very useful) 5) nucleic acid probes (these are currently new and further info was not available) Æ’Ã ¦ The bacterium C. trachomatis was first discovered in 1907 by Stanislaus von Prowazek in Berlin. The genus part of the name, Chlalmydia, comes from the Greek word chlamys, which means cloak and the species part of the name, trachomatis is also Greek and means rough or harsh. This name is perfectly associated with the actions of this disease. Æ’Ã ¦ A cloak is meant to hide, conceal or even disguise; and that is what C. trachomatis does on the inside of the body, it hides, it is usually asymptomatic (no symptoms). It enters the body through mucous membranes on the body as elementary bodies that bind to receptors on the host cells and are taken in by endocytosis or phagocytosis. The elementary bodies become reticulate bodies that do not combine with the lysosome and are able to resist being digested and killed. The reticulate bodies reproduce by binary fission and change back into elementary bodies which leave by reverse endocytosis. The elementary bodies have a rough outer membrane that allows them to be resistant against  ¡Ã‚ §harsh ¡Ã‚ ¨ environmental conditions which is associated with the name trachomatis.

Medicare and Medicaid Cuts Essay

The debate on health care spending has been highly contested and remains the top most agenda on the Obama administration. The U. S government has been pursuing effective health care reforms for quite a long period of time. Focus has been on developing a plan that reduces government spending on heath and home care reimbursements while increasing the regard for insurance cover. An important aspect of these reforms is the reduction in budgetary spending on Medicare and Medicaid programs (Meena, et al. 006). President Obama in 2009 announced the $ 313 reduction in Medicaid and Medicare efficiencies as a move to accomplish the proposed savings essential for facilitating the administration’s heath-care plan. Currently, the cut on Medicare reimbursements paid for health care access costs by psychiatric patients, the elderly and the disabled stands at about 21%. In justifying these cuts, the U. S government points out that the funds would be less essential in the light of a new health care reform. However, at the current economic status and the increasingly declining rates of hospital revenues, this move has resulted into the rationing of medical and home care services, high payroll taxes, and closure of departments and hospitals. According to a study conducted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) regarding these cuts, about one in every five hospitals have already reduced a number of health care services such as outpatient services, post-acute care and behavioural health; as they have had to reduce overhead costs resulting from the cuts (Shen, 2003). These cuts will affect millions of people especially seniors, military families and the disabled who depend greatly on Medicare. This is because accessibility to physician help will be minimized. In support of medical practitioners, The American Medical Association (AMA) argues against these cuts on the basis that they are derived through an unreliable method of determining the physicians’ reimbursements and which according to them ought to be reviewed. It is imperative to also note that the effects of these cuts are being transferred to the public through increased insurance costs. Effects on Access, Cost and Quality of Psychiatric Care There is evidence that patient’s access to health and home care has been increasingly diminishing in the past few years and even got worse following the recent 21% Medicare cuts. Physicians argue that this has been prompted by the increased costs in the provision of medical care services due to the reimbursement cuts. For instance, by the year 2005, medical care provision costs had been projected to be about 40% more than the in 1991 (White, & Dranove 1998). In 2008, about $ 879 million was spent by hospitals in Michigan in subsiding services for the patients affected by the cuts. There have also been care rationing, reduction in provision of vital medical services and closure of hospital departments has been prevalent. This means that access to heath care services by concerned individuals has reduced significantly. A number of medical practitioners have been forced to stop providing psychiatric services to patients due to high overhead costs (Meena, et al. 2006). The reduced Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements have made it impossible for psychiatrists to effectively provide care to long-term-care clients as well. There are reports of psychiatrists declining to provide consultation services in nursing homes as result of the lower rates of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements received. According to the chair of the Geriatric Psychiatry committee for the Maryland Psychiatric Society, Allan Anderson, the cuts are a drawback to the willingness of the psychiatrists to provide care for the Medicare-based patients (Mulligan, 2002). Geriatric patients currently are underserved. Psychiatrists argue that due to a reduced access to psychiatric care such in cases demanding early interventions, most psychiatric patients are ending up complications. Doctors note that the cuts make it difficult for them to meet the requirements of their practice such as administrative issues and thus end up restricting their caseloads on Medicare. Currently, Medicaid does not take responsibility of the complete co pay for patients on both the Medicaid and Medicare and this has made a number of clinics to close to avoid the extra burden of absorbing the costs of treating these patients. For instance, Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic incurred a loss of about $ 34. 2 million in years 2002 and 2003 due to these cuts and it is such losses that are pushing clinics to close down minimizing access to health acre even more. Access to healthcare for the Medicare patients is increasingly becoming expensive and complicated given that the ability to pay currently determines this access (White, & Dranove 1998). Most heath facilities have had to cut down on their provisions of vital services that the seniors, the metal disabled and the military personnel within the community rely on to protect their bottom lines. Affected patients are being forced to skip visits to hospitals and this has prompted the providers to restrict access through costs. Impact on Psychiatrists and Other Medical and Home Care Providers A study of about 14,000 anaesthologists and surgeons indicate that most medical care providers will change their practice thus jeopardizing health care provision. A third of those studied said they will cease to practice as Medicare psychiatrists. This will adversely affect their quality of life. Practical challenges are forcing the providers to halt providing some Medicare related services, cutback on staff, minimize time allocated for Medicare patients and/or halt further purchase of equipments essential for serving such patients (Konetzka, et al. 2005). This will limit the doctor’s practice adversely. Some medical and home care providers have been forced to quit their practice following the high overhead resulting from the high costs incurred in attending to Medicare patients. Hospitals are being forced to resize on Medicare patients’ staff since hospitals have had to absorb care costs. Individual practitioners are more affected. Reimbursements cuts are prompting hospitals to focus on other non-reimbursement-dependent care services while closing down departments as well as cutting back on services to enable hospitals protect their bottom lines. This trend is prevalent even in community hospitals. In this regards, hospitals and home care provision establishments have had to reduce the number of practitioners providing these services and hence most are on the verge of losing their jobs should the cuts continue as anticipated (Mulligan, 2002). This implies that the government will only be solving on problem while creating multitude of others such unemployment. Many hospitals have also resulted in freezing of workers’ salaries and hence compromising their motivation. Impact on Taxpayers According to Randall (2009), the 2005’s 3 % reimbursement cut resulted into a $ 49 billion in terms of cost on permanent reforms. Currently, the Medicare reimbursement cut stands at 21% at a reform cost of about $ 210 billion. Medicare and Medicaid programs are funded by pay roll taxes. According to the health care reform bill, there will be an expansion of the pay roll tax associated with the Medicare to cover unearned income. It is projected that beginning year 2018; insurance firms will be required to pay an excise tax of about 40% for plans where family premiums range from $ 27, 500 and above (Sam, 2006). Experts note that these payroll tax effects will be transferred to employees in terms of lowers wages and benefits or in terms of higher premiums. This comes at a time when the government is focused on laying strict measure to ensure that people have health insurance. Further, it is also projected that from year 2013, adjustable spending accounts which currently enable users to skip various expenses on health care, will reduced or limited. In regards to the high income earning population, families earning in excess of $ 250, 000 will be required to spend way above what they spend currently on medical payroll taxes. Moreover, the now exempt unearned income will also be subjected to 3. 8 percent in payroll taxes. Individuals and families are definitely feeling the weight of these Medicaid and Medicare cuts through increased payroll taxes. This is because the federal government is focusing on insurances an alterative to help patients meet their health care costs. A 2005study by the Kaiser Family Foundation on employer health benefits indicates that family coverage premiums had increased by an average of about 9. 2 percent (Sam, 2006). Health insurance expenses have made it costly to employees as they are subjected to deductions for the same. At the same time, the mean per month contribution by employees on family plans increased to $ 226 in year 2005 form 2000’s $135. These are some of the costs that the citizens are bearing at the expense of the reduction in Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

Tqm – Total Quality Management

Available online at http://www. journalcra. com INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT RESEARCH International Journal of Current Research Vol. 3, Issue, 3, pp. 149-153, March, 2011 3 ISSN: 0975-833X REVIEW ARTICLE TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION 1Jayakumaran, M. and 2Manoharan, C. 1Department of Management Studies, Kalasalingam University, Virudhunagar (Dt. ) Tamil Nadu, India 2Department of Education, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India ARTICLE INFO Article History: Received 18th December, 2010 Received in revised form 21st January, 2011 Accepted 29th February, 2011 Published online 13th March, 2011ABSTRACT After Second World War the United States of America was forced to improve the production of Quality of goods and services. Total Quality Management (TQM) concept was developed by an American W. EDWARDS DEMING. Still 1980s the Japanese only were concentrating in TQM concept where they dominated in world markets. There is a myth the use of TQM which is applicable o nly in Business and Industry where the production process are being made but the new concept of TQM is also applicable to Academics. Many educators strongly believe that the Deming concept provides guiding principles to make reform in educational system.Also Mr. John Joy Bonstingl, an educationalist out lines the TQM principles. Hence the authors of this paper strongly believe the TQM principles are most relevant to education.  © Copy Right, IJCR, 2011, Academic Journals. All rights reserved. Key words: Business and In Educational system Total Quality Management INTRODUCTION In any organization when the term â€Å"Quality Management principle† first it must focus on its suppliers and customers. In a TQM organization, everyone is both a customer and supplier; this confusing concept emphasizes â€Å"the systematic nature of the work in which all are involved†.In other words, teamwork and collaboration are essential. Traditionally, education has been prone to individual and departmental isolation. However, according to Bostingl, this outdated practice no longer serves us: â€Å"When I close the classroom door, those Kids are mine! † is a notion too narrow to survive in a world in which teamwork and collaboration result in high quality benefits for the greatest number of people. The application of the first pillar of TQM in education emphasizes the synergistic relationship between the â€Å"suppliers† and â€Å"customers†. Corresponding author: [email  protected] com The concept of synergy suggests that performance and production is enhanced by pooling the talent and experience of individuals. In a classroom, teacherstudent teams are the equivalent of industry’s front-line workers. The product of their successful work together is the development of the student’s capabilities, interests, and character. In one sense, the student is the teacher’s customer, as the recipient of educational services provided fo r the student’s growth and improvement.Viewed in this way, the teacher and the school are suppliers of effective learning tools, environments, and systems to the student, who is the school’s primary customer. The school is responsible for providing for the long-term educational welfare of students by teaching them how to learn and communicate in high-quality ways, how to access quality in their own work and in that of others, and how to invest in their own lifelong and life-wide learning processes by maximizing 150 International Journal of Current Research, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 149-153, March, 2011 pportunities for growth in every aspect of daily life. In another sense, the student is also a worker, whose product is essentially his or her own continuous improvement and personal growth. Continuous Improvement and Self Evaluation The second pillar of TQM applied to education is the total dedication to continuous improvement, personally and collectively. Within a Total Qu ality school setting, administrators work collaboratively with their customers: teachers. The foundations of â€Å"Scientific Management† were fear, intimidation, and an adversarial approach to problem-solving.Today it is in our best interest to encourage everyone’s potential by dedicating ourselves to the continual improvement of our own abilities and those of the people with whom we work and live. Total Quality is, essentially, a win-win approach which works to everyone’s ultimate advantage. According to Deming, no human being should ever evaluate another human being. Therefore, TQM emphasizes self-improvement process. In addition, this principle also laminates to the focusing on students’ strengths, individual learning styles, and different types of intelligences.A System of Ongoing Process The third pillar of TQM as applied in education is the recognition of the organization as a system and the work done within the organization must be seen as an ongo ing process. The primary implication of this principle is that individual students and teachers are less to blame for failure than the system in which they work. Quality speaks to working on the system, which must be examined to identify and eliminate the flawed processes that allow its participants to fail.Since systems are made in the quality of those processes largely determine the quality of the resulting product. In the new paradigm of learning , continual improvement of learning outcomes replaces the outdated â€Å"teach and test† mode. Leadership The fourth TQM principle applied to education is that the success of TQM is the responsibility of top management. The school teachers must establish the context in which students can best achieve their potential through the continuous improvement that results from teachers and students working together.Teachers who emphasize content area literacy and principle-centered teaching provide the leadership, framework, and tools nece ssary for continuous improvement in the learning process. Evidences show same Business forms like American Express, ford, IBM, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, and Xerox hired university Graduates who are literate in TQM. They said in an open letter published in 1991 in the Harvard Business Review with bringing total quality to higher education. Contrary to instruction and research practices in the university. TQM is team-based. However, Faculty members, are notorious independents.So students are it’s dog-eat-dog in the classroom. Also, TQM calls for cross-functional thinking, planning, and doing. Faculties and curricula are highly specialized and professors avidly protect their turf. We might add that universities are tradition-bound, whereas TQM trumps for continuous change. Infact, TQM initiatives are appearing here and there in academia. There are a few good reasons why this may continue, though perhaps fitfully. They have to do with opportunities to innovate and explore new i nstructional and research horizons, which have strong appeal for most academics.Business, economics, engineering and related tool disciplines (information systems and mathematics/statistics), plus other professional schools, are particularly affected by total quality management. Business and Economics Colleges of business and economics include specializations in operations management, marketing, business policy and strategy, management accounting, corporate finance, financial accounting and auditing, human resource management, organizational behavior, and economics. TQM offers differing challenges and attractions for each. Operations Management TQM affects nearly all of the operations management agenda.A primary focus on modeling for efficiency gives way under TQM to planning and doing for and with the customer. The customer outlook in turn, calls for major overhauls in the operations management approach to scheduling, equipment selection, facility layout, maintenance, inventory man agement, and quality assurance. Briefly, schedules, equipment, layout, and inventory management must be geared for quick reaction to customer needs, not just to efficiency and utilization and process control must replace breakdown maintenance and delayed inspection.Operations Management professors have a special reason for heading the call of TQM. They had failed to stay abreast of an important operations management movement called Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) that emerged in industry in the 1970s. The MRP juggernaut had become OM’s leading edge in the real world of manufacturing, but for a decade OM text books and journals said little or nothing about it. To catch up and stay caught up, OM professors, in droves , joined the 151 International Journal of Current Research, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 49-153, March, 2011 professional societies, where they could keep an eye on fast –changing developments. And they began publishing heavily in practitioner periodicals, whic h they fought to elevate to tenure-class status. Then, when TQM and related topics made their appearance, Operations Management faculties where not far behind marketing. In TQM thinking, the customer is the object. Which university specialty has charged of customers marketing? TQM concepts load easily into topic outlines in marketing courses and into marketing research hypotheses.In practice, marketers and salespeople have carried the burden of having to cover up for their organizations defects, late completions, and other customer service failings. As TQM kicks in with continuous improvement quality, timeliness, and so on, the burden is lifted somewhat. Each improvement is marketable—in proposals, in advertising, in sales promotions. For example, Ford Motor Company’s slogan, now a decade old is, â€Å"Quality Is Job One†. Putting a more positive face on their function holds appeal for marketing professors and students as well as practicing marketers.Business po licy and strategy system favored filling stockrooms, even with wrong models and substandard quality, to absorb overhead costs. JIT, however, puts the damper on stockroom filling, and total quality shrinks the production of lesserquality goods. Such improvements show up perversely as bad performance(negative cost variances) in monthly cost reports. So ABC comes to the rescue. If done right, ABC will assign less overhead cost (rework, scrap ,stock management, and so on) to products undergoing continuous improvement – especially in cycle time.A few management accounting professors are finding still another challenge to pursue: working out ways of putting the cost of quality into financial statements. I have raised questions on the wisdom of this( Schonberger 1994). Corporate finance A related area ripe for research is how to give quality, responsiveness, flexibility, and customer satisfaction their due in capital budgeting instead of relegating such factors to the last page of t he capital expenditure proposal under the heading â€Å"Intangible†.Financial accounting and auditing Such important TQM-oriented topics as benchmarking, quality function deployement, and customer-centered strategic principles need an academic home. These topics seem general enough to find their way into instruction in several disciplines. However, they deal specifically with matters central to the business policy/strategy area: directing internal resources toward enhanced competitiveness and customer retention. To a certain extent, total quality becomes strategy—and perhaps should be taught that way.Management accounting TQM does not permit cost, efficiency, and resource use to remain as primary operational measures of its performance. Quality in all dimensions dominates. Because management accountants have been the guardians of performance measurement, the challenge of reinventing performance management is largely theirs. Thus, a decade ago leading management account ing professors. Notably Harvard professor Robert Kaplan, began arguing that performance should be measured in non-financial terms, including quality, inventory levels and deliverability.Although some academics in management accounting may not welcome the idea of non-momentary measures, most have been easily caught up in the excitement of activity-based costing(ABC). ABC arose because just-in-time (JIT) production—the quick—response component of TQM—throws conventional costing into a tailspin. The old costing In this TQM era, the financial side of accounting has not generated the same degree of dynamism as the management accounting side. This does not mean there is no awareness of deficiencies. Income statements and balance sheets have not served investors well.Too often yesterday’s buy list becomes tomorrow’s basket cases. The â€Å"financials,† as require by generally accepted accounting principles, simply do not distinguish between the fir m whose quality-related competitiveness is deteriorating and its continuously improving competitor Though many academics, and legions of securities analysts, continually seek better ways of assessing the strength of a business, breakthrough ideas that recognize quality-centered competitiveness are not yet forthcoming. Human Resource Management (HRM) Human resource policies have traditionally favored specialization.Their aim is to narrowly specify jobs through division of labour, then hire people to fill the jobs, give them scant training, and keep them in that specialty for life. HRM has been taught that way and practiced that way. On the other hand, TQM requires cross-training, job improve it, or even communicate about it. Labour, long blamed for protection of work rules, is generally proving no to be the obstacle to their removal. One reason is that cross-training and learning add lines to one’s resume, which is the key to work-life 152 International Journal of Current Rese arch, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 149-153, March, 2011 ecurity, (of greater concern today than mere job security). HR departments in superior companies are making the transition toward TQM-based practices featuring never-ending training and development for all employees. Organizational behavior (OB) At first, the community of OB scholars watched in amazement as TQM and floor distance. However, when TQM hit the back office and then the entire service sector the stampede began. Today, treatises on new TQM related topics have become common in OB academic journals. For example, Organizational Dynamics devoted its entire Spring 1992 issue to the theme.These topics include employee involvement and empowerment , non-hierarchical, non-functional organization structures, and debates about motivating continuous improvement. An additional pursuit is reformulation of conventional OB concepts suchas team building, conflict resolution, and equity theory for use in TQM implementation. Economics In the ea rly years of JIT, Economists thought it an anomaly that inventories kept falling instead of following the economic cycle. Now it is clear that the pattern is broken. Continuous improvement reduces the need for inventory protection, so inventories just go down.Economists have much to do to revise their models. More significantly, economists may need to expand their world view. In conventional economic thought management has no role, economic activity is a function of fiscal and monetary policies of government and business. Tinkering with taxation spending and a few other money-denominated factors explains everything. No more Economists must accept that management can make a difference. Japan’s fixation on quality management is especially convincing, and now the same story repeats itself in other countries.Tool Disciplines Information systems and mathematics/statistics, indispensable tools for the end of aforementioned academic areas are also affected by TQM. Information system s practitioners can play an important role in their employers’ partners-in-quality efforts with customers and suppliers. Cumputer-aided design networks, external bar-coding, point of sale scanning, electronic data interchange, automatic funds transfer and satellite communication with freight haulers are among the IS devices that help link firms with suppliers and ustomers. These expanded uses of IS will naturally interest information systems academics. Mathematics/Statistics Near the core of TQM is a set of tools known as statistical process control(SPC). AT the low end of the SPC methods are the â€Å"seven basic tools† easy to learn and essential in the daily work of every employee. For a time, universities looked the other way while the community colleges nearly 1400 strong in the US and Canada put together training courses in Statistical Process Control for business and industry.Now SPC is fully covered in operations management and industrial engineering textbooks, plus texts in management accounting, marketing and general management. At the high end drawing in the mathematics and statistics academics are advanced statistical methods, especially design of experiments and the related methods of Genichi Taguchi, an eminent statistician. Professional Schools All the professions from engineering to law have a mission to provide quality services. The management of the professions also must have quality as its mission.Engineering Quality control and reliability engineering are traditional teaching and research specialties. Industrial Engineering professors have their hands full propagating the old message (sometimes called little q) as well as expanded, new TQM concepts (big Q). Besides that, every department in the engineering school has the same twofold challenge: (1) teach team design, in which engineers work on project teams with other engineers, customers, suppliers, business functionaries, and the front-line employees who produce the engineer ed roducts; (2) teach the principles of design-for-quality and design-for-manufacture (DFM) and its derivatives. Related fertile research areas include design for safety, disassembly and the environment; quick design-tomarket and elimination of disruptive post-production engineering changes. Some engineering professors and graduate students are already absorbed in these topics. Conclusion Public administration, teachers college, medical school, dental school, veterinary school, library school, and law school in each of the other professional schools, quality is or should be the foremost concern.All of the professional schools in the university can benefit from adding TQM as an instructional and research topic. 153 International Journal of Current Research, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp. 149-153, March, 2011 What about all the remaining academic areas? The opinion of the late W. Edwards Deming is instructive. Dr. Deming agreed to allow his name to be attached to Columbia university’s De ming center for quality management. However, a condition was that the center should be multi-disciplinary.The project proceeded when the school of engineering and applied science and the department of statistics joined the graduate school of business in the endeavor. Transforming schools through Total Quality Education in Phi Delta Kappan. – Michael J. schmoker, Richard B. Wilson. Total Quality Education: Profiles of Schools that Demonstrate the power of Deming’s Management principles. – Michael J. Schmoker, Richard B. Wilson. REFERENCES Total Quality Management in Education- Edward Sallis. Total Quality Management and the school – Stephen Murgatroyd, Colin Morgan. *******