Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Sun Bear Facts (Helarctos malayanus)

The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest species of bear. It gets its common name for the white or golden bib on its chest, which is said to represent the rising sun. The animal is also known as the honey bear, reflecting its love of honey, or the dog bear, referring to its stocky build and short muzzle. Fast Facts: Sun Bear Scientific Name: Helarctos malayanusCommon Names: Sun bear, honey bear, dog bearBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 47-59 inchesWeight: 60-176 poundsLifespan: 30 yearsDiet: OmnivoreHabitat: Southeast Asia rainforestsPopulation: DecreasingConservation Status: Vulnerable Description The sun bear has short black fur with a pale crescent-shaped bib that may be white, cream, or golden. It has a short, buff-colored muzzle. The bear has small, round ears; an extremely long tongue; large canine teeth; and large, curved claws. The soles of its feet are hairless, which helps the bear climb trees. Adult male sun bears are 10% to 20% larger than females. Adults average between 47 and 59 inches long and weigh between 60 and 176 pounds. The sun bear has curved claws and an extremely long tongue. Freder / Getty Images Habitat and Distribution Sun bears live in the evergreen tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. Their habitat includes northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, southern China, and some Indonesian islands. There are two subspecies of sun bear. The Bornean sun bear only lives on the island of Borneo. The Malayan sun bear occurs in Asia and on the island of Sumatra. Diet Sun bears, like other bears, are omnivores. They feed on bees, hives, honey, termites, ants, insect larvae, nuts, figs and other fruit, and sometimes flowers, plant shoots, and eggs. The bears strong jaws easily crack open nuts. Sun bears are hunted by humans, leopards, tigers, and pythons. Behavior Despite its name, the sun bear is largely nocturnal. It relies on its keen sense of smell to find food at night. The bears long claws help it climb and also tear open termite mounds and trees. The bear uses its extremely long tongue to lap up honey from bee hives. Male bears are more likely than females to be active during the day. Although relatively small, sun bears are known to be fierce and aggressive if disturbed. Because they live in the tropics, the bears are active year-round and do not hibernate. Reproduction and Offspring Sun bears reach sexual maturity around 3 to 4 years of age. They can mate at any time of the year. After a gestation period of 95 to 174 days, the females gives birth to one or two cubs (although twins are uncommon). Newborn cubs are blind and hairless and weigh between 9.9 and 11.5 ounces. Cubs are weaned after 18 months. In captivity, male and female bears socialize and jointly care for young. In other bear species the female raises her cubs on her own. The lifespan of highly reclusive wild sun bears is unknown, but captive bears live up to 30 years. Sun bear cubs are born blind and furless. Christian Aslund / Getty Images Conservation Status The IUCN classifies the sun bears conservation status as vulnerable. Bear populations are decreasing in size. The sun bear has been listed on CITES Appendix I since 1979. Threats While it is illegal to kill sun bears throughout their range, commercial hunting is among the species greatest threats. Sun bears are poached for their meat and gall bladders. Bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicine and is also an ingredient in soft drinks, shampoo, and cough drops. Despite their temperament, sun bears are also illegally captured for the pet trade. The other significant threat to sun bear survival is habitat loss and fragmentation due to deforestation and human encroachment. Forest fires also affect sun bears, but they tend to recover providing there is a neighboring population. Sun bears are kept in captivity for their commercial value and for conservation. They are farmed for their gall bladders in Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Since 1994, the species has been part of a captive-breeding program with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the European breed registry. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sandakan, Malaysia rehabilitates sun bears and works toward their conservation. Sources Brown, G. Great Bear Almanac. 1996. ISBN:978-1-55821-474-3.Foley, K. E., Stengel, C. J. and Shepherd, C. R. Pills, Powders, Vials and Flakes: The Bear Bile Trade in Asia. Traffic Southeast Asia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, 2011.Scotson, L., Fredriksson, G., Augeri, D., Cheah, C., Ngoprasert, D. Wai-Ming, W. Helarctos malayanus (errata version published in 2018). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T9760A123798233. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T9760A45033547.enServheen, C.; Salter, R. E. Chapter 11: Sun Bear Conservation Action Plan. In Servheen, C.; Herrero, S.; Peyton, B. (eds.). Bears: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Gland: International Union for Conservation of Nature. pp. 219–224, 1999.Wong, S. T.; Servheen, C. W.; Ambu, L. Home range, movement and activity patterns, and bedding sites of Malayan sun bears Helarctos malayanus in the Rainforest of Borneo. Biological Conservation. 119 (2): 169–181, 2004. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2003.10. 029

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Case Study Healthsouth Corporation Scandal - 1521 Words

Anna James Case Study: HealthSouth Corporation Scandal Week3 Forensic Accounting: Ethics and Legal Environment Professor Erskine Hawkins HealthSouth Corporation is a large, public healthcare company that operates 93 inpatient rehabilitation hospital, 49 outpatient rehabilitation satellites, six long-term acute care hospitals, and 25 home health agencies. According to the company websites, it is â€Å"one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers specializing in rehabilitation†.5 The company headquarter is based in Birmingham, Alabama with operation in 26 states across the country and in Puerto Rico. HealthSouth’s stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol HLS, it â€Å"closing price as of December 15,†¦show more content†¦Some of staff of the company including the â€Å"CFO at the time William Owens was a past employee of Ernst and Young†4, this question the independence of the auditing firm when analyzing either the malpractices cooked by the company were accepted based on the fact it is from their former mates without closely looking at their contents or they simply had a blind eye by trusting the accounts without proper cautious, which result in negligent on their part. The discovery of the fraud resulted in a loss of reputation for the company and loss of $ 2.5 billion. Lack of adequate information also played a minor problem in the fraud not been discover earlier than it should have been because when an employee of the company had written to the auditor about questionable issues, which the auditors brought up with the management but were not provided adequate information for them to suspect any wrong doing. The introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which requires a sworn certification by company CEOs that the financial statements contained â€Å"no untrue statement of a material fact† led to Scrushy agreement to stop inflating earnings. The aftermath of the fraud that tookShow MoreRelatedThe Anatomy Of Corporate Fraud Essay845 Words   |  4 Pagescomparative Analysis of High Profile American and European Corporate Scandals. The abstract discusses the analysis conducted on the three major American accounting scandals; Enron, WorldCom, and HealthSouth, and compares to the three major European accounting scandals; Parmalat, Royal Ahold, and Vivendi Universal. Bahram Soltani (2014), also discusses within the abstract the different areas reviewed regarding why the accounting scandals occurred; ethical climate, tone at the top, bubble economy and marketRead MoreFactors of Ethical Collapse3526 Words   |  15 Pagesof the number and severity of the scandals (McCraw, Moffeit O’Malley, 2008). Healthsouth and its CEO are a prime example of a business that have been in the spotlight for unethical and criminal behaviors and experienced an ethical collapse similar to Enron and WorldCom. The company, Healthsouth, was one of the largest healthcare provider led by CEO, Richard Scrushy, one of the most mesmeric and authoritative leaders of all times. During its heyday, HealthSouth employed about 50,000 employeesRead MoreFinancial Fraud Methods Of The Healthsouth Corporate1769 Words   |  8 PagesCase study There is a famous case of financial fraud, one of the largest outpatient surgery, rehabilitation and diagnostic imaging companies in US, known as HealthSouth corporate. The company had over 1,800 facilities in all 50 states which also happen to be the first scandal by listed companies in US after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Two main sections will be discussed from this case. Firstly, to explain the financial fraud methods of the HealthSouth corporate. Secondly, the audit failure of Ernst andRead More Richard Scrushy and HealthSouth Essay2155 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction HealthSouth is one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers specializing in rehabilitation. HealthSouth was founded by Richard M. Scrushy in 1984 and went public in 1986. Scrushy served as its Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 2002. The company was incorporated in January 1984 as Amcare Inc. before its name was changed to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Corporation in May 1985. In January of 2003, Mr. Scrushy reassumed the position of CEO. HealthSouth grew rapidly duringRead MoreHow the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Will Impact the Audit Function2015 Words   |  9 PagesBefore the Enron-Arthur Anderson scandal, auditors were generally viewed as independent and trustworthy professionals. They protected the interests of the individual investor by ensuring that corporations presented financial statements that accurately reflected the financial results of operations. The auditor was trusted to present the facts as he saw it, regardless of the implications. When events such as the academy awards used the services of a CPA, it was done not because the counting of ballotsRead MoreHow The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Will Impact The Audit Function Essay example1993 Words   |  8 PagesBefore the Enron-Arthur Anderson scandal, auditors were generally viewed as independent and trustworthy professionals. They protected the interests of the individual investor by ensuring that corporations presented financial statements that accurately reflected the financial results of operations. The auditor was trusted to present the facts as he saw it, regardless of the implications. When events such as the academy awards used the services of a CPA, it was done not because the counting of ballotsRead MoreThe Theory Of Accounting Fraud3500 Words   |  14 PagesA number of cases of fraudulent accounting have been reported over the last fifty years. However, in each case the manner in which the fraud was perpetrated was different In the UK there is no legal definition of fraud (Levi, Information Gathering Working Party and Doig, 1999). Black’s Law Dictionary (1999) defines fraud as â€Å"a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact†. When we apply this to the world of accountancy there can be confusion between fraud and ‘creativeRead MoreThe Pbs J Accounting Scandal2212 Words   |  9 PagesCASE STUDY: THE PBSJ ACCOUNTING SCANDAL Introduction The Enron and WorldCom scandals were arguably the incidents that permanently changed the procedures for accounting controls. In response to these incidents, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 was passed. Once the knowledge of these scandals was made public, a number of subsequent accounting scandals were discovered in public companies such as Tyco International, HealthSouth, and American Insurance Group. In addition, a then-employee-owned companyRead MoreEssay about Conflicts of Interest between Auditors and Clients2131 Words   |  9 PagesThe complete destruction of companies including Arthur Andersen, HealthSouth, and Enron, revealed a significant weakness in the United States audit system. The significant weakness is the failure to deliver true independence between the auditors and their clients. In each of these companies there was deviation from professional rules of conduct resulting from the pressures of clients placed upon their auditors (Goldman, and Barlev 857-859). Over the years, client and auditor relationships wereRead MoreReflection Paper On Business Ethics2881 Words   |  12 Pagesthe last ten years and some of the effects it had on individuals I could not name those that were considered the worst; therefore, the top ten frauds of the century and the reasons why they reached this dubious rank was very interesting. In most cases, these frauds did not help, but actually hindered both the stakeholders as well as the shareholders. I did do additional research to make sure that I understood these businesses and how they imploded. Because I found them almost mind-blowing, I have

Cloud Computing Implementation SoftArc

Question: Discuss about the Cloud Computing Implementation for SoftArc. Answer: Comparison of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS The comparison of the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS have been shown in the table below, Component of Comparison IaaS PaaS SaaS Usage The IaaS cloud service deploys the host app for the usage of the customers and users of the system. The use of the PaaS cloud service would be deployed for building the application for the operations of the users. The SaaS cloud services is prone to consume application for the provision of the services to the users. Runtime The runtime of the cloud system is self managed The runtime of the cloud system is vendor managed The runtime of the cloud system is vendor managed Application The applications of the cloud system is self managed The applications of the cloud system is self managed The applications of the cloud system is vendor managed Data management The data management of the cloud system is self managed The data management of the cloud system is self managed The data management of the cloud system is vendor managed Middleware The middleware of the cloud system is vendor managed The middleware of the cloud system is self managed The middleware of the cloud system is self managed Table 1: Comparison of the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS (Source: Dillon Vossen, 2015, p.104) RecommendedModel for SoftArc SaaS cloud deployment system is best suitable for the development of smart operations of the cloud system (Almorsy, Grundy Muller, 2016). The cloud computing system would provide the ease of faster and better operations system in the organization. The SaaS is software as a service model that deploys the modification of the cloud system for the modification of the cloud computing technology. SaaS provides the model for easing the users with plug in and accessing the shared infrastructure by the help of cloud system (Hashizume et al., 2013). The benefits of SaaS cloud computing are, High Adoption: The high adoption of the applications would result in managing the operations of the SoftArc and developing the modification in the cloud computing operations of the organization. Lower Initial Costing: The SaaS would provide low cost of the initial implementation of the cloud deployment system (Dillon Vossen, 2015). The SaaS cloud computing of SoftArc Engineering can be deployed by the exhausting less amount of cost and resources. Problems of Cloud Computing and Improvement Strategies The problems of deploying cloud computing system for the operations of the SoftArc are, Privacy Issues: The privacy issues of the cloud computing is a major threat for the organization. The threat of external infiltration in the system is a major flaw and issue of the cloud system. Vendor dependency: The dependency of the vendor for the operations of the cloud would provide the issue of sluggish operations. The issues of cloud computing could be managed by the deployment of the mitigation strategies at the organization. The issues of the cloud computing would be managed by deploying security measures such as IDS/IPS, preventive measures for the organization, and development of the additional set up for the organizations (Rittinghouse Ransome, 2016). Security recommendations for the SoftArc are, IDS/IPS Implementation More Secured Security Designs References Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., Mller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem.arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107. Dillon, S., Vossen, G. (2015). SaaS cloud computing in small and medium enterprises: A comparison between Germany and New Zealand.International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence,3(2), 87-104. Hashizume, K., Rosado, D. G., Fernndez-Medina, E., Fernandez, E. B. (2013). An analysis of security issues for cloud computing.Journal of Internet Services and Applications,4(1), 5. Rittinghouse, J. W., Ransome, J. F. (2016).Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. CRC press.