LEARNING OBJECTIVES The learning objectives of these papers are to substantiate and describe mediators of a biomedical disparity. Do not write about mental health outcomes like depression or anxiety, even if they have a biomedical component. You will describe and quantify a health disparity and then attempt to explain it. Paper 2 will explain it with 3 out of the following 5 mediators: ● EDUCATION ● TRUST & COMPLIANCE ● THE OFFICE VISIT ● SOCIAL NETWORKS/SOCIAL SUPPORT ● INSTITUTIONS You choose the mediators. PAPER DRAFT This paper should be roughly 1500 words long, excluding footnotes/endnotes/references. Content is more important to me than length. See this template. This is not an “essay”-type paper, so please follow the headings and structure in the template. Please write concisely. SUGGESTIONS Sometimes you simply cannot find any published discussions of a mediator. For example, if you’re interested in trans/cis gender disparities in recovery from radiation therapy from soft-tissue sarcoma and by some miracle you are able to quantify a disparity, you may not find any research on, say, whether stress helps explain that disparity. When this happens, please compensate for the lack of research by spending more time explaining why the mediator could explain the disparity. For example, you might more fully describe how stress mediators in general work. Alternatively, you could argue by analogy. For example, if you found research that showed that stress differences might drive some of the trans/cis gender disparity in colon cancer, you could cite that research and simply assert that the mechanism for soft-tissue sarcoma may be similar. Sometimes we have no choice but to speculate. That’s fine. But if relevant research is out there (e.g., there’s a ton on what explains race disparities in various kinds of cancer or heart diseases) and you don’t mention any of it, it looks like you didn’t take the assignment seriously. You should mention relevant mechanisms discussed in class. For example, when talking about economic disparities we focus on how they “do what they do” mostly in childhood. It would therefore make sense for you to demonstrate awareness of that. Or if we read that “stress reduction” is probably the least plausible thing that “social support” does to affect SES health disparities,1 then mention that. You wouldn’t want to write a paragraph that ignores that research. Students are invited to discuss papers with me in office hours at any stage of development. Because office hours can get very busy, doing this the Friday before the paper is due may not be practical. FORMATTING File type. Please submit a PDF. Style. I encourage you to download or copy the template and use it. Please apply (these are not typos; please do not email me to ask about them): ● 1.25-inch margins (left and right; top and bottom are options) ● A sans-serif font ● 11- or 12-point font ● 1.2 line spacing References. You may use any reference style th.

1. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The learning objectives of these papers are to substantiate and
describe mediators of a
biomedical disparity. Do not write about mental health
outcomes like depression or
anxiety, even if they have a biomedical component.
You will describe and quantify a health disparity and then
attempt to explain it.
Paper 2 will explain it with 3 out of the following 5 mediators:
● EDUCATION
● TRUST & COMPLIANCE
● THE OFFICE VISIT
● SOCIAL NETWORKS/SOCIAL SUPPORT
● INSTITUTIONS
You choose the mediators.
PAPER DRAFT
This paper should be roughly 1500 words long, excluding
footnotes/endnotes/references. Content is more important to me
than length. See this
template. This is not an “essay”-type paper, so please follow the
headings and structure
in the template. Please write concisely.
SUGGESTIONS
Sometimes you simply cannot find any published discussions of
a mediator. For example,

2. if you’re interested in trans/cis gender disparities in recovery
from radiation therapy from
soft-tissue sarcoma and by some miracle you are able to
quantify a disparity, you may not
find any research on, say, whether stress helps explain that
disparity.
When this happens, please compensate for the lack of research
by spending more time
explaining why the mediator could explain the disparity. For
example, you might more
fully describe how stress mediators in general work.
Alternatively, you could argue by
analogy. For example, if you found research that showed that
stress differences might
drive some of the trans/cis gender disparity in colon cancer, you
could cite that research
and simply assert that the mechanism for soft-tissue sarcoma
may be similar.
Sometimes we have no choice but to speculate. That’s fine. But
if relevant research is out
there (e.g., there’s a ton on what explains race disparities in
various kinds of cancer or
heart diseases) and you don’t mention any of it, it looks like
you didn’t take the
assignment seriously.
You should mention relevant mechanisms discussed in class.
For example, when
talking about economic disparities we focus on how they “do
what they do” mostly in
childhood. It would therefore make sense for you to demonstrate
awareness of that. Or if

3. we read that “stress reduction” is probably the least plausible
thing that “social support”
does to affect SES health disparities,1 then mention that. You
wouldn’t want to write a
paragraph that ignores that research.
Students are invited to discuss papers with me in office hours at
any stage of
development. Because office hours can get very busy, doing this
the Friday before the
paper is due may not be practical.
FORMATTING
File type. Please submit a PDF.
Style. I encourage you to download or copy the template and
use it. Please apply (these
are not typos; please do not email me to ask about them):
● 1.25-inch margins (left and right; top and bottom are options)
● A sans-serif font
● 11- or 12-point font
● 1.2 line spacing
References. You may use any reference style that appeals to
you, including copying
citations from Google Scholar or having a citation manager
insert them. References do
not need to be perfect. (Mine aren’t.) That is why we have copy
editors and computer
software. Generally you would only want to do either footnotes
or endnotes. If you’re not
sure what to do, consider Chicago, APA, or MLA style. Strive
to be reasonable rather than
perfect.

4. Caution: If you add quotations (which is desirable), please be
sure to add a specific page
number to the citation where the quotation appears.
1 Matthews, Karen A., Linda C. Gallo, and Shelley E. Taylor.
2010. “Are Psychosocial Factors
Mediators of Socioeconomic Status and Health Connections? A
Progress Report and Blueprint for
the Future.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
1186(1):146–73.
GRADING
A rubric is available on Moodle to see how paper components
are weighted.
Students should not expect extensive feedback on their writing
or analysis. (I am happy
to discuss papers more fully in office hours or by written
request.) In the past, students
typically lose points for one or more of the following reasons:
● Failure to follow instructions;
● Not demonstrating understanding that “quantify a disparity”
means providing a
number to describe the gap between the groups (e.g., a relative-
risk difference or
ratio, or an odds-ratio);
● Failure to demonstrate awareness of relevant course materials
(especially on
mediators);
● Failing to identify easy-to-find and commonly discussed

5. research applicable to a
student’s disparity;
● Not having headings and/or subheadings that make it possible
to easily identify
the components of the paper;
● Too few references;
● References that are unintelligible, bogus; and
● References to internet garbage rather than government papers
or peer-reviewed
scientific literature.
Template
I. OUTCOME AND DISPARITY
After reading this section, I should understand what your
biomedical outcome is, why it
matters, and what disparity you are investigating. Notice that
the following example is
very concise. It’s not written in a traditional “essay-style”
format.
Notice in particular that the disparity is quantified. I didn’t just
say that African Americans
had X% risk of the outcome and White Americans had Y% risk.
Instead, I tell you what the
gap is.
This section should have 2-3 high-quality citations. Websites
are generally not high
quality. Peer-reviewed research is generally high quality.

6. Example
Venous thromboembolism is “the leading cause of in-hospital
mortality.”2 Two variants
arise from blood pooling in a vein: Deep vein thrombosis
(“DVT”) is a blood clot in a
vein—often deep in the leg3—and venous thromboembolism
(‘VTE’) is a blockage to an
organ resulting from a blood clot that becomes dislodged and
travels to another part of
the body.
The incidence of DVT is 30% to 60% times (relative risk of 1.3
to 1.6) higher for African
Americans than White Americans across gender and age.4 A
study of California residents
in the 1990s reported that African Americans had the highest
incidence of VTE of the
race groups studied, followed in turn by Caucasians, Hispanics,
and Asian/Pacific
Islanders.5 VTE recurrence rates appear to be higher for
African American women while
“African-American men and Caucasian men have a similar
incidence of recurrent VTE.”6
Owens et al. controlled for an enormous slate of comorbidities
and factors associated
6 Id. at S16.
5 White, R. H., & Keenan, C. R. (2009). Effects of race and
ethnicity on the incidence of venous
thromboembolism. Thrombosis Research, 123, S11−S17.
4 AAOS; see also Montagnana et al. at 489.

7. 3 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,
https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/deep-vein-
thrombosis, accessed 1/17/2018
(hereafter “AAOS”).
2 Montagnana, M., Favaloro, E. J., Franchini, M., Guidi, G. C.,
& Lippi, G. (2010). The role of
ethnicity, age and gender in venous thromboembolism. Journal
of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis,
29(4), 489−96, 489.
with knee operations and found that the odds of African
Americans having DVT
compared to White patients was between 39% and 95% higher.7
Though very brief, this section describes what venous
thromboembolism is (it is problems
caused by various kinds of blood clots) and what the
consequences are (it’s the leading
cause of in-hospital mortality). I have described and quantified
a race disparity and
substantiated it with three different sources.
II. MEDIATORS
This section has THREE subsections (A, B, and C), one for each
of the three mediators
you examine.
A. MEDIATOR 1 [replace with mediator name (e.g., STRESS)]
Each subsection (A, B, and C) has the following THREE
subsections (underlined).

8. (1) MEDIATOR → OUTCOME [ replace with names, such as
STRESS → DVT ]
For each mediator you select, first explain how the mediator
affects the outcome. For
example, if you choose STRESS as a mediator, I want to
understand how stress affects
deep vein thrombosis. Draw heavily from course materials and
do some additional
research. For example, I might draw on course materials and
argue that stress increases
cortisol levels and then learn that high cortisol levels are
associated with blood clots or
vein thickness, or something along those lines.
Typically you will want to discuss multiple things that the
mediator may be doing. But
please try to avoid invoking other mediators we cover in class,
because that just kicks
the can down the road. For example, suppose your mediator is
socioeconomic status
(SES). Of course, more SES helps you get more education. So
it’s tempting to discuss that
one of things that SES is “doing” to affect DVT is giving you
more education. And it’s not
wrong.
But you want instead to focus on pathways that we emphasize in
class that don’t invoke
other mediators we discuss. Focus on what this mediator is
doing that is distinct from
what other mediators may be doing.
7 Owens, J. M., Bedard, N. A., Dowdle, S. B., Gao, Y., &
Callaghan, J. J. (2018). Venous
thromboembolism following total knee arthroplasty: does race

9. matter?. The Journal of
Arthroplasty, 33(7), S239-S243.
(2) GROUP → MEDIATOR [ replace with names, such as
RACE → STRESS ]
In this section, please do research (and draw on course
materials, if they’re relevant) to
show that there are group differences with respect to your
mediator. For example, if
STRESS is your mediator, you would argue that there are race
disparities in stress and
you would find research to substantiate that link.
(3) LIMITATIONS
In this section you will discuss limitations to the research
supporting the causal links you
discuss above. For example, you might critique the research on
stress and explain why
more research is needed to feel confident saying that cortisol
affects DVT. And you could
discuss limitations to how stress is measured or operationalized
in studies linking race to
stress. Check your notes—in lecture we often discuss
limitations to studies on the social
determinants of health. Consider health selection and
confounding problems.
In this section you might also mention moderator effects that
you identify or speculate
may be important.
Each mediator section should have 3-5 high-quality citations,

10. which may include course
materials.
2. MEDIATOR 2 [replace with mediator name]
Do the same analysis for each of your other mediators, using the
same structure.
3. MEDIATOR 3 [replace with mediator name]
ENDNOTES (or else footnotes throughout)
(These are two of the sources I want included)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606692/
http://users.soc.umn.edu/~uggen/Schnittker_Massoglia_Uggen_
DR_11.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606692/
http://users.soc.umn.edu/~uggen/Schnittker_Massoglia_Uggen_
DR_11.pdf
Individual Case Study Codification Assignment
Instructions:
I. The case study for this codification exercise, Dynamic
Divestures: A Codification Exercise on the Reporting of
Discontinue Operations, is posted on Canvas
II. 15 pages (not including title and reference pages) and single
space. Include pages numbers.
III. To complete this assignment:
1. Consider the facts presented for each company within the
case
2. Consult the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC)

11. for guidance on answering the questions listed below
3. Include FASB ASC citations where relevant
4. Your answers to each questions should be in the format of an
essay answer. In other words, merely stating a FASB ASC
section or writing you answers as bullet points is not sufficient.
5. The total possible points for this assignment is 200 points.
Below is the total points for each question is listed. The specific
rubric for each question is posted on Canvas. Also, a maximum
of 29 points is for writing style, organization, spelling, and
grammar.
IV. Questions to be answered in this assignment:
1. (9 Points): Why report discontinued operations?
2. (9 Points):
a. What is a component of an entity?
b. What are a group of components of an entity?
3. (27 Points): For each of the entities below, is the sale or
disposition of business reporting a strategy shift?
a. (9 Points): ZD Consulting Services
b. (9 Points: Hope Industries
c. (9 Points): AM Mining Operations
4. (9 Points): Is AM Mining Operations held for sale or use?
5. (9 Points): Is AM Mining Operations part of discontinuing
operations even though not sold?
6. (9 Points): How are discontinuing operations to be reported
on an income statement?
7. (9 Points): How are discontinuing operations reported on a
balance sheet?
8. (9 Points): What should notes to discontinuing operations
contain?
9. (9 Points): How should gain or loss on sale of PPE be
computed?
10. (36 Points):
a. How should impairment losses on PPE held for use
be computed?
b. What does not make sense?

12. 11. (9 Points): When test for impairment loss assets held for
use?
12. (9 Points): How do you compute impairment losses assets
held for sale?
13. (9 Points): How should gains or losses on sale of assets not
part of discontinued operations be reported?
14. (9 Points): How should impairment losses on assets that are
not part of discontinuing operations be reported on the income
statement? If held and used?
1