Defining Moment in a Career Essay

2.Describe a â€Å"defining moment† in your experience. How did it significantly impact you? There was a particular incident where I had a tough time making a decision. One of my team members from a mission critical project wanted to return to India as he had a personal emergency. He wanted to sort this out as it had begun to impact his work. I had learnt that peace & happiness in personal front will reflect into your professional world but till this incident I never stood up for such cases. But this time I decided to discuss the issue with my supervisor. To my surprise, he was more concerned about the $ losses and losing credibility with the customer. He out rightly rejected this. But I wasn’t convinced with the supervisor’s approach and decided to discuss with the client directly leveraging my personal rapport. The Customer was empathetic and was willing to let go of him after a week of overlap with a new person. While this action of mine got me into the good books of my team members it made a seamless entry into the bad books of my supervisor which had a direct impact on my performance rating. I felt dejected but beside this entire scenario I was convinced I was right in my actions and this was my defining moment where I stood up for what I believed in and I continue to do so till today. Meanwhile the new person had picked up job very well and the project had no impact because of this change.

Homers the Iliad Essay

The Iliad is a Greek epic poem attributed to Homer. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy carries off Helen, wife of Menelaus. The epic describes the war waged by Achaean prince against Troy with an intention to recover Helen. Specifically, it deals with the anger of Achilles, the special hero of the poem at the slight put upon him by Agamemnon, leader of the host, and his final return to the field and slaying of Hector [MARGARET and JENNY, Para 1]. The Iliad is one of the most prominent among the ancient masterpieces in literature. It is about two countries that bitterly war over a single woman, Helen, the wife of Menelaus. The rivalry takes place for about ten years before the Argive armies (the Greeks) finally win out over the Trojans. Today, The Iliad is available to a contemporary audience in several different forms. It may be read, listened to, or viewed even by illiterates. The story’s author, Homer, has typically overcome the challenge of how to tell the story to the masses. He achieved it by singing the entire poem or perhaps several books at a time to them. Homer has employed the so called oral tradition of communication to reach the masses. In the epic, Homer has used certain terms which an average person in Ancient Greece could understand. These similes can be divided into several different categories: the descriptions of battles, people, and gods. In all cases, these similes are used to aid understanding in Greek oral tradition [Radman, Para 1]. The story suggests a battle between Troy and Greece in large scale. Since most of the listeners would never have seen such large wars, Homer has made an effort to link between what those people would understand and the actual events of the combat. The similes that Homer used to describe the various fighting scenes have nature as its basis to depict the actions of the warriors, or of entire ranks of men. If an average person who listens to the epic had never seen a war, he/she will never be able to visualize the actions being dictated. Therefore, Homer has used creative and elaborate descriptions of something common in an ordinary person’s lives, juxtaposed with the unfamiliar and it has allowed the listener to understand what the singer of the tale is trying to convey. The similes related to fighting are divided into two different categories: the type depicting animals in nature, and of the happenings of the natural world itself. When one goes through the text, he/she could notice similes on a single page of fighting, describing one or several people through animal behavior. This could be observed when the Trojans are fighting for the body of Patroclus. There the simile used links their armies to an angered hive of wasps. When the Trojans charge it, the simile goes like: they swarmed forth like wasps from a roadside nest when boys have made it their sport to set them seething, day after day tormenting them round their wayside hive—idiot boys! They make a menace for every man in sight. Any innocent traveler passing them on that road can stir them accidentally—up in arms in a flash, all in a swarm come pouring, each one raging down to fight for home and children †¦[Radman, Para 4] The movements of entire armies in a seething battle portray the images found in a typical life of an Ancient Greek. The other two frequently used references to the mass movements of troops are that of land and water. These references utilize the commonality of the elements so that Homer can describe some scenarios to the listeners who find it difficult to understand such scenes. Another simile that is used frequently in battles is when one person was singled out for a description of their fighting prowess. These similes call upon the graphic details of wolves in attack, or the ravaging of a lion. Menelaus is one of the Argive warriors and when he is fighting rigorously in the battle, the other would-be attackers are frightened-off by the intense ferocity of his initial attack. Homer describes this scenario as follows †¦ as a fierce mountain lion sure of his power, seizing the choicest head from a good grazing herd. First he cracks its neck, clamped in his huge jaws, mauling the kill then down in gulps he bolts it, blood and guts, and around him dogs and shepherds raise a fierce din but they keep their distance, lacking nerve to go in and take the lion on †¦[Radman, Para 7] There are several observations that can be made by looking at the similes of warriors in battle. The first is that the type of animal used to describe Menelaus and his actions represents his ferocious nature. In other instances, the lion is used to describe several fighters like Argives and Trojans. The second major use of simile is to describe people in combative and non-combative situations. Generally, these can be seen as a type of title for the person described. Only the major characters of the epic are named with such titles. The types of titles given in the story fall in to two categories: titles of mortal men and women, and those of the gods. Even mortals are given due importance in some scenes. As far as fighting is concerned, most of the similes are linked with the characters of Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, and Ajax, along with other men who were often referred to in battle as having the characteristics of a lion. It reflects their skill, strength, and overall mighty presence. Other types of creatures that have nothing to with battle are used to describe some of the fighters. For instance, Achilles is once addressed as a dolphin while slaughtering Trojans in the Xanthus River. Trojans try hard to save their life from Achilles. Here is the text from the epic that describes the scenario: Like shoals of fish darting before some big-bellied dolphin, escaping, cramming the coves of a good deepwater harbor, terrified for their lives- he devours all he catches- so the Trojans down that terrible river’s onrush cowered under its bluffs [Radman, Para 12]. In the epic, a mortal is often compared to a deity. In many scenes, a man’s fighting skill is mentioned as divine. Generally, this is just an elaborate way to say that a person has done something really well. Everyone knows that the God Hephaestus, â€Å"the famous crippled Smith,† was the god of fire [Radman, Para 14]. As Patroclus makes a fire that is worthy of a God, it is surely a mighty blaze which Patroclus has created. The listeners of ancient Greece wondered at these great skills. Many of these similes aimed at embellishing a person’s qualities to make them all the more impressive. While describing Gods, similes are slightly more difficult to come by. As it will sound bad to compare a god to a mortal, Homer describes them by their specific abilities. In essence, he moves laterally instead of vertically. The entire epic is filled with many different types of similes used in the graphic depiction of battles, people, places, and gods. Hats off to Homer who has used the similes in such a creative way that even an illiterate can understand what Homer means to say in his poem. The similes not only assist a reader in trying to imagine what is being read, but also allow him/her to understand how relations are described to people who are less advanced than a modern culture. The epic serves a multi-functional purpose today. It is used as a tool to learn about a culture which has faded from the face of the planet into the obscurity of ancient tales and legends [Radman, Para 16]. Apart from teaching about the wars fought, the types of armor, weapons, and the strategies used in conquests of other countries in that time period, the epic also stresses on the most important usage of and gives an insight in to the social standards of the time, how that culture behaved, what they believed, and how they lived. People will learn from this classical epic for generations to come. An epic is considered to have gained a great success when it reaches even the masses

The Parable of the Sahdu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Parable of the Sahdu - Essay Example Parable of the Sadhu began with the multi-ethnic and multi-national group of expert mountain climbers who want to reach the top of Mount Everest. One group member who is a part of the New Zealand group of mountaineers discovered the sadhu (an Indian holy man that practices yoga or an ascetic or a mystic) to be lying in the snow almost naked and near death already due to hypothermia (loss of body heat due to the cold). He brought this Indian man to the group to which the author Bowen H. McCoy belonged to so they can take care of him. He was in a hurry to rejoin his group that is already far ahead in the mountains. Members of the group of McCoy gave their food and clothing to the Sadhu so he can recover his strength. The four members of a Swiss group also helped to keep the man warm. The group of the Japanese climbers refused to lend their horse for transporting the Sadhu down the mountains to the next nearest village. The local porters carried the man instead but only half-way to the village and left the sadhu to cover the rest of the way to the village which they pointed out to him. No one in the group had bothered to ask the sadhu why he was there in the place or if he had really wanted to die (McCoy 12). No one also knew whether the sadhu eventually lived or not. The moral of the story is that people will often act differently when confronted with a situation that requires moral judgment. In this parable, each group of climbers found a reason to help the sadhu but only partially, because each had a higher goal of reaching the mountains peak before the snow steps will melt and make reaching the summit almost impossible. Each person was confronted with an ethical dilemma: whether to continue on with their journey or help out the sadhu and get delayed and probably never reach the mountains peak anymore. At issue in this story is no individual or group was willing to accept responsibility for the sadhu. Many of us as professionals will encounter similar

Sustainable Supply Chains Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sustainable Supply Chains - Research Paper Example A more comprehensive definition of sustainability encompasses all three foundations of sustainability, including the people, economy and the environment. If only the social and environmental development is taking place that is referred to as â€Å"bearable† (Chick and Micklethwaite). If only the social and economic development is taking place, that is referred to as â€Å"equitable†, whereas, if only the environmental and economic development takes places, that is referred to as â€Å"viable† (Chick and Micklethwaite). Sustainability occurs only when all three dimensions develop simultaneously; that is, it is bearable, equitable and viable. A significant driver of this initiative is the government. The government can come up with measures such as environmental labels, licenses and product design guidelines (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). There are already a number of regulations in place for sustainability. These include U.S. Farm security and rural investment act (2002), European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), China ROHS, E.U. Cosmetics directive, E.U. Packaging Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and REACH. In addition there are International Standards such as WRAP, FLA, ICTI CARE, ISO 14000 and ISO 26000 for addressing environmental causes (Business for Social Responsibility). For successfully realizing a sustainable supply chain, an organization needs to go through five major steps. The first if Business Case Development which requires looking at the external environment and study case studies of companies which have done so successfully in the past. An analysis should be done of the differences before and after this implementation (United Nations Global Impact). These initiatives have to be driven by the top management. After this study a commitment has to be made by the board members to work on the same. The second is â€Å"Risk, Gap and Scope assessment† wh ich appreciates the fact that the sustainable supply chain initiative has a number of risks which could have a short term impact on finances or new operational bottlenecks. These risks have to be listed and mitigation plans have to be developed. A gap analysis between the current state and future state is required so that efforts could be made to bridge the gap. It is also essential to decide the scope of the initiative at this stage in line with organizational strategies and priorities (United Nations Global Impact). The third step is Supply chain identification which requires an internal assessment of the firm’s supply chain. The position that the company’s supply chain holds relative to other supply chains needs to be assessed (New Zealand Council for Sustainable Development). The next step is Implementation. In this step, the expectations of the organization are communicated to suppliers, distributors and all other partners in the upstream and downstream supply cha ins. Internal operations are realigned to adjust to the new priorities. The organizations try to build strategic partnerships if required to realize its goals. These may include partnerships with third party logistic providers, IT outsourcing firms, consultants and so on (Nunes, Junior and Ramos). Next, Measurement is done whereby new metrics have to be introduced to track performance on

Consumer Buying Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Consumer Buying Behavior - Essay Example It has been further highlighted by Chiu et al. (2006) that consumer buying behavior is about asking key questions. For example, one might engage with the questions of why consumers buy or how consumers buy and what influences their purchasing. There is a mix of internal and external factors surrounding consumers that help shape and define their buying behavior and preferences. According to Pelsmacker et al. (2006), these internal factors include a perceptual filter, knowledge about products, attitude towards the brand, personality of the consumer, lifestyle of the consumer, perceived roles of consumer, and their overall motivation for making the purchase. It is also distinguished by the fact that the external factors include: group or segment membership of consumer and purchase situation or cultures of the consumer. For example, culture is one of the most important factors affecting the consumer’s buying behavior; because the consumer’s preference will be according to t heir beliefs and backgrounds. However, both internal and external factors are interconnected and play a vital role in the consumer’s buying behavior. This leads the reader to understand that a consumer’s choice and buying behavior is localized and will not be the same among individuals and businesses need to understand how to target the consumers from various backgrounds and lifestyles.The factors that have been mentioned help to identify the main reasons why people purchase products in general (Harper, 2005).

Economic Considerations Should be the Basis of Tort Law Essay

Economic Considerations Should be the Basis of Tort Law - Essay Example Intentional torts on the other hand refer to harm or injury caused to a person or persons by the intentional misconduct of another or others. Theft, assault, arson and fraud are good examples of causes of intentional torts. Liability torts tend to focus on the damages resulting from a person's act rather than the intention. This means that if an action causes harm, the performer of the same is liable regardless of whether they exercised the expected degree of care or not or whether the action was maliciously done or was a result of an accident. The economic framework states that each society has laws, institutions, policies which lead to inequitable distributions of economic resources and burdens among members of any given society. These economic frameworks because human political processes which eventually lead to change, both across and within societies with time. Structurally these frameworks are beneficial as the economic distributions arising from them usually affect human live. The tort law has over time evolved in many jurisdictions to consider the legal and economical implications since these are the two most important aspects of the tort laws.One theory that has developed is the deterrence theory. This theory is most applicable in accident prevention. Essential the theory aims at reducing the occurrence of accidents by making those responsible for the accident bear heavy financial cost for their unsafe conduct. General and specific deterrence are handled quite differently in tort law. The tort law admonitory effect largely dictates on how specific deterrence goes. Insurance services, however, cushion the defendant from feeling the adverse effects of this approach to tort law. In traffic accidents for instance, the motorist who causes the accident hardly feels a pinch from the monetary damages they are required to pay as the same is catered for by insurance services. The deterrence is completely lost. Deterrence theory has been said to change the primar y focus of the tort law. The crafter of the tort law intended to reduce injury through deterring behavior likely to cause harm. a careful and critical analysis of the tort law however proves that the approach of deterring through burdening those who cause harm financially may not have the desired effect due to several factors. The approach assumes that in the normal conditions, people tend hold maximization of wealth as their primary goal. This may not be strictly true in all societies. The theory further makes the assumption that there exists a large psychological relationship between safer conduct and tort law as people will tend to behave more safely to avoid being subjected to tort fines. This assumption tends to suggest that people behave rationally and are guided by projected consequences of their actions. This is not the case on the ground. Studies have shown that a driver is more likely to commit an accident if they have been fined for an earlier accident. Human nature has b een described by many classical philosophers as being rebellious. Once a driver has caused an accident and has gotten away with just a fine, they do not improve their driving since their minds are unconsciously programmed that all they will have to do is to pay a fine if they cause an accident.2 The most fundamental question that ought to be asked when analyzing the deterrence theory is: Does tort law really deter? Economic analysis largely dominates legal discussion on tort law. This is in order because the economic aspect of the same cannot be

Service Marketing of The Starbucks Coffee Corporation Case Study - 1

Service Marketing of The Starbucks Coffee Corporation - Case Study Example The Starbucks was founded in the year of 1971 in Washington with the three partners. Starbucks exhibit very high operational efficiency in the recession period and good sales in the period which may cause the coffee makers to re-engineering the process to cope with the trends. Â  The branding strategy of the products are very good and it is made available in the different ways through the supply chain management possible, the second strategy includes the customer intimacy and the encouraging experience in them, the third includes the atmosphere that is based on the human experiences and the community. The efficient channels of distribution of the offers to the nation company-operated retail channels and the 15% of the revenue contribution are from the retail channel of distribution. Â  The main philosophy of the Starbucks is the reach of the products to the customers irrespective of the time and the cost and making it available at an ease. The strength of the employees in the star buck corporation is very high and they have partners of around 60000 and in North America, they have about 5000 partners. The employee turnover is very less for the star bucks. When an employee is recruited in the firm he is taught the hard skills like the maintenance of the cash book, vouchers and the soft skills like the pleasing personality and the good customer service. Â  The marketing issues in the Starbucks are the labor problem in North America, The Starbucks in the urban areas pay good wages to the employees to retain the employees. The issues also occur in comparison with the barista efficiency by the no value added the task. Â  

Assay of protein turnover using a bioluminescent reporter Essay

Assay of protein turnover using a bioluminescent reporter - Essay Example It is important for some proteins to have a short half-life but no others like clusterin because they have to control excessive growth of cells. Clusterin in this case controls prostate cancer cells (Rizzi, Caccamo, Belloni, & Bettuzzi, 2009). In designing an experiment using MetLUC to assay the efficacy of three compounds with respect to BF A, the first thing to consider is that the activity of BF A is known. The BF A would thus be used as the control variable (Schultz, Cegielski, & Hastings, 2005). Analysis of each of the three novel compounds would be done. This would be based on their respective signal sequence, in which each of them would be expressed in tissue culture cess. Comparison of how the MetLUC protein for each compound would be translocated to the ER and the resulting secretion into the medium in which the cells are growing would be done. The results of each would be compared to the known facts about the same experiment in BF A. Rizzi, F., Caccamo, A., Belloni, L., & Bettuzzi, S. (2009). Clusterin is a short half-life, poly-ubiquitinated protein, which controls the fate of prostate cancer cells. Journal of Cell Physioly, 19(2), 14-23. Schultz, L. L., Cegielski, M., & Hastings, J. (2005). Crystal structure of a pH-regulated luciferase catalyzing the bioluminescent oxidation of an open tetrapyrrole . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 102 (5),

You Sherlock Holmes are now knighted Essay Example for Free

You Sherlock Holmes are now knighted Essay He also thought that I was the best detective in Europe. I took him into my study. We both sat down in the study and he said that he was no other than the king of bohemia, my heart started to go a little faster. (But when I was I detective I took cocaine to sharpen my mind and also to carm me down! ) I asked him what his problem was and what he wanted me to do. The king told me he wanted me to get him a picture that Irene Adler had. I wondered silently, the importance of the picture, so I asked him out right The very words he said were that Irene was going to make this picture of him and her, public. If Irene Adler were to make this picture public, then the king of Bohemia would be ruined. The king then went away, I needed to research Irene Adler. So I looked up Irene Adler in my index. My index told me that she was pretty, very popular and she has a very quiet social life, I thought she is only a woman what is the worst that she can do? I was very determined to get the picture because if I were to get this picture then I would get a large bag of gold and a enormous amount of money. Watson and I had now found out a little more about Irene Adler. But for now we needed to get the picture she had in he hands. I went to Briony lodge in a hansom cab. (Which was where Irene Adler was. ) I was there outside Irene Adlers house. I waited for about half an hour, but nothing happened. Then there was some one came out of the house. The person who come out was of briony lodge was Godfrey Norton. Godfrey and Irene went on to the church. Just as they were setting off to the church I could remember hearing Irene screaming twenty sovereigns if you get to the church in twenty minutes. I didnt know what to do, should I look around Irene Adlers house or should I follow them to the church. I had come to my decision. I followed them to the church. I arrived at the church. To my surprise Godfrey Norton had seen me lurking at the back of the church. Godfrey said to me come on we need another person to witness this wedding or else it wont be legal. Now that I had now seen Irene Adler I needed to get the all-important picture that she had. But I thought where would she have the picture hidden? Watson and I tried to guess where Irenes most important place was. I decided that her house would be the safest place for Irene to hide the all-important picture. Watson and I needed to come up with a way to get into her house. I sat down with Watson and I began to tell Watson my Machiavellian plan. First Watson threw a rocket, so that Irene would go to the picture thinking it was fire. While all of this was going on, Holmes in his clergyman disguise would follow Irene to the picture! That was our plan but would it work? All we needed to do now was to but the plan into action. Watson and I went over to Irene Adlers house, to my astonishment there was a fight out side Irenes house. I went to protect Irene from the tussel. I survived, and then went on into Irenes house. I was in the house where the picture of the king was. I waited for a little while then gave the signal for Watson to throw the smoke rocket into the house. Watson threw the rocket into the house, when the rocket entered the fire alarm went off. I followed the beautiful Irene Adler. I was correct in thinking that she would go to the picture. I went home to tell Watson I knew where the picture was! The following day the king came back to my house and demanded me to get the picture. I told the king that Irene Adler was married and that she would not even hesitate to make the picture public. After the case I received a letter; the letter informed me that Irene was working against Watson and me. I then thought that Irene was a lot smarter than I had anticipated. As a result of my work, the king was grateful and rewarded me with jewels. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Conan Doyle section.

Principle and Practice of Selling Essay Example for Free

Principle and Practice of Selling Essay Ethics may be defined as the study of what is good and bad or what is right or wrong. It involves moral code conduct controlling the individuals and societies. People may differ sharply about what is ethical or unethical behaviour, especially in complex, competitive areas like business. Thus, in business areas, right or wrong decision making usually is based on economic criteria. Ethical dilemma can arises in a situation when each alternative choice or behaviour has some undesirable elements due to potentially negative ethical or personal consequences. Right or wrong cannot be clearly identified. In this chapter, there are four subtopics that we need to cover that consist of: salesperson’s ethics in dealing with customers, salesperson’s ethics in dealing with their employers, salesperson’s ethics dealing with their competitors and also managing sales ethics. In the first subtopic for salesperson’s ethics in dealing with their employers, the salesperson should know that misusing the company asset is one of the right or wrong behaviour. As everybody knows, the company assets are only be allowed to be use for official purpose only. Next, the ‘moonlighting’ attitude where some employees go beyond long lunch hours, taking personal phone calls and also excessive socializing to actually ‘moonlighting’ on part time jobs during the same hours they are supposed to be working for their primary employer. More than that, technology theft is also part of the salesperson’s ethics in dealing with employers. These days, every company provides their salesperson with computers, software and data on their customers. When the salesperson quit or is fired, they can easily take advantage by taking the organizations customer records to use for their future benefits. Last but not least, affecting other salesperson is also the unethical practices of one salesperson where he or she affect other salesperson like they may take customers away from co-workers. In next subtopic salesperson’s ethics in dealing with customers, there are some important points that every salesperson should be alert and aware of. Bribe is where a salesperson may attempt to bribe a buyer by offering money, gift, etc. The salesperson can be charged under law if they do so. Apart from that, misrepresentation can be in order to win the sale, some salesperson will promise much more than they can deliver with the idea that the customers will later accept some reasonable excuses. The following point is tie-in sales. It occurs when a buyer is required to buy other, unwanted products in order to buy a particular line of merchandise. Lastly, price discrimination. Many salespersons may practice price discrimination to improve their sales. Price discrimination refers to selling the same quantity of the product to different buyer at different prices. The next section in this chapter is managing sales ethics, which is include; follow the leader, leader selection is important, establish a code of ethics, create ethical structures, encourage whistle-blowing, create an ethical sales climate and establish control systems. Follow the leader means the Chief Executives must set the example of bad and good ethics thus the employee will know better about the right ethics as salespeople. Management must also carefully choose managers with high levels of moral development, and this is what we called as leader selection. Third is about establish a code of ethics, where a formal statement of company’s values concerning ethics and social issues. Beside that create ethical structures cab be divided into ethical committee which group of executives appointed to oversee company ethics and second is ethical ombudsman where official given the responsibility of corporate conscience that hears and investigates ethical complaints and informs top management to potential ethical issues. Encourage whistle-blowing is employee disclosure of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practice on the employer’s part. Also, the top level manager must support code of ethics to create an ethical sales climate. Lastly, establish control systems in managing the sales ethics means dismissal, demotion, suspension, reprimand and withholding of the sale commissions would be possible penalties for unethical sale practices. As an addition to this chapter we found salespeople’s ethics in dealing with their competitors beside of their ethics to customers and employers as mentioned above. Here we will discuss about several salespeople’s ethic in dealing with their competitors. Firstly, belittle the competitors publicly. It is unethical to belittle the competitors by picturing their product as inferior or even shoddy and worthless. To gain the trust from customers, salespeople may even indicate that competitive products are better. Second is stealing shelf space. It also unethical to decease competitors’ share of shelf space placing competing products at back or crowding them together. Moreover, it could encourage the same action from competitors. Third is untruthful statement, where also unethical to salespeople to make untruthful stamen about their competitors and might ruin the salespersons’ reputation easily. And finally tempering the competitors’ product which is not only unethical but also illegal for salespeople to damage competitors’ product, tamper with their displays and point of sale materials or reduce their product shelf space in retail store and elsewhere. In conclusion, to be an ethical salesperson we must to well known the good ethics that should be followed and what is the bad ethic that should be avoid. Salespeople that do the right things will success in future while part of them who do the wrong things might be fired one day or might face many problems especially law.

Skills Required in Phlebotomy

Skills Required in Phlebotomy Objectives To acquire the knowledge and skills to perform phlebotomy and finger prick. To learn the order of draw and its significance. To learn various devices and preparation techniques before phlebotomy. Introduction Phlebotomy is referred to the cutting of a vein. It is a procedure often involving invasion that invades the body through cutting or puncture normally carried out by professionals called phlebotomists. Among the major roles involving a phlebotomist is to obtain blood specimens for diagnostic testing. This can be done either by dermal puncture which is done by puncturing the skin or venepuncture which is done by puncturing the veins. Other than that, a phlebotomist is also responsible in redrawing blood from donors during blood transfusion of from any patients having polycythemia which is known for overproduction of blood cells. Phlebotomist are also responsible for collecting and properly packaging urine specimens, accepting incoming specimens (blood and body fluids, etc.), and routing specimens to the proper departments to be tested and analysed. In order for a phlebotomist to withdraw blood from a patient, he should make sure that the tubes are labelled and all the materials are pr epared before carrying out the procedure. The best sites for venipunture are normally the superficial veins of the upper limbs. The superficial vein most commonly used for venipuncture is the median Cubital Vein which lies over the cubital fossa and serves as an anastomosis between the basilica veins and the cephalic veins. The next most common vein is the cephalic vein where it can be followed proximally where it empties into the axillary vein. The basilic vein is also a location for venipunture as it divides to join the brachial vein. The usual sites for capillary puncture or finer prick in adults and children are the fingertip. In adults, the ring finger is often selected because it usually is not calloused. Capillary blood can be obtained from the great toe in infants and babies. In new-borns, the lateral or side portion of the end of the heel pas is used. The BD Discussion Among the inappropriate sites for venipuncture are the site affected by a mastectomy. This is because mastectomy causes lymphostasis which means stoppage of lymph flow where the bodys ability to fight infection is compromised if lymph nodes are removed therefore patients are more prone to infections. Edematous sites, an abnormal accumulation of fluid on the intracellular space of the tissue must also be avoided as it can cause difficulty in palpating the veins due to the excess fluid. The specimen can also be contaminated with the fluid. Venipuncture performed at sites of scars and burns are also inappropriate as it causes unusual pain for the patients. This is caused by the veins that are very difficult to palpate and also susceptible to infections as the protective barrier (epidermal layer) has been disrupted. Other than that, patients who have IV running in their arm should not be used for venepuncture as it may be a contaminant to the blood collected. Lastly, dermal punctures mus t never be performed on the fingers of a new-born or very young infant. This is because there is very little distance between the skin and the bone. Therefore, the bone could be easily pierced during the puncture, causing injury to the bone, infection, or gangrene. The order of draw is as follows, Blood Cultures Coagulation Tube (light blue top) Plain red AND/OR Serum Separator Tube (red gel/SST) Heparin Tube (green top) Plain Sodium Heparin Plain Lithium Heparin Lithium Heparin Gel EDTA Tube (purple and pink top) Fluoride/ Oxalate Tube (grey top) Miscellaneous tubes (these are drawn in no specific order) Heavy metal dark blue top (EDTA and plain red) b. ACD yellow top The purpose of the order of draw is to avoid possible test result error due to cross contamination from tube additives. Potassium results can be falsely elevated as EDTA is rich in potassium. Therefore test for potassium must be collected before tubes containing EDTA. Other than that, the microscopic appearance of the red blood cells on a WBC differential test will be distorted due to the additives in the Fluoride/ Oxalate tube as oxalate interferes the red blood cell membrane and fluoride alter its morphology. Moreover, coagulation tests such as Activated partial thromboplastic time (aPTT) and prothrombin (PT) can be affected with the presence of clot activators by shortened test results. Bacteria from non-sterile tube stoppers/shields can contaminate blood collected into bottles/tubes used for blood cultures, resulting in the growth of bacteria erroneously leading a physician to think his/her patient has a blood infection. A hematoma is a collection of blood beneath the skin. Hematomas are the most common adverse reaction to venipuncture. Precautions that can be taken to prevent hematoma in phlebotomy are by puncturing only the uppermost wall of the vein. Other than that, the phlebotomist can also remove the tourniquet before removing the needle. The needle should fully penetrate the upper-most wall of the vein as partial penetration may allow blood to leak into the tissue surrounding the vein. Lastly, adequate pressure should be applied to stop the bleeding once the phlebotomy is complete. Haemolysed blood specimens are not be acceptable for testing. Hemolysis occurs when the red cells rupture and haemoglobin and other intracellular components spill into the serum. Hemolyzed serum or plasma is pink or red, rather than the normal clear straw or pale yellow colour. Steps that can prevent haemolysis are by mixing tubes gently or about 5 – 10 times after collection. The tubes should not be shaken too vigorously and drawing blood should be performed on hematoma individuals. Other than that, when using a needle or syringe, avoid drawing back the plunger to forcefully. Moreover, if a blood transfer device is used to fill vacutainer tubes, always allow the vacuum to pull the blood into the tubes. Do not use he plunger or syringe to force the blood into the tubes quickly. References Akron Childrens Hospital, 2015, Lab Test Procedure : Performing A Venipuncture. [Online]. Available at : https://www.akronchildrens.org/cms/lab_procedures/9179c8cb8f877ee3/ [ Accessed 29/01/2015]. Johnson. L, 2013, National Center for Competency Testing : Phlebotomy order of draw, [Online]. Available at : https://www.ncctinc.com/documents/Phlebotomy%20Order%20of%20Draw.pdf [Accessed 29/01/2015]. MediaLab incorporated, 2015, Hematoma, [Online]. Available at : https://www.medialabinc.net/spg549505/hematoma.aspx, [ Accessed 29/01/2015]. Turgeon., M,. L, 2005, Clinical Hematology: Theory and Procedures, Volume 936, [Online], Available at : https://books.google.com.my/books?id=cHAjsUgegpQCpg=PA26lpg=PA26dq=edematous+site+venipuncturesource=blots=qxLCqzHsO2sig=OaKkj33lflGKFvorZweYFnb4RHUhl=ensa=Xei=n1bHVI-VM4yD8gW29IKoBgved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepageq=edematous%20site%20venipuncturef=false , [Accessed 29/01/2015]

Genetic Essentialism :: Science Scientific Papers

Coming to live in a new country offers the unique opportunity to look at life from a profoundly different vantage-point. So, during my first two years as a scientist in the United States I’ve often found myself reflecting on how societies differ in fundamental ways in their basic orientation toward life. Many experiences and impressions during this time have dramatically increased my awareness how much all bodies of knowledge — about the ways the world works and the way the world, and we ourselves, are — need to be understood as ‘local knowledge systems’. The concept of local knowledge systems has been developed in post-colonial studies of science, and has been applied in assertions that ‘indigenous’, i.e., non-western, and western ways of knowing are both local in the sense that both are culture-dependent and neither has a claim to universality. (1) From that one could conclude that western science at least functions as a more or less monolithic enterprise. However, although western science as a whole is based on a shared methodology and epistemology, distinct preoccupations of the cultures in different regions of the western world exert powerful influences over the construction of scientific discourses. In the United States, there appears to be a strong need in middle class culture to define oneself through ‘one’s biology’. This ‘biology’ however does not signify the body itself, but a metaphorical, linguistic construction of the self around which many aspects of contemporary life are becoming organized. (2) The central metaphor of one’s biology is one’s genes, and ‘one’s genes’ are seen as the essence of the person. For complex historical, political and cultural reasons, the human genome is increasingly equated with the ‘essence’ of human-ness. Com ing from New Zealand, this definition of identity through a genetically oriented ‘biological’ discourse is anything but self-evident, in fact, it seems deeply culturally determined. Within the scope of this paper, I will not attempt to identify what drives the need for this view of the self, but would like to stress the importance of seeking answers to this question. It seems to me to be a central concern in any critique of the contemporary gene cult(ure) in American society. The growth of a biotechnological economy and the promotion of matching societal attitudes are obviously contributing to this phenomenon, but they alone do not explain the deep resonance a genetically defined construction of human-ness appears to invoke in people’s psyches.

Abortion - How can I Impose My Morality on Another? :: Persuasive Essay, Argumentative

Abortion - How can I Impose My Morality on Another?      Ã‚  Ã‚   "I'm opposed to abortion, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" This common expression expresses the sentiments of one who wishes to be open to the religious convictions of another on this delicate issue of abortion.    In that statement, replace the word "abortion" with anything else you're opposed to. Like "I'm opposed to racism, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" or "I'm opposed to rape, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? Why can we impose our "morality" on someone when it comes to racism or rape? Because there's someone else involved. Raping isn't a "choice" a rapist makes in a vacuum - it involves a victim whose life will be altered forever because of that rape. Racism isn't a "choice" made in a vacuum, either. The actions of a racist storekeeper defending his "choice" to do what he wants with his store involve blacks who are unjustly kept from shopping there. The issue here is not "private morality" but civil rights - keeping innocent people from becoming victims.    What about abortion? Is it a matter of private morality, like deciding which church you're going to attend, or is it a matter of public morality - a matter of civil rights? If there's a victim involved, it's a civil rights issue. Is there a victim involved in abortion? There are many who say that there is not, that the preborn child is just a mass of tissue, a part of the woman's body. If this were the case, then no one would have any reason to oppose abortion any more than they would oppose tonsillectomies or appendectomies.    But is that the case? Developments in the science of fetology have given us greater opportunities than ever to learn about the preborn. We know that the baby has a completely different circulatory system than the mother, and often a different blood type. He or she has a completely different genetic code. We know that by the 21st day after conception the baby's heart has begun to beat (Tanner 64). Brain waves are detectable by day 40 (Hamlin 20), and movement also begins around this time (Arey). By eight weeks, when a woman generally discovers she's pregnant, all body systems are present (Hooker). Abortion - How can I Impose My Morality on Another? :: Persuasive Essay, Argumentative Abortion - How can I Impose My Morality on Another?      Ã‚  Ã‚   "I'm opposed to abortion, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" This common expression expresses the sentiments of one who wishes to be open to the religious convictions of another on this delicate issue of abortion.    In that statement, replace the word "abortion" with anything else you're opposed to. Like "I'm opposed to racism, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" or "I'm opposed to rape, but how can I impose my morality on someone else?" Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? Why can we impose our "morality" on someone when it comes to racism or rape? Because there's someone else involved. Raping isn't a "choice" a rapist makes in a vacuum - it involves a victim whose life will be altered forever because of that rape. Racism isn't a "choice" made in a vacuum, either. The actions of a racist storekeeper defending his "choice" to do what he wants with his store involve blacks who are unjustly kept from shopping there. The issue here is not "private morality" but civil rights - keeping innocent people from becoming victims.    What about abortion? Is it a matter of private morality, like deciding which church you're going to attend, or is it a matter of public morality - a matter of civil rights? If there's a victim involved, it's a civil rights issue. Is there a victim involved in abortion? There are many who say that there is not, that the preborn child is just a mass of tissue, a part of the woman's body. If this were the case, then no one would have any reason to oppose abortion any more than they would oppose tonsillectomies or appendectomies.    But is that the case? Developments in the science of fetology have given us greater opportunities than ever to learn about the preborn. We know that the baby has a completely different circulatory system than the mother, and often a different blood type. He or she has a completely different genetic code. We know that by the 21st day after conception the baby's heart has begun to beat (Tanner 64). Brain waves are detectable by day 40 (Hamlin 20), and movement also begins around this time (Arey). By eight weeks, when a woman generally discovers she's pregnant, all body systems are present (Hooker).

My Hobby Essay

Vegetable gardening as my favorite hobby Deepa George WGU February 20, 2013 Vegetable gardening as my favorite hobby Hobby is an entertaining activity which provides pleasure and recreation. It is a way of escaping from the stress and the monotony of one’s daily round of duties. Therefore, hobby is essential for the proper enjoyment of life. My favorite hobby is vegetable gardening because it provides me sense of pride, peace, and relaxation, promote healthy life style and save money on groceries. You should start gardening as your hobby because it provides you relaxation, keeps you physically healthy, and save money on grocery bills. First of all, a vegetable garden is an easy and effective way to provide a sense of pride and relaxation. I am fortunate to have a spacious backyard for the gardening. I have vegetables and crops such as peas, lettuce, greens, cabbages, root crops, squash, beans, corn, melons, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, and herbs in my garden in different seasons. Research shows that gardening promotes mental health by relieving stress and promoting a sense of accomplishment. Spending some time in the garden ease stress, keep you limber and improve your mood. Vegetable gardening is a wonderful pastime the whole family can enjoy. Allowing children to be involved in the gardening help them to develop an understanding of nature, sense of responsibility, and pride. Kids are more likely to taste vegetables they grow themselves. My five year old son is proud about our vegetable garden. He helps us with watering the plants, caring for the crop and harvesting the produce. He was extremely reluctant to eat fruits and vegetables buying from the market, but now he does not want to miss anything coming from our garden. When your daughter Sara was in my house, she enjoyed peeking under leaves in search of ripe fruits and vegetables. Hence, I am sure that she will be so happy to have her own garden. Growing your own food, build a sense of pride and satisfaction. Watching a seed sprout in front of your eyes to become food on your plate is gratifying. The commitment for garden rewards you with a feeling that you have brought something to life. It is truly exciting to go to your backyard and get a juicy, ripened tomato for a salad. Now the weather is turning warm and favorable for planting. You should make a vegetable garden with your favorite vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and jalapeno peppers. The stores like Lowes, Home depot, and local seed stores have varieties of seeds with planting instructions. I will help you with picking out plants, preparing raised beds and containers, and fertilization of plants. I would like you to enjoy the sense of pride, accomplishment and relaxation by gardening which brings you close to nature. Secondly, planting vegetable gardening keeps you and your family healthy. It provides fresh fruits and vegetables right at your fingertips. Everybody is seriously concerned about the safety of the food available in the market. When you grow your own food carefully and organically, you do not have to worry about the contamination of the vegetables. When they grow in your backyard, you are not able to resist them, and their vitamin content will be at the highest level as you eat them straight from the garden. Thus, gardening is a simple and an easy way to promote good eating habits. Furthermore, gardening is a good outdoor exercise. Planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting require a lot of physical activity. Tending vegetable garden burns calories and uses muscles. Studies have shown that one can burn 200 to 500 calories per hour by working in the vegetable garden. The activities in the garden will give you sufficient physical exercise to keep you physically healthy and mentally alert. Finally, you will save money on groceries when you begin to stock your kitchen with fresh produce from backyard. It will help you to save money on gas you use to get to the store. To save money, you should plant smart and grow the food you like to eat. Make sure you grow a lot of vegetables that you use regularly. Since you like the salad, you should plant plenty of salad greens to save money. You can preserve the produce and enjoy the goodness of fruits and vegetables long after the harvest is over. There are four common ways to preserve foods: canning, freezing, drying, and pickling. Last year, I preserved beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrot and sweet corn and used for the rest of the year. You can share the extra vegetables with your friends, or sell in the fresh vegetable market. Every year I donate extra vegetables to a food pantry, and it helped me to take the tax deduction for non-cash distributions. You can save the seeds from the best produces, and use for next year. Gardening is an investment that offers a good return. For example, I have spent two dollar for one packet of green bean seeds. Once I cover the cost of soil, fertilizers, and water, I got a return of around seventy five dollars. I suggest you to start gardening as your hobby that produces positive economic return. Conclusively, vegetable gardening provides relaxation by getting a person outside and exposing to natural air. Planning a garden and caring for the garden help the person to stay healthy and save money. For all these reasons, I encourage you to choose vegetable gardening as your hobby.

Effects of Education Essay

Education is an act of learning which enables one to realize his or her full potential and know areas that one is talented in order to exploit them[Grusky, 2001]. Education basically entails impacting of knowledge to individual. Social inequality on other hand is lack of basic necessities in life example access to health care and employment opportunities and others. Those individuals who are socially unequal with others are excluded form full and equal participation from what is important is one’s social life. Education has not had effect in increasing opportunity for all but instead it has reinforced existing social inequality. This is evidenced since one can only be educated on basic of his or her social class and their results to division between individuals, those who are educated continue to prosper while those who are not remain in poverty. It can also be evidenced in economic inequality since this is mainly as a result of social inequality. Economic inequality links with social inequality in that poor financial status hinders people from obtaining some education while some standards as others is , they cannot obtain the same housing, healthcare and also education. Lack of these basic necessities results to people living in the different classes to use different technologies according to their income. Socially education places people in different status which are mainly achieved through education because it determines over occupation which is the main determinant of one’s status in a community. In this, education brings about these differences since those who are educated bring up their siblings in the same status but for those who are not educated they cannot afford good education for their siblings. The position of a person in community can be determined by the social class one is in due to what he or she has achieved. This mainly comes in varying level of education that one has attained since those who are educated are employed and subsequently their standards of living are raised which make them different from common man who did not access education and therefore has not been able to achieve anything. People in different status are positioned differently in the society in regard to the way they can access different goods and services. Therefore the issue of education in status makes it clear that the social standards are very different between the education and those who are not learned because they have no opportunity to experience the high status of life. The difference brought about by effect of education on reinforcing social inequalities has resulted to basic life change. Such changes include physical health where by people don’t get access to the same health intervention which results in deterioration of health in those individuals who did not benefit from education. Apart from Medical intervention, learned individual have gained access to learning how one can live healthy, eat well to prevent diseases and they can readily access healthy product as compared to those who have no money nor basic education to help them overcome the poor health. The educated tend to keep the knowledge to themselves and help those who are also educated and leave the less fortunate to suffer with no =one to help them since they do not have money or basic education to help them overcome poor physical health. More also, social inequality brought about by difference in education background has brought about life change in psychological health in that those who are not educated have so many problems which keeps on torturing the affected person mentally. The psychological health can be brought about by depression or isolation from the others who consider one to be of low life since he or she has not gone through education system. Others engage in excessive drinking of alcohol and other illicit drugs which end up in destroying their mental capability which results to poor psychological health. In contrast social inequality comes in since those who are educated, even if problems comes their way they have different means of dealing with them and thus why they are always in good psychological health unlike the unlearned ones. Inequality can also be evidenced in basic life changes in food and shelter one uses. The issue of education does not benefit all since the educated can have good standards of life and live in good houses and eat better food than those who are not educated. These differences make people to have different social style since poor will only socialize with those whom they share the same social class with and the same applies to the rich. Particularly, social inequality comes in when one is wealthy which make them to use their money power to achieve various political powers but in contrast the poor remain poorer since they have no one to represent them due to lack of education. In other words education only benefits those who are educated but it’s not for all. The poor who are basically not educated, politically are much different from the uneducated since they are not equally represented which increases inequality in the society. Education has also brought difference in different racial; and ethnic group. This is because a different group views the value of education differently and the educated one continues to benefit while those who are not remain poor and poorer. Some groups values education while others do not which makes them to live in two distinct social classes. Their social inequalities are much strengthened by education since the educated and uneducated persons cannot interact freely. Also the level of education is different in different races and ethnic groups regarding to the way each group values the concept of education. Those who are learned can afford different technologies example the use of computer as compared to those who can not afford advanced technology and end up using manual methods to carry put their tasks. These differences makes individual not to interact freely with each other. Education has brought existing social inequality since it has brought difference in accessing job opportunities. Those who are educated mainly gets better jobs which distinct them from their uneducated counterparts who can not be offered the same job since they belong to different social class brought about by the level of education. Also operation of basic businesses requires educated individuals which entirely create a gap in operation between those who are educated and those who are not. The amount of wealth one has determines his social class which creates a gap between the rich and the poor. Those who are not learned are at a risk of social inequality since they lack access to basic education. This creates difference between the learned individual and therefore they can not relate freely. Socially these people are discriminated by those who are learned. Education has also brought about inequalities in goods and services taxes. During payments of these taxes inequality based on social class is evidenced since different individuals are taxed differently and in this, less educated may pay less taxes as compared to those who are educated since they have many assets as compared to poor. Sex and gender can also cause social in equality (Grusky, 2001). Many people view works differently and see to it that different jobs are for different sex. For example in most countries women are considered to perform domestic chaos while men go to work in offices. This creates inequality since even women can work in their areas and they should not be denied chance to work. Like in military jobs are viewed to be for men but in real sense even there are some women who can perform those tasks better than men. Geographical location of individual also matters since it depends on how those living in that geographical area view education and the impact it have in their lives. Citizenship is another factor since you find those living in different countries has achieved different levels of education which is different from each other. Their differences shows that the two groups cannot interact freely which brings about social inequality. Social inequality can Stimulate social conflicts and lead to political instability. People of different social background do not interact freely and incase of political instability you can see the two groups fighting. These social inequalities can result to family violence and breakups and this is evidenced when one is more educated than the other and therefore they share different social background. They can also stimulate street crimes whereby some people see to others as more advantaged than others since may be they are looking for jobs which are not forthcoming due difference in their educational backgrounds. Therefore, they can end up fighting those who they consider their rivals. These inequalities can also result to hate- crimes where one consider another person as a hindrance to his or her success or may be you hate your parents since they did not give basic education which is much needed. Therefore education has effect in increasing opportunity for all can only be achieved if everyone has had access to basic education which can be used to unify everyone. Otherwise, for unequal distribution of education it results to social inequality which is the case in real life today. So education has reinforced the existing social inequalities because not every one has an access to basic education to give opportunity to all.

Characters- No Sugar Essay

Through the characters names all the aboriginal names are given Christian names while the white characters almost without exception are given titles and surnames. This humanizes the aboriginal characters and dehumanizes the white characters while highlighting their position of power. White characters are demonized by their actions as well as their names, they refer to going back to the Tasmanian solution (pg44), showing that they have no regard for the aboriginal’s lives. JP: Racist- he refers to the aboriginal people as natives, and sees them as people who don’t belong.. We Repelled by his cruel treatment towards the Aborigines. Impatient, self-centred- (interrupting) Look, I’m not interested in what you had for dinner. If you’ve got an explanation, just tell me what it is. Frank- The only white character, Frank brown is the only one who has a real relationship with the aboriginals and he is the only one of the white characters who’s afforded a white name. He’s accused of supplying liquor to jimmy. Millie- Persists and does what she believes is right. ‘Stereotypical women’ and caring mother to her children. Supportive mother, takes care of her child when she’s sick- My girls in hospital, we need blankets. Jimmy- Aboriginal, lack of education- â€Å"sorry sir I was on the shit bucket†¦toilet, got guts ache. Impatient and persistent- will not give up on seeing Mr Neville. Says what he thinks –‘You know one thing about Fremantle gaol even some of them screws are polite- not like this place. Native protector  couldn’t protect my dog from fleas. Neville- Racist Believes aboriginals do not and should not have the same power and allowances as white people. Ignorant and Disrespectful: Munday let me give you some advice sugar catches more flies then vinegar. Although reats white people with respect. E.g. Miss Dunn Gran and Jimmy: These are the two characters evolve in the passage through their actions and behaviour . Gran becomes a more noble character and appears benevolent in relation to her family. The Aboriginal family and particularly gran are shown to have extremely strong bonds and care about each other deeply, this is even more noticeable when compared to the indifference of the white chracters This contrasted to jimmy’s behaviour of false sincerity and respect for the white individuals reaffirms gran’s intelligence of character. She delveopes and becomes more of a realistic character who’s clearly has her best family’s interest at heart.

Planning for Management Information System

The biggest challenge and most critical success factor in reengineering projects are persuading the people within the organization to cooperate. When you begin to computerize a legacy system considers the advantages; reduced clerical cost, quicker processing time and improved customer service. Everyone knows that the computer capabilities alone make life a lot easier for all managers. The advantage of time and accuracy spread over the lifespan of the information system means improved long-term vision and focus for top, middle and lower managers. A management information system (MIS) focus is on information that management needs to prepare its job. This task becomes much more difficult when the major players have a tradition of high independence, are often confrontational to management, and are irreplaceable independent contractors. CIO's in major business organizations face exactly this situation; further complicated by the fact that the reengineering effort is crucial to the continued existence of the organization. Such discussion has driven the software industry to focus attention on software specifically designed to support the team approach essential to most service and customer oriented organizations. The importance of teamwork can not be over emphasize in achieving overall organizational goals, and the need to capture and manage an organization's knowledge base remain crucial. This teamwork enables the organization to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in their business. In considering the framework for an information system (IS) each level operational, tactical and strategic planning requires different IS. At the operational planning system, the IS collect, validate and record transactional data relating to acquisition or disbursement of resources. The data for account receivable and payables, payrolls, inventory level, shipping data, printed invoice and cash receipts recorded as they occur. The operational-level IS characteristic are repetitive, predictable, emphasizes the past and detailed in nature just to name a few. The focus of the operational system is the daily tasks performed at the user level. The operational level manager uses this data to check every day tasks, i. e. ordering, shipping, inventory control, the essence of the business processes. The second level in the framework is the tactical system. This system provide middle-level managers with information to monitor and control operation while allocating their resources efficiently. The data is summarized, aggregated, or analyzed with a wide range of reports, i. e. , summary, exception and ah hoc reports. The tactical information system differs from operational information system in the basic purpose: operational support the execution of tasks and a tactical information system supports a manager control over those tasks under their area of supervision as well as the allocation of resources to meet the company objectives set by top management. The data input and the information produced as outputs differ from the type of data involved, tactical characteristics are periodic in nature, with unexpected findings, comparative in nature with both internal and external sources. The tactical information system purpose and the regularity of report produced within the information system are drastically different from an operational system. The third level in the framework is strategic planning, designed to provide top managers with information that assist them in making long-range planning decisions for the business. The different in strategic and tactical are not always clear, because both types of information systems may use some of the same data, you might say that the systems sometimes overlap with the difference being in the data that the system uses. Typically, top management uses strategic planning system to forecast long-range company objectives. The characteristics are ah hoc basis, unstructured format, external source, and subjectivity, summary and predictive in nature. A MIS provides information for effective planning and tactical decision making, which is the foundation of operational level data system. A tactical planning system provides middle-level management with the ability to monitor and control resources. The tactical information system does not support the execution of operational tasks, but allow managers visibility over the operation. Information systems are costly, to deploy and maintain, yet the maximization of economic value of IS in the long-run balance out over the initial set-up cost. The right software products enable teams of people to integrate their knowledge, work processes and applications to achieve improved business effectiveness. It has been suggested that the implementation of such technologies is more difficult and yields more unintended consequences than is typically acknowledged. First, how such technologies are used reflect the effects. Second, how these technologies are likely used when alternative tools co-exist, meaning predictability is difficult from technological characteristics. Third, because people use groupware with other people, one person's choices about how to use groupware may have consequences for other group members, user satisfaction. The measurement for an effective MIS must be the users; usage and satisfaction have a strong correlation. Obvious, the effectiveness of MIS depends upon the use of the system and if the employees accept it. The information system department, managers and users together make the MIS process successful. The managers implement the MIS, their behavior and motivation play an important part in the variables for the system to be effective. Each designed MIS produce information for decision making throughout the organization. Let†s examine several case studies with the implementation of MIS as seen in three distinct companies, an insurance company, a food marketing company and a social service agency. The insurance company normal routine consisted of tons of policy paperwork generated daily to accomplish the company objectives. The company started on line systems supporting policy screening, creation and issuance in the 70†³s. An employee could key in new application information at his or her computer terminal, after the compilation of information an underwriter can evaluate the insurability of potential customers. After the approval process, the information system produces a policy data sheet. This business process makes it possible to handle inquiries from individual policyholders and sales agents seeking personal data information about policyholders. The home office linked to all locations of their sales agencies allowing sales agents to inquire on-line about policies with the capability to edit application information at their site. The home office can still update policies as well. Yes, this service provides the agencies with a competitive advantage in product marketing and customer service. The home office outsourced and purchased software that enable the sales agents to analyze alternative companies† product and service options, resulting in winning the customers† loyalty and a quicker sales. The company continues to grasp the future for innovations and anticipating their customers† needs in the future. This approach along ensures valuable information for the senior-level management to plan as well as reduce overhead cost with improved productivity and better decision-making ability. Next, let look at the food industry and view how information system improved their process. The MIS geared toward physical distribution at the operational level, where update orders and invoices sent to the distribution centers and the system updates the account receivable and associate system files. The system prints invoices at the origin and destination location, resulting in reduced cost and faster payments equal more cash flow. The food company produced numerous reports that enabled the managers to conduct on-line credit checks from their account receivable status report, and identify delinquent accounts, before shipping the merchandise to the distribution centers. The customer services personnel have immediate access to open account allowing for immediate visibility and response to customer inquiries about deliveries and shipments, similarly cash payments received automatically applied to customers† on-line account. Let us not forget to look at the marketing advantages with MIS as well. Sales analysis reports reflect the customers† history product information file; this data generates report by product line in each territory each month for middle-level managers to forecast demands for any specific product item. Normally, this begs the question about production and if the company can continue to support the demands of the customers. At this junction, the IS gives managers additional insight about demand and the need to forecast for future buys. The company established a bill-of-material file, which computerized the ingredients for each product line and created batch size for all products. This process minimized the work process and improved the manufacturing ordering process for each customer batch orders. The product specification file served as the database of reference information enabling the manager the ability to print text on all purchase orders. The text file produced a finished goods inventory, which is transferred to the branch warehouse stockroom in various locations; this information is based on sales analysis report (demand). In the finance and administration department, the updated account receivables correlates with customers' billing and cash receipts. A monthly exception report generated from the aged balances spits out a collection letter automatically to the respective recipients at specified intervals. The MIS enabled the food marketing company to process orders more timely, manage inventories more efficiently and organize their production section. Bottom line cost savings of MIS results in more revenue and a better customer relationship and senior-level managers focusing their attention on emerging trends in the market. A social service department utilizes MIS in the public sector by providing financial assistance to the residences, i. . medical assistance, food stamps, facilitate foster home and adoption, day care, school service, family planning, housing and legal services. The MIS processes new applications and payments. The applicant applies and become eligible then the system creates an on-line record for them. The system automatically prints an identification card for the payroll master file that entitles the recipient to service for which the bill goes to the social service department. An on-line inquiry and update of the applicant record are also possible. The payroll master file sorts, generates the welfare check, and lists them on the payroll register, which generates historical report for managers. In all three case studies, the information systems support transactional processing. The user involvement in each of the project selection ensures the effectiveness of the information system and its acceptability. How do you measure utilization and performance in MIS? The term utilization is the extent that the intended users use the information system (IS) for its intended purpose. The term performance measures the improvement of the business process that supports the IS implementation. These measurements observed through business records, visual or electronic inspections and take the personal opinions and attitudes out of the decision-making loop. The multiple variables sometimes are difficult to identify, but the IS department must be impartial if the true value is realized of a successful IS project. A successful IS project can be measure best with psychometric tests of attitude, interests, and opinions such as user information satisfaction in the broadest sense. The performance measures of the business determine the effectiveness of the MIS. You can see that information technology give companies a competitive edge, once an information based service enters other company either catch up or eliminate the original innovator competitive advantage thus raising the stake for those participating in the marketplace. Today, company can link its customer to its order entry system, thus improving efficiency and improve business performance. Sure, an effective information system, if efficient reduces needless paperwork and allows the customer access to available stock information before committing to the purchase of goods and services. Let not forget about effective too, the information system provide better service to its customers, for instance, i. e. the creation of electronic travel supermarket through on-line reservation system, i. e. www. priceline. com or www. Travelocity. com, which is transforming the basis of competition within this marketplace. To compete efficiently in this world, companies must establish information partnership as an integral part of successful business processes.

Abraham Lincoln Essay Example for Free (#3)

Abraham Lincoln Essay Essay Topic: Literature , Abraham Lincoln Choose cite format: APA MLA Harvard Chicago ASA IEEE AMA ? According to Abraham Lincoln, â€Å"Your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing. † (Mills 3). I was inspired by this quote that speaks of success, which I will describe as a golden star that everyone wants to reach. This quote is similar to most of the leadership quotes because it speaks of ways to reach success, but, this quote is special in a way that it could be related to the self-fulfilling prophecy. Simply put, the main road to success is the â€Å"will to succeed. † I’m sure each of us has experienced actually failing a task whenever our mind is embedded with the phrase: â€Å"I can’t do this! † If you believe that you will be successful in any endeavor you want to take, then, you have taken the first step to becoming a person who is the â€Å"king or queen of success. † I myself have noticed that whenever I put into mind that I will â€Å"win,† the outcome turns out to be truly positive. This essay can help readers realize that their goals can be achieved by first believing in themselves. If a person always expects that he/she will succeed in something specific, then his/her expectations will most probably turn into a reality as what the so-called â€Å"self-fulfilling prophecy† suggests. Rosenthal, in his book: â€Å"Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research,† said: â€Å"Events tend to turn out as one has hypothesized, not because of some great insight but because one behaves in a manner to achieve this outcome. † Believing in this theory would mean that we would have to love ourselves more, believe that we have what it takes to win in this â€Å"game† called life, and, at the same time, because of our mind set, act in such a way that enables us to achieve our dreams. Bear in Mind: Success is in your hands, just believe! Mills, Dawson A. â€Å"Continuing Education Offerings Abound. † The Virginian-Pilot [Virginia] 28 January 1996:3. Rosenthal, Robert. Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966. Abraham Lincoln. (2017, Apr 26).

Managing Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Managing Project - Research Paper Example A project is defined as 'a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result' (PMI, 2000:4) there are two key aspects to the concept of projects. These are 'temporary endeavour', indicating that there is a beginning and an end to it, and 'unique product, service or result' implying that day-to-day operations are not (part of) projects. The implication here is that the IR project is comprised of two aspects, those being the actual execution of the project and the daily operations involved in the fulfilling of the aforementioned goal. Project management is a broad area of study, involving multiple business aspects ranging from strategic decision making to human resource management and from stakeholder management to investment decisions. The first papers on project management techniques were not published until the 1950s (PMI, 2000). Most literature referred to large scale military, defence, IT, construction and R&D projects. Project management was defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. Further, it provides one with the tools and strategies which are prerequisite for the successful management of projects (Mumford, 2000; Charvat, 2003). It has been identified by several management and organizational development scholars as integral to the efficient and effective management of large-scale organizations (Elonen and Artto, 2003; Meredith and Mantel, 2003; Thiry, 2004). In direct correlation to the proposed IR project, the above stated definition outlines the extent to which project management is ideally suited for the former's purposes. The IR project is both sizeable and complex, added to which, it is primarily driven by such developmental needs as which have identified the energisation of the country's tourism sector as integral to economic growth. Both the size of the project and the internationally competitive sector within which it is located highlight the necessities of utilising project management tools and strategies as a means of ensuring on-time and n-budget completion. 2.3 Programme Management Programme or project portfolio management may be defined as the coordinated management of grouped projects (Gray, 1997) for the purpose of maximising efficiency by prioritising projects, eliminating those that incur excessive risks and costs, and identifying those that best subscribe to organisational objectives (Meredith and Mante

Differences in Accounting and Finance Case Study

Differences in Accounting and Finance - Case Study Example Industrial analysis always looks forward to analyzing the things in a perfect and well-organized manner. Budgeting is the most important thing from the viewpoint of an organization and the main perspective of this assignment also relates to the same (Joseph V. Carcillo). Basically, this is a case study analytical assignment, in which there are different questions that need to be answered accordingly. From the above-mentioned table, it is clear that that the total expense required by the company is $ 726,900, hence the budget should be higher than that of the same. It is required to allocate at least $ 1 million budget in order to finance all the things accordingly. Let compute the proportion of each attribute and then apply the same on the new budgetary line in order to get a certain amount of figures. The variances in the activities have been found from the difference of each activity while the difference or variance in the total has been found from the net total figure amounting to $ 273,100. The new flexible budget is very much in the favor of the company as a whole, as most of the things have low difference among the things. The newly allocated budget is well enough to analyze the same in total. Let’s now move towards the third question Cost efficiency is an important factor from the viewpoint of an organization and every organization has to control its cost both direct and indirect cost in order to become economically viable and efficient. In the scenario of the selected organization, it is found that the company is able to control some parts of its cost but not cent percent. The compensation of Directors have a high proportion of 47% of the total budget which is quite high and it should be decreased accordingly because the allocation of funds would disturb heavily merely because of this particular provision. If I will be in the team of the board of directors, then I would not prefer this much of cost.

Financial Analysis for International Company Essay

Financial Analysis for International Company - Essay Example RECOMMENDATION FOR MANAGING FINANCIAL RISKS: 11 6.2. RECOMMENDATION FOR MANAGING OPERATIONAL RISKS 11 6.3. RECOMMENDATION FOR MANAGING MARKET PLACE RISKS 12 6.4. RECOMMENDATION FOR MANAGING MACRO-ECONOMIC RISKS 12 7. References 13 1. INTRODUCTION: Dixons Retail Plc is the largest electrical and computing retailer in Europe. The company offers wide range of products and services and it operates in 26 countries. The company sells the following products: Consumer electronics, Personal computers, Domestic appliances, Photographic equipment and Communication products. Principal products like Brown goods, white goods, computing products and mobile phones are sold by the company. The company is a multi-channel retailer that sells products over the internet, in stores and by phone and it also provides product support services to the customers. B2B sales and services are also carried out by the company. (Forbes.com LLC , 2011) 1.1ABOUT DIXONS RETAIL PLC: The company offers wide range of produ cts and services and it operates in 26 countries. In 13 countries, the company has approx. 1,200 stores. The company has over 38,000 employees and it holds number 1 position in the UK & Ireland, Greece, Nordics and the Czech Republic. (Dixons Retail Plc, 2011) The company operates four divisions which are as follows: 1. UK & Ireland 2. Nordics 3. Other International 4. E-commerce Important information related to these four divisions is given below in the table: (Dixons Retail Plc, 2011) UK & Ireland Nordics Other International E-commerce SALES ?3.8bn ?2.3bn ?1.2bn ?0.8bn EBIT ?71.3m ?105.6m (?21.6m) ?0.9m MARKET POSITION Number 1 Number 1 Number 1 in Greece, Number 2 in Italy and Czech Leading internet operator across Europe SHARE OF GROUP 47% 28% 15% 10% NO. OF EMPLOYEES 23,091 7,343 6,191 1,398 NO. OF STORES 642 285 308 - 1.2 TURNOVER: In 2006, Dixons Retail’s turnover was ?7,403,400,000 then in 2007 it was ?7,929,700,000 i.e. an increase of 7.108%. In 2008, the turnover wa s ?8,545,900,000 then in 2009 it was ?8,364,600,000 i.e., a decrease of 2.122%. In 2010, the company’s turnover was ?8,532,500,000 i.e. an increase of 2.007%. (WorkSMART, nd) 2. FINANCIAL POSITION: In 2007, Dixons Retail’s profit was ?114,100,000 then in 2008 it faced a loss of ?192,800,000. In 2009, the company again faced a loss of ?140,400,000 but then in 2010 Dixons Retail achieved a profit of ?112,700,000. In 2011, the company faces a loss of ?224,100,000. (WorkSMART, nd) In 2007, Dixons Retail’s revenue was ?7929.70m then in 2008 it was ?8488.00m i.e. an increase of 7.041%. In 2009, the revenue was ?8317.80m then in 2010 it was ?8532.50m i.e. an increase of 2.581%. In 2011, the company’s revenue is ?8341.80m i.e. a decrease of 2.235%. (London Stock Exchange PLC, 2011) Other important Dixons Retail’s financial indicators are given below in the table: DIXONS RETAIL FINANCIAL INDICATORS (Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2011) MAY 2011 MAY 2010 MAY 2009 MAY 2008 MAY 2007 P/E RATIO -2.18 17.42 -4.04 -4.81 89.45 ROCE -14.86 6.56 -14.74 2.4 OPERATING MARGIN -2.93 0.7 -2.67 -3.05 0.42 RETURN ON ASSETS -5.61 2.48 -4.96 -5.68 1.08 EV/BIT -4.17 9.09 -11.73 -7.70 19.43 GEARING RATIO 44.93 37.49 53.73 31.79 23.54 P/BV RATIO 0.8 1.41 1.31 1.48 2.31 P/CASHFLOW RATIO 2.89 14.16 -46.19 6.13 12.57 QUICK RATIO 0.34 0.34 0.32 0.38 0.5 TURNOVER PER SHARE 2.261 2.441 2.825 3.504 3.186 PEG (HISTORICAL GROWTH) 0.06 -0.46 0.12 0.73 -165.66 EPS GROWTH 7.00% 50.00% -90.00%

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC'S). Economic Indicators Article

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC'S). Economic Indicators - Article Example The countries that are member of this council are as follows: †¢ Saudi Arabia †¢ Kuwait †¢ Bahrain †¢ Qatar †¢ United Arab Emirates †¢ Sultanate of Oman (Sheikh Mohammed, 2012) GCC being an oil-based region is provided with several opportunities to enhance its profit ratio and to play an essential and pivotal role in providing the world with oil. With the largest crude oil reserves in GCC (486.6 billion barrels), the member countries play the leading role in the world. In addition, GCC is the largest producer and exporter of petroleum due to which the region enjoyed fascinating and spectacular economic boom from the year 2002 to 2008 (The Economist Intelligence, 2011). The dominant role of the GCC countries in the world provided the region with an opportunity to increase the economy to $1.1 trillion (triple in size) during the same years. GCC region is the largest producer and exporter of oil and petroleum due to which the GCC countries account for almost 52 percent of the total OPEC oil reserves. 3. GDP GROWTH RATE The growth rate of the GCC region relies highly on the production and export of oil and petroleum to countries across the globe. The GDP growth rate of the GCC has been fascinating and outstanding from 2002-2008 and even after 2012 (IMF, 2012). Throughout 2002 to 2008 the region was provided with an opportunity to increase its economy threefold (Fox, 2011). The GCC countries enhanced its GDP from 400,000 (Mn US$) in the year 2003 to more than 1,100,000 (Mn US$) in the year 2008. ... Meanwhile, the region witnessed a growth rate of 14.2 percent in the year 2007 (Fox, 2011). Such an increase in the growth rate in the year 2002-2008 was highly dependent on the strongly increasing oil demand in the world (Fox, 2011). Some of the factors that contributed to such an extensive performance include better geo-political environment, boost in privatization of activities, increase in the Central Bank’s assets along with the strengthening of the GCC’s corporate sector. On the other hand, the GCC region has witnessed a decline in the growth rate due to the rising financial and economic crisis (Bachellerie, 2012). As a result, the oil market in the countries across the globe turned from cash cow to dog. The financial and economic crisis led to the decline in nominal GDP by -19.3 percent. Meanwhile, the real GDP declined from 6.4 percent to 0.5 percent in the years 2008 and 2009 respectively. With the global recovery of the oil market, the GCC region once again wi tnessed promising growth rate. The forecasted nominal GDP of the GCC was 380.5 (USD bn) in the year 2012 whereas the Real GDP (forecasted) for the same year was 5.3 (% y/y). Figure 1: GDP of GCC Countries Source: Gulf Investment Corporation, 2011) Figure 2: GCC’s GDP Growth Source: Haque, 2012 4. Inflation Rate The inflation rate in the GCC was quite low from 2002 to 2003 due to the prudent monetary and fiscal policies. Moreover, the access and availability of the goods and services in the region ensured low inflation rate. This could be witnessed by the 0.2 percent inflation rate which increased to 2.1 percent during 2001-2004. The inflation rate was 6.7 percent in the year 2007 which reached 10.7 percent in the year 2008 (IMF, 2011). The increase in inflation rate was a

Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Death Penalty - Essay Example Punishments are meant to rehabilitate the criminals and enable them to reform. Therefore, if the criminal is killed, the punishment loses its worth. The measure is effective because it scares off other potential criminals. The opponent perspective terms death penalty as immoral, uncivilized and ineffective in curbing crime. The proponent perspective portends that some crimes are so affront to humanity such that they can only be punishable through death. This paper is an opinionated argument detailing why the death penalty should be retained and the reasons causing the controversy. Death penalty is applied for vicious crimes such as murder and treason. Some of the methods of execution include lethal injection, electrocution and hanging. The 15th century witnessed widespread public executions in Britain, which fuelled a movement that was geared towards abolishment of the penalty. Death penalty was introduced in the United States by the country’s colonial masters, the English. Ac cording to Stuart Banner, the first American State to ban the death penalty was Michigan in 1846 (Hood 2). In America, the penalty was first opposed by Ben Franklin when writing the Bill of Rights in the Eighth Amendment. Michigan was the first American state to repeal the penalty in 1846, and by 1917 the norm was adopted by ten states. The 1960s witnessed almost complete extinction of the death penalty – only one execution was performed in 1966. However, the penalty’s near extinction was retracted in 1976 in the case of Gregg vs. Georgia, on which the court ruled that the death penalty does not violate the constitution. Although the death penalty is constitutional, the practice has been characterized by controversy due to the conflicting opinions among the opponents and proponents. The controversy on the use of the death penalty is related to the effectiveness and moral acceptability of the practice. The use of the death penalty in curbing crime is the most controvers ial measure taken as far as jurisprudence and human rights in a democratic nation are concerned. Proponents and opponents differ over whether the punishment violates human rights and if it is fair to both the victim and the criminal. Application of the penalty towards perpetrators of this vice is a reprieve to the victims. Additionally, it is more effective than other measures such as imprisonment, as criminals fear death more that prisons. Opponents portend that the practice is unusual and cruel as it undermines human dignity. However, the idea of referring the penalty as undermining the human dignity is a one sided school of thought; the victims view is opposite. Some of the disadvantage of the death penalty is that it does not decrease the rate of murder crimes. The most prominent challenge related to its application is its finality. Discussing finality in CatholicPhilly.com, Chaput portends that once the sentencing is carried out there is no retracting like in the case of lesser punishments. The contradicting views among the opponents and proponents revolve around which crimes are vicious enough to merit the death penalty. The obvious crime in this case is first degree murder. However, the dilemma revolves around what is meant by intent and preplanning to warrant the murder as the first degree. For instance, if the murder occurs when a person is committing a lesser crime, does it include intent and planning? When considering treason, should the death penalty be imposed at any

Zinn Essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Zinn Assignment - Essay Example Zinn has strong arguments and I agree that the perspective of the victims of â€Å"progress† is valuable to history. According to Zinn, racism was created to ensure that slavery, which was profitable for some people, could continue. To prevent collaboration between white and black people, which could lead to a successful rebellion against the wealthy people, certain laws were introduced. These laws declared blacks as inferior to whites, which produced a racial awareness. Inferior status and derogatory thinking blended into racism. I agree with Zinn, because his arguments are well thought through. Knowing the cause(s) of racism is important to be able to overcome it. Chapters 4 to 8 are all dealing with types of violent and nonviolent resistance or rebellion against various forms of oppression, such as the American Revolution. The fight against oppression is still a topic nowadays and it will always be an issue. Therefore, it is important to know how people rebelled against oppression in the past. In Chapter 7, Zinn addresses how women dealt with oppression and how some women demanded to be treated equally. Many women refused to accept their domestic position, which influenced the women’s rights movements. I found it very interesting that women did not only stand up for their own rights, but that they also spoke out against slavery. It seems that many women fought two battles, which is

Social work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 2

Social work - Essay Example I have learned to empathize and see the perspective of the service-user I counsel without crossing the boundaries of professionalism. I work with victims of domestic violence. I am aware that they need to be understood but not patronized in a way that makes them feel pitied. I have also learned to control my feelings and not allow them to get in they way of my pursuit of professionalism. For example, there was a service user who was very agitated when she came to the refuge. Her emotionality caused the other workers to panic or become defensive which further provoked her. Although I was nervous, I approached her calmly with a firm but gentle voice and asked her what was bothering her. I did not mirror her actions and reactions or else it will just be encouraged, so I did the opposite and talked to her in a low, calming voice to soothe her, assuring her everything will be alright but she needed to relax. My approach worked because she did calm down. A little while later, she was ready to talk about her issues. In my dealings with service users, I have learned to ask questions that would elicit more information about them and their cases. As much as possible, I ask open-ended questions to enable them to answer with more information instead of just a ‘yes’, a ‘no’ or any other one-word answers. I am learning so much from my placement experiences although I know I have a long way to go. I take every opportunity to hone my skills, enhance my knowledge and build my professionalism. I receive appropriate training, support and supervision to help me in the successful implementation of my duties (Thompson, 2009). I read books, online articles or simply engage in deep conversations with available mentors in placement. â€Å"Social work is a profession and a social science committed to the pursuit of social justice, to quality of life, and to the development of the full potential of each individual, group and community in a society.† I am fully aware

The Darwinian revolution challenged Essay Example for Free

The Darwinian revolution challenged Essay Define evolution broadly and then give a narrower definition, as discussed in the overview. Evolution: Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones; also defined more narrowly as the change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation Concept 22.1 The Darwinian revolution challenged the traditional view of a young Earth inhabited by unchanging species This section takes a look at the historical setting and influences on Darwin, and it sets the stage for our formal study of evolution. How did each of the following sources view the origin of species? Aristotle and Scala Naturae: Aristotle viewed species as fixed. Through his observations of nature, Aristotle recognized â€Å"affinities† among organisms. He concluded that life-forms could be arranged on a ladder, or scale, of increasing complexity, called the scala naturae. Each form, perfect and permanent, had its allotted rung on this ladder. The Old Testament: The Old Testament holds that species were individually designed by God and therefore perfect. Carolus Linnaeus: Linnaeus adopted a nested classification system, grouping similar species into increasingly general categories. Linnaeus, adhering to the Old Testament belief that all species were designed by God, did not ascribe the resemblances among species to evolutionary kinship, but rather to the pattern of their creation. Explain the role of fossils in rock strata as a window to life in earlier times. Many fossils are found in sedimentary rocks formed from the sand and mud that settle to the bottom of seas, lakes, swamps, and other aquatic habitats. New layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them into superimposed layers of rock called strata. The fossils in particular strata provide a glimpse of some of the organisms that populated Earth at the time that the layer formed. How would Georges Cuvier have explained the appearance of the record of life shown in the rock strata? Cuvier opposed the idea of evolution. He advocated catastrophism, the principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by mechanisms different from those operating in the present. Copyright  © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Cuvier speculated that each boundary between strata represented a catastrophe, such as a flood, that had destroyed many of the species living at that time. James Hutton and Charles Lyell were geologists whose ideas strongly influenced Darwin’s thinking. What were the ideas each of them contributed? James Hutton : Hutton proposed that Earth’s geologic features could be explained by gradual mechanisms still operating today, such as valley formed by rivers. Charles Lyell: Lyell incorporated Hutton’s thinking into his principle of uniformitarianism, which states that mechanisms of change are constant over time. Lyell proposed that the same geologic processes are operating today as in the past, and at the same rate. What is the importance of the principle of uniformitarianism? If geologic change results from slow, continuous actions rather than from sudden events, then Earth must be much older than the widely accepted age of a few thousand years. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck proposed a mechanism for how life changes over time. Explain the two principles of his mechanism. use and disuse: The idea that parts of the body that are used extensively become larger and stronger, while those that are not used deteriorate. inheritance of acquired characteristics: This idea states that an organism could pass these modifications of use and disuse to its offspring. Although Lamarck’s mechanism of evolution does not explain the changes in species over time, his thinking has been influential. What is considered to be the great importance of his ideas? Lamarck recognized that the match of organisms to their environments can be explained by gradual evolutionary change rather than special creation. Concept 22.2 Descent with modification by natural selection explains the adaptations of organisms and the unity and diversity of life Charles Darwin proposed that the mechanism of evolution is natural selection and that it explains how adaptations arise. What are adaptations? Give two examples of adaptations. Adaptations are inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments. Possible examples include the mottled coloration of a fawn that allows it to blend with its environment, or the sharp talons and beaks of birds of prey so well suited for predation. Explain the process of natural selection. In the process of natural selection, individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits. Let’s try to summarize Darwin’s observations that drive changes in species over time: Observation 1. Variations in traits exist. Cite an Example Variation in color and spot pattern of Asian ladybird beetles 2. These variations (traits) are heritable. Variation in closely related species of elephants; offspring resemble close relatives more than other members of a population. 3. Species overproduce. Dandelions produce thousands of seeds. 4. There is competition for resources; not all offspring survive. Not all dandelion seeds germinate or survive to maturity From these four observations, what two inferences did Darwin make? 1. Individuals whose inherited traits give them a higher probability of surviving and reproducing in a given environment tend to leave more offspring than other individuals. 2. The unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to the accumulation of favorable traits in the population over generations. It is important to remember that differences in heritable traits can lead to differential reproductive success. This means that the individuals who have the necessary traits to promote survival in the current environment will leave the most offspring. How can this differential reproductive success affect the match between organisms and their environment? When such advantages increase the number of offspring that survive and reproduce, the traits that are favored will likely appear at a greater frequency in the next generation. To demonstrate your understanding of this section, complete the following sentences: Individuals do not evolve. Populations evolve. Now, take out your highlighter and mark the information in the box above. Hold these ideas firmly in your brain! Finally, if you are ever asked to explain Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection (a common AP essay question), do not pull out the phrase â€Å"survival of the fittest.† Instead, cite the points made in question 11 and explain the inferences that are drawn from them. Copyright  © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Concept 22.3 Evolution is supported by an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence 15. Use Figure 22.13 in your text to explain how research with soapberry bugs demonstrated observable evolutionary change. Museum specimens showed that the average beak length of soapberry bugs was comparable to that of soapberry bugs feeding on native species in southern Florida. However, contemporary data suggest that a change in the size of the soapberry bug’s food source, as seen with the introduction of the goldenrain tree, can result in evolution by natural selection for matching beak size. MRSA is in the news today because it is becoming increasingly more common. What is it? MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a flesh-eating strain How did it become so dangerous? Explain the evolution of MRSA’s resistance to methicillin. MRSA became dangerous because, over time, doctors used a variety of antibiotics, such as penicillin, to combat MRSA. Each time a new antibiotic was used to fight the disease, some S. aureus populations would develop resistance to the new drug. In 1959, doctors used the powerful antibiotic methicillin. Members of the S. aureus population that were resistant to methicillin reproduced at higher rates, leading to the spread of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Do antibiotics cause bacteria to become resistant? Explain your response. No. A drug does not create resistant pathogens; it selects for resistant individuals that are already present in the population. Let’s make a list of the four evidences for evolution that are described in this concept. Give an example of each. Evidence for Evolution Example Direct observations of evolutionary change Homology Possible examples include the evolution of MRSA or the change in beak size in soapberry bugs. Possible examples include the similarities between mammalian forelimbs. Possible examples include fossils that show ancestors of cetaceans had hind limbs. Possible examples include the creation of the evolutionary tree of horses, based on fossil locations. Fossil record Biogeography How does the fossil record give evidence for evolution? The fossil record documents the pattern of evolution, showing that past organisms differed from present-day organisms and that many species have become extinct. Copyright  © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. What is meant by each of the following terms? Give an example of each. Term Homologous structures Vestigial structures Analogous structures (see p. 465) Explanation/Example Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry. For example, mammalian forelimbs. A feature of an organism that is a historical remnant of a structure that served a function in the organism’s ancestors. For example, skeletons of some snakes retain vestiges of the pelvis and leg bones. Having characteristics that are similar because of convergent evolution, not homology. For example, the wing of a butterfly and wing of a bat both make flight possible. How do homologous structures give evidence for evolution? Homologous structures represent variations on a structural theme that was present in the common ancestors of a species. What is summarized in an evolutionary tree? An evolutionary tree reflects evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. Figure 22.17 in your text shows an evolutionary tree. What is indicated by each branch point in the following figure? Mark each branch point. Each branch point represents the common ancestors of the lineage beginning there and to the right of it. Refer to Figure 22.17 on page 464. What is indicated by the hatch marks in Figure 22.17? A hatch mark represents a homologous characteristic shared by all the groups to the right of the mark. Use the tree in question 24 to answer this question: Are crocodiles more closely related to lizards or to birds? Explain your response. Based on this evolutionary tree, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards because they share a more common ancestor with the birds than with lizards. On the evolutionary tree, label the vertical lines to the right, and annotate the key feature that marks each group. See page 464 of your text for the labeled figure. Organisms that are only distantly related can resemble each other. Explain convergent evolution, and describe how analogous structures can arise. Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in different lineages. In such examples as the marsupials of Australia, in which species share features because of convergent evolution, the resemblance is said to be analogous. Analogous features share similar function, but not common ancestry. Copyright  © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Convergent evolution might be summarized like this: Similar problem, similar solution. Can you give two examples of convergent evolution? Answers will vary but may include the sugar glider and the flying squirrel, and the evolution of wings in birds and bats. Study Tip Homologous structures show evidence of relatedness (whale fin, bat wing). Analogous structures are similar solutions to similar problems but do not indicate close relatedness (bird wing, butterfly wing). What is biogeography? How is it affected by continental drift and the presence of endemic species? Biogeography is the geographic distribution of species. The geographic distribution of organisms is influenced by many factors, including continental drift, the slow movement of Earth’s movement over time, and the presence of endemic species, species that are found nowhere else in the world. Let’s wrap up all of these ideas with a final summary. ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS Evolution is change in species over time. Heritable variations exist within a population. These variations can result in differential reproductive success. Over generations, this can result in changes in the genetic composition of the population. And remember: Individuals do not evolve! Populations evolve. Test Your Understanding Answers Now you should be ready to test your knowledge. Place your answers here: 1. b Copyright  © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.