Humback Whales Essays - Baleen Whales, Megafauna, EDGE Species

Humback Whales To look up into the mountains and see the steam rolling from a mountain stream on a cold winters morning is a beautiful sight. However, to look out over the horizon and see the white spray of salt water coming from the blow of a huge hump-back whale is much more exciting sight and a whole lot warmer. I lived in the mountains of Colorado for most of my childhood. The first time I had the opportunity to see the ocean was on a vacation to California, when I was about 15 years old. It was even better than I had dreamed it would be. The different animals in the ocean, the color of the water, and the warm sand between my toes was probably what led me to come to the islands of Hawaii. When I first saw the hump-back whale I was amazed at their huge size and how they could breach out of the water so gracefully. It is as if they were trying to play or show off. So when we were asked to choose a favorite animal, I had no problem deciding on the hump- back whale. The hump-back whale gets it's name from the distinctive hump in front of the dorsal fin and from the way it raises it's back high above water before diving. They are a member of the order Cetacea. This order is of aquatic mammals and the hump-back belongs to the suborder of the Mysticeti. The Mysticeti are the baleen whales which have three families and several species. The family in which the hump-back belongs is the Balaenopteridae, the true fin backed whale. The thing that separates this genus from the other fin-backed whales is the pectoral fins, which grow in lengths of about 5 meters (16.4 feet). This Genus is called Megaptera meaning great wing (Tinker 290). There was a controversy over the species name in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1932, Remington Kellogg finally settled the matter with Megatera Novaeangliae (Cousteau 84). The common English name is the hump-back whale. The hump-back whale lives in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Since we live in the Pacific I'll be discussing the hump-backs of the North Pacific. They migrate from North to South. In the months of July through September they gather in the Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea or the Chukchi Sea. They head south for the winter. They go to one of three areas: (1) Between the Bonin Islands, the Marianas Islands, the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan; (2) The Hawaiian Islands, and (3) Along the coast of Mexico (Tinker 291). One of the reasons these whales go North is for feeding. They have a short food chain compared to most mammals. Phytoplankton turns sunlight into energy and this energy is consumed by zooplankton. The zooplankton and phytoplankton are eaten by small fish. The whale in turn eats the fish. The chain is complete when waste products or dead whales decompose. They have a very short time frame in which they eat compared to the twelve months out of the year. They have not been seen feeding in Hawaii. It seems that they only feed during the summer months up north. During the fasting periods, in Hawaii, they survive on their blubber. They mix their diet with copepods, euphausiids (krill), and small fish, primarily herring and capelin. They are considered filter feeders, using baleen plates to filter out their food. They take huge amounts of water into their mouth using a gulping method and then when they push the water out, they put their tongue up so the water must pass through the baleens. The food becomes trapped and falls toward the rear of the mouth. The two gulping methods hump-back whales use are lunge feeding and bubble net feeding. Lunge feeding is used when food is abundant. The whale simply swims through the prey with it's mouth open engulfing the prey. They can do this vertically, laterally or inverted. This is done toward the surface of the ocean. Bubble net feeding is used when the prey is less abundant. The whale dives below the prey and discharges bubbles from it's blowhole. As the bubbles

Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio Essays

Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio Essays Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio Paper Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio Paper Rizal was phenomenonal. He earned his first degree at 16 in the Philippines and never looked back. At 18 he ran away to Europe and earned a medical degree in Spain, and followed it up with degrees in France. While in Europe and in many in other countries during his travels around the world, he taught himself fluency in Spanish, German, English, and French and he did it all in a short 35 years of life. From childhood, he was a prolific writer and he remained so right up until minutes before being a martyr. Rizal’s reputation as a hero is well earned. He hated how the Spanish treated the natives of the Philippines, whom the Spanish called Indios. The novels and essays he wrote were aimed mostly at Spaniards back in Spain. His objective was to get them to stop the practices of Spanish friars and governors in colonial Philippines. I believe he was convinced that if the Spaniards in Europe knew of the cruelty and injustice going on in their colony for years, that they would finally interfere and stop the merciless brutality that had gone on for centuries. In Spain, Spaniards treated Rizal with respect and admiration, but for some reason the Spaniards in the Philippines were entirely different. They did not hesitate to use torture, terror and execution to keep their Indios under their complete control, and that included controlling Rizal as well. Spanish priests who were called friars, who called the shots in his home land. after years away, he returned to Manila and almost immediately the friars found a means to get him out of the way. He was found guilty of spreading sedition based on his anti-friar novels written while he was overseas. These novels were not intended to cause a Spanish overthrow, but to show decent, liberal-minded Spaniards how unjust things were back in his beloved islands. Jose was found guilty and exiled hundreds of miles away to the very fringes of the archipelago to the tiny town of Dapitan on Mindanao. He spent years there, and during the end of that time, a man named Bonifacio back in Manila put together the beginnings of a major revolt against Spain. Andres Bonifacio was captivating. Although he didn’t have the natural genius of Rizal, he was an incredible fellow just the same. He came from nothing and taught himself everything. The fact that he was poor, self-taught, and self-made, a man who could not afford any formal schooling, much less college, and yet excelled as a leader and independent thinker, he is great. I more I learn about Bonifacio the more I realize that this guy is a perfect form of an authentic Filipino. He has more in common with the bulk of the population here than most any other figure from this country’s past. He was born and raised in Tondo, a very poor place in the mid 19th century, and even more so now. He was dirt poor and suffered through the same troubles and problems that most Filipinos suffer today. Yet he overcame all those issues and became known as Supremo, the leader of the revolutionary government against Spain. Unlike Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio hated the Spanish and wanted nothing to do with them. Where Rizal wanted justice under the rule of Spain, Bonifacio wanted only Filipinos to be dominant over his own island. Also, Bonifacio was instrumental in writing the Katipunan, the guiding document of this country’s first home-grown government. despite no formal education, Andres managed almost single-handedly to spark THE most successful insurrection ever against Spain- and going back hundreds of years, there were scores of revolts and uprisings, all horribly crushed into bloody oblivion. His rebellion was so successful that today we call it The Philippine Revolution. Also, Bonifacio was instrumental in writing the Katipunan, the guiding document of this country’s first home-grown government.

The Human Rights dimensions of International Petroleum Transactions Article

The Human Rights dimensions of International Petroleum Transactions - Article Example t importantly, the other day companies operating in countries with unpleasant governments had to face tough time because of non-governmental organizations that endanger their most inestimable assets, their good reputation1. The ignorance of human rights’ responsibilities by the multinational companies around the globe in general and the multinational companies specifically operating in unattractive areas are vulnerable to the print and electronic media and nongovernmental organizations. If we study the latest Human Rights Report, it is clear that it indicates the positive role of MNCs in reducing the human rights violations to some extent. However, it was felt that more effort needs to be made to satisfy the cited Medias (print and electronic media) and the NGOs2. Now the international companies realized that business and protection of human beings is necessary to create conducive environment to carry on their businesses. The following publications may provide the readers an insight of corporate responsibilities of International Companies towards protection of human rights in their area of operations: a) Corporations and Human Rights, b) Crackdown in the Niger Delta, c) Human Rights Violations In Nigerias Oil Producing Region, d) The Price Of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigerias Oil Producing Communities and e) The Enron Corporation: Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Violations3. The year 1994 is remembered for a longer period in the history of oil and gas in view of the execution of KEN Saro Wiwa and other human rights’ activists by the Nigerian regime. Soon after the said incident, Shell came under immense pressure and scrutiny of international human rights’ groups and the press. Initially the top notch of Shell denied their hands in executing mentioned human rights activists. Later on, it compelled Shell responsible officials to sit with the Human Rights Groups of United Kingdom to revisit their inhuman rights

Should the Electoral College be abolished Research Paper

Should the Electoral College be abolished - Research Paper Example The topic represents one of the widely practiced political functions which create a considerable impact in the context of politics and elections. However, the greater emphasis will be laid upon the fact that whether the Electoral College be abolished or not? Analysis of this topic will provide an-in-depth insights to the present scenario of Electoral College and its related pros and cons. Nevertheless, the main concern lies upon the fact that whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not? This topic is considered to be one of the widely discussed topics, especially in the US context and in the recent times, it has also raised numerous debates that have cornered the political system to a large extent. This system has taken the overall political arrangement in a one-dimensional manner and it is giving rise to lot of political interventions that is not favored by most of the citizens (Veldman, â€Å"Abolish the Electoral College†; International Debate Education Associa tion, â€Å"Debates†). However, one of the major arguments for the Electoral College is that it magnifies the margin of victory and produces clear winners. The Electoral College is also supported on the ground that it is equated with federalism while the direct popular election does not promote federalism. In addition, the Electoral College system is viewed to eliminate the fraud associated with direct popular voting system. It can be argued that the system of Electoral College is ideal with respect to the interest of nation as well as its citizen. (Heyrman, â€Å"The Electoral College: A Critical Analysis†). Correspondingly, it can be argued that this system discourages the emergence of small and dangerous third parties. It has been viewed that this system promotes political stability and reduces political conflicts to a great extent. Furthermore, it can be stated that the proper utilization of this system, facilitate in overall welfare of the nation’s political system while its abolition ca n be viewed as threat to federalism. Besides, it has been observed that this system promotes benefit of having clear results and legitimate government (Williams, â€Å"Reforming the Electoral College: Federalism, Majoritarianism, and the Perils of Sub constitutional Change†). It has been reported on number of occasion the Electoral College is an outdated system and has potentially less relevancy in terms of modern political system. Subsequently, it can be argued that Electoral College is considered to be anti-democratic in nature and has arbitrary effects on the political set-up. It can be stressed that selection of representatives by Electoral

Scientific Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Scientific - Essay Example 180). The latter permits replication of plasmid in host cells while drug-resistance gene is essential in allows growth of host cells by destruction of antibiotics especially carbenicillin. The use of restriction enzymes, in obtaining cloning sites through cleaving of the vector acts as the initial step in insertion of foreign DNA (Seviour and Nielsen, 2010, p. 365). Sticky ends especially single-stranded ends can results from cleavage of palindromic sequence GAATTC by EcoRI (Russell et al., 2013, p. 393). The resultant single-stranded ends have hybridization ability with similar EcoRI pieces of DNA. Using the principle, scientists take sequences of foreign DNA for cloning and mix them with cleaved vectors after digestion with EcoRI (Brown, 2013). After hybridization of the plasmid and foreign DNA through the sticky ends, the next step involves sealing with phosphodiester linkages to form recombinant plasmid. DNA ligase enzyme remains imperative in the sealing process. Consequently, the aforementioned replication origin, resistance gene, and DNA fragment remains present on the newly created recombinant plasmids that collectively forms circular library. The inherent recombinant plasmids have each of them possessing unique foreign DNA fragment. Subsequent stage involves addition of E. Coli bacteria that acts as host cells to the recombinant plasmids. At this stage, the study has made the cells permeable to DNA through treatment with CaCL2. Some cells resist taking recombinant plasmids while others do through a process known as transformation. Thereafter, the researcher pours the E,Coli cells into an antibiotic carbenicillin plate nutrient agar. It is important to note that only cells that have resistance to carbenicillinin antibiotic would grow in the agar as opposed to the rest. Growth and multiplication of the aforementioned cells remains possible at 37

roles played by nurses and other professionals in the team

roles played by nurses and other professionals in the team This essay is meant to throw light on the importance of having an inter professional team that would make the service delivery to patients easier. In this essay I will discuss the roles played by nurses and other professionals in the team. The essay will reflect the efficiency of such a team and their work distribution and involvement. I will highlight the ways in which a team of professionals will work together to take proper decisions during emergency situations and tackle them effectively. The essay will also critically evaluate the various concepts of inter professional team work. An interprofessional team is a group of people who have a certain common goals or objectives which drives them to work together by setting aside individual goals. Inter professional team can be defined as a dynamic process involving two or more health care professionals with complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common health goals and exercising concerted physical and mental effort in assessing, planning, or evaluating patient care, accomplished through interdependent collaboration, open communication and shared decision-making, and generates value-added patient, organizational and staff outcomes (Xyrichis and Ream 2007). Freeth et al (2005) defined inter professional team work as when two or more professional learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care. The healthcare sector started showing interest in the interprofessional working during the early 1990. (Institute of Medicine, 1998;ONeil and Pew Health Professions Commission 1998;  Pew Health Professions Commission 1995a,  1995b,  1998). The Association of American Medical Colleges, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing suggested that the graduates must have enough knowledge in interprofessional collaboration (Varkey, Reller, Smith, Ponet, Osborn  , 2006). Varkey et.al (2006) also pointed out that there should be enough cooperation between the various professionals in healthcare field for the success of this profession. But unfortunately this fact is not included in the curriculum of the different medical schools in USA. Inter professional teams are more effective in rehabilitating the patients than individual health care professionals. The number of patients having positive impact by the inter professional service is larger than those by individual service providers. A very strategic role played by nurses is highlighted now. The nursing tutors face the dual challenge of preparing their students enter into nursing profession as well as equip them to cooperate effectively with other health practitioners (Lattuca, 200l;  Newell, 1998). An interprofessional team is working to provide service in a properly planned and systematic manner. In the health care sector inter professional teams are meant to develop groups that works towards efficiently rendering care to the patients. These teams include nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals. For a team to be efficient role clarity to inevitable and this will help them define their own duties and responsibilities avoiding conflicts (West and Markiowicz, 2004). A team essentially will have a team leader who will lead the team and motivate them to render good service working together (Martin and Rogers 2004). A health care team will work effectively if there is stability in the team, this will make the team member in the group work with shared trust and understanding (West and Slater (1996); Gair and Hartery, (2001)). Interprofessional teams are of various types, they include multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary etc. In case of multidisciplinary teams the members are from various teams. These members set their own discipline specific goals and work towards achieving it. But ultimately the result is calculated as the total of all the disciplines (Dean and Geiringer 1990). The position of team members in the team hierarchy will affect the way in which the team functions and how it will render the service (Cotts, 1998). In case of a multidisciplinary team there exist subgroups of doctors, social workers, therapists and also subgroups which had nurses and other junior staff. Her study also unveiled the idea that the different subgroups had different perceptions about the inter professional teams. Inter professional team work is highly essential in operation theatres and intensive and trauma care units. Since these are the emergency units of a hospital the situation of such units cannot be predicted and thus highly challenging. The interprofessional team may have to work highly efficiently and together. There exists a high rate of tension and stress in the team members in such emergency situations. According to McWilliam et al (2003), interprofessional working is a very difficult task for health care professionals. The patients didnt get the full benefit of interprofessional working due to the misunderstanding between the health care professionals regarding the policies and procedures in it. Mistreatment of elders is a serious issue and its growing day by day. It is the responsibility of nurses to identify and prevent such occurrences (Baker Heitkemper, 2005). The nurses have a variety of roles to play in an Inter-professional elder mistreatment team. At present the roles involve screening and assessment, mandatory reporting, direct care, and complaint investigation. Elder mistreatment (EM) is a very complicated issue and can be effectively solved through inter-professional association. Critics like Bion (1961) say that the interprofessional teams fail to focus on the real task they should be doing. The primary tasks for which they have come together is forgotten most of the by the interprofessional teams. Whenever there is an issue the teams to fail to reach at a consensus and they do not take proper decisions on the issue (Strokes 1994). The meetings conducted in order to take decision on the matter are just a waste of time. These assumptions are based on the work group mentality theory. Critics of interprofessional team have questioned the values of the team. It is said that the teams are not well managed and they do not work properly and responsibily. Negotiation theory puts forward the perspective of negotiating the personal and professional goals. (Strauss, 1978) The negotiations by professionals in the health care field have played a critical role in molding the characteristics of an interprofessional team. Loss and change theory reiterates that the health care professionals like doctors and nurses lose their professional identity as they are working in a team, this will lead to developing an improper relationship and improper behavior in the team (Atkins, 1998). Thus it critically points to the inter professional teams in that it wouldnt serve the purpose of forming a team the unhappiness of the team members can lead to inefficient functioning. The increase of cost in hospitals will also result if there is lack of proper communication between the professionals like doctors, nurses and staff and also if they are not coordinated well (Gavett, Drucker, McCrum and Dickinson, 1985). The roles played by nurses in the interprofessional teams are fast evolving. The importance of specialist skills for nurses is now recognized and new role have come up. The Macmillan nurse is an example of such new roles and they possess skills in palliative care and are expected to look after patients with terminal illness. Another group called night practitioners literally run the hospitals at night. They are skilled to assist any department and are sometimes considered better than junior doctors too (Martin Rogers, 2004) While working in an interprofessional team, there is an increased chance of conflict between the team members regarding the superiority in the team. The truth is everyone is equal while working in a team and nobody should themselves subordinate to anyone. But sometimes the nurses and their opinions are ignored in an interprofessional team. Such events makes them reluctant to be a part of such teams (Martin Rogers, 2004). Task shifting is a common practice among the professionals now days (Reeves et.al, 2010). This would help the traditional professionals to relieve of their heavy workload. The nursing practitioners and physician assistants are such roles (Hooker McCaig, 2001). The multiplicative effects model of interprofessional working views it more than the sum of its parts. Here the synergy obtained from such work is described (Leathard, 1994). According to this model, interprofessional working improves the contributions of individual team members and thus will help in the overall development of team. Decision making is an essential in ingradient of all teams; it measures the efficiency of the group. Decision making in case of an interprofessional team also play key role deciding its service delivery process. The usual situation that happens in such teams is the unavailability of proper team leader and also reaching at a common consensus. The decision taken in team has the idea input all the members that needs to driven well in one direction for increasing effectiveness of the work the team does. Most of the important decisions concerning the activities of the team are taken mostly by the Doctors, or the medical staff in an inter professional team in hospitals. Solving important problems and resolving conflicts are the aims of masking decisions (Neil, 1978). There are a few hindrances for nurses to be part of interprofessional teams. The health care sector has shortages or less number of nurses, and those nurses who are available have increased amount of work. As a result of which there is a limitation in case of inter professional support and collaboration (Mckay Crippen, 2008). Another barrier that can be highlighted is the disinterest on the part of other departments to participate and actively involve in the team and work together. The culture and hierarchy of the organization also plays a role in the formation of teams in the organization. According to Henneman.et.al (1995) Collaboration involves a partnership characterized by mutual goals and commitments in which participants willingly become involved in planning and decision making. Henneman.et.al (1995) also proposed that collaboration is a process by which members of various disciplines (or agencies) share their expertise. Accomplishing this requires these individuals understand and appreciate what it is that they contribute to the whole. Many authors have suggested ways to make the intercollaboration more effective. According to Fullan (1993), effective collaborations operate in the world of ideas, examining existing practices critically, seeking better alternatives and working hard together at bringing about improvements and assessing their worth.   The National Network for Collaboration (NNC) put forward a frame work for effective collaboration and advocated that it should possess a common vision, problem, a desired outcome etc. NNC also pointed out that the members of the collaboration must share this vision and contribute equally. The NNC sees collaboration as an inclusionary process which should be constantly engaged and must strengthen the commitment and must identify that relationship building and maintaining is the key factor for the success of collaborations and they must try to sustain a win-win relationship. According to Garner (1995) and Hoeman (1996), it should be by means of collaborative communicatio n rather than shared communication that the interprofessional team approach evolves. Efforts were made from the part of many authors for increasing the literature on interprofessional education for health professional students. But Cooper, Carlisle, Gibbs, and Watkins (2001) pointed out this literature to be diverse including a relatively small amount of research data and much larger amounts of evaluation literature. There were almost thirty works done on interprofessional education and all of them aimed to increase the level of co-operation and understanding between the members in interprofessional teams as well as to encourage a high quality care for the patients. There are a number of social science theories that explain the concept of interprofessional team work. Merton (1968) put forward theory in three modules. They are the micro, mid range and macro theories. The social sciences approaches that come under these three groups include: Micro: psychodynamic perspective by Bion, Menzies, Marris, social psychological perspective by Tejfel and Turner, Brown Interactionism by Goffman and strauss All the above approaches that come under the micro group are of the rational type that consolidates the team functions, identities and interactions. Midrange : Activity theory by Engestrom Institutional influence by DiMaggio and Powell Professionalization by Freidson These three approaches or theories are processual, organizational and contextual. Their task is to understand team activities, relation and performance, the relations between professions respectively. Macro: Discourse theory and surveillance theory by Foucault They are of the contextual type that deals with the impact of society and social interaction of with respect to the interprofessional team work. There are a set of models supporter by theories that help provide the inter professional education well in the health care sector that enables the health care professionals perform well and deliver quality service. These models are whilst behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism (Schunk D 2003). I will working for the betterment of the service provided to a patient using the things I learned. Working in an interprofessional team is has made me get involved with the Doctors and other professional in the field and has helped to build a strategy that elevates the level of service rendering process. As a nurse am able to act in the right way a right direction in case of any emergency and otherwise. From now I will be able to put into practise the concept I learned. The model that I would use is the Kolbs model of reflection. It is a process whereby, individuals, teams and organizations attend to and understanding their experiences and consequently modify their behaviour. The model mainly has 4 important aspects: Experiencing means really doing the task and experiencing the whole process. Reflecting- in this step the work is reviewed in terms of experience and the real process. Conceptualisation- here the various important occurrences and tasks are analysed and their connections among the events are noted. Planning- the events that have been understood will be analysed well in order to envisage the occurrences in future. This will help to prevent any improper events happening and build a proper strategy to do the next task. The Kolbs reflection model if one of the best models for teams. In case of a team there are aspects like: Doing- same as experience, where the team does the task or the action. Reflection- after the action, the team members openly discuss the whole process and share their views and experience. Interpretation- the members of the team now work with common identity and culture and as a team by leaning behind individual interests. Planning- in the final step team works according to the joint decisions and plan out ways to committing the action. Finally I would say that in any sector especially the health care there is an elementary requirement of having an inter professional team. The team in all ways will help in providing superior service since the decisions are taken as a team and under common grounds.

Midevial Cooking :: essays research papers fc

Cooking in the medieval times was performed on very big scale, and food was cheap and plentiful. Foreign goods had to be bought at the nearest large town. Food trade was a primary business. It was also a way of determining class. The nobles would eat meat, white bread, pastries, and drink wine. This sort of diet caused many health problems, such as skin troubles, digestive disorders, infections from decomposed proteins, scurvy, and tooth decay. A peasant would eat porridge, turnips, dark bread, and in the north they would drink beer or ale. Women were the expert cooks, and they seasoned their food heavily with pepper, cloves, garlic, cinnamon, vinegar, and wine. They paid close attention to the appearance of their meal. For instance, they might spread the feathers of a peacock that they are serving. Also, if a the eggs of a batter didn’t make it yellow enough, they would add saffron (saffron is orange of yellow powder obtained from the stigmas of the saffron flower). Meat was expensive, so it was considered a luxury. This made butchers prosperous. The most common and least expensive was sheep. They would also eat birds: gulls, herons, storks, swans, cranes, cormorants, and vultures, just to name a few. Animals were cut up immediately after killing and salted to be preserved. Most meat was boiled because it the animals were wild, and the meat was sure to be tough. Also, almonds were often cooked with the meat for flavor. Fish was also popular. Part of this was because the church required that you eat fish on Fridays. Fish was often cooked in ale. People spent more on bread and grain then anything else, even though England had a national bread tax, which fixed the price of bread. Pastries were expensive because sugar was an import. Because medical opinion advised that fruit shouldn’t be eaten raw, it was preserved in honey and cooked into pastries. Almonds were often cooked into pastries as well. Fruit was more wild back then than it is today, so it may have been more flavorful. Most people grew their own vegetables. Also, many people owned their own cow and made cheese with its milk. They would sell most of the cheese at the local market. Only gentleman had wine, which was often diluted with water or mixed with honey, ginger, or cinnamon to sweeten it. The only hot drink that they had in those days was mulled wine, and that was served only at festivities.

Famine & Poverty and Famines Essay

The phenomenon of famine has been widely described and analyzed in socio-political literature. The topic has been considered a controversial one in terms of its definition and its definitive features. In a recent revision of the concept of famine, â€Å"Poverty and Famines,† Amartya Sen retains part of classical vision on famine offered by Malthus, distinguishing â€Å"regular starvation,† which is a â€Å"normal feature in many parts of the world,† from â€Å"violent  outbursts of famine,† a â€Å"particularly virulent form of [starvation] causing widespread death† (Sen, 38-39). USAID defines famine as â€Å"a catastrophic food crisis that results in widespread acute malnutrition and mass mortality† (USAID, 2002).   Proper definition of famine matters not only in terms of labeling an event after the fact, but also in terms of how humanitarian organizations and governments respond to crises as they are happening. Maxwell points out that this is in large part because of the emotional weight the term â€Å"famine† has come to carry (Maxwell, 49). Humanitarian workers spent a considerable amount of time arguing about whether or not to call the 2002-2003 crisis in Ethiopia, ostensibly affecting over 13 million people, a famine. Calling it a famine would have stepped up the international response, but it might also be perceived as â€Å"crying wolf,† which would have a detrimental effect on organizations’ abilities to obtain resources for emergency responses in the long run. Aid agencies want to avoid using the term â€Å"famine† too often because they worry about â€Å"compassion fatigue† or â€Å"donor fatigue† – essentially that donors will be less likely to support emergency efforts if there are too many emergencies. There are also political implications for using the term â€Å"famine,† as can be seen in the case of the 2005 crisis in Niger, which President Mamadou Tandja insisted was a fabrication of relief agencies to obtain more funding (Sengupta, 2005). Aid agencies likewise were reluctant to apply the term famine, and referred instead to â€Å"pockets of severe malnutrition,† in part because they didn’t want to alienate Tandja (Sengupta, 2005). The general discussion in literature indicates that number of deaths, scale, intensity and time frame were main considerations for when to call something a famine. There also is a consensus that lack of access to food had to be the main problem, to distinguish a famine from other types of humanitarian crises. For instance, the 1984/85 famine in Ethiopia was unanimously considered a famine. Iraq in the 1990s was not, mainly because â€Å"the time-frame was too long for a famine and many deaths were the result of a health crisis, not calorie-related† (IDS, 3). Ethiopia in 1999/2000 was probably a famine, but Malawi in 2002 â€Å"represented a famine-threat, rather than a true famine† because â€Å"too few people died† (IDS, 3). In the latter case, the mortality was estimated between 500 and 3,000, and estimates were complicated by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS; thus, it was difficult to attribute deaths specifically to hunger and hunger-related diseases. WORKS CITED Institute of Development Studies. Report on Operational Definition of Famine Workshop. Sussex, UK: Institute of Development Studies, March 14, 2003 Maxwell, D.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Why do famines persist? A brief review of Ethiopia 1999-2000.† IDS Bulletin, 33 (4), 48-54, 2002 Sen, A. Poverty and famines: An essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981 Sengupta, K. â€Å"President Tandja: ‘The people of Niger look well fed, as you can see.† The Independent, August 10, 2005 United States Agency for International Development. USAID background paper: Famine. Washington, DC: USAID, 2002. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2002/02fs_famine.html

Nature and Main Areas of Financial Management Essay

Introduction: Financial management is basically makes plans, organize, direct and control the financial activities in an organization. Applying general management principle to financial resources of the organization is part of financial management activity. Financial management is concern with the efficient and effective management of the financial resources of the organization. Nature and Main areas of financial management: Financial management is broadly concerned with the mobilization and development of funds by a business organization. To run the operations of company efficiently, it is important to raise and handle the funds effectively. Financial management performs this job. Financial management works on the following areas: 1.Finding financial necessities: – A financial manager must know financial necessities of the company. He should find out financial needs of the company. Financial manager must focus on available funds which are needed to meet promotional expenses, fixed and working capital needs. The necessity of non-current assets is related to types of company. Working capital needs mainly depends on the range of business operation. If the range or scale of business operation is large then the requirement of working capital will be high. If the financial manager makes wrong assessment about financial necessities, it may cause huge damage to the company. 2.Selecting the sources of funds:- Financial management works on how to raise funds from various sources for the company. Various sources may be available for raising funds. To issue of share capital and debentures proper steps should be taken. Financial management should ask various financial institutions to provide long-term funds. Equity capital necessities may be met by getting cash credit or overdraft facilities from commercial banks. A financial manager should be very cautious in approaching different sources to raise funds. Financial management should analyze the sources before raising funds. 3.Managing working capital:- Working capital indicates to that part of company’s capital which is needed for financing short-term or current assets such as cash, receivables and inventories. Maintaining these assets to a proper level is very essential for the organization. Finance manager is required to determine the amount of such assets. 4.Financial analysis and interpretation:- One of the most important tasks of financial management is analyzing & interpretation of financial statements. Financial management expected to focus on the short term and long-term financial position of the company. Profitability, liquidity position of the company should also be monitored by financial management. Financial manager can do this by calculating a number of ratios. Making interpretation of various ratios is also essential to draw certain outcome. Financial analysis and interpretation has become an important area of financial management in modern days. 5.Cost-volume profit analysis:- Cost volume profit is also popularly known as CVP relationship. Cost volume profit analysis is a very important area of financial management. Fixed costs, variable and semi variable cost analysis is crucial for CVP or Cost-volume profit calculation. Fixed costs are more or less constant for varying sales volumes. Variable costs depend on the sales volume. Semi-variable costs can be fixed or variable in the short-term. The financial manager has to make sure that the income of the firm will cover its variable costs, for there is no meaning in being in business, if the expected amount of income is not accomplished. A company must have to earn a sufficient income to cover its fixed costs as well. Finding the break-even point is one of the major responsibilities of financial management. 6.Dividend policy:- Dividend is provided by company to the shareholders for making investment in the shares of the company. The investors mainly interested in earning the maximum return on their investments. On the other hand management wants to retain the profits for making reinvestment in future projects and opportunities. These contradictory purposes will have to be adjusted in the interests of investors and the company. The interest of shareholders and the necessities of the company are related with the dividend policy, so that’s why dividend policy is an important area of financial management. 7.Capital budgeting:- To make investment decision in capital expenditure the concept of Capital budgeting is essential. Capital expenditure is an expense the benefits of which are expected to be achieved over a period of time exceeding one year. Capital expenditure is for acquiring or improving the fixed assets. The benefits from capital expenditure are expected to be received over a number of years in future. Capital budgeting decisions are very important for any organization. Any bad or unplanned investment decision may become harmful for the company. Capital budgeting is a very important area of financial management.

Psychlogy in Modern Society essays

Psychlogy in Modern Society essays Does Psychology have a place in modern society? In a field of science that deals with emotional and behavioral characteristics of people there are many opportunities for Psychology. It seems that as long as there are humans on this earth, then there will always be a place of psychology in modern society. They are needed in many places. From schools to large business jobs in psychology seem to be growing. Business hire industrial psychologists for the sole purpose of helping their employees deal with personal issues that may interfere with productivity. Schools use them to help not only the students but the also the faculty with there problems that make them deviate from doing their work. Health clinics always have a need for psychologists. Everyday more people are experimenting with drugs and other substances, these patients need a lot of help. They help them by trying to find the source of the problem, the one that made them want to start substance abuse in the first place. People have problems, and need some assistance in dea ling those problems once in while. These people include seriously emotionally disturbed children and adolescent teens. At one point in time, these children had no escape and had to deal with their problems on theirs own. Much of our population has benefited from the pork of psychologists. There is a very common mistake made between psychology and psychiatry. ...

Project Performance and Control on the London 2012 construction Essay

Project Performance and Control on the London 2012 construction programme - Essay Example Equally, the program did not suffer from any noticeable or significant deviation from the set goals and measures as detailed in the governing blueprint of the schedule. The orderly and harmonious connection of the different aspects of the program was an enabling factor to the attaining of the different goals attained at the various levels and stages of the program. Most project deliverables were within the stipulated range of time and measures. The overall performance of the program is indicative of the accuracy of methods employed, the appropriate estimations, and the quality of controls and management systems employed before and in the course of the construction. The success of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games depended nearly entirely on the nature of logistics and state of infrastructure. The entire construction project was placed under the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) (Elson, 2012). Experts in the fields of construction, planning, sports, and finance worked together to achieve a level of efficiency that contributed significantly to the successful model of construction and architecture. In essence, analysts contend that much of the efficiency and effectiveness of the program was a factor of appropriate consultation and the assessment of utility, resources, and the element of time. Analysts observe that the performance of the construction program surpassed benchmarks and established standards and that it demonstrated the capacity of London construction industry to overcome the usual inequalities and logistical mishaps that have defined nearly similar projects in the past. Forensic schedule analysis and cost management are some of the key indicators of success that attend to construction projects in many parts of the world. The application of this analysis was manifest in matching of specific processes to respective estimates of time. Teams comprising of contractors, the academia, industry partners, and multiple government bodies worked together with the ODA to assess the kind of synergies that would be required in the development of other systems that are consistent with the nature of success achieved in the London 2012 Construction Program (Elson, 2012). On this note, it becomes important to assess the program as a case in point of the effect of coordination and management on the performance of processes as understood within the construction industry. Appropriate systems of risk management were enlisted throughout the various processes to serve as the safeguards against possible and unforeseeable mishaps to the program. The enlisting of the risk management systems was premised on the awareness of the impact of external factors to the performance of the program. As such, estimates of costs and other operational variables were determined in recognition of the possible variations that determine the nature of performance of processes against the set goals and benchmarks. The preliminary stage of the program focused on the dev elopment of the most appropriate strategy. This stage was one of the most important because it determined the course of action to be taken regarding the other kinds of processes. Some of the details that informed the development of strategy included matters of funding of the specific aspects of the program. Details of internal and external funding were discussed with the view of determining the most appropri

Iron and silk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Iron and silk - Essay Example In the book, several times, people exert authority over him in a way he finds frustrating. This essay seeks to address several issues raised by Salzam in his book Iron and Silk, such as people frustrating him and others through exerting authority over them in a brutal way. One incident was when he killed a large rat during a lesson out of pure reflexes. A student suggests that he takes the rat across to the rat collection center so that he can receive a reward. He does not however get it as he is told that the reward is restricted to students killing rats in the dormitory. Later on a student explains to him that the official statements concerning rats is that they were no longer existent and that only internal documents that foreigners cannot read admit to the rat problem. Since he had killed the rat, he could not be rewarded as that would imply that they admit to the presence of rats and they could be criticized. Usually, I have found people to do what would appear to be a silly thing in order to protect how others think about them. It is in their nature to want to control the information that other people receive about them which informs their opinions towards them, for example how people carefully select what to post on face book. In this scenario, the institution would rather have denied the rats’ presence to an outsider that had seen one and obviously knotted their being than to admit to the public that they actually war. To them, it was a case of choosing the better evil. His restraint in this situation is however recommendable as he refuses to dwell for long on his grievances. This they probably did to protect their own reputation as an institution. It has been argued that actions that are felt to be wrong produce a need to withhold knowledge of them from others, which produces guilt and hostility. This implies that if one has been unable to solve a problem well and satisfactorily, they feel ‘forced’ to commit another action that