As a department head in the hospital, you and your colleagues need to Term Paper

As a department head in the hospital, you and your colleagues need to decide on whether to purchase new equipment - Term Paper Example A decision whether to own or lease a particular piece of hospital equipment would have to take into account many factors. The most obvious is the cost of the equipment. In the given scenario, the cost to buy is $75,000. Needless to say that this is a considerable sum of money to pay outright and therefore there is an alternative consideration at hand whether to lease the equipment for five years. The lease rental is $ 11,000 per year, for five years. Depreciation is one factor that needs to be considered as well as it would reduce the value of the equipment. Another factor would be revenues and number of people using that equipment. In an operating lease, the lessor would bear the cost of reduction in the value of the asset, but in the case of a capital lease, this would be transferred to the lessee. A lease is considered to be a capital lease if (a) the terms of lease contain a bargain price option, (b) the lease term is equal to 75% or more of the estimated useful life of the asset, (c) the present value of the minimum lease payments amount to 90% or more of the fair value of the leased asset, and (d) the lease transfers ownership of the asset to the user at the end of the lease term (Meigs & Meigs, 1993). We are told nothing about (a) or (d) but can calculate (b) and (c). We are told nothing about the discount rate to use here to calculate the present value of the lease rentals. However if we assume a discount rate of 10 percent, the present value of the lease rentals will be as under: This calculated present value is more than 90 percent of the depreciated value of the equipment as at year 5. Ninety percent of the depreciated value of the equipment amounts to $40,500 in year 5. So it is definitely a Capital Lease. In the current circumstances, it would be better to buy the equipment rather than to lease it. This is because the salvage value of the equipment at

Black on the Block Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Black on the Block - Essay Example   Ã‚   Question 1 Mary’s main idea in the book, Black on the Block mostly focuses on the middle class people who were living a middle class lifestyle in Chicago. High percentage of the people who were in this group comprised of the blacks who were struggling to keep their standards as those of most Europeans who had high class lifestyle. These efforts were also aimed at reducing discrimination on the blacks due to their race. Mary claims that the blacks were not given equal chances as the whites but she forgot that this was not their land of origin. Mary therefore focuses mostly on the poverty of the blacks and the challenges the faced as a result of this poverty. An area in Chicago by the name North Kenwood-Oakland was the resident for both the rich and the poor. However, the number of the rich was highly increasing in the area. That was a great challenge to the people in the middle class level since it subjects them to a risk of being pushed away and looses their houses to the rich. Mary believed that that would subject them to more poverty but they had no alternative. Mary claimed that financial institutions would loan them but that could not be right since they owned nothing as they were in a foreign country. This discrimination blocked them from borrowing a loan from financial institutions that could have helped them in coming up with projects which could have initiated profit generation. They thought that the main reason for the discrimination of the black was as a result of their race and skin color but it was their home origin. The blacks did all they could to see to it that their rights as human beings were respected. They wanted to be given equal privileges like the fellow citizens. This led to riots in the streets of Chicago.    Question 2 Mary takes the reader through several things that were done to the black community living in Chicago and the problems they faced. She talks a lot of negative things concerning Chicago some of them being on how the whites were going to better schools than the blacks. She exaggerates this story so much on the negativity of Chicago. As she approaches the end of the story, she focuses mostly on the on the unity of the black community and how they worked together on fighting the discrimination that was subjected to them. This shows that she was very happy for the black since she was in their support. This proves that the research she did was not recommendable since she was biased and she favored the blacks. The reason for this was because she was also in the middle class as the African-America community.   What the blacks were going through was not discrimination since Chicago was not their land and that was the result for the ir poverty. However they were lucky to be treated as the whites after their demonstrations. Question 3 For an individual to be in a position of writing such a book, a lot of information is required. This can be easily proved by a lot of history that is contained in this book.   For instance, as Mary continues with her story, she gives a information in form of numerals and ratios to show the progress that the blacks were making in order for them to win this battle of discrimination. Within duration of twenty years, the black’s community increased from 21% to 99%, which was through interactions within themselves and also with the white. This increase helped them to be

Impact of Human Activity on Migratory Activity

Impact of Human Activity on Migratory Activity Bird migration and the impact of human activity on migratory activity Migration is the movement made by animals between two separate locations on a regular basis for the purpose of accessing resources provided by these different sites (Alcock, 2013). [2]Migration is a common process throughout the entire animal kingdom. For example, there is the migration of the Monarch butterfly[3] across North America (Brown and Chippendale, 1974), the Atlantic salmons journey from river to ocean (Hansen, 1993), the marine turtles epic movement from feeding ground to breeding ground (Morreale et al., 1996) and finally there is our own species[4] migration across national and international borders. The focus of this discussion[5] however is the migration of Birds; most specifically looking at how, why and when they migrate and focusing on what exactly our impact as humans has on this very important phenomenon in the life cycle of many bird species.          Defining how migration first occurred   involves looking back over the history of migratory species and finding an evolutionary origin to the migratory lifestyle. In actual fact migration has evolved on several different occasions within the class Aves as shown in figure 1 which looks at the separate origins of migration within the family Turdidae[6]. The multiple evolutionary origins of migration suggest that there are numerous reasons as to why adopting a lifestyle that involves moving between different areas is advantageous to a species (Outlaw et al., 2003). With any adaptation, there must be a selection pressure forcing a species to develop a new strategy to be successful (Williams, 2008). In the case of bird migration, the seasonal variability of primary resources is a major driving factor for migrating but the changing climate conditions throughout the year is also one of the main benefits of being able to migrate [7](Alerstam, 2003). Birds can be long distance migrators, such as the Sooty shearwater, a sea bird that migrates approximately 64,000 km in 260 days with an daily travel distance of 900km (Schaffer et al., 2006). This heroic migration between North America and New Zealand is one of the largest migrations by a bird. In contrast the Spotted Owls of the Sierra Nevada have been observed to be altitude migrators, of short distance migrators, as they have a wintering site which is between 0.6-1.0 km closer to sea level than their usual nesting ground (Bias and Gutierrez, 1992). The comparisons between the journeys made by these two birds shows how two different environmental pressures can lead to the same solution. The long distance migrators[8] were driven to travel across continents due to the need to find a sustainable food source in changing seasonal conditions while the altitudinal migrators are driven to move based on climatic conditions[9] (Jenni and Kery, 2003). If migrating offers species a richer su pply of resources and a more favourable environment to survive in then why do only some species of birds migrate? As with many things in the natural world migration has its costs as well as its benefits, the costs and risks associated with migration are so high that not every species is adapted, nor needs to undertake the challenges migration creates. In order to travel such distances individuals need to be able to store resources by carrying extra weight leading up to the migration. This store must then be accessed during the flight meaning the individual must be able to alter their metabolism to store and release fats efficiently [10](Jenni and Jenni-Eiermann, 1998). Finally the risk of death during this journey is high as there many factors at play in the success of making the trip. The final aspect of migration is how species successfully manage to navigate from one location to another regardless of distance. There are three means of orientating observed in birds and they are pilotage, compass orientation and true navigation (Alcock, 2013). Pilotage is common in species such as homing pigeons where landmarks are used as navigational cues (Mehlhorn and Rehkà ¤mper, 2009). These landmarks could be environmental, such as rivers or forests but can also be artificial, in particular tall buildings and major roads. Migrating from one location to another without the use of cues requires a species to have a compass orientation and understanding of which direction it needs to travel to reach the location. An experiment done on the migratory European Robin showed that they can orientate using geomagnetic cues through a sense that is localised to the right eye (Wiltschko et al., 2002). True navigation is when a species has the ability to navigate towards the home location without any navigational cues and regardless of the direction (McFarland, 1999). [11]Having summarised the integral mechanisms behind migration I will now spend the remainder of this discussion focusing on what our impact as humans is on the migration of birds. Human interference on the animals we share the earth with is becoming an increasingly more serious problem. The effect we have on terrestrial migratory species may seem obvious as land use expands into new, wild territories but our effect on birds as they migrate through the power of flight is somewhat more complex. There are many factors that contribute to how we disrupt the migratory routes, territories and even the birds themselves. In parts of southern Europe and Northern Africa the illegal[12] shooting and netting of birds has become an increasingly popular industry. In Egypt 700km of nets are put up along the coastline designed to trap thousands of migrating passerine birds such as willow-warblers, red-backed shrikes and barn swallows all of which are illegal to catch under the national law (Salama, 2016). Recently there has been a strong push for the local authorities within Egypt to enforce the regulations that are in place as these nets are positioned to intersect with one o f the major migratory flyways from Africa to Eurasia as shown in Figure 2 where the area in question is within region 2. This area is not only targeted by nets in North Africa but many southern European countries such as France and Spain also engage in similar practices involving illegal netting.   In Italy, particularly in the Sicily region, shooting of birds is a common sport when migrators are making their journey to warmer climates in Africa. Unlike the mist netting practices, game hunting is legal to permit holders and the Italian authorities allow the 710,000 hunters to shoot 30 birds a day over a 2 month period (CABS, 2015).   A case against illegal hunting of birds has recently reached EU law regarding the trapping and commercial caging of birds in Malta. Many of the birds targeted are rare or protected species such as the endangered Pallid Harrier, the Purple heron and the Turtle dove (Raine et al., 2015). While the fight against illegal hunting and shooting o f these birds is ongoing, the effects of these activities in undoubtedly having a negative impact on their success. Migrating to breeding grounds that are better equipped with resources and protection should be an adaptation for success in these species. Instead they are being illegally hunted, trapped and shot while en route over this area resulting in a much lower number of birds successfully reaching breeding sites. Undoubtedly this seriously damages population size [13]of these European migrators and puts increasing strain on the challenging journey they make twice every year (Hirschfeld and Heyd, 2005). This particular study by Hirschfeld and Heyd (2005) reports that hunters are legally allowed to kill just 24 species of European native birds however a total of 82 different species were recorded to have been hunted that year. Despite the obvious illegal activity being done there is still a relaxed enforcement of these regulations across Europe and North Africa and widespread di sagreement around how to resolve the problems we, as humans, are causing. The current population of humans on earth is 7.5 billion with an annual growth so far, from January March 2017 is nearly 17 million (World population clock, 2017). As the global populations increase so to do food demands and a pressure to convert unused land into cropland or an expansion of existing urban regions. This unfortunately leads to widespread deforestation as the need for space increases on a daily basis (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2011). Deforestation is threatening the ecosystem in which many migratory birds depend on. The cloud forest in Central America is under threat due to increases in forest conversion[14]. Many of the birds species in this region are altitudinal migrators and rely on the cloud forest for breeding (Cox, 2010)[15]. That is a very localised example of how deforestation is impacting migration but on a much wider scale the destruction of tropical and deciduous forests has a huge impact on birds migrating between the two tropics. The American Redstart, a smal l passerine bird, winters in the Caribbean, South America and Central America before migrating north to North America, and Canada to breed (Sherry Holmes 1997). Breeding success in these birds depends on the quality of both the wintering and breeding habitat and disruption to tropical forests in South and Central America and to deciduous forests in North America has influenced the reproductive success of breeding pairs in these regions (Norris et al., 2004). Deforestation is not the only interference to habitat we are causing, our need to continuously change landscapes so as they are better suited to our increasingly more developed societies is impacting many important habitats for migratory birds.[16] Conversion of open land [17]into man made developments can lead to many environmental disruptions. One case that I have a personal interest in[18] is the proposed development of a new dual carriageway between Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland. While there is widespread agreement that the existing A6 road has seen an increase in use over the past 10 years (Johnston, 2016) the proposed route of the new road has been highly controversial. The area in question is[19]shown in Figure 3 and the proposed route passes straight through sensitive land that is used by Whooper Swans wintering in Northern Ireland. According to the RSPB Whooper Swans are an amber list species due to their small population and limited breeding areas. The swans migrate to the UK from Iceland to winter and this particular area in figure 3 is a highly important habitat for migrating pairs. The fields are flooded regularly by the bordering Lough Neagh and so are a rich feeding habitat for these migrating birds (RSPB). A number of local and national environment agencies and organisations are working with the the Department of Infrastructure to find a compromise that protects this nationally important habitat for the Whooper Swans. While the effect on these swans is yet to be seen as work on the new road is only reaching preliminary stages this year it will undoubtedly cause disruption to these wintering populations in the years to come. While deforestation and urban development is a direct way in which we are destroying habitats of migratory birds an indirect way is through climate change. It is no secret that human activity is massively contributing to the speed at which climate change is occurring and some impacts of this is loss of habitats, reduced food availability and changing season lengths disrupting migration times (Travis, 2003; Bradshaw, 2006; Crick, 2004). In the UK we are seeing a lengthening of seasons[20] meaning birds are arriving earlier and departing later (Sparks and Mason, 2004). While this can be considered a positive for UK bird numbers the migrating species arriving early could be disadvantageous to their need of resources. While the birds may be arriving early due to the changing home[21] territory climate and the extended migratory territory season, food resources often do not sync with this change in habit. What is being observed is an increasingly unsuccessful first brood of early arrivers due to the food supply, whether it is insects or berries, not being available (Harrington et al., 1999). An example of a bird effected by this is the Waxwing, a Northern European and Scandinavian passerine bird that has increasingly been migrating to the UK during winter to access food supplies. This is because with climate change there have been fewer berries in the Northern and Boreal forests forcing the Waxwing to expand their migration further to the UK (Huntley, 2008). [22] One of the most common migratory flyways is from Africa into Europe. Figure 4 shows the different routes the Montagu Harrier uses to get from the Sahel region of Africa across the mediterranean into Europe. While I have already discussed the dangers of migrating across North Africa and Southern Europe regarding hunting, it is the journey across the Sahara desert that I will now be focusing on. The Sahel region is dominated by the Sahara desert with most of the land area being dry, arid land with the outskirts and coastal regions being populated and used for agriculture (Zeng, 2003). However in the decade the Sahel region has been under drought conditions meaning a lot of the once arable, green land is under going desertification, hence why there is a popular notion that the Sahara is expanding (Foley et al., 2003). Travelling across desert is not an easy journey to make. There is limited water, food, roosting sites and the climate is hot and dry. This means that birds such as the Mon tagu harrier (figure 4) or the Garden Warbler, both of which are summer migrants in the UK and Europe, need appropriate energy stores to attempt the journey (Jenni and Jenni-Eiermann, 1998). With this area of desert land expanding it makes the already challenging journey even more demanding on energy stores and as a result many of the smaller passerine birds such as the Garden Warbler are not as successful in migrating across Africa. Most species can not attempt the crossing in still air and require prevailing winds across the desert to aid in flight [23](Barboutis et al., 2011). With climate change set to continue the drought in the Sahel region migrating across this major ecological barrier successfully will become increasingly more challenging with a lot more pressure being put on stop off sites in North Africa and Southern Europe where there is already so much competition and hunting occurring (Trierweiler et al., 2014). Stop off sites [24]are crucial to the success of long distance migrations especially when birds are flying across challenging terrain or resourceless water. These stop off sites tend to be rich habitats that are used by migrants for intensive feeding to re stock fuel supplies for the next leg of the journey (Pomeroy et al., 2006). Common stop off sites are mud flats as they are rich in resources and often have low predation risks as migrants flock together on the shore. Species like the Sandpiper use coastal mudflats as stop over sites and a study observing site selection based on disturbances, predator presence and food abundance was conducted with results showing no preference of site when there are land disturbances or predator presence. The study by Pomeroy et al, (2006) did however provide significant results on site seleciton based on food supply indicating that this is the main purpose of choosing these sites for stop over points. One of the serious impacts of climate change i s rising sea levels and so, low lying coastal areas such as mud flats will gradually becoming permanently flooded as a result (Church and White, 2006). Sadly this means that not only are destination sites being lost but so to are the stopover areas that are essential for long distance migrators. Fighting climate change is one of the biggest environmental challenges we are undertaking. One method of cutting down the global carbon emissions, in an attempt to slow down the greenhouse effect and thus climate change, is increasing the production of renewable energy (Mitchell, 1989). Renewable energy offers clean production of resources that our expanding population demands and wind energy has made significant in roads in many countries. Unfortunately for migrating birds wind turbines are a serious hazard on their already difficult journey. Off shore wind farms are frequently causing disruption to flocks of nocturnal migrators flying across the baltic sea which has a large number of wind farms. A study taking observations of the collision frequency at a german offshore wind farm recorded a total of 442 birds of 21 different species were killed due to direct collision or subsequent death from injury over a one month period (Hà ¼ppop et al., 2006). While renewable energy is an impo rtant step towards fighting climate change, wind farm locations should be planned around major migratory flyways to reduce the impact they have on bird species. It is easy to focus on how we negatively effect migrating birds but it is equally important to highlight the positives. While climate change has resulted in a change in migration times due to longer seasons it also has meant that, particularly in temperate latitudes, there has been an increase in the length of the breeding season (Sparks and Mason, 2004). Small passerine bird that migrate breed in the UK typically have two broods during the breeding season if the food availability and weather conditions are right. However the increase in length of this breeding season has seen a boost in successful 2nd broods wit   some species such as the Reed warbler having as many as 5 broods over one season (Halupka, 2008). This increased success is due to the prolonged food supply allowing the fledglings to heighten their fitness and thus increase their chance of survival to adulthood[25]. However as mentioned previously the success of the longer breeding period is dependent on the migrat ory species arriving at a peak time where resources and weather conditions are adequate to sustain a breeding population (Harrington et al., 1999). Another negative human effect, that can also be deemed a positive, is urbanisation. Many species of migratory birds require navigational cues as means of finding flyways and locations. While in a natural environment these cues can be forests, rivers or mountains, man made structures can also prove to be very useful navigation aids (Kamil and Cheng, 2001). Studies into navigation and route choice of homing pigeons has shown that they choose to follow motorways and railway lines, using entrances and exits to navigate to their home territo[26]ry (Lipp et al., 2004). Finally, the recent initiatives of environmental agencies in the UK, such as the RSPB, to get involved and interact with garden birds has seen the number of households putting out regular bird food rise dramatically (Robb et al., 2008). While supplementary feeding provides our native garden birds, such as coal tits and blue tits, a year long food supply it also provides an invaluable resource for migrating birds. One species in particular that has started to expand its migration distance to include the UK is the Blackcap. While blackcaps were a rare site in UK gardens several decades ago they are now becoming a familiar winter addition to the suburban gardens. In the 1950s ornithologists began to notice this change in migration route, instead of choosing a south westerly migration into Spain, blackcaps have evolved a successful new route into the UK (Plummer et al., 2015). As human activity continues to threaten not just the migration of birds but global biodiversity as a whole, the Blackcaps success story is a welcomed positive of our impact on the world around us. Migration is an important adaptation in the life cycle of birds and allows many species to access resources that are necessary to survival. The evolution of a migratory life style was driven by environmental selection pressures and is now being inhibited by artificial pressures. As human activity becomes increasingly more intrusive on the environment the stress on migrating birds to navigate successfully, journey across challenging conditions and to find suitable territories is becoming ever more difficult. With stricter enforcement on hunting and capturing restrictions in Europe and North Africa the major African to Eurasia flyway could become a much safer route for migrating flocks. While that is something that can be controlled, the rate of population increase of the human race is getting higher and higher and so is the demand to provide resources, both land and food, for the population. If we changed our agricultural industry so that we are producing crops at a much more efficien t rate, the need to cut down forests would lessen and in fact we would preserve rare habitats that are used not just by native species but also visiting migrators. While we are starting to make significant strides into tackling climate change by developing renewable energy sources there is still a lot of room for consideration of environmental preservation. Finally however, it is important to highlight the improvements we are making for migrating birds, while there are only a handful of positive impacts there is room to expand and create a more global effect.[27] References      Ã‚   Alcock, J. (2013). Animal behaviour. 10th ed. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, pp.Pg. 153-168. Alerstam, T., Hedenstrom, A. and Akesson, S. (2003). Long-distance migration: evolution and determinants. Oikos, 103(2), pp.247-260. Outlaw, D. et al., (2003). Evolution of Long-Distance Migration in and Historical Biogeography of Catharus Thrushes: A Molecular Phylogenetic Approach. The Auk, 120(2), pp.299-310. Shaffer, S. et al., (2006). Migratory shearwaters integrate oceanic resources across the Pacific Ocean in an endless summer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(34), pp.12799-12802 Bias, M. and Gutierrez, R. (1992). Habitat Associations of California Spotted Owls in the Central Sierra Nevada. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 56(3), p.584. Butler, C. (2003). The disproportionate effect of global warming on the arrival dates of short-distance migratory birds in North America. Ibis, 145(3), pp.484-495. Jenni, L. and Kery, M. (2003). Timing of autumn bird migration under climate change: advances in long-distance migrants, delays in short-distance migrants. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(1523), pp.1467-1471. Jenni, L. and Kery, M. (2003). Timing of autumn bird migration under climate change: advances in long-distance migrants, delays in short-distance migrants. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(1523), pp.1467-1471. Wiltschko, W., Traudt, J., Gà ¼ntà ¼rkà ¼n, O., Prior, H. and Wiltschko, R. (2002). Lateralization of magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird. Nature, 419(6906), pp.467-470. McFarland, D. (1999). Animal behaviour. 3rd ed. Longman Scientific Technical. Mehlhorn, J. and Rehkà ¤mper, G. (2009). Neurobiology of the homing pigeon-a review. Naturwissenschaften, 96(9), pp.1011-1025. Boere, G., Galbraith, C. and Stroud, D. (2007). Waterbirds around the world. 1st ed. Edinburgh Stationery Office. CABS, (2015). [online] Available at: https://www.komitee.de/en/projects/italy [Accessed 16 Mar. 2017]. Travis, J. (2003). Climate change and habitat destruction: a deadly anthropogenic cocktail. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(1514), pp.467-473. Raine, A., Gauci, M. and Barbara, N. (2015). Illegal bird hunting in the Maltese Islands: an international perspective. Oryx, 50(04), pp.597-605. HIRSCHFELD, A. A. HEYD (2005): Mortality of migratory birds caused by hunting in Europe: bag statistics and proposals for the conservation of birds and animal welfare. Ber. Vogelschutz 42: 47-74 Worldometers.info. (2017). World Population Clock: 7.5 Billion People (2017) Worldometers. [online] Available at: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2017]. Lambin, E. and Meyfroidt, P. (2011). Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(9), pp.3465-3472. Cox, G. (2010). Bird Migration and Global Change. 1st ed. Washington: Island Press. Chpt 10. SHERRY, T. and HOLMES, R. (1997). American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla). The Birds of North America Online. Norris, D., Marra, P., Kyser, T., Sherry, T. and Ratcliffe, L. (2004). Tropical winter habitat limits reproductive success on the temperate breeding grounds in a migratory bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(1534), pp.59-64. BBC News. (2016). A6 upgrade: Legal challenge to road through Heaney country BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38094217 [Accessed 16 Mar. 2017]. Hodges, Lindsay. [Photograph, 2017] Whooper Swans in Northern Ireland. JPEG file. Johnston, W. (2016). A6 Legal Challenge what now?. Word press: Northern Ireland Roads. RSPB. Campaign for Nature: A6 duelling proposals. [online] Available at: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-campaigns/campaigning-for-nature/casework/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-229175 [Accessed 16. Mar. 2017] Bradshaw, W. (2006). CLIMATE CHANGE: Evolutionary Response to Rapid Climate Change. Science, 312(5779), pp.1477-1478. Crick, H. (2004). The impact of climate change on birds. Ibis, 146, pp.48-56. Harrington, R. et al., (1999). Climate change and trophic interactions. Trends in Ecology Evolution, 14(4), pp.146-150. Sparks, T. and Mason, C. (2004). Can we detect change in the phenology of winter migrant birds in the UK?. Ibis, 146, pp.57-60. Huntley, B. (2008). Plant species response to climate change: implications for the conservation of European birds. Ibis, 137, pp.S127-S138.   Trierweiler, C. et al., (2014). Migratory connectivity and population-specific migration routes in a long-distance migratory bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1778), pp.20132897-20132897. Zeng, N. (2003). ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE: Drought in the Sahel. Science, 302(5647), pp.999-1000. Foley, J. et al., (2003). Regime Shifts in the Sahara and Sahel: Interactions between Ecological

The Versatility of the Hemp Plant :: Hemp

The Versatility of the Hemp Plant The hemp plant shows its unique versatility by having many uses in industry. Hemp has many distinct benefits over its counterparts in industry today. Hemp usage would result in a cleaner and more efficient industry. One use of hemp in industry is as a fiber. The process of converting hemp into a fiber is quite simple, and is easy to do. The stalk of the hemp plant has two parts, called the bast and the hurd. Workers can weave the fiber (bast) of the hemp plant into almost any kind of cloth. It is very durable. In fact, the first Levi's blue jeans were made out of hemp for just this reason. Compared with all the other natural fibers available, hemp is more suitable for a large number of applications. It is easy to harvest hemp for fiber. A field of closely spaced hemp is allowed to grow until the leaves fall off. They then cut down the hemp and it lies in the field for some time washed by the rain. They turn it over once to expose both sides of the stalk evenly. During this time, the hurd softens up and it returns many minerals to the soil. They call this process `retting,' and after this step is complete, they bring the stalks to a machine that separates the bast and the hurd. They can then weave the bast. The cloth that hemp makes may be a little less soft than cotton, (though there are also special kinds of hemp, or ways to grow or treat hemp, that can produce a soft cloth) but it is much stronger and longer lasting. Hemp requires little fertilizer, and grows well almost everywhere. It also resists pests, so it uses little pesticides. Hemp puts down deep roots, which is good for the soil. When the leaves drop off the hemp plant, it returns minerals and nitrogen to the soil. Hemp has been grown on the same soil for twenty years in a row without any noticeable depletion of the soil. Using less fertilizer and agricultural chemicals is good for two reasons. First, it costs less and requires less effort. Second, many agricultural chemicals are dangerous and can co ntaminate the environment-the less we have to use, the better. Another industrial use for hemp is in victuals. Hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and essential fatty oils.

Business Modeling Essay

Ted Ralley is working on conducting a forecast for the upcoming year for an automobile part company. The data that will be used for this research has been collected from the quarterly sales from the previous four years. Ted wants to determine what is most accurate way to determine the forecast for 2008. The model should also help determined if the economic situation and oil prices are affecting significantly the sales of the company. The two models that were provided were thoroughly analyzed to determine which model was the most appropriate to utilize. These models were a regression model with factors, seasons and an additive Holt-Winters model. The forecasts also show that there is a significant change in the sales with the economic hardship and oil prices. It was concluded that the Regression with Econometric Variables would be the best method to use to forecast the sales for 2008, estimating a 255,927,955 for that year. Background With the economy continuously deteriorating everyone seems to be getting hurt financially, even the automotive industry, which has deepening the economic recession. Automotive part suppliers continued to experience heavy debt and overcapacity caused by production cuts by automakers, specifically including the big 3 (Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Chrysler). The suppliers  are also being pressed by higher energy and input materials’ costs. It has been determined by Industry analyst that automotive companies that accounted for more than $72 billion in sales have filed for chapter 11 protections in 2008. The number of Bankruptcies will continue to rise as the years go by. Domestically, Losing the big 3 to U.S affiliates of foreign- based manufacturers and imports in 2008 have caused a dramatic 50% drop in the market share. Most US suppliers are dependent on these three companies aforementioned. U.S suppliers are currently facing the challenge of penetrating automakers’ supply chains, mostly because these relationships have been long-established with home-market supplies. Ted Ralley is the director of a marketing research for a manufacturer of spare automobiles parts and it’s working on conducting a forecast for the upcoming year. Ted is aware of the forecasting errors and how costly they can be which is why these numbers must be as accurate as possible. In order to perform this forecast, Ted has collected the data on quarterly sales for the previous four years and ran several forecasts using time series forecasting methods. Ted noticed that economic activity and oil prices have impacted significantly the auto part sales and decided that the forecast will be more accurate using econometric variables. Problem Will the econometric variables be a better predictor of sales for the coming year, given the current economic activity and oil prices? Analysis This analysis consisted of the evaluation of the regression model with factors, seasons and the additive Holt-Winters method to generate an accurate forecast of how econometric variables have affected the Auto Parts industry. The analysis involved calculating the errors metrics for the three models (mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE), MAPE and Theils’ U-statistics (U)) and comparing them against each other. The error metrics were calculated by using the formulas shown below: Table 1.1 Error Metrics Formulas: After studying the data provided it could be determined that there is an upward trend with obvious seasonality. Another factor that played a role in these regressions was the removal of the first two years in order to meet Holt-Winters method guidelines. The first regression was conducted using  Factors was generated by utilizing the data that provided by Ted Ralley from a large manufacturer of spare auto parts for automobiles. The data consisting of the quarterly sales for the previous four years was the dependent variables and independent variables consisted of Time, quarter 2, quarter 3, quarter 4. In this regression quarter 1 was removed in order to avoid over forecasting and binary coding was used to generate dummy factors. After the regression was completed, the independent variables were tested to determine their significance, which was done by performing a regression on the data through Microsoft Excel. Quarter 4 was removed from the model due to the fact that it was statis tically insignificant. This was determined by using backward elimination, which means, a variable that has a P-Value that is greater than .05, is considered insignificant and should be removed from the data and a new regression should be completed. The results from the new regression, shown below, have a P-Value less than .05 being sufficient to reject the null hypothesis (Ha). A very strong positive linear correlation between sales and all the independent variables combined with a 95.47%, leaving an unexplained variance of 4.53 is also demonstrated. According to the textbook â€Å"the most common measure of overall fit is the coefficient of determination (R2)†. Another important measure is the â€Å"standard error (Se), which is derived from the sum of squared residuals for n observations and k predictors† (Poane, Seward, 2013). A smaller Se Indicates a better fit, in this case the Se will be off by around 3.9 million. The coefficients used to run the forecast for 2008 are the following: intercept coefficient + coefficient time x time 1 plus coefficient q2* code for Q2 dummy variable for q2 + plus coefficient q3. Square error was used to find the magnitude of the error; the absolute value of the error to the sale s was found and then preceded to calculate to numerator. Numerator and denominator will be calculated in other to use Thiels’ U. Numerator was calculated as follow: difference between sales minus the sale of initial sale (difference q1-2 sales) /divided by q1 and squared. Bibliography Poane, D., & Seward, L. E. (2013). Business Modeling Customized Readings for QNT5040. : Mc Graw Hill Education. Microsoft Office Excel. (2007). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation. Albright, Winston & Zappe (2010). Business Modeling, Selections from 4e – QNT 5040 (4th ed.). Mason: Cengage Learning. Aczel,A & Sounderpandian,J (2009). Complete Business Statistics 7th edition (592). : Mc Graw Hill Education. U.S. Automotive Parts Industry Annual Assessment. (2009, April 1). . Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://trade.gov/mas/manufacturing/OAAI/build/groups/public/@tg_oaai/documents/webcontent/tg_oaai_003759.pdf

Outline the Ways in Which Rubbish Can Be Said to Have Value in a Consumer Society

Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, contemporary UK society has been steadily changing. Where once we tended to define ourselves by our employment and the status in society that position may have given us, we now define ourselves much more by the goods we buy and choose to surround ourselves with (Hinchcliffe 2009). What we wear, the house we live in, the food we choose to buy and the experiences we create for ourselves all are thought to say more about us personally and as a society and have led to the creation of the term ‘consumer society’(Hinchliffe 2009). The rise in disposable income and the ability to acquire easy credit has enabled the vast majority of the UK population to buy goods more readily than at any time ever before and to fill our homes with an array of consumables. However this increase in affluence has generated a massive rise in consumer goods being manufactured and purchased and consequently is creating huge amounts of waste in return. Outdated and broken goods, massive amounts of packaging and waste created during manufacture are proving increasingly difficult to dispose of. The resources being depleted in order to create and transport goods are also having devastating consequences on the earth and the environment and are not sustainable (Brown 2009). This essay will look at some of the ways in which we can revalue this rubbish in our ever changing and evolving society. When we purchase goods today there are many factors that can eventually transform the item into what we would commonly term as ‘rubbish’, something of no value whatsoever to its owner. Goods are made increasingly cheaply and in quantity to allow for low selling prices and are not necessarily built to last. The cost of repair can be more than replacing the item itself with very few specialist repair services being offered on the high street nowadays. Ever changing fashions and trends altering every season can lead to everything from shoes to furniture being thrown away and replaced in order for one to stay ‘in trend’ in our modern consumer society (Brown 2009). One theory of how rubbish can be redefined and given new value is put forward by Michael Thomson (Brown 2009). His theory suggests that items can move from being valued into the category of rubbish and out again into something of value. Items can be ‘Transient’, in other words, not built to last and consisting of most of the consumer goods such as mobile phones and clothing we can purchase in our shops today. Their value will decrease with use and they will often be replaced as fashion and trend dictates and newer and more desired items come on to the market. Other items can be called ‘Durables’. These items are often more expensive to buy and gain value over time such as good jewellery, paintings and rarer items people may wish to invest in or collect. His third category is one of ‘Zero value’ such as completely broken items and worn out clothes (Brown 2009). Economic reasons can be one of the ways in which new value can be placed on an object. The rise in charity shops, car boot sales and online auctions enables some of the ‘Transient’ items to be given new value. One person’s rubbish may be of value to another (Brown 2009). The changing economic climate since the recent credit crunch and more unemployment may mean that people with more time and less money may find uses for the worn out clothes and other ‘Zero value’ items by repairing or recycling in some innovative way(‘Reflections on Material Lives’,2009). Transient goods can become out-dated over time until they apparently become almost worthless. Some of these goods may then become popular or appealing in some other way. For instance a new trend in retro items such as the current interest in ‘shabby chic’ goods gives the items a fashionable appeal. Old and outdated consumer goods can become of interest to collectors and as interest increases so does the value. If these goods are no longer being produced, demand will outweigh supply and thus increase their price and therefore their value (Brown 2009). Aesthetic revaluation is another example of how new value can be given to rubbish. Some contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin and Chris Jordan (Brown 2009) have created works containing junk and other waste such as plastic cups, circuit boards, empty bottles and cigarette ends. By making a statement about our wastefulness in our consumer society in their works, they are bringing new value to rubbish by transforming it into valuable objects of art (Brown 2009). Environmental concern is another aspect that is prompting the revaluation of rubbish. In 2008, the waste generated more quickly than could be disposed of, was said to be 40% greater than the earth’s available yearly resources (Brown 2009). The earth’s resources and its capacity for absorbing the waste we generate has become environmentally unsustainable. Disposing and recycling of rubbish is now huge international business and although there is great economic value in this for the companies involved the need to find ways to sustain the environment is also a major factor in this process (Brown 2009). Transporting rubbish around the world where it is recycled more cheaply and remanufactured into a usable commodity to be shipped back, highlights the new value of some of our rubbish. Waste plastics, paper, card and glass are now just some of the products collected, recycled and sold for profit. Previously they may have been simply landfilled at not only monetary cost, so of ‘negative value’, but as we are now discovering, great cost to our planet (Brown 2009). Revaluing rubbish can therefore come about in many ways. In an ever growing consumer society we are beginning to become more fully aware of not only the amount of rubbish we are generating, but the understanding that by revaluing this waste we are helping to sustain the planet. Where once we would have thrown it into the bin without thought, we now know the ‘value’ of our waste. The increasing demands to cease using plastic carriers in favour of supermarket ‘bags for life’; the prevalence of car park bottle bins and clothing banks; the household recycling bins are all constant reminders to us of the value of our rubbish. Economic value can be added to out dated goods due to new trends and fashions and as items become of interest to collectors. The less there may be of something and the more the demand is for it; the more likely the value will be raised creating further interest and higher prices. Taking junk and turning it into art also revalue’s rubbish. Many artists are seeing the possibilities of pointing out to us our wastefulness and by using rubbish in their art they are turning it into something of artistic merit and often considerable monetary value (Brown 2009). Moreover, even design students today are being taught to utilise used items and create something new and useful or aesthetically appealing from them. (Reflections on Material Lives’, 2009). Whether selling our old possessions on online auctions for profit or donating to the charity shop, we are giving new value to what we no longer feel has worth. Rubbish is becoming more and more valuable as our consumption as a society grows ; â€Å"at a time when we’re both short of materials globally as well as short of energy globally, we’re now looking to waste as a real resource† ( Reflections on Material Lives,2009).