Monday, December 23, 2019

Death in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - 1023 Words

During the time of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to die an honorable death or to die while completing a quest was held with much higher regard than to die a coward. The code of chivalry was an extremely important concept and it was a knight’s duty to live up to this. If a knight was to take up a challenge, he should endure anything to finish it, even if it means death. But just because a knight is bound to comply with the code does not mean there are no feelings of dread. Knights, even the best ones, are afraid of dying but they are also afraid of defying the chivalric code. Which route should they take when faced with a choice between the two decisions? Death may be frightening enough to make knights choose their life over their honor†¦show more content†¦Despite the guide’s convincing statements, Gawain continues on. Here, Gawain values honor more than his life. This is one side of Gawain; the side that believes the importance of duty surpasses that of one ’s life. On the other side is a frightened Gawain that believes the gift of life is greater in value to the honor one may receive. A known example of this is when he accepts the girdle from Lady Bertilak, believing it may offer him protection. Knowing how Gawain thinks, he still would have gone on had he not taken an extra precaution. However, an opportunity to save his life is too good to pass, especially when he is close to death, and he snatches it up. Just as there is usually more than one way to do something, there is also more than one way to approach the decision that Gawain has to make during his trial. As previously mentioned, he has to choose which he values more: his life or his honor. Which one is the real route and which should Gawain have picked? The answer is probably the route that Gawain started on. He found a middle point between life and death. Living up to the requirements despite eventual death is courageous, but it is not wrong for Gawain to want to save himself. But while saving yourself is definitely important, it is selfishShow MoreRelatedSir Gawain And The Green Knight1359 Words   |  6 PagesIn the poem â€Å"Sir Gawain and The Green Knight,† a protagonist emerges depicting an Arthurian knight named Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew, takes initiative by accepting the challenge requested by the Green Knight in place of his uncle. He undergoes a perilous adventure, seeking for the Green Knight to receive the final blow. Although Sir Gawain is not viewed as a hero for his military accomplishments, he is, however, viewed as a heroic figure by the Knights at the Round Table for hisRead MoreSir Gawain And The Green Knight927 Words   |  4 PagesBoth Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Franklin’s Tale are set in a world where the laws of nature and order are turned upside down through the use of magic. In this Medieval world, death is escaped, men have the ability to shapeshift, and the impossi ble becomes entirely possible. What the Christian God set as earthly law, magic, created by the devil himself, subverts into illogical manifestations. Through their works, the authors of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Franklin’s Tale portrayRead MoreSir Gawain And The Green Knight1335 Words   |  6 PagesSir Gawain: The Ironic Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale of the utmost irony in which Sir Gawain, the most loyal and courteous of all of King Arthur’s knights, fails utterly to be loyal and courteous to his king, his host, his vows, and his God. In each case, Sir Gawain not only fails to perform well, but performs particularly poorly, especially in the case of his relationship with God. Ultimately, Sir Gawain chooses magic over faith, and by doing so, shows his ironic nature as aRead MoreSymbolism and the Power of Three in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight938 Words   |  4 PagesSir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance about the adventure of Sir Gawain, King Arthurs Knight of the Round Table. This great verse is praised not only for its complex plot and rich language, but also for its sophisticated use of symbolism. Symbolism is a technique used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give a significance to the plot. The Green Knight, the Gree n Sash, and Sir Gawains Shield are three of the most prominent symbols given toRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight1200 Words   |  5 Pagesperiods have been expressed and implemented through the depiction of the heroes’ experiences on their journeys and the knowledge they gain by the quest’s end. For example, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance written in the Late Middle Ages, Gawain epitomizes a knight with the characteristics that knights from the Late Middle Ages were expected to possess according to the requirements outlined in the rules of chivalry, such as honor and valor. Likewise, Beowulf, the hero of theRead MoreCompare and Contrast of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight600 Words   |  3 PagesCompare and Contrast of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Beowulf is an epic poem that was written in the Anglo-Saxon time period where only a few privileged people were able to read and write while Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is also an epic poem, was written in the Middle English time period where reading and writing was more wide-spread. While both the epic poem Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have similar protagonists, the main character of each poem also hasRead MoreChivalry Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight904 Words   |  4 PagesChivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight There are many great movies, like â€Å"300† or â€Å"Saving Private Ryan,† that are told with the classic chivalry elements that were known to describe the noble knights from hundreds of years ago. Much like the courageous soldiers in these movies, Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, faced many conflicts that might have questioned his moral code of nobleness. Sir Gawain was a great knight that was loyal to King Arthur and had the courage to take on theRead MoreSir Gawain was a knight of King Arthur and his nephew. A knight was all about chivalry, honesty,600 Words   |  3 PagesSir Gawain was a knight of King Arthur and his nephew. A knight was all about chivalry, honesty, loyalty and love of God. However all of these were tested during his adventure to find The Green Knight and pay him back the favor. Sir Gawain was a religious man that prayed to God and Virgin Mary,† Then the knight devoutly made his plaint to Mary, asking her to guide him on his w ay and lead him to some dwelling† (736-739). Gawain was going through harsh times trying to find The Green Knight and TheRead MoreSir Gawain Essay784 Words   |  4 Pages Sir Gawain Essay In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain continuously proves his knightly virtues and code of honor. Chivalry includes bravery, honor, and courtesy. He proves that he is in fact a real; Knight. He shows his bravery by shying away from nothing and no one. He proves his honor and courtesy to everyone he meets by showing respect to all whether he receives it back or not. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Sir Gawain shows his bravery the first moment he has the chance to, whenRead MoreTheme Of Archetypes In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight864 Words   |  4 PagesOne story, in particular a poem, arises in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The poem dramatically demonstrates how a single character can set out to fulfill one quest to uncover archetypal elements in tremendous amounts of ways. And it reveals the essence of character development, theme, and conflict transparently through the archetypal quest within three key archetypes—the magic weapon, the boon, and the unhealable wound in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There’s always some kind of magical element

Sunday, December 15, 2019

The Human Genome Project Free Essays

When populations start to die there are only so many to choose from for genes. A founder effect will then be created (Welsch 73). The Human Genome Project set out to identify all the genetic material in humans (Welsch 265). We will write a custom essay sample on The Human Genome Project or any similar topic only for you Order Now Another type of variation is different from genes it is physiological. Our blood type is a protein on our red blood cells and delivers oxygen and immune responses ( Welsch 267). We are only able to give blood to those who have our same blood type unless we have the blood type that is the universal donor. We have a friend who has suffered miscarriages, the most recent was 26 weeks along. Her body keeps rejecting the baby and they are not sure what the cause is. They are sure that it is not the RH factor. The white blood cells also have their own set of proteins, the human leukocyte antigen system (HLA). This system protects our bodies from foreign objects or infectious agents (Welsch 268). Even within our families we are varied because we will not all have the same combination of the system. We all react to infections and diseases differently. My husband is highly allergic to artificial smells. His system seems to be in overdrive. When he was in the military his bunk mate sprayed scented aerosol deodorant and his throat closed up. He then realized he could not handle anything artificial. My friend’s cousin had a double lung transplant last year. Several months after her transplant she got an infection and her body rejected her new lungs and she passed away. I think her rejection to the new lungs was because of the differences in the HLA system of her body and the donor’s. Our bodies also adapt and look different from others in our skin tone and our body types. These traits are not as significant in our bodily functions but are varied nonetheless. W all can have different hair color, skin color, and shape and sizes. Our skin does not really have color, it has a pigment called melanin ( Welsch 271). Depending on where the person lived they may have more melanin production and have darker skin. Some can also be tall and skin or short and chubby. We measure this through the anthropometry. It helps determine the variations we see. We put these measurements in the cormic index, which is sitting height to standing height ( Welsch 273). The intemembral index is the ratio of arm length to leg length (Welsch 273). Body fat is determined by the BMI or body mass index. A person can be too skinny or too fat and have a BMI that is not healthy. Another variation is race. This our society’s system for classifying people based on how they look. These differences are believed to reflect the root of genetic and biological differences. We also adapt to the environments we encounter. We can either allow our environment to change us or we can change the environment. To survive we have to figure out what needs to change and react accordingly. We have to have a certain plasticity. We all change during our lifetime and it comes somewhat from our surroundings. We can perform niche construction and make our environment suitable to our living conditions. On the farm my in laws own they do several things to insure their success. They have to give the cows shots to make sure they are healthy enough for reproduction and the babies will be healthy enough to be sold. They take care of the grass and the other parts of the land to ensure the cows are fed during the spring, summer and fall. They make sure that there is enough hay to feed them during the winter. As parents we have the ability to help our children adapt. To set them up for success in life as humans. We teach our children how to cook, clean, read, and write. The ability to care for themselves spans across generations. They will teach their own children these abilities to adapt and survive in the world around them. We pass this on to them through extra-genetic inheritance. We have a new emergence of new species through speciation. Differences can be so vast that it becomes a totally different species. Such as the dog and the wolf. Both have canine but the wolf is considered a different species. Evolution takes place as we experience different things in our culture. We have to adapt as our culture changes. The constructivist approach shows that our biology is a process of construction (Welsch 239). Our bodies work in combination with our genes to affect how genes can be expressed or epigenetic system of inheritance ( Welsch 240). When our genes are altered we can pass those down to our children affecting how their bodies work and how they behave. The way we raise our children affects how they will behave as adults. If we are nurturing, loving and kind to our children almost all of the time these will be the traits they possess unless they have something else going on biologically. If we behave negative with our children and this is all they see they will in turn possess those traits. This is the behavioral system of inheritance. We also store symbols and communicate them with others around us, showing the world our understanding through them. The symbols we use come from the symbolic system of inheritance. Through manipulating the world around us and changing the world around us it is important to our biocultural evolution. Change is an important part of who we are. Just as when we move into a new home, a new town, new school, and even a new job we change and construct the environment to fit our needs. We do certain things so we can fit in and feel comfortable. It allows us to thrive. We even try to change the land we live on. Another aspect of biocultural evolution is the evolution of our behaviors. Sociobiology explains our behaviors as related to our biological component (Welsch 245). Our behavior can also be influenced by the earth and social things going on around us. This comes from the human behavioral ecology (HBE) (Welsch 246). We adapt our behavior to our society so that we can fit and continue to evolve. Our behaviors are directly connected to our biological self. This comes from biological determinism (Welsch 247). Some of them come forward or (emergence) based on who we see and interact with in our daily lives. We adapt and change through our diet, moving to different places, and sometimes we even change our bodies through modification to make ourselves fit in. Just like runway models who extreme diet and workout to be tiny enough to be considered for the runway. This shapes our cultures around the world and how we all view each other. Everyone in this world is so unique. No two people even family members will be completely identical. Our bodies adapt and varied through the generations to be continued successfully. We all try to fit in with our behaviors so that our true biological self can come forward. We need to be conscious in the things we teach our children because they will be the next generation and bring forth a new culture. Works Cited Welsch, Robert Louis, et al. Anthropology: Asking Questions about Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture. Oxford University Press, 2017. How to cite The Human Genome Project, Papers The Human Genome Project Free Essays string(42) " fewer than predicted by many scientists\." The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a project undertaken with a goal to understand the genetic make-up of the human species by determining the DNA sequence of the human genome and the genome of a few model organisms. The project began in 1990 and, by some definitions, it was completed in 2003. It was one of the biggest investigational projects in the history of science. We will write a custom essay sample on The Human Genome Project or any similar topic only for you Order Now The mapping of the human genes was an important step in the development of medicines and other aspects of health care. Most of the genome DNA sequencing for the Human Genome Project was done by researchers at universities and research centers in the the United States and Great Britain, with other genome DNA sequencing done independently by the private company Celera Genomics. The HGP was originally aimed at the more than three billion nucleotides contained in a haploid reference human genome. Recently several groups have announced efforts to extend this to diploid human genomes including the International HapMap Project, Applied Biosystems, Perlegen, Illumina, JCVI, Personal Genome Project, and Roche-454. The â€Å"genome† of any given individual (except for identical twins and cloned animals) is unique; mapping â€Å"the human genome† involves sequencing multiple variations of each gene. The project did not study all of the DNA found in human cells; some heterochromatic areas (about 8% of the total) remain un-sequenced. International HGP Initiation of the Project was the culmination of several years of work supported by the Department of Energy, in particular workshops in 1984 [1] and 1986 and a subsequent initiative the Department of Energy. 2] This 1986 report stated boldly, â€Å"The ultimate goal of this initiative is to understand the human genome† and â€Å"Knowledge of the human genome is as necessary to the continuing progress of medicine and other health sciences as knowledge of human anatomy has been for the present state of medicine. † Candidate technologies were already being considered for the proposed undertaking at least as early as 1985. [3 ] James D. Watson was Head of the National Center for Human Genome Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States starting from 1988. Largely due to his disagreement with his boss, Bernadine Healy, over the issue of patenting genes, he was forced to resign in 1992. He was replaced by Francis Collins in April 1993, and the name of the Center was changed to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in 1997. The $3-billion project was formally founded in 1990 by the United States Department of Energy and the U. S. National Institutes of Health, and was expected to take 15 years. In addition to the United States, the international consortium comprised geneticists in China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Due to widespread international cooperation and advances in the field of genomics (especially in sequence analysis), as well as major advances in computing technology, a ‘rough draft’ of the genome was finished in 2000 (announced jointly by then US president Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on June 26, 2000). [4] Ongoing sequencing led to the announcement of the essentially complete genome in April 2003, 2 years earlier than planned. [5] In May 2006, another milestone was passed on the way to completion of the project, when the sequence of the last chromosome was published in the journal Nature. 6] There are multiple definitions of the â€Å"complete sequence of the human genome†. According to some of these definitions, the genome has already been completely sequenced, and according to other definitions, the genome has yet to be completely sequenced. There have been multiple popular press articles reporting that the genome was â€Å"complete. â €  The genome has been completely sequenced using the definition employed by the International Human Genome Project. A graphical history of the human genome project shows that most of the human genome was complete by the end of 2003. However, there are a number of regions of the human genome that can be considered unfinished. First, the central regions of each chromosome, known as centromeres, are highly repetitive DNA sequences that are difficult to sequence using current technology. The centromeres are millions (possibly tens of millions) of base pairs long, and for the most part these are entirely un-sequenced. Second, the ends of the chromosomes, called telomeres, are also highly repetitive, and for most of the 46 chromosome ends these too are incomplete. We do not know precisely how much sequence remains before we reach the telomeres of each chromosome, but as with the centromeres, current technology does not make it easy to get there. Third, there are several loci in each individual’s genome that contain members of multigene families that are difficult to disentangle with shotgun sequencing methodologies – these multigene families often encode proteins important for immune functions. It is likely that the centromeres and telomeres will remain un-sequenced until new technology is developed that facilitates their sequencing. Other than these regions, there remain a few dozen gaps scattered around the genome, some of them rather large, but there is hope that all these will be closed in the next couple of years. In summary: our best estimates of total genome size indicate that about 92% of the genome has been completed . Most of the remaining DNA is highly repetitive and unlikely to contain genes, but we cannot truly know until we sequence all of it. Understanding the functions of all the genes and their regulation is far from complete. The roles of junk DNA, the evolution of the genome, the differences between individuals, and many other questions are still the subject of intense study by laboratories all over the world. Goals The goals of the original HGP were not only to determine more than 3 billion base pairs in the human genome with a minimal error rate, but also to identify all the genes in this vast amount of data. This part of the project is still ongoing, although a preliminary count indicates about 30,000 genes in the human genome, which is fewer than predicted by many scientists. You read "The Human Genome Project" in category "Papers" Another goal of the HGP was to develop faster, more efficient methods for DNA sequencing and sequence analysis and the transfer of these technologies to industry. The sequence of the human DNA is stored in databases available to anyone on the Internet. The U. S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (and sister organizations in Europe and Japan) house the gene sequence in a database known as Genbank, along with sequences of known and hypothetical genes and proteins. Other organizations such as the University of California, Santa Cruz[1], and Ensembl[2] present additional data and annotation and powerful tools for visualizing and searching it. Computer programs have been developed to analyze the data, because the data themselves are difficult to interpret without such programs. The process of identifying the boundaries between genes and other features in raw DNA sequence is called genome annotation and is the domain of bioinformatics. While expert biologists make the best annotators, their work proceeds slowly, and computer programs are increasingly used to meet the high-throughput demands of genome sequencing projects. The best current technologies for annotation make use of statistical models that take advantage of parallels between DNA sequences and human language, using concepts from computer science such as formal grammars. Another, often overlooked, goal of the HGP is the study of its ethical, legal, and social implications. It is important to research these issues and find the most appropriate solutions before they become large dilemmas whose effect will manifest in the form of major political concerns. All humans have unique gene sequences; therefore the data published by the HGP does not represent the exact sequence of each and every individual’s genome. It is the combined genome of a small number of anonymous donors. The HGP genome is a scaffold for future work in identifying differences among individuals. Most of the current effort in identifying differences among individuals involves single nucleotide polymorphisms and the HapMap. How it was accomplished Funding came from the US government through the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and the UK charity, the Wellcome Trust, who funded the Sanger Institute (then the Sanger Centre) in Great Britain, as well as numerous other groups from around the world. The genome was broken into smaller pieces; approximately 150,000 base pairs in length. These pieces are called â€Å"bacterial artificial chromosomes†, or BACs, because they can be inserted into bacteria where they are copied by the bacterial DNA replication machinery. Each of these pieces was then sequenced separately as a small â€Å"shotgun† project and then assembled. The larger, 150,000 base pairs go together to create chromosomes. This is known as the â€Å"hierarchical shotgun† approach, because the genome is first broken into relatively large chunks, which are then mapped to chromosomes before being selected for sequencing. Celera Genomics HGP In 1998, a similar, privately funded quest was launched by the American researcher Craig Venter and his firm Celera Genomics. The $300 million Celera effort was intended to proceed at a faster pace and at a fraction of the cost of the roughly $3 billion publicly funded project. Celera used a riskier technique called whole genome shotgun sequencing, which had been used to sequence bacterial genomes of up to six million base pairs in length, but not for anything nearly as large as the three thousand million base pair human genome. Celera initially announced that it would seek patent protection on â€Å"only 200-300† genes, but later amended this to seeking â€Å"intellectual property protection† on â€Å"fully-characterized important structures† amounting to 100-300 targets. The firm eventually filed preliminary (â€Å"place-holder†) patent applications on 6,500 whole or partial genes. Celera also promised to publish their findings in accordance with the terms of the 1996 â€Å"Bermuda Statement,† by releasing new data quarterly (the HGP released its new data daily), although, unlike the publicly funded project, they would not permit free redistribution or commercial use of the data. In March 2000, President Clinton announced that the genome sequence could not be patented, and should be made freely available to all researchers. The statement sent Celera’s stock plummeting and dragged down the biotechnology-heavy Nasdaq. The biotechnology sector lost about $50 billion in market capitalization in two days. Although the working draft was announced in June 2000, it was not until February 2001 that Celera and the HGP scientists published details of their drafts. Special issues of Nature (which published the publicly funded project’s scientific paper)[7] and Science (which published Celera’s paper[8]) described the methods used to produce the draft sequence and offered analysis of the sequence. These drafts covered about 83% of the genome (90% of the euchromatic regions with 150,000 gaps and the order and orientation of many segments not yet established). In February 2001, at the time of the joint publications, press releases announced that the project had been completed by both groups. Improved drafts were announced in 2003 and 2005, filling in to ~92% of the sequence currently. The competition proved to be very good for the project, spurring the public groups to modify their strategy in order to accelerate progress. The rivals initially agreed to pool their data, but the agreement ell apart when Celera refused to deposit its data in the unrestricted public database GenBank. Celera had incorporated the public data into their genome, but forbade the public effort to use Celera data. HGP is the most well known of many international genome projects aimed at sequencing the DNA of a specific organism. While the human DNA sequence offers the most tangible benefits, important dev elopments in biology and medicine are predicted as a result of the sequencing of model organisms, including mice, fruit flies, zebrafish, yeast, nematodes, plants, and many microbial organisms and parasites. In 2004, researchers from the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (IHGSC) of the HGP announced a new estimate of 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human genome. [9] Previously 30,000 to 40,000 had been predicted, while estimates at the start of the project reached up to as high as 2,000,000. The number continues to fluctuate and it is now expected that it will take many years to agree on a precise value for the number of genes in the human genome. History In 1976, the genome of the virus Bacteriophage MS2 was the first complete genome to be determined, by Walter Fiers and his team at the University of Ghent (Ghent, Belgium). 10] The idea for the shotgun technique came from the use of an algorithm that combined sequence information from many small fragments of DNA to reconstruct a genome. This technique was pioneered by Frederick Sanger to sequence the genome of the Phage ? -X174, a tiny virus called a bacteriophage that was the first fully sequenced genome (DNA-sequence) in 1977. [11] The technique was called shotgun sequencing because the genome was broken into millions of pieces as if it had been blasted with a shotgun. In order to scale up the method, both the sequencing and genome assembly had to be automated, as they were in the 1980s. Those techniques were shown applicable to sequencing of the first free-living bacterial genome (1. 8 million base pairs) of Haemophilus influenzae in 1995 [12] and the first animal genome (~100 Mbp) [13] It involved the use of automated sequencers, longer individual sequences using approximately 500 base pairs at that time. Paired sequences separated by a fixed distance of around 2000 base pairs which were critical elements enabling the development f the first genome assembly programs for reconstruction of large regions of genomes (aka ‘contigs’). Three years later, in 1998, the announcement by the newly-formed Celera Genomics that it would scale up the shotgun sequencing method to the human genome was greeted with skepticism in some circles. The shotgun technique breaks the DNA into fragments of various sizes, ranging from 2,000 to 300,000 base pairs in length, forming what is called a DNA â€Å"library†. Using an automated DNA sequencer the DNA is read in 800bp lengths from both ends of each fragment. Using a complex genome assembly algorithm and a supercomputer, the pieces are combined and the genome can be reconstructed from the millions of short, 800 base pair fragments. The success of both the public and privately funded effort hinged upon a new, more highly automated capillary DNA sequencing machine, called the Applied Biosystems 3700, that ran the DNA sequences through an extremely fine capillary tube rather than a flat gel. Even more critical was the development of a new, larger-scale genome assembly program, which could handle the 30-50 million sequences that would be required to sequence the entire human genome with this method. At the time, such a program did not exist. One of the first major projects at Celera Genomics was the development of this assembler, which was written in parallel with the construction of a large, highly automated genome sequencing factory. The first version of this assembler was demonstrated in 2000, when the Celera team joined forces with Professor Gerald Rubin to sequence the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster using the whole-genome shotgun method[14]. At 130 million base pairs, it was at least 10 times larger than any genome previously shotgun assembled. One year later, the Celera team published their assembly of the three billion base pair human genome. How it was accomplished The IHGSC used pair-end sequencing plus whole-genome shotgun mapping of large (~100 Kbp) plasmid clones and shotgun sequencing of smaller plasmid sub-clones plus a variety of other mapping data to orient and check the assembly of each human chromosome[7]. The Celera group tried â€Å"whole-genome shotgun† sequencing without using the additional mapping scaffolding[8], but by including shredded public data raised questions [15]. Whose genome was sequenced? In the IHGSC international public-sector Human Genome Project (HGP), researchers collected blood (female) or sperm (male) samples from a large number of donors. Only a few of many collected samples were processed as DNA resources. Thus the donor identities were protected so neither donors nor scientists could know whose DNA was sequenced. DNA clones from many different libraries were used in the overall project, with most of those libraries being created by Dr. Pieter J. de Jong. It has been informally reported, and is well known in the genomics community, that much of the DNA for the public HGP came from a single anonymous male donor from Buffalo, New York (code name RP11). [16] HGP scientists used white blood cells from the blood of 2 male and 2 female donors (randomly selected from 20 of each) — each donor yielding a separate DNA library. One of these libraries (RP11) was used considerably more than others, due to quality considerations. One minor technical issue is that male samples contain only half as much DNA from the X and Y chromosomes as from the other 22 chromosomes (the autosomes); this happens because each male cell contains only one X and one Y chromosome, not two like other chromosomes (autosomes). (This is true for nearly all male cells not just sperm cells). Although the main sequencing phase of the HGP has been completed, studies of DNA variation continue in the International HapMap Project, whose goal is to identify patterns of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) groups (called haplotypes, or â€Å"haps†). The DNA samples for the HapMap came from a total of 270 individuals: Yoruba people in Ibadan, Nigeria; Japanese people in Tokyo; Han Chinese in Beijing; and the French Centre d’Etude du Polymorphisms Humain (CEPH) resource, which consisted of residents of the United States having ancestry from Western and Northern Europe. In the Celera Genomics private-sector project, DNA from five different individuals were used for sequencing. The lead scientist of Celera Genomics at that time, Craig Venter, later acknowledged (in a public letter to the journal Science) that his DNA was one of those in the pool[17]. On September 4th, 2007, a team led by Craig Venter, published his complete DNA sequence[18], unveiling the six-billion-letter genome of a single individual for the first time. Benefits The work on interpretation of genome data is still in its initial stages. It is anticipated that detailed knowledge of the human genome will provide new avenues for advances in medicine and biotechnology. Clear practical results of the project emerged even before the work was finished. For example, a number of companies, such as Myriad Genetics started offering easy ways to administer genetic tests that can show predisposition to a variety of illnesses, including breast cancer, disorders of hemostasis, cystic fibrosis, liver diseases and many others. Also, the etiologies for cancers, Alzheimer’s disease and other areas of clinical interest are considered likely to benefit from genome information and possibly may lead in the long term to significant advances in their management. There are also many tangible benefits for biological scientists. For example, a researcher investigating a certain form of cancer may have narrowed down his/her search to a particular gene. By visiting the human genome database on the worldwide web, this researcher can examine what other scientists have written about this gene, including (potentially) the three-dimensional structure of its product, its function(s), its evolutionary relationships to other human genes, or to genes in mice or yeast or fruit flies, possible detrimental mutations, interactions with other genes, body tissues in which this gene is activated, diseases associated with this gene or other datatypes. Further, deeper understanding of the disease processes at the level of molecular biology may determine new therapeutic procedures. Given the established importance of DNA in molecular biology and its central role in determining the fundamental operation of cellular processes, it is likely that expanded knowledge in this area will facilitate medical advances in numerous areas of clinical interest that may not have been possible without them. The analysis of similarities between DNA sequences from different organisms is also opening new avenues in the study of the theory of evolution. In many cases, evolutionary questions can now be framed in terms of molecular biology; indeed, many major evolutionary milestones (the emergence of the ribosome and organelles, the development of embryos with body plans, the vertebrate immune system) can be related to the molecular level. Many questions about the similarities and differences between humans and our closest relatives (the primates, and indeed the other mammals) are expected to be illuminated by the data from this project. The Human Genome Diversity Project, spinoff research aimed at mapping the DNA that varies between human ethnic groups, which was rumored to have been halted, actually did continue and to date has yielded new conclusions. In the future, HGDP could possibly expose new data in disease surveillance, human development and anthropology. HGDP could unlock secrets behind and create new strategies for managing the vulnerability of ethnic groups to certain diseases (see race in biomedicine). It could also show how human populations have adapted to these vulnerabilities. How to cite The Human Genome Project, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Business Process in the Organization-Free-Samples for Student

Question: Write a Reflection on the Business Process in the Organization. Answer: The detailed analysis of the assignment reveals that the existing business process of GAAM minimises waste and the entire organisation has clear guidelines about the process. However, it has been identified that the existing business process of GAAM is carried out manually, which requires a lot of time and effort. It has been found out that due to such old-fashioned techniques, the employees of the organisation finds it difficult to find out old data Due to the absence of an effective information system, the accounts receivable officer is facing trouble in identifying the debtors that have failed to pay their dues within the stipulated time. In order to eliminate these deficiencies, a new business model has been identified, which needs the staffs to be involved for coming up with new and innovative ideas. An expert team needs to be developed to reengineer the business process. It has been evaluated that various indicators of performance need to be developed along with drawing the new process flow through software to depict clear roles and responsibilities of the staffs. Thus, based on the evaluation, certain technologies would be helpful that include e-commerce, mobile technologies, online money transfer and coding system. The newly reengineered system would help GAAM in checking the availability of the placed orders. If the product is available, it would be forwarded to the warehouse assistant and in case of reverse scenario, it needs to be sent to procurement. After that, the ordered products would be shipped following a sequence of steps and the accounts receivable officer would finally keep the records.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Introduction Background information Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a fast food firm which was established in 1952 by Cornel Harland Sanders. The firm has its headquarters in Kentucky. Over the years it has been in operation, KFC has been very successful. One of the factors contributing to its success is its effectiveness in implementing expansion strategies.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Kentucky Fried Chicken specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For example, apart from conducting domestic investments, it has also ventured into the international market through incorporation of internationalization strategy. In addition, the firm has integrated the concept of franchising. As a result, KFC has established a chain of 16,200 outlets in 100 countries in which it operates (Hoovers Incorporation para. 1). Of these franchises, 5,100 are located in the United States. This has enhanced its ability to achieve its profit max imization objective. Its success is also associated with the management team’s effectiveness in implementing good organizational values which directs all the firm’s operations. For example, the management team respects and rewards all the contributions by its employees. In its operation, KFC ensures that it offers its customers high quality products. This is evident in its philosophy statement which is represented in its CHAMPS program. CHAMP is an acronym for the values held by the firm which include Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy, and Maintenance of facilities, Product quality and Speed in service delivery. The program has enabled the management team to integrate the concept of customer focus amongst the employees. Aim This report illustrates an internal analysis of KFC by considering the business and corporate level strategies. KFC’s SWOT Analysis The table below illustrates the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths The firm has developed strong brand equity as a result of offering quality products and services to the consumer. The firm has attained economies of scale in its operation. Expansion in the foreign market has enhanced cash flow hence its financial stability. Establishment of a strong and efficient interactive marketing has enabled the firm to develop customer loyalty. Its product diversification strategy has enabled the firm to be ranked as a convenient firm. Weaknesses The firm has not installed point of scale scanning system. KFC’s research and development team is not well instituted. The management team does not have employee relationship building program. KFC only focuses at high income earners Opportunities -Change in age demographics as a result of increase in individuals aged between 18-34 years. This presents a potential increment in its market. -General economic growth resulting into a rise in consumers’ disposable income. -By incorporating customer fo cus, there is a high probability of the firm increasing its customer base. -The firm can diversify its operation by targeting emerging markets such as in Asian countries. -The firm can improve its public image by updating its restaurants. Threats -Increased competition from large firms such as McDonalds and also new entrants. S The firm also faces a threat from supermarkets which are increasingly dealing with fast food products. – The fast food industry is characterized by a high rate of employee turnover. -Fluctuation in exchange rate as a result of changes in business environment may affect remission of profit by the firm’s subsidiary firms located in the international market. -Changes in consumer tastes and preferences may affect demand for the firm’s products. This is due to the fact that consumers are increasingly becoming health conscious. – Core competence Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (81) define core competence as the ability of a firm to attain a high competitive advantage compared to its rivals. Since its establishment, KFC has laid more emphasis on provision of diverse fried chicken products. This has enabled the firm to effectively position itself in the market.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Some of the factors which have contributed towards the firm’s efficiency include its competence in delivering unique experience, offering the right chicken and ease of access of its products in the market. The resultant effect is that KFC has been widely recognized as the ‘chicken expert’. KFC Corporate Level strategy In its operation, KFC has incorporated different concentration strategies. Kazmi (150) further defines concentration strategy to include how a firm specializes in certain products or services. Kazim further asserts that firms which are successful in different industries are those that ha ve incorporated the concept of specialization. Concentration strategies mainly involve investing in a certain product line. KFC has integrated different concentration strategies. These include market penetration, market development and product development. Product development strategy This strategy involves a firm innovating new products and marketing them in the same market with the other products (Kazim 150). By introducing new products, a firm is able to attract more customers. In line with this, KFC intends to reintroduce the Rotisserie chicken. As a result, the firm will attract new customers. Market development This is where a firm introduces and sells its products to a new market. This means that the firm expands its geographical coverage. Alternatively, market development may also involve a firm offering the same products to a new market but at a different price (Slack Parent 112). KFC has integrated this strategy by introducing its present products to new markets. In addit ion, the firm also develops its market by targeting new categories of customers. Business strategy Franchising According to Burgess (119), franchising has been widely accepted as one of the most effective ways through which small and medium enterprises can grow. In addition, franchising model can be used to restructure a firm’s operations so as to be successful. According to Floyd (para. 3), increased incorporation of franchising in the fast food industry has arisen from the increment in competition. Over the years, KFC’s growth has resulted from incorporation of the concept of franchising. Through franchising, KFC has been able to penetrate into the international market.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Kentucky Fried Chicken specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Wit and Meyer (916), KFC was amongst the first fast food firms to venture into the international market during 1950s through fra nchising. n 2007, the firm refocused its internationalization strategy through franchising by considering markets in China, South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Great Britain, Mexico, Phillipines, Indonesia and Japan ( Witt Meyer 916). Through franchising, the firm has been able to expand its operations rapidly in small countries which only have a capacity of supporting few restaurants. Product differentiation According to Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt (99), focused differentiation strategy can enable a firm to attain a high competitive advantage. Focused differentiation entails a firm’s effort to produce products and services which its target customers consider being unique (Ireland, Hoskisson Hitt 99). Additionally, it is vital for a firm to incorporate all the primary and support activities in its value chain so as to be effective in its differentiation strategy. According to Smith (61); the fast food industry is characterized by a high degree of rivalry. This arises from the large number of players in the industry. The large number of competitors has made switching cost to be low. As a result, firms in this industry are required to be very efficient in developing their competitive advantage. One of the core sources of competitive advantage for these firms is their ability to provide unique and quality service. This is due to the fact that customers associate their satisfaction with the value and the experience attained (Vequist et al 34). In an effort to cope with industry rivalry, the large firms such as KFC, Hardees and McDonalds try to differentiate their products so as to attain a high competitive edge. Over the years it has been in operation, KFC has managed to develop a competitive advantage with in offering its food products. Its products are unique which makes it difficult for competitors to imitate. The firm primarily deals with chicken pieces, sandwiches, salads and wraps (Crest 1). However, its core focus is fried chicken. The firm offers a wide range of chicken products. In order to be successful in the international market, the firm customizes its products to the local market. As a result, KFC is able to meet the local customers’ tastes and preferences. However, the eleven herbs and spices which make its products unique remain universal. Its effectiveness in maintenance of unique and diverse fast food products has contributed towards the firm developing customer loyalty.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More To be effective, KFC has incorporated the ‘Food, Fun and Festivity’ concept. This enables the firm to offer diverse food products with chicken being the main meal. KFC’s value chain analysis According to Sekhar (115), value chain entails a number of activities undertaken by a firm in an effort to ensure that it delivers high quality products and services. This means that the probability of the firm attaining its profit objective is increased. In an effort to achieve this, KFC has integrated a comprehensive value chain which is composed of both primary and support activities as discussed below. Inbound activities The firm procures high quality materials from local firms. The procurement process is relatively simple. To ensure efficiency in its operation, KFC has incorporated an effective inventory control mechanism in all its outlets around the world. This has been achieved through implementation of an efficient information communication technology. Examples of te chnologies integrated in its inventory system include the VPN and ADSL. Through these technologies, it has been possible for the firm to manage raw material usage. In addition, inventory control ensures timely replenishment of the stock (FRSVISION para. 1-3). Operations These entail activities which are aimed at transforming inputs into final goods and services (Sekhar 116). To ensure that its products and services contribute to a high level of customer satisfaction, KFC has instituted a research and development department. The objective of RD is to enable the firm meet the customers’ requirement by understanding the existing market demand. Additionally, the firm collaborates with its suppliers in an effort to offer high quality products and services to its customers by ensuring that suppliers supply high quality raw materials. Outbound logistics These include activities aimed at ensuring efficient distribution of the finished products (Sehkar 116). KFC’s management te am has appreciated the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing product distribution. As a result, the firm implemented the concept of e-commerce in 2007 (The Franchise Mall para. 1). This has enabled customers to undertake online ordering. To ensure that customers achieve a high value, the management team has also integrated a free delivery service. Marketing and sales These entail the various tasks aimed at satisfying the customer and also generating sales. To achieve this, the firm has incorporated continuous product improvement. KFC has been effective in marketing and sales as a result of diversifying its menu. In order to generate sales, the firm promotes its products through various mediums such as the internet. For example, the marketing of KFC Popcorn Chicken was rolled out through MSN across the United States. Since its target for this new product was the at-work audience, the campaign was rolled out during lunch hours (Plummer 23). The firm’s marketing and sales activities are also enhanced through issuing free samples such as during an individual’s birthday party. Services These are the after-sale services offered to the customer after closing a sale (Sehkar 117). To ensure delivery of high value, the firm has instituted interactive communication with the customers. After consuming its products, the consumers can be able to raise their opinion regarding the service offered. This enables the firm to make adjustments to its products based on the information received. Support services The success of KFC also arises from its experienced human capital. The firm has a human resource base of 445,000 employees. The firm has a quality assurance department which ensures procurement of high quality raw materials. This has played a significant role in ensuring food safety (KFC para. 1). To enhance its procurement process, the firm has sought the services of experts. Financial Analysis Profitability ratios Return on assets (R OA) This ratio is used to evaluate a firm’s ability in utilizing its assets to gain profits. This is achieved by comparing the firm’s profits with the assets used to generate the profit. If a firm has a relatively high ROA, it means that there is effective and efficient utilization of assets. In addition, ROA depicts a firm stability. During the 2010 financial year, KFC had a ROA of 3.97% (Bloomberg Business 1). This illustrates a relatively low ROA which means that the firm is not utilizing its assets to the maximum. Return on Equity This ratio is a measure of the shareholders equity in comparison to a firms’ net income. The ratio illustrates how effective a firm has been in reinvesting its earning so as to generate more earnings. KFC had a ROE of 11.29% during its 2010 financial year. This illustrates that the firm has been effective in reinvesting its earnings (Bloomberg Business 1). Return on capital (ROCA) ROCA shows how a firm has utilized its borrowed cap ital either equity or debt capital to generate profit. KFC had a ROCA of 7.68%. This illustrates that KFC has been effective in utilizing its capital (Bloomberg Business 1). Asset Turnover Ratios Total Asset Turnover Bloomberg Business defines this ratio as a measure of a firm’s efficiency in generating sales using its assets. During its 2010 financial year, KFC had a TOA of 1.1 times. This means that the assets were used to generate sales 1.1 times (Bloomberg Business 1). Accounts Receivables Turnover The ratio shows the average duration taken by a firm’s clients to pay their invoices. A firm with a low account turnover indicates that its clients are very efficient in settling their bills which means that the firm becomes financially stable. KFC had an account receivable turnover of 2.9 times which is relatively low indicating a high financial stability (Bloomberg Business 1). Fixed Assets Turn over The ratio compares a firm’s sales to its fixed asset. As a res ult, one is able to determine how a firm is utilizing its fixed assets. Alternatively, it may indicate that a firm has a lot of money tied in its fixed assets. A fixed asset turnover ratio of 4.9 times indicates KFC’s efficiency in utilizing its fixed assets (Bloomberg Business 1). Conclusion From the analysis, it is evident that KFC’s success has resulted from a number of sources. The firm’s internal analysis indicates that the firm has developed a number of strengths. For example, KFC has incorporated the concept of customer focus which has enhanced its commitment towards ensuring that the customers attain a high level of satisfaction. This is illustrated by the firm’s emphasis on value addition. In addition, KFC deals with a wide range of fast food products which has enabled it to address the differences in consumer tastes and preferences. The firm has also developed a core competence with regard to fried chickens. Its unique quality of fried chicken p roducts has enabled the firm to develop a high competitive advantage. In addition, the firm has a strong management team which is very effective in decision making and implementation. As a result, the firm has been effective in implementing business and corporate level strategies. Some of the business level strategy which the firm has integrated relate to product differentiation and franchising. These strategies have enhanced the firm’s competitiveness considering the fact that the industry is characterized by a high degree of rivalry. For example, the secret recipe has enabled the firm to be effective in differentiating its products hence attaining a strong market position. On the other hand; franchising has enabled KFC to expand its operations both in the domestic and the foreign market. Implementation of corporate level strategies which include product and market development has enhanced the firm’s ability to expand its market share. Both the business and corporate level strategies has contributed towards the firm’s financial stability as illustrated by the above financial ratios. Recommendations Considering the high degree of industry rivalry, it is paramount for the firm’s management team to consider the following. Diversifying its products and service offering so as to attract a large number of customers. One of the ways through which this can be achieved is by conducting a consumer market research prior to venturing into a new market. This way it will be possible for the firm to understand the customers’ product and service requirements. The firm should consider other expansion strategies such as entering into merger with potential partners. However, it is vital for the management to undertake a cultural analysis prior to entering the merger to prevent failure. Works Cited Bloomberg Business. KFC Limited. 4 Jan. 2011. 2 April 2011. Web. Burgess, Samuel. Managing information technology in small businesses: challengesà ‚  and solutions. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2002. Print. Crest. There is fast food, then there is KFC. 3. June 2008. 2 April 2011. Web. Floyd, Callum. The great fast food challenge. 4 August 2006. 2 April 2011 Print. FRSVISION. The success stories. 3 May 2001. 2 April 2011. Web. Hitt, Michael, Ireland, Duane and Hoskisson, Robert. Strategic management:  competitiveness and globalization; concepts and cases. Mason, OH: South-Western, 2009. Print. Hoovers Incorporation. KFC Coporation. 2 Dec. 2010. 2 April 2011. Web. Kazmi, Azhar. Strategic management and business policy. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Education, 2008. Print. Plummer, Joseph. The online advertising playbook: proven strategies and tested tactics  from the advertising research foundation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007. Print. Sekhar, Satya. Business policy and strategic management. London: IK international Publisher. Slack, Trevor and Parent, Milena. Understanding sport organizations: the application of  organiz ation theory. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetic, 2006. Print. Smith, Andrew. The oxford companion to American food and drink. London: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print. The Franchise Mall. KFC to test online ordering. 20 June 2007. 2 April 2011. Web. Vequist, David, Jackson, Stacy, Teachout, Mark, VanderVeen, Steve and Eames, Bob.  Capstone and Experiential Class Workbook. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2009. Print. Witt, Bob and Meyer, Ron. Strategy process, content, context; an international  perspective. Andover, Hampshire: Cengage Learning, 2010.Print. This report on Kentucky Fried Chicken was written and submitted by user Joaquin Black to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry The WritePass Journal

Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry ABRSTACT: Health and safety issue for contractor company in oil and gas industry ABRSTACT:DISCUSSION:1. Isolation of Equipment:2. Accident caused by Human Error:3. Entry to Vessel4. Liquefied Flammable Gases:5. Modification:Reference:Related ABRSTACT: Exploration and production of petroleum is highly profitable sector, but on the other hand, it is very risky business. Catastrophe in refineries and oil rigs like Mexico II (1983) in the Gulf of Mexico, Pipe Alpha, has totally changed the script of safety procedure and risk assessment. It is evident from the past history, 65 % of disasters resulted due to Human Organizational error. That’s why it is highly recommended to the oil operating and contractor companies to identify the risk, potential hazard and consequence of hazardous incident. Health and safety measure are always seems to be an overburden for project, but in reality they are preventing the tragic accident which would be result in damage of assets, loss of valuable human lives, demoralization of team and hazardous environmental impact. In last 35 years of North Sea, average yearly accidental cost is  £200M (except in 1988-1989 cost  £1200 M due to Piper Alpha) and loss of 485 precious human lives (ROYAL INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS 1991). In this report, we will try to discuss the critical issues of health and safety faced by a contractor company in oil industries. Furthermore, we will try to show what was done wrong in past and will try to suggest how similar incident might be prevented in the future. DISCUSSION: â€Å"Nation have passed away and left no traces, Any history gives the naked cause of it one single simple reason in all cases; they fell because their people were not fit.†Rudyard Kipling. Unfortunately, the history of the oil and process industry indicates that a lot of incidents are repeated after a lapse of a few years .Because people move and lesson are forgotten. Accidents caused during the following activities are very common, many of them are not resulted in death, serious injury or serious damage they were near-miss. But they could have had much more serious consequence. We will discuss few of them in detail. Isolation of Equipment. Accident caused by Human Error Entry to Vessel Liquefied Flammable gases Modification Storage Tanks Stacks Leaks Pipe and Vessel Failure Hazard of Common Material I don’t know that (Like Ammonia can explode, Hydraulic pressure can be hazardous, Diesel engines can ignite leaks. 1. Isolation of Equipment: Case I: Three people were killed and the plant was destroyed during a pump repair. Dismantling was done to repair the pump. When the cover was removed, hot oil, which is above its ignition temperature, came out and caught fire. From several days, a pump was waiting for repair work and work permit was issued. On the day of accident, the foreman who issued the permit should check the drain valve should be opened and suction delivery valves were shut. But suction valve was opened and drain valve was closed by someone. Maintenance team only intend to change the pump bearing and they decide to open the pump and inform the process team but no further checks and isolation was done. It is not habitual in company concerned to isolate the equipment under repair by slip plate, only by close valves. Similarly, failure in permit to work procedure was the major reason for the disasters of Piper Alpha. Recommendations: Permit to work will be withdrawal and new one is issued, if there is any change in the nature of work. Isolation of equipment must be done when it is under repair. Bleed valve and double blocks must be installed, where fluid at having gauge pressure above 600 psi or temperature above or near auto-ignition point. 2. Accident caused by Human Error: Case I: (Warning Ignored) During the working shift, it had been noticed by the operator that the level of fluid in tank is falling rapidly. He informed the instrument department that the level gauge is not working properly. After few hours, when they were changing the gauge, they found that the previous gauge was correct and there was a leaking in the drain valve. But it is quite late and they has been lost 10 ton of material. Case II: (High Temperature Alarm) After a modification pump was installed, it was used to transfer some liquid. When the transfer of liquid completed, operator pressed the switch off button, he saw the pump is â€Å"running off† light went out. After a several hours, high temperature alarm of pump sounded. Operator supposed that there was a fault in alarm and he ignored it. Soon afterward, there was a huge explosion in the pump. During the modification of pump, an error in the circuit was introduced and stop button was not working properly. Recommendations: Proper training should be given to the operators; they must take a necessary action upon unusual reading. Always respond to alarm. They might be correct. Training should be emphasis the importance of alarm. In record sheet, control limit must be defined. 3. Entry to Vessel Many incident have been happened which killed no of peoples because they entered inside the vessel or any other confined space which had not been thoroughly cleaned or tested. Case I: (Unauthorized Entry) Contractors mostly unfamiliar with the operating companies rule, have frequently got into the vessel without authority. A contractor foreman entered in a vessel which was opened and disconnected, setup for entry, but it was not yet tested. The foreman was estimating the cost of cleaning, he supposed that there was no need of permit for entering the tank just for inspection and got affected by the gas. Similarly an incident happened during the lunch time, a process foreman was taking a last look of vessel before boxed up. There was an old gas mask lying on the floor, he decided to go and remove it. While going inside he slipped from the ladder and fell and was knocked. His tongue blocked his throat and he suffocated. Case II: (Entry into vessel with Irrespirable Atmosphere) A contractor entered in the combustion chamber of a gas plant watched by two standby men but without waiting for the breathing apparatus to arrive. He lost consciousness halfway up when he was climbing out of the chamber. He was hanging between the chamber wall and the ladder. Rest of the men could not pull him out with lifeline. One of the men reached to the person without breathing apparatus and he also lost consciousness. Both of them were rescued, but standby man was died by this time. Case III: Vessel was generally split up into two halves by a baffle which had to be removed. The vessel was cleaned out, inspected, and a permit issued for a worker to enter the left hand side of the vessel to burn out the baffle. It not possible to see on the right hand side of the vessel but as the left hand side of the vessel was clean and because no combustible gas was detected it was assumed that the other half was also clean. While the welder was in the vessel, some deposited in the right hand half caught fire. The Welder came out side without a sever injury but wounded himself in his rush. Recommendations: Vessel should assume to contain hazardous material, if a portion of the vessel can not be tested and it seems to be safe. Only gas test are not enough. When the vessel will be heated or disturbed it may produce gas which was present in the sludge. For any addition work inside the vessel, new work permit for confined space should be issued. People should now put their head inside the vessel unless entry has been authorized. Manhole should be covered with barrier if the vessel is opened but entry is not yet authorized. Rescue person should be available at the spot with necessary equipment. Always use breathing apparatuses before entering the vessel. Do not relay on contractor reading rule, just follow the safety procedure of operating company. 4. Liquefied Flammable Gases: Case I: (Fire and exploration at processing plant at Mexico City) November 1984, there was a worse incident at processing plant (LPG-actually Propane 20 % and Butane 80%) in San Juanico, Mexico. About 542 people were died, 4,248 were injured and 10,000 become homeless. The main cause was the rupturing of 8 inch line. During investigation it was revelled that the tank was overfilled and the inlet pipeline was overpressure. It is not known why the pressure relief valve was not lifted. The gas was spread in the area of 200m by 150 m before it caught fire. Most of the people got killed and injured are pubic, who were living near the plant. Recommendations: There was not gas detector in this area. This should be present. Plant was at congested place about 160 m away from town. It is recommended that for LPG plant it should be 600 m away from the town. There was no fire insulation on equipments. Vessels and tank should be fire insulated. The water deluge system was inadequate. 5. Modification: Many accidents have happened just because modifications were carried out in plant and these modifications were not fulfilling the safety criteria. Case I: A reactor was cooled by a providing of brine to the jacket. There was a repair work in brine system and it was to be shutdown so water from town was used instead. This town water pressure (130 psi gauge pressure) was more than that of brine, so the reactor collapsed. Before the modification, a modification approval form was approved which had twenty important questions. But this form was filled as a formality. Recommendations: Before modification, however inexpensive, temporary or permanent, is made to a plant or process or to a safety procedure, it should be authorized in writing by a manager and an engineer. They manager and engineering who authorized modification can not be expected to stare the drawing and hope that the consequence will be show up. They must provided with an aid such as a lost of questions to be answered.   The foreman should not be authorized to make any modifications at field work. We have discussed few of the above critical issues which are very important for a contractor company to work in oil and gas industry. Furthermore, critical issues of a plant are also indicated in logical tree analysis in figure 1. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this report is to indicate the safety issues for a contractor company in oil and gas industries. The purpose of giving the cases and recommendation is to understand what they had done wrong in the past and to advise how similar disaster might be prevented in the future. After reading this report just analysis your plant, are you doing the same wrong thing which people did and resulted in disasters? Development of a safety culture is necessary, culture which would be committed with safety; safe work practise would be encourage and people do insist for safe work for every one, their attitude must be toward safe work practise. Leadership and top management should have to set a meaningful safety program by providing sufficient training and experience. Moreover, communication played a significant role; proper training and safety induction should be given to supervisor level, so that the correct information should be transmitted to them. Figure no. 1 Logic Tree Analysis Reference: The integration of Quantitative Risk Assessment and Reliability centered Maintenance to optimize platform Design and Operations by R.M Marshell, S.T.Maher, P.R. Stevenson B.C.Morris

Friday, November 22, 2019

Business Theory Comparison Essay -- Business

2. A solely profit based business model would define stockholder theory in which the paramount goal of the business is to produce the most earnings for their stockholders. Prioritizing profits over a positive public image Goldman Sachs becomes an excellent example of stockholder theory. Entitlement and Desert theory can be used to support stockholder theory. 3. When stock is purchased in a company that person is entitled to the profits or loses that those shares in stock are worth, entitlement theory supports stockholder theory in which stockholders are entitled to reap the benefits of stock as long as it has been purchased justly. Desert theory states that if the action is morally right, then the person should be able to reap the benefits and take the loses. Stockholder theory supports this as being a stockholder in a company is morally accepted, but if an unethical act is preformed in buy or selling stock Desert Theory would not support Stockholder Theory. When Martha Stewart was arrested for insider trading she demonstrated that doing an in-moral act voids Desert Theory. 4. Stockholder theory revolves around pleasing one stakeholder, the stockholders; Stakeholder Theory broadens up that view to try and please all of the stakeholders. The Ben and Jerry's company was a good example of Stakeholder Theory as they kept the pay differences between the CEO and lowest paid worker to only ten fold. Utilitarianism and Virtue Ethics Theory can be used to suppon company and benefit from the earnings that stock can bring. 9. Stockholder and Stakeholder Theory being vastly different become the extremes on a business ethics spectrum, between these lie the Kantian Minimum view and Rawlsian Position. Kantian Minimum view lies closer to Stockholder view, but the main difference is to not treat any stakeholder group as a mere means to a end. The Rawlsian Position lies closer to Stakeholder view in which life is not fair, but if you did not have knowledge in what position you would be in, you would choose the situation that would benefit your best interest. Upon overview of the four views the Rawlsian Position would be most ethically justified. It is benefiting from net happiness in which there is no vast difference between stakeholder groups, and there is also room for promotion between groups as all stakeholders are not even.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Nightingale's Nursing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nightingale's Nursing Theory - Essay Example Her work and contribution to the nursing profession and medical care started thereof. As a reformist and a nurse, she became active in reforming the laws for the poor and was adamant in changing the conditions of the abysmal infirmaries or hospitals of that time. Among her most famous contribution was at the Crimean War. Ford (n.d.) discloses that Nightingale together with a group of nurses headed on to Turkey to help in the terrible conditions of the wounded British soldiers. With Nightingale's leadership, the nurses worked relentlessly to improve the living conditions of the wounded soldiers. It was in that same time that she was famously dubbed as "The Lady with the Lamp" by the British soldiers as she worked day in and day out to help them. She was also the first person to use statistics in the medical studies such as the high child mortality of those times. Nursing theories are the concepts and theories behind the nursing practice. Technically, Florence Nightingale never constructed a nursing theory, but her works and journals during her lifetime were treated by her predecessors as such. Her contemplations and deliberations on the apt standards of nursing were exquisitely described in her work entitled "Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not." Here, Nightingale's (1860) theory on nursing evolves around the concept that the patient's recovery is highly related to the conditions of his environment. The environment of a patient has a direct effect on his recovery or his deterioration. According to Nightingale, "Nature alone cures." With that she stresses on the healing properties of the physical environment of the patient; fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness and a suitable diet. The environment not only refers to the physical aspect but also to the psychological and social environment surrounding the patient. Healthy communication with the patient and healthy environment keeps the patient's mind active and stimulated. Here Nightingale stresses that communication should be soothing and a form of therapeutic aid to the patient's suffering. How the nurses interact with the patient, may it be verbally or non-verbally also plays a role in the patient's recovery. They were to give comfort and ease the patient's suffering. She adds that there is a need for social awareness or social education on the disease of the patient, his family or the immediate people of that environment. The primary purpose of Florence Nightingale's nursing theory is to give nursing professionals indications on how to be effective in their chosen career. That is, nurses are there to control the environment and give the patients their basic needs to aid patients in their healing process and achieving their former strength. Nurses are not only to be focused on controlling the environment for the patient, but also in disseminating helpful information about the important aspects of the disease to the patient, the family and immediate community. Within Nightingale's nursing theory are the assumptions that are significant to applying the theory. First and foremost, Nightingale stresses on the need to understand that a disease is a reparative process. An inflicted goes through the natural healing process and those sufferings are indications of the body healing itself. The patient then

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Sugar Cane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sugar Cane - Essay Example Probably the most vital contribution of understanding the origins of the plant in world history is recounting the suppression of Africans who became slaves in the pursuit of supplying the needs for the plant's products. Sugar cane has been known for at least 2200 years dating back from the rise of Alexander the Greta when his army saw the plant during the conquest of India in 326 BC (Purseglove, 1979). The discovery of Arabs and Greeks on the potential of sugar cane juices to substitute to the popularly used honey was a turning point to the spread of the plant. Western expansion of Arabs in the 7th and 8th centuries marked the introduction of sugar in Europe and the West (Heiser, 1981). It is a sub-tropical and tropical plant that grows well on spots with robust supply of sunlight and water - so long as the plant's roots are not waterlogged (Deerr, 1949). Purgloves (1979) accounts that sugar cane was originally grown for the sole purpose of chewing in vast territories of Asia and the Pacific. The rind was removed and the internal tissues sucked or chewed to extract the sugar and juice contents on it. According to the account, production of sweet products of the plant by boiling the cane juice was f irst discovered in India, most likely during the first millennium BC. It is in the purpose of this paper that sugar yield would characterize the sugar cane products to focus on the economics of the commodity on which the plant has been primarily known and used due to its properties to produce a sweet substance in whatever form. Processing of sugar canes whether following the old procedures or the present modern technique starts with harvesting. Harvesting of the sugar cane is done through chopping down the stems. Where possible the cane is fired before harvesting to remove the dead leaf material and some of the waxy coating. The fire burns at quite high temperatures but is monitored to last only for a short period so that the cane and its sugar are not harmed (www.food-info.net). Harvesting is done by hand during the earlier days but has been done with machine beginning 18th century. First stage of processing is the extraction of cane juice. Boiling was the main extraction procedure during the 15th century (Purseglove, 1979). With the upgrade of processes before the 19th century, extraction of sugar cane juice included the removal of excess water through the use of machines and cleaning up the juice with slaked lime (www.sucrose.com). As with the traditional way, evaporation comes next in the process by thi ckening up the juice in the syrup by removing the water through boiling. In earlier years, leaving it as syrup or drying up the water under the sun or through steaming and having unrefined crystals would have sufficed and the process of producing the end product would have ended (Heiser, 1981). With the advent of machines, even the simple traditional ones, crystallization takes place through painstaking procedures of boiling. After making the product fit for storage, affination comes next to continuously refine the end product characterized to be primarily as sweetener. The end

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Comparing Two Artists Essay Example for Free

Comparing Two Artists Essay Magritte uses minimal dull colours though he changes tones within his colours to create shadowy effects and also creates a layered element contributing to line within his artwork; the horizontal layers between the background make the vertical lines of the owls stand out in the foreground of his artwork. Magritte is known to not leave hidden messages within his artwork, cleverly painting the reality he see’s. For this particular symbolic painting Magritte uses oil on canvas, the sharp detail he uses in his brush strokes make the image look real but not real at the same time. His witty version of reality he paints fall into surrealism, although his artwork include symbolic owls his painting is clear, interesting and well defined, he wanted his viewers to look at his painting and appreciate what is right there, not leaving them wondering why or what it means, because everything he wished to portray is right there in the artwork. Owls symbolize wisdom. In many cultures they are believed to be able to see all things that are usually hidden quite possibly fears. Magritte uses these owls to represent as an ancient human fear or the owls are the companions of our ancient fears, the birds growing from the soil may represent the ‘roots’ to our fears. In comparison to Magritte, Peter Booth’s artwork ‘Untitled 1976’ displays an image of apocalyptic shock, at the same time Booth includes his painful personal experiences and his view of humanity. This is evident when he uses harsh and cold colours to represent the apocalyptic vibe he sends through his artwork, the tones are very similar within each colour although when looking at the whole painting the contrast between the different colours is quite prominent leaving a cold feeling for his viewers to feel. Line has most strongly been used to create the strong horizon line and hence fore-middle- and background. The thin repeated lines of the fire and sky create pattern and simulated texture. The texture of the paint Booth uses to illustrate the industrial side of his landscape maybe suggesting he had a rough childhood. The shape of the figures in Booth’s artwork are all out of proportion, implying they could be apart of his hazy memory or hallucination, and this is how he remembers them. Booth uses gouache on paper for this particular artwork his intense brush strokes create perspective on his painting, guiding his viewers to understand and follow where he directs them. His work is characterised by an intense emotional power of often dark narratives, and esoteric symbolism, this artwork also reflecting on his nightmarish dreams which categorise him in surrealism, as he works closely with the element of surprise or shock difference. The colours he uses are symbolic to aspects of his childhood growing up in the industrial surroundings.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Essay --

Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3,1808, in ____ Kentucky. He was the tenth of ten children. Davis was named after the third president of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson. During his childhood Davis moved twice; he moved at the age of 3 to St.Mary Parish, Louisiana. Less than a year later he moved to Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Three of his brothers served in the war of 1812. He began his education in 1813 at Wilkinson Academy, near the family cotton plantation. Davis Later attended a catholic school called Saint Thomas. When he was there he was the only protestant student in attendance. Davis went on to attend Jefferson College in Washington, Mississippi, in 1818, and then attended Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1821. His father Samuel died on July 4, 1824, when Jefferson was 16 years old. He attended the United States Military Academy starting in 1824. He was placed under house arrest after his involvement in the eggnog riots. In June 182 8 he graduated 23rd in a class of 33. Following graduation, Second Lieutenant Davis was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment he was stationed at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Territory. Zachary Taylor had recently been placed in command of the fort when Davis arrived in early 1829. Davis returned to Mississippi on furlough in March 1832 this was his first leave since arriving at the fort. The Black Hawk war broke out while Davis was still in Mississippi. He quickly returned to the fort in August 1832. At the end of the war, Colonel Taylor assigned him to the transportation of Black Hawk to prison. Davis soon fell in love with Sarah Knox Taylor, his commanding officers daughter. They pursued Sarah’s father for permission to marry but he... ...inted and then elected to the U.S. Senate. He resigned his position to run for Governor of Mississippi. Although he was not successful, he was ultimately named Secretary of War under President Pierce. He went back to the Senate in the 1840s and remained there until Mississippi seceded January 9, 1861. Davis waited for official notification and addressed the Senate on January 21, 1861 calling it the â€Å"saddest day of his life.† He returned to Mississippi. Davis was first named as Major General for the Army of Mississippi on January 23, 1861 and then elected as Provisional President of the Confederate States of America and inaugurated in February. He was selected because of his military and political background. When Virginia joined the Confederacy, Davis moved the Capital to Richmond in May 1861. By November he had been elected to a full-six year term as President.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Communication Strategies Team Assignment

The team at Health and Wellness America will develop a 4-point communication model to reach and effectively convey information to the four major generations. Our company will use four primary tools: coherence, consistency, continuity, and complimentary, along with the understanding the importance of connecting with the target audience. We will also provide Phoenix Health Systems with multiple examples of successful industries that have been able to leverage transparency, along with a plan to apply those transparencies to your strategy. Communication Strategies for Different GenerationsDetermining the target audience and what information we are trying to convey IS essential to communicating effectively. Once the target audience is identified, the method of communication can be established. The target audience for new diabetes clinic within a hospital will be anyone who suffers from diabetes or has family and friends with diabetes. Different methods of communication will be imperative because of the wide range of people diabetes affects. Diabetes can strike anyone from any background, ethnicity, age, gender, and socioeconomic status.Health education and social arresting are the two major types of communication that will have the largest impact on such a large and unspecified audience. Education is an essential component of action to promote health and prevent disease. Campaigns, to promote healthy lifestyles and preventative health services, have been a fundamental tool since the sass's (Nutmeat, 2000). Promotions are appealing to the older generations, such as the baby boomers, who still investigate reading materials such as pamphlets and medical literature in the waiting areas of their primary care providers. Understanding differences teen the generations is fundamental in building a communication model that is not only effective, but efficient (United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, 2014). For each generation, there are particular experiences that mold speci fic preferences, expectations, and beliefs (Sloshes, 2012). Traditionalists: are indirect communicators, and respect a more traditional approach and often do not respond well to the jargon used to attract other generations.Communicating with this generation may require some probing and will need some written communication to aid them. This generation will also require some face-to-face approaches to help gain their trust, loyalty, and understanding. It is important to make traditionalist feel comfortable by communicating in a formal manner that is respectful and serious (Sloshes, 2012). They do not respond well to sales pitches. The use of newspapers, television, radio, community mailers and other written communication will be a beneficial when communicating a message to large groups of traditionalist.Baby Boomers: This generation has some characteristics of the traditionalist generation; however, they possess ample knowledge Of tech oenology but would refer a more personal style of communication over an impersonal approach. Baby boomers do not like feeling like they are being told what to do; they would rather have detailed information to help them make the decision on their own (Sloshes, 2012). Baby boomers tend to need both traditional and non-traditional forms of communication to communicate information effectively.Generation X: This generation prefers online forms of communication and interaction. E-mail is the preferred medium. Generation X will also want to ask questions so using electronic forums, blobs, tutorials, ND other online tools, this will be an excellent strategy for communicating (Sloshes, 2012). Generation Y: This generation is very high tech and responds well to social media (Sloshes, 2012). Illusionist about every form of electronic communication tool will be a useful asset when addressing Generation Y.This generation does not accept just one main source of information, they prefer to do research and establish facts through other outlets. We can also expand our education via social media and networking sites such as WebMD and other online medical journals. Interactive communication such as lately eating demonstrations and health and fitness expos in the community will appeal to the younger generation while also allowing the target audience to be more proactive about the treatment and maintenance of diabetes.Reaching Targeted Audiences Our company will use four primary tools: coherence, consistency, continuity, and complimentary, along with understanding the importance of connecting with the target audience. Coherence: Media is the logical thought when trying to spread the word about the clinic opening and why patient should seek treatment for diabetes. When targeting the traditionalist and baby boomer enervation' social media will not be the main form of communication. While their loved ones from the X and Y Generation rely heavily on the use social media as their primary form of communication.Older generations tend to respond positively to television advertisements, pamphlets, and print ads. When using those forms of communication it will be important to show risks, concerns, complications, statistics, and what sets the new facility apart from other diabetes clinics. Younger audiences will respond more positively to information displayed on social media. The message to younger generations ill need to place an emphasis on cost, signs and symptoms, and treatment increasing quality of life.It will also be important that other relatable electronic resources are provided, so the more tech savvy audiences can conduct research and ask relevant questions. Consistency: It is crucial to be consistent when delivering the hospital's mission and vision through multiple communication channels. Continuity: Conveying a message of continuity will give the targeted audience reassurance and confidence in the services being provided. Complimentary: using the different avenues across multiple littorals of social m edia, print, and television advertisements will help grow a wider audience.Hosting community events and wellness checks will also promote brand recognition and trust among the community. Leveraging Transparency Today's healthcare is complex; it involves leveraging population health programs to make a greater impact on the community health issues (EACH, 2013). Some healthcare industries have launched diabetes program successfully with a push towards transparency. Examples of such industries or organizations include: Gosling Diabetes Center, Inc. , Good SamaritanHospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, Leapfrog Group, Health Consumer Powerhouse, the University of Miami and Vanderbilt University. Northwest Memorial Hospital: Northwest Memorial is committed to meeting the health needs of Chicago, as well as the community surrounding it for 150 years. Northwest Memorial Hospital has also partnered with community healthcare organization for the last 40 years. Teamwork has aided the successful tackling of the health needs of the community including chronic diseases such as diabetes, helping to munch the Diabetes Collaborative Program.This comprehensive program initially started with 200 patients in 2006, through a collaborative effort of Northwestern Memorial, the School of Medicine at Northwestern University Fingers, as well as the Near North Health Services Corp. (NM, 2012). The goal of the program is to identify and educate adult type two diabetic patients about disease management. The program currently tracks over 4,000 diabetics currently engaged in routine examinations and care. It provided materials for health education in English as well as Spanish.The materials re designed to increase patients' understanding regarding the disease, proper eating habits, diet, as well as the significance of routine checkups (NM, 2012). Vanderbilt University: Vanderbilt program aims to improve chronic disease management, high-ris k transition, care coordination as well as high- cost patients, who have diabetes, hypertension, and congestive heart failure. Most of the patients are Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries who live in 18 urban and rural counties in Kentucky and Tennessee. It is funded with $1 8,846,090 and the estimated savings within three years is $27,269,705.To improve the management of disease, Vanderbilt has built inter-professional health teams as well as improved health information technology (HIT) which includes disease registries and clinical workflow involving an evidence-based decision support. This has increased communication and care planning. The resulting outcome has been; improved coordination of care, reduced hospital admissions, as well as readmission and emergency room calls and visits (SMS, n. Applying Transparency There are five simple steps to apply transparency successfully in the new diabetes program much like other organizations have.The first step is to increase staff knowle dge and confidence. The second step is to provide physicians and nurses with guidelines for diabetes management. The third step is to improve education and clinical management for inpatient and outpatient clients. The fourth step is to establish interdisciplinary teams. The team's specific activities include the establishment of diabetes care goals, clinical staff education, and quality improvement activities designed to evaluate diabetes management. The final step is to develop a marketing team to communicate the clinics services and healthcare opportunities.Conclusion The process of successfully launching a new diabetes clinic will continue long after the clinic open and fully functional. Communication strategies will need to be in place for many different circumstances. Over the course of roughly 12-18 months, Phoenix Health Systems will be aided by Health and Wellness of America to institute the 4-point communication model to reach and effectively convey information to the four major generations. The use of coherence, consistency, continuity, and complimentary communication strategies will help deliver information to the masses in the most efficient and reentrant way possible. 2 nt Needs. NTfneeds

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Sony-Ericsson Case

The reasons for this are of course numerous. One of the reasons was that both companies only had a minor market share, Ericson 10% and Sony 1,5% of the world market, whereas as the leader Nooks had 30,6%. This giving Nooks a huge advantage in existing customers as well as strong brand awareness. Another main reason for the fusion of both the mobile departments of the company was that both had problems in managing their departments. Sony had so many different sectors it was in that mobile was Just one more and was ;t paid enough attention.Ericson had the technology to be a leader, but they were always criticized for only being a group of engineers, developing good products, but not paying as much attention to customers desires as Nooks did. Therefore being significantly less successful than their Finnish rival. Both companies needed to restructure their efforts in the mobile development and that Is why it made sense for them both to start this partnership. Ericson would provide people and their expertise In telecommunications and Sony it ‘s expertise In consumer electronics products as well as $500 million.Both were able to cut costs significantly and still able to become a global player on this prosperous market In the future. 2) What was needed to succeed in this market? The main attributes that were needed to succeed in the market was the knowledge to develop in the direction of the technology that would be used in the future, as well as knowing and offering your customers what they were looking for. In fact one can say that Nooks did everything one needed to do to succeed. They listen to what their clients where looking/expecting from their mobile phones, and built a product portfolio accordingly.Due to this approach they were able to offer a specific product to every customer profile they had. Concerning technology they also did good work being the clear leaders In the 26 markets, which gave them a age head start. The management also did an excellent work, having a better-cost extra effort on not becoming a huge corporation with 100,000 employees, staying rather small gave them the advantage that decision could be taken quickly and that changes and adoptions to the products were able to be done immediately. ) Compare Ionians and Sony Ericson Mobile Communication's situations (activities, competences, finances) SEEM had a clear goal, which was to become the global number one player for multimedia products. This was supposed to be achieved by combining their forces in R&D, marketing, sales, distribution and customer services. The Joint force should give them the resources to overcome their seemingly untouchable competitor Nooks. The soft activities they were planning and adapting were: being responsive to the market, analyzing the behavior of the consumers and of their competitors.Nooks on the other hand wanted to keep their activities in the mobile sector at the same high level they had been over the sass's, strengthening their p osition in the market today and constantly investing in R. Even increasing the percentage of net sales being reinvested to R, which were around 8,9% in the late sass's, the goal being to maintain the strong market position for the 36 generation phones. From a financial point of view, we can only compare the individual financial statements of Ericson, Sony and Nooks from the appendix of the case.In a first look at the data available we can deduct that the financial situation of Nooks is clearly the most advantageous one. To be able to analyses financial statements that are comparable, I will only look at the ones of Nooks and Ericson. The Sony Corporation has so many different activities going on that from this financial statement I can't detect which revenues are from the mobile industry. The only observations I would like to mention about the company is that their revenue has been increasing over the years, but net income has been decreasing.This showing that in the core business w e are talking about Nooks has made the biggest step by increasing net sales in this sector by offer having a 80% growth per year between 1998 and 2000. These numbers are also reflected in the market share Nooks has on the world mobile market. 4) What are the potential risks for this alliance? The risks for this alliance are of course numerous. First of all Sony Ericson has to find a proper way to communicate to the public/customers why they have merged heir mobile departments and explain what profits this results in for them in the tend to which to other brands.This is the main risk, that they have to manage, which has to be dealt with proper attention and experienced marketing experts, so that a clear message is sent out to the public and current/future customers. Another potential risk is the management that consists of managers from both Ericson and Sony. It provides conflict potential when two corporate cultures clash. Managers from both sides are used to doing business their wa y but now they have to adapt to the managing methods of one another.This might make it difficult to find a common strategy, with which they want to market their brand. The responsibilities and decision fields have to be clearly defined to avoid these kinds of occurrences as good as possible. A further threat would be that both sides could quickly get frustrated if results are not as good or worse than expected. This could lead to one accusing the other of bad management, insufficient research and so on, resulting in a bad atmosphere in the company. This would further complicate the merger and might even lead to the decision to go separate ways again.