Essays --

Sex- Based Migration in Black Bears (Ursus americanus) Introduction: Ursus americanus, the American black bear is the most common of the world’s bear species, about up to twelve times more abundant than grizzly or brown bears. They usually occupy forested areas but their habitats are highly variable— from the Louisiana Bayou to the Labrador Tundra, and the Northwestern rain forests in between. (Wilson & Ruff, 1999) American black bears are hunted legally seasonally due to their widespread population and distribution. However, with the increase in deforestation for industrialization in the Tri-State (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) area, the habitat loss could have adverse effects on the black bear populations. An interference with their natural territory could lead to alteration in the dispersal patterns. (Dixon, Wooten, McCown, Oli, Eason, & Cunningham, 2007) Black bears are omnivorous and although a part of their diet consists of meat and insects, they primarily rely on fruits and nuts for their diet. Therefore, a plant’s annual cycle of fruiting is tied to a bear’s annual behavior and its physiological cycle. (Wilson & Ruff, 1999) Bears tend to congregate and gather in an area with an abundance of food and occasionally return time and again to areas with ease of access to foods- like dumpsters. (North American Bear Center) Despite this, black bear dispersal is not reliant on local food shortages in population densities that have been observed. (Rogers, 1987) There are other factors influencing the dispersal and migrations of black bears which have been studied. Urus americanus are not known to monogamous and mate promiscuously. (Rogers, 1987) Males mate with more than one female and disperse more, sometimes looking for oth... ... cubs will be expected to be found closer to or at their initial home range. If however, a larger number of female bear’s DNA is collected farther than their home ranges, it could imply that previous studies bases solely on observation or mark and recapture methods were inaccurate due to the limited populations that were sampled. An observation of this nature could imply that sows dispersed farther in search for new mates or safer dens for their cubs rather than males who were expected to wander away. More likely though, this observation could be an exception to the rule or just flawed collection and processing techniques. Providing that the study conducted is not faulty, it will supply important information regarding dispersal patters of the American black bear. Even the data gathered in the course of this study can be used for further research on Ursus americanus.

Human Resources Management and Training Essay

A writing audit contains some basic rundown of key sources, yet it, for the most part, has a hierarchical example and joins both outline and mix, regularly inside particular reasonable sorts. A synopsis is an audit of the fundamental data of the source, however, a union is an improvement, or a rebuild, of that data in a way that illuminates how you are wanting to examine an exploration issue. The systematic highlights of a writing audit may: †¢ Give another clarification of old material or blend of new with old understandings, †¢ Trace the subjective improvement of the field, including principle talks about, †¢ Based on the circumstance, asses the sources and guide the peruser on the most reasonable or pertinent, or †¢ Usually, in the consummation of a writing survey, distinguish where defects exist in how an issue has been looked into to date. The reason for a writing survey is to: †¢ Place each work in the encompassing of its presentation to the comprehension of the exploration issue being considered, †¢ Describe the association of each work to the others under survey, †¢ Identify better approaches to clarify, and shed light on any defects in past research, †¢ Solving issues among as far as anyone knows nullification of past examinations, †¢ Point the path in dealing with a requirement for additional examination, and †¢ Discover your own particular discoveries inside the setting of existing writing. The writing survey which was utilized: †¢ Methodological Survey : This approach gives a structure of comprehension at various levels (i.e. those of hypothesis, substantive fields, investigate methodologies and information accumulation and examination strategies), empowers specialists to draw on a wide variety of understanding going from the applied level to useful archives for use in hands on work in the zones of ontological and epistemological thought, quantitative and subjective reconciliation, testing, talking with, information gathering and information examination, and helps feature numerous moral issues which we ought to know about and consider as we experience our examination. †¢ Argumentative Audit This shape analyzes writing specifically so as to help or disprove a contention, profoundly embedded figure, or philosophical blemishes effectively settled in the writing. The design is to build up a group of writing that sets up a contrarian perspective. Given the esteem loaded nature of some sociology inquire about [e.g., instructive change; migration control], contentious ways to deal with dissecting the writing can be honest to goodness and essential type of talk. Nonetheless, take note of that they can likewise present issues of predisposition when they are utilized to make rundown cases of the sort found inefficient surveys. †¢ Theoretical Audit The target of this frame is to inspect the corpus of the hypothesis that has aggregated with respect to an issue, idea, hypothesis, wonders. The hypothetical writing audit help builds up what speculations as of now exist, the connections between them, to what degree the current speculations have been explored, and to grow new theories to be tried. Regularly this shape is utilized to help set up an absence of suitable speculations or uncover that momentum hypotheses are insufficient for clarifying new or developing examination issues. The unit of examination can concentrate on a hypothetical idea or an entire hypothesis or structure.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 9

Part II Change Jesus was a good guy, he didn't need this shit. JOHN PRINE Chapter 9 I should have had a plan before I tried to escape from the hotel room, I see that now. At the time, dashing out the door and into the arms of sweet freedom seemed like plan enough. I got as far as the lobby. It is a fine lobby, as grand as any palace, but in the way of freedom, I need more. I noticed before Raziel dragged me back into the elevator, nearly dislocating my shoulder in the process, that there were an inordinate number of old people in the lobby. In fact, compared to my time, there are inordinate numbers of old people everywhere – well, not on TV, but everywhere else. Have you people forgotten how to die? Or have you used up all of the young people on television so there's nothing left but gray hair and wrinkled flesh? In my time, if you had seen forty summers it was time to start thinking about moving on, making room for the youngsters. If you lasted to fifty the mourners would give you dirty looks when they passed, as if you were purposely trying to put them out of business. The Torah says that Moses lived to be 120 years old. I'm guessing that the children of Israel were following him just to see when he would drop. There was probably betting. If I do manage to escape the angel, I'm not going to be able to make my living as a professional mourner, not if you people don't have the courtesy to die. Just as well, I suppose, I'd have to learn all new dirges. I've tried to get the angel to watch MTV so I can learn the vocabulary of your music, but even with the gift of tongues, I'm having trouble learning to speak hip-hop. Why is it that one can busta rhyme or busta move anywhere but you must busta cap in someone's ass? Is â€Å"ho† always feminine, and â€Å"muthafucka† always masculine, while â€Å"bitch† can be either? How many peeps in a posse, how much booty before baby got back, do you have to be all that to get all up in that, and do I need to be dope and phat to be da bomb or can I just be â€Å"stupid†? I'll not be singing over any dead mothers until I understand. The journey. The quest. The search for the Magi. We traveled first to the coast. Neither Joshua nor I had ever seen the sea before, so as we topped a hill near the city of Ptolomais, and the endless aquamarine of the Mediterranean stretched before us, Joshua fell to his knees and gave thanks to his father. â€Å"You can almost see the edge of the world,† Joshua said. I squinted into the dazzling sun, really looking for the edge of the world. â€Å"It looks sort of curved,† I said. â€Å"What?† Joshua scanned the horizon, but evidently he didn't see the curve. â€Å"The edge of the world looks curved. I think it's round.† â€Å"What's round?† â€Å"The world. I think it's round.† â€Å"Of course it's round, like a plate. If you go to the edge you fall off. Every sailor knows that,† Joshua said with great authority. â€Å"Not round like a plate, round like a ball.† â€Å"Don't be silly,† Joshua said. â€Å"If the world was round like a ball then we would slide off of it.† â€Å"Not if it's sticky,† I said. Joshua lifted his foot and looked at the bottom of his sandal, then at me, then at the ground. â€Å"Sticky?† I looked at the bottom of my own shoe, hoping to perhaps see strands of stickiness there, like melted cheese tethering me to the ground. When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument. â€Å"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean the world is not sticky.† Joshua rolled his eyes. â€Å"Let's go swimming.† He took off down the hill. â€Å"What about the God?† I asked. â€Å"You can't see him.† Joshua stopped halfway down the hill and held his arms out to the shining, aquamarine sea. â€Å"You can't?† â€Å"That's a crappy argument, Josh.† I followed him down the hill, shouting as I went. â€Å"If you're not going to try, I'm not going to argue with you anymore. So, what if stickiness is like God? You know, how He abandons our people and leads them into slavery whenever we stop believing in Him. Stickiness could be like that. You could float off into the sky any time now because you don't believe in stickiness.† â€Å"It's good that you have something to believe in, Biff. I'm going in the water.† He ran down the beach, shedding his clothes as he went, then dove into the surf, naked. Later, after we'd both swallowed enough salt water to make us sick, we headed up the coast to the city of Ptolemais. â€Å"I didn't think it would be so salty,† Joshua said. â€Å"Yeah,† I said, â€Å"you'd never know it by looking at it.† â€Å"Are you still angry about your round-earth-stickiness theory?† â€Å"I don't expect you to understand,† I said, sounding very mature, I thought. â€Å"You being a virgin and all.† Joshua stopped and grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to wheel around and face him. â€Å"The night you spent with Maggie I spent praying to my father to take away the thoughts of you two. He didn't answer me. It was like trying to sleep on a bed of thorns. Since we left I was beginning to forget, or at least leave it behind, but you keep throwing it in my face.† â€Å"You're right,† I said. â€Å"I forgot how sensitive you virgins can be.† Then, once again, and not for the last time, the Prince of Peace coldcocked me. A bony, stonecutter's fist just over my right eye. He hit harder than I remembered. I remember white seabirds in the sky above me, and just a wisp of clouds across the sky. I remember the frothy surf sloshing over my face, leaving sand in my ears. I remember thinking that I should get up and smite Josh upside the head. I remember thinking then that if I got up, Josh might hit me again, so I lay there for a moment, just thinking. â€Å"So, what do you want?† I said, finally, from my wet and sandy supinity. He stood over me with his fists balled. â€Å"If you're going to keep bringing it up, you have to tell me the details.† â€Å"I can do that.† â€Å"And don't leave anything out.† â€Å"Nothing?† â€Å"I've got to know if I'm going to understand sin.† â€Å"Okay, can I get up? My ears are filling with sand.† He helped me to my feet and as we entered the seaside city of Ptolomais, I taught Josh about sex. Down narrow stone streets between high stone walls. â€Å"Well, most of what we learned from the rabbis was not exactly accurate.† Past men sitting outside their houses, mending their nets. Children selling cups of pomegranate juice, women hanging strings of fish from window to window to dry. â€Å"For instance, you know that part right after Lot's wife gets turned to stone and then his daughters get drunk and fornicate with him?† â€Å"Right, after Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed.† â€Å"Well, that's not as bad as it sounds,† I said. We passed Phoenician women who sang as they pounded dried fish into meal. We passed evaporation pools where children scraped the encrusted salt from the rocks and put it into bags. â€Å"But fornication is a sin, and fornication with your daughters, well, that's a, I don't know, that's a double-dog sin.† â€Å"Yeah, but if you put that aside for a second, and you just focus on the two young girls aspect of it, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds initially.† â€Å"Oh.† We passed merchants selling fruit and bread and oil, spices and incense, calling out claims of quality and magic in their wares. There was a lot of magic for sale in those days. â€Å"And the Song of Solomon, that's a lot closer, and you can sort of understand Solomon having a thousand wives. In fact, with you being the Son of God and all, I don't think you'd have any problem getting that many girls. I mean, after you figure out what you're doing.† â€Å"And a lot of girls is a good thing?† â€Å"You're a ninny, aren't you?† â€Å"I thought you'd be more specific. What does Maggie have to do with Lot and Solomon?† â€Å"I can't tell you about me and Maggie, Josh. I just can't.† We were passing a lick of prostitutes gathered outside the door of an inn. Their faces were painted, their skirts slit up the side to show their legs glistening with oil, and they called to us in foreign languages and made tiny dances with their hands as we passed. â€Å"What the hell are they saying?† I asked Joshua. He was better with languages. I think they were speaking Greek. â€Å"They said something about how they like Hebrew boys because we can feel a woman's tongue better without our foreskins.† He looked at me as if I might confirm or deny this. â€Å"How much money do we have?† I asked. The inn rented rooms, stalls, and space under the eave to sleep. We rented two adjacent stalls, which was a bit of a luxury for us, but an important one for Joshua's education. After all, weren't we on this journey so he could learn to take his rightful place as the Messiah? â€Å"I'm not sure if I should watch,† Joshua said. â€Å"Remember David was running over the roofs and happened onto Bathsheba in her bath. That set a whole chain of sin in motion.† â€Å"But listening won't be a problem.† â€Å"I don't think it's the same thing.† â€Å"Are you sure that you don't want to try this yourself, Josh? I mean, the angel was never clear about your being with a woman.† To be honest, I was a little frightened myself. My experience with Maggie hardly qualified me to be with a harlot. â€Å"No, you go ahead. Just describe what's happening and what you're feeling. I have to understand sin.† â€Å"Okay, if you insist.† â€Å"Thank you for doing this for me, Biff.† â€Å"Not just for you, Josh, for our people.† So that's how we ended up with the two stalls. Josh would be in one while I, along with the harlot of my choice, instructed him from the other in the fine art of fornication. Back out at the front of the inn I shopped for my teaching assistant. It was an eight-harlot inn, if that's how you measure an inn. (I understand that now they measure inns in stars. We are in a four-star inn right now. I don't know what the conversion from harlots to stars is.) Anyway, there were eight harlots outside the inn that day. They ranged in age from only a few years older than us to older than our mothers. And they ran the gamut of shapes and sizes, having in common only that they were all highly painted and well oiled. â€Å"They're all so†¦so nasty-looking.† â€Å"They're harlots, Biff. They're supposed to be nasty-looking. Pick one.† â€Å"Let's go look at some different harlots.† We had been standing a few doors down from the harlots, but they knew we were watching. I walked over and stopped close to a particularly tall harlot and said, â€Å"Excuse me, do you know where we might find a different selection of harlots? No offense, it's just that my friend and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And she pulled open her blouse, exposing full breasts that were glistening with oil and flecks of mica, and she threw her skirt aside and stepped up so a long leg slid behind me and I could feel the rough hair between her legs grinding against my hip and her rouged nipples brushed my cheek and in that instant profound wood did from my person protrude. â€Å"This one will be fine, Josh.† The other harlots let loose with an exaltation of ululation as we led my harlot away. (You know ululation as the sound an ambulance makes. That I get an erection every time one passes the hotel would seem morbid if you didn't know this story of how Biff Hires a Harlot.) The harlot's name was Set. She was a head and a half taller than me, with skin the color of a ripe date, wide brown eyes flecked with gold, and hair so black that it reflected blue in the dim light of the stable. She was the perfect harlot design, wide where a harlot should be wide, narrow where a harlot should be narrow, delicate of ankle and neck, sturdy of conscience, intrepid and single-minded of goal once she was paid. She was an Egyptian, but she had learned Greek and a little Latin to help lubricate the discourse of her trade. Our situation required more creativity than she seemed accustomed to, but after a heavy sigh she mumbled something about â€Å"if you fuck a Hebrew, make room in the bed for his guilt,â €  then pulled me into my stall and closed the gate. (Yes, the stalls were used for animals. There was a donkey in the stall opposite Josh's.) â€Å"So what's she doing?† Josh asked. â€Å"She's taking off my clothes.† â€Å"What now.† â€Å"She's taking off her clothes. Oh jeez. Ouch.† â€Å"What? Are you fornicating?† â€Å"No. She's rubbing her whole body over mine, sort of lightly. When I try to move she smacks me in the face.† â€Å"How does it feel?† â€Å"How do you think? It feels like someone smacking you, you twit.† â€Å"I mean how does her body feel? Do you feel sinful? Is it like Satan rubbing against you? Does it burn like fire?† â€Å"Yeah, you got it. That pretty much has it.† â€Å"You're lying.† â€Å"Oh wow.† Then Josh said something in Greek that I didn't catch all of and the harlot answered, sort of. â€Å"What did she say?† Josh asked. â€Å"I don't know, you know my Greek is bad.† â€Å"Mine isn't, I couldn't understand what she said.† â€Å"Her mouth is full.† Set raised up. â€Å"Not full,† she said in Greek. â€Å"Hey, I understood that!† â€Å"She has you in her mouth?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"That's heinous.† â€Å"It doesn't feel heinous.† â€Å"It doesn't?† â€Å"No, Josh, I gotta tell you, this really is – oh my God!† â€Å"What? What's happening?† â€Å"She's getting dressed.† â€Å"Are you done sinning? That's it?† The harlot said something in Greek that I didn't understand. â€Å"What did she say?† I asked. â€Å"She said that for the amount of money we gave her, you're finished.† â€Å"Do you think you understand fornication now?† â€Å"Not really.† â€Å"Well then, give her some more money, Joshua. We're going to stay here until you learn what you need to know.† â€Å"You're a good friend to suffer this for me.† â€Å"Don't mention it.† â€Å"No, really,† Joshua said. â€Å"Greater love hath no man, than he lay down for his friend.† â€Å"That's a good one, Josh. You should remember that one for later.† The harlot then spoke at length. â€Å"You want to know what this is like for me, kid? This is like a job. Which means that if you want it done, you need to pay for it. That's what it's like.† (Joshua would translate for me later.) â€Å"What'd she say?† I asked. â€Å"She wants the wages of sin.† â€Å"Which are?† â€Å"In this case, three shekels.† â€Å"That's a bargain. Pay her.† Much as I tried – and I did try – I didn't seem able to convey to Joshua what it was he wanted to know. I went through a half-dozen more harlots and a large portion of our traveling money over the next week, but he still didn't understand. I suggested that perhaps this was one of the things that the magician Balthasar was supposed to teach Joshua. Truth be told, I'd developed a burning sensation when I peed and I was ready for a break from tutoring my friend in the fine art of sinning. It's a week or less by sea if we go to Selucia, then it's less than a day's walk inland to Antioch,† Joshua said, after he had been talking to some sailors who were drinking at the inn. â€Å"Overland it's two to three weeks.† â€Å"By sea, then,† I said. Pretty brave, I thought, considering I'd never set foot in a boat in my life. We found a wide-beamed, raised-stern Roman cargo ship bound for Tarsus that would stop at all the ports along the way, including Selucia. The ship's master was a wiry, hatchet-faced Phoenician named Titus Inventius, who claimed to have gone to sea when he was four and sailed to the edge of the world twice before his balls dropped, although what one had to do with the other I never figured out. â€Å"What can you do? What's your trade?† Titus asked, from under a great straw hat he wore while watching the slaves load jars of wine and oil onto the ship. His eyes were black beads set back in caves of wrinkles formed by a lifetime of squinting into the sun. â€Å"Well, I'm a stonemason and he's the Son of God.† I grinned. I thought that would give us more diversity than just saying we were two stonemasons. Titus pushed the straw hat back on his head and looked Joshua up and down. â€Å"Son of God, huh? How's that pay?† Joshua scowled at me. â€Å"I know stone work and carpentry, and we both have strong backs.† â€Å"There's not a lot of call for stone work aboard a ship. Have you been to sea before?† â€Å"Yes,† I said. â€Å"No,† Joshua said. â€Å"He was sick that day,† I said. â€Å"I've been to sea.† Titus laughed. â€Å"Fine, you go help get those jars on board. I'm taking a load of pigs as far as Sidon, you two keep them calm and keep them alive in the heat and by that time maybe you'll be something of use to me. But it costs you as well.† â€Å"How much?† Joshua asked. â€Å"How much do you have?† â€Å"Five shekels,† I said. â€Å"Twenty shekels,† Joshua said. I elbowed the Messiah in the ribs hard enough to bend him over. â€Å"Ten shekels,† I said. â€Å"Five each, I meant before when I said five.† I felt as if I was negotiating with myself, and not doing that well. â€Å"Then ten shekels plus any work I can find for you. But if you puke on my ship, you're over the side, you hear me? Ten shekels or not.† â€Å"Absolutely,† I said, pulling Joshua down the dock to where the slaves were loading jars. When we were out of earshot of Captain Titus, Joshua said, â€Å"You have to tell him that we're Jews, we can't tend pigs.† I grabbed one of the huge wine jars by the ears and started to drag it toward the ship. â€Å"It's okay, they're Roman pigs. They don't care.† â€Å"Oh, all right,† Joshua said, latching onto a jar of his own and hoisting it onto his back. Then it hit him and he set the jar down again. â€Å"Hey, wait, that's not right.† The next morning we sailed with the tide. Joshua, me, a crew of thirty, Titus, and fifty allegedly Roman pigs. Until we cast off from the dock – Josh and I manning one of the long oars – and we were well out of the harbor; until we had shipped the oars and the great square sail was ballooned over the deck like the belly of a gluttonous genie; until Joshua and I climbed to the rear of the ship where Titus stood on the raised deck manning one of the two long steering oars and I looked back toward land, and could see not a city but a speck on the horizon; until then, I had no idea that I had a deep-seated fear of sailing. â€Å"We are way too far away from land,† I said. â€Å"Way too far. You really need to steer closer to the land, Titus.† I pointed to land, in case Titus was unsure as to which way he should go. It makes sense, don't you think? I mean, I grew up in an arid country, inland, where even the rivers are little more than damp ditches. My people come from the desert. The one time we actually had to cross a sea, we walked. Sailing seemed, well, unnatural. â€Å"If the Lord had meant us to sail we would have been born with, uh, masts,† I said. â€Å"That's the dumbest thing you've ever said,† said Joshua. â€Å"Can you swim?† asked Titus. â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"Yes he can,† Joshua said. Titus grabbed me by the back of the neck and threw me over the stern of the ship.

Delamere Vineyard Essay

â€Å"Delamere Vineyard is a small, integrated winemaking business in Tasmania, specializing in pinot noir (red) and chardonnay (white) wines. Richard Richardson, Delamere’s owner and winemaker, manages and operates the vineyard and winery largely alone. His products have won praise and awards in the past, but Richardson strives continuously to improve. Delamere competes in the high-priced segment, in which quality is paramount. Richardson is well equipped as a winemaker–with a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry and 15 years’ experience.† (Harvard Business School, 2000) Winemaking is a very exclusive, yet competitive business that requires great care and understanding of customer demands. Problem Richard Richardson, winemaker at Delamere Vineyard, is facing a change in his production of wine with uncertainty because of his ongoing desire to improve quality and sales. He has relied on his scientific knowledge to steer his company and now would like to move forward and improve his quality of wine and increase profit. Richardson is in the process of upgrading his production process to produce a better quality product based on customer satisfaction and wine critics, and needs to make a decision on how he will implement this. Objectives/Goals Richard Richardson is facing challenges for the new direction of his company. He needs to make some decisions as to his innovative way of wine production to enhance the quality and increase his profit and sales. Richardson needs to improve customer satisfaction for his pinot noir and chardonnay wines. Richardson has to improve his marketing and advertising for the vineyard to increase sales and profit. Richardson needs to find a niche in the wine industry and set his wine apart from the other vineyards. Richardson has been making mediocre wine for the past 15 years and desires to set his company apart by increasing the quality and production of his wine to boost profit and sales. â€Å"At the establishment of his vineyard, Richardson had drawn inspiration from his scientific training and the advice and example of others who preceded him† (Harvard Business School, 2000). Richardson needs to focus on the process of developing quality wine with the purpose of meeting a large percentage of customer satisfaction without sacrificing capital or increase costs in production over a long period of time. Since Richardson is fixated on two types of winemaking, he needs to focus on the ways to improve quality and control outcome to maintain consistency throughout the years. Customers are quick to notice subtle changes in wine quality and are apt to err on the side of caution when deciding on future purchases. Wholesalers are the wineries main source of sales and they â€Å"sought consistent quality at a moderate price, and favored wines that would have wide appeal by being made in a recognizable and popular style† (Harvard Business School, 2000). Richardson is very emotionally attached to his business and takes the entire role of decision making upon himself. Richardson needs to consider insight into new trends in winemaking and procedures that have worke d in the past with other vineyards. Delamere Vineyards should be a family business built on the constant goal of improving production, distribution, sales and quality. Analysis Delamere Vineyard is currently producing pinot noir and chardonnay wines at varying qualities to satisfy the demands of the consumers. Richardson has been working on his wine selection and vineyard for 15 years and is now in search of improvement of for quality of wine. Scientific knowledge has allowed him to start and continue his business of wine making with little knowledge of the process most winemakers go through to produce a quality and enjoyable wine selections. Richardson, while his process so far has yielded positive results, is in need of reevaluating his production process and possibly the distribution process to increase his business. Richardson bears the entire responsibility of decision making for the company. â€Å"While instinct coupled with analysis may make a powerful decision-making combination, beware intuition’s pitfalls. Often, your gut is just plain wrong – because it’s subject to biases† (HBR, 2001). Decisions that involve where a company’s future is headed and changes in operations must be made with a clear head, and the long time notion of three heads are better than one should come into play. Richardson admits that sales is dependent on the quality of the wine. The process of winemaking is difficult to specifically characterize and replicate for consistency. Richardson has pinpointed some areas in his business where improvement can be made to set his wine apart from the competition while increasing productivity and sales. His first option involves â€Å"consideration to amend winemaking procedures to eliminate the possibility of oxidation as the wine matured. Excessive contact with oxygen, along with other chemicals, induced compounds called aldehydes, which could create a distinct and unpleasant flaw in the wine’s taste, unforgettable bitter aroma somewhat akin to stale oil, along with an unattractive browning of the color† (Delamere Vineyard, 2000). This option leads to a constant output of good quality wine. This process will allow Richardson to attract a large amount of customers through both mail order and wholesalers due to the fact that this process can produce the same type of wine product every year. Customers tend to feel at ease purchasing wine from distributors who have produced the same product on a constant b asis and feel comfortable with the level of quality. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is the â€Å"wonder drug† to combat oxidation in the winemaking process. Considering the fact that most winemakers tend to agree that the introduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) is the failsafe solution to preventing oxidation, the decision to incorporate some level of sulfur dioxide should be definitely considered and implemented. Richardson claims that he presently includes a small amount of sulfur dioxide into his winemaking process and it debating his new approach; continue his current process, increase his SO2 or spend time and money and waste some of his product to develop the correct scientific method for the incorporation of sulfur dioxide. Logic and reasoning would conclude that Richardson should stick with industry standards when it comes to the level of sulfur dioxide to add to the winemaking process since it has been proven time and again with success. He is dissatisfied with his current wine production, and therefore, he should not even consider the approach of â€Å"doing nothing† when it comes to preventing oxidation in his wine. The long term benefits of spending time perfecting the process of how much sulfur dioxide to add to the mix could be beneficial to Delamere Vineyard. Richardson has the ultimate goal of setting his wine apart from other manufacturers while keeping the small family business image. He is already well versed and educated in science and would not need to enlist in outside help to spend time perfecting his process. Sticking with the status quo on the mixture will likely ensure consistency in the short run, but prove to be a common type of wine in the industry. â€Å"Over the years, various management studies have found that executives routinely rely on their intuitions to solve complex problems when logical methods (such as a cost-benefit analysis) simply won’t do. In fact, the consensus is that they higher up on the corporate ladder people climb, the more they’ll need well-honed business instincts. In other words, intuition is one of the X factors separating the men from t he boys† (HBR, 2001). Richardson is more likely to trust his scientific knowledge and experiment with possible scenarios to advance his understanding of the winemaking process to guide him towards perfection. Richardson’s second possible project involves finding a way to deepen the color of his red wine. Richardson is convinced that his main market Australians would be more likely to purchase his wine if it had a fuller red hue. Richardson identified that other manufacturers succeeded in darkening their wine by providing a longer maceration before and following fermentation and introducing higher temperatures during fermentation. The dilemma was that Richardson was already performing these tasks with his current wine, which meant his only option would be to transition from his currently fermentation process to a more sophisticated one. This process would cost the vineyard $30,000 to purchase and at least 10% of product with no real assurance that it will be successful. The cost-benefit of this approach will lead to Richardson risks capital that he doesn’t have available to waste to hopefully produce a product that has a hue preferred by his customers. Managers â€Å"apply factual research to historical precedent that’s so widely accepted in an organization that it’s no longer challenged. Things deemed to be common knowledge are often the result of inferences made by the ‘primal’ mind – they’re a product of evolution, and so tend to be governed by emotions and instinct† (Harvard Management Update, 2002). Richardson has conflicting views on his long-term goals for his vineyard. On one spectrum he is focused and passionate about improving the quality and consistency of his wine and winemaking process to increase sales and profit. Richardson would also like to accomplish this in his small family owned business with almost the entire operating burden placed solely on himself. On the other hand, Richardson has mentioned the potential long-term growth benefits of quality improvements to his vineyard. Richardson has not made note to how his family owned vineyard would continue to operate should they increase production and sales of their product. Investing time and money into growing the company would require increased staff and land to store the wine barrels before sales and distribution. Richardson needs to weigh his options and focus on his own long term personal goals in addition to the organization. Does he want to be working for the next 30 years? Employing in outside sources of help will bring a fresh perspective to Richardson’s winemaking approach. Richardson’s third possible improvement is to determine the best mix of whole bunches, stalks, and de-stemmed grapes to include in his crush to speed up and automate production. When Richardson was evaluating this option, red flags were popping up at every point. Initially, he specified that is option did not solve any foreseeable problem with his winemaking process; therefore if there is no problem a solution cannot be developed. Second, this type of fermentation would require more space in his winery and limit his ability to control the entire winemaking process. Since most of his potential projects focused on more control in the development of wine, this idea actually contradicts Richardson’s problem with his vineyard. â€Å"The ability of managers to solve problems and make decisions rationally has long been assumed to be one of the valuable products of experience on the job. But close observation of their actually practices has shown that even veteran managers are likely to be very unsystematic when dealing with problems and decisions. And their hit-or-miss methods often produce decisions based on erroneous conclusions, which means that the decisions must also be wrong† (HBR, 1965). Any option that would increase his cost while not ensuring a definite increase in profit would be making a decision which would hinder the ability to prosper in the future. The small chance that altering the mix of grapes would result in a more complex and aromatic wine does not outweigh the potential result that the wine could rapidly turn to vinegar spoiling his entire vintage. Recommendations â€Å"Winemaking is capital intensive, in terms of both investment and working capital. Startup costs for even a small vineyard and winery were heavy, relative to anticipated cash flow† (Harvard Business School, 2000). Richardson needs to consider enlisting outside help experienced in the business of winemaking who can lend some insight into new trends in winemaking and procedures that have worked in the past with other vineyards. The ability to bounce ideas off other people who have knowledge in winemaking will allow Richardson to make future decisions without bias. He currently relies on intuition, past experience in his vineyard, and his scientific background to produce his wine. Richardson needs to incorporate a full-time staff that can use his ideas and industry standards to not only improve the quality of wine, but improve the manufacturing process which can develop his company as well. Richardson will not be able to run his family business as a one man shop when his sales double. Richardson would also benefit from removing his cognitive blinders in his company and investigate other vineyards that have been experiencing the same type of situations. Usually businesses experience the same types of problems in manufacturing and distribution, and learning from other companies mistakes will allow managers to make reasonable decisions with minimal risk. Richardson should prioritize his projects and develop a time line for completion based on the risk assessment. The idea of eliminating the oxidation in the mine is an option that will provide the least amount of financial loss. Richardson would be smart to start his project with industry standards for the introduction of sulfur dioxide while also taking time to use his scientific knowledge to find the perfect mixture for future vineyard growth and quality development of the pinot noir. Richardson would be foolish to entertain the idea of spending $30,000 which is almost half of his net income on a rotofermenter. The outcome would only generate a 10% increase in price and the cost-benefit/long-term benefit is nonexistent. In decision making, managers can take on the six thinking hats to solve the problem. The â€Å"black hat† in decision making allows â€Å"participants to identity hazards, risks, and other negative connotations. This is critical thinking, looking for problems and mismatches† (Six Thinking Hats, 2010). His â€Å"black hat† decision making skills should see that a 10% increase over a period of 1 year would only yield $25,000 if it succeeds. Richardson’s third project idea of switching to whole bunch fermentation will cost him too much in wine product spoilage, take away valuable winery space that could be used for extra wine barrels and produce no guaranteed profit if successful. This idea would be beneficial if Richardson would commit to long-term goals of increased staff, especially in the managerial capacity. This would also allow him to focus on perfecting his winemaking process while someone else could focus on day-to-day operations. Works Cited (2010, Aug. 6 ). In Six Thinking Hats. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2010, from http:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats Hayashi, A. (2001). When to Trust Your Gut. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-11. Stauffer, D. (2002). How Good Data Leads to Bad Decisions. Harvard Management Update, pp. 1-5. Stryker, P. (1965). Can You Analyze This Problem?. Harvard Business Review, pp. 73-78. West, J. (2000). Delamere Vineyard. Harvard Business School, pp. 1-21.

Group Policy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Group Policy - Coursework Example Security: due to the various security breaches evident, it is important to use the group policy to curb that. For instance, an organization can experience security breach due to the employees using very weak passwords. With the group policy, it is easy for an organization to set certain requirements for the users to follow when setting passwords. Cost and time: it enables installation or upgrading of software from one location and ensures that every machine is serviced simultaneously (Moskowitz, Hicks, & Burchill, 2013). Moreover, it is also possible to conduct the upgrade outside the business hours to avoid disruption of the work schedule. There are various potential pitfalls. One, because the SQL server is configured for windows authentication only, it becomes difficult to manage data in all the other relational databases. Moreover, the database can only be accessed from within the local area network. Beyond that, it becomes inaccessible. Lack of firewalls between the servers and the applications of the client becomes difficult to get into the client’s database and gather the additional information required. The types of data elements that will be difficult to capture are the compound data elements. These are data elements consisting of three field’s control, component count field together with the total length of the required data elements. The reason is due to lack of firewall between the server and the applications of the clients. It is able to establish a boundary between a trusted and un-trusted network (Moraes, 2011). Thus, the user is not restricted by any set of rules applicable and can therefor e conceal the compound data elements in such a way that it becomes difficult for them to be found. The main considerations include enhancing security. Among the 120 end users, there can be some using some practices that can lead to breach of security for the organization. This can be quite costly since the

Why is obesity such a problem nowadays in America Research Paper

Why is obesity such a problem nowadays in America - Research Paper Example 0 established that the proportion of Americans who have the most severe obesity condition did actually quadruple from one person in every 200 to one person in every 50 people studied meaning that such people have at least an extra 100 pounds of flesh on their bodies. The issue of obesity has been all along considered a medical condition whose causes are more than one (Centers for Disease Control). However, not much emphasis had been put on the issue of obesity until recently when it came to be linked to many other social and medical conditions. The social stigma and medical worries attributed to obesity have helped fuel the current atmosphere where obesity has been hyped as being a major problem in the US today. This paper seeks to expound on these findings and others by engaging in a discussion that will shed more light on why many Americans have found reason to worry about being obese and how this is currently a big problem in the US and for the American people (Pollan). The discus sion will borrow heavily from various credible researches done by different organizations and use secondary sources to establish and add evidence to the argument. There are many things that have been attributed to one being obese. Obesity has been found to be a very complex situation that arises out of metabolic, neurological and at times genetic causes and is usually exhibited by someone being overweight, plump or bulge. Currently, obesity has been declared one of the national health crises in America. In case the trend continues and the numbers keep soaring, then there are all possibilities that obesity will overtake smoking as the most contributing factor to many early deaths in the US, poor life quality standards, and a huge cost implication to the healthcare system. And if such revelations are not enough to make you twitch, the latest survey from UCDCP shows that a third of all adults in the US are considered being obese and another third are overweight and that Americans are on a

Kinetic of the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide Coursework

Kinetic of the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide - Coursework Example Calculate the activation enthalpy of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide solution when (manganese (IV) oxide & Iron (III) chloride) act as a catalyst and compare their effectiveness. A standard procedure for working out the enthalpy should be applicable for both case studies. Find the order of each reactant and use the order to explain the mechanism of the same. It should involve comparison of the rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide with manganese (IV) oxide and Iron (III) chloride. Such a comparison would be easy under standard conditions. Graphical representations of the course of reactions with varying quantities of reactants will facilitate comparison. Chemical kinetics studies chemical reactions under different conditions. Chemical kinetics explains the nature and order of reactions. Knowledge of kinetics is important in conducting experiments to identify unknown substances. It is also vital in determining reactivity of chemical substances under non-specific conditions. Catalysts find use in facilitating reactions, including manganese (IV) oxide, potassium iodide, and an enzyme catalyst. However, in my investigation, I will only choose two catalysts to use and I will focus on the effect of changing concentration, quantity, temperature and type of catalysts in order to investigate the rate of reaction changed under various experimental conditions. Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) in an aqueous decomposes very slowly under ordinary conditions which means the reaction will happen without the catalysts being used. The reaction is dependent on the internal energy that disordered and random motion of molecules contributes. Increase temperature will increase molecular speed, on the other hand lower the temperature, lower the internal energy of a substance. However, temperature is indirectly proportional to internal energy. Temperature is a measure of the kinetic and not a reflection of the whole internal energy.