Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Picking the Lock to Davy Jones's Locker † ‘Bite me'?† Libby Quinn said, reading the tail. The whale tail slowly twisted in space, pixel by pixel, as the computer extrapolated the new angle. Margaret Painborne sat at the computer. Clay and Libby stood behind her. Kona was working across the room on Quinn's reassembled machine. † ‘Bite me'?† Clay repeated. â€Å"That can't be right.† He thought about what Nate had said about seeing a tail just like this and shivered. Margaret hit a few keys on the keyboard, then swiveled in Clay's chair. â€Å"This some kind of joke, Clay?† â€Å"Not mine. That was raw footage, Margaret.† As attractive as Clay found Libby, he found Margaret equally scary. Maybe the latter because of the former. It was complex. â€Å"The tail image before you shifted it is exactly what I saw when I was down there.† â€Å"You've all been saying how sophisticated their communication ability was,† said Kona, trying to sound scientific but essentially just pissing everyone off. â€Å"How?† said Libby. â€Å"Even if you wanted to, how would you paint a whale's flukes like that?† Margaret and Clay just shook their heads. â€Å"Rust-Oleum,† suggested Kona, and they all turned and glared at him. â€Å"Don't give me the stink-eye. You'd need the waterproof, huh?† â€Å"Did you finish inputting those pages?† Clay said. â€Å"Yah, mon.† â€Å"Well, save them and go rake something or mow something or something.† â€Å"Save as a binary,† Margaret added quickly, but Kona had already saved the file, and the screen was clear. Margaret wheeled her chair across the office, her gray hair trailing out behind her like the Flying Sorceress of Clerical Island. She pushed Kona aside. â€Å"Crap,† she said. â€Å"What?† asked Clay. â€Å"What?† asked Libby. â€Å"You said save it,† Kona said. â€Å"He saved it as an ASCII file, a text file, not a binary. Crap. I'll see if it's okay.† She opened the file, and text appeared on the screen. Her hand went to her mouth, and she sat back slowly in Clay's chair. â€Å"Oh, my God.† â€Å"What?† came the chorus. â€Å"Are you sure you put this in, just as it came off the graphs?† she asked Kona without looking at him. â€Å"Truth,† said Kona. â€Å"What?† said Libby and Clay. â€Å"This has got to be some sort of joke,† said Margaret. Clay and Libby ran across the room to look at the screen. â€Å"What!† â€Å"It's English,† Margaret said, pointing to the text. â€Å"How is that possible?† â€Å"That's not possible,† Libby said. â€Å"Kona, what did you do?† â€Å"Not me, I just typed ones and ohs.† Margaret grabbed one of the legal pages with the ones and ohs and began typing the numbers into a new file. When she had three lines, she saved it, then reopened the file as text. It read, WILL SCUTTLE SECOND BOAT TO__ â€Å"It can't be.† â€Å"It is.† Clay jumped into Margaret's lap and started scrolling through the text from Kona's transcription. â€Å"Look, it goes on for a while, then it's just gobbledygook, then it goes on some more.† Margaret looked back at Libby with Save me in her eyes. â€Å"There is no way that the song is carrying a message in English. Binary was a stretch, but I refuse to believe that humpbacks are using ASCII and English to communicate.† Libby looked over to Kona. â€Å"You guys took these off of Nate's tapes, exactly the way you showed me?† Kona nodded. â€Å"Kids, look at this,† Clay said. â€Å"These are all progress reports. Longitude and latitude, times, dates. There are instructions here to sink my boat. These fuckers sank my boat?† â€Å"What fuckers?† Margaret said. â€Å"A humpback with ‘Bite me' on his flukes?† She was trying to look around Clay's broad back. â€Å"If this were possible, then the navy would have been using it a long time ago.† Now Clay jumped up to face Kona. â€Å"What tape is this last part from?† â€Å"The last one Nate and Amy made, the day Nate drown. Why?† Clay sat back on Margaret's lap, looking stunned. He pointed to a line of text on the screen. They all leaned in to read: QUINN ON BOARD__WILL RENDEZVOUS WITH BLUE-6__AGREED COORDINATES__1600 TUESDAY__NO PASTRAMI â€Å"The sandwich,† Clay said ominously. Just then Clair, home from school, stepped into the office to discover an impromptu dog pile of action nerds in front of Quinn's computer. â€Å"All you bastards want to be part of a sandwich, and you don't even know what to do with one woman.† â€Å"Not the spoon!† squealed Kona, his hand going to the goose egg on his forehead. Nathan Quinn awoke feeling as if he needed to crawl out of his skin. If he hadn't felt it before, he would have thought he had the generic heebie-jeebies (scientifically speaking), but he recognized the feeling as being hit with heavy subsonic sound waves. The blue-whale ship was calling. Just because it was below the frequency of his hearing didn't mean it wasn't loud. Blue-whale calls could travel ten thousand miles, he assumed that the ship was putting out similar sounds. Nate slipped out of his bunk and nearly fell reaching for his shirt. Another thing he hadn't noticed immediately – the ship wasn't moving, and he still had his sea legs on. He dressed quickly and headed down the corridor to the bridge. There was a large console that spanned the area between the two whaley-boy pilots that hadn't been there before. Unlike the rest of the ship, it appeared to be man-made, metal and plastic. Sonar scopes, computers, equipment that Quinn didn't even recognize. Nuà ±ez and the blond woman, Jane, were standing at the sonar screens wearing headphones. Tim was seated beside one of the whaley boys at the center of the console in front of two monitors. Tim was wearing headphones and typing. The whaley boy appeared to be just watching. Nuà ±ez saw Nate come in, smiled, and motioned for him to come forward. These people were completely incompetent as captors, Nate thought. Not a measure of terror among them, the humans anyway. If not for the subsonic heebie-jeebies, he would have felt right at home. â€Å"Where did this come from?† The electronics looked incredibly crude next to the elegant organic design of the whale ship, the whaley boys, and, for that matter, the human crew. The idea of comparing designs between human-built devices and biological systems hadn't really occurred to Nate before because he'd been conditioned never to think of animals as designed. The whale ship was putting a deep dent in his Darwin. â€Å"These are our toys,† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"The console stays below the floor unless we need to see it. Totally unnecessary for the whaley boys, since they have direct interface with the ship, but it makes us feel like we know what's going on.† â€Å"And they can't type for shit,† said Tim, tucking his thumbs under and making a slamming-the-keys gesture. â€Å"Tiny thumbs.† The whaley boy next to him trumpeted a raspberry all over Tim's monitor, leaving large dots of color magnified in the whaley spit. He chirped twice, and Tim nodded and typed into the computer. â€Å"Can they read?† Nate asked. â€Å"Read, kind of write, and most of them understand at least two human languages, although, as you probably noticed, they're not big talkers.† â€Å"No vocal cords,† said Nu;ez. â€Å"They have air chambers in their heads that produce the sounds they make, but they have a hard time forming the words.† â€Å"But they can talk. I've heard Em – I mean, them.† â€Å"Best that you just learn whaleyspeak. It's basically what they use to talk to each other, except they keep it in the range of our hearing. It's easier to learn if you've learned other tonal-sensitive languages like Navajo or Chinese.† â€Å"I'm afraid not,† Nate said. â€Å"So the ship is calling?† Tim pulled off his headphones and handed them to Nate. â€Å"The pitch is raised into our range. You'll be able to hear it through there.† Nate held a headphone to one ear. Now that he could hear the signal, he could also feel it start and stop more acutely in his chest. If anything, it relieved the discomfort, because he could hear it coming. â€Å"Is this a message?† â€Å"Yep,† said Jane, pulling up a headphone. â€Å"Just as you suspected. We type it in, the computer puts the message into peaks and troughs on the waveform, we play the waveform for the whaley boys, and they make the whale sing that waveform. We've calibrated it over the years.† Nate noticed that the whaley boy at the metal console had one hand in an organic socket fitted into the front of the console – like a flesh cable that ran to the whale ship through the console's base, similar to the ones on the flesh consoles the pilots used. â€Å"Why the computers and stuff at all if the whaley boys do it all by†¦ what? Instinct?† The whaley boy at the console grinned up at Nate, squeaked, then performed the international signal for a hand job. â€Å"It's the only way we can be in the loop,† Jane said. â€Å"Believe me, for a long time we were just along for the ride. The whaley boys have the same navigational sense that the whales themselves do. We don't understand it at all. It's some sort of magnetic vocabulary. It wasn't until the Dirts – that's you – developed computers and we got some people who could run them that we became part of the process. Now we can surface and pull a GPS coordinate, transmit it, communicate with the other crews. We have some idea of what we're doing.† â€Å"You said for a long time? How long?† Jane looked nervously at Nuà ±ez, who looked nervously back. Nate thought for a moment that they might have to dash off to the bathroom together, which in his experience was what women did right before they made any major decisions, like about which shoes to buy or whether or not they were ever going to sleep with him again. â€Å"A long time, Nate. We're not sure how long. Before computers, okay?† By which she meant she wasn't going to tell him and if he pressed it, she'd just lie to him. Nate suddenly felt more like a prisoner, and, as a prisoner, he felt as though his first obligation was to escape. He was sure that was your first obligation as a prisoner. He'd seen it in a movie. Although his earlier plan of leaping out the back orifice into the deep ocean now seemed a tad hasty, with some perspective. He said, â€Å"So how deep are we?† â€Å"We usually send at about two thousand feet. That puts us pretty squarely in the SOFAR channel, no matter where we are geographically.† The SOFAR channel (sound fixing and ranging) was a natural combination of pressure and temperature at certain depths that cause a path of least resistance in which sound could travel many thousands of miles. The theory had been that blues and humpbacks used it to communicate with each other over long distances for navigational purposes. Evidently whaley boys and the people who worked their ships did, too. â€Å"So does this signal replicate a natural blue-whale call?† â€Å"Yes,† said Tim. â€Å"That's one of the advantages of communicating in English within the waveform. When the whaley boys were doing the direct communication, there was a lot more variation in the call, but our signal is hidden, more or less. Except for a few busybodies who may run across it.† â€Å"Like me?† â€Å"Yes, like you. We're a little worried about some of the acoustic people at Woods Hole and Hatfield Marine Center in Oregon. People who spend way too much time looking at spectrograms of underwater sound.† â€Å"You realize,† said Nate, â€Å"that I might never have found out about your ships. I didn't make any sort of intuitive leap to look at a binary signal in the call. It was a stoned kid who came up with that.† â€Å"Yeah,† said Jane. â€Å"If it makes you feel any better, you can blame him for your being here. We were on hold until you started to look in the signal for binary. That's when they called you in, so to speak.† Nate sincerely wished he could blame Kona, but since it appeared that he might never see civilization again, having someone to blame didn't seem particularly pertinent right now. Besides, the kid had been right. â€Å"How'd you know? I didn't exactly put out a press release.† â€Å"We have ways,† said Nuà ±ez, trying not to sound spooky but failing. This evidently amused the whaley boy at the console and the two pilots no end, and they nearly wheezed themselves out of their seats. â€Å"Oh, fuck you guys,† said Nuà ±ez. â€Å"It's not like you guys are a bunch of geniuses.† â€Å"And you guys were the nightwalkers that Tako Man was talking about,† Nate said to the pilots. â€Å"You guys sank Clay's boat.† The pilots raised their arms over their heads in a menacing scary-monster pose, then bared their teeth and made some fake growling noises, then collapsed into what Nate was starting to think of as whale giggles. The whaley boy at the console started clapping and laughing as well. â€Å"Franklin! We're not done here. Can we get the interface back?† Franklin, obviously the whaley boy who had been working the console, slumped and put his hand back in the socket. â€Å"Sorry,† came a tiny voice from his blowhole. â€Å"Bitch,† came another tiny voice from one of the pilots, followed by whaley snickering. â€Å"Let's send one more time. I want base to know we'll be there in the morning,† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"Morale's not a problem, then?† asked Nate, grinning at Nuà ±ez's loss of temper. â€Å"Oh, they're like fucking children,† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"They're like dolphins: You dump them in the middle of the ocean with a red ball and they'll just play all day long, stopping only long enough to eat and screw. I'm telling you, it's like baby-sitting a bunch of horny toddlers.† Franklin squeaked and clicked a response, and this time Tim and Jane joined in the laughter with the whaley boys. â€Å"What? What?† asked Nate. â€Å"I do not just need to get laid!† shouted Nuà ±ez. â€Å"Jane, you got this?† â€Å"Sure,† said the blonde. â€Å"I'm going to quarters.† She left the bridge to the snickering of the whaley boys. Tim looked back at Nate and nodded toward the sonar screen and headset that Nuà ±ez had vacated. â€Å"Want to stand in?† â€Å"I'm a prisoner,† said Nate. â€Å"Yeah, but in a nice way,† said Jane. That was true. Everyone since he'd come on board had been very kind to him, seeing to his every need, even some he didn't want seen to. He didn't feel like a prisoner. Nate wasn't sure that he wasn't experiencing the Helsinki syndrome, where you sympathized with your captors – or was that the Stockholm syndrome? Yeah, the Helsinki syndrome had something to do with hair loss. It was definitely the Stockholm syndrome. He stepped up to the sonar screen and put on the headset. Immediately he heard the distant song of a humpback. He looked at Tim, who raised his eyebrows as if to say, See. â€Å"So tell me,† Nate said, â€Å"what's the singing mean?† It was worth a shot. â€Å"We were just going to ask you,† said Jane. â€Å"Swell,† said Nate. Suddenly he didn't feel so well. After all this, even people who traveled inside whales didn't know what the song meant? â€Å"Are you all right, Nate?† Jane asked. â€Å"You don't look so good.† â€Å"I think I have Stockholm syndrome.† â€Å"Don't be silly,† said Tim. â€Å"You've got plenty of hair.† â€Å"You want some Pepto?† asked Jane, the ship's doctor. Yes, he thought, escape would seem a priority. He was pretty sure that if he didn't get away, he was going to snap and kill some folks, or at least be incredibly stern with them. Funny, he thought, how your priorities could change with circumstances. You go along for the greater part of your life thinking you want something – to understand the humpback song, for instance. So you pursue that with dogged single-mindedness at the expense of everything else in your life, only to be distracted into thinking maybe you want something in addition to that – Amy, for instance. And that becomes a diversion up until the time when circumstances make you realize what it is you really want, and that is – strangely enough – to get the fuck out of a whale. Funny, Nate thought. â€Å"Settle down, Kona,† Clair said, dropping her purse by the door, â€Å"I don't have a spoon.† Clay jumped off Margaret's lap. He and Kona watched as Clair crossed the room and exchanged hugs with Margaret and Libby, lingering a bit while hugging Libby and winking over her shoulder at Clay. â€Å"So nice to see you guys,† Clair said. â€Å"I'm not going out to get the pizza, mon. No way,† said Kona, still looking a bit terrified. â€Å"What are you guys doing?† Clair asked. And so Margaret took it upon herself to explain what they had discovered over the last few hours, with Kona filling in the pertinent and personal details. Meanwhile, Clay sat down in the kitchen and pondered the facts. Pondering, he felt, was called for. Pondering is a little like considering and a little like thinking, but looser. To ponder, one must let the facts roll around the rim of the mind's roulette wheel, coming to settle in whichever slot they feel pulled to. Margaret and Libby were scientists, used to jamming their facts into the appropriate slots as quickly as possible, and Kona†¦ well, a thought rolling around in his mind was rather like a tennis ball in a coffee can – it was just a little too fuzzy to make any impact – and Clair was just catching up. No, the pondering fell to Clay, and he sipped a dark beer from a sweating bottle on a high stool in the kitchen and waited for the roulette ball to fall. Which it did, right about the time that Margaret Painborne was reaching a conclusion to her story. â€Å"This obviously has something to do with defense,† Margaret said. â€Å"No one else would have a reason – hell, they can't even have a good reason. But I say we write our senators tonight and confront Captain Tarwater in the morning. He's got to know something about it.† â€Å"And that's where you're completely wrong,† Clay said. And they all turned. â€Å"I've been pondering this† – here he paused for impact – â€Å"and it occurs to me that two of our friends disappeared right about the time they found out about this stuff. And that everything from the break-in to the sinking of my boat† – and here he paused for a moment of silence – â€Å"has had something to do with someone not wanting us to know this stuff. So I think it would be reckless of us to run around trying to tell everybody what we know before we know what we know is.† â€Å"That can't be right,† said Libby. † ‘Before we know what we know is'?† quoted Margaret. â€Å"No, that's not right.† â€Å"Is making perfect sense to me,† said Kona. â€Å"No, Clay,† said Clair, â€Å"I'm fine with you and the girl-on-girl action, and I'm fine with a haole Rasta boy preaching sovereignty, but I'm telling you I won't stand for that kind of grammatical abuse. I am a schoolteacher, after all.† â€Å"We can't tell anyone!† Clay screamed. â€Å"Better,† said Clair. â€Å"No need to shout,† Libby said. â€Å"Margaret was just being a radical hippie reactionist feminist lesbian communist cetacean biologist, weren't you, dear?† Libby Quinn grinned at her partner. â€Å"I'll have an acronym for that in a second,† mumbled Clair, counting off words on her fingers. â€Å"Jeez, your business card must be the size of a throw rug.† Margaret glared at Libby, then turned to Clay. â€Å"You really think we could be in danger?† â€Å"Seems that way. Look, I know we wouldn't know this without your help, but I just don't want anyone hurt. We may already be in trouble.† â€Å"We can keep it quiet if you feel that's the way to go,† said Libby, making the decision for the pair, â€Å"but I think in the meantime we need to look at a lot more audio files – see how far back this goes. Figure out why sometimes it's just noise and sometimes it's a message.† Margaret was furiously braiding and unbraiding her hair and staring blankly into the air in front of her as she thought. â€Å"They must use the whale song as camouflage so enemy submarines don't detect the communication. We need more data. Recordings from other populations of humpbacks, out of American waters. Just to see how far they've gone with this thing.† â€Å"And we need to look at blue-, fin-, and sei-whale calls,† said Libby. â€Å"If they're using subsonic, then it only makes sense that they'll imitate the big whales. I'll call Chris Wolf at Oregon State tomorrow. He monitors the navy's old sonar matrix that they set up to catch Russian submarines. He'll have recordings of everything we need.† â€Å"No,† said Clay. â€Å"No one outside this room.† â€Å"Come on, Clay. You're being paranoid.† â€Å"Say that again, Libby. He monitors whose old sonar matrix? The military still keeps a hand in on that SOSUS array.† â€Å"So you think it is military?† Clay shook his head. â€Å"I don't know. I'm damned if I can think of a reason the navy would paint ‘Bite me' on the tail of a whale. I just know that people who find out about this stuff disappear, and someone sent a message saying that Nate was safe after we all thought he was dead.† â€Å"So what are you going to do?† â€Å"Find him,† Clay said. â€Å"Well, that's going to totally screw up the funeral,† said Clair. PART THREE The Source We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of selfish replicators. – RICHARD DAWKINS, The Selfish Gene Ninety-five percent of all the species that have ever existed are now extinct, so don't look so goddamn smug. – GERARD RYDER

Activist Judges on the American Political system

In the Kelo vs. the city of New London case the decision made was that the municipal development statute that was behind the taking of the land was correct as it was part of projects of economic development   i.e. public use of property for the best public interest.This decision is such that if it is taken as a precedent in future cases, private property can be confiscated by the government under the guise of economic development and given to other is seen as a contravention of the rights guaranteed in the American constitution which guarantee the sanctity to personal property.According to David Forte, Many problems come up in the relation of the judicial system and political system in the United States (Forte 1).  The justices who dissented to the ruling were guided by this principle concerning private one of the justices who dissented to the ruling is Justice O’Connor whose views as a Supreme Court justice have been dissented to in many circles.Her liberal views on feder alism, affirmative action gender, religion etc have been the source of controversies. Together with her were other four dissenting justices who were guided by justice for the citizens. This is partly to be found in a pragmatic approach to issues of jurisprudence.In the midst of all the controversy surrounding this decision of the Supreme Court is the fact that dissentions are done with the American dream at heart. For instance, the seizure of private land by the local government for private development can be greatly abused.A well developed neighborhood for residential houses may be demolished to create space for development of private shopping area. The justices who see the danger in the decision work towards Americas self discovery and transformation.The case has been a source of the judges who rule in disfavor of the government policies to be called activist judges. This has been a term that has grown over the years (Activist Judges.com par.5). The cause of this sort of victimiza tion is the ruling hat is not popular with the state and no doubt it is state machinery that is behind the propaganda of activist judges. In the real sense the judges perform their duties according to the law.ConclusionIt can be seen that there is blackmail on those judges who don’t toe the line of the political elite in the country; calling them political activists is one of the politician’s tactics to achieve cheap victories in courts.The freedom of the judicial system needs to be secured from such attacks like this because they may interfere with the role of the justice department of checking the other arms of the government. Those judges who are branded the name activists should not yield to this intimidation so as to keep the fire of justice burning.Works cited Forte, David. The Supreme Court in American Politics: Judicial Activism vs. Judicial Restraint, Heath, University of Michigan, 1972.http://www.google.co.ke/search?q=Activist+Judges+on+the+American+Political +system

Over Abundance and Waste

Over Abundance Imagine saving everything; from pieces of string, tin foil, and old clothing. Fifty years ago not much was being thrown away. In addition, almost everything had a considerably longer life span. According to Joshua Becker he states from his blog â€Å"from the moment we are born, we are told to pursue more†. Today, our lives are inundated with advertisements on television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard, and websites  that encourage us that more is better. As a result, we toil for long hours so that we can buy the biggest homes and fanciest cars, wear the trendiest fashions, and use the coolest technologies.What led us to this place of having and wanting so much stuff; stuff that we literally do not know what to do with or where to put when we are done with it? What we buy, what we use, what we keep and throw away make up the fabric of our daily lives. A sea of stuff flows in and out with such speed we hardly realize the global impact attached to each an d every item we buy. â€Å"The process of becoming obsolete; falling into disuse or becoming out of date is also called obsolescence. (Rogers) Compared to fifty years ago our society is better known as a throwaway society; in essence we are never satisfied with what we have and always want more. Craving the latest trends and newest gadgets coming out every season, many people tend to just toss out the old items and purchase new. Common examples of this reckless and selfish behavior include: electronic devices (cell phones, I Pods and computers), clothing (newest fashion trends) and small appliances. In our collective society many people want more of what is new rather than repairing the item.The current generation of people (Generation Y) is described by the www. freedictionary. com as â€Å"members of the generation of people born since the early 1980s that are seen as being discerning consumers with a high disposable income has more time and money than any other. † A combi nation of new technology and the internet is partially responsible for this transformation. With the explosion of electronic access (free WiFi and smart phone technology) consumers today are exposed to persistent and persuasive advertisements.Instead of making an expensive product that will last a long time, businesses produce more affordable, disposable items. In addition, technological advances cause many people to discard products well before there useful lifespan has been achieved. For example; some electronic items such as portable DVD player ($50) have become so inexpensive that it is cheaper to replace them. Our society has been conditioned that time is money which busy people translate into paying for convenience over saving money.Conversely, complicated computerized equipment may be difficult or time consuming to repair and consumers may be less inclined to wait for a repair. Multimedia has programmed our generation to become a materialistic type society that focuses on the buildup of many new things over things that still work. â€Å"With only 5% of the global population the U. S. consumes 30% of the planets’ resources and creates approximately 30% of its waste. †(Rogers) Growth in America is being driven by a new sense of convenience and disposability.Paper plates, frozen foods, TV dinners, and aerosol cans are the way of the future, bringing a new convenience and ease to everyone's life style. This drive thru mentality has filtered through our society and fueled our desire for more while reducing our level of patience and tolerance. â€Å"For example; we can live our lives without leaving our homes or automobiles using drive thru access for fast food, online education, pharmacies, dry cleaners and even banks. † (Rogers, 2) Today â€Å"to go† food comes in cheap, disposable single use packaging.Pre-packaged frozen and canned foods are increasingly popular, generating additional waste. Milk used to come in glass bottles th at were recycled each morning when fresh milk was delivered. â€Å"Now, most beverages come in plastic bottles, of which less than a third is recycled. † (Rogers, 5)  These quick and easy products have been developed to suit our desire or instant gratification and convenience. Here are some simple and cost effective solutions that our society can implement to reduce our carbon footprint. Bring your own reusable bags when you go shopping.Buy things that can be reused over and over, like rechargeable batteries. Clean counters with a cloth towel instead of disposable paper towels. Create your own cleaning solutions using baking soda and bleach which are less harmful to our environment and cost effective. Ask whether your delivery person will recycle the plastic bags and rubber bands that newspapers come in. These are just a few simple ways to help make the earth a better place for our future. â€Å"More advanced technology being put on the market every six months our society has become a throwaway society.With technological advances and the desire to have the latest and greatest products who would want to pay almost the same price for something to be repaired when you can get it brand new? † (Rogers 2) Americans as a whole have become wasteful with material and place more importance on time and convenience. For our world to continue with plentiful resources we need to start making changes and change the way we live and use our precious natural resources more efficiently to have a better future.

Organizational Buying Processes Versus The Consumer Buying Processes Essay

Organizational Buying Processes Versus The Consumer Buying Processes - Essay Example Consumers also go through the same stages of buying process as the organization starting from identifying the need for purchase and ending at building an opinion for future purchases. The difference between the two buying processes is that consumer buying is for personal use, or for the use of family or household; whereas, the organizational buying is either for further production of goods, or sale to consumers, or usage within the organization. Another difference is that business buying involves a few large scale buyers; while in consumer buying, there are a lot of small scale buyers (who are the consumers). Also, the demand of products or services in organizational buying actually depends on the demand of products and services from the consumers, and it is not vice versa. Demand of products in business markets does not depend upon the change in price whereas the demand of products in consumer markets depends upon the change in price because consumers decide upon the purchase after considering the price. Hence, organizational buying is price inelastic; while, consumer buying is price

Interview questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Interview questions - Essay Example In addition, the training capitalized on the principle of putting the customer at the center of ever business transaction. I defined a consistent set of behaviors across all our business activities, which led to effective interactions with customers, regardless of the situation. For more than 10 years of my career as a Senior Vice President, Retail Executive, and Chief Operating Officer (COO), I have made essential contributions in business development planning. Usually, I start business development planning sessions by evaluating the company’s current situation (SWOT analysis), creating effective solutions and plans to implement the solutions. While planning for the future goals of the company, I utilize the information to set the course for sustained growth. I involved everyone in the team to gain a strong team support and enthusiasm. I measured profitability by putting the right metrics in place (tangible results) and evaluating the outcomes that will drive a successful business development plan. Metrics have connected the dots for me when a strategy/tactic is not working. Lastly, I keep the communication going, letting the team know about our progress and where the company is heading. To further elaborate my point, I led a quarterly "all retail" conference call at _______. It was my opportunity to reinforce our core values or our strategic plan. I welcomed every new employee and recognized individuals and teams for success in our five focuses. I ended the call with "RITA awards." RITA is an acronym for our core values; respect and inclusion, integrity, teamwork, and accountability. The RITA submissions were sent in from the teams peer group. It was our opportunity to formally express our sincere gratitude to everyone for living up to the company’s core values. I firmly believe that good communication among co-workers is an essential element in effectively

Bean and Jerry Ice-cream Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Bean and Jerry Ice-cream Company - Essay Example The company started growing successfully due to some chunky ingredients and some unusual and catchy flavor. It was the scoop style which was adopted by them to sell ice-cream but they had to go for the pint way. By the year 1984 they had already been successful in taking the ice-cream company public in the city of Vermont. They got themselves registered under the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowing them to buy stock nationwide. Ben and Jerry were considered as good and old boys from the sixties who preferred conducting their meetings in a festive manner than in the stereotypical way of carry out any corporate meeting. They actually tried to show the masses that their company is not a place where people can work with greatness but it also tries to portrait that they are somewhere socially related as well responsible to the whole community and the society. â€Å"Caring Capitalism† is something which these two young people believed in and they eventually donated aroun d 7.5% of the pretax profit for the wellbeing of the society and for those social causes which included Centro for Better Living and Healing Our Mother Earth. Haagen-Dazs is the largest competitor of Benn and Jerry and the former has always been choosy in while distributing ice-creams. It has always aimed the elite class of the society. The funky image which the latter has shown has drawn attention of the younger crowd with catchy eyes. Their commitment to the society is an honest and an obvious approach. The mission statement of Benn and Jerry is the creation as well as demonstration of new concepts of the corporate for linked prosperity. The mission consists mainly of three parts. Underlying this mission is of course the in determination to seek a new as well as creative concepts and styles for addressing all the new parts, while holding this deep respect in case of every individuals outside and inside the company as well as for all the communities of which they consider themselve s to be a part. The company is operated on the basis of a sound and efficient economic system, which helps them to grow in the future and as well as increase the values of their shareholders on the other hand. The economic structure also aims at improving the opportunities of the workers and also is able to give away reward points. The company is also active in such a way that it is recognized everywhere as well as the important role which the company has in shaping the society locally, nationally and internationally. Underlying this particular mission of the company, Benn and Jerry is the creative and new ways of approaching and addressing all these three new parts, while they also try to uphold deep respect and virtue for each and every individuals outside and inside the company and eventually all the communities of which they consider themselves to be a part. 2. Product Benn and Jerry distribute, make and set all the best quality for the natural ice-creams and the dairy products related to a huge variety of unusual flavors which are made from the dairy product of Vermont. Their product which is super premium ice-cream is rich in the butterfat content that is 12%, where as this content is only 6-10 percent in other ice-dream. While ensuring quality of their product and of course to maintain the good old roots in their own community they preferred buying the creams from the

Discussion Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Discussion - Dissertation Example In order to find the answer to this question, it is important to consider that whether the Saudis were provided a fair and equal opportunity to evaluate the two sides of the Bahraini conflict through analyzing the themes of the news and the leading stories published in the Saudi print media by drawing the information acquired from the content analysis and interpreting it in the wake of the various press theories. 6.1 The Performance of the Saudi Print Media during the Bahraini conflict In the analysis of the Saudi print media performance, the discussion here take in to account the news content that have been published in Al yaum Newspaper and in Al Riyadh Newspaper during the occurrence of protests and riots at the streets of Bahrain. ... Previously in this study, it has been mentioned that the coverage of the conflict in Bahrain by the Saudi Arabian press would depend extensively on the domestic sources in comparison to the foreign sources, which may be true by looking at each source individually, however, the Saudi print media seemed to be more dependent over the SPA as compared to any other single source. Since the Saudi media is indirectly governed or supervised by the Saudi Arabian government, thus this dependence was anticipated, and it is the duty of the press to carry out the agenda of the government through briefings from the SPA that lies under the supervision of Saudi Arabian Ministry of Information. Nevertheless, if the information sources are conglomerated into external and domestic sources, it get evident that the Saudi Arabian print media relied more on external sources, specifically on AFP, Reuters, UPI, AP, and other such agencies as compared to domestic sources. It is expected that this would impact the geographical perspective of the news coverage by the Saudi media, which suggests that it would emphasize over some areas of the world while neglecting the others. This is specifically significant provided the frequent research findings that the material of the Saudi media was more influential in topics that relate to the Bahraini conflict about which the readers in Saudi Arabia were ill-informed previously In fact, it was clearly found that the Saudi Arabian print media coverage of the Bahraini conflict emphasized more on to stories that emerged from the Middle East, the Western Europe, the USA, and other such foreign locations in comparison to those that emerge in the Saudi Arabia. The findings of the content analysis have been provided below: The first question: What is the

Personal Protective Equipment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personal Protective Equipment - Essay Example 199). Workplace is surrounded by a number of hazards that may pose risk or injury or illness to the people working around. Chemical substances, mechanical abrasion, noise, heat, flying particles and radiation are few of the threats found at workplace (Talty, 1988, p.801). Some exposures cause minor loss while a lot of other risks may cause serious injuries. Companies can avoid potential risks by planning and setting up engineering controls to reduce risks at workplace. They can do so by installing automated or more efficient equipment, walling equipment and installing ventilation. Companies can also reduce risk through administrative control. They can limit an employee’s working hours in a certain area or make changes in working procedures (AIHA Protective Clothing and Equipment Committee, 2005, p. 1). Personal protective equipment protects against potential hazards at workplace yet it may be insufficient for many hazards. The limitations prevent it from giving complete protection and security to workers. One problem is effectiveness. Particular personal protective equipment may not be effective in all situations. For example, some respirators protect against particular gases only and not against all injurious gases. Some gloves are not effective in some chemicals. Mishandling of some equipment may be life threatening while in case of others it may not (Brauer, 2006, pp. 513 - 514). Hence, there must be specialized equipment for each special situation to overcome the associated risks. Secondly, equipment does not fit the user. The equipment must fit the user in order to be effective. For example, poorly adjusted gloves or hard hats or respirators may not protect the user well, therefore may cause injury (Brauer, 2006, pp. 513 - 514). Unfit equipment also discourages the usage of equipment and hence leads to harm. Thirdly,

The influence of economic and political forces on environmental policy Assignment

The influence of economic and political forces on environmental policy development - Assignment Example s, scientists, farmers, ranchers, and climatologists agree that there is urgent need to avail enough water for the purposes of harnessing the agricultural potential of Texas. Even with the rains coming to Texas in the near future, the meteorological department warns that the process of desertification shall go on for more than a century into the future. This is a worrying trend given that Texas comes only second in agricultural production behind the state of California. There are several political and economic issues which should be addressed on this front. While this is a campaign plan, the issues are real and affect all Texans on equal measure. First of all, besides worrying about the conditions of their lawns and gardens, Texans should be aware of the fact that drought affects agriculture with far-reaching effects. The drought increases the cost of inputs of production translating to higher prices for products to the final consumer. The loss of agricultural productivity will not only affect Texans; the rest of the country will have to compensate for the slowing output through higher prices and raised taxes. Scientists have predicted that it is almost inevitable for drought conditions to manifest in Texas (Kelly, 2009). The rainfall models and history for this state and concluded that desertification is eminent. Producing over 50% of the cotton and over 30% of the wheat in the United States, Texas is an agricultural pillar that should not be left to wither. The year 2011 saw to a loss of $3.18 billion in the combined cotton, hay, wheat, sorghum, and corn. Ranchers in the same year had to transport cattle to water points, fetch water and transport it to the cattle, or lose their businesses entirely. In the livestock sector, a total loss of $2.06 billion was recorded. The agricultural sector in general lost at least $8.7 billion in 2011. These costs continue rising as the drought persists in its ravaging (Lauren & Scott, 2011). Another economic issue adversely

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and Essay

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and public warehouses in a logistical system - Essay Example Private warehouses are those ones that are owned by the companies for their manufacturing and storage purposes. These warehouses are operated by the companies to store their products. These companies tend to have enough resources to buy their own warehouses using large areas and money to buy the place. These warehouses are beneficial as they are a one-time cost for the company and they can design these warehouses as per their own needs and product demands; for example controlling atmosphere for edible products (Ismail, 2008). On the other hand, some companies use public warehouses. These warehouses are owned by the public sector but are given on lease or rent to the companies who need them to store their products mostly for a temporary period of time. These warehouses can be expensive and not always available. However, companies may choose them because of their location in the center or near to the manufacturers. Mostly small scale companies lease these warehouses as they don’t have enough resources to buy their own warehouses whereas large companies buy their own warehouses to avoid inconvenience (Ismail, 2008). The third type of warehouses that companies may go for is contract warehouses. These warehouses are combined of private and public warehouses. Companies chose these warehouses for several reasons and decide to combine the private and public warehouses for their logistical system. These warehouses are chosen by the companies because contract warehouses operate on a contract basis with a long-term relationship maintained which lowers the cost as compared to an average public warehouse. Contract warehouses can also benefit in operations such as flexibility, expertise, and economies of scale as equipment, labor, management, and risk is shared amongst a number of clients (Voortman, 2004). Companies thus combine private and

Company law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 4

Company law - Essay Example For example, the verdict of this case law also highlights that the company can also be sued or can sue others as well. Through this authority, the company will be given an opportunity to defend itself and provide grounds for legitimising their business actions and their ramifications as well. At the same time, the company has right to own property, assets and liabilities as well. When these characteristics are compared with a natural human being, it can be deduced that both corporate entity and human being have similar rights, authority and ownership of assets. However, there are certain circumstances in which this artificial existence is not allowed but the veil of incorporation is lifted for ascertaining liability or any other legal issue that have necessitated such action. In the following parts of this essay, first the case study background has been provided in which the basic facts and other details have been included. Subsequently, the related held has also been provided. It is followed by various sections highlighting the influence on English company law and common law as well. In this discussion segment, both aspects have been highlighted so as to ascertain and understand the usefulness of this case law. For this purpose, support of subsequent other case laws has also been provided. Salomon was a merchant in the boot and leather business. With the passage of time, the business experienced a steady rise which required additional capital and members as well. In order to meet the needs of growing business, Solomon decided to form a limited company by taking his family members as partners. Subsequently, he sold the business control and ownership to the new company as the new company paid cash, debentures and shares as well. However, due to the certain events, the company was liquidated and the case was moved into the court because the parties argued that Solomon and the

United States Labor Movement Essay Example for Free

United States Labor Movement Essay The Labor Movement in the United States of America started in the formative years of our nation. Its purpose being to organize workers to strive for better working conditions, reasonable pay and better treatment in the workplace. From it’s beginnings in the early to mid nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution to the modern era of today, the labor movement has fought hard forming labor parties and labor laws to give the American worker the rights they deserve. One of the earliest and more influential of labor organizations came to be in 1860; The Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor mission was to â€Å"inform, and support working families, and to organize them to better represent their rights† (The Knights of Labor, 2011,  ¶1) By the end of the 1800s the Knights had become a national fixture and included all workers into the group such as lawyers, doctors, gamblers and bankers. The main focus of the Knights of Labor were to push for an eight-hour work day; to rid child labor from existence, to do away with convict contract labor as they opposed the source of cheap labor taking jobs away from workers who needed a job; and equal pay for all their workers. In the early goings, they were opposed to the use of strikes however that trend changed and work stoppages had become a very good tool to use. The Knights of Labor had reached its apex in 1886 with over 700,000 members however their organizational structure was not up to the task and the movement was all but abandoned. They remained a fixture in the labor movement until 1949 when t he remaining members dropped their affiliation (The Knights of Labor, 2011). The Labor Movement in the late 1800s experienced a number of incidents that escalated into violence. In 1877; railroad workers in West Virginia protested a ten percent wage cut leveled by Baltimore Ohio Railroad. The strike occurred during a time of economic depression and spread westward across the country. Attempts to control unruly crowds just made the worker protest stronger and ignited violence. To add to the walkouts and protests by the rail workers, sympathetic actions by other wage workers brought Chicago close to a state of general strike. As the tensions continued and the violence started to escalate between the workers and police, the mayor relied on the assistance of six companies from the U.S. Army infantry to quell the protests. Quiet was restored but only after eighteen people had died from the protest violence. (Foner, 1977) The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 resulted in violence as well. This particular strike came about during a time of conflict between labor and m anagement throughout the entire country. Workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers went on strike to protest a wage cut implemented by Andrew Carnegie’s Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Henry Frick, the plants General Manager, was given unwavering support by Carnegie to do what he deemed fit, which was to cut wages and try to break the Amalgamated Association union. Of the 3,800 workers at the plant, only 750 belonged to the union; but 3,000 employees voted together for a workers strike. Henry Frick got word of the vote and built a fence around the steelworks plant with holes in the fence to fit rifles through and topped it with barbed wire and Frick had hired 300 Pinkerton detectives for protection of the plant. When workers got word of the newly hired police force, they mobilized and a fire fight between the two groups erupted. 3 detectives and 9 workers were laid to rest from the fighting. After the fighting stopped, the Governor ordered a state militia into Homestead. Four months after the strike started, the workers resources were severely depleted and they all returned to work. When the dust settled, the strike leaders were charged with murder while hundreds of others were charged with lesser crimes. Sympathetic jurors didn’t convict any of the men; however this incident allowed Carnegie to sweep unions out of Homestead dealing a major blow to the labor movement and weakened unionism in the steel industry up until the 1930’s. (The Homestead Strike, 1999) The last significant labor movement incident in the 1800s occurred in 1894 with the first national strike in the United States. The Pullman Strike wreaked havoc on the nation’s railway system as an entire labor force walked from their jobs with the notion that workers were to receive several pay cuts and the increase rent of company owned homes in Pullman. President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to fire on and kill United States citizens against the wishes of the states. The federal courts outlawed striking by passing the Omnibus indictment which was a massive blow to unionized labor. During the strike, national guardsmen fired into a crowd of protesters; killing four and wounding twenty. The strike showed the power of unified national unions but also showed the willingness of the government to intervene and support the capitalists against unified labor. The results of the strike were disastrous as the union workers never did get their rents lowered (The Pullman Strike, 1998) As the 20th Century came about, the labor movement sought to gain strength with new unions and tactics. The International Workers of the World was formed in an attempt to overthrow capitalism and replace it with the socialist system. The United States government helped out the movement with the implementation of the Department of Labor, which protected the rights of workers. The Clayton Antitrust Act legalized nonviolent strikes and boycotts. One of the more important Acts to come about in the early 1900s was that of the Wagner Act. The Wagner Act, also called National Labor Relations Act, of 1935 was created to protect workers’ right to unionization. The Act guarantees un-supervised employees the right to self-organize, choose their own representatives, and bargain collectively (National Labor Relations Act, n.d.). The NLRA and the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) are still going strong today in 2012 as my employment, the IUE-CWA GE Aerospace Conference Board, have asked for their assistance when organizing a new Local union shop on numerous occasions. In 1938 an act was passed that benefited the labor movement in monumental ways. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938 and thus protected the rights of workers and supported economic fair play between management and labor. The Act also proposed a national minimum wage. An amendment to the FLSA in 1948 outlawed child labor in the United States. As the nation moved from industrial production to information management, many aspects of the FLSA became ineffective and outdated (Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) History, 2006). The Fair Labor Standards Act is still relevant in today’s world, just not in the scope it was when it was created. The establishment of the minimum wage rate and the outlawing of child labor was a huge success for the labor movement and its affects can be felt in today’s modern age. In 1955 the largest United States labor organization, the AFL (American Federation of Labor) merged with the CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization). The AFL was a federation that organized only unions of skilled workers while the CIO carried on the effort for industrial unionism, which are unions that organize an entire industry regardless of their sill set. With the merger of the AFL and the CIO, it brought about eliminating jurisdictional disputes between unions which would now help the labor movement like never before. They placed a new priority on organizing workers in areas, industries and plants where there was no system of labor representation. (The Labor Union Movement in America, 2012) The AFL-CIO saw many decades of prosperity for unions and workers but was tested in 2005 when the Service Employees (SEIU), Teamsters (IBT), and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) departed ways from the AFL-CIO. Chris Kutalik states that the split has generated a great deal of focus, attention, and talk about the depth of the crisis of U.S. unions ( ¶3) and asks important questions regarding the split in the AFL-CIO such as if the union leaders will be open to local members’ efforts to democratize and revitalize their unions? Will new programs build enough power and leverage to fight concessions and how serious are leaders about pushing the pace and scale of change? ( ¶10). It’s no surprise to anyone working within a union, such as myself, the challenges we face to stay relevant, to expand, to win the hearts and minds of the American people when so many see the unions as a problem rather than a solution. More and more businesses are trying to keep it a union-free workplace, and while it’s promising to see President Obama working towards getting more manufacturing plants back in the states, these plants are mostly set up as a right-to-work plant and will stop at nothing to keep outside forces from organizing the workers at these plants. When I started working for the IUE-CWA ten years ago, we represented over 90 locals from General Electric, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace Engineering, Momentive Performances, and Bechtel. Ten years later we are down to around 50 locals due to plant shutdowns and outsourcing of the plants. The labor movement must stay strong and work harder than ever just to keep its head above the water, but from the experiences I’ve had in the decade of being employed within a union, I feel this is a battle that may not be won in the end. REFERENCES: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) History, (2006) Retrieved from: http://www.resource4flsalaw.com/historyoffairlaborstandardsact.html Foner, Phillip S. (1977) The Great Labor Uprising of 1877. New York, New York: Pathfinder Books The Homestead Strike (1999) Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande04.html The Knights of Labor (2011) Retrieved from: http://www.knightsoflabor.com Kutalik, Chris (2005) What Does the AFL-CIO Split Mean? Retrieved from: http://labornotes.org/node/776 The Labor Union Movement in America (2012) Retrieved from: http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/eco_unionization.htm The National Labor Relations Act (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://www.nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act The Pullman Strike: Chicago, 1894 (1998) Retrieved from: http://www.kansasheritage.org/pullman/index.html

Experience of Novice Nurses with NIV in General Wards

Experience of Novice Nurses with NIV in General Wards Experience of novice nurses caring patients with non-invasive ventilation in general wards. Non invasive ventilation (NIV) is used to provide respiratory pressure support to upper airway by using external masks without the insertion of endotracheal tube. It is mostly used for the early management of acute respiratory failure (ARF) (Rose and Gerdtz, 2009) and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) ( Penuelas, Frutos-Vivar Esteban, 2007). NIV is considering less intensive than mechanical ventilation, therefore some clinicians manage these patients outside the intensive care unit (ICU), particularly in hospitals where ICU beds are unavailable (Farha et al., 2006, Hill, 2009). One audit report revealed that inappropriate use of NIV outside the ICU is associated with higher mortality (Sumner and Yadegafar, 2011). Its increasingly usage outside the ICU, lead less experienced nurses to care for these patients’ results in quality care compromised. Previous studies have identified the following factors that contribute towards treatment failure with NIV is lack of know ledge and experience about the regulation of NIV (Kallet, 2009, Lopez et al., 2006, Lopez-Campos et al., 2006, Elliott et al., 2011), inappropriate guideline (Sinuff et al., 2007), patient-ventilator asynchrony, poor judgment about the appropriate mask selection, patient intolerance (Hess, 2011) and delay in patient care at ward level (Elliott et al., 2011). Safe delivery of NIV can be assured when the patient received care from experienced, educated and well trained staff (Rose and Gerdtz, 2009). Previous studies had explored the experiences of experienced nurses worked in ICU and identified that experienced nurses are using their practical knowledge to select the appropriate mask to patient face. They are using their communication skills to gain control on patient breathing and using their clinical experiences to solve the problems and avoiding delays in adjusting the ventilation (Sà ¸rensen et al., 2013) and providing reassurance to immobilized patients and protect them from errors (Acebedo-Urdiales et al., 2014). There is another study that covers the perspectives of general ward nurses about the NIV, is not generalizable study because it was conducted only in one hospital. However, data revealed that 67% nurses didn’t get involved in the decision making process and were inadequately informed. Even they did not received adequ ate consultation from physicians and medical emergency team and mostly, all nurses in medical wards state that training was inadequate about the NIV (Cabrini et al., 2009). Most of the studies have viewed the experiences of competent nurses in ICU or general ward; however no study has explored the experiences of novice nurses caring the patient with NIV in general ward. Therefore, the purpose of my study is to explore the experiences of novice nurses caring the patient with NIV in medical ward. The one of the reason for selecting this topic is my own area of practice and my experience of being a novice nurse in medical ward in Pakistan. I remembered that when I was assigned with NIV patient, I really felt very anxious and worried. Because, I didn’t have any idea about the BIPAP machine like how it is operated, what assessment I need to do in patient condition to monitor the effectiveness of treatment. Sometime, I felt hesitate to consult with physician about the patient’s condition, because of my lack of knowledge, skills and training about the NIV. Therefore, some time I had a fear of harming to patient. My colleagues also had shared the same experiences and feeling with me. For literature search, I have used these electronic databases: CINAHL (15), PubMed (45), Embase (32) and Scopus (35). I have developed the keywords from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) from each database. I have used these keywords for literature search: work experience; job experience; experience; experiential learning; nursing knowledge; nursing role; nurse-patient relations; job satisfaction, nursing practice; critical care nursing; education, nursing; staff nurses; nurse attitudes; decision making; nurse-physician relations evaluation; new graduates nurse; staff development, nursing care; nurses; novice nurses; respiration, artificial; noninvasive ventilation; noninvasive ventilation; non-invasive ventilation. Reference lists of relevant papers were also checked to identify other potentially relevant literature and take the assistance from nursing librarian. The inclusion criteria for each database were paper published in the English and between the periods of 1 January 2005 to 3 1 March 2015. I have also used the Boolean operators to limit my search results. The reason for such limitation is to get the relevant literature about my area of interest. Total number of paper which I get from each database is 127 documents. Once, I done with literature search, I started to read the abstract of each article and select the relevant and near relevant article to my research purpose and eliminate those which I found irrelevant. Out of 127, 26 articles were selected, review critically and develop themes like factors for NIV failure, lack of knowledge and skills etc .The difficulty which I faced during literature search was I cannot be able to remove the duplicate articles from each databases. As, no study has viewed the experience of novice nurses, therefore I would like to conduct the research build on this research question that â€Å"what are the experiences of novice nurses, while caring the NIV patients in general wards?† This study will explore the experiences of novice nurses and uncover the challenges which novice nurses are facing at intrapersonal, interpersonal or organizational level while caring the patient with NIV. Moreover, this study will highlight the need for staff training. Because, through proper training of staff, it’s eliminates those factors which contributed towards NIV failure in ARF patients and provides quality patient care. In these studies, novice nurse is defined as â€Å"nurses who are new graduates or have limited experience in nursing care particularly with NIV patients† (CINAHL). The reason for selecting the general wards setting is as my area of specialty in medical ward and most of the time, general wards staffs are less experienced and untrained comparatively to ICU staff. References: ACEBEDO-URDIALES, M. S., MEDINA-NOYA, J. L. FERRE-GRAU, C. 2014. Practical knowledge of experienced nurses in critical care: a qualitative study of their narratives. BMC Med Educ, 14, 173. CABRINI, L., MONTI, G., VILLA, M., PISCHEDDA, A., MASINI, L., DEDOLA, E., WHELAN, L., MARAZZI, M. COLOMBO, S. 2009. Non-invasive ventilation outside the Intensive Care Unit for acute respiratory failure: the perspective of the general ward nurses. Minerva Anestesiol, 75, 427-33. ELLIOTT, M., CROOKES, P., WORRALL-CARTER, L. PAGE, K. 2011. Readmission to intensive care: a qualitative analysis of nurses perceptions and experiences. Heart Lung, 40, 299-309. FARHA, S., GHAMRA, Z. W., HOISINGTON, E. R., BUTLER, R. S. STOLLER, J. K. 2006. Use of Noninvasive Positive-Pressure Ventilation on the Regular Hospital Ward: Experience and Correlates of Success. Respiratory Care, 51, 1237-1243. HESS, D. R. 2011. Patient-ventilator interaction during noninvasive ventilation. Respir Care, 56, 153-65; discussion 165-7. HILL, N. S. 2009. Where should noninvasive ventilation be delivered? Respir Care, 54, 62-70. KALLET, R. H. 2009. Noninvasive ventilation in acute care: controversies and emerging concepts. Respir Care, 54, 259-63. LOPEZ-CAMPOS, J. L., GARCIA POLO, C., LEON JIMENEZ, A., ARNEDILLO, A., GONZALEZ-MOYA, E. FENANDEZ BERNI, J. J. 2006. Staff training influence on non-invasive ventilation outcome for acute hypercapnic respiratory failure. Monaldi Arch Chest Dis, 65, 145-51. LOPEZ, A. D., SHIBUYA, K., RAO, C., MATHERS, C. D., HANSELL, A. L., HELD, L. S., SCHMID, V. BUIST, S. 2006. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: current burden and future projections. Eur Respir J, 27, 397-412. PENUELAS, O., FRUTOS-VIVAR, F. ESTEBAN, A. 2007. Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure. Canadian Medical Association Journal,177 , 1211–1218. ROSE, L. GERDTZ, M. F. 2009. Review of non-invasive ventilation in the emergency department: clinical considerations and management priorities. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18, 3216-3224. SINUFF, T., KAHNAMOUI, K., COOK, D. J. GIACOMINI, M. 2007. Practice guidelines as multipurpose tools: a qualitative study of noninvasive ventilation. Crit Care Med, 35, 776-82. SØRENSEN, D., FREDERIKSEN, K., GRØFTE, T. LOMBORG, K. 2013. Practical wisdom: A qualitative study of the care and management of non-invasive ventilation patients by experienced intensive care nurses. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 29, 174-181. SUMNER, K. YADEGAFAR, G. 2011. The utility and futility of non-invasive ventilation in non-designated areas: Can critical care outreach nurses influence practice? Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 27, 211-217.

Histidine Synthesis: An Overview of Research

Histidine Synthesis: An Overview of Research Histidine Synthesis Kathryn McCallister The study of the biosynthetic pathway leading to synthesis of the amino acid histidine in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes was begun more than 40 years ago and has resulted in the unraveling of many fundamental mechanisms of biology (1). With this it can be assumed that much of the pathway is known or is in the process of becoming known. What is to be discussed is the pathway itself, which has been studied extensively in E. coli and S. typhimurium. While many may not understand why this pathway is important in the body it should not be understated that this is a very important pathway. Histidine is an essential amino acid. Histidine metabolism has been extensively researched and many articles have been published about the numerous effects of having deficient or excessive histidine in the blood. This paper will go over the flow of the pathway in detail from the beginning to the end result, Histidine. Histidine is something that is very important in the human body and this will be rev ealed later in the paper. Now the portion of the pathway to be discussed is the portion in which Histidine is made into Carnosine. Now in order to discuss this portion of the pathway we must first find out how we make Histidine in the first place. This pathway also occurs in prokaryotes which are the main organism in which this pathway has been studied. The disease that we will be focusing on is Carnosinemia. This disease is caused by a deficient amount of histidine in the body. Lastly we will discuss the prevalence of this disease in society and how this could potentially affect the population in the future. The histidine system is an important system in the body. It has also helped with other theories. The histidine system was of the utmost importance in the definition and refinement of the operon theory (1). In order to understand this theory you first must understand what an operon is. An operon contains a group of genes that code for enzymes involved in a metabolic pathway (2). This is very important in the processes of the organism. The operon helps the cell conserve energy. The operon theory was first proposed by the French microbiologist Franà §ois Jacob and Jacques Monod in the early 1960s (2). While this seems irrelevant in fact, it has been calculated that 41 ATP molecules are sacrificed for each histidine molecule made (1). With that kind of energy needed it’s no wonder that the majority of Histidine comes from diet. Histidine is a costly amino acid to produce, so in order for the body to maintain itself it has to be able to take Histidine from the food in which we eat . If enough of this amino acid is not taken in then it could potentially cause problems. Histidine is one of the most important substances in the body only because it can be converted into other things one of which is really important in the body, haemoglobin. Furthermore, it is involved in various metabolic reactions and hence ensures indirectly the oxygen supply to all the organs and tissues (3). Without oxygen the body would eventually begin to shut down. In particular, in the well-known yeast S. cerevisiae, the seven genes responsible for the biosynthesis of histidine are located on six different chromosomes (1). Now this is very different than in Archaebacteria. The his genes in archaebacterial are less well known than in eubacteria; only three his genes have been recognized in just four species, three of them belonging to the genus Methanococcus and one to Halobacterium (1). This is interesting since there are seven genes. The demonstration that hisI and hisE is, in fact, a single gene (now hisI) brought the genes to eight and the steps to 10 (1). Quickly covering these steps is no easy task, but below is an attempt to do so. The first reaction in histidine biosynthesis is the condensation of ATP and 5-phophoribosyl 1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) to form N’-5’-phosphoribosyl-ATP (PRATP) (1). This key reaction is involved in feedback inhibition. The second step in histidine biosynthesis is the condensation of PRATP into PRAMP. From PRAMP the synthesis produces BBMII. The fourth step of the pathway is an internal redox reaction, also known as Amadori rearrangement, involving the isomerization of the aminoaldose 5’-ProFAR to the aminoketose N’-[(5’-phosphoribulosyl)-formimino]-5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-ribonucleotide (5’-PRFAR or BBMIII) (1). This is then synthesized into imidazole-glycerol-phosphate, also known as IGP. AICAR, which is produced in the reaction catalyzed by the IGP synthase, is recycled into the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway (1). From there it is dehydrated and the resulting enol is ketonized nonenzymatically to imidazole-acetol-phosphate (IAP) (1). The seventh step of this pathway is a reversible one in which IAP is involved. The reaction leads to the production of ÃŽ ±-ketoglutarate and L-histidinol-phosphate (HOL-P) (1). From there it loses the phosphate and becomes L-histidinol (HOL). HOL is oxidized and becomes L-histidinal, which is an unstable portion of the pathway. From there it proceeds to histidine by way of a transferase, or in other words it moves the intermediate to another site on the chain. Nevertheless, the two initial substrates of histidine biosynthesis, PRPP and ATP, play a key role in intermediate and energetic metabolism and link this pathway to the biosynthesis of purines, pyrimidines, pyridine nucleotide, folates, and tryptophan (1). Klem and Davisson found that the protein encoded by the hisF gene has an ammoni-dependent activity that is responsible for the conversion of PRFAR to AICAR and IFP, while the product of the hisH gene had no detectable catalytic properties. However, in combination, the two proteins were able to carry out the reaction in the presence of glutamine as a nitrogen donor without releasing any free metabolic intermediate (1). Final identification was generally achieved from DNA and protein sequence comparison with the E. coli counterparts, assuming, as it is widely accepted, the the biosynthetic pathway is fundamentally the same in all organisms (1). This later may be associated with dietary factors, since it is known that histidinuria may be present after a heavy protein meal especially in children; it is also increased during pregnancy and at the beginning of the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle (9). This is interesting to note because this study was done in 1962 ns was based on a urine analysis of the mentally defective population of Northern Ireland. This study proposed that there were approximately 4,000 people under the care of the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority during this study. In the 2,081 urines examined there were two cases of very severe generalized aminoaciduria and 36 cases of moderate severity; these latter are of ‘central cluster’ pattern involving glycine, serine, alanine, glutamine and/or glutamic acid, histidine, threonine and sometimes taurine (9). While these numbers may seem insignificant when you take that throughout the whole population who may not know that they have a deficiency, t he numbers translate to 1.8% of the population. It is appreciated that many of the above amino-acidurias may have a metabolic basis quite unrelated to mental retardation, and it is hoped to study these cases in detail (9). This is later confirmed by further testing. The portion of the pathway that will be discussed is from Histidine to Carnosine. This may seem unrelated but Carnosinemia is caused by a lack of Histidine because it is partially made up of Histidine. Without Histidine there can be no Carnosine made. One of the genes that have recently been linked to diabetic nephropathy is Carnosine dipeptidase-1 (6). This is just one of the problems that carnosinemia could potentially cause in the human body. In humans, circulating Carnosine is readily degraded by the highly active serum carnosinase enzyme, which is secreted from the liver into the plasma (6). Without Carnosine this enzyme isn’t able to function properly. Carnosinase is a true dipeptidase and this was discovered in an experiment that was published in 1985. Human tissue carnosinase (EC 3.4.13.3) had optimum activity at pH 9.5 and was a cysteine peptidase, being activated by dithiothreitol and inhibited by p-hydroxymercuribenzoate (7). While pH may be manipulated in a lab, ou r body adjusts our pH everyday on a cellular level in order to work at maximum capacity at all times. Carnosine could hold the potential to protect type 2 diabetics from some of the complications associated with nerve damage. From these genetic data in human patients, it was hypothesized that L-Carnosine serum levels are associated with the risk for late complications of diabetic disease and that L-Carnosine acts as a protective factor (6). This is interesting to note since most symptoms associated with low amino acid levels involve some sort of nerve problem. The researchers hypothesized that L-Carnosine may be a protective factor when it comes to diabetic patients and their potential nerve problems associated with type 2 diabetes. In the results they found that mice that were supplemented with L-Carnosine had later onset diabetes and was much milder than anticipated. Their conclusion was that hCN1-dependent susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy may at least in part be mediated by altered glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetic patients (6). It has been found that Carnosine not only protects against type 2 diabetes but also with LDL and high cholesterol. In an experiment published in 2007 it was found that Carnosine was able to lower LDL without the dangerous accumulation of cholesterol that many drugs on the market cause. The key finding of the current study is that Carnosine and its constituents are effective at equimolar concentrations to the modifying agent, out data suggests that Carnosine and its constituents may serve as effective scavengers of carbonyl compounds and inhibitors of protein glycation in vivo, and as potential therapeutic agents to inhibit diabetes-induced atherosclerosis. (5). That is why Carnosine is so important in the human body. Now managing this disease isn’t as simple as just ingesting more histidine or Carnosine. There is no known cure for carnosinemia. They are still trying to figure out what causes carnosinemia. The signs and symptoms of carnosinemia are: aminoaciduria, cognitive impairment, developmental regress, EEG abnormality, seizures, autosomal recessive inheritance, carnosinuria, generalized myoclonic seizures, and intellectual disability (12). Most of the symptoms as stated have to do with the brain and its functions, and this is very similar to a number of other diseases that have to do with amino acid deficiency. Unfortunately as stated there is no known cure or management for this disease. Unfortunately only about 30 cases have been reported to date so not a lot of people even know that this disease exists. So far, all genetically determined diseases due to primarily to an enzyme deficiency are inherited by recessive or sex-linked mechanisms and this rule is holding so well that there is little reason to search for such a cause in conditions showing dominant inheritance (4). Carnosinemia is an autosomal recessive disorder, meaning that both parents have to be carriers in order for the child to be effected. The commonest approach has been to provide a diet deprived of an offending constituent, the greatest experience having been obtained with the treatment by this means of phenylketonuria and galactosaemia (4). When researched no known treatment could be neither found, nor any experimental treatments for this disease. Not enough people suffer from this disease to make experimentation worthwhile for scientists. Dietary restriction is by no means the only approach to therapy and in disorders of many essential amino-acids may not even be feasible (4). Such is the case for carnosinemia and h istidine deficiency. In conclusion, the study of histidine has spanned more than 40 years and is still very much ongoing. The two main study specimens that have been used to study the Histidine pathway are E. coli and S. typhimurium. The pathway is comprised of 10 steps in which it starts at ATP and ends with Histidine. From there is can be transformed into a number of different compounds including Histamine and Haemoglobin. There are seven genes that make up the Histidine pathway and they are located on six different chromosomes in eukaryotes. Histidine intake is mostly dietary because it is so costly for the body to make it. Which is why Histidinuria is found especially in children and pregnant women. They also found the Histidine deficiency can cause many developmental delays, and was found in a some of the mentally challenged people tested in Northern Ireland. Histidine makes up Carnosine in the human body which is very important for those with diabetes. It has been found that Carnosine may have a pr otective factor for those with type 2 diabetes. It may prevent those with type 2 diabetes from developing a severe case of nephropathy. It was also found to help lower LDL without causing cholesterol buildup like some of the drugs on the market today. This is why Carnosine is so important in the human body. Carnosinemia is a very serious disease and there is no known cure or treatment for it. The symptoms of Carnosinemia range from cognitive impairment to seizures. Unfortunately this disease can’t be fixed with diet, and there are no known medications or treatments for this disease. Carnosinemia is a very serious disease caused by a deficiency of Histidine. References Alifano, P.; Fani, R; Lià ², P.; Lazcano, A.; Bazzicalupo, M.; Carlomagno, M. S.; Bruni, C.B. Histidine Biosynthetic Pathway and Genes: Structure, Regulation, and Evolution. Am. Soc. For Microbiology. 1996, Vol. 60, 44-69. Encyclopedia Britannica. Operon. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/429974/operon (accessed Nov 25, 2014). Amino Acid Studies. L-histidine. http://aminoacidstudies.org/l-histidine/ (accessed Nov 25, 2014). Raine, D. N. Management of Inherited Metabolic Disease. British Medical Journal. 1972, Vol.2, 329-336. Rashid, I.; van Reyk, D. M.; Davies, M. J. Carnosine and its constituents inhibit gylcation of low-density lipoproteins that promotes foam cell formation in vitro. Federation of European Biochemical Societies. 2007, 1067-1070. Sauerhofer, S.; Yuan, G.; Braun, G. S.; Deinzer, M.; Neumaier, M.; Gretz, N.; Floege, J.; Kriz, W.; van der Woude, F.; Moeller, M. J. L-Carnosine, a Substrate of Carnosinase-1, Influences Glucose Metabolism. Diabetes. 2007, Vol. 56, 2425-2432 Lenner, J. F.; Pepper, S. C.; Kucera-Orallo, C. M.; George, R. P. Characterization of human tissue carnosinase. Biochem. J. 1985, 653-660. Everaert, I.; Taes, Y.; De Heer, E.; Baelde, H.; Zutinic, A.; Yard, B.; Sauerhofer, S.; Vanhee, L.; Delanghe, J.; Aldini, G.; Derave, W. Low plasma carnosinase activity promotes carnosinemia after Carnosine ingestion in humans. American Physiological Society. 2012, F1537-F1544. Carson, N. A. J.; Neill, D. W. Metabolic Abnormalities Detected in a Survey of Mentally Backward Individuals in Northern Ireland. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1962, 505-513. Kanehisa Laboratories. Histidine metabolism-Reference pathway. http://www.genome.jp/kegg-bin/show_pathway?org_name=mapmapno=00340mapscale=show_description=hide (accessed Nov 25, 2014). University of Bristol. Histamine in the body. http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/histamine/jm/body.htm (accessed Nov 25, 2014). National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Carnosinemia. http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/gard/6001/carnosinemia/resources/9 (accessed Nov 30, 2014). Orpha. Prevalence of rare disease: Bibliographic data. Orphanet Series [online] 2014, 8 http://www.orpha.net/orphacom/cahiers/docs/GB/Prevalence_of_rare_diseases_by_alphabetical_list.pdf

The Many Signs of Dance :: essays research papers

The many signs of Dance "To learn the language of dance, one must perform." That quote is taken from C. Nicholas Johnson, director of dance. In the following paper, I will review the Wichita Contemporary Dance Theater performance that took place April 8-9 at 7:30. I will be reviewing Friday nights performance. As C. Nicholas Johnson said, "In doing so, we hope to encourage personal growth beyond the art itself. Ever since I heard about the Spring Dance Concert, I was very excited to go and be part of that. For some reason that night I thought I was going to be seeing a Ballet concert. So when the first piece came on "Dear Me" choreographed by Cheyla Cabrales, I was in for a real shock. Soloist Stephanie Davis started the show out with a very modern dance, by doing all her moves by simply sitting in a chair. The audience was then surprised with a outburst of dancers right beside them. All over the room there were breaths that were taken at the same time and complete surround dancing. I enjoyed this piece not just for the uniqueness, but for the music and the openness affect it had on me and the audience. The second piece, "Warfaring" choreographed by Janice Garrett, was much more different from the first piece. It was much more brighter, the girls wore green dresses, and the music was fiddles and guitars. It involved 4 dancers, but it seemed like more because they were doing so much work throughout the movement. I liked this piece, it made me smile, because the girls had smiles on their faces as they were dancing. They looked as if they could have danced all day and be completely satisfied. The third piece "Inside Out" choreographed by Nick Johnson, was one of my favorites. "To all my female dance majors...I understand!" That was the quote that was under the piece's title. In my head I was thinking that this was probably going to be a slow emotional dance with soft music. But instead it was very humorous. Nick Johnson was half a women and half a man. The costume was perfect, it was literally haft women and half man. I thought of the act as a "dating" scene. The man being all nervous and wanting the women, but the women showing that she likes him, but making sure he knows that she is in charge.

Reality or Illusion Essay -- essays research papers

In Andrew and Larry Wachowski’s 1999 film, The Matrix, and Plato’s Republic, â€Å"On Shadows and Realities,?reality and illusion are one in the same. The Wachowski brothers allows the viewer to see how reality and illusion can be mistaken for the other, using a number of contrasting ideas found in Plato's analogy of the Cave, showing that at times the dream world can be safer than real life. The matrix is a simulation that creates an imaginary world where people are prisoners from reality, much like Plato's mythological The Cave. The cave holds prisoners inside a dark cave, chained in way prohibiting them from turning their heads, only able to see what is in front of them. All they see is a wall that displays images of what appears to be of people or animals passing behind them. These reflections or images are all the prisoners know of the world outside the cave. They see only what the marionette players want them to see: projections of objects that are not real but seem real because they have never seen the real world. People in the matrix only see what the machines show, making it difficult to wake up from a continuous dream show, trapped in an illusional world unable to break free. However, some do break free. Through much effort, Plato's freed man escapes, only to face a life of confusion and fear. With the matrix, most die trying to escape from it, but once free are just as confused as Plato’s freed man. His first reaction is to return to the cave, which is familiar and s...

Essay --

On BBC documentary called Seven Ages of Britain, which was hosted by David Dimbleby, one of the most famous contemporary artists, Damien Hirst, was once asked that did he pay for all the diamonds to make For the Love of God (2007, figure 1), which is so called as the diamond skull because it is made of a plenty of diamonds. Hirst answered that artists used what around him or her, and money was around him. Therefore, he thought that what he could do with money, and he could do something amazing with them. Consequently, he created For the Love God. What should be spotlighted is the point that an artist creates his or her works with materials, which are around them. As Damien Hirst said that money was around him, money was around people in the world whether the amount of money is great or humble. In short, money is one thing that people, including artists, could easily find in their routine life. Therefore, there has been a possibility that artists could try to create his or her works with money. Or at least, some artists see money as their potential art medium. There are several artists who actually tried to make his or her works with money. It is not saying that artists make money by their works, or artists make their works with supporting of their rich patrons. Also, it is not saying that artists design the currency. However, artists who create his or her works with money are artists who are using actual money as their medium in this paper. Furthermore, those art works, which are using money as their important medium, would be called as ‘money art’ in this paper. In short, there are some artists internationally who create money art; for example, Andrà © Levy, Justin Smith, Hasegawa Yosuke, and so on. Among money art artists, I wo... ...ously representing the real world. He uses various banknotes form other counties. For example, he uses U.S. dollars ($), British pounds ( £), Japanese yens ( ¥), Korean wons (â‚ ©), European euros (â‚ ¬), and so on. These currencies are representing their countries. He does not cover their nationalities, so it is possible to say his works are representing their nationalities. Also, the currency represents economy and politic. Even though he tried to cover money’s economical value, it is impossible to remove its value as economical index because it is money. Also, most of figures portrayed on money are political figures of their country. Therefore, money is a metaphor of one nation’s political and economic status. Hasegawa Yosuke illustrates Globalization of today’s world by putting his moneygami together. Shortly, his money origami works are representing the real world.

Flora and Fauna

| Flora and Fauna| | 10/3/2013| | Outline Australia’s unique flora and fauna: Australia has a large variety of unique flora and fauna spread all over the continent, from coast to coast, including in the ocean. More than 80 per cent of the country’s flowering plants, mammals, reptiles and frogs are unique to Australia, along with most of its freshwater fish and almost half of its birds. Australia is home to more than 140 species of unique marsupials, including kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, wombats and the Tasmanian devil, which is now found only in Tasmania. There are 55 different species of kangaroos and wallabies, native to Australia.Australia’s marine environment is home to 4000 fish species, 1700 coral species, 50 types of marine mammals and a wide range of seabirds. Most marine species found in southern Australian waters occur nowhere else. Australia has over 1000 species of Wattle and around 2800 species in the Myrtaceae family, (gum trees and eucalypts). De scribe the threats to Australia’s flora and fauna: Extinction Since European settlement of Australia began, a little over 200 years ago, 18 species of Australian mammals and about 100 species of native plants have become extinct.Currently about 40 species of mammals and many hundreds of species of plants are threatened with extinction. These figures are among the worst in the world. Extinction is a natural ongoing process. However at the moment the majority of extinctions are caused by humans. We can clearly tell that it is the humans that are doing the damage, because of the unusually fast rate of extinction. The current rate of extinction in Australia is 100 times the background rate (naturally occurring rate of extinction). There are many things that cause extinction, some of these are: * Habitat loss Natural causes (flood, fire, drought) * Introduced species Picture Caption: This image shows the crisis that Australian flora and fauna are presently in. In this image the mo re red the region is, the more species in region are thought to be endangered and threatened. As we can see the species under the most threat reside around the capital cities and the coastal regions. This is because habitat has been cleared around the capital cities and higher numbers of threatened species. Also over 50% of Australia is uninhabitable so many plants and animals live in coastal areas because they cannot survive in central Australia.That is also why we might see higher threatened species rates on the coasts of Australia. Habitats under threat: Habitat loss is currently the main cause of species extinction in Australia. The main causes of habitat loss in Australia are; agriculture, clearing for urban living, logging and mining. When an ecosystem has been dramatically changed by human activities, it may no longer be able to provide the food, water and shelter all animals need to survive. Every day there are fewer places left, wildlife can call home. Most native species c annot exist outside a natural ecosystem.Australia is one of the top ten land clearing nations in the world. While clearing rates are starting to decline, we are still clearing more vegetation then we are planting or are able to regrow naturally. This continuous trend threatens Australia’s environment and flora and fauna species. In addition clearing land increases the chances of erosion and sedimentation of waterways and reduces water quality, also dramatically affecting our flora and fauna. Introduced species: One of the greatest threats to Australia’s Flora and Fauna is introduced species. Australia has a large number of introduced mammals and birds.Introduced frog species, have caused extinction of many native species, due to a massive change in the food pyramid. A prime example of an animal that is greatly damaging Australia’s native species is the Cane toad, which was introduced originally to destroy the harmful cane beetle. It is damaging Australia’ s native species, because larger animals see cane toads as prey and therefore hunt them. When cane toads are ingested, a poisonous toxin is put into the predator causing rapid heartbeat, excessive salivation, swelling and eventually death. The animals that commonly suffer are native reptiles, snakes and crocodiles.Risk of natural hazards: It isn’t only humans that are causing the irreversible damage to Australia’s native species. A very small threat to our animals is natural causes. These causes include fire, erosion, floods, drought, landslide and cyclones. Many of these things are a very common occurrence in Australia. One of the main natural hazards that Australia faces often is fire. Tens of thousands of animals died in the Victorian bushfire. Not including the many thousands that had to be euthanized afterwards, due to severe burns and dehydration. Most are small, non-flying animals that could not escape the flames.Insect populations took the worst hit. Natural fa ctors usually occur at a slower rate and therefore cause a low extinction rate. Human activities occur at a faster rate and cause higher extinction rates. Human activities are mostly responsible for the present extinction rates. Current policy position: Different governments around Australia have various pieces of legislation that protect Australia’s flora and fauna. The state governments are responsible for the bulk protection and sustainability of flora and fauna, while the federal government has little power over matters relating to flora and fauna.Many rules/laws on these legislations are very similar and have a few small differences to fit each state/ territory’s needs. However all legislations aim to protect all native species from harm, minimise the loss of habitat and to prevent extinction. These types of flora and fauna legislations are in place in all states/ territories around Australia. An example of this type of legislation is the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act from 1988, which was the first Australian legislation to deal with issues relating to flora and fauna. The Flora and Fauna Guarantee act Victoria (1988) is designed to: * Protect species Protect genetic material and habitats, * Prevent extinction and * Allow maximum genetic diversity within the state of Victoria. Future action plan: There are many individuals, groups and governments that are having big impacts on the state of Australia’s flora and fauna. Some of which are positive and some are negative. The majority are positive; however there are more steps that individuals, groups and governments could take to ensure a brighter future for Australian native species. Individuals Wildlife Tourists Wildlife tourism is watching wild animals in their natural habitat.Australia has a large amount of wildlife tourism due to our unique flora and fauna species. These include; kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, dingos, platypuses, wallabies and wombats. Animal tourism in Austr alia is very beneficial not only for the tourists but also for the animals. When tourists come to Australia, they are educated about the animals, their habitat and how important it is to protect these animals. The tourist’s views and opinions are then changed and they walk away caring more for the animals and plants, as well as the importance of maintaining biodiversity.Secondly a proportion of the revenue raised from tourism goes towards more educational projects as well as conservation projects, which are very beneficial to all animals. Wildlife Tourism has many positives and the Australian wildlife tourism is moving in the right direction, but there are more highly important steps that need to be taken by the Australian tourism industry, to protect flora and fauna. When building accommodation for tourists, animal’s homes and habitats are often knocked down, causing disturbance to animals and leading to increased vulnerability.As explained earlier habitat loss is one of the major causes of extinction and should be minimised as much as possible. Instead accommodation should be constructed away from animal’s habitats, where it does not affect them too much. Secondly stricter rules should be in place to prevent the feeding of animals by tourists. Feeding of wildlife by tourists can have severe consequences for social behavior patterns. Artificial feeding can also result in a complete loss of normal feeding behaviors. When feeding of animals stops some animals are unable to locate their natural food sources. HuntersHunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife or feral animals, by humans for food, recreation, or trade. Although hunting is not very common in Australia, it is still having a big impact on Australia’s flora and fauna. Hunting is seen by some as good for the environment as well as flora and fauna, because it keeps feral pests in check and gives native animals a chance. The majority of animals hunte d, are feral. These include non-native animals such as rabbits, hares, feral goats, pigs, buffalo, feral donkeys, horses and camels, which have been proven to endanger our native animals.Also the taxes from hunting activities go to the state or federal governments for such purposes such as enhancing wildlife habitat and managing and maintaining national parks. These things are beneficial, however it is quite clear, in the case of hunting the negatives outweigh the positives. The main reason is hunters are only allowed to pursue specific species. Some environmentalists argue that hunting creates an imbalance in the natural elements of the environment. For instance, if an animal that is typically a predator is hunted to lower numbers, their prey will increase in number.Nature has a delicate balance and hunting can have an impact on that natural balance. Opponents to hunting claim that animals have their own ways of population control and humans are not needed to aid that process. Grou ps WIRES WIRES are the largest wildlife rehabilitation charity in Australia. It is not for profit organisation that provides rescue and rehabilitation for all native Australian fauna. All animal rescuers and carers are volunteers. WIRES mostly respond to individual public reports of sick, injured or orphaned native wildlife. WIRES volunteers will rescue a sick animal, foster it and release it back into the wild.WIRES also educate kids about the importance of native animals and how to act and look after them to ensure they remain happy, healthy and in abundance. After rehabilitation of animals, WIRES releases animals back into the environment. However as we know, animals have a lower chance of survival after being released as they are not adapted to certain ways of living, predators and finding food. They may also be hunted. This is why WIRES needs to develop reserves where the animals can be released and monitored. With no roads and anti-poaching patrols, to ensure the best chance o f survival.Green Groups (Australian bush heritage fund) There are many different green groups across Australia, dedicated to protecting Australia’s diverse environment, especially its unique Flora and Fauna. One of these is the Bush Heritage Fund, which is a national, independent, non-profit organisation that’s aim is to preserve Australia's biodiversity by protecting the bush. It is Australia's most widely supported environmental national organisation. The Australian Bush Heritage Fund has a very simple yet effective scheme of protecting the biodiversity of flora and fauna.They do this through the creation of reserves on private land. The land the fund purchases are private and protected, meaning that no one can hunt/degrade habitat on the land. This means animals can live naturally, without harm. For example, the fund now owns Naree station. This reserve in Naree protects many native and impotant plants and animals. These include: Animals on protected on the Naree pr operty: * Brolga (vulnerable) * Freckled duck (vulnerable) * Little red flying fox * Pied honeyeater (vulnerable) * Spotted harrier (vulnerable) Brown treecreeper (vulnerable) * Kultarr (endangered) The reserve also protects iconic plants such as: * Coolabah tree * Bimblebox * Leopardwood * Beefwood * Supplejack * Belah The things the fund is doing are great and very beneficial for the flora and fauna of Australia. However, the fund could be doing many other things to protect our native flora and fauna. Firstly they should be conducting more research on the flora and fauna of Australia, to ensure they are purchasing the most important pieces of land, where the most vulnerable species are located.Secondly the fund should introduce education schemes for land owners, teaching them how to best manage their land to protect flora and fauna, as they have more land than the fund and therefore bigger impact on the flora and fauna. Zoos Zoos are defined as a facility in which animals are conf ined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they are bred. However nowadays zoos are much more than that. Many zoos have now set up conservation society’s, such as the Taronga conservation society. There are a number of things zoo’s conservation societies do to help protect animals.This includes educating people about animals to help them make better decisions, breed animal populations that are endangered/ critically endangered, to increase their numbers and give the species a better chance of survival and help sick/ unwell animals to recover with vetinary care. These things are all important, however there is so much more zoos could be doing to ensure the preservation of animals. Firstly when they release animals into the wild, they may become sick or hunted again. Zoos should therefore establish protected reserves where no hunting/ poaching is allowed and all animals especially re-released ones are safe.Secondly zoos should establish anti poaching p atrols to make sure a minimal amount of animals are hunted in the first place. Lastly zoos should lobby for better legislation concerning poaching and habitat destruction, as they have a much bigger voice and authority than many other people/groups. Government National parks/ state parks National/State Parks are large areas of public land set aside for native plants, animals and the places in which they live. They also protect places important to Aboriginal people.Because the area in National parks is protected, no habitat is allowed to be cleared as the land is owned by the government. This ensures there is not a loss of habitat leading to vulnerability of certain species of animals and plants. National parks also educate visitors, both adults and children alike, about the importance of Australia’s native flora and fauna and what steps need to be taken to ensure they can survive. The education scheme also teaches about how individuals, even children can have an impact on the native species of Australia. These things are all fantastic and there was nothing to fault about national arks, until recently. Unfortunately within a few months, we will start seeing hunters being allowed to hunt in national parks. This should be stopped as it is a danger to tourists and native animals that live in the national parks. Also this type of activity will disrupt the natural food chain that has developed in national parks. This will also mean tourists will be more hesitant to visit national parks due to hunting, leading to less people being educated about Australia’s flora and fauna and smaller amounts of money being raised, to fund vital environmental schemes.