Dusicyon (Warrah) - Facts and Figures

Dusicyon (Warrah) - Facts and Figures Name: Dusicyon (Greek for foolish dog); pronounced DOO-sih-SIGH-on; also known as the Warrah Habitat: Falkland Islands Historical Epoch: Pleistocene-Modern (2 million-100 years ago) Size and Weight: About three feet long and 25 pounds Diet: Birds, insects and shellfish Distinguishing Characteristics: Small size; strange diet About Dusicyon (Warrah) Dusicyon, also known as the Warrah, is one of the most fascinating (and most obscure) animals to have gone extinct in modern times, certainly not anywhere as well-known as the Dodo Bird. Not only was Dusicyon the only prehistoric dog to live on the Falkland Islands (a few hundred miles off the coast of Argentina), but it was the only mammal, periodmeaning it preyed not on cats, rats or pigs, but birds, insects, and possibly even shellfish that washed up along the shore. Exactly how Dusicyon wound up on the Falklands is a bit of a mystery; the most likely scenario is that it hitched a ride with early human visitors from South America thousands of years ago. Dusicyon earned its amusing nameGreek for foolish dogbecause, like many animals restricted to island habitats, it didnt know enough to be afraid of the second wave of human settlers to the Falklands during the 17th century. The problem was, these settlers arrived with the intention of herding sheep, and thus felt compelled to hunt Dusicyon to extinction (the usual method: luring it near with a tasty piece of meat, and then clubbing it to death when it took the bait). The last Dusicyon individuals expired in 1876, only a few years after Charles Darwin had the opportunity to learn aboutand be puzzled bytheir existence.

Penology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Penology - Essay Example In a bid to understand what happens in prisons, various authors have participated in various writing. Penology was started in the early 40s with Donald Clemmer publishing the prison Community. The work elicited discussions and in 1958, Gresham Sykes published the society of captives, and lately, Ben Crewe’s The Prison Society. This paper seeks to show how the works of the last two authors confirm that prison is a place of order despite the prisoners outnumbering the guards. Adaptation is so strong that anyone who gets used to a particular habit or place will eventually start living as per the requirements of that place. According to Crewe (2009), adaptation is one of the reasons prisons have order yet the number of prisoners tend to more than the guard’s. Psychologically, the prisoners get acquainted to the regulations, and even though there is some form of resistance at the beginning, there tends to be acceptance once it is evident there is no escape route (Lubin and Schneider, 2009; Crewe and Bennett, 2012). That is to say, the prisoners might at first have self-denial on the reality of the prison, as time goes by it becomes apparent that they will not leave until the right time. Consequently, the psychological change occurs causing the prisoners to accept the fate, leading to observing the rules of the facility (Chantraine, 2004; Lerman, 2013). Similarly, Sykes (2007) noted that when the prisoners adapt to the situation, a relationship and interaction starts. For instance, prisoners are often released to carry out various activities including exercising in the yard, watching television, attend religious activities among others, and these activities help in bonding a relationship with the guards. The result sees the prisoners find no reason warranting an escape, and this helps them adopt the prison as another home. Ricciardelli (2014) who noted that once the prisoners accept the prison as another home, there lacks a need to seek an escape

Operational Sales Management - The nature of the sales environment Essay

Operational Sales Management - The nature of the sales environment - Essay Example Support for international selling is based on the significance of exportation for economic growth and survival (Cool and Goddard, 2006). The United Kingdom is not self-sustaining in the sense that much of its food and raw materials are imported from abroad. In turn, the United Kingdom must encourage the business community to export more in order to achieve balanced trade and earn foreign currency to pay for imported commodities. Conversely, many business executives in the United Kingdom have remained adamant and apprehensive to sell overseas despite government’s exhortations. The mystique surrounding international selling has often been blamed for such apprehension (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). Therefore, this paper aims to dispel some of the mystery surrounding international selling by examining various aspects of international selling. 2.0 Aspects of International Selling Selling overseas is not only relevant to national economic growth but also benefits individual companies . The decision to sell overseas is made by individual companies intending to reap the benefits of international trade. First, product differentiation in terms of design and quality allows companies to enter international markets (McCall and Stone, 2013). ... By selling overseas, local companies become less susceptible to impacts of economic recession in local markets and also counter market fluctuations. For instance, players in the tourism industry can promote London Towers as an attraction site for tourists from international markets. In essence, international selling enables firms to take advantage of disposable income held by expanding middle-class populations in emerging markets, such as China and India (Cateora, Graham and Ghauri, 2006). Third, technically obsolete products in developed countries may still be technically appropriate in developing countries. For instance, analogue cameras and desktop computers have been replaced by advanced digital cameras and portable computers respectively. However, analogue cameras and desktop computers are still appropriate in developing countries. Technology firm still having stock of these products can dispose them to global markets, where demand is still high (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). The benefits of international selling are dependent on various aspects that are discussed in the proceeding sections. 2.1 Economic Factors Higher interest rates, inflation, unsettled financial markets, consumer debt levels and other economic factors adversely affect consumer demand for products and services. Economic factors may also force business entities to change the product mix they sell (McCall and Stone, 2013). Certain commodities are volatile and subject to regular fluctuations emanating from shifting domestic and international demands, competition, labour costs, government regulations, market speculation and other factors. Significant and rapid fluctuations in commodity prices may have

Individual Improvement Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Individual Improvement Plan - Essay Example First, my intellectual skills, especially personal emphasis on mental activity worked well in this project because it required effective problem-solving skills. The complexity of the project required the team to seek alternative solutions to problems. This task matched my skills. I would apply personal reflection and introspection to gain motivation to complete the task. Further, I feel that my commanding style applied in presenting the scenarios as well as moving the team forward in moments when we would have stalled. Once we established the project goals, I developed a clear map of what I wanted achieved. Negotiations with the other team members allowed us to create synergies and complete the project in time. May contributions were to the team were exceptional because I am a competitive individual, and thus I wanted to be the best. However, this was apparent. All the individual tasks that I performed in this project related well with my inquisitive nature. A personal reflection about the activity shows that I can achieve better results by focusing more on my strengths as a programmatic learner. Therefore, I should seek opportunities for hands-on training. I would require demonstration from an acknowledged expert. Overall, this means that my personal learning style can help support growth and development activities during the proposed hands-on training activity. This is especially important because it links well with my pragmatics

Working hours directive

Working hours directive The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) was adopted in 1993, and came into force in the UK under the Working Time Regulations 1998 as a safety measure, because of the recognised negative effects on health and safety of excessively long working hours. It also provides for statutory minimum rest-break entitlements, annual leave and working arrangements for night workers. The EWTD is also designed to help work life balance by limiting long hours, which is both stressful and harmful to health. For example, some research has shown that driving while tired provided similar results to driving after having drunk alcohol. The EWTD regulations place a legal requirement on employers, which means that if it is not implemented, national governments will be liable for payment of heavy financial penalties and potentially sanctions from the European Union (EU). There are no rights to work long hours, but there is legal protection to protect workers rights to reasonable working environment and conditions, and to family life. The main features of the EWTD are; no more than 48 hours work per week; 11 hours continuous rest in 24 hours; 24 hours continuous rest in seven days (or 48 hours in 14 days); a 20 minute break in work periods of over 6 hours; four weeks annual leave; and for night workers, an average of no more than 8 hours work in 24 hours over the reference period. The EWTD was considered by the UK Government as an issue of working conditions, not as a health and safety issue. As a result, in 1993, the UK negotiated an opt-out clause, which allows Member States not to apply the limit to working hours under certain conditions, such as: prior agreement of the individual, no negative fall out from refusing to opt-out, and records kept of working hours of those that have opted out. The European Commission announced on 23rd September 2004 its controversial proposal to update the 1993 Working Time Directive. This will most likely mean the UK will have to abandon its opt-out clause. If this is the case, and working hours are restricted, there will be many advantages and disadvantages for both employees and employers. The advantages and disadvantages range from health and safety issues to financial issues. The advantages for employees are; firstly, no longer shall employees be pressured into signing a contract with an opt-out clause stating if required, they must work extra time. This will also stop a lot of employers blackmailing potential and/or current employees, which can be often the case. For example, an employer may say to a potential employee, that if they do not sign the opt-out clause contract then they cannot have the job. Health and safety issues will improve for employees, because when they are forced to work longer than what they want/can, then they will inevitably feel ill. For example it is very common for workers to have headaches, muscular problems, stomachaches, stress, sleeping problems and irritability from just simply working too much. Not only improving your health, being limited to a maximum of 48 hour week, will vastly improve a workers family life who had previously been working 60 hours a week. Having a four-week holiday will also be beneficial, as apposed to a lesser holiday the employee most likely used to have. Also, as a result of being more healthy and less stressed, this should improve the workers actual efficiency/quality of work, because the worker will not feel as tired or overloaded with work. Employees who are over worked, often find it very hard to manage their financial issues, due to lack of time. So by limiting employees to a maximum of 48 hours work a week, will help prevent them overlooking their financial matters. One main advantage for women in particular, is the clear link between the lack of women in managerial positions and long working hours. The culture of long working hours in higher professional and managerial jobs is an obstacle to the upward mobility of women, and sustains gender segregation in the work place. Therefore by limiting the working hours of a week will vastly improve the chances for women to improve their status. Flexible working time patterns and part time work have an important impact in this area as well. The disadvantages for employees are mainly financial, because they will no longer be able to earn as much over-time pay as what that may like. This will be especially frustrating for employees who are willing to do extra work in order to save money for their future/family etc. As a result, this could have an advert affect on their moral, because they may find themselves with nothing to do, when they could be quite easily doing more work in order to earn more money. The advantages for employers are; that their employees will be more efficient and motivated; therefore the employees should be more productive than before, thus helping deadlines to be achieved etc. Having a more relaxed workforce will also lead to a better work relationship between the employer and his subordinates (as well as between the employees and themselves), which will therefore improve the communication within the workplace. Given that the employees will be more relaxed and healthy, as a result they will be less absent from work due to illness. So therefore, again the employers objectives will be more likely to be completed, and the productivity of the employees should increase. The disadvantages for employers are that in the past, they would be able to say to their employees that they wanted a certain objective completed by a certain time, for example ‘by the end of the day. This will no longer be an option for employers, as employees will not be able to work longer than 48 hours (or whatever their contract states) a week. Employers may find they will have to hire extra staff in order to get more work done, or pay for employees to do overtime (those that can!) This could end up costing a substantial amount of money; more than what the employer spent in the past on his workforce. As a result budgets will need to be rethought in the future, and also possibly cutbacks will be made if money is an issue. Employers will not like this fact, especially as in the past, they were often getting their employees to put in extra hours of work for free! The situation in the UK, is that the main characteristics of the system governing working time have not really changed since the Directive was introduced. This is largely due to the opt-out clause. Latest figures show that about 16% of the workforce currently works more that 48 hours per week, compared with a figure of 15% at the beginning of the 1990s. About 8% of the workforce say they work over 55 hours per week, 3.2% over 60 hours per week and 1% over 70 hours per week. The UK is the only Member States where weekly working time has increased over the last decade. Approximately 46% of people that say they work over 48 hours a week, are in managerial positions and are covered by the exemption relating to managers. Looking at other countries, ranked by collectively agreed working hours, Germany idles in the bottom third in the EU. In 2003 the contractual annual working time in West Germany was 1,643 hours (East Germany 1,722). The EU-15 average was 1,708. In Germany working time is a problem, particularly for manufacturing. In some sectors, such as metal and engineering or printing, the 35-hour week is standard for a large proportion of the workforce, even for employees salaried above the collectively agreed pay scale. Overall, the collectively agreed working week in West Germany averages 37.5 hours. However, the actual time worked is approximately 6% longer than the collectively agreed hours, and is close to the EU-15 average. This is due to overtime and the fact that an increasing proportion of the workforce, especially in small and medium sized businesses, already work longer than collectively agreed. In the SIMAP and Jaeger cases, the rulings of the European Court of Justice had major financial and organisational implications for the health sector in the EU and following the rulings, France and Germany applied the opt-out to their health sectors. Measures were also put in place to allow opting-out in the hotel and catering industry. However until recently, the UK was the only Member State to have a generalised opt-out clause (Cyprus and Malta took up the option last May), and it is clearly in the firing line of the European Commission who claims that there is evidence that the opt-out is being misapplied, in particular that workers are being pressured into opting-out. The debate has been furious in the UK, fuelled by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who claims that it should be every workers choice to decide on how long he/she works, and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) who argue that it spreads an unjustified long hours culture. Regardless of the fact, people are working much more than recommended, (which you would assume was in order to save more money), according to the latest research people are squandering away their earnings on treats to reward themselves for their hard work. A quarter of people say they regularly work more than their contracted hours, however almost half admit they often waste money on treats they do not need, with 30 percent of workers wasting away at least  £100 a month. As a direct result, people are usually too busy to try to keep track of their finances, and get a shock when their statements arrive. People are spending so much of their time working, it seems a shame they are not planning for their future and making the most of their money. I think Britain should be compelled by the EU to abandon its opt-out clause under the EWTD, and thus restrict its workings hours, because people are working for far too long nowadays and as a result not only does their health suffer, but their work suffers as well. At the moment, with the current opt-out clause in Britain, almost one in four men in England and Wales are working more than 48 hours a week! The longest hours are worked in the City of London, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, according to Britains General Union, who say nearly a quarter of men are exceeding the 48-hour limit set by the EU. Therefore, as a result, the UK businessmen are hindering British productivity by working the kind of hours that burn out their enthusiasm, creativity, innovation and forward planning. You simply cannot be at your best if you are continually working more than 48 hours a week. Not only are they hindering the British productivity, but also by persisting in allowing people to work longer than they are capable of they are holding back on the UKs competitiveness with Europe. The Government is burning out Britain by practically encouraging longer working hours. They argue that more than a million people would lose out on paid overtime if they had to stop working extra hours. Or is the Government just worried about the amount of revenue they will loose out on?

The Use of Digital Cameras :: Expository Essays Research Papers

The Use of Digital Cameras Digital cameras allow computer users to take pictures and store the photographed images digitally instead of on traditional film. With some digital cameras, a user downloads the stored pictures from the digital camera using special software included with the camera. With others, the camera stores the pictures on a floppy disk or on a PC Card. A user then copies the pictures to a computer by inserting the floppy disk into a disk drive or the PC Card into a PC Card slot (Chambers and Norton 134). Once stored on a computer, the pictures can be edited with photo-editing software, printed, faxed, sent via electronic mail, included in another document, or, posted to a Web site for everyone to see. Three basic types of digital cameras are studio cameras, field cameras, and point-and-shoot cameras (Shelly Cashman Series ® Microsoft Word 2000 Project 2). The most expensive and highest quality of the three, a studio camera, is a stationary camera used for professional studio work. Photojournalists frequently use field cameras because they are portable and have a variety of lenses and other attachments. As with the studio camera, a field camera can be quite expensive. Reliable and lightweight, the point-and-shoot camera provides acceptable quality photographic images for the home or small business user. A point-and-shoot camera enables the users to add pictures to personalized greeting cards, a computerized photo album, a family newsletter, certificates, awards, or a personal Web site. Because of its functionality, it is ideal camera for mobile users such as a real estate agents, insurance agents, and general contractors. The image quality produced by a digital camera is measured by the number of bits it stores in a dot and the resolution, or number of dots per inch. The higher each number, the better the quality, but the more expensive the camera. Most of today’s point-and-shoot cameras are at least 24-bit with a resolution ranging from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 960 (Walker 57-89).

Diaphragm: A Closer Look

Medieval ContraceptionIn the early medieval times, women who don’t want to bear children used lemon halves to stop sperm form going to the insides of the uterus. The highly acidic lemon juice serves as a spermicide, destroying the sperm upon contact. This sparked the idea of creating the modern day diaphragm, a contraceptive used by women.The DiaphragmThe modern diaphragm is invented by a physician from Germany, Dr. Wilhelm Mensnga in 1880. It is a rubber contraceptive shaped like a dome, which is fit inside the vagina. It employs a barrier method of contraception, wherein it blocks the entry of the sperm into the uterus. It is filled with spermicide before it is put in place inside the vagina. It is made of soft and flexible material for easier insertion. In order to ensure comfort and ease, the woman should be fitted for a diaphragm by a specialist (â€Å"Diaphragm (Contraceptive)†).The diaphragm fits inside the vagina and blocks the opening to the uterus. It prevents the sperm from accessing entrance to the uterus.   If ever there are some sperm that swims over the edge of the diaphragm, the spermicidal cream or jelly kills that sperm right away. This device is not an efficient birth control method if you do not use spermicidal cream or jelly. Every time a woman plans to have intercourse, she needs to use a diaphragm in order to avoid getting pregnant.The diaphragm should be put in place inside the vagina moments before sexual intercourse and should stay there for 6 to 8 hours with respect to the time of the man’s last ejaculation. This is to ensure that the spermicide would do its work. It is then gently removed, washed in soapy, warm water and returned to its case so it can be ready for another use. The lifespan of a diaphragm device is from six months to two years, depending on the usage (â€Å"Diaphragm Contraceptive Device†).Diaphragm vs. Other ContraceptivesDiaphragms are usually mistaken with Cervical Caps. The cervical c ap was invented in 1860 but is not approved by Food and Drug Administration in the US, while Diaphragms surfaced in 1880. Cervical caps are usually smaller, shaped like a thimble and is directly positioned over the cervix. Women with deep vaginas would find it rather hard to put cervical caps properly, because their position of their cervix is too far back and is hard to reach. When this is the case, using a diaphragm is preferable to ensure comfort to the women.Diaphragms have negative and positive sides when you compare it with condoms. Using a diaphragm means you have to be sure of sexual intercourse because you need to put it in advance. After that, sexual intercourse could then be made anytime within the next few hours, without bothering to stop in order to apply and replace condom. It assures of a more intimate interaction because there are no abnormal sensations that you could get when you opt for condom. It provides all the natural physical sensation of having sex for men an d women alike (Allen).Advantages and Disadvantages in using DiaphragmThe diaphragm device is relatively cheap. This is because diaphragm can be used for moths without needing to replace or buy a new one. All you need to provide is the spermicidal cream of jelly. It is an effective birth control method when used correctly. There are a few or no side effects from using a diaphragm.It is unusual to experience a problem with using diaphragm. There are some people who are allergic to spermicidal creams and jellies. It can cause skin irritation and itching. When this happens, try to switch brands of spermicidal cream or jelly. If it still persists, then it is time to consult your doctor.Failure Rate for DiaphragmWhen used with a spermicide, the effectivity of the Diaphragm could be from 84% to 95%. Failure is sometimes caused by carelessness, either by improper fitting or insertion of the device. Some also got pregnant because they didn’t use spermicide jelly or cream (Silverberg). The Goal of the DiaphragmJust like other contraceptives and birth control methods, the diaphragm aims to reduce the likelihood of being pregnant or having a baby. Along with the goal of contraception, the diaphragm also promises an enjoyable sexual intercourse where safety and comfort is considered.