Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Character Tags in Fiction
Character Tags in Fiction Character Tags in Fiction Character Tags in Fiction By Maeve Maddox In the parlance of fiction writing, a character tag is a repetitive verbal device used to identify a character in the mind of the reader. More than a simple description, a character tag calls to mind aspects of the characters personality and uniqueness. Uriah Heeps clammy hands, his constant hand rubbing, and his use of the word humble to describe himself and his mother are character tags that make him unforgettable. Sherlock Holmes and his violin, his shag tobacco, and his uncanny aptitude for noting and interpreting details others ignore, are only three of the numerous character tags that make him live in our imagination. Character tags may be drawn from any aspect of the characters appearance or behavior: voice gestures body carriage dialect and speech mannerisms hair clothing scent mental state A sympathetic character who has red hair may be described as having carrot red hair, while a creepy character might have hair the color of dried blood. Some characters in a novel may appear only a few times, but the most minor character needs a character tag or two to make him memorable. In The Mummers Curse Gillian Roberts introduces a minor character with this description: I didn’t recognize him, but I didnt think I should be scared. He was polite, his voice low-pitched and confident, and apparently he knew me. Besides, he was elegant. In his early forties, I thought, with prematurely silver hair uncovered despite the freezing wind, and looking none the worse for it. His topcoat was visibly soft, cashmere, I suspected, and his hands, encased in buttery brown gloves, held a leather-bound book with gold-edged pages. When the character appears again, the author reiterates some of these details, for example, the silver hair that defies the elements, the expensive attire, and the book. C. R. Corwins Morgue Mama Mysteries feature a newspaper librarian in her sixties. Many of her character tags have to do with her appearance: My name is Dolly Madison Sprowls. Im 68 years old. Im short, a little dumpy, and I havent changed my hairstyle since college. I looked up and found Chick Glass. I figured that was you, Maddy, he said. He playfully flicked my Prince Valiant bangs with his fingers. Used judiciously, character tags add dimension to the characters and enable the reader to tell them apart. Depending on what mental baggage the reader brings to the story, however, character tags can jar the reader out of the dream and cause annoyance. In the Amanda Pepper mysteries by Gillian Roberts, Amanda is a native of Philadelphia. Her boyfriend Mackenzie is from the South. One of his character tags is that he lapses into his native speech when stressed. Speech tags involving dialect and speech mannerisms can be effective, but Roberts doesnt just make use of the tag and move on; she has Amanda comment at such length on Mackenzies lapses that I grow annoyed at what seems to me to be a display of a misplaced sense of regional superiority. The Maddy Sprowls character has two character tags that yank me out of the story every time they occur. One is a speech tag and the other involves a habitual gesture. Here are examples: Are you saying Gordon was gay? Good gravy, does everything have to be about sex? She took the brick†¦How much did you pay for it? I pawed the air. It was a steal. Every time I read the interjection Good gravy, I pictured Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica from the comics. I dont know if they said it, but thats what I thought of every time and there are lots of good gravies in Dig. The other tag that never failed to jar is I pawed the air. Maddy paws the air a lot. Every time I read that tag I imagined a rearing horse. I finally decided that Corwin intended to convey the dismissive gesture one might make while saying Pshaw! Character tags are great ways to make fictional characters live, but take care to avoid any that may defeat the purpose of keeping the reader engaged in the story. More on character tags: Kaye Dacus Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?50 Idioms About Roads and PathsMood vs. Tense
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Chromatography Definition and Examples
Chromatography Definition and Examples Chromatography is a group of laboratory techniques to separate the components of a mixture by passing the mixture through a stationary phase. Typically, the sample is suspended in the liquid or gas phase and is separated or identified based on how it flows through or around a liquid or solid phase. Types of Chromatography The two broad categories of chromatography are liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC). Highs of other types of chromatography include ion exchange chromatography, resin chromatography, and paper chromatography. Uses of Chromatography Chromatography is used primarily to separate components of a mixture so that they can be identified or collected. It can be a useful diagnostic technique or part of a purification scheme.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Innovations in robotic surgery and its limitations Assignment
Innovations in robotic surgery and its limitations - Assignment Example Robotic instruments are also able to, very easily, reach parts of the body that are normally hard to access through lesser surgical incisions as compared to laparoscopic or traditional open surgery. Robotic surgery also ensures faster recovery, shorter hospital stays, and smaller scars. This paper presents several issues associated with robotic surgery such as limitations and real-life examples. Robots consist of metal or another hard substance than contains a number of gears that are controlled by system software. Robotics is used in many fields such as industry, health, and entertainment. Surgical robotics started in early 1990s but it was all just experimenting nothing definitive about using robots in surgery. Not since the Da Vinci surgical system which was approved by the FDA (US food and drug administration) in 2000 opening the way to a promising future for robotic surgery Hottenrott stated in (2012) that â€Å"The age of robotic surgery has dawned and there still a lot of improvement to be made in the near future†(p.580). Every robot is designed for a certain operation or field in surgery depending on its function and capability. Furthermore the purpose of this report is to show the advances and innovations that the surgical robots reached in the past five years (Camarillo, Krummel & Salisbury, 2004). This subject is connected to mechatronic engineering becaus e mechatronic is the study of the relationship between hardware and software which complies with robotics. Robotics in surgery became prominent at the turn of the new millennium, which was also marked by other significant inventions and discoveries. In the purpose of making improvements in surgeries that a surgeon may have a difficulty while performing a complex procedure and face challenges that only a robot can help the surgeon to do it with more precision, accuracy, less time and effort (Hottenrott, 2012). There are some promising surgical robot
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Thesis statement is The corporate model of management should not be Essay
Thesis statement is The corporate model of management should not be used for citywide hospital agencies to address its inefficiences - Essay Example thcare sector has massively invested resources in carrying out research on the possibility of developing cure/treatment for these infections that claim lives of many in the 21st century. However, both the states and local government have equally increased medical and clinical awareness campaigns aimed at increasing and improving the quality of healthcare provided to the public. This has been made possible through enacting legislation on healthcare provision to ensure universal access to services. This has resulted into improvement in the quality of life and hence the general productivity of the industry. The management and administration of hospital agencies remains an incredibly complicated and challenging task that calls for effective balancing of all aspects in a hospital setting. Therefore, hospital overseers must balance between pressure from all aspects including internal demands (public expectations, pattern of emerging diseases and demographics changes), demands from suppliers (health care workforce, clinical knowledge and technology), as well as social demands (global research and development market, internationalisation and financial pressures). The complexity of managing hospital agencies remains a concern to researchers who have questioned the wisdom of the application of the corporate model of management in the hospital settings. Presently, many hospitals agencies citywide are relying on a corporate model of management. This model has encouraging impacts on the hospitals productivity. However, overreliance on the model presents severe consequences on the quality and sus tainability of service delivery. It is notable that the theme for adopting corporate model of management in the citywide hospital agencies arose from the need to improve productivity and quality of service delivery (Debra et al.). The need to enhance the development of citywide hospital agencies necessitated the adoption of this model. The model has presented diverse discrepancies,
Sunday, November 17, 2019
A Research Paper on G.K. Chesterton and The Man Who Was Thursday Essay Example for Free
A Research Paper on G.K. Chesterton and The Man Who Was Thursday Essay While doing research on G.K. Chesterton and his literary masterpiece, I came upon this article on Gilbert Magazine in which his answer to the question â€Å"What is the difference between progress and growth?†was posted. To this question, he answered: The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside of us.            First of all, I didnt even know he has a magazine. Secondly, since I have never heard of him before, I ask myself why on earth has it taken so long for me to discover such an amazing man? His statement above is just one of the marvelous pithy quotations of a man who never earned a doctorate and, in fact, never even attended a university. I have read some of them and I am amazed at how he can say something about everything and says it better than everybody else.            It is with utter delight that I am taking this journey to the discovery and uncovering of a genius – a journalist, a debater, an artist, a happy man – for in discovering him, I discover passion, wisdom, and myself. G.K. Chesterton: A Poet, Storyteller, and Ironist            G.K. Chesterton cannot be summed up in one sentence. Nor in one paragraph. With all the fine biographies I have encountered that have been written of him, I dont know if the Gilbert Keith Chesterton has really been captured between the covers of those books. In the first place, how could one simplify a man of such complex talents? He was very good at expressing himself, but more importantly, he had something very good to express – the reason why he was one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the 20th century and a champion of the Roman Catholic religion. K. Chesterton is alive and kicking today in a way that most of his contemporaries are not precisely because he enunciated clearly and forcefully the fundamental principles in the light of which issues, whether of today or of yesterday, can be confronted intelligently, and he has dedicated this extraordinary intellect and creative power to the reform of English government and society. Literary types would laud him for his poetry and novels and detective stories and plays; social critics would approve him for his prescient admonitions about eugenics and nihilism and socialism; champions of domestic democracy would like his doctrine of distributism; philosophers would be challenged by his insights and quips; the fundamentalist Christian would defend him for defending Christianity, and the Catholic Christian would enjoy the enjoyment Chesterton derived from his Catholicism. This is a multifaceted man.            Gilbert was a day boy at St. Paul’s. The masters rated him as an under-achiever, but he earned some recognition as a writer and debater. Although he never went to college, he proved that genius cannot be tied down to the rules of the academy, nor need we be subservient to the prejudices of the academy in evaluating genius. Chesterton, in fact, chose to be a journalist, because in that role he could think most profoundly, powerfully, cogently, and effectively.            He was vitally concerned with the injustices of Great Britain to its dependencies. He progressed from newspaper to public debate. He used logic, laughter, paradox, and his own winning personality to show that imperialism was destroying English patriotism.            In 1900 he published his first literary works, two volumes of poetry. In 1900 he met Hilaire Belloc, and in 1901 he married Frances Blogg. These events were two of the great influences in his life. From 1904 to 1936 Chesterton published nearly a dozen novels, the most important being The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) and The Man Who Was Thursday (1908). In 1911 Chesterton created the ‘‘Father Brown’’ detective stories. During his literary career he published 90 books and numerous articles. He poured out a wealth of lighthearted essays, historical sketches, and metaphysical and polemical works, together with such well-known poems as ‘‘The Ballad of the White Horse,’’ ‘‘Lepanto,’’ and the drinking songs from The Flying Inn. Among his major critical works are studies of Robert Browning (1903) and Charles Dickens (1906). Prodigiously talented, Chesterton also illustrated a number of Belloc’s light works.            Chesterton spoke of himself as primarily a journalist. He contributed to and helped edit Eye Witness and New Witness. He edited G. K.’s Weekly, which advocated distributism, the social philosophy developed by Belloc. Chesterton’s overriding concern with political and social injustice is reflected in Heretics (1905) and Orthodoxy (1909), perhaps his most important work.            I could say that Chesterton was not a philosopher in the sense of one who, like Plato or Aristotle, Aquinas or Bonaventure, Descartes or Kant, Hegel or Kierkegaard, made original contributions to the history of human reflection on the reality of the real. We can, however, say that he made two remarkable contributions which are still immensely worthwhile today: (1) he was unmatched in his ability to satirize the philosophical foibles of his day; and (2) although his philosophy was not unique his manner of expressing it was unique; one cannot read him, even today, without being again and again suddenly pulled up short. In view of his perennial concern with ideas and with ideas that count, with ultimates he has to be called a philosopher, not merely, however, as a lover of wisdom, but as one who possessed a certain kind of intuitive wisdom.            Throughout his life, G.K. Chesterton was one of the most colorful and loved personalities of literary England. To his intellectual gifts he added gaiety, wit, and warm humanity that endeared him even to his antagonists. This English author, journalist, and artist was born in London on May 29, 1874. He died at his home in Beaconsfield on June 14, 1936, but it doesnt matter. To those who know him and are passionate readers of his works, his wisdom lives on. To those like me who simply stumbled upon him, he lives again. In our hearts, his wisdom is timeless. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Masterpiece of a Non-Degree Holder Genius            Versatility of topic, address, genre, device, whatever more there is in the heaven and earth of mind and spirit brought to letterssuch is the hallmark and mandate of Chesterton. He can be straightforward and for right, crisp and to the point, or witty, with a certain malice aforethought. He can take the way of irony or simply snort when his patience is exhausted. He can soar with angelic sweep or swoop like a bird of prey. His descriptive hand is as authentic as any, as witness this from the beginning of The Man Who Was Thursday: The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset. It was built of a bright brick throughout; its skyline fantastic its ground plan wild. More especially this attractive unreality fell upon it about nightfall when the extravagant roofs were dark against the afterglow and the whole insane village seemed as separate as a drifting cloud. This . . . was more strongly true of the many nights of local festivity, when the little gardens were often illuminated, and the big Chinese lanterns glowed in the dwarfish trees like some fierce and monstrous fruit.            The Man Who Was Thursday was the phantasmagoric 1908 novel of eccentric anarchists, philosopher-detectives and a riddle-writing criminal mastermind who just might be God. Subtitled A Nightmare, this masterpiece by G.K. Chesterton better known for his Father Brown detective series mingles theological brainteasing with cloak-and-dagger capers like a cross-country balloon chase and a  bombing conspiracy fomented over jam and crumpets.            This metaphysical thriller spirals out madly from a marvelous premise: a London counterintelligence chief has formed a corps of â€Å"policemen who are also philosophers.†An initiate tells the books hero Gabriel Syme, who is with the British police: The ordinary detective goes to pot-houses to arrest thieves; we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists. The ordinary detective discovers from a ledger or a diary that a crime has been committed. We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed We say that the most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher.            Soon after joining these vigilantes, he was hired by an unknown, unseen man to infiltrate the noted anarchist movement, making him stumble upon an anarchist conspiracy to destroy civilization and morality itself. He starts with a loudmouthed poet of disorder, Gregory, and follows him into a meeting of the anarchists. Gregory is forced to keep Gabriels identity a secret for his own sake, for he himself had led the policeman into their secret hideaway.            The undercover Gabriel manages to get elected as one of the seven top men in the organization, alias Thursday, much to Gregorys silent chagrin. Gabriel meets with the other members of the council, all of who appear to be dark and dreadfully evil most of all the President, the huge mountain of a man called Sunday. Little by little, however, Gabriel realizes that the other five people under Sunday are not at all evil, but all of them spies from the police!            In the process, however, Gabriel succeeds in getting an entire French countryside to think he and his new friends are really anarchists (meanwhile they are thinking, or wondering in disbelief, that the entire countryside is full of anarchists after them). They nearly get lynched. When things are settled, this group of undercover police go back to England to seek out Sunday, whom they soon find is the very man who hired them to infiltrate the council in the first place! Sunday leads them on a strange and wild chase, during which the six philosophize about the nature of their strange antagonist.            Phantasmagoric escapades proliferate, and police pursuit collides with the carnivalesque nature of the universe. They realize that they have been seeing him from behind, and from behind he looks brutal; but the apparent evil was misleading. The journey ends at a palatial estate where the six are treated like kings, and finally see Sunday for who he is The Sabbath, the peace of God. The council of anarchists has turned into a High Council commemorating the Seven Days of Gods Creation.            The purpose of Sunday as the evil anarchist was to bring forth good through the others to urge them on to unnatural virtue. As they were fighting, they were fighting Satan. As the hearers grow indignant at Sundays using them for his purposes and allowing them to go through such trials, the paradoxical Problem of Evil seems somehow resolved. The last question asked of the strange man as he recedes into space is Have you ever suffered? and the answer the Christian knows is whispered from the distance. The last scene sees Gabriel Syme waking from his reverie, and chatting philosophy with the other Poet of Saffron Park, Gregory.             Chesterton offers up one highly colored enigma after another in The Man That Was Thursday. He truly knows how to create an atmosphere of hallucinatory suspense, to use the fantastic and paradoxical and fugitive to glimpse the other side of God. In an article published the day before his death, he called this literary masterpiece of his, â€Å"a very melodramatic sort of moonshine.†I guess thats how we would describe a novel set in a phantasmagoric London where policemen are poets and anarchists camouflage themselves as, well, anarchists. By turns hilarious and terrifying, Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday is a lyrical search for truth in a world where nothing is what it seems.            This is not a book. This is a glorious experience. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Modern Horror Writers (Writers of English). New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994. Chesterton, G.K. The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton. New York: Sheed Ward, 1936. Chesterton, G.K. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare. New York: Dodd, Mead Company, 1908. Coren, Michael. Gilbert, The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton. New York: Paragon House, 1990. Dale, Alzina Stone. The Outline of Sanity: A Biography of G.K. Chesterton. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1982. Dale, Alzina Stone. The Art of G.K. Chesterton. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1985. Ffinch, Michael. G.K. Chesterton. San Francisco: Harper Row, 1986. â€Å"More letters asking Whats the Difference?.†Gilbert Magazine Outlining Sanity. 30 November 2007 http://www.gilbertmagazine.com/page_16.html Titterton, W.R. G.K. Chesterton: A Portrait. Folcroft, Pennsylvania: Folcroft Library
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Andy Warhol Essay -- essays research papers fc
The first superstar of American art, Andy Warhol was obsessed with fame, glamour, and money. He is best known for his images of stars and celebrities and for his reproductions of symbols of the American society.      Andrew Warhola’s (he later dropped the â€Å"a†) birth date is uncertain, Andy said himself that his birth certificate had been forged and June 6, 1928 became the date taken as his birthday. Others say he was born December 6, 1930 and then others say it was August 6, 1928. Andy was very mysterious about his private life and was said to be in another world most of the time. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents, Ondrej and Julia Warhola were working-class immigrants from Eastern Europe, his father worked in the coal mines. Andy was the second of three sons. He showed an early talent for art, and from the age of nine, he took drawing classes. When Andy was fourteen, his father died from drinking poisoned water. From that day on Julia Warhola and her boys would be part of a struggle with poverty. In 1945, Warhol left school, and went to study art and graphic design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and within a year he moved to New York, to expand his career. Soon after his move Andy found work as a magazine illustrator, producing shoe designs for â€Å"Glamour†(the women’s fashion magazine) He produced designs for such movie stars as, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mae West, and Julie Andrews. In the credit line the last â€Å"a†was dropped from W...
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Early Childhood Education Essay
Please accept this letter as an application for admission to University of Houston to receive an Ed. D in Early Childhood Education. I submit this letter for I believe that my experiences are well qualified to meet the needs of the position. I am taking Masters of Education, Educational Administration with PDAS certification at Prairie View A&M University in Educational Administration and fully expect to complete my degree by August 2010. I have started applying for Assistant Principal positions within my district for next school year. I am looking forward to continuing my studies in the Ed. D program in Early Childhood Education. I am currently a Head Start Teacher in Port Arthur Independent School District, Port Arthur, Texas. This 8-year experience provides me career growth and competitive experiences in the field of Early Childhood Education. I am taking responsibilities in the planning and implementation of activities to promote the social, physical, and intellectual growth of children three and four years of age. Care, hygiene, learning, development activities, specialized programs, positive guidance of the children and maintaining records, cleanliness and orderliness are also given special attentions in my field. I have been a department chairperson for the last 3 years. I have also worked as a substitute coordinator where in I was involved in recruiting new substitute teachers for the district. In this job, I have also worked directly with the principal in locating teachers to fill in the classrooms during summer months. My studies in Masters of Education not only provide me strong background and research experience but also in the applications of these learnings. I also believed that my educational values and my work experiences will not only contribute advancements to myself but also effectively put these into practice. I have the earnest desire to function successfully in program development activities, teachings, and basic and applied researches in early childhood education. Attached herewith are my resume, certificates, and transcript for your reference. I look forward to hearing positive responses from you regarding this matter. Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully yours, Michelle M. Lockwood
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Execution of Strategy Essay
Executives, or corporate-level managers, are in charge of many things governing the success of the company as a whole. Among these are developing a strategic vision and business mission, setting objectives, crafting a strategy, implementing and executing a strategy and evaluating the performance of the strategy. Strategies are especially important because of the value-creation process that occurs because of it. Sometimes, though, execution of strategies fail and the question here is â€Å"why? †One possible reason is that the strategies developed by the executives are too broad and do not take into consideration the environment of the firm at the operational level, which is the lowest level and the closest to the markets. One possible way to curb this problem is through a bottom-up approach, wherein the operational-level managers submit their proposed strategies and the corporate-level managers evaluate and approve these, or the top-bottom-top approach, wherein the corporate-level managers forward their suggested strategies to the operational-level managers, who make changes accordingly, and evaluate the said changes before approving the strategy. Supple Supply Chain According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2007), the term ‘supple’ means to be able to easily adapt to new circumstances. When we say that a supply chain is ‘supple’, we simply mean that a firm is very flexible in terms of its ability to synchronize its functions and those of its’ suppliers to match the flow of service, information and materials with cutomer demand. A firm’s environment is constantly changing, especially in our day and age with the advent of technology which brings about major changes to the flow of communication. A firm that cannot take advantage of these changes is sure to fail. For example, the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation had a major problem with regards to the delay in production when a certain portion of its parts was just a tiny bit too large or too small; it would have taken ages for changes to be made. Today, however, using a program called ‘Powerway’, which ables the firm to collaborate more easily with their suppliers, the firm can now avoid delays by forseeing the problem and adjusting accordingly before it even occurs (Mayor, 2007). The best strategy a firm can employ to ensure a supple supply chain is to take advantage of the advancing technology, as the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation has done. The new programs developed by the IT industries offer a way for firms to know and understand the production and business processes to allow for quick response to changes in the firm’s market (Mayor, 2007). One thing to understand, though, is that one should not confuse a ‘supple supply chain’ with a ‘responsive supply chain,’ because a responsive supply chain is a strategy of the firm to counter uncertain demand wherein a supple supply chain is a characteristic of the supply chain. Reference http://www.cio.com/article/119301/The_Supple_Supply_Chain http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/supple
Thursday, November 7, 2019
interstate commerce act essays
interstate commerce act essays In 1887 the United States was still trying to rebuild and move to the west. The main method of transportation was the railroad. Not only was it quick, it was also expensive. No one had more problems paying for railroad cargo and themselves were the farmers. Congress eventually formed the Interstate Commerce Commission. Its goal was to wage lower rates than the railroad would allow. This was the start of the interstate commerce act of 1887. In this short essay some of the important sections of this act will be discussed and demonstrated by its importance and reasoning. Here is a brief, but accurate summary of the interstate commerce act of 1887. First, farmers could only carry cargo and transport it through the United States. Second, if a passenger asks for cargo or money from another passenger or the committee will punish him. Third, it is unfair to give money or cargo to any other person except for whom its is going to. Fourth, it is the rule that the railroad company is to keep scheduled stops and prices written legibly. The act says Schedules shall be plainly printed in large type... for use of the public.(Section 6,51) The last few sections give rights to the carriers safety. Any person claiming to be damaged may complain to the commission...or draw up a suit which is stated in this act.(Section 9,51) Other rules are the right to inspect cargo and ask the passengers purpose for transporting or having it. It was very important to the people of this time to have a proper-posted schedule, a decent fare, and a cooperative service in the railroad industry. The interstate commerce Act of 1887 not only set up fair state to state shipping and trade but, made it easy for their expansion and settlement. ...
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
White-Tailed Deer Facts (Odocoileus virginianus)
White-Tailed Deer Facts (Odocoileus virginianus) The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) gets its name for the white fur on the underside of its tail, which it flashes when it senses a threat. The species includes several subspecies, such as the tiny Florida Key deer and the large northern white-tailed deer. Fast Facts: White-Tailed Deer Scientific Name: Odocoileus virginianusCommon Names: White-tailed deer, whitetail, Virginia deerBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 6-8 feetWeight: 88-300 poundsLifespan: 6-14 yearsDiet: HerbivoreHabitat: North, Central, and northern South AmericaPopulation: 10 millionConservation Status: Least Concern Description The white-tailed deer has a reddish-brown coat in the spring and summer and a gray-brown coat in autumn and winter. The species is easily recognized by the white underside of its tail. Deer have horizontally-slit pupils with dichromatic blue and yellow vision. They cannot readily distinguish between orange and red colors. Deer size depends on sex and habitat. On average, mature specimens range from 6 to 8 feet in length, with a shoulder height around 2 to 4 feet. Deer in colder climates are larger than those found closer to the equator. Mature males, called bucks, weigh 150 to 300 pounds, on average. Mature females, called hinds or does, range from 88 to 200 pounds. Bucks regrow antlers each year in spring and shed them after the breeding season in winter. Antler size and branching is determined by age, nutrition, and genetics. Habitat and Distribution White-tailed deer range from the Yukon in Canada through the United States (except Hawaii and Alaska) and Central America south to Brazil and Bolivia. In the United States, the black-tailed or mule deer displaces the white-tailed deer west of the Rocky Mountains. Climate change has allowed the white-tailed deer to expand its presence in Canada in recent years. White-tailed deer have been introduced into Europe and the Caribbean and are farmed in New Zealand. Deer have adapted to a variety of habitats, including urban environments. Diet Although sometimes seen during the day, deer primarily browse before dawn and after dusk. White-tailed deer eat plants, including grasses, legumes, leaves, shoots, cacti, corn, fruit, and acorns. They can eat mushrooms and poison ivy with no ill effects. Deer are ruminants, with a four-chambered stomach. The animal needs time to develop gut microbes to digest new food as its diet changes, so feeding deer a food that is not found in the wild may harm it. While white-tailed deer are primarily herbivores, they are also opportunistic predators that will take mice and birds. White-tailed deer flagging its tail. Jà ©rà ©mie LeBlond-Fontaine, Getty Images Behavior When threatened, a white-tailed deer stomps, snorts, and raises its tail or flags to show the white underside. This signals predator detection and alerts other deer. In addition to sound and body language, deer communicate by marking their territory with urine and scents produced by glands found on their head and legs. A typical deer range is less than a square mile. Females form family groups with a mother and her fawns. Males group with other males, but are solitary during mating season. Reproduction and Offspring The white-tailed deer breeding season, called the rut, occurs in autumn in October or November. Males spar with their antlers to compete for females. Females give birth to one to three spotted fawns in spring. The mother hides her fawns in vegetation, returning to nurse them four or five times a day. Young are weaned around 8 to 10 weeks of age. Bucks leave their mothers and mature at about 1.5 years of age. Does may become sexually mature at 6 months of age, but typically do not leave their mother or breed until their second year. The life expectancy of a white-tailed deer ranges from 6 to 14 years. White-tailed doe and her fawn. Daniel J. Cox, Getty Images Conservation Status The IUCN classifies the conservation status of the white-tailed deer as least concern. The overall population is stable, although some subspecies are threatened. The Florida Key deer and Colombian white-tailed deer are both listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Deer are preyed upon by wolves, pumas, American alligators, bears, coyotes, lynx, bobcats, wolverines, and feral dogs. Eagles and crows may take fawns. However, the greatest threats come from habitat loss, overhunting, and motor vehicle collision. White-Tailed Deer and Humans Deer cause economic damage to farmers and pose a threat to motorists. They are hunted for game and sport and farmed for meat, pelts, and antlers. In some places, it is legal to keep white-tailed deer as pets. While captive deer are intelligent and affectionate, bucks may become aggressive and can cause serious injury. Sources Bildstein, Keith L. Why White-Tailed Deer Flag Their Tails. The American Naturalist. 121 (5): 709–715, May, 1983. doi:10.1086/284096Fulbright, Timothy Edward and J. Alfonso Ortega-S. White-tailed deer habitat: ecology and management on rangelands. Texas AM University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-58544-499-1.Gallina, S. and Arevalo, H. Lopez. Odocoileus virginianus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T42394A22162580. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T42394A22162580.enPost, Eric and Nils Stenseth. Large-Scale Climatic Fluctuation and Population Dynamics of Moose and White-Tailed Deer. Journal of Animal Ecology. 67 (4): 537–543, July, 1998. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2656.1998.00216.x
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Interpretation of Financial Statements and Performance Management Case Study
Interpretation of Financial Statements and Performance Management - Case Study Example Cleanup Limited has initiated the discussion on a new product that has been designed by the director of the production division. But the discussion on the new product was premised on the recent analysis that the market share of the company, while steady for a number of years at 12 per cent, is now becoming under serious threat from competitors and a maturing market. Hence, the main challenge is how to secure the hold of the company on the 12 per cent market share. The company should come up with fresh strategies that would allow it to hold on to the 12 per cent market share, and if the company would be aggressive enough, it should even aspire for an increase in its share of the pie. How can Cleenup defend or increase its market share? Several strategies include market creation for a new product, market penetration for a current product, product differentiation for the current market. According to Kotler (1994, p.383), market share can be expended by continuously searching for â€Å"new users, new uses, and more usage†for the product. Defending market share, on the other hand, would simply require a management mentality of â€Å"continuous innovation†(Kotler, 1994, p.385). Firms should avoid the temptation to be complacent, and Kotler advised not to be content with â€Å"the way things are, and (the firms) leads the industry in developing new products and customer services, distribution efficiency, and cost-cutting†(Kotler, 1994, p.385). This brings the discussion to the new product design developed by the director of the production division. After investing on research and development to the tune of â‚ ¤350 thousand, and securing a patent for the design of the product at a cost of â‚ ¤275 thousand, the directors are to determine which course of action to take next, realizing the financial rewards and requirements of each option available. Vis-à -vis the financial considerations, the directors of Cleenup are considering three options: sell the patent, develop a prototype and sell the right to manufacture, and manufacture the product itself. Â
Friday, November 1, 2019
Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments Assignment
Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments - Assignment Example They are funded by big companies and sometimes by research agencies. These experiments have however, more often than not, been counter-productive as they fail to understand the basic fact that humans and animals have very different bodies. Drugs may thus not be safe for humans while they are safe for animals and vice-versa. This leads to disastrous consequences where both animal and human lives are lost due to the side-effects on the bodies of both. The basic purpose of the experiments remains unfulfilled and many lives are lost in the process. The issue has also been dealt from the angle of the ethical treatment of animals, in the article. It argues against the use of animals in scientific and medical experiments. Instead, it proposes the use of other techniques that would be able to predict the effects of drugs on human beings. The loss of animal and human lives can thus be minimized, leading to a more harmonious existence for the whole of mankind. This would lead man to treat anim als as friends and not as objects for scientific research (Killing Animals and Humans). Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments â€Å"Killing Animals and Humans†, an article that appears on the website of the organization Animal Aid talks about how the entire process of killing animals for the benefit of human beings is a futile exercise. ... The reason that is provided for the insensitive slaughter of these animals is the development of drugs that may be used for the treatment of diseases in human beings. The article hints that the humanitarian side of the debate is often overshadowed by the financial aspect of it. The reason for this may be that these experiments are often funded by big firms and research institutions that have their own lobbies. The article reveals in great detail, the different methods that are used to torture animals and the inhumanity of such an approach. The article also exposes the flaws in the legislative structures of nations across the world where atrocities against animals are often not taken very seriously. The essay also busts the myth about the utility of these experiments to the human race. It cites examples of lives that have been lost as a result of these experiments. As opposed to the common perception that these experiments lead to the loss of only animal lives, it also leads to the lo ss of human lives. These experiments often overlook the fact that animals and humans may not react in the same manner to the same drugs. The different effects that these drugs produce have led to many mistakes in the field of medicine, something that is the public is often not aware of. The essay talks of how medicines that have worked on animals that are as close to the human race as chimpanzees has failed completely on humans. An administration of these drugs to humans without proper research into the human anatomy would always lead to disaster, according to the article. As a result of these mindless experiments, thus, no purpose is fulfilled except the deaths of many humans and animals. The article, as a means of a solution, proposes a paradigm shift in the way experiments
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