Newton’s Third Law of Motion Essay

Introduction – The understanding of the physical sciences and the law governing it is not complete without the understanding of the different physical laws provided by Isaac Newton, whose contribution to the field of science is very important and crucial in the development of the human understanding of the physical forces governing the way of life. Newton’s Third Law of Motion – Newton’s Third Law of Motion is a part of Newton’s three different laws of motion which are interrelated with each other. In the third law of motion, Newton posits that everything that exerts effort or force against something is also the recipient of an equal amount of force being exerted by the object to which the initial force was being applied to. Newton has a Latin translation, as well as the lengthy version of the third law of motion, which can be very confusing and very difficult to understand. Browne simplified it a it b explaining the third law of motion in this context: â€Å"If body A pulls or pushes on body B, then body B also pulls or pushes on body A. The force on each body has the same magnitude, but the forces are oppositely directed† (Browne, p. 58). Why Newton’s Third Law is important to the ascent of science – Newton is one of the highly respected and veneered scientists of all time because of his contribution to the society and to the field of science in particular. Because of his pioneering thoughts like the different laws of motion, other aspects involved in the physical sciences were allowed to flourish and many other scientists are more mentally equipped to tackle more scientific queries which previously cannot be explored because of the absence of the understanding of man in the laws of motion and other important physical laws that Newton helped develop (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2006). Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which posits the idea of the presence of an equal yet opposite force directed to the exerted force, provided an important groundwork for some important breakthroughs and discoveries involving the physical sciences; the third law of motion of Newton was important in the formulation of the law about the conservation of momentum; ideas like the propulsion of rockets and how they exert effort against the void in space, the action-reaction from the recoiling effect a gun manifests when firing and pushing out the bullet towards a certain direction, the line of thinking in sports science and other aspects of training, rehabilitation and performance enhancement with the use of the idea of the exertion of force and the presence of the action-reaction forces (Gibilisco, p. 188). How the third Law relates to the First and Second Laws – The third law of Motion of Newton relates to the first and second laws through the state of being in motion or being at rest depending on the current state of an object and how another intervening force or object affects both the state of the first object and the second object. Using two tennis balls to illustrate the three different laws of motion of Newton and how they are related to each other by each becoming a momentary experience before undergoing the next stage or a change in the state of motion or non-movement, it can be deduced that the third law of Newton’s Law of Motion will have each of the two tennis balls when rolled towards each other using the same speed, moving and covering the same distance and meeting in the middle exerting the same amount of effort or force as that which is given by the opposite ball. The two balls’ current stage experiencing the third law of motion originated from another stage wherein the two balls are undergoing one of the two other laws of motion; they may have been, prior to the collision resulting to the illustration of the third law of motion, manifesting the idea of the first law of motion, which states that both of the objects remain in their current state of motion or stillness until / unless an intervening force prompted them to change the nature of their movement or stillness. The two tennis balls may have been both at rest until a hand or an object put them in motion, wherein with equal variables applied to each tennis ball resulting in the illustration of the third law of motion. The second law of motion is related to the third law because it discusses the use of force used to intervene upon objects at rest, prompting them to move and the force of the moving object is proportional to the force applied to it that prompted it to move (Browne, p. 60). Conclusion – The laws of motion that Newton espoused was as much applauded by the scientific community during his time, and even way past his time, as it was criticized heavily by some of his contemporaries in the scientific circle, yet, despite what had transpired, the laws of motion of Newton remains to be one of the important pillars in the understanding of physical laws governing everything. Newton was a genius and his contribution to the society, like the ideas leading and originating from the laws of motion, is something that has indeed greatly affected the way human life was shaped over time. References: Browne, Michael. (July, 1999). Schaum’s Outline of Physics for Engineering & Science. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. Gibilisco, Stan. (August 2002). Physics Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (March 16, 2006). Newton’s Third Law Applied to Aerodynamics. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from http://www. grc. nasa. gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/newton3. html

Solving Problems And Making Decisions

The Health Board was established in 2009 following the integration of the two former NHS Trusts and two Local Authorities’. The Vision was to ‘Create Altogether Healthier Communities’ by aiming to prevent ill health, protect good health and promote better health’ through working with partners to provide services as locally as possible and reducing the need for hospital inpatient care wherever feasible. The acute service at one of the District General Hospital provides assessment of functional need and implements interventions to enable patients to safely leave hospital.A small team of qualified and unqualified staff covers the 430 beds the District General Hospital. As a senior qualified team member, I am responsible for four busy surgical, neurological and cardiac wards. I am also responsible to the clinical development of junior and unqualified staff members. I review the length of time a referral is waiting to be seen, picking up referrals due to breach waiting targets as agreed by management. I generally hold a larger caseload than other team members and support my team with complex referrals and a high referral turn over. Description of the problemReferrals to the service are made primarily via ward nursing staff and other members of the multi-disciplinary team. Patient information is entered into a referral book and then non-qualified staff members collect the referral information twice daily. This generates a referral card with basic information relating to the patient’s reason for admission and general current health, which is submitted to a referral folder within the department. The qualified staff members use these referral cards to prioritise referrals. Inappropriate referrals to the acute Service are unfortunately a common occurrence.Patients’ are referred for assessment, which becomes a requirement prior to discharge. Any referral requires staff time, which has financial implications. A non-complex referral can take an average of 2 -4 hours to fully assess, complete the required paperwork and implement required recommendations. A complex referral can take a couple of days. An inappropriate referral can cause an unnecessary delayed discharge not only for the patient referred inappropriately, but also for other patients appropriately referred as often they must wait for the qualified to work with the inappropriate referral before they can be seen.This may result in a hospital bed being blocked; occupied by someone that could have been discharged rather than made to wait for an assessment. The rough average costing of a night’s stay in a NHS hospital bed is ?500. Analysis of the problem Consistent feedback from all therapists within the acute medical team indicated a flaw in the current referral system. Team members highlighted large numbers of referrals that did not meet the criteria for acute medical assessment and similarly large numbers of referrals made at inappropriate times. Following lengthy discussion at a team meeting, it was agreed that the current system was failing.The demand for assessment and interventions to plan for safe discharge from hospital is high. The indication of knowledge and understanding of the purpose of the assessment and intervention within the context of discharge planning is not so high. This was the consensus after reviewing the numbers of, reasons for and timing of referrals. Generally a referral is made by a qualified nurse sticking a patient information label onto a referral card and selecting a tick box option to indicate reason for referral. An estimation of the time this would take is 10 minutes.Based on an annual salary of a newly qualified staff nurse, this would equate to ?1. 80. An Assistant visits each ward twice daily, collecting the referral cards and completing information from the patient’s medical notes including reason for admission, social history and past medical history. This fully completed referra l is then placed into the referral folder which is located within the department. This part of the process will take up to 30 minutes per referral dependent on the complexity of the admission and medical history, if the medical notes can be located and if ward staff are to hand to discuss.Based on an annual salary of an experienced Assistant, this would equate to ?4. 40. For a referral to be made and information collected will cost approximately ?6. 20 (in wages. ) If a hospital bed costs approximately ?500 per night, and a patient is not discharged home to await an assessment, an inappropriate referral has then cost ?506. 20, which is a very large sum if the assessment was not required. An average initial assessment will take an hour, with another hour of paperwork.If a home visit or functional assessment is indicated, this may take up to three hours. If equipment is required, or referrals to other agencies indicated, this may take another couple of hours. Based on an annual salary of a mid-range senior qualified, the 7 hours would equate to ?105. To complete a full assessment and implement required interventions, a patient may require a further two nights in hospital i. e. ?1000. So, in total, ?6. 20 to complete an appropriate referral, ?105 to fully assess, ?1000 to implement interventions equals ?1111. 20.Once the problem of the impact inappropriate referrals have on delivering an effective and efficient acute service delivery, a focus group was set up to explore potential solutions. The aim was agreed – prevent unnecessary referrals to improve the effectiveness of the service, reduce delayed discharges and prevent bed blockages. Resolution of the problem Possible solutions were discussed as a team, which included management. Each potential solution was reviewed and realistic outcome potential considered. It was decided to target the referral process, to include the appropriateness and the timing of referrals made.The aim was to ensure only people i n need are referred and done so at an appropriate time. The chosen solutions were to educate referrers, facilitate morning handover a meeting with ward staff and therapists to discuss patients, create and cascade out referral flow-charts and to establish a clear criterion of those to refer and those who do not require assessment or interventions. The team evaluated each solution individually, reviewing the barriers and gains for each option and noted what would be required to implement each solution.Focus groups were recognised at the most cost-effective tool to progress solutions and a referral flow chart and appropriate/inappropriate referral criteria established. This was approved by the head and approved to role out onto the wards. There was of course resource implications, including clinical time spent away from assessments educating referrers. This reduced the scope for patients to be assessed by therapists. Similarly, Assistants spent the time they would usually collect refer ral information printing and laminating referral pathways/criteria and delivery them the wards.The most costly resource expenditure was a senior qualified attending a daily bed managers meeting, where delayed discharges could be highlighted and bed pressures discussed. Attendance to such meetings enabled our purpose and profile to be raised and the cost implications of frequent inappropriate referrals could be flagged. Other potential solutions were considered but not implemented primarily due to cost implications. For example, a triage system where a qualified would take all the referrals, attend relevant wards and review each referral on a 1:1 basis to establish it’s priority and appropriateness.This was deemed cost ineffective. Another potential solution was to create a referral duty desk and all referrals would need to be telephoned through during a set three hour time period. Though this would ensure all required information would be gathered, and priority/appropriatenes s could be established with the referrer straight away, it was not implemented. The department was unable to offer more than one therapist to operate the telephone for the entire hospital. Ward staff feedback was they were unable to commit to having time to make and discuss referrals within the duty desk operating hours.Similarly, it was agreed within the team that 3 hours a day out of clinical practice would be too cost effective and detrimental to managing the busy waiting list. The aim was agreed – prevent unnecessary referrals to improve the effectiveness of the service, reduce delayed discharges and prevent bed blockages. The solution was also agreed – a multi faceted approach to include establishing a referral pathway, referral criteria, establishing a morning ward handover, education for referrals and therapy attendance at bed managers meeting.Implementation and communication of the solution Action plan: Solutions identified and agreed. Action plan of how to, wh en to and who to lead on implementing each aspect of the solutions created. Referral pathway – myself to lead, completion within 2 week time frame for approval by service head. Once approved copies to be printed and laminated. Laminated pathways to be displayed on each ward, in nurse station area, in referral folders and in ward managers’ office. Referral criteria – focus group, completion within 2 week time frame for approval by service head.Criteria to be printed, laminated and to be displayed on each ward, in nurse station area, in referral folders and in ward managers’ office. Establishing a morning ward handover – ward allocated to lead, completion within two week time frame Education for referrers – myself to lead. PowerPoint presentation to be created within two week time frame for approval by service head. Education sessions to be arranged within two weeks following head approval. Attendance at bed managers meeting – senior to attend for immediate effect. Communication –Email sent to all ward managers and bed managers to inform them of referral Pilot. Information session offered for drop-in attendance for staff to openly discuss concerns and desired aim of planned changes. Meeting with Ward managers to explain full scope of Service, importance and impact of inappropriate referrals Feedback emails encouraged regarding referrers experiences of how the service altered if at all following the changes. Positive improvement monitoring – No official audit was completed during or immediately following the pilot. ConclusionThe problem highlighted was the impact of inappropriate referrals and inappropriately timed referrals on Service delivery in acute patient care. Solutions were identified and implemented over time. Although no formal audit was identified or carried out during this period to formalise outcomes and findings, staff feedback from all disciplines summarised positive change. The number of delayed discharges reduced, the amount of time spent with appropriate referrals increased and general team morale improved. Overall, the action plan to resolve the problem was successful.Ward staff approached therapy staff to discuss referrals, rather than simply making a referral without thought for appropriateness. The implementation of morning handover with nursing and therapy staff created time on a daily basis for such discussion, including addressing if a patient was ready to engage in assessment. No adjustment was made to the referral flowchart following its implementation. However, natural adjustments occurred with multi-disciplinary discussions on a daily basis. On reflection, methods evidence collection such as audit should have been carried out in order to formalise the effect of the change implemented.

Doctor-assited suicide should be legalized for the terminally ill Research Paper - 1

Doctor-assited suicide should be legalized for the terminally ill - Research Paper Example Across the globe doctors, legal authorities, religious leaders, relatives of patients in critical conditions and patients battling for life themselves are concerned about the issue about of doctor-assisted suicide. Whether or not doctor-assisted suicide can ever be justified as a compassionate response towards the voluntary elimination of a person’s life is a major source of concern in today’s world. Generally, euthanasia has been termed as a process of ‘assisted suicide’ upon someone who is under severe medical conditions and the probability of survival is almost zero. This is a reason why euthanasia has also been tagged as a form of mercy killing for the benefit of the patients themselves. Many individuals believe that life is a very sacred and gifted thing and by taking it away it can be tagged as murder, other people, however have different views. They believe that a person’s life is his own and he/she has the right to do whatever he/she wants wi th their life, even if it calls for termination (1). The name Terri Schiavo should ring a bell in every person’s mind. It has been the most renowned cases in the history of America regarding doctor-assisted suicide. Teri, at the age of 26 was diagnosed with a neurological condition called PVS also known as the persistent vegetative state according to which she was practically brain dead. Teri’s parents fought against her husband and were adamant to let her live on the feeding tube even though she was in a vegetative state. The husband, however, stated that Teri would not want to survive in this condition and that pulling the plug is the best solution to all the pain and suffering she is being put through (2). More than a decade, the patient was fed through feeding tube and was on bed. After a furious battle in the court since 1998, Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge in Florida ordered the feeding tube to be removed on the 18th of March 2005

Relevant Organizational Records of Your Performance Review Meeting Essay

Relevant Organizational Records of Your Performance Review Meeting - Essay Example After analyzing the self performance form, I can clearly tell there were areas where he thinks he does exceptionally well and then there were those areas where he thinks he hasn't performed that well. After getting done with the performance self review form, I asked him some questions and those questions were based on his response on the self performance form. Other then that during the entire course of the meeting I had a notepad with me in which I noted down details regarding this interaction with Mr. X. The main points that I looked forward to in this meeting were whether Mr. X was confident, calm and composed during the entire self review process or he was too afraid of being appraised. I also had a company evaluation form which I had to fill in as I interviewed him. This form contained many questions but the main ones were regarding his performance during the interview, whether I thought he had what it took to be promoted, if I thought he had leadership qualities, was Mr. X to m e capable of handling more responsibilities and if he was capable of performing well under pressure. All these questions lead towards the main question which asked me if Mr. X in my opinion is deserving enough to be promoted to the next level the company's hierarchy. Reflections On Your Performance For Your CPD Record The meeting started off right on time. Before I handled over the self performance form to Mr. X, I introduced myself and told him the what the purpose of this meeting was. I informed Mr. X what job reviews actually are. I told him it is a method by which the on job performance of of an employee is measured or evaluated by a senior manager in the company. I informed him that such performance reviews take place once every year and explained him the entire process of this self performance. I personally think I did really well to let him know about the entire process and how things work out on the promotional scale. However, I think there was a communication gap between us and that could be attributed to me speaking to fast. I think this is one thing I really need to improve on and this is not really the first time that this has happened to me. Prior to this, in yet another performance appraisal interview, a candidate complained he was unable to interpret what I said as I he complained as I spoke too fast. After explaining him all this, I handled the performance evaluation form to him and told him how to fill it out. I told him about the possible options on the form and that he should select one which suits him best. It took him around half an hour to get done with the performance evaluation form and as soon as he was done he handed over the form to me. After receiving the evaluation form I first looked at his answers and I determined that he personally has a very balanced opinion about he he performs at work. Subsequently, I designed my questions keeping in view of what I got to know of him through the evaluation. However, here I must agree to the o ne fault I made after looking at the self evaluation form. I personally thought that Mr. X was a very proud person and I came to this view after looking at the evaluation form and finding out there were generally more ticks on â€Å"excellent† and â€Å"good† to the answers then on â€Å"poor† and â€Å"average†. My views however changed as I moved on to interview him. When I asked him if he thought he's a good worker, he told me that he thinks he doesn't know if he's good or not but he said he

Diversified groups Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Diversified groups - Coursework Example the members in a group are talented and skilled, are clear about the goals they want to achieve and their individualistic and collective responsibilities in that, and deem the work more important than their personal ego, the group succeeds in achieving its goal. On the other hand, a group is likely to fail in achieving its goal when its members are not talented and skilled enough to play their individualistic roles in the achievement of goal, fight with each other over petty matters, and deem their personal ego more important than work. Chances of success of a group, irrespective of the differences in the views, opinions, and approach of the members it is composed of, can be maximized with good management and leadership. Tom Ruddy, who has served at Xerox Worldwide Customer Services as a manager, comments on the strategy managers should adopt to make teams successful; â€Å"What we encourage [managers] to do is start off very slowly and keep the boundaries pretty tight†¦As the team starts to grow and expand, and take on responsibility, start moving those boundaries out† (Ruddy cited in HBR,

Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations Essay

Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations - Essay Example Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations? The paper has answered the research question of Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations?". After giving a brief overview of stakeholders it was seen that the perspectives change as per the impact on the stakeholders. It is expected that each entity would have a different view or a perspective on the change management. This paper would attempt to answer the theThe paper has answered the research question of Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations?". After giving a brief overview of stakeholders it was seen that the perspectives change as per the impact on the stakeholders. When the interests of stakeholders are different, their perspectives and interest in the change management process would be different. Three case studies using the above reasoning have been examined. From the study, it emerges that a change management process is successful only when differing perspectives, needs and interests of various stakeholders are conside red. Two case studies of change management process during the merger of multinational automobile firms have been examined. It has been seen that in the case of Daimler Chrysler, differing perspectives of the stakeholders were not resolved and controlled by a proper change management process. As a result there was intense suspicion and infighting thus leading to a failure of the merger. In the second case of an alliance between Renault and Nissan was examined.

Technology Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Technology Plan - Research Paper Example Its head office is located at Redmond, WA. The company uses a web based platform to promote its business on the internet. It can be visited on: Clean-n-Brite.com. However, this is a static web site that only presents basic information about the company. In this scenario, the implementation of new technology based system will offer an excellent support and capability for establishing online sales. At the present, company has a large loyal customer base. In addition, Clean-n-Brite Business is basically a supplier of cleaning products to a lot of different companies and commercial areas. In addition, Clean-n-Brite Business provides different grade cleaning products for a number of different sectors. Additionally, Clean-n-Brite Business presently deals with a large number of corporations including hotels, processing industries, hospitals and public organizations, catering organizations such as leisure centers and schools. With the evolution in business, Clean-n-Brite Business has been able to see a lot of new opportunities as well as issues. Though, the greatest opportunity that business has got is in form of increased customer reorganization and business market position improvement. While talking about the problems that Clean-n-Brite Business is facing include handling the information and data gathered from various customers and corporations. As a result, the existing system which was created to manage these areas is not effectively dealing with these operations in an appropriate manner. Thus, there is need for a better system which can effectively and efficiently manage the operations and processes of business in an attempt to improve the organizational performance. For resolving this problem we have proposed the idea of application of a web based business platform. The new web based business platform will make use of the new technology based services for managing the online sales and transactions. The new system for business management will

The Google Maps Road Rally Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Google Maps Road Rally - Essay Example Austin spreads into 271.8 squares miles in which 6.9 square miles occupies the water. Austin is located near Colorado River along with three beautiful artificial lakes prefixing with lake named as Bird Lake, Austin, and Walter E. Long. Google maps provide the location of lake Austin as shown in the below figure from the website of Google maps after zooming the location. There is beautiful wildflower meadow and shrub/sapling habitat is evolving as the trees grow in stretch of riverbank besides Colorado River. Other species is also showing presence. Biological diversity, better water quality, improvement in oxygen level and flood control is also helpful maintaining sustainable ecosystem in area. The reservoir created in 1939 supports the electricity generation and flood control measurement in the area. Mount Bonnell is another place of interest in the vicinity of Lake Austin to serve as watchtower for the city dwellers. This serves to provide sightseeing to the visitors from the height of 780-feet with nickname Covert Park in the area of 5.36 acres to enjoy the nature’s beauty present in surrounding hills (â€Å"Google Maps†). Population of city is dominated by 63.7% of White Americans in which 49.9% are non-Hispanic according to the survey of 2005-07. The Hispanic population contributes to the 30.5% of the population. Weather condition of city supports the prevalence of subtropical humid climate that can provide sunny days across most of the time in the year. Snowfalls are rare but, it occurs at the interval of two years. City administration comprises the member of council to maintain the governance and law in the Austin. Politically the city remains divided into the groups of environmentalist and promoters of urban advancement (â€Å"Google Maps†). Economically Austin remains one of the thriving city of the US acting as hub for high tech companies including IT giants such as Dell, IBM, Motorola, HP, Apple. University of Texas remains one

Bed Bath and Beyond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bed Bath and Beyond - Essay Example Porter’s better off test revels that competition at the level of business units defines the ability of a company to achieve a competitive advantage within the larger business environment. This section gives a critical analysis of BB&B’s corporate strategies with a view of evaluation the effectiveness of these strategies in enabling the company to have a competitive advantage within the retail business markets. Diversification through Acquisition Porter’s better off strategy demonstrates that it is through acquisitions that companies have been able to expand their business as a corporate strategy of increasing their competitiveness (Porter 4). BB&B acquired Cost Plus as one of its corporate strategies of diversifying business activities. The acquisition of Cost Plus cost BB&B $ 495 million but this strategy in the long run is proving effective in enhancing the company’s competitiveness (DeTar 1). Cost Plus has given BB&B a higher market position in home fur nishings (DeTar 1). Diversification through acquisition is a concept within portfolio management which has allowed many companies to diversify their portfolios. Diversification of portfolios which is achieved through acquisition allows a company to prevent the risks which are associated with business processes (Misonzhnik 1). Porter in his better off test asserts that acquisition corporate strategy becomes effective is the acquired units are autonomous (Porter 10). In light of this argument, it is illustrated that the acquisition that BB&B made on Cost Plus maintained the autonomy of the business units within the acquired company. The need for autonomy within the acquired units was decided upon by the management of the company so that the costs which are associated with change are avoided. Porter further revels that the autonomy among acquired units must be aimed at ensuring that the employees within the new units are compensated and rewarded in accordance to the performance the uni ts (Porter 10). The Cost Plus units as acquired by BB&B comprised of employees who were motivated for increased performance through performance based rewards and compensation scheme. This is shown by the fact that â€Å"the company plans to hire 35 full- and part-time workers† (Carnopis 1). In return the company has achieved increased performance in the market which justifies its competitiveness within the home merchandise retail business and market. Shared Activities within Value Chains The CEO of Cost Plus pointed out that "Our successful merchandising and product collaborations over the last two years have demonstrated that our organizations work well together† (DeTar 1). The CEO was referring to the collaboration between the company and Bed Bath & Beyond. Porter’s better off test further postulates that when the value chains of activities of a company’s units are shared as a corporate strategy, competitiveness in the business environment is guaranteed. It is therefore through the collaboration between the acquired units and the existing ones that Bed Bath and Beyond is able to achieve increased success and competitiveness within the market. Transfer of Skills The values chains and business units of Bed Bath & Beyond and the acquired Cost Plus have more experienced, talented, creative and skilled expertise. As a result, the company has utilized the abilities of the employees through transfer skills corporate strategy

Theories on Motivation in Human Resource Management Assignment

Theories on Motivation in Human Resource Management - Assignment Example ory had been applied in US organizations and later exported to other regions of the world, it has lost its significance in the current global business environment. The theory is founded on mere assumptions rather than relevant facts or research. It is absurd to think that individuals would carry on moving toward growth and finally attain ‘self actualization’. If this theory can be relied, for ample workforce motivation the management has to identify the active needs of each employee. The theory flaws in the practical side as it is impossible to categorize employees based on their physiological and psychological requirements. The weakness of the theory is more prevalent in the case of multinational companies (MNCs) which are having the features of virtual organizations with broad pool of human. Although this theory had been applied in US organizations and later exported to other regions of the world, it has lost its significance in the current global business environment. The theory is founded on mere assumptions rather than relevant facts or research.

The Adventure of the Sperm and Egg Essay Example for Free

The Adventure of the Sperm and Egg Essay Let me introduce myself, I am Penny the Egg and today I will embark on one of the most exciting times in my life span. This has been a long expedition and now that I have reached the infundibulum, this is the outer portion of a female fallopian tube. The name I was in the medical word is â€Å"Ova†, most people just call me egg but my name again is Penny. I have been in contact with a germ cell named Seymour. His medical name is sperm and he lives inside the male human body. Seymour and I have been dreaming about this adventure for our whole lives. I am hope everything goes as planned and Seymour and I get to meet. After we meet, we will become one to create another male or female embryo which will grow into a human baby. As the â€Å"Great Change† occurs, medically that would be puberty for a female; I was one of 2 million ova that once lived inside the female. After the great change there are around 400,000 of my sisters and I left. We all live inside the follicle; these are thin capsules inside the ovaries. Out of the 400,000 of us that survived the great change, only 400 or so of us will reach fulfillment and become a ripened ova (Nevid, Rathus Fichner-Rathus, 2011). When I have ripened to fulfillment I will leave the safety of the ovary where I spent my childhood, I have made my way to where I am now, the fallopian tube. This is where I will wait for Seymour to arrive. It takes me some time to travel down the fallopian tube, and during this time is when my female host will ovulate, and then two weeks later my host will menstruate unless Seymour and I create life. The length of my travel is around 4 inches, but I must travel different parts of the tube in order to be totally ready to meet Seymour. As I travel the fallopian tube, I will come a crossed various small groups who call themselves Cilia. The Cilia groups have miniature hair-like projections that help me along my travels’. I could not make it an inch a day without the help of the Cilia. I dream about Seymour and our meeting day and worry that my female host will not allow me to be discharged with her menstruation. I have now been in the fallopian tube for just over a day now and I pray that Seymour is skillful enough to make it in enough time to help me create life. If Seymour does not arrive within two day of my leaving the ovary, I will not be here to meet him and no life will be created (Nevid, Rathus Fichner-Rathus, 2011). I am the type of egg to worry all the time, I wonder if Seymour’s trip is going according to plan? I just hope Seymour is strong and fast enough to out swim his brother’s taking this adventure also. Hello everyone my name is Seymour the sperm, I ‘m sure by now you know Penny and I am sure she told you I have millions of brothers’. Honestly, I cannot wait to take that adventure because it is too crowded and very uncomfortable for me in here. I just hope I am strong enough and can survive the adventure, why worry? You ask, because many of us do not survive and it can be a very fatal because it is a false adventure, but I know that to keep life going I must swim as fast and hard as I can to meet my Penny. My Life began in a place in the male host body called the testicles. This is where I went through a 72 days process of spermatogenesis. In order for me to meet Penny inside her female host, I had to endure this process. I have been told that Penny only holds the X chromosome (female), and I contain a Y chromosome (male) and the X chromosome. Once Penny and I meet our sex chromosome will connect and I have one of the most important jobs at this point I will decide if Penny and I will create the life of a male or female, because I alone can make I male with the Y chromosome (Nevid, Rathus Fichner-Rathus, 2011). After my preparation for my adventure, I make my way to the epididymis while in this transition, I continue to mature. It will take a few more weeks for me to be able to move to the Vans Deferens tube of my male host. I will continue my adventure to meet my Penny by making my way into the seminal vesicle; this is where I get all my nourishment from seminal fluid rich in fructose. The nutrition I receive from the fructose in the seminal fluids is what will make me strong enough to out swim my brothers’ to meet Penny. I have discovered I look a lot like a tadpole. I have a tail that whips back and forth to move me forward. Before I matured to this â€Å"tadpole† stage my movements were conducted by the contractions in the epididymis, Vans, Deferens, and just like Penny, I also had help from groups of cilia (Nevid, Rathus Fichner-Rathus, 2011). As the prostate and Cowper’s are making secretions, I continue my adventure. The secretions the other organs are making are what my brothers’ and I will mix with in the ejaculation proses. Yes, I made it to the point I am ready to be ejected from the male’s penis darning sexual intercourse. Once this happens I can begin a whole other adventure to meet Penny in the fallopian tube of her female host. My male host has ejected me and my brothers from his body to Penny’s female host. I must move faster than I have ever moved before. Millions of my brother s are trying to get to my Penny also and will race through the cervical canal, onto the uterus, we will continue to battle to be the first one to successfully reach an ovum (Penny) waiting just outside the opening to the fallopian tube. I did it! I was the first one to reach the ovum and penetrate Penny’s hard outer lining. Even thou many of my brothers’ might find her, once I am inside the lining Penny will go through a chemical change that will insure we become an embryo. We will travel together down the rest of the fallopian tube so we can implant ourselves into the uterus until birth as a human .

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice

Determining Ethanol in Fermented Glutinous Rice 1.0 Introduction Fermented glutinous rice is a popular dessert among Malaysian consumers. It consist of carbohydrate such as rice and it need to be fermented for a few days until the glucose have been converted into the ethanol, carbon dioxide and energy whereas it signs is when the taste is sweet flavor. Cassava also can be fermented. Both of dishes served mostly in Southeast Asia. When the processes are completed, commonly the fermented glutinous rice will be wrapped in banana leaves. During the fermentation process, it most often done by a product called ‘ragi’. However, the consumption of fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue among the Muslim community. It is because the ethanol content that is produced during the fermentation is 5% which is similar to the concentration of ethanol in alcoholic beverages such as beers. As we know, the value of alcohol can be contained in the food that had been stated by JAKIM is 0.01% only. As we know, when a lot of alcohol are consumed, i t can affect our health and can caused death. There are many analytical methods that had been studied by researchers to determine the alcohol contained in food. Thus, FTIR spectroscopic had been chosen based on the easiest, low time consuming and low cost for determination of alcohol in fermented glutinous rice. Thus, it can give a contribution by providing the alcohol content for the sake of Muslim. 2.0 Rice The staple food for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is rice (Oriza sativa L.). According to Arendt (2013), in 2010, China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar alone provided more than 75% of the world’s total rice production. As we know, the lowest protein content of all the cereals is rice but it also highly nutritious among others. It is rich in carbohydrates. There are many ways that it can be consumed by the consumers. For instance, in the form of puffed rice, noodles, snack foods and fermented sweet rice. To make bakery products, sauces, infant foods, breakfast cereals, alcoholic beverages and vinegar, it also can be used. 2.1 Fermentation Fermentation is one of the natural processes. According to Theresa (2014), when organisms convert nutrients for example carbohydrate such as starch and sugar into an acid (lactic acid and acetic acid) or an alcohol, it is called as energy-yielding anaerobic metabolic process which is occurs in fermentation. For instances, to obtain energy, yeast will perform fermentation by converting the sugar into the alcohol. Many people all around the world use fermentation to produce products such as wines, cheese and beers. It is also known as one of the historical biotechnological processes. 2.2 Fermented Glutinous Rice Tapai or also known as fermented glutinous rice is one of the Malaysian favorite dessert. It is come from Indonesia and Malaysia. Actually it is sour and sweet alcoholic paste, have a very pleasant aroma and it also can be used directly as a food or in traditional recipe. Normally, it is wrapped with rubber tree leaves or banana leaves. It can be made from carbohydrate sources such as cassava, glutinous rice or white rice. It have to undergo fermentation process which is performed by many types of moulds including Rhizopus oryzae, Aspergillus oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae or Mucor species, and including yeast for example Saccharomycopsis fibuliger, Endomycopsis burtonii and others,along with the bacteria. Besides, tapai also can be used to produce alcoholic beverages. Figure 1: example of fermented glutinous rice 2.3 Preparation Of Fermented Glutinous Rice To produce fermented glutinous rice, the ingredient needed is glutinous rice, yeast and sugar. The procedures are as follow: The glutinous rice was washed and soaked it overnight Glutinous rice will be cooked . After it had been cooked well, we need to cool it. After it has cooled, the yeast was pounded and then sprinkled it on the top of cooked rice. sugar was mixed with water and sprinkle each layer of rice with water to start the fermentation The rice was packed in layers into a tight container. Each of the layer was sprinkled with some sugar water to allow the fermentation proces. It will take about 2 days for fermentation occurred. After 2 days, there will be a bit liquid in the bottom of the container. At this time, the fermentation is complete. The liquid which collects at the bottom of container is called brem (rice wine). Originally it have a low alcohol content after fermentation in a few days but if it continued fermented, the alcohol content will increase. Yeast will carried out both anaerobic respiration and aerobic respiration. In the fermentation in of yeast, anaerobic respiration is occurred which is the yeast will secrete the enzyme zymase (Ali et al, 2012). According to Ali et al (2012), this enzyme will hydrolyse glucose to form the ethanol, energy and carbon dioxide in the absence of the oxygen Glucose → Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide + Energy The enzyme can speed up the fermentatation process and only a small amount of enegy used. Therefore, in ethanol there is a large amount of energy stored as chemical energy due to the incomplete broken down of glucose in anerobic respiration. 3.0 The Importance of Determination of Alcohol In western countries, there are a lot of alcoholic beverages for example beers, wines and distilled spirit drinks. A drink that typically containing below 60% v/v of ethyl alcohol is known as an alcoholic beverage (Gallignani et al,2005). There are three main classes of alcoholic beverages which are wines, beers and distilled spirit. Ryan (2014) stated that the alcoholic beverages which are made from germinated barley (malt), water, yeast and hops are known as beers while alcoholic beverages that produced by the fermentation of fresh grapes and grains for example rice are called as wines. The distilled spirituous beverages that contained 15% of alcohol or above and made from tubers, grain, fruit or sugar cane are known as spirit. But it is clearly that it is forbidden for Muslims to consume it as we know the alcohol content that exist in the beverages. On the other hand, in Malaysia we are not consuming the alcohol in the alcoholic beverages but we are consuming alcohol in the food product without realized about it. As stated above, alcohol can be produced naturally in some product that we consumed in our daily life such as soy sauce, fermented cassava and fermented glutinous rice that also become the Malaysian favorite food especially during the celebrations. Besides, there are also laboratories or specialized factory that produced ethanol artificially for the processing of various consumer products. Generally, the issue of the existence of alcohol in food is still been debated until today in Malaysia. The confusion is not only faced by the society but it also faced by the academicians and scholars. Glutinous fermented rice seems to have ethanol content higher than had been stated by JAKIM. Compared to the others natural product like soy sauce, the alcohol content in the fermented glutinous rice is about 5% of ethanol. Table 1: Alcohol content (ethanol) in fermented glutinous rice and fermented cassava. (The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) , 1983) Alcohol content (ethanol) % Day Fermented glutinous rice Fermented cassava 0 3.0 3.4 1 3.4 2.8 2 5.2 3.3 Based on the table 1, the ethanol content on the day 3 of the fermentation showed that the ethanol content in the fermented glutinous rice is 5.2% which is higher than the fermented cassava which is 3.3%. The alcohol content in fermented glutinous rice is similar to the alcohol content in beers which is 5%. Thus it had raised the halal issues to the Muslim community in Malaysia. Apart from that, consuming too much alcohol can lead to the bad consequences to the consumers especially for the acute chronic consumer. It is the main reason why we need to study the alcohol contents in fermented glutinous rice. The information about the content of alcohol can be such a contribution to the people and for the sake of Muslims all around the world. It also can make them more aware about what they had consumed. The ethanol content in fermented glutinous rice can increase when we continuing kept it for a longer time. At the certain time, the liquid produced can be categorized as alcohol as it can make us drunk if over consumed. As we know, when we consumed alcohol in a large amount, it can give a bad consequence effect to the consumer. Besides having pervasive psychosocial and economic consequences, alcohol is one of the main contributors to morbidity and mortality (Acharjee et al, 2015). All around the world, the number of deaths and substantial disability from medical and psychiatric consequences of alcohol misuse is increases day by day. Clearly in term of health, it is not good for us to consume alcohol in our life. Alcohol has an adverse impact on human. It has been proven in science, psychology and sociology. Acharjee et al (2015) also stated that large amount of alcohol has harmful effects on our health. For instance, alcohol can effects our cardiovascular such as hypertension, sudden cardiac death, stroke, cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmias. In term of psychology, some crime and immorality in society happened due to the intake of alcohol. Often, drunks do not have a good attitude because when they get drunk, they were not aware of their behavior, which can cause discomfort to the community. This group also can apply chaos in a country because when alcohol addicts exist in a government or private sector, it can lead to abuse of power, property, embezzlement of state funds and breach of trust. 4.0 ANALYTICAL METHODS IN DETERMINATION OF ETHANOL A number of analytical methods have been employed with the aim of determination of alcohol. Commonly, there are combination of methods in order to achieved better result while analyze the sample. In western countries, various type of analytical method were developed to determine alcohol in alcoholic beverages. For example, Vonach et al (1998) had presented the coupling of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with Fourier –transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It can be used to determine the main component of wine such as glucose, fructose, citric, lactic, tartaric acid, glycerol, ethanol and so on. When it was about the sample preparation, it seems that the process was a little bit tedious because when using the internal standard, it need to be dissolved in distilled water and many more process need to carry out. The stationary phase and mobile phase that used in this study is ion-exchange resin based column and sulfuric acid. From the external reference data, an average deviation can be resulted which is 0.16mg/ml (Vonach et al, 1998). Yarita et al (2002) had proposed HPLC-FID to determine the ethanol content. Pure water had been chosen as a mobile phase in this study. When liquid water was introduced in FOD system, it changes into vapor. Due to limited flow rate of the HPLC eluent that introduced in FID system, capillary tube act as an alternative ways to control the flow rate of the HPLC eluent. Triacontylsylyl (C-30) silica gel is preferred because it show less decrease in the retention time compared with other. The ethanol concentration in the six sample can be detected around 10.2%-40.8% v/v at temperature 150C (Yarita et al, 2002). Gas chromatography also can be used as analytical tool to determine the alcohol in sample. Wang et al (2004) had proposed direct injection capillary gas chromatography that can be used to detect the methanol in beverages. Megapore capillary column with high polarity had been choosing to get the optimum condition for this study. It is because of it can used to separate the methanol in alcoholic beverages from the other components. At the stable baseline region, according to Wang et al (2004) when using acetonitrile as internal standard, it can perform clear separation from other constituents of sample. The samples studied were wine and whisky. Based on the obtained result, chromatogram give 3.06 min retention time for methanol while for the internal standard, it consumed about 4.21 min. Gas chromatography coupling with capillary column also has been proposed by Wang et al (2004). The aim was to determine both concentration of methanol and ethanol by using two internal standards which are acetonitrial for ethanol and 2- pentanol for methanol. Wang et al (2004) stated that for methanol, the retention time that revealed by this method was 2.87min while for ethanol, the retention time was 3.41 min. The analysis of both alcohol by using this method is 12 min. Apart from that, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for methanol was 5 ÃŽ ¼g/mL and ethanol was 5 mg/mL (Wang, 2004). These methods are assumed to give contribution in order to determine the methanol content in industries due to high accuracy and precision. However, this method is time consuming and tedious. Vapour-phase FT-IR also can be used as analytical tool in determination of alcohol in beverages. In this experiment, there are aqueous solution of ethanol and methanol in the sample (Garrigues et al., 1997). The alcohol that contained in the sample had determined by using liquid-phase FTIR and vapour-phase FTIR. According to the Garrigues et al (1997), the result that obtained by the liquid-phase FTIR spectra, when pure water is used as a blank, there are a series of overlapping positive and negative peak (Garrigues et al., 1997). On the other hand, when discussing about FTIR spectra obtained by using vapour-phase FTIR after the injection of sample in heated plate, Garrigues et al (1997) stated that both ethanol and methanol provided a well-defined peak in the range of 1500 to 900 cm-1.The absorbance value for liquid-phase and vapour-phase are same but the spectrum for vapour-phase is clearer than spectrum for liquid-phase. Besides, the sensitivity and resolution of the alcohol band also high for vapour-phase FTIR (Garrigues et al., 1997). For the screening analysis of beverages, NIR can be used as a spectroscopic technique ( Barboza, 2003). The applications range was limited when using NIR because it has low sensitivity (Lanchemier, 2007). According to Chandley (1993), between NIR bitterness value and spectral data, the observation is it has a poor correlations and it needs the evaporation of water (dry extract spectroscopy) to make the determination of bitterness become possible. When mid-infrared combination with FTIR spectroscopy was used, it becomes such a development in the spectroscopic analysis compared with the using of NIR. Compared to the NIR, when using FTIR, we can get better result when analyzing the minor component such as lactic acid (Lanchenmier , 2007). Furhermore,it also can produce high resolution peak and the spectra also clearer when using FTIR ( Gallignani et al, 2003). Liquid Fourier transform-middle infrared spectrometry can be used to analyze wine in a 90 s (Patz et al., 2004). FTIR/PLS have b een developed for the multicomponent screening to analyze the alcohol in beverages (Neuwoudt et al, 2004).A lot of information can be obtained when using NMR rather than NIR and FTIR. According to Lanchenmier et al (2005), the distinct signals of the spectra can be produced if NMR was applied. In the calculation of cost-benefit for both NMR and FTIR, Lanchenmier (2007) also mentioned that in contrast with NMR, FTIR can give more advantage for screening method due to the less investment and operational costs. In this study, we want to determine the concentration of the ethanol in fermented glutinous rice with the use of FTIR and combination with Partial Least Square in the context of official food control. FTIR can give us advantages in order to determine and analyse the alcohol in alcoholic beverages because it can help us to reduce the time cost, and at the same time, it is also contribute for a good precision and accuracy when dealing with the parameters (Moreira et al., 2004). Fu rthermore, according to Lachenmeier (2007), a simple sample preparation is needed when dealing with FTIR spectroscopy compared to the other analytical methods. Problem Statement Recently the consumption of the fermented glutinous rice had rise the halal issue to the Muslim community since its alcohol content is similar to beer which is 5%. In order to determine the alcohol contained in the fermented glutinous rice, the government and private sector need the easiest, cheapest and low in cost analytical method for determination of alcohol. So we have come out with FTIR spectroscopy technique as this technique did not require the sample preparation like the other analytical method. Besides, it is not time consuming method and it has low cost compared to the other method. We also combine the FTIR with combination of Partial Least Square (PLS) in order to achieve better result. Objectives This study was conducted based on the objectives stated below: To develop method with the best accuracy To determine the lowest of detection limit To identified the ethanol contained in the sample

Role Of Metal Ions In Biochemistr

Role Of Metal Ions In Biochemistr A metal is a chemical element that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat and forms cations and ionic bonds with non-metals. In chemistry, ametal (from Greek ÃŽÂ ¼ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ­Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ±ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ »ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ »ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¿ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ½ mà ©tallon, mine]) is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions (cations). Those ions are surrounded by delocalized electrons, which are responsible for the conductivity. The solid thus produced is held by electrostatic interactions between the ions and the electron cloud, which are called metallic bonds.[2] Metal ions play essential roles in about one third ofenzymes . These ions can modify electron flow I a substrate or enzyme, thus effectively controlling an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. They can serve to bind and orient substrate with respect to functional groups in the active site, and they can provide a site for redox activity if the metal has several valence states. Without the appropriate metal ion, a biochemical reaction catalyzed by a particular metalloenzyme would proceed very slowly, if at all. The enzyme provides an arrangement of sidechain functional groups having an appropriate sized hole with the preferred groups on enzyme side chains needed to bind the required metal ion. The optimal number of such binding groups is chosen for the particular metal ion, together with the appropriate hydrophobic or hydrophilic environment in the binding site. Metal ions may be bound by main-chain amino and carbonyl groups, but specific binding is achieved by the amino acid side chains, particularly the carboxylate groups of aspartic and glutamic acid, and the ring nitrogen atom of histidine. Other side chains that bind metals ions include tryptophan (ring nitrogen), cysteine (thiol), methionine (thioether), serine, threonine, tyrosine (hydroxyl groups), and asparagine and glutamine (carbonyl groups, less often amino group . No set of general rules exists that describes how a given metal ion will behave in an enzyme . Now that many crystal structures of proteins are being studied by X-ray diffraction, information on the binding of metal ions in the active sites of enzymes is available and should provide clues to the mechanism of action of the enzyme.The examples of catechol methyltransferase andmandelate racemase will be discussed later in this article.The work described here includes results fromexaminations of the crystal structures in the CambridgeStructural Database and the Protein Databank . Astudy of binding, however, also involves an analysis ofthe energetic consequences of changing the way thebinding occurs, so that the most stable binding pattern fora given group of ligands can be deduced. We haveapproached this using ab initio molecular orbital and density functional calculations . In this way weobtain both the binding geometry of ligands and theenergetic consequences of changing this binding m ode. Properties of metal ions Metal ions are generally positively charged and act as electrophiles, seeking the possibility of sharing electron pairs with other atoms so that a bond or charge-charge interaction can be formed. They behave rather like hydrogen ions (the poor mans metal). Metal ions, however, often have positive charges greater than one,and have a larger ionic volume so that they can accommodate many ligands around them at the same time. In addition, metal ion concentrations can be high atneutral pH values, while hydrogen ion concentrations are, by the definition of pH, low at these values. Ligands are the atoms or groups of atoms that are bonded to the metal ion, generally in an electrostatic manner. They are usually neutral or negatively charged and they donate electron density to the metal ion. Thecoordination number of a metal ion, that is, the number of ligand atoms bound to it, is viewed in terms of concentric spheres; the inner sphere containing those atoms in contact with the metal ion, the second sphere containing those in contact with the inner sphere ligand atoms. The number of atoms in these spheres will depend on the size of the metal ion and the sizes of the ligand atoms. For example, sodium is smaller than potassium, and sulfur is larger than oxygen. Measurements of metal ion-liganddistances in crystal structures led to the idea of atomic and ionic radii [9-11]; anion radii can also be derived from the minimum anion-anion distances in crystal structures. The radius ratio, a concept introduced by Goldschmidt [11], is the ratio of the radius of the cation to that of the anion and is generally less than 1.0 Tetrahedral structures have a radius ratio between 0.225 and 0.414, while octahedral structures have a ratio between 0.414 and 0.645. For example, the radius of Mg2+ is 0.65 D, while that of O2- is 1.40 D and their radius ratio is 0.464; the packing is octahedral. The charge distribution in the active site of an enzyme is designed to stabilize the transition state of the catalyzed reaction relative to that of the substrate. In enzyme-catalyzed reactions it is essential that the reactants be brought together with the correct spatial orientation, otherwise the chance of the reaction taking place is diminished and the reaction rate will be too low.The electrostatic environment in the active site is a major factor that serves to guide the substrate to the binding site in the correct orientation. Metal ions can assist in this process, often binding groups in a stereochemically rigid manner, thereby helping to control the action of the enzyme. Thus, an enzyme will bind its substrate in such a manner that immobilization and alignment, ready formation of the transition state of the reaction to be catalyzed,and then easy release of the product will result; metal ions often help in accomplishing this process. Each metal ion has its own chemistry. An example of the differing reactivities of metal cations is provided by their ability to bind or lose water molecules. The exchange of coordinated water with bulk solvent by various cations has been categorized into four groups: those for which the exchange rate is greater than 108 per second including alkali and alkaline earth metal ions(except beryllium and magnesium), together with Cr3+,Cu2+, Cd2+, and Hg2+. Intermediate rate constants (from 104 to 108 per second) are found for Mg2+ and some of the divalent first-row transition metal ions. Those with slow rate constants (from 1 to 104 per second) include Be2+ and certain trivalent first-row transition metal ions. The inert group with rates from 10-6 to 10-2 per second containsCr3+, Co3+, Rh3+, Ir3+, and Pt2+. One of the factors involved in rates of exchange is the charge-to-radius Ratio; if this ratio is high the exchange rate is low.An important reaction catalyzed by metal ions inenzymes is the ionization of water to give a hydrated hydrogen ion and a hydroxyl anion. Initial studies of this process will be discussed here as they are relevant to the action of a metal ion in providing a hydroxyl group and a hydrogen ion for use in an enzymatic reaction. Polarizing Potential of Various Ions Atoms or groups of atoms are considered polarizable if, when they are placed in an electric field, a charge separation occurs and a dipole is acquired. This deformability or polarizability is measured by the ratio of the induced dipole to the applied field. Those atoms that hold on less firmly to their electrons are termed more polarizable. It is found that if two ions have the same inert gas structure (potassium and chloride, for example), the negatively charged anion is more polarizable than the positively charged cation, which holds on to its electrons more tightly. The word hard has been introduced to indicate a low polarizability so that the electron cloud is difficult to deform (like a hard sphere). By contrast soft means high polarizability so that the electron cloud is readily deformed . A hard acid or metal cation holds tightly to its electrons and therefore its electron cloud is not readily distorted; its unshared valence electrons are not easily excited. Soft (polarizable) metal cations contain electrons that are not so tightly held and therefore are easily distorted or removed. A hard acid prefers tocombine with a hard base, while a soft acid prefers to bind with a soft base by partially forming covalent bonds .The type of binding is related to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the electron-pair donor (a lewis base, the ligand) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the electron-pair acceptor (a Lewis acid, the metal ion). If these have similar energies, then electron transfer will give a covalent (soft) interaction, whereas the energy difference is large, electron transfer does not readily take place and the interaction is mainly electrostatic (hard-hard). Hardcations include the alkali and alkaline earth metal ions while soft metal ions include Cu 2+, Hg2 2+, Hg2+, Pd2+. Inbiological systems, hard ligands generally contain oxygen while soft ligands contain sulfur. Hard acids tend to bind hard bases by ionic forces, while soft acids bind soft bases by partially forming covalent bonds. These hard-soft categorizations are a help in understanding the relative binding preferences of various cations. Most metal ions of biological significance are hard or intermediate between hard and soft. Most soft metal ions and soft ligands are poisonous and they interact with other soft species in the body. For Pb2+ the harder ligands are found in hemidirected structures and the softer ligands in holodirected complexes.Nature has devised many enzyme systems in which a metal ion interacts with the oxygen of a water molecule.If a water molecule can be dissociated into a hydrogen ion and a hydroxyl group, the latter can serve as a nucleophile in chemical a nd biochemical reactions.Nature has chosen activation of a water molecule as a means to obtain such a nucleophile in situation so that a chemical reaction can occur in a stereochemically controlled manner in the active site of the enzyme. The questions we ask are as follows: 1) how does nature ensure that the specific water molecule will be activated; 2) how does nature compensate for the lower water activation power of some cations over others (since a wide variety of metal ions may not be available in the particular active site and the enzyme has to do the best it can with what is available); and 3) how does nature ensure that the required reaction occurs. Ab initio molecular orbital and density functional calculations have been carried out to measure the extent to which a series of metal cations can, on binding with water, cause it to be dissociated into its component hydrogen ions (subsequently hydrated in solution) and hydroxyl ions. Initial data indicate that the charge of the metal ion plays a significant role in modifying the pKa of water. The binding enthalpies of a wide variety of metal ion monohydrates, M[H2O]2+ , have been published [21] but their deprotonation enthalpies are still under investigation. Geometry of Metal-Ion Binding to Functional Groups The geometries of metal ion-carboxylate interactions have been studied in order to determine the following: 1)which lone pair of an oxygen atom in a carboxylate group, syn or anti, is preferred for metal cation binding; 2) does the metal ion lie in the plane of the carboxylgroup; and 3) under what conditions do metal ions share both oxygen atoms of the carboxylate group equally? We found that cations generally lie in the plane of the carboxylate group . The exceptions to this mainly include the alkali metal cations and some alkaline earth cations; these metals ionize readily and form strong bases so it is not surprising that they have less specific binding modes. When the distance of the metal cation to the carboxylate oxygen atoms is on the order of 2.3-2.6 D, the metal ion tends to share both oxygen atoms equally. Otherwise one oxygen atom of the carboxylate group is bound to the metal ion and the other is not. Calcium ions often form bidentate interactions, while it is less common for the smaller magnesium ions. Imidazole groups in histidyl side chains of proteins bind metal ions in a variety of enzymes. One imidazole can, by virtue of its two nitrogen atoms, bind one or two metal ions, depending on its ionization state and the suitabilities of the metal ion. The bases in DNA can also bind metal ions. We have analyzed hydrogen bonding to and from nitrogen atoms in nitrogen-containing heterocycles for crystal structures in the Cambridge Structural Database. It was found that for hydrogen bonding, a slight out-of-plane deviation of the binding atom often occurs. Metal ions bind more rigidly in the plane of the imidazole group. The energetic cost of such deviations were analyzed by ab initio molecular orbital calculations. In an investigation of protein crystal structures in the Protein Databank it was found that the binding of metal ions to histidine in proteins is more rigid and the location of the metal ion is more directional. Thus, if an enzyme needs to control the location and orientation of a carboxylate or imidazole group, it can accomplish this better with a metal ion than by hydrogen bonding. Metal ions in proteins are often involved in structural motifs. When a metalloenzyme carries out its catalytic function it uses one of a few possible three-dimensional arrangements of functional groups around the metal ion to ensure the specificity of the required biochemical reaction. Thus, if such catalytic metal-binding motifs can be identified and categorized, then incipient reactivities of enzymes could be inferred from their three-dimensional structures. Such a categorization, however, requires an understanding of the underlying chemistry of any metal ion in the active site. One motif identified in the crystal structure of cobalt(II) formate consists of a carboxyl group in which one oxygen atom is bound to the metal ion and the other is bound to metal-bound water, to give a cyclic structure. This motif has been found in many metalloenzyme crystal structure , such as D-xylose isomerase . The roles of these motifs are of interest. The metal ion-hydrated-carboxylate motif (I) is planar and commonly found. It does not, however, affect the ability of the metal ion (in studies of Mg2+ complexes) to ionize water. On the other hand, for magnesium ions (which generally have a rigid octahedral arrangement of binding groups) it utilizes 2 of the 6 coordination positions and therefore serves to orient the arrangement of ligands, an effect we have labeled coordination clamping. Motif (II) is also found in several crystal structures such as that of the -subunit of integrin CR3 . It appears to help bind subunits together. A third motif (III) is found in D-xylose isomerase and involves two metal ions with several carboxylate ligands and a histidine ligand . The metal site that binds only oxygen atoms can bind substrate in place of the two water molecules and orient the substrate. The second metal ion site (with histidine as one ligand) then positions a metal ion-bound water molecule to attack the substrate. Roles of Metal Ions in Enzyme Action The crystal structure of mandelate racemase with bound p-iodomandelate provides a useful example of the importance of a metal ion in a reaction . The enzyme binds a magnesium ion by means of three carboxyl groups. The substrate mandelate has displaced water from the magnesium coordination sphere and binds by means of its carboxylate group and an a-hydroxy group.The magnesium ion will lie in the plane of the carboxyl group, as shown by our studies of metal ion-carboxylate interactions . The magnesium holds the substrate firmly in place so that the catalytic abstraction and addition of a hydrogen atom by His 297 or Lys 166 is precisely effected . The magnesium probably also aids this activity by affecting the electronic flow in the carboxylate and hydroxyl groups by mild polarization. We have found that metal ion coordination is better than a hydrogen bond in aligning a functional group; there is considerable flexibility in a hydrogen bond as we found for imidazoles . In the reaction c atalyzed by the enzyme mandelate racemase the magnesium ion binds substrate . A Histidine (His 297) and Lysine (Lys 168) are positioned to abstract a hydrogen ion from the substrate and, if it is added again from the other side, racemization occurs. Hydrogen bonding to a carboxylate group of the substrate helps to stabilize an enolate intermediate in the reaction. In catechol O-methyltransferase , a methyl group is transferred from the sulfur of Sadenosy[ methionine to catechol. The magnesium ion is oriented by a motif of type I and it binds substrate in such an orientation that a hydroxyl group is near the S-CH3 group, and the other hydroxyl group is held in place by a carboxylate group. There are many other examples of two-metal ion active sites, such as hemerythrin, alkaline phosphatase and superoxide dismutases (which have been well documented). These studies of the geometries and energetics of metal-ion ligand b inding can therefore aid in our understanding of metalloenzyme function Metals in the RNA worid By combining our limited knowledge of metal-ion-binding to contemporary RNAs and our more extensive knowledge of metal-ion-binding to proteins, it is possible to speculate on the role of metal ions in prebiotic molecular evolution. It seems clear that specifically bound metal ions coevolved with RNA molecules. Many of the mononuclear sites in Table 5 are formed with, or can be engineered into, small RNA fragments. Since such sites are highly hydrated and contain limited direct contact with the RNA, the observed affinities are only moderate, in the 1-1000 ÃŽÂ ¼M range. These sites are also expected to show limited specificity, predominantly dictated by the chemical nature of the ligands. Furthermore, in these examples, the RNA structures themselves are likely to be quite flexible and can accommodate a variety of metal ions with only minor distortions to the overall RNA fold. These minimalist sites are sufficient to stabilize the secondary and tertiary structures observed in these motifs. The metal ion sites generated on small RNAs appear to be capable of facilitating a variety of different types of chemistry. Activities range from the transesterification and hydrolytic reactions of small ribozymes (Pyle 1996; Sigurdsson et al. 1998) to the more exotic porphyrin metalation (Conn et al. 1996) and Diels-Alder condensation reactions (Tarasow et al. 1997) catalyzed by aptamers produced from in vitro selection experiments.These small RNAs have only limited amounts of structure and therefore are likely to position the catalytic metal ions by only a few points of contact. The relatively modest rate enhancements supported by catalytic RNAs such as these probably reflect the types of species that first evolved from random polymerization events. Very active metal ions might have assisted in this process but would have increased the danger of side reactions that would accidentally damage the catalyst. A striking difference between most RNA metal-binding sites studied thus far and those seen in proteins is the degree of hydration. Both structural and catalytic metal-ion-binding sites in proteins are predominantly dehydrated (Lippard and Berg 1995). Water molecules occasionally appear in the coordination spheres of these metal ions, but in these cases, they are often believed either to be displaced by the substrate when it enters the active site or to take part in the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme. Such protein sites also bind their metal ions much more tightly than the RNA systems. In fact, tight binding is a requirement for dehydrated sites, since there is a characteristic energy (ÄHhyd) associated with the hydration of any ion. The net binding energy upon coordination of the ion must account for the energetic cost of dehydration. The question arises, Why are such dehydrated sites not observed in RNAs? One possibility is that metal-binding sites in RNAs are intrinsically different from those in proteins. RNA has a much more limited set of ligands to use in generating a specific metal-binding pocket. Amino acid side chains containing thiols and thioethers are well suited to binding a variety of softer metals. In addition, the carboxylate side chains provide anionic ligands with great versatility in their potential modes of coordination. They can act as either terminal or bridging ligands and bind in either monodentate or bidentate geometries. The nucleotides, on the other hand, are much larger and more rigid than the corresponding amino acids. The anionic ligand in RNA, the nonbridging phosphate oxygen, is an integral component of the backbone and therefore is more limited in its conformational freedom than the aspartate and glutamate carboxylate groups. The heterocyclic ring nitrogens and the keto oxygens from the bases are held in rigidly planar orientations by the aromatic rings. This geometric constraint severely limits the ability of an RNA to compact encompass a metal ion and provide more than facial coordination and therefore complete dehydration. It also explains why the most specific metal-binding sites are not in the Watson-Crick base-paired regions of the structure where the conformation is too constrained. Instead, metalion- binding sites are clustered in regions of extensive distortion from the A-form RNA helices. There is also the question of the folding of RNAs relative to that of proteins. It is possible that in RNAs there is insufficient energy in the folding and metal-binding process to completely displace the waters of hydration around a metal ion. It has been suggested that in contemporary RNAs, modified nucleotides might be present to assist in metal ion binding (Agris 1996). A more straightforward possibility, however, is that most RNAs studied to date are structurally too simple. In these RNAs, most residues involved in metal ion binding are solvent-exposed. Thus, the RNAs have no real inside comparable to the hydrophobic core of a protein. The largest RNA crystallographically characterized to date is the P4-P6 domain. On the basis of that structure, it was proposed that an ionic core may substitute in RNA folding for the hydrophobic core of proteins such that the 3 ° structure assembles around a fixed number of discrete metal-binding sites (Cate et al. 1997). Even in this structur e, however, the most buried of the metal-binding sites are significantly hydrated. It could be that all metal-ion-binding sites in RNA are at least partially hydrated. One can imagine several advantages to using hydrated ions within the ionic core of a large RNA. Hydrated ions would span larger voids than dehydrated ions and allow looser packing of secondary structure elements. The hydrated ion also can accommodate a wide range of structural interactions through its orientation of the water molecules as compared to direct coordination of metal ions at every site. In addition, the energy associated with deforming the outer-sphere interactions should be significantly less than what would be observed for distorting the innersphere coordination. A consequence of RNAs having a core of hydrated ions is that one might expect this core to be much more dynamic than the hydrophobic core of a protein. In the modern protein world, metal cofactors are associated with a variety of reaction types, including electron transfer, redox chemistry, and hydrolysis reactions. Trans esterification and hydrolytic activities, however, are the primary catalytic behaviors observed in ribozymes. Did these other catalytic activities not develop until the dawn of the protein world, or are there undiscovered natural catalytic RNAs that are the ancestors of the early redox enzymes? Through the use of in vitro selection experiments, the scope of RNA catalysis has been significantly broadened is almost certainly capable of catalyzing these other classes of reactions, but it is still unclear whether there are naturally occurring examples. Such an enzyme would likely use a metal ion cofactor other than Mg(II), so the search for RNA molecules that naturally use alternative ions is of significant interest. A recent selection experiment showed that a single base change results in an altered metal ion specific ity for RNase P (Frank and Pace 1997). It is clear from this result that catalytic RNAs retain the ability to adapt to an everchanging environment, using the resources available to evolve and to overcome evolutionary pressures. Were RNAs to have evolved out of an environment devoid of metal ions, they probably would have found a way around the problems of folding and generating reactive functional groups. The primordial soup and all cellular environments that have evolved subsequently contained a variety of ions, however. Given the availability of metal ions, they will certainly play a significant role in the biology of current and future RNAs. Effect of metal ions on the kinetics of tyrosine oxidation by Tyrosinase The conversion of tyrosine into dopa [3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)alanine] is the rate limiting step in the biosynthesis of melanins catalysed by tyrosinase. This hydroxylation reaction is characterized by a lag period, the extent of which depends on various parameters, notably the presence of a suitable hydrogen donor such as dopa or tetrahydropterin. We have now found that catalytic amounts of Fe2+ ions have the same effect as dopa in stimulating the tyrosine hydroxylase activity of the enzyme. Kinetic experiments showed that the shortening of the induction time depends on the concentration of the added metal and the nature of the buffer system used and is not suppressed by superoxide dismutase, catalase, formate or mannitol. Notably, Fe3+ ions showed only a small delaying effect on tyrosinase activity. Among the other metals which were tested, Zn2+, Co2+, Cd2+ and Ni2+ had no detectable influence, whereas Cu2+ and Mn2+ exhibited a marked inhibitory effect on the kinetics of tyrosine ox idation. These findings are discussed in the light of the commonly accepted mechanism of action of tyrosinase. Tyrosinase (monophenol,dihydroxyphenylalanine oxygen oxidoreductase; is a copper-containing enzyme responsible for melanogenesis in plants and animals, which catalyses both hydroxylation of tyrosine to dopa and its subsequent oxidation to dopaquinone (Hearing et al., 1980; Lerch, 1981). The first reaction, which represents the rate-limiting step in melanin biosynthesis (Lerner et al., 1949), is characterized by a lag period that has subsequently been explained in terms of a hysteretic process of the enzyme (Garcia Carmona et al., 1980). The extent of this induction time depends on various parameters including, besides pH and both substrate and enzyme concentration, the presence of a suitable hydrogen donor. Kinetic studies carried out on tyrosinases from various sources (Pomerantz, 1966; Pomerantz Murthy, 1974; Hearing Ekel, 1976; Prota et al Abbreviations used: dopa, 3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-alanine; SOD, superoxide dismutase. To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed. 1981) have shown that dopa, in very low concentration, is the most effective reducing agent in eliminating the lag period, whereas other catechols, such as dopamine, adrenaline and noradrenaline, behave similarly to ascorbate and NADH and NADPH in only shortening it, even at high concentration. Tetrahydropterin, a well-known specific cofactor of other aromatic hydroxylases (Lerner et al., 1977; Marota Shiman, 1984), is also effective in stimulating tyrosinase activity, although to a lesser extent than dopa. At present, no other organic or inorganic substances have been reported to shorten or lengthen the lag period of tyrosine oxidation. Although metal ions are known to play a role in many biologi cal processes, little attention has been directed to their possible involvement in melanogenesis, particularly in the early enzymic stages .As a part of our continuing studies on the chemistry of melanin pigmentation (Prota, 1980; Sealey et al., 1982; Palumbo et al., 1983), we report the results of a survey on the effect of metal ions on the activity of purified Sepia tyrosinase, readily available in large amounts from the ink of the cephalopod Sepia officinalis thermostability of amalyse Three Metal Ions Participate in the Reaction Catalyzed by T5 Flap Endonuclease*à ¢- ¡ Protein nucleases and RNA enzymes depend on divalent metal ions to catalyze the rapid hydrolysis of phosphate diester linkages of nucleic acids during DNA replication, DNA repair, RNA processing, and RNA degradation. These enzymes are widely proposed to catalyze phosphate diester hydrolysis using a two-metal-ion mechanism. Yet, analyses of flap endonuclease (FEN) family members, which occur in all domains of life and act in DNA replication and repair, exemplify controversies regarding the classical two-metal-ion mechanism for phosphate diester hydrolysis. Whereas substrate-free structures of FENs identify two active site metal ions, their typical separation of>4 AËÅ ¡ appears incompatible with this mechanism. To clarify the roles played by FEN metal ions, we report here a detailed evaluation of the magnesium ion response of T5FEN. Kinetic investigations reveal that overall the T5FEN-catalyzed reaction requires at least three magnesium ions, implying that an additional metal ion is bound. The presence of at least two ions bound with differing affinity is required to catalyze phosphate diester hydrolysis. Analysis of the inhibition of reactions by calcium ions is consistent with a requirement for two viable cofactors (Mg2_ or Mn2_). The apparent substrate association constant is maximized by binding two magnesium ions. This may reflect a metal dependent unpairing of duplex substrate required to position the scissile phosphate in contact with metal ion(s). The combined results suggest that T5FEN primarily uses a two-metal-ion mechanism for chemical catalysis, but that its overall metallobiochemistry is more complex and requires three ions. Key cellular processes such as DNA replication, DNA repair, RNA processing, and RNA degradation require the rapid hydrolysis of the phosphate diester linkages of nucleic acids. The uncatalyzed hydrolysis of phosphate diesters under biological conditions is an extremely slow process with an estimated half-life of 30 million years at 25  °C (1). Protein nucleases and RNA enzymes produce rate enhancements of 1015-1017 to allow this reaction to proceed on a biologically useful time scale. Most enzymes catalyzing phosphate diester bond hydrolysis have a requirement for divalent metal ions. Based largely upon crystallographic observations, most metallonucleases are proposed to catalyze reactions using a two-metal-ion mechanism (Fig. 1a) analogous to that suggested for the phosphate monoesterase alkaline phosphatase (2, 3), although this view is not universally accepted. Three recent reviews present contrasting views on the roles of metal ions in protein nuclease and RNA enzyme reactions and illustrate this controversy (4-6). One family of metallonucleases over which there has been considerable mechanistic debate are the flap endonucleases (FENs)3 (7-12), which are present in all domains of life and play a key role in DNA replication and repair. Unlike most metallonucleases, which typically possess a cluster of three or four active site carboxylates, the FEN active site is constructed from seven or eight acidic residues located in similar positions in FENs from a range of organisms (Fig. 1b, see also supplemental Fig. S1) (7, 9, 10, 13-16). Several FEN x-ray structures also contain two active site carboxylate-liganded divalent metal ions, designated as metals 1 and 2 (9, 13-15). The position of metal 1 is similar in all cases, but the metal 2 location varies. In all but on

snow falling on cedars overview :: essays research papers

Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I chose the novel Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson because I have heard from many people that it is a compelling story which truly depicts the inhumanities of racism. Human emotions are intensely conveyed in such riveting detail that one can not read this book without it leaving a permanent mark on their heart. Furthermore, I was not very familiar with the Japanese encampments of the mid nineteen hundreds. I knew that reading this novel would broaden my horizons and lead me into unknown territory. Plot Summary   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A well liked fisherman named Carl Heine mysteriously turns up dead in the small island community of San Piedro Island. World War II is beginning and there is high suspicion of traitors among the islands Japanese immigrants. Kubuo Miyamoto is accused of this crime and is put on trial at a time of high prejudice. Miyamoto and Heine had been childhood friends but in their later years, their was an honorable dispute over land. Many signs pointed to Miyamoto’s guilt, but in the end, the cause of death is determined tragically accidental and Miyamoto is set free after spending three lonely, freezing, winter months in his desolate cell. A secret love affair existed between Hatsue, now Miyamoto’s wife, and Ishmael Chambers, the islands journalist when they were adolescents. They would meet in the dense shelter of the cedar forests where they would prove their lustful love for each other. Hatsue being Japanese and Ishmael being white was not only against all of societies morals, but against everything Hatsue had ever known; her entire culture and history. As tensions boil among the islands natives, the Japanese immigrants were subject to profuse searches, stripped of every priceless belonging, and deported to work camps. Among the confusion, families were torn apart left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Ishmael and Hatsue were forced apart and Ishmeal joined the army and their efforts against the Japanese. Though many years have passed, Ishmael has never healed from the heartbreak of losing Hatsue and he is still desperately in love with her. Characters Kabuo Miyamoto:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kabuo is of Japanese decent. He emits an aura of honor, pride, and grace. His   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  deep dark eyes seem to show no emotion. He portrays great physical strength.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  His features are very smooth and angular. His hair is cut very close to his skull. He   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  has a great sense of protection and feels he has a duty to care for his family.

Nelson Poynter :: essays research papers

Nelson Paul Poynter was the owner of the St. Petersburg Times, in Florida, which for years has enjoyed the reputation as one of the best newspapers in the United States. Poynter was born in 1903 in Sullivan, Ind., where his father owned several newspapers. In 1912, his father, Paul, bought the St. Petersburg Times and turned it into a family business. As a young man, Poynter began gaining experience in the newspaper business. He worked as a reporter, editor, advertising salesman and ad director at different newspapers. In 1947, when Poynter bought controlling interest in the newspaper, the Times began its rise toward excellence. He based his enterprises on "standards of ownership," defining ownership as a "sacred trust and a great privilege" in which the owner had responsibilities to the community. For Nelson Poynter, the standards meant honesty, integrity, aggressive service and financial independence. It also meant high standards for staff and management to carry out those principles. Poynter led his staff in a statewide campaign against lynching and government mismanagement, and in favor of racial integration and the development of St. Petersburg and other Counties into something more than the sleepy retirement community it for old people. His pro-development crusades included such projects as the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. After his death at 74, the newspaper advocated the construction of what is now known as Tropicana Field. Poynter also was competitive in business. In 1971, his newspaper's circulation campaign and booming growth in Pinellas County combined to surpass rival Tampa Tribune in circulation, a lead that remains today. Poynter's campaigns resulted in the newspaper's first Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for public service. The paper won five more Pulitzers, National reporting in 1980,

Minstrels :: essays research papers

Minstrels   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Minstrels, or traveling thespians, thrived throughout Europe in medieval times. The term minstrel referred to a professional entertainer of any kind from the 12th century to the 17th century. Minstrels were instrumentalist, but were also often jugglers, acrobats, and storytellers. Although minstrels no longer exist, they played an important role in medieval history and, at one time, could be found, in one form or another, throughout the entire continent of Europe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Different countries had different names for minstrels. In Germany, they were called minnesingers. In France, they were known as troubadours and joungleurs. The Scandinavian minstrels were called skalds. The Irish called their minstrels bards, while the English minstrels were referred to as scops.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Minstrels were primarily singers and musicians. These wandering performers were also story tellers, jugglers, clowns, and tumblers. Often minstrels were an important part of prominent house holds providing entertainment for the upper class of society. Those minstrels who were not part of a noble's homestead, traveled from town to town providing entertainment not only to noble classes but also to common village folk as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were not many forms of entertainment, nor was there a means for people to learn about news events. There was no television or radio in medieval times. Even books were very scarce. Minstrels served to entertain the public. They made up songs, stories, and repeated ballads and folk tales popular during this time. Traveling from town to town minstrels were also a source of news. This would share information with the townspeople of the village. The townspeople would share this news with the minstrels who would then share this news with the townspeople in the next village in which they performed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Each country in medieval Europe had their own type of minstrel. Each, while similar in their general role of entertainer, they were different in many ways. Troubadour's, French minstrels, flourished in from the 11th century through the 13th century. Troubadours were found in the southern part of France. The troubadours were among the first minstrels to use their native tongue rather than Latin. The Latin language was considered the literary language of the middle ages. There were approximately 400 troubadours who were known to have lived. The majority of them were nobles and some were even kings (Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Originally troubadours sang their poems, later they were accompanied by jongleurs who played musical instruments. The musical instruments the jongleurs played were the fiddle and the lute. The subject of their songs were based on topics such as love ,politics, religion, war, and death. Approximately 400 melodies and 4000 poems have been preserved from medieval troubadours (Microsoft

Case Study Material Essay

Herman Miller Company is looking to adopt the cradle-to cradle (C2C) design protocol. This design is to create a closed-loop product life cycles. Herman Miller Company should not use PVC in the construction of the Mirra chair. An alternative material thermoplastic urethane (TPU) has been identified as an alternative. TPU is a viable alternative that goes along with the â€Å"green† publicity the company was getting for the Mirra chair. The first step that needs to take place is to talk to their supplier about modifying existing tooling to work with TPU. As well as the lead time it would take to modify existing tooling. To create new tooling could take approximately 6-8 weeks for new tooling to be engineered as well as creating the new tooling. As discussed from the case the retool could cost over $100K (Lee 2009). The introduction of TPU was discussed in August of 2002 and the launch of the Mirra chair is scheduled for June 2003. This provides the company with 9 months to use TPU instead of PVC on the chair arms. To retrofit tooling for a new raw material can cause more problems than just to create new tooling. The first thing that needs to happen is to talk to the supplier and to determine a lead time for new tooling and a lead time for modifying existing tooling. Tooling can be modified; however, it is a matter of time and money. There are concerns about using TPU in the Mirra chair, that customers will start wanting TPU in every chair. This chair has received a lot of publicity

Logistics costs

Logistics cost form an important part of the overall cost structure in any organization. Focus needs to be on renegotiating freight and shipping rates, reduction in overall freight costs and streamlining operations. The following are the measures (ways) that can be used to reduce cost in logistics New carriers: The use of Constant market rate check is a best practice. Usually, logistics managers get into a comfort zone with the existing carriers. The organization should look on other carriers which offers lowest cost of transportation. Market rate check will bring to light other more economical perations.New carriers may be more flexible in their price. Freight costs: There are several options to optimize freight costs. Renegotiation of minimum billing to a minimum for a zone needs to be explored. Product delivery coordination is another useful tool to streamline freight costs. Arrangements with a number of smaller carriers also provide the best rate/best service combination. Interne t offers excellent tools for comparing and optimizing freight costs. Improve shipping and receiving: Streamlining shipping and receiving practices will offer savings. This can happen hrough reduction of long time for receiving.Starting point should be mandating delivery appointments. A flow chart needs to be made of all the operations to determine wasteful processes and combining existing processes. Technology: Internet tools enable substantial reduction in paperwork. Documents are scanned and emailed to customs, ports etc. In case of cross border trade, documents needs to reach at least twenty four hours in advance to avoid delays at the border. Technology also allows coordination of all shipments to optimize loading. This minimize delays in delivery. Managing returns: Reverse logistics is an important element of freight costs.Most companies offer a liberal returns policy. If the customer is not satisfied with the product, it can be returned in a certain period depending on the sel ler. At times, the seller also arranges to pick it up. There should be streamlined processes so as to minimize costs associated with reverse logistics. Audit of freight costs: Use specialized agencies that provide post payment audit of freight bills. These agencies are usually paid on a profit sharing basis. These audits also provide valuable insight nto patterns and other cost reduction opportunities.Deborah Catalano Ruriani explained other ways (measures) of Cost reduction as: 1 . Eliminate supply chain bottlenecks. By periodically reviewing and analyzing their supply chain networks, companies can be able to pinpoint issues and proactively address them. Strategies to reduce or eliminate bottlenecks include addressing vessel schedule planning, ensuring proper documentation and regulatory compliance for imports and exports, and revamping network design. 2. Reduce inventory at the port, manufacturing sites, and warehouses. Companies often stock excess inventory because they lack supp ly chain visibility.To effectively reduce excess inventory, you have to gain reliable information on future orders. Visibility software can help. 3. Cut demurrage and detention tines. While an occasional tine may not seem like much, these costs can add up. Auditing carrier bills and tracking where issues occur in the supply chain can substantially cut fine payments. 4. Identify opportunities to shift modes. Without adequate visibility into logistics operations, a company may not realize that an air shipment could move by sea at a much lower cost. Companies that use technology to evaluate modal options typically see a five- to eight-percent cost reduction. . Use postponement strategies to divert inventory at an international gateway. A successful postponement strategy can dramatically lower forecasting errors as well as improve customer service by reducing out-of-stocks. Companies also can cut transport costs by reducing inventory misallocations and shipping more items in bulk. 6. Us e preferential trade agreements. Companies that take advantage of preferential status can save millions in duties and taxes. A software system that automates the ualification process can save time and effort, as well as improve compliance and data accuracy. . Rebalance supply and fulfillment networks by determining tax- efficient sourcing and distribution strategies. Companies must periodically review their supply chain networks to assess duties and logistics costs, labor costs, regulatory controls, and global political climates. By comparing geographic options, taking into account the costs and regulations of each option, companies can optimize their supply chain. 8. Become a self-filer. Using technology to connect electronically ith brokers lowers entry filing costs and reduces manual entry errors.It also can enable pre-clearance of goods at borders and reduce the number of staff needed internally to manage logistics operations while boosting productivity hence reduce cost. 9. Con trol your procurement process. By implementing a process-based workflow that includes tracking and managing order acceptance, consolidating invoices, creating shipments and generating documents† and by extending that process to trading partners† companies can reduce cycle times, cut supply chain execution costs, and better support compliance initiatives. 10. Implement performance management metrics and tools.Companies need a system, data, and tools to benchmark actions and make informed decisions. Developing a performance management process allows companies to manage service providers and critical cycle times to lower costs and continually improve performance 1 1 . Understand the true costs of sourcing overseas. Calculate freight, duty, brokerage, and inventory carrying costs to support these lengthened supply chains. Also factor in such items as the costs of engineers flying overseas. Once you understand the true total landed cost and total impact to the business 12. Fo cus on eliminating the variability out of transit times.The more variable the transit times are, the more likely it is that the receiving party is using more premium freight, building buffers of inventory, or ordering more often and more quantity than necessary to compensate for the uncertainty. Understanding these dynamics can lead to the conclusion that paying higher freight costs to insure higher variability actually saves your company in total costs. 13. Control your express shipping costs. Typically when a company runs into a supply chain issue, it will have an entire shipment sent on an express/expedited highest cost) service level basis.Panicking often results in higher costs. If the company would Just do a little bit of calculating it can determine the amount of goods that are needed immediately and have that amount sent using express/expedited service level, while the balance ot the shipment can be sent using a standard (lower cost) service level. 14. Informed decision-maki ng. Provide to the decision-makers/ customers of your logistics network the cost of freight for each service level, the reliability of each lane for each service level, and the true cost of carrying inventory so they can make informed decisions.People generally want to be good corporate citizens and will select the less expensive option that still meets their needs CHARACTERISTICS OF COST REDUCTION (HARD COST SAVINGS) The following are the characteristics of â€Å"Hard† cost savings, which is understood as tangible bottom line reductions are: year-on-year saving over the constant volume of purchased product/service, actions that can be traced directly to the Profit and Loss Account, direct reduction of expense or a change in process/technology/policy that directly reduces expenses, process improvements that result in real and measurable ost or asset reductions, examination of existing products or services, contractual agreements, or processes to determine potential changes th at reduce cost, and net reductions in prices paid for items procured when compared to prices in place for the prior 12 months or a change to lower cost alternatives. COST AVOIDANCE (SOFT COST SAVINGS) â€Å"Soft† cost avoidance is much more difficult to define.The following are Suggested definitions, which includes: Cost avoidance is a cost reduction that does not lower the cost of products/services when compared against historical results, but rather inimizes or avoids entirely the negative impact to the bottom line that a price increase would have caused, when there is an increase in output or capacity without increasing resource expenditure, in general, the cost avoidance savings are the amount that would have been spent to handle the increased volume or output, and Cost avoidances include process improvements that do not immediately reduce cost or assets but provide benefits through improved process efficiency, employee productivity, improved customer satisfaction, improv ed competitiveness, over time to mention the few, cost avoidance often becomes cost savings. N. B: Cost avoidance is a cost reduction that results from a spend that is lower than the spend that would have otherwise been required if the cost avoidance exercise had not been undertaken.This accounts for the situations where spend is higher due to higher demand but overall cost per unit is lower, where up-front investments reduce overall spend in one or more categories over a multi-year initiative, and where a process improvement or product replacement resulted in a lower operating cost or cost per unit compared to what the company would have spent had the company not improved the process or replaced the product. To Sum up, if the organization adopts this open definition of cost avoidance, and maintains a document of common examples and their associated metrics, which is updated each time a new type of project is encountered that could result in a cost avoidance, the organization can fu lly quantify the â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† savings delivered by the sourcing team to the management team.Measures of Cost Avoidance: Resisting or delaying a supplier's price increase, this is one of the ways of cost avoidance whereby the organization use techniques to resist or delay supplier price increase in avoiding cost. Use of purchase price that is lower than the original quoted price, The organization purchases its requirements at a lower price than what was initially quoted by the supplier so as to avoid cost. Value of additional services at no cost, the firm makes sure it avoid or prevent cost by making sure after sale services are obtained for free for instance installation, free training. Long-term contracts with price-protection provisions,the firm enters into long term contracts with the aim of cost sharing with the supplier. Introduction of a new product or part number requiring a new material purchases and spend is lower.COST REDUCTION CHALLENGES Some of the challenges faced by a company as they seek to assess cost reduction include: Cancellation of net savings due to an increase in the business unit's cost structure, Supply management's role in the cost savings allocation decision, Chronology of supply management's involvement and the need for budget cuts, Visibility, in terms of systems, people, and metrics, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concept for purchases items/services, Multi-year issues in cost savings, and Creating a proper incentive structure for supply management personnel. TYPES OF COST REDUCTION AND AVOIDANCE The following are types of cost reduction and avoidance that need to be recognized as valid cost savings. This section presents some types of cost reduction and cost avoidance that can contribute significantly to the organization's bottom line.Negotiated Discounts against Material Cost Increases If the products being sourced are primarily made from a commodity whose average market price or index has increased si gnificantly since the last sourcing cycle, and a buyer manages to negotiate a price that increases less than the increase in underlying material costs since the last sourcing event, this is a valid cost avoidance. Substitution If a buyer manages to find another product that performs the same function, or is able to collaborate with a supplier to produce a functionally equivalent specification that is more economical to produce, then the buyer has obtained a cost reduction on behalf of the organization.. Waived Fees This form of cost avoidance is quite self-explanatory.For example, if a supplier normally charges an installation fee for a new piece of equipment, but the buyer is able to negotiate free installation, than this would be an example of cost avoidance of the waived fee variety. Another example would be free training or services. However, this is one example where the cost avoidance is not equal to what the vendor quotes, but what the market average for the service is.. Inve ntory Reduction This occurs when the buyer comes up with a strategy to reduce the inventory that the organization needs to hold at any given time. Since all inventories is associated with a carrying cost, inventory reduction often represents significant cost savings to an organization over time.Inventory can be reduced when a buyer finds a supplier who can handle a snorter lead time or when inventory is turned over to a vendor who pecializes in inventory management (Vendor Managed Inventory). Process Improvement Processes consume overhead, and overhead costs money. Thus, any significant process improvement could represent a significant cost avoidance to an organization. However, unlike the other types of cost avoidance, process improvement cost reductions can be a bit tricky to evaluate. The key is to look at the average number of units of product or work produced per day, week, or month prior to the improvement and the number of units of product or work produced per day, week, or m onth after the improvement and calculate a percentage improvement N.B: By doing this, the organization will have clearly defined cost reduction efforts, tied them to savings, defined their relative importance, and defined the share of the credit that will go to supply management in a cross-functional initiative. The organization will also have avoided the problem where the team over concentrates on finding â€Å"hard† dollar savings, which is a serious problem if raw material and energy costs keep rising significantly and the largest savings potential is in the â€Å"soft† savings realized by long- term process and product improvements. Transloading to Maximize Cost Savings By Deborah Catalano Ruriani Tags: Transportation Management Transloading offers a cost-effective way to bring ocean containers inland to distribution centers.By transferring cargo without sorting the contents for shipment to a single destination, transloading services can reduce total landed costs, and† when combined with value-added services such as palletizing and shrink-wrapping† reduce handling at the destination. Jeff McCorstin, senior vice president of air and ocean products for UPS Global Freight Forwarding, offers these tips for maximizing savings with transloading services. 1 . Understand general transloading rules. Transloading offers the greatest cost savings when ocean containers can be consolidated into fewer, larger domestic trailers. The cargo in three 40-foot ocean containers typically fits into two 53-foot domestic trailers. . Ensure overall transportation savings outweigh additional handling costs. Sometimes the savings are negated for destinations located farther east from the U. S. West Coast discharge port. 3. Consider palletizing cargo during transloading. To best use space in ocean containers, cargo is rarely palletized at the point of origin. Palletize during the ransloading process to improve distribution center (DC) handling efficiency. 4. Factor transloading into transit time estimates. Unloading, handling, and reloading ocean container cargo near the port of discharge takes time. Allow up to three days to ensure customer delivery commitments are met. 5.Ensure your cargo fits the bill. Transload operators charge additional fees for containers with more than a certain number of cartons. The additional costs for containers with several thousand small cartons could offset any transportation savings. 6. Ensure handling flexibility by making Customs entry at the port. While it is a common practice to clear ocean containers at their tinal inland destinations, it is better to make entry at the port ot discharge. This ensures maximum flexibility in handling cargo, and eliminates the need to move the shipment in-bond, saving additional costs. 7. Increase supply chain efficiency with merge-in-transit offerings.This type of deconsolidation allows importers to combine products arriving in containers from different origins/shipp ers by transloading near the port of arrival into domestic trailers. And if importers source from domestic suppliers†who may also have product arriving via container†this argo can be merged in transit to arrive together at the designated DC. 8. Use transloading to expedite delivery to final destination. Transloading near the port of discharge provides the flexibility to bypass DCs and speed delivery to the end customer. The reduced DC handling charges and improved time in transit can help trim supply chain costs. 9. Avoid costly containers.Instead of shipping less-than- containerload, 20-foot, or light-loaded 40-foot containers from multiple overseas vendors to your inland DC, ship fully loaded/optimized containers to a single container freight station near the port of discharge. From there, they can be transloaded, merged in transit with other inbound cargo, and shipped to the final destination using the transport mode that best fits the importer's needs. 10. Set up tra nsloading programs in advance. Having your service provider involved in coordinating with the origin forwarder translates into better service levels and reliability. Flexible Structure Flexible operations are preplanned contingency strategies to prevent logistical failures.A typical emergency occurs when an assigned shipping facility is out of stock or for some other reason cannot complete a customer's order. For example, a warehouse may be out of an item with no replenishment inventory scheduled to arrive until after the customer's specified order delivery date. To prevent back- ordering or delivery cancellation, a contingency operating policy may assign the total order, or at least those items not available, for shipment from an alternative warehouse. The use of flexible operations is typically based on the importance of meeting the needs of a specific customer or the critical nature of the product being ordered.A flexible logistics capability that has gained popularity as a resul t of mproved communications involves procedures for serving predetermined situations as part of the basic logistical strategy. The flexible logistics rule and decision scenarios specify alternative ways to meet specific service requirements, such as assignment of the order to different shipping facilities or changing methods of delivery. A strategy that utilizes flexible operations is common practice in four different situations. First, the customer designated delivery facility might be near a point of equal logistics cost or equal delivery time from two different logistics facilities. Customers located at such points offer the supplying firm an opportunity to fully utilize available inventory and logistical capacity.Orders can be serviced from the facility having the best inventory position or the available transportation capacity to achieve timely delivery. This form of flexible logistics offers a way to fully utilize system capacity by balancing workloads between facilities while protecting customer service commitments. The benefit is operating efficiency, which is transparent to the customer, who experiences no service deterioration. A second situation Justitying lexible distribution is when the size of a customer's order creates an opportunity to improve logistical efficiency if serviced through an alternative channel arrangement. For example, the lowest-total-cost method to provide small shipment delivery may be through a distributor.In contrast, larger shipments may have the lowest total logistical cost when shipped factory direct to customers. Provided that alternative methods of shipment meet customer delivery expectations, total logistical cost may be reduced by implementing flexible policies. A third type of flexible operation may result from a selective inventory stocking strategy. The cost and risk associated with stocking inventory require careful analysis to determine which items and how much to place in each warehouse. With replacement parts, a common strategy mentioned earlier is to stock selected items in specific warehouses with the total line being stocked only at a central facility.In general-merchandise retailing, a store or distribution center located in a small community may stock only a limited or restricted version of a firm's total line. When customers desire nonstocked items, orders must be satisfied from an alternative facility. The term master facilities is ften used to describe inventory strategies that designate larger facilities for backup support of smaller restricted facilities. Selective inventory stocking by echelon level is a common strategy used to reduce overall inventory risk. The reasons for selective stocking range from low product profit contribution to high per-unit cost of inventory maintenance.One way to operationalize a fine-line inventory classification strategy is to differentiate stocking policy by system echelons. In situations following such classified stocking strategies, it may be ne cessary to obtain advanced customer approval for split-order delivery. However, in some situations firms that use differentiated inventory stocking strategies are able to consolidate customer orders while intransit for same-time delivery, thereby making the arrangement customer transparent. The fourth type of flexible operations results from agreements between firms to move selected shipments outside the established echeloned or direct logistics arrangements.Two special arrangements gaining popularity are flow through cross-docks and service supplier arrangements. A cross-dock operation involves shipments from multiple suppliers arriving at a designated time at the handling facility. Inventory receipts are sorted by destination across the dock and consolidated into outbound trailers for direct delivery. Cross-dock operations are growing in popularity in the retail industry for building store-specific assortments and are common methods of continuous inventory replenishment for mass m erchants. Cross-docking of merchandise direct from manufacture to a customer's retail store eliminates the work and cost associated with utilizing distribution warehouses.Another form of flexible operations is to use integrated service providers to consolidate products for delivery. This is similar to consolidation for ransportation purposes discussed in the previous section of this chapter. However, as a form of flexible logistics, specialists are used to avoid storage and handling of slow-moving products through the mainstream of the echeloned logistics structure. Such service providers can also provide important value-added services. For example, Starbucks Coffee Company has a long standing relationship with OHL, a logistics service provider. Starbucks has approximately 17,000 company-owned and licensed retail outlets.O L provides logistical support to Starbucks by ottering the typical range of 3PL services plus technology support. This operating relationship has existed for over a decade. Figure 2. 5 introduces flexibility to the logistical operating structures previously illustrated. A prerequisite to effective flexible operations is the use of information technology to monitor inventory status throughout the logistical network and provide the capability to rapidly switch methods for servicing customer orders. The use of flexible operations in emergency situations has a well-established track record. The overall improvement in information technology is resulting in flexible operations becoming an increasingly important part of basic logistics trategy.Cutting Costs From Your Logistics Budget Tags: Supply Chain Management If you want to reduce logistics costs, you have to take the time to review your processes. Nathan Pieri, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Rutherford, N. J. -based Management Dynamics, offers these tips for trimming your logistics budget. 10 tips for reducing supply chain logistics costs Aug. 9, 2005 Berme Hart EMAIL Tweet Comments O As companies continue to manufacture and source materials from overseas, controlling costs remains a top priority for those involved in international trade. One ey factor that should be monitored more closely is logistics management, which covers all activities relating to the procurement, transport, transshipment and storage of goods.Depending on the industry sector, supply chain logistics costs account from 5% to 50% of a product's total landed cost. Some issues effecting logistics costs: Fuel prices remain high and ports continue to experience delays, resulting in higher transportation fees. Increasingly complex international trade laws and security measurements threaten to lengthen delivery times and increase warehousing costs. According to a recent report by TechnologyEvaluation. om, a typical air-freight shipment takes eight to twelve days. Of this, the cargo is en route only 5% of the time. The rest is spent sitting in warehouses waiting for the require d documents and compliance checks.Following are 10 Tips on Reducing Supply Chain Logistics Costs: 1 that domestic buy may look a lot better. Sourcing from Ohio to your U. S. plant, distribution center or customer may, in the long run, be more cost effective than sourcing from China. Taritt engineering. Strategically source and manutacture products to take advantage of classification duty rates and eligibility for special trade programs such s NAFTA. 4. Consolidate. If you have multiple suppliers in one country, consolidate their goods into one shipment. In addition, if you always have LCL (less than container load) shipments out of one country, try to find another LCL importer of goods from that country.You may be able to partner and consolidate to a more cost-effective FCL (full container load) shipment. 5.. 6. Sometimes insurance doesn't pay. Often when a company has a shipment of premium goods they tend to use the Carrier's Insurance. Carriers Insurance is very expensive. If the company is self insured, which most companies are, they should heck their insurance policy to see if it covers shipment of goods. If it does, then they do not need to add the extra cost of Carrier's Insurance. 7. Automate compliance processes. Companies that implement software solutions to automate trade compliance are able to speed the cycle times associated with tasks being performed manually, such as document preparation, and eliminate the associated errors.Automated compliance procedures also bring fewer delays at border crossings, resulting in on-time delivery, adequate inventory levels, increased customer satisfaction, and the avoidance of fines. 8.. 9. Planes, trains and automobiles. Which is cheapest? In general, rail is more cost- effective than trucking or air. Water is cheaper than air shipment. No matter the mode of delivery, always try to get three quotes for movements. 10. Be aware of non-tariff trade barriers. Companies need to be more aware of the increasing level of non-tariff trade barriers that are in force to reduce sweat shop labor and support human rights and animal welfare issues. These restrictions can bring importers increased liability and compliance costs.