Leadership Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Leadership - Case Study Example nd avoidance/passive styles) and different features of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, diminishment of personal accomplishment) were made by authors. Out of these five hypotheses only two were fully supported: the one - about positive association between passive leadership style and both depersonalization and emotional exhaustion; the second – about positive correlation between transformational leadership and personal accomplishment. The highest achievement of the authors and therefore the best feature of the article is the fact that the article provides a thorough literature review. A lot of sources providing research on the different styles of management as well as the research on different features and reasons of burnout were analyzed. The analysis of correlations between leadership styles and burnout which already exists in the literature is also presented by the authors of the article. However, the empirical researches as well as the conclusions made in the article contain certain limitations. First of all, taking into account the fact that out of five hypotheses made by the authors of the article only two were fully support with the data, their conclusions about the connections between styles of leadership and burnout as a whole seem somehow overgeneralized. Those hypotheses which were fully supported with the data present just one side of the burnout. Besides that, there are limitations connected with the sample which is used for the research. Even though the authors of the article argue that the response rate of 26.2 percent is normal for this area of research as it involves sensitive issues, it is still very low and as we don’t know anything about the remaining 73.8 percent of the planned sample, the results of the research may be seriously biased. Such a small number of answers (131) provides doubts about the credibility of research results. Even though the study contains certain limitations, especially from the methodological

PESTEL SWOT ADDISON LEE TAXI company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

PESTEL SWOT ADDISON LEE TAXI company - Essay Example The company’s car hire market is a highly competitive business environment where only the highly successful business companies which provide consistent excellent customers services survive. Addison Lee is one such company, which constantly improves operational performance and more work with the existing resources that they own (Hamm 2004). The company has embraced the latest technology in the market in order to attract and provide good customer outreach in most parts of Europe. This paper looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company as well as the political, economic, social-cultural technological, environmental, and legal environment in which the company operates. It has been noted in 2009 that UK is one of the biggest tourist attracting cities in the world. The city of London located in England is the largest city. It has a population of more than 7 million people and receives more than 6 million visitors annually. The country has many historic tourist attraction sites as well as properly established institutions, which forms a model for many other institutions in the world. The political systems in the country as well as the economic systems of business provide a unique environment for businesses to thrive and prosper (Moore 2010). The UK has a traditional of being a capitalist nation, which believes in giving the private sector a chance to develop and grow its portfolio. This is one of the contributing factors to the company’s tremendous growth over the last few years, where the company gained acknowledgement as Europe’s largest taxicab company. In order to attract direct investment in the taxicab business in the country, the country has created an open door policy since the World War 2. One of the main reasons for this motive was to secure financing for modernization with capital liberation as well as provide transport to people who could not be able to acquire their own. The country also provides the needed

Essentials of Tourism and Hospitality Operations

Essentials of Tourism and Hospitality Operations Assignment title: Essentials of tourism and Hospitality operations Introduction The dynamism around the world has many reasons. Tourism organizations are working in order to make all corners of the world easy to visit. The globalization as defined by Scholte J. (2000),†A world wide process of spreading objects and experiences to people at all the corners of the earth (e.g. spreading computing, television, etc.)†, lead the tourism to merge. A hotel is an organization that plays a major role in the tourism and hospitality operations. It has several departments with specific roles. Examples of these are: Front office, food and beverage, housekeeping, maintenance and security. All these departments work together, for the guest to have a good stay. This team work contributes to make more profit for the hotel. States Huyssten et al (2001) This assignment is focus on the front office and housekeeping and based on researches from different writers and the pepper club hotel. Pepper club is a five star hotel located into Cape Town on 167, loop street. Pepper club has 210 bedrooms, a fitness room, an Odeon cinema, a bar called paparazzi, a restaurant called Sinatra, penthouse with swimming pool. Pepper club hotel is not far from the wonderful table mountain. Their future plans are to develop all the sectors of the hotel. Hassanien et al (2010) recommends that a hotel should consider updating facilities and all the sectors of the hotel. The front office The front office is the front of the house. This is the department that welcomes the guest and helps him for checking in and out. The front office manager is responsible of all the activities in the front office and for training all the workers in this department. In order to maintain the standard, he has to make sure of selecting good personnel, easy to be trained and quick learners. This people should work with high manners and behaviors in a professionalism way. Gillespie (2007). Many services are organized in the front office, such as reception, switchboard, reservation, concierge, potter, casher and guest relation. The same, as listed, at pepper club, these are the services organized in front office. But at pepper club, the potter is working under the concierge and it is called concierge and pottering. Reception A receptionist is the person who is handling guest’s check-in and giving him information about the entire department in the hotel. â€Å"A well-functioning reception gives the guest a good impression of the hotel. This helps to establish the hotel’s image and reputation, as well as to encourage the guest to return in the future†.page107, Baker et al (1994). Being the first person to meet the guests on checking in or when he/she walks in for any information, the receptionist should be able to give a good impression to the guest with a nice smile, a tone of voice, though the first impression last. Baker et al (1998) At pepper club, the reception is the first service to interact with the guest when arriving at the hotel. The main duties are: welcoming and checking-in of a new arrival, selling the facilities of the hotel, providing guest information for other services of the front office and other departments of the hotel. For a group arrival, at pepper club, the reception has to prepare documentations that will be required by the guests. Envelopes are prepared with letters inside to explain facilities to the guests in the language they understand Switch board As similar to Kappa et al (1997), this is the controller of the calls from outside and sends them to the relevant department or room. The person working here should be able to listen and speak clearly to the phone and have a good telephone manner. At pepper club, the switchboard does the same. But it also help in switching calls from one service or department to another, in case, if the caller does not know the number of the relevant service or department. Reservation In the same idea with Henning, R. (2003), there are many ways of doing reservation. This can be done through internet (web site, e-mail, twitter, face book), telephone, fax, walk in. As we advertise the hotel we must be able to handle with reservations in any way that it comes to us. There for we should have trained personnel who can professionally handle it. According to Gillespie (2007), all the workers should behave professionally when doing their duties. There are procedures to follow to make a reservation, and these are the same for everyone. There are not special enquiries for any reservation. It is very imperative to have a reservation chart so we will not keep the guest waiting while we are busy looking for information to give him. â€Å"The most important administrative document is the reservation chart†. Henning, R. (2003) This should be checked to see if there are available rooms. Taylor, M. et al (1999) identifies two ways of making reservation, as follow: -Advance reservation: At pepper club the person working in this area makes bookings, deal with agencies and writes queries. In planning and preparing the guest’s needs, the advance reservation is preferable, because it gives you more time to do so. This idea is also supported by Taylor et al (1999). The reservation in advance is better because nothing will be in rush, you know already about the guest arrival and you expect him to arrive. If it comes that you find out about the reason of the guest’s trip, you will be able to prepare decoration for such event. For example a booking for a honey moon, I will organize a decor according to the event. -same day reservation: This kind of reservation should be handled with lots of care. States Whyte, S.(2006), some tourists arrive in town with nowhere to sleep and start to look for accommodation, calling here and there. A guest, who calls for same day reservation, should pay in advance and his referral source and preferences should be recorded. The person who’s doing reservation uses two types of reservation system. At pepper club they use the electronic system and the manual system. The electronic system used at pepper club is opera system, for any reservation on line. The manual system used at pepper club is the reservation chat. Hunters, G. et al (2010) states, â€Å"An operation system of reservation enquiries tracks availability and rates and provide management and supervisors with essential reports.† page 369 Check-in and out This will be explained according to the pepper club’s way. After arriving and entering inside the building, the guest has to present his/her passport. A registration card recorder will be given to him to fill up (home address, mobile number, etc†¦) and the receptionist will make a copy of it. After that he signs and binds himself to the rules of the hotel. The receptionist will ask the guest’s credit card for the credit card authorization for any extras or incident that can happen during his stay. The guest will always be accompanied to his room, by an associate. He will receive a call, from reception within 20 minutes of arrival. No guest will ever be roomed in unmade accommodation. Should there be early arrivals that cannot be accommodate immediately, areas will be arranged with coffee, tea, Danish, newspaper and the availability of telephones/email for the guest in the lounge area. On checking out all the bills will be printed and presented to the guest. If ther e is any change to give to the guest that will be ready, for the guest will not have to wait. Everything should be done the night before the departure day of the guest. The potter will carry the luggage from the room to the car. Concierge At pepper club the concierge is focus on all guest’s services, he is responsible of all the potters. The concierge is locating the guest sites to visit, organizing transport, he also get all the deliveries for the guest from outside. Huyssten et al (2001) identifies that, the concierge is the person who links the guest to the outside services, such as tourism agencies. Being, in charge of the guest satisfaction, he consults to make itinerary. Potter At pepper club, the potter is working under the concierge but having specific duties such as: caring the luggage for the guest to and from the room. Rooming the guest when he checks- in. Huyssten et al (2001) support this idea saying, when the guest is checking out, the potter has to make sure that the guest did not forget anything behind and he should check the room if there is any damage and report to the reception. If the guest booked the hotel’s car, the potter is the one who will be in charge to go with the car and the guest from the airport. Cashiering At pepper club, the cashier is dealing with all the cash in the hotel. He also deal with end of shift, balance the total cash, credit card transaction and foreign currency. Huyssten et al (2001) share the same idea with pepper club, saying that, he closes the specific transactions taken for the day and get generally get checked to see it balances. Guest relation At pepper club, the guest relation is the guest assistance provider. He gets closer to the guest, provides assistance for him, sold guest’s problems and make the guest feel comfortable offering him personal service. Denney et al (2007) says, to provide assistance he has to know the guest’s preference, request, there for, programs can be designed, where by all guest’s requests, preference, will be logged. The link The link between the front office and other department is to make each department aware about what is happening or what is going to happen about the guest’s need, concern and what he expect from the hotel. Because each department has got responsibilities, for the guest to have a good stay. The food and beverage for example, has to know about the arrival to prepare food and drink according to the number and preference if there is any. The room service should also be kept in touch, for; the guest can request any service in the room. If it is about fixing anything the maintenance should be aware. Huyssten et al (2001) identifies that, the front office is the link between the guest and all the departments. Guest cycle The front office department has got large responsibilities to support guest’s services. There for the front office operations are largely defined by the type and number of transactions made during different stages of the guest’s stay. As mentioned by Baker et al (1994), a typical stay will be divided into 4 stages: pre-arrival, arrival, occupancy and departure. At pepper club the guest cycle is considered as the guest journey through the hotel, from the reservation (pre-arrival), arrival (check-in), occupancy (enjoying), to departure (check-out). Agreeing with 4 phases of the guest cycle, but after departure, still the hotel will follow up to know about the feedback. Did he enjoy his stay in our hotel? I will suggest a fifth phase which is the feedback. Methods of payment The method of payment is the way which the guest handles his payment through. There are different methods of payment. Each guest has his way of payment which is easy or possible for him. Some of these methods are: cash, credit cards, travelers’ cheques, cheques, credit facilities, travel agency voucher. Huyssten et al (2001) This applies also at pepper club, this methods of payment are experienced in the same way. Daily banking According to the pepper club way, all charges, postings, payments dealt with during the shift must balance with opera. At the end of the day, the audit casher closes the baking but before that he/she has to check all the balances on opera. Housekeeping Keeping the house is to maintain it in a good state. The housekeeping plays a major role to develop the economy of the hotel. By keeping the establishment and all the furniture clean, the housekeeping saves as many costs as possible. Branson, Lennox (1998) Role of the housekeeping The role is basically, cleaning and maintaining the standard. Make sure that all the public areas are clean. Branson, Lennox (1998) states, in any establishment, the housekeeping is the department that works to make people feel comfortable staying in the building. At pepper club the housekeeping should service daily the suites, during late morning and early afternoon or at the guest convenience. Essential high quality toiletries will be provided and the turn down service will be prepare in the early evening. An overnight laundry service will be also offered. A daily pre-shift meeting will be held by the executive housekeeper. This will cover the previous day’s inspections, cleaning procedures, wearing of uniforms and guest relations. Furniture As the hotel is receiving guests from different background, countries and cultural traditions, each guest should be comfortable to stay in our hotel. Henning et al (1999) states that, â€Å"furnishing should look comfortable and welcoming, so that guests can feel that they can relax there. Use as much upholstered furniture as possible.† All furniture should be according to the standard of the hotel and the status of the room where the item will be used. I agree with Branson, Lennox (1998) saying, it will be very important that the item should be easily movable. Cleanliness Cleaning is to maintain the good state of the house hygienically and by appearance. Cleaning keeps the house and all the furniture against deterioration. For all the linen used in different sectors in the hotel, the housekeeping is responsible of keeping them clean and ready to be used. In the same idea with Branson, Lennox (1998), kitchen, bar, restaurant, banqueting, etc, the supervisor or manager of these relevant sectors should keep a happy atmosphere between him and the housekeeper to ensure that all the linens are exchanged on time. What happen at pepper club is the suites will be serviced daily, during late morning and early afternoon or at the guest convenience. Essential high quality toiletries will be provided and the turn down service will be prepare in the early evening. The hotel will also offer an overnight laundry service. *Turndown All suites must be serviced nightly; bed turned down with sheet folded, on the entry side, at a 450angle. Curtains closed, one or two lamp turned one according to the procedure. Room attendant to replace all dirty towels with clean ones, toilet articles rearranged, toilet papers refolded. Bath to be cleaned, friction towels placed on floor at each bedside, gowns and good night amenity placed at bedside, any loose clothing or shoes should neatly folded and hung in closet, fresh ice should be brought in and placed in room with mineral water and fresh lemon slice. The turn down service will not start before 7:00 pm. *laundry and valet As an extra added service to the hotel, pressing is to be made available throughout the day. This service is available seven days a week with the quickest possible return. As a guest will be taken to his/her suite on arrival, the associate will ask if there is any immediate pressing to be done and take some to the valet. Guest pressing will be done immediately. Suits and dresses are to be returned in wicker baskets with a paper inlay. *Public rest rooms They must be checked every 15 minutes by the public areas attendant, as the hotel is also judged by the rest rooms. Both hand cloths and paper cloths will be provided. *Pool procedures The houseman will arrange and rearrange, however necessary, throughout the day, the pool area as uniform as possible. He will clean the pool before it opens in the morning and at the close in the evening. The pool area will be policed during the day for cigarette butts, paper container, etc. The houseman will arrange lounge chairs for guests and ensure necessary towels are available. At night he will leave the pool deck thoroughly clean and rearrange the furniture as per standard set-up. Magazines, lotions, tanning oils, sunglasses, baseball caps with logo will be available for sale. Inspection To inspect is to control if the level of the cleaning performance reaches the standard. Though a cleaning schedule should be designed to specify who is doing what, when and how. For Henning (2007), the supervisor or the executive housekeeper will check-up to appreciate or correct if necessary. Security To secure is to keep out of danger. In a hotel, it is very important for all the staff to mind the security, as it is not only one person’s matter. Danger could come from any sector, so everyone working in the hotel should be able to report suspicious movement or any hazard around the building. â€Å"Security is not the prerogative of any one person in an establishment †¦Staff should realized the necessity of not giving information regarding internal matters†.page54 Branson, Lennox (1998) Conclusion Economic, politic, religious, social, cultural, etc, these may be reason of the dynamism around the world. Spreading objects and experiences to people at all the corners of the world, makes people move around. Our assignment was showing a good welcoming procedures, to people visiting our place. From different writers and the pepper club hotel, we can understand the major role of the hotel within tourism and hospitality operations. One of its departments was subject of our studies. We are so glad finishing explaining and describing the front office and housekeeping and their role within a hotel. We are great full to the pepper club hotel staff for their assistance which was very helpful. It could be difficult for us to complete this assignment without their help. All the ideas in this assignment did not come from us, the books we red from different writers were also very helpful. References -Baker, S., Bradley, P. and Huyton, J. (1994) Principles of front office operations: Hospitality press, Australian edition, London -Baker, S., Bradley, P. and Huyton, J. (1998) Principles of front office operations: Hospitality press pty ltd, Australian Material, London -Baker, K. and Huyton, J. (2001) Hospitality Management and Introduction: Hospitality press, LOndon -Denney, G., Rutherford, Ph., D., Micheal, J. and O’fallon (2007) Hotel Management and Operations, 4th edition, John Wiley and sons inc., London -Clayton, W., Barrows and Powers, T. (2009) Introduction to the hospitality industry, 7th edition, John Wiley and sons inc. Amazon, USA -Henning, R., Koster, C. and Wilense, C.(1999)Your own guest house, J.L. Van Shaik publishers. -Hunters, G., Tinton, T. and Mannall, C. (1999) Hospitality supervision level 3 S/NVQ, Cengage learning EMEA, LOndon -Taylor, M. and Taylor, R. (1999) Start and run a bed and breakfast: Self-consil press, London -Whyte, S. (2006) Starting and running a BB : How to books, London -Henning, R. (2004) Effective guest house management : Juta co ltd Cape Town -Kappa, M., M., Nitschke, A. and Shappert, B., P (1997) Housekeeping management: American hotel and lodging association .Canada -Branson, J., C. and Lennox, M. (1998)Hotel, hostel and hospital housekeeping : copyright Joan C. Branson and Margaret Lennox -Henning, R. (2007) Guest house management : Juta co ltd, Cape Town -Hassanien, A., Dale, C. and Clarke, A. (2010) Hospitality business development: Ahmed, H., Crispin D. Alan C. published by elsivier ltd, London -Gillespie, A. (2007) Shutters hospitality studies: Shutter shooter publishers Pty, Ltd, Pietermaritzburg area, South Africa. -Huyssten, H., V., Nanny, R., Diedericks, T., Steyn, M. and Steynberg, M. (2001) Hotel-keeping and catering to day: Nasou, Cape Town Suzi , Mujingila CTH no. 76480 Front office and Housekeeping. [Type text]Page 1

Andrew Carnegie On The Gospel Of Wealth :: essays research papers

Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835. His father, Will, was a weaver and a follower of Chartism, a popular movement of the British working class that called for the masses to vote and to run for Parliament in order to help improve conditions for workers. The exposure to such political beliefs and his family's poverty made a lasting impression on young Andrew and played a significant role in his life after his family immigrated to the United States in 1848. Andrew Carnegie amassed wealth in the steel industry after immigrating from Scotland as a boy. He came from a poor family and had little formal education. The roots of Carnegie's internal conflicts were planted in Dunfermline, Scotland, where he was born in 1835, the son of a weaver and political radical who instilled in young Andrew the values of political and economic equality. His family's poverty, however, taught Carnegie a different lesson. When the Carnegies emigrated to America in 1848, Carnegie determined to bring prosperity to his family. He worked many small jobs which included working for the Pennsylvania Railroad where he first recognized the importance of steel. With this recognition, he resigned and started the Keystone Bridge Company in 1865. He built a steel-rail mill, and bought out a small steel company. By 1888, he had a large plant. Later on he sold his Carnegie Steel Company to J. P. Morgan's U.S. Steel Company after a serious, bloody union strike.He saw himself as a hero of working people, yet he crushed their unions. The richest man in the world, he railed against privilege. A generous philanthropist, he slashed the wages of the workers who made him rich. By this time, Carnegie was an established, successful millionaire. He was a great philanthropist, donating over $350 million dollars to public causes, opening libraries, money for teachers, and funds to support peace. In the end, he gave away about 90% of his own money to various causes. He also preached to others to do the same as in giving money for education and sciences.The problem, however, was that there was such a contrast between the rich and the poor. By this he was referring to the inequalities in rights, hereditary powers, and such things. He also felt we should have a continuum of forward progress, i.e. civilizing, industrializing.Apparently in his time there was a movement to drift back into a time when there was little advance in modernizing and technologically advancing; when "neither master nor servant was as well situated.

Food Inequality

Food Inequality between Developed and Developing Countries Introduction These days, any domestic problems tend to be connected with or caused by reasons coming from outside abroad. Among those globalized issues, one of the serious issues is the theme of food security. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), the outlook for the global cereal supply in the 2011/12 marketing season has improved the following positive production. However, the impact on global food security remains uncertain given the current international economic slowdown and changeable weather. For example of food security, in Eastern Africa, the drought-induced humanitarian crisis continues to take lives and reduce livestock. Additionally, in East Asia, severe localized monsoon floods in several countries – Bangladesh, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines may reduce the final outcome because of the natural disaster while a record 2011 cereal harvest was anticipated. What do all these facts mean? Should people put up with the hunger if weather hits them and the economy is tough? There seem to be some other reasons which facilitate food security and if we could struggle with them, the damage caused by the reasons of natural disasters and the tough economy will be mitigated. What could these reasons be? This essay explores the extent to which Population Growth, Food Distribution, Genetic Resources Factors contribute to the problem of food security. Population Growth Today, it is generally agreed that food insecurity issue can be attributed to the fact that we are running out of food due to the intense population growth. In this part, we shall examine the idea carefully. The world’s population has been increasing, according to the report of World Bank in 2011, the population of the world has been doubled over the past 50 years. In this period, world population increase 3 billion to 6. 8 billion. Beyond the year 2050, it is projected that the population is to approach 9 billion, and the growth would likely occur in developing regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Inversely, the industrial countries or developed countries are going through a trend of decreasing population. The increase in population of developing countries is one of the main factors of the global population increase. Another factor is that the average life span has been extended, which means that the death rate is dramatically decreasing all over the world. The explosive increase of population brings about a problem of inequality, especially food. An excess of population is linked to food production and thus, food security. In a TED talk in 2007, Hans Rosling gave a lecture about inequality between developing and developed countries and attributed the food inequality to the fact that the world population has been increasing. In 1960, the gap was relatively small but now the existing gap between both of them has intensified. He had mentioned an example of shoes and cars, and at the very last he discussed food insecurity. Therefore, according to his speech, we can claim that the population growth causes the food inequality issue between developing countries and industrialized countries. However, on the other hand, according to two books which we mostly relied on, Ending Hunger by the Hunger Project and Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, we found there were some people who had made an objection against the idea. FAO and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported in 2008 that new estimate of the number of people who would suffer chronic hunger in which year was 925 million, which, however, doesn’t mean that there is not enough food for the people who need it in the world. According to the report of FAO, the amount of world crop production was recorded two billions tons in 2008, which had been the best record. If the all crops were distributed equally to all people around the world, each of people was supposed to eat 320kg in a year, which is twice as much as crops that are eaten by Japanese per a year on average. Given that there are more food like vegetable, fish, and meat, in addition to crops, all people in the world are supposed to be able to get enough food. Then, why can’t all people get enough food? We examine the causes of food inequality from the different perspective in the next section. However, what we emphasize here is that we think the population growth could also be one of the causes in the near future if the world population kept increasing. As shown in Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, the world population will soon be over 9 billion people, which means that the earth’s productivity will not be able to catch up with the increase in population. Therefore, people in the world will soon face the fact that we run out of food. Then, we examine the food production in third section. Inadequate Food Distribution As we discussed in the last section, two books, Ending Hunger by the Hunger Project and Food Policy by The Johns Hopkins University Press, showed us that food inequality issue between developed countries and developing countries arises not from population growth but from in a defect in an appropriate food distribution system. According to Food Policy, All people in the world could be supposed to be able to get enough food, when the all crops were distributed equally to all people around the world. However, when it comes to the supply of food, only people in developed countries, which are estimated 20% in the world, can always get more calories than they need. Moreover, crops are consumed not only by people but also by livestock such as cattle, chicken, which usually come to the markets for industrialized countries. As a result, people in developed countries like us usually consume more than half of all crops in the world. It turns out that something may be wrong in the process of the food distribution. First, we attribute it to high food prices. As we learned in Prof. Montgomery’s lectures, the energy and water insecurity made the food prices high because food, water, and energy are tightly connected to each other, so farmers need tons of energy and water to produce food. Moreover, Food Policy also described that due to the energy insecurity, more and more people in developed countries used crops in a different way; today biofuels that are made by crops are one of the popular renewable energies in the world. However, to grow the crops, people also need to use more energy and water, which leads people into a downward spiral, and usually the victims are people in poor countries. On top of that, according to Ending Hunger, the high food price can be attributable to speculations. The author said, â€Å"Crops have been getting the attention as an object of speculation. † Originally, more crops tend to go into the domestic market, and there are a few products being distributed in the international market. Under the circumstance, investors who were struggling under the financial crisis in 2008 had an eye on crops for speculation, which raised the food prices intensely. Thus, today under the capitalism, people rather reckon food as a â€Å"product†, so food has been distributed in a way that certain rich people can benefit. At the very last in Food Policy, we got a clue for solving food inequality; an alternative food distribution system that can exist even under the capitalism. The authors have an eye on an idea of â€Å"food redistribution†. Food bank, a non-governmental organization that provides food to poor people for free, has been popular in many developed countries to help poor people within the nations. The authors expect that it will be exercised not by government, but by some entrepreneurs since there is a big challenge for governments in terms of fund and security, and that it will become a new business model in the future. In my opinion, however, it seems difficult that the model can be applied, crossing the boarders. In addition to the point of food distribution, we would like to mention the food production. Ending Hunger, the book we had read, said that although every country needs to try to keep their food self-sufficiently stable, it’s a big challenge for developing countries. There are quite a few countries that rely on the imports from other countries to get crops for their principal diet. It’s related to their history which they were forced to produce some products like cacao to export to industrialized countries in their colonial ages. They are vulnerable because of this monoculture structure which has been still existed when the food prices fluctuate. In the next section, we examine how to solve the monoculture structure issue. Losing Biodiversity In this section, we discuss biodiversity, the problem between biodiversity and food security and the solution. First of all, Biodiversity is a term that is short for biological diversity. Currently, the great variety and richness of plant, some microbe are said to be approximately 1. 7 million species in 2008. The human race literally relies on those plants and animals for clothing, shelter, medicines, and many other things, according to Red list of Threatened Species. However, 784 species have been officially recorded as extinct and more than 16,000 species contains approximately 12 percent of bird species, 23 percent of mammals, and 32 percent of amphibians as well as a large number of plant species. Even so, how does the problem connect with food security? Does the extinction of some species of plants lead to such a big problem? The answer seems to be affirmative; the conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity would be possible. Presently, just three crops- rice, wheat, and maize- amount to about 60 per cent of the world’s food crops and 56 per cent of the protein people derive from plants. This means the stability of agriculture is easy to be affected by climates, pests, diseases because there are no other different plants which would be durable to those stresses. As a result, a drought becomes more likely. In Bangladesh, for example, increasing HYV [high –yield varieties] rice monoculture has decreased diversity, including nearly 7,000 traditional rice variation and many fish species. Ironically, the production of HYV rice per cent acre in 1986 dropped by 10 percent from 1972, in spite of a 300 per cent increase in agrochemical use per acre. (Thrupp 2000,p269) In India, by 1968, although, the so-called â€Å"miracle† HYV seed had replaced half of the native varieties, the expected production in many areas were not realized because those seeds need irrigated land with high inputs of fertilizer, which poor farmers cannot afford. Thrupp p269) North America like US is not also exemption. Of more than 7,000 apple varieties grown in the United States between 1804 and 1904, 86 per cent are no longer cultivated, and 88 per cent of 2,683 pear varieties are no longer available. (Thrupp p270). The main causes for the loss of agrodiversity are reliance on uniform plants and the heavy use of agrochemicals (often make lands barren), and institutions and companies from developed countries who gained patents of seeds and other genetic resources. In order to change this situation, a shift to sustainable agriculture requires changes in production methods, models and policies, as well as the full participation of local people. Example includes use of organic fertilizer, reduction of agrochemicals that destroy diverse rich soil, multiple cropping, eliminating subsidies and credit policies for uniform high-yield varieties. In addition, those developing countries which have plenty genetic resources don’t keep silent to their serious problem. In the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2010, those countries tried to negotiate with developed countries in order to create a protocol about making the access and payment of genetic resources a matter of international law for â€Å" fair and equitable sharing of benefits† (The Economist 2010) Conclusion As we discussed in this papers so far, we mostly attributed the food inequality problem to population growth, inadequate food distribution system, and losing biodiversity. However, the more we studied, the more we found that the food inequality problem was very complicated because there ere a lot of factors which were connected to each other and which lead to the problem. The solutions we figured out are that an alternative food distribution system, and a shift to sustainable agriculture requires changes in production methods, models and policies, as well as the full participation of local people. The right for accessing to food; it is supposed to be exercised by al l people in nature. We strongly hope that more and more poor people will get the access to food in the future, and in order to make it happen, we need to get back to an idea of cooperation at the end. References 1) J Price Gittinger; Joanne Leslie; Caroline Hoisington; Economic Development Institute in Washington, D. C. (1987). Food policy: integrating supply, distribution, and consumption. Baltimore : Published for the World Bank [by] Johns Hopkins University Press 2) W Ladd Hollist; F LaMond Tullis(1987) Pursuing food security : strategies and obstacles in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Boulder : L. Rienner Publishers 3) Debra A Millar(2008) Biodiversity Detroit : Greenhaven Press. Thruoo L Ann (2000) Linking agricultural biodiversity and food security: the value role of agrobiodiveristy for sustainable agriculture International affairs Vol. 76 Issue 2, p265, 17p, 4 Charts 4) Global Information and Early Warning System, 2011 Food Outlook November 2011. Available at: http://www. fao. org/giews/english/fo/index. htm 5) The Economist Online (2010) Pay up or die: Protecting and profiting from the environment (21th Oct) The Economist Available at: http://www. economist. com/blogs/newsbook/2010/10/protecting_and_profiting_environment

Heart Sounds Case Essay

1. Dr. Baker spends a long time listening to (auscultating) Caleb’s heart. a. Where on the thoracic surface do you auscultate to the tricuspid, mitral (bicuspid), pulmonary, and aortic valves? Auscultation for the tricuspid valve would be in the left sternal margin of the 5th intercostal space. The mitral valve sounds are heard over the apex of the heart (5th intercostal space) in line with the middle of the clavicle. Pulmonary valve sounds are auscultated at the 2nd intercostal space at the left sternal margin. The aortic valve is heard at the 2nd intercostal space of the right sternal margin. b. Where do you think would be the best place to auscultate Caleb’s abnormal heart sound? Explain your answer. The abnormal heart sounds would best be heard over the tricuspid area – the lower left sternal border. This is the area which overlies the defect. 2. Caleb has abnormal heart sounds that tipped the doctor off to a problem. a. Name the normal sounds of the heart and indicate what causes these sounds. The normal sounds of the heart are â€Å"lub-dup† are caused by the opening and closing of the heart valves. The first sound – lub- is from the closing of the mitral and tricuspid heart valves. The second sound -dup- is from the closure of the pulmonary and aortic valves. b. In relation to the normal heart sounds, when would you expect to hear the abnormal sound Dr. Baker heard? Explain your answer. A ventricular septal defect is a systolic murmur. The abnormal sounds can be heard during or after the first heart sound and ends before or during the second heart sound. 3. The defect in Caleb’s heart allows blood to mix between the two ventricular chambers. a. Due to this defect would you expect the blood to move from left-to-right ventricle or right-to-left ventricle during systole? I would expect the blood to move from the left to the right ventricle. b. Based on your understanding of blood pressure and resistance in the heart and great vessels, explain your answer to question 3a. In the heart blood flows from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. Blood normally enters on the right side of the heart (deoxygenated), is pumped to the lungs and returns to the left side of the heart (oxygenated) which will then be pumped out to the rest of the body. In Caleb’s case blood will enter the right side of the heart, be pumped to the lungs and return to the left side  of the heart. Every time his heart beats, some blood is then forced through the VSD back to the right side. It then goes back to the lungs even though it is already oxygenated, so blood that is not oxygenated can’t get oxygen. A lower blood volume then remains in the left ventricle to be pumped out to the rest of the body. High pressure would occur in the lungs due to extra blood being pumped into lung arteries this make heart and lungs work harder. 4. When an echocardiogram is performed, the technician color-codes oxygenated blood (red) and deoxygenated blood (blue) a. In a healthy baby, what color would the blood be within the right and left ventricles, respectively? The right ventricle normally pumps blue blood because the blood is without oxygen and the left ventricle pumps red blood because the blood has oxygen. b. In Caleb’s heart, what color would the blood be within the right and left ventricles, respectively? It is both blue and red in the right ventricle because the already oxygenated blood flows back into the right ventricle and blood in the left ventricle would be red. 5. Caleb’s heart allows oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix. Based on your knowledge of the heart and the great vessels, describe other anatomical abnormalities that cause the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Atrioventricular Canal Defect is an abnormality that causes the mixing of blood. There is a hole in center of heart where the wall between the upper and lower chambers meet. The tricuspid and mitral valves aren’t formed properly and one large valve crosses the defect. The defect lets oxygen rich blood pass to the heart’s right side and mix with deoxygenated blood, then go back to the lungs. Another abnormality is Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), where the walls of the upper chambers of the heart don’t close completely, causing a left to right movement of blood due to the higher pressure. The mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood may cause the right atrium and ventricle to enlarge due to the higher volume of blood. 6. What happens to Caleb’s systemic cardiac output as a result of his ventricular septal defect (VSD)? Explain your answer. Caleb’s systemic cardiac output will be decreased. His blood will enter the right ventricle be pumped to the lungs, return to the left ventricle and then be shunted  back to the right ventricle. This causes more blood to enter the right ventricle. The extra blood then leaving the right ventricle causes a volume overload to the lungs. Because blood is being shunted back to the right ventricle, there is a lesser volume of oxygenated blood that leaves the heart to supply the rest of the body. 7. One of the problems that worried Tiffaney was that Caleb seemed to be breathing too hard all the time. Let’s consider how this symptom is related to his heart defect. a. Describe what would happen to the blood volume and pressure entering the pulmonary circuit as a result of his VSD. In VSD the right and left ventricles are working harder, pumping a greater volume of blood than they normally would. Extra blood will pass through the pulmonary artery into the lungs causing, blood pressure to be higher than normal in the blood vessels and lungs. b. Describe what would happen to the myocardium of Caleb’s right ventricle as a result of his VSD. The right ventricular heart muscle will thicken and lose elasticity over time, causing the heart to work harder to effectively pump blood the lungs and rest of the body. 8. Based on the location of Caleb’s defect, what part of the conduction system might be at risk for abnormalities? It is extremely rare that VSD would cause a conduction system defect due to the fact that the two systems are different, different embryological development, yet are in close proximity to each other. It is possible for the bundle of His to be displaced, but usually is unaffected. Sometimes a branch of the bundle of His could be on a rim of the VSD, but is still able to function. The only tricky part is if surgery is needed, the doctor needs to be careful when closing the defect.