Arthur Reed Case Study Essay Example for Free

Arthur Reed Case Study Essay This case study involves Arthur Reed who works for Blue Grocery Stores Incorporated as a warehouse supervisor (case study, 2010) and is having a difficult time fulfilling staffing requirements during the summer months he has tried some options that didnt fulfill the needs of the business. This case study will help Arthur meet these goals. Staffing Issues The summer months were a staffing headache for the warehouse supervisor at Blue Grocery Stores Incorporated (case study, 2010). Everyone wanted to take their accrued vacation then. After all, summer time was the perfect time for family vacations and activities. What made this staffing issue a bigger headache was the fact that a significant number of employees were calling in for sick days during this time of year as well. Replacement workers hadnt worked in the past so thats another challenge to overcome. Options for Optimum Staffing The first suggestion would be for the company to pay for the costly steel-toed boots for the replacement workers and waive any union dues for the replacement workers (case study, 2010). If for some reason that didnt work, the next suggestion in solving this staffing issue would be to hire a summer temporary force using college students. College students can always use extra money for school. I would suggest that the company to pay for the costly steel-toed boots, this would help attract more potential temporary employees for the summer months. The final option would be to adjust the warehouse hours for the summer time. Instead of working a day and afternoon shift, consolidate both teams of employees into one team with two different starting times, two hours apart. That will optimize the staffing, while eliminating the need to hire temporary employees for the summer. If corporations have to rely on temporary employees to fulfill the needs of the business, then they are risking the business objectives. Temporary employees are just that, temporary, and there is a strong possibility that the company performance would slip in relying on them. There could be compromises and arrangements made with the shipping and receiving of supplies so that the business goals are still obtained. This is the best option if successful, not only does it not rely on temporary employees to fulfill the business needs, this keeps the company budget down while maximizing the resources that are available.

Children Are Our Future

Children Are Our Future Our greatest glory consist in not ever failing, but in rising every time we fall. (Oliver Godsmith) The children of todays society will never know the true meaning of this quote or what its like to fall and get right back up to try again. Many say if you dont award your children for participating, theyll choose not to participate and wont get anything done. As a parent its hard to see your child fail considering you want nothing less than the best and to see them happy, but they should not be entitled to a trophy just for showing up and going through the motions. The millennials have been called everything from coddled to just downright spoiled. Their overal attitude is horrible, always thinking they know whats best and whatever they do will be accepted and rewarded. This, however, is through no fault of the child but of the parents and caregivers that raised them. A writer from the Amrican Academy of Pediatrics states, From Californias soccer fields to the basketball courts of New York, sports-league organizers are beginning to question the practice of congratulating every kid on every team just for putting on a uniform. This just shows that people can see what participation trophies do to children. By giving them an award for participating and going through the motions will kill their entire motivation and want to do better. With these participation trophies they will fail and not kow how to handle it. With participation trophins theyll never learn to fail, without failure theyll nver learn to succeed. Just as eveyone says, the children are our future. If we continue to hand out awards for participatinon, theyll never learn and give up as soon as they are unable to complete a task. Technology doent make anything better as they get frustrated if something doesnt pop up as fast as they would like. The millennial generation is electroniclly sophisticated as Julie A. Ray from the Association for Childhood Education International states. With as many technological advancements as ther are in the world today, very few people have patience and its getting worse as time goes on. Having no patience is also a factor in weather anyone will continue to fail and succeed or just fail and never try again and expect a reward for onece again, going through the motions. You will never learn to do things to the best of your ability if you dont ever fail. Part of being human is learning to accept the fact that you will fail, weather it be one, three, ten, or even a hundred times before you succeed, you will fail. Michael Jordan, a retired professional basketball player and well reapected rolemodel, says, Ive missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Ive lost almost 300 games. 26 times, Ive been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. Ive failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Jordan was not handed a trophy for missing 26 game winning shots, he was awarded a trophy for working hard and failing. Even though he failed he never gave up. He pushed and pushed and worked everyday until he was succesful, until he was able to make those game winning shots that everyone was depending on him for. When were not feeling overwhelmed, one highly sensitive person (HSP) told a reporter for a California newspaper, we can experience joy and love much more deeply than the nonHSP. (Christine Rosen) Raising children on paticipatin trophies will give them a higher risk of becoming a HSP. They wont know how to handle the conditions of life as it can be fast paced. In the real world, there is no one to hold your hand or tell you what to do and how to do it. You have to learn from your mistakes as well as everyone elses. If you are awarded a trophy for showing up and just being there and participating, you wont learn how to make a mistake and if we continue to hand out trophies like its candy, no one else will learn to make mistakes either. Once you are an adult and youre out on your own and you make a mistake and you fail, youll think that its all going to be okay, someone will come and fix it, once you realize no one is there to fix it and no one is going to be there to tell you its okay, youre going to feel like a failure, something that youve never felt before because for your entire life, everything has been handed to you. Handing out trophies like its going out of style is a big mistake. Children are our future, raising them on participation trophies will improve nothing, do nothing but destroy children and their future. As soon as they fail and realize that its not okay, they will no longer be confident in themselves or in anything that they do. Part of success is confidence in failure, knowing that you will succeed if you just try again , even if you fail more than youd like to admit. You will never get anywhere if you never try.

Anthropogenic Polycyclic Aromatic

Anthropogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Source Apportionment of Anthropogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) by Molecular and Isotopic Characterization A dissertation submitted as part of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Abstract Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are important, ubiquitous environmental pollutants known for their carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. They are released into the atmosphere, soil (which bears about 90% of the environmental PAH burden in the UK) and water by natural and anthropogenic processes. Today, anthropogenic combustion of fossil fuel is, by far, the most important source of PAH input into the environment. The importance of PAHs as environmental pollutants with a multiplicity of sources has resulted in considerable interest in source apportionment techniques. This study therefore investigated the PAH profiles in road dust samples around a high temperature carbonization plant (Barnsley, South Yorkshire) and used the combination of molecular methods and gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (d13C GC-IRMS) to identify their origin. Quantification of the sixteen U.S EPA priority PAHs extracted from the dust samples ranged from 2.65 to 90.82g/g. The PAH profiles were dominated by phenanthrene for 2-3 ring PAHs and by fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene and benzo(b+k)flouranthene for PAHs with ring size ≠¥ 4. The fluoranthene to pyrene (Fl/(FL+P)) )) concentration ratio ranged from 0.51 to 0.55, while the indenol(1,2,3-cd)pyrene to benzo(ghi)perylene (IcdP/(IcdP+ BghiPer)) ratio ranged from 0.37 to 0.55; suggesting contributions from diesel combustion, most likely from heavy duty trucks. The ability of compound-specific stable isotope measurement, using d13C GC-IRMS, to source apportion environmental PAHs where significant input from coal is expected has been demonstrated. The PAH d13C isotope ratio values ranged from -25.5 to -29.7%o. Overall, the d13C isotope ratio, in conjunction with PAH molecular distribution/ratio, strongly suggest that PAHs in the study area have inputs from both high temperature coal carbonisation and transport fuels (mainly diesel combustion). Chapter One 1.0 Introduction Industrialization, centered on energy use, has been the driving force for many of the greatest advances in the 20th century and is central to our way of life in the modern world today. Energy improvements and the discovery of fossil fuel (coal and petroleum) have hastened industrialization and breakthroughs in areas such as travel, communication, agriculture and healthcare, in many parts of the world. Despite these achievements, industrialization has brought along with it global problems of environmental pollution and challenges. These include exploitation of natural resources, oil spillages, global warming due to rising emissions of carbon dioxide and other green house gases, disposal of wastes (industrial and domestic) and inorganic and organic emissions which ultimately affect air, water and land quality. The release of organics/organic effluents such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mainly from the use of fossil fuels; into the environment have particularly gained attention in recent times due to their toxicity and persistence. 1.1 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that are of great public concern due to their toxicity, carcinogenicity and/or mutagenicity (Fabbri et al., 2003; Sharma et al., 2007). They are continuously introduced into the environment by both natural processes, such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires; and anthropogenic sources which include various industrial processes such as coke production in the iron and steel industry, catalytic cracking in the petroleum industry, coal gasification, heating and power generation, open burning of vegetation and internal combustion engines used for various means of transportation (Suess, 1976; Morasch et al., 2007). Immense PAHs contaminations of the environment typically originate from anthropogenic sources. A natural balance existing between the production and natural degradation of PAH historically kept the background concentration of PAH in the environment low and fixed (Smith and Harrison, 1996). The ever-increasing industrial development and use of fossil fuels in many parts of the world released PAHs into the environment resulting in their universal occurrence in air, water, soil and sediments. This increase in the production rate of anthropogenic PAHs has disrupted the natural balance of PAHs in the environment, while their rate of decomposition remains more or less constant (Suess, 1976; Fetzer, 1988). PAHs are found in great abundance in fossil fuel materials such as shale oil, coal liquids, petroleum, asphalt and many other hydrocarbon based materials (Fetzer, 1988). Incomplete combustion of these fossil fuel materials produces fly ash, chimney soot and engine-derived air particulates which have higher levels of PAHs than the original materials (Chadwick et al., 1987; Fetzer, 1988). Generally, PAHs give rise to significant impact to the areas close to the nearest point sources (Ohkuchi et al., 1999). There are very high concentrations of atmospheric PAH in the urban environment which is accounted for by the various industrial processes earlier identified, increasing vehicular traffic and the scarce dispersion of the atmospheric pollutants. These PAHs are emitted to the atmosphere either in the gaseous phase or on very small particles, 70-90% of which are in the respirable range (et al., 1987). The risk associated with the human exposure to atmospheric PAH is therefore highest in the cities because of these factors and the density of population (Sharma et al., 2007). In view of the carcinogenic potential of many PAH compounds, their contribution to the mutagenic activity of ambient aerosols and range of sources of emission, their concentration in the environment is considered alarming and efforts should be made to reduce or even eliminate them wherever possible. To achieve this, a better understanding of their fate and associative transformation pathways in the environment is necessary and this has resulted in considerable interest in PAHs source apportionment. 1.2 Source Apportionment Most organic pollutants can be released into the environment from various sources. Hydrocarbon pollutants are particularly widespread in the environment due to the multiplicity of their sources such as synthesis by living organisms (biogenic origin), degradation of organic matter (diagenic origin), incomplete combustion of organic matter and natural and anthropogenic fossil fuel combustibles (petrogenic origin) (Mazeas et al., 2002). Due to the multiplicity of the sources of organic pollutants, source apportionment techniques are invaluable in the determination of the contributions of various pollution sources of a pollutant in the environment. Source apportionment generally refers to the quantitative assignment of a combination of distinct sources of a particular group of compounds put into a system (OMalley et al., 1994). Differences in emission profile, among emission sources, have been sufficiently used to develop fingerprints that can be identified and quantified at a particular site (Dallarosa et al., 2005). As mentioned earlier, most of the environmental PAHs have anthropogenic origins. Contributions from coal combustion and use of petroleum in internal combustion engines for transportation have increased over the years and have generated a lot of concern. It is therefore important to be able to distinguish different sources that contribute to PAH pollution of a particular environment using reliable source apportionment techniques. This project work is therefore aimed at contributing to the knowledge of reliable, unambiguous novel PAH source apportionment techniques by: (i) Identifying and quantifying contemporary PAHs fluxes in the environment around a coking works using molecular methods (ii) Demonstrating the ability of compound specific stable isotope measurement to source apportion environmental PAHs where significant input from coal is expected Chapter Two 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 General overview of the properties of PAHs Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds are a class of complex organic chemicals made up of carbon and hydrogen with a fused ring structure containing at least 2 benzene rings (Ravindra et al., 2008). They may also contain additional fused rings that are not six-sided (Figure 1). Pyrosynthesis and pyrolysis are two main mechanisms that can explain the formation of PAH from saturated hydrocarbons under oxygen-deficient conditions. Low molecular weight hydrocarbons like ethane form PAHs by pyrosynthesis (Figure 2). At a temperature greater than 5000C, carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bond are broken to form free radicals which combine to form acetylene. Acetylene condenses further to form aromatic ring structures which are resistant to degradation (Figure 2). The ease with which hydrocarbons may form PAH structure varies in the order aromatics > cycloolefins > olefins > Paraffins (Ravindra et al., 2008). The higher molecular weight alkanes in fuel form PAH by pyrolysis: the cracking of organic compounds. The discovery of the fluorescence of a number of known carcinogenic tars and mineral oils in 1930 led to the investigation of the carcinogenic properties of PAHs. This spanned from the discovery that benz(a)anthracene and other compounds in its group possessed a similar fluorescence (Chadwick et al., 1987). Initial investigation for PAH carcinogenicity using dibenz(a,h)anthracene later resulted in the isolation of a powerful carcinogenic substance from coal tar: benzo(a)pyrene (Chadwick et al., 1987). Since the discovery of benzo(a)pyrene, various works have been done to identify other carcinogenic PAHs. Sixteen (16) parental PAHs have been designated by the US environmental protection agency (US EPA) as priority pollutants and most of the studies have focused on these (Figure 1 and Table 1). Seven (7) of these (Table 2) have been identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as animal carcinogens and have been studied by the EPA as potential human carcinogens (EPA report, 1998). PAH can undergo metabolic transformation into mutagenic, carcinogenic and teratogenic agents in aquatic and terrestrial organisms. These metabolites, such as dihydrodiol epoxides, bind to, and disrupt, DNA and RNA, which is the basis for tumor formation (Wild and Jones, 1995). Although PAHs are renowned for their carcinogenic and mutagenic properties, not all of them are environmentally or biologically significant. Studies have been carried out on monitoring the levels of some of the important PAH in various parts of the world and the results of a number of these are summarized in Table 2. The carcinogenicity and/or mutagenicity of PAH, which require metabolic conversion and activation, is structurally dependent: while certain isomers can be very active, other similar ones are not (Fetzer, 1988). An example, as shown by Fetzer (1988), is found in the five PAHs with molecular weight of 288 and containing 4 rings. Chrysene, benz[a]anthracene and benzo[c]phenanthrene are mutagenic but the remaining two, napthacene and triphenylene are not. As molecular weight increases, the carcinogenic level of PAHs also increases and acute toxicity decreases (Ravindra et al., 2008). The p electron fused benzene rings in PAHs account for most of their physical properties and chemical stability (Lee et al., 1981). The 2-ring and 3-ring PAHs compounds, which are more volatile and water soluble, but less lipophilic than their higher molecular weight relatives, generally exist primarily in the gas phase in the atmosphere and will tend to be deposited to the surfaces via dry gaseous and/or wet deposition (Ravindra et al., 2008). On the other hand, the less volatile 5-6 ring PAHs tend to be deposited on surfaces bound to particles in wet and dry deposition; while compounds of intermediate vapor pressure will have a temperature-dependent gas/particle partitioning of PAHs leading to both wet and dry deposition in gaseous and particle-bound form (Mannino and Orecchio, 2008). PAHs have a tendency to sorb on hydrophobic surfaces and this tendency increases with the number of aromatic rings (Morasch et al., 2007). Thus, PAHs are primarily found/present in the environment in soils and sediments, rather than water and air. Their high hydrophobic tendency and high lipophilic properties make them easily bio-accumulated to such an extent that can threaten the safety of food chains for both man and animals (Sun et al., 2003). Compounds Chemical formula Molecular weight Melting point, oC Boiling point,oC Particle/gas phase distribution Napthalene C10H8 128.19 80.5 218 Acenaphthylene C12H8 152.21 Gas phase Acenaphthene C12H10 154.21 96.2 279 Gas phase Fluorene C13H10 166.22 116 -117 295 Gas phase Phenanthrene C14H10 178.24 100 101 340 Particle phase Anthracene C14H10 178.24 216.5 217.2 339.9 Particle phase Fluoranthene C16H10 202.26 110.6 111.0 393 Particle phase Pyrene C16H10 202.66 152.2 152.9 360 Particle phase Benz(a)anthracene* C18H12 228.30 159.5 160.5 435 Particle phase Chrysene* C18H12 228.30 250 254 448 Particle phase Benzo(b)fluoranthene* C20H12 252.32 Particle phase Benzo(K)fluoranthene* C20H12 252.32 215.5 216 Particle phase Benzo(a)pyrene* C20H12 252.32 176.5 -177.5 311 Particle phase Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene* C20H12 276.34 Particle phase Dibenz(a,h)anthracene* C22H14 278.34 205 Particle phase Benzo(ghi)perylene C20H12 276.34 273 Particle phase *PAHs identified animal carcinogens and as potential human carcinogens Table 1: Physical properties of 16 priority PAHs on US EPA listing (Adapted from EPA REPORT, 1998, Ravindra et al., 2008) S/N Total PAHs Mean (ngm-3) Cities 1 à ¥ 15 PAHs 56 Columbia (USA) 2 à ¥ 15 PAHs 412 Austria 3 B (a) P 4.99-9.56a Delhi 4 à ¥ 12 PAHs 93 Denver (USA) 5 à ¥ 8 PAHs 150-1800a Delhi 6 à ¥ 15 PAHs 166 London 7 à ¥ 15 PAHs 59 Cardiff 8 à ¥ 11 PAHs 90-195 (I)a, 20-70 (R)a Ahmedabad 9 à ¥ 12 PAHs 22.9-190.96a Kolkata 10 à ¥ 12 PAHs 20-95a, 125-190a Mumbai, Nagpur 11 à ¥ 13 PAHs 90.37 57.04 Coimbatore 12 à ¥ 11 PAHs 310 (60-910)a Mexico city 13 à ¥ 15 PAHs 8.94-62.5a Camo Grande city 14 à ¥ 16 PAHs 13-1865a Chicago I= industrial site, R = residential site, a Range Table 2: A summary of mean concentrations (ng/m3) of total PAHs in various cities of the world (Sharma et al., 2007) 2.2 Anthropogenic sources of PAHS The high concentration of PAHs in the environment, as shown in Table 2, suggests the extent of anthropogenic contribution (Sharma et al., 2007). It is, however, difficult to estimate the amount of anthropogenic PAHS on the yearly input of the various sources on a global basis. An approximate quantification has been made, based on the annual consumption of fossil fuel, that while the global annual release of PAHs to the atmosphere is of an order of 105 tonnes, including 103 tonnes of benzo(a)pyrene; the annual input of crude and processed oil containing 1-3% PAHs to the oceans of the world is 1.1106 tonnes (Ivwurie, 2004). The main anthropogenic sources of carcinogenic PAHs are emissions from fossil fuel combustion in industrial and power plants, automobile emissions, biomass burning, agricultural burning and natural gas utilization. Fossil fuel utilization is the major cause of anthropogenic PAH occurrence in the environment. Hence, emphasis is placed on these sources below. 2.2.1 PAHs from Coal Combustion and Conversion Processes Coal, an organic rock formed from the accumulation and burial of partially decomposed vegetation in previous geologic ages through a series of physical, biological and biochemical changes; is a major fossil fuel for heating and power generation. The predominant organic components in coal have resulted from the formation and condensation of polynuclear carboxylic and heterocyclic ring compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur (United Nations, 1973). Due to its chemical composition (heterogeneous macro-molecular matrix, including hydrocarbons and hetero-atomic moieties) various coal conversion and utilizations are significant contributors of PAHs to the environment. Coal combustion emissions 47 PAH compounds resulting from coal combustion residing in fly ash, grate ash or the stack emissions were identified in the work of Junk and Ford (1980, cited in Chadwick et al., 1987). However, these PAH emissions are a function of the efficiency of the coal combustion plant. On the whole, large, efficient coal-burning, electricity-generating plants, with high combustion temperatures, emit relatively low total amounts of PAH and contribute very little to PAH emissions when operated properly (Chadwick et al., 1987). PAH emission factors for coal-fired plants were put at 32ugkg-1 and 41ugkg-1 coal by Ramdahl et al. (1983) and Masclet et al. (1987) respectively. 70% of the total PAH emission flux from power plants is made up of 3-4 ring PAHs and their alkylated counterparts (Wild and Jones, 1995). 5-6 ring PAHs and their heteroatom-containing derivatives are emitted from coke ovens during coal carbonisation (Kirton et al., 1991) Coal carbonization emissions Coal carbonization, the pyrolytic decomposition of coal in the absence of oxygen, can be classified according to the temperature to which the coal is heated, as shown in Table 3. This process yields char or coke, tar and oven or coal gas as the major products. Coke is by far the most important product in terms of yield and revenue. However, leakages from coke ovens are sources of release of high levels of PAHs and other organics to the environment. Emissions from coke ovens range from volatile monoaromatics (alkyl benzenes) to 5-6 ring PAHs together with their substituted heteroatom derivatives such as O-PAHs, NPAHs and S-PAHs (Lao et al., 1975; Kirton et al., 1991). Anderson et al. (1983) determine

Mind Match :: essays research papers

Mind Match Host (Kevin): Welcome back to "Mind Match." After Round 1 Jerry's in the lead, he's got Timmy, Suzie, Ramon, Vanessa, and Carlo and Susan is right behind with Amy, Shelly, Tom, and Danny. So Jerry, you're a computer programmer from Boston. How do you like Beantown? Jerry (Tom): Um, when I came on the show, I was under the impression that you could win prizes or money. Not orphaned children. Host: Oops, looks like someone didn't read the fine print. Susan, you're a computer programmer also. Susan (Kerri): Um, I have a very small apartment. I don't know what I would do with four foster children. Host: Well, figure it out because you're their legal guardian and it's time for Round 2, where the orphan points double. Okay, the first question is: "Mick Jagger is the lead singer of the Rolling ....." (ding!) Jerry? Jerry: Bears? The Rolling Bears? Host: Oh, I'm sorry, Jerry, that's incorrect. The correct answer is stones, the Rolling Stones. So Susan you win that round and here are Matt and Timmy. Susan: I didn't say anything. I mean, I didn't answer. You must've- Host: A smart move. A wrong answer could have cost you the lead. (Bell) Hey, that bell means it's time for our Double Dare question! Jerry, how many of your orphans are you willing to wager? Jerry: All- all of them. Host: Hey, it looks like Jerry is looking to double his orphans. Susan, how many will you bet? Susan: Well, uh, all of them. Host: Well, now, it looks like it's make-it-or-break-it time for our contestants! Okay, Jerry's behind so he gets the first question. And the question is, "Name a form of transportation?" (ding!) Host: Jerry? Jerry: Blue? (buzzer) Host: Oh, Jerry I am so sorry. Blue is not a form of transportation. And that will cost you your orphans. Oh, so close Jerry. So close. Susan, now's your chance to win it all. Name a form of transportation! (ding!) Host: Susan? Susan: Wooden? Host: Hmm? Can we accept "wooden"? You can make a car out of wood, boats are wood--(ding!) Boats are wood! Yes! Susan you've doubled your orphans!

Physics of Wormholes :: physics science wormhole wormholes

Science fiction will often have fantastic stories about humans traversing stars at great speeds, faster than light. Vast interstellar civilizations are maintained by fleets of starships that fly from world to world in a matter of days or weeks. The truth, sadly, is far less fantastic. The universal speed limit is the speed of light, or approximately 2.998x108 m/sec. Nothing can move faster than that constant. Even at that extreme speed, it would take approximately 4 years for any spaceship to reach the closest of other stars. To make matters even worse, the energy required to accelerate an object increases exponentially as it gets closer and closer to the speed of light to the point where we cannot input enough energy to make the object actually go the speed of light. So how can we have these great galaxy spanning civilizations and expand our frontiers beyond the boundaries of our solar system? One possible solution is wormholes. This web project will attempt to inform on some of the basic theories of wormholes and how they could be used to traverse great distances and possibly even time itself. History Einstein first proposed wormholes in 1935. He co-wrote a paper with Nathan Rosen in which they showed that general relativity allowed for what they called â€Å"bridges.† They theorized that there could be places where space/time is folded that allowed transfer of matter from one point to another in the universe. After this initial burst of ideas in the thirties, wormhole theory was pretty much dropped by the world of physics in general. It wasn’t until the 1980’s when Carl Sagan wished to write his book Contact was wormhole theory revisited. Sagan wanted to have his protagonist leave Earth and arrive at a distant star system in a relatively short amount of time without being completely scientifically invalid. He turned to his fellow physicist Kip Thorne to develop an at least somewhat scientifically appropriate method of faster-than-light space travel. Thorne came up with much of the modern framework for wormhole theory that is in existence today for the book, which is now a major motion picture starring Jodi Foster. Definition A wormhole is a tunnel in space that matter can traverse through. It works in four dimensions with time being the fourth. It connects two points in the universe. A useful analogy for how a wormhole works is a two-dimensional piece of paper with a pair of dots on it.

Diversity in American culture Essay

The American culture is one of the outstanding cultures in nature compared with other cultures of the world. The culture of the American people can be regarded as being diversified in nature. (Bernstein N, 2001). The diversity of the American culture is attributed by the fact that America is composed of many ethnic groups with different global origin. The diversity has been found to occur in the dressing habits, eating habits, marriages habits and religion in nature. America has a unique history in nature since it was a founded world which is currently composed of the African –American, White-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and the Indian –Americans. The diversity of the American culture has a lot of controversies which has come into a lot of criticism by the public in general. This paper will try to evaluate the religious diversity among the American people at the same it will try to bring out the driving forces behind this religion diversity. Consequently it will analyze the effects of the religious diversity to the American people. The religious diversity in America has been contributed by the immigration laws which encourage the religious freedom which has created the religious tolerance of the American people. According to Becvar, D. S (1997) â€Å"perhaps the most extreme case of religious pluralism in the world. † . Moreover the American constitution has consequently protected the religious rights of its members. The first amendment of The USA has consequently promoted the right of free worship without any interruptions. Thus the religious diversity has been promoted by the democratic government of the United States of America which has tried to encourage the immigration and at the same time guarating the religious freedom of its citizens. The American religious culture is made of many religious sects. The religious groups which are presently found in America includes the Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Budhism other minority religions (Bullis K, 1996). The religious diversity in the United States of America has proved to be so important to the society in nature, for instance there are a lot of intermarriages between the religious groups. By promoting the intermarriages, harmony is created in the world. The America of today has undergone some radical changes which have created a new America with new religious landscape. Nowdays the number of the immigrants has increased in to a great existent than before. The most growing group which has migrated in larger number is the Hispanics and the Asian groups. Most of the American people have not noticed the radical changes which the religious sector is undergoing in the recent times. We need to focus on such changes and realize that the religious field is currently under metamorphosis. Although the United states of America was being regarded as being a Christian nation, it has become to light that the Muslims have started to increase in their numbers, moreover the Buddhist religion has taken roots in the American land for example the Los Angeles city is a Buddhist city which is recognized as the most concentrated Buddhist city having the immigrants from India,China,Korea and sri lanka. At the same time the immigrants from the Latin America such as from Mexico, Brazil and Spain to the United States of America cities has promoted the growth of the Christianity of the Catholic and the protestant community. According to history the American land has been composed of many religions. The United States of America is undergoing a change in the religious practices. Most of the adults are nowadays have started to change their religious believes from the Christianity since the start of the First World War. However most of the American adults have started to identify themselves with some specific religion. But it has been established that the United States of America is currently losing its protestant members due to the fact that most of the Protestants were executed during the Second World War. The gender ratio has consequently affected the religious groups. It is estimated that 38% -39% of the religious believers are women. moreovcer most of the Muslims are men since the Muslim society allows only men to worship in the mosques, thus the religious practices has been found to affect the number of the believers. The religious believers in the United States of America have been found to affiliate themselves with the political parties. For example the Christian believers affiliate themselves to the Democrat, Republican and the Independents respectively. 56% of those who are the Assemblies of God have preferred to affiliate themselves with the Republican party while 56% of the Jews have preferred the Democratic party. (Burke T,2005). The religious diversity in the United States of America has profound effects on the way people are living. The religion has consequently affected the dressing codes of the individuals, the eating habits of the individuals and the social associations of the involved candidates. On the first case religion has been found to influence the dressing codes of people, for example the Muslim women wears long clothes which are made so that they can not have the direct contact with their male counterparts as it’s believed that it’s a taboo to for the Muslim women to have direct contact with men. At the same time the Hindu men wears what they refer as â€Å"dhoti†. The Christians women on the other hand have a tendency of wearing the trousers and sometimes skirts. Thus it can be concluded that the dressing codes in the United States of America has been influenced by the religion individuals have affiliated themselves to. The religious diversity in the United States of America has influenced the eating habits of the people of the United States of America. Many of the African-Americans are mainly Protestants and hence they have no strict eating habits (Canda. K, 1998). But other Christian members who belong to some sects such as the seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah witness have a lot of the eating restricness. At the same time some Muslim communities are prohibited from eating some foods such as the pork. Consequently the Hindus are prohibited from taking beef which they believe that it is a sacred animal in their religion. In conclusion it can be determined that religion is continuing to play one of the major roles in most people. The United States of America is secular increasingly, you’ve got African groups who bring another dimension of diversity. † in nature and this phenomenon has spread in many states. Baer, H. A (1984) quoted that† In Southern California, we’ve got virtually everyone,† Roof said. â€Å"If you want an indicator of how much diversity there is in Southern California, there are approximately 100 different ethnic Buddhist groups here. With Latinos, it’s similar. With Islam, you get scores of nationalities†. The diversity of the religious believes among the Americans will continue to affect the daily activities of the Americans. References Baer, H. A. (1984). The Black spiritual movement: A religious response to racism. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Becvar, D. S. (1997). Soul healing: A spiritual orientation in counseling and therapy. New York: Basic Books. Bernstein, N. (2001). The lost children of Wilder: The epic struggle to change foster care. New York: Vintage Books. Bullis, R. K. (1996). Spirituality in social work practice. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis. Burke, M. T. (2005). Religious and spiritual issues in counseling: Applications across diverse populations. New York: Brunner-Rout ledge. Canada, E. R. (Ed. ) (1998). Spirituality in social work: New directions. New York: Haworth Pastoral Press.

Dennys Ethics Essay

Denny’s is one of the franchises owned by the Flagstar Corporation. The troubling finances of Flagstar caused their leadership to be so concerned on the numbers of their corporation that they forgot about the management of their employees and their actions. Even though corporate management can’t control all the actions of their employees they can help shape their actions through training and education in the workplace. Therefore the leadership of Flagstar failed and was unethical, as they did not properly address the problems with racism that some of their employees had working for Denny’s. They also didn’t complete these tasks in a timely matter or even do enough to prevent them. These problems of racism, specifically with the employees’ relations with the customers continued to keep piling up for Denny’s management. This created even more than just financial problems for Denny’s, but also a new public image that they were not fair to all races and were in the restaurant industry where customer service plays a huge part in making money. Denny’s had a problem with the way in which its employees dealt with serving its customers. They dealt with a federal lawsuit in California where they agreed to stop the alleged discriminatory treatment of black customers. (pg. 309) On the same day on the settlement another similar situation happened across the country in Maryland. However, these customers were secret service agents where fifteen white agents were served their food in a timely manner and five black agents waited almost an hour before asking where their food was. The agents filed a lawsuit against Denny’s, where it made national headlines and caused uproar throughout the country. (pg. 309) Denny’s now faced a huge problem as their public image was greatly declining and had a senior management that was completely unprepared to deal with the huge issue that the company faced. There is great competition in the fast food industry. Denny’s tried to separate themselves from others by putting emphasis on sit-down service and creating a welcoming atmosphere for its customers. (pg. 310) For a company to be accused of having employees that discriminate on customers based off of race does not help a company establish this type of atmosphere. Out of the whole Flagstar staff, thirty-six percent are minorities where twenty percent are black, which is twice the proportion of the U.S. population. (pg. 310) However, there are no senior black managers or minority officers at Flagstar and there is only one minority-owned franchise. Flagstar doesn’t have a problem employing minorities, but they do have a problem promoting them. This shows the failed leadership of Flagstar. There were some diversity experts that defended Flagstar such as Marilyn Loven, who said, â€Å"Discrimination results from employees acting individually without the approval of management.† (pg. 310) This might be true as leaders that have the right intention can be â€Å"undercut† by low-level front line employees however it is the leaders that must spend a lot of time educating employees about discrimination. She also said that, â€Å"No Company can eliminate racism.† In the case of Denny’s they had not one or two cases of discrimination but more than five in pretty short time period. Denny’s would settle a case one-day and then the next day a new case of discrimination would come up. Denny’s and the Department of Justice worked out settlements where Denny’s would reinforce polices of equal treatment to customers however it showed that those policies weren’t fully pushed by leadership. (Exhibit 1) This lack of leadership showed that the leadership was â€Å"unethical† in their handling of their employees and discrimination. The head of Flagstar, Jerome Richardson took some of the responsibility for the problems that Denny’s faced. He said that dealing with finances â€Å"blinded† him to other aspects of running the corporation that he was in charge of. (pg. 311) However, a corporation needs to cover all aspects of the company besides its finances. Its â€Å"unethical† for a company to allow continued discrimination and not push programs to educate employees on discrimination. The company was so focused on making money that they public image went in the drain as the company did nothing to make sure their employees were educated and making a good name for the company. In the case of Denny’s the lack of minority leadership showed corporate discrimination, which reflected on employees discriminating against the customers. This discrimination could happen anywhere but continued to happen at different locations all over the country for Denny’s and reflects on the company itself. It also raises the question of the ethical practices of by the company and how the company responds to cases of discrimination in this case. The continued cases of discrimination by employees showed that the Denny’s leadership was â€Å"unethical† as they did not cover all aspects of their corporation.