Omnivores Dilemma - A Natural History of Four Meals is a Nonfiction Essay

Omnivores Dilemma - A Natural History of Four Meals is a Nonfiction Book by Michael Pollan - Essay Example The book illustrates the American way of living from the source to the final meal that is eaten. From an economic viewpoint, there are many shortcomings of the book worth noting, such as in the Pollan’s self financed meals; he only focuses on what is before his eyes and ignores the macroeconomic factors that influence the transparency of the cost of foods, which is not attainable within the interconnectedness of the markets. Essentially, Omnivore’s Dilemma is a book about the state of America’s food production, consumption, regulation and distribution (Tyler, 2006). Food Chain Food chains are usually applied in ecological modelling, which provides a continuous variable for measuring passage of energy through various linear linkages from the lowest to the highest trophic feeding levels. Long food chain lengths are unstable with increasing length increases with the ecosystem size and reduction of energy at every successive level. Food chain lengths vary from three to six or even more levels. For example, a four-level food chain will consist of a flower, a frog, a snake and an owl. A five-level food chain may consist of the grass, a grasshopper, a rat, a snake and an owl. The organisms that use solar energy or heat energy to synthesize starch are the producers, such as plants. Consumers are those organisms that feed on other organisms, whereas, all food chains begin with the producer then progresses to the consumer. Therefore, all organisms within a food chain except the first one are all consumers. This fascinating journey through the food chain does not make Pollan a preacher, but he is engrossed in his thoughtfulness and so much dogged a researcher to let ideology take over him. He is surely not a writer who is afraid of soiling his hands in the quest for a better understanding on the manner in which modern food is produced. For example, he does everything from buying his cow to the slaughterhouse, then ultimately to the dinner table. Polla n really capture how Americans eat today from the fast food to the big organic to the locally sourced, ultimately to foraging for dinner armed with a rifle. This idea examines the human diet from capitalism to consumption (Pollan, 2006). National Eating Disorder Americans have changed the way they eat and the usual question that arises daily is based on what will be taken for dinner. This is a simple question that can evolve to be very complex as one tries to figure it out. The evolution of human culture has a great influence on how peoples’ native wisdom about eating, such that the way people eat is riddled with confusion and anxiety. Most ancient and venerable staple foods have abruptly disappeared from the American dinner tables and have made Americans to change the way they eat. This condition can be described as carbophobia. This was supplanted by lipophobia around 1977 when Americans were warned against loving the red meat during the Carter reign, which forced the Senat e committee to issue a set of dietary goals.  

Capital Structure of Company Accor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Capital Structure of Company Accor - Assignment Example Accors optimal capital could be achieved when the marginal cost of each source of finance is the same. There is on optimal capital structure for all firms for all times. The financial managers should try to develop an appropriate capital structure. That ha these features. Simple in the initial stages by limiting the number of issues and types of securities. This will avoid investors becoming hesitant from investing in the company. Preferably Accor should issue equity and preference share in an attempt to develop an optimal capital structure. Retaining the ultimate control of accompany with the equality shareholder who have the right to elect directors/control in management is important.Accor should issue less equity shares and preference share and debentures in large numbers to the public because these carry limited voting rights whole debentures don't have any.Companys capital structure in such away which would favourably affect the voting structure of existing shareholders and increase their control on the company's affairs. Liquidity can be achieved for the solvency of corporation Accor should avoid all such debts which threaten the solvency of the company. A proper balance between fixed and current assets is maintained according top the nature and size of business. Flexibility in capital structure enables the company to make necessary changes in it according to the changing conditions and make it possible to procedure more capital whenever required or redeem the surplus capital. Capital structure of such a company will also follow the policy of conservatism, this helps in maintaining the debt capacity even in unfavourable circumstances. Accor needs to maintain a good balance for optimum capital structure as both over capitalization and undercapitalization are disastrous to the financial interests of Accor. A sound capital structure attempts to secure balance leverage by issuing both types of securities i.e. ownership and creditor ship securities. Debentures are issued when the rates of interest are low cost of debt is one of the components of cost of capital incurred by an organization. Cash generated in an organization as profits are used to pay for taxes and interests on types of securities acquired for the company. It is obligatory for the corporation to pay interests to money lenders like debenture holders and even preference shareholder. If Accor maintains more debt, it means that it will be overburdened in servicing the debt needs with interests and eventually pay the equity shareholders earning that were ploughed back. To assess whether Accor maintains a capital structure for Accor, we should consider both internal and external factors. These include: - internal factors. Nature business when a company is getting stable earning then it can afford t raise funds through sources involving fixed charges, public utilities, finacing and merchandising enterprises are more stable in their earning and enjoy greater

Importance of Vaccination to the Survival of Humanity

Importance of Vaccination to the Survival of Humanity Bokota, Rachael People in developed countries are able to live without the fear of a plague breakout. They are able to attend festivals, ride the subway, and share food without worrying that they could bring home a deadly pathogen to infect their loved ones. This is possible through the advent of vaccines. Surviving the year was not always so simple. There were times when there would be mass outbreaks of disease regularly. Cities would be breeding grounds for deadly pathogens, and the population would live in fear of having contact with neighbors, as they might be given the deadly blight. Vaccines have changed all of this. Not only do people these days feel protected from diseases, some even feel that in a way, man has conquered nature, allowing for more people to have longer lifespans and a greater quality of life. Vaccines have saved us by allowing pathogens to be bent to our will and serve our immune system, protecting more than just the individual, and making our schools safe by requiring vaccin ations. Vaccinations have changed our lives by using pathogens to aide our immune system rather than harm it. To understand how helpful vaccines are, it is important first to understand how vaccines work. Vaccines function one of four ways: by utilizing live, attenuated microbes, killed microbes, toxoids, or recombinant DNA from microbes (Krasner and Shore 2014). When live, attenuated microbes are used, the microbial strain has been tested multiple times in mice until a non-lethal strain is found and injected into a person. This person will then be able to easily fight off the disease and will have immunity through the antibodies made against the microbes for life. The use of killed microbe vaccines are slightly safer than live, attenuated vaccines, as the virus is dead but still causes antibodies to be produced. The downside to killed-microbe vaccines however, is that they often require a few boosters to be really effective and keep a lasting memory in the hosts immune system (publichealth. org). Toxoid Vaccines are taken from the microbe and then detoxified and injected into a person. This will cause the person to create antibodies against the toxin, effectively making them immune. Furthermore, antitoxins can be produced by injecting a small amount of toxin into a large animal such as a horse, which will produce antibodies against the toxin and then be injected into a person if the need arises (Krasner and Shore 2014). This is used to combat venomous animal bites or stings. Finally, recombinant DNA from a microbe can be taken and added to a nonvirulent virus and then injected into a person, who will then produce antibodies against the code of the microbe. Through these four ways, vaccines actively use microbes to create antibodies in the individual who is given the vaccine, giving them protection against that very microbe. Vaccines protect more than the individual through herd or community immunity. Herd immunity is the idea that when a critical immunization threshold of people vaccinated is met, the spread of diseases will be so reduced that the disease is no longer a threat, and even people who are at risk or who have not received the vaccine will acquire protection (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)). An excellent example of herd immunity at its finest is the way in which developed countries deal with the different strains of the flu each year. Every year, scientists come up with a vaccine which is a combination of the strains which are prevalent that year. Many people will receive these vaccines, and a herd immunity is built up so that less and less people get the flu every year. Furthermore, less and less people die from the flu nowadays that they did in the past, partly due to advances in medicine, but also due to the lack of spread of the disease. Measles has been eradicated in North America due to vaccinations and herd immunity. According to the California Department of Public Health, an outbreak of Measles was confirmed in December of 2014 when 40 people who had been at Disneyland contracted the disease. Whereas in other areas of the world this outbreak would have become a national epidemic, the disease only spread to six other states and the outbreak was found to have ended in April of 2015. The short duration of the outbreak and its relative containment were all due to the strong herd immunity that citizens of the U.S. had built up over decades of Measles vaccinations. For these reasons, vaccines are able to protect not only an individual who has been given the vaccine, but also other members of the community who have not been vaccinated. Vaccines have become important to community health through the controversial requirement by schools for students to be vaccinated. An ongoing debate in the education field has been whether or not schools should require their students to have been vaccinated for various diseases. Proponents of school immunization point out that the more students are vaccinated, the greater the herd immunity that is generated, and thus the safer the students and the community are. Opponents argue that there is always the possibility that a child could have an adverse reaction to the vaccine or perhaps develop Autism as a result. The claim that vaccines cause Autism has been widely refuted through numerous studies conducted around the world, which has led most experts to believe that not immunizing a child based on this risk is a fallacy. As Plotkin, Gerber, and Offit write, However, both epidemiological and biological studies fail to support these claims, (Plotkin, Gerber, and Offit 2009). Since 2009, more studies have been done on the issue, all showing that there is a negligible link between Autism and vaccines. As for other adverse effects which vaccines may cause, one is much more likely to get the disease when unvaccinated than to have an adverse reaction to a vaccine, and the consequences of contracting the disease will be much more severe. For these reasons, school immunization should be required as it makes the students and community much safer. We in the United States are fortunate to live in a vaccinated world. We dont have to live under the shadow of disease as our ancestors did, and as some people in the world still do. Through the use of vaccines we have generated enough herd immunity in schools and communities that our children can grow up safe from the illnesses that used to plague our country and world. Therefore, vaccines have saved us by allowing pathogens to be bent to our will and serve our immune system, protecting more than just the individual, and making our schools safe by requiring vaccinations. Work Cited Community Immunity (Herd Immunity) | Vaccines.gov (2017, January 18). In Vaccines.gov. Retrieved February 19, 2017. How Vaccines Work (2014, June 4). In PublicHealth.org. Retrieved February 19, 2017. Krasner, R. I., Shors, T. (2014). The Microbial Challenge (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones Bartlett Learning. Measles (n.d.). In California Department of Public Health. Retrieved February 19, 2017. Plotkin, S., Gerber, J. S., Offit, P. A. (2009, February 15). Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 48(4).

Market Size :: essays research papers

Market size and Growth The perspective size of the market is based on the number of schools that will potentially allow our organization to teach their students. There are only 13 states in which financial education is required or offered which leaves us with a large potential to spread financial education to 37 other states as well as better cater to the school systems who already have a finance program. This is our key to market growth and ultimately market potential. Since the fall 2001 68.5 million people were enrolled in school the potential for growth is rather larger. Since our company focuses primarily on teens and finance it is our specialty, our primary and only target market, where as for other companies it is a secondary market. Diversity in the United State There continue to be problems on the job caused by peoples' racial and cultural misunderstanding of their differences. It is possible to hire people to respect those of other cultures and races. As I enter into this subject of diversity I would like to give a clear definition t what diversity is? According to an article from the University of Maryland Diversity Database~" Moving Towards Community" entitled Diversity in the workplace Work Teams and Diversity. It is define as the ways people in organizations differ in many ways race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, and more. There is also the fact that diversity not only involves how people think of others and how this affects their interaction but how they conceive of themselves. What are the problems that relate to diversity in the American workplace? Race is one of the problems in the American workplace, for some time whites male has dominated the workforce for generations, but things has changed since so many different nationalities of other ethnic groups are now living in American that this work domination of white males can longer exist in its present controlling state. According to Angeles Arrien "Cultural diversity is a business reality today. The ability to build bridges between people from different countries, with different ethnic backgrounds, is as important as any other business function. Working in a culturally and ethnically diverse organization does not mean elimination differences in style and approach, but celebrating those differences and tapping into the much strength diversity brings to and organization. Angeles Arrien goes on to say that The Bureau of Vocational Guidance at Harvard, found that at least two-thirds of the people that lose their jobs do not do so because they cannot do the work, but because of their inability to deal effectively with people.

Background Paper of Pirate Steel Company

The Pirate Steel Company is in the steel producing industry that manufactures in the United States. The Pirate Steel Company sells its products in the United States and many other nations abroad. Pirate Steel was considered a leader in its industry and maintained high standards of achievement until foreign competition began to affect their profitability. Though Pirate Steel has never been very cost conscience in production operations, the increases in material, labor, and other inventories has made a deep impact in Pirate Steel†s view on minimizing costs. With an increase in production costs, the selling price of the company†s manufactured goods increased as well. This increase in prices had to be closely monitored due to competition. With new regulations on production expenses, the people in production, like the foreperson and the manager, had the entire burden on them since they had to justify all repair and maintenance expenditures. With new procedures, every work order form had to be exaggerated so that it seemed necessary for repair and maintenance expenditures. Since the work order forms were exaggerated, the accountant found that these requests were filled with misleading information. All expenses were recorded properly, but an external auditor might question the fictionalized reports. The ethical dilemma of Pirate Steel Company is that the foreperson devised a strategy to get maintenance and repair orders approved by providing misleading information about the extent of the reports. The work order forms seemed to imply that new equipment was bought each time a repair was needed. With this type of fictionalized information given, the external auditors may question the accounting methods pertaining to repair and maintenance. The stakeholders in this situation are the foreperson, the accountant, customers, shareholders, management, and the executives. The foreperson was the one who initially created the plan of falsifying information about repair and maintenance needs. He did this because of fear that any job delays, due to failure of machinery, would be blamed on him. The accountant is also responsible because he must decide how he must approach this situation from an ethical standpoint. There are many options for him to choose, but only one is correct. The Utilitarian Theory emphasizes on how the consequences of an action affect the individuals involved. This is a theory of balancing negative social actions and benefits to minimize the negatives and maximize the benefits. The Utilitarian Theory would be applied as Faze approached the chief executive officer of Pirate Steel and requests that he evaluates the new cost control policy and the actions being taken with it. Faze should explain that the descriptions of the work orders should be evaluated for honesty. He should tell the CEO that if these patterns continue, it might have a negative effect on the company†s progress. The CEO should then sit with Faze and devise a more efficient plan. The Theory of Rights states that each person should be treated as fairly as possible and that others have the obligation to treat everyone equally as a sense of moral duty. The Theory of Rights could be applied in this situation allowing the accountant to overlook this minor problem because he feels that this process is the most efficient way for the company to operate. Faze must go to the production manager and let him know that the fictionalized work orders will not affect the company in the short run, but in the long run they might pose a potential loss in income due to excess expenditures in repairs and maintenance. The Theory of Justice involves equity, fairness, and impartiality. These major components are used in the way that individuals are affected by their treatment. The Theory of Justice could be applied to the situation by employees approaching the production management and demanding that the work order forms be much easier to be approved. The employees think that too much effort must be put into filling out request for repairs and maintenance. The employees also know that if their requests are not fictionalized, they will have a hard time receiving the approval for those mandatory repairs. The company should look to implement a program that will allow the employees to be able to develop the skill required to properly complete the work order forms. They should also look to perform their jobs in a way that will follow all of the rules and laws that would be applied to the situation. With these revisions in procedure, the company should be able to prepare reports with accurate information. The company will need to use a system that will allow information to be communicated fairly. The information that is included in these reports should be recorded in a way that is not intended to negatively persuade the user to get the wrong impression of the writing. These changes must be made because the company†s cost control policy is not good from an operational point of view with the requirements needed for a work order form to get approved. Faze will need to schedule a meeting between the CEO, the production manager, the accountant, and himself to be able to clearly ! illustrate the manner in which the work order forms should be completed. He would also use this opportunity to discuss any other improvements to the system that could be implemented. After this meeting, each individual could go to their respective departments and relay the message of how things have been changed. The solution to Pirate Steel†s dilemma is for Faze to maintain competence. He must keep the level of professionalism by performing the activities of the company with respect to the regulations that must be followed. The controller must also inform the production manager that the actions taken can be harmful to the company. He should maintain this level of professionalism and begin to prepare the proper reports after analyzing the information given. Faze should also develop a guide to help employees prepare reports for work orders in a responsible manner. The solution to the Pirate Steel Company†s dilemma is by Faze using objectivity. By using objectivity, Faze will be able to communicate the information fairly and unbiased. Also, the controller must disclose all information that would sway the opinion of an interested user. Disclosing this information will give all the outsiders a better understanding of all paperwork and recommendations that are presented. To show competence in the workplace, the workers must be able to continually develop skills that will improve all aspects of their job. Then they must perform all of their duties and still stay in accordance with the rules and regulations that are involved with their field, and be able to prepare reports that are accurate and honest so that they can be interpreted as they are printed. Everyone must do these things to show their reliability. One example of showing reliability is shown in this quote stated â€Å"To be reliable, information must have representational faithfulness and it must be verifiable and neutral. Accounting information may not represent faithfully what it purports to represents because it has one or both of two kinds of bias (The Accounting Review, 2000, 229).† When a worker is showing objectivity they must prove that they can communicate information in a way that others can understand it and not be persuaded to use misleading information in decision making. This quote shows an example of objectivity: â€Å"To address earnings management concerns, the NYSE, Amex, ASB, and the SEC individually adopted rules and standards focusing on the composition and activities of audit committees. Regulators hope the rules will improve the quality of financial reporting and make it harder for corporations to manipulate the data on which their reported earnings are based (Journal of Accountancy, 2000, 15).†

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is a passenger airline based out of Dallas, Texas that provides air transpiration throughout the United States. Southwest is currently the 6th largest U. S. airline based on revenue. It currently has more than 3,100 flights in 73 cities, making it the largest U. S. carrier passenger airline. They provide good options, such as early check-in, hotel packages, car rental, and free luggage up to two bags, which are one of their techniques to provide bad news to the customers. Summary: Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier in the United States and they get the high satisfaction ratings of the country’s best customer service providers from business week’s ranking. The reason why they can do so is that they contain good policies for the customers. For example, a case in St. Louis, an ice storm had stocked the plane for several hours. The flight attendants and pilots walked through the plane like usual, trying to answer questions that customers had and they provided the information for the passengers about connecting flights. Passengers who were on the flight were surprised by the letter they got after few days. They got a free round-trip flight. Fred Taylor is a senior manager of proactive customer communications who has a daily meeting with his department to talk about the problems that may happen and develop the methods to minimize them. For example, Southwest Airlines use twitter to send the information and official announcements for their customers. If passengers know more about the policies, it helps them a lot. The other part of Fred Taylor’s job is to deliver bad news and responding to customer’s complaint. According to the article (2011), Fred Taylor says that â€Å"it’s not something we had to do. It is something we feel our customers deserve. † He writes about 20,000 apology letters to passengers in a year. The letters have his direct phone number and many of them include a free flight voucher. The motto of Southwest Airlines is â€Å"share the spirit† and they do what they say. Course concepts: Bad News disappoints, Irritates, and sometimes angers the receiver, such messages must be written carefully. The Bad feelings associated with disappointing news can generally be reduced if the receiver: A) Knows the reason for the rejection. B) Feels that the news was delivered sensitively C) Believes that the matter was treated seriously and fairly While many people may claim to prefer directly delivered bad news, the source cannot be said in a particular situation. For example, if those people are directly responsible for the situation resulting in the bad news, they may not be so found of hearing it directly. Or if the bad news is personally serious and damaging, they may prefer a buffer Again this comes to the first phase of the writing process: assessing and analyzing both the situation and audience. Once this is done, it will be clear whether to deliver bad news directly and indirectly. Using the indirect strategy is a smart way to lessen the blame and the importance of negative news. However, there are still possibilities of negative ramifications. If, for example the sender takes too long to finally deliver the main point the recipient can be aggravated. The key to delivering news effectively knows the audience. For example, some people prefer direct communication for the good news and the bad, while others prefer indirect and good communication skills. In dealing with delivering bad news, the 3*3 writing process still maintains its purpose and assistance. In the prewriting phase of the writing process (phase1) the aspects include 3 As: analysis, anticipation, and adaptation. In completing this phase, the writer determines that a negative message must be sent how the news will be received, and how to appropriately draft that message. Third, aspect(Adaptation) that the choice between direct and indirect messages comes to play. Even though it may seem impossible to make the receiver happy when delivering negative news, it is possible to reduce bad feelings and resentment by the use of a buffer, a buffer is a device used to reduce shock or pain. The following are various buffer possibilities A) Start with the part of the message that represents the best news. B) Show that the reader is important and cared. C) Provide objective information that introduces the bad news. The most important aspects of delivering negative messages are explaining the reasons and how to increase the benefits. In developing audience benefits and building goodwill, we should increase new value and better features, make it more efficient or make customers’ lives easier. Southwest got high performance from USA airlines services. When flight was delayed, Southwest Airlines will inform their customer directly by appropriate ways. Moreover, Southwest Airlines will give promo code discount or free one-way tickets when any flight was cancelled. Therefore, customers feel happy and satisfied even when they face the problem because they have another thing to compensate such as give cards, cash back, VIP cards, and so on. Moreover, Southwest Airlines will offer more options that make each customer more convenient. When customers reserve the tickets and then they have a late flight. Southwest Airlines provides the option that customers can fly early if another flight is available. â€Å"Customers will hear an announcement in the gate area and will be able to purchase an available [early] boarding position via credit card from a customer service agent,† Furthermore, this option is useful because Southwest Airlines got positive feedback back from the customers. From my real experience, I am one of the loyal customers who traveled with Southwest Airlines. In addition, this Airlines always has a good deal when I would like to travel somewhere in the United States. So, Southwest Airlines is the best choice for me not only they offered cheap tickets, but also provided free two luggage promotion. The last time I chose Southwest Airlines, my flight was delayed because of bad weather. Unfortunately, I also missed the next flight that I actually had to transfer to. Nevertheless, Southwest Airlines tried to find another flight for me. Furthermore, Southwest Airlines paid me for the hotel, meals, and cash back during I was in New York. According to this experience, I always choose Southwest Airlines no matter how expensive I have to spend. In conclusion, Southwest Airlines knows how to respond and handle unpredictable problems, and inform its customers directly with proper ways. From the above reasons, Southwest Airlines is one of the successful airlines company in the US.