My First day at sixth-form

I was sixteen and I had to make that same difficult question that everyone had to ask themselves at my age, ‘what am I going to do after I got my results from my GCSEs?' The day before I got my results I decided to go to Westwood ST Thomas sixth-form in stead of college. I have been at Westwood School for three years so I thought it would be easier to go somewhere that I knew and where they knew me. GCSE results day arrived; I took that short five minute walk for the last time of being a school girl. I got the magic envelope and opened it. I needed five C's or above to do the a-levels courses as planned. I took one look at the paper and my excitement turned into disappointment. I only got four C's. After talking to a careers adviser I decided what I should do. I had chosen to under-go a one year business course that would give me enough GCSEs that I needed. I went away that day feeling very low and disheartened that all my efforts didn't payoff. I felt like a year of my life was being taken away from me. 7AM, Monday morning, my alarm was beeping in my ear, Beep, Beep, beep. I rolled over and turned it off. I unwillingly thought ‘the first day of Sixth-form of what will be of a long year'. I was dragging my feet up the steep hill. A walk which was five minutes seemed like an hour. As I approached the school hill my heart was thumping in my chest. I told myself not to be so stupid. I had been at the school for three years but this time I was a student. As I walked through the gates nothing had changed! The old falling apart bike sheds which faced the gates were still there. I could see the three main blocks, where the specialist classes were held. Yep! The same old gloomy school. I got to where my tutor room was and sat down at an empty seat. I slowly one by one studied the people who are already settled in their seats. I didn't recognise anybody. They must be from different schools. I then studied the room, a big white board in the centre of the longest wall and around the other walls are notice boards with nothing on then. Surrounding the tables in the middle of the room are very old computers lined up against the wall. The decoration was an old off-white colour with paint starting to chip off the walls. The appearance and feeling was an old and depressing. I heard a familiar voice outside the room. It was my friend Amy. She walked in to the room and took her seat next to mine. I felt much relived that someone was in the group that I already knew. My new tutor and key teacher for the year, Mr Kendal, walked in to the room and sat down behind his big desk. He introduced himself then made each of us in turn introduce ourselves to the group. I am not the person for speaking in front of a group and felt my self go very red with embarrassment when it got to my turn. He gave us our student planner and the timetable; he went over some things that we were to do that year in the course. The time drove by so quickly. I looked at the clock and it was break time already. I had the chance to meet up with old friends and talk about what we did over the summer. When break time ended we all went back to our tutor rooms. This time I didn't know whether the sun was shinning through a different window, but I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable about the situation the room felt brighter, and a little more inviting. We had the tour of the school which lasted thirty minutes, and then we were allowed to go home. The walk home seemed like the old five minutes walk down the hill. I was feeling emotionally happy and pleased with the first day. (And it wasn't the fact it only lasted half a day). When I got home I told mum all about the day. I couldn't wait till bed time as I was exited about going back again the next day. (Even though it was an whole school assembly to meet the new Head Teacher). As I went to sleep that night I was still very happy, I thought, this year was not going to be as bad after all.

Atlantic Slave Trade †Causes and Effiects Essay

The yearning of the Europeans especially Portuguese, Spanish, British and the Dutch for exploration, colonisation and imperialism was a major factor in expanding the slave trade networks in the Atlantic. As discussed by Timothy P. Grady in the book The Atlantic World 1450-2000, â€Å"explorers from Portugal, Spain and other European nations expanded the geographic knowledge southward along the coast of Africa and westward across the Atlantic shores of the Americas†. The urge for this exploration was triggered by the fall of Constantinople in May 1943, the last vestige of the Roman Empire, to the Muslim Turks which shook the fortitude of the European countries and the Christian faith. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean region deprived European merchants of the lucrative trade routes along the Silk Road to the East. The threat of lost communication and trade routes across the Mediterranean into China, India and other regions of eastern Asia and lost access to silk and other precious commodities carried along this route, forced Europeans to explore alternate trade routes to Asia by turning westward for new opportunities. Discovery of new routes west of Europe through the Atlantic, led to European arrival off West coast of Africa in the late fifteenth century. By mid seventeenth century, the coast line of West Africa was infiltrated by fifty forts and slave trading posts of competing European countries – Portugal, Spain, Britain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany dividing the coastline into – Ivory Coast, Gold Coast and Slave Coast. The political set up in Africa also facilitated slave trade. Africa was divided into a number of small and large states, chieftaincies and independent villages each with their own form of government, religion, customs and traditions. These territories often fought with each other and the captives of war were taken as slaves. Such conflicts were justified wars which according to Warren. C. Whatley was â€Å"natural struggles of nation building† conducted in the normal course of affairs. The captives referred to as â€Å"joint-products of war† or â€Å"stolen goods† were then exported. With the advent of the Europeans, domestic conflicts became slave raids. As Robin Law asserted, the Kingdom of Dahomey dominated the slave raiding and trading from 1715 to 1850. Their kings held a royal monopoly on the trade and conducted slave raids through their armies. Thus the political ambitions of the European and African monarchy led to the development of the slave trade. The developments in technology and its impact on navigation, ship building, and firearms aided the growth in Atlantic slave trade. Navigation The desire for exploration spurred European scholars, navigators and sailors to expand their knowledge of geography and devise new ways of charting and mapping their journeys. Increased use of the hour glass and logs to measure time and distance and the Portolan charts clearly documented navigation. In 1462, the Portuguese navigators devised methods of figuring out latitudes by measuring the height of the Pole Star above the horizon. Later in 1484, astronomers in the court of King Joao II, using the midday sun to figure latitudes, produced a set of declination tables. Under the patronage of Prince Henry of Portugal, other significant developments were made in the study of winds, tides and ocean currents; documents from previous explorations were compiled and maps and charts were continuously improved. Thus a good number of problems associated with navigation were resolved by late fifteenth century. As navigation across the great oceans became manageable, the transportation of the slaves between the continents – Europe, Africa and America became less complicated. Ship Building The changes to the design and functionalities of the European ships were another major factor that contributed to the expansion of Atlantic slave trade. Between the fourteenth and mid- nineteenth centuries, sailing ships were the main means of transport of the slaves. These sailing ships kept changing over time in terms of design, fittings, equipments and materials used as sail. Use of three to four masts, sturdy hull, square lateen and sprit sails, and stern rudder enhanced their sailing power, speed and eased control of the ships in wild weather conditions. Small ships such as the caravel, highly manoeuvrable ships introduced in the fifteenth century encouraged the Portuguese to explore regions around West African coast such as Senegal and Cape Verde and Canary islands to secure staples, gold and slaves. Other ships designed by Portuguese for travel in the Atlantic Ocean were the carracks, four masted ships and the galleon, heavily armed multi deck sailing ships. The ships also grew in size and multi decks were able to accommodate larger number of slaves. The mean tonnage of the slave ships from Liverpool in 1730 was 75 tons. This increased to 130 tons in 1790 and 226 tons in 1805. Weapons The supremacy of Europe in the slave trade was driven by its guns, cannons and restraints. They used a variety of weapons to threaten the slaves and the enemy ships at sea, to maintain control both on land and at sea. The diffusion of the new gunpowder technology accelerated the slave trade. The African communities, threatened by armed neighbours, resorted to trading the captives for gunpowder, guns and muskets. In the words of Warren. C. Whatley, the vicious cycle, â€Å"a raid or be raided† arms race known as the Gun- Slave-Cycle was created. The replacement of the ineffective matchlock musket by the flintlock in1680s, drastically increased firearms demand in West Africa. According to J. E. Inikori, the firearms imported from England during the eighteenth century were between 283,000 and 394,000 guns per annum. The demand for firearms from West Africa was so high that manufacturing companies such as Farmer and Galton were forced to pressurise their workers to increase production. The demand for firearms was matched by supply of slaves. The developments in restraining technology aided the slave trade in terms of terrorising the slaves and reducing escapes. The restraints used in the trade included, neck restraints, iron collars linked by chains, tongue restraints and leg and wrist shackles to trammel movement. The ability to stow more slaves per cubic foot of the ship, ability to navigate better around the coast of Africa, the reduction in escapees due to draconian restraints, and the organisation of forts around the coast to lodge the captives helped to reduce costs and promote trade. African Demand for goods from Europe The introduction of a wide range of consumption goods in West Africa, the possession of which was a matter of social status and power, was another factor leading to the development of Atlantic slave trade. The African demand for iron and copper bars, textiles, salt, earthenware, weapons and firearms, rum, wine, gin and cowrie shells and a variety of both European and oriental goods had a profound impact on slave trade. The demands for these goods were so high that the European suppliers could not cope with the increased demand. J. E. Inikori commented that firearms and textiles were in such high demand by the slave traders that they were not prepared to clear their slave cargo, if they were not satisfied with the quantity of supply of these items of trade. The merchants were willing to trade their morality to capture slaves in exchange for European goods. Alan Rice clearly identifies this when he asserts, â€Å"The desire for luxury goods was so great that these African elites would consign war captives and domestic slaves to an unknown fate across the ocean in exchange for them†. Growth in Slave trading institutions Growth in social institutions to perform a more organised slave trade was a key factor in Atlantic slave trade. The increase in demand and prices of slaves encouraged the development of various institutions to address the issues associated with the trade – capture, enslavement, seasoning, trade, regulations and taxation. The merchants explored new ways of trapping the slaves – deception, kidnapping, ambush attacks, promoting conflicts between villages and the pretence of family substitution for the runaways. The kidnap of Olaudah Equiano in 1750s in his words, â€Å"One day when all our people were gone out to their works as usual and only I and my sister were left to mind the house, two men and woman got over our walls and in a moment seized us both†¦ and ran off with us into the nearest wood†. The drought and famine in Africa due to marginal rainfalls in the Savannah areas – Angola and the grasslands extending from Senegambia to Cameron, forced desponding families to sell themselves. People were too poor to survive and offered themselves as collateral for credits. Non repayment made them slaves. Development of enforcement mechanisms also encouraged the slave trade. Credit was offered to slave traders to cover costs of acquiring, transporting and housing slaves until they were boarded on the ships. Other types of such mechanisms, described by Warren. C. Whatley were â€Å"the use of factories and forts as holding pens and warehouses, African canoe houses and other trade coalitions, secret societies and treaties between European and African nations. The cycle of violence to hunt down the slaves continued leading to an upsurge in slave trade The decline in population in the Americas This was another important factor that led to the development of Atlantic slave trade. With the European colonisation of the Americas, there was a growth in mining and plantations in the islands between North and South America and the labour demands were met by native Indians. The massive mortality rates of the natives due to poor working conditions and new European and African diseases such as measles, small pox, the plague, influenza, malaria and yellow fever led to decline in the population of Americas. Figure 1 presents data on the drastic decline in population in Americas which led to a decline in labour. The Europeans now turned to the Negroes in Africa for labour. They soon found that the African slaves were more productive and the output quadrupled. Shiploads of slaves were exported to work in these American islands and soon the slave trade was transformed from a marginal institution to a global phenomenon. Growth in Plantations The development of Atlantic slave trade stemmed from the growth in plantation agriculture such as sugar, cotton, tobacco, tea and rice in the New World. The demand for plantation workers in sixteenth century Brazil, seventeenth century Caribbean and nineteenth century Cuba instigated slave supply from Africa. The intensity of the growth in plantations could be seen in small islands like Barbados. By 1650 Barbados had 300 plantations which multiplied to 900 by 1670, a rate of 100% per annum. The growing demand for sugar, multiplying at a compound rate of 5% per annum in the seventeenth century to about 10% in the nineteenth century, increased the demand for African slaves to work in the sugar plantations in the New World lands. As H. Hobhouse puts it, â€Å"‘food’ became responsible for the Africanization of the Caribbean†. This small group of islands accounted for 80% of the sugar and slave trade until the eighteenth century. The slave labour for majority of these plantations was secured from Africa through the Atlantic. As plantations became the expanded into a global trade network, so did the Atlantic slave trade. Slave Trade and Profitability There were various groups of stakeholders in the Atlantic Slave trade who participated in it due to the profitability from the trade in slaves. African Rulers profited in terms of taxes and custom duties paid by the European merchants. They were given the first choice of any merchandise that was brought into Africa for trade and were able to bargain lower prices for these goods. The rulers also commanded premium prices for their own slaves. They also received considerable gifts from the merchants in order to secure preferential trading agreements. Ouidah, a coastal town in Benin, West Africa was a strong European trading post since 1720 and was accessed by forty to fifty European trading vessels per year. Hence the ruler who started off with ten slaves in exchange for opening his market in 1700 was able to command a higher price of twenty slaves by 1720. This was in addition to the privileges in the purchase or sale of the commodities which included the slaves as well. According to Miles Ogborn, by 1800s the rulers in Africa were able to obtain â€Å"goods for each slave worth three or four times as much in 1700†. Both African and European slave traders were paid well. Overwhelmed by the profits from slave exports, wealthy merchants both in Africa and Europe, expanded slave trading networks to prodigious numbers. Figure 2 analyses changes in supply by African slave merchants in response to changes in prices. The data reveals that the supply increased as price increased. Hence, the largest emigration of slaves in the eighteenth century can be attributed to the increase in price from ? 14 to ? 25. Between the years 1779 and 1788, there was a decrease in demand for slaves due to the War of American Independence. This created excess supply of slaves in the African coast. Hence the planter in Americas started restocking their slave supply. The European slave traders capitalised on this by securing supply at cheaper prices from Africa and selling higher prices in the Americas; thereby making abnormal profits between these years. Thus slave trade allowed African and European slave traders to maximise profits from the trade. The consumers of Europe profited in terms of cheaper commodity prices due to increased output by African slaves in the plantations. Figure 3 presents data on the production of sugar and tobacco by British colonies. The increased volume of production of these commodities reduced their prices much to the favour of European consumers. Tobacco which fetched twenty to forty shillings in 1619 was sold for a shilling or less while the price of sugar halved between 1630 and 1680. Thus the consumers were able to enjoy the luxury of these commodities at affordable prices. The planters were another group of stakeholders in the trade who profited in their own way. Labour became cheap and more available due to Atlantic Slave trade. The planters always worked with a motive of profitable exploitation of the factors of production, especially labour and work was dictated by discipline and violence. Successful planters were able to create immense wealth and have extravagant lifestyles. While the slaves slogged day and night in the plantations, the owners were able to retreat in the Great Houses built on commanding positions, with beautiful gardens, imported china, furniture and furnishings. The fortune and lifestyle of Sir Charles Price, the largest land and slave owner of Jamaica between 1738 and 1772 demonstrates the height of planter lifestyles. The Decoy†, the Great House he built was a mansion with magnificent rooms with mirrors and wood carving in the decor, lakes and parks around the house and elegant gardens with fruits, flowers and vegetables. This essay has clearly illustrated the factors that led to the development of the Atlantic Slave trade. Eventhough the political set up in Europe and Africa and the growth in plantations laid the foundation for the trade, it was the technological developments and social influences on the Europeans and Africans that took the trade to global heights. Overall, the technological improvements lowered transport, handling and shipping costs enabling the achievement of economies of scale. Similarly, the growing demand for goods from Europe in Africa, the growth in slave trading institutions and the decline in Americas’ population fostered the slave trade. Finally, the profitability from the trade influenced various groups of stakeholders to become intensely involved making it an international trade spanning four continents and altering their social, economic and political composition.

Work Experience

For this essay, my task is to produce an essay explaining what my work experience week was like. Even though I can't put every detail down, I will write about the most important parts of my week that will remain as good, and some also embarrassing memories. When I heard about work experience my first thoughts about it were, ‘what if Im not good enough. ‘ and ‘I wonder where I'll be put. ‘ To say the least, I was very nervous. We had forms to fill in about work experience. I had to tick off what I would prefer to do, so I chose to work in retail and fashion. So I was likely to work in a clothes shop, ironically that's where I got put. I was now officially working in Burtons. I wanted to work in retail because I was generally interested in fashion, as at the time I wanted to become a fashion designer. I soon realised working in retail had nothing to do with the fashion itself, it did however, have a lot to do with business. At first I was a bit worried because I thought only men worked there, so to calm my nerves, me and a few of my friends decided to go and have a little look in there and see what it's like. Luckily, I did see a couple of women in there so I realised that I wouldn't be the only one. Besides, working with young lads weren't going to be a bad thing was it? As the time got closer, I had to start thinking about travel and what I'd wear there. These small problems were soon easily solved. I decided that I would get the bus there, but because I was placed at the Burtons in Bracknell, I would have to leave about an hour before starting time, as buses took about 40-50 minutes at rush hour. What I was going to wear soon became no object as I went shopping the weekend before. New clothes- every girl's passion. So I was pretty much set; I had my clothes, my way of getting there, and everything I needed was organised. Monday finally came, as I sat on the bus at 8. 0am, the nerves soon reappeared. For the next 40 minutes, I sat there thinking about what it would be like, but soon acknowledged that the majority of my year was in the same position as I was. I also recognised that it wouldn't be as bad as I thought. So when the bus stopped I walked positively towards the shop, the funny thing was, I was slightly early, so I had to stand outside, I felt a bit out of place at that point, and im sure I looked quite stupid. It didn't matter too much to me though; I just concentrated on making a good impression. So I stood waiting patiently for the grey, shutter to slowly open. About ten minutes later, they eventually did. And the shop was up and ready for the day ahead. I stood up straight, and confidently walked towards the front desk where the employees were all gathered. I introduced myself and got fully acquainted with all the staff present. The manager, Andrea, gave me a brief introduction on what goes on at the store, and just small bits of necessary information id need to know to get me throughout the week like where my locker was based. She then sent me and another employee- Michael, down to the staff area to do my health and safety assessment, just to see what I knew about the process †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ but before I went to do the assessment Michael took me outside to see where I would have to go if a fire occurred. This didn't take long. After that I proceeded to do the assessment. It wasn't very interesting, in fact, I actually almost fell asleep! Putting that aside, it was quite an eventful morning. Throughout that day, I just got to know a bit more about the staff; I also asked a few questions about the shop as well, one that I asked was if they had cameras in the store itself, and Richard, another employee, said to me â€Å"Would you like people watching you whilst you're working all day? I don't think I'll ever forget that, in reply to his question, I said no. So Burtons didn't have security cameras? This led me onto thinking whether anyone stole from the shop. Surely they didn't otherwise they would put cameras in, but I found out a bit later on that people do steal. This isn't good for their inventory either. So throughout the week I'd hear one employee after another saying that they found a tag and coat hanger on the floor, this annoyed Andrea a lot. Another thing that annoyed Andrea was when a group of my friends all decided to come in and greet me on my first day. I knew that this wasn't very professional so I told them that they would have to leave. After that small incident, Andrea explained that I was to act like I was a real employee to Burton and my friends were not aloud to come in and distract me like they did. I understood that and carried on with what I was doing. My time at Burtons was fairly boring, with the work that is. I had to go around the shop making sure everything was in its rightful place; another thing I had to do was sort the delivery totes. I had to unwrap the products, tag them, cube them and then go and find where they were meant to go. It made the time go by, and I preferred doing this to walking around the shop organising the clothing. One thing I learnt from this was that in retail, the people don't call the boxes ‘boxes'. They call them ‘totes' I don't know why this is but it' just what they used. So that was what delivery was. This is all I tended to do during work experience. Id have a laugh with the other staff members, it helped because their ages ranged from 16 to 20. So I found it easy to get along with them. This helped me feel more comfortable there. Towards the end of the week, a couple of the staff decided to play a little joke on me, so when I got back off my 15 minute break, Richard told me to go downstairs to see Andrea. So I discontinued what I was going to get on with, and pondered down to see her. She and another employee gave me a task. This was to walk over to Topshop, and ask the manager for a ‘long weight' me being unaware of this joke, agreed to it and went to do what they had asked. I wasn't really thinking about what they had asked for, I was thinking more about not making any mistakes. So when I arrived, I went to the front desk and asked for the ‘long weight'. The lady at the till looked at me puzzled for a second, and then called for assistance. the manager came out and told me it was a joke, and that there was no such thing as a long weight, well apart from the long wait I had received from the ‘long weight'. Once I had understood what had happened, me and my extremely red face exited the store and remained back to Burtons. Only to come back to be laughed at more, I was not amused! I just continued back to my work and didn't say much after that. So that was my embarrassing moment; I guess it could have been worse, but I still didn't appreciate being humiliated in front of a shop full of strangers. But despite that incident, I found the week to be a big wake up call in all honesty. I never thought that working in a shop could ever be so tiring! I was on my feet for seven and a half hours. As I had an hour for lunch and two fifteen minute breaks. The thing was, when the shop had very few customers, that was the most tiring part, because there was nothing there to keep me occupied. For all five days, there was at least an hour where this occurred. I dreaded it! In conclusion, I found the week very productive, I learnt a lot more than I expected to, met new people, got an insight about what real work is, and my real accomplishment†¦ getting to work on time everyday. I was very proud of myself for this, and it still amazes me to this day. I would defiantly advise for the work experience programme to continue as it worked wonders for me, and to thank me for the work I did, Andrea gave me a box of maltesars for the hard work and dedication I put in there. She also said that I had a place there to work if I wanted it. I didn't take up the offer as I don't feel that's the best place for me.

The Organisational Context of Management Accounting Essay

The Organisational Context of Management Accounting - Essay Example This paper is aimed at analyzing the case study of the Royal Danish Theatre (RDT).   In an attempt to implement budgetary and management control system into RDT that met with resistance from different actors. The objectives of this paper can be examined from three dimensions.   In the first instance, the paper seeks to outline, analyse and discuss the main issues concerning the case study of the Royal Danish Theatre in relation to management control and accountability. In the second part of the paper, the paper identifies the study’s methodological assumptions of the case study using agency and contingency theory. The paper interprets the similarities and differences of the case study from each of the theoretical perspective. Following a series of budgetary control and a number of reforms which were instituted to push RDT towards the break even point. Thus;   in our analyses we will be evaluating the management control system of   RDT as described in the case study in section ; analyzing the case using agency and contingency theories in section; comparing and contrasting agency and contingency theory perspectives as well as looking at how the interpretation of the case differ from each theoretical perspective in section . This dscussion identifies and discusses the various issues raised in the case from an academic and professional perspective. These issues are presented under different subsections below.

Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia - Research Paper Example Ventilator is a machine assembled mechanically to transmit breathable air in and out of lungs. The ventilator provides a mechanism of air exchange for patients with breathing difficulties or unable to breath. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a type of pneumonia that occurs after forty-eight hours when patients have received mechanical ventilation and intubated. Pneumonia is ranked second in most common nosocomial disease in the critically ill patients. More than 86% of nosocomial pneumonias are related to mechanical ventilation hence termed as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The infection has major causes believed to be Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Datta, 2013). According to the study, that was done from April 1, 2006 to January 31, 2008 at Radius Special Hospital in USA; it showed that for every twenty-three cases of VAP infection, 19 casualties were associated with 157 LTACH. The above translates to an infection rate of 14.6%, which corresponded to 1.67 cases in 1000 ventilator days. Microbial data proves that 91% of the patients who reported to the hospital had VAP infection. Patients with critically conditions which are intubated for more than 24 hours are at 6-21 times risk to develop VAP in USA. Mortality and morbidity associated with the VAP development are high, with the rates of mortality, which ranges from 20-41% (Datta, 2013). VAP increases critical care, ventilator days and hospital length of stay. There are two ways of managing VAP. One is based on semiquantitative or nonquantitative cultures and clinical criteria. The other utilizes quantitative measures of the respiratory specimens. The principal organisms responsible for the VAP infection are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacteriaceae. Etiologic agents are differing according to the patient’s population in an intensive care unit, prior antimicrobial

Ethanol production in Brazil may drive deforestation in Amazon Term Paper - 1

Ethanol production in Brazil may drive deforestation in Amazon - Term Paper Example Our extreme weather temperatures (heat waves and extreme cold temperatures), super typhoons, droughts, floods, and similar occurrences have all been traced back by scientists and other experts to global warming. Due to these concerns, efforts to cut back on fuel or oil use have also been conceptualized and strong support for the use of alternative sources of fuel has been suggested. One of these methods is the use of ethanol from sugarcane as an alternative fuel source. Ethanol can be blended with or used directly as fuel and its properties create less pollution and environmental damage. Ethanol is already being utilized in different countries, including Brazil, Scandinavia, United States, Germany, Japan, and New Zealand, among others and many car manufacturers have made the necessary adjustments and accommodations in their cars in order to ensure that they would run well on ethanol fuel (Peyton and Nalco, p. 298). The use of ethanol is however, not without its problems. Brazilâ€⠄¢s ethanol is mostly made from sugarcane and some environmentalists have pointed out that the growing demand for the fuel may push sugarcane growers into the Amazon. Hence, the global demand for ethanol may threaten the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, causing large scale deforestation of the area. This paper shall now discuss the negative impacts of the ethanol production in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. It shall also conceptualize possible solutions in order to alleviate these problems. Surveys reveal that from the years 1960 to 2007, the land area in Brazil planted with sugarcane increased from 1.4 million to 7 million hectares. With this increase in land cover for sugarcane plantations, the production of sugarcane also increased from 45 to 75 Mg/ha. Such an increase in productivity was caused by improved agricultural techniques and improved breeding programs (Martinelli and Filoso, p. 886). In recent years, the increase in

The Main Types of Investment Products Research Paper

The Main Types of Investment Products - Research Paper Example All these four asset classes have their own combination of growth and risk associated with it. The asset allocation strategy of an investor among the various asset classes is influenced by a multitude of factors and is as much art as it is science. While investors with more risk appetite will opt for equity-based investment products, an investor who prefers stability or in other words is a risk-averse will prefer Debt/Fixed income investment tools more. However, financial companies have designed investment products that are not pure-play Equity/Fixed income/Cash instruments but are hybrid in nature and have varied components of equity, debt and cash instruments. Pooled investments are managed by professional fund managers and are considered to be safer for individual investors. These pooled investments have exposure to almost all asset classes to spread risk, maintain growth rate and liquidity. Stock represents a part of ownership in a firm. Buying stock of a given company is equivalent to being a part owner of the company, and the investor, in essence, becomes part owner of all future earning of the company. The value of an investment in stock is dependent on the performance of the company. If the company performs well, the value of the investment goes, and vice versa. Investment in stock entails higher risk as compared to other investment products like fixed income/debt/bonds and cash instruments. Additionally, money invested in stock has lower liquidity as compared to other products. However, the possible upside of investment in stock is much higher as compared to other investment products. Investment in stock should be done only after proper research on the company, its future prospects, the market it is operating in and other factors influencing the company. It is very strongly recommended to invest in a group of companies (portfolio) rather than investing in a single company. By investing in companies from different domains and with varied market capitalization, the inherent risk can be substantially managed. However, developing and managing a well spread out portfolio requires a good amount of research, insight and constant tracking that may be difficult for an individual investor. One of the best ways of avoiding this effort is by investing in Mutual Funds. A Mutual fund is an investment company or a trust in which investors pool their funds and invest them in a wide variety of securities. (District Human Resources, n.d.) Â