City of Granston Study Case Essay

1 What evidence exists in this case of potential supplier collusion? The evidence that exists in the case of potential supplier collusion is that each chose to bit only on certain types of aggregates, which is very suspicious and raises further concern. 2 How does a purchaser know he or she is getting a fair price in a bid situation? Awareness of the many cost components that lead to a target cost and market price is an essential requirement for the procurer who wishes to assess whether the person is getting good value 3 Why would suppliers voluntarily lower prices on a fixed price contract? This again shows signs of collusion, but in this case we can also read that since there were a slump in the local construction industry, they lowered their prices to keep business and renew contract with their current buyer. 4 Is it reasonable to adjust price based on a general inflation index? I think is reasonable to create a contract where the supplier adjusts their price based on a general inflation index. I think if helps the supplier to generate revenue, generate work and keep a fair price for the buyer where the inflation rate keeps rising. 5 How should the performance of a public buying office be measured? Cost saving generated Increased quality Purchasing improvements Price effectiveness

The Archetype of women portray in movies throught the decades Movie Review

The Archetype of women portray in movies throught the decades - Movie Review Example The changes in the damsel in distress archetype can be easily traced through the various versions of the Cinderella story as presented by what would become Paramount Pictures but in 1914 was the Famous Players Film Company, that produced by Walt Disney in 1950 and the more modern version of â€Å"Ever After† starring Drew Barrymore. By comparing and contrasting key elements of each story, a picture begins to emerge of the differing ideologies of each time period as well as differences regarding intended audience. In the earliest film, Cinderella is seen to be living with her stepmother and two older step-sisters without any true mention of the missing natural parents. Following the traditional story, Cinderella spends her days cleaning up after her vain and spoiled sisters and step-mother and her evenings sitting in with the cinders to keep warm. She earns the fairy godmother’s help with her kindness to an old, crippled woman who shows up at her door in spite of the cru el treatment the woman gets from the step-mother and step-sisters. A tangential concern here is how this expectation for young women to be kind to the destitute compares with Snow White’s treatment (another Damsel in Distress archetypal figure) in which the young woman is poisoned for her pains. Cinderella, though, earns a chance to meet the prince while she is out gathering wood for the fire and the two fall in love immediately. The story sticks pretty close to the storyline that would be made popular by Walt Disney 40 years later with the exception that Cinderella must also complete tasks given her by the godmother before she can be dressed for the ball. These are easy tasks, including gathering the pumpkin, the mice and the rats to serve respectively as coach, horses and servants, but they are something Cinderella actually has to go and accomplish before she can receive the godmother’s gift. In keeping with the times, it was not unusual for people to find animals su ch as mice and rats living in close proximity to their homes, and it is not surprising that inside the house is where Cinderella finds and captures the mice and the rats she will need. Cinderella is a true working girl, too, not squeamish about dealing with these animals and accustomed to the hard labor of a housemaid in an age without automatic machines available to make the work easier. This is a much harder story than that told by Walt Disney in 1950. Here the step-sisters have become as unfortunate in appearance as they are in spirit. They are both obviously mean and spiteful even to each other. Cinderella’s role here is the same, to struggle as housemaid under these sisters and an even more demanding step-mother, but the house is much grander and Cinderella’s accommodations are more comfortable although still poor. While she is still expected to do all of the work, her animated clothes don’t look nearly as poor as that of her earlier live-action counterpart and the animals that live in her house are friends rather than vermin. This is made clear as the birds, dog, horse and mice all exist apparently to serve her desires because they are all, to some degree, in love with her as well. In keeping with the mood of the times in which new inventions were being made that made women’s housework much less of a chore, Cinderella is rarely seen

Paper on TQM in International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Paper on TQM in International Business - Essay Example The Sea-View Wing houses The Club at The Leela and is perched on a cliff overlooking the sea (Leela Hotels, 2010). Hotel Leela Kempenski, Kerala offers traditional Indian hospitality and embraced by the grandeur of modern luxuries. It offers luxury accommodation and delicious food and beverage along with outdoor swimming pools and fitness center to its guests. Due to its location between two scenic beaches, Hotel Leela Kempenski provides its guests with an extremely pleasurable experience. Its state of the art business facilities; plush accommodation, fine dining experience and hospitable services make it one of the most sought after Luxury Hotel in Kovalam (Leela Hotels, 2010). The Leela Kempenski Hotel, Kovalam is considered to be one of the finest business hotels in Kerala. The convention center can accommodate about 1000 delegates and other smaller conference rooms have a seating capacity of 30 to 100. All the conference rooms are equipped with top quality audio-visual facility (Leela Hotels, 2010). Dining at the Leela Kempenski Hotel, Kovalam is an elaborate affair. The presentation, which is as important as the quality, is extremely extravagant. The restaurants and bar are at par with international standards and offer delicious food and beverages at several eateries in the hotel. Leela Kempenski Hotel, Kovalam offers its guests with recreational facilities that help them relax and enhance their pleasurable experience. The Hotel also offers its guests with an information desk that provides them information regarding all the services being offered. The core focus of Leela Kempenski Hotel’s policies is to deliver ultimate value to the customers. It has established a Customer Relationship Management system which offers customized services to the guests thus resulting in customer retention and loyalty. This is done by offering customers with exclusive dining services, world-class

Drug Trafficking in the United States Research Proposal

Drug Trafficking in the United States - Research Proposal Example Illegal immigration has proved to be the main cause of this issue. The United States of America has been facing the issue of drug trafficking for many years. In the United States, drug dealers make use of illegal immigrants for the manufacturing and exchange of drugs. The drug dealers are aware of the insecurity and fear which illegal immigrants have in their minds, and they use that fear for making immigrants work for them. The network of the drug trafficking industry has expanded, not only to the United States, but also to other parts of the world. People involved in the illegal drugs business send their representatives to other countries in order to expand their illegal activities there. However, no country voluntarily permits such individuals to migrate into their territory and continue their illegal activities. Therefore, such people use illegal methods to cross the boarders of other countries. The government of the United States needs to take effective measures to stop illegal immigration because it is one of the major contributing factors to increased drug trafficking. The purpose of this research is to reduce drug trafficking in the United States by finding ways to stop illegal immigrations. The hypothesis for the research is that limiting illegal immigrations from countries which are the homes of drug cartels can help the government restrict drug trafficking in the United States. Personal interviews with drug dealers, smugglers, drug users and victims will be conducted for the collection of data. Visits to drug users and drug dealers will also be made to gather information about the sources through which they get their narcotics. Some of the likely sources for current information on this research topic will be books, scholarly journals, and internet articles. I will collect data and statistics and organize them into charts and tables. The time required for the completion of this research is estimated

Themes in Hip Hop Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Themes in Hip Hop Culture - Essay Example In tandem with the salient issues and themes touched upon by the textual sources under consideration, the movie Boyz n the Hood does bring to fore many political, social and cultural issues that are conveniently bypassed by the popular media and cinema.The Hip Hop culture evident in the movie does intertwine with the glaring political and social issues like economic and social marginalization and racism faced by the communities. The whole objective is to usher in a measure of education and concern through a medium that is highly creative, subtle and insightful. The gang violence covered by the movie and the salient social, familial and academic influences which on one side make Doughboy fall a victim to the vicious and unsparing gang violence and which on the other side does convince Tre to renounce a life of violence does show as to how the flares of hope do shimmer in an otherwise violent and crime ridden life in the hood. The book by Nelson George, Durand’s Lecture, the for ward in the Anthology of Rap, and discussions in the class do envelop this society altering collision between the salient and dominant culture that is pervasive and powerful and the marginalized black culture thriving in the hood.The movie Boyz n the Hood does represent an effective and moving outlet for an array of racial, cultural and political themes that are so strongly embraced and expressed by the larger Hip Hop culture. For instance in the climax of the movie where Doughboy gets dejected and disheartened by a life imbued with violence and revenge.

Thomas Lanier Williams III Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Thomas Lanier Williams III - Essay Example Thesis religions education and values of his grandfather had a great impact on themes and motifs used by Williams in his plays. The religious dimension is appeared in his early plays and portrayed as an important part of characters life. One of his best early one-act plays, Portrait of a Madonna, is at once a pathetic portrait of a deranged Southern spinster, precursor of Blanche DuBois of Streetcar, and a grotesque parody of the immaculate conception. Miss Collins both believes and denies belief. She has been brought up in the shadow of the Episcopal church but feels she has been abandoned by the church. Her walk in the scorching, merciless sunlight is a kind of passion, punctuated with cries to God, Jesus, and a "merciful Christ in Heaven" who show her no mercy. The recluse who believes herself pregnant wants to educate her imagined child privately, "to make sure that it doesn't grow up in the shadow of the cross and then have to walk along blocks that scorch you with terrible sunlight" (Bigsby 2004). The collapse of her belief turns her life into nightmare, as Williams makes amply clear through the tightl y woven pattern of Christian reference turned into parody and developed through imagery of light and shadow (Bigsby 2004). In Summer and Smoke the rectory is the home of a deranged woman and the angel in the park which dominates the set brings at the end not heavenly mercy or the "Eternity" inscribed at its base but the traveling salesman. The central irony of this struggle of body and soul is that by the time that Dr. John finally recognizes that human beings do have souls, Alma has given up hope and searches for satisfactions of the body alone. God's mercy comes not in the form of spiritual aid but in sleeping pills. As Alma tells the salesman, "Life is full of little mercies like that, not big mercies, but comfortable little mercies. And so we are able to keep on going." In The Rose Tatoo Serafina can shed her loneliness and prolonged grief and find love again only after she has blown out the candle under the Madonna's image. The priest is ineffectual and cannot solace her (Bloom 2003). Only in Mangiacavallo does she find renewed life. The Night ofthe Iguana gives us another ineffectual minister, the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon.Locked out of his church for heresy and fornication, Shannon rages romantically against the traditional image of God as a "senile delinquent" and wants to preach "God as Lightning and Thunder," in oblivious majesty before the terrors of the human condition. His own suffering is described by Hannah as a "voluptuous crucifixion," and her final appeal to God at the end of the play is only the last link in a chain of imagery of crucifixion and unsuccessful resurrection, of Christian belief gone awry. . Dr. John in Summer and Smoke will be married on Palm Sunday. Orpheus Descending reaches its wild climax on Easter Sunday and the lynching of Val Xavier becomes as a result a brutal parody Christian imagery becomes a means of denying Christian belief. In its quieter forms the combination produces cosmic irony; in its most violent manifestations, grotesque parody (Bigsby 2004). In the Glass Menagerie , religion is used as a unique theme which helps Williams to unveil false dreams and ideals of the character. On the level of plot, this circle of reference enhances the credibility of the dramatic situation. Given Amanda's sham

Blood Buffer Essay Example for Free

Blood Buffer Essay Objectives: After completing this exercise and reading the corresponding material in your text, you should be able to 1. Prepare a wet mount slide 2. Identify structures described in this lab on slides 3. Cite examples of the wide diversity of cell types 4. Relate differences in structure among cells to functional differences Introduction Structurally and functionally, all living things share one common feature: all living organisms are composed of cells. The development of this concept began with Robert Hookes seventeenth-century observation that slices of cork were made up of small units he called cells. † Over the next 100 years, the cell theory emerged. It was formally (and independently) presented by Schleiden and Schwann in 1839, and clarified by Virchow a few years later. This theory has three principles: (1) All organisms are composed of one or more cells. (2) All life processes derive from the activities of cells. (3) All cells arise from preexisting cells. Living organisms are composed of one or many cells, and every activity that occurs in a living organism is ultimately related to metabolic processes in cells. Understanding the processes of life requires an understanding of the structure and function of the cell. Although cells vary in organization, size, and function, all share certain structural features. All are enclosed within a plasma membrane, defining the boundary of the living material. All contain a region of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which forms the genetic code. Inside of the plasma membrane is watery cytoplasm, and the chemical processes inside the cell occur within this watery medium. Upon microscopic examination, we see there are two basic types of cells, prokaryotic and eukaryotic, see the table below to see a comparison of the two cell types. For these following exercise you should use the highest magnification possible, because you will be able to see more detail, and you should record your observations at this magnification. Always begin with the lower magnifications, once you have found your specimen center it and focus it before increasing the magnification. We will not be using the 100X objective because it requires special handling and immersion oil, so you should use the 40X objective for most observations. What is the total magnification of a sample view with the 40X objective? Remember there is a lens in the ocular that magnifies the image 10x, so the total magnification will be 40 x 10 = 400X. Exercise 1: Examining Prokaryotic cells 1. What types of organisms are prokaryotic? 2. What structures are found in a Eukaryotic cell that will not be visible in a Prokayotic cell? 3. Examine the specimens available at the back of the classroom. Locate a prokaryotic cell and bring it back to your microscope. Name of specimen: ____________________ 4. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch your specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. Exercise 2: Examining Eukaryotic cells The cells on which we focus most of our attention are relatively large and complex, although many details of their structure are only evident with electron microscopy. The word eukaryote derives from the visible nucleus found in most of these cells. No one cell will show all of the features that a cell might have, so you will be observing a variety of eukaryotic cells. Protist cells: The protist kingdom includes eukaryotic unicellular forms (e.g., protozoans, algae, slime molds) as well as some simple multicellular forms. Many are mobile; some are photosynthetic; others are animal-like, ingesting food particles, or fungi-like, secreting digestive chemicals into the environment. Protists are diverse, often having complex cells. 1. What structures do you expect to see in these cells that was not evident in the prokaryotes you saw? Cultures of mixed protists and/or pond water are available in lab. Many different forms may be found in these cultures, including amoebas, flagellates and ciliates. (Many classifications of protists are based on how they move – with flagella, or cilia, or neither of these.) 2. Examine the specimens available at the back of the classroom. Locate the cultures of protist cells. You will examine two separate cultures. One of the cultures you’ll examine is the â€Å"Mixed Pond Protists,† you can pick which specimen you’ll examine for your second sample from the other cultures present in class. Make a wet mount of each culture, drawing material from the debris at the bottom of the culture jar. Name of specimen #1: Mixed Pond Protists Name of specimen #2: ____________________ 3. Observe first with scanning power (4X objective), looking for movement. If you don’t see anything, wash the material back into the jar and get another drop. Once you have located organisms, observe on higher power (40X objective). If the protists are moving very rapidly, they may swim out of the field of view. In this case, remove the coverslip and add a small drop of Detain. Detain is a thick solution that will help slow down the protists. REMEMBER THAT THE MICROSCOPE LIGHT IS HOT. Turn it off when you are not looking at the slide. 4. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch each specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. 5. What evidence do you see that protists are eukaryotes? 6. Attempt to identify the protists you have observed. There are several keys to protists available. Your instructor can help you use the keys if you’re not familiar with how they work. Write the name of your protists and your rationale for identification based on the characteristics in the key into your notes. When you have finished looking at your slide, place the slide in the bleach water. Plant cells: Plant cells are different from animal cells in many ways. 1. Name three ways plant cells differ from animal cells below. As in animals, cells of plants are organized into tissues, aggregations of similar cells performing a common function in a multicellular organism. In this part of the lab, you will look at several types of plant cells. Onion epidermal cells: 1. Make a wet mount of a colorless scale of an onion bulb by peeling the thin, membranous layer from the inside of one of the bulb scales and placing it on a slide in a drop of water. This usually works best if you partially slice through a ring, allowing the thin layer of tissue on the inner surface of the leaf to be pulled off. Use forceps to arrange the tissue in a drop of Iodine on a slide and cover with a cover slip. 2. Observe your preparation with the microscope, focusing first with the scanning power objective. Continue your study, switching to the low power (10 X) and finally the high power objective (40 X). 3. What shape do most of these cells have? What structure maintains this shape? 4. What structure is stained by the iodine? 5. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch each specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. 6. Which cellular components present in most leaf cells are absent from onion leaf cells? Elodea leaf cells: 1. Remove a single young leaf and prepare a wet mount. Examine the leaf first on scanning power, then on low power. 2. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch each specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. 3. After the cells have warmed a bit from the light of the microscope, you may see cytoplasmic streaming. Microfilaments in the cytoplasm are thought to be responsible for this intracellular movement. What cellular structure do you see moving around the cytoplasm? Animal cells: Human epithelial (cheek) cells: 1. Using the broad end of a clean toothpick, gently scrape the inside of your cheek. Stir the scrapings into a drop of saline and a drop of Methylene Blue on a clean microscope slide and add a cover slip. Do not reuse your toothpick. DO NOT PUT IT BACK WITH THE CLEAN TOOTHPICKS AND DON’T LAY IT ON THE TABLE. Discard it in the BIOHAZARD bag. 2. Because the cells are almost transparent, decrease the amount of light entering the objective lens to increase the contrast. Find the cells using the low power objective of your microscope, then switch to the high power objective for detailed study. Find the nucleus of a cell. Many of the cells will be folded or wrinkled due to their thin, flexible nature. 3. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch each specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. 4. Dark specs on the cells are bacteria, similar to the E. coli you looked at earlier. How big are these bacterial cells relative to your cheek cells? Discard this slide into the bowl containing the bleach water. Sheep’s blood (wet mount): Blood consists of two parts a liquid portion (water + proteins) called plasma, and a cellular portion, containing many different cell types, including erythrocytes or red blood cells (RBCs), and leukocytes or white blood cells (WBCs). Red blood cells are red because they contain a lot of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin. The blood sample we have has been treated chemically to prevent clotting. 1. Prepare a wet mount by placing a drop of saline and a small drop of blood on the slide. Add a cover slip. Examine a portion of the slide in which the blood is diluted. 2. Examine your specimen under the microscope. Sketch each specimen under 40x magnification below. Be sure to label any internal or external structures visible. 3. What is missing from these cells that is found in eukaryotic cells? 4. How do the red blood cells compare to your cheek cells in size? What shapes are the cells? Discard this slide into the bowl containing the bleach water. Cells Review Questions Your answers should be specific and to the level of the lecture, book and lab manual. You may need to use outside sources. 1. What characteristics do all cells have in common? 2. What characteristics are common to all eukaryotic cells but not found in prokaryotic cells? 3. Would you expect that all the living cells you saw in lab contain mitochondria? Explain. 4. Did all living plant cells you observed contain chloroplasts? Explain. 5. Describe as many differences as you can between plant and animal cells at a cellular level. Do any of these differences relate to the organismic differences we see between plants and animals? Explain. 6. How do prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells compare in size? 7. How would you compare a protist cell to a cell from your body, a cheek cell for example, in terms of complexity at the cellular level?