Balance Sheet and Annual Financial Statements Essay

The directors are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual financial statements of the Company and Group, comprising the directors’ report, the statements of financial position as at June 2013, the statements of comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows for the year then ended, and the notes to the financial statements, which include a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and the requirements of the Companies Act of South Africa. The directors are satisfied that the information contained in the annual financial statements fairly represents the financial position at year-end and the financial performance and cash flows of the Company and Group. The directors are also responsible for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and for maintaining adequate accounting records and an effective system of risk management as well as the preparation of the supplementary schedules included in these financial statements. The directors believe that the Company and Group have adequate resources to continue trading as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The annual financial statements support the viability of the Company and the Group. The Group’s external auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers Incorporated, audited the Company and Group annual financial statements, and their report is presented on page 5. The external auditors were given unrestricted access to all financial records and related data, including minutes of all meetings of shareholders, the board of directors and committees of the board. The directors believe that all representations made to the independent auditors during their audit are valid and appropriate. Approval of Annual Financial Statements The Company and Group annual financial statements of Shoprite Holdings Ltd, as identified in the first paragraph, were approved by the Board of directors on 19 August 2013 and signed on its behalf by: CH Wiese Chairman JW Basson Chief Executive Officer Certificate of the Company Secretary In terms of section 88(2)(e) of the Companies Act no 71 of 2008 (as amended) I, PG du Preez, in my capacity as Company Secretary, confirm that for the year ended 30 June 2013, the Company has lodged with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, all such returns as are required of a public company in terms of the Companies Act and that all such returns and notices are true, correct and up to date. PG du Preez Company Secretary 19 August 2013 Directors’ Report Shoprite Holdings Ltd and its Subsidiaries 2 NATURE OF BUSINESS Shoprite Holdings Limited (â€Å"Shoprite Holdings†) is an investment holding company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Limited (â€Å"JSE†) in the â€Å"food retailers & wholesalers† sector. Secondary listings are also maintained on the Namibian and Zambian Stock Exchanges. supermarket premises or developing new shopping centres to accommodate one of the Group’s supermarket formats. New retail developments and the redevelopment of existing properties are supervised through every stage of the planning-, design- and construction process. SHOPRITE INVESTMENTS LTD: SHOPRITE HOLDINGS COMPRISES OF THE FOLLOWING MAIN SUBSIDIARIES: As a wholly owned subsidiary of Shoprite Holdings, Shoprite Investments conducts the Group’s treasury function and financing of credit sales to third parties. SHOPRITE CHECKERS (PTY) LTD: Supermarkets: Serves a broad customer base through our Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper and Usave store formats. Supply Chain Management: Supplies the Group’s outlets in South Africa and 16 Non-RSA countries. The Group prides itself in running a state-ofthe-art distribution operation and became the first South African retailer to receive the ISO 9002 accreditation for import and export handling. Fast Foods: The Hungry Lion chain now boasts modern, well-designed stores with an inescapable focus on fried chicken and operates outlets within South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Franchise: The OK Franchise Division’s stores offer a wide range of perishable and non-perishable food items and liquor under the OK, Friendly Grocer, 7-Eleven, Megasave en Sentra brands. Freshmark: Freshmark is the Group’s fruit and vegetable procurement and distribution arm and supplies fresh produce to the Group’s retail outlets. As one of the largest buyers of fresh produce in South Africa, Freshmark also imports fruit and vegetables to ensure a wide variety and continuity of traditionally seasonal fresh produce. Liquor Stores: Trading under the Shoprite and Checkers LiquorShop brands respectively, the liquor shops have extended the Group’s offering by providing a selection of wines, beers and a wide range of premium spirits to its customers. Meat Markets: The Group’s meat market division is the largest retailer of fresh meat on the African continent. Customers are served through in-store butcheries that employ qualified butchers and technicians. Money Markets: Money Markets offer a comprehensive range of financial services and products to the Group’s customers through dedicated in-store service counters. Furniture: The Furniture division offers furniture, electrical appliances and home entertainment products to customers for cash or credit through its OK Furniture, OK Power Express and House & Home outlets in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, Mozambique and Angola. Pharmacies and wholesale distribution: MediRite’s in-store pharmacies offer consumers an easy access to affordable healthcare and healthcare professionals. These in-store dispensaries currently operate throughout South Africa and also in Angola and Swaziland. The Group’s pharmaceutical wholesaler, Transpharm, sells and distributes a wide range of pharmaceutical products and surgical equipment to hospitals and clinics, dispensing doctors, veterinary surgeons and private and corporate pharmacies. Properties: This division is tasked with the responsibility of expanding the supermarket portfolio through the identification and leasing of new SHOPRITE HOLDINGS LTD ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2013 COMPUTICKET (PTY) LTD: As a premier ticketing solution provider and one of the most recognised brand names, Computicket offers theatre, concert, festival, sport and cinema tickets along with bus tickets and gift vouchers through a network of outlets located across South Africa and Namibia, a call centre as well as the Computicket website. Computicket also offers travel packages. SHOPRITE INTERNATIONAL LTD: Incorporated in the Republic of Mauritius, Shoprite International is the holding company for the majority of the Group’s non-South African retail and property investments. SHOPRITE INSURANCE COMPANY LTD: Provides first and third party short-term insurance to the Group and its customers. OTHER GROUP SUBSIDIARIES: The interests of Shoprite Holdings in other subsidiaries are set out on page  69 of the Annual Financial Statements. FINANCIAL REVIEW The Group’s headline earnings per share amounts to 675,4 cents for the year (2012: 607,0 cents). Details of the profit of Shoprite Holdings and its subsidiaries are contained in the statement of comprehensive income on page 7 with reference to the operating segment information on page 23. The financial position of Shoprite Holdings and its subsidiaries are recorded in the statement of financial position on page 6. Further details are furnished in the notes to the annual financial statements on page 10 to 68. The Group’s net asset value per share as at 30 June 2013 was 2  837 cents (2012: 2  382 cents). DISTRIBUTION TO SHAREHOLDERS PREFERENCE DIVIDENDS Details are reflected in note 27 to the Group’s Annual Financial Statements. ORDINARY DIVIDENDS An interim cash dividend (no. 128) of 123 cents per share was paid on 18  March 2013. A final dividend (no. 129) of 215 cents per share, is payable on 16 September 2013, bringing the total dividend for the year to 338 cents (2012: 303 cents) per ordinary share. 3 SHARE CAPITAL The authorised share capital of Shoprite Holdings remained unchanged at 650 000 000 (six hundred and fifty million) ordinary shares of 113,4 cents (one hundred and thirteen comma four cents) each. There was no movement in the number of issued Shoprite Holdings ordinary shares which remained at 570 579 460 shares of 113,4 cents each. On 28 June 2012, shareholders approved the issue of an additional 13  803  405 non-convertible, non-participating, no par value deferred shares in the share capital of Shoprite Holdings to Thibault Square Financial Services (Pty) Ltd pursuant to the issue of 27  100  000 ordinary shares during the previous reporting period. These deferred shares were however only issued on 25 July 2012. As at 30 June 2013, 35 436 472 (6,2%) ordinary shares were held as treasury shares by a wholly owned subsidiary of Shoprite Holdings. GOING CONCERN The annual financial statements of the Group were prepared on a going concern basis. The Board has performed a formal review of the Group’s results and its ability to continue trading as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The directors of Shoprite Holdings confirm that they are satisfied that the Group has adequate resources to continue in business for the foreseeable future. During the reporting period the following special resolutions were passed by main Group subsidiaries: SHOPRITE CHECKERS (PTY) LTD – Special resolution number 1: Approval of new Memorandum of Incorporation; and – Special resolution number 2: Financial Assistance to Subsidiaries, Related and inter-related entities. SHOPRITE INVESTMENTS LTD – Special resolution number 1: Approval of new Memorandum of Incorporation. COMPUTICKET (PTY) LTD – Special resolution number 1: Approval of new Memorandum of Incorporation. SHOPRITE INTERNATIONAL LTD Special resolution number 1: Approval of new Constitution. SHOPRITE INSURANCE COMPANY LTD – Special resolution number 1: Approval of new Memorandum of Incorporation. BORROWINGS DIRECTORS AND SECRETARY Shoprite Holdings has unlimited borrowing powers in terms of its Memorandum of Incorporation. The Group’s overall level of debt increased from R4  035 million to R4  151 million during the financial year under review. The directors’ names and details are furnished on pages 8 and 9 and the company secretary’s name, business and postal address on page 67 of the Integrated Report. In terms of the Memorandum of Incorporation of Shoprite Holdings (â€Å"the MOI†), no less than one third of the non-executive directors shall retire by rotation at each Annual General Meeting. Dr CH Wiese, Messrs EC Kieswetter, JA Louw and JF Malherbe retire as directors, in terms of paragraph 33. 5. 1 of the MOI of the Company, at the Annual General Meeting. Dr CH Wiese, Messrs EC Kieswetter and JA  Louw have offered themselves for re-election as directors of Shoprite Holdings. The board supports the re-election of these directors. SPECIAL RESOLUTIONS At the Annual General Meeting of Shoprite Holdings held on 29 October 2012, shareholders approved the following special resolutions: – Special resolution number 1: Remuneration payable to Non-Executive Directors; – Special resolution number 2: Financial Assistance to Subsidiaries, Related and inter-related entities; – Special resolution number 3: Financial Assistance for Subscription of Securities; – Special resolution number 4: General Approval to repurchase shares; and – Special resolution number 5: Approval of new Memorandum of Incorporation as proposed by the Board. Directors’ Report (continued) The company’s directors are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these consolidated and separate financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and the requirements of the Companies Act of South Africa, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of consolidated and separate financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. AUDITOR’S RESPONSIBILITY Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated and separate financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated and separate financial statements are free from material misstatement. An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion. OPINION In our opinion, the consolidated and separate financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated and separate financial position of Shoprite Holdings Limited as at 30 June 2013, and its consolidated and separate financial performance and its consolidated and separate cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and the requirements of the Companies Act of South Africa. OTHER REPORTS REQUIRED BY THE COMPANIES ACT As part of our audit of the consolidated and separate financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2013, we have read the Directors’ Report, the Audit Committee’s Report and the Company Secretary’s Certificate for the purpose of identifying whether there are material inconsistencies between these reports and the audited consolidated and separate financial statements. These reports are the responsibility of the respective preparers. Based on reading these reports we have not identified material inconsistencies between these reports and the audited consolidated and separate financial statements. The  most significant assumptions and estimates used in applying the Group’s accounting policies relate to the following: a) Impairment of assets: The Group performs a review of loss-making stores and considers the need for the impairment of assets under these circumstances. This determination requires significant judgment. The Group evaluates amongst other things, the duration and extent of the losses, the near-term business outlook for the store, and the possible redeployment of the assets between stores. Refer to notes 3, 9 and 26. Useful lives of assets: In determining the depreciation and amortisation charge for property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, management applies judgment in estimating the useful lives and residual values of these different asset classes. Refer to notes 3, 9 and 21. c) Income taxes: The Group is subject to income taxes in numerous jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining the worldwide accrual for income taxes. The Group recognises liabilities for anticipated uncertain income tax positions based on estimates of potential additional taxes due. With regards to deferred income tax assets for unutilised income tax losses, judgment is also required to whether sufficient future taxable income will be available against which these losses can be utilised. Refer to notes 1. 11 and 28. d) Allowances for doubtful debts: Trade receivables include instalment sale debtors and franchise debtors for which allowances for impairment are made in accordance with the accounting policy in note 1. 15. These calculations involve the discounting of projected future cash flows and require the use of estimates. Details regarding the allowances are set out in note 12. e) Employee benefit accruals and provisions: Various assumptions are applied in determining the valuations of post-retirement medical benefits, share based payment accruals and long term employee benefits as set out in notes 1. 20, 1. 22, 14, 17 and 35. Estimates and assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying value of assets and liabilities in a subsequent year relate to the following: income taxes; allowances for doubtful debts and employee benefit allowances. All estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and various other factors that management believes are reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these estimates form the basis of judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates. The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised and any affected future periods. Use of adjusted measures The measures listed below are presented as management believes it to be relevant to the understanding of the Group’s financial performance. These measures are used for internal performance analysis and provide additional useful information on underlying trends to equity holders. These measures are not defined terms under IFRS and may therefore not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other entities. It is not intended to be a substitute for, or superior to, measures as required by IFRS. a) Trading profit on the face of the statement of comprehensive income, being the Group’s operating results excluding foreign exchange rate differences and income or expenditure of a capital nature. b) Income or expenditure of a capital nature on the face of the statement of comprehensive income, being all re-measurements excluded from the calculation of headline earnings per share in accordance with the guidance contained in SAICA Circular 3/2012: Headline Earnings. The principal items that will be included under this measure are: gains and losses on disposal and scrapping of property, plant and equipment, intangible assets and assets held for sale; impairments or reversal of impairments; any non-trading items such as gains and losses on disposal of investments, operations and subsidiaries. c) Interest received on the face of the statement of comprehensive income, being only interest received on call and operating bank account balances. Subsidiaries Subsidiaries are entities (including special purpose entities) which are, directly or indirectly, controlled by the Group. Control is established where the Group has the power to govern the financial and operating policies of an entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities. The existence and effect of potential voting rights that are currently exercisable or convertible are considered when assessing whether the Group controls another.

The pros and cons of a database management system (DBMS) for a new a newly established multi-campus

This assignment is an attempt to present a position paper about the pros and cons of a database management system (DBMS) for a new a newly established multi-campus Mpokeleshi University library in Muchinga province of Zambia. It further gives sufficiently clear arguments to enable the vice-chancellor make an informed decision on the way forward. The paper will first define the major concepts under review before outlining the pros and cons of a database management system (DBMS) and finally give sufficiently clear arguments to enable the vice-chancellor make an informed decision on the way forward.DEFINITIONS OF MAJOR CONCEPTSTo begin with are the definitions of major concepts under review and these are pros and cons, and database management system (DBMS). According to the oxford university dictionary, pros and cons mean advantages and disadvantages or arguments for and against something. A database management system (DBMS) on the other hand can be broken down and be defined as single concepts as follows: ‘data’ are the raw facts or figures which are processed to get the information. A database is a collection of data stored in a standardized format, designed to be processed, shared by different users and may have single or multiple tables organized in rows and columns.Therefore, a database management system (DBMS) can be defined as â€Å" a software that defines a database, stores the data and supports a query language, produces reports, and creates data entry forms†, (Laudon, 2000:221). Others have defined a database management system as a complex set of software programs that controls the organization, storage, management, and retrieval of data in a database.ADVANTAGES OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMSDatabase management system (DBMS) is a central system which provides a common interface between the data and the various front-end programs in the application. It also provides a central location for the whole data in the application to reside. D atabase management system (DBMS) has several advantages and among them includes minimal data redundancy: since the whole data resides in one central database, the various programs in the application can access data in different data files. Therefore, data present in one file need not be duplicated in another file thus reducing data  redundancy which in turn leads to better data consistency (O’brien, 2003).The other notable advantage of database management system (DBMS) is data integration: since related data is stored in one single database, enforcing data integrity is much easier. Moreover, the functions of the database management system (DBMS) can be used to enforce the integrity rules with minimum programming in the application programs. Data sharing is another advantage of a database management system (DBMS): Related data can be shared across programs since the data is stored in a centralized manner. Even new applications can be developed to operate against the same dat a since several users can access and use the same data for different purposes, provided they are authorized users, as you might be aware that databases are normally protected by passwords to avoid unauthorized users from accessing and or manipulating such database content (Date, 2003:268-276).Enforcement of standards and better controls are also achieved due to the centralized nature of the system. Standards in the organization and structure of data files is required, and is also easy in a data system since it is one single set of programs which is always interacting with the data files. Another advantage which gives database management system (DBMS) a plus is application development ease: the application programmer need not build the functions for handling issues like concurrent access, security, data integrity to mention but a few, the programmer instead only needs to implement the application business rules.This hence brings in application development ease because addition of add itional functional modules becomes easier than in file-based systems. Nijssen, (1976:158) outlines that data independence is yet another merit of database management system (DBMS): He outlines that data independence is isolating an upper level from the changes in the organization or structure of a lower level. For example, if changes in the file organization of a data file do not demand for changes in the functions in the database management system (DBMS) or in the application programs, data independence is achieved. He further defines that data as immunity of applications to change in physical representation and access techniques.The provision of data independence is one of the major objectives of database systems due to the architectural nature of a database management system (DBMS) which can be viewed as a three level system comprising the internal or physical level where the data resides, the  conceptual level which the level of the DBMS functions and last but not the least th e external level which is the level of application programs or the end users. Due to the centralized nature of a database management system (DBMS) maintenance cost is reduced thus accounting for yet another advantage of DBMS.It is generally acceptable that it costs much less to create a system of smaller computers with the equivalent power as a single large and expensive computer. This makes it more cost-effective for corporate divisions and departments to obtain separate and less expensive computers. It is also much more cost-effective to add workstations to a network than to update a mainframe system. Another dimension of cost reduction is taking advantage of economies of scale. It is generally argued that the cost of processing and maintenance of individual and geographically remote systems may be expensive as opposed to processing and maintaining a centralized system which may be much economical because the technical expertise required for running such a complex system can be ce ntralized or concentrated at one site hence reducing the cost which could have been incurred for running separate and geographically remote systems (Conolly, 1997).DISADVANTAGES OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMSDespite the various advantages of database management systems (DBMS), it is worth pointing out that it has its own shortcomings or disadvantages or rather challenges, and some of them include confidentiality, privacy and security: It is worth noting that when information is centralized and is accessed by a huge number of users remotely, the possibility of abuse are often more, as opposed to a conventional data processing system, thereby compromising the levels of confidentiality, privacy and security. Therefore, to reduce the chance of unauthorized users from accessing and abusing sensitive information, it is necessary to take technical, administrative, and possibly legal measures to curb such abuse if a database management system (DBMS) is to continue to serve its intended purp ose of informing, entertaining and indeed educating the masses (Laudon, 2004:223).Similarly, since the database is accessible to many users remotely, adequate controls are needed to control unauthorized users from updating data on the database if data quality and data integrity are to be maintained. Additionally, with the increased number of users accessing data directly, there are greater  opportunities for the users to damage the database unless there are suitable controls put in place to ensure data accessibility and quality is not compromised. Enterprise vulnerability is yet another challenge of a database management system (DBMS). It is worth noting that centralizing all the data of an enterprise in one database may mean that such a database becomes an indispensable and a reliable resource.Therefore, the survival of the enterprise may depend on reliable information being available on its database all the time. If the risk of possible damage is left unchecked by overlooking ad equate maintenance and upgrading, the whole enterprise therefore becomes vulnerable to higher impact of failure. According to (Conolly, 1997:689), complexity and cost account for another demerit of a database management system (DBMS). It is common knowledge that a complex conceptual design process needs multiple external well qualified staff with the necessary technical expertise, who are in most instances scarce and possibly expensive to hire.The fact that a complex system requires additional and or new hardware and software for maintenance and or upgrading which are expensive even worsens the prohibitive cost of running an effective database management system (DBMS) for small enterprises as they normally struggle with cost justification for making such huge investments in the infrastructure, or backup and recovery in cases of damage and or failure of the system.JUSTIFICATION FOR A DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR A MULTI-CAMPUS UNIVERSITY LIBRARYDespite the above outlined disadvanta ges of database management systems (DBMS), it is worth noting that the advantages of DBMS outweigh the disadvantages and some of the weaknesses should be viewed as mere challenges of database management systems (DBMS) as opposed to being disadvantages because they can be mitigated. For example, the challenges of cost of running a complex database management system can be mitigated by cutting the relative cost of data transmission across the network by introducing local access.It may be much more economical to partition the application and perform the processing locally at each site or rather at each at each campus library of the multi-campus university. Furthermore, the challenge of prohibitive cost of kick starting and or running a complex database management system (DBMS) can also be minimized by the application of what is known as the â€Å"Grosh’s law† of economics which argues that: computing power is calculated according to the square of the  cost of the equipm ent: three times the cost could provide nine times of power, which is why it costs much less to create a system of small computers with the equivalent power of a single large computer.This makes it more cost-effective for corporate divisions and departments to obtain small separate computers, which in this case can be equated to running a small and cost-effective library networks at each site of the multi-campus university (Conolly, 1997:688). He goes on to argue that a distributed database management system (DDBMS) could be ideal for a multi-campus university library as opposed to a centralized database management system (CDBMS) due to improved availability and improved reliability.On the one hand, improved availability is enhanced in the sense that unlike in a centralized database management system (CDBMS) where a computer failure can terminate the operations of the database management system (DBMS), conversely, a failure at one site of a distributed database management system (DD BMS) or a failure of a communication link making same sites inaccessible does not render the entire system inoperable. It is however impressive to note that in this type of a system, if a single node fails, the system may be able to reroute the failed node’s request to another site hence improving availability to various users of a multi-campus university library.On the other hand, improved reliability is also achieved because data may be replicated so that it exists in more than one site, similarly, the failure of a node or a communication link does not necessarily make the data inaccessible to various users of a multi-campus university library. Last but not the least, in a multi-campus library setup, data can physically reside nearest to where it is most often accessed, thus providing users with local control of the data that they interact with. This results in local autonomy of the data allowing users to enforce locally the policies regarding access to and or manipulation of their database management system (DBMS).CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, database management systems (DBMS) have continued to make data arrangement, storage, access and retrieval much easier than it used to be in the olden days. With the emergency of the relational model of database management systems (which is a software that is used to create and use a relational database-which in turn is a database that conforms to the relational model, and refers to a database’s data and schema), much of the  big challenge associated with handling large and complex databases has been reduced. With the continued and advances in research, it is highly expectant that more and advanced database management products will be availed on the market to improve on the existing ones hence further minimizing the challenges of running a complex database management system.

Financial Management Problems and case #6 Essay

Financial Management Problems and case #6 - Essay Example Reporting a large loss and/or increasing dividend payout would have a negative effect on cash and profitability. Problem 9: MVA - Henderson Industries, with a stock price of $60, $500MM of issued common stock, and an MVA of $130MM has shares outstanding in the amount of 10,500,000; the result of the sum of the book value ($500MM) and the market value added ($130MM) divided by the share price. Problem 10: Cash Flow - Based on the information provided regarding Bailey Corporation's Income Statement: (a) The net operating profit after taxes is $3B [NOPAT=EBIT(1-Tax rate)=$4B(1-$1B)]. (b) The net cash flow is $4.5B [NCF=NI+D&A=$1.5B+$3B]. (c) The operating cash flow is $6B [OCF=EBIT(1-Tax rate)+D&A=$3B+$3B]. (d) The free cash flow is $2.7B [FCF=OCF-IOC=$6B-$3.3B]. Problem 11: Income Statement - Based on the information provided regarding Hermann Industries' Income Statement forecasts, the forecasted net income would be achieved by a sales figure of $ 12,681,481.47: Sales $12,681,481.47 Operating Costs (55% of Sales) ($ 6,974,814.81) EBITDA $ 5,706,666.66 Depreciation & Amortization ($ 880,000.00) EBIT $ 4,826,666.66 Interest ($ 660,000.00) EBT $ 4,166,666.66 Taxes (40%) ($ 1,666,666.66) Net Income $ 2,500,000.00 EMBA 503, Financial Management Case Six YOUR FULL NAME YOUR INSTITUION OR SCHOOL PROFESSOR DATE Lottery Winnings: Case Study Six 1. If you were one of the winners, which option would you select Why I would choose the cash option. I would do this primarily because I could invest the money safely and obtain a return that, although less than the annuity payment, would still give me more money than I need each year and would never... Problem 9: MVA - Henderson Industries, with a stock price of $60, $500MM of issued common stock, and an MVA of $130MM has shares outstanding in the amount of 10,500,000; the result of the sum of the book value ($500MM) and the market value added ($130MM) divided by the share price. Problem 11: Income Statement - Based on the information provided regarding Hermann Industries' Income Statement forecasts, the forecasted net income would be achieved by a sales figure of $ 12,681,481.47: 1. If you were one of the winners, which option would you select Why I would choose the cash option. I would do this primarily because I could invest the money safely and obtain a return that, although less than the annuity payment, would still give me more money than I need each year and would never diminish the principal. Also, if I did not spend all of the money gained from the investment, the compound interest would increase my portfolio significantly. Finally, my tax burden would be less over the long term because capital gains from the investments are taxed at a lower rate in the U.S. than regular income. 3. Is the State of Michigan justified in advertising the prize amount as $363 million Explain.

The cask of amintiliado and good son movie Essay

The cask of amintiliado and good son movie - Essay Example The movie is about a twelve year old boy, Mark, who promises his mother suffering from cancer that she will not die. Mark is consumed by guilt and grief after his mother’s death because he is not able to keep his promise of keeping her alive. After the death, Mark is dropped off by his father at his uncle’s house while he proceeds to Tokyo for a two week business trip.Initially, Mark practices withdrawal from the rest of the family members but he gets accustomed to his aunt and cousins. He mostly becomes friends with his cousin Henry, whom they spend so much time together. Nevertheless, Mark starts to observe a number of Henry’s views of fun significantly differ from his own. Henry’s parents refuse to listen to Mark when he informs them of their child’s dangerous behavior (Ruben 1). Montresor and Henry are actually identically evil characters and through their example, evil exists. In my view, both Montresor and Henry are identical characters. I also believe evil exists in both Montresor and Henry. One characteristic that Montresor exhibits is that of vengeance. Montresor makes a decision to play therole of the whole justice system as executioner, jury, and judge. At no single point is Montresor considerate of the consequences of his actions because he is certain that his actions are defensible. It may be argued that Montresor is a threatening character. He is an individual you would not want to have an encounter with in any setting. He is portrayed as a ruthless and cold murderer. He both finds pleasure in killing and sees it as necessary. In fact, as he is building the stone tomb of Fortunato, Montresor says, â€Å"I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied† (Poe). The fact that he is satisfied actually means that he feels no guilt at all about the murder. Moreover, according to Montresor, when Fortunato finally tells him, â€Å"Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo,

Intrusion Detection System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Intrusion Detection System - Assignment Example I shall isolate the affected computer within no time so as to protect the other computers on the network. First, I shall unplug the network cable and then physically disconnect the victim computer from the network which will block the attacker from gaining further access to the computer as well as from infecting other computers on the network. I shall change the subnet mask on the attacked port or try creating a VLAN, and if the network router is not capable of creating VLANs, then I could use another router â€Å"by using the wan port as the connection† to the original router (Techie, 2009). After getting the system disconnected both from the internet and the network, I shall think about doing a proper action with the attacked port 3389. Because the intruder infected the port 3389, it would be necessary to block it and open it only for local functions with the co-computers. I shall look for any important network passwords that might have been saved on the computer. I shall find out if there was any sensitive information saved, such as any credit card details and if yes, then the credit card company has to be notified immediately. I shall ask myself when the first time I caught something was going wrong which I had not considered important at that time. Other inquiries that will be necessary are that- whether the anti-virus software installed had been updated or contained non-updated virus definitions. I shall find out if upgrades had been installed and were operational. It will also be important to investigate whether VPN had been established to protect the network from getting intruded and to reduce the security breach. I shall make arrangements for the continuity of network operations like preparing redundant system and obtaining data back-ups (the State of California, 2009).

PROPOSE A SOLUTION Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

PROPOSE A SOLUTION - Research Paper Example However, in light of this, humans form part of the world and are, therefore, included in the legal system governing Mother Nature. For this reason, the rights of the earth are followed for the nature, but not for the benefits and value that nature and the laws have towards humans. This means that representations of the legal rights of the earth are determined by the value that nature bears independently, and without influence from the interests of humans. In addition, all aspects of nature that fall in the sphere of moral concern and moral relevance bear a considerable amount of influence on decisions made about the environment. For this reason, they are crucial for ethics that are affiliated to the environment concerning the care that all humans should give to it. This is in addition to legal action and frameworks affiliated with the environment in cases of violation of requirements put in place to safeguard the environment and all its affiliated aspects in relation to sustenance of life (Philos 316). It is for the legal status of the environment that ethics are observed to the point of passing legislation on a global scale aimed at protecting the interests of nature and its constituent parts as are similarly held for humans. This translates to individual legal representation of the earth’s interests that are similar to the universal declaration of human rights. The other aspect of environmental aspect is the religious angle affiliated to it in regard to the problems that the environment faces according to the guilt associated with it due to a number of substantial reasons. These include the destructive alliance formed by science, technology, and democracy, which have seen the destruction of the earth (environment) in the name of development. The Christian religion in the west has pioneered the destruction through cosmology, where man views himself as a separate entity from nature. In turn, this has led to the domination of the earth by man in a quest t o attain their destiny (Jenkins 284). In relation to the aspect of religion and environmental ethics, man takes himself as taking precedence over nature due to their perceived differences, which is an aspect that is condemned by some religions and especially Buddhism and the philosophies for which it stands. Buddhism, concerning environmental ethics, stands for the belief that since the world will decline it is crucial to safeguard it. It does this by showing its followers how important the different aspects of nature are to the existence of humanity thus addresses issues of ecology and the environment (Keown 97). This also occurs through the cosmic beliefs based on tradition. For this reason, Buddhism’s ethics area call for prudential measures to conserve the environment for harmonious coexistence and support life, which makes it a moral obligation to look after the environment as is the case with the universal declaration of the rights of mother earth. However, religion as a whole does not support its ethics sufficiently due to the constant conflict between issues of technology, science, and religious beliefs. Climate and resource management is also an ethical issue that affects the environment on multiple scales. This is concerning the challenges that policymakers, scientist and researchers are faced with in creating solutions to overcome environmental problems. In addition, they grapple with issues of

Role of the Government in the Prevention of Recession Essay

Role of the Government in the Prevention of Recession - Essay Example This wall was constructed in the 1640s by the Dutch. History has it that the West Indians from the West Indian Company bought the Manhattan land from their predecessors by paying them with goods worth $25. This took the Indians that lived in Manhattan then by surprise because to them land could not be privately owned. When they realized that the Dutch West Indian company had taken their land, they began to demand their land back. For this reason, the Dutch Indians constructed the wall to keep the Lenape Indians out. Lenape is the name used for the people that lived in Manhattan. The Dutch Indians made use of the African slaves, and the white colonists to construct the wall to a height of 12 foot by 1.1 km length, all along the length of the original fortifications (Gigante?s, 99). The Wall Street developed into a business location around the year 1685 when traders used to gather in distinct locations to purchase and sell bonds and shares. Over time, the trade developed, and there was the specialization of these merchants into dealers and auctioneers. The Wall Street also became a place where people hired slaves. Due to these continued trading activities on this street, the New York City Common Council declared Wall Street to be a slave market, where people could buy slaves or hire them. In the year 1792, the formation of the Buttonwood Agreement led to the formation of the New York Stock Exchange. Over the centuries, the Wall Street developed its own institutions and individual personality with very little interference from other societies, or none at all. Within these years, there has also been many changes on the wall street. At first, there was the development of the agricultural trade, and then came the industrial, and finally there was the financial development, in the 19th century. In 1888, the stock exchange started to be tracked. In the early years of the20th century, there was the construction of business buildings, which were skyscrapers. The 20th cen tury also saw the introduction of taxes on stocks transfers, though this was protested by stock clerks. The Wall Street is currently the centre of the largest stock exchange market in the world. In the 19th century, there was the development of a class of businessmen that were very wealthy. This extremely wealthy class used brutal and dishonorable ways to maintain their dominance in the major industries. This was referred to as the as the robber barons. For instance, they exploited the workers of industries such as the railroads, petroleum mad steel among others. These industries became monopolies due to exploitation by these robber barons (Gigante?s, 89). This period of domination by the robber barons lasted for a while, but people rebelled against their dominance; thus they were brought under control. For instance Cornelius Vanderbilt, subjugated the whole of the transport industry of the united states. He amassed a lot of wealth from his domination of the fleet of steamboats; the also owned and dominated the railroads. Cornelius Vanderbilt was said to be the richest man in the united states in the year 1877. Robber barons were also used to refer to the German lords who charged tolls on the roads that crossed their lands. Some also charged huge toll on the ships. The year 1929 brought about a turn in the economic history of the United States. During this time, the New York Stock Exchange experienced a financial crisis that had ever been experience. There were huge losses that were made during this time. This was also known as the â€Å"Black Tuesday†. It started in October 1929 and extended for a long time. This crash in the New York Stock Exchange lasted for ten years. This would lead to negative effects on the industrialization of most of

Land Law - Dimensions of land Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Land Law - Dimensions of land - Essay Example The corporeal and noncorporeal components are known as realty to distinguish it from personalty. The latter being personal or movable property (Gray & Gray 2007). Thus in the eyes of law land is a multidimensional asset as discussed below. The first two dimensions of land: it is a two dimensional piece of earth with defining contours, features and limits of jurisdiction. Which is recognised by the registrars, conveyancers, surveyors and ramblers. However this definition too does not takes into account the low water mark area in the coastline. The three mile territorial area including water constitute land. However , even outside this three mile limit the channel tunnel subsoil upto the middle of English channel is called land (Channel tunnel act 1987). Thus land includes land covered with water as well (Gray & Gray 2007). 4-5The third dimension of land: A Latin maxim says that the one who owns land owns the heaven above it and the earth deep down to the centre. It certainly indicated three-dimensional nature of land but lacks practical wisdom. The indefinite extension of territory of land would mean an airplane passing over it causes trespass. Still some three-dimensional characteristics is to be accepted for land in statutory definition. A land can be held above surface and may be divided horizontally. Thus different owners can hold the titles of the land each holding a stratum of cubic surface above or below the surface layer of the earth (Gray & Gray 2007). The components of these three dimensions are (Wilkie 2006; Gray & Gray 2007; Dixon 2005): The word 'hereditament' in law means nature of right involved in ownership of land. land law is all about-not just the land (the soil, the grass, the trees, the buildings), but the rights that people may have in land. Thus, land is to be reclassified as including corporeal and incorporeal hereditaments. Ownership of land may equally include ownership of a house and ownership of a right of way over someone else's house (an incorporeal hereditament). The land law may be viewed from corporeal and incorporeal rights or by distinction between fixtures and chattels. The fee simple owner's right of air space: The owner's rights extend to such a height as is reasonably necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of the land. In Baron Bernstein of Leigh v Skyviews and General Ltd [1978] QB 479, Griffith J stated that it was necessary to balance the rights of an owner to enjoy the land against the rights of the general public to take advantage of all that 'science now offers in the use of airspace'. Where there is an interference with the legitimate rights of the fee simple

Women in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice Essay

Women in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice - Essay Example Undoubtedly, Shakespeare is the most famous and well known playwright of the English language and Merchant of Venice is one of his most performed plays even though the focus of the play is often the character of Shylock, the character of Portia remains quite important since she represents the highest values that Christian virtue could appeal to during the times. In this manner, the female characters become significantly more important than their male counterparts who may show weakness and even a defeatist attitude (Sanders, 1968). Portia outshines the men in the play particularly with regard to virtue since she remains dutiful to the orders of her dead father even though her heart tells her to do otherwise. She is divinely rewarded when the man she loves makes the right choice with regard to the lead, silver and gold boxes. Like many other Shakespearean women, Portia becomes an important character despite the presence of other strong characters such as Anotnio and Shylock. Even though the position of women in shakespeare’s times was not one which could have made this a realistic play, the approach taken by Shakespeare certainly makes Portia the strongest character. Interestingly, Shakespeare was living at a time when the most powerful ruler in Europe was a lady who founded the British Empire as it took shape for centuries to come. While the Christian dogma at the time may have seen women to be fickle, fragile and weak, a ruler as a woman meant that the qualities of Portia were completely natural since she certainly displays kingly virtues of intelligence and mercy. There is certainly some social hypocrisy in this situation since women had little rights in society at the time and even Portia was not the mistress of her own destiny, yet she saves Antonio and even ‘forgives’ Shylock after she has won her case. Portia eloquently describes the qualities of mercy which is a Christian ideal and is something heroes would show to their

Case Management Essay Example for Free

Case Management Essay Workflow, Business Process Management and the management of Unstructured Documents Plethora of unstructured documents such as text documents, spreadsheets, images, XML components, videos, podcasts, email messages that exists around in a large enterprise and it represents the enterprise’s information assets. The problem is that in today’s competitive environment there is an ever increasing generation and use of unstructured electronic documents. It has become highly imperative that there has to be an enterprise wide lifecycle management of these documents which can enable the workers to access the documents in a relative business context. Many product companies and experts dealing in the area of content management and business process management have proposed that a semantic relation is to be derived between documents and business domain. Thus, the semantic network that eventually gets formed will result in efficient search and filtering of these unstructured documents. Types of data: Structured and unstructured data People use and create unstructured data on daily basis. Although they may not be aware, people create, store, retrieve unstructured data in the form of emails, word documents, excel spreadsheets and other forms. The unstructured content has no data type as such so it requires human intervention to tag the data with some relevant keywords and meta tags so that it can be read by machines and applications. Structured data is also being used by people and such data is easily managed by technology being allowed for querying and reporting as the data type is predetermined and relationships are explicit. There are two categories of unstructured data: 1) Bitmap Objects: Images, videos, audio and other non-language based files 2) Textual Objects: Word documents, Spreadsheets, Emails and other written or printed language documents Most of these object types can’t be tapped easily to extract relevant information by technology or methodology as technology today can only address textual objects. With the advent of technologies like Enterprise Content Management (ECM), it has become possible to address unstructured data. Data mining and other analysis tools exist to query and analyze structured data. However, the challenge remains in bringing both the worlds of structured and unstructured data together. Once when they are brought together is when the most value can be derived and gained but this is where the highest level of challenge exists. Few challenges are listed below: 1) Irrespective of having the data in a word document format it may not be consumable from a semantic level perspective 2) A compatible technology may not be able to give insight in to the context of the information unless it is read 3) The way we interpret is largely subjective Organizational Challenges Today the organizations are inherently complex in structure and the departments are loosely connected while they work in isolation. They only come together when there is a need which leads to an internally disconnected approach. These large organizations need to be responsive to the customer and market needs. In order to be responsive they need to be agile and flexible when it comes to leveraging their matrix management structure as a whole. This can pose some long term as well as short term challenges. The path to overcome these challenges is to have follow business process which entail the entire organizations. In most organizations, wherever the business processes exist they tend to be isolated to a specific department and are usually manual. This leads to manifestation of various management and operational challenges. Some of the consequences that come up due to these challenges are listed below: 1) Due to inaccurate and untimely information generated as a result of isolated units of an organization, it becomes difficult for management and employees to take correct decisions 2) As information may not be aligned to business context or a business process it may lead to inconsistent decisions 3) Broken or incomplete workflows lead to generation of inconsistent and poor information 4) IT systems may act as inhibitors even if they support business processes when they lack system integration that would hide a single view of the information 5) Strict business rules, policies and procedures can lead to delay in fetching important information Organization and business process alignment These hurdles and challenges which the organization faces are due to factors such as inflexible procedures, legacy infrastructure, orthodox management which include: 1) Manual approach even when business processes and frameworks exist 2) IT enablers found in departments and functional silos making information sharing and gathering labour intensive and tedious 3) IT and other infrastructure is maintained centrally which may not provide quick solutions and service to meet the requirement of internal users 4) As organization is dependent on vendors or contractors for maintenance, support and development of IT and other infrastructure it raises issues of managing changes by themselves. Organizations need to orient themselves around process rather than functionally. They have the necessary infrastructure and technology in place but the challenge is to align all of it together using business processes. Aligning the organization to business processes and automating the same will help in solving decision making bottlenecks and will integrate functions, departments, core systems to deliver measurable business value. As of now most of the organizations, have IT infrastructure which comprise of applications that address each department separately. These departments may have business processes that cater to the purpose of the department specific function but this may lead to creation of unstructured and structured data in isolation from other departments defeating the purpose of one goal of the organization. Due to lack of integration between department’s applications and business processes it leads to creation of islands of redundant information for each department. Knowing that there is duplicate information across various applications residing in various departments there will be multiple points of integration which makes it even more complicated. There is a requirement of point to point integration to resolve this. This increases business risk, delivery costs and it becomes even more important to retain existing talent who can handle the data and information well. IT challenge On drilling down, the problem of not being able to use unstructured data along with structured data semantically whilst the data is specific to each department’s function and not business process of the organization is a challenge for the IT support department of organizations. Integration of silo applications and automated business processes across departments with respect to the overall business context pose many intricacies which makes it is a very challenging and a costly exercise for the IT function. Few of the reasons are listed below: 1) Laborious task to integrate a variety of business processes and applications 2) Changes in particular to each function may become difficult to replicate across the organization each time 3) Data across functions can’t be normalized due to existence of data in multiple format 4) Data inconsistencies due to unavailability of an information master leads to dependency on data stored on spreadsheets These kind of challenges have typically no end so a comprehensive solution has to be worked out which is robust and serves the goal of the organization by delivering value flawlessly. Workflow Model, Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) It is Workflow Automation and a Business Process Management System that will solve the business and technical problems that have been described in this paper so far. A workflow model is automation or a semi-automation of business processes. On the other hand Business Process Management is a method for managing the workflow model while continuously evaluating its performance and closing the feedback loop. Business processes form the nervous system of an organization or an enterprise. Business Process Management (BPM) is a discipline that empowers an organization to analyze, automate, re-design, streamline, monitor and improve business process while providing end to end visibility and control from technology to people. An organization has numerous business processes which take place every now and then. They may be simple or complex and may rely on unstructured data. For e. g. Banks have a business process to process the fresh loans application, local retailer has a business process to order new inventory and more. Business processes are the means which enable people, system and information to work simultaneously in order to meet organizations’ goals. However, it is not as easy as it sounds. Consider an example where in an insurance company the claim officials need digital photos to process a claim, customer representative need customer records and statements, accounts personnel need invoice approvals to disburse the required amount. To address such multi dimensional situation companies are resorting to capabilities of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) which is Business Process Management (BPM) to integrate, optimize, and automate processes and information. This solution enables organizations to make timely and accurate decisions. Together BPM and ECM businesses are able to deal with explosion of business related content which in turn helps them in becoming nimble and agile. Primarily, there are three changes that drive the need for businesses to become nimble and agile. They are: 1) Creation of islands of business relevant content internal and external to the organization 2) High maintenance cost of information created and stored by disparate sources 3) Incremental strain on IT to meet core business requirements while driving process innovation In response to these needs ECM and BPM enable organizations with the following: 1) Empower all employees to develop process centric solution 2) Quickly synchronize information from disparate internal as well external data sources 3) Couple processes and content to meet business requirements Businesses today need to use the content that is available across the business processes rather than letting it remain restricted under applications specific to a department or a function. Holistically, the content needs to be put to use for a greater benefit and a better ROI. Management of Unstructured Documents ECM has become one of the major software category post consolidation of various solutions like Document Management, Document Imaging, Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management while collaborating with BPM. It shouldn’t be treated as only a software category but can be primarily looked at as a strategy to manage all unstructured information – images, web content, media assets and records. Secondly, its job is to ensure that the content is put to use by the business users as per the business processes. The ECM solutions available today are built to support today’s dynamic requirements of the organization. They are scalable and high on performance when it comes to handling islands of new content and information with respect to complex business processes. Their design is such that they can integrate any kind of unstructured information with business processes and provide features such as process modelling, analytic capabilities, simulation and activity monitoring. They are also capable to handle process exceptions and can respond to demands for content from associates or customers. It is deduced that ECM as a technology and as a strategy enable information management professionals to manage the unstructured information in the organization to reduce risk, improve productivity in order to bring customer delight. Market Overview Organizations are increasingly adopting ECM to manage the increasing volume and growing diversity of unstructured content which now represents around 80% of the information residing in the enterprise. The opportunity identified is to devote similar rigor to unstructured data as being given to structured data. The market for ECM registered a double digit growth between the year 2004 to 2007 but it slowed down to single digit in 2008 primarily due to recessionary conditions. As per data gathered by Gartner, around $3. 3bn was collected as license and maintenance revenue for ECM. The ECM market has forecasted compounded annual growth rate of 9. 5% through till 2013. It is expected that the revenue generated from ECM markets worldwide would exceed $5. 1bn by 2013. The ECM market has seen major consolidation between the periods of 2003 to 2007. Large players such as IBM, Oracle, EMC have been acquiring companies to capitalize in this space. For example, EMC went on spree acquiring Legato, Document, Captiva and Document Sciences. Autonomy acquired Interwoven and Open Text purchased Vignette to become the largest independent vendors in this space competing directly with Microsoft’s Sharepoint. Market Drivers In spite of the recession which forced businesses to refrain from technology spending, the ECM market remained insulated from it for the following reasons: 1) Increase in volume and complexity of content is the reason for concern and investments in ECM henceforth 2) Pricing pressure from open-source vendors stimulating higher demand 3) It targets the overall ROI of the organization As there is a need to manage risks that come along with tonnes of paper and vast variety of digital content, a focus has been brought on governance and content rationalization. Vendors are addressing this by providing different stakeholders or customers with products that serve their purpose while keeping in mind the overall business processes of the organization. Recognizing this focus area many enterprises have become conscious about the lifecycle, access management, availability and cost of the content. There has been a slowdown in the ECM market due to the recessionary climate as it made the decision makers cautious about investments. In a research conducted by Gartner it was noticed that during this period companies have started looking for a thorough business case and ROI justifications for any kind of technology expenditure. However this could also turn out to be positive for the ECM market as these are the times when the organizations will realize the benefits of ECM solutions and frameworks. Conclusion Business Process Management and Workflow are not about moving documents across departments. It is about aligning businesses to their core processes and they provide the catalyst to exploit knowledge base to provide improved customer service. Thus, help in delivering measurable bottom line benefits in variety of business cases. List of References Toby Bell, Karen M. Shegda, Mark R. Gilbert, Kenneth Chin, Mick MacComascaigh. ( October, 2009), Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management http://www. gartner. com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol10/article3/article3.html, Gartner Hakan Akbas (August 2009), Consolidation in the Enterprise Content Management Industry Who Will Be Next Autonomy or Open Text? http://www. cmswire. com/cms/enterprise-cms/consolidation-in-the-enterprise-content-management-industry-who-will-be-next-autonomy-or-open-text-part-i-005174. php, Cmswire Icon Resources and technologies ( 2007), Document/Business Process Management http://www. iconresources. com/new/irt_bps. html Hinnerk Brugmann, ConSense: Management of unstructured Documents using semantic Meta-Information http://www.wi2. uni-erlangen. de/index. php? id=consense PNMSOFT, Sequence and Sharepoint, http://www. pnmsoft. com/sharepoint_workflow_integration. aspx PNMSOFT, SEQUENCE BPM workflow software platform, http://www. pnmsoft. com/sequence_bpm_workflow. aspx Rivet Logic Corporation (October 2008), Enterprise Content Management 2. 0: The Case for an Open Source Approach http://viewer. bitpipe. com/viewer/viewDocument. do? accessId=12186060, Bitpipe Research Kyle McNabb (March 2008), Enterprise Content Management http://www. forrester.com/rb/Research/topic_overview_enterprise_content_management/q/id/40327/t/2, Forrester Research Ann All (March 2010), Case Management Is Step Forward in BPM Evolution , http://www. itbusinessedge. com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/case-management-is-step-forward-in-bpm-evolution/? cs=39882page=2 Strategy Partners (2003), Business Process Management and Workflow, http://www. aiim. org. uk/download_files/aiimuserguides/5_BPM_and_Workflow. pdf, AIIM International – ECM Association Barclay T. Blair (October 2004), An Enterprise Content Management Primer, The Information Management Journal

Biochemical Processes of Oil Degradation

Biochemical Processes of Oil Degradation 1. INTRODUCTION Surfactants are surface active compound that reduce the interfacial tension between two liquids, or that between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants are organic compound that contain both hydrophobic (head part of the surfactant) and hydrophilic (tail part of the surfactant) moieties. Thus surfactant contains both water insoluble i.e. water repellent group as well as water soluble i.e. water loving group. Biosurfactants are also surface active compound like chemical surfactants but unlike the chemical surfactant, biosurfactant are synthesized by microbes like bacteria, fungi and yeast. Biosurfactants comprise the properties of dropping surface tension, stabilizing emulsions, promoting foaming and are usually non-toxic and biodegradable. Recently interest in biosurfactant has increased because of its diversity, flexibility in operation, and more eco-friendly then chemical surfactant (BS Saharan et al., 2011; Eduardo J. gudiËÅ"na et al., 2011). Biochemical processes of oil degradation carried out by microbes involves several type of enzymatic reactions driven by oxygenase, dehydrogenase and hydroxylase (Hamamura N et al., 2008). These enzymes cause aliphatic and aromatic hydroxidation, oxidative deamination, hydrolysis and other biochemical transformation of original oil substance leading to formation of large number of intermediate degradation products. However, a major limitation of microbial degradation of crude oil is its hyydrophobicity. Biosurfactant produced by oil degrading bacteria facilitate the uptake of crude oil hydrocarbons by bacterial cells and also have low toxicity and high biodegradability (Batista SB et al., 2006). So, crude oil degrading bacteria with the ability to produce biosurfactant is widely recommended for fast degradation of crude oil. (Kumar M et al., 2006). Furthermore possibility of their production on large scale, selectivity, performance under intense conditions and their future applications in environmental fortification also these have been increasingly attracting the attention of the scientific and industrial community. These molecules have a potential to be used in a variety of industries like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, humectants, food preservative and detergents (BS Saharan et al., 2011). But the production of biosurfactant on industry level is still challenge because of using high costly synthetic media for microbial growth. Biosurfactants are classified on the basis of diversity in their structure and their microbial origin. They contain a hydrophilic group, that contain an acid, peptide cations, or anions, mono-, di- or polysaccharides and a hydrophobic group of unsaturated or saturated hydrocarbon chains or fatty acids. Biosurfactants produced by a variety of microorganisms mainly bacteria, fungi and yeasts are diverse in chemical composition and their nature and the amount depend on the type of microbes producing a particular biosurfactant. 1.1 Classification of Biosurfactant: Biosurfactants are classified in to two major group one is low molecular weight surface active agent call biosurfactant and high molecular weight substance called bio-emulsifier that is especially used as enhancement of emulsification of hydrocarbon. Further these two major group is divided in to six major group known as glycolipids, lipopolysaccharides, lipoproteins-lipopeptides, phospholipids, hydroxylated and cross linked fatty acids. (a) Glycolipids: Mostly biosurfactants are glycolipds. They are lipids with a carbohydrate attached. The connection is by means of either an ether or ester group. Among the glycolipids, the best known are rhamnolipids sophorolipids and trehalolipids. Fig 1: Glycolipid (b) Rhamnolipids: Rhamnolipids is a group of biosurfactant that studied extensively. These are produced by many species of Pseudomonas and have tremendous antimicrobial activity against several common microorganisms, which is an essential property of all cosmetics due to the daily contamination of the product by the human touch (Lourith N et al., 2009). Rhamnolipids is a type of glycolipid biosurfactant that contain either a one or two molecule of ÃŽ ²-hydroxydecanoic acid. In 1999 the structure of rhamnolipid produced by P. aeruginosa on mannitol and nepthalene by liquid chromotography was compared. And it was found that for mannitol the most common rhamnolipid contained two rhamnoes and two 3-hydroxydecaonic acid and whereas rhamnolipid produced by nepthalene contained two rhamnoes and one 3-hydroxydecaonic acid. Fig 2: Structure of mono and di rhamnolipid (c) Trehalolipids: It is another type of glycolipids that containing trehalose hydrophobic moieties. Such type of biosurfactant structure is diverse in hydrophobic moieties, varying from short fatty acid to long fatty acid chain. In general it is observed that the bacteria showing Gram’s positive produces Trehalolipids biosurfactant (Anderson RJ et al, 1983). Fig 3: Structure of Trehalose lipid (d) Sophorolipids: Such glycolipids are synthesized by yeast; these are the complex mixture of both free acid and lactone form. The acidic SL contain fatty acid as tail where as SL lactonic are formed by the esterification between carboxylic end of the fatty acid and 4† of the sophorose end. Generally lactonic SL has better surface tension lowering property whereas the acidic SL have better potential to form foam and solubility properties (Nuneza A. et al., 2003). Fig 4: Structure of Sophorolipid lactonized and acid Form. 1.2 Lipopeptides and lipoproteins: Lipopeptide biosurfactants are cyclic compounds and they are mostly isolated from Bacillus and Pseudomonas type bacteria Lipopeptides mainly consist of hydrophilic peptides, generally they consist 7 and 10 amino acids long, linked to a hydrophobic fatty acid structure. Bacillus cyclic lipopeptides consist of three major groups known as the surfactin, iturin and fengycin families. Surfactin is the most commonly studied and it contains 7 amino acid cyclic sequences connected to a C13–C16 fatty acid (Kakinuma A. et al.,1969). Fig 5: Structure of aminolipopetide Fig 6: Structure of cyclic aminolipopetide 1.3 Polymeric Biosurfactants: Polymeric biosurfactant are high weight molecular biopolymers which consist polysaccharides, proteins, lipopolysaccharides, lipoproteins or mixture of theses biopolymers. A wide variety of microbes produces polymer biosurfactant. Polymer biosurfactant exhibits properties like high viscosity, tensile strength, and resistance to shear. The following are example of different type of polymeric biosurfactant. 1.4 Advantages and Uses of Biosurfactant: The unique properties of biosurfactant (Microbial Surface Active Agents) such as low toxicity, relative ease of preparation and widespread applicability, make it different from chemical synthetic surfactant and now it has become recently an important product of biotechnology for industrial and medical applications and they allow to replacement of chemical synthetic surfactant. They can be used as emulsifiers, de-emulsifiers, wetting agents, spreading agents, foaming agents, functional food ingredients and detergents in various industrial sectors such as, Petroleum and Petrochemicals, Organic Chemicals, Foods and Beverages, Cosmetics and Pharmaceuticals, Mining and Metallurgy, Agrochemicals and Fertilizers, Environmental Control and Management, and many others. Table 1. Classification of biosurfactants and their use in remediation of heavy metal and hydrocarbon contaminated sites. (Magdalena Pacwa-PÅ‚ociniczak et al., 2011) Stabilization of the hydrocarbon-in-water emulsions Dispersion of limestone in water Stabilization of hydrocarbon-in-water emulsions Alasan Acinetobacter radioresistens KA-53 Biodispersan Acinetobacter calcoaceticus A2 Liposan Candida lipolytica Mannoprotein Saccharomyces cerevisiae There are many advantages of biosurfactant as compare to chemically synthesized surfactants. Some of those are: Biodegradability: Easy to biodegradable as compare to the chemical surfactant (Kosari N, 1992). Low toxicity Biocompatibility and digestibility, that allows their application in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food seasonings. Easily availability of raw material: The raw material need for production of biosurfactant are easily available, biosurfactant producing microorganism can be isolated from the industrial waste like oil contaminated soil, petrol pump spilled, and also can be isolated from municipal waste. Use in environmental control: Biosurfactants can be efficiently used in handling industrial emulsions, control of oil spills, biodegradation and lowering the toxicity of industrial discharges and in bioremediation of polluted soil. Specificity in their action, since biosurfactant has specific organic functional group and often specific in their action. This is particularly used in lowering the toxicity of the pollutant, used in enhancing the emulsification property, used as raw material in cosmetic, medicinal and foodstuff applications. 1.5 Crude oil spills The crude oil spills are one of the main environmental pollutants. Their abundance and persistence in several polluted environmental areas have been reported (Mohammed M. A., 2004). Oil spillage may be caused by natural disasters like earthquakes in the sea surface or due to accidental leaks during exploration, refining, storage and transportation. The causes can be numerous but the consequences are the same. In case of crude oil, the different types such as heavy or light crude oil can affect the clean-up procedures. Crude oil spreads very rapidly on the sea surface and after a short period of time the thickness of the oil film can be at least 1mm. It is therefore necessary to prevent the spreading to reach the shoreline. Once it reaches the shoreline, it contaminates the soil and cause a great damage to the soil ecosystem as well. Some of the largest oil spills that have taken place all over the world are at Iran, Iraq, Persian Gulf, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, United States, Gulf of Mexico, Pakistan and even in India. The most recent oil spill in India is the spill of ONGC Trunk oil pipeline burst, at Uran, Mumbai on 21st January 2011. Around 40 to 45 metric tons of oil was spilled in Mumbai coast that spread around 4 sq km area. Many such disasters reported one seeping oil from a sinking ship. In August 2010, oil spill at Gopalpur beach Orissa in April 2010 causing the death of many Ridley turtles that breed there during that period. It hence becomes a necessity to clean up this oil in order to save the marine life. Clean-up and recovery of hydrocarbons from an oil spill is difficult and the strategies for cleaning up an oil spill are greatly affected by a variety of factors such as the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water body, and the types of shorelines and beaches involved. A number of approaches an d technologies have been developed for spreading of oil spills in marine shorelines and freshwater environments. Many mechanical and chemical methods can be applied to clean-up the spills (Zhu et al., 2001). Fig 7: Crude oil spill 1.6 Methods applied in cleaning of oil spills 1.6.1 Physical methods Booms. Skimmers. Manual removal (Wiping). Mechanical removal. Washing. Sediment relocation or Surface washing. Tilling. In-situ burning 1.6.2 Chemical methods Dispersants. Demulsifies. Solidifiers. Surface film chemicals. Although various conventional cleaning methods such as physical methods like the first response selection, rarely achieve complete cleanup of oil spills. According to the Office of Technology Assessment (U.S. Congress, 1991), current mechanical methods typically recover no more than 10-15 percent of the oil after a major spill. Chemical methods are faster in action but they are toxic to the biota present in the spill environment. Bio-surfactants can be used for cleaning of crude oil spillage. 1.7 Hydrocarbons of Crude oil: Oils are further categorized into three broad groups, according to their molecular weight. General statements can be made for each of the three categories namely light weight, medium weight, and heavy weight components (Scholz et al., 1999). Crude oils are composed of various combinations of these three categories with the following general characteristics. 1.7.1 Light Weight Components: These are components which have carbon atoms ranging from C1 to C10 which are smaller molecules with few numbers of atoms. They are characterized by high volatility, readily dissolvable and evaporate and leave little or no residue because of their short residence time. Many of these components (e.g., benzene, and toluene) are thought to be more bioavailable to animals by primary exposure route (respiratory system). Being highly flammable and readily inhaled, and therefore are of concern for human health and safety. 1.7.2 Medium Weight Components: These are components which have carbon atoms ranging from C11 to C22 which have complex molecules. It has low rate of evaporation and dissolves very slowly that take several days with some residue remaining. Not as bioavailable as lower weight components, it is less likely to affect aquatic animals. Its primary exposure route is respiratory system and gets readily absorbed through skin. 1.7.3 Heavy Weight Components: These are components which have carbon atoms more than C23. It has the longest residence time with very little loss due to evaporation or dissolution. It can cause chronic effect through smothering as residue in the water column and sediments (tarballs, etc). Its primary exposure route is direct topical contact. Some heavy weight components contain carcinogens that are absorbed through the skin. Its risk of exposure is increased due to long residence time, probability of contact, and adsorption property of the oil components. Table 2: List of oil spill incidents since 2010 1.8 Oil Spills and Their Effects: Recently on 21st January 2011, ONGC trunk oil pipeline burst at Uran, Mumbai. About 40 to 45 metric tons of oil was spilled and spread around 4 sq km area. On 7th August, 2010 a foreign cargo ship, collided with another vessel about 10 km off Mumbai harbor, that spilled the oil in spite of the hectic effect made by Navy and Coast Guard to contain the leak, around 700 tons of fuel oil and 28 tons of diesel oil was spilled. Thousands of eggs of the endangered Olive Ridley Turtles on the beach adjoining river Rushikulya in Ganjam district have failed to hatch this year because of the recent 924 tons of furnace oil spill at a nearby port. Rushikulya Sea turtle protection committee have found that the hatching of the eggs, which ended last week, have gone down by 40 to 50 percent this year as the eggs, numbering thousands, got spoiled after the leaked oil soaked the nesting site on the beach. A number of incidents have been reported happening every year. Some of the oil spill incidents ar e listed in the Table 2. Oil spills kill wildlife and damage the ecosystem that can last for generations by forcing changes in reproduction and compromising complex food webs. Oil spill damage to the waterways of birds and animals, destroys the animal immune systems, interrupt breeding and fouling of breeding grounds. Besides, they thin bird and turtle egg shells and also damage the fish larvae, causing deformities. They cause damage to sea grass beds and other shelter/feeding areas, tainting of algae, which perform a vital role in waterway ecosystems. Due to oil spill on soil the insects and worms living in it are killed due to hydrocarbon toxicity, lack of oxygen supply and it reduce the pH of the soil. This affects the fertility of soil and its productivity in terms of the growth of plants (Wokocha G.A., 2011). As a result soil eco system is getting disturbed and it effects the plant growth. Soil oil also contaminates ground water and it causes illness to the human beings and animals when consumed.

Colt: A Man And His Guns :: essays research papers fc

Colt: A Man and His Guns The Colt six shooter will always be a legend to many fighting men. Whether you know it as an accurate, cowboy, Texas Ranger, gun-slinging, out West, corral gun, or as a little protection, the Peacemaker by Samuel Colt and Samuel Colt will never be forgotten. Samuel Colt is known as the inventor of the first revolving firearm. Colt was born in 1814 to a family were money was not the pressing issue. His father , Christopher, was a man that owned his own silk mill in the town where Colt was born, Hartford, Connecticut. Colt's mother died when he was six and his father's business started to fail. When Colt Colt was seven, he was fascinated by guns. He took apart his father's gun in a field and was able to successfully rebuild it. At the age of ten Colt was an apprentice in his fathers mill, mostly dying clothes. Science, adventures of an active life, and mechanics were all the favorite passions of young Colt. The adventures eventually led Colt into trouble. At the age of seventeen Colt was expelled form a preparatory school in Amherst, MA. During the years of 1830 - 1831 Colt voyaged to India.. It was during these years that Colt first conceived the idea of a revolving firearm. Some think it may have come from watching the revolving wheel of the ship, turning and locking. While on board ship, Colt must have seen other revolving firearms in London or India. He carved a wooden model of his ideal gun while he was at sea. None of what Colt may have previously seen on revolving guns could have led to his invention. His ideas were not copied from any source, even though the revolving idea was not unique. When Colt arrived home from sea, he showed the wooden model to his father and a family friend. This friend was Henry Ellsworth, Commissioner of the United States Patent Office. Both Colt's father and Mr. Ellsworth were greatly impressed by the model. They encouraged Colt to file for a patent for his revolving firearm. In the year 1831 Colt hired a man to create the first working model. In 1836 Colt began the production of the first revolver after his petition for the patent. Between these years Colt presented lectures on chemistry and did practical demonstrations of laughing gas. On February of the 25, in the year 1835, the first United States patent was granted for Colt revolver. The patent that Colt received covered eight basic features. First, the application of caps at the end of the gun cylinder.

The Effects of Marijuana :: essays papers

The Effects of Marijuana Marijuana is a mood altering or psychoactive drug that has many nicknames, such as pot, weed, ganja, sensi, herb, and others. It is an ancient drug that dates back to hundreds of years to Asia. Many cultures have used it during meditation, religious worship, and for intoxication. Marijuana itself comes from the Indian Hemp plant. It is the third most widely used drug in the United States, according to a survey taken in 1988, and it is the number one illegally used drug in the United States. Marijuana is so popular that an estimated one out of every three people in the US have tried it and around 44% of US high school students have smoked it. Marijuana users are not easily detectable, nor is the drug just used in one area of society. The Indian Hemp plant is found all over the world, including the US. There are three different types of Indian Hemp. They are Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Rudderalis. These three plants vary in size and mood altering effect. The hemp plant has many uses and has been farmed for centuries. Marijuana can be taken in three ways, by eating, made into a tea, or smoking (the most popular). Smoking it can be done three ways, through a pipe, a joint, blunt. A joint is a rolled piece of paper that is twisted at the ends. A blunt is normally an emptied cigar wrapper filled with marijuana. In a blunt you can fit much more marijuana. Though a blunt isn't always purely marijuana, it can be mixed with other drugs such as angel dust. The results are varied when someone smokes marijuana. Different people will get different results, and certain types of cannabis can cause different effects. The amount of THC (marijuana's main active chemical) may also change the result. If alcohol, or other drug use is occurring while smoking marijuana, the effect could be different. A first time marijuana smoker will probably feel no effect. A chronic or heavy user will get a high (intoxication). When a person is high, normal sights, sounds, tastes, or events can seem very funny or interesting. When intoxicated, time seems to pass a lot slower. To the user, minutes will seem like hours.

How did The Second World War affect America? Essay

Having been drawn into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, America was inevitably altered in many ways by the wartime circumstances and the affects of which are still noticeably present today. The war induced economical, social and political reforms in America. America is one of the world’s great superpowers and with such massive territorial and economical resources she became the main source for arms and equipment flowing into Europe. Existing factories were adapted to cater for the demand for war machines and with this sudden influx of business, provided by the Allied war effort, America found herself in a wartime economic boom. More jobs were available due to the new demand and wages increased leading to a generally higher standard of living. With the primary focus on arms and weapons there was a shortage of consumer goods during the war but following that saw a return of consumer goods and mass exportation to Europe opening up a new market for commerce. To fund the initial production of the arms in demand federal taxes were significantly raised mainly in the form of income tax. Government spending has led to increased taxation remaining a permanent, long-term feature of the US government since WWII. Socially the war benefited the majority of black-Americans and women in America who before then, were normally classed below white males living in America. For example, restrictions were placed on blacks and women in America that made it hard to get a job or receive equal pay. Women were seen as housekeepers and were not considered as workers unless in extremely poor circumstances and un-married (even then women were not paid equally in comparison to men), for it was the men that supported their wives and household, alone. However with men being conscripted into the army during the war many positions in the labour work force were being deserted and if this continued there would not be enough workers and soldiers in order to maintain a consistent high rate of production and supply troops to fight a war. As a result women were brought in to replace those sent off to fight and gained adequately paid positions in factories and other jobs that were otherwise only available to men, therefore when the war ended the soldiers returned and found jobs were no longer as readily available as was previously, because women provided more competition and sexual discrimination started to diminish but it was by no means completely wiped out. By 1945 36% of the workforce was female and two thirds of these women stayed in employment after the war demonstrating a permanent social shift created by the war effort. Discrimination against African-Americans also began to subside slightly as President Roosevelt implemented the F.E.P.C. (Fair Employment Practices Committee), to end racial indiscrimination in the war industries, following the actions of A. Phillip Randolph in 1941. This was sparked off by the increased segregation of blacks and whites in the US armed forces despite the supposedly unified war effort and the fact that other countries did not implore segregated units. The black population were angry that their colour would instantly condemn them to low indignant lives. However during the war reforms were welcomed to certain extents and by 1945 blacks employed by the government rose from 60,000 to 200,000. Then without the intervention of the FEPC all three war services allowed black officers still however segregated but nevertheless improving standards between blacks and whites. It seems that the war did not have an active role in reforming the situation in America between blacks and w hites but it provided a form of passive provocation. With the increased need for workers and factories many cities became popular sites for those seeking employment such as the African-Americans and poor southern farmers. The Industrialisation of America because of the war effort requiring greater arms production and manufacturing of goods led to urbanisation in the late 1940s and 1950s and suburbs were inevitably formed; there became areas of great prosperity and others of poverty due to neglect by those who left for the industry. Politically the war had a significant impact on policies and the routes taken by the wartime presidents Roosevelt and, following on, Truman. Firstly FD Roosevelt was a Democrat and introduced an expensive New Deal policy, which was designed and hoped to bring America out of the depression however it came up against great opposition by many Republicans. To counter this threat he ran for the 1944 election with a more conservative Democrat running mate, Harry S. Truman in turn creating a more seemingly moderate approach, which later secured victory for Roosevelt in the election. Then after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Truman became president and hoped to continue Roosevelt’s domestic policies. Both Roosevelt and Truman were fierce anti-communists and in 1947 during Truman’s term it was decided that in US interests the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine should be incorporated to keep the European market open for America’s capitalisation and therefore keep chances of communist take-overs minimal. Both policies were part of the idea of Containment and fed money into Europe in order to ensure its revival, which would then lead to American prosperity for consumer goods would be in demand and exports would be available but also to prevent communist expansion. Truman also tried to enforce the ‘Fair Deal’, which was similar to Rooselvelt’s new deal but less money was involved. This aimed to improve social security, provide full employment, increase the minimum wage, build more homes and secure employment equality for all races. This ambitious policy never really achieved its aims for the mostly Republican Congress largely opposed the Fair Deal due to its high expenditure and need for increased taxation. This led to Government control being reduced considerably as was introduced during the Depression and wartime. Socially America has changed considerably and sexual and racial discrimination has been tackled. Women in particular have been granted or have fought for the right to work with the fortunate circumstances of the war creating a definite social change. Also economically America has benefited for many of what were the Allied countries are still within a trading circle with the USA as its centre and looking at the more short-term benefits, America prospered with all the required arms production resting upon her factories. Politically taxes have remained high and Government power has been reduced but without the policy of Containment Eastern Europe may not have recovered with such effectiveness and America may have descended into another depression due to poor over-seas commerce.

Gorilla Behavior and Human Behavior Essay

Gorillas are often seen in the movies and television shows are big monster that people have to learn to deal with in the long run. Sometimes, gorillas are portrayed as scary creatures. There are times, however, when gorillas are shown as friendly animals which are a lot like human beings. Gorillas can be described and defined in many ways, especially with the help of mass media. Then again, in a scientific context, here is a gorilla really is: The Gorillas Population: There are a lot of living primates in the world, and the largest of its kind are gorillas. These are herbivores that live by dwelling on the ground. Most gorillas are found in Africa, especially in the forests of the said country (Alverdes, 1969). Gorillas survive very well in subtropical or tropical forests although a lot of them thrive in mountains and in different elevations. Elevated areas where gorillas can be found are the Virunga Volcanoes in Albertine Rift. Some gorillas thrive in the lowlands, too, where lots of them are found in marshes, swamps and thick forests (Alverdes, 1969). Gorillas Family Life: The family life of gorillas shows how much similar they are to humans. Gorillas are considered social creatures who typically build harems. Harems, in this context, means that silver back male gorillas will live with its offsprings and a lot of adult female gorillas (Alverdes, 1969). Then again, with the gorillas that live in mountains, only 40% of which have various closely-related male gorillas (Alverdes, 1969). Generally, gorillas groups contain more females than males. In fact, males in the gorillas family are considered â€Å"left-overs†. Male gorillas go round and about the forests alone. The male gorillas, being loners themselves, make up only five to ten percent of the general population of gorillas. An all-male group of gorillas even exists, all of which are found in elevated areas. This all-male gorillas group is called the mountain gorillas (Alverdes, 1969). Gorilla groups come in different sizes. On the average, there are only four to ten members in a gorilla group. It was in the Central African Republic where the largest gorilla group was found. The largest gorillas group was made up of 52 gorillas (Alverdes, 1969). Gorilla groups have leaders, too. What, then, happens when the leader of the gorilla group dies? It is either the whole group just gets dissolved, or a gorilla takes over. Like humans, gorillas have standards, too. The only gorilla who can take over the leadership is the son of the leader who passed away. If not, then it should be the subordinate silver back male gorilla (Alverdes, 1969). These western lowland gorillas are one of the sub-species of the family of gorillas. Each group is composed of ten gorillas and sometimes only six. The leader is the strongest and the fiercest male called the silver back gorilla (Alverdes, 1969). The leaders of such group are challenged, too, to know who deserves to take over. Adolescent males wait until they grow big enough for the challenge and if they don’t get the leadership in their hands, they can always leave home and be the leader of the new family he will have to build (Alverdes, 1969). Recent studies show that the 100,000 lowland gorillas in the western part of Africa are no longer 100,000. Today, there may only be around 50,000 gorillas left because of the trade in ape meat (which is illegal) and also because of a disease caused by ebola virus (Alverdes, 1969). Gorillas – A Lot Like Humans? Now here are some behavioral patterns that make gorillas and human beings similar to each other: Gorillas are generally aggressive creatures. Their aggressive behaviors found in the human population are their habit of headlong charge, roaring very loudly and beating their own chest (Derbyshire, 2007). With this, it goes to show that gorillas have a macho reputation like humans. However, despite this reputation, these creatures are very gentle especially when it is their time to eat their meals. Researches show that they also have the habit of cleaning their faces and fingers especially when they just finished consuming their food in a messy manner. If humans use water and soap to clean their fingers and faces, gorillas use giant leaves to replace what humans would call as napkins (Derbyshire, 2007). Dr Noelle Kumpel, a researcher from the Zoological Society of London in West Africa, was surprised when he saw how gorillas used leaves as napkins. How do gorillas do this? They simply tear big leaves from trees and plants. Gorillas wipe their hands and mouths after a meal. No one can deny that is a very basic human activity because before and after eating, humans really clean themselves up. They wash their hands and clean their mouths and dry themselves with a dry towel (Derbyshire, 2007). It has been mentioned awhile ago that gorillas, like humans, are social beings, too. Whatever image of gorillas there is that is portrayed on the television and the cinema are not any inch close to how they are in person. Gorillas are very gentle and delicate creatures, sometimes even gentler and more delicate than human beings. Members of the Zoological Society of London in West Africa observed the behaviors of gorillas in Gabon, a conversation park where lowland gorillas are found. They learned and witnessed with their very own eyes how gentle gorillas are compared to chimpanzees. They show sings of sympathy, friendship and leadership among themselves (Derbyshire, 2007). Another amazing thing about gorillas is that, like humans, they care about their diet, too. Observers discovered that gorillas follow a vegetarian diet. They only eat whatever they see around them, but it is limited only to fruits and leaves (Derbyshire, 2007). Like human beings, gorillas care about how they look. If they see a mud, bug or a flee in another gorilla’s body, they take it away from that gorilla’s body. It clearly goes to show that gorillas take pride in their hair which they consider a very significant part of their family life as gorillas (Derbyshire, 2007). Another surprising behavior that gorillas have is that they are technologically minded. If their cousin chimpanzees use stones, twigs and other tools to get some food, gorillas do it differently (Derbyshire, 2007). Like humans, gorillas find better ways to make life easier and more convenient for them. Gorillas use sticks to get to the other side of the pools and swamps or in some other areas they will otherwise not reach without the help of the sticks (Derbyshire, 2007). In A Nutshell: To summarize the whole study, what, in general, makes the gorillas similar to human beings? It is how they behave in a given environment and how they react to situations. It is with the way gorillas try to survive. It is with their ability to think. Not all animals will think about removing flees from another animal’s hair because only gorillas and human beings know the value of cleanliness and hygiene. The same goes with how gorillas tear giant leaves from trees and plants to clean themselves up after a meal. What makes gorillas and human beings a lot like each other is their ability to think, plan and execute the plans to come up with a result. It is basically about wanting to win the battle of survival called life which other creatures wouldn’t even be aware of. Works Cited: Alverdes, Friedrich. â€Å"The Social Life in the Animal World. † Routledge Press, 1999. Ciochon, Russell and John Fleagle. â€Å"Primate Evolution and Human Origins. † Aldine Transaction Press, 1987. Derbyshire, David. 20 June 2007. â€Å"How gorillas have perfect manners at meal times. † Daily Mail. 13 May 2008 . Fossey, Dian. â€Å"Gorillas in the Mist. † Houghton Mifflin Books, 1988. Taylor, Andrea Beth and Michele Lynn Goldsmith. â€Å"Gorillas Biology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. † Cambridge University Press, 2004.