A SMALL PLACE JAMAICAN KINCAID Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A SMALL PLACE JAMAICAN KINCAID - Essay Example However, as I kept on reading, I figured that Jamaican Kincaid is about a journey of a tourist, who comes far away from his every day world to have a good time. It shows the ignorance we use as bliss in order to go through an ordinary life. Starting from the customs at the airport, writer Annie John has tried to show the difference the tourist is likely to notice once he/she arrives in Antigua. The cab ride, which starts with the driver quoting a high price than the one he would charge the local people. The writer shows here that people in these countries, especially cab drivers feel that their best chance of earning easy money is to quote a high price to a western tourist as the drivers would feel that these tourists would not mind spending these amounts of money since they do not have any idea about the regular charge. The ride to the hotel might seem dangerous if narrated, with nearly no traffic rules being followed and the condition of the roads giving you the feeling that you are in Disney Land and taking a ride in a roller-coaster. However, the writer says that the tourist would not feel much of a difference as the cab drivers in New York are also from these parts of the world and would have a similar style of dr iving. The writer talks about the possible confusion of the tourist when he sees expensive cars Made in Japan, he must wonder how can these people afford it, do these people have equally expensive houses to go with this car? The writer posing this question gets the chance to take a dig at the government of Antigua which owns two major car dealerships in Antigua. The government hence makes car/auto loans easier for consumers while home loans remain stringent. Describing the god awful look of the hospitals and the quality of the doctors, Annie John makes the reader think about the helpless condition of people in Antigua. As the writer said, the ministers can take a

Changing Roles of Human Resource Management Essay -- Human Resource Ma

Human Resource profession has faced numerous challenges in the past, which has forced HR managers to try and implement various strategies in the work environment all in the aim of survival and prosperity of the business. The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) in India recently organized the 37th annual conference of HRs to discuss the various challenges in the work place and ways of mitigating them. It was unanimously concluded that HR managers needed to revise its roles and create new roles for organizations. The new roles would help in repairing the structural foundation of a company by being proactive and innovative instead of following monotonous routine schedules. Despite the challenges and solutions to the problems that have been suggested, the question still remains, who shall take care of HR managers if they themselves are caretakers and contribute to strengthening the backbone of a company? Culcuttta et al, 2007, suggests that strategies to be implemented should be in tandem with the current trends in globalization, technology, diversity, e-business, and ethics. Furthermore, the need to take care of HR managers goes hand in hand with the saying that â€Å"No company is sick, nor the commodity, but the performing and non performing managers are the ones who matter the most in carrying forward a business successfully.† In the last twenty years there has been a gradual transition in style and substance from personnel management to HR management, and more recently to international HR management. Briscoe et al, (2008, p. 22) believe that the personnel management role lacked strategic relevance because it was mainly an administrative type role whereas the modern concept of HR is much more strategic in scope. Globali... ...alcutta IIM, Sridha, R., Pathak DD., Ganguly S. (Feb. 21, 2007). The statesman. A newspaper published on New Delhi. Retrieved on January 20th 2011 from: http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/pqdweb?did=1219601621&Fmt=3&clientId=13118&RQT=309&VName=PQD Holbenche L. (2009). Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy (2nd ed.). Elsevier Limited. Burlington. Pp. 165-195 Soupata L. (November, 2004). Executive excellence: a case study of UPS. A Journal on Human Resource Management. United States. Vol. 21, Iss. 11; pg. 15, 2 pgs. Retrieved on January 19th, 2011 from: http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/pqdweb?did=750794951&Fmt=4&clientId=13118&RQT=309&VName=PQD Tsui P.Y. and Lai K.T. (2009). Professional Practices of Human Resource Management in Hong Kong: Linking HRM to organizational success. Hong Kong University Press. Pp. 85-89

Green Building Technology Essay

1. Introduction Would there be a technology that can benefit nature and human beings at the same time? Conventional belief over the use of technology is that nature is sacrificed and used up for the sake of human beings. However, technology is not simply about efficiency anymore, and its associated grounds are expanding. Concern over environment is one of the most prominent ones, and ‘Green building technology’ falls under it. Green building technology aims to create environmentally responsible buildings or housings throughout its life span, while using the resources available efficiently. It involves the whole process of building certain structure, covering the processes of design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction (EPA). In short, it is construction technology that tries to optimize environmental sustainability and efficiency while not giving up the necessary qualities of living spaces. Idea of Green building arose as OPEC oil embargo occurred in year 1973 with an Initial goal of reducing its fossil fuel usage. This being a motive, further researches was done by different groups and green building came into housing trend (Marble Institute) After that, there had been increased attention and development of green building technology. People are more interested in looking for environmentally friendly housings and many governments are promoting it through different kinds of green construction standards. Yet, is this technology really giving us substantial benefit in our daily lives? What kind of benefits, in specific, is it providing? What would be the processes of achieving such impacts? Even though this technology does not have a long history, it is already causing changes in reducing energy and resource usages; economic and social benefits are in rise too. Green building has substantial positive effect in both environment and economy, with potential for better outcomes in the future. This can be supported by numerous facts and application of technology. Specific applications of controlling energy usage leads to outright reducing of resources used in construction, which in bigger ground, leads to overall change of human society. 2. Functions in Resource Conservation 2.1 Background The need to conserve natural resources arose from several natural changes in climate. First major change was the global increase of temperature, which also caused devastating natural disasters. (Figure 1) For example, this diagram from NASA’s investigation implies that until the point of 1990s, at least there were below-zero global temperature anomaly. But it has exceeded the point of 0 degrees Celsius since then, reaching higher points. This caused problems like shifting natural characteristics for some countries (i.e. gaining more tropical climate, while the area doesn’t fall under tropical area) and extreme weathers like heat waves leading to hundreds of casualties (IPCC). Stanford researchers predicts summers will keep getting hotter for the next 20 years (Rust,2011) Additional problems of high energy dependencies and its consequences are not negligible too. Oil prices have doubled since 10 years ago with annual increase of 25% between 2004 and 2008 (Bauer, 2010). For countries who import their energy resources, reducing the energy usage and saving money is a big concern. High dependency in energy usage often causes crisis in some special crisis situations. It could be financial, political, or literally natural disaster. While so, housing alone takes up major portion of total energy usage. According to United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it accounted for 38.9 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2005. In year 2006 it took 72 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption and this number will rise to 75% by 2025. So it can be seen how change in managing housings can lead to positive changes (EPA). Green building technology tackles against these problems with many different technologies, adopting them appropriately for each aspects of energy conservation. While so, 2 examples that directly fight against specific aspects are brought up here. 2.2 Heat Control Firstly, it has been said that the heating and cooling process of a household heavily uses electricity and causes substantial carbon emission. Following are statistics stated by EPA: †¢ The average household spends at least $2,000 a year on energy bills — over half of which goes to heating and cooling. †¢ Out of the total energy consumption in an average household, 50% goes to space heating, 27% to run appliances, 19% to heat water and 4% goes to air conditioning. The numbers are self-explanatory; heating and cooling alone is a big part of whole energy consumption. Temperature control technology for green building enables reducing such consumption and carbon emission. During summer the sun light directly enters through houses through windows or hits the surfaces of outer building and heats up the whole construction. Four factors affect heat accumulation in a home: solar heat gain, internal heat gain, air leakage, and temperature difference. To solve these problems, approaches such as using shades, changing color of outer building, change of roof structure, reducing internal heat generating sources (ex. Electronic equipment), and better use of spaces for air ventilation are used. Today’s buildings also use machine controlled ventilation system or, manual adjustment of ventilation openings to control the heat (Bauer, 2010). On the other hand, during winter it is important to keep and gain every possible heat. A simple method like building the houses facing towards south or optimizing use of sunlight would be the most well-known methods. Additionally, methods of ‘loading up’ the heat into the building are also used, which is using methods like using atria or double faà §ade- dual dimensioned surfaces like windows or wall surfaces- which can support the heat insulation by 20% (Bauer, 2010). As a particular example, window films are proven to be effective in solar radiation cut, reducing the heat level entering a house. The benefit of windows films is clear; it reflects the sun radiation that causes heat and let the room keep cool with less efforts, in terms of both cost and energy usage. This means less air conditioning is used and less energy is consumed. It is proposed by Solar Gard ®, that â€Å"Not only do Solar Gard’s architectural solar control window films help cut energy expenditures by up to 30%, its Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) scientifically proves that Solar Gard and Panorama ® solar control window films have a net positive environmental impact worldwide (Solar Gard). These are specific effects of window film proposed by them; 1. One square meter of a low-e wood window, the type with the smallest carbon footprint, has a carbon cost of 253 kilograms. The carbon cost of Solar Gard window film is less than one kilogram per square meter. 2. Solar Gard window film saves 1001 times more GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere than is used and/or created during its manufacture. 3. Solar Gard window film installed between 2007 and 2008 saved 3.6 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere; this is equivalent to the carbon output of 16,350 American families (with four people). This particular products’ such effects can be expected from other window films too. In short, all these heat controlling technologies serve to reduce the electricity usage with additional energy conserving effects of reduced carbon emissions. 2.3 Emission Control Speaking of carbon emissions, there are specific uses of materials that combats them. In United States, housing alone takes 38 percent of the total carbon dioxide emissions (EPA). Carbon dioxide emission is one of the well-known factors that are blamed for the global warming. The famous Kyoto Protocol was established in order to limit this and also to achieve better results with global warming around the world. Choice of materials for constructions is thus carefully chosen from the planning stage, since once used in the process of construction, it is hard to replace them afterwards. Different sorts of materials has different amount of carbon emissions, and in green building that is considered as major criteria. Other aspects of renewability and sustainability are also considered carefully when material is picked. One specific example of such effort would be use of wood for floorings. Wood has its advantage as a building material from its characteristics of low embodied energy, low carbon impact, low pollution emission, and sustainability. Low embodied energy means it takes less efforts and resources in order to get it. Wood, since it has minimal energy processing during harvesting, has relatively lower embodied energy than those like steels, concrete, aluminum, plastic. In terms of carbon impact, it has lower carbon emission than most of other construction materials. Compared to other artificial or metal types or materials, it shows significantly lower level of carbon emission just as shown in figure 2. Figure 2 Basically, this is the most important characteristic of wood usage for green building, and it is listed as the followings in the website of The Solid Wood Flooring Company: * For every tonne of CO2 a tree absorbs from the atmosphere nearly  ¾ of a tonne of oxygen is produced * Over 83% of the timber supplied in the UK is certified to be sustainable * Using wood instead of other building materials saves an average of 0.9 tonnes of CO2 per cubic metre. * An ‘EUR’ wooden pallet stores around 29kg of CO2 taken from the atmosphere during the growth of the tree While metals and other fossil-based materials are not renewable resources, wood can be maintained forever if carefully used. It has to be accompanied by careful forestry planning, but it is definitely one resource that can be continuously re-grown. 3. Impacts 3.1 Social Impacts With all the features that efficiently use the natural energy and resources, green building technology also supports well-being of tenants in the buildings. It typically contributes to improve employees’ and students’ health, comfort and productivity. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)—one of the criteria of the U.S Green Building Council’s LEED-H rating system—evaluates the subtle issue that influences people’s status of mind and body in a space. It has been scientifically proven by related study that people tend to be more productive and contribute better performance in environment with better ventilation and proper temperature control (Abdou, 2006). Figure 3 Just as shown in figure 3, improved working or living condition leads to better work performances. The study sponsored in part by commercial real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield, reported 30 percent fewer sick days among one company’s employees, and discovered a 10 percent increase in net revenue per employee in another company, after each office moved to LEED-certified buildings. Schools operating in green buildings also demonstrate higher test scores and heightened academic enthusiasm among students (Abdou, 2006) Plus, nature friendly methods and materials used in green buildings proved to ease sicknesses that could occur in daily lives of tenants. It is believed to contribute widely to respiratory problems, allergies, nausea, headaches, and skin rashes. With much emphasis on ventilation, non-toxic, low emitting materials and cutting use of air conditioning, green buildings indeed create healthier and more comfortable living environments, which keep people away from ‘Sick Building Syndromes’ (Fisk, 2002). In summary, all these benefits retrieved from applying green building technology can lead to wholesome social benefit of people, by promoting health initiatives and pleasurable living spaces. Hence it further goes on to the bigger scale of expanding economic ground, by improving productivity and economic activity of the users of this technology. 3.2 Economic Impacts Green buildings are so much more cost effective compared to conventional buildings. According to the USGBC’s LEED rating system, green buildings tend to be 25-30% more energy efficient and more likely to generate the renewable resource on-site. Due to its cost effectiveness, energy saving and easy maintenance, green buildings outperform non-green buildings in the resale market. Basically a newly–constructed green building will perform 10.9% better than its original construction value. Prospective buyers who realize the utility and maintenance cost and are more concerned about the sustainable design of the building will be attracted towards it. Though there is a common perception that green buildings cost a heavy premium over normal buildings, the cost of green design has dropped in the last few years as the number of green buildings has risen. Hence buildings both residential and commercial with sustainable design component continue retaining a high property value in th e retailing market (McGraw Hill Construction, 2010). By continuing to grow in different ground of constructions from the usual ones, green building technology is opening new opportunities for more economic activities with its prospects. As consumers and suppliers become more interested in such technology, it carries much potential for better outcomes. 4. Future Prospects Then would these outcomes continue to exist in the upcoming future too? Green building is getting on the line of popularity within the general public who are becoming more aware of environmental conservation. Governments are encouraging it with various policies and incentives with brandings. It does seem like there are some positive prospects for green building technology to continue to grow in the future. There are supple amounts of factors encouraging such potentials. Regarding the future upcoming green building designs, buildings such as Zero-Energy Buildings are being explored. Zero-energy building (ZEB) is the designation given to buildings that have zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. These buildings harvest energy produced on-site to meet their own energy needs. In addition to this, ideas of green schools are also being developed. Certified Green Schools are growing rapidly as part the LEED System. This trend will accelerate as understanding of the health and educational benefits of green schools grow (Yudelson, 2010). On the other hand, research efforts for further protection of environment are encouraging the future growth too. Awareness of the coming global crisis in fresh water supply leads building designers and managers to take further steps to reduce water consumption to increase sustainability. This will be done in buildings through the use of more conservation-oriented fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new water technologies. Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) examines the impact of materials and will allow architects to determine what products are more sustainable and what combination of products can produce the most environmentally friendly results (GEP, 2011). In 2011, the annual Image Power Global Green Brands Study polled more than 9,000 people in 8 countries (USA, UK, China, Brazil, India, Germany, France and Australia) to analyze consumers’ perception of green products. All participating countries, either developed or developing, indicated that they were quite willing to open up their wallets and pay a bit more for green options in real estate. Most of the informants showed great interest to the green buildings. To be precise, 60% of the surveyed consumers globally intend to extend their green choices more and more to items in the real estate, energy and technology sectors (Longsworth, 2011). By 2013 overall global green building market, both residential and commercial, may more than double in its scale from approximately $36-$49 billion to $96-$140 billion. When looking solely at the commercial and institutional real estate development markets, the green building market is projected to grow from its current occupation of 10-12% of the market to 20-25% (GreenBuildings.com). The future market trends are predicted to continue to grow with certain incentives and initiatives. One of them would be green building technology being encouraged to be used in government sectors. Government offices will need to be transformed into green buildings because of regulatory requirements in many countries. Such need will be the key growth area for green building market. Cash incentives for developers will play a major role in this too. Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan have developed strong support system and incentives for green building developers, designers and owners. Seeing benefits from such incentives, more experts will enter into green building area, stimulating its growth (Frost&Sullivan, 2009). 5. Conclusion Green building, regardless its short history, has achieved a lot in a short term. Its variety of technologies gave rise of new solutions for using less energy yet enjoying more nature friendly benefits, and as it get popular, economic and social benefits arose. Specific technologies that have been discussed were temperature control technologies and choice of building materials. Such direct outcomes lead green building’s positive impacts to be applied on overall human society and economy. From the current outcomes of green building technology and its rising popularity, it seems to have good prospects for the future growth too. There are different factors of future designs and economic incentives encouraging this trend, and so further growth followed by more positive impacts can be expected. These all consequently support the idea; green building has substantial positive effect in both environment and economy, with potential for even better outcomes in the future. Still, there are problems and limitations of green building technology that we have to consider about for the moment. It is a new born technology and yet to be fully developed. Hence full green buildings that incorporate much of the technology are prone to be accused for its high costs as mentioned before and also its insufficient development of efficiency are often pointed at as something unworthy of further developments. Nevertheless, its future potentials cannot be abandoned simply because of its current limitations. Since the initial goal of green building is to reduce human use of natural resources and promote sustainability, current green building technology should be pushed on for further developments that can solve problems at the moment and so forth move on to achieve its goal in an even better way. Besides, its potentials are sufficient to predict better efficiency and profound benefits for our society. Hence green building technology should be acknowledged for its supportive impacts on environment not only for the current moment, but also for the upcoming future that will aid human beings to continue to live on without exhausting the natural resources.

Essay about The Lymphatic System - 491 Words

The Lymphatic System nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Lymphatic System is very important. It helps with the Cardiovascular system, and our immune systems. The Lymphatic System is made up of two semi-independent parts. One is a network of lymphatic vessels. The other part is various lymphoid tissues and organs all over the body. The functions of the Lymphatic System transporting fluids that have escaped from the blood vascular system, and the organs house phagocytic cells and lymphocytes. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Lymphatic vessels are an elaborate system of drainage vessles that collect the excess protein-containing fluid and returns it to the bloodstream.. Once an interstitial fluid enters the lymphatics it is called lymph. The†¦show more content†¦Thes cells are very important parts of the immune system. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Lymphatic System also contains tissues. The tissue of the Lymphatic System is reticular connective tissue. It hold the macrophages and changes the number of lymphocytes. It is an important part of the immune system. The Lymphoid tissue can be found in the follicles. Lymphoid organs are discrete and encapsulated. The main lymphoid organs are the spleen, tonsils, thymus and lymph nodes. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The lymph nodes are placed along the lymphatic vessels. Each node has a fibrous capsule, a cortex, and a medulla. The lymph nodes circulate fluids. The lymph enters the lymph nodes through afferent lymphatic vessels and exits through the efferent vessels. (afferent=enter, efferent=exit) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Most lymphoid organs contain both macrophages and lymphocytes. The spleen is a place for immune function, and it kills defective or aged red blood cells and blood-borne pathogens. The spleen also stores platelets, products of hemoglobin, and acts as hematopoietic sites in the fetus. The Thymus contains hormones. It is mostly functional in youth. Peyer’s patches are on the tonsils, intestional wall, lymphatic nodules of the appendix and nodules of the respitory tract. (MALT) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The many functions of the lymphatic system help the body to maintain body homeostasis. Some of the functions areShow MoreRelatedThe Lymphatic System862 Words   |  4 Pagesof our lymphatic system is vital to the health of our whole body. This system is critical to our body’s ability to detoxify and regenerate tissues, filter out toxins and foreign substances, recover crucial substances that have escaped from the blood, and maintain a healthy immune system. [pic] The Lymphatic system keeps the water of the body clean, and the pumping of the nodes during Lymphatic massage stimulates the production of various white blood cells and thus boosts the immune system. It isRead MoreThe Lymphatic System Essay881 Words   |  4 PagesThe lymphatic system is very similar, and works with and directly at the side of the cardiovascular system. 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The immune system, just like any other organ system works in tandem with the other organ systems to maintain homeostasis. The circulating fluids transport the immune cells from one part of the body to another. The endocrineRead MoreThe Lymphatic System Essay2019 Words   |  9 Pages The lymphatic system is the bodies’ drainage network that keeps the bodily fluid balanced and also fights off infections to keep he body healthy. The lymphatic system is made up of a variety of lymphatic vessels and organs. (The Spleen and Lymphatic System, Teens Health) The lymphatic system as a whole is similar to the cardiovascular system and has three specific functions. The vessels for one pick up extra fluid and return it to the bloodstream. 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Then, the history of present illness, past medical history, familyRead MoreRegistered Nurses And Members Of Various Professions Exchange Knowledge1107 Words   |  5 PagesThe agenda was organized from the most general concepts and then proceeded to most specific concept. Initially, there was a review of the cardiovascular system and the lymphovascular system. It was at this point where there exists the connection between the two systems. Further instruction on the anatomy and physiology of the lymphovascular system was discussed. Detailed discussion ensued on the microvascular fluid exchange at the capillary level, the Starlings law of fluid exchange of 1896 and how