10 Facts About Corals

10 Facts About Corals If youve ever visited an aquarium or gone snorkeling when on holiday, youre probably familiar with a wide variety of corals. You may even know that corals play a fundamental role in defining the structure of marine reefs, the most complex and diverse ecosystems in our planets oceans. But what many dont realize is that these creatures, which resemble a cross between colorful rocks and various bits of seaweed, are in fact animals. And amazing animals at that. Weve explored ten things we should all know about coral, what makes them animals and what makes them so unique. Corals Belong to the Phylum Cnidaria Other animals that belong to the Phylum Cnidaria include jellyfish, hydrae, and sea anemones. Cnidaria are invertebrates (they do not have a backbone) and all have specialized cells called nematocysts that help them capture prey and defend themselves. Cnidaria exhibit radial symmetry. Corals Belong to the Class Anthozoa (a Subgroup of the Phylum Cnidaria) Members of this group of animals have flower-like structures called polyps. They have a simple body plan in which food passes in and out of a gastrovascular cavity (stomach-like sac) through a single opening. Corals Typically Form Colonies Consisting of Many Individuals Coral colonies grow from a single founder individual that divides repeatedly. A coral colony consists of a base that attaches coral to a reef, an upper surface that is exposed to light and hundreds of polyps. The Term Coral Refers to a Number of Different of Animals These include hard corals, sea fans, sea feathers, sea pens, sea pansies, organ pipe coral, black coral, soft corals, fan corals whip corals. Hard Corals Have a White Skeleton That Is Made of Limestone (Calcium Carbonate) Hard corals are reef builders and are responsible for the creation of the structure of a coral reef. Soft Corals Lack the Stiff Limestone Skeleton That Hard Corals Possess Instead, they have little limestone crystals (referred to as sclerites) embedded in their jelly-like tissues. Many Corals Have Zooxanthellae Within Their Tissues Zooxanthellae are algae that form a symbiotic relationship with the coral by producing organic compounds that the coral polyps use. This food source enables the corals to grow faster than they would without the zooxanthellae. Corals Inhabit a Wide Range of Habitats and Regions Some solitary hard coral species are found in temperate and even polar waters and occur as far as 6000 meters below the surface of the water. Corals Are Rare in the Fossil Record They first appeared in the Cambrian period, 570 million years ago. Reef-building corals appeared during the middle of the Triassic period between 251 and 220 million years ago. Sea Fan Corals Grow at Right Angles to the Current of the Water This enables them to efficiently filter plankton from the passing water.

How to Identify a Shakespeare Comedy

How to Identify a Shakespeare Comedy Shakespeares  comedy plays have stood the test of time. Works such as The Merchant of  Venice. As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing are among the Bards most popular and most often performed plays. However, even though we refer to about a dozen or so of Shakespeares plays as comedies, theyre not comedies in the modern sense of the word. Characters and plots are rarely laugh-out-loud funny, and not everything that occurs in a Shakespearean comedy is happy or light-hearted. Indeed, the comedy of Shakespeare’s time was very different from our modern comedy. The style and key characteristics of a Shakespeare comedy are not as distinct as the other Shakespearean genres and sometimes determining whether one of his plays is a comedy can be a challenge.   Common Features of a Shakespearean Comedy What makes a Shakespeare comedy identifiable if the genre is not distinct from the Shakespeare tragedies and histories? This is an ongoing area of debate, but many believe that the comedies share certain characteristics, as described below: Comedy through language: Shakespeares comedies  are peppered with clever wordplay, metaphors, and insults.Love: The theme of love is prevalent in every Shakespeare comedy. Often, we are presented with sets of lovers who, through the course of the play, overcome the obstacles in their relationship and unite. Of course,​ that measure isnt always foolproof; love is the central theme of Romeo and Juliet but few people would regard that play as a comedy.Complex plots: The plots of Shakespeare comedies have more twists and turns than his tragedies and histories. Although the plots are convoluted, they do follow similar patterns. For example, the climax of the play always occurs in the third act and the final scene has a celebratory feel when the lovers finally declare their feelings for each other.Mistaken identities: The plot of a Shakespearean comedy is often driven by mistaken identity. Sometimes this is an intentional part of a villain’s plot, as in Much Ado About Nothi ng when Don John tricks Claudio into believing that his fiance has been unfaithful through mistaken identity. Characters also play scenes in disguise and it is not uncommon for female characters to disguise themselves as male characters. Shakespeare’s comedies are the most difficult to classify because they overlap in style with other genres. Critics often describe some plays as tragic-comedies because they mix equal measures of tragedy and comedy. For example, Much Ado About Nothing starts as a comedy, but takes on some of the characteristics of a tragedy when Hero is disgraced and fakes her own death. At this point, the play has more in common with Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s key tragedies. Shakespearean Plays Generally Classified as Comedy Alls Well That Ends WellAs You Like ItThe Comedy of ErrorsCymbelineLoves Labour’s LostMeasure for MeasureThe Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merchant of VeniceA Midsummer Nights DreamMuch Ado About NothingPericles, Prince of TyreThe Taming of the ShrewTroilus and CressidaTwelfth NightTwo Gentlemen of VeronaThe Two Noble KinsmenThe Winters Tale

Oes the molecular weight of polymers affect the performance of polymer Research Paper

Oes the molecular weight of polymers affect the performance of polymer (organic) solar cells - Research Paper Example (b) Key among these factors is the physical properties of bulk heterojunction, which plays a significant role (Kingsley et al. 22). Components of bulk heterojunction require a broad absorption response in the solar spectrum, which then ensure efficient harvesting of the photons. (c) In addition, the energy levels donor, which is usually a conjugated polymer, need to match with that of the electron acceptor, which typically is a derivative of fullerene (Intemann et al. 3190). This implies that the donor polymer needs to possess a deep highest occupied molecular orbital, which will ensure a large open circuit voltage (Xiao et al. 75). (a) The molecular weight of a conjugated polymer influences the effective conjugated chain (Liu et al. 12165). Therefore, molecular weight makes the electrical and optical properties of the polymers to vary, which improves the performance of polymer solar cells. (b) Prior to conducting and finalizing the research papers, the writers expect that correlations will be evident between the molecular weight and voltage, light absorbance, and current density of solar cells. These correlations will be further investigated and addressed in depth in the final report. Intemann, Jeremy J. et al. â€Å"Molecular Weight Effect on the Absorption, Charge Carrier Mobility, and Photovoltaic Performance of an Indacenodiselenophene-Based Ladder-Type Polymer.† Chemistry of Materials 25.15 (2013): 3188–3195. ACS Publications. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. Kingsley, James W. et al. â€Å"Molecular Weight Dependent Vertical Composition Profiles of PCDTBT: PC71BM Blends for Organic Photovoltaics.† Scientific Reports 4 (2014): n. pag. www.nature.com. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. Xiao, Zeyun et al. â€Å"Effect of Molecular Weight on the Properties and Organic Solar Cell Device Performance of a Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Polymer.† Polymer Chemistry (2015): n. pag. pubs.rsc.org. Web. 5 Mar.

Discretion in the stop and search context have come under much Essay

Discretion in the stop and search context have come under much scrutiny as it has widely been linked to racist practices.Discuss - Essay Example Although stop and search normally happens in public places, it may also be implemented in certain private areas. However, police discretion to stop and search individuals in public has become one of the most contentious aspects of British policing, and several empirical researches, anecdotal evidences, and survey data point to the ineffective and discriminatory use of the police powers. Significantly, the question of police powers to stop and search people has become one of the central questions in the debate about the relationship between police and community. Most notably, discretion in the stop and search context give rise to several related issues including racist practices and it remains a bare fact that Black people are more likely to be stopped than White people. As Bowling and Phillips (2007) maintain, â€Å"the statistics show that the use of the powers against black people is disproportionate and that this is an indication of unlawful racial discrimination. If stop and sea rch powers cannot be electively regulated – and it seems that they cannot – then their continued use is unjustified and should be curtailed.†1 Therefore, it is fundamental to establish that discretion in the stop and search context has come under much scrutiny as it has widely been linked to racist practices. This paper makes a reflective exploration of the use of discretion in the stop and search in relation to racist practices. Discretion in the Stop and Search and Racist Practices The fundamental relationship among the concepts of ethnicities, racism, crime, and criminal justice has been widely acknowledged in the various empirical studies in criminology. Significantly, the modern strategies of police and policing affect the minority communities and ethnic groups. Ever since the beginning of post-colonial migration to the U.K., the relationship between policing and minority ethnic communities have been characterised by mistrust, resentment, and suspicion. As W hitefield (2004) maintains, the anti-immigrant attitudes and insensitive policing of the early years of post-colonial migration developed ‘mistrust, resentment, and suspicion’ between the police and minority ethnic communities. For example, the West Indian Standing Conference report by Hunte (1966) draws attention to police officers going â€Å"nigger hunting †¦ to bring in coloured person at all costs.† 2 Significantly, oppressive policing against African, Caribbean, and Asian communities takes the form of mass stop and search operations, the improper use of paramilitary methods, disproportionate surveillance, groundless armed raids, etc. â€Å"Among the various aspects of the relationship between the police and minority ethnic communities, it is the practice of ‘stop and search’ that has been the most contentious.† 3 Therefore, police discretion in the stop and search context has given rise to heated debates in criminal justice seeing t hat it has widely been linked to racist practices. First of all, it is essential to realise what ‘stop and search’ exactly means and what are the various contexts in which the police discretion in the stop and search is applicable. According to the Vagrancy Act of 1824, any individual in suspicious context could be arrested and prosecuted by the police, and there are evidences to establish that this discretionary power of the police

Enterprise Systems Essay Example for Free

Enterprise Systems Essay Enterprise systems, according to the text, are: a set of integrated software modules and a central database that enables data to be shared by many different business processes and functional areas throughout the enterprise. (Laudon Laudon, 2011)Let’s say, for example, the financial department of an organization needs to audit all of the orders fulfilled by the Sales and Marketing department. With an integrated enterprise system, there is no need to request the information and wait for it to be sent to the financial department from the distribution center. Both departments are linked by a central database that they can both access at any given time. This reduces the time between requesting the data and utilizing it for the department’s needs. If the Sales and Marketing department does not keep the Distribution department aware of what is being sold, then prompt delivery of the product cannot be guaranteed. These enterprise systems also increase the security of the database. Having separate databases for each department will increase the chance for lost data. The needs of each department can be considered separate, but when looking at it from an organizational perspective, each department is a part of a larger entity. This entity cannot survive without the cooperation of each of its departments working together. †¢How does effectively implementing and using enterprise systems contribute to achieving operational excellence? As stated in the above answer, a properly implemented enterprise system creates a more accessible, secure, and usable database. An organization that allows each department to access the information needed to run smoothly and effectively can save time and productivity. If compared to a system of separate departments and databases, we can see the benefits of the enterprise system. Any department, with the proper access, can get the information they need to do the work that they need to do. Without this, we would see an information system with the possibility of lost data due to poor communication between departments. This relates to the question of security. It is easier for a database specialist to keep one large database secure and safe than it would be to work with several separate databases. The question of who can access what data from what department is easily controlled within the database itself, which allows for easier backup of data as well. A unified database can also benefit each separate department by easily allowing them to access only the information they need, this boosts the security of not only the database, but all information in that database. All of these contribute to the ease of use of the database and a smoother running operation. †¢What challenges are posed by enterprise applications? There are many different challenges that arise when implementing an enterprise system. Accessibility is one of the biggest. What department can access what data? How can this data be used by the departments that have access to the data? The information used by the enterprise applications are the core of the database. Without it, there would be no need for the database to exist. Each department must have the proper applications that can communicate the data between the other departments. I have seen many instances where improper implementation was due to each department not complying with the software or hardware requirements of the enterprise system. This results in not only loss of productivity, but money wasted on applications not compatible with the base system. This also lowers the security of the enterprise system, which can result in the loss of data. Having a secure database, as I have said before, can also benefit the ease of use and better productivity not only for the IT department who keeps the database and systems running properly, but for the end user in the offices of each separate department. Only by working in concert and by having the appropriate applications for each separate department can an enterprise system work for the betterment of not only the organizations, but their customers or clients.

Factors that Negatively Effect Fetal Development Essay -- essays resea

Factors that Negatively Effect Fetal Development Nicotine and drugs can affect a fetus by entering into the bloodstream of the unborn child. While you are pregnant, almost everything you eat, drink or smoke passes through your body to your baby. That is why drugs taken during pregnancy can be harmful to your baby. The word "drugs" doesn't only mean illegal drugs. It also means legal drugs and prescription and over-the-counter medicines. The use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs during pregnancy continues to be a leading preventable cause of mental, physical, and psychological impairments and problems in infants and children. A developing fetus really is a part of its mother, sharing oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical cord and across the fluid-filled bubble known as the placenta. It was once thought the placenta as a natural filter, shielding the fetus from external harm. Today, we know that virtually everything in a woman's bloodstream passes through to the developing organs of the fetus. Since a fetus can't remove harmful substances on its own, all the drugs a woman uses during pregnancy stay in its body longer than they do in mom's -- and at higher, more toxic levels. Main risks of smoking during pregnancy include: Delayed Growth. The more a woman smokes, the less her baby grows. Twice as many babies weighing less than 5 pounds are born to smokers as to nonsmokers. Premature Birth: Pregnant smokers are more likely to suffer bleeding, damage to...

The Inflammatory Response

The body is designed to defend itself against invading bacteria, and infection. The skin and mucous membranes are the first line of defence, the invasion of foreign bacteria can pass this first line of defence and immediately triggers the second line of defence. The second line of defence is the inflammatory response (McCance & Huether, 2009). The mechanism of the inflammatory response is to protect the injured site by killing the agent responsible, limiting its effects on the rest of the body and initiating the healing process (Porth, 2007). According to Botwinski (2001), during infection bacteria grow and divide, and release potent toxins that cause damage to the body’s cells. These toxins trigger the initiation of the inflammatory response. The changes that occur are initiated by the interactions between bacterial products and inflammatory mediators. Inflammatory mediators are chemicals that are released by protective cells or plasma when harmful agents invade the body. Inflammatory mediators include histamine, prostaglandins, and leukotrienes (Kumar, Abbas, Fausto, Robbins, & Cotran, 2005). The main cells involved are the mast cells and are located in connective tissue in close contact with blood vessels. Mast cells play a key role in the inflammatory response, when stimulated by infection they release a potent substance called histamine. When histamine leaks into the tissues it causes changes in the surrounding blood vessels. The two changes that occur in the blood vessels is blood vessel dilation and increased capillary permeability. The changes are designed to maximise the movement of plasma proteins and circulating cells out of the blood flow and into the site of infection (McCance & Huether, 2009). At the onset of injury the histamine that is released causes the blood vessels at the site to constrict for a short time then dilate (Nair, 2009). This widening of the blood vessels increases blood flow, and therefore increases the amount of oxygen, nutrients, and white blood cells being delivered to the site of injury (Botwinski, 2001). New blood vessels can also open up at the site and the area becomes flooded with blood. This increase in blood flow produces the characteristics of redness and warmth and are the earliest symptoms seen in the inflammatory response (Porth, 2007). The blood vessel wall confines blood products and cells in the circulation and prevents it from leaking out into the surrounding tissues of the body. This is done by cells called endothelial cells that tightly line the walls (Braun & Anderson, 2006). The chemicals that are released at the site of injury bind with receptors on the endothelial cells and cause’s them to retract producing gaps in their walls. This structural change allows healing fluid and cells to escape out into the affected area (Porth, 2007). Braun & Anderson (2006) describe that the harmful bacteria are diluted by this increased amount of fluid. The increased fluid and pressure produces the swelling seen at the site of infection. Nerve endings can also be stimulated as a result from the increasing pressure and this is what can cause the pain associated with infection (Nair, 2009). An important part of the inflammatory response is to send circulating white blood cells to the infected area. They are attracted in large numbers to the scene of injury as a result from blood vessel dilation and the release of bacteria substances and inflammatory mediators (Kumer et al. 2005). The white blood cells job is to provide a defence by killing invading bacteria, and getting rid of dead tissue. The main white blood cell in the inflammatory response is the neutrophil and arrives first at the site of inflammation approximately six to twelve hours after the initial injury (McCance & Huether, 2007). Macrophages are cells that live in various tissue locations and like the neutrophils they are released in the blood stream and attracted to the su bstances released at the site of infection. Macrophages and neutrophils are called phagocytes, and share the same job in the inflammatory response, which is to clean up the damage by ingesting and killing the invading bacteria (McCance & Huether, 2005). According to Sherwood (2009), the phagocytes floating in the circulation stick to the inside of the blood vessel wall, this process is called mirgination. Diapedesis then occurs, in this process the phagocytes squeeze through the gaps of capillary walls that were formed earlier on in the inflammatory response. Chemical mediators called chemotaxins accumulate at the site of infection and attract the phagocytes. Once inside the surrounding tissue the phagocytes make their way through the tissue to areas where there are higher concentrations of chemotaxins, this process is called chemotaxis (Roitt & Delves, 2001). Once at the affected area the neutrophils and macrophages eliminate the invading bacteria from the inflammation site by a process called phagocytosis. Phagocytosis is â€Å"cell-eating† and is a three stage process composed of recognition and attachment, engulfment, and killing and degradation (Kumar et al. , 2005). Phagocytes have receptors on their surface that enable them to recognise and attach to the receptors on the surface of the microorganism, this attachment prevents the bacteria from â€Å"getting-away†. In the process of engulfment the phagocytes stretch two surface like projections called pseudopods around the microorganism until it completely surrounds it, the microorganism is then trapped inside. Potent chemicals and enzymes are released inside the phagocyte and these break down and kill the invading microorganism. The pus that forms at the infected site is the accumulation of these phagocytic cells both living and dead (Sherwood, 2009). McCance & Huether (2009) describe that there are three protein systems that are also initiated during the inflammatory response. They are the complement, clotting and kenin systems, and consist of protein enzymes. These systems work along side the protecting cells and help them carry out their roles. The complement system consists of potent defensive proteins that help in the destruction of invading bacteria. The clotting system produces fibrinous tissue that acts as a boundary by trapping the bacteria and maximising the activity of the phagocytic cells. The clot that is formed also minimizes blood loss and prevents spread of infection (Botwinski, 2001). The kenin system consists of mainly bradykinin a protein that cause’s dilation of vessels, vascular permeability, and pain (McCance & Huether, 2009). The protective mechanisms of the inflammatory response prepare the site for healing and regeneration of the destructed tissue. Depending on the severity of infection and damage this can be a long process and is finished when structure and function is returned to normal (McCance & Huether, 2009).