Banana Vaccines Eat Up Your Vaccines - 1895 Words

BANANA VACCINES – EAT UP YOUR VACCINES by Group I Brett Eaker, Deepa Thamodaran, Kevin George, Mamud Mansaray Theresa Hoang A group project submitted for BIOT 640 9020 Societal Issues in Biotechnology (2155) UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Adelphi, MD 20783 Summer 2015 BANANA VACCINES – EAT UP YOUR VACCINES (Introduction) Risk Assessment and Testing Risk assessment is a process to identify potential hazardous components, analyze dose-response relationship, evaluating the possibility for human exposure, and estimating the frequency of contrary effects under various conditions. The production of edible vaccines in transgenic plants was first proposed in 1990. As technology matures, production of these vaccines is more focused on the regulatory framework that controls and approves the products (Straub et al., 2012). There is no inclusive federal legislation specifically addressing GMOs. GMOs are regulated under the general statutory authority of environmental, health, and safety laws. The three main agencies involved in regulating GMOs are 1. The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 2. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 3. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Assessment Logical Flow The process of risk assessment flows in a logical stepwise fashion that includes the following five steps: (1) problem formulation; (2) hazard identification; (3) dose-response relationships; (4)Show MoreRelatedWay to Stronger, Healthier and a More Immune India1833 Words   |  7 PagesWay To Stronger, Healthier And A More Immune India.What should be the greatest wealth you need to give your children? Great parents know that the correct answer is Good Health. It is our responsibility to give them a long life without suffering from pains and aches. It is vital for them to maintain good health to have proper growth and development. When we know that our children are in contact with deadly bacteria and viruses every minute, it is very important to build strong immune system. LetRead MoreGenetically Modified Foods For A Plant For The Best1711 Words   |  7 Pages(genetically modified organisms) into the marketplace in the 1990s. But are these modified foods safe, and do they affect yo ur health? Why exactly were people against it? To find out we will have to search into it since the beginning. The idea of Man-made DNA came from a student at Stanford University Medical School, and this was basically the idea of modifying organisms. The idea was picked up by Professor Herbert Boyer and a few of his biologist colleagues in 1973. In Ireland as soon as summer weather turnsRead MorePros and Cons of Genetically Modified Foods2267 Words   |  10 PagesUnited States, and all have been genetically modified through traditional plant breeding techniques--such as cross-fertilization of selected plants--to produce desired traits.” (Robin)Current and future GM products include:a)Food that can deliver vaccines - bananas that produce hepatitis B vaccineb)More nutritious foods - rice with increased iron and vitaminsc)Faster growing fish, fruit and nut treesd)Plants producing new plasticsIn so many respects, genetic modification is perfect for todays societyRead MoreGenetics And The Science Of The Future1693 Words   |  7 Pages Inside each and every cell in your body is a strange chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA. DNA is a double-helix structure that is made up of billions of nucleotides. They are adenosine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine, abbreviated A, T, C, and G, respectively. â€Å"The information content resides in those chemical bases arranged within the interior, where A always pairs with T, and C always pairs with G† (Collins 6). These base pairs are lined up in a pattern as rungs on the DNARead More Genetically Modified Foods Should be Produced1801 Words   |  8 Pagesscientists will be able to create a gene that makes all crops herbicide tolerant which would also benefit the environment directly. At the present moment, a strand of soybean has been birthed that is tolerant of the popular product by the name of Round Up therefore farmers have to purchase fewer products since they do not have to apply it nearly as much. Much like that of pesticides, this benefits th e farmers, the consumers and the environment directly. Benefits of GM Foods (Climate Tolerance) AnotherRead MoreBacterial Disease6531 Words   |  27 Pagesincurable. ------------------------------------------------- Anthrax .Anthrax  is an  acute  disease caused by the bacterium  Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals. There are effective vaccines against anthrax, and some forms of the disease respond well to antibiotic treatment. Anthrax commonly infects wild and domesticated herbivorous mammals that ingest or inhale the spores while grazing. Ingestion is thought to be the most common routeRead MoreGenetic Engineering in Agriculture Essay3427 Words   |  14 Pagesmore profit from the increased crop production, which brings in more money than what is spent on herbicides. The last consideration of agronomical trait selection is soil and water usage. In order to control weeds, crop soils need to be tilled to up-root weeds. However, with the mass reduction in weeds due to herbicide-resistant crops, the soil can remain un-tilled and decrease the amount of machine work done by the farmer. With little use of farming machines, pollution is decreased and cropsRead MorePlease Describe Your Island Essay1826 Words   |  8 PagesCNN: â€Å"Please Describe Your Island.† Procrastination At Its Finest is a tropical rainforest. This biome is found near the equator in between the latitude lines Tropic of Cancer which is 23.5 degrees north and the Tropic of Capricorn which is 23.5 degrees south. The band created by these latitude lines is 3000 miles wide and referred to as the tropics. This is the area where all tropical rainforests are found. Procrastination At Its Finest is located south west of India. It is a biome filled withRead MorePlacenta Previa - a Case Study4475 Words   |  18 Pagesfamily is headed by the father who works and decides for  the family. C.Lifestyle Mrs. X usually wakes up between 6-7 AM., to prepare a breakfast for her daughter who goesto school and to her husband who goes to work. . Their breakfast is usually composed of two  pieces pandesal, one cup of great taste coffee, one cup of rice and one piece of boiled egg. Mrs.X eats a variety of foods such as banana fruits, malunggay, jute vegetables, and meats. She isalso fond of eating salty foods like fried peanutsRead MoreThe last samurai3678 Words   |  15 Pages b. Bonnie cannot catch the flu from Bobby because Bobby got a flu vaccine. c. Clyde sells a book to Cathy. d. Doug turns up the heat in his apartment. ____ 5. Which of these consumption activities will most likely impose an external cost? a. An athlete works out at a gym. b. A secretary smokes a cigarette in a crowded break room. c. A young mother pushes her baby in a stroller. d. A construction worker eats a hotdog during his lunch break. ____ 6. In the United States, incomes

Jellyfish Facts Habitat, Behavior, Diet

Among the most extraordinary animals on earth, jellyfish (Cnidarians, scyphozoans, cubozoans, and hydrozoans) are also some of the most ancient, with an evolutionary history stretching back for hundreds of millions of years. Found in all oceans of the world, jellies are made up of 90 to 95 percent water, compared to 60 percent for humans. Fast Facts: Jellyfish Scientific Name: Cnidarian; scyphozoan, cubozoan, and hydrozoanCommon Name: Jellyfish, jelliesBasic Animal Group: InvertebrateSize: Bell diameter of two-tenths of an inch to over six and a half feetWeight: Under an ounce to 440 poundsLifespan: Vary between a few hours to a few yearsDiet:  Carnivore, HerbivoreHabitat: Oceans throughout the worldPopulation: UnknownConservation Status: Not Evaluated Description Named after the Greek word for sea nettle, cnidarians are marine animals characterized by their jelly-like bodies, their radial symmetry, and their cnidocytes—cells on their tentacles that literally explode when stimulated by prey. There are about 10,000 cnidarian species, roughly half of which are anthozoans (a family that includes corals and sea anemones); the other half are scyphozoans, cubozoans, and hydrozoans (what most people refer to when they use the word jellyfish). Cnidarians are among the oldest animals on earth: Their fossil record stretches back for almost 600 million years. Jellyfish come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The largest is the lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), which can have a bell over six and a half feet in diameter and weigh up to 440 pounds; the smallest is the Irukandji jellyfish, several species of dangerous jellyfishes found in tropical waters, which measure only about two-tenths of an inch and weigh well under a tenth of an ounce. Jellyfish lack  a central nervous system, a circulatory system,  and a respiratory system. Compared to vertebrate animals, they are extremely simple organisms, characterized mainly by their undulating bells (which contain their stomachs) and their dangling, cnidocyte-spangled tentacles. Their nearly organless bodies consist of just three layers—the outer epidermis, the middle mesoglea, and the inner gastrodermis. Water makes up 95 to 98 percent of their total bulk, compared to about 60 percent for the average human being. Jellyfish are equipped with hydrostatic skeletons, which sound like they might have been invented by Iron Man, but are actually an innovation that evolution hit on hundreds of millions of years ago. Essentially, the bell of a jellyfish is a fluid-filled cavity surrounded by circular muscles; the jelly contracts its muscles, squirting water in the opposite direction from where it wishes to go. Jellyfish arent the only animals to possess hydrostatic skeletons; they can also be found in starfish, earthworms, and various other invertebrates. Jellies can also move along ocean currents, thus sparing themselves the effort of undulating their bells. Weirdly, box jellies, or cubozoans, are equipped with as many as two dozen eyes—not primitive, light-sensing patches of cells, as in some other marine invertebrates, but true eyeballs composed of lenses, retinas, and corneas. These eyes are paired around the circumference of their bells, one pointing upward,  one pointing downward—this gives some box jellies a 360-degree range of vision, the most sophisticated visual sensing apparatus in the animal kingdom. Of course, these eyes are used to detect prey and avoid predators, but their main function is to keep the box jelly properly oriented in the water. Wikimedia Commons Species Scyphozoans, or true jellies, and cubozoans, or box jellies, are the two classes of cnidarians comprising the classic jellyfish; the main difference between them is that cubozoans have boxier-looking bells than scyphozoans and are slightly faster. There are also hydrozoans (most species of which never got around to forming bells and instead remain in polyp form) and staurozoans, or stalked jellyfish, which are attached to the seafloor. (Scyphozoans, cubozoans, hydrozoans, and staurozoans are all classes of medusozoans, a clade of invertebrates directly under the cnidarian order.) Diet Most jellyfish eat fish eggs, plankton, and fish larvae, converting them to energy in an alarming pattern known as an energy-loss pathway. That kind of pathway consumes energy that would otherwise be used by forage fish who can be eaten by top-level consumers.  Instead, that energy is being communicated to animals which eat jellyfish, not part of the higher food chain. Other species, like upside-down jellies (Cassiopea species) and Australian Spotted Jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata), have symbiotic relationships with algae (zooxanthellae), and they obtain enough carbohydrates from them to not need additional food sources.   Lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) eating Sarsia tubulosa.   Cultura RF/Alexander Semenov/Getty Images Behavior Jellyfish practice what is called vertical migration, arising from the ocean depths to the surface in large aggregations known as blooms. In general, they bloom in the spring, reproduce in the summer, and die off in the fall. But different species have different patterns; some migrate once or twice a day, and some migrate horizontally following the sun. The jellies most injurious to humans, the Irukandji species, undergo seasonal migrations which bring them into contact with swimmers in the tropics. Jellyfish spend all of their time is seeking food, escaping predators, or finding a mate—some set a trap with their tentacles arranged in a spiral pattern, an impenetrable curtain for their prey, or array their tentacles in a big field around their bodies. Others simply drift or swim slowly, dragging their tentacles behind them like a trawler net.   Some species are pleustonic, meaning they live at the air/water interface year round. Those include the sailing jellies, like the Portuguese man-of-war, the Blue Bottle, and the By-the-Wind Sailor Jelly (Velella vellal), which has an oblong blue raft and a silvery vertical sail. Like most invertebrate animals, jellyfish have very short lifespans: Some small species live for only a few hours, while the largest varieties, like the lions mane jellyfish, may survive for a few years. Controversially, one Japanese scientist claims that the jellyfish species Turritopsis dornii is effectively immortal: Full-grown individuals have the ability to revert back to the polyp stage, and thus, theoretically, can cycle endlessly from adult to juvenile form. Unfortunately, this behavior has only been observed in the laboratory, and T. dornii can easily die in many other ways (such as being eaten by predators or washing up on the beach). Reproduction and Offspring Jellyfish hatch from eggs which are fertilized by males after females expel the eggs into the water. What emerges from the egg is a free-swimming planula, which looks a bit like a giant paramecium. The planula soon  attaches itself to a firm surface (the sea floor, a rock, even the side of a fish) and grows into a stalked polyp reminiscent of a scaled-down coral or anemone. Finally, after months or even years, the polyp launches itself off its perch and becomes an ephyra (for all intents and purposes, a juvenile jellyfish), and then grows to its full size as an adult jelly. Humans and Jellyfish People worry about black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, but pound for pound, the most dangerous animal on earth may be the sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri). The biggest of all box jellies—its bell is about the size of a basketball and its tentacles are up to 10 feet long—the sea wasp prowls the waters of Australia and southeast Asia, and its sting is known to have killed at least 60 people over the last century. Just grazing a sea wasps tentacles will produce excruciating pain, and if contact is widespread and prolonged, a human adult can die in as little as two to five minutes. Most poisonous animals deliver their venom by biting—but not jellyfish (and other cnidarians), which have evolved specialized structures called nematocysts. There are thousands of nematocysts in each of the thousands of cnidocytes on a jellyfishs tentacles; when stimulated, they build up an internal pressure of over 2,000 pounds per square inch and explode, piercing the skin of the unfortunate victim and delivering thousands of tiny doses of venom. So potent are nematocysts that they can  be activated even when a jellyfish is beached or dying, which accounts for incidents where dozens of people are stung by a single, seemingly expired jelly. Threats Jellyfish are prey for sea turtles, crabs, fish, dolphins, and terrestrial animals: There are some 124 fish species and 34 other species that are reported to feed either occasionally or mainly on jellyfish. Jellyfish often establish symbiotic or parasitic relationships with other species—the parasitic ones are almost always detrimental to the jellyfish. Many species—sea anemones, brittle stars, gooseneck barnacles, lobster larvae and fish—hitch rides on jellyfish, finding safety from predators in the folds. Octopuses are known to use jellyfish tentacle fragments on sucker arms as added defensive/offensive weaponry, and dolphins tend to treat some species like underwater frisbees. Jellyfish have been considered a delicacy for human diets since at least 300 CE in China. Today, fisheries raising jellyfish for food exist in 15 countries.   But jellyfish may have the last laugh. Far from being a threatened species, jellyfish are on the increase, moving into habitats that have been damaged or destroyed for other marine creatures. Increased blooms can have negative impacts on human economic activities, clogging cooling water intakes at coastal power plants, bursting fishing nets and contaminating catches, killing off fish farms, reducing commercial fish abundance through competition, and interfering with fisheries and tourism. The primary causes for habitat destruction are human over-fishing and climate change, so the reason for the uptick in jellyfish blooms can be assigned to human interference. Alastair Pollock Photography/Getty Images Sources Chiaverano, Luciano M., et al. Evaluating the Role of Large Jellyfish and Forage Fishes as Energy Pathways, and Their Interplay with Fisheries, in the Northern Humboldt Current System. Progress in Oceanography 164 (2018): 28–36. Print.Dong, Zhijun. Chapter 8 - Blooms of the Moon Jellyfish Aurelia: Causes, Consequences and Controls. World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation (Second Edition). Ed. Sheppard, Charles: Academic Press, 2019. 163–71. Print.Gershwin, Lisa-ann. Jellyfish: A Natural History.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.Hays, Graeme C., Thomas K. Doyle, and Jonathan D. R. Houghton. A Paradigm Shift in the Trophic Importance of Jellyfish? Trends in Ecology Evolution 33.11 (2018): 874–84. Print.Richardson, Anthony J., et al. The Jellyfish Joyride: Causes, Consequences and Management Responses to a More Gelatinous Future. Trends in Ecology Evolution 24.6 (2009): 312–22. Print.Shikina, Shinya, and Ching-Fong Chang. Cnidaria. Encyclopedia of Reproduction (Second Edition). Ed. Skinner, Michael K. Oxford: Academic Press, 2018. 491–97. Print.

Macroeconomic Indicators Free Essays

Walmart (officially Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ) is an American multinational company specialized in the large distribution. The company was founded by Sam Walton and today supervised by his oldest son, S. We will write a custom essay sample on Macroeconomic Indicators or any similar topic only for you Order Now Robson Walton. Founded under this name in 1962, it was quickly developed in Arkansas, then after that in 1991 it started dominate all United States before he internationalized itself. Today, Walmart is much more like your vicinity store. We comprise a great choice of high-quality goods, friendly service and, naturally, low prices each and every day. One goal that Walmart is always pursuing is to bring the best experiment in customer’s everywhere purchasing from their stores to the Internet. The Walmart. com store which is a subsidiary Wal-Mart Stores, Inc was founded in January 2000. The headquarters is in San Francisco Peninsula near Silicon Valley. Walmart is operating in many continents and countries but under different name. In Europe, the stores are present in Great Britain under the name of ASDA. Walmart is operating from now on in the Asian market. Installed in China since 1996, the group employed about thirty thousands workers in this country in 2006. It is also present in Japan under the name of SEIYU. In 2005, an average of twenty million customers attended the Walmart stores each day (Walmart Corporate, 2011). Walmart marked a very important turn in their business life in 2005 by engaging into the introduction of a new environmental durability, under the control of the President (Leadership CEO) Lee Scott. The sustainability engagement was developed after that Walmart decided to assist and help with $18 million cash money in donations the U. S. hurricane relief efforts. As of 2005, Walmart employed more than 1. million associates in more than 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 stores in U. S. and 3,800 international units with $312. 4 billion in sales during this year. The company received 138 million customers each week in the U. S. , Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Then in 2006, th e number of weekly customers rapid growth went from 138 to 176 million worldwide, with 6,779 places. Walmart has reached net sales record of $345 billion (Walmart Corporate, 2011). Walmart contributed in more than $415 million in cash and goods to 100,000 organizations worldwide through the Walmart Foundation, the charitable partners and the donations of the customers and associates to help better health care. In 2007, Walmart increased its successful $4 generic program, which in date of 2007 has saved customers more than $396 million on prescription drug costs. 2007 In February 2007 Walmart helped launch Better Health Care Together, has single partnership off organizations dedicated to has set off judicious furnace common principles for achieving has new American health care system by 2012. Later in the year, Walmart expanded its successful $4 generic program, which aces off 2007 had saved customers more than $396 million one regulation drug costs (Walmart Corporate, 2011). The four (4) Economic Indicators Wal-Mart is indeed a very big and retailing sales empire with 3550 outlets in the United States and plans for much more. It also has stores in at least ten countries and plans to open 120 auxiliary stores on the international markets. In hardly ten years it gained almost 15 percent of the retail grocery sales in all the United States. According to Walmart CEO Lee Scott, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , seeks a share of 30% of the grocery sales and any other product line that it carries (United for a Fair Economy, 2011). Wal-Mart found out that there is an increase in the taxable retail sales everywhere in the city of one year after the opening of Walmart Supercenter which averagered over $79 million compared to the year before the opening for all the communities (21 supercenters). The taxable increases in retail sales made the average of 15 percent for all the cities (Wal-Mart Press Room, 2011). As the report Wal-Mart Press Room (2011) also mentionned: â€Å"In every city where Walmart has opened a supercenter in California, the city-wide taxable retail sales (including apparel stores, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, home furnishing and appliance stores, and other retail stores) have increased in the year following the opening of the supercenter as compared to the taxable retail sales of the year prior to the opening. Moreover, the city-wide taxable retail sales have continued to increase in each subsequent year in all communities that have had a Walmart Supercenter for multiple years†. It will be important to know that Wal-mart has a big impact in the U. S. consumer price index (CPI). Indeed, advantages and costs of Wal-Mart’s expansion through the United States is a very heating discussion. A lot of people that support Wal-Mart because they think that the lower price offered by the company is doing more than compensating U. S consumers; the less expensive the price, the more customers you get. However, a study of Global Insight (GI) which is a consulting company, concluded that Wal-Mart’s expansion as made the consumers of the United States saved an average of $263 billion, which is indeed really flawed. Here, the GI announces that total prices lowered by Wal-Mart (which was measured by the overall consumer price index (CPI)) by a total of 3. 1% from 1985 to 2004. Then they mentionned that Wal-Mart prices of the products (goods) went down by 4. 2% above this period (Bernstein Bivens; 2006). The economy created only 57. 000 jobs in the month of November. Moreover, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that the unemployment rate did stayed primarily unchanged with 5. 9 percent, representing 8. 7 million formally unemployment workers looking out for stable jobs. Consequently, for the fortieth consecutive month, the United States has a lost of 17. 000 manufacturing workers jobbs in November for a total of 2. 6 million manufacturing jobs lost since the Ex President George W. Bush took over the office. But, this unemployment rate issue remains essentially unchanged in the Wal-Mart economy. Indeed, which ws explained by Mrs. Sweeney was the fact that the industrial center lost 17,000 manufacturing jobs in november, the fact is that the middle-class jobs are too often replaced by low-paying job which is an indication of the new Wal-Mart economy. Several jobs are being lost will not come back, and of the nation’s middle-class is being notched away (AFL-CIO, 2003). Wal-Mart is a symbol of the US economy of the 21st century, which is held in radical contrast to the symbol of the old economy. Indeed, It is one of the giants of the † service sector† of the United States economy. To add, its $244. 6 billion in the sales in 2002 composed more than 2% of all the gross domestic product of the United States (GDP). Let us also mention that this has made Wal-Mart the world’s largest company (based on incomes). That is the 19th greater economy in the world. Consequently, it is our nation’s biggest employer, with 1. 3 million employees in the whole wide world, with plans of hiring maybe more than 800. 000 during the five years to come. Strategies that can be used by the firm based on the current economic indicators Wal-Mart dominates already many sales sectors, selling for example all the sports products, office supplies to clothing apparel and the groceries. It claims all my itself at least 20 percent of the country’s retail toy business. Now it has more groceries than any other United States supermarkets chain and it even has overtaken Kroger. Wal-Mart has already a good strategy market even though most of their works has been giving to foreign countries such china and such the fact is that maybe it is the reason why the price is so low and affordable to every low or middle-class citizens. Wal-Mart’s rapid Unique Growth Strategy has made itself being talked about to a point that many retails companies such as Kmart Corp. are trying to compete with Wal-Mart’s distribution system and telecommunications structure. Wal-Mart Stores are widely being spread like mushrooms from its Arkansas base by building new stores strategically placed close to the hubs and small towns, rather than leapfrogging through the nation like the other retailers stores (Harper, 2004). Wal-Mart, Stores Inc. ‘s growth has completely accrued. Unlike a lot of other companies, Wal-Mart did not buy existing chains of retail sale in order to preserve the control of company culture. This what the experts explained; because this strategy helped Wal-Mart stayed in the competition and still being one of the best. Wal-Mart’s market predominance gives him the extraordinary power to make pressure on suppliers in order to reduce their costs. This dominated Retail Industry has made Target, Kmart Corp. and Home Depot, and other companies, to oblige manufacturers and suppliers to lower their prices (Harper, 2004). References: AFL-CIO. (2003). Good Jobs Still Disappearing. News Archive Article. Retrieved from http://www. aflcio. org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/ns12052003. cfm Bernstein, J and Bivens, J. (2006). The Wal-Mart debate: A false choice between prices and wages. The Economic Politicy Institute Article. Retrieved from http://www. epi. org/publications/entry/ib223/ Harper, L. (2004). Wal-Mart: Impact of a Retail Giant. Just Wal-Mart? Article. Retrieved from http://www. pbs. org/newshour/bb/business/wal-mart/unique. tml United for a Fair Economy. (2011). The Wal-Mart Revolution. Why Wal-Mart? Article. Retrieved from http://www. dsausa. org/lowwage/walmart/why_walmart. html Walmart Corporate. (2011). History Timeline. Wal-Mart Article. Retrieved from http://walmartstores. com/AboutUs/7603. aspx Wal-Mart Press Room. (2011). New Research Reveals Strong Local Economic Benefit of Walmart Supercenters. Press Room News Article. Retrieved from http://walmartstores. com/pressroom/news/8836. aspx How to cite Macroeconomic Indicators, Papers