Causes of Diversity in Organisms

Causes of Diversity in Organisms In order to discuss why living organisms are so diverse it is firstly important to discuss what diversity actually is. By dictionary definition biodiversity, the diversity of living organisms, is the variety of plant and animal life in the world or a particular habitat.(Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 2003 revised edition). However in 1992 the definition was clarified for scientific purposes by the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It defined biodiversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part: this includes diversity within species, diversity between species and of ecosystems.(www.urbanecology.org.au/wikipedia) From this definition we can split biodiversity into three separate groups; intra-species and inter-species diversity as well as diversity between ecosystems. Intra-species diversity can be due to two things; an acquired adaptation or a genetic adaptation. Organisms that have adapted to their environment are efficient in maintaining the fundamentals in the continuation of the species e.g. the ability to obtain water, food and nutrients. Other examples are the ability of the organism to reproduce, or cope with varying physical conditions such as heat and light intensity and respond to any of these changes in their environments. Acquired adaptations are those in which the species changes in order to adapt to a change in the environment without any change in genetics e.g. a mutation. An example is the long neck in a giraffe. It is agreed that giraffes have a long neck because long necked giraffes have coped with their environment better then short necked giraffes. They have mated more successfully and now all giraffes have long necks due to the continual mating of long necks and without a mutation occurring. Genetic adaptations are much more complex. They occur from a mutation in the DNA which has allowed one member of the species to be more successful than the rest. This advantage has allowed them to survive and mate, passing on the trait to the next generation, which will also survive while the others die out. Since one in every ten million genes mutate there are many different types of mutations that can occur. A substitution is where a single base changes from one form to another e.g. from AGG to AGC. An insertion is when an extra base is added into the sequence meaning a change in the codon triplets for the rest of the chain. A deletion is when a section of DNA is lost completely again changing the codon triplets. The change in the codon triplets which results in a complete change in the proteins produced is termed a Frameshift. Most mutations would lead to the death any offspring the organism may produce, as the mutation will inhibit the production of vital proteins. Some mutations however are beneficial to the organism, allowing it to gain an advantage over others and survive while the others die out. An example of this would be E. Coli. adaptation to high and low temperatures. E. Coli. was cultured for 2000 generations at 37C, the internal body temperature of Humans, where E. Coli. is most active. Three E. Coli. were then taken from this sample and one cultured at 32C, the second at 37C and the third at 42C. The new cultures where then compared to the older one by forcing them to compete with one another. It was found that the sample cultured at 32C was 10% fitter than the original(it out competed it by 10%) and that the culture grown at 42C was 20 % fitter then the original. This experiment showed that new, beneficial mutations are capable of adapting to new environments in as little as 2000 generations. (Bennet, A.F., Lenski, R.E., Mittler, J.E.(1992). Evolutionary adaptation to temperature I. Fitness responses of Escherichia coli to changes in its thermal environment. Evolution, 46:16-30.) These mutations can occur in many ways. Recombination is the formation of a new allele combination in a gamete, and new allele combinations lead to a mutation. It results from the swapping of genes at the chiasmata. This is where the chromatids are able to swap over, however it is a very delicate procedure as not a single difference in nucleotides can occur or frameshifting would occur. Independent assortment is the process of randomly pairing chromosomes to produce the widest variety of gametes possible during fertilisation. This increases the likelihood of an unusual pairing occurring which may turn out to be beneficial to the species. This may combine with chromosomal swaps to massively increase variation in species. Outbreeding is when the species breeds with similar species from a different habit, to produce an offspring with the characteristics of both parents. The species from the new habitat may be resistant to diseases the original can not fight, or the old species may be able to survive conditions the new can not. When these mate, both of the new positive traits can be passed on, creating a stronger species than before, that can inhabit new environments. Gene flow is the term for the transfer of genes from one population to another. Once all these mutations have occurred it becomes a case of survival of the fittest. If a disease comes along that kills most of the population, but not those that have mutated, then the mutated individuals will breed, creating a stronger version of the species than before. The weakest die and the strongest survive, even if this means 99% of the population dies to leave the few that have mutated. Over time the population will reach its former size, with every individual resistant to the disease. This decreases the gene pool but allows the species to survive and create a new gene pool which will grow. From this example it is clear that the environment in which the organisms live controls the diversity. For example, if land forms and splits up a species into two different locations, then the two will evolve separately and form different characteristics. An example of this is Darwins Finches. These are 14 different, but closely related, species of finches. They are located on the Galapagos Islands and were discovered by Charles Darwin on his voyages. The Galapagos islands are very new islands, formed only 5 million years ago by volcanic action. A species of finch has inhabited each island, evolving from a single ancestor which would have landed on the original volcanic protrusion from the sea. Darwin noticed that each species of finch had evolved separately from the others, developing distinct features to cope with the different environments e.g. beak shape or length, depending on food available on the island.(Galapagosonline.com)

De Beers Jewellery

Case Introduction De Beers, the so-called cartel in the jewelry industry, is a company that dominates diamond industry. The core operational of De Beers includes diamond mining, diamond shops, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea. The company's headquarter located in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the vertically integrated diamonds producer, De Beers also controls the power f supply to its ‘sight holders'.The group owns and operates mines in Canada has gained 26% Interest In South African mines through Its partners, operates In more than 20 countries across six continents. Areas of focus are In Botswana, Angola, India, Canada and RASA (South Africa). As the year 2000, the company remained the world's leading diamond producer and distributor with extensive activities in the value chain of exploration, mining and distributio n of rough stones as well as significant influence in processing, manufacturing and marketing. History of De Beers: Cecil Rhodes EraFounder of De Bees, Cecil Rhodes started the company by renting water pumps to diggers with flooded claims during the diamond rush In 1871. He seized opportunities to purchase and consolidate claims and later enter mines. Among the rights he purchased was the right to mine the De Beers brothers farm, whose name became the name if his company. Rhodes used his market position and access to credit to engineer a merger with Barney Barton (who managed to obtain a large stake in Kimberley biggest mine), in 1888 to form De Beers Consolidated Mines.De beers controlled close to 100% of South African diamond output and 90% of oral diamond output. Its position was so formidable that when the company reduced production in 1888, rough-stone process quickly rose by 50%. By 1893, Rhodes had established a single buyer, the Diamond Syndicate. It was also Rhodes, who nev er married, who conceived of the Idea of diamonds as a symbol of committed romance. Rhodes became the prime minister of Cape Colony In 1890, ad enacted laws benefiting mine owners. The Glen Grey Act effectively relocated native Africans from their lands to make way for industrial development.Rhodes was responsible for laws During his reign, he named the country as ‘Rhodesia' (Zombie since 1980), and by the ruling time, commissioned railways, bridges, schools and public buildings has emerged efficiently. Rhodes died in 1902. De Beers' share of rough diamonds had fallen to due to a large discovery at Premier, a competing local mine, though De Beers owned a stake in its production. De Beers stepped up its focus on buying and consolidating mines as opposite arose. While the company would remain without a forceful new leader until the sass, the system put in place by Rhodes endured.Ernest Oppenheim Era Ernest Oppenheim, came to South Africa as a diamond buyer. He would become mayor of Kimberly in 1908 and a member of the South African Parliament in 1924. Oppenheim builds up diamond interest and founded the Anglo-American Corporation in 1924. He then set out to link gold and diamonds, and began purchasing every known diamond mine in the early sass including new fields in Iambi. Oppenheim not only purchased mines, but also established a distribution system independent of dominant De Beers syndicate.Oppenheim began raising the issue of racial problems in Johannesburg, where e lived, and lobbied for creation of modern native villages and social progress for black Africans. As a member of the United Party and a member of parliament, Ernest opposed the Afrikaner nationalist. Unfortunately, the Nationalist Party came into power in 1942. And the era of apartheid, or institutionalized racial discrimination began. Harry Oppenheim Era Harry, son of late Ernest became the CEO of De Beers in 1957 until 1984.Harry was born to an assimilated Jewish family of German origins in Kimberly, the original center for diamond mining in South Africa, and lived most of his life in Johannesburg. Harry Oppenheim was also known for his philanthropy. From 1967, the social investment activities of De Beers were merged with those of Anglo American in the Group Chairman's Fund. The fund initiated and finances numerous projects that contributed to community development on a large scale in South Africa, particularly in the arenas if education and heals.De Beers was instrumental in establishing a number of schools and technical colleges for black students. Following the Sweet riots in 1976, Harry established the Urban Foundation to improve, directly and wrought legislative reform, the social and industrial environment of urban native Africans. The slogan on ‘Diamond is forever' was created during his time with De Beers. Nicholas Oppenheim Era In 1985, Harry son Nicholas succeeded him as a Chairman. In addition to diamond trading business and other related profit mak ing activities.Through the sass and sass, De Beers geologist explored in Angola, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, China, DRY, Lesotho, Iambi, Russia, Venezuela and Zombie. Through this period, De Beers also expanded its advertising program worldwide; n 1972 in Spain and Brazil; in 1977 in Holland, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland; in 1979 in Mexico; in 1982 in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan; and 1984 in India and Korea. In the mid-sass, De Beers has implemented plans to ensure that its mines in Africa met 3rd party certified environmental management standards.De Beers also set aside nature reserves around mining areas in South Africa, Botswana and Iambi and commenced programs to protect rare biodiversity. Problem Statements The end of apartheid era in 1994, has written down several changes in the policies dad in South Africa. The situation become different for the native people where high priority then given to them instead of the Afrikaners. While rec ognizing that diamond mining had made economic contributions, a growing proportion of policymakers in Africa believed that the diamond industry had not generated sufficient contribution by way of value-added processing activities.Therefore the Minerals Development Bill was drafted by the South African Department of Minds and Energy (DEEM) which would become the county's new mining law by year 2000 and gibe the state exclusive custodianship of all mineral rights. Then a new policy called ‘Black Economic Empowerment' (BEE) came into the scene in 2000 with a goal of creating opportunities for previously disadvantaged communities and individuals, including black Africans, women and people with disabilities.In addition to the changes in policies as one of the biggest challenges, a potential threat came into the gem market by the advancing technologies, for synthetic production. Thus, De Beers needed a new strategy to override with both rapidly changing industry environment and new expectations of society. SOOT Analysts Strengths Weaknesses Its reputation of monopoly Strong investment in marketing and advertisement. Good – strong reputation with the ruling government.High operating cost (exploration, mining, sorting and distribution) Issue with mines that are offset with civilization areas. Strong competitors from other brands Opportunities Threat Technology advancement. Backed by government policies to support the health of the industry. Apartheid issue Strong competitors from other brands. Racial issue could cause angry mobs to destroy the mining equipment (loss) De Beers' 4-legged Strategy First Legged: To improve efficiency and margins from De Beers own operations Second Legged: To stimulate demand of diamond by at least 5% per year.Third Legged: To establish De Beer's own brand that directly meets the end customer. Forth Legged: Suppliers of Choice (SOC) – to improve efficiency and productivity sight holders. Recommendation Despite having sh ares in the major mining area since late sass, De Beers should expand/ to make effort to penetrate to new ventures of exploration areas. This is due to demand of synthetic industrial diamonds which is largely used in lots of fields: deiced, drilling tools for oil & gas, entertainment industry especially in acoustic devices and others.As a analyses, I couldn't see any issues of expansion, since De Beers has been the market leader for almost half of the century. In order to manage the societal crisis, De Beers can improve its labor policies by giving more benefits such as insurance, incentives, and other related compensation. Apart from that, the company should determine a minimum wage for its labor, and the company should keep on protecting the rights against child labor which happens to be a serious problem is African continents. To maintain a good CARS, De Beers should implements ways to give back to the community.Prevention campaign such as Hips, poverty and starving which are qui te popular in the African countries should be carried out efficiently to ensure that De Beers is the organization that cares, for what it's worth to public images. It is also important to sustain the efficiently of providing good diamonds to the world, Just for the company to stay relevant in the industry. In order to achieve that, De Beers must focus its core business as the producer of pure diamonds, not only focusing much on synthetic quality.

Rain Man

Rain Man The movie I chose to analyze from a psychological perspective is Rain Man. The character I have chosen is Charlie Babbit . I chose Charlie because it was interesting to see how drastic he changes his moods. At one point he can be happy and the next he could be yelling at everyone. Charlie Babbit is a Caucasian male around his late twenties who works as a car salesman, and has a girlfriend named Susanna. Charlie Babbitt is a selfish man who gets angry very easily. He focuses on what he has to say rather than what others have to say. He is a very demanding person.Charlie has avoided talking to his father for years. When he finds out that his father passed away he didn’t react at all it was like if nothing had happened. Instead he focuses on how much money his father left him in his will. His father left three million dollars to his autistic brother Raymond of whose existence Charlie knew nothing of. The prenatal life of Charlie Babbitt must have been in a time of negati ve life experience and stress for his mother. In order to better understand more about Charlie’s prenatal life would be to know what situations his mother was going through while she was pregnant.It seems to me that Charlie was an unhappy baby. His temperamental pattern must have been difficult. Charlie’s mother died when he was only two years old, and his brother Raymond was put away in a mental institution right after the death of his mother . Charlie did not form a healthy attachment with his parents since his mother passed away at an early stage in his life. During Charlie’s preoperational stage Charlie did not form a health bond with his father while growing up.

I Am A Great Guy Who Always Been Labeled With The Word ``...

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