The Concept of Equivalent Fractions

APEC essays

APEC essays The question is "Can the Canadian government maintain its committment to globisation without comprimising its stand on human rights and why or why not?" The answer is no. Canada's committment to globalization comprimises it's stands on human rights for different reasons. The main reason being APEC. The following paper will ague just that and how Apec is causing many problems in societies all over the world. APEC is a grouping of 18 "economies" which aims to impose a "free trade" zone in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite the rhetoric, there is nothing free about "free trade." It is the forced changing of rules to benefit corporations at the expense of people, governments and the environment. As Joan Spero, the US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs said, "APEC has a customer. APEC is not for governments, it is for business. Through APEC we aim to get government out of the way, opening the way for business to do business." The Termination of our Social Safety Net In theinternational market, there are cut backs made on employment insurance, welfare, education and health care are they are made under the excuse of luring investment. Any word of increasing taxes is extinguished by corporations forewarning to withdraw for a "preferable" business environment. Regardless of the skyrocketing profits, corporate contributions to tax revenues have plumetted from 50% in the 60's, to less than 8% today. It is suspected that it'll be sooner then later that Canada will adopt the impoverished American model - no safety net, just cold concrete. APEC has nagative effects on the Environment APEC and "Free trade" agreements like it, reduces international environmental standards by making the process of moving between states easier for businesses. In order for there to be compition, countries are obliged to slacken their environmental regulations to the lowest they can be by law. Canadian mining industries, which have been know ...

How do local (host) attitudes vary towards different types of tourism Essay

How do local (host) attitudes vary towards different types of tourism and tourists - Essay Example The kinds of interactions and the quality of these interactions influence the perceptions as well as attitudes by visitors towards the destination and locals while it influences on hosts tolerance. This would be therefore viewed in a long term where these interactions influence sustainability of tourism as a leisure activity. Cultural incidences as well as hosts social demographic characteristics have a significant influence on the nature of interactions between the visiting people and the locals (Armenski, nd, p. 1). Locals or hosts have used the social exchange theorem in prediction and explaining attitudes towards the tourists. It is used primarily on evaluation of the mutual benefits that individuals would gain through interactions in being a tourist and a host. It is therefore instrumental in explaining the exchanges that occur between the host(s) and the tourists and explains the variation in attitudes and perceptions by hosts towards particular tourists. Through the theory, th is paper identifies that individuals engage the analysis of costs and or benefits resultant in interactions between the hosts and tourists. Bad attitudes and perceptions by hosts towards interaction with tourists may be explained by lack of benefits to be derived from the tourists while right attitudes according to the theory arise from the availability of gains from the interactions. Working tourists and often referred to as holidaymakers are persons who engage into tourism through travelling but engages in work with such motives of generating more finances to cater for prolonged holiday and such other reasons. There are various categories of the working tourists as includes ‘travelling professional workers’, ‘migrant tourism workers’, ‘working holiday tourists as well as ‘non-institutionalized working’ tourists (Duncan, nd, p. 34-35). There are main variations that are

Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th Research Paper

Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th century - Research Paper Example The main factor that makes the African art to be influential is the fact that most of the African artwork were designed during the colonial times and hence had direct impact on the European and American who were the major colonialist. Most of the African art were designed to expose the limitations imposed on the Africans by the colonialist. A study that was conducted by Salah that explored the twentieth century history and sociology of the western countries reveals that most of famous and creative artist comes from previously colonized territories, including Africa, London and Rome. This signifies the fact that Africans played a significant role in shaping the art industry both in Africa and western communities. The study states that the intellectual employed by African during production of its art is essential to understanding the global modernity. This is because most of the African art overlaps with that of the European counterparts. African artist employed different styles in the ir artwork. These include the Masquerade and masking traditions have a role of underlining the historical continuities with a pre-colonial past. The use of these forms of tradition compounded by creativity employed has made most of the African art to be among the most admired. It has encouraged the modernist from the entire continent to continually engage in African masking traditions. They masking and masquerade constitute the major forms of art of presenting a person. In order to fully discuss the reasons behind the superiority of African art, it is important to first explore the meaning of the term Africa (Sey 459). From artistic point of view, Africa is described as a complex intellectual construct that signify different opinions. Africa integrates certain cultural values, cultural features and values meant to depict Africa as a continent (Salah 472). One unique thing about Africa and art is that Africa went through a myriad of political and social changes. Africa is a continent with a lot of experiences in aspects such as slavery, colonialism and diasporization of African people and cultures. Because of all these experience, Africa is a complex continent. This is why most of the artistic activities made in Africa are outstandingly unique. They are normally carved out based on the cultures, experiences and the day to day encounters. This means that artwork is just a representation of social or political phenomena. In this context the African art are products of the historically complex encounters. One thing that should be notes as far as African art concerns the dynamic nature of the artwork (Salah 452). Social changes that are

Risk management and project quality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Risk management and project quality - Essay Example User support seems to be equally high for upgraded software from all vendors, but Globalupgrades seems to have marginally higher support from users. Project risk is defined as an uncertain event or condition in a project, which has a positive or negative affect on at least one project objective. Uncertainties are present in all projects and can effect the time, cost, scope, or quality of a project (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2004, p.238). 2.1 The network infrastructure is weak in some areas of the state, and may not be able to support upgraded e-mail system at some selective locations. This presents an uncertainty which may not allow the project to be executed as per its original intent. This has a potential to affect the scope of the project and is therefore a negative risk. 2.2 Several of the vendors have proposed bundling of additional features like specialized e-mail address books and templates along with their upgraded products, if their product is selected. This is a positive opportunity as the vendor is proposing a value-added service, which can enhance the quality of the project. 2.3 There appears to be a problem with resource availability for the project; the resource is estimated to fall short by two network engineers and a business analyst who would be required for project documentation. This is a negative risk, and has the potential to affect the completion of the project documentation and therefore, the project quality. 2.4 There is a possibility that one of the vendors (Globalcom) will increase its license fee by 20%. Such increase is not budgeted and has a potential to cause a cost overrun. This is a negative risk as this has the potential to negatively affect the project cost of Globalcom is selected as the vendor. 2.5 All vendors seem to be ready to offer higher discounts with increase in number of users. Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT) is considering adopting a similar e-mail system, which can increase the overall number of users when considered together with ODHS. This is a positive opportunity as this has the potential to reduce the cost of the project by leveraging the combined number of users of ODT and ODHS. 3.0 Qualitative Risk Analysis Risk Probability and Impact Assessment is a tool used for Qualitative Risk Analysis. Risk Probability Assessment investigates the likelihood that each specific risk will occur, while Risk Impact Assessment investigates the potential effect on project time, cost, scope or quality. Risks are prioritized as low, moderate, and high priority based on their probability and impact. It is proposed that ODHS use a probability and impact matrix as detailed below for this purpose. Table 3-1 Probability and Im

Overview Of Using Enzymes In Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Biology Essay

Overview Of Using Enzymes In Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Biology Essay ABSTRACT Aminotransaminases are a group of enzymes that play a key role in the amino acid metabolism catalysing the transfer of amino groups into keto acids resulting in the production of amino derivatives. It is PLP-dependent.they have many applications as biocatalysts because of their ability to introduce amino into ketone with good enantio- and regioselectivity. Aminotransaminases have been classified by three groups on the basis of substrate specifity, PLP-fold similarity and structural similarities. One of the important sub-groups of transaminases is omega transaminase (à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT) which is capable of transferring amino group from a primary amine that does not contain a carboxyl group. There are many available à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs but the first crystal structure of this type of enzyme identified from Chromobacterium violaceum. Keywords: Aminotransaminase; PLP-dependent; regioselectivity; chromobacterium violaceum. INTRODUCTION Transaminases or aminotransferases are the group of the transferase enzymes which are involved in the reversible transfer of amino groups from amino acid to ÃŽÂ ±-keto acids. The enzyme uses pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) in the reaction, therefore, it has been classified under PLP-dependent enzymes (Mehta et al., 1993). In current decades the importance of transaminases have significantly increased as a result of their tremendous potential for the production of both natural and unnatural amino acids and enantiomerically pure chiral amines which are important particularly for pharmaceutical industry (Shin et al., 2000). This review will mainly focus on the structure, mechanism and biotechnological application of omega transaminase (à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT) enzymes from different sources. The first section will give a general overview of using enzyme in white biotechnology. The second part will give general overview of transaminases with different classes of transaminases. In the following part, general reaction mechanism of transaminase and structure of the chromobacterial omega transaminase will be explained in detail. Under the last subheading biotechnological application of omega transaminase will be discussed. Finally it will give the project aims and conclusion. Overview of using enzymes in biocatalysis/green chemistry Enzymes are fundamental catalysts which are capable of acting on a wide range of complex compounds as substrates. They are exquisitely selective catalysing reaction leading to production enantio- and regio-selective intermediates (Schmid et al., 2001). Isolated enzymes and whole cell biocatalysts are commonly used to produce optically pure compounds. Isolated enzymes are generally used for the aim of the catalysis of hydrolytic and isomerisation reactions; whereas; whole cells are typically used for synthetic reactions (Schmid et al., 2001). Both of them have some advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages of using whole cells in the biocatalysis reactions are varied. For instance, substrate molecule might be toxic and results to death of cell; or the size of substrate molecule might be so huge that cannot pass through membrane; or there may be other enzymes in the cell that acts on the same substrate and cause to the production more than one compound (Wubbolts et al., 1994). In spite of these disadvantages, no requirement for recycling process of co-enzyme makes them good candidate to be used in biocatalysis because of the economic factors. The rapid increase in the development of research area of protein engineering, including molecular evolution, and enzyme engineering, has resulted in rapid growth of biocatalysis. The protein engineering yields molecule with modified structure, function and selectivity, in aqueous environment; whereas, the enzyme engineering leads to remarkable improvement particularly in organic solvent. Using organic solvent provides many advantages such as higher substrate solubility, modified enzyme specifity that results in the new and higher enzymatic activity that previously were only feasible using genetic modifications or complex reaction pathways inside the cell. As a consequence, applications of biocatalysis in organic environment vary from chiral resolution of pharmaceutical intermediates, chemical compounds to enantio- and regioselective polymerisation (Schmid et al., 2001). The use of biocatalysis in the industry for the synthesis of synthetic compounds has been significantly increased as the use of biocatalytic process for producing industrial intermediate has become easier. Biocatalytic reactions can be performed in the organic solvents and also water. This allows selective and efficient conversion of both water soluble and apolar organic molecules using biocatalytically active cells or molecules. The production of optically active substances is an area of growing demand in the fine chemical industry and biocatalysis has developed from a niche technology to a commonly used manufacturing method. The selectivity and cushy operational conditions of biocatalysists are increasingly applied in industry to modify complex target molecules. (Panke et al., 2004). General Overview of Transaminases Different classes of transaminases -classification Aminotransferases (EC 2.6.1.X) are the group of enzymes that take a significant role in the transamination reactions. They involve in the exchange of oxygen from alfa keto acid and amine from an amino acid, thus, they remove the amino group from the amino acid and transfer it to alfa keto acid and converting it into amino acid (Mehta et al., 1993). Using aminotransferases in the biocatalysis provides many advantages over other group enzymes for the production of chiral compounds. The reasons which make them so attractive are being able to act on wide range of substrate, having rapid reaction rates, no necessity for cofactor recycling (Taylor et al., 1998). Their relaxed substrate specificity, rapid reaction rates and no requirement for external cofactor regeneration makes transaminase enzymes attractive biocatalysts compared with chemical methods for the production of chiral amines A considerable number of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases have been identified until recently. Diamine-ketoglutaric TA is the first identified enzyme that converts the compounds bearing no carboxylic acid (Kim, 1964). It is classified as à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT and is a member of sub-class 2 aminotransferases (Mehta et al., 1993). à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA enzymes are known as ÃŽÂ ²-Ala:pyruvate TAs (EC 2.6.1.18) because they use pyruvate as the amine acceptor (Kaulmann et al., 2007). One of the best identified members of this group enzymes are isolated from V. fluvialis JS17. This enzyme does not show any activity towards ÃŽÂ ²-Ala but it shows broad substrate specifity towards particularly aromatic amines and (S)-enantiomers (Shin et al, 2002). It was purified and its enzymatic properties were characterised. Its molecular mass was determined to be 100 kDa and subunit mas determined to be 50 kDa. Its optiumum pH is 9.2 and optimum temperature is 37 oC. Its activity increased with pyruvate and PLP but it is inactivated with (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-methylbenzylamine. The result indicates that this is an amine: pyruvate transaminase (Shin et al., 2003). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis JS64 is highly enantioselective towards ÃŽÂ ±-methylbenzylamine (Shin and Kim, 1998). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT Ä °isolated from Pseudomonas sp. F-126 is an isologous alpha 4 tetramer. The subunit is rich in secondary structure and consists of two domains. PLP is located in the large domain. It shows high homology with AspAT. This consequence reveals that these enzymes have common evolutionary features (Watanabe et al., 1989). In contrast to ÃŽÂ ±-transaminase catalysed reactions to produce ÃŽÂ ±-amino acids, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminase reactions are not limited by a low equilibrium constant during the kinetic resolution (Shin and Kim, 1998). The enzymatic properties of three à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs from Klebsiella pneumonia JS2F, Bacillus thuringiensis JS64 and Vibrio fluvialis JS17 were compared to understand their mechanism and application towards production of chiral amines. All enzymes showed high enantioselectivity towards (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and broad specifity for arylic and aliphatic chiral amines. In addition to pyruvate, aldehydes showed high amino acceptor activities. All enzymes were inhibited by substrate, (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA, above 200mM concentration. Only Vibrio fluvialis JS17 à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA was inhibited by pyruvate above 10mM. The enzyme was not only inhibited by substrate but also inhibited by product. In the product inhibition case acetophenone and alanine are the main inhibitors but acetophenone is much more effective than alanine (Shin and Kim, 2001). Aminotransferases have been classified by Mehta and co-workers into four sub-groups according to their primary structure similarity (Table 1) (Mehta et al., 1993). Table 1. Classification of aminotransferases on the basis of structural similarities (Mehta et al., 1993) C:UsersadnanDesktopsub-groups of enzymes.png The members of subgroup 1 aminotransferases are Aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT), Alanin aminotransferase (AlaAT), aromatic amino acid transferase and histidine aminotransferase. Subgroup 1 aminotransferases are demonstrated to be the most versatile ones among the all subgroup hence they are able to react with alanine, dicarboxylic and aromatic amino acids. In one of the studies it was shown that the substrate specifity of AspAT and tyrosine aminotransferase overlap. This finding is based on the research which demonstrated the mitochondrial and cytosolic isoenzymes of aspartate aminotransferase from chicken heart accept L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan as substrates (Mavrides and Christen, 1978). Group 2 aminotransferases include ornithine AT, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT, 4-aminobutyrate AT (GABA-AT,). They are all known as omega transaminase because of the location of the amine group. In these enzymes amino group is in a distal position from the carboxylic acid group on the amine donor substrate. (Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). Both of the ornithine aminotransferase (Orn-AT) and 4-aminobutyrate aminotransferase (GABA-AT) are pyridoxal-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes that have been identified in human, plants and animals until recently. Both enzymes catalyse a wide range of reactions on amino acids (Storici et al., 1999; Markova et al., 2005). Each enzyme catalyses the transamination reactions by a ping-pong bi-bi mechanism. The mechanism comprises two-half reactions. The half-reaction converting ketoglutarate to glutamate is the same for all transaminases. Therefore, the change in substrate specifity is resulted from the second half reaction in which an amino group is transferred distant from the ÃŽÂ ±-carbon. As a result of this, these enzymes have been identified as omega transaminases (Markova et al., 2005). GABA aminotransaminase is a PLP dependent and Fe-S cluster containing enzyme which involves in regulation of the concentration of major inhibitory neuro-transmitter GABA. This enzyme degrades GABA to succinic semialdehyde (Storici et al., 1999). Subgroup 3 aminotransaminases are BcaaAT and D-alanine aminotransferase (DaAT). The amino acid substrates of the two members of subgroup 3 enzymes have different chirality but they share the same oxo-acid as substrate. Subgroup 4 aminotransferases include SerAT and pSerAT. The two members of this group act on structurally and biosynthetically related substrates (Mehta et al., 1993). Grishin and co-workers further classified all PLP-dependent enzymes and aminotransferases categorizing them according to their PLP folds (Grishin et al., 1995). Similar outcomes were obtained with Mehtas classification. One of the classifications has been performed by John Ward in which he classified à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs in four groups according to their substrate specifity. 1. ÃŽÂ ²-alanine:ÃŽÂ ±-ketoglutarate aminotransferase, highly specific substrate activity. 2. MBA (ÃŽÂ ²-alanine):pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity. 3. MBA:pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity but inactive on ÃŽÂ ²-alanine. 4. ÃŽÂ ²-alanine (MBA):pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity.(Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT from Chromobacterium violaceum belongs to the sub-group 3. The research which was conducted by Kaulmann and co-workers demonstrated that his enzyme does not show any activity towards ÃŽÂ ²-alanine where as it has comparatively broad substrate specifity against aromatic, aliphatic amines and amino-alcohols. It has a molecular weight of 51 kDa and shows 38% sequence identity to the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT from V. fluvialis JS17 (Kaulmann et al., 2007). PLP-DEPENDENT ENZYMES PLP is an important cofactor for amino acid metabolism. PLP-dependent enzymes catalyse a wide range of reactions such as transamination, decarboxylation, racemisation, aldol condensation, ÃŽÂ ±,ÃŽÂ ²-elimination and ÃŽÂ ²,ÃŽÂ ³-elimination of amino acids, and amine oxidation (Soda et al., 2001). PLP forms a covalent bound with the substrate molecule and performs as an electrophilic catalyst (Percudani and Peracchi, 2003). The mechanistic studies revealed two key chemical characteristics of the cofactor; an imine is formed between aldehyde group of PLP and amino group of substrates. The other basic characteristic of the cofactor is being able to perform as electron sink and withdrawing electron from substrate compounds (John, 1995). In 1974, it was hypothesised that the complete family of PLP-dependent enzymes had evolved from a common ancestor. They proposed this hypothesis the result of the investigating of the mechanism of the seven PLP-dependent enzymes. It was observed that protonation of the C4 carbon of the coenzyme proceeds stereospecifically with the same stereo-face in all different enzymes. This result is is explained as proof for the evolution of complete family of PLP-dependent enzymes from a common ancestorial protein (Dunathan and Voet, 1974). REACTION MECHANISM OF TRANSAMINASES The aminated form of PLP, pyridoxamine 5à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²-phosphate (PMP), appears only in the transamination reactions (Fig. 1). Transamination reactions basically comprise of two half reactions. In the first step, the aldimine is deprotonated to be converted into a quinoid intermediate, which in turn accepts a proton at a different position to form a ketimine. The resulting ketimine is hydrolysed leaving PMP behind which performs as an amine donor in the second half-reaction. PLP is subsequently recycled. PMP interacts with the apoenzyme via only non-covalent interactions, whereas, PLP is covalently bound to the active site lysine residue of the enzyme molecule. Apotransaminases have been identified to bind PMP about 100-fold less tightly than PLP. PMP can be displaced from the enzyme with high concentrations of sulphate or phosphate ions (Schell et al., 2009). C:UsersadnanDesktop.gif Scheme 1. The first half reaction mechanism of aminotransferases (Adapted from Schell et al., 2009). STRUCTURE OF the Chromobacterial OMEGA TRANSAMINASE The C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT is the first enzyme among à Ã¢â‚¬ °-aminene pyruvate AT whose structure was investigated in detail using X-ray. The C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT protomer is folded into two domains similar to other class II aminotransferases that were classified by Mehta and co-workers based on their primary structure similarity. The enzyme comprises of a large domain which includes residues 62-343 and a relatively small domain containing the N and C-terminal parts of the polypeptide chain residues between 6-61 and 344-456. The large domain has a typical ÃŽÂ ±/ÃŽÂ ²/ÃŽÂ ± sandwich fold constituted a central seven stranded ÃŽÂ ²-sheet and helix-loop-helix segment. The small domain is constituted largely of the C-terminus which is comprises of ÃŽÂ ²-sheet that is packed against helices. The overall protein fold is represented in figure 1 (Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). Figure 1. The tertiary structure of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT promoter. The ÃŽÂ ²-strands are tagged as S, ÃŽÂ ±-helices are marked as H (Sayer, 2009). As it was mentioned previously the aminotransferases require PLP as a cofactor. The enzyme was crystallised with PLP to investigate the binding interactions of PLP with active site residues. The cofactor is linked to the active site lysine residue through covalent bond forming lysine-pyridoxal-5-phosphate in all four sub-units. The PLP binding site is demonstrated to be situated between small and large domains at the interface of the two sub-units. The oxygen atoms of phosphate moiety interact with the main-chain amides of Gly120, Ser121 and the side chain of Ser121. The carboxyl group of Asp259 is located within hydrogen bond distance to the pyridine nitrogen of PLP. Aspartic acid is interacted with Val261 and Histidine154. The interactions are demonstrated in figure 2 (ibid). plp_contacts Figure 2. Stereo diagram of the C. violaceum haloenzyme active site. Stick model represents the lysine-PLP Schiff base. Yellow dot lines represent hydrogen bonds and the interacting residues are shown as lines. Neighbouring subunit residues are demonstrated by *. The structure of C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT gabaculine complex is also solved. Gabaculine is a naturally occurring inhibitor and first isolated from Streptomyces toyacaensis as an inhibitor of GABA-AT (Kobayashi et al., 1977). Gabaculine interacts to the aminotransferase forming Schiff base with PLP as the m-carboxyphenylpyridoxamine phosphate (mCPP) ligand in the subunit A. The inhibitor molecule is interacted to the enzyme on the re face of the cofactor at the bottom of the active site. A salt bridge is formed between carboxyl group of gabaculine and side chain of Arg416. Despite the fact that à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT act on the substrates that do not contain carboxyl groups, amine derivatives that bear a carboxyl group will be orientated by Arg416. The gabaculine is surrounded by Trp60, Ala231, Ile262, Leu59 and His318 from the neighbouring subunit to the bound cofactor. The hydrophobic pocked is formed through this interaction.. The interaction between active site residues and m CCP is in dicated in figure 3. gaba_lines_stereo Figure 3. Stereoview of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT bound with gabaculine in the presence mCPP ligand (represented with stick) and amino acid residues within 4.5 Ã…. Residues from the neighbouring subunit to the bound cofactor are demonstrates as *. The structure of C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT with pyruvate-PLP complex was solved to investigate active site pyruvate binding pocket (Figure 4). The carboxyl group of pyruvate forms a salt bridge with Arg416 and a hydrogen bond to the indole nitrogen of Trp60. The overall pocket is hydrophobic made up by the residues Tyr168, Phe22, Phe88, Leu59, Ala231 and Ile262. pyr_lines Figure 4. Stereoview of the binding interaction of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT with pyruvate-PLP complex is demonstrated as stick model. Hydrogen bonds are represented in yellow colour, * shows residues from the adjacent subunit to the bound cofactor. BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATION OF OMEGA TRANSAMINASES A number of important parameter such as enantioselectivity, reaction equilibrium stability of enzyme, effect of inhibitors, and product separation must be taken into account in order to perform successful kinetic resolution and asymmetric synthesis for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure amines (Kim et al., 2003). Enantiomerically pure amines can be synthesized using two fundamental methods that employ à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs. One of them is kinetic resolution that performs on racemic amines; the other one is asymmetric synthesis starting with prochiral ketones that together correspond to the transamination reaction run forward and in reverse subsequently. Amines with opposite conformation are attainable if the same omega transaminase in kinetic resolution or asymmetric synthesis. For instance, if (S)-enantiomer is observed during asymmetric synthesis, the same enzyme will produce the (R)-enantiomer in the kinetic resolution (Koszelewski et al., 2010). Despite the fact that, asymmetric synthesis permits a 100% yield of demanded optically pure compound, it has been preferred less in recent time due to the difficulties related to reaction equilibrium and stereoselectivity. The stereoselectivity of the enzyme molecule to produce amines must be high with ee value of >99%, but it is almost impossible for the available à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminase (ibid). Kinetic Resolution In some reaction an enzymatic reaction is performed between a chiral molecule and a racemic acid mixture. In this case kinetic resolution occurs resulting to a kinetic preference, for one of the enantiomer over the other enantiomer (Novasep, 2010). The significance of kinetic resolution has remarkably increased as the importance of optically pure amines has increased. One group of enzymes that have resulted in the production of optically active compounds are transaminases. One of the simplest techniques for investigating kinetic resolution of chiral primary amines involves the employment of a stoichiometric equivalent of the amino acceptor. In this approach, the thermodynamic equilibrium is on the product side and comprises the enantiomerically rich amine, ketone and amino acids. The main positive side of this method is that it needs only à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT (Koszelewski et al., 2010). As it is mentioned previously this method has been used commonly but it has two main drawbacks that ketone product and starting pyruvate molecule cause an inhibitory effect on the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs enzymes (Yun et al., 2005). Different strategies have been developed to overcome these problems. The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA from Vibrio  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uvialis JS17 has been identified to show high enantioselectivity for the (S) enantiomers of various chiral amines, such as ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and sec-butylamine, with remarkable stability and a high reaction rate (Shin and Kim, 1998). Nevertheless, production of ketone may result in the inhibition of the enzyme preventing it to show its activity (Shin and Kim, 1997). A restricted solution to this issue was using an extractive biphasic reaction system that reduced the inhibitory acetophenone concentration in the aqueous phase (ibid). However, in this system the organic phase interacts with aqueous phase and acts as extractant of acetophenone. To keep the concentration of acetophenone in the aqueous phase at low levels, the aqua phase was unavoidable because the exchange the organic extractant need to control the aqueous pH with acid to neutralise basic ÃŽÂ ±-MBA diffused from the organic phase also made the process complex. An enzyme-membrane rea ctor (EMR) coupled with hollow-fiber membrane contractor was employed for the production of chiral amines and to get over the problems in a two-liquid phase reaction system. In the EMR system, to preserve the extraction capacity, a simple exchange of solvent in the organic reservoir and pH control are necessary to transfer only acetophenone through the contractor. Other advantage of this system over two-liquid phase reaction system is confining the enzyme in the reactor with ultrafiltration membrane eases reuse of enzyme. The main problem with this system could possibly be the economics of the availability of purified enzyme because a sufficiently high-circulation rate of sunstrate solution is desirable to residence time and minimize the product inhibition (Shin et al., 2001). An effective synthesis of enantiopure (S)-amino acids and chiral (R)-amines was carried out using ÃŽÂ ±/à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT coupling reaction and à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT was found to be inhibited by ketone product. To remove inhibitory reaction product a two-liquid phase reaction system in which dioctylpthalate was selected as solvent to achieve the best system. One of the most important advantages of ÃŽÂ ±/à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT coupling reaction over aqueous phase is that; it can be carried out at high substrate concentrations to fulfil industrial large scale production of chiral amine and amino acid compounds (Cho et al., 2003). A concept has been developed to improve rate and enantioselectivity in à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT-catalysed kinetic resolution using a protection group. For this purpose the kinetic resolution of 3-aminopyrrolidine and 3-aminopiperidine with à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT was expedited using a protective group. 1-N-Cbz-protected group. Upon application of protective group the reaction rate was 50-fold higher. Enantioselectivity was also considerably increased upon carbamate protection in comparision with the unprotected compound (86 vs.99 ee%). However, benzyl protection of former substrate did not affect enantioselectivity because of the difference in the flexibility of the benzyl- or carbamate-protected 3-aminopyrrolidine. Despite of 50% yield limitation in kinetic resolution, this strategy is an efficient way to synthesise enantiopure 3-aminopyrrolidines (Hà ¶hne et al., 2008). The other approach to overcome product inhibition by aliphatic ketones is using an enrichment culture in combination with random mutagenesis for production and purification of mutant à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA. This technique is mainly based on using 2-aminoheptane as amine donor and nitrogen source in minimal medium, and 2-butanone as an inhibitory ketone. Consequently, the higher growth rates of mutants resistant to inhibition allow them to be enriched in culture reducing the number of colonies that needs to be screened. A mutant enzyme, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAmla, which shows significantly reduced product inhibition by ketone, was determined. Using this mutant enzyme 2-aminoheptanone was resolved to (R)-2-aminoheptane with ee value>99, 53% conversion and enantioselectivity of >100 (Yun et al., 2005). b) Asymmetric synthesis Performing an asymmetric synthesis reaction is not as easy as kinetic resolution reactions because of unconvenient equilibrium and product inhibition. The main advantage of asymmetric synthesis over kinetic resolution is resulting 100% yield in the production of desired optically pure amine. However, side products may affect the enzyme catalysed reaction; therefore, these problems must be overcome to apply successful asymmetric synthesis (Koszelewski et al., 2010). One of the easiest methods for amination involves applying an excess of amine donor due to the necessity of only a single transaminase. Nevertheless, the issue here is the reaction equilibrium and potential inhibition by co-product and excess of starting an amine. In one of the studies, alanine was applied in 16-fold excess for the amination of 4-methoxyphenylacetone with 94% conversion (Nakamichi et al., 1990; Koszelewski et al., 2010). To overcome pyruvate inhibition problem two enzyme system has been used. One of the commonly used method involves Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH)-reduction of pyruvate. One-pot, two-step dereacemisation cascade reaction was employed to lead to the production of optically pure pharmaceutical intermediates through kinetic resolution and following stereoselective amination. The main advantage of this cascade reaction is circumventing the restriction of kinetic resolution (50% conversion) leading high yield of optically pure amines. In the second step, side product pyruvate was removed using lactate dehydrogenase to shift the equilibrium to the product side. The disadvantage of this system is requirement for coenzyme recycling (Koszelewski et al., 2009). The use of whole cells is hindered by the reason that undesired side reaction such as the reduction of alcohol to ketone products. In one of the studies it was shown that the equilibrium can be shifted using pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC). Dec arboxylation of pyruvate to produce acetaldehyde and CO2 with PDC is more advantageous than LDH-catalysed reduction of pyruvate owing to no requirement for cofactor recycling (Hà ¶hne et al., 2008). One of the important examples of asymmetric synthesis is the amination reaction of acetophenone with alanine for the objective of producing (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA. The equilibrium constant of the reaction is 8.8110-4 and (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and pyruvate are more reactive substrates than acetophenone and alanine (Shin and Kim, 1999). The stereoselectivity of C. violaceum TA-mediated amination of an ÃŽÂ ±,ÃŽÂ ±-dihydroxyketone, 1.3-dihydroxy-1-phenylpropane-2-one, was investigated. It was shown that the enzyme is not enantioselective towards the racemic 1.3-dihydroxy-1-phenylpropane-2-one, whereas; it is highly stereoselective for the (2S)-2-amino-1-phenyl-1,3-propanediols in 99% ee (Smithies et al., 2009). CONCLUSION AND AIMS OF PROJECT After drawing various analyses, the general overview, structure, mechanism and biotechnological applications of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases were reviewed in order to shed some lights on the characteristics of the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases. Transaminases have been used broadly owing to its capacity to produce amino acids and chiral compounds which are important for pharmaceutical industries. Transaminases have been divided to sub-groups according to their substrate specifities and structure. Transaminases, under sub-group 2 are known as à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT because the distal amino group of the substrate undergoes the reaction and include OrnTA, GABA-TA and à Ã¢â‚¬ °-amino acid:pyruvate AT. Among them the most important one is à Ã¢â‚¬ °-amino acid:pyruvate AT due to the reason that only this enzyme shows catalytic activity towards primary and aliphatic amines bearing no carboxyl group. The other advantages of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs are having broad substrate specifity, high enantioselectivity an d no requirement for the cofactor recycling. Two main biotechnological applications of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs are asymmetric synthesis and kinetic resolution. They have both advantage and disadvantage over each other. The disadvantages of kinetic resolution are being subjected to pyruvate and ketone inhibition and having 50% yield. The asymmetric synthesis results in 100% yield for the manufacturing of desired optically pure amine. However, product may cause to the inhibition of the enzyme. To overcome these problems some approaches have been developed including biphasic reaction system, using enzyme-membrane reactor (EMR) coupled with hollow-fiber membrane contractor, using protective groups. The aim of this project is to purify and crystallise the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT enzymes and characterise their subsrate specifity.

Identity in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North :: Season Migration North

Identity in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih tells the story of a man searching for an identity he was unaware he had lost. Through his growing understanding of Mustafa Sa'eed's life, the central character eventually reconciles his own identity conflicts. Throughout Salih's novel the main character's identity is unclear. While the reader learns much about his background: educational, familial, and professional, his name is never mentioned. A surname is used in reference to his family, but is never applied to him. In once instance he is referred to by another character as "effendi" (85). This phrase, however, is an Arabic title roughly equivalent to "sir" rather than a name. The central character's namelessness serves to focus attention on another character with whom he develops an uneasy friendship: Mustafa Sa'eed. Mustafa entrusts the main character with his affairs after his death, including the key to a private chamber. When the central character enters the mysterious room and uncovers Mustafa's past, the identity conflict becomes apparent: †¦out of the darkness there emerged a frowning face with pursed lips that I knew but could not place. I moved towards it with hate in my heart. It was my adversary Mustafa Sa'eed. The face grew†¦ and I found myself standing face to face with myself. †¦a picture of me frowning at my face from a mirror. (135) Several parallels are drawn between the central character and Mustafa Sa'eed. Both speak English and had studied in London. Even though the central character had grown up in the village, his education and time abroad had made him as much an outsider as Sa'eed. Upon seeing his own reflection in the darkness, he believes it to be Mustafa, who he had grown to despise. As he moves closer to the object of his hatred, he discovers that he is "standing face to face with" himself. Mustafa represents to him all that he despises in himself.

Internal And External Sources Of Finance For Tesco Essay

A source of finance used by Tesco is retained earnings. Tesco re-invest a certain percentage of their end of the year profits back into Tesco, so they can improve it. Each year Tesco decide how much money they re-invest, this depends on the profit they make. Fixed assets: Another type of an internal source of finance for Tesco is fixed assets. Fixed assets are an asset that is not consumer or sold during the normal course of business, these are land, buildings, equipment, machinery, vehicles etc. These assets are very hard to convert into cash as it takes time to sell, Tesco would use these assets to fund future operations. Current assets: Current assets are a key financial source to Tesco’s business. Current assets are cash and other things such as inventory that can be converted into cash easily. An asset that will be in use for less than a year is a current asset as they transfer into money once sold. Tesco’s stock in their stores is a current asset as they transfer into money once sold. An essential thing for Tesco to ensure is to ensure that their assets aren’t lower than their current liabilities (debt) as this may force Tesco to close as they want to be able to pay off their debts. Working capital: Working capital can be both a good and a bad thing, this will depend on the debt a company has in this case Tesco. Tesco are a massive company so they will have a lot of working capital, this will ensure Tesco grow as they can expand their brand. Companies like new starts will have finances to expand and grow their business. In 2014 Tesco’s working capital reduced massively by over 300 million this will have an affect on their company in 2015. In this task I am going to write about what internal and external sources of finance are available to Tesco. Internal sources are funds that come from within the business. An example of an internal source is profits. They can be used to expand a business. Another way is to sell assets that the company don’t use to free up capital. External sources are found outside the business. An example of an external source would be a bank lending company money. External sources of finance (Tesco) Investments: An investment is when a person or persons invest their own money into a business, hoping to make a profit on their investment into the organisation. Tesco rely massively on investments just like any organisation. Tesco’s share prices depend on just how much is being invested into the company, and over the past year their share prices have dropped as the amount being invested has decreased. Warren Buffet who is an American billionaire, who made his fortune by investing said that â€Å" Investing in Tesco was a big mistake†. Ordinary shares: Ordinary shares, are shares within an organisation that any member o the oublic can buy. Tesco’s shares are currently selling for around  £189.75p , with Tesco buying the shares back at around  £190.05p, since the horse meat scandal, shares have decreased rapidly. Since November 2013 Tesco’s shares have declined drastically. Tesco are unable to buy back the shares at a price high enough to push customers to sell back, as the customers wouldn’t be making enough profit. Corporations: As Tesco are a corporation they can part-take in all the activities any corporation are involved in such as hiring new staff, sue other companies, be sued by other companies and also own their own assets. An asset that Tesco own is their very own oil plant in America Institutions: An institution of Tesco would be their bank. The institutions are companies that work with Tesco and that Tesco own. Any money that Tesco receive from the customers and clients of their bank, gets directly put in the profits.  The money they make from the institutions gets invested directly back into Tesco Business angels: Business angels are people who look to invest into new or successful businesses to try to make a profit. For Tesco business angels would’ve invented at the start of the companies journey in 1919. Business angels usually invest in companies around their home so they can check up on their investments. Government Grants: Tesco are Britain’s biggest supermarket and due to this they employ thousands. The government can give Tesco grants and money to invest back into Tesco. The government will benefit because if Tesco invest the money wisely they will have a successful year therefore the government will receive more tax. An example of Tesco receiving a government grant was in 2009 when they received  £5 million to open a new store in Glasgow. HP: Hire purchase is when a company or person lends out goods to companies for a short period of time, with added interest. Tesco could benefit if they were the company as they would lend out equipment, machinery, property and vehicles, as they would gain interest and also regain some of their investment into the product. Suppliers credit: Supplier’s credit is when a supplier offers the buyer the product they want on credit. This is like getting a loan of sorts as Tesco can pay at a later date. This benefits Tesco as they can order as much stock as they need even if they haven’t got the finances at that time. Sale and lease back: This is when Tesco sells something to a buyer such as equipment,machinery etc and the buyer leases the product back to Tesco immediately. This benefits Tesco as they can use the product without being tied down to the product  financially. To Tesco there is some tax benefits to leasing the product rather than actually owning the product. Tesco can sell the products and lease them back for a long period of time.

The selection process of candidate

The selection process of candidate Introduction It has also been an opportunity for me to learn various issues surrounding the selection exercise. The selection process involves such issues as job application, short listings and interviews in order to settle down on the right candidate.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The selection process of candidate specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There are various factors that are considered before settling down on the right candidate as we will see in the reflective essay below. The basic areas of concern during the selection exercise are the selection decisions, validity and reliability of short listing and interview practices as a component of the selection process. The selection exercise is mainly not a single individual’s task but it is rather an exercise carried out by a panel of professionals mainly the human resources managerial team. Decision making is therefore based upon some laid down policies which are agreed upon by the code of ethics or by the selection panel since depending on individuals’ responses may at times bring about contradictions. The selection panel must therefore carry out adequate prior preparation concerning the exercise whereby it is more appropriate to involve professionals in this field. This is because there are many trained professionals in this field and the selection criteria for various candidates are based upon closely related factors. However, different interviewers have different interviewing approaches thus though there might be structured approach of the selection process, the interviewee ought to be adequately prepared and flexible in order to convince each member of the panel that he is the best candidate (Hackney and Kleiner, 1994, p. 8). The selection exercise All human resource professionals appreciate the fact that attracting and retaining the best manpower for a specific job depends largely on the effectiveness of the recruitmen t, short listing, selection and interview criteria. These are the exercises that largely constitute the selection process. There are a number of factors that affect the effectiveness of these stages and hence the decisions regarding the â€Å"best applicant.† The success in every of the stages depends on both the job seeker and the employer through the human resource section (Buckley, Norris, and Wiese, 2000, p. 116).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The first step in filling any vacant post is recruitment. It involves advertisement of the vacant post either internally, i.e. within the company or publicly, through the mass media. This step allows the qualified and the interested individuals to make application towards the advertised post. Individuals make their application depending on the interest in the job and their belief that they have the required skill s, abilities, and other talents required to do the job well (Catano, 2009, p. 235). However, due to the high rates of unemployment in many nations and other reasons, it is very likely to find individuals who may not be meeting the specified requirements applying for the vacant position. Furthermore, applicants are mainly beyond the required number in most cases thus calling for the short listing exercise. The selection panel puts various factors into consideration, as we will see, in order to shortlist only the individuals who are likely to add value to the company in question. Once the candidates have been shortlisted, personal interviews are carried out to further identify the most suitable candidate since the short listing process may only consider academic and the experience qualifications while the one on one interview enables the selection panel to in identify an individual’s potential. While I have been participating in this exercise, there are various things that I ha ve learnt from observation and interactions with the rest of the members of the panel that I was not able to learn while I was doing my research paper. This has enabled me to enrich my knowledge especially on the fact that academic and other kind of testimonials are not enough proof to settle down on the right candidate thus personal interview is always important in order to combine academics and experience with the right character.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The selection process of candidate specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Factors influencing the selection process Considering the participation I had on the selection process coupled with the knowledge and the experiences I have had with my own research and lectures, I have realized that there are several factors that determine the kind of a candidate that fits a certain job. One of the factors is the kind of questions that will be asked during the interview ( Class notes, 2011, p. 1). Before an applicant qualifies to sit down with the interviewing panel, it means that the individual application is worth short listing thus he processes the relevant skills and qualifications for the post in question. The kind of questions that he will be asked and the kind of answers he is likely to give will determine his potential for the post in question. In the job market today, there are professionals who are wholly meant for the selection process and the questions asked in the panel are mainly tailor made to fit the needs of the given company (Barclay, 1999, p. 138). There are three main types of questions â€Å"structured interview, unstructured, and behavioral interviewing style† (Hartley and Bruckmann, 2002, p. 21) which can be categorized into the main subjects of interest such as: Intrinsic and motivational factors, skills and abilities, knowledge of the organization, career goals and objectives, experiences in the desired area, extracurr icular activities and college experiences, academic programs and achievements, hypothetical questions, accomplishments and achievements, geographic preferences, and salary and benefits. (Hartley and Bruckmann, 2002, p. 21) This enables the panel to get the right picture of the interviewee thus settling down on the best candidate. Gender is another major factor that influences decision making in a selection procedure (Radford, 1998, p. 108). In many cases, men have always been considered superior to women and this has also been reflected in job allocation thus affecting the selection process. You will realize that the ratio of men to women in most shortlists varies a lot in many nations with the ratio of men being higher than that of women. Though there is a perception that some jobs are best suited for men while others are best suited for women, jobs that can be done by both genders well still are highly influenced by men superiority complex.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Some of the causes of gender bias in many nations include â€Å"parental expectation of children, education, advertisement if vacancies, self perception, nature of the assessment methods, attitudes and the perceptions of the assessors among others† (Radford, 1998, p. 108). This is passed on to the employer â€Å"gender discrimination† (Radford, 1998, p. 108) as well as the job seeker â€Å"e.g. in education and self selection† (Radford, 1998, p. 108) thus altering the whole selection process. Gender differences and discrimination may not necessarily be structured within the selection process but may be an overall reflection of the selection process. First, the pool of applicants is usually determined by the individual’s decision to apply for the vacant position. Due to the various forces surrounding the two genders, there may be gender differences in this pool of applicants. The successful candidate is usually a product of the selection process. Both the decision to apply and the selection process usually results to a successive reduction in the pool of applicants. The job definition has a lot of influence on the final selection of candidates which may be further influenced by the number of applicants from each gender (Radford, 1998, p. 108). The physical factors surrounding a job are another major factor that determines the recruitment and the selection process. Individuals decide to apply for a certain vacant position depending on the desirability of working in a particular organizational environment (Catano, 2009, p. 235). Some of the physical factors that applicants may consider include the location of the company, size of the enterprise and the kind of industry the job is categorized under. This is influenced by the age of the applicants, accessibility, and whether the job provides autonomy, and opportunities for self development. Conclusion The selection process is one of the areas that determine the quality of the workforce i n any organization. In the world we are living today, people have gone an extra mile to achieve academic excellence thus it is important for the selection panel to be a little bit keen on other qualities of a candidate. Such attributes are mainly achieved through behavioral interviewing style in order to settle down on the best candidate from the pool of academically qualified applicants. References Barclay, J. (1999) Employee selection: a question of structure. Personnel Review, 28 (12), pp. 134-151 Buckley, M. R., Norris, A. C. and Wiese, D. S. (2000) A brief history of the selection Interview: may the next 100 years be more fruitful. Journal of Management History, 6 (3), pp. 113-126. Catano, V. M. (2009) Recruitment and Selection in Canada. Ontario, Cengage Learning. Class Notes. (2011) Research Essay on selection exercise. (MS word) Hackney, M. and Kleiner, B. H. (1994) Conducting an Effective Selection Interview. Work Study, 43 (7), pp. 8-13. Hartley, P. and Bruckmann, C. G. (2 002) Business communication. Routledge, pp. 16-24 Radford, J. (1998). â€Å"Gender and Choice in Education and Occupation†. London, Routledge.

Age of the Euro essays

Age of the Euro essays On the 1st of January 1999 the euro became the official currency of over 300 million Europeans in 11 of the worlds most developed nations. Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have all opted to gradually phase out their national currencies and join the euro-zone, in a move that will lead to the largest European monetary union since the Roman Empire. The concept of a single European currency is not a new one. It was first proposed in the 1970s but was abandoned until 1991, when it was given the go ahead by the European Union. This decision was taken with the view of completing the single market for goods, services, people and capital in Europe, and of enhancing the welfare of citizens within the EU. Since then there has been an on going debate over the soundness of this decision and the effects it is likely to have on both the European and World economies. One of the most obvious advantages of the euro is the resulting ease of transactions across the countries of the EU. For businesses this means that they no longer have to pay the hedging costs, which they do today in order to insure themselves against the threat of exchange rate fluctuations. Businesses will also find it easier to expand their operations within the member states. This is because rather than having to set up separate accounting systems, banks, etc. for transactions in countries other than their native one, the euro will make it simple to operate from a single central accounting office and use a single bank. The elimination of exchange rate variations would benefit consumers as well. Consumers would not have to change money when traveling within the euro zone, and would encounter fewer problems and legal constraints when transferring large sums of money across borders. Travelers and tourists would also no longer be forced to change their money into other currencies and pay banks the com...

Sift cupcake and dessert bar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sift cupcake and dessert bar - Essay Example Since its inception, a few members of staff have been on board and they include Corey Fanfa who joined the Sift team after quitting her career. She spent most of her childhood with Andrea, the baking business was not new to her either, and she quite enjoyed it. Sift has been enlisted on several Food networks including the cupcake wars where Andrea and Corey entered. This gave Sift the much edge that they needed and helped improve the skills of the business and learn what they needed to do to make the better cup cakes. For Sift, the business is just not a business but a passion for them as they are engaged in an activity that they love and are a passionate about. Sift has a wide market being in a college town and ensuring that the customer is satisfied with the product has seen the business grow in leaps and bounds to where it is today. Evaluation and Strategy Andrea, Her Husband, Jeff and Corey are the managers of the business and the key decision makers and they feel that is about t ime that the business expanded and became the premier cupcake business of choice in the Bay area of San Francisco. Cupcakes are an extremely popular product in the United States base on the fact that they are cheap and also very sweet and yummy. They are also easily accessible and when well made, they give the client a satisfying feel. The product was made popular by the movie Sex and the City and has since then grown to the extent of having a food channel Cup Cake Wars, which Sift occasionally, display their product offerings. The main problem facing the goal that Sift wants to achieve is their line of Credit. They needed to hire more staff that will help the business to rapidly expand and become the premier cup cake shop. The current line of credit that they have in the bank cannot be used as it will hamper the efforts that they have of seeking the small business loans which they badly need to ensure that they become the premier cupcake shop in san Francisco. To be able to achieve these goals, Sift needs to clearly map its goals and objectives as well as know what it wants to achieve as of now. What is important to them as of now is to acquire the capital through the loan and hence expand to become the premier cup cake shop. However, their efforts can be hampered by the lack of expertise as the three of them cannot quite manage to handle the bigger business and they will require more skills and competencies to be able to meander through it. The business has several factors working for them against those working against them. Firstly, there is a huge demand for cupcakes in the market. This means that in spite of the harsh times, there will always be demand for the cakes. The cost is relatively cheap which means the consumers can afford the product. The size of the cupcakes is small and hence not a big indulgence especially with everyone being weary of their health. The product is viewed as a snack for getting the much needed sugar fix as people watch what the y are eating. The other success factor for the business is a market niche, which is already established. The business has a huge customer base in women who are high-income earners and are sure of what product they are looking for and what product they want. There is also a presence of a huge market online for the business. Sift has been able to grow to a large business since its

Developmental Psychology Unit 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Developmental Psychology Unit 6 - Essay Example ocial temperament can make an individual abusive without his even being aware of it, because he is not in touch with what is considered socially acceptable behaviour. There are also factors that influence partners of abusers to remain in the abusive relationship. They may have psychological issues, such as an extreme need for love and affection and low self-esteem. An important factor is cultural orientation. South American, Asian and Arab nationals would tend to be more positively regarded if they remained with their abusive husbands, admired as being more patient and forbearing. On the other hand, European nationals would leave immediately. The most important step society should take is to increase awareness of the problem through education and information dissemination. For those already in abusive relationships, shelters and support services should be provided, because there may be psychological or physical barriers to her leaving her partner. Free legal help must also be provided such women. Generally, the subject had a happy childhood with family, friends and peers. There were some times, however, when he felt depressed because he perceived his parents favored his younger siblings over him. He was an only child until about four years old, and though he welcomed the arrival of a brother and sister, when he was about 8 years old he felt that his parents made him do more of the house chores than his siblings. Of course, his brother and sister was only about four or five then, but that did not occur to him at the time, and he disliked having to be made to baby sit them because he could not go out to play. But he felt he should not disappoint his parents, so he just felt oppressed. However, when his parents did give him attention and conversed with him about the world of work and how responsibility and rights go together, the oppressive feeling would go away and eventually, he was able to adjust to the greater responsibilities of a big brother. Of the