Garlic as a Natural Pesticide | Experiment

Garlic as a Natural Pesticide | Experiment This experiment was designed to investigate and compare the effectiveness of garlic as the natural larvicide and Abate as the chemical larvicide against mosquito larvae. The effectiveness of the larvicides was determined by the time taken for all the mosquito larvae to be killed. The mosquito larvae were placed in separate plastic cups containing garlic extract and Abate respectively. They were monitored at fixed time intervals and the time taken for all the mosquito larvae to die was recorded. The experiment was repeated with different concentrations of garlic extract and Abate. A two-way ANOVA statistical test showed that Abate is more effective against mosquito larvae at 5% significance level compared to garlic, corresponding to the experimental hypothesis. Research and Rationale Mosquitoes originate from the family Culicidae.13 Like many other insects, they go through a life cycle from egg to larva, pupa and finally adult. They are generally well-known as blood-sucking insects to human and they are responsible for many fatal diseases such as dengue, malaria and yellow fever. Some commonly known genera are Aedes, Culex and Anopheles. Usually, mosquitoes breed in stagnant water like ponds, marshes and swamps and they thrive in warm climates.9 In order to control mosquitoes, chemical larvicides are used. One commonly used larvicide, Abate is applied to stagnant water to kill larvae of a wide range of pathogen-carrying vectors (mosquitoes) to hinder their development into adult mosquitoes.2 Consequently, this prevents disease-carrying mosquitoes from hatching and transmitting the pathogens to human via bites. Although the active ingredient of Abate, temephos is said to be effective against mosquito larvae (affects the nervous system by inhibiting cholinesterase enzyme), it has its downsides. Research has shown that certain mosquito species (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti) have developed resistance for Abate.4 In addition, rats exposed to temephus showed organic phosphorus poisoning while some fish are vulnerable to temephus. Temephus also harm inverterbates such as shrimps and crabs. Accumulation of temephus may also cause drastic impacts on cholinesterase activity involved in nerve signal transmission.6 Plant extracts such as those of garlic are potential alternatives to Abate. Crushing garlic releases thiosulfinates which convert into diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide if mixed with water.10 These two products formed are effective against mosquito larvae. Trials conducted in Bombay have shown that several species of mosquito larvae are susceptible to garlic extracts. Allicin helps to curb malaria by preventing the formation of circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium sporozoites to infect host cells.10 They are effective, safe, environmental-friendly and economical. The objective of this experiment was to investigate and compare the effectiveness of garlic as the natural larvicide and Abate as the chemical larvicide against mosquito larvae. The results from this experiment indicate that the spread of pathogen-causing diseases by mosquitoes can be curbed by using natural substances such as garlic as well as chemical larvicide like Abate. Garlic is a potential alternative to Abate as it is effective, easily available and eco-friendly. Although it might not be as fast-acting as chemical larvicides, garlic has none of the downsides of Abate such as accumulating in the environment and killing other invertebrates. Thus, more research is being conducted to investigate the efficiency of garlic as a larvicide. Statistical Analysis Two-way ANOVA test was used to analyse the data to show whether there is a significant difference between the two larvicides. The Columns P-Value (8.58E-24) is less than the significance level (ÃŽ ± = 0.05). There is a significance difference between the larvicidal properties of Abate and garlic. Abate is a stronger larvicide than garlic. Therefore, the experimental hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. From the analysis also, the calculated Sample P-value (3.62E-22) is less than the significance level tested as well (ÃŽ ± = 0.05). This shows that there are statistically significant differences between different concentrations of garlic and Abate. The Interaction P-Value (3.01E-19) indicates that there was a statistical significant interaction between the larvicides and the concentrations used. Higher concentrations of both larvicides are more effective against the mosquito larvae compared to lower concentrations. The two-way ANOVA test revealed that Abate is a stronger larvicide than garlic. The Columns P-value is less than the significance value (ÃŽ ± = 0.05), which indicated that Abate and garlic are significantly different in terms of larvicidal properties. This supports the experimental hypothesis that the effectiveness of Abate is greater than that of garlic. Table 4 shows that for all Abate concentrations, the mean time taken for all the mosquito larvae to die are shorter compared to that of garlic. For both larvicides, as their concentrations increased, the mean time decreased. From the data in Table 4, it can be evaluated that there is a bigger percentage difference in the mean time taken between garlic and Abate for the first two concentrations (about 75%). For 3%, 4% and 5% concentrations, the percentage differences in mean time range from 54% to 58%. This is illustrated in Figure 1. It clearly suggested that Abate is much more effective than garlic. Abate is a chemical larvicide while garlic is a natural larvicide. Both contain the active substances which are capable to kill mosquito larvae. Within 24 hours, all mosquito larvae would have died in Abate as well as garlic solutions. It was therefore not practical to calculate the number of live mosquito larvae after 24 hours. Hence, the time taken for the mosquito larvae to die was used as a measure of the substances effectiveness. The shorter the time taken, the more effective the compound is. Dead larvae can be identified by touching them with the tip of a rod or dropper. They cannot be induced to move. Abate contains temephos which is an organophosphate compound.11 It is able to inhibit acetylcholinesterase enzyme which is required to stop a nerve impulse after it has crossed the synapse. As a result, there is a continuous stimulation of the nerve, resulting in tremors and uncoordinated movement.11 Garlic, when crushed and mixed with water, will convert thiosulfinates to diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide,10 both which are organosulfur compounds. They are effective against mosquito larvae. The experiment showed that Abate is a more effective larvicide compared to garlic. Both organophosphorus and organosulfur compounds worked against mosquito larvae. This explains that during the trial experiment, after allowing both solutions to sit for 24 hours, all mosquito larvae died. Nevertheless, the experimental results showed that Abate which contains organophosphorus compounds took a shorter time to kill all the mosquito larvae compared to garlic (organosulfur compound), implying that organophosphorus compounds are more effective against mosquito larvae. However, this may also be due to the purity of the active substances. The industrially-produced Abate contain pure temephos, whereas allicin found in garlic is impure. For an active ingredient to work effectively, it has to be extracted and processed to give optimum results. Although results showed that Abate is a more effective larvicide, it should be noted that Abate is harmful to certain animals such as mice and fish, as well as to some invertebrates. Abate is also liable to accumulate within the natural environment, posing risks to human health. Garlic is an option to replace Abate as it is easily obtainable, cheap and does not pose harm to the environment. Nevertheless, garlic takes a longer time to kill mosquito larvae compared to Abate. Time is a crucial factor when dealing with disease-carrying mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti. Therefore, although garlic might be effective against mosquito larvae, it may not be practical to use such a time-consuming substance to alleviate the problem with mosquito larvae. Evaluation To increase the accuracy, the base of the garlic, together with its skin was removed before the garlic cloves were weighed using an electronic balance. The garlic cloves were pounded lightly using a mortar and pestle to prevent heat from destroying the chemical contents of garlic, which might decrease the effectiveness of garlic. Disposable droppers were used to avoid contamination of substances being tested and in the container used to collect mosquito larvae. Besides, plastic cups were used instead of laboratory glassware in order to prevent contamination as well. Each cup was closed with a perforated cover to ensure that air flows into the cup. The cup was covered as a precaution to prevent the introduction of any mosquito into the environment in case any larvae managed to complete its life cycle. Results from the trials showed that all mosquito larvae were killed by the larvicides within 24 hours. Therefore, if the number of live mosquito larvae were noted after 24 hours, there would not be any significant differences. As an alternative, the time taken for the mosquito larvae to be killed was measured. It was also impossible to run a stopwatch to measure the time as it would be difficult to estimate when to stop it. Instead, the mosquito larvae were observed every five minutes and any dead larva was noted. Hence, the time measured was estimation as it would be hard to check on the larvae every minute for hours. To increase the precision of results, the experiment was repeated twice to obtain an average time. It was also impossible to differentiate the types of mosquito larvae. Different larvae species might have different response towards larvicide. However, in this experiment, they were assumed to be of the same species. The larvae were also of different days old. Larvicides might have different effects on larvae of different days old. Besides, the solutions might not contain the exact concentration which was supposed to be tested. This is because garlic juice might not be able to be extracted and dissolve in distilled water completely. Abate granules also did not dissolve completely in distilled water. An ethical issue that may be questioned is the accidental introduction of mosquitoes into the environment. In this experiment, mosquito larvae are collected from ponds, which are mosquito breeding grounds. These mosquito larvae are actually prevented from turning into adult mosquitoes, which may transmit certain diseases. Larvae collected are placed in a covered container and are monitored to prevent accidental introduction of mosquitoes in case any larva managed to complete its life cycle. This investigation could be modified by grinding the garlic cloves and dissolve it in ethanol to form garlic solution of a particular concentration. This would increase the reliability of the results. Besides, mosquito larvae of the same species could be used to ensure that the effects of larvicides on that particular type of mosquito larvae only are determined. This reduces the probability of results occurring by chance. Mosquito larvae of a specific species could be cultured rather than collecting them from a pond. The number of mosquito larvae could also have been increased to obtain a more reliable result. Conclusion Chemical larvicide, Abate is significantly more effective than garlic in killing mosquito larvae. This was determined by the notably shorter time taken by Abate to kill all the mosquito larvae than shown by garlic. Source Evaluation Source 2 contains information on agricultural products such as vector control by BASF, the worlds leading chemical company and a corporate group. Hence, it is trustable and reliable. Source 4 is a journal, so contains sound scientific information. It contains a research note written by authors from several research universities. Therefore, it should be trustable and reliable. Source 6 is a data sheet on temephos, the active ingredient in Abate. The data sheet is provided by IPCS INCHEM, cooperation between International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCHOS). IPCS INCHEM compiles information regarding management of chemicals and their risks based on data from World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Therefore, this source is reliable and not biased. Sources 8 and 13 are published books. Therefore, they are credible sources with reliable contents written by notable experts in the respective fields. Source 10 is a trustable review as it is written by credible experts in the particular area. Source 12 is a reliable and credible governmental website by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in regulating pesticides; therefore, all facts and information provided are updated. Source 14 is guidelines for laboratory and field testing of mosquito larvicides by World Health Organization, so should contain sound scientific information.

The Family In Sociology

The Family In Sociology Functionalism, an approach which dominated much of twentieth century thinking, sought to explain the family through the vital functions it played as a social institution. George Peter Murdock, a notable American Anthropologist and functionalist, conducted a study in 1949 in where he studied the institution of the family in 250 different societies. He concluded by saying that the family plays four different basic functions which he termed reproductive, educational, sexual and economic. Education was vital in teaching the norms and values of society whilst reproduction produced members for society. The family certainly does not perform these functions exclusively, this perhaps more relevant after the industrial revolution when the family lost many of its functions to new specialized social institutions such as factories, schools and hospitals. However the family still makes important contributions to all of the above functions. Talcott Parsons, a respected American sociologist, also pioneered the functionalist perspective of the family. In addition to serving functions to society as a whole as explained above, it also plays equally vital functions for its individual members. According to Parsons, the family during early years of childhood structures the childs personality and the internalization of societys culture. Taught mainly by the childs parents, the central norms and values of society are internalized into a child to a point where it becomes natural and instinctive. This is the same for every child, and without this internalization, society would not be able to function. An American child for example would grow up with the central idea of independence and a strong motivation to achieve a high status in society as these are the central qualities of American culture. Once this personality is achieved, it must be maintained and this is the second basic function of the family: the stabilization of adult personalities. In order to balance the stress and strains of life found in a busy society, an individual can seek emotional support by his spouse. This function is especially important in Western societies as the nature of the popular nuclear family means that there is no extended family to rely upon for emotional support. Thus the married couple must solely depend on each other. The introduction of a child in a family also allows for the next step in stabilizing the adult personality. Adults can act out childish elements of their own personalities whilst engaging with his or hers child in a activity. This cannot be done in adult society. The points discussed above largely derive from two of the most influential functionalists in the 20th century. However, there work in recent times has come under particular criticism. Critics tend to agree upon the fact that both perspectives offer an unrealistic picture of the family, portraying a couple who unwillingly care for each others every need. Parsons idea of socialization is also dubious as it fails to consider the child who will not conform to his parents values and morals. Parsons and Murdock also both fail to offer functional alternatives to the family unit. As to affirm these criticisms, this functionalist view of the family has not been adopted by other sociologist who favor a more blunt and critical explanation. Friedrich Engles, with his publication of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in 1884 developed the first Marxist perspective of the family. He combined an evolutionary approach with Marxism, explaining how at the early stages of evolution, means of production were communally owned and the family as such did not exist. There were no rules to dictate the boundaries of sexual relationships thus society as a whole was the family. However, with the development of the state later in history, restrictions were applied on sexual relationships and on the production of children, reaching the point in where the nuclear family was born. Coinciding with this new unit was the privatization of both property and means of production. These assets were passed down by the male to his heir, and in order to ensure the legitim acy of the link, greater control was placed on women in order to ensure that there was no question about the paternity of the offspring. Summarized by Eagles himself in the original book, It is based on the supremacy of the man, the express purpose being to produce children of undisputed paternity; such paternity is demanded because these children are later to come into their fathers property as his natural heirs. Alternative Marxist perspectives sought to study the role families played in industrial societies. They argued that the capitalist system exploited the free domestic labor of the housewife, seeing childrearing and housework as an essential part of the economy. However the central argument was that the employer only paid for the services of the male breadwinner, securing the housewifes contribution for free. In addition to this, Marxist also saw that the worker was only able to work long hours for his employer as the domestic labor of looking after the children for example was done by the housewife. The housewife, in addition to the above work, also benefited the employer by reproducing potential workers. Expanding upon this idea, families acted as an ideological conditioning device which reproduced ideologies which prop up capitalism. Children are in affect a reflection of their parents in terms of values and behaviors and so uninspiringly follow them into the same work and patterns. Outside of the household, women were seen as a reserve army of labor that could be drawn in when there was a labor shortage and returned home when demand fell. All of these valuable services were provided to the employer for free, with him only having to pay the male breadwinner. The Marxists approach compared with the functionalist idea is much more critical of the family unit, and this trend continues with the feminists perspective. In their book Familiar Exploitation, radical feminists Christine Delphy and Diana Lenoard attached importance in Marxist methodology in explaining the family unit but nevertheless were of the opinion that men, not capitalism, were the main beneficiaries of the exploitation of womens labor in the household. They began their explanation by detailing how they saw the family as an economic system in where men benefit from, and exploit the work of women. They identified several factors that related to the family as an economic system, for example that the family structure typically involves two roles and that the male usually occupies the most important one, head of household, and the women and children are left with being helpers. What makes the role of head of household so important is that he has final say on important decisions and assigns duties to other members of the family. These duties vary according to the status and sex of the person in the family as women for example are usual ly given the task of doing the domestic and reproductive work. The head of household usually has control over finances and spending decisions and this still applies even when the woman is in paid employment. As concluded by Delphy and Leonard, The head of the family may have a near monopoly over, and he always has greater access to and control of, the familys property and external relations. Both of these radical feminists perhaps offer the most comprehensive radical feminist insight into the family unit. They depict a patriarchal and hierarchal structure in where men dominate and receive 57 varieties of unpaid services. It would be wrong to suggest that women are not oblivious to their exploitation but economic and social constraints make it difficult for women to escape from the patriarchal family. However their assumption that all families have a head has earned their work criticism. The data where this theory derived from is also questionable as it is said to be dated, and more contemporary data show in actual fact show less gender inequality in middle class families than in working class families. Both of the above approaches tend to agree on the fact that woman are often exploited by men in family life and in the case of Marxism, also benefit capitalism. As already mentioned, both fail to take into account the variety family life can adopt in various societies and the effect this can have on individuals. Difference feminist ensure that the variety of positions women can find themselves in is central to their argument, taking into account lesbian couples, single parent families and the impact social position and race has on the womans position. Leading difference feminist Linda Nicholson in her book The myth of the traditional family began by defining what is meant by the traditional family. She saw it as the the unit of parents with children who live together, separating it from other kin and emphasized the important bond between husband and wife. This simple image of the family is the one often associated with the nuclear family and it became popular among commentators in th e 1950s. Alternative families to this image however were not regarded with the same esteem but Nicholson rejected this notion, arguing that alternative families offered greater benefits than the nuclear family for the women who live in them. In her particular study, she saw poor black women in the USA at more of an advantage when at the head of the household without men. Reason being was that their tended to be a stronger relationship between other friends and kin which in turn provided support and insurance, helping out families most in need at a particular time. This theory evidently had disadvantages, namely the lack of a father model which is integral for a childs upbringing. However traditional families also share several disadvantages such as the inability of a child to turn to other relatives for help when abused by his parent. Nicholson concluded her work in a very liberal manner, advocating greater choice in individuals choosing their preferred living arrangements according to what best suited them. She disagreed with the distinction between traditional and alternative families, citing that traditional families often give the impression that they have long been the norm whilst this is not true. The summary given above is only one take on the family by a difference feminist among dozens. On the whole however, they all tend to avoid narrowly define the role women play in families and instead show a degree of sensitivity towards different experiences of family life experienced by women of different classes, sexual orientation and ethnicity. It would therefore be fair to say that difference feminists offer the most advance perspective on family life. In order to expand upon the perspectives explored above, various themes must be examined to gain a comprehensive understanding of the family as a unit of social organization. Perhaps the greatest process to have an effect on family life was the advent of industrialization and modernization in the eighteenth century. Modernization refers to the development of social, cultural, economic and political practices and institutions which are thought to be typical of modern societies whilst industrialization refers to the mass production of goods in a factory system which involves some degree of mechanized production technology. Sociologists regard the above factors to be the detrimental reasons responsible for change in Western societies in the early eighteenth century. Embroiled in this was of course the family unit which found problems relating itself to industrialization or modernization. For example, every society experienced the above changes differently with each social institution ef fected in differing ways. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that industrialization and modernization is a developing process, our different culture, politics and society to those of our ancestor evidence of this. The complexity of trying to associate families and industrialization and modernization allows for plentiful confusion among academics as to what a pre-industrial family consist of. Michael Young and Peter Willmott were among those who traced the development of the family from pre-industrial England to contemporary times. Specific to their study, which was published in a book titled The Symmetrical Family in 1973, they traced the changes experienced by the family up to the 1970s. They concluded, using a variety of sources and social surveys, that the family had gone through four main stages. Stage one belonged to the pre-industrial family which was seen as an unit of production consisting mainly of a husband, wife and unmarried children who cooperate as a team. With the advent of industrial revolution however, this form of family became largely extinct with the exception of some farming communities in the nineteenth century. Followed closely after was stage 2 which coincided with the beginning of the industrial revolution and continued throughout the nineteenth century. As discussed earlier, the family lost many of its functions to other social institution and thus ceased to be an unit of production. The nineteenth century witnessed chronic poverty and high unemployment and therefore the family responded by breaking away from the traditional nuclear model into an extended network which included grandparents and grandmothers. This allowed for an insurance policy and someone to rely on in tough times. As with stage 1, stage 2 declined in importance in the twentieth century but still found prominence in low income, working class areas. Finally, and still predominating today according to Young and Willmott, is stage 3 which the two sociologist conducted a large scale social survey in order to prove and later became the basis of their book. Stage 3 saw the return of the nuclear family with the exception of it being now more home centered. Free time was usually spent doing domestic work at home and leisure time allowed parents to play with their children and watch television. Stage 3 witnessed a stronger conjugal bond between husband and wife and a notable self-reliance now associated with the nuclear family. The term used to describe this type of nuclear family is symmetrical family, referring to the now equally shared duty of maintaining the household between two spouses. Radically different to the inequality described above about the allocation of chores and responsibility of finances, couples in stage 3 now share many of the chores and decisions. Many of the above points are open to criticism, especially by feminists who disagree with the concept of the symmetrical family and instead still seeing oppressive inequality between husband and wife. Despite this, Young and Willmott accomplish in tracing the family before, during and after the industrial revolution and the various forms it adopted according to the needs of society. Many criticisimis raised about the sociological prespectives is that they fail to consider other forms family may adopt in society.

Acid Rain :: Free Essay Writer

Acid Rain Acid rain is caused by extra amounts of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Natural sources of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides do exist, but are balanced by nature. Normal rain reacts with alkaline chemicals from the region's bedrock that are in the air, soils, lakes, and streams. This neutralizes the rain. However, if rain is more highly acidic, then the natural neutralizing chemicals can eventually become depleted. This is what is happening with more than 90% of the sulphur and 95% of the nitrogen emissions coming from humans. Approximately 40% of the nitrogen oxides come from transportation, about 25% from thermoelectric generating stations, and the balance from other industrial, commercial, and residential combustion processes. These pollutants come from the use of coal in the production of electricity, from smelting, and from the internal combustion engines in most cars. Once released into the atmosphere, they are converted into such pollutants as nitric acid and sulfuric ac id, both dissolving easily in water. This results in acidic water droplets that can be carried by prevailing winds, returning to Earth as acid rain, snow, or fog. This effects the lakes by changing the pH balance. As the water pH approaches 6, crustaceans, insects, and plankton begin to disappear. When the pH is slightly above 5, major changes start to happen, less desirable species of mosses and plankton may begin to flourish, whereas others will lessen in numbers and die off. Below pH of 5, the water is to acidic for many fish, the bottom is covered with undecayed material, and the shores may be dominated by mosses. Animals also are affected. Some ducks, for example, depend on fish and other organisms for nourishment and nutrients. As these food sources are reduced or eliminated, the population in that area declines and the reproductive success of the birds is affected. Plants are effected too. The acids can alter the protective waxy surface of leaves, lowering disease resistance. It also may slow down or stop plant germination and reproduction. The acids will accelerate soil weathering and removal of nutrients, which the plant need. And it will make some metals more soluble, for example, aluminum will be come high in concentration in the soil and clog the roots of the plants, stopping the intake of vital nutrients.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These are all good reasons we must be looking for new means of energy, in the very near future.

Essay --

Sleep deprivation is a common condition that occurs if you don’t get enough sleep. In case of sleep deprivation people have trouble falling and staying asleep for a long period of time. In order to understand how serious sleep deprivation can be, one must need to know causes and consequences of sleep deprivation, how much sleep do we need? What does sleep do for us? And how we can cure sleep deprivation. Each year at least 40 million Americans suffer from long term, persistent sleep disorders, and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleeping problems. About 60 million Americans a year have insomnia and it tends to increase with age and affects about 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men. It is estimated that 18 million Americas are suffering from sleep apnea, 12 million have RLS, and 250,000 are affected by narcolepsy. Adults typically need between 6 and 10 hours of sleep per 24 hour period, and most people need approximately 8 hours of sleep per day. Infants generally need about 16 hours per day; whereas, teenagers require 9 hours on average. In the first 3 months of... Essay -- Sleep deprivation is a common condition that occurs if you don’t get enough sleep. In case of sleep deprivation people have trouble falling and staying asleep for a long period of time. In order to understand how serious sleep deprivation can be, one must need to know causes and consequences of sleep deprivation, how much sleep do we need? What does sleep do for us? And how we can cure sleep deprivation. Each year at least 40 million Americans suffer from long term, persistent sleep disorders, and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleeping problems. About 60 million Americans a year have insomnia and it tends to increase with age and affects about 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men. It is estimated that 18 million Americas are suffering from sleep apnea, 12 million have RLS, and 250,000 are affected by narcolepsy. Adults typically need between 6 and 10 hours of sleep per 24 hour period, and most people need approximately 8 hours of sleep per day. Infants generally need about 16 hours per day; whereas, teenagers require 9 hours on average. In the first 3 months of...

Lehman Brothers Essay

In year 2008, financial crisis had led to the collapse of many banks in United States. Lehman Brothers was one of the banks that had filed its bankruptcy on 15 September 2008. It was the biggest bankruptcy in the history and it still is for now. Being the fourth largest investment bank in United States that had been established for 158 years, its failure had brought a big impact to the world financial markets. The failure of this large investment bank had triggered people around the world. After the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, there are a number of analysts and researchers that had tried to figure out the root of such event, the causes of the collapse, the effects of the failure and some lessons that could be learned from the failure of Lehman Brothers. All these papers and analysis have their own point of view. Therefore, there are a few objectives that I would like to focus on. In this paper, we will first focus on â€Å"What caused its failure?† Everything that happened will have its own reasons and causes. Next we are going to focus on â€Å"what is the effect of its failure?† Another objective that we are focusing on is the lessons that we gained from this failure. It is very important to study the story of Lehman Brothers who was a legend because it was established in 1850 until 2008 and they had survived through the world financial crisis. 1.0 History of Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers was first founded by a new German immigrant Henry Lehman in Montgomery, Alabama in year 1844. He started up a shop named ‘H. Lehman’, which sells groceries and dry goods to some local cotton farmers. In 1847, his brother Emanuel Lehman arrived, and they change the name again to ‘H. Lehman and Bro’. In 1850, their youngest brother Mayer Lehman arrived in Montgomery and once again they changed its name and ‘Lehman Brothers’ founded by then. During that time, cotton was one of the important crops thus they have a high market value. The three Lehman brothers started to accept raw cotton from their customers as a source of payment for merchandise. Within a few years, the trading of cotton had become their most important part of their operation. In 1855, Henry Lehman passed away at the age of 33 from yellow fever. After Henry’s death, Mayer and Emanuel continued their business on commodities trading. They have their own policy, only their family members-sons, brothers, and cousins-that were permitted to be their partners. This policy carries on until 1920s. Their business grow and they formed a partnership with a cotton merchant John Wesley Durr to build their own storage warehouse. They used this warehouse to store their mass amount of cotton to enable them to support larger sales and trades. Their business continued to expand and they set up an office in New York in year 1858. However, Lehman Brothers faced hardship during the period of Civil War but they managed to rebuild their business after the war, and focusing their operations based in the New York office. Lehman Brothers expand to include sales and trading of other goods. Besides forming the New York Cotton Exchange, they were involved in establishing the Coffee Exchange and Petroleum Exchange. In 1867, Lehman Brothers became the agent of the Alabama government in selling the state’s bonds. In 1906, under the leadership of Philip Lehman, son of Emanuel, he partnered with Goldman Sachs, together they brought the General Cigar Co. to market followed by Sears, Roebuck and Company. There were around one hundred new issues that were underwritten by Lehman Brothers in conjunction with Goldman. Philip Lehman retired in 1925, and the company was taken over by his son, Robert Lehman. Under Robert’s leading, the company survived through the Great Depression, and they carry on their operation focusing on venture capital. In 1930s, they underwrote the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the first television manufacturer, DuMont. They also helped to finance companies like Halliburton and Kerr-McKee. In 1969, Robert Lehman passed away and he was the last member of Lehman family to lead the company. Robert’s death had led to problems that brought hard times to the firm. In 1973, an important person, Pete Peterson was brought in to save the firm from its difficulties. He as the Chairman and CEO had led the firm from operating losses to record profits in five consecutive years. Lehman Brothers merged with Kuhn, Loeb Inc., and formed the country’s fourth largest investment bank preceded by Salomon Brothers, Goldman and First Boston. In 1984, American Express acquired Lehman Brothers to merge with retail brokerage Shearson to form Shearson Lehman Brothers. However, a few years later in 1993, the firm spun off and became known solely as Lehman Brothers. In 2001, the World Trade Center offices were destroyed by terrorist attack therefore their headquarters was moved to Manhattan in 2002. The firm continue to shine until 2008, it had recorded a high profit in 2007 but in less than a year’s time they was entangled in the subprime mortgage lending crisis. On September 15 2008, they filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court. 2.0 Causes of its Failure The collapse of Lehman Brothers was a huge impact because everyone was thinking that it is impossible for such a large bank to collapse. Lehman Brothers had just reported a large profit in 2007, in less than a year time they filed for their bankruptcy. After the failure of Lehman Brothers, there were many people discussing about the causes that led to the failure of this large investment bank. Although they managed to pass through the past economic downturn with their business strategies but they could not survive the collapse of the housing market of United States of America. Until today, the causes of its failure were still being discussed among people around the world. Some would say that the poor management of the firm itself was the key to the collapse of the bank. The top management of Lehman Brothers failed to detect the problem that might occur with their balance sheet and their Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Richard J. Fuld had miscalculated the severity of the market upheaval. Lehman began to emerge into home mortgages in 2005 without bothering the early warning that the housing market in United States is being overheated and it will burst anytime. In 2007, two hedge funds sponsored by Bear Sterns collapsed and the market’s attention had focused on the value of subprime mortgages. The firm has confidence with itself because they consider itself as an expert in the financing real estate. Lehman Brothers did not manage to detect the alarm yet because their balance sheet was heavily weighted in commercial real estate which had nothing to do with the residential housing sector. Although the lower management might have detected the danger earlier but the news could not reach until the top management. The firm failed to realize that it was actually a ticking time bomb that might explode anytime. It is a norm that the top management was the last one to know whenever there is a danger because the employees would try to cover up. That is why the top management could not react to save the firm at an earlier stage. Some would argue that the CEO, Fuld was to blame because of his overconfidence and failure to recognize that Lehman faced a crucial crisis. Besides, Lehman paid an extremely high salaries and bonuses for their employees which total up more than half of the company earned in pre-tax profit. In addition, the accounting system of Lehman itself was a big flop. They used â€Å"Repo 105 transactions† that was described by their own accounting personnel as an â€Å"accounting gimmick†. First of all, some would question what does â€Å"repo† means. â€Å"Repo† means repurchase agreements, transaction which banks use it to borrow cash for short term. It involves raising cash by lending out high-quality assets for a short period of time. The banks will agree to repurchase their collateral in a few days or weeks. This way of recording their accounts created a false portrayal of their true financial status. Even the external auditor, Ernst & Young did not take further action to investigate the â€Å"repo†. According to Stern Stewart (2002), he said that accounting is no longer counting what counts and those in charge have not been wise enough or strong enough to resist their ploys to make the auditors’ definition of earning into a reliable measure of value. Accounting fraud and accounting manipulation are the major reasons to companies’ failure and financial crises. They intend to keep this matter and hide it from the shareholders and the public. In this case, the external auditors did not do what they a re supposed to do. They failed to give any warning to the shareholders about the non-disclosure of their financial statements. According to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, â€Å"an external auditor has a responsibility to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether caused by error or fraud† Lehman Brothers’ reckless way of lending made the firm into more liabilities. The subprime mortgages were to meet the needs of Americans who could not be qualified for long-term mortgages. Subprime mortgages were targeted on credit unworthy person but also had low interest rates on long term basis. Therefore, subprime mortgages were loans that are high in risk but low in return compared to the property to be purchased. Meanwhile, Lehman also encourages the â€Å"ninja (no income, no job, and no assets) or better known as liar loans†. These loans were banned in United Kingdom because â⠂¬Å"ninja loans† are loans offered to public without any form of collateral. Anyone could loan from the bank even he is without a job, without stable income and without any assets in hand. These loans are another key for the failure of Lehman. Such loans are the breeding ground of unethical behaviour in the financial market. These loans encourage the moral hazard to happen because the borrowers had nothing to lose as they have no assets to be held as collateral. Following the incident of the failure of Lehman, there are people questioning the decision of the Fed for not bailing out Lehman. Federal Reserve does not bail out Lehman because Lehman could not prove that they have the ability to repay the loan from Fed. There is a theory in the economics called the â€Å"Big Bank Theory† which means that governments will not allow a large bank like Lehman to collapse because it will bring a huge impact to the economic. This theory does works when American International Group (AIG) and Bear Sterns were being helped by Fed to prevent it from falling. Everyone thought the same fate will happen to Lehman as well because of the theory â€Å"too big to fail†. However, Lehman Brothers could not escape from the bankruptcy fate. Fed had conducted assessments and it showed that the failure of Lehman would not bring such a big impact to the whole world compared to AIG or Bear Sterns. Federal Reserve chose to bailout Bear Sterns but not Lehman Brothers because when the Fed bailed out Bear Stern in March 2008, it claimed that the bailout was an â€Å"extraordinary event†, thus it is impossible for Fed to save another troubled financial firm because it is not possible for â€Å"extraordinary events† to occur that often. Competitions are very common in each and every sector including banking and finance sector. Banks will compete among themselves on both assets and liabilities. According to Bolt and Tieman (2004), to survive the competition for loans and remain profitable, banks undertake measures that will drive the loan volumes and enhance profitability but ultimately compromise their asset quality and increase the probability of collapsing. Bank therefore started to increase the risk in their portfolio by lowering the criteria or terms and condition for a loan. Wilmarth (2009) agreed that competition impacts negatively on lending standards, based on events leading to the global financial crisis in 2007. Banks compete blindly with each other neglecting the possible danger that might arise and harmful towards the banks. They keep on offering subprime mortgages with low payments in order to attract more customers. When the housing prices collapsed in 2007, the borrowers could not refinance their mortgages and defaults happen eventually lead to the subprime financial crisis. 3.0 Effects of Its Failure In March 2010, it emerged that the bankruptcy was not just the largest ever to be experienced in the American financial system, but it was also one of the largest accounting scandals ever (Connerty, 2010). The failure of Lehman Brothers is similar to that Enron experienced earlier in 2001. Such failure and the present case of Lehman show how an investment bank had successfully fool all the investors and financial analysts. The investors of Lehman Brothers were badly affected because they could not escape from the financial crisis impact. In many countries, the investors were badly affected because most of them are holding the bonds issued by Lehman before it collapses. In Hong Kong, there are 43,000 individuals who had bought the so-called mini bonds up to a total of $ 1.8 billion. Pension funds, such as the New York State Teachers’ retirement plan had also incurred losses due to the collapse of Lehman (Bryan-Low, 2009, cited in Swedberg, 2010). Once Lehman declared its bankruptcy on September 2008, investors lose their money and some investors are even senior citizens. Although some investors do suffer a huge loss, but most of the world’s leading investment banks made big profits again in 2009. Investment banks have always been a very volatile business and it will still continue on to have its ups and downs. The failure of investment banks does not affect the long run of the business because it is a very profitable business. The consequences of the collapse of Lehman are not that long because some banks started to record profit within a year. However, United States of America’s economy was seriously affected and the US government needs to prop up the markets in order to avoid any further catastrophe and to avoid the history of the Great Depression 1930s to happen once again. 4.0 Lessons Learned after the Collapse Caplan et al., (2010) mention that in 2006, Lehman made a deliberate decision in pursuing a higher-growth business strategy. To achieve their goal they switched from a low-risk brokerage model to capital-intensive banking model that required them to buy assets and store them as opposed to acquiring assets to primarily moving them to a third party. This strategy at the time also brought a higher risk because most of the assets were long term and they were highly illiquid. As the subprime crisis happened, Lehman had to act quickly to liquidate its illiquid assets in housing mortgages. The crisis caused the assets to be bought at lower price due to the negative perception in the public. Lehman should have forgone its high-growth strategy because its cost had outweighed the benefits. Holding on with the strategy kept dragging Lehman into deeper danger because they should have sacrifice part of the profits to protect themselves from massive loss. Besides that, the top managers should have eliminated dubious accounting practices by holding to a high ethical standard. Lehman used Repo 105 was only one of the way of many wrongful action used by Lehman to show that their financial statements are still stable and at a healthy state. Lehman practiced the Repo 105 in an unethical way in order to acquire new loans by displaying a healthier situation compared to the actual situation. A standard accounting system open the way for unethical managers to take advantage of it. They practice the standard according to their own unethical behaviour in order to achieve or to display a healthy situation to the public. Therefore, the accounting standards must be modified to avoid any of the unethical behaviour that could affect the benefits of the public. The financial statements must meet the necessary accounting standard and the external auditors should point out the mismatch of the balance sheet and investigate for any problem occurred. In this way, it is easier to trace the problem earlier and the management could not have the chance to hide the true condition of their firm. Caplan et al., (2010) suggest that substance must be taken into consideration over form, in which the fairness and the health of the organization must be judged based on the substance of the statements and not simply the ratios inferred from them. Basically, expanding safety nets involves providing all-embracing guarantees to both creditors and depositors of both commercial and investment banks (Rochet, 2010). Expanding the safety nets is to maintain funding especially during the economic downturn times and to rebuild the investor confidence after such a major economic crisis. The strategy to stabilize the economic is very important and it needs to be carrying on a long term basis in order to prevent future failures. All these strategies should be carried out by investment banks themselves as they were one of the factors that caused the Lehman Brothers to collapse. In addition, we should have come out with strategies that were directed at dealing with the problem assets and implement the strategies in advance before the financial system failure occurs. It is better to prepare earlier rather than waiting for the failure to occur by its own. These strategies are basically of two types; they can either be in terms of government guarantees on specific high value loans but still keeping the loans on the failing firm’s balance sheet or acquisition of some or all structures securities and loan assortments (Stephanou, 2009). Although dealing with those problematic assets does not really reduce the firm’s vulnerability to such exposures but at least these strategies could tackle the liquidity problems and improve their creditworthiness. Government plays an important role to motivate the private investors to acquire the problematic assets or government can co-finance the acquisition of these assets. There is need for the industry regulators to enforce more stringent measures to ensure that investment banks do not bite more than they can chew. The regulators should have regular monitoring done on all the investment banks to ensure that they are on the right path and did not take up too much risky investment. From the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we could see that most of the investment banks faced financial crisis with insufficient capital bases and inadequate liquidities. The regulatory measure must be able to ensure that banks have the ability and quantity capital bases that could buffer the financial institutions from massive losses and to be strong enough to withstand any failures in the future. Banks need to have a good number of liquid assets all the time so that the assets could easily be transformed into cash to face any panics. To conclude, it is very important to enforce standards on the capital, leverage and liquidity of every investment banks to prevent financial cris is in the future. 5.0 Conclusions The recent competition in the banking industry has led to most of this banks engaging in risky exposures (Raghavan, 2003). This is very clear in the collapse of Lehman Brothers. We should learn up from the mistakes and ensure that we do not repeat it in the future. In the collapse of Lehman we could see that corporate governance plays an important role in every firm. The management must be clear with the firm’s condition and to make the right decision for the firm and to be alert towards any kind of possible danger. The Board and regulator could have intervened if Lehman practiced sound corporate practices and had not withheld information regarding the risk levels of the firm. Besides, the external auditors are also a part in this failure because they failed to detect the malpractices in their financial statements. According to Greenfield (2010), the main indicators of fraud could be detected in the financial statement apparently; the external auditors could not discover this activity. Looking forward, there is no crystal ball. However what is known is that the international financial system is a complex web of dealings, relationships and dependencies. It must however be noted that the demise of Lehman had not impacted on the US economy alone but the world as a whole. Lastly, never assumes too big to fail. Even the most sophisticated financial tools, cannot predict or time the market properly. No one and nothing guarantees you that having past successes, you can be granted the same in the future.

Receive and store stock essay

Receiving Is a term that simply means to receive food orders placed with suppliers, and to ensure that they are accurate. When receiving stock one should check the quaintly by counting and weighing all products receiving 50 oranges Instead of 100, size and weight by checking packaging size and Incorrect brand or product e. G. Receiving a ml milk instead of a ml bottle, quality by checking frozen products are frozen, check use by dates, and freshness by checking quality points to ensure the goods you are receiving are correct.An order form is needed to check the delivery docket is correct which is needed to check that the supplier invoice all adds up. Storing refers to the way purchases are put away until they are required for the use by the kitchen. Good food storage is reliant on three mall factors Sanitation- clean shelving, regular cleaning program, high standards are essential for any food storage. Temperature- correct humidity levels, dry room 12-15, cool room 1-3 and freezer -1 8. Ventilation- free from dampness, moderate humidity levels and good alarm recirculation.All storage containers need to be labeled with what the product Is, date stored, quantity of product and par stock level. When lifting a load to its correct storing area it is important that the correct methods are completed, feet shoulder width apart, bending knees keeping head upright and maintaining the spines natural curves. Correct storage of food will tick of the first part of the hack plan, as it is stored correctly. Maintaining stock will ensure success In a hospitality establishmentCleanliness Is vital In malignantly stock as the cleanliness with prevents the spread of bacteria and other diseases. Stock take is counting all items in the store to keep track of stock movements and establish what the business needs to purchase to bring stores up to set level. This should be done weekly, monthly or yearly to insure Stock rotation- Stock quality Spoilage Maintaining security By lilied Recei ving is a term that simply means to receive food orders placed with suppliers, and to ensure that they are accurate.When receiving stock one should check the inanity by counting and weighing all products receiving 50 oranges instead of 100, size and weight by checking packaging size and incorrect brand or product e. G. By the kitchen. Good food storage is reliant on three main factors Sanitation- clean freezer -18. Ventilation- free from dampness, moderate humidity levels and good air circulation. All storage containers need to be labeled with what the product is, date Maintaining stock will ensure success in a hospitality establishment Cleanliness is vital in maintaining stock as the cleanliness with prevents the spread

What Disciplinary Sanctions Should Teachers Be Allowed to Use?

In earlier centuries, physical punishment was a common thing. Teachers would use a cane to hurt their students when they misbehaved, even more extremely teachers would have their children kneel on the ground with their hands in the air for an hour to cause them considerable pain in places such as Africa. However, now these types of punishments are seen as immoral and unthinkable by parents and teachers. Students are now punished with detentions and notes to their parents which although less severe is arguably a better and more popular policy for schools.Firstly, hitting as a disciplinary sanction should not be allowed by teachers because it does not teach children anything. School is designed to teach children the skills they will need as a grown up which includes knowing right from wrong. Hitting as a punishment does not teach this lesson because the child will only fear pain the next time, instead of understanding that what they did was unacceptable, and this means that they can no t advance intellectually. Furthermore, hitting is wrong because it is hurting children. A lot of the time, naughty behaviour stems from problems at home which children usually cannot prevent from happening.So hitting leave children feeling more despondent and confused when they should be getting help from their school. Teachers can also so easily go to far when they are hitting children, and even if guidelines are put for how long or for what reason a child should be hit, there is no way we can monitor the teachers. Therefore hitting can not be a long term or safe way to bring up school children well. However, some argue that hitting as a disciplinary action should be brought back because detentions and other types of modern day punishments are just not good enough.Surely making them feel fear before doing a naughty thing, will eventually condition them to realise that doing certain things are bad because you will be severely punished? Moreover there are some students who are too na ughty for other less severe punishments and therefore hitting is the only way to get them to behave. The more modern disciplinary sanction of detentions are an arguably much better form of punishment for all students because it forces them to stay in school one hour longer than usual. Most children can not wait to get out of school so that they can go out with their friends.Therefore staying behind at school makes children feel left out and this will arguably stop them from doing a naughty thing because they would not want to stay in school when they could be with having fun with their friends. Furthermore, other methods such as being hit by your teacher can not be made aware to the parents as easily as getting detention after school can. In most cases a letter is sent home, but even if one isn’t, the parents would notice the lateness of the student and would eventually find out.Students would have to deal with their parent’s punishment for getting a detention coupled with the school punishment and this all means that a repeat offence should be much less likely. However this is not practically the case because detentions simply are not severe enough to stop exceptionally naught children from misbehaving. Children are easily able to fabricate lies for their parents and never have them no about the hour they had to spend at school doing homework or even being with their friends who got detention as well.Detention, nowadays, is more of an annoying chore than anything to really avoid by students. Recently there have been studies showing a huge increase in the amount of swearing and abusive behaviour in classrooms in poorer areas of Greater London. It is imperative that we have proper sanctions for these students because without it a naughty student will continue his or her bad behaviour onto the street and this could result in terrible consequences.So, arguably the method of detention is a weak way of punishment because it is not harsh enough to stop children being naughty but at the moment there seems to be no other relatively effective way to punish children. In conclusion, hitting is seen mainly by all as inhumane and unnecessary for the development of children and simply too severe. Detention similarly is seen as a waste of time, ineffective and just not severe enough. Therefore, it is crucial that schools come up with a new modern disciplinary sanction that has the right amount of severity to be able to combat the raising number of naughty children in certain schools.