Saturday, October 5, 2019

Critical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical analysis - Essay Example These can offer the employees a strong establishment for the aim of attaining a competitive edge (Enrensal, 2006, p.17). A career is termed as an individual’s occupation that deals with how an individual earns his or her living. Career management encompasses the process where people invest their resources for the aim of achieving career objectives (VonHippel et al, 2000, p.102). Career management is not a one day undertaking but rather a long-term process that is vital for the adaptation of the evolving demands of the 21st century’s economy. Various economic changes taking place in the economy tend to have a great impact on the income distributions and employment opportunities available in the world. During career management sessions, employees are trained on the adoption of suitable beliefs, attitudes, and values that fit in today’s job environment. Career advice given to individuals assists in changing their working behaviors as well as to help them in self dis covery in order to meet the needs of employers who are highly influenced by effects of globalization (Grey, 2002, p.445). Worldwide competition, technological change, and adjustments in consumer preferences have greatly impacted on the quality and the type of employment available thus necessitating the need for organizations to embark on career management practices. Career management therefore takes two forms; can either be conducted at an organizational level or at an individual level. In todays market settings competition and the cost economics presents a lot of insecurities in the job market. On the other hand competition and evolution industries are opening a surfeit of opportunities for the people to select from (Personal Career management, 2012). New job openings and associated threats results in the job market becoming extremely unpredictable. In this type of uncertain environment, it is eventually the role of an individual to make his or her own decisions on what to pursue f or the preferred career. The individual ambitions attached to the upcoming business developments are used to shape up the individual career options. An organization in this case can try and support the career aspirations of an individual; if at all the career is falling in line with the goals of the organization. Thus with the notion of careers in the contemporary world, an individual is required to adjust the way careers were viewed traditionally. A job is no longer a mere means of getting money but rather should be looked at as a means of acquiring knowledge. As much as the individual is working on meeting the objectives of the company, he or she is also making strengthening his or her skill for the aim career development (Alagse, 2012). Career management is termed as the initial responsibility of any individual. Pursuing of the preferred career by an individual is a long process where he endlessly gets to learn things pertaining to his personality, purpose, interests and abilitie s. It calls for rigor and much focus at each and every step of career management. This particular person must incessantly review his or her assignments and try to come up with alternative outlook of the job, which assists in enriching an individual’s experience. An interrupted relook at the current job and the organization that an individual is serving alongside the available opportunities in the outside world will enable an individual

Friday, October 4, 2019

Bank of America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bank of America - Essay Example Up to that point, this was the largest acquisition deal in the banking sector. After the acquisition by Nations Bank of Bank America, the Bank of America emerged and, while it was technically an acquisition, this deal had a structure similar to that of a merger (James & James 34). After the Chairman and CEO of the Bank of America Hugh McColl resigned, his successor Ken Lewis focused the bank’s attentions on efficiency and financial discipline, which was in contrast to earlier expansionary acquisition and merger strategies pursued by McColl. However, in 2004, the Bank of America acquired the National Processing Company from National Corp for some $1.4 billion, renaming it BA Merchant Services (James & James 37). National Processing Company was at the time engaged in the processing of MasterCard and VISA transactions. As a result of this acquisition, this company now processed at least one in every six MasterCard and VISA transactions, while also expanding the Bank of America’s share of the financial solutions market, especially for healthcare and travel companies. In addition, the bank also acquired FleetBoston Financial in 2004 for some $47 billion, which was aimed at aiding the Bank of America to attain market share in the United States’ northeastern region (James & James 38). This solidified its position as the bank in the United States with the highest FDIC-rated deposit market share with over $513 billion in deposits. This placed well the Bank of America ahead of JP Morgan Chase-Bank One and Wells Fargo & Co, which had deposits of $353 billion and $228 billion respectively as of the year 2003 (James & James 39). The Bank of America also announced the acquisition of MBNA, a credit card giant, for $35 billion in stocks and cash. This deal was given the final approval in December of 2005 by the Federal Reserve Board, which gave the green

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Branch and Palm Trees Essay Example for Free

Branch and Palm Trees Essay It was raining, I didn’t like rain. In fact, I didn’t like any kind of weather. That was why I only left my house when I had to. I was just heading to my bed so I could relax and finish the book that I was currently reading, it was about†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦wait, I forgot the name†¦..it was something about a girl who volunteered for her little sister to fight to the death†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.wait! It was called The Hunger Games! Then It was all a blackout and I was sound asleep. I woke up to the sound of crashing waves and the taste of salt and sand grains in my mouth. I opened my eyes, and at first I thought I was dreaming. Somehow, after a while, I could tell it wasn’t a dream. It was real. All I could see was blue salt water crashing on the sand shore in front of me. I stood up and touched the water, it felt fairly warm so I could tell I was somewhere besides California (where I lived at the time). I look over the horizon to see only blue skies. This worries me. I am still in my pajamas that are yellow with green palm trees. I turn around and see a fairly sized island with mostly all palm trees packed together into groups. I start walking to the palm trees, my feelings to what has just happened were kind of jumbled and I was confused. I’m halfway to the closest palm tree when I hear the bushes on my left side rustling. It could be my imagination or it could be the ocean breeze. I didn’t know which. To my surprise, it was neither. I push aside the bush only to see a huge lizard lumber out. I shook that off and continued walking towards the palm trees again. I reach the edge and start walking in. The farther I went in the darker it would get because of the dense vegetation. I had nothing else to do, so I continued walking farther and farther in. I tried carving lines into every tree trunk I passed so I could possibly find my way back. Eventually I gave up on that (It was to much work). The sun was going down and now all I was thinking about was where I was going to sleep. I came up with the idea to make a cushion of some kind and then put it up in a stable tree branch. I took the most comfortable looking leaves, stacked them on top of each other and hoped for the best. I woke up in the morning dazed and I could feel the sun rays beaming across the side of my face and my shoulders. The sun is out, but it’s still freezing. I started looking around for food because my stomach was growling, and to my surprise there was a pile of mangos piled neatly at the foot of a tree trunk. At the moment, I wasn’t thinking about how they got there like that, I was thinking about how delicious they looked. I reach over, grab the best looking one I can find, and shove almost half of it in my mouth and I dropped the second half. There was a haggard looking man walking toward me with a knife pointed toward me. At first he was yelling at me saying things, like it took him 3 days to get the mangos. Then he was questioning me, asking, How did you get here? Where are you from? and what do you want? I told him that I didn’t know how I got here, I was from California, and all I wanted was to go home. He told me that if I was hungry he could provide me with some, but very little food. I thought it was better than nothing so I followed him. He stopped in front of a fairly sized hut made out of palm tree branches and bamboo sticks. It sure did look a lot better then the leaf ‘†bed† I made. He pushes aside the seaweed curtain and proceeded to lead me in. There is no kind of furniture, but I am not surprised. I sit down around the fire he had going. He walks back to the fire with a dead, skinned monkey on a stick. Doesn’t look very appetizing but it’s better than nothing. He holds over the fire and slowly turns it until it is done cooking. He rips off a leg and hands it to me. I reach for it reluctantly. Right away he bites down into the monkey. He must have been very hungry, but so am I. I bite down into the thigh and it tastes a lot better than I thought it would. I am alarmed by the sounds of a helicopter. I rush out to see that helicopter landing on the open beach. Once it had landed I ran toward the window and started banging on it. All I wanted to do was return home. After a while of speaking to the men from the helicopter they told me they actually weren’t looking for me but for the haggard man I was with. He had been on that Island for 4 years! Then they tell me that they will only have room for him. They say that they will have to come back for me later. But how much later? Great.

Quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR)

Quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) QUANTITATIVE REAL TIME POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (RT-qPCR) Primers All primer sequences were designed using the online tool Primer 3-BLAST (NCBI) and the primers were obtained from Sigma Aldrich, Bangalore, India. Relative expression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF- ÃŽ ²), myosin heavy chain beta (ÃŽ ²-MHC), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was studied. Forward and reverse primers for the above genes were used for amplification. Table 5. PCR Primer details RNA isolation All glasswares were rinsed with diethyl-pyrocarbonate (DEPC) treated water to inhibit RNases. Total RNA was isolated using guanidium thiocynate-chloroform-phenol method of Chomczynski and Sacchi (1987). Total RNA isolation kit (BioUltra, Sigma Aldrich,USA) was utilized for this study After cleaning with saline, heart and aorta tissues were homogenized in denaturing solution with freshly added ÃŽ ²-mercaptoethanol. After homogenization 2M sodium acetate solution (pH. 4.0), water saturated phenol and chloroform: isoamyl alcohol (49:1) was added. The mixture was shaked vigorously and allowed to cool on ice for 15 minutes. The mixture was centrifuged at 10,000 Ãâ€" g for 20 minutes at 4 oC. The aqueous phase was transferred in a fresh tube and an equal volume of ice cold isopropanol was added. RNA was precipitated by placing the sample at -20 oC for one hour. Then the mixture was centrifuged at 10,000 Ãâ€" g for 20 minutes at 4 oC. The pellet was washed with 70% ethanol and RNA was stored in DEPC water at -80 oC. RNA quality and quantity was assessed by nano-drop spectrometer. Real time PCR amplification SYBR Green Quantitative RT-qPCR Kit was used in this study and the PCR experiment was carried out in eppendorff realplex mastercycler. 1 µg RNA was reverse transcribed by using Molone murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) reverse transcriptase as per manufactures instructions. Then the amplification program (94 oC – 45 seconds, annealing – 45 seconds, extension 72 oC- 1 minute) was applied with specific annealing temperature. The annealing temperatures of TGF-ÃŽ ², ÃŽ ²-MHC, eNOS and GAPDH were 58, 52, 55, and 55 oC, respectively. The specificity of the primers was confirmed by resolving the PCR products in 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis. The relative fold change of expression was calculated by normalized the expression with GAPDH. The RT-qPCR results were quantified using the ‘threshold line’ and the ‘cycle threshold’. The ‘threshold line’ is the point at which the reaction reaches a fluorescent intensity above background. The cycles at which the samples reach this level is called the ‘cycle threshold’ (Ct). The statistical analysis of the RT-qPCR results was calculated by using the à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ct = (Ct value of gene of interest – Ct value of GAPDH). Relative gene expression was obtained by à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ct methods (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ct sample – à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ct of control), with the use of the control group as a calibrator for comparison of all unknown sample gene expression levels. The relative gene expression fold change was derived from 2–à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Ct (Schmittgen and Livak, 2008). IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL LOCALIZATION (IHC) Immunohistochemistry (IHC) IHC was performed as described by Rocha et al., (2009) using Super Sensitive Polymer-HRP Detection System kit, from Biogenex, USA. The Super Sensitive Polymer-HRP Detection System is a atypical detection system using a non-biotin polymeric technology that makes use of two major components: a Poly-HRP reagent and super Enhancerâ„ ¢. As the system is not based on the biotin-avidin system, the problems associated with endogenous biotin are completely eliminated. The detection of antigens in tissues by immunostaining is a two-step process. The first step involves the binding of an antibody to the antigen of interest and the second step involves the detection and visualization of bound antibody by one of a variety of enzyme chromogenic systems. The choice of detection system will dramatically impact the sensitivity, utility and ease-of-use of the method. Procedure Paraffin-embedded tissue was cut to obtain sections of about 4  µm thickness. The mounted paraffin-embedded slices are deparaffinized in xylene and rehydrated using an ethanol/H2O gradient. Heat mediated antigen retrieval step was carried out for 10 min and then the slides were allowed to cool to room temperature for another 20 min. This was followed by peroxidase block treatment (to block endogenous peroxidase enzyme activity) for 10-15 min and then power block treatment (to block non-specific binding of antibodies to highly charged sites) for another 15 min. The sections were incubated with the concerned diluted primary antibody solution (for 2 h (1:200)) followed by treatment with the super enhancer solution (for 30 min) and super sensitive Poly-HRP solution (for 30 mins). After colour development with DAB and counterstaining with haematoxylin, the sections were observed under the microscope and photographs were taken. TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY The ultrastructure of the heart specimen was examined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) according to the method of Lang (1987), by the technique of thin sectioning. Reagents Glutaraldehyde solution: 3% Osmium tetroxide: 2% osmium tetroxide in 10 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH -7.4 Ethanol: 75%, 95% and 100% Uranyl acetate: 1% Lead citrate: 3% Sodium phosphate buffer: 0.1 M, pH 7.4 Procedure Immediately after the sacrifice, the heart tissues were dissected and fixed with a solution of 3% glutaraldehyde for 2 hours at room temperature and washed thrice with phosphate buffer to remove glutaraldehyde. Post-fixation was done by a solution containing 2% osmium tetroxide in 10mM sodium phosphate buffer and left overnight. Then, the osmium tetroxide solution was removed and replaced with 75% ethanol. This reduces the remaining osmium tetroxide to osmium dioxide, which forms a precipitate in the alcohol. After 10 minutes, the alcohol was replaced with a few ml of 75% ethanol. After 30 minutes, the alcohol was replaced with 95% ethanol and left for 30 minutes. This solution was replaced with 100% ethanol and washed thrice and then dried in acetone. After dehydration, the tissues were equilibrated for 30 minutes in 1:1 mixture of epoxy propane and the embedding medium, epon 812 (also called epikote resin-812). A mixture of the resin and two hardening agents, dodecyl succinic anhydride and methyl anhydride were used. A diamine catalyst generally N-benzyl-N-diethylamine was added just before use. The 1:1 mixture was poured off and replaced with full strength resin. This step was repeated several times to ensure full infiltration of the embedding medium. The tissue was then transferred to a beam capsule with a wooden stick and the capsule was filled with fresh resin mixture. The wooden stick was used to tease the specimen down to the center of the bottom of the capsule. Next, the block holder was placed with the specimen in hot air oven at 60 °C for 48 hours to polymerize the resin completely. Once the blocks are hardened, they are ready for sectioning. The ends of the specimen blocks were trimmed using glass knives and ultra thi n sections were cut using an LKBUM4 ultramicrotome. The sections were picked upon carbon grids and post-stained with combined uranyl and lead stain and rinsed with distilled water and dried. After drying, the grids were examined under a Philips EM201C transmission electron microscope (Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands). WESTERN BLOT ANALYSIS Western blotting was performed to analyze the expression pattern of eNOS in the aorta and reperfused hearts according to method of Laemmli (1970). Principle Following the protein estimation, the samples were separated using SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis and the separated molecules are blotted onto a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. After blocking, the primary antibody was added and allowed to bind to the protein followed by washing (which removes non specifically bound antibody); then an enzyme-labeled secondary antibody was added, to detect the primary antibody. The location of the secondary antibody was determined by adding an appropriate substrate for the enzyme conjugated to the secondary antibody. Reagents Acrylamide stock: 30% acrylamide, 0.8% N,N†²-methylene bisacrylamide Separating gel buffer: 1.5 M Tris, pH 8.8 Sample buffer: 0.5 M Tris, pH 6.8 Sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS): 10% Ammonium per sulfate (APS): (10%) N,N,N,N-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) Separating gel overlaying solution: Water-saturated isobutanol Sample Buffer: Tris (0.5M, pH 6.8)-2.5 mL SDS (10%)-4.0 mL Glycerol (100%)-2.0 mL ÃŽ ²-Mercaptoethanol-0.8 mL (or 1 M DDT-0.5 mL) Bromophenol Blue (0.1%)-300  µL Distilled water (400  µl) to 10.0 mL Running gel buffer Tris-6.05 g Glycine: 28.80 g 10% SDS: 10.0 mL or (1.0 g) Distilled water to 1000 mL Staining solution Coomassie brilliant blue R250- 300 g Methanol-80 mL Acetic acid-20 mL Distilled water-100 mL Destainning solution Acetic acid-100 mL Methanol-300 mL Distilled water: 1000 mL Procedure The aortic tissues were homogenized in an ice-cold radio immuno precipitation buffer (RIPA) (1% Triton, 0.1% SDS, 0.5% deoxycholate, 1 mM/L EDTA, 20 mM/L Tris (pH 7.4), 150 mM/L NaCl, 10 mM/L NaF, and 0.1 mM/L phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF)). The homogenate was centrifuged at 10,000 Ãâ€" g for 20 min at 4 °C to remove debris and the supernatant was used to determine the protein concentration of the lysates using the BCA protein assay kit (Merck, India). Transfer of proteins to membrane Samples containing 50 ÃŽ ¼g of total cellular proteins were loaded and separated using 10% SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Following electrophoresis, the proteins were transferred from the gel to a membrane by using semi-dry blotting system (AA Hoefer, SEMIDRY BLOTER, USA). Before assembling the transfer system, soaked PVDF membrane in methanol for 10 minutes and blotting papers in cold transfer buffer. Prepared sandwich, blotting paper, membrane, gel and blotting paper, were placed in the transfer apparatus and few drops of transfer buffer was added and subjected to an electric current 20 V for 1 h under cold condition. After the transfer, the sandwich was removed from the transfer system. Membrane was stained with 0.5% ponceau in 1% acetic acid to confirm equal loading and then washed with distilled water. The PVDF membrane were blocked with 5% blocking solution (containing 5% BSA in 0.5 M Tris-buffered saline, pH 7.5) for 2 h to reduce the non-specific protein binding sites and then incubated with primary antibody (anti-eNOS), in blocking solution with gentle shaking overnight at 4 °C. After this, the membranes were washed with TBST (Tris-buffered saline and 0.05% Tween-20 (TBST)) thrice for 10 minutes interval and then incubated with respective secondary antibody anti-mouse IgG (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. Then the membranes were washed with TBST thrice for 10 minutes interval. The reaction was developed with a DAB detection system (Merck, India). Bands were scanned using a scanner and quantitated by Image J, a public domain Java image processing software, Wayne Rasband, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA. H9c2 cardiomyoblast cell culture Rat embryonic cardiomyoblast derived H9c2 cells was obtained from National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, India. Cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and a combination of penicillin-streptomycin (1%) in a humidified 5% CO2atmosphere at 37 °C. The assay was performed by seeding H9c2 cells in the concentration of 1Ãâ€"104 cells/well in 96-well plate. In vitro oxidative stress and mitochondrial transmembrane potential study In order to evaluate the cytotoxic effect, viability was checked with MTT assay on D-carvone (25–100  µM) treated H9c2 cells. For assessment of protective potential of D-carvone against oxidative stress, different concentrations of D-carvone (0.1, 1 and 10  µM) were incubated with H9c2 cells for 2 h, and then co-incubated with 500  µM/L H2O2 for further 18 h (Jia et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2011). For viability analysis, MTT solution (5 mg/mL) was added to each well, and incubated for 4 h at 37 °C. After incubation, optical density (OD) was measured on a microplate reader at 570nm. With the 10  µM dose of D-carvone, the level of intracellular ROS formation was quantified with fluorimetry using redox-sensitive fluorescent probe 2, 7-dichlorodihydrofluorescin diacetate (DCFH-DA). Further, to examine mitochondrial membrane permeability transition (MPT), H9c2 cells were incubated with 5 mg/mL Rhodamine 123 (Rh123) at 37 °C for 30 minutes (Park et al., 2003). The images were acquired using the Olympus IX71 inverted à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uorescence microscope. Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) protocol D-carvone was dissolved in 1% DMSO (vehicle) and administered orally to rats using an intragastric tube daily for 7 days. The rats were randomly divided into four groups of six rats per group: (i) control group pre-treated with vehicle alone for 7 days (isolated rat hearts subjected to continuous perfusion). Isolated rat hearts obtained from the following three groups were perfused with a modified Krebs buffer solution for 10 minutes to stabilize the cardiac functions and then subjected to 30 minutes of global ischemia, followed by 60 min of reperfusion: (ii) I/R hearts pre-treated with vehicle alone for 7 days (Control (I/R)); (iii) I/R hearts pre-treated with D-carvone (I/R + D-C 10 mg/kg body weight); (iv) I/R hearts pre-treated with D-carvone (I/R + D-C 20 mg/kg body weight). Langendorff isolated heart preparation The animals were anaesthetized with an intramuscular injection of ketamine (75 mg/kg body weight). After thoractomy, the hearts were rapidly excised and placed in cooled (4 °C) Krebs Henseleit bicarbonate solution [composition (in mM): 118 sodium chloride (NaCl), 4.7 potassium chloride (KCl), 1.2 magnesium sulphate (MgSO4), 1.2 potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (KH2PO4), 2.3 calcium chloride (CaCl2), 25.0 sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), 11.0 glucose]. composition (in mM): 118 sodium chloride (NaCl), 4.7 potassium chloride (KCl), 1.2 magnesium sulphate (MgSO4), 1.2 potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (KH2PO4), 2.3 calcium chloride (CaCl2), 25.0 sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), 11.0 glucose. The heart was then attached to the cannula through aorta and retrogradely perfused with the Krebs solution maintained at 37 °C and continuously gassed with a mixture of 95% O2 5% CO2. Perfusion pressure was kept constant at 80 mmHg. The ischemia and reperfusion protocol was followed as described previously (Khan et al., 2006; Senthamizhselvan et al., 2014). An elastic water-filled balloon was introduced into the left ventricle through a left atrial incision and connected to a Pressure Transducer (AD Instruments) linked with a PowerLab data acquisition unit (AD Instruments). The balloon volume was adjusted to achieve a stable left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) of 5-10 mmHg. The percentage rate-pressure product [RPP = (LVSP-LVEDP) Ãâ€"HR] and percentage coronary flow was assessed as described previously (Esterhuyse et al., 2005; Ferrera et al., 2009; Swaminathan et al., 2010). Coronary effluent was collected for the estimation of LDH activity. Macroscopic enzyme mapping of infarcted myocardium (Triphenyl Tetrazolium Chloride test) TTC (triphenyl tetrazolium chloride test) test used for a section of the heart tissue. Lie et al. (1975) method was used for the triphenyl tetrazolium chloride test (TTC) analysis acclimated for the macroscopic enzyme mapping appraisal of the infarcted myocardium was completed. A freshly prepared solution of 1% TTC in phosphate buffer was prewarmed at 37-40 °C for 30 minutes in a darkened glass. To remove the excess blood, the heart tissues were washed rapidly in cold water without macerating the tissue. After removing epicardial fat, the left ventricle was taken separately. To obtain slices not more than 0.1-0.2 mm in thickness, the heart was transversely cut across the left ventricles. The heart tissue slices were kept in the covered, darkened glass dish containing prewarmed solution of TTC and the dish was kept in an incubator and heated to 37-40 °C for 45 minutes. The heart slices were turned over thrice and made certain that it remains fully immersed in the TTC solution. At the end of the incubation period, kept the heart slice in fixing solution to fix the tissue. Colour photographs of slices were obtained by a camera with macro lens. The expected reaction of the TTC test was as follows: normal myocardium (LDH enzyme active) turned to bright red, infarcted myocardium (LDH enzyme deficient) turned to uncolored white.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Carnivorous Plants Essay -- essays research papers

Carnivorous Plants In a world where plants are at the bottom of the food-chain, some individual plant species have evolved ways to reverse the order we expect to find in nature. These insectivorous plants, as they are sometimes called, are the predators , rather than the passive prey. Adaptions such as odiferous lures and trapping mechanisms have made it possible for these photosynthesizers to capture, chemically break-down and digest insect prey (and in some cases even small animals.) There is no reason to fear them though. The majority are herbaceous perennials, usually only 4 to 6 inches high, and nothing like the plant in "Little Shop of Horrors". Almost all carnivorous plants have a basically similar ecology and several different species are often found growing almost side by side. They are most likely to be found in swamps, bogs, damp heaths and muddy or sandy shores. Drosophyllum lusitanicum from Portugal and Morocco is the one exception, it grows on dry gravelly hills. Like other green plants, carnivorous plants contain the organic pigment chlorophyll. This pigment helps to mediate a chemical process called photosynthesis. This converts light energy into the chemical bond energy of carbohydrate which is utilized as cellular energy, plant growth and development. Water, carbon dioxide, nutrients and minerals are also needed for survival. In wetlands, where stagnate water contains acidic compounds and chemicals from decaying organic matter many plants have a difficult time obtaining necessary nutrients. It is in these nutrient poor conditions that some plants evolved different ways of obtaining nutrients. The ability of carnivorous plants to digest nitrogen -rich animal protein enables these plants to survive in somewhat hostile environments. The evolution of carnivorous plants is speculative due to the paucity of the fossil record. It is believed that plant carnivory may have evolved millions of years ago from plants whose leaves formed depressions that retained rain water. Small insects would sometimes fall into these water reservoirs and drown, eventually being decomposed by bacteria in the water. The nutrients from the insects would be absorbed by the leaf. The deeper the leaf depression the more insects that could be drowned. This would have creat... ... as frogs and small rodents. Nepenthes are unique amongst carnivorous plants as the only dioecious genus, which means there are separate male and female plants. These plants are very endangered and several species or extinct. Some species of Nepenthes are sold for hundreds of dollars to collectors and are involved in illegal overseas trade. The growing of carnivorous plants has become very popular in recent years. Unfortunately the endangered status of many species does not stop collectors from risking high fines and field collecting them. This has had seriously impact on many species, but collectors are not the biggest problem facing carnivorous plants. In the USA and other developed countries wetlands are considered useless and are being drained and developed on. At present it is estimated that only 3-5% of carnivorous plant habitat remain in the US. Another problem is that fires are put out before they spread even though many plants, such as the Venus fly trap, benefit from periodic burns. Habitat destruction from slash and burn agriculture, however, does not benefit any of the carnivorous plants and is also causing a great deal of the extinctions.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Essay --

SARATU ELRUFAI M4 DANGOTE PLC Provides us with our needs†¦. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Board of directors†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Strength†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Weakness†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Opportunities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Threats†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. INTRODUCTION Dangote is one of the largest and most successful companies in Africa. The company is owned by the famous billionaire Aliko Dangote .The business is controlled by a great management team which consists of the President Ali`ko Dangote, Vice president, Sani Dangote, Executive director, Abdu Dantata, chief operating officer, Okakunlew Alake and other group directors. It has a reputation for outstanding business operation and products ‘quality. (Dangote, 2013) .The headquarters is in the western part of Nigeria, Lagos. The company’s enterprises include salt, sugar, cement, flour, pasta, real estate, noodles, fertilizer, spaghetti, oil, gas, steel, macaroni, logistics and poly products and runs in fourteen African countries. The following are their brands: Dangote sugar Dangote cement Dangote macaroni Dangote spaghetti Dangote Noodles Dangote flour Danvita Petit tomato paste Dangote salt Dangote snacks Mowa water Ziza milk Dansa juice Dangote rice STREGHTS The company has the second largest sugar refinery in the whole world. Dangote is the only company in Nigeria that provides all those goods and Nigeria depends on the company a lot. People in Africa prefer dangote because of their good quality products and that is the main advantage they have to others. The group consists of a good management team, which is also strength to them. The main character the group shows is loyalty. Dangote is well ... ... [online] Available at: http://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/profile-full/article/aliko-dangote/ [Accessed: 19 November 2013]. African Business Review (2013) Company Reports: Dangote cement plc.[online] Available at: http://www.africanbusinessreview.co.za/reports/dangote-cement [Accessed: 19 November 2013]. Dangote (2013). Dangote Group [online] Available at: http://dangote.com/aboutus/managementteam.aspx [Accessed: 19 November 2013]. Mail and Guardian (2013)Nigeria’s dangote uses $3.3bn loan to build Africa’s biggest oil refinery .6:23.Available at: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-09-05-dangote-33bn-refinery-to-turn-nigeria-into-oil-exporter [Accessed: 5 September 2013] Cement china (2013). Dangote invests $28M in Ghana cement packaging plant.[Online]Available at: http://www.cementchina.net/news/shownews.asp?id=7442[accessed November 21 2013]

Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum

BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK's largest corporation, with its headquarters in St James's, City of Westminster, London. BP America's headquarters is in the One Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas; the company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six leaders.In order to project social responsibility and improve its image British Petroleum changed its name into BP in year 2000 with a logo of green and yellow sunflower patterns. Paradoxically the same company symbol is now under derision and the object of controversial attacks from environmentalists and damaging court cases. The company’s predicament further worsened when it was listed as one of the â€Å"ten worst corporations† during the year 2001 and 2006. In fact, BP and its competitors Royal Dutch-Shell were co nsidered by activists to be responsible with the threatening phenomenon of climate change.BP was warned before the oil pipeline leak happened in Alaska, but no action was made by the higher officials to mitigate its possible occurrence and reduce damages. In March 2005, BP's Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapor cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant.The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London. The fall-out from the accident continues to cloud BP's corpor ate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board which offered a derisive evaluation of the company.The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London. The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation. On October 30, 2009, OSHA fined BP an additional $87 million— the largest fine in OSHA history— for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations.BP is appealing that fine. In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipe lines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million liters of oil in Alaska's North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight this bacteria.There are estimates that about 5000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1513 barrels (240. 5 m3) of liquids, about 5200 cubic yards (4000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200000 barrels per day (32000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation pl ant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities. On 16 October 2007 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline.Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines. From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company's Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him.On April 1 2009, a Bond Offshore He licopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP's platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board. On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field.The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5000 barrels per day. On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster. BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producin g nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators. The U. S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation. On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.Coming to analyze BP's risk management, it is noted first that BP organization employs the systems of centralized direction and decentralized implementation. The centralized direction system was designed to attain business goals and objectives. The company unifies the corporation by implementing strategic objectives, values, behaviors and standards to be performed and easily understood by their people. On the other hand the systematic objective of BP is decentralized implementation of its operations in order to deliver the best quality of products or services and satisfy the needs of the consumers.The decentralized implementation covered three business segments namely: Exploration and Production, The Gas, Power and Renewable and Refining and Market. As is well known, procedures and controls are a necessary condition for effective risk management, but not a sufficient one. A company’s standards and processes will fail if employees do not feel empowered to follow the standards during times of stress or they fear retaliation for reporting â€Å"unwanted† information. Reading the report of BP and other esources at my disposal I have found that how parts of BP’s culture may have tolerated shortened safety procedures as they fell behind investment schedules and other deadlines. For example, the compan y cut short a procedure involving drilling fluid that is designed to detect gas in the well and skipped a quality test of the cement around the pipe (another buffer against gas) despite BP’s report finding that there were signs of problems with the cement job and despite a warning from the cement contractor company.The experts also concluded that there was not a strong culture of communication across its own team leaders and partner companies. Having multiple players can restrict access to critical knowledge and slow decision-making processes to a dangerous point. Nor did there appear to be a culture where managers were expected to seek out or share contrary information from a different perspective. These cultural elements allowed issues to continue without the application of comprehensive expertise.It seems to be necessary adding more controls, more checks and balances, with auditable risk management processes new minimum standards, and increased self-audits. While some crit eria and thresholds did not exist prior to the accident, it is unclear whether the lack of these controls and audit mechanisms directly caused the accident itself Companies are not able to entirely shift operational or reputational risk to a partner, subcontractor, or supplier. Presumably, BP had in place significant and comprehensive controls and contractual requirements for its contractors and other service providers.However, questions remain about whether these contractual requirements were actually implemented, assessed, and monitored by BP. Anyway, risk management referred to in this paper are the activities related to managing an organization that integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources. Its primary objective is to reduce the different risks related to threats caused by environment, technology, humans, organizations and politics.Firms usually formulate strategies in order to manage o r mitigate risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. BP must apply risk management in its corporate financing as the technique for measuring, monitoring and controlling the financial or operational risk on the firm. The commonly used framework breaks risks into market risk (price risk), credit risk and operational risk and also specifies methods for calculating capital requirements for each of these components.In enterprise risk management, a risk is defined as a possible event or circumstance that can have negative influences on the survival of a company. Its impact can be on the very existence, the resources (human and capital), the products and services, or the customers of the enterprise, as well as external impacts on society, markets, or the environment. In a financial institution, enterprise risk management is normally thought of as the combin ation of credit risk, interest rate risk or asset liability management, market risk, and operational risk.All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. In the case of BP, the following must also be undertaken in addition and consideration of those discussed above. Firstly, it is of major importance to planning how risk management will be conducted must be undertaken: in this regard the plan must include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget.Secondly, managers responsible for BP will assign a risk officer who will be responsible for foreseeing potential problems. In this respect, it is important also to maintain the risk database and each risk should have an opening date, a title, a brief description, a probability and a suggestion of importance. Once potential sources of risk have been identified, it will also need preparing a p lan for reducing the risk (mitigation plan) for risks that are chosen to be mitigated.In this regard, it is well known that the purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will it be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. BP, in a perspective of reducing the risks described above in the long run as well as in order to optimize and reduce the resources used for that purpose, must eventually summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities, and effort spent for the risk management. Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK's largest corporation, with its headquarters in St James's, City of Westminster, London. BP America's headquarters is in the One Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas; the company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six leaders.In order to project social responsibility and improve its image British Petroleum changed its name into BP in year 2000 with a logo of green and yellow sunflower patterns. Paradoxically the same company symbol is now under derision and the object of controversial attacks from environmentalists and damaging court cases. The company’s predicament further worsened when it was listed as one of the â€Å"ten worst corporations† during the year 2001 and 2006. In fact, BP and its competitors Royal Dutch-Shell were co nsidered by activists to be responsible with the threatening phenomenon of climate change.BP was warned before the oil pipeline leak happened in Alaska, but no action was made by the higher officials to mitigate its possible occurrence and reduce damages. In March 2005, BP's Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapor cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant.The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London. The fall-out from the accident continues to cloud BP's corpor ate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board which offered a derisive evaluation of the company.The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London. The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation. On October 30, 2009, OSHA fined BP an additional $87 million— the largest fine in OSHA history— for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations.BP is appealing that fine. In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipe lines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million liters of oil in Alaska's North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight this bacteria.There are estimates that about 5000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1513 barrels (240. 5 m3) of liquids, about 5200 cubic yards (4000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200000 barrels per day (32000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation pl ant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities. On 16 October 2007 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline.Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines. From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company's Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him.On April 1 2009, a Bond Offshore He licopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP's platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board. On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field.The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5000 barrels per day. On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster. BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producin g nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators. The U. S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation. On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.Coming to analyze BP's risk management, it is noted first that BP organization employs the systems of centralized direction and decentralized implementation. The centralized direction system was designed to attain business goals and objectives. The company unifies the corporation by implementing strategic objectives, values, behaviors and standards to be performed and easily understood by their people. On the other hand the systematic objective of BP is decentralized implementation of its operations in order to deliver the best quality of products or services and satisfy the needs of the consumers.The decentralized implementation covered three business segments namely: Exploration and Production, The Gas, Power and Renewable and Refining and Market. As is well known, procedures and controls are a necessary condition for effective risk management, but not a sufficient one. A company’s standards and processes will fail if employees do not feel empowered to follow the standards during times of stress or they fear retaliation for reporting â€Å"unwanted† information. Reading the report of BP and other esources at my disposal I have found that how parts of BP’s culture may have tolerated shortened safety procedures as they fell behind investment schedules and other deadlines. For example, the compan y cut short a procedure involving drilling fluid that is designed to detect gas in the well and skipped a quality test of the cement around the pipe (another buffer against gas) despite BP’s report finding that there were signs of problems with the cement job and despite a warning from the cement contractor company.The experts also concluded that there was not a strong culture of communication across its own team leaders and partner companies. Having multiple players can restrict access to critical knowledge and slow decision-making processes to a dangerous point. Nor did there appear to be a culture where managers were expected to seek out or share contrary information from a different perspective. These cultural elements allowed issues to continue without the application of comprehensive expertise.It seems to be necessary adding more controls, more checks and balances, with auditable risk management processes new minimum standards, and increased self-audits. While some crit eria and thresholds did not exist prior to the accident, it is unclear whether the lack of these controls and audit mechanisms directly caused the accident itself Companies are not able to entirely shift operational or reputational risk to a partner, subcontractor, or supplier. Presumably, BP had in place significant and comprehensive controls and contractual requirements for its contractors and other service providers.However, questions remain about whether these contractual requirements were actually implemented, assessed, and monitored by BP. Anyway, risk management referred to in this paper are the activities related to managing an organization that integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources. Its primary objective is to reduce the different risks related to threats caused by environment, technology, humans, organizations and politics.Firms usually formulate strategies in order to manage o r mitigate risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. BP must apply risk management in its corporate financing as the technique for measuring, monitoring and controlling the financial or operational risk on the firm. The commonly used framework breaks risks into market risk (price risk), credit risk and operational risk and also specifies methods for calculating capital requirements for each of these components.In enterprise risk management, a risk is defined as a possible event or circumstance that can have negative influences on the survival of a company. Its impact can be on the very existence, the resources (human and capital), the products and services, or the customers of the enterprise, as well as external impacts on society, markets, or the environment. In a financial institution, enterprise risk management is normally thought of as the combin ation of credit risk, interest rate risk or asset liability management, market risk, and operational risk.All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. In the case of BP, the following must also be undertaken in addition and consideration of those discussed above. Firstly, it is of major importance to planning how risk management will be conducted must be undertaken: in this regard the plan must include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget.Secondly, managers responsible for BP will assign a risk officer who will be responsible for foreseeing potential problems. In this respect, it is important also to maintain the risk database and each risk should have an opening date, a title, a brief description, a probability and a suggestion of importance. Once potential sources of risk have been identified, it will also need preparing a p lan for reducing the risk (mitigation plan) for risks that are chosen to be mitigated.In this regard, it is well known that the purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will it be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. BP, in a perspective of reducing the risks described above in the long run as well as in order to optimize and reduce the resources used for that purpose, must eventually summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities, and effort spent for the risk management.