Biodiversity Museum exhibit Presentation Essay Example for Free

Biodiversity Museum exhibit Presentation Essay Very little is known about biodiversity and its effect on livelihood and the environment. In order to clearly understand where we are coming from a clear definition of the broad concept is in order Biodiversity is the difference in number, frequency and variety of living organisms in an ecological system. This includes plants, animals, birds, fish among others. Basically this term encompasses variety of ecosystems species, and relative abundance (http://www. equalearth. org/wildlifeextinction. htm ). Importance of Biodiversity. Tropical rainforests are dying or being cut down at a faster rate than be replaced. The rainforests play a vital role in water catchments areas and are home to thousands of birds spices and animals. The replacement of these forest with artificial ones is insufficient because the rainforest support undergrowth and attract more rain. Animals species take millions of years to adapt to their habitat and no human being should fuel elimination of such progress. Biodiversity sustains our own survival as well as that of the global economy. The small millipedes play a profound role of improving the quality of our soils. The same also goes for the fungi, algae, and bacteria among other microorganisms. These organisms aerate the soils, incorporate crucial elements like minerals and nitrogen. Additionally ecosystems in marshes remove excess nutrients from the soil. A good example is the mollusus. The forests reduce soil erosion through wind and water. What’s more, forests hold the soil firmly together thus preventing landslides. Furthermore, biodiversity ensures stabilization of the climate in the sense that they act as repositories of CO2 in exchange for O2, act as wind breakers and lessen the brunt of freezing temperatures. Other benefits include controlling natural disasters, pollinations of plants by the bees and birds thus better crop production and such like. On a different note biodiversity provide food security, aesthetic, medicinal bioprospecting, spiritual healing and value. Virginia is an area rich in biodiversity with variety of native plants and animals. It is important that this ecosystem is preserved and hence it is important to educate visitors on the causes of wildlife extinction. Deforestation is one reason that causes extinction as humans destroy forest to build roads, cultivate and other infrastructure. In US only 15% of tropical forest remains. Other causes of wildlife extinction include poaching, habitat degradation (through mining), animal diseases, pollution and overexploitation (http://www. equalearth. org/wildlifeextinction. htm ). The aquatic life is also not spared. Whales, Atlantic cod, bald eagle and others are hunted town piercely for economic gains especially whale oil. Water pollution has also killed several aquatic species in a short duration. The impact of wildlife extinction on our world increases as the destruction of ecosystem progresses. This is because each species of living organism has a role in maintaining a balance in the system. If one species becomes extinct the whole system is destabilized. For example the food consumed by that species will overpopulate causing the others that fed it to reduce. Extinction of wildlife depraves future generations from knowing nature as it was. The extinction of dinosores millions of years ago stripped humanity of the knowledge of such creatures. Extinction of species also die hence food insecurity and economic loss. The relationship between wildlife extinction and deforestation is clear cut. The rainforests support life of over a million species of plant and animals. Deforestation Randers these animals homeless and without food to eat. The destruction of their habitat forces them to look in other areas which they are not adapted to. In such a case only the fittest survive the hostile environment fuelling extinction. Deforestation leads to food insecurity for animals, which eventually starve to death. Additionally exposing animals to unsheltered habitats puts them in the hands of poachers who kill then for money. This leads to extinctions of wildlife. Besides, deforestation strips wildlife of their homes, which in turn exposes hem to adverse climate and temperatures causing diseases and death, thus extinction. Deforestation has some current and potential impacts on world cultures. For instance, the economic lifestyle of a people in Brazil depends on extraction of rubber, nuts and other raw materials which they sell to companies in exchange of money to buy food and other necessities. Deforestation hampers this source of income. Culture incorporates the kind of shelter, foods and lifestyles people have. Deforestation causes disharmony in this culture in that indigenous people go without traditional medicine from tees, lack materials for building their homes, go without recreation facilities and no longer have good soil to cultivate crops. Given that clear understanding, of biodiversity, I have been hired by the largest, natural history museum in the world and charged with the responsibility of designing an exhibit that introduces visitors to the importance of biodiversity, causes of wildlife extinction, ways that wildlife extinction impacts on the world, causes of deforestation, and its relationship to wildlife extinction current and potential impacts of deforestation on world cultures and description of the methods that are and could be implemented to preserve the present level of aquatic biodiversity. This task is equally challenging, as it is exciting. The proposed design will be submitted to the Museum’s board or trustees. Aquatic life zones Currently, the US and other countries have realized the importance of aquatic biodiversity and taken steps to preserving it. The well-being of lakes and water bodies directly promotes well-being of aquatic life. The US has laid down laws that prohibit pollution of H2O. It has also banned the use of pesticides and fertilizers that contain elements which could pollute water. Sensitization of communities living near tributaries to plant trees by rivers sides has also helped to preserve aquatic life fro soil sedimentation. The coral reefs are an attractive feature of aquatic biodiversity. The EPA has been in the forefront of banning sewage discharges (human/industrial) which deposit pathogens and other harmful compounds into the coral reefs thereby destroying them. In Florida, the FKNMS) ensures sustainability of the Florida key reefs with the help of EPA and NOAA. As it stands the EPA intends to develop a watershed approach to protect coral reefs. Reference http://www. equalearth. org/wildlifeextinction. htm Accessed on 11th October 2007

Harnessing Wind Energy :: physics power energy green environment clean

Living in Rural Alaska is very expensive because of it's isolated location. It would be even more expensive if energy, mail service, and other services were not subsidized by the state of Alaska. In the late seventies and early eighties, the state of Alaska looked for ways to cut the high cost of subsidizing diesel fuel for generating electrical power to rural Alaska. It was during this time that wind energy was taken into consideration as a source of electrical power. The earliest known uses of wind power date back to 3000 BC, when people used wind to sail ships. Approximately 4000 years later, windmills were used in Europe to grind tobacco, wheat, and other grains. Later, in the 1700's, windmills were then used to pump water. It was not until the 1900's that wind mills were used for generating electric power. In the United States, windmills were used prior to widespead electrical distribution. The generation of wind can be traced back to solar energy. It is ultimately a renewable and clean energy source. This is what makes it attractive to many as a source of energy for power plants. Wind is created as a result of pressure differences in the atmosphere which is caused by temperature differences of radiating solar energy. Other factors that contribute to the flow of air (wind) is the rotation of the earth, and it's terrain. We could expect more wind over bodies of water since water provides less resistance to wind than do objects on the surface of the earth. If wind is essentially free, why don't we see more windmills? The reason is that wind doesn't blow whenever we need power. Wind energy can only be stored in batteries and much of the energy from wind can not be harnessed into useful energy. The public also views wind generators as an eyesore on the landscape. Wind, initially is in the form of kinetic energy, thus it has the equation: 1/2mv^2, where m is the mass, and v is velocity of the air. Using the fact that the mass is equal to the volume times the density, we can rewrite the equation for kinetic energy as k.e. = 1/2Vpv^2, where V is the volume, and p is the density of air. Furthermore, the volume through a surface is equal to the area of the surface times the velocity of the air, times the time, thus the equation becomes k.e. = 1/2pv^3At, where A is the area of the surface and t is the time.

The Market for Online Education

Introduction Traditional education is designed around face-to-face communication in a physical classroom. Educational institutions are required to pay for costly inputs, the costs of which are spread out over a limited number of students. It is no surprise then that this education delivery model has produced a 550% increase in the cost of tuition at U.S. universities since 1985 (Vella, 2012). In addition to this, most universities are run by non-profit trusts or governments, where there is little pressure to innovate and fully utilize the physical and intellectual resources of the institution. With this backdrop, online courses are offering low-cost learning alternatives, which are customized for needs of customers, and are available without regard to space and time for different groups of customers worldwide. Over time, attitudes of students and employers towards online education are also improving. Finally, new private companies are coming up to offer customized solutions often backed by cloud computing platforms, though they still lack the brand recognition of traditional universities. This paper will examine the limitations of traditional educational methods and explore sources of demand and supply of online education with a view towards how innovative business models such as crowdsourcing and technology infrastructures such as cloud computing are creating change in online education (Weld et al., 2012). Evolution of Online Education Traditional education delivery in thousands of universities globally is designed around transfer of knowledge from teachers to students via face-to-face, lecture based interaction in physical classrooms. At the outset, this imposes the limit of physical capacity of the classroom on the number of individuals who can enrol in the class. In comparison, recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled alternative online education delivery mechanisms, which can optimize educational delivery in a cost-efficient manner for a large number of users. Online education can be defined as a new social process which utilizes digital technology to partially or fully substitute traditional classroom learning methods, optimized for learners without the barriers of a traditional educational setup (Hiltz & Turoff, 2006). Allen and Seaman (2013) define online education to include courses where at least 80% of the course content is delivered online. These courses are delivered ov er the Internet and include significant use of digital media, data storage and communication technologies such as computer-assisted instruction, group communications, use of immersive simulations, gaming and asynchronous learning networks, collaborative knowledge systems and use of wireless and handheld devices. Online education offers different sets of opportunities to different organisations and individuals. For existing educational institutions, it offers a way to increase enrolment or reach a different type of audience such as corporate training. For start-ups looking to shake up the education ‘industry’, it offers the opportunity to compete with traditional universities on different bases of competition, such as price, program duration or class timing. For others, it offers the opportunity for lifelong learning or the opportunity to learn from professors of top universities. Surveys show that the number of students taking online learning courses is on the rise. Allen and Seaman (2013) report that the total number of students in the U.S. taking at least 1 online course during 2012 has increased to 6.7 million, representing 32% of the total student population of 21 million students. In an endorsement of the online learning platform, 77% of academic leaders believe that online learning leads to better learning outcomes than face-to-face instruction. On the major obstacles that are holding back the growth of online education, the authors believe that most faculty members still do not have a positive view about online learning. 40% believe employers have reservations about online degrees. Product Offerings Online education is influencing different tiers of the market in different ways. Firstly, in traditional universities, more and more fully online classes are being developed, and technology is finding its way into more traditional classes as well. Many universities now offer online only classes for their students. In addition, universities such as Georgia Tech are creating tailor made degrees for corporations such as AT&T. This setup benefits the university which gets an extra revenue stream and also AT&T which gets high-end skills training for its employees on the job (Kitroeff, 2014). In addition, some new, non-traditional universities have also been set up. These online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, replicate the existing university model but without a physical campus, utilizing online content delivery. A different model has also been developed by some traditional universities such as MIT and Stanford. In partnership with private start-up companies such as Coursera and EdX, these institutions are putting together free classes open to global masses known as massive open online courses (MOOC). These courses are available to all the students in the world who have Internet access and some of these classes boast registrations in hundreds of thousands. Currently, nearly 3% of institutions of higher education in the US are offering MOOCs while another 10% are in the planning process of offering MOOCs (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Coursera is also expanding into China with its more than 1 million online learners (Larson, 2014). However, it is not clear how MOOC offerings will be financed (Anderson, 2012). The author points out that giving away content for free usually never turns out to be good business model. Suggestions for revenue generation include subscription and charging employers who want to hire successful students. Another issue is how to ascertain the identity and actual completion of work by a given individual. Udacity, another start-up has devised a solution by offering physical testing facilities in different countries where students can take certification exams in a supervised environment. While they are becoming increasingly popular, MOOCs offer limited customization. In comparison, some start-up education companies are exploring the idea of customized learning enabled by ‘crowdsourcing’. Crowdsourcing is a term which defines the development of an online community whose physically dispersed members may be called upon to provide results online to a given problem. One limitation of MOOCs is that grading assignments of hundreds of thousands of students requires using automated software, which can only grade multiple choice problems. This solution does not work very well in the humanities and social sciences. A crowdsourcing-based solution is to use peer evaluation for this purpose. These learning environments also deploy other technology enabled learning techniques such as using software to analyse common mistakes made by large groups with the highest frequency. Significant insights can be gained into human learning from observing such errors and analyzing their causes. Other automated software agents can crawl the web for useful resources pertaining to the course and collect it on a new website. Additional functionalities that can be offered by machine learning systems include services that link students with particular needs with tutors with skills suitable for teaching those subjects. Role of technology in the online education ecosystem Central to this paradigm shift in education is the Internet and technology revolution. A key enabling innovation in this regard is the development of a low-cost services model known as cloud computing. Cloud computing is an umbrella terms which describes how computers, servers, and applications and processes on those servers can be networked together in a distributed computing platform to create scalable infrastructure which enables users to connect from anywhere and using any device. Cloud computing may be considered an extension of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a software design which makes it easy for computers on a network to cooperate. An institution or group of institutions that gets together to develop a cloud computing based platform needs to develop content and services that can reside inside the cloud since not all applications are cloud enabled (Mircea & Andreescu, 2011). Cloud computing is a way of designing a network in blocks, not all of which need to be owned or operated by one university. Instead some components of infrastructure, or the platform or the software or even the computing power itself may be owned and managed by service providers who allow the university to pay for them on an ongoing, pay-per-use basis (Matthew, 2012). Cloud enabled service delivery enables access to educational content by anyone, anywhere on a pay-per-use basis, thus enabling deployment of scalable educational services. If a substantial number of users exist, the cost per user and thus the fee charged to the user can be lowered substantially compared to traditional educational institutions (Moore, 2011). This can have several other advantages for institutions as well. For example, institutions can combine resources with others to share a cloud, and then focus on content creation to focus on their strength and outsourcing the IT services to a large degree. The new business models will begin with market need identification, and then deploying a solution to meet that need, offering a high return on investment (ROI). A major university offering a global MOOC would need a very different platform than a commercial service offering English as Second Language in China and cloud computing would allow each to have the right cost and infrastructure for the size of the opportunity. A lot of effort is going into the development of each of the elements of online education. These include digital books, grading software, intelligent software agents, cloud computing infrastructure and tablets. Amazon is also selling more digital books than paper books and it is now even possible for students taking online classes to rent their textbooks for limited time (Schuetze, 2011). Through its success, online education seems to be substituting traditional education (Mehaffy, 2012). This phenomenon has been labelled by Christensen & Eyring (2011) as the process of ‘disruption’. ‘Disruptive technologies’ are championed by new companies which do not compete with the incumbents along the existing bases of competition, but offer new and often low-cost product to a previously underserved group of consumers. Once successful in their niches, they increase volume, improve product quality and unseat incumbents in the high end of the market. Alternatively, disruption forces incumbents to change their business models. One of the reasons the education market seems ripe for disruption is the high cost of university education which makes the high-end of the market out of reach for many students. Some of the new business models in online education offer lower cost alternatives for those average students. In response, several mainstream universities are already considering lowering the residency requirement of their degrees to lower the total cost of earning them, while considering how to improve their online courses. While it may be too early to predict how successful they will be, for now the online education market seems set to grow globally. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that online education is a powerful business model because it can service large underserved segments of the education market at low average cost (Gaytan, 2007). It is a solution for those who could previously not afford the high cost of education or may only need to develop certain job related skills or they may be lifelong learners. Deployment of digital content and software over a cloud enabled distributed computing network is the first step towards infrastructure development required for online learning platforms. More high-quality content is required together with ingenious business models to take online education to the next level of success. Recommendations While they do not face any immediate threats, existing educational institutions will need to adapt their business models in order to not become obsolete. At a minimum, they should consider ways of reducing their cost without diluting the experience. Traditional universities have a strong competitive advantage – they offer a period of residence in an academic community. This is difficult to replicate for online institutions. Online universities should consider partnerships for revenue and content sharing with traditional institutions in order to build their brands quicker. Without brand acceptance, they will never be able to compete with traditional universities. Start-ups should focus on helping develop those innovations that increase the return on investment in new business models for educational service providers to encourage innovation and investment in technology supporting online education. Bibliography Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. 2013. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950. Anderson, N. 2012. Elite education for the masses. The Washington Post, 4. Christensen, C. M., & Eyring, H. J. 2011. The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. John Wiley & Sons. Conn, S. S., & Reichgelt, H. 2012. Cloud Computing in Support of Applied Learning: A Baseline Study of Infrastructure Design at Southern Polytechnic State University. In Proceedings of the Information Systems Educators Conference ISSN (Vol. 2167, p. 1435). Gaytan, J. 2007. Visions shaping the future of online education: Understanding its historical evolution, implications, and assumptions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(2). Hiltz, S. R., & Turoff, M. 2005. Education goes digital: The evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM,48(10), 59-64. Larson, C. 2014. Coursera’s plan for online education: Expansion in China. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-27/coursera-ceo-richard-levin-plans-to-expand-the-company-in-china. Kitroeff, N. 2014. Why AT&T is investing in virtual school. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved on 28 October, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-24/at-and-t-and-former-google-vp-back-georgia-tech-online-degree-program. Mathew, S. 2012. Implementation of Cloud Computing in Education – A Revolution. International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 4(3), 473 – 475. Mehaffy, G. L. 2012. Challenge and change. Educause Review, 47(5), 25-42. Mircea, M., & Andreescu, A. I. 2011. Using cloud computing in higher education: A strategy to improve agility in the current financial crisis. Communications of the IBIMA, 2011, 1-15. Moore, J. C. 2012. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, December 2011. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(1), 91-115. Schuetze, C. F. 2011. Textbooks finally take a big leap to digital. The New York Times. Vella, M. (2012). Is higher education doomedFortune. Retrieved on October 28, 2014 from http://fortune.com/2012/07/18/is-higher-education-doomed/. Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. 2013. MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education. Cetis White Paper. Weld, D. S., Adar, E., Chilton, L., Hoffmann, R., Horvitz, E., Koch, M., & Mausam, M. 2012. Personalized online education—a crowdsourcing challenge. In Workshops at the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

Hiv / Aids Infection And Design Ways And Methodologies...

HIV is a human immune virus while AIDS is acquired immunity-deficiency syndrome. From sampling, I chose HIV/AIDS to be my topic of research, based on the magnitude of the rate of infection and spread of the disease given that it is relative to behavioral and social relations of people. This topic is controversial in the sense that it s one of the major factors responsible for the underdevelopment of most of the nations in the world. The purpose of the research and study was to identify the rate of HIV/AIDS infection and design ways and methodologies towards reducing the rate of infection of the population. The study is also aimed at providing a detailed analysis of available studies on the effects of AIDs. It was also to investigate†¦show more content†¦How to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic/ Intervention programs Sex education Sex education should be provided to all, especially the young generation so that they get to learn about ways of preventing them and reduce chances of them contracting the disease. By giving them sex education, it enables them to take care of their bodies. Peer counseling This is also another method of preventing the likelihood for the spread of HIV/AIDS. This one helps to withdraw negative peer pressure, which may mislead and lead others to carry out irresponsible sexual behavior Adoption of safe sex practices It’s advisable for people to practice safe sex. This will lead to prevention of the exchange of body and virginal fluids and this increases chances of getting infections. Research has it that oral sex is much less risky than anal or vaginal sex (Balmer, 1993). Anal sex is the most risky type of sex for the spread of HIV Sexual abstinence Abstinence is the best method in which one can prevent the spread of a disease. Here the married couples are advised to remain faithful in their relationships and for the unmarried people to abstain from sexual activities until marriage. Immigration regulation There should be in place policies regulating migration from one region to another, especially in war torn areas where we have refugee camps. These cases led to evils like rape and other sexual activities with aliens or people from different regions whose status is unknown, hence