Cocaine :: essays research papers

Cocaine is a drug extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a potent brain stimulant and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs. Cocaine is distributed on the street in two main forms: cocaine hydrochloride is a white crystalline powder that can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected; and "crack" is cocaine hydrochloride that has been processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water into a freebase cocaine. These chips, chunks, or rocks can be smoked. Cocaine may be used occasionally, daily, or in a variety of compulsive, repeated-use "binges". Regardless of how it is used, cocaine is highly addictive. Crack cocaine and injected cocaine reach the brain quickly and bring an intense and immediate high. Snorted cocaine produces a high more slowly. Cocaine can produce a surge in energy, a feeling of intense pleasure, and increased confidence. The effects of powder cocaine last about 20 minutes, while the effects of "crack" last about 12 minutes. Heavy use of cocaine may produce hallucinations, paranoia, aggression, insomnia, and depression. Cocaine's effects are short lived, and once the drug leaves the brain, the user experiences a "coke crash" that includes depression, irritability, and fatigue. Many people ask is cocaine addictive? Yes. Cocaine can take over your life and cause you to lose interest in everything else. Studies in monkeys have shown that animals will work very hard (press a bar over 10,000 times) for a single injection of cocaine, choose cocaine over food and water, and take cocaine even when this behavior is punished. Animals must have their access to cocaine limited in order not to take toxic or even lethal doses. People addicted to cocaine behave similarly. They will go to great lengths to get cocaine and continue to take it even when it hurts their school or job performance and their relationships with loved ones. Do users develop a tolerance to crack or cocaine? Yes. Users may find they need more and more of the drug to get high. What are the effects of cocaine use? Cocaine stimulates the central nervous system. It acts on the "pleasure centers" of the brain, producing heightened pleasure and increased confidence. Other immediate effects include dilated pupils and elevated blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. The pleasurable effects of powder cocaine last about 20 minutes. Occasional use can cause a stuffy or runny nose, and chronic use can ulcerate the mucous membrane of the nose. Injecting cocaine with contaminated equipment can cause AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases. Preparation of freebase cocaine, which involves the use of volatile solvents, can result in death or injury from fire or explosion.

IPCSL Case Study Essay

In 1944, Debi Prasad Aggarawal had realized the need for a cold storage facility. Consequently he established a facility with the latest cold storage equipments from the UK which was mainly utilized by the potatoes harvest. Debi’s son, Jadish, succeeded him as Managing director in early 1960. Jagdish had successfully opened new markets and brought new clients when he started promoting the facility to fruits producers. In 1977, Sanjay Aggarawal, Debi’s grandson, joined the company with the task of supervising and the construction of the new 2500 MT facility in Azadpur. Fruits & Vegetables market The growers of fruits and vegetables in India mostly harvest their produce manually, transporting to orchards for grading & packing. Afterwards, the fruits and vegetable are shipped to wholesale markets by road. India being world’s second largest fruits producer with total of 44 mn MT (approx 10% of world’s production) and one of the largest vegetable producers in the world with around 86 mn MT, the new Sabji Mandi at Azadpur is Asia’s and one of the world’s biggest fruits and vegetable market in volume of produce handled contributed to the huge demand for cold storage facilities. Commission agents At the arrival of fruits at Azadpur, the commission agents take charge of the produce by offloading, storage and sale at a rate of 6% of the sale amount. During this process all the expenses involved are borne by the growers. As a way to get business, some of the commission agents offer growers advance loans at the commencement of the fruits season and deduct the same amount when the produce is sold in the market. As the fruits reach the market, some will be sold on the same day while roughly 45% – 60% need cold storage facility to be sold at a later date or at the off-season. Wholesalers Wholesalers buy the produce from commission agents which in turn they sell to sub-wholesalers. Cold storage Industry A conventional cold storage facility can preserve fruits for a period of 10 days to 2 months depending of the type of the fruits while a CA or GC storage facility can double or triple this period respectively. The total capacity of storage facilities available was nearly 10.35 mn MT against total produce of over 130 mn MT, this can demonstrate the very high demand of storage facilities. IPSCL has differentiated itself from the market by upgrading the facility to state-of-the-art Gas Controlled cold storage (3900 MT, around 78% of the capacity), Controlled Atmosphere Cold Storage (100 MT, 2% of the available capacity) and a Deep Freezer storage (1000 MT, 20% of the capacity). Besides, there was a lack of refrigerated trucks to mobilize the produce from the growers’ location to the wholesale markets and from the markets to sub-wholesalers or retailers. The refrigerated trucks play a vital role in ensuring the freshness, quality and firmness of the produce. Government Aimed at encouraging the growing industry, the GoI offered a capital investment Subsidy Scheme for the construction, expansion and / or modification of cold storage units. Competition Besides IPCSL, no other cold storage facility is operating under the GC or GA technology. However due to this technology differentiation, IPCSL was operating at a very high cost in comparison to the other facilities. In fact, the conventional cold storage facilities where offering their clients a price almost equal to IPCSL’s operating cost. Customers IPCSL has two types of customer, commission agents & wholesalers who store their fruits to sell at a later date or off-season. The fruits and vegetables market has seen about 60% growth owing to the increase in income of the middle-class category in India. Observations The cold storage services is a price driven over quality driven market, the cold storage service providers currently in business are not having any points of differentiation which led to a price war and very slim margins. The very low profit margins have restricted the competitors from changing out their old technology storage facilities to an international standard facility. Some of the customers (wholesalers & commission agents) are not highly appreciating the cold storage services especially during the winter season where the fruits and vegetables don’t get affected much due to the very low temperature. In the case of conventional cold storage facility, the only way to make decent profit is by maximizing the sales volume and effectively utilizing capacity available (dynamic facility management system). This would give some cost preference over competitors allowing to capture bigger market share and make higher profit margin. In the case of IPCSL, the GC & CA storage technology is giving them a market edge to charge a premium price. However the customers should value the added services provided over the difference in charges. Other than the limitation in the period fruits and vegetables can be stored in the conventional cold storage facility, there are additional quantities wasted during storage & handling which will not be the case in GC or CA operated facility. This will decrease the cost per kg and increase the wholesalers / commission agent profit margin. IPCSL didn’t focus much on marketing of their new state-of-the-art cold storage facility; instead, they focused on the value they add to the fruits and vegetables industry. As rightly quoted by one of the company’s senior managers to Sanjay, the fruits and markets industry lack formal education. It takes time to show value and build confidence. However, to speed up the learning curve and attract customers, price & marketing strategy can play a crucial factor especially in the introductory stage. Recommendations & Suggestions Marketing: IPCSL should offer the large, large-middle or all clients a free, discounted or at-cost trial to demonstrate the difference in quality between the conventional facilities against the GC & CA operated ones. IPCSL should organize visits / tours for the large wholesalers to the facility to show how differently can they store the fruits and vegetables and exhibit the benefits to the prospective clients. As IPCSL is a high-end cold storage service provider, the marketing strategy should focus on the clients of the same level i.e. the wholesalers and commission agents dealing with organized retail stores, hotels etc. these clients are willing to pay some extra charges for higher quality fruits and vegetables which cannot be matched by any other cold storage facility in the market. Price: IPCSL should strategize a price discrimination based on the volume similar to what the competitors are doing. The price discrimination will attract the large exporters, high volume wholesalers and commission agents towards IPCSL. From IPCSL’s revenue statement; it is obvious that more than INR 6 mn is fixed cost while variable cost is around INR 7.5 per 20kg box. IPCSL priced their services at INR 60 for imported fruits and INR 20 for Indian fruits against INR 10 per 20kg box by competitors for imported and Indian fruits. Alternatively, IPCSL should price their services at the point where they maximally utilize their 5000 MT facility. The determined price along with the 5000 MT sales volume (if achieved) should cover up for the variable cost (INR 7.5 per 20kg box) as well as the very high fixed cost.

Discrimination against people with HIV at work

Monday morning was the best time of the week for mike for he loved going to work which could not be said for most of his colleagues. Mike had wanted to be a system analyst all his life and though he had been working at Mercury Star for four and a half years. He came into the office with the drive, sense of excitement, enthusiasm and expectation that an 8 year old boy had when his dad took him to get his first bicycle.His daily routine involved; getting into the office at least thirty minutes early so as to have enough time to settle in, review the previous day’s work and establish what would be his workload for the day. The first thing he did was to sit and admire the two beautiful, polished glass trophies which sat on the table on the left side of the room next to the picture of his girlfriend. These trophies were the reward for his hard earned success as he had been the firm’s employee of the year for the last two consecutive years.It was unusual for a 28 year old to have achieved that kind of success in such a short time as mike had already been promoted to a managerial post. Mike was a respected man in his work place and his employees looked up to him and some even pegged him as they guy who will be a Chief Executive Officer by the time he was 35. though he downplayed this remarks he always felt that he had the potential and after wining his second employee of the year award that became his new ambition. Within just four years he had become the one of the best system analysts in the city.Mike had his whole future planned out, how he would propose to his long time girlfriend by the end of the year, he was in the middle of negotiating a mortgage with the local bank and he was paying the last installment on his BMW M9. He even drew up a plan in which he planned to work extra so that he would be able to go into retirement by the age of 40 and set up a system analysis consultancy firm within the city (Geoffrey 23). His position in the office came w ith a health insurance package which until this time Mike had never used it.But on this Monday morning Mike felt different he felt like he was coming up with flu so after he reported to work he took the day off to go and see his doctor which was unusual as Mike rarely got sick. The doctor at first was not able to tell what was wrong with him so he ran some tests. When Mike came to see the doctor late in the afternoon the news that doctor gave him made him feel like his life had just been pulled right from under his feet. The words â€Å"I’m sorry Mike but you are HIV positive† keep ringing in his head.Mike did not even hear what the doctor said for next few minutes as he tried to let the news sink in. The medical cover policy had a condition that when an employee visits the firm’s doctor, he had to furnish the management with a complete report of the doctor’s examination. Mike went back to work after three days and tried to act like nothing had happened. But however much he tried he could not shake off what the doctor had told him he couldn’t and on this particular day he got to work late which had never happened.A soon as got to the office he was informed that the boss wanted to see him. When he got into his office, the boss offered him a sit and for the next fifteen minutes he went on and on how Mike was an excellent employ but what happened after that Mike would never have contemplated. The boss told him that the board had discussed on the medical report and had come to the conclusion to let him go. It was at this point that he truly felt his world come crumble and all his dreams and ambitions came tumbling down. What and end to a brilliant young man’s career. Discrimination against People with HIV at Work A salesman representative is terminated from his job when he was diagnosed as HIV positive. He was about to complete the six months requirement in order to become a regular employee but he was terminated under the dubious excuse of â€Å"grave misconduct†. But the real cause of his termination is his health condition, specifically, being positive on HIV or AIDS. The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, more commonly known as AIDS, is caused by the HIV or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The virus impairs the body’s defenses or immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to various serious and fatal illnesses (â€Å"AIDS and the Workplace†, 1992).People with HIV infection are living like normal people. They are able to perform well in their community and in their workplace environment. But still, discrimination against people with HIV is still prevalent in some areas, especially in the workplace. The United Nations campaigns for the ban of prejudice against peopl e with HIV/AIDS. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for worldwide efforts in battling not only the disease but the discrimination that is also widespread (â€Å"Ban urges end to Prejudice against People Living with HIV/AIDS†, 2008).Companies should address issues that are related to HIV/AIDS by enhancing a non-discriminatory workplace environment and by providing education regarding the frequently asked questions on AIDS. For the workplace environment that has an increased risk in blood exchange, the company should apply a control program in order to monitor and regulate the activities in the workplace (â€Å"AIDS and the Workplace†, 1992). People infected with HIV have the capacity to live normally in the society. And as such, we must not deprive the infected people with AIDS to do their tasks and participate and socialize with the other members of the society.

Ethical Analysis of Baby Theresa Essay

Baby Theresa is a very unique case. Theresa Ann Campo Pearson was an infant born in Florida 1992, with Anencephaly, which is where the two most important parts of the brain are missing, the cerebrum and cerebellum, as well as the top of the skull. Without these parts of the brain she would never have had higher brain functions or consciousness. However, there is still a brain stem connected so all the autonomic functions are still working, such as having a heart beat and breathing. Anencephaly is known as one of the worst congenital disorders, thus these cases are usually detected during pregnancy and aborted. If not aborted, half are stillborn or if born alive, they usually die within a few days. In Baby Theresa’s case, she died nine days after birth. Even though, knowing that Baby Theresa would not live long and never have a conscious life, her parents requested that her organs would not go to waste, but instead be donated for transplants for other infants in need before Theresa’s natural death. In fact, even physicians agreed that was a good idea because over 2000 infants need transplants each year. Unfortunately, the state of Florida prohibits euthanasia and that the organs only be removed when natural death occurs. Eventually, within the nine days Baby Theresa organs decayed and were not used because the Circuit Court Judge Estella Moriarty ruled that a Florida statute does not allow a person to be declared dead while any part of the brain is functioning. The judge told the parents: â€Å"I can’t authorize someone to take your baby’s life, however short, however unsatisfying, to save another child. † Which brings me to my first ethical argument, â€Å"It’s wrong to kill†. According to Immanuel Kant and his Kantian deontological theory, the principle of morality and our perfect duties, which one happens to be â€Å"it’s wrong to kill an innocent person†, comes from the categorical imperative. Kant states in the text on page 18 that, â€Å"act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end. † This is basically saying you always respect another person’s dignity. Thus, from a  Kantian standpoint, it is wrong to kill Theresa and take her organs to save others because then they would be using her merely as a means to other infants’ ends. However, to play devils advocate, â€Å"using a person† typically means you are violating their autonomy- their right to live and decide for themselves according to their own desires and values. With that being said, Baby Theresa was not autonomous because she had no consciousness, she had no ability to ever decide what was in her best interest and desire. So, technically, the Judge of the circuit court was not respecting the parents’ dignity of wanting to donate Theresa’s organs. For that reason, D. W Ross’s theory should have been taken into consideration. Indeed, I understand why the judge decided to make the ruling she did because if she did allow the physicians to take Theresa’s life before natural death took its course, it would have possibly undermined all physicians as untrustworthy, which could have ruined the patient-physician relationship. However, even though her ruling was very understandable, an important and very valuable theory should not have been over looked with a case as exceptional as this one, the Prima Facie Duty. W. D Ross explains when to consider this theory on page 23 that, â€Å" to provide a defensible account of â€Å"cases of conscience,† that is, situations that confront us with a conflict of duties. † Meaning when a person is uncertain and unsettled, but still must make a decision, but yet does not know which direction to go, you make a Prima Facie Duty. Ross then went on to explain that, â€Å"a Prima Facie Duty can be overridden by another Prima Facie Duty that in a particular set of circumstances is more stringent. With that being said, the duty of justice and the duty of beneficence can both be applied here because the Judge should have respected the parents’ religion and wishes, in their time of distress, to make their own personal decisions with their daughter by making other beings in the world conditions better. Also, the â€Å"it’s wrong to kill an innocent person† argument can be debated as well. Yes, I agree, it is wrong to kill a person to save another person, but there are exceptions, like what even makes a person, a person? Should Baby Theresa be considered a person? Research shows that all people have minds and all minds are capable of conscious mental activity, which Baby Theresa did not any thoughts or feelings, she was basically just breathing, so she should not have been considered as a person by these terms. Indeed, many infants could have benefitted from Baby Theresa’s organs, leading me to believe that the Utilitarianism theory was the correct approach to take for this case. In fact, when Jeremy Bentham created the Utilitarianism theory, he also made a point to focus on the consequences as much as the positive outcomes, which was called the Hedonistic Calculus. The Hedonistic Calculus is like a compare and contrast graph to weigh out the pleasures and pains of a situation because his main principle was, â€Å"act to promote the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people and less suffering to the less amount of people† and pleasure is the only value in the world based on the hedonism. With this in mind, if the parents were happy with making other families happy by giving their child organs for a good cause without technically harming or killing Baby Theresa, they ought to do so and that is what Ethics is all about, what you ought to do in a dilemma. Where as, on the other hand, by not allowing the organs to be donated for transplants, not only was the Judge dissatisfying Theresa parents wishes, she was possibly causing a larger chain reaction of disappointment and agony to the other families who would have been grateful and appreciative of Theresa organs, rather than allowing them to decay, causing pain to multiple parties. Ultimately, this case is a tricky one because I fully understand both the Kantian Theory plus the Utilitarianism and Consequentialist theory, but I see absolutely no benefits from overriding the parents’ beliefs and wishes of wanting to donate Theresa’s kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, and eyes because overall, many children could have tremendously benefitted from them.

Reform in government Essay

When it comes to making reform in government, politicians are programmed to act in one distinct manner. They want to prop up spending on government programs. The idea and prevailing thought on this is that if you throw enough money at something, it is bound to improve. This type of thinking is what causes politicians to add lots of new programs to the docket when in reality, they have not yet taken the time to evaluate the success of progress of their already implemented programs. There are many reasons why this type of thing might happen, but one of the most important is because, simply put, there is not enough time to sit back and evaluate new programs. The thought, at least in the minds of politicians, is that these programs take a few years to really have an impact. This means that the positive or negative things associated with a new program will not be seen for many months, so politicians do not think that they can correctly evaluate it (USGovernmentspending. com). The solution for this problem would be to evaluate programs starting further back before commiting to spend more money on new government programs, but this is not the way that politicians are programmed. They are programmed in a way that rewards public spending and new reform. This is one thing that politicians can point to when they run for re-election, so that people will see that they are doing something in Washington. Even if a program is not successful in affecting change in society, politicians are able to say that they were doing something in order to fix the problem, even if that something was counterproductive in nature.

The Efficacy And Advantages Of Inserting Foreign Genes Into The Essay

The Efficacy And Advantages Of Inserting Foreign Genes Into The Chloroplastic Genome Instead Of The Nuclear Genome - Essay Example Another batch of DNA was treated in a likewise manner, except that nucleotides containing thymine were added instead of adenine. (Avril, 187-94) When these two samples of DNA were mixed, the complementary "tails" of A- and T-bearing nucleotides became joined by hydrogen bonding. This combined the once separate fragments into long, interconnected chains. DNA ligase was then added to form bonds between the sugar and phosphate groups. The two DNA strands were now one. It was certainly intriguing that one could now cut up DNA into unpredictable heterogeneous fragments and randomly stitch them back together. However, for further insights into the organization of DNA and its genes -- that is, the determination of precise nucleotide sequencesvery specific nucleases would have to be found. The prevailing opinion was that such specific DNA-cutting capability did not exist in nature. The only clue to the possibility that more specific nucleases might exist came from observations beginning as early as 1953 that when DNA molecules from E. coli were introduced into another slightly different form of E. coli they seldom functioned genetically. They were quickly broken down into smaller fragments. This apparently was part of a system that had evolved in bacteria to protect them against the entrance of foreign DNA. In addition to all of the other more obvious forms of competition in nature, there is a constant invisible struggle played out in the microscopic world, in this case between bacteria and bacteriophages. Darwin's natural selection is recreated here on a minute scale. (David, 131-44) First, bacteria can be grown under controlled conditions, rapidly and in enormous numbers. Overnight, a few cells will multiply into literally billions. It is very important to understand that a bacterial cell ordinarily reproduces simply by copying itself. Assuming that no mutations occur in the cells, all the descendants of that one cell are identical. Such a population of cells originating from a single cell is termed a "clone" and the process of producing that clone is referred to as "cloning" the cell. The DNA in a typical bacterial cell exists in two forms. One is the single bacterial chromosome which, unlike the chromosomes in our cells, is in the form of a circular molecule. The DNA of all other organisms can be likened to a long string. In bacteria, the ends of the string are joined, forming a circle. In addition to the DNA in the bacterial chromosome, DNA also occurs in bacteria in the form of plasmids. These, like the bacterial chromosome, are also circular DNA molecules, but much smaller. When the bacterial cell divides, the bacterial chromosome replicates and one chromosome is passed on to the new cell. Likewise, each of the plasmids replicate and half are delivered to the next generation. The plasmids are unique, independent, self-replicating DNA molecules which can exist only within the living bacterial cell. Plasmids can easily be isolated from bacteria by breaking open the cells with enzymes which break down the cell wall. The resulting mix is centrifuged.The heavier chromosomal DNA, termed "genomic" DNA, as well as cell fragments will go to the

Cs related essay Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cs related essay - Coursework Example On the other hand, supporters claim that outsourcing brings down prices giving economic advantages to all. Outsourcing entails hiring overseas freelancers or companies, situated anywhere around the globe, to perform tasks an employee, entrepreneur, or CEO would generally do him/herself or assign to employees of the company. ODesk, Freelancer, and Elance are outsourcing avenues, where providers, from every part of the world, offer their services online (Osnowitz 9). Ethical outsourcing is a key to its lasting success. Customers prefer to buy from trustworthy companies, who make their business deals transparent as well as treat their workers with integrity. When a company gets outsourced, the individuals who are removed from the main company have to shift the knowledge to the new workers who come to the board. In few cases, it does not suit the full requirements (Sheldon 48). There might be a gap in communication when an individual transfers their knowledge to the third party. One may lack interest to coach the third party individual, but he/she is forced to do it. In such a case communication honesty as well as doing the correct duties makes the interest of ethical issues since this is against the Freedom of Speech. There is language as well as cultural barriers when communicating with the abroad workers. The overseas employees communicate in broken as well as inexplicable English with Americans. As a result, the corporations have to concession on the product quality. Indirectly one sees, now days due to job outsourcing in a peek, abroad workers are excellent in communication as well as very gifted (Sheldon 51). They can effortlessly comprehend the state of affairs and end up with good thoughts, offer the quality, and safety of the product. Customers benefit from the product of the result. From a Utilitarian point of view, outsourcing is good because there is no requirement to compromise the safety and quality of the product. The