Identifying the Most Common North American Conifers

Identifying the Most Common North American Conifers Conifers are commonly thought to be synonymous with evergreen trees, which stay green through the year. However, not all conifers- also known as softwoods- remain green and with needles year-round. They are actually scientifically classed by how they fruit. They are gymnosperms or plants with naked seeds not enclosed in an ovary; these seed fruits called cones are considered more primitive than hardwood fruiting parts. General Guidelines for Broad Identification Though conifers may or may not lose their needles annually, most are indeed evergreen. Trees of this classification have needle-like or scale-like foliage and usually renew many leaves annually but  dont renew all of their leaves every year. The foliage is usually narrow and manifests in either sharp-pointed needles or small and scale-like leaves. Although  studying the needle is the best way to identify a conifer, conifers as a class are defined not by their leaves but by their seeds, so its only important to note the shape and size of leaves after determining whether it is a conifer by the shape, size, and type of seed the tree produces. Softwood trees  include pine, spruces, firs, and cedars, but dont let that alternative name for conifers fool you. Wood hardness varies among the conifer species, and some softwoods are actually harder than some hardwoods. The Many Types of Coniferous Leaves While all trees that bear cones are coniferous, and many of these cones are remarkably different from other species cones, often times the best way to identify the specific genus of a tree is by observing its leaves. Coniferous trees can produce two types of leaves with a variety of slight alterations that further define the tree type. If a tree has needle-like (as opposed to scale-like) leaves, it can then be further defined by how those needles are grouped (singularly or alone), how they are shaped (flattened or four-sided and sharp), the types of stems these leaves are attached to (brown or green), and if the leaves invert or not. Other Ways to Identify Conifers From there, the way the cone or seed is shaped and the way it hangs on the tree (sticking up or handing down), the smell and largeness of individual needles, and the erectness of branches in the tree can also help determine what specific type of conifer a tree is. Chances are ​if a tree has any of these features at all it is a conifer, especially if the tree also bears cone-like seeds. The Most Common Conifer Trees in North America Three of the most common conifers that grow in North America are pine, fir, and spruce trees. The Latin word conifer means to bear cones, and most but not all conifers have cones; junipers and yews, though, produce berry-like fruit. Conifers are among the smallest, largest, and oldest living woody plants known in the world. The more than 500 conifer species are distributed worldwide and are invaluable for their timber but also adapt well to the landscape; there are 200 conifer species in North America, but the most common are listed here: Bald cypress- Genus  TaxodiumCedar- Genus CedrusDouglas fir- Genus  PseudotsugaTrue fir- Genus AbiesHemlock- Genus TsugaLarch- Genus LarixPine- Genus  PinusRedwood- Genus SequoiaSpruce- Genus Picea

Worl wide needs classification or division Essay

Worl wide needs classification or division - Essay Example But nurturing and feeding them for some thirty odd years, the lesson has been learnt; countries can only help themselves and not be bothered by the immigrants. The same goes for India as she is making the border on her west as well as East side stronger. Along with Pakistan, it has thousands of kilometers of adjacent border and more than half of which has been protected with the barbed wire. And the progress on the rest is underway. Same is the case on her east border with Bangladesh, walls and wires are being put up to prevent illegal crossing over. In the past, a huge number of people have migrated, both legality and illegally, to India from Bangladesh but countries learn from their past mistakes. That’s why walls are being put up to keep away the human traffic. Some might argue that this attitude is detrimental towards the goal of a global community. All across the globe, people want more freedom, the freedom to trade and educate, and travel. But when countries develop policies that are meant to keep away possible ‘contact’ with the other country, then this is contradictory. As people want to see the world as a global village but sturdy walls, barbed wires and mines are only pushing people away from each other. On the surface, countries paint a friendly face towards each other make pacts and agreements of mutual cooperation but when it comes to exchange of people across the border, countries have opposite policies. For proper functioning of economy trade and law, division among people is necessary. For instance, a huge number of illegal migrants have crossed over from Mexico into the US in the past. When these people move to the US, they are illegal migrants and they can’t get any regular job easily. In fact they suffer more in the US as illegal migrants than stay in their homeland and earn even a small living. Moreover, such people also get involve in crimes because there are no regular jobs

Discovery Timeline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discovery Timeline - Essay Example Up until the 16th century, people thought that heavy objects fell faster. Galileo Galilei, in 1585, climbed to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped two objects. One object was heavy and the other was light, but both reached the ground at the same time. Thus, he proved that objects fall at the same rate and accelerate as they fall. (Ed-Helper, n.d) Later on, Galilei expressed his theories with equations, and his discoveries and equations served as a guideline for Newton's equations of gravity, which are still used to date. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. 'Ben suspected that lightning was an electrical current in nature, and he wanted to see if he was right. One way to test his idea would be to see if the lightning would pass through metal. He decided to use a metal key and looked around for a way to get the key up near the lightning. he used a child's toy, a kite, to prove that lightning is really a stream of electrified air, known today as plasma. His famous stormy kite flight in June of 1752 led him to develop many of the terms that we still use today when we talk about electricity: battery, conductor, condenser, charge, discharge, uncharged, negative, minus, plus, electric shock, and electrician.' (AmericanRevolution, n.d) In 1879, Thomas Edison discovered the incand... Incandescent light bulbs or lamps are sources of artificial light which use electricity to emit light. With this discovery, he enabled portable lighting, such as table lamps, some car headlamps and electric flashlights, and decorative and advertising lighting. References 1. Bill Arnett (last updated: 2007 Jun 02) Appendix 3:Chronology of Solar System Discovery. Retrieved May 29, 2008 from http://www.nineplanets.org/history.html 2. The Age of Discovery - Gravity and Gauss. Retrieved May 29, 2008 from http://edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_35_204.html 3. Benjamin Franklin and Discovery of Electricity. Rerieved May 29, 2008 from http://www.americanrevolution.com/BenjaminFranklinElectricity.htm. 4. Tom Edison (n.d). Incandescent Light. Retrieved May 29, 2008 from

Pollution of environment during, petroleum and gas synthesis Essay

Pollution of environment during, petroleum and gas synthesis - Essay Example According to Obadina (2007), oil production in Canada rose from 1.8 million barrels to 3.1 million barrels per day between 1984 and 2003. Appreciating the widespread global use of petroleum and gas products, this paper seeks to outline the environmental pollution resulting from the synthesis of petroleum and gas, giving recommendations on prevention approaches. Environmental pollution would be appreciated as the process of man introducing energy or substances into the environment that could cause hazards to the health of human beings, harm ecological systems and living resources and interfere with or damage the legitimate use of the environment (Walker et al. 2006). The petroleum industry encompasses various activities in exploration, production and transportation of about 3.5 billion tons and 2.5 giga m3 of crude oil and natural gas respectively and other derivatives around the world each year (Walker et al. 2006). After the exploration process identifies a commercially viable reser ve, the extraction of oil and gas would be carried out through drilling by use of special technologies (Vidal 2012). The extracted hydrocarbon product would then be separated into gas and liquids and dehydrated to get rid of excess water. This would then be split into various petroleum and gas products. ... The synthesis process involves exploration and production of the products of natural gas and crude oil. It encompasses the exploration and preparation of well sites, drilling, production of crude oil and gas and on-site processing. The synthesis of petroleum and natural gas products as observed by Kaiser and Pulsipher (2007) starts with the bringing to above the ground crude oil and natural gas which would in turn be processed to various products for distribution to consumers. In the process, the industry contributes to air, water and soil pollution with the components of the resources being processed and the subsequent by-products and products, the latter being the key pollutants. Natural gas would mainly contain methane with water and carbon dioxide as impurities. Crude oils vary widely in viscosity and colour but studies by Kaiser and Pulsipher (2007) indicate 79.5% to 87.3%, 10.4% to 14.8%, 0 to 8%, 0 to 2%, 0 to 0.1% and 0 to 0.005% carbon, hydrogen , sulphur, oxygen, nitrogen a nd metals composition respectively. The main constituents are hydrocarbons of varied types and molecular masses with between 1 and 60 carbon atoms. The synthesis of gas involves processing natural gas by dewatering and removing its acid components such as hydrogen sulphide followed by eventual removal of carbon dioxide. Despite taking appropriate precautions against environmental pollution, Obadina (2007) appreciates that accidents occur periodically in the course of producing petroleum and gas. Air pollution in the process of petroleum and gas synthesis occurs through combustion emissions, fugitive emissions, process emissions, secondary emissions and from handling and storage of petroleum liquids

Database Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Database - Coursework Example This allows or revokes access to the database for authorized users only. It also restricts on the actions that authorized users are allowed to perform on the database. This is the main method of securing data in a database. Access to the database mostly requires correct username and a password which is assigned by the database administrator. The database administrator identifies legitimate users of the database and assigns each a passwords that they use to directly or indirectly access the database for manipulation, retrieval or updating of the data. The second issue that is concerned with database security is database vulnerabilities. Threats from a variety of sources such as internet and users should be identified and minimized to reduce the chances of the database security being breached. This could be done through use of firewalls to manage the network traffic in the organization and also, through controlled access to the database for the users. Updates and patches to the databas e management system should be routinely done to help enhance the security of the database. The database administrator should be updated on the current trends of security so that he/she can mend the database where such vulnerabilities occur. The third aspect on database security is auditing. ... For instance, in the case of Happy Homes Ltd, applications could be used to record the sales of houses. This and many others are potential sources of database threats as they may leave vulnerabilities in the database. The database administrator should be in a position to determine the permissions of the applications so that he/she can regulate them (Alfred Basta, 2011). Distributed Database Management System This database system connects a variety of databases in various regions over a network and operates in a way that the users are not aware of the distributed databases. In the case of Happy Homes Ltd, the databases could be located in various regions and then have a central server that synchronizes the operations of the whole system. Each region’s database handles information related to that region and when there is need, it shares its resources with other database system s in other regions. A sample diagram for the Happy Homes Ltd could be defined as: In each region, a ser ver helps in the management of the regional system. It also helps in communication among the various regional offices and to the main server. Data is stored in the database at a given region. A backup copy of these data is stored in the main database system at the organization headquarters. Storage of data in these areas helps in easier and quicker access to the data. Centralizing the data in one area reduces the system performance as compared to distributed system. Maintenance and administration of the distributed system is also easy as it can be done as per region. This makes it easier for database administrators since incase repairs are going on in one area other regions are not affected by the repairs. Troubleshooting and handling

Financial Trends Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Trends Paper - Essay Example The trend was a fall before the rise. The same could be observed in the behavior of net income of the company for the same three-year period, that there was a fall and an improvement after the fall. Net profit margin measures the company’s profitability performance (Bernstein, 1993) and is computed by dividing net income over the total revenues. In case of general motors a consistent 0.01 net profit margins were observed for the three year period. This indicates a rather lack of improvement in the company’s performance for the past three years despite the seeming increase in revenues from total sales for 2005 of US$192.6 billion to US $207.3 billion for 2006. This means the cost of the company was very high for the company which needs a deeper analysis as shown below: It would appear the company was still having some mark-ups from revenues, hence it may deduced that it is selling at above is production cost as evidenced by the positive gross profit rate from 2004 through 2006. The loss was felt only in 2005 when operating loss showed a rate of negative 0.01 value. This means that the company has higher operating expenses for 2005 compared with 2006 and 2004. Further analysis revealed that 2005 has high selling and administrative expenses in addition to the decline in revues from 2004 to 2005. Over all 2005 operation was a losing year by the company. When the three year ratios above are analyzed in relation to the trends established earlier in the behavior of the revenues and net income, it may be observed that there was big improvement in the return on equity (Meigs and Meigs, 1995) of the company from 2004 to 2006 although there was a deterioration in the return on assets from 0% in 2004 to -1% in 2006. This means that changes made were beneficial to the stockholder and that having too many assets are not necessarily better for the company if it will result to a better return to equity.

Literature research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Literature research - Essay Example Case studies have also been analyzed that were related to the operational characteristics of Wal-Mart and its competitors. A descriptive approach has been adapted since the respective research involved the analysis of the existing operational characteristics of the retailing companies. 3. Analysis 3.1 Assumptions Kmart and Sears were competitors of Wal-Mart; however they merged into a single retailing organization in 2005- Sears Holding Inc. This report refers to the individual names of both the organizations whenever incidents have been quoted from the year before the merger. Wal-Mart is a multinational company with head offices in US, therefore only US markets and competitors have been discussed in the report. 3.2 Analysis of Operational Characteristics of Wal-Mart 3.2.1 Company Portfolio Wal-Mart is the largest retailer of the world. Sam Walton, the man behind the retailing stores chain, began its operations in 1962. The first store opened in Arkansas, which marked the start of th e rapid expansion of the respective business. Sam Walton became known as a clever businessman in a very short span of time due to the success of his retailing stores. After conquering the US market, the owner decided to expand his business globally. According to a report issued by Wal-Mart in 2010 (Wal-Mart Stores); Wal-Mart operates around 4,000 stores around the world in 15 countries, namely China, India, United Kingdom, Japan etc. Kotabe stated that Wal-Mart is responsible for operating five divisions in US; Wal-Mart Stores, Wal-Mart Supercenters, Sam's Club, McLane's Company and Wal-Mart International. All of these different divisions amount to 4,300 establishments in US. The company recorded up to $405 billion as their annual sales last year, whereas target recorded up to $65 billion in 2009 (Target Corporation) as seen in figure 1 in the Exhibits section. The biggest competitors of Wal-Mart are Target and Kmart. 3.2.2 Operational Characteristics Operation management can be def ined as the overseeing, management and formulation of business operations in such a manner that the quality of the service and products is maintained. The company has been able to attain competitive advantage in the market due to their low prices, coupled with quality. They believe that their customers should be able to have a share in their profits; that share is made available to them in the form of low costs. Wal-Mart is able to maintain low cost operational activities in their stores due to their efficient supply chain management, vendor relations and integration of information management processes. These aspects shall be discussed in detail in the following sections. The core expectations of a customer that need to be met by a retailer are: High quality Broad scope Low prices Good customer service Convenience (Cowgill) The percentage of expectations met by different retailers is shown in Figure 2 in the Exhibits section. 3.2.3 Channels of Distribution Wal-Mart owns up to 3,300 company trucks that facilitate the supply from the warehouses to the retail stores. Competitors do not maintain such an extensive distribution network of their own due to which their costs are much higher than Wal-Mart’