Chili Peppers - An American Domestication Story

Chili Peppers - An American Domestication Story Chili pepper (Capsicum spp. L., and sometimes spelled chile or chilli) is a plant which was domesticated in the Americas at least 6,000 years ago. Its spicy goodness spread into cuisines throughout the world only after Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean and took it back with him to Europe. Peppers are widely considered the first spice to have been used by humans, and today there are at least 25 separate species in the family of American chili peppers and over 35 in the world. Domestication Events At least two, and perhaps as many as five separate domestication events are thought to have occurred. The most common type of chili today, and likely the earliest domesticated, is Capsicum annuum (the chili pepper), domesticated in Mexico or northern Central America at least 6,000 years ago from the wild bird pepper (C. annuum v. glabriusculum). Its prominence around the world is likely because it was the one that was introduced into Europe in the 16th century AD. The other forms which may have been independently created are C. chinense (yellow lantern chili, believed to have been domesticated in northern lowland Amazonia), C. pubescens (the tree pepper, in the mid-elevation southern Andes mountains) and C. baccatum (amarillo chili, lowland Bolivia). C. frutescens (piri piri or tabasco chili, from the Caribbean) may be a fifth, although some scholars suggest it is a variety of C. chinense. The Earliest Evidence of Domestication There are older archaeological sites which include domesticated chili pepper seeds, such as Guitarrero Cave in Peru and Ocampo Caves in Mexico, ranging in age from 7,000-9,000 years ago. But their stratigraphic contexts are somewhat unclear, and most scholars prefer to use the more conservative date of 6,000 or 6,100 years ago. A comprehensive examination of the genetic (similarities among the DNA from different types of chilies), paleo-biolinguistic (similar words for chili used in various indigenous languages), ecological (where modern chile plants are found) and archaeological evidence for chile pepper was reported in 2014. Kraft et al. argue that all four lines of evidence suggest that chili pepper was first domesticated in central-east Mexico, near Coxcatln Cave and the Ocampo Caves. Chili Peppers North of Mexico Despite chilis prevalence in southwestern American cuisines, the evidence for early use there is late and very limited. The earliest evidence of chili peppers in the American southwest/northwest Mexico has been identified in Chihuahua state near the site of Casas Grandes, ca AD 1150-1300. A single chili pepper seed was found at Site 315, a medium-sized adobe pueblo ruin in the Rio Casas Grandes Valley about two miles from Casas Grandes. In the same contexta trash pit directly underneath a room floorwas found maize (Zea mays), cultivated beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), cotton seeds (Gossypium hirsutum), prickly pear (Opuntia), goosefoot seeds (Chenopodium), uncultivated Amaranth (Amaranthus) and a possible squash (Cucurbita) rind. Radiocarbon dates on the trash pit are 760 /- 55 years before the present, or approximately AD 1160-1305. Cuisine Effects When introduced into Europe by Columbus, the chili launched a mini-revolution in cuisine; and when those chili-loving Spanish returned and moved into the Southwest, they brought the spicy domesticate with them. Chilies, a large part of central American cuisines for thousands of years, became most common north of Mexico in places where the Spanish colonial courts were most powerful. Unlike the other central American domesticated crops of maize, beans, and squash, chili peppers did not become part of southwestern US/northwestern Mexican cuisine until after Spanish contact. Researchers Minnis and Whalen suggest that the spicy chili pepper may not have fit into local culinary preferences until a large influx of colonists from Mexico and (most importantly) a Spanish colonial government affected local appetites. Even then, chilies were not universally adopted by all southwestern people. Identifying Chili Archaeologically Fruits, seeds and pollen of capsicum have been found in deposits at archaeological sites in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico beginning about 6000 years ago; at  Huaca Prieta  in the Andean foothills of Peru by ca. 4000 years ago, at  Ceren, El Salvador by 1400 years ago; and in La Tigra, Venezuela by 1000 years ago. Recently, the study of  starch grains, which do preserve well and are identifiable to species, has allowed scientists to peg the domestication of chili peppers to at least 6,100 years ago, in southwestern Ecuador at the sites of Loma Alta and Loma Real. As reported in  Science  in 2007, the earliest discovery of chili pepper starches is from the surfaces of  milling stones  and in cooking vessels as well as in sediment samples, and in conjunction with microfossil evidence of arrowroot, maize, leren, manioc, squash, beans and palms. Sources Brown CH, Clement CR, Epps P, Luedeling E, and Wichmann S. 2013.  The Paleobiolinguistics of Domesticated Chili Pepper (Capsicum   spp.).  Ethnobiology Letters  4:1-11.Clement C, De Cristo-Araà ºjo M, D’Eeckenbrugge GC, Alves Pereira A, and Picanà §o-Rodrigues D. 2010.  Origin and Domestication of Native Amazonian Crops.  Diversity  2(1):72-106.Duncan NA, Pearsall DM, and Benfer J, Robert A. 2009.  Gourd and squash artifacts yield starch grains of feasting foods from preceramic Peru.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  106(32):13202-13206.Eshbaugh W. 1993. Peppers: History and Exploitation of a Serendipitous New Crop Discovery. pages 132-139. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.),  New Crops  Wiley, New York.Hill TA, Ashrafi H, Reyes-Chin-Wo S, Yao J, Stoffel K, Truco M-J, Kozik A, Michelmore RW, and Van Deynze A. 2013.  Characterization of Capsicum annum Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Based on Parallel Polymorphism Discovery with a 30K Unigene Pepper GeneChip.  PLoS ONE  8(2):e56200. Kraft KH, Luna Ruiz JdJ, and Gepts P. 2013. A new collection of wild populations of Capsicum in Mexico and the southern United States.  Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution  60(1):225-232. doi:10.1007/s10722-012-9827-5Kraft KH, Brown CH, Nabhan GP, Luedeling E, Luna Ruiz JdJ, dEeckenbrugge GC, Hijmans RJ, and Gepts P. 2014.  Multiple lines of evidence for the origin of domesticated chili pepper, Capsicum annuum, in Mexico.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  Early Edition. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1308933111Minnis PE, and Whalen ME. 2010.  The first prehispanic chile (Capsicum) from the U.S. southwest/northwest Mexico and its changing use.  American Antiquity  75(2):245-258.Ortiz R, Delgado de la Flor F, Alvarado G, and Crossa J. 2010. Classifying vegetable genetic resources- A case study with domesticated Capsicum spp.  Scientia Horticulturae  126(2):186-191. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2010.07.007Perry L, Dickau R, Zarrillo S, Holst I, Pearsall DM, Piperno DR, Berman MJ, Cooke RG, Rademaker K, Ranere AJ et al. 2007.  Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas.  Science  315:986-988. Pickersgill B. 1969.  The archaeological record of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.)and the sequence of plant domestication in Peru.  American Antiquity  34:54-61.

Can Regulation Of Tobacco Affect Health Care Costs Economics Essay

Can Regulation Of Tobacco Affect Health Care Costs Economics Essay The economic calculations associated with tobacco use are very complicated. For every savings, there are increased costs in other areas. Many productivity costs are subjective, while things like tax revenues are very definitive. These costs can be absorbed by various entities; public, private, and governmental. The tobacco industry has been viewed as the root of many of these costs. This industry has historically been exempt from oversight by any governmental agency, other than taxation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently taken charge of overseeing and regulating many tobacco products, including cigarettes. Can the new regulations have any effect on health care costs? Why is tobacco use such a big deal? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world, responsible for one in ten adults and the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide (2010). Costs (both public and private) associated with health ca re related to tobacco are astronomical. Productivity is reduced or lost when people are at their prime due to tobacco use. â€Å"A 1994 report estimated that the use of tobacco resulted in an annual global net loss of US$ 200 thousand million, a third of this loss being in developing countries† (World Health, 2010). This paper will look at the costs associated with tobacco use in the United States and the relationship regulation may have on reducing these costs. Compared to the length of time tobacco has been used, the health effects of its use are just recently becoming understood by the general public. Prior to this knowledge, the tobacco companies were free to advertise without any regulation. 1789 saw the first tobacco advertisement in the U.S for snuff. Communication, transportation, and manufacturing constraints of the time prevented any major branding and marketing successes. â€Å"The first strong national tobacco brand didn’t emerge until near the end of the Civil War, when both Union and Confederate soldiers in Durham, North Carolina raided a local farmer’s tobacco crop while waiting for a surrender to be completed. After the war was over, these soldiers began writing to the farmer, Mr. John Green, requesting more; Green went on to establish the successful Bull Durham Tobacco Company.† (Collins & Lapsley, 2010) The cigarette machine was one of the two major innovations that changed the industry and embedded tobacco into the minds of Americans. It was introduced in the 1880s and allowed companies to go from producing 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes a day to over 4 million. The other major innovation came in the form of advertising. The color lithograph revolutionized advertising and packaging. These factors allowed companies to brand their products, searing them into the fabric of everyday life. Promotions, such as trading cards, were packaged with cigarettes and became collector’s items. World War II came and went wit h millions of soldiers and sailors addicted to nicotine courtesy of free cigarettes issued along with meals. Marketing remained pretty much unregulated throughout the 1950s. Advertisements promoted how healthy it was to smoke and how doctors (whom the public trusted) recommend one brand over another. Sponsorship of television shows, like The Flintstones and Gunsmoke, propelled cigarette smoking into a normal and expected part of life. â€Å"For tobacco companies, it was the Golden Age: cigarette ads featured endorsements from dentists, doctors, babies and even Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle† (Collins & Lapsley, 2010).

Submit short report that assembles the teams final results for Essay

Submit short report that assembles the teams final results for tackling a problem or creating a solution to the project - Essay Example It is affordable to all patients and readily available as the system is flexible, can move from one place to another. Congestion in hospitals by patients with fatal chronical diseases need to be at lower levels by administering health programs via PHM systems. It helps hospitals deliver a variety of health services to a greater population resulting in improvement in health conditions. A nation with improvement in health sectors obtains tremendous benefits like it readily consist of healthy individuals to provide labor. Improves country’s productivity reduces death rates to significant levels and provides the country with the chance of having innovation and creativity as well. The PHM project requires electronically intensive equipments making use of decision support systems. This reduces the manual work fatigue to medical staff if they are to perform the work, therefore; there is a reduction in workload of the medical staff. However, the system contains errors that would result in wrong medical description or diagnosis to the patients. The problems are in two classifications the system error and human errors. The system errors include the syntax and logical anomalies, which may be due to system malfunction. The errors can be because of overloading the systems or as well as unexpected errors, which would require repetition of the ongoing process to get the correct results. The human errors serve as the main setback towards achieving the set objectives of the program. The set objectives being, provision of sufficient medical attention to patients with chronic diseases. It is unfortunate and ironic that human beings have the audacity to be the factor that the project fails to be 100% successful. The significant human errors includes Although patients include false information in order to get medical treatment, it is unfortunate as there would be wrong results that can cause serious problems for both the p[patient and

Environmental web portal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental web portal - Essay Example An environmental web portal can serve as scientific as well as educational purposes for the community that uses its information. It provides a platform whereby resources, information, and experts in environmental science can converge and exchange ideas.Moreover,it will create an online opportunity for researchers to further their fieldwork and establish a bridge between class work and field work The web portal is aimed at enriching its information through accepting contributions from people visiting the site like the inclusion of a video blog, data collection, equipment operation and different observations from site visitors (Popovic, Lindic, Stemberger and Jaklic, 2005). The portal will form a basis of scientific research and verification of data through engaging in discussions and other activities that enhance environmental awareness. Environmental Web Portals host research, lesson plans, and online coursework, monitor student outcomes, and satisfy the reporting standards established. The environmental science projects require people to establish common grounds through which they can share knowledge and join efforts to solve environmental problems. The areas of interest include pressures of urbanization, information management and ensuring information accessibility to both the research hers and to those visiting the web portal.The environmental web portal will enhance both live and recorded online presentations of data and will enable visitors to understand how field equipment and other equipments are used in the process of data collection and analysis. In addition, the environmental portal will have a clear indication of the research funded by the government, its achievements and challenges. A clear description of the investment in people, the equipment to be used and the relevance of the research and how it is bound to affect people’s lives will be highlighted. Through the environmental analysis, the portal can be developed using basic technologies and helps in the achievement of tasks like development of online communities, administrators and environmental experts. Properly designed portals can act as effective communication tools that can enhance adoption of best practices in the environmental conservation campaigns. Availability of the environmental documentaries online enables constant updating on the latest research findings like discovery of new species, those facing extinction and effects of climatic change on the survival of organisms. According to Popovic, Lindic, Stemberger and Jaklic (2005), rapid technological and environmental changes pose new challenges to researchers and environmentalists that have been tasked with the responsibility of explaining the changes and recommending the desired course of action. The government aims at building an environmental research infrastructure to necessitate the adoption of environmental research data management. The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) were structured by the government and given the responsibility to initiate an environmental monitoring network. The Institute of Sustainable Resources (IRS) received funding from the Grains Research Development Corporation

Neurotheology: Which came first, God or the brain? :: Chemistry Neurotheology Papers

Neurotheology: Which came first, God or the brain? à ¬It feels like a loss of boundaryÃâ€"Ità ­s as if the film of your life broke and you were seeing the light that allowed the film to be projectedÃâ€"à ®: Michael Baime describes the sensations he experiences during Zen meditation. Michael is a subject of the brain imaging study performed by scientists Newburg and Dà ­Aquili to track neural activity during Zen meditation. Newburg and Dà ­Aquili wanted to find out which brain sections were most active during the meditative states achieved by Michael and his fellow subjects. (2). Which regions of the brain are most active during spiritual or mystical experiences? Can an understanding of the neuroscience of spirituality prove the existence of God? It can be difficult to unobtrusively track the neuronal activity of those in intense states of meditation or prayer without jolting them back into everyday perception. However, using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, or SPECT, scientists Newburg and Dà ­Aquili were able to track neuronal activity in skilled meditators without disturbing them. With an intravenous tube in their arm, each meditator focused intently on a single, usually religious image until they achieved their familiar meditative sense of à ¬onenessà ®. When each meditator felt this sense, they tugged on a string to alert the researchers, who then injected a radioactive tracer into the intravenous line. The tracer bound to the brain regions where blood flow was highest. A scanner then made a snapshot showing the regions with the most blood flow, which indicates neuronal activity. (3). Since the meditators were focusing intently, the Prefrontal Cortex, associated with attention, lit up. But more strikingly, the parietal lobes showed very little activity. Part of the cerebrum, the parietal lobes are associated with the orientation of the body in space and processing information about time and space. More specifically, the left superior parietal lobe creates the perception of the physical bodyà ­s boundaries. The right superior parietal lobe creates the perception of the physical space outside of the body. (3). Blocked off from neuronal activity, the parietal lobe cannot create a sensation of boundary between the physical body and the outside world, which may explain the meditatorsà ­ sense of à «onenessà ­ with the Universe. Since the parietal lobes were also unable to perform their usual task of creating our linear perception of time, meditators achieved a sensation of infinity and timelessness.

Topic-Morgan Stanley’s Return on System Noninvestment

1. Morgan Stanley underinvested in information technology because CEO of the firm, Philip Purcell believed that the market’s comeback would happen slowly and therefore he focused his business strategy on maximizing profit instead of generating revenue. 2. The merger of the Morgan Stanley with the Dean Witter proved to be unfruitful because it created a digital, cultural and philosophical divide which was extremely difficult to overcome. 3. The strategic objectives of information system are as following-:  ·   The overwhelmed broker desktop workstations have been replaced by new systems which are better integrated with backened systems so that brokers have a better view of client portfolios.  ·   New systems have been uploaded so that brokers will have access to all relevant client data at once, including transaction history, contact history and portfolio performance.  ·   The company also rolled out a new tax reporting application that automatically reconciles gains and losses and allows user to download information from its client website into popular tax programs.  · The quality of the website was upgraded i.e it was made more attractive and informative as per customer demand.  · The salaries and expense accounts of the brokers were increased.  ·   The intellect executives have been assigned the task of managing the firm. 4.I would provide the following services-:  · Free online form for investors.  · Credit cards will be issued.  ·   Financial transactions will be allowed using Automatic Teller Machines(ATMs).  · Standing orders and direct debits will be facilitated so that payments for bills can be made automatically.  · Online deal with the clients which will save a plenty of time. Yes, according to me the Morgan Stanley’s plan for an integrated client information system are worthwhile because it generated an income of dollar 1.96 billion in June 2006. 5. Other than new system, following amendments have to be made at Global Wealth Management Group to restore profit and revenue collection-:  · Introduction of senior executives in the main management of the company so that it will be knowledge as well as profit oriented.  · Frequent schemes should be laid down for the customers which seems to be beneficial to them.  ·   A tight management to strictly follow all the rules of the company.  ·   A customer friendly environment should prevail. References topic- â€Å"banking services† dated 19th june 2007      

Adidas Strategic Business Plan - 6813 Words

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN Daniel Patrick Carl Ross Premtim Kryeziu Jhad Hindi Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction to Adidas 3 Mission Statement 4 Corporate Vision 5 Management Structure 5 Executive Board 5 Members of the Executive Board 5 Supervisory Board 7 Members of the Supervisory Board 7 Committees of the Supervisory Board 11 Organizational Flowchart 13 Issues facing the organization 14 Six Forces Analysis 14 Rivalries: 14 Substitutes: 14 New Entrants: 14 Customers bargaining power: 15 Suppliers bargaining power: 15 Complements: 15 SWOT Analysis 16 Strengths 16 Weaknesses 16 Opportunities 16 Threats 16 Current Past Strategies 16 Future Action Plan 18 Work to Rebrand Reebok Image: 18 Focus†¦show more content†¦In 1997, adidas merged with skiing equipment maker Salomon and later on in 2001, Herbert Hainer became head of adidas Group. To gain a greater market share and penetration in the U.S. market and better its operations, adidas acquired Reebok International Ltd., makers of Reebok shoes, in 2006. Today, adidas continues its rich heritage of harnessing technology to make some of the best shoes. The company employs over 31,000 people around the world with more than 2,600 employees at the company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Many of the company’s most innovative products such as the adidas 1 are designed at research centers in Portland, Ore., and Scheinfeld, Germany. Mission Statement The Adidas Group strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with sports brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. We are consumer focused  » and therefore we continuously improve the quality, look, feel and image of our products and our organizational structures to match and exceed consumer expectations and to provide them with the highest value. 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