Allopatric Speciation and Habitat Adaptation Lab Report

Allopatric Speciation and Habitat Adaptation Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine if allopatric speciation i.e. divergence of species occurs because of geographic isolation Introduction Allopatric speciation is the result of geographical isolation of species due to physical barriers and each separated population adopting specific physical features to suit their new habitat. A good example is the Caribbean Anolis lizards that have varied limb size and shape depending on whether they live on the ground or on trees. (Ref. Losos Laboratory, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University). However there are also cases where two physically isolated populations have not changed morphologically but do not interbreed. Snapping shrimps on either side of the Isthmus that links the North and South American continents are physically similar but the opposite sexes attack, rather than mate when artificially paired. Ref. Nancy Knowlton, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama Hypothesis/Predicted Outcome It is hypothesized that physical or geographical isolation does not result in allopatric speciation or the creation of distinct species, based on the study by Futuyama and Mayer. Methods Our experiment was on observing and comparing the diversity in African Buffalo species present in different parts of the African continent. Results/Outcome Results showed that their skin colour, body mass (weight) and size has changed to suit their habitat as given in this Table. S.No. Species Geography Phenotype Character 1. Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) South and East Africa Well built with Black skin Weight ~900 kg 2. Forest buffalo (S. c. nanus) Central and West Africa Red skin, ~4 feet height, weight ~270 kg 3. Sudanese buffalo (S. c. brachyceros) West Africa Dark colour, weight ~600 kg 4. Nile buffalo (S.c. aequinoctialis) Central Africa Lighter than Cape buffallo, smaller Discussion/Analysis Based on this study, we can conclude that geographical isolation results in speciation accompanied with change in phenotype to match the local requirement. Therefore, our original hypothesis that â€Å"physical or geographical isolation does not result in allopatric speciation† has been proved to be incorrect. References: 1. .Douglas J. Futuyma and Gregory C. Mayer Non-Allopatric Speciation in Animals Systematic Zoology Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 254-271 URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2412661 2. Losos Laboratory, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. 3. Nancy Knowlton, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.evo.allopatric/

Full case study in Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012)Principles

Full in Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012)Principles and Practice of Marketing(7thed). London, McGraw-Hil - Case Study Example This would reveal the extent to which the company followed the formal process of marketing planning. Dixons was a product oriented company when it stated its journey in electrical retail segment. Their followed the strategy â€Å"stack-em high – sell-em cheap in brightly coloured stores.† This strategy validated the fact that Dixons focused more towards selling good product in well-designed stores, but customer satisfaction was overlooked and it did not occupy centre position in the strategic approach of the company. A general formal marketing planning process is segregated into four parts that is goal setting, analysing present situations, create marketing strategies and allocate the marketing monitoring system and resources. In the goal setting segment companies set their mission and objectives. Dixons also established its mission to stock products and sell them in brightly coloured stores. Their objective was to offer variety of products and generate lucrative return s. However, the company missed customer service, which its competitors took advantage of. So it can be said that Dixons followed the first step of marketing planning process. The second step is to analyse current situation. The company came to know about its drawbacks during the economic crisis in 2006. It identified that there were major threats of recession in the global market and its competitors Best Buy started grabbing market share by providing better services to customers. At this juncture, Dixons revolutionised its move towards customers. This proves that the company followed the second step of marketing planning process too. The third step is to create marketing strategies, which Dixons rolled out in order to face the intense competition. It can be also called a transformation strategy of the company because it changed the focus of the company from being product oriented to customer oriented. The new business model also re-defined five specific objectives for the company. T he fourth and final stage was to allocate resources and monitor the plan. The major focus was now on after-sales and support and customer choice, value and service was the major function in the new business model. This discussion proves how Dixons followed and applied marketing planning process for devising the strategies (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Answer 2 Business functions are those operations that are performed in a routine manner to achieve the business objectives of the organisation. In retail chains like Dixons, there are various business functions that they perform such as selling, which include sales, marketing, distribution or logistics, research and development. In supporting functions, activities like purchasing, human resource management, etc are performed. However, these are the internal functions, while the external business function in relation to these functions are advertising, market research, recruitment among others. In this part of the report will throw light on the business functions that supported the marketing plan of Dixons to become a success (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Before the transformation strategy came into existence, Dixons specifically focused on distribution, supply, purchase and sales. However, after implementing the transformation strategy marketing strategies were enhanced and objectives were altered to develop competitive advantage. According to the new business

Quality Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Quality - Assignment Example Examples of such processes include product creation, system testing, code module measurement, project planning and experience packaging for use in other projects to be implemented in the future. They have also described some of the characteristics that identify software processes. Armbrust et al (2012) state that software processes are derived from the real world. The processes can be performed either by humans or machines or by both of them. Human performance is referred to as enactment while machine performance is referred to as execution. The processes can be refined or transformed into sub processes. The sub processes are capable of being refined. Finally, the processes consume further products so as to enable them transform input products into multiple output products. Acuna et al (2000) describe a software process as activities that are set in a partially orderly manner with the aim of managing, developing and maintaining software systems. The process is based on the process of construction and not the end product. Many organizations define their own means of producing software. Evaluation of software processes related to analysis of activities that an organization carries out in order to develop software or softwares as end products. The idea is that the quality of the final product, which is the software, is directly proportional to the quality of the development process. The aim of carrying out software process evaluation is to improve the production (cost and quality). The process of evaluation brings into knowledge standards for assessing the quality of software development (Acuna et al 2000). There are two methods that are popularly used to evaluated software process: software capability evaluation and ISO/IEC 15504. The SCE was developed by the software engineering institute with the purpose not just to evaluate for quality but for purposes of selecting suppliers, monitoring process and internal evaluation. The method focuses on analysis of the way certain key areas are implemented and institutionalized. The method analyses if the software processes adopted by a given organization are fully satisfying the requirements that are usually articulated in the yardstick (Armbrust 2012). The method comprises of three stages or phases: plan and preparation, conduct evaluation and reporting of results. Conduct evaluation involved visiting of the organization being evaluated by the evaluation team. The method incorporates CMM as referencing model. CMM describes various maturity levels that represent an ordinal scale used to rate the development process. The maturity levels are related to the evolution of the process to the end. The fist level is the initial level. This level represents the ad hoc stage, that is, stage that is not managed and unpredictable (Armbrust 2012). The second level is known as repeatable. The level is intuitive in nature. The processes are basically managed and there is the capability of repeating some projects. The third level is known as the defined stage. It is qualitative in nature. The processes are well defined and institutionalized. The fourth maturity level is known as the managed stage. The level is marked by quantitative analysis that amounts to measures and