A Summery of Organic Chemistry :: essays research papers

A condenser: during distillation the vapour passes through a tube that is cooled by water Fractional distillation: The process used to separate a mixture of several liquids, based on their different boiling points Aerobic respiration: chemical process in which oxygen is used to make energy from carbohydrates (sugars). Also known as oxidative metabolism, cell respiration, or aerobic metabolism Anaerobic reparation: form of respiration in which energy is released from chemical reactions in which free oxygen takes no part Equation for combustion of an alcohol: R-OH (l) + O2 (g) --> CO2 (g) + H2O (l) Fermentation: In its strictest sense fermentation (scientifically called zymosis) is the energy-yielding anaerobic metabolic breakdown of a nutrient molecule, such as glucose, without net oxidation. Fermentation yields lactate, acetic acid, ethanol, or some other simple product. Cell membrane: The outer boundary of the cell. The cell membrane helps control what substances enter or exit the cell Endoplasmic reticulum: network of membranous tubules in the cytoplasm of a cell; involved in the production of phospholipids, proteins, and other functions. Rough ER is studded with ribosomes; smooth ER is not. Golgi apparatus: An organelle in eukaryotic cells containing cells consisting of stacks of membranes that modify, store, and route products of the endoplasmic reticulum Ribosomes: Small cellular components composed of specialized ribosomal RNA and protein; site of protein synthesis. See ribonucleic acid Centriole: Paired cellular organelle which functions in the organization of the mitotic spindle during cell division in eukaryotes Mitochondria: The mitochondria are the principal energy source of the cell. Mitochondria convert nutrients into energy as well as doing many other specialized tasks Cytoplasm: the cellular substance outside the nucleus in which the cell\'s organelles are suspended Nucleus: the nucleus is an organelle, found in most eukaryotic cells, which contains most of the cell\'s genetic material. Nuclei have two primary functions: to control chemical reactions within the cytoplasm and to store information needed for cellular division Vacuoles: A membrane-enclosed sac taking up most of the interior of a mature plant cell and containing a variety of substances important in plant reproduction, growth, and development Chloroplasts: Disk-like organelles with a double membrane found in eukaryotic plant cells; contain thylakoids and are the site of photosynthesis. ATP is generated during photosynthesis by chemiosmosis. Cell wall Structure produced by some cells outside their cell membrane; variously composed of chitin, peptidoglycan, or cellulose. Organelle: specialized subcellular structure having a special function; eg mitochondria. 23/46 chromosomes: Egg and sperm cells contain 23 chromosomes, made up of 22 autosomes and either an X or a Y.

Walmart Facing Discrimination Lawsuit

American retail giant Walmart was going to face the largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S history when a federal appeals court was ultimately allowed the combined multiparty litigation to move ahead to trial. After that, Walmart decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling of the federal appeals court. And the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The lawsuit was first filed by Betty Dukes, a store greeter in Pittsburg, California, along with five of her co-workers in 2001. In that case, Walmart is accused of paying women on salary and those hourly wages less than men for the same jobs and giving them fewer opportunities for promotion. The workers also said that women workers made up more than 70 percent of Walmart’s hourly work force, but made up less than one-third of its store management in the past decade. The plaintiffs wanted back pay and punitive damage. Now the question for the U.S Supreme Court is not if there was discrimination but if the claims by the individual employees can be combined as a class action. If the previous ruling stood, the case would cover about 1.5 million-plus women including all current and former women workers, and their claims could amount to billions of dollars. And this case will become the biggest private gender-bias case in U.S. history. This case is a very important business issue for Walmart, and any senior manager of the organization should care about this. Not only because of the billions of dollars Walmart might have to pay out, but also the impact and damage it would cost on the company’s image. The plaintiffs in this case was seeking back pay and punitive damage, and due to the fact that over 1.5 million walmart female workers could be involved, the claim could be up to billions of dollars. This would be a big loss to the company. Also, Walmart tried to project an improved image for the organization, and this case could be a big blow to the company’s image. Moreover, the case might also lead to drop in company’s stock price. And most importantly, if this case ultimately proceed to trial, it might lead to a lot more similar cases against the company. In this issue, there are many stakeholders involved. First of all, Walmart’s shareholders are one of the key stakeholders. Because if the case get proceed, there is a very big chance in dropping in the company stock price. And if Walmart utimately lost the case, the company would need to pay billion of dollars. In both situations, the company’s shareholders would have direct financial loss. Although the shareholders might have no interest on company’s image, they would still hope the company can solve the issue as soon as possible and in an efficient way. Though they are the shareholders of the company, they had not much power regarding to this issue. There are not much they can do to help the company. They might sell their shares if they thought the future of the company is uncertain. Another key stakeholder is the management of Walmart. They are one of the main reasons why Walmart is facing the discrimination issue. The female workers filed a lawsuit since they thought Walmart management treated them unfairly. If the case get proceed and Walmart ultimately lost the case, the Board of Directors might want to review and lay off part of the managment to prevent similar issues from happening again. Since the issue is now already in stage 4, there is not much the management could do. Walmart’s Board of Directors are surely one of the key stakeholders. The issue directly affects the company’s revenue and earning, therefore it had direct impact on the Board of Directors. Also, since the company’s managment was responsible for this issue, and the managment was chosen by the Board of Directors, therefore, they were responsible for the issue too. The Board of Directors would try to solve the issue as soon as possible but in an efficient way. They would want to solve the issue soon in order to protect the company’s image and substain the customers’ confidence. However, they would not settle the issue easily since they need to act in the best interest of the company. The last key stakeholders are the workers of the company, especially the female workers. Because this case had a big influence on the benefit of the company’s workers. No matter how the case go, Walmart’s managment would adjust the way they treat their workers. And if the ruling is favor of the workers, they would get back pay and claim for the punitive damage. And if that is the case, the company’s workers will have more power to them. This case could be seen as an example for any similar cases. To solve this action, the company would want to protect and improve the company’s image as a good corporate. Also, Walmart would not mind pay some claim to settle the lawsuit, since they would like to settle the issue quickly in order to gain back customers’ confidence. However, they would only settle for some reasonable amount. In my opinion, Walmart should face the lawsuit and wait for the result from the U.S Supreme Court. It is because this case could affect far more than this case. If the company settle for the issue, there is a big chance that more similar cases would come up in the future. And that is not good for the company future development. The key decision maker of Walmart should not settle easily in this particular case. Other than this strategy, Walmart could try to settle with the workers with compromises. In order to aviod the lawsuit, the company could negotiate with the workers and try to settle by paying a significate amount of dollars. The amount could be a very huge number considering the case involved over 1.5 million female workers. However, this strategy might lead to more of the similar cases and more lawsuits against the company. Therefore, I would recommend Walmart’s ket decision maker to take the first strategy. Walmart should wait for the result from the U.S. Supreme Court and let the court to determine the result, it is the best interest for the company’s future and development.

History of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

After the French Revolution transformed France and threatened the old order of Europe, France fought a series of wars against the monarchies of Europe to first protect and spread the revolution, and then to conquer territory. The later years were dominated by Napoleon and France’s enemy was seven coalitions of European states. At first,  Napoleon first bought success, transforming his military triumph into a political one, gaining the position of First Consul and then Emperor. But more war was to follow, perhaps inevitably given how Napoleon’s position was dependent upon military triumph, his predilection for solving issues through battle, and how the monarchies of Europe still looked at France as a dangerous enemy. Origins When the French revolution overthrew the monarchy of Louis XVI and declared new forms of government, the country found itself at odds with the rest of Europe. There were ideological divisions - the dynastic monarchies and empires opposed the new, partly republican thinking - and family ones, as relatives of those affected complained. But the nations of central Europe also had their eyes on dividing Poland between them, and when in 1791 Austria and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which asked Europe to act to restore the French monarchy, they actually worded the document to prevent war. However, France misinterpreted and decided to launch a defensive and pre-emptive war, declaring one in April 1792. The French Revolutionary Wars There were initial failures, and an invading German army took Verdun and marched close to Paris, promoting the September Massacres of Parisian prisoners. The French then pushed back at Valmy and Jemappes, before going further in their aims. On November 19th, 1792, the National Convention issued a promise of assistance to all people looking to regain their liberty, which was both a new idea for warfare and the justification to create allied buffer zones around France. On December 15th, they decreed that the revolutionary laws of France, including the dissolution of all aristocracy, were to be imported abroad by their armies. France also declared a set of expanded ‘natural borders’ for the nation, which put the emphasis on annexation rather than just ‘liberty’. On paper, France had set itself the task of opposing, if not overthrowing, every king to keep itself safe. A group of European powers opposed to these developments was now working as the First Coalition, the start of seven such groups formed to fight France before the end of 1815. Austria, Prussia, Spain, Britain and the United Provinces (Netherlands) fought back, inflicting reverses on the French which prompted the latter to declare a ‘levy en masse’, effectively mobilizing the whole of France into the army. A new chapter in warfare had been reached, and army sizes now began to rise greatly. The Rise of Napoleon and the Switch in Focus The new French armies had success against the coalition, forcing Prussia to surrender and pushing the others back. Now France took the chance to export the revolution, and the United Provinces became the Batavian Republic. In 1796, the French Army of Italy was judged to have been underperforming and was given a new commander called Napoleon Bonaparte, who’d first been noticed in the siege of Toulon. In a dazzling display of manoeuvre, Napoleon defeated Austrian and allied forces and forced the Treaty of Campo Formio, which earned France the Austrian Netherlands, and cemented the position of the French-allied republics in North Italy. It also allowed Napoleon’s army, and the commander himself, to gain large amounts of looted wealth. Napoleon was then given a chance to pursue a dream: attack in the Middle East, even on into threatening the British in India, and he sailed to Egypt in 1798 with an army. After initial success, Napoleon failed in a siege of Acre. With the French fleet seriously damaged in the Battle of the Nile against British Admiral Nelson, the Army of Egypt was greatly restricted: it could not get reinforcements and it could not leave. Napoleon soon left, some critics might say abandoned, this army to return to France when it looked like a coup would take place. Napoleon was able to become the centerpiece of a plot, levering his success and power in the army to become the First Consul of France in the Coup of Brumaire in 1799. Napoleon then acted against the forces of the Second Coalition, an alliance that had gathered to exploit Napoleon’s absence and which involved Austria, Britain, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and other smaller states. Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo in 1800. Along with a victory by French general Moreau at Hohenlinden against Austria, France was thus able to defeat the Second Coalition. The result was France as the dominant power in Europe, Napoleon as a national hero and a possible end to the warfare and chaos of the revolution. The Napoleonic Wars Britain and France were briefly at peace but soon argued, the former wielding a superior navy and great wealth. Napoleon planned an invasion of Britain and gathered an army to do so, but we don’t know how serious he was about ever carrying it out. But Napoleon’s plans became irrelevant when Nelson again defeated the French with his iconic victory at Trafalgar, shattering Napoleon’s naval strength. A third coalition now formed in 1805, allying Austria, Britain, and Russia, but victories by Napoleon at Ulm and then the masterpiece of Austerlitz broke the Austrians and Russians and forced an end to the third coalition. In 1806 there were Napoleonic victories, over Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, and in 1807 the Battle of Eylau was fought between a fourth coalition army of Prussians and Russians against Napoleon. A draw in the snow in which Napoleon was nearly captured, this marks the first major setback for the French General. The stalemate led to the Battle of Friedland, where Napoleon did win against Russia and ended the Fourth Coalition. The Fifth coalition formed and had success by blunting Napoleon at the Battle Aspern-Essling in 1809 when Napoleon tried to force a way across the Danube. But Napoleon regrouped and tried once more, fighting the Battle of Wagram against Austria. Napoleon won, and the Archduke of Austria open peace talks. Much of Europe was now either under direct French control or technically allied. There were other wars; Napoleon invaded Spain to install his brother as king, but instead triggered a brutal guerrilla war and the presence of a successful British field army under Wellington – but Napoleon remained largely master of Europe, creating new states such as the German Confederation of the Rhine, giving crowns to family members, but bizarrely forgiving some difficult subordinates. The Disaster in Russia The relationship between Napoleon and Russia began to fall apart, and Napoleon resolved to act quickly to overawe the Russian tsar and bring him to heel. To this end, Napoleon gathered what was probably the largest army ever assembled in Europe, and certainly a force too big to adequately support. Looking for a quick, dominant victory, Napoleon pursued a retreating Russian army deep into Russia, before winning the carnage that was the Battle of Borodino and then taking Moscow. But it was a pyrrhic victory, as Moscow was set alight and Napoleon was forced to retreat through the bitter Russian winter, damaging his army and ruining the French cavalry. The Final Years With Napoleon on the back foot and obviously vulnerable, a new Sixth Coalition was organized in 1813, and pushed across Europe, advancing where Napoleon was absent, and retreating where he was present. Napoleon was forced back as his ‘allied’ states took the chance to throw off the French yoke. 1814 saw the coalition enter the borders of France and, abandoned by his allies in Paris and many of his marshals, Napoleon was forced into surrendering. He was sent to the island of Elba in exile. The 100 Days With time to think while exiled in Elba, Napoleon resolved to try again, and in 1815 he returned to Europe. Amassing an army as he marched to Paris, turning those sent against him to his service, Napoleon attempted to rally support by making liberal concessions. He soon found himself faced by another coalition, the Seventh of the French Revolutionary and Napoleon Wars, which included Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia. Battles were fought at Quatre Bras and Ligny before the Battle of Waterloo, where an allied army under Wellington withstood the French forces under Napoleon until a Prussian army under Blà ¼cher arrived to give the coalition the decisive advantage. Napoleon was defeated, retreated, and forced to abdicate once more. Peace The monarchy was restored in France, and the heads of Europe gathered at the Congress of Vienna to redraw the map of Europe. Over two decades of tumultuous warfare had finished, and Europe would not be so disrupted again until World War 1 in 1914. France had used two million men as soldiers, and up to 900,000 had not come back. Opinion varies on whether the war devastated a generation, some arguing that the level of conscription was only a fraction of the possible total, others pointing out that the casualties came heavily from one age group.