Elephant

Elephantidae (the elephants) is a relation of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the sort Proboscidea in the class Mammalia. Elephantidae has three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant (until recently known communally as the African Elephant), and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). Other species have become extinct since the last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago.

Elephants are mammals and the largest land animals alive today. The elephant's gestation era is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is ordinary for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kg (265 lb). An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. It was male and weighed about 12,000 kg (26,400 lb). The least elephants, about the size of a calf or a large pig, were a prehistoric variant that lived on the island of Crete until 5000 BC, possibly 3000 BC.

Elephants are increasingly vulnerable by human intrusion. Between 1970 and 1989, the African elephant population plunged from 1.3 million to about 600,000 in 1989; the current population is estimated to be between 400,000 and 660,000. The elephant is now a secluded species worldwide, placing restrictions on capture, domestic use, and trade in products such as ivory. It has long been known that the African and Asian elephants are split species. African elephants tend to be larger than the Asian species (up to 4 m high and 7500 kg) and have bigger ears.

Male and female African elephants have extended tusks, while male and female Asian Elephants have shorter tusks, with tusks in females being approximately non-existent. African elephants have a dipped back, smooth forehead and two "fingers" at the tip of their trunks, as compared with the Asian species which have an arched back, two humps on the forehead and have only one "finger" at the tip of their trunks.

Beavers

Beavers are semi-aquatic rodents native to North America and Europe. They are the only living members of the family Castoridae, which contains a single genus, Castor. Genetic investigate has shown the European and North American beaver populations to be distinct species and that hybridization is improbable.

Beavers are best known for their natural trait of building dams in rivers and streams, and building their homes (aka lodges) in the ultimate artificial pond. They are the second-largest rodent in the world (after the capybara).

Beavers continue to produce throughout life. Adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, which is uncommon among mammals.

The European Beaver (Castor fiber) was hunted almost to death in Europe, both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties. However, the beaver is now being re-introduced throughout Europe. Several thousand live on the Elbe, the Rhone and in parts of Scandinavia. In northeast Poland there is a thriving community of Castor fiber. They have been reintroduced in Bavaria and The Netherlands and are tending to extend to new locations. The beaver finally became extinct in Great Britain in the sixteenth century: Giraldus Cambrensis reported in 1188 (Itinerarium ii.iii) that it was to be found only in the Teifi in Wales and in one river in Scotland, though his observations are clearly first hand.

In October 2005, six European beavers were re-introduced to Britain in Lower Mill Estate in Gloucestershire, and there are strategy for re-introductions in Scotland and Wales.

The extinct North American Giant beaver (Castoroides ohioensis) was one of main rodents that ever evolved. It disappeared, with other big mammals in the Holocene extinction event, which began about 13,000 years ago.

Fidelity bond

A fidelity bond is a form of protection that covers policyholders for losses that they incur as a result of fraudulent acts by specified individuals. It usually insures a business for losses caused by the dishonest acts of its employees.

While called bonds, these obligations to protect an employer from employee-dishonesty losses are really insurance policies. These insurance policies protect from losses of company monies, securities, and other property from employees who have a manifest intent to cause the company loss. There are also many other forms of crime-insurance policies to protect company assets.

Intensive care medicine

Intensive Care Medicine or critical care medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the provision of life support or organ support systems in patients who are critically ill who usually also require intensive monitoring.

Patients requiring intensive care usually require support for hemodynamic instability , for airway or respiratory compromise and/or renal failure, and often all three. Patients admitted to the intensive care unit not requiring support for the above are usually admitted for intensive/invasive monitoring, usually after major surgery.

Intensive care is usually only offered to those whose condition is potentially reversible and who have a good chance of surviving with intensive care support. Since the critically ill are close to dying the outcome of this intervention is difficult to predict. Many patients therefore still die in the Intensive Care Unit. A prime requisite for admission to an Intensive Care Unit is that the underlying condition can be overcome. Therefore treatment is merely meant to win time in which the acute affliction can be resolved.

Economics

Economics is a social science seeking to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics studies how individuals and societies seek to satisfy needs and wants. Alfred Marshall in the late 19th century informally described economics as "the study of man in the ordinary business of life"; the vast number of topics to which the methods of economic theory have been applied suggests to some that economics is simply "that which economists do."

Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics, where the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household or firm, and macroeconomics, where the focus is on aggregates, the sum of the supply and demand in an economy, or the total net result of buying and selling. Another division of the subject distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and explain economic phenomena, from normative economics, which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments.

Sunflower

The sunflower is an annual plant in the family Asteraceae, with a large flower head. The stem of the flower can grow up to 3 meters tall, with the flower head getting 30cm in diameter. The term "sunflower" is also used to refer to all plants of the genus Helianthus, many of which are perennial plants. What is usually called the flower is actually a head of many flowers crowded together. The outer flowers are the ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors. These flowers are sterile. The flowers that fill the circular head within the ray flowers are called disc florets.

The arrangement of florets within this cluster is normally such that each is separated from the next by approximately the golden angle, producing a pattern of spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower you may see 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.

Shared web hosting service

A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service is a form of web hosting service where more than one web site is hosted on the same server. It is generally the most economical option for hosting as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance.The hosting service must include system administration since it is shared by many users; this is a benefit for users that do not want to deal with it, but a hindrance to power users that want more control.

In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for management of servers, installation of server software, security updates and other aspects of the service. Servers are often based on the Linux operating systems because more Control Panel products are made for Linux. However, some providers offer Microsoft Windows based solutions. The Plesk control panel, for instance, has two versions - for Linux and Windows, both with very similar interfaces and functionality, with the exception of OS-specific differences.

Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes such as bacteria and viruses.

Although much is now known in the field of microbiology, advances are being made regularly. In actual fact, the most common estimates suggest that we have studied only about 1% of all of the microbes in any given environment. Thus, despite the fact that over three hundred years have passed since the discovery of microbes, the field of microbiology is clearly in its infancy relative to other biological disciplines such as zoology, botany or even entomology.

Perception of sound

Sound is perceived through the sense of hearing. Humans and many animals use their ears to hear sound, but loud sounds and low frequency sounds can be perceived by other parts of the body through the sense of touch. Sounds are used in several ways, most notably for communication through speech or, for example, music. Sound can also be used to acquire information about properties of the surrounding environment such as spatial characteristics and presence of other animals or objects. For example, bats use echolocation, ships and submarines use sonar, and humans can determine spatial information by the way in which they perceive sounds.

The range of frequencies that humans can hear is approximately between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. This range is by definition the audible spectrum, but some people (particularly women) can hear above 20,000 Hz.