Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Praying Mantis Egg Case

Praying Mantis Egg Case Have you ever found a brown, Styrofoam-like mass on a shrub in your garden? As the leaves begin to fall in autumn, people often find these odd-looking formations on their garden plants and wonder what they are. Many people guess that its a cocoon of some kind. Although this is a sign of insect activity, its not a cocoon. This foamy structure is the egg case of a praying mantis. Soon after mating, a female praying mantis deposits a mass of eggs on a twig or other suitable structure. She may lay just a few dozen eggs or as many as four hundred at one time. Using special accessory glands on her abdomen, the mother mantid then covers her eggs with a frothy substance, which hardens quickly to a consistency similar to Styrofoam. This egg case is called an ootheca. A single female mantid may produce several oothecae (the plural of ootheca) after mating just once. Praying mantids typically lay their eggs in late summer or fall, and the young develop within the ootheca over the winter months. The foamy case insulates the offspring from the cold and provides them with some protection from predators. Tiny mantid nymphs hatch from their eggs while still inside the egg case. Depending on environmental variables and the species, the nymphs may take 3-6 months to emerge from the ootheca. In spring or early summer, the young mantids make their way out of the protective foam case, hungry and ready to hunt other small invertebrates. They immediately begin to disperse in search of food. If you find an ootheca in the fall or winter, you may be tempted to bring it indoors. Be forewarned that the warmth of your home will feel like spring to the baby mantids waiting to emerge! You probably dont want 400 miniature mantids running up your walls. If you do collect an ootheca in the hope of watching it hatch, keep it in your refrigerator to simulate winter temperatures, or better yet, in an unheated shed or detached garage. When spring arrives, you can place the ootheca in a terrarium or box to observe the emergence. But dont keep the young nymphs confined. They emerge in hunting mode and will eat their siblings without hesitation. Let them disperse in your garden, where they will help with pest control. Its usually possible to identify the mantid species by its egg case. If youre interested in identifying mantid egg cases you find, includes photographs of the most common mantid oothecae found in North America. The egg case  shown above is from a Chinese mantid (Tenodera sinensis  sinensis). This species is a native of China and other parts of  Asia but is well-established in North America. Commercial biocontrol suppliers sell Chinese mantid egg cases to gardeners and nurseries who want to use mantids for pest control. Sources Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, by Charley Eiseman and Noah CharneyBugs Rule: An Introduction to the World of Insects, by Whitney Cranshaw and Richard RedakPraying Mantid Care Sheet, Amateur Entomologists Society website. Accessed online September 15, 2014.Ootheca, Amateur Entomologists Society website. Accessed online September 15, 2014.Carolina Mantid Ootheca, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, website. Accessed online September 15, 2014.Ootheca, Museum Victoria website.   Accessed online September 15, 2014.Subspecies Tenodera sinensis sinensis - Chinese Mantis, Bugguide.net. Accessed online September 15, 2014.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Cite a Journal Article in MHRA Referencing

How to Cite a Journal Article in MHRA Referencing How to Cite a Journal Article in MHRA Referencing Since â€Å"MHRA† stands for Modern Humanities Research Association, it won’t surprise you to learn that MHRA referencing is used in the humanities. And if you’re studying a subject like English language or literature, knowing how to cite a journal article in MHRA referencing is wise. Luckily, that’s what we explain in this very blog post! How to Cite a Journal Article in MHRA When citing a journal article in an  essay, you should indicate footnotes with superscript numbers in the text. For instance: Footnote numbers usually go at the end of a sentence.1 In the accompanying footnote, the format to use for a journal article is: n. Author Name(s), â€Å"Article Title,† Journal, volume (year), page range (page number). â€Å"Page range† here refers to the complete page range for the article, while â€Å"page number† is the specific page cited. Only the latter is preceded by â€Å"p.† For example, we could cite a journal article as follows: 1. Joan M. Herbers, â€Å"Time Resources and Laziness in Animals,† Oecologia, 49 (1981), 252-62 (p. 260). If citing an online article that is only available electronically or differs from the print version, give a URL/DOI and date of access instead of a page range: 2. Laverne Jones, Stuart Cox, and Polly W. Brecon, â€Å"Sleepy Town: Why Are You Always Tired?,† Somnambulant Studies, 6 (2008), https://www.jstor.org/stable/3058956 [accessed 12 March 2017] (p. 129). However, if an online article is identical to the print version, you can simply cite it in the same way. No extra details are required. Repeat Citations If citing the same article more than once, give a shortened citation in subsequent footnotes. The format for this will depend on whether you are citing the same source consecutively: For consecutive citations, use â€Å"ibid.† plus a page number for the new citation (if different from the previous one). For non-consecutive citations, use the author’s surname and a page number for the new citation. If you have cited more than one source by the same author, include a shortened article title as well. In practice, then, we would format repeat citations in MHRA as follows: 1. Joan M. Herbers, â€Å"Time Resources and Laziness in Animals,† Oecologia, 49 (1981), 252-62 (p.260). 2. Ibid., p. 258. 3. Joan M. Herbers, â€Å"On Caste Ratios in Ant Colonies: Population Responses to Changing Environments,† Evolution, 34 (1980), 575-85 (pp. 576-7). 4. Herbers, â€Å"Time Resources and Laziness in Animals,† p. 262. Here, citations 1, 2 and 4 are all for the journal article â€Å"Time Resources and Laziness in Animals.† We use â€Å"ibid.† in footnote 2 because it is a consecutive citation of the same source. And we use the author’s surname plus title in footnote 4 because it is a non-consecutive repeat citation. Journal Articles in an MHRA Bibliography When listing sources in your bibliography, make sure to include full publication information. The format to use for a print journal article is: Surname, First Name, â€Å"Article Title,† Journal, volume (year), page range This is similar to the first footnote, but with the first listed author’s names reversed and no period. With online articles, the URL/DOI and a date of access are given instead of a page range: Surname, First Name, â€Å"Article Title,† Journal, volume (year), URL/DOI [date of access] In practice, this would look something like the following: Herbers, Joan M., â€Å"Time Resources and Laziness in Animals,† Oecologia, 49 (1981), 252-62 Jones, Laverne, Stuart Cox, and Polly W. Brecon, â€Å"Sleepy Town: Why Are You Always Tired?,† Somnambulant Studies, 6 (2008), https://www.jstor.org/stable/3058956 [accessed 12 March 2017] As with footnotes, though, if online articles are also available in print, you can usually cite them in the same way you would a print article (check your style guide if you’re unsure about this). And if you’d like anyone to check the referencing in your document, submit it for proofreading today.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ndividual Written Analysis of the Case Enterprise-Rent-A-Car Study

Ndividual Written Analysis of the Enterprise-Rent-A-Car - Case Study Example Enterprise also started developing its relationship with top insurance companies which helped in expanding its business. Moreover, in the year 1980, Jack stepped out from the top post and promoted his son Andy as the president of Enterprise which led to a frequent growth of revenue in the company. In the year 2010, Enterprise became the seventh largest private company in the United States with annual revenue more than 12 million US Dollars. The main reason for success of Enterprise was that the company stressed on providing the best customer service and which created the brand value for the company. Moreover, the company trained its managers in such a way that determined and reduced the demotivating aspects i.e. absence of feedback, misinterpreting the significance of a given task and lack of concern for inefficient performance. In addition, the company divided its market into two segments that involved the local market and the airport market which accounted for revenue of 20 million US Dollars and contributed to the success of the Enterprise (Busse and Swinkels 1-15). Thesis Statement. The study intends identify the key assets, competitive advantages along with activities of Enterprise. Besides, the key challenges as well as opportunities linked to the firm’s business model and practices will also be ascertained and subsequent recommendations will be provided. Enterprise had expended more than 10 million US Dollars to research on the satisfaction of the customers and their valuable experience. It has been revealed that Enterprise focused on the three main aspects which included the approach and effectiveness of the employees, the transaction speed and the hygiene factor of the car. Thus, if these three aspects were attained successfully than the customers’ would be satisfied. It was observed that over 70% customers were essentially satisfied and developed the intention of using the services of Enterprise again. Enterprise also used Enterprise Service