THEORY Z: Trust your people

Theory Z is a name applied to three distinctly different psychological theories. One was developed by Abraham H. Maslow in his paper Theory Z and the other is Dr. William Ouchi's so-called "Japanese Management" style popularized during the Asian economic boom of the 1980s. The third was developed by W. J. Reddin in Managerial Effectiveness (19 Situation guides) man:

•    Reason motivates him.
•   Interdependence is man's primary mode of discourse.
•    Interaction is man's social unit of importance.
•    "Objective" best and succinctly describes man's concept of man.

McGregor's Theory Y in contrast to Theory X, which stated that workers inherently dislike and avoid work and must be driven to it, and Theory Y, which stated that work is natural and can be a source of satisfaction when aimed at higher order human psychological needs.

For Ouchi, Theory Z focused on increasing employee loyalty to the company by providing a job for life with a strong focus on the well-being of the employee, both on and off the job. According to Ouchi, Theory Z management tends to promote stable employment, high productivity, and high employee morale and satisfaction.

Ironically, "Japanese Management" and Theory Z itself were based on Dr. W. Edwards Deming's famous "14 points". Deming, an American scholar whose management and motivation theories were rejected in the United States, went on to help lay the foundation of Japanese organizational development during their expansion in the world economy in the 1980s. Deming's theories are summarized in his two books, Out of the Crisis and The New Economics, in which he spells out his "System of Profound Knowledge". He was a frequent advisor to Japanese business and government leaders, and eventually became a revered counselor. Deming was awarded the Second Order of the Sacred Treasures by the former Emperor Hirohito, and American businesses ultimately tried unsuccessfully to use his "Japanese" approach to improve their competitive position.

Pre Theory Z

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist and the first theorist to develop a theory of motivation based upon human needs produced a theory that had three assumptions. First, human needs are never completely satisfied. Second, human behavior is purposeful and is motivated by need for satisfaction. Third, these needs can be classified according to a hierarchical structure of importance from the lowest to highest (Maslow, 1970).

1.            Physiological need

2.            Safety needs

3.            Belongingness and love needs

4.            The esteem needs – self-confidence

5.            The need for self-actualization – the need to reach your full potential

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory helps the manager to understand what motivates an employee. By understanding what needs must be met in order for an employee to achieve the highest-level of motivation, managers are then able to get the most out of production. Theory X, Y and Z all play a role in how a company should manage successfully. Theory X and Theory Y were both written by Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist who is believed to be a key element in the area of management theory. In McGregor's book The Human Side of Enterprise (1960), McGregor describes Theory X and Theory Y based upon Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where McGregor grouped the hierarchy into a lower order (Theory X) needs and a higher order (Theory Y) needs. McGregor suggested that management could use either set of needs to motivate employees, but better results could be gained by the use of Theory Y, rather than Theory X (Heil, Bennis, & Stephens, 2000).

History of Theory Z

Professor Ouchi spent years researching Japanese companies and examining American companies using the Theory Z management styles. By the 1980s, Japan was known for the highest productivity anywhere in the world, while America had fallen drastically. The word "Wa" in Japanese can be applied to Theory Z because they both deal with promoting partnerships and group work. The word "Wa" means a perfect circle or harmony, which influences Japanese society to always be in teams and to come to a solution together. Promoting Theory Z and the Japanese word "Wa" is how the Japanese economy became so powerful. And also because the Japanese show a high level enthusiasm to work,some of the researchers claim that 'Z' in the theory Z stands for 'Zeal'.

Ouchi wrote a book called Theory Z How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (1981), in this book; Ouchi shows how American corporations can meet the Japanese challenges with a highly effective management style that promises to transform business in the 1980s. The secret to Japanese success, according to Ouchi, is not technology, but a special way of managing people. "This is a managing style that focuses on a strong company philosophy, a distinct corporate culture, long-range staff development, and consensus decision-making"(Ouchi, 1981). Ouchi shows that the results show lower turn-over, increased job commitment, and dramatically higher productivity.

William Ouchi doesn't say that the Japanese culture for business is necessarily the best strategy for the American companies but he takes Japanese business techniques and adapts them to the American corporate environment. Much like McGregor's theories, Ouchi's Theory Z makes certain assumptions about workers. Some of the assumptions about workers under this theory include the idea that workers tend to want to build happy and intimate working relationships with those that they work for and with, as well as the people that work for them. Also, Theory Z workers have a high need to be supported by the company, and highly value a working environment in which such things as family, cultures and traditions, and social institutions are regarded as equally important as the work itself. These types of workers have a very well developed sense of order, discipline, a moral obligation to work hard, and a sense of cohesion with their fellow workers. Finally, Theory Z workers, it is assumed, can be trusted to do their jobs to their utmost ability, so long as management can be trusted to support them and look out for their well being (Massie & Douglas, 1992).

One of the most important pieces of this theory is that management must have a high degree of confidence in its workers in order for this type of participative management to work. This theory assumes that workers will be participating in the decisions of the company to a great degree. Ouchi explains that the employees must be very knowledgeable about the various issues of the company, as well as possessing the competence to make those decisions. He also points out; however, that management sometimes has a tendency to underestimate the ability of the workers to effectively contribute to the decision making process (Bittel, 1989). But for this reason, Theory Z stresses the need for the workers to become generalists, rather than specialists, and to increase their knowledge of the company and its processes through job rotations and constant training. Actually, promotions tend to be slower in this type of setting, as workers are given a much longer opportunity to receive training and more time to learn the ins and outs of the company's operations. The desire, under this theory, is to develop a work force, which has more of a loyalty towards staying with the company for an entire career, and be more permanent than in other types of settings. It is expected that once an employee does rise to a position of high level management, they will know a great deal more about the company and how it operates, and will be able to use Theory Z management theories effectively on the newer employees (Luthans, 1989, p. 36).

Comparison & Contrast of Management Theorists

Management Concept	Douglas McGregor (Theory X & Y)	William Ouchi (Theory Z)
Motivation	Tends to categorise people as one type or another: either being unwilling or unmotivated to work, or being self motivated towards work. Threats and disciplinary action are thought to be used more effectively in this situation, although monetary rewards can also be a prime motivator to make Theory X workers produce more.	Believes that people are innately self motivated to not only do their work, but also are loyal towards the company, and want to make the company succeed.
Leadership	Theory X leaders would be more authoritarian, while Theory Y leaders would be more participative. But in both cases it seems that the managers would still retain a great deal of control.	Theory Z managers would have to have a great deal of trust that their workers could make sound decisions. Therefore, this type of leader is more likely to act as "coach", and let the workers make most of the decisions.
Power & Authority	McGregor's managers, in both cases, would seem to keep most of the power and authority. In the case of Theory Y, the manager would take suggestions from workers, but would keep the power to implement the decision.	The manager's ability to exercise power and authority comes from the worker's trusting management to take care of them, and allow them to do their jobs. The workers have a great deal of input and weight in the decision making process.
Conflict	This type of manager might be more likely to exercise a great deal of "Power" based conflict resolution style, especially with the Theory X workers. Theory Y workers might be given the opportunity to exert "Negotiating" strategies to solve their own differences.	Conflict in the Theory Z arena would involve a great deal of discussion, collaboration, and negotiation. The workers would be the ones solving the conflicts, while the managers would play more of a "third party arbitrator" role.
Performance Appraisals	Appraisals occur on a regular basis. Promotions also occur on a regular basis.	Theory Z emphasises more frequent performance appraisals, but slower promotions.

Implications of these types of theories for leaders in modern organizations

As theorist through the past many years worked towards the Human Relations Movement, many other fields of expertise joined in to create a stronger force of knowledge and growth. From Psychology that helps to explain changes in human behavior, to Sociology, where we actually study people in their relationships with other human beings. Social Psychology was created when the two concepts were blended so that we can focus on actual influences of people on one another to Anthropology and Political Science. All of these pieces are a part of the growth and success of human development in not only the success of work development but in human relationships in general.

With Theories X, Y, and Z implications for the modern organization include new challenges and opportunities. As we learn from these theories and work to implement the ideas in them we must be aware of the modern issues of working with people from different cultures and overseeing movements of jobs to countries with low-cost labor. Also, we must embrace diversity as the U.S. demographics change and understand that our new managers must recognize and respond to the different culture changes that will surely ensue with their growing diverse working population.

These theories have proven with many fortune 500 companies and others that when applied, do improve quality and productivity and also help to strengthen company labor issues. In addition to the changing work demographic, new problems and issues have risen since the X, Y and Z theories were formed. Some issues include fewer skilled laborers, early retirements, and older workers. Other opportunities that have been implied while companies use Theory Y and Z include, an improvement of people skills, empowering their employees, stimulating change, helping employees balance work with life conflicts, and improving ethical behavior.

Modern implications for companies using these theories have shown improvements in turnover rates, productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, organizational behavior, and job satisfaction.

Conclusion

Many assumptions are made in the work place, based on observations of the workers, and their relationship with management. "The types of tasks being performed, as well as the types of employees which make up a particular organization can set the stage for the types of leadership roles which will be assumed by managers" (McGregor, 1960). Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Y, and William Ouchi's Theory Z have all proven to be useful in the management field. Many companies have successfully integrated similar economic and human principles in a management style from theories Y and Z. Theories Y and Z have both shown to be quite successful framework for multinational companies. Theory X is not obsolete. Actually, Theory X is still very prominent in the business world. Most managers however do not see themselves as using this type of management style until given the opportunity to see how their employees actually feel about the management style that is being used. Then an effort will be made to look further into a different, possibly more successful style of managing.

Multiplier: A bird's eye view on the concept of multiplier

1. What is a multiplier? It is a way of seeing how sensitive the economy is to an expenditure injection/leakage. That is, it tells us the effect of a change in expenditures. Multipliers also reveal two basic ideas related to changes in expenditure:

a. the necessary DG, DI, DT is always going to be less than the DY

(i.e. you don't have to change expenditure by as much as the gap you're trying to close)

b. both DG and DI are positively related to DY, while DT is negatively related to DY 

(i.e. if G or I increase, Y increases; and if T increases, Y decreases)

[Note: Y = real GDP, I = Investment, G = Government spending, T = Taxes, m = MPC]

2. Why do we need a multiplier? A multiplier tells us how much expenditure needs to change in order to close a GDP gap. For example, if equilibrium GDP is $2 trillion and Potential GDP is $3 trillion, there is a recessionary gap of $1 trillion. The multiplier can tell us exactly how much we need to increase expenditure, in order to close the gap. Therefore, the multiplier is just a tool which allows us to properly employ fiscal policy.

3. How do I use a multiplier? There are two basic types of multipliers: the expenditure multipliers and the tax multiplier.

(i) The expenditure multiplier: DY/DG or DY/DI = 1/(1-m)

(ii) The tax multiplier: DY/DT = -m/(1-m)

Before moving on, let's think about what the equations for these two multipliers are saying: 

a. The expenditure multiplier is greater than the tax multiplier. 

              (i.e. for a certain DY, the DT is greater than the corresponding DG or DI)

b. There is a positive relationship between the MPC i.e. Marginal Propensity to Consume and each       multiplier. 

               (i.e. as the MPC gets larger, each multiplier gets larger)

4. Can you give me a simple example of how a multiplier might be used? Here are two different, but related examples of how multipliers could be used. 

Example 1: The MPC is 0.8 and the government wants to know how much GDP is affected after increasing government spending by $20 million versus a decrease in taxes of $20 million.

Plug this information into equations (i) and (ii):

c. If DG = 20, what is the DY? 

DY/20 = 1/(1-0.8) 
DY/20 = 5 
DY = 5 x 20 = 100

Increasing G by $20 million increases Y by $100 million.

d. If DT = -20, what is the DY? 

DY/-20 = -0.8/(1-0.8) 
DY/-20 = -4 
DY = -4 x -20 = 80

Decreasing T by $20 million increases Y by $80 million.

Example 2: The MPC is 0.8 and there is a recessionary gap of $20 billion. How much should the government either increase spending or decrease taxes to close this gap?

e. What DG makes DY = 20: 

20/DG = 5 
DG = 20/5 
DG = 4

Increasing G by $4 billion increases Y by $20 billion.

f. What DT makes DY = 20: 

20/DT = -4 
DT = 20/-4 
DT = -5

Decreasing T by $5 billion increases Y by $20 billion. 

[Note: DG, DI, DT and DY represent changes in the variables G, I, T and Y respectively

SOCIAL ORGANISATION

Man is a social animal. Ever since he has started the settled life, he is much more conscious about the habitat in which he lives and the components to which he is attached. In the broad sense, any interaction resulting from the response of one animal to another of the same species represents social behavior. Even a rival male fighting another male over the possession of a female is a social interaction.

Virtually all members of a species exist in pairs or groups for at least same part of their leaves, for feeding, drinking or for mating and some animals spend their entire lives as members of a cooperative interacting group. Their association typically extends beyond the level of mating and taking care of young. Such groups form societies and display simple to complex social organizations.

Social behavior has evolved independently in many species of animals and complex social organization has been found in invertebrates as well as vertebrates. The term social organization refers to population or groups and not to individuals and determines how members of a species interact with each other. In various social insects the social organization is quite rigid and species specific. In many vertebrates however, it is more flexible and may vary with changing conditions. For instance in elephants the females may live in the same family unit for 40 to 50 years. The stability of their relationship would allow them to be called a society. On the other hand, organization within a flock of birds or within a social of fish would not be termed truly social even though they may live together for months.

Benefits and Costs of Sociality

As early as 1938, observations on different animal groups showed that many animals are able to face adverse environments if they live in groups. School of fish is less vulnerable to predators because large numbers often confuse the predator. There is safety in number and the detection of predator may be enhanced by having several individuals on alert to warn against any intruders. For instance meerkats (socially living mongoose) take turns to keep vigil at high look-out- points while other individuals feed. When a predator is spotted the group can take collective evasive action like scattering in all directions or physically attacking the predator. A flock of birds on seeing a predatory bird usually bunch like gulls resort to mobbing when a predator like a fox or even humans approach their nesting sites. Thus survival of gulls that nest in large colonies is much better than that nest alone.

On the other hand predators too are more successful if they hunt in groups. Lion’s hyena’s wolves’ cape hunting dogs are examples of predators that hunt together. Some individuals in the group help to drive the prey towards other hidden members, or help in running down the prey to exhaustion. Another advantage may be that scavengers are kept at bay by other members of the groups.

Another advantage is utilization of food resources found by one individual. Also living in groups provides protection against harsh weather conditions as can be seen in penguins that huddle together to incubate their eggs and provide a fairly decent shelter from the cold their young are reared communally in crèches.

Rearing of young in a group provides grater protection and safety at the same time the potential for learning and transmitting useful information is another advantage.

Observations on a semi natural colony of Japanese macaque monkeys in Koshima Islands revealed that when they provided with potatoes caked with mud, they usually rubbed off the mud before eating it. However it was noted that one day of the females washed the potato in the nearby sea before eating. Soon the other females began to copy her and this behavior was learnt by offspring and soon became a part of the group’s habit.

While group living confers clear advantages at the same there are some undoubted disadvantages. There may be competition for resources increased risk for transmission of parasites and diseases, greater risk of cannibalism of the young by conspecifics and interference in mating. The balance between benefits and costs is a fine one and the behavior that will be favored by natural selection will be the one that favors the reproductive interests of individuals in the long run.

Types of Social Behavior Patterns

We have said earlier that societies of animals vary greatly in their structure organization complexities and types of interactions.. These insects are termed eu-social because of the division into castes such as soldiers’ workers reproductive individuals which are morphologically different from each other. In contrast a social organism in vertebrates is not so rigid though there is an example of eu-social vertebrates which we will discuss later. Most vertebrates societies also contain genetically related individuals, but unlike insect societies all members are capable of reproduction and competition in reproduction is one of the main principles in determining the social system. Usually a typical vertebrates society would consist of genetically related females and their offspring plus unrelated males that come and join the group.

 Territoriality and Dominance Hierarchy

Social organisms requires cooperation amongst animals of the same species but at the same time there is competition amongst them because of limited resources like, food, water, mates or shelter.

Much of what do to resolve their competition is called aggression. Aggression may be defined as offensive physical action, or threat to force others to give up what they have or might attain. Many ethnologists consider aggression as a part of a wider behavior known as agonistic behavior referring to any activity related to fighting whether it is aggression or defense or submission or retreat. Most aggressive behavior is in the same species. The symbolic ritualistic displays of agnostic behavior are mutually understood. For example rival male poisonous snakes engage in stylized fights where they butt each other by their heads so that the other is tried and eventually recedes. They never bite each other. The loser usually submits to the winner who becomes dominant. Thus agonistic behavior is important for maintaining social order, especially establishment of dominance hierarchies and maintenance of territories.

Territories are marked and defended in social organisation because they contain food resources sites for attracting mates and rearing young. They are also locations that provide shelter. Of all the classes of vertebrates birds are the most conspicuously territorial. Most male songbirds as you would recall establish their territories in early spring and defend them vigorously. Many mammals have home ranges rather than territories. It is not an exclusively defended area but is the total area covered by the mammal in its activities. Home ranges of individuals of the same species may overlap and may shift with seasons.

As said earlier some sort of dominance between individuals of a social organization is established due to agonistic behavior and is known as dominance hierarchy. Due to this a group of animals can coexist despite competition. The group is organized in such a way that some members of the group have greater access to resources such as food and mates than other do. Those animals at the top of the hierarchy have the first choice of resources and those at the bottom may do without, if resources are scarce. Once a hierarchy is in place coexistence is possible with occasional fights if any member tries to move up the ladder. Dominance hierarchy was first noticed and described in chicken societies. It was seen that when chicken are placed in a pen, they initially fight linear hierarchy of dominance is established among them. Higher ranking chicks are the first to eat and may peck the lower order chicks if they disturbed the feeding order. This is known as pecking order. Though dominant individuals gain all rights over food, space, mate, etc, the subordinates stay around because staying may be even worse or they may in time become dominants.

Sexual Strategy

Different species show considerable variations in their organization. One of the fundamental influences on social organization seen in any species in the mating system adopted by the individuals of that species. By mating system we mean the role adopted by the two sexes in reproduction.

These sexual strategies result in particular kinds of mating system which have profound effect on the social organization of the species. For example where a male has to gain access to females by defending them against rivals there is a tendency for the social organization to be based on a harem. This is helped by females who tend to aggregate as a defense against predators or for feeding opportunities. The harem is a basic features of the social structure found in antelopes and deer. Here the mating system is polygynous. Polygyny is also more common in mammals as females are specialized to take care of the young. But where ever both males and females are required to care for the young, monogamy is usually the more. Most 90 percent of the bird species are monogamous. The mating pair lives together for life on a seasonal or continuous basis. Polygyny occurs in birds where males are not required to care for the young like in pheasants where the young require relatively little parental care. Monogamy is not common in mammals, however it does occur in some primate species or in jackets where males feed the young through regurgitation.

Another kind of mating system found in birds is based on polyandry where the females mate with two or more males, but the male mates with only one female. In such cases the females are more conspicuous, territorial and dominant than the male. The eggs are incubated by the males while the female looks for other males.

(Vaibhav Rajdeep)

Elasticity: Concept and the related issues

Elasticity is the ratio of the percentage change in one variable to the percentage change in another variable. It is a tool for measuring the responsiveness of a function to changes in parameters in a unitless way. Frequently used elasticities include price elasticity of demand, price elasticity of supply, income elasticity of demand, elasticity of substitution between factors of production and elasticity of intertemporal substitution.

Elasticity is one of the most important concepts in neoclassical economic theory. It is useful in understanding the incidence of indirect taxation, marginal concepts as they relate to the theory of the firm, and distribution of wealth and different types of goods as they relate to the theory of consumer choice. Elasticity is also crucially important in any discussion of welfare distribution, in particular consumer surplus, producer surplus, or government surplus.

In empirical work an elasticity is the estimated coefficient in a linear regression equation where both the dependent variable and the independent variable are in natural logs. Elasticity is a popular tool among empiricists because it is independent of units and thus simplifies data analysis.

Generally, an elastic variable is one which responds a lot to small changes in other parameters. Similarly, an inelastic variable describes one which does not change much in response to changes in other parameters.

Mathematical definition

The definition of elasticity is based on the mathematical notion of point elasticity. In general, the "x-elasticity of y", also called the "elasticity of y with respect to x", is:

The approximation becomes exact in the limit as the changes become infinitesimal in size. The absolute value operator is for simplicity – generally, depending on context, the sign of the elasticity is understood as being always positive or always negative. However, sometimes the elasticity is defined without the absolute value operator, when the sign may be either positive or negative or may change signs. A context where this use of a signed elasticity is necessary for clarity is the cross-price elasticity of demand — the responsiveness of the demand for one product to changes in the price of another product; since the products may be either substitutes or complements, this elasticity could be positive or negative.

Specific Elasticities

Elasticities of demand

Price elasticity of demand

Price elasticity of demand measures the percentage change in quantity demanded caused by a percent change in price. As such, it measures the extent of movement along the demand curve. This elasticity is almost always negative and is usually expressed in terms of absolute value (i.e. as positive numbers) since the negative can be assumed. In these terms, then, if the elasticity is greater than 1 demand is said to be elastic; between zero and one demand is inelastic and if it equals one, demand is unit-elastic. A perfectly elastic demand curve is horizontal (with an elasticity of infinity) whereas a perfectly inelastic demand curve is vertical (with an elasticity of 0).

Income elasticity of demand

Income elasticity of demand measures the percentage change in demand caused by a percent change in income. A change in income causes the demand curve to shift reflecting the change in demand. IED is a measurement of how far the curve shifts horizontally along the X-axis. Income elasticity can be used to classify goods as normal or inferior. With a normal good demand varies in the same direction as income. With an inferior good demand and income move in opposite directions.

Cross price elasticity of demand

Cross price elasticity of demand measures the percentage change in demand for a particular good caused by a percent change in the price of another good. Goods can be complements, substitutes or unrelated. A change in the price of a related good causes the demand curve to shift reflecting a change in demand for the original good. Cross price elasticity is a measurement of how far, and in which direction, the curve shifts horizontally along the x-axis. A positive cross-price elasticity means that the goods are substitute goods.

Cross elasticity of demand between firms

Conjectural variation

Cross elasticity of demand for firms, sometimes referred to as conjectural variation, is a measure of the interdependence between firms. It captures the extent to which one firm reacts to changes in strategic variables (price, quantity, location, advertising, etc.) made by other firms.

Elasticity of intertemporal substitution

Combined Effects

It is possible to consider the combined effects of two or more determinant of demand. The steps are as follows: PED = (∆Q/∆P) x P/Q. Convert this to the predictive equation: ∆Q/Q = PED(∆P/P) if you wish to find the combined effect of changes in two or more determinants of demand you simply add the separate effects: ∆Q/Q = PED(∆P/P) + YED(∆Y/Y)[12]

Remember you are still only considering the effect in demand of a change in two of the variables. All other variables must be held constant. Note also that graphically this problem would involve a shift of the curve and a movement along the shifted curve.

Elasticities of supply

Price elasticity of supply

The price elasticity of supply measures how the amount of a good firms wish to supply changes in response to a change in price. In a manner analogous to the price elasticity of demand, it captures the extent of movement along the supply curve. If the price elasticity of supply is zero the supply of a good supplied is "inelastic" and the quantity supplied is fixed.

Elasticities of scale

Returns to scale

Elasticity of scale or output elasticities measure the percentage change in output induced by a percent change in inputs.  A production function or process is said to exhibit constant returns to scale if a percentage change in inputs results in an equal percentage in outputs (an elasticity equal to 1). It exhibits increasing returns to scale if a percentage change in inputs results in greater percentage change in output (an elasticity greater than 1). The definition of decreasing returns to scale is analogous.

Applications

The concept of elasticity has an extraordinarily wide range of applications in economics. In particular, an understanding of elasticity is fundamental in understanding the response of supply and demand in a market.

Some common uses of elasticity include:

• Effect of changing price on firm revenue.
• Analysis of incidence of the tax burden and other government policies.
• Income elasticity of demand can be used as an indicator of industry health, future consumption patterns and as a guide to firms investment decisions. See Income elasticity of demand.
• Effect of international trade and terms of trade effects.
• Analysis of consumption and saving behavior.
• Analysis of advertising on consumer demand for particular goods.

Variants

In some cases the discrete (non-infinitesimal) arc elasticity is used instead. In other cases, such as modified duration in bond trading, a percentage change in output is divided by a unit (not percentage) change in input, yielding a semi-elasticity instead.

STEM CELL RESEARCH: Impact and Uses

Stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide (through mitosis) and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells (these are called pluripotent cells), but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.

There are three accessible sources of autologous adult stem cells in humans:

Bone marrow, which requires extraction by harvesting, that is, drilling into bone (typically the femur or iliac crest),

Adipose tissue (lipid cells), which requires extraction by liposuction, and

Blood, which requires extraction through pheresis, wherein blood is drawn from the donor (similar to a blood donation), passed through a machine that extracts the stem cells and returns other portions of the blood to the donor.

Stem cells can also be taken from umbilical cord blood just after birth. Of all stem cell types, autologous harvesting involves the least risk. By definition, autologous cells are obtained from one's own body, just as one may bank his or her own blood for elective surgical procedures.

Highly plastic adult stem cells are routinely used in medical therapies, for example in bone marrow transplantation. Stem cells can now be artificially grown and transformed (differentiated) into specialized cell types with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies. Research into stem cells grew out of findings by Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till at the University of Toronto in the 1960s.

Recently John B. Gurdon of the University of Cambridge in England and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan shared the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology. They  were awarded the prize for changing adult cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body.

Prof Gurdon used a gut sample to clone frogs and Prof Yamanaka altered genes to reprogramme cells

Stem Cell Research: Viewpoints

The status of the human embryo and human embryonic stem cell research is a controversial issue as, with the present state of technology, the creation of a human embryonic stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo. Stem cell debates have motivated and reinvigorated the pro-life movement, whose members are concerned with the rights and status of the embryo as an early-aged human life. They can believe that embryonic stem cell research instrumentalizes and violates the sanctity of life and some also view it as tantamount to murder. The fundamental assertion of those who oppose embryonic stem cell research is the belief that human life is inviolable, combined with the belief that human life begins when a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell to form a single cell.

A portion of stem cell researchers use embryos that were created but not used in in vitro fertility treatments to derive new stem cell lines. Most of these embryos are to be destroyed, or stored for long periods of time, long past their viable storage life. In the United States alone, there have been estimates of at least 400,000 such embryos.

Medical researchers widely submit that stem cell research has the potential to dramatically alter approaches to understanding and treating diseases, and to alleviate suffering. In the future, most medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a variety of diseases and impairments. Spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's disease are two examples that have been championed by high-profile media personalities (for instance, Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox, who have lived with these conditions, respectively). The anticipated medical benefits of stem cell research add urgency to the debates, which has been appealed to by proponents of embryonic stem cell research.

In August 2000, The U.S. National Institutes of Health's Guidelines stated:

"...research involving human pluripotent stem cells...promises new treatments and possible cures for many debilitating diseases and injuries, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, burns and spinal cord injuries. The NIH believes the potential medical benefits of human pluripotent stem cell technology are compelling and worthy of pursuit in accordance with appropriate ethical standards."

In 2006, researchers at Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts, succeeded in obtaining stem cells from mouse embryos without destroying the embryos. If this technique and its reliability are improved, it would alleviate some of the ethical concerns related to embryonic stem cell research.

Another technique announced in 2007 may also defuse the longstanding debate and controversy. Research teams in the United States and Japan have developed a simple and cost effective method of reprogramming human skin cells to function much like embryonic stem cells by introducing artificial viruses. While extracting and cloning stem cells is complex and extremely expensive, the newly discovered method of reprogramming cells is much cheaper. However, the technique may disrupt the DNA in the new stem cells, resulting in damaged and cancerous tissue. More research will be required before non-cancerous stem cells can be created.

Update article to include 2009/2010 current stem cell usages in clinical trials. The planned treatment trials will focus on the effects of oral lithium on neurological function in people with chronic spinal cord injury and those that have received umbilical cord blood mononuclear cell transplants to the spinal cord. The interest in these two treatments derives from recent reports indicating that umbilical cord blood stem cells may be beneficial for spinal cord injury and that lithium may promote regeneration and recovery of function after spinal cord injury. Both lithium and umbilical cord blood are widely available therapies that have long been used to treat diseases in humans.

Endorsement

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to grow indefinitely in a laboratory environment and can differentiate into almost all types of bodily tissue. This makes embryonic stem cells a prospect for cellular therapies to treat a wide range of diseases.

Human potential and humanity

This argument often goes hand-in-hand with the utilitarian argument, and can be presented in several forms:

Embryos are not equivalent to human life while they are still incapable of surviving outside the womb (i.e. they only have the potential for life).

More than a third of zygotes do not implant after conception. Thus, far more embryos are lost due to chance than are proposed to be used for embryonic stem cell research or treatments.

Blastocysts are a cluster of human cells that have not differentiated into distinct organ tissue; making cells of the inner cell mass no more "human" than a skin cell.

Some parties contend that embryos are not humans, believing that the life of Homo sapiens only begins when the heartbeat develops, which is during the 5th week of pregnancy, or when the brain begins developing activity, which has been detected at 54 days after conception.

Efficiency

In vitro fertilization (IVF) generates large numbers of unused embryos (e.g. 70,000 in Australia alone). Many of these thousands of IVF embryos are slated for destruction. Using them for scientific research uses a resource that would otherwise be wasted.

While the destruction of human embryos is required to establish a stem cell line, no new embryos have to be destroyed to work with existing stem cell lines. It would be wasteful not to continue to make use of these cell lines as a resource.

Abortions are legal in many countries and jurisdictions. The argument then follows that if these embryos are being destroyed anyway, why not use them for stem cell research or treatments?

Superiority

This is usually presented as a counter-argument to using adult stem cells as an alternative that doesn't involve embryonic destruction.

Embryonic stem cells make up a significant proportion of a developing embryo, while adult stem cells exist as minor populations within a mature individual (e.g. in every 1,000 cells of the bone marrow, only 1 will be a usable stem cell). Thus, embryonic stem cells are likely to be easier to isolate and grow ex vivo than adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells divide more rapidly than adult stem cells, potentially making it easier to generate large numbers of cells for therapeutic means. In contrast, adult stem cell might not divide fast enough to offer immediate treatment.

Embryonic stem cells have greater plasticity, potentially allowing them to treat a wider range of diseases.

Adult stem cells from the patient's own body might not be effective in treatment of genetic disorders. Allogeneic embryonic stem cell transplantation (i.e. from a healthy donor) may be more practical in these cases than gene therapy of a patient's own cell.

DNA abnormalities found in adult stem cells that are caused by toxins and sunlight may make them poorly suited for treatment.

Embryonic stem cells have been shown to be effective in treating heart damage in mice.

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to cure chronic and degenerative diseases which current medicine has been unable to effectively treat.

Individuality

Before the primitive streak is formed when the embryo attaches to the uterus at approximately 14 days after fertilization, a single fertilized egg can split in two to form identical twins, or a pair of embryos that would have resulted in fraternal twins can fuse together and develop into one person (a tetragametic chimera). Since a fertilized egg has the potential to be two individuals or half of one, some believe it can only be considered a potential person, not an actual one. Those who subscribe to this belief then hold that destroying a blastocyst for embryonic stem cells is ethical.

Viability

Viability is another standard under which embryos and fetuses have been regarded as human lives. In the United States, the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade concluded that viability determined the permissibility of abortions performed for reasons other than the protection of the woman's health, defining viability as the point at which a fetus is "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid." The point of viability was 24 to 28 weeks when the case was decided and has since moved to about 22 weeks due to advancement in medical technology. Embryos used in medical research for stem cells are well below development that would enable viability.

Moral and ethical concerns

It is liable to abuse. It violates a person's right to individuality, autonomy, self-hood. It allows eugenic selection.

His journal goes into details of the advantages of using stem cell lines mainly for therapeutic reasons with great emphasis on control. The main reason is that if this regeneration practice goes un-checked, there will be someone out there that will be "playing God."

Objection

Better alternatives

This argument is used by opponents of embryonic destruction as well as researchers specializing in adult stem cell research.

Pro-life supporters often claim that the use of adult stem cells from sources such as umbilical cord blood has consistently produced more promising results than the use of embryonic stem cells.Furthermore, adult stem cell research may be able to make greater advances if less money and resources were channeled into embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cells have never produced therapies (to date, adult stem cells have been used in treatment). Moreover, there have been many advances in adult stem cell research, including a recent study where pluripotent adult stem cells were manufactured from differentiated fibroblast by the addition of specific transcription factors. Newly created stem cells were developed into an embryo and were integrated into newborn mouse tissues, analogous to the properties of embryonic stem cells.

This argument remains hotly debated on both sides. Those critical of embryonic stem cell research point to a current lack of practical treatments, while supporters argue that advances will come with more time and that breakthroughs cannot be predicted.

Agro-forestry- An Informative Approach

            

The concept of agro-forestry is an older concept. Farmers, especially those in the tropics, have a long tradition of raising food crops, trees and animals together, as well as exploiting a multiple range of production from natural wood lots. But foresters and agriculturists, who have traditionally operated within rather rigid disciplinary boundaries concentrating on monoculture production of their preferred commodities of crops, animals and trees used to ignore such combined integrated production systems.

• Agro-forestry is a collective name for land-use systems involving trees combined with crops and/or animals on the same unit of land. Further, it:
• Places emphasis on the use of multiple indigenous trees and shrubs;
• Is particularly suitable for low-input conditions and fragile environments;
• Involves the interplay of sociocultural values more than in most other land-use systems; and
• Is structurally and functionally more complex than monoculture.

Definitions

 Agro forestry is any sustainable and-use system that maintains or increases total yields by combining food crops (annuals) with tree crops (perennials) and/or livestock on the same unit of land, either alternately or at the same time, using management practices that suit the social and cultural characteristics of the local people and the economic and ecological conditions of the area.

This definition implies that:

• Agro-forestry normally involves two or more species of plants (plants or animals), at least one which is a woody perennial;
• An agro-forestry system always has two or more outputs;
• The cycle of an agro-forestry system is always more than one year; and
• Even the most simple agro-forestry system is more complex ecologically (structurally and functionally) and economically than a mono-cropping system.

Benefits from Agro-forestry

Environmental Benefits

Combining trees with food crops on cropland farms yield certain important environmental benefits, both general ecological benefits and specific on-site benefits. The general ecological benefits include:

• Reduction of pressure on forest.
• More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep-rooted trees on the site.
• Better protection of ecological systems.
• Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching and soil erosion through impeding effect of tree roots and stems on these processes.
• Improvement of microclimate, such as lowering of soil surface temperature and reduction of evaporation of soil moisture through a combination of mulching and shading.
• Increment in soil nutrients through addition and decomposition of little-fall.
• Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter from decomposed litter.

Economic Benefits

• Agro-forestry systems on croplands/farmlands bring significant economic benefits to the farmer, the community, the region or the nation. Such benefits may include:
• Increment in an maintenance of outputs of food fuel wood, fodder, fertilizer and timber;
• Reduction in incidence of total crop failure, common to single-cropping or monoculture systems; and
• Increase in levels of farm incomes due to improved and sustained productivity:

Social Benefits

• Besides the economic benefits, social benefits occur increases in crop and tree product yields and in the sustainability of these products. These benefits:
• Improvement in living standards from sustained employment and higher incomes;
• Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food outputs; and
• Stabilization and improvement of upland communities through elimination of the need to shift sites of farm activities.

Limitations of Agro-forestry

An integrated food-tree farming system, while advantageous, does have certain negative aspects.

Environmental Aspects

• Possible competition of tree with food crops for space, sunlight, moisture and nutrients which may reduce food crop yields;
• Damage to food during tree harvest operations;
• Potential of trees to serve hosts to insect pests that are harmful to food crops; and
• Rapid regeneration by prolific trees, which may displace food crops and take over entire fields.

Socioeconomic Aspects

• Requirement for more labour inputs, which may cause scarcity at times in other farm activities;
• Competition between food tree crops, which could cause aggregate yields to be lower than those of single crop;
• Longer period required for trees grow to maturity and acquire an economic value;
• Resistance by farmers to displace food crops with trees, especially where land is scarce; and
• The fact that agroforestry is more complex, less well understood and more difficult to apply, compared to single-crop farms.

Role & KVKS in Agriculture and Rural Development

Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVKS) are an innovative science based institutions, which undertake vocational training & frames, form women & would youth. The KVK activities in dude “teaching by doing”, “leasing by doing” in agriculture and allied areas on form testing & technological in science training & extension personal & agenizing frat line demonstrations. They provide various types & training to would youth.

      KVKS are the grass root level technology transfer and vocational training institutions designed for bridging the got b/n the available technologies and their application for incurred production and the other. The following philosophy-

• Accelerating agricultural & allied enterprises and there acquisition & inputs & did be the prime goal.
• “Learning by doing” and “Seeing is Believing” are the main principles for imparting sleep-training.
• The emphasis in one improving the socio-economic conditions & wheelie sections & the society by generating income oriented self-employment opportunities to make them economically self-Selman.

Functions & KVKS

• Collaboration the subject- matters specialist & the state agricultural universities /scientists & the Regained Research station in “on-from” testing, refining & documenting technologies for developing regain – specific sustainable land use straitens.
• Organizing long-team vocational training courses in agriculture & addle vocations for the social youth  emphases an “Leaning by doing” for generating self-employment there institutional financing.
• Organic front – time demonstrations in carious crops to general parody data & feedback infraction.
• Organic training to update the extension personal which the area & operation emerging advances in agricultural research in regular basis.

Types & Training organized by KVK

 A KVK organics a wide variety & training programmers based as nature, duration & subject matter areas. Training programmers could be either –

·                     Institutional a non- institutional

·                     Generalized or specialized, and

·                     Long duration or short duration

In India there is a requirement of huge natural resource. Population which resides in the rural areas and in the forests are in the want of the 5 F’s which the forest provides them. So in order to minimize the burden on the forests, the new integrative approach called agro- forestry or social forestry has been evolved so as to fulfill the needs of the rural population in India.

VAIBHAV RAJDEEP

Indifference curve

In micro economic theory, an indifference curve is a graph showing different bundles of goods between which a consumer is indifferent. That is, at each point on the curve, the consumer has no preference for one bundle over another. One can equivalently refer to each point on the indifference curve as rendering the same level of utility (satisfaction) for the consumer. Utility is then a device to represent preferences rather than something from which preferences come. The main use of indifference curves is in the representation of potentially observable demand patterns for individual consumers over commodity bundles.

There are infinitely many indifference curves: one passes through each combination. A collection of (selected) indifference curves, illustrated graphically, is referred to as an indifference map.

A graph of indifference curves for an individual consumer associated with different utility levels is called an indifference map. Points yielding different utility levels are each associated with distinct indifference curves and is like a contour line on a topographical map. Each point on the curve represents the same elevation. If you move "off" an indifference curve traveling in a northeast direction (assuming positive marginal utility for the goods) you are essentially climbing a mound of utility. The higher you go the greater the level of utility. The non-satiation requirement means that you will never reach the "top", or a "bliss point", a consumption bundle that is preferred to all others

1. Indifference curves are typically represented to be:
2. Defined only in the non-negative quadrant of commodity quantities (i.e. the possibility of having negative quantities of any good is ignored).
3. Negatively sloped. That is, as quantity consumed of one good (X) increases, total satisfaction would increase if not offset by a decrease in the quantity consumed of the other good (Y). Equivalently, satiation, such that more of either good (or both) is equally preferred to no increase, is excluded. (If utility U = f(x, y), U, in the third dimension, does not have a local maximum for any x and y values.) The negative slope of the indifference curve reflects the law of diminishing marginal utility. That is as more of a good is consumed total utility increases at a decreasing rate - additions to utility per unit consumption are successively smaller. Thus as you move down the indifference curve you are trading consumption of units of Y for additional units of X.
4. Complete, such that all points on an indifference curve are ranked equally preferred and ranked either more or less preferred than every other point not on the curve. So, with (2), no two curves can intersect (otherwise non-satiation would be violated).
5. Transitive with respect to points on distinct indifference curves. That is, if each point on I2 is (strictly) preferred to each point on I1, and each point on I3 is preferred to each point on I2, each point on I3 is preferred to each point on I1. A negative slope and transitivity exclude indifference curves crossing, since straight lines from the origin on both sides of where they crossed would give opposite and intransitive preference rankings.
6. (Strictly) convex. Convex preferences imply that the indifference curves cannot be concave to the origin, i.e. they will either be straight lines or bulge toward the origin of the indifference curve. If the latter is the case, then as a consumer decreases consumption of one good in successive units, successively larger doses of the other good are required to keep satisfaction unchanged.

      Application

To maximise utility, a household should consume at (Qx, Qy). Assuming it does, a full demand schedule can be deduced as the price of one good fluctuates.

Consumer theory uses indifference curves and budget constraints to generate consumer demand curves. For a single consumer, this is a relatively simple process. First, let one good be an example market e.g., carrots, and let the other be a composite of all other goods. Budget constraints give a straight line on the indifference map showing all the possible distributions between the two goods; the point of maximum utility is then the point at which an indifference curve is tangent to the budget line (illustrated). This follows from common sense: if the market values a good more than the household, the household will sell it; if the market values a good less than the household, the household will buy it. The process then continues until the market's and household's marginal rates of substitution are equal. Now, if the price of carrots were to change, and the price of all other goods were to remain constant, the gradient of the budget line would also change, leading to a different point of tangency and a different quantity demanded. These price / quantity combinations can then be used to deduce a full demand curve. A line connecting all points of tangency between the indifference curve and the budget constraint is called the expansion path

So above is a brief overview of IC and its application, for more information on this topic( or even on any of the topics discussed in this blog) the reader is feel to contact at 

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Consumer's Equilibrium: An Introduction

When consumers make choices about the quantity of goods and services to consume, it is presumed that their objective is to maximize total utility. In maximizing total utility, the consumer faces a number of constraints, the most important of which are the consumer's income and the prices of the goods and services that the consumer wishes to consume. The consumer's effort to maximize total utility, subject to these constraints, is referred to as the consumer's problem. The solution to the consumer's problem, which entails decisions about how much the consumer will consume of a number of goods and services, is referred to as consumer equilibrium.

Determination of consumer equilibrium: Consider the simple case of a consumer who cares about consuming only two goods: good 1 and good 2. This consumer knows the prices of goods 1 and 2 and has a fixed income or budget that can be used to purchase quantities of goods 1 and 2. The consumer will purchase quantities of goods 1 and 2 so as to completely exhaust the budget for such purchases. The actual quantities purchased of each good are determined by the condition for consumer equilibrium, which is

This condition states that the marginal utility per dollar spent on good 1 must equal the marginal utility per dollar spent on good 2. If, for example, the marginal utility per dollar spent on good 1 were higher than the marginal utility per dollar spent on good 2, then it would make sense for the consumer to purchase more of good 1 rather than purchasing any more of good 2. After purchasing more and more of good 1, the marginal utility of good 1 will eventually fall due to the law of diminishing marginal utility, so that the marginal utility per dollar spent on good 1 will eventually equal that of good 2. Of course, the amount purchased of goods 1 and 2 cannot be limitless and will depend not only on the marginal utilities per dollar spent, but also on the consumer's budget.