Death with Dignity (Euthanasia) Essay - 1515 Words

What is the value of life exactly? Who decides whether or not someone’s life is valuable? These and many other questions are asked when the controversial topic of euthanasia is discussed. Certain groups and different politicians disapprove of the legalization of euthanasia, arguing that it is immoral and unethical. Doctors use modern medicine and expanding technology to â€Å"extend† one’s life. However, court mandates and/or politicians should not decide our rights. Especially when it involves our own bodies. When we feel as though we should end the pain and suffering from a terminal illness, then I believe it’s our autonomy. The individual and/or the individual’s family should make the final decision. A patient of a fatal disease such as†¦show more content†¦The first society established in the United States came soon after, in 1938 (Finsterbusch 246). It was called the Hemlock Society, and it now consists of more than 67,000 members (Fin sterbusch 190). This group gained so much support advocating legalization that the issue became a large debate splitting the country in half. The purpose of this society is to support your decision to die. Also it offers support when you are ready to die. As generations passed, it became more and more requested from relatives that their loved ones die peacefully. It became less possible to watch a loved one hooked up to machines that carry out daily tasks as simple as breathing until the end approached abruptly. Euthanasia is a way to spend the last moments of life with family and friends, not with machines, procedures, and most definitely not pain. Many individuals who have lost the capability to make their own decisions have what is called a â€Å"surrogate† make health-care decisions for them (Jussim). Living wills are a major part in the legal aspects of euthanasia. A living will can express a patient’s thoughts towards his or her future medical treatment (Jussim). Living wills are legal in forty states (Jussim). They permit anyone capable of making decisions to tell the doctor beforehand that they do not wish to be put on life support (Jussim). If the patient is unconscious or in a state where he or she isn’t capable of makingShow MoreRelatedEssay about Euthanasia Allows Death with Dignity1347 Words   |  6 Pagesout of control doctors who take it upon themselves to decide who lives, who dies, and when. Physician-assisted suicide has been practiced in the Netherlands for many years and â€Å"there are a substantial number of cases of non-voluntary euthanasia, that is, euthanasia undertaken without th e explicit permission of the person being killed† (Lee, 2003). Physicians’ being able to euthanize patients without permission is a terrifying thought, but what these people against the legalization of physician-assistedRead MoreEuthanasia Essays : Euthanasia And Euthanasia1432 Words   |  6 PagesDoes euthanasia assists patients to die with dignity? From fresh to dying, is the humanity multiplies the development natural law. Along with medicine progress and life enhancement, the people besides pay attention to eugenics, simultaneous starts to pay attention to the euthanasia. Since this century 50 ages, regarding euthanasia, many countries’ medical arenas, educational world, and ethical groups have been arguing about the euthanasia argument for many years, although many person of ideas haveRead MoreEuthanasia: Not Morally Acceptable Essay1646 Words   |  7 Pagesfollowing essay, I argue that euthanasia is not morally acceptable because it always involves killing, and undermines intrinsic value of human being. The moral basis on which euthanasia defends its position is contradictory and arbitrary in that its moral values represented in such terms as ‘mercy killing’, ‘dying with dignity’, ‘good death’ and ‘right for self-determination’ fail to justify taking one’s life. Introduction Among other moral issues, euthanasia emerged with modern medical advancementRead MoreIs Euthanasia Necessary For Terminally Ill Patients?892 Words   |  4 Pagesendless pain? Euthanasia is ending one s life for them. This is currently illegal in the United States, even though 84% of the public and 54% of doctors support it! Euthanasia is necessary for terminally ill patients and their loved ones. So for starters, we must legalize euthanasia. But if we just legalize euthanasia, then we must accept suicide and murder. Anybody could have the right to end their own or another’s life. So if it is regulated and we remove the patient’s dignity. Why should theRead MoreEuthanasia Is The Killing Of A Patient979 Words   |  4 PagesEuthanasia is the killing of a patient who is painfully suffering with the help of a doctor. The classifications of euthanasia are voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary euthanasia is the consent of the patient and involuntary is the consent by another person because the patient is unable to do it themselves. There are also two procedures known as passive and active. Passive euthanasia is when the doctor stops doing something that will keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia is when the doctorRead MoreEuthanasi The Treatment Of Euthanasia846 Words   |  4 Pagesall forms of Euthanasia, whether passive or active, is a great way to aid and relieve patients with terminal or life threatening illnesses which makes their life unbearable and unliveable. Euthanasia in general is a steady process of ‘assisted suicide’ that aids the patient in ending one’s life with their consent or the consent of their close family member. Active Euthanasia is when death is intentionally accelerated, for example by the injection of a lethal drug; while Passive Euthanasia is the withdrawalRead MoreEuthanasia And The Right Of Life And Euthanasia1558 Words   |  7 Pagesof Right to Life and Euthanasia, first it should be defined by at least two notions: Euthanasia and the Right to Life, the first are definitions as those shown below: Some authors see that the concept or the notion of Euthanasia is too ambiguous, which can lead us to understand very different and even contradictory things. Let s refer to it: 1. A normed use: Death without physical suffering or which causes voluntarily Another use is the Factual painless death or death in a state of graceRead MoreNo Conditions And Laws Should Be Implemented For Safety1624 Words   |  7 Pagescertain conditions and laws should be implemented for safety, Death with Dignity acts should be an option for the suffering patient. In order to enable terminally ill patients the ability to relieve their pain and lift the financial burden on those ill and their loved ones. Terminally ill individuals experiencing agonizing illnesses, with a predicted lifespan of six months or less, have little or no control over their lives and deaths. Opposed to the patients who enter a state of vegetation whereRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legal?1635 Words   |  7 Pagesover our deaths. We claim to be free people but someone else’s morals and standards could possibly govern the way we die. Medicine today makes it possible for patients who are living with unbearable pain to choose to die peacefully and with dignity. Physician-assisted suicide or active, voluntary euthanasia for an adult who is in a rational state of mind and whose suffering happens to be unbearable despite the strongest medical efforts, is an idea that should to be put into action. Euthanasia oughtRead MorePhi 208 Essay733 Words   |  3 PagesApplying an Ethical Theory PHI208 Kristy Villone March 30, 2014 Should assisted death, or euthanasia be an option for the terminally ill? In 1994, the Oregon Death With Dignity Act was formed, making Oregon the first state to legalize physician assisted deaths with restrictions. As of today, Washington, Vermont, New Mexico, along with Oregon are all legalized in euthanasia. The individuals wanting to end their life must be at least 18 years of age with a terminal illness, be a state resident

The Military in Art Free Essays

The word propaganda has come to have sinister overtones though this was not always the case. Propaganda today evokes images of sinister lies and obfuscations told by enemies of the state to sway the minds of the citizens. Yet in a larger sense all art is propaganda to some degree and military art is propaganda on a grand scale. We will write a custom essay sample on The Military in Art or any similar topic only for you Order Now Art is designed to cause an emotional response in the viewer. Throughout history artists have served the state, willingly or not so willingly, in an effort to further the aims of the government, be it republic or clan of elders.   Those works of art that are most effective are those that hit the viewer viscerally and cause a response that is near equal to the actual event being depicted in the art work. The works mentioned here are like that. I served in the United States Air Force for six years as a military policeman. I have traveled to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Korea. I have seen artwork that has evoked emotion in me and I have seen art that was truly representational of the events I have seen. James Dietz’ work, I Shall Defeat Them on the Battlefield, can be found as a limited edition print from the online gallery of the artist. The image size is 36† x 21.5 â€Å". It depicts the United States Army 75th Ranger Unit on the ground. This unit remains the Army’s premier special operations force capable of conducting a full spectrum of operations to include direct action raids and forced entry operations (JamesDietz.com). Dietz depicts an action scene in a dim setting. In the background is the skyline of a city that was ancient in the days when Christ walked the lands of the Middle East. The modern warriors, carrying firearms and dressed in body armor seem incongruent beneath the palms and the domed edifices creating the negative space in the lower portion of the sky. An automobile is in the streets where camels would seem more at home, juxtaposed in contrast to the ancient city and the modern warriors, signifying a delivery system of enemy fire. First Boots on the Ground, by William Phillips, is now available as a limited edition print, measuring 31† x 19 â€Å". It is a classic scene from the Viet Nam era, featuring a sky filled with helicopters and reminiscent of Apocalypse Now. The work depicts the 1965 battle of La Drang Valley, famous for its intensity.   â€Å"At 10:48 the helicopter touches down, and Lt. Col. Moore, Sgt. Major Plumley, Capt. Metsker, Bob Ovellette, Al Bosse and Vietnamese translator Mr. Nik become the first boots on the ground at La Drang† (OzarkAirFieldsArtworks 2005). This art is compelling and personal to me for it depicts the ultimate in warfare, that time when the soldier commits and becomes a weapon aimed at the heart of the enemy. He has left the relative safety of the helicopter. He no longer is behind the line depending on artillery or mortar fire, but rather advances, putting his life on the line as he moves inexorably toward the opposing warrior. Charlene Cooper’s moving artwork, titled with the acronym B.O.M.B., signifying Blood of My Brothers, is a drawing in graphite and colored pencil. The intense blue of the flag is complimented by the red of the tear streaming down the face of the warrior. It appeals to me for reasons that would be clear to most combat veterans, as it shows the side of a soldier seldom seen or discussed openly. The man holds a folded American Flag as that single tear, executed in the red of blood, is seen to escape his eye. He shows the pent up emotion which soldiers rarely display and gives the viewer the understanding that he is a flesh and blood creature, endowed with all the sentiment and feeling of any other man. He is proud of the job he has done, but keenly aware of the price that was ultimately paid by so many of his friends and compatriots. I find Cooper’s work the most compelling of these three, for it appeals to a side of me that is most often hidden from the view of others. It touches me in a place where I am alone with my feelings and appeals to me on a spiritual level. Even her choice of title is compelling, bringing to the piece a thought-provoking message that transcends the art and gives the viewer ideas that there is more to the piece than what appears on the surface, making it multi-leveled and multi-dimensional. Works Cited Artwanted.com  Ã‚  Ã‚   2007 B.O.M.B. (Blood of My Brothers) Retrieved 10-8-2007 From: http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=458010  Ã‚  Ã‚   JamesDietz.com 2007 I Shall Defeat Them on the Battlefield Retrieved 10-8-2007 OzarkAirFieldArtworks.com  Ã‚   2005   First Boots on the Ground Retrieved 10-8- 2007 from: http://www.ozarkairfieldartworks.com/firstbootsontheground.html                      . How to cite The Military in Art, Essay examples

Nanoparticle free essay sample

Abstract The encapsulation of enzymes in microenvironments and especially in liposomes, has proven to greatly improve enzyme stabilization against unfolding, denaturation and dilution effects. Combining this stabilization effect, with the fact that liposomes are optically translucent, we have designed nano-sized spherical biosensors. In this work liposome-based biosensors are prepared by encapsulating the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in L-a phosphatidylcholine liposomes resulting in spherical optical biosensors with an average diameter of 300  ± 4 nm. Porins are embedded into the lipid membrane, allowing for the free substrate transport, but not that of the enzyme due to size limitations. The enzyme activity within the liposome is monitored using pyranine, a ? uorescent pH indicator. The response of the liposome biosensor to the substrate acetylthiocholine chloride is relatively fast and reproducible, while the system is stable as has been shown by immobilization within sol–gel.  © 2004 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Encapsulation; Liposomes; Fluorescent probe; Biosensor; Acetylcholinesterase 1. Introduction Liposomes are nanoscale spherical shells composed of lipid bilayers that enclose an aqueous phase. They are easily produced and stable in solution for a long period of time, with no signi? cant changes in size or structure (Woodle, 1995). In addition the biocompatible microenvironment of the liposomes, along with the ability to control their physicochemical properties, make them very appealing for a wide range of applications (Walde and Ichikawa, 2001). The most widespread application of liposomes is as carriers of functional substances and drugs. Controlled release of these substances is achieved under speci? c chemical or physical conditions. However due to their unique physical and chemical properties, liposomes can be used in a variety of other applications. For example, it has been observed that enzymes ? Corresponding author. Tel. : +30 2810 393 618; fax: +30 2810 393 601. E-mail address: [emailprotected] uoc. gr (N. A. Chaniotakis). are considerably stabilized within the nano-environment of liposomes, since they are protected from unfolding and proteolysis. Liposomes can effectively protect enzymes from the aggression of external agents such as proteases (Winterhalter et al. , 2001). In addition, enzymes entrapped in liposomes are stabilized against unfolding forces due to hydrophobic interactions between the enzyme and the liposome membrane (Han et al. , 1998). One other important characteristic is that enzymes encapsulated inside liposomes retain their activity even at very low concentrations (Nasseau et al. , 2001). At the same time liposomes are optically translucent, and can thus be used as optical sensor elements (Kulin et al. 2003; Singh et al. , 2000). Combining these characteristics one can envision that under speci? c experimental conditions they can be used for the development of nano-sized optical biosensors. Despite the fact that liposomes seem to be very promising nanomaterials in biosensor design only few reports dealing with this issue exist in literature. Initial attempts to develop liposome-based electrochemical biosen sors have been per- 0956-5663/$ – see front matter  © 2004 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. bios. 2004. 10. 028 V. Vamvakaki et al. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 21 (2005) 384–388 385 formed with glucose oxidase (Taylor et al. , 1997; Kaszuba and Jones, 1999) on screen printed electrodes (Memoli et al. , 2002) as well as on chitosan gel beads (Wang et al. , 2003). In this study, the development of nano-biosensors using a different approach is presented. Our approach is based on the encapsulation of all the active reagents of an optical biosensor within the liposome environment. The analyte transport is achieved using porins which have been incorporated within the lipid bilayers. Based on the stabilizing effect of liposomes, the inherently unstable enzyme acetylcholinesterase from Drosophila melanogaster is encapsulated in the internal aqueous phase of liposomes. In order to have a sensitive transduction method through the walls of the liposome, a pH sensitive ? uorescence probe is used. These nanostructures are stable enough to be evaluated either as stand-alone nano-biosensors, or immobilized into an optimised sol–gel matrix. tometer (UNICAM 8625). Acryl optical cuvettes were obtained from Sarstedt. 2. 2. Liposome biosensor Encapsulation of acetylcholinesterase in egg phosphatidylcholine liposomes was performed following the lipid ? lm’s hydration technique (Chaize et al. , 2003). For the preparation of liposomes 5 mg egg phosphatidylcholine were mixed with 5 L of a 2 mg/mL stock solution of OmpF porin in 1% octyl-POE detergent. Then 100 L phosphate buffer 25 mM, pH = 7. 8 were added slowly to the solution and consequently 100 L of Drosophila AChE (? 500 OD/mL) and 30 L of 7. 6 ? 10? 5 M pyranine solution were introduced. The mixture was subjected to 50 freeze-thaw cycles by successive dipping in a liquid nitrogen bath (? 95 ? C) and a water bath (37 ? C). It has been reported in the literature that encapsulation ef? ciency increases by increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles (Chaize et al. , 2003; Colletier et al. , 2002). Even though the encapsulation ef? ciency is quite high even after only 10 freeze-thaw cycles, 50 cycles were chosen in order to obtain the maximum attainabl e encapsulation of enzyme in the liposomes. Next the sample was diluted to 1 mL with 25 mM phosphate buffer pH = 7. 8. To obtain liposomes of homogenous size the sample was extruded 10 times through polycarbonate ? lters with a pore size of 0. 2 m. The size of the liposome was measured to be 300  ± 4 nm in diameter using dynamic light scattering. The non-encapsulated enzyme was deactivated by adding 5 mg/mL pronase and incubating for 3 h at room temperature. In all cases, AChE activity was measured photometrically at 412 nm according to the sensitive Ellman’s method (Ellman et al. , 1961), in 25 mM phosphate buffer, pH = 7. 0 at 25 ? C. The schematic diagram for the development of the liposome biosensor is shown in Fig. 1. 2. 3. Liposome entrapment in sol–gel A silica sol was prepared by sonication for 20 min of TMOS/deionised water (5/1) in 0. 4 M HCl. The liposomes with the encapsulated enzyme were then mixed with the sol–gel solution at a ratio of 2:1, and the mixture was poured on the side of cuvettes. The immobilized enzyme in each cuvette was 6. 4 pmol. Gelation was occurred within a few minutes, resulting in a transparent ? lm. To avoid the shrinkage, 2. Materials and methods 2. 1. Reagents and ins trumentation Truncated cDNA encoding soluble wild type acetylcholinesterase from D. melanogaster (Dm. AChE), was expressed with the baculovirus system (Chaabihi et al. , 1994). Secreted AChE was puri? ed to homogeneity by af? ity chromatography as previously reported (Estrada-Mondaca and Fournier, 1998). Under these conditions the enzyme is stable for more than 1 week at room temperature. Expression and puri? cation of the outer membrane protein OmpF, from Escherichia coli has recently been described (Saint et al. , 1996). Acetylthiocholine chloride (ATChCl) and L-a phosphatidylcholine from egg yolk and the ? uorescent indicator pyranine (1-hydroxypyrene-3,6,8-trisulfonic acid) were purchased from Sigma. Tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) was obtained from Aldrich. In all experiments nanopure water (? 18 M , EASYpure model D7033, Barnstead) was used. All other reagents used were of analytical grade. Fluorescence spectral data were recorded on an AmincoBowman series 2 luminescence spectrometer equipped with a continuous high power xenon lamp. All samples were analyzed at room temperature. The excitation and emission slits were set at 4 nm band-pass with a scan rate of 3 nm/s. Optical measurements were performed with a UV–vis spectropho- Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the liposome-biosensor design. 386 V. Vamvakaki et al. / Biosensors and Bioelectronics 21 (2005) 384–388 the cuvettes with the sol–gel were stored at 4 ? C in phosphate buffer 25 mM, pH = 7. 8. 2. 4. Measuring procedure All measurements were performed by adding the substrate acetylthiocholine chloride to the cuvettes containing the solution of AChE/liposomes or the immobilized AChE/liposomes in the sol–gel matrix. The porins embedded on the liposome membranes permit the substrate’s entrance in the internal nano-environment of the liposomes where the enzymatic reaction takes place. The latter results in the production of acetic acid and thus pH changes at the local nano-environment of the enzyme. This in turn alters the ? uorescence signal of the pyranine indicator which is subsequently correlated to the substrate concentration. Fig. 2. pH titration curve of pyranine. The change in ? uorescence signal of pyranine at 513 nm is recorded at different pH values. 3. Results and discussion The enzymatic reaction of AChE is shown in the following scheme: Acetylthiocholine + H2 O ? Thiocholine + Acetic acid Acetic acid production during the hydrolysis of the substrate acetylthiocholine results in the decrease of the pH value of the immediate aqueous environment surrounding the enzyme. AChE activity inside liposome is usually monitored using the classic photometric Ellman method (Chaize et al. , 2003; Ellman et al. , 1961). In this study a ? uorescence detection scheme is chosen as the transduction method. It is well known that ? uorescence provides higher sensitivity, lower detection limits and wider concentration range. In the proposed biosensor system, the ? uorescence detection of the enzymatic activity is accomplished simply by the introduction of a ? uorescent indicator within the liposome. This one-step procedure provides a simple self-contained stable nano-biosensor, thus avoiding the two steps required by the Ellman’s method for the detection of the enzymatic activity. AChE achieves optimum catalytic ef? iency when placed in neutral pH aqueous solutions. For this reason, and in order to develop a ? uorescent biosensor based on AChE, a pH indicator with pKa value close to pH 7. 0 is required. After a comprehensive literature search it became evident that Pyranine could ful? l these requirements. Pyranine is a pH sensitive ? uorescent indicator whose excitation and emission wavelengths wer e found at 460 and 513 nm, respectively. This indicator has a pKa value of 7. 3, it is highly soluble in water and membrane impermeable (Zignani et al. , 2000). Based on these characteristics, it is expected that this indicator could ful? the requirements set above for the optical AChE-based biosensor. In order to determine the working pH range, titration of the ? uorescent indicator was initially performed. As it can be seen from the resulting titration curve (Fig. 2) there is AChE a linear relationship between the pH value of the solution and the ? uorescence signal of the pyranine for a pH range between 7. 0 and 7. 8. In order to ensure the highest possible sensitivity of ? uorescence changes upon pH changes within the liposome, together with a wide dynamic range, the pH value of 7. 8 is chosen as the starting point. The time required to obtain a signi? cantly high signal for analytical purposes was determined next. To a buffered solution (pH 7. 8) containing the pH indicator pyranine and the enzyme AChE, additions of the substrate acetylthiocholine to different ? nal concentrations were performed. From these data (data not given) it was determined that the ? uorescent signal of the solution changed dramatically within a few minutes after substrate addition, and thus measurements could be made anytime after an initial 5 min waiting period. In the next step, the response of the liposome biosensor to acetylthiocholine was evaluated. The substrate was added to the enzyme loaded liposomes and the ? uorescent signal of pyranine was monitored over time. As shown in Fig. 3a the ? uorescence intensity of the indicator within the liposomes decreases with a rate that is proportional to the substrate concentration in the solution. Increasing the substrate concentration decreases the ? uorescence, with a response time in the order of a few minutes. Fig. 3b shows the calibration curve of the biosensor plotted as the ? uorescence intensity versus substrate concentration for 10 min reaction time. From this graph the substrate sensitivity of the sensor for substrate concentrations between 1. 0 and 13. 3 mM is calculated to be 8. 2 ? 10? 3 Abs min? 1 mM? 1 . In addition the detection limit of the sensor is calculated to be less than 1. 0 mM. Liposomes are very small, and thus dif? cult to handle as biosensors. In order to obtain a stand-alone biosensor device the biosensing element has to be immobilized on a more convenient platform. Such immobilization of the biosensor system can be used continuously and for successive measurements, while it can easily be introduced into other analytical systems, such as micro-devices or ? w injection systems. For this study, a transparent sol–gel matrix is used as the immobi- V. Vamvakaki et al. / Biosensors and Bioelectronics 21 (2005) 384–388 387 Fig. 3. (a) Fluorescence signal of AChE/liposome biosensor over time, for different ATChCl concentrations: 2. 5, 5. 0, 10. 0 and 13. 3 mM. (b) Calibration curve of the AChE/liposome b iosensor. To obtain the calibration curve, the ? uorescence intensity after 10 min reaction time was recorded for each substrate concentration. The immobilized enzyme was 6. 4 pmol and the ? uorescence signal was monitored at 513 nm. ization matrix of the nano-biosensor. The procedure for the formation of the sol–gel was precisely optimized in order to provide well-formed, smooth and reproducible membranes. For this reason, different sol–gel matrices were prepared and the most suitable for the speci? c use was chosen on the basis of ? lm quality (smooth ? lm, crack-free), transparency, and good adhesion to the polymeric optical window of the cuvette. The sol–gel biosensor was evaluated based on the ? uorescence signal of pyranine. The change of the biosensor signal with time at different substrate concentrations is shown in Fig. a, while the corresponding calibration curve obtained 10 min after the introduction of the substrate is shown in Fig. 4b. The biosensor showed a linear range of response that extended from 1. 0 to 15. 0 mM and the observed sensitivity to the substrate was 7. 5 ? 10? 3 Abs min? 1 mM? 1 . The sensorto-sensor reproducibility was very good with a R. S. D. value of less than 1% (N = 3). When the enzyme loaded liposomes are incubated with Triton X-100 the sensitivity of the biosensor increases on account of the lysis of the liposomes. This observation veri? es that the nzyme is encapsulated in the internal microenvironment of the liposome. It is also important to note that even the very small amount of enzyme incorporated in each biosensor system (6. 4 pmol) is suf? cient to obtain a reliable ? uorescence signal. This implies that using this biosensor system, monitoring of inhibitors (e. g. organophosphorus pesticides) can be achieved with high sensitivity and very low detection limit. A comparison between the AChE/liposome biosensor and the AChE/liposome sol–gel biosensor shows that the two systems have similar a nalytical characteristics. In both cases the response time is less than 10 min while the sensitivity of the biosensor remained approximately the same. Enzyme kinetics were also unaffected by the sol–gel immobilization step. It has been calculated that the apparent Km value is close to 5. 5 mM in both cases. This fact further enhances the ap- Fig. 4. (a) Fluorescence signal of the AChE/liposome sol–gel biosensor with time, for different ATChCl concentrations: 1. 0, 5. 0, 16. 6 and 33. 3 mM. (b) Calibration curve of the AChE/liposome sol–gel biosensor. To obtain the calibration curve, the ? orescence intensity after 10 min reaction time was recorded for each substrate concentration. The immobilized enzyme was 6. 4 pmol and the ? uorescence signal was monitored at 513 nm. 388 V. Vamvakaki et al. / Biosensors and Bioelectronics 21 (2005) 384–388 Acknowledgments This work is being supported by the program â€Å"Iraklitos† of the Greek Ministry of Education and the European Commiss ion Program â€Å"GANANO† (Contract No. STREP 505641-1). We would also like to thank Prof. A. K. Rizos for the Dynamic Light Scattering measurement. References Chaabihi, H. , Fournier, D. , Fedon, Y. , Bossy, J. P. , Ravallec, M. Devauchelle, G. , C? rutti, M. , 1994. Biochemical characterization of e Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase expressed by recombinant baculoviruses. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 203, 734–742. Chaize, B. , Winterhalter, M. , Fournier, D. , 2003. Encapsulation of acetylcholinesterase in preformed liposomes. BioTechniques 34, 1158–1162. Colletier, J. P. , Chaize, B. , Winterhalter, M. , Fournier, D. , 2002. Protein encapsulation in liposomes: ef? ciency depends on interactions between protein and phospholipid bilayer. BMC Biotechnol. 2, 9. Ellman, G. L. , Courtney, K. D. , Andres Jr. , V. , Featherstone, R. M. , 1961. A new and rapid colorimetric determination of acetylcholinesterase activity. Biochem. Pharmacol. 7, 88–95. Estrada-Mondaca, S. , Fournier, D. , 1998. Stabilization of recombinant drosophila acetylcholinesterase. Prot. Expr. Purif. 12, 166–172. Han, X. , Li, G. , Li, K. , 1998. FTIR study of the thermal denaturation of a-actinin in its lipid-free and dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol-bound states and the central and N-terminal domains of a-actinin in D2 O. Biochemistry 37, 10730–10737. Kaszuba, M. , Jones, M. N. , 1999. Hydrogen peroxide production from reactive liposomes encapsulating enzymes. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1419, 221–228. Kulin, S. , Kishore, R. , Helmerson, K. , Locascio, L. , 2003. Optical manipulation and fusion of liposomes as microreactors. Langmuir 19 (20), 8206–8210. Memoli, A. , Annesini, M. C. , Mascini, M. , Papale, S. , Petralito, S. , 2002. A comparison between different immobilised glucoseoxidase-based electrodes. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 29, 1045–1052. Nasseau, M. , Boublik, Y. , Meier, W. , Winterhalter, M. , Fournier, D. , 2001. Substrate-permeable encapsulation of enzymes maintains effective activity, stabilizes against denaturation, and protects against proteolytic degradation. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 75, 615–618. Saint, N. , Windmer, C. , Luckey, M. , Schirmer, T. , Rosenbuch, J. P. , 1996. Structural and functional characterization of OmpF porin mutants selected for larger pore size. J. Biol. Chem. 271, 20676–20680. Singh, A. K. , Harrison, S. H. , Schoeniger, J. S. , 2000. Gangliosides as receptors for biological toxins: development of sensitive ? uoroimmunoassays using ganglioside-bearing liposomes. Anal. Chem. 72 (24), 6019–6024. Taylor, M. A. , Jones, M. N. , Vadgama, P. M. , Higson, S. P. , 1997. The effect of lipid bilayer manipulation on the response of the glucose oxidaseliposome electrode. Biosens. Bioelectron. 12, 467–477. Walde, P. , Ichikawa, S. , 2001. Enzymes inside lipid vesicles: preparation, reactivity and applications. Biomol. Eng. 18, 143–177. Wang, S. , Yoshimoto, M. , Fukunaga, K. , Nakao, K. , 2003. Optimal covalent immobilization of glucose oxidase-containing liposomes for highly stable biocatalyst in bioreactor. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 83, 444–453. Winterhalter, M. , Hilty, C. , Bezrukov, S. M. , Nardin, C. , Meier, W. , Fournier, D. , 2001. Controlling membrane permeability with bacterial porins: application to encapsulated enzymes. Talanta 55, 965–971. Woodle, M. C. , 995. Sterically stabilized liposome therapeutics. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 16, 249–265. Zignani, M. , Drummond, D. C. , Meyer, O. , Hong, K. , Leroux, J. C. , 2000. In vitro characterization of a novel polymeric-based pH-sensitive liposome system. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1463, 383–394. Fig. 5. Fluorescence signal of the sol–gel AChE biosensor over time for 16. 6 mM ATChCl: ( ) sol–gel with free AChE, and ( ) sol–gel biosensor with liposome immobilized AChE. The total amount of immobilized enzyme in both cases with and without liposome was 6. 4 pmol and the ? uorescence signal was monitored at 513 nm. licability of the sol–gel immobilized liposome biosensor, since this matrix does not introduce any additional diffusion barriers and thus it does not have any effect on enzyme kinetics. Since the by-products of the sol–gel process can be detrimental to the enzymes, sol–gel biosensors with free AChE and liposome loaded AChE were prepared and evaluated. As it can be seen from Fig. 5 the ? uorescent signal over time for a given substrate concentration of the free AChE sol–gel biosensor shows signi? cant deterioration on the sensitivity over time, compared to the biosensor with liposome immobilized AChE. This reduced response of the free AChE biosensor, versus the liposome based one is attributed to partial deactivation of the AChE in the sol–gel matrix. The stability of the liposome immobilized AChE biosensor indicates that the enzyme is considerably stabilized against denaturation from the methanol produced during the hydrolysis process of the silicate solution. 4. Conclusions In this paper a novel biosensor system was developed using porin embedded AChE loaded liposomes containing pyranine as the optical, ? uorescent indicator. The nano-sized liposomes provide a suitable environment for the effective stabilization of enzymes. The porins allow for the expedient transport of the substrate through the liposome walls, while the enzyme is entrapped due to its physical size. The incorporation of these enzyme loaded liposomes into sol–gel matrices provides an optically active biosensor with good overall analytical characteristics. The proven ability to monitor very low enzymatic activity, the very good sensor-to-sensor reproducibility and the signi? cant stability of the system provide the grounds for the application of the presented nanobiosensors in the detection of organophosphorus pesticides and other toxic AChE inhibitors.

Television Today free essay sample

A look at the way television viewing has progressed today and how it may look in the future. A look at the current switch from analog television to digital television. The author discusses the way television has progressed today and the type of quality, sound and picture it offers and compares it to the past. An examination of digital transmission and progressions into the future. Once upon a time right after our parents got home from walking sixteen miles to school, uphill each way, in the snow, with people throwing rocks at them they sat down with their milk and cookies to watch black-and-white television. And while television has obviously acquired color in the years since the first generation of sets began to be commonplace in American households, they have otherwise in many ways remained remarkably similar to those first sets. But now the world of digital television is almost upon us, promising at least a technical revolution, and possibly a social one as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Television Today or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page For television is so deeply embedded into our national consciousness that any dramatic change in the technology that delivers the pictures on the small screen into our lives is almost guaranteed to have a substantial effect on American culture as we take the first major step in television redesign since the introduction of electronic television two generations ago.

Marketing Theories Naive As Result of Bad Data †Marketing Essay

Marketing Theories Naive As Result of Bad Data – Marketing Essay Free Online Research Papers Marketing Theories Naive As Result of Bad Data Marketing Essay Most marketing and advertising theories are quite naive but marketers are not surprised because of the incomplete data we have on people and environment. The rules of advertising and marketing often overlook time dimension and consider position and image of the brand as fixed and unchangeable. But reality is different – only name and logo of the brand are static, everything else, for example consumers and their loyalty to the brand, is exceedingly dynamic. That is why marketers continually adjust their market communication. Today we are aware that the life time cycle of the brand is longer than the life time cycle of the product itself and majority of them extend to 19th or the beginning of 20th century which is evidently a consequence of good managing which is possible only if have the knowledge of consumers experiences with the brand. But most advertisers consider this only in the first phase of the product (when the product is introduced to the market) when they want to achieve recognition of the brand and later on emotions that consumer feels using the brand. But after this first phase the development of the product stops and no one considers to make changes when necessary and this kind of treatment leads the brand to its death and a lot of lost opportunities. In last few decades slovene advertising agencies used to suggest companies they should constantly launch new products on the market which needed a new name, logo, packaging, advertising strategy and so on so the agencies could earn some extra money. Todays brands policy is different – a company can expand the brand from one product to many of them and thus easier retains recognition, of course with advertising, innovation, new products etc. Because of this new policy slovene companies (with lots of different brands with no clear identity) now have to struggle with foreign brands that rapidly took big market shares. The second problem for these brands are private labels that have even bigger market share because consumers notice no difference in quality compared to manufacturers brand, exept in price, and the third problem is globalisation. So all these traps demand rapid changes – only those brands that will adjust in time and will offer recognizable identity and values will survive. One of possible solutions is uniting smaller brands into controllable number of strong brands which enables exploitation of the input and control of the brand. To make this possible, we have to remember that its not only the image of the brand that is important, but we must also refresh the brand, its quality, styling etc. A good strategy is a complicated structure but the real joy comes when we finally reach our goal. Research Papers on Marketing Theories Naive As Result of Bad Data - Marketing EssayMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaDefinition of Export QuotasBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementOpen Architechture a white paperRiordan Manufacturing Production PlanPETSTEL analysis of IndiaResearch Process Part OneThe Project Managment Office System

Normans - Medieval Viking Rulers in France and England

Normans - Medieval Viking Rulers in France and England The Normans (from the Latin Normanni and Old Norse for north men) were ethnic Scandinavian Vikings who settled in northwest France in the early 9th century AD. They controlled the region known as Normandy until the mid 13th century. In 1066, the most famous of the Normans, William the Conqueror, invaded England and conquered the resident Anglo-Saxons; after William, several kings of England including Henry I and II and Richard the Lionheart were Normans and ruled both regions. Dukes of Normandy Rollo the Walker 860-932, ruled Normandy 911-928, married Gisla (daughter of Charles the Simple)William Longsword  ruled 928-942Richard I (the Fearless), born 933, ruled 942-996 married Hugh the Greats daughter Emma, then GunnorRichard II (The Good) ruled 996-1026 married JudithRichard III ruled 1026-1027Robert I (The Magnificent, or The Devil) ruled 1027-1035 (Richard IIIs brother) William the Conquerer, 1027-1087, ruled 1035-1087, also King of England after 1066, married Matilda of Flanders Robert II (Curthose), ruled Normandy 1087-1106 Henry I (Beauclerc) b. 1068, King of England 1100-1135 Henry II b. 1133, ruled England 1154-1189 Richard the Lionheart also King of England 1189-1216John Lackland Vikings in France By the 830s, the Vikings arrived from Denmark and began raiding in what is today France, finding the standing Carolingian government in the midst of an ongoing civil war. The Vikings were only one of several groups who found the weakness of the Carolingian empire an attractive target. The Vikings used the same tactics in France as they did in England: plundering the monasteries, markets and towns; imposing tribute or Danegeld on the people they conquered; and killing the bishops, disrupting ecclesiastical life and causing a sharp decline in literacy. The Vikings became permanent settlers with the express collusion of Frances rulers, although many of the grants were simply a recognition of de facto Viking control of the region. Temporary settlements were first established along the Mediterranean coast from a series of royal grants from Frisia to the Danish Vikings: the first was in 826, when Louis the Pious granted Harald Klak the county of Rustringen to use as a retreat. Subsequent rulers did the same, usually with the aim of putting one Viking in place to defend the Frisian coast against others. A Viking army first wintered on the Seine river in 851, and there joined forces with the kings enemies, the Bretons, and Pippin II. Founding Normandy: Rollo the Walker The duchy of Normandy was founded by Rollo (Hrolfr) the Walker, a Viking leader in the early 10th century. In 911, the Carolingian king Charles the Bald ceded land including the lower Seine valley to Rollo, in the Treaty of St Clair sur Epte. That land was extended to include what is today all of Normandy by AD 933 when the French King Ralph granted the land of the Bretons to Rollos son William Longsword. The Viking court based at Rouen was always a little shaky, but Rollo and his son William Longsword did their best to shore up the duchy by marrying into the Frankish elite. There were crises in the duchy in the 940s and 960s, particularly when William Longsword died in 942 when his son Richard I was only 9 or 10. There were fights among the Normans, particularly between pagan and Christian groups. Rouen continued as a subordinate to the Frankish kings until the Norman War of 960-966, when Richard I fought against Theobald the Trickster. Richard defeated Theobald, and newly arrived Vikings pillaged his lands. That was the moment when Normans and Normandy became a formidable political force in Europe. William the Conquerer The 7th Duke of Normandy was William, the son Robert I, succeeding to the ducal throne in 1035. William married a cousin, Matilda of Flanders, and to appease the church for doing that, he built two abbeys and a castle in Caen. By 1060, he was using that to build a new power base in Lower Normandy, and that is where he began amassing for the Norman Conquest of England. You can find lots more about William the Conquerer and the Battle of Hastings elsewhere. Ethnicity and the Normans Archaeological evidence for the Viking presence in France is notoriously slim. Their villages were basically fortified settlements, consisting of earthwork-protected sites called motte (en-ditched mound) and bailey (courtyard) castles, not that different from other such villages in France and England at that time. The reason for the lack of evidence for explicit Viking presence may be that the earliest Normans tried to fit into the existing Frankish powerbase. But that didnt work well, and it was not until 960 when Rollos grandson Richard I galvanized the notion of Norman ethnicity, in part to appeal to the new allies arriving from Scandinavia. But that ethnicity was largely limited to kinship structures and place names, not material culture, and by the end of the 10th century, the Vikings had largely assimilated into the larger European medieval culture. Historic Sources Most of what we know of the early Dukes of Normandy is from Dudo of St Quentin, a historian whose patrons were Richard I and II. He painted an apocalyptic picture of Normandy in his best-known work De moribus et actis primorum normanniae ducum, written between 994-1015. Dudos text was the basis for future Norman historians including William of Jumià ¨ges (Gesta Normannorum Ducum), William of Poitiers (Gesta Willelmi), Robert of Torigni and Orderic Vitalis. Other surviving texts include the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio and the  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Sources This article is part of the About.com guide to Vikings, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology Cross KC. 2014. Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015. London: University College London. Harris I. 1994. Stephen of Rouens Draco Normannicus: A Norman Epic. Sydney Studies in Society and Culture 11:112-124. Hewitt CM. 2010. The Geographic Origins of the Norman Conquerors of England. Historical Geography 38(130-144). Jervis B. 2013. Objects and social change: A case study from Saxo-Norman Southampton. In: Alberti B, Jones AM, and Pollard J, editors. Archaeology After Interpretation: Returning Materials to Archaeological Theory. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. McNair F. 2015. The politics of being Norman in the reign of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy (r. 942–996). Early Medieval Europe 23(3):308-328. Peltzer J. 2004. Henry II and the Norman Bishops. The English Historical Review 119(484):1202-1229. Petts D. 2015. Churches and lordship in Western Normandy AD 800-1200. In: Shepland M, and Pardo JCS, editors. Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe. Brepols: Turnhout.

Stage of sleep - psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stage of sleep - psychology - Essay Example Going over the information covered in class, â€Å"Stage† 1 and â€Å"Stage† 3 read to me more like doorways to actual stages, instead of being stages themselves. The reason I felt that way was both because of the length of those two stages, and because of the way they seem designed to build up to the next stage. Neither one of them felt like they were defined individually, but were based on the stage that came after them. Stage 1 of the sleep cycle lasts only about 5-10 minutes, and was technically defined as the transition period between wakefulness and sleep. What came to my mind was the short period of grogginess people usually experience when they first wake up in the morning. They’re eyes are open, and they’re obviously not asleep any more. However, their minds and bodies haven’t fully reached alertness, so they’re not fully awake, either. That grogginess is kind of a limbo between being asleep and being awake, and I think that Stage 1 is the same thing, only going the opposite direction. Stage 3 is almost identical to Stage 1, with the only real difference being where it comes in the sleep cycle. It lasts about the same amount of time as Stage 1, and is also a transition period. Thinking of the transitional stages, particularly Stage 1, as being somewhat separate from the rest of the stages should help me get to sleep faster. One way I could to that would be to create a kind of transition period or routine before I try to get to Stage 1. Remembering that Stage 2 is where the body begins to relax and slow down—the heart beat and body temperature, specifically, go down—then Stage 1 can be thought of as designed to take us from being fully alert to being ready for a kind of light hibernation. If I were to spend some time just before going to bed listening to quiet music or reading a soothing book, I could potentially make Stage 1 of sleep easier to get in to and through. I was surprised to learn that t he stages of sleep do not follow a logical, sequential order of 1-2-3-4-5. When we first began covering the stages of sleep, that is the order I thought they would follow, and those five stages would somehow take up a person’s full night of sleeping. It would have made sense to me for some people to need each stage to last longer—meaning that they need to have more hours of sleep at night to feel rested—and others would be able to get by with shorter stages. However, what I learned was that the stages of sleep actually go a little out of order. According to an article entitled â€Å"Stages of Sleep,† the order is more like 1-2-3-4-3-2-5-2 and that order is repeated a few times every night (Cherry, 2011). Realizing that our bodies go through several cycles of the five stages of sleep throughout the night gives me some ideas for what to make my sleeping environment like. In going over the material from our class lectures, as well as reviewing the informatio n providing in the article â€Å"Stages of Sleep,† it’s apparent to me that people go through Stage 2 more times in a night than any other stage. Stage 2 is the one where the body begins to become more relaxed before going in to a deep sleep. In this stage of physiological change, people might be fairly easy to wake. So, I would take that knowledge and create an environment in my room that encourages me to stay asleep once I fall asleep. Maybe I could play some quiet music in the background that would minimize the effect of noises in the night on my subconscious. The idea

Youth Justice in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Youth Justice in the UK - Essay Example The essay "Youth Justice in the UK" discusses the following issue - the commitment to effective practice, in itself highly desirable, has frequently been accompanied by an unwarranted certainty about 'what works' allowing little space for debate. There are various factors that contribute towards explaining this statement.Every individual is unique and forms their own assumptions based on their perceptions. Many of the youth are not very clear about life and its consequences, for the main reason of being young, and their perception of life is quite different from a matured adult. Wrong perceptions snowball into various conflicts and contradictions which easily leads them towards crime. According to Laurie Mullins, â€Å"Perception is the root of all organizational behavior; any situation can be analyzed in terms of its perceptual connotations†.Another major cause for leading the youth astray is alcohol and drug abuse. The youth are not in a position to understand the dangers be hind this and are slowly sucked into a kind of trap that the find very difficult to come out of. As they go deeper, they stop at nothing to satisfy this need. They engage in robbery, petty thefts in the beginning but later on move into much bigger crimes such as extortion and murder. The modern day ‘binge drinking culture’ has spawned an acceleration of crime. While most people in the UK, drink within safety limits, but unfortunately the youth are not so serious about this.

Pest Control and Waste Management Essay Example for Free

Pest Control and Waste Management Essay Pests cause a lot of destruction to the crops. Even though there are lots of chemical pest controls available to help reduce or remove the presence of these destructive pests, the non-chemical pest control is the most reliable and safest form of pest control. One of the most destructive pests that are encountered by many farmers is the beetle. Non-chemical pest control can be done in many different ways like applying balanced fertilizer to keep the crops and soil healthy and free from beetles, removing weeds from that may surround the crops, and using milky spore powder when dealing with Japanese beetles. In addition with these, according to HGTV, â€Å"planting pest-resistant species that contains insecticide in nature can also help in getting rid of these pests(Non-Chemical Pest Control, 2006). † The production of a healthy and productive crop system all depends on the supervision of the farmer itself. Nevertheless, non-chemical pest control is all about prevention. I will not be in opposition to the idea of having hazardous waste landfill, waste treatment plant, deep-injection well, or incinerator in our community. The waste of a community grows enormously as time passes by. These wastes can affect the health and livelihood of a community. The presence of hazardous waste landfill, waste treatment plant, deep-injection well, or incinerator in a certain community reduce the waste that may cause pollution and other negative effects on the residents of a certain community. The hazardous waste landfill keeps the hazardous waste from going into the soil and eventually to our body. Incineration is only an alternative to land filling. Incineration is not a very good way of waste reduction because it produces toxic air pollutants that can even cause a great problem to the health of the community. These systems are of great help in the reduction of waste although it is inevitable that wrong management of these waste management system may always lead to an unlikely consequences like the pollution that can be brought about by incineration.

Geat Vs. Greek :: essays research papers

Geat vs. Greek: Paternal Injunction in Beowulf and The Iliad Picture this. Inside the hall, mighty shields and glistening swords await the visitors’ arrival. Skillfully crafted armor decorations proclaim great battles and fierce hunts. The prevailing warrior ethos and his manly power are evident throughout. It is these strong patriarchal images which gave birth to two epics from two totally different cultures: The tale of Beowulf from Scandinavia and The Iliad from Greece. To better understand the works themselves and their parallels, it is best to first define an epic. In order to be considered an epic, there are certain qualifications and standards that a piece of literature must meet. These epics are long poems that were originally expressed orally and later were put into writing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Both stories tell the tale of brave young heroes, always believing that their fight, their cause, is the true cause. In both stories, the heroes understand the role of fate. In Beowulf, the hero of that name understands that the monster Grendel may end his life, but is not deterred. He is not aware of his destiny, but realizes without qualms that if Grendel does kill him, then that was his time to die. In Iliad, both Hector and Achilles are keenly aware that their lives will end in battle. Although there is an emotional struggle in these characters not seen in Beowulf, their knowledge of their own fates does not stop them from fighting. This is what we might call bravery today, but in the past it was better thought of as a â€Å"warrior code†. And in both stories, it is not fate that matters in the end, but glory. The attitude is that if death shall come, so be it. But better to die fighting, immortalized in glory.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The hero code itself is based on patriarchal injunction. In Beowulf, the first character introduced in the prologue is the king Shield Sheafson, who bears the name of the founder of the Danish nation, making him a sort of father to his kingdom. The prologue of Beowulf takes on an Old-Testament form of sorts, introducing the characters by their lineage. Shield is father to Halfdane, who is father to Hrothgar, one of the main characters in Beowulf. The hero himself makes his introduction on the Danish shore by saying, â€Å"We belong by birth to the Geat people and owe allegiance to Lord Hygelac. In his day, my father was a famous man, a noble warrior-lord named Ecgtheow† (260-263).

Laertes and Ophelia as Character Foils in Hamlet Essay

â€Å"The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses to damn me:† (2.2.58) In William Shakespeare’s classic drama, ‘Hamlet’, the titular protagonist, Hamlet, is a dynamic, round character with constantly evolving traits. The character Hamlet, himself, interestingly, is not noted for what he does, but rather, is noted for his indecisiveness and lack of taking action throughout the play. Despite Hamlet having a ulterior motive throughout the play, he is constantly seen to be deliberating as to whether or not he should act on his actions. Through his numerous soliloquys, Hamlet’s innermost reflections are seen, many of them contemplating existence, and the nature of the task which he has taken upon himself to carry out: the task of killing his uncle, the current King of Denmark. In ‘Hamlet’, there are numerous characters, many of whom belong to either one of two families focused upon in the play: there is the royal family, consisting of Hamlet, his mother Gertrude, the Queen, and his stepfather Claudius, the current King of Denmark; and there is the family of the King’s chief counselor, Polonius, which includes his daughter, Ophelia, and his son, Laertes. In both families, the parent-child relationship is heavily focused upon. Compared to the other ‘children’ of the play – Laertes and Ophelia – Hamlet’s slow, deliberate thinking is brought to the forefront, with both Laertes and Ophelia acting as character foils to Hamlet. Hamlet and Laertes may both be defined by their fathers, and how they react to them, as well as the way they are viewed by the public. Hamlet and Laertes are seen to be in similar situations: both of them are sons, and students who were studying abroad at the time of old King Hamlet’s death. Both of them appeared to have shared a relatively close relationship with their fathers. After his father’s death, Hamlet dressed in black, in grief and mourning. When the Queen asked why Hamlet seemed to be so affected by  his father’s death, he replied, ‘†Seems,† madam? Nay, it is.’ (1.2) Polonius, meanwhile, had been hesitant to let Laertes return to France, stating that Laertes had â€Å"wrung upon me my slow leave by laborsome petition, and at last upon his will I sealed my hard consent.† (1.2) Both Hamlet and Laertes are juxtaposed when their respective fathers are murdered, contrasting them – while both feel wronged by their fathers’ deaths, the means with which they take action are different. Hamlet did not consider revenge until the Ghost told him to â€Å"revenge this most foul and unnatural murder†. (1.5) Even then, Hamlet took action slowly, carefully and deliberately planning out the steps of his plan with which to get revenge. Laertes, however, upon hearing of his father’s death, returned to Denmark, smashing the doors to the Elsinore castle open, demanding that the â€Å"vile king† should â€Å"give (him his) father†. (4.5) Their moral compasses, too, are exceedingly different. Hamlet had had the opportunity to murder Claudius while Claudius was praying, but chose not to, thinking that if he killed Claudius then, he would â€Å"this same villain send to heaven†, showing that he still believes in a higher power, and demands that justice be paid. (3.3) Conversely, Laertes, when asked by Claudius what he would do to prove that he was â€Å"in deed (his) father’s son more than in words†, Laertes stated that he would â€Å"cut his throat i’ th’ church†. (4.7) Through this comparison, it may be seen that while Hamlet is uncertain about committing murder to avenge another murder, Laertes has no hesitation about it. How Hamlet and Laertes are viewed by other characters, too, shows the similarities between both of them, despite the differences in how they act. Both of them are loved by the public, and are competitors for the throne of Denmark. Claudius himself states that â€Å"the great love the general gender bear (Hamlet)† is the reason that he does not prosecute Hamlet. (4.7) Laertes, too, has the affection of the public, evidenced by their cries of â€Å"‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'† (4.5) Due to this popularity, the king naturally has reason to be wary of both of them, a trait which is reflected in his chief counselor, Polonius. Polonius is seen to be spying on various characters, including Hamlet and Laertes – he requested that Reynaldo, a servant, should go to France and spy on Laertes; he himself  spied on Hamlet. This may be interpreted as meaning that neither Hamlet nor Laertes are completely trustworthy. The other member of Laertes’ family, Ophelia, however, is loved by both Laertes and Hamlet, and Ophelia’s death results in their confrontational duel, which in turn results in their respective deaths, both indirectly killed by Claudius. Ophelia herself is a foil to Hamlet. While Laertes as a foil to Hamlet was a contrast in their actions after their father’s deaths, Ophelia and Hamlet contrast in their emotional well-being, and the kind of madness that they face. Both have been disappointed by someone whom they love – Hamlet being disappointed by Gertrude’s â€Å"o’erhasty marriage†, Ophelia by Hamlet’s rough treatment of her during his supposed madness. (2.2) While it is revealed several times by Hamlet that he is faking madness, saying that he â€Å"essentially (was) not in madness but mad in craft,† Ophelia’s madness seems less forced – after Polonius’ death, she appears to have slipped right into insanity. (3.4) Hamlet, conversely, had gone through a mourning period before appearing to be mad. Interestingly, the contrast in how they act when they are mad – Hamlet being deliberate, Ophelia to have seemingly been truly mad – provides an even bigger contrast as to how each of them die, with Hamlet’s death occurring in a violent situation, while Ophelia’s death is shrouded with the calming natural imagery of flowers and trees. Hamlet dies due to a poisoned sword during his duel with Laertes, played out in front of an audience. The circumstances behind Ophelia’s death, however, is more unknown and ambiguous. It is implied that her death was accidentally. According to Gertrude, that â€Å"on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,† (4.7) implying that Ophelia’s death was accidental. However, as Ophelia’s death is not shown, it is possible that she had decided to commit suicide instead. Should she have decided on death by her own hand, a powerful foil is brought in, contrasting against Hamlet, who, while seen to be contemplating suicide on several occasions, never kills himself, instead wishing â€Å"that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter†. (2.5) While Ophelia is commonly portrayed to be weak, her choosing to take her own life implies that she is of a stronger  will than Hamlet, who is eventually killed by Laertes. Ophelia, like Hamlet and Laertes, seeks revenge for her father’s death, but her form of revenge is not violent in the way that Hamlet and Laertes’ confrontational duel is. Rather than choosing to blame a single person for Polonius’ death, Ophelia instead passes judgement on the other characters in the play in a much more feminine way – by handing out different types of flowers, saying, â€Å"There’s fennel for you, and columbines.-There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it â€Å"herb of grace† o’ Sundays.-Oh, you must wear your rue with a difference.-There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.† (4.5) Ophelia’s way of retribution for her father’s death contrasts strongly with Hamlet’s – his is a single-minded focus on killing Claudius, whom he holds personally responsible for his father’s death. While Ophelia could have gone down the same path as Laertes, demanding justice for Polonius, she does not – rather, she blames everyone in the play for what has happened. However, her way of doing this, too, provides a similarity with Hamlet – the flowers were deliberately chosen in the same way that Hamlet deliberately staged the play – in order to â€Å"catch the conscience† of those around them. (2.2) The flowers that Ophelia chooses to hand out raises the question of her madness – has she truly lost her mind, as some characters believe, or is she just mad in certain ways, while retaining her logic in some other ways? The flowers that she chooses to hand out each conveys its own meaning: fennel is thought to mean flattery, columbine meaning foolishness, daisies portraying innocence, violets showing faithfulness, rosemary â€Å"for remembrance†, pansies for thought, rue meaning regret. (4.5) The meanings of these flowers all seem to have some connection with the characters in the play. Rosemary may be meant for Hamlet, who, to Ophelia, may seem to have forgotten who he is in his state of madness, pansies, for thought, may be meant for Laertes, to consider his actions. Fennel may be paired with the King, a reflection of how his words are often deceiving and manipulative; columbines may be paired with Gertrude, a criticism on her actions. Daisies and violets, interestingly, do not appear to be given to anyone. Daisies, a symbol of innocence, may be a statement that Ophelia does not believe that anyone is  worthy of having the flowers. That Ophelia does not hand out violets may be a portrayal of herself, a particularly interesting note, as she leaves on the note that all violets had withered when Polonius died, perhaps showing her lack of faith to anyone left. Secondary characters in Hamlet seem to mostly be a foil of Hamlet himself – while he is slow, deliberate, and carefully plans out what he wishes to do in order to exact revenge for his father’s death, other characters reflect and contrast these traits. By choosing to place Laertes and Ophelia in similar positions as Hamlet, but making them react in different ways, Shakespeare emphasises the usage of character foils in Hamlet. All of them are the children of noblemen in court, all of them have lost a father, but all of them react in contrasting ways to each other. It may be seen that the characters of Laertes and Ophelia do increase our understanding of Hamlet, a dynamic character who is not easily understood, by providing foils against him, adding emphasis to the ways in which he acts in certain situations.

Identify the historical and cultural factors Essay

Identify the historical and cultural factors that contribute to the development of the learning perspective. To what extent is the learning perspective relevant today?  The study of how humans learn is a dominant component of the learning perspective. The study of behaviour in this perspective and is also commonly known as the Behaviouristic Approach, as they believe that behaviour is the only valid data in psychology. Behaviourism developed simultaneously in the United States and Russia in relation to many factors. Traditional Behaviourists believed that all organisms learn in the same way, and could be explained by the processes of classical and operant conditioning. Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour and/or knowledge that occurs as a result of practice and/or experience in the environment. Psychologists working within this perspective have investigated he ways in which behaviour changes, usually using laboratory experiments, and often-using non-human animals. The Learning perspective developed simultaneously in the United States and Russia with American Theorists John Watson, Albert Bandura and Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov.  The way in which behaviour can be observed is seen as being objectively or unbiased, and this is the opposite to the theory of introspection. The unreliability of the way in which subjective data is obtained in introspection is one of the main criticisms that lead to the rise of behaviourism. In introspection the data collected in said to be subjective and therefore biased in the sense that it comes from ones own mind. â€Å"Give me a dozen healthy infants†¦and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer†¦and yes, even beggarman and thief.†1  John Watson 1913  Watson wrote an article titled ‘Psychology as the behaviourist views it.’ This article, which set out all main assumptions and principles, sparked the rise of the behaviourist movement in 1913. Albert Bandura was the major motivator behind the social learning theory, which included cognitive factors that were not incorporated by behaviourists, as they thought behaviour was almost entirely determined by the environment. Bandura suggests that much behaviour, including aggression, is learnt from the environment through reinforcement and the process of modelling. Bandura integrated cognitive influences and called his modified theory the social learning theory. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, whilst conducting experiments on the digestive systems on dogs stumbled across the developed principles of classical conditioning. All these factors contributed to the advancement of the learning perspective, as we know it today. Key concepts of the perspective are classical and operant conditioning, social, latent and insight learning. All concepts are built from the historical and cultural factors that gave rise to the learning perspective. Findings after conduction of experiments show a remarkable relevance to today’s society and knowledge. Whether it is classical conditioning and relating findings to aversion therapy or operant conditioning’s relation to animal training or modifying behaviour through reinforcement and punishment. Therefore it is important to research experimenters who performed relevant experiments to relate their results to today. Classical condition is learning through association, which was accidentally found by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was conducting experiments in relation to dogs digestive systems when he stumbled on, what is known as, classical conditioning. Pavlov noticed that dogs did not only salivate when food was placed in front of them, but they also salivated before the food was given to them, and was triggered by other factors such as upon hearing or seeing Pavlov, or the sound of footsteps. Pavlov then discovered that the anticipation of receiving the food made the dogs salivate. Pavlov then modified his experiment to test whether using a stimulus such as meat powder, which caused salivation, could be varied and a conditioned stimulus such as the ringing of a bell could also bring about the unconditioned response of salivation originally caused by being presented with the sight of the meat powder. Pavlov used a soundproof room, to minimise and limit extraneous variables so he could be sure that it was i.e. only the ringing of a bell that was affecting the salivation after the conditioned stimulus. John Watson performed another example of classical conditioning when he experimented on Little Albert in 1920. Behaviourists learning theorists such as Watson suggested that phobias were conditioned emotional responses. Certain stimuli, such as sudden loud noises, naturally cause fear reactions, and stimuli that become associated with them will acquire the same emotional responses. Little Albert was presented with a white laboratory rat to which he showed no fear response. Watson then associated the loud noise simultaneously with the presentation of the rat, Little Albert then associated fear with the rat, and was then able to generalise these response to other fluffy white objects. The study with Little Albert has serious ethical problems. Firstly that he participated in the experiment involuntary and without the consent of his mother. Also Watson reported that they hesitated about proceeding with the experiment but comforted themselves that Albert would encounter such traumatic associations when he left the sheltered environment of the nursery anyway. This is not a very good ethical defence, especially since they believed such associations might persist indefinitely and did not leave sufficient time to remove the fear afterwards, despite knowing that Albert was due to leave. Classical conditioning can be related to today with the development of therapies using classical conditioning techniques to extinguishing fear. The first technique of therapy is the systematic desensitation, which aims to extinguish the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually, step by step. This therapy was developed mainly by Wolpe, who stated that in order for the fear to be removed gradually, a hierarchy of fear must be formed and ranked by the subject from least fearful to most fearful. The subject is then given training in deep muscle relaxation techniques so it can then be used at each stage of the hierarchy starting from the least fearful to the most and only progressing when the subject feels sufficiently relaxed. This method of treatment has a very high success rate with specific phobias, i.e. of particular animals. It is considered to work particularly well because the response of fear and relaxation is said to be impossible for them to exist at the same time. The second techniques of therapy are implosion and the flooding techniques, when both methods produce extinction of a phobia’s fear by the continual and dramatic presentation of the phobic or situation. Wolpe in 1960 forced a girl with a fear of cars into the back seat of a car and drove her around for 4 hours straight until her hysterical fear completely disappeared. Marks et al (1981) say that this kind of therapy works because eventually some stimulus exhaustion takes place, as you cannot scream forever and then the conditioned fear response extinguishes. The technique most similar to classical conditioning is called Aversion Therapy, and is most relevant to today’s treatment of alcoholism, smoking or overeating. The technique aims to remove undesirable responses to certain stimuli by associating them with aversive stimuli, in the hope that the undesirable responses will be avoided in the future. Aversion therapy has been used to treat alcoholism, for example the person is given alcohol with a nausea-inducing drug unsuspectingly, and should then feel sick. The person associates drinking with their intestinal distress and results found that two out of three people did not have any alcohol a year later. Although it has a high success rate, ethical considerations of deliberating causing discomfort to another person through deception must be taken into account. The limitation of this type of therapy is its difficulty to generalise to other situations from where the learning took place.

Rome, The Power and Glory essays

Rome, The Power and Glory essays As the story goes, Rome was founded by a pair of feuding brothers who were allegedly raised by wolves. Romulus and Remus. From that point on, the Roman Empire would play a pivotal role in the development of both Eastern and Western society alike. Its influence can still be noticed. The Empire bought us such inventions as aqueducts, elevators, and innovations like urban planning. This essay will discuss the evolution of the Roman Empire and its impact on the Western World. As the story goes, Rome was founded in 753 B.C by two brothers by the names of Romulus and Remus. The two feuded over leadership and the end result was Romulus killing Remus and becoming emperor on his own. The city was only a small settlement at this time with almost no women. Romulus decided to invite their neighbours, the Sabines to a harvest festival. After they all had arrived, the Romans abducted 600 of their women at sword point. In this way, the growth of Rome was insured. The Romans learnt many of their artistic and technological from a group of people known as the Etruscans who lived in the hills of Tuscany. The Etruscans were notably accomplished artists and inventors. They taught the Roman people how to work metal and many other materials. The gladiatorial games, in fact, came from an old Etruscan rite. The very first roman Emperors were Etruscans. The first of these was a man known as Serbius Tullius. He was the very first emperor to conduct what would become a yearly tradition. A census. Unfortunately, he was murdered and deposed by another Etruscan by the name of Tarquin, who was hated by the Roman people. Following the murder of a popular Roman woman by the name of Lucrectia by Tarquin, the people had him deposed and vowed never to live under the rule of one man again. This would hold true for an extremely long time. The Roman people decided that yearly elections would be held to determine which pair of people would rule Rome as Consu...

A Study Of The Theme Of Panopticism And Jeremy Benthams, Michael Foucaults Ideas In Panopticon By Jenni Fagan And 1984 By George Orwell

A Study Of The Theme Of Panopticism And Jeremy Bentham's, Michael Foucault's Ideas In Panopticon By Jenni Fagan And 1984 By George Orwell A panopticon can be used in order to effectively keep surveillance of society. This, in all of its senses, is manipulative and coercive. As society started growing, it kept getting more difficult to control the people, and therefore, other resources or mechanisms had to be used for the monitoring of these people. In the late eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham had an architectural design for prisons, asylums, schools, hospitals, and factories, and received help from an architect in order to put his ideas on paper . Michael Foucault, a French philosopher, did extensive research on panopticons and his ideas were taken into consideration by future authors. Bentham’s plan for the prison design gained popularity because Foucault saw it as a strategic model to internalize discipline and authority. The Panopticon, written by British young adult author Jenni Fagan, is directly linked to these ideas. 1984 by George Orwell, however, was published in 1949, so it cannot be said that Foucau lt influenced it, since the panopticist ideas were published in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison (1975). On the other hand, Bentham could have slightly influenced Orwell’s writings. These panopticist ideas come into play in today’s world as well, and it has become a controversial topic because of modern technology that society feels has become more and more invasive. The Panopticon and 1984 both have the recurring theme of panopticism, which affect the main characters in different manners. This paper aims to show the correlation between Bentham, Foucault, and how the same ideas and theories influenced works that were written decades apart. The ideas of a panopticon originally had good intentions; Jeremy Bentham created it in order to retire violent methods of punishment. He wanted to punish in another form, this being more psychological. Foucault stated that the panopticon â€Å"reverses the principle of the dungeon†. The dungeon had â€Å"three functions: to enclose, to deprive of light, and to hide; it (the panopticon) preserves only the first and eliminated the other two† . Knowledge comes from power, and the panopticon can allow the authorities to see everything that is going on around them, leading them to know more things. The panopticon also creates a constant state of control, and makes those that are observed internalize the fact that they are always watched. â€Å"Constant observation acted as a control mechanism; a consciousness of constant surveillance is internalized†. The Panopticon, as the title states, revolves around the idea that people are always being watched. Anais feels as if she is involved in an experiment, and she knows that people are always watching her, and wants to escape it. It’s a novel that goes in depth into the main character’s psyche, and the reader gets an insight into her life and fears. She’s strong, but copes with drugs and her own imagination. Ironically, these are the things that should not be done when one knows that they are under vigilance. For Anais to escape the experiment and cope with her uncertainty of where she comes from, she seeks comfort by playing the â€Å"birthday game†. By creating a life for herself, she is able to rely on those facts and pretend that she has a semi-normal life. On the other hand, it is a sign of resistance from the panopticon, because people can see her actions, but not her thoughts. Since the novel is written from her perspective, the readers do get to see h er thoughts, so the readers act as the panopticon in this case. Anais is very skeptical of all that goes around her, and has been forced to grow up quickly. In the Panopticon that she lives in, the watch tower gives no privacy, which is an act against human rights. Being in a constant state of surveillance drives Anais mad, which in the end pushes her to escape her life. She was able to run away because the watch tower shattered, â€Å"the whole surveillance window shatters, and I see them; turning on their fucking tails; the experiment, for a fraction of a fucking second: exposed† . At this point, Anais is liberated and can start her life in Paris, just like she had decided with her birthday game. The last sentence of the novel is, â€Å"I begin today† . Because the windows hiding the faces of those surveilling her have shattered, they are now at her level because they are real people. She has the power to run away and fight the system, and therefore, becomes her own person. Orwell’s novel is dystopian and reflects the society as powerless and robotic. Big Brother in this case is the panopticon. There is no face to Big Brother, but society fears him. By using these scare tactics they have been able to brainwash society into being permanently scared. They have to be in constant control of what they say or do because the consequences are brutal. It is impossible to trust anybody, because when Winston did, he was turned into the police. Orwell also introduces â€Å"Newspeak† into the novel, which would now be considered simple English. It is the official language of Oceania. Because the words are so simple and there is no complexity to them, it gives people no reason to rethink words or give other definitions to them. It limits their language so they cannot rebel against the system, which is the main reason behind changing the language. Apart from limiting language, it also limits personality and personal identity, which is also a method of br ainwashing. Newspeak does not allow for any type of personal development, and Winston breaks this by keeping a diary. He is able to express his feelings in it, but realizes he has written â€Å"DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER† multiple times on the page and sees that he has committed thoughtcrime. If the level of intelligence of this society were higher, one might have realized that it would be impossible to track all the thoughts of all the members of society, but because of the various methods of brainwashing that have been carried out, no one was able to think it through. â€Å"Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you† . Fear is the most common tactic used by oppressive societies to stay in power. If society fears the system, one will rebel against it and the oppressive state continues. Winston is also guilty of doublethink, although he realizes he is. He works for the system, but secretly is rebelling against it. At the Ministry of Truth, slogans that read â€Å"WAR IS PEACE†, â€Å"FREEDOM IS SLAVERY†, and â€Å"IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH† all brainwash society. These words are antonyms of each other, and the people do not realize that. By working at the Ministry of Truth, he is supporting these statements, but by writing in his diary and being secretive he is rebelling against it. The difference between 1984 and The Panopticon is that the latter has partial freedom. Although Winston Smith is not a prisoner and works for the party, he has less freedom than Anais does. He has no freedom of any type, he cannot do, say, or think as he pleases, because the society is a microscope that is being observed by Big Brother. Anais, though she has been arrested and is a victim of countless foster homes and misfortune, is in a controlled environment but has the freedom to think, which is extremely powerful. As Foucault stated, knowledge is power. She can liberate herself of the constant pressure from the social workers and of the panopticist society she is in. There is no type of Thought Police or thoughtcrime like it exists in 1984. On the other hand, Anais is psychologically incarcerated at times, which is why she resorts to drugs. Although she has the freedom to think and create her past life, it stops her from really knowing who she is and where she comes from. However, her mind is so powerful that she can brainwash herself into creating a past life for herself. Winston, nevertheless, is very aware of what goes on in his life and that can give him a sense of security. Even though he is not following the rules, he knows his consequences. Because both novels share similar themes, the panopticist ideas appear throughout and the characters share common traits. Anais and Winston are very similar in the sense that they are both victims of their society. They are both incarcerated metaphorically. Their minds are free, but only one of them can be safe expressing their true thoughts and feelings. There is an internal struggle occurring with each, and although the characters are very different in terms of lifestyles and persona, their inner struggles clash. Being in a state of liminality like both characters are, they struggle with their daily lives and may or may not go against their basic beliefs, like Winston did when he turned in the love of his life, Julia. Anais differs in this manner, but as the novel progresses, there are signs of maturity on her part, and she becomes more conscious of her desires. The novels also share a major common aspect; the fact that both of the societal powers do not have a face to them. In 198 4, Big Brother does not have a face, so there is enough reason to believe that he does not exist, and that there is a group of people controlling society. Likewise, in The Panopticon, Anais does not see the faces of the people in the watch tower until the windows are shattered and she is able to see for a fraction of a second. Power does not come from one sole person; there is generally a group of people in control or a political figure who is puppeteered by others. A panopticist society currently exists among us, and although it may not be in the traditional sense, people definitely feel the effects of it. People are raised to believe that they are under constant watch of those that cannot be seen, for example Santa Claus for the young, or even more in depth, a God. A panopticon is essentially what God is, all watching and all knowing. In the end, people fear the consequences that God can give them, which is why many are so dedicated to their religion. This can make people feel anxious all the time and it is not fair to make people believe that they are not free because there is a radar on them at all times. It is psychologically damaging, because there is no true freedom. Currently, there have been happenings of government interference with the general public, not only terrorists or potential suspects. Wire-tapping goes against the American Constitution, and although the Patriot Act is named and worded in a way that makes it seem as if it is s omething that is a duty to ones country, it strips society of basic human rights. Under no circumstance is it okay to spy on one’s own, because it betrays trust between the government and members of society. One very current situation is the power behind Cuba’s dictator: Fidel Castro. There is no factual evidence that he is alive, but because â€Å"his people† say he is, Cubans believe it because they have been brainwashed to extreme extents by the communist party. Panopticons exist in all various forms, but the only way that society can fall into the trap is by succumbing to the power behind the words, because words are the most powerful thing when gaining power. Ignorance is not strength, and one should have the freedom to think freely and act within reason. Being under a constant state of vigilance like the characters of The Panopticon and 1984 were wears out ones mind and persona. Anais was able to break out of the cycle, but Winston on the other hand, fell back into the system and was brainwashed once again.

Personal Financial Problem Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Personal Financial Problem - Term Paper Example It is very easy for people to save money on their discretionary costs and use it in their habits like coffee or cigarette. This is because one might see that they are only using few coins to buy coffee. However, if these few coins can be saved for a week or two, they can experience the significance of this saving. If we can make the calculations of the amount we can save if we dont take coffee per day, and project it for 1 year, 10 years and even 20 years to people, some might change their minds about not taking coffee. Especially, those from large families of around ten people, if you save $20 per day, it results to saving $146,000 after 20 years. One would see that this amount of money is too high and can begin to save. However, to save this amount, one can resort to purchasing alternative beverages that cost less by $2 or more like cappuccino. We can make people realize that saving after a period makes a huge saving in the end (Lorenzo, 2013). To make people stop taking coffee even if they say they enjoy it, we can make them realize the cost of taking coffee and compare it with the cost of taking another beverage after a period of time (Richard, 2013). Coffee, first of all, is an addictive beverage with caffeine component that is considered a drug. It, therefore, influences peoples behavior as it has an addictive feeling (Tiago, 2014). However, once one has already begun taking it, it becomes hard for them to stop (Rob, 2013). There are personal problems that such coffee or cigarette addiction bring to us. One will go to an extent of cutting on their budget for basic needs like food to go take coffee. It therefore leads to lack of proper budget planning and following (Scott, Cynthia, & George, 2008). People can also use budgets to help them plan their expenditure. They need to have their financial goals right and put their eyes on the goals to achieve

Economics and the Governement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Economics and the Governement - Essay Example The government has therefore developed a very extensive and comprehensive plan which seeks to achieve a clean energy future. In a way, the Bill is very clear and concise both from an environmental and economic perspective. The development of this bill was basically a response to the growing concern over climate change especially by international bodies. It is nevertheless realized that Australia is responsible for only 1.5% of the total Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world. However, on scientific grounds, this is not a justification for a slow approach in addressing climate change. In any case, the effects of global warming will be realized by all countries irrespective of their contributions to the whole problem. As such, governments across the world have been enacting such legislation to ensure a reduction in GHG emissions. Australia is one of the largest CHG per capita emitters which create an even greater need for the country to enact and implement a number of domestic leg islation geared towards mitigating emissions (Lockie, 2012). Carbon Price The bill established a fixed carbon price of $23 per ton which falls squarely on some of the largest GHG emitters from 2012 to 2015 after which the price of carbon will basically be flexible through a trading scheme with the market forces being the biggest price determinants. As a result of the increase in the price of carbon, there is a subsequent increase in the prices of carbon-intensive goods and services. Due to these increases, many producers and consumers will be compelled to seek for cheaper alternatives to the carbon-based products. Indeed, according to basic economic theory, there must be a great reduction in the consumption of carbon based products as long as substitutes are available. In a way, this scheme is very successful since the government sets a limit to the annual GHG emission which can always be achieved (Considine, 2012). Indeed, the Carbon Price Mechanism (CPM) is important in a number o f ways. Under the initial flexible price model, there is price certainty since most of the affected parties can accurately predict how much the carbon emissions will cost them for the three years period under operation. In the same way, all the parties down the supply chain of carbon consumption also have a three year period to determine the cost of their emissions. While the initial period focuses on price certainty, the second stage is basically geared towards addressing emission certainty. As such, from 1st July 2015, the government will actually regulate the number of permits given each year so as to cap the country’s net emission. More importantly, considering the few number of permits which shall be granted, they will be auctioned in the market and their prices will therefore be determined by the market forces. With a reduction in the number of permits, companies will definitely a have motivation to trade the excess permits for profits. Under the CPM, a liable entity is one who has an operational control of the facility which is emitting the gasses (Simon, 2011). It is presently estimated that much of the net national emissions results from electricity generation which accounts for 37 percent while industrial fuel consumption accounts for 17 percent. Agricultural and transport have a cumulative

MBTI & decision-making Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MBTI & decision-making - Assignment Example There are certain techniques imperative in the realisation of this ability. Indeed, the ability to classify and recognise the information is one of the greatest challenges in this ability. Decision making requires making proper networks and task analysis. In order to facilitate the realisation of this, it creates the need to attend and address the internal and the external consistencies. Proper decision making also calls for the evaluation of all the relevant facts in order to create the efficiency and effectiveness in the process. In the context of the organisational structure, the making of proper decisions needs to be a methodical process that follows a given pattern. In the practical sense, several techniques are normally imperative in the context of decision making (Brooks 2006). These normally involve backward planning and the use of the PMI technique which provides a clear demonstration of the decision making process. In order to facilitate the process, certain fundamental strengths become very important. This includes the identification of the possible defects and problems and the need to follow up the whole decision making process. Proper judgment also calls for the implementation of the decisions in a timely manner. It is also important to evaluate for the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision am made. I recall being invited to make a decision regarding whether or not to suspend a student who had been caught watching illicit material over the internet while in school. From the outset, it appeared everybody wanted the boy to be kicked out of school. On much scrutiny of the school rules and regulations, I realised that there wasn’t a proper written rule which outlawed such behaviour. I therefore took it upon myself to inundate the members on the invalidity of a decision to suspend the boy yet there wasn’t any proper rule of dealing with such a case. Though it was

The Critical Contextual Studies Media Essay

The Critical Contextual Studies Media Essay Marshall McLuhan wrote of existing in the age of re-tribalised man and residing in the global village. Throughout my research I will examine these concepts in relation to the effects of modern media, especially television and the internet, and how it has changed the way we communicate with others around the world. Canadian born theorist Marashall McLuhan (1911-1980) was an English graduate turned media analisist. His first Popular book the mechanical bride looked at advertising and it was a ground breaking piece of writing as it was the first time that anyone had ever studied advertisments as a form of communication, from then McLuhan had the concept that the content of the media was irrelevant, but the form of which the media took was the importance the medium is the message. The telephone for example as a medium has significant impact on our enviroment and the way we live and communicate however the conversation we have on the telephone affects very few people just as what we print is nothing to the effect of the idea of the printed word. This can be better explained in another quote from McLuhan: the content of a medium is like a juicey piece of meat by the burgular to distract the watchdog of the mindà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without rissistance he recoginised and understood the power of media and argued how it plays an important part in shaping and structuring human culture in terms of the way we communicate and the way we experience the world. we shape our tools and then our tools shape us McLuhan also saw the importance of new media technologies as new media brings new forms of communication. Mcluhan formed the concept of hot media and cool media: In this theory McLuhan gave the lable of hot media to forms of media that stimulate only one of the human senses whilst interacting with it, for example he suggests listeing to the radio or reading a book, watching a film, Viewing a photograph or sitting in a lecture require one sense. However cool media requires more active partisipation this form of media can be Conversation, television, telephone, comics, the seminar. he belives the electonic age offers a more diverse multi sensory environment, he claims we use more of our senses with multimedia rather than singlular media and this makes us more true to our natural state. In this theory Mcluhan looks simplistically to the physical interaction in terms of senses and doesnt acknowledge the engagment the singular media has to our imagination or to our sentiment. Although McLuhan is incredibley insightful he does get critised for not leaving room for evaluation, he looks generally and broadly not looking at individuality or things suc h as values; as indicated in a dibate with Norman Mailer 1968. Re-tribalised Man McLuhan had another theory were he defined three ages of man, separated according to the means of the form of communication (media) used and which of our senses is involed. In this theory McLuhan identifies the first age was the preliterate or tribal era Where the spoken word was the main way to communicate and our hearing was our most important sense, He also identified the second age is the gutenberg Age where the main media was the written word (print) and our sight became more important than our hearing. McLuhan then goes on to suggest the third age is the electronic age of the re-tribalized Man where all our senses are involved in the interaction to the form of media. Mcluhan doesnt suggest the book or the print is not still important, there is just a shift in the nature of the book; by this he means there is change with how we interact with books and how much we depend on it. As the book before digital media was the sourse of all our information about the world and each other. before the book we relied on verbal communication to exchange information to and from each other, it was a communal interactive experience where as the book is a very private experience and he sees we are shifting back to a more social interactive way of sharing information. Mcluhan compares the writen word to an assembley line where words like parts are moving in one diraction and assembled one part at a time and he speaks of how at the time the assembley line has changed where its no longer one component at a time its now as many parts delivered mechanically all at once where ever possible. he says you relise its no longer a line but an open field , He also talkes of the tribal man in this quote The world is like a continually sounding tribal drum constantly bangingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the princess gets married in London bang bang bang we hear about ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Global Village McLuhan saw technology as having become an extension of our senses. McLuhan saw the Radio or Telephone as an extension of the ear and Television and Computer as being the extension of our eyes. These technologies allowed us to project our senses beyond our limited physical range. He saw the pace of which we can communicate through electronic media is parallel to the speed of our senses. Through technology such as the telephone, television, computer systems and the Internet, we are able to Interact with people across the world as quickly as it would take us to contact and converse with the people who inhabit the same physical space as us (i.e the people that live in the same village). To understand what McLuhan means with the term global village we need to identify what he meant by village in this metaphor. In a sense the village represents a small environment in which people can easily communicate and interact quickly and know of all the events that takes place. As McLuhan writes: Time has ceased, space has vanished. We now live in a global village a simultaneous happening McLuhan is communicating the idea that through our extended senses we can now share and experience things on a global scale, we can share things with people on the other side of the world, as if we were with people in the same physical space. McLuhan also saw the global village as a potentially invasive community in an interview McLuhan says: the global village isnt a place where you have harmony. It has extreme concern in everyone elses business and much involvement in everyone elses life. it means huge involvement in everyones affairsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The global village is as big as a planet and as small as a village post office. In many senses I think McLuhan was very insightful when talking about the global village to the shift into the digital age of which we live today, particularly when analyzing the quote above and applying it to social media such as Facebook . On sites like Facebook there is constant dramas and bickering whether this is caused by over sharing some information or people digging into someone elses information, so we can see validation in McLuhans quote. However there are many good qualities to social media too such as being instantly connected to friends and family across the world. I can also see that McLuhan also had something in his idea about certain medias being an extension of our physical selves, although he did not mean it literally one can see that todays generation are constantly attached to their mobile phones, although its not actually physically part of us we are rarely without it as if it were a detachable appendage. The device is kept at hand like a pair of glasses. I think McLuhan is not only correct when talking about the computer or telephone but also television, I think it can allow us to experience the world and some situations as close as we can without physically being there, like living life looking through a window we get to see what world wide tragedies are being broadcast in the news as if we were there viewing it for ourselves. With television we can get to experience a reality from a distance.