Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Public Health - Essay Example blishment of health care organizations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the government has been able to provide effective guidelines to the communities. This paper seeks to identify five areas of public health guidance that are provided by NICE on type 2 diabetes. Additionally, the paper will also discuss the role of other organizations in producing the guidance as well as evaluation of the social, political, economical and environmental aspects facilitating the public health guidance. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence aims at providing national guidance to improve health and social care. Having being formed in 1999 as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, NICE is a non departmental public body that is under the department of health in UK (Sorenson et al, 2009). The renaming of National Institute for Clinical Excellence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence came about in 2013 after the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. NICE undertakes it duties by three notable ways. First, it embarks on providing evidence based guidance as well as advice for health to the social care practitioners and public health officials (Blustein, 2006). Secondly, NICE engages in developing quality standards and metrics that are used by those providing social care services and public health. Thirdly, the organization provides a range of information that across the spectrum of health care services. Since it was established in 1999 as National Institute for Clinical Excellence as indicated earlier, NICE has provided wide range of advice of effective as well as good value healthcare. During the month of April 2013, NICE was provided with a new duty that entailed providing guidance for the individuals working in a social care. Apart from encouraging healthy living to United Kingdom residents, NICE guidance emulates the necessary standards for quality health care (Boseley and Sparrow, 2008). Some of

Sport Utility Vehicle and Mercedes Essay Example for Free

Sport Utility Vehicle and Mercedes Essay 1. What is the decision facing Mercedes? Mercedes must determine how to market the BlueHybrid and the so-called mild hybrid the ML450 to the United States market, while competing with Toyota and Honda. Mercedes also needs to be concerned with making sure that they keep their existing customers, while transitioning into the green marketplace. 2. What factors are most important in understanding this decision situation? Consumers are attracted to Mercedes-Benz for the vehicles’ luxury, design, safety, and powerful engines that have excellent handling and acceleration. The performance that Mercedes is known for must not be lost in a hybrid or of a mild hybrid. The marketers need to ensure that all the reasons that consumers are attracted to Mercedes stay the same and maybe even add a bit of â€Å"green† to it. However, customers are not going to want to pay $80,000 to $90,000 for a hybrid SUV that shutters when transitioning from gas to electric. 3. What are the alternatives? Mercedes must determine how it is going to represent its brand. Is it the well known for fast well built cars with little concern for family vehicles and gas mileage or will they blend the two and use their â€Å"brand† to bring new people and existing customers to a green vehicle with the newly developed lithium-ion battery? 4. What are the decisions you recommend? I think that the challenge of Mercedes is that they are so well know for crafting excellent vehicles that when considering branching out into new technology with a new market potential, with expansion of American facilities, there creeps in the decline of the brand. What if the hybrids and mild-hybrid fail? What will it do to the brand? I recommend that Mercedes enter into the SUV marketing with this hybrid technology on a low-scale, marketing to the environmentally green customer and see what the response is, as well as the performance of the vehicles. 5. What are some of the ways to implement your recommendations? Mercedes has to ensure that the market research shows the consumer desire to match in order to introduce a hybrid luxury SUV to the United States market. Marketers must target the most viable customer base that will be thought to purchase the luxury SUVs. Mercedes will need to use its branding in commercials, television shows and the standard billboards around town to get the vehicles into the public’s awareness. Bibliography Michael Levens (2012). Marketing: Defined, Explained, Applied, Second Edition (text and case book).

King Lear :: William Shakespeare Literature Essays

King Lear, Abbey exhibited King Lear, another of his large, dramatic pictures, at the Royal Academy in 1898; the painting was accompanied in the catalog by these lines from Act I, scene i: Ye jewels of our father, with washed eyes Cordelia leaves you. I know what you are; And, like a sister, am most loth to call Your faults as they are named. Love well our father. To your professed bosoms I commit him. But yet, alas! stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place. So farewell to you both. The critics saw much to like in Abbey's King Lear. The reviewer for The Art Journal (1898, p. 176) comments especially on the bold use of color and the grouping of the figures on the canvas: If the admirers of Mr. Abbey felt that the note of the superbly dramatic 'Richard III.' was not repeated with similar force in last year's 'Hamlet and Ophelia,' all doubts should be set at rest by the barbaric majesty of the Scene from 'Lear,' a subject which, under the title of 'Cordelia's Portion,' inspired Madox Brown to the production of one of his finest compositions. The dominant figure in Mr. Abbey's commanding decoration is Cordelia, and it is impossible to resist the colour-charm in which she is invested. Her yellow-green vestment with the deep blue border set against the green robe of France, and opposed to the menacing reds and blacks of Goneril and Regan, is a triumph of originality. As in Richard III. there is a strong suggestion motion, and the drooping figure of Lear sustained by his pages and followed by his men-at-arms from the left to right of the canvas gives this note. The dramatic figure of the sisters in the attitudes of dignified indifference and mock courtesy are splendidly realized, and the foot-light effect discernible throughout the picture certainly adds to the intenseness of the composition. Unmistakably in this important group, Mr. Abbey has reached a very high level and is going far to prove, by this magnificent series of object lessons, that his decorative style is capable of giving the fullest expression of dramatic motives. "H. S.," the reviewer for The Spectator (May 14, 1898, p. 694), also remarks on the "audacity of the colour" and judges the effects "gorgeous and beautiful." "The truth of the gestures," he adds, "are as finely conceived as are the combinations of scarlet and purple black crimson and sea-green.

Is animal research in psychology ethical and necessary? Essay

Animals are living organisms that belong to the Animalia kingdom. These are classified as multicellular, meaning that their biological bodies is composed of many cells that interact to each other to perform biological processes. There are certain characteristics of animals that differ with other living organisms. Cell wall is not present in the cell of an animal unlike on plants. As mentioned earlier, animals are classified as eukaryotic which distinguish them from bacteria and protists. They digest their foods in a digestive system which separate from plants and algae. The body structures of animals of different species are almost the same. If not, they have many in common. The basic unit of life is cell. Cells work depending on their work. There are cells that manage the formation of blood while there are cells that control the formation and development of bones. Cells of the same structure and work will form larger organic system which is called the tissues (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1997). The work of tissue will depend on what kind of cell it was formed. After this stage, the lager stage which is composed of groups of tissues is called organs. Example of an organ is the eye. Eye is the sensory organ for sight. Animals use their eyes to see what is around them. The eye is composed of different cells and tissues. These cells and tissues interact together so that the animal can see the surrounding. And the last stage is called the system. System is composed on interrelated organs. Example of an animal biological system is the digestive system. It is composed of stomach, large and small intestines, esophagus and other organs. The digestive system works as the digester of the food that was eaten by an animal. The digestion process occurs at the digestion chamber which is the stomach. This stomach is composed of tissue muscles and muscle cells (Nielsen, 2001). Research Research is a human activity that is based from scientific method that seeks or wants to discover anything. In making a study or experiment, one must research existing knowledge or newly discovered facts that will aid in the conduct of the study or experiment. In doing a research study or experiment, the first thing to do is to determine the problem that wants to be solved. This is also known as the topic of the study. After this is the formation of the hypothesis. Hypothesis is an intelligent guess. You must test the hypothesis to determine the solution on the problem or the topic. The next thing to do is the gathering of the relevant data. These data will be used to support the discussion part of the research activity. Analysis of the gathered data will show how the data will affect the decision on the acceptance of the hypothesis. And the last part of a research method is the conclusion. In this part, the significance of the hypothesis is determined. This will show if the hypothesis will be accepted or rejected (Trochim, 2006). Psychology Psychology is the study of human behavior that uses interdisciplinary principles like science and mental processes. It is a branch of behavioral science. It deals on studying the behavior of human in social dynamics while incorporating physiological and neurological processes into its conceptions of mental functioning. Psychology tries to explain the complex behavior of the human mind that controls all the action and behavior of a person. All the factors are considered in this area of knowledge like the physical, social, political, and spiritual aspects of human. (Miller, 1890) Ethics Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the study of human values and customs. In this area of knowledge, the difference between good and bad, right and wrong are being emphasized. Ethical issues are usually encountered on people with profession. Ethical standards are set from different profession. These ethical standards will guide people in conducting and performing their duty. The ethical standards are usually based on right, good and norms. There are different ethical standards for different fields or professions (Perle, 2004). Alarming issue-The conservatives In the advent of the 19th century, technology had been an efficient tool in making the lives of human simpler and easier. Also, there was an obvious trend in the development of technology. Products of the technology today are smaller, faster, lightweight and more efficient compared to other products that were invented before the advancement of technology. In the agriculture sector, genetically modified corns are now popular. The new invented corn has many advantages compared to the traditional corn that is use in many corn plantations. Genetically modified corn has high resistant to pest infestation. Also, higher production is acquired when genetically modified corn is used by a farmer because corn kernel produced by a single corn is higher than on a normal corn. Thus many framers now are using the hybrid corn to increase their profit. Another product of the advancement of technology is Dolly. Dolly is a sheep that was cloned. In the 1990s, cloning was one of the focuses of many scientists. They modify the genetic makeup of a living organism and then cloning the original organism to produce an identical one. And the first living thing to be cloned was a sheep. On the two examples above, many conservative sectors were alarmed on the capability of technology to modify living organism. They said that it is not ethical to produce other living things because only the Creator must do that. Another ethical issue tat concern living organism is the research on animals’ psychology. In this paper, deep analysis will be done to justify why there is a need for animals in research of psychology. Why animals? Today, animals are being examined and experimented to determine their behavior when an external force is applied to them. This kind of research is popular on the field of psychology and medicine. An example in the medicine field is the determination of the effects of a newly discovered medicine drug. Scientists observe the effect of the drug by applying it to an animal. Another animal research used in medicine or science is Dolly. Scientist tests whether they can clone an animal and also, further studied if Dolly is identical to the original sheep. In psychology, animals are being examined to determine their behavior when something in their environment changed. They examine the behavior of an animal to understand complex behavior of man. In this way, psychologist can gain basic knowledge on the learning processes and motivational systems, such as hunger, thirst, and reproduction. Animal research has provided critical information about the sensory processes of vision, taste, hearing, and pain perception. But for all the living organisms, why is animal used in research in psychology instead of plants or humans? This question will try to be answered as the discussion will flow. Until now, the debate between the animal conservatives and the psychologist is still on going. The former contradicts to the latter in a way that why are animals used in many research just to discover and understand the behavior of man and why not human be the focus on research? The main reason why animals are preferred to be examined than human is the ethical issues concerning on the rights of every all people living in this world that is- the right to chose what kind of life they want. But how about on the side of animals? Do they have no right to have normal life? This is the main argument of the psychologists and animal protectors. According to recent studies, animal research had brought many finding and basic knowledge about the behavior of man (â€Å"Why animal experimentation persists,† 2007). As mentioned earlier, animal research had brought and understand deep behavioral principles that links animals to man. It leads to the development of effective methods for promoting learning and self-reliance in a wide variety of populations. Animal research has contributed also to treatment of difficult clinical problems such as controlling self- injurious behavior in autistic children and adults and teaching children who have been tube-fed since birth to eat normally (Association, 2007b). Other significant contributions of animal research in psychology is the knowledge acquired o the effects of psychoactive drugs and environmental toxicants, and other chemicals that are utilized by man (Association, 2007a). This is why animals are use in many research psychologies instead of man because the experiment may change the behavior of a person and this will not permit by the human rights law. Also, if these psychoactive drugs and environmental toxicants are used on human, death may be a result of the experiment. When research on psychology is being discussed, animal as the material in the experiment is always the talk of the town. But there are also some areas where the use of man is more preferred than on animals in studying the human behavior. One example is the human behavior on love. Though animals also feels affection, human are more reliable when love or affection is the focus of the study. This is one of the examples were human research in psychology is more preferred than on the use of animals in the laboratory. Another main reason why there are such studies that needs to be done with the use of animals as their samples. One main reason is the duty to the field of science. Every experiment using a animal must have a relevant purpose or objective to justify the need for an animal to be part of the experiment. One kind of purpose is the increase in knowledge in a specific field. Many psychologists do research on behavioral science to gain more knowledge that will help them in understanding the complex structure of the human behavior. Though the main focus of many psychologists on their research is the human behavior, they used animals because animals and humans have high resemblance in their characteristics, this maybe physical, emotional and behavioral aspect. As mentioned by Darwin in his theory of Evolution, he emphasized that animals’ continuity in evolution is human. When animals are used in research in psychology, which will bring better understanding on the human behavior, the findings will be used to answer many behavioral problems. This is one of the reasons why there are such studies that are being done, to help in solving psychological problems of human. This is because there are people suffering from serious behavioral syndrome. In this way, the findings in research on animals can help to solve the problem mentioned. This will benefit the welfare or health of human as well the animals (Association, 2007b). Benefits vs. Cost When attempting to conduct a research study using animals, it takes many financial resources just to start as well to finish the research. Take for example in the experiment on a mouse. The mouse cost about $200 million. This is just only the animal that will be used in the experiment, the laboratory is another source of cost. When doing research in animals, the laboratory is very special in a way that the instruments that are utilized are different when compared to a normal laboratory. In a rat experiment, the materials and instruments will cost for about $4,500. 00. Though many psychologists and researchers as well as the government allots large funds for a single experiment, the knowledge that is acquired after the experiment will compensate the cost of the experiment. The knowledge that was gain will be used in many applications like in medicine so that to lessen the dependence on medical health program. Also, theses knowledge will be used to understand further human behavior so that to minimize human behavior syndrome. Ethical Issues There are sectors in a society where they protect the welfare of animals. They want to preserve the biological structure of animal. They believe that animals have also rights to live in normal life. But still there are many research studies on animals on psychology. Because of this issue, many psychologists proposed to have ethical standards when one wants to conduct an experiment on animals. These ethical standards will guide anyone who wants to conduct a research study. Violation on the standards would mean fine or punishment. Another way to protect research animals is the creation of law. The most popular law that protects animals on further abuse is the Animal Welfare Act, most recently amended in 1985. This law will protect research animals on mistreatment. In this act also, the instruments that are utilized will be check regularly and if the instruments still follow the standards set by the said law (Association, 2007b). Many safeguards exist to assure that laboratory animals receive humane and ethical treatment. Care and use of animals in research are regulated and monitored by various government agencies. Institutions in which research with animals is conducted have federally mandated review committees (Association, 2007b). One of the most popular animal researches is the Skinner’s rat. Skinner is a well known psychologist ad was faculty in Harvard University. He studied the behavior of a rate so that to understand better the human behavior (BF, 1953). He emphasized that animal research is simpler to conduct than on human because the behavior of animals are simple to understand than of the human. Another advantage of animal research on human research is that the outside factors that can affect the result of the study can be controlled. He said that is you want to examine the sight of a rat; you must first study its behavior in a dark place and compare its behavior in an illuminated place (Ulrich, 2007). The Impact At the start of animal research to further understand human behavior, it received many controversies. One is the issue the right to live in normal life. The sectors that protect the welfare of animals argue that all living organisms must be treated equally and that all have the right to live. They said that mistreating animals is not a humane way. Another impact of animal research is the high cost in conducting the said research. The conservative group argues that instead of using the large amount of money in a non sense research, why not to government programs that will lessen the problem of a given country like the investment on high technology instruments to be used like computers (Kenneth J. Shapiro, 2007). Another question of the conservative groups is; are there any other way except on the use of animals on research to understand human behavior? Today, plants are now being considered to be one of the options when conducting research study. With the use of fast and sophisticated computers, the knowledge can be gained. Conclusion Animal research on psychology had gained many negative feedbacks because of the ethical issue behind. Many conservative groups want to protect the welfare of animals by not allowing animal research to conduct. Still there are many animal researches in the world. This is because psychologist wants to gain knowledge on human behavior. Is animal research in psychology ethical and necessary? Animal research is essential because the result that will be gained after the research compensate the negative feedbacks. Though there are ethical issues surrounding animal research, psychologists are now trying to follow ethical standards when they are conduction experiment. This is to ensure the welfare and humane treatment of the animals being experimented. References: Association, A. P. (2007a). The Importance of Laboratory Animal Research in Psychology: Psychopharmacology [Electronic Version]. Retrieved October 25, 2007, Association, A. P. (2007b). Research With Animals in Psychology [Electronic Version]. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www. apa. org/science/animal2.html BF, S. (1953). Beyond Freedom and Dignity: New York. Kenneth J. Shapiro, P. (2007). Animal Models of Human Psychology Critique of Science, Ethics and Policy [Electronic Version]. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www. psyeta. org/animalmodels. html Miller, G. A. (1890). The Principles of Psychology: Harvard University Press. Nielsen, K. (2001). Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla (2nd edition ed. ): Oxford Univ. Press. Perle, S. (2004). Morality and Ethics: An Introduction. : Butchvarov, Panayot. Schmidt-Nielsen, K.(1997). Animal Physiology: Adaptation and Environment. (5th edition ed. ): Cambridge Univ. Press. Trochim, W. M. K. (2006). Structure of Research: Research Methods Knowledge Base. Ulrich, R. E. (2007). Animal Research in Psychology: An Example of Reinforced Behavior [Electronic Version]. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www. curedisease. com/Perspectives/vol_3_1991/psych. html Why animal experimentation persists [Electronic. (2007). Version]. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://www. curedisease. com/why_animal_experimentation_persists. pdf.

For the Benefit of the Child Essay

Jonathan Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† – applied to modern times – is focused on the idea that distribution of wealth is necessary for the future of the child living on welfare. But, what if there is very little or no money available to the child (through the government) to pursue his or her studies? The poor child, if he or she goes to school, would lag in the classroom for the reason that his or her parents cannot spend sufficient time to teach him after school. Children are applied to menial jobs, too, especially in the developing world. The developed world has had its indecent share of child labor in the past. When Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† was first published, there were far too many problems facing the child in the now-developed world. Although many of those problems were resolved as education yielded dividends in the now-civilized world – there are problems facing the poor child still. These problems are not limited by space and time. It is therefore essential to consider the problematic issues facing the poor child in the modern world. This exercise is meant to increase our timeless appreciation of â€Å"A Modest Proposal. † After all, poor children around the world continue to face the troubles confronted by the poor child of Swift’s time. George Orwell was correct when he wrote that â€Å"All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others,† actually referring to human beings whom scientists refer to as animals (5). Throughout the history of humanity, people have generally known that they were created equal. And yet, there have been separations, discriminations, dissimilarities, and inequalities, for the reason that God, Nature or Evolution – depending on what we choose to believe in – did not grant equal abilities, talents, and gifts to all human beings. Some men are richer and more intelligent than the others. Some are born deaf, dumb, and blind. And, some must rely on income support because they just cannot beat poverty on their own. But, what if income support is insufficient to meet the child’s intellectual needs? What if he or she is potentially brilliant but cannot do so well in the classroom because his parents cannot buy him books to read in the home? According to the United States Bureau of Census, the most recent poverty rates of children are higher than ever. A large percentage of children in the classroom are coming from low socioeconomic households. And, a huge amount of research has shown that a child’s socioeconomic status affects his or her intelligence level as well as academic achievement (Milne and Plourde). Vail writes that children from high poverty environments â€Å"enter school less ready to learn, and they lag behind their more-affluent classmates in their ability to use language to solve problems (12). † What is more, children’s socioeconomic status has been found to affect their consistency of attending academic institutions, in addition to the number of formal education years they eventually complete. Many researchers believe that there is a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Still, Caldwell and Ginther have reported that â€Å"[w]hile low-SES is highly correlated with low achievement, some low-SES students are academically successful (142). † Then again, the words ‘vicious cycle’ are often used when poverty is discussed. In a groundbreaking ethnographic study, Milne and Plourde discovered that children from low socioeconomic households who do well at school have parents who make sure that their children have educational materials available at home. All low socioeconomic families with children who are high achievers at school have books and writing materials for their children at home, even if these families have to rely on support systems to supply them with educational materials. What is more, these families have time allotted every day for their children to engage in academic activities, including homework, with their parents’ participation. These families also believe in monitoring the use of television by their children (Milne and Plourde). All of the mothers in this study had at least completed tenth grade in school, and expressed that they would like their children to know the importance of education too. The parents of these children openly talked about the importance of education with their children. Finally, they all agreed that they did not want their children to believe that schooling was an option. Rather, education was considered a necessity in these homes (Milne and Plourde). All the same, such families are few indeed. Not all poor children have mothers that show interest in education. Similarly, a poor child’s needs may be disregarded completely if his or her parents are alcoholics that use up all income support on liquor. After all, there are frustrations in the poor child’s home, and these may take the form of drug abuse or domestic violence. If not, a poor child’s parents may send him off to work. Swift’s scenario for the poor child may take another shape in India, for example. In that part of the developing world, poverty is intense, with 41 percent of the world’s poor. So therefore parents encourage their children to work instead of going to school. The policy of the Indian government on child labor has evolved over many years. The country did not find it possible to ban all forms of child labor at once, seeing that working children contribute greatly to household income. Besides, the country finds that children contribute to economic growth, being the cheapest labor force (Krueger and Tjornhom). As mentioned previously, child labor laws took time to develop in the now-developed countries, too. Children were recognized as economic assets before regulations stepped in to either stop the employment of children altogether or vastly reduce their representation in the labor force. As an example, Bradbury, in her book, Working Families: Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal, takes the reader down Montreal’s streets and into the dwellings of working class families who helped shape Canada’s industrial revolution. The lives of working men, women, and children have all been documented (Bradbury). If Swift’s child enters their lives, he or she would be a welcome part of the working family described by Bradbury. Likewise, McIntosh, working at the National Archives of Canada, has produced a well-documented book on child labor during the 19th and early 20th centuries: Boys in the Pits: Child Labour in Coal Mines. The book is an exploration of the history of boys between the ages of 8 and 15 who labored hard in the mines and were known only for their work. Such children may also join Swift’s circle of little friends in â€Å"A Modest Proposal. † The fact remains that children continue to be disproportionately hurt by poverty in our time – of sports cars, rockets, and lots more. If properly trained, many of the same children may add great value to our world. But, there are problems such as poverty and illiteracy that refuse to go away. No matter how one tries to attack poverty, it takes a U-turn to complete its cycle after cycle. Swift’s â€Å"A Modest Proposal† takes such a dismal view of poverty with an electrifying hope, which the author displayed through satire. On a similar note, it is possible to suppose that the vicious cycle of poverty would break once and for all, at some point in time, for all poor children of the world. Regardless of our beliefs about the reasons for poverty, the government has shouldered the responsibility to care for the poor by spending a part of its spending budget on income support programs such as social insurance, public assistance, and work/employment programs. In order to raise the standard of living of the poor, the government also considers education as an essential social welfare program. Still, there are poor children with parents that refuse to buy them books and other educational materials for use at home, even though the government is providing them with income support. What should the government do in order to break this cycle of illiteracy and poverty combined? – Perhaps a paradigm shift is in order. To provide for and educate every child, it is the government’s responsibility to educate every parent. Perhaps it would take the advertising industry to work alongside the government to boost sales of books instead of booze. For the benefit of the poor child, many changes are called for. Works Cited Bradbury, Bettina. Working Families: Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Caldwell, G. P. , and Ginther, D. W. â€Å"Differences in learning styles of low socioeconomic status for low and high achievers. † Education (1996), 117, pp. 141-148. Krueger, Dirk, and Tjornhom, Jessica. â€Å"Economic Inequality and the Emergence of Child Labor Laws. † Discussion Paper. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (Aug 2002). 11 Nov 2008. . McIntosh, Robert. Boys in the Pits: Child Labour in Coal Mines. Montreal, Quebec: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2000. Milne, Allison, & Plourde, Lee A. â€Å"Factors of a Low-SES Household: What Aids Academic Achievement? † Journal of Instructional Psychology (Sep 2006). Orwell, G. Animal Farm. London: Secker and Warburg, 1945. Vail, K. â€Å"Grasping what kids need to raise performance. † The Education Digest (2004), 69, pp. 12-25.

Profile of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal

Profile of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal Portugal is a country that has no coast along the Mediterranean Sea, only the Atlantic Ocean, so the countrys advances in worldwide exploration centuries ago may come as no surprise. That said, it was the passion and goals of one man who truly moved Portuguese exploration forward, the man known as Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460). Formally, he was Henrique, duque de Viseu, senhor da Covilh. Fast Facts: Prince Henry the Navigator Known For:  He founded an institute for explorers, and people from around the world visited to learn about the latest discoveries in geography and navigation technology.Born:  1394 in Porto, PortugalParents:  King John I of Portugal, Philippa of Lancaster, of EnglandDied:  1460 in Sagres, PortugalSpouse: NoneChildren: None Although Prince Henry never sailed on any of his expeditions and rarely left Portugal, he became known as Prince Henry the Navigator because of his patronage of explorers, who increased the worlds known geographic information through the sharing of knowledge and by sending expeditions to places previously uncharted. Early Life Prince Henry was born in 1394 as the third son of King John I (King Joao I) of Portugal. At the age of 21, in 1415, Prince Henry commanded a military force that captured the Muslim outpost of Ceuta, located on the south side of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the northern tip of the African continent and bordering Morocco. It became Portugals first overseas territory. On this expedition, the prince learned about gold routes and became fascinated with Africa. The Institute at Sagres Three years later, Prince Henry founded his navigational institute at Sagres on the southwestern-most point of Portugal, Cape Saint Vincent- a place ancient geographers referred to as the western edge of the earth. The institute, best described as a 15th-century research and development facility, included libraries, an astronomical observatory, shipbuilding facilities, a chapel, and housing for staff. The institute was designed to teach navigational techniques to Portuguese sailors, to collect and disseminate geographical information about the world, to invent and improve navigational and seafaring equipment, and to sponsor expeditions. Prince Henrys school brought together some of the leading geographers, cartographers, astronomers, and mathematicians from throughout Europe to work at the institute. When people returned from voyages, they brought back with them information about currents, winds- and could improve existing maps and seafaring equipment. A new type of ship, called a caravel, was developed at Sagres. It was fast and was much more maneuverable than prior types of boats, and though they were small, they were quite functional. Two of Christopher Columbus ships, the Nina and the Pinta, were caravels (the Santa Maria was a carrack). Caravels were dispatched south along the western coast of Africa. Unfortunately, a major obstacle along the African route was Cape Bojador, southeast of the Canary Islands (located in Western Sahara). European sailors were afraid of the cape, for supposedly to its south lay monsters and insurmountable evils. It also hosted some challenging seas: tough waves, currents, shallows, and weather. Expeditions: Goals and Reasons Prince Henrys expeditionary goals were to increase navigational knowledge along the western coast of Africa and find a water route to Asia, to increase trade opportunities for Portugal, to find gold to provide the trips own funding, to spread Christianity around the world, and defeat Muslims- and perhaps even to find Prester John, a legendary wealthy priest-king thought to reside somewhere in Africa or Asia. The Mediterranean and other ancient East sea routes were controlled by the Ottoman Turks and Venetians, and the breakup of the Mongol Empire made some known land routes unsafe. Thus came the motivation to find new water routes heading East. Exploring Africa Prince Henry sent 15 expeditions to navigate south of the cape from 1424 to 1434, but each returned with its captain giving excuses and apologies for not having passed the dreaded Cape Bojador. Finally, in 1434 Prince Henry sent Captain Gil Eannes (who had previously attempted the Cape Bojador voyage) south; this time, Captain Eannes sailed to the west prior to reaching the cape and then headed eastward after passing the cape. Thus, none of his crew saw the dreadful cape, and it had been successfully passed, without catastrophe befalling the ship. This was the first European expedition to sail past this point and successfully return. Following the successful navigation south of Cape Bojador, exploration of the African coast continued. In 1441, Prince Henrys caravels reached Cape Blanc (the cape where Mauritania and Western Sahara meet). The expedition brought back some blacks as exhibits of interest to show the prince. One negotiated his and his sons release by promising several slaves upon their safe return home. And so it began. The first 10 slaves arrived in 1442. Then it was 30 in 1443. In 1444, Captain Eannes brought a boatload of 200 slaves back to Portugal. In 1446, Portuguese ships reached the mouth of the Gambia River. They were the first Europeans to sail that, too. In 1460 Prince Henry the Navigator died, but work continued at Sagres under the direction of Henrys nephew, King John II of Portugal. The institutes expeditions continued to venture south, then rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed to the east and throughout Asia over the next few decades. The European Age of Discovery and Its Aftereffects The 100-year period from the mid-15th century to the mid-16th is called the European Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration, when Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France sent out voyages to previously unknown lands and claim their resources for their country. The cheapest labor to work on plantations for crops such as sugar, tobacco, or cotton were slaves, brought on a triangular trade route, one brutal leg of which was known as the middle passage. Countries that are former colonies still suffer the aftereffects today, especially in Africa, where there is poor or inconsistent infrastructure in many areas. Some of the countries just gained their independence in the 20th century. Sources Dowling, Mike. Prince Henry the Navigator. MrDowling.com. https://www.mrdowling.com/609-henry.html.â€Å"Henry the Navigator.†Ã‚  Biography.com, AE Networks Television, 16 Mar. 2018, www.biography.com/people/henry-the-navigator.Henry the Navigator.  Encyclopedia of World Biography.  Encyclopedia.com.  https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/spanish-and-portuguese-history-biographies/henry-navigator.Henry the Navigator Facts. YourDictionary.com. http://biography.yourdictionary.com/henry-the-navigator.History. Sagres.net. Allgarve, Promo Sangres, and Municipia do Bispo. sagres.net/history.htm.Nowell, Charles E., and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. â€Å"Henry the Navigator.†Ã‚  Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Inc., 12 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-the-Navigator.The Portuguese Role in Exploring and Mapping the New World. Library of Congress. loc.gov/rr/hispanic/portam/role.html.Prince Henry the Navigator. PBS. https://www.pbs.org /wgbh/aia/part1/1p259.html.

How to Decide Between the IELTS or TOEFL Exams

How to Decide Between the IELTS or TOEFL Exams Congratulations! You are now ready to take an important internationally recognized exam in order to prove your mastery of the English language. The only problem is that there are a number of exams to choose from! Two of the most important exams are the TOEFL and the IELTS. Often it is the students choice as to which one they want to take since both exams are accepted as meeting the entry requirements for academic settings. However, in some cases, the IELTS is requested for visa purposes to Canadian or Australian immigration. If this is not the case, you have even more to choose from and may want to review this guide to choosing an Engish test before you decide on the IELTS or TOEFL. Deciding Which One to Take Here are some points to take into consideration before you decide whether to take the IELTS or the TOEFL exam. These questions are very important because the IELTS exam is maintained by the University of Cambridge, whereas the TOEFL exam is provided by ETS, a US company based in New Jersey. Both tests are also different in how the test is administered. Take note of your answers: Do you need the IELTS or the TOEFL for academic English? If you need the IELTS or TOEFL for academic English, then keep answering these questions. If you dont need the IELTS or TOEFL for academic English, for example for immigration, take the general version of the IELTS. It is much easier than either the IELTS academic version or the TOEFL!Are you more comfortable with North American or British/UK accents? If you have more experience with British English (or Australian English), take the IELTS as vocabulary and accents tend more towards British English. If you watch a lot of Hollywood movies and like US idiomatic language, choose the TOEFL as it reflects American English.Do you feel more comfortable with a wide range of North American vocabulary and idiomatic expressions or British English vocabulary and idiomatic expressions? Same answer as above! IELTS for British English TOEFL for American English.Can you type relatively fast? As you will read below in the section on key differen ces between the IELTS or TOEFL, the TOEFL requires that you type your essays in the written section of the test. If you type very slowly, we would strongly recommend taking the IELTS as you handwrite your essay responses. Do you want to finish the test as quickly as possible? If you become extremely nervous during a test and want the experience to end as quickly as posable, the choice between IELTS or TOEFL is easier. The TOEFL lasts approximately four hours, whereas the IELTS is significantly shorter - about 2 hours 45 minutes. Remember, however, that shorter does not necessarily mean easier!Do you feel comfortable with a wide range of question types? The TOEFL exam is made up of almost entirely multiple choice questions. The IELTS, on the other hand, has a much wider range of question types including multiple choice, gap fill, matching exercises, etc. If you do NOT feel comfortable with multiple choice questions, the TOEFL is not the test for you.Are you proficient at taking notes? Note taking is important on both the IELTS and the TOEFL. However, it is much more critical on the TOEFL exam. As you will read below, the listening section, in particular, depends on note-taking skills in the TOEFL as yo u answer questions after you have listened to a longer selection. The IELTS asks you to answer questions as you listen to the exam. Major Differences Reading:TOEFL - You will have 3 to 5 reading selections of twenty minutes each. Reading materials are academic in nature. Questions are multiple choice.IELTS - 3 reading selections of twenty minutes each. Materials are, as in the case of the TOEFL, related to an academic setting. There are multiple type questions (gap fill, matching, etc.)Listening:TOEFL - The listening selection very different from the IELTS. In the TOEFL, you will have 40 to 60 minutes worth of listening selections from lectures or campus conversations. Take notes and respond to multiple choice questions.IELTS - The largest difference between the two exams is in listening. In the IELTS exam, there are a wider variety of question types, as well as exercises of differing lengths. You will answer questions as you move through the listening selection of the test.Writing:TOEFL - Two written tasks are required on the TOEFL and all writing is done on the computer. Task one involves writing a five-paragraph essay of 300 to 350 words. Note taking is important as the second task asks you to take notes from a reading selection in a textbook and then a lecture on the same topic. You are then asked to respond using notes by writing a 150- to 225-word selection integrating both the reading and listening selection.IELTS - The IELTS also has two tasks: the first a short essay of 200 to 250 words. The second IELTS writing task asks you to look at an infographic such as a graph or chart and summarize the information presented. Speaking:TOEFL - Once again the speaking section differs greatly between the TOEFL and the IELTS exams. On the TOEFL you are asked to record responses on the computer of 45 to 60 seconds to six different questions based on short descriptions/conversations. The speaking section of the test lasts 20 minutes.IELTS - The IELTS speaking section lasts from 12 to 14 minutes and takes place with an examiner, rather than a computer as on the TOEFL. There is a short warm-up exercise consisting mainly of small talk, followed by a response to some sort of visual stimulus and, finally, a more extended discussion on a related topic.

Major General Romeyn B. Ayres in the Civil War

Major General Romeyn B. Ayres in the Civil War Romeyn Ayres - Early Life Career: Born at East Creek, NY on December 20, 1825, Romeyn Beck Ayres was the son of a doctor.  Educated locally, he obtained an extensive knowledge of Latin from his father who insisted that he study the language relentlessly.  Seeking a military career, Ayres received an appointment to West Point in 1843.  Arriving at the academy, his classmates included  Ambrose Burnside, Henry Heth, John Gibbon, and Ambrose P. Hill.  Despite his grounding in Latin and previous education, Ayres proved an average student at West Point and graduated ranked 22nd of 38 in the Class of 1847.  Made a brevet second lieutenant, he was assigned to the 4th US Artillery.   As the United States was engaged in the Mexican-American War, Ayres joined his unit in Mexico later that year.  Traveling south, Ayres spent the majority of his time in Mexico serving in garrison duty at Puebla and Mexico City.  Returning north after the conflict ended, he moved through a variety of peacetime posts on the frontier before reporting to Fort Monroe for duty at the artillery school in 1859.  Developing a reputation as social and considerate individual, Ayres remained at Fort Monroe into 1861.  With the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and start of the Civil War that April, he received a promotion to captain and assumed command of a battery in the 5th US Artillery. Romeyn Ayres - Artilleryman: Attached to Brigadier General Daniel Tylers division, Ayres battery took part in the Battle of Blackburns Ford on July 18.  Three days later, his men were present at the First Battle of Bull Run but were initially held in reserve.  As the Union position collapsed, Ayres gunners distinguished themselves in covering the armys retreat.  On October 3, he received an assignment to serve as chief of artillery for Brigadier General William F. Smiths division.  In this role, Ayres traveled south in the spring to take part in Major General George B. McClellans Peninsula Campaign.  Moving up the Peninsula, he participated in the Siege of Yorktown and advance on Richmond.  In late June, as General Robert Lee moved to the offensive, Ayres continued to provide reliable service in resisting Confederate assaults during the Seven Days Battles. That September, Ayres moved north with the Army of the Potomac during the Maryland Campaign.  Arriving at the Battle of Antietam on September 17 as part of VI Corps, he saw little action and remained largely in reserve.  Later that fall, Ayres received a promotion to brigadier general on November 29 and assumed command of all VI Corps artillery.  At the Battle of Fredericksburg the following month, he directed his guns from positions on Stafford Heights as the armys assaults moved forward.  A short time later, Ayres suffered an injury when his horse fell.  While on sick leave, he resolved to leave the artillery as infantry officers received promotions at a faster rate.   Romeyn Ayres - Changing Branches: Asking for a transfer to the infantry, Ayres request was granted and on April 21, 1863 he received command of the 1st Brigade in Major General George Sykes division of V Corps.  Known as the Regular Division, Sykes force was largely composed of regular US Army troops rather than state volunteers.  Ayres took his new command into action on May 1 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.  Initially driving the enemy back, Sykes division was halted by Confederate counterattacks and orders from army command Major General Joseph Hooker.  For the remainder of the battle, it was only lightly engaged.  The following month, the army underwent a rapid reorganization as Hooker was relieved and replaced by V Corps commander Major General George G. Meade.  As part of this, Sykes ascended to corps command while Ayres assumed leadership of the Regular Division. Moving north in pursuit of Lee, Ayres division arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg around midday on July 2.  After a brief rest near Powers Hill, his men were ordered south to reinforce the Union left against an attack by Lieutenant General James Longstreet.  During this time, Sykes detached Brigadier General Stephen H. Weeds brigade to support the defense of Little Round Top while Ayres received a directive to assist Brigadier General John C. Caldwells division near the Wheatfield.  Advancing across the field, Ayres moved into line near Caldwell.  A short time later, the collapse of the Union position in the Peach Orchard to the north compelled Ayres and Caldwells men to fall back as their flank was threatened.  Conducting a fighting retreat, the Regular Division took heavy losses as it move back across the field. Romeyn Ayres - Overland Campaign Later War: Despite having to fall back, Ayres leadership was praised by Sykes following the battle.  After traveling to New York City to aid in suppressing draft riots there later in the month, he led his division during the inconclusive Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns that fall.  In the spring of 1864 when the Army of the Potomac was reorganized following Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grants arrival, the number of corps and divisions was reduced.  As a result, Ayres found himself reduced to leading a brigade largely composed of regulars in Brigadier General Charles Griffins V Corps division.  As Grants Overland Campaign began in May, Ayres men were heavily engaged at the Wilderness and saw action at Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor.  Ã‚   On June 6, Ayres received command of V Corps Second Division as the army began making preparations to shift south across the James River.  Leading his men, he took part in the attacks on Petersburg later that month and the resulting siege.  In recognition of Ayres service during the fighting in May-June, he received a brevet promotion to major general on August 1.  As the siege progressed, Ayres played a central role in the Battle of Globe Tavern in late August and operated with V Corps against the Weldon Railroad.  The following spring, his men contributed to the key victory at Five Forks on April 1 which helped force Lee to abandon Petersburg.  In subsequent days, Ayres led his division during the Appomattox Campaign which resulted in Lees surrender on April 9. Romeyn Ayres - Later Life: In the months after the end of the war, Ayres directed a division in the Provisional Corps before assuming command of the District of the Shenandoah Valley.  Departing this post in April 1866, he was mustered out of the volunteer service and reverted to his regular US Army rank of lieutenant colonel.  Over the next decade, Ayres performed garrison duty at various posts through the South before aiding in suppressing railroad strikes in 1877.  Promoted to colonel and made commander of the 2nd US Artillery in 1879, he later was posted at Fort Hamilton, NY.  Ayres died December 4, 1888 at Fort Hamilton and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  Ã‚   Selected Sources Gettysburg: Romeyn AyresArlington Cemetery: Romeyn AyresFind a Grave - Romeyn Ayres

Peer Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Peer Review - Essay Example Thus three are three broader hypotheses also under which authors attempt to provide a comprehensive view of how the individuals perceive adult development based on their sociological tradition dealing, desirability of the expected change and how it contributes towards development and finally the knowledge that adults hold of the overall development process. The sampling methods adapted were selective sampling method as according to author, the bias towards sampling was necessary. This was necessarily done in order to sample only those respondents who possess the rich vocabulary to describe their beliefs in more eloquent manner. This method therefore allowed researcher to tap the young and educated respondents however, the overall differences in ratings on vocabulary are reported to be minimal within the respondents belonging to different age groups. The overall procedures adapted to gather the data involved mix of the techniques adapted by the researcher. This included oral as well as other means of collecting data under the supervised guidance of the author. Respondents were asked certain questions for rating purposes and the overall results were than analyzed by the authors in order to arrive at a final conclusion. What is also significant to understand that respondents were asked about the different sets of questions within a certain time period i.e. there was two weeks gap between the first and the second session for data gathering by the author. On both the occasions, the procedure was same i.e. respondents were asked to rate certain adjectives in order to understand their perception about the development psychology and underlying hypothesis. The results indicate that there was consensus among the various age group representatives regarding the overall process of adult development. Most of the respondents believed that the

A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki - Essay Example Essentially, Takaki uses this article to explicitly show how the southern plantation owners were determined to replace the â€Å"black† farmers and labourers with the Chinese. This is because they believed that the Chinese were more hardworking and industrious and thus they could teach the â€Å"black† labourers to become equally hardworking and industrious. Comparatively, Takaki uses this article to complicate the commonly held perceptions regarding interracial competition by pointing out that the immigrants from different backgrounds attempted to get along with one another. To explicate, Takaki presents how both the Japanese, Mexican and Asian workers worked unanimously, ignoring their racial problems and differences. In addition, by stating that the Japanese immigrants thought that in America â€Å"money grows in trees,† (Takaki, 1993), Takaki aims to clarify how indeed the immigrants saw America as a land of many opportunities. Bharati Mukherjee, the author of the article â€Å"Jasmine† argues that like the character Jasmine, many immigrant Americans, including her, have tended to present themselves as Americans, cutting off their association with the traditional world which surprisingly predetermines their fate. Generally speaking, after the main character Jasmine losses her husband at a tender age of only seventeen years through a bomb attack (Mkherjee, 1989, p. 12), she is depressed and seems destined to live a solitude and lonely life, in a rural Indian village which is also her birthplace. However, Jasmine has burning desires to explore a more dangerous and larger world. Originally, Jasmine and her husband were planning to move to Florida. Nonetheless, after her husband’s death, Jasmine decides to single-handedly take the long journey.  Notably important, as she travels, Jasmine is faced with many challenges and obstacles thus transforming her into a more adventurous and stressful life.

Sociology - Medical Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sociology - Medical Knowledge - Essay Example Fleck's main assertions came through his assessment of the research done on syphilis. He shows that our "thought style" through the ages accounts for the evolution of syphilis studies. The first thinking was from "mystical-ethical" ideas in which syphilis was thought to have come from both fornication and the position of the stars (White, 2002). The second stage of thought was that syphilis was a reaction to heavy metals such as mercury, which was "empirical-therapeutic" thinking. The third stage developed pathogenic thought that caused "perverted blood" to be the main cause of syphilis. And the last, modern, thought style is that of etiological thinking, which arose through the Wasserman reaction that allowed for syphilis testing to be done. Fleck worked on the last stage and notes how the research that discovered this procedure was based upon all the thought styles that had gone before (ibid.). The culture of the first stage relied heavily on the stars for much of their "research". The culture of the third stage may have come from the socio-political influences of the time, a moral outrage of the times, especially as a result of all the reigning kings that came down with syphilis infections. Our current thinking about syphilis is based on the background and training, according to Fleck, of modern day researchers, including his own. Fleck believed that even the study of bacteriology has been a reflection of our social viewpoint, that it is a social product. He points to common metaphors such as "invading microorganisms invading the body" as being aligned with the expansion of imperialism. It has also been a large concern of militaries throughout centuries of warfare that the soldiers have contracted syphilis. The ways that people also describe bacteria as "demons infecting the person" is a reflection of the impact of religion on the sciences. As another example of Fleck's thoughts on constructed medical knowledge, anatomical drawings through history have reflected the thinking of the era. The ancient drawings depicting skeletons, for instance, showed them as death figures and seemed designed to remind people of their mortality. An emotional element was also included in ancient drawings, such as those of the knee that referred to it as the "site of mercy" (White, 2002). By contrast, modern drawings of the human body draw more from the Industrial Revolution (ibid.) by looking mechanized, such as Descartes clockworks. Bernard Stern showed the opposition to medical practices that we take for granted now when they were first used. Dissection was challenged for the prevailing religious views. Vaccinations were thought to be an unskilled practice not useable by practitioners of their time because they could not charge enough of a fee for them. And the spread of infection by doctors was disputed by doctors because it insulted their professional integrity. The modern thinking that medicines are the only thing to impact the body while inert products do not can be shown to be a constructed piece of medical "knowledge". This "thought collective" does not account for the 90% cure rate of ulcers with placebo (Moerman, 1981). Fleck calls this "the result of Cartesianism, a mind/body dichotomy." Health Promoters' Version of Socially Constructed Health Knowledge Constructionists question the validity of objectivity and factuality in medical knowledge because of the impact of

Quality Management and SMS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quality Management and SMS - Essay Example development of technologies capable of identifying microbial organisms, modernization in packaging of foods and increased awareness on microbiology education to the general public. In conjunction with principles of quality control, these issues should be addressed (Besterfield, 2004). Food poisoning is a result of poor handling of food stuffs by either the customers or employees in an organization. With the rise in food poisoning in the world, food processing organizations have stipulated mechanisms to curb this menace and ensure customer safety. Suppliers are graded and assessed to determine the quality of products they deliver to the plant for processing. This is a supplier manufacturer principle, which depicts that suppliers must be trustworthy and able to deliver quality and cost effective products (Hutter, 2011). Principle of customer focus; this relates to the customer needs and wants. A customer will basically want to consume safe and healthy food. As a manager, there should be concentration on ensuring that the customer is always safe from infections. Packaging of the food is very important since it is what depicts and demonstrates how important and secure the customers feel. Consumer protection authorities also play an important role in the company; often times they come at intervals and check on the processing plants this tends to cement on the work of the operation controller (Besterfield, 2004). Process approach; a serine and performing company will opt to efficiency and effectiveness. The wastes in the company should be properly deposited to avoid breeding grounds for micro-organisms which may in turn be harmful and infectious. Take a case of a cake bakery, the bakery has to ensure that it maintains cleanliness by ensuring that any wastes that may be experienced is dumped in the right place (Hutter, 2011). Continual improvement techniques will help see the company operate in an efficient and clean environment. Machines in a food processing plant

EH&S professional case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

EH&S professional case study - Essay Example This can be done by calling the hazardous material team from 15 miles which is trained under me. Take care no one goes towards the scene. This can be done by being in the vicinity of the accident but also taking full precautions of own self. To do this, I would need to read the instruction of the guide book. Action items - Call the hazardous material team trained in my plant which all necessary equipments. In the meantime, look into the emergency guide and follow the instructions for preventing any damage. Take care that dripping liquid does not flow over to wet ground or does not come in contact with water. To prevent this, guide book can be used. Constraints - I cannot go closer to the scene myself to analyze further. Apart from taking immediate precautions with the help of the book, have to wait for the team to come and take control. Since water is spraying at some distance, it can still reach if the wind fluctuates. Next responders who come to the scene. - For the next responders who come to the scene, I would explain the entire scene to them with the conclusion I derived so that they do not again waste time deciding what it could be. Then I would ask them to further suggest what can be done to prevent any mishap. This is required as the team will take some time to reach from 15 miles The minor error and name of chemical. - The minor error that can be discovered in the explanation is that the color of the liquid should not be red-yellow. It should be anything between colorless to yellow. Considering all the specifications given, this liquid is Thionyl chloride which is an inorganic compound with the formula SOCl2. The NFPA diamond for Thionyl chloride is with a 0 at 12 oclock; a 2 at 3 oclock; a 4 at 9 oclock; and a slashed W at 6 oclock that is same as mentioned in the

The Yellow Wallpaper Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Yellow Wallpaper - Movie Review Example When one of his scams (perhaps involving back-alley plastic surgery and/or low-dollar sex change operations) goes terribly wrong, ending in a patient's death, man and wife find themselves in a high speed chase with police. It is at this point that the movie will begin and these first two characters will be introduced. The chase should be realistic (absolutely no C.G.I. stunts) and should end with John and Charlotte having a spectacular (yet believably survivable) crash. [Car has landed upside down, smoke emanates across a ground littered with broken glass, and JOHN, blood trickling down the side of his head, drags himself from the wreckage as police close in with guns drawn. He throws up his hands and falls face down to the to the pavement] JOHN: It wasn't me! It wasn't me! I was just a hostage! She's crazy!! [Camera change to the unconscious and blood-soaked face of CHARLOTTE. Fade to black with John's screams of innocence. Maintain black screen as red-colored text appears: SIX MONTHS LATER. Fade from black to scene. Setting is a prison visitation window] CHARLOTTE: You have to tell them (we see Charlotte, wearing a bright yellow prisoner's jumpsuit. Her face still bears small scars from the accident, the most obvious of which is a discolored, almost yellowish scar on her forehead). CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH... [JOHN shows no emotion in his face as he hangs up the phone, stands up, gathers his things, and walks away. Again, next line should be spoken simultaneously] CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! You know I wasn't the one responsible for this! I'm NOT CRAZY JOHN! We KNOW it! [Prison guards start to restrain her as her rant continues. At the mention of "we," however, JOHN stops in his tracks] JOHN: And just who are "we," exactly Was there ever a "we" Are you even talking about you and me CHARLOTTE: (Breathing heavily and speaking/growling through gnashed teeth) One day, John One day we'll get out of here. We'll get out and you'll find out who we are. From this scene, the audience will be introduced to Charlotte's cell in solitary confinement. The cell should have faded yellow wallpaper or yellow painted walls. Charlotte and the Yellow lady will devise a plan to escape and take revenge on John, who has now re-married a wealthy young heiress and taken custody of his and Charlotte's young child. After escaping, Charlotte and the Yellow Woman will exact a plan of revenge on John and his new wife. The baby, however, remains something that the Yellow Woman refuses to allow Charlotte to acknowledge the existence of, which will be the source of several instances of conflict between the

EH&S professional case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

EH&S professional case study - Essay Example This can be done by calling the hazardous material team from 15 miles which is trained under me. Take care no one goes towards the scene. This can be done by being in the vicinity of the accident but also taking full precautions of own self. To do this, I would need to read the instruction of the guide book. Action items - Call the hazardous material team trained in my plant which all necessary equipments. In the meantime, look into the emergency guide and follow the instructions for preventing any damage. Take care that dripping liquid does not flow over to wet ground or does not come in contact with water. To prevent this, guide book can be used. Constraints - I cannot go closer to the scene myself to analyze further. Apart from taking immediate precautions with the help of the book, have to wait for the team to come and take control. Since water is spraying at some distance, it can still reach if the wind fluctuates. Next responders who come to the scene. - For the next responders who come to the scene, I would explain the entire scene to them with the conclusion I derived so that they do not again waste time deciding what it could be. Then I would ask them to further suggest what can be done to prevent any mishap. This is required as the team will take some time to reach from 15 miles The minor error and name of chemical. - The minor error that can be discovered in the explanation is that the color of the liquid should not be red-yellow. It should be anything between colorless to yellow. Considering all the specifications given, this liquid is Thionyl chloride which is an inorganic compound with the formula SOCl2. The NFPA diamond for Thionyl chloride is with a 0 at 12 oclock; a 2 at 3 oclock; a 4 at 9 oclock; and a slashed W at 6 oclock that is same as mentioned in the

Economics of Warfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economics of Warfare - Essay Example For instance, some numbers only include civilians and does not count those who are in the military and those who are in the militia groups that have been resisting the government. In all, the number of deaths is very high (Atassi, 2013). Children have not been left behind have hundreds of them have faced death as a result of the attack. What is even more unfortunate is that some of these children have died from attacked from the government. However, the government has denied any of these allegations. However, it is clear that both the government and the militias have caused deaths of non-resisting civilians (Rabil, 2003). The Syrian economy has also been affected badly from the war. Like many wars, the Syrian war has affected the ability of the country to produce economically. Syrian exports have been reduced by over 75 percent, and the country is no longer able to export the exports it used to export which development agencies valued at $2.73 billion in 2010. These losses have brought many problems to the country, including illnesses that have been caused mainly by the lack of adequate proper basic amenities such as sanitation services. Syria is one example of how war can affect the economy. As Reynolds (2003) says, most non-economists tend to think that the major economic cost of a war is the money used to manufacture the equipment for war. They also consider the cost of war to involve cost to pay the soldiers to carry out the war. But as has been seen in Syria and indeed in many other wars around the word, there are many other economic issues that come from war (Benet, 2014). However, the economics effect of the Syrian war is only affecting Syria. It is affecting the rest the world, especially Europe. As Lobello (2013) says, even though Syria itself is not a major producer of oil, the conflict in Syria is affecting the prices of oil

Canadian Women and the Second World War Essay Example for Free

Canadian Women and the Second World War Essay The changing roles of women throughout history has been drastic, and none more so than the period during and after World War II. The irrevocable changes that occurred once the war started and women went to work were unprecedented. In the end, the changing role of Canada’s women during the War was the beginning of a chain reaction of events that have forever changed the Canadian workplace and also that of men’s archaic views on the capabilities of women in general. Many look back to the period during the war in which women were encouraged to get out of the kitchen and go to work, and wonder how a five year period could be so instrumental in forever changing the norms of society? Two authors, who attempt to sift through a mountain of information and provide a clear picture in response to this question, are Jeff Keshen and Ruth Roach Pierson. Both authors paint a slightly different picture from the piles of papers, minutes, war diaries and publications that covered that pivotal period during World War II where so many Canadians women found their voice and their freedom from domesticity. Canadian Women and the Second World War Ruth Roach Pierson’s essay is written with purely the perspective of women in mind, and the article itself is geared towards a female audience. The writer briefly describes the conditions of Canada at the onset of the war and the societal views of the role of women. Although there are no quoted references sited for this essay, there was a vast amount of alternative reading where I am sure one could draw numerous conclusions. Even with the lack of references, I did find this essay the most compelling especially, given the current climate of women in the work force. Ruth Roach Pierson describes in great detail the plight women faced during the war, when they were encouraged by the government and the needs of their families to get out and help support their families financially while all of the men were away at war. She goes on to describe the working conditions and child care situations for working women which were less than adequate. As a member of the Canadian Forces and a woman, the most interesting part of the article for me was the descriptions of how women became a uniformed part of the military and how all three branches of service came to assimilate women into active duty and the roles they were allowed to serve in. Throughout the essay, we were told about the deplorable conditions, the lack of equality the women faced in the workplace, and the stereotypes that were attached to women that proved very difficult and almost impossible to overcome. At most concern was the inequality found between men and women’s pay, benefits and allowances throughout the World War II era and beyond. The lack of equal pay for equal work caused great contention for women and still does to this day (although it is not quite as blatant in the civilian workforce today). The argument of the writer is that the roles taken on by women during the war forever changed the roles of women in society. I agree with her argument. Had it not been for the war, and the call to work and the military, things would be very different in our society for women, even today. The war was the instrument to get Canadian women to work, and once there, women found their voices to fight the inequality with respect to working conditions and pay, and paved the way for the next generation of women to continue to work and fight for an equal playing field with their male counterparts . Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women during World War II Jeff Keshen’s essay is without a doubt written from a man’s perspective without much sympathy to the plight civilian women experienced during the World War II era. This article is very well written and cites over 100 references, making for a very factual account of the times. This article was geared more towards what contributions were made by civilian women versus the article by Ruth Roach Pierson which put most of the focus on women’s roles within the military. Jeff Keshen’s article explains how the media plays a of the time played a pivotal role in doing two things specifically, one was to get the women out to work, support their families and contribute to the war cause. The second countered the last by telling women were over and over told how important their role in the home was. Throughout this article the writer makes numerous references towards how the government of Canada attempted to do the right thing towards female workers during the war, but it also shows how the government’s heart wasn’t into it, thus just making offers to female workers just to appease their complaints for the time being until the war was over. The government was terrible on providing financial support to women whose husbands were away at war, offering only meager amounts of their pay each month, thus forcing more women into the workforce. The article goes on to further explain how during the war, women felt empowered by their circumstances and how once the war was over that women continued to fight towards equality and many refused to ‘go back to the kitchen’ after the war and further challenged the norms by continuing to work. In conclusion, the most compelling argument found during both articles was the willingness of women to move forward and support their families, no matter the cost or the inequalities found between their male counterparts. I have always heard said that ‘women are the backbone of society’. Now, this may not be entirely true in the year 2011 with the shared roles of women and men in families, but it certainly can be said for the years during World War II. Women were faced with the challenge of having their spouses and breadwinners away from home, and they were also faced with the uncertainty of their safe return home to their families. When you couple this with the call from their government and society to join the work force to help the war effort and take over the roles of the men in society while they were away. Eagerly the women answered that call, and stepped up to take over the roles the men used to hold before the war. Not only were they working full-time jobs, but they were still in charge of their households and raising their children and taking over and completing the roles of husband and fathers for an extremely long period of time.

The pathophysiology of a disease: COPD

The pathophysiology of a disease: COPD This assignment will discuss the pathophysiology of a disease process of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It will also show how biological, psychological and the social aspects of the disease that can have an affect on an individuals day to day life. COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This is a term used for a number of conditions; including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. COPD leads to damaged airways in the lungs, causing them to become narrower and making it harder for air to get in and out of the lungs. The word chronic means that the problem is long-term. COPD is a condition which mainly affects people over the age of 40, and COPD has a higher prevalence occurring among women than men (NHS-Choices, 2008). COPD is also a condition that is long term and incurable that can have a serious affects on health and quality of life, its not fully understood why COPD develops. (Marieb, 2003). The student will also incorporate local and national health and social policies, including frameworks that are in place in relation to the patients illness. The student identified a patient named Mrs J. She was admitted to hospital due to exacerbation of COPD. Her primary diagnosis is Osteoarthritis of the Hip but also had symptoms of emphysema. Mrs J is a 55 year old women and is married, Mrs J also has an older child whom she has become quite dependant on and felt lik e she had impacted on her childs life and had become a hindrances. Mrs J has become more breathless as her condition develops over time and more so while she was lying in bed unable to carry out her daily activities such as doing the housework, leisure activities, also looking after her appearance as she normally would have done at home. COPD is becoming one of the fastest leading causes of disability (NHS choices, 2008). According to British Lung Foundation, (2010) a recent survey, 83% of COPD patients said their COPD slows them down, 79% said they had to cut down their activities and 56% said their condition has a great affect on their families. COPD is the most common respiratory conditions in adults in the developed world and poses an enormous burden to society both in terms of direct cost to the healthcare services and indirect costs to society through loss of productivity. Recent analysis estimated that National Health Service (NHS) spends  £818 million annually in the Unite d Kingdom (UK). (British Thoracic Society, 2006). However 50% of the cost is accounted for by poorly managed exacerbations resulting in frequent re-admissions to hospital (Coakley Ruston, 2001). Mrs J condition would of been triggered by her heavy smoking, the toxins from her cigarettes has made her bronchioles (airway and lungs) become inflamed and narrowing the airway, this will lead to irreversible damage to the respiratory system by obstructing the bronchial airflow and hindering gaseous exchange within the alveoli (Munden, J, 2007). Mrs J suffers from many symptoms due to her smoking these include shortness of breath, a persistent cough, yellowish green sputum, signs of cyanosis to her lips, also Mrs J has continued to smoke as she thinks the damage has already been done so her condition. The vast majority of COPD patients are smokers. By stopping smoking patients can slow the rate of decline in lung function and thus improve the patients prospects in terms of symptoms and survival. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidance on COPD states that All patients still smoking, regardless of age, should be encouraged to stop, and offered help to do so, at every opportunity. These deliver a small dose of medicine to the lungs, causing the airway muscles to open up. Bronchodilators are also effective in preventing over-expansion of the lungs. Short-acting beta2-agonists are the most commonly used short acting bronchodilaors for COPD. Their effects last for about 4 hours. Short-acting antichloinergics are also used as bronchodilators. Long-acting beta2-agonists are similar to the short-acting agonists described above but their effect lasts for 12 hours. Lomg-acting anti-cholinergics need only be taken once a day. The NICE guidance recommends that short-acting bronchodilators should be used for the initial treatment for breathlessness and exercise limitation and goes on to say that, if this isnt having an effect then the treatment should be intensified using eith er a long-acting bronchodilator or a combined therapy with a short acting beta2-agonist and a short-acting anticholinergic The respiratory system is the major part for gases exchange to take place, it allows takes the air that enters are bodies when we inhale and travels through the respiratory system, exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide and expels carbon dioxide when we exhale (munden, J, 2007). In the NHS there is a tool to calculate the smoking load and the packs in a year this tool is called smoking pack tool, this was used to see the damage that Mrs J had caused by smoking for so many years. This is because the seriousness of the disease depends on how much and how long the individual has smoked for. Mrs J has been smoking now for 45 years and on a average day having up to 40 cigarettes a day and is not prepared to quit as she feels the damage is already done. Mrs J smokes for comfort and feels that its all for her pleasure, she has become very isolated, her chronic bronchitis makes her breathless when doing actives and is not able to do her daily activities therefore is becoming depressed. Do this having a huge impact on her mental and social parts of her life. Patients with COPD have traditionally been divided into pink puffers and blue bloaters based on their physiological response to abnormal blood gases. The former work hard to maintain a normal pO2 which is why they puff away. They tend to have a barrel-shaped, hyperinflated chest and breath through pursed lips. The latter are blue because of hypoxia and polycythaemia. They are often obese and have water retention. This is why they are bloated. The blue bloaters are dependent upon hypoxia for their respiratory drive and to give oxygen and deprive them of this will lead to signficant hypercapnia and acid base imbalance. Although this concept is widely taught and acknowledged academically, in clinical practice patients tend not to be clearly in one or the other of these two categories (NICE Clinical Guideline (2004) Patients like Mrs J with airflow limitation clinically they have become known as pink puffers and blue bloaters (Kleinschmidt, 2008). Mrs J falls under the term blue bloaters as she linked to chronic bronchitis due to cyanosis which is a blue tinge to the lips, which occurs from poor gas exchange. pink puffers has been linked to emphysema as the patients may be showing signs of weight loss, using their accessory muscles with pursed lips giving them a reddish complexion, they may also adopt the tripod sitting position (Kleinschmidt, 2008). Although these conditions separate the patient may present with slight variations of them both, however they do differentiate through their underlying process, signs and symptoms (Bellamy Booker, 2004). Airways and air sacs within the lungs are manly elastic, with the air we breath the lungs change shape with inhalation they expand and return to the normal shape after they have been stretched with air. Mucociliary clearance is an important primary innate defense mechanism that protects the lungs from deleterious effects of inhaled pollutants, allergens, and pathogens. Mucociliary dysfunction is a common feature of chronic airway diseases in humans. The mucociliary apparatus consists of three functional compartments, that is, the cilia, a protective mucus layer, and an airway surface liquid (ASL) layer, which work in concert to remove inhaled particles from the lung. The nose and nasal cavity are composed of ciliated columnar epithelium cells which contain goblet cells and cilia, the goblet cells are responsible for secreting mucus which is able to trap the finer particles from inspired air and the cilia which are fine hairs that can trap larger particles. The cilia carrys the particles by a sweeping motion this is swept to the mouth or nose where it can then be swallowed, coughed or sneezed out of the body in order to prevent these particles from entering the lungs (Munden, J, 2007). The two major sources of mucus secretion in the respiratory tract are the surface epithelial goblet cells and mucous cells. In lungs, goblet cells are present in the large bronchi, becoming increasingly thin toward the bronchioles. The submucosal glands are restricted to the large airways with their density decreasing with airway calibre. In chronic respiratory diseases, such as COPD and asthma, submucosal glands increase in size (hypertrophy), and the number of goblet cells is increased (hyperplasia), becoming more dense in the peripheral airways, via a phenotypic conversion of nongoblet epithelial cells (metaplasia) (Rogers, 1994;Jackson, 2001). The increased of goblet cells density to ciliated cells in the bronchioles, under the conditions of hypersecretion, this impairs clearance of mucus. Lung histology from patients affected by COPD and asthma also shows the presence of edema, which can further reduce airway caliber and compromise lung function. A marked airway infiltration of macrophages and granulocytes is also present, principally neutrophils in COPD and eosinophils in asthma (Postma and Kerstjens, 1998). In clinical studies, these inflammatory parameters have been shown to correlate with a reduction in lung function (FEV1) and an exaggerated bronchoconstriction [airway hyperreactivity (AHR)] to nonspecific stimuli (Postma and Kerstjens, 1998). Smoking has many effects on the airways. Inhaled smoke destroys the cilia that are important for moving mucus to the throat for swallowing. As a result, mucus accumulates in the bronchioles and irritates the sensitive tissues there, causing a cough. Coughing is vital as it is the only way smokers can remove mucus from their lungs and keep the airways clean (Rubin, 2002). This is characterised by the smokers cough. Constant coughing to clear the sputum has an effect on the smooth muscle of the bronchioles which becomes hypertrophied (enlarged or overgrown). This in turn causes more mucus glands to develop. The goblet cells are replaced within the small airways (bronchi) with Clara cells they are another form of secreting cell these are important they form ciliated cells and to help regenerate the bronchiolar epithelium, they produce hypophase component and a protease inhibitor these help protect the lungs by mopping up debris (Stokley et al, 2006).To accomplish gas exchange the lung has two components; airways and the alveoli. The airways are two branching tubular passages that allow air to move in and out of the lungs, the wider segments of the airways are called the trachea and the two bronchi going to the right and left lung. The smaller segments are called the bronchioles and at the end of the bronchioles are the alveoli which are thin walled sacs like a bunch of grapes; small blood vessels (capillaries) run in the walls of the alveoli this is where gas exchange between air and blood takes place. (Matterporth Matfin, 2009). Rogers, 1994;Jackson, 2001 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, NICE Clinical Guideline (2004); Management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults in primary and secondary care COPD. BMJ Clinical Evidence. www.clinicalevidence.com, accessed 10 June 2009 Textbook of Medical Physiology (10th edition) Guyton, A.C. and Hall, J.E. (2000) W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia; London. Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease; September 2005. Britton M; The burden of COPD in the U.K.: results from the Confronting COPD survey.; Respir Med.2003 Mar;97 Suppl C:S71-9. [abstract] Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, NICE Clinical Guideline (2004); Management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults in primary and secondary care Lacasse Y, Goldstein R, Lasserson TJ, et al; Pulmonary rehabilitation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2006 Oct 18;(4):CD003793. [abstract] Barr RG, Bourbeau J, Camargo CA, et al; Inhaled tiotropium for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005 Apr 18;(2):CD002876

The Perversion of Dorians Soul in Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian

The Perversion of Dorian's Soul in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The soul is thought to be an immaterial entity coexisting with our bodies which is credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion.   It is the part of our body which is believed to live on after the body dies.   In Oscar Wilde's, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character, Dorian Gray, destroys the innocence of his soul and becomes corrupt. He becomes corrupt by failing to live a life of virtue.   The main reason for his transformation can be attributed to a portrait painted of him that captured the true essence of his innocence.   This portrait is the personification of his soul.   At the beginning of the book Dorian makes a wish that inevitably changes his life forever.   His wish is that, "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!   For that - for that - I would give everything!   Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!   I would give my soul for that!" (Wilde, 40)   As Dorian's wish of staying young and beautiful forever come true so does the fact that he has given his soul away to the devil.   Another contributing factor to the perversion of Dorian's soul comes from his supposed friend, Lord Henry Wotton.   Lord Henry fills Dorian's head with his outrageous philosophies such as, "....youth is the one thing worth having. .... You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully.   When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it..." (34) and "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.   Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous ... ... that Dorian has become a dissolute and perverse man who cannot understand that vanity and the thrill of "new sensations" are not what run the world.    Works Cited    Cohen, Ed.   Talk on the Wilde Side.   Great Britain: Routledge, 1993. Freidman, Jonathan (edited).   Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays.   New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1996. Pearson, Hesketh (edited).   Essays By Oscar Wilde.   New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1972. Ransome, Arthur.   Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study.   London: Mr. Martin Secker, 1913. Weintraub, Stanley (edited).   Literary Criticism of Oscar Wilde.   Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. Woodcock, George.   The Paradox of Oscar Wilde.   London-New York: T.V. Boardman and Co., Ltd., 1950. Wilde, Oscar.   The Picture of Dorian Gray.   Denmark: Wordsworth Editions Limited, Reprinted V      

Forward the Foundation Chapter 22

Part IV Wanda Seldon SELDON, WANDA-†¦ In the waning years of Hari Seldon's life, he grew most attached to (some say dependent upon) his granddaughter, Wanda. Orphaned in her teens, Wanda Seldon devoted herself to her grandfather's Psychohistory Project, filling the vacancy left by Yugo Amaryl†¦ The content of Wanda Seldon's work remains largely a mystery, for it was conducted in virtually total isolation. The only individuals allowed access to Wanda Seldon's research were Hari himself and a young man named Stettin Palver (whose descendant Preem would four hundred years later contribute to the rebirth of Trantor, as the planet rose from the ashes of the Great Sack [300 F.E.1). Although the full extent of Wanda Seldon's contribution to the Foundation is unknown, it was undoubtedly of the greatest magnitude†¦ Encyclopedia Galactica 1 Hari Seldon walked into the Galactic Library (limping a little, as he did more and more often these days) and made for the banks of skitters, the little vehicles that slid their way along the interminable corridors of the building complex. He was held up, however, by the sight of three men seated at one of the galactography alcoves, with the Galactograph showing the Galaxy in full three-dimensional representation and, of course, its worlds slowly pinwheeling around its core, spinning at right angles to that as well. From where Seldon stood he could see that the border Province of Anacreon was marked off in glowing red. It skirted the edge of the Galaxy and took up a great volume, but it was sparsely populated with stars. Anacreon was not remarkable for either wealth or culture but was remarkable for its distance from Trantor: ten thousand parsecs away. Seldon acting on impulse, took a seat at a computer console near the three and set up a random search he was sure would take an indefinite period. Some instinct told him that such an intense interest in Anacreon must be political in nature-its position in the Galaxy made it one of the least secure holdings of the current Imperial regime. His eyes remained on his screen, but Seldon's ears were open for the discussion near him. One didn't usually hear political discussions in the Library. They were, in point of fact, not supposed to take place. Seldon did not know any of the three men. That was not entirely surprising. There were habitues of the Library, quite a few, and Seldon knew most of them by sight-and some even to talk to-but the Library was open to all citizens. No qualifications. Anyone could enter and use its facilities. (For a limited period of time, of course. Only a select few, like Seldon were allowed to â€Å"set up shop† in the Library. Seldon had been granted the use of a locked private office and complete access to Library resources.) One of the men (Seldon thought of him as Hook Nose, for obvious reasons) spoke in a low urgent voice. â€Å"Let it go,† he said. â€Å"Let it go. It's costing us a mint to try to hold on and, even if we do, it will only be while they're there. They can't stay there forever and, as soon as they leave, the situation will revert to what it was.† Seldon knew what they were talking about. The news had come over TrantorVision only three days ago that the Imperial government had decided on a show of force to bring the obstreperous Governor of Anacreon into line. Seldon's own psychohistorical analysis had shown him that it was a useless procedure, but the government did not generally listen when its emotions were stirred. Seldon smiled slightly and grimly at hearing Hook Nose say what he himself had said-and the young man said it without the benefit of any knowledge of psychohistory. Hook Nose went on. â€Å"If we leave Anacreon alone, what do we lose? It's still there, right where it always was, right at the edge of the Empire. It can't pick up and go to Andromeda, can it? So it still has to trade with us and life continues. What's the difference if they salute the Emperor or not? You'll never be able to tell the difference.† The second man, whom Seldon had labeled Baldy, for even more obvious reasons, said, â€Å"Except this whole business doesn't exist in a vacuum. If Anacreon goes, the other border provinces will go. The Empire will break up.† â€Å"So what?† whispered Hook Nose fiercely. â€Å"The Empire can't run itself effectively anymore, anyway. It's too big. Let the border go and take care of itself-if it can. The Inner Worlds will be all the stronger and better off. The border doesn't have to be ours politically; it will still be ours economically.† And now the third man (Red Cheeks) said, â€Å"I wish you were right, but that's not the way it's going to work. If the border provinces establish their independence, the first thing each will do will be to try to increase its power at the expense of its neighbors. There'll be war and conflict and every one of the governors will dream of becoming Emperor at last. It will be like the old days before the Kingdom of Trantor-a dark age that will last for thousands of years.† Baldy said, â€Å"Surely things won't be that bad. The Empire may break up, but it will heal itself quickly when people find out that the breakup just means war and impoverishment. They'll look back on the golden days of the intact Empire and all will be well again. We're not barbarians, you know. We'll find a way.† â€Å"Absolutely,† said Hook Nose. â€Å"We've got to remember that the Empire has faced crisis after crisis in its history and has pulled through time and again.† But Red Cheeks shook his head as he said, â€Å"This is not just another crisis. This is something much worse. The Empire has been deteriorating for generations. Ten years' worth of the junta destroyed the economy and since the fall of the junta and the rise of this new Emperor, the Empire has been so weak that the governors on the Periphery don't have to do anything. It's going to fall of its own weight.† â€Å"And the allegiance to the Emperor-† began Hook Nose. â€Å"What allegiance?† said Red Cheeks. â€Å"We went for years without an Emperor after Cleon was assassinated and no one seemed to mind much. And this new Emperor is just a figurehead. There's nothing he can do. There's nothing anyone can do. This isn't a crisis. This is the end. â€Å" The other two stared at Red Cheeks, frowning. Baldy said, â€Å"You really believe it! You think that the Imperial government will just sit there and let it all happen?† â€Å"Yes! Like you two, they won't believe it is happening. That is, until it's too late.† â€Å"What would you want them to do if they did believe it?† asked Baldy. Red Cheeks stared into the Galactograph, as if he might find an answer there. â€Å"I don't know. Look, in due course of time I'll die; things won't be too bad by then. Afterward, as the situation gets worse, other people can worry about it. I'll be gone. And so will the good old days. Maybe forever. I'm not the only one who thinks this, by the way. Ever hear of someone named Hari Seldon?† â€Å"Sure,† said Hook Nose at once. â€Å"Wasn't he First Minister under Cleon?† â€Å"Yes,† said Red Cheeks. â€Å"He's some sort of scientist. I heard him give a talk a few months back. It felt good to know I'm not the only one who believes the Empire is falling apart. He said-â€Å" â€Å"And he said everything's going to pot and there's going to be a permanent dark age?† Baldy interjected. â€Å"Well no,† said Red Cheeks. â€Å"He's one of these real cautious types. Ire says it might happen, but he's wrong. It will happen.† Seldon had heard enough. He limped toward the table where the three men sat and touched Red Cheeks on the shoulder. â€Å"Sir,† he said, â€Å"may I speak to you for a moment?† Startled, Red Cheeks looked up and then he said, â€Å"Hey, aren't you Professor Seldon?† â€Å"I always have been,† said Seldon. He handed the man a reference tile bearing his photograph. â€Å"I would like to see you here in my Library office at 4 P.M., day after tomorrow. Can you manage that?† â€Å"I have to work.† â€Å"Call in sick if you have to. It's important.† â€Å"Well, I'm not sure, sir.† â€Å"Do it,† said Seldon. â€Å"If you get into any sort of trouble over it, I'll straighten it out. And meanwhile, gentlemen, do you mind if I study the Galaxy simulation for a moment? It's been a long time since I've looked at one.† They nodded mutely, apparently abashed at being in the presence of a former First Minister. One by one the men stepped back and allowed Seldon access to the Galactograph controls. Seldon's finger reached out to the controls and the red that had marked off the Province of Anacreon vanished. The Galaxy was unmarked, a glowing pinwheel of mist brightening into the spherical glow at the center, behind which was the Galactic black hole. Individual stars could not be made out, of course, unless the view were magnified, but then only one portion or another of the Galaxy would be shown on the screen and Seldon wanted to see the whole thing -to get a look at the Empire that was vanishing. He pushed a contact and a series of yellow dots appeared on the Galactic image. They represented the habitable planets-twenty-five million of them. They could be distinguished as individual dots in the thin fog that represented the outskirts of the Galaxy, but they were more and more thickly placed as one moved in toward the center. There was a belt of what seemed solid yellow (but which would separate into individual dots under magnification) around the central glow. The central glow itself remained white and unmarked, of course. No habitable planets could exist in the midst of the turbulent energies of the core. Despite the great density of yellow, not one star in ten thousand, Seldon knew, had a habitable planet circling it. This was true, despite the planet-molding and terraforming capacities of humanity. Not all the molding in the Galaxy could make most of the worlds into anything a human being could walk on in comfort and without the protection of a spacesuit. Seldon closed another contact. The yellow dots disappeared, but one tiny region glowed blue: Trantor and the various worlds directly dependent on it. As close as it could be to the central core and yet remaining insulated from its deadliness, it was commonly viewed as being located at the â€Å"center of the Galaxy,† which it wasn't-not truly. As usual, one had to be impressed by the smallness of the world of Trantor, a tiny place in the vast realm of the Galaxy, but within it was squeezed the largest concentration of wealth, culture, and governmental authority that humanity had ever seen. And even that was doomed to destruction. It was almost as though the men could read his mind or perhaps they interpreted the sad expression on his face. Baldy asked softly, â€Å"Is the Empire really going to be destroyed?† Seldon replied, softer still, â€Å"It might. It might. Anything might happen.† He rose, smiled at the men, and left, but in his thoughts he screamed: It will! It will! 2 Seldon sighed as he climbed into one of the skitters that were ranked side by side in the large alcove. There had been a time, just a few years ago, when he had gloried in walking briskly along the interminable corridors of the Library, telling himself that even though he was past sixty he could manage it. But now, at seventy, his legs gave way all too quickly and he had to take a skitter. Younger men took them all the time because skitters saved them trouble, but Seldon did it because he had to-and that made all the difference. After Seldon punched in the destination, he closed a contact and the skitter lifted a fraction of an inch above the floor. Off it went at a rather casual pace, very smoothly, very silently, and Seldon leaned back and watched the corridor walls, the other skitters, the occasional walkers. He passed a number of Librarians and, even after all these years, he still smiled when he saw them. They were the oldest Guild in the Empire, the one with the most revered traditions, and they clung to ways that were more appropriate centuries before-maybe millennia before. Their garments were silky and off-white and were loose enough to be almost gownlike, coming together at the neck and billowing out from there. Trantor, like all the worlds, oscillated, where the males were concerned, between facial hair and smoothness. The people of Trantor itself-or at least most of its sectors-were smooth-shaven and had been smooth-shaven for as far back as he knew-excepting such anomalies as the mustaches worn by Dahlites, such as his own foster son, Raych. The Librarians, however, clung to the beards of long ago. Every Librarian had a rather short neatly cultivated beard running from ear to ear but leaving bare the upper lip. That alone was enough to mark them for what they were and to make the smooth-shaven Seldon feel a little uncomfortable when surrounded by a crowd of them. Actually the most characteristic thing of all was the cap each wore (perhaps even when asleep, Seldon thought). Square, it was made of a velvety material, in four parts that came together with a button at the top. The caps came in an endless variety of colors and apparently each color had significance. If you were familiar with Librarian lore, you could tell a particular Librarian's length of service, area of expertise, grades of accomplishment, and so on. They helped fix a pecking order. Every Librarian could, by a glance at another's hat, tell whether to be respectful (and to what degree) or overbearing (and to what degree). The Galactic Library was the largest single structure on Trantor (possibly in the Galaxy), much larger than even the Imperial Palace, and it had once gleamed and glittered, as though boasting of its size and magnificence. However, like the Empire itself, it had faded and withered. It was like an old dowager still wearing the jewels of her youth but upon a body that was wrinkled and wattled. The skitter stopped in front of the ornate doorway of the Chief Librarian's office and Seldon climbed out. Las Zenow smiled as he greeted Seldon. â€Å"Welcome, my friend,† he said in his high-pitched voice. (Seldon wondered if he had ever sung tenor in his younger days but had never dared to ask. The Chief Librarian was a compound of dignity always and the question might have seemed offensive.) â€Å"Greetings,† said Seldon. Zenow had a gray beard, rather more than halfway to white, and he wore a pure white hat. Seldon understood that without any explanation. It was a case of reverse ostentation. The total absence of color represented the highest peak of position. Zenow rubbed his hands with what seemed to be an inner glee. â€Å"I've called you in, Hari, because I've got good news for you. We've found it! â€Å"By ‘it,' Las, you mean-â€Å" â€Å"A suitable world. You wanted one far out. I think we've located the ideal one.† His smile broadened. â€Å"You just leave it to the Library. Hari. We can find anything.† â€Å"I have no doubt, Las. Tell me about this world.† â€Å"Well, let me show you its location first.† A section of the wall slid aside, the lights in the room dimmed, and the Galaxy appeared in three-dimensional form, turning slowly. Again, red lines marked off the Province of Anacreon, so that Seldon could almost swear that the episode with the three men had been a rehearsal for this. And then a brilliant blue dot appeared at the far end of the province. â€Å"There it is,† said Zenow. â€Å"It's an ideal world. Sizable, well-watered, good oxygen atmosphere, vegetation, of course. A great deal of sea life. It's there just for the taking. No planet-molding or terraforming required-or, at least, none that cannot be done while it is actually occupied.† Seldon said, â€Å"Is it an unoccupied world, Las?† â€Å"Absolutely unoccupied. No one on it.† â€Å"But why-if it's so suitable? I presume that, if you have all the details about it, it must have been explored. Why wasn't it colonized?† â€Å"It was explored, but only by unmanned probes. And there was no colonization-presumably because it was so far from everything. The planet revolves around a star that is farther from the central black hole than that of any inhabited planet-farther by far. Too far, I suppose, for prospective colonists, but I think not too far for you. You said, ‘The farther, the better.' â€Å" â€Å"Yes,† said Seldon, nodding. â€Å"I still say so. Does it have a name or is there just a letter-number combination?† â€Å"Believe it or not, it has a name. Those who sent out the probes named it Terminus, an archaic word meaning ‘the end of the line.' Which it would seem to be.† Seldon said, â€Å"Is the world part of the territory of the Province of Anacreon?† â€Å"Not really,† said Zenow. â€Å"If you'll study the red line and the red shading, you will see that the blue dot of Terminus lies slightly outside it-fifty light-years outside it, in fact. Terminus belongs to nobody; it's not even part of the Empire, as a matter of fact.† â€Å"You're right, then, Las. It does seem like the ideal world I've been looking for.† â€Å"Of course,† said Zenow thoughtfully, â€Å"once you occupy Terminus, I imagine the Governor of Anacreon will claim it as being under his jurisdiction.† â€Å"That's possible,† said Seldon, â€Å"but we'll have to deal with that when 1 he matter comes up.† Zenow rubbed his hands again. â€Å"What a glorious conception. Setting up a huge project on a brand-new world, far away and entirely isolated, so that year by year and decade by decade a huge Encyclopedia of all human knowledge can be put together. An epitome of what is present in this Library. If I were only younger, I would love to join the expedition.† Seldon said sadly, â€Å"You're almost twenty years younger than I am.† (Almost everyone is far younger than I am, he thought, even more sadly.) Zenow said, â€Å"Ah yes, I heard that you just passed your seventieth birthday. I hope you enjoyed it and celebrated appropriately.† Seldon stirred. â€Å"I don't celebrate my birthdays.† â€Å"Oh, but you did. I remember the famous story of your sixtieth birthday.† Seldon felt the pain, as deeply as though the dearest loss in all the world had taken place the day before. â€Å"Please don't talk about it,† he said. Abashed, Zenow said, â€Å"I'm sorry. We'll talk about something else. If, indeed, Terminus is the world you want, I imagine that your work on the preliminaries to the Encyclopedia Project will be redoubled. As you know, the Library will be glad to help you in all respects.† â€Å"I'm aware of it, Las, and I am endlessly grateful. We will, indeed, keep working.† He rose, not yet able to smile after the sharp pang induced by the reference to his birthday celebration of ten years back. He said, â€Å"So I must go to continue my labors.† And as he left, he felt, as always, a pang of conscience over the deceit he was practicing. Las Zenow did not have the slightest idea of Seldon's true intentions. 3 Hari Seldon surveyed the comfortable suite that had been his personal office at the Galactic Library these past few years. It, like the rest of the Library, had a vague air of decay about it, a kind of weariness-something that had been too long in one place. And yet Seldon knew it might remain here, in the same place, for centuries more-with judicious rebuildings-for millennia even. How did he come to be here? Over and over again, he felt the past in his mind, ran his mental tendrils along the line of development of his life. It was part of growing older, no doubt. There was so much more in the past, so much less in the future, that the mind turned away from the looming shadow ahead to contemplate the safety of what had gone before. In his case, though, there was that change. For over thirty years psychohistory had developed in what might almost be considered a straight line-progress creepingly slow but moving straight ahead. Then six years ago there had been a right-angled turn-totally unexpected. And Seldon know exactly how it had happened, how a concatenation of events came together to make it possible. It was Wanda, of course, Seldon's granddaughter. Hari closed his eyes and settled into his chair to review the events of six years before. Twelve-year-old Wanda was bereft. Her mother, Manella, had had another child, another little girl, Bellis, and for a time the new baby was a total preoccupation. Her father, Raych, having finished his book on his home sector of Dahl, found it to be a minor success and himself a minor celebrity. He was called upon to talk on the subject, something he accepted with alacrity, for he was fiercely absorbed in the subject and, as he said to Hari with a grin, â€Å"When I talk about Dahl, I don't have to hide my Dahlite accent. In fact, the public expects it of me.† The net result, though, was that he was away from home a considerable amount of time and when he wasn't, it was the baby he wanted to see. As for Dors-Dors was gone-and to Hari Seldon that wound was ever-fresh, ever-painful. And he had reacted to it in an unfortunate manner. It had been Wanda's dream that had set in motion the current of events that had ended with the loss of Dors. Wanda had had nothing to do with it-Seldon knew that very well. And yet he found himself shrinking from her, so that he also failed her in the crisis brought about by the birth of the new baby. And Wanda wandered disconsolately to the one person who always seemed glad to see her, the one person she could always count on. That WAS Yugo Amaryl, second only to Hari Seldon in the development of psychohistory and first in his absolute round-the-clock devotion to it. Hari had had Dors and Raych, but psychohistory was Yugo's life; he had no wife and children. Yet whenever Wanda came into his presence, something within him recognized her as a child and he dimly felt-for just that moment-a sense of loss that seemed to be assuaged only by showing the child affection. To be sure, he tended to treat her as a rather undersized adult, but Wanda seemed to like that. It was six years ago that she had wandered into Yugo's office. Yugo looked up at her with his owlish reconstituted eyes and, as usual, took a moment or two to recognize her. Then he said, â€Å"Why, it's my dear friend Wanda. But why do you look so sad? Surely an attractive young woman like you should never feel sad.† And Wanda, her lower lip trembling, said, â€Å"Nobody loves me.† â€Å"Oh come, that's not true.† â€Å"They just love that new baby. They don't care about me anymore.† â€Å"I love you, Wanda.† â€Å"Well, you're the only one then, Uncle Yugo.† And even though she could no longer crawl onto his lap as she had when she was younger, she cradled her head on his shoulder and wept. Amaryl, totally unaware of what he should do, could only hug the girl and say, â€Å"Don't cry. Don't cry.† And out of sheer sympathy and because he had so little in his own life to weep about, he found that tears were trickling down his own cheeks as well. And then he said with sudden energy, â€Å"Wanda, would you like to see something pretty?† â€Å"What?† sniffled Wanda. Amaryl knew only one thing in life and the Universe that was pretty. He said, â€Å"Did you ever see the Prime Radiant?† â€Å"No. What is it?† â€Å"It's what your grandfather and I use to do our work. See? It's right here.† He pointed to the black cube on his desk and Wanda looked at it woefully. â€Å"That's not pretty,† she said. â€Å"Not now,† agreed Amaryl. â€Å"But watch when I turn it on.† He did so. The room darkened and filled with dots of light and flashes of different colors. â€Å"See? Now we can magnify it so all the dots become mathematical symbols.† And so they did. There seemed a rush of material toward them and there, in the air, were signs of all sorts, letters, numbers, arrows, and shapes that Wanda had never seen before. â€Å"Isn't it pretty?† asked Amaryl. â€Å"Yes, it is,† said Wanda, staring carefully at the equations that (she didn't know) represented possible futures. â€Å"I don't like that part, though. I think it's wrong.† She pointed at a colorful equation to her left. â€Å"Wrong? Why do you say it's wrong† said Amaryl, frowning. â€Å"Because it's not†¦ pretty. I'd do it a different way.† Amaryl cleared his throat. â€Å"Well, I'll try to fix it up.† And he moved closer to the equation in question, staring at it in his owlish fashion. Wanda said, â€Å"Thank you very much, Uncle Yugo, for showing me your pretty lights. Maybe someday I'll understand what they mean.† â€Å"That's all right,† said Amaryl. â€Å"I hope you feel better.† â€Å"A little, thanks,† and, after flashing the briefest of smiles, she left the room. Amaryl stood there, feeling a trifle hurt. He didn't like having the Prime Radiant's product criticized-not even by a twelve-year-old girl who knew no better. And as he stood there, he had no idea whatsoever that the psychohistorical revolution had begun. 4 That afternoon Amaryl went to Hari Seldon's office at Streeling University. That in itself was unusual, for Amaryl virtually never left his own office, even to speak with a colleague just down the hall. â€Å"Hari,† said Amaryl, frowning and looking puzzled. â€Å"Something very odd has happened. Very peculiar.† Seldon looked at Amaryl with deepest sorrow. He was only fifty-three, but he looked much older, bent, worn down to almost transparency. When forced, he had undergone doctors' examinations and the doctors had all recommended that he leave his work for a period of time (some said permanently) and rest. Only this, the doctors said, might improve his health. Otherwise-Seldon shook his head. â€Å"Take him away from his work and he'll die all the sooner-and unhappier. We have no choice.† And then Seldon realized that, lost in such thoughts, he was not hearing Amaryl speak. He said, â€Å"I'm sorry, Yugo. I'm a little distracted. Begin again.† Amaryl said, â€Å"I'm telling you that something very odd has happened. Very peculiar.† â€Å"What is it, Yugo?† â€Å"It was Wanda. She came in to see me-very sad, very upset.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Apparently it's the new baby.† â€Å"Oh yes,† Hari said with more than a trace of guilt in his voice. â€Å"So she said and cried on my shoulder-I actually cried a bit, too, Hari. And then I thought I'd cheer her up by showing her the Prime Radiant.† Here Amaryl hesitated, as if choosing his next words carefully. â€Å"Go on, Yugo. What happened?† â€Å"Well, she stared at all the lights and I magnified a portion, actually Section 428254. You're acquainted with that?† Seldon smiled. â€Å"No, Yugo, I haven't memorized the equations quite as well as you have.† â€Å"Well, you should,† said Amaryl severely. â€Å"How can you do a good job if-But never mind that. What I'm trying to say is that Wanda pointed to a part of it and said it was no good. It wasn't pretty. â€Å" â€Å"Why not? We all have our personal likes and dislikes.† â€Å"Yes, of course, but I brooded about it and I spent some time going over it and, Hari, there was something wrong with it. The programming was inexact and that area, the precise area to which Wanda pointed, was no good. And, really, it wasn't pretty.† Seldon sat up rather stiffly, frowning. â€Å"Let me get this straight, Yugo. She pointed to something at random, said it was no good, and she was right?† â€Å"Yes. She pointed, but it wasn't at random; she was very deliberate.† â€Å"But that's impossible.† â€Å"But it happened. I was there.† â€Å"I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying it was just a wild coincidence.† â€Å"Is it? Do you think, with all your knowledge of psychohistory, you could take one glance at a new set of equations and tell me that one portion is no good?† Seldon said, â€Å"Well then, Yugo, how did you come to expand that particular portion of the equations? What made you choose that piece for magnification?† Amaryl shrugged. â€Å"That was coincidence-if you like. I just fiddled with the controls.† â€Å"That couldn't be coincidence,† muttered Seldon. For a few moments he was lost in thought, then he asked the question that pushed forward the psychohistorical revolution that Wanda had begun. He said, â€Å"Yugo, did you have any suspicions about those equations beforehand? Did you have any reason to believe there was something wrong with them?† Amaryl fiddled with the sash of his unisuit and seemed embarrassed. â€Å"Yes, I think I did. You see-â€Å" â€Å"You think you did?† â€Å"I know I did. I seemed to recall when I was setting it up-it's a new section, you know-my fingers seemed to glitch on the programmer. It looked all right then, but I guess I kept worrying about it inside. I remember thinking it looked wrong, but I had other things to do and I just let it go. But then when Wanda happened to point to precisely the area I had been concerned about, I decided to check up on her-otherwise I would just have let it go as a childish statement.† â€Å"And you turned on that very fragment of the equations to show Wanda. As though it were haunting your unconscious mind.† Amaryl shrugged. â€Å"Who knows?† â€Å"And just before that, you were very close together, hugging, both crying.† Amaryl shrugged again, looking even more embarrassed. Seldon said, â€Å"I think I know what happened, Yugo. Wanda read your mind.† Amaryl jumped, as though he had been bitten. â€Å"That's impossible!† Slowly Seldon said, â€Å"I once knew someone who had unusual mental powers of that sort†-and he thought sadly of Eto Demerzel or, as Seldon had secretly known him, Daneel-â€Å"only he was somewhat more than human. But his ability to read minds, to sense other people's thoughts, to persuade people to act in a certain way-that was a mental ability. I think, somehow, that perhaps Wanda has that ability as well.† â€Å"I can't believe it,† said Amaryl stubbornly. â€Å"I can,† said Seldon â€Å"but I don't know what to do about it.† Dimly lie felt the rumblings of a revolution in psychohistorical research-but only dimly.