On the Free Choice of the Will Essay

This book by St Augustine contains many philosophical arguments. St Augustine was a Latin speaking philosopher born in what is now modern day Algeria. He was one of the most prolific philosophers with hundreds of surviving works attributed to him (having survived the passage of time). The book On Free choice of the will contains may divine references with the central argument concerning free will as a gift from god, a gift which leads to humans becoming evil due their own inherent flaws. Free will is a large theme in the book. I will be critically analyzing Augustine’s argument that ‘†¦ a mind that is in control, one that possesses virtue, cannot be made a slave to inordinate desire by anything equal or superior to it, because such a thing would be just, or by anything inferior to it, because such a thing would be too weak’1 . I will be looking at the weaknesses and strengths of this argument and conclude how convincing his argument is. Augustine’s first argument about the mind being made a slave to inordinate desire contains many flaws its states â€Å"Each mind possesses the same degree of excellence and any thing that would attempt such a thing will have fallen from justice and become weaker† 2(originally said by Evodius but Augustine agrees to it) in this he is essentially saying that any mind attempting to enslave another mind to an inordinate desire will have become unjust and in the process weaker meaning it cannot control the superior mind. The first problem with this argument is the premise that all minds posses the same degree of excellence, this notion is completely wrong as it would be illogical to assume that all humans are intellectually equal. The fact that the foundation of the argument is wrong could serve to debase the entire argument as it is a paramount (and erroneous) notion upon which the argument is built. Augustine’s argument states â€Å"a Mind cannot be enslaved by something equal or superior to it because that thing would be just† 3 Not only does this statement destroy his previous notion that all minds are equal it also contains many faults on its own. Firstly its assumes that a mind that is superior would be just this assumption contains many problems. Firstly it assumes that the smarter you are the more just you would be, this statement is quite the contrary the smarter you are the more likely you are to be able to manipulate and scheme making you unjust, one can only look at politicians to see that the more intelligent you are the more susceptible you would be to carrying out unjust acts, so in my opinion this statement can be easily refuted. It is quite logical to assume that the superior mind will be more likely to try and enslave another mind for some purpose or another. One can only look at the peace among intellectual inferior animals which do not commit a multitude of nefarious acts in order to further themselves, contrast this with the chaos amongst humans and one can begin to see that the superior mind is truly less just than the inferior mind, humans have pride and ambition which engenders greed and other destructive traits, these are not seen in animals and babies (both of whom have inferior minds) and galvanizes the notion that a superior mind is less just than a weaker one. The next part of his argument that an inferior mind cannot enslave a superior mind because it will be weaker, contains much more logic than his previous arguments. I would not say this statement is wholly correct but the notion that a weak mind cannot enslave a superior mind is mostly correct in my opinion as it is logical to assume that weak cannot overcome the strong. On the other hand to completely write off a weak minds chances of enslaving a superior mind would be foolish as many other factors are involved in this process including emotions and circumstance, for example if a man with a superior mind is in love with a woman who possesses an inferior mind he could still be enslaved to inordinate desire by virtue of his love for her which will have warped his reason. Hence under some circumstances a weak mind can over come a superior mind yet it would be prudent to assume that a superior mind will always have the upper hand barring external factors. Finally in my opinion there is a huge inherent flaw in the entire argument of Augustine, I believe that pride, ambition, gluttony and all other various inordinate desires are inherent in humans in general, I do not believe it is necessary for a mind to sway another into these desires as they already exist within the human being, it is environmental factors which sway a human being into experiencing these inordinate desires not people and as a result I believe that Augustine’s arguments are fundamentally flawed. He takes a very idealistic view on humans believing them to only corruptible due to other unjust people corrupting them. In truth I believe (unfortunately) that humans are more inclined to feel inordinate desires due to extenuating factors that catalyze their latent emotions that lead to the dire consequences that are engendered by inordinate desires. In conclusion I believe Augustine’s arguments are mediocre. Their strengths are far and few and hugely outweighed by the flaws In them. His arguments while appearing logical and reasonable contain many imperceptible cracks which can be exploited greatly (and at times can debase his entire argument) in the case of a debate. On the basis of this I would have to say that his arguments are mediocre at best and while they are somewhat convincing a wise man would see through them easily.

How Does Margaret Atwood Portray Love

In A Women's Issue, Orpheus (1 and Orpheus (2), Margaret Atwood exposes what love can be and what it can do. Ultimately, Atwood presents love as an evil disguise which brings about misery and not happiness. In A Women's Issue, Atwood shows different scenarios of women in unfavorable circumstances. First there is, â€Å"The woman In the spiked device/ that locks around the waist and between/ the legs, with holes In It Like a tea strainer† (Atwood 1-3). This chastity device was probably created to protect the woman's flagrantly out of love.However, the love of the woman, or possibly the love of virtuous women resulted in he creation of a device that must be insufferable (and unhealthy) to wear. Second there is a woman with, â€Å"†¦ A four-inch/ wooden peg jammed up/ between her legs so she can't be raped† (6-8). In this instance, Atwood presents a barbaric and ironic world. The poem makes it seem as though the woman will get raped the moment she takes out the wooden peg which is very savage. It Is also Ironic that the woman who does not want to be raped has a peg placed Inside herself.Affection is absent, and as the examples continue in the poem, this idea progresses. Exhibit C he young girl dragged into the bush by midwives and made to sing while they scrape the flesh from between her legs, then tie her thighs till she scabs over and Is call healed. Now she can be married†¦ Men like tight women (10-18) In the previous case, a young girl is forced to have her privates changed so that she is pleasing to the opposite sex because they believe men love tight women.The midwives probably think they are showing love to the young girl because they are making her more desirable and fit for marriage, however, this love results In pain and f the poem Atwood poses an interesting question; â€Å"Who invented the word love? † (39). With this last statement, Atwood challenges the view that love is affection for a person and expressed through pass ion. She describes the place between a woman's leg as, â€Å"Enemy territory, no man's/ land, to be entered furtively/ fenced, owned but never surely' (30-32), and men only have â€Å"†¦ Uneasy power† (37).In this poem, passion does not really exist and love is a guise under which humans can be inhumane. In Orpheus 1, love acts as a cover for egotistical need. The poem is told form the respective of Eurydice, Orpheus' wife who was bitten by a viper and died shortly after they were married. Orpheus travels to the underworld, and using his irresistible singing voice, renders Hades powerless. He then leads his wife out of the underworld, but not before he is given the simple condition to not look back at Eurydice until they are out of the underworld.Orpheus is very controlling and never considers what Eurydice may have chosen to do. The poems begins, muff walk in front of me,] pulling me back out/ to the green light that had once/ grown fangs and killed me† (1-4). Th e word pulling implies that Eurydice does not want to go back to the world of the living. Eurydice is also fearful of the world because of the viper that killed her, yet Orpheus is only thinking about his self-satisfaction which he calls love. The poem continues, â€Å"l was obedient, but/†¦ He return/ to time was not my choice† (5-8). Unfortunately, Orpheus is blinded by his ego disguised as love and does not consider whether or not Eurydice want to go with him. Furthermore, it is stated, Mimi had your old leash/ with you, love you might call it† (14-15). Clearly, love is to affection, but a means of control. This overbearing control masked as love resulted in unhappiness. Orpheus looked backed too soon, before Eurydice was out of the cave and thus she, â€Å"†¦ Had to/ fold like a gray moth and let go' (36-37).Orpheus 2 further shows the negative effects that Orpheus' ego-love had. After losing love, which is power to Orpheus, he tries to bring it back, but to no avail. â€Å"He has been trying to sing/ love into existence again/ and he has failed† (13-15). He goes on singing, â€Å"among the gray stones/ of the shore where nobody goes/ through fear. Those with silence† (10-12), however, the others so not want him to continue to sing. â€Å"They have cut off both his hands'†¦ They will tear/ his head from his body in one burst/ of furious refusal. He foresees this, Yet he will go on† (23-27). Ultimately, Orpheus suffers because of his misinterpretation of love. He no longer has the love of Eurydice. He cannot please with his singing any longer. He fails to bring true love and affection back into existence. Ultimately, he suffers a cruel death. In these poems by Margaret Atwood, romantic and affectionate love does not exist. Love is absent and unkind when present. It hurts and takes and leaves pain in its wake.It is like a trench coat, concealing a deadly weapon. Instead of the warm feelings of adoration and p assion, Atwood presents what love really is most of the time – a cover for an unlikable trait – an excuse for unthinkable actions. Simply, love is a deliverer of pain. Who really did invent the word love? Perhaps he was a guilty deceiver, outwitting the world to his own advantage; hiding treachery behind a brilliant smile. Cared about. The word must have been untainted then, still innocent; not yet evil.

Fair trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fair trade - Essay Example This implies that national sovereigns can be more hesitant to handle occurrences of non-conformity with internationally agreed rules and regulations by private companies. Countries and governments have the obligation to establish paradigms for co-existence, including the deference of principles such as the protection of worker’s rights in the global labour market (Hayes 2006). Globalization of production is generating a broadening irregularity in the international marketplace; there is an unparalleled level of technology transfer as well as capital mobility across national borders. Alternatively, labour mobility is under numerous constraints, from requirements for visa to work-related authorization. The sovereignty for monetary flows in financial markets does not qualify the labour market. As capital markets are being internationalized, labour markets, on the other hand, are becoming sterile and turning out to be ever more dysfunctional. Unregulated monetary flows can create distresses and insecurity, such as East Asian currency crisis 1997 and the Mexican Peso crisis of 1994. Nonetheless, there is one more, less acknowledged instability in the form of increasing exploitation, inequity and prejudiced employment practices in international labour markets. Some have proposed a ‘race to the bottom’ in which high capital mobility looks for cheap labour in administrations and eagerly evades social norms and labour codes. This pattern can merely be stopped and countered through a universal recognition of and conformity to central labour standards, guaranteeing that every market, comprising labour markets, operate efficiently and even-handedly. A trade structure founded on capital-labour irregularity puts off equitability in employment as well as in income prospects among the ‘stakeholders in the Global Family.’ (Bauder 2006). It creates instability, and most importantly, inequality. The core

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Capital Punishment Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Capital Punishment - Essay Example This is because once criminals have been killed, they will not have another chance of committing some more crimes; also, since capital punishment is a cruel form of punishment, many potential criminals are afraid of being subjected to capital punishment and for that reason, they abstain from committing crimes. On the other hand, however, although capital punishment can help to deter crimes, capital punishment causes deep pain and loss to the family of the executed criminals. This is because, however, grave are the crimes committed by the criminals who are executed, their family members and their friends still love them, although they may not approve of the grave crimes. For this reason, therefore, capital punishment causes real emotional trauma to the family members and friends of the executed criminal. A comparison of the deterrent advantage of capital punishment and the emotional trauma disadvantage of capital punishment shows that the advantage of capital punishment far outweighs the disadvantage. This is because since capital punishment helps to prevent further commission of the crime, capital punishment helps to prevent more emotional trauma in the lives of people. This is because grave crimes cause emotional trauma to the relatives and friends of the victims of the crimes. Hence, the deterrent advantage of capital punishment outweighs the emotional trauma disadvantage of capital punishment because it helps to prevent more emotional trauma to the victim’s relatives and friends.

Article Review and Reflection TopicHuman resouce Literature

Article and Reflection TopicHuman resouce - Literature review Example Research Questions or Hypotheses The research question holds a central position in a research paper. It addresses the idea, in brief, that the researcher explains in the course of his paper. Generally, the research question is stated specifically although sometimes, to address complex issues, multiple questions have to be mentioned. A common phenomenon observed among the Chinese enterprises is described by the phrase ‘lasting briefly, and growing with difficulty’. With the passage of time, the mindset of people has undergone changes along with economic development of the country. In the later part of the 1980s, the term ‘Private Economy’ emerged in China. The economic entities which are invested into by a non-government body or a private enterprise or individual and run by them are known as privately operated economy. They are based on private resources and do not embody the state capital. There are several small and medium enterprises that are emerging in t he country based on private investment. Such firms, although faring well in the initial phase, sometimes cannot grow further later on. It is quite difficult for any enterprise to hold on to its existence if it becomes stagnant. The hypothesis made in this paper is: whether the difficulties faced by the private enterprises is owing to the problem arising in the management of their human resources. Literature Review The literature review of a research paper provides guidance in the formation of a theoretical and conceptual framework required for the study. This builds the base on which the entire research work is founded. The literature review provides the backdrop for research work and shows further avenues for conducting research. In this current paper, the theory of small and medium private enterprises in China and their basis of management have been well established. Consequently, the authors have discussed the hurdles that these firms face, and the links between these problems an d their improper management structure. Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework pertaining to a research work is inclusive of three broad things: the problem to be addressed, the literature review and the purpose of research. Foreign companies operating in China had brought in the term ‘Human Resources’ into China. In simple words, the term refers to the workers that work in a certain organization and their capability to do productive work. They are an integral part of an enterprise since the development of a firm, both economically and socially, depends to a great extent on the human resources of the firm. The workers’ efforts can be categorized into two divisions: physical work and intellectual work. Not only does the quantity of production made by the workers put an upward thrust on the performance of the company in the market but is also largely dependent on the efficient management of the resources that would lead to a good quality of their performance. Human resources management, thus, plays a crucial role in any organization’s administration for it to remain healthy over time. By ‘effective human resources management’ one emphasizes the management of human resources in a reasonable and scientific way. A reasonable utilization of human resource

Security and Portfolio Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Security and Portfolio Analysis - Case Study Example He has suggested a limitation of 20 high-yielding stocks in the portfolio, instead of 40 stocks, of which only 10-12 gave considerable returns. While, on the face of it, if Hennessy accepts Jones' suggestion and invests the corpus in only 20 "good" issues, it might translate into lesser work, easier fund management and higher returns for the client and Hennessey himself. However, if there is any shift in the micro economy of the region, this might translate into lower profitability for the portfolio. Diversification spreads the risk involved and makes sure that if one sector is not doing favourably, stocks from another sector provide considerable gains. Broadly speaking, the sectors could be divided into infrastructure, banking, power, natural resources, energy, consumer goods, hospitality, healthcare, transport, automobiles, food, sugar, metals, shipping, finance, construction, oil, pharma, alternate energy, Information Technology, etc. Based on the size of the capital, the stocks could be classified as large caps, mid caps or small caps. By investing an amount in a majority of the sectors and each of the large, mid or sma ll cap companies, the risk of the portfolio is reduced. ... Depending on the stage in which the economy is in, exposure to such sectors could either be increased or decreased to increase the overall profitability. There are certain stocks of well managed companies, which give consistent returns to the stockholder, irrespective of the phase the market is in: whether bull phase or bear phase. Thus, I would rather prefer Hennessey's strategy of investing in 40 stocks than increasing the risk by investing in 20 stocks. b. Is there any way Hennessy could reduce the number of issues from 40 to 20 without significantly affecting risk Explain. The reason Hennessy seemed to do well most years was because the firm was able to identify each year 10 or 12 issues, which registered particularly large gains. So, picking out these 10-12 issues and doubling the amount invested in these companies would logically lead to the same profits. The only way Hennessy could reduce the number of issues from 40 to 20 without significantly affecting risk, would be to invest in companies having a record of consistent returns over a significant period of time. This might however mean a lowering of returns in a bear market. No pains, no gains, being the thumb rule in the capital markets, this might just eat into the profitability of the portfolio. 2. One committee member was particularly enthusiastic concerning Jone's proposal. He suggested that Hennessy's performance might benefit further from reduction in the number of issues to 10. If the reduction to 20 could be expected to be advantageous, explain why reduction to 10 might be less likely to be advantageous. (Assume that Wilstead will evaluate the Hennessy portfolio independently of the other portfolios in the fund.)2. A bottom-up investor believes that superior companies will do well even if

Recommendations to some of the pertinent HRM problems Essay

Recommendations to some of the pertinent HRM problems - Essay Example The model was chosen because it covers the SWOT analysis, a focus on the training on teams for fostering a more participatory organizational culture, Training programs for the HR group Promotion & recruitment within the company, Performance related pay (PRP) & Annual bonus which is related to company performance, Individual Development and feedback, and finally Performance Appraisals. These points were the recommendations made to address the HRM problems identified in the case. The recommendation was adapted from the work of existing scholars such as Kotter, and Gilbreath. The field of human resource (HR) management is one of the many interesting area of research that has witnessed a paradigm shift within the last few decades (Huselid, A. M., 1995Doty &Delery 1996). Within this area of research, an increasing body of literature contains the argument that, high performance work practices, including comprehensive employee's recruitment, selection procedures, incentives compensation and performance management systems, and extensive employee's involvement and training can improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of firms (Huselid, A. M., (1995), Doty &Delery (1996). Today, with the increasing researchers desires to demonstrate the importance of an effective human resource policy on organisation performance research has shifted from a micro level that previously dominated research interest to a more general, strategic macro level (Huselid, A. M., 1995, Doty &Delery 1996). The term human resource management is not new. It has been widely used by scholars and managers to refer to the set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work (Huselid, A. M., 1995, Doty &Delery 1996) Jackson & Shuler (2002) referred to it as an umbrella term that encompasses (a).specific human resources practices such as recruitment, selection and appraisal and (b). formal human resource policies which directs and partially constrain the development of specific practices and in all, it comprise a system that attracts develops, motivates and retains those employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organisation and its members (Jackson & Schuler 2002). Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006:315) argued that while effective human resource management and policies have, indeed, been linked to strategic outcomes, human resource management theory has yet to link human assets and HR practices directly to the building blocks of strategy and competitive behavior. Accordingly, their model of strategic human resources links both micro and macro literature streams. 1.1 Structure of Work This paper is aimed at analyzing the case study of the absentee bus crews. The Coal Valley Company where absence seems to be a more acute problem. Absence and lateness are the regular cause of disrupted bus services and are rated as the chief concern of local management. This paper is therefore going to analyse the case thoroughly by looking at the main issues discussed in the case study in section 2 below; evaluating the management control system as described in the case study in section 3 below; analyzing the case using agency and contingency theories in section 4; comparing and contrasting agency and

Proposal to build a nuclear power plant Research Paper

Proposal to build a nuclear power plant - Research Paper Example Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2014). Nuclear power confers several benefits over electricity that is generated from fossil fuels. In spite of these benefits, no new nuclear power plants have been built in the U.S. since 1996. This paper proposes the development of a nuclear power plant by the Eaton Corporation. While there are a number of environmental and safety concerns over nuclear power plants, their benefits far outweigh the costs. Nuclear power has several clear advantages over fossil fuel that currently accounts for the bulk of the nation’s energy. Nuclear energy produces an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide and no sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (Comby, 2001). These gases are produced in large quantities when fossil fuels are burned to generate electricity or other forms of energy. Carbon dioxide plays a part in global warming while nitrogen oxides form acid rain that is responsible for corroding man-made structures such as buildings. Besides the gases, compared to fossil fuels, nuclear reactors produce very small quantities of waste. For instance, about a ton of coal is required to generate the same amount of energy as a gram of uranium. Correspondingly, nuclear waste is a millionth of the waste generated from fossil fuel. In addition, if the nuclear reactor is well-designed, the nuclear waste is confined throughout the power generation process. Nuclear power has been produced commercially for half a century now. It has proven to be safe (Comby, 2001). To date, there have occurred only three major nuclear plant accidents: Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, USA in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 in present-day Ukraine and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011. Of the three, the TMI was the worst: the entire core of the reactor melted completely. Fortunately, almost all the radioactivity that was released was confined within the reinforced concrete structure that contained the reactor. The amount that escaped into the surrounding was

Benefits of Illegal Immigration in the United States Research Paper

Benefits of Illegal Immigration in the United States - Research Paper Example Inversely, opposers’ shows that the American economy will suffer from the illegal immigrants since their motives of immigration into the economy are not well established. This article assesses the benefit that the American economy will gain from the illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants play a major role in the US economy. Recent research has shown that the illegal immigrants have little skills and little education level, which makes them seek job opportunities in the low education demanding areas. This includes restaurants and hospitals where they work in the low-level departments. This contributes positively in the US economy in that the labor force needed is increased therefore reducing the need for hiring highly qualified labor force. Employing the immigrants gives the employers an opportunity to reduce the cost and retain the loyal workers in those areas that the majority of the citizens feel overqualified to work in. This means that expelling these immigrants would have a negative influence the US economy (George, 2006). In another survey conducted on the US armed forces, it show that the number of immigrants in the force totals to 60,000. This is in both the navy and army. This shows that the immigrant plays a major role in developing the economy. This is through keeping peace missions that are relevant for the economy to grow. Their efforts have been vital in the public service. The US economy has mostly been a capital-intensive economy, which has employed few people than its potential. The illegal immigrants replace this method through the provision of cheap and manual labor. This has played a major role for the immigrants themselves and the entire economy in that it leaps the benefits directly, which appears on its gross domestic product. In most of these cases, the illegal immigrants work in construction companies, meat packing industry, agriculture, and other physically or labor intensive jobs (Corwin, 2010). In a report that was done by the Washington Post, the illegal immigration has a positive benefit on the average US taxpayer. The reason is that the immigrants in the US pays more tax than the average American. This is more than they consume in the social services. Immigrants pay the federal taxes and state taxes as well as social security taxes. However, the immigrants do not get a chance to reclaim this money because they are not citizens. Averagely, this decreases the tax burden on native-born American citizens. Nonetheless, this effect varies by location, states with high immigrant populations and generous social services regularly experience a net loss in tax revenue. Most of these immigrants come to the US from most parts of the world. They bring in different cultures from their places. These immigrants have racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity, which expose the American citizens to new ideas and new ways of life. This diversity introduces the Americans to new ways of life in different sectors. This may involve areas such as cuisine, religion, language that helps to educate the Americans citizens about ways of life from the various ways of life. However, this may at first cause conflict between people of different races and ethnicity (Corwin, 2010). The US economy is seen as a positively welcoming economy due to the large numbers of immigrants that are available in the economy. This in turn attracts investors who see the economy as favorable and might bring in high

Slavic civilization Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Slavic civilization - Term Paper Example This gave them a solid ground and an opportunity to win more souls. This essay therefore aims at looking at the spread of Islam in the Balkans gauging the period from which Islam began to have rather a strong impact on the Slavic in the Balkan. It is therefore very difficult to speak about Islam in various parts of Europe and Asia without reflecting on a brief history of the spread of the Slavic people. The Slavic are an Indo-European speaking people who migrated to various parts of Europe. Presently, they occupy various parts of Central Europe, northern Europe, and southern Europe. They also occupy parts of central and northern parts of Asia. The word Slavic is a term derived from the word ‘slovo’,1 meaning- people who speak the same language. Originally, the term Slavic was used to refer to a people who had common language or culture. The Slavic speaking people are believed to have originated from somewhere in Danube River as shown by that term. The people they were ex posed to when they were travelling regarded the Slavonic people as backward. One reason why they were viewed as primitive was because of the places they inhabited. Early historians believe that the Slavonic majorly inhabited swampy places and those places that were near rivers and lakes. The Slavonics were organized into groups and had no one ruler. They lived a democratic way of life in their social structure, each living in harmony with his neighbor2. They were monotheists, believing in one god, the god of lightning. They sacrificed to this god of lightning majorly cattle, of which they chose the best among what they had. Going by their description, the Slavonic were tall people, who were very hardy and mostly trounced their opponents in battle. Historically, whenever they went to battle against their opponents, they could engage them in a fierce battle, fighting unanimously. This was contrary to how they lived. They lived in isolation but they could approach battle as one, fighti ng a common enemy. Their mode of fighting was unique. They could role the helm of their trousers nearer to their private parts, and bare-chested. They did not have any problem in identifying themselves when in battle. They were almost similar in appearance given their gigantic nature and the way they shove their hair, almost blonde. Guided by the scriptural teachings of Koran, the Muslims took their mission to various parts of the world, including to the Slavic people. The Muslims believed that they had an obligation to defend their religion. This formed the basis of fighting to convert people to the new faith. They believed that it was their right; as Prophet Mohammed required that Islamic faith was to be guarded3. This could be the reason why they waged wars, wars they commonly called Jihad (holy war) before it lost its meaning. The Jihad war was waged just to protect the Islam religion from losing its influence. It was believed to be one way of ensuring that other rival religions especially Christians do not influence win over the already converted Muslims. The spread of Islam in Europe began with the imprisonment of one Muslim who much later was given a mandate to teach. He taught Islamic religion to many people who were later converted to Islam. It must be acknowledged that the spread of Islam did not take place effectively through war. People easily got converted voluntarily through teaching than when war was used. This explains why it was voluntary teaching that helped

Religious and Ethnic Groups Essay Example for Free

Religious and Ethnic Groups Essay Religious And Ethnic Groups The religious and ethnic groups that I have chosen to write about are Jehovahs Witnesses and Pacific Islanders. The reason I have decided on theses two choices is because I feel that out of my choices to write about these two I know the least about, and I wanted to know more. I always have been interested in different religions since I do not have one myself, but never found the time to pursue research into very many of them. I have never really thought about researching other ethnic groups, but I feel it is a good idea to do as much research as possible to connect as well as I can with my patients. I will be touching on the same subjects with both choices and show what I learned through this journey. My selected religious group of Jehovahs Witnesses differs from other religious groups because they refuse military service and blood transfusions, refuse to salute the national flag, do not believe in abortion, do not observe traditional holidays like Easter, Christmas, or their birthdays, and go door-to-door preaching and handing out literature (Engardio, Shepard, n.d.). Jehovahs Witnesses do not usually associate with people outside of their religion, and you can not be a member unless you have been baptized. Jehovahs Witnesses believe that Jehovah is the creator of all things and is the only true God, while also believing that the Holy Spirit is an active force and not a person (Watchtower online library, n.d). They also believe that paradise is here on Earth and they do not believe in Hell (Bourque, 2012, Ten things you didnt know about Jehovahs Witnesses). The experience with Jehovahs witnesses with others that do not share its beliefs or practices has not always been a positive one. When they go door to door they often are greeted with rejection because they consider secular society to be morally corrupt and under the influence of Satan (Wikipedia, Jehovahs Witnesses, para.3). It is also very difficult to have a relationship of any kind to get to know them because of their lack of association with others  outside of their own religion. The ways that Jehovahs Witnesses have contributed to American culture are by winning 50 out of 62 supreme court battles, and set many precedents regarding many religious freedom issues (Engardio, Shepard, n.d.), they have a way of convincing criminals and immoral people to change how they live, they are also usually one of the first responders on a scene of a natural disaster to help people, like in the Boston Marathon bombing. They were also guinea pigs for having bloodless surgery which is now widely available to anyone (Engardio, n.d.). Some examples of discrimination or prejudice that the Jehovahs witnesses have endured are; raids on their houses of worship, unlawful detention, denial of employment and education, and confiscation of their property (Engardio, n.d.). On August30, 2012 Naplenews.com posted a story of two teachers suing a school district for discrimination by declining to re-hire them after finding out they were Jehovahs Witnesses (Bhasin, 2012). Posted on annarbor.c om December13, 2011 a nursing home illegally fired an employee for requesting certain days off during the week because of her religion, which happened to be Jehovahs Witness (Higgins, 2011). On both of these sources the employer was the source of discrimination and court cases came about because of the discrimination. During my research on Jehovahs Witnesses I learned more than I expected to learn. I now have an understanding on why they do not salute the flag, do not donate blood, and do not socialize much outside of their own religion. I also learned that they do believe in divorce and dancing, which most people believe they do not do. I believe everyone believes in their own personal beliefs. Understanding why they do, or do not do things is important to know so that way I can make educated judgments, and better support a variety of people. The Ethnic group I chose is Pacific Islander to get more familiar with their ways and traditions. They differ from other ethnic/racial groups because they often live a laid back style counting on one another as they are all extended family that works together for the better of their community. Pacific Islanders did not have a form of written language for centuries using music to as a way of expression. They would play wood drums made of hollowed logs, play small and large gourds, play split bamboo, and use their voices as a way of express ion. They also have traditional weddings where it is a whole family event, and the family pays for it. When there is  a funeral everyone wears black and extended family prepares food for up to five days (Swain, n.d.). The experience of Pacific Islanders with other groups have been positive. Pacific Islanders in general get along well with others and are very family oriented, which draws people to them. Pacific Islanders have contributed to American culture in many ways. They have been leaders in every aspect in government, business, science, medicine, the arts, education, and the armed forces (Washington, 2013. par.3.). Many Pacific Islanders have also been awarded the medal of honor. A specific example of discrimination against Pacific Islanders is in 1974 a suit was filed against Alaskas Wards Cove Company. The all white management segregated them from everything. They made them work in racially segregated jobs and were segregated when it came to housing and eating. When it came to the signing in 1991 of the federal Civil Rights Act this suit was still pending and excluded these specific people and allows Alaskas Wards Cove to operate above the law, and continues its discriminatory practices (Lee, 1992, par. 3.). Once again the source of this discrimination is the employer, which happens to have an all white management team. What I did find on Pacific Islanders has helped me understand a little bit more about them. Pacific Islander can mean different things to different people, and it is important not too generalize the race. I now also understand that it is their culture to have strong relationships with their families and their community. It was interesting to find out that music has played a big part of their culture when they had no written language. I enjoyed doing this research and finding the reasons behind why these groups believe in what they believe in. The biggest discrimination similarity that I found between these two groups that I researched was mostly employer discrimination. The biggest differences that I found between the two are they are of different races and believe differently in religion. If I could draw any conclusions from these comparisons I would say that employer discrimination seems to be predominant, even to this day. I feel that in doing this research that no one is exempt from discrimination, and we all have to stand up for what is right and for what we believe in, while still respecting others beliefs. References Bhasin, Sabina. (2012). Former teachers, Jehovahs Witnesses file discrimination lawsuit against school district. Retrieved from http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/aug/30/former-teachers-jehovahs-witnesses-file-lawsuit/ Bourque, Adam. (2012). Ten things you didnt know about Jehovahs Witnesses. Retrieved from http://www.miskeptics.org/2012/07/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-jehovahs- witnesses/ J Engardio, P. Joel, Shepard, Tom. (n.d). Documentary, KNOCKING. Retrieved from http://www.knocking.org/ Higgins, Lee. (2011). Jehovahs Witness claims discrimination by nursing home. Retrieved from ttp://www.annarbor.com/news/jehovahs-witness-was-discriminated-against-at-pittsfield-township-nursing-home-lawsuit-alleges/ Houghton Mifflin Company. (2009) The free dictionary, (4th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Pacific+Islander Lee, Tau, Pam. (1992). Environmental Justice for Asians and Pacific Islanders. Retrieved from http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/962 Swain, Liz. (n.d.) . Pacific Island Americans. Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Le-Pa/Pacific-Islander-Americans.html Watchtower online library. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102006245 Washington. (2013). Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders Important to U.S. History. Retrieved from http://geneva.usmission.gov/2013/05/10/asian-americans-pacific-islanders-important-to-u-s-history/ Wikipedia (n.d.). Jehovahs Witnesses. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovahs_Witnesses

The Transtheoretical Model Of Health Behaviour

The Transtheoretical Model Of Health Behaviour A Critical evaluation of the Transtheoretical model of health behaviour change in light of my own experience of exercise behaviour change. â€Å"Morbidity and mortality in industrialized societies is due, in part, to individual patterns of behaviour† (Bridle 2004). Individuals contribute to their own health by avoiding health damaging behaviours such as smoking, and by adopting health enhancing behaviours such as exercise or healthy eating. There are many heath interventions in place to help people make positive lifestyle changes, and these interventions are commonly based on stage theories/models of behaviour change, providing a diagrammatic approach and a framework for research, in order to understand, predict and ultimately change behaviour (Bridle 2004 pg284). Behaviour change is seen as a dynamic process involving movement through a sequence of discrete qualitatively distinct stages, and commonly stage based interventions are more effective then non-stage based interventions (Adams and White 2005). However, recent research into the effectiveness of stage based models suggests that despite the widespread popu larity in both practice and research, more caution is necessary (see Bridle et al 2004 for a review). For the purpose of this project I chose to adopt a healthier lifestyle by increasing the amount of exercise that I did each week. The benefits of exercise are well documented (Department of health 2004) and for the purpose of this study I set a target of exercising three times a week (this is around three times as much as I previously exercised) and I did this for a six week period. I began by jogging for as long as I could manage three times a week, but after the first two weeks I realised that I was lacking motivation, so instead I joined the gym, and continued my regime with the better facilities provided at the gym and monitored my progress in the form of a diary. In the forthcoming essay I will evaluate my experience in light of models of health behaviour change, but more specifically the Transactional model of health behaviour. There is no overall consensus regarding which is the best model of behaviour change but The Transtheoretical model (TTM) (Prochaska DiClemente, 1983; (also known as stages of change model) Prochaska, DiClemente Norcross, 1992)) is commonly considered the dominant model of behaviour change in health Psychology (Norman et al 2000). The TTM of health behaviour suggests that behaviour change is not a continuous process but something that occurs through a series of qualitatively different stages (Bridle et al pg284). It suggests a total of five stages that people go through when experiencing a behaviour change and in addition to these five stages, ten social and psychological aspects of health behaviour and different self-change strategies, the so-called ‘processes of change, that are involved in the movement between different stages (Prochaska et al 1997). Different stages are associated with different beliefs such as the assessment of the ‘pros and ‘cons of the behav iour and self-confidence in ability to change the behaviour. Prochaska et al (1997) argue that interventions to promote change should be designed so that they are appropriate to an individuals current stage and moving an individual from one stage to another using the TTM will eventually lead the person to achieve the ‘maintenance whereby long term change is achieved. The Transtheoretical model provided me with a great insight into my motivational behaviour and the factors that affected my motivation within each stage. For example, the transition between ‘contemplation and ‘action only occurred when I re-located my exercise behaviour to the gym, as described in the TTM, I required environmental re-evaluation and consciousness raising (provided by staff at the gym) before I could move to the ‘action stage. However, motivation was a serious problem, even when I was regularly exercising (weeks 5 and 6) my motivation would fluctuate or increase on a whim, my mood was a strong motivating and de-motivating factor and often other factors such as work, money and other commitments would take priority. These factors can be placed within the ‘decisional balance when weighing up the pros and cons, for example in the third week when I had a lot of university work to do, my exercise was less important which is why I moved from ‘act ion to ‘preparation then back to ‘action, and according to the TTM other factors such as self-efficacy and situational temptations may have also had an influence on my mood and exercise behaviour. However, this was not always the case and my behaviour was not always as structured or as cognitively coherent as the TTM describes. Even with support from peers to do more exercise and no reason not to do exercise, I was still not motivated to actually do it, suggesting that my behaviour did not always follow decision making rules such as the pros and cons of exercise behaviour that TTM proposes. West et al (2005) provides commentary on this by suggesting that by focussing on conscious decision making and planning processes draws attention away from what are known to be important underpinnings of human behaviour (West et al 2005). Even if my behaviour was accountable under the ‘processes of change it still remains that on some occasions these processes were not apparent to me, I simply did not want to do exercise and I easily fell into my old routine of no exercise. This however did lead to ‘regret which in turn motivated me. Sometimes I would chose not to do exercise and regret not doing it, then feel motivated by regret at a later date, it may be worth incorporating the Regret Theory (Bell 1982) into TTM as part if the ‘decisional balance. Another problem that I found with the TTM was that I felt that my behaviour was not always ‘stage specific and I at times I felt as though I was in both ‘pre-contemplation and ‘action stages at the same time. However as Sutton et al (1991) observed if one can be in more than one stage at once, â€Å"the concept of stages loses its meaning† (p.195). It is a bold suggestion to make when analysing a widely used model, and research into the evidence for qualitatively different stages has provided mixed outcomes. Prochaska DiClemente claim strong empirical support for the stages of change across a wide range of populations and problems (Prochaska, DiClemente, Velicer, Rossi, 1992; Prochaska Velicer, 1997; Prochaska, Velicer, et al., 1994; Velicer, Hughes, Fava, Prochaska, DiClemente, 1995; Velicer, Rossi, Prochaska, DiClemente, 1996). However a review of stages of change literature (Littell Girvin, 2002) has provided mixed results regarding the validity of t he qualitatively distinct stages. Identifying a person stage is a fundamental step in applying stage-based interventions, but few staging methods have been validated to confirm that they accurately place the individuals in the correct stage of activity change (Adams, 2005). Not only this, researchers often adapt and change existing algorithms when they are not comfortable with the existing one (Brug, 2003). Littells review provides evidence for and against SOC, from a variety of studies using factor analysis and/or cluster charts to reveal patterns of behavioural intention. The studies provided mixed results; Carey et al (1999) found that â€Å"the number of identifiable clusters is sample dependent and highly variable† and that some clusters â€Å"do not have clear correlates in the Transtheoretical Model† (p. 251), however a separate review (Davidson 1998) found â€Å"clear profiles corresponding to the predicted stages emerged with considerable consistency† ( p. 27). This mix match of results lead Littell at al to conclude; with the exception of pre-contemplation â€Å"stages do not emerge with any consistent manner, in principle components within problem behaviours, and rather then being in one stage or another clients show patterns of differential involvement in each of the stages† (Littell, 2002). This lends support to my personal experience of SOC with regards to exercise behaviour, suggesting that the distinct stages of behaviour change identified by Prochaska et al may not be as accurate as they had originally proposed and without an accurate measurement tool, stage based interventions are of limited utility. The application of stage based interventions to exercise has provided some positive results for short term behaviour change, however little research has found support for the long term benefits of stage based interventions in behaviour change. This has been a topic of much debate over recent years, and a review by Adams and White lead to three main reasons why this may be. The aforementioned problems with validated staging algorithms are noted in Adams et als research, but also the complexity of physical activity, and the possibility that the real determinants of activity change are not included in the Transtheoretical model. Adams et al suggest that the exercise behaviour is not a single behaviour but actually a complex set of behaviour patterns. By reducing exercise behaviour down to one single entity interventions are failing to measure a whole behaviour, rather a part of a behaviour. Marttila et al, for example, identified five different categories of physical activity (occupatio nal activities, fitness activities, life style activities, commuting activities, and sports activities), and peoples pros cons and self efficacy beliefs were different for each behaviour. In my case, I had pros associated with going to the gym during my behaviour change but I did not have pros associated with walking to work every day (occupational activities), or going dancing through the night (life style activities), these behaviours do however constitute as physical activity, I was trying to increase my fitness activities and not taking into account any occupational or life style activities. Unlike smoking or substance use, exercise behaviour is multi-faceted and by failing to recognise this, investigators may be failing to recognise the true complexity and specificity of interventions required to promote activity (Adams et al), not only this, it may explain, in part the problem of validating the stages because people are falling into two groups of behaviour change for different behaviours. Adams et al also suggest that motivational factors for exercise behaviour are more complex then TTM can account for, factors such as age, gender and socioeconomic position, these factors all have an effect of our behaviour but why not behaviour change? A study by Kearney et al (1999) looked at stages of change over a nationally representative sample and found that TTM was effective in identifying stage and attitudes towards exercise behaviour but there was considerable ‘intercountry and ‘sociodemographic variation in the distribution of stages of change. They concluded by suggesting that targeted programmes aimed at specific subgroups might be more effective in promoting physical activity. From this brief introduction to TTM research, and in light of my own behaviour change it would appear that TTM and other stage based interventions targeting exercise behaviour have a long way to go before they can significantly aid long-term behaviour change. I believe that the TTM provided me with a good insight into motivational elements my own behaviour change, however, in my opinion the spontaneous nature of my desire to/not to take part in physical activity did not always fall into the features described in the ‘processes of change or ‘decisional balance. My experience showed that consciousness raising and environmental evaluation had a part to play in stage movement, which allowed for a successful short term behaviour change, but I am not convinced that my behaviour was always stage specific. As mentioned by Bandura ‘human functioning is simply too multifaceted and multi-determined to be categorized into a few discrete stages (Bandura, 1997 pg8) and research h as provided evidence to suggest that the staging process may not be validated, confirming my experience of stages of change (TTM). Possible suggestions for the future of TTM are as follows: West et al argues that interventions should revert back to the simplistic supportive role that GPs took before stage based interventions were devised, focussing on desire to change as opposed to stages (West 2005) and Littell et al (2004) argues for a feedback system whereby stage based groups are coupled with discussions about motivation to change. In my opinion, further research is needed in to tailored behaviour interventions, and/or like Littell et al suggests coupling TTM with a personalized interview suitable for long term behaviour change. References: Adams J White, M. (2005) Why dont stage based activity promotion interventions work? Health Education Research. 20. 237-243. Bandura, A. (1977). Self efficacy: Towards a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological review. Bell, David E. (1982). Regret in Decision Making Under Uncertainty. Operations Research, 30, 961-981. Bridle, C; Riemsma, P; Pattenden J; Sowden A J, Mather L, Watt, I S; Walker A (2004) Systematic review of the effectiveness of health behaviour interventions based on the Transtheoretical model. Psychology and health, 20(3):283-301. Brug J. (2005) The transtheoretcial model and stages of change: a critique. Observations by five commentators on the paper b y Adams, J. and White M. (2004) Why dont stage based activity promotion interventions work? Health education research theory and practice, vol.20 no.2, 244-258. Carey, K. B., Purnine, D. M., Maisto, S. A.,Carey, M. P. (1999). Assessing readiness to change substance abuse: A critical review of instruments. In Littell, J. H. Girvin H. (2002) stages of change. A critique. Behaviour modification, 26.223-273. Davidson, R. (1998). The transtheoretical model: A critical overview. InW. R. Miller N. Heather (Eds.), Treating addictive behaviors (2nd ed., pp. 25-38). New York: Plenum. Department of health. (2004) At least five a week: evidence on the impact of physical activity and its relationship to health. A report from the Chief Medical Officer. London TSO. Kearney, J., de Graaf, C., Damkjaer, S. and Engstrom, L. (1999) Stages of change towards physical activity in a nationally representative sample in the European Union. Public Health Nutrition, 2, 115-124. Littell, J. H. Girvin H. (2002) stages of change. A critique. Behaviour modification, 26.223-273. Marttila, J., Laitakari, J., Nupponen, R., Miilunpalo, S. and Paronen, O. (1998) The versatile nature of physical activity. On the psychological, behavioural and contextual characteristics of health-related physical activity. Patient Education and Counselling, 33, s29-s38. Norman P, Abraham C, Conner M (2000) Understanding and changing health behaviour from health beliefs to self regulation, Harwood academic publishers: pg73-95. Prochaska, J. DiClemente, C. 1983. Transtheoretical therapy: toward a more integrative model of change. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practise, 19, 276-288. Prochaska, J. O., DiClemente, C. C. (1992). Stages of change in the modification of problem behaviors. In M. Hersen, R. Eisler,P. M. Miller (Eds.), Progress in behavior modification (Vol. 28). New York: Academic Press. Prochaska, J. O., Velicer, W. F. (1997). Misinterpretations and misapplications of the transtheoretical model. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12, 11-12. Prochaska, J. O.,Velicer,W. F.,Rossi, J. S., Goldstein, M. G., Marcus, B. H., Rakowski,W., et al. (1994). Stages of change and decisional balance for 12 problem behaviors. Health Psychology,13, 39-46. Robinson, T, E Berridge, K C (2003) Addiction. Annual Review of psychology, 54, 25-53. In West R (2005) Time for a change: putting the Transtheoretical (stages of change) Model to rest. Society for the study of addiction. Sutton, S R (1996) Can ‘stages of change provide guidance in the treatment of addictions? A critical examination of Prochaska and DiClementes model. In Norman P, Abraham C, and Conner M; (2000) Understanding and changing Health behaviour p.g. 207-210 West R (2005) Time for a change: putting the Transtheoretical (stages of change) Model to rest. Society for the study of addiction.   

Method Development for Protein Detection

Method Development for Protein Detection Binding-induced and label-free colorimetric method for protein detection based on binding-induced DNA hybridization and DNAzymebased signal amplification INTRODUCTION In diagnosing the early stage of a disease or pathological condition, proteins, especially those associated with cancers, are of great importance because they are the molecular machinery of life.[BB2013-AM-3, 1,2] Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the most commonly used method for protein detection.[PD-3,1,2] Unfortunately, this antibody-based assay requires a long incubation periods and long assay times with the involvement of multiple washing steps.[PD-5,1,2] Additionally, it is faced with the challenges of insufficient sensitivity and limited dynamic range.[PD-4, 5,6,7] As an alternative to the antibody-based assay, aptamer-based assays have gained tremendous attention recently.[PD-4,9-11] Aptamers are single stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides selected from random sequence nucleic acid libraries through an in vitro selection process termed systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX).[PD-6,4-6] They possess high affinity and good selectivity for s mall molecules, proteins or other targets.[BB-11,20-22] Compared to antibodies, aptamers exhibit obvious advantages including a better stability for long-term storage, a rapider preparation by chemical synthesis in large quantity, and the flexible modification with a variety of functional groups.[PD-4, BB-11,23,24] Some aptamer-based amplified detection assays for protein have been developed in the past two decades, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), rolling circle amplification (RCA), strand displacement amplification (SDA) and ligase chain reaction (LCR). [BB-AM-3] Although these amplified assays greatly enhance the sensitivity of protein detection, they are usually time-consuming and too complicated. Therefore, the amplified detection of protein is still challenging in bioanalytical chemistry.[BB2013-AM-3] Deoxyribozymes (DNAzymes) are artificial nucleic acids, which are isolated from in vitro selection. [DM-5] Similar to traditional protein enzymes, they exhibit high catalytic hydrolytic toward specific substrates, while they possess higher thermal stability that can be denatured and renatured formanycycles without losing catalytic activities.[DM-4] This obvious advantage makes DNAzymes ideal biocatalysts for achieving signal amplification in biological applications.[DM-4] An important development in the DNAzyme field is the discovery of the G-quadruplex DNAzyme.[DM-9,9] The G-quadruplex sequences can associate with a cofactor, hemin, to form peroxidase-mimicking DNAzymes to catalyze the H2O2-mediated oxidation of 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) to a green-colored product ABTS†¢Ã¢Ë†â€™ or enhance the chemiluminescence of the luminol-H2O2 system.[DM-6,25, DM-5,44] With this main advantage, G-quadruplex DNAzyme has been employed to develop many colorime tric, chemiluminescent or fluorescent sensing platforms for the detection of proteins, DNA and other biomolecules.[DM-9,14,DM-2,34-37] Recently, Willners group reported an enzyme-free amplified detection platform based on the hemin/G-quadruplex horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mimicking DNAzyme.[AC2012-2] This strategy is quite successful, while the target detection is limited to DNA, and the detection of protein represents another challenge. In this work, taking the advantages of the high selectivity and affinity of aptamers and the HRP-mimicking DNAzyme amplification strategy, we designed a new binding-induced and label-free ultrasensitive colorimetric method for amplified detection of protein. As a proof of principle, human ÃŽ ±-thrombin and its two aptamers, Apt29 and Apt15, are used. In this sensing system, Apt29 and Apt15 are integrated into the proximity probes as recognition elements for the thrombin. These two proximity probes hybridize with each other stably only when both of them bind to the thrombin simultaneously.[BB2013-AM-3] The binding-induced hybridization duplex triggers an autonomous cross-opening of the two functional hairpin structures. And this leads to the formation of a variety of hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzymes. The DNAzymes catalyze the oxidation of ABTS, generating a green colorimetric signal, which can be monitored simply by a spectrophotometer. [DM-3,29,30] This binding-induced and DNAzyme-based s ignal amplified method has a great potential for protein detection. [BB2013-AM-3] In addition, since various recognition elements might be fused, this method can be further extended to sensitive detection of other proteins.[DM-4] EXPERIMENTAL SCETION Materials and Reagents. All DNA oligonucleotides were purchased from Genscript (Jiangsu, China). The oligonucleotides were PAGE-purified and diluted in pH 7.4, 20 mM Tris-HCl buffer solution (containing 100 mM NaCl, 20 mM KCl, and 2 mM MgCl2) to give stock solutions of 100 ÃŽ ¼M. Before use, two hairpin structures were heated to 95à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™ for 5 min, and slowly cooled down to room temperature. Human ÃŽ ±-thrombin (Tb), bovine serum albumin (BSA), and human serum albumin (HSA) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Hemin, [tris(hydroxymethy-l)aminomethane] (Tris), 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-1-ethanesulfonic acid sodium salt (HEPES), 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiozoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and H2O2 were purchased from Aladdin Reagents (Shanghai, China). A hemin stock solution (1 mM) was prepared in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and stored in the dark at −20  °C. All other chemicals were of analytical grade and were used without further purification. All solutions were prepa red using double-distilled water, which was obtained through a Milli-Q purification system (Billerica, MA, USA). Absorbance Measurements. Absorbance measurements were performed under room temperature using a TU-1901 UV−visible spectrophotometer (Beijing Purkinje General Instrument Co, Ltd., China). Kinetic data were recorded at the wavelength of 420 nm every 5 s during the first 5 min of the reaction. The absorption spectra of the solution was measured in the wavelength range from 390 to 490 nm. Procedure for Thrombin Assay. The experiments were performed in 50 ÃŽ ¼L of Tris-HCl buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH = 7.4, 100 mM NaCl, 20 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl2) containing 200 nM P1, 200 nM P2 and varying concentrations of Tb. The mixture was first incubated for 30 min at room temperature to allow complete binding. Next, 25 ÃŽ ¼L of 2 ÃŽ ¼M H1 and 25 ÃŽ ¼L of 2 ÃŽ ¼M H2 were added and incubated for 6 h at room temperature. Then, 20 ÃŽ ¼L of 2 ÃŽ ¼M hemin and 240 ÃŽ ¼L of HEPES buffer (25 mM HEPES, pH= 7.4, 200 mM NaCl, 20 mM KCl, 0.05% Triton X-100, 1% DMSO) were added, and allowed to incubate for 1 h at room temperature. Finally, 30 ÃŽ ¼L of ABTS and 10 ÃŽ ¼L of H2O2 were added to the mixture to give the final concentrations of 2 mM and 2 mM, respectively. The resulting samples were tested with a UV−vis spectrometer. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Design strategy for human ÃŽ ±-thrombin detection The sequences of the oligonucleotides used in this work were listed in Table 1. It consists of two proximity probes (P1 and P2) and two hairpin structures (H1 and H2). Both proximity probes P1 and P2 consist of four domains. Domain I includes two different thrombin aptamers, Apt29 (29 mer) and Apt15 (15 mer). The Apt29, orange domain of P1, binds to the heparin-binding site and the Apt15, skyblue domain of P2, binds to the fibrinogen-binding site of thrombin, resulting in proximity. Domain II (black) consists of a poly-T sequence that is designed to reduce the effect of steric hindrance induced by thrombin. Domain III (pink) is designed to have only 6 complementary bases, so that two proximity probes P1 and P2 cannot form a stable duplex without the target protein at room temperature. Domain IV (blue) is the key domain for binding-induced DNAzyme-assised signal amplification. By using two functional hairpin structures, the recognition of domain IV could trigger-on the hybridization c hain reaction that led to DNAzyme chains consists of the hemin/G-quadruplex HRP-mimicking DNAzyme. Hairpin structure H1 is functionalized at its 5 end with three-fourths of the G-quadruplex sequence, domain V (green), which is linked to the programmed sequences VIII (red) and VII (blue). One-fourth of the G-quadruplex sequence, domain VI (green), is extended at the 3 end of the hairpin H1. Hairpin structure H2 is functionalized at its 5 and 3 ends with one-fourth of the G-quadruplex (domain VI) and three-fourths of the G-quadruplex (domain V) sequence, respectively. Programmed sequences of domains VII and VIII in hairpin H2 are complementary to domains VII and VIII in hairpin H1, respectively. Both four domains in hairpin H1 and H2 are incorporated into a stable hairpin configuration in an initially locked format by hybridizing with their partially complementary sequences. It is noteworthy that sequence V is partially hybridized with domain VII in hairpin H1 or VIII in hairpin H2, w hich prevents the self-assembly of the active hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzyme. Principle of binding-induced DNAzyme-assisted amplification strategy for human ÃŽ ±-thrombin detection The working principle of human ÃŽ ±-thrombin detection is illustrated in Scheme 1. In the absence of thrombin, domain III in P1 and domain III in P2 will not associate since the complementary sequences (6 nt) are too short to promote efficient hybridization. When the target thrombin is introduced into the system, domain I in P1 and P2 bind to the protein simultaneously, resulting in domain III and III sufficiently close and to hybridize to each other to form a stable P1-Tb-P2 duplex, step 1. [BB2013-AM-3] Once the P1-Tb-P2 duplex forms, it associates with the stem region of H1, domain VII, leading to an opening of H1. This opening of H1 results in the release of the single-stranded domain VIII and the conserved three-fourths of the G-quadruplex (domain V), step 2. The released domain VIII then hybridizes with domain VIII of the stem in H2, and opens H2 using the strand displacement principle, step3. Subsequently, the liberated domain VII in H2 cross-hybridizes with H1 by hybridizatio n of domain VII to domain VII in H1, resulting in two G-quadruplex subunits (domain V and VI) sufficiently close and to self-assemble into a G-quadruplex structure, step 4. [AC2012-4] In the process of this autonomous cross-opening of H2 and H1, strand displacement can be repeated continuously, generating numerous G-quadruplex structures. In the presence of hemin, the resulting catalytic hemin/G-quadruplex peroxidase-mimicking DNAzymes catalyze the H2O2-mediated oxidation of the colorless ABTS2− to green-colored ABTS†¢Ã¢Ë†â€™. Detection of thrombin in human serum To further demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method in real bioenviroments, we performed the detection of thrombin in human serum. [AC2013-4] Three concentrations of thrombin (10 pM, 100 pM, and 1000 pM) were spiked into 10-fold diluted human serum. [ZK-CC-1] Figure 4 shows the time-dependent absorbance changes of ABTS†¢Ã¢Ë†â€™ in response to different concentrations of thrombin. [AC2014-6] In logarithmic scales, the absorbance value exhibits a linear correlation with thrombin concentration over a range of 3 orders of magnitude from 10 pM to 1000 pM (inset of Figure 4B). [AC2012-12] The result indicated the potentiality of the proposed method for protein detection in real biological samples. [AC2013-4] Conclusions In conclusion, we have developed a binding-induced and label-free colorimetric method for protein detection based on binding-induced DNA hybridization and DNAzyme-assisted signal amplification. This method does not require any modification of DNA and involve any protein enzyme, which makes it technically label-free, enzyme-free and very cost-effective. Furthermore, the present approach uses a simple separation-free procedure in which the assay is conducted in a homogeneous solution.[AC2014-3] In addition, due to the excellent specificity of two proximity probes to the thrombin and the ingenious design of two hairpin structures,[AC-EA-2] this method exhibits a high sensitivity for thrombin detection, with a low detection limit of 2.5 pM. More importantly, this method can be extended to sensitive detection of other proteins by simple changing the aptamer sequences of the two proximity probes. To sum up, this simple and cost-effective colorimetric signal amplified method has great poten tial to be used as a universal tool for ultrasensitive analysis of thrombin or other proteins in serum and supply valuable information for biomedical research and clinical diagnosis.[ZK-CC-1]

Damsels In Address Essay -- essays research papers fc

Damsels in Address It is clearly evident that many fairy tales of childhood tend to shape the reader. Certain moral codes and ideals are tightly woven into the text of many fairy tales, promoting or denoting a character’s actions. In the Grimm’s fairy tales Cinderella, Brier Rose, and Rapunzel, the heroines of these tales exhibit strong behavioral codes, thus providing opportunity for the young female reader to relate to the damsel, or to model herself to behave in a similar fashion. In accordance with Marcia R. Lieberman’s essay, " ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation Through the Fairy Tale," I agree with the assertion that positive traits in fairy tale indicate reward, while the negative characteristics bring misfortune. A heroine in a fairy tale is to be seen as a mentor, a model to easily portray what is right, and what is inherently wrong. For instance, a passive heroine proves to bring eventual reward through pain and suffering, while a female who is assertive, either mentally or physically, is shunned. Suggestions integrated throughout the text of the three tales provide strong evidence as to the desired morals and values of the society in which the tales were written. Through the examination of tales, their inherent messages surface. Children’s perceptions of fairytales can go a long way towards shaping social interactions among said children. Passivity is a major player in the personalities of Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel relies completely on a determined prince to escape her imprisonment; Cinderella uses a fairy godmother to help her cause and Sleeping Beauty waits until Prince Charming wakes her. Children could see these characterizations of women and begin to intertwine them with their own budding personalities. Boys begin to see women as weak and Girls may interpret these behavior traits as indicative of their being the lesser part of relationships with men. S exual roles, although not overtly discussed within the pages of fairytales, becomes the focus for these young people. Marcia Lieberman reiterates the idea of inherent roles stating, "a picture of sexual roles, behavior psychology, and a way of predicting outcome or fate according to sex"(Lieberman, 384). As they grow older, the children may begin to fall into the roles they discovered in the fairytales; boys begin ... ...uch beauty, the maiden is chosen, married, and loved by the hero. This process leads not only to beauty by means of passivity, but also to security and happiness. Assertion equates not only with beauty, but ugliness and misfortune as well. Boys in turn develop a sense of responsibility and see themselves in the dominant role. In other words, they must save the day by getting the girl and then of course spreading wealth. For the young girls of the fairy tale audience to acknowledge that they must act out roles similar to the behavior of the heroines in the three tales under examination, thus guaranteeing eternal wealth and happiness. Boys will see the same roles played out and revert to the breadwinning hero role. Lessons portrayed throughout the story are epitomized by Marcia Lieberman to support the notion of love, success, and failure. Bibliography Works Cited Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Trans. and with an introduction by Jack Zipes. 2 vols. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1988. Lieberman, Marcia R. " ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation Through the Fairy Tale." College English 34 (1972/73): 383-395.

daddy :: essays research papers

Personal Essay It was a Sunday evening around 6 o'clock or so, one of the many Sunday evenings where I would cruise around with my father in the car. Though this wasn't just any ordinary Sunday sightseeing excursion with dad. We stopped at a red light, and without much enthusiasm observed the pedestrians. A woman, as she walked, fixed the white lacey gossamer slip of her dress. It dragged out of her skirt, obviously making her feel self-conscious. A short, stubby man with an overbearing gut was nonchalantly picking his nose as he ogle the lady adjusting her slip. He stared at her, as though undressing her with his eyes. I looked at my father, who was looking right back at me. We both laughed. Being only 8 years old, I was at an age where I found everything hilarious. The very fact that my father and I were looking at the same scene and probably both thinking how perverted the man seemed made me laugh hysterically. My dad continued to drive. I kept gazing at the scenery of the city, as the sun started to set and the darkness took over. Our little sightseeing trip was over, or so I thought. I was so used to the same path we went through, that when my father made an unaccustomed turn, it made me suspicious. I refrained myself from asking him where we were going because his usual reply would be, "Don't worry about it, don't ask where you're going, its where I take you okay". I had to admit it was an unfamiliar, but enchanting view. I had my window all the way down, with the reflection of the side mirror in my face. The wind blew, as the luminous setting sun mirrored back rays of light. With each reflection, I narrowly squinted my eyes and continued to marvel at this picturesque interaction of color and beauty. Being in the month of October, one can imagine the colorful setting that was before me. Beautiful, vibrantly colored decayed autumn leaves sprang from the limbs of the trees. The aroma of crispy, dried up leaves embraced my nose. These exuberant, withered leaves captivated my vision and olfactory senses, as though I had nothing else to admire. Beauties of nature that so often people, including myself, tend to ignore. Suddenly, my father stopped the car. In front of a deteriorated, run-down house, indicating abandonment. daddy :: essays research papers Personal Essay It was a Sunday evening around 6 o'clock or so, one of the many Sunday evenings where I would cruise around with my father in the car. Though this wasn't just any ordinary Sunday sightseeing excursion with dad. We stopped at a red light, and without much enthusiasm observed the pedestrians. A woman, as she walked, fixed the white lacey gossamer slip of her dress. It dragged out of her skirt, obviously making her feel self-conscious. A short, stubby man with an overbearing gut was nonchalantly picking his nose as he ogle the lady adjusting her slip. He stared at her, as though undressing her with his eyes. I looked at my father, who was looking right back at me. We both laughed. Being only 8 years old, I was at an age where I found everything hilarious. The very fact that my father and I were looking at the same scene and probably both thinking how perverted the man seemed made me laugh hysterically. My dad continued to drive. I kept gazing at the scenery of the city, as the sun started to set and the darkness took over. Our little sightseeing trip was over, or so I thought. I was so used to the same path we went through, that when my father made an unaccustomed turn, it made me suspicious. I refrained myself from asking him where we were going because his usual reply would be, "Don't worry about it, don't ask where you're going, its where I take you okay". I had to admit it was an unfamiliar, but enchanting view. I had my window all the way down, with the reflection of the side mirror in my face. The wind blew, as the luminous setting sun mirrored back rays of light. With each reflection, I narrowly squinted my eyes and continued to marvel at this picturesque interaction of color and beauty. Being in the month of October, one can imagine the colorful setting that was before me. Beautiful, vibrantly colored decayed autumn leaves sprang from the limbs of the trees. The aroma of crispy, dried up leaves embraced my nose. These exuberant, withered leaves captivated my vision and olfactory senses, as though I had nothing else to admire. Beauties of nature that so often people, including myself, tend to ignore. Suddenly, my father stopped the car. In front of a deteriorated, run-down house, indicating abandonment.

The Western Formula Essay -- essays research papers

A seemingly traditional approach towards the Western frontier is the reason for John Cawelti's assessment from The Six-Gun Mystique. His description of the Western formula being 'far easier to define than that of the detective story'; may clearly be a paradigm for many authors, but not particularly for Stephen Crane. The standards Cawelti has set forth for a successful Western is quite minimal by thought, but at the same time relevant. Crane signifies a different perspective to these standards. Crane's thoughts for the use of the Western formula are just approaches towards the west, from the introductory setting to the coarse grin one cowboy would make towards another. These do not in fact relate to Cawelti's Western formula. Crane's deviation from the formula western signifies his deeper approach towards issues such as human existence and morality—the ethical code that we follow for success. Crane perhaps does this because he personally finds more significance in the inner mea ning of an issue rather than its surfacing argument. Cawelti's Western formula holds a strong assumption that men are assertive and women are insignificant. He is standardizing the black and white of the West. There is an unequivocal struggle between good and evil—and guns and violence can only solve that. Jane Tompkins standpoint on a Western seems to be a middle ground between Cawelti and Crane. She recognizes that violence is a central theme to a Western, but as well explains how we think of violence. In this day of age, we as a society have prohibited violence as a means of solving problems—Crane does not directly follow this in his stories, but definitely questions it. Cawelti on the other hand marks violence as the only answer—another black and white circumstance. 'This radical discrepancy between the sense of eroding masculinity and the view of America as a great history of men against the wilderness has created the need for a means of symbolic expression of masculine potency in an unmistakable way. This means is the gun, particularly the six-gun'; (Crane 299). Tompkins makes us aware that a stereotypical Western will hold two men as the key factors and a struggle between them. Where Crane tries describing macho cowboys in 'The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,'; he directs more of the theme towards the role of a woman and how it plays agains... ...r, no struggle between evil and good contradicts the formula western. This was not a black and white, hero and villain situation, rather an annoyance. The entire story had complete irrelevance to a stereotypical Western except for the fact that there were three daughters of the hotel owner, Scully, and they made food. That could be the only potential relation to Cawelti's feel on womens' insignificance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It seems that Tompkins is the interpreter between Crane and Cawelti. Cawelti defines the standards and Crane seems to contradict them. Tompkins jumps in and explains what Crane has done and why it is not done like Cawelti. Now she does not directly acknowledge either writer, but clearly works for both. 'So instead of offering you a moral, I call your attention to a moment of righteous ecstasy, the moment when you know you have the moral advantage of your adversary, the moment of murderousness. It's a moment when there's still time top stop. There's still time to reflect, there's still time to recall what happened in High Noon, there's still time to say: 'I don't care who's right or who's wrong. There has to be some better way to live'; (Tompkins 239).

Impact of Globalization on Culture

Impact of Globalization on Culture People around the globe are more connected to each other today than ever before in the history of mankind. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International travel is more frequent. International communication is commonplace. We live in an intensely interdependent world in which all the earth's peoples with their immense differences of culture and historical experience are compressed together in instant communication. We face today a world of almost infinite promise which is also a world of terminal danger. This phenomenon has been titled ‘Globalization. ‘ Indian culture which in effect means Hindu culture, Hindu religion, Hindu society, Hindu civilization, Hindu way of life are under the lethal threat of the ruthless forces of Globalization today. What went by the name of Colonialism in classical history textbooks produced in the days of British Raj has been replaced today by the synonym of Globalization. The unbridled expansion of western culture has continued at an accelerated rate along with the denigration and decline of Hindu culture, civilization, religion, art, literature and customs. This new Colonialism has taken on several new faces or rather put on new masks. It cleverly masquerades itself through labels and slogans like democracy, humanitarian rights, gender equality, internationalism, free trade and humanitarianism. In the name of modernization and Globalization it pretends to be uplifting peoples whom it is really exploiting. This is not very different in either kind or intent from old Western Colonialism ‘ British Imperialism in the Indian context ‘ which vaunted itself as the benign bringer of Civilization and culture to the uncivilized world. It was given the glorious title of ‘White Man's Burden'. What has been its impact on culture in India? Every educated Indian seems to believe that nothing in Hindu India, past or present, is to be approved unless recognized and recommended by an appropriate authority in the West. There is an all-pervading presence of a positive, if not worshipful, attitude towards everything in western society and culture, past as well as present in the name of progress, reason and science. Nothing from the West is to be rejected unless it has first been weighed and found wanting by a Western evaluation. Swamy Vivekananda foresaw the dangers of Globalization as early as in 1893 when he spoke at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. To quote his soul-stirring words: ‘Shall India die? Then, from the world all spirituality will be extinct, all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct, all ideality will be extinct ; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force, and competition its ceremonies, and human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be'. Precisely such a terrible thing is taking place in India today on account of the inexorable and immutable process of Globalization.

What are the factors that have caused British political parties to change their policies on the EU since 1970?

Abstract There are a number of different factors that have caused British political parties to change their policies on the EU, yet it is often very difficult to determine what these are. Whilst some may suggest that it is down to a change in public attitudes (Ladrech, 2001, p. 4), others would argue that party position changes occur as a result of â€Å"environmental incentives with party organisation† (Schumacher et al; 2009, p. 1). Regardless, EU integration is one of the main issues that has divided British political parties since the 1970’s and Britain’s EU membership has had a significant impact upon political parties. Hence, the two main themes that have run through the main parties with regards to the EU are division and fragmentation, which has led many to believe that ‘Europe’ has essentially become a â€Å"cause of political cleavage† (Smith, 2012, p. 1277) that has widely impacted mainstream political parties. This study will therefore anal yse the changing approaches of British political parties since the 1970’s in order to determine what factors have led to a change in policies. Introduction Introduction to the Study Since the United Kingdom became a member of the European Union, there has been a significant amount of controversy that has surrounded the move. The UK had been trying to join the EU since 1961, yet its membership was rejected by the French President. It wasn’t until 1973 when the UK finally became a member and although a referendum was held two years later, which resulted in the public voting in favour of the UK’s membership, many have continued to question whether it was in fact a good move. Accordingly, some have argued against further EU integration, whilst others have argued for complete EU withdrawal. This so-called Euroscepticism has existed since the very beginning and has had a significant impact upon the policies of British political parties. In accordance with this, it will be considered what factors actually caused British political parties to change their policies on the EU since 1970.Research Objective The objective o f this research is to consider what causes British political parties to change their EU policies and to determine what parties are cautious of further EU integration. It will also allow an assessment to be made as to whether there are any parties who support the withdrawal from the EU. Thus, it will also be shown that debate surrounding the EU has not been sustained and that many challenges still exist, causing many to question Britain’s EU membership.Literature ReviewIntroduction When the UK became a member of the EU, every political party was in agreement, yet many debates have subsequently been made as to whether it was the right decision to make. Hence, the debates between Eurosceptics and EU supporters are still ongoing in British political parties today, though there the views of the Conservative and Labour parties are diverse and appear to change frequently. Accordingly, during the 1970’s and 1980’s the Labour party appeared to be more Europsceptic than the Conservative party and thereby pledged â€Å"to extricate ourselves from the Treaty of Rome and other Community treaties† (Politea, 2007, p. 1). During the 1990’s, however, the Conservative party appeared to be moving in the same direction by making a pledge not to co-operate with the EU. Nevertheless, public support for the EU began to grow since it was believed that the EU would be a good thing for Britain, especially after the Thatcherism era. As such, â€Å"Europe app eared to be fundamental to the government’s attempts to revise the Thatcher settlement and symbolized a modification of some of its less palatable elements† (Gifford, 2008, p. 114). Literature Review Regardless of the EU’s initial support, Eurosceptiscim is still rife in Britain today and many questions have been raised as to why British political parties have continued to change their policies on the EU since the UK’s integration in 1970. Whilst some argue that material factors, such as anti-market and anti-capitalist, are the reason why the policies have shifted, others believe that ideology, such as national sovereignty and anti-immigration is the reason for the shift. Nonetheless, as put by Kopecky (2002, p. 297); â€Å"ideology is the dominant explanation for both types of support, although strategy at times plays a role in explaining specific support.† Regardless, it has been argued that â€Å"the Chevenementists’ shift away from left-right positioning has not paid off electorally† (Milner, 2004, p. 59). This is widely due to the mistrust the public will have in political parties who frequently change their stance and although there may be a number of different factors as to why this happens the public will be fearful of neo-liberal policies. Still, others believe that the changes in policies are primarily the result of Britain’s desire to maintain independence and sovereignty (Harmsen and Spiering, 2005, p. 14). Whether Britain’s current policies will be maintained is doubtful, especially in light of the recent policy changes: â€Å"The last two and a half years have seen the biggest change of Britain’s European policy in its four-decade membership of the European Union† (Teasdale, 2013, p. 1). Theoretical Approaches A Culturalist theory of political change will be used in this study in order to explain why political change occurs. This appears to be the most appropriate way to determine what factors have caused British political parties to change their policies on the EU since 1970. This is because; Culturalist theory is based on the idea that people do not respond directly to situations they face and that instead situations are seen through orientations (Eckstein, 1988, p. 790). Hence, orientations are how information is processed and can be changed depending on what is being taught. Accordingly, as noted by Eckstein (1992, p. 281); â€Å"a cogent, potentially powerful theory of political change can be derived from Culturalist premises.† Research Question What factors have caused British political parties to change their policies on the EU? How have attitudes towards Europe shifted amongst the two main parties? Proposed Methodology In obtaining the relevant information for this study it will be necessary to use a secondary research approach. This is because, already existing data will be capable of being collected and then analysed in order to reach an appropriate conclusion. This is the most cost effective and efficient way of collecting data and is more feasible than using primary research. Hence, it would be difficult to gain access to political parties in order to obtain their views. Therefore, for the purposes of this study; it would be impracticable to use primary research. Opinions will thus be acquired from relevant scholars, theorists, politicians and academics in order to allow a general overview of the topic to be provided. These will be obtained from textbooks, journal articles, online legal databases and governmental reports. References Eckstein, H. (1992) Regarding Politics: Essays on Political Theory, Stability and Change, University of California Press. Gifford, C. (2008) The Making of Eurosceptic Britain: Identity and Economy in a Post-Imperial State, Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Harmsen, R. and Spiering, M. (2005) Eurosceptism, Rodopi. Jansen, J. J. and Jansen, S. J. M. (2011) Fiscal Sovereignty of the Member States in an Internal Market: Past Future, Kluwer Law International. Kopecky, P. (2002) The Two Sides of Euroscepticism, Party Positions on European Integration in East Central Europe, European Union Politics, SAGE Journals, Volume 3, No. 3. Ladrech, R. (2001) Europeanization and Political Parties: Towards a Framework for Analysis, Keele University, [Online] Available: bdi.mfa.government.bg/†¦/†¦ [05 April, 2013]. Milner, S. (2004) For an Alternative Europe: Euroscepticism and the French Left Since the Maastricth Treaty, [Online] Available: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/rodopi/es/2004/00000020/00000001/art00004 [02 April, 2013]. Schumacher, G., de Vris, C. E., and Vis, B., (2009) Why Political Parties Change Their Positions: Environmental Incentives & Party Organisation, [05 April, 2013]. Smith, J. (2012) The European Dividing Line in Party Politics, International Affairs, 6. Teasdale, A. (2013) Will Eurosis Condemn Britain to be an Outsider Looking InEUROPP, [Online] Available: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/03/05/uk-eu-outsider/ [03 April, 2013].

The Lost Squatron Short Story

On Tuesday morning, December 5, 2006, Lieutenant Jimmy McGrath, a fresh faced 22 year old, Naval academy graduate, maneuvered his fighter jet across the tarmac at the US Naval Air Station Florida to the designated runway. Behind him, awaiting their tower clearance orders were the four other members of Jimmy's squadron. The men, boys really, some with peach fuzz beards, were training for assignment in Dubai, where they could fly sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq. All five pilots had been training here in Florida for several weeks, their high stress air combat training punctuated by wild Florida nights of heavy drinking and non-stop womanizing. The locals were used to it, having hosted these flyboys since Lauderdale nearly burst at the seams with newly drafted airmen, training in T-6s, and SNJ fighter trainers during World War 2. McGrath readied his jet at the flight line and after a final instrument check, increased throttle towards rotation speed, rumbling down the runway and easing back on the stick until the two ton plane defied gravity and began a steady ascent into the clouds hanging over the azure blue ocean. McGrath banked the plane right and felt momentary g-force pressure as he rolled away from the take off flight path to allow the next jet to leave the Earth.†Hee-haw† shrieked through Jimmy's mic, as his wingman, Bobby-Joe Nicholson followed McGrath into the heavens. Nicholson grew up in tobacco rich North Carolina back country, and his accent and redneck colloquialisms made training a lot easier for everybody. Nicholson was followed by Andy Grayson, from Wichita, then Angel Fernandez of the Bronx, and finally Ron Fontaine, a graduate of the Donnelly Housing Projects in Detroit. Fontaine was voted by his peers the last person anyone wanted to meet in a back alley for a fight. He was also the most accomplished â€Å"stick man† among them. Despite his â€Å"officer and gentleman status, Fontaine's 6 foot 2 inch muscular frame and tattooed biceps gave off a menacing appearance respected and feared by the other young pilots. The five jets screamed through the blue sky, each plane's engine creating enormous jet trails flowing behind, until they maneuvered into formation. The planes floated in the air next to each other as if dangling on elastic strings, their high-powered engines, flying in unison, making it appear as if they were not even moving. â€Å"OK guys,† McGrath bellowed,† lets head south over the ocean and then take a bearing of 26 degrees, 3 minutes north, then 80 degrees, 7 minutes west toward Hen and Chickens Shoals.† Although he did not mention it, the day's flight path would eventually take them into them into heart of the Devils Triangle. The Devils Triangle, or Bermuda Triangle as it was sometimes called, was a triangular patch of ocean in the Atlantic stretching from the Florida Keys south towards the Bermuda Islands. As every school kid knows, the Triangle's legend of mystery encompasses numerous claims of disappearing ships and aircraft. None of the men gave any serious thought to the Triangle legend, not many people did anymore since the quasi-pulp fiction exposes published in the 1970s tried to give pseudo-scientific credence to alleged supernatural happenings in that part of the Atlantic Ocean. However, they all knew about it. â€Å"Where to skip,?† crackled over the airwaves from Ron Fontaine's cockpit. â€Å"We're headed to the old junked freighter for some bombing and strafing practice,† responded Lieutenant McGrath. â€Å"And Ron,† said the flight leader, â€Å"this time wait for my signal before you starting locking in on the target.† â€Å"Shiiiit,† Fontaine screeched into his headset, and the other pilots chuckled at the exchange between the two men. â€Å"Hey Lieutenant, this time can we go in youngest pilot first,?† said Fernandez. â€Å"What is it with you guys from New Yawk,† drawled Nicholson, â€Å"y'all think you're born to tell the rest of us what to do.† â€Å"Hey, Tobacco boy,† I saw a guy like you once in the Bronx Zoo, behind bars,† Fernandex replied with a laugh. â€Å"Aw can it, you two,† shouted McGrath, â€Å"and tighten up the formation. Fernandez and Grayson pick it up back there.† â€Å"Aye, aye sir,† came the reply, in unison. The old freighter had been towed to this classified location in 1945, near the war's end, and for 60 years had, along with several other decommissioned vessels, been used to train young hot-shot pilots in the art of air war. â€Å"All right, in about 60 second we'll come up on the shoals bomb site, Nicholson and Fontaine, break right and take the first pass. Remember, nose guns first, then use one Sidewinder missile each the second time around,† McGrath ordered. The silver jets streaked through the cloud-filled blue sky like sharp knives slicing through warm biscuits. The two pilots took the lead and banked towards the abandoned and anchored old ship and locked onto the target with their computerized weapons guidance system. With today's technology they could hit a small object from a distance of a mile or more, but their state side training still required close target approaches. The planes would come within 500 yards of the target on the first pass. The three other pilots kept a distance to watch the show and wait their turn, as determined by their flight leader, Lieutenant McGrath. Nicholson and Fontaine took turns firing their 30 Millimeter, seven barrel nose guns at the old tub, blasting holes in the rusting hull at apace of 3900 rounds a minute, which exploded with a fury of sparks, smoke and flying debris as they roared past â€Å"Nice work guys,† McGrath said. â€Å"Commander Taylor, my fuel is low, and my instruments are still acting up, maybe we should be heading West† crackled across his headphones in response. â€Å"Come back,† McGrath replied. Is that you Fernandez. Stop the bullshit, will ya.† â€Å"Not me, Lieutenant,† Fernandez replied, â€Å"Don't expect me to give you a promotion,† he laughed. â€Å"Cut it out,† McGrath said, as he scanned the skies around him, â€Å"are one of you guys having instrument problems?† â€Å"Everyone check in,† he commanded. â€Å"Nicholson here, I'm fine Lieutenant.† â€Å"This is Fontaine, Jimmy, no problems with my bird.† â€Å"This is Grayson, sir, it wasn't me.† â€Å"Well who the hell is playing around.† McGrath shouted. â€Å"I can't see any land, sir† came the voice again. This time someone else responded. â€Å"Boys, this is Taylor, don't worry, we left the Georgia swamp area 30 miles back, and we should be coming up on the Keys shortly,† â€Å"Who's on this frequency, identify yourselves, † Lt. McGrath said into his helmet mic. He scanned his instrument radar panel and again looked outside his cockpit canopy but did not see any other planes in the bright, clear, mid-day sky. Without answering McGrath, the unknown chatter continued. â€Å"Hey Brownie, if we ever find our way back, I'm gonna propose to that nurse I met last week at the USO Holiday dance.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah sure, the one whose feet you kept stepping on during the Glen Miller piece?† â€Å"Shiiit, Glenn Miller, what the fuck is that all about,† Fontaine said. â€Å"Hey, one of you guys playing some sort of trick on our boy Jimmy,† Fernandez laughed. â€Å"Yeah, one of those old radio shows, or some shit like that,† Fontaine replied. â€Å"I don't know about you but it's freaking me out,† said Grayson. â€Å"Anyway, whoever it is mentioned Lauderdale, so it's probably some old Navy guys out for a joyride. I see those guys come out on Sunday's sometimes and fly around in those old radial engine trainers.† â€Å"Yeah, but it ain't Sunday, and what they all doin' on our radio frequency,† drawled Nicholson. â€Å"All right, all right, forget about it. It's probably just somebody playing around,† bellowed McGrath, â€Å"lets get ready for the second run. One missile this time.† Fontaine and Grayson broke away from the formation again and headed toward the target This time they programmed their guidance system to fire one AIM-9 Sidewinder missile each at a distance of a half mile. Within seconds each jet shimmied slightly as their missiles dislodged from under their wings and moved off in an arc of white smoke toward the old half-sunken freighter. The missile warheads were loaded with only small amounts of explosives so that they would create damage but not completely obliterate the boat, leaving it sufficiently intact for further training runs. The two missiles struck, on forward one aft, almost simultaneously, and a column of smoke, debris, and sea water rose high into the air. As the mix fell back again, the pilots who were all observing the action noticed small black objects off in the distance, beyond the target area, moving slowly toward them. â€Å"What the fuck is that,† sad Fernandez into his mic. Grayson and Fontaine, who had pulled up and over the target, getting a birds-eye view of the damage they caused, rolled across the sky, unknowingly hurtling their jets directly in the path of the shadowy, black objects. Some three miles away, the rest of the squadron watched as Fontaine and Grayson blew past the objects and then banked and ascended up and to the left. As they had flown by, in the seconds they were adjacent to the objects, both pilots had seen something that had startled them. Grayson and Fontaine had peered into the cockpits of a squadron of World War 2 naval fighters, â€Å"Avengers†, each operated by a two or three man crew, a pilot facing forward, sometimes with a co-pilot, and a gunner operating a ball turret weapon aft. â€Å"Shiiit,† Fontaine yelled into his helmet mic, â€Å"did you see that Grayson.† â€Å"What the hell are those old warbirds doing way out here, the air museum operates outta Pensacola,† Grayson replied. â€Å"Hell if I know,† Fontaine said, â€Å"but they were sure as shittin surprised by us.† â€Å"Damn lucky we didn't clip their wings.† â€Å"Hey skip,† Fontaine said, calling out to Lieutenant McGrath, † you won't believe what's headed your way.† â€Å"I see 'em, Fontaine, we're gonna give those old buckets some room so we don't blow their tails off with our engines,† McGrath replied. The remaining jets elevated their flight path to avoid the oncoming relics of the past, shooting with Mach speed into the lower stratosphere. â€Å"Commander, did you see that?,† said one of the warbird pilots. â€Å"I sure did, Tex,† replied Taylor, I don't know what the hell it was but I saw a red, white and blue star on it's side so it must be ours.† â€Å"Hell yes,† Tex's gunner cried, â€Å"we must be close to the Shoals now. I see the target ship they towed out this way a few weeks ago.† â€Å"I bet that was some experimental jet the Nazis were using, I saw a few being worked on at the base. Just come over from Germany last week for testing,† said one of the Avenger pilots. OK, men, settle down† Commander Taylor ordered, â€Å"set a course for the direction of the target vessels and let's get these tired birds home.† â€Å"Hey, my instruments are working again, Commander,† said one of the pilots. â€Å"Mine too, Chuck,† cried another. â€Å"Looks like we'll make it back after all,† the Avenger flight leader said, â€Å"and not a moment too soon with these near empty gas gauges. Keep a tight formation as we head in boys. Follow my lead. Last one on the deck has to kiss Charlie McCarthy's bald head.† The jet pilots listened, without a word, to the entire conversation going on below them. Fontaine and Grayson had rejoined the group and they were all now headed due East at 400 miles an hour at an elevation of 25,000 feet. Finally, Fernandez spoke up. â€Å"You catch that, Lieutenant.† â€Å"†Probably some re-enactors,† Lt. McGrath replied, although his voice had lost its usual firm, confident tone. â€Å"What the hell they doin' out here, Jimmy,† said Nicholson, â€Å"don't make no sense at all.† McGrath had to agree. This area was restricted to Naval air traffic. He thought he better contact the base and let them know what was going on. â€Å"Flight leader Bravo calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale.† The air was quiet. â€Å"Flight leader Bravo calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale† Nothing. â€Å"Hey Jimmy,† Fontaine said, â€Å"my computer just went down.† â€Å"Hey me too,† Nicholson shouted. The five jets flew in tight formation through the clouds as chaos erupted in their cockpits. â€Å"Flight leader Chuck Taylor calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale.† â€Å"This is Lauderdale, where the heck you guys been?† came the reply. The Base Commander's been going crazy. They even called the War Department.† â€Å"You guys can tell the patrols to come back, we're a little late but we're home, † replied Commander Taylor. On the stormy evening of December 5, 1945, five TBM Avengers, their heavy radial engines roaring across the Florida sky, approached US Naval Air Station in tight formation. One by one the gleaming blue fighter planes lowered their flaps, cut off their throttles and eased their tired metal frames onto the tarmac. As they rolled off the runway, they passed rows of B-17 bombers, fresh from the battle over Europe, being serviced and refit for duty in the Pacific against the Japanese. Worried ground crews raced in gray jeeps toward each plane, dropping heavy wooden blocks under the wheels, and climbing up on the wings to draw back the heavy canopies to release the human cargo. The fourteen crew members scrambled to the airfield grounds and embraced one another, removing their yellow Mae West vests and crush caps, giving thanks that what was lost was once again found. Meanwhile, miles away, five jet fighters crossed the sky into an ethereal graveyard. They hurtled at supersonic speed into an endless vortex of space and time without up or down, without time or space, without any connection to the world they left behind. At NORAD, desperate computer messages flooded the communications room alerting the men and women who worked there of a crisis in the making. An Admiral rushed into the room in time to confront a telecommunications staffer who was the most recent recipient of the tragic news. â€Å"Sir,† the young ensign said to the astonished man,† Flight 19 is missing.† â€Å"Get me Rumsfeld,† the Admiral replied. Two wars, 6 decades apart. Two tragedies, dance partners in a macabre story with ironic parallels. The past and the future, melded together, and separated, one mystery solved, another one just beginning.