Poverty and population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Poverty and population - Essay Example The results by the UN indicate that Africa is facing a boom in its population, which is almost quadrupling by the end of this century. The current fertility rate of African Women is at 4.7. The question arising is that if Africa is unable to feed a billion people, how then could it be in a position to feed four billion in future? This topic is important in the topic of global reproductive health since with increased population and poverty; access to high-quality hospital services may not be possible. As a result, childbearing women may suffer from various illnesses of the reproductive systems (Avery, 2014). Moreover, such impoverished women living in deplorable conditions suffer from various unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, maternal disabilities and even deaths, gender-based violence and other problems that relate to the reproductive system and unhealthy sexual behaviors. Africa needs to adopt various strategies to deal with their increased population growth and poverty. They need to have better infrastructure, education system, and health care system. This is because there is emerging fears that the increasing boom of the population is likely to deplete what is left of the flora and the fauna of such African countries (Birdsall, Kelley, & Sinding, 2011). Thus, it is important for the various strategies to be in place to ensure that poverty is reduced in some of these high population countries. One of the main strategies of poverty reduction is investing in reproductive health of women, educating them and ensuring gender equality. This ensures poverty reduction in several ways. One of them is enabling women to bear fewer children thus contributing to an upward economic mobility. Due to this, they stimulate economic development in their countries. Secondly, women are able to negotiate their reproductive health decisions with their men (Ahlburg, Kelley, & Mason, 2009). This move ensures that women can be in a position

Product Design and Process Selection - Services Essay Example for Free

Product Design and Process Selection Services Essay 1. Identify the operations management problems that Dr. Barr is having at the clinic. Dr, Barr is experiencing several operations problems due to a change in what customers are requesting compared to the services the clinic was designed to offer. The increase in specialized services and the addition of grooming requires a different layout. Not only have the space requirements changed but some non-contact services are being performed in contact areas. Customers are requesting a mix of services but the clinic has not thought about service â€Å"packages†. Finally, the staff is not trained for the new service mix. 2. How would you define the â€Å"service bundle† currently being offered? How is this different from the initial purpose of the clinic? Customers are now requesting a bundle of grooming, examining, and sometimes minor surgical services. The business was originally designed to offer examining and surgical services. Not only do the new demands require additional services but also customers see these as a package. The clinic needs to offer the demanded bundle more seamlessly. 3.Identify the high-contact and low-contact segments of the operation. How should each be managed? The high contact segments include reception and customer waiting. The low contact segments are examining, surgery, and grooming. However, grooming is currently being performed in a high contact area. High contact segments must be performed while the customer is present and in contact. Low contact segments can be performed while the customer is not there, and do not need customer contact. In fact, as the grooming operations demonstrate, customer contact with low contact segments can decrease performance. 4.What should Dr. Barr have done differently to avoid the problems she is currently experiencing? What should she do now? Dr. Barr should have studied the impact of a change in the mix of services offered before she started accepting a significantly different mix. Now she needs to either reject business that is outside of her original plans (probably not what she wants to do) or redesign the clinic to better handle the current mix. The redesign should include a new facilities layout, employee training, and probably attention to the service â€Å"packages† offered.

A Promise Is A Promise :: Personal Narrative Death Friendships Papers

A Promise Is A Promise The room was ridiculously cold and my skin was damp against the sheets. No matter how extreme the temperature, I am addicted to the calming lull of the air conditioner as I sleep. It’s what they call my â€Å"white noise.† The afternoon sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds as its rays snuck in through the blinds. The muscles in my neck and shoulders were throbbing. I was still trying to get used to my awkward dorm room bed. A muffled voice traveled through the paper-thin brick wall and the sound of familiar music took center stage in my dreams. At first, I was pissed off because my new neighbor was interrupting my precious nap, but I soon realized that I had a special attachment to the song she was singing. It instantly reminded me of an old friend. As I drifted back to sleep, I began to dream about a childhood memory. I remember feeling as if the day was never going to end. Even now as an adult, my concentration still seems to plummet as the weekend approaches. At that time in my life, the degree of patience I could sustain had only been maturing for ten short years. I made that particular school day even more unnecessarily dramatic than usual since I knew it wasn’t just an average Friday. Instead of going to my house after school as usual, I was going home with my best friend. After hours of literally twiddling my thumbs (like I said, I was a dramatic child), we were finally standing outside at the parent pick-up location with the other eager elementary students. My book bag was light on my back, which meant there was no homework in store for me tonight. All I had to look forward to was a sleepover filled with PG-13 movies, a nauseating amount of Reese’s Pieces and Mountain Dew, and prank phone calls to random boys who were also in Mrs. Webb’s fifth grade class. I loved prank phone calls. As I bent down to tie my shoelace, a slippery raindrop slithered down my lightly freckled cheek. Before I had the chance to look up at the silver sky, the clouds exploded like champagne flowing over the edge of a bottle. Renee grabbed my hand, and we darted off as fast as our little legs could run. As I hopped into the middle of the backseat, the scent of the brand new car continued to saturate my already moist pores. A Promise Is A Promise :: Personal Narrative Death Friendships Papers A Promise Is A Promise The room was ridiculously cold and my skin was damp against the sheets. No matter how extreme the temperature, I am addicted to the calming lull of the air conditioner as I sleep. It’s what they call my â€Å"white noise.† The afternoon sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds as its rays snuck in through the blinds. The muscles in my neck and shoulders were throbbing. I was still trying to get used to my awkward dorm room bed. A muffled voice traveled through the paper-thin brick wall and the sound of familiar music took center stage in my dreams. At first, I was pissed off because my new neighbor was interrupting my precious nap, but I soon realized that I had a special attachment to the song she was singing. It instantly reminded me of an old friend. As I drifted back to sleep, I began to dream about a childhood memory. I remember feeling as if the day was never going to end. Even now as an adult, my concentration still seems to plummet as the weekend approaches. At that time in my life, the degree of patience I could sustain had only been maturing for ten short years. I made that particular school day even more unnecessarily dramatic than usual since I knew it wasn’t just an average Friday. Instead of going to my house after school as usual, I was going home with my best friend. After hours of literally twiddling my thumbs (like I said, I was a dramatic child), we were finally standing outside at the parent pick-up location with the other eager elementary students. My book bag was light on my back, which meant there was no homework in store for me tonight. All I had to look forward to was a sleepover filled with PG-13 movies, a nauseating amount of Reese’s Pieces and Mountain Dew, and prank phone calls to random boys who were also in Mrs. Webb’s fifth grade class. I loved prank phone calls. As I bent down to tie my shoelace, a slippery raindrop slithered down my lightly freckled cheek. Before I had the chance to look up at the silver sky, the clouds exploded like champagne flowing over the edge of a bottle. Renee grabbed my hand, and we darted off as fast as our little legs could run. As I hopped into the middle of the backseat, the scent of the brand new car continued to saturate my already moist pores.

Research Methodology Essay

â€Å"The study of man contains a greater variety of intellectual styles than any other area of cultural endeavor. How different social scientists go about their work, and what they aim t accomplish by it, often do not seem to have a common denominator †¦ Let us admit the case of our critics from the humanities and from the experimental sciences: Social science as a whole is both intellectually and morally confused. And what is called sociology is very much in the middle of this confusion. † Wright Mills Images of Man Abstract The quest for knowledge has always been at the forefront of societies mind. What makes us tick as a society or an individual, what circumstances have to come about to lead to different phenomena to occur? Sociologists, psychologists, philosophers and social scientists have spent eons of time pondering on these questions. Research is the way in which these questions may be answered, but the question remains, as to what type of research leads us to the right answer or, if there is a right answer, what is the one true answer? If different research methods produce different answers, which is the right, the true answer and if we find it does this render all the other answers null or wrong? These are some of the questions that I will be asking in this paper through examining concepts such as the symbolic order in research, the role of emotions in research, the grouping together of different methodologies to create a clearer picture of the research and the importance of reflexivity during the research process. Keywords; emotions, symbolic order, reflexivity. The word research originates from the late 16th century French word recerche, re (expressing intensive force) and cherchier to search. It means the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. In this essay I will be focusing on qualitive research methods, examining some of the problems that may be encountered when conducting social research and how these problems may be overcome and used to advantage. Qualitative research takes an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter; qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings that people bring to them. This process begins by understanding that there are a variety of ways of making sense of the world and therefore focuses on discovering the meanings that are seen by those who are being researched, to better understand their view of the world. The methodology used in research will vary in accordance with the research being conducted, this can be limiting if a type of methodology is decided on and rigidly adhered to throughout the research leaving no room for reconsideration or change of view. Different Methodological Approaches. The manner in which sociologists study society varies greatly between individual sociologists. There are many reasons for these varying views such as backgrounds, culture, family influences, religion and experiences with these experiences leading them to come to certain conclusions about certain situations. For this reason it is important not to rely on one type of sociological perspective which may constrict the researcher in the researching of certain phenomena. In research however objectively the reality of the social world was approached, its meaning was never self evident but always subject to interpretation with this interpretation being subject to the researchers biases formed out of the afore mentioned factors. Some of the different methods of researching or research style are Positivism which means scientific; positivists would argue that it is possible and desirable to study social behavior in ways similar to those used by natural scientists when studying the natural world. The interpretive approach to research has been gaining attention in recent years as an alternative to the more traditional positivist approach (Lee 342). Lee describes the interpretive approach as â€Å"such procedures as those associated with ethnography, hermeneutics, phenomenology and case studies. By the positivist he refers to inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, mathematical analysis and experimental and quasi experimental design. Ethnography (Greek ethnos = folk/people and graphein = writing) is a qualitative research method often used in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology and in sociology. It is often employed for gathering empirical data on human societies/cultures. Data collection is often done through participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc. Ethnography aims to describe the nature of those who are studied (i. e. to describe a people, an ethnos) through writing. In the biological sciences, this type of study might be called a â€Å"field study† or a â€Å"case report,† both of which are used as common synonyms for â€Å"ethnography. Lee states that the difference between positivist and interpretive approaches has been described as objective versus subjective (Burrell and Morgan 1979), outsider versus insider (Evered and Louis 1981), quantitive versus qualitive (Van Mannen 1979) and etic versus emic (Morey and Luthans 1984). In literature it may seem that these 2 methods of research are opposed and irreconcilable and there is some concern over what Morey and Luthans call the â€Å"widening gap between the two major orientations to organizational research† (1984, 84). Lee puts forward the idea of joining the two methodologies together as he argues that they both have something to offer the researcher. He devised a framework called three levels of understanding. [pic] The first level belongs to the observed human subjects, this consists of common sense and meanings which are true for these subjects and how they see themselves, which give rise to the behavior that they manifest in socially constructed settings. The second belongs to the observing organizational researcher. This understanding according to Lee is the researchers reading and interpretation of the first level, common sense understanding where the researcher may use concepts such as subjective interpretation, the hermeneutical circle or thick description. The third level of understanding also belongs to the researcher. This understanding is one that the researcher creates and tests in order to explain the empirical reality that he is investigating. This explanation is called scientific theory is made up of constructs that belong only to the observing researcher. This explanation consists of formal positions that typically posit the existence of unobservable entities such as social structure, issues that may attempt to account for the influence of certain factors of which the observed subjects may not even be aware. The above diagram shoes the flow of ideas and understanding between the three levels of understanding and the relevance of the two methods of research in question. This illustrated the importance of varying the methods of research used, to create a legitimate piece of research work it is vital to come at the work from different angles rather than taking a blinkered approach. This is vital all there can be no definite knowledge in research as there are so many variables and researchers take the research on for so many different reasons with so many different worldviews. Identifying applicable research strategies is almost as difficult as methodologies tend to differ according to the various factors found within the desired outcome. Yet methods cannot be orchestrated to generate this outcome from the data, but merely facilitate its collection and synthesis. Any successful research methodology does not, therefore, create knowledge, but rather is an applicable strategy for identifying and processing the information which exists. Hathaway (1995) stresses that there are decisions embedded within the creation and conduct of research methodologies that are generated both within the research setting and within the perceptions of the researcher. The concept of an unbiased methodology is thus inherently impossible: Are we creatures of reason and logic? Or are we better characterized as the victims of unconscious drives, forces and emotions? Does the different language we use really make such a difference in what we have to say? Are we saying something better and more academic if it is considered almost too technical for the reader to understand? Are texts considered more valid if they are difficult to understand and read? Are these technical essays and writings elitist, written by elitist academics just to be appreciated by like minded and like educated individuals? Why publish research ideas that are inaccessible to society? All researchers come to the experimentation process with preconceived opinions of how and why the research process should transpire. â€Å"When one chooses a particular research approach, one makes certain assumptions concerning knowledge, reality, and the researcher's role. These assumptions shape the research Endeavour, from the methodology employed to the type of questions asked. † (Hathaway 1995). So how do we carry out the most informed research possible? It is important not to take a ‘sat nav’ approach to the research, asking a question that you already know the answer to and not be prepared to change course along the way, the research process is the information that the researcher finds along the pathway to the research, the phenomena the researcher encounters along the pathway is as relevant as the final conclusion and it is vital to include this in the research process. If the research question is not working is it preferable to change the question or come at the research from a different angle rather than trying to fit your research question into every area of the study? Reynolds argues that the methodologist turns research technician, in spite of himself, and becomes an aimless itinerant, moving in whatever direction his research techniques summon him, studying changing patterns of voting because these are readily accessible to his techniques rather than the workings of political institutions and organizations for which he has not evolved satisfying techniques of investigation. Reynolds 190). In my own research on texting differences between adults and teens I will be using field work which will consist of focus groups with informal questioning and conversation, individual interviews and data analysis in the form of analyzing a number of text interactions in both focus groups. Bourdieu and the Importance of Reflexivity in Social Research. Is knowl edge independent of the situation of the knower, or a product of it? Bourdieu stresses the importance in reflexivity while conducting social research. The sociologist must at all times be aware of their own habitus, their position of thought and in life and how bringing this to research will affect the research outcome. According to Bourdieu it is impossible for our objectivity to remain unbiased and unprejudiced due to our preconceived habitus. It is only by maintaining such a continual vigilance that the sociologists can spot themselves in the act of importing their own biases into their work. Reflexivity is, therefore, a kind of additional stage in the scientific epistemology. If there is a single feature that makes Bourdieu stand out in the landscape of contemporary social theory’, wrote Loic J. D. Wacquant (1992: 36), ‘it is his signature obsession with reflexivity. ’ For Bourdieu, reflexivity is an epistemological principle which advises sociologists, as ‘objectifying subjects’, to turn their objectifying gaze upon themselves and become aware of the hidden assumptions that structure their research. Without this reflexive move, sociology cannot escape the ‘fallacies of scholasticism’ and loses its chances to provide a truly scientific analysis of the social world. Reflexivity requires an awareness of the researcher's contribution to the construction of meanings throughout the research process, and an acknowledgment of the impossibility of remaining ‘outside of' one's subject matter while conducting research. Reflexivity then, urges us â€Å"to explore the ways in which a researcher's involvement with a particular study influences, acts upon and informs such research. † (Nightingale and Cromby, 1999, p. 228). In the rush of interest in qualitative research in the past 15 years, few topics have developed as broad a consensus as the relevance of analytic â€Å"reflexivity. † (Macbeth 2001). Macbeth argues that contemporary expressions of reflexivity have attachments to critical theory, standpoint theory, textual deconstruction and sociologies and anthropologies of knowledge and power and agency with theorists such as Bourdieu and Wacquant at the forefront of this type of thinking. Bourdieu has problematised social research in relation to his concept of habitus stating that the researcher must at all times be aware of his habitus,(prevailing and long learned personal norms and biases, formed over a lifetime) and take steps to acknowledge this habitus by looking back on himself and his research with a critical eye. The postmodern condition is such that there are no certainties in social research as norms and values become intertwined, identities and culture intermingle and clash as do gender and sexualities, power is gained and lost through means of popularity alone and social researchers can only strive to explore every avenue of their research subject reflexively in the quest for knowledge and answers. In research this reflexivity can be put into two categories, personal reflexivity, which involves the researcher acknowledging their own habitus and how this is affecting their research and in turn affecting the researcher carrying out the research. The second is epistemological reflexivity which requires us to ask questions of the research such as: â€Å"How has the research question defined and limited what can be ‘found? ‘ How have the design of the study and the method of analysis ‘constructed' the data and the findings? How could the research question have been investigated differently? To what extent would this have given rise to a different understanding of the phenomenon under investigation? Thus, epistemological reflexivity encourages us to reflect upon the assumptions (about the world, about knowledge) that we have made in the course of the research, and it helps us to think about the implications of such assumptions for the research and its findings. † (Willig, 2001). The Use of Emotion in Social Research. Williams and Bendelow (1996), map the field of sociology of emotions onto the concerns of sociology: â€Å"emotions have fundamental implications for a range of pertinent sociological themes and issues including social action, agency and identity; social structure; gender, sexuality and intimacy; the embodiment of emotions across the life-course (from childhood to old age); health and illness; and the social organization of emotions in the workplace (formal and informal). Emotions play an important part in the field at a number of levels. It is important to realize that the researcher's identity and experiences shape the ideas with which they go into the field, their political and ideological stance, and there is an analytic cost if this interplay of person and research is not taken into consideration. The researcher takes assumptions and emotions into and generates emotions in the field about the researched. Kleinman and Copp (1993) suggest that if a researcher experiences negative emotions about their participants they would prefer to ignore, or repress those feelings, since to admit them might constitute a threat to their professional and personal identity. But these can be the very feelings (anger and disappointment perhaps) that could help the researcher to understand their own assumptions and their participants. It is clear to me that emotions are very important in fieldwork, both those of the participants and of the researchers. The researcher's emotions can have effects at the personal and professional levels, in relation to their understanding of their self and identity, and their capacity to perform in a fashion that they would themselves regard as professional, and these effects can be long term. A considerable amount of emotion work is called for in qualitative research, and often the dangers consequent on this are not recognized. In some instances researchers have been made quite ill (physically or emotionally) through their experiences of denying, ignoring or managing emotions. The emotions experienced by respondents in the field are data and need to be drawn into analysis and interpretation. It has been suggested here that emotions are important in the production of knowledge from a number of perspectives. In most cases, despite some unpleasant experiences, researchers value the extra power in understanding, analysis and interpretation that the emotions they experience in the field can bring to the research. In his article Hidden Ethnography: Crossing emotional Borders in Qualitive Accounts of Young People’s Lives. Shane Blackman concludes that different ethnographic episodes show how powerful feelings of emotions from love to hate grip both the researcher and the researched. He states that his fieldwork consisted of constant negotiation and respect with participants who allowed him access to their public and private spaces. He advises that to advance more open, reflexive approaches that explain how research is conducted and written, sociology needs greater disciplinary understanding and recognition of the real challenges and opportunities faced by qualitive research, which demands emotion. The Symbolic Order in Social Research. â€Å"The â€Å"Symbolic Order† achieved its currency in Anglo-Saxon human sciences by way of Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory but originated in Claude Levi-Strauss’s Les structures elementaires de la parente (1949) [translated into English as Elementary Structures of Kinship, 1969] which used the term to group the many different codes which constitute human societies—from social identities and kinship relations to cooking and feasting rituals and religious observances—in short all cultural practices and inscriptions, whatever their language. Levi-Strauss showed that patterns we can observe in one level are invariably linked to and determined by similar patterns in other levels†. (Clark 2004) How important is the symbolic order in social research? There are many factors to take into account when discussing the symbolic order in relation to research. Gusfield and Michalowicz argue that in recent years, sociologists and anthropologists have conducted â€Å"significant studies of modern life using concepts and perspectives derived from symbolic anthropology. Among anthropologists words like ritual, myth, ceremony and symbolism are central to the study of social life in primitive societies. In contemporary society they have been peripheral terms and the activities they denote have not usually been studied in modern societies. † (Gusfield and Michalowicz 1984). The symbolic is of huge importance in social research and cannot be separated from it. When researching we must ask, what is happening here? Recognizing the potentially multiple responses to this question illuminates the way in which meaning is mediated by cultural categories and structures of thought. This awareness of the social construction of reality, which Richard Brown calls symbolic realism (Brown 1977), implies that any segment of human, social activity can be experienced in different and in multiple ways by diverse actors and observers. David Blacker in his thesis argues that for Gadamer, all understanding — whether of a text or of another person — is interpretive. This means is that, whatever else it is and does, understanding moves in what Heidegger called a â€Å"hermeneutic circle. † This circle is productive of meaning. To generate meaning from a text, for example, one must always move around from whole to part and back again. The â€Å"whole† may be the language in which the text was written, the literary tradition to which it belongs, its historical period, the life circumstances of its author, and so on. This â€Å"whole,† then, provides the backdrop against which one gives significance to the â€Å"part,† e. g. , the particular words comprising the text, the individual work in question or the specific period of the author’s life. A helpful analogy is with understanding an ambiguous word within a sentence. If the meaning of the word itself is not immediately obvious, one must find it in its larger context. The newly appreciated meaning of the part (the word) then alters to a degree the meaning of the whole (the sentence). One never escapes â€Å"outside† this whole-part circuit — even the dictionary only relates words to other words. In my own research on ‘the difference in meaning of texting between teens and adults’ the symbolic order plays a large part. The mobile phone will mean different things to these two groups and these issues must be taken into account when formulating the research. Mobile telephone has been widely adopted by many people in society. As it integrates into daily life, it alters the way people communicate, identify their personalities and relate to others in social system. It affects socio-economic structures as well as individual life. Mobile telephone enables accessibility, emancipation, security and micro-coordination and serves as a symbol of prestige, pride and self-identity. The aim of this study is to explore the symbolic factors influencing the use of mobile telephone among teens and dults where in the case of adults the phone may be vital for communication; the teen may find it impossible to function socially without the use of the phone and the texting facility. Conclusion There is no way of determining a sure path for arriving at sociological knowledge; there is unlikely to be, just over the horizon, a new approach, paradigm or perspective to rescue us from the intellectual difficulties involved in a sociological theorizing which can giv e us a better understanding of our social world. Reynolds 339) As researchers we must be aware of our limitations in the social world in so much that we cannot really promise to theorize in a way that explains everything. This is not possible in life as there are too many different collective and individual ideas that are thousands of years in formation. In social research these variables and ideas must be acknowledged and given importance within the research area and with their relevance acknowledged the researcher may move on to the findings of her own particular studies. Karl Mannheim answers critics in letter to the members of a seminar on the sociology of knowledge, by stating that â€Å"if there are contradictions and inconsistencies in my paper this is, I think, not so much due to the fact that I have over looked them but because I make a point of developing a theme to its end even if it contradicts some other statements. I use this method because I think that in this marginal field of human knowledge we should not conceal the inconsistencies, so to speak covering up the wounds, but our duty is to show the sore spots in human thinking at its present stage. In a simple empirical investigation or straightforward logical argument, contradictions are mistakes; but when the task is to show that our whole thought system in its various parts leads to inconsistencies, these inconsistencies are the thorn in the flesh from which we have to start. The inconsistencies in our whole outlook, which in my presentation only become more visible, are due to the fact that we have two approaches which move on a different plane. (Mannheim in Reynolds 1970) David Hume held that we can never be absolutely sure that what we know is true. (Bernard 2006). He argues that we come to understand what is true from what we are exposed to. This reiterates the fact that research is personal even when we try our best to avoid this being the case. We can never be sure according to Hume what we know is true, Humes brand of skepticism is a fundamental principle of social science according to Bernard, â€Å"the scientific method, as it is understood today, involves making improvements in what we know, edging towards the truth, but never quiet getting there and always being ready to have yesterday’s truths overturned by today’s empirical findings.. † (Bernard). In the social sciences we can see sociologists, philosophers and social psychologists such as Michael Foucault, Fredriech Nietzsche, Pierrie Bourdieu and others changing their views on subjects and seemingly contradicting themselves but I would consider that this is paramount when conducting any type of research, as society evolves, technology changes and people become more individualized the world is changing rapidly so we as researchers must be open to change and not be afraid to re-examine our research and research motives to ensure that we are generating the most informed and comprehensible research possible. In the case of Foucault , Tom Keenan argues that â€Å"these contradictions and paradoxes do serve a very important strategic purpose since they allow to articulate a critique of the juridical discourse on a theoretical level. Foucault’s work produces paradoxa since it struggles against doxa, it seeks to place in question orthodoxies of political thought and leftist critique. It is contradictory since it contradicts dominant forms of critique that itself functions as a constraint for imagining political alternatives (Keenan 1987)†. Bibliography Blacker, D. (1993). Article on Education as the Normative Dimension of Philosophical Hermeneutics. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. Bourdieu, P & Wacquant (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Burrell, G. , & Morgan, G. Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis, Heinemann, 1979 Cuff. E. C, Sharrock. W. W, Francis. D. W (1998) Perspectives in Sociology. Fourth Edition. Routledge, London. Clark, R. (2004) â€Å"The Symbolic Order†. The Literary Encyclopedia. March 2004. Evered, R. , Louis, M. R. (1991), â€Å"Research perspectives†, in Craig Smith, N. , Dainty, P. (Eds),The Management Research Book, Routledge, London Gusfield. J & Michalowicz. J (1984). Secular Symbolism: Studies of Ritual, Ceremony and the Symbolic Order in Modern Life. Annual Reviews Inc 1084 Holland, J (2007) International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Volume 10 Issue 3. July 2007. Keenan, T, (1987) The ‘P aradox’ of Knowledge and Power: Reading Foucault on a bias, in: Political Theory, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987. Kleinman, S. & Copp, M. A. (1993) Emotions and fieldwork. Sage, Newbury Park, CA Macbeth, D. (2001). On â€Å"reflexivity† in qualitative research: Two readings, and a third. Qualitative Inquiry. Morey, N. , and Luthans, F. (1984) â€Å"An Emic Perspective and Ethno Science Methods for Organizational Research,† Academy of Management Review (9:1), 1984. Nightingale, D. & Cromby, J. (Eds) (1999). Social constructionist psychology: A critical analysis of theory and practice. Buckingham: Open University Press. Reynolds, L & J (1970). The Sociology of Sociology. Analysis and Criticisim of the Thought, Research and Ethical Folkways of Sociology and its Practitioners. David McKay Company INC, New York. Van Maanen, J, (1979). â€Å"Reclaiming Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research: A Preface,† Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24 Williams, S. J. & Bendelow, G. A. (1996b) Emotions and ‘sociological imperialism': A rejoinder to Craib. Willig. C, (2001) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology (p. 10).

Breaking the Norm Essay

A norm is something that is usual, typical, or standard of something in society. Some examples of a norm are going to school, taking a bath, sleeping at night, wearing clothes in public, and eating breakfast lunch and dinner. All those things are stuff we do in our everyday lives and don’t think about it, we just do it because it is normal and it has been taught to us since we have been very little. If you end up breaking the norm though, people will look at you differently and you could really stand out from everyone around you. I am going to challenge this and break the norm to see what other people do and think around me. What I am going to do to break the norm is go to the grocery store with my mom and instead of walking everywhere, I am going to skip. I am going to start skipping right when I get out of the car into the parking lot until the time I get back in the car after shopping. I am even going to skip when I am standing in the checkout line. When I do this I think people are going to give me really weird looks and look annoyed that I am skipping everywhere. I also think my mom is going to feel embarrassed to walk with me. When I broke the norm by skipping everywhere in the grocery store I got the weirdest looks from people, but some people smiled and laughed. I did not tell my mom that I was going to do this and I did not tell her that this was a project. At first my mom laughed, but then she got really annoyed and yelled at me and told me to stop but I didn’t listen to her and kept going. At one point she tried walking in front of me because she didn’t want to be seen with me. All the other people just stared at me with weird faces on and when I would look back I could see them laughing and talking about me. At first when I got out of the car I felt kind of embarrassed to do this because it is not the normal thing to do. As I proceeded to do it though it got easier and I knew I was going to be right about all the people looking at me with weird looks and my mom being annoyed of me and embarrassed to be with me. The lady in the checkout line looked very confused and uncomfortable when I was just skipping in place; she looked like she didn’t know what to do. I just kept skipping though and minding my own business and acting like nothing was wrong. People in today’s society do normal things every single day. When we see someone breaking the norm, like I did, you think twice about that person and wonder what they are thinking. If Americans see someone from another country wearing a turban, or seeing the Chinese foot binding, or seeing different tribes from Africa putting copper rings around the girls necks to make them longer we tend to judge them and wonder what they were thinking. Other Countries could think we are different and not normal too when they see us with mohawks or tattoos or piercings. Those things are normal to us but not normal to other people. When you break the norm you get a really good feel on how everyone does the normal things every day and doesn’t think twice about it until you see someone else breaking the norm.

Kurds Identity

Kurds Identity What do we know about Kurds? Read about Kurds identity in this article. Hashtag: #CizreUnderAttack Kurds Identity Before the 1980s, little was known about the Kurds, a large ethnic group living in southeastern Turkey, due to the lack of academic institutions to fund and coordinate research, and other barriers. For instance, as the existence of a Kurdish nation in Turkey was traditionally ignored and being pursued as an official policy, the Turkish government limits the scope of studies on all aspects of Kurdish life. Academic debate and research were also severely suppressed by the hegemonic representation of the Kurds in the state’s discourse as a case of separatism, terrorism, and so on. Moreover, since the basis of this hegemonic representation was a state-sponsored classified research, it prevented researchers from questioning the officially recognized representation of the Kurds or engage in issues related to Kurdish society and culture. However, when the Kurdish national movement emerged and political activism in Turkey increased in the 1980s, studies addressing various issues and focusing on aspects of Kurdish society and politics were freely carried out and published. Some of these studies focus on Kurds origin and identity while others are more interested in conflict analysis, re-emergence, and evolution of Kurdish nationalism. As a stateless people who have been exposed to oppression, suffering, subordination, and forced migration, Kurds history, and origin, according to the literature relates to their struggles to gain independence and freedom. For this reason, the main components of Kurds identity include their homeland, the memory of the past, shared experiences, language, and national symbols. Their homeland, according to the literature is â€Å"Kurdistan†, a territory delineated by the Allies after World War I.   Kurdistan consist of a two hundred thousand square miles of mountainous expanse and some 550,000 square kilometers of land spanning the present state boundaries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. However, there are no internationally recognized Kurdistan territories and the term â€Å"Kurdistan† has been banned in Turkey since the 1920s. Yasar Kemal Is a Master of Word The delineation of Kurdistan resulted to the dispersal of the Kurds into nearby territories where they need to cope with varying socio-political and cultural conditions imposed on them. The dispersion in a way negates the possibility for the Kurds to have a fixed and essentialist Kurdish identity. Although most Kurds consider themselves as descendants of the ancient Medes, researchers view of Kurds identity still revolved around the demarcation of their homeland due to lack of written historical sources that could link them to ancient periods. Kurdish Nationalism Kurdish nationalism according to literature is one the most  controversial and critical predicaments in the Middle East. For instance, since there are about 20 to 25 million Kurds live mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, Kurds effort to establish their own state not only resulted in numerous clashes with the government of the states in which the Kurds reside but claimed tens of thousands of lives. However, despite being a direct threat to the territorial integrity of the above states, the nature and origin of Kurdish nationalism remain unexplained and poorly studied. As a political ideology, Kurdish nationalism is inspired by collective identities, traditions, self-awareness, and imagined communities. In 1878 for instance, the Kurds who rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and invaded the Urmia region in Iran used the term â€Å"Kurdish nation† and expressed the need to unify the Kurds and create a Kurdish state. A Kurdish poet, on the other hand, edited and republished an epic poem in 1695 containing expressions of an independent Kurdish identity and the need for a Kurdish ruler.   Similarly, â€Å"Kurdistan†, the first newspaper in the Kurdish language published in Cairo in 1898 was a step toward Kurdish self-awareness or awakening possibly leading the creation of a Kurdish state. The Fall of the Ottoman Empire Tells Us about Modern Events The Kurdish question in Turkey is still defined by the separatist tracks of Kurdish nationalism, but with less radical inkling and seeks cultural recognition and political equality within the confines of democracy. In fact, many scholars believed that since violent demands for recognition is often met with equally violent Turkish strategies, Kurdish nationalism needs to be decoupled from ethnic violence and essentialism.

How paintballs are made

How paintballs are made Paintballs are made entirely of non-toxic, food grade ingredients. To make the hallow shell; water is poured into a giant, heated mixing bowl. A sweetener, a preservative and a secret combination of food ingredients are then added. Finally, the key ingredient that gives the shell its shape - gelatin - is introduced.All the ingredients are mixed together for around half an hour before the gel is transferred from the mixer into a heated vat called the "gel tote". Once the filtered gel is securely in the tote it is lowered into a giant blender where food dye is added and blended for about 20 minutes.Elsewhere in the factory, the same method is used to dye what's called "the fill" - that's the "paint" that goes inside the shell of the paintball. It's made of polyethylene glycol, the same inert liquid used for cough syrup, before being thickened with the same wax found in crayola crayons.A pod full of paintballsThe gel and the fill are brought together in what's known as "the feed room". Here the vats of gel and fill feed a soft-gel encapsulation machine one floor below. This machine is the same kind used by drug companies to make soft gel-cap medicines like cod liver oil.First, the machine spreads the gel on to a cooled drum. This creates a continuous, thin sheet of gel called "gel ribbon". The cooling process cures the gelatin to the point where it can be molded into the hollow shell of the ball. The machine presses the gel ribbon into a cast with half-circular pockets, each forming one half of a ball shell.The machine does the next three steps in one shot: it aligns 2 half-shells together.These newly minted paintballs are still quite soft and if they're not carefully dried, they'll lose...

The First Battle of the Marne

The First Battle of the Marne From September 6-12, 1914, just one month into World War I, the First Battle of the Marne took place just 30 miles northeast of Paris in the Marne River Valley of France. Following the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans had been moving swiftly toward Paris when the French staged a surprise attack that began the First Battle of the Marne. The French, with the aid of some British troops, successfully halted the German advance and both sides dug in. The resulting trenches became the first of many that characterized the rest of World War I. Because of their loss at the Battle of the Marne, the Germans, now stuck in muddy, bloody trenches, were not able to eliminate the second front of World War I; thus, the war was to last years rather than months. World War I Begins Upon the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, by a Serbian, Austria-Hungary officially declared war on Serbia on July 28- a month to the day from the assassination.  Serbian ally Russia then declared war on Austria-Hungary.  Germany then jumped into the looming battle at the defense of Austria-Hungary.  And France, who had an alliance with Russia, also joined the war. World War I had begun. Germany, who was literally in the middle of all this, was in a predicament. To fight France in the west and Russia in the east, Germany would need to divide its troops and resources and then send them in separate directions. This would cause the Germans to have a weakened position on both fronts. Germany had been afraid this might happen. Thus, years before World War I, they had created a plan for just such a contingency- the Schlieffen Plan. The Schlieffen Plan The Schlieffen Plan was developed in the early 20th century by German Count Albert von Schlieffen, chief of the German Great General Staff from 1891 to 1905. The plan aimed to end a two-front war as quickly as possible. Schlieffen’s plan involved speed and Belgium. At that time in history, the French had heavily fortified their border with Germany; thus it would take months, if not longer, for the Germans to try to break through those defenses. They needed a faster plan. Schlieffen advocated circumventing these fortifications by invading France from the north via Belgium.  However, the assault had to happen quickly- before the Russians could gather their forces and attack Germany from the east. The downside of Schlieffen’s plan was that Belgium was at that time still a neutral country; a direct attack would bring Belgium into the war on the side of the Allies. The positive of the plan was that a quick victory over France would bring a swift end to the Western Front and then Germany could shift all of its resources to the east in their fight with Russia. At the beginning of World War I, Germany decided to take its chances and put the Schlieffen Plan, with a few changes, into effect.  Schlieffen had calculated that the plan would take only 42 days to complete. The Germans headed to Paris via Belgium. The March to Paris The French, of course, tried to stop the Germans. They challenged the Germans along the French-Belgian border in the Battle of Frontiers. Although this successfully slowed the Germans down, the Germans ultimately broke through and continued southward toward the French capital of Paris.   As the Germans advanced, Paris readied itself for a siege. On September 2, the French government evacuated to the city of Bordeaux, leaving French General Joseph-Simon Gallieni as the new military governor of Paris, in charge of the defense of the city. As the Germans advanced rapidly toward Paris, the German First and Second Armies (led by Generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bà ¼low respectively) were following parallel paths southward, with the First Army a little to the west and the Second Army a bit to the east. Although Kluck and Bà ¼low had been directed to approach Paris as a unit, supporting one another, Kluck got distracted when he sensed easy prey. Instead of following orders and heading directly to Paris, Kluck chose instead to pursue the exhausted, retreating French Fifth Army, led by General Charles Lanrezac. Kluck’s distraction not only did not turn into a quick and decisive victory, but it also created a gap between the German First and Second Armies and exposed the First Army’s right flank, leaving them susceptible to a French counterattack. On September 3, Kluck’s First Army crossed the Marne River and entered the Marne River Valley. The Battle Begins Despite Gallieni’s many last-minute preparations within the city, he knew that Paris couldn’t withstand a siege for long; thus, upon learning of Kluck’s new movements, Gallieni urged the French military to launch a surprise attack before the Germans reached Paris. Chief of the French General Staff Joseph Joffre had exactly the same idea. It was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up, even if it was a surprisingly optimistic plan in the face of the ongoing massive retreat from northern France. Troops on both sides were utterly and completely exhausted from the long and fast march south. However, the French had an advantage in the fact that as they had retreated south, closer to Paris, their supply lines had shortened; while the Germans’ supply lines had become stretched thin. On September 6, 1914, the 37th day of the German campaign, the Battle of the Marne began. The French Sixth Army, led by General Michel Maunoury, attacked Germany’s First Army from the west. Under attack, Kluck swung even further west, away from the German Second Army, to confront the French attackers. This created a 30-mile gap between the German First and Second Armies. Kluck’s First Army nearly defeated the French’s Sixth when, in the nick in time, the French received 6,000 reinforcements from Paris, brought to the front via 630 taxicabs- the very first automotive transport of troops during the war in history. Meanwhile, the French Fifth Army, now led by General Louis Franchet d’Esperey (who had replaced Lanrezac), and Field Marshal John French’s British troops (who agreed to join in the battle only after much, much urging) pushed up into the 30-mile gap that divided the German First and Second Armies. The French Fifth Army then attacked Bà ¼low’s Second Army. Mass confusion within the German army ensued. For the French, what began as a move of desperation ended up as a wild success, and the Germans began to be pushed back.   The Digging of Trenches By September 9, 1914, it was apparent that the German advance had been halted by the French.  Intending to eliminate this dangerous gap between their armies, the Germans began to retreat, regrouping 40 miles to the northeast, on the border of the Aisne River.   German Chief of the Great General Staff Helmuth von Moltke was mortified by this unexpected change in course and suffered a nervous breakdown.  As a result, the retreat was handled by Moltke’s subsidiaries, causing the German forces to pull back at a much slower pace than they had advanced.   The process was further hampered by the loss in communications between the divisions and a rainstorm on September 11 that turned everything to mud, slowing down man and horse alike. In the end, it took the Germans a total of three full days to retreat.   By September 12, the battle had officially ended, and the German divisions were all relocated to the banks of the Aisne River where they began regrouping.  Moltke, shortly before he was replaced, gave one of the most important orders of the war- â€Å"The lines so reached will be fortified and defended.†1 The German troops began digging trenches. The process of trench digging took nearly two months but was still only meant to be a temporary measure against French retaliation.  Instead, gone were the days of open warfare; both sides remained within these underground lairs until the end of the war. Trench warfare, begun at the First Battle of the Marne, would come to monopolize the rest of World War I. The Toll of the Battle of the Marne In the end, the Battle of the Marne was a bloody battle. Casualties (both those killed and wounded) for the French forces are roughly estimated around 250,000 men; casualties for the Germans, who had no official tally, are estimated to be around the same number.  The British lost 12,733.   The First Battle of the Marne was successful in halting the German advance to seize Paris; however, it is also one of the main reasons that the war continued past the point of initial brief projections.  According to historian Barbara Tuchman, in her book The Guns of August, The Battle of the Marne was one of the decisive battles of the world not because it determined that Germany would eventually lose or the Allies ultimately win the war but because it determined that the war would go on.2 The Second Battle of the Marne The area of the Marne River Valley would be revisited with large-scale warfare in July 1918 when German General Erich von Ludendorff attempted one of the final German offensives of the war.   This attempted advance became known as the Second Battle of the Marne but was rapidly halted by Allied forces. It is viewed today as one of the keys to ultimately ending the war as the Germans realized that they lacked the resources to win the battles necessary to win World War I.

I need a reaction peper for an environmental science class of one page Essay

I need a reaction peper for an environmental science class of one page - Essay Example The study of Dr. Hayes on the effects of Atrazine in frogs is a corollary on an accurate prediction of what could happen on humans. He takes on an almost renegade approach as he goes against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and drug companies for the banning of Atrazine. This herbicide which is used for 80 million lbs. a year in the United States, as he has illustrated, was already banned in many other countries. The primary findings that he proposes are the effects of Atrazine on frogs in different ecological areas including creating controlled groups. He concluded that the frogs exposed have increase in hormonal imbalance and chemically castrating frogs same as how other chemicals cause tumors in rats. Male frogs are actually growing eggs in their testes and they are taking a longer time to metamorphose. This is significant because this can also happen to humans as we drink the very same water exposed to Atrazine. It is undeniable that these same effects already exist in o ur system and this has a generational effect. I ardently believe that in the largeer scale of things, â€Å"it is better to err on the side of caution.† To the end of his talk, Prof. Hayes insisted that it is still the people who now have the power to stop this and in this case time is of the essence.

Compostion article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Compostion article - Essay Example Freshman students, including those studying in AUC, also experience the same problem. In addition, since most of the students are Egyptians, English is only a second language. Thus, the present study utilized a hybrid concept/mind mapping online strategy (E-mapping) in order to enhance text comprehension and develop critical reading skills. AUC has a core curriculum course required for all students, Scientific Thinking, which emphasizes on the scientific process and scientific approach in dealing with the world. This curriculum is a basis that students do not usually read texts assigned to them, or cannot analyze the texts. With the use of E-mapping, researchers aim to explore if such strategy could enhance critical thinking and text comprehension, as well as increase student participation in the Scientific Thinking course of the school. Through this study, it will also be determined if the technique would improve the quality and quantity of interaction with text and among students a nd instructors (p. 635). Review and Analysis I. Methods Because graphic strategies are said to aid in visual approaches to reading better than the traditional linear text presentations, the researchers used concept mapping and mind mapping as strategies to help improve text comprehension and retention. ... 635). In two semesters, E-mapping was incorporated into the syllabus of three Scientific Thinking sections, introduced gradually to students due to its unfamiliar approach. Initially using a pen and paper introduction and then shifting to a free online software, the students were exposed to the mapping techniques. Assignments of increasing difficulty were given to the sample of 70 students enrolled in the course. Data gathering techniques used comprised of student E-maps, early and late semester anonymous surveys, and mid-semester small group instructional diagnosis (SGID) (p. 638). Surveys were based on students’ perceptions, the SGID on their suggestions, and the E-maps evaluated their performance. II. Results and Conclusions Outcomes of the research project show that E-mapping has several strengths. The strategy encouraged the students to read the texts assigned, and participate in class discussions. In addition, they were obliged to read the text in a critical manner in or der to come up with maps as representations of the linear text. Through the maps they construct, knowledge, perceptions, or misconceptions regarding a topic are assessed. Generally, the tool has the benefits expected from it, but student’s reaction to the approach differs. The main concern of the students regarding E-maps is the workload it demands from them. They perceive it as time-consuming, and require â€Å"too much work,† concluding that E-mapping is an active learning strategy but not a unique way of testing content or critical thinking, and presenting that such technique permits students to have improved visualization skills important in communicating ideas (p. 645). III. Strengths and limitations The goals of the research project are clearly

What is the Cold War (1917-1991) Discuss its cultural, economic, Essay

What is the Cold War (1917-1991) Discuss its cultural, economic, political, religious, and social dimensions - Essay Example between the two power blocs, which led to an international power struggle with both parties vying for control and dominance, exploiting every chance for expansion anywhere in the world. This supremacy battle led to the Cold War, which was a state of military and political tension after World War II between the Western bloc and the Eastern bloc. This paper discusses how the cold war shaped the socio-political and economic landscape of the U.S. As the cold war came to dominance, most of American policies toward the rest of the world, attitudes about immigration and immigration policies began to change. â€Å"The increasing prevalence of an internationalist ideology led to the passage and implementation of the Displaced Persons Acts of 1948 and 1950, which brought more than 400,000 European refugees into the US...†( McLaughlin & Mary, 15). By the early 1960s, calls to reform U.S immigration policy had increased, majorly because of the growing strength of the civil rights movement. The focus of civil rights movement was the importance of equal treatment regardless of nationality or race; this led many to view the quota system that was in place since 1920 as backward and discriminatory. The Congress debated and eventually passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965(McLaughlin & Mary, 76).This Act greatly changed the face of the American population. The US has been involved in many wars with different objectives and results. However, one thing stands out from the wars that the U.S has been involved in, that is, the wars have served as crusades of political instruments. The only war that was exception to these objectives was the Korean and Vietnam wars. The war was a cold war-era proxy war that started in November 1955 and lasted for 20 years. The war had far-reaching consequences for the US. Many lives were lost; â€Å"†¦.US lost more than 58,000 soldiers while more than 150,000 soldiers were wounded† (Hosch, 43). These harsh consequences led the Congress to

Mot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mot - Essay Example In order to help unmotivated students, a process called attribution retraining is employed that involves modeling, socialization and practice exercises among others. Moreover, other potentially helpful practices can be incorporated such as portraying effort as investment rather than risk, portraying skill development as incremental and domain specific and always focus of mastery. During early childhood development, children express their concern through curiosity and explore new things. However, as children grow, their psychosocial environment influences their learning behavior and learning frequency. Many children though physically present in the classroom remain absent mentally. They do not want to invest their mind and energy towards learning things. It is therefore, important for educators to first understand students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning and then help minimize students’ lack of concern. Understanding student motivation is very important. In simple terms, it can be defined as the students’ desire to participate in a specific task. However, it is also directly associated with students’ academic achievement. Students can get motivated in two ways: intrinsically and extrinsically. In the former case, motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task. However, extrinsically motivated students perform task to avoid punishment such as grades, teacher approval, etc. However, the phrase, motivation to learn is mainly associated with academic achievement. It does not matter whether the task is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated or not. Well, there are various factors that influence student motivation including modeling, communication, instruction, socialization, etc. In addition, home environment also shapes the students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning. Parental care, encouragement and explaining answers to numerous

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Essay

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Process Standards Worksheet - Essay Example 6. Expectations for each grade level (Pre K-2, Grades 3-5, etc.) are listed under each standard. Review the Math Standards and Expectations section and select two significant process standards. Explain in 100- to 200- words why you choose these two standards. I have decided to review the measurement standards, Data analysis and probability standards. I have chosen these two areas because they are the most challenging parts of mathematics involving critical thinking. In the case of measurement standards, a student between pre-k and grade two cannot distinguish between standard and nonstandard units. In addition, due to their age and class, understanding estimates is hard for them hence basic measurement tools become essential for them. For example, a grade two student cannot use a Vanier caliper since they will make numerous errors in the measurement. For the case of data analysis,expecting a grade two student to understand about graphs is an over estimate. Such should only learn the basics of data, how to classify them and use objects and pictures to represent data. In addition, the activity of designing investigation and the concept of categorical and numerical data is not fit for grade 3-5 student. This student should only be taught about data collection methods and how to represent the data using tables and graphs. Directions: Review the NCTM Principles and Process Standards for School Mathematics, and complete the following two tables. Table 1: NCTM Principles Description Provide a short description of each of the six NCTM principles for school mathematics. NCTM Principles Principle Description 1 Equity This means giving students equal opportunities to learn mathematics regardless of their personal characteristics, backgrounds, or physical challenges. 2 Curriculum This is the arrangement of mathematics topics in order to introduce ideas in a way that they build on each other thus portraying the relationship among important mathematical ideas. 3 Teaching Thi s is trying to give students as much information about a mathematics topic as possible. This can only be possible if teachers understand deeply the mathematics they are teaching. 4 Learning This is the concept understanding of a student about a particular mathematics concept and it enables the student to solve problems and settings that they have not encountered before. 5 Assessment This is the process of teaching while trying to uncover how much students have understood a certain topic during a particular learning period. 6 Technology This is the use of emerging learning machines like calculators and computers in working out mathematical problems. This actually has helped a lot since it has made some mathematical problems easier to solve and understandable. Table 2: NCTM Process Standards Complete the following table by providing a brief description and a real-world example of the five NCTM Process Standards for School Mathematics. NCTM Process Standards Standard Description Real-W orld Example 1 Problem solving This is applying mathematics knowledge to solve problems that arise in life and to design a strategy that monitors the way these problems are solved. If someone has 10 dollars to buy pens each at 2dollars, he can use mathematics to know the number of pens that he can buy. 2 Communication This is the use of other mathematical judgments to consolidate and organize a particular manner

Mot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mot - Essay Example In order to help unmotivated students, a process called attribution retraining is employed that involves modeling, socialization and practice exercises among others. Moreover, other potentially helpful practices can be incorporated such as portraying effort as investment rather than risk, portraying skill development as incremental and domain specific and always focus of mastery. During early childhood development, children express their concern through curiosity and explore new things. However, as children grow, their psychosocial environment influences their learning behavior and learning frequency. Many children though physically present in the classroom remain absent mentally. They do not want to invest their mind and energy towards learning things. It is therefore, important for educators to first understand students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning and then help minimize students’ lack of concern. Understanding student motivation is very important. In simple terms, it can be defined as the students’ desire to participate in a specific task. However, it is also directly associated with students’ academic achievement. Students can get motivated in two ways: intrinsically and extrinsically. In the former case, motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task. However, extrinsically motivated students perform task to avoid punishment such as grades, teacher approval, etc. However, the phrase, motivation to learn is mainly associated with academic achievement. It does not matter whether the task is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated or not. Well, there are various factors that influence student motivation including modeling, communication, instruction, socialization, etc. In addition, home environment also shapes the students’ attitudes and beliefs towards learning. Parental care, encouragement and explaining answers to numerous

Liberalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Liberalism - Essay Example Liberalim i the culmination of development in Wetern ociety that produced a ene of the importance of human individuality, a liberation of the individual from complete ubervience to the group, and a relaxation of the tight hold of cutom, law, and authority. The emancipation of the individual can be undertood a a unique achievement of Wetern culture, perhap it very hallmark. (Necati , 1998, pp. 447-477) Liberalim alo derive from the practice of adverariality in European political and economic life, a proce in which intitutionalized competition-uch a the competition between different political partie in electoral contet, between proecution and defene in judicial procedure, or between different producer in a free-market economy-i ued to generate a dynamic ocial order. Adverarial ytem have alway been precariou, however, and it took a long time for the belief in adverariality to emerge from the more traditional view, traceable at leat to Plato, that the tate hould be an organic tructure in which the different ocial clae cooperate by performing ditinct yet complementary role. The belief that competition i an eential part of a political ytem and tha4 good government require a7vigorme Oppoiion wa 4all c/nideped drange in eop Edropean c/uft2ia in he Epl9 19th7centUry. (Ne#at( , 19, pp,7447-077) Each nati/N' lHike other polhti"al octrind, lib%0al)m7i hig(ly enitiva 4k tIMe aNd bhpcumtance Each nati/N' liberalim i different, and it ahange in each generation. The hitorical development of liberAlii over recent centurie ha been a movement from mitrup of the taTe' overegnty on the ground that power tend to ba miue, to a willingne to ue the power of government to correct inequitie in the ditribution of wealth reulting from a free-market economy. The expanion of government power and reponibility ought by liberal in the 20th century wa clearly oppoed to the contraction of government advocated by liberal a century earlier. In the 19th century liberal were generally hopitable to the buine community, only to become hotile to it interet and ambition for much of the 20th century. In each cae, however, the liberal' inpiration wa the ame: a hotility to concentration of power that threaten the freedom of the individual and prevent him from realizing hi potential, along with a willingne to reexamine and reform ocial intitution in the light of new need. Thi willingne i temPered by an averioN to udden, cataclymic change, which i ghat et df thE diberal fpnm the7raical.7It i thi ve2y eagern%7to encjurage7ueful ch nge howeve2, that ditingUihe the liberal from 4he conErvativ. (Necati , 0998, pp. 447%477) L BeraL Interna4ional i the w/r(d federat)on /f lIberal political partie. Fo5n$ed in 194 it7ha7becoMe the pre-emInEnt .et/rk fOr 0romotijg liberaliM, trengtheninclib%rah part)E anD for theprmmotion of lhberal de-ocracy arouNd THe7world. Dhere are a .1mber of comMon principle w(ich unite al, liberal partie brom frica, the AmerIca, Aia, and Europe; human rifhT, free7and fair eldction and muhtiparty-democracy, nciah judice, tolerancd, ocial market econgmy, free tr!de, environmental utainability and a trong ene of international olidarity. Naturally in the application of thee principle in different national circumtance there i diverity among liberal partie. All member adhere to the organiation Manifeto'. (Necati , 1998, pp.

Mel Brooks as Jewish Comedian Essay Example for Free

Mel Brooks as Jewish Comedian Essay Mel Brookss membership in the elite club of Jewish comedians is essentially impossible to dispute. The question is whether or not his comedy is atypical. Satirizing Jewish history and klutzy old Jewish men is normal for Jewish comedy. However, Dont be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party, is something that you would not expect to hear in typical Jewish comedy (The Producers). Defined broadly, there are two forms which Mel Brookss Jewish humor takes. The first form is to discuss specifically Jewish topics in a funny way. This is evident in The Producers and in the Inquisition scene from History of the World, Part I. The other form is to use certain aspects of Judaism for comedic value. This form, is typically used by Brooks as a means for a quick laugh as opposed to a major source of plot definition, and is most apparent in such scenes as that with the Yiddish-speaking Indian in Blazing Saddles. While exploring Brookss types of Jewish humor, this paper will limit its scope. Only four of Brookss films will be discussed in this paper-The Producers, Blazing Saddles, History of the World, Part I, and To Be or Not To Be. These films were chosen because the quantity of Jewish content in all of them is considerably more than in his other films such as Young Frankenstein or Silent Movie. The four films chosen do an excellent job of portraying the complete range of the types of Jewish-related humor, which Brooks uses. To understand Mel Brooks identity as a specifically Jewish comedian it is important to understand how Jewish he actually was. Melvin Kaminsky was born as the youngest of four brothers in a crowded New York City apartment to Kitty and Max Kaminsky. He grew up in a very Jewish area were on Saturdays, the shops were closed, the pushcarts parked, and Yiddish replaced with Hebrew in over seventy orthodox synagogues. However, Brooks himself spent his Saturdays enjoying matinees at the Marcy Theater. He married a non-Jewish woman and allowed his son, Max, to be baptized only as long as he was allowed to have a bar-mitzvah. When asked by the media if he wanted his wife to convert he replied She dont have to convert. She a star! (Yacowar 10-14). Before discussing the films, it is crucial to identify a recurring theme in Brookss work-Germans and, more specifically, Nazis. He had a brief military career in World War II with very little combat experience, and he actually ended up being the entertainment coordinator for the army. Yacowar analyzes Brooks later feelings towards Germans as subconscious frustration because of his inability to actually fight the Nazis (Yacowar 17). In an interview he was asked about his obsession with Germans, and he replied: Me not like Germans? Why should I not like Germans? Just because theyre arrogant and have fat necks and do anything theyre told as long as it is cruel, and killed millions of Jews in concentration camps and made soap out of their bodies and lamp shades out of their skins? Is that any reason to hate their f-king guts? (Yacowar 32) Brooks has mocked Germans in various works such as in Your Show of Shows and on the Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Cannes film festival audio recording. Regardless, of the origin of his interest with Nazis, if one looks at enough of his work, one cannot help but notice that this theme is an obsession for Brooks (Yacowar 34-35, 48). Mel Brooks made his first feature film, The Producers, in 1967. It is about a Jewish Broadway producer (Max Bialystock) who convinces his Jewish accountant (Leo Bloom) to finance a guaranteed to fail play with the idea that they would take the profits and run to South America. The guaranteed to fail play, Springtime for Hitler turned out to be a huge success. The two main characters both represent completely different Jewish stereotypes and the third area of Jewish interest in the film is the role of Germans both in the play and the ex-Nazi author, Frank Liebkind (Altman 39). Max Bialystock (played by Zero Mostel) is obviously not a first generation American because of his name and his accent. Although he never does anything specifically Jewish, he is still Jewish so it is relevant to look at his relationship to Jewish stereotypes. In his book, Telushkin discusses the tradition of having big and lavish bar mitzvahs, he says that the Jewish tradition has few curbs to halt such excesses(74). It is interesting to see how Bialystock chooses to live in almost poverty. Although he is so poor that he says Look at me now-Im wearing a cardboard belt, he also wears a reasonably nice jacket, has a leather coach, and keeps every old ladys picture in a decent frame. Later in the film, when he gets a lot of money, he spends it on a chauffeured car, a sexy secretary, lavish offices and new clothes, rather then spending it on new office equipment or investing it for future financial security (Telushkin 83). Leo Bloom, the accountant (played by Gene Wilder), represents the opposite stereotype from Bialystock. He represents the meek Jew, the Jew-as-doormat. In the beginning of the movie, he walks in on Max trying to get some money from an investor (he catches them lying on top of each other) and is so surprised and in shock that he has to be told to say oops (The Producers). This fits right into the stereotype of Jews as remorseful and ashamed of their sexual desires (The Poducers). Bialystock fulfills the other stereotype of Jewish men who have been portrayed as sex-hungry animals in many jokes. Blooms choice of career is also known as a Jewish career. In the end, he, like Bialystock, ends up fulfilling one of the most basic stereotypes of Jews-he gives in to his greed (Telushkin 93). There are also many small Jewish references in the film. There is an ignorant, and very gay, director named Roger DeBris, who directs Springtime for Hitler and has a familiar Yiddish term in his name (Telushkin 86-87). Also, in the beginning of the movie Bialystock has a funny dialogue with his landlord and it is the only part of the movie in which religion is involved. Bialystock: Murderer, thief, how can you take the last penny out of a poor mans pocket? Landlord: I have to, Im a landlord. Bialystock: Oh lord, hear my plea: Destroy him, he maketh a blight on the land. Landlord: Dont listen to him-hes crazy (The Producers). When one hears the conversation, with the Landlord speaking in a Jewish accent and Bialystock calling out at the heavens, sounding like an abused Jewish mother, it is a lot funnier and the Jewish element is a lot clearer as well. Brooks message in this movie has been largely debated. Lester D. Freidman thinks, Bialystock and Bloom fail to find their flop because they underestimate their audiences deadened sensibilities (173). Brooks is trying to point out that the shock and horror that everyone should view the holocaust in, is mainly a Jewish mindset. In the movie, he made two perfect Jews, and their perfection caused them two have a mindset that was different from the rest of the American public. Therefore, the movie is about more than a pair of corrupt showmen. It is about the segregation of Jews. Bailystock and Bloom are not yet Americans, they still carry a separate identity. In 1974, Brooks came out with Blazing Saddles which is much less Jewish than The Producers. The movie is about a town with a corrupt Attorney General who wants take over the town. The townspeople get the governor to send a new sheriff to restore order. He sends Sheriff Bart who is a black man with Gucci saddlebags on his horse. The townspeople end up working with the new Sheriff to defeat Hedley Lamarr (the attorney general) and his band of hooligans. Jewish topics are in the film as occasional funny parts and not as major parts of the plot. The funniest and most recognizable part of the movie where Judaism is involved is Sheriff Barts recollection of how his family got to the west. According to the Sheriff, strange Indians attacked their wagon. Brooks, who plays the Indian chief, allows Bart and his family to go, he tells his tribe, Zeit nishe meshugge. Loz em gaien†¦Abee gezint. Which basically means, take off. Some feel this is Brooks trying to get some cheap laughs by using Yiddish, but Friedman points out that it is comically appropriate that the Wests most conspicuous outsider, the Indian, should speak in the tongue of historys traditional outsider, the Jew (77). Other than this reference, Blazing Saddles use of Judaism is really little more than an occasional punch line. When Hedley Lamarr is looking for a way to get the citizens of Rock Ridge to leave, his associate recommends killing the first-born male child in every family, to which Lamarr replies-too Jewish (Blazing Saddles). When Mongo (a gigantic ruffian) comes into the saloon, someone in the background says Gottenew (Oh God! ), another Yiddish term (Yacowar 110). Not surprisingly, Mel Brooks finds a way to squeeze Germans into a movie set in the late 19th Centurys Wild West. In the finale of the movie, Lamarr recruits an army of lowlifes. In the army there is a small group of German soldiers who spend much of the fistfight sitting with a Ms. Lily von Shtupp (a not so talented lounge singer) singing the same war song heard in The Producers (Blazing Saddles). Finally, the Indian on many movie promotional materials (including the video cover) has the Hebrew for kosher for Passover inscribed in his headband. Strangely enough, these relatively small Jewish references got the attention of the Jewish Film Advisory Committee, whose director, Allen Rivkin, spoke to a writer about the offensiveness of the Jewish material. The writers response was, Dad, get with it. This is another century(Doneson 128) Blazing Saddles is a movie of the second type identified. It does not deal with specifically Jewish topics. It does, however, use Jewish topics as a way of forwarding the plot and the comedy. Whether the critics were right that Brooks was just using Yiddish because he found it funny, or if he was using it because he wanted to make a point about racism and exclusion, what is most important is that he actually used Yiddish, instead of something more expected (Yacowar 110). 1981s History of the World, Part I, falls somewhere between The Producers and Blazing Saddles in its level of Jewish content (Freidman 236). The movie, is basically, a quick tour through history going from the discovery of fire to the French Revolution. Within the movie, there are two skits that are specifically of Jewish interest (Moses on Mount Sinai and the Spanish Inquisition. ) In the Old Testament, God identifies himself as the Lord, and asks Moses if he can hear Him. Mel Brooks, in a robe and white beard says Yes. I hear you. I hear you. A deaf man could hear you. When Moses tells the people of the new laws, he says, The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given onto these 15 [crash] 10, 10 Commandments for all to obey. Although Moses obviously had to be Jewish, one wonders why he had to be so klutzy a comic. In Rome, Gregory Hines, playing Josephus, a slave who is not sold in the auction, attempts to get out of being sent to the Coliseum where he would be lion food. His excuse is that the lions only eat Christians, Christians, and I am a Jew-Jewish person. To prove this, he starts singing Havah Negilah and gets the entire crowd to join him. He even tells the slave trader to call Sammus Davis Jr. (after calling the temple and the rabbi). Eventually, the trader looks down his pants, to prove he is not Jewish (History of the World, Part I). Empress Nympho, Caesars wife, is a strange cross between a J. A. P. and a sex maniac. She has a classic Jewish mother accent and uses Yiddish occasionally-Well shlep him along, for example. Towards the end of the movie, Brooks calls a courtier of Louis XVI a petite putz (History of the World, Part I). This is obviously a strange place to hear Yiddish, unless the intent is comic effect. Finally, though, the most outrageous scene, and the one that some Jews have found quite objectionable is the one about the Spanish Inquisition. It should be noted that Brookss portrayal of the Inquisition as being directed against Jews is historically inaccurate. It was really directed against heretical Christians. Because of this inaccuracy, it is safe to assume that Brooks wanted to put this scene in as a Jewish note into his film, as he did with the other films discussed. The Inquisition scene is filmed in a medieval dungeon. It starts by introducing the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada (Mel Brooks) with Torquemada-do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada-do not beg him for forgiveness†¦. Lets face it, you cant Torquemada [talk him outta] anything, then the music starts. One of the lines in the song is A fact youre ignoring, its better to lose your skullcap with your skull, which is emphasized by two old Jewish men in stocks singing oy oy gevalt. After a few descriptions of the actual torture which individual Jews suffered, he points out that nothing is working, send in the nuns. The nuns perform a synchronized swimming routine in which Jews are sent down a chute into a pool to be dragged under by nuns. At the end of the scene, seven nuns are standing on a menorah with sparklers on their heads, while the chorus, led by Torquemada, sings, Come on you Moslems and you Jews. Weve got big news for all of youse. Youd better change your points of views today. Cause the Inquisitions here, and its here to stay. When Brooks was criticized for this scene he replied: Nothing can burst the balloon of pomposity and dictatorial splendor better than comedy†¦. In a sense, my comedy is serious, and I need a serious background to play against†¦. Poking fun at the Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada, is a wonderful counterpart to the horrors he committed (Friedman 236). This would make History of the World, Part I comparable to The Producers in its satire of Hitler, and makes Blazing Saddles also comparable through its satirical treatment of racism. If one still thought that Brooks made History of the World, Part I with only good intentions, one should also consider the treatment of Jews and Germans in the ending of the film. The promo for History of the World, Part II includes scenes such as Hitler on Ice, and Jews in Space, in which Jews are in a space craft singing Were Jews out in space. Were zooming along protecting the Hebrew race†¦. When Goyim attacks us, well give em a slap. Well smack em right back in the face. It definitely seems that History of the World, Part I is a combination, (just as the others movies discussed are) of exploitation for easy laughs and of exposing the evils of the tyrants who have tormented the Jews throughout history. In To Be or Not To Be, Mel Brooks plays Fredrick Bronski, the head actor in a Polish stage revue, around the time of the Nazi annexation of Poland. His wife, Anna Bronski (Anna Bancroft) falls in love with an Air Force lieutenant working in the Polish platoon of the RAF. The main focus of the movie is how they make fun of, get around, outwit, and ultimately escape the Nazis. This movie is actually a remake of an older film, but it still has a distinctively Mel Brooks feel. The main target of Brookss satire is the head of the Gestapo, Colonel Erhardt (Charles Durning) who is a babbling fool. For example, when on the phone, he says What? Why? Where When? When in doubt, arrest them, arrest them, arrest them! Then shoot them and interrogate them. [pause] Oh you are right, just shoot them. Soon after this, he is led to believe that the shoot first policy led to the deaths of two useful figures and after asking what idiot formed the policy, he got mad at Shultz, his assistant, for reminding him that he made the policy. Later on, he has this exchange with Shultz: Erhardt: What idiot gave the order to close the Bronskis theater? Schultz: You did, sir. Erhardt: Open it up immediately. And once and for all stop blaming everything that goes wrong on me (To Be or Not To Be). After being warned to stop making jokes about Hitler, Erhardt promises, No. Never, never, never again, [emphasis added] strange words to hear from a nazi. Although this movie is not about Jews, there are a few Jewish characters and encounters. Bronski hides a Jewish family in his theaters cellar and during the course of the movie, theyre number increases. At one point, the intelligence agent goes to the theater to find his lover, Bronskis wife. The Jewish women hiding there tells him You know that big house on Posen Street? Well dont go there, its Gestapo headquarters, before actually telling where she was staying (To Be or Not To Be). At the end of the movie, they dress up all the Jews hiding in the cellar (closer to 20 than the 3 who originally hid out in the cellar) as clowns to have them run through the aisle (in the middle of a performance for Hitler) to a truck to safety. One old lady panics in the aisle, surrounded by Nazis. To save the old lady, another clown runs up to them and pins an oversized yellow star, yelling Juden! , this causes an enormous laughter from the Nazi audience. To stall the Gestapo, Brooks dresses up as Hitler, and listens to a Jewish actor perform the Hath not a Jew eyes speech from Merchant of Venice. To Be or Not To Be appears to be Brookss final way of coping with his lack of combat in WWII. While he has The Producers make a play in which they portray the Nazis comically, the ultimate message is that the two Jews in the movie still find them to be patently offensive, and therefore, worthy of some form of respect. In To Be or Not To Be he makes the Nazis into purely comical characters, and this is a step further than Brooks went in The Producers. However, this simply may be because at the point of To Be or Not To Be, Brooks was well into his career as an established moviemaker, so he had more freedom to be offensive. Unfortunately, To Be or Not To Be ended the golden age of Mel Brooks movies, at least from a specifically Jewish point-of-view. His later films make only small mentions of Jewish topics. An example of this is Spaceballs, a parody of Star Wars where the main characters have to save a princess from Planet Druidia (Funny, she doesnt look Druish) from the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) (Spaceballs). The only Jewish reference in the movie were playing off the theme of the Druish princess and a short scene with Mel Brooks as Yogurt, a reinterpretation of Yoda as an old, Jewish man. Brooks also renamed the Force from Star Wars to something more ethnic-the Schwartz. Although these Jewish references may be equal to the Yiddish-speaking Indian in Blazing Saddles, it is too big of a stretch to link a deeper meaning to them as can be done in his earlier films. In the Big Book of Jewish Humor, Jewish humor is defined as having these five qualities: 1. It is substantive in that it is about some larger topic. 2. It, in many cases, has a point-the appropriate response is not laughter, but rather a bitter nod or a commiserating sign of recognition. 3. It is anti-authoritarian, in that it ridicules grandiosity and self-indulgence, exposes hypocrisy, and†¦. is strongly democratic. 4. It frequently has a critical edge which creates discomfort in making its point. 5. It is unsparing-it satirizes anyone and everyone (Novak and Waldoks xx-xxii). Telushkins definition of a Jewish joke is much simpler. He says it must express a Jewish sensibility (16). To Bernard Saper, a uniquely Jewish joke must contain incongruity, a sudden twist of unexpected elements (76). Christie Davies, points out that people such as Jews, who belong to a minority or peripheral ethnic groups tell jokes both about the majority group and about their own group, and they may tell more ethnic jokes about their own group (and find them funnier) than about the majority(29-30). Are the four films discussed within these definitions? Brooks movies definitely fit the Telushkin test of expressing Jewish sensibility, weather it is through how he attacks the Nazis or the random Yiddish expressions that he uses. A lot of Brooks humor is also incongruous. For example, having a Nazi say never again, fulfills Sapers requirement. Brooks films have a lot of ethnic jokes in them, which deal with Jews or Jewish topics. Brooks probably put these jokes in his movies because he found them funny, therefore fulfilling the Davies test. The definition in The Big Book of Jewish Humor is harder to fit because it is in greater detail. However, the films that were discussed fit them well. Many of Brookss films are substantive in that he deals with racism and Anti-Semitism in almost all of his movies. The point of his films may not be so sharp that when people see them they automatically feel bitterness toward someone, but his movies are definently not pure slapstick which fulfills the second part of the definition. Brooks never attacked Jewish leadership but his films are anti-authoritarian because he clearly attacks government officials such as the Nazis and the Grand Inquisitor. Since there is constant controversy about Brooks films there is always potential for discomfort to arise. Finally, Brooks leaves out nobody from his satire-Nazis, cowboys, and 15th century Spanish Jews are all satirized and made fun of in these films. Even though some of his scenes or individual jokes are not typical Jewish humor, he is a Jewish comedian who, most importantly, makes Jewish jokes. Brookss movies represent the classical paradox in Jewish humor and Jewish experience between: first, the legitimate pride that Jews have taken in their distinctive and learned religious and ethical tradition and in the remarkable intellectual eminence and entrepreneurial and professional achievement of individual members of their community, and second, the anti-Semitic abuse and denigration from hostile outsiders whose malice was fueled by Jewish autonomy and achievement (Davies 42-43). The greatest lesson that Brooks has to teach American Jews of today is the expansion of our boundaries. Through his use of Jewish humor to topics which where previously considered off-limits, he allows his viewers to cope with painful parts of history which they may not have been able to cope with in the past. Brooks describes his role as a comedian by saying, for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one (Friedman 171-172). He explains that his comedy derives from the feeling that, as a Jew and as a person, you dont fit the mainstream of American society. It comes from the realization that even though youre better and smarter, youll never belong (Friedman 172). Mel Brookss experience is very similar to that of every American Jew, and his comedy speaks uniquely to the American Jew. So, even Brookss most offensive work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor and the modern Jewish experience. The greatest lesson that Brooks has to teach American Jews of today is the expansion of our boundaries. Through his use of Jewish humor to topics which where previously considered off-limits, he allows his viewers to cope with painful parts of history which they may not have been able to cope with in the past. Brooks describes his role as a comedian by saying, for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one (Friedman 171-172). He explains that his comedy derives from the feeling that, as a Jew and as a person, you dont fit the mainstream of American society. It comes from the realization that even though youre better and smarter, youll never belong (Friedman 172). Mel Brookss experience is very similar to that of every American Jew, and his comedy speaks uniquely to the American Jew. So, even Brookss most offensive work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor and the modern Jewish experience.

Effects of, and Uses for Paracetamol

Effects of, and Uses for Paracetamol Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is a widely used medicinal drug available over the counter The chemical name for Paracetamol is N-acetyl-p-aminophenol. Over-the-counter (OTC) Analgesic and antipyretic action with weak anti-inflammatory action Synergic effect with other analgesics, especially codeine and NSAIDs, resulting in better overall pain control Major ingredient in cold flu remedies Used in combination with opioid analgesics Oral Paracetamol has an oral bioavilabity of 63-89%. A drug given orally goes through first pass metabolism. Intravenous Intravenous administration of paracetamol has a bioavilabity of 100% Rectal Paracetamol has a rectal bioavilabity of 24-98%. Bioavailability is the amount of dose absorbed from the site of administration Oral administration has a little first pass metabolism in the liver and is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract First pass metabolism involves the drug being absorbed into the portal vein system via the intestine wall after which it is carried to the liver. Before the drug reaches its target site it may therefore to some extent be metabolised in the liver. A plasma concentration of 10-20mcg.ml-1 for paracetamol results in an antipyretic effect however the concentration needed to lead to an analgesia effect is not properly known. All three routes of administration have a significant difference in the time needed to reach peak plasma concentrations. Of all three routes intravenous administration reaches peak plasma concentration in the shortest amount of time and suppository takes the longest, Oral : For adults 325-650mg tablets can be taken every 4 to 6 hours 1 gram can be taken every 4 hours with a maximum of 4 doses in 24 hours. Rectal: suppositories are available in 250 and 500mg. Two 500mg suppositories can be taken by adults and children over 12 IV: The maximum dose that can be given is 3g in 24 hours For children there new dosage guidelines that put children into 7 precise age groups Since IV administration has 100% bioavilabity there is a high chance of toxicity in patients that have renal and/or hepatic problems Absorbed through the wall of the intestine and into the blood. Speed and efficiency of the absorption is determined by several factors which include the pKa, log P and molecular mass of the drug Low molecular mass and is almost completely unionised in the small intestine which allows it to be absorbed more easily Oral Bioavailability – 70%-90% Rectal Bioavailability – 30%-70% Distributed throughout the body fluids in a homogeneous way Analgesic activity is attributable to the small fraction that penetrates into the brain Binds to plasma proteins at less than 20% A high degree of protein binding makes the drug long acting The glucuronidation and sulfation pathway for paracetamol metabolism lead to the production of unharmful and on toxic products. The middle N-Hydroxylation and rearrangement pathway mediated by the isoenzyme of cytochrome p450 (CYP2E1 and CYP3A4) pathway leads to the production of toxic metabolite NAPQ1 which covalently binds to cell macromolecules in overdose. In normal cases NAPQ1 binds with glutathione resulting in an unrhamful and nontoxic product. Part A of the figure shows the metabolism of paracetamol in a healthy individual. Around 95% of the drug is conjugated with glucuronide and excreted in the urine. The leftover is conjugated with glutathione Part B shows the metabolism of paracetamol in an individual that is starved. The conjugation of glutathione does not take place adequately and its depletion results in the build of hepatotoxic NAPQ1 Excreted in urine Predominantly in the form of inactive glucuronide and sulphate conjugates A small amount of the drug is converted to a very reactive alkylating metabolite that is inactivated with reduced glutathione and is excreted in the urine as cysteine and mercapturic acid conjugates Paracetamol is absorbed from the GI tract and a peak plasma concentration occurs within 10-60 minutes after being taken orally. It has a half-life of approximately 2 hours It is distributed into the majority of body tissues Has an elimination half life ranging from 1-3 hours The volume of distribution for paracetamol is around 1L/Kg of body weight with an insignificant amount of the drug binding to plasma protein. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX) – specifically COX-2 Reduces the oxidised form of the COX enzyme, preventing it from forming pro-inflammatory chemicals Peripheral anti-inflammatory activity is usually limited by high level of peroxides present in inflammatory lesions (including several other factors) Metabolites of paracetamol act upon the spinal cord via TRPA1-receptors modulates the endogenous cannabinoid system Paracetamol works inhibiting the synthesis of prostaglandins Because of its selectivity for COX-2 it does not significantly inhibit the production of the pro-clotting thromboxanes. Metabolies: suppressing the signal transduction from the superficial layers of the dorsal horn to alleviate pain. The nuclear receptor constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) can be activated by paracetamol. This induces the expression of three cytochrome P450 enzymes that lead to the transformation of paracetamol into N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI) is a reactive and toxic metabolite. It can be detoxified by conjugation with glutathione Paracetamol is a safe drug and doesn’t cause toxicity unless taken in the wrong dosage or in extreme circumstances such as starvation. Also when taken with alcol for long periods of times it enhances toxicity as the coentration of toxic metabolites such as NAPQ1 increases. NAPQ1 firstly goes through detoxification in the liver via glutathione conjugation catalysed by the enzyme GST and then goes through acetylation in the kidneys. This step is catalysed b M-acetyl transferase. It then gets excreted in the urine. The cytochrome p450 enzyme (isoenzyme CYP2E1) procures hepatoxic metabolites in small quantities. The phase 1 metabolism of paracetamol mediated by p450 gives rise to NAPQ1, that is detoxified by phase 2 conjugation with glutathione. During overdose depletion of glutathione occurs and NAPQ1 accumulates Phase 1 metabolism is where the drug molecule foes though basic structural alteration through reduction, hydrolysis, or oxidation (which is catalysed cytochrome p450 enzymes) Phase 2 metabolism involves conjugation (an ionised group attaches to the drug) making it metabolite water soluble. In the case of paracetamol overdose NAPQ1 can accumulate and can possibly lead to liver damage if left untreated It can also damage other organs that contains P450 enzymes such as the kidneys where the toxicity could result in renal dysfunction and pancreas. Liver toxicity can be prevented by blocking the activation of CAR with an antagonist or Paracetamol overdose occurs at around 7-8 g  in an adult and more than 150 mg/kg in children. Liver damage : The centrilobular zone is the first zone in the liver that gets affected by the toxicity. In extreme cases zones 1 and 2 present in the parenchyma get damaged. Kidney damage: renal dysfunction leads to the need of dialysis as a tubular necrosis table place because of the localised formation of NAPQ1.