Monday, September 30, 2019

‘One Flesh’ by Elizabeth Jennings and ‘I wanna be yours’ by John Cooper Clarke Essay

‘One flesh’ by Elizabeth Jennings has the overall impression after reading the poem that it is about 2 old people who have grown apart from being with each other for so long. It is written in 1st person, by one of their children, who is observing them ‘lying apart’ It is visible that one of the descendants is telling the poem from lines such as ‘whose fire from which I came’ and ‘these two who are my father and mother’. Their child will now be an adult as references that refer to the couple as being ‘old’ suggest this. ‘Do they know they’re old’. This person is telling the poem in 1st person and is visible from words such as ‘my’ and ‘I’. But however in ‘One Flesh’ the emotions of the child are not about them, it is about a 3rd person, but still it is written in 1st person. ‘I wanna be yours’ by John Cooper Clarke is a poem regarding a person expressing their love for someone. The poem consists of a great number of metaphors and similars to express the way he feels. He uses these literary devices to show that he ‘wanna be yours’ even if he is just an everyday item such as a ‘ford cortina’ or a simple ‘raincoat’. From words such as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ it is apparent that the poem ‘I wanna be yours’ is written in 1st person. This allows the author to express his thoughts and emotions directly from him and not through another person e.g. 3rd person. Individually both poems are about expressing an opinion about relationships. The relationship in ‘One Flesh’ may be coming to an end, but the relationship in ‘I wanna be yours’ is coming together. As both poems regard relationship, it is obvious that love associates with them. Both the poems refer to love, passion and emotion indirectly. ‘One flesh’ uses the comparison of fire to love in the line ‘whose fire from which I came’. This line also explains that the person revealing the situation within the poem, is a child of the two lovers. Within ‘I wanna be yours’ a line such as ‘that’s how deep is my emotion’ reveals how much the author cares for the person the poem is directed towards. The attitudes of the writers are hugely different. As the writer of ‘I wanna be yours; wants someone for their self, the writer of ‘one flesh’ is concerned about the relationship and well being of their parents. The attitude, which expresses itself in the title ‘I wanna be yours’, is a selfish attitude, as the author wants that person whatever the consequences. This is visible in ‘take me with you anywhere’. However, at the same time, a loving and thoughtful attitude is presence from lines such as ‘you get cold without’ and ‘with deep devotion’. The poem ‘I wanna be yours’ utilises many metaphors and similars in the poem to signify that he wants to be hers even if he is just an ‘electric heater’. ‘One flesh’ includes half rhyme, which is inconsistent. This inconsistency deliberately relates to the inconsistency in the sex within their relationship. ‘Strangely apart, yet strangely close together’ is a metaphors in ‘One Flesh’ which shows how they are emotionally apart, but they are physically close together within the house. ‘Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold’. The fire expresses that once they were passionate lovers and produced a child, but ‘grown cold’ expresses that they are no longer passionate. The author uses metaphors in ‘I wanna be yours’ to express his feelings such as ‘deep as the deep atlantic ocean that’s how deep is my emotion’ By using the depth of the atlantic ocean to compare to his devotion, he express love. Repetition is used to create a beat to the poem ‘deep deep deep deep de deep deep’. It is also re informing how deep his devotion is. Overall ‘One flesh’ is about a relationship that has already occurred, and ‘I wanna be yours’ is about a relationship that is at the beginning where there is a lot of passion.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Hinduism Essay

Hinduism is the religion of the great majority of the people of India. The word comes from the Sanskrit sindhu, â€Å"river,† and originally referred to the Indus. Hinduism is actually a collection of many native Indian religions, past and present. It is responsible for the social structure of India, especially for the caste system (a hereditary class system). The oldest of the world’s great religions, Hinduism is the only one without a founder. It has never tried to win converts by force and has always tolerated other religions and absorbed ideas from them. Hinduism has about 20 sects, with beliefs that range from primitive forms of animism to the highest reaches of mysticism and philosophy. Many of the sects and cults seem to be separate religions. Yet all have a family relationship since they spring from common traditions and thrive on the conditions peculiar to India. Most have a mystic strain and all stress nonviolence. †¢ Describe the major tenets of the Hindu belief system. Hinduism has many sacred objects and places. The cow is the most sacred of animals and must be protected. Most sacred of all places is the Ganges River, to which millions go each year to bathe and to become purified. Hindus believe in rebirth, or reincarnation, and in what they call the law of karma. Under this law the conditions of each new lifetime are determined by the actions of the preceding life. To the Hindu, salvation consists of liberating the soul from attachment to worldly desires in order to gain union with Brahman. If a Hindu dies liberated he must be born again into this world and again endure its suffering.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Sustainable Business Development Automobiles Essay

Sustainable Business Development Automobiles - Essay Example The automobile industry plays a critical role in making sure that their products are created more responsibly, as well as ensuring that more sustainable facilities are used for production. Moreover, the industry also plays a role in ensuring that their product is created for more eco-friendly, efficient, and innovatively imagined options of personal transport that take the burgeoning world population into account. The growing awareness of environmental issues is bound to significantly impact on the automobile industry and, therefore, it is important for the industry to create more sustainable products that satisfy the public (Conley & McLaren, 2012: p52). According to gov.uk (2014: p1), there were close to 35 million licensed vehicles for road use in the UK in 2013, which represented an increase of 1.5% compared to 2012 and the biggest year-on-year increase since the global financial crisis. This represents a trend, in which the number of vehicles in the UK has increased annually since the end of WWII except 1991. Moreover, there are close to 2 million vehicles that reach the end of useful life in the UK and are withdrawn from service (gov.uk, 2014: p1). These facts are the main justification for the selection of the automobile industry in this essay, specifically because of the environmental implications of so many vehicles on the roads, as well as in the waste streams. Whereas the bulk of attention regarding the environmental impacts resulting from automobiles has mainly focused on fuel economy, climate change, and emissions, this essay will approach the automobile as a product across its lifecycle. This paper seeks to investigate the environmental impacts of automobiles across their life cycle, as well as discuss how these impacts can be mitigated. The term sustainable development first came into use in the International Union for the Conservation of

Friday, September 27, 2019

State of the Union Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

State of the Union - Assignment Example This is not taken kindly by some republicans who assert that he is more concerned with politics than with the development and well being of the nation. The democrats supported the plans to raise the minimum wage. Later positing that increasing minimum wage is the quickest and surest way of putting money in the pockets of workers. The amount of the money the workers will spend will in turn increase demand for commodities and services and therefore create more jobs. The Vice President seems to be in agreement with the president throughout his speech, but his facial expression changes with the disapproval of most of the planned policies by the republicans, as pointed out in their speeches. Explain the differences in the two men’s responses on the basis of the difference between liberal (Democratic Party) and conservative (Republican Party) ideologies. (The Vice President and the Speaker) According to the two, it is clear that there is a distinction between the views of the democrats and republicans on several issues affecting the citizens of the US. The republicans seem to reject anything Obama would offer. As such, the conservatives feel that the government should serve the people and not the other way round. On taxes and wealth, republicans feel that the government keeps interfering which could have negative ramifications. This was clear with the issue of raising minimum wage and tax increases mentioned in the speech. The conservatives opt for a free market, which is self regulating without government coming in between. As such, they are of the view that instead of raising taxes, lowering them would be good for everyone. The best way to raise the standard of living for Americans is to let people pursue their own goals with reduced bureaucracy which tends to be an obstacle. Liberals on the other hand feel that the ultimate purpose of the government is to improve the lives of the people by reducing poverty,

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Cross National Agreement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cross National Agreement - Essay Example Trade agreements stimulate and facilitate trade between different countries through the complete or partial elimination of unfair trade tariffs. Another main objective of economic integration is to increase industrial efficiency through â€Å"economies of scale† which refer to increased levels of productivity related to increased levels of output of all member states of the economic union therefore leading to lower costs and higher productivity. Some of the different stages of economic integration between countries are (Tutor2u, 2012): a) Trade agreements - are formal negotiations between two or more countries where they negotiate lower import tariffs and work to facilitate the bureaucracy and paper work involved in the export and import of goods and services between member countries. b) Trade Liberalization (Free Trade Agreements) - In principle it eliminates barriers to free trade by eliminating unfair tariffs and entry barriers between member states or nations. It further e stablishes standard import tariffs for non-member country imports into the free trade zone. During the last two decades there has been a significant growth in international trade agreements, specifically â€Å"Regional Trade Agreements†, most of them have been free trade agreements with a focus in reducing tariffs and other artificial barriers of trade between participants. The North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) are both good examples. ASEAN (Association of South East Nations), and Mercosur are two additional examples. c) Custom Union - Some agreements are more encompassing and sophisticated such as the European Union (EU) where not only is trade policy regulated, but it establishes common external tariffs for non-union members. It also regulates and oversees the regional rules concerning flows of capital, agreements on financial policy, competition, environmental regulations, practices and movement and regulation of labor. d) Commo n Market-Where a group of countries integrate all its participants into a single integrated market. Free movement of capital, labor and services among members is the trademark of single markets. e) Single Currency(Monetary Union)-The European Union, by adopting an economic model of a Custom Union with a single common currency the Euro, is a perfect example of a highly integrated regional economy. f) Economic Union-(combines Custom Union/Common Market) There are both pros and cons to free trade agreements. Free trade can help drive healthy competition between industries therefore providing better products and prices to its consumer base. Trade agreements can help provide countries with a competitive advantage where countries can specialize in products and services that they do and produce most efficiently. It has been argued that the increased productivity only applies to the increased aggregate wealth and not how fairly increased income will be distributed among its participants (Wh ite, 2012). It has been proposed that free trade is a catalyst that helps foster peace between nations through functional and economic interdependence as well as providing a basis for healthy for overall economic growth of all nations involved. Free Trade agreements also tend to negate the practice of economic Protectionism, which is widely practiced by many countries to protect their own economies when Free Trade Agreements are not enacted between countries. Simply stated the host country imposes high import tariffs and other unfair trading regulations on foreign competing products or services which by limiting the consumer markets this practice tends to create higher prices and

Describe the Jacksonian Era What were some of the highlights of this Essay

Describe the Jacksonian Era What were some of the highlights of this period - Essay Example He was a creator and destroyer, but he destroyed to create! He destroyed Bank of the United States and left the nation without the financial authority to regulate and oversee the economic health. On the social and political front, he arranged the relocation of more than 90,000 Indians. He established direct rapport with the voters of the country. Though democratic to the core, he often worked against the mandate of the Congress, and he was a firm believer in the rights of the states. But he knew how to maintain the sanctity of the federal structure of America when he threatened federal military action against South Carolina, when it claimed that it has legal right against federal law. The heritage of Andrew Jackson, as President Roosevelt said, is â€Å"his unending contribution to the vitality of our democracy.†(x) He was compassionate and he adopted an Indian child. He encouraged interracial marriages and left an inedible imprint on the American political and societal

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Any controversial issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Any controversial issue - Essay Example In this paper, we shall debate on the controversial issue that violence on television causes increases the violence in children and teenagers and stand by it. According to a research, children in America view four hours of television daily on an average which implies that television has a potent influence in developing value systems and determining behavior. But sadly, most of the programs broadcasted on television nowadays are violent. Various studies done to evaluate the impact of T.V. violence on children and teenagers have revealed that children may become impervious to the horror of violence, or slowly start acknowledging violence as the only means to sort out problems, or try to emulate the violence shown on television, and recognize with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers. Children who become violent watching such T.V. programs will display an array of behaviors including volatile temper tantrums, terrorization, bullying, aggressiveness, armed attack, and harm to a nimals and peer groups (â€Å"Children and TV violence†, 2011). However, researcher Dr. Steve Goodman stated that â€Å"one may well discover that children who are violent watch a lot of television violence, but this does not prove that violent television causes real-life violence† (as qtd. ... In fact, one theory even claimed that watching media violence may actually help reduce aggression. According to them, youngsters who watch violent entertainment get the opportunity to explore their violent instincts without hurting anyone through these programs (Kolata, 2002). To counteract the above claims, researchers who focus on television violence claimed that T.V. is the most pervasive system for media violence. Almost 67% of the children programs in America contain violent subjects (Strasburger, 2004, 57-58). On an average, a typical American child views 28 hrs of television per week which implies that he or she has watched around 8000 murders by the time their elementary school is over at the age of 11 and worse than that, these programs show that 75% of the times the murderer escaped unpunished displaying no signs of repentance or liability. Definitely, these violent programs will make children invulnerable to violence and belligerence, though some may become terrified of li ving in such a treacherous society (APA, 2004). These facts sufficiently prove that television has a profound effect on children or teenagers in their lifetime. Moreover, the American Psychological Association have been continuously conducting research on television’s effects on viewers and in its 1993 report it had confirmed that there exists strong correlation between increased viewing of violence on television and increasing aggressive attitudes and behaviors. They added that children’s exposure to violence in the mass media, particularly at young ages, can have harmful lifelong experiences. Furthermore, the 1982 National Institute of mental health study revealed some of the major negative effects of watching violence on television:

Monday, September 23, 2019

Public International law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Public International law - Essay Example What this means is that where there are gross violations of human rights without internal structures to mitigate the suffering of victims, alternative forces have the right and duty to intervene and correct the situation. It must be understood that governments that tend towards gross violation of human rights are necessarily despotic in nature (Engelhart, 2009). This aspect of their being means that they must systematically destroy systems that are structurally opposed to their ideals of violence and philosophies of oppression and suppression. In time therefore there is left no meaningful forces within the despotic system to safeguard the rights of the citizens. The absence of a corrective mechanism means that the violations will go on as long as the oppressor lasts (Engelhart, 2009). This situation therefore warrants the intervention of foreign powers to protect, restore, and sustain human rights. Moreover in situations where some of the despotic governments refuse to be party to in ternational protocols that bind them towards the protection of human rights only external forces can move in to alleviate the suffering of the citizens. ... The relationship between governments and the international protocols on human rights can still be seen in the second dimension of member countries that still flout the codes for the preservation of the same rights they undertook to protect. There have been cases where countries which are party to the United Nations protocols turn round and start oppressing their civilians with little regard to the essence of rights, freedoms, and the sanctity of human rights. There are case studies all around the globe although parts of Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and The Middle East have featured most prominently in this disregard of human rights. Mass murder, arbitrary confinement, summary execution, and detention without trial are some of the examples that feature among the countries that renege on their legal obligations to safeguard their citizens’ rights and freedoms. This willful abuse and subjugation of the rights of individuals must be met with direct and active measure from whateve r source for the sole purpose of restoring the just order as idealized in the principles of good governance and as enshrined in legal systems, both foreign and local. Another argument for this measure should be that laws are meant to be kept and that there must be consequences attached to non-compliance. One case study of such intervention is illustrative in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces intervention of the Kosovo crisis to ease the magnitude of human suffering and the trampling of individual rights and freedoms under the authority of the then president Slobodan Milosevic. Although the magnitude of human suffering was great it can be argued that the intervention of the foreign forces

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Crime data comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Crime data comparison - Essay Example This is evident from the analysis. In every 1,877 persons there is a rape case Atlanta. In Dallas for every 2,840 people there is a rape case. For both Metropolitan areas of Atlanta and Dallas, the number of occurrences known to police varies. In Atlanta there is a total 1,704 cases reported to the police while Dallas has a total of 2,036 cases reported to the police. In essence the city of Dallas had more forcible rape of 665 as compared to Atlanta's rate of 171. The forcible rape rates for Atlanta is 171 cases while Dallas accounts to 665.In essence for 2,840 people in Atlanta there is a reported forcible rape case. In Dallas for 1,877 people there is reported forced rape case. Secondly, the stringent laws that have been enacted to curb rape cases as well as the activeness of various law enforcing agencies is another reason why there is a difference in these rape rates. Some areas might be so strict in curbing the crime while others have flexibility. Another difference is as a result of age. The number of adults or youth in an area is a factor that determines rape. An area dominated by the youth is highly vulnerable for forced rape rates as compared to an area of the old people. Finally eating habits and dressing code is also a factor

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Subsidize University Fees For Low Income Group Essay Example for Free

Subsidize University Fees For Low Income Group Essay INTRODUCTION: Globally, there is increasing demand for higher education, especially from the youth population of developing countries, as it is viewed as an important pathway for greater social mobility (Devesh, 2008). According to the World Trade Organization (WTO 2010), private returns from higher education are high for both developed and developing countries. In developing countries, the wage differential between a secondary school leaver and a university graduate is estimated to be as high as 200%. Besides the wage premium, rapidly changing technology in a globalized world is also demanding new and changing competencies that require life-long learning skills, for which mature students often have to go back to college for re-training and re-skilling. Malaysia is one of the most subsidized nations in the world. Its total subsidy of RM74 billion in 2009 is equivalent to RM12,900 per household or 4.6 per cent of GDP even higher than Indonesia (2.7 per cent) Philippines (0.2 per cent). Out of the numbers, RM 30.8 billion goes to Primary, secondary, higher education and scholarships. Higher education in Malaysia is divided into 2 sectors; public and non-public sector, there are about 20 universities and 6 university colleges (the term â€Å"university college† is used to for those tertiary level education institutions that are able to confer their own degrees but have not achieved university status). In the non-public sector there are 559 institutions of varying types including: universities and university colleges and foreign university branch campuses. The term â€Å"non-public† refers to the broad category of institutions not funded by the state. A division between private and for-profit institutions exists within this category, but is not entirely clear. Outside of these categories are polytechnics (24) and community colleges (37), which will not be dealt with this profile. The Higher Education Department within the Ministry of Education, co-ordinates and monitors the activities of public and private universities and colleges. Because of government’s large investments in higher education, issues of government involvement and university autonomy arise. Currently, students  are assigned to specific universities based on their cumulative grade point averages, faculty members are essentially civil servants with highly fixed salaries, and vice chancellors and deans are appointed by the state. Malaysian public higher education students must pay tuition and other fees and cover their living costs (though accommodations on campus are subsidized by the government). Solid financing is the backbone of a well-functioning higher education system. The decision to attend tertiary education has monetary and non-monetary variables. In Malaysia the cost of tertiary education (tuition fees) and associated living costs affect how much a cash constraint can discourage otherwise talented students from enrolling and completing higher education. Currently many kinds of subsidies exist such as government owned and operated school (public and private universities state colleges), subsidized loans, grants and scholarships. THE â€Å"PROS† TOWARDS GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY: Why does government need to intervene in the market for education? That is, doesn’t the market produce the â€Å"right† amount of education? If the market outcome is not right, what is the best way to intervene? To answer these questions, we first need to consider the basic model of education. In the economic model of education, every person in society has a certain amount of brain power, skill, knowledge, understanding, and the like. All those factors other than our â€Å"unskilled† labor allow us to produce output. We can think of all these factors as one, the composite factors which is human capital. It is very useful to think of human capital as analogous to physical capital. Durable: continues to have value over time, can decrease over time due to â€Å"depreciation† and can increase due to â€Å"investments†. Acquiring education is like making a physical investment, improves the quantity and/or quality of the human capital. The purpose is to increase productivity and that’s for sure. Hence, there are a few drawbacks if the Malaysian government didn’t subsidized university education tuition fees. Family income determines whether the student can afford the costs of the university or college. First issue related to monetary variables and non-monetary variables will lead to a drop line of a higher education access. This has made many young talents and bright students fail to enter university and are a loss to future generation. This is due to: †¢Cost benefits barrier – the barrier arises when the group decides that the cost of attending university is greater than its expected return to the education investment. †¢Cash constraints barrier – occurs when the students who have decided that the returns to education outweigh the costs still cannot put together the resources to obtain entry to universities. †¢Debt aversion barrier – arises when an individual refuses to use the funds at his or her disposal because part of the funds might be loans, which at some point will have to be repaid. †¢Parental education, race and ethnicity, gender and geographical location – all play a role in the college decision-making process. Of course there are many reasons why government should step in. Subsidy indirectly can reduce crime. Of course crime is clearly an externality in this context. The actions of others affect us and they are not negatively compensated. If we look at current situation there is an extremely strong relationship between crime and education. Well at least for three reasons: †¢Pure human capital motive – education related to income, and people with higher income have less incentive to commit crime. †¢Direct schooling effect – classes makes students smarter so realize that crime doesn’t pay at all. †¢Opportunity cost of time – students are busy at faculty so actually in other words have less time to commit crime. Escalating expenditure for public higher education has ked the government to adopt a cost-sharing system in which students and parents shoulder and increasing share of the costs. The MARA financial aid scheme was converted in January 1998 to a 100% loan scheme except for loans given out under the Excellent Student Scheme. The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) was established for the purpose of offering subsidized loans to help students meet the costs of enrolling a local higher education institution.  It is also designed to ensure that there would be loans available for Malays to afford both public and private higher education so that the targeted ethnic composition of enrolment in higher education is maintained. THE DEBATE TOWARDS GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY: When the government is in the business of handing out money, interest groups lobby to get it, or advocate receiving more than they are already getting. So, it is with spending on higher education. Over the long run, the funding for those areas has increased dramatically. Taxpayers should be skeptical of the current reasons for subsidizing universities further. There are few arguments are dubious for five main reasons stated below in regards with government subsidy related to university fees. It can be elaborate and debate as the following: There is no link between higher education subsidies and economic growth, and none between universities or college degrees and job creation. Malaysia has spent a much higher proportion of personal income on federal and state government to support for higher education. States with a higher proportion of university and college graduates do not necessarily grow by adding more college degrees. For now, the country is currently experiencing a rather worrying unemployment especially among young graduates. Excess of the graduates is unable to meet domestic open vacancy in any sector since most of them are experiencing the freezing phase of job vacancy. Thus its shows there are no linkage at all between higher education qualifications with job vacancies. Indirectly it could not keep the countrys economy. More subsidies equals to more waste. The number of academicians, staff, administrators and service staff at all 20 universities and 6 university colleges increased at a faster rate than full-time equivalent students over the same time period. At the same time, the compensation for the average employees increased too for sure. Colleges set tuition rates relative to supply and demand, but the government subsidies distort this process and inflate the cost. That’s why private universities such as Sunway International College and Lim Kok Wing University which receive no government funding, do a much better job at keeping down the cost of tuition. At the present time the federal government already spends billions of dollars subsidizing universities, whether it is money for Lecturer’s salaries, buildings, or the millions of dollars provided for research. The cost of classes and tuition picks up only small portion of the tab. Aside from that, there are many people who do not deserve or would not make the best of the education provided. Scholarships and government grants are available for people who have worked hard and earned the opportunity, but to hand it over to everyone for free are insane. When comparing earning power between college graduates and non-graduates, correlation is not causation, and the actual cost of universities or collage matters. Proponents of more funding for higher education almost always cite the same statistic as their main point: Overall, universities and college graduates tend to make more money in their lifetime than those without a degree. But this assumes that the degree caused the higher earnings, rather than the fact that those who complete college are already more likely to be financially successful whether they attend university or not. The common figure cited is that a college degree is worth MYR1 million over the lifetime of a worker. Besides ignoring the point above, this is a poor exercise in statistics. The number is arrived at by taking the difference between the average pay of a university and college graduate and the average pay of a non-universities and college graduate and multiplying it over a 40-year career. First, that only tells us what the average is today, not what the actual future earnings are. Second, this assumes that all universities and college degrees have the same value. For example, it assumes that a Bachelor of Arts in art history is the same as a Bachelor of Science in quantum physics. Most significantly, it ignores many important factors: taxes, the real salary data of today’s graduates, the opportunity cost of going to college (how much someone would earn during those years in school), the fact that large proportions of student’s starts school and do not finish, and, most  importantly, student loan debt. Keep in mind that government may be funding someone’s desire to paint or be involved in the arts which do not advance society enough to justify the cost. Perhaps if everyone were taking physics, biology, or computer sciences in order to contribute in a meaningful way post grad it would be a different story. Also the amount of people in college is at the highest it’s ever been. In fact a BA or BS degree is essentially required now for low level jobs and a Masters or Doctorate is needed to advance up the ladder. Ensuring that everyone has university or college schooling would not enhance the labor market – it would dilute a university degree. The assumption among many is that every career should require a higher education. This belief leads to subsidies for subjects with little practicality in the workforce and areas where a student may be better off doing an apprenticeship or working for four years than attending more school. Pushing for everyone to go to universities or college does not automatically make those students university-ready; it lowers the overall standards of higher education. This has led to a high dropout rate, more repeated classes for those in school and an explosion of marginal subjects in which many degree-holders are forced to work outside that field because of a lack of demand. In short, incentivizing degrees students do not ever use. Higher education may be the next bubble to burst. Much like the housing bubble, higher education is fueled by government subsidies, publicly-backed loans and incentives that say everyone should be doing something. Lately tuition costs have risen steeply well above inflation while colleges compete to expand into areas outside of their main purpose and taking on more debt to do so. At the same time, competition from other sectors, like online education, offer cheaper alternatives to the bread-and-butter of university academia. It is important for citizens to be educated, both to learn a job and to better be able to respond to a changing marketplace. But there is a difference between education and schooling. Spending more money to send  people to get a specific number of degrees at a specific institution is different from education. Education comes in the form of apprenticeships, trade schools and time on the job learning. And education is something you can’t force on someone else. Just putting someone in college does make force them to learn anything. Education is a personal matter, and more subsidies will only influence a persons decision to learn or not to learn at the barest of margins. Higher education can build new skills, enhance old ones and show prospective employers that students are able to put in the time to earn a degree. But the value of a degree varies — by the institution, the cost, the time and the subject. From an individual’s perspective, private universities and colleges may be worth the cost. But for a growing number, it’s not. And government subsidies, where political incentives trump market realities, only worsen that problem CONCLUSION: Education issues remain an important priority in developing countries. Because resources are limited and ensuring adequate allocation is a struggle for many countries including Malaysia itself. The delivery of educational services has become a challenge. Malaysia, like other countries in Southeast Asia, faces similar challenges in ensuring the allocation of appropriate funding for efficient and equitable educational services in order to promote access to quality education for all social groups. While Malaysia faces many challenges amid rapid global chances, we can draw on a number of strengths and unique advantages as we take purposeful policy actions to move forward. Education is not preparation for life; education is a life by itself. From the job market to tertiary education, from UPSR to A-Levels, Education in Malaysia focuses on bringing us the latest news and analysis on our nation’s best bet on the future. The future earnings of the individual typically constitute an adequate return on the gross investment in obtaining higher education. Moreover, providing  subsidy university and college education to all is a rather inefficient way to serve the interest of poor students since a large proportion of students who acquire higher education come from relatively well-off families. Raising demand for higher education and the need to produce a critical mass of highly educated and skilled workers for a knowledge economy has led to the massification of Malaysian higher education. However, escalating higher public education expenditure led the government to adopt a cost sharing system where students and parents shoulder and increasing share of the cost for acquiring a higher education.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Study of neuromarketing analysis

Study of neuromarketing analysis After having read a substantial amount of the current literature on the fascinating science of Neuromarketing, I find it hard to believe that it took so long for marketing and science to find together to create an academic field of its own right. The works of the human brain and psychology have always been a passion of mine; but my initial professional career took me deeply into the fields of marketing. In fact, I implemented marketing strategies for two of the most controversial industries today: the cigarette and the pharmaceutical industry. Although in both cases, we used the most advanced instruments of modern marketing, I was always curious if there would not be a way to market a product more scientifically than we did at that time and that was despite the fact that all companies I worked for were major global players in their respective field. So when I stumbled upon Neuromarketing in the scope of this Masters degree, I was immediately intrigued by it. Neuromarketing promises to give answers to some of the most important questions of marketing, namely why do we buy things, and what does it do to our brain? I would like to express my gratitude to Malaika Brengman who enabled to seize this unique opportunity to write this thesis. Furthermore, I would thank my mother Ayse Sayin, who kindly shared her extensive knowledge about scientific problems and supported me throughout the complete working process of this paper. Finally, I would like to thank my partner Max Obenaus, who deeply shared my interest in the subject, and whose relentless effort and stimulating discussions has enabled me to write this paper. Brussels, May 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Neuromarketing, bridging marketing and neuroscience, is a rapidly growing area of research, which introduces a scientific layer to the academic field, and hence creates some high expectations on the one hand, and a lot of critique on the other. The vast amount of data retrieved through neuroscientific analysis promises to provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour, and raises the hope that the marketing strategies of the future will be more efficient and better targeted to the consumer. In fact, the controversy around the mythical buy button shows that the scope and limitations of the scientific field of neuromarketing are not yet properly defined. The horror scenario of complete corporate control of consumer behaviour often stands in the way of a proper analysis of the risks and potentials of neuromarketing; at the same time it seems that a fundamental distinction has to be made between an academic and a corporate approach to neuromarketing. In both cases the willingness to advance the science of neuromarketing should be immense. For corporations, obviously, the prospect of exerting vast scientific control over consumer behaviour is most attractive. For the academic world, it will be a challenge on many different levels. First, it is about exploring the scientific limits of consumer analysis, taking into account the subconscious forces that are at play when a purchase is made. Secondly, and more importantly, the development of neuromarketing raises fundamental moral questions. Freedom of choice, free market and ethics need to be addressed, leading to the formulation of neuroethics. Following this, a legal framework for neuromarketing needs to be defined, which decides whether or not individual consumer rights need protection via a newly defined private sphere, or if we even trust enough the dynamics of the free market to sufficiently self-regulate these moral and legal grey areas. A literature review in this field will give an idea on the studies in this nascent science that is claiming worldwide recognition and possible areas for further research. 2. DEFINITIONS 2.1. Neuromarketing This interest in neurosciences has eventually caught the attention of both businesses and academia that are involved in a subset of economics, i.e. marketing. Being able to understand how the brain processes information and reacts to marketing stimuli, to eventually come up with purchasing decisions would provide a huge leap in marketing science as well as leading to huge profits through triggering the desired consumer responses. In other words, it would be the discovery of the well publicized buy button (Wells, 2003). As a result, marketing has also started to benefit from neurosciences. The resulting multidisciplinary science is termed as neuromarketing or consumer neuroscience. Neuromarketing is broadly defined as a sub-area of neuroeconomics that addresses marketing relevant problems with methods and insights from brain research (Fugate, 2007; Lee et al., 2007). Neurosciences could provide inputs to marketing in different areas such as providing a deeper insight of consumer behaviour and decision making processes, better understanding of advertising, a clearer make-up of branding, an analysis of the market and eventually politics which benefits from all of the above. The first use of fMRI as a marketing tool was reported by Gerry Zaltman of Harvard towards the end of the 1990s (Addison, 2005). However, the term Neuromarketing was only coined by Professor Ale Smidts in 2002, and it was not until 2004 that the first ever Neuromarketing conference was held at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (Dawis,L. 2005). The tools and methods used for neuromarketing analysis are rapidly developing, enabling better visualization of the subconscious customer responses. Fugate indicates that the use of neuromarketing, if proven through use, has the capability of fundamentally changing how we design, promote, price, and package our products (Fugate, 2007) Consequently, neuromarketing is fast becoming mainstream, widening its applications within marketing. In fact, the increasing popularity of neuromarketing could be traced from Google, where the search for the specific word shows a phenomenal progression from just a few hits in 2002 to thousands in 2010 (Morin, 2011). 2.2. Neuroeconomics Traditional economics considers human beings as rational and unemotional beings that have stable, well-defined preferences that can make rational choices with those preferences (Camerer Thaler 1995, 209). However, the reality hardly matches this classic theory of economic modelling. The decision-making processes are highly influenced by numerous past experiences, emotions and subconscious processes, which alter significantly the expected behaviours. Kenning points out that These anomalies were not proven to have been included into the earlier theories of traditional economics which was based on rational behaviour. (Kenning Plassmann 2005, 343; Schmidt 2008, 8-9.) The developments in neurosciences in recent decades, enabling researchers to determine the physiological and neurological responses have led other disciplines to utilize the methodologies and findings in neurosciences to verify the assumptions in their own fields. Thus, the application of neurosciences to verify the assumptions of economics has led to neuroeconomics. Braeutigam defines neuroeconomics as a new and highly interdisciplinary field, drawing from theories and methodologies employed in both economics and neuroscience, aiming at understanding the neural systems supporting and affecting economically relevant behaviour (Braeutigam, 2005). Consequently, neuroeconomics uses brain research methods to understand and explain economic phenomena, as well as facilitating and promoting the integration of neurological findings into economic sciences. Sanfey points out that Although both economists and neurologists attempt to understand and predict human behaviour, they have used quite different methods in the past. Whereas economic research has tried to explain behaviour through observational data and theoretical constructs such as utility or preferences, neurology contemplates the physiological elements and somatic variables that influence behaviour. Neuroeconomics, which evolved from the combination of both disciplines, proposes an interdisciplinary approach and specifically examines the neural correlates of decision-making (Sanfey et al., 2006). 2.3 The Conscious vs. the Subconscious The importance of neuromarketing lies in the dual nature of perception processes, i.e., conscious and subconscious. We know why we take certain purchasing decisions but not the others. In fact the majority of our actions fall under the latter category. Hausel (2007) and Szymkowiak (2011) indicate two different types of brain activity which could lead to this. The conscious mind can process 40 bits per second, whereas the subconscious mechanism is much faster, processing up to billions of bits per second. Furthermore it is always at work. As a result, everything that cannot be processed by the conscious falls into the realm of the unconscious, which functions as an autopilot that takes over when the conscious cannot process any more. In fact, consciousness is closely connected to focusing attention. In that sense, what we perceive attentively for example when we listen forms the conscious perception, whereas the background noise of all types are recorded in the subconscious. A similar situation is valid for visual perception. Usually the peripheral vision constitutes the realm of the subconscious while the conscious records what we look at attentively. 2.4. Subliminal Messaging Subliminal is derived from the Latin words sub (below) and limen (threshold), referring to the perception below the threshold of human consciousness. The presentation of audile or visual images at a speed or form that cannot be identified by the target person would be perceived by the individual, though not consciously. These subconscious perceptions, whether it is audible or visual, make it possible to influence that individuals decision-making processes, without that person being aware of this activity. An expected consequence would be the possibility to persuade that individual to purchase goods or services, which he/she would not be making otherwise. Although the practice of subliminal messaging was identified at the end of nineteenth century, the widespread recognition was in 1957, when market researcher James Vicary, using the term subliminal advertising for the first time, set up his Subliminal Projection Company and made his well known pop corn/coke advertisement during a Kim Novak film shown in New Jersey. He claimed that by quickly flashing the words Drink Coca Cola and Hungry? Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second, at five-second intervals on the movie screen during every presentation of this film, he had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks, selling 57.8% more Coca Cola and 18.1% more popcorn. Vance Packards book, Hidden Persuaders, published the following year included this experiment and had wide repercussions. Although Vicary admitted later on that he had lied about the experiment, there were widespread sentiments against the practice. Life treated subliminal advertising as fact and discussed its potential not only in selling but also in gaining support for anti-litter campaigns and even promoting political candidates while The Saturday Review, addressed his readers: Welcome to 1984. (OBarr,2005) The widespread belief that subliminal messaging could lead to brainwashing led to subsequent banning of subliminal advertising in various countries. The publishing of the book Subliminal Seduction by Dr. Wilson B. Key in 1973, marked another outrage against subliminal advertisement, leading to limitation of broadcasting with subliminal techniques. (Lindstrom,2003) The use of subliminal messaging had also been used in politics, the most famous being the TV Ad for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. It showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word BUREAUCRATS flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, RATSà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦((OBarr,2005). Music played in shops sometimes have embedded messages to spend more or discourage theft, leading to a decrease in thefts and increase in sales, which the consumer is unaware but is effective (Lindstrom, 2003) Subliminal messages could also be utilizing the associations and judgments of the consumer, fulfilling the subconscious sensory expectations from a product or service. Lindstrom argues that different aromas pumped into casinos, airplane cabins, hotel rooms, and just off the assembly line cars could be considered subliminal messaging as the leathery smell of a new car comes out of an aerosol can (Lindstrom, 2003). 2.5. The Senses Everybody perceives the surrounding world through 5 senses, that is: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Perception involves the reception through our sensory organs and the processing by the brain. However the perception depends not only on the external stimuli, but also on the genetic set up and residues of the previous experiences of the individual, formed by learning and memory. 2.5.1. Seeing The eyes are the visual information receptors. The impulse goes through the cornea and is projected on the retina, which is composed of a layer of millions of photoreceptors that are specialized neurons transforming the light inputs into electrochemical signals, codified in the brain. Out of the two types of photoreceptors, the rods sense motion, especially in dim light or dark, predominantly in the peripheral vision, while the cones work under intense light and are responsible for sharp details. The cones are most densely packed in the centre of the retina known as the yellow spot, producing the sharpest images. (Zurawicki, 2009) The saccadic movements of the eye enables sensing parts of a scene with greater resolution, helping build up a mental map of the scene while another eye movement, the involuntary micro saccades refreshes this image. The visual attention is focused at the upcoming target locations, shifting the activations in saccade and attention areas of the brain, some hundredth milliseconds before an eye movement, (Rolfs, Jonikaitis, Deubel Cavanagh, 2011). The saccades and micro saccades are considered to be important indicators for studying the observers specific point of interest and attention focus (Zurawicki 2009, Laubrock et al.2007) recorded with the use of eye tracking camera like electronic devices. However there are also claims doubting the validity of the use of micro saccade movements in this field Horowitz et al, 2007) Each eye directs visual signals through a million of fibres in the optical nerve to the optic chiasm, where they are integrated. After passing from the optic chiasm, the optical tracts end in thalamus, which subsequently relays them to the upper layers of the cortex. The information from the two eyes are still separate in the thalamus and get integrated in the cortex where the binocular vision is created (Zurawicki 2009). The cortex sends the re-processed signals back to the thalamus. Zurawicki states that Visual cortex is divided into 6 different areas each performing a distinct function and specializing respectively in various sub modalities of visual perception, that is: exploratory and general pattern recognition, stereoscopic vision, depth and distance, colour, complex movement, and determination of the absolute position of the object as opposed to the relative one. (Zurawicki 2009) The frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital cortex, thalamic nuclei, the claustrum, the caudate, the lentiform nucleus and the culmen, declive and vernis in the cerebellum are activated during visual perception and visual mental imagery (Ganis et.al.2004) The brain uses previously stored data from the memory, to provide meaning to what is being transmitted. The brain also has the capacity to make up for missing images, referred to as blind vision (Zurawicki 2009). 2.5.2. Hearing The sounds funnel into the ear, reaching the eardrum, which is a membrane which vibrates at different speeds, that is, the more acute the sound, the faster it vibrates. Small bones of the middle ear (the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup) amplify the signal from the membrane and transmit it to the inner ear. The coiled part of the inner ear the cochlea is equipped with approximately 16 000 hair cells, which detect each sound frequency separately and in response to it move at a certain rhythm. This activates up to 30 000 of neurons of the auditory nerve pathways which carry the sound information via the thalamus to the temporal gyrus: the part of the cerebral cortex involved in receiving and perceiving sound. Our audiary system processes all the perceived signals in the same manner until they arrive at the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. Here when speech is differentiated from other sounds, neuronal signal is directed to the left hemisphere where the language is proce ssed. (Zurawicki 2009). Audiary neurons are specialized, some responding to high frequencies and others low. Furthermore there are some which marks the beginning and others the end of a sound. Although some process of sound focalisation take place in the ears, sound recognition through specific harmonics of the sound is performed in the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. 2.5.3. Smelling AKÃ…Å ¾AMA YAZCEM Ä °NÃ…Å ¾ALLAH!!! 2.5.4. Tasting BUNU DA!!!! 2.5.5. Touching BUNU DA!!!! 2.6. The Brain The brain is the central processing centre for all the motor and sensory information coming from different parts of the body. The stimuli received that are processed and distributed from the brain leads to different thoughts, as well as muscular and behavioural patterns. The processing of incoming information is carried out in different parts of the brain, that is to say there is a distinct functional differentiation within the brain. However, in spite of this functional differentiation, it is important to keep in mind that the brain is an extremely complex structure with strong inter-linkages among its billions of nerve cells (neurons) that take place within the brain, and that the brain functions as a whole. In order to get a better insight into the functional neuroanatomy of the brain, it may be useful to analyse the parts of the brain the functions of which have been more or less identified. The brain is covered with an outer layer called Cerebral Cortex. Neocortex, often referred to as grey matter takes place on the outer part of the cerebral cortex, while amygdala, cingulated cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia takes place in the grey pockets located within the white matter underneath. The brain is subdivided into four lobes, and two hemispheres with the deep folds. These four lobes have different functions: The frontal lobe, located under the forehead is where organising/planning, short term memory, judgement and controlling behaviour take place. Temporal lobe, which is under the ears and temples are related to understanding what we hear, speaking and memory he. visual memory is processed. BUNUN DEVAMI GELCEK!!! 2.7. Neuroimaging 2.7.1. Psychophysiological Measurement Techniques Facial expression, heart rate and skin conductance are the most relevant methods of autonomic measurement used in advertisement research. Emotional reactions to advertisement are measured by facial electromyography, which registers facial muscle activity. In facial EMG, electrodes that register muscle contractions are placed on the corrugator and zygomatic muscles. The corrugator muscle is located above the nose close to the eyebrow and contractions in this muscle are involved while frowning. The zygomatic muscle is situated around the cheeks and controls smiling (Poels and Dewitte,2006). The research of Hazlett and Hazlett has shown that facial EMG is a more sensitive indicator of emotional reactions to TV commercials and that the facial EMG responses were closely related to emotion congruent events during the commercial( Hazlett and Hazlett,1999). However, facial EMG has the drawback of being conducted in unnatural lab settings and making the subject self conscious. Skin conductance (SC) or electrodermal activity gives an indication of the electrical conductance of the skin related to the level of sweat in the eccrine sweat glands, which are involved in emotion invoked sweating (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). Either very pleasurable or very repellent advertising stimuli evoke large SC responses. However there are considerable personal variations and factors such as fatigue, medication etc can influence SC responses (Hopkins and Fletcher, 1994). The beating speed of our heart can provide clues as to attention and arousal related to commercials as well as an indication of valance of emotional response (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). In general, positive stimuli lead to an increase in the heart rate, while the negative stimuli does the opposite. Poels and Dewitte advise not to use heart rate as the single measurement method of emotional response (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). As the heartbeat is measured from the finger, it is quite convenient for the subject and is generally considered to be an easy and cheap way to measure reactions evoked by advertising (Lang, 1994). 2.7.2. Brain imagery How brain reacts to different types of stimuli is recorded through brain imagery. The major advantage of brain imagery is its objectivity, leaving out the possible response biases. Motte defines Brain imaging as a term that encompasses a set of techniques that allows for visualization of the regions of the brain that are activated in response to a certain stimulus, and Brain imaging systems as a set of techniques that allow visualizing the regions of the brain that are activated when (emotional) stimuli are presented(Motte, 2009). There are different methods for measuring and mapping brain activities related to neuromarketing. Lewis in his 2005 article refers to three brain-imaging techniques being used in Neuromarketing as fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging), QEEG (Quantitative electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) and considers fMRI as the one which has captured the greatest interest of the market researchers among these and has enjoyed the widest publicity (Lewis, D.2005). Morin in his recent article cites electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as the only three well established non-invasive methods for measuring and mapping brain activity (Morin, 2011) EEG, in spite of its being a rather old technology in neurology, is still considered to be a good way to measure brain activity, as it is significantly less costly. Motte points out that although the price of high quality, research-purposed EEG systems can range from $10,000 to $100,000, cheaper EEG systems exist that can cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars (Motte,2009) To see how EEG works, it should be kept in mind that our neural circuitry consists of over 100 billion neurons and trillions of synaptic connections. When faced with a particular stimulus, these neurons fire, producing tiny electrical currents. The brainwaves, which are the differing patterns of frequencies of these electrical currents that correspond to different states of arousal, are recorded at very short time intervals, reaching up to 10,000 times per second in some of the new EEG bands, an important characteristic when attempting to evaluate the incoming high speed information coming through our senses. However, EEG, which has become very popular among neuromarketing agencies in the last 5 years as it is considered to be helpful in assessing the value of a piece of advertising at a relatively low cost is considered by some cognitive scientists as being weak, if not dubious for the purpose of understanding and predicting the effects of advertising. (Morin, 2011) QEEG, is another brain imaging technology, which is used for neuromarketing purposes. David Lewis and Darren Bridger from Neuroco, a Neuromarketing research consultancy, have used QEEG analysing the responses of viewers to television commercials and other forms of advertising, exploring the effects of looking at happy or sad facial expressions (Lewis, D.2005) They claim that although the spatial resolution of QEEG is poor, it is capable of producing a continuous recording of the ongoing neuronal activity. The benefits of QEEG, is backed by more than 2,500 research papers published in peer reviewed journals (Rothschild M et al.,1986, Rothschild M and Hyun YJ. 1990, Smith ME and Gevins A,2004) MEG is yet another non-invasive neuro-physiological technique that measures the magnetic fields generated by neuronal activity of the brain. It measures the integrated magnetic signals emitted by activated neurons (Motte, 2011). The spatial resolution of MEG is usually superior to EEG as the magnetic signals it operates on are not as easily disturbed by the skull or brain tissues, as the electrical signals processed by EEG. MEG has been used for neuromarketing purposes, although to a far lesser extent. (Lewis, D.2005) A MEG system was used in the study of Braeutigam et al., where the team investigated real-life product choice in a retail store. (Braeutigam et al., 2001) In one study MEG was used to measure decision making among consumers in a virtual supermarket. The authors reported that the right parietal cortex became active only when faced with a preferred brand and concluded that this region was involved in making conscious decisions about shopping choices, and, perhaps, for more important life choices too. (Brautigam S et al.,2001) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines are powerful magnets that can provide an accurate internal image of the human body. The MRIs are used primarily in the functional imaging mode (fMRI), in order to monitor the miniscule blood flow changes that correspond to increased activity levels within the human brain. Visualization of the brains activity and structure is enabled by the iron content of the haemoglobin molecules within the red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain. The increased use of oxygen of the nerve cells during excessive activity of these nerve cells, and the change in the magnetic properties of haemoglobin after it delivers oxygen to the nerve cells in the brain makes it possible to follow the signals that point out to activations in the brain. The major benefit of fMRI is that it can pinpoint these activations with millimetric precision. Many consider fMRI the best technological innovation ever developed to conduct clinical and experimental research on the brain (Morin, 2011)   The first use of fMRI as a marketing tool was reported by Gerry Zaltman of Harvard towards the end of the 1990s (Addison T.,2005). fMRI permits matching a specific product experience to the regions involved in pleasure and emotions in the brain. (Motte,2009) The studies using fMRI can be very costly as the price of these machines ranges between 1 and 3 million dollars. While a moving-image fMRI machine (acquisition cost: $2.5 million) is rented for $1,000 an hour at Emory University in Atlanta; A single experiment, which includes at least 12 participants, can cost $50,000 (Wells, 2003). When these three technologies are compared as to their applicability in neuromarketing, QEEG is mostly preferred as technology of choice in due to its being less expensive, simpler to use, and enables the recordings to be made in a wide range of natural environments. NERDEN BULDUM BUNU BEN:))BULAMAZSAM GÄ °DER!!! 2.8. Memory and Learning 2.8.1. Memory Magnetic resonance imaging 2.8.2. Learning 3. CRITIQUE AND MORAL IMPLICATIONS Martin Lindstrom, one of the most prominent supporters of neuromarketing, makes a convincing argument against neuromarketings potential to endow powerful corporations with something like a buy button to control our consumer behaviour. After all, it is nothing but a scientific tool that has to be put to right use, and it is the responsibility of whoever launches a neuroscientific study to take into account the appropriate neuroethical ground rules, , which have been discussed in the previous chapter. Ä °YÄ ° DURUYO DA NERDE DEMÄ °Ãƒâ€¦Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ °Z TAM OLARAK -NEUROETHICS 3.1. Academic vs. Non-Academic Research Neuroscientific research is a cost-intensive undertaking: a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner alone is worth $4 million (Lindstrom, 2008, p. 8). This is where the controversy starts whose interest is behind a given multi-million neuromarketing study? The answer is simple, and it divides the field into two basic categories: academic and non-academic neuromarketing. In case of the latter, it is safe to assume that whether we are talking about a large-scale corporation or a political party, a powerful interest is behind the funding of a project, looking for a concrete result that justifies the large sum of investment. Academic studies, on the other hand, can probably be trusted to be more neutral in this respect. 3.2. The Buy Button-Myth Neuromarketing is by default a hybrid of corporate and academic culture and as such is doomed to experience much more intercultural turmoil than other sciences. Indeed it seems that in its young history, there has already been a vibrant exchange of critique among the fractions involved. The common media image of neuromarketing as the science in search of the buy button in our brain does not find much support on either side. German psychologist Frank Szymkowiak points out that neuromarketing, like other cognitive sciences, simply analyses the reactions of the human brain to cognitive stimuli. This, in his view, may lead to a more diversified and consumer-targeted use of marketing rather than it constitutes a threat to becoming to tool of omnipotence on behalf of the advertising agent (Szymkowiak, 2010, Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, p. 83). 3.3. A Shallow Science? Szymkowiaks, however, does have a critical view on neuromarketing, and it is far more detrimental than the buy button-allegation. For him, neuromarketing is shallow by nature and inaccurate in its analysis of scientific testing. When confronted with subconscious phenomena, neuromarketing indulges in some kind of catalogisation, counting bits of neurotransmission rather than looking for a qualified causal context. It recognises subconscious brain activity lacks the capacity to account for it. In this respect it is inferior to more substantial sciences such as depth psychology which, building upon the foundations laid by its founding father Sigmund Freud, is able to generate an explanation for subconscious behaviour by accounting for underlying motives of the human psyche (Szymkowiak, 2010, Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, p. 84). This lack of depth is due to a simplistic definition of the subconscious that neuro-marketeers. Here, the totality of the human brain activity is, just like computers, is captures in bits, and only 40 out of 11mio bits are actually processed by the rational part of the brain. The rest falls under the category of subconscious without any further explanation. Depth psychology, on the other hand, is said to delve deeply into the spheres of the subconsci

Thursday, September 19, 2019

No Child Left Behind is Beneficial Essay -- Education, Politics

Political Influences that Helped to Determine the NCLB Act The publication in 1983 of A Nation at Risk Report, flung education into the political ring as the Reagan Administration reasoned the state of education to be a national security risk (Reutzel, 2009). This report caused the public and politicians to start to examine education and the state of reading readiness of the kids of the United States (Reutzel, 2009). By 1994, President Bill Clinton started the course of rallying the National Governor’s Convention with legislation entitled Goals 2000: Educate America Act. This act was the start of countrywide testing in reading and math to demonstrate responsibility for public education. At the same time, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) was put out by a congressionally funded testing service, showing that reading scores amid the nation’s fourth graders was going down (Reutzel, 2009). And consequently began the downfall of literacy education without political influence The next ten years would see prosperity of data funded both publicly and privately, showing the collapse of a nation and the social difficulties that would result if education was left to educators and the educational system. Federal funding would be given to schools of poverty or underachieving schools. Research standards comparable to those utilized by other professional fields like engineering and medicine would be used to decide on the reformation of literacy education (Reutzel, 2009). Literacy reform now became the rallying call of the U.S. Congress. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964 was revised in the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2002. This legislation relied heavily on the scientific reading research th... ...ely disadvantaged and racial minorities. There is experimental evidence that shows that these philosophies are indeed effective (Ravitch and Chubb, 2009). There appears to be good and bad things in regards to No Child Left Behind. There is a quantity of evidence that the basic concept is working but there are many that question the implementation of the policy in achieving maximum effectiveness. The Obama administration has put out a plan that will hopefully close some of the gaps that currently exist in the implementation of this policy. What the program is trying to achieve is a good thing, there just needs to be some tweaking done in order to ensure successes in the end. Children are not necessarily learning what they need to but measuring their learning accomplishments solely by testing are not the most effective measure of accomplishment that there is. No Child Left Behind is Beneficial Essay -- Education, Politics Political Influences that Helped to Determine the NCLB Act The publication in 1983 of A Nation at Risk Report, flung education into the political ring as the Reagan Administration reasoned the state of education to be a national security risk (Reutzel, 2009). This report caused the public and politicians to start to examine education and the state of reading readiness of the kids of the United States (Reutzel, 2009). By 1994, President Bill Clinton started the course of rallying the National Governor’s Convention with legislation entitled Goals 2000: Educate America Act. This act was the start of countrywide testing in reading and math to demonstrate responsibility for public education. At the same time, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) was put out by a congressionally funded testing service, showing that reading scores amid the nation’s fourth graders was going down (Reutzel, 2009). And consequently began the downfall of literacy education without political influence The next ten years would see prosperity of data funded both publicly and privately, showing the collapse of a nation and the social difficulties that would result if education was left to educators and the educational system. Federal funding would be given to schools of poverty or underachieving schools. Research standards comparable to those utilized by other professional fields like engineering and medicine would be used to decide on the reformation of literacy education (Reutzel, 2009). Literacy reform now became the rallying call of the U.S. Congress. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964 was revised in the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2002. This legislation relied heavily on the scientific reading research th... ...ely disadvantaged and racial minorities. There is experimental evidence that shows that these philosophies are indeed effective (Ravitch and Chubb, 2009). There appears to be good and bad things in regards to No Child Left Behind. There is a quantity of evidence that the basic concept is working but there are many that question the implementation of the policy in achieving maximum effectiveness. The Obama administration has put out a plan that will hopefully close some of the gaps that currently exist in the implementation of this policy. What the program is trying to achieve is a good thing, there just needs to be some tweaking done in order to ensure successes in the end. Children are not necessarily learning what they need to but measuring their learning accomplishments solely by testing are not the most effective measure of accomplishment that there is.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Wife of His Youth Essay -- Charles Chestnutt The Wife of His Youth

The Wife of His Youth In Charles Chestnutt’s â€Å"The Wife of His Youth,† Liza Jane is a woman who is determined to find her long lost husband, Sam Taylor. When he ran away from slavery and escaped up north, he left his wife behind. He changed his name to Mr. Ryder, to forget his past with slavery. Soon he became involved with a group called the Blue Veins, which were a group of people who believed in the preservation of light skinned blacks. In this group he was known as the dean. The Blue Vein society thought that dark skinned blacks were dirt and ignorant. Many years went by and Liza still felt that Sam was in love with her and that they would be back together. Liza was determined to find Sam. She searched for twenty-five years first going to many southern cities. Everywhere she wen...

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

My Teacher is my Muse Essay -- narrative, descriptive

So I took the class because there was nothing else offered that semester that seemed even remotely interesting. My choices were slim. I mean it was Advanced Latin for Geeks, Bowling for Advanced Dorks, or this: The Creative Self. Even though I had always looked upon poetry as a non-serious art, a flaky girly thing to do, I had done my fair share of writing, mostly put into teenage angst ridden song lyrics, but still, how different could this be--I could probably just use my old songs and hand them in as new poetry. It was senior year in High School, and frankly, I was sick of being part of this innovative new humanities based school where everyone was almost too bright for me. I just wanted at least on easy class, and this sounded like the key to a class where I wouldn’t have to think too much. Instead, it turned me into one of those creative writing whores I had always made fun of. It was solely her doing, Ms. R, the orange headed teacher that became my mentor, my muse, my su bject. From the second she walked in, she began to inspire me. She shuffled with her papers in a way that made us all wonder whether it was pure disorganization or classical genius. Her hair aflame spirals of pure citrus fruit, her long flowery skirt welcoming every bored teen aged eye; she woke me up. The woman woke me up from the longest sleep I had ever had. R, R, Ms. R. I remember her icy blue eyes and how she almost flew up at times when she got really excited about some poem or character sketch. She walked in and immediately asked us what we thought about poetry, about fiction, about the world, about ourselves, about love and sex and how we wanted to express that to the world. And so for a first assignment, she asked us to write about something we lo... ...ld not write. And this has been the case since high school. When I have an stimulating teacher, one who praises me, who lets me be open, I excel. When I not taking writing classes, my writing is poor, stagnant, void of any originality. And let’s take this past year while I was working on Wall Street (can you say the coldest place on earth when it comes to the arts or even real human compassion, let alone inspiration?)--I wrote about 3 pages all year, all consisting of complete crap. But this past week alone, first week of grad classes, I’ve written more, and maybe not better yet, but at least more, than I have this entire past year. Now does this make me a dependent writer. A writer that cannot function without a muse? That will be my next exploration..... Can I survive as a writer without a Ms. R by my side, breathing literary genius into my otherwise ordinary words?

How the Evolution of Mobile Phone Affect People Communicate

How the evolution of mobile phone change the way people communicate? Previously, people used to communicate with some of the earliest forms of communication devices included smoke signal, morse code, and pigeons. With all these communication devices, messages probably need weeks or months to reaching its destination. With the invention of mobile phone, all you have to do these days is send a text or make a call and your message will reach its destination within minutes. THE EVOLUTION OF MOBILE PHONE Nowadays, mobile phone is no longer a want but is a need.Everyone including people from teenagers to old people has a personal cell phone of their own on their hands. You couldn’t imagine how a mobile phone looks like in the past; it is totally different from now. Improved technology has made a great change in the history of mobile phones, transforming the huge mobile phones into sleek and stylish smartphones we carry with us now. Let’s take a look at how mobile phones devel oped from the bulky walkie-talkie look to today’s swipe-savvy descendants. Previously, a mobile phone use to be like this. The design is huge and with a long antenna.A few years later, mobile phones became a little more defined and better looking than how they were before. Antennas were shortened and the designs modified. Only text messaging service and voice call service are included in the function of mobile phone. Besides making a call and texting a message, there is nothing else a mobile phone can do. In 2000, the world’s first touchscreen phone has been invented. More and more advanced technology was included in this world’s first touch screen phone. Besides than making a call and text a message, user can also get entertained from the phone.There are some simple games included in the phone and a lot of simple applications such as a calendar and a calculator. The image shows a Motorola phone which has a simple black and white touchscreen. Next,  technology has undergone a big change in history of mobile phones, putting a colour display and integrating camera to mobile phones, producing the mobile phone with a basic camera. Users can take pictures on the spot when needed with the phone and they need not to carry a digital camera with them wherever they go. Sooner, mobile phones are no longer limited to single screen.This model has a small screen on the outside to notify calls and text messages coming in, and a big screen on the inner for the user to type messages and carry out other functions of the phone. There are some mobile phones built for delivering great music. A button for music playback and memory support has made the gadget become a great gadget for enjoying music anytime and anywhere. Now, is the time to talk about the most popular phone used by many of us nowadays. There are many company compete in producing smartphones such as Samsung, Apple, Blackberry and so on.All this advanced touchscreen smartphone are operated by iO S or android, enabling a lot of apps to run on the smartphone. Apps are available in many categories such as games, book, business, communication, education, travel, music and so on. This has make smartphone become a multifunctional device that you must carry with you all the time. You can contact to each other as easy as ABC Evolution of mobile phone has changed our communication easier. With the basic function of making a voice call and text messaging service, we can keep in touch with our loved ones.Look at the past, we communicate with each other by letter, and it takes long time to receive. For example, if your loved one had moved to a country far from you to pursue his or her study, and both of you only can communicate with each other by letters. It took a few weeks for a letter to reach to your loved one and a few weeks later for the letter to reach back to you again. This is a waste of time and money. The cost of sending a letter overseas is quite expensive if you regularly contact with each other by letter.But now we have mobile phones, we can connect to each other in a second. By just a click on the tip of your hand, you can have a voice call or a text message to your loved one. It is easy and cost effective. In recent years, mobile phones have become a basic part of life as the number of users of mobile phones has increased. Also, mobile phones are cheap to purchase. There are many reasons why people support and use mobile phones. Millions of other people also support for similar reasons. For example, many people around the world like to use the mobile phone for social networking.There are a lot of social networking websites available on mobile phone nowadays. Some of the examples are Facebook, Twitter, Skype. With smartphone operated by android system, users can even have multiple social networking applications such as Viber, Whatsapp, Line and many others. If there is a need to talk to friends or families, you can do it from anyplace and at any ti me. Some of it can also find the friends that had already lost contact and keep in touch again. Besides, you can also take pictures of where you are or what you are doing and post this information to your mobile phone.You can update photos or videos and show your friends and family what you are doing. This ensured the relationship between you and your friend and between you and your family will be maintained with the power of mobile phone. Mobile phone has change our language Have you ever noticed how the usage of mobile phone has changed our language? On Facebook you â€Å"like† things. Like is a great word but now it is used for much more. And you also â€Å"comment† on things. All these words may be familiar to us in our life but now when you hear these words you will automatically think of Facebook.In our daily conversation, we may also use â€Å"like† to express that we agree on something. For example, when your friend said something that you think is very true, you will say: I wish to give you a â€Å"like†. This shows that how a simple word has a different meaning when we expose to mobile phone frequently. We also use letters for phrases rather than typing the whole thing out. Many people have been using abbreviations when texting with other people such as LOL, BRB, ASAP, OMG and so on. For individuals who are unfamiliar with these abbreviations, the message will become unclear.Table 1 : Some of the common shortcut used Shortcut| Original Phrases| BRB| Be right back| ASAP| As soon as possible| OMG| Oh my God| LOL| Laughing out loud| L8R| Later| BTW| By the way| 2MORO| Tomorrow| 2NITE| Tonight| The term â€Å"Google† is actually a search engine but now it also function as a verb. For example, when you look something up, you tell people you googled it. The interesting part is that people will exactly understand it. They wouldn’t misunderstand that you looked at someone. They will know that you researched something on the search engine.It changed the way people interact with each other Truth be told, almost everything can be done through the mobile phone nowadays. It started with online shopping where people can now just hold the phone on their hand and buy whatever they what easily. And then came mobile banking, as security became better and better, so did the people’s trust in providing their bank details and doing their banking transactions with their mobile phone. Breakdown of Communication One of the greatest disadvantages of the mobile phone is the fact that we do not talk to strangers when traveling anymore.In the past, several people waiting for a bus would engage in a conversation while they were waiting. People who travelled the same routes every day might develop friendships along the way. This situation does not happen anymore. Today when people are waiting for a bus, they just pull out their mobile phones and speak with old friends, missing out on the opportunity to make n ew ones. In large cities, many people do not know their neighbours, even though they may have lived in the same neighbourhood for years.As a society, we are beginning to lose the face-to-face contact that was such an important part of our lives in the past. Communication is at the core of every relationship, personal or professional, that you hold in life. A breakdown of communication caused by technology can affect your job, your friendships, your relationship with others, and your family relationships. In face to face communication your nonverbal communication, like facial expressions and body language, reinforce the tone of your message.These nonverbal indicators do not exist with technology based communication, making your message more likely to be misinterpreted. The user of mobile phone increases significantly from year to year. More and more people use mobile phone to keep in touch with family, friends, online shopping and even conduct business. The statistics shows how human communication has changed in recent years: 2006 Text Messages: 158 billion MMS Messages: 2. 7 billion Voice Minutes: 1. 7 trillion Cell phone subscribers: 233,041,000 Land lines: 140 millionTwitter Accounts: just launched that July Facebook accounts: 12 million Skype accounts: 171 million 2010 Text Messages: 2. 052 trillion MMS Messages: 56. 6 billion Voice Minutes: 2. 241 trillion Cell Phone Subscribers: 302. 9 million Land lines: 153 million at the end of 2009, (but losing 700,000 a month) Twitter accounts: 175 million Facebook accounts: 500 million Skype accounts: 560 million In a nutshell, the evolution of mobile phone has change the way people communicate. The effects come on both positive and negative side.In positive side, mobile phone has make the world seems smaller and smaller because everyone can easily connected no matter where there are. Family and friends can keep in touch can up to date to the latest news. On the other hand, mobile phone also caused some form of comm unication breakdown. Face to face interaction has slowly being eliminated. Everyone seems need to be connected through the mobile phone and live in a virtual world. However, as long as we use mobile phone wisely, we can still maximize the function of a mobile phone to optimum.

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Success of the Elite White South

During the 12 year period after the Civil War (1865-1877) four main groups of people, Southern Whites, Recently Freed Blacks, Northern Democrats, and Northern Republicans, were all competing to rebuild the war ravaged South to their advantage or ideals, but it was the Southern Whites whose needs were most closely met. Because the freedmen were never given social equality, education, means of economic success, or full participation in government operations the plantation owners of the south were able to bring about conditions after the civil war which were not far from those of the prewar, with the whites controlling the laws and the money and the blacks performing all of the labor needed to fuel an agrarian economy. After the Civil War many Negroes though they would soon be entitled to nearly full, if not complete, social equality because of congressional action such as the formation of the freedman's bureau and the passing of the civil rights act. However, they soon learned that the Southern whites were not about to let this happen, and that blacks would be kept in the inferior position they had known for the hundreds of years that preceded the war. Soon after the war most Southern states wrote into the books news laws pertaining to Negroes called the â€Å"Black Codes. † These laws, which were often identical to prewar laws save the word â€Å"slave† was replaced with the word â€Å"freedman†, limited almost every conceivable right of the black man. They were denied the ability to congregate in groups, stay at certain motels or inns, and eat at many restaurants. They were required to carry special passes and given a curfew. Because the white South was so opposed to black equality, any law passed to grant Negroes rights were either or ignored, or were bypassed using certain loopholes. Congress could do almost nothing to stop these maltreatments from happening. In 1875 they did pass the Civil Rights Act, but poor enforcement and a Supreme Court ruling 8 years later led the bill practically useless to the blacks. All in all white resistance and government control led to almost no integration of blacks into white society. Lack of good education for blacks was another important factor that prevented them from achieving any status higher than servant after the war. Although blacks schools were set up from primary to college, they were sparsely funded and almost completely segregated, leaving the blacks with either no education or a very poor one. Congress did make attempts at, and succeed in, creating state funded schools in the South, they allowed them to be segregated, which permitted the whites to control which race got what kind of education. Their prejudices of course pointed them in the direction of inferior education for blacks. Black schools were almost always poorly funded and inadequately staffed. The teachers at these schools, usually Northern whites, were often given such a horrible social stigma that they were forced to leave the South, and teaching there, completely. They were ostracized by the whites, and often beaten or tarred and feathered by the Ku Klux Klan. Some states attempted to integrate state colleges, or create all black colleges, but these ventures met with little success. In Arkansas, for example, the state college was declared open to all races, but only one black person registered and he was taught privately off campus. Not only did the prospect of segregation allow for poor black education, but it also caused their demoralization. Almost a hundred years later when the Supreme Court finally ruled segregation unconstitutional, one of the strongest arguments was that separating the blacks from the whites caused a great feeling of self hatred and inferiority among the blacks. Had the blacks not faced these practical and psychological barriers, they would have been far more likely to contend with white southerners in the job market. One of the most important things denied blacks during reconstruction was the means to make a living either of subsistence farming or in jobs requiring skilled labor. Early on in the civil war there were rumors of a post-war land redistribution which would gives blacks the means to start farms of their own, but these rumors predicted a much greater turn over of land than was actually seen. At first it seemed as if they might be true however. Upon capturing the sea islands south of Charleston, General Sherman gave the 485,000 acres to 40,000 black families to run. These blacks believed they had been given legal ownership of the land, and worked it profitably for over 4 years until the original white owners stepped in and demanded, and were granted, their old deeds back. Other plans were initiated to give poor blacks more land, but few of them me with success. In some states thousands of acres were acquired through either purchase, taxation (States taxed land highly if one person owned more than a certain amount. This required many large land owners to give up some, but not all of their land. ), or confiscation, but when attempts were made to sell this land off at low prices, it was picked up mostly by speculators or people with close ties to the government looking for a summer home. Fewer than 40,000 acres were ever actually given to poor blacks. Not only were blacks kept out of subsistence farming, but they were also removed from almost all forms of skilled labor. The black codes imposed strict restrictions on what jobs blacks could do, so that even if they did pick up a trade, either through schooling or from previous experience on the plantation, they could not use it. The whites did allow them to enter the skilled workforce, but only through apprenticeships under white masters which were almost no better than slavery. Apprentices were not allowed to leave their maters, and could be whipped if the masters deemed it necessary. With the end of efforts to get the black man his own land and the inability for him to enter the skilled work force the black man was destined to a life of subservience to the whites. After reconstruction the only option left to most of the blacks was a system of sharecropping which was practically identical to slavery. And just as demoralizing. All of these restrictions could easily have been lifted if the freedmen had been given the right to vote early on, as the 15th amendment seemed to promise, but this never happened. Although the 15th amendment guaranteed the right to vote to everyone regardless of race or creed, it's vague wording allowed whites to find other ways to deny the freedmen suffrage. Southern states adopted poll taxes, education requirements, land requirements, grandfather clauses, or a mixture of any of those in order to successfully keep the blacks from the polls without actually stating that blacks could not vote. This allowed the whites to stay ahead politically as well as economically. Although in some states this did not happen, and blacks were even elected to political office, they never achieved high ranks in either state or federal governments, and their numbers in the house were well below what percentage of the population they represented. Without the right to vote or any representatives in the government, the blacks found themselves powerless to change the laws that held them down. They could not get equal rights, decent education, or job opportunities because these were all the responsibility of the government, a government which they played almost no part in. Without a voice in legislation the black man was powerless to direct his destiny, and the white man was able to guide him down a path of further servitude. This fact alone proves that slavery did not die with the end of slavery. With a large portion of the population writing laws keeping a smaller portion in a lesser state, slavery still exists. All of these factors contributed to keep the whites on top of the blacks for many years after reconstruction. It wasn't until the civil rights movement of the 1960's that true change was brought about. The black man was kept out of white social circles, was not given education, was kept out of the job market, and was not allowed to participate in the government. All of these factors added up to a man who was supposedly free, but had few options to choose from. Everywhere the black man turned paths were off limits to him, and the only one that seemed to be open was one of lower class citizen whose life was still basically determined by the white man. The outcome of the reconstruction truly favored the whites in that all power was given to them. They were able to control the destiny of not only themselves, but of the blacks as well.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Tsunami in Japan

The massive wave of water, as high as 10 metres in some parts, reached more than five kilometres inland. The meteorological agency issued its top-level evacuation alerts for the entire Japanese coast amid warnings of a tsunami of between six and 10 metres. Towns and farms around Sendai city in northern Japan have been engulfed by a seven-metre tsunami, while a four-metre wave swamped parts of Kamaishi on the Pacific coast. Residents have been ordered to high ground and stay away from the coast as tsunamis can strike in several waves. Seismologists say the quake was 160 times more powerful than the one that devastated Christchurch last month. Japanese television has shown pictures of a wall of water kilometres wide moving its way across the countryside, engulfing everything in its path. The Cosmo oil refinery in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo has exploded, sending flames dozens of metres into the air, with firefighters unable to contain the inferno. It is one of more than 40 blazes burning across Japan. â€Å"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,† the agency said. A tsunami warning has been issued across the wider Pacific including Russia, the territories of Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii. Russia has evacuated 11,000 people from areas that could be affected, including Kuril islands and Sakhalin island. Hawaii has also ordered evacuations. The Bureau of Meteorology says there is no tsunami threat to Australia. The quake, already considered one of the worst in Japan's history, struck about 382 kilometres north-east of Tokyo at a depth of 24 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. The USGS reported at least eight strong aftershocks, including a 6. 8 quake on the mainland 66 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Causes and Effects of Cancer

In the human body, cells are constantly going through the cell cycle. An Important step of the cell cycle Is called mitosis, In which the cell (referred to as the parent cell) undergoes a series of steps that lead to the formation of two daughter cells. This process only occurs In somatic cells, which are any nongamete cells. Gametes are haploid (containing only half of a full chromosome set, 23 chromosomes vs. a diploid's 46) cells in the form of sperm (males) or ovum (females).Some areas of the body undergo very little mitotic division at all, such as muscles and nervous tissue. Other areas undergo mitotic division in response to a growth factor, which is a signal to cells of a specific area to begin mitosis. This growth factor is released into the extracellular fluid in certain portions of the body in response to four basic stimuli: growth, repair, asexual reproduction, and regeneration. In humans, growth and repair are the prevalent stimuli. Growth dictates the maturation of an o rganism during a specific period of time†known as puberty in humans.Repair, on the other and, occurs when an organism sustains an injury such as a laceration, in which mitotic division occurs to create a blood clot to seal the wound, and epithelial cells undergo the process as well to recreate the skin cells that were destroyed. To control the rate ot mitotic cell division, the body uses growth signals and antigrowth signals. cancerous cells are those that Ignore antgrowth signals, and can continue to replicate without growth factors. After a certain amount of rnltotlc dlvlslons, the telomeres In cells shorten until there Is none, and programmed apoptosis†cell death †occurs.Cancer cells elongate their telomeres, and so can also replicate almost indefinitely. When these cells start to build up, they form a mass called a tumor. Tumors can either be benign or malignant. Benign tumors on the skin have hair growth and clean edges, whereas malignant tumors do not and are cancerous. The condition can worsen if any cells from a malignant tumor detach and travel to other parts of the body through the circulatory or lymphatic systems. The tumor will then begin growing in the location where the cell ends up. nd can be fatal In certain organs like the liver or the brain, What makes these cells especially dangerous is ngiogenesis, in which the blood vessels near a tumor grow to increase the blood supply to that area, providing necessary nutrients and oxygen to the cancerous cells and depriving nearby healthy cells. Cancerous cells also divide more frequently because the length of time a cell spends in Interphase†the â€Å"inactive† phase†is shortened. This becomes even more dangerous when considering that less time is spent on replicating the DNA so the daughter cells are more likely to have chromosomal disorders. 3.The article presents new evidence and viewpoints regarding the formauon of malignant tumors and cells. At first, In the 90 s, It was elieved that cancer was â€Å"the result of cumulative mutations that alter specific locations In a cell's DNA and thus change the particular proteins encoded by cancer- related genes at those spots. † Of course It Is already clear that certain substances, such as tobacco, asbestos, and UV radiation, are common cancer-causers (carcinogens). wnat Is Delng aeoatea, nowever, Is wnat erect tnese suostances nave on cells that cause malignancy in the first place†or†What makes these substances carcinogens?In regards to the DNA mutation theory, evidence stemmed from observations of tumor suppressors and oncogenes. These two genes inhibit a cells' ability to divide, and stimulate growth respectively. DNA mutations would either disable tumor suppressors, or â€Å"permanently lock oncogenes into an active state. † While still supported by a few in the field, disagree. â€Å"No one questions that cancer is ultimately a disease of the DNA. † There are, however, a substantial amount of other factors that have been observed to vary between normal and cancerous genes.Opponents of the dogma feel that â€Å"Cancer is a consequence of a chaotic process, a combination of Murphys Law and Darwin's law; anything that can go wrong will, and n a competitive environment, the best adapted survive and prosper. † Age is a significant risk factor for cancer, as it is for most diseases. The older you are, the more likely you are to be diagnosed with cancer. On hypothesis that differs from the cumulative-mutations theory says that there are five or six regulation systems that need to be affected in order for a cell to be malignant.These six â€Å"special abilities† are: growth in the absence of growth signals, continued growth despite anti-growth signals, evasions apoptosis, ability to coopt blood vessels to branch off towards the mass, near-indefinite replications, and metastasis. Of the six, it is metastasis that provides the most di fficult aspect to counteract, as different drugs and treatment methods have to be utilized based on the region in which cancer is preset. For instance, chemotherapy is not very effective for bone cancer.Very few cells in a tumor have the ability to metastasize, however, once detected it is usually too late. â€Å"The prominent paradigm for 25 years has been that tumors grow in spurts of mutation and expansion. † Mutations affect genetic material in such a way that usual regulatory proteins are unable to be synthesized properly, or at all. Once mutated, cells then expand and replicate much faster than normal cells (explained in the background section). It is, however, much easier to permanently activate an oncogene than it is to suppress the tumor alleles (one mutation rather than two).It is, however, now believed that cancer is not Just caused from mutations to a few specific genes. If â€Å"Just a small fraction of the cells in a tumor are responsible for its growth and met astasis,† the â€Å"cure† for cancer is much more easily attainable. Seeing as mitosis produces two genetically identical daughter cells, DNA mutations present in the arent cells should also be observable in both daughter cells. Most tumors are not actually masses of identical clones; instead, there is an â€Å"amazing genetic diversity among their cells. While there are some commonly-mutated genes from cancer cell to cancer cell (like p53), â€Å"most other cancer genes are changed in only a small fraction of cancer types†¦ † Aneuploidy is a term describing abnormalities in chromosomes. â€Å"If you look at most solid tumors in adults, it looks like someone set Offa bomb in the nucleus†¦ there are big pieces of chromosomes hooked together and duplications or osses of whole chromosomes. † The issue though, is that most cancer cells's genomes are unstable as wells as aneuploid, and so the new introduced problem is whether mutations or aneuploidy occurs first in a cancerous cell.One of the three plausible answers is the modified dogma. This states that some external or internal factor disables the genes needed for synthesizing and repairing DNA, resulting in an ty to correct mutatlons tnat occur. Anotner optlon Is â€Å"early InstaDlllty,† statlng that there are specific master genes required for a cell to divide, and these are silenced. Thus, when chromosomes replicate and mistakes occur, the daughter cells fail to get the correct number of type of chromosomes. As replication continues, so do the â€Å"results† worsen.The last theory is the â€Å"all-aneuploidy' theory, in which a cellular division error produced aneuploid daughter cells that have varying amounts of different genes. The specific genes that code for enzymes which correct DNA mutations are unable to be synthesized, and thus the DNA begins to fail and kill the aneuploid cells with it. 4. While on the longer side of the spectrum, Gibbs' article i s well-written, detailed, and incredibly informative. Above all, the article is also relevant†both to our current unit in AP Biology, and in the medical field.The article is about ten years old at this point, however, much, if not all, of the information described and provided is still highly accurate and in question today. While there have been numerous developments in the biotechnology fields specializing in treatment and detection of cancer, not many advancements have taken place in regards to identifying the reasons why certain substances are carcinogenic. Mitosis and meiosis are subjects that go hand in hand with cancer, as it is literally an ncontrolled amount of mitotic division, making the article easy to relate too.New terms such as oncogenes and tumor suppressors are well explained, and numerous links to previous material (such as protein synthesis and chromosomal disorders) can be made by any knowledgeable AP Biology student. Comprehension was not an issue whatsoeve r, and the article was wonderfully written as well as fascinating. That said, I would highly recommend the article to anyone†AP Biology student or otherwise, as it is informative in layman's terms, as well as important in modern society.