The Good, the Bad and Good Act Essay Samples

The Good, the Bad and Good Act Essay Samples Essay writing per se is no simple endeavor to do. You are going to have to practice this. It's a plan of your upcoming work, which allows concentrating on the main specifics of the topic. You must find the proper resources for your essay and patience when finding the most suitable inspiration to write. The third and last approach that could help universally define the great life is virtue ethics. The truly amazing thing about science is there are so many topics you'll be able to write about regardless of which course you're taking. The Good Act Essay Samples Trap Provide a definition or fact regarding the topic or arguments you are likely to discuss in your essay, and that is going to make people wish to keep on reading and learn more. A comprehensive argument As mentioned before, an argument does not need to be formal. You should evaluate three distinct arguments, you have to come up with your own argument, and you need to relat e your argument to the 3 arguments given. Be sure to deal with the counter arguments also in one of your body paragraphs, employing the perspective opposite to your private perspective to demonstrate your knowledge of opposing views. Because addressing the connection between your perspective and a minumum of one of the other few perspectives is an integral component of the essay task, you must remember to understand what each prompt is saying. You need to make certain your paper does not have any grammar issues when you submit it. In the event you want to deal with the assignment by yourself, go on reading and learn to compose a 5 paragraph essay with no worries. Understanding how to write different kinds of essays will only aid you a limited quantity. While you may be tempted to just breeze through the essay section so you can finish the ACT, know that you won't be permitted to leave the testing center until everyone has finished the testso don't forget to use up each of the allotted moment! Some of the advice below stand alone, while some are a part of larger categories that were assembled based our ACT expertise. When it has to do with the writing prompt, the ACT website states The test describes a proble m and provides three unique perspectives on the matter. Cannot be utilized in conjunction with other promotional codes. Social science essays provide you with an opportunity to present your opinion and speak up. You must get acquainted with all of them before starting your work to have the ability to understand what things to write about. After all, the duty of the student is to just explain how other positions might not be well informed or updated on this issue. In case you have time, you may include transitions now, but it is also possible to just add them as you're writing. Characteristics of Good Act Essay Samples Whether you're attempting to impress your fantasy school or simply want to boost your ACT score, the essay is a remarkable matter to work on. The essay is going to be the previous section on the test, so bear this in mind at the same time you finish the multiple choice sections of the ACT. If you wish to succeed, it's crucial to be aware of the major grading p oints for your five paragraph essay. The essay score isn't a portion of the 400-1600 score. Though it is simple to understand your score a multiple choice test, you could be left wondering what is going to earn you a nice score on the ACT essay. Normally, the more selective the school, the greater your score needs to be to be competitive. Your score won't be impacted by the perspective you take on the matter. The second score is going to be a new one.

Portfolio Assessment Essay - 2603 Words

Introduction â€Å"Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about students’ learning. The central purpose of assessment is to provide information on student achievement and progress and set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning† (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007, p.1). I believe an assessment strategy which best encapsulates this understanding of assessment is the portfolio. Specifically, a process portfolio provides a wealth of information about a student’s progress in literacy and not only allows a teacher to assess the learning that has taken place but also helps them to identify the areas in need of improvement. Additionally, the crucial element of the student’s†¦show more content†¦The most common types are the ‘working’ or ‘process’ portfolio, to show work in progress and change in learning over time, to identify strengths and weaknesses and to help develop skills o f self evaluation; the ‘evaluation’ portfolio for specified and marked work to document achievement for grading purposes; and the ‘showcase’ or ‘display’ portfolio, with the best work and accomplishments for presentation (Richter, 1997; Valencia Place, 1994, in Brady Kennedy 2009; Borich Tombari, 2004; Mueller, n.d.). It is important to note that these types of portfolios are not completely detached from one another and individual aspects from each type can be applied to a portfolio to accommodate a specific outcome. Brady (2004) prefers process portfolios, as he believes that including reflective writing about their progress makes it a more meaningful learning tool and richer assessment resource. With the process portfolio, teachers have a better insight into the learning that is taking place from the point of view of the student. Consequently, their understanding of how individual students learn strengthens and the small but significant ac hievements they make are more easily identifiable. Portfolio assessment and its relevance to good assessment practices The adoption of portfolios as a legitimate assessment strategy came about due to particular trends and points of dissatisfaction in education, both in Australia and worldwide. Firstly, the issues ofShow MoreRelatedGifted And Talented Portfolio Assessments1580 Words   |  7 PagesGifted and Talented Portfolio Assessments Rationale It has been brought to the school’s attention that there is a need for a more perpetual and comprehensive assessment of students while they are served in the Gifted and Talented Program. Formative assessments provide opportunities to evaluate student performance while the students are being served in the Gifted and Talented Program. Portfolios are an excellent way to evaluate student performance while also helping self-direct their learning andRead MoreMy Performance And Portfolio Assessments From Using Assessment Data Drive Instructional Decisions841 Words   |  4 PagesThe next assignment I would like to showcase is my performance and portfolio assessments from Using Assessment Data to Drive Instructional Decisions. The performance assessment focused on a Pizza Party assignment. Students were required to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals using pictorial models and algorithms in order to calculate the cost the cost of pizza and drinks at each pizza parlor. The y used their calculations to determine which restaurant had the best price. Students wereRead MoreThe Self Assessment Portfolio As A Method Of Assessment920 Words   |  4 Pagesand AP levels have used a language portfolio. For these classes, a language portfolio is an integral part of students learning process. Thinking more deeply and after 3 weeks of mandatory reading how I want to conduct my research, I believe I will stay with qualitative research. As Johnson and Christensen state â€Å"qualitative research relies on the collection of qualitative data such as non-numerical data like words and pictures† (p. 418). Because a language portfolio in German classes is still typeRead MoreAssessment Task 3 : Portfolio Of Evidence900 Words   |  4 PagesAssessment Task 3 – Portfolio of Evidence Professional development policy The five main steps in determining and executing training in an organisational context: analyse the required standards, analyse the current skill and knowledge level, determine the skills/ knowledge gap, identify training solutions and evaluate performance after training. Networks Identified Benefits How you can develop this network? Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Get training on customer service, network with mRead MoreInternational Management Portfolio Assessment Essay3839 Words   |  16 PagesInternational Management 375 Assessment 1 - Individual Portfolio Portfolio questions: week 3 1. Discuss how the Internet and culture interact. Which most affects the other and how? Give some examples. Internet has now become an integral thing from the viewpoint of organizations and society and it is now emerged as a technology which is creating effectiveness for these aspects from different angles (BEREND AUTOR WIERENGA, 2000). There is a considerable difference found among internet andRead MoreAssessment Task 3 : Portfolio Of Evidence1352 Words   |  6 PagesAssessment Task 3 – Portfolio of Evidence Professional development policy The five main steps in determining and executing training in an organisational context: analyse the required standards, analyse the current skill and knowledge level, determine the skills/ knowledge gap, identify training solutions and evaluate performance after training. It is important to ensure that the learning goals and the learning methodologies are tailored to suit the needs of the organisation because it is way thatRead MoreCenter For Applied Linguistics : What Is An Assessment Portfolio? Essay898 Words   |  4 PagesCenter for Applied Linguistics What is an assessment portfolio? An assessment portfolio is a compilation of a student s authentic work over a particular period. The assessment portfolio allows for identifying growth in a concise package. The collection of work includes grading guidelines, the rational for the evaluations chosen, and allow for self-awareness. What are the advantages of assessment portfolio systems for ELLs? The portfolio of assessment allows students to guide their personal, academicRead MoreWhy Do We Use Portfolios As An Assessment?1693 Words   |  7 Pages Why do we use portfolios as an assessment ? Student assessment portfolios promote positive student involvement. As students create their portfolios, they are actively involved in and reflecting on their own learning. This means that the teacher can individualize instruction for the student. Portfolios are a form of alternative/authentic assessment in which a student s progress is measured over a period of time in various language learning contexts. Portfolios can include evidence of specificRead More Mathematics: A New Kind of Portfolio Assessment Essay3644 Words   |  15 PagesMathematics: A New Kind of Portfolio Assessment I sat pondering in my classroom as I calculated my grades for my first six weeks of teaching. I began wondering as I looked over grades how accurate these grades were to the ability of my students. I began to wonder how the grades showed the growth from where some of my students started at the beginning of the year. Some of my students started below grade level to begin with and had made tremendous gains to function at the level they wereRead MoreAmb200 Consumer Behaviour Assessment Item1: Portfolio Sem2 20124065 Words   |  17 Pages[you may format this page however you like but it must contain the following information] AMB200 Consumer Behaviour Assessment Item 1: Portfolio Sem 2 2012 | Student name: Ling Yan WongStudent number: 07633599 | Tutorial time: Wednesday, 11a.m.-12a.m.Tutorial number:Tutor: | Introduction The consumer behaviour that I have selected is â€Å"choosing a restaurant for a special occasion†. In this case, I would like to choose a restaurant to celebrate my boyfriend’s

Use of Geographical Information Systems

Question: Describe about use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in the promotion of a more sustainable future. Answer: Introduction The aim of this paper is to critically assess and evaluate the role of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to support and promote sustainable and renewable energy resources. For this purpose, the study particularly focuses on GIS-based wind power and energy resources. Due to the significant challenges faced by humankind in the areas of high-energy consumption and supply of energy, the world is responding with various efforts to sustain energy sources for future use, and experimenting with methods to cultivate renewable energy sources (Beccali et al. 2015). People all across the world are looking for fruitful methods and ways for sustaining themselves in the use of the major energy sources such as solar, hydro, wind, biomass and geothermal energy. In addition to the high level of risk associated with energy consumption and supply, the world is also facing tremendous challenges for producing smarter, cleaner and greater conscientious techniques for producing, transmitting and distri buting energy. The role of Geographical Information Systems or GIS comes into vital play in terms of sustaining these energy sources (Calderon et al. 2015). This is because GIS has significant potential to not only improve the methods of producing and distributing energy, but it also has the ability to change the way the humankind is looking at the earths energy resources. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) GIS is a type of computer software that helps linking descriptive information with geographic information for making better decisions based about geographic locations (Bonham-Carter 2014). The capabilities of GIS enables to visualize, analyze, question and interpret information intended to represent the important patterns, relationships, and trends in a clear and concise manner. To be more precise, GIS organizes the geographical information to enable the user read a map and accordingly select the necessary information as required for a specific project. For this purpose, the GIS processes geographical information collected from a number of sources for integrating them to a map project (Dvorak et al. 2013). The basic technical concept based on which a GIS functions, is by understanding the associations between people and the geographic locations and thereby making better, more informed and intelligent decisions. Thus, GIS serves as an interactive, efficient and useful tool in the diff erent fields of knowledge, whose application ranges from performing routine works to exploring scientific complexities around the world, giving geographic advantage to be better at productivity, providing opportunities to be more aware and responsive people living in our planet earth. The benefits and uses of GIS as a tool Developing the wind energy projects essentially depends on a thorough analysis of the issues and constraints regarding land use (Aydin et al. 2013). The role of GIS involves in defining the accurate locations of the appropriate and suitable sites for wind power projects, along with performing predictions regarding their economic exploitable energy production. Customized GIS tool can effectively calculate the average estimation for AEP or Annual Energy Production using anthropological and environmental constraints. These physical factors are considered for efficiently estimating the wind technical specifications and resource distribution of the large-scale wind turbines (Lopez et al. 2012). GIS assisted methods are increasingly becoming popular for locating wind farms in the United Kingdom (UK). Employing the GIS specifically follows a methodology involving the development and specification of WFLC or Wind Farm Location Criteria, based on some constraints and factors. Using the GIS fo r implementing these WFLC involves creation of the map layers that corresponds to the individual constraint criterion (Neteler and Mitasova 2013). The GIS then operates on these map projects for storing as well as allocating weights to the different layers and attributes (with the aid of reclassification and buffer generation techniques). The following reasons have been identified for the well suitability and adequate potential of GIS systems in the process of locating wind farms: GIS is capable of managing, visualizing and analyzing the high volumes of diversified and multidisciplinary information and data that is required by the particular application. The GIS systems are able to perform and analyze the varied scenarios that are useful for evaluating the different planning policies and their effects, selecting the most suitable approach as well as finding the optimum site or location of the wind farm from the alternative potential sites (Yeo and Yee 2014). GIS is useful for the modeling impacts of the proposed sites as well as the operational sites and thereby, suggesting modifications for minimizing them. Therefore, it is significantly obvious from the points discussed above that GIS has a great potential in this specific area or field, even more as both UK (United Kingdom) and EU (European Union) has been recently experiencing significant indications regarding the increase in the demand for wind farms (Quantum 2013). The application of GIS in waterfront regeneration and offshore wind farm development projects essentially helps see the beneficial role of GIS in information integration and building coastal knowledge, governance, design and planning (Mellino and Ulgiati 2015). GIS is proved to have a major role in integrating, collecting and analyzing information for visualization and facilitating effective communication among stakeholders and decision makers. Studies have been conducted that develops a decision support tool for selection of sites or location of wind power turbines using fuzzy decision-making technique in the GIS environment. The technical stages essentially involved the initial stage to perform exclusion of infeasible sites by generating several map layer outputs that are taken from the National Atlas GIS database developed by the USGS (United States Geological Survey). To be more specific, the uses and advantages of GIS in the mapping of renewable energy project planning are significant in the employment of GIS methods and compare suitability of different locations for a project (e.g. development of wind farms or wind turbines). GIS mapping helps adding datasets to the geographic baseline map. Hence, it plays a critical role in the making of renewable energy projects (Grassi, Junghans and Raubal 2014). The datasets (includes various technological, theoretical and economical potential) of the renewable energies with respect to the individual alternative locations are routinely published by the non-governmental, governmental and commercial agencies. Using this GIS mapping policy makers can compare the spatial variables directly and effectively corresponding to the individual locations for deciding the most appropriate location for the development of renewable energy project. The working of geographical information system (GIS) examines the spatial information for solving problems using computer software and hardware (Grassi, Chokani and Abhari 2012). There are various analytical tools that can be used by geographical information system but the tool that GIS uses for finding the wind energy is Mass GIS and it is a wind energy large scale site screening tool (Mentis et al. 2015). This tool is used to check the places that can be used to set up the wind energy plant by analyzing the area and its wind speed. The main consideration is in the area of surface wind data, the coastal are wind data, the upper air data and the marine area wind data. These factors are considered and checked thoroughly before starting the project as it is mandatory to check these scales for implementing the wind energy plant (Houshyar et al. 2014). There are various tools available for the deployment of wind energy but the mass GIS is the most advanced and the most preferred tool tha t is used in various wind energy industries. It is a web based tool that checks the wind energy of a particular place by creating layers for different types of wind energies and then it checks the maximum potential wind energy of a place. The geographical information system is a platform for creating different types of software that considers the geographical aspects like latitude and longitude in creating any type of web based software for finding various types of energies on earth. The software is named as Oliver and it is available in various platforms and it can effectively help in interactively display and query about the data, download the up-to-date shapes file from the database, can overlay the data in other platforms like the Google Terrain (Minelli et al. 2014). The application Oliver provides all these features that make it outstand from all other applications. The application has various data layers that incorporate in its working. The layers are ortho imagery, scanned reference maps, elevation and Bathymetry and environmental analysis. All these constitute towards the improvement of the app as it facilitates its flexibility and helps in running the app by considering all these features (Tsoutsos et al. 2015). It is a very important application and can be accessed though website also b maintaining few system hardware and software requirements. It has features that are crucial and can be used in many positive ways in the development of wind energy that constitutes towards the betterment of the environment by maintaining its sustainability. This has contributed in a lot of way for the sustainable development of the society and helps in developing it by maintaining the environment friendly prospectus of generating energy through wind (Azizi et al. 2014). The office of the geographic information the mass GIS has created a state wise database with the help of the commonwealth for spatial information of mapping and analyzing the support of environmental planning and maintaining its transparency. The use of GIS-based approaches and geospatial methods has become significantly popular in supporting and promoting the planning process of renewable energy resources. More specifically, the mapping of renewable energy resources can efficiently perform the identification of suitable location (Siyal et al. 2015). This analysis process requires advanced data to make informative decisions. A framework, for this purpose, involves GIS that finds the optimal site purely based on static geo data. Hence, it would exclude any type of dynamic geographical spatial variables, for instance, solar radiation, wind, weather conditions. Another example can be the heat network planning that considers locations and regions that intend to diversify the potential to expand DH (district heating) networks in separate areas. The economic costs related to the production of heat, transmission and distribution are required to be estimated. In relation to this context, the crucial role of GIS comes into play in which geographical component is taken into account with the help of geospatial methods. Therefore, geographical information systems (GIS) essentially play a very critical role in the process of finding out the certain boundaries to which the particular expansions are economically feasible. Another methodology introduced by (Bonham-Carter 2014) utilizes GIS and fuzzy set theory for making multi criteria decisions in order to find optimal location of a hybrid wind solar PV (photovoltaic) renewable energy project. On a similar note, (Dvorak et al. 2013) also describes another approach based on adapting a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis for determining the suitability of new locations that have potential to generate renewable power or energy. In addition to that, this particular approach can essentially come as useful to work at the large-scale energy projects. It divides the total area or geographical reg ion into millions of cells (specifically of 100 x 100 m cells), and thereby performs computations to measure and assess the suitability of the individual cells with respect to the new location or site of renewable power generation project (Mellino and Ulgiati 2015). However, the GIS-based processes, methods and approaches can incorporate significant drawbacks that might involve the lack of capability in considering the dynamic types of spatial and temporal aspects across the individual scales, inadequacy in the ability to integrate the major topological aspects that underpins energy networks in a proper manner. Wind Resource Assessment Model or WRAM produces wind resource map (gridded) of the specific values associated with wind energy density involving a resolution of one km2. It considers multiple geographic categories such as lake coastal areas, ocean and inland areas (Minelli et al. 2014). On the other hand, terrain categories include flat (slight inclined terrains), complex (mountainous and hilly terrains) and mixed (flat and complex terrains combined) types. Therefore, the WRAM functions based on the coastal marine area data, surface wind data and upper air data. Conclusion Geography is essential in every discipline and in every organization. The paper addresses the different approaches of GIS use in the area of development of renewable energy, most specifically wind power farms and turbines. To be more precise, the methods of modeling, planning efforts associated with these approaches are researched along with their spatial awareness. Studies have significantly suggested that it is important to consider integrating the factors of time and space into the module or component of energy system for the purpose of better and clearer understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics. It takes into consideration the availability and demand of energy, effectiveness of traditional as well as renewable / sustainable energy resources, energy storages (including decentralized storage), load patterns and capacity of energy infrastructures, economic profitability as well as ROIs (return on investments). Therefore, it is obvious that in the recent years the role of GIS ha s tremendously became increasingly significant in wind energy programs (e.g. NREL). Tools and techniques have evolved from methods developed using professional graphic output with a fewer number of GIS functionalities. Through these areas, the geographical information systems (GIS) has demonstrated its important role and appropriate value in the field of renewable energy resources, most specifically by presenting mostly static (also dynamic) geo-spatial information that helps making better and more informed decision- making activities with respect to the development of wind energy projects. Furthermore, it can be said that GIS will essentially continue to play a fundamental and ever expanding crucial role in the wind energy projects based on its ability to assess, select and evaluate site locations. References Aydin, N.Y., Kentel, E. and Duzgun, H.S., 2013. GIS-based site selection methodology for hybrid renewable energy systems: A case study from western Turkey.Energy Conversion and Management,70, pp.90-106. Azizi, A., Malekmohammadi, B., Jafari, H.R., Nasiri, H. and Parsa, V.A., 2014. Land suitability assessment for wind power plant site selection using ANP-DEMATEL in a GIS environment: case study of Ardabil province, Iran.Environmental monitoring and assessment,186(10), pp.6695-6709. Beccali, M., Galletto, J., Noto, L. and Provenza, R., 2015, November. Assessment of the technical and economic potential of offshore wind energy via a GIS application: A case study for the Sicily Region according to Italian laws and incentive frameworks. In2015 International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA)(pp. 1342-1347). IEEE. Bonham-Carter, G.F., 2014.Geographic information systems for geoscientists: modelling with GIS(Vol. 13). Elsevier. Calderon, C., James, P., Urquizo, J. and McLoughlin, A., 2015. A GIS domestic building framework to estimate energy end-use demand in UK sub-city areas.Energy and Buildings,96, pp.236-250. Dvorak, M.J., Corcoran, B.A., Ten Hoeve, J.E., McIntyre, N.G. and Jacobson, M.Z., 2013. US East Coast offshore wind energy resources and their relationship to peakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ time electricity demand.Wind Energy,16(7), pp.977-997. Grassi, S., Chokani, N. and Abhari, R.S., 2012. Large scale technical and economical assessment of wind energy potential with a GIS tool: Case study Iowa.Energy Policy,45, pp.73-85. Grassi, S., Junghans, S. and Raubal, M., 2014. Assessment of the wake effect on the energy production of onshore wind farms using GIS.Applied Energy,136, pp.827-837. Houshyar, E., SheikhDavoodi, M.J., Almassi, M., Bahrami, H., Azadi, H., Omidi, M., Sayyad, G. and Witlox, F., 2014. Silage corn production in conventional and conservation tillage systems. Part I: sustainability analysis using combination of GIS/AHP and multi-fuzzy modeling.Ecological Indicators,39, pp.102-114. Lopez, A., Roberts, B., Heimiller, D., Blair, N. and Porro, G., 2012.US renewable energy technical potentials: A GIS-based analysis. NREL. Mellino, S. and Ulgiati, S., 2015. Mapping the evolution of impervious surfaces to investigate landscape metabolism: An EmergyGIS monitoring application.Ecological Informatics,26, pp.50-59. Mentis, D., Hermann, S., Howells, M., Welsch, M. and Siyal, S.H., 2015. Assessing the technical wind energy potential in Africa a GIS-based approach.Renewable Energy,83, pp.110-125. Minelli, A., Marchesini, I., Taylor, F.E., De Rosa, P., Casagrande, L. and Cenci, M., 2014. An open source GIS tool to quantify the visual impact of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels.Environmental Impact Assessment Review,49, pp.70-78. Neteler, M. and Mitasova, H., 2013.Open source GIS: a GRASS GIS approach(Vol. 689). Springer Science Business Media. Quantum, G.I.S., 2013. Development Team, 2012. Quantum GIS geographic information system. Open source geospatial foundation project.Free Software Foundation, India. Siyal, S.H., Mortberg, U., Mentis, D., Welsch, M., Babelon, I. and Howells, M., 2015. Wind energy assessment considering geographic and environmental restrictions in Sweden: A GIS-based approach.Energy,83, pp.447-461. Tsoutsos, T., Tsitoura, I., Kokologos, D. and Kalaitzakis, K., 2015. Sustainable siting process in large wind farms case study in Crete.Renewable Energy,75, pp.474-480. Yeo, I.A. and Yee, J.J., 2014. A proposal for a site location planning model of environmentally friendly urban energy supply plants using an environment and energy geographical information system (E-GIS) database (DB) and an artificial neural network (ANN).Applied Energy,119, pp.99-117.

Political Correctness in Oleanna free essay sample

Political correctness features prominently within the play. Political correctness was seen as a highly controversial issue in the late 1980s to the early 1990s and was argued within a 1992 essay collection, debating political correctness, that it was â€Å"The most important discussion in American education†. This was perhaps due to the numerous amounts of opinions on whether or not political correctness was right. Political correctness repressed people’s abilities to freedom of speech and therefore there were many differing opinions on how much political correctness would restrict whatever they wanted to say. As this issue is predominant in Oleanna, it reflects just how dominating political correctness was in both society and education at the time. It is evident that John disregards political correctness and mocks Carol for trying to enforce it upon him. It is apparent the main purpose of political correctness, was to break the traditions of the way that many people had always spoken, and change what words and phrases were viewed as acceptable. We will write a custom essay sample on Political Correctness in Oleanna or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This however, was met with resistance from the white male elitists, who were very stubborn and insisted on the traditional way of speaking. This links to how John behaves throughout the play, and within the extract he says, â€Å"This is the process, and a good process. Under which the school has functioned for quite a long time†. It is evident that John recognises the accusation that has been made against him, about his lack of political correctness. However, he dismisses it, due to the tradition that he has been following, over the ‘correct’ way of speaking. This could link to a sexual harassment case in 1991, where a law professor called Anita Hill accused the Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. It is evident here that the case turned out in favour of the elitist, regardless of who was actually right, similar to John in Oleanna. However, this does contrast to Mamet’s view as he said about John and Carol that he thinks â€Å"they’re both absolutely wrong, and they’re both absolutely right†. The idea of elitists always getting their own way links to later on in the play, when John uses the expletives, â€Å"bitch† and â€Å"cunt†. It is suggested that John is perhaps mocking Carol by using the expletives, as he is being politically incorrect. While Carol tries to enforce political correctness, John dismisses it due to the hubris that he holds, which in Greek Mythology, excessive arrogance was called hubris. In the extract, it appears that John recognises the mistakes that he has made. However, he makes no effort to change his ways, possibly due to the lack of control that he has over himself and his lack of ability to change his ways, â€Å"I don’t mean to subject you to my weak sensibilities† It doesn’t seem to be an apology from John, and therefore just a passing statement. This again reinforces his lack of willing, to change. This links back to Act one, when John’s use of declaratives and pronouns portrays his confidence and control over Carol, â€Å"Let’s take the mysticism out of it, shall we? Carol? Don’t you think? †. This lack of conforming to political correctness links to a speech that president George Bush gave in 1991, where he spoke out against â€Å"a movement which would declare certain topics ‘off limits’. † In the extract, John also comments, â€Å"I find that I am sexist. That I am elitist†. His recognition of being politically incorrect could also create a question about his motives for admitting his faults. It is apparent that John has to be more cautious due to Carol’s accusations of him, in order to save his house and his job. John does consider the possibility of not getting his house earlier on in Act 1, â€Å"the house might not go through†. This links back to the origin of the name ‘Oleanna’, which came from an 1853 Norwegian song about a community in New Norway who were betrayed and had their land taken away.

buy custom Alcohol and Drug Treatments essay

buy custom Alcohol and Drug Treatments essay Arizona CASA/FCRB Training (2010) observes that judicial systems all over the world, especially in the United States of America have somewhat modest intermediate punishment for offense. Offenders are either offered routine probation that at times equates with obligatory supervision or incarcerated. Because the magnitude of the crimes committed do not fall into two neat partitions, sentencing options often errs in one way or another. The sentencing is either too soft, offering routine probation to individuals whose offenses and criminality call for stronger penalty or supervision or too harsh and putting those whose crimes do not guarantee behind the bars. Due to these realities, states have been encouraged to give sentencing alternatives, which punish without involving incarceration, a consideration. One of these alternatives is the drug courts. Drug Courts A drug court is a special court that is charged with the responsibility of handling cases concerning offenders of substance-abuse by comprehensive supervision, carrying out drug testing, offering treatment services and instantaneous incentives and sanctions. They offer a comprehensive, therapeutic and supportive approach as a substitute to traditional systems of prosecuting cases that involve offenders incriminated with substance abuse. The comprehensive approach gives the participants an all-embracing treatment program that takes into account a collaboration of treatment providers, judge, defense counsel, case managers and prosecutor with the judge working as both a leader of the group and a team member. To promote and encourage substance free behavior, they employ the use of a non-adversarial approach (Arizona CASA/FCRB Training, 2010). Goals of drug courts A drug court has its goals key among them being to stop substance abuse and the criminal activities related to it. They are unique and exceptional in the criminal justice system sector because for they develop a collaborative relationship between drug treatment professionals and the criminal justice (Berman Bergman, 2009). Benefits of a drug court There are many reasons for why drug courts are being advocated for instead of incarceration. First of all they have proved to decrease recidivism and stop relapse that goes a long way in reducing overcrowding in our overcrowded jails. Research and statistical evidence share this fact that drug courts have helped diminish criminal activities. For instance, a study conducted in 2008 by the school of social work of the University of Utah indicated that rates of recidivism for local drug court graduates stayed at a steady 7%. This is contrary to the statistics fromUS Justice Department which indicates that approximately 45 % of offenders who are jailed for similar offenses but have not been involved in drug court will relapse and commit another offense (Arizona CASA/FCRB Training, 2010). The rate of recidivism is yet higher, at 60%, among offenders jailed for their convictions. It is very clear that decreased recidivism decreases overcrowding in jails. Berman Bergman (2009), assert that secondly drug courts helps to save tax-payers money hence the savings can be channeled for other developments. For instance, to treat one drug court offender, it costs about $7 a day. This figure is far much cheaper compared to $50 that is used to incarcerate one offender in a state prison. This can be witnessed by Arizona State which has realized major financial benefits of the drug court program. it is estimated that the total amount that was saved by Maricopa County was $ 129, 347.40 in the year 2001 due to avoiding incarceration. There are significant public health gains brought about by drug courts. According to the US Department of Justice, more than 500 drugs free babies are reported to have been delivered to participants (female) of drug court after being enrolled in the program. Other programs like alumni support groups also reiterate long-term success and provide participants with tools and experience needed to reconstruct their lives (Steinberg, 2010). Drug courts also offer vocational training and/or education opportunity to participants that help to reduce the call for public assistance while at the same time equipping them self sufficiency skills. Lastly, adoption of a life style that is drug-free and breaking addiction cycle has indicated reduced hospital, medical and emergency room costs (Berman Bergman, 2009). Eligibility and qualification It should be noted that drug courts program is voluntary and open to any one meeting the eligibility prerequisites. Offenders eligible for this program must be charged with an offense that is eligible for probation. Secondly they must not be having any prior felony arrests for a sexual offense or violent crime (Arizona CASA/FCRB Training, 2010). At the same time, the offenders should not be having any pending felony charge other than being a legal residence of the area. Lastly, they must be willing to take part in all features of the Drug Court program. Similar programs There is a number of other alternative sentencing/ intermediate sanctions programs (ISPs) that seek to reduce the rate of incarceration. Among them, the most popular one are house arrests, electronic monitoring, parole (intensive probation), boot camps, community service, day reporting centers and parole caseloads (Berman Bergman, 2009). Electronic monitoring and house arrest House arrest program is where by offenders are legally demanded to stay in their residences for the period of the sentence. They may be permitted to leave their houses for employment and medical reasons. This may be enforced by utilizing electronic supervision which entails use of electronic monitoring devices. According to research, electronic supervision is an effective approach for alternative sentence as those who serve under it experience very low rates of recidivism 0f between 11-12 % (Arizona CASA/FCRB Training, 2010). Day reporting centers and Residential community corrections programs These are program that sentence offenders to serve their punishment in small housing facilities that are run by private agencies but with the permission from the courts. Residents are at times allowed to attend treatment and work during the day and go back to the facility at night (Steinberg, 2010). Day reporting centers usually do not stay with offenders overnight. Studies have indicated that is alternative approach helps to reduce the rates of relapse and recidivism. Parole (Intensive Supervision Probation) This is presently the most popular intermediate sanction program. The programs are available in all fifty states of the United States of America because of their success. Offenders who are sentenced to parole system are monitored closely on small caseloads where they normally perform community work, pay restitution to victims; additionally they must hand in random alcohol and urine testing, be working, pay the fee for probation/parole. Researches indicate that the program is a great success and it helps to restore justice and harmony between the offenders, victims and the community. More that 80% of those under this program do not commit similar crimes again (Berman Bergman, 2009). Conclusion Drug courts have offered a helpful mode of alternative sentencing in the criminal judicial systems. Through handling cases concerning offenders of substance-abuse by comprehensive supervision, carrying out drug testing, offering treatment services and instantaneous incentives and sanctions, these courts have helped to reduce the rates of recidivism and relapse. Consequently overcrowding in the jails has considerably reduced and the federal state has saved a lot of tax-payers money. This is as good as saying that alternative sentencing is far much better that incarceration that only seeks to spend a lot of money on some offenders who could have better been subjected to intermediate sentencing programs. Buy custom Alcohol and Drug Treatments essay

How to write effective role descriptions for your CV

How to write effective role descriptions for your CV Role descriptions within your CV offer recruiters a valuable insight into your experience and abilities. Describing your current and previous work experience provides you with an excellent opportunity to showcase your skills and show potential employers how you apply them in the workplace. Here are some foolproof ways to write an effective role description and land that job! Structure your role descriptions properlyYour CV needs to flow in order to facilitate ease of reading. Large blocks of text make it difficult for readers to digest the information in your CV.Start with a bold heading to announce the beginning of the role and detail the employer name, your role title, and dates of employment. Under the heading, provide a brief one or two line outline to explain the nature of your employers’ business, where you sit within the organization, and the overall goal of the role – this builds context for the reader. Then list your responsibilities in short sharp bullet point s so that recruiters can navigate them quickly and pick out the information they need.To really add some weight to your roles, round them off with some impressive achievements you made during your time with the company.Show how you’ve impacted an organizationIt’s not enough to merely document your responsibilities however, you need to prove the impact you have made in each organization. Highlight how you’ve worked to support company goals or targets and how your actions impacted the wider team. For example, you may have been responsible for managing the company budget – but simply stating that responsibility does not demonstrate the impact you made.To prove your impact you will need to expand to discuss how your actions have affected the business which could be things like saving costs, identifying areas for improvement or even helping to generate more revenue.Use the right level of detailWhen putting together role descriptions you’ll want to be de tailed enough to describe your experiences and achievements but not so exhaustive that your CV becomes tedious to read. This can be a difficult balancing act, so look to add depth to your most recent positions, and as you work backward through your career history look to only briefly summarize dated roles.Employers will want to know lots about your current roles because they are generally the best way to gauge your current capabilities – whereas role from several years will not be of great interest to them.Sell yourselfIt seems obvious, right? Your CV is your first impression to a company so it needs to be strong to grab recruiters’ attention and compel them to contact you. Being too modest and writing in a dull formal tone won’t excite anybody. Although you want to portray a professional image, ensure your descriptions are written in an upbeat positive tone with plenty of positive verbs and adjectives to emphasize your effectiveness as an employee.For example, don’t just describe yourself as   â€Å"marketing executive with 5 years of experience in the healthcare industry.† Improve the language and really sell yourself by describing yourself as an â€Å"accomplished global marketing executive with 5 years of experience supporting some of the world’s biggest brands and campaigns.†Quantify your achievementsAs part of your role descriptions you need to document your prior achievements but if you really want recruiters to understand your impact,   you need to quantify those accomplishments. By adding specific examples and including any relevant facts or figures you’ll be giving more credibility to your claims. For example, instead of simply adding the fact you have supported the implementation of a new booking system, state how this new process improved performance by 20%.This will help the recruiter to qualify your achievements and progress you further in the recruitment process.About the Author:Andrew Fennell is an experienced recruiter and founder of CV advice center StandOut CV and a regular contributor to sites such as CV Library, The Guardian, and Business Insider.

In light of recent research evaluate the extent to which a willy Essay

In light of recent research evaluate the extent to which a willy employer can evade the provisions of the Equal Pay Act 1970. What proposals for reform can be m - Essay Example In accordance with a report published by the University of Oxford â€Å"under this Act, every employment contract is deemed to include an equality clause which guarantees both sexes the same money for doing the same or broadly similar work, or work rated as equivalent by a job evaluation study; such a clause operates unless an employer can prove that pay variation between the sexes is reasonable and genuinely due to a material difference between their cases†2. In other words, all employment contracts should include provisions for equal pay regarding the work of equal value. However, in many cases the provision of equal payment is not possible because there are certain factors (like the duties of the man involved) that have been encountered in order for the increase to the salary to be decided. Another issue is the fact that discrimination in payment is often non visible or easily identified because it can refer to the provision of other benefits (like free accommodation and so on) that are analyzed extensively below. 1(1) â€Å"If the terms of a contract under which a woman is employed at an establishment in Great Britain do not include (directly or by reference to a collective agreement or otherwise) an equality clause they shall be deemed to include one†3 In other words, all employment contracts in Britain should include a clause related with equal payment. In terms that such a term is not included in the employment contracts, then employers can be ‘obliged’ to add such a clause within these contracts. In order to understand the role of Equal Pay Act 1970, it is necessary to refer primarily to the term ‘pay’ as included in the above Act. In accordance with a definition given by the Equal Opportunities Commission (2007) the term ‘pay’ can be refer not only to salaries and wages but also to the following benefits: â€Å"a) holiday pay/leave entitlements; b) profit related pay; c) profit sharing; d) contractual bonuses e) share options; f) subsidised

American History - Civil War Controversy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

American History - Civil War Controversy - Essay Example His men, who wanted to press on all the way to Richmond, took 400 Confederate prisoners. One hundred fifty of the enemy had been killed or wounded on the hillside. Out of his regiment of 386 men, Chamberlain lost 136, including 30 dead and many seriously wounded. A battalion of United States Sharpshooters had been acting as skirmishers for Brig. Gen. J. H. Hobart Ward's brigade of Sickles's corps, and while withdrawing from a stone wall in front of Round Top, three of its companies disappeared into the woods up the western slope of that towering landmark and began to fire into the right flank of the enemy line. Col. William C. Oates, commanding the Fifteenth Alabama Infantry, could not allow the sharpshooters' fire to enfilade his right from that hill, so he and his men laboriously climbed over the large rocks, trees, and bushes in their path to exchange fire with the sharpshooters. The Forty-seventh Alabama, commanded by its lieutenant colonel and minus three of its companies, continued his line of battle to the left. ... to the west of the Round Tops rolled up to the Union brigade waiting on Little Round Top, with the crash of artillery and rattle of muskets almost drowning out the shouts of the fighting men. The soldiers of the other regiments of the brigade to the right of the Twentieth Maine could see the dreadful sight of men in blue being overwhelmed by the vigorous onslaught of lines of figures in butternut and gray. The Union men fought with grim determination in the Devil's Den and the woods and fields around it. As men fell and cannon fired, here and there a horse would gallop away, eyes wild with terror. All seemed a mass of confusion and madness, and then the high, keening sound of the Rebel yell rose above the din and grew "as if all pandemonium had broken loose and joined in the chorus of one universal war whoop." The men of Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania could see lines of determined men advancing at the double-quick, to swarm soon into the Plum Run valley and up the hill, bent on occupying their position. The Confederates, too, had seen the importance of Little Round Top and rushed to gain the advantage. But they arrived a few minutes too late--the timely actions of Warren and Vincent had caused the strategic hill to be seized by the Federals just in time. On the Confederate far right, Oates and his Alabama men, exhausted from marching about twenty-five miles before the attack began and their steep climb over the rocks and bushes of Round Top, rested for ten minutes at its summit. The Union sharpshooters had disappeared as if into thin air, and Oates did not know their numbers or where they were. Misled by their intense firing from behind rocks and trees and unable to judge their strength as he climbed, the Confederate commander thought he was driving a "heavy

Globalization Argumentation Essay Example for Free

Globalization Argumentation Essay (1, Premise) Globalization effects on economy, administrative, and geographical system of the nations in an effective manner. In today’s more challenging and competitive business era, globalization is one of the most important factors that have a direct or indirect effect on the economic, administrative, and geographical system of the nations in an effective and proper manner. There are rapid changes in the economics of the nations, due to globalization. In addition, different kinds of issues are developed or created by the globalization to the countries. Also, these are effecting the nations directly or indirectly. For example. High risk investment in other countries is considered a significant issue. (1, Conclusion) â€Å"After the globalization of the worldwide market, foreign investors faced the high risk to invest in the other nation due to the differences in administrative, geographic, economic, culture and demographic condition of the countries.†(Lynch Gemini, 2010) (2, Premise) Globalization contributes to the improvement of technology that helped national companies. There are various technological improvements that create effective contribution in the globalization of markets and production. It is identified that the use of computers help the companies to adopt globalization and improve its market share in the global market. In computers, the use of the internet helps companies go global and add extra features to their production and operation activities. (2, Conclusion) â€Å"Through international technology, companies are also able to achieve competitive advantages over national and international competitors in an effective way.† (Mobius, 2012) (3, Premise) Globalization provides options of companies to improve their business through enter in the new country market. One improvement in technology related to change in the transportation technology helped the companies make globalization of markets  and production. The development of commercial jet aircraft and super fighters and development of ship transportation help companies simplify the trans-shipment from one mode of transport to another. (3, Conclusion) â€Å"Globalization helps companies to improve its market presence in the global market and introduce new production plants in different countries of the world to provide the right product to the right customers at the right time with the lowest cost† (Peng, 2009). (4, Premise) Globalization provides options of the companies to improve their position to attract or reach the new market and more customers. Technology is helpful for companies to generate global opportunities through attracting global customers for products and services. Changes in the telecommunication and introduction of the World Wide Web help companies connect with the global customers in an effective way and develop the opportunities in order to improve the market. There are various global marketing trends a global company needs to fulfill. The changing demand of customers, changes in advertising media and attraction for global customers are all important. In order to reach this target, global marketers need to target global advertising in order to attract global customers in an effective way. (4, Conclusion) â€Å"Through the targeting global advertising for the products and services, companies can also increase its customer base in the international market and can achieve competitive advantages over competitors in national and international market† (Shan, 2012). The first premise is an example of inductive reasoning as it is intended only to be so strong that, if the conclusion is different with premises. First premise: globalization impacts on countries economy, administrative, and geographical system, but the conclusion states differences that after the globalization, foreign investors face the high risk of investment in other countries due to the differences in countries’ administrative, geographic, economic, culture and demographic condition (Swenson, 2005). In addition, deductive argument is thought to be completely guaranteed of the premises truth, which means the conclusion is similar to the premise. Premise 2 is the example of the deductive argument as the premises and conclusion is the same, which the globalization or internationalization contributes into the improvement of technology as international technology reached of the companies that helped companies to achieve competitive advantages. References Lynch, M. Gemini,C. (2010). Wealth: How the Worlds High-Net-Worth Grow, Sustain, and Manage Their Fortunes. USA: John Wiley Sons. Mobius, M. (2012). Passport to Profits: Why the Next Investment Windfalls Will be Found Abroad and How to Grab Your Share. USA: John Wiley Sons. Peng, M.W. (2009). Global Business 2009. USA: Cengage Learning. Shan, W. (2012). The Legal Protection of Foreign Investment: A Comparative Study. USA: Hart Publishing Limited. Swensen, D.F. (2005). Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment. USA: Simon and Schuster.

My Childhood Memory of My Role Model :: Childhood, Memory, aunts, single mothers,

Since the age of 12, I have struggled to remember what my childhood was like; from time to time I regained a little memory about my life. I was brought up by my grandparents, who worked hard every day to make ends meet for me. However, my life changed on May 25, 1995, when I received a call from Belinda, a friend of the family, saying that my grandparents were in a bad car accident, and that they did not make it out alive. It seemed as though the world around me had come crashing down. Then my aunt Joyce, a mother of three children and a postal worker stepped up as my care giver. She eventually became a person that I looked up to as a great role model in my life. Joyce is a hard worker, generous, and a supporting person who gives good advice. By 13, I was being raised in a second household my aunt Joyce was a single mother of three children. Joyce was a generous person to me; she went out of her way to give me extra attention when no one was there to console me late at night when I had bad dreams about the tragic loss of my grandparents. Even though my aunt had expenses for three children, she still found ways to earn extra money, to give me the experience of attending gymnastics and other activities. In her career as a postal worker, she has a reputation as a hard worker. She progressed from a mail carrier to working inside the Post Office serving the public as a mail clerk. There were times when she had worked long hours on holidays so that she could buy me nice gifts. I must say, Joyce is a team player. She has patience to take the extra time to explain to the new employees how the job operates. In addition, to being a hard worker my aunt is an excellent role model to me. She told me in order to be successful in life you must set goals to accomplish. The one goal I chose to accomplish was finishing high school with a 3.5 grade average. When I had a minor setback my 12th grade year, and got pregnant with my son, my aunt told me never to give up; one setback is not a life lasting ordeal but a hurdle to overcome.

Interracial Marriage Essay

Interracial marriage occurs between two people from separate racial backgrounds. As a general note â€Å"African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans are far less numerous than whites, and therefore have fewer opportunities to meet one another. â€Å"Most interracial marriages, therefore, involve whites, who constitute the majority of the population† (Qian, 1999, p. 579). Throughout history interracial marriage has not been recognized in the United States as a valid marriage. â€Å"One theme that has been pervasive in U. S. history and literature and that has been accompanied by a 300-year-long tradition of legislation, jurisdiction, protest, and defiance is the deep concern about, and the attempt to prohibit, contain, or deny, the presence of black-white interracial sexual relations, interracial marriage, interracial descent, and other family relations across the powerful black-white divide† (Sollors, 2000, p. 3). Interracial couples have been scrutinized, judged, and looked down upon simply for loving someone with a different skin color. In the not so distant past â€Å"a complicated area defined only by the racial difference of bride and groom was designated where family founding was considered â€Å"null and void,† and children of interracially married couples were deemed illegitimate†(Sollors, 2000, p. 3). In recent years the interracial couple has been more accepted by society. Despite this acceptance there is a number of issues interracial marriages face. Reviewing the structure of the interracial marriage will help us gain an understanding of interracial marriage. â€Å"While, in 1970, 0. 7 percent of all marriages in the continental United States were interracial, today 2 percent of all Americans marry outside their race The number of ‘mixed-race’ births have grown 26 times faster than all U. S. births† (Korgen, 1998, p. 1). Interracial couples have a variety of backgrounds and there is not a conclusive theory that suggests why people enter into interracial relationships. The basic explanation for entering an interracial relationship is physical attraction and comfortableness. Research has found â€Å"Most biracial couples say that they became attracted to each other because of compatibility† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p. 150). Interracial couples and families expand over all socioeconomic classes. Unfortunately, â€Å"most (interracial) couples have experienced some form of racism during their relationship†(McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 106). With the exception of racism â€Å"There has been very little written on the interracial family, and nothing regarding the interracial family contextualized in leisure within the leisure literature. As the number of interracial marriages increases, it will become increasingly important to understand the needs of these families† (Hibbler & Shinew, 2002). Culture throughout interracial families is distinguished by each individual couple. â€Å"In general, one of the major issues for interracial families is identifying, preserving, and explaining the cultural heritage to their children†(McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 65). Studies have found that typically one culture has a stronger influence on the interracial couple. The culture with the stronger influence typically takes over in the household and that culture is more influential with the children involved in the interracial family. â€Å"Our racial structure does not yet allow biracial Americans to choose freely between their two racial heritages† (Korgen, 1998, p. 67). Interracial children often have a hard time identifying with their background. â€Å"Typically, racially mixed children will be somewhat ambivalent towards their parents’ ethnic or racial backgrounds† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 66). Biracial children have an especially difficult time identifying themselves as teenagers. â€Å"As the child enters high school, where one’s identity begins to take a particular shape dating begins, it is easy to see how difficulties can develop for biracial children. Since their physical appearance is different, and their families are considered unusual, many peer groups reject them† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 66). A substantial historical literature base suggests that interracial marriage may have a number of negative effects on the couples and their children. Among the suggested negative effects are anxiety, insecurity, guilt, anger, depression, and identity conflicts. On the rare occasions that biracial people and/or interracial couples are asked about their social reality, they often report that the psychological and sociological problems that they face are manifestations of racism and overall societal pressure. This suggests that, perhaps the broader concern is not the issues affecting those involved in interracial relationships, but rather the societal issue of race and the â€Å"possessive investment in whiteness†(Hibbler & Shinew, 2002). Biracial children typically identify themselves with one race and portray those characteristics. â€Å"Biracial Americans who appear white are often judged by different standards than darker mixed-race individuals when they face the racial litmus test. Those who appear white are assumed to be white by those in the larger society who are unaware of their heritage† (Korgen, 1998, p. 64). The biggest issues interracial couples and children deal with are racism and self identity. There are several coping mechanisms for interracial families deal with when experiencing racism or self identity including ignoring it, dismiss it, and normalize it, awareness, hiding, support groups, and using humor to cope with negative reactions of others. Ignoring and dismissing racism are very similar concepts. People have said that sometimes they feel they should say something in return to a racist comment but choose to ignore or dismiss it to avoid conflict. Normalizing racism occurs when people accept that they will be singled out because they are an interracial couple. An interracially married woman â€Å"Sydney Mead has this to say (about interracial marriage and portrayed racism): We are just ordinary people, an ordinary married couple and go through the same things that everybody else goes through. We have our problems you know, up and down, up and down† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 111). Awareness is when interracial â€Å"couples are able to minimize the likelihood of encountering problems, or diminishing their impact, by being very aware of their surroundings and the places they frequent. Many feel they can significantly reduce the type and frequency of problems by simply avoiding some places and spending more time at others† (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 111). Hiding is when couples withdrawal from social interaction to avoid racism or judgment. Support groups are an excellent resource for interracial couples who have estranged family and need to build a social network of support. Humor is another coping mechanism. Many couples have learned to laugh about the interactions they have as an interracial couple. Laughter and making jokes often helps to ease the pain of racism and make light of situations (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999). While it is true that interracial marriage has changed in the eyes of society in recent years, â€Å"†A great deal of misinformation exists concerning interracial couples. (McNamara, Tempenis & Walton, 1999, p. 3). â€Å"The recent increase in interracial marriage is seen as a positive change in race relations and a decline in racism. It also indicates that racial distances have declined between whites and racial minorities because of the increase in interracial marriages with whites for all racial minorities â€Å"(Qian, 1999, p. 579). The acceptance of interracial marriage and the decline in racism is a great achievement for society. This is true but â€Å"there are still powerful forces in society that make interracial marriage difficult, unappealing to people who might be looking for a partner, or otherwise unlikely† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p. 150). Although there has been much progress and acceptance with the concept of interracial marriages in society there is much more work and progress that needs to be completed. More research needs to be conducted to fully understand the cultural influences interracial families have. â€Å"Overall, more attention is needed for ethnic culture, especially in the family communication classroom. This general inattention can be attributed, in part, to family communication scholars’ and educators’ viewing their work from a Eurocentric perspective, which, similar to Eurocentrism in everyday life, leads to a general neglect of ethnic culture by assuming that all families are similar to those of the dominant group (i. e. , European Americans) and/or minimizing those who are different from the dominant group† (Socha & Diggs, 1999, p.210). References Hibbler, D. K. , & Shinew, K. J. (2002). Interracial Couples’ Experience of Leisure: A Social Network Approach. Journal of Leisure Research, 34(2), 135+. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from Questia database: http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=5000783247 Korgen, K. O. (1998). From Black to Biracial: Transforming Racial Identity among Americans. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from Questia database: http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=o&d=9959531

Good boy

Good boy, Beau. Stay, Anna Quindlen is very descriptive in her essay. As I read the story I could visualize her dog and also sympathize with her feelings. Having had lost a dog of old age, this story really hit home. The way she describes beau's milky white eyes, the loss of his hearing, and the way his walk looks like his back legs are prosthetics. With these descriptions, the knowledge that Beau's a black lab, and the fact that he stinks, all present enough information for me to get a clear picture the dog. The descriptions Anna uses are all the same symptoms my dog, a Chihuahua, had had at 17.Anna also painted a picture in clear detail of the senses the dog lost or was losing, but also pointed out Beau's uncanny sense of smell. â€Å"The eyes are gone, but the nose is eternal. † . There were many more details in the story, but I feel as though the ones I already pointed out were enough for me to get a clear picture. The way Anna organized her story seemed to me like it was in chronological order. Anna starts her story in the present time, sheds light on the past, and then comes back to the present again. As a new writer, I'm not sure if that exactly qualifies as chronological, but I hink it is.The point I believe Anna is trying to make is to live for the day, don't dwell on the past. Anna clearly says â€Å"to measure myself not in terms of the past or future but of the present. â€Å". This statement is one of the statements that lead me to my conclusion. The sensory details that stood out to me was the sense of smell and the loss of sight. There were two things Anna said about Beau's sense of smell that stood out to me. The first was when she talked about the dogs eyes and ears going but he can still get excited over the smell of a pork roast. The second was whenAnna talked about the smell of the Oriental rug and beau. Anna was not very descriptive about the odor, but I have firsthand knowledge of that smell, I could definitely smell the odor. The other sensory detail that stood out for me was the way Anna described Beau's bad eyes. Anna really described the effects of going blind well. She talked of Beau's eyes being a milky white. â€Å"His eyes seem to gaze mysteriously inward†. Anna also said â€Å"his eyes and ears are gone.

is america a success essays

is america a success essays At the first of the year Miss Schoonmaker asked us if we thought America was a success or not. This got me thinking what are we going to learn that will make us think our country isnt a success? Well throughout the year I learned things that made me believe America is not a success. Things that made me not believe in America were how we go against things we pledge. Like the Constitution and how we treated blacks in the Civil Rights era. Another example is the American dream. The Dream was all centered primarily around money. Has it not been said that money is the root of all evil? Do we really believe in a country thats dream is evil? I believe the thought of the American dream brought us into civil war. The North and the South both had their views on what the American dream was. The Northern States wanted the "American dream" achieved for the whole country to be industrial, anti-slavery, and very federalist. Upon these institutions they planned to make the U.S. a superior nation in the world. The South wanted to achieve the same ultimate goal for the U.S. but with agricultural, pro- slavery, and states sovereignty institutions. These are the differences between both sides in achieving "the American Dream." In order to resolve the conflict of interests, North and South had to go to war to prove superiority thus proving which side is "the city upon the hill in which the losing side would follow. The American dream later made us build the suburbs like Levittown where the country was trying to make us all the same. We had the same house just different colors than everyone else. This all brought up the issue of conf ormity. America was trying to live up to an ideal that was not securing the blessings of liberty. In the best document ever written the opening clause is a big fat lie. It says we will ...establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide f ...

7 Heavenly Bodies as Sources of Adjectives

7 Heavenly Bodies as Sources of Adjectives 7 Heavenly Bodies as Sources of Adjectives 7 Heavenly Bodies as Sources of Adjectives By Mark Nichol 1. Earth Through in modern usage our planet’s Latin name, Terra, appears only in science fiction, the adjective terrestrial is often employed to refer to phenomena associated with Earth or with land as opposed to water. It is also the root of extraterrestrial, the term for any (so far conjectural) life-form that does not originate on Earth, or for anything existing or occurring beyond the planet. Terrestrial also refers to the inner planets of the solar system as a category. (See the next entry for the classification for the outer planets.) It can also mean â€Å"mundane,† as does terrene, which has the additional sense of â€Å"earthly.† (Terrene is also a noun referring to the planet or its terrain and that word, like terrarium, also stems from the Latin term terrenum.) 2. Jupiter Jovial means â€Å"jolly, convivial† not traits associated with a god normally generally depicted with a stern visage. However, this is the word medieval astrologers used to describe those characteristics, which they ascribed to the influence on the planet on human behavior. The adjectival form for referring to the god or to the category of gas giants typified by the planet Jupiter is Jovian; this is also the term for referring to the planet’s natural satellites in fact and fiction and to fictional inhabitants. 3. Mars Because of its belligerent-looking red glow, Mars was associated in ancient times with conflict, and the Romans named it after their god of war. The adjective martial (â€Å"martial law,† â€Å"martial arts,† court-martial the hyphen in the last word is a holdover from the term’s French origin) refers to war and fighting. 4. Mercury Someone with an unpredictable or volatile personality is said to be mercurial, thanks to an association with Mercury, the swift messenger of the Latin gods. (The liquid element mercury, also known as quicksilver, was perhaps given that name because of its rapidly free-flowing quality.) But the adjective is also associated with eloquence and ingenuity, as well as larcenous behavior. Why? The god Mercury was considered the protector of thieves as well as merchants and travelers, who would appeal to the deity to favor them with speed. The planet Mercury was so named because of its fast orbital velocity. 5. Moon Like Terra, Luna, the Roman name for the Moon, seems to appear only in science fiction these days. But lunatic, meaning â€Å"foolish† or â€Å"insane,† is common, albeit mostly in the nonclinical sense. (Lunacy, another word for insanity, and the adjectival form derive from the onetime notion that phases of the Moon affect mental instability.) Lunar, however, is the adjectival form for scientific references to Earth’s natural satellite. 6. Saturn The Roman god said to have been the father of Jupiter was associated with traits opposite to those of the scion who usurped his rule; a saturnine person is gloomy, sardonic, and surly, as opposed to the jovial type, though the adjective also has the neutral sense of â€Å"sluggish† and â€Å"serious.† This temperament was said in the Middle Ages to be the influence of the planet farthest from the Sun (or the one believed at the time to be the most remote) and the slowest. But the god was also identified with justice and strength, as well as with agriculture, and later was celebrated in the weeklong winter-solstice feast known as the Saturnalia, when the rules of moral conduct and social status were suspended. That name, with the initial letter lowercased, now refers to any unrestrained merrymaking. 7. Venus A supposed inhabitant of Venus is a Venusian, of course, but another term influenced by the name of the Roman goddess of love and beauty may surprise you. Because of Venus’s association with sex as well as affection and attractiveness, her name was the inspiration for venereal, which means â€Å"relating to sexual pleasure or indulgence† but is almost exclusively employed to refer to sexually transmitted infections or diseases. However, another variation has a more positive association: To venerate is to admire, honor, or respect (the noun form is veneration), and venerable refers to someone or something considered deserving of one of those types of regard. It is also synonymous with sacred and can apply to a person, place, or thing that through age and/or accomplishments earns esteem. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Inquire vs EnquireThe Many Forms of the Verb TO BEOne "L" or Two?

Love Juvenile Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Love Juvenile Justice - Essay Example A juvenile who believes that â€Å"the system† has treated him or her unfairly may be less defensive if tried by an objective jury (Elrod and Ryder, 2011, pg. 127). This is to say, a perception of fair treatment may go a long way towards fostering acceptance of responsibility on the part of the juvenile. Thirdly, unlike in adult courts, the jurors in the juvenile systems are not peers of those on trials. In some instances, the juvenile may benefit from this fact, because the adults on the jury may remember their own youthful mistakes and indiscretions and feel sympathy (Elrod and Ryder, 2011, pg. 127). If they are parents, jurors also may realize that, under other circumstances, one of their children could be at the defence table. This in as much as may lead to the inclusion of emotions into the final judgement, it eats into the very consciousness of humanity which a jury is supposed to represent. Finally, Rosenberg (2008) noted that judges generally give a guilty verdict about 25 per cent more often than juries do. This discrepancy is something requiring a level of concern. The American bar association agrees with this finding and concludes that this could as a result of bias from the part of the judges. However, in as much as a trial by the jury is beneficial to the parties involved in any case, but especially the defendant, it also does have some limitations. Jury trials in juvenile proceedings may result to a backlog of cases and hamper the functioning of the juvenile court. Experience has shown that such trials seriously impede the juvenile justice process (Elrod and Ryder, 2011, pg. 126). Another central issue concerning jury trials for juveniles is the fact that these youth are not tried by a jury of their peers, but a jury of adults. A jury of one’s peers is based on two premises: that the jury be made up of members from the defendants’ community and that the defendant is entitled to an impartial jury (Roesch, Corrado and Dempster, 2001, pg. 53).

Ethical Dimensions of Research Studies Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical Dimensions of Studies - Research Paper Example He therefore, resolves to conduct his testing on HIV/AIDS patients in one of the poorest countries in Africa. This idea works, as this African country, unlike the U.S.A, does not have laws against the withholding of standard treatment. He justifies his action with his assumption that it is better for poor HIV/AIDS patients to receive an unfamiliar treatment, than to die without any treatment at all. This research is an ethics case as it fails to adhere to the principles of conducting a research. The main ethical issues involved in conducting research include informed consent, respect for anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality, and beneficence. Of all these ethical issues, the researcher fails to allow for informed consent of the people to whom, he was administering his new AIDS drug. By not telling the patients the truth about this new drug, and through taking advantage of the weak legal system of the African country, this researcher does not avail an opportunity for the patients to choose if they will be his guinea pigs or not. These patients therefore unknowingly are injected with the new drug, thinking it is the standard medication. In addition, when this researcher fails to give the patients information about the drug, he breaches the patients’ right to information, which is essential for them to base on while making their decisions of agreeing or disagreeing to the process (Murphy, 2004). The possible cause of this researcher’s actions could be the strict rules and standards that the American government places on such sensitive cases, which involve lives of people. In addition, the researcher could have been evading the standard procedure for testing of new drugs, which is often quite long, and costly. This kind of practice by the researcher is sub-standard and does not measure up to the requirements of medical research ethics, thus considered unethical. The researcher does not follow the required procedure for fear of

Monetary Policy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

Monetary Policy - Coursework Example This paper examines the relationship that exists between the monetary policies and the stock market bubbles and concludes that the monetary policies can be varied to have very little control on the stock market movements, as monetary policies like change in the interest rates would be slow in acting on the bubble price movements. However such change in the policy may restrict the influence of the financial instability on the economy that immediately follows the bubble. This paper concludes that the central banks should adopt standard monetary policy or bubble policy depending on the circumstances and the extent of the macroeconomic consequences of the stock bubble price movements. In the process of the study of the impact of the monetary policies on the stock market bubbles the paper also details some of the historic bubbles and crashes. Expanded spells of rapidly appreciating equity, housing, and other assets prices in any country since the twentieth century have brought the impact of monetary policies on the asset market prices to the fore and to the attention of the economists to analyze the phenomenon. The analysis includes the response of the asset market booms as a result of the changed monetary policies. It is the argument from some of the economists that the nature of the financial markets tends to be volatile inherently and that the market prices often go tangentially to fundamentals. Hence they argue that it is possible for the policymakers can improve the welfare activities of the economy by adopting measures to deflate the asset price booms, especially under circumstances where the sudden declines in the asset market prices will have the effect of depressing the economic activity to the advantage of the country. There are other economists who believe that the financial markets are efficient in processing the information provided to them. These economists argue that it is not possible for the policymakers to determine the point of time when the assets are mispriced and hence they cannot adopt policies which will have the effect of improving the welfare of the nation by reacting to the asset price movements. However the stock market boom in the United States in the late 1990s has been found to arise during a

Properties of Cartilage Tissue

Properties of Cartilage Tissue Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction Joint cartilage is highly sophisticated and has been optimised by evolution. There have been considerable research interests related to the cartilage cells, chondrocytes. In the last decades these studies made cartilage the first and very successful tissue engineering treatment. (Brittberg et al. 1994) 1.2 Categorization of cartilage tissue Cartilage tissue are categorised in three major types by their different biochemical composition and structure of their extracellular matrix (ECM). Elastic cartilage has a few cells, a small concentration of proteoglycans (PGs), and a relatively high proportion of elastin fibres. It is found in the epiglottis, small laryngeal, the external ear, auditory tube, and the small bronchi, where it is generally required to resist bending forces. Fibrocartilage also contains a small concentration of PGs, but far less elastin. The meniscus in the knee joint is made of fibrocartilaginous tissue. The third and most widespread cartilage in the human body is hyaline. It is resistant to compression or tensile forces due to the network organisation of type II collagen fibres associated with a high concentration of PGs. Hyaline cartilage can be found in the nose, the trachea, bronchi, and synovial joints. In the latter case, it is termed as articular cartilage, representing a unique type of connectiv e tissue. Its outwards thin layer covers the articulating joint surfaces and belies a specific structure with unique mechanical properties. These two layers acting as a covering material, is fibricated by the viscous synovial fluid. The joint capsule encloses the entire joint and retains the synovial fluid. (Schulz and Bader, 2006) 1.3 Composition of articular cartilage Articular cartilage is composed of chondrocytes and an extracellular matrix that consists of proteoglycans, collagens and water. (Darling and Athanasiou 2005) Chondrocytes contribute only between 5% of the tissue volume; the remaining 95% being composed of extracellular matrix (ECM), which is synthesised by the chondrocytes. (Mollenhauer, 2008; Buckwalter et al. 1988) The ECM of articular cartilage consists of about 60-85% water and dissolved electrolytes. The solid framework is composed of collagens (10-20%), PGs (3-10%), noncollagenous proteins and glycoproteins. (Buckwalter et al. 1997; Buckwalter et al. 1990) In articular cartilage, 95% of collagen in the ECM is comprised of collagen type II fibrils. The rest other collagen types are collagen type IX and XI and a small fraction of types III, VI, XII and XIV. (Eyre 2002) Type-I collagen forms thick fibres. Type-III forms thin  ¬Ã‚ bres. Unlike these two collagens, Type-II collagen which is present in hyaline and elastic cartila ges does not form  ¬Ã‚ bres, and its very thin  ¬Ã‚ brils are disposed as a loose mesh that strongly interacts with the ground substance. (Montes, 1996) This collagen component in articular cartilage provides tensile stiffness and strength to the tissue and opposes the swelling capacity generated by highly negatively charged glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of the proteoglycans (PGs). The majority (50-85%) of the overall PG content in this tissue type were presented by large molecule aggrecan. This consist of a protein backbone, the core protein, to which unbranched GAGs side chains of chondroitin sulphate (CS) and keratan sulfate (KS) are covalently attached. ( 1.1) (Watanabe et al. 1998; Schulz and Bader, 2006) 1.1. Illustration of the extracellular matrix (ECM) organization of articular cartilage (Left) and the schematic sketches (Right) of the most relevant polysaccharides of proteoglycans (PGs) in articular cartilage. The PGs consist of a strand of hyaluronic acid (HA), to which a core protein is non-covalently attached. On the core protein, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) such as keratan sulphate (KS) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) are covalently bound in a bottle brush fashion. (Modified from Schulz and Bader, 2006 and Mow and Wang, 1999) 1.4 Low capacity of self-repair The aneural and avascular nature of articular cartilage, coupled with its low cellularity, contribute to both the limited rate and incomplete nature of the repair process following damage. (Heywood et al., 2004) In addition, the low mitotic potential of chondrocytes in vivo also contributes to its poor ability to undergo self-repair. (Kuroda et al., 2006) Indeed, in experimental studies on adult animals, full-thickness cartilage defects extending into the subchondral bone, have been reported to heal with the formation of fibrous tissue, which contains relatively low amounts of type II collagen and aggrecan. It is also composed of a relatively high content present in type I collagen, not present in normal adult articular cartilage and accordingly exhibits impaired mechanical integrity. (Hjertquist et al., 1971; Eyre et al., 1992) 1.5 Metabolism of articular cartilage Joint cartilage is supplied with nutrients and oxygen by the synovial fluid diffusion facilitated by compressive cyclic loading during joint movements as a pumping function. (Mollenhauer, 2008) Chondrocytes are imbedded in ECM. Within synovial joints, oxygen supply to articular chondrocytes is very limited. The oxygen tensions are very low varying from around 6% at the joint surface to 1% in the deep layers of healthy articular cartilage. It is supposed to be even further decreased under pathological conditions, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. The metabolism of chondrocytes is largely glycolytic. Oxygen-dependent energy generated by oxidative phosphorylation is just a minor contributor to the overall energy in chondrocytes. Articular chondrocytes appear to show a so-called negative Pasteur effect, whereby, glycolysis falls as O2 levels drop leading to the fall in ATP and matrix synthesis. (Gibson JS et al., 2008) A negative Pasteur effect would make chondrocytes parti cularly liable to suffer a shortage of energy under anoxic conditions. (Lee and Urban, 1997) Changes in O2 tension also have profound effects on cell phenotype, gene expression, and morphology, as well as response to, and production of, cytokines. Condrocytes live in hypoxic environments implies that speci ¬Ã‚ c factors are required to control certain genes that are responsible for glucose metabolism, energy metabolism, pH regulation, and other responses. The most important component of this hypoxic response is mediated by transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), which is present in most hypoxia inducible genes. (Pfander and Gelse, 2007; Gibson JS et al., 2008) HIF-1a is necessary for anaerobic energy generation by upregulation of glycolytic enzymes and glucose transporters. (Yudoh et al. 2005) A previous study shows chondrocytes are not able to survive hypoxia in the absence of HIF-1. (Schipani et al. 2001) Moreover, the matrix turnover in articular cartilage is extremely slow. Proteoglycan turnover is up to 25 years. Collagen half-life is estimated to range from several decades up to 400 years. No immune-competent cells (macrophages, T-cells) enter the cartilage tissue. Thus chondrocytes have to defend themselves against hostile microorganisms, leading to its immunologically privileged. (Mollenhauer, 2008) 1.6 Mechanical conditions in vivo In vivo joint loading can result in high peak mechanical stresses (15-20 MPa) that occur over very short durations (1 s) causing cartilage compressive strains of only 1-3%. (Mollenhauer, 2008; Hodge et al., 1986) In contrast, sustained physiological stresses applied to knee joints for 5-30 min can cause compressive strains in certain knee cartilages as high as 40-45%. (Mollenhauer, 2008; Herberhold et al., 1999) A study of the response of articular cartilage from humans to impact load showed that articular cartilage could withstand impact loads of as much as 25 MPa at strain rates from 500 to 1000 s-1 without apparent damage. Impact loads exceeding this level caused chondrocyte death or fissure in the hip or knee. (Repo RU and Finlay JB, 1977) Chapter 2 Osteoarthritis and Treatments 2.1 Osteoarthritis, diagnosis and classification Most cartilage defects are due to direct trauma, but may also occur in avascular necrosis, osteochondritis dissecans, and a variety of cartilage disorders. The defect may be limited to the joint surface (chondral) or involve the underlying bone (osteochondral). (NHS guidance 2006) Articular cartilage defects can progress to osteoarthritis (OA) in some patients, which is a major health problem in developed countries. (Kuroda et al. 2006; Schulz and Bader, 2006; Buckwalter, 2002; Cicuttini 1996) Symptoms may include pain, catching, locking and swelling, and may lead to degenerative changes within the joint. (NHS guidance 2006) Arthroscopy has been used as the â€Å"gold standard† to confirmed cartilage defects. In a review of 31,516 knee arthroscopies of cartilage injury patients, the incidence of chondral lesions was 63%; the incidence of full-thickness articular cartilage lesions with exposed bone were 20% , with 5% of these occurring in patients under 40-years-old. (Marlovits, et al. 2008) Osteoarthritis (OA) severity is commonly graded from radiographic images in accordance with the Kellgren and Lawrence scale Bilateral. (Kellgren and Bier, 1956; Kellgren and Lawrence, 1957) Osteoporosis and erosions which included narrowing of joint space were recorded separately and graded as follows: 0 = no changes; 1 = doubtful joint space narrowing; 2 = minimal change, mostly characterized by osteophytes; 3 = moderate change, characterized by multiple osteophytes and/or definite joint space narrowing; and 4 = severe change, characterized by marked joint space narrowing with bone-on-bone contact with large osteophytes. (Kellgren and Bier, 1956; Husing et al. 2003) The radiologic grade of OA was inversely associated with the joint space width (JSW). (Agnesi et al. 2008) MRI is currently the standard method for cartilage evaluation, as it is a non-invasive, non-contact, multi-planar technique capable of producing high resolution, high contrast images in serial contiguous slices and it enables morphological assessment of the cartilage surface, thickness, volume and subchondral bone. The MRI classification of articular chondral defects are as follows: 1=Abnormal intrachondral signal with a normal chondral surface; 2=Mild surface irregularity and/or focal loss of less than 50% of the cartilage thickness; 3=Severe surface irregularity with focal loss of 50% to 100% of the cartilage thickness; 4=Complete loss of articular cartilage, with exposure of subchondral bone. (Marlovits et al. 2008) Agnesi et al. compared the radiologic grading of OA patients with the joint surface width measurements obtained from MRI images. (Agnesi et al. 2008) 2.2 Non-tissue engineering treatments Pain caused by osteoarthritis can be reduced through a number of methods. (Altman et al. 2006) These include: â€Å"Exercise programmes (strength and flexibility) and lifestyle changes Medication Dietary supplements Knee viscosupplementation Guidelines for viscosupplementation Other injections Custom foot orthotics Knee braces Other assisted devices (canes and walkers) Surgery† Total knee replacement is most commonly performed in people over 60 years of age. (NHS guidance, 2006; Altman et al., 2006; Brittberg et al., 1994) Besides that, the most frequently used treatments include the mosaicplasty, marrow stimulation, and autologous condrocyte implantation (ACI). (Steinwachs et al., 2008) Mosaicplasty is an autologous osteochondral transplantation method through which cylindrical periosteum grafts are taken from periphery of the patellofemoral area which bears less weight, and transplanted to defective areas. This transplantation can be done with various diameters of grafts. (Haklar et al., 2008; NHS guidance, 2006) Marrow stimulation methods include arthroscopic surgery to smooth the surface of the damaged cartilage area; microfracture, drilling, abrasion. All marrow stimulation methods base on the penetration of the subchondral bone plate at the bottom of the cartilage defect. The outflowing bone marrow blood contains the mesenchymal stem cells which are s tabilised by the clot formation in the defect. These pluripotent stem cells which are able to differentiate into fibrochondrocytes, result in fibrocartilage repair with varying amounts of type I, II and III collagen. (Steinwachs et al., 2008) 2.3 The tissue engineering treatment A 1984 study in rabbits reported successful treatment of focal patellar defects with the use of autologous condrocyte implantation (ACI). One year after transplantation, newly formed cartilage-like tissue typically covered about 70 percent of the defect. (Grande et al. 1989) In 1987, Mats Brittber et al. firstly performed ACI in 23 people with deep cartilage defects in the knee. (Brittberg et al., 1994) ACI is described as a three steps procedure: cartilage cells are taken from a minor load-bearing area on the upper medial femoral condyle of the damaged knee via an arthroscopic procedure, cultivated for four to six weeks in a laboratory and then, in open surgery, introduced back into the damaged area as a liquid or mesh-like transplant; at last, a periosteal flap sutured in place to secure the transplant. ( 2.1) (Husing et al., 2008) The cell density of the cultivated cell solution is required to be 30 x 106 cells/ml, or 2 x 106 cells per cm2 in a clinical setting today. (Brittberg e t al., 2003) Genzyme Biosurgery with its product Carticel ® was the first company which introduced ACT into the market and is market leader in USA. Carticel ® is a classic ACT procedure using the periosteal cover. (Husing et al., 2008) Today the periosteum is often replaced by an artificial resorbable cover such as collagen I/III and hyaluronan membrane, such as ChondroGide or Restore (De Puy, Warzaw, Indiana). (Gooding et al., 2006; Jones and Peterson, 2006) Another new method uses chondrocytes cultured on a three-dimensional, biodegradable scaffold. The scaffold, cut to the required size, is fixed into the lesion site with anchoring stitches. This method does not need the cover, thus simplifying the surgery and shorting the surgery time; opens up the possibility of arthroscopic surgery instead of open surgery which causes more tissue damage. HYALOGRAFT from Italy is one of the European market leaders. It is a cartilage substitute made of autologous chondrocytes delivered on a biocompatible tridimentsional matrix, entirely composed of a derivative of hyaluronic acid. (Marcacci et al. 2005) 2.4 Clinical follow-ups of ACI Brittberg studied the long-term durability of ACI-treated patients, 61 patients were followed for at least five years up to 11 years post-surgery (mean 7.4 years). After two years, 50 out of 61 patients were graded good-excellent. At the five to 11 years follow-up, 51 of the 61 were graded good-excellent. The total failure rate was 16% (10/61) at mean 7.4 years. (Brittberg et al., 2003) Since 1997 the year the FDA approved ACI, this method has been widely performed all over the world, in more than 20 000 patients. It has been reported to be effective in  improving clinical symptoms, such as pain and function. (Wakitani et al., 2008) 2.5 Randomised studies In 2004, Knutsen et al. studied 80 patients who needed local cartilage repair because of symptomatic lesions on the femoral condyles measuring 2-10cm2. The results showed there was no signi ¬Ã‚ cant difference in macroscopic or histological results between ACI and microfracture, and that there was no association between the histological  ¬Ã‚ ndings and the clinical outcome at the 2-year time point. (Knutsen et al., 2004) In the same series, there were no signi ¬Ã‚ cant differences in results at 5 years follow-up. (Knutsen et al., 2007) In another randomised controlled study that compared mosaicplasty with ACI, there was no significant difference in the number of patients who had an excellent or good clinical outcome at 1 year (69% [29/42] and 88% [51/58], respectively). In the subgroup of patients who had repairs to lesions of the medial femoral condyle, significantly more patients who had ACI had an excellent or good outcome (88% [21/24]) compared with those who had mosaicplasty (72% [21/29]) (p 2.6 The limitation of ACI The microfracture is a very simple and low-cost procedure whereas ACI costs almost $10 000 per patient. If ACI is not found to be more effective for improving articular cartilage repair than microfracture, the procedure will not be continued. (Wakitani et al., 2008) There are several possible reasons which should be blamed for the limitations of the traditional ACI procedure. The cell source in ACI is the cartilage tissue taken from a minor load-bearing area on the upper medial femoral condyle of the damaged knee via an arthroscopic procedure. However, Wiseman et al. found the chondrocytes isolated from the low loaded area of the knee joint respond in a distinct manner with the chondrocytes from the high loaded area, which suggests the traditional cell source of ACI may not provide enough mechanical response and may further lead to the insufficient mechanical properties of the repaired tissue. (Wiseman et al. 2003) As cultured in monolayer, chondrocytes undergo a process of dedifferentiation and adopt a more  ¬Ã‚ broblast-like morphology, which is accompanied by an increase in proliferation (Glowacki et al., 1983) and an altered phenotype. Type II collagen, the major protein produced by chondrocytes in articular cartilage, are down-regulated culture, while collagen types I and III are increased. (Stocks et al., 2002; Benya et al., 1978) The agregating proteoglycan aggrecan of articular cartilage, is down-regulated during dedifferentiation and replaced by proteoglycans not speci ¬Ã‚ c to cartilage, such as versican. (Glowacki et al., 1983; Stocks et al., 2002) Therefore, monolayer cultured chondrocytes do not express the true chondrocyte phenotype, and their ability to regenerate damaged cartilage tissue is impaired. Upon implantation, dedifferentiated cells may form a  ¬Ã‚ brous tissue expressing collagen type I that does not have the proper mechanical properties, which may lead to deg radation and failure of the repair tissue. (Brodkin et al., 2004) Chondrocytes grown in conditions that support their round shape, such as plating in high-density monolayer (Kuettner et al., 1982; Watt, 1988) and seeding in 3-D gels (Benya et al., 1982) can maintain their differentiated phenotype much longer compared to cells spread in monolayer cultures. Chapter 3 Tissue engineering strategies for articular cartilage 3.1 Introduction Although ACI can still be considered to be one of commonly form of repair of cartilage defects, it does have a number of scientific limitations. Some of those can be resolved using a more comprehensive tissue engineered strategy which incorporates cells, scaffold materials and potentially biochemical, biomechanical and/or physical stimulation in a controlled bioreactor environment. 3.2 Cell sources For a conventional ACI approach, chondrocytes are derived from the low loading area and then cultured in a monolayer. However, chondrocytes derived from the low load bearing area of the knee joint respond in a distinct manner with the chondrocytes from the high loaded area. Chondrocytes cultured in monolayer have a dedifferentiation phenomenon (Described in the previous chapter). In addition, the limitation of the transplant volume is always a major problem in autograft to be overcome (Kitaoka et al., 2001). Thus, potential cell sources are widely studied for the future improvement of ACI approach. Chondrocytes from immature animals (approximately 1-6 weeks old) have been used widely in tissue engineering studies for their ability to increase matrix synthesis and to produce better mechanical properties (Darling and Athanasiou, 2005). Kitaoka et al. examined the possibility of using hyaline cartilage of costal cartilage as a substitute to the knee joint articular cartilage. Costal cartilage cells are derived from 8-week-old male SV40 large T-antigen transgenic mice. Three mouse chondrocyte cell lines (MCC-2, MCC-5, and MCC-35) were established using cloning cylinders, which is a kind of mold. These cell lines showed chondrocytic characteristics, including formation of cartilage nodules that could be stained with alcian blue, and mRNA expression for type II collagen, type XI collagen, ALPase, osteopontin, aggrecan, and link protein (Kitaoka et al., 2001). Animal-derived bone marrow cells, in particular from rabbit origin, have shown a highly variable chondrogenic potential (Solchaga et al., 1999). The establishment of some bone marrow stromal cell lines having the ability of diffrentiation to chondrocyte has been reported, as well as some other cell lines established from rat calvaria, mouse c-fos-induced cartilage tumor and mouse embryonic carcinoma, respectively. Each of the cell lines showed chondrocytic phenotypes (Kitaoka et al., 2001). LVEC cells derived from EBs of human embryonic germ cells were reported to be homogenously differentiated into hyaline cartilage. Three dimensional tissue formation is achieved by encapsulating cells in synthetic hydrogels poly (ethylene glycol diacrylate) (PEGDA) followed by incubation in chondrocyte-conditioned medium (for the recipe, please see the paper) (Varghese et al., 2006). Periosteum consists of two layers. Fibroblasts are from the fibrous layer and progenitor cells are from the cambium layer. Progenitor cells are supposed to be able to differentiate into chondrocytes. Emans et al. compared the chondrocyte and the periosteum cell as cell source for autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) on animals. The results turned out that the condrtocytes are much better for ACI procedure (Emans et al., 2006). 3.3 Scaffolds Biomaterial scaffolds provide a critical means of controlling engineered tissue architecture and mechanical properties; allow cells attach, grow in and proliferation; allow the cell signals travelling through (Freed et al., 2006). In many in vitro or in vivo approaches, cells are grown on biomaterial scaffolds for further research or just for implantation, where new functional tissue is formed, remodelled and integrated into the body. The biomaterials which compose scaffolds are required to satisfy several properties. At first, the material as a support structure must possess enough mechanical strength to protect the cells contained in. Secondly, the material must have some bioactivity to accommodate cells for attachment, growth, proliferation and migration. The material should act as a vehicle for gene, protein and oxygen delivery. Furthermore, the material should be biodegradable for the new cartilage to form and replace the original structure. In this regard, the material should be non-toxic, non-inflammatory active, and also non-immunogenic. Finally, the material should be easy to handle for surgery procedure (Stoop, 2008). 3.3.1 Natural materials Collagen-based biomaterials are widely used in todays clinical practice (for example, haemostasis and cosmetic surgery). Collagen is also be commonly used as main components in tissue engineered skin products. Several commercial autologous chondrocyte transplantation (ACT) products have used collagenous membraneas the replacement for the periosteum to close the defect, such as ChondroGide or Restore (De Puy, Warzaw, Indiana) (Cicuttini et al., 1996; Jones and Peterson, 2006) The .combination of collagen with glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in scaffolds had a positive effect on chondrocyte phenotype. Condrocytes were cultured in porous type I collagen matrices in the presence and absence of covalently attached chondroitin sulfate (CS) up to 14 days in a study (van Susante et al., 2001). Hyaluronic acid is a non-sulphated GAG that makes up a large proportion of cartilage extracellular matrix. In its unmodified form, it has a high biocompatibility (Schulz and Bader, 2007). Matrices composed of hyaluronan have been frequently used as a carrier for chondrocytes. Facchini et al. con ¬Ã‚ rms the hyaluronan derivative scaffold Hyaff  ®11 as a suitable scaffold both for chondrocytes and mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of articular cartilage defects in their study. HYALOGRAFT from Italy is one of the European market leaders for ACT. It is a cartilage substitute made of autologous chondrocytes delivered on a biocompatible tridimentsional matrix, entirely composed of a derivative of hyaluronic acid (Marcacci et al., 2005). Fibrin plays a major role in general wound healing and specially during healing of osteochondral defects. Fibrin glue is currently used for the fixation of other chondrocyte scaffold constructs in defects. Some investigators used fibrin glues as a matrix, but owing to the exceedingly high concentrations and protein densities involved, the glue impeded rather than facilitated cell invasion and did not support a healing response (Stoop, 2008). Susante et al. found fibrin glue does not offer enough biomechanical support as a three-dimensional scaffold (van Susante et al., 1999). Another study found fibrin and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) hybrid scaffold promotes early chondrogenesis of articular chondrocytes in vitro. They used the natural polymer fibrin to immobilize cells and to provide homogenous cells distribution in PLGA scaffolds (Shaban et al., 2008). Sugar-based natural polymers such as chitosan, alginate and agarose can be formulated as hydrogels and in some cases sponges or pads. Although these materials are extensively used in in vitro research, their role in in vivo cartilage reconstruction is still limited (Stoop, 2008). Alginate possesses a number of suitable properties as a scaffold material for cartilage tissue engineering. The mobility of alginate allows the ability of cells to be distributed throughout the scaffold before the gelling phase. Its well-characterized mechanical properties are suitable for the transmission of mechanical stimuli to cells. Furthermore, it has been proved its ability to reestablish and maintain the differentiated state of chondrocytes during long-term culture (Heywood et al., 2004). Agarose is a clear, thermoreversible hydrogel which has been applied in numerous studies in cartilage tissue engineering. This hydrogel is supportive of the chondrocyte phenotype and allows for the synthesis of a fu nctional extracellular matrix. Agarose is neutrally charged, and forms solid gels at room temperature. The initial strength of the gel is dependent on the rate of gelling, which in turn is dependent on the ambient temperature. Gel strength is also strongly dependent on the concentration of the gel in solution. Basic science studies involving agarose gel formation have demonstrated that rapid cooling leads to a decreased, more homogeneous pore size. Increasing the gel concentration additionally decreases gel pore size and permeability. A number of studies have used agarose for the investigation of chondrocyte growth and response to mechanical stimuli (Ho MMY et al., 2003). 3.3.2 Synthetic materials Potential synthetic material scaffolds for the tissue engineering of bone or cartilage include: PL (Polylactic acid) PGLA (Polyglycolicacid and copolymers) CF-PU-PLLA (Carbonfibre-Polyurethane-Poly(L-lactide)-Graft) CF-Polyester (Polyester-Carbonfibre) PU (Polyurethane) PLLA (Capralactone (Poly-L-Lactide/epsilon-Caprolactone) PLLA-PPD (Poly- L-Lactic Acid and Poly- p-Dioxanol) PVA-H (Polyvinylalcohol-Hydrogel) ß-TCP (Tricalcium phosphate) CDHA (Calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite) (Haasper et al., 2008) The major advantages of the synthetic polymers are their design flexibility and avoid of disease transmission. Synthetic polymers can be easily processed into highly porous 3-dimensional scaffolds, fibres, sheets, blocks or microspheres. However, there are also disadvantages of some synthetic polymers, such as the potential increase in local pH resulting from acidic degradation products, excessive inflammatory responses and poor clearance and chronic inflammation associated with high molecular weight polymer (Stoop, 2008). Poly(glycolic acid) (PGA), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) have been investigated for use as cartilage tissue engineering scaffolds (Cima et al., 1991; Vacanti et al., 1991). Both, in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated these scaffold maintained the chondrocyte phenotype and the production of cartilage-speci ¬Ã‚ c extracellular matrix (ECM) (Barnewitz et al., 2006; Kaps et al., 2006). In addition, PLGA is used as a scaffold material for matrix-based autologous chondrocyte transplantation clinically for more than 3 years (Ossendorf et al., 2007). 3.4 Biomedical stimulation Growth factors are proved to be able to promote the formation of new cartilage tissue in both explants and engineered constructs (Darling and Athanasiou, 2005). Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) can dramatically increase biosynthesis level of choncroctyes, especially in the presence of mechanical stimulation (Bonassar et al. 2001; Jin et al. 2003). Transforming growth factor-ÃŽ ²1 (TGF-ÃŽ ²1) increases biosynthesis in engineered constructs and also stimulates the cellular proliferation (Blunk et al. 2002; van der Kraan et al. 1992). Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) stimulates cell proliferation (Adolphe et al. 1984) and biosynthesis (Fujimoto et al. 1999) in chondrocytes which were cultured under a variety of conditions. 3.5 Mechanical stimulation ACI is considered a proper way for the repair of cartilage defect. However, one of the obstacles to the use of autologous chondrocytes is the limited in vitro proliferation rate of these cells. A lot of stimulations have been found to be effective in stimulating cell proliferation and ECM synthesis, including mechanical, electrical, ultrasound (Parvizi et al., 1999; Noriega et al., 2007) and even laser (Torricelli et al., 2001) stimulation. Mechanical forces due to body movement are experienced by articular cartilage every day. These forces include direct compression, tensile and shear forces, or the generation of hydrostatic pressure and electric gradients. Some level of these forces is beneficial to chondrocytes. (Schulz and Bader, 2007; Shieh and Athanasiou, 2007) There are many studies which have described the design of bioreactor systems, which can apply shear forces, perfusion, tension, hydrostatic pressure, static compression, dynamic compression on cartilage explants, monolayer cultured cells or tissue engineered constructs. (Schulz and Bader, 2007) Previous work on these bioreactor systems has demonstrated that chondrocytes are highly mechanosensitive. A summary of the key studies is provided in Table 3.1. Static compression leads to decreased levels of sulfate and proline incorporation (Sah et al., 1989; Ragan et al., 1999). Type II collagen and aggrecan gene expression increase transiently, but decrease when exposed to longer durations of static compression (Ragan et al., 1999). In contrast, dynamic compression of cartilage explants stimulates sulfate and proline incorporation, while chondrocytes em bedded in hydrogels produce more matrix and form robust constructs when cyclically compressed. (Lee and Bader, 1997; Mauck et al., 2000) Table 3.1. Influence of the different models of mechanical stimulation on the biochemical response of articular chondrocytes. References Type of m