Just Breathing Essay -- essays research papers

Just Breathing Ill-timed encounters with torment and death will always leave one behind as a reflective and thought full individual. â€Å"Just Breathing†, which was published in 1997 in the book â€Å"Sex, Drugs, Rock’n’Roll: Stories to end the centuryâ€Å", deals with a woman who feels, that she has changed after a strange meeting with the woman Magde. This essay contains an analysis and an interpretation of Nina and the function Madge has in Nina’s life. The story begins quite sudden because the reader is practically thrown into the story and the characters aren’t introduced. If you take a look at the verbs in the first three lines you will see that most of them are written in past tense. Therefore you can see that the narrator is looking back on the story of Nina. It’s unclear whether or not the narrator knows Nina, but by examining the text furtherer it becomes more and more obvious that it is a narrator who is present in the short story. From time to time while telling the story the narrator interrupts Nina to comment on the thoughts and actions of her, â€Å"Line 6, p 1 [why did illness never strike in term time?]† and â€Å"Line 101, p 4[buying twenty Benson & Hedges. (Twenty!)]†. In this short story Diana Hendry uses interior monologues to show the emotionally affected woman, Nina, and her life after a close encounter with death. Nina is a middle-aged woman who has taught English Literature for 15 years and she is married to Tom. After a serious asthma attack Nina is back at home...

Freedmans Bureau :: essays research papers

The Freedman’s Bureau   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Freedman’s Bureau was set up after the Civil War even though it went against three main traditional values of the time. The first being limited government, which mean that the government could and could not do certain things. It also was the basis for the idea of the government’s power being limited. The second was sanctity of private property. At this time you made your own money to buy land and it was your land that no one could take away from you. The government did not give handouts. The last was self-help, which meant that if you had problems, and then you and only you solved them. It also made the people question welfare, unemployment, and government aid, and their simple solution was not to have it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The bureau however had its success and failures contrary to these fundamental ideas. One of the main successes was the education program that the bureau set up. By 1870 there were over 150,000 African American’s enrolled in these schools. Many of the schools set up still stand and educate many today even. Three of the main failures of the bureau came about because of the hatred in the south, and the anti-black attitude. The first being the land that was supposed to be given to the freed men after the civil war, never happened because the land was given back to the plantation owners. The second was the labor contracts, they began as a good idea, but the contracts were often unfair. They were set up to determine wages, clothing, and medical care, often it was made to be worse than slavery was. The final unsuccessful part was the judicial system of the bureau. Over time it became rather unfair and was the main cause for the labor contracts to be so harsh. The other blame of the failure can be linked to the attitude of southerners.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The southerners did not see blacks as equals. They would fight to the end to keep the blacks lower than them.

American Culture vs. Jewish Culture: Success Stems from Beyond Marriage

To the modern married woman, nothing assures her of success in her career more that the support she receives from her husband in the pursuit of her career goals. While this kind of support is not always assured, the freedom to pursue her goals without any limitations from her husband works just as well.In fact, women have proved that they can multitask between marriage and a successful career. The medieval idea that a woman is only useful for reproduction purposes once she gets married does not hold water anymore. Through the ages, women have proven their resilience at defying all odds and proving to the word that they are worth more than the domestic roles they were given at marriage.Throughout history, the role of married women as wives, mothers and housekeeper was of much importance both to them and to the family unit.   In Judaism, these roles received respect and were the basis for the exemption of women from time barred commandments (Jones, M. 1999). Accordingly, the role tha t the woman played was given overriding significance to fulfilling commandments.Anti-feminists have over time used the exemption rule that Jewish women enjoyed to state that in actual sense the rule was a prohibition that women should not perform commandment. Although they are the epitome of feminine liberation, many people may not know that Jewish women have overtime fought for their liberation by quoting phrases that favor their position in the society from the  Ã‚   Talmud (Jones, M. 1999).Such rules allow them to perform commandments that are not time restricted. However, the detractors argue that even though they are recognized, as worth some services, they are not as highly rated as their male counterparts. To this, the women argue that the role a wife does not revolve around the synagogue. Many women hold this role in high regards and as a basis of fighting their critics.To understand the situation that women had to contend with through the centuries, one needs to look at t he evolution of marriage through the times.In the older days, marriage for women was out of lack of a better thing they could engage their time in all areas of life. Women were disadvantaged and never gained the skills required to lead successful lives without the support of the socially advantaged male figure.In most cases, women had no control over certain like education, as their roles were purely reserved for domestic duties. Early in life, young girls were taught that their sole purpose was marriage and child bearing (Gordis, D.H. 2008).When they were ripe of age, and considering that, the society had created a dependant mentality in them, the women were under pressure to get a suitable husband and get married. Ideally, the man was supposed to provide for the woman and any dependants that resulted from the relationship.The woman’s social standing was so low such that they would be used to secure business transactions. Accordingly, the fathers were at liberty to sell thei r daughters to whoever pleased them, whether the woman liked the man they were being sold off to or not.The 17th century however had better things for women. They begun to exert more power to the men and consequently demanded for more freedoms.They begun to resist marriage through coercion and instead put their personal happiness beyond  Ã‚   the pressure from family and the society. Though the start was shaky, the wars that hit America in 1775 and 1812 led to the rise of a more liberal group of women,   who took the roles that their husbands and still brought food to the table as well as handling their regular domestic chores.It has always been a common view for women to be seen as the source of human life- something they take pride in. The problem is that with this view come other negative thoughts too.Good examples are thoughts expressed by Thomas Aquinas, a theologian in the 13th century who said that men can be assisted by fellow men in other things except in conception. Fo r this reason, he referred to women as men’s helpmate and defined her unique role as conception.A Latin Church founder in the 4th century, St. Jerome also cast demeaning aspersion to women just like Thomas Aquinas did. To Jerome however, women were the devil’s gate. In fact, his sentiments were so string that he believed that women were the only way to wickedness and thus to him they were no more than perilous objects that men had to be wary of (Hooker, R. 1996).Naturally, women are considered the weaker sex, a fact that continued to perpetuate their low position in society. Because they were not as masculine as their male counterparts, they were relegated domestic chores such as milking cows, tending the children, drawing water and washing clothes.Men were oblivious of the fact that the energy required to do the collective household chores was even more than some of the hard labor than would do in the fields.   The psychological tolerance that women developed while attending to such chores was to benefit them years later  Ã‚   when the oppression against them by men became too much to bear.The â€Å"woman’s place is in the home† stereotype is a result of their biological role as birth givers. Before the 16th century, women did not express themselves in a way to portray that they were tired of the status quo. Instead, they submissively obeyed everything that the male figures in their lives would tell them to do. These male figures could be anybody from their fathers, husbands, brothers or cousins.The American CultureWomen present in the colonial America –whether black, natives or Hispanic- all had one common characteristic; they all obeyed the dictates of their husbands, fathers, brothers or masters.   Ã‚  It was not until later when British Settlers enlighten the view of these women and by indicating to them that men did not necessarily have to be rulers over them.A point in the case of John Locke, an English philosoph er   Ã‚  who was also renowned as an enlightenment thinker   and played a   major role in informing the American women that they had   individual identities   and needed to   care for ‘the self’ Shultz, S.K and Tishler W.P. 2003, pg 45).The American culture was such that a woman had no property rights. They could not sue, nor be sued and had no right to vote, divorce or speak on behalf of the family unit. It was until the 19th century that women gained rights to divorce and vote.The right to vote was granted to them through the passing of the 19th amendment in 1919. Eleven years earlier, women’s efforts to have a day set in their honor, which they wanted to name Mother’s day, had been rejected by the senate on the grounds that the day would demean motherhood (Shultz, S.K and Tishler W.P. 2003 pg52).The American Revolution which lasted for the better half of the 18th century was an eye opener for most women. One of the outstanding factors is tha t women’s roles at home changed. This because they were required to instill thoughts of patriotism to their children during a time when the husbands were out fighting the Britons.The absence of a male figure at home also contributed to more liberal wife-husband relationship. When the economic fortunes took a turn for the worse, women invariably took jobs formally reserved for men to earn extra money for household use. In rare cases, they would run the family businesses (Hartman, M.1996 pg 44).Surprisingly though, the little gains that American   women had   made during this time only worsened   men subordination towards them especially   because   they figured that women were threatening their roles as the head of household. Worse still, the laws saw to the disenfranchising and subordination of women both socially and legally (Lewis 2000).

Heroes Speech

When I was a kid, my super hero was Superman, I kind of admired him because I thought it would be cool to be able to fly and to have super-human strength, but the main reason why I liked Superman is because he helped people, no matter what. According to Times Magazine, we have become a society that is centered on self, self-gratification, self-motivation, self-indulgence, and it has been a driving force in developed countries since decades now; and as a result, we are witnesses to the slow death of the Hero.Today I want to tell you a little bit about how we define what a hero is , what it takes to be a hero, and how you and I can help refresh the effects of heroisme. So lets start with how we define what a heroe is. The definitions of a hero, according to â€Å"El Libro de los Heroes† says that â€Å"A hero is a person noted for feets of courage and ability of purpose, specially the one who risks or sacrifices his or her life†, but it goes on to say that its a person no tused for special achievement on a particular field, such as the heroes of medicine.Basically, agreeing with the â€Å"World Hero Association† a hero is someone who for whatever reason or reasons does something for somebody else without thinking about themselves, personal gane, and in some cases personal endangerment . So who are these heros? I mean where are they? For real, where are they? Well, we see them everyday. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, they are doctors, and nurses, and soldiers, firefighters and police officers, but they are also teachers, and mothers, and fathers, and care-givers, and social-workers, and YOU, that’s right, YOU.You have the potential to be a hero, you have what it takes to be a hero. You see, comic books mostly represent exagerated heroes in capes with symbols, and give them super human powers to make them larger than life, but I’m here to tell you that you don’t really need the cape, its just for show, and you don†™t really need the symbol. We watch movies like The Lorf of The Rings, where, you know, we see all the action going on with the sword play; but sometimes we miss the hidden messages within that say â€Å"you can be a hero even if you think your weak and powerless, you don’t have to jump over tall buildings†.The news only highlights the tramatic acts of heroism like Hurricane Katrina or September 11th, this implies that in order for you to be a hero you must put yourself in danger. But that could not be farther from the truth. The turth is that ANYONE has the potential to be a Hero all you need are two factors One, you need opportunity. And two, you need initiative. So lets say that all of us in this room go out and start looking for those opportunities, and we start noticing things where we can give help, and then we start taking that initiative.We could start the chain reaction that spreads the sparks of heroism. Heroism is a powerful thing. Anyone at anytime and ha s the potential to be a hero anywhere. They can be that person who helps that lady carry her grocers to her car, or the employ who stays late to help a coworker get something done. These are the characteristics of a hero that we should all embrace and be willing to make our own. We need to encourage heroic traits because it will benefit society as a whole, but ourselves as well in the process.At the Berkeley â€Å"THDM† there is an article called â€Å"We can be Heroes† and they wrap it up by saying â€Å"If we loose the ability of imagine ourselves as heroes, our society will be cored for, but if we can re-connect with this ideals, we can create a connection with a hero within ourselves. † So to sum up, the â€Å"Urban Dictionary† defines a hero as someone admired for their achievements and qualities, but what is a hero for you?For me a hero is someone who touches our lives in a personal way and does not do it for themselves. Now more than ever we need h eros, we need to be those heros. And if we start looking for those opportunities and start stepping forward and taking that initiative. We can make the difference. Heros come and heros go, heros die and some heros have grown old, for someone you know and someone you don’t be that hero.

Malaria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Malaria - Essay Example Anopheles plays a pivotal role in the development of Plasmodium. The growth of the microbe from the gametocytic stage to the sporozoite stage takes place inside the body of the female Anopheles. The body of the mosquito provides ambient temperature and humidity to the developing microbe and the female survives long enough to allow the parasite complete its lifecycle in the mosquito body. Anopheles breed on water and each species has its own preference when it comes to selection of breeding place for example some like puddles, shallow water, fresh water or even hoof prints. b. Apicomplexa protozoa: Plasmodium Apicomplexans are also known as sporozoans. All apicomplexans are obligatory and intracellular microbes i.e. they need to spend at least some part of their life cycle within an animal host. Important characteristics of apicomplexans include the presence of tiny organ like structures which are present at the very tips of the cells. These tiny organ-like structures contain enzymes which helps the microbe penetrate into the host tissue. One of the most well known and pathogenic genera of apicomplexans includes Plasmodium- which causes malaria. Plasmodium’s lifecycle is spent in two stages- in the body of mosquitoes and that of humans. It ultimately affects humans and causes rupture in the blood vessels. There are more than 100 Plasmodium species which can infects living organisms however only 4 of these species cause infection in humans- Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae. The lifecycles of the four species affecting humans are similar. Lifecycle: The lifecycle begins when a female Anopheles carrying malaria parasite sucks... The paper talks about the cause of Malaria, lifecycle, diagnosis and treatment, development of a vaccine, advanced prophylaxis. According to the paper it is needless to say that malaria has been a curse on human health. However, the recent advances in development of vaccination are quite promising. Efforts need to be made to spread awareness about diagnosis and treatment to people who may not have access to them especially in the poor tropical countries. Future research should aim at not only developing vaccines but also developing better chemoprophylaxis agents. Worldwide the Anopheles mosquito is known as malaria mosquito because it is considered to be the primary vector for malaria. The anopheles mosquito is found worldwide except for in Antarctica. The disease is transmitted by the female anopheles. As the report says since malaria is worldwide public health problem, researchers have been trying to develop vaccines against the disease to lend protection against the parasites. The development of a vaccine would mean lower mortality, morbidity and economic costs involved with the treatment of the disease, awareness programs etc. the aim of the researchers are to wipe the disease from the earth. It was first in 1960, that it was thought that the development of a vaccine for malaria was feasible. It was seen that IrSp (irradiated sporozoites) rendered rodents immunized. Next the IrSp vaccine was tested on human volunteers with anopheles bite and it was seen that the vaccine was highly species specific. The multifactorial protection given by the vaccine involves direction of neutralized antibodies against circumsporozite and it is this idea that is today being researched upon to develop a better and much effective vaccine.

The processes of evolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The processes of evolution - Essay Example terbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other groups, (Hausdorf, 2011).’In essence a species is considered the biggest gene pool that can occur under natural conditions. Populations connected by gene flow are often hard to classify. While a species concept defines the conditions under which a population should be classified as a species a population are individuals that belong to a specific species and are usually located in an area that is able to be defined. Populations interact with other populations in their environments and their physical environment; also interacting with those populations of another species. Populations that grow exponentially can reach the maximum sustainable of their population in a certain environment. There are four different forces of evolution; natural selection, mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Natural selection has four different components which struggle with each other to change certain traits within populations (University of Michigan, 2010). Natural selection is subject to inheritance, whereas traits are passed on through heredity, variation such as hair color and eye color or other individual characteristics. An increased rate of population growth means that each population is subject to struggle for a dwindling supply of resources. Finally differential survival and reproduction means that those individual’s more suited to the struggles will pass on more offspring and genes which are able to withstand different conditions. Natural selection depends on traits that are inheritable. Mutation causes new genetic variations in a certain gene pool. These mutations cause the variation in genetics that allow others evolutionary forces to act such as natural selection, gene flow and genetic drift. Gene flow occurs when individual’s move into and out of certain populations. An example of this would be Americans resettling in other Countries and producing offspring. This affects that

INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE MANAGEMENT Lab Report

INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE MANAGEMENT - Lab Report Example otal profit that can be obtained while satisfying the constraints (in this case maximum benefit of 710) gave 26 for moulding, 14 for trimming and 13 for packaging. However, these values gave a profit of 705 which is less by 5. What this means is that an increase in either of the tree variables will give a gain value that is way above the limit that the company has in stored for the items (710). Therefore, the optimal values that the manufacturing can order and make optimal profit while satisfying the constraints is 26, 14, and 13 for moulding, trimming, and packaging respectively. Besides, the maximum amount of time that each component of moulding can take is represented in the above table. From the solver output, it is apparent that the production time remained. The maximum production time utilised in the manufacture was less from the total allocated time by 2500, 1700, and 300 for moulding, trimming, and packaging respectively. The remaining time could not be accounted for because any change in any of the three variables resulted in higher increase in the total amount of time allocated for each component. Therefore, the entire time was not utilised to obtain maximum production while satisfying the constraints of the equation. The result given by the solver is the optimal selection for each component that gives a maximum profit. One would argue that since the amount of resources available was not fully utilised its sensitivity was not 100%. However, it is apparent that the sensitivity for this selection was (705 / 710) * 100= 99.2%. Though this sensitivity is not perfect, it is relatively high and appropriate. Therefore, the choice of each component given by the solver is sensitive as per the requirement to satisfy the constraints. Selection of parameters that satisfy constraints at 99% is a better option than a percentage lower because such selection should not exceed the available resource. For this reason, these values were the optimal and maximal choice