Exploring the greek mythology through the ‘Odyssey’

Literary narratives such as the Greek and the Roman mythologies have played a great part on the development of societies around the world. Especially in the context of western civilization, the mythologies of the Greeks and the Romans significantly shaped the culture of this region. Aside from its culture, it also highly influenced its society in general. In fact, politics and religion are also explained in the light of the Greek and Roman mythologies. In this paper, it will explore on the Greek mythology through the myth on the ‘Odyssey’. More specifically, it will emphasize on its main character by the name of Odysseus or Ulysses. Through this character, this paper will be able to explain the role of myth on the changing cultural make-up of Greece. In particular, this myth will serve as an instrument in identifying the way Greeks perceive and use mythologies. Finally, this paper will also present the different key points of the myth. The Odyssey is an epic of Homer about the adventures of Odysseus. Specifically, this myth is considered as the sequel to the earliest well-known surviving work in Western literature which is the ‘Iliad’. In comparison to many sequels in the present era, the ‘Odyssey’ is considered to be distinct because of its originality and even stands as an independent work. (Napierkowski, 1998a) It has been said that its main character, Odysseus, has been a celebrated hero in the Greek mythology. Being the central character in the ‘Odyssey’, he is best known for is adventures during his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. His journey to home on Ithaca took ten years because of the anger of the sea god Poseidon. During his journey and adventures, the hero went to many wondrous and dangerous places. Along the way, he lost all his companions and the treasure he had gotten from Troy Arriving home at last after an absence of 20 years, Odysseus had to defeat rivals trying to take possession of his wife and his kingdom. Then he had to prove his identity to his wife, Penelope. (Wickersham, 2000) The adventures of Odysseus are highlighted by his achievement of victory in various challenges or struggles. Among this is the encounter with the Ciconians, the Lotus-eaters, Polyphemus, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Journey to the underworld, the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of Helios as well as the Calypso and the Phaecians. More importantly, one can also add the difficulties he acquired upon his arrival in Ithaca due to the suitors of his wife, Penelope. Eventually, all of these trials were conquered by Odysseus. Therefore, he was dubbed as a hero. Moreover, the qualities he manifested during his trials were considered as the qualities of a real or true hero. Undoubtedly, the voyages and troubles encountered by Odysseus highlights the concept of heroism, loyalty, creativity and order. In addition, the ‘Odyssey’ is also famous for its use of symbolism as well as for the pace and variety of its action. With this, both the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ set the standard by which epic poetry, if not all poetry of any kind, was judged in the past 1,500 years. More importantly, the story on the wanderings of Odysseus has remained a perennial favorite to the present day. (Napierkowski, 1998a) Basically, the appeal of the ‘Odyssey’ is derived from its nature as being able to present the Greek people as well as the way of life in ancient Greek society. In short, the story serves as an archetype to various societies and not just the Greek community. Particularly, the characters of Penelope and Odysseus serve as a role model to the multitude. Their way of life has been the idealized life of the many. Until today, the moral of the story has continuously been resonated to the people of any culture or ethnic group. Furthermore, the theme of human condition is the most important theme in the ‘Odyssey’. In the story, almost every aspect of humanity is depicted- good, bad, young, old, individuals and groups, the living and even the dead. Other themes also include love and loyalty, order and disorder, heroic craftiness, the nature of women, triumph over temptation, home, the epic journey, the God’s involvement, revenge, heroism and, creativity, imagination and deception. Â  (Napierkowski, 1998b) Indeed, the story of Odysseus made a great impact on the society of the Greek people. In fact, even in the present day, the story on the adventures of this great hero is still related to many people around the world. In the contemporary society, people have created a modern version of the ‘Odyssey’ through the aid of media technology. This is evident on the animated version of this story in order to cater the needs of the children or the young generation. REFERENCES Burns, M. (1996, May 1). The wanderings of the Odysseus: The story of ‘The Odyssey.’ The Horn Book Magazine. Â  72 (3). Napierkowski, Marie Rose. (Ed). (1998). Odyssey: Introduction. Epics for students. Vol.1. Detroit: Gale. (1998). Odyssey: Themes. Epics for Students. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, Wickersham, John M. (Ed). (2000). Odysseus. Myths and Legends of the World. Macmillan: Thomson Gale. Â  

Local Lit Foreign Lit Essay

In this chapter one of the most important early steps in a research project is the conducting of the literature review. This chapter will explain how review of related literature is very important in conducting a study. This is also one of the most humbling experiences you’re likely to have. Because you’re likely to find out that just about any worthwhile idea you will have has been thought of before, at least to some degree. A literature review is designed to identify related research, to set the current research project within a conceptual and theoretical context. The greatest emphasis on research journals that use a blind or juried review system. The literature review will help to find and select appropriate measurement instruments. It will readily see what measurement instruments researchers used themselves in contexts similar to the study. Finally, the literature review will help to anticipate common problems in the research context. It can use the prior experience s of others to avoid common traps and pitfalls. 2.1 Related Literature Local Literature The Department of Education said Monday â€Å"it’s all systems go† for the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE), adding that it expects some 1.5 million fourth year high school students from both public and private schools to participate. â€Å"The annual conduct of the NCAE gives the students and the parents an idea on the field of endeavor most suited to the graduating students thus, allowing for better decision on their choice of career,† Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said. A major part of the exam consists of the general scholastic aptitude test. It also measures a graduating student’s potentials or inclination in such areas as technical-vocational aptitude, entrepreneurial skills, nonverbal ability and occupational interest. The test components are: scientific ability, mathematical ability, reading comprehension, verbal ability, manipulative skills, clerical ability, non-verbal ability and entrepreneurial skills. The exam results are at best recommendatory and are not a requisite for admission to college. There were 717,232 students or 58.62 percent who obtained high aptitude in entrepreneurship. Some 20,307 students with high general scholastic aptitude scores and 22,879 students with high results in technical-vocational aptitude became eligible. (James Konstantin Galvez, n.d.) It says in the article that the assessment exam will determine which career path is best after graduation from high school based on the individual test results. The examination will also minimize the mismatch in career choices and skills that has affected many college graduates who were not well advised about what career path they should take. *PMA exam passers eye academy’s 300 slots.The 942 passers of the recent Philippine Military Academy (PMA) entrance exams will still have to battle it out to make it to the 300-strong cast of final cut and fulfill their dreams of being a member of the PMA Class 2013. The PMA entrance examination is the just first step of a highly competitive process for cadet aspirants in the PMA. To secure a slot in the academy, examination passers will then have to overcome the rigid and complete physical fitness test and medical examination set in early October. But the good news is PMA’s officials are reportedly planning to talk with the Armed Forces of the Philippines general headquarters to extend the final cut qualifiers by 30 to 50. Those who will qualify the second stage will be notified by the PMA thru mail, while the complete list of passers will be published in some major national broadsheets and at the PMA website at www.pma.ph. And although the exam is just the beginning, PMA Supt. M/Gen. Leopoldo Maligalig appreciated the 18-percent passing rate this year, only a whisker ahead of last year’s 16 percent. Records show that applicants from Baguio registered the highest passing percentage in the entrance exam at 27 percent with 133 passers. There were 8, 449 regulars and 1,834 walk-in applicants nationwide but only 5, 777 have qualified to take the entrance examinations. 5, 652 completed the battery test in mathematics, English and special PMA aptitude test. PMA, considered the country’s top military institution, has been accepting more than 10,000 to 12, 000 applicants in the past years. Academy’s information officer Lady Capt. Agnes Lynnette Flores, however, noted that there has been a decrease in the number of aspiring cadets as a result of PMA’s more rigid training intended to maintain its reputation of producing high-quality cadets and future true leaders.â€Å"The program is also geared to insulate PMA cadets from politics and to mold them into constitutional soldiers who must defend the fundamental law of the land at all costs,† she said. *MMDA chief: Address job mismatch. Saying the education system is failing to produce the skills needed by the private industry, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando yesterday called for joint public-private collaboration to address the problem of job mismatch. â€Å"The government, schools and private business should get together for an exchange of views on dominant and emerging jobs and the skills needed to fill the jobs,† Fernando said. He suggested human-resource planning to forecast the demand for and supply of critical skills. The planning could be done on an industry basis. Fernando proposed that companies provide the necessary training and retraining, while colleges and universities review their curricula to offer business-friendly courses. The government should also enhance its free training program through the Technical and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) by opening more training centers in rural areas and strengthening its vocational training program. Current opportunities, Fernando noted, are in the fields of information technology, retail, manufacturing, tourism, hospitality and accounting, adding that the call center industry has an opening for at least 60,000 jobs this year. Fernando said the Philippine economy should also continue to grow in order to provide more better-paying jobs that would entice Filipinos to stay in the country. While overseas Filipino workers are providing billions of dollars in remittances for the Philippine economy, their absence in the country also contributes to the brain/skills drain and to dysfunctional families, he observed. Local industries have estimated incurring an additional P1 billion for recruiting and training new workers to replace those who have left to work abroad. Foreign Literature DepEd asked not to rank schools in NAT. The Federation of Association of Private Schools and Administrators (FAPSA) is asking the Department of Education (DepEd) not to rank schools in the National Achievement Test (NAT), saying it is not a healthy competition. â€Å"Our group would not mind the intention of Secretary (Jesli) Lapus provided the outcome would not be published,’’ he added. Kasilag made the appeal after the DepEd administered the NAT to sixth graders and second year high school students last March 5 and 12. â€Å"The conduct of the test had paved the way for ingenious access to leakage. Former DepEd secretary Raul Roco had admitted that questions and answers could bought in the provinces,’’ he said. Kasilag said the NAT, being the precursor of NCEE in the 90’s then NEAT and NSAT in 2000, was the same exam for whose abolition his group lobbied for. Roco abolished the NCEE in a bid to allow more students to enter college. He cited the case of a female student in his school (St. Nicholas school in Marikina) who failed to graduate as valedictorian because she didn’t do well in NEAT exam years back. â€Å"The mother asked â€Å"why should a day’s exam matter most over the entire six years of study in elementary? Schools already have 4 periodicals, 10 monthly tests, countless quizzes and daily assignments, are these not enough?’’ he said. (Shianee Mamanglu, March 18, 2009) The ranking of schools in a publication had proved to be divisive and resulted in unhealthy competition among private schools. Schools that lagged behind prepared rigorously to recover at the expense of regular academic curriculum. Ofcourse, if the result is published it will only cause disgrace to the schools. The conduct of the NAT is not reliable enough to assess the total performance of students, since students, particularly those from the provinces, can buy questions, answers and grades. *Mandatory psych test for leaving OFWs opposed. â€Å"We will also stage various mass actions in national level in the coming weeks to show Malacanang and the House members that there is indeed clamor for this,† he added. Basas, however, expressed appreciation to Secretary Lapus and the entire DepEd in lobbying for the immediate approval of the proposed bill. He also lauded the Senate for the immediate approval of its counterpart proposed law in the Upper Chamber. TDC claimed that since 2001 public school teachers had only two salary increases amounting to P2, 000 combined. Mandatory psych test for leaving OFWs opposed. Manila, Philippines — A coalition of migrants’ rights organizations has opposed the proposal to make psychiatric examination mandatory for leaving overseas Filipino household service workers. Ellene Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrants Advocacy (CMA), said the proposal was made by the Department of Foreign Affairs, citing a study by the Department of Health of mental cases among overseas Filipino workers. She said they got the information from Poe Gratela, private sector representative to the governing body of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), during a consultation meeting on August 6. In Resolution No. 05, Series 2008, the Consultative Council on OFWs (CCOFW), of which CMA is a member, argued that this mandatory psychiatric exam only for household service workers is discriminatory, will be an additional cost to OFWs, and does not guarantee objectivity. *The council also said the test presupposes that the root problem is the workers’ psychiatric disposition. It said this presumption is â€Å"unfounded and illogical.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Sound psychiatric test results of a worker cannot guarantee one’s sanity because there are simply too many aggravating factors such as work environment, cultural differences, language barriers, and emotional stress that affect OFWs’ physical and mental conditions,† it said. The council pointed out data which shows that 78 percent of the household service workers deemed mentally unfit were deployed in the Middle East. This indicates that â€Å"what is needed is for the government to look at the working conditions in the Middle East of the household service workers, and not these workers’ mental states,† it said. Instead, the council proposed that the government administer mandatory psychiatric examinations to all government personnel deployed overseas â€Å"to determine their psychological and emotional preparation for overseas assignments, particularly, in handling cases of workers in distress.† *Aside from CMA’s Sana, the other signatories to the resolution are: Fr. Savino Bernardi of the Apostleship of the Sea, Fr. Edwin Corros of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Ecumenical Commission on Migrants and Itinerants, Luis Andres Maya of the Scalarini Center for People on the Move, Fr. Fabio Baggio of the Scalabrini Migration Center,Gwendolyn Valencia of the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch, Carmelita Nuqui of the Development Action for Women Network, Gina Espinosa of Kaibigan Inc., Francisco Aguilar Jr. of the Fil Migrant Workers Group, Mildred Yamzon and Dr. Gloria Itchon of the Women in Development Foundation, and Luther Calderon of Kampi. *Naveed Azim and Imran Naqvi and Kashif ur Rehman. Learning of student can be assessed by objective type and subjective type questions. Educationists and behavioral scientists declare subjective writing skills essential for senior management positions. Investigation revealed that IT professionals who qualified through objective type online examination and lack subjective writing skills could not earn rise in career to top management positions easily. The study considered ability of a student to express knowledge subjectively as the independent variable and higher management position requirements as the dependent variable. It hypothesized better the student of higher level education in his/her subjective expression, more considerable s/he will be for positions at senior management in business organizations. The study selected 100 private companies engaged in the field of Information Technology (IT) in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan who seek OCP or MCSD or MCSE certified professionals. SalonBooker is the leading online scheduling, point-of-sale and business management software for the beauty industry. Thousands of businesses have joined the GramercyOne family to provide online booking to their customers, manage day-to-day operations and drive new business. SalonBooker is completely web-based, which makes it available from any computer with a browser and internet connection, anywhere at any time, even via an smart phone or iPad. With SalonBooker you will be able to manage your business efficiently by integrating multiple systems in to one, save time through intelligent inventory and commission management and track and report across all activities within your business. (http://www.salonbooker.com/) 2.2 Related Studies Local Studies *According to Wikipedia, â€Å"A test or an examination (or â€Å"exam†) is an assessment, often administered on paper or on the computer, intended to measure the test-takers’ or respondents’ (often a student) knowledge, skills, aptitudes, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). Tests are often used in education, professional certification, counseling, psychology (e.g., MMPI), the military, and many other fields. The measurement that is the goal of testing is called a test score, and is â€Å"a summary of the evidence contained in an examinee’s responses to the items of a test that are related to the construct or constructs being measured.† Test scores are interpreted with regards to a norm or criterion, or occasionally both. The norm may be established independently, or by statistical analysis of a large number of subjects.† (www.wikipedia.com) According to Lee J. Cronbach, â€Å"Test aid in making many sorts of decisions, including selection and classification of individuals, evaluation of educational or treatment procedures, and acceptance or rejection of scientific hypothesis.† (Essentials of Psychological Testing, Cronbach, p.18) According to Wikipedia, â€Å"An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content. People participating in an Internet forum may cultivate social bonds and interest groups for a topic may form from the discussions. (www.wikipedia.com) According to WORDIQ, †An Internet forum, also known as a message board or discussion board, is a web application that provides for online discussions, and is the modern descendant of the bulletin board systems and existing Usenet news systems that were widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. An Internet forum typically exists as part of a website and invites users to start topics and discuss issues with one another. Sometimes, a forum even comprises most, if not all, of the content of a site. Compared to wikis, Internet forums don’t allow users to edit the forum posts of other users; however, administrators and moderators generally have the capability of doing thisâ€Å". (www.wordiq.com) Foreign Studies College student retention programs tend to focus primarily on students in their first and second year of college as this is the time when the greatest number of students withdraws from postsecondary education (ACT 2004). Such programs vary substantially in design and execution. Examples include: Early alert, assessment, and monitoring systems to identify students at risk of dropping out for early intervention; Freshman Seminar; and HORIZONS. Organizational Theory practices, designed to create an institutional culture conducive to student retention, are another means of encouraging college student retention. Improving college retention rates may have broad impacts: students who complete college degrees have been found to be less likely to need the support of social services, generate higher tax returns, put less stress on the criminal justice system, and have better health status and improved parenting skills. Expected Beneficial Outcomes, Increased college retention rates, increased graduation rates, Evidence of Effectiveness ACT-Student Retention 2004 indicates that emphasis on retention strategies over the past several decades has not had a substantial impact on college retention overall. However, such programs have been effective in some venues and for some students: Dale 1995 reports that 85% of students participating in HORIZON, a Purdue University based student retention program, were retained compared to only 47% of non-enrollee peers. Participants indicated that belonging to a support network, having assistance with effective study methods, and tutoring were most important to their decision not to leave school. According to Wikipedia, â€Å"Career assessments are tests that are designed to help individuals understand how a variety of personal attributes (i.e., interests, values, preferences, motivations, aptitudes and skills), impacts their potential success and satisfaction with different career options and work environments. Assessments of some or all of these attributes are often used by individuals or organizations, such as university career service centers, career counselors, outplacement companies, corporate human resources staff, executive coaches, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and guidance counselors to help individuals make more informed career decisions.†

Concept maps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Concept maps - Essay Example A main characteristic of the concept map is that it employs hierarchy in representing the various concepts. The top of the map contains the general and most inclusive concepts and the less general and specific concepts are at the bottom of the map. Also the concept map is best constructed with reference to a particular question known as the focus question (Novak & Canas, 2011). Therefore the hierarchical structure of the map depends not only on the knowledge domain but also the context in which it is applied. Therefore it is very effective in capturing knowledge and to plan for an expert system. The cross-links feature of the concept map is another vital feature which links the various concepts in the map. It helps to understand the relationship between the knowledge that is represented in the map (Novak & Canas, 2011). In capturing of knowledge it is vital to have continuity and link the various concepts. Also in an expert system it is required to be able to trace the root of various concepts and how various concepts interact or related to each other. This is made possible by the concept. Therefore, a concept map is a very effective design technique but also extreme care must be taken in constructing the concept map. Novak, J.D. & Canas, A.J. (2008). The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them. [Online]. Available at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theorycmaps/theoryunderlyingconceptmaps.htm. Accessed on 8th Feb,

Business Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Proposal - Essay Example The benefits involved with training employees are more than the costs incurred. A variety of training programs are available, including, employee diversity training, employee orientation, team building training, workplace safety and development training. Many organizations view the training process to be a waste of the resources and time of the company. The training is a long process that requires the dedication of the parties involved. Training of the employees of an organization should follow a proper laid out procedure. It should be the responsibility of the management to plan for this process. The first step in this process is setting clear goals of the program so that the management can assess the importance of the training process. Guiding principles that support the values of the company needs formulation. It will help in maintaining the focus of the training group. A strategic training plan should fundamentally highlight the impacts it has on the goals and missions of the organization. The management should support the training process (Adegoke, 2013). After the training, the staff should be involved in a new activity they learnt in the training. The assignment of the new duty will demonstrate that the management is interested in the training program. A measurement of performance of the training process is an important aspect. Professionally monitoring of training and the results evaluated for purposes of establishing, whether they achieved the targeted results, is a vital part of the process. A training budget should exist, according to the time schedule the process is expected to extend. Proper utilization of the resources of the business is necessary, and assessment of the utilization of the finances used in training is mandatory. The assigned period will depend on the technology used and the specific workplace. Time is an

Should Companies google Applicants or seek Facebook Profiles in the Research Paper

Should Companies google Applicants or seek Facebook Profiles in the Hiring Process - Research Paper Example Kennedy and Macko (2007) also argued that the information available on the site is personal in nature and should not be investigated by employers for conducting the hiring process. However, the information that is present on social networking sites is posted by the user with his full consent. It is a commonly accepted fact that there are privacy concerns on the internet and social networking sites. The candidates whose information is searched by the employers are also aware of such privacy concerns and would refrain from posting personal details and information if they feared its viewing to the general public. Jones, Schuckman and Watson (2007) included an interesting, yet alarming figure regarding the degree of fraudulent and violent instances in organizations on an annual basis; US retail businesses tend to suffer more than $50 billion approximately in a single year due to fraudulent activities, violence in the workplace and organizational assets theft. Such increasing rate of loss es and fraudulent activities provoke the organizations to perform due diligence regarding the applicants to ensure that their resources, training and development ventures are not wasted on individuals who might not be trustworthy or loyal human beings. When an organization employs an individual, a relation of mutual trust is developed between the concerned parties. As a result, many organizational secrets and assets might be managed by the employees. It is vital for employers to confirm that the information provided by the applicants is accurate and personal conducts of the employee will not hurt the stature of the company. DeKay and DeKay (2008) included relevant figures regarding the degree of lies that are often witnessed in applications and resumes. They revealed that around 70% of college graduates lie about their qualifications when they apply for jobs. This is an appalling figure that needs to be reduced with the help of effective measures. Fishman and Morris (2010) stated th at such inaccurate information can be confirmed by means of

Ethics in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Ethics in Nursing - Essay Example This essay â€Å"Ethics in Nursing† discusses the role of nurses in dealing with elderly people and ethical issues of this profession. A nurse in the first place is accountable to people who really need nursing care. While doing her or his job, the nurse promotes an atmosphere in which the human rights, values, customs and sacred beliefs of the person, family and community are high valued. And it is a nurse who together with the whole society is held liable for beginning and promoting activity to satisfy the requirements of people actually that of vulnerable persons in the area of health and social necessities of the public. Among main standards in nursing care are the hard-edged ability to provide this care that supports standards of personal health and the unprecedented ability to increase confidence of public that keeps up standards of personal conduct. Thus, apparently these are both rules and laws that are commonly supposed to stand for the minimal written standards for n ursing practice. For instance, there are also some laws that protect a patient from harm, though they certainly do not keep nurses responsible for the level of ethics that contributes to high quality nursing care. However, nursing cannot count only on external means such as laws and diplomas as well as just on self-reflection to give the profound guarantee of the ethical competence in care. Nursing competency from the ethical point of view represents a complicated system that demands a great number of means. In order to practice nursing competently it is necessary both to obey external means of nursing competence and to reflect ethically about competence. A nurse must always bring up questions regarding the nature of ethical competence in their profession, for example, questions about general ethical standards in nursing care and ways to satisfy them (Thompson,

Blueprint for Professional and Personal Growth Assignment

Blueprint for Professional and Personal Growth - Assignment Example The reason this is so is that the individual employees will know their left from their right, and have their competences well developed to deliver the best of service. It is expected that the new understanding that has been gained will go a long way to contribute to the productivity levels of the organization because a new era that gets the best out of employees will be developed. As far as the way I thought of the manager’s role is concerned, I can clearly stay that I have developed a new understanding that makes me realize that the manager’s role is more of a shared responsibility rather than a one man show. Before the course, I used to have this thinking, I believe must best be described as a misconception. This is because I used to think that managers were lords over their employees and only dictated for their employees to follow. With the content and assignments however, there has been a new realization that managers function best if they would do so in collaborati on with their employees; whiles empowering the employees to be at their best competence levels. I have also come to know of the manager as a facilitator of change rather than an implementer of change. Having come to develop the kind of new understanding I have about managers, my goals for my organization have tremendously been influenced. Earlier, most of my goals were self centered and focused on way in which I could make myself better as a manager. What is more, I focused the human development roles within the organization around only few people within the organization. For now, my goals have changed towards the development of personal goals of all people within the organization. My goals are now focused on the larger development of all people within the organization, knowing that their development will lead to the total development of the organization. Their personal developments would also make my own work as a manager much easier. Strategy for Professional and Personal Life Ear lier in the course, I had made a personal sentence to â€Å"support others for the collective success of the organization†. Having come this far with the course and with specific inspiration from the article of Christensen (2010), I find the need to develop a strategy that will aid in my professional and personal life. The first component of the strategy has to do with ways of ensuring that I am happy in my career and become the manager I aspire to be. Christensen (2010) admonishes the need for output to match expected input in order for any manager to be happy with his position. This is to say that the efforts that the manager puts into the service delivery at the organization must be promising enough to bring enhanced productivity. In relation to my sentence, I will ensure this by putting in place motivational factors that urge my workforce to give off their best. Once the employees gain satisfaction, there are most likely to give off their best and ensure productivity, whi ch would in turn bring me joy as succeeding in my position. Whiles putting these structures in place within the organization, it will be very important not to neglect or abandon my social responsibilities, especially as a family person.

The benefits and costs of increased trade integration between Essay

The benefits and costs of increased trade integration between countries depends on the relative importance of trade creation ver - Essay Example Most countries, both developed and developing countries have opened their economies with a view to take advantage of the existing opportunities. However, it is not clear whether the benefits and costs of increased trade integration between these countries depends on the relative importance of trade creation versus trade diversion, plus the dynamic gains from integration. The focus of this paper is to ascertain whether in light of the countries involved, the above connotation is true. Trade creation and trade diversion are two important components in increasing the rate of growth of world trade. They are also important components which help increase the benefits and costs of increased trade integration. Viner (2009) was the first researcher to introduce the terms â€Å"trade creation versus trade diversion† which became useful in analyzing custom unions and other trade related economics issues. Trade creation as envisaged by Viner (2009) refers to a situation in which two count ries operating within customs union start trading with each other whereas they formerly produced products in questions for themselves. In international economics terms, it implies that these countries move from autarky to trading with no tariffs on these goods while they both benefit. In trade creation the cost of goods in consideration decreases upon the economic union formation leading to increased efficiency of economic integration. This means that the essence of trade creation is to eliminate custom tariffs on the unifying state’s inner borders causing further decrease in the prices of goods (El-Agraa, 1981). On the other hand, trade diversion, occur whenever two countries start trading within the union (Institute for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2004). But formerly, these two countries imported the product or from outside the union. In this case, importing country had previously had same tariffs on other countries, but had opted to buy from outside the union because that was somewhat lower (Institute for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2004). The country then switches its purchases from its initial lowest price to the higher price country after the union. This eventually has a negative efficiency effect. Basically what this means is that trade diversion involves diverting trade flows from the actual cost-efficient partner countries to less efficient partner countries, which became an economic union member and made its products cheaper within the union but somewhat higher when compared to the other place in the world. Worth nothing is the fact that both trade diversion and trade creation effects occur because of formation of economic union. Currently, efficiency of economic integration of unions is assessed as the final outcome between trade diversion and trade creation effects (Irwin, 2006). Trade diversions as discussed involves creating free-trade areas, and is important in creating larger markets, which provide more completion as it creates increased access to raw materials (Institute for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2004). The happy ending will be the lower unit costs because firms can now gain economies of scale in this arrangement. From the point of view of consumers, greater choices and lower prices makes them happy too. On the other hand, in trade creation two countries involved reduce tariffs on their goods. It can also imply simplifying export or

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Research Paper Example The way in which this peril was met builds the basis of current admiration for the struggle of Black vote—a struggle fuelled by the sacrifice of those who were murdered, beaten, or injured by a white supremacist attitude. This research paper discusses the history of the Black vote in the United States. The Black Struggle for Voting Rights Recognition that Blacks already voted prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was presented in the famed Dred Scott resolution in 1856 wherein a Supreme Court dominated by Democrats stated that Blacks â€Å"had no rights which a white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit† (Jaffa 286). Justice Benjamin Curtis, the only non-democrat, opposed that statement and showed a long documentary history to prove that numerous Blacks in the U.S. had frequently practiced citizens’ rights—that numerous Blacks during the American Revolution â€Å"possessed the franch ise of [voters] on equal terms with other citizens† (Muhammad 17). States that guaranteed and safeguarded the rights of Blacks to vote in the 18th century were New York, New Hampshire, Maryland, and Delaware. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts also guaranteed the Blacks’ right to vote in their constitution. Indeed, a Black Republican, Robert Brown Elliott, asked in 1874 (Middleton 109): â€Å"When did Massachusetts sully her proud record by placing on her statute-book any law which admitted to the ballot the white man and shut out the black man? She has never done it; she will not do it.† Because of such legislations, early American cities had a larger number of Black voters than Whites; and when the suggested American Constitution was presented to the people in the latter part of the 18th century, it was approved by both White and Black voters in several states (Barton para 4). However, this is not to suggest that every Black was granted voting rights; free Blacks, excluding those in South Carolina, were allowed to vote but slaves were prohibited to exercise voting rights. But in several states this was insignificant, because many individuals and groups persevered to abolish slavery during the American Revolution (Fauntroy 62). Even though Britain had disallowed the eradication of slavery in the colonies prior to the Revolution, as autonomous states they had the power to abolish slavery, just like what happened in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. In addition, Blacks in numerous states were not only granted voting rights but also rights to participate in public affairs (Barton para 5). In Alabama, 99 Blacks were voted for the State Legislature, 127 Blacks for Louisiana’s Legislature, 50 Blacks for South Carolina’s, and 42 for Texas Legislature (Barton para 15). These Republican governing bodies acted immediately to guarantee and safeguard the right to vote for Blacks, ba n segregation, and grant Blacks access to juries, law enforcement, public transportation, and so on. At a time when majority of southern Democrats had not yet approved the vow of fidelity to the U.S. and thus were not allowed to vote, they still tried to threaten and get in the way of the endorsement of Blacks’

The Salem Community Essay Example for Free

The Salem Community Essay Throughout The Crucible, conspiracy and lies lead to the corruption and downfall of the 17th century Salem community. From the title it is evident that this pious society is a crucible or a vessel filled with boiling, bubbling characters waiting to react at any moment. Arthur Millers own experiences of the 1950s McCarthy witch trials, where individuals were accused of being Communists, inspired him to write the play and he is able to provide a realistic insight into the pain and suffering certain characters faced as a result of the accusations. In the God-fearing community of Salem, hysteria runs out of control and the malicious lies of certain characters destroy lives. Characters become more suspicious of each other and anxiety is paramount for those characters that stand accused. Through the use of stage directions, Miller highlights the tension between the Proctors within their struggling marriage. The turmoil within the marriage may be viewed as a microcosm of the greater conflict that exists in Salem as a whole; they no longer feel comfortable with each other as they try in vain to rebuild their marriage. Physical distancing and formal language is used, to show the strain within their relationship. Miller introduces several court officials to escalate tension before the intense interrogations have even started. This clever use of symbolism reveals the importance of the poppet, as it may decide Elizabeths future at the hands of the malicious Abigail. Similarly, Mary Warrens vulnerability and isolation in the courtroom are enhanced as Miller positions her away from those who wish to see her suffer. Throughout the play, Miller escalates tension with the frequent references to Abigail Williams name both in the Proctors household and the courtroom, where court officials are fooled into taking the girls side, thereby encouraging an emotional reaction from the audience. Regular pauses and stilted dialogue builds the suspense to a crescendo as a very emotional within a setting the dramatic and tragic climax approaches. Elizabeth replies to John with one word answers as they struggle to communicate. Her short responses reveal an uneasy situation where both characters do not feel comfortable or relaxed with one another. The uncomfortable environment creates an image of depression which augments the relationships tension. Miller creates a depressing atmosphere in his description of the Proctors house being low, dark and rather long. It suggests that there is no warmth and this is echoed in the state of their marriage as there appears to be little affection between the two characters. Consequently the audience is encouraged to feel sympathetic towards the couple as the tension between them is obvious.

Animal Motif on Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Animal Motif on Macbeth Essay Shakespeare uses animal motif extensively to convey to the audience Macbeth’s thoughts and also to reflect the progress of the plot in general. In scene i and iii of Act III, horses are mentioned repeatedly. Before delving into these scenes, it is important to note the role of horses previously: recently, Duncan’s fine, well-bred horses turned wild and ate each other. In scene i, Macbeth urges Banquo to his horse: â€Å"Hie you to horse† (III, i, 34) and in scene iii, the murderers that Macbeth hired become conscious of Banquo’s presence: â€Å"Hark, I hear horses. † (III, iii, 8) The horses epitomize the witches’ prophesy that fair will be foul and foul will be fair. Horses that are meant to facilitate transportation (constructive) are now destructive. This change in the influence of horses reflects the deep degree to which disorder and confusion extend in Scotland now. On a few occasions, Macbeth uses an animal to directly describe his feelings. He does so in scene ii, right after he provokes men into vowing to murder his friend Banquo, by saying his mind is â€Å"full of scorpions† (III, ii, 36). Indeed, like venomous scorpions, Macbeth is now fully engaged in harming others. Another example is when Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that they â€Å"have scotched the snake, not killed it† (III, ii, 13), an indication that Macbeth does and will not feel his position is secure until Banquo is killed as well. It is also worth noting that even though Macbeth is referring to Lady Macbeth’s earlier serpent motif (I, v, 64), Macbeth is comparing the snake to Banquo, while Lady Macbeth compares the snake to Macbeth. This change seems inappropriate, since Banquo does not seem to possess the characteristics that snakes are typically associated with: slyness. Macbeth is in fact deceiving himself into thinking that Banquo is as cunningly treacherous as himself, as is shown in his soliloquy when he thinks: â€Å"[Banquo] chid the sisters† (III, i, 56). During Macbeth and Banquo’s first encounter with the witches, Banquo clearly states that he †neither [begs] nor [fears their] favours nor [their] hate. † (I, iii, 60-61) It was Macbeth who criticized the witches of being â€Å"imperfect speakers† (I, iii, 70) and demanded to know more. Macbeth is deluding himself into thinking negatively of Banquo to justify himself for murdering his friend, to rid himself of guilt. This effort is in turn a stage of Macbeth’s transformation of losing conscience and becoming one who is full of only greed and ambition.

Two Types Of Spread Spectrum Computer Science Essay

Two Types Of Spread Spectrum Computer Science Essay There are two types of spread spectrum that have been approved for use. This article analyzes the approach in to determining performance comparison of Frequency Hopping and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Systems in the 2.4 GHz range. The analyses till present show that up to 13 collocated FH networks can be placed before network throughput peaks. (A. Carl, S. Harris B. Palm, n.d.). The article further lists in categorizing the advantages and limitations of spread spectrum and the comparisons between the Frequency Performance and Direct Sequence. The article details itself via valid resources obtained from researched websites and journals with more details available with those references being provided. The Spread-spectrum is or are a series of techniques which are methods by which a signal that could be of electrical or electromagnetic or acoustic signals that are being generated in an exacting bandwidth which is then by design spread in the frequency domain, ensuing in a signal with a vast or wider bandwidth. These techniques are utilized for a range of reasons, together with the establishment of safe and sound communications, increasing resistance to natural interference and congestions, to prevent uncovering, and to frontier power flux density. Out of many Spread Spectrums, this report analyses the two main spread spectrum systems which are the Frequency Hopping and Direct Sequence and in addition an overview of the Chirp Spread Spectrum. Spread Spectrum technologies The spread spectrum technology is more of a technique in which a telecommunication signal is transmitted on a bandwidth significantly bigger than the regularity content of the original information. Spread-spectrum telecommunications is a signal structuring technique that employs direct sequence, frequency hopping, or a hybrid of these, which can be used for multiple access and/or multiple functions.(Anonymous, 2007). This technique reduces the possible intrusion to other receivers while achieving privacy. Spread spectrum in general makes use of a chronological noise-like signal formation to spread the normally narrowband information signal over a comparatively wideband (radio) band of frequencies. The receiver correlates the received signals to retrieve the original information signal. Initially there were two motivations: either to resist enemy efforts to jam the communications known as an Anti-Jam or to conceal the fact that communication was even taking place, sometimes called low probability of intercept. Spread-spectrum clock signal generation The Spread-spectrum clock generation is used in some synchronous digital systems, especially those containing microprocessors, to cancel of the spectral density of the electromagnetic interference that these systems generate. A synchronous digital system is one that is driven by a clock signal and because of its periodic nature, has an unavoidably narrow frequency spectrum. (Anonymous, 2007). In fact, a perfect clock signal would have all its power determined at a single frequency and its harmonics, and would therefore radiate energy with an inestimable spectral concentration. Practical synchronous digital systems radiate electromagnetic force on a number of narrow bands spread on the clock frequency and its harmonics, follow-on in a frequency spectrum that, at certain frequencies, can exceed the regulatory limits for electromagnetic interference The Spread Spectrum Systems Overview Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum This is a method of transmitting radio signals by speedily switching a mover among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom cycle known to both transmitter and receiver. It is utilized as a several access method in the frequency-hopping code division multiple access scheme. The three main advantages over a fixed-frequency transmission: -Its signals are highly resistant to narrowband intervention. The procedure of re-collecting a spread signal spreads out the interfering signal, causing it to retreat into the background. -Spread-spectrum signals are tricky to interrupt. A Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum signal plainly appears as a boost in the background noise to a narrowband receiver. An eavesdropper would only be able to seize the transmission if the pseudorandom sequence was known. -The Spread-spectrum transmissions can contribute to a frequency band with many types of conventional transmissions with minimum interference. The spread-spectrum signals affix minimal noise to the narrow-frequency communications, and vice versa. As an effect, bandwidth can be utilized more resourcefully. The Basic algorithm The initiation of a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) communication is as follows: -The initiating party sends a request via a predefined frequency or control channel. -The receiving party sends a number, known as a seed. -The initiating party uses the number as a variable in a predefined algorithm, which calculates the sequence of frequencies that must be used. Most often the period of the frequency change is predefined, as to allow a single base station to serve multiple connections. -The initiating party sends a synchronization signal via the first frequency in the calculated sequence, thus acknowledging to the receiving party it has correctly calculated the sequence. -The communication begins, and both the receiving and the sending party change their frequencies along the calculated order, starting at the same point in time. Technical considerations The overall bandwidth necessary for frequency hopping is a great deal, wider than that required to transmit the same information using only one carrier frequency. Nevertheless, because transmission occurs only on a small segment of this bandwidth at any given time, the effectual interference bandwidth is actually the same. Even as providing no extra protection against wideband thermal noise, the frequency-hopping approach does reduce the deprivation caused by narrowband interferers. One of the challenges of frequency-hopping systems is to coordinate the transmitter and receiver. One approach is to have an assurance that the transmitter will use all the channels in a set period of time. The receiver can then discover the transmitter by picking a random channel and listening for suitable data on that channel. The transmitters data is recognized by a unique series of data that is unlikely to occur over the section of data for this channel and the segment can have a checksum for reliability and further detection. The transmitter and receiver can use fixed tables of channel sequences so that once synchronized they can maintain communication by following the table. On each channel segment, the transmitter can send its current position in the table. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is a modulation method. As with other spread spectrum technologies, the transmitted signal takes up more bandwidth than the information signal that is being modulated. In this technology the transmissions multiply the data being transmitted by a noise signal. This noise signal is a pseudorandom sequence of 1 and à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 values, at a frequency much higher than that of the original signal, thereby spreading the energy of the original signal into a much wider band. (W. Jimmy, n.d.) The resultant signal resembles white noise, like an audio recording of static. On the other hand, this noise-like signal can be used to precisely recreate the original data at the receiving ending, by multiplying it by the same pseudorandom sequence. This process, known as de-spreading, mathematically constitutes a correlation of the transmitted PN sequence with the PN sequence that the receiver believes the spreader is using. For de-spreading to operate correctly, the transmit and receive sequences must be synchronized. This requires the receiver to coordinate its sequence with the transmitters sequence via some sort of timing search process. However, this noticeable drawback can be a significant benefit: if the sequences of multiple transmitters are synchronized with each other, the relative synchronizations the receiver must make between them can be used to resolve relative timing, which, in turn, can be used to compute the receivers point if the transmitters positions are known. This is the base for many satellite direction-finding systems. The resultant outcome of enhancing signal to noise ratio on the channel is called process gain. Benefits in Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum -It is resistant to planned or unintentional jamming. -The sharing of a single channel between numerous users. -Reduced signal/background-noise level hampers interception (stealth). -Determination of relative timing between transmitter and receiver. Chirp Spread Spectrum On the other hand, the Chirp spread spectrum (CSS) is a spread spectrum technique that uses wideband linear frequency modulated chirp pulses to encode information. A chirp is a sinusoidal signal whose frequency increases or decreases over a certain amount of time. (W. Jimmy, n.d.) Chirp Spread Spectrum is ideal for applications requiring low power usage and needing relatively low amounts of data rate. CSS uses its entire owed bandwidth to televise a signal, building it robust to channel noise. Further, because the chirps utilize a broad band of the spectrum, Chirp Spread Spectrum is also challenging to multi-path fading even when working at very low power. However, it is not like direct-sequence spread spectrum or frequency-hopping spread spectrum in that it does not add any pseudo-random elements to the signal to help differentiate it from noise on the channel, instead relying on the linear nature of the chirp pulse. Moreover, Chirp Spread Spectrum is resistant to the Doppler Effect, which is typical in mobile radio applications. Comparisons against Performance between Frequency Hopping and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Systems A Simulated Model/Design Conclusion

Poor Personal Hygiene in The Fast Food Industry Essay -- cooking, emplo

Imagine suddenly feeling sick and facing life threatening sickness after eating at your favorite local fast food restaurant. At this point you are surprised because you believed in the restaurants promise of having food thats good and fit for you. An estimated annual amount of food related sickness in the U.S is 76 million cases. Many local fast food restaurants seem to be blind to the actions taken that can truly affect a customer's health. These health problems can be permanent or temporary affecting the lives of the people. Personal hygiene is a very severe concept that can have a negative or positive effect on how a food item is produced. Personal hygiene is the cleanliness of a person. It is basically keeping you hair, nail, feet and every other part of the body maintained and clean. When employees have poor hygiene they can cause great damage to the health of the customers who eat at the fast food restaurant. The fast food restaurant industries prefer cooking the food us ing methods that are quick and tasty. This usually does not mean healthy. Some cooking methods that they use are deep frying, pan frying, and stir frying. The fast food restaurants also do not provide some of the information of the ingredients they use because they know it would disgust the customers. These ingredients are believed to not be harmful in the eyes of the fast food restaurant industries, so they believe it makes no sense to inform the customers about them. The personal hygiene of the fast food restaurant’s employees, their methods of cooking, and the false information on exactly what ingredients they use for the food are the leading cause to health problems in our society. Poor Personal hygiene in the fast food industry is a leading c... ...at-fault>. University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. "Who’s to Blame for Obesity? Policy Makers, the Food Industry, or Individuals?" Http://www.sciencedaily.com/. ScienceDaily, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. . Wash Your Hands Inc. "Consequences of Poor Hand Hygiene and the Importance of Handwashing." Http://www.wash-hands.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014. . Weil, Andrew. "3 Unhealthy Ways to Cook." Http://www.drweil.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. . Wordpress.com. "Fast Food vs. Obesity." Wordpress.com. N.p., 07 Dec. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Ergotism Essay -- Health, Diseases, Medicine

The symptoms described in this case such as headaches, skin irritation, painful cramps and seizures are all common in a disease known as Ergotism. Ergotism is caused by the ingestion of alkaloids (ergotamines) produced by the fungus Claviceps purpurea (C. purpurea), which infects mainly Secale cereal (rye) and other cereals. This results in ergot poisoning (Alderman et al., 1999). All species of Claviceps are given the general term ergot and the majority of Claviceps species are restricted to only one or several grass genera. The exception is common ergot caused by C. purpurea, which contains a host range beyond 200 species of grasses (Alderman et al., 1999). C. purpurea, unlike other Claviceps species is distributed throughout the world and can survive in different temperature climates (including a colder places such as Southern England), further suggesting it is the most likely causative agent. Ergotism can be divided into two groups of symptoms, convulsive and gangrenous. Convulsive ergotism is usually characterized by nervous dysfunction such as wry neck, which was reported in the past as convulsions. The fact that many people died from gangrene clearly suggests that the ergotism suffered is not convulsive, as symptoms of gangrene were not present. Gangrene develops when the supply of blood is cut off to the affected part (ischemia) due to infection, trauma or vascular disease with the most common sites being the fingers, toes and hands. This further suggests that the condition is gangrenous ergotism, this can be supported by physical examination of the patient and blood tests. A CT scan or MRI can help to find out the amount of gas present and the extent to which tissues are damaged, however these tests were obviously n... ...illion of these occurring in children younger than 5 years (Epidemiological Record, 2007). In patients in developing countries such as Cameroons, invasive pneumococcal pneumonia has a high mortality rate (WHOInt, 2003). In terms of treatment and prophylaxis, appropriate antibiotics can help to treat S. pneumoniae infections via outpatient treatment. Prior to antibiotic therapy, steroids can be given in children older than 6 weeks suffering with possible pneumococcal meningitis and should be given before or at the time of the first dose of antibiotics (Pickering et al,.2009). The use of penicillin, ceftriaxone or ampicillin sulbactam is usually appropriate with hospitalized children, therapy should account for local resistance patterns. Immunocompromised children suspected of pneumococcal pneumonia should take vancomycin and a broad spectrum cephalosporin.

Heat transfer of nanofluids in turbulent pipe flow :: Technology, Nanofluids

Heat transfer of nanoparticle suspensions in turbulent pipe flow is studied theoretically. The main idea upon which this work is based is that nanofluids behave more like singlephase fluids than like conventional solidï€ ­liquid mixtures. This assumption implies that all the convective heat transfer correlations available in the literature for single-phase flows can be extended to nanoparticle suspensions, provided that the thermophysical properties appearing in them are the nanofluid effective properties calculated at the reference temperature. In this regard, two empirical equations, based on a wide variety of experimental data reported in the literature, are used for the evaluation of the nanofluid effective thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity. Conversely, the other effective properties are computed by the traditional mixing theory. The novelty of the present study is that the merits of nanofluids with respect to the corresponding base liquid are evaluated in terms of global energetic performance, and not simply by the common point of view of the heat transfer enhancement. Both cases of constant pumping power and constant heat transfer rate are investigated for different operating conditions, nanoparticle diameters, and solidï€ ­liquid combinations. The fundamental result obtained is the existence of an optimal particle loading for either maximum heat transfer at constant driving power or minimum cost of operation at constant heat transfer rate. In particular, for any assigned combination of solid and liquid phases, it is found that the optimal concentration of suspended nanoparticles increases as the nanofluid bulk temperature is increased, the Reynolds number of the base fluid is increased, and the length-to-diameter ratio of the pipe is decreased, while it is practically independent of the nanoparticle diameter. The usual design requirements for modern heat transfer equipment are reduced size and high thermal performance. In this connection, in the past decades a considerable research effort has been dedicated to the development of advanced methods for heat transfer enhancement, such as those relying on new geometries and configurations, and those based on the use of extended surfaces and/or turbulators. On the other hand, according to a number of studies executed in recent times, a further important contribution may derive by the replacement of traditional heat transfer fluids, such as water, ethylene glycol and mineral oils, with nanofluids, i.e., colloidal suspensions of nano-sized solid particles, whose effective thermal conductivity has been demonstrated to be higher than that of the corresponding pure base liquid. The main results of prior work on pipe flow, that is undoubtedly one of the most investigated topics in the field of convection in nanofluids, clearly show that nanoparticle suspensions offer better thermal performance than the base liquids at same Reynolds number, and that heat transfer increases with increasing the nanoparticle

Beloved

As you begin the book you are given these ideas of darkness as you become consumed in the memories and stories of the characters. The characters of the book could definitely feel this tone even one who had never been in the house such as Paul D when he says, â€Å"Good God†¦ What kind Of evil you got in here? † p. 8 as he took his first steps Into 124. This tone takes up a good part of the beginning of the book as it sets up the trailing tone of a good majority of the beginning of the book.As you read further into the book you find out more about all of the characters pasts and all of the torture, rape, and cruelty they were made to endure. These memories slightly shift the tone to become gloom. Other then the times when Beloved needed her, Seethe confided herself to a corner chair. † p. 292 was the effect of these memories on Seethe. As though through these memories that Seethe couldn't let go her life seemed to be sucked like a leech from a host. Beloved was a hum an embodiment of the memories thatSeethe latched unto and couldn't relinquish though she tried her hardest to forget. This gives off a tone of gloom and despair as you read further into the horrible cruel lives of the characters. â€Å"Seethe me and you we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow? P. 320 says Paul D as the book closes whose words portray the tone of the end of the book. As you read to the end of the book and Beloved is exorcised away the tone changes from the dark and gloom of the unforgotten memories to being hopeful as Seethe begins to relieve and concise with her past.This allows her to look forward to the future and to see what she already has. This tone ends the book with a feeling of hopefulness towards the characters and their futures. Throughout Beloved the tone changes a couple of different times. In different parts the tones seems to be dark, gloomy and even hopeful but as the book ends these tones are set aside to create a tone of r econciliation. That you should never dwell on the past but that you should look forward to the future. Beloved As you begin the book you are given these ideas of darkness as you become consumed in the memories and stories of the characters. The characters of the book could definitely feel this tone even one who had never been in the house such as Paul D when he says, â€Å"Good God†¦ What kind Of evil you got in here? † p. 8 as he took his first steps Into 124. This tone takes up a good part of the beginning of the book as it sets up the trailing tone of a good majority of the beginning of the book.As you read further into the book you find out more about all of the characters pasts and all of the torture, rape, and cruelty they were made to endure. These memories slightly shift the tone to become gloom. Other then the times when Beloved needed her, Seethe confided herself to a corner chair. † p. 292 was the effect of these memories on Seethe. As though through these memories that Seethe couldn't let go her life seemed to be sucked like a leech from a host. Beloved was a hum an embodiment of the memories thatSeethe latched unto and couldn't relinquish though she tried her hardest to forget. This gives off a tone of gloom and despair as you read further into the horrible cruel lives of the characters. â€Å"Seethe me and you we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow? P. 320 says Paul D as the book closes whose words portray the tone of the end of the book. As you read to the end of the book and Beloved is exorcised away the tone changes from the dark and gloom of the unforgotten memories to being hopeful as Seethe begins to relieve and concise with her past.This allows her to look forward to the future and to see what she already has. This tone ends the book with a feeling of hopefulness towards the characters and their futures. Throughout Beloved the tone changes a couple of different times. In different parts the tones seems to be dark, gloomy and even hopeful but as the book ends these tones are set aside to create a tone of r econciliation. That you should never dwell on the past but that you should look forward to the future.

Rhetorical Analysis of Walter Benn Michaels, “The Trouble with Diversity” Essay

Diversity isnt something to be ignored, entirely is that where our primary focus should lie? It is in our very nature to celebrate our differences with disclose it we overleap our identicalness. As a society we literally dance in the streets to celebrate our individualities. However, Walter Benn Michaels points out a very interesting resign that is not only social but scotchal as well, in his daybook The foreboding with Diversity How We Learned to fill in Identity and Ignore Inequality. When we strip remote our color, our heritage and begin to look at our wallets we be precipitate embarrassed, even shy roughly our how fat or thin it contracts.His policy-making stance is int stop for a universal audience to show present concepts of heathenish alteration, to illustrate how Americans have come to warmth quicken, and to shift the focus from work to economic distinction. The presentmentduction of The Trouble with Diversity is provided a glance at Michaels agenda and becomes quite confusing to an total reader. He spends a fair come of time discussing how we have become engulfed in our, as Michaels puts it, love affair with regeneration that his primary goals atomic number 18 diluted indoors the text. When we break it down, his arguments become clearer.To fully clear Michaels objectives one must take into depict his general audience. It becomes clear with his use of the depression person narrative, The argument, in its simplest form, will be that we love racewe love identitybecause we dont love variety. As Michaels points out the bulk of society is down the stairs the poverty line and when discussing economic inequality no one will pick up to a greater extent closely than those who are execrable the most. The upper class will besides be able to detect with because as he empha size of its, check into after Survey has shown, Americans are very reluctant to cite themselves as belonging to the lower class and even more than reluctan t to identify themselves as belonging to the upper class. As a society, we would rather associate ourselves as being middle class. In this way, no matter what the race, we are alike.Beginning The Trouble with Diversity with F. Scott Fitzgerald famous saying to Ernest Hemingway, The well-fixed are different from you and me. Expresses how some commonwealth view the upper class as a completely different race of individuals. Hemingways witty response, Yes, they have more money.Illustrated to Fitzgerald that in that respect is no difference in the rich, or the poor, except their wallet size they are still human. Michaels goes on from there to describe how we have come to war vessel diversity. In Bakke v. Board of Regents, the Supreme judgeship ruled that it was reasonable for colleges to consider race when accepting applicants, as long as was in the interest of diversity and not to exclude members of certain racial background. on with racial diversity, diversity became something to describe more than just the color of our skin. It now is employ for sexual orientation, medical coding, and religious preferences. Unfortunately, diversity became closely associated with the struggle with racism and ended up with a notion that we should be a color-blind society.As Michael states, wherefore do we assume blackness deal want to stop being black why do we assume the deaf want to hear? He finishes the intro of his book by illustrating how we have come to hate class. While we have become to love our identity, we have become more and more uninterested in identifying ourselves based on the classification of income. He even accuses the leftover wing party (or liberals who have prided itself on working for social equality) in mirthful focus of economic inequality.Giving the precession to issues like affirmative action and committing itself to the jubilance of difference, the intellectual left has responded to the increase in economic inequality by take a firm stand on the importance of cultural identity. So by his observation Michaels believes that even the liberals are guilty of thinking the solution to inequality is simply to appreciate the lower class.

Literature-based discovery of diabetes

reactive oxygen species (ROS) atomic number 18 known mediators of jail cellular vituperate in treble diseases including diabetic complications. Despite its importance, no comprehensive informationbase is currently available for the genes associated with ROS. Methods We give birth ROS- and diabetes-related commits (genes/proteins) cool from the biomedical publications d star a school textbook edition exploit engineering science. A web-based literary productions mining tool, SciMiner, was utilize to 54 biomedical text bear down away indexed with diabetes and ROS by PubMed to post relevant behinds.Over- stand for signals in the ROS-diabetes belles-lettres were obtained through comparisons against willy-nilly selected literature. The stub oution levels of nine genes, selected from the top rank ROS-diabetes bushel, were deliberate in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of diabetic and non-diabetic DBA/2J mice in order to estimate the biologic relevance of l iterature- derived targets in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy. Results SciMiner place 1,026 ROS- and diabetes-related targets from the 54 biomedical papers (http//Jdrf. eurology. med. umich. edu/ROSDiabetes/ webcite). Fifty- trine targets were pregnantly over-delineate in the ROS-diabetes literature ompa blushing(a) to promiscuously selected literature. These over- correspond targets included well-known members of the aerophilic emphasize retort including catalase, the NADPH oxidase family, and the superoxide anion anion anion dismutase family of proteins. Eight of the nine selected genes exhibited probatory derived function typeface between diabetic and non-diabetic mice.For six genes, the worry of flavor change in diabetes par eacheled raise aerophilic underscore in the DRG. Conclusions literary productions mining compiled ROS-diabetes related targets from the biomedical literature and led us to evaluate the biologic relevance of selected targets in the at hogenesis of diabetic neuropathy. Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the body does not produce or properly respond to insulin, a horm peerless required to convert carbohydrates into energy for fooling life. According to the Ameri arouse Diabetes Association, 23. million children and adults, approximately 7. 8% of the population in the United States, render diabetes 1. The constitute of diabetes in 2007 was estimated to be $174 billion 1. The micro- and macro-vascular complications of diabetes argon the closely common causes of renal tailure, blindness and amputations leading to signifi gouget morta y, morbidity poor quality of life however, incomplete understanding of the causes of diabetic complications hinders the development of mechanism-based therapies.In vivo and in vitro experiments include a number of enzymatic and non-enzymatic metabolic passages in the initiation and progression of diabetic complications 2 including (1) growthd polyol path activity leading to sorbitol and fructose accumulation, NAD(P)-redox imbalances and changes in signalise transduction (2) non- enzymatic glycation of proteins yielding advanced glycation end-products (AGES) (3) ctivation of protein kinase C (PKC), initiating a cascade of intracellular nervous strain responses and (4) increase hexosamine pathway flux 2,3.Only recently has a link among these pathways been establish that provides a unified mechanism of tissue damage. sever every(prenominal)y of these pathways directly and indirectly leads to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) 23. ROS atomic number 18 highly reactive ions or teensy-weensy molecules including oxygen ions, isolated radicals and peroxides, fleshed as indispensable byproducts of cellular energy metabolism. ROS are implicated in twofold cellular pathways much(prenominal)(prenominal) as mitogen-activated protein kinase MAPK) signaling, c-Jun amino-terminal kinase ONK), cell proliferation and apoptosis 4-6.Due to the high ly reactive properties of ROS, excessive ROS whitethorn cause prodigious damage to proteins, DNA, RNA and lipids. each(prenominal) cells express enzymes capable of neutralizing ROS. In addition to the nutrition of antioxidant carcasss such as glutathione and thioredoxins, primary sensory(prenominal) nerve cells express two main detoxifying enzymes superoxide dismutase ( turf) 7 and catalase 8. cover converts superoxide (02-) to H202, which is reduced to H20 by glutathione and catalase 8.SODI is the main form of SOD in the cytoplasm SOD2 is located at heart the itochondria. In neurons, SODI activity represents approximately 90% of total SOD activity and SOD2 approximately 10% 9. Under diabetic conditions, this protective mechanism is overwhelmed due to the substantial increase in ROS, leading to cellular damage and disfunction 10. The idea that change magnitude ROS and oxidative stress supply to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications has led scientists to investigate unl ike oxidative stress pathways 7,11.Inhibition of ROS or maintenance of euglycemia restores metabolic and vascular imbalances and blocks both the initiation and progression of omplications 1 2,13. Despite the earthshaking implications and extensive research into the role of ROS in diabetes, no comprehensive database regarding ROS-related genes or proteins is currently available. In the present study, a comprehensive list of ROS- and diabetes-related targets (genes/proteins) was compiled from the biomedical literature through text mining technology.SciMiner, a web-based literature mining tool 14, was apply to retrieve and unconscious process documents and localise targets from the text. SciMiner provides a convenient web-based platform for target-identification at bottom the biomedical iterature, similar to contrastive tools including EBIMed 1 5, ALI BABA 16, and Polysearch 1 7 however, SciMiner is alone(p) in that it searches tull text documents, suppo free-text PubMed inter rogate style, and allows the comparison of target lists from multiple queries.The ROS-diabetes targets collected by SciMiner were further try oned against haphazard selected non-ROS-diabetes literature to identify targets that are authorisedly over- represented in the ROS-diabetes literature. utilitarian enrichment analyses were performed on these targets to identify importantly over-represented biological unctions in wrong of ingredient Ontology (GO) terms and pathways. In order to confirm the biological relevance of the over-represented ROS-diabetes targets, the gene scene levels of nine selected targets were measured in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) from mice with and without diabetes.DRG contain primary sensory neurons that relay information from the periphery to the central loathsome system (CNS) Unlike the CNS, DRG are not defend by a blood-nerve barrier, and are consequently endangered to metabolic and toxic injury 19. We hypothesize that antitheticial coefficient p anorama of place targets in DRG would confirm heritor involvement in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy. define ROS-diabetes literature To retrieve the list of biomedical literature associated with ROS and diabetes, PubMed was queried use (Reactive type O SpeciesMeSH AND Diabetes MellitusMeSH).This query yielded 54 articles as of April 27, 2009. SciMiner, a web-based literature mining tool 14, was used to retrieve and process the abstracts and available across-the-board text documents to identify targets (full text documents were available for approximately 40% of the 1 , 1 54 articles). SciMiner-identified targets, eported in the form of HGNC HUGO (Human Genome Organization) broker Nomenclature deputation genes, were confirmed by manual(a) of arms recapitulation of the text. Comparison with human curated data (NCBI Gene2PubMed) The NCBI Gene database provides links between Gene and PubMed.The links are the result of (1) manual curation within the NCBI via literature compendium as part of generating a Gene record, (2) integrating of information from early(a) public databases, and (3) GeneRlF (Gene Reference Into Function) in which human experts provide a brief thick curry of gene functions and make the connections between citation PubMed) and Gene databases. For the 54 ROS-diabetes articles, gene-paper associations were retrieved from the NCBI Gene database. Non-human genes were mapped to homologous human genes through the NCBI HomoloGene database.The retrieved genes were compared against the SciMiner derived targets. some(prenominal) genes missed by SciMiner were added to the ROS-diabetes target even out. Protein-protein interactions among ROS-diabetes targets To indirectly examine the association of literature derived targets (by SciMiner and NCBI Gene2PubMed) with ROS and diabetes, protein-protein interactions (PPIs) mong the targets were surveyed This was based on an assumption that targets are more than likely to get under ones ski n PPIs with each other if they are truly associated within the comparable biological functions/pathways.A PPI network of the ROS-diabetes targets was generated utilise the international mile molecular(a)(a) Interactions (MIMI, http//mimi. ncibi. org/ webcite) database 20 and compared against 100 PPI networks of haphazardly drawn implants (the corresponding number of the ROS-diabetes target set) from HUGO. A standard Z-test and one sample T-test were used to calculate the statistical substance of the ROS- diabetes PPI network with respect to the stochastic PPI networks.Functional enrichment analysis Literature derived ROS-diabetes targets (by SciMiner and NCBI Gene2PubMed) were subject to functional enrichment analyses to identify significantly over-represented biological functions in terms of Gene Ontology 21, pathways (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG, http//www. genome. p/kegg/ webcite) 22 and Reactome http//www. reactome. org/ webcite23). Fishers make test 2 4 was used to calculate the statistical substance of these biological functions with BenJamini-Hochberg (BH) adjusted p-value 0. 5 25 as the cut-off. Over-represented ROS-diabetes targets Defining minimize corpora To identify a subset of targets that are highly over-represented within the ROS- diabetes targets, the frequency of each target (defined as the number of documents in which the target was identified carve up by the number of total documents in the query) was compared against the frequencies in arbitrarily selected setting corpora.Depending on how the understate set is defined, over-represented targets may vary widely therefore, to maintain the down wager corpora close to the ROS and diabetes context, documents were selected from the identical Journal, volume, and issue f the 54 ROS-diabetes documents, exclusively were NOT indexed with Reactive Oxygen SpeciesMeSH nor Diabetes MellitusMeSH. For example, one of the ROS-diabetes articles (PMID 18227068), was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, glitz 283, Issue 16. This issue contained 85 papers, 78 of which were not indexed with either Reactive Oxygen SpeciesMeSH or Diabetes MellitusMeSH indexed.One of these 78 papers was randomly selected as a background document. Three sets of 54 documents were selected development this approach and treat using SciMiner. Identified targets were confirmed by manual review for accuracy. Identifying significantly over-represented targets ROS-diabetes targets were tested for over-representation against targets identified from the trio background sets. Fishers exact test was used to observe if the frequency of each target in the ROS-diabetes target set was significantly different from that of the background sets. Any targets with a BH adjusted p-value 0. 5 in at least two of the collar comparisons were deemed to be an over-represented ROS- diabetes target. Functional enrichment analyses were performed on these over- represented ROS-diabetes ta rgets as depict above. Selecting targets tor real time R A subset of targets were selected for RT-PCR from the top 10 over-represented ROS- diabetes targets excluding insulin and NADPH oxidase 5 (NOX5), which does not cause a mouse ortholog. nitrous oxide synthase 1 (NOSI), the main generator of nitrous oxide, bedded at the 1 5th position and was to boot selected for inclusion in the test set.Differential gene face by real-time RT-PCR Mice DBA/2J mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME). Mice were housed in a pathogen-free environment and cared for following the University of Michigan Committee on the Care and Use of Animals guidelines. Mice were fed AIN76A eats (Research Diets, New Brunswick, NJ). Male mice were used for this study. Induction of diabetes deuce treatment mathematical classs were defined control (n = 4) and diabetic (n = 4). Diabetes was induce at 13 weeks of age by low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) injections, 50 mg/kg/day for five true days.All diabetic mice received LinBit sustained release insulin implants (LinShin, Toronto, Canada) at 8 weeks post-STZ treatment. Insulin implants were replaced every 4 weeks, at 12 and 16 weeks post-STZ treatment. At 20 weeks post-STZ treatment, mice were euthanized by sodium pentobarbital overdose and DRG were harvested as previously described 26. Real-time RT-PCR The gene way of the selected nine literature-derived ROS-diabetes targets in DRG was measured using real-time RT-PCR in duplicate.The number of mRNA isolated from each DRG was normalized to an endogenous lengthiness Tbp TATA box binding protein A cycle threshold (CT). Identification of ROS-diabetes targets A total of 1,021 uncomparable targets were identified by SciMiner from the 1,154 ROS- diabetes papers defined by the query of (Reactive Oxygen SpeciesMeSH AND Diabetes MellitusMeSH) and confirmed by manual review. set back 1 contains the op 10 near much mentioned targets in the ROS-diabetes papers. Insulin w as the most frequently mentioned target, followed by superoxide dismutase 1 and catalase. put over 1 .Top 10 most frequent ROS-diabetes targets The NCBI Gene2PubMed database, containing expert-curated associations between the NCBI Gene and PubMed databases, revealed 90 unique genes associated with the 54 ROS-diabetes papers ( additive cross- lodge 1). SciMiner identified 85 out of these 90 targets, indicating a 94% conceive rate. Five targets missed by SciMiner were added to the initial ROS-diabetes target set to result in 1,026 unique targets ( additional File 2). redundant tile 1. The list ot 90 genes trom the NCBI Gene2PubMed database tor the ROS-Diabetes literature (1 , 1 54 papers). initialize XLS sizing 35KB download buck This blame can be viewed with Microsoft outperform Vieweropen entropy Additional file 2. The list of 1,026 ROS-Diabetes targets. Format XLS coat 229KB download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft outdo Vieweropen entropy PPI network of th e ROS-diabetes targets The PPI network among the ROS-diabetes targets was evaluated using MIMI interaction data. This was based on the assumption that targets commonly related to certain egress are more likely to have frequent interactions with each other.One light speed PPI networks were generated for comparison using the same number of genes (1,026) randomly selected from the complete HUGO gene set (25,254). The PPI network of the ROS-diabetes targets was significantly different from the randomly generated networks indicating their strong association with the motif ROS and Diabetes. Table 2 demonstrates that the mean number of targets with any(prenominal) PPI interaction in the randomly generated target sets was 528. 9 (approximately 52% of 1,026 targets), piece of music the number of targets with any PPI interaction in the ROS- iabetes target was 983 (96%).The number of targets interacting with each other was excessively significantly different between the random networks (mean = 155. 4) and the ROS-diabetes network (mean = 879). Figure 1 illustrates the distri providedions of these measurements from the 100 random networks with the ROS-diabetes set depicted as a red vertical line. It is obvious that the PPI network of the ROS-diabetes targets is significantly different from the random networks. Table 2. Summary of 100 randomly generated PPI networks thumbnailFigure 1 . Histograms of randomly generated PPI networks.The histograms llustrate the distributions of 100 randomly generated networks, while the red line indicates the ROS-diabetes targets. The network of the ROS-diabetes targets is significantly different from the 100 randomly generated networks, indicating the overlap of ROS-diabetes targets with respect to the topic Reactive Oxygen Species and Diabetes. Functional enrichment analyses of the ROS-diabetes targets Functional enrichment analyses of the 1,026 ROS-diabetes targets were performed to identify over-represented biological functions of the ROS-diabetes targets.After BenJamini-Hochberg correction, a total of 189 molecular functions, 450 biological rocesses, 73 cellular components and 341 pathways were significantly enriched in the ROS-diabetes targets when compared against all the HUGO genes (see Additional Files 3, 4, 5 and 6 for the full lists). Table 3 lists the top 3 most over-represented GO terms and pathways ranked by p-values of Fishers exact test e. g. , apoptosis, oxidoreductase activity and insulin signaling pathway. Additional file 3. The enriched molecular Functions Gene Ontology legal injury in the 1,026 ROS-Diabetes targets.Format XLS Size 91 KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen selective information Additional file 4. The nriched Biological Processes Gene Ontology Terms in the 1,026 ROS-Diabetes targets. Format XLS Size 95KB Download file This tile can be viewed wit Microsott Excel Vieweropen data Additional tile enriched Cellular Components Gene Ontology Terms in the 1,026 ROS-Diabetes targets. Format XLS Size 61 KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen data Additional file 6. The enriched pathways in the 1,026 ROS-Diabetes targets.Format XLS Size 104KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Table 3. Enriched functions of 1,026 ROS-diabetes targets Identification of over-represented ROS-diabetes targets To identify the ROS-diabetes targets highly over-represented in ROS-diabetes literature, ternary sets of background corpora of the same size (n = 1 , 1 54 documents) were generated using the same Journal, volume and issue approach. The overlap among the three background sets in terms of documents and identified targets are illustrated in Figure 2.Approximately 90% of the selected background documents were unique to the individual set, while 50% of the identified targets were identified in at least one of the three background document sets. The frequencies of the identif ied targets were compared among the background sets for significant differences. None of the targets had a BH adjusted p-value 0. 05, indicating no significant difference among the targets from the three different background sets (See Additional File 7). thumbnailFigure 2. Venn diagrams of document compositions and identified targets of the randomly generated background sets.Approximately 90% of the selected background documents were unique to individual set (A), while 50% of the identified targets were identified in at least one of the three background document sets (B). Additional file 7. Comparisons of target frequencies among three background sets. Format XLS Size 22KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Comparisons of the ROS-diabetes targets against these background sets revealed 53 highly over- represented ROS-diabetes targets as listed in Table 4.These 53 targets were significant (p-value 0. 05) against all three background sets and s ignificant following BenJamini-Hochberg multiple testing correction (BH adjusted p-value 0. 05) against at least two of the three background sets. SODI was the most over-represented in he ROS-diabetes targets. Table 4. 53 targets over-represented in ROS-diabetes literature Functional enrichment analyses of the over-represented ROS-diabetes targets Functional enrichment analyses of the 53 ROS-diabetes targets were performed to identify over- represented biological functions.Following BenJamini-Hochberg correction, a total of 65 molecular functions, 209 biological processes, 26 cellular components and 108 pathways were significantly over-represented when compared against all the HUGO genes (see Additional Files 8, 9, 10 and 11 for the full lists). Table 5 shows the top 3 ost significantly over-represented GO terms and pathways ranked by p-values of Fishers exact test. GO terms related to oxidative stress such as superoxide metabolic process, superoxide release, electron carrier activ ity and chondriosome were highly over-represented 53 ROS-diabetes targets Additional file 8.The enriched Molecular Functions Gene Ontology Terms in the Over- represented 53 ROS-Diabetes targets. Format XLS Size 46KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Additional file 9. The enriched Biological Processes Gene Ontology Terms in the Over-represented 53 ROS- Diabetes targets. Format XLS Size 95KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Additional file 10. The enriched Cellular Components Gene Ontology Terms in the Over-represented 53 ROS-Diabetes targets.Format XLS Size 66KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Additional file 1 1 . The enriched pathways in the Over-represented 53 ROS-Diabetes targets. Format XLS Size 75KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data Table 5. Enriched functions of the 53 over-represented targets in diabetes Gene flavor change in iabetes Two groups of DBA/2J mice exhibited significantly different levels of glycosylated hemoglobin (%GHb). The mean ? SEM were 6. 2 ? 0. for the non-diabetic control group and for 14. 0 ? 0. 8 for the diabetic group (p-value 0. 001), revelatory of prolonged hyperglycemia in the diabetic group 26. DRG were harvested from these animals for gene expression assays. Nine genes were selected from the top ranked ROS-diabetes targets superoxide dismutase 1 (Sodl), catalase (Cat), xanthine dehydrogenase (Xdh), protein kinase C alpha (Prkca), neutrophile cytosolic figure 1 Ncfl), nitric oxide synthase 3 (Nos3), superoxide dismutase 2 (Sod2), cytochrome b-245 alpha (Cyba), and nitric oxide synthase 1 (Nosl).Eight genes exhibited derivative expression between diabetic and non-diabetic mice (p-value 0. 05) as shown in Figure 3. Cat, Sodl, Sod2, Prkca, and NOSI expression levels were decreased, while Ncfl , Xdh, and Cyba expression levels were increased in diabetes. thu mbnailFigure 3. Gene expression levels of selected ROS-diabetes targets in DRG examined by real-time RT-PCR. Expression levels are relative to Tbp, an interior control (error bar = SEM) (*, p 0. 05 **, p 0. 01 ***, p 0. 01). Eight (Cat, Sodl, Ncfl , Xdh, Sod2, Cyba, Prkca, and Nosl) out of the nine selected ROS-diabetes genes were significantly adjust by diabetes. Discussion Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are products of normal energy metabolism and play important roles in many other biological processes such as the immune response and signaling cascade down 4-6. As mediators of cellular damage, ROS are implicated in pathogenesis of multiple diseases including diabetic complications 27-30.With the aid of literature mining technology, we collected 1 ,026 possible ROS-related targets from a set of biomedical literature indexed with both ROS and diabetes. Fifty-three targets were significantly over-represented in the ROS-diabetes papers when compared against three background sets. Depending on how the background set is defined, the over-represented targets may vary widely. An nonsuch background set would be the entire PubMed set however, this is not possible due to limited doorway to tull texts and intense data processing.An alternative method wou d be to use only abstracts in PubMed, but this may not fully represent the literature. using only the abstracts, our target identification method resulted in 21 (39%) of the 53 key ROS- iabetes targets (Additional File 12), suggesting the improvement of rich information in full text documents. In the present study, background documents were randomly selected from the same Journal, volume, and issue of the 54 ROS-diabetes documents, which were not indexed with Reactive Oxygen SpeciesMeSH nor Diabetes MellitusMeSH.This approach maintained the background corpora not furthest from the ROS and diabetes context. Additional file 12. The Key 53 ROS-Diabetes Targets distinctive Using Only the Abstracts. Format XLS Siz e 23KB Download file This file can be viewed with Microsoft Excel Vieweropen Data The gene expression evels of nine targets selected from the 53 over-represented ROS-diabetes targets were measured in diabetic and non-diabetic DRG. Our science lab is in particular interested in deciphering the underlying mechanisms of diabetic neuropathy, a major complication of diabetes.Data published by our laboratory both in vitro and in vivo confirm the interdict impact of oxidative stress in complication-prone neuron tissues like DRG In an effort to obtain diabetic neuropathy specific targets, SciMiner was employed to further analyze a subset of the ROS-diabetes papers (data not shown). Nerve growth factor (NGF) was identified as the most over- epresented target in this subset when compared to the full ROS-diabetes set however, NGF did not have statistical significance (BH adjusted p-value = 0. 06). The relatively thin numbers of papers and associated targets may have contributed to this non -significance.Therefore, the scene targets for gene expression validation were selected from among the 53 over-represented ROS-diabetes targets derived from the full ROS-diabetes corpus. Among the tested genes, the expression levels of Cat, Sodl , Sod2, Prkca, and NOSI were decreased, while the expression levels of Ncfl , Xdh, and Cyba were increased nder diabetic conditions. Cat, Sodl , and Sod2 are responsible for protecting cells from oxidative stress by destroying superoxides and hydrogen peroxides 8-11. Decreased expression of these genes may result in oxidative stress 32.Increased expression of Cyba and Ncfl , subunits of superoxide-generating nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase complex 30, also supports enhanced oxidative stress. Xdh and its inter-convertible form, Xanthine oxidase (Xod), showed increased activity in various rat tissues under oxidative stress conditions ith diabetes 33, and also showed increased expression in diabetic DRG in the curre nt study. Unlike the above harmonical genes, protein kinase C and nitric oxide synthases did not exhibit predicted expression changes in diabetes.Protein kinase C activates NADPH oxidase, further promoting oxidative stress in the cell 34,35. Decreased expression of Prkca in our diabetic DRG is not parallel with expression levels of other enzymes anticipate to increase oxidative stress. Between the two nitric oxide synthases tested in the present study, NOSI (neuronal) expression was significantly decreased (p-value 0. 01) in diabetes, while Nos3 (endothelial) expression was not significant (p-value = 0. 06). The neuronal NOSI is expected to play a major role in producing nitric oxide, another type of highly reactive free radical.Thus, with some exceptions, the majority of the differentially expressed genes in DRG show parallel results to the known activities of these targets in diabetes, suggesting enhanced oxidative stress in the diabetic DRG. mind of antioxidant enzyme express ion in diabetes has yielded a variety of results 36-40 depending upon the date of diabetes, the tissue studied and other factors. In diabetic mice and rats, it is commonly reported that superoxide dismutases are down-regulated 37-40, where data regarding catalase are variable 36,40.PKC is activated in diabetes, but most papers that examined mRNA demonstrated that its expression is largely unchanged 41. Among the 53 over-represented ROS-diabetes targets, SODI was the most over- represented and was differentially expressed under diabetic and non-diabetic conditions. To the outmatch of our knowledge, no published study has investigated the role of SODI in the onset and/or progression of diabetic neuropathy. Mutations of SODI have long been associated with the inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) 42 and the theory of oxidative stress-based aging 43.Early reports indicate that bang of the SODI gene does not affect nervous system development 44, although recovery foll owing injury is muffled and incomplete 45,46. With respect to diabetes, SODI KO accelerates the development of diabetic nephropathy 47 and cataract formation 48. Thus, examining the SODI KO mouse as a model of diabetic neuropathy would be a reasonable follow-up study. One limitation of the current approach using literature mining technology is incorrect r missed identification of the mentioned targets within the literature.Based on a performance evaluation using a standard text set BioCreAtlvE (Critical perspicacity of Information Extraction systems in Biology) version 2 49, SciMiner achieved 87. 1% swallow (percentage identification of targets in the given up text), 71. 3% precision (percentage accuracy of identified target) and 75. 8% F-measure (harmonious average of recall and precision = (2 x recall x precision)/(recall + precision)) before manual revision 14. In order to improve the accuracy of SciMiners results, each target was anually reviewed and corrected by checking th e sentences in which each target was identified.Approximately, 120 targets (10% of the initially identified targets from the ROS-diabetes papers) were take during the manual review process. The overall accuracy is expected to improve through the review process however, the review process did not address targets missed by SciMiner, since we did not thoroughly review individual papers. Instead, 5 missed targets, whose associations with ROS-diabetes literature were available in the NCBI Gene2PubMed database, were added to the final examination ROS-diabetes target list (Additional File 2).