Assess the View That in Todays free essay sample

P. Murdock; he compared over 250 societies and claimed that the nuclear family was universal, that some form of the nuclear family existed in every known society and that it performed four functions essential to the continued existence of those societies. The four functions are Reproduction (where society requires new members to ensure its survival), Sexual (this function serves both society and the individual. Unregulated sexual behaviour has the potential to be socially disruptive. However marital sex creates a powerful emotional between a couple), Educational (culture needs to be transmitted to the next generation), Economic (where adult family members show their commitment to the care, protection and maintenance of their dependants by becoming productive workers and being an income). While Murdock’s ideas are a great idea and would make a good society to live in they are also dated seeing as he wrote this in 1949, things have changed a lot since then and the family has moved on , one thing that would have changed for sure since he wrote this is the fact that women can now be the breadwinners in the family it is no longer just the men that go out to work to help the economy. We will write a custom essay sample on Assess the View That in Todays or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So according to Murdock then family would be losing its functions because it is not fitting directly into his four main functions. Another sociologist is parsons, he saw the pre-industrial extended family as evolving into the modern nuclear family which specialised in the primary socialization of children, and he argued that the second major specialized function of the family is to relieve the stressors of modern-day living for its adult members. This theory is often called the ‘warm bath theory’. Parsons believes that the family unquestionably benefits individuals and society. He uses the idea of ‘the warm bath’ to represent the home and family. The husband worries about competition, money, job insecurity etc. nd takes these strains home. The husband’s home and family act as a ‘warm bath’ washing away his troubles so that he is refreshed and ready for the next day at work where he is able to contribute to society. Unlike Murdock, Parsons View of the family is not dated and is quite close to the reality of today’s family. From Parsons View family is not losing it function within society. In the past 30-40 years there have been some major changes in family and household patterns. The number of traditional nuclear family household has fallen. Divorce rates have increased, There are fewer first time marriages, but more re-marriages, More cohabitation , Same-sex relationships legally recognised as civil partnerships , Women are having fewer children and having them later, There are many more births outside marriage, More lone-parent families , More people living alone, More stepfamilies, more childless couples , women are getting more power and better jobs. And because women are getting better jobs and more power there is group feminists, There are four major branches of Feminist theory: Marxist-feminism, Liberal-feminism and Radical- feminism. Each of these views the family in slightly varying terms. Marxist-feminists/Feminist-Marxist argues that: The overthrow of capitalism is necessary to create equality between women and men. The family is an exploitative institution (within the context of a capitalist world, Family passes on pro-capitalist values from one generation to the next, Women constitute a reserve army of labour, The overthrow of capitalism and establishment of a socialist society will result in equality for women alongside men in the economic sphere. Socialist Feminists argue: Marxist feminist theories of the family are inadequate and overly concentrated on capitalism. They do not believe that the overthrow of capitalism will result in equality between women and men, Socialist feminists contend that patriarchy is responsible for male domination over women. Consequently, they believe that if patriarchy is challenged, then women can become equal to men, altogether, they recommend challenging the dictates of capitalism as well as patriarchy. Both systems have a tendency to subordinate women. If they are challenged, then women, stand a better chance of improving their status in society. Liberal Feminists argue: There have been gradual changes in society that have benefited women, and helped to improve their social status and general well-being in society, Within the context of the family they argue the roles (between men and women) have become more symmetrical, as men have become increasingly involved in the daily affairs of the family. Further, women have increasingly become co-bread winners, thus removing the strain on the male to be the singular income earner for the family. These changes have afforded the members to enjoy more leisure and other family oriented activities, as opposed to the seemingly disparate role-functions that have characterised the traditional family form. Radical Feminists argue: Patriarchy, a universal ‘dominant’ force is responsible for female oppression; they argue that within the context of the family males (irrespective of their relational ties to women) has the advantage over women. The family is seen as an institution of exploitation – since women and children’s labour are exploited; they are also victims of domestic violence, within the context of the family. Radical Feminists (hard line radical feminists/separatists) contend that the only viable solution to ending female oppression is the abolition of the family. As you can see feminists ideas differ depending on what sub-feminist group you belong to, for instance the radical feminists believe that family has lost all its functions and is just exploitation of women and children, whereas the liberal feminists see the family as symmetrical and the man and the women sharing house work, which would mean that the family still has its function in society. In conclusion, in order to assess the view that in today’s society the family is losing its functions, we must look into the different ideas and theories. After looking at different ideas I believe that yes the family its losing its old functions but now adapting to new functions, I think that the functions of the family should change with time and not stay the same, unless they will become dated and un-relatable to today’s society.

Free Essays on A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

â€Å"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings† uses magical realism to convey Garcia Marquez’s ideas about Catholic religion. There are two main elements of magical realism in the story: the winged old man and the girl who changed into a spider. In this short story, Garcia Marquez shows that he thinks that Catholicism in his country is becoming more like a sideshow. The treatment of the old man by the local people shows this very well: â€Å"But when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence†¦ †¦as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal.† (Page 324) Later in the text, the Pelayo family uses the old man to line their pockets, putting him on as a circus freak for people to view. Garcia Marquez must feel that the Catholic Church is using tithes they receive for their own fulfillment. The Pelayo family then uses the money to build themselves a mansion, and this statement shows that Garcia Marquez thinks that the grandiose cathedrals are too extravagant. The most obvious use of magical realism is the old man with wings, Garcia Marquez is using this man to represent religion; more specifically, angels. This old man’s name is never given, and his use of an incomprehensible language only adds to the mystery. Despite being an old and frail-looking man, he shows a few instances of power. The first is the enormous patience that he has to withstand all the abuse; angel or not, we would expect the man to rebel in some form. The second instance of power is his sudden awakening of violence when the people touch him with a hot iron rod. This does not contradict the previous statement since the violence is of pain and not anger: â€Å"The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers†¦ He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic ... Free Essays on A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Free Essays on A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings â€Å"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings† uses magical realism to convey Garcia Marquez’s ideas about Catholic religion. There are two main elements of magical realism in the story: the winged old man and the girl who changed into a spider. In this short story, Garcia Marquez shows that he thinks that Catholicism in his country is becoming more like a sideshow. The treatment of the old man by the local people shows this very well: â€Å"But when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence†¦ †¦as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal.† (Page 324) Later in the text, the Pelayo family uses the old man to line their pockets, putting him on as a circus freak for people to view. Garcia Marquez must feel that the Catholic Church is using tithes they receive for their own fulfillment. The Pelayo family then uses the money to build themselves a mansion, and this statement shows that Garcia Marquez thinks that the grandiose cathedrals are too extravagant. The most obvious use of magical realism is the old man with wings, Garcia Marquez is using this man to represent religion; more specifically, angels. This old man’s name is never given, and his use of an incomprehensible language only adds to the mystery. Despite being an old and frail-looking man, he shows a few instances of power. The first is the enormous patience that he has to withstand all the abuse; angel or not, we would expect the man to rebel in some form. The second instance of power is his sudden awakening of violence when the people touch him with a hot iron rod. This does not contradict the previous statement since the violence is of pain and not anger: â€Å"The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers†¦ He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic ...

Discuss how moving-image(film and tv) based knowledge, drama and Essay

Discuss how moving-image(film and tv) based knowledge, drama and speaking and listening can contribute to pupil self confidence as readers and writers in the light of your study of Macbeth - Essay Example Exposure to the media and technology has increased manifolds in the present age as compared to the past. A major portion of the daily routine is dedicated to an individual’s interaction with the moving image in the form of the theatre, drama or movie. This practice serves to enhance the comprehension of the viewer and his perception is modified accordingly. The viewer analyzes what is projected in the media and in the context of his personal knowledge and experience in the subject matter and therefore starts to interact with the moving image. The greater exposure to moving image and the natural liking humans have for the same has materialized a need for using the moving image as a means of taking an individual’s perception of the literature to the next level. Moving image has a lot of potential to modify an individual’s attitude toward literature in the way in which it facilitates him to grasp the fundamental concepts of literature. Hence, use of the moving image in schools as a tool for developing the students’ interest and involvement in literature is indeed, a realization of the changing demands of education in the today’s media age. Owing to the strong relation of moving image with the cognitive learning, the need for its inclusion in the curriculum is largely felt. It is widely recognized as a new dimension of literacy, often referred to as cineliteracy and is defined as, â€Å"The ability to analyze moving images, to talk about how they work, and to imagine their creative potential, drawing upon a wide film and television viewing experience as well as on practical skills†. (British Film Institute, 2000). In order to gain full advantage of the moving image for educational purposes, it is imperative that the language of moving image is recognized as a separate field that needs to be explored not only by the students but also by the

Business Integration topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Integration topic - Essay Example During this period, the company opened 13 stores. (JB Hi Fi, Annual Report – 2007) The strategies followed by JB Hi Fi will be discussed in light of recommendations for further improvement and growth in this paper. These strategies will be discussed in terms of the phases put forward in the book by Kotter titled Leading Change, as well as theories by various other scholars like Taylor, Porter and others. In the book Leading Change, Kotter has used the word urgency to describe the first phase so as to get a head start into the process of transformation. This can be seen in JB Hi Fi’s foray into the market of technology with the popularity of its â€Å"Big Box†. This has to do with taking stock of competitive and market realities with a focus on crises and opportunities. (Kotter, 1996) This has been paralleled in Organizational Behavior and Management through a focus on competitive advantage which can be described as follows: (Ivancevich et al, 2004) This brings us to a discussion on the technicalities of the model proposed by Porter. Porters Five Forces model provides suggested points under each main heading. When taken into consideration individually, each of these gives rise to the development of a broad and sophisticated analysis of competitive position. This may further be used during the creation of a strategy, plans, or even where making investment decisions about a business or organization is concerned. These five competitive forces determine industry profitability and attractiveness apart from being responsible for shaping the prices that firms can charge, the costs they have to bear, and the required investments to engage in industry level competition. We are concerned with the fact that Porter’s essentially ahistorical approach cannot provide a full account of either a nation’s competitive advantage and corporate strategies or the growth and development of industrial

The regulatory policies for higher education in Mauritius and its Research Proposal

The regulatory policies for higher education in Mauritius and its contibution to the making of a knowledge hub. a comparative st - Research Proposal Example Mauritius is no longer just a country in the Pacific since they have adapted to the internalization of education followed by the opening of the local economy to the international market. It all began with the country’s involvement of the internationalization of education which â€Å"has forced Mauritius to adopt an economic rationale of creating higher education institution...– to foster economic and social development† (Ogachi, 2008). The dream of becoming a knowledge hub stems from the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC) Strategic Plan for 2007-2011. The plan concentrates on meeting the demands of globalisation and â€Å"rapid technological progress† (TEC, 2007, p.1). In order to fully realize this plan, it is â€Å"necessary to increase...expenditure for tertiary education and Research & Development† (Ministry of Education, n.d., p. iv). Aligned with the TEC’s action plan, the Mauritius government has used strategies to attract fo reign students to study in their country. As stated in the policy context, the strategy is to create a conducive learning environment so as to raise enrollment from roughly 7% to 30% (SAURA, 2008).

Attentional Control and Working Memory

Attentional Control and Working Memory Attentional control and working memory over top-down, bottom-up factors Complicated activities rely on attention to selectively focus on task-relevant stimuli while overlooking salient distractive stimuli. For instance, drivers need to able to attend to oncoming traffic while simultaneously ignoring distracting stimuli such as eating, looking after children, or hearing the bell of a cellphone receive a message. Most models pertaining to the selectivity of attention suggest that our attention is biased to either stimulus-based factors (bottom-up selection) and/or goal-driven factors (top-down selection) (Theeuwes, 2010). Physically salient properties of objects that draw attention involuntarily are bottom-up factors, in contrast, past knowledge, goals, and future plans are top-down factors that automatically guide our attention (Katsuki Constantinidis, 2014). Attentional control researchers have continuously argued whether goal-driven factors or stimulus-based factors have a larger influence on attentional control. However, this assumes that attention co ntrol involves a dichotomous selection between stimulus-based factors and goal-driven factors. This is an assumption that is incorrect and does not consider attentional control research that exists beyond this dichotomic viewpoint (Vecera et al, 2014). Past theories of attention focusing on the biases between goal-driven (top-down) and physically salient stimuli (bottom-up) do not take into consideration findings that persist outside of these factors, such as, the influence of experience with distractors on future search tasks. Attentional control, using working memory of distractor experience and strong biases, is a more effective posit than the dichotomic bias between goal-driven factors and physically salient factors. Although the dichotomy of bottom-up and top-down does not account for selection biases that are not goal-related nor physically salient, it still provides a highly acceptable theory of attentional control. The first visual sweep is completely driven by stimuli (Theeuwes, 2010). Theeuwes (2010) claims that the most physically salient item drives attention during the first visual scan, it is not until later in time that visual selection is biased in a top-down manner. This top-down manner involves feedback processing and voluntary control based on willful plans and current goals. Theeuwes (1992) found that when looking for a circle among diamonds of all the same color, the response time was a lot slower when one of the diamonds was red. Their study demonstrated that salience has an impact on visual attentional control. Goal driven selection matches targets that most fit the observers goal template. For example, when at the supermarket, if the goal is to buy a red apple, the observer wi ll prioritize red items. Overall, the bottom-up and top-down model offers a much more simplistic approach to attention and is one that can be easily accepted due to its lack of complexity in reasoning. For instance, it is easy to comprehend that items that pop out are more likely to grab attention, as well as, current selection goals of the on looker. However, this theory suggests that irrelevant items are not learned and cannot be used in future search tasks. Both stimulus-based and goal-driven factors influence attentional control, however, researchers have recently started to notice the impact experience has on the selective nature of attention (Awh et al., 2012). For example, participants point out noticeable, color targets quickly if the target-color is repeated throughout subsequent trials (Maljkovic Nakayama, 1994). They found that even when observers have a strong stimulus-based bias towards the target, experience strengthens this bias. Accordingly, priming of pop out of targets in repeated trials demonstrates the ability of experience to change the efficiency and overall efficacy of attentional control (Lee, Mozer, Vecera, 2009). These findings further support the idea that experience can influence attentional control, an idea that is not supported by bottom-up and top-down theories. In contrast to research done in favor of bottom-up, top-down posits, one memory system that falls in favor of experience and attentional control is priming of pop out (PoP). PoP occurs when individuals can point out a target faster if the essential feature of that target is constant in subsequent trials (Maljkovic Nakayama, 1994). In their study, they had their participants look for a colored diamond and had them identify if the diamond had a feature missing from either side. They found that PoP helped individuals and increased their response times. Their findings suggest that by continually showing a targets defining features, it reinforces the selective bias towards that targets features. In a similar vein, Tulving and Schacter (1990) found that representation systems based on perception allow for perceptual priming to occur. These representation system process new information in short-term memory. This short-term memory hastens the processing of similar information in future task s. Thus, when the visual information sweep frequently encounters similar items to process, these items are processed in a faster manner because short-term memory already has a memory trace of that item. Priming of pop out further demonstrates how learned experience with physically salient items benefits subsequent search tasks. It demonstrates that passive priming can provoke strong selection biases that have nothing to do with goal-driven selection. The bottom-up, top-down attentional control model does not consider these findings. Large amounts of research on attentional selection cannot be accounted for by the tendency to group attentional control in either top-down or bottom-up factors (Awh et al., 2012), for example, memory. There are two types of memory that have different roles and first need to be distinguished. Visual working memory depictions are different from visual long-term memories (VLTM). Visual working memory depictions are held for a limited amount of time, while visual long-term depictions continue throughout time (Luck, 2008). The constant maintenance of information limits the length of time for which visual working memory (VWM) depictions are upheld in memory. Lastly, VWM can only hold three to four items at the same time, while VLTM depictions are not bounded to a specific amount of objects (Brady et al., 2008). Although VWM is important in memory, VWM, in regards to attentional control, is specifically important for building experience with distractor rejections, but, is not useful for fut ure use. Visual long term memory (VLTM) uses information (information that is no longer relevant to the task) encoded in the past to guide attention (Fan Turk-Browne, 2016). In their first experiment, Fan and Turk-Browne (2016) found that VLTM for the associated location of a target guided spatial attention during visual search for the target, even when this location was not relevant to the task. Their second experiment expanded on these findings by discovering that VLTM for the associated color of a target influenced attentional capture in a different task. Memories can guide attention toward associated features, even when these features were encoded incidentally and were never relevant to any task (Fan Turk-Browne, 2016). An items features are automatically retrieved from long-term memory based on environmental cues encoded into working memory. These working memory representations bias selection toward items perceived in the world that match with features in memory through react ivation. An example of this would be shopping at a supermarket frequently gone to. When shopping at the local supermarket looking for your favorite cereal, for example, you are less likely to be distracted by other grocery items because you know where youre going and do not have to scan the visual area as often as opposed to it being the first time at that specific store. Observers find targets more easily when knowledge is given beforehand concerning the physical features of the target, like location, identity, and color (Moher Egeth, 2012). This is a process known as visual cueing. Observers find targets more easily, when they are told beforehand, not to look at certain irrelevant areas of the display areas that will not have any targets pop up. For example, an individual is more often than not to find their friend at a mall if told that their friend will be wearing a bright yellow shirt. In the same manner, Woodman and Luck (2007) found that targets were located faster if distractor items that were in the color that had to be ignored were present versus the distractors not being there at all. They concluded that participants used a template for rejection wherein items that match any beforehand features that had to be ignored, could be avoided during search, thus, items possessing the feature that had to be ignored were quickly rejected, ultimatel y, minimizing the size of the search. Knowing what not to look for reduces the number of items needed to be scanned, inadvertently reducing the time it takes to search through items. Further extending current research on the theory that individuals can use cues to bias attention away from salient distractors, individuals need experience with distractors before the distractors can actually be ignored (Cunningham Egeth, 2016). Experience with irrelevant stimuli can improve search in tasks. Learning to ignore features can result in a benefit in search tasks because time spent learning about these features, that need to be ignored, enhances its ability to be used by individuals in future search tasks (Cunningham Egeth, 2016). Results from their experiment found that within the same task, observers only benefited from cues that were consistent and not by cues that changed trial by trial. This demonstrates that cues can only be beneficial in search tasks if the cues are repeatedly shown ; developing a more concrete trace in long term memory in which participants can use. The mentioned studies establish that memory is an important part of the attentional selection process. The concept of memory cannot be put into a category that is either stimulus-driven or goal-driven, but rather makes its own valid case in the plethora of selection phenomena. Biased competition proposes that attentional control mechanisms occur when several neuronal axons land in the same receptive vicinity (Desimone Duncan, 1995). They found that when several stimuli fall into one receptive field, a neuron has multiple choices as to which of these stimuli it should respond to; this is quite an uncertain process. However, attentional mechanisms solve this uncertainty through two processes: attention is biased towards matching target objects with templates held in VWM. And, attention is biased towards items that are physically salient. Objects that are held in VWM are preferred over objects that are not because cells that have the objects features show higher rates of activity (Miller Desimone, 1994). Features of items in the external world are represented by these cells held in VWM, thus, the higher the activation rate, the more probable these neurons are to reach supra-threshold and fire an action potential when an external item matches that of the ite m in working memory. In support of experience and attentional control, biased competition reveals that past experience directs learning towards novel characteristics in settings and plays an important role forming the long-term memory system (Hutchinson et al., 2016). Frequent studies of attention have looked at task-related goals and its effect on memory encoding, but not much research has investigated the role of memory guiding itself during selection (Awh et al., 2012). According to Hutchinson et al. (2016), memory allows for the brain to differentiate between old information (information in which the individual has already encountered) and new information that will give the best representation of the surroundings. Thus, in circumstances that involve both the presence of old and new information, old information will affect how new information is processed and interpreted. Biased competition further supports that experience has an effect on what enters the memory system, which then, subsequently affect s the attentional systems use of templates in the prioritization of certain items. Cases that cannot be explained by the traditional dichotomy of attentional control can be further expanded by reward control. Although attentional selection can be voluntary, in the case of goal-driven tasks, subsequent selection can be provoked be rewards. Hickey et al. (2010) had participants look for a diamond shape while also ignoring irrelevant color stimuli at the same time. Participants were given a low or a high monetary reward depending on whether they answered right. The researchers found that rewards could bias attentional selection to either the target or to the irrelevant stimuli trial after trial.ÂÂ   For instance, if the target color stayed the same on subsequent trials, participants had a fast response time after given a high monetary reward. However, when the distractor had the same color as the previous target, reaction times were slow after given a high monetary reward. This study suggests that monetary reward influenced attention towards the color that was gi ven the high reward, irrespective of whether the color was associated with the distractor or the target. Several studies have shown that attentional selection is biased towards monetary reward. These findings cannot be explained by the voluntary, top-down or the physically salient, bottom-up attentional control dichotomy. Monetary reward further demonstrates that the dichotomic posit of attentional control is one that is incomplete and that monetary reward only expands on the present findings related to selection phenomena. Rewards are one of the strong biases that have a significant influence on selective processes. When encountering physically noticeable distractors, the experiences built on these distractors allows individuals to focus in future search tasks. This finding reveals that experience with physically noticeable distractors, and not only target templates held in working memory, benefits the high functionality of attentional control. Like further posits of attentional controls dependence on experience, learning to reject irrelevant stimuli depends on visual long term memory. This is an acceptable finding to grasp because long term memory possesses the ability to direct attention to target items in the present and later on, and, away from distractors. This finding further validates that attentional control cannot be explained by purely using the dichotomy of goal-driven and physically-salient-driven efforts. Rather, attentional control is an active process founded on creating experience with specific objects. Consequently, attentional control is a skill that is increasingly sharpened a s we gain experience out in the world. By not having much experience, the skills used in controlling attention is rather basic and depends on the simple use of the physical noticeability of object features. However, as individuals experience increases with certain tasks, the skills involved in attentional control sharpens and focuses on specific features. Once our attention is focused on a specific set of features, top-down control of attention can operate more efficiently. The importance of attentional control can be further seen in everyday life, especially in the realm of mental health. Several findings have found that there is a high correlation between those who suffer with mental illnesses and levels of attentional control. Individuals who have Alzheimers disease, for example, have trouble maintaining goal-directedness (Coubard, et al., 2011). They found that Alzheimers disease affects the ability of switching attention, suppressing, and preparing attention for random events. Further, individuals who suffer from schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a fast response time in tasks when levels of anxiety and depression are lessened (Sarter and Paolone, 2011). Emotional processing is an important of human interaction and communication. Low attentional control would hinder the ability to shift attention away from potentially threating information which would increase ones susceptibility of developing harmful psychological effects (Fergus et al., 2012). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another mental illness that is also affected by attentional control. Individuals with PTSD and low attentional control show attentional avoidance (Schoorl et al., 2014). Attentional avoidance is the concept of biasing attention away from threatening situations. These threatening situations serve as triggers that remind individuals with PTSD of the traumatic events they have experienced. This cognitive avoidance can be dysfunctional becaus e individuals with PTSD do not face threatening stimuli head on and avoid it, which, deprive them of the chance to realize that the traumatic event will not occur again (Schoorl et al., 2014). This was only the case when post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were high and attention control levels were low. Works Cited Awh, E., Belopolsky, A. V., Theeuwes, J. (2012). Top-down versus bottom-up attentional control: A failed theoretical dichotomy. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 16(8), 437-443. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.010 Brady, T.F., Konkle, T., Alvarez, G.A., Oliva, A. (2008). Visual long-term memory has a massive storage capacity for object details. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(38), 14325-14329. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0803390105 Cunningham, C. A., Egeth, H. E. (2016). Taming the white bear: Initial costs and eventual benefits of distractor inhibition. Psychological Science, 27(4), 476-485. doi:10.1177/0956797615626564 Coubard, O. A., Ferrufino, L., Boura, M., Gripon, A., Renaud, M., Bherer, L. (2011). Attentional control in normal aging and Alzheimers disease. Neuropsychology, 25(3), 353-367. doi:10.1037/a0022058 Desimone, R., Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Reviews of Neuroscience, 18(1), 193-222. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.18.0030195.001205 Fan, J. E., Turk-Browne, N. B. (2016). Incidental biasing of attention from visual long-term memory. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, And Cognition, 42(6), 970-977. doi:10.1037/xlm0000209 Fergus, T. A., Bardeen, J. R., Orcutt, H. K. (2012). Attentional control moderates the relationship between activation of the cognitive attentional syndrome and symptoms of psychopathology. Personality And Individual Differences, 53(3), 213-217. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.03.017 Hickey, C., Chelazzi, L., Theeuwes, J. (2010). Reward Changes Salience in Human Vision via the Anterior Cingulate. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(33), 11096-11103. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1026-10.2010 Hutchinson, J. B., Pak, S. S., Turk-Browne, N. B. (2016). Biased competition during long- term memory formation. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(1), 187-197. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00889 Katsuki, F., Constantinidis, C. (2014). Bottom-up and top-down attention: Different processes and overlapping neural systems. The Neuroscientist, 20(5), 509-521. doi:10.1177/1073858413514136 Lee, H., Mozer, M.C., Vecera, S.P. (2009). Mechanisms of priming of pop-out: Stored representations or feature-gain modulations? Attention, Perception, Psychophysics, 71(5), 1059-1071. doi: 10.3758/APP.71.5.1059 Luck, S.J. (2008). Visual short-term memory. In S.J. Luck A. Hollingworth (Eds.), Visual Memory (pp. 43-85). New York: Oxford University Press. Maljkovic, V., Nakayama, K. (1994). Priming of pop-out: I. Role of features. Memory Cognition, 22(6), 657-72. doi: 10.3758/BF03209251 Miller, E.K., Desimone, R. (1994). Parallel neuronal mechanisms for short-term memory. Science, 263((5146), 520-522. doi: 10.1126/science.8290960 Moher, J., Egeth, H.E. (2012). The ignoring paradox: Cueing distractor features leads first to selection, then to inhibition of to-be-ignored items. Attention, Perception, Psychophysics, 74(8), 1590-1605. doi: 10.3758/s13414-012-0358-0 Sarter, M., Paolone, G. (2011). Deficits in attentional control: Cholinergic mechanisms and circuitry-based treatment approaches. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(6), 825-835. doi:10.1037/a0026227 Schoorl, M., Putman, P., Van Der Werff, S., Van Der Does, A. W. (2014). Attentional bias and attentional control in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal Of Anxiety Disorders, 28(2), 203-210. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2013.10.001 Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception Psychophysics, 51(6), 599-606. doi:10.3758/BF03211656 Theeuwes, J. (2010). Top-down and bottom-up control of visual selection. Acta Psychologica, 135(2), 77-99. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.02.006 Tulving, E., Schacter, D.L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Science, 247(4940), 301-306. doi: 10.1126/science.2296719 Vecera, S. P., Cosman, J. D., Vatterott, D. B., Roper, Z. J. (2014). The control of visual attention: Toward a unified account. In B. H. Ross, B. H. Ross (Eds.) , The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 60 (pp. 303-347). San Diego, CA, US: Elsevier Academic Press. Vogel, E.K., Woodman, G.F., Luck, S.J. (2006). The time course of consolidation in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,32(6), 1436-1451. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.32.6.1436

ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) assay and other methods for the evaluation of antioxidants :: essays research papers

1. Introduction Most people know about antioxidants and belive in them as preventers against cell damage, which in the most severe case can cause cancer. Almost all nutritions contain a certain amount of antioxidant – both chemical and/or biological. To measure the activity and amount of the antioxidants present in a sample, some distinctive but easy assays have been established. This paper will give a short overview of the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance cacpacity) assay and compare it with other antioxidant assays. Besides that, the paper introduces some preliminary results on antioxidant activity of the plant Apocynum venetum conducted by the author. Fig. 1 on cover page from [9] Table of Contents 1. Introduction  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 2. The ORAC assay – a brief introduction  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4 3. Biochemical background of antioxidant activity  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  6 4. Comparison of ORAC with other antioxidant activity assays  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  7 5. Results in current research  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  8 6. Discussion and conclusions  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  9 References  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10 2. The ORAC assay – a brief introduction 2.1 Theoretical background The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay is a method for measuring the total antioxidant activity in a biological sample. Biological samples include body fluids of animals and humans (serum, plasma, urine, saliva), plant extracts, agricultural and food products, and pharmaceutical products.[6] The advantage of the ORAC assay is the wide range of applications as it can be used for both lipophilic and hydrophilic samples and compounds. Besides measuring the total antioxidant capacity, the assay can also qualitatively measure the amount of fast versus slow acting antioxidants in a sample. The principle of the ORAC is based on the following scheme: Fig. 2: Principal order of the ORAC assay[10] The sample contains a certain amount of compounds with an antioxidant activity. In water soluble samples, fluorescein is used as the probe which is protected by the antioxidants.[3] After adding a certain amount of a free radical, the loss in fluorescence over time is measured until the whole fluorescence is eliminated and the scavenging activity of the antioxidant is vanished. By integrating the area under the kinetic curve relative to the blank, the concentration of all antioxidants present in the sample can be calculated. Trolox, a water soluble tocopherol derivative, is used as a standard to calculate the antioxidant activity of the sample in trolox equivalents (μmol TE/g). 2.2 Fluorescein reaction Fluorescein belongs to the group of triphenylmethane dyes with a xanthene structure. Its fluorescence is based on the oxygen withdrawing groups and the intermittend double bounds shifting the wavelength towards the visible light range. Radicals can distubr this structure and erase the fluorescence by destructing one aromatic ring structure as seen in the reaction scheme.

Racial Prejudice

Racial Prejudice It Is human nature to want to feel accepted. Prejudice In the United States, specifically with Immigration has been a major Issue. Julie Toasts describes this prejudice in â€Å"Evacuation Order #1 9† which is about a Japanese-American family and the internment camps that affect them during World War II. However, prejudice is not only found in the United States. Marine Satraps writes about her experience as an Iranian during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and her refuge in Austria to finish high school In the graphic novel â€Å"The Vegetable†.While â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† Is about exclusion and â€Å"The Vegetable† Is about acceptance, they both deal with the pre]delude associated with Immigration. It Is hard to compare apples and oranges, just as it is hard to compare a short story and a graphic novel. Regardless of the style of writing, the point of writing is to convey a message to the reader. Both do a pretty good job of showing t he difficulties of living in a foreign country, but Toasts describes the exclusion associated with immigration in a more powerful way.Evacuation Order #19†³ by Julie Toasts is about a Japanese-American family living In California In the spring of 1942. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor In December of 1 941 , rumors began spreading around the united States that Japanese- Americans were going to sabotage military efforts. President Roosevelt issued an order that would imprison nearly 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry. The characters in â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† are being affected by this order. The family had assimilated into the community before President Roosevelt issued the order.We understand that the mother has a friendly relationship with the store owner Joe Lund. Melee Glasses,' Joe Lund said the moment she walked through the door† (Toasts 381 This shows that the family assimilated Into the local society because the shop owner comments on something new he sees with her. Joe Lund even offers that the mother does not have to pay for the items she purchased from the store. The reader is led to infer that the family has been a part of the community for a long time and they are nice people that wouldn't do anything to harm the country.As the story concludes, we see that the family is being taken to â€Å"wherever It was they had to SGF' because of their race and the family cannot do anything about It. The exclusion that is imminent on the family is a direct result of racial prejudice. â€Å"The Vegetable† by Mar]Anne Satraps takes place in the late asses or early 1 sass in Vienna, Austria and is about her own life. Marine Is Iranian and living without her parents as she attends school in Austria. During the late ass, Iran was going through a large scale political and social revolution.The revolution became violent in many tuitions, In fact in January of 1978 students began to protest and many students died during the protes t. As a reader of â€Å"The Vegetable† we don't know the nationality of Marine until page 482 when she sees stories about Iran on the TV and she talks about her attempts to â€Å"make her past disappear† (Satraps 482). We do not really see her being excluded or treated differently because of her nationality by the other students. It seems that she does not accept herself as she is constantly changing the way she looks and that she smokes marijuana with some of the other students.As and makes the comment about trying to disappear. In the end when she proclaims she finally relinquished the prejudice that she put on herself. The exclusion Marine feels is because of her race but also because she put herself into a situation where she feels excluded. Both stories show that the characters are capable of assimilating into the new culture and by the end the stories, racial prejudice has an effect on their lives. Evacuation Order #19†³ shows very clearly that the character s are being excluded based on racial prejudice where The Vegetable† implies that part of the exclusion is because of other factors, and not necessarily her race. The reader develops a stronger emotional feel for Tossup's characters because you feel bad for the situation they are in. To truly understand how a character is feeling, one would have to look at the choices or decisions that the character makes. The characters in these two stories both feel excluded, and the actions that they decide to take, show the extent of the racial prejudice.Julie Toasts writes about a mother who spends the entire day caking her house before her family and she are taken away. The degree of racial prejudice that she felt caused her to have a very emotional day. Not only did she pack away all of her belongings, she had to put down their dog, release their bird and hide sentimental objects and after hiding her emotions as to not scare her children, she finally has one last moment in her home to re flect on her emotions. â€Å"†¦ And began to laugh – quietly at first, but soon her shoulders were heaving and she was gasping for breath.She put down the bottle and waited for the laughter to stop but it would to, it kept on coming until finally the tears were running down her cheeks† (Toasts 386). Her emotions took over and she lost control because of the racial prejudice and what it made her do. Marine in â€Å"The Vegetable† felt such a strong exclusion from her racial prejudice that she decides to lie about her nationality to a stranger at a party. She wanted to disappear from her past because she was tired of being Judged based on where she is from. After Marine proclaims that she is proud to be Iranian, she starts crying. But really, I had nothing to cry about. I had Just redeemed myself. For the first time in years, I felt proud† (Satraps 485). She felt so relieved that the weight of racial prejudice was no longer affecting her and she began t o feel more comfortable. The actions that the characters perform in these stories show the power that racial prejudice put on them. The mother's actions in â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† are a bit more extreme than Manner's actions in â€Å"The Vegetable† and because the actions are more extreme, the reader can't help but feel more empowered by Tossup's story.While both Julie Tossup's â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† and Marine Satrap's â€Å"The Vegetable† have powerful effects on the reader, Toasts writes a more powerful story. She effectively shows the exclusion caused by racial prejudice and the effect it had on families during this time. â€Å"The Vegetable† has a confusing message because we are not sure if the stress she feels is from racial prejudice or if it is because of a teenagers desperate desire to feel included where â€Å"Evacuation Order #19† has a very clear and strong message of racial prejudice that makes the reader feel for them more.

SUVs essays

SUVs essays These vehicles are stylish to have, but how safe are they to the public? The Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) is supposed of as one of the safest vehicles on the road today. People out looking for a new vehicle look at the design of a SUV and cannot see why it wouldnt be the best choice. The tall frame of an SUV it gives the driver better visibility and ground clearance. The optional 4x4 makes it better for snow and going off road. Their heavy weight and large body are supposed to make these vehicles tough and durable. Also, the SUV has very similar design to a truck, which appeals more to the public than does a van or minivan. Though these characteristics of an SUV are supposed to make them safe, they actually make SUVs very dangerous to drive. Overall safety on American roads has increased over the last decade. However, sport utility vehicles threaten to reverse the trend. When it comes to safety, SUVs may be the most dangerous vehicles on the road, and the road is exactly the place they should not be. Sports utility vehicles are supposedly designed for off road driving. It seems like the bigger the body is on a SUV, the more popular it is, which is causing the manufacturers of these SUVs to come up with even larger models. So, the SUVs that we see on the roads today are still a normal size car compared to the coming future models. With huge bodies and very low safety features sports utility vehicles are being used for a different purpose than what they where intended for, being an off road vehicle. This causes problems with driving them on the road. Their huge bodies make it hard for other cars to have a clear view of the road they are traveling on. It is very difficult for others to see around a sports utility vehicle. When an SUV like a Chevrolet Suburban, Yukon, or Ford Expedition is backing up from a parking spot, the driver of the SUV cannot see objects located directly behind them. The driver of these mas...

Quebecs Quiet Revolution Essays - Politics Of Quebec, Free Essays

Quebecs Quiet Revolution Essays - Politics Of Quebec, Free Essays Quebecs Quiet Revolution Quebec's Quiet revolution: What is it? How has it changed Quebec's society? How has it affected Confederation? The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Lesage had an excellent team of cabinet ministers which included Rene Levesque. The Liberals promised to do two things during the Quiet Revolution; one was to improve economic and social standards for the people of Quebec, and the other was to win greater respect and recognition for all the French people of Canada. The Liberals started a program to take control of hydro-electric power companies. French-Canadian engineers from all over Canada returned to Quebec to work on the project. Slogans during these times were we can do it and masters in our own homes. The government also started to replace programs the Church previously ran, which included hospital insurance, pension schemes and the beginning of Medi-Care. For these programs, the Quebec Liberals had to struggle with Ottawa for a larger share of the tax dollars. One of the greatest reforms was the modernization of the entire school system. The Church used to own the schools of Quebec. Most of the teachers were Priests, Nuns and Brothers. They provided a good education but Quebec needed more in business and technology. Lesage wanted a government-run school system that would provide Quebec with people in engineering, science, business and commerce. With the new freedom of expression, lots of books, plays and music about French culture were all developed in Quebec. French contemporary playwrights were very famous during that time. However, not all was going well in Quebec. The French-English relation was going bad. Many studies showed that French-Canadian Quebecers were earning the lowest wage in all of the ethnic groups in Canada. Other complaints were that the top jobs in Quebec were given to English speaking Canadians. Canada was going through the worst crisis in its history, and unless equal partnership was found a break-up would likely happen. Some Quebecers thought that separation was the only solution. They thought that as long as Quebec was associated with the rest of Canada, French-Canadians would never be treated equal. The FLQ (Front De Liberation Du Quebec) was founded in 1963. It was a smaller, more forceful group of separatists. They were a collection of groups of young people whose idea was to use terrorism to achieve independence for Quebec. The ALQ (Arm de Liberation de Quebec) was even more of a violent separatist group. Some of their actions included robbing banks in order to get money. For their ammunition they had to raid arms depots of the Canadian Armed Forces. There were many Federalists that believed that separatism had no future and that French-Canadians could play a role in a bilingual Canada. There were three Quebec men that believed in Federalism. These men were Liberals and their names were Pierre Trudeau, Jean Marchand and Gerard Pelletier. The President of France, General De Gaulle came to Quebec in 1967 and gave speeches to separatist groups that deemed him an enthusiast of the thoughts of the separatists in the struggle to fight for the liberation of Quebec. The Prime Minister at the time, Lester B. Pearson, criticized De Gaulle's remarks and said that Quebec belonged to Canada and there was no need for their liberation. In 1970, British Trade Commissioner James R. Cross was kidnapped by FLQ and wanted in return for Cross, 23 political prisoners. Quebec Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped which started a Quebec crisis. After a few months Cross returned when Laporte was assassinated. The Quebec crisis ended several years of violence in Quebec. This crisis made many Quebecers upset because Ottawa sent the army into Quebec. Therefore English-French turmoil did not end. Rene Levesque was a leader who became very popular in Quebec with his views on independence. In 1976, Rene Levesque and the Parti Quebecois won the Provincial election. Now many Quebecers thought he could build up Quebec. Since

Boys n the hood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Boys n the hood - Essay Example Ricky, on the other hand, doesn’t have a strong male figure in life that puts him in the right path like Jason to Tre. Although he tries to do well, he is often influenced by his half-brother Doughboy, who gets in and out of prison for his participations in violent gangs. He manages to stay still and focused due to Tre and Jason’s company and aspires to steel get a scholarship in college through football. A lot of people may consider this movie as a ghetto film. But Singleton is able to show the realism in the movie that such story happens in real life. The three young men who struggle in their journey in the streets of South Central are just merely trying to protect themselves from the dangers of the hood. Although their ways may be different from each other, they all have the same goal – survival. The major turning point in the movies is the death of Ricky. He dies in the movie by a gunshot in one of the clashes of the two contradicting gangs, in which one of t he gangs, Doughboy is a participant. As he takes his brother home, his mother realized that Ricky qualifies for the scholarship but in tears due to her son’s death. The incident has pushed Doughboy to killing the man behind his brother’s death, Ferris.

Perception of Leaders' Decision Making Dissertation

Perception of Leaders' Decision Making - Dissertation Example This essay declares that the research will also employ correlation collection design to gather information from workforce with the aim of determining the relationship between perception of leader’s decisions making and organizational culture. This design enables the identification of connection among variables. It is an effective and accurate information gathering method. The design allows generalization from a selected sample to the main study population therefore; inferences are easier done with fast turnaround and reduced costs. The employees will be required to first work on individual basis and second as team to answer various questions in the survey. The respondents will be requested to offer the organizational structure views, to rate their leader’s decision-making perception, the effectiveness of their company culture and leadership. This will be the age and the job status of the participants. This paper makes a conclusion that a leader’s decision-making is a pertinent in an institution who guides procedures, organizations and processes. Experts agree that by performing these tasks, a leader’s decisions act to manipulate culture or altering its aspects. Therefore, leader’s choices act to alter procedures and formal administrative process of an organization. Leaders’ decision-making play a critical task in altering organizational performance and the nature of results of the organizations influence the structure directly.