Empathy as a Communication Technique Essay

The word empathy is a noun and means: Having the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. The use of empathy was an important part of the psychological counseling technique developed by Carl R. Rogers. (Empathy) Carl Rogers was born January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois and lived until1987. Carl Rogers is best known for his contributions to therapy. Rogers felt that if a therapist was to be helpful that they must have three defining qualities: The first on should be Congruence, meaning, showing genuineness and honesty with the client. The second is having Empathy, meaning, having the ability to feel what the client feels and the third being Respect, meaning, acceptance, unconditional positive regard towards the client. Rogers says that these qualities are â€Å"necessary and sufficient: If the therapist shows these three qualities, the client will improve, even if no other special â€Å"techniques† are used. If the therapist does not show these three qualities, the client’s improvement will be minimal, no matter how many â€Å"techniques† are used. (Personality Theories). Another Psychologist was Theodor Lipps. Born 1851 in Wallhalben/Palatinate, Germany and died in Munich 1914. Theodor Lipps is known as the father of the first scientific theory of Einfuhlung (â€Å"feeling into,†) Lipps sees the unconscious process of Einfuhlung is a natural instinct. Today, empathy is described as an objective awareness of and insight into the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of another (including their meaning and significance). It has also been discussed in the context of emotional intelligence, which is defined as the awareness and management of emotions in self and others. (p89) By showing empathy you are identifying with the other persons emotions. To be able to empathize with others, you must be able to feel and own your own feelings. It is hard for a person to understand someone else’s feelings if they have never felt or dealt with that certain feeling. When a person has experience a wide range of feelings then they are the ones that have the deeps of understanding what others are experiencing. When a person cannot relate it is more than likely because they have not had the experience of what the other is talking about or going through. Experiencing a feeling is much different than just reading or hearing about the feeling. When you are alking to someone that shares what they are going through with you and you understand what they are talking about, this is a process of recall that comes to your mind and you relive your experience. You are able to use those emotions to guide you in your thoughts and actions with this person. Nature helps us to survive our own traumas and experience of life. If you are able to work through what has happened and you are aware of your own feelings when talking to someone else that is going through the same thing or close to it, then you are able to help that other person to survive and give them hope with what they are going through. Accepting a person where they are in life even if you do not agree with them shows that person that you value and support them as an individual no matter what they are going through or who they are. Many people believe that Empathy and Sympathy are the same but they are not. The difference between the two are â€Å"Sympathy is literally ‘feeling with’ – compassion for or commiseration with another person. Empathy, by contrast, is literally ‘feeling into’ – the ability to project one’s personality into another person and more fully understand that person (think of an â€Å"empath†). Sympathy derives from Latin and Greek words meaning ‘having a fellow feeling’. The term empathy originated in psychology (translation of a German term, c. 1903) and has now come to mean the ability to imagine or project oneself into another person’s position and experience all the sensations involved in that position. † (Answer) A person can learn empathy by CARE. C = Call attention to the insensitive, uncaring behavior. A = Ask, â€Å"How would you feel? † R = Recognize the consequences of the behavior E= Express and explain your disapproval of the insensitive behavior. When a person shows caring then the other person can believe and trust the person showing the empathy. As part of our lives, we find many different people who hold different viewpoints. To deal efficiently with those who have a different opinion to our own, empathy is an important communication technique to develop. Accepting another’s viewpoint, particularly one that is the opposite of yours, takes empathy and listening skills. Empathy is to understand another viewpoint so well, you could feel as if you are walking in their shoes, despite whether you agree with them or not. Although empathy is intangible, its effects can be astonishingly real. A person that is upset is that way because they might think that you have no idea how or what they are feeling or going through. Once you are able to gain their trust by letting them know that you do understand and explain to them how you know or why you know what they are going through then they become obliging and accommodating. When you understand the person’s position and not judging them for their feelings this goes a long way to keep the communication door open. On the other hand, some people can take your empathy for the unconditional support of their viewpoint. Even though you understand someone’s viewpoint, you don’t have to agree with it or like it. That remains your choice. There is a different between men and women when it comes to Empathy. Dr. Shock MD PhD article on Gender Differences in Empathy suggest that women may be more empathic than men, on average this is obviously true. The article states that females use different strategies for assessing emotions than that of men. The studies that have been done show that men use the left cognitive hemisphere in empathy and women the more emotional parts such as the mirror neurons in the right hemisphere. (Gender Differences in Empathy). There are different beliefs and values in different cultures. Much misunderstanding occurs in intercultural interactions because many are unaware of these differences. A person’s culture affects almost all of their communication behaviors. It is important for one to learn the differences of many cultures so that one is able to show empathy in the right way. If one does not know the others culture something you do or say may actually be hurtful, harmful or disrespectful. Once this happens you may lose the trust that had been there and you may never be able to show your full empathy for this other person. A person’s culture determines the way they process information and how to cope with what is going on in their lives. Concepts and objects fluctuate from culture to culture. Each culture and person sees the world they live in differently. Most of these different cultures are particularly concerned with accuracy and have different words for use, depending on whether they are being inclusive or exclusive. American culture is not as concerned with exactness and therefore we use the words we want to use and this can cause misunderstanding in more ways than not. Take for instance that if you are talking to a Native American Indian and you are looking straight into their eyes this is showing disrespect. In the Native American Indian culture if looking into the persons eyes that are talking to shows that you do not respect them. Using self-discloser when showing Empathy can be helpful and it can also be harmful. Self-disclosure is both the conscious and unconscious of revealing more about oneself to others. This may include, but is not limited to, thoughts, feelings, aspirations, goals, failures, successes, fears, dreams as well as one’s likes, dislikes, and favorites. Typically, a self-disclosure happens when we initially meet someone and continues as we build and develop our relationships with people. As we get to know each other, we disclose information about ourselves. If one person is not willing to â€Å"self-disclose† then the other person may stop disclosing information about them as well. (Self-disclosure). The part of if one person is not willing to self-disclose how can the person you are talking to really trust that you know what they are going through. By opening up the other person is able to talk freely. For example, when talking to a person that has just lost their husband they are in shock. A fog is placed over them and they seem not to know what to do next, it just happens. When talking to this person and you has gone through this process, you are able to let this person know that what they are feeling is natural. Nature places a fog around them their protection. You explain that you also lost your husband a few years back and explain to them that it takes about a year to start lifting and in time things to start making since and you can go on in life. It takes a day and sometimes minute at a time to make it through. When you open up to the person that has just lost their husband then they feel that they are not alone and can make that next step. There are sometimes that this can back fire on you when you open up. The person could be so over come with grief that they do not hear what you are saying and get angry with you thinking that you are just saying that they will get over it in time. One must walk softly when self disclosing on any subject. Reference http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rogers.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-disclosure

Destroying Avalon Essay

(1) The pseudonym ‘AFriend† is ironic because the person by this name is not a friend however a bully which is sending Avalon messages about what the other girls think of her at school. (3) Being overwhelmed by the content of the email is quite normal for Avalon mainly because it was suggesting that she was not liked and that she was being bullied. (5) Avalon’s parents have positive attitudes and strong values towards education as their both teachers. (7) Mitch seem to be nice and friendly towards Avalon, as with Caleb who is the surfer laid back guy that treats Avalon in a friendly way. (9) Avalon’s bag was sabotaged following the netball match as a practical joke and harassment for Avalon it was one of the starting things they have done. Destroying Avalon (SHEET 3 ALL) Marshall believes Avalon can pull through the bullying which he has faced, but believes he may not be able to take much bullying as he was being beaten up. In the Chapter the ‘Liverpool kiss’ the gender stereotypes are challenged as Tamara knocks Brett’s lights out, it shows that she is a strong, brave person, not afraid of any strong guy. Avalon told her parents everything as she had lost control over her emotions and let everything pour out, she thought that it would be the right time to tell them. In chapter ‘the eye of destruction’, I believe Marshall is inside, huddled in  his room afraid of the bullies returning, afraid to leave his room. Marshal’s death is unexpected I was very confused. I thought no such thing would happen as he was very strong for Avalon. The use of repetition brings a sad realization of how horrible this act was, it brings Avalon horror and impact on her emotions, as death is a strong word, we would all act strongly with emotion towards it. Avalon blames herself as she believed the bullies only targeted Marshall as she ignored their attempts of her, thus finding a new prey. We learn from Marshall’s mother, that Marshall was a up and going young kid when in primary, excited for High School and always seemed to be contented. DATE OF ENTRY FORMAT (Consider font, size, style, page format etc.) LANGUAGE AND STYLE (Sentence structure, vocab, repetition etc) EVENTS January 15 Small writing Expresses his emotions and feelings His dad leaves February 25 Small writing About his feelings He got embarrassed in front of the class. March 6 Normal writing Expresses his emotions Getting bullied by Todd and his mates. May 13 Capital letters, bold writing. About his feelings and emotions He hates himself and wants to die. Avalon had been guilty of judging Alice the whole time jumping to the conclusion that weather it was her or not, Avalon ended up feeling regretful later. ^Table above Character Alias (THEY ARE DEVELOPED THROUGH-OUT THE ENTRIES): Alice – a mean, heartless, popular girl who cared for nothing and had no heart Tamara – thinking she was a very odd and scary looking person ( unfriendly) Marshal – Gay Jeremy – a friendly easy-going guy Avalon will move on positively from her torment proving Marshal’s prophecy correct, but she will never forget the friend she lost. Alice turned the popular girls against her, this in turn turned most other people against her, and she did play a major role against Avalon but did not make up lies or rumors. Dragon Girl did not want to lose Avalon as a friend as she had with Alice, she has always lost to the popular girls and thus she turned everyone against her so Avalon would stay in the group and not leave them. It would have been easier to know that Alice was Dragon Girl as Avalon already disliked her, Dragon Girl would have just increased her anger and rage I noticed Avalon was exposed to a wide range of emotions and situations, which differed to what she would’ve faced in the country, but I believe this was hard for her at first but she soon adapted and her personality and  mental strength increase dramatically. She proved to be a very strong and caring person then many believe she could ever be.

Adult essay

Introduction There are some people who graduate from high school and go directly to work, and there are others who go directly to college after high school. Jack was one of many people that went directly to work after high school. He felt like going to school was a waste of time. After working in the factory for four years he was promoted to a manager. Jack felt like he was on top of the world. Ten years after being promoted, he learned that the factory was about to close down. Now Jack was about to lose everything†¦ his job, his house, and his car.What would he to do now. Jack is not the only person to have lost his job. Many people every day lose their job and have no idea what to do next. They may lose their job due to the business closing down because of bankruptcy, or because the job is relocating overseas. There are also some people who simply just want a change of employment as well as career path. There are many of people going to college for their own personal reasons. They may have been fired, laid off, or just wanted to do something other than what they were already doing career wise.Adults who receive more life experience before going to college are known as adult learners. Most adult learners find it hard to adjust to college classes, after having been in the working environment! Kenner and Weinerman explains that working before college may affect a student’s critical foundations. While dealing with adult learners, an instructor may have a harder time planning assignments for adult learners. The college instructor may need to receive knowledge about their adult learning students’ background to understand how to assign their assignment.Also by knowing the background of the adult learner, the instructor can better know which persons might need extra help and which students may not. People can have fun while learning. Some people can learn different and new things about life through skills learned, as well as used when playing video games. It had been shown that people have learned just by playing games. Learning from playing video games can increase a person actives and engagement. â€Å"One of the advantages of using certain types of computer game in education is their ability, for many learners, to engender engagement and motivation, which contributes to effective learning.Adult Learning Kenner’s and Weinerman’s report says organizational development is necessary to help an employee gain more knowledge in their job field. They both say that Knowles discussed the four different stages of adult learning. The four stages are: †¢A. self directed, taking responsibility for their own actions, and resisting having information arbitrarily imposed on them. †¢B. an extensive depth of experience, which serves as a critical component in the foundation of their self identity. †¢C. being ready to learn.As most adult learners return to college voluntarily, they are likely to actively engage i n the learning process. †¢D. being task motivated. Adult students returning to college attend for a specific goal and the primary component of their motivational drive tends to be internal† (Knowles, 1984). The veterans have it harder than other adult learners. Veterans who may have been in active duty during war time have seen more things than the average person has seen. Most veterans can’t separate the difference from military life, school life, and life in general, after they’ve been in active duty in the military.Tacit theory, informal theory, and formal theory, are three of the ways that a person can design their own learning, stated by Schraw and Moshman (1995). The in classroom studies is a form of tacit and in formal theory. As of formal theory, the method of study is very hardly use of study, from the article of Kenner and Weinerman (Spring 2011). Game Engagement Theory It been said that video games can help a person in the learning experience in l ife. Researchers and practitioners in the field of game-based learning often assume that computer games are intrinsically motivational for most, if not all, people (e. . , Oblinger, 2004; Prensky, 2001). The U. K. is planning to make learning fun by using the video games from the report of Whitton. â€Å"The factors that the theory describes are the following: †¢1. A challenge that requires skill to achieve with an attainable goal and know rules †¢2. Complete absorption in the activity †¢3. Clear goals †¢4. Immediate feedback †¢5. Concentration on the task in hand †¢6. A sense of control, lacking the sense of worry about losing control †¢7. Loss of self-consciousness †¢8. Transformation of time† (Whitton 2011).There are two types of theories dealing with a basic model of learning games. The two theories are flow theories and the theory of androgogy. Flow theories are a part of the component. It types of engagement that can be engage in a level of the state of flow, from Csikszentmihalyi (1992). The means of having a different style of learn of a younger learner is known as the theory of androgogy. Conclusion In conclusion, adult learners have a hard time get back into, as well as adjusting to, the school environment than the traditional college students.When a person has been working numerous years and then decides to return to the school environment, it often is more difficult to adjust to forming a new train of thought. An adult learner may get so used to doing the things a certain way while in the working environment that they lose the ability for critical thinking. Learning can be fun sometimes. A person can learn also from playing video games. Some people may learn one thing while others learn something completely different from the same video game. Reflection I am an adult learner and can relate to what has been posted as well as what I have read.At times it is hard for me to get all my assignment in on time , but I am trying the best that I can. Sometimes it’s hard for me to understand what the instructor is asking me to do and what is required in the assignment for the week. Its major articles in my life they will have me pull from my studies. Things like working (need to make money to pay bills and to survive), family (need to give and receive family support in life), and other personally business. Life from adult living is hard, but to add going to school is harder on somebody like me.With the time I have in my life, I don’t have the time to sit in a classroom setting so I went a different route and taking online classing. I do agree that some things can be learned by games and some things can’t. It shows the basics about how life can or can’t be and how life should or shouldn’t be. Over all learning can be fun at times even that it may be applied to video games. REFERENCES Cari Kenner and Jason Weinerman (Spring 2011). Adult Learning Theory: appli cations to non-traditional college students. www. crla. net Nicola Whitton1 (2011). Game Engagement Theory and Adult Learning. www. sagepub. com/journalsPermissions. nav

The financial support for SME's and their development role in Saudi Dissertation

The financial support for SME's and their development role in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example Recently, Saudi Arabian government has started to give importance to its SME sector in order to improve domestic competitiveness. In such context, research finding of this paper will help the policy makers to take their decisions more strategically. Very few researchers have tried to understand the problems of SMEs in Saudi Arabia in quantitative manner hence findings of this research paper will shed light on a much neglected area in literature regarding SMEs. SMEs in Saudi Arabia are facing problems regarding accessing financial support from financial organization and lack of talented human resource pool. Biased and un-cooperating government policy has also decreased the competitiveness of SMEs in Saudi Arabia. In this paper, the researcher has taken subjective measures instead of objective view to answer the research questions. Secondary data analysis on the basis of backed by accessing various types of secondary data sources such as books, academic journals, online journals etc. S imple mathematical and arithmetic measures are used in order to treat the data and extract valid information from the raw data. However, major limitation associated with this paper is its inability conduct the analysis by using complex predictive and inferential statistical techniques. Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Jen Magson who is the research method lecturer and has helped me immensely in preparing the research design for this research paper. Without the support of Amanda Smith who is EAP lecturer, I would not be able to complete this research paper hence I am grateful to these two lecturers for giving me the opportunity work on this project. It would never be possible for me to accomplish this project without their immense support and pedagogy. Table of Contents Table of Contents 4 1. Introduction 6 2. Literature Review 6 2.1 Small and Medium Enterprises 7 2.2 Financial Support for SMEs 7 2.3 Developmental Role of SMEs 8 2.4 Conclusion 9 3. Res earch Questions 9 4. Results, analysis & discussion 9 4.1. Methodology 9 4.2 Introduction 10 4.3 Qualitative Analysis 10 4.4 Quantitative Analysis 14 5. Conclusion & Recommendation 24 5.1 Limitation 25 Appendices 29 Appendix 1: Questionnaire 29 Words Count- 4978 List of Figures Figure No. Name of the Figure Page No. 1 Distribution of Age of Respondents 16 2 Business Segment of Respondents 17 3 Financial Support to Start Business 18 4 Number of Employees 19 5 Annual Turnover 20 6 Difficulties 21 7 Duration of Business 22 8 Response Distribution for Question 8 23 9 Response Distribution for Question 9 23 10 Response Distribution for Question 10 24 List of Tables Table No. Table Name Page No. 1 Distribution of Age of Respondents 15 1. Introduction Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the development of any economy. Port (2010) highlighted that the mushrooming of these small organizations therefore creates the desired multiplier impact on the level of employment as well as economic progress made in the country. Despite their importance, SMEs, however, lack the required financial support in order to expand in size and contribute more towards the economic progress of the country (Hertog, 2010). Isenberg (2011) has stressed on the fact that role of SME in developing economy increases in manifold manner for those countries where scope for other large and capital intensive industries is small. Szabo (2006) has pointed out that

Project Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Project Management - Case Study Example The project is to be completed within one month and has a budget of 50,000 dollars. The marketing team at Nigel Longford would be responsible for the marketing and launch of the website across various mediums so as to expand the reach of the website. The marketing team would consist of a team of 10 people. The project scope does not include designing and programming the website, which has already been conducted by the companys design and development team. The domain name has also been bought. In this phase, the project contract is developed. This contains the scope of the project, the Gantt chart, selection of team, risk planning and identifying deliverables. The scope of the project is to market and launch the website of Nigel Longford and to reach the maximum number of customers. The team would be based on 10 people. One of these people would be the team leader or the manager of the project. Three of the team members would work on the testing of the website. This includes checking and proofreading content, testing website and its link, user testing and also launching the website on the given date. This team would work closely with the design and development team. The other team, consisting of 6 people, would be responsible for marketing the website. A creative designer and an art director would be responsible for designing the marketing campaign. Two team members would be responsible for overseeing print and outdoor advertisement while the remaining two would be responsible for submitting and marketing the website across search engines, social networking websites and business directories (Barbara, n.d.) In the end, the team would be responsible for a workable website that should be launched on the given date. Also a marketing campaign, both print and digital , should be delivered as a project outcome. In this stage, the team would work in mostly pairs to achieve their objectives. Daily meetings would be conducted where all team members would be required to

Managing the patient assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managing the patient assignment - Essay Example Even though no evidence exists to the effect that survival rate drops after the first one hour, giving care during this time ensures that most forms of injuries and traumas are still fresh for informed decisions to be made. Right after identifying haemorrhage in patient’s brain, the most immediate action to take is to stabilise the blood pressure and breathing of the patient (Kool and Blickman, 2007). This is because, the haemorrhage, which represents breeding in the patient’s brain may deteriorate with deteriorating blood pressure level. The stabilisation can be done by the radiographer using breathing assist machine, which is a ventilator. This is because a ventilator can guarantee sufficient oxygen supply to the brain and other organs, which will be a very important intervention to ensuring that the haemorrhage is brought to stable conditions. The radiographer can also choose intravenous access, especially where the patient came in unconscious. In the giving situation, as much as early x-ray procedures are important, it is also very important to ensure that procedures are carried out in a manner and in a way that is successful and less restricting. Achieving this however depends on how the radiographer will deal with the patient during x-ray procedure. One of the most acceptable interventions in such situations of trauma and vehicular accident is the use of backup radiography. This means that the radiographer must first admit to the need for other people to assist. Such assistance should be focused on accurate diagnosis, which can be achieved when immobilisation techniques are used to ensure that the patient stays in place as expected for the processes to take place (Victorino, Battistella and Wisner, 2003). Where the patient is conscious, communication will be very important in ensuring that the right information is had pertaining to specific activities that cause particular injury patterns in the patient (Battistella, 19 98). During the

Microeonomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Microeonomics - Essay Example ompany is working as a private firm and enters into research process in the commercial, corporate and business areas for various manufacturing organizations as their marketing partners and business promoters, and gives them suggestions after conducting a comprehensive research procedure according to the demand curve on the one hand, and the directions and requirements of the client companies on the other. The company has hired the services of three hundred and fifty personnel working at various positions and departments of the company. The companys board of directors consists of seven members working under the dynamic leadership of the chief executive of the company. The main departments include qualitative research, quantitative research, finance and accounts department, data encoding and analysis section, translation and customer care section, human resource management, technical and engineering section and marketing department; all of which are supervised by one director each. The company maintains organizations of national and international reputation as its wide range of clientele, which include Shell Petroleum, Petrochemicals and others. All these companies have sound faith in our company and the alternative fuel generation which have helped in the enhancement of their business and sales volume. Cellulosic feedstocks have many advantages over using corn to produce ethanol. Because cellulosic crops are not used for food, there is inherently less price volatility. And because a wide variety of crops can be used, they can be grown in a wide variety of geographic locations--even on marginal lands--and can, therefore, be more abundant. Plus, with certain crops, more ethanol can be produced per acre than can be made with corn. (Hodge, 2007) Since alternative energy resources generation is in its budding, but is becoming very popular in this country, there are working only few companies in such category. Hence, there is a state of monopolistic competition regarding

Mid-term history exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mid-term history exam - Essay Example He questioned Pope’s authority also, by saying that, â€Å"pope †¦cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons (Luther, 5). With these words and similar arguments in his theses, Luther was questioning the concept of merit â€Å"held by Catholic Church† and was protesting against â€Å" those preachers of indulgences†¦ who say that by the pope’s indulgences a man is free from every penalty, and saved† (Luther, 21). Though probably Martin Luther had no idea as to what he had started, his criticism and revolt against the indulgences were sharp and focused. Historians have observed that though Martin Luther had expected â€Å"his theses to provoke scholarly debate, †¦(he) could not have anticipated the dramatic public response† (McNeese, 5). The Roman Catholic Church was in those days, literally â€Å"selling indulgences†, which were â€Å"traditionally gran ted to someone when he or she confessed a sin† (McNeese, 4). It was when the sinner was performing a penance â€Å"to receive forgiveness†, that the Church had to issue an indulgence (McNeese, 4). This is explained as â€Å"an act of piety, to help provide complete forgiveness and to prove that the sinner was, indeed, sorry for having done wrong† (McNeese, 4). But â€Å"by the Middle Ages, the doctrine of indulgences allowed people to pay money (to the church) rather than a pious act† (McNeese, 4). Martin Luther was primarily revolting against this sale of indulgences. Secondly, by the 15th century, Pope Sixtus IV claimed to have the power to release the souls of the dead from the penance they were experiencing in Purgatory† (McNeese, 4). This prompted people to â€Å"buy an indulgence to help expedite a deceased loved one’s release from Purgatory† (McNeese, 4). It was against this â€Å"profiteering† of the church from the indul gences that Martin Luther mainly published his 95 Theses. When it was published, the church wanted him to â€Å"confess his wrong† doing, he did not yield to that, and the pope excommunicated him (McNeese, 5). Soon after these developments, Luther developed his own theology and it stood for â€Å"salvation through faith in God rather than through ceremonies and good works† (McNeese, 6). He negated priesthood also (McNeese, 6). Luther also criticized the Popes who were indulging in â€Å"extravagance and luxury† (McNeese, 4). Luther believed religion to be a personal thing for each and every individual when he said, â€Å"every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon† (Luther, 36). Gradually, the 95 theses of Martin Luther became the spark that initiated the fire of protestant reformation (McNeese, 6). At a culmination point of this religious movement, Lutheranism became the official reli gion for some German states and Sweden (McNeese, 7). Calvin developed Luther’s ideas and spread them to Switzerland, France, Scotland and England (McNeese, 7). England, embraced Protestantism, wholeheartedly. Later in England, a counter-reformation was led by Catholic Church, which was only partially successful (McNeese, 9). But Luther regretted his preaching, when reformation turned into a peasants’ revolution in Germany (McNeese, 7). More bloodshed and hostilities followed throughout the reformation and the

Reading response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Reading response - Assignment Example Another interesting social structure is lineage from one generation to another. The lineage structure either follow symmetrical or asymmetrical pattern depending on wealth distribution among family members. It is evident that the funeral customs in the Korean society has changed with time. However, the change has occurred slowly as claimed by Hyun. However, the Korean view on death has not changed much. Some of the changed funeral functions include handling of the dead body, dealing with the spirits, and consoling the family members of the deceased. I think that Korean culture is so strong. Changes in other aspects of the society have not affected the culture so much. The family structures seem to remain relatively the same. However, lineages from one generation to another seem to be dependent on level of income. The burial rituals have changed and I expect them to change even much due to the advancement in technology. For example, Seoul residents may have very simplified burial rituals and modern structured family settings different from their

The marketing strategies of louis vuitton Research Paper

The marketing strategies of louis vuitton - Research Paper Example In addition, the motivation of its employees can be considered a marketing strategy of this company because of the fact that these employees provide such great services to the customers that the latter are encouraged to return to the Vuitton stores (Christensen et al 38). The management at Louis Vuitton has created a relaxed environment and it is a fact that most of the time, the managers are indistinguishable from the other employees because they do not simply give orders to their subordinates, but they also accept feedback from them and are ready to get alternatives to their decisions. This helps to show that although they have managers, the employee teams at Louis Vuitton are obviously in their later stages of development and are very comfortable outside their predefined roles, displaying high levels of motivation. The management has come to the realization that any attempt to put any verbal barriers between themselves and their employees ensures that employees have the freedom to interact with the customers so that they can efficiently serve them. The marketing of the Louis Vuitton products is not only being done at a local level, its marketing campaigns are also conducted at a regional, national, and international level. This has been found to be the best way to ensure that these products reach a wider audience than they would normally have if marketing were done at only the local level. The professionalism of the marketing staff at Louis Vuitton has enabled it to compete against other organizations effectively attempting to market similar products and in fact, it has developed an edge over them in the market. Louis Vuitton always aims at being the best in the marketing of its products so that the relatively low level of its competitors in the marketing business has worked towards showing that this company has the top quality of work that is done within it. The marketing of the Louis Vuitton products tends to be done using all the media available, both vis ual and print, to ensure that a much wider audience is reached than anticipated (Wang and Lin 401). This has worked towards guaranteeing the success of this company’s product within the market for a long time since the marketing strategy adopted has been one that retains the attention of its audience. One of the best means through which the Louis Vuitton products are marketed is online since there are billions of users of the internet who are often a ready audience. Because the internet is a leading tool in marketing, this is where most companies and other institutions go to when they need to acquire products for the use of their clients, and Louis Vuitton has not been left out of this marketing strategy. Marketing online has ensured that the clients of this company stay up to date with the current product so that they are able to get the best out of it. One of the marketing strategies that have been adopted by Louis Vuitton has been the use of customer relationship marketing

Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup by Edward Ruscha Essay

Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup by Edward Ruscha - Essay Example The essay "Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup by Edward Ruscha" discovers "Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup", the painting of Edward Ruscha. Art is some form of expression of a feeling, a dream, an insight, a revelation, a suspicion or a mental picture. All these words have been applied to show the contrasting nature of art, meant to indicate that art is a complex aspect, which is not a single-dimensional perspective where everyone will look at the piece of art and immediately develop its meaning, why it was created and the message it delivers. On the contrary, art is a complex form that requires more indulgence to understand the meaning, and thus explains why it can be interpreted in very conflicting terms, because it is a matter of personal understanding and interpretation, rather than a universal knowledge. In the Annie, Poured from Maple Syrup, 1966, it is not easy to just tell what informed the creation of this work of art. While the general idea is that it is an overflow of maple syr up that develops a word, the question that arises out of it is; why Annie and not any other word? Again, the other question that counters this one is, why not Annie? The complexity in interpretation of this work of art points to the assertion by Benedetto Croce, who â€Å"denies, above all, that art is a physical fact†. Applying this assertion proves the point that this artwork is not a representation of a physical fact, since if it were, then it could be very easy for all the audience to interpret the message of the artwork.

Philosophy Sections 7.1 & 7.2 Essay Example for Free

Philosophy Sections 7.1 7.2 Essay 1. What are the requirements for knowledge? 4.What is Plato’s allegory of the cave supposed to demonstrate? Plato’s allegory of the cave is supposed to demonstrate not only the human situation in general but Socrates’ life in particular. Socrates glimpsed the true nature of reality and tried to convince the inhabitants of Athens that they didn’t know what they thought they knew. The objects that cast shadows on the wall represent what Plato considers to be the truly real objects: the forms. 5.What is Descartes’ dream argument? Descartes’ dream argument is as followed: 1) We can’t be certain that we’re not dreaming. 2) If we can’t be certain that we’re not dreaming, we can’t be certain that what we sense is real. 3) If we can’t be certain that what we sense is real, we can’t acquire knowledge through sense experience. 4) Therefore, we can’t acquire knowledge through sense experience. According to Descartes, you can’t rule out the possibility that you’re dreaming so you’re senses can’t give you knowledge of the external world. 8. Why do empiricists believe that there are no synthetic a priori truths? Empiricists believe that there are no synthetic a priori truths because they believe that sense experience is our only source of knowledge of the external world. 9.How does Kant explain the possibility of synthetic a priori truths? Kant explained the possibility of synthetic a priori truths by examining the method of inquiry used by mathematicians. Kant found that what makes it possible for mathematicians to discover such truths is that they study the principles the mind uses to construct mathematical objects. Section 7.2 (3 and 4) 3. What is representative realism? Representative realism is the doctrine that sensations are caused by external objects and that our sensations represent these objects. 4. What is the distinction between primary and secondary qualities? The distinction between primary and secondary qualities is that while secondary qualities exist in the mind not in the actual object, primary qualities are possessed by material objects.

Impact of Instant Messaging on Society

Impact of Instant Messaging on Society Instant messaging can be defined as a type of internet communication tool that holds up two or more people logged on to an instant messaging service. (Jiang, 2006) In early 1990s, many people started using internet and creative developer created a chat-room like software for people around the world to communicate with each other in real time. Thats when Instant Messenger started to be popular after a well-known company, Mirabilis, introduced ICQ stands for I seek you in November 1996, a free instant-messaging utility that allows people to chat whenever the client is running and on-the-line. In 1997, American Online (AOL), considered the pioneer of the online service community, gave its users the ability to talk in real time with each other through chat rooms and instant messages and acquired Mirabilis and ICQ in June 1998. In general, the ICQ model is the basis for most instant messaging utilities on the market today. (Tyson Cooper, 2001) Due to the extensive use of instant messagin g, it is so beneficial to people to build relationship and extend their social network around the world. However, IM could cause some negative effects to the society which by then affects the industry eventually. Most of the instant messenger has fundamental functions that include instant messages, file-sharing, voice conversations, sounds and streaming content. Instant messages allow two or more online parties to engage in correspondence. File-sharing allows people to share files with their peers by sending the files directly through IM windows. Voice conversations provide the feature of communicating through microphone in the internet. Sounds function allows user to play the sound for entertainment purpose. Streaming content is where recent news and events happen to notify user through video contents. (Jiang, 2006) Example of instant messaging are MSN messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, etc that are available for free downloads today. Instant messenger exists as a great communication tool and affects directly towards the society and industry. The implication of IM maybe for IT industry is because of instant messaging is so popular; it affects mobile phone industry to acquire the application for user convenience. Smart phone is the evolution from mobile phone that has the Instant Messaging feature. (Beale, 2005) For example, Blackberry Messenger is one of the mobile IM applications that allow users to communicate with each other as long as it is connected to the BlackBerry Pin System. (Dannenfield, no date) Technically, one of the implications of IM maybe for the industry is the lesser productivity of workers in the workplace if they were distracted by the IMs interruption. Due to the presence awareness, indicating whether other users are connected to the network in IM, workers tend to get interrupted by the availability of their peers. Besides, IM encourages polychromic communication that it might contribute to an environment in which people frequently engage in multiple simultaneous conversations. By then, it would lead to mass disruptive of message notification and chatting conversation that would greatly reduce workers opportunities to focus the task at hand. (Garrett Danziger , 2007) Thus, once workers productivity is affected, it leads to the downside of industry. Although interruption is the main source of concern, not all forms of interruption are harmful and certain interruptions are beneficial to the work. Garrett and Danziger (2007) listed the example of Hudson saying that managers often prefer the timely if disruptive delivery of critical information over delayed delivery, because it allows them to make more informed decisions and to intervene before an issue in the work domain becomes unmanageable On the other hand, Security and confidentiality are also at risk when using freely-available IM software. (Garrett Danziger, 2007) Most of the IM does not implement the enterprise-ver sion to the business around the world. Thus, most of the corporations would be at risk because consumers IM application would bypass corporate authentication through the network and allow malicious threat to penetrate if intended attacks or stealing information are planned by the anonymous. For example, messages log can be recorded or even voice conversation can be eavesdropped that includes sensitive data (Stone Merrion, 2004) Instant Messaging is undoubtedly causing big impacts whether its good or bad to the society today. Having a conversation through the medium (IM) that could result in misunderstanding of opposed participant message due to the lack of non-verbal language. However, user tends to be more open during the conversation in IM compared to talking over a phone. It is because chatting through IM medium is more relax and does not need facial expression that create uncomfortable feeling for those users who lack of social skills. (Garrett Danziger, 2007) Instant messaging affects student academic performance too. According to OConour(2006) in Instant Messaging: Friend or foe of student writing? claims that students use inappropriate English as in bad grammar, poor punctuation and improper abbreviation in academic writing. For example, word like you is substituted with u and are is substituted with r. This problem occurred is because of students are already used to the word they used in IM subcons ciously. Additionally, procrastination tends to be another problem to the students. Nachbour(2003) supported one of the views of Cooper saying that students procrastinate by chatting with college friends even those who live within walking distance. Student tends to get lazy based on what Cooper has described and in fact affects their academic performance. On the other hand, instant messaging fosters the ability of multitasking on students. College students are very busy people who need to do a lot of work in a day including, assignments, sports, events, or even eating dinner with a book while talking with people. (Marquez, 2003) According to Grinter (2003, p.25) supported by Marquez, IM conversations do not require that the student focus all of his/her attention on the conversation at hand which allows the student to multitask and talk to other students in multiple IM conversations. By that example, it is true that instant messaging helps the students to multi-task their daily work . Some report says that instead of having to physically visit their friends or call them on the telephone, they can simply send a quick message and expect a timely response. (Nachbour, 2003) while other says that College teens reported using IM to communicate with roommates and housemates rather than meeting face-to face or overtly disrupting them (Grinter Palen, 2002) Additionally, during the workplace, the software developer turns off the auto-idle features, because often he is around yet not using the computer, incorrectly creating the impression that he is away from desk. (Patil Kobsa, 2004) That cause another conflicts among co-workers. Based on the availability of IM whether they are on the status of available, busy, away, Guidry (2004) supported the view of Whittaker and Bradner that those who use IM often believe they have a more intimate knowledge of their fellow IM users schedules and habits due to this automatic monitoring and reporting. It is clear that IM has affected the users so much in their everyday life. In conclusion, Instant Messaging intension is to benefit the people around the world to communicate with each other. However, it is based on how the user is going to use it. Some people like students use it to communicate with friends for long distance conversation while others use it to procrastinate their assignment by chatting with their friends. Some corporate use it to communicate among co-workers to produce efficient work while other workers use it for stealing time from work. Things we can prevent like security issue confidential information should not be sent using IM to prevent anonymous attacks. Instant Messaging is so varies as if its good or bad depends on the choice of human being. Reference Beale R. (2005) Supporting Social Interaction with Smart Phone. Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.132.2620rep=rep1type=pdf (Accessed: 7 Nov 2010) Dannenfield, D (no date) How BlackBerry Messenger Works. Available at: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/blackberry-messenger.htm (Accessed: 03 Nov 2010) Garrett, R. K., Danziger, J. N. (2007) IM=Interruption Management? Instant Messaging and Disruption in the Workplace. Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/garrett.html (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Grinter E.R Palen L.(2002) Instant Messaging in Teen Life. Available at :http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/Papers/grinter-palen-IM.pdf (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Guidry, K.R.(2004) Instant Messaging: Its Impact on and Recommendations for Student Affairs, Student Affairs Online, vol.5 no.4 Fall2004[Online]. Available at http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/fall_2004/instantmessaging.html (Accessed: 4 Nov 2010) Jiang R.(2006) Instant Messaging Its Effects on Student Life Available at : http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~yrjiang/index.htm (Accessed: 1 Nov 2010) Marquez J. (2003) The Effect of Instant Messaging on the Social Lives of Students Within a College Dorm. Available at: http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr3-25/group2/pdfs/IM_Social.pdf (Acccessed : 2 Nov 2010) Microsoft Corp. (1999a) MSN Messenger Service Marks Beginning of New Era in Instant Messaging. News Press Release. Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1999/07-22messenger.mspx (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Microsoft Corp. (1999b) Microsoft Launches MSN Messenger Service. News Press Release. Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/jul99/messagingpr.mspx (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Microsoft Corp. (1999c) Microsoft to Publish MSN Messenger Protocol to Industry. News Press Release. Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/aug99/Protocolpr.mspx (Accessed: 3 Nov 2010) Mondok,M(2006) 60% of IM users prefers MSN Messenger. Available at: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2006/04/3557.ars (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Nachbaur A. (2003) College Students and Instant Messaging: An Analysis of Chatting, Flirting, Using Away Messages. Available at: http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr3-25/group2/pdfs/IM_Flirting.pdf (Accessed: 04 November 2010) OConour A. (2006) Instant Messaging : Friend or foe of student writing?Available at: http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/oconnor.htm (Accessed: 03 November 2010) Patil,S Kobsa A.(2004)Instant Messaging and Privacy. Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.2.1389 (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Stone.J Merrion s. (2004) Instant Messaging or Instant Headache? Available at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/990000/988410/stone.pdf?key1=988410key2=9486669821coll=DLdl=ACMCFID=29733676CFTOKEN=51420973 (Accessed: 04 November 2010) Tyson J. Cooper A. (2001)ÂÂ  How Instant Messaging Works. Available at: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging.htm ÂÂ  (Accessed: 03 November 2010)

The Biopharmaceuticals An Overview Biology Essay

The Biopharmaceuticals An Overview Biology Essay Biopharmaceuticals are defined as proteins and nucleic acids which are used for therapeutic purpose. These are high molecular weight substances prepared by biotechnological means and genetically engineered. Due to their complex structure and intricate molecular composition it is very difficult to characterize and formulate such products. Most of these products are derived from biological species and genetically engineered to produce a potent compound [1-3]. Humulin (biosynthetic recombinant human Insulin) was the first biopharmaceutical product developed by Genentech but licensed and marketed by Eli Lily and Company in 1982. In the modern era biopharmaceutical products have become a major facilitating reason of technological changes in health care sector, causing extraordinary benefits for patients, cost challenges for consumers, and profits for market shareholders.[4] Over the last decade biopharmaceutical market is the fastest growing segment in the pharmaceutical organizations. After post-recession period vigorous advancement has been seen in this area. It has been reported that approximately 40% of total pharmaceutical RD investment is occupied by biopharmaceutical products amongst which, monoclonal antibodies and product produced by recombinant DNA method are the most prevalent one.[5,6] Proteins with different amino acid sequences are the primary structure of such products. For determining the biological activity of a protein it is necessary to study its three-dimensional structure. The structure of protein is generally divided into four categories i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary (fig. 1). The primary structure is the sequence of amino acid residues which folds and stabilized by the formation of hydrogen bonds with subsequent molecules in the polypeptide chain to produce an  ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ± helix,  which is a spiral, rod-like st ructure, or a  ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ² sheet,  a planar structure. This structure resembles to the secondary structure of proteins. The tertiary structure is a three-dimensional arrangement which gives an overall conformation of a polypeptide chain. Through hydrophobic interactions between the non-polar side chains and disulfide bonds, this tertiary structure is stabilized. A quaternary or multimeric protein contains two or more polypeptide chains, held together by non-covalent bonds.[7] fig 1. Structure of protein. Because of their unique physicochemical characteristic it is very hard and challenging to formulate biopharmaceuticals as products with therapeutic effects and storage characteristics. Meanwhile their formulation is in many ways different from conventional low-molecular drug formulation. Despite of such facts biopharmaceuticals gains lots of attention in the modern era of drug formulation. In the recent reviews it has been discussed that around 400 biotechnology-based medicinal and therapeutic agents are either registered or in the clinical trials are reviewed by the regulatory bodies. These agents are helpful in treating many life threatening diseases some of them are cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and AIDS/HIV. Some of the agents which are already in the market are monoclonal antibodies, recombinant hormones, cytokines, vaccines, recombinant blood factor, and therapeutic enzymes.[5] Discussion Biopharmaceutical market In 1970, discovery of recombinant DNA technology and monoclonal antibodies lead to initiate the development of biopharmaceutical industries. A substantial growth from $8 billion in 1992 to $149 billion in 2010 quenched the thirst of investors towards the biopharmaceutical industry. It is expected to reach $239 billion by 2015 with a growth rate of 9.9% annually. There are more than 400 Biotech drugs and vaccines are scrutinized under clinical stage, targeting more than 200 diseases. Meanwhile a large number of the population is now taking benefits from a number of biotechnological innovations like recombinant protein-based products e.g. monoclonal antibodies and some large molecule prescription drugs, which include hormones and vaccines. Table 1 illustrates some of the leading biopharmaceutical therapy classes by size worldwide in 2002. In 2008 approximately 39%, among the top 10 drugs sold globally, are biopharmaceuticals and is expected to rise to 79% of the top 10 drug sales by 20 14.[8] Table.1: Leading biopharmaceutical therapy classes by size worldwide 2002. Source: IMS MIDAS December 2002. However after the post recession period, fundings over health care and other sector is reduced which impede the growth rate of pharmaceutical industries up to significant extent. Although biopharmaceutical global sales thrive to attain high numbers in the global health sector. Biotechnological based products have generated $229 billion revenue in 2012 with an annual growth rate of 10.4%. Meanwhile the major focus of pharmaceutical organizations is on biopharmaceutical vs. Small molecule drugs which enables to allocate high funding towards this area. This may be due to very less generic biosimilar products available in the market. In year 2009 there are total 18 biopharmaceutical products are approved by US FDA which is higher than the previous years i.e. 11 in 2008 and 10 in 2007. In a report of Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, it was estimated that the overall impact of biopharmaceutical sector on the US economy is $917 billion. These companies are making alliances with oth er essential services such as computing and information, clinical trial and regulatory support services, technologies, manufacturing and equipment, and transportation and logistics providers.[9-11] Types of Biopharmaceuticals Cytokines Cytokines are a diverse group of non-antibody intercellular signalling regulatory proteins i.e. glycoprotein and low molecular weight peptides produced in very little amount inside the body. They function as a mediator for communication between various cells and induce certain response by binding to specific cell surface receptors which results in triggering various intracellular signal transduction mechanism. There are over 80 sub class of cytokines have been found. Some of these are categorized in table 2. They play an important role in coordinating embryonic development, cell growth and maturation, wound repair and healing, the immune response including acute phase reactions and septic shock, and new blood vessel formation. Cancer is among the major class of disease which is thoroughly scrutinized by the researchers with an emphasis on cytokines. However cytokines also play a vital role in mediating signalling response to systemic inflammation which tends to regulate specific neur onal network to induce sickness. Some animal studies reveal the role of cytokines in situations characterized by abnormal sleep, with emphasis on the pathogenesis of symptoms and consequences of OSAS (Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome). Cytokines interact with specific cells via (1) intracrine, in which both cytokine and receptor remain within the cell (rare); (2) autocrine, where a cytokine acts on the receptors of the same cell it is produced; and (3) paracrine, where the cytokine from one cell type interacts with receptors on other cell types.[12-16] Table 2: categorization of cytokines. There are various cytokines products available in the market and some of them are reviewed under the clinical phase for example Interleukin-2 (IL-2) aldesleukin (Proleukin), for treating renal cell carcinoma is approved by FDA. IL-1 blocker, anakinra (Kineret) and rilonacept (Arcalyst) are used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes respectively.[1] Enzymes Enzymes are complex molecules produced by living cells. They increase the rate of chemical reaction without even showing their own effect in the process and hence act as a catalyst in living organisms.[17] Because of their reaction specificity, catalytic efficiency and ability to operate under mild condition of temperature and hydrogen ion concentration they are preferred as a novel class of therapeutic agents. Despite of their therapeutic role enzyme endures significant importance as a replacement therapy in many genetic disorders. However there are some disadvantages as well associated with their use such as, their parental administration required extensive purification to remove contaminants. They are also very costly to prepare and due to their large molecular structure they have limited distribution in the body. As they are proteins hence when administered inside the body act as antigen to the host cell.[18,19] Enzymes are categorized under six major classes i.e transferases, lysases, hydrolases, isomerases, ligases, and oxidoreductases. The potential utility of enzyme as pharmaceutical was noted many decades ago. However most of the enzyme therapies are used to treat functional defects. Activase ® (alteplase; recombinant human tissue plasminogen activator), is the first recombinant enzyme drug which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1987. Pulmozyme ® (Dornase alpha), a recombinant DNAse I that digests DNA in the mucous secretions in lungs, used to treat cystic fibrosis. Adagen ® (pegadamase bovine), is the first marketed product as enzyme therapy for the treatment of SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency disease).[20] Hormones Hormone is characterized as an important group of regulatory molecule which is synthesized in an organ or in tissue and then secreted into circulatory system where it affects respective organs whose cell bears an appropriate receptors. They are chemical messengers either small or a large macromolecule and are fairly defined as endocrine hormones. Approximately all endocrine hormones possess therapeutic importance and hence subsequently used by the researchers e.g. insulin(Insugen ®, Humulin ®, Novolin ®), human growth hormone (Ascellacrin ®, Crescormon ®), glucagon, and the gonadotrophins.[1] Antibodies: Antibodies or immunoglobulin are proteins produced, as an immune response, through white blood cells when a foreign particle or antigen intrudes inside the body. There are five classes of immunoglobulin IgE, IgM, IgG, IgD, and IgA. Amongst them IgG is the most common as a biopharmaceutical agents. A more specified term i.e. monoclonal antibodies (mAb  or  moAb) are the novel class compounds that are first developed in mid 1970s by kohler and Milstein, who successfully fused immortal cells with antibody- producing B lymphocytes. This fusion results in a hybrid which is stable, cancerous, antibody- producing cells. These are referred as hybridoma cells which unveil great source of monoclonal antibody. mAb identify antigens on a particular foreign body very specifically. mAbs are categorized under four groups according to their source: murine (derived solely from mice), chimeric (mixture of murine and human sequences), humanised (contain over 90% human sequences) and fully human.[8, 17] In 1986, Murobmonab (OKT3), a murine antibody, is the first monoclonal antibody tested as a therapeutic in humans. However it fails to produce a substantial response in the transplantation rejection patients because of production of anti-murine antibody.[20] Monoclonal antibodies are the fastest growing therapeutic class in the field of biopharmaceutical market. The market of monoclonal antibodies crosses the mark of $30 billion in 2011. Infliximab (Remicade) is the top selling monoclonal antibody in 2002 which was developed by Centocor and is marketed by Centocor and Schering-Plough for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Crohns disease. Rituximab (Rituxan), developed by Genentech and IDEC and marketed by Genentech, IDEC and Roche, for the treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, is the second largest selling monoclonal antibody.[21] Vaccines: Vaccines are antigenic proteins which are either partial or modified form of bacteria, viruses and toxins which causes certain diseases against which vaccine protects. The antigenic property of vaccines is altered from its original form by certain processes such as utilizing attenuated viruses, inactivated viruses, part of a virus or bacteria and toxin produced by bacteria; hence they lack ability to cause disease although, endures ability to produce an immune response.[22] Vaccines are the only known prophylactic approach which are commonly available to cure many infective diseases. Vaccines cover the global market share of $ 3 billion annually. Government health agencies run different immunization programs which alleviate the risk of many infective disorders. However, there are approximately 15 million people die every year from certain infectious diseases that can be cured by vaccination process. Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries seek great potential in this area but the use is limited because of their high production cost, delivery and distribution problems. Vaccines may contain animal derived products such as Bovine serum albumin or fetal calf serum or human derived product for example using cell lines of human tissues. However in recent years transgenic and recombinant plants are also utilized for the production of vaccines.[12,23,24] There are different vaccines available in the market for many infectious diseases such as poliomyelitis, cholera, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, measles, meningitis etc. For hepatitis B virus some examples are Baraclude (Entecavir ®), Adefovir dipivoxil (Hepsera ®), Lamivudine (Epivir ®-HBV, 3TC), Alfa Interferon (Intron ® A, Infergen ®, Roferon ®).[1,25] Antisense drugs: Antisense compounds are non-coding strand of messenger RNA(mRNA), which hybridize with mRNA and inactivates the ability of genes to produce the protein for which it holds the recipe.[26] They do not alter human gene causing variation in human genetic information. It was first developed in 1978 using a string of DNA nucleotide which binds with messenger RNA and block its function. These drugs are designed to treat a wide range of diseases such inflammatory, infectious, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Fomiversen was the first antisense drug approved in 1998 for the treatment of cytomegalovirus retinits in AIDS patients. These are categorized under three sub-classes i.e. antisense oligonucleotides(ASONs), ribozymes and RNA interference(RNAi). Affinitak, manufactured by ISIS pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, is used for the treatment of non-small-cell lung carcinoma(NSCLC). There are certain antisense compound are under review by health agencies for their therapeutic efficacy towards ma ny anomalies[27,28] Peptide therapeutics: Peptides are polymers having one or two amino acids linked with amides and are chemically synthesized by using liquid phase or solid phase synthesis. Their chemical synthesis is preferred over biosynthetic approach because it facilitates the conjugation or incorporation of small molecules and non-natural amino acids. This approach reveals the potential of such molecules as cytotoxic agents for antitumor therapy. Peptides with non-natural opens up the possibility for greater chemical diversity, analogous to small-molecule medicinal chemistry approaches for developing high-af ¬Ã‚ nity, highspeci ¬Ã‚ city molecular recognition. Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) and peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs)are developed from the effectors of innate immune response in eukaryotes during their defense mechanism. However there are not many products of peptides found in the market but researchers are trying to develop some therapeutic peptides and proteins with significant effect towards certain diseases. Nesiritide (Natrecor, Noratak) is produced by Johnson Johnson2001, Teriparatide (Forteo) is developed and marketed by Lily in 2002 Enfuvirtide (Fuzeon) is manufactured by Trimeris 2003.[29-31] Challenges associated with biopharmaceutical products: Biopharmaceutical products such as monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, certain hormones, and cell therapies are rewarded as some of the most promising innovation in the field of medicine and health. However there are certain risk and challenges associated with such products which hamper their performance. One of the major challenges is the purification of proteins although it can be achieved by various processes but still purification of such compound is very critical hence requires a lot of attention during manufacturing. Next generation pharmaceutical.[32] However the whole process is carried out under two phases i.e. upstream and downstream regulation. Immunogenicity associated with some of these proteins is also a major concern for biopharmaceutical agents. A repeated injection of human protein may affect the immune tolerance towards self- antigen, leading to humoral response.[33]   Biopharmaceutical products require greater attention, process level as well as monitory level, in the development phase of the drug discovery process it requires approximately $200 million to develop a biopharmaceutical product hence the risk associated with their failure during development stage is increased. Apart from purification and immunogenicity some other issues also make some impact during their development such as government regulations which influence the cost of such products. As discussed earlier it takes a large amount of money to develop such agents hence companies also compensate their development cost and earn profits from their products, ones marketed, which exponentially increases the cost of the drugs. Last and one of the most important risk associated with such products is the introduction of biosimilar products. Biopharmaceutical market is growing very fast, the initial compounds of the first generation are now coming to an end. The expiry of the patents opens the market for generic products which not only influence the established market of some very popular brands, it also forms a milieu of competition to sell the products at cheaper rates which is compensated by their quality.[34] Conclusion Biopharmaceutical products are one amongst the novel class of therapeutic compounds. These are medical agents obtained from biological sources and some special one are manufactured by biotechnological means. They are cellular products, therapeutic proteins, vaccines, gene therapy products and plasma blood product derivatives. Erythropoietins, insulins, and monoclonal antibodies, are some of the leading biopharmaceutical products available in the market hence biopharmaceutical companies are now focusing on their use in long-term conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and asthma. The blockbuster sales of some existing biopharmaceutical products accompanied by the tremendous innovation and a plethora of pipeline products demonstrate the vigorous growth in the biopharmaceutical market in upcoming years. This significant growth is supported by some of the key segments of the field like monoclonal antibody and vaccines. In addition approaches like gene therapy and peptide ther apeutics holds enormous potential for some life threatening anomalies and the combined approach of proteomics, genomics and biotechnology is predicted to empower the most part of the healthcare sector in the upcoming days.

Evidenced Based Practice Guideline Essay -- Healthcare

Introduction In a fast-paced environment such as the emergency department, effective communication is imperative for a smooth working environment. Without proper communication; evidence supports decreased clinical outcomes and increased clinical errors. A study highlighted in the center for healthcare informatics, discusses the varying communication patterns and issues that are experienced by clinicians that occupied various clinical roles. (Spencer, Logan & Coiera, 2002). A look at the current evidence-based practice guidelines, the clinical question utilized is as follows: Among the ER staff nurses who received a monthly e-mail highlighting the essential points of the monthly staff meetings, what percentage can demonstrate evidence of improved communication opposed to those that did not receive e-mail during a three-month period. The target population for this particular study is a twelve bed emergency room located in a rural town of less than 250,000. The emergency room has fourteen full-time employees, eleven female and three male. Ten nurses work day shift, while four nurses work night shift. The decision to split the groups properly and without bias would be the selection of five dayshift nurses, two males and three females, and two night shift nurses, one male and one female who will receive electronic communication updates along with staff management meetings and minutes, selected randomly. The control group, the remaining seven nurses, all of which are female will not receive the same e-mail communications with updates to patient care and an increase in the information regulated by the emergency room. Because of the small sample size of registered nurses currently working in the emergency department and the inability... ... small number of staff that was involved in this study, the short time frame that the study was conducted in, and the limited amount of published research on emails in the health care industries. It is apparent from my attempt that more research need to be made. Works Cited Huber, D. L. (2010). Change and innovation. In N. O'Brien (Ed.), Leadership and Nursing Care Management (p. 68). Maryland Heights, Missouri: Saunders Elsevier. Kearnery-Nunnery, R. (2008). Change. In J. DaCunha (Ed.), Advancing Your Career: Concepts of Professional Nursing (p. 243). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company. Lusk, E. (2006). Email: Its decision support systems inroads- An update. Science Direct, 42(1), 328-332. doi: 10.1016/j.dss.2005.01.001 Spencer, R., Logan, P., & Coiera, E. (2002). Supporting communication in the emergency room. Retrieved from http://www.chi.unsw.edu.au

Stem-Cell Research and the Media Essay -- Persuasive Argumentative Es

Stem-Cell Research and the Media      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Biomedical technology is getting much press due to the stem-cell debate.   A controversial topic in itself, with the President of the United States taking a stand on the issue for funding purposes, the topic has received even more press over the consequences resulting from President Bush's decision.   With the President's approval rating well over 80 percent since the September 11th attack, those who contest any of his decisions have been receiving feelings of anger from those who support him.   I, however, would like to take a stand and contest Bush's decision to limit the stem cell research funding.   This paper presents two articles that examine Bush's decision in different ways; one looks at the consequences from the point of view of stem cell researchers, and the other presents an avenue for the Presidential administration to defend their decision, which happens to be contradictory to their claim to be concerned with the science behind stem cell rese arch.   While the Janesville Gazette article is supposedly a defense of Bush's decision, analyzing the claims and actual behaviors of Tommy Thompson and President Bush exemplifies their weak argument.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Newsweek article by Begley (2001) conveys information about the consequences of President George W. Bush's decision to limit the federal funding for stem-cell research to the 64 colonies already in existence.   The article does not explicitly state President Bush's decision to limit the funding of the research to the current 64 colonies, but only states that the President announced, "there were scores of stem-cell colonies around the word that federally funded scientists would be allowed to study."   Begley's way of co... ...n's position, a careful analyzer can see major contradictions between his claims to use science to make the decision and his actual decision obviously not being based on science.   By also examining and article which roots itself in the people involved daily with stem cell research, and by capturing their concerns with the President's funding decision, this paper serves as a well rounded critique of Bush's stem cell research funding decision in a time when patriotism does not allow for easy critiques of the current administration.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      References   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Begley, Sharon. (2001, September 10). In search of stem cells: It turns out many of the 64 lines may be unusable.   Newsweek, p. 57.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Stem cell decision defended: Thompson" Number of developed lines mad no difference to Bush. (2001, September 7). The Janesville Gazette, pp. A1, A8.   

Marries Is Better Than Being Single Essay

There are lots of discussion and arguments about to being single or getting married nowadays. The new generation might not willing to bound into marriage life and they wish to remain in single life so they can have more privacy, freedom and the commitment of   responsibilities. However, marriage is union ordained by God and it is also a wonderful union of two people in love. It is unique, opposite-sex union with legal, social, economic and spiritual dimensions. Getting married does bring a lot of advantages to a person either family. The biggest advantage for getting married is emotional stability. Married people treat their own family as shelter and they can feel secure and relax when staying together with their family. Family provides a peace and comfort zone for those married people to restore their energy. Marriage can helps the couple to become more tolerant, unselfish, caring and more responsible. Its provide a chances for the husband and wife to grow with and sharing their life’s challenges, rewards and sorrows with a person who actually knows and understand what you going through and feels the same frequency. There are a lots of difficulties have to learn by marriage people as that is not easiest to living with someone for the rest of their life. They have to overcome all the problems facing by them and to learn how to take care of others feeling, patience, emotion control, temper, time management and attitude towards their family. In a marriage life, there are always someone’s to hear your companions. It is good to have someone there to have a share, to bounce ideas or to have a witty exchange of remarks. Companionship among the married peoples also offers support and can be particularly important at times of trouble or stress. At such times, married people have distinct advantages over being single. The other advantage for marriage is that allows couples to pool their both incomes to share the cost of living and debts, save more money for retirement and doing investment. The married people can also sharing a house, car and food so they can enjoy save cost for basic living conditions compare with a single person. Therefore, people who are married become less poverty but more wealth and their money goes further. It is because, they tend to specialize, exchange, and share roles and functions in ways to generate higher earnings, encourage savings, helping each other’s to restrain from impulse spending, and generally leave the family financially better off. Marriage can also leads to better health and greater longevity for people. There are more likely to enjoy better physical health. The spouses are intimately aware of and impacted by their spouse’s choices. In a sense, couples have a significant vested interest in watching out for one another and encouraging healthy choices and behaviour. For example, the wife might not allow her husband drinking, smoking or other unnecessary risk-taking and also control his weights. Compared to single, divorced or widowed people, the married people experience less depression, anxiety, and other types of psychological distress. Besides, the married people will have active, satisfying and safety sex lives compared with single people. The married people tend to have more sex because it costs them less in time, money and psychic energy. They have find it more satisfying because their sex partner is more available, less distracted, more eager and more secure and able to please. The higher levels of satisfaction for married couples is related to the fact that marriage adds meaning to the sexual act because it symbolizes a union that is based on sexual fidelity, stronger commitment and emotional intimacy. It had increased their commitment and their sense of responsibility, and had generally strengthened their relationships. In addition, the married life can brings greater safety towards the married people and expand their social network. It’s because, the married people have companion to visit places together, visit friends or holiday together. For the single person, that is far more difficult as often modern social life is geared around ‘couples’ and the single person can often feel left out or sometimes, simply not invited. At times, perhaps, having children might seem to impede their social life but it just brings a change in your social life and much of that social life involves being with your children. Lastly, married people will create a family with a new and challenging life instead of boring life compared with single people. Families are created and held together by the lifelong commitment of a man and a woman who live cooperatively and raise and nurture the children born to them. Families are the building block essential to the formation of a community, and strong social structure arises from the foundation many families provide. A thriving society and culture depend on stable marriages. For example, as marriage declines in a culture,  the state must spend more money and care for children who less of the financial stability with divorce family background. Strong marriages statuses are at the heart of thriving family and community. In conclusion, getting married is better than being single as there married leads to emotional stability, financial stability, train the couples become more independent and responsible, better health and greater longevity, have wonderful sexual life, easy to expand social networks and have a new challenging life instead of boring life compared to single people. Getting married is not an easy but it does bring a lot of meaningful to individuals, family and the community.

Terry Scholarship Applicant

Terry Scholarship Applicants: Use this essay to discuss an experience demonstrating your leadership outside the classroom. ) Describe a significant setback, challenge or opportunity in your life and the impact that it has had on you. Dance has always been my passion. When I was undergoing some difficult problems in my life, I always turned back to dancing. For nine years I had been going to the same dance studio, Pointe & Plie, however, a couple of years ago the owner of the company had closed her dance studio and relocated to another city.I was devasted because I had grown to love the instructors and build a strong friendship with the girls there. After that I knew dance would never be the same. It wasn’t until a couple years later, that a opportunitity opened up at my church. One of my friends, Tess, had been wanting to start a Praise & Worship Dance Team. She was barely going to start the team, and she asked me if I could help her recruit more people and make routines.I was a bit hestiate because I hadn’t danced in a while, but she convinced me that through my years of experience, I could do it. I ended up adding five more girls to the team, and were able to perform numerous of times at our church. The dance team was doing magnificent, and with more experience, we started performing outside of our church, such as youth rallies, musicals, local events, and different churches. The girls had grown to love dance.The year was coming to an end, and we could not wait for what exciting performances and activites we could do the upcoming year. However, Tess, the captain of the dance team, was leaving to college. Some of the girls had gotten discouraged because they thought dancing was over, however, I was not going to repeat the same mistake. I took the iniative to pick the team up and continue the performances even after she left. We continued to practice, and each day we got better; we even were blessed to have more members to the dance team.And to th is day, we are still performing a different routine every month at our local church. We also have added a young dance team that run ages 9-14, they also perform with us to routines taught my myself and some of my friends. Through this experience, I learned to be a leader and to not loose faith in what your passion is. Dancing will never end for me. Eventhough, I have had some setbacks, I will continue doing what I love. I hope to one day inspire the people around me to not loose sight in your dream, even if things do not go as planned.

Doorstep banking

A service, especially designed for entities having a large number of branch transactions. Doorstep banking helps you save considerable time and effort. Result? More time to focus on your core business activities and accelerate the growth of your business. Doorstep Banking Services (DB'S): A facility provided to customers where the bank appoints an agency to pick-up/ Deliver cash, pick-up cheese or Plock-up/delver trade documents from the client's doorstep.Its Convenient No traveling or queuing at the branch Bank within the secure environment to your office 1 No need to break your busy schedule for routine transactions Its hassle free Service offered through reliable service providers Dedicated courier agencies for Cheese pick up Experienced Cash-in-Transit for cash pick-up delivery It's secure Fool proof, multiple verification and reconciliation process 0 Agency personnel to produce their Civil id (Kuwait Residency permit ‘d) on demand 0 unique transaction ID generated for agen t verification It reduces risk Reduces the risk of carrying large sum of cash to or from the branch Banking allows you round-the-clock access.You do not need to stand In queue In order to perform Important banking orientations. The Doorstep Banking allows you to do Just that right from the ultimate comfort and privacy of your homes. Are interested to avail the said services, for pick up of cash and delivery of cash from the door step of customer: The services are to be offered only to those customers in whose case proper SKY procedures have been followed. The service should be offered either at the residence or at the office of the customer. Customers will be pre- registered for this scheme. An agreement will be entered into with customer. The ADDS include: I. Pick up of Cash Maximum Limit up to KID. 10,000.

A Streetcar Named Desired

The Character of Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche, Stella's is by far the most complex character of the play. An intelligent and sensitive woman who values literature and the creativity of the human imagination, she is also emotionally traumatised and repressed. This gives license for her own imagination to become a haven for her pain. One senses that Blanches own view of her real self as opposed to her ideal self has been increasingly blurred over the years until it is sometimes difficult for her to tell the difference.It is a challenge to find the key to Blanche's melancholy but perhaps the roots of her trauma lie in her early marriage. She was haunted by her inability to help or understand her young, troubled husband and that she has tortured herself for it ever since. Her drive to lose herself in the â€Å"kindness of strangers† might also be understood from this period in that her sense of confidence in her own feminine attraction was shaken by the knowledge of her husband's homosexuality and she is driven to use her sexual charms to attract men over and over. Yet, beneath all this, there is a desire to find a companion, to find fulfilment in love.She is not successful because of her refusal or inability to face reality, in her circumstances and in herself. Blanche has a hard time confronting her mixed desires and therefore is never able to sort them out and deal with them. She wants a cultured man but is often subconsciously attracted to strong, basic male characters, perhaps a response to her marriage with a cultured, sensitive man which ended in disaster. So although Blanche dislikes Stanley as a person, she is drawn to him as a type of man who is resoundingly heterosexual and who is strong enough to protect her from an increasingly harsh world.This seems to be the reason for her brief relationship with Mitch, but it becomes clear to Blanche that Stanley is the dominant male here and she begins to acknowledge that fact. When Blanche te lls the operator in Scene Ten that she is caught in a trap, part of her realises she has set herself up via her desires. Stanley is the embodiment of what she needs, yet detests, and, because of her sister, can never have. After Stanley has stripped her of her self-respect in this scene, she becomes desperate, unable to retreat to her fantasies and so this deeper layer of her desires is revealed. You can read also  Similarities and Conflicts in † a Streetcar Named Desire†Yet, Blanche does not know how to face these feelings and she senses to give into them could be disastrous for her. As Stanley advances towards her, she tells him, â€Å"I warn you, don't, I'm in danger! † but Stanley has made sure that this time there is no where for her to hide. In her final act, she silently acknowledges that her own desires have also led to this date. It is interesting that neither Blanche nor Stanley seriously seem to consider Stella as Scene Ten reaches a climax. They both recognise that somehow they are drawn together and also repelled by forces that are directly between them and that have little to do with Stella.Things come to a head so quickly that it is as if tensions have been bubblingore emotionally and mentally crippled than before. Yet, Stanley and by extension Stella, are not clear victors. Like Blanche, Stanley is also revealed to be capable of deceit, he does not admit the truth of what happened between him and Blanche to his friends, to Stella, and maybe not even to himself. Stella makes a conscious decision to believe Stanley instead of her sister because to do otherwise would be both emotionally and economically difficult with a new baby so she, too, is engaging in a measure of self-deception.Stanley survives because of sheer physical presence, not because of any innate superiority. Blanche suffers overall on many fronts in her new environment, but in conclusion although one does feel pity for Blanche she has to a large extent with her own weaknesses brought her own downfall. Blanche can not compete in the new household she is placed in Stella has already claimed her territory and ultimately will choose her marriage over her sister.Blanches past erupts into the present and without at the forefront is the contradiction to the facade Blanche has put up over her sexual needs and desires. So confused is Blanche over sex the one weap on she has to gain a husband her sexuality she can no longer use. In the end Blanche is living in a era which was smashed a hundred years before this moment of time in the play. This era Blanche lameness in is the gentile society of Southern America with wealthy European colonials engaging politely in society. For Blanche this refusal to let go of the past and adjust to her new surroundings and the

Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Essay

It is dif? cult to see adequately the functions of language, because it is so deeply rooted in the whole of human behaviour that it may be suspected that there is little in the functional side of our conscious behaviour in which language does not play its part. Sapir (1933) Language is a complicated business. In everyday talk, we use the word ‘language’ in many different ways. It isn’t clear how ‘language’ should be de? ned or what the person on the street thinks it actually is! We talk about how miraculously a child’s ‘language’ is developing but how they make charming ‘grammar mistakes’, like me maden that instead of ‘I made that’. Here, language is an ability that is blossoming in the child. But the word is used in a myriad of different ways. For example, people have strong views about how beautiful or how hideous the ‘language’ is of some region or country or age group; how it sounds to the ear. People say ‘I just adore Italian or an Irish accent. ’ They grimace or smile at teenager talk on television. Here ‘language’ is being judged aesthetically. By contrast, we remark that you can’t really appreciate a culture without knowing the ‘language’, as when we learn French or Japanese for that reason. Then pupils struggle with rules for tenses like the passe compose and imparfait or have to memorize genders and irregular verb conjugations, matters of grammar which seem a million miles from cuisine, ? lm, high tech or Zen Buddhism. ‘Language’ here equates with grammar. 1 Language and society Then, people relate the word ‘language’ to the expression of thoughts. They often say that they ‘can’t ? nd the words’ for their thoughts or express feelings. Or they are ‘hunting for the right words’. Alternatively, we say that language is a means of communication. Politicians often use as an excuse the fact that their message ‘just isn’t getting across’ because the media distorts what they say. In negotiations or relationships, when communication fails, we say, ‘they just don’t speak the same language’. In another sense, ‘language’ refers to a school subject. It makes sense to say that ‘little Mary is behind in her English’, although you’d never know it when you hear her chatting with her friends. ‘Language’ is being viewed as a set of skills acquired in school. We are taught to write Standard English and spell correctly. At the same time, we use the term ‘language’ analogically, as a metaphor. We talk of such things as ‘body language’, or the ‘languages’ of music, painting or dance. It is fairly clear that these various ordinary uses of the word refer to different aspects of language, and take different perspectives on the sort of thing language is. Or, alternatively, we have simply grouped together under the heading of ‘language’ a range of diverse phenomena which are only partially related to each other. In order to clarify our thoughts about language, let’s look at some of the ways language is viewed by linguists. We can then give a precise statement of the speci? cally sociolinguistic view of language, and contrast it to other views of language assumed in linguistics proper. The primary aim of all linguistic scholarship is to determine the properties of natural language, the features it has which distinguish it from any possible arti? cial language. This means that linguistics will be universalistic in its basic aims. It will examine individual natural languages in the course of constructing a theory of universal grammar that explains why the whole set of natural languages are the way they are. Natural languages, English, French and so on, are in fact the data for this theory of natural language. Arti? cial languages are of interest too since they can exhibit certain properties any language has, but they also have features that can sharply distinguish them from any naturally evolved language. Linguistics and sociolinguistics 3 We will look at some arti? cial languages to illustrate this. The linguist Noam Chomsky, in his in? uential book Syntactic Structures (1957), employed the following languages in the course of his arguments: (i) (ii) (iii) ab, aabb, aaabbb, . . . and all sentences of the same type. aa, bb, abba, baab, aaaa, bbbb, aabbaa, abbbba, . . . and all sentences of the same type. aa, bb, abab, baba, aaaa, bbbb, aabaab, abbabb, . . . and all sentences of the same type. Why would we want to call (i), (ii) or (iii) languages? The answer is that they have certain properties of any language. They have a vocabulary of symbols, in this case two letters of the alphabet ‘a’ and ‘b’. Also, they have a syntax. That is, each of the languages has speci? c rules for joining together their symbols to produce the sentences or strings of that language. If the rule of syntax is not followed, then the string or sentence produced is not a sentence of that language. Consider the syntactic rules of the three languages. In language (i) the rule seems to be that for each sentence, whatever the number of occurrences of the ? rst symbol, a, it is immediately followed by exactly the same number of occurrences of the second symbol, b. In language (ii), the rule is that, for each sentence, whatever the arrangement of a and b in the ? rst half of that sentence, then that arrangement is repeated in reverse in the second half of the same sentence. I’ll leave the reader to work out the equally simple syntax of language (iii). Note that the output of the application of their respective syntactic rules to the symbols of these languages is an in? nite set of strings which are members of the language sharply distinguishable from another in? nite set of strings which are not members of the language. In brief, then, these arti? cial languages have vocabularies and syntactic rules for joining their symbols together. And, by following the rules of their syntax, an in? nite set of strings can be produced. Natural languages can also be considered in this way. Thus, English can be viewed as a set of strings. And this in? nite set is produced by the vocabulary and syntactic rules of English. If linguists can 4 Language and society construct a device, a grammar, which can specify the grammatical strings of English and separate them from the combinations of symbols which are not English, they have gone a considerable distance towards making explicit the syntactic properties of the language. And if the types of rule in that grammar are also necessary for the grammar of any natural language, then they might have discovered some of those universal properties of language which it is the aim of linguistics to discover. Chomsky, in fact, used languages (i), (ii) and (iii) to rule out a certain class of grammars as candidates for grammars of natural language. Of course, these arti? cial languages are also extremely unlike natural languages. One very noticeable difference is that the symbols and strings don’t bear any relation to the world. They have no senses or meanings, but are purely syntactic. The study of meaning and how it relates symbols to the world is called semantics. There are other arti? cial languages which have strings of symbols which are meaningful. An example is arithmetic. Consider ‘2 + 2 = 4’ or ‘3 ? 3 = 9’. These formulae have a syntax and a semantics. And they are true, while ‘2 + 2 = 5’ is false. These are language-like properties. But there is also something very unlike natural language, the language spontaneously acquired by children, about these formulae. Nothing in the world (we feel) could ever make ‘2 + 2 = 4’ false, as long as the symbols themselves don’t change their meanings. The formulae appear to be analytic or ‘always true by de? nition’. Contrast this with some sentences from natural language: 1. 2. 3. 4. Arthur is taller than Brenda. Brenda is taller than Tom. Doreen is taller than Brenda. Tom is shorter than X? We can use these sentences to make statements which are true or false, express our beliefs that each sentence designates a state of affairs in the actual world. These sentences are synthetic, true or false according to the facts. (Strictly speaking, it isn’t the sentences which are true or false, but the propositions which they express. A ‘sentence’ may express many different ‘propositions’. However, I will ignore the distinction in this book. ) We can capture a Linguistics and sociolinguistics 5 sentence’s relation with the world by giving its truth conditions. These are precisely the possible worlds – possible states of affairs – in which it is true. For example, 1 is true in worlds where the individual designated by ‘Arthur’ is a member of the class of individuals who are ‘taller than the individual designated by â€Å"Brenda† ’; otherwise it is false. Similarly, if ‘Doreen’ is also a member of that class, then 3 would be true, otherwise false. Only if we know these truth conditions, can we use the sentences to state what we ourselves believe. Or understand what somebody else using the sentence is claiming to be the case. Intuitively, to know truth conditions is part of the ‘meaning’ of the sentences. But sentences also relate to each other. For example, if 1 is true, then Arthur is ‘bigger’ or ‘greater’ than Brenda with respect to her ‘height’ or her ‘tallness’. Synonymy is one example of sense or semantic relations. Such semantic properties constitute inferential relationships between the sentences. Another example. We know that, if both Doreen and Arthur ‘are taller than’ Brenda, and Brenda ‘is taller than’ Tom, then Doreen and Arthur ‘are taller than’ Tom. We don’t have to look at the world to know this fact. It is a result of a semantic property of the language; the ‘transitivity’ of the predicate ‘taller than’. Similarly, ‘is shorter than’ in 4 bears a systematic semantic relation to its converse ‘is taller than’. Example 1 entails ‘Brenda is shorter than Arthur’. Entailments are inferences that depend on semantic relations. If one thinks about it, this web or network of sense relations seems to describe features of the very same possible worlds in which the sentences are true. Of course it would, wouldn’t it? This is because inferential relations between sentences are just those relations where the two sentences are both true! Hence, to specify sense relations is a way to partially describe the ‘worlds’ of the truth conditions – the ones in which the sentences are true. Hence it is a way of giving the ‘meaning’ of the sentences. So far, no social factors have been mentioned. How do social factors ? gure in the explanation of language? They don’t seem directly related to either syntax or semantics. We can begin a treatment of this question by mentioning a few social aspects of semantics. A fundamental factor in making both the arithmetic and natural language examples work is convention. In the ? rst case, of the 6 Language and society arithmetic symbols ‘2’, ‘4’ etc. , we have con? dence that when we use them, our addressee will understand that we intend to refer to sets of two and four, 2 and 4, etc. , respectively. This is an example of co-operative social co-ordination. It connects the sound [tu:] or the mark ‘2’ with any set of two things. It allows an English speaker to use the term with con? dence that their intention will be understood. The ‘sign’ and its ‘object’ have a coded relationship. Similarly with the predicates ‘is taller than’ and ‘is shorter than’. They have a coded relation with the states of affairs they represent. It is important to note that any intrinsic properties that the signs ‘2’ or ‘4’ or ‘tall’ or ‘short’ might have do not explain the link with their objects. Any noise or mark could just as easily be chosen. This is the property of the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. Signs and objects are arbitrarily linked, by convention. And this is a social phenomenon. From a different perspective, the connection of world and words isn’t arbitrary, though it is equally social. Consider the web of inferential relations sketched above. The semantic structure of language describes the possible worlds in which sentences are true. Now to even establish this structure it is necessary for us to use the signs to express belief, what we take as actually true, to coordinate ‘taller than’ and ‘shorter than’ with the world as we take it to be. In essence, semantics de? nes possible states of the world based on our beliefs. Truth has to do with ‘senses i. e. the inferential net’, the relation of ‘words and world’, and ‘our beliefs’. Without the ‘possibly true’ world set given through meanings, we couldn’t inquire, because we couldn’t think hypothetically. Without the inferential relations, we couldn’t reliably think out the consequences of our hypotheses to test them and thus be right or wrong in our beliefs, assent or dissent in the light of experience. Thus, crucially, the semantic structure of a language is the very resource necessary for humanity to form any empirical theory of the world and use language to inquire – to ? x belief and hence deal with everyday experience, be able to live. That the set of sentences can form a coherent theory can be seen by the fact that, if you believe that 1–3 are true, then you can give a true answer to 4, without further looking at the world. Tom must be the ‘shortest one of all’ in this particular universe of discourse. There is no doubt Linguistics and sociolinguistics 7  that the process of inquiry is social. We have to co-ordinate our beliefs and inferences for language to work. Are there other properties of natural language which require social explanation? The answer is, ‘Yes, there are many such properties. ’ Next we will look at one of the most de? nitive social properties of language. This property is called variability. Consider the English word ‘butter’. On the levels of syntax, vocabulary and semantics, it is a single English item; a mass noun which means something like an edible, yellow, dairy product used in cooking and as a spread. Yet although it is one item, if I asked you to describe its pronunciation in English, you would not be able to give a single answer: there are various phonetic realizations of ‘butter’. In British English Received Pronunciation the t is made by putting the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth, and releasing the air in a small explosion without vibration of the vocal chords. The r, however, is not pronounced, although it is present in the written form. Instead, a vowel sound, schwa (phonetically transcribed as e) follows the t. The schwa is the same sound that is normally ? nal in the word sofa. Thus, the RP speaker and many other British English speakers say [bvte]. In Canadian and American accents there is a rule that when explosive sounds like t are made between two vowels, the vibration of the vocal chords, called voice, continues through the whole sequence. This has the effect of turning the [t], which is voiceless, into [d], which is its voiced counterpart. Thus, a Canadian saying ‘butter’ in fact pronounces it as if it were ‘budder’. However, Canadians and many of their American neighbours also have r-full accents (as do the Scots and Irish). This means that, unlike the RP British English speaker, they pronounce the written r in butter, giving us the ? nal form [bvter ]. In many British English accents there is yet another variation in the pronunciation of t in this environment. The vocal chords themselves are closed tightly and then released abruptly, giving the impression that t is missing. In fact, the gap is ? lled by a socalled glottal stop, symbolized by ?. So ‘butter’ is pronounced [bv? e]. Such a pronunciation would typify London working-class speech, familiar to North Americans as a Cockney accent from ? lms like My Fair Lady. 8 Language and society This ? lm, from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, introduces another feature of the variability we have been describing. For Professor Higgins (modelled by Shaw on the famous phonetician, Henry Sweet) to take such pains to train Eliza Doolittle to pronounce words like ‘butter’ as [bvte], as opposed to [bv? e], indicates that the variation must mean something. There is no conceptual difference in the word-meaning itself. The meaning difference of the variation is socially signi? cant and relates to those groups in a social structure who typically use one form rather than another. Such social meanings of variants can be further illustrated by looking at two other versions of ‘butter’. In the West Country of England there are some local accents which, like Canadian and some American accents, are r-full. Speakers would typically pronounce the r in ‘butter’. And this can be combined with the use of the glottal stop to give the form [bv? er ]. On British television an advertisement promoting butter used this regional form, presumably because it had a social meaning to British audiences suggestive of honest West Country farmers genuinely in touch with real, non-synthetic cows. In New York City a working-class accent will, in casual speech, be largely r-less like the British RP. But this would be combined with the voicing of the written ‘t’ between vowels giving the form [bvde]. Followers of the 1970s Kojak detective series on television will recognize this form. Imagine, however, the different social meaning that would be conveyed if Lieutenant Kojak pronounced the word [bvder ] as might an upper-middle-class New Yorker, or [bvte] as might an upper-middle-class Englishman. It would not be the impression of the ‘tough New York cop’. The diagram opposite gives a summary of the various ways ‘butter’ can be pronounced which we have looked at. The actual situation is far more complex and interesting than I have indicated, but we will be studying this in more detail later in the book. The purpose here is to merely illustrate the property of variability which natural languages possess. It is clear that this property requires social explanation. This is in contrast with the arbitrary property of language mentioned earlier. In characterizing the variant forms of ‘butter’, I needed to make reference to the geographical location in which the form