Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues in Business Case Study

Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues in Business - Case Study Example In this type of set-up, employees may quit their job anytime and for any, or no or uneven reason and the employers can likewise fire or layoff employees at any time and for any, no or unfair reasons. But employers are limited by exceptions such as if employment termination is in breach of a contract or illegal. This renders the Employment at Will Doctrine inapplicable. The doctrine will not be applicable if the court determines that an employer was guilty of discharging an employee for a discriminatory reason (employeeissues.com, At Will Employment). There are a number of federal laws that protect the employees against discrimination such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (www.eeoc.gov, Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions And Answers). The federal and state laws of the United States forbids employers or companies from discriminating against employees on the basis of their age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability and physical handicap. The act of discrimination can take place as early as recruiting to discharging of employees (public.findlaw.com, Employee Discrimination). In the case of Elaine, there is a clear case of discrimination because she was just laid off her job without given a reason of termination.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay Introduction Communication is the basic instinct of human being. The interaction and communication process is complex. It directs the researchers to understand the way the cognition works. Latest researches have become more advanced in the context of encoding. CDA (critical discourse analysis) and DA (discourse analysis) have been prerequisite to understand the encoding process. Objectivity, especially in the field of journalism is of great concern. The factors influencing the cognition and the process of encoding have been of the great concern for the communication scholars. Encoding is an integral part of the communication process. With out encoding and decoding it is not possible to communicate and being communicated. If we exclude the encoding the concept of communication is not possible. Mass media in Pakistan like any other media across the globe is working under the lines of responsibility but it is essential to understand the problems in encoding. Process of encoding and decoding is part of everyday communication. Anchormen, news reporters and producers play an important role beyond many others in communication field. Agenda setting, opinions building for a particular purpose have been the major area of interest for the communication experts and the journalists. It is obvious in our daily news media that some hot issues summarily go beyond the surface and the new one take their place to mold the attention of the public from one point to an other. This may go successful in one way when the message is encoded perfectly and then the receiver of the message decodes it in the way the sender wants it. For the successful and objective communication certain studies have been conducted by the communication and language experts focusing especially to the problems in the encoding process. PART II Encoding Definition: Encoding is the translation of purpose, intention, or meaning into symbols or codes. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Mostly these symbols are in the form of numbers, letters or words. These symbols work like bricks in forming the structure of any language. Other shapes of the encoding can be a photograph, motion picture, musical note or in the form of any sound. Encoding is such a process which demands deep attention to understand. It is the part of our routine life. Communication is the vital part of our life. We can not remain in isolation and feel relief when we express our intentions and feeling to any other person. The process of communication involves the most important factor that is encoding. Encoding basically occurs in mind. In other words it is the process of mind in which our intentions and what so ever we want to communicate is converted or shaped into the form of words which may be in the written or spoken form or can be any kind of gesture. We do the encoding on the basis of our knowledge and our past experiences. It is prerequisite for the journalists and communication experts to understand the encoding and its impact on the objectivity of the news or the message being conveyed. Encoding and the Society: Communication works like blood in the body. The process of interaction and transmission of the intentions and ideas from one to other person requires the cognition to come in work. With out the encoding it is impossible to deliver ones intentions to the other. The process of the encoding and decoding follow each other. A person encodes the message in reaction to what he/she decodes. Encoding process is available at every stage. In the field of communication from interpersonal to mass communication; each level has encoding in the process of dissemination of the information. At the mass communication level media disseminate the information to diverse societies. In the societies electronic journalism has a great role in providing the information about daily happening. The general public is regularly exposed to news channels and construct the opinion on the basis of what they watch and listen. Opinion of a society plays important role in the power play at social and national level and even impacts the international power structure. Keeping in mind the importance of the social opinion, it has been the concern of the communication scholars to ensure the objectivity at every stage of news and information dissemination. The process of delivering the information at this level passes through various stages. From the ordinary witness at the crime scene to the reporter, from reporter to the news desk, from news desk to the anchor person and from anchor person to the audiences, the process of encoding is involved at each stage. To ensure the transparency in the information distribution, making it objective and to provide the reality till the audience, certain studies have been conducted by the communication scholars. In the latest studies the scholars have conducted the Critical Discourse Analysis to study the way social power abuse; dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. It thus want to understand, expose and ultimately to resist the social inequality. Additionally the scholars have conducted the Discourse Analysis- a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, spoken, signed language use. Encoding and the Language: In the process of encoding, language plays an important role. A group of students of the language which is called General Semanticists have worked over the encoding. They also have identified some characteristics of the language. These characteristics are essential to understand in understanding the encoding and the problems in its process. To understand the process of encoding in our society, individuals of the society and the media experts including communication experts and journalists it is essential to be known about these characteristics of the language. Media experts and journalists themselves go through the process of the encoding to shape their selections and intentions and the reality of the world around, and this afterwards again shaped by the minds of individuals in the society. At this point to save the objectivity and the purity of news and the affairs about the world around is the major concern. The misuse of the language takes the communicator or the person being communicated to certain amalgamations of the problems. Following are characteristics of the language identified by the General Semanticists: Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic: Words themselves do not change over the period of time, yet the world around us is full of change. In the process of the evolution it is the natural phenomenon that certain species are not permanent in their shape and structure but they keep on developing time to time. In this case it is fact that we use the same fixed limitations and the words to describe any event or the world around. We use some specified words and attributes for certain things and events but with the passage of time their importance and area of influence keep on changing. Mass media communication experts especially the journalists use a specified vocabulary and terms to convey daily happenings. In the developing countries like Pakistan, the journalists in mass media field are not literal to the level essential for their work and the media here is in the developing stage; which has the potential risk to objectivity and the true tackling of the matter of the encoding in the sense of obtaining the information and imparting it to the masses but with the gradual rise in the education towards the importance and the responsibility in the news dissemination process is bringing a positive change. Language is Limited; Reality is virtually Unlimited: According to Wendell Johnson (1972) there are 500,000 to 600,000 words in the English language and they are to represent millions of individual facts, experiences and relationships. The people generally use limited vocabulary for their conversation in daily life. Miller (1963) says that vocabulary for telephone conversation is 5000 words and for novel are 10,000 words. Journalists and communication experts generally have the limited vocabulary. They come across various events in their daily life which they finally encode and give the shape of words and voice and broadcast for the audience and viewers. According to this characteristic of the language they can not show the exact reality of the event. This aspect in other words compromises the objectivity required in the news dissemination process. Due to having the limited vocabulary it becomes hard to convey the true picture of the reality. Language is Abstract: According to General Semanticists in the abstraction process we select some details about anything and leave rest of the details. Every language contains some abstractions. It is one of the most important features of the language. It allows us to think in categories. Much of the human knowledge is bound up in the process of categorizing and classifying. As the words become more abstract their correspondence to the reality becomes less and less direct. In the process of encoding especially according to the journalism perspective, objectivity is the foremost thing to consider. It has adverse effects if the audiences are not conversant to the encoding and abstraction processes. Assumptions Built into the Language: As General Semanticists say; the structure and vocabulary of the language contains many assumptions about the nature of the reality. Wendell Johnson observed that the language we use not only puts words in our mouths, but it also puts notions in our heads. Many folk languages contain certain assumption which are influenced by the culture and norms in which the speakers of that language live. Our mind is like a room which is colored by our experiences and cultures and when we speak in native or foreign language, that language builds assumptions in our mind besides putting words in our mouth. Misuses of the Language: General Semanticists have identified some misuses of the language due its static limited and abstract nature. They have identified four common misuses. Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection Dead-Level Abstracting: This concept, described by Wendell Johnson (1946) refers to getting stuck at one level of abstraction. The level could be high or low. High level abstractions are words like justice, democracy, freedom, mankind, and communism, peace with honor, and law and order. The low level abstraction can be like, some one recounting every detail of his or her day. An effective message contains generalizations at a high level of abstraction, but there are also specific details at a low level of abstraction. One effective technique for doing this is to give a lot of examples. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Undue Identification: General Semanticists have described the undue identification as, the failure to see distinctions between members of a category or class. This term points out that they are seen as identical or identified. Another term for this is categorical thinking. In everyday discourse, it is sometimes referred to as overgeneralization. One common kind of undue identification is stereotyping. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) Two Valued Evaluation: This is also known as thinking with the excluded middle. According to this, there are only two possibilities of any thing and there is no third possibility of being something at the middle. For example: Right or Wrong Day or Night The General Semanticists have advised the way to eliminate such kind of misuse of the language by having the multivalued evaluation. In other words, to think that there are a range of possibilities of anything. Unconscious Projection: According to the General Semanticists the unconscious projection is a lack of awareness that ones statements are to a degree statements about oneself. Wendell Johnson (1972) went so for as to claim that basically we always talk about ourselves. William Shakespeare said, Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. It is the I behind the eye that does the seeing. The seeing goes on inside our heads and inside our nervous system. What we see is our response to what we look at. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) PART III Literature Review Stuart Hall: Stuart Hall has worked over encoding. His paper encoding/decoding was published in 1973. Many of the terms set by Hall remained influential in the field of cultural studies. Hall explored this work during his stay at Birmingham. Hall worked on that how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed. His essay challenged three major things in the communication process. He argued that; Meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender. The message is never transparent. The audience is not passive recipient of the meaning. According to him, distortion is built into the system. It is not the failure of the producer or the viewer. He argued that there is lack of fit between two sides of communication exchange. That lack of fit is between the moment of the production of the message and the moment of its reception. In other words, there is lack of fit between encoding and the decoding process. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall developed the reception theory. This theory analyses that how readers (audience) receive the literary text. This is basically a textual analysis approach that focuses on the range of negotiation and opposition concerning to the audience. According to this theory the text in any form is not accepted passively but the audience or the readers interpret the meanings in their cultural backgrounds and the past experiences. As per this theory, the process of encoding going on in any persons cognition is always influenced by his cultural background and the past experiences of the life. General Semanticists: In the world of communication, encoding has been the matter of the great concern. A group of students of language which was named as General Semanticists, have worked on the problems of encoding. This group was at first led by the Alfred Korzybski, a Polish who later migrated to United States of America. Encoding as being the basic element in the communication process which deals with the work of cognition is unavoidable in the process of analyzing the communication and the interaction of human beings with each other and its effects. In the process of accounting the importance of the encoding we can not put aside the role of the language. The language as being the central tool in the process of the communication affects the whole process of sharing the ideas and interaction with each other. Focusing on the vitality and the role of the language in encoding, they have identified some characteristics of the language that make the encoding difficult-especially in the language. These scholars have been in concern with the role of language in our daily life and its effects over our mental health. They have suggested to use the language in the way as the scientists use, to avoid the problems generated by the misuse of the language. Describing the characteristics of the language which make the encoding difficult, they identified the language as; Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Misuse of the language causes the wrong encoding of any purpose or intention which takes the person being communicated, away from the reality. The person who gratifies his needs for information and news is on the stake of the key performers in the information dissemination process such as media producers, anchor-persons and the news reporters. General Semanticists have also identified some misuses of the language. Wendell Johnson has the prominent work in this regard. The misuses of the language are; Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection According to Wendell Johnson, getting stuck to a level of abstraction, and basically we always talk about ourselves, are the matters of the great concern. The field of journalism like other communication activities requires more attention towards these findings by the General Semanticists. The element of the objectivity has been of great concern. S. I. Hayakawa (1964) discusses three kinds of statements focusing the objectivity. Reports Inferences judgment According to him, the statement which is capable of verification is called the report. He describes the inferences as the statements made about unknown on the basis of known and finally he discussed the judgment as an expression of approval or disapproval for an occurrence, person or object. Journalists are sometimes challenged for their objectivity and unveiling the true picture of reality. For this the Hayakawa has advised to follow the report method of the statements and avoid inferences, statements and slanting. Encoding and Mass Media in Pakistan: Mass media in Pakistan has been playing active role in dissemination of the information to the audience at every newsworthy occasion. Certainly there is no scarcity of the hardworking journalists working in the whole process of the communication and the news dissemination. At the present stage there is great competition going on among various TV channels, of which most of the channels are newly emerged. Being the first in the broadcasting race some times the violation of the standards and ethics of news reporting is obvious. Some of the channels have been showing the videos of such a brutal incidents which would never be shown under the codes of ethics. Whether it is print or the electronic media, loopholes in the process of information gathering, processing and distributing stages are apparent. Government has established PEMRA to regulate the media but it too has been kept under the influence of the interests of the governing body in the past. In the print media there are a number of news stories available at the news desks which are firstly encoded by the reporters in the words on the paper, which sometimes are not written properly due to limited vocabulary of the language held with the reporter. There are gatekeepers at various stages of the news production which practice their influence on the word structure of the news. Sometimes a few newsworthy stories are left behind due to unavailability of the space in the print and the time in the electronic media and that reserved space is due to the immense influence of the advertisers, through which mass media generate the revenue. In such above mentioned conditions, the objectivity is the element of great concern in the whole process of the mass media. There have been no work done over the issue of encoding by the mass media of Pakistan and there is no research held over the audience way of the encoding in Pakistan. There are a few channels (TV, Radio) and newspapers which are never influenced by the rivalry of the circumstances and tried to provide the objective news to the audience and vied to unveil the reality. But to analyze the way the mass media in Pakistan encodes the messages and to analyze the way the audience further encode the messages, is the matter of great concern. PART IV Hypothesis To analyze the objectivity and the encoding process by the news media it is essential to set a hypothesis. Under the hypothesis we will discuss the level of objectivity and the way how mass media especially the news media (print and electronic) of Pakistan and the audience encode the news. Statement of the Hypothesis News media (print and electronic media) in Pakistan politicize the news PART V Analysis Mass media in Pakistan has diverse outlets. It is not merely confined to the print media or in the other words the newspapers. There are news agencies, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV channels, internet and the movie industry under the title of the mass media in Pakistan. Debating on the issue of the encoding we will pass through the performance of the all kinds of media in Pakistan focusing on the issue of politicizing of the news elements by the media industry. Pakistan as being one of the developing countries is passing through the process of the evolution in the field of industry, economy and the media field. Where there are various TV channels are getting approval for the start of the broadcast, there many newly born newspapers are sacrificing for there erectness and stability in the corporate culture of the present Pakistan. Besides this there is one more way of recreation, learning and information for the audience and that is radio listening. The radio Pakistan enjoys the vast area coverage with respect to other FM radio stations having a limited area for broadcast. Internet too is full of blogs and WebPages. Society in Pakistan is divided into urban and rural population. The urban population is being exposed to diverse media outlets than the rural population. The emerging news media in Pakistan has been influenced by the political economy being practiced by various corporate and the political bodies. The newly emerging media whether in the form of print or electronic have to vie for their existence and their existence can not be assured with out generation of the revenue. The struggle to generate the revenue some times put these media industries on the way other than the objectivity. The objectivity has been the great concern for the communication experts and the scholars. It would be the foremost responsibility of the mass media to provide the accurate picture of the reality and do not keep the audience away from the reality. Encoding of the news is blurred by the various key players in the media industry due to their affiliations with the corporate world and the political body. Corporate sector influences the media by using the advertisement tool and the political body cares for its interest and if the media go against, it puts the sanctions through the governmental media regulating bodies. This way, the corporate and the political bodies control the contents of the news and other media messages and make the reporters, news editors, columnists, anchor persons and the news producers to think in the way they want. As the general semanticists identified, due to the limited aspect of the language the reporter sometimes can not describe the reality of the incident in the way as it should be. The assumptions built in the language makes the key performers in the media industry to think in the way that is influenced by their culture and past experiences. As the Wendell Johnson said, the opinions of the columnists are to some extent the talks about themselves. These are basically their opinions and not necessarily the reality of something. The element of the judgment according to the Hayakawa is also visible in the opinions given in the news articles and the columns. Reports are the only the way to come up with the reality for the audience. There are the reports that can only be verified and are credible thats why the emphasis is given on the report (a type of statements according to Hayakawa). The audience as per the uses and the gratification theory gratifies their needs from the mass media in the form of the news and the entertainment. And if they gratify their needs on the basis of the news encoded by mass media under the influence of any corporate or the political body, they will live with the wrong picture of the world around them in their brain and that will effect their reaction in the social life. Agenda setting aspect of the mass media is also applicable in this regard. The influential bodies and sometimes the personal bias of any of the key performers in the mass media molds the structure of the news in a particular sense generating collection of words which causes to set a particular agenda in the public. Sometimes the political influence of the political body being the major provider of the advertisements to the mass media makes news media to make an issue over particular news in the media and bury the other news which however may cause any harm to the political body. The contents of the news in the media are also affected by the advertiser which buys large space or the time in the news media and this way controls consciously or unconsciously the news flow and its encoding. Some of the events have been given more than the due time and rests of the important events are kept at the stand by although the newsworthy incidents keep happening all the time in any of the corners of the country. The news is not merely encoded by the news media but it is further encoded by the audience and it then further travels to the rest of the audience through their opinion leaders in the public sphere. If the encoding at any stage in the news media is of that other than reality and away from the objectivity, the travel of the information at any stage will not be fruitful for the audience. PART VI Findings News media in the Pakistan are encoding the news messages for the audience. Those media that are strong are practicing better encoding of the news and focusing on the element of objectivity than those which are newly born and needs revenue from advertisements for their strength building in the media market. The threat to the objective encoding is expected in the talk shows where the anchormen conclude the discussion and give inferences and judgments. This aspect is also visible in the news articles and columns which are basically their own opinions about the reality. Audiences further encode the messages based on what kind of encoding done by the news media they come across. They remain away from the reality if they are gratifying from the inobjective encoding by the news media. Thanks With Best Regards M Bilal Bhatti MS 1 Media Communication Studies IIUI, Islamabad

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Lottery ::

The Lottery All people are unique in their own ways, however have contradictory characteristics such as good and evil. Some people have a soul in which the good side is more dominant, and others have a more dominant bad side. The lottery is a way for the characters in the story to reveal the hidden evil of their souls. One example of this is portrayed through the eagerness and the willingness to participate in the lottery. One of the characters says that they feel like its only been a few weeks since the last lottery, which gives the impression that the lottery is something to look forward to. This shows that the evil side of these people enjoys inflicting pain on others. Mrs. Hutchinson was eager to get to the lottery herself. She shows the evil in her character by wishing the pain that she must live through, and perhaps even die as the outcome, on others. She does not want to accept the fact that she was chosen. Mrs. Hutchinson says that it is â€Å"not fair†, regarding the final results of the lottery. The lottery was something she looked forward to until the outcome of the lottery was forced upon her. The entire population of the town participates in the tradition of the lottery. This shows that the whole community releases a part of their evil onto others. They are all eager to see someone beaten with rocks, however none of them want it to be them. Even the town’s children were involved in the savage ritual. After Tessie Hutchinson was chosen some of the towns children gave some pebbles to her son so he too could participate in the torture of his own mother. This horrible tradition is placed into the lives of the descendants of the town, so it is passed on from generation to generation. These people are taught to let the evil inside of them loose during the lottery. The evil in the souls of the townspeople is brought out during the lottery.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Integration of the baroque and modern architecture

How magnificent a structure like La Havana Vieja that is over 500 years of old graciously towered over the straits of Florida.   From Colonial to art deco until modernism, tourists wondered around the antiquated city and they were drawn with the old cars lining and architectural gems that can be found in every corner of the city.   In fact in 1982, it has earned the UNESCO Heritage List.   A year after, a preservation campaign was launched in order to protect and restore the authenticity of the buildings. But as years gone by, Cuba became engrossed on tourism.   In 1990 it has brought them large foreign revenue, majority of the buildings followed the bland design of the modern architecture to satisfy customers.   How sad it is to see the exquisite square highlighted by the 18th century baroque â€Å"Columbus Cathedral† incrementally depleted by economic and tourism goals.   Personally, I find it very careless to redesign the building and to change the old architecture that has stood there for long and has remained unchanged through time. The existing challenge thereby to current architectural design within the aforementioned region lies in the necessity of formulating a design that enables the fusion of the modern with what Carpentier refers to as Havana’s strange baroquism in order to balance the city.  Ã‚   The necessity of such is evident if one considers that the path of globalization has been determined for Cuba by the regionalistic character of its architecture.   Tourism is a form of globalism that relies upon the interdependence of a global culture and that of a regional and cultural identity. The difficulty faced by architectural design thereby lies in the necessity of encapsulating modern design with the regionalism and the marketing image of the culture that serves as the unique proposition that underlies the continuous globalization of Havana. It is thereby necessary to enable the rapid reconfiguration of Havana, in order to â€Å"un-fracture† the results of the modern urban changes that have transformed and destroyed the city’s spirit.[1] This dilemma faced by architectural designers is best stated by Paul Ricoeur as he states that the challenge lies in ‘‘how to become modern and to return to sources (while) reviving an old, dormant civilization (in order for it to) take part in a universal civilization’’.[2] This is a difficult task since the two kinds of architecture contrast each other.   Baroque architecture which is reflected by the Havana structures emphasizes on the unity among arts.   The architecture, sculpture, and painting made by the baroque artist were remarkable traits of spatial relationships which may be illusionary or real.   One cannot resist the physical and emotional attraction that baroque arts once they get to glance on them.   The buildings were amassed of great curving which poster rising and falling facades and grounds with extraordinary complexity and size. Various shapes and domes are also vivid in baroque architecture.   On the other hand, modern architecture depicts to the removal of ornament and to the simplification of form.   For many, modern architecture is a result of modern advancement in technology and engineering and of course by the emergence of new building materials such as concrete, steel, iron and glass. Generally, it is all about functionality- the application of the principles of functionalism reflected in the use of materials, quantity and size.   In short it is the rational engineering.   The attempt to integrate the two by not salvaging the old architecture was overlooked by the Cuban government when the investments rise to tourism.   There has also been a disparity between locals and the tourism facilities. Preservation and revitalization of Habana entails a number of restorations and cooperation from the citizens and from the local government.   The goal should poster social and economic exclusion that was created by the restructuring and revitalization in historic district outside Cuba.   Since, modernization is inevitable, as it has already diffused and reached the city, application of modern architecture should be done with thorough planning, wise mapping, and careful infrastructure building without damaging the old ones. Bibliography Coyula, Mario. The Old, Havana Way. DRCLAS website. Retrieved on January 23, 2008 from http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/55 CubavacationWebsite. Habana Vieja. Retrieved on January23, 2007 from http://www.cubavacation.4t.com/photo3.html Ricoeur, Paul.   History and Truth.   Trans. Charles Kelbley.   Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1965. Tung, Anthony. Preserving the World’s Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis.   New York: Random House, 2001.                                              [1] Anthony Tung, Preserving the World’s Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis, (New York: Random House, 2001), 430. [2] Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth, Trans. Charles Kelbley (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1965).

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Book Review – Servant Leader

As I started reading this book I couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu. Why were the thoughts and ideas being shared so familiar? Then I realized something, much like the author’s recollection of what his grandmother said. Many of these ideas were things that I had heard from my parents when I was growing up. I cannot count the number of times my father has encouraged me to be myself and true to myself and follow the right path regardless of the adversities that might come my way.Or the number of times my mother has asked me to see others as I would want them to see me and accept others for who they are. After all there is a reason why everyone isn’t alike, it would be real boring if you were to turn around and all you’d see were reflections of yourself. Why is it then that I (we) needed a book to remind me (us) of things that could be just basic common sense?Unfortunately years and years of school and college followed up with years of working in a dog -eat-dog environment has conditioned to not think about these basic things. We are trained to run as fast as we can for if we slow down someone else might take our place, we concentrate so much on running that we forget to stop and slow down once in a while to notice the important things. This book serves to remind us of the basics, to show that it is not always about win-lose, it helps us take what is common sense and helps us make it common practice.There were many things I learned from this book, but there are a few concepts that stand out. I quote the author â€Å"Leadership begins on the inside with self-awareness and self esteem and the process of leadership involves regular and intense reflection and introspection†. The order of responsibility for a servant leader should be; 1. the employee involved, 2. the affected employees and finally 3. the organization. I believe the â€Å"regenerative circle of prosperity† is a great thought.This is where the customer, the sales associate, the vendors/suppliers and the stockholders are all in a loop and mutually connected. The customer gets a quality product at a good price, the sales associate has the personal and financial gains of making a sale, the vendors get a good price for these supplies from the company and the stockholders get good returns. The returns can be reinvested to research better products for the customers and the loop continues.Finally the concept of loyalty is also handled and treated very well in the book. The author’s interpretation of the word that makes so much sense in today’s environment. I quote the author again; â€Å"Loyalty, for an employee is simply doing the job that is agreed upon and doing it to the best of one’s ability with honestly and integrity. It is being sensitive to, and acting in, the best interest of the organization, colleagues and peers†. I will carry the insights from this book throughout my career.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

For an international tourist destination of your choice, critically discuss the marketing strategies that could be adopted to mitigate the impacts of a natural or man-made disaster. The WritePass Journal

For an international tourist destination of your choice, critically discuss the marketing strategies that could be adopted to mitigate the impacts of a natural or man-made disaster. Introduction For an international tourist destination of your choice, critically discuss the marketing strategies that could be adopted to mitigate the impacts of a natural or man-made disaster. IntroductionConclusionRelated Introduction The tourism business around the world which is one of the most susceptible and vulnerable sectors, must always manage and survive from the global crises. In recent decades, the tourism industry in many countries all over the world has experienced major crises from natural disasters such as hurricanes, storm, and tsunami to terrorist attacks, political instability, and economic recession. Generally, disasters are large non-controllable problems that evaluate the capability of nations and communities to effectively protect the population and its ability to recover after the disasters. No tourist destination is immune to such crisis. Hence, the global tourism industry requires strategies and set of directions which help tourism businesses prepare a way to manage a crisis event from its onset and rapidly implement a recovery strategy. The purpose of this essay is to examine the post-disaster destination marketing viewpoint, its effects on the city of New Orleans, and the attempt to repos ition as a premier destination for domestic and international of New Orleans after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive natural disaster in American history in August 2005. Besides, this essay will critically examine the effectiveness of recovery marketing strategies undertaken by the city’s tourism marketing organizations and the lessons learned for post disaster market repositioning are also discussed. The first section will define the tourist destination, destination crisis, tourism disaster, and a narrative of vital tourism statistics for the city of New Orleans before the hurricane. The second section will mention the effects of the hurricane on the New Orleans tourism.   Finally, the third phase will critically examine the effectiveness of recovery marketing strategies undertaken by the city’s tourism marketing organizations. According to Beirman (2003), a destination is defined as a country, state, region, city or town which is marketed or markets itself as a place for tourist to visit. Many countries’ main income is collected from tourism activities; they have invested heavily in tourism and required a high level of economic dependence on inbound tourism. The economic disruption to the country, state or region is considered as a result in the viability of a destination and it could be a result in loss of income, unemployment and poverty. However, these implications do not determine the choice of destination in tourists and their prime concern is to travel to destinations that satisfy their own desires with minimum threats to their safety and well-being. Therefore, the marketing of destination crisis is no longer being treated as a problem of a specific destination; it is now an issue of global tourism industry and become a critical political, economic and social priority for many nations which to urism is a significant industry. Faulkner and Russell (2000, cited in Beirman 2003) defined a disaster as ‘a tourism destination is confronted with sudden, unpredictable, catastrophic changes over which it has little control’. In order to modify the definition of Faulkner and Russell, Beirman defines a destination crisis as ‘a situation requiring radical management action in response to events beyond the internal control of the organisation, necessitating urgent adaptation of marketing and operational practices to restore the confidence of employees, associated enterprises and consumers in the viability of the destination’. For many years, New Orleans was an ideal vacation destination and it is the world famous tourist destination due to its rich cultural heritage, copiousness of unique food and many opportunities to enjoy local art, music and festivals. Throughout the past 30 years, New Orleans focuses on its efforts to attract tourists by constantly redefine its image through all taglines such as ‘The Crescent City’, ‘The Gateway to the Mississippi Valley’, ‘America’s Most Interesting City’, ‘The City that Care Forgot’, and the ‘The Big Easy’ (Clement 2008). Moreover, it often cited as â€Å"European† charm and the unique French Quarter historic district, thus, there is a large number of tourists visit the city for many years to take part in the distinct experience that New Orleans has offered as a vacation venue. In January 2005, just seven months before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was ranked sixth among the top United States vacation destinations which were conducted by the University of New Orleans (UNO) Hospitality Research Centre (Chacko and Marcell 2008).   Statistically, in 2004, tourism of New Orleans was one of the main economic engines of the city and the employment in hospitality and leisure accounted around 80,827 jobs generating $30 million in state income taxes. Besides, the number of visitors came to city reach to peak 10.1 million and spent $4.9 billion in 2004. Before the Hurricane Katrina occurred, the tourism industry accounted for 3.8% of Gross State Product, provided 175,000 direct jobs, and generated under 8% of total tax revenues of the states (Louisiana Research Team 2004). New Orleans is a unique circumstance of Hurricane Katrina. Faulkner (2001) addressed the difference between the definition of crises and disaster that crisis was defined as ‘induced by the actions or inactions of the organization’ while a disaster was considered to be an ‘induced natural phenomena or external human action’. The terrorist attack September 11, 2001 in the U.S and Chernobyl nuclear accident would be classified as crises while the Turkey earthquake and the plane crash in Lockerbie were disasters. According to Faulkner’s definition, Hurricane Katrina would have been classified as a disaster with over 1,300 died; 228,000 housing units were flooded in the New Orleans metropolitan area and over 70% of 188,000 housing units were damaged by the storm and subsequent flood (Olshansky et al. 2008). However, the poorly man-made concrete levee walls which were designed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, a federal agency aimed to protect the city breach ed, did the flood waters deluge 80% of the city and created a crisis of gigantic proportions. In addition, federal, state, and local government authorities lacked of capacity in preparing and re-acting in a timely manner to the city citizen’s needs. Therefore, the Hurricane Katrina can be described as an induced natural phenomenon or a disaster followed by the inactions of organizations or a crisis. Two major organisations responsible for the overall tourism and hospitality marketing of the New Orleans are the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (NOMCVB) and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC). The primary mission of NOMCVB is bring meetings, conventions, and tour groups to the city, supply many hotels, restaurants, attractions and provide tourism goods and services for customers. This organisation uses personal selling as the primary sales strategy and solicits business from several tourism intermediaries such as meeting planners and tour operators. The second organisation’s goal is to spur the city visitation and uses two million dollar in its budget for advertising and positioning the leisure market of New Orleans. Besides, tourism marketers capitalise New Orleans’s strength as an exotic, unique, and ‘foreign’ locale (Stanonis 2006). In addition, just two months before Katrina, marketers produced a television co mmercial which is part of the summer campaign 2005, featuring New Orleans’s well-known and talented local musicians with titled ‘Do They Play Jazz in Heaven?’   According to Kotler et al. (2005), the appeal of the message was more emotional than rational and included the lines ‘do they play jazz in heaven, in New Orleans we know they do’ (Chacko and Marcell 2008). These messages reinforced the well-established position of the city as an exciting and popular destination with great food and music. However, the arrival of Katrina made a major shift in positioning strategy in producing hundreds of hours of negative publicity in the mass media. Unfortunately, New Orleans’s city was truly in a state of disaster after Hurricane Katrina.   The storm and flooding are not only washed away physical infrastructure of the city, but also eroded the perception of the city’s tourism destination. According to Northington (cited in Chacko and Marcell 2008), the city loss $15.3 million and this was potentially devastating to New Orleans’s tourism industry, especially the loss of economic impact from many festivals and events that it hosts.   However, the biggest obstacle that New Orleans’ tourism industry has to face is the tarnished perception as a tourist destination of the city.   Faulkner (2001) claimed that the power of media and tendency in lingering negative images, the destination usually takes longer to recover than the period requires services restore to normal. The tourism industry of New Orleans has met a lot of challenges after Hurricane Katrina. Prior the disaster, the research focused on measuring the industry and profiling the visitors to New Orleans, but now the focus has sharply shifted to measuring the perceptions of visitors about New Orleans. Mayor C. Ray Nagin said in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune that ‘We have an image challenge throughout the country. You ask what New Orleans is like today, and any people only have images of a city in crisis.   And that’s a concern, that they don’t see the rebuilding that is going on’ (Thevenot 2005). Moreover, due to the national and international media continued to display images of a ravaged city every detail, the tourism industry was getting worse and worse. According to journalist Eric Morgan (2008), ‘because of the media, people believe we have infrastructure issues, hotels aren’t open, restaurants aren’t operational, and there are no supporting service industry workers’. In March 2006, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation conducted a perceptions study of a panel of 5,000 online travellers, 22% indicated they believed that some neighbourhoods of New Orleans still had standing flood water from Hurricane Katrina, 14% of them believed New Orleans is not a safe place to visit because of contaminated air or drinking water, and 12% indicated that the historic districts in New Orleans are still destroyed or devastated. However, the optimism seems to have increased over time with 77% of meeting planners over the three quarter between October 2005 and January 2006 indicated that they were â€Å"very optimistic† about the sufficient recovery of New Orleans in regaining its status as a major destination city. Although meeting planners fully expect city’s recovery, they believe it will be a slow process (Chacko and Marcell 2008). In reality, New Orleans is different from the potential leisure travellers’ perception. The city’s tap water was safe to drink according to city health officials and there is no standing water on the streets. Transportation and airline are suitable to handle travellers and 80% of hotel room inventory has rebounded as pre-Katrina levels. Nevertheless, many flooded neighbourhoods’ recovery is still slow and the city is continued framing news coverage in these environments and undermining positive messages by the media. Therefore, the challenge is to find the appropriate marketing strategies to mitigate the impacts of disaster for New Orleans. As the result of the Katrina disaster, the NOMCVB, NOTMC, and other tourism organizations have elaborated on their past branding campaigns and created new campaigns to change perceptions of potential travellers and using brand elements such as new slogans and logos to alter the images of New Orleans. The slogans and themes try to counteract negative images which were played out in the national media and reconstruct and increase brand identity of New Orleans. According to Braun-LaTour, LaTour, and Loftus (2006), ‘reminding consumers of their past connection with a brand may be a particularly effective way to repair the brand’s image after a crisis situation’. Slogans were launched through branding campaigns of organisations such as ‘fall in love with Louisiana all over again’, ‘New Orleans: Happenin’ everyday’, ‘do you know what it means to Miss New Orleans? We know you do’ and etc. to rebrand New Orleans as a multicult ural destination and created a sentimental image of New Orleans, divert attention of travellers from the human suffering’s reality, physical destruction and stimulate consumer desires to travel to the city by constructing a narrative of past grandeur. According to Greenberg (2000), the urban branding campaigns function not only as ‘texts-on-cities’ but also power-laden ‘texts-as-cities’ that position of organisations and tourism professionals as important voices in the articulation of the collective identity of the city and thus ultimately the urban brand. In January 2007, with support from Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, the NOMCVB launched ‘an aggressive, strategic, marketing, public relations and direct sales campaign   designed to celebrate its authentic culture, lure domestic and international visitors back, preserve the city’s leading industry (hospitality) and overcome misperceptions about New Orleans among   consumers’ (NOMCVB Press Release 2007). The ‘Forever New Orleans’ campaign is an international branding campaign   which was designed to re-brand the city internationally by showcasing the confidence of hospitality industry in New Orleans and developing a deeper understanding of the city culture as unique and authentic.   It uses headlines in outdoor advertisements and print campaigns such as ‘New Orleans is Open. To Just About Anything’, ‘Soul is Waterproof’, ‘Old World, New Promise’ and other phrases to celebrate a spirit of swagger, appea l the meetings industry, travel trade professionals and the traveling public. According to Morgan (2008), the largest out-of-home advertising company in the United States CBS Outdoor donated 44 billboards worth a valued of $3 million to New Orleans.   Besides, the 30 minutes television show ‘A Whole New Orleans’ attempts to attract visitors with displays of the city’s most authentic, historic destination and unique culture. The NOMCVB and other tourism professionals try to increase the development of New Orleans’s tourism post Katrina and mention the perspective of ‘internalising the brand’ as a major ingredient in branding New Orleans as an entertainment destination (Gotham 2007). New urban rebranding campaigns are being implemented in order to present ‘authentic’ image of New Orleans as clearly demarcated, disconnected, and segregated from flooded neighbourhoods by tourism professionals. Besides, a new industry of ‘disaster tourism’, for example ‘Hurricane Katrina: America’s Worst Catastrophe!’ tour through devastated neighbourhoods of Gray Line New Orleans Bus Tours focused on ordinary places that have historical and cultural significance thereby mobilizing travellers to visit them. Moreover, in order to attract corporate brands to invest in New Orleans, political and economic elites have pushed for the development of lucrative tax sub sidies and help finance the rebuilding effort. Therefore, the above points demonstrate that tourism organisations are trying to marketing the imaginary of New Orleans base on entertainment version to attract investment and rebuild the city. The branding strategy is a new method to promote urban place to align local political interests with transnational corporate entertainment to organise urban rebuilding. Rebranding New Orleans post-Katrina is not just attracting consumers and visitors to spend money in the city, but also ‘about socializing residents to view the city as a brand and imagining an urban future that conforms to a semiotic script’ (Gotham 2007). Due to tourism professionals mention the perspective of ‘internalising the brand’ as a major ingredient in branding New Orleans as an entertainment destination, there are some conflicts intrinsic in the understanding of urban brands. Firstly, there is the lack of clear and understandable object capable of being branded. Cities and places are multifaceted and complicated systems of organization and they contain a range of different groups, diverse identities and conflicted social relations.   Branding destinations is more complex and challenging than other goods and services because of the existence and interdependence of multiple stakeholders, multiple components and multiple suppliers involved in the tourism service delivery (Buhalis 2000) and especially when it involves national characteristics and loyalties and popular permission of whole population. The second is the lack of control between urban branding organisations and branding campaigns when they deal with unc ertain and unstable environment of many stakeholders who have diverse interests, contending perceptions and urban visions (Park and Petrick 2005). The branding work of New Orleans’s tourism professionals are informed by market research and tourist trends, however, they do not know whether the campaigns are successful or not. Besides, the branding process is full of instability and uncertainty. Moreover, the urban branding’s unpredictability derives from gained knowledge about visitors through surveys is partial and incomplete because consumer’s desires and preferences always change. Thirdly, there is exist the risk that visitors and residents may reject the images of brand and view them as irrelevant, inauthentic or affronts to local culture. Additionally, there is the lack of consensus about the positive or negative effects of tourism in the city and a clear differentiation between residents who favour tourism and those who against it. In the construction of ur ban reality and produce meanings, residents are actively involved in and sometimes they are challenge the dominant imaginary of urban and brand. Due to the views of residents about New Orleans are not singular or fixed, thus, ‘internalising the brand’ is no means ensured or guaranteed. There is unclear and questionable about the partial internalisation whether it is realised as a vehicle for enhancing brand value or not when some residents may incorporate some affective links with the New Orleans brand into their lives. Conclusion In summary, hurricane Katrina has weakened the New Orleans’s tourism industry, displaced thousands of people, problematized meanings of community identity, and can cause wholesale changes to all aspects of tourism destination management. Numerous prescriptive strategies have provided examples, templates and checklists for tourism agencies to formulate marketing strategies which are the very important in the recovery process. Restoring the urban brand strategy of New Orleans is a differentiation and diversification process whereby local tourism organizations harness and construct destination images in order to control consumer impressions and understandings of a particular locale. Although urban brand has network of power operate and clear profiteering motives, it is also important to recognise branding as a contradictory process with unpredictable outcome, unforeseen consequences and facing a long road to recover destination image. However, tourism marketers of the city are us ing repositioning strategy or (re)brand strategy to make New Orleans regain its status as an outstanding tourism destination.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels Essays - Gullivers Travels

Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels Essays - Gullivers Travels Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels Subject: English Language: English Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels Gulliver in Houynhnmland One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other hand they are the butt of Swift's satire. In other words, in Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them seriously as the proper way to act? If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the dangers of pride. First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gullver seriously. For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that he will believe anything. Also, when he first sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same in return until they run away. He says, "I must needs discover some more rational being," (203) even though as a human he is already the most rational being there is. This is why Swift refers to Erasmus Darwins discovery of the origin of the species and the voyage of the Beagleto show how Gulliver knows that people are at the top of the food chain. But if Lemule Gulliver is satirized, so are the Houyhnhnms, whose voices sound like the call of castrati. They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people. As Gulliver says, "It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these creatures playing the flute and dancing a Vienese waltz. To my mind, they seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dextrous than the Lord Edmund Burke" (162). As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because they are so prideful. For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can singlehandedly recite the names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II. Swift subtly shows that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeths husband. Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out in other ways as well. One of the most memorable scenes is when the dapple grey mare attempts to woo the horse that Guenivre has brought with him to the island. First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the bewildered horse. But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets another idea: "As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was yet more monstrous than Mr. Pope being fitted by a clothier. She dropped this creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice. My horse sniffed the creature and turned away." (145) It might seem that we should take this scene seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see the grey mare as an unrequited lover. But it makes more sense if we see that Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move, which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England. The Houyhnhm is being prideful, and it is that pride that makes him unable to impress Gullivers horse. Gulliver imagines the horse saying, Sblood, the notion of creating the bare backed beast with an animal who had held Mr. Pope on her back makes me queezy (198). A final indication that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously occurs when the leader of the Houynhms visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society. He goes into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water (itself a prideful act that refers to the marriage at Gallilee). The scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without success, when the Houyhnmn arrives and immediately knows that to do: "The creature no sooner stepped through the doorway than he struck upon a plan. Slurping up all the wine in sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door" (156). He has accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his livelihood has now been destroyed. Swifts clear implication is that even though the Houyhnhmns are smart, they do not know how

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Quotes About the Meaning of Home

Quotes About the Meaning of Home Home sweet home, a place that gives you unconditional love, happiness, and comfort. It may be a place where you can bury your sorrows, store your belongings or welcome your friends. A happy home  doesnt require the trappings of opulence. Any place can be home as long as you are comfortable and secure there. If you are homesick or looking for a home of your own, these writers and thinkers can do wonders to lift your spirits. Jane Austen There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. Vernon Baker Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the hearts tears can dry at their own pace. William J. Bennett Home is a shelter from storms - all sorts of storms. Sarah Ban Breathnach Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need. G.K. Chesterton ...the truth is that the home is the only place of liberty, the only spot on earth where a man can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment on indulging in a whim. The home is not the one tame place in a world of adventure; it is the one wild place in a world of rules and set tasks. Confucius The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. Le Corbusier A house is a machine for living in. Charles Dickens Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. Emily Dickinson Where thou art, that is home. Ralph Waldo Emerson The house is a castle which the King cannot enter. Benjamin Franklin A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. Billy Graham My home is in Heaven. Im just traveling through this world. Jerome K. Jerome I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I dont want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house. Joyce Maynard A good home must be made, not bought. Christian Morgenstern Home is not where you live but where they understand you. Kathleen Norris Peace - that was the other name for home. Pliny the Elder Home is where the heart is. Catherine Pulsifer Home is where we should feel secure and comfortable. Helen Rowland Home is any four walls that enclose the right person. William Shakespeare People usually are the happiest at home. Charles Swain Home is where theres one to love us. Mother Teresa Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. George Washington I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world. Angela Wood If you know youre going home, the journey is never too hard.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Refer to the Project Data provided on Blackboard by the Instructor Statistics

Refer to the Data provided on Blackboard by the Instructor. The data shows student enrolment in a private college from 1965 to 2005 - Statistics Project Example By viewing the graph, we observe that the student enrolment has been constantly non decreasing over the past 40 years. The trend line is almost a straight line. If we form an equation with year as independent variable (1965 as 1 and 2005 as 41), the regression equation so formed is y=51.46x+1773.228 with R2=0.935. Almost 94% of the dependent variable enrolment is based on the year (for every increase in the variable year, there is a corresponding increase in the variable enrolment). The student enrolment is constantly increasing over the year and for only few years it got a slight decrease say during the years 1968, 1971, 1972 and 1984. For all the other years the enrolment never came down even for a single year. Stem-and-leaf plots use the original data values to display the distributions shape. The plot for enrolment visualizes the positive skew statistic seen in the descriptives table; the values cluster uniformly in a range of 2000 to 3000, then disperse gradually for the forthcoming years. From the above boxplot, the median is somewhere around 2800 and we observe that more values are above median. Also Mean>Median>Mode. So the distribution is positively skewed. Most of the years had admission above 2800. There is one outlier that is, the 41st observation which has a value 4465.64. This indicates that the last year that is, 2005 the enrolment is much more than the average enrolment. This may have an influence on skewness. From the above table of descriptive statistics, it is clear that the minimum is 1900 and the maximum is 4465.64 with range 2514.643. The median is 2782 and the mean of enrolment is 2854.04. The standard deviation is 637.48 with coefficient of variation nearly 22%. It is reliable data since the coefficient of variation is not above 25%. So the data is somewhat consistent. The skewness is 0.693 is close to 0 and the kurtosis is 0.0147 which is more close to 0. So, the distribution is almost normal and it is

Friday, October 18, 2019

The mechanical testing of a silk fibrion (SF) scaffold seeded with Essay

The mechanical testing of a silk fibrion (SF) scaffold seeded with MSCs in Colon Engineering - Essay Example TEC was spawned by the rats 100% with no regard to source of tissue, the initial occurrence of adult cells of engineered intestine or an engineered tissue. Architecture of TEC is same as acetyl cholinesterase, inherent actin staining on muscularis propria staining for actin identified in deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate-digoxigenin nick end labeling assay similar to native colon, lamina propria of a linear distribution, ganglion cells, S100-positive cells, and a terminal (Fonkalsrud 1999). By the use of cavity information specified in function of vitro dependable with advanced colonocytes, and an optimistic response of short circuit current to theophylline demonstrating integral transfer of ion. TEM exhibited regular architecture of micro part (Dayton 2000). Architecture of colon was retained in anastomosis with uncultured uptake of fluid visualization. The rats survived embedding and 100% of all them spawned TEC. Almost 60,000 OU was obtained from every pup colon of rat. This is an adjustable quantity as the surface area of tissue in every case may differ. For the reason that adult colons were very large, every rat colon of adult rat gave a result of a specimen of 800,000 (Meagher, 1998). These were inclusive of the ones spawning subordinate TEC and the ones embedded with adult tissue TEC. The TEC average size was 4cm by 5cm by 4 cm. There was absolutely no measure of TEC going below 3cm by 3cm by 2 cm, and the prevalent one was 6cm by 8cm by 7.5 cm. This is shown below TEC was paramount visible as a minor cyst with a lumen that was mucus-filled lumen the second week onwards (Shepherd 1990). Prior to that, there was no visible lumen recognized. Sequential growth took place the weeks after the second week. 9. Grikscheit TC, Ochoa ER, Ramsanahie A, et al 2001. Tissue engineered colon, characterization and comparison to native colon. Owen Wangensteen Surgical Forum Abstracts of the American College of Surgeons

Discrimnation in medical care based on color and race Research Paper

Discrimnation in medical care based on color and race - Research Paper Example The first focuses on potential lack of general applicability of findings based on unrepresentative data gathered from race-biased samples, a concern which gains most of its force from implicitly or explicitly biological understandings of race. Of more concern to professionals who do not share that view, are the implications of racial disparity in clinical trials for the health of African-American patients (Mwaria, King); that Black patients are less likely to participate in research protocols makes them less likely to be among those first receiving the most advanced forms of medical intervention, and may contribute to general health inequality. In the 1990’s clinicians and researchers, backed by the Centers for Disease Control (Trubo 1994), The National Institutes of Health (NIH 1994) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA 1997), began to hunt for the â€Å"barriers† to African-American participation in clinical trials. Research concluded that the problem is complex and that patient beliefs, racist bias on the part of physicians and institutional and community constraints all play a role (King, Mwaria, Shavers-Hornaday, 1997). Despite the apparent complexity of the issue, much of this discussion centers primarily on African-American â€Å"distrust† of doctors and the healthcare system in general and clinical trials in particular(Corbie-Smith 1999, Dula, Friemuth 2001, Gamble, Shavers-Hornaday, , Thomas 1999, ), while a substantial number of papers argued that widespread credulity toward â€Å"conspiracy theories† among Black patients is a key component of their distrust and thus of their unwillingness to undergo experimental treatments. (Corbie-Smith , Friemuth, Simmons and Parsons, 1999, Thomas) Among the most outlandish—and well-analyzed—medical â€Å"conspiracy theories† are those concerning HIV/AIDS. Researchers have

Modernism to Postmodernism in Fashion and Design Essay

Modernism to Postmodernism in Fashion and Design - Essay Example The essay "Modernism to Postmodernism in Fashion and Design" states modernism, postmodernism and its relation to fashion and design. In the 1930s, a great deal of the art being produced throughout Western Europe was typically classified as Modern art, although it was then further divided into several different subcategories such as Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Surrealism and Abstract art. The characteristic feature of most of these art forms was that they sought to pursue the ideas behind the art rather than seeking to portray a life-like rendition of the subject matter. They also broke the rules of art, which had, until this time period, conformed to specific rules of creation and was always created within a studio where all elements could be controlled. The movement began with Impressionism, which focused on the effect of light on objects and typically portrayed scenes such as landscapes and daily life. Recognizable works from this genre include tho se of Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Pierre Auguste Renoir. Manet’s painting, Dejeuner sur l'herbe, created in 1863, is roughly considered to be the start of the Impressionist, and therefore the Modern, movement. Fauvism represented a wilder side of Impressionism in its use of strong, vivid colors and simplified designs in expressive, meaningful ways. Artists in this movement were Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminch. The Expressionist movement, existing as the step-sister to Fauvism.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Differentiation of Developed, Least Developed and Developing Countries Dissertation

Differentiation of Developed, Least Developed and Developing Countries under WTO Trade Regime - Dissertation Example By the end of the Second World War, the global community realized that international trade practices were required function within a multilateral framework. After the Great Depression of the late 1920, and the early 1930s, the major trading countries had imposed a set of trade protection measures which had impeded the smooth flow of international trade. This time, the countries did not want to commit the same mistake. They realized the requirement of a multilateral standard in the arena of international trade. The nations also realized that promoting international trade was one of the methods to rectify the destruction caused by the Second World War. Global trade could play a significant role in stimulating economic development in countries across the world. These requirements urged the global community to establish the WTO which was solely dedicated to formulate laws, supervise practices and settle disputes in matters relating to international trade. Presently, 150 countries from around the world are members of the WTO. The reason behind the popularity of the organization among countries could be that the WTO is the only multilateral institution which directs its efforts towards creating a completely interdependent global economy. The basic objective of the WTO is to implement the increased liberalization of international trading practices, because the organization believes that countries can promote their own economic development by engaging in the worldwide trading of

Should schools require student uniforms Term Paper

Should schools require student uniforms - Term Paper Example In this regard, the aim of the current essay is to propose to the school administrators, parents and students that school uniforms should be prescribed. The discourse would initially present a brief review of literature from previous studies that delved into the subject. Subsequently, some statistical information would be provided to determine how many public or private schools in the United States prescribe wearing school uniforms. In addition, the effects of wearing school uniforms to students’ academic performance and to other variables would be determined and examined. Finally, a concluding portion would firmly establish support for one’s initial contention. Review of Related Literature In a study written by Gentile and Imberman, the authors examined the effects of wearing a prescribed school uniform on the behavior and academic performance of students in a large urban school district in the southwest portion (LUSD-SW) of the country. As disclosed, â€Å"uniforms g enerate improvements in attendance and test scores. These results are particularly strong for girls in middle and high school. We also find evidence that suggests behavioral problems shift towards less severe infractions for both genders in middle and high school. ... The author revealed that there are various benefits for enforcing school uniforms that include focusing on academic pursuits, fostering of a team-like spirit, and creating a more conducive school climate for learning, among others. Likewise, in another article written by Konheim-Kalkstein, the author contended that â€Å"when students dress alike, proponents say, the school climate may be improved† (Konheim-Kalkstein 25). The author likewise looked into other aspects and effects of using school uniform in terms of potentially reducing violence, improving the school climate, and saving money (Konheim-Kalkstein). Statistics on School Uniform Use In the statistics provided in the Statistic Brain website, it facts revealed that 23% of all private and public schools combined in the USA have a clearly defined school uniform policy (School Uniform Statistics). The information was noted to have been verified from the US Department of Education, NCES, ECS, NAESP, and University of Flor ida (School Uniform Statistics). Likewise, uniform sales were noted to have reached $1.1 billion in 2000 and an average annual cost of having the school uniform produced according to the prescribed design is $249 per annum (School Uniform Statistics). The city with the most percentage of schools adhering to a prescribed school uniform in public schools was disclosed as New Orleans (95%); while the city with the smallest percentage of users is Cincinnati at 50% (School Uniform Statistics). It is also interesting to note that from the reasons provided by parents and teachers regarding implementing the use of school uniforms, majority of parents (49%) indicated that â€Å"the school uniform has been financially beneficial for my household†

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Differentiation of Developed, Least Developed and Developing Countries Dissertation

Differentiation of Developed, Least Developed and Developing Countries under WTO Trade Regime - Dissertation Example By the end of the Second World War, the global community realized that international trade practices were required function within a multilateral framework. After the Great Depression of the late 1920, and the early 1930s, the major trading countries had imposed a set of trade protection measures which had impeded the smooth flow of international trade. This time, the countries did not want to commit the same mistake. They realized the requirement of a multilateral standard in the arena of international trade. The nations also realized that promoting international trade was one of the methods to rectify the destruction caused by the Second World War. Global trade could play a significant role in stimulating economic development in countries across the world. These requirements urged the global community to establish the WTO which was solely dedicated to formulate laws, supervise practices and settle disputes in matters relating to international trade. Presently, 150 countries from around the world are members of the WTO. The reason behind the popularity of the organization among countries could be that the WTO is the only multilateral institution which directs its efforts towards creating a completely interdependent global economy. The basic objective of the WTO is to implement the increased liberalization of international trading practices, because the organization believes that countries can promote their own economic development by engaging in the worldwide trading of

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Social Security System today is one that Beveridge would Essay

The Social Security System today is one that Beveridge would recognise. Discuss - Essay Example Modern social security system is the Great Britain differs from its programs and implementations proposed during 1930s-1940s (Alcock & Craig, 2001). William Beveridge, an economist and social reformer, was one of those politicians who proposed a comprehensive social system aimed to support British population and improve conditions of life for millions of people. It is possible to say that Beveridge would resognise modern social security system because it meets the main principles and values proposed by Beveridge 70 years ago. Critics (Alcock & Craig, 2001) admit that the modern benefit system is still based on the Beveridge Report of 1942 (Siegfried 1963). Beveridge's model for a new system of social security envisaged a central role for universal and comprehensive social insurance, building on the national insurance scheme established by the 1911 Liberal Government (Aaron 1982). His intention was that the new system of insurance benefits would guarantee a subsistence level of income to cover the major causes of income loss, through unemployment, sickness, and old age, whilst individuals would be encouraged to provide a higher standard of living for their families by voluntary savings (Morgan, 1994). Beveridge hoped that such a scheme would satisfy the needs of most of the population, but accepted that a safety net of residual assistance would have to be available for those who failed to qualify under the contributory scheme (Alcock & Craig, 2001). According to the Beveridge Plan, such a social security system could not be implemented in isolation; the government also had to be committed to introducing family allowances and a national health service, and to maintaining full employment. In this way, Beveridge, like subsequent policy makers, recognized the interrelationship between social security and other areas of government policy. Today, to promote security, and particularly economic security, the Great Britain developed a variety of social security programs. Some have taken the form of "social insurance whereby contributions are made to a fund by workers, employers, self-employed persons, and governments, and payments are made to persons whose income has stopped for such reasons as old age, disability, unemployment, or death of the wage earner (Siegfried 1963). Other programs have taken the form of "social assistance" whereby persons in need receive public relief or pensions by virtue of age or for other reasons (Morgan, 1994). Still other social assistance programs have taken t he form of "social benefits" whereby all persons meeting certain qualifications such as attainment of a prescribed age and having a certain period of citizenship or residence receive benefits, without regard to any previous contributions or taxes paid or demonstration of individual need (Alcock & Craig, 2001). In contrast to previous models and programs proposed by the government, modern social security meets the basic principles and philosophy of Beveridge. As the most important, modern security system covers not only elderly people but unemployed, poor, old age, disabled and other categories. Each of the Government spends more than 1 billion on benefits and their administration (McKay & Rowlingson, 1999). Today social security benefits in Britain, as in most other developed countries, fall

Monday, October 14, 2019

Structure of the Male Reproductive System

Structure of the Male Reproductive System New chapter 35 The Male Reproductive System INTRODUCTION The male reproductive system has three principal functions: The differentiation and maintenance of the primary and secondary sex characteristics under the influence of the hormone testos ­terone, made in the testes. Spermatogenesis—the creation of the male gametes inside the testes. The penile delivery of sperm from the testes into the female’s vagina in the act of procre ­ation. This includes penile erection and ejaculation. SYSTEM STRUCTURE The male reproductive system comprises not only the male genitals, but also the cranial structures that help regulate the performance of the male re ­productive system—namely, the hypothalamus and pituitary. At the hypothalamic and pituitary level, however, male and female anatomy and histology are more or less the same. For more details on the hy ­pothalamic and pituitary structures involved in hu ­man reproduction, see Chapter 36. In the section that follows, we will focus on the anatomy and histology of the testes, the penis, and the ductal connections between the testes and penis. The Testes The male gonads, or testes, are suspended from the perineum in an external contractile sac called the scrotum (Figure 37.1A). Each testis is about 4 cm long, and the testes are perfused by the spermatic arteries. The spermatic arteries are closely apposed with the spermatic venous plexus, and this close contact al ­lows countercurrent heat exchange between artery and vein, cooling the blood that flows to the testes. Countercurrent heat exchange helps keep the testic ­ular temperature cool enough for optimal spermato ­genesis (1 °C to 2 °C cooler than body temperature). The external location of the testes in the scrotum serves as a second important cooling mechanism. Because the testes develop within the abdomen, they descend into the scrotum during fetal life, reaching the deep inguinal rings around week 28 of gestation and inhab ­iting the scrotum by birth. In some instances (3% of the time in full-term male infants), the testes do not descend—a condition called c ryptorchidism. Cryp ­torchidism must be corrected if the male is to have properly functioning, fertile gonads. The testes are composed of coiled seminiferous tubules embedded in connective tissue (see Figure 37.1B). The connective tissue, which makes up about 20% of the testicular mass, contains Leydig cells, which make testosterone. The seminiferous tubules, constituting 80% of the testicular mass, generate the sperm. The tubules contain two main cell types: spermatogonia and Sertoli cells. Sper ­matogonia are the germ cells that undergo meiosis to give rise to spermatids, the immediate precursors to spermatozoa. The copious cytoplasm of the Sertoli cells completely envelops and protects the spermatids, sealing them off from any contact with the tubules’ outer basement membrane or blood supply. This Sertoli sheath hence forms a blood-testis barrier to protect the male gametes from any harmful bloodborne agents, and to prevent the immune system from attacking the unique sperm-specific proteins as though they were foreign anti ­gens. By virtue of their position between the blood and the spermatids, the Sertoli cells also transport nutrients, oxygen, and hormones, such as testos ­terone, to the spermatids. Figure 37.1 Anatomy of the male reproductive system. A. Overview. B. A closer look at the testis. C. The ducts of the reproductive system shown in isolation. The ducts arising from both testes are depicted, converging on the posterior urethra inside the prostate gland. The spermatogonia sit outside the blood-testis barrier near the basement membrane. Here, they continuously conduct mitosis. The products of mitosis are pushed toward the tubule lumen and undergo meiosis and differentiation into sperm cells. The Sertoli barrier is fluid and accommodates the passage of cells developing into spermatids. The testes make around 120 million sperm a day. As they differentiate, the sperm migrate into the tubule lu ­men for transport distally to the rete testis, a plexus of ducts that collects sperm from each of roughly 900 seminiferous tubules. The rete testis empties into the epididymis, a single coiled tubule running from the top of the testis down its posterior aspect. In the epididymis, sperm are stored and undergo maturation before continuing their voyage outside the testis. The Ducts and Penis Each epididymis leads to a long, straight tube called the vas deferens (see Figure 37.1C). The vas deferens from the epididymis of each testis rises in the scrotum, ranges laterally through the inguinal canals, runs along the pelvic wall toward the poste ­rior, and descends along the posterior aspect of the bladder. Here the two vas deferens tubes widen into ampullae, which are attached to glands called the seminal vesicles. (There are two seminal vesicles, one for each vas deferens.) The seminal vesicles se ­crete more than half the volume of the semen. The two ampullae each send an ejaculatory duct through the prostate gland, and the ejaculatory ducts join the urethra inside the tissue of the prostate gland. From this point onward, the male urethra serves as part of both the reproductive and urinary tracts, unlike female anatomy, in which the reproductive and urinary tracts are completely separate. Male physiol ­ogy ensures that micturition and ejaculation do not occur simult aneously. The urethra next passes through the muscle tissue of the urogenital diaphragm, a consciously controllable sphincter. Sitting just under the urogen ­ital diaphragm are the bulbourethral glands (also called Cowper’s glands), which lubricate the urethra with mucus. Finally, the urethra enters the penis. The cylindrical penis houses the urethra in erectile tissue, which helps effect the transition between the excretory and reproductive functions of the urethra (Figure 37.2). This erectile tissue contains cavernous sinuses that fill with blood under circumstances of increased penile blood flow, leading to erection of the penis. When erect, the penis may be inserted into the vagina so that sperm may be delivered to the fallop ­ian tubes. Figure 37.2 Cross-section of the penis. The erectile tissue is present in three cylinders inside the penis, each called a corpus cavernosum and together called the corpora cavernosa. Two of the corpora lie dorsally and are sheathed by the ischio ­cavernosus muscles. One lies ventrally and is sheathed by the bulbospongiosus muscle. The ventral corpus cavernosum is also called the corpus spongiosum, and it is special in that it contains the urethra and forms the glans penis, the spongy head of the penis. The corpora are each supplied by a cavernous artery that gives out helicine arteries. The penis averages 8.8 cm (3.5 in) in length when flaccid and 12.9 cm (5.1 in) when erect, indicating no correlation between flaccid and erect size. SYSTEM FUNCTION Just as the female reproductive system is coor ­dinated by the hypothalamus and pituitary, the activities of the male reproductive system are coor ­dinated by the HPG axis, in this case the hypothala ­mic-pituitary-testicular (HPT) axis (Figure 37.3). (The gonadal HPT axis is not to be confused with the hy ­pothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, also labeled HPT.) The male axis shares with the female the exact same hypothalamic hormone, gonadotropin- releasing hormone (GnRH), and the same pituitary go ­nadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). (The gonadotropins are named for their female reproductive functions, but they act in the male nonetheless.) The same array of gonadal steroid hormones that is produced by the ovary is also synthesized by the male reproductive system, but in different proportions. Because of differential expression of enzymes in the steroid synthesis pathway, the female gonad makes predom ­inantly progesterone and est rogen, while the male gonad predominantly makes the androgen steroid hormone testosterone. Testosterone inhibits the secretion of GnRH, LH, and FSH in a classic negative-feedback loop. Figure 37.3 Hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. Plus signs represent stimulation; minus signs represent inhibition. The HPT Axis GnRH is the initial driver of testicular function. It is secreted in a pulsatile fashion (one pulse every 1 to 3 hours) and distributes to the pituitary gonadotrophs through the hypothalamic-pituitary portal circula- tion. There, the releasing hormone stimulates the LH- and FSH-secreting cells. Each GnRH pulse directly prompts an LH pulse from the gonadotrophs. More frequent or larger-amplitude GnRH pulses result in more frequent or larger-amplitude LH pulses. GnRH also increases FSH release, but the correlation between GnRH and FSH release is not as exact. LH acts on the Leydig cells. The LH signal is transduced by a seven- transmembrane receptor linked through a G protein to adenylyl cyclase, which produces cAMP. LH-dependent elevations in cAMP promote testosterone synthesis from cholesterol and promote the growth of Leydig cells. Testosterone synthesis is increased by the activation and increased expression of key proteins involved in steroidogenesis, such as the steroidogenic acute regu ­latory protein (StAR). StAR shuttles cholesterol into steroid-manufacturing cells. The Leydig cells of the testis are unique in their ability to make testosterone in large amounts (Figure 37.4). While the zona reticulata cells of the adrenal gland also make androgens, the adrenal pathway stops at androstenedione, the im ­mediate precursor to testosterone. (Some peripheral tissues can make testosterone from androstenedione in small amounts.) FSH, meanwhile, binds to receptors on the Sertoli cells, activating the production of proteins involved in spermatogenesis. FSH also stimulates glucose metabolism, thereby providing energy to the sperm precursors. (Spermatogenesis will be discussed in more detail below.) Finally, FSH upregu ­lates the expression of the androgen receptor in Sertoli cells, thereby potentiating the influence of testosterone upon spermatogenesis. Like all steroids, testosterone binds an intracel ­lular receptor, which binds DNA transcription factors and influences gene expression. The distribution of testosterone receptors in the body tissues deter ­mines the targets of testosterone action. In addition, target tissues express an enzyme that converts testos ­terone to its more active form, dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This enzyme is 5à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¡-reductase. DHT binds more avidly to the androgen receptor than does testos ­terone itself. Testosterone from the Leydig cells passes through the Sertoli cells and into the seminif ­erous tubules, where, alongside FSH, it promotes spermatogenesis. The Sertoli cells make androgen-binding protein (ABP), which helps them to retain testosterone. Testosterone also acts systemically, promoting growth and sustaining gene expression in many peripheral tissues. Testosterone is transported in the blood by sex hormone-binding protein (SHBP), also called sex hormone-binding globulin, a liv er-produced carrier protein that is structurally similar to ABP. It is thought that testosterone and SHBP itself may act at cell membrane receptors, in addition to testosterone’s genomic effects. This is parallel to the genomic and nongenomic modes of signal transduc ­tion employed by thyroid hormone. Finally, testosterone inhibits GnRH and go ­nadotropin secretion. Thus, testosterone limits its own production and action. Inhibin from the Sertoli cells also inhibits the pituitary and hypothalamus. Inhibin is a TGF-à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢ glycoprotein hormone. Investiga ­tions suggest that additional feedback mechanisms link Sertoli cell behavior with Leydig cell behavior. Table 37.1 summarizes the actions of testosterone. Table 37.1 Testosterone Actions The Expression of Male Sex Characteristics The male reproductive system begins to function during embryonic life. As soon as the testes form and are capable of secreting testosterone, the androgen begins to act on the body tissues. At this stage, the hormone differentiates the fetus into a male with the appropriate primary sex characteristics—the male genitals. At puberty, testosterone causes sustained expression of the secondary sex characteristics, which are gender-based phenotypes other than the genitals, such as hair growth, muscle development, and a low voice. Fetal Life and Infancy (Primary Sex Characteristics) While the testes do act in utero, they cannot act before they have formed, and they do not form right away. In fact, before 6 weeks of gestation, the gonads of geno ­typically male or female embryos have not begun to differentiate into either ovaries or testes. The so-called â€Å"indifferent gonad† has an inner medullary (male) and an outer cortical (female) layer. In addition, the anatomic precursors of both males (the Wolffian ducts) and females (the Mà ¼llerian ducts) are present. Only at 6 to 8 weeks of gestation is male sexual devel ­opment initiated by the SRY gene, a gene on the short arm of the Y chromosome. SRY encodes a zinc finger DNA-binding protein called testis determining factor (TDF). Under the influence of TDF, the medullae of the indifferent gonads develop while the cortices regress. The previously indifferent gonads differentiate into testes: embryonic germ cells form spermatogonia, coelomic epitheli al cells form Sertoli cells (6 to 7 weeks of gestation), and mesenchymal stromal cells form Leydig cells (8 to 9 weeks of gestation). Now the testes can begin to act. The Sertoli cells secrete a Mà ¼llerian-inhibiting factor (MIF), which causes regression of the Mà ¼llerian ducts. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)—which is structurally related to LH—stimulates the Leydig cells to prolifer ­ate and secrete testosterone. The testosterone is reduced to DHT in target tissues by 5à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¡-reductase. As long as target tissues contain the androgen receptor and 5à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¡-reductase, DHT induces those tissues to form the primary male sex characteristics, the male repro ­ductive organs. Under the influence of DHT, the Wolffian ducts differentiate into the epididymis, vas deferens, and seminal vesicles. The genital tubercle transforms into the glans penis, the urethral folds grow into the penile shaft, and the urogenital sinus becomes the prostate gland. Finally, DHT causes the genital swellings to fuse, forming the scrotum. At its peak, the fetal testosterone level reaches 400 ng/dL, but by birth it falls below 50 ng/dL. There is a brief spike in the male infant’s testosterone level between 4 and 8 weeks after birth, but its function is not well understood. Otherwise, the testosterone level remains low throughout childhood, until puberty. Puberty and Beyond (Secondary Sex Characteristics) Puberty is the process by which males and females achieve reproductive capacity, and it begins in both sexes with an increase in hypothalamic GnRH secre ­tion. It is possible that this increase is in response to decreasing hypothalamic sensitivity to testos ­terone’s negative-feedback effects. As the child ap ­proaches adolescence, the hypothalamus gradually escapes inhibition and GnRH secretion rises. LH and FSH secretion in turn rise, and testosterone secretion from the testes increases. Gradual maturation of hypothalamic neurons probably plays a role in this pubertal change in GnRH secretion. Increased testicular production of testosterone and other androgens at puberty has a host of effects. The earliest one is enlargement of the penis and testes. From the beginning to the end of puberty, the testicular volume more than quadruples. Spermato ­genesis commences (with testosterone effects per ­haps being most important on the spermatids), and the prostate gland is stimulated to grow. Growth oc ­curs in many tissues outside the reproductive system as well. Androgens are anabolic steroids; they promote the storage of energy in complex molecules. While an ­drogens promote protein synthesis, an anabolic hor ­mone like insulin has a greater effect on the formation of complex carbohydrates and fats. Increased protein synthesis is associated with the growth of skeletal muscle, bones, skin, and hair (pubic, axillary, facial, chest, arms, and legs) and the growth of the larynx (which deepens the voice and causes the thyroid car ­tilage, or Adam’s apple, to protrude). Men on average have around 50% more muscle mass than women; they have stronger, denser bone matrices and thicker skin. Muscle does not contain 5à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¡-reductase, so it ap ­pears that testosterone, not DHT, promotes muscular protein anabolism. However, testosterone or DHT may promote muscular anabolism via extramuscular effects, such as the stimulation of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) production. Collectively, the development of the secondary sex characteristics is called virilization (after the Latin vir for man). It appears that while testosterone promotes all of these effects—genital growth and spermatogenesis, hair growth, behavioral changes, and anabolism in peripheral tissues—certain andro ­gen precursors, metabolic byproducts, and pharma ­ceutical androgen analogs preferentially serve peripheral anabolism. Many of these metabolites and drugs are abused by bodybuilders and athletes. (See Clinical Application Box The Use and Abuse of An ­abolic Steroids.) Testosterone, combined with a genetic predis ­position, also influences hair growth on the head. Male-pattern baldness typically begins with a de ­crease in hair growth on the top of the head and progresses to a complete lack of hair growth extend ­ing from the top of the head down. Both factors, the androgens and the genes, are necessary for baldness to occur; a man without the genetic predisposition will not become bald regardless of his testosterone level. A woman with the genetic predisposition will usually not become bald unless she suffers from excess androgen production. Similarly, a castrated male with low testosterone levels will not become bald even if he has a genetic predisposition. Once testosterone levels rise during puberty, they reach a plateau and remain elevated until a man reaches his seventies, when they begin to decline. This event, called the male climacteric, may create some symptoms resembling those of female menopause. However, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is not commonly used to treat these symp ­toms. One reason is that men in this age group are at increased risk for prostate cancer. Because testos ­terone has proliferative effects on the prostate, HRT might further increase the risk of prostate cancer. While testosterone does promote spermatogenesis, this testicular function is remarkably well preserved in men even after the climacteric. The Haploid Life Cycle in the Male As mentioned above, spermatogenesis begins with puberty and continues into the eighth decade of life. Spermatogenesis has three phases: sperma ­tocytogenesis, during which the primordial sper ­matogonia divide by mitosis and differentiate into spermatocytes; meiosis, resulting in four haploid gametes called spermatids, each with a quarter of the cytoplasm of the original spermatogonium (see Chapter 36); and spermiogenesis, during which the spermatids are nourished and physically reshaped by the surrounding Sertoli cells. The product of spermiogenesis is spermatozoa, or sperm (Figure 37.5). After spermiogenesis, the epididymis and repro ­ductive tract glands help prepare the sperm for fertilization. Spermatocytogenesis and Meiosis The evolving group of cells spanning from spermatogonia to sper ­matozoa is sometimes called the spermatogenic series. Not all spermatogonia enter into the sper ­matogenic series. If they did, they would be con ­sumed—as happens to the oogonia in the ovary, eventually leading to menopause. Instead, the testis csontinually replenishes its own supply of spermato ­gonia. As they undergo mitosis, some of the new ones are committed to the spermatogenic series, while some remain undifferentiated. The undifferen- tiated stem cells are called type A spermatogonia, and the differentiated spermatogonia committed to becom ­ing spermatocytes are called type B spermatogonia. Once this allocation of mitotic products into one group or another occurs, spermatocytogenesis con ­tinues as follows. Type A spermatogonia remain on the outside of the blood-testis barrier, while type B spermatogonia cross it, becoming enveloped by the cytoplasmic processes of the Sertoli cells. These type B spermatogonia differentiate further and enlarge to become primary spermatocytes. The primary sperma ­tocytes then enter meiosis, a process that takes around 3.5 weeks to complete, almost all of which is spent in prophase (when the newly replicated chro ­mosomes condense). Each primary spermatocyte di ­vides into two secondary spermatocytes, which in turn divide again into a total of four haploid spermatids. Each spermatid contains either an X chromosome or a Y chromosome. The male’s gamete thus decides the sex of his offspring. Spermiogenesis Spermiogenesis begins once the spermatids are created and delivered into the em ­brace of the amoeboid Sertoli cells (Figure 37.6). The spermatid elongates and reorganizes its nuclear and cytoplasmic contents into a spermatozoon with a dis ­tinct head and tail. The head consists of a condensed nucleus surrounded by a thin layer of cytoplasm. The rest of the retained cytoplasm and cell membrane is shifted toward the opposite end of the sperm, the tail. A large amount of the spermatid’s cytoplasm is shed into the surrounding Sertoli cell during spermiogene ­sis. As the transformed sperm is extruded into the seminiferous tubule lumen, the discarded cytoplasm remains embedded in the cytoplasm of the Sertoli cell, where it is ultimately phagocytized. Figure 37.6 Spermiogenesis The structure of sperm cells enables them to swim up the female reproductive tract and fertilize oocytes. The tail of a sperm contains a flagellum for motility. Originating from one of the centrioles of the sperm cells, the flagellum consists of a central skele ­ton of microtubules called the axoneme. The axoneme is arranged in the ancient 9 + 2 pattern characteristic of eukaryotic cilia and flagella across all kingdoms and phyla of life: 9 pairs of microtubules surrounding 2 central tubules, linked via a complex array of protein bridges. The sperm cell’s mitochondria aggregate along the proximal end of the flagellum and supply energy for movement to the flagellum. The flagellum enables the sperm to swim. The anterior two thirds of the head of the sperm cell is surrounded by a thick capsule known as the acrosome, formed from the Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus contains numerous hydrolytic and proteolytic enzymes, similar to those found in lysosomes, and ultimately facilitates the sperm’s penetration of the egg for fertilization. There is also evidence to suggest a role for the acrosomal enzymes in penetrating the mucus of the female cervix. Epididymal Sperm Maturation and Storage After spermiogenesis is complete, the sperm pass out of the testis (through the rete testis) and into the epi ­didymis, where growth and differentiation continue. After the first 24 hours in the epididymis, the sperm acquire the potential for motility. However, the epithelial cells of the epididymis secrete inhibitory proteins that suppress this potential. Thus, the 120 million sperm produced each day in the seminiferous tubules are stored in the epididymis, as well as in the vas deferens and ampulla. The sperm can remain in these excretory genital ducts in a deeply suppressed and inactive state for over a month without losing their potential fertility. The epididymis also secretes a special nutrient fluid that is ultimately ejaculated with the sperm and is thought to mature the sperm. This fluid contains hormones, enzymes (such as glycosyltransferases and glycosidases), and nutrients that are essential to achieving fertilization. The precise function of many of these factors is not known, but enzymes like gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase are thought to serve as antioxidants defending against mutations in the sperm. Potentiation in the Ejaculate The accessory genital glands—the seminal vesicles, prostate gland, and bulbourethral glands—also contribute to potentia ­tion. During ejaculation, their secretions dilute the epididymal inhibitory proteins, allowing the sperm’s motile potential to be realized. In addition, the glands make individual contributions to sperm preparation and support. The seminal vesicles secrete semen, a mucoid yellowish material containing nutrients and sperm-activating substances such as fructose, cit ­rate, inositol, prostaglandins, and fibrinogen. Carbo ­hydrates such as fructose provide a source of energy for the sperm mitochondria as they power the sperm’s flagellar movements. The prostaglandins are believed to aid the sperm by affecting the female gen ­ital tract—making the cervical mucus more receptive to the sperm, and dampening the peristaltic contrac ­tions of the uterus and fallopian tubes to prevent them from expellin g the sperm. The prostate gland secretes a thin, milky, and al ­kaline fluid during ejaculation that mixes with the contents of the vas deferens. The prostatic secretion contains calcium, zinc, and phosphate ions, citrate, acid phosphatase, and various clotting enzymes. The clotting enzymes react with the fibrinogen of the seminal fluid, forming a weak coagulum that glues the semen inside the vagina and facilitates the passage of sperm through the cervix in larger numbers. The al ­kalinity imparted to semen by the prostate counter ­acts vaginal acidity, which is a natural defense against microbial pathogens and which can kill sperm or impair sperm motility. By titrating the acid ­ity, the prostate ensures that the sperm can elude this antimicrobial defense. Capacitation in the Female Reproductive Tract Ejaculated sperm is not immediately capable of fertilizing the female oocyte. In the first few hours after ejaculation, the spermatozoa must undergo capacitation inside the female reproductive tract. This is the final step in preparation for fertilization. First, the fluids of the female reproductive tract wash away more of the inhibitory factors of the male geni ­tal fluid. The flagella of the sperm hence act more readily, producing the whiplash motion that is needed for the sperm to swim to the oocyte in the fallopian tube. Second, the cell membrane of the head of the sperm is modified in preparation for the ultimate acrosomal reaction and penetration of the oocyte. Capacitation is an incompletely understood phenomenon. Fertilization Once capacitated, the spermatozoa travel to the oocyte. There is an enormous rate of at ­trition among the hundreds of millions of ejaculated sperm, and at most a few hundred reach the oocyte. However, the female reproductive tract is simultane ­ously increasing receptivity to the male gametes (see Chapter 36). When the few hundred sperm reach the egg, they begin to try to penetrate the granulosa cells surrounding the secondary oocyte. The sperm’s acrosome contains hyaluronidase and proteolytic enzymes, which open this path. As the anterior mem ­brane of the acrosome reaches the zona pellucida (the glycoprotein coat surrounding the oocyte), it rapidly dissolves and releases the acrosomal enzymes. Within minutes, these enzymes open a pathway through the zona pellucida for the sperm cytoplasm to merge with the oocyte cytoplasm. From beginning to end, the process of fertilization takes about half an hour. Figure 37.7 Sexual response and changes in the penis. Penile Erection and Ejaculation The practice of internal fertilization, in which the male deposits gametes directly into the reproductive tract of the female, is at least 300 million years old. Early cartilaginous fishes probably were its innova ­tors. These elasmobranchs retained their concepti internally until the eggs could be waterproofed and thus protected from the osmotic stress of seawater. Eventually, almost all the higher vertebrates would practice internal fertilization for the sake of defending the next generation. For this reason, the male vertebrate possesses a special apparatus for penetrating the body of the female and delivering semen to an internal location. There are two physiologic events crucial to this in ­ternal delivery of semen: penile erection, which makes it possible for the penis to penetrate the vagina, bringing the urethral opening, or meatus, into close contact with the female cervix; and ejaculation, in which the semen is secreted into the male repro ­ductive ductal system, mixed with sperm, and then mechanically squirted out of the penis. Both of these events are initiated and controlled by the nervous system in connection with the subjective state of sexual arousal. Sexual Response in the Male William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson in 1966 described four phases of sexual response