Sunday, December 29, 2019

Why More People Drown in Fresh Water Than Salt Water

Drowning in fresh water is different from drowning in salt water. For one, more people drown in fresh water than salt water. Around 90% of drownings occur in freshwater, including swimming pools, bathtubs, and rivers. This is partly because of the chemistry of the water and how it affects osmosis. Drowning in Salt Water Drowning involves suffocating while in water. You dont even need to breathe in the water for this occur, but if you do inhale salt water, the high salt concentration will prevent the water from crossing into your lung tissue. When people drown in salt water, its usually because they cant get oxygen or expel carbon dioxide. Breathing in salt water creates a physical barrier between the air and your lungs. A person who has inhaled salt water will not be able to breathe again until the salt water is removed. However, that does not mean there wont be lingering effects. Salt water is hypertonic to the ion concentration in lung cells, so if you swallow it the water from your bloodstream will enter your lungs to compensate for the concentration difference. This will cause your blood to thicken, putting a strain on your circulatory system. Extreme stress on your heart can lead to cardiac arrest within eight to 10 minutes. The good news is that its relatively easy to rehydrate your blood by drinking water, so if you survive the initial experience, you are well on the road to recovery. Drowning in Fresh Water Surprisingly, you can die from breathing in fresh water even hours after you have avoided drowning in it. This is because fresh water is more diluted with respect to ions than the fluid inside your lung cells. Fresh water doesnt cross into your skin cells because keratin essentially waterproofs them, but water will rush into unprotected lung cells to try to equalize the concentration gradient across the cell membranes. This can cause massive tissue damage, so even if the water is removed from your lungs there is still a chance you might not recover. Heres what happens: Fresh water is hypotonic compared to lung tissue. When water enters the cells, it causes them to swell. Some of the lung cells may burst. Because capillaries in your lungs are exposed to the fresh water, water enters the bloodstream, diluting your blood. This causes blood cells to burst (hemolysis). Elevated plasma K (potassium ions) and depressed Na (sodium ion) levels may disrupt the hearts electrical activity heart, causing ventricular fibrillation. Cardiac arrest from the ion imbalance may occur in as little as two to three minutes. Even if you survive the first few minutes underwater, acute renal failure may occur from the burst blood cells in your kidneys. If you drown in cold fresh water, the temperature change as the water enters your bloodstream may even cool your heart enough to cause cardiac arrest from hypothermia. On the other hand, in salt water, the cold water does not enter your bloodstream, so the effects of temperature are mainly limited to heat loss across your skin.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Our Failing Education System - 658 Words

Waiting for Superman both disgusted me and inspired me. It disgusted me to see our education system in such disarray while no one seems willing to make or allow any changes to occur, yet I was inspired to do my best to be a light in a failing system. From this movie and the readings I have done in this class, I realized that America is never going to have an education system that everyone agrees with, so the only thing we can do as a teacher is to ensure we are preparing young minds for the future as best as we possibly can. Something I have learned about equal educational opportunities for citizens in America is that there have never been equal educational opportunities in America. Rather, in the education system, people seem to pick and choose which equality’s they wish to have. The film states that often with charter schools, there are more applications than spaces and so lottery and random selection is used to give every student applying a fair chance. Looking at just that part, it does seem fair to do that because then things like favoritism, discrimination, or such do not occur when deciding which applicants will be allowed into the school. Yet, when we look at the broader picture we can see just how unfair this whole system actually is. The only way a child even has a chance of going to a charter school for a good education is if their parents are aware of how bad public schools can be, but often times most parents are not aware because they put trust in ourShow MoreRelatedThe Education System Is Failing Our Children898 Words   |  4 PagesEducators United how wonderful will it be to find a career that will allow us to get a guarantee job for like. No wonder why our education system is failing our children, have you ever wondered why teachers get transfered to different school districts for poor performance instead of getting fire. This is do to the tenure policys that protect teachers from getting fired. Tenure (status granted to an employee, usually after a provitionary period, indicating that position or employment is permanent)Read MoreThe Public School Education System Is Failing Our Youth1773 Words   |  8 PagesHailey Hunter Professor Graue English Composition I 19th November 2015 The Public School Education System is failing our Youth While in high school, many students complained about standardized testing and how ridiculous it was our education standards were on the line for it. How we never learned anything long enough to remember it. Students are supposed to enjoy learning. Instead students dread their mornings and hours spent in a classroom. Pass the OGT or the new PARCC testing in order to graduateRead MoreFailing The Children Of Success1507 Words   |  7 PagesFailing Our Children to Success Imagine a world where doctors are not able to understand medical terminology or lawyers who have difficulty reading laws and being unable to interpret them correctly. Think of a society where mechanics cannot pronounce the name of a part they are replacing and pharmacists that cannot formulate dosages correctly. While this may seem absurd, this is the current trend of students that our educational system is producing in the United States. In the early years of theRead MoreThe Bill Will Help American School Systems Improve Schools1420 Words   |  6 PagesSection 1: This bill will help American school systems improve by making changes to problems that have been ignored for decades. Section 2: It is interesting how the United States is seen as one of the world’s strongest economies while their school systems are so inefficient. The United States spends such a small amount of time improving and updating their education system which molds the minds of their future generations. American education is falling behind because the Nation refuses to make changesRead MoreThe Public School Education System Essay1425 Words   |  6 Pagesprivate schools being expensive, people have to rely on the education system to provide their children with a good education. In this paper I will be discussing the public school education system ranging solely up to high school in Brooklyn New York and giving a general idea of the New York education system as well. Education is the foundation to secure an individual in having a better future and a successful career in life. Public education primarily falls upon the state and local government to takeRead MoreAmerican Schools Are Failing For Minority Students1025 Words   |  5 PagesThe idea that American schools are failing is not a new one, but it is an idea that is extremely widespread. There are constant news reports claiming that our schools are worse than ever and Congress has passed extensive legislation such as No Child Left behind in an attempt to fix the American educational system. Some people believe that American schools are not completely failing, but only failing for minority students. Reforms like mandatory busing, vouchers, charter schools, accountability, andRead More Public Education Essay1454 Words   |  6 PagesPublic education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a â€Å"nation at ri sk†, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide studentsRead MoreThe English Underclass in Dr. Theodore Dalrymles â€Å"Life at the Bottom1138 Words   |  5 PagesTake our school systems for enstance, there put in place to help our youth, yet everyday â€Å"our children go to school and return with just as much or less knowledge as when they set off†. Like England there is a huge problem within our schools. With the â€Å"elite† trying to preserve there self image. In Dalrymple’s chapter â€Å"We Don’t Want No Education† he speaks of England teachers being allowed to â€Å"make correction† within students work. No one wanted to present actual test scores of the failing studentsRead MoreThe High Cost of Low Expectations1151 Words   |  5 Pagesacceptable level, the educational system should fail the child. It is just the right thing to do. Graduating students who have not done strong work in school is unfair to the students themselves and it cheats the future employers of these students. Children need to have mastered the basic skills taught to them throughout their student years. According to Sherry, students who have graduated without truly earning their diplomas end up feeling cheated by the educational system later on in life. StudentRead MoreCorrupt School System Essay1498 Words   |  6 PagesThe Corrupt School System Education in the U.S. is failing, so bad in fact, that other countries are going to start taking advantage of us, and pass us as they excel in innovation with us left out, lagging behind. The general schooling system of the United States has been around for one hundred and fifty years, with almost all the same teaching methods, grading and student expectations taking place through it all. Isn t it perplexing that the system multiple generations were taught in hasn’t changed

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Foreign worker in malaysia Essay Example For Students

Foreign worker in malaysia Essay The presence of foreign workers is one of the most critical issues confronting the Malayan building market. as the increasing building work which requires important man-power. Most of the workers come from neighboring states such as Indonesia. Bangladesh. the Philippines. Nepal. Myanmar. Vietnam and India. What causes the increasing Numberss foreign workers in the building sites? The causes for the inflow of foreign workers in Malaysia is the locals prefer to work in the office. deficiency of chance for calling promotion and the building work is unattractive to the locals. One of the causes act uponing the inflow of foreign worker is because the locals prefer to work in the office. Locals prefer to take employment in a comfy environment like air conditioned mills and office which offering white neckband occupations. They prefer easier occupations. In add-on. working in building sectors require worker to work long hours. For illustration. working long hours on dark displacement is portion and package of a figure of occupations in building sectors. Reports from the Labour Department exhibit indicate that many of the locals are non able to make this because they have household and other societal duties to carry through. Hence. less local takers for the building sectors. Furthermore. the causes for the deficiency of locals working in the building sector is locals perceived that the working status in the building sector is really hapless. The hapless image of building industry such as absence of occupation security and hapless direction. Another ground is the deficiency of chance for calling promotion in the building concern causes local diminution to fall in this sectors. Nowadays. it is excessively common for local immature coevals to analyze until Penilaian Menengah Rendah ( PMR ) degree and even Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia ( SPM ) . With greater entree to better and higher instruction. more and more Malaysians today are able to acquire a good instruction and have become skilled workers. For illustration. whenever a station alumnus pupil finished survey. they all waiting for their occupations offer and they expect a high category occupation that suits their criterion. So the non so high category occupations are taken over by foreign workers. The higher instruction degrees makes local choose non to work in building sector. Therefore. the local young person in general perceived that building sector are soiled. unsafe and take downing. One other ground for the inflow of foreign workers in Malaysia is that the building work is unattractive to the locals. Working in building sectors is considered as unskilled and humble occupations. Most of the workers in these sector are making unskilled occupation and it is non surprising that many locals find working in these sector as unattractive occupations. Furthermore. the building sector is instead demanding. Other than that. unattractive wages besides makes the locals choose non to work in building sector. Merely few locals would desire to work in the building sector due to low rewards for high hazard occupations because locals expect to be paid high wage and less physical activities. Department of Statistics and Ministry of Human Resources shows that figure of labour force has increased 6. 3 per cent from 10. 24 million in 2003 to 10. 89 million in 2007 while Statisticss from Immigration Department of Malaysia shows that foreign workers in Malaysia continued to increase from 2001 to 2007. Indonesia accounted for the highest figure of registered foreign workers in Malaysia at 50. 9 % followed by Bangladesh was 2nd highest. accounting for 17 % of the entire foreign workers in Malaysia. Nepal at 9. 7 % . Myanmar 7. 8 % . India 6. 3 % and Vietnam 4. 2 % . In decision. the building sectors need to earnestly research avenues to pull local to come in the building industry by bettering the image and working environment and this implies offering competitory rewards and benefits. improved work safety processs and transfusing sense of pride in building sectors. .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .postImageUrl , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c 4f94f2a3 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:hover , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:visited , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:active { border:0!important; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:active , .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; fo nt-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left: 18px; top: 0; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3 .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3-content { display: table-c ell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc3f00d3cfb1fb7562c62896c4f94f2a3:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Agriculture Essay

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Clone Embros Essay Example For Students

Clone Embros Essay #1Abstract: News of the cloned embryos immediately inflamed the debate over the ethics of human cloning. Advanced Cell Technology, a privately held company, is trying to patent its cloning technology as part oits for-profit ventures. But critics, particularly the Catholic church and anti-abortion groups, say such a business would immorally destroy thousands of human embryos.In parthenogenesis, an egg cell is treated with chemicals that cause it to start dividing into an embryo without fertilization by sperm. Advanced Cell Technology exposed 22 human eggs to those chemicals. After five days,six eggs had matured into blastocysts, a spherical structure that is a landmark in the early life of an embryo. Scientists believe embryos created this way could mature long enough to be useful in medical treatment butwould be unable to grow to term. Both the cloned and parthenogenetically produced embryos had significant shortcomings. None developed stem cells, which can grow into any type of cell or tissue of the body. Advanced Cell Technology needs stem cells to produce medical treatments for patients. (Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2001 Allrights reserved)Full Text: A Massachusetts company announced Sunday that it had created cloned human embryos that were able to survive for several days, raising fears that someone could produce a cloned baby and rekindling debate on whether Congress should ban the procedure. Advanced Cell Technology Inc. has no plans to produce cloned children, it said, but instead aims to use cloning to make new cells and tissues for people with diabetes, Parkinsons disease and other ailments. The research, however, remains many steps short of what would be needed to create eithera cloned baby or human tissue for medical treatment. Still, it marks the first report in a scientific journal of a successful attempt to clone human life. A Korean team claimed in 1998 that it had produced a cloned human embryo, but the research was never published orconfirmed. Michael West, chief executive of Advanced Cell Technology, said the work represented the first halting steps toward a new era of medicine in which disease would be cured by swapping a persons faulty cells and tissues for new ones. It looks like this is going to be possible, but this is obviously only a preliminary report, West said in an interview. He said his team published early results because it wanted to remain transparent about its research amid the sweeping ethical debate over cloning. The research, which required no federal approval, appears in e- biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine, a relatively new online publication. Scientific findings generally do not win credibility until they are published in a journal that subjects the data to review by other researchers. William Haseltine, editor of the journal and chairman of Human Genome Sciences Inc., a leading biotechnology company, said the cloning data were scrutinized by independent scientists with the same rigor that is used at traditionaljournals.News of the cloned embryos immediately inflamed the debate over the ethics of human cloning. Advanced Cell Technology, a privately held company, is trying to patent its cloning technology as part of its for-profit ventures. But critics, particularly the Catholic church and anti-abortion groups,say such a business would immorally destroy thousands of human embryos. This corporation is creating human embryos for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their cells. Unless Congress acts quickly, this corporation and others will be opening human embryo farms, said Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee. Some critics say the company is hastening the arrival of cloned children, a prospect that they believe society has not fully considered or regulated. As the company continues to publish its research, these critics say, someone could eventually use it to create a cloned embryo and grow it to term in a surrogate mother.In a bipartisan vote in July, the House approved broad legislation that would criminalize cloning both as a way to produce children and as a medical tool. If the measure had already been law, West and his colleagues could be subject to jail terms of up to 10 years and $1 million in fines for the work they announced Sunday. The Senate plans to take up the measure in February or March. Cloning critics said lawmakers should move sooner. This is among the issues pushed to the back burner, or perhaps behind the stove entirely, by the events of Sept. 11, said Richard Doerflinger, an official with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes human cloning for any purpose. The Senate has been acting as though thisis something way down the road that we can think about when were done with terrorism. . . . But this announcement is a wake-up call that we have to deal with the ethical and social and legal ramifications of cloning right away. Prospects for the legislation are unclear in the Senate. Although there is widespread support for barring the cloning of children, some senators seem uncertain whether they want to outlaw a medical technique that might save lives. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said Sunday that he supported cloning for research purposes. Still, he said the Advanced Cell Technology experiments were disconcerting. I think its going in the wrong direction, Daschle said on Fox News Sunday. The Senate sponsor of a broad anti-cloning measure, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), called for Congress to swiftly pass a six-month moratorium on all human cloning until the Senate can take up the issue more fully.President Bush has criticized human cloning and praised the House ban.In its research, the Massachusetts company used two techniques to produce human embryoscloning and a second process called parthenogenesis.In traditional reproduction, genes carried in the sperm and egg co-mingle to produce an offspring that has a unique mix of its parents qualities.Both of the Advanced Cell methods, by contrast, created embryos that were genetic copies of only one parent.The company obtained egg cells from seven female volunteers. It stri pped the DNA from 19 egg cells and replaced it with genetic material from another person, also a volunteer solicited by the company. The new genetic materialcame from either a skin cell or ovarian material called a cumulus cell. Seven of the eggs began to divide and grow. These early embryos were clonesoffspring that carried genes from only one adult, the person who had donated the skin or cumulus cell. Two of them divided into four-celled embryos and one developed six cells before the growth stopped. The growth occurred over a three- day period.West said the embryos were no longer viable and had been disassembled so that their cells could be studied. In parthenogenesis, an egg cell is treated with chemicals that cause it to start dividing into an embryo without fertilization by sperm. Advanced Cell Technology exposed 22 human eggs to those chemicals. After five days, six eggs had matured into blastocysts, a spherical structure that is a landmark in the early life of an embryo. Scientists believe embryos created this way could mature long enough to be useful in medical treatment but would be unable to grow to term. Both the cloned and parthenogenetically produced embryos had significant shortcomings. None developed stem cells, which can grow into any type of cell or tissue of the body. Advanced Cell Technology needs stem cells to produce medical treatments for patients. A wide array of researchers is trying to understand how stem cells grow into other cell types, such as insulin-producing cells for diabetics.Researchers may face a significant hurdle even if they can produce tissues from stem cells for human transplant. The patients might reject the newtissue as a foreign substance. Advanced Cell Technology and a small group of other private companies say cloning could produce tissues that match the genetic makeup of individual patients. This tissue might be more readily accepted by the patients body.Our dream is that someday we could take a patients cell, skin cell,and give them back anything that they needed to cure disease, West said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press.Some critics said Advanced Cell Technologys work, so far, is a failure,not a triumph. It seems that if you take eggs and dont develop them beyondthree days, they dont have success, said Alexander Capron, a USC professorof law and medicine. He said the experiments also failed to show that cloned human embryos are free of genetic defects, a point that the company itself acknowledged. Caption: PHOTO: Our intention is not to create cloned human beings, wrote Dr. Robert Lanza, a researcher with Advanced Cell Technology.; PHOTOGRAPHER:ReutersCredit: TIMES STAFF WRITERReproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. =============================== End of Document ================================The following article has been sent by a user at SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE via Proquest, an information service of the ProQuest CompanyThe First Clone ; Scientists have finally cloned a human embryo. The breakthroughpromises cures for terrible diseases. Heres the inside story:#2Abstract:Robert Lanza, Michael West, and Jose Cibelli have finally cloned a human embryo, and many claim that this scientific breakthrough could produce cures for diseases like diabetes and for the ravages of aging. Lanza, West, and Cibelli are profiled, and their belief in human therapeutic cloning is discussed. Copyright U.S. News and World Report Dec 3, 2001Full Text: Physically, Judson Somerville didnt feel a thing. When he took the cigar-cutter-like tool and clipped a chunk of skin cells from his right calf last April, there was no pain. The 40-year-old Texas physician hasbeen using a wheelchair for years, paralyzed from the chest down, the result of a terrible cycling accident. But emotionally, that was another story. Cutting the skin from his calf, Somerville says, he felt the thrill ofbeing a sort of astronaut, a pioneer. By donating his skin cells, Somerville was volunteering for nothing less than service on the frontier of human cloning. Somerville did not make the decision lightly. As a conservative Republican, a longtime contributor to President Bush, Somerville knows how controversial cloning is for many of his political compatriots. Buthe is also a devout Episcopalian. After consulting with his church leaders, Somerville concluded that being one of the first humans to be clonednot to produce a baby, which he would never do, but to create healthy new cells for ailing patientswould be one of the best things he could do for his fellow man. His decision wasnt completely selfless, however. Neurons derived from his own cloned embryo could end Somervilles paralysis. My 14-year- old daughter doesnt want me getting her wedding gown caught up in my wheelchair, he says, laughing. So when the day comes, shes counting on me walking her down the aisle. Now, Somerville may be a step closer to that walk, and humanity is moving into uncharted medical and ethical territory. Since the 1997 announcement of the cloned sheep Dolly, scientists around the world have been trying to duplicate and advance the work in a variety of species from mice to monkeys. Some have succeeded, but many more have been thwarted in their efforts. A few researchers had even set out to clone humans, without success. But this week, scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, a small biotechstart-up company in Worcester, Mass., are announcing that they have done just thatsuccessfully engineered the worlds first cloned human embryo. ACT is the only laboratory on U.S. soil that has acknowledged working on human therapeutic cloning. But other than being called to testify before Congress on these issues, the companys leadership and its scientists have not publicly elaborated on their human-cloning effortsuntil now. Over the past 18 months, U.S. News has reported from inside the ACT laboratory, with exclusive access to the cloning scientists and their laboratory work. In a highly technical paper in the Journal of Regenerative Medicine, the sci entists now describe their laboratory successthe transfer of human DNA into human eggs and the growth of those eggs into six-cell embryos. What that scientific paper doesnt describe, and what U.S. News documents here, is what went on in the hearts and minds of the people behind this achievement and the many setbacks and adjustments that preceded the final success. The accomplishment presents huge challenges to every premise of scientific, religious, and legal thought. Given the intensity of last summers national debate over human embryonic stem cell research, ACTs work is sure to become a lightning rod for conservative critics when the issue is taken up again in the months ahead. It will be condemned as an ethical abomination akin to playing God and described as the creation of embryos for spare parts. It will also be hailed as the hugest medical breakthrough of the past halfcenturyan accomplishment that could cure many diseases of aging and provides hope for people like Somerville. The story of ACTs breakthrough is largely the story of three men, from very different backgrounds, who came together to stake their scientific careers on this controversial enterprise. Heres how, against the odds,they pushed the world into the age of cloning: The instigator Jose Cibellis ambitions started out simply enough. Raised on the Pampas of Argentina, the talented young researcher just wanted to do something for the farmers. So after obtaining his degree in veterinary medicine, he married his high school sweetheart and headed to the University of Massachusetts-Amherstto get his Ph.D. There he quickly became a star student in the lab of James Robl, who was doing work on so-called transgenic animalscattle, for example, with improved genetic properties that yield higher-quality meat or milk. By the summer of 1996, Cibelli was on the fast track to becoming a majorplayer in agricultural genetics. But a Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference on cell therapies changed his life. Researchers there were presenting disappointing results in an experimental technique to cure Parkinsons disease in humans. Young, healthy fetal cells were injected into the damaged parts of patients brains. But little long-term improvement had been seen. In the car on his way home that evening, Cibelli could not shake a nagging thought: Of course the cells didnt work so well. They werent the patients own cells. Working under Robl, Cibelli had already joined Advanced Cell Technology to focus on cloning prime specimens of cattle. If you could reproduce a cows cells, Cibelli reasoned, you could use the same method to endlessly multiply a given patients cells to replace any of those in the body that were worn out or diseased. In an instant, Cibelli saw the future of medicine. Therapeutic cloning for humansbecame his calling.There were obstacles, though. One was the scarcity of human eggs from women willing to donate them for experiments. But, Cibelli surmised, if you removed the DNA from a more readily available egg say, from a cowsit might be possible that the proteins and enzymes left would be the sameones that rejuvenate and multiply cells in humans. To find out, he scraped cells from the inside of his cheek. He grew the cells in a culture, then inserted their DNA into a cow egg that had been rid of its bovine genetic code. Most researchers were skeptical. Cibelli had his own doubts, too. But so often, people give up and declare something impossible after 800 tries, he says. When on the 900th try they would have figured out how to make it work. Cibelli kept at it. After implanting cow eggs with his own DNA over and over again, he and Robl were about to toss yet another petri dish full of failed cloning attempts when they spied a rudimentary embryo. It was a round ball containing a cluster of stem cells, the primordial body cells that are capable of becoming skin, liver, nervesand every other cell in the body. The news spread fast in the biomedical community. Cibelli couldnt reproduce the results, and he abandoned the use of cow eggs as a dead end. But the feat captured the attention of the man who would play a key role in making Cibellis dream a reality. The visionary Michael West by his own admission, is an absolute obsessive- compulsivewho views life as a mission. A self-described political conservative, he was in his early years a creationist, and he trained as a paleontologist with the goal of proving the Bibles account of Gods design. But as hestudied the fossil record, instead of finding Gods divine plan, he found an endless account of disease and suffering. Out of that bleak vision he developed a new spiritual fervor: If God is about love and life, he says now, then we should do everything we can to end suffering and death. So in his early 20s, West knew his holy grail: to conquer aging and deatha goal so stunning in its scope that many colleagues over the years have discounted him as a quixotic dreamer. When I talk about ending aging, Im not talking about some vain fountain of youth, he explains. Im talking about ending the suffering of aging: macular degeneration, cancer, Alzheimers, heart disease. After getting his Ph.D. i n biology, West enrolled in medical school but was too impatient with the establishment to finish. Instead, he reincorporated his late fathers truck-leasing business as a biotech firm called Geron (Greek for old man), committed to ending the ravages of aging. Enchantedby findings that each body cell has an ever shortening fuse called a telomere that signals a cell to age and die, West poured all his energies into finding a way to keep extending the fuse to give a cell endless life. It took seven years, but his company did eventually identify telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres. (And he ended up marrying the Geron scientist who cloned the gene for telomerase.) Telomerase alone proved not to be enough to reverse aging, and West became fascinated with work on newly discovered stem cells. West immediately recognized that stem cells had the potential to rejuvenate aging bodies, and he quickly began funding scientists who ended up isolating the firsthuman stem c ells. But a s Geron grew, its board became more and more uneasy with Wests controversial interests, and West despaired at the companys lack of support for his vision. In early 1998, he left the company he had founded and lost access to the intellectual property he had created on telomerase and humanstem cells. It wasnt long, though, before West caught wind of Cibellis cloning feats, and he immediately seized on the concept as one far superior to producing generic stem cells. (Generic stem cells, derived from humanembryos, are the kind that President Bush agonized so publicly over last summer before deciding to fund limited research on the cells.) But, West wondered, why would you treat patients with cells from an embryo donated from an in vitro fertilization clinic with another persons cellswhen you could give patients their very own cells? In a flash, West was in talks with Advanced Cell Technologyat that time an agricultural genetics companyand within the year became CEO, then owner of the v enture. Both Cibelli and West knew from the start that they would need to race to form useful therapies before controversy overshadowed their efforts. Because no new treatments can be given to humans without first being tested in animals, Cibelli and West needed someone with connections in the researchworld who could get those studies up and running right away. As it turned out, that person was working just a mile or so down the road. The activist Robert Lanza is the living embodiment of the character played by Matt Damon in the movie Good Will Hunting. Growing up underprivileged in Stoughton, Mass., south of Boston, the young preteen caught the attention of Harvard Medical School researchers when he showed up on the university steps having successfully altered the genetics of chickens in his basement. Over the next decade, he was to be discovered and taken under the wing of scientific giants such as psychologist B. F. Skinner, immunologist Jonas Salk, and heart transplant pioneer Christia an Barnard. His mentors described himas a genius, a renegade thinker, even likening him to Einstein. With a gift for enticing the worlds top inds, Lanza managed as a medical student to extract essays from the likes of C. Everett Koop, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Linus Pauling, which he compiled into a book sounding warning bells about the declining chances for health and survival of the species over the coming century. Lanza focused his laserlike intellect on transplant medicine and tissue engineering. For 20 years, he worked to cure diseases such as diabetes and leukemia through infusions of new cells and organs from donors. But for 20 years, I hit my head against the same thing over and over againrejection, rejection, rejection, says Lanza. Using strong drugs to prevent patients immune systems from attacking the foreign cells, Lanza says, the cure wasoften worse than the disease. Even with the drugs, I watched too many children have first their fingers amputated, then their hands, then their arms. When Lanza discovered that it might be possible to clone a patients own cells, he felt that he finally had the solution hed spent decades searching for, and in March 1999 he signed on as Advanced Cell Technologys director of medical research. Integrity EssayBUT that first step would inevitably lead to a second and a third, raising questions about who else should be granted permission to clone. Single mothers? Old people? Gay people? Professor Robertsons plan is to deal with that later, but another ethicist, Prof. Gregory Pence of the University of Alabama, would open the door to everyone.As far as I can see, Professor Pence said, there is absolutely noConstitutional basis for the government to tell you how you can originate children. If you decide to replicate Uncle Harry because he was brilliant and funny and lived until 90, I dont see why somebody shouldnt be able to do it as long as its safe. That view, however, is unlikely to hold sway with Congress. In July, the House of Representatives approved, by a broad margin, a bill that would make any type of cloning, including so-called therapeutic cloning for research, a crime. President Bush supports the bill, and as the Senate prepares to consider it, the biotechnology i ndustry has come out against human cloning, apparently calculating that in doing so, it can preserve its research. At least one senator thinks this strategy will work. I predict that Congresswill ban reproductive cloning, and Im all for it, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said. If senators felt comfortable that there was a good solid iron door against reproductive cloning, then I believe you will open the door for scientists to move ahead with these therapies. In any case, not many people really want to clone Uncle Harry, or even themselves. Pamela Madsen, executive director of the American Infertility Association, a patient advocacy group, said most couples prefer that magic mix of him and her even if the mix comes from donated egg or sperm. And for those who are not infertile, having babies is simply more fun, and cheaper, the old-fashioned way. Ms. Madsens group has issued a statement opposing human cloning, not for philosophical reasons, but on the groundthat it is not safe. But she wonders if, decades from now, those looking back on all the noise and passion of the cloning controversy will find it all silly. Ever since I have been a child, what was considered impossible or immoral or unimaginable by some has become a part of regular life, she said. Think about when we first started to do blood transfusions, or organ transplants and, yes, Louise Brown the first baby born by in-vitro fertilization. Every time we have made a leap that has benefited mankind, it has always been with a loud voice behind us saying, Youd better watch out. Captioned as: Girls using a mirror to perfect their form in a dance class in a poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. (Associated Press) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. =============================== End of Document ================================The following article has been sent by a user at SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE via Proquest, an information service of the ProQuest CompanyHuman-Cloning Firm Received Federal Aid; Biotechnology: A $1.8- milliongrant awarded before disclosure of the controversial research. Home EditionThe Los Angeles Times# 5SEE CORRECTION APPENDED; Biotech companiesA story in Thursdays Business misstated the size of ImClone Systems potential stake in Advanced Cell Technology, which resulted in an erroneous estimate of Advanced Cells market value. ImClone may convert its $1-million investment for an equity stake of just more than 3%. That would give Advanced Cell a market capitalizationof about $30.7 million. The story also misidentified Miller Quarles. The retired Texas oilman was an early investor in Advanced Cell but does notown a controlling stake. Under Michael Wests leadership, the company has pushed itself to the forefront of human cloning. But animal cloning remains its chief businessthough it has produced little, if any, profit. Advanced Cell made a considerable investment in the business this year when it acquired a Pennsylvania dairy breeding company. But dairy farmers are a tough sell; they want betteranimals, not clones, said John Meyer, chief executive of the Holstein Assn. USA. What Advanced Cell may lack in business success it has in media savvy. It assured itself a splash with its human cloning experiment by simultaneously publishing an West and his co-authors on the Scientific American piece called their own account in Scientific American and granting an exclusive to U.S. News and World Report. To be sure no one missed the significance,work the dawn of a new age in medicine that showed therapeutic cloningis within reach.Advanced Cell said it isnt interested in helping couples clone offspring. The firm said it cre ated clones to extract stem cells, which can turn into any type of tissue and can be used to treat diseases such as diabetes. In Scientific American, however, West and his co-authors left the door to reproductive cloning ajar, a decision likely to inflame controversy. Due to potential health risks, they wrote, reproductive cloning is unwarranted at this time and should be restricted until the safety and ethical issuessurrounding it are resolved.(Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2001 Allrightsreserved)Full Text:SEE CORRECTION APPENDED; Biotech companiesA story in Thursdays Businessmisstated the size of ImClone Systems potential stake in Advanced Cell Technology, which resulted in an erroneous estimate of Advanced Cells market value. ImClone may convert its $1-million investment for an equity stake of just more than 3%. That would give Advanced Cell a market capitalizationof about $30.7 million. The story also misidentified Miller Quarles. The retired Texas oilma n was an early investor in Advanced Cell but does not own a controlling stake. The Massachusetts company condemned by the Bush administration for its efforts to clone a human embryo received a federal grant last month to conduct biotechnology research. Advanced Cell Technologys human cloning experiments set off a national controversy this week that is renewing demands that Congress ban all cloning of human cells. But before the cloning experiment was disclosed, the company was awarded $1.8 million under a Commerce Department program intended to accelerate research and development in private companies, said Michael Baum, a CommerceDepartment spokesman. The company said Wednesday that the grant would not be used for any human cloning research. Rather, the money is to fund experiments into reprogramming adult human cells in an effort to develop therapies for diseases. Both the adult cell research and the human cloning experiments are part of an effort by the companywhose main revenue source has been cloning cowsto break into the business of disease therapy. Thus, the federal funding represents an important capital infusion for the small company. But researchers and industry officials say administering such grants and keeping salaries, equipment and other expenses separate is a difficult accounting chore. It is one reason some universities that receive federal funds have moved embryonic research off campus, avoiding any potential for conflicts with allowable work under such grants. The Commerce Department issued the grant under its Advanced Technology Program. Baum said the terms of the grant specifically forbid the company from using the federal money to conduct research on human cloning. We have audit procedures in place to make sure that doesnt happen, Baum said. The biotechnology start-up reignited a furor over cloning this week when an online science journal published an account of the companys experiment. The article in e-Biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine said that the company created only a few clones, that all died and none consistedof more than six cells. President Bush condemned the experiment and Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, vowed to push for a six-month ban on human cloning while lawmakes consider legislation calling for a total ban. The House passed legislation banning human cloning in July, but it moved to the back burner after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. As a privately held company, Advanced Cell has disclosed little about its finances. According to information posted on its Internet site, it has $6 million available for agricultural research. Also, the company disclosed in 1997 a five-year, $10-million collaboration with Genzyme Transgenics, a biotechnology company. But within the last six months, Advanced Cell sold a New York biotechnology company about a 7% stake for $1 million. The deal with ImClone Systems, which includes a research collaboration, gives Advanced Cell an estimated market value of $14.3 million.ImClone Chief Executive Sam Waskal said Advanced Cell, like many start-ups, sold ImClone convertible preferred stock because it needed investment capital. This is significant to them, he said. Advanced Cell wouldnt comment on its finances. Michael West, president and chief executive, was in meetings and not available, a spokeswoman said. A vice president said he could not provide details, but reiterated that only private funds from venture capitalists and individual investors are used to support human cloning projects.There were no research grants at all on this, obviously, said Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president for medical and scientific development. Details of the federal grant are posted on the Internet sites of the Commerce Department and Advanced Cell, but have attracted little notice.Founded in 1994, Advanced Cell is a spinoff of a chicken-breeding operation called Avian Farms. The company had hoped to bioengineer chickens using cloning techniques developed at the University of Massachusetts. West, who joined Advanced Cell in 1998, and New York venture capitalist iller Quarles took control of the company last year, after a Boston bank initiated foreclosure proceedings against some Avian Farms properties tocollect a $3-million debt. Terms of the transaction werent disclosed. Under Wests leadership, the company has pushed itself to the forefront of human cloning. But animal cloning remains its chief businessthough it has produced little, if any, profit. Advanced Cell made a considerable investment in the business this year when it acquired a Pennsylvania dairy breeding company. But dairy farmers are a tough sell; they want betteranimals, not clones, said John Meyer, chief executive of the Holstein Assn. USA. What Advanced Cell may lack in business success it has in media savvy. It assured itself a splash with its human cloning experiment by simultaneouslypublishing an account in Scientific American and granting an exclusive to U.S. News and World Report. To be sure no one missed the significance, West and his co-authors on the Scientific American piece called their own work the dawn of a new age in medicine that showed therapeutic cloning is within reach. In the days since, Advanced Cell executives have made the rounds of morning talk shows and media eve nts. According to his assistant, West has been booked solid for three daysraising questions among people in the scientific community as to whether the company hopes to use the publicity to attract investors. Advanced Cell said it isnt interested in helping couples clone offspring. The firm said it created clones to extract stem cells, which can turn into any type of tissue and can be used to treat diseases such as diabetes. In Scientific American, however, West and his co-authors left the door to reproductive cloning ajar, a decision likely to inflame controversy. Due to potential health risks, they wrote, reproductive cloning is unwarranted at this time and should be restricted until the safety and ethical issues surrounding it are resolved. Research to be covered by the federal grant takes Advanced Cell down another scientific path. The company proposes to reprogram an adult cell, such as a skin cell, into a functioning nerve cell. That cell could be used to treat such ailments as Parkinsons disease, in which cells in the brain do not produce enough of the key neurological chemical dopamine. Baum, of the governments Advanced Technology Program, said the company hopes to transform the cells by dousing them with chemicals in a process that does not involve cloning or the use of embryonic stem cell tissue,which, with limited exceptions, also is under a federal funding ban. Other companies and institutions are racing to understand how cells program themselves, so they can produce cell therapies without using embryos. Message No: 94915=============================== End of Document ================================#7Abstract:For Advanced Cell Technology, these uncertainties loom large. The company is betting that it can perfect human cloning, creating embryos not for reproductive purposes but as a source of stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells could, in theory, grow into any of the bodys tissues and organs, and the company wants to provide them as replacement cells to patients suffering from any of a wide variety of diseases. The company tried to clone with two types of adult cells: skin cells and cumulus cells, which are cells that cling to human eggs. The researchers added skin cells to 11 eggs; none divided even once. They added cumulus cells to eight eggs; three divided once or twice, the others not at all. Stem cells appear only after an embryo grows for about five days and, more important, forms a blastocyst, a sphere of cells with a ball of stem cells inside it. The Advanced Cell Technology embryos that were created by cloningwere not even close to that developmental stage. Copyright New York Times Company Nov 27, 2001Full Text:When Advanced Cell Technology, a small biotechnology company in Worcester, Mass., announced on Sunday that it had taken the first steps in producing human embryos through cloning, it could not report lasting success; allthe embryos it created had died. It could not even report that it had used groundbreaking techniques; itsmethods had already been used in animals. Some scientists even suggested that what the company was doing was notcloning at all. But if there is a future in human cloning, either for reproductive purposes or to create cell lines for use in treating diseases, people may one day say it started in Worcester. Despite the storm of protest that the companys announcement has provoked, that would be just fine with Advanced Cell Technology. Its president, Dr. Michael D. West, says the company feels pressure to keep the world informedabout what it is doing in so controversial a field. But he concedes that the desire to be the first to claim to have created a human embryo by cloning was a factor in the companys decision to publish its results so far. Whatever the scientific significance of Dr. Wests announcement, its political significance was profound. President Bush denounced the work as immoral, and there were loud calls for Congress to outlaw it. Page A12.Shadowing the raging dispute on whether such work should be outlawed is a major scientific question: Is the human-cloning attempt a milestone or a forgettable blunder? The answer, cloning experts say, is that it is impossibleto know. ork with animals has shown that cloning is something of an art. There are no rules or formulas. Success, when it comes, can be unpredictable and nearly inexplicable. It could be that human cloning is extraordinarily difficult and that it will take years and thousands of attempts to make it work. Or it could be that a simple change in the laboratory procedure will turn failure into success. That has been the experience of scientists who work at cloning animals. For Advanced Cell Technology, these uncertainties loom large. The company is betting that it can perfect human cloning, creating embryos not for reproductive purposes but as a source of stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells could, in theory, grow into any of the bodys tissues and organs, and the company wants to provide them as replacement cells to patientssuffering from any of a wide variety of disease s. The small company has a track record of achievement in the world of cloning animals; some of the leading cloning researchers are on its payroll. But it also has a track record of astute dealings with the news media. In interviews, Dr. West acknowledged that scientists for the company had published their results in a little-known online publication E-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine because E-biomed had agreed to arrange for distribution to coincide with articles in Scientific Americanand U.S. News and World Report. Like many other small biotechnology concerns, privately held Advanced CellTechnology attracts investors with promise, not profits. And though Dr. West said the company had just completed a round of fund-raising, he noted that it would have continuing needs for money to finance its work. Were going to require hundreds of millions in investments, he said, before we become profitable. In the work reported on Sunday, the companys scientists, led by Dr. Jose Cibel li, used a standard technique that involves taking the genetic material out of an unfertilized egg and inserting in its place the DNA of an adult cell. In theory, the egg then uses the genes from the adult cell to direct its development, turning into an embryo that is an exact genetic copy ofthe donor of the adult cell. The company tried to clone with two types of adult cells: skin cells and cumulus cells, which are cells that cling to human eggs. The researchers added skin cells to 11 eggs; none divided even once. They added cumulus cells to eight eggs; three divided once or twice, the others not at all. Stem cells appear only after an embryo grows for about five days and, more important, forms a blastocyst, a sphere of cells with a ball of stem cells inside it. The Advanced Cell Technology embryos that were created by cloning were not even close to that developmental stage. Dr. Ronald M. Green, a Dartmouth professor who heads the companys ethics board, says he prefers not even referring to the cells as embryos. He would like to call them cleaving eggs, he said. In fact, scientists say, eggs can divide a few times without making any use of their genes, so the fact that a few eggs divided a few times does not at all mean that the goal of the experiment to add a new set of functioning genes to an egg was even close. But cloning failures can suddenly turn to successes, as those who have cloned other species attest. That was the experience of Dr. Randall Prather, a cloning expert at the University of Missouri, in years of efforts to clone pigs. Over and over again, Dr. Prather would start the cloning process, and then the cells, like those in the Advanced Cell Technology study, would simply die. Now he and others can clone pigs, but he does not know which changes in his laboratory procedures made the difference. All he can say, Dr. Prather remarked, is, Yeah, now it works.Cloning also depends on scientists having a delicate touch, experts said. One scientist now with Advanced Cell Technology, Dr. Tony Perry, who worked on mouse cloning experiments at the University of Hawaii, said it tookendless hours of practice to do the careful manipulations of microscopic cells involved in cloning. Some people develop a feel for the work, while others, no matter how hard they try, are never very good. It requires a kind of eye-hand coordination and constant practice, Dr. Perry said, recalling months of practice, seven days a week, 10 hours a day. If you lapse in your practice for two weeks, he said, you dont return to point zero, but youre a little bit rusty. There are also puzzling and unpredictable differences between species. Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi, who cloned the mice with Dr. Teruhik o Wakayama, also now with Advanced Cell Technology, said about 2 to 3 percent of effortsto clone cattle resulted in the birth of a live animal. Most of the rest die very early: only about 20 percent of the embryo clones make it to the blastocyst stage. With mice, Dr. Yanagimachi said, about 50 to 60 percent of the embryo clones make it to the blastocyst stage. But even more die afterward. In the end, he said, the same percentage of mouse cloning attempts succeed as cattlecloning attempWords/ Pages : 11,058 / 24

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Ethics in Statistics free essay sample

There are a number of possible ways in which unethical behavior can arise in statistics and researchers should steer clear of these. It is relatively simple to manipulate and hide data, projecting only what one desires and not what the numbers actually speak, thus giving birth to the famous phrase â€Å"Lies, damned lies and statistics†. However, this doesn’t happen all the time and there is no reason not to believe in the conclusions of a statistical analysis (Siddharth, 2010). Ethics in statistics is not straightforward and can be quite complex at times.It also greatly depends on what kind of statistical analysis is being done. Unethical behavior might arise at any point – from data collection to data interpretation. For example, data collection can be made inherently biased by posing the wrong questions that stimulate strong emotions rather than objective realities. This happens all the time when the survey is aimed to try and prove a viewpoint rather than find out the truth (Cruz, 2010). We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics in Statistics or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Other unethical behaviors might include scientists not including data outliers in their report and analysis to validate their theory or viewpoint.This happens both in pure and social sciences. By obscuring data or taking only the data points that reinforce a particular theory, scientists are indulging in unethical behavior (Morales, 2010). Ethics in statistics are very important during data representation as well. Numbers don’t lie but their interpretation and representation can be misleading. For example, after a broad survey of many customers, a company might decide to publish and make available only the numbers and figures that reflect well on the company and either totally neglect or not give due importance to other figures.Surveys and polls often indulge in unethical behavior to reinforce a viewpoint. For example, a survey might not reflect true public opinion because it is not statistically significant. However, many surveys do not publish this along with their poll and this can be misleading. As a researcher it is important to be objective and provide the complete picture that has been obtained from the experiment without hiding any details or overemphasizing something for personal gain. Ethics in statistics are important to give the right direction to research so that it is objective and reflects the truth. In February 2001, Enron was named exceedingly unfathomable, meanwhile they â€Å"window dress† their books in effort to hide their debts and Wall Street remained in the dark. August of 2001 Enron’s Vice President Sherron Watkins wrote an anonymous letter to Mr. Lay describing accounting methods that she felt would lead the company to â€Å"implode in a wave of accounting scandals† (North, 2005). On 14th August2001 Jeff Skilling, the chief executive, resigned and was replaced by Kenneth Lay. Mr. Kenneth Lay, once again CEO emailed his employees stating that they expected the company’s stock prices to go up. On the other hand, Mr. Lay sold off his own stock in Enron. Kenneth Lay also took $300 million over three years, for the purpose of services rendered to the company. On 12th October 2001, Arthur Anderson’s legal counsel directed workers who audit Enron’s books to destroy all except the basic documents. The real scandal broke on 16th October 2001 when Enron announced that they loss $638 million, due to â€Å"failure of its internet investment†. Immediately the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they were investigating Enron. See, Enron had adopted an accounting technique called the Special Purpose Entity (SPE).Initially Enron used SPE appropriately by placing non energy related business into separate legal entities. On the other hand they tried to manufacture earnings by manipulating the capital structure of the SPE by hiding their losses and they did not have independent outside partners that prevented full disclosure. Also they did not disclose the risks in their financial statements. Enron had made agreements with approximately 3,000 off balance sheet entities. How Enron used SPE’s for off Balance Sheet formatting In order to keep up, Enron to borrowed money to invest into new projects.Enron then created partnerships with lenders to keep the debt off its books. Chewco Investments was one of the partnerships that allowed Enron to keep $600 million in debt off the books it showed to the government and to people who own Enron stock (Norton). Seeing that this debt never appeared in Enrons reports, it made Enron seem extremely financially successful. Enron’s auditing firm, Andersen, one of the world’s five leading accounting firms at the time received millions of dollars the majority of which was not for auditing (North, 2005).Arthur Andersen allegedly applied irresponsible standards in their audits due to conflict of interest over the substantial consulting fees generated by Enron. In 2000, Arthur Andersen was paid $25 million in audit fees and $27 million in consulting fees (this amount accounted for roughly 27% of the audit fees of public clients for Arthur Andersens Houston office). The auditors methods were probed as either being completed for conflicted reasons or a lack of capability to sufficiently assess the financial convolutions Enron employed (Healy ; Palepu, 2003).Enron scandal resulted in shareholders loss amounting to nearly $11 billion when it plunged to less than $1 by the end of November 2001. When the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began their investigation, Dynegy offered to purchase the company at a fire sale price. Soon that deal fell through and Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. Enron filed under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, and with assets of $63. 4 billion, it was by landscape the largest corporate bankruptcy in U. S. istory until WorldComs 2002 bankruptcy (Benston, 2003). On the very same day Enron filed for bankruptcy, they slapped Dynegy with a lawsuit for $10 billion, claiming that they breach the contract. The Enron scandal captivated everyone’s attention worldwide. Enron not only robbed $70 billion of shareholder assessment, but they also evaded on tens of billions of dollars in debts. Enron, at the time, employed 20,000 people. The employees of Enron did not only lose their jobs but they also lost their life savings when Enron’s stock dived.Due to the fact that Enron had close to $67 billion owed to its creditors, employees and shareholders were only able to receive limited, if any, assistance aside from severance from Enron (The New York Times, 2003). In order for Enron to pay its creditors, they held auctions selling its assets, such as art, photographs, logo signs, and its pipeline (Vogel, 2003). As investors, we put our trust in the economic system’s â€Å"gatekeepers† (North 2005). We rely on the knowledge and ethical standards of the accountants, the financial intermediaries and government regulators.When gatekeepers fail to inform us, the investors, of companies’ breach of ethics and lowering of standards, they too should be held accountable. Organizations tried avoiding breach of its ethical standards, by increasing the programs and workshops in order to help management and employees develop strong ethical principles. Companies that executed ethical programs have deterred and regulate transgression amongst employees. Organizations identified that effective business ethics programs are good for business performance (Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell 12).Companies realized that not only did ethical practices and fair judgments of employees strengthened employees’ commitment and trust, it also attracted investors. Because employees and organizations were closely linked to consumers, the ethical conduct with the consumer increased the customer grati fication and customer trustworthiness. The use of ethical practice helps motivate employees and steer them in the right direction. It can also prepare managers to make ethical decisions when it is hard to differentiate right from wrong.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Authors vs. authors

Authors vs. authors Authors vs. authors? Hi. At Reedsy we live, sleep, and all but photosynthesise self-publishing news and discussion. Even if you were living under a rock, a massive rock, like a boulder, you wouldn’t have been able to avoid the suddenly very loudly proclaimed views of authors both traditionally published and self-published over the whole Amazon-Hachette blood war that’s been happening for over a month by now. So we had to say something. In fact, we said two things. Below you can find Ricardo’s take, and you can find Dave’s perspective over here.–Petition vs. petitionOne thought came to my mind when I read Barry Eisler’s article on last week’s two recent and infamous (in certain circles anyway) petitions: Have you guys forgotten that you’re all authors? Shouldn’t you all be on the same page?A little context for those totally unfamiliar with these things. You’re probably aware of the Amazon vs Hachette clash, right? But you probably don’t know why these two publishing giants are at each other’s throats (because, by the way, Barry is right: Hachette is part of the Lagardà ¨re group, which is also a giant). Well, don’t feel bad about it - it’s starting to seem like no one else is much more informed than you are.When trying to research what exactly Amazon and Hachette are fighting about about, it’s diff icult to get any details more specific than ‘pricing and distribution’ (who could have guessed, right?). Whatever’s going on, everyone is worried this could affect†¦ well, everyone (even self-published authors?†¦)On Wednesday Douglas Preston published an open letter to readers, asking them to email Jeff Bezos to tell him†¦ something. To be nicer to Hachette, maybe? Because when you don’t know what the problem is, it’s difficult to ask for solutions.Rather than emailing Amazon, Hugh Howey, Barry Eisler, and other self-published authors responded with with their own petition, including plenty of persuasive detail about everything Amazon has done for them (making self-publishing possible), and their bad experiences with traditional publishing. This makes Howey Bezos’s defender.Where does that leave us (meaning, still, readers)? Who should we be listening to? Speaking totally personally, I like what Howey said. More importantly, ev en there’s a lot of truth on both sides, I feel I can endorse Howey in a way I just can’t endorse Preston et al. Why? Because they speak with clarity. They say they side with Amazon and against Hachette, and say it plain and clear. Preston’s letter is eloquence without effect, reiterating a problem without resolving it: â€Å"we are not siding with anyone†. Come on†¦An author voice for the publishers?Well, I’m afraid we still don’t have an answer to this vital question. For now, it’s self-pub authors vs. â€Å"some trad† authors. And that’s bad enough. Were it to be truly trad. vs. pub, that would be worse.Until now, I’ve always seen mutual respect between self-publishing authors and mainstream ones. Hugh Howey’s battle was against publishers and bookshops, not against authors. As a reader, I don’t want that to change.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Read an article in an art magazine the right the summery Essay

Read an article in an art magazine the right the summery - Essay Example ibuted to her success, and these include hard work and determination, her interaction with Alfred Stieglitz and the paintings of the unique landscape of New Mexico also made her famous. Despite this, as the author notes, O’Keeffe’s work was relatively unknown beyond America, and this can be attributed to the fact that European seldom organized exhibitions that involved works from American artists. In addition, American art was not valued by institutions and collectors at the beginning of the twentieth century. Although O’Keeffe knew much about European art at the time, she was never trained in Europe and neither did she travel there. Her art, unlike that of other American artists at the time, was free of European influence. Her abstract images distinguished her among the American artists. Starting the early 1970s, different European collectors started to purchase her works. One of such collectors was Baron Henry Thyssen-Bornemisza. Since then, many institutions have organized and hosted exhibitions of her works in Europe. Georgia O’Keeffe, which is the Georgia O’Keeffe museum’s retrospective exhibition in Europe, was started by Arthemisia whose offices are in Rome. The author further notes that current exhibition in Europe includes around sixty works from each of the seven decades O’Keeffe was active. Generally, the author notes that, unlike before, O’Keeffe’s works are now recognized across

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Managing Environmental Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managing Environmental Issues - Essay Example Fryxell and vryza (2007) assert that the simulation focuses on three major environmental philosophies on human responsibility towards the environment. Examples of simulation put in place in order to manage environmental issues include the anthropocentric view, biocentric view and ethical extensionism. The model explored by Fryxell and vryza (2007) explores on how human being inter and intra relates to the natural world and therefore assesses how human activities impacts on the natural environment. Therefore, this discussion contributes to the critical study of the mankind responsibility in protecting and managing the nature and his role in the environment. Environmental justice refers to the fair treatment that explores the meaningful involvement of people especially the minority and low-income populations into the development, implementation and enforcement of the environmental laws, regulation and policies as asserted by Fryxell and vryza (2007). Consequently ensuring coverage of adverse and desperate health impacts that are a burden to the environment and affect also affect the people. Environmental justice is achieved when everyone within the environment can enjoy the same degree of protection from the environment and from health hazards activities of the population. Environmental simulation aims at accessing the decision making process by the stakeholders to have a healthy environment in which all the people can live, learn or work comfortably without any disturbances (Fryxell & vryza, 2007). This is achieved by facilitating open dialogues among many stakeholders involved in managing the environment. In doing this, fair treatment is achieved in involving all kinds of people from different part of the world regardless of their race, color, originality or income with an aim of achieving a healthy environment for the benefit of all. There are many stakeholders involved in the management of environmental

Monday, November 18, 2019

The Nuremberg Main Trials Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Nuremberg Main Trials - Essay Example However, Nuremberg was flawed, to a certain extent, and it is sensible to assume that its imperfections could be the most integral features of it deserving of attention at present. Still, many would believe that there are other features, as well, and that a number of these address undying desires for the triumph of fairness and justice.2 This essay examines the appropriateness of the indictments, the issue of jurisdiction, and general questions of legality with reference to the ‘fair trial principle’ in the Nuremberg main trial. Appropriateness of the Indictments The function of the IMT at Nuremberg was to formally question the ‘main’ German war criminals. IMT had two members from each of the four participating nations, namely, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. These members would shape various paradigms of criminal law and process.3 The IMT mission was instigated in 1945, as soon as the Committee of Chief Counsels of the four p arties to the London Agreement—a declaration that specify the guidelines and law through which the Nuremberg trials were to be carried out-- approved and passed an indictment laying down the criminal acts arraigned against the ‘main’ war criminals.4 The indictment convicted them with four violations: ‘(1) common plan or conspiracy, (2) crimes against peace, (3) war crimes, and (4) crimes against humanity.’5 Common plan or conspiracy The scholars of the Nuremberg Trials claimed that it is crucial to impugn the guiltiest offenders for conniving to pursue the Nazi persecution of the Jews and other acts of violence. Nevertheless, it was not a war misdeed for the nation to perpetrate acts of violence against its own people.6 For that reason, â€Å"[t]he American motives for spinning the dense web of conspiracy to inculpate the Nazi brass is no secret in that the stratagem was essentially intended to procure legal grounds for holding the instigators of th e Nazi movement accountable for the record of ‘domestic’ bestialities against assorted segments of their own population, including the Jewish minority.†7 In view of that, a conspiracy conviction was seen crucial so as to impugn individuals for planning or pursuing a common plan to perpetrate crimes against civilians. The Tribunal took into account the indictment of common plan or conspiracy on the basis of two rationales: first is the blameworthiness of organisations, and second is whether the war criminals had connived to pursue genocide and persecution. The latter rationale was settled under the accusation of ‘crimes against peace’.8 The Tribunal, as regards to the accusation of ‘conspiracy’, simply deemed: In the opinion of the Tribunal, the evidence establishes the common planning to prepare and wage war by certain of the defendants. It is immaterial to consider whether a single conspiracy... has been conclusively proved.9 Moreover, t he Tribunal resolutely strived to lessen the possible perils to minor collaborators or innocent members which could have stemmed from its judgment to charge four organisations of war crimes.10 As claimed by Professor Schwarzenberger, â€Å"

Friday, November 15, 2019

Rights of a Child with Disability

Rights of a Child with Disability All childcare settings are forbidden from discriminating in anyway against disabled children when they apply for the school. All children should be made to feel accepted and welcomed; they should be offered the same opportunities as abled children. All children should have the opportunity to attend public or private school. Schools should adapt their setting to accommodate all children. This may mean that the setting may need to install ramps ofr wheelchair bound children. This would mean the setting is promoting equal rights for all children. This all comes under the Equality Act 2010. Under the SEN Code of Practice all childrens’ needs will be aimed to be met in a mainstream setting. Despite a child’s disability or additional needs they should still be offered a full education. Parents will be asked to offer support at home and members of staff at the child’s setting will always keep the parent informed about everything that is happening with their child. The United Nations Convention on the rights of a child states that all children should have their views listened too. However the influence that a child has over a situation will depend on the level of maturity that the child possesses. This is all mentioned in article 12 of The UNCRC. It is said that all children should have the right to a full and independent life. This means that all children should receive special support and care if they need it. Article 31 says that every child should be exposed to culture like any other child. Therefore the people working with the children should adapt the setting so it allows them to do so. Inclusive practice is something that is extremely important to not just disabled children but all children. Inclusive practice promotes diversity in an environment. Settings should uphold not just a child friendly approach to learning but also a child centred approach to learning. A child friendly approach is simply when the environment is nice for the children, practitioners will treat all children in a respectful manner, the will do this regardless of if the child is a boy, girl, disabled or able bodied. The aim of this approach is that all children will feel safe in the environment they are in and they will gradually improve. On the other hand a child centred approach is when practitioners will push the children to do their best. This will always be done in a respectful way, practitioners will not pressurise the children but they will make sure they are continually challenging themselves in a safe way. They may be asked to face strategic problems in a group setting which in turn w ill encourage socialising and communication which some children may have struggled to do originally. Children will be taught valuable life skills and shown how to organise themselves. This will give children a sense of independence. However most importantly practitioners will want children to feel empowered despite their disability or additional needs, and to feel safe and secure in their environment. All settings should be in a social model of disability frame of mind this is when practitioners do not to pay attention to the child’s disability or condition but remember and respect the fact they have feelings this model is here it empower children not knock their self-esteem. Medical model of disability is when the child’s disability is seen as an illness that a cure should be found. This makes children feel disempowered, this will make the child lose who they are and will always be seen as a walking illness. If a setting is following the medical model then they are no longer working in line with inclusive practice. Promoting the inclusive practice should mean that respect for children; teachers and parents/carers should always be given. Practitioners should show empathy towards the children and have their interests at the heart of planning. Respecting a child in an inclusive practice can be done in many ways however one is not defining the child by the symptoms of their condition, this will dishearten a child and they will not feel like the rest of their peers. Children should always feel safe and secure in the environment in which they are in. If a child has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it may be a struggle to get that child to relax and to concentrate on their work. Nevertheless if the child’s interests and hobbies are in the heart of planning this may encourage good behaviour and concentration in the classroom. Which in turn will produce good results not just for the child in question but all the children that may have originally been distracted by child that suffe rs from ADHD. Showing empathy towards a child and his/her family shows that you have and understanding of their condition and respect what they are going through. But in no way does showing empathy mean you have to sympathise with them and show them pity, this will not benefit you or the childs progression. Showing empathy however will allow for a deeper insight in to their condition and have a broader understanding of their day to day life which will help you make settings more accessible and beneficial for them. Attitudes within an environment may need to be adjusted knowing more about a child’s disability will help practitioners to change attitudes about the way they look at things. For example if a blind child has just joined the class they may decide to change the way the room is laid out to help that child. This is because the teacher understands that having tables just dotted around the room may become a hindrance to that child. Practitioners should try to empower the children let them become more involved with their own day to day life, let them make decisions on their education and the way they wish to be treated. Everyone single child should feel safe and welcomed when they enter any childcare setting. Children should always feel valued and respected no matter what their condition is; equal rights should always be at the front of everyones minds along with the child being at the centre of all planning. Having a disability doesn’t mean the child is a second class citizen, disability should always be represented in a fair and positive light. A child with a disability is likely to already have low self-esteem so they should not feel degraded any further; this means not prejudiced language or behaviour should be used. If this behaviour does arise it should be addressed quickly, in a sensitive manner you should let the person know that they have done is wrong. Anyone that is involved with the setting should portray a positive attitude towards diversity. Parents are always going to be the biggest source of information regarding a child; parents can be brought in to an educational setting to help a teacher to provide the best care for a child. A practitioner may ask the parent to share their expertise with them, other professional may be brought in to help deliver the best education for a child. Every child has strengths as well as areas in which they require additional help; however an educator should also focus on the child’s interests and strengths this will make the child feel good about themselves, practitioners should praise a child for good work. Parents have a substantial emotional investment in their child and this should be valued at all times. A practitioner may say that a child would be better off not attending a mainstream school, this may be extremely upsetting for a parent to hear, and this is when a member of staff should offer support not only to the child but to the parent also. It should always be remembered that this is all new for the parent; they may not understand the procedures that are involved with having a SEN child. To help the parents/carers feel more comfortable with the situation all documents should be given to the parents in advance of meetings. Having a copy of the setting procedures before the meeting means that the parent can feel more prepared for when it comes to the meetings also it means that parents can ask questions about things that may be concerning them. By questions being asked and answers being given a strong teacher and parent/carer bond can be made. Practitioners need to be under the understanding that their opinions may differ to the opinions of the parents. They must remain calm, respectful and professional when having discussions with parents. Parents/carers should be allowed the time to think about the practitioners ideas, then once everyone has come to agreement they can all sit down together and deliberate about best way to care for the child. In some cases the parents may also have a disability themselves; also there may be a language barrier between the parent and the practitioner. The practitioner should try to offer as much support as possible to the parent/carer. If English doesn’t happen to be their first language then maybe a translator could be brought in to make them feel more comfortable in the situation. Flexibility on the scheduling of meetings will always be greatly welcomed by the parents/carers. Often they may have work commitments or other children, if practitioners can be flexible about what time the meeting can take place it will help the families massively. If meetings can be arranged in advance it is likely that the families will be able to arrange cover for work and alternative childcare if needed. This proves to the families that the members of staff are trying to help them as much as possible to make their lives a little easier. If a child needs are more in-depth the help of other professionals may be needed. There are many different professionals that may provide a service that could help a child, such as a Speech and Language Therapist, they will be used if the child struggles to be able to communicate, also if the child struggles to swallow a speech and language therapist will be used. A paediatrician is a doctor that is located in a hospital; this may seem scary however it’s just so they can keep a closer eye on the childs progression on regular visits. Social workers are there to offer support to the families and the child as a child with a disability or an additional need is likely to be viewed as a target for bullying. The environment that the child is learning in should always be adapted to the best of everyone’s ability to meet that child’s needs. All resources/materials should always be checked that they are not just age but also stage appropriate. However the environment should also be appropriate for them, this may mean a setting may have to adapt to meet the needs of every child e.g. if a child is blind the layout of a room may need to be changed. If a child has a lack of manipulative skills they may find undressing and dressing difficult. If the child has a PE lesson it may be a good idea to give that child extra time to change or allow the child to come in to school with their PE kit on and only have to change after the session. Some children find it hard to express their opinions or how they feel about things. They may not be able decide which type of toys they want to play with. Practitioners should try using visual aids to be able to understand what type of the things the c hild likes and dislikes. Resources should always be checked to make sure they are stage suitable as if the activities are too easy the child will lose interest and not improve but if the activity is to hard then the child will not focus and will not progress as they will feel discouraged. All these things need to be taken in to consideration when adapting a practice.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Infertility Essay -- Health, Reproduction, Sperm Hyperactivation

Infertility is a significant and common problem; approximately 9% of couples throughout the world are infertile with 56% of couples needing treatment (Boivin et al, 2007). Study by Mike Hull demonstrated that sperm dysfunction is the single most common cause of male infertility (Hull, 1985). This observation has been confirmed by other studies with report that dysfunctional sperm may exist against entirely normal semen analysis and conversely normal sperm function with very poor samples (oligozoospermia) (3-4 in Cris paper). Without a clear understanding at cellular and molecular level of sperm dysfunction, the only effective treatment for these cases is assisted reproductive technology (ART). It is generally accepted that diagnostic and predictive value of conventional semen analysis is very poor in predicting sperm fertilising potential of infertile couples. As result of this, numerous studies on assessing the cells’ functional competence and diagnose sperm dysfunctions have been developed over the last few years in an attempt to assess the predictive value of these tests for the outcome of in-vitro fertilisation. One of the most important parameters of sperm function is hyperactivation. For fertilisation to occur, spermatozoa must undergo capacitation either in vivo (in the female reproductive tract) or in vitro (in conditioned culture medium), which involves a sequence of membrane and metabolic changes, including transition of progressive motility to a highly irregular movement (hyperactivation). Hyperactivated motility is displayed by sperm swimming in the oviduct and has several physiological advantages, which could certainly help sperm to move effectively through different obstacles in the female reproductive tract e.g.... ...rtilisation rate was studied in prepared sperm samples that were surplus following treatment, to eliminate inter ejaculate-variation. The aims of this study were to examine (1) the incidence of Ca2+ store failure among sub fertile patients and its clinical significance in male infertility; (2) the relationship between % hyperactivation and intracellular Ca2+ level in response to Ca2+ -store mobilising agents; (3) if intracellular Ca2+ and HA are related to IVF success; (4) if hyperactivation in response to Ca2+ -store mobilising agents is biomarker to differentiate between men with normozoospermic samples and patients with severe male factor infertility; and (5) if impaired store mobilisation is stable problem in these patients or vary between ejaculates, this is achieved by recalling sub fertile patients with store malfunction to be examined further. Infertility Essay -- Health, Reproduction, Sperm Hyperactivation Infertility is a significant and common problem; approximately 9% of couples throughout the world are infertile with 56% of couples needing treatment (Boivin et al, 2007). Study by Mike Hull demonstrated that sperm dysfunction is the single most common cause of male infertility (Hull, 1985). This observation has been confirmed by other studies with report that dysfunctional sperm may exist against entirely normal semen analysis and conversely normal sperm function with very poor samples (oligozoospermia) (3-4 in Cris paper). Without a clear understanding at cellular and molecular level of sperm dysfunction, the only effective treatment for these cases is assisted reproductive technology (ART). It is generally accepted that diagnostic and predictive value of conventional semen analysis is very poor in predicting sperm fertilising potential of infertile couples. As result of this, numerous studies on assessing the cells’ functional competence and diagnose sperm dysfunctions have been developed over the last few years in an attempt to assess the predictive value of these tests for the outcome of in-vitro fertilisation. One of the most important parameters of sperm function is hyperactivation. For fertilisation to occur, spermatozoa must undergo capacitation either in vivo (in the female reproductive tract) or in vitro (in conditioned culture medium), which involves a sequence of membrane and metabolic changes, including transition of progressive motility to a highly irregular movement (hyperactivation). Hyperactivated motility is displayed by sperm swimming in the oviduct and has several physiological advantages, which could certainly help sperm to move effectively through different obstacles in the female reproductive tract e.g.... ...rtilisation rate was studied in prepared sperm samples that were surplus following treatment, to eliminate inter ejaculate-variation. The aims of this study were to examine (1) the incidence of Ca2+ store failure among sub fertile patients and its clinical significance in male infertility; (2) the relationship between % hyperactivation and intracellular Ca2+ level in response to Ca2+ -store mobilising agents; (3) if intracellular Ca2+ and HA are related to IVF success; (4) if hyperactivation in response to Ca2+ -store mobilising agents is biomarker to differentiate between men with normozoospermic samples and patients with severe male factor infertility; and (5) if impaired store mobilisation is stable problem in these patients or vary between ejaculates, this is achieved by recalling sub fertile patients with store malfunction to be examined further.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Fast Food Nation: Chapter Four Essay

â€Å"Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else† (Schlosser 94).In Eric Schlosser’s Non-fiction book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser reasons that fast food has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, started an obesity epidemic and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. While the idea of a franchiser/ franchisee relationship appears to be nothing but beneficial, it has a serious drawback, which is the release/ acceptance of certain issues out of each party’s control. This, in turn causes other companies to try to develop new ways of forming this relationship. Subway, for example uses â€Å"Development Agents† to help ease tensions. However due to this, the controversial issue of encroachment emerges. This leaves society asking at what price is success worth it? And how is success measured by these companies? The franchisee/ franchiser relationship has its benefits, but also one major downside which can cause conflicts and controversies. â€Å"At the heart of the franchise agreement is the desire by two parties to make money while avoiding risk† (Schlosser 94). In starting your own business, there is a huge financial risk. Even if you have an amazing idea it takes a lot of well managed money. Becoming a franchisee, though, while still costing a good amount of money, the risk is considerably smaller because the name, advertising and product is already out there. â€Å"One provides a brand name, a business plan, expertise, access to equipment and supplies. The other puts up the money and does the work† (Schlosser 94). Franchising makes it easier for companies to expand their market and profit from that. â€Å"The relationship has built-in tensions. The franchisor gives up some control while not wholly owning each operation; the franchisee sacrifices a great deal of independence by having to obey the companies rules† (Schlosser 94). When putting that amount of money and work into building a successful franchise it is frustrating when you can’t make any changes you want on your own. While there is a great deal of sacrifice, particularly on the side of the franchisee, bottom line, when the profits are rolling in everyone gets along just fine. Because the franchisee/franchisor relationship has built in tensions, it has led companies to explore new ways of forming this partnership. â€Å"The chain relies on â€Å"development agents† to sell new Subway franchises. The development agents are not paid salary †¦ [their] Income is largely dependent on the number of Subway’s that open in their territory† (Schlosser 100). These development agents are technically independent contractors who will try to open as many subways as possible, because the more they open the more they are paid. â€Å"They are under constant pressure to keep opening new Subway’s, regardless of how that effects the sales of subway’s that are already operating nearby† (Schlosser 100). Because they are independent contractors they don’t worry about how sales of other Subway’s are affected by their actions, in order to make money they need to keep opening franchises regardless of if they are making Subways across the street from other Subway restaurants. â€Å"As the American market for fast food grows more saturated, restaurants belonging to the same chain are frequently being put closer to one another. Franchises call this practice â€Å"encroachment† and angrily oppose it† (Schlosser 99). Although it may lead to a decrease in sales at the individual restaurants, the franchisors benefit from this practice that puts its franchisee’s out of business. While some can credit Subway for attempting to find new ways to form its relationships with its franchises, overall, its practices hurt its individual restaurants and make it one of the worst chains to be a franchisee for, long-term. Due to the harsh reality uncovered in this chapter, society is able to see how hard it is to become successful, whether it is as a franchisee or starting a company on your own. At a success seminar Dave Feamster took his employees to, a paralyzed but still upbeat and motivational Christopher Reeve’s said, â€Å"Since my accident, I’ve been realizing †¦ that success means something quite different† (Schlosser 107). Reeve’s is referencing the millions he made in his 20’s and that there may be more to success than that. â€Å"’I see people who achieve these conventional goals, he says †¦ ‘None of it matters† (Schlosser 107). This is such a powerful moment in the chapter, Schlosser is supposed to be attending a motivational seminar and yet readers walk away from it wondering, at what point success worth it is. If this man who was famous and beloved by America says he thinks he is irrelevant, what about us? In this chapter readers see that big companies measure their success in money and profits, but how should society measure it’s? The public education system might measure success in graduates or students that go on to college. But the great thing about this chapter is Christopher Reeve’s challenges the way you measure your success and leaves that up to the audience’s interpretation. â€Å"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it† (Brainy Quotes W.C. Fields). The franchisee/franchisor relationship while mostly beneficial, has its hindrances, which is each party sacrificing some control. As companies such as subway have explored new ways of forming this relationship, even more problems have emerged from this. Readers are left wondering at what price success is worth it, and how big companies measure their success. Works Cited Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print. Book Rags Media Network.  © 2001 – 2011 Brainy Quote. < http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/wcfields108002.html>