Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Communications Analysis of two interviews Essay

Communications Analysis of two interviews - Essay Example Besides, there was another Loan officer that interrupted out discussion quite frequently during the interview. Although I did not express it, yet somewhere deep inside me, I had mixed feelings about this attitude of Bill Cook and his staff. Opening and Closing: In the beginning, Bill Cook welcomed me into his room with a big smile on his face. We wished each other and shook hands. He himself took my coat and pulled back a chair for me. He asked me if I would like to have something to drink first. Despite his professionalism and nice tone of speech, I remained quite intimidated throughout the interview. By the time we were done with the interview, we shook hands with each other once again, and I thanked him for his time, attention and consideration. Relationship Dimensions: I felt quite nervous throughout the interview. Bill Cook was a stranger to me. We had never seen each other before the interview. In order to get the maximum response to my questions, I had to make my questions eas ily perceivable for Bill Cook. This demanded development of a comfort level with a person, who was an altogether stranger to me, though I managed to develop it sufficiently well. However, there was so much to ask that I felt constant nervousness. I had to ask Bill Cook why women Loan Officers could not be seen at any of the Land Bank branches. This and several other questions like this were indeed, quite personal, yet they were extremely important, so could not be missed. The nervousness kept me from becoming over confident and I conducted the interview in a prudent manner. At the end of the interview, the atmosphere was calm and relaxed and we had both enjoyed the discussion. Listening: Bill cook was a little preoccupied and seemed to be in a hurry from the speed of his response to my questions. Besides, his attention was being constantly sapped by the flooding phone calls and the interruption of the Loan officer, yet he managed to hear me good enough to deliver to the point answer s. In order to make my self heard well, I made use of the aggressive listening approach, and from the results, I can tell that the selection was right. Nonverbal communication: I was dressed in a business black suit and blazer and Bill Cook had worn khaki’s and a striped polo shirt. Bill Cook made good use of body language in conveying his points to me. He particularly emphasized upon the use of hands and eyes while making the speech. He maintained a constant and uninterrupted eye contact with me. I could not stand that, and would occasionally look down in an attempt to hide my nervousness and intimidation that had occupied me throughout the interview. Bill Cook tried to explain with hands, which made more comfortable and facilitated while making the speech. A hand shake was a good symbol of nonverbal greeting both before and after the interview. Reflection on the interview: Overall, the interview went extremely fine. I do believe that I could somehow, not get the entire trut h from Bill Cook regarding the lack of women’s representation in the job. Perhaps, I should have pressed him harder on the subject, though it was not entirely possible because Bill Cook seemed to be in too much a hurry to let me play with words. Still, I got sufficient information from Bill Cook to content my concerns. I chose to interview Bill Cook because he is quite experienced in Loan banking. I wanted to learn about banking and wanted to know why women did not participate in it in any branch of the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Tissue Engineering

Tissue Engineering The first time tissue engineering was introduced it gave the promise to repair or replace damaged organs, the field has dramatically evolved from its origins in the late 1980s. Tissue engineering is a field that is rapidly growing and becoming extremely important within biomedical engineering, it mainly links the rapid developments in cellular and molecular biology together with chemical and mechanical engineering. The graph below shows the amount of money the US federal government is spending on different areas of stem cell research. The National institute of health in the United States defined tissue engineering, in other words regenerative medicine as being: An emerging multidisciplinary field involving biology, medicine, and engineering that is likely to revolutionise the ways we improve the health and quality of life for millions of people worldwide by restoring, maintaining, or enhancing tissue and organ function. (1) Tissue engineering is in fact the application of certain scientific principles brought together to enhance the design, modification, construction, growth, and the maintenance of living tissue. Tissue engineering is divided into two main categories. The first being Vitro, this involves the construction of bioartificial tissues from cells isolated by enzymatic dissociation of a specific donor tissue. Bioartificial tissues are ones which are used as an alternative to organ transplantation, these tissues are composed of natural and synthetic substances. The second category of tissue engineering is Vivo, this involves the alteration and variation of cell growth and function. Examples of applications of tissue engineering include, bone and cartilage implants, formation of bioartificial skin and nerve regeneration. Perhaps the most important concept in tissue engineering is stem cell biology. This is the concept which brought back the idea of using cell based approaches for treating diseases such as heart diseases. Research made on stem cells aims to get knowledge on how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. Stem cells can be defined as ‘a small subpopulation of the proliferating compartment, consisting of relatively undifferentiated proliferative cells that maintain their population size when they divide while at the same time producing progeny that enter a dividing transit population within which further rounds of cell division occur, together with differentiation events, resulting in the production of the various differentiated functional cells required of the tissue. (6) Stem cells are different to other kinds of cells in the human body. All stem cells have three general properties which contribute to their scientific importance. (1) The first is that they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods. Other kinds of cells including muscle cells or nerve cells do not normally replicate themselves. Stem cells may replicate many times or proliferate. A population of stem cells that proliferates for many months in laboratory can yield millions of cells. The second property of stem cells is that they are unspecialised, the ability of the cells resulting from proliferation to continue being unspecialised like the parent stem cells makes them capable of long term self renewal. In fact stem cells do not have any tissue specific structures that allow them to perform specialised functions. A stem cell does not have the ability to perform the functions a heart muscle cell or a red blood cell would do. In other words, a stem cell cannot work to pump blood through the body like a heart muscle cell, and it cannot carry oxygen in blood like a red blood cell does. The third property of stem cells is that they have got the potential to differentiate into various cell types in the body, this process happens during early life. When a stem cell divides, new cells formed could either remain as stem cells or become another type of cells with a more specialised function. Unspecialised stem cells develop into specialised cells, including heart muscle cells, nerve cells and others. In research two kinds of stem cells have been used, these are embryonic stem cells and non embryonic stem cells, also called somatic or adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are ‘undifferentiated cells derived from a 5 days pre-implantation embryo that are capable of dividing without differentiating for a prolonged period in culture. (1) Embryonic stem cells are mainly derived from embryos that result from eggs that have been fertilised in vitro. Scientists have discovered a method to obtain stem cells from human embryos and then growing them in vitro, these cells are called human embryonic stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells are derived from the blastocyst. These are embryos that are around five days old, the time required for blastocyst formation to start after fertilisation in humans. A non embryonic (Somatic or adult) stem cell is ‘an undifferentiated cell found in many organs and differentiated tissues with a limited capacity for both self renewal (in vitro) and differentiation. (1) Non embryonic cells are undifferentiated cells found in a tissue or an organ that can renew themselves and can differentiate and develop specialised cell types of the specific tissue or organ. This type of stem cells is found in many organs and tissues. Adult stem cells are present in the stem cell niche, this is a specific region of each tissue. The main roles of adult non embryonic stem cells in humans are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they reside. The cells remain inactivated and do not divide for long periods of time until a certain disease or an injury in the tissue in which they reside activates them, and they will then start dividing as more cells are required to maintain the specific tissue. Recently researchers came up with new conditions that would allow specialised adult cells to be genetically programmed in order to be able to differentiate into any type of cell. This type of stem cells is called induced pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells have unique special characteristics that make them very useful in a wide range of applications. They have the ability to replace damaged cells and provide a new potential for treating disease. They are used in the treatment of extensive burns, and to restore the blood system in patients with diseases such as Leukaemia and other blood disorders. Stem cells can be used to study the development of humans from a fertilised egg and all the processes involved, scientists could Identify the mechanisms that determine whether a stem cell chooses to replicate itself or to differentiate into a specific cell type, and if that is the case what cell type would it be, these information would allow scientists to find out and understand what controls normal human development. In practice a more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular control of these processes may provide scientists with helpful information about how certain diseases arise. This allows scientists to suggest new ways of treating those diseases. The exceptional property of human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells that they can renew themselves while maintaining the ability to differentiate into useful cell types. For example, they have been used as a source of human cardiomyocytes. This allowed scientists to go further in research by using those cardiomyocytes in cell based cardiac therapies, cardiomyocytes have also been used in modeling human heart development and in testing drugs. (4) Also stem cells have the ability to provide a source of insulin producing cells, or repair the damaged the pancreatic tissues. This provides another potential to treat diabetes. (5) New medications could be tested for safety on specific cells that perform special functions. A large number of the specific type of cells on which the medications are to be tested is generated from stem cells. Stem cells have the ability to replace cells lost due to other devastating diseases for which no cures have been found yet. Today donated tissues and organs are often used to replace the specific damaged tissues or organs. The problem with that is the fact that, the need for transplantable tissues and organs is a lot more than the supply available. Stem cells, with the ability to differentiate into specific cell types could offer the possibility of providing a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases and replace the damaged tissues and organs. However significant technical barriers concerning stem cells remain, but they are to be overcome by research which is increasing in both importance and scope due to the huge benefits that could be obtained. References: 1- www.stemcells.nih.gov 2- Tissue engineering, Bernhard O. Palsson and Sangeeta N. Bhatia. 3- Principles of tissue engineering / edited by Robert P. Lanza, Robert Langer, Joseph Vacanti, 2nd edition. 4- Cardiac applications for human pluripotent stem cells. Shiba Y, Hauch KD, Laflamme MA. www.Pubmed.gov 5- Adipose tissue derived stem cells for regeneration and differentiation into insulin-producing cells. Kim SC, Han DJ, Lee JY. www.pubmed.gov 6- Essentials of stem cell biology [electronic resource] / editors, Robert Lanza †¦ [et al.]. Pages 11-13

Friday, October 25, 2019

Othello and Desdemona Essay -- Literary Analysis, Shakespeare, Marriag

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello and Desdemona’s marriage was doomed from the start. They did not start well; their marriage was controversial because of their race and Othello’s failure to follow proper etiquette while he was courting her. However these issues could have been overcome with time. The biggest problem is Othello’s attitude to Desdemona. Othello’s model of Desdemona prevents him from considering her a person. He thinks of her instead as superior to himself in every way, to the point that she is a god. Her race, beauty, and status make her godly in his mind. She becomes untouchable in Othello’s mind, and he begins to distance himself from her. Because Othello thinks of Desdemona as â€Å"Alabaster†(5.2.5) he will never consider her capable of responding to his love. Because Othello is at his wit’s end when he refers to her as â€Å"Alabaster†, he is speaking out of his heart. When Othello receives a letter from Venice informing him that he is to return home and leave Casio in command of Cyprus he is greatly enraged. As a result he loses his grip on sanity and begins to speak in less cohesive manner. Take the line, â€Å"Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. Isn’t Possible? Confess! Handkerchief! O devil!†(4.1.42) contains none of Othello’s former eloquence. He begins to speak with word association, rather than in complete sentences. The word â€Å"confess!† brings up the word â€Å"Handkerchief!†, and â€Å"devil!†. Because Desdemona, the handkerchief, and the sense of maliciousness were on his mind so much, he begins to express with abstract words and ideas instead of sentences. Although this makes his lines harder to read, they show us what he is constantly thinking of. Instead of clear and concis e lines, they are a torrent of his true feelings. In the... ... Because of his high view of her, he creates a complex of his own insignificance. From his point of view, Desdemona is unable to love him because she is too elemental to have emotion. Othello has, put simply, encased Desdemona in alabaster. He has formed an opinion of her from which she is unable to break free. Because he has so strongly locked her into this state of mind he is unable to think of him in any other way. She is so high up on the pedestal that he puts her on that he is unable to see who she truly is. This is Othello’s failing. By making her too powerful, too divine, any minor fault is a glaring defect to her immaculate surface. Then at the first flaw, she becomes low and nothing, and he needs to return her to her former glory. He must â€Å"Quench thee†¦ [and] again they former light restore†(5.2.9). He fails to see her love through her alabaster covering.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Showing Off (Short Essay)

Essay by Mariss Kaminskis Showing off. Showing off is a way to tell people about something good you own or are capable of, for example, do a backflip. In the story, to my way of thinking, Clara did not show off. But since the teacher said i can write about showing off, i will write about it. Showing off can be seen everywhere and about everything, for example, sports or even lawn mowing. Most people show off to impress someone or just to show how cool and awesome you are.It’s almost like bragging but in this case you can really do it not just tell people what you can do. If you want to tell about something amazing you own you can actually show that thing to that person. For example- I have a TV with a 42 inch diagonal. If you come over I can show you. The most common field where you see showing off is sports. Hockey players show off, football players show off, basketball players show off, all kinds of athletes show off. Mostly they show off their skills.Let’s take a pop ular football player –Cristiano Ronaldo. He just adores showing off his dribbling skills on the pitch. Most popular basketball player – LeBron James. He just loves to shoot the ball in the basket without missing for a long time. Popular hockey player – Pavel Datsyuk. Probably the most skilled player ever. He can’t live without his skill moves to get pass defenders. So showing off is just a way to look awesome. I don’t like those people who show off or brag. But I do own a TV with a 42 inch diagonal†¦ I really do!

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

I Feel That Men Want Sex More Than Women For Both Biological and Social Reasons

The old saying â€Å"it is a man’s world† attributes to the chauvinist characteristic of men; where clinical experts hinted on the findings that men are genetically made to primarily lead the procreation with women. As cited from the electronic article of Steve Connor (2008) in the Agonist.Org, the common notion could be relevant to the instinctive nature of men with regard to their sexual desires towards the opposite sex, wherein men prefer casual sex than women (1).Therefore, the question is; do men want sex more than women for both biological and social reasons? This hypothetical question will be the topical discussion of this paper, examining the basis of agreement or disagreement through the use of empirical findings.Situational analysisTo relate the above hypothetical question, I agree that men want sex more than women for both biological and social reasons. On the contrary, the viewpoint of Dick Masterson (2009) of MenAre BetterThanWomen.Com claims that women hav e their pitfalls as a physical and emotional weakness.Thus, my agreement will be proven by the succeeding situational analysis on the circumstance of men’s natural characteristic, relating the biological and sociological advances to women.In ‘Peeking inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter’ by Tara Parker-Pope, which was published in 2008 by The New York Times electronic magazine, has cited that the â€Å"peer factor† critically influences the discovery of the boys about girls (1). Tara Parker-Pope (2008) has written and described the following findings:â€Å"Physical attractiveness and the desire to be acquainted with someone are the usual and familiar reasons of   boys who are sexually active, and most likely said they pursued sex without commitment of love and primarily want to explore sex or to satisfy physical desires† (2).Based on the findings, it shows that most of young men are driven by their likings getting acquainted first with women, discovering the feelings or desires for the opposite sex. It may be then analyzed that the situation of â€Å"getting acquainted† is attributed by the peer factor.As cited, many young men [especially the teenagers between the ages of 14-16] are willing to lose their virginity at the very young age since they are vulnerable to peer-pressures, and most likely willing to explore the company of women (2).On the other hand, there seems a â€Å"balance† on the attitude of men towards a sexual partner, in which adult males thinks about the idea how could the social and biological life of women adopt to the same gender relationship, pertaining to the willingness of a girl in discovering or experimenting the kind of relationship (2).However, there is case to case basis or â€Å"social circumstance† when a girl get into the same gender relationship, of which one of the factors is socio-economic survival (3).From the article ‘A New Kind of Date Rape’ by Laura Sessions Stepp (2009) which was published by Cosmopolitan electronic magazine, the varying circumstances of men’s insatiable attraction to women has been emphasized.Accordingly, there is the so-called â€Å"gray rape† which refers to having sexual relationship with someone in between consent and denial (2). Stepp (2009) implied this kind of circumstance as trauma to a woman who questions herself after having sex with someone.In other words, the â€Å"tolerance† that first instinctively happened with a partner was uncertain and could have been persistently encouraged or lured by the male partner.The circumstance of rape is always evidently demonstrating the chauvinist character of men, although there are very remote cases when women are accused of raping men. What shows in the first evidence of rape is the enticement of a man to woman (2).Like for instance is the encouragement of a man for dating a woman, showing the desire of â€Å"insistent emotion† which a woman has a weak spot of being passionately desired for neither loved or needed (3). However, this kind of insistent emotion makes women vulnerable to â€Å"gray rape† to the point of statutory sexual assault (3).Stepp (2009) pointed out that insistent emotion of men towards women are merely physical desires, aside from the â€Å"psychosocial esteem† which men commonly feels satisfied or fulfilled once they have achieved the confidence of women.As cited, several cases of rape come first as a date, wherein men stereotype the approach of seduction and intimidations (3). Further, many rape victims in urban cities were dating partners who were allured to alcohol drinking or pot sessions leading to use of drugs and other illegal substances (3).It shows that women are vulnerable to the advantages of men. On the other hand, the vulnerabilities can be found on the physical and emotional weaknesses of women which are the pitfall (3).Thus, this can be equated to the à ¢â‚¬Å"gray rape† which refers to the unpredictable or indecisive tolerance of women to accept or deny the desires of men. However, this finding is still analogous to deceitful acts of men in terms of taking the advantages or opportunity of the situation. At this juncture, Stepp (2009) categorized and wrote the findings, as follows:â€Å"Numerous studies found â€Å"gray rape† as an outcome of the modern day socio-cultural groupings of men and women where plentiful interactions through social gatherings entices flirtations as additionally triggered by alcohol and drugs, of which even encourages men to be more sexually daring and harmful† (3).In which case, Stepp (2009) also proves the â€Å"social factor† or reasons why aside from the biological aspect, men can become more viciously desiring women.Reflective of the social factor, it may be perceived that the situation tends to justify the means, pertaining to providing understanding why men commit sexual ab use. But, certain understanding to the social factor owes the analysis that men links social interactions as the â€Å"given opportunity† or established venue to entrap the vulnerability of women.As cited, social interaction can be an easement for men to set the â€Å"social rules†, misunderstanding women who look for relationship and not free-and-easy sex (3).Another sociological finding explores why men do not separate from being boys, referring to the idea that men always retain the â€Å"teenage attitude† as they grow old. Michael Kimmel in his book ‘The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men’ which was published in 2008 by Harper-Collins Publishers has argued that contemporary matured men â€Å"drift† in a life-threatening social system (2).As a sociologist, Kimmel (2008) has accounted his findings through the conduct of interviews to numerous young and adult men with different types of occupation. Kimmel wrote his following findings:  Ã ¢â‚¬Å"The typical young American man nowadays is phasing in to a newly developed social culture not perturbed or put out by the burden of family, a girlfriend, workplace and other annoyances of adult-life† (3).Kimmel (2008) implies the retention of men’s masculinity that establishes the societal structure of what he described as â€Å"guyland† being a territorial ground of men where women competes.Based on the book, the competing genre of women challenges the â€Å"guyland† which makes women more vulnerable to the effects of competition. Like for example, the prevalence of sexual harassments in workplaces manifests the dominant character of men to the opposite gender (3).Kimmel (2008) explained that the emerging â€Å"gender competition†, pertaining to the emerging women interaction to the usual men’s occupation or life-interests, poses a challenging stance to the men’s world (guyland) that entices men to explore the personality of wom en competitors.As cited, exploring the personality of woman competitor varies in a challenging discovery from simple seduction to grave intimidation (4). Thus, Kimmel (2008) critically considers the â€Å"intuition† as part of a social factor.Correlating the findings of Kimmel (2008) to the topical discussions, biological and social reasons or factors favors the agreement that men want sex more than women. The aspect of â€Å"men’s world† conjugates the natural characteristic of men for being a â€Å"pre-dominant entity† in the social structure of gender and societal personality of women.This analogy can be deduced from what Kimmel (2008) described as the â€Å"territorial ground† of men, in which also means as a social structure or system that is only ruled by men. Therefore, women must submit to the harmful challenge of men and live with it.It can be reflected that what the contemporary needs today is a crucial co-existence regardless of gender o r personality in the social system. Men and women alike must redefine their vital roles in the perspectives of developing family values so that the new generation of young men and women would be responsible procreators. At this point, Kimmel (2008) wrote the following prognosis:â€Å"To map-out the future social-world of men must redefine what men are presently made;   enabling the integral role of women in nurturing the path of their young boys from the vicious effects of society where â€Å"guyland† must reciprocate the reputation of reliable and responsible men† (6).Indeed, women have a vital role in reforming the biological and social factors affecting the behavior of men. Of which Kimmel (2008) pointed out that if women actively participate in liberating the society, then, why not specifically persevere in the parental function of women to redirect the socio-cultural reorientation within the family (7).This proposition can be acknowledged by the fact that the ro le of women in the family is to provide guidance to the children, specifically the role of mothers. At least, but not just an option, the family-value orientation stirs the consciousness of the children, becoming aware of the sociological influences that patterns behavior and beliefs of children as they grow up (7).On the same reasons, Kimmel (2008) emphasized the importance of â€Å"converting the guyland† as a territorial ground for the virtuous men who are sympathetic and ethically conforming to the morality of women (8).ConclusionThe sexual desires of men symbolize his dominant character to the opposite sex, wherein women are treated as a â€Å"utility† in the fulfillment of masculinity or chauvinism. Additionally, women’s desires for a responsive relationship are being perceive or misunderstood as a pitfall. The personality of women in the classification of gender becomes a defenseless weaker sex.