Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Moral Decline Of The Roman Republic Essays - Sallust, Sallustii

Moral Decline of the Roman Republic An Exploration of Sallust's and Plutarch's View of the Jamie Neufeld ST# 864583 For: L. Foley Class. 111.3 (08) Though there are varied dates as to the time that the Roman Republic stood, it is agreed upon as lasting approximately 500 years. During the last century of its existence (133 BC -27 BC) there were the many violent years of The Civil Wars and much social strife. Though the end result of these final years of the res publica was the adoption of an Emperor and the birth of the Roman Empire, the focus of this paper will be the presentation of the nature of tensions at the end of the res publica using selections from Sallust and Plutarch as a basis. Sallust and Plutarch, while coming from different worlds and living different lives were very much alike in the thoughts that they presented in their writing on the fall of the Roman Republic. Sallust was an active individual in Roman politics during the Republic's decline. He was a tribune in 52 BC who was kicked out of the Senate amid allegations of immorality. In 49 BC Sallust was in command of one of Julius Caesar's legions and was elected to Praetor in 47 BC. Taking part in the African Campaign earned him the governorship of Numidia in. Upon his return to Rome in the early 40's BC however he was charged with extortion, only to be released by Caesar. At this point in his life he decided to become a writer of history and lived a quiet life doing that. Plutarch's life was very much different form Sallust's. Born in Chaeronea he remained there for much of his life. His last 30 years he spent as a Priest at Delphi. There he was a devout believer in the ancient pieties and a profound student of its antiquities. The only involvement in politics at the time were stories that he was a man of influence and rumors of a governmental office being bestowed upon him by both Hadrian and Trajan. Despite the differences in their lives and backgrounds, their surviving literature has a basic underlying similarity; that being morality. To be more specific, the lack of morality on the part of the rulers of Rome during the last century of the Republic. In the following essay I will show examples of how Sallust and Plutarch point out again and again the lack of morality in the characters about whom they write in reference to the decline of the Roman Republic. Sallust begins his Bellum Catalinae by telling us how the Roman Republic was built. He shows us that the people put aside their differences and kept their common goal, peace, in mind. According to the version I have heard, in the beginning the Trojans who were wandering in exile without a fixed home under the leadership of Aeneas founded and controlled the city of Rome as a free and independent Republic along with the indigenous people, A primitive tribe of men without laws or organized government. It is remarkable how easily these two peoples united after they had been gathered together in one community in the light of their differences in race and in language and the disparity in the way in which each of them lived: in a short time a diverse and nomadic mass of people was transformed by harmony into a Republic. Later after the Republic had grown in population, institutions and territory and seemed to be sufficient in prosperity and strength then, as happens in most human affairs, envy grew out of success.1 Clearly Sallust is setting up some contrast from what was good and right to what will become the Republic's demise. At the end of the passage above Sallust points out "as happens in most human affairs, envy grew out of success." This idea is presented again later when Sallust writes: "... the rule of the Kings of which the original purpose had to protect the liberty and to strengthen the Republic turned into pride and tyranny ..."2 He is reiterating the fact that the agenda of the Kings had changed over time from one that was morally good to

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Overview of the Sans-culottes

Overview of the Sans-culottes The Sans-culottes were urban workers, artisans, minor landholders, and associated Parisians who took part in mass public displays during the French Revolution. They were frequently more radical than the deputies who formed the National Assembly, and their often violent demonstrations and attacks threatened and cajoled revolutionary leaders down new paths at key moments. They were named after an article of clothing ​and the fact that they didn’t wear it. Origins of the Sans-culottes In 1789, a financial crisis caused the king to call a gathering of the ‘three estates’ which led to a revolution, the declaration of a new government, and a sweeping away of the old order. But the French Revolution wasn’t simply the rich and the noble versus a unified body of middle and lower class citizens. The revolution was driven by factions across all levels and classes. One group who formed and played a massive role in the revolution, at times directing it, were the Sans-culottes. These were lower-middle-class people, craftsmen and apprentices, shopkeepers, clerks, and associated workers, who were often led by the true middle class. They were the strongest and most important group in Paris, but they appeared in provincial cities too. The French Revolution saw a remarkable amount of political education and street agitation, and this group was aware, active and willing to commit violence. In short, they were a powerful and often overwhelming street army. Meaning of the Term Sans-culottes So why ‘Sans-culottes?’ The name literally means ‘without culottes’, a culotte being a form of knee-high clothing that only the wealthier members of French society wore. By identifying themselves as ‘without culottes’ they were stressing their differences from the upper classes of French society. Together with the Bonnet Rouge and the triple colored cockade, the power of the Sans-culottes was such that this became a quasi-uniform of revolution. Wearing culottes could get you into trouble if you ran into the wrong people during the revolution; as a result, even upper-class French people sported the sans-culottes clothing to avoid potential confrontations. What Role Did the Sans-culottes Play in the French Revolution? Over the early years the Sans-culottes program, loose as it was, demanded price fixing, jobs, and crucially provided support for the implementation of the Terror (the revolutionary tribunal that condemned thousands of aristocrats to death). While the Sans-culottes agenda was originally focused on justice and equality, they quickly became pawns in the hands of experienced politicians. In the long run, the Sans-culottes became a force for violence and terror;Â  the people at the top were only ever loosely in charge. End of the Sans-culottes Robespierre, one of the leaders of the revolution, attempted to guide and control the Parisian Sans-culottes. Leaders, however, found that it was impossible to unify and direct the Parisian masses. In the long run, Robespierre being arrested and guillotined, and the Terror stopped. What they had instituted began to destroy them, and from them on the National Guard were able to defeat the Sans-culottes in contests of will and force. By the end of 1795 the Sans-culottes were broken and gone, and it is perhaps no accident France was able to bring in a form of government which managed change with far less brutality.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

How Alberto Fujimori was able to maintain popular support after the Term Paper

How Alberto Fujimori was able to maintain popular support after the shock - Term Paper Example Garcia started well, but by 1989, things started going haywire. His leadership was riddled in corruption; hence, he started losing the popular support of his people. Furthermore, hyperinflation almost crippled the economy of Peru in 1989. All these culminated in the end of his leadership tenure in 1990 (Caretas 98). Next was the leadership of Alberto Fujimori in 1990. When Fujimori inherited the presidency, Peru was faced with various challenges; soaring unemployment rates, hyperinflation, high violence rates, and the public’s disillusionment with politicians and political parties. Fujimori implemented what is widely known as the ‘’shock therapy’’ which he felt was the best way that he would use to revive the country that was riddled with very many economic challenges and vices. Fujimori was able to maintain popular support even after the shock therapy, which many pundits deemed ineffective. This paper analyses the political tenures of Peru’s presidents since the 1980, including the tenure of Alberto Fujimori, the brainchild behind the shock therapy. The paper also analyses why Fujimori was able to maintain popular support even after the shock therapy, and the decline of his power in Peru. In order to understand what Fujimori encountered through his gove rnment and the decisions he made, we need to go back a decade before and follow the reasons that created and maintained a rolling snowball to this country’s most desperate times (Rousseau 118). Fernando Belaunde Terry, born October 7, 1912 was a politician, educator and architect, and twice served as president of Peru. Peru is known for stagnant dictatorship, but Belaunde sought to introduce a laissez-faire form of leadership that would ensure that events in his country were handled in a democratic manner. Belaunde was first elected to the presidency in 1963, but, he was overthrown and exiled in 1968 in a bloodless

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Intervention and post-conflict growth (Has to be more specific) Essay

Intervention and post-conflict growth (Has to be more specific) - Essay Example Consequently, the structure of the economy can also be affected by conflicts, and I shall feature the case of the two Latin American countries; Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Furthermore, I shall feature on the causes of conflicts and alternative ways of conflict resolution. This is because, in a conflict situation there has to be a consensus to resolve conflicts for the economy to return normalcy. Instability is one of the factors that have serious adverse effects on the economy. Conflicts have serious consequences on the economy because conflicts, usually, destroy the wheels of the economy one of them being the destruction of the human capital. In post conflict situations, the economy can take a relatively short or long time to recover depending on the measures undertaken to curb the situations in post conflict situations. In the Basque Country case study shows that the GDP dropped by 10% between since the start of the insurgent 1n 1960 (Abadie and Gardeazabal, 2003). The economic growth can be explained from two theories i.e. neoclassical growth theory that predicts that after the conflict the economy recovers quickly. On the other hand, another alternative model explains that the economic recovery may take a long time because the human capital takes a long time to recover (Serneels and Vapoorten, 2010). In some post conflict situations, some countries may fail to progress due to the poor economic performance. Additionally, some of the conflicts inflicted countries experience economy recovery few years after reconciliation (Serneels and Vapoorten, 2010). If physical capital is destroyed during conflicts then an economy is likely to converge quickly but if the human capital is destroyed during the conflict then it will take a relatively long time for the economy to recover to its normal state. According to Serneels and Vapoorten (2010), a civil conflict is less detrimental than an international conflict in terms of physical infrastructure

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Analysis of Retail Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Analysis of Retail Management - Assignment Example Thus the company is dedicated to providing high-quality footwear and value for money for the professionals, young and fashionable women who follow the trends according to their lifestyle needs. b) Examine how each of the four (4) components contributes to its retail atmosphere to attract the target market identified with Question 1(a). Retailing is a visible industry and the interface which exists in between the customers and the business provides the retailer with many advantages. Many of the retailers across the globe have become essential to people in day to day living and the retailers are very keen to strengthen the relationship between individuals and stores and gain customer loyalty. A retailer’s most important task is to keep their image favorable in the minds of the target customers. Therefore in the formation of image many components are to be taken into consideration, the environment and the store plays a big role in the formation of the image in the retail outlets (Varley, 2006, p. 169). In other words, the atmosphere plays an important role to attract the customers and develop an image in the customer's mind. The atmosphere is termed as the summation of the physical attributes both in-store and out of the store of the retailer which helps to draw customers and helps in the development of the brand image. Atmosphere affects the customer’s mood, target market, time spent in the store, induces impulse purchase and positioning of the retailer and relates with the strategy chosen by the retail outlet (Evans & Berman, 2003, p. 490). The basic four component of retail atmosphere includes the following, Exterior: The element which comprises of exterior includes the storefronts, entrances, the marquee, visibility of the store, display windows, the design of the stores, the surrounding areas. The exteriors are as important as the interiors which help to define space and the exterior of the space provides with the public interface. The outside s hould reflect the inside as retail stores exterior are a tent to the new and potential customer who tends to judge the sore through its appearance and might not enter if they do not like it or find it attractive enough. The exterior of Charles & Keith, Singapore contains all the elements to attract the target customers. One of the stores of Charles & Keith is located at Anchor point Shopping Mall based on Alexandra Road and provides ample parking areas for visitors (Frasers, 2008). The open entrance is accessible and inviting and helps to break down the barriers in between the stores and exteriors. The lobby increases the proportion of window display and invites the shoppers to enter the retail outlet. Figure 1 shows the mall of Charles & Keith as a part of the exteriors Figure 1: Anchor point Mall General interior: general interiors comprises of elements like flooring, scents, lighting, colors, and others. It should be able to provide the customers with a comfortable and a safe env ironment by applying the perfect color schemes along with the materials, lighting, and others. The interiors of Charles & Keith are well designed with the soothing environment, proper lighting, light color and well display of shoes, accessories, and bags.  

Friday, November 15, 2019

Treatment Options in Recurrent GBM Research

Treatment Options in Recurrent GBM Research Strategies for clinical applications The multi-omics data may also reveal important leads for therapeutic applications. A very recent review on GBM, reported outcomes of clinical trials investigating current treatment options in recurrent GBM, including anti-angiogenic, signaling pathway blockade and immunotherapy based approaches (1). However the genetic and cellular heterogeneity reflects in the modest results obtained so far. This necessitates identification and validation of better therapeutic targets and active strategies to combat GBM. Some novel strategies are showing promise in Phase II trials and preliminary data is becoming available, such as, EGFRvIII peptide vaccine, Rindopepimut; CD95 targeted monoclonal antibody, APG100 and multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib (1). A multi-pronged approach targeting a panel of proteins may thus hold the key to eliciting a synergistic response and prove more beneficial than current treatment modalities targeting individual markers. When it comes to circulat ory or plasma-based biomarkers, in view of the technical limitations encountered in deep and direct plasma analysis as discussed earlier, alternate methods which would allow prediction of tumor related molecules and their targeted exploration would be highly useful. One of the outcomes of the study was the identification of effective strategies for data analysis and integration, facilitated by the bioinformatics tools available today. It shows experimental identification of proteins passed through the screen to ensure analytical rigor and functional relevance as above (Stage 1). Biologically important and potential tumor specific proteins identified in expression studies are then assessed for their secretory potential based on computational prediction algorithms for signal peptide and transmembrane domain containing proteins, such as, SignalP and TMHMM, respectively and via non-classical secretory mechanisms using SecretomeP. These proteins are further prioritized based on their de tectability and occurrence in proteomic data for secretome, CSF and plasma analysis (normal or patient) (Stage 2). The potential secretory candidates are then explored in plasma in a targeted manner (Stage 3). Interestingly, some of these proteins were identified in analysis of plasma or CSF from GBM patients (2, 3). Once bioinformatically scrutinized as above and compiled, the candidate biomarker panels, can be subjected to validation and experimentation in cohorts of tissue sections, blood plasma/serum specimens from patients (Stage 4). We believe construction of such high confidence protein panels would be a valuable paradigm for studies in larger cohorts in clinical experimental designs. High confident lead candidates for experimental application GBM Secreted proteins Secreted proteins have an integral role in GBM tumorigenesis through cell growth, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis besides being important in normal physiological processes and thus instrumental to the discovery of cancer biomarkers. Besides being useful as markers for typing the tumor, their presence in easily accessible body fluids makes them useful for monitoring the disease progression or treatment response and recurrence. A thorough survey of all available literature was done to identify the several candidate biomarkers have been reported in serum or plasma of GBM patients and these are shown in Table 1 in Chapter 1. However, such potential and promising new biomarkers are yet to be rigorously evaluated for application against this unmet need. Non-invasive methods based on circulatory biomarkers would be useful for monitoring not only GBM patients but also for lower grades Grade II and III tumors that exhibit longer survival periods. Further, some new reports on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) that have identified in the plasma of GBM patients such as mutated IDH1 DNA (4), methylated MGMT DNA (5) and EGFRvIII mutant DNA (6). The highly sensitive sequencing based methods for detection of circulatory tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patients plasma are under progress (7). These ctDNA markers shed by dead tumor cells may surface in future to be reasonable indicators for tumor diagnostics. Kinases in GBM Identification of GnRH signaling pathway using an alternate approach As mentioned in Chapter 2, I used alternate approaches to enhance pathway views by targeting specific protein families, i.e. kinases. Protein kinases (PKs) are well known therapeutic targets in different cancers and a family of proteins that are major components of signal transduction pathways acting as membrane receptors (RTKs) or as intracellular signaling mediators (non-receptor PKs) and several protein kinases have been implicated in gliomagenesis (8, 9). Several studies have also shown altered expression of protein kinases in GBM and targeted therapies directed towards RTKs using kinase inhibitors are in clinical trials (10, 11). There is renewed optimism in the use of kinase inhibitors to treat GBM (12). New therapeutic strategies have emerged that use multi-targeted kinase inhibitors to simultaneously disrupt multiple kinases (13). The GBM data was found to be enriched with several kinases. A total of 102 kinases were present in GBM datasets; 77 different kinases in transcript omics data and 30 kinases in proteomics data with 26 in common between them.   Pathway analysis using these kinases revealed GnRH signaling as the top pathway that has still not investigated in the context of GBM. We observe an overall enrichment of about 129 entities from omics datasets of which 26 kinases and 57 non-kinase members are coming from the concordant (n=711) transcriptome and proteome dataset. The 26 concordant kinases along with their fold changes are shown in the Figure 48 below. A large proportion of GnRH pathway entities include kinases (MAPKs, CAMKs, and RTKs) that enabled its identification as a top pathway using this approach. A targeted search of other non-kinase members of the pathway resulted in additional members of the pathway in omics datasets that further increased its significance value. In GBM, it has been shown that human GnRH receptors are expressed in tumor cells and receptor activation affects apoptosis, adhesion and angiogenesis to promote tumorigenesis. GnRH signalling as a possible therapeutic target in cancer has already been suggested and put together with my observations it strongly supports this possibility in the context of GBM. The expanded hand-curated map of GnRH signaling is a valuable resource for the scientific community. Expression of GnRH and GnRH receptor has been reported in GBM cell lines and tissue samples at both mRNA and protein levels concordant with clinical data obtained using GBM tumor tissues and treatment with GnRH agonists resulted in anti-proliferative activity (14-16).There is also evidence that the analogues can cross the blood-brain barrier, indicating suitability for treatment of malignant glioblastomas (17). Given the significance of this pathway in cancers and GBM, further understanding the molecular interplay involving GnRH signalling pathway in light of my findings will reveal is use as a potential molecular and therapeutic target.      Ã‚   Glioma Amplicon and Risk Regions The protein coding genes implicated in Glioma and other cancers were clustered based on their chromosomal locations using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis tools to compute overlaps with positional gene sets from Molecular Signatures database and further clustered based on proximity to other known oncogenes from Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology data resource, to identify colocalized gene clusters on Chr. 12 and other chromosomes as shown in Chapter 3. An important finding was that larger number of overexpressed differential regulated genes in glioma datasets mapped to two significant regions the glioma amplicon (n=37) in 12q13-15 region and the glioma susceptibility (n=16) in the 12p13 region implicated as a major risk region in patients with a family history of gliomas. The discovery of these two clusters of overexpressed genes provides a biological validation of mass-spectrometry derived data. Apart from these two essential regions, several genes from the glioma dataset were found to cluster around amplicons on other chromosomes and other known cancer associated genes that were not identified in GBM datasets but present in close proximity to them. These can be investigated in a more targeted manner in glioma.   Many studies have been done to understand the biological significance of these amplicon regions in gliomas that indicate that these amplifications are more frequent in gliomas than previously thought and have different distribution patterns in low grade versus high grade tumors (18, 19). Overall, a relative high degree of amplifications and deletions are seen in GBM that have implications on the expression of the genes involved and contribute to relevant pathogenic genes (20). Novel genes and isoforms Alternative splicing increases the repertoire of protein functionality and heterogeneity and aberrant splicing events have been frequently seen in several cancers, including GBM and increasing evidence now points to their important role in tumor initiation and progression. The concept of proteogenomics has emerged rapidly as a valuable approach to integrate mass spectrometry (MS)-derived proteomic data with transcriptomic data to identify novel splice variants. However, the role of alternative splicing in GBM is still nascent and needs to be explored as potential biomarkers or molecular targets. As detailed in Chapter 4, the identification of a novel variant of NCAM1, using a proteogenomics approach with 5 peptide evidences from MS data spanning a novel exonic region, is very significant finding in GBM. NCAMs are well characterized glycoproteins that mediate cell-cell or cell-matrix adhesion among neurons and between neurons and muscle. Several splice variants of NCAM1 have been identified (21, 22) and alterations in these have been found in serum and tissues of brain tumors (23, 24). NCAM1 has 5 known isoforms and also exhibits glycoforms as it can be post-translationally modified by the addition of polysialic acid (PSA), which is thought to abrogate its homophilic binding properties and affect the adhesive properties of NCAM (25). Further, PSA conjugated NCAM, was shown to potentiate migration via FGFR signaling distinct from its adhesion capability (26).   The following observations may be noted with respect to this novel variant: The observation is supported in transcriptomics data in 18 out of 25 RNAseq samples. Multiple gene modelling software such as Augustus, GenScan, AceView and Ensemble support the presence of this novel exon in their gene models and a high degree of conservation was seen as expected for an exonic region. This variant was also separately identified in MS-derived Human Proteome and IvyGAP RNAseq datasets NCAM1 is upregulated in several cancers; however, in GBM both transcript and protein data support its down regulation.   We observed two known forms of NCAM1 as well as the novel form to be down regulated. It is interesting to note that the miRNA (hsa-mir-30a-5p) that regulates NCAM1 is upregulated in GBM indicating the deregulation of a putative oncogenic cascade. In summary, our findings demonstrate the usefulness of combining omics approaches to identify novel putative candidates in GBM. Although, it is not clear if the novel splice variant represents a major or minor form of NCAM1. At the transcript level, it seems to be a minor component; however, preliminary assessment at the protein level is suggestive of it being a predominant form. Regardless, it would be interesting to explore the biological significance of the novel splice variant of NCAM1 and examine its role in GBM tumorigenesis. Hence, in the light of this observation my identification of novel NCAM1 splice variant through proteogenomics analysis using GBM RNAseq data is a very important finding in GBM. The effect of this novel variant on cell-cell adhesion and migration in GBM needs to be further investigated in a targeted manner. Disease implications and targeted analysis Studies suggest that gliomas constitute a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disease caused by the malignant growth of glial cells that nourish neurons, resulting in a loss of brain function. Glutamate excitotoxicity is observed in several neurological diseases, which is also utilized by gliomas to gain growth advantage (27). My observations that neurological conditions like Alzhiemers and Parkinsons disease share many common genes with gliomas possible indicate shared molecular mechanisms inducing neurodegeneration. Further, the chromosomal mapping of glioma differentials revealed two clusters; one around 12p13 implicated as a glioma risk region and another around 12q13-15 region harboring a glioma amplicon with several overexpressed and amplified genes. Hence, extracting gene/disease associations and generation of a glioma-centric functional and diseasome network is important for understanding GBM tumorigenesis. Further, this region was found to be enriched in several cancers in cluding other brain neoplasms and neurological diseases that may share disease genes and processes with gliomas. Only 22 of the observed 108 disease genes in the diseasome network were identified in our proteomic analysis. The other 86 disease genes implicated in gliomas but not identified in our dataset can be investigated in a more targeted manner in gliomas, providing a global view of linkages between disease phenotypes. Additionally, the finding that chromosomal proximity of genes may have an impact on their functions can be used to explore the functions of missing proteins mapping within functional cassettes of related protein/genes. Such investigations offer newer paradigms that may be valuable to investigate and present clinically important targets. Future Scope Metabolomic data integration and potential Compared to the genome and proteome, metabolome represents the phenotypic changes more closely and has already been investigated for malignancies such as breast, ovarian, colon, prostrate and esophageal cancers. This line of investigation has been extended to gliomas albeit on a smaller scale, revealing novel insights into the role of metabolites in GBM tumorigenesis (reviewed in ref. (28)). Previous studies have revealed how mutations can lead to generation of oncometabolites such as 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) specifically in IDH1 mutated gliomas (29). The discovery by Otto Warburg that cancer cells prefer to metabolize glucose through a seemingly inefficient process of aerobic glycolysis   led to the application of 18-FDG-PET imaging to predict the histological grade of gliomas.   Using this technique we could now distinguish low grade gliomas that have low specific uptake (SUV) values from grade III and IV that have higher SUVs.   One study performed global metabolic profilin g using mass-spectrometry coupled to liquid/gas chromatography on patient derived tumor samples and found increased levels of glutathione, tryptophan and metabolites associated with phentose phosphate and nucleotide synthesis and glycolytic intermediates such as phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) and 3-phosphoglycerate (30). These studies have collectively provided a window of opportunity for further investigation and integrating these changes with the changes at proteomic, transcriptomic and genomic levels will be the next big step in to study the underlying biology of these tumors. Improving pathway analysis with phosphoproteomics data Protein phosphorylation plays a central role in transmitting the signal from outside the cell through a cascade effect into an intracellular signal to control the biochemical pathways in all living cells. This mechanism of activation or deactivation can be orchestrated by protein kinases via phosphorylation and phosphatases via dephosphorylation. Modifications to these signaling networks via mutations or abnormal protein expression or post-translational modifications may underlie both development and progression of tumorigenesis. Glioma Repository In order to facilitate annotation of key terms and manage the collection of high-throughput data coming from different omics technologies and platforms and make it easier to store and retrieve large amounts of information, I proposed to a schema for data annotation, collection and deposition. The data will be stored in the backend, in separate tables in a relational database (RDBMS), to enable effortless retrieval of key information for particular candidates of interest and also allow for complex querying. The outline for the schema is given below. Figure 49: Schema for development of a glioma repository

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Renoir

In this paper I will be writing about the â€Å"Gaze† which is present within impressionist artist Renoir’s painting The Umbrellas. The gaze gives us a lot of insight of the figures and the relationships we may be viewing. In the case of Renoir’s work the insight the viewer gets is the actions and preemptive thought before a meeting of two people looking on as a spectator in the very same crowd. By using blurring techniques of background figures Renoir succeeds in creating a scene that appears like a glance, like a moment in time the viewer stepped upon and intently stared. The gaze present in Renoir’s, The Umbrellas (c. 1883) is meant to provoke the conception of assessing a situation from afar, and endeavoring on the chance of action before your subject of interest notices your intentions. Renoir places the viewer in the role as the spectator watching the scene of a young woman carrying a basket, lingering behind her with his full attention is a man as if leaning in to speak to her or offer her shelter from the rain, as she has none. This woman, attractive, is gazing away from the man towards the direction of the viewer eyes glazed, vulnerably clutching her dress. To her right in the crowd the spectator makes eye contact with small girl continuing the gaze as her mother is watching her intently, and sure enough would follow her daughter’s gaze catching the viewer staring. This gaze makes full circle whilst the spectator awaits this chance to approach the young women passing by the crowded street vastly filled with brush stroked umbrellas. Renoir plays with the projection of a moment in time of a man meeting a woman or two people who will miss the opportunity and pass by. The gaze freezes this brief moment in time making it as if the viewer themselves are within the crowd weighing the situation before it occurs trading â€Å"on contemporary anxieties of the necessity of weighing up a situation and acting quickly in order to evade detection.. †(Smith, 40). True to the impressionist way being that â€Å"the impressionists attempted to paint what the eye actually sees, rather than what the brain interprets from visual cues. (Gilbert, 459) Renoir painted The Umbrellas as a glance over a crowd and with the face of the flaneur man behind the young woman of interest was clearly less detailed and blurred. Blurred as if glanced over quickly an uninteresting figure to the viewer, whilst the woman is in clear view and draws the eye of the spectator as if they were in the crowd and caught off guard by her presence. The way the woman’s â€Å"eyes seem removed from her immediate surroundings: their mysterious searching look contrasts with the carefree, wide-eyes glance of the little girl and the protective downcast glance of her mother. (Kern, 33). As well as how Renoir positioned the body of the woman looking outwards in contrast to the innocent and straightforward stance of the little girl connect and contrast one another. This contrast continues the gaze from person to person connecting the spectator to the scene creating the feeling of anxiousness and fear of being caught staring whether by the mother or the young woman of interest herself. As well the little girl holding the hoop is very prominent as the viewer would see her staring at him and take notice not only to her but to the mother that they would fear would also soon catch the gaze. This piece by Renoir is very much successful in creating a feeling of anxiety in the spectator due to his use of placement of figures and brush stroke technique of blurring out non-prominent figures. Though most of all it is successful due to the gaze that lies present in the image of this busy city street view. As one looks upon this painting you feel as if you yourself have stopped at a moment in time to look upon the scene contemplating your next actions. As the gaze reaches the end of its journey you feel an urge to look away before a figure feels your stare upon them and turns from the painting and looks at you.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Irish Family Structure Essay

Family is a combination of unconditional love, although the function or purpose of a family might be similar, family structure differs all over the world. As that being said there is a huge difference between the United States and Ireland. I choose to pick Ireland because it’s a small country and it’s a country we should really be looking up too. Because of Ireland’s prominent Roman Catholic roots, the family structure has not changed as drastically as it has in other countries. In other countries, divorce rates are extremely high, people get married at young ages, and families are typically small. Ireland is more traditional in the aspects when it comes to marriage, unlike the United States where divorce is extremely common. Divorce is small in Ireland and extremely rare. One in three families don’t end up having the traditional model of a marriage couple. The family structure in Ireland is really two structures, nuclear and extended, but the majority is nuclear. Nuclear families are families with two parents and extended means families that live with a relative, or a single parent. These two structures take up for the majority of Ireland. In many families they pass down traditions, or things the parent(s) would have. In fact, they each carry the rings of the average Irish cultures. The average children a married couple may have it up to one or two. Huge families are not extremely dominant in Ireland. The average families in Ireland have pretty typical modern roles. Women’s roles have changed as they began going into the work force. They are no longer expected to be a housewife and take on the nurturing motherly role. For men it is now acceptable to be sensitive and compassionate to their children as well as taking an active role within the family. Many more men are taking a larger role in raising the children and helping out with housework. Children are now seen as competent rather than innocent, acknowledging their values, roles, and abilities within society. It is safe to say that their roles are typical for a modern American family.

Friday, November 8, 2019

History and Properties of M-Theory

History and Properties of M-Theory M-Theory is the name for a unified version of string theory, proposed in 1995 by the physicist Edward Witten. At the time of the proposal, there were 5 variations of string theory, but Witten put forth the idea that each was a manifestation of a single underlying theory. Witten and others identified several forms of duality between the theories which, together with certain assumptions about the nature of the universe, could allow for them to all be one single theory: M-Theory. One of the major components of M-Theory is that it required adding yet another dimension on top of the already-numerous extra dimensions of string theory so that the relationships between the theories could be worked out. The Second String Theory Revolution In the 1980s and early 1990s, string theory had reached something of a problem due to an abundance of riches. By applying supersymmetry to string theory, into the combined superstring theory, physicists (including Witten himself) had explored the possible structures of these theories, and the resulting work had shown 5 distinct versions of superstring theory. Research further showed that you could use certain forms of mathematical transformations, called S-duality and T-duality,  between the different versions of string theory. Physicists were at a loss   At a physics conference on string theory, held at the University of Southern California in spring of 1995, Edward Witten proposed his conjecture that these dualities be taken seriously. What if, he suggested, the physical meaning of these theories is that the different approaches to string theory were different ways of mathematically expressing the same underlying theory. Though he did not have the details of that underlying theory mapped out, he suggested the name for it, M-Theory. Part of the idea at the heart of string theory itself is that the four dimensions (3 space dimensions and one time dimension) of our observed universe can be explained by thinking of the universe as having 10 dimensions, but then compactifying 6 of those dimensions up into a sub-microscopic scale that is never observed. Indeed, Witten himself was one of the people who had developed this method back in the early 1980s! He now suggested doing the same thing, by assuming additional dimensions that would allow for the transformations between the different 10-dimensional string theory variants. The enthusiasm of research that sprung out of that meeting, and the attempt to derive the properties of M-Theory, inaugurated an era that some have called the second string theory revolution or second superstring revolution. Properties of M-Theory Though physicists have still not uncovered the secrets of M-Theory, they have identified several properties that the theory would have if Wittens conjecture turns out to be true: 11 dimensions of spacetime  (these extra dimensions should not be confused with the idea in physics of a multiverse of parallel universes)contains strings and branes (originally called membranes)methods of using compactification to explain how the extra dimensions reduce to the four spacetime dimensions we observedualities and identifications within the theory that allow it to reduce to special cases of the string theories known, and ultimately into the physics we observe in our universe What does the M Stand For? It is unclear what the M in M-Theory is meant to stand for, though it is likely that it originally stood for Membrane since these had just been discovered to be a key element of string theory. Witten himself has been enigmatic on the subject, stating that the meaning of the M can be selected for taste. Possibilities include Membrane, Master, Magic, Mystery, and so on. A group of physicists, led in large part by Leonard Susskind, have developed Matrix Theory, which they believe could eventually co-opt the M if it is ever shown to be true. Is M-Theory True? M-Theory, like the variants of string theory, has the problem that it is at present makes no real predictions that can be tested in an attempt to confirm or refute the theory. Many theoretical physicists continue to research this area, but when you have over two decades of research with no solid results, enthusiasm undoubtedly wanes a bit. There is no evidence, however, that strong argues that Wittens M-Theory conjecture is false, either. This may be a case where a failure to disprove the theory, such as by showing it to be internally contradictory or inconsistent in some way, is the best that physicists can hope for at the time being.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Management and leadership essays

Management and leadership essays Much has debated on leadership and management over the years. One-way of differentiating the two terms is to say that leaders "do the right things" and that managers "do things right" (Warren Bennis). Management is an ambiguous term. Lots of literature on traditional management deals with planning, organizing, administration, monitoring, control and short-term horizon of the organizations. Other literatures relates to the soft elements like motivation, inspiration, participation, vision and value-creation in long term perspectives. The later, reflects what we often refer as to leadership (Bass 1994). What differentiates the two elements of the organization? In addition, what are the roles of the leaders? Is the talking point of this paper? Difference between Management and Leadership Although these two terms can be use interchangeably, they are in fact two very different qualities, complete with different personalities and behaviors. By learning whether one is more of a leader than a manager is, he or she will gain insight and self-confidence that comes with knowing more about them. We are going to take a look at different personality style of managers versus leaders, the attitude towards the goals, their basic conceptions of what work entails, their relationships with others, and their sense of self-identity and how it develops. Manager emphasizes rationality and control; they are problem solvers (focusing on goals, resources, organization structure, or people). They often ask question, What problems have to be solved, and what are the best ways to achieve results so that people will continue to contribute to this organization? They are persistent, tough minded, hard working, intelligent, analytical, and tolerant and have good will towards others. (WBC). Leaders are perceive as brilliant, but sometimes lonely, achieve control of themselves before trying to control others. They can...

Sunday, November 3, 2019

The Subjectivity of Storytelling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Subjectivity of Storytelling - Essay Example The Subjectivity of Storytelling Due to this, it is difficult for any reader to distinguish which among the stories are taken from real-life experiences, and which are products of the imagination. The result is a mixture of doubt, entertainment, and intrapersonal questioning towards any narrative included in the book, particularly when the characters involved contradict themselves in the different stories (Heberle 87-8). Mixing facts with fictions is the author’s way of expressing his concept of giving more weight to the act of storytelling than the objective truth it contains. It can therefore be said that the book is not written for the purpose of recounting wartime tales and historical events, but of exploring the ways of narrating stories about war that could either engage or put off readers. It makes readers realize that the subjective viewpoints of the soldiers, the impact that war have in their lives, and their emotional reactions towards different situations are more significant than focusing on the o bjective angles of the story (Heberle 219-21). How to Tell a True War Story This short story backs the very idea mentioned above. O’Brien talks about the ugliness of the war in such a reflective manner that it does not require explanations or factual details anymore. He begins the tale with the statement â€Å"This is true,† (Calloway 249) and even if this statement does not establish the narrative as factual, it makes readers understand that at least the idea is true especially for the one narrating the story. The subjective truth that O’Brien explores on is usually contrasting to the usual glorious and heroic tales associated with wars (King 182). For example, in this particular account, O’Brien talks about Kiley, a soldier who exerts effort to write to Lemon’s sister. Lemon is one of the members of the Alpha Company who died while playing with a smoke grenade (Calloway 249 and King 182). The usual heroic wartime tales would most likely involve a good exchange of letters between the soldier friend and the sister, trading good thoughts and sad memories shared before with the one who died. But in this tale, the sister never responds, and Kiley calls her â€Å"dumb cooze.† (Calloway 249) This paints a picture of ugliness in the circumstances surroundings these soldiers. However, this is the most significant aspect of O’Brien’s narrative. His tale does not try to provoke false sentiments among readers by sugarcoating events and words, but to expose the truth in the event. The story declares how storytelling should be done. There is both a correct and incorrect way to do it. The author dislikes telling stories in a tear-jerking fashion to create an emotional appeal. He also does not agree on its opposite of telling stories in a macho fashion. This particular narrative serves as a guide to the overall style used in the book. O’Brien shares to readers what he perceives to be true by making readers aware of the concept of subjective truth through telling stories that may or may not have actually happened. On a general view, O’Brien teaches the readers that aside from having correct and incorrect methods of telling tales, there are also correct and incorrect ways of perceiving these tales. On a deep political perspective, O’Brien teaches the readers to be aware of the fact that there will always be trustworthy and

Friday, November 1, 2019

Multicultueral issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Multicultueral issues - Essay Example Why? What did you learn about yourself from the assessment on p. 228+ of the text – Four Building Blocks of Diversity-Conscious Leadership? The results of the self-assessment test revealed that I am culturally intelligent as most responses indicate one’s understanding of meeting people from diverse cultural backgrounds. There is therefore strengths in the areas of understanding diversity in culture from the experiences in previous travels in different countries. I met many people while studying in the USA. Among my friends are people with Eastern Europe, Asian, Hispanic backgrounds. I understand that different cultures have different ways of doing things or saying something, and I respect this. I am therefore satisfied with generating a high ranking for my CQ since it is an indicator of greater understanding, awareness, and skills in communicating, both verbally and non-verbally, with people from various cultural backgrounds. Finally, I learned that the four building blocks of diversity-consciousness leadership are understanding, awareness, skills, and commitment; where I have strengths in all three: understandin g, awareness and skills and would need to develop the building block on commitment ensure being a more diversity-conscious leader. In Chapter 1, my knowledge on the topic of diversity was significantly enhanced as it discussed topics that range from diversity, culture, diversity consciousness, and presented a number of different reactions to our changing cultural landscape. As such, my appreciation for different perspectives, preferences, and points of views of people from diverse walks of life was strengthened. I learned to deepen my consciousness in terms of disputing identified myths in diversity and in ways to assimilate in a new culture to prevent conflicts and to enhance communication and interpersonal relationships. 4. Based on what you