At Various Times In The Geological Past Essay

At Various Times In The Geological Past Essay At Various Times In The Geological Past Essay â€Å"At various times in the geological past, many species have become extinct as a result of natural, rather than human, processes. Thus, there is no justification for society to make extraordinary efforts, especially at a great cost in money and jobs, to save endangered species." Extinction of species in the geological past might be due to natural phenomenon but the present is quite different. Although natural phenomenon, like floods, landslides, earthquakes are potent to cause extinction of species, with improvement in technology and advancements in research field humans have become invasive enough to effect the same. For eg. habitat destruction, hunting , use of toxic chemicals, industrialization all account for extinction of species. Also, global warming and acid rains are natural processes which are effected by humans. Global warming leads to climatic and temperature changes and ultimately may cause floods leading to loss of various species. Even Acid rain is adversely affecting many plant species and accelerating their loss. Being the most active and intelligent animal on Earth it’s our responsibility to maintain the ecological equilibrium. Each species is dependent on every other species for its survival. And many of them form important links in the nature’s cycles. If those links are lost the nature’s harmony will be disrupted. One must not forget, Humans themselves rely on other species to fulfill their basic needs as well as extravagant desires. Various products like

The History of APA Writing Style

The History of APA Writing Style Have you been asked to prepare a report or research paper, and its been so long since youve written one, youve forgotten how? Maybe you simply havent ever learned the proper way to create a paper with secondary sources. Perhaps its simply been so long since you wrote a research paper that the rules have changed. Whatever your situation, APA writing is a good, solid place to start. You can create a sound, standard paper using the APA writing style. Using documentation for secondary sources, and some finer points of writing, you can make first-rate papers and reports, every time. The American Psychological Association established a style that it uses in all of its publications. This APA style has been adapted by many colleges, businesses, and institutions because of its stellar documentation system. You can learn the intracicies of APA easily nowadays by finding the best APA formatting software to instantly conform your paper to APA requirements. Using APA writing, you can be sure to have the correct format for all your report needs. From punctuation and abbreviations to construction of tables and presentation of statistics, you can create a paper that is easy to read and looks sharp. Moreover, you can be sure that whoever grades or edits your paper will find little wrong with its format.

Security in Electronic Voting Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Security in Electronic Voting Systems - Essay Example Though electronic voting systems are highly efficient and accurate, security of the systems is of high concern. Security in electronic voting is core in the terms of confidentiality of voter information and prevention of malicious or accidental abuse of electronic voting (Liaw, p 110). Electronic voting systems must be efficiently designed to maintain high confidence levels and integrity in order to eliminate voter manipulation, and the manipulation of the electronic voting at large (Liaw, p 115). The electronic voting system should be capable of separating the data content from its presentation form to avoid replication of the web content. This is ensured by the use of modern technologies in the system design, such as the extensive markup language for the web representation of the data content and the extensive language transformation style sheets for the customization of the data presentation. Electronic Voting Security Requirements Confidentiality: The electronic system must be ap propriately designed to ensure the confidentiality of voters’ personal information. ... Authentication: The system must ensure that the voter is efficiently identified, as per the registration database, to be entitled to and allowed to vote. Appropriate identification documents may be required for clarification of voter identity (Bungale & Sridhar, p2). The voter must identify him/herself as per the system’s voter registry to be able to vote, and hence an elimination of fraudulent voting and manipulation of the electronic voting (Bungale & Sridhar, p2). Anonymity: On the other hand, the electronic voting system must also ensure that votes are not associated or identifiable with voter identity. The system should also be non-coercible, that is, voters should not be able to prove to others on how they voted. This eliminates vote selling and/or coercion (Bungale & Sridhar, p2). Verifiability: The electronic voting system should be able to efficiently verify voters for voting, after identification. Additionally, the system should also be able to verify the results to ensure accuracy, including the number of voters who participated and the total number of votes cast. The system should be reliable and robust to eliminate the loss of votes, despite any technical failures such as loss of network communication (Bungale & Sridhar, p2). Cryptographic Chimes of an Electronic Voting System The cryptographic voting protocols ensure and facilitate verifiable voting without fundamentally trusting any software in the voting system. However, cryptographic protocols may cause challenges to the voting system, such as denial of service, compromise on voter confidentiality and creation of subliminal channels in the encrypted ballot. In addition to analyzing the

The Crusades Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The Crusades - Essay Example They left for Acre in 1217, and joined John of Brienne, ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Hugh I of Cyprus, and Prince Bohemund IV of Antioch to fight against the Ayyubids in Syria" (Crusade, Wikipedia). The campaign started with seizes of Damietta, in June, 1218 and they gained little success with conquering one tower outside the city on 25th August. But then epidemic swept through the crusader's camp and one of the many casualties was Robert of Couron. But by November the crusaders were able to capture the sultan's port under Francis of Assisi. He tried to negotiate with the sultan numerous times but failed. Slowly but surely the crusaders were gaining footholds in their campaign and ultimately seized Cairo. But their march to Cairo was proved to be disastrous as it was the flooding season of the Nile and "with supplies dwindling, a forced retreat began, culminating in a night attack by Al-Kamil that resulted in a great number of crusader losses and eventually the surrender of the army by Pelagius. The terms of this surrender meant the relinquishing of Damietta to Al-Kamil and an 8 year peace agreement with Europe in return for the original piece of the cross and the prisoners held from the failed advance on Cairo". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Crusade) The Sixth Crusade: The Emperor Frederick II of Germany had taken the crusading vow when he was young during his coronation ceremonies. And now it was his turn to salvage the holy land. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was ruled by John of Brienne who was actually had been acting as king. Fredric married his daughter Yolanda and started his campaign in 1228. Though Fredrick was barred considerably with internal conspiracies and movements he was able to force Al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt into negotiation thereby winning the possession of Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa, Bethlehem, and all of Jerusalem except the Dome of the Rock in February 18, 1229. Fredrick was not allowed to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, destroyed by Al-Mu'azzam, nephew of Saladin, in 1217 but he entered in to the city victorious and was crowned king on March 18th. But due to constant restraints by the conspirators back home Fredrick left Jerusalem in May and in 1244 when the truce ended Jerusalem was taken by the Mamluks. The Seventh Crusade: The Seventh Crusade was started by King Louis IX of France. For his campaign to recover the holy land King Louis IX became known as Saint Louis later in his life. Some scholars believe that this title was given to him simply because of his great devotion to God and not for his crusade campaign. The Mamluks took possession of Jerusalem in 1244. Louis felt it was his duty to announce his version of Crusade. King Louis IX of

Corporate Finance Assignment ( Questions ) Essay

Corporate Finance Assignment ( Questions ) - Essay Example The Enron scandal and Arthur Anderson case has been the witness of this testimony. If the interest of organisation and individuals are not aligned then there are classical cases like Arthur Anderson and Enron comes up in the public world. This case tries to highlight how a corporation like Arthur Anderson came to such demise. 80 years of legendary innovative history in Corporate America that was created by Arthur Anderson was washed up in a matter of 8 years. Internal divisions came up in the company and the world started to look at Corporate America with shame. To align the principal agent theory in practice, Sarbanes Oxley came into operation in 2002. The act tried to align the best interest of the shareholders and the agent i.e. Management in the same mould. The objective of the act was to reduce the ever growing gap between the two of the main functions of the organisation. There are two main functions of any organisation which decide the fate of the organisation as a whole. The first one of them is the shareholders (Principals) who elect the Management (agent) to represent them as the owner of the company. The objective of the principal is to maximise shareholders wealth while that of Management can be the same or it can be different also. If the objectives are aligned by using good compensation strategy and urging responsibilities over the management then agency cost of the company will be reduced. If that is not the case agency cost will always increase. With this background let us have a look at the classic case of Arthur Anderson. Management of the company which was looking after the AA division of the company was less compensated compared to their counterparts in AC. This is itself a contradiction to the principal agent theory. Arthur Anderson has grown from the roots as a major auditor and the consulting division came into picture very late when they started automating the book keeping systems. AC was very successful and the compensation was not in a lignment with the kind of success they achieved. Hence the companies were separated and consulting division was now separate from auditing division. After the separation AC kept growing fast with their own set of compensation strategy while AA started facing challenges. This challenges are advent from the number of lawsuits AA faced during 1990s and 2000. Employees at AA were resenting and finding other ways to get paid and rope in extra money for the organisation and themselves. This is when they started realigning shareholders interest with theirs. This was visible in the biggest corporate scandal of America- Enron. Enron was the worst corporate scandal which shook American Corporation. Auditors at Arthur Anderson signed the financial statements of Enron without cross checking the stated facts. This was done just to rope in extra money from this big ticket client. Somewhere this is an also a case where organizational structure should be questioned. The reason for this is because f or a big ticket client like Enron, Arthur Anderson compromised its corporate hierarchy. They allowed their premier groups to go and reside at the client’s headquarter. There was no proper check on what was happening within employees and the client. 2- (Goal of financial Management )Why is the goal of financial management to maximize the current share price of the company‘s stock? In other words, why isn’

The Process Of Hematopoiesis And How Its Controlled Biology Essay

The Process Of Hematopoiesis And How Its Controlled Biology Essay In humoral mediated response of the immune system, the clonal proliferation results into antibody secreting plasma cells and memory B-cells. The primary response has a lag of about 5-7 days during which the B-cells becomes activated by the antigen and T-helper cells. During the lag period, differentiation and proliferation of B-cells takes place into plasma cells. Antibody level begins to increase and reaches its peak at about day 14 and the drop begins once the plasma cells die. In the secondary response, clonal expansion of memory B-cells takes place and the antibody levels are much higher. These memory cells respond more rapidly to the antigen. Moreover, since many memory cells are present for the primary response, the number of plasma cells generated are more in the secondary response and the antibody levels are higher [2].   3.Briefly describe the functions of the following cells of the immune system; dendritic cells; macrophages; neutrophils; T helper cells. Ans) Dendritic Cell These cells resemble the dendrites of the nerve cells and have a long membrane extensions. They can be either present on the epidermis (skin) and mucous membranes (langehans cell) ; heart , lungs, kidney, GI tract (interstital dendritic cell) ; T-cell are of secondary lymphoid and thymic medulla ( Interdigitating dendritic cell) and in blood and lymph (circulating dendritic cell). They represent high levels of class II MHC molecules. Dendritic cells are APCs. They engulf the antigen by phagocytosis/endocytosis and carry it to the various lymphoid organs where they represent the antigen to T lymphocytes [2].    Macrophages They arise from monocytes. It functions as a scavenger that ingest debris, damaged and dying cells as well as foreign organism. They either contain class II MHC molecules or the co-stimulatory B7 membrane molecules. Once the foreign organism is inside the macrophage, they are either killed by lysosomal enzymes or by O2 free radicals which is released by phagosomes[1].   Neutrophils They are active phagocytic cells and always reach the site of inflammation. The foreign body is killed by the various lytic and bactericidal substances which are present within the primary and secondary granules. They employ both O2 dependent and O2 independent pathway to generate antimicrobial substances. It is better than macrophage since they exhibit larger respiratory burst and express higher level of defensins [2].   T-helper cells-   T-cells are formed in the bone marrow but mature in the thymus. There are two types of T-cells- TH and TC .TH cells have CD4 whereas TC has CD8. The TH cells gets activated when the cell recognizes and interacts with an antigen. After it is activated, it forms into an effector cell and secretes growth factors known as cytokines. These cytokines play an important role in activating B cells, Tc cells, macrophages and elicits an immune response. Different types of immune response occurs due to different types of cytokines[2].   4) What are the two fundamental approaches to drug discovery? Ans) The two approaches to drug discovery are rational drug design and molecular diversity. Rational drug design The drugs work in the body by interacting with the receptor and they alter the activities in such a way that it brings about a betterment of the body. This method uses the information about structure of the drug receptor or create a candidate drug. The 3-D structure of the protein can be determined using methods such as X-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The researchers in the pharmaceutical industry can use whatever information is available on the databases and find a chemical compound which can react with the receptor and can be tested in the labs. If the interacting compound cannot be found then other programmes can be used to find the compounds with similar properties to known ligands. This method is done to avoid the expenses. The first drug produced by this method is Relenza which is used to treat influenza. The other drugs developed to treat HIV infections are Ritonivir and Indinavir [3]. Molecular diversity The strategy applied in molecular diversity is the isolation of bioactive molecules molecular libraries such as nucleic acids, amino acids and small organic molecules. The main goal is to isolate molecules from libraries of chemical compounds or proteins and study the structure or shape of their target with the binding with affinity and specificity. The anti-inflammatory mAb Humira is a biolgic isolated from molecular diversity.   5. How does the flu virus infect cells? Give a brief overview of how the flu drug relenza was discovered. (Note :   Relenza is not as biologic but a small molecule drug). Ans) Influenza viral particles are surrounded by an outer envelope a lipid bilayer which they acquire from the plasma membrane of the infected host cell during the process by budding. In the envelope the two glycoproteins which are present are Hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). HA is responsible for attaching the virus to the host cell. HA is a trimer and it binds to the sialic acid groups on host cell glycoproteins and glycolipids by conserving the amino acid sequence to form a small groove in the HA molecule. Neuraminidase cleaves N-acetylneuraminic (sialic) acid from the viral glycoproteins and the host cell membrane glycoproteins. This facilitates viral budding from the infected host cell. Once the virus is inside the host cell, the HA binds to the walls of the endosome (acidic nature) because of which the viral coating collapses. Within the envelope, matrix protein surrounds the nucleocapsid   which consist of 8 different strands of single stranded (ssRNA) and are ass ociated with protein and RNA polymerase. Once inside the cell, the RNA strand encodes one or more different influenza proteins. Many copies of the virus are made in the nucleus and then it moves to the cytoplasm to form viral proteins including HA and NA. The new viruses which are formed move out of the cell by forming buds and moving out against the plasma membrane[2].   Relenza This drug is created by using rational design. The discovery was funded by the Australian biotech company Biota. The structure of neuraminidase was known by X-ray crystallography. A competitive inhibitor which is a sialic acid analogue, is an inhibitor of neuraminidase. The general function of neuraminidase is that it cleaves sialic acid from the virus and the cell surface and prevent clumping and allows the virus to spread to other cells. Relenza induces clumping and reduces viral spreading. 6.What is meant by pharmacogenomics and how might pharmacogenomics be applied to drug development in the future? What is an example of a biologic where patient genetic profiling is used to evaluate the suitability of the patient for therapy? Ans) Pharmacogenomic is the study of the roles of genetic variation in the response to drugs. It includes information from genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and other disciplines such as biochemistry and toxicology in order to synthesize newer and safer drugs. As the sequences of all our genes and the protein they encode for are determined, this will reveal many new targets for drug actions. It also reveals polymorphism of enzymes and proteins related to drug metabolism, action and toxicity DNA probes which are capable of detecting them will be synthesized, permitting screening of individuals for potentially harmful polymorphism prior to the start of the therapy. As the structures of relevant proteins and their polymorphism are revealed, model building and other technique will permit the design of drugs that take into account both the normal protein targets and their polymorphism. In simple words, the drugs will be tailor-made for individuals based on their genetic profiles[4]. Th is is the application of pharmacogenomics in drug development. The example where genetic profiling is used to evaluate the suitability of the patient is ERBB2 is a 185 kDa tyrosine kinase receptor over expressed in approximately 25-30% of human breast cancer .   7. Give an example where over expression of a cytokine results in a disease state. What biologics, if any, have been developed to treat this disease state? Ans)   Rheumatoid arthritis is a an inflammatory disease. The major symptom is chronic inflammation of the joints including shoulders, ankles, elbows and knees. It is characterized by the inflammation of the synovium along with the the destruction of the joint cartilage and bone. The over expression of cytokines such as TNF, IL-1, IL-8, IFN ÃŽ ³ have been detected in the synovial fluid. Cytokines such as TNF activate the synovial cells which produce proteolytic enzyme such as collagenase which leads to the destruction of tendons, ligaments and cartilage. The cytokines are produced due to the activity of T cell and macrophage activation.   A number of biologics have been approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis[5]. They are cimzia, enbrel, humira, kineret, orencia, remicade, rituxan and simponi[6].    Rituxan Rituximab is sold under the trade name Rituxan. Rituxan is a chimeric monoclonal antibody against the protein CD20 which is found on the surface of B cells. Rituxan when given in combination with methotrexate is given to adult patients with minor to acute conditions who had an inadequate response to one or more TNF antagonist therapies. The side effect of rituxan is that patients show hypertension, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, pyrexia etc.[7] .   8. Interferons are used as biologics to treat viral infections. How does interferon induce the anti-viral state in cells? Ans) Interferons are antiviral and show their effect in a signaling pathway. There are two types of interferons, type I and type II. IFN-I is produced by cells under appropriate conditions including IFN-ÃŽ ±/ÃŽ ². IFN-II are produced by a few number of cells such as NK cells, T-helper cells and dendritic cells. IFN-II includes IFN-ÃŽ ³. IFN-I plays an important role in the innate antiviral response. IFN-ÃŽ ±/ÃŽ ²is responsible for inducing the anti-viral activity by binding to IFN receptor on the cell surface, which leads to activation of receptor-associated JAKs (Janus Kinase) such as JAK-1 and TYK-2. This activates the STATs (signal transducer and activator of transcription) due to phosphorylation which leads to the formation of ISG factor (ISGF)-3 complex which consists of STAT-1 and -2 and p48. After phosphorylation at Tyr701 and 692 of IFN receptors by IFN-1, STAT-1, and -2, there is formation of a heterodimer which translocates to the nucleus and forms an association with p48(I RF-9).   The complex (STAT-1 and -2 and IRF-9) is called as ISGF-3 and it associates with ISREs to activate ISGs. The 3 antiviral proteins involved in IFN-mediated inhibition of virus infection are : 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Rnase L pathway which degrades viral RNAs and then activates dsRNA. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   PKR inhibits mRNA translation by phosphorylating translation initiation factor 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mx proteins possessing GTPase activity which restricts virus infection at many stages such as primary transcription, transcription and intracellular trafficking of viral proteins or genomes. Thus, interferons induce the anti-viral state in cells[8].

Lowering Testing Standards in Third World Countries Essay -- HIV AIDS

Lowering Testing Standards in Third World Countries ABSTRACT: Recently, Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group (PCHRG), charged the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) with sponsoring fifteen immoral HIV studies in sub-Saharan Africa. The trials are being conducted to determine if certain alternate medical procedures or a short course of treatment with AZT, zidovudine or other drugs prevent some mother-child HIV transmissions. (1) Since the control group receives only placebos rather than AZT, Wolfe claims that the tests give suboptimal treatment that will result in more children contracting HIV and AIDS. (2) Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and others are calling for an immediate cessation of these important experiments. Public Citizen raises an important moral question. (3) Is it morally permissible to lower testing standards for the Third World? Unlike PCHRG, I contend that the answer to this question is yes, if the trials meet certain conditions. I e xplain both the First Best and Second Best Method (FBM and SBM, respectively) of testing new drugs and then compare the two. Next, I show the FBM’s impracticality in developing countries releases researchers from the moral obligation to use it. I then propose a new set of criteria — the Second Best Criteria (SBC) — that show if a test is moral or not. Finally, I argue that imposing a developed country’s moral standards for clinical trials in the Third World is immorally insensitive to the needs and conditions present in the latter area. Section 1 In clinical trials there are two different standard protocols for testing new drugs. The First Best Method tests the effects of a known drug (a benchmark), rathe... ...Biotechnology, vol. 11, pp. 135-143. Pederson, Daniel and Eric Larson, "Too Poor to Treat" Newsweek, 28 July 1997, p. 60. Rath, Richard, "Horton Hears the W.H.O." Dissonance, AIDS and Africa Resource page, 3 June 1996, http:/www.way.net/dissonance/nyrb_ltr.html, pp. 1-3. UNAIDS "HIV/AIDS: The Global Epidemic", Press Release, 28 November 1996, http:/www.us.unaids.org/highband/document/epidemic/situat96.html, pp. 1-15. —— "HIV/AIDS epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa", 3 July 1997, http:/www.hiv.unaids.org/unaids/press/factafr.htm, pp. 1-3. —— "UNAIDS Announces New Clinical Trials for the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV", Press Release, 9 July 1996, http:/www.hiv.unaids.org/unaids/press/mtctpren.html, pp. 1-2 No Author Listed: "AIDS in Africa", The Guide, 9 May 1996, http://www.guidemag.com/newsslant/aids.africa.html. pp.1-2