Emerging Infectious Diseases Essay Example for Free

Emerging Infectious Diseases Essay Emerging infectious diseases are diseases that are new or changing, and are increasing, or have the potential to increase in incidence in the near future. (Pearson, Microbiology) Some important contributing factors to the development of EIDs are evolutionary changes in existing organisms, the movement of previously identified diseases to new geographic locations and populations by modern transportation, and increased human exposure to previously undocumented, uncommon infectious agents in areas of ecological growth or change. This includes previously uninhabited areas that may be undergoing deforestation or construction. EIDs also emerge as a result of resistance, and in recent years, an unusually high incidence of EIDs has drawn the attention of the global population in reaction to unsatisfactory health care facilities and geographic locations with tendency toward breakdown of public sanitation measures. (Pearson, Microbiology) Avian Influenza A (H1N1), or bird flu, became a subject of global attention in 2003 when it caused he death of millions of poultry and 24 humans in eight countries in central and south Asia. Avian Influenza A is transmitted by birds around the world, however, certain wild birds, particularly waterfowl, do not get sick but instead carry the virus in their intestines and release it through their excretions. Most frequently, wild birds spread influenza to domesticated birds and poultry farms, where the virus causes death. Most avian influenza viruses actually do not naturally cause disease in humans. However, some Influenza strains, like Avian Influenza A, are zoonotic, meaning that they can infect humans and cause disease possibly resulting in death. World Health Organization) The NS1 protein of the influenza virus is the most critical virulence factor that allows it to antagonize the host’s antiviral response. In doing this it employs several mechanisms, including the binding and sequestration of double-stranded RNA. The structure of full-length NS1 protein has now been identified using samples from a virulent H5N1 avian influenza virus strain. â€Å"The molecules RNA binding domain displays noticeable differences when it is compared to that of the non-H5N1 strains, whereas the effector domain is significantly altered. The two domains interact in such a way as to form tubules that may act to sequester dsRNA, allowing the virus to evade the hosts innate immune response. † (International Weekly Journal of Science) The following groups od individuals are at an increased risk for contraction Avian Influenza A: Farmers and others factory farm workers who handle poultry, Travelers who may be visiting visiting affected countries during an outbreak, Those who touch an infected bird, or Those who consume raw or undercooked poultry products from birds infected with the disease. Health care workers may also be at an increased risk of contracting the bird flu from an infected patient. (NYT Heath Guide) The avian flu virus (H5N1) has been proven to survive in the environment without the help of a human or animal host for long periods of time. Infection is possible simply by touching contaminated surfaces. Birds who were infected with Avian Influenza A can continue to foster the virus and release it in their excretions for as long as 10 days, and are still a risk after death. NYT Health Guide) Infection with the H5N1 virus in humans causes flu-like symptoms that often progress quickly to more adverse complications such as Acute Respiratory Distress, Organ failure, pneumonia, sepsis or death. The initial onset of symptoms may include cough, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, unusually high fever, headache; muscle aches, a runny nose or a sore throat. NYT Health Guide) Tests to verify Avian Influenza in an individual exist, but are currently not widely available to the public. If you are unable to receive a preliminary test which yields results in four hours, your physician may also conduct the following tests: Auscultation, to detect abnormal breathing and lung function, a chest x-ray, a nasopharyngeal culture and blood work, all to determine the presence of the virus in an individual based on their bodily immune functions. (World Health Organization) Many strains of the influenza virus have become resistant to the effects of the antiviral drugs that were previously being used to treat them. Health officials are now recommending the use of Oseltamivir, known as Tamiflu and possibly Zanamivir, known as Relenza as the newest, most helpful pharmaceutical treatment options. (Mayo Clinic) These drugs must be taken within forty-eight hours after the appearance of symptoms in order to be effective, but this may prove as a roblem in the vent of a global outbreak. Because of the short supply, its not entirely clear how Influenza drugs would be distributed and administered if there were an epidemic of global proportions. In terms of prevention, physicians recommend that all healthy patients receive an influenza shot (commonly called a â€Å"flu shot†) to reduce the likelihood of an existing avian flu virus mixing with a human flu virus, which would create a new virus that may easily spread and cause an epidemic. The U. S.  Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine to protect humans from the avian flu, and experts say that the vaccine could be used if the current H5N1 virus began spreading between humans. (NYT Health Guide) Human infections with Avian Influenza viruses detected since 1997 have not yet resulted in sustained human- to-human transmission. However, because Influenza Viruses have the potential to mutate and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for inter-human transmission is extremely important.

Electrodiagnostic Changes in Patient With Multiple Sclerosis

Electrodiagnostic Changes in Patient With Multiple Sclerosis Abstract Although demyelination along the axons is the main manifestation of Multiple sclerosis (MS), peripheral nervous system (PNS) could be affected potentially too. In some studies PNS involvement is estimated to be more than 50 percent in MS patients. Accordingly, objective tests to confirm the severity of PNS involvement might be crucial in patients management. Modern technological advances lead to innovation of computerized electrodiagnostic (EDX) techniques in recent years. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) provide reliable data about neuropathies. Although the frequency of PNS involvement varies in different population of MS patients, recognizing clinical and subclinical PNS impairments in MS patients is important for the treatment. Introduction Among the central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating disorders, multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease which is the most common form of neurologic impairments in young adults (1). Myelin destruction is the main pathophysiology of MS which is an immune-mediated process and leads to plaque formation in patients` central nervous system (2). MS symptoms evaluation is based on musculoskeletal dysfunction and stiffness. MS disease onset is almost in the third or fourth decade of patient’s life. It is estimated that over 2 million people suffer from MS all around the world and half of the MS global population live in Europe (3). The International Panel on the diagnosis of MS defined the diagnostic criteria of MS in 2000 which was revised in 2010(4, 5). Although demyelination along the axons is the main manifestation of MS, peripheral nervous system (PNS) could be affected potentially in MS. PNS axonal destruction might occur in a considerable percent of MS patients (6). Changes in nerve conduction velocity (NCV) parameters could demonstrate MS by electrodiagnostic assessment of peripheral nerve. About 5% of MS patients develop peripheral nerve impairment and changes in NCV (7). PNS involvement in MS might be associated with malnutrition or drug toxicity, so its diagnosis is important in patient with MS. Pathology studies about MS in recent years have shown that gray matter involvement and brain atrophy might happen in the early stages of the disease in addition to white matter demyelination (8). In Pogorzelski et al. study the rate of nerve impairment in MS patients PNS is estimated to be 74.2% (9). Warabi, et al. demonstrated that 10.3% of MS patients revealed changes in NCV and about half of the patients with PNS disorders might have two involved nerves (10). MS diagnosis has three parts; patients history and information, clinical, and paraclinical examinations. These steps could raise the accuracy of diagnosis and result in narrowing the differential diagnosis (3). In recent decades peripheral and generalized neuropathies have become common; neurological examinations in neuropathies are essential, but not enough and do not have sufficient diagnostic accuracy. Accordingly, objective tests that could confirm the severity of neuropathies might be crucial in patients` management. Modern technological advances lead to innovation of computerized electrodiagnostic (EDX) tools in recent years. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) provide reliable data about neuropathies (10). Motor nerve conduction examinations have been performed on a mixed nerve with motor and sensory axons. In these types of studies stimulations have been conducted on a specific part in each course (11). Depolarization induced with electrical pulse has produced action potentials in axons. Induced evoked potentials in motor axons move into distal and proximal direction from the stimulus point (12). Action potentials would be transferred from neuromuscular junctions in milliseconds all over the muscular fibers. These electrical activities along muscles fibers have been detected as compound muscle action potential (CMAP) (13). Various variables could be measured from CAMP such as latency, amplitude, area under the curve, duration, and motor conduction velocity. By measuring the amplitude and area of CAMP, the frequency of induced action potentials in muscle`s fibers could be estimated and thereby count of axons would be stimulated (14). Discussion There are some suggestive nerve conduction criteria for axonal distraction, like decreased distal evoked CMAP or SNAP; proximal reductions might happen due to demyelination impairments (15). Form different studies it can be concluded that in most of the axonal and demyelinating polyneuropathies there is statistical correlation between slow conduction in motor or sensory nerves and amplitude reduction (16). SNAP/CMAP amplitude in some cases could distinct between axonal and demyelinating polyneuropathies (12). In Table 1 elctrodiagnostic assessment of PNS in MS patients is shown. Table 1: Elctrodiagnostic assessment of peripheral nervous system in MS patients *Expanded Disability Status Scale In various studies, elctrodiagnostic tests have been established as reliable methods to detect the subclinical peripheral nerve conduction disorders. Significant amplitude F-wave disturbance might be related with hand spasticity in SP.MS (22). Some studies demonstrated the presentation of PNS involvement in MS as sensory abnormalities, whereas others consist on both sensory and motor disorders. It seems that peripheral neuropathy in MS affects motor neurons particularly and peripheral abnormalities might be result from central demyelination (18). On the other hand the role of peripheral demyelination events in MS peripheral signs and symptoms has not been identified completely. Number of factors could explain the changes in nerve stimulation responses in MS patients. Delayed recovery cycle might lead to impairment in supernormality. Gender, age, temperature, and immunomodulatory treatments in MS might have an impact on nerve stimulation responses. Na+/K+ ATPase pump dysfunction result from metabolic changes could lead to axonal membrane depolarization and recovery cycle disturbance. Change in temperature has a great impact on sodium channel kinetics and impress the action potential duration and amplitude (19). In feys, et al. study sensory conduction velocity was normalized after cooling, but motor conduction velocity was remained impaired after 20 minutes (23). Another theory for PNS involvement in MS is antigenic cross-reactivity, which might happen due to peripheral demyelination. It is obvious that gross demyelination in PNS does not occur in MS, and peripheral myelin has structural impairment in most cases and this could lead to create a resistant zone and intermodal leakage. Anti chondroitin sulphatase antibody, anti myelin associated glycoprotein antibody, and anti gangliosides antibody have been described in PNS involvement in MS (21). Electrodiagnostic tests for PNS involvement in MS patients could find evidence of minor PNS or fiber pathology in early stages (22). Although PNS involvement frequency in MS varies in different population, recognizing clinical and subclinical PNS impairments in MS patient is important.

Business process management (BPM)

Business process management (BPM) Literature Review 2.1 Definitions 2.1.1 What is Business Process Management? Business Process Management (BPM) was influenced by concepts and technologies from business administration and computer science. BPM had its root in process-oriented trends and was treated as a management philosophy since mid 1990s (James F. Chang, 2006; Mathias Weske, 2007). Studies investigating BPM had been carried out several management principles and practices were associated. Most of these concepts were identical to Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Total Quality Management (TQM) concepts. In the book Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures, Mathias Weske had quoted from Davenport, who defined business process as: a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome for a particular customer or market. And a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end, and clearly identified inputs and outputs. However, Mathias Weske (2007) had adopted definition as: A business process consists of a set of activities that are performed in coordination in an organizational and technical environment. These activities come together to make a business goal became achievable. Every single business process is performed by a single company, but it may interact with business processes performed by other companies. From the business process definition, Mathias Weske (2007) had defined the concept of BPM as: Business process management includes concepts, methods, and techniques to support the design, administration, configuration, enactment, and analysis of business processes. The basis of BPM had explicit representation of business process with their activities and execution constraints between them. When BPM defined, people could analysis, improvement and enactment with BPM. In traditionally, business process had manually executed as usual by knowledge personnel, regulations of company, and installed procedures. Nowadays, company had more additional benefits by apply Information Technology like Business Process Management System (BPMS) when coordinating activities involved by business process. 2.1.2 What is Business Process Management System (BPMS)? According to definition of James F. Chang (2006), BPMS is a new class of software that allows organizations to devise process-centric information technology solutions. Process-centric means BPMS solutions are able to integrate people, systems, and data. BPM fills the gap between the wide-open, unstructured world of collaboration and the precise transaction processing of enterprise applications. It has become widely realized that important enterprise processes routinely cross the boundaries of enterprise applications. Processes like order-to-cash or procure-to-pay may involve several enterprise applications such as taking orders in CRM, ERP creating invoices and purchase orders, and managing production and fulfilment in SCM. BPM, especially in combination with services that can move data in and out of enterprise applications and other information sources provide a way to clear define, manage, and automate processes that span enterprise applications. BPM also allows processes that bring in people and systems from outside the company to the defined process. In this way, BPM supports processes that take place across an extended business network. The personalities of processes currently automated by BPM are as follows: They are more structured than the loose collaboration based on email and other such mechanisms They are more flexible than the transactional processes in enterprise applications They are wider in scope than processes in enterprise applications, crossing both application and company boundaries Their flow is explicitly defined, managed, and automated 2.1.3 What enabling standards and technology support BPMS? When evaluating and adopting BPM technology, two standards are referenced over and over: BPMN and BPEL. To fully understand what BPM technology does, it is important to understand the role of these and other standards, which provide a common infrastructure for process modeling and automation. Business process modeling notation (BPMN) is a standard for the visual definition of business processes. Most of the modern tools for business process modeling support BPMN or are based on it. BPMN defines the primitive constructs that are used to represent business processes, such as starting points, ending points, process steps, decision points, and so on. Business process execution language (BPEL) is a standard for expressing the steps required to execute a business process by invoking a series of web services. BPEL is more like a programming language for carrying out a business process than a modeling system for describing the process flow. Web services technology standards are vital to BPM because they enable web services to communicate with enterprise applications and other systems using appropriate mechanisms for security, self-discovery, versioning, and other important matters. Industry standards for web services define specific sets of services that are used to automate communication between two companies in a particular industry. BPMS frequently makes use of such web services when creating systems that cross company boundaries and incorporate partner companies into a process. 2.1.4 What is Business Process Modelling? Business process modelling is the art of describing how work is done in a company at the appropriate level to achieve the desired communication. The typical goals of business process modelling are to capture a process so that it can be better understood and improved or to describe a process in detail and associate it with technology so that it can be automated. A business process model in general is simply a description of a business process. Visual business models are description of the steps that take place during a process and frequently represent in flowcharts such as the one shown in Figure 3, although other forms of models such as numerical equations or systematic procedures are also sometimes used. 2.2 Main functions of BPMS Here is a list of the most common components and management mechanisms that are involved in application assembly. Web services. BPM needs SOA. The act of creating executable business process models is the start of creating new applications to help automate and support business processes. To allow each business process step to interact with the world, web services are needed to create a two-way communication with enterprise applications and to reach out to other sources of information and functionality on the Web. Business rules. Process steps can involve the application of sets of business rules that determine some sort of result, based on the inputs passed in and the rules in effect. Rules could be used to determine the routing of a document, the credit score of an individual, or a suggestion for a product to upsell. User interfaces. When process steps need to interact with people to collect information or to define a task that must be performed manually, a user interface is needed. In this way, a user interface is a component that is included in the set of parts that are assembled into a working application by the BPM process automation technology. User interface components can be generated automatically, based on interactions implied by web services, business rules, or data required by process steps. User interface components can also be created by users and developers using a variety of tools. Modeling and orchestration tools. Modeling and orchestration tools are used at many different levels of a BPMS. The center of a BPMS is usually an environment for modeling used to define business process models or the orchestration of services. Modeling can be used to create services and user interfaces. Modeling also can be used to define the integration and mapping of data from one source to another. Simulation tools. In order to understand the flow of work through a proposed business process, simulation tools may be employed. Assumptions are made about the amount of inputs to each process and the amount of time it takes to perform each process step. In this way bottlenecks or key areas for optimization can be found. These key areas can be closely monitored to find problems early on in implementations or to confirm the validity of assumptions. Model and process repositories. When models are created, they must be stored in repositories, which allow them to be accessed and shared by large groups of people. In any large program of BPM adoption, some processes are used over and over. These process components must be stored in a central location and reused in other business process models. Web services repositories. To link business process steps and user interfaces to the invocation of services, it is important to be able to find services, understand what they do, and identify the data sent and retrieved through them. Web services repositories contain information about the interfaces and functionality of the services and the underlying applications the services are connected to at runtime. Integration tools. It is not uncommon for a business process to require two systems to work together in specific ways. Perhaps a purchase order must be transferred from the CRM application to ERP. Frequently, the BPMS does not contain the capability to perform such integration and so other integration tools must be used to create the needed functionality. The BPM tools then invoke a service that performs the integration defined by the integration tools. In this way, specific integrations become components used by BPM technology. Centralized task management. One of the most important transitions in a business process model occurs when a software application asks a person to perform a task. It is vital that the task to be performed be adequately described and that the results of performing the task be recorded. A single user may be getting requests to perform tasks from many different business process applications. Centralized task management components create a single inbox into which all requests from business process applications are sent, which streamlines monitoring and executing those tasks. Process and activity monitoring tools. Once an application has been created using a BPMS, it is important to monitor the business process model during execution. By monitoring the activity of specific steps, it is possible to monitor not only the technological activity of the system such as database reads and writes or network traffic, but also the progress of the business process, that is, number of purchase orders created or customer service requests handled. Systems created based on business process models take a large step toward achieving the promise of the field of business activity monitoring, complex event processing, predictive analytics, and simulations. These main functions would provide the basis for evaluation of BPMS platforms. 2.3 BPMS platforms evaluation From the main functions of BPMS, the author has evaluated four platforms to support the implementation stage. These four platforms were Drools 5, jBPM 4.3, OSWorkflow 2.8, and ARIS. The critical evaluation framework has been discussed in the main functions of BPMS within this chapter. The evaluation framework included: Web services Business rules User Interface Widgets Modelling and Orchestration tools Simulation tools Model and process repositories Web service repositories Integration tools Centralized task management Process and activity monitor tools The marking guidance has included at appendices. The guidance provided descriptions for each mark from 0 to 10.The investigation of BPMS has marked these platforms base on the evaluation framework and marking guidance then ploted to charts. 2.3.1 Drools 5 Business Logic Integration Platform Drools was a open-source business rule management system (BRMS) with a forward chaining inference based rules engine, more correctly known as a production rule system, using an enhanced implementation of the Rete algorithm. Adapting Rete to an object-oriented interface allows for more natural expression of business rules with regards to business objects. Drools is written in Java, but able to run on Java and .NET. Drools has been supported by JBoss since 2005 and renamed to JBoss Rules. Drools 5 have been released on May 2009. The main goals of this release were introducing Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine (in Fusion module) and workflow capabilities (in Flow module). On the release of Drools 5, it has changed name from Business Rule Management System (BRMS) to Business Logic integration Platform (BLiP) with modules: Drools Guvnor (BRMS/BPMS) Drools Expert (rule engine) Drools Flow (process/workflow) Drools Fusion (event processing/temporal reasoning) Advantages: The platforms had Drools Expert; it was an excellent rule engine, developed as the first-class module in mind. The platform received ten marks for business rule function because it had long time development and matured enough for production environment. Drools Guvnor combined with Drools plug-in on Eclipse were outstanding at BRMS and editor. The combination help user easily draw; manage models on both Web and desktop IDE (integrated develop environment). It helped the platform received eight marks for modelling tools, nine marks for model repository, and eight marks for centralized task management. Disadvantages: The documentation of platform did not have any mention about web service on whole platform. That meant the platform did not support web service either BPEL standard. According to the official user guide at Drools website, the integration ability with OpenBravo ERP and OSWorkflow were still under developing at time this report conducted. The platform received one mark for integration function. 2.3.2 jBPM 4.3 jBPM is a platform for executable process languages ranging from business process management (BPM) over workflow to service orchestration. jBPM supports three different process languages. Each one is targeted towards a specific function and environment. *jBDL*BPEL*Pageflow jBPM builds all these process languages natively on top of a single technology: the Process Virtual Machine (PVM). Even as the BPM industry converges towards new standards, the investment in jBPM is protected; the PVM foundation will remain stable. Advantages: The supporting of BPEL has gave jBPM a good marks (eight) at web service function. Support BPEL has also meant this platform good in integration with legacy systems. The ability of generate form for human interaction workflow was the good function that included in jBPM. This ability contributed seven marks for user interface widget function. Modelling, repositories, and centralized task management were the advantages of jBPM. This platform developed some plug-in for Eclipse to create the Graphical Process Designer. This approach gave the power of Eclipse to business process on both graphical modelling and debugging. Disadvantages: The investigation shown the weakness of jBPM was the lacking of simulation tools. Simulation tools helped process designer in bottle-neck solving. The simulation function of jBPM was under developing at time of this report conducted. 2.3.3 OSWorkflow 2.8 OSWorkflow is a mature open-source Java workflow engine. It is mainly aimed at the programmer and not an end user or business analyst. For the end user or business analyst, it includes a user-friendly visual workflow modeller designed only for basic usage. Advantages: The strength of OSWorkflow showed at modelling tools and Disadvantages: 2.3.4 ARIS Advantages: Disadvantages: 2.3.5 Conclusion 2.4 Summary

Coming of Age in Ferris Beach :: McCorkle Ferris Beach Essays

Coming of Age in Ferris Beach Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach is set in the 1970's, which is a transitional period in American history. The book is a buildings roman of Katie Burn's coming of age. Her maturing is complicated by the transition that is occurring in the time period. At the time, the Civil Rights movement had just ended, and there is a movement towards a more modern society, which included the integration of races and equality among men and women. In the book, the movement is characterized as a transition from the 'Old South' to the 'New South.' Different characters symbolize each time period. For example, Theresa Poole represents the Old South, whereas, Mo Rhodes is symbolic of the New South. As Katie grows up in this atmosphere, she must understand herself, and her sexuality. The mentalities of the Old and New South affect Katie's development. Each character in the book influences her values and beliefs. Katie must understand people like Mo Rhodes and Theresa Poole in order to establish her position i n the shifting order. Throughout the book she is exposed to different extremes of Southern mentality, and she falls victim to others' views. Finally, Katie realizes that her notions about Angela and Mo Rhodes are wrong, and that she believes in ideas that fall in between the two extremes that she has experienced. In the beginning of the book, we are introduced to Mrs. Poole, who is a traditional southern lady. She is ridiculed throughout the book because of her conventional beliefs. Her 'Old South' mentality is revealed at the beginning of the book when Mrs. Poole says, "the split levels are coming! The split levels are coming!"(pg. 1) She believes that the split levels represent a lower class and will degrade their long time established neighborhood. Theresa leads the Children of the Confederacy club and insists that Katie and Misty must be members of this historical organization. Katie and Misty's participation almost mocks Mrs. Poole's "southern ways." The organization epitomizes a traditional mentality. It is evident that Mrs. Poole does not want to partake in the transition into the New South. On the other hand, Angela and Mo Rhodes are of an extremely opposite nature. Angela is a beautiful young woman, who Katie envies and admires. Angela is a free spirited girl who has no commitment to anything.

Philippine ethnic architecture :: essays research papers

Philippine Ethnic Architecture - Ethnic culture lies on Phil. Architecture, an amalgam on Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Indian, Chinese, Japanese & other foreign influences with sensibility of Pre-Hispanic, Pre-Western & Southeast Asian. Its Ethos’s is linked with elements and creatures. It draws inspiration from environment. It also responds to man’s communal and social needs. General Characteristics - Ethnic Structures are made of natural materials such as wood, vegetations & sometimes molds. The favorite material is bamboo, which is used for doors, flooring siding, roofing & many others. It is informal and usually designed by the owner itself and executed with manpower provided by his family and the community. Often influenced first by tradition, second by chance. Most ethnic houses conform to a general pattern: have steep thatched roofs to facilitate drainage; elevated on posts or stilts and have slanted flooring. The result is generally a comfortable and functional, yet durable and structurally stable. Decorations are aesthetics and socio-politico-religious factors. Pig skulls and carabao horns for instance in Ifugao to indicate social position. It is at modest proportions as it is used essentially as a shelter from the elements and as a place to cook, eat and sleep. At other times, the house doubles as a social and cultural center. It becomes the setting for weddings, wakes, death anniversaries, religious rites and other life-cycle celebrations. Ethnic architecture can be classified using four different considerations:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1. According to structural methods used   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. According to use or function   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  3. According to historical period   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4. According to cultural groups or people Types of Structures in History - Ethnic architecture has evolved in response to changes in time and history. Cave dwellings were perhaps the earliest shelters in the Philippines. The next stage of evolution of ethnic architecture was marked by the appearance of the â€Å"lean-to†, the first attempt at building. The practice of kaingin gave rise to a more settled life in a real house. But durability was not a major concern. The introduction of wet rice agriculture brought about a truly settled life and a need for a more permanent dwelling. The bahay kubo, the dwelling of the lowland, christianized populace had already been established even before the Spaniards came. Because of different environments, upland and lowland houses developed interesting contrasts. Lowland houses have more open, airy interiors, while upland ones are more tightly enclosed. Special types of houses developed in various parts of the Philippines. In Sulu archipelago, houses were built over water.

Biology unit 1&2 chapter 3 answers Essay

There must be a higher concentration of wastes in the dialysis tube than in the surroundings. Wastes must therefore be constantly removed from the surroundings to maintain a concentration gradient. b) What special features does it have? If the surrounding solution was not changed, the concentration gradient would become smaller and smaller until diffusion would no longer occur and the same amount of wastes would leave the dialysis tubing as wound enter it. 2. 3. When epithelial cells such as human cheek cells, are studied under a microscope, they are mounted on a slide to which a drop of ‘normal’ saline (salt) solution, rather than tap water, has been added. Explain why this is the best method for preparing these cells. If the person drank the sea water, cells in digestive system would be surrounded by a hypotonic solution and would lose water. Cells would become dehydrated and cease to function. 4. Under what natural conditions might plant cells become plasmolysis? There will be a net movement of water into the Amoeba in freshwater environment. 5. Two cells have the same internal concentration of sugar solution. They are both placed in distilled water. Even though both cells expand over time, one expands faster than the other. What are some reasons for this observation? The disease will cause severe diarrhea. Human body will be infected with bacterium when drinking contaminated water, and sticks to the intestinal lining. . Intestinal cells start secreting sodium and chloride ions into the intestinal fluid. This upsets the balance of fluids, causing a net movement of water out of the intestinal cells into the surrounding fluid which is then excreted with faces, causing diarrhea. Dehydration of body cells may eventually kill infected people. 6. After eating a packet of slated potato chips your lips often feel dry. Explain why? Blood glucose levels are measured in mill moles of glucose per liter of blood (mmol/L). The normal level is around 5 mmol/L. A 5% solution of glucose is roughly equivalent to the normal level of glucose in the blood. If this concentration drastically increases (20%), body cells may be in danger of losing water by osmosis. Increased thirst and excessive urination are two of the symptoms of diabetes, a condition in which the amount of blood sugar rises to unacceptable levels. 7. A student places a living cell into a drop of liquid contains less than 5% sugar. a) Make a hypothesis to explain what caused the change in sugar concentration outside the living cell. It is hypothesis a living cell being placed into a drop of liquid contains less than 5% sugar can cause the sugar concentration outside the living cell. 8. A particle that has been drawn into a cell by phagocytosis is not truly inside the cell. Explain the statement. If salt levels rise, water tends to move from the root tissue in citrus trees to the surroundings by osmosis. There is a lack of water for photosynthesis, causing smaller yields of citrus fruit.

Pharmacoeconomics Notes Essay

The Confessions is a work by Augustine that outlines his sinful youth and conversion to Christianity. Augustine wrote it between 397 and 401 while serving as the bishop of Hippo Regius. In his book, Augustine gives an account of his own life from birth up to that point. He then wrote about other matters such as the creation of the world, memory and time. A big segment of the book is spent on Augustine’s confession of sins that he had struggled with and how he had pled to God for deliverance from those sins. Augustine writes about his disappointment in living an immoral lifestyle. He regrets having believed in astrology and followed the Manichaean religion. He also writes about how Nebridius helped persuade him that astrology was evil and how St. Ambrose helped in his conversion to Christianity. The Confessions is finally an address by Augustine to God in which he confesses his sins, faith, and praise. Augustine says that he wrote the Confessions for â€Å"a people curious to know the lives of others, but careless to amend their own.† Augustine was aware that people loved to gossip and look deeply into the lives of others to see how they could talk down a person and ultimately make themselves feel better. Augustine knew that his writing was going to be scrutinized but made it his purpose to tell the truth and demonstrate the providence of God in the life of a sinner. He didn’t want anyone to think any better of himself than he actually was. Another purpose in writing Confessions was to create an immediate bond between his new Christian community. His colleagues were distrustful of his pagan influenced education as well as his standing as an ex-Manichee. He wanted to let them know that he was trustworthy and he did that by putting on display the worst and best of his life. In essence, Augustine’s life became an open book for everyone to read and get to know personally. Augustine could have also written Confessions as an attempt to understand himself. He might have considered his enjoyment of sex and the pleasures of this world to be an unbearable weakness and he needed to confess in writing that God alone was his true love. It is obvious that Augustine is broken over his sin and it is probably something that consumed his mind. Getting this horrific past behind him was of the utmost importance and he did it through writing Confessions to God. The writing style with which Augustine writes the Confessions is  amongst other things openly bold, encouraging, and without remorse. This is definitely different from modern writers who try and disguise their true inner feelings while still trying to write with meaningful style. Augustine is not trying to hold back any part of his life that he might be ashamed of. It is quite the contrary as he confidently praises the Lord and declares God’s greatness. Augustine recognizes his place as a speck of dust that vies for a place in the presence of almighty God who created the universe. He is not ashamed to speak highly of his Lord and continuously gives you a feeling that he is not satisfied until he finds his rest in God. He is encouraging throughout his book as he conveys God’s faithfulness to him even when he was deep into sin. No matter what portion of the book one reads, he or she can always take comfort in the fact that no matter how far one runs from God, He is always right there waiting for us with arms wide open. In conclusion, Augustine is so focused on God, that he has no regret in sharing his mishaps and declaring God’s forgiveness. He knows that he ran far from God but that God was right there the entire time. He feels extremely foolish but at the same time so grateful for God’s unending grace. Augustine asserts with passion that he wants to be filled by God and as a result he can truly live.