Things Everyone Should Know-Chemical and Biological Weapons essays

Things Everyone Should Know-Chemical and Biological Weapons essays In every life time one will experience the effect of a weapon, whether it is that of a car, knife, gun or even the horrors of a bomb or the possible threat of chemical and/or biological agents. No matter what the source of destruction, it causes the downfall of some type. Some believe that a car accident or a gun is more dangerous and destructive to life, however that common person does not understand the unfamiliar hazards and irreversible effects that these viruses and bacterium can cause. Currently the United States has been struggling with the thought of anthrax and other weapons of biological threat infecting their loved ones and our nations world status. Chemical and biological weapons developed by the United States scientists have not only protected the United States against a massive chemical and/or biological attack, but have also cost the United States millions of dollars and thousands of lives in the production and the investigation of chemical and biological weapons. The use of chemical and biological weapons date far back in the history books, even before writing was around. At least 3,000 years ago, chemicals were added to fires to create fumes that would choke and sicken the enemy. Greek fire was a chemical weapon, perhaps invented in A.D. 660 by a Greek engineer named Callinicus (Pringle, pg 14). The Greek fire caused the Arab and Russian enemies to weaken on the port city Constantinople producing a Greek victory. The term biological warfare is a more recent development in the weapons of mass destruction era. Only until the nineteenth century did scientist prove that germs cause infectious disease. (The term germs includes bacteria, viruses, and rickettsia.) In the 19th century, citizens only knew that disease spread through a sick person, a human corpse or an animal carcass. An easy way to poison an enemys population was to simply p...

Definition and Examples of an Implied Author

Definition and Examples of an Implied Author In reading, an implied author is the version of a writer that a reader constructs based on the text in its entirety. Also called a  model author, an abstract author, or an inferred author. The concept of the implied author was introduced by American literary critic Wayne C. Booth in his book  The Rhetoric of Fiction  (1961): However impersonal [an author] may try to be, his reader will inevitably construct a picture of the official scribe who writes in this manner. Examples and Observations [I]t is a curious fact that we have no terms either for this created second self or our relationship with him. None of our terms for various aspects of the narrator is quite accurate. Persona, mask, and narrator are sometimes used, but they more commonly refer to the speaker in the work who is after all only one of the elements created by the implied author and who may be separated from him by large ironies. Narrator is usually taken to mean the I of the work, but the I is seldom if ever identical with the implied image of the artist.(Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction. University of Chicago Press, 1961)Too often in my early work, I suggested a total communion between two utterly confident, secure, correct, and wise human beings at the top of the human heap: the implied author and me. Now I see an implied author who is manifold.(Wayne C. Booth, The Struggle to Tell the Story of the Struggle to Get the Story Told. Narrative, January 1997) Implied Author and Implied Reader A classic example of mismatching in kind is The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. The implied author intends that the implied reader will react to the horrifying account of the Chicago meatpacking industry by taking socialist action to improve the workers lives. In other words, the implied reader of The Jungle already cares about workers in general, and the implied author intends that building on that old value, the reader will primarily be motivated to adopt a new valuesocialist commitment to helping Chicago meat workers. But, because most actual American readers lacked sufficient concern for workers, a mismatch occurred, and they failed to react as intended; The Jungle ended up moving them only to agitate for improved sanitation in meatpacking.(Ellen Susan Peel, Politics, Persuasion, and Pragmatism: A Rhetoric of Feminist Utopian Fiction. Ohio State University. Press, 2002) Controversies As our study of implied author reception will show, there is no consistent correlation between the contexts in which the concept has been used and the opinions that have been put forward regarding its usefulness. In interpretive contexts, both supporting and opposing voices have made themselves heard; in descriptive contexts, meanwhile, the implied author has met with near-universal hostility, but even here its relevance to textual interpretation occasionally attracts a more positive response.(Tom Kindt and Hans-Harald Mà ¼ller, The Implied Author: Concept and Controversy. Trans. by Alastair Matthews. Walter de Gruyter, 2006)

The impact of biotechnology on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment Essay

The impact of biotechnology on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease - Essay Example On the other hand, amplified sequences can be inserted into other, more easy-to-manipulate species, such as microorganisms, thereby leading to the assessment of characteristics possessed by the resulting gene products of these sequences, such as structure, pH and function. In medicine, such findings are important because diseases that previously remain to be an enigma has been found to be caused by a depletion or over-expression of proteins whose functions have only recently been identified. So far, there are multiple procedures that have been developed, each catering to the specific needs of various research groups. This is a testament to the ever-growing field of biotechnology. This paper summarizes the different functions of various biotechnological procedures that are applicable to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. PREVENTION THROUGH VACCINES Vaccines are one of the most common and effective means of providing protection against infectious diseases. Because of its extensive use, continuous vaccine development is going underway since its initial use. One of the targets of advancement is the means of production. Basically, vaccines are just deactivated viruses, units or components, or antigens which induce immune reactions from the receiving individual. The effectiveness of vaccination lies on its induction of memory immune cells that act against multiple attacks of the corresponding natural infective exposure. Vaccine production Initially embryonated eggs were used for the propagation of virus units for vaccine production. In this process, an aliquot of virus solution is injected into the allantoic cavity of a 10- to 11-day old embryonated egg. The infected eggs are then incubated in temperatures suitable for growth of the virus (Szretter et al., 2006). However, since egg-based vaccine production imply that individuals with egg allergies cannot be vaccinated, a different host was searched for. With the parallel development of cancer cell r esearch, hyperproliferative cancer cells were seen as a better means of vaccine production. Firstly, individuals allergic to egg-based products can now avail of vaccinations. Secondly, cell culture-based production is more cost-efficient than egg-based production because cancer cells are much easier to culture than embryonated eggs. Similar to egg-based production, infective virus units are inoculated into a culture of a particular cancer cell line, usually Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) (Szretter et al., 2006). One of the novel protocols to produce vaccinations, especially the subunit vaccines, which are described later in this paper, is through recombinant protein expression. Briefly, developed expression systems, or microorganisms processed to receive genes and express proteins of other organisms, are inserted through a vector. Not only is this cost-efficient, but is much safer to handle than the culturing clinically-derived viruses. In addition, through recombinant protein exp ression certain mutations can be introduced to the antigen to make it more immunogenic (Zhang et al., 2007). Post harvest, the viruses undergo further processing. The virus units are weakened or deactivated either chemically, by formaldehyde or ?-propiolactone, through heat, or radiation. This deactivation prevents the vaccine from causing illness to the handlers and to the recipients. If to be used in another time, these harvested viruses are also stored in liquid nitrogen (Szretter et al.,

The American War of Independence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The American War of Independence - Essay Example But by whatever stroke of fate, the colonials completely trounced the mighty forces of Great Britain. The rout was so unexpected that the historian John Ferling quoted George Washington as saying that the "American victory was a little short of a standing miracle".1 Ferling went on to say that the skirmishes and battles "often hinged on intangibles such as leadership under fire, heroism, good fortune, blunders, tenacity and surprise".2 The British forces all throughout the war played the aggressor , employing time-tested strategies and tactics that it had used before against the French, Spanish and Irish foes. The colonials, meanwhile, a complete tyro in any warfare, were always on the defensive employing tactics that were best suited for the occasion. "often dismissed by the British as ragtag"4 were surviving on a measly budget accorded them by the Continental Congress. Thus, in some skirmishes, they were on the brink of starvation, sometimes attired in tattered clothes and shoes and sometimes in decrepit condition. The triumvirate of King George III, Secretary of State George Germain and Prime Minister Lord North formed the nucleus which decided what tactics Britain should implement in the war in the New World. This nucleus ,based in London, 3000 miles away from the arena of war, was responsible for the coordination, the logistics and the communication needed to win a war. Meanwhile, the Continental Congress, composed of delegates from all the colonies and based in Philadelphia, was the brain and the nerve center , the controller and the coordinator of the colonial forces. With the riches coming from its colonies in the West Indies, Canada, America, Gibraltar and India, there was no doubt that Britain entered this war financially prepared. The Congress, on the other hand, aware that any victory would hinge on how well-oiled the war machinery would be, desperately sought finances both from abroad and from the home front. It used the strategy of diplomacy and psychology on England's long-standing enemies, France and Spain, stoked the latter's hatred and resentment and came out extracting some financial support as well as munitions from both. Since that was not enough, it used 4 tactics to raise money locally i.e. loans from "well-to-do merchants and planters"; "forced loans ... from farmers who were given certificates of indebtedness"; by levying money or goods "apportioned among the various states"; and by "issuance of paper money, the famous Continental currency".5

Names in A Pair of Tickets :: Joy Luck Club Literature Chinese Culture Essays

Names in "A Pair of Tickets" In Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets" (the last chapter of The Joy Luck Club), the understanding of the importance of names is the key to truly apprehend a sacred relationship between mother ("Suyuen") and daughters (June or "Jing-Mei", "Chwun Yu" and "Chwun Hwa"). To understand the story as a whole, it is necessary for us to know the meanings of their names. The mother and daughters' names each bears its individual meaning, but all these names are indeed "intertwined" into a deeper relationship among each other. It is through a deeper understanding of these Chinese characters' names that opens our eyes (readers from different cultural background) to see how mother and daughters are strongly attached emotionally. In Chinese culture, names are not merely "labels" to distinguish one from the other nor are they used as "mediums" that "reflect" one's identity and individuality; names represent all the long-term greetings and expectations from parents to children. A name is the essence of a person, and it is a gift (the first gift) from parents to be carried for the rest of one's life.* A person's name is like a title of a book or poem: we use a title to identify the nature of the book and its "essence", while we use a name to identify a person and his/her individuality. Chinese name is distinctive in a sense that each name has a story behind it, e.g. June's mother named her twin daughters in China "Chwun Yu" and "Chwun Hwa" since they were born in spring ("Chwun"), "Yu" (rain) was given to the first born and "Hwa" (flower) to the second which indicate their sequence of birth ("rain comes before flower": par. 88); furthermore, rain and flower are nature's elements that exist for one and the other, indicating these twin daughters would stay inseparable. In this story, Tan has not left out the importance of names which is essential in our understanding of the meaning and purpose of her writing. What would be the impact if she left out the explanation of the meanings of those characters' names? Would there be a difference? The answer is obvious. The meanings of mother and daughters' names are the "essence" of the whole story that necessitate us to apprehend the mother's deep love for her daughters. The scene where Suyuen had to abandon her twin-daughters in China

In Cold Blood Essay Questions Essay

1) In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel, but how is it more like journalism than an ordinary work of fiction? Truman Capote wrote the book in brief sections, setting the scene and then putting a break in the narrative, the way the book is structured with several plotlines happening at the same time it keeps the reader on edge, giving it a classic crime-genre technique to always keep the reader in suspense. On top of this he pays close attention to the setting around the dialogue, producing powerful imagery for the reader. The dialogue is factual, which reduces Capotes’ personal involvement, and with the descriptive, tense paragraphs, to heighten suspense. In the book we see two of the main characters, Dick and Perry, their interests and family background which we can see Capotes’ journalism through his reporting. In an interview for the New York Times in 1966, Capote said, â€Å"It seemed to me that journalism, reportage, could be forced to yield a serious new art form: the ‘nonfiction novel,’ as I thought of it †¦ Journalism is the most underestimated, the l east explored of literary mediums,† 2) In what ways does Capote reveal the nature of his research through the construction of the book? In Cold Blood takes a unique view on a horrific story, and gives a non-biased opinion, by looking into the minds of the people involved. In Capotes’ research he found that his background was surprisingly close to one of the man characters, Perry Smith, with both the author and the character both ridiculed as children. Though we can see that the author doesn’t forgive Perry, we can see Capotes’ sympathy. Capote knew how powerful suspense can be, and he used this to the full potential. With the clutter bodies being found at the house twice, with a quote that spans six pages. Also when Perry Smith makes his confession, 200 pages later, there is another quote that spans several pages, with the quote broken up only when he was interrupted by the questioner. 3) How does Capote colour the opening section of the book with a sense of impending murder and doom? What does this tell you about the book’s relationship to journalism? With the opening chapter being named â€Å"the Last To See Them Alive† We can immediately see that murder is about to take place. Also when Capote starts describing the characters he keeps referring to the Clutter family’s day as their last. This gives us the impending idea that the reader is aware of what happens from the opening chapter. With the murder case being a true story that happened a long time ago, the author assumes that the reader will know the story before they’ve read the book. Thus Capote builds up tension and emphasises the upcoming deaths. With most current news stories being repeated many times, journalists try and find a new angle to keep the story fresh, we can see that Capote has tried to do this in his novel, to take a news story that people have heard before and try and adapt it to keep the reader interested.

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