Energy Crisis in Pakistan

Energy is the bloodline of a country’s economy. A continuous and sufficient energy `supply can ensure a healthy and progressive economy. Pakistan is unfortunate to face severe energy crisis in recent years. The parting gap between demand and supply is mounting with every year and it is pushing the country into dark ages. Worst part of this menace is the fact the installed capacity of electricity can not only fulfill the energy demand but can also produce surplus amounts of energy. The highest peaks of energy demand are up to 14000 to 14,500 MW and the power generation capacity is 19.500MW.Hence the problem is an outcome of the absence of any viable solutions to add energy to the national grid. The pertaining factors which caused such an intense situation are expensive means of energy production, transmission line losses, lack of infrastructure, circular debts and electricity theft. In addition to that the economy is sinking like rock due to the quagmire of scarcity of power. I t had serious implications on business activity and country faces a shutdown of industry, drain of capital, unemployment and no foreign direct investment.The falling economy took the crutches of foreign debts which caused soaring high amounts of utility bills. Now a days electricity situation is worst and country is challenged by an immense power blackout. The failure of the government to secure sustainable, dedicated and affordable energy supplies has resulted in closure of hundreds of units. It created an outcry in industrial community. It is high time to rectify the mistakes of past and implement long term and short term energy projects to fulfill the future day need of power.

African American Characteristics Paper Essay

African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African American culture is rooted in the historical experience of the African American people. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential to American culture as a whole. African-American culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time have modified or blended with European American culture. There are some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the slavery period. The result is a unique and dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture, as well as the culture of the broader world† (Rydell, 2010). Learning Team B has chosen African Americans as the culturally diverse group we will focus on. The subjects in this paper will be African American history, family characteristics, parenting practices, language, and religion. Also, the primary characteristics of African Americans and how those characteristics impact their experience as a subculture in American Society will be a topic. The last topic will be the implications of the characteristics for psychological theories and practices. History African Americans are the descendants of Africans brought to America during the slavery era. Many were owned as property and forced to work as day laborers in the fields or as servants in their owner’s homes. Others were allowed to work off their debts by being bough and sold on â€Å"the block†. An article titled â€Å"The Slave Auction of 1859 gives a brief account of what it was to be sold on â€Å"the block†: â€Å"The buyers, who were present to the number of about two hundred, clustered around the platform; while the Negroes, who were not likely to be immediately wanted, gathered into sad groups in the background to watch the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully interested. The wind howled outside, and through the open side of the building the driving rain came pouring in; the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its brisk trade; the buyers lit fresh cigars, got ready their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of human chattels are led upon the stand, not by a white man, but by a sleek mulatto, himself a slave, and who seems to regard the selling of his brethren, in which he so glibly assists, as a capital joke. It had been announced that the Negroes would be sold in â€Å"families,† that is to say; a man would not be parted from his wife, or a mother from a very young child. There is perhaps as much policy as humanity in this arrangement, for thereby many aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale†¦ â€Å"(New York Daily Tribune, 1928). President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of civil war. The proclamation declared â€Å"that all persons held as slaves† within the rebellious states â€Å"are, and henceforward shall be free. † Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. History pages often claim President Lincoln as â€Å"The Great Emancipator† which most educated adults come to learn is an over exaggeration. The general consensus is that Lincoln never freed a single slave, and only used the proclamation as a means to get what he wanted from the states. Once freed most African Americans still experienced racial violence and lived in fear for many years. In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was added to the constitution giving blacks the right to vote. Although blacks were free they were still segregated from the white people, made to go to different schools, stores, and even ride at the back of the bus. In 1954 the supreme courts declared segregation in school unconstitutional due to the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The civil right movement was at its peak during 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ensuring basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963. In 1968 President Johnson signed the Civil Right act prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. Some of the most famous leader of the civil right movement includes Martin Luther King Jr. , Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks and many others. Although civil rights were established many African American still struggled to be treated fairly in America. Affirmative Action was established in 1978 by a ruling of the Supreme Court to ensure that minorities are given an opportunity that they may have missed because of their race. In 2008 Barack Obama was the first African American to be nominated for a major party nominee for president. He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. Family and Parenting Characteristics As with most cultures, African Americans place a high value on their families. In the United States African American family’s make-up 12. 9 percent of the population according to the 2003 US Census. The US census also shows that for African Americans over the age of 15 there are 34 percent married, five percent separated, eleven percent divorced, seven percent widowed, and 43 percent were never married. According to the First Things First website, â€Å"African Americans are the most un-partnered group in America† (Medium, 2011, para. 4). One major goal of African American families is communalism, which is very important for effective functioning (Hall, 2010). Hall (2010) describes African American families as having three family types. The first type is the cohesive-authoritative that is explained to be a family with high cohesion along with being supportive, nurturing, and involved with their children (Hall, 2010). The second type of family is the conflictive-authoritarian that is defined as families with conflict and the parents are controlling, critical, and express unhappiness with children (Hall, 2010). The last type of family Hall (2010) explains is the defensive- neglectful, that did not like other racial groups and also did not teach their children to be proud of being an African American. One significant trend that has been determined about the African American family structure is that the more interconnected the family is, the lower the rate of depression in African Americans (Hall, 2010). Based on these findings, a program called Strong African American Families has been created in order to strengthen the relationships between parents and children. According to Hall (2010), â€Å"The Strong African American Families program also has been found to reduce preadolescent risky sexual behaviors, preadolescent alcohol use, and parental depression among African American families† (p.95). This kind of program has been very effective in keeping families cohesive and helping to improve the goal of communalism. Language â€Å"Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidginsimplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages can use to communicate. Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Louisiana, and Gullah, common to the Sea Islandsoff the coast of South Carolina and Georgia† (Rydell, 2010). It is sad to think that slave owners intentionally put Africans with people who did not speak their language to discourage communication, but is have been researched and proven to be true. Slavery is not the only element to African American culture, and it often seems that when discussing African American culture slavery is the main topic. However, when discussing language the centuries of slavery that they endured have everything to do with the evolution of African-American language. Now that we have covered the origin of African American language we can discuss the American perspective of where modern day African American language stands, and how this effects the culture. â€Å"African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is an African Americanvariety(dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English. Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics(a term that also has other meanings or strong connotations) or jive or jive-talk. Its pronunciation is, in some respects, common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States. There is little regional variation among speakers of AAVE. Several creolists, including William Stewart, John Dillard, and John Rickford, argue that AAVE shares so many characteristics with Creole dialects spoken by black people in much of the world that AAVE itself is a Creole dialect; while others maintain that there are no significant parallels. As with all linguistic forms, its usage is influenced by age, status, topic and setting. There are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in African-American literature† (Rydell, 2010). Of course this information does not imply that all African Americans speak a version of AAVE, only that it is very common and prevalent throughout the modern day African American culture. Religion In the African American community religion plays an extremely significant role. â€Å"The story of African-American religion is a tale of variety and creative fusion. Enslaved Africans transported to the New World beginning in the fifteenth century brought with them a wide range of local religious beliefs and practices. This diversity reflected the many cultures and linguistic groups from which they had come. The majority came from the West Coast of Africa, but even within this area religious traditions varied greatly. Islam had also exerted a powerful presence in Africa for several centuries before the start of the slave trade: an estimated twenty percent of enslaved people were practicing Muslims, and some retained elements of their practices and beliefs well into the nineteenth century. Preserving African religions in North America proved to be very difficult. The harsh circumstances under which most slaves lived—high death rates, the separation of families and tribal groups, and the concerted effort of white owners to eradicate â€Å"heathen† (or non-Christian) customs—rendered the preservation of religious traditions difficult and often unsuccessful. Isolated songs, rhythms, movements, and beliefs in the curative powers of roots and the efficacy of a world of spirits and ancestors did survive well into the nineteenth century. Historically during their most difficult times the African American relied on their religious beliefs to endure. During the civil rights movement black churches were often the target of racial violence because that was a place that African Americans spent most of their time. This was a place where they often held meetings to discuss their civil rights efforts. African Americans practice a number of religions, but Protestant Christianity is by far the most prevalent. Some African and African American also follow the Muslim and Judaism. According to Fife, Kilgour, Canter and Adegoke (2010), â€Å"African spiritual traditions have historically held a central place in African American communalism (Mbiti, 1990) and were vital to survival during the time of slavery. In African and African American culture the concept of spirituality is inseparable from all other aspects of human experience. The spiritual and the physical are indistinguishable (Mbiti, 1990). A deep connection exists between humans, God, family, and group (Barrett, 1974). Spirituality is not compartmentalized into systematized beliefs and practices but woven into everyday experience (Boyd Franklin, 1989). The Black church is the primary means through which many African Americans express their religious and spiritual beliefs and values (Richardson & June, 1997). This institution is a central force in African American childhood and adolescent identity and helps to shape ideas about what comprises community. † Many African American children have christen ceremonies for they can even walk or talk. African American families generally spend a substantial amount of time within their places of worship. Conclusion For review, the big questions the above research addressed were: †¢What are the primary cultural characteristics of this selected group? †¢How do the characteristics of this group impact its experience as a subculture in American society? †¢How might the cultural aspects of this group be applied to traditional psychological theory? †¢What are the implications of these characteristics for psychological theory and practice? We have found that the primary cultural characteristics of the African America culture are their history of slavery in America, distinct family and parenting practices, slavery based evolution of their language, and their dedicated religious beliefs. The characteristics of this group impact its experience as a subculture in American society by enticing others in to the culture and sparking curiosity around the world. African Americans make up a small percentage of the minority in America. However African American culture dominates the world of music, fashion, and professional sports. The cultural aspects of the African American group can be applied to traditional psychological theory when considering family dynamics, cultural perspectives, and how these aspects influence mental health. The implications of these characteristics for psychological theory and practice would focus on how the African American history of slavery in America influences their world view, how family and parenting practices mold their ideals of what a family should be, how religion influences their beliefs and actions, and how language distinguishes them from others and what psychological impact this has on them as a whole. For many years African-American culture developed separately from mainstream American culture, both because of slavery and the persistence of racial discrimination in America, as well as African-American slave descendants’ desire to create and maintain their own traditions. Today, African-American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct cultural body. References Fife, J. , McCreary, M. , Kilgour, J. , Canter, D. , & Adegoke, A. (2010). Self Identification Among African American and Caucasian College Students. College Student Journal, 44(4), 994. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Hall, G. C. N. (2010). Multicultural psychology (2nd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Medium. (2011). First Things First. Retrieved from http://firstthings. org/page/research/african-american-family-facts New York Daily Tribune, March 9, 1859 reprinted in Hart, Albert B. , American History Told by Contemporaries v. 4 (1928). Retrieved from http://eyewitnesstohistory. com Rydell, R. J. , Hamilton, D. L. , & Devos, T. (2010). NOW THEY ARE AMERICAN, NOW THEY ARE NOT: VALENCE AS A DETERMINANT OF THE INCLUSION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. Social Cognition, 28(2), 161-179. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Computer Hacking is Ethical

Austin Areas English Ill Honors Mrs.. Mills 14 December 2012 Computer Hacking is Ethical Computer hacking is a term that most everyone in today's society is familiar with. When the average person hears news about computer hacking, most likely they think about cyber-crimes, website defacement's, or knocking various websites offline. This inaccurate description is Just the image that today's media creates. In reality, true hackers are much different. Computer hacking is not the only type of hacking in today's society.Hacking actually originated from partaking, which is the art of racking a telephone network (â€Å"A Brief History of Computer Hacking†). Hacking is seen as being blackball, or wrong, when hacking can also be beneficial to the world. There are different types of computer hackers: â€Å"Hastiest,† ones who hack to express a political opinion, â€Å"Hobbyist† hackers, those who hack for enjoyment, and â€Å"Research hackers,† those who hack to lea rn about security and fix vulnerabilities (â€Å"License to hack? Ethical hacking†). As mentioned before, the first computer hackers were not people who were hacking to earn some quick cash. In 1878, two years after the telephone was invented y Alexander Graham Bell, a group of teenagers who worked to maintain the New York switchboard were fired because they were interested in seeing how the phone connections were made and how the calls were distributed to specific locations. Their actions were essentially the equivalent of early computer hackers.These boys were trying to break into the telephone system to understand and see how the switchboard worked (â€Å"Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking†). Computers were not always in the easy to use, graphical interface they are today. Along the time period of the ass, mainframe computers were very popular. Most universities and companies would have rooms dedicated to containing these mainframe computers, which were essentia lly a large chunk of metal locked away in a controlled environment. Due to the prices and exclusivity, users had to fight for time to obtain access to these slow- moving machines.Since these mainframe computers were so expensive and resource intensive, meaning they required time, knowledge, electricity, and money, computer programmers went out on a ledge to learn and create ways to speed up processes and modify hardware to increase performance speed (â€Å"Computer hacking: Where did it begin and how did it grow? ). In return, the machine would be able to complete more tasks and operations in a shorter time period. Hiring a hacker to modify one's machine in the ass and ass would definitely increase business functionality (Parks).The term â€Å"Hacker† did not earn the definition it has in today's world until the sass. Users discovered that they could apply their knowledge of the inner workings of a computer for their own gain. This was the time period when viruses, mallard, and other nasty cyber infections were created to earn their coder or hacker money (â€Å"Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking†). In the early sass, a man named John Draper discovered that he could recreate the pitch a telephone used by using a whistle obtained from a box of cereal.By using this whistle, Draper could recreate the 2600-hertz audio tone and score some free long-distance calls. Draper's actions were one of the first illegal actions committed by a hacker, which earned him the nickname â€Å"Captain Crunch. † Later in the sass, devices called â€Å"Blue Boxes† were invented by a computer club in California. These boxes were used to help change a tone to match the tone created by a telephone, thus making telephone tampering easier to use. These boys went by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Woozier, the creators of Apple Inc. â€Å"Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking†). Attention towards partaking was created during this decade, resulting i n a few computer and telephone hacking magazines being created. These magazines would benefit those who wanted to become partakers and computer hackers, by teaching them techniques, and giving access to those who had already accomplished these illegal acts (â€Å"Timeline: A 40-Year History of Hacking†). Another effect from the huge amounts of attention towards hackers was a new law being passed, called The ComprehensiveCrime Control Act, giving the Secret Service Jurisdiction over cases including credit card and computer fraud (â€Å"INCURS Abstract†). Later in 1987, a seventeen-year-old hacks into AT's computer network, which led to his arrest. This boy was caught because he did want most teenage boys do, he bragged on an online bulletin board about it. Federal authority says he committed the hacking from his bedroom, and was one step away from breaching into AT&T's switching system, the system that controlled most of the nation's communication access fine (â€Å"Ti meline: A 40-Year History of Hacking†).In the year 1988 the first self-replicating virus was created by a twenty-two year old graduate named Robert Morris from Cornell University that was designed to take advantage of an exploit in UNIX-based systems. The Morris-worm, named after the creator, infected nearly one tenth of machines connected to the internet. Morris was arrested for releasing the virus and was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine (â€Å"Zen and the Art of the Internet†).No other major hacks occurred until the mid to late ass, when two hackers known as Data Stream hacked into computers and systems owned by institutions such as NASA and Korean Atomic Research Institute. One of the two was caught by detectives form Scotland Yard and was discovered to be sixteen years old (â€Å"The Case Study: Rome Laboratory, Griffins Air Force Base, and NY Intrusion†). The year after, Vladimir Levin allegedly used his laptop to transfer funds from Citibank's computer network to various accounts across the world. Eventually Levin was extradited to the US, sentenced to three years in prison, and ordered to pay Citibank $240,000.The exact amount of money stolen is unknown, but is estimated to be around $3. -$10 million, not all of which has been recovered (â€Å"How To Hack A Bank†). Later that year legendary computer hacker Kevin Nitpick was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, and accused of breaking security violations, such as copying computer software, breaking into various networks and stealing information, including close to 20,000 credit cards. He spent four years in Jail without trial and was released in early 2000. Nitpick was accused of crimes dating back to the mid-sass (â€Å"Timeline: A 40-year history of hacking†).After the year 2000, many to most cyber- attacks or hacks have been caused by mallard users unknowingly downloading them onto their PC. Most newly created enamelware bypasses anti-virus scans, which means no one is ever one hundred percent safe on the internet. The graph below displays the type of virus or mallard threats received on various US computers (â€Å"Microsoft Security Intelligence Report†). Every computer hacker is powered by a motive or several motives. Usually malicious hackers are motivated from self-gain, either money or fame.Malicious programmers create mallard programs to do their bidding; such software can log every key one presses, steal sensitive data such as passwords for personal and banking websites, r add one's computer to a ring of infected computers that can be used to Dos websites (â€Å"Ethics in Computing†). A Dos attack is when packets of data are sent to a Webster that eventually overload the server with data to the point where the server crashes, therefore knocking the website offline. More recently, Anonymous has taken credit for Dosing major banking websites offline (â€Å"Bank of Amer ica Hit By Anonymous Dos Attack†).There are many different types of Dos attacks; the most common is a JODI Flood, which sends a JODI packet to random ports on a server. When a packet is sent to a port where there is no application listening on that port, the server replies with a Destination Unreachable packet, so the server has to respond to every single JODI Packet with an Unreachable; the part that crashes the server is when the Unreachable Packet is sent (â€Å"UDP Flood Attack†). Hackers sometimes will sell their bootee, which is the term that describes a ring of infected computers.When a hacker sells or rents his bootee, the infected PC's are transferred over to the buyer for their use, which is usually for more illegal Dos attacks. There is extremely easy money when it comes to selling information attained from hacking, whether it is selling hacked website accounts for popular websites like Youth or websites that require a monthly subscription. Most of the transa ctions are made online and are close to untraceable. Finding a competent hacker on the internet is the equivalent of going to Iraq and looking for AY Quad.Hackers know how to hide, where to hide, and how to stay safe (â€Å"Hackers Selling Cheap BOOTEES and DOS on Forums†). Even though hackers know how to hide, that does not mean they cannot get caught. Hacker Jon Paul Soon illegally hacked into his previous employer's network with malicious intent. This network was a medical network that contained health records, names, addresses, and provided services to seventeen different clinics in San Diego. Soon was punished with five years in prison and a combined fine of over four hundred thousand dollars, along with a ban from using a computer (â€Å"Hackers: Crimes and punishments†).Teenage hackers usually get off easier, with punishments like time in a Juvenile center, a ban from computers, community service, or very light prison sentences depending on age. FBI informant Ma x Butler was a hacker who was charged in 2001 with possession of stolen passwords, computer intrusion, and thirteen other counts. He risked going to prison for forty years because he decided to stop helping the FBI catch other hackers. These are Just a few cases of the risks hackers take for the thrill or self-gain from hacking (â€Å"5 Of the World's Most Famous Hackers & What Happened to Them†).With such strong consequences, one might wonder why an individual would want to become a computer hacker. Internet users become hackers because they know how to work the system; they know how to yap's the law and do close to anything they want (â€Å"The Hacker Work Ethic†). Hackers are purely cyber thieves who terrorize innocent users using their superior knowledge of how computers and the internet work. There are indeed an abundance of hackers who have malicious intent, but there are those who hack for a higher purpose (Roberts).Identifying what type of hacker one is dealing with is extremely easy; all one must do is look at the end product and ask a few questions. Is this hacker trying to steal information? Is the hacker trying to infect systems? If so, then that hacker is malicious. Other hackers hack for the learning experience. They want to learn more about computers and how systems change when modifying specifications. Hacker Sarah Flannels describes the work she put into her encryption algorithm as, â€Å"l had a great feeling of excitement †¦ Worked constantly for whole days on end, and it was exhilarating.There were times when I never wanted to stop. † Pursuing knowledge has been the fuel for many computer users since the first computers were created in the sass. These people live by the idea that the best way to learn is to take a hands on approach (â€Å"Types of computer hackers†). Contrary to black hat hackers, a type of hacker exists known as the white hat hacker. White hat hackers are the people who help infected users on the web. Many black hat hackers such as Kevin Nitpick, Kevin Paulsen, and Mark Been have turned white hat after serving time in prison or on probation (â€Å"12 â€Å"White Hat† hackers you should know').Not only to white hat hackers try to reverse the effects of black hats, but they also hack websites. Many businesses hire penetration testers, A. K. A. White hat hackers to try to penetrate the businesses' servers or databases to test how protected the businesses' websites are. Penetration testers, commonly referred to as Pen Testers, report back any exploits they have covered while hacking their employer's website or database, and then they patch the exploit, thus making a safer internet.Companies believe that if a white hat hacker can penetrate their security, then so can a mischievous black hat hacker (â€Å"tithe hat' hackers in demand†). An example of a famous white hat hacker is computer analyst and expert Touts Samurai, who police used to track down and appr ehend Kevin Nitpick in 1995 after Nitpick had evaded the FBI for years, and caused well over $100,000 in damage to systems belonging to Motorola, Monika, Sun Microsystems, and NECK (â€Å"The trials of Kevin MitoticThis is Just one example of a hacker being caught by another hacker. Police computer security analysts and hackers to look decipher cyber evidence that is related to crimes under investigation, along with cyber-forensics to break down crimes and solve them quickly (â€Å"The Kevin Nitpick/ Touts Samurai affair†). Hollywood has also tried to portray computer hacking in movies such as Hackers, from 1995, and War Games from 1983.The movie Hackers is about two computer hackers named Crash Override and Acid Burn, who seemingly fight each other with silly fonts and awful homepage graphics. Later on in the movie, he US Secret Service is involved when another associate of Overrides hacks into a school's mainframe and downloads a garbage file. This file actually contained a computer virus that could apparently capsize the company's oil tanker fleet. After a few other friends are arrested, everyone is cleared of their charges and the movie ends happily.In reality, all of these hackers would have been in prison, and would not had their charges dropped, not to mention the fact that a company had the code to a computer virus that could control their entire oil tanker fleet on a garbage file in their easily hackle mainframe (â€Å"Hackers†). Legitimate hackers later defaced the movie Hacker's website to express how they felt about the silliness in this movie (â€Å"Hacked Movie Site†). Nothing really big happened, only some text was changed and a few pictures were defaced with satirical pictures drawn over them.The website still has the hacked version of their website mirrored, meaning it is still accessible to the web. Included in the text of the defaced website were lines describing how Hollywood misunderstands technology and will never be able to comprehend the hard work and time needed to perform some of the acts that hackers accomplish. No en can tap a few keys on a keyboard and hack into a company's mainframe, website, or database.Hackers included a scene where someone managed to access a supercomputer with Just the password â€Å"GOD† and has the UNIX operating system replaced with some other three dimensional interface does not represent the real world in any manner (â€Å"Episode – Hackers†). The movie Live Free or Die Hard also butchers computer hacking in the sense that the computer hacks in it are so good at hacking that they can control entire cities, including quotes like â€Å"Okay, I want you to hack into that traffic light and make it red.Almost all of the incredible feats provided by Hollywood in movies is practically impossible, or would require months of research to perform. Many hackers believe that Hollywood will never portray legitimate hackers correctly (â€Å"Hollywood Ha cking – Television Tropes & Idioms†). Computer fanatics are compelled by the mystery of the machine. When Mr.. Hake, the Computer Applications teacher from Erwin High was asked why he was so fascinated by computers when he first had access to them, he replied with, â€Å"They were new and exciting; no one really knew where we were going to go with amputees, but everyone seemed to want to use them. † Mr..Hake described that people were compelled to study computers due to their mysteriousness and interesting possibilities (Hake). Switching from being a computer fanatic to being a computer hacker can happen really quickly when one may see how easy earning, or stealing money actually is on the internet. Or maybe the thrill of breaking past security will push the moderately to advanced computer user to turn to the dark side of computer hacking. Malicious hackers will always have a hard time as long as the be is full of white hat hackers to make their Job, or hobby mor e difficult (â€Å"Meaning of Hacking and the Different Kinds of Hackers†).In conclusion, not every person who knows their way around a computer's boundaries is unethical. While there are many intelligent and malevolent hackers loose on the web, it is still a safe place. Today's media does not accurately portray hackers or the hacker's philosophy, and neither do cut-rate Hollywood movies. Media websites control how civilians see cyber criminals, due to that factor, most innocents see hackers has people who are out to no good. The white knights of the internet are never given the appreciation they deserve, because of them we are as safe as we are now.White hat hackers have patched countless exploits caused by bad-natured hackers. Governments can Jail as many hackers as they want, but they can never Jail a philosophy. Hackers will always exist; they will always be out to gain something out of their exploits. Society needs to understand that hackers also hack to prevent collater al damage, or to catch the worst of the worst hackers. There are good hackers and bad hackers, Just as there are good people and bad people; not all hackers are unethical.

The Strategic Human Resources Management Model and Its Effects Research Paper

The Strategic Human Resources Management Model and Its Effects - Research Paper Example The Personnel Department acts as a meditation centre where arguments, complaints or concerns are settled. They have the rewards and punishment control over the actions of the employees based on their policy regulation function. The evaluation or appraisal function is also a part of the Department’s responsibility. The appraisal process is very important to this department because this is where they get inputs from both the manager and the employee or subordinate regarding the work attitudes and procedures, which they then use to formulate ate development plans. The Department also takes care of the processes for retirement and termination of employment with the company. Looking at all the functions of the Personnel Department, it is clearly shown that the main or primary job of this Department is to maintain order. Generally, the order may mean upholding the policies of the company by closely monitoring and checking the employees’ actions, but there are other meanings a ttached to the maintenance of order. This order may be in terms of relationships or the lack of it among colleagues or between a superior and a subordinate. This order may also be in the form of addressing the manpower needs of each department so they can function well to achieve company goals. This also may take the form of appeasing the concerns or complaints of the employees to maintain peace. The order may also refer to the continuous development of the staff through training to increase productivity. It may also mean the timely and appropriate response to questions relating to job functions and personal privileges or rights.

Journal Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Journal - Coursework Example The difference presented by this methodology compared with other teaching styles is that topics for study are selected because they are of interest to the children and their lives. These interests are supposed to exhibit meaningful relevance to the greater benefit of children’s lives. In this education curriculum, children go to great depths and higher levels in which teachers integrate content knowledge like reading, science and mathematics into these projects. This paper aims to highlight emergent curriculum by discussing topics that appear to interest children in a given class. In emergent curriculum formulation and implementation, development appropriate projects (DAP) should always be a primary consideration when planning to embark on designing a project. This ensures that the intended activity meets the overall objectives set out by the institution of learning and addresses the children’s immediate goals of learning through their experiences in the project (Carter & Curtis 203) DAP is achieved by ensuring that the intended project does not require too little or too much of the children in that it negates their efforts in attaining knowledge from the activity. In this case, similarity or monotony presented by indoor play areas can seem to be depressing or discouraging to teachers a scenario, I was able to find myself in during my time with the children. I came to notice that the children under my care did not get bored for being in the same play environment every day; the children illustrated progressive advancement in their daily activities in th e same setting. As a teacher, I am supposed to apply my knowledge on theoretical influences behind this observation made on the children in this static environment (Carter & Curtis 92). As outlined by Carter & Curtis, As a teacher and caregiver, I am supposed to claim my power as a principle to focus my attention on

Professional solutions to the impact that the increasing concern of Research Paper

Professional solutions to the impact that the increasing concern of how alcohol consumption affects the rate of interpersonal vi - Research Paper Example Excessive consumption of alcohol in most cases pose a health risk for many individuals and each year several deaths related to alcohol consumption are reported (Smith 145). Understanding genes causing alcoholism is vital in finding lasting solutions to the problem of alcoholism, and scientists in Finland have been concentrating in gene therapies to identify these genes related to alcoholism. Individuals addicted to alcohol consumption have numerous gene constitutions that interact with environmental factors to influence them into drinking and result into the drinking problem. Gene therapy has helped in understanding gene vulnerability which is significant in finding curative measures in helping those individuals who are heavy consumers of alcohol. In addition, scientists have discovered and are still discovering various drugs that have the ability to suppress the alcohol genes in individuals. An example is that aldehyde dehydrogesnase has been discovered to help in neutralizing the G ABA gene which has been discovered influence addiction of alcohol in individuals. Scientists are also advocating for educational programs to help in solving the high rate of interpersonal violence caused by excessive alcohol consumption amongst individuals. ... Therefore, scientists are emphasizing on the need to sleep to help in solving the problem of loneliness and prevent consumption of alcohol in individuals who drink because they are lonely or need instant gratification from various issues affecting their lives (Hardie & Ben 54). Examples of these programs include off-time pubertal training which is used to predict physiological activity of individuals to interpersonal stress caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. In addition, the government and non-governmental organizations have introduced programs on drug and alcohol abuse to help alcohol addicts to recover and quit their drinking habit by pointing out the risk and involved and also offering counseling services for those who are affected and those who are already addicts. Scientists have also proposed educational programs within the country to help in solving the problem of underage drinking amongst teenagers and grown-ups within the country. This assist in solving the problem of interpersonal conflict amongst individuals. They are school strategies which are emphasizing on the adaptation of behavioral theory and useful information amongst individuals. In addition, they have actively involved the community and family to form strategies to prevent drinking amongst individuals and bring to an end interpersonal conflict associated with alcohol (Criminology and Criminal Justice: Theory Research Methods and Statistics 120). An example of these programs includes strengthening families program which was started to improve relationships in families and also social skills of individuals. Resistance skill programs have also been introduced to help in the prevention of interpersonal conflict associated

International Business Marketing Case Analysi Essay

International Business Marketing Case Analysi - Essay Example The company is headed by David Glass and Don Soderquist who are concerned about company’s performance and its adverse impact on the stock value and some other challenges faced by the corporation such as labor unions, discrimination and cost controversies. Wal-Mart’s major competitors are Kmart, Sears and most importantly Target which is also a firmly established company in the United States with around 1500 stores in 47 States.. Wal-Mart has always stayed ahead of the market through its heavy investment in technology and through its diversification of products which has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of work. Its strengths outweighs its weaknesses and there are a lot of opportunities for the company to grow further. In order to regain its stock performance the company has to re evaluate its strategies and come up with an effective plan. Gain public support and invest in public relations, resolve the discontent and clear misunderstandings among the consumers related to work and the reputation of the company. The company should increase their customer base by changing their store formats by focusing on demographics. Keep the employee morale high and continue with the Sam Walton’s policies and style of leadership. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest public corporation and the leading business enterprise and grocery retailer in the United States till this day. Its head quarters are based in Bentonville, Arkansas. It has gained phenomenal success in the retailing business since the year 1962 when it was founded by Sam Walton, the man behind the success of this brand. It was Sam’s capability and leadership qualities that he laid the foundation of Wal-Mart so strong that his practices and values are being followed even today by the team of Wal-Mart headed by David Glass and Don Soderquist, the CEO and the COO who have been successful in living up to the expectations of Walton by bringing tremendous success to the corporation in the form of

IT MANAGEMENT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IT MANAGEMENT - Assignment Example Then launched it on the internet in August that year, to judge the response from the people for such a technology in which they can let the whole world know what they are doing in their lives by simply sending micro-blogs. The Twitter technology is also equipped with the concept of receiving tweets on mobile phones in form of messages. Arthur (2008) states that Twitter is often called the â€Å"SMS of the Internet† and the character limit of twitter is also chosen in accordance with that of the SMS. McIntyre (2009a) states that since Twitter can be used by PCs and mobile devices both and it offers a very small blog message of maximum 140 characters, due to this advantage it has become one of the biggest mediums globally for sharing real-time data. The size of the messages have also decreased the problem of information overload on the Web. Payne (2008) states that the technology that was used to handle messages from 2007 to 2008 was of a Ruby persistent queue server called Starling. Venners (2009) states that in 2009, they changed the technology and started using software written in Scala. Twitter has been one of the most successful social networking services and has gained its name among the top league including Facebook, video sharing platform of YouTube etc. McIntyre (2009a) states that according to a research by Wall Street Journal; Twitter has had an increase from 2 million users to 32 million users since last year only. There have been some internet measurements services stating that the figures are continuing to grow from 50% to 100% month after month. With such a huge and increasing market; Twitter and other businesses have a great future lined up. McIntyre (2009d) states that consumer feedback plays an important role to any organization in improving their products. Companies spend a great deal of their resources in market research and collecting consumer feedback.

Overcoming a academic Challenge Scholarship Essay

Overcoming a academic Challenge - Scholarship Essay Example At the end of high school, I was accepted to Miami-Dade College. This is a community college that was affordable and could get me on track towards medical school. I worked hard for good grades, and have now been accepted to the University of Miami. While I was excited to transfer, going to the University of Miami has presented me with my greatest academic challenge. The classes at the University of Miami are completely different than they were at Miami-Dade College. The pace of the learning is very rapid. Information is presented in large chunks during class time. I have found that I sometimes leave class wondering how I will remember everything that was presented. The professors teach differently at the University of Miami as well. They are very professional and require the student to be responsible for her own learning. They are always willing to help explain things I do not understand, but I need to go to them to ask. They are not willing to let students just glide through their classes. This is especially true of the tests that these professors give. There is no way you can guess your way through the material. You must come prepared or you will fail. Overall, my greatest academic challenge is adjusting to the more challeng ing academic standards since my transfer to the University of Miami. Thankfully, my family taught me how to deal with challenges that confront you in life. The first thing I changed in order to overcome this challenge is to reduce the amount of time I spent with friends. I am the type of person that enjoys an active social life. I never study with friends because when I am with them I want to have fun. I found that being successful at the University of Miami required be to spend less time having fun with friends and more time reviewing class notes, lectures and reading in my textbook. This has not been a pleasant adjustment, but it has been a necessary one. My

United States Department of Labor Case Study Research Paper

United States Department of Labor Case Study - Research Paper Example The data available on the website was obtained through the occupational Information Network and the National Labor Exchange (U.S. Department of Labor, 2014). The OINC provides information on the skills and employment requirements for vast occupations in the US. The NLE, on the other hand, comprises of Direct Employers Association and delivers information on the job requirements of various US corporations. Thus, the website provides a reliable documentation of labor benefits in the federal government regulations. The first feature is the fact that the website is primarily about the United States department of labor. This implies that the information available on the website is all about labor and employee welfare in the United States (U.S. Department of Labor, 2014). The second feature is that the website gives an outline of all the employee benefits inclusive of their details. It clearly indicates what benefits the employees have and the conditions needed to be met for the benefit to suit the particular employee. For example, the website indicates that The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) requires that the employee’s health plan should observe a group health plan approach. The third feature is that the websites provides links to other websites that give more information related to the employee welfare. For example, some of the links provided in the website offer the reader information on the COBRA continuation coverage assistance under the American recovery and reinvestment act of 2009 among others. The fourth feature is that the website is simple and easy to understand and navigate its contents. The fifth feature is the fact that the website provides its information through other strategies such as the creation of tabs that allow the reader to navigate the various pages in the website. For example, the general arrangement of the website context favors all the audience by

Study report Essay Example for Free

Study report Essay The purpose of the research reported on by Hardman, Abd-Kadir Smith (2007) was to examine the instructional practices of teachers in primary schools in Nigeria. The research questions, though not explicitly stated, were to examine the type and quality of teacher-student interactions, to review the comparative extent of student and teacher participation in discourse and further to make recommendations on how primary education in Nigeria can be improved, based on these findings. The research focused on the Sub-Saharan nation of Nigeria. Initially a representation of twenty primary schools was randomly selected from among twenty Nigerian states resulting in two schools per state with an average of 45 students per school. However three states had to be excluded from the analysis resulting in 14 schools being covered in the survey. In each school the researchers focused on a Primary 6 lesson in Mathematics, English or Science. A combination of techniques was used to gather data. These involved observations, in the form of videotaped lessons and a questionnaire administered to the classroom teachers. The duration of the videotaping exercise in each school covered one lesson in each of the three subject areas. 59 teachers completed the questionnaires. To determine classroom interaction the researchers logged, from the videotape, the type of questions teachers asked and who responded and teachers’ follow-up to responses. 12 of the lessons were transcribed and linguistic analysis conducted to analyse the type of classroom discourse. Additionally the responses on the questions were compared to actual classroom practice to determine inconsistencies. The authors conclude that Nigerian primary classrooms are very teacher-centred, heavily focused on rote learning, did not offer individualized attention but entailed whole-class responses and allowed for very little student interaction. One positive of the research is that it examined instructional practices in different subject areas and across different regions because these factors can sometimes determine how teachers behave in the classroom. The major weakness with this research, I find, is that only a single lesson in each subject was video-recorded. It could very well be that the lessons were a-typical for the teacher who taught with the knowledge that the lesson was being video-taped and even for the students as well. References Hardman, F. , Abd-Kadir Smith, F. (2008). Pedagogical renewal: Improving the quality of classroom interaction in Nigerian primary schools. International Journal of Educational Development, 28, 55-69.

Consultant’s Skills Essay Example for Free

Consultant’s Skills Essay In the corporate world, there is always a need to structure the best possible process of production. In this integral approach, a consultant’s skills can be utilized in order to provide a different or better insight about the needs of the company as well as to guide it for a better path of development.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A consultant is someone who has gained expertise about a particular field of study, research or work. He provides an advice in order to proceed with a particular action (Wikipedia, 2007). In this aspect, consultants are invited in most company functions to share his thoughts and assumptions about a certain business dilemma. Of course, these assumptions do not always reflect that of an enterprise solution but can also be used for some research and development principles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are several responsibilities that a consultant needs to accomplish for a company. First, he needs to provide the most effective ways of dealing with a problem to the fullest of his knowledge. Second, he should communicate in the best possible way, probably in layman’s terms, what he thinks is the best approach in getting a resolution for a particular concern. Third, he must have quite a number of credible materials or resources that he can present to support his claims. Of course, there should be minimal questions about his skills since the company has hired him to become a consultant. But in order to gain a wider perspective of his talents, supporting materials must be available.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a general classification of consultants, the internal and external ones. The main difference between the two can be identified on the way their skills are used for the company processes. It may be thought that external consultants work as freelancers who may then be regarded as a â€Å"contractor† (Friedl) while the internal counterpart is an in-house consultant engaged in direct company decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the aspect of contributions, there might be a slight difference between the two categories. Internal consultants are more exposed to company operations which is of great advantage in sending information efficiently and in a faster way. They can utilize the core skills needed for a resolution (Robertson). On the other hand, external consultants may also provide the same quality of logical problem solving but it would probably take longer since he needs to first see the big picture of the problem before coming up with a solution. References Friedl, S. N.D. â€Å"So you want to be a consultant?† Unixwiz. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html. Robertson, S. N.D. Experiences in Growing Internal Consultants with Object-oriented Skills. The Atlantic Systems Guild. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/SQR/internal_Consultants.html. Wikipedia. 2007. Consultant. Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant.

Overview Of Using Enzymes In Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Biology Essay

Overview Of Using Enzymes In Biocatalysis Green Chemistry Biology Essay ABSTRACT Aminotransaminases are a group of enzymes that play a key role in the amino acid metabolism catalysing the transfer of amino groups into keto acids resulting in the production of amino derivatives. It is PLP-dependent.they have many applications as biocatalysts because of their ability to introduce amino into ketone with good enantio- and regioselectivity. Aminotransaminases have been classified by three groups on the basis of substrate specifity, PLP-fold similarity and structural similarities. One of the important sub-groups of transaminases is omega transaminase (à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT) which is capable of transferring amino group from a primary amine that does not contain a carboxyl group. There are many available à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs but the first crystal structure of this type of enzyme identified from Chromobacterium violaceum. Keywords: Aminotransaminase; PLP-dependent; regioselectivity; chromobacterium violaceum. INTRODUCTION Transaminases or aminotransferases are the group of the transferase enzymes which are involved in the reversible transfer of amino groups from amino acid to ÃŽÂ ±-keto acids. The enzyme uses pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) in the reaction, therefore, it has been classified under PLP-dependent enzymes (Mehta et al., 1993). In current decades the importance of transaminases have significantly increased as a result of their tremendous potential for the production of both natural and unnatural amino acids and enantiomerically pure chiral amines which are important particularly for pharmaceutical industry (Shin et al., 2000). This review will mainly focus on the structure, mechanism and biotechnological application of omega transaminase (à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT) enzymes from different sources. The first section will give a general overview of using enzyme in white biotechnology. The second part will give general overview of transaminases with different classes of transaminases. In the following part, general reaction mechanism of transaminase and structure of the chromobacterial omega transaminase will be explained in detail. Under the last subheading biotechnological application of omega transaminase will be discussed. Finally it will give the project aims and conclusion. Overview of using enzymes in biocatalysis/green chemistry Enzymes are fundamental catalysts which are capable of acting on a wide range of complex compounds as substrates. They are exquisitely selective catalysing reaction leading to production enantio- and regio-selective intermediates (Schmid et al., 2001). Isolated enzymes and whole cell biocatalysts are commonly used to produce optically pure compounds. Isolated enzymes are generally used for the aim of the catalysis of hydrolytic and isomerisation reactions; whereas; whole cells are typically used for synthetic reactions (Schmid et al., 2001). Both of them have some advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages of using whole cells in the biocatalysis reactions are varied. For instance, substrate molecule might be toxic and results to death of cell; or the size of substrate molecule might be so huge that cannot pass through membrane; or there may be other enzymes in the cell that acts on the same substrate and cause to the production more than one compound (Wubbolts et al., 1994). In spite of these disadvantages, no requirement for recycling process of co-enzyme makes them good candidate to be used in biocatalysis because of the economic factors. The rapid increase in the development of research area of protein engineering, including molecular evolution, and enzyme engineering, has resulted in rapid growth of biocatalysis. The protein engineering yields molecule with modified structure, function and selectivity, in aqueous environment; whereas, the enzyme engineering leads to remarkable improvement particularly in organic solvent. Using organic solvent provides many advantages such as higher substrate solubility, modified enzyme specifity that results in the new and higher enzymatic activity that previously were only feasible using genetic modifications or complex reaction pathways inside the cell. As a consequence, applications of biocatalysis in organic environment vary from chiral resolution of pharmaceutical intermediates, chemical compounds to enantio- and regioselective polymerisation (Schmid et al., 2001). The use of biocatalysis in the industry for the synthesis of synthetic compounds has been significantly increased as the use of biocatalytic process for producing industrial intermediate has become easier. Biocatalytic reactions can be performed in the organic solvents and also water. This allows selective and efficient conversion of both water soluble and apolar organic molecules using biocatalytically active cells or molecules. The production of optically active substances is an area of growing demand in the fine chemical industry and biocatalysis has developed from a niche technology to a commonly used manufacturing method. The selectivity and cushy operational conditions of biocatalysists are increasingly applied in industry to modify complex target molecules. (Panke et al., 2004). General Overview of Transaminases Different classes of transaminases -classification Aminotransferases (EC 2.6.1.X) are the group of enzymes that take a significant role in the transamination reactions. They involve in the exchange of oxygen from alfa keto acid and amine from an amino acid, thus, they remove the amino group from the amino acid and transfer it to alfa keto acid and converting it into amino acid (Mehta et al., 1993). Using aminotransferases in the biocatalysis provides many advantages over other group enzymes for the production of chiral compounds. The reasons which make them so attractive are being able to act on wide range of substrate, having rapid reaction rates, no necessity for cofactor recycling (Taylor et al., 1998). Their relaxed substrate specificity, rapid reaction rates and no requirement for external cofactor regeneration makes transaminase enzymes attractive biocatalysts compared with chemical methods for the production of chiral amines A considerable number of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases have been identified until recently. Diamine-ketoglutaric TA is the first identified enzyme that converts the compounds bearing no carboxylic acid (Kim, 1964). It is classified as à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT and is a member of sub-class 2 aminotransferases (Mehta et al., 1993). à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA enzymes are known as ÃŽÂ ²-Ala:pyruvate TAs (EC 2.6.1.18) because they use pyruvate as the amine acceptor (Kaulmann et al., 2007). One of the best identified members of this group enzymes are isolated from V. fluvialis JS17. This enzyme does not show any activity towards ÃŽÂ ²-Ala but it shows broad substrate specifity towards particularly aromatic amines and (S)-enantiomers (Shin et al, 2002). It was purified and its enzymatic properties were characterised. Its molecular mass was determined to be 100 kDa and subunit mas determined to be 50 kDa. Its optiumum pH is 9.2 and optimum temperature is 37 oC. Its activity increased with pyruvate and PLP but it is inactivated with (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-methylbenzylamine. The result indicates that this is an amine: pyruvate transaminase (Shin et al., 2003). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis JS64 is highly enantioselective towards ÃŽÂ ±-methylbenzylamine (Shin and Kim, 1998). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT Ä °isolated from Pseudomonas sp. F-126 is an isologous alpha 4 tetramer. The subunit is rich in secondary structure and consists of two domains. PLP is located in the large domain. It shows high homology with AspAT. This consequence reveals that these enzymes have common evolutionary features (Watanabe et al., 1989). In contrast to ÃŽÂ ±-transaminase catalysed reactions to produce ÃŽÂ ±-amino acids, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminase reactions are not limited by a low equilibrium constant during the kinetic resolution (Shin and Kim, 1998). The enzymatic properties of three à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs from Klebsiella pneumonia JS2F, Bacillus thuringiensis JS64 and Vibrio fluvialis JS17 were compared to understand their mechanism and application towards production of chiral amines. All enzymes showed high enantioselectivity towards (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and broad specifity for arylic and aliphatic chiral amines. In addition to pyruvate, aldehydes showed high amino acceptor activities. All enzymes were inhibited by substrate, (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA, above 200mM concentration. Only Vibrio fluvialis JS17 à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA was inhibited by pyruvate above 10mM. The enzyme was not only inhibited by substrate but also inhibited by product. In the product inhibition case acetophenone and alanine are the main inhibitors but acetophenone is much more effective than alanine (Shin and Kim, 2001). Aminotransferases have been classified by Mehta and co-workers into four sub-groups according to their primary structure similarity (Table 1) (Mehta et al., 1993). Table 1. Classification of aminotransferases on the basis of structural similarities (Mehta et al., 1993) C:UsersadnanDesktopsub-groups of enzymes.png The members of subgroup 1 aminotransferases are Aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT), Alanin aminotransferase (AlaAT), aromatic amino acid transferase and histidine aminotransferase. Subgroup 1 aminotransferases are demonstrated to be the most versatile ones among the all subgroup hence they are able to react with alanine, dicarboxylic and aromatic amino acids. In one of the studies it was shown that the substrate specifity of AspAT and tyrosine aminotransferase overlap. This finding is based on the research which demonstrated the mitochondrial and cytosolic isoenzymes of aspartate aminotransferase from chicken heart accept L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan as substrates (Mavrides and Christen, 1978). Group 2 aminotransferases include ornithine AT, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT, 4-aminobutyrate AT (GABA-AT,). They are all known as omega transaminase because of the location of the amine group. In these enzymes amino group is in a distal position from the carboxylic acid group on the amine donor substrate. (Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). Both of the ornithine aminotransferase (Orn-AT) and 4-aminobutyrate aminotransferase (GABA-AT) are pyridoxal-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes that have been identified in human, plants and animals until recently. Both enzymes catalyse a wide range of reactions on amino acids (Storici et al., 1999; Markova et al., 2005). Each enzyme catalyses the transamination reactions by a ping-pong bi-bi mechanism. The mechanism comprises two-half reactions. The half-reaction converting ketoglutarate to glutamate is the same for all transaminases. Therefore, the change in substrate specifity is resulted from the second half reaction in which an amino group is transferred distant from the ÃŽÂ ±-carbon. As a result of this, these enzymes have been identified as omega transaminases (Markova et al., 2005). GABA aminotransaminase is a PLP dependent and Fe-S cluster containing enzyme which involves in regulation of the concentration of major inhibitory neuro-transmitter GABA. This enzyme degrades GABA to succinic semialdehyde (Storici et al., 1999). Subgroup 3 aminotransaminases are BcaaAT and D-alanine aminotransferase (DaAT). The amino acid substrates of the two members of subgroup 3 enzymes have different chirality but they share the same oxo-acid as substrate. Subgroup 4 aminotransferases include SerAT and pSerAT. The two members of this group act on structurally and biosynthetically related substrates (Mehta et al., 1993). Grishin and co-workers further classified all PLP-dependent enzymes and aminotransferases categorizing them according to their PLP folds (Grishin et al., 1995). Similar outcomes were obtained with Mehtas classification. One of the classifications has been performed by John Ward in which he classified à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs in four groups according to their substrate specifity. 1. ÃŽÂ ²-alanine:ÃŽÂ ±-ketoglutarate aminotransferase, highly specific substrate activity. 2. MBA (ÃŽÂ ²-alanine):pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity. 3. MBA:pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity but inactive on ÃŽÂ ²-alanine. 4. ÃŽÂ ²-alanine (MBA):pyruvate aminotransferase, broad substrate specificity.(Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT from Chromobacterium violaceum belongs to the sub-group 3. The research which was conducted by Kaulmann and co-workers demonstrated that his enzyme does not show any activity towards ÃŽÂ ²-alanine where as it has comparatively broad substrate specifity against aromatic, aliphatic amines and amino-alcohols. It has a molecular weight of 51 kDa and shows 38% sequence identity to the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT from V. fluvialis JS17 (Kaulmann et al., 2007). PLP-DEPENDENT ENZYMES PLP is an important cofactor for amino acid metabolism. PLP-dependent enzymes catalyse a wide range of reactions such as transamination, decarboxylation, racemisation, aldol condensation, ÃŽÂ ±,ÃŽÂ ²-elimination and ÃŽÂ ²,ÃŽÂ ³-elimination of amino acids, and amine oxidation (Soda et al., 2001). PLP forms a covalent bound with the substrate molecule and performs as an electrophilic catalyst (Percudani and Peracchi, 2003). The mechanistic studies revealed two key chemical characteristics of the cofactor; an imine is formed between aldehyde group of PLP and amino group of substrates. The other basic characteristic of the cofactor is being able to perform as electron sink and withdrawing electron from substrate compounds (John, 1995). In 1974, it was hypothesised that the complete family of PLP-dependent enzymes had evolved from a common ancestor. They proposed this hypothesis the result of the investigating of the mechanism of the seven PLP-dependent enzymes. It was observed that protonation of the C4 carbon of the coenzyme proceeds stereospecifically with the same stereo-face in all different enzymes. This result is is explained as proof for the evolution of complete family of PLP-dependent enzymes from a common ancestorial protein (Dunathan and Voet, 1974). REACTION MECHANISM OF TRANSAMINASES The aminated form of PLP, pyridoxamine 5à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²-phosphate (PMP), appears only in the transamination reactions (Fig. 1). Transamination reactions basically comprise of two half reactions. In the first step, the aldimine is deprotonated to be converted into a quinoid intermediate, which in turn accepts a proton at a different position to form a ketimine. The resulting ketimine is hydrolysed leaving PMP behind which performs as an amine donor in the second half-reaction. PLP is subsequently recycled. PMP interacts with the apoenzyme via only non-covalent interactions, whereas, PLP is covalently bound to the active site lysine residue of the enzyme molecule. Apotransaminases have been identified to bind PMP about 100-fold less tightly than PLP. PMP can be displaced from the enzyme with high concentrations of sulphate or phosphate ions (Schell et al., 2009). C:UsersadnanDesktop.gif Scheme 1. The first half reaction mechanism of aminotransferases (Adapted from Schell et al., 2009). STRUCTURE OF the Chromobacterial OMEGA TRANSAMINASE The C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT is the first enzyme among à Ã¢â‚¬ °-aminene pyruvate AT whose structure was investigated in detail using X-ray. The C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT protomer is folded into two domains similar to other class II aminotransferases that were classified by Mehta and co-workers based on their primary structure similarity. The enzyme comprises of a large domain which includes residues 62-343 and a relatively small domain containing the N and C-terminal parts of the polypeptide chain residues between 6-61 and 344-456. The large domain has a typical ÃŽÂ ±/ÃŽÂ ²/ÃŽÂ ± sandwich fold constituted a central seven stranded ÃŽÂ ²-sheet and helix-loop-helix segment. The small domain is constituted largely of the C-terminus which is comprises of ÃŽÂ ²-sheet that is packed against helices. The overall protein fold is represented in figure 1 (Sayer, 2009; PhD thesis). Figure 1. The tertiary structure of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT promoter. The ÃŽÂ ²-strands are tagged as S, ÃŽÂ ±-helices are marked as H (Sayer, 2009). As it was mentioned previously the aminotransferases require PLP as a cofactor. The enzyme was crystallised with PLP to investigate the binding interactions of PLP with active site residues. The cofactor is linked to the active site lysine residue through covalent bond forming lysine-pyridoxal-5-phosphate in all four sub-units. The PLP binding site is demonstrated to be situated between small and large domains at the interface of the two sub-units. The oxygen atoms of phosphate moiety interact with the main-chain amides of Gly120, Ser121 and the side chain of Ser121. The carboxyl group of Asp259 is located within hydrogen bond distance to the pyridine nitrogen of PLP. Aspartic acid is interacted with Val261 and Histidine154. The interactions are demonstrated in figure 2 (ibid). plp_contacts Figure 2. Stereo diagram of the C. violaceum haloenzyme active site. Stick model represents the lysine-PLP Schiff base. Yellow dot lines represent hydrogen bonds and the interacting residues are shown as lines. Neighbouring subunit residues are demonstrated by *. The structure of C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT gabaculine complex is also solved. Gabaculine is a naturally occurring inhibitor and first isolated from Streptomyces toyacaensis as an inhibitor of GABA-AT (Kobayashi et al., 1977). Gabaculine interacts to the aminotransferase forming Schiff base with PLP as the m-carboxyphenylpyridoxamine phosphate (mCPP) ligand in the subunit A. The inhibitor molecule is interacted to the enzyme on the re face of the cofactor at the bottom of the active site. A salt bridge is formed between carboxyl group of gabaculine and side chain of Arg416. Despite the fact that à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT act on the substrates that do not contain carboxyl groups, amine derivatives that bear a carboxyl group will be orientated by Arg416. The gabaculine is surrounded by Trp60, Ala231, Ile262, Leu59 and His318 from the neighbouring subunit to the bound cofactor. The hydrophobic pocked is formed through this interaction.. The interaction between active site residues and m CCP is in dicated in figure 3. gaba_lines_stereo Figure 3. Stereoview of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT bound with gabaculine in the presence mCPP ligand (represented with stick) and amino acid residues within 4.5 Ã…. Residues from the neighbouring subunit to the bound cofactor are demonstrates as *. The structure of C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT with pyruvate-PLP complex was solved to investigate active site pyruvate binding pocket (Figure 4). The carboxyl group of pyruvate forms a salt bridge with Arg416 and a hydrogen bond to the indole nitrogen of Trp60. The overall pocket is hydrophobic made up by the residues Tyr168, Phe22, Phe88, Leu59, Ala231 and Ile262. pyr_lines Figure 4. Stereoview of the binding interaction of the C. violaceum à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT with pyruvate-PLP complex is demonstrated as stick model. Hydrogen bonds are represented in yellow colour, * shows residues from the adjacent subunit to the bound cofactor. BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATION OF OMEGA TRANSAMINASES A number of important parameter such as enantioselectivity, reaction equilibrium stability of enzyme, effect of inhibitors, and product separation must be taken into account in order to perform successful kinetic resolution and asymmetric synthesis for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure amines (Kim et al., 2003). Enantiomerically pure amines can be synthesized using two fundamental methods that employ à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs. One of them is kinetic resolution that performs on racemic amines; the other one is asymmetric synthesis starting with prochiral ketones that together correspond to the transamination reaction run forward and in reverse subsequently. Amines with opposite conformation are attainable if the same omega transaminase in kinetic resolution or asymmetric synthesis. For instance, if (S)-enantiomer is observed during asymmetric synthesis, the same enzyme will produce the (R)-enantiomer in the kinetic resolution (Koszelewski et al., 2010). Despite the fact that, asymmetric synthesis permits a 100% yield of demanded optically pure compound, it has been preferred less in recent time due to the difficulties related to reaction equilibrium and stereoselectivity. The stereoselectivity of the enzyme molecule to produce amines must be high with ee value of >99%, but it is almost impossible for the available à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminase (ibid). Kinetic Resolution In some reaction an enzymatic reaction is performed between a chiral molecule and a racemic acid mixture. In this case kinetic resolution occurs resulting to a kinetic preference, for one of the enantiomer over the other enantiomer (Novasep, 2010). The significance of kinetic resolution has remarkably increased as the importance of optically pure amines has increased. One group of enzymes that have resulted in the production of optically active compounds are transaminases. One of the simplest techniques for investigating kinetic resolution of chiral primary amines involves the employment of a stoichiometric equivalent of the amino acceptor. In this approach, the thermodynamic equilibrium is on the product side and comprises the enantiomerically rich amine, ketone and amino acids. The main positive side of this method is that it needs only à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT (Koszelewski et al., 2010). As it is mentioned previously this method has been used commonly but it has two main drawbacks that ketone product and starting pyruvate molecule cause an inhibitory effect on the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs enzymes (Yun et al., 2005). Different strategies have been developed to overcome these problems. The à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA from Vibrio  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uvialis JS17 has been identified to show high enantioselectivity for the (S) enantiomers of various chiral amines, such as ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and sec-butylamine, with remarkable stability and a high reaction rate (Shin and Kim, 1998). Nevertheless, production of ketone may result in the inhibition of the enzyme preventing it to show its activity (Shin and Kim, 1997). A restricted solution to this issue was using an extractive biphasic reaction system that reduced the inhibitory acetophenone concentration in the aqueous phase (ibid). However, in this system the organic phase interacts with aqueous phase and acts as extractant of acetophenone. To keep the concentration of acetophenone in the aqueous phase at low levels, the aqua phase was unavoidable because the exchange the organic extractant need to control the aqueous pH with acid to neutralise basic ÃŽÂ ±-MBA diffused from the organic phase also made the process complex. An enzyme-membrane rea ctor (EMR) coupled with hollow-fiber membrane contractor was employed for the production of chiral amines and to get over the problems in a two-liquid phase reaction system. In the EMR system, to preserve the extraction capacity, a simple exchange of solvent in the organic reservoir and pH control are necessary to transfer only acetophenone through the contractor. Other advantage of this system over two-liquid phase reaction system is confining the enzyme in the reactor with ultrafiltration membrane eases reuse of enzyme. The main problem with this system could possibly be the economics of the availability of purified enzyme because a sufficiently high-circulation rate of sunstrate solution is desirable to residence time and minimize the product inhibition (Shin et al., 2001). An effective synthesis of enantiopure (S)-amino acids and chiral (R)-amines was carried out using ÃŽÂ ±/à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT coupling reaction and à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT was found to be inhibited by ketone product. To remove inhibitory reaction product a two-liquid phase reaction system in which dioctylpthalate was selected as solvent to achieve the best system. One of the most important advantages of ÃŽÂ ±/à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT coupling reaction over aqueous phase is that; it can be carried out at high substrate concentrations to fulfil industrial large scale production of chiral amine and amino acid compounds (Cho et al., 2003). A concept has been developed to improve rate and enantioselectivity in à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT-catalysed kinetic resolution using a protection group. For this purpose the kinetic resolution of 3-aminopyrrolidine and 3-aminopiperidine with à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT was expedited using a protective group. 1-N-Cbz-protected group. Upon application of protective group the reaction rate was 50-fold higher. Enantioselectivity was also considerably increased upon carbamate protection in comparision with the unprotected compound (86 vs.99 ee%). However, benzyl protection of former substrate did not affect enantioselectivity because of the difference in the flexibility of the benzyl- or carbamate-protected 3-aminopyrrolidine. Despite of 50% yield limitation in kinetic resolution, this strategy is an efficient way to synthesise enantiopure 3-aminopyrrolidines (Hà ¶hne et al., 2008). The other approach to overcome product inhibition by aliphatic ketones is using an enrichment culture in combination with random mutagenesis for production and purification of mutant à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TA. This technique is mainly based on using 2-aminoheptane as amine donor and nitrogen source in minimal medium, and 2-butanone as an inhibitory ketone. Consequently, the higher growth rates of mutants resistant to inhibition allow them to be enriched in culture reducing the number of colonies that needs to be screened. A mutant enzyme, à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAmla, which shows significantly reduced product inhibition by ketone, was determined. Using this mutant enzyme 2-aminoheptanone was resolved to (R)-2-aminoheptane with ee value>99, 53% conversion and enantioselectivity of >100 (Yun et al., 2005). b) Asymmetric synthesis Performing an asymmetric synthesis reaction is not as easy as kinetic resolution reactions because of unconvenient equilibrium and product inhibition. The main advantage of asymmetric synthesis over kinetic resolution is resulting 100% yield in the production of desired optically pure amine. However, side products may affect the enzyme catalysed reaction; therefore, these problems must be overcome to apply successful asymmetric synthesis (Koszelewski et al., 2010). One of the easiest methods for amination involves applying an excess of amine donor due to the necessity of only a single transaminase. Nevertheless, the issue here is the reaction equilibrium and potential inhibition by co-product and excess of starting an amine. In one of the studies, alanine was applied in 16-fold excess for the amination of 4-methoxyphenylacetone with 94% conversion (Nakamichi et al., 1990; Koszelewski et al., 2010). To overcome pyruvate inhibition problem two enzyme system has been used. One of the commonly used method involves Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH)-reduction of pyruvate. One-pot, two-step dereacemisation cascade reaction was employed to lead to the production of optically pure pharmaceutical intermediates through kinetic resolution and following stereoselective amination. The main advantage of this cascade reaction is circumventing the restriction of kinetic resolution (50% conversion) leading high yield of optically pure amines. In the second step, side product pyruvate was removed using lactate dehydrogenase to shift the equilibrium to the product side. The disadvantage of this system is requirement for coenzyme recycling (Koszelewski et al., 2009). The use of whole cells is hindered by the reason that undesired side reaction such as the reduction of alcohol to ketone products. In one of the studies it was shown that the equilibrium can be shifted using pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC). Dec arboxylation of pyruvate to produce acetaldehyde and CO2 with PDC is more advantageous than LDH-catalysed reduction of pyruvate owing to no requirement for cofactor recycling (Hà ¶hne et al., 2008). One of the important examples of asymmetric synthesis is the amination reaction of acetophenone with alanine for the objective of producing (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA. The equilibrium constant of the reaction is 8.8110-4 and (S)-ÃŽÂ ±-MBA and pyruvate are more reactive substrates than acetophenone and alanine (Shin and Kim, 1999). The stereoselectivity of C. violaceum TA-mediated amination of an ÃŽÂ ±,ÃŽÂ ±-dihydroxyketone, 1.3-dihydroxy-1-phenylpropane-2-one, was investigated. It was shown that the enzyme is not enantioselective towards the racemic 1.3-dihydroxy-1-phenylpropane-2-one, whereas; it is highly stereoselective for the (2S)-2-amino-1-phenyl-1,3-propanediols in 99% ee (Smithies et al., 2009). CONCLUSION AND AIMS OF PROJECT After drawing various analyses, the general overview, structure, mechanism and biotechnological applications of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases were reviewed in order to shed some lights on the characteristics of the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-transaminases. Transaminases have been used broadly owing to its capacity to produce amino acids and chiral compounds which are important for pharmaceutical industries. Transaminases have been divided to sub-groups according to their substrate specifities and structure. Transaminases, under sub-group 2 are known as à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT because the distal amino group of the substrate undergoes the reaction and include OrnTA, GABA-TA and à Ã¢â‚¬ °-amino acid:pyruvate AT. Among them the most important one is à Ã¢â‚¬ °-amino acid:pyruvate AT due to the reason that only this enzyme shows catalytic activity towards primary and aliphatic amines bearing no carboxyl group. The other advantages of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-TAs are having broad substrate specifity, high enantioselectivity an d no requirement for the cofactor recycling. Two main biotechnological applications of à Ã¢â‚¬ °-ATs are asymmetric synthesis and kinetic resolution. They have both advantage and disadvantage over each other. The disadvantages of kinetic resolution are being subjected to pyruvate and ketone inhibition and having 50% yield. The asymmetric synthesis results in 100% yield for the manufacturing of desired optically pure amine. However, product may cause to the inhibition of the enzyme. To overcome these problems some approaches have been developed including biphasic reaction system, using enzyme-membrane reactor (EMR) coupled with hollow-fiber membrane contractor, using protective groups. The aim of this project is to purify and crystallise the à Ã¢â‚¬ °-AT enzymes and characterise their subsrate specifity.

The Contrasting Themes and Structure of William Faulkners The Bear Ess

The Contrasting Themes and Structure of William Faulkner's The Bear  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      At first,   William Faulkner's The Bear, seems to be a story about the decline of an old bear and the wilderness he represented. Oddly, it is possible to omit the fourth chapter of The Bear and still have a complete and less confusing story.   Although sandwiched in between the third and fifth chapters, the fourth chapter is almost wholly independent. For the purpose of this analysis, I will refer to chapters one, two, three, and five as being one half of the story, while chapter four solely comprises the other half. At first, it seems that these two sections have little in common, but that exactly is Faulkner's intention. He has deliberately pitted these two halves of the story against each other in order to compare and contrast wilderness to civilization. He does this by creating two separate and independent plots, containing each almost solely in the environment dictated by their theme, contrasting two martyr-like characters-each central to the plot, and giving the two sections different narrative styles and chronology. To complicate things, the fourth chapter is placed in the midst of the rest of the story. Faulkner uses contrasting plots to separate the two sections of The Bear at the lowest possible level. The first half of the story (chapters 1,2,3, and 5) contains a fully contained plot about a bear hunt and the decline of the wilderness, while the other half (chapter 4) is also self sufficient in its plot, depending only on the other half for introducing the main characters. The first half of the story tells a bittersweet tale of a boy who wished to learn humility and pride in order to become skillful and worthy in the woods but... ...the wilderness, but abandoned it along with the wilderness. Faulkner illustrates these differences with representative parts in the story and communicates his feelings towards each in what he chooses to write and how he writes it. Yet by melding the two parts into one and tying them inseparably together, he effectively communicates the duality of grief felt by the boy, one of that last who understood humility and pride. Works Cited Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978. Evans, David H. "Taking the Place of Nature: 'The Bear' and the Incarnation of America." Faulkner and the Natural World: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1996. Ed. Donald M. Kartiganer and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999. Faulkner, William. â€Å"The Bear.† Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner. Vintage: 1997.

Woodlot Eco-Boxes Essay :: essays research papers

I observed many different organisms in the woodlot, including both heterotrophs and autotrophs. The producers I found include birch trees, sugar maples, white pines, grasses, and berries, as well as various weeds and small plants. The consumers that I observed were all first-order consumers and included ants, grasshoppers, a salamander, spiders, and other species of bugs. Decomposers visible in the woodlot included fungi, mold, and mosses. There were some traces of indirect animal evidence left in the woodlot. For example, I noticed unbroken paintballs, which is a sign of humans trespassing in the woodlot. I also observed plants with holes, which showed decay and diseases and could have been accomplished by other organisms eating the producers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many steps that show the flow of energy in the woodlot community. The sun gives off light and heat energy to the heterotrophs. Producers use the light from the sun, nutrients in the soil, and chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis. The producers are then either consumed by first-order consumers, or are broken down by decomposers such as fungi, which uses mycelium to absorb nutrients from the plants. I did not notice any second or third order consumers present in the woodlot to consume the first order consumers, however I did notice traces of them in forms such as burrows under rocks, and holes in the ground. There is a constant flow of mechanical energy in the woodlot, as animals use it when they eat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yes, the woodlot does support the â€Å"ecological pyramid† concept. First, there is interaction among organisms, and there is a good balance of heterotrophs and autotrophs, which create a thriving environment of both types of organisms.

Addendum to Independent Study in Sound Design and Sound System Component Operation :: essays research papers

Addendum to Independent Study in Sound Design and Sound System Component Operation This past year (2000) I have been working in the sound booth for The John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts. Here at the John Lyman Center (JLC) we have been going through a time of transition. The former resident technical guru who had taken care of JLC's happenings had retired, leaving the JLC in a semi chaotic state. The dance school season was just about to start which happens to be our busiest time of the year. The administrative staff here at the JLC was franticly trying to find a replacement while interim Chris Hudacs fought his was through the perilous dance school season. Finally, when all the hullabaloo was over David Starkey, formally serving as Technical Director of the Theatre Department at Southern Ct. State Univ. was named the new title of Events Manager. When David was still working in the theatre department I had approached him when it was pointed out that there was no one person on staff who knew how to fully operate the sound system. The idea I had come up with was to design an independent study which would allow me to be in the sound booth and empirically discover how to operate the sound system and all of its support components. He agreed that it was a good idea because Greg had never explained anything but remedial board operation. Since I first started working at the JLC I had wanted to work on the sound system, now I was being given the chance. The independent study was written up as follows: Independent Study in Sound Design and Sound System Component operation Objectives: -To demonstrate competence in properly operating the sound system and all its individual components in Lyman Auditorium. Which includes but is not limited to the following:  ¨ Sound board  ¨ Tape player  ¨ DAT player  ¨ Mini disk player  ¨ Compact disk recorder  ¨ Compact disk player  ¨ Digital effects processors  ¨ Patch bay  ¨ Wireless microphones  ¨ Digital synthesizer -By the 8th week be prepared to work with the head sound designer in developing a sound design for the crescent players fall production of "three penny opera". The sound design should incorporate as many of the listed devices as possible to ensure that a high quality production is obtained. The learning process I have been going through has included help from many people. I would sit and pick the brain of every sound engineer that came through here. Finding out what you did with an Omni DriveÃ’ or how to use the feedback detector and the graphic equalizer to get rid of feedback.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

Ancient Greeks and Romans Contributed Ideas on Government The first societies to experiment with ideas on government that would later influence Americans were Ancient Greece and Rome. The Ancient Greeks and Romans developed the ideas of democracy and representative government more than 2,000 years ago. A Democracy in Ancient Greece. The cities of Ancient Greece were organized into city-states, or small independent nations. Athens was one such city-state. For many years, Athens was ruled by a small group of wealthy and powerful men known as the Great Council.Members of the Council passed laws that favored wealthy people like themselves. Between 750 B. C. and 550 B. C. , however, this system of rule began to change. Poorer Athenians, such as farmers and small merchants, protested the great power of the Council. They believed that the laws made by the Council harmed the interests of the middleclass and poor. Many Greeks wanted to participate directly in making laws affecting their lives . Greeks used the word â€Å"demos kratia†, to explain what they wanted.The equivalent word in English is democracy, which means government by the people. Gradually, Athenian leaders agreed that more Greeks should be allowed to participate in the Great Council's decision-making process. They developed a political system now known as a direct democracy. In a direct democracy, people not only vote for leaders, but actually serve in the government. In order to decide who should be allowed to serve in the Great Council, Greek leaders developed the idea of citizenship.Those Athenians who were citizens had the right to participate directly in government. But how was citizenship determined? Greek leaders decided that only men who owned large plots of land were citizens. Women, slaves, and people with little or no property were not given the rights and responsibilities of Athenian citizenship. While the Ancient Greeks restricted democratic rights to a small portion of the population, the idea of democracy was born. A Republic in Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome was the first nation to create a republic.A republic is a form of government in which people elect representatives to govern them. Between 750 B. C. and 350 B. C. , the Romans established a republic. At first, only patricians – members of the Roman upper-class were allowed to vote or serve as representatives. Over several centuries, however, the right to vote was extended to plebeians – the lower class. As more Romans gained the right to vote, they used their new power to bring about other changes in the political system. About 450 B. C.Roman citizens demanded that laws governing their lives be written down. They wanted to know what the laws were and that laws could not be changed any time their leaders wanted to. Many Romans believed that codified, or written, laws would prevent Roman leaders from abusing their power. They called this the Twelve Tables and it was posted in the Roman Forum for al l of Rome’s citizens to see. Ancient Greek and Roman ideas and practices concerning government eventually spread to Europe and to the United States.

Belonging, Les Murray Poems Essay

The concept of belonging is interesting to me because the idea is really that of ‘self’. There are many varied notions of belonging revolving around the ‘inclusion/exclusion’ of a person in a societal group, ‘attraction/alienation’ to values, attitudes and behaviours, ‘security/marginalisation’. But ultimately the idea of belonging is the development of our own sense of personal identity being defined by the groups, communities, lifestyles we align ourselves with. Les Murray’s poems â€Å"The Widower in the Country† and â€Å"The Away-Bound Train† explore the sense of belonging by his speaker in different ways. We experience through â€Å"The Widower in the Country† a loss of a sense of belonging caused by the death of the speaker’s wife. In â€Å"The Away-Bound Train† the speaker describes the rural landscape in his poetry, and his sense of belonging to it. Les Murray in â€Å"The Widower in the Country† uses descriptive imagery and emotive language to highlight the loss of belonging. The depression of the speaker by having no real direction in life is shown by the words â€Å"and pause to look across the Christmas paddocks†. He is delaying his duties as he is aimless. The reference to Christmas also illustrates widower being alone for a holiday previously celebrated with family. The ellipses run after â€Å"The nettles in the yard†¦Ã¢â‚¬  showing there is further work to be done and the neglect of the speaker evidencing his absence of involvement. The speaker sits alone â€Å"at the head of the table† eating a plain meal of â€Å"corned-beef supper† reinforces the widower’s absence and direction in life and also an inability to enunciate his emotions. The speaker in â€Å"The Away-Bound Train† experiences a feeling of belonging to  the country through the exploration of the landscape. The speaker is a man on a train leaving the countryside, which he loves, to travel to the city, which he despises. At the start of the poem the speaker describes his ideal home in the country â€Å"I stand in a house of trees †¦ a creek runs grey with sand†. The speaker then describes the landscape (â€Å"the near hills rise steeply and fall†, â€Å"the upland farms are all bare†) which is followed by a declaration of allegiance to the country (â€Å"and this is my country†). The warmth of the cold July fire reflects his sentiment of home. Even though he reminds himself that the warmth of the fire â€Å"is the past†, his mind, he says, â€Å"trails far in the wake of the train†. At the end of the poem, the speaker wills himself to go back to sleep and his dream. He literally closes his eyes against reality and returns in his imagination to the country he is leaving. In an alternative medium, the musical song â€Å"Creep† by the band â€Å"Radiohead† describes the desire to belong, yet the eventual alienation and loneliness of an unrequited crush. The song is a story of a person’s infatuation with someone whom he feels he  As a contrasting view, â€Å"Creep† composed by Thom Yorke presents the idea of belonging through alienation – the story of a person’s infatuation with someone whom he feels he cannot attain. The use of the simile â€Å"just like an angel †¦ your skin makes me cry† conveys how unreachable, unapproachable the girl is to him. This expression of distance illustrates how inadequate the person feels when compared to his object of desire. The use of obscenity â€Å"What the hell am I doing here?† conveys the frustration and anger felt by the person at not being accepted. This is supported by  the change from poetic language to blunt speech â€Å"I don’t belong here†. The contrast between the opening of the song and the chorus stresses the impact of the anger and frustration over wanting to belong. The opening lyrics are very soft with gentle imagery â€Å"You float like a feather, in a beautiful world†. The lazy guitar tone and rhythm then build up to what seems like an emotional breakdown with the singer and the guitar screaming in despair and anger â€Å"But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo†. The ostinato (musically) portrays the songs obsessive lyrics, which depict the angry rage of an unsuccessful crush. The theme of alienation is reinforced â€Å"I want you to notice when I’m not around†. â€Å"You’re so special, I wish I was special† shows the person wanting to belong with the other who he sees as extraordinary.