Tobacco Essay -- social issues

Tobacco Tobacco is one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States. Nicotine, which is an alkaloid derived from the tobacco plant, is a potent chemical that has powerful effects on the human body, especially when administered rapidly or at high doses. Prenatal exposure to nicotine is associated with adverse reproductive outcomes, including altered neural structure and functioning, cognitive deficits, and behavior problems in the offspring (9). At least 20% - 30% of pregnant women are estimated to smoke cigarettes, although smoking is associated with low birth weight, prematurity and infant mortality. In the United States, smoking accounts annually for estimated fetal deaths ranging from 19,000 to 141,000, for 1,900 to 4,800 deaths during or immediately after parturition, and for 1,200 to 2,200 death from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (7). Maternal smoking has been implicated in long term deficits in infant mental development and adverse behavioral problems in children such as attention disorder. Nicotine crosses the human placenta and has direct effects on the developing fetus. Pre-clinical studies suggest that maternal smoking during pregnancy produces changes on the offspring's neural functioning, including reductions in uptake of serotonin, alterations in dopaminergic systems, alterations in peripheral and central noradrenergic neurons, and changes in DNA and RNA synthesis in the brain (9). Children prenatally exposed to nicotine consistently score lower in the two subcategories of expressive language and conceptual comprehension. Evidence from studies of human neonates suggests that maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with increased rates of neurobehavioral difficulties. Several studies have linked maternal smoking during pregnancy with childhood inattention, impulsivity, and motor hyperactivity in offspring. Similarly, maternal smoking during pregnancy has been associated with parent-teacher ratings of conduct problems in children and a criminal record in young adults. A study by Yousef Tzabi suggested that cigarette smoking during pregnancy may be one of the causes of hyperactivity and learning deficits in children. In a laboratory study with Sprague-Dawley mice, it was shown that hyperactive male pups that were exposed to nicotine prenatally had significantly higher nicotinic receptor concentrations in the... ...ironment is relatively hypoxic, and corresponding cardiac functional deficits would thus contribute to the high incidence of fetal mortality. Just as impaired cardiac function during hypoxia in neonatal rats can account for the increase in mortality with prolonged hypoxia, comparable effects in man would provide a mechanism for cardiovascular collapse and consequent brain damage or death during delivery. The consequences of smoking during pregnancy are very dramatic. If clinicians are able to convince their patients to stop smoking early in their pregnancy, a major impact may be made on the incidence of low birth weight infants, perinatal morbidity and mortality, as well as cognitive deficits and behavioral problems in the offspring. A strong statement has to be made on the issue of tobacco exposure during pregnancy. This could be accomplished by informing women that their infants may not only be "smaller" than their nonsmoking counterparts, but their infants may also have transient or permanent changes in their lung and brain ultrastructure. A patient who is informed of these possible long-term effects of nicotine on her child may be more successful with her smoking cessation.

Wyatt Earp :: essays research papers

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp Wyatt Earp was born on March 19, 1848. He is the son of Nicholas Earp, a lawyer/farmer and Virginia Earp and was born at 406 South Third Street, Monmouth, Illinois. Wyatt was given the name of his father's Army captain. When Wyatt was quiet young, his two older brother, James and Virgil, went off to fight in the Civil War for the Union. A story is told in which Wyatt tried to run away and join the Army, but his father caught him in a corn field and took him back to the house. As a young man Earp was a stagecoach driver, railroad construction worker, surveyor, buffalo hunter, and lawman. In his early adulthood, Wyatt married and his wife died shortly after of Typhoid fever. Wyatt was devastated and went off and got into some trouble for horse stealing. Later, he became a stagecoach driver and traveled to Los Angeles, Ca and Prescott, Arizona. Wyatt also hunted buffalo for so me time. There are rumors that it was during this tiem that Wyatt met Bat Masterson. In 1876 he became chief deputy marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, a lawless frontier town. Within a year, having brought relative peace to Dodge City, he moved on to Deadwood in the Dakota Territoy. In the fall of 1879, Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil journeyed by horseback down to Tombstone, Arizona. There he furthered his reputation as a gunfighter, first as deputy sheriff of Pima Co. and later as deputy U.S. marshal for the entire Arizona Territory. Earp and three of his brothers, together with the American frontiersman Doc Holliday, participated in the famous O.K. Corral gunfighter in 1881, during which they killed several suspected cattle rustlers. The following year, Ike Clanton attempted to kill Wyatt and Morgan while they were playing pool; Morgan was killed.

How can we solve banning hijab problem Essay

The issue of hijab is one of the most controversial and hotly debated issue which has merged in the European, especially French scene with regard to racial and religious and gender based discrimination in the 21st century. It is sensitive religious issue which has impacted the education of a section of religious sect on a very substantial front. This ban got implemented by French government on 2nd September, 2004 and has been taken up by the legal and political activists in various parts of Europe like Germany, Belgium and other nations worldwide. This has brought to the surface the worlds conflict with regard to protection of women in Islam from gender discrimination and imposition of extreme fundamentalist view which reinforces the superiority. As Binnaz Toprak expresses; â€Å"The scarf is a symbol of the inferior status of women† (Viewpoint). It is important for Muslim men not impose such discrimination of gender publicly which reinforces in countries which support equality of status by forcing on young school going children the visible discrimination which is offensive to the society in which they have chosen to immigrate. The national laws and observances need o be respected an integrated whenever there is the possibility and intentional decision to chose a new residence with permanent status. The issue of banning hijab is an ethical issue which can have philosophical as well as ideological touch which makes the issue very controversial and complicated. This is also a very multicultural issue which brings the issue of world conflict into the classroom atmosphere and hence legislation and strong measures taken by the French government has been the triggering the issue which has been supported by many European and western nations even central Asian countries. â€Å"French right wing President Jacques Chirac’s poli cy to impose a ban on the wearing of the Islamic veil (hijab) by girls in schools has split the left – both in France and internationally.†(Workers Power). The issue is very sensitive issue which addresses the radical belief of very extremist and racist society which has chosen to immigrate in liberal nations worldwide. It is also a strong religious imposition which has been challenged by the secular countries which do not want such open expression to be part of the school atmosphere. The problem related to the ban on hijab should be encouraged as a message to this orthodox community. The extremist nature of such social order and racist belief does need to be addressed with firmness abut sensitive approach which is based on education and awareness rather than strong legal imposition. The issue should be addressed as secular issue which has to be made a fundamental pillar which should be presented as an integrated strategy to support the socialist and political issues which can be addressed by campaigns and education conferences. There should be introduction of programmes which support such campaigns and does not directly challenge the d ogmatic beliefs which reinforces religious teaching on and universal platform. The issue is more a socialist issue which aims to remove any strong religious bias which has been associated with the history of racism. The racist issue is another dimension to this problem of banning hijab, which has been a cultural expression which is indicator of oppressive status of women in certain cultural societies and which has not yet been challenged with force and support which is strong enough to break the dogmatic and extremist imposition. The stricture which provides the details of using veil and hijab in Muslim society has been clearly defined and dictated in Quran and has been an indicator of strong oppression toward feminine gender. It is important that people who take the imitative to move out for economic or social reasons to new liberal country would be open minded enough to embrace the progressive nature of the society and give opportunity to their children and women to have equal rights and respect them with civility. This would also allow for their easy assimil ation within the new social network and not make them stand out as different in an inferior sort of manner. It can also be an awkward situation for people who have not seen such treatment to women in their culture to accept such oppressive and discriminatory display by attire in their tradition. This can also lead to hostile situation in which oppression along with racial bias can make the transition difficult for the hijab wearing masses within the new liberal communities. The issue of hijab especially when dealing with extremist approach of the Muslim community who are staunch followers of the teachings of Quoran should be reinforced by the fact that support should be given to women’s right and religious based bias should not impede their children based on cultural and religious and racial impositions. The policy and legal support should reinforce tolerance as well as understanding which would go to an enormous way in making individual rights to have free expression as strong phenomenon which can support the issue with sensitivity and force which can help foster understanding and acceptance. It should be stressed that ban on hijab is to reduce the barrier which is an expression of oppression and gender bias, and the objective is to encourage gender integration and discourage gender segregation. The powerful message of integration would be the key to getting cooperation and support which can help the issue of banning hijab.

British Imperialism Essay

Analyze the ways in which British imperial policies between 1763 and 1776 intensified colonials’ resistance to British rule and their commitment to republican values. Colonial exploration in the mid to late 1700s led to stressful times for some countries. Great Britain was one of them. Their American colonies caused them much grief as they tried to take over their society. The British imperial policies towards its colonies made resistance higher to British rule and their commitment to republican values. The British imperial polices were too strict and caused difficulties within American colonies. The British caused more than enough problems with their colonies to start a controversy. They used mercantilism to try and take permanent control over the colonies. The colonies were to only buy from the British and sell to the British. They also wanted to regulate their imports and exports perfectly so they would import less than exporting to make them look like a high economically successful country. Which they were, but they fixed it to make them look like the superpower of Europe. Another idea they imposed onto the Americans was the dreaded Stamp Act. The colonies didn’t take the act well. They were forced to use stamps on every piece of paper they would use. They also had to buy these stamps from the British only. The taxes were steep and on unnecessary items to the knowledge of the colonies. The colonials knew that these acts were unfair and cruel. They didn’t know how to handle it at the time. Another act that was out of line was the Townshend tea tax. The coloni es became addicted to tea due to the caffeine. It was highly valuable to them. The British then put a lump sum tax on the tea that was being imported to the Americas. The colonies didn’t understand why the British needed so much money. The British then went over the line with the Boston Port Act. This act basically took away all of the colonials’ rights. The colonists called the act, the Intolerable Act, because the British went too far. To top off the colonial anger, the British enforced a new act called the Quartering Act. The act stated that any colonial was to take in British soldiers into their house, feed them and give them quartering. However, the  colonies then began to retaliate against the British. The colonies knew the British had gone too far. The first act they took was known as the Boston Tea Party. On December 16, 1773, Bostonians dressed up as Indians and boarded docked ships, smashed up 342 cases of tea and dumped it all into the Atlantic Ocean. The British then put the Intolerable Act on the colonists. That only gave them another reason to fight back. The unity of the colonists finally formed after the Intolerable Act. Flags were flew half-mast throughout all the colonies and food was sent to Boston all the way from South Carolina. The colonies then formed the Continental Congress, uniting all but Georgia participating. Fifty-five delegates were represented in the meeting to talk about what they had to do. The First Continental Congress met for seven weeks where they produced the Declaration of Rights. Parliament rejected all petitions made by the Congress. The British didn’t want this to go on any longer. They sent troops into Lexington and Concord where the ter rorized the American defense, which was weak and unorganized. The British started a war. The people that were back in Great Britain were rooting for the Americans to gain independence so maybe the British would then realize what they were doing to their own country. The British ruined their colonies and themselves also. The colonies finally were able to break the seal to the road to independence. They knew that the British weren’t running their country very well. They wanted change and unheard of things to happen. The events that happened during the imperial policies of the British turned into a revolution, where the Americans eventually gained their freedom. The British were finally defeated for the first time. If the British never were so harsh to the colonies, the colonies wouldn’t ever have a reason to be resistant to British rule and there would be no independence. Colonialism was a stressful time indeed, but a huge mark on history.

To what degree are we responsible for manipulating our own Essay

To what degree are we responsible for manipulating our own consciousness - Essay Example This essay suggests that changes in that perceptival bias result in different perceptions of the world, different experiences of being, and ultimately a different structure for human consciousness—and that these difference can be, in many ways, better. Too often, we humans tend to believe that sight is a first, most fundamental sense. We map the process of understanding by way of visual metaphors—seeing someone else's point, having in-sight, pushing past old horizons. Even the idea of â€Å"understanding† implies standing upright, a practice that helped early humans differentiate themselves from other animals in part because of better sight-lines. This emphasis on sight has both biological and sociological origins, in that philosophy and art have often emphasized the visual over other senses. As Pallasmaa notes, the â€Å"invention of perspectival representation made the eye the center point of the perceptual world as well s of the concept of the self† (Pa llasmaa 283). And yet, when we are deprived of sight, we do not lose our capacity to think or comprehend. Instead, it turns out the old cliche is true, and that the loss of one sense heightens the others. This is precisely what happened with John Hull, whose loss of sight—his â€Å"deep blindness†Ã¢â‚¬â€was the â€Å"prerequisite for the full development, the heightening, of his other senses† (Sacks 507). ... e â€Å"focus† on sight perhaps because it seems most obviously self-reflective; we can see ourselves seeing, a recursive act not with smell or taste or even sound. But our brains do not treat sight as if it is some singular sense, somehow greater or ontologically distinct from the rest of our embodied lives. Instead, â€Å"there is increasing evidence from neuroscience for the extraordinarily rich interconnected and interactions of the sensory areas of the brain, and the difficulty, therefore, of saying that anything is purely visual or purely auditory, or purely anything† (Sacks 514). In many ways we might even consider this myth of sight's preeminent value less for what it gives us as conscious being and more as what it takes from us. Whenever bias toward one perspective becomes pronounced enough that it begins to exclude other perspectives, or to limit the capacity to imagine alternatives, then the opportunity cost has become too pronounced. This seems to me to be w hat is happening with our culture's ocular-centrism; the emphasis on sight and vision encourages certain ways of being that are unfortunate: A culture that seeks to control its citizens is likely to promote the opposite direction of interaction, away from intimate individuality and identification towards a public and distant detachment. A society of surveillance is necessarily a society of the voyeuristic and sadistic eye (Pallasmaa 287). In today's culture in particular, with its readily available mobile cameras, social media, government surveillance, private surveillance, and the erosion of the cultural norm of privacy, it seems almost impossible to take issue with Pallasmaa's assessment: while we gain as a culture from the perspective we gain from our sense of vision, there is a moment wherein that

Write a reading response based on the this article Essay

Write a reading response based on the this article - Essay Example At one point in the article, Honan talks about how he is going to go out of town and is debating about allowing his location to be tracked during this time period as it would make public that his wife would ultimately be alone for five days. His wife states at one point, â€Å"Youre not going to announce to everyone that youre leaving town without me, are you? A lot of weirdos follow you online."(Honan). I couldn’t help but agree with his wife’s consensus. Although there might not be that many weirdos running around out there with the intent to hurt others, it is still scary to think that someone could easily find out where you are and that you had basically handed out this information voluntarily. In reading this article, I was impressed to see all of the capabilities of technology with apps such as iWant, GasBag, and Wikime, but I also feel like there is an overload of it right now. A lot of these apps just don’t seem necessary and could end up causing more trouble than they are worth. By the end of the piece, Matthew Honan seems to agree with this somewhat when he nearly gets in a car crash because he was placing too much of his attention on his smart-phone and not enough attention on the road(Honan). I concluded from the article that with apps, the phrase â€Å"too much of a good thing† definitely applies. Honan , Matthew. "I Am Here: One Mans Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle ." Wired.com . 19 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.

Niketown as an Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6750 words

Niketown as an Experience - Essay Example As part of this swing toward making everything an aspect of the brand, companies were beginning to recognize the power of the building to promote the brand itself. One of the companies to key into this idea early was The Body Shop, which expanded by as many as 50 stores per year beginning in 1988, even during the years of the recession. â€Å"Most baffling of all to Wall Street, it pulled off the expansion without spending a dime on advertising. Who needed billboards and magazine ads when retail outlets were three-dimensional advertisements for an ethical and ecological approach to cosmetics? The Body Shop was all brand.†2 Another company to quickly realize the potential of focusing completely on developing the idea of brand was Nike. Despite the potential for long-term payoffs, there has often been difficulty in getting business executives typically focused on the current ‘bottom line’ to understand the significant assets architecture and design can be in developing the corporate brand, which, in turn, works to establish the company’s ultimate success. â€Å"While statistical analysis and econometric techniques have been used to evaluate the trade-offs between alternatives, features and prices for products, there has not been a tool to inform the design process of architecture, environmental graphic design and the built environment. However, the ‘fixed assets’ of built environments, especially those of retail and consumer service sectors, are integrally linked to brand identity and equity.†3 The executives at Nike, though, did their homework and revolutionized the architecture/design/brand connection to such an extent that it becomes difficult to draw the line between reta il outlet, entertainment venue and museum.