Human Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Human Nature - Essay Example Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory, which associate motivation with people’s needs, informs my view of human nature. The theory identifies different levels of needs that expand to the macro social environment, but with the aim of meeting an individual’s needs. Self-actualization needs, for example, may lead to macro social achievement such as establishing and managing a social center for the benefit of needy members of a society, but the key drive is an individual’s need for self-actualization (Griffin and Moorhead 86). My view on human’s desire is consistent with Hobbes’ view that factors such as fear and curiosity motivate humans. The view is however contrary to Locke’s view that some aspects in life are unattainable and people should stop striving towards them. This is because Locke’s view undermines motivation (Rosen 8, 9). Based on my conception that people are self centered and may therefore undermine others’ interest, a set of rules that provide for strict and significant penalties for non compliance, is necessary for governing people. Without such a set of rules, however, people may exercise their arbitrary power and undermine other’s rights and

Photosynthesis Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Photosynthesis - Lab Report Example At that point the two factors that are kept constant will act as limiting factors and they will be limiting the further increase in rate of photosynthesis. Method: In this experiment we kept temperature as an independent variable. We cut a piece of elodea and kept it in a beaker of water and anchored it with a paper clip. We placed the lamp 7cm away from the beaker and the lamp was kept at this point throughout the experiment. In order to keep the concentration of CO2 constant we assumed that the CO2 in the water in the beaker remained same throughout the experiment. We changed the temperature of the experiment by changing the temperature of the water in the beaker. We obtained hot water in the beaker by pouring hot water from the kettle in the beaker and we obtained cold water by adding ice to the beaker. We measured the rate of photosynthesis by measuring the rate of oxygen given off by the elodea. In order to measure the volume of air given off we used a photosynthometer. In order to prevent bubbles to appear in the tubing of photsynthometer we kept the tubing in the water. We started out experiment with initial temperature of 40 ÂÂ °C. We used a thermometer to ensure that the temperature of water in the beaker was 40 ÂÂ °C and then placed elodea that has previously kept in dark into the beaker. We used a piece of elodea that was previously kept in the dark because this ensured that the plant had not been previously photosynthesing and it avoided us having unfair results. Once we placed elodea in the beaker we immediately started noting the time it took for 5mm3 of air to be trapped in photosynthometer. The average time taken at 40 ÂÂ °C was calculated and it was noted as 6.5 minutes. The experiment was repeated at different temperatures like 15 ÂÂ °C, 20ÂÂ °C, 30 ÂÂ °C. To ensure constant temperature was maintained during each experiment a thermometer was placed in the

Mycobacterium Marinum Treatment Literature Review

Mycobacterium Marinum Treatment Literature Review Abstract Background Mycobacterium marinum is an atypical mycobacterium that can be found in water environment. It is the agent of a characteristic skin disease known also as fish tank granuloma. In some occasions it can spread as a nodular lymphangitis, extend to deep structures as well as in exceptional cases disseminate systemicaly . The infection is adquired after contact with fish or contaminated water mainly from aquaria or swimming pools. Although the real incidence is understimate, it is a uncommon infection that needs high clinical suspicion to be diagnosed. As a consequence, delay in the diagnosis is common. Mycobacterium marinum is intrinsically a multidrug resistant mycobacterium.There is no clear consesus in the management of this infection. Usually it is managed either with monotherapy or with combination of antibiotics plus surgery in selected cases. Methods Retrospective study of cases of fish tank granuloma collected from 2000 to 2009 in the dermatology surgery of The Hospital of Tropical Diseases (HTD) of the University College London Hospitals. Systematic review of the literature with the terms Mycobacterium marinum and fish tank granuloma from 1999 to 2009. Results From the HTD dermatology surgery were collected 7 cases. Identification of M. marinum was possible only in 5. The response to treatment was good at least in 5 of them. In the literature review there were reported a total of 516 cases. From those 133 could be analyzed as individual cases. Identification was possible in 89.5% of the cases. Cured was reported in 82% of the cases. Conclusion The key of the diagnosis is to collect accurately the history of exposure. Histology, although no pathognomonic, will rise the suspicion if granuloma formation are found and will facilitate the differential diagnosis. Identification is done after culture with classical biochemical tests. Molecular biology techniques have the advantage of accelerate the procedure. There is not enough evidence to propose any specific treatment. Currently, recommendations are based in experts opinions. A prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial would be valuable to propose a base evident treatment. Contents Pages Introduction M. marinum is an environmental atypical mycobacterium ubiquitous in fresh, salt, and brackish water. It is known that infects temperate and tropical species of fish of at least 150 species, including ornamental fish. But also affects frogs, eels, oysters, aquatic mammals, toads and snakes [2, 11]. It cause tuberculosis-like disease in fish, its natural host [129]. The infection in fish has an average incubation period of 3 months. It affects viscera and produce anorexia with emaciation, skin defects, distension of the abdomen, being cause of sudden death [11, 12, 66]. In 1904, Alexander described for first time lesions in a cod fish that were associated with acid fast bacilli. But it was Aronson in 1926 that isolated the bacteria from tubercles of fish that died in an aquarium of Philadelphia. He described the bacilli as acid fast, chromogenic, pleomorphic and growing best at 18 º-20 ºC. Aronson suggested the name of Mycobacterium marinum [130]. M. marinum is as well the causative agent of the human disease called fish tank granuloma, also known as swimming pool granuloma or fish fancier ´s finger syndrome. In 1951 Norden and Linell reported for the first time the human disease in a swimming pool outbreak in ÃÆ'–rebro, Sweden. They described the lesions as chronic papulous ulcerations, usually located in the elbows. The pathogen was isolated from the walls of that swimming pool as well as from the lesions of the patients. They called the pathogen isolated Mycobacterium balnei [131]. It was not until 1959 when Bojalil demonstrated that M. marinum and M. balnei were in fact, the same mycobacterium [132]. M. marinum is the most frequent cause of skin infection among the environmental mycobacterium that affects humans [86, 133]. Nowadays the frequency of human infections is mainly sporadic. But in the past, outbreaks related with swimming pools were not uncommon [134]. As an example, one of the biggest epidemics was in Glenwood springs pool, Colorado in 1956 with 262 cases reported [135]. That was before chlorination became a common practice. Chlorination makes water safer. As was seen recently in Bologna, were water from swimming pools were free of M. marinum. But still could be isolated in 4.5% of the samples from the shower floor of the same [136]. The real global incidence of the disease is not know because the number of cases are underreported, due probably to the difficulties in the diagnosis [94]. It is world wide distributed but with a tendency to aggregate geographically [137]. Like in Chesapeake bay, Maryland, where there is an incidence of 4 cases per 100000 population per year [138]. Meanwhile in California was estimated in 0.27 cases per 100000 adults [139]. Or in Satowan, Micronesia, with an estimated prevalence of 10% of the population [115]. Apparently the global annual incidence remains small and stable [140]. Even though an increase number of reported cases has been noticed in The United States, going from an average of 40 cases per year in the 80s to an average of 198 cases per year in the 90s [141]. What seems clearer is that differing from other atypical mycobacteria the prevalence of M. marinum has not increased with the HIV epidemic [140]. Opposite to humans, the incidence in fish is increasing in hatchery fish, probably due to the high population density of fish. Transmission is possible fish to fish and between fish and amphibians. In addition it has been proposed transmission through eggs and through practice of feeding fish with fish carcasses [140]. There are 2 groups or clusters of M. marinum with different pathogenicity. Cluster I is characterized by producing acute disease and death in fish and also for affecting humans. On the contrary, cluster II only affects fish producing the classical chronic disease with granuloma formation [9]. This is also supported by a study done in Israel were it was seen that only certain strains of M. marinum affected humans. They also demonstrate that in Israel strains affecting humans came from ornamental fish and not from local fish for consumption [5]. The mode of transmission to humans is mainly waterborne and fish borne. Person to person transmission has not been documented [137]. However, It has been described indirect transmission via fomites in at least 3 cases. Two very small children and one infant who acquired the infection after bathing in containers that were previously used to clean the family fish tanks of tropical fish [27, 40, 142]. As other environmental mycobacterium, M. marinum has commonly low pathogenicity. For this reason in normal conditions only affects disrupted skin [8]. The main risk factor to contract the infection consists in having lesions or abrasions in the skin with exposure to non chlorinated water or marine animals infected [140]. The most frequently nowadays is the exposure to private aquaria. But some times the source of exposure is unknown. As a consequence, after the description of cases following injuries with plants, it has been suggested the possibility that could be other reservoirs different from water and fish. Although at the present moment this possibility has not been demonstrated [30, 43]. The incubation period is usually 3 to 4 weeks [135]. Following, the most common manifestation is a cutaneous lesion at the site of inoculation. It initiates as a solitary nodule or pustule that eventually evolutes to an ulcer , abscess or verrucous plaque [143]. It affects more frequently the extremities, probably because the pathogen grows better at low temperatures [144]. The severity of the disease depends, among other factors, on the number of microorganisms inoculated [134] In 20% of the cases the cutaneous lesions spread along ascending lymphatic vessels. This is called sporotrichoid spread or nodular lymphangitis [143]. As a result of direct extension invasion of deep structures as tendons, articulations and bones occurs in 29% of the cases [144]. Systemic dissemination is unusual but has been described in immunocompromised patients [140]. Spontaneous resolution , usually with scaring , has been documented from months after the infection up to 2 years [133, 135]. The diagnosis is based on the history of exposure and risk factors along with the characteristic clinical features. It is supported with histopathology, culture and bacteriological identification that in some cases require molecular biology techniques [94, 120]. The fact is that the diagnosis is not easy and in most of the cases is either delayed or remain being presumptive based in the history and response to treatment. The objective of the treatment is to increase the speed of resolution and prevent progression of the disease [1]. With this purpose different combinations of antibiotics plus the support, in selected cases, of surgery are the common practices in the treatment of this infection. Although the election of the drugs still depends of the preference of individual authors and is not based on controlled evidence [143]. Aims and Objectives The overall aim of the project is to determine the current state of evidence for the diagnosis and treatment of M. marinum infection. Being the specific objective to review the literature and the series of HTD cases with the purpose of suggest appropriate diagnosis and case management of Mycobacterium marinum infection. Material and Methods Cases with diagnosis of fish tank granuloma were review. The cases were diagnosed and treated from 2000 to 2009 in the dermatology surgery of The Hospital of Tropical Diseases of the University College London Hospitals. There were included patients with either culture positive for M. marinum or clinical diagnosis plus response to appropriate treatment. The files of those patients were reviewed and data were collected in a questioner that included: anthropological data, past medical and drug history, risk factors and exposure, description and location of the lesions, spread or deep extension of the infection, incubation period , delay in diagnosis, diagnosis, treatment and evolution (see questioner in annex). Additional information considered relevant was as well collected. A literature review in Medline and Cochrane databases was done. The review included the combination of the following terms: Mycobacterium marinum or fish tank granuloma. It was limited to papers from 1999 to July 2009, English and Spanish literature and humans. The papers obtained in the search were divided in 3 categories. First, case reports in which it was possible to collect data from individual cases. Information of those papers was collected in the questionnaire previously mentioned. Second, case series of 14 or more cases in which data from individual cases was not reported. And finally, a miscellaneous category of papers that were considered relevant for the diagnosis and treatment of this infection. The information gathered in the questioners was computerized in Microsoft Excel 2007. No statistical analysis was done in view of the cases were publish not with this purpose. As a consequence probably important reporting bias would invalidate any statistical outcome. Simple description of the results was done. Results Cases of The Hospital of Tropical Diseases From 2000 to July 2009 there were collected 7 cases with diagnosis of Mycobacterium marinum infection. The 7 cases included 6 males and 1 female and their ages ranged form 31 to 65 years. All the cases admitted to have had contact with an aquarium. In two cases the exposure was occupational. One of them worked in the London Zoo being responsible of the management of the aquaria. The second was a cook in a restaurant that store crustacean in an aquarium. All the cases presented nodular lesions located in one of the upper limbs, six of them with sporotrichoid spread and one with a solitary nodule (see photos is annex). One patient that was taking oral prednisolone due to severe atopic eczema presented with tenosynovitis of the left hand, sporotrichoid spread and palpable regional lymphonodes. The rest of the patients were not immunosuppressed. Biopsy of the lesions was performed in all the cases. However AFB were found just in one case. Whereas cultures were positive in 5 cases for M. marinum. In the other two cases the diagnosis was done based on history of exposure, clinical characteristics and positive response to treatment. Different combinations of antibiotics were used with no clear advantage of any regimen in particular. In 4 patients it was need to change the regiment. The reasons were drug intolerance in one case and lack of improvement in the rest. There was also one case that initially was improving with a regimen of rifampicin plus minocycline. But after simplification of the regiment to clarithromycin monotherapy presented worsening of the lesions. This case was eventually controlled switching to minocycline plus ethambutol. There was one patient who presented a relapse after one year of the previous infection. Finally it was cured with 6 months of rifampicin plus clarithromycin. Susceptibility test was done in 3 cases. It was detected resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and rifampicin in one case and susceptibility to clarithromycin, ethambutol and doxycycline in 3 cases. The average time of duration of the treatment was 6 months with a range of 2 to 9 months. Surgery was not required in any patient. The final outcome was good in 5 patients being the other 2 lost of follow up (see table 1). Case No Age(y) /Sex Medical history Drug history Exposure Location Clinical characteristics Histology AFB results Culture Treatment Duration (months) Evolution 1 9/M No Aquarium Upper limb Multiple nodules sporotrichoid spread Granulomatous inflammation AFB + 1-RIF+DOX 2-RIF+EMB+DOX 3-RIF+EMB+CLR 7 Cured 2 61/F Psoriasis Chronic paronychia Aquarium Upper limb 3 nodules Sporotrichoid spread AFB + 1-MIN 2 Improving Lost of follow up 3 64/M No Aquarium Upper limb Multiple nodules Sporotrichoid spread Noncaseating granuloma 1-EMB+TET 2-RIF+EMB+INH 9 Relapse after 1year 3(*) 65/M Fish tank granuloma Aquarium Upper limb Multiple nodules Sporotrichoid spread 1-RIF+CLR 6 Cured 4 59/M Severe atopic eczema Systemic steroids Aquarium Upper limb Multiple nodules Sporotrichoid spread Tenosynovitis AFB + 1-DOX 2-RIF+EMB 3-RIF+EMB+CLR 4-ERI+MIN ? Lost of follow up 5 44/M No Aquarium Upper limb 5 nodules Purulent discharge Sporotrichoid spread Necrotizing granulomatous inflammation AFB- + 1-RIF+MIN 2-CLR 3-MIN+EMB 3.5 Cured 6 31/M No Aquaria (London Zoo) Finger Solitary nodule AFB + 1-CLR+EMB 4 Cured 7 49/M No Aquarium (Restaurant) Upper limb 5 nodules Sporotrichoid spread + 1-RIF+EMB 5 Cured (*) Notice that case number 3 is repeated. It belongs to the same patient that the one above but one year later. The patient presented a relapse after one year of being cured. Results from the literature review From 1999 to July 20009 there were found 233 results in Medline database and zero In Cochran Library. From those, 127 were considered relevant and consequently analysed in this review. From the 127 papers reviewed, 108 contained case reports and the 19 remaining were a miscellaneous of reviews or original articles covering issues related with diagnosis and treatment. No clinical trials or randomized control trials were found. In those years the literature reported a total of 516 cases of M. marinum infection. From those cases reported only 133 could be analyzed as individual cases. The rest of cases were reported as series of cases (See figure 1). The number of cases reported per year since 1999 up to July 2009 have been variable with a minimum of 6 cases per year in 2004 to a maximum of 88 cases in 2000. No clear tendency to increase neither decrease has been notice (see Figure 2). The majority of the cases have been reported in Europe, North America and South East Asia. No cases have been reported in Africa and only one case in South America (see Figure 3). Results from papers that could be analyzed as individual cases The reports included 82 men and 51 women. The average age was 46.7 years with a minimum of 18 months and a maximum of 87 years (see Figure 4). 70% of the patients had no relevant past medical history. 9% of the patients were immunosuppressed: 5 patients had HIV infection, 4 were recipients of solid organ transplant, 1 patient had a myelodisplastic syndrome, 1 had Non-Hodking Lymphoma and 1 had Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia. Among other relevant pathologies were reported 12 diabetic patients, 11 with rheumatic diseases and finally 5 that were suffering from other problems as: asthma, bullous pemphigoid, myasthenia gravis, Cronh ´s disease and sarcoidosis. The majority of the patients were not taking any relevant drug. However, 20 of them were on systemic steroids, 12 had received steroids as local injection, 10 took methotrexate and 9 TNF-blockers. The most frequent exposure referred was the contact with an aquarium usually of tropical fish, it was reported in 51% of the cases. It was followed in 26 cases (20%) by other kind of contact with fish mainly referred as contact while cooking or cleaning fish. Finally 16 cases (14%) had other kind of contact with water environment. That included mostly fishermen or recreational sailors. Opposite to papers from the 60s, only in 2 patients referred contact with swimming pools. In 15 cases (11%) the source of exposure was not recall or reflected in the papers. Injury related with plants was reported in 3 cases. In one case the exposure was a bucket. The bucket was used to bath a child of 18 months after being used to put fish from an aquarium. As a result the child got infected [40]. History of trauma with skin barrier impairment was referred in 46 cases (71%) of the patients. Among those, 18 cases (39%) recall direct injury with either fin fish, fish hook or crab bite. Occupational exposure was reported in 20 cases (15%). The most frequent occupational risk was to be cook and have injuries while cleaning fish. Another common job of high risk was to work in a pet shop, with the duty of cleaning aquaria. Finally fishermen are evidently in direct contact with water and fish and prone to suffer injures with fish hooks. The incubation period was documented only in 30 patients. It went from 1 day up to 4 months with and average of 48.9 days. The cases that presented an incubation period less than two weeks had in common to have suffered penetrating injuries with fish (figure 5). The upper limbs were affected in 120 case (90.2%), being the fingers the most frequent location. The lower limbs were affected in 11 cases (8.3%). The face in 7 cases (5.3%) and that included delicate locations as nostrils, eyelid and cornea. Finally, cutaneous dissemination was reported in 7 cases (5.3%). Sporotrichoid spread was found in 53 cases (39.8%). Lymphonodes affectation was recorded in only in 7 cases (5.3%) of the cases. The lesions were described as nodules in 63 cases (7%), plaques in 23 (17.35%), papules in 13 (9.8%) and ulcers in 22 (16.5%). There was purulent discharge in 32 cases (24.1%), as well as swelling and tenderness in 37 (27.8%) and 42 (72.4%) cases respectively. Involvement of deep structures was referred in 45 cases (33.8%) of the cases being the most frequent tenosynovitis with 34 cases (75.6%), followed by arthritis with 12 (26.7%) and osteomyelitis with 6 (13.3%). Systemic dissemination with documented bacteraemia was reported in 3 cases. The 3 of them were males from 66 to 87 years. In 2 cases the patients were on systemic steroids, due to myasthenia gravis[103] in one case and polymyalgia rheumatica[62] in the other. Sadly the third case that initially was not taking drugs, after being misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis was put on systemic steroids, infliximab (TFN blocker) and methotrexate [59]. From the patients with invasive disease, including involvement of deep structures or systemic dissemination, 21 (46.6%9 were taken some kind of immunosuppressive drug. Meanwhile only 13 (15.5%) of the rest of the patients were taken them (see figure 6). Other interesting characteristic of the patients with invasive disease was that 15 (33.3%) of them referred direct fish injury. Only 3 (3.4%) of the rest had this exposure (see figure 7). Patients that for any reason were taken immunosuppressive drugs presented different characteristics from the rest of the patients. More than half of them presented invasive disease compared with only 20% of the rest (see table 2). Patients taking immunosuppressive drugs (*) Patients no taking any drugs Number of patients 36 91 Average age (years) 53.2 44.9 Female % 14 / 38.9% 36 / 39.6 % Sporotrichoid spread 13 / 36.1% 39 / 42.8% Involvement deep structures 21 / 58.3% 19 / 20.8% Systemic dissemination 3 / 8.3% 0 AFB positive 19 / 52.7% 33 / 36.3% Culture 33 / 91.6% 75 / 82.4% Bad evolution 2 / 5.5% 3 / 3.3% (*)Immunosuppressive drugs including: TNF-Blockers, systemic steroids, local injectable steroids, methotrexate and azathioprine. The time of evolution until the patients presented for consultation was as short as 4 days and as long as 18 years with an average of 8.6 months. The time until the diagnosis was finally done was only reflected in 17 patients. However the delay went from 21 days to 2 years with an average of 6.3 months. Tuberculosis skin test was only done in 19 patients. From those 86.4% were positive. Biopsy of the lesions was done in 120 cases (90.2%). Aspirate was reported only in 19 cases (1 4.3%). Histology characteristics suggestive of mycobacterial infection with granuloma formation were found in 45.5% of the biopsies. However, only 21% of those were described as caseating granulomas. Other frequent finding reported was mix infiltrates with chronic and acute inflammatory cells. In some cases a wrong diagnosis was done due to confusion with rheumatoid nodules, Sweetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s syndrome, foreign body granuloma or interstitial granuloma annulare (See table 3). Table 3: Histology Findings Histology description Number of patients Non caseating granuloma 19 Caseating granuloma 12 Granuloma( type not specified) 26 Infiltrates of chronic and acute inflammatory cells (lymphocytes , neutrophils, histiocytes) 18 Granulation tissue 6 Abscess formation 9 Necrotizing folliculitis 1 Focal dermal necrosis 3 Fibrinoid degeneration 1 Necrotizing paniculitis 2 Cystic degeneration 1 Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia 4 Acute suppurative paniculitis 1 Fibrinous exudates 3 Lichenoid inflammation 1 Acanthosis in epidermis 2 Necrotic Corneal Stroma 1 Dermal fibrosis 2 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Pseudocarcinomatous hyperplasia of follicles à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Nodular and perifollicular infiltrate of neutrophils and histiocytes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Dermal fibrosis à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Collections of neutrophils within follicles 1 patient with lesions of 18 years evolution Confusion with other pathologies Rheumatoid Arthritis ( rheumatoid nodule) 2 Sweet ´s syndrome 2 Foreign body granuloma 2 Interstitial gra nuloma annulare 2 In the samples collected AFB was found in 41.7%, was negative in 34.6% and was not reported in 23.6%. In total identification of M. marinum was possible in 119 cases (89.5%). Culture was positive in 114 cases (85.7%). The time until the cultures grew went from 8 to 56 days, with an average of 23.3 days. Identification with PCR was done in 19 cases (14.2%). The imaging techniques were useful to diagnose extension of the infection. Radiographies were used in 25 cases (18.7%) to rule out bone involvement. Magnetic resonance imaging was used in 16 cases (12%) resulting in the diagnosis of tenosynovitis, abscess, join effusions or osteomyelitis. About the treatment, 126 patients were treated with antibiotics; in the rest of the cases the management is not mentioned. Surgery was need in 38 patients (84.4%) with affectation of deep structures and in 21 patients (25%)with cutaneous lesions. Monotherapy was used in 54 cases (42.8%), bitherapy in 38 cases (29.4%), triple therapy in 20 cases (15%) and combination of 4 or more drugs in 5 cases (4%). Finally combinations of drugs that included classical tuberculosis treatment were used in 10 cases (8.7%). In 41 patients the regimen of drugs needed to be change, either for non effectiveness or non tolerance. The regiment was change one time in 29 cases (21.8%), two times in 10 cases (7.5%), and up to 3 times in 2 patients (1.5%). The drug more frequently used as monotherapy was clarithromycin, followed by minocycline, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. The combinations of drugs more frequently used were rifampicin + ethambutol followed by clarithromycin + rifampicin and clarithromycin + ethambutol. (Effectiveness of the different regimens depending of the extension of the disease can be seen in table 4) Susceptibility test were reported in 34 patients. Rifampicin was susceptible in 86.4% of the test, ethambutol in 91.3%, clarithromycin in 95% and minocycline in 62.5%. Isoniazid was resistant in 100% of the tests done and streptomycin in 66.6% (see table 5). The average time of duration of antibiotic treatment was 5.4 months, with a range of 12 days to 15 months. After completion of the treatment the final evolution of 109 patients (81.9%) was reported as good outcome or cured. Only in 8 patients (6%) the evolution was reported as bad outcome. No mention about the evolution was done in the rest of cases. Among 12 patients in which long follow up was reported, only one patient presented recurrence of the infection after 3 months course of doxycycline. (Characteristics of the cases with bad outcome are resumed in table 6. Table 4:: Antibiotic Combinations Used Depending On The Extension of The Disease Patients with only cutaneous lesions Patients with Invasive disease Number of patients Effectiveness Number of patients Effectiveness Monotherapy 38 52.5% 16 75% CLR 8 75% 5 100% MIN 10 70% 1 100% DOX 8 50% 1 100% CIP 4 25% 2 50% CTX 2 100% 3 33.3% AZI 3 0% 0 AMK 1 0% 0 ERI 0 1 0% LEV 0 1 0% MOX 1 0% 0 OFL 1 0% 2 50% Combinations of 2 drugs 26 92% 11 83.3% CLR + EMB 6 100% 2 100% CLR + CIP 1 100% 0 CLR + MIN 1 100% 0 CLR + RIF 5 80% 0 CLR +CTX 1 100% 0 RIF + EMB 9 100% 5 60% RIF + CTX 0 1 100% RIF + INH 0 1 100% CIP +DOX 1 100% 0 CIP + EIR 1 0% 0 DOX +CTX 0 2 100% CIP + EMB 1 100% 0 Combinations of 3 drugs 13 72.7% 7 66.6% CLR + EMB + CIP 0 1 0% CLR + EMB + RIF 2 100% 5 100% CLR + EMB +RFB 0 1 0% CLR +CTX + CIP 1 0% 0 EMB + AZI + MIN 1 0% 0 RIF + CLR + AMK 1 100% 0 RIF + INH + CLR 1 0% 0 RIF + EMB + CTX 5 100% 0 RIF + EMB + DOX 1 0% 0 RIF + EMB + MOX 1 0% 0 Combinations of > than 3 drugs 2 100% 3 33.3% CIP+RIF + EMB + CLR + RFB + AMK 0 1 100% CLR + DOX + RIF + EMB 0 1 0% RIF + EMB + CLR + AMK + IMP 0 1 0% RIF + EMB + AZ I+ CTX 1 100% 0 RIF + EMB + CLR + CIP 1 100% 0 Combinations with TB treatment 1 100% 9 55.5% INH + RIF + EMB + CLR 1 100% 1 0% INH + RIF + EMB 0 3 100% INH + RIF + EMB + PZA 0 4 50% INH + RIF + EMB + PZA + CLR 0 1 0% TABLE 5: PATTERN OF SUSCEPTIBILITY Drug Number of patients Susceptible Resistant Indeterminate Isoniazid 9 9 Rifampicin 22 19 3 Ethambutol 23 21 2 Pyrazinamide 1 1 Streptomycin 6 1 4 1 Rifabutin 2 2 Azithromycin 4 1 3 Clarithromycin 20 19 1 Minocycline 8 5 1 2 Doxycycline 6 6 Tetracycline 2 1 1 Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole 6 5 1 Ciprofloxacin 11 6 1 Levofloxacin 1 1 Moxifloxacin 4 4 Gatifloxacin 1 1 Amikacin 9 9 Linezolid 1 1 Imipenem 2 2 Erythromycin 2 1 1 Cefotaxime 2 1 1 Kanamycin 3 3 Ethionamide 3 3 Ansamycin 1 1 The table reflects in how many patients each drug was tested and in how many it resulted as susceptible, resistant or indeterminate. TABLE 6: CHARACTERISTICS OF CASES WITH BAD OR POOR OUTCOME References Age Sex Past medical history Type of infection Treatment Duration treatment (months) Evolution [25] 67/M DM Cutaneous disseminated RIF+EMB+CLR+CIP 3.7 Deceased Secondary bacterial infection [26] 50/M No Tenosynovitis RIF+EMB Synovectomy 3 Dysfunctional index finger [46] 62/F No Tenosynovitis CLR 4 debridements 6 Amputation index finger [46] 26/M No Tenosynovitis DOX+CTX 4 debridements 3.5 Persistent infection Need of grafting [73] 56/M No Tenosynovitis Local gentamicin Synovectomy 3 drainages ? Deformity [83] 47/M HIV infection Osteomyelitis 1-INH+RIF+EMB+PZA 2-Avobe + Fluoroquinolone 3-RFB+EMB+CIP 4-RFB+CIP ? Amputation Knee [88] 60/F NHL Systemic steroids Cutaneous disseminated 1-Ofloxacine 2-RIF+EMB+LEV+CLR 3-Above+STR+IG 4-CTX+MOX ? Continue with signs of active infection [103] 81/M Myasthenia gravis Systemic steroids Cutaneous and systemic dissemination 1-CIP 2-Hyperthermia 3-DOX intravenous 5 Deceased Bone marrow infected by M.marinum Results from papers that contain series of 14 or more cases There were 14 papers that contained series of cases with no available information of individual cases. As a consequence, individual cases could not be analyzed separately. There were 2 papers that reported the same series of cases in different years, the cases were counted just once. The principal characteristics of the papers are described in the table 7. There were 363 cases reported, 68% were males with an average of 44.3 years. In most of the cases the past medical history was not relevant; only 4 cases of HIV infection were reported. The most frequent exposure was to own an aquarium in 134 cases (37%). There was other kind of contact with fish in 37 cases (10%), swimming pool contact in 7 cases (2%) and other kind of contact with water in 58 cases (16%). In the rest of cases exposure was not mention. Finally occupational exposure was referred in 68 cases (19%). The incubation period was not reported. The upper limbs were affected in 245 cases (67%), the lower limbs in 78 cases (21%), the face in 3 cases (0.8%) and there was cutaneous dissemination in 10 cases (3%). Sporotrichoid spread was reported in 46 cases (12%). The lesions were described as plaques in 92 cases (25%) and nodules in 54 cases (15%). Deep structures were affected in 45 cases (12%): 41 tenosynovitis (91%), 8 arthritis (18%) and 3 osteomyelitis (6%). There were no cases of systemic dissemination described in any of the series. The average in the delay until the diagnosis was done was 3.8 months. The drugs more commonly used as monotherapy were doxycycline, minocycline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and clarithromycin. The combinations more prescribed were rifampicin plus ethambutol, rifampicin plus clarithromycin and clarithromycin plus ethambutol. The effectiveness of the treatments were not frequently reported. Consequently is not possible to point the advantage of any concrete regimen (see table 8). The average duration of the treatment was 5 months. Surgery was reported in 73 cases (20%). The evolution was good in 225 cases (62%), poor in 15 cases (4%) and not mention in the rest. There were 5 papers that contained series of cases of atypical mycobacterial infecti

Jim Crow Laws Essay -- civil war, supremacy, black people

â€Å"Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in practice Jim Crow Laws condemned black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities.† The Jim Crows Laws created tensions and disrespect towards blacks from whites. These laws separated blacks and whites from each other and shows how race determines how an individual is treated. The Jim Crow laws are laws that are targeted towards black people. These laws determine how an individual is treated by limiting their education, having specific places where blacks and whites could or could not go, and the punishments for the â€Å"crime† committed. What are the Jim Crow Laws? They are a series of rules and precautions that are directed towards blacks and do not always mean that black people agree with the Jim Crow Laws. First passed in the North, long before the Civil War, such laws were based on the theory of white supremacy. In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to blacks. (A Brief History of the Jim Crow Laws). The Supreme Court decided that public facilities would be separated by black and white soon to be called â€Å"separate but equal†, 1896. Then two years later the court would determine that black men could not vote, the Southern states began to limit the voting right to those who owned property or could read well, to those whose grandfathers had been able to vote, to those with â€Å"good characters,† to those who paid poll taxes. Guess what, this meant that only one percent could pass these new laws. These laws touched everyone. Blacks and whites co uld not work in the same ro... ...ks Cited â€Å"A Brief History of Jim Crow† 30 April 2014 http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow â€Å"Jim Crow Laws† 1 May. 2014 http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/jim-crow-laws.cfm â€Å"Jim Crow Laws.† 23 April. 2014. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1559.html â€Å"Jim Crow Laws-Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.† 22 April. 2014. http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm â€Å"National Council of Negro Women.† 28. April 2014 http://www.ncnw.org/about/bethune.htm â€Å"Separate is Not Equal.† 24 April. 2014. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html â€Å"The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.† 22 April. 2014 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow â€Å"What was Jim Crow† 1 May. 2014 http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

Calvin College Essay

I have a vision of what my college experience will look like. It is a montage of college scenes pulled from books, movies, and my university tours. I see guitar-accompanied picnics and Converse sneakers crunching through leaves on a sidewalk. I see countless chai lattes turning into empty cups during late night essay writing, during which I’m simply adorned in a hoodie and headphones. I see the magic bond that forms between two nervous freshmen roommates as they spontaneously belt out a song in tune with the radio.When I walked through the picturesque Calvin campus, I could truly envision myself in Converse sneakers on my way to conquer an essay with a chai latte and headphones at the ready. I don’t know whether college will look like that or not, but I hope to balance the challenges and rigors of learning, with enthusiasm and a sense of community. I hope that I will have the opportunity to love life, and show love toward others, at Calvin. I am drawn to the intimate ca mpus and dedicated staff at Calvin College because it reminds me of the school in which I grew up.Rudolf Steiner is a small, unique school that has encouraged me to explore, pursue my passions everyday, show responsibility toward my community, and have a familial relationship with my peers. I was encouraged to appreciate music, art, travel, language, and to revel in the triumphs that are possible when a community comes together to share their gifts and talents. It is this creative spirit and sense of loyalty that I hope to bring to Calvin. I want to grow in character as well as in my academics.I want to feel inspired, and to inspire others. Film is my passion and it is my goal to capture enchanting moments, from the purity of a dance silhouetted by a melting sunset, to the quiet elegance of an artist who is surrounded by the bustle of life and yet completely alone with a sketchbook. For me, there are few things more satisfying than being able to portray to my friends the love and be auty that I see in them. I also hope to utilize skills and ideas learned in my Youth Leadership Team experience, and apply them to my Calvin experience.On my church Mission Trip, I was moved by the verse Timothy 4:12 regarding youth and behavior, which is good advice for college students. I am committed to embracing the weightlessness of my youth, while setting a strong and noble example in character. This is what I hope to continue at Calvin. I know that college will be full of challenges and that it may not match my cinematic depiction. I am confident, however, that if I keep my friends close, pursue my passions, and stay in touch with my faith, I will carve out a future that inspires me and touches others in a positive way.

City of Mount Rainier Essay

Neither does the department of Economic Development for the City of Mount Rainier handle nor is it involved with any matrix of the pricing strategy. As the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2006 stated on production, packaging and pricing, production cycle involves a flow from the dealers, employees and customers automatically between the functional areas and internationally. Reduced ‘product to market’ cycle meant to ensure full and on time delivery to customers keeps a business on track by reducing errors, inefficiencies and high running costs. However, the City does offer a mix of products solely based on promoting development of blighted or under used parcels. Thus, it is critical that any incentive or business assistance be directed to accomplish the marketing objectives of the City of Mount Rainier. For example, the city will offer or sponsor Tax Increment Financing, State grants or Infrastructure Grants to developers to increase interest and make the area more attractive. This is very necessary for the City to be able to compete with other local municipalities and the District of Columbia, making it imperative for the City to use incentives for redevelopment of the downtown business district. Especially considering that the addition of businesses will create higher paying jobs, large capital investment, tourism and greater benefits to the local community. With this in mind, its primary objective is to add to the diversity of the current business population, increase essential tax base in the area, and pursue the highest quality of jobs and investment by providing an overall balanced approach to economic development for the City. Organizations channel design. A good organizations’ channel design enables exchange of information and ideas with external or outsourced personnel such as financial assistants, engineers, designers, and other partners. It is a system that provides solutions including help to speed up development processes and enhance further future improvements in efficiency With this the City of Mount Rainier can be able to streamline the entire value chain, including all key suppliers, subcontractors, and service providers. The system platform raises transparency of production processes, permitting them to identify potential problems at an early stage, and to take immediate action. According to Kotler and Keller (2008), â€Å" a marketing channel performs the work of moving products from producers to consumers, overcoming the time, place, and possession gaps that separate goods and services from those that want them† (p. 232). The Department of Economic Development for the City of Mount Rainier employs a two –level channel of marketing with at least two intermediaries. The City’s intermediately roles are that of an agent and facilitator. Attracting entrepreneurs and private investment opportunities is the primary goal of economic development in the City of Mount Rainier. As for the Department of Economic Development, the greatest aspiration is to turn around Mount Rainier, making the City one of the best places in the world in which to start a profession or grow a business. The department is working to reposition Mount Rainier as the next great American city for business investment and economic opportunity. This entails employing a balanced attack with corresponding efforts to improve business development, while pursuing transformative public policy changes planned to enhance the magnetism of Mount Rainier as a place in which to invest. On the other hand, an integrated logistics system consists of materials management, material flow systems, and although the City of Mount Rainier does not use such a system as a tool for economic development, A fully integrated accurate unit tracking system is a critical component of modern customer relations and service that is in use, and it is also important for inventory and cost control. Just like integrated logistics system, it monitors all the key movements of goods and services in any transaction. Tracking of the way financial agreements are facilitated for business assistance is important because the gathered data is useful for financial analysis. In support of business analysis, the system ought to have a tool that provides the reporting intelligently. (OECD, 2006) Business information across all assistants can be automatically converted into business intelligence reports benchmarking the performance of the business transactions. At the same time analysis on dealerships can show the best business practices for individual or the group of partners. Marketing and communication strategy Considering that City of Mount Rainier is recognizing a need for business retention and attraction efforts, they have partnered with other public and private businesses stakeholders to create an Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to promote the City and its business advantages and opportunities to local, regional, national and international markets. The purpose of the EDC is to enhance the economic vitality of the City and its residents through creating marketing initiatives, business retention programs, business attraction efforts and dissemination of information. Created as a public-private partnership, the EDC can generate business leads and opportunities that the City could otherwise not do, furthering development. In addition, this partnership serves as the first line of contact with the public, business prospects and developers who are seeking information about doing business in the City. Furthermore, the EDC facilitates development, cultivates business opportunities and creates partnerships that will result in increased economic development in the City of Mount Rainier. The question remains, which supreme marketing and communication strategy would boost this collaboration for better growth? For any company to prosper in any of its transactions, a strong and optimal management system ought to be put in place. In line with Poirier and Reiter, (1996), success in a company is enhanced by rapid and reliable exchange of data within its group members and with its business partners. This is vital to the further development products and deliverance of quality services. Technically one important communication strategy would calls for a highly effective communications infrastructure that allows effective coordination and management of highly complex, highly flexible development, design and production processes. In line with Poirier and Reiter, on Advanced Planning and Optimization in (1996), the main aims of marketing managers should be to process aftermarket into one system, plan for wide coverage and include all parties involved in the planning process. P. 160) In other words, high-speed data communications have to be one of the engines driving the growth of any organization or company offering services or dealing with businesses stakeholders. Any marketing strategy should take establishment and enhancement of a quality communications infrastructure in it key aims. This is a reliable system that ought to augment cooperation among virtual elements regardless of their position at the time of requirement. It permits all around the globe contribution to projects without duplication or underutilization of human effort or technical resources. Consideration for one of the various information systems and networks is a standard solution that can be tailored to particular needs. A system that supports all the data and allows for data interchange with outside suppliers and other partners naturally always gives a good return on investment. This is not a matter of just laying down the network system within the company. Efficiency, Security, reliability and scalability of the system are some of the vital parts to be fulfilled by a system so as to support diverse access methods and service levels. As Poirier and Reiter emphasizes, a good system is one that can be geared to the needs of each individual supplier and business partner. (P. 160). Needless to say, this new ways of revitalizing the City’s commercial corridors by encouraging continued and private investment, would highly revitalize strategies allowing the city to target its assistance and support in ways that are sustainable at the local level.

The African Roots of African American Religious Culture as Described by W.E.B. DuBois

The African Roots of African American Religious Culture as Described by W.E.B. DuBois Free Online Research Papers The roots of African American religious culture extend between Africa and the United States through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that occurred during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Religion was a reaction to the harsh conditions of slavery and an escape from the abuses of human trade. African American religious culture was an amalgamation of African and American customs, which blended in the most pragmatic fashion to accommodate the spiritual needs of the transplanted Africans. After the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in 1865, African Americans continued with their religious practices and blacks were no longer property, but actual citizens. Being the pragmatic and dynamic force that it is, religion changed and served new purposes for African Americans. W.E.B. DuBois addressed the changes in his book The Souls of Black Folk. In it, he maintained that blacks operated on two separate levels of consciousness or a double consciousness as Africans and Americans. The Oxford English Dictionary defines this as â€Å"a condition which has been described as a double personality, showing in some measure two separate and independent trains of thought and two independent mental capabilities in the same individual† (Double consciousness). I posit tha t only way to deal with this dual state of being is through a religious identity and not through intellectual, social, or academic classifications. This research will identify DuBois’s call for a new religion to accommodate the African American state of being after Emancipation. Scholar Charles Long defies a definition for religion and determines that it is best described as a way to determine ones’ location in the world (Long 7). DuBois asserted that the sense of location was irrevocably disrupted by destroying the prospect of free human labor. Indirectly, this forced former oppressors to acknowledge blacks as a new class of people, and not property. The lack of location left slaves in a crisis of identity. People who were once considered property now had agency. Determining one’s â€Å"ultimate significance† was precarious in the midst of the economic and social upheaval. By the time DuBois wrote his essay about four decades later, former slaves continued to struggle economically and socially as policies in the South aimed against the very humanity of blacks. Changes prompted by Reconstruction left very little stability for the ex-slaves, because â€Å"Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration† (DuBois 198). Without political or financial stability, the state of the black union was precariously hanging on the opinions of bigoted Southerners who wanted to keep blacks oppressed. Nearly two millennia earlier, the Apostle Paul faced a similar predicament in reference to converting peoples whose entire state of mind had to change to accommodate a shifting world. In the Book of Acts Paul addresses a group of syncretic Greeks, who worshipped idols. Paul gave a speech about God’s presence in the Greek’s lives and the reality of creation, saying, â€Å"For in him we live and move and have our being† (Acts 17:28). Paul admonished the Greeks to rely on his god rather than the various idols that they worshipped. The god that Paul describes is a constant force that remains unchanged from creation up until the present. DuBois posed a similar argument in The Souls of Black Folk, saying â€Å"(African Americans) must perpetually discuss ‘The Negro Problem,’-must live, move, and have their being in it, and interpret all else in its light or darkness. With this come, too, peculiar problems of their inner life†¦All this must mean a time of intense ethical ferment, of religious heart-searching and intellectual unrest† (221). DuBois admonishes African Americans to acknowledge the constant in much the same way that Paul urged the Greeks in his speech to find â€Å"real† religion devoid of idols. DuBois points out a major factor in African American religious culture by recognizing the constant of split consciousness between their inherent beliefs and the European American consciousness of the ones around them. Accommodating change meant dealing with the constant of double consciousness and dealing with it. With this in mind, what does African American religious culture look like? How does it feel? How do we know when we have encountered it? A more definitive answer lies in material culture, such as arts and music. In â€Å"The Criteria of Negro Art,† which was written twenty-three years after Souls, DuBois calls on artists to define themselves and break from the constraints of Eurocentric notions of African inferiority. In some ways the ex-slaves were as if they had never left Africa in the eyes of the of their captors and oppressors. The newly emancipated nation of people would never be real Americans in the eyes of the European Americans who once enslaved them. African American religious culture is a response to the question â€Å"who am I?† Geographically displaced artists demonstrated answers to African American cultural and religious practices and embodied questions and answers in their artistic practices. Dubois’s â€Å"Criteria of Negro Art† influenced the Harlem Renaissance and such artists as Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawrence (DuBois). This period is crucial because it marks a shift when African American artists began to use double consciousness to expand on both African and American roots. Michael D. Harris pointed to a model that acknowledges the double consciousness that DuBois and his generation found so problematic (Harris 45). Harris notes further that artists, like Lawrence, made visits to Africa in order to bridge their understanding of the â€Å"African side† of their consciousness (Harris 45). Rather than advocating a rift and jettisoning the African for the American, artists then and now expand their knowledge of both sides of their consciousness. They learned canonical European practices and African practices that enriched their art in ways that created a solution to the â€Å"Negro problem.† The African roots of African American religious culture began in a hellacious state of existence. It was defined by tragedy and loss created by a slave trade that refused to acknowledge Africans as human beings. Their culture was denigrated and they were despised. DuBois in his impassioned essays urged African Americans to deny European deceptions of religion and false selfhood. The fact that DuBois places the term â€Å"Negro problem† in quotes, indicates his oxymoronic style of saying something in an ironic way by using two words to contradict each other. DuBois never considered himself a problem. Out of all of the issues of racism that existed for African Americans, DuBois notes it as a source of inspiration rather than a hindrance saying: â€Å"Such is the true and stirring stuff of which Romance is born and from this stuff come the stirrings of men who are beginning to remember that this kind of material is theirs: and this vital life of their own kind is beckoning them on† (DuBois). He never saw the state of the African American religious culture as a problem but rather a series of solutions. The Harlem Renaissance revealed solutions and they continue to unfold even now as African American artists respond to a dual consciousness by incorporating religious experiences of then and now, here and there. Bibliography Double consciousness. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989). DuBois, William Edward Burghardt. Criteria of Negro Art. The Crisis 32 (1926): 290-297. - . The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Farrington, Lisa E. Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. - . Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude. Womens Art Journal 24.2 (2003-2004): 15-23. Harris, Michael D. From Double Consciousness to Double Vision: The Africentric Artist. African Arts 27.2 (1994): 44-53, 94-95. Lemons, Gary L. Womanism in the Name of the Father W.E.B. DuBois and the Problematics of Race, Patriarchy, and Art. Phylon 49.3 (2001): 185-202. Long, Charles H. Religion, Discourse, and Hermeneutics: New Approaches in the Study of Religion. (n.d.): 1-26. - . Significations. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986. Owen-Workman, Michelle A. and Stephen Bennett Phillips. Readers, Advisors, and Storefront Churches: Renee Stout a Mid-Career Retrospective. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. Pinder, Kymberly N. Our Father, God; Our Brother; or Are We Bastard Kin?: Images of Christ in African American Painting. African American Review 31.2 (1997): 223. Prothero, Stephen. Black Moses. Prothero, Stephen. American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Girooux, 2003. 200-228. Stott, Annette. Transformative Triptychs in Multicultural America. Art Journal 57.1 (1998): 55-63. Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit. New York: Vintage Books, 1983. - . Illuminating Spirits: Astonishment and Powere at the National Museum of African Art. African Arts 26.4 (1993): 60-69. Research Papers on The African Roots of African American Religious Culture as Described by W.E.B. DuBois†19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoBringing Democracy to AfricaHip-Hop is ArtCapital PunishmentCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionWhere Wild and West MeetRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andQuebec and CanadaPETSTEL analysis of India

A Complete Guide to Writing a Marketing Essay

A Complete Guide to Writing a Marketing Essay If you go to college with an assumption that you’ve learned everything there is to learn about writing essays back in high school, then you are in for a nasty surprise. A college marketing essay is an entirely different beast from what you’ve been taught before. In high school, it was enough to rehash the relevant chapter from a textbook and â€Å"express your thoughts†. In college, nobody is interested either in textbook material or in your thoughts unless they are backed up by original research and, preferably, grounded in practice. In this guide we will cover, step by step, how to write a marketing essay you won’t have to rewrite half a dozen times to impress your professors. Choosing a Topic Marketing deals with current problems and issues, which means that you can earn bonus points with your professor or tutor if you find a topic that is relevant here and now instead of repeating the same generalities as everybody else. Here are a few ways to get ideas for a topic: Go to the Marketing section of Quora and take a look at what questions people are asking right now. Topics discussed there are not only current and interesting but often contain usable links to information sources and allow you to get in touch with specialists you can consult; Visit marketing websites like GrowthHackers or Social Media Examiner and see what’s trending; Look for marketing communities in social media, LinkedIn first of all; Read mass media sources like AdNews and AdWeek to spot the current trends; Brainstorming with mind mapping is a fun and surprisingly effective tactic. Write down the general idea of your topic in the middle of a page (it may be just â€Å"Marketing† for now) and start jotting down ideas all around it. Go for quantity, not quality, simply put on paper everything you come up with. Turn off your internal censor and don’t be afraid to write a bad idea – it will help to spur your creativity; Check if it is relevant for your course and you can find enough material on the topic before you commit to it; Narrow down your topic if necessary. Essays are relatively small assignments, not very well suited to discussing broad subjects. For example, â€Å"Social media marketing† is way too vague a topic. â€Å"Facebook marketing campaigns† is better. â€Å"Use of video in Facebook marketing campaigns† is better yet; Discuss the topic with your supervisor and ask if your choice is a good one. It can just as well be a step one – simply say that you want some advice. Your supervisor probably did it many times before and knows what would be the best course of action. However, before you proceed with writing, you should ask yourself a few questions: Do you have access to data relevant for your topic (market researches, consumer reports, current statistics, etc.)? Do you have contacts of people from whom you can get the necessary information? These are not always necessary but can give your essay extra credibility? Is your topic original? You probably won’t be able to find a topic that has never been touched upon before, but if it is something every other student writes about, you will have a hard time impressing your professors? Is your topic relevant? Is it important in today’s world? Can studying it be useful? If you need more specific ideas, consider these prompts – each of them can serve as a basis for a dozen original and interesting essays: Analyze a particularly imaginative and successful marketing campaign and discuss what makes it so; Analyze a marketing campaign that backfired spectacularly and discuss what mistakes were made and how they could have been avoided; Discuss the importance of taking local culture and realia into account when planning marketing campaigns for foreign markets and potential blunders that can result from failing to do so; Compare two marketing campaigns promoting similar products and point out their strong and weak suits; Discuss the reasons why viral marketing campaigns are so powerful and analyze some examples. Tips from Our Experts: Before You Start Writing Gathering Enough Information Just as with any other writing assignment, you start your job with gathering enough reliable sources of information to support your point of view and demonstrate that it is based on existing body of research, not just your own conjectures. In fact, it is best to do a bout of information before you settle down with a topic to make sure you will have enough material to work with. How many sources you need may vary – if it isn’t mentioned in the assignment you should consult your supervisor. Some students decide that the more the better – however, it isn’t always true. Using fifty sources to write a one-page essay is a bit excessive (and makes the professor doubt whether you really used all of them or simply added them to works cited page to make a better impression). General rule of a thumb is this: start with at least 3 sources and add one for each page after the first one. Also, consider the quality of the sources. Although marketing as a discipline is less conservative than, for example, psychology or physics, you still have to maintain certain standards. For example, blog posts aren’t usually considered to be a viable source of information. This, however, doesn’t mean that you cannot use online sources – you simply have to look for them using special academic search engines like Google Scholar. When choosing sources, follow these guidelines: Try to choose the most recent ones. Marketing is a volatile discipline that is subject to quick changes, and data that has been relevant five years ago may be hopelessly obsolete today; Prefer articles published by well-reputed magazines and universities. Irrespectively of their true value, they immediately add gravitas to your argument; Books and newspapers with good reputation are also suitable, although mass media in general are considered less valuable sources than proper academic materials, so don’t rely on them too much; Use a variety of sources without fixating on any one type in particular to make your research more well-rounded; Using case studies is a good idea in almost all situations. Any marketing assignment that uses data about real-life situations is going to be treated better than a purely theoretical work. Do Market Research In order to write most marketing essays you have to prepare at least a superficial market research related to your topic, even if you are dealing with a past case. Its details may vary, but most commonly you should do the following: Study the target demographic of the product or service you research. Before you do anything else, consider who its main intended consumer is. How does the company position the product? Is this positioning in alignment with how it is perceived by the public? Can this perception be changed with marketing methods? Do demographic research. Once you’ve formed your preliminary judgment, back it up with real research. Marketing reports are especially helpful when gathering this sort of info, but you shouldn’t forget about other sources: corporate websites and social media accounts, magazines and advertisements promoting the product. Document the trends trying to use as much objective facts and numerical data as possible. Support your conclusions with quotations from academic sources; Use input from psychology. Marketing isn’t the only discipline that studies advertisements and their influence. Psychology does so as well, and by looking at the subject from this unusual perspective, you can gain valuable insights into the situation: what psychological impact the ads in question have and how they can be altered. Writing Introduction and Thesis Statement Just like any other academic assignment, a marketing essay should start with a thesis statement – that is, the primary idea behind your writing, your viewpoint on the subject you are about to discuss and the purpose of your essay condensed to one or two sentences. Depending on the size of your essay, place thesis statement either in the introduction (in smaller assignments) or in the second paragraph (in larger ones). Be concise and straightforward and avoid vague expressions. However, don’t run the opposite extreme – phrases like â€Å"the topic of my essay is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"the purpose of my essay† are fit for middle school, not college. You should formulate your thesis statement before writing anything else, as the entire essay revolves around it. If by the time you finish writing you feel that your perception of the subject changed, don’t hesitate to come back and alter it to suit the final variant of the essay better. Introduction per se serves a technical purpose – it should grasp the reader’s attention and lead him up to the thesis statement. Use anything that will cause the necessary effect. Here are some tips that will help you write a better introduction: Start with an interesting, probably unexpected fact about the industry in question (e.g., â€Å"Although there is twenty times as many consumers in the country as there are business buyers, the total volume of business market far surpasses that of that of consumer market†); Don’t repeat what you’ve said in the title. Better yet, use something seemingly completely unrelated to it; Keep it short. Introduction should lead the reader up to the main content, not replace it; Don’t forget to point out why your essay is important. Methodology Marketing is more concerned with provable facts and methods used to achieve the results and less with your personal thoughts and opinions on the subject. If you cannot prove that certain results are connected with certain factors, your opinion doesn’t mean much. That is why you should pay special attention to describing how you reached your conclusions: Where did you get your data? What methods did you use for data collection? What statistical procedures have you applied? How did you analyze your information? Why have you chosen this particular methodology (in case you had a viable alternative)? Body Paragraphs The number of body paragraphs, carrying the main content of the essay, can vary, but they are usually written following the same structure (sometimes called TEEL or TEECL): Topic sentence. Each paragraph should deal with a single idea or claim, and it is the job of the topic sentence to introduce it; Explanation. A few sentences to elaborate on the idea or claim in greater detail; Evidence. Back up the idea or claim with proof. This is where all your information sources come into play. Don’t forget that all sources should be cited using the academic style you’ve been assigned with; Comment. An optional yet very helpful part. Think about strong and weak points of your arguments and explain how your evidence supports your claim. Consider potential counter-arguments and answer to them preventatively; Link. Sum up the main idea of the paragraph, point out how it refers to the rest of your argument and why it is an important part of the bigger picture. Conclusion Marketing is all about practical application of knowledge and information, and it is not enough to just analyze the subject. That is why in conclusion in addition to summing up your argument and explaining the value of your research you are expected to offer your recommendations to solving the problem discussed in the main part. Post-Writing Activities Revision Ideally, you should set your essay aside for at least a day or two before revising it. Immediately after you’ve finished writing you are too used to your own words and sentence structures to notice most of the mistakes you’ve made. Better yet, have a trusted friend or a professional proofreader (or both) read your essay and point out all the errors they’ve noticed. However, this doesn’t replace a dedicated effort at proofreading on your own. Here are things you should pay attention to in addition to grammar and syntax: Eliminate any logical inconsistencies you find; Check if you answered all the questions you’ve asked. Make sure your answers are clear, comprehensible and unambiguous; See if you use unnecessarily long and complex words and sentence structures to make your writing appear more scientific. Remove them; Check if you follow â€Å"one paragraph – one idea† rule; Make sure you use passive voice only if it is absolutely necessary; Do you see any unnecessary words, sentences or even paragraphs? More isn’t always better, so if something isn’t needed to convey your thoughts, eliminate it without doubt. Style and Formatting When you are first given an essay to write you are assigned an academic style to use: APA, MLA or some other. You can find most information needed to successfully write an essay using one of them on websites like Purdue Owl. However, getting a relevant style guide is still a good idea. You will probably have most trouble with citations and bibliography page. If you have problems keeping in mind all the requirements in the style guide, consider using one of the websites generating citation entries based on your input. Conclusion Finally, a word to the wise. Don’t put writing off until the last possible moment – it always tends to take more time than you expect. If, however, you manage to finish the assignment a few days before the deadline, take a little break and then reread it carefully. If you find that you don’t like some parts of it, don’t hesitate to cut and rewrite – it may mean all the difference between a passing and a failing grade.

Bill French Case

1. What are the assumptions implicit in Bill French’s determination of his company’s break-even point? He has assumed that there is only one break-even point for the firm’s three products by taking the average. Labor Union will not affect the product prices no effect on the break-even analysis. Constant dividends were given to stockholders. Production of product â€Å"A† will be decreased and the other hand product â€Å"C† capacity will be increased. Sales price will be constant. 2. On the basis of French’s revised information, what does next year look-like: a. What is the break-even point? Break-even point for product â€Å"C† is 354,545. 45 and overall is 1,035,688. 31. b. What level of operations must be achieved to pay the extra dividend, ignoring union demands? In order to pay the 50% extra dividend and to retain $150,000 profit the firm needs $600,000 profit after taxes and because half of the profit goes through the government the firm needs profit before taxes of ,200,000. c. What level of operations must be achieved to meet the union demands, ignoring break-even points? FC + Union Demands/Unit Contribution to Sales Union Demands = (6,750,000 x10%) = 675,000 2,970,000 + 675,000/. 375 $9,720,000 d. What level of operations must be achieved to meet both dividends and expected union requirements? FC + Target Dividend + Union Demands/Unit Contribution to Sales 2,970,000 + 450,000= (300,000(300,00050%) +675,000/. 375 $10,920,000 3. Can the break-even analysis help the company decide whether to alter the existing product emphasis? What can the company afford to invest for additional â€Å"c† capacity? Considering per unit dollar contribution of product â€Å"C† to â€Å"A† is higher, the other factor is sales. And variable income to sales price is higher than C compensated by its lower sales. Increase in production of product â€Å"c† must not incur $300,000 of cost. 4. Calculate each of the three products’ break-even points using the data in exhibit 3. Why is the sum of these three volumes not equal to the 1,100,000 units’ aggregate break-even volume? It’s different because each of the products has different contribution margins, fixed cost, and volume sales. 5. Is this type of analysis of any value? For what it can be used? It allows differentiation of profits especially if the business is not engaged only on a single product. It helps business to identify how much still they have to sell/hurdle to earn profit. A tool that may help an entity set its sales or production target.

Labor Market and Minimum Wage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Labor Market and Minimum Wage - Essay Example ns for their youth the disemployment effects are smaller, and in countries where labor market is regulated the minimum wage standards have the least impact on disemployment (Neumark & Wascher, 2003). Labor demand in the present era is determined by the rapid changes in technology which have placed more emphasis on increasing productivity by dependence on computerization and software rather than the human workforce. This might present an inference that the average labor requirement will decrease as the industries become increasingly technology driven. However this is not true as the change will only be in the quality and not the quantum of workforce, as human input will be needed to run such technologies. Any increase in minimum wage usually affects the employment pattern of a country in a negative manner. The most affected are the younger workforce who usually work on much less wages and therefore become unemployed. The usual analysis of the effects of fixing a minimum wage were usually done by using a ‘time-series’ method where the impacts were studied over a specific period. However the approach misses on some aspects like the relation of data to other contributing factors such as recession and other labor market policies. A cross sectional data analysis approach was therefore preferable to arrive at a more pertinent and accurate conclusion ((Neumark & Wascher, 2003). The authors’ analysis suggested that other factors contributed much more towards unemployment rather than the fixing of a higher minimum wage alone. Recession was cited as one of the prime factors affecting employment patterns. Any increase in the minimum wages makes employment seem more attractive than studies to those in late teens and thereby disturbs the equilibrium. However with the latest trend of changes in the labor market from traditional industries like production and manufacturing to more sophisticated ones like the service industry and those involving technical knowhow like

QuaityEnhancemet Plan (QEP) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

QuaityEnhancemet Plan (QEP) - Essay Example The basic question raised and explored in the work, about human nature are, why human attitude undergoes change according to situations, and why the realization of fact does not help individuals to rectify their mistakes. The author makes use of the central character and his family members to expose human nature. For instance, Gregor knows that he is the backbone of his family. But when he is entangled in a problem, his family members desert him. This fact reveals that utility is the building block of relationships. On the other side, realization of this fact does not help Gregor to rectify his mistakes because it is too late to do anything. The story (say, novella) shares/explores general assumptions that a family must be a safe haven to its members, and must be a social institution. One can see that individuals consider their families as a safe haven, away from the mainstream society. Besides, the mainstream society considers family as an institution, controlled by breadwinners. The story explores the possibilities of family’s role in protecting the members from external and internal problems. In addition, the writer tires to follow the feelings of the central character (Gregor), who is deserted by his family. Still, this negative attitude towards the function of a family is the main reason behind the conflict in the novella. Besides, the author proves that human beings ignore the moral aspects of relationships. One can see that the main character’s metamorphosis alienated his family from the mainstream society. To be specific, the other members were forced to undertake the responsibility of their family. For instance, financial problems forced his father to do work. On the other side, his sister gives up her dream and decides to work as a salesgirl. Besides, his mother was forced to be under emotional turmoil, originating from her motherly attitude towards her son and practicality. Gregor

Definition of a princess or anything else Essay

Definition of a princess or anything else - Essay Example d person just because you haven’t ever had to earn a living and even if you would have then all you would’ve done is, buy the entire Macy’s clothes collection just because to get an opportunity to look down on everybody else...’’ While it is true that I enjoy manicures, pedicures and saloon hair treatments once every forty days but it doesn’t make me a spoiled spendthrift or even a snob and it is also true that I work at the local Hospital as a certified Nurses Assistant where I’m dedicated to taking care of my patients, my patients regard me as a friendly Nurses Assistant. I am a person that enjoys helping out people in every possible way. I would do almost anything to make the lives of others better. I enjoy working for the betterment of the health care profession and that is the reason, why I have been doing it for the past twenty years and I work hard and put my best foot forward to accomplish the best for my patients. Due to my love and kindness for mankind, I’m sure that I would help anybody regardless of caste, creed and color. Therefore, I’m a kind hearted and a hard working person and not a spoiled snob. I’m from a small North Dakota town, and I made my way to Grand Forks after graduating from high school, and in order to feed my family and to save money for college I had to become a conservative person. I was earning more than any girl my age and was not only supporting my family but also saving money for college. Later I continued my education to pursue a career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. This means that I have the patience and heart to take care of other people other than myself. It also means that I have the will to devote my life for the betterment of others. For me, my patients come first and this is very different from the idea of a snob, therefore I’m hardly a cold hearted person who looks down on others. Another reason, why people usually stereotype me is because of my aristocratic looks and ice blonde hair. My good

Human Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Behaviour - Essay Example One might ant to cook in order to appease hunger or to gain compliments from a spouse or to save money which would have been spent ordering food. In keeping with this cause-effect relationship, it does seem very easy to advocate that yes, we only do what we want to do. There is a complication however, which might also be considered an exception; fear. One may also do an act out of fear of the consequences if it were not done. For instance, an all too common phenomenon is thousands of people trudging to their workplaces daily out of fear of being fired or the fear of their wages being cut, or fear of awaiting bills. One may cook at home, continuing from an above example, also out of fear of extra calories or germs that outside food may contain. In such cases, strictly speaking, the individual does not want to act, but does so, since not performing the act would result in an unpleasant situation. Another consideration when attempting to figure whether we do only what we want to do, is the conflict between rationale and emotion. As Hume states, "nothing is more usual in philosophy, and even in common life, than to talk of the combat of passion and reason." The concept of what one wants to do then, would fit into the realm of passion or emotion rather than logic or reason. Hume emphasizes that reason alone can never be a motive to any action, nor can it oppose action in the direction of the will. In fact, reason is simply the discovery of the link between a driving emotion and its eventual desired consequences. (Hume, 1882) It is the knowledge of the fact that a particular thing is desired and will be achieved if acted upon in a particular manner. Thus, if reason figures only as a connection and not a cause of action, and emotions translate as 'want to do', it is easily concluded that eventually we only do what we want to do. In any case, whatever the source of action, the individual's primary concern is a selfish one. Whether an action is performed to create a pleasant consequence or to avoid an unpleasant situation, the basic driving force is a self-centered one. This brings us to the second part of the essay - whether there exist any natural virtues, which do not depend upon consequences or convenience, but yet instigate one to act in a particular manner. Strict empirical scientists would say no; it does not make logical sense for people to utilize their energies and resources without any benefit. Furthermore, it goes contrary to the survival instinct which pushes one to behave so as to obtain maximum advantages. Added, such behaviour, which social scientists now recognize as altruism, if engaged in often enough and by too many people, would completely overhaul the wheels of societies and economies that are governed by gain oriented cause-effect relationships. James Fieser emphasizes that natural virtues, (which include benevolence, meekness, charity and generosity) "are instinctive character traits of the agent which give rise to passions which in turn motivate the will to action." (Fieser, 1997) Artificial virtues, which are learnt or developed include justice, keeping promises, allegiance and chastity, and are evident to different degrees in different people, as Hume professes. Since natural virtues are instinctive, they would also be common to all

The impact to the London from the preparative for Olympic Gme in Essay

The impact to the London from the preparative for Olympic Gme in London 2012 - Essay Example There are several parameters which will come across direct impact of the 2012 London Olympics. The impacts of preparation of London Olympics are described as follows: The London Olympics and Paralympics 2012 will use both the existing facilities as well as the latest new architectural wonders such as 'Olympic park' and 'Olympic stadium' (Construct UK, 2005). The whole process is developed keeping in mind that no 'white elephants' are created while carrying out 2012 Olympics projects. This is also called as '2012 legacy'. The Olympic park(Newman, P. 2007) is being developed on a wasteland near Stratford, which is claimed to be the biggest engineering and construction project in Europe. Significant cleaning up of the 2.5 sq. km contaminated land is already in progress. After the Olympiad is over , the Olympic park will be transformed into an urban park which will be the largest in Europe. The other venues such as aquatics centre, hockey centre and the multi sports arena will lead to the overall development of sports infrastructure in UK. Some of the sports facilities like ExCeL in Newham (which will host Weightlifting, Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, Tae Kwondo and Table Tennis competitions), O2 in Greenwich (Gymnastics); Greenwich Arena (will host Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics), Horse Guards' Parade (Beach Volleyball) and Wimbledon (Tennis) already exists and need only some renovation. While developing the new venues and infrastructure it was necessary to purchase and demolish some business and private sites and properties. This has led to some controversy as the proprietors complained of inadequate compensation. Thus the overall infrastructure development taken place is really beneficial in the long run for the development of UK Impact on transport: The need to get the entire Olympic family as well as the spectators safely and on time to the venue has led to the proposal of improvement in the existing transport system. The main aim is to complete the games related transport improvement work well before 2012 so that people can enjoy the benefits before, during and after the Olympics. The Lower Lea Valley will be transformed into one of the best connected areas in the capital, in accordance with the transport improvement plans, thus bringing economic and social benefits. East London will see long term benefits as a result of this. Rail lines, stations and platforms are being upgraded which will serve the public interest in the long run even after the games are over. The London Underground's East London Line is being expanded; the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line are being upgraded. The new "Javelin" high-speed rail service, using Hitachi 'bullet' trains is being introduced for the fastest surface transit. Buses: The 'iBus' with automated vehicle control systems and a comprehensive communication system will be introduced by end 2008. These buses are particularly helpful to aged, disabled and foreign tourists who have language problems as these are equipped with audio visual systems for information on upcoming bus stop, live information on board the buses. River transport: The inland

Definition of a princess or anything else Essay

Definition of a princess or anything else - Essay Example d person just because you haven’t ever had to earn a living and even if you would have then all you would’ve done is, buy the entire Macy’s clothes collection just because to get an opportunity to look down on everybody else...’’ While it is true that I enjoy manicures, pedicures and saloon hair treatments once every forty days but it doesn’t make me a spoiled spendthrift or even a snob and it is also true that I work at the local Hospital as a certified Nurses Assistant where I’m dedicated to taking care of my patients, my patients regard me as a friendly Nurses Assistant. I am a person that enjoys helping out people in every possible way. I would do almost anything to make the lives of others better. I enjoy working for the betterment of the health care profession and that is the reason, why I have been doing it for the past twenty years and I work hard and put my best foot forward to accomplish the best for my patients. Due to my love and kindness for mankind, I’m sure that I would help anybody regardless of caste, creed and color. Therefore, I’m a kind hearted and a hard working person and not a spoiled snob. I’m from a small North Dakota town, and I made my way to Grand Forks after graduating from high school, and in order to feed my family and to save money for college I had to become a conservative person. I was earning more than any girl my age and was not only supporting my family but also saving money for college. Later I continued my education to pursue a career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. This means that I have the patience and heart to take care of other people other than myself. It also means that I have the will to devote my life for the betterment of others. For me, my patients come first and this is very different from the idea of a snob, therefore I’m hardly a cold hearted person who looks down on others. Another reason, why people usually stereotype me is because of my aristocratic looks and ice blonde hair. My good

The impact to the London from the preparative for Olympic Gme in Essay

The impact to the London from the preparative for Olympic Gme in London 2012 - Essay Example There are several parameters which will come across direct impact of the 2012 London Olympics. The impacts of preparation of London Olympics are described as follows: The London Olympics and Paralympics 2012 will use both the existing facilities as well as the latest new architectural wonders such as 'Olympic park' and 'Olympic stadium' (Construct UK, 2005). The whole process is developed keeping in mind that no 'white elephants' are created while carrying out 2012 Olympics projects. This is also called as '2012 legacy'. The Olympic park(Newman, P. 2007) is being developed on a wasteland near Stratford, which is claimed to be the biggest engineering and construction project in Europe. Significant cleaning up of the 2.5 sq. km contaminated land is already in progress. After the Olympiad is over , the Olympic park will be transformed into an urban park which will be the largest in Europe. The other venues such as aquatics centre, hockey centre and the multi sports arena will lead to the overall development of sports infrastructure in UK. Some of the sports facilities like ExCeL in Newham (which will host Weightlifting, Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, Tae Kwondo and Table Tennis competitions), O2 in Greenwich (Gymnastics); Greenwich Arena (will host Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics), Horse Guards' Parade (Beach Volleyball) and Wimbledon (Tennis) already exists and need only some renovation. While developing the new venues and infrastructure it was necessary to purchase and demolish some business and private sites and properties. This has led to some controversy as the proprietors complained of inadequate compensation. Thus the overall infrastructure development taken place is really beneficial in the long run for the development of UK Impact on transport: The need to get the entire Olympic family as well as the spectators safely and on time to the venue has led to the proposal of improvement in the existing transport system. The main aim is to complete the games related transport improvement work well before 2012 so that people can enjoy the benefits before, during and after the Olympics. The Lower Lea Valley will be transformed into one of the best connected areas in the capital, in accordance with the transport improvement plans, thus bringing economic and social benefits. East London will see long term benefits as a result of this. Rail lines, stations and platforms are being upgraded which will serve the public interest in the long run even after the games are over. The London Underground's East London Line is being expanded; the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line are being upgraded. The new "Javelin" high-speed rail service, using Hitachi 'bullet' trains is being introduced for the fastest surface transit. Buses: The 'iBus' with automated vehicle control systems and a comprehensive communication system will be introduced by end 2008. These buses are particularly helpful to aged, disabled and foreign tourists who have language problems as these are equipped with audio visual systems for information on upcoming bus stop, live information on board the buses. River transport: The inland

American Films and Backhoe Operators Essay Example for Free

American Films and Backhoe Operators Essay Analysis Jim worked as a laborer for a gas utility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. When the opportunity came to apply for a backhoe/front-end-loader operator job, he was excited. Three people applied. To select the one who would get the job, the company asked each of them to go out and actually work on the backhoe for a day. Jim felt his chance for the job disappear because he had never even driven a tractor, let alone used a backhoe. When he went out, he did not know how to start the tractor. One of the other backhoe operators had to show him. He managed through the day, and to his surprise, did better than the others. He was given the job. On his first day at the new job, one of the other backhoe operators showed him where to check the hydraulic fluid and said, â€Å"These old Masseys are foolproof. You will be okay. † Jim taught himself how to dig a hole by trial and error. He initially believed that the best way was to fill the bucket as much as possible before lifting it out of the hole and emptying it. He would wiggle the bucket back and forth until it was submerged and then curl it. When it came out of the hole, the earth would be falling off the sides. This job was not so difficult after all, he thought. He cut through his first water line about two weeks after starting his new job. Going into a deep, muddy hole did not make the crew happy. After Jim cut through his third water line, the crew chief pulled him aside and said, â€Å"You are taking too much earth out with each bucket, so you don’t feel the bucket hitting the water line; ease up a bit. Water lines were usually six to eight feet down, so Jim would dig until about four feet and then try to be more careful. It was then that he pulled up some telephone lines that were only about three feet deep. Realizing that more was involved in operating a backhoe than he first had thought, he sought out Bill Granger, who was known to have broken a water line only twice in his 15 years. It was said that he was so good that he could dig underneath the gas lines—a claim that Jim doubted. Bill said, â€Å"You need to be able to feel any restriction. The way to do that is to have more than one of your levers open at the same time. Operating the bucket lever and the boom lever at the same time reduces the power and causes the machine to stop rather than cut through a line of any type. † Jim began to use this method but still broke water lines. The difference now was that he knew immediately when he broke a line. He could feel the extra pull, whereas in the past, he found out either by seeing water gushing up or by hearing the crew chief swearing at him. He was getting better. Jim never did become as good as Bill Granger. In fact, two years later, he applied for another job as gas repairperson and was promoted, but the training as a gas repairperson was not much better. Case Questions 1. What are the potential costs to this lack of training? Why do you think the company operated in this manner? 2. What type of training would you recommend: OJT, classroom, or a combination? Describe what the training might entail. 3. What type of training environment would you provide? 4. Who would you get to do the training, and why? 5. Would you consider purchasing a training program for backhoe operators? Provide your rationale.

Sexism In English Language English Language Essay

Sexism In English Language English Language Essay Sexism in language represents one of the major issues in sociolinguistic studies. As a phenomenon of society, sexism is reflected through language that expresses inclination in favor of one sex and treats the other one in a discriminatory manner. Characteristically, the bias is in favor of men and against women. Thus, the language is presented as a powerful tool of patriarchy. Even though in English-speaking countries all the people are considered equal, discrimination against women exists and this fact is observed in language. Given this evidence, the purpose of the research is to study morphological, syntactic and semantic peculiarities of English sexist language. The research proposal will therefore seek to explore and investigate the following: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To define the concept of sexist language; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To identify and evaluate the cultural factor, social factor, physiological factor and psychological factor which influence the existence of sexism in English language; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To examine the elements of sexism in the English language which occur in the syntax, morphology and semantics of the language; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To determine the strategies for avoiding sexism in English language. The main method applied in this study is a literary overview of the works in which is treated the topic Sexism in English language. The theoretical framework which influenced the elaboration of this research for the deeper insight into the problem of morphological, syntactic and semantic peculiarities of English sexist language is based on the relevant and recent works of such authors as Peter Trudgill in Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, Nilson, Alleen Pace and Haig Bosmajian, H Lee Gershung, Julia P Stanley in Sexism and Language, Nneka Umera-Okeke in Linguistic Sexism: An Overview of the English Language in Everyday Discourse and Hudson, R. A. in Sociolinguistics. These books were selected for the present research as they investigate the phenomenon of sexism in English language and they are recent studies from sociolinguistic domain. On the basis of their ideas concerning elements of sexism in English language, I will analyze and compare their assumptions and evidences about the topic under the discussion. Consequently, I will outline the similarities and differences between their points of view concerning the topic. In addition to this, I will try to determine if they contradict or share the same ideas about the problem investigated and if their arguments are reasonable and trustful, in order to clarify if English language is a sexist one, and if it is to examine the elements of sexism in the English language which occur in the syntax, morphology and semantics of the language. The motivation for choosing the topic of this research proposal is based on the fact that during the last decades a lot of questions and criticisms of  sexist language  have appeared, trying to identify whether English language is a sexist language or it does not. Thus, it would be relevant to perform a linguistic investigation of morphological, syntactic and semantic peculiarities of sexist language. On the basis of this investigation, we will identify the role language plays in the society and how it influences the social attitudes of human beings. Taking into account the fact that women were regarded as a weaker gender in society, being discriminated for a long time, it seems interesting and challenging to explore this topic in order to identify whether this stereotyped social phenomena or subordinate status of women in society is reflected and preserved in language. Due to the fact that many students encounter difficulties in determining the gender of the nouns, the results o f this research will help them to distinguish between the common gender, female gender and male gender of the words and to justify their use. This research could serve as a didactic material for teachers of sociolinguistics and help investigate the main morphological, syntactic and semantic peculiarities of sexist language. Definitions of Sexist Language One of the most important factors in the development of the world is language, which can be interpreted as a human creation. Taking into account the fact that humanity is divided into two spheres: the sphere of males and the spheres of females, it can be revealed a major ambiguity concerning the subject if the language is made by men or by women. Even though, English countries claim that all people are born equal, there are a lot of inequalities between men and women. It is put stress on this topic because according to sociolinguistic research, this inequality is reflected in language and this phenomena sexism in language represents one of the major issues in sociolinguistic studies. According to Hudson, sexism in English languages has existed for a long time, which is reflected of the traditional ethics that men are superior to women [x; 38]. In this order of ideas, Deborah Cameron work, reveals that Men originate from Mars and Women originate from Venus [10]. Given this evidence, it can be seen that some gender differences do exist. Support for this interpretation comes from Peter Trudgell, through his work Sociolinguistics: An introduction to language and society [7; 100], who confirms that males are above females, due to the fact that in the past there existed the myth of superiority, when the entire power was in the hands of men. Thus, as a special social phenomenon, sexism is inevitably reflected through language and sexism in language reflects sexism in society. But, with the raise of womens liberation, and the development of mass media, the whole English words start a social revolution to eliminate the sexism in the English language, because sexism in the English language is seen as a discriminating act of women. This point is particularly relevant for Nneka Umera-Okekes study Sexism in English Language, who asserts that sexism is a kind of discrimination by one sex against the other, especially by males against females [4; 7]. Applied to language, Rob in Lakoff underlines that a sexist language takes a male-as-norm attitude, while female norms have a less positive connotation than males. Thus, Robin Lakoff uses the example of master vs mistress to make the point: there are unequal  connotations  that surround these two matching terms and to the detriment of the female Master has strong and powerful connotation, while mistress does not [2; 67]. This evidence seems to indicate that a sexist language also presents stereotypes of both females and males, but more often to the disadvantage of females. A fuller discussion about sexist language appears in the study Beginners Guide to Language and Gender. Multilingual Matters, 2008, by Allyson Jule, who claims that a sexist language depicts women in the position of passive object rather than active subject, such as on the basis of their appearance (a blonde) or domestic roles (a mother of two) when similar depictions in similar contexts would not be made of men [1; 65]. On this basi s it may be inferred that sexist language discriminates against women. Research by Nneka Umera-Okeke, Linguistic Sexism: An Overview of the English Language in Everyday Discourse, suggests that sexist language is considered to be any language that is supposed to include all people, but unintentionally (or not) excludes a gender -this can be either males or females. It is clear therefore that a look at sexist language is finding the relation between language and gender. A more plausible explanation for this phenomenon would refer to the moment when many people meet difficulties of making the choices between certain words in their everyday discourses. For instance, they wonder which to choose the chairman has arrived for the meeting or the chairperson has arrived when referring to a woman. This fact lends weight to the argument that a sexist language excludes women and trivializes what women do [4; 32]. Sexist language is especially common in situations that describe jobs-common assu mptions include that all doctors are men, all nurses are women, all coaches are men, or all teachers are women. These examples lend strong support to the fact that a sexist language transmits the stereotypes. Ivy and Backlund state that a sexist language refers to the attitudes/behaviors that denigrate one sex to the rise of the other. [5; 123]. Given this evidence it can be seen that sexist language is a verbal communication that transmit those attitudes and behaviors. Additionally to this, a sexist language can be viewed as an instrument used by the members of the society to damage someone. Cameron rightly points out that a language can be called sexist if it represents or name the world from a masculine viewpoint. This means that language encodes a cultures values, and in this way reflects sexist culture [10]. The opinion of Parks Roberton concerning the definition of sexist language is that words, phrases, and expressions that unnecessarily differentiate between women and men or exclude, or diminish either gender [5; 127]. In other words, sexist language refers to the use of language expressions in such a way that it constitutes an unbalanced portrayal of the sexes. Hyde has drawn attention to the fact that in a sexist language he and man refer to everyone [3; 73]. This fact becomes clear when Slovenko examines English language stating that except for words that refer to female by definition (mother, actress, Congresswoman), and words for occupations traditionally held by females (nurse, secretary, prostitute), the English language defines everyone as male [6; 78]. Concluding this subchapter designed to the analysis of the definitions of sexist language, it can be entailed the fact that the sexist language excludes, marginalizes or discriminates against people on the basis of their gender and creates an unfair distinction between women and men. Sexism in language in general comes in three major forms: language ignores women; it defines women as less significant than men; and it completely opposes women. They can be located in the generic masculine terms. Thus, the sexist language is the use of words that cultivate stereotyped gender roles. The Factors of Sexism in the English Language Sexism in English is built up during a long period of the development of language, which leads to the variety of the causes. Thus, in the study An Analysis of Sexism in English Language, there are enumerated four factors which cause the appearance of sexism in language: [11]. Religious Factor According to the Holy Bible (The Books of The Old Testament), God created man first of all, while woman made from one of mans ribs was created just as a help meet for him [Holy Bible]. From the order of the birth, it is obvious to see the different importance of man and woman. Thus, man and woman are not equal at all because woman is only a part of man, which itself is the discrimination against women. Additionally to this, it is known the fact that the first sin was also committed by the woman. Consequently, the woman was punished to bring forth children in pain and was ruled over by the man. These two examples reveal the superiority of men and inferiority of women. In fact, the Holy Bible is actually a book of men and as Christianity is such a powerful religion in Western countries, it is clear therefore that this religious factor consolidate the inferiority of women. Physiological factor Due to the fact that men are stronger than women from physiological point of view, it can be stated that this fact determines that men play a more and more important role in social and economic lives. A mans job is to work outside but a womans job is to stay at home, do the housework and take care of the children. Women are treated as the weaker ones and they realize their own values through their marriages to men. At last, women are lower in status. They have to leech on to men and are dominated by men. Gradually, people begin to discriminate women and think that they are inferior in intelligence. This wrong perspective reflects in language [7; 37]. Social Factor Feminists all claim that we live in a patriarchal society: a society of men, ruled by men and for men. Patriarchy depicts men as the perfect norm against which women are measured and found lacking. Both the Western and Eastern societies use sex, to one degree or another, in allocating tasks, activities, rights, and responsibilities. As for the job done by men and women, there is a long-stereotyped notion of what they can do. In history, there has been a division of labor-a division in which womens place was restrained at home for housework and child-care while men worked outside being the breadwinner. At last, men had dominance over women, and women had to be dependent on men. This was the turning point for women. Thus the sexism in the society has been in existence, the embodiment of which is necessarily the sexism of language. Guimei He in his work An Analysis of Sexism in English, adds that this factor is in a strong correlation with labor division [11]. Psychological factor Because of the social and cultural factors, women are always considered to be the weak. People treat women as inferior to men. They educate men to be manly, decisive, and brave while women are required to be polite, conservative, obedient, and gentle. Because women are in subordinate status in the society, they have to constrain their emotion and give up their own need to meet the satisfaction of men. As time passes, when speaking women pay more attention to the elegance and standard of language than men. They use more pleasant and polite words in the hope that they can receive others approval. And they are taught to speak softly, to avoid contradicting others, to be obedient in communication, and to be aware of giving cues of strong confidence. They mould themselves to be inferior in their potential sub consciousness. Therefore, women try their best to strengthen their social status through their speech than men do. This also suggests that women are in a lower position in the societ y. Additionally to this, Xiang Xu in his study The Sexism in English and Its Rebuilding, claims that history development also had a strong influence to the appearance of sexism in language. Thus, he exemplifies that from ancient time on, the ruling position in western society is almost held by male persons. After climbing to the high position, men began to look down upon women. This attitude could influence the ideology of the whole society. So lots of men-central terms with sexists color came into being during the stage of English forming. In the 14th century, Chaucer, who is concieved as the Father of English language, created a great deal of terms, later, Milton and Shakespeare competitively invented new words. They contributed a lot to English, at the same time, the negative side they brought cant be ignored. These famous males contribution to English who were living in males society, accelerated the extensive transmission of the language of sexism [9; 101-103]. 1.3 Elements of Sexism in English Language In order to identify if English Language is a sexist language, we are going to focus on the identification and examination of elements of sexism which occur in the syntax, morphology and semantics of English Language. 1.3.1 Morphological Peculiarities of Sexism in English a) Derivation In English Language, derivation is a way of word formation with the help of derivational morphemes affixes and suffixes. It forms a word with meaning and category distinct from that of its base through the addition of an affix. These affixes often change the part of the stem. Thus, affixes help us to identify relationships within words. The affixes are always bound morphemes, which carries information about meaning or function. Referring to the English lexicon, Guimei He in his study An Analysis of Sexism in English, claims that in the English lexicon one of the most obvious evidences of the sexism is the affixes which lead to a view of women as a derivation from a male term [11]. The feminine one is always derivative of the masculine one by adding a feminine suffix such as -ess and -ette. Actor, for instance, with the meaning of a person who plays the part of a character in a movie or play ,when attached to a feminine suffix -ess, becomes actress with the meaning of woman with profession similar to those of actor . And as for -ette, when usher is adhered to -ette, it becomes usherette. Such pairs of the words are of long lists in English lexicon. Here just list some of them: Masculine Feminine ambassador ambassadress duke duchess Rovano lends weight to the argument that this kind of word-formation seems to tell that women are derived from men and attached to the men [3; 72-28]. On this basis it can be inferred the fact that the addition of a feminine suffix to masculine human agent nouns usually does more than simply change the gender reference of the word, it often attaches a meaning of triviality, of lesser status or dependence to the term. It shows that woman is affiliated to man, so it is a kind of linguistic discrimination against women. But with further insight into the meaning of such pairs, Randall mentions that stereotyping in the terms  governor  and governess, and  bachelor  and  spinster, the masculine and feminine forms have vastly differing connotations [8; 129]. Thus, he exemplifies that the suffix-ess not only marks the secondary position of the feminine words but also connotes the relationship between the female and male reference to the pair of words. Let us compare the pair of governor with governess. Governor is a ruler of a country, city and associates with power and high social status as well as honor and dignity; while governess is a woman employed to teach young children in their home. Because of the gender differentiation, these two words have dramatically different meanings, the masculine one of which belongs to high social class, but the feminine one marked with -ess belongs to a lower social class. By making observation of many feminine words, which are formed through derivation by adding the suffix-ess, it must therefore be recognized that -ess is far a suffix marking the female category, it has semantic meanings. Preference for but discrimination against female can be clearly seen in ways of word formation. Another aspect, touched by Trask I his study, concerned with this point is that English sex-paired words (here referring to the pair of words with gender contrast) the masculine one has greater flexibility in word-formation and mainly has a wider distribution of meaning [7; 39]. Take the pair of man and woman for instance (man and woman here are roots in the process of word formation). Manhood has three meanings in the Oxford Dictionary. (1) state of being a man, (2)qualities of a man, eg. courage, manliness,(3) a men of a country, while womanhood only has one meaning concept of state of being woman [12]. By comparison, it is clear that manhood has two more meaning concepts than womanhood. What means by having more meaning concepts? According to Trudgill, words are symbol of physical entities in reality [7; 39]. In this sense, the masculine words with much more meaning concepts reflect that men have more chance in social activities and in turn a more efficient way to express them selves and reinforce the masculine imagery. It comes to a conclusion that masculine words are common and general, while feminine words are mainly formed by attacking suffixes on the basis of the masculine words. b) Compound Words Another common way to build words in English through the combination of lexical categories is compound. Greenberg presented a taxonomy of gender for languages. In addition to languages that are without gender, languages are said to have either semantic (also called natural) gender or grammatical (also called anomalous) gender [4; 13]. Thus, he stated that English itself has no difference of gender. Many professionals such as doctor, engineer, lawyer, professor, judge, and surgeon can be used to indicate both males and females. However, actually due to the long-stereotyped view of the relationship between gender and profession, such word conventionally refers to one gender, either male or female. Since occupational terms in English are often seen as a source of perceived sexism, McMinn et al. (1990) administered a test to check for the use of sexist language among college students [1; 67-68]. In written and oral protocols subjects were asked to respond to the following occupational terms, which had been placed in non-sexual contexts:  business executive, nurse, professor, truck driver, librarian, robber, bank teller [10]. Their study shows that sexual bias in English goes beyond grammatical marking, that is, that simply finding terms unmarked for gender will not disabuse language users of their sexual stereotypes For example: (1)My cousin is an engineer. (2)My cousin is a nurse. Nine out of ten come with the first response that my cousin in sentence (1) is male and in sentence (2) female. Only one of all ten tells with hesitation whether my cousin is female or male. Professions involving power and strength such as president and chairman are more likely to be associated to men, because these satisfactory jobs are traditionally viewed as ones qualified only by males. But when indicating females position, professions, etc, these words are created by adding a bound morpheme or by combining them with a word referring to female, a compound form of combination of a female title such as woman, female, lady or madam and the professional term comes into use, for example, woman lawyer and madam chairman. On the other hand, professions involving patience, service or lower social status are more likely to be associated with woman, for example, nurse, dressmaker and secretary. If on special occasions a male involved, then the compound form of a masculine title male or man and a professional term is used for example, newsman, policeman, businessman, fireman, salesman, fisherman, etc. It makes clear that men monopolize the high status professions. Women can only do service work or low social status work. Take the compound word callboy and call girl for example. The former refers to the waiter in hotel or the person who calls the player ready to stage in theatre; the latter means the prostitute summoned by phone. These words have manifested the discrimination of language towards female from the angle of word matching. Using compound forms to specify professions between men and women is somehow a reflection of the reality that women are exclusive from professions with higher social status and to some extent the form of language usage in turn reinforces such a social phenomenon. 1.3.2 Syntactic Peculiarities of Sexism in English a) Generic Pronouns In English there are a group of nouns of common gender, which refer to either male or female such as student, person, teacher, etc. When such nouns are used with generic reference in single form, the traditional grammar advocates using the masculine pronouns in the context for the purpose of coherence with generic nouns [4; 12-14]. Generic pronouns are pronouns that are said to refer, with equal likelihood, to women and men. But the English language ignores women by allowing masculine terms to be used specifically to refer to males and commonly to refer to human beings in general. The generic pronoun he is perhaps the most well known example of the gender-specific of sexist language, and is frequently referred to be he/man language. The most significant manifestation of the sexism is in the use of generic masculine pronouns he and its variants his, him and himself in such sentences as: (1) If one wants to see the ruins, he must find his own guide. (2)  He who laughs last laughs best. (3)  Everyone must do his homework well. (4)  Everyone should learn to solve problems himself. In the above examples, he, his, him and himself are used not sex-specifically, but generically, that is, although the pronouns refer grammatically to the single male citizen, they should be taken to refer to both male and female citizens in general. On the formal occasions, he, him or his can be used to refer to such indefinite pronouns as each, everyone, everybody, no one, someone, anyone and so on. While she, her, herself dont have such usages.  Ã‚  In other words, the masculine pronoun is the representative either female or male reference. Thus, it seems like a linguistic edition of the social inequalities. b) Generic Nouns Another well-known example of generic masculine term is man. Man and woman as two equal components of human race are actually not equal in English lexicon. Man, besides its reference to male human being can also refer to the whole race. The usage in a general sense of man makes woman invisible. For example; (1) All men must die. (2) Man is a social animal. It is easy to see that man, and men can be used generically to refer to both male and female. But woman and women cannot be employed in reference to men. When man appears in discourse, it is commendatory and positive in main circumstances [3; 75-76]. Look at the following idioms: (1) be man enough: brave enough (2) be oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s own man: be able to arrange and decide things independently. However, situation involved woman is quite different: Look at the following examples: (1) Wine, women, and song: drinking, dancing, etc, and enjoying oneself (2) Make an honest woman of somebody: marry somebody having had sexual relationship with her. In the English language, some words referring to female firstly are commendatory words, but afterward slowly have derogatory senses. Survey in the dictionary on the illustrative idioms of man and woman as a quantity observation, derogation of woman is clearly seen. There are totally 33 illustrative idioms for man, of which 15 are with positive meaning, five negative and the rest are neutral with five shared by both man and woman in structure and meaning; While in case of woman, there are only 8 illustrative idioms of which five shared with man in structure and meaning, the rest are all derogatory. From this, one can know that in English using man or men indicates the human race, they treat man as the center of the society, an embodiment of criterion and totally ignore the existence of woman. c) Word order Graddol, D.Swam,J. in their study Gender Voices attest the fact that sexism in language is also reflected in word order. When men and women are presented together, usually words denoting male sex are put in front of female sex. Making females come second reflects the sexist attitude that men are superior to women [6; 71]. 1) Good morning, boys and girls Such a language phenomenon seems to appear so natural as to be widely accepted as a language norm.  In 1553, Wilson insisted that is more natural to place man before woman, as in male and female, husband and wife, father and wife. His point lends weight to the argument that males come first in the natural order, and this is one of the first examples of a male arguing for not only just the superiority of males but that this superiority should be reflected in the structure of language [8; 110-111]. However, Atkinson, K. claims that there are also cases in which male-female order is reversed, for example bride and groom, and ladies and gentlemen. He explains this phenomena by stating that marriage is important to women and the latter is influenced by the notion that men should protect women. Putting ladies before gentlemen doesnt show that women are more superior to men or ladies first, but indicates that in mens mind, women, the same as children, are the weaker ones [4; 167] 1.3.3 Semantic Peculiarities of Sexism in English 1.3.3.1 Semantic derogation of women The study of Cameron, D. in his work Language, Gender, and Sexuality: Current Issues and New Directions is relevant for the reason that he states that language has a tendency to neglect women, treat women as submission and also demean women. The process of words that refer to women acquiring demeaning or sexual connotations has been widely observed, and has been called semantic derogation [10]. 1.3.3.2 Non-parallel semantic developments of paired terms Hudson, R. A claims that words become negative when shifted into the female sphere, while male has remained pure and neutral [1; 34]. For example: King and Queen The first noun is masculine, the other feminine and both mean ruler of an independent state. However, king has preserved its initial meaning, but besides the core meaning of queen, queen is also used as a disparaging term for a gay or sexual man. Master and Mistress Both of them indicate someone who possesses and/or has power over someone or something else. For example: He is my master. usually means He is my boss. or He has more power than me. While She is my mistress. is more likely to be interpreted as meaning She is my illicit lover. Mistress originally refers to a woman in a position of authority, control, and ownership, as the head of a household like a housekeeper, but it implies a woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a usually married man who is not her husband and from whom she generally receives material support.   1.3.3.3 Semantic collocation and change a) Semantic collocation   Fromkin, V., R.Rodman N.Hyams asserts that in English, a word may have different connotations when it is used to describe different sexes [6; 73-79]. For example: a.  He is imposing. b. She is imposing. Sentence a) means He is impressive and admirable. While sentence b could be interpreted to mean that She is disgusting and apathetic. When the sex changes, so does the meaning. Loose seems a neutral word for both male and female. But a loose woman reminds people of a woman considered being sexually promiscuous whereas a loose man just means a casual man. b) Semantic change Besides, words, which begin with either neutral or positive connotations over time, acquire negative implications and finally end up as sexual slurs. For example, the term hussy derives from Old English huswif (housewife), which means the female head of the house. The term gradually deteriorated to a rustic rude woman and finally comes to mean an indecent, impudent woman or prostitute [3; 78]. Strategies for Avoiding Sexism in English Language Any form of sexist language, whether on purpose or not, will probably stand off or offend some social member or group. Language and language use mirror social attitudes and stereotypes and bias. Along with the womens liberation movement, people began to realize the importance of the language reform and desexism becomes necessary. This evidence raises the question: Should sexist language be changed or avoided? The answer is definitely positive. In her early discussions of sexist language, Renshaw presents an article entitled Twenty-nine ways you can help eliminate sexism i