Chinese Parenting vs. Western Parenting

English 101 Prof. Shapiro Chinese Parenting vs. Western Parenting Everyone who has come to America came for specific reasons: to make a living, to raise a family and, moreover, watch their children do the same. I grew up surrounded by family that only spoke about getting the best education, so that when we grow up we would be someone who carries on the family name, be someone who is renowned, that pronounced that whatever we were to thrive for throughout our lives, to make the best out of it. Just like Asian parents, my parents had certain expectations from my siblings and I as well.As I interviewed my father, I learnt the way he has helped raise us, is quite similar to my grandmothers. Even though they had the qualities of Western parents by being strict yet not destructing our self-image, their philosophy of raising children was similar to Chinese parenting, they stressed for us to achieve academic success. Combination of both has shown me how important persistent parents are. Educ ation was really vital to my parents upon growing up, they were always concerned about our homework, studying, meeting teachers at school and especially extra curricular  activities.They had several restrictions, yet they were vigilant; they didn’t bind us from having the liberty of our own, but it helped them steer us in the right pathway. I remember well, as soon as we would arrive home from school we were ordered to do our homework, and study for what was required, and if we fortunately had free time before going to sleep we were allowed to watch our favorite shows before going to bed. If we had a test the following day, we knew that we would have to watch television on the weekend instead. Even if we didn’t do as good as they would want us to on our test; they would still praise us for our effort.The praise was an element of Western parenting, gave essence to our relationship with them, I believe if my parents didn’t assimilate with us as well as they did, or embrace our flaws in a subject, our parents wouldn’t be as close and understanding to us. It gave me a sense of understanding that my parents understand me as well, and want for us to do as well as we can. â€Å"The concept of â€Å"self-esteem† was non-existence to them. When I asked my father what his parents expected of him he said, â€Å"well, they wanted us to do well in school but most importantly they wanted us to be disciplined. He said â€Å"we were made sure to greet our elders with respect, and if mistakenly we didn’t, we were put in out places right in front of them However, even though he follows his parents methods in raising us, he makes we understand it. â€Å"Once when I was young, maybe more than once, when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me â€Å"garbage† in our native Hokkien dialect† stated by Amy Chua in her essay, my father thinks otherwise, He would sit and talk to us about respect ing the elders, just so he knows he’s not damaging our self-esteem with shallow harsh words.Some of the activities we were restricted of included not going to sleepovers, it was part of the few things we weren’t allowed to do. However, they made it up to us by allowing us to attend birthday parties, as we started to get older. I never really understood as to why my parents would not allow us to do so, but I believe it was for our own benefit. Living in the United States with diverse religions, it was crucial to my parents to do whatever they could to preserve it. Whatever they have done, they take it as their most prized accomplishment. Since we were young, we were put in an Islamic school, from elementary till high school.We understood from a young age that religion was a significant part of our lives. When I began attending Islamic school in second grade, I had no idea why I wore the headscarf as the uniform along with long black dress-type clothing. As I got older a nd matured I understood my religion with greater insight, and along with that I understood why our parents put my sister and I in an Islamic school. As I got to high school, it was as if my parents left the understanding of Islam upon us, that’s where I recognized the western qualities of their values, they now understand that the insight we have is going to last with us forever.Now that we’ve grown up friends of my parents ask them how they have raised such children, as it is hard to achieve that here in America, which is always answered with â€Å"a little control goes a long way. † Comparing the two styles of parenting, we’ve seen the struggles they’ve been through to get us where we are today, and it is only fair that we do the same in return even though it may never be enough, we know that they would appreciate it just as much. Word Count: – 863

No Man’s Land Essay

I tiptoe through the night, scared for even my sweat to make the slightest noise as it drips off my face and onto the ground. I am not thinking of anything at the moment but my survival and how my life will be once I am free of the Soviet grip around my wrists. My heart feels like it is breaking through my ribs and protruding out of my chest with every breath I take as I run faster and faster towards the barrier that has incarcerated me over the years. As I throw myself over the eleven-foot concrete wall with barbed wire at the top, I can hear gunshots all around, and I pray they are not intended for me. I hit the cold, hard ground on the other side, but I am not even close to being safe any time soon. I am in no mans land now. I would be better off asking for someone to shoot me than to make it out of here alive. I have only one chance. At least that is how I imagined it would have been like if I were in trapped in the tribulations of East Berlin trying to escape into the desired West Berlin between 1961 and 1989. However, it is a gray December day in 2004, and if it weren’t for remains of the Iron Curtain and Checkpoint Charlie, people would not be able to relive that part of history or be reminded of the dictator that destroyed so many lives. The temperature was eight degrees Celsius as the gloomy sky attempted to cough up snow onto Berlin. Before that moment I had only heard of the Berlin Wall through history books and stories. I would sit and listen to travelers tales told by my courageous father who had walked through Checkpoint Charlie and into East Berlin in seventy-five. He told me how he had to exchange West Berlin money into East Berlin money at Checkpoint Charlie before entering East Berlin. Then going back into West Berlin he had to drop it in a rusty tin can at Check Point Charlie because you were not allowed to keep East Berlin money. He witnessed two tourists getting assaulted by the guards for trying to smuggle East Berlin money into West Berlin. My only expectations of Berlin came from the adventures of my dad. I expected Checkpoint Charlie to be a barricade miles long with tollbooths that have the arms that swing up and down. Similar to the tollbooths that run across the freeways of really large cities, or at the airports you go through after short-term parking. Once you pass through the chomping arms of the tollbooths I imagined East Berlin to be scattered with desolate buildings and run down streets. But as I approached the once controlling wall and Checkpoint Charlie I realized nothing was as I imagined it at all. It was like walking down any other street in a big city. A few people who were always pushing their way through the gaps that opened up between the wandering men and women, obviously in more of a hurry than anyone else on the street. Christmas lights clung to the tall buildings that ran down the streets of Berlin. People popped in and out of the busy stores, squeezing their last bit of Christmas shopping in before the Holiday. Suddenly the bustle of people slowed like a murmur in time as I stood right before the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie which are now surrounded by the commercial buildings of downtown Berlin. My gaze dropped to an engraved brick in the ground that now serves as a commemorative plaque for the Berlin Wall. A chill ran from the tip of my toes all the way to the ends of my hair as I realized how lucky I was to be standing right there in no mans land. I can now speak of the Berlin Wall, not as hearsay from a history book, but as a memory. No mans land, a memorial now, is where 171 people who attempted to escape into West Berlin were shot, and left to bleed to death like a deer on the side of the road. This area contained walls on either side with mines and stern East Berlin guards to make it almost impossible to escape. As I stood in the middle of no mans land facing East Berlin, I looked over my left and my right shoulders only to see black, wooden crosses a little taller than I am. The crosses looked as if snow had only given them the pleasure of its company and nothing else around them, when really it was just white sand covering the ground. I took a deep breath in as if I was trying to swallow it into my memory, making sure to keep it forever. I am motionless. Where the median strip of the road would have been, an American soldier’s somber picture was enlarged and hoisted up on a pole staring out towards West Berlin. On the opposite side was a Russian Soldier keeping close watch over East Berlin. Below the soldiers’ pictures was Checkpoint Charlie. Wilted flowers surrounded this one room shack that once controlled the passage of people from East to West Berlin. Now it also stands as a memorial for people who died crossing over into West Berlin. On either side of me, there were remains of the wall still standing. I got an eerie feeling as I stared at them. My sense of time was completely altered. There I stood at one of the most historical sites imagining what it would have been like to be boxed in by a concrete wall that was suffocating you more and more each day. But when I looked around I was in the middle of one of the largest cities in Germany. It was like time slowed when I was walking through no mans land, but everything else around no mans land and Checkpoint Charlie was full of life. I was in my own little bubble. I walked about a block and returned to the normal noises and the packed sidewalks of what use to be the Soviet controlled East Berlin. My view of Berlin has been altered for the better, with a greater understanding of the saying â€Å"seeing is believing.†

Quality Assurance Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quality Assurance - Research Paper Example Section 46.703 of the FAR spells out the criteria for use of warranties. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR 46.7) outlines that the application of warranties is not mandatory. Nevertheless, if the benefits to flow from the warranty are proportionate to the cost of the warranty, the Contracting Officer (CO) should consider placing it in the contract. FAR Subpart 46.703 demands that the CO evaluate the form and application of supplies and services, the cost, administration and enforcement, reduced requirements, and trade practices (National Archives Records Administration, 2010). The rationale for incorporating a warranty should be documented within the contract file. The CO should consider the following factors when weighing in on warranties; nature and application of supplies or services, cost, trade practice, administration and enforcement, and minimized requirements. The nature and application of the supplies or services is influenced by factors such as degree of development, state of the art, end use, complexity and function, degree of development, probable harm to the government in instances in which the item is defective, and complexities in detecting defects prior to acceptance. Warranty clause does not limit the government’s rights under the inspection clause (Subpart 46.3) regarding latent defects, fraud, or gross mistakes that are tantamount to fraud. Subpart 46.706 (warranty terms and conditions) facilitates the pricing and enforcement of warranties whereby CO should ensure that the warranties state concisely the precise nature of item and components that the contractor warrants, scope and duration of the warranty, and extent of the contractor’s warranty inclusive of contractor’s obligations to the government for violation of contract (Meagher & Rennie, 2001). Contractor obligations under warranties encompass to all defects discovered at the

Occupational Health and Safety College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Occupational Health and Safety College - Essay Example The paper highlights possible legal ‘loopholes’ which culpable ‘officers’ may exploit to evade personal prosecution, and it concludes by making some recommendations on what additional reforms may be introduced to augment the effectiveness of the bill. For purposes of this discussion, the five main objectives of the Model Bill can be further condensed into only three key outcomes. Firstly, the bill seeks to establish a harmonised and nationwide framework for defining O H & S criteria in Australia, and to continually strengthen this framework through regular education and training. Secondly, the bill seeks to identify all stakeholders involved in the implementation of O H & S regulations, and to specify the duties and obligations of these stakeholders. Finally, the bill seeks to clarify the enforcement measures provided by the bill and to specify the penalties imposed on organisations or individuals who shirk their O H & S responsibilities. The Model Bill distinguishes between two broad categories of ‘officers’. One category comprises of public officers working for regulatory bodies such as government departments or local authorities. As stated in the bill: â€Å"A person who makes, or participates in making, decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the business or undertaking of a Government department, public authority or local authority is taken to be an officer of the Crown†¦Ã¢â‚¬  " (S. 244). As further stated in the appendix of the bill, "A jurisdiction will need to include local provisions to ensure that appropriate arrangements are made for the appointment as an inspector or a person who is an inspector under a

Actors in Long Life Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Actors in Long Life Learning - Essay Example The global economy is highly influenced by transitions and adjustments challenges at the social, business and cultural levels. Knowledge is not just the power, but a property to highly be marketed and commercialized. Lifelong learning is considered to be a vehicle that can enable immigrant community to adapt the challenges of new global economy. Human brain is perceived to represent a new ‘grey capital’ as it is set alongside the familiar economic resources such as land, labor and finance (Field, 2006, p. 9). This piece of research work presents the concept of lifelong learning and analyzes how this can help immigrants improve their personal and professional development and as a result improve the economic prosperity of country they migrated to. This paper investigates the role of lifelong learning in contributing to the economic and social prosperity and reflects on the personal experiences of lifelong learning in terms of personal and professional development. Lifelong Learning and implication on immigrant community In today’s competitive knowledge economy, lifelong learning has become a critically important strategy to make people highly competitive and productive. (World Bank, 2003). Lifelong learning is a human process and a metaphor to describe societies, regions and organizations. Lifelong learning is described as an ideal goal for better education (Parson, 1990), as a human process (Parson, 1990), as a product (Hatton, 1997) and moral duty of people (Wain, 1991). Learning is a human process and it requires consciousness and the capacity to utilize their knowledge. Lifelong learning is a continuous learning throughout one’s life directed by the individual needs and intentionality mediated by the capacities and interests (Billett, 2010, P. 402). World Bank (2003) explained that lifelong learning refers to learning throughout the lifetime including formal, non-formal and informal education and training. Formal education and training are structured programs recognized by formal education system. Non-formal education is structured education system but not recognized by national systems. Informal education and training are fully unstructured education or training systems that can take place anywhere such as home, organizations, workplace etc. Lifelong learning aims at positively influencing the inexperienced people in changing their career targets and making them highly demanded individuals by taking the self-responsibility of their learning and education. It thus assists them in developing their own learning skills (Uzunboylu and Ursen, 2011, p. 450). Technology in modern society plays significant role in lifelong learning. Distance or online-education facilitated by colleges and universities can be considered as examples for how modern technology assist lifelong learning.

The Effects Of Welfare Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Effects Of Welfare Reform - Essay Example Welfare reform are a great source of assistance for many individuals who are unable to earn their living for any of reason and depends on the social welfare programs to get their share of livelihood. This dependence on the welfare programs may be attributed to their some physical or mental disability, natural calamity or age factor. The large number of dependents in our society requires a comprehensive mechanism to address the issues pertaining to their requirements and needs. Additionally, some other facets of the society who require some economic enabling assistance may get the benefits of the reforms. Taxpayers are also the legitimate beneficiaries of the system. The social response to these needs shapes into the welfare systems arranged, managed and run by individuals, state, social security groups and societies, state owned welfare schemes like Medicaid and Medicare or similar services. Welfare of these needy and dependants is not a simple task, enormous spending are required to keep these programs running and a huge managerial effort is required address the issue in a befitting manner. Moreover the coordination among various social welfare programs and scheme is of core importance to avoid wastage of hard generated resources. More recently there is an increased awareness among masses to ensure that their contributions in these social welfare programs are used purposefully for the wellbeing of the targeted populations.

Panopticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Panopticism - Essay Example Panopticon made discipline more economical and efficient compared to other forms of discipline and further represented power and control due to minimal human operations associated with it. No prisoner would realize that they were being watched from the tower (Foucault 195-200). The panopticon could be operated by anybody and would be used in very many places apart from prison cells. Key words; power, discipline, panopticon, disciplinary It is undeniable that the world would be a better claim when power and discipline is applied in effective gaining of control; this is because panopticon is used to represent discipline and power and further transformation of disciplinary techniques. Concept of panopticism is very evident in the current society where there is devolvement of power and administration services. For instance, a strict spatial partitioning and dividing the town into distinct quarters and every quarter governed by an intendant was the order of the day. Every street was put u nder control of a syndic who would keep it under strict surveillance in such a way that if he left the city he would be convicted to death. Everyone was ordered to stay within and the syndic would lock all the doors from outside before handing over keys to the intendant because no one was allowed to leave on death pain. Just like the panopticim, there are several divisions of administration put in place to reach the citizens at the grassroots level. A federal government for example, has some of its powers transferred to the states and even further in smaller divisions. There is one central power with several branches that everyone looks up to. Idea of plague has been used as a base of creating discipline just like other criminal acts such as terrorism in the current society. Disciplinary mechanism was introduced by the fear of the plague and this act as the origin of all the modern punishment. Visibility from the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon tower is used as a trap. It was pos sible to see every individual including a schoolboy or prisoner being incarcerated but the victims could not communicate with each other. Terrorism is considered as one of the major crimes in the current society and the government has therefore created some divisions such as Afghanistan as some of the hot spots. Sentences related to terrorism are very severe thus causing fear amongst the public. Communication sector is being manipulated just to ensure minimal terror by scrutinizing any form of communication or money transfers. Just like in panopticism, the crowd was put away from this and the tower brought a sense of visibility that represented a functioning authority. Power is believed to be visible though unverifiable as a prisoner would always see the tower but remains ignorant about where is watched or observed. Panopticism concept can be compared with the current Intelligence and correctional facilities used in testing behaviors and capturing criminals. Panopticon is grounded o n the royal zoo at Versailles as it allows to do the work of naturalist and also acts as a laboratory of power. It is laboratory of power because it provides a base in which prisoners and staffs are tested. It is also apparent that the plague afflicted town and the tower depicts change of disciplinary program. FBI has the responsibility of putting suspects on the radar and testing their behaviors or monitoring their behaviors before capturing them. this is a common activity carried out particularly while pursuing terrorists. Panopticism symbolizes the wider police force employed at various stations across the country to maintain law and order in the modern world.The tower

Montessori's Educational Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Montessori's Educational Philosophy - Essay Example On hindsight, I surmised that to a certain extent, the teachers that I had assisted probably applied bits and pieces of Montessori’s teaching philosophy, approach, or perspective. However, I was not conscious of them. William Crain’s narration in â€Å"Montessori’s Educational Philosophy† probably synthesized what seems to be a fundamental facet of what Montessori education is. Through Crain’s â€Å"Montessori’s Educational Philosophy† the idea of children as undergoing â€Å"sensitive periods† was impressed to me. Of course, having been exposed to children between four to seven as well as older children between twelve to thirteen years old, the idea of children having periods of sensitivity on certain dimensions should be â€Å"obvious† to me but, unfortunately, this was not the case. I had taken for granted my experiences, unmindful of the important implications of what should have been obvious. Crain’s article allowed me to review my experience with a new eye or from a new perspective. At the same time, it allowed me to see the Montessori perspective as the correct one, the largely correct one, or at least a USEFUL perspective in childhood education. Education, of course, is not an ideology but a commitment as well as a science of leading or facilitating the young ones to explore and seek knowledge and, in the p rocess, be taught by their interaction with their world. As a science, some of Montessori’s â€Å"theory† or perspective will probably be seen in a better light in future and some facets of the Montessori MAY be even proven by scientific or education research to be misguided. However, what is more important is that the Montessori perspective or â€Å"theory† will be seen as forward advance in how we must conduct education in children. Further, what is most important is that the Montessori perspective fulfills an important role in advancing the science of educating

Art and Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Art and Fashion - Essay Example Jewelry, makeup and body arts as decoration also used artistic and cultural concepts to elaborate on the person's appearance. This paper discusses several creative designs of the influential Vivienne Westwood, associated with punk looks and fashion, and Jean Paul Gaultier, known to challenge cultural and gender boundaries when it came to fashion. Keywords: Culture, Designs, Art, Fashion, Music, Decorative, Jewelry, Metallic Chains, Hip Hop, Punk, Rock, Fabrics, Collection Introduction Art has evolved over the years to influence and spur old and new developments in the different industries. In the last half of the 20th century, the diverse works of art tremendously progressed to change the lifestyle of societies, not to mention the massive contribution of both art and fashion in the political, economic, and social spheres. There has always seemed to be a convergence in fashion and artistic works, which effectively influenced the performance in both industries. In the century’s last decades, it emerged to be difficult for one to distinguish art from fashion works because they had moved forth to intertwine. ... Although the boom of the fashion industry came between the 60s and 90s, expounding more on the incorporation of each works across the industries, the chronology of using fashion designs in theatre costumes for appealing performances, and acceptance of employing the arts to design garments of different fabrics and texture patterns across the trading lands as of early 90s, demonstrate how early the relational trend began developing. Taking an example of the early 20s chemise dresses, the garments were designed to resemble a plain tubular shape like the painter’s canvas, which beside the underlying textile cotton was well decorated with ornamentation and beading aesthetics (â€Å"Fashion and art† n.d.). It was evident with the growth of the arts and the market expansion in the fashion industry that one could hardly mention or produce one of the products or works without including the other. Performing Arts in the Fashion Industry Performing arts, especially music influence was the greatest factor that contributed to clothing designs in the late 20th century. After the 50s, the music industry artists in rock, hip hop and punk music took the center stage of influence to the different genders and young people’s dressing. As a result, what people wore would tell more about their lifestyle, preference in music just by the clothes they wore at the time. Music became part of design in fashion and textile industries as the increasing support for the musical genre and influential artists came up. According to McNeil, tracing back from the former 19th century, â€Å"art and aesthetic theory played a major role in the transformation of western European dress and North American colonial dress in the Enlightenment† (2011, p. 22). With the desire

David Hume Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

David Hume - Essay Example om senses, and also not from rational thought. Instead, according to Hume, the idea of self comes from imagination. In turn, imagination stems from causation and memory. To this effect, Hume is of the persuasion that the sole question concerning the creation of self identity is how the elements [contiguity and causation] combine so as to produce the uninterrupted idea of self. In regard to the above, Hume’s intended to mean that ideas are fundamentally ancillary to impressions, including sensory perceptions. In this case, Hume intends to mean that the impressions are the acquired, the lively, forceful and uncontrollable inputs of the senses, imagination and memory. In this case, ideas are taken as the images of the impressions are deemed by Hume as not being accurate, so that he renders them fictitious. Similarly, Hume’s mental existents are all based on the givens of perception, so that he is deemed as a British empiricist. As he uses the term copy to signify the relat ionship among the relationships which exist among the impressions and the very ideas which are dependent on them, Hume reiterates that complex ideas are based equally on impressions, though one step removed. In the case above, Hume is of the persuasion that a proposition which may not admit of much dispute that all human ideas are merely copies of impressions so that it is impossible to think of anything which has never been antecedently felt by either internal or external senses. To this effect, complex ideas may be known by definition and may be nothing more than an enumeration of parts or simple ideas which composed them (Yolton, 548-50). The significance of Hume’s standpoint above concerning relationship between ideas and impressions is that if an idea is valid or proper, then an individual will be able to relocate the very impressions on which it is based. In the event that no such impressions are found, then the very idea at hand is merely an arbitrary construct of huma n imagination which may therefore be fictitious, and having nothing extant on what it is based. Again, Hume continues that identity is not reality or a real idea, but a fiction of a person’s imagination. Hume maintains that this is the case since no individual can find an impression from which that identity can be considered a reality. Just as Lamprecht observes, Hume takes the persuasion that all that is given to man is a flow of impressions which are merely individual perceptions. In this light, the concept of unity is then to be premised on a single and unique sensory impression of solitary lump of things that are unchangeable. Because of this, the concept of unity becomes based on perceived uninterruptedness and invariableness of perception. Because of this, Hume is convinced that the principle of individuation is merely uninterruptedness

American Indians Today Essay Example for Free

American Indians Today Essay The Native Americans were the primary citizens of America long before white men set on foot in the area. When the Europeans conquered the American soil, an estimated 10 million Indians composed the Population of America. It is situated at the north of the country, present-day Mexico. According to history scholars, the Native Americans were believed to settle in the country approximately 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. (nativeamericans) The Native Americans were able to get into the country through the land-bridge situated from the northeastern Siberia into Alaska. The primary Indian cultures in North America is classified into Sandia, discovered in 15000 BC, Clovis in 12000 BC and Folsom in 8000 BC. The identification of the Native Americans should not be misguidedly understood as the Indians of Asia since the term was coined by Christopher Columbus when he mistakenly believe the Native Americans as part of the islands of America as part of the Indies in Asia. (nativeamericans) When the Europeans arrived in the country, the Native Americans welcomed them graciously and considered it a marvel to see white men. Considering also the technologies the European brought, the Native Americans were impressed with their conquering guests. However, as the Europeans started to degrade the forests inhabited by the Native Americans, the Native Americans realized the real intention of the Europeans that has consequently disturbed the balance in their nature. Aside from the natural resources employed by the European conquerors, even the Native Americans were seen as a commodity for manpower and labor. (Berkhofers) The Native Americans began to attribute the Europeans into soulless creatures that were in their territory to destruct their natural environment. Not only did the Europeans abuse the environment, they also brought diseases that were infectious to the Native Americans. This eventually led to several uprising of the Native Indians. (Berkhofers)The Europeans were accustomed to conquests, so the Native Americans responded against the Indian Wars and the Indian Removal Act which enabled the Europeans to have ownership of the country. It was a great disadvantage for the Native Americans because of their number, lack of weapons and unwillingness to cooperate even at their own expense. In a final blow against the Native Americans, U. S cavalrymen massacred Indian warriors, women and children in 1890. (Native America: Portrait of the People; Thomas) For many years, many have believed that the Native Americans are extinct cultures. That is why many American Indians are advocating their right to be known as a culture which fought hard and survived whatever they have experienced in their own native land. Many American Indians are still trying to establish their own identity in a country that has become to be white men populated.

Multinational Companies MNC

Multinational Companies MNC Multinational Companies MNC 1 Introduction Over the past couple of years Multinational Companies (MNC) had to face a number of new challenges in their daily business. Globalization changed numerous things for global players. Normally the structure of a typical MNC shows a focus on their main resources and departments like finance, technology, marketing, sales and production. This is because they want to have a large number of customers and also want to make a good profit. But if they neglect these new challenges coming up with the globalization they might not be successful anymore (Mendenhall et al., 2003). A big challenge MNC’s have to manage is their workforce diversity (Stern, S. 2008). Diversity means any sort of difference between two or more people. These differences might exist in terms of age, gender, race, education, social status and other terms. To manage this diversity MNC’s have to implement strategies that knit all employees together into a dynamic workforce (Miller, Dollar, 1950). Because of this enormous diversity one of the key success factors of MNC’s is the recruitment and selection of labor who offer valuable individuality. These individuals are forming the values and beliefs of an organization (Mullins, 2007). The management of this diversity is a challenge of the human resource management. In this paper I will focus on how MNC’s can improve their HRM and make their company staying successful in terms of managing diversity. It is hard to become a major player in the global market without an effective HRM. There are two major challenges within global HRM namely building global corporate cultures and developing global leaders that have to be mastered in order to manage diversity and be successful in the global business environment (Mendenhall et al., 2003). 2 Enhancing global business strategy Today more and more companies expand their activity internationally or are already an existent global participant. This requires new strategies. The HRM can contribute a lot to the success of an enterprise, if it adopts a truly globalize strategy in alignment with the corporate strategy (Mellahi et al, 2003). 2.1 Tasks of an international HRM The human resource management has to establish processes and policies which enable people to learn new skills required to compete successfully in a global business environment. A truly international HRM also involves the ability to move people easily from country to country. As companies become more global, they need talented managers with global experience. These people also need assistance in building international task forces and teams. Managing the administrative details associated with international assignments beyond the recruiting process is a complex issue. Therefore a good knowledge of the cultural differences and possible barriers is necessary (Holbeche, 2004). Human resource management needs to develop the policies, the processes and administrative agendas which have to become standardized and implemented in all locations. Though practices may differ between countries, a company needs some common standards across its subsidiaries that are strategically aligned with the organizations mission, for example a worldwide standard for senior management in evaluation, compensation and development. With this HR the organization can create social capital in locally adaptive ways and serve as a buffer between globalization and localization of strategic practices (Gomez et al., 2005). A company that is in the lead in implementing and creating a global HRM and is capable of all these tasks can develop a strategic resource, which is hard and expensive to imitate quickly. 2.2 The mission of international HRM When a company decides to go global, it does so to create unique competitive advantages, that is not possible in the domestic market. Therefore it has to adapt its strategy to define the new goals and the measures to meet them. Business strategies, which organizations adopt to maintain competitiveness, should be developed in conjunction with their human resource departments (Lengnick-Hall et. al 1988; Schuler et. al, 1984; Tichy et. al 1982). It is quite clear that the change from local to global has an impact on the techniques used in human resources management. By implementing HR issues in the mission, this will help enhancing the global business strategy. The mission can be defined as the reason why organizations exist. The purpose of an organization is the heart of the mission, but it is also made up by organizational beliefs, values and business definition (De Wit et al. 2004). To be strategic, human resource practices are expected to maximize employees effectiveness in accordance with their organizations missions, objectives and goals (Lengnick-Hall et al. 1988; Schuler et al. 1984; Tichy et al. 1982). When the mission is consistent and compelling to the employees, it can be a source of motivation and create an emotional bond between the members of the organization, which again can result in better performance tied up to the mission (De Wit et al. 2004). In a global organization, it is harder to create a mission that ties together people from many different parts of the world, and it is therefore crucial in creating a global mission, to consult and integrate HR issues into it. There are very different ways in businesses around the world in handling HRM, and therefore in trying to decrease the differences between domestic and international HR, it can help make the subsidiaries to work towards the same goals. The mission outlines the fundamental principles guiding strategic choices, and if it has guidelines on how to handle different HR issues, the different subsidiaries will use a somewhat similar HR management. To be able to integrate HR with global strategy development and implementation, senior members and top management of the organization need to promote HR issues, and try to address them in the development and implementation stage (Mendenhall et al. 2003). Collaboration among employees in MNC’s Employee behavior is perhaps the most critical challenge that multinational organizations have to deal with (Bartlett Ghoshal, 1990). In Multinational Companies there is a huge potential of conflicts, because of its diverse personalities. As a consequence of this tensions will arise among employees. Although these tensions are inherent to MNC and also desirable (Kilmann, 1985), they require increased levels of collaboration. An organization must therefore enable their employees to accept the tension and behave as one company. Nevertheless, in many large and multinational companies, employees tend to be silo-focused. They view their membership and loyalty as belonging to a certain subunit in the organization. Consequently they behave in a manner that benefits their subunit but could be detrimental to the organization as a whole. This kind of thinking of course leads to a higher effort of coordinating and collaborating employees to have a successful organization (Joyce, 1986). Many problems can arise out of the silo-focused way of thinking. Collaboration between units is hindered by personal conflicts between unit leaders, resources might be withholded from each other and insufficient communication between different units leads to a lack of trust in the whole organization. According to Sy D’Annunzio (2005), there are two major reasons for silo-focused behaviors. First, most employees reside in the same function (and often the same unit within the function), throughout their careers. They always work with the same people and probably never had the chance to work with other elements of the organization. Second, MNCs with complex structures require a higher degree of collaboration, compared to small companies with simple line structures. Mostly, employees have not developed the necessary social skills for this high degree of collaboration. Often, the â€Å"command and control† thinking in traditional hierarchical organizations is simply turned over in complex MNC’s, where it is predestined to fail. Therefore, possible measures to mitigate silo-focused behavior are providing trainings for social skills, defining clear expectations for behavior in the organization, working across functions to learn about different points of view and most importantly building relationships between employees of different units (Sy DAnnunzio, 2005). Diversity in MNC’s As a multinational company works in a global market it must be prepared to detect all possible changes in the global environment and it has to be able to communicate and adapt the identity of the company to them (Ali Camp, 1996). 4.1 Cultural diversity Nowadays cultural diversity plays an important role in a company. The criteria discriminating these groups include race, geographic origin, ethnicity, gender, age, functional or educational background, physical and cognitive capability, language, lifestyles, beliefs, cultural background, economic category, tenure with the organization and sexual preference (Seyman, 2006). The company can’t offer quality products or services to the customers if it doesn’t understand and take in account the impact that the culture has in all the processes (Maddock, Lois Viton, 2008). Workers usually think that their behavior hasn’t got any influence on the final product or service, but to be effective, every part must have a clear vision of the company and a clear mission on it. The social, political and enterprise structure depends on everyone in the company, so the internal area and the human resources, one of the most important areas of a company, must be developed with the rest of the company to achieve their goals (Seyman, 2006). The misunderstanding and ignoring of different cultures, language and historical background lead to disasters in the field of setting up multinational business. To avoid this, a general knowledge of another nation’s culture and history is essential. So general cultural knowledge, if coupled with prejudice and prejudgment, is an obstacle to effective global management (Ali Camp, 1996). 4.2 Communication and language barriers One important challenge beneath culture is language barriers. Communication is essential for management. Yet communication relies upon a shared language, a pre-requisite that does not exist in many international business situations and that is when the problems start. The most pronounced manifestation of the language barrier at work can be found in the relationship between a multinational parent company and its network of international subsidiaries. Several factors contribute to the difficulty of achieving and sustaining effective communications and a productive, collaborative relationship. Even if an employee is relatively competent in the language of the other party, loss of rhetorical skills is always present as the use of humor, symbolism, sensitivity, negotiation, persuasion and motivation requires a very high level of fluency (Harzing Feely, 2008). 5 Managing diversity in MNC’s through HRM To manage workforce diversity in MNC’s it’s a challenge for the human resource management to establish a global corporate culture. To identify with the corporate culture of the company is the most important thing for the staff. That is why building a global corporate culture is one of the most important challenges for Multinational Companies. But also the management in MNC’s has been changing. There is a need for global leaders. The formation of such global leaders is also a part of the human resource management. 5.1 Need for global corporate culture The situation within global enterprises has been changing for many years. According to the cheap labor in eastern world and other factors, there has never been such a need for understanding the different cultures in multinational companies (Crocket, 2003). Cultural empathy, integrity, and comfortability in dealing with people from various cultures, along with effective performance, highlight the necessity to think and act in relevant cultural terms. This does not mean that today’s managers must know in detail the cultural and historical backgrounds of other nations. Rather, it means that global managers need to think and act with an open mind and in socially responsive ways to events at home and abroad (Ali Camp, 1996) To be able to work efficiently in the global market and industry it is very important to build a corporate business culture. A corporate culture can be explained by convening several different cultures represented by numerous different workers, working in a Multinational enterprise (Mendenhall, et. al., 2003). As the word Multinational enterprise already expresses that the company is acting global, it is common that numerous different people with different cultures are working for this company (Stern, 2008). Furthermore every culture has its own methods, values, beliefs, habits, language and so on. Organizations acting global can never work without interference of the leader board to create a global corporate culture. That is why a Multinational company has to offer corporate values, beliefs, methods, habits and working processes all set in the global corporate culture. Of course it is necessary to respect local cultures because if an organization does not respect the local cultures, workers will not be satisfied and can never identify with the company they are working for (Mendenhall, et. al., 2003). In former times there was the so called colonialism style of leading people. Colonialism can be understood as the control of overseas colonies by imperial powers. A foreign power rules a large group of people and the foreign power uses the colony for wealth and has more advanced technology than the people of the colonies (Glossary, 2005). In other words the headquarters and the top management delegated the work to their staff and controlled the output. This is not possible anymore. They have to create clear global corporate values. These corporate values assist to improve workforce and working processes as the staff all over the world can identify with the vision and values, the corporate culture, of the headquarters and all other subsidiaries (Reggie, Fabish, McGaw, 2005). The global corporate culture should assist to create a standardized culture with respecting local cultures so that the Multinational Company has a unique and corporate appearance to the outside. This global corporate culture should be written down with all its values, certain behaviors towards customers, suppliers, stake- and shareholders, its working processes, communication methods and team forming habits (Lotti, Mensing, Valenti, 2006). A very interesting article states that there has to be paid much attention with forming cooperation concerning the global corporate culture. It says that the company cannot be global until its board of directors does not reflect the countries and regions in which it operates. The board of directors has to focus on regarding and respecting all cultures convened in one company. All these different criteria of all convened cultures have to be adapted to fit in the company’s global corporate culture (Nair Chandran, 2006). Accenture made a survey within 900 C-suite executives in the U. S., the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada and China. These executives were asked to identify the greatest challenges with building global companies. Another thing Accenture wanted to know from these executives, was if there is a receipt how a Multinational company can succeed in the increasingly global market. The result to this question was that they found out that their chief concern is the ability to maintain a common corporate culture around the world. It means that half of the respondent executives believe that their companies are ready to succeed in this increasingly global market. It became very important that Multinational companies maintain their core values and their corporate identity across many cultures. Another thing getting very important is that the industry becomes knowledge based. Important as well is to understand local customs and ways of doing business in certain countries. A Multinational company needs the ability to service clients and customers effectively. Therefore they have to learn numerous things about how to deal with foreign countries and their cultures before they start to set up a global corporate culture in their company (Foster Mark, n. d.). 5.2 Developing global leaders The implication of managers has changed during the time. In a constantly changing world it is important to develop global leaders. Nowadays business works on a bigger field, within more different cultures than years ago. The more companies pursue global strategies, the more global leaders they need. How to find and train future global leaders has become a task for the human rescores management in global companies (Allen, 2000). 5.3 Why global leaders? It is important for the whole company that the leaders and the team of executives have the right skills and take the right decisions. The leaders should have global experience. If they do not have international experience they risk handling their work tasks incorrect. They will also have problems to communicate with their new employees from other cultures. Global leaders have to read their market right. This means that it is impossible to sell the same thing, the same way in different countries. There are different requirements that have to be profiled. So human resource management has to be adjusted to the countries they are working in. Leadership models have to differ because the importance of variables as relationships, short-term profits, hierarchies, ethics, and risk are different from culture to culture (Hofstede, 1994). The book Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions shows that leaders build structure and control mechanisms based on their personal experiences and their national culture. Because they have such a big influence on the company’s strategy it is important that companies have good educated global leaders. Otherwise they might not be acclimatized to the global environment. The way to control a firm in France might not be the same way to control it in China. This example points out very clear that the way of leadership has to be adapted to local markets (Cardel et. al, 1998). 5.4 How to form a global leader? Some requirements for global leaders are that they have to be flexible, open and ethnocentric. They should also have the right background, which should feature an early international experience. This means for example an education from an international school with exchange programs and different teaching languages. On the other hand there are statistics showing that 50% of the learning how to be a global leader takes place though work experience, 30% through interpersonal relationships with bosses, peers, subordinates and professional contacts and only 20 % through formal education and training. This statistics can be interpreted in ways that through the right training on the job, nearly every manager can become a global leader (Lobel, 2007). How the company develops global leaders is very important for the company’s success, because 80% of their education take place on the job and not through earlier education. Aside from the development of global leaders it is for sure that global leaders are very important for companies because when a company enters a new market, the leader has to be keen to know what employees in the new country are needed to be able to compete in this market. They have to balance global integration with the local responsibility (Mendenhall et. al 2003). Global leaders have to learn themselves to integrate into a different social system. It is apparent that it is hard to find individuals that have all the right requirements to be good global leaders. Leaders should try to develop a global mindset. This means that they should be open minded, flexible and not egocentric. A very radical approach to encourage the open mind of global leaders is to abandon managers with homeless people. After such an experience leaders are usually less selfish and more open to other life styles and cultures. A less radical method to encourage a global mindset is the establishment of cross-border teams or projects (Mendenhall et. al 2003). 6 Conclusion In a growing global market companies tend to meet challenges if they do not focus on developing their HRM. It is hard to see the financial gaining of HRM and therefore many companies tend to focus on other aspects that are easier to measure and see the results of. But when operating in a global market with subsidiaries all around the world, the focus on HRM is crucial in creating a united company that works towards the same goals and visions. This is not possible without a well developed HRM strategy. A big challenge of HRM is building a global corporate culture. This means that the mother company needs to set corporate values, beliefs, programs, structures and rules. On the one side, it should help the company to deliver a corporate view of the company to the public. On the other side, it should help the staff working for the multinational company in the whole world to easily identify with the company with the help of the global corporate culture. The main issue of the next challenge of HRM is to find good global leaders, this because they affect the whole company’s opportunity to expand globally. The managers are the ones that make decisions about activity in the new global areas. Is hard to develop good global leaders, and the HRM has problems to find effective education for them. The leaders not only have to have the right education but also the right background, to become successful. All in all, focusing on only one of these prospective is not sufficient enough as they are linked together. MNC’s have to work on all of them to get a more effective HRM and a possible competitive advantage through this. HRM can be a tool to make the subsidiaries feel like a part of the global company, and work towards the same goals. Bibliography Business Journals Ali, A. J., Camp, R. C. (1996). Global managers qualities for effective competition. International Journal of Manpower, 17 (6/7), 5-18 Gomez, C., Sanchez, J. I. (2005). HRs strategic role within MNCs: helping build social capital in Latin America. International Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 16, Issue 12 Harzing, A., Feely, A. J. (2008). The language barrier and its implications for HQ subsidiary relationships. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal , 15 (1), 49-61 Joyce, W. (1986). Matrix organization: a social experiemet. Academy of management journal, 29, 536-561 Lengnick-Hall, C. A. and Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (1988) Strategic Human Resource Management: A Review of the Literature and a Proposed Typology. Academy of Management Review. Vol. 13, pp. 454-70 Lobel, S. (2007). Global leadership competencies: Managing to a different drumbeat, Human Resource Management, Volume 29, 39 – 47 Mendenhall, M. E., Black, J. S., Jensen, R. J., Gregersen, H. B. (2003). Seeing the Elephant: Human Resource Management Challenges in the Age of Globalization. Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 32, No. 3, 261-274 Seyman, O. A. (2006). The cultural diversity phenomenon in organizations and different approaches for effective cultural diversity management and a literary review. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 13 (4), 297-302 Sy, T., DAnnunzio, L. S. (2005). Challenges and strategies of matrix organizations: top-level and mid-level managers perspectives. Human Resource Planning, 28 (1), 39-48 Lotti, R., Mensing, P., Valenti, D. (2006). A cooperative solution, Strategy + Business, published by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., 1 – 5 Maddock, M., Lois Viton, R. (2008). Diversity – Don’t innovate without it. Business Week, June 17, 2008 Reggie, V.L., Fabish, L., McGaw, N. (2005). The Value of Corporate Values, Strategy + Business, published by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., 1 – 9 Stern, S. (2008). Diversity Champions are losing a good argument, Financial Times Unlimited, July 8, 2008 Stern, S. (2008). Diversity Gurus must try harder, Financial Times Unlimited, July 7, 2008 Books Cardel, M., Soderberg, A., Torp, J. E. (1998). Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions. Walt de Gruytet, ISBN 3-11-015800-0. Berlin, 23 – 56 De Wit, B., Meyer, R. (2004). Strategy: Process, Content, Context. 3rd Edition. South Western Educ Pub. 118 – 134 Mullins, J.L. (2007). Management and Organizational Behavior, Eighth Edition, Prentice Hall – Financial Times, 122 130 Databases Hofstede, G. (1994). Cultures and Organization – Intercultural Corporations and its Importance for survival, Harper Collins, 23 – 27 Holbeche, L. (2004). A perfect match decoding employee engagement – Part I: Engaging cultures and leaders, Emerald, 6 – 128 Kilmann, R. (1985). Understanding Matrix organization: keeping the dialectic alive and well. In D. Warrick, I. Glenview, S. Foresman, Contemporary organizational development, 152-165 Mellahi, K., Frynas, J. G. Finlay, P. (2005). Global Strategic Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 15 Miller, N.E., Dollar, J.C. (1950). Personality and Psychotherapy, McGraw-Hill, 12 46 Internet Foster, Mark, n. d., Maintaining a Common Corporate Culture is a Big Concern for Global Executives, Accenture. Available at www.accenture.com/Global/Accenture_Blogs/Accenture_High_Performance_Business_Blog/Maintaining+a+Common+Corporate+Culture+Is+a+Big+Concern+for+Global+Executives.htm. Downloaded on the 11h of June, 2008 Glossary, n. d.. Available at www.historyteacher.net/EuroProjects/DBQ1998-1999/glossary24-99.htm. Downloaded on the 11th of June, 2008 Nair, Chandrean, 31st of August 2006, Columnists: Multinationals and responsibility – Cracking the colonial corporate culture. Ethical Corporation. Available at www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4483. Downloaded on the 11th of June, 2008.

Molecular Basis Of Neurotransmission Biology Essay

Molecular Basis Of Neurotransmission Biology Essay Brain is one of the most important organs of the body with continuous network connecting each cell physically with the help of neurons the building blocks of nervous system. Neurons transmit their signal to other cells in the form of electrochemical waves through their fibres called axons. Signal is transmitted in the synaptic gap with the help of chemical substances called Neurotransmitters. These signals are important in order to coordinate organ functions, smooth, skeletal and cardiac muscle actions and bodily secretions for the long time survival of mammals. The current topic depicts the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmission with particular emphasis on the neurotransmitter release, action and inhibition. Background Information: Neurons are the building blocks of nervous system transmit information by electrical and chemical signalling. These neurons consist of mainly three parts they are cell body, dendrites and an axon. The gap between the two neurons is called synapse. The chemical substances which transmit impulses through the gap are called Neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitter release occurs by the regulated exocytosis of vesicles containing the transmitter. As transmitters are released by a process of fusion of vesicular membrane with plasma membrane. The way of release of transmitter is not identical for all neurotransmitters and all synapses. The rate of release of different vesicles varies because small scale vesicles (SSVs) lie close to the synaptic membrane at specialized areas called active zones release faster where as large dense core vesicles (LDCVs) which are present at the body terminal release slowly. Quantal release of Neurotransmitters: Neurotransmitters are stored in special membrane enclosed organelles called synaptic vesicles and packed as discrete packets called Quanta. At normal conditions a huge number of vesicles are released simultaneously leading to depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane and the generation of an action potential. Each vesicle contains approximately the same amount of neurotransmitters, since each quantum released produces approximately the same postsynaptic depolarization. The depolarizations are observed in small amounts of 0.5mv and they are called Miniature end plate potentials. At central synapses one quantum is released on arrival of a single action potential, but with a probability of less than one. Calcium ions involvement in transmitter release: External calcium is essential for transmitter release and this calcium enters the nerve terminal through voltage gated calcium channels. The calcium involvement in transmitter release is found by various studies like Freeze Fraction Studies Omega Profile and Cage Molecules The active zone that is present at the pre-synaptic site contains the Calcium channels and the action potential release transmitter by depolarizing the pres-synaptic membrane and opening calcium channels. The rise in local calcium concentration makes the exocytosis of the docked vesicles with the plasma membrane and release of transmitter into the synaptic cleft. Calcium concentration adjacent to the calcium channels increase from resting level of 0.2Â µM to steady state of about 400Â µM.The concentration at half maximal is 194Â µM which is a relatively low affinity and the maximal rate of secretion was high. The active zone contains more than hundred calcium channels all channels do not open for single action potential but at such a site any single vesicle is docked by more than one calcium channel. At CNS synapses N and P/Q type of calcium channels appear to be predominant where as at neuromuscular junction P type channels are responsible for neurotransmitter release. The exocytose trigger must have fast, low affinity, cooperative calcium binding. Excitation-Secretion coupling: Calcium concentration is low intracelluraly and both the concentration and electrical gradients provides a strong driving force for calcium entry. Thus when a voltage gated Ca+2 channels open in response to the depolarization of the membrane by an action potential, there is a possibility for the intracellular calcium concentration to increase by large extent. This calcium acts at extremely short distances that is in nanometres in times of microseconds and at very high local concentration of nearly 100 Â µM. Calcium dependent steps of Neurotransmitter release: Synaptic vesicles are tethered to cytoskeletal proteins some distance from the active zone. Vesicle recruitment is a calcium dependent step which frees the vesicles and then moves to the active zone on the presynaptic membrane. Once the vesicle is released from cytoskeleton it binds to the presynaptic membrane a process called Docking. The next step is priming which is an ATP dependent process and after this calcium stimulus in which there is a rapid fusion of the primed vesicles and exocytosis of the neurotransmitter. Every step requires different amounts of calcium and the final step requires very high local calcium concentration. Anchored vesicle Recruitment Ca+2 = 0.5Â µM Docking Docked vesicle ATP Priming Ca+2 = 0.3Â µM ADP+Pi Primed vesicle Fusion Ca+2 > 100Â µM Exocytosed vesicle The diagram represents the various steps involved in neurotransmitter release. Protein involvement in Transmitter release: There is large number of proteins present on the vesicular membrane and these are involved in the neurotransmitter release and in neurotransmission process. These proteins perform a general functions that are not restricted to a single class of transmitters. Transmitter release depends not only on the vesicular proteins but also on the proteins of the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. The various proteins involved in neurotransmission are depicted below. Protein Function Vesicular transmitter transporter Taking of transmitter into vesicles Synaptotagmin Trigger for vesicle fusion and docking Synaptobrevin Acts in a late step of vesicle fusion Rab3 Regulating vesicle targeting and availability Synapsin Tether vesicle to actin cytoskeleton Syntaxin Essential for late step in fusion NSF Disrupt complexes after exocytosis The various proteins and their actions are outlined below SNARE complex: The three synaptic proteins Synaptobrevin or vesicular associated membrane protein, Syntaxin and Synaptosomal associated protein of 25KDa form tight 20S complex called as core complex or the SNARE receptor complex. These form a four stranded coiled coil. These coils make the fusion of the membranes of the vesicular membrane and the plasma membrane. These are mainly involved in docking and priming steps of vesicular release. NSFprotein: N-Ethylmaleimide sensitive factor, an ATPase involved in membrane trafficking. NSF hexane bind a cofactor ÃŽ ±-SNAP and this complex in turn binds to SNARE complex this leads to disassembly of the complex and this action of NSF might catalytically rearrange the SNARSEs so that the membranes were brought together. Calcium binding proteins: These proteins are candidates for coupling the action potential to exocytosis. Synaptotagmin an integral membrane protein of the synaptic vesicles contains two calcium binding C2 domains called C2A and C2B. These domains interact with SNARE complex proteins and with phospholipids in a calcium dependent manner. These interactions are the triggering events for fusion. Synapsin: The cytoskeleton to which vesicles attach contains actin and fodrin. Vesicles are attached to these actin and fodrin by proteins called synapsins. Synapsin binds to vesicles by interaction with the phospholipids and vesicle associated CaMK2 which allow the vesicles to move to the active zone. Synaptophysin and Physophilin: A vesicular protein Synaptophysin and a plasmembrane protein Physophilin form a pore called fusion pore by their interaction and these fusion pores later expands to allow the release of vesicular contents. Rab3A: It is one of the cytosolic small G protein involved in neurotransmitters vesicle fusion and recycling by the help of GTP. It first binds to GTP and then to vesicles, which move the vesicles to the active site and after exocytosis GTP is hydrolysed to GDP and which results in recycling of vesicles. Nurexins: Nurexins are the family of brain specific proteins involved in neurotransmitter release. Molecular basis of synaptic action: Chemical synaptic transmission is one of the most important ways of communication from neuron to neuron and neuron to muscle. This transmission results in the carrying of impulses from the pre synaptic membrane to the post-synaptic membrane. At the post synaptic site the neurotransmitters binds to macro molecular substances called receptors. This receptor action results in opening of an or alter the concentration of intracellular metabolites. The response may be either excitatory or inhibitory. The magnitude of response depends on the state of the receptor and the amount of transmitter released. Type of receptors present on the post-synaptic site depends on the neurotransmitter. There are two main classes of receptors involved in neurotransmitter action. They are 1. Ionotropic Receptor and 2. Metabotropic Receptors 1. Ionotropic Receptors: Ionotropic receptors are multisubunit membrane bound protein complexes composed of proteins that combine to form an ion channel through the membrane. There are two distinct families of ionotropic receptors one consists of Ach, nAch, receptor for gamma-amino butyric acid, glycine receptors and 5HT3 receptors and the other class consists of many types of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Its structure consists of 5 subunits designated as ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ², ÃŽ ³ and ÃŽ ´ which are about 290KDa.These subunits assemble to form a ring like structure enclosing a central pore. Each subunit at the outer portion form a funnel shaped extracellular domain with an intracellular diameter of 20-25A0 and also consists of intracellular domain. Each subunit of the receptor consists of four transmembrane spanning segments TM1-TM4. Each segment consists of hydrophobic amino acids which stabilizes the domain within the hydrophobic environment of the lipid membrane. It also consists of N and C terminals. Structure of the channel pore determines ion selectivity and current flow. The amino acids which form the transmembrane-2 contain a negative charge and are oriented towards the central pore of the channel. This negative charge ensures passage of cations only with prefarability. The physical dimensions of the pore contribute greatly to the selectivity for particular ions. Cytoplasmic portion contains narrow openings made up of ÃŽ ±-helical rods which regulate the flow of ions. Thus these physical characteristics of the pore along with the electrochemical gradients determine the possibility of ionic movements. TM2 segments are helical in shape and exhibits a kink in their structure which forces leucine residues from each segment such that it effectively blocks the flow of ions through the central pore of the receptors. When the transmitter binds to specific domains on the receptor causes rotation of the TM2 segments which results in the flow of ions. 2. Metabotropic receptors: Metabotropic receptors are single polypeptides that exert effects not through opening of ion channels but through binding and activating GTP-binding proteins. So these receptors are also called as G-protein coupled receptors. The various receptors comes under this category are ÃŽ ±,ÃŽ ²-adrenergic, muscarnic, dopamine, GABAergic and glutaminergic. Its structure consists of a single polypeptide with seven membrane spanning helical segments associating with 24 hydrophobic amino acids. In the centre of the seven membranes spanning segments a pocket is formed which provides the neurotransmitter binding sites. The N-terminal is towards extracellular where as C-terminal is towards cytoplasm. GPCR activation causes the isomerisation of the receptors spontaneously between active and inactive states. Only the active state of the receptor interacts with G-proteins when the agonist binds and when there is absence of agonist the inactive state of the receptor is favoured. Activation of the receptor causes coupling of G-protein initiating the exchange of GDP for GTP. This activated G-protein couples to many downstream effectors and alters the activity of intracellular enzymes or ion channels. These G-protein target enzymes produce diffusible second messengers that stimulate further downstream biochemical processes like activation of protein kinases. Molecular basis of Synaptic Inactivation: The action of the neurotransmitter in the synapse is terminated by two major mechanisms. They are 1. Diffusion and 2. Uptake processes 1. Diffusion process: Simple diffusion is the main mechanism of rapidly reducing the concentration of neurotransmitter. The diffusion is mainly affected by the synaptic morphology like geometry of the cleft and adjacent spaces. 2. Uptake process: Uptake of transmitter from the synaptic cleft is carried out by high affinity sodium dependent transporters. These transporters comes under two families Na+ and K+ dependent glutamate transporters Na+ and Cl- dependent transporters These uptake transporters are inhibited by various uptake inhibitors. For example epinephrine is inhibited by methoxylated metabolites normetanephrine, metanephrine and phenoxybenzamine. Vesicles are refilled by an antiport mechanism. Inside the vesicles there is high amount of protons produced by the activity of H+-ATPase. Neurotransmitters are transported into vesicles by the antiport of H+ out of the vesicles. The other mechanisms by which synaptic inactivation occurs are enzymatic inactivation and antagonism. In enzymatic antagonism enzymes inactivate the neurotransmitter for example acetylcholine is inactivated by the enzyme acetyl cholinesterase in which it is cleaved to acetyl and choline groups such that its activity is inhibited and in case of antagonism various drugs and other substances inactivate the neurotransmitter by blocking the receptor on which the neurotransmitter. Conclusion: So, I summarise from my essay that in the case of neurotransmitter release from the vesicles, mainly the molecules involve are calcium and specific proteins and in the case of synaptic action of neurotransmitters ionotropic and metabotropic receptors plays an important molecular role and finally in the case of synaptic inactivation of neurotransmitters diffusion, uptake process, metabolism and antagonism form a molecular basis.

H.B. Fuller is Not Morally Responsible for the Addiction of Street Chil

H.B. Fuller is Not Morally Responsible for the Addiction of Street Children to its Resistol Products 1. In your judgment, is H.B. Fuller morally responsible for the addiction of street children to its Resistol products? In my opinion, H.B. Fuller is not morally responsible for the addiction of street children to its Resistol products. A corporation is morally responsible only for those acts and their foreseen injurious effects: (a) which the corporation knowingly and freely performed or brought about and which it was morally wrong for the corporation to fail to perform or prevent and/or (b) which the person knowingly and freely failed to perform or prevent and which it was morally wrong for the corporation to fail to perform or prevent. Only two conditions completely eliminate a person's moral responsibility for causing a wrongful injury: (1) ignorance and (2) inability. I believe that H.B. Fuller isn't morally responsible because once it released its product, it had neither control nor knowledge of how its product were to be misused. When understanding the circumstances of why H.B. Fuller's product was abused, H.B. Fuller actually helped out the economic problem by providing employment for the region. No argument can be made that H.B. Fuller did not make attempts to abort the misuse of its product. There is a fine line, however, between whether H.B. Fuller was morally responsible and if it had a moral obligation to intervene to help the issue. To understand this issue from both sides, it is also important to gain a perspective from the corporate finance world. Understanding that the goal of a corporation is to maximize the profits of its shareholders, H.B. Fuller really did not have a social obligation. If, howe... ...one that it did not do? Although Fuller made every attempt it thought was necessary to prevent its products from causing harm, it could have provided more intervention. First, H.B. Fuller should have put more research into mustard seed oil and its effect on adhesives like the United States' chemical companies had done. Research into this solution would involve consulting with the FDA to solidify positive results. This could have very well been an easy solution to Fuller and the Latin American children. Second, Fuller should have decided to discontinue its product earlier than it did. If it did make this decision, then all sales should be eliminated, not just to retailers but to industrial vendors as well. Lastly, the company should have communicated more effectively with its parent company in the US to formulate a sound plan to addressing its ethical dilemma.

Hockey, My Life :: essays research papers

The hockey game that I played three years ago for the championship has been one of the greatest events of my life. That game was one of the best achievements that I have reached in my life. Every single chair in the arena was taken. It was difficult to describe the noise; the cheering fans, couches talking to the players, players chatting to each other, etc. The arena was built to muffle the sound of 1000 people, but that afternoon it was like a sponge that couldn't absorb anymore. Being under so many eyes, brought both fear and motivation to me. This game was unlike other games to me. It was not just regular season game, it seemed like a war for me and I wished to get out of this battlefield with victory. I thrilled to accomplish something so phenomenal as to surpass a record, I was stubborn to be someone unique the "Great One" was. I knew everybody would play their best to win the game and trophy. Once the game started I clenched my hand around the hockey stick and told myself that I have to win this game no matter what happens. The hushing sound made by the skates on the ice was very annoying, but I tried to forget about it and put hundred percent efforts o n my game, my "War". When I got the puck bunch of players I began advancing with extraordinary speed, like a jet. The opponent players were rushing toward me like I was their worst enemy. Even though I was fully "armed" but still it was thrilling to stand there get pinched against the glass like a lemon. Bruises from the last game had already made every part of my body sore; getting his by the deadly puck was enough to take of that matter. But I didn't care I wanted to win and touch that trophy. The feeling of having my hand wrapped around the stick gave me more confidence. I was lucky to make some exemplary moves and this caused the crowd to roar. It seemed the stick was a person that I could rely on. The smell of compact air in the arena and the taste of sweat dropping from my nose to my mouth made me feel a little bit dizzy, it gave me the feeling of being in vacuum. There were less than two minutes left to the end of the game and I could see the victory right before my eyes.

Ministers Black Veil - Poverty in Minister’s Black Veil and in Hawthor

Poverty in â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and in Hawthorne’s Life  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   How many readers have considered that the utter simplicity within the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† might be an expression or reflection of the utter poverty within the life of Hawthorne? It is the purpose of this essay to clarify this issue.    Hawthorne’s impoverishment probably began with the untimely death of his father, and continued until 1857. He had no money for a college education. Gloria C. Erlich in â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles† states that â€Å"Robert Manning made the essential decisions in the lives of the Hawthorne children and is well known as the uncle who sent Hawthorne to college† (35). After graduation from Bowdoin College Hawthorne spent twelve years in his room at home in an intense effort to make something of himself literarily. The Norton Anthology: American Literature states:    Hawthorne’s years between 1825 and 1837 have fascinated his biographers and critics. Hawthorne himself took pains to propagate the notion that he had lived as a hermit who left his upstairs room only for nighttime walks and hardly communicated even with his mother and sisters (547).    Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in â€Å"The Social Criticism of a Public Man† consider his poverty a determining influence in his life: â€Å"†¦a young man engrossed in historical study and in learning the writer’s craft is not notably queer if he does not seek society or marriage, especially if he is poor† (47-48). Fame was slow in coming for the author, likewise prosperity. Clarice Swisher in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography† explains in great detail the unfortunate financial uncertainty which ... ... Press, 1996.    Erlich, Gloria C. â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† 1835. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.html    James, Henry. Hawthorne. http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/nhhj1.html    Lewis, R. W. B. â€Å"The Return into Time: Hawthorne.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Swisher, Clarice. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.      

Go Greek

Becca Papineau English 101-18 Schwaller Essay Draft 3 October 26, 2012 Go GREEK!!! Being a part of something, and knowing you will always be accepted for who you are is one of the best feelings in the world. Learning life-long skills that you know that will benefit you in the future is also a rewarding experience. Joining a sorority or fraternity is something most people don’t regret. You have to give it a chance, in order to succeed. People judge the Greek system before they learn anything about it.They make assumptions that are most likely not true. They make assumptions from hear say only. You need to experience it, before you judge. Lauren Border’s negative outlook on the Greek system is mistaken, because she overlooks the positives like sisterhood and brotherhood, scholarship, and leadership, and what they have to offer. In â€Å"Pledging to never rush: a criticism of Greek life at Tufts†, published in The Tufts Daily, student at Tufts University Lauren Bord er writes how she is against the Greek life establishment at Tufts.She doesn’t understand why people would want to join an establishment that gives you so many bad names, and separates women from men, and men from women. In the article she did want to make clear that she does not dislike the people in the Greek life establishment. She has nothing against them; she is just against the establishment. She doesn’t like how the sexes are separated. She doesn’t understand that women are still trying to make a step up in the world and become equal to men, but then they have these establishments that separate them.She is also very against the hazing aspect on both sides of the Greek system. Girls’ egos are shut down, and men have to prove something, just to be part of something. She is stating that you can feel belonged to something and not have to partake in any of these things. In the article she states, â€Å"I am convinced that Greek life usually does much m ore harm than good. † She wants a change at Tufts and she is hoping that this article will make people wake up and see that there are other options out there. Border’s opinion on he Greek system lacks credibility when she points out the flaws of the Greek system. For every point she makes, she does not have any proof to back it up with. Also Border makes all of her judgments based off of the Tuft University Greek Life, when in reality not all Greek Life is the same on every campus nationwide. She is judging without knowing. Unlike Border I am currently part of a Greek establishment and it is the best decision I have ever made. I have only been in the house for three months, and I have experienced things I don’t think I would have ever experienced if I didn’t join.I don’t know if it’s because I go to the University of Idaho, but some of the stuff she mentions are not true. For example, Border states in the article that girls have it way worse in the Greek system than guys, but here at the University of Idaho, it’s the complete opposite. Absolutely no hazing is allowed, and if the house gets caught it will be shut down. No exceptions what so ever. There are many benefits for joining a Greek establishment. Border only looks at all the negatives, and doesn’t even bother to consider the positives.One of the multiple benefits for joining a Greek establishment is friendship and sisterhood/brotherhood you gain. When joining a house you have the advantage of meeting people of various backgrounds with both different yet similar interests. The ideal of sisterhood/brotherhood is the principal foundation upon which each fraternity/ sorority is built and from which you will receive the greatest benefit. You will always have people pushing you to be the very best you can be, and will be there when the going gets tough.Another benefit for joining an establishment is the academic side of it. One of the main purposes of the fraternity or sorority community is to develop and encourage high scholastic achievement among the members. Within the house you have the opportunity to take advantage of peer tutoring, upperclassman counseling, and chapter study hours. Those chapter study hours give the newest members a good sense of the change of study habits they are going to have to become accustom to in order to be successful in college.Also, there is the fact that your brothers/sisters can offer all kinds of academic advice after their experiences. There are so many benefits in joining a house, but I am only going to mention one more. When you join a fraternity or sorority you will be offered the opportunity to take on a leadership position. Leadership positions range from president to vice president of finance all the way to purchase chairman. Everyone in a fraternity or sorority is a leader, whether you’re an officer, on a committee, or just a participant. You will learn by doing.You will learn how t o manage a budget, run effective meetings, speak in public, and motivate others. These are skills that will help you not only within the university but throughout your life. These days it takes more than just a degree to get a job, it takes leadership experience. Being a part of something that has a lot of meaning behind everything is an amazing feeling. Being a part of a sorority/ fraternity and forming that sisterhood/ brotherhood is such an amazing thing. You know people have your back all the time, and you know you are not alone.Everyone is going through the same thing. Learning life skills while being part of a Greek establishment will help you so much later down the road. Whether you hear good or bad things about joining a house, give it a chance. You will never understand the meaning behind everything if you don’t give it a try. Lauren Borders negative outlook on the Greek system is mistaken, because she overlooks the positives of what it has to offer. Everything was b ased on hearsay and personal opinion. She had nothing to back up any of her points.

African Americans and Medicine: from Slavery to Modern Times

African Americans and Medicine: From Slavery to Modern Times Imagine being sick, but never going to a doctor because you knew they would do bad things to you, make you sicker, or even kill you. When we see doctors, we are trusting them to make the best decisions to help us. However, there was a time when doctors committed the most heinous acts against those who needed them. African American’s have been used for unethical studies and cases since the time of slavery.Some were used against their will, while others were taken advantage of by the people who were supposed to take care of them. The earlier cases of this inhumane treatment were scarcely documented, but through tales and word of mouth were passed from generation to generation. African Americans never forgot what happened to their ancestors or what could still possibly happen to them and as a result lead to the mentality that they should stay away from hospitals and doctors, furthermore creating a culture of fear surrou nding institutional medicine.Unfair treatment of African Americans started during the time of slavery. In Slavery and Medicine: Enslavement and Medical Practices in Antebellum Louisiana, author Katherine Bankole describes the mentality of whites and white slave owners which dictated the treatment of slaves medically. Bankole says, â€Å"The three main areas of enslavement and medicine in the antebellum period are: theory, management, and experimentation† (Bankole 8), doctors theorized that the biology of Africans was innately inferior to that of the white race.The second area, management, involved â€Å"general health, disease, diet/nutrition, clothing, mortality, and the medical costs incurred by slaveowners. † (Bankole 8) Medical management was the most important factor that determined the success of a slave owners land. The healthier a slave was, the more he could work and produce a profit for the slave owner. This meant health care was provided at a lower cost to t hose who owned slaves. Through this management came the development of medical and scientific journals as well as pamphlets and almanacs.The last area discussed was experimentation. Records show documented cases of surgeries and experimental treatment and procedures. The cases show how doctors built their careers using slaves as their subjects. Slaves were used in painful surgeries against their will. Consent only needed to be given by the slave owner. A slave could receive treatment if the slave owner found it cost effective to the value of the slave. Bankole also notes, â€Å"Often slave owners equate the care they provided to enslaved Africans to the care provided to horses or other farm/plantation animals†(Bankole 28).Although it is not completely certain how slaves felt about their medical treatment, due to the fact no documentation was taken from them on this subject, through stories and folklore there is an indication that â€Å"some Africans expressed a significant f ear of doctors and hospitals† (Bankole 20) . The legends indicate stories of Night Doctors, who were said to have paid slaves to dig up newly buried bodies. African Americans played the largest role in medical advancements.In The Use of Blacks for Medical Experimentation and Demonstration in the Old South, Todd Savitt explains how â€Å"southern white medical educators and researchers relied greatly on the availability of Negro patients for various purposes. Black bodies often found their way to dissecting tables, operating amphitheatres, classroom or beside demonstrations, and experimental facilities. † (Savitt 331). Though poor whites as well as European immigrants were plentiful in the northern cities of the south, blacks were easier targets because they were a voiceless people in a racially divided society.During this time bodies were greatly needed for teaching purposes. â€Å"Students had to learn anatomy, recognize and diagnose diseases, and treat conditions req uiring surgery; researchers had to try out their ideas and new techniques; and practitioners had to perform autopsies to confirm their diagnoses to understand the effects of diseases on the human body. † (Savitt 332). When the French school of hospital medicine reached America in the early 19th century, the need for human specimens became more necessary, so medical schools wanted to meet these demands for their student’s education.Colleges opened clinics as well as infirmaries to further assist students. Since most patients did not want to participate in studies, these institutions became reliant on poor and enslaved citizens. Savitt goes on to say, â€Å"Neither whites nor blacks held hospitals in high esteem during the antebellum period. Not only did patients object to having medical students and doctors touching and poking them and discussing their illnesses and the merits or problems of particular modes of treatment in their presence, but they also feared that expe riments might be performed on them and that they would be permitted to so autopsies could be undertaken. (Savitt 336). References of night doctors are again seen here where Savitt notes, â€Å"Black fear of medical schools and dissection inevitably carried over into the postbellum period, when whites, as a mean of maintaining control over freedmen, reinforced the idea of ‘night doctors’ who stole, killed, and then dissected blacks† (Savitt 340). My final thought from Savitt comes from Southern medical schools boasting about their large supplies of blacks for study material. Even after their schooling, white physicians maintained the idea of the usefulness of African Americans.African Americans continued to be used for new techniques or treatments, and doctors did not fear consequences as long as death or permanent injury did not result. â€Å"Blacks, therefore, did have reason for fearing misuse at the hands of southern white physicians. † (Savitt 341). Mu ch advancement was made in medicine as a result of experimentation. Certain doctors received their fame off the unethical treatments of slaves and African American patients. Dr. J. Marion Sims was an American surgeon who became credited with developing the area of gynecology, and has even been called, â€Å"The Father of Gynecology. Sims used enslaved women to try to discover a cure for the disease vesico-vaginal fistula. During Sims time, the practice of gynecology did not exist and obstetrics as well as child delivery were taught with dummies. Because enslaved women were poor, and lacked proper nutrition as well as prenatal care, they were at higher risk for developing VVF. After Sims graduated he became interested in surgery and began conducting experiments on enslaved women which resulted in the perfection of a certain surgical technique to repair the fistula.This was not Sims initial objective, but after looking after a patient one day who had fallen from a horse and had pain her pelvic area he discovered a way to better see inside the vagina which made him feel more confident in his ability to perform surgery on women with VVF. Sims used 7 enslaved women as his subjects so their consent was not necessary. His first patient was a woman named Lucy, and Sims was so sure he had discovered the proper technique for surgery he invited local doctors to come watch the surgery. Lucy had to stay in a position where she was on her knees and elbows with everyone watching, and she was not given anesthetics.Lucy was in horrible pain during and after the surgery and nearly lost her life from a blood infection she developed as a result of Sims’ experimentation. It took Sims four years to finally perfect his surgery and cure women of this disease. His first success was on a woman named Anarcha who had already received thirteen operations, all without the use of anesthetics. White women began coming to Sims after they heard of his success, but none of them could en dure the pain of surgery. Among the list of unethical experiments done to African Americans, one of the most famous was the Tuskegee Study.Syphilis was a huge concern during the 1930’s in America, but not much was known at the time of the effects of advanced syphilis. The study was conducted by investigators from the United States Public Health Service on 400 African American men from Macon County, Alabama. The study was meant to last from six months to a year, but the investigators knew that the most important information would come only after the men were dead. In Experimentation on Human Beings, Susan Lederer describes the men used for the study: â€Å"The men recruited into this study were impoverished individuals; many had never seen a doctor in their entire lives† (Lederer 21).The investigators would deceive the men by offering free treatment and perform spinal punctures collecting fluid, telling them this was a treatment for the condition. The investigators want ed to make sure the men would go on not receiving treatment so they would keep them from being enlisted in military service, during World War II, because once in the military they would receive mandatory syphilis treatment. The Center for Disease control held a meeting in 1969 to discuss whether the study should continue or not. Only one professor protested the study saying the men should be receiving treatment.It was only three years later when reports of the study flooded through American media, and Americans were shocked and disgusted in the governments treatment of these vulnerable subjects that the study was closed in 1972. In light of the study as well as other unethical studies at that time, Congress adopted the National Research Act in 1974. This act required that the people must give a written consent before partaking in studies. Given the history of medical experimentation of African Americans, one is left to wonder if it has had an effect on the modern day perspective of the African American and medicine.A study conducted in 2006 by doctors, Elizabeth Jacobs, Italia Rolle, Carol Estwing Ferrans, Eric Whitaker, and Richard Warnecke, to see what trust or distrust of physicians means to African Americans. They found that the African Americans they tested had more trust based on the â€Å"interpersonal and technical competence of physicians. † While distrust stemmed from â€Å"lack of interpersonal and technical competence, perceived quest for profit and expectations of racism and experimentation during routine provision of health care. If patients felt their physician was untrustworthy they would either keep information to themselves or lie about their medical history, change doctors, or even refuse to seek medical care. Multiple studies have shown that African Americans are more likely to distrust physicians than Caucasian Americans. One of the female patients in the study was quoted saying, â€Å"Over my period of time dealing with the medic al field, I know that you do need a hell of a lot of trust in the physicians or the medical field and the institutions. The patient goes on to say, â€Å"But I don't know how most people are, but it reminds me of the Tuskegee Institute where they messed around and they made the brothers have the disease instead of treating them they just wanted to see how it was going to affect them. So maybe sometimes you go instead of getting treated they just want to see what it’s going to do to you and they'll try this and try that and they may give you a sugar pill. Because it’s not like they haven't seen anyone dead before so the only time they get affected [by dead people] is when it’s personal. So that's why a lot of people have mistrust. (Jacobs et al) Although there have been great medical discoveries made over the last two centuries in American medicine, the cost of these discoveries has been paid by the lives of individuals who were or deceived into partaking in the se experiments. As a result, centuries later, there is still concern as to whether or not physicians are to be trusted to ethically perform their duties on patients. We owe so much of what has been established in the field of medicine to the slaves in America. Their pain and suffering paved the road to medical advancements, and their sacrifices need to be recognized as well as praised.