Muscular and Fitness Project Essay Example for Free

Muscular and Fitness Project Essay My class participants have a good overall health. Many of them have strong upper body strength and a moderate strength on the legs. They lack a core body and abdominal strength and have very low levels of flexibility. They need the most amount of work in flexibility. Weekly Routine for Flexibility Workout Day Flex Exercises Muscle Stretched Reps Time Reps Time Reps Time Mon Lying Quad Stretch Quads 4 20 4 20 4 25 Mon Modified Hurdlers Stretch Hamstrings 4 20 4 20 4 25 Wed Upper Back/Torso Stretch Traps 2 20 2 20 2 25 Mon Calf Stretch Gastrocnemius 4 20 4 20 4 25 Wed Lower Back Stretch Latisimus Dorsi 2 20 2 20 2 25 Fri Chest/Bicep Stretch Pecs/Biceps 2 20 2 20 2 25 Fri Shoulder/Tricep Stretch Triceps/Deltoids 4 20 4 20 4 25 Wed Lying Abdominal Stretch Abdominal 1 60 1 60 1 70 Weekly Routine for Muscle Workout Day Muscle Exercises Muscle Stretched Sets Reps Resistance Sets Reps Resistance Mon Lunges Quads 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Wed Push Ups Pecs 3 10 None 1 15 None Mon Hamstring Curl Hamstrings 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Wed Dead Rows Latisimus Dorsi 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Mon Calf Rises Gastrocnemius 3 10 None 1 15 None Fri Tricep Dips Triceps 3 10 None 1 15 None Fri Shoulder Shrugs Traps 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Fri Bicep Curl Biceps 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Fri Lateral Rises Deltoids 3 10 10 lbs 1 15 10 lbs Wed Leg Lifts Abdominal 3 10 None 1 15 None *You need to vary your workouts and want to give time for your body to recover from the workout. * Safety Guidelines Never continue if you feel any pain Never exercise a certain muscle group every day, make sure you give your muscles time to rest Never lift more than you can safely Never wear clothes that restrict your movement Never overstretch or over lift, it will do more harm than help Always warm up with a light cardiovascular activity beforehand Always use proper lifting technique Always breathe correctly Always train to have muscle balance Always control the weight when lifting Research how to correctly do each exercise from a reliable source before starting and make sure you have proper body alignment at all times SPORT/FITT principles Specificity Training should be designed to meet a specific need. Increase Flexibility Example: You want to increase the range of motion in your shoulder muscles. Increase Muscular Condition Example: You want to improve your muscular endurance in your shoulder muscles. Progression Training should start slowly and gradually. Increase Flexibility Example: Your shoulder stretches will be performed slowly and gradually become more challenging. Increase Muscular Condition Example: You will perform shoulder shrugs as part of your muscular fitness routine and gradually increase the challenge of this activity. Overload Training should require you to do more than you normally do. Apply the principle of Overload by changing the Frequency, Intensity, Time and/or Type (FITT) of activity you perform: Frequency: How often you perform the activity. Increase Flexibility Example: In week one, you will stretch three times per week and gradually work up to stretching five days per week. Increase Muscular Condition Example: In week one, you do shoulder shrugs two times per week and gradually work up to three times per week over a four week period. Intensity: How intensely you perform the activity. Increase Flexibility Example: As your flexibility increases you will gently extend how far you hold your shoulder stretches. Increase Muscular Condition Example: In week one you will use three pound weights and gradually work up to eight pound weights over a four week period. Time: The duration of your activity. Increase Flexibility Example: You will start by holding your shoulder stretch for 20 seconds and gradually work your way up to 40 second holds over a four week period. Increase Muscular Condition Example: In week one, you will attempt to do eight repetitions and gradually work up to 12 to 18 repetitions over a four week period. Type: The type of activity you perform. Increase Flexibility Example: You will also perform some chest and back stretches to further enhance the flexibility in these related and connected  muscle groups. Increase Muscular Condition Example: You will also incorporate some push-ups into your routine. Reversibility Training should continue or you will reverse your improvement. Increase Flexibility Example: You must continue to stretch or your improvements will reverse. Increase Muscular Condition Example: You must continue to perform muscular training exercises or your improvements will reverse. Tedium Training should include a variety of activities to avoid boredom. Increase Flexibility Example: You will try some yoga poses that incorporate shoulder stretches. Increase Muscular Condition Example: You will also swim laps in the pool and use the water as resistance. Equipment Dumbbells: Dumbbells are good for a variety of exercise. They offer a great range of motion and have a compact size. Dumbbells are not expensive. The ones pictured are $7 each for a total of $14.They offer a resistance of 10 lbs. total. Leg Weights: They are mainly used to exercise leg muscles. They can add a small bit of resistance to an exercise (3 lbs. each). They would cost about $25 for a pair. Steps: Steps are used for calf exercises and for balancing while doing other exercises. They are compact and easy to use. The one pictured is way out of budget, $40, so it is not recommended to buy them. Rather you can use your own stairs if you have them.

Israeli Targeted Killings against HAMAS: Legality

Israeli Targeted Killings against HAMAS: Legality The Legality and Efficacy of Israeli Targeted Killings against HAMAS Extra-judicial killing is often referred to by the United States in the case of its enemies as â€Å"exporting terrorism,† and has gained special notoriety since its employment by the State of Israel in the years of the two Palestinian intifadas, or â€Å"uprisings.† The political assassinations and recent attempts by the Israeli government, disputed by many in the international community, are argued by Israel and the United States as legally sanctioned by Articles 2 and 51 of the United Nations Charter. Israel claims suicide bombings against its civilians have been curbed significantly by successful assassinations to which it fully admits, albeit each of these assassinations has resulted in â€Å"collateral damage† in the form of innocent bystander casualties. Others, such as Member States of the EU and the Arab League, have denounced Israeli assassinations as illegal. Whether or not the targeted killings were the factor behind the drastic reduction in suicide b omb and other terrorist attacks on Israeli citizenry is a point of major contention; several other factors including HAMAS’ calling of a hudna, or ten-year truce, in hostility and the construction of the separation wall along the UN-recognized â€Å"Green Line† demarcating Israeli from Palestinian land should be taken into consideration. One of Israel’s most impenetrable arguments in favor of the practice of targeted assassination is not deterrence, but rather preemption: â€Å"On November 9, 2000, Fatah leader Hussein Abayat was assassinated by fire from a helicopter, along with two women who were walking nearby. The killing initiated a new Israeli policy of publicly acknowledging assassinations—officially termed ‘targeted killings,’ ‘liquidations,’ and ‘pre-emptive strikes.’ This policy was premised on a set of interconnected justifications: 1) that Palestinians were to blame for the hostilities, which constituted a war of terror against Israel; 2) that the laws of war permit states to kill their enemies; 3) that targeted individuals were ‘ticking bombs’ who had to be killed because they could not be arrested by Israeli soldiers; and 4) that killing terrorists by means of assassination was a lawful form of national defense†[1]. The legality of Israeli targeted killings relies on a fine balance of situational interpretation of international law; while the Israelis never argue the validity of a law in the UN Charter, their political stance on the Palestinian territories often contrasts their approach in dealing with the Palestinians as a sovereign entity. Lisa Hajjar dissects the varied Israeli responses to intifada in her Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza, noting Israel’s relative position of morality and transparency in comparison to nations in similarly enduring conflicts. Hajjar notes that â€Å"what distinguishes the Israeli model from many other states embroiled in protracted conflict is that Israel does not repudiate or ignore international law†; â€Å"rather, it ‘domesticates’ international law by forging interpretations of its rights and duties in the West Bank and Gaza to accommodate state practices and domestic agendas†[ 2]. The Israeli government currently administers authority over the West Bank (referred to as â€Å"Judea† and â€Å"Samaria† in Israeli political circles), and since it controls Palestinian air space, borders, natural resources, and collects taxes from the Palestinian people, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would erstwhile be considered under Israeli sovereignty. However, the international community (which includes the UN) does not recognize the Israeli occupation, leaving the Palestinian situation somewhat in political limbo. The UN Charter, in Article Two, states â€Å"all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state†; since â€Å"Palestine† is not a state under international law, this aspect of Article 2 does not apply. However, the simultaneous objections by the UN in the past, including the passing of more than sixty resolutions of which Israel is currently in violation[3], do not apply as according to the same Article, nothing â€Å"shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement,† including the â€Å"application of enforcement measures† taken by any given member state. By these technicalities, Israel is not breach of international law, since few international laws can apply to the occupied territories (OT) which have yet to be recognized as a sovereign state. Article 51 adds that â€Å"nothing in the present charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security†; moreover, â€Å"measures taken by members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council† in order to â€Å"maintain or restore international peace and security.† Israel is transparent regarding its attacks and since the Jewish state technically is not attacking the Palestinians as a whole (hence the phrase â€Å"targeted assassinations†), it is not in breach of the UN Charter. Given Israel’s membership in the UN and the absence of sovereignty on behalf of the Palestinians, no claim can be made to the contrary vis-à  -vis international law. According to Hajj ar: â€Å"Many states engage in practices that deviate from and thus challenge prevailing interpretations of international law. However, when powerful and dominant states like the US and Israel do so, this cannot simply be written off or criticized as â€Å"violations† because it produces an alternative legality. Contrary to the claims of both critics who take prevailing interpretations of international law as their point of reference and political realists who disparage the relevance of law, neither state ignores the law. Rather, both use laws and legal discourse to authorize and defend the legality of policies such as military pre-emption, indefinite incommunicado detention, abusive interrogation tactics, assassinations, and targeting of areas dense with civilians†[4]. The efficacy of the targeted killings is disputed from a purely number-oriented statistical study. According to The Alternative Information Center on Palestine/Israel and the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, Israeli deaths spiked in mid-2002, decreasing steadily through 2006[5]. Three cases of successful targeted assassinations on HAMAS (an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, or â€Å"Islamic Resistance Movement†) to consider are those of former Izzedine al-Qassam (the militant wing of HAMAS) leader Salah Shehade in 2002, HAMAS spiritual founder and figurehead Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin, and HAMAS co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, who was killed within months of replacing Sheikh Yassin as the organization’s head. Between the established spike in violence in 2002 and the assassination of both Rantisi and Yassin in 2004, several events transpired. Between the assassinations of Shehade in 2002 and al-Rantisi in 2004, the Israeli army engaged the Palestinians with an incursion into the intifada stronghold of Jenin and began the construction of the West Bank separation barrier. Though the physical number of casualties decreased, the number of attempted attacks did not subside until as recently as December 2006[6]. While the execution of figureheads such as those named above are undoubtedly a positive force in the dissembling of HAMAS and other terrorist organizations’ leadership, the question of whether they are an effective means of deterrence and prevention is another issue, especially given the religious component of suicide bombing in the OT and its culture of martyrdom. To some extent, the system of targeted assassinations has been â€Å"marginalized as extrajudicial executions (i.e. assassinations) have come to vie with prosecutions as means of punishment and deterrence for suicide bombings by Palestinian militants†; both â€Å"suicide bombings and assassinations have a history that predates the second in tifada, and both emanate from human rights claims—dystopian in the extreme—to kill to survive†[7]. Perhaps more contested from a legal standpoint than the act of targeted assassinations is the factor of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. The area most targeted by Israeli assassinations, especially by aircraft, is the densely-populated Gaza Strip whose population of approximately 1.3 million is estimated by many to be the most densely-populated region in the world. The case of Shehade is one of the more notorious in recent Israeli history, whose death sparked the protests of â€Å"tens of thousands vowing revenge†[8]. According to CNN and other sources, a squadron of F-16 jets dropped an armament of significant magnitude on the apartment building in which Shehade lived; sources claim the armament deployed weighed nearly a metric ton. As a corollary of the attack on the â€Å"three story building in which Shehade lived,† fifteen other people, including women and children, were killed in the residential complex[9]. Justifying the attack that killed the archite ct of attacks that resulted in the murder of â€Å"hundreds of Israelis,† the assassination of Shehade prompted speculation that Israel had to have been cognizant that an attack of such magnitude would certainly result in â€Å"collateral damage†[10]. Active awareness of civilian death as a measured loss in such an action prompts the question as to whether or not Israel should have been held accountable on the same counts as groups like HAMAS, despite the difference in the nature of the attacks. Hajjar, whose writings lean toward the side of the Palestinian cause, nevertheless concedes unconditionally that â€Å"suicide bombings and assassinations can by no means be considered equivalent except in their effects (death)†; while the two are not the â€Å"only forms of violence that characterize the exchanges during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, â€Å"together they illustrate with brutal clarity the human costs of unbearable justice and intractable conflict†[11]. I n order to adequately address Israeli culpability in targeted attacks, one must first put into larger context the timing of such attacks. Unlike the first intifada, the roots of the second are â€Å"entwined in the military court system, which has been a central setting for the conflict†[12]. The second intifada in particular marked the change in Israeli occupation of the OT, an expansion from a predominantly â€Å"law enforcement model to a war model†[13]. Since the attacks on both sides escalated in both nature and cost, the Israeli retaliatory actions also warranted a change in their degree of severity. The deterrent component of Israeli retaliation to the first intifada was surmised to have failed, given the reorganization of additional terrorist organizations that despite their political competition inside the framework of Palestinian government collaborated in their attacks on Israeli citizenry. There existed a perception that â€Å"the duration of the first int ifada had forced the Israeli government to make concessions to Palestinians and that these concessions, namely the redeployment from Palestinian population centers, had weakened the military’s ability to provide for Israeli security, creating a reliance on the Palestinian Authority that was ineffective in preventing suicide bombings and other types of attacks on Israelis†[14]. A low-intensity, small-arms confrontation, the first intifada was dwarfed by the weaponry and frequency of attacks inside Israel proper. Where the first intifada was characterized by stone-throwing at tanks, the second is today notorious for suicide bombs and gruesome lynching of Israeli settlers and soldiers. While deterrence may not have been achieved, the escalation in the degree of Israeli retaliatory measures and those of pre-emption undoubtedly carried with it the intent to assert Israeli military dominance. Targeted assassinations took place long before the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. While the legal ramifications of such assassinations are as yet to be officially disputed, the moral indignation inside Israel and abroad has been considerable. Opinions clash over the morality of such assassinations, even among Israel’s populace. Detailed by Nachman Ben-Yehuda in Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice, targeted assassinations should hardly be a significant point of contention in the international community. Though assassinations may be equated with executions (albeit doled out without formal trials), targeted attacks are not murder. Ben-Yehuda points out that â€Å"a political assassination event is typically carefully planned and cold bloodedly executed,† despite the large numbers of â€Å"collateral damage† as previously mentioned[15]. Israel has done well in the past to point to its critics the fact that â€Å"at the risk of seeming to provide a ‘justification’ for political assassination events in the form of executions, one must be reminded that selecting the route of political executions was in fact taken by governments in different cultures as a useful and pragmatic tool†[16]. Unlike Syria’s Asad regime, which in 1982 massacred nearly 40,000 members of the Islamic Brothers following an assassination attempt on then-President Hafiz al-Asad, Ben-Yehuda is careful to make note of Israel’s use of targeted assassination in specific cases when no other course of action will spare its soldiers’ lives. He makes a point to note that â€Å"while it is inaccurate to assert that political executions were a major tool used by Israel, it was used whenever the decision makers felt that executions could achieve specific goals like revenge, or in preventing future occurrences of aggres sion and violence against Israel†[17] . Ben-Yehuda also observes how some equate â€Å"a government’s reliance on assassinations to a ‘desperate gambler’s stroke’†; political analysts have speculated that â€Å"assassination is the tactic of the resource-less† and that â€Å"a government which cannot pursue foreign policy by conventional means and uses assassins instead is likely to be a government so vulnerable that its weapons perform like boomerangs in the hands of the inexperienced†[18]. America has recently endeavored to use the Israeli model of late, adopting the tactic of assassination in 2002 â€Å"which had been prohibited by executive orders since 1977†[19]. Studying Israeli legal arguments, the US militarily justified its assassination of suspected al-Qaeda member â€Å"Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harithi and five others (including a US citizen) in Yemen by a pilotless drone†[20]. Unlike, Israel, however, the US violated Yemeni airspace, a questionable act given distinction in its targeting of an American citizen. Targeted assassinations executed by the United States should not be conflated as a purely Israeli export, however; missions that transpired in the Vietnam conflict’s notorious Project Phoenix â€Å"neutralized 8,104 Viet Cong cadres† and was considered so potent a practice that the â€Å"Saigon interior minister set goals for 1969 noting the United States’ hope for 33,000 neutralizations through the rest of the year†[2 1]. While Israel used assassinations as a relatively domestic tool and was met with criticism, the majority of the world remained silent for several reasons in the case of America’s Project Phoenix. First, Israel has yet to officially declare war, as such a declaration would imply the sovereignty of Palestine as a nation. Second, the US was embroiled in a conflict that would later claim in excess of 50,000 soldiers and countless hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. As a preemptive measure, Phoenix was morally admissible due to the magnitude of the conflict and the fact that Vietnam, official or not, was a multi-national, regional conflict and full-blown war. It should be noted that even in war, however, â€Å"Phoenix had become known and increasingly controversial in the US, a problem that would never cease† and added to the long list of grievances the American public would take with the war in general[22]. Robert Freedman recalls the Israeli public opinion of targeted assassination, stating â€Å"public opinion in Israel is characterized by high levels of knowledge and personal involvement regarding issues of security and by low levels of perceived influence†; â€Å"the public relies on the leadership and is aware of its own ineffectiveness† despite such reliance[23]. An open society, Israel’s actions are not only carried out on behalf of the people, but are approved by the people. As per the international outcry abroad, those who defend Israel’s actions—namely states embroiled in similar conflicts such as Serbia, Cyprus, and Russia—remained staunch allies and knew the endorsement of Israel’s actions would lessen international reaction to their own respective situations. Among Israel’s political adversaries, however, the escalation of the violence in the second intifada, along with well-documented media coverage of bus and cafà © bombings, changed the character of international outcry significantly. Unlike the PLO’s activities in the late 1960s through 1980, HAMAS and its extreme tactics of suicide bombing after 2000 earned the Palestinian cause worldwide antipathy as well as scorn directed at the Israeli state. Such changes in threats, Freedman argues, precipitated changes in responses which varied in intensity. The escalation of targeted assassinations was a two-fold public relations strategy. On the one hand, it showed a change from the popular perception of Israeli indiscriminate fire on the Palestinian population, and on the other, it showed a general concern for IDF soldiers and law enforcement, starkly contrasting the willingness of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad to knowingly detonate and kill its own members. Freedman notes how â€Å"the Israeli response to the threats posed by the PLO, particularly during the height of its armed struggle in the 1968-1971 period, was based on a combination of admin istrative, economic, and military actions†[24]. The military component and predominance of assassinations reflects the difference between PLO secularist attacks and HAMAS-style religious branding, adding more weight to the conflict and another dimension of severity. To date, the Israelis have been able to continue in their targeted assassinations, owing to a combination of brutal Palestinian aggression as well as the language of ambiguity adhered to in the UN Charter. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. (1993) Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device forJustice. Albany: State U of New York P. Freedman, Robert Owen. (1991) The Intifada: Its Impact on Israel, the Arab World, andthe Superpowers. Miami: U of Florida P. Hajjar, Lisa. (2005) Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the WestBank and Gaza. Berkeley: U of California P. Hirst, David. (2004) â€Å"Obituary: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.† [Online Resource] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1175854,00.html. Prados, John. (2003) Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby.New York: Oxford U P. Rice, Edward E. (1988) Wars of the Third Kind: Conflict in Underdeveloped Countries.Berkeley: U of California P. Various. (2007) â€Å"Al-Aqsa Intifada Enters Sixth Year.† [Online Resource] Available at:http://www.alternativenews.org/aic-publications/other-publications/al-aqsa intifada-enters-sixth-year-20050929.html. Vause, John. (2002) â€Å"Israel Takes Heat for Gaza Airstrike.† [Online Resource] Availableat: http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/07/23/mideast/index.html. Various. (2004) â€Å"Hamas Chief Killed in Air Strike.† [Online Resource] Available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3635755.stm Watson, Geoffrey R. (2000) The Oslo Accords: International Law and the IsraeliPalestinian Peace Agreements. Oxford: Oxford U P. Note: UN Charter available at: www.un.org/aboutun/charter Footnotes [1] Hajjar 2006, p. 238 [2] Hajjar 2006, p. 243 [3] Hajjar 2006, p. ix [4] Hajjar 2006, p. 246 [5] http://www.alternativenews.org/aic-publications/other-publications/al-aqsa-intifada-enters-sixth-year-20050929.html [6] Hajjar 2005, p. 244 [7] Hajjar 2006, p. 236 [8] CNN 2002 [9] Ibid [10] Ibid [11] Hajjar 2006, p. 36 [12] Hajjar 2006, p. 235 [13] Hajjar 2006, p. 236 [14] Hajjar 2006, p .237 [15]s Ben-Yehuda 1993, p. 354 [16] Ben-Yehuda 1993, p. 318 [17] Ben-Yehuda 1993, p. 354 [18] Ibid [19] Hajjar 2006, p. 246 [20] Ibid [21] Prados 2003, p. 210 [22] Prados 2003, p. 214 [23] Freedman 1991, p. 269 [24] Freedman 1991, p. 47

Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells

Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n12/full/nbt1209-1071.html http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/publications/syntheticbiologyroadmap-pdf/ (Accessed 11 10 2016) Engineering genetic logic circuits for cancer cell recognition and treatment Over the past 60 years, the field of molecular biology has experienced significant advances. Following the genomic revolution, genetic engineering enabled to modify endogenous gene networks using technologies such as site-directed mutagenesis, DNA recombination, DNA sequencing, synthesis and others. Now, after rigorous engineering, the field of synthetic was born making it possible to create novel biological entities that behave in a controllable and predictable manner 1. Synthetic biology is defined by the Royal Academy of Engineering as The design and engineering of biologically based parts, novel devices, and systems as well as the redesign of existing natural biological systems 2. It builds on the work of conventional genetic engineering by not only focusing on individual genes but by applying an engineering driven perspective designing and creating complex artificial biological systems. At present, synthetic biology has been applied in a wide range of areas demonstrating its potential to solve major global challenges in the fields of bioremediation, biosensing, production of biofuels, biomaterials, therapeutics, and biopharmaceuticals. Examples comprise the creation of organisms that could clean hazardous waste such as radioactive elements or arsenic 3, modification of yeast for the production of isobutanol 4, engineering viruses and bacteria to treat cancer 5,6, and the development of a diabetes treatment using an optogenetic gene circuit 7. Synthetic biology makes use of engineering analogies such as the one illustrated by Andrianantoandro and collaborators were it is compared to computer engineering at different hierarchy levels (Figure 1). Both disciplines take a bottom-up approach by integrating its component parts to build a more complex system. At the bottom are the biochemical molecules (DNA, RNA, proteins and other metabolites) equivalent to the physical layer of capacitors, transistors and resistors in computer engineering. One level up at the device level, physical processes are controlled by biochemical reaction comparable to engineered logic gates. By connecting and integrating these modules into host cells, synthetic biologists can program cells with the desired behaviour. More complex tasks can be accomplished by using a cell population, in which cells communicate each other to perform in a coordinated way, much like the case of computer networks 8. Finally, from an engineering point of view, what synthetic biologists are doing now is quite like what electrical engineers have been doing for many years, designing electronic circuits using standard components, such as resistors, capacitors and transistors. The difference lies in the building blocks that are used. Synthetic biologists design genetic circuits with specified functions using standard engineered biological parts such as genes, promoters, ribosome binding sites and terminators. In this regard, synthetic biology is to biology what electrical engineering is to physics, which both deal with electrons but one focuses on the understanding of their nature and the other aims to make use of them to build useful applications. Â   Â   Synthetic biology follows a hierarchical structure, building up systems from smaller components. At the lowest level are the parts, which are pieces DNA that encode for a single biological function such as a promoter. These parts are then combined into the next layer, the device layer, which is a collection of parts that performs a desired order function (e.g. the production of a protein). Devices are further combined into a system, which can be defined as the minimum number of devices necessary to perform the behaviour specified in the design phase. Systems can have simple behaviour (e.g. an oscillator) or a more complex behaviour (e.g. a set of a metabolic pathways to synthesise a product.)Parts and devices are usually treated as modular entities in design and modelling. This means that it is assumed that they can be exchanged without affecting the behaviour of the other systems components that are left untouched. At the module level, biological devices can be used to assemble comp lex pathways that function like integrated circuits. Early synthetic biology studies began developing circuits in prokaryotic organisms. Inspired by electronic, first systems made use of basic elements such as promoters, transcriptional repressors and ribosome binding sites to create small modules. These modules included the construction of oscillators 9, genetic switches 10, and digital logic gates 11. The successful construction of the first systems demonstrated that engineering-based methods could be used to programme computational behaviour into cells 12 (Figure 2).

Children of the Camps Essay -- Holocaust European History Nazi Germany

Children of the Camps During the Holocaust, millions of Jews, gypsies, and members of other groups were persecuted and murdered by Nazi occupied Europe. However, many forget to acknowledge that among these were children. It may never be known exactly how many children were murdered but it is said that as many as some 1.5 million children may have fell victim to the Nazi party. Although children were not a main target of the Nazi’s violence, they did fall subject to persecution along with their parents. Jewish children were first exposed to persecution in school. Many of their friends who were not Jewish began not socializing with them and even began to treat them in prejudice ways. This was soon followed with the announcement that, â€Å"German Jewish children were prohibited from attending German schools† (www.mtsu.edu/.baustin/children.html). The life of children had quickly become as torn apart as their parents. However, there were more efforts to help the children escape the grips of the Nazi rule. Before 1939, several thousand children were able to escape in â€Å"Kindertransports† to the Netherlands, Great Britain, Palestine, and the United States† (www.mtsu.edu/.baustin/children.html). Those who were not able to escape were placed in ghettos and transit camps. These ghettos and transit camps served as the foreground to the death and slave labor camps that would soon follow. It was written in a Jewish diary,† A Jewish ghetto in the traditional sense is impossible; certainly a closed ghetto is unconceivable† (Dwork, p.155). Infact many of these ghettos were â€Å"closed† meaning that the Jews that occupied the ghettos were forbidden to leave the area. Within the ghettos, there was belittlement of life. The segregated streets often had no working stores and closed places of worship. This left the isolated inhabitants subject to starvation, disease, and early death. Next came the death and slave labor camps. These were most often the last stop before they were killed. Upon entering a camp, the Jews were separated. They were separated into women, children, working age, men, and the old. Furthermore, the children were separated into three age groups: â€Å"(1) infants and toddlers up to age 6; (2) young children ages 7 to 12; and (3) adolescents from 13 to 18 years old† (www.mtssu.edu/.baustin/children.html). Women, children who fall in the first age group... ...own on the benches all around and were cheerful and happy that they had been for once allowed out of Neuengamme. The children were completely unsuspecting† (www.auschwitz.dk/bullenhuser.html). The children were told that they would be receiving a vaccination. In reality, they were injected with morphine and then hung on hooks on the wall to die. However, the children were so light from malnutrition and disease that their own weight would not strangle them. Instead, they hung the children two at a time so that there was enough weight to kill them. It was later noted, â€Å" none of the children cried† (www.auschwitz.dk/bullenhuser.html). As one can imagine, all children who lived thru the Holocaust, were subject to inhuman conditions. Life was stripped from them and in return handed a small piece of hell that they could call their own. Though there were those who were fortunate enough to witness better days, some were left with that small piece of hell as their final destiny. Whether it was the children of the ghettos and camps or the tortured souls of the Bullenhuser School children, it may be the cries of the children that are most often unheard in the story of the Holocaust.

European Travel and the Spread of Western Ideology Essay -- European E

European Travel and the Spread of Western Ideology Humans began their existence as travelers, slowly making their way across the earth hunting and gathering. This travel was quite slow and gradual, and could be termed a period of â€Å"human expansion†, as traveling groups rarely encountered other humans. It really wasn’t until the sixteenth century that a new kind of travel developed, a kind that was more global, occurred rapidly, and was filled with many encounters with other civilizations. This sort of travel signified not simply the spreading of humans across the earth, but more the spreading of ideas among people. And during this particular period, the travelers were predominantly European, and so it was Europeans who, believing in their own superiority, most imposed their ideas on others. Overall, therefore, human travel could more accurately be termed European: its effect was to increase both the power and scope of European ideas. These ideas, in turn, affected many different civilizations, changing the thinking, and actions, of people all over the world, and therefore changing their impact on the world. While many civilizations have traveled at various points, it was the Europeans who, beginning in the sixteenth century, began to travel the most. â€Å"It was the Europeans who went out to the peoples of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and never the reverse† (Adas, p. 2). As soon as European ships could be built that were large enough to endure long voyages, the Europeans set out in them, realizing that this was advantageous: â€Å"the relative advantage of Europeans was on the seas† (Cippola, 138). Through this, they visited many foreign countries, and were usually the ones doing the conquering. Other people were unprepared for t... ..., Michael, "Machines as the Meaure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance", Cornell Univ. Press 1989. Cipolla, Carlo M., "Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700" Sunflower Univ. Press, 1996. Diamond, Jared, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" W.W. Norton & Co, 1997. Ponting, Clive. "A Green History of the World," St. Martins Press, NYC, 1991. Pursell, Carroll W. Jr., Ch. 1 and 2 in "Early Stationary Steam Engines in America: a study in the migration of a technology" Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1969, pp. 1-27. Schneider, Jane. Rumpelstilskin's Bargain: Folklore and the Merchant Capitalist Intensification of Linen Manufacture in Early Modern Europe. In Cloth and Human Experience, edited by Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.

Cloud Computing Essay

ABSTRACT: This white paper is an introduction to the terms, characteristics, and services associated with internet-based computing, commonly referred to as cloud computing. Also introduced are the benefits and challenges associated with cloud computing, and for those seeking to use communications services in the cloud, briefly presented are different ways of determining the interfaces needed to use these communications services. Cloud computing is where software applications, processing power, data and potentially even artificial intelligence are accessed over the Internet. Many private individuals now regularly use an online email application such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail. The location of physical resources and devices being accessed are typically not known to the end user. It also provides facilities for users to develop, deploy and manage their applications ‘on the cloud’, which entails virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself. 1. What is Cloud Computing? Cloud computing provides the facility to access shared resources and common infrastructure, offering services n demand over the network to perform operations that meet changing business needs. Definitions: â€Å"Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet.† – Wikipedia â€Å"Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.†- Wikipedia Basically a cloud is a virtualization of Resources that manages and maintains itself. CCSIT, Junagadh tank.infotech@yahoo.com Page 1 2. Types of cloud Public Cloud: the services are delivered to the client via the Internet from a third party service provider. Example: Amazon, Yahoo, Google Example of Clouds 3. Architecture Cloud architecture,[15] the systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud computing, typically involves multiple cloud components communicating with each other over application programming interfaces, usually web services and 3-tier architecture. This resembles the Unix philosophy of having multiple programs each doing one thing well and working together over universal interfaces. Complexity is controlled and the resulting systems are more manageable than their monolithic counterparts. Private Cloud: these services are managed and provided within the organization. There are less restriction on network bandwidth, fewer security exposures and other legal requirements compared to the public Cloud. Example: HP Data Centers Hybrid cloud: There is some confusion over the term â€Å"Hybrid† when applied to the cloud – a standard definition of the term â€Å"Hybrid Cloud† has not yet emerged. The term â€Å"Hybrid Cloud† has been used to mean either two separate clouds joined together (public, private, internal or external), or a combination of virtualized cloud server instances used together with real physical hardware. The most correct definition of the term â€Å"Hybrid Cloud† is probably the use of physical hardware and virtualized cloud server instances together to provide a single common service Architecture The two most significant components of cloud computing architecture are known as the front end and the back end. The front end is the part seen by the client, i.e. the computer user. Hybrid cloud CCSIT, Junagadh tank.infotech@yahoo.com Page 2 This includes the client’s network (or computer) and the applications used to access the cloud via a user interface such as a web browser. The back end of the cloud computing architecture is the ‘cloud’ itself, comprising various computers, servers and data storage devices collaboration. For more information on collaborative working using Google Docs, you can watch the now classic video Google Docs in Plain English. Taking collaboration further still, the outputs of some SaaS applications can be embedded in other web pages as web service gadgets. For example, a Google Docs or Zoho Sheet chart can be mashed into another website. There it will automatically update when the data in the online spreadsheet that is generating it is changed. SaaS applications are also constantly updated, which can free users of the â€Å"upgrade hell† of a major traditional software package revision. The disadvantage of SaaS is that it is basically a takeit-or-leave-it form of cloud computing. This means that businesses and individuals who require direct access to cloud computing hardware on which they can run their own applications cannot use SaaS. Rather, they need to cloud compute at the platform or infrastructure level using either platform as a service (PaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS). 4. Services of Cloud Computing SaaS(Software as a Service) PaaS(Platform as a Service) IaaS(Infrastructure as a Service) Services Of Cloud computing PaaS(Platform as a Service) A platform is a software environment used to develop and run applications. For example, Microsoft Word is an application that runs on the Microsoft Windows platform. When people choose to cloud compute using platform as a service or ‘PaaS’, they obtain access to an online platform provided by a cloud computing vendor. They can then use this platform to develop and deliver their own online (SaaS) applications. Applications developed using PaaS may be used privately by just one or a few users within a particular company. However, they can also be offered free or for-a-fee to anybody on the web. This means that if you have a great idea for a new online application then you can use PaaS to turn it into a reality! Several cloud suppliers now offer PaaS tools. Most notably these include Google App Engine, Microsoft Windows Azure, and Force.com. All such offerings effectively provide their customers with a box of cloud computing Lego. New applications are then constructed from the plastic bricks on offer. With Force.com, some applications can even be built using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Relatively nontechnical people can therefore create new online applications very quickly. SaaS (Software as a Service) Software as a service is where computer applications are accessed over the Internet rather than being installed on a local computing device or in a local data centre. So, for example, people may use an online word processor like Google Docs, an online database application like Zoho Creator, an online photo editor like Pixar, or an online invoicing application such as Zoho Invoice. Many SaaS applications are free to use, at least initially. You can find links to a great many in the Cloud Computing Directory. SaaS can provide its users with many benefits. These include the general cloud computing advantages of dynamic scalability and any device independence, as well as the benefit of being able to use an application without incurring fixed costs. Many SaaS applications are also collaborative. This allows multiple users to share documents and even to work on them at the same time.  For example, in the Google Docs spreadsheet different users can work on different cells simultaneously. The cells different users are working on are locked-off and highlighted in different colours. A real-time chat window can also be opened up alongside the spreadsheet to further enhance Indeed, Force.com claim that their â€Å"simplified programming model and cloud-based environment mean [customers] can build and run applications five times faster, at about half the cost of traditional software platforms†. Google App Engine and Force.com also allow an initial application to be created for free! Whilst PaaS is great in many situations, its users do need to be mindful of the involved flexibility verses power trade-off. What this means is that whilst PaaS makes it relatively easy to create new online applications, users are nevertheless constrained by the particular programming languages and tools provided by their PaaS supplier. In other words, PaaS vendors have total control over which Lego bricks they allow their customers to build with. Whilst this ensures that applications built using the tools on offer will always function correctly, it is nevertheless restrictive. It is for this reason that many companies and some individuals choose to cloud compute at t he infrastructure level. Dedicated physical servers and virtual server instances can perform exactly the same functions. However, there are some differences between them. For a start, virtual server instances are cheaper to supply as each does not require its own piece of physical hardware in a cloud data centre. On the other hand, virtual server instances are sometimes seen as less secure by those who do not want to share server hardware with other customers. For this reason, four categories of IaaS are available. These are most commonly known as â€Å"private clouds†, â€Å"dedicated hosting†, â€Å"hybrid hosting† and â€Å"cloud hosting†. 5. How cloud computing works? In traditional enterprise computing, IT departments forecast demand for applications and capacity and invest time and money to develop those resources inhouse or purchase them from others and operate them in-house. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) Infrastructure as a service or â€Å"IaaS† is where a cloud supplier provides online infrastructure on which their customers can store data and develop and run whatever applications they please. IaaS therefore allows companies to move their existing programs and data into the cloud and to close down their own local servers and data centres. Whilst computing applications run on platforms, platforms in turn run on computing infrastructure. So, for example, whilst the Microsoft Word application runs on the Microsoft Windows platform, in turn the Microsoft Windows platform runs on the infrastructure of an IBM-compatible PC. How it works The fundamental building block of cloud computing infrastructure is the server. Cloud computing servers are basically computers on which online applications can be run and data can be stored. When provided by an IaaS vendor, cloud servers can also be real or virtual. Real or â€Å"dedicated† servers are individual circuit boards – known as blades – mounted within equipment racks in a data centre. In contrast virtual servers – also known as â€Å"virtual server instances† – are software-controlled slices of real, physical servers. Virtual servers are created by a process called virtualization that allows many users to share the processing power of one physical server. With cloud computing, institutions procure IT services from remote providers, and campus constituents access these resources over the Internet. E-mail, for example, long considered a staple of an institution’s IT operations, can be obtained from a range of sources, and a growing number of campuses contract with outside suppliers for this function. Software is hosted by the provider and does not need to be installed—or maintained—on individual computers around campus. In some cases, a large university or a consortium might become a provider of cloud services. Storage and processing needs can also be met by the cloud. Institutions pay only for the resources used, and users can access the applications and files they need from virtually any Internet- connected computer. In a mature cloud computing environment, institutions would be able to add new IT services or respond to changes in capacity on the fly, saving capital costs that can be redirected to programs of strategic value to the institution. Advantages †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Reduced Hardware equipment for end users Improved Performance Lower Hardware and Software Maintenance Instant Software Updates Accessibility Less Expensive (Amazon example) Better Collaboration Pay for what you use Flexible 6. CHARACTERISTICS †¢ High scalability Cloud environments enable servicing of business requirements for larger audiences, through high scalability Disadvantages †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Security Issues (#1 concern) Internet connection Too many platforms Location of Servers Time for Transition Speed †¢ Agility The cloud works in the ‘distributed mode’ environment. It shares resources among users and tasks, while improving efficiency and agility (responsiveness) †¢ High availability and reliability Availability of servers is high and more reliable as the chances of infrastructure failure are minimal †¢ Multi-sharing With the cloud working in a distributed and shared mode, multiple users and applications can work more efficiently with cost Reductions by sharing common infrastructure †¢ Services in pay-per-use mode SLAs between the provider and the user must be defined when offering services in pay per use mode. This may be based on the complexity of services offered Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) may be offered to the users so they can access services on the cloud by using these APIs 7. CONCLUSION After so many years, Cloud Computing today is the beginning of â€Å"network based computing† over Internet in force. It is the technology of the decade and is the enabling element of two totally new computing models, the Client-Cloud computing and the Terminal-Cloud computing. These new models would create whole generations of applications and business. Our prediction is that it is the beginning to the end of the dominance of desktop computing such as that with the Windows. It is also the beginning of a new Internet based service economy: the Internet centric, Web based, on demand, Cloud applications and computing economy

Psychological Influence of Fashion Essay

When one thinks of the identity crisis that plagues people, one is able to discern the connection between fashion and its lure on people. Conformity comes in many forms and affects many aspects of adolescents’ lives. Do adolescents take up a certain way of dressing because everyone else is dressing up that way? Do they let their hair grow long one year and cut it short the next because of fashion? Conformity occurs when individuals adopt the attitudes or behavior of others because of real or imagined pressure from them. Indeed, the pressure to conform to peers becomes very strong during the adolescent years (Santrock, John 1998. p. 211). More than any other outward manifestation of a person’s personality, the clothes has a language all its own. It is a nonverbal system of communication that symbolizes the beliefs and thinking of an individual. In an encounter, before people even speak to one another, their clothing makes a statement that expresses their age, sex, class, occupation and personality (Flynn, Patricia). Clothing has a language all its own. It can range from conventional and traditional to the outrageous and eccentric styles. Dress can identify its wearer with a social group. For example, jeans never go out of style with teens. The difference just lies in the style, cost and labels that identify them as designer. Wearing jeans may symbolize that the individuals are members of the same group (Flynn, Patricia). For example during the 1950’s, teenage clothing styles grew amidst the economic prosperity after World War II. The consumer market targeted those who were pampered and had money to spend on clothes. At the start, the adult designers were the trendsetters in terms of fashion sense. But the teens began to assert their own individuality and sported only the styles they most prefer. To these youth, this was a form of their self-expression (Flynn, Patricia). Image builders give a great deal of thought to the types of images that would have the strongest appeal to the greatest number of people. Merchandisers reason that they could build into their products the same traits that people recognize in themselves. Studies of narcissism indicate that nothing appeals more to people than themselves; so why not help people buy a projection of themselves? That way, the images would pre-select their audiences, select out of a consuming public people with personalities having an affinity for the image. By building in traits known to be widely dispersed among the consuming public the image builders reason that they could spark love affairs by the millions. The sale of self-images expedited the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of clothing, accessories and other beauty products. Thus, the image builders prove again and again that American consumers are becoming self-image buyers. Conclusion Young people, having identified with many models, have incorporated many different characteristics. Now they must integrate, synthesize, and reorganize these, dropping some characteristics and strengthening others. A new, unique and coherent identity emerges, one in which, â€Å"the whole has a different quality than the sum of its parts† (Erikson, 1959, p. 90). Fashion and style exerts a different kind of psychological influence of people, especially adolescents since they are pampered by society. A cast consumer market is bombarded with the advantages of being â€Å"in† a group by adapting a distinctive sense of fashion. It is, therefore, important that people understand the psychological influences underlying this issue. People must be critical in recognizing that merchandisers of many different products connected with fashion probes people’s subsurface desires, needs and drives to find their points of vulnerability. (Santrock, John 1998. p. 211). Among the subsurface motivating factors found on the emotional profile of most of us are the drives to conformity, need for oral stimulation and yearning for security. People must be critical in understanding that once these points of vulnerability are isolated, the psychological hooks are fashioned and baited and placed deep in the merchandising sea for unwary prospective customers, particularly the youth. References Covey, Stephen R. Living the 7 Habits. (1999) Erikson, E. (1959). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton. Fashion. Nationmaster. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2007 at: http://www. nationmaster. com/encyclopedia/Fashion Flynn, P. (1985). Body Language –The Language of Contemporary Fashion. Accessed 12