Juliet is surrounded by caring adults who are concerned for her. Explore this view of the adults in the play Essay Example

Juliet is surrounded by caring adults who are concerned for her. Explore this view of the adults in the play Essay Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare at a relatively early juncture in his literary career, most probably in 1594 or 1595. It is a tragic story of forbidden love. The whole episode of Romeo and Juliets meeting, falling in love, marriage, and tragic end, takes place within five days.Around the time when Romeo and Juliet was written, people were beginning to question traditional beliefs about rank and social order, and ideas that people should be superior just because they were born into wealthier families, or that those in power should always be obeyed without question. Perhaps this is shown in Romeo Juliet when Juliet does not follow her fathers ruling that she should marry Paris and embarks on a risky plan to get away with Romeo. Elizabethan women were raised to believe that they were inferior to men. The church believed this and quoted the Bible to ensure the continued adherence to this principle. Elizabethan women were also dominated by the male members of their family.In Juliets case, she is dominated and subjugated by her father. Juliet, the only child of the Capulet family means she is first priority to her parents. Along with this came a responsibility and choice for Juliet to either obey or contradict her upbringing. This being true; in her best interest; her father tries to give her a life which he thinks she will be happy in. Throughout the play we relate Juliet to be a nurtured little girl, having many adults around her to ensure that she is brought up protected and educated about life.The Nurses relationship with Juliet focuses attention on Juliets age. Juliet is still a young girl when the play begins, not yet fourteen, as we learn in Act I, Scene 3, the Nurse repeatedly asserts that Juliet has not yet had her 14th birthday. In contrast to Juliets youth, the Nurse is old and enjoys complaining about her aches and pains. Fie, how my bones ache! By the Nurse: Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen (18-19).The Nurse knows this date very well because she had a daughter who that same day died at birth therefore; she raised Juliet perhaps as she would have raised her own child. The Nurses main purpose within the play is to act as a go-between for Romeo and Juliet, and is the only other character besides Friar Laurence to know of their wedding. The Nurse, despite being a servant in the Capulet household, has a role equivalent to that of Juliets mother and regards Juliet as her own daughter.Juliet sees the Nurse as a friend, confidante, and appreciates the help the nurse has given her. Throughout the play, Juliet relies on and trusts the Nurse in most of her endeavours and undertakings. Each time Juliet needs to get in touch with Romeo the Nurse is there, helping her in any way she can. However When we first get introduced to the Nurse, we interpret her as a coarse and loquacious, but well-intentioned woman, without affectation, and having Juliets best interests at heart.At last we discover, as Juliet does, that the Nurse does not really understand Juliets love for Romeo and her faithfulness. She doesnt share Juliets idea of love; for her, love is a temporary and physical relationship, so she cant understand the intense and spiritual love Romeo and Juliet share. The Nurse, often repeats herself, and her vulgar references to the sexual aspect of love set the idealistic love of Romeo and Juliet apart from the love described by other characters in the play. The Nurse is shown to be relatively lewd and promiscuous. Juliets frustration at having to rely upon the Nurse as her messenger is used to comic effect in Act II, Scene 5, when Juliet is forced to listen to the Nurses complaint and ailments while trying to sweet-talk from her, the news of her wedding plans.O honey nurse, what news? /Now, good sweet nurse,O Lord, why lookst thou sad? When the Nurse brings Juliet news of Romeos wedding arrangements, she focuses on the pleasures of Juliets wedding night, I am th e drudge, and toil in your delight, / But you shall bear the burden soon at night (II.5.75-76). This clash in outlook manifests itself when she advises Juliet to forget the banished Romeo and instead marry Paris, betraying Juliets trust by advocating a false marriage. Act 3 Scene 5 I think it best you married with the County. O, hes a lovely gentleman. Romeos a dishclout to him. (218-220). Juliet cant believe that the Nurse offers such a course of action after she praised Romeo and literally helped bring them together. The nurses social position places her in the serving class; she is not empowered to create change around her.Her maternal instinct toward Juliet sustains her to aid Juliet in marrying Romeo; however, when Capulet becomes infuriated and enraged; the Nurse retreats quickly into submission and urges Juliet to forget Romeo. The nurses reaction toward Juliets death is genuine and natural. O woe, O woeful, woeful day! Most lamentable day, most woeful day. That ever, ever I did yet behold. This shows how close her relationship with Juliet was despite her advising Juliet to marry Paris instead of her true love Romeo. It could be argued that she reacted the way she did because she felt guilty of letting Juliet proceed with her plan to meet Romeo once again. Either way this shows she had Juliets best interest in mind.Lady Capulet, Juliets biological mother only tells her what to do, and has never been personally close with Juliet. When Juliet comes of age to get married, Lady Capulet wants her to marry Paris, and does not care how Juliet feels about it. When Lady Capulet comes to tell Juliet the news about her arranged marriage with Paris, Lady Capulet mistakes Juliets tears for Romeo as grief over Tybalts death. Juliets replies strengthen this belief, as they were deliberately ambiguous; to hide her feelings for Romeo as Lady Capulet threatens vengeance; promising that Romeo will be poisoned in Mantra. Juliet tries to talk to her mother, and tells her th at she does not want to marry Paris, but Lord Capulet walks in and angrily tells her that she will go and marry Paris even if he has to drag her there.Juliet again pleads with her mother to delay the marriage even for a week, but Lady Capulet shows no remorse and affection to help her daughter so instead she only responds with, Talk not to me, for Ill not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee Act 3 Scene 5 (214-215). This line interprets how lady Capulet would rather chose not say a word; to help her daughters situation, than undertake and live with her husbands reaction because she is too scared to speak out against him for fear of his rage.Even if the brides mother cared for her daughters feelings, she would seldom intervene, firstly because she would not be particularly close to her daughter, as the child would be raised by a wet nurse, especially among the richer families. Secondly, wives had no power against their husbands, as is shown in Romeo and Juliet. La dy Capulet herein demonstrates that she has never had to deal with a wilful child. Only when Juliet pretends to go along with the arranged marriage to Paris does she win back her mothers attentions. In this scene Juliet, only moments after being together with Romeo, is in a difficult situation. At first she tries simple disobedience, as she is still a young child.At the same time she uses irony, saying things that have a different real meaning from what appears on the surface. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. But she is also resourceful and ultimately very brave. Lady Capulet at first seems concerned for her daughter, but when Juliet defies her, she passes the problem on to her husband. Towards the end of the scene lady Capulet says I would the fool were married to her grave! This is a use of dramatic irony because the audience knows that what Lady Capulet had said is actually going to happen and that the married couple Romeo and Juliet will die. Towards the end when Lady Ca pulet believes that her daughter Juliet has died her feelings and emotions towards her have changed dramatically and visibly.It is almost as if Lady Capulet has shown her only daughter her most concern and sympathy when she thinks she is dead. O me, O me, my child, my only life! Revive look up, or I will call thee help, help! Call help. Lady Capulets reaction is again, ambiguous. She grieves for her lost Juliet, and yet her final words suggest a kind of self-concern. O me! This sight of death is as a bell. That warns my old age to a sepulcher.Lord Capulet has a philosophical and idealistic perspective and wants the wedding to go ahead on time. Lord Capulet changes his mind about when Juliet should get married; this is because he has had time to consider Paris proposal and now believes that he has Juliets best interests at heart. He thinks Juliet will obey him and be ruled in all respects by him. He hasnt consulted his daughter about marriage to Paris but believes, foolishly, that sh e will obey him.He may believe that by marrying her to Paris her grief for Tybalt will be forgotten and she will become happy once again. With such a sudden change in Lord Capulets behaviour; it influences our view of him as a father in many aspects; he is now portrayed as a father who wants to be in control and have power over his daughter and her life. Before knowing that Juliet does not agree with his decision for her to marry Paris he tries to comfort her when he intervenes and mistakes Juliets tears for her grieving over Tybalts death. What, still in tears? Evermore showering?In one little body Thou counterfeitst a bark, a sea, a wind; For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is, Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs who, raging with thy tears, and they with them, without a sudden calm, will overset thy tempest-tossed body? In this quote Capulet is confused as to why Juliet is crying, and he is reassuring her with a m eaningful and expressive speech. Commonly this would be classed as a loving parent trying to reassure his daughter. The reference to the bark (boat) is a metaphor; Lord Capulet is describing Juliet as a ship tossed in a storm. This also shows Lord Capulet to be concerned about Juliet. The audience know that the tears she is shedding are for Romeo as he has been banished from Verona. However Lady and Lord Capulet do not know about her love for him.In Act 3, Scene 5 lines 64-203 Lady Capulet follows her husbands orders and goes to tell Juliet of her marriage to Paris in three days time. Lady Capulet tells Juliet of her marriage to Paris on Thursday. Juliet is appalled and refuses. Upon finding out that Juliet does not want to marry Paris, Capulet threatens her Hang thee, young baggage, Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what, go to church o Thursday, Or never after look me in the face. Capulet is threatening to throw her out of the house, unless she goes to the church on Thursday to marr y Paris. He says he will disown her if she does not do this.He insults her but the nurse protects Juliet causing Lord Capulet to become enraged. Capulet then abuses her with many rhetorical questions which show a build-up of fury How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? By use of rhetorical questions, we see how annoyed Capulet is. We further see this when he starts repeating words that Juliet has said to him in her defence, as this shows sheer disbelief that his daughter is defying him. Capulet is tempted to hit Juliet; his Fingers itch; he has to refrain from hitting her. His anger starts to show more as he states that it was a curse in having her. Lady Capulet watches on as he threatens his own daughter with being disowned.This would be a frightening prospect for a 13 year old girl even today, as no 13 year old girl could survive alone on the streets. Juliet has to endure her fathers terrible rage whilst no one is there to protect her; this proves her lo yalty to Romeo even though under so much pressure. He seems very harsh towards Juliet and proves to be more interested in keeping his word to Paris than his own daughters feelings. Lady Capulet tells Juliet what a Careful father he is, and the marriage to Paris would give her much joy.Marriages could often be arranged at short notice, and neither be much unexpected nor I looked not for as Juliet says in surprise when told of her marriage with Paris. Often there was no attraction, and there would be no courting, and it was not uncommon for the bride not to see her husband until her wedding day.Capulets character goes under complete reform between Act1 Scene 2, and Act 3 Scene 5, as he goes from saying My will to her is but a part meaning that he will do whatever Juliet will want to do, to telling her she must marry, or Die in the streets. This sudden change in Capulets character reflects on the how a father should bring up his child. Fettle your fine joints gainst Thursday next. Says Capulet to his daughter, yet this is a rhetorical question because he will make her go there whether she wants to or not, dragging her on a hurdle thither.What is particularly surprising about this quote is that Capulet uses such harsh language against his only daughter and the fact that she is 14 doesnt stop him from attacking her with verbal threats and abuse. A further example of weddings having less to do with love and more to do with money is the fact that in Romeo Juliet, before Juliets marriage with Paris, all the time is spent making food and preparing music, rather than concentrating on Juliet and that it will be her last night unmarried. This shows that they have no concern for her and she feels as if she doesnt have caring and concerned adults surrounding her.Friar Lawrence is presented as a holy man who is trusted and respected by the other characters in the play. The centrality of the Friars position suggests a noteworthy failure of parental love. The Friars role as t he friend and advisor to Juliet highlights the conflict between the two parents and their children within the play. Romeo and Juliet cant tell their parents of their love because of the quarrel between the two families. In their isolation, Romeo and Juliet turn to the Friar who can offer neutral advice.At first, the Friar cant believe how quickly Romeo has abandoned Rosaline and fallen in love with Juliet, so he reminds Romeo of the rapidity of his decisions. However, he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in the hope that their marriage will settle the rift between the Montagues and the Capulets. His decision to marry the lovers is well-meaning but indicates that he is inexperienced in his assessment of the feud and hasnt reflected on the insinuations of Romeo and Juliets clandestine and concealed marriage.Friar Laurence sees that Juliets willingness to kill herself means that she will endure any danger rather than marry Paris. He uses this for her advantage and helps her. Friar Lawre nce is very much a wayward religious character, as it is he that comes up with the idea that is as desperate as an execution. This is quite an ironic thing to say, as it suggests that if she decides to go ahead with his plan she could get killed in a very painful death like an execution, and his language here seems desperate.Some shall be pardond, and some punished Act 5 Scene 3. Throughout the play Juliet has seen many sides of the adults who care and are concerned for her. Her death ended the ancient grudge of both families. She was responsible for what her plan was to cause. Everyone in Juliets life has a part to blame including Juliet herself. Her parents, Lady and Lord Capulet were partly responsible for keeping the feud going.They had authority over their household, and could have stopped the quarrelling if they wanted to. They should have paid more attention to Juliets wishes and listened to her opinions. They were too hard on her when she refused to marry Paris. Lord and Lad y Montague, like the Capulets, were also responsible for keeping the feud going. If they had been more understanding, Romeo would not have felt he had to keep secrets from them. The nurse is at fault as much as Juliets parents.The nurse; knowing that Juliet confides in her more than she does her own mother; should have taken much more responsibility over Juliet. In my view it is ironic that what is to be blamed for the death of Romeo and Juliet can not be punished nor pardoned. The tragedy was not the fault of any one individual but fate played a part in this tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet. In modern times, and in the Elizabethan era, fate played an important role in peoples lives. Many people believe it to be written in stone, and unchangeable. Many others believe it to be controlled by a persons own actions. In Romeo and Juliet, fate is one of the main themes, described ashaving power over many of the events in the play. Fate is often called upon,wondered about, and blamed for mishaps. However, where fate is blamed in theplay as the ultimate cause for a mishap, there is always an underlying action,or combination of them, on the part of human beings that decides theconsequences. The play Romeo and Juliet brings out a theme of fate, which turns out only to be surface deep. Behind each instance of ill fate is an underlying weakness on the part of one or more persons that dictate the results. Finally,almost all of the ill fated instances are easily traced to Friar Laurence, who himself represents the idea that fate does not exist, giving the conclusion that human weakness, the loss of self-control, is the force behind ill mishaps, not fate.

Project Cost Management Essay

Project Cost Management Essay Project Cost Management Essay Good evening ladies, gentleman and esteemed guest, for those of you who don’t know who I am I’m Aaron. Jacobs life mentor and hero, everything good about Jacob he got from me everything else that is bad he probably got from Danielle. Jacob has always looked up to me, thus tried to emulate me in every way hairstyle, his healthy eating life style and my good Christian values. The first time I met Jacob was in the summer of 2010, back then I had a Jedi’s rat’s tail which I proudly displayed to the world, a young Jacob spotted this from afar and he was instantly impressed and infatuated by its magnificent presence. He slowly approached me with a level of caution and curiosity. He opened his mouth and began to speak ‘hey man’ he said, ‘how long have you been growing that rats tail for?’ which I replied ‘3 and a bit years’. The look of his face was of amazement and awe he then continued speaking ‘yeah that’s pretty awesome man, I always see you around Garden City with it and I always recognize it straight away’ You see Jacob used to hang around Garden City all the time because he had interest in a girl called Kim Bui, but that is another story. Anyways as Jacob continued talking I realized he had a very small rat tail of his own which he then made apparent by pointing it out from then I knew what we had was real this shit was real I had found my little apprentice. Have a rats tail was not the only thing we had in common, we shared interest in things such as MMA which very few people at the time really knew about nor watched, and every time there used to be a UFC event we would go to Carbon Sports Bar at 9 am in the morning to ensure we have the best seats. Other things we shared were our taste in stupid shitty humor and doing stupid shit. Often our humor and jokes are only understood by us while others stare at us and wonder what in the fuck it is we are laughing or talking about, things such as HBKs, certain types of Japanese mushrooms, main antagonist from Harry Potter novels, a race of people from the Lord of the Rings novels and the list goes on We have shared many moments together stellar moments at know what is known formerly known as Burswood Casino’s fine eating establishments, building things out of nothing (does anyone here remember our spit roast?) and just random and to quote

Writer's Choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writer's Choice - Essay Example The two rooms that houses the two art works have gone through renovation which was completed in 2010, hence the traditional auxiliary lighting has been enhanced with more advanced systems providing sufficient lighting for a decent analysis. The two paintings are embedded onto a velvet wall the Deposition on to a red velvet wall and the other one on a coral colored wall. The two art works convey religious messages as both have the Biblical Jesus Christ, the Deposition at his death and Bastiani’s as an infant. The two painting fosters the textual Biblical story of Jesus through art. First, the Deposition in which the artist shows gloomy characters in the painting are eight; three males and four females, shadowed by a dark cloud hanging above them, and the body of Jesus Christ occupies the center and foreground of the painting. On the near foreground there are human skulls and bones, and on the extreme background there is a clear sky overlooking certain vegetation and buildings, perhaps conveying the existence of a city far from the point of crucifixion. The second painting is livid with characters with the three magi on the fore ground, together with Mary the Virgin and Baby, to the left of Mary there are a male character and female character peeping to the conservations being held by the four. On the middle ground, there is a donkey and girl who seem to be putting on a rather pre modern attire. On the background toward the horizon, there are men on horses and buildings. The painting seems to have been captured in a dome like window common in churches. On the Deposition, the characters show real human emotions as all show deep grief on the death of Jesus Christ, particularly the holy virgin and Saint John are depicted in tearful pose. The magi and the mother and child are perhaps the focus of the artist and the painting. The

Delivering Service Excellence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Delivering Service Excellence - Assignment Example The airlines company is failing to maintain excellence in the services provided in terms of quality and price. The two key aspects of service excellence  which the airlines company requires to give attention to are thus quality and price maintenance. Ryan Airline, the competitors of British Airways is maintaining price and quality leadership for attaining a journey of excellence in the airlines industry. Therefore, to increase the competitiveness, sustain and grow in the business, British airways require elevating the service excellence towards the customers. The paper highlights in details about the shortcomings in the service marketing, recommendations for the same with suitable models and theories to indicate how the airlines company can  improve, and develop a sustainable service strategy.   Service can be described as solutions that are provided to deliver a consistent set of outcomes, performance and deliverables for organization, systems as well as people. Services are intended to satisfy the expectations, motivations and unmet needs of the receivers. The quality of service depends on the effectiveness of the activities of the providers. The performance and experience of a service rest on the way it is produced. A service may be further described as a perishable and intangible component of a business offering or a form of promoting tangible products. The complete methodology to generate awareness, interest, desire and action (AIDA) to ingest services that are offered by the provider is referred to as service marketing (Lin and Hsieh, 2014). Service marketing can be referred to as the subfield of marketing that covers the promotion of goods as well as services. Marketing of goods refers to the promotion of durables and the fast moving consumer good (FMCG). On the other hand, service marketing denotes to the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) services (Lin and Hsieh,

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Government - Essay Example Goodlad, or David Berliner and Bruce Biddle) questioned the majority of its findings, sometimes pointing at its logical or statistical inconsistencies (â€Å"A Nation at Risk†). According to Berliner and Biddle, for instance, the implementation of new academic-performance standards was ‘misdirected’, as this, and similar, reforms did not lead to any significant changes in the field. Nonetheless, despite such criticisms, numerous investigations and surveys published around 2003, the report’s 20th anniversary, purported to show that the progress done in the field of education was rather significant, with more rigorous course requirements being especially referenced (â€Å"A Nation at Risk†). To my mind, the problems that A Nation at Risk highlighted are still with us, as the public school system is often under-financed, a teachers’ shortage problem is not solved yet, and the education standards are somewhat lacking to face the shifting realities of the U.S. and world economy’s requirements. The conduct of educational reform is dependent entirely on the national and state institutions that are charged with the development of educational sphere. That is why the persistent delays in the conduct of necessary educational reforms point to the absence of political will on behalf of their

Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity in Cancer

Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity in Cancer Conducted on the mean telomere length and the activity of telomerase in bone marrow samples to measure the survival and prognosis of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and found that the patients with a mean telomere length under 6Kb correlated with high telomerase activity similarly the telomere length over 6Kb had a significant correlation with lower telomerase activity (Bechter and Eisterer et al, 1998). This study portrays that telomere length alone is not sufficient enough information to provide prognostic characteristic in cancer therapy but together with the activity of telomerase it is more useful in clinical medicine. Table 2: Mean telomere length and telomerase activity measured and detected in different types of cancer The telomere length for most cancers range from very low to higher than normal somatic cell telomere length. Telomerase activity was also detected in most cancers except in pediatric bone where certain types of bone cancers were did not show detectable telomerase activity (Remes and Norrback et al, 2000, Hiyama and Gollahon et al, 1996, Tasumoto and Hiyama et al, 2000, Sotillo-Pineiro and Sierrasesumaga et al, 2004, Sommerfeid and Meeker et al, 1996, Albanell and Engalhardt et al, 1997). However there are some problems with this technique that makes this topic debatable like for example each type of cancer is unique which make is harder to pick a biological marker that is universally reliable hence the telomerase activity for each type of cancer must be studied individually. Another issue is that this method used highly sensitive assays to obtain telomere length and telomerase activity which in return means that it is more susceptible to false positive results or false negative results. A false positive result can arise due to contaminated lymphocytes as a result of inflammation in the surrounding issues that have no malignant cancer spread may also show telomerase activity. To overcome this issue Kinoshita, et al suggested, in a study evaluating telomerase activity in bladder cancer, that telomerase assays should be performed after antibiotic treatment. False negative results on the other hand may arise from PCR taq polymerase inhibitors in the sample such as bile s alt, heparin and hemoglobin. A highly sensitive telomerase activity assay has been proposed by Yaku and Murashima, et al (2013) that includes the use of magnetic beads which enables the washing process of PCR products to remove any inhibiting contaminants from the samples and hereby limiting the detection of false negative results. What are the current methods of telomere detection? Table 3: Different technique used to measure telomere length and their advantages and disadvantages. There are many different assays that have been developed to measure the activity of telomerase though the most common method used is the telomeric repeat amplification protocol also known as the TRAP/PCR assay. Although this technique is more sensitive and rapid compared to the conventional assays TRAP assay is not suitable for diagnostic purposes in large clinical samples due to its high technicality, obtains time consuming stages and cannot provide reliable quantitative data however many modification of the TRAP assay has been constructed to achieve a better suitable and more efficient way to detect telomerase activity some of which include bioluminescent TRAP-ELIPA (Zu and He et al, 2002), real time quantitative TRAP or (RTQ-TRAP) (Hou and Xu et al, 2001) and the fluorescent TRAP assay (Table 3). On the other hand, several studies have demonstrated enzymatic amplification rather than PCR based amplification to determine telomerase activity such as the DNAzyme assay (Wang and Donov on et al, 2013) however although this assay showed higher sensitivity than the TRAP assay, the enzymes used in the assay are also prone to inhibitions by other biological molecules in the sample. A more indirect approach in detecting telomerase activity has also been carried out by measuring the components of telomerase such as the hTERT mRNA using RTQ-PCR. As the hTR component of telomerase is found in all types of cells whereas hTERT mRNA is only found in cells that express telomerase therefore due to the strong correlation between hTERT mRNA levels and telomerase activity it becomes the next ideal target for detecting telomerase activity and hence cancer. This method was evaluated in peritoneal disseminated cells of gastrointestinal cancers by Botchkina and Rivadeneira et al, (2008) and the study concluded that this method had 100% sensitivity and 100% negative predictive value hence have an important diagnostic value. Furthermore additional longitudinal studies on larger clinical samples are required to fully benefit from its clinical cancer diagnostic values nonetheless telomerase activity can be combined with present cytological diagnosis methods to make a more accurate diagnosis. Telomerase activity can also be used to detect poor prognosis and help identify those that have a more advantage of benefiting from adjuvant treatments and due to its biological marker properties it can also be useful in the development of anti-cancer therapies. Can telomere length be used to predict life expectancy? A study conducted on domestic dog breeds show that peripheral blood mononuclear cell telomere length is a strong predictor of average life span and the breeds with shorter telomere lengths were found to have an increase probability of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases. The correlation of telomere length in domestic dogs shows similar telomere biology to humans including telomere length, attrition and absence of somatic cell telomerase activity in comparison to studies conducted in mice models (Fick and Fick et al, 2012). Mice have rodent telomeres which have a significantly different dynamics in contrast to human telomeres and are much longer with shorter life span, making it difficult to address whether or not telomere length can be used to predict life expectancy directly. However studies that have been conducted on mice also show that the rate of increasing short telomere length predicts longevity in mammals providing more evidence for the association between telomere lengt h and life expectancy (Vera and Jesus et al, 2012). As telomere shortening is inversely correlated with age which in return is very likely to correlate with age associated issues including lifespan. One of the largest family studies on telomere length in humans also reported a correlation between telomere length, aging and life span as well as a significant indication that telomere length is also influenced by genetics specifically from the paternal inheritance (Njajau and Cawthon et al, 2007). This study suggests the possibility that the genes that are controlling telomere length may also affect lifespan (Figure 5). Another more recent study conducted by Heidinger and Blount et al, (2011) on Zebra finches, measuring telomere lengths from nesting stage to various points of its natural lifespan producing the strongest available for the relationship between telomere length and life span. This study suggests that telomere length at early stages in life is a strong indicator of lifespan however as humans retain a higher life expectancy co mpared to zebra finches it’s harder to compare these findings to humans. Therefore similar studies should be carried out to evaluate the importance of early life telomere length and lifespan in humans. Figure 5 The mean telomere length in wild type( WT) mice and transgenic telomerase reverse transcriptase (TgTERT) mice both decreased with age whereas the amount of short telomeres measured increased with age (5A). This shows that telomere length is significatly negatively correlated with life span in mice similarly to the strong negative association between age and telomere length in humans supported by results obtained by Njajou et al (5B). There is a distinct market in the industry that includes various privet companies and clinics such as Life length, RepeatD and TeloMe, which are providing the public the ability to determine an individual’s biological age through measuring the length telomeres via blood tests. Most of these companies use flow-PCR, RTQ-PCR or Q-FISH to estimate telomere length however to be able to estimate an individual’s life expectancy is a debateable topic however there are various benefits that comes with obtaining information about how short or long ones telomere is like for example the biological age is an indicator of overall health status and essentially help people proceed a healthier life style with better understanding of how life style actions are effect aging process. It is important to take in to consideration that the telomere length tests that are currently available are not able to predict life span as it is effected by a wide range of factors than telomeres alone. More over these tests can be used to see if there in an improvement in the rate of biological aging and can even be used to monitor the prognosis of current treatments and help disease prevention however the uses of these tests in a clinical environment still requires further longitudinal research and understanding in more depth of telomeres and its involvement in different diseases than what is currently known. This includes more studies of how telomere length is affected during early stages of life and how the inherited and environmental factors affect telomere length. Is it possible to alter telomere length using modern technology or in the near future? Table 4: The population doublings and telomerase activity detected in pBabe, pBabest2 and pBabest2-AS infected BJ cells. The reconstructions of telomerase activity in normal neonatal human fibroblast cell strain (BJ) which do not poses telomerase activity but however express the RNA subunit of telomerase complex (hTR) have been reported to display elongation of telomeres and extend replicative life span. The cells were infected with cDNA coding for hTERT sub-cloned in the retroviral vector pBabe, pBabest-2 and pBabest-2-As. The PBabest-2 under the control promotor of the Maloney Murine leukaemia long terminal repeat sense strand exceeded the normal estimated life span of BJ cells of 87-90 PDs and hence showing evidence for forced expression of telomerase activity results in extended life span (Vaziri and Benchimol et al, 1998). This study reveals that pBabest-2 cells can potentially replace genetically unstable cell lines through the expression of telomerase in gene therapy in order to treat age related diseases and cancer. Consequently other studies have shown that the inhibition of telomerase leads to telomere shortening and cell death and therefore can be used as anticancer drugs. Telomerase inhibiting drugs are currently under phase 2 of clinical trials and its effects on telomere shortening is reversible however the process of telomere shortening with inhibition requires a long period of time before a significant change in cell growth is seen due to the presence of the cells alternative telomere lengthening mechanisms (ATL) for maintaining telomeres. Figure 6 The HME50-5E cells underwent apoptosis against number of days after transfected with complementary 2’-O-MeRNA oligomer telomerase inhibitors. More than 50% of cells went under apoptosis after 100 days after the initial transfection (Herbert et al, 1999). Herbert and Pitts et al, 1999, reported that peptide nucleic acid (PNA) and 2-O-MeRNA oligomers inhibit the activity of hTR telomerase in immortal human cell lines HME50-5E and DU145 hence can be used as a potential chemotherapeutic drug (figure 6). The use of targeting telomerase in direct anticancer therapies also has its drawbacks as telomerase activity is also found in some somatic human cells that may also be targeted during treatment. Additionally a small minority of cancers have been reported to exhibit no significant telomerase activity therefore the treatment may not be as effective in certain cancers compared to others due to drug resistance. Another issue with this approach is that chemically related molecules may carry the risk if being unintentionally inhibited which could result in harmful side effects. Based on the research that that has been carried out on telomeres it is well established that telomere length can be easily manipulated however like in most biological pathways when the natural process are disrupted there are always positive and negative consequence. In this case involuntarily altering telomere length requires the manipulation of telomerase activity (Lee and Hills et al, 2013). The increase in telomerase activity has been associated with multiple different cancers which could therefore potentially increase the risk of developing cancer while reducing the risk of developing CHD and other diseases that are associated with telomere shortening. Furthermore additional studies are required to develop a more advanced technique that can alter telomere length and at the same time prevent or repress cancer. Alternatively a follow up study reported that a series of lifestyle changes such as plant based diet, moderate exercise, stress management and increased social support provided to men with low risk for prostate cancer, revealed an increase in relative telomere length in the intervention group compared to the controls after 5 years. This study shows a significant correlation between telomere length and lifestyle changes, indicating that telomere length can also be altered naturally by reducing the environmental risk factors associated with telomere shortening without having to interfere with telomerase activity (Ornish and Lin et al, 2013). Conclusion The discovery of telomeres and telomerase is without a doubt a major revolutionary step in the scientific field which has led to the understanding of biological age and its association with low mortality medical conditions such as CHD and Cancer. However there are still some structural aspects of telomeres and telomerase that are not fully understood, like for example telomere binding factors TRF1 and TRF2 have only a few studies which suggest that they are part of a telomere maintaining control mechanism (Smogorzewska and Steensel et al, 2000). Therefore these negative regulators can also be possibly targeted in therapies in the future as they have been found to be associated with telomerase activity and hence telomere shortening and eventually lead to programed death of cancerous cells through apoptosis. Although most telomerase inhibition drugs have failed due to long lag phase period before effective shortening of telomeres occur, it can still be used in combination with present chemotherapeutic drugs and provide a more efficiently induced cell death (Cerone and Londono-Vallejo et al, 2006). Moreover telomere length is an independent biomarker for assessing cardiovascular diseases therefore telomere length testing can be used in clinical medicine as a risk factor for early diagnosis faster than current biomarkers such as cholesterol levels. The future will undoubtedly point to new discoveries of how telomere and age related diseases are associated and help prevent them.

Wed Searching Behaviour of Students :: Essays Papers

Wed Searching Behaviour of Students In the article â€Å"A visit to the information mall: web searching behavior of high school students†, the authors aimed at describing the searching behavior of high school students and recommending changes in the design of the web that may improve the learning experience of students (Fidel et al, 1999). The authors conducted a field research to analyze the web-searching behavior of high school students for the three weekly assignments. The field research was a case study involving activities including: observation in class and at the terminal with students thinking aloud; interviews with various participants including students, the teacher who assigned the assignments, the one and only one librarian and the principal of the school; and discussions within research team. 8 students who enrolled in a horticulture class voluntarily participated in the research for the team members to observe them searching online information on a one-on-one basis and interview them at the end of the observation period. Since the students were observed in the horticulture class for three successive weeks and not all the 8 students were present during the three weeks, the team totally observed 21 search sessions in the observation period. After recording observations and interviews, the authors found that the students performed focused searching, in which they just looked for information to accomplish the assignments without deviating from this task such as guiding searches according to assignment sheets and ignoring entertaining diversions on the screen. The authors also discovered that the students performed swift and flexible searching, where they scanned sites quickly and determined the relevance of sites by skimming the first screen and the graphics of the sites. In order to make sure that one can always start a new search and ask for help, the students used landmarks to continue exploring new sites with a safe and familiar site. Overall, they were satisfied with their searches and results but impatient with slow response. The reasons why the students enjoyed searching the web were because the web had a variety of formats such as pictures and sounds, covered a multitude of subjects, and provided easy access to information. However, the authors had also observed that the students encountered difficulties while searching, by which the authors considered that it implied the need for training to students, teachers and all involved and the need for designing the web to customize user seeking and searching behavior in order to improve the