Down with Mosquitoes and Malaria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Down with Mosquitoes and Malaria - Essay Example However, these areas mainly act as mosquitos’ breeding site and therefore people living in around such areas have been found to be the most affected by malaria cases. Several methods such as use of spraying insecticides and depositing pesticide chemicals in water bodies have been used in the past. However, since these methods are not environmental friendly the need to develop other methods of fighting malaria is imminent. In the modern day there has been some advancements such as use of surfactants among other chemical methods. Surfactants are mainly used in water catchment areas to prevent mosquito breeding. Surfactants comprise of elements that are both soluble and insoluble in water hence the ability to diffuse in water. Furthermore, surfactants adsorb between air and water molecules or molecules of two mixed liquids such as water and oil. This aspect of adsorption forms the basis of using surfactants to prevent mosquito breeding due to the ability to form emulsifications. Surfactants reduce the surface tension of between liquids and or between a liquid and a solid. As a result they can be used in mosquito breeding areas since reduced surface tension makes the mosquitos to drown. Additionally surfactants are organic therefore they do not cause environmental pollution and can hence be considered an efficient method of preventing mosquito breeding. However, use of surfactants in large quantities may have negative environmental effects hence their use is relatively restricted. Some common examples of surfa ctants are detergents and medicinal lotions. In addition, researchers have come up with a way of suing heparin to fight malaria. This process involves reducing activity of PfEMP1,which facilitates binding of uninfected RBCs by infected RBCs, by using heparin since it engulfs the infected cells hence preventing the binding.. When red blood cells (RBCs) are infected by malaria parasites they cling to the walls of blood vessels allowing these parasites to

Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company - Essay Example The paper tells that all relevant and reliable information are needed to make a decision about whether to pursue developing and manufacturing a very large commercial transport (VLCT). First, Boeing needs the prior revenue information as a basis for determining whether to pursue developing and manufacturing a very large commercial transport or VLCT unit. The business will not survive without revenues. Thus, the issue on whether to produce the super jumbo (A3XX) or the larger 747 version is grounded whether revenues are generated. Boeing needs to determine the cost and expense information to serve as a basis for determining whether to pursue developing and manufacturing a very large commercial transport or VLCT unit. Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company must determine the total cost of buying each airplane part from its many suppliers. Likewise, the company must know the cost of labor to produce each airplane unit. Lastly, the Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company must know the total manufacturing cost of producing each very large commercial transport or VLCT unit. The cost portion will contribute to better Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company decision making in terms of pursuing the super jumbo or larger 747 version production. Boeing needs to scrutinize the amount of profits generated as a basis for formulating more effective finance decisions. The company will proceed with the manufacture of the Boeing plane only if the net profit crops up. In the net profit computation results to a net loss figure, the company must drop the plan to develop and manufacture a very large commercial transport (VLCT) unit. ... The $20569 subtotal revenue indicates that the company may generate enough very large commercial transport or VLCT unit revenues to generate the required bottom line net profits. In terms of relevance of information, the profit information has high relevance value in relation to the decision to develop and manufacture a very large commercial transport or VLCT. Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company will not pursue the production of very large commercial transport or VLCT units if net profits are not realized within one or more accounting periods. A net profit figure discourages management from pursuing or continuing the production of very large commercial transport or VLCT units. The company must exert efforts to ensure net profit crops up during each accounting period. (3) In terms of reliability, the revenue and profit information has high reliability. The case study shows that the company generated $20,569 in 1993E. Likewise, the revenue information shows that the company consisten tly generated profits from 1989 to 1993E. The information persuades management to predict the very large commercial transport or VLCT unit will generate revenues (Weetman, 2006). In terms of reliability, the cost and expense information has high reliability, including 5.5 % risk free interest bonds. The case study shows that Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company buys the airplane parts (wings, tires, etc.) from several suppliers. The cost information, including the $5 billion to $20 billion amount, shows whether the company’s revenues are high enough to generate gross profit figures. The gross profit result shows whether there are enough funds to pay for the Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Company marketing and

Spiritual Coping Strategies (SCS) Scale Research

Spiritual Coping Strategies (SCS) Scale Research Background of the Study The study of religion and spirituality has been gaining much attention to researchers nowadays. Research studies on these two areas and their relationship to health are expanding rapidly. (Koenig Bà ¼ssing, 2010) The relationship of religion and health has been existing in all groups of population even in the past. (Koenig, King, Carson, 2012 as cited by Koenig, 2012) Koenig (2012) comprehensive systematic review of existing research about the relationship of religion and spirituality to health revealed positive influence of religion and spirituality to patients health and longevity, specifically to psychological, social and health behavior. Religion offers resources for coping with stress and increases the positive emotions rather than the likelihood of the negative effects of stress. On the part of the healthcare providers, religious beliefs found to be influential in making medical decisions. Furthermore, it may generate beliefs that conflict with medical care, induce spiritual struggles that create stress and impair health outcomes and it may interfere with disease detection and treatment compliance (Koenig, 2004). While Christian dominated countries in the west have been serious in this area, there is a much lesser studies that has been done in the Muslim – dominated Middle East countries that examines the relationship of these variables to health. (Koenig Alshohaib, 2014) This holds true in Saudi Arabia where Islam was born and is considered as one of the most religious place in the world. Little is known about religiosity and spirituality and their relationship to health as perceived by Saudi Muslims. (Al Zaben, et al., 2014) For the last three decades, there has been a marked rise in the prevalence of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) in Saudi Arabia. (Al-Sayyari Shaheen, 2011) Alsuwaida et. al (2010) reported in their study that the prevalence of ESRD in the young Saudi population is around 5.7%. Furthermore, a systematic review conducted by Hassanien, et. al (2012) reported yearly mortality rate in three different regions in Saudi Arabia. The data showed that between 2001 and 2003, there were no significant changes in the mortality rates of these regions. However, at present, the annual cases of ESRD in the country continue to grow. It was anticipated that the Saudi population will rise up to 3.5 folds over the next 20 years. Probably this will also cause a rise in new cases. In 2008, 2976 new patients were added to the hemodialysis program pool. This represents 29.2 % of the total 10,203 patient. (Al-Sayyari Shaheen, 2011) Patients undergoing dialysis experience serious challenges to their physical and mental health. These challenges are brought by stresses, fears, family problems, and physical discomforts. (Al Zaben, et al., 2014) In addition, the complexity of their treatment regimen as well as the unknown complications which are associated with such disease contributes to the suffering of these patients. (Lingerfelt Thornton, 2011; Barnett, Yoong, Pinikahana, Si-Yen, 2007). These patients also perceive uncertainty of life on dialysis because of the struggles and hard times that they experience in life as related to their mode of treatment. (Polascheck, 2003) Likewise, psychiatric disorders such as major depression, dementia and delirium are relatively high in these patients. Furthermore, coping problems are very common to these patients which if not addressed can lead to more serious problems such as higher mortality. (Kimmel et al. 1998; Drayer et al. 2006; Chilcot et al. 2011; Mapes et al. 2003; Al Zaben, 2014) The involvement of religion and other spiritual activities are widely used by patients to cope with physical and mental challenges that they face throughout the course of their disease. (Saad de Medeiros, 2012; Wachholtz Sambamoorthi, 2011; Amjad Bokharey, 2014) Patients from Saudi Arabia have shown similar use of these variables as ways of coping. Interventions with religious background are widely used which indicates the strong influence of religion to their lives most especially when they are in life-threatening situations such as in chronic illnesses. (Jazieh et al. 2012) Religious and spiritual coping are widely studied in relation with hemodialysis patients both in Christian and non – Christian patients. (Valcanti, Chaves, Mesquita, Nogueira Carvalho, 2012; Saffari, Pakpour, Naderi, Koenig, Baldacchino Piper, 2013; Spinale et al. 2008; Asayesh, Zamanian, Mirgheisari, 2013; Patel, Shah, Peterson Kimmel, 2002; Berman et al. 2004) Studies have reported that spiritual coping affects the over-all health of patients with ESRD. It also assists in the patients’ adaptation as well as in their health – related quality of life. (Patel, Shah, Peterson Kimmel, 2002; Valcanti, Chaves, Mesquita, Nogueira Carvalho, 2012; Ramirez et al. 2012) Thus, religiosity is potentially influential to the overall health of dialysis patients, including their commitment and compliance to dialysis treatment. (Pruchno, Lemay, Field Levinsky, 2006) In Saudi Arabia, researchers are beginning to focus on this area in Hemodialysis patients. Al-Jahdali et al. (2009) surveyed 100 HD patients at King Fahd National Guard Hospital in Riyadh and King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah about predictors of advanced care planning preferences. They reported that majority (70%) of the patients scored high in a single question religiosity scale. However, they found out that religiosity is not identified as a predictor of advanced care planning preferences. A more recent study was conducted by Al Zaben et al. (2014) to examine the relationships between religious involvement and the mental and physical health of HD patients in Jeddah region. They have found out that involvement in religious activities is associated with better overall psychological functioning, better social support, improved physical and mental functioning, better health behavior and better commitment to dialysis treatment. Because of the increasing interest of researchers in Saudi Arabia in this area, it is essential to have an instrument that can accurately measure the spiritual coping of patients. Majority of the available instruments in this area were structured for Christian patients. (Baldacchino Buhagiar, 2003; Koenig Bà ¼ssing, 2010; Hawthorne, Youngblut Brooten, 2011; Charzynska, 2012) To my knowledge, there is no available valid instrument that measures the spiritual coping strategies of Saudi Muslim HD patients. It is for this reason that this study was conducted. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Arabic version of the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale (SCS) among Saudi HD patients. Methodology Design This is a cross-sectional study that evaluated the validity and reliability of the Saudi Muslim version of the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale (SCS) among hemodialysis patients. Participants The participants of the study included _______ patients enrolled and undergoing hemodialysis in the HD unit of a general hospital located in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling technique was employed for sample identification. The study participants’ number was adequate for a factorial analysis. Inclusion criteria were: (1) being a Saudi, (2) self-identified Muslim, (3) being HD patient with CRF or ESRD, (4) enrolled in the HD unit of the general hospital, (5) 20 years old and above, (6) male and female, and (7) conscious, coherent and oriented. Measures Demographic Characteristics Patient’s information in the patient’s chart was examined to collect the data for their demographic characteristics. These included: (1) age, (2) gender, (3) religion, (4) civil status, (5) employment, and (6) duration of undergoing HD. Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale The Spiritual Coping Strategy Scale (SCS), developed by Baldacchino and Buhagiar (2003), is a self – administered questionnaire that determines the spiritual coping of the respondents. It has a Judeo-Christian orientation and was based on the nursing, psychological, sociological, philosophical and theological literature. The SCS scale was developed in English and then translated into the Maltese language. It is a scale that measures both religious and spiritual (nonreligious) coping strategy which constituted its two subscales. It measured the respondents’ attitude towards religion and belief in God. The SCS is a 20-item, 4 – point response scale from â€Å"never used† or 0 to â€Å"often used† or 3. The responses indicated how often they use the various coping strategies presented. The Religious Coping subscale was comprised of 9 items which were meant to assess the respondents’ attitude towards their religious practices and their relationsh ip to God. On the other hand, the Spiritual Coping subscale has 11 items which relates to coping strategies that involve relationship to self, others and nature. The scores of all items is ranging from 0 to 60. A higher subscale and total scale score indicated more frequent use of the religious or spiritual coping strategies. The internal consistency reliability of the religious and spiritual coping factors was 0.82 and 0.74, respectively. A test – retest reliability of r=0.47 and r=0.81 for the subscales and total scale, respectively, was also reported. (Baldacchino Buhagiar, 2003) The SCS was earlier translated to Italian (Burrai, Scalorbi, Sebastiani, Cenerelli Cocchi, 2009), Spanish (Hawthorne, Youngblut Brooten, 2011) and Farsi (Saffari, Koenig, Ghanizadeh, Pakpour Baldacchino, 2014) languages. Validity and reliability of these versions were established accordingly. Muslim Religiosity Scale This is a 13 – items scale that measures the religiosity of Muslim population. It has two subscales. The first subscale is a 10 – item religious practices scale while the second subscale is a 3 – items intrinsic religious beliefs scale. Validity and reliability of the scale was earlier established with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.68, 0.64 and 0.93 for the full scale, religious practices scale and intrinsic beliefs scale, respectively. (Koenig, Al Zaben, Khalifa Al Shohaib, 2014; Al Zaben et al. 2014) The Arabic version of the scale was utilized in this study. Quality of Life Index Dialysis Version III The Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index Dialysis (QLI) Version-III measures the HRQoL of the HD patients. This scale has four subscales which includes health and functioning subscale, social and economic subscale, psychological/spiritual subscale, and family subscale. The QLI has two parts. The first part measures the satisfaction of the respondents and the second part measures the importance of the various aspects of life. The ratings in the second part are used to weight the satisfaction responses. Items that are rated with higher importance have a greater effect on scores than those of lesser importance. Overall quality of life as well as scores in the four domains is calculated. A score of 19 and lower means poorer quality of life. Validity and reliability of the QLI Dialysis Version was reported somewhere else with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93. Likewise, the four subscales exhibited acceptable validity and reliability. Content validity was good as it was based from ext ensive literature reviews on HRQoL and with patients’ report. (Ferrans, 1996; Ferrans Powers, 1985; Ferrans Powers, 1992) The Arabic version of the Quality of Life Index Dialysis (QLI) Version-III was used in this study. Translation and Cross Cultural Adaptation of the SCS The translation and cross – cultural adaptation of the SCS followed the cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures guidelines for translation. (Beaton, Bombardier, Guillemin Ferraz, 2000) The guideline suggests five stages: (1) translation, (2) synthesis, (3) back translation, (4) expert committee review, and (5) pretesting. In this study, the cultural and religious context of Saudi Arabic language was considered in the translation process. The first step of the adaptation is the forward translation. Two independent forward translations were made from English to Arabic by two bilingual Saudi nationals. One of them is a nurse educator who specializes in mental health nursing. The other Saudi is a lecturer with specialization in English language. After the translations have been done, the two translators together with an observer met to synthesize the result of the translation. A consensus from the two translators signified the completion of the Saudi Arabic version of the SCS. The Arabic version was then presented to two non-medically inclined translators who translated it back to English. These two translators were unaware of the concept as well as the purpose of the scale. The Arabic version was then presented to a panel which comprised of a: (1) Muslim religious leader; (2) Islam scholar, (3) nurse clinician, (4) nurse researcher, and (5) translator. The committee decided for the cultural and religious equivalence of each items in the scale. After reaching a consensus, the pre-final Arabic version of the SCS was formed. The pre-final Arabic version was then subjected for pilot testing for validity and reliability. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ (Add modifications done here) Data Collection Data gathering was performed from May to June 2015. The SCS Arabic version, the Muslim Religiosity Scale Arabic version and the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index Dialysis (QLI) Version-III Arabic version was distributed to the respondents by the researchers with the assistance of the nurses on duty. The nurses where properly informed about the purpose and procedure of the study. The respondents were given 20 to 25 minutes to respond to the scales. Three weeks after the initial data collection, the same questionnaires were redistributed to a subsample of 25 respondents. (Hawthorne, Youngblut Brooten, 2011) Ethical Consideration Ethical approval was granted by the Ethical Review Board of Shaqra University. Permission to conduct the study was sought from the administration of the general hospital. Modification and translation of the original version of the SCS to Arabic language was permitted by the original authors. The respondents were asked prior to participation to sign the informed consent signifying their understanding of their voluntary participation to the study. No incentives were offered to the respondents for their participation. Statistical Analysis All statistical analyses were done using the SPSS version 21.0. Internal consistency reliability of the Arabic version was assessed with coefficient alpha and item–total correlation (ITC). An alpha higher than 0.70 was considered acceptable internal consistency reliability while an ITC between 0.30 and 0.50 is considered moderate and ITC higher than 0.50 means good. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assess the factor structure of the SCS Arabic version. Kaiser – Meyer – Olkin (KMO) index was computed to check for sampling adequacy. KMO value equal to or higher than 0.6 indicate sampling adequacy. Further, to determine whether the correlations among variables were appropriate for the factor model, the Barlett’s test of sphericity was used. A Barlett’s test of sphericity with p The stability reliability for the test–retest subsample of the translated scale was assessed with Pearson product moment correlations. Convergent validity was established by examining the association between spiritual coping and religiosity. Divergent validity was established by the relationship between spiritual coping and health-related quality of life. Both were tested using Pearson product moment correlations. Differences between demographic profiles on the spiritual coping strategies using the SCS Arabic version were also examined using t-test and One-way ANOVA. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

The United States Should Leave Iraq Essay -- Iraq War Terrorism Violen

The United States Should Leave Iraq The United States is in a tough situation. This country has gone to war without the UN's approval, and now has more casualties than when the war 'officially' ended. Now, the war could cost taxpayers $87 billion dollars, and more if the war drags on. The situation is at the critical point. If the Bush Administration does not leave Iraq, we will lose thousands of troops, spend billions sending more troops to Iraq, and we will lose the faith of the international community. This war will have larger repercussions than the casualties occurring every day. If the Bush Administration gets the $87 billion dollars to pay for Iraq's reconstruction it has asked for, the country's economy is not likely to recover. To add to this problem, the administration has also asked for a $400 billion dollar tax cut. That's almost $500 billion dollars being spent during an economic recession. The choice of going to Iraq may have looked sound in the administration?s short-term thinking, and the administration may have thought that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but the future effects of this war will be disastrous. The administration?s reasoning seemed rational at the time; but we will be paying for this war long after it is over, simply because it was so ill-conceived. The reason that the American people were given for going to war was false in the first place. In his 2003 State of the Union address, George Bush stated that, "Evidence fr...

Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION: Utrecht University The bylaws of the American Comparative Literature Association stipulate the writ-ing every ten years of â€Å"a report on the state of the discipline. † The present collection Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization represents the latest in the series and is a follow up to Charles Bernheimer's Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism (1994). The structural similarities between the two titles, with their repetition of â€Å"Comparative Literature in the age of † is striking, and I will corne back toit.The nineteen essays in the collection have been written by a team of eminent scholars and they respond not only to Bernheimer's collection and to the general theme of â€Å"globalization† but also to each other. The resuit is an interesting series of kaleidoscopic interventions, some highly readable and pulling lots of punch; others less user-friendly and, in attempting to ar ise to the occasion, somewhat convoluted and over-written.Granted: the â€Å"report† is a very awkward genre for which there are no rules and, given this need to improvise, the editer Haun Saussy has made a good job of providing a nuanced and multiperspectival account of the â€Å"state of the discipline†. It would have enhanced the impact of the present volume, however, had it been at times less an inward looking colloquy among seniors and more inviting to the as-yet not initiated graduate student.As it is, it makes very interesting reading for the diehard senior member of staff (and presumably the members of the ACL A) while being less accessible to the future scholar or to those working in other disciplines and interested in finding out what Comparative Literature stands for, where it is going to, and why it might be important. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Litterature Comparee CRCL DECEMBER 2008 DECEMBRE RCLC 0319-051Ãâ€"708/35. 4 /353  ©Canadian Comparative Literature Association 54/ CRCL DECEMBER 2008 DECEMBRE RCLC ANN RIGNEY | COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION/ 355 A survey attempting to do justice to the complexity of an academie field and what is at issue in it, almost inevitably leaves the reviewer less with a single argument than with a variety of perspectives on a variety of issues (on among other things, the importance of historical approaches, the value of study of graphie novels and other visual forms alongside texts; the nature of comparative literature as a â€Å"metadiscipline† or exploratory space).So what is really surprising about this collection, then, is the degree of convergence that it nevertheless manifests. To begin with, the majority of contributors do address some issue within the broad frame of â€Å"globalization† taking their eue from the substantial introductory essay by Saussy, himself a specialist in Chinese literature.Where the 1994 report focuse d on questions of the boundaries between literature and other cultural expressions, ten years later the main emphasis here is on themes that are in many ways more traditional within the multilingual field of comparative literature: the concept of world literature or â€Å"literatures of the world† and how best to teach it (David Damrosch and Katie Trumpener provide interesting solutions); the cultural role of translation and its status as a medium in teaching and research (Steven Ungar); the nature of comparison itself and the grounds upon which texts or movements from different cultural and linguistic traditions, even from different periods, may usefully be compared with each other and if indeed, as Emily Apter argues following Alain Badiou, if grounds for comparison are always needed; the future role of (East) European literature and theory within the much larger body of world literature now becoming available (Caryl Emerson). Even Marshall Brown's enthusiastic celebration of the close reading of particular texts, using the example of Effi Briest, reflects the concern with globalization: the very fabric of Effi's provincial life is woven through, as Brown shows, with the impact of more distant and general developments.Such concerns suggest that we are witnessing the return of Comparative Literature to its origins as the inter-cultural and multilingual study of literature. As if to con-firm this, the polyglossic Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Literatur established by Hugo Meltzl de Lomnitz in 1877 is cited on more than one occasion as the foundational text of the discipline (rather than say, the Russian Formalists' programme for a general literary science as promoted among others by Rene Wellek). The phrase â€Å"return to origins† might seem at first sight a merely conservative retreat to older positions, but re-engaging with roads taken earlier in comparatism is not a symptom in this case of burnout.Instead, the present concern with intercultur al and interlinguistic â€Å"comparatism† as the basis for the common pursuit of literary studies represents not just a return, but also a revitalization: a return to a well-established tradition that had been marginalized as long as other theoretical formations, taking a more universalist approach to literary texts, dominated the academie study of literatures, as they did from the 60s on. But it also represents a revitalization and expansion of this tradition: at a time when globalized communication networks, intercultural exchanges and human mobility are such dominant features of our lives, some of the traditional concerns of comparative literature a la Meltzl de Lomnitz and Paul van Tieghem among others have become relevant in new ways and have the possibility of taking central stage in the field of literary studies at large.Ail of this is good news for those who continue to want to disengage the study of literature from the inevitable parochialism of the separate language departments and who are committed to the study of literature as a trans-national medium that has long been crossing borders—before ever the term globalization was invented—both in the original and in the form of translations. The report thus bespeaks confidence in the Comparatist project and a certain excitement at the sense that literature has become an even richer domain now that we in the West are becoming belatedly aware of the variety of literatures in the world and, thanks to work done in the last years to make it more accessible in the form of anthologies, a little better equipped to talk about nonEuropean literatures.As several contributors point out, the success of comparatist concerns in the field of literary studies at large along with the more general acceptance of translation as a legitimate medium for teaching, may mean that Departments of Comparative Literature as such may become less distinctive. The even greater risk is also there that the inter-lingu istic and inter-cultural aims of the Comparatist project may end up being reduced to the derivative study of â€Å"literatures of the world† through the monolingual filter of a globalizing English. For globalization, of course, is always double-edged: while providing a greater awareness of cultural diversity it also tends to reduce that diversity by the very fact that it makes cultures more widely accessible in an homogenizing lingua franca.Given this downside of globalization, the distinctive aims of Comparative Literature as the multilingual study of literature have become ail the more urgent. As the present collection demonstrates, however, the traditional demand that students of Comparative Literature be at home in three (European) languages is no longer enough for the task at hand. More language skills are needed. But since there are presumably also limits to the number of languages any individual scholar can master, there is new need for different forms of collaboration between specialists in various fields-a point implied by a number of contributors, though not extensively thema-tized in the present collection.Indeed, given this need for collaborative projects, the core of Comparative Literature may no longer be in a particular â€Å"disciplinarity† (i. e. that it is carried out by individuals who are skilled in various languages, though hopefully these people will continue to exist) but in its function as a platform for research and teaching: the fact that it brings together scholars who are committed to exploring in a collaborative way the cross-currents and exchanges between literatures written in different languages across the world at different periods. This report on â€Å"the state of the discipline† thus gives not only food for thought but also reasons for confidence.Nevertheless, it also leaves me with some niggling doubts about the very way in which we as literary scholars think about our work. My concern centres on the ge neric title: â€Å"Comparative Literature in the age of†¦ † The problem lies not so much in the epochal tone, suggesting as it does that in the course of 10 years we have moved from the â€Å"age of multiculturalism† to that of â€Å"globalization† (as if mul- 356/ CRCL DECEMBER 2008 DECEMBRE RCLC ANN RIGNEY | COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION/ 357 ticulturalism were somehow no longer relevant or globalization a new thing). The problem is more with the implicit assumption that one should define â€Å"the state of the discipline† by looking at ils relation to â€Å"the age† around it as if it should be its mirror.Behind this conceptualization lies, of course, the legacy of Matthew Arnold and the belief that criticism's main task is to provide knowledge, not so much of literature as such, as of the world itself as this is represented or reflected through literature. â€Å"Comparative Literature in the age of † bespeaks thi s grand commitment to be the conscience of the world and to interpret the â€Å"best† that has been thought in it. This continues to be a self-evident aim within literary studies. Hence the ongoing selfsearching about what is the proper object of study fuelled by the belief that the choice of object (world literature, literatures of the world, popular fiction or highly regarded works of literature) involves an ethical decision about what is relevant at the present time or in the present world.With our present global perspective and our awareness that there is more to literature than the canon of European classics, that â€Å"worldly† task has become an even heavier one and the way to its realization more fraught by the need to select carefully. Far be it from me to trivialize the importance of cultural criticism or a commitment to seeking out interesting literary phenomena to study above more banal ones. Nevertheless, there is something paradoxically ostrich-like about the ways in which Comparative Literature defines itself in relation to the world around it and in relation to â€Å"the age† as a whole. The very moral authority accorded to literature is also a throw-back to a time when literature (vide Arnold) was the dominant cultural form.But for ail its ostensible worldliness, the present collection arguably puts its head in the sand when it cornes to the changing status of literature in the highly mediated world in which we live and where globalization has been effectuated more obviously through the medium of television, film, popular music and internet than it has through literature. In paying so much attention to world literature and how it should be defined and taught (in itself a really positive development) the collection nevertheless succeeds in ignoring the fact that literature's relation to the world, and its place in the world, has fundamentally changed. More precisely, it ignores the interface between literature and other med ia, and between literature and other forms of knowledge at the present time. In raising this point, I do not mean to uggest that we should ail drop the study of literature in favor of looking at other media (a pos-sibility raised briefly by Malti-Douglas), for that would be to perpetuate the belief that literary studies is somehow a super-discipline that provides the conscience for the humanities and has a responsibility for ail of culture. Rather it is an argument in favor of reconsidering the changing relations between literature and other cultural media, and the impact both in the past and in the present of new technologies and changing literacies on the very possibilities we have for expression and interpretation. It is also an argument for considering new forms of collaboration with specialists in other fields of culture. In other words, the next challenge is to conceive of literary studies itself from a comparative perspective, that is, in relation to other forms of knowledge about culture and media.In the last decades, certainly in Europe, media studies have been institutionalized and have been providing increasing competition for literary studies both when it comes to attracting students and to attracting research funding. The question which needs to be addressed, sooner rather than 10 years down the line, is how to reposition comparative literary studies in relation to these adjacent fields. In the first place, this will mean becoming more modest: accepting the fact that writing and reading are just one form of culture among other, albeit the one with the longest history and about which there is the greatest body of knowledge (here we should be much less modest).It will also involve becoming more pro-active as we define more clearly, and become once again surprised by the magic of language in its various manifestations, what literature can and can not achieve (Jonathan Culler's intervention hints in this direction). Instead perhaps of soul-searching c ontinuously about the identity of Comparative Literature in relation to the set of objects (world literature, counter-canons, etc) and in relation to â€Å"the age† as a whole, we need to look outside the discipline and accept that there is an outside. Hopefully the next report will focus less on â€Å"the state of the discipline† as seen from within and be more specific about what we have to offer the world of learning at large.

How to Quit Smoking

In this modern era, our lifestyle has been changed over years. The world is now moving toward a very advanced and busy lifestyle. This has significantly brought a lot of changes in our human lives due to the stressful life. People nowadays, adapting to new habit so they could cope up with their stress and one of the main bad habit adapted by them is smoking. Although they know they smoking is injurious to their health, they just do not willing to give up the habit. There are a few ways for the smokers to quit their smoking habit so they can live up a healthy and happy lifestyle.Firstly, the smokers must be determined not to smoke more than limited sticks per day as a beginning towards their quit process. The smokers must not buy extra cigarette for themselves so they could smoke whenever they need to. Smokers also should not let themselves to smoke continuously over a time period because it may pursue them to continue the habit. As for the beginning the smokers should lessen the amou nt of stick they smoking day by day so they can get rid of the habit slowly and gently.Secondly, the smokers must replace the smoking habit with some other good habits so they could be able to control themselves when they getting the sensation to smoke. Habits such as chewing the chewing gum may help the smokers to forget about smoking over time. They may drink as much as water as they could so they wonaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have the feeling to smoke after or before eating. Fresh juices have the properties of overcoming the sensation on nicotine so they may drink a lot of fresh juice to get rid of the smoking sensation. Thirdly, the smokers may try to involve themselves in more outdoor activities to stay active.They can start up jogging as it is a good exercise for the lungs capacity and durability. They can join any kind of sports clubs so they can fill up their free hours with useful activities. The smokers can enjoy their weekend with their family with any outdoor activities such as va cation so they could spend their quality time with their family. As all of us aware, smoking is not a good habit to be continued and adapted by any of us human being due to its nature of destructing the consumers. So throw the habit away and lead a happy life with your loved ones because the life we have now is a gift from the god for us to enjoy and being happy.

The Site Formation Processes in Archaeology

The Site Formation Processes in Archaeology Site Formation Processes- or more simply formation processes- refers to the events that created and affected an archaeological site before, during, and after its occupation by humans. To gain the best possible understanding of an archaeological site, researchers collect evidence of the natural and cultural events that happened there. A good metaphor for an archaeological site is a palimpsest, a medieval manuscript that has been written on, erased and written over, again and again, and again. Archaeological sites are the remains of human behaviors, stone tools, house foundations, and garbage piles, left behind after the occupants leave. However, each site was created in a specific environment- lakeshore, mountainside, cave, grassy plain. Each site was used and modified by the occupants- fires, houses, roads, cemeteries were built; farm fields were manured and plowed; feasts were held. Each site was eventually abandoned- as a result of climate change, flooding, disease. By the time the archaeologist arrives, the sites have lain abandoned for years or millennia, exposed to weather, animal burrowing, and human borrowing of the materials left behind. Site formation processes include all of that and quite a bit more. Natural Transforms As you might imagine, the nature and intensity of events that occurred at a site are highly variable. Archaeologist Michael B. Schiffer was the first to clearly articulate the concept in the 1980s, and he broadly divided site formations into the two major categories at work, natural and cultural transforms. Natural transforms are ongoing, and can be assigned to one of several broad categories; cultural ones can end, at abandonment or burial, but are infinite or close to it in their variety. Changes to a site caused by nature (Schiffer abbreviated them as N-Transforms) depend on the age of the site, the local climate (past and present), the location and setting, and the type and complexity of occupation. At prehistoric hunter-gatherer occupations, nature is the primary complicating element: mobile hunter-gatherers modify less of their local environment than do villagers or city dwellers. Types of Natural Transforms View of Point of Arches on the Ozette Reservation North of Cape Alava. John Fowler Pedogenesis, or the modification of mineral soils to incorporate organic elements, is an ongoing natural process. Soils constantly form and reform on exposed natural sediments, on human-made deposits, or on previously formed soils. Pedogenesis causes changes in color, texture, composition, and structure: in some cases, it creates immensely fertile soils such as terra preta, and Roman and medieval urban dark earth. Bioturbation, disturbance by plant, animal and insect life, is particularly difficult to account for, as shown by a number of experimental studies, most memorably with Barbara Boceks study of pocket gophers. She discovered that pocket gophers can repopulate the artifacts in a 1x2 meter pit backfilled by clean sand in the space of seven years. Site burial, the burial of a site by any number of natural forces, can have a positive effect on site preservation. Only a handful of cases are as well-preserved as the Roman site Pompeii: the Makah village of Ozette in Washington state in the US was buried by a mudflow about 1500 AD; the Maya site Joya de Ceren in El Salvador by ash deposits about 595 AD. More commonly, the flow of high- or low-energy water sources, lakes, rivers, streams, washes, disturb and/or bury archaeological sites. Chemical modifications are also a factor in site preservation. These include cementation of deposits by carbonate from groundwater, or iron precipitation/dissolution or diagenetic destruction of bone and organic materials; and the creation of secondary materials such as phosphates, carbonates, sulfates, and nitrates. Anthropogenic or Cultural Transforms The Pompeii of North America, Joya de Ceren, was buried in a volcanic eruption in August 595 CE. Ed Nellis Cultural transforms (C-Transforms) are far more complicated than natural transforms because they consist of a potentially infinite variety of activities. People build up (walls, plazas, kilns), dig down (trenches, wells, privies), set fires, plow and manure fields, and, worst of all (from an archaeological point of view) clean up after themselves. Investigating Site Formation To get a handle on all of these natural and cultural activities in the past that have blurred the site, archaeologists rely on an ever-growing group of research tools: the primary one is geoarchaeology. Geoarchaeology is a science allied with both physical geography and archaeology: it is concerned with understanding the physical setting of a site, including its position in the landscape, types of bedrock and Quaternary deposits, and the types of soils and sediments within and outside of the site. Geoarchaeological techniques are often carried out with the aid of satellite and aerial photography, maps (topographic, geological, soil survey, historical), as well as the suite of geophysical techniques such as magnetometry. Geoarchaeological Field Methods In the field, the geoarchaeologist conducts systematic description of cross-sections and profiles, to reconstruct stratigraphic events, their vertical and lateral variations, in and outside of the context of archaeological remains. Sometimes, geoarchaeological field units are placed off-site, in locations where lithostratigraphic and pedological evidence can be collected. The geoarchaeologist studies the site surroundings, description and stratigraphic correlation of the natural and cultural units, as well as sampling in the field for later micromorphological analysis and dating. Some studies collect blocks of intact soils, vertical and horizontal samples from their investigations, to take back to the laboratory where more controlled processing can be conducted than in the field. Grain size analysis and more recently soil micromorphological techniques, including thin section analysis of undisturbed sediments, are conducted using a petrological microscope, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray analyses such as microprobe and x-ray diffraction, and Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry. Bulk chemical (organic matter, phosphate, trace elements) and physical (density, magnetic susceptibility) analyses are used to incorporate or determine individual processes. Formation Process Studies Restudy of Mesolithic sites in Sudan excavated in the 1940s was conducted using modern techniques. The 1940s archaeologists commented that aridity had affected the sites so badly that there was no evidence of hearths or buildings or even post-holes of buildings. The new study applied micromorphological techniques and they were able to discern evidence of all of these types of features at the sites (Salvatori and colleagues). Deep-water shipwreck (defined as shipwrecks more than 60 meters deep) site formation processes have shown that the deposit of a shipwreck is a function of heading, speed, time, and water depth and can be predicted and measured using a set basic of equations (Church). Formation process studies at the 2nd century BC Sardinian site of Pauli Stincus revealed evidence of agricultural methods, including the use of a sodbuster and slash and burn farming (Nicosia and colleagues). The microenvironments of Neolithic lake dwellings in northern Greece were studied, revealing a previously unidentified response to rising and falling lake levels, with the residents building on platforms on stilts or directly on the ground as needed (Karkanas and colleagues). Sources Aubry, Thierry, et al. Palaeoenvironmental Forcing During the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Central-Western Portugal. Quaternary Research 75.1 (2011): 66-79. Print. Bertran, Pascal, et al. Experimental Archaeology in a Mid-Latitude Periglacial Context: Insight into Site Formation and Taphonomic Processes. Journal of Archaeological Science 57 (2015): 283-301. Print. Bocek, Barbara. The Jasper Ridge . American Antiquity 57.2 (1992): 261-69. Print.Reexcavation Experiment:Â  Rates of Artifact Mixing by Rodents Church, Robert A. Deep-Water Shipwreck Initial Site Formation: The Equation of Site Distribution. Journal of Maritime Archaeology 9.1 (2014): 27-40. Print. Ismail-Meyer, Kristin, Philippe Rentzel, and Philipp Wiemann. Neolithic Lakeshore Settlements in Switzerland: New Insights on Site Formation Processes from Micromorphology. Geoarchaeology 28.4 (2013): 317-39. Print. Linstdter, J., et al. Chronostratigraphy, Site Formation Processes and Pollen Record of Ifri Netsedda, Ne Morocco. Quaternary International 410, Part A (2016): 6-29. Print. Nicosia, Cristiano, et al. Land Use History and Site Formation Processes at the Punic Site of Pauli Stincus in West Central Sardinia. Geoarchaeology 28.4 (2013): 373-93. Print.