Racial Profiling: what it is and why it Must End

In 2018 Racial profiling is a constant issue throughout the United States and in California as well. According to an ACLU article "Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on an individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.

In the last 2 years police brutality and racial profiling have been an ongoing situation. Law officials are specifically targeting African Americans and Hispanics without having evidence of any criminal activity. Racial profiling is not okay in any shape or form nor is it constitutional. Many Americans are losing their lives, jobs, and shelter. It is also in fact illegal, violating the U.S. Constitution of equal protection. A factual example of racial profiling involved Byron Ragland. On November 7, 2018 the owner of Menchie's frozen yogurt shop called and asked for officers to remove an African American from the facility due to the fact that the owner along with his employees were ??uncomfortable?? with his presence. Bryon is a 31 year old court-appointed special advocate and visitation supervisor his reasoning for being at the yogurt shop was to oversee a visitation between a mother and her son. When Ragland explained his side of the story the officers immediately apologized and allowed him go on with the visitation.

Racial Profiling may have some pros to it for example; it can prevent a crime from happening. When a police officer stops someone because they suspect criminal activity there is probable chance to stop a crime before it begins. It could decrease the risk of death, robberies and harm to citizens, People who would most likely commit a crime usually move somewhere else or change their actions because there is a probability that they'd be stopped before they could accomplish what they?•e about to do. Profiling can also be time consuming a way to save the state money, when officials are usually looking for specific individual for example less resources are needed. However there can be a loophole in this situation if the profile is wrong and it can lead to waisted resources.

Furthermore profiling can be a form to prevent terrorists attacks. According to Jack Geer a Standford Review staff writer the main reason for racial profiling is to help stop terrorism. ??The U.S is engaged in a global struggle agaisnst islamic fundamentalists, and it is a fact that most of these terrorists are Arab consequently this is the reason why they are the most watched in airports.

Despite the pros of this topic Racial Profiling violates the rights of an individual making them feel unsafe, humiliated and aggravated.

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Racism and Racial Discrimination

Judging somebody essentially by color of their skin is considered racial profiling. Racial profiling is a longstanding and profoundly alarming national issue in spite of claims that the United States has entered a post-racial era. It is illegal, yet continues to occur, especially in the Law Enforcement. It is wrong doing that should be taken into consideration and take action against it. As in fact, it may be a tool for law enforcement to help detect and catch criminals.

Racial Profiling by Law Enforcement is commonly characterized as a practice that targets individuals for doubt of wrongdoing based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or national root. Making a profile almost the sorts of individuals who commit certain sorts of violations may lead officers to generalize approximately a specific bunch and act concurring to the generalization instead of particular behavior. Racial Profiling can cause different issues. A few law authorization agencies have gone through costly case over respectful rights concerns. Police-citizen relations in those communities have been strained, making policing more challenging Most vitally, Racial Profiling is improbable to be viable policing technique as offenders can basically move their exercises exterior the profile such as Black, Hispanics, children, or the elderly (National Institute Of Justice, 2013).

Racial Profiling is predominant with the law enforcement agencies all through the United States. Racial Profiling isn't used to law requirement and certainly not modern to the citizens that are casualties from it. Profiling may be a genuine treachery to humankind, is an act of racism and segregation, and it condoned by law requirement organizations. Profiling has been enforced since the development of Law Enforcement. In any case, it could be wrongdoing that has to terminate. Officers ought to not conduct activity stops on vehicles based on the ethnicity of any citizens. That's racism. Bigotry is the conviction that one race is prevalent to another and separation could be biased viewpoint. Profiling is segregation and racism all into one. Citizens ought to not be subjected to police segregation and bigotry. Law requirement authorities ought to be well prepared and one-sided. In the event that officers were one-sided there would not be racism within the police agencies. There ought to be more accentuation set on enlisting and the foundation of the officers who are applying. The officers that are input, more preparing and punishments ought to be sanctioned to prevent them from profiling. Profiling is condoned by law authorization offices across the country. Since it is so implanted within the police culture it is almost second nature to them. Most officers likely don't indeed think what they do is profiling, but after you conduct activity stops based on ethnicity of the public is profiling.

Building trust and legitimacy is a number one key. The culture in law enforcement ought to be more of a guardian mentality instead of that of a warrior in order to build trust and legitimacy inside agencies and with the public. Police should and must carry out their duties concurring to build up arrangements which reflect community values and must be held responsible in case they don't. The utilize of these tools such as technology and social media can construct community trust and legitimacy since the police can engage and teach communities, and have dialogues almost privacy, responsibility, and transparency. But it's usage must be built on a characterized policy system, and its purposes and objectives must be clearly depicted . Another strategy to dismantle racial profiling is community policing. Working with neighborhood residents to co-produce public safety, as well as pushing communities to engage in a policing culture that reflects the values of ensuring and promoting the dignity of all. Training and education can be another good factor. Training and education, as the scope of obligation of law enforcement has broadened, and expanded and more viable training is required, particularly in a society that has ended up more pluralistic (Lombardo, 2017).

Others believe racial profiling is important. As in fact, inside the past two decades, there has been expanded utilize of profiling, in spite of the fact that it remains a disputable device. Not everybody accepts that devising a theoretical representation of a suspect makes a commitment to solving violations, but a few profiles have been shockingly precise. The issue is that it's troublesome to know when you're working with a good one until the suspect is caught and compared against it. Profiling has been created with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (a.k.a. Investigate Support Unit) by such individuals as John Douglass (Mindhunter), Robert Ressler (Whoever Battles Beasts), and Roger DePue (Between Great and Evil). In any case, it is additionally utilized by police divisions all over the nation- particularly those with officers trained at the National Academy- as a tool in their crime-fighting arsenal. The fundamental idea for aa profile is to accumulate a body of information yielding common patterns so that agents can create a common description of an UNSUB (obscure suspect). Profiling includes the psychology-trained master using his or her information in human behavior, motivation, and designs of pathology to make multidimensional report (Maria, 2007).

In summary, it is difficult to set up whether racial profiling is undoubtedly a law authorization tool or an act of racism. One cannot disregard the positive affect it has had on the common society, but at that point it had driven to mishandle of rights of the minorities. Blameless individuals have been jailed and imprisoned as a result of racial profiling.

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Westward Expansion and Slavery

Subjection was solely identified with the significant patterns and minor improvements that we connect with American history in the principal half of the nineteenth century. For instance, regional extension, the westbound development, the wilderness. The nation developed immensely in this period until by the 1840s it achieved the Pacific Sea. Frederick Jackson Turner, the extraordinary history specialist of the late nineteenth century, said it was on the wilderness that majority rules system was conceived, that American thoughts of fairness were conceived, independence.

In any event, the boondocks likewise conveyed with it the extension of bondage. The westbound extension of subjection was a standout amongst the most supreme financial and social procedures going ahead in this nation. The westbound development conveyed subjugation down into the Southwest, into Mississippi, Alabama, crossing the Mississippi Waterway into Louisiana. Ultimately, by the 1840s it was filling Texas. Therefore the extension of subjection, which turned into the supreme political inquiry of the 1850s remains also a political issue. It was an unavoidable truth that each American had encountered amid this period.

Americans in the nineteenth century thought of or talked about their nation as in Jefferson express ""empire of liberty.""And the historical backdrop of the Unified States was imagined as a crucial aspect of the advancement of humanity and the spread of freedom all through the world. What's more, you can note this in realistic delineations of the period of freedom driving individuals westbound. Also, advance was the quintessence of the American story.

Presently, in the South, southern slaveowners demanded subjection was significant to that account of advancement. Without bondage, you couldn't maintain human progress, they said. Bondage liberated the high society from the need to do physical work, to stress over monetary everyday substances, and along these lines gave them the time and the scholarly capacity to dedicate themselves to bodily expressions and writing and mechanical focal points and innovations of different sorts.With the goal that it was subjection itself which gained the ground of development conceivable.

Presently, northerners by this period wouldn't have put it precisely that way, since they lived in a non-slave zone. In any case, I think in the North, the association of subjugation and American development was truly kind of overlooking. As it were, individuals would discuss the extension of the ""empire of liberty"" and never entirely notice that a large number of individuals in this empire of liberty were slaves.

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Racial Stereotyping and Profiling

I chose the topic of racial profiling because it is of concern for many people almost any place you go. I think it's very important that people do not overlook or downplay the negative impact of racial profiling. If they do, nothing will get better and no one will do anything to address the problem. I think people could fix this problem by not singling out another human being simply because of they belong to a different racial or ethnic group that is different from theirs. Racial profiling is a difficult issue to change because there are a lot of racist people who believe that they are better than or superior to others. Sometimes law enforcement agencies encourage racial profiling and unfairly target certain groups based on internalized negative stereotypes and prejudice.

Racially-based profiling usually happens because police narrow their searches down to one race, which may not be right but is the best way to find who they are looking for. Even if there is a law against it, police officers often operate on the assumption that members of certain racial and ethnic groups are more likely to commit crimes or violate the law than others. Thus, individuals belonging to certain minority groups are targeted more so than other groups. People have tried many times to stop racial profiling but it usually doesn't work even when the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) steps in they can't even change it. The profiling of people by the police make people scared to go to them because they think that they won't help them or they'll be cruel to them. Police officers or agencies that do this affect everyone around them including their family members, friends, and co-workers.

People of color are often associated with gangs, not having a good job, not having a good education, stealing, and drug abuse. If a kid grows up in a poor neighborhood with no opportunities and gangs, he/she is probably not going to turn out very well. For example, if you go through the ghetto part of Miami, which has a high percentage of people of color. Gangs may pressure someone to do a crime just to gain status and rank. Minority students committing crimes, especially of color, are more likely to have lived in a community with higher poverty and less qualified schools. Even if they were a very good student they probably didn't have access to high level courses that colleges are looking for. They also had trouble getting in to a good college because their school was small and not well known. Here are some statistics. Nearly 40% of inmates lack a high school diploma or the equivalent according to the census data (Orfield, NBC). We do, in the African American community, need to instill a stronger value on education, but minority students in general also need more early childhood education, longer school days, longer school years and more substantial summer job opportunities (Morial, NBC). (People in prison) points to the significant failure in our education system and how we've been raising our children (Morial, NBC).

Parents need to stick around and raise their kid. If they don't want the responsibility well, then tough. They need to make sure that he/she grows up in a good community and that they are being good role models for them. Drugs will also help with that in making people do things they normally wouldn't do. They can also directly be arrested for taking certain drugs, like crack cocaine. Crack is a commonly abused drug amongst people of color. Drug offenders make up a big portion of people in prison. Crimes aren't always done because someone is being stupid. Sometimes they are done sincerely out of the need for survival. Whether someone doesn't have enough to pay off debt, buy food, clothes, or housing. They also couldn't afford a good lawyer when they get caught up in a bad situation. People may resort to stealing something they need, even if it means hurting someone who stands in their way. Certain ethnic communities that physically have a higher crime rate will be patrolled more which may increase their numbers in jail or prison. There are more than 2,000 drug courts in operation, mostly in cities with large black communities ravaged by violence associated with crack cocaine. White offenders also are increasingly winding up in drug courts for abusing methamphetamine (Fears, pg.2). Other ghetto neighborhoods, of certain race, still have crime and there just isn't enough policemen around to catch them.

We may have gotten rid of the worst of racial profiling through the civil war and Martin Luther King, but there is still some discrimination. Drugs, like crack, are abused more often by certain minorities, like people of color, have a higher sentence (also because these drug offenders show up in violent communities, and committing other crimes). Some very good examples of racial profiling/stereotypes at work is wars and disasters. Like when after the attack at Pearl Harbor, the United States captured all Japanese Americans in WWII. Also like the aftermath of 9/11 when the United States started to lock up any suspicious Arabians and Muslims.

My conclusion is that racial profiling can be good or thought of as a necessity to do but it is often abused and unfairly carried out. This is a huge topic that humans have struggled over for centuries. There are many sides and subtopics to discuss. We are all responsible to fix this because everyone has a mental image that pops up when they hear about a certain race. I think in general people do a good job of pushing aside those thoughts, but then again I don't know everyone. In the end it all comes down to opinion and what you think is right or wrong. The civil rights of the profiled individuals are violated and often by people who are entrusted to uphold the just laws of society.

Works Cited

More Blacks, Latinos in Jail than College Dorms. NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 27 Sept. 2007, www.nbcnews.com/id/21001543/ns/us_news-life/t/more-blacks-latinos-jail-college-dorms.

Fears, Darryl. A Racial Shift in Drug-Crime Prisoners. The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Apr. 2009, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/14/AR2009041401775.html.

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What is Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as ways for people to suspect that someone has committed an offense. It is illegal , yet , it continues to occur especially now in the United States with all the immigration situations happening. In addition to that , it has become a major problem in society. It occurs every day, in cities and towns across the country, when law enforcement and private security target people of color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without evidence of criminal activity and based on perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion . It has become a topic of concern.

Racial profiling against all hispanic people has been going on since inception of our country. Not only hispanics but other races too , for instance African Americans . If we go way back to U.S history , back to the slavery era , you can clearly see how awfully African Americans were treated . They weren't treated like the humans they are , and all that just because of their race . Now let's come back to this era of the U.S , people are still racist till this day . For example , hispanic people are almost always experiencing racial profiling . According to CNN news , Hispanic residents experienced racial affronts targeted at their Mexicanness indicated by skin-color, bilingual speaking abilities, or shopping in neighborhoods highly populated by hispanics. During immigration inspections, individuals stopped were demeaned, humiliated and embarrassed. As clearly demonstrated, racial profiling occurs with all types of race and color. In addition to that , racial profiling isn't stopping any sooner or later if we don't start acting on it to prevent it . Racial profiling is highly unfair ,and many people seem to be extremely affected by these types of situations. Mentally and physically.

Many people are ignoring the fact that it's a large issue in society , and that its affecting many groups of people. Racism , stereotyping , judging , started it all. It goes on and on because people pass it through generations. If a parent tells their child that every person of color is dangerous, then they will grow up believing that. Then in the near future they will inculcate their beliefs to their child and so on. It's an ongoing cycle, which is hard to break if we don't start trying to change people's perspectives. People have started to create organizations that explain how we're all the same, no matter the color or race. In 2012 they created a program called The Racial Justice Campaign, which is a program that is against everything that has to do with racial profiling. They explain in the following that they founded this organization in order to protect people's rights, they say We represent individuals who have been victims of racial profiling by airlines, police, and government agencies, and our present work also encompasses major initiatives in public education. In addition to that , it states to fight law enforcement and private security practices that disproportionately target people of color and Muslims for investigation. This organization has grown and has also been a success.

In 1954, the Hernandez v Texas court case was happening. Peter Hernandez was accused of murder without having prove that he was guilty. The jury suggested that the man didn't deserve to have a trial because all mexicans were born criminals''. Even though Peter Hernandez was a Mexican American , he deserved the same rights as any other American . Since he seemed mexican , they took him to an immigration center in hope of him being deported . Peter Hernandez was later released from the center because he was a Mexican American. Because of his lack of english and him not being able to pronounce some words, people thought he was here illegally. They were discriminating Peter Hernandez , and as the 14th amendment says that No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The Court decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial and national groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Every day, Black and brown people face racial profiling when going about their lives . Racial profiling prevents many people from doing many things , including getting a job. For example, you're looking for job at McDonalds . You have everything you need, but the manager of the company seems to be an ignorant person. Since you're a person of color, he/she may immediately think you're a dangerous person . As you can see, people judge other people without getting to know each other. We have to stop this nonsense, we have to stop thinking this way , we have to stop humiliating these people, we have to take knowledge that these people are as human as we are. This shouldn't be a problem in life .

In conclusion, racial profiling shouldn't be a problem people have to face in their everyday basis. People are being affected economically, physically, and mentally. We need to find a way to prevent this absurd way of thinking .These types of situations have indeed many negative outcomes. Racial profiling is terrible in society, and it's going to end up in chaos at some point if we don't act on it.

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Dark Sides of Human Nature in the Lottery

Shirley Jackson was an American writer, who was born in San Francisco,1916. Jackson was acclaimed for many well-known novels and short stories she wrote such as: ""The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castles, and Charles. This research is about The Lottery and Charles; two of Jackson's well-known short stories. The Lottery starts as a seemingly benign annual event in small village on a beautiful day and nice weather, and children are playing very happily after school. The story takes a dark turn as a climax when the event is revealed to be a gruesome sacrifice about stoning a villager who is his or her name be picked from the lottery. The ending of The Lottery is shocking many readers when it was published in the New Yorker. In Charles, the story is set as a little boy named Laurie who comes home from school as a kindergarten, and every day he will tell his parents about his friend at school named Charles which is brought a lot of attention to from his mother. The ending of Charles also has a climax that make it very interesting, and lead the readers to look closely into Laurie character. The Lottery and Charles are similar in climax ending and theme, and in the theme of two stories reveal the dark side of human nature.

The most critical writing on Shirley Jackson has focused on her gothic and psychological novels and Jackson novels or stories have been mentioned of madness and evil are recurring themes in many of her works as critics and analysis. On her best-known short story The Lottery in which a typical small village stones one innocent person in the town each year as part of an annual ritual. Critics analyze this story through a Jackson's writing style that is always point to a human behavior and family relate, this critic comment can be seen in her other stories, including Charles. In Judie Newman's essay in American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King, 1990, Newman emphasized the darker aspect of Jackson family life state that Critical appreciation of Jackson's fiction has increased over the decades. In parallel with this process has come a greater recognition of the darkness present even in her family chronicles, of which Charles is an example (Newman 78). Anne LeCroy, another critic, who praises Jackson's ability to convey the trials of family in a realistic and humorous manner. LeCroy says in her Studies in American Humor Essay, Jackson's humor most often stems from her understanding of the everyday nuances and working of the average family. Including the helpless frustration mothers often feel at observing the inexplicable behavior of their children. (LeCroy 78). This statement from LeCroy supports the idea that Jackson's works was related to her family relationships. The facts that Mrs. Hyman shares the same name as Jackson married name and that Laurie shares the same name as Jackson's own son are graceful touches that put forward the author herself and her family (Short Stories for Students, Vol. 27, pg 73). This quote proves the point that Jackson work somehow related to her real life. Criticisms are frequently categorized Jackson's work as gothic in terms of human psyche, dramatic irony, which evil mind can be hid in human nature, community, society, and family relationships.

Speaking of the narrators of The Lottery and Charles by Shirley Jackson are very different. The point of view of the narrator in The Lottery is told from a third person narrative which could be one of the villagers but is not mentioned specifically and also does not appear to be one of the characters of the story. The point of view of Charles is told from one of the main characters point of view in the story and goes by the name of Mrs. Hyman. The entire story is told from the mother's point of view, which makes the story a first-person narrative.

To look for who is telling a story is to look for who determines the story's point of view in both stories The Lottery and Charles. There are two types of narrators One initial way to determine a story's point of view is to identify whether or not the narrator appears a as major or minor character, as a sideline observer, or as an unnamed nonparticipant (27) The narrator who tells the story of the Lottery does not specifically appear to be one of the characters that have been mentioned in the story; we can define the narrator of the Lottery as nonparticipant narrator. The way the narrator is telling the story, the narrator does not see into the minds of the characters and relates the series of events in a matter-of-fact way and also does not comment on the events in the story. The people of the village began to gather in the square this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock to get home for noon dinner (Jackson 227-235), From this statement, however, the narrator in the story can gives many small details of the lottery taking place and as mentions of small town and there is not many people that live there, the narrator could be one of the villagers who lives in the town and who lives long enough to understand how everything goes on in the town: culture, people, and traditions. Rather than telling a reader the characters' thoughts or character's feelings, the narrator in the story simply shows the process of the lottery unfurling. Clean forget what day it was. Mrs. Hutchinson said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly (Jackson 227-235) this quote shows evidence of the idea that the narrator could be a villager who happens to be standing close or near Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Delacroix in order to hear their conversation and see the way they were interacting. As a villager third person narration for an outside voice to tell what is going on with the story further underlines the shocking nature of the ending, as our only indications of the Lottery's true purpose come from one of the villagers' nervous manners, rather than from insight into their thoughts.

In Charles the narrator is one of the main characters directly involved in the action which is Laurie's mother, who is called Mrs. Hyman. The narrator's point of view in Charles we can define as participant narrator. However, the mother has a limited point of view of the events because she knows only what her son tells her and her husband. The mother describes her little boy starting kindergarten and she tends to take her son's word for it, no matter what he says. The day my son Laurie stated kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with bibs I watched him go off the first morning with the older girl next door, (73-77), This quote proves that the writer, Jackson uses I in the story for the narrator and that obviously becomes a first-person narrator who tells the story from her point of view. How was school today? I asked, elaborately casual. All right, he said. Did you learn anything? his father asked. (Jackson 73-77). The quote shows the logical order of how the narrator describes whom is speaking in the story, which shows clearly that the mother is the narrator who directly participates in the story.

The two stories have revealed the dark side of human's mind. Jackson presents a view of humankind as basically unenlightened, narrow, and evil. (Friedman) It relates into everyday life of human as the psychological nature of human to prey upon others, and all of humanity has this potential to victimize other humans and living creatures. Through many characters of The Lottery and along with the culture in the story in many serene characters that have shown out their madness to the society without knowing or realizing that is harm others. Violence is a major theme in The Lottery, Jackson enhances its emotional impact by setting the story in a seemingly civilized and peaceful society. This suggest that horrifying acts of violence can take place anywhere at anytime, and they can be committed by the most ordinary people. (142) Through a nice character like Mrs. Delacroix, who seem to be very nice to Tessie, she represents the duality of human nature. Be a good sport, Tessie, (Jackson 227-235) said Mrs. Delacroix after Tessie try to prevent herself from the lottery. Even though they both just have seemingly nice small take Mrs. Delacroix picked a large stone to hurt Tessie; Mrs. Delacroix is pleasant and friendly on the outside but underneath she possesses a degree of savagery. Another example of this degree of savagery is in Bill Hutchinson, who accepts the tradition of the lottery and carries on normally even though his wife Tessie was selected and he did nothing to protect her. Moreover, most of the other villagers seem to accept the lottery without questioning or wanting to stop it.

Compare The Lottery to Charles, Charles seem to be less scary and gruesome as noting bad is really happened, but both stories contain the theme of vitalization. Similarly, in Charles, the sours of evil turn out to lie disturbingly close to home, when the Hyman family seem to be the essence of respectability. (Short Stories for Students, Vol 27, pg. 75) In Charles, Mrs. Hyman and her husband seem to be a victim of their son Laurie, they all believed in everything Laurie said without considering that it is Laurie's ruse in blaming Charles for his own bad behavior. Evil, Jackson seem to suggest, is not always conveniently located in some other place, in other people who are set apart from the decent majority. People must look for it within themselves and their own family and communities (Short Stories for Students, Vol 27, pg. 75) Having an innocent character like a kindergartener lying and behaving in the way Laurie does in Charles demonstrates the dark side of human nature depicted in Shirley Jackson's stories. Today Charles hit the teacher, Charles even told a little girl in class to say a bad word (Jackson 73-77) Even though Laurie is just a little boy, his imagination and his creation of Charles and behavior of Charles can further show the dark mind of human nature.

The Lottery and Charles have many things in common in term of Jackson's writing style, such as: theme, ending scene, tone and dark natured human behavior. Next to The Lottery Charles is the most frequently anthologized piece from Jackson's collection, and probably for a similar reason: both end with an unforgettable scene that suddenly forces the reader to reconsider the whole preceding sequence of events. (27). The unforgettable scenes that end both stories are perfect examples of how Shirly Jackson's writing is reminiscent of the dark side of human nature. In the story The Lottery, the tale ends with Tessie getting stoned for no reason other than its ritualistic tradition in the community. In Charles, the reader finds out in the end that there is fact no other boy named Charles that Laurie has been speaking of; demonstrating the ability of human nature to be dark sided and ill natured.

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Volcanoes Effect on Climate Change

Earth's climate has continued to change throughout its history. In the beginning, when Earth was first created, volcanic eruptions contributed to the creation of the early atmosphere. Supervolcanoes have had the largest impact on Earth's past climate, causing global changes that last for several years. Recent volcanic eruptions continue to alter Earth's climate and atmosphere. However, humans have had a much larger impact on climate change. Their large emissions of carbon dioxide have had much more serious impacts on climate change than volcanic eruptions have. Although volcanoes have largely contributed to past and current climate change, human emission of CO2 has caused much more drastic and long lasting effects.

Effects of Past Volcanic Activity

Volcanoes have been extremely important since the early history of Earth when, through outgassing, they helped create Earth's early atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions occur when magma travels up to Earth's surface through faults and fissures in the mantle and erupts as lava through summit or flank vents. These eruptions release lava, pyroclastic debris, and gases into the atmosphere. During the Hadean period, volcanic outgassing was the main source that contributed to the gases in Earth's early atmosphere, which consisted mainly of water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, and ammonia (OSU, 2018). Once the Earth had cooled enough, water vapor began to accumulate and came down as rain, forming the first bodies of water. During this period, the atmosphere contained no free oxygen. The amount of oxygen did not increase until the first forms of life appeared and began converting carbon dioxide that had been released by volcanoes into oxygen (OSU, 2018).

There were many large eruptions in the history of our planet that had large impacts on the climate and life on Earth. Supervolcanoes, which eject huge amounts of lava and ash much larger than other types of common volcanoes, have been one of the leading causes of climate change in Earth's past. Supervolcano eruptions such as Yellowstone, Toba, and Taupo have caused more drastic and long-lasting effects to Earth's climate compared to smaller volcanic eruptions (Jones et al., 2007). The ash erupted into the air spreads out radially with the finer particles spreading far across countries and even continents. Nearer the volcano, larger ash and rocks fall to the ground, covering plants and causing large amounts of deforestation. This affects different cycles such as the carbon and water cycle in the nearby areas. The aerosols remaining in the atmosphere can also cause acid rain, bringing the chemicals in the air back down to the earth (Jones et al., 2007). Past supervolcanic eruptions have also released H2SO4 aerosols into the atmosphere which blocked the sun's radiation from reaching Earth. This caused both the atmosphere and Earth's surface to cool significantly in the nearby area and for slight cooling at a global level. Many of the effects of these large volcanic eruptions lasted for a couple years (Jones, 2007).

Effects of Recent Volcanic Activity

Several more recent eruptions have continued to add elements into our atmosphere, affecting the current climate. One example of a recent volcanic eruption that had a large impact on the climate was the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. This eruption was so large that the volcanic plume reached the stratosphere, where strong winds spread the ash far across the Earth. The aerosols blocked the radiation from the sun by absorbing and reflecting sunlight. This caused global cooling that lasted for around two years (NASA, 2001). Several other eruptions have occured in the recent past that have similarly affected the climate many at much lower scales. Although volcanoes can affect the climate at a global scale, their effects are usually only short lived (Kappelle et al., 1999).

CO2 From Volcanoes and Humans

Volcanoes have introduced many gases into the atmosphere during eruptions with one of the most common being CO2. Carbon dioxide is released by volcanoes both through eruptions and from underground magma rising through rocks, soil, and water. (Scott, 2016). Large volcanic eruptions can inject millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. An example is the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, where around 10 million tons of CO2 was released. Even with similar amounts of carbon dioxide being released by other volcanoes, the amount released has not been enough to show clear signs of contributing to global warming (USGS, 2018). This large amount of carbon dioxide being released by volcanoes is small compared to the amount humans continuously emit each year.

In the short period that humans have inhabited earth, they have had a much larger impact on the release of carbon dioxide than volcanoes have. In 2010, humans released close to 35 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is more than several volcanic eruptions put together. Also, large volcanic eruptions only happen once every few years while humans constantly burn fossil fuels that release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (USGS, 2018). The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere has continued to increase since the Industrial Revolution with the creation of large factories and the increase of automobiles. Around 2000 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere from industrial activities since then (Scott, 2016). Many studies have been done to show how the doubling or quadrupling of carbon dioxide would affect the atmosphere and climate. By creating circulation models, these scientists have found that the large amounts of CO2 being released have caused general warming and increased moisture in the atmosphere (Manabe and Wetherald, 1980). Other studies comparing the amount of carbon dioxide released by volcanoes to the amount released by humans have shown that, on average, humans produce around 90 times more global emissions (Scott, 2016). This shows how humans are having a much larger impact than volcanoes on climate change.

The increase of carbon dioxide being released into our atmosphere by both humans and volcanoes has been contributing to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect, which traps heat in the atmosphere by preventing it from leaving Earth, is caused mainly by four different elements. These elements include water vapor, nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has been the element that has increased the most in the atmosphere and is the main cause of climate change (NASA, 2018). Although both humans and volcanoes have released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, humans have done it a much larger and more dangerous scale. Human emissions of CO2 are constant and are caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other industrial activities. (NASA, 2018). These emissions have had a much greater effect on global warming and the greenhouse effect than all volcanic eruption from the same time period put together.

Conclusion

Overall, human activities are the leading cause of climate change. Volcanoes may have caused changes to Earth's atmosphere and caused global cooling that lasted several years, but the effects humans have had last much longer and are at a much larger scale. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased. Volcanic eruptions have contributed slightly to this, but the majority comes from human activity. On a geologic time scale, this increase in carbon dioxide has occurred very suddenly. Volcanic eruptions over Earth's history have released carbon dioxide and other elements, but at a much smaller scale than is currently being done by humans. Many of the effects of climate change are irreversible and if humans want to prevent the greenhouse effect from worsening in the future, then they should decrease the huge amounts of deforestation and the large use of fossil fuels that occurs each year.

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Mother-To-Child Transmission of the HIV Virus

Problem

Throughout pregnancy, during delivery and even postpartum, there are several pathways by which an HIV-infected mother can infect her child. This mother-to-child transmission of the virus, also referred to as vertical transmission is a public health issue that begs mitigation. Health care researchers have worked towards the goal of fully suppressing the incidence of transmission pathways by: addressing the gestational, delivery and postpartum viral loads of the mother; and administering post-prophylaxis treatment to the infant postpartum. While mother-to-child transmission rates have been significantly reduced to-date, they have not yet been reduced to zero or statistically zero.

History

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 10 million infants had been born infected with HIV by the year 2000, with an estimated 600,000 of those cases occurring in 1999 alone, mostly in developing nations [10]. These dismal statistics improved drastically with zidovudine monotherapy becoming widespread; zidovudine monotherapy has been associated with a decrease in perinatal HIV transmission from 25.5 percent to 8.3 percent [5]; 3.8% for women receiving dual antiretroviral therapy with no or one highly active drug (Multi-ART); and 1.2% for women receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) [6].

Current State

Current research/estimates has found that (what are the current mother-to-child transmission rates) the majority (50 to 80 percent) of vertical transmissions occur around time of birth, with the chances of vertical transmission increased with the decreased complexity of the antiretroviral therapy received by the mother and with the mother's increased viral load [10]. Considering the chance of postpartum vertical transmission during breastfeeding, however, research recommends that mothers undergo repeat testing through twelve months postpartum to verify their HIV statuses. It is not apparent that this follow-up testing is currently being done in the United States, or if it is being done it is not being documented [10]. Risk of vertical transmission was 2.8 times higher (22.7 percent) among women with incident HIV infection in the postpartum period compared to women with chronic HIV [7].

While academics generally agree that compared to other antiretroviral therapies, HAART (the most complex) is the most effective at reducing the risk of vertical transmission. However, the treatment remains inaccessible in the United States, with costs ranging from $10,000-$20,000 per patient per year [4]. This is a highly inaccessible cost, considering that the average median household income was $61,372 in 2017 [8].

Viewpoints

Schools of thought appear to be unanimous on topics pertaining to vertical transmission of the HIV virus. Since there are no known ethnic differences in virologic, immunologic, or clinical outcomes to HAART [2], there is an apparent consensus agreement that more complex antiretroviral therapies are universally more effective at minimizing risk of vertical transmission [6, 16]; and that mothers who began antiretroviral therapy prior to conception are more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth and low birthweight [9, 17]. Academics agree that due to pregnant and postpartum women being similarly susceptible to HIV-1 acquisition, mothers should be screened for infection status both during gestation and post-partum. [7, 11]

Possible Solutions

Public health policy makers can use these findings to support any legislation they may propose incentivizing HIV screening for women that are trying to conceive. This will improve quality of care for HIV-1 infected mothers: if mother HIV-status is known before conception, health care providers might recommend that other antiretroviral therapies are used prior to conception, but that the specific prescription cocktail characteristic of ART is started after conception to reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Policy makers can also use these findings to support any legislation they may propose requiring that highly active antiretroviral therapy should be made affordable.

REFERENCES

  1. Achievements in Public Health: Reduction in Perinatal Transmission of HIV Infection United States, 1985--2005. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5521a3.htm
  2. Anastos, K., Schneider, M. F., Gange, S. J., Minkoff, H., Greenblatt, R. M., Feldman, J., Cohen, M. (2005). The Association of Race, Sociodemographic, and Behavioral Characteristics With Response to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in Women.Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes,39(5).
  3. Aschengrau, A., & Seage, G. R. (2010).Essentials of epidemiology in public health(2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publ.
  4. Bartlett C, Doyal L, Ebrahim S et al. The causes and effects of socio-demographic exclusions from clinical trials.Health Technol Assess.2005;9(38)
  5. Connor, E.M., Sperling, R.S., Gelber, R., Kiselev, P., Scott, G., O'Sullivan, M.J. et al. (1994). Reduction of maternal- infant transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 with zidovudine treatment. Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 076 Study Group. New England Journal of Medicine, 331, 1173-80.
  6. Cooper, E. R., Charurat, M., Mofenson, L., Hanson, I. C., Pitt, J., Diaz, C.,  Blattner, W. (2002). Combination Antiretroviral Strategies for the Treatment of Pregnant HIV-1 Infected Women and Prevention of Perinatal HIV-1 Transmission.JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes,29(5), 484-494. doi:10.1097/00042560-200204150-00009
  7. Drake, A. L., Wagner, A., Richardson, B., & John-Stewart, G. (2014). Incident HIV during Pregnancy and Postpartum and Risk of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.PLoS Medicine,11(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001608
  8. Kurt, D. (2018, October 9). What Is the Average Income in the U.S.Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/what-average-income-us/
  9. Machado, E. S., Hofer, C. B., Costa, T. T., Nogueira, S. A., Oliveira, R. H., Abreu, T. F., Lambert, J. S. (2008). Pregnancy outcome in women infected with HIV-1 receiving combination antiretroviral therapy before versus after conception.Sexually Transmitted Infections,85(2), 82-87. doi:10.1136/sti.2008.032300
  10. Mcgowan, J. P., & Shah, S. S. (2000). Prevention of perinatal HIV transmission during pregnancy.Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy,46(5), 657-668. doi:10.1093/jac/46.5.657
  11. Mercey, D. (1998). Antenatal HIV testing.Bmj,316(7127), 241-242. doi:10.1136/bmj.316.7127.241
  12. Ranganathan M, Bhopal R. Exclusion and inclusion of nonwhite ethnic minority groups in 72 North American and European cardiovascular cohort studies.PLoS Med.2006;3(3):e44.
  13. Rogers, W., & Lange, M. M. (2013). Rethinking the Vulnerability of Minority Populations in Research.AM J Public Health. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301200
  14. Sheon, A. R., Fox, H. E., Rich, K. C., Stratton, P., Diaz, C., Tuomala, R., .Alexander, G. (1996). The Women and Infants Transmission Study (WITS) of Maternal-Infant HIV Transmission: Study Design, Methods, and Baseline Data.Journal of Womens Health,5(1), 69-78. doi:10.1089/jwh.1996.5.69
  15. Towers, C. V., Deveikis, A., Asrat, T., Major, C., & Nageotte, M. P. (1998). A bloodless cesarean section and perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,179(3), 708-714. doi:10.1016/s0002-9378(98)70069-9
  16. Townsend, C. L., Cortina-Borja, M., Peckham, C. S., Ruiter, A. D., Lyall, H., & Tookey, P. A. (2008). Low rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV following effective pregnancy interventions in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 2000-2006.Aids,22(8), 973-981. doi:10.1097/qad.0b013e3282f9b67a
  17. Uthman, O. A., Nachega, J. B., Anderson, J., Kanters, S., Mills, E. J., Renaud, F., Mofenson, L. M. (2017). Timing of initiation of antiretroviral therapy and adverse pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet HIV,4(1). doi:10.1016/s2352-3018(16)30195-3
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Christianity Judaism and Islam in Today’s Society

In today's society, there are a lot of contentious acts that have been caused because of the different beliefs that other people have in their religions. The problem with that, is the United States is a free country, yet we still will call people out for being in a different religion than the majority practices. Although there are many problems with people believing differently than what a great portion does, there are three main religions and they have many similarities and differences; Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, but there is a lot of information on just those three religions themselves. Christianity is 31.2% of the populations, although the religions of Islam, and Judaism do not take up as much of the population, it is predicted that by 2050 that these two religions will surpass Christianity by far. Christianity is a very common religion in the United States of America, and their religion and teachings are based on the teachings of the Jesus of Nazareth. After people die, christians believe that they go to heaven if people do believe in him and trust him they go to heaven, but if the people do not, they go to hell. Each religion has a different text or scripture that they read from, and for Christians it's the bible. Between the holy scripture that the Christians use, there are many different holy places. An example of a few are: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lourdes (a popular place of pilgrimage), Rome, and Canterbury. Christianity is a very complicated religion, but they can have very simple beliefs. Many of the people in this religion do very helpful things for their communities. In the religion of Judaism, there are only Jewish people because in order to be in this religion people have to be born into to the religion or have a family member that was Jewish. The religious figure for the Jewish people is HaShem, he is called by this name, although his name was formerly known as Tetragrammaton. There is a vast amount of sacred texts in this religion, but one of the larger texts is the Hebrew Bible, and also the Torah. In the Jewish religion, they believe that nothing really happens after death. If you ask a Jewish person what happens after death, they may say one of the three things: don't care, don't know, or two men three afterlives. The last phrase means one single person could have three different views on the afterlife because there is no definitive answer to what happens to a person after the die. Although the information of a Jewish afterlife is just belief, there is a sacred place in the city of Jerusalem. The last religion is Islam, and one fact about this particular religion is, it is one of the three religions that have a lot in common, from their beliefs to the way they practice them. The religious figure in Islam is the same god as Judaism, HaShem. There are a lot of sacred texts, and one of the main sacred texts is the Quran, but these religions also have a sacred building called Mosque, which has the Quran located inside. Islam and Death states, Muslims believe that on a day decided by Allah, and known only to Allah, life on earth will come to an end and she will destroy everything. Islam and Death also states, On this day all the people who have ever lived will be raised from the dead and will face judgement by Allah. Muslims believe that they will remain in their graves until this day. This day is called by several names; and one of them is called, the last hour. There are many similarities and differences in the religions, of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. One of the major similarities is, the religions, all come from Abraham and his sons Ishmael, and Isaac. These religions also share the old testament, a belief in God, and believe in the afterlife. The biggest difference in the three religions is that most Christians believe that Jesus was divine, and the son of God. Islam reveres Jesus as a prophet only, and this religion does not think that he was in any way holy. Judaism also does not think Jesus is the Son of God. Within the religions Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, there are many similarities and differences, but those are the main ones. In conclusion, there is a plethora of information on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but there are also a number of facts and information on the similarities and differences. People around the world practice many different things, and there are a vast amount of religions, but only 4,200 religions remain. In the religion Judaism(Jewish people), there is no definitive answer, for how many people practice Judaism, because the number is always changing. One more thing, if a person references a Jewish person as a Jew, it is likely they will get offended.
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Holidays in the Jewish Religion

In the Jewish religion there are a lot of minor and major holidays that have a special representation of the history of their religion like the celebration of Hanukah, Yom Kipper, and the Passover. In the major Holiday of Hanukah or the festival of lights it is Christmas for the jews and is usually celebrated in and eight day period and celebrated the rededication of the temple of Jerusalem. The king of the Seleucid empire King Antiochus destroyed the temple and killed and captured Jews for practicing their religion. He wanted everything to be Hellenistic which means all Greek but a military leader named Judah Maccabee the son of Mattathias led a revolt against the King and defeated the Seleucids in several battles until Judah conquered all of Judea and they were able to capture the temple of Jerusalem but the temple was full of pagan shrines and idols and was dirty and not holy so they cleaned it back to worship and praise their God which was said to be an eight day celebration that is why Hanukah is celebrated 8 days. Later Rabbinic traditions describe the length of the festival from the small amount of oil that burned for eight days straight before going out. This is very different from Christianity view of Christmas as they celebrate it as the birth of Jesus which only last one day. The next major Holiday which is considered to be the most sacred and widely observed holiday is the Passover or pesach in Hebrew. The Passover represents the exodus movement and the Israelites departure from Egypt. The Jews celebrate this week's long festival with many important rituals. The Passover meal is considered to be very special known as Seder and it is the removal of leavened products from the home and the substitution of Matzo bread and mainly the retelling of the Exodus movement lead by Moses and the reason that those of the Jewish religion remove the leavened bread out of their homes and use the flat bread is because when the Israelites fled Egypt so fast there was no time for their bread to rise or because matzo was easier to carry through the dessert. The last Major Holiday is the called the Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement and it is considered the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. This is the day that God seals the book of life and death for the coming year so this day is devoted to repentance of all sins committed over the course of the previous year to clean yourself of all sin. This is also the day to part with all of the hustle of the outside world and focus on your heart and mind to devote yourself with a relationship with God. Jews usually fast on the day of Atonement to show devotion as well as refraining from washing, sexual activity, and wearing of leather because it is considered a luxury item. It is also traditional for them to dress in all white to show a sign of purity and most wear sneakers and athletic shoes. By the time of the Second Temple Yom Kippur important as a day of mourning and abstention and only during the Rabbinic Period as the most important day on the Jewish calendar and is still practiced today.
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Edna in the Awakening Novel

In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, Edna, a strong, female character lead, ventures out of her comfort zone while breaking through the role appointed to her by society. Throughout the novel, Edna is seen discovering her own identity independent from her husband and children.  Edna is seen always harboring unrealistic dreams that cannot be satisfied, thus characterizing her as a rebellious and selfish adult. Edna's life is symbolized through a series of parrots, mockingbirds, and seagulls that all form personal and metaphorical connections of freedom between Edna's world and her eventual awakening in reality, resembling her literal imprisonment within this society.

        Throughout the novel, countless references are made specifically involving parrots. One of which being Madame Lebrun's caged parrot that shrieks Allez vous-en! Sapristi (Chopin, 26) at Mr. Pontellier. Thus resembling Edna's need to escape her middle-class life for freedom and space. Parrots are trained to only mimic what they've heard symbolizing Edna's struggles to express herself because no one else does openly in this time period. This symbolizes Edna's literal imprisonment in this society. In, Edna and the Woman Question, Jules Chametzky states the struggle is for the woman to free herself from being an object or possession defined in her functions, or owned, by others (Chametzky, 236) despite her middle-class advantages. Furthermore, Edna's relation to parrots expands by their ability to silent themselves before being consigned to the regions of darkness (Chopin, 26). Only when a parrot's cage is covered, does the parrot stay silent. This signifies Edna when she is with her family or husband. Otherwise, with the cage uncovered, a parrot has the right to speak. Such as to when Edna is alone, do her thoughts overcome her and she rebels.

Therefore, Edna is characterized as the parrot herself, while Mademoiselle Reisz is specifically characterized as a mockingbird. This is because Mademoiselle Reisz is Edna's only friend who seems to understand her struggle in social and religious conventions. More specifically, Mademoiselle is seen playing the piano with songs that are not her own, such as a mockingbird who mimics sounds they hear. More precisely, the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his flute notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence (Chopin, 26) resembles Mademoiselle Reisz, herself. Instantly, in the beginning of the novel, both the parrot and mockingbird are seen being characterized as the same, trapped. However, the mockingbird also relates to Edna in several ways. Along with the parrot, the mockingbird is seen several times being shut-out, symbolizing, once again, Edna's imprisonment in society. Edna finally begins to realize that there is more to the world then a perfect marriage or family. Furthermore, Edna begins making connections between herself and the birds. For example, Edna is characterized as the literal parrot herself, while the other women in this society are the mockingbird because Edna had the courage to speak the language that no one else could. Edna would attempt to be understood, but the other women would just answer back with any coherent reply, although they understood exactly what she was speaking of. This issue was, the other women in society felt too afraid to stand up for themselves as Edna did. Unfortunately, it eventually led Edna into the darkest state of mind.

Eventually, Edna feels isolated from society, loved ones, and herself. Which leads Edna out into the sea where A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water (Chopin, 116) with her. The broken-winged bird symbolizes Edna's failure to fully free herself from this society. Edna's wings were too weak to hold herself up above the water before fully submerging. Edna, throughout the story, is seen trapped within a male dominated society, where she is unable to escape. Edna was seen willing to take any risky actions just to free herself from this society. This is why critics describe Edna as a rebellious and selfish adult. Never did Edna have a care for her children, Edna only thought of herself escaping from society.

Overall, the birds symbolize Edna's female figure in society which provides a greater mean of emphasis on the progression of Edna throughout the story. In the end, it becomes clear that Edna has no means to fully assimilate herself with the ideal of society. This concept leads Edna to the pigeon house where she is able to eventually overcome the strength of the social and religious conventions that entrap her. However, it is Edna's isolation that leads Edna into her eventual awakening. It becomes clear that each bird was representing a new stage of Edna's awakening into reality. Ultimately, Edna moves into the pigeon house, which provides Edna with the comfort and security the old house lacked. The pigeon house proves to hold great importance in Edna's awakening journey because it signifies her quest for freedom and removal of herself from social order. The pigeon house allows Enda to feel, think, act, and dress how she wants too, without the worry of society. Unfortunately, Edna still struggles with leaving behind the society she was stuck in. Edna still had her husband, her children, her friends, and her other lovers that trapped her from every leaving. Due to Edna's imprisonment in this society, it lead to Edna's wings becoming too weak to hold herself up anymore, thus, leaving Edna to drown in her own worries.

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An Analysis of the Awakening Chapter

In chapter fifteen, it is revealed that Robert decided to go on a trip to Mexico and is leaving that night. Edna is both shocked by the sudden news and the fact that Robert failed to tell her the decision himself. When Edna and Robert finally have a conversation about Robert's sudden trip to Mexico, Robert avoids giving his reasoning and shows very little emotion when speaking to Edna. Robert's distant behavior bothers Edna, and she sulks in the darkness after he leaves.

In the beginning of the passage, Edna tries to get Robert to tell her when he is coming back - or if he is even coming back at all. Robert avoids the question and fails to give Edna a definite answer. Chopin's repetition of the words how long by Edna emphasizes Edna's persistence to get an answer out of Robert. The persistence conveys both Edna's feeling of worry that Robert will be gone long, but hope that he will not be. Edna repeating her question to Robert is her way of subtly asking Robert for some type of reassurance that he will come back. On the other hand, Chopin's repetition of the vague phrase I don't know implies that Robert is avoiding answering Edna's question. Robert's repetitive avoidance of the question after Edna asks it twice unveils that he is attempting to create a divide between himself and Edna by following society's traditions. Edna is straying away from society's traditions and is attempting to keep the bond she has with Robert, though it may be frowned upon.

Once Robert ignores Edna's request for a definite answer, Edna calls Robert out on his distant behavior. Chopin's strategy of Edna repeating Robert's statement that neither wants to part in any ill humor emphasizes that, while both are taking different sides when it comes to society's traditional rules, they both still try to think highly of each other. Neither wants to separate on a bad note. Chopin then has Edna reinforce a recurring theme that she's grown used to seeing and having Robert with her more often, which is why she is upset with his departure. Chopin included this line to explain that Edna is having trouble separating from Robert on a good note because he offers her no reason as to why he is being unfriendly and unkind with her. Edna is confused as to why Robert is suddenly distant with her and she just wants an answer.

In the last few paragraphs, Roberts's repetition of Good-by along with him addressing Edna as my dear Mrs. Pontellier hints that Robert is attempting to follow society's rules and traditions, but isn't fully assimilated into society trends. The repetition of Good-by reiterated the previous notion that Robert is distant with Edna to try and blend in with society. He is devoid of emotion with her, which is unusual since they have been spending almost every day together, and even addressed her formally by calling her Mrs. Pontellier instead of Edna. The one reason it can be inferred that Robert isn't fully assimilated into society's rules is when he called Edna my dear before addressing her formally. That phrase is Robert's only form of feeling and affection towards Edna. In turn, Edna addresses Robert by his first name and even asks him to write to her, which emphasizes Edna trying to cling on to their relationship. The entire passage emphasizes Edna and Robert's odd goodbye, and highlights that they both feel differently about society's rules and influences on eachother.

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Analysis of the Awakening from Marxist Perspective

In The Awakening, by the author Kate Chopin can be analyzed from the Marxist perspective by the powerful ones being the men. The men are powerful because society portrays them as the head of the household, meaning its a patriarchal society. Society thinks that men should rule over their wives and have them under their control. The men display their power when their wives don't do what they want.

For example, the husband of Edna, Leonce showed that power when he told Edna to come inside after she refused to leave the hammock several times. Society defined women as powerless by being submissive and attending their husbands and kids. The society tells the women to be wives and mothers before being independent. Most of the women have established with this view of women that they often submissively or happily play this role. For example, Adele seems to enjoy taking care and pleasuring his husband and children. She sees nothing wrong in this role and she in fact takes it in with pride.        

There is alienation in the powerless' characters by the unmarried women and unhappy wives. In this case it's Edna, a discontented wife, the widow, and Mademoiselle Reisz that are all seen weird by the society of both men and women. There is also unequal redistribution of wealth in the novel based on one's race and ethnicity.

The main characters Pontelliers, Ratignolles, and Lebruns in the novel are Creoles and they all seem to be wealthy based on their homes, possessions, activities, and vacations. They are the less fortunate than other races, such as the mulattoes, the blacks, and the quadrooms, who all have domestic jobs under the Creoles. It means that those races are being portrayed like women inferior people. All the characters have their own amount of wealth and status based on race and ethnicity. In the case of Edna's husband, Leonce he has time for his own, such as reading newspapers and go to the club. He has personal maids, cooks, and quadroon nurses at home. He also has paintings and sculptures at his house.

For example in the chapter it says that The Pontelliers possessed a very charming home on Esplanade Street in New Orleans. It was a large, double cottage.. The softest carpets and rugs covered the floors; rich and tasteful draperies hung at doors and windows

Also, in chapter , Mr. Pontellier reads the names of his clients' wives, which might indicate that he is a businessman who may work for finance or investment. He is also overbearing because he orders his wife around when she doesn't do as he wishes (Hammock incident). He shows detachment from his family by instead of spending time with them, he goes to the club, he doesn't even care that Edna hangs out with Robert.

Also, he is demanding with Edna, because he scolds her for not leaving an excuse for not answering the Tuesday calls. Another powerful figure is Robert Lebrun, he is a Creole and he also appears to be wealthy in the novel. His mom owns and manages the cottages on Grand Isle where the Pontellier family stays during summer. So the wealth is in his family, but he doesn't send his mom money from Mexico. 

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HIV Care in Brazil

HIV and AIDS impacts the entire world in different levels. In developing countries, like Swaziland, HIV has a higher prevalence rate than in developed countries like the U.S. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV is an incurable virus and will eventually progress to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and cause fatality. HIV is transmitted by dirty injectable needles, sex, delivering children, and from contact with secreted bodily fluid. In Brazil, the prevalence of HIV in adults is up to 60%. Of those 60%, only 64% are on antiretroviral treatment. As a medical healthcare specialist, my hope is to one day help every country get the supplies and knowledge they need to treat and educate their residents.

        As HIV and AIDS is more prevalent in developing countries, treatment is harder to receive. Not only are treatments scarce, they are expensive as well, and that is a major issue. According to UNAIDS, 36.7 million people worldwide are either living with HIV or AIDS at this moment in time, and that number continues to increase every day. A whopping 70% of those people who are living with HIV don't even know they have contracted the virus. Uneducated teens spread the virus unknowingly. Drug addicts using dirty needles contract and spread HIV unknowingly. In Brazil, the HIV situation seems to get worse every year. The most affected population are gay men, with a prevalence from 10.5% to 18.4%, and according to AVERT, around 47% of gay men have unprotected sex. America is one of the biggest funders of HIV prevention and treatment in developing countries. America has funded billions of dollars in an attempt to combat the global prevalence of HIV and AIDS. Also, PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plain for AIDS Relief) has provided an enormous amount of donor funding and reassured healthcare workers that treatments could be provided in developing countries effectively and safely.

        At ViiV Healthcare, our focus is to find new medicines to help improve the lives of HIV positive people and to prevent and treat the disease. Our priority is to find better ways to limit the spread of HIV and to one day create a cure to treat those who have contracted the virus and disease. We have made Tivicay (dolutegravir), an integrase inhibitor/ HIV-1 treatment available in Brazil on the national health program. This showcased our belief on the issues at hand. We believe that all who suffer from HIV or AIDS should be cared and get the innovative treatment that they need. Why should only developed countries be equipped with the technology and supplies to treat their patients? Developing countries and poorer citizens have the same importance and that is why we work hard to create more global access to innovative treatments for HIV and AIDS.

        As an advisory member of President Trump's, I propose a new policy of trade between America and Brazil. America can donate volunteer healthcare specialists' time and knowledge in exchange for one of Brazil's natural resource: petroleum. Healthcare specialists would be a key resource in better educating the transmission of HIV, treating those that are infected, and helping to reduce the spreading of the virus. American companies, like Gilead Sciences, could sell HIV treatment drugs at a lower price to developing countries. These types of foreign aid are crucial and could potentially save many lives. These two ways of aid address my priority issue on helping developing countries receive more treatments for a less expensive price in order to help those who are less fortunate receive the care they need.

        HIV is a progressive virus and will eventually transform into AIDS within months to years. AIDS will weaken the immune system of those who have been infected and they will die. Everyone who is HIV positive, whether they live in a developed or developing country, deserves to be treated with antiretroviral treatments. Those treatments need to be readily available to all and should not cost them an arm and a leg, or their life. Wealthier countries and those who have the resources should help out others who aren't as well off. In return, natural resources, pacts, agreements, or other valuable resources could be used to trade. HIV/AIDS needs to be slowed down and I believe we have the resources to do so.

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Literary Devices in Dreams by Langston Hughes

In the poem Dreams, written by Langston Hughes, the poet writes about the importance of dreams and goals. Although the poem is only made up of two quatrains, a powerful meaning is still caught within it. The theme of this poem is to never give up your ambitions. Hughes utilizes multiple poetic and literary devices to help impact the complex message of his poem. He uses metaphors, repetition, and sight imagery to influence the poem's theme.

The first literary device is metaphor. In the first stanza Hughes writes, Life is a broken-winged bird. This line means that if people did not dream, life would have no potential. He is comparing life to a flightless bird. This comparison impacts the message because it helps elucidate the emotion of sorrow without dreams. Furthermore, in the second stanza, the poet also writes, Life is a barren field. In this line, he compares life to a desolate field. This emphasizes the emptiness of life without dreams.

Another device Hughes uses is repetition. Repetition is used in many poems and other forms of literature. In this poem, the poet repeats the phrase Hold fast to dreams. It was written as the first line of each stanza. This sentence means to hold on to your dreams and to never let them go. Hughes repeats this phrase in order to emphasize its meaning. In addition, the poet also repeats the words, hold, for, and life in his poem. He wrote these words in the beginning of the first three lines in each stanza. This type of repetition can be considered as an anaphora. Anaphoras are the repeating of words in the beginning of successive sentences. Repetition impacts the poem because it signifies the theme.

The last form of poetic device that was incorporated into the poem is imagery. There are five types of imagery that can be used in writing: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. In Dreams, Hughes uses sight imagery. For example, in the first stanza, Life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. With this sentence readers can picture a bird with an injured wing. This is important because it can help visualize the writing. Another example in the poem is, Life is a barren field frozen with snow. Readers can use this to visualize an empty field that is covered in snow. Sight imagery can affect the meaning of the poem by using language to symbolize the message.

In conclusion, with the use of metaphors, repetition, and sight imagery, Hughes creates a meaningful message in his poem Dreams. Metaphors were used for comparing life to different subjects. By repeating phrases, the poet helped emphasize his theme. Hughes used sight imagery to help visualize the ideas. This poem inspires readers about how important dreams are.

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Langston’s Poems as his Voice

Poverty, discrimination, racism, and segregation did not stop James Langston Hughes to his destination. He once wrote a note to a friend named Arna Bontemps and said fame is lovely-but hard to eat. Langston had humble beginnings and was brought up in poverty. Langston used his poems and writing as his voice against prejudice and unfair treatment to African-Americans. Hughes wanted African-Americans to be recognized equal to white people. His poetry spoke truthfully about the African-Americans experiences-both the good and the bad. Langston Hughes is a remarkable poet that influence generations after generations.

Langston was born February 1, 1902, in a small town of Joplin, Missouri. He was named after his father James Hughes but he used his mother's family name. Langston's father and mother was well educated. Life was difficult and dangerous for Africans-Americans. Slavery had ended years earlier, but racial prejudice was stronger than ever. His parents went their separate ways shortly after Langston had been born. James Hughes moved to Mexico to practice law. The racial discrimination made it hard for him to success. His mother returned to her mother's home in Lawrence, Kansas, where there was extreme poverty. Unfortunately, his mother had to move around a lot to find work and it made it difficult to take care of Langston. His mother decided to leave him with his grandmother.

Langston grandmother did not have much to give, but she did give him knowledge. While he was with his grandmother Mary Patterson Leary Langston, he learned a great deal of his family history. His grandmother first married Sheridan Leary, a dedicated abolitionist who accompanied John Brown on his famous raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Mary's second husband Charles Langston was also an abolitionist, he spend most of his time speaking out for the cost of African-American Equality. He also learned about African American heroes like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. As his grandmother grew older and quieter, and kept him closer by her side, Langston turned to books for company and comfort. He later wrote that he began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books. With his grandmother's storytelling and his love of reading it opened his eyes to having African-American pride.

Langston was 13 when his grandmother passed away. His mother sent Langston to live with his grandmother's close friends James and Mary Reed until the end of the school year. Langston would later write, there have never been any better people in the world. I love them very much. They were a great support to him after the lost of his grandmother. In the summer of 1915, his mother sent for him to live in Lincoln, Illinois, with her, his new stepfather Homer Clark and his new half brother Gwynn. Langston attends Lincoln's Central School. His teachers said he was smart and a good writer. Langston was elected for the class poet, and his task was to write a poem for his graduation ceremony. On May 31, 1916, he would make his first poetic debut. It would be the start of his journey of becoming a great poet!

Langston's family would continue to struggle to survive. Homer Clark's job as a cook did not pay very well, so he decided to go to Cleveland, Ohio, to look for work. Homer found a job in a steel mill and sent for his family. They found a damp basement apartment, but faced rasical prejudice and high rent. Langston enrolled at Central High School in 1916, the school was known to be the best public school in Cleveland. Langston found friends that were immigrants students from Russia, Hungary, Poland, and Italy. He was happy and successful there. But once again his family is spited up. Homer Clark quits his job at the steel mill because it was hard work. He left for Chicago to find a better job. Langston's mother followed her husband shorty after, leaving Langston alone in Cleveland. At fifteen he was determined to stay at Central High School, and he did so on his own. In during his junior year, 1918, he joined the staff of Monthly, the Central High School magazine, and became one of the main contributors. Langston submitted his first short story, Those Who Have No Turkey, about a family too poor to celebrate Thanksgiving. His English teacher, Ethel Weimer, knew Langston was talented and introduced him to the work of modern American poets Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay, Walt Whitman. Langston later called Carl Sandburg his guiding star, he liked the language he used and his poetic form. Langston would learn to write about any subject with the world around him.

Langston graduate from Central High school on June 16, 1920. He moves to Mexico with his father James Hughes who is wealth, to convict him to pay for him to attend Columbia University. Langston only goes for one year and he felt out of place at the school. The same year he attended Columbia University he published a poem The Negro Speaks Of Rivers. Langston then travels the world write about his experience. He would sail to Africa and Europe, and he would live in Paris but work at a Jazz Club. He would win in a poetry contest like Opportunity magazine poetry.

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Langston Hughes and the Renaissance of Black Womanhood

Born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902, Langston Hughes said, My earliest memories of written words were those of W.E.B. Du Bois and the Bible. In 1919, in an essay called The Damnation of Women, W.E.B Dubois wrote that women have been frankly trodden under the feet of men, but of women themselves he stated that None have been more sweetly feminine, more unswervingly loyal, more desperately earnest, and more instinctively pure in body and in soul than the daughters of my black mothers. As caregivers, partners, muses, and leaders, Langston Hughes would continue this recognition through poems and short stories that were dynamic in their interpretations of black womanhood. He depicted them as multidimensional individuals, real in a time where where women in general were seen from an aesthetic distance as ideals. By creating women who were complex, Hughes demonstrated universal human qualities in an African American context that would transform both race and womanhood.

Hughes grew up in Kansas with his maternal grandmother, Mary, after his parents separated and pursued work. Jim Crow laws and poverty shaped him into a radical writer. He graduated high school in 1919, right before the decade after women won the right to vote and the decade of the embodiment of the liberated woman in the image of the flapper. He attended Columbia University for a year and then traveled throughout Europe and Africa before returning to the states. Before he graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, he was already producing and publishing works. Moving to the burrow of Harlem, New York, changed the course of his life as well as other African Americans moving to this area at the time. Hughes became intricately apart of what is referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural explosion which brought to the forefront of American consciousness an outpouring of literary expression on black themes by young black writers.

In the poem, Mother and Son, Hughes uses an extended metaphor to symbolize the personal and spiritual importance of struggle, endurance, and faith as a black woman in America. Structurally, the poem provides the folk diction and rhythm that made the mother real. The lines have varying syllabic length which simulates the inflections of black speech. By also using her as the main voice, Hughes gives her a platform to speak for herself, about her own experience. Using the metaphor of a stairway, the mother tells her son that the journey of life more closely resembles a long, trying walk up the dark, decrepit stairways of a tenement than a glide down a crystal stair. The crystal stair is a metaphor for the American dream and its promise that all Americans shall have equal opportunities. Through the metaphor of ascent, however, Hughes suggests how the mother has kept hope and faith for a life out of poverty to one of redemption. Hughes connected a natural human endeavor of progression and success with the advice from this wise mother, with the last lines reading,

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

The work, The Negro Mother, also uses the metaphor of of a staircase to captivate the theme of black woman humanity, endurance, and celebration. As in the earlier poem, the rhythm results in a simulation of black rhetoric. The reader becomes aware of the longevity of black suffering in America- three hundred years. During this period, unmentioned experiences forged the dream like steel in the mother's soul. The fervor of this dream gave birth to a determination. Consequently, the dream also inspired her to survive a valley filled with tears and a road hot with sun. Although she has been beaten and mistreated, and warns her offspring that racial restrictions still exist, her spirit has endured. The mother overcame the selling of her children, her inability to read and write, the everyday labors of working in fields, all while having no safety, no love, no respect Nevertheless, the will of the mother tries to inspire and motivate the children of future generations,

Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers

Impel you forever up the great stairs -

For I will be with you till no white brother

Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother.

In the poem, A Song to a Negro Wash-Woman, Hughes also resinates humanistic sentiments. Though it is not in the specific voice of a woman, it recognizes and celebrates the many that worked for white families. The work describes the type of chores and long hours that African American working women endured to get by and provide for their families,

I know how you send your children to school, and high

school, and even college.

I know how you work and help your man when times are hard.

I know how you build your house up from the wash-tub

and call it home.

The poem also reveals the secret of black art: the ability to transform suffering into good:

And I've seen you singing, wash-woman. Out in the back-

yard garden under the apple trees, singing, hanging

white clothes on long lines in the sun-shine.

In conclusion, Langston Hughes seems to be determined to not only show himself, but women as individuals. His portraits do not show them as passive victims, but as people who are trying to make the best choice from the few options available. Focusing on the poor and displaces, using grittier language, often in black dialect, he still manages to embody African American women as a positive and active concept of womanhood, despite maybe her low speech and probable life of poverty. By using ugly images and sometimes ugly language, Hughes shows the rest of society the type of extent prejudice that black american women faced.

Hughes used the recognition and renaissance of female back consciousness to echo his wishes of the world. He believed that the elevation of black women were inseparable from racial progress, and by showing them as more complex, more real, and less as symbols of sexuality, Hughes promoted an idea in which women were celebrated as taking control of their futures despite having racial and gender limitations. If he did not show black womanhood as beautiful, he did show them as having a degree of power. Hughes expressed, in a time that was deeply racist and segregated, that African American women were not only exceptional, but were human. They deserved respect.

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Langston Hughes’s Poems, i too and the Negroes Speaks of Rivers

After the horrors of World War I (1914-19), many people questioned their society and beliefs. This becomes the catalyst for the Modernist movement in literature. This includes a break from tradition, and strong reactions toward political, social views. Not only does anger and rebellion appear but sadness and stories of despair and struggle people have been through appears. Writer langston Hughes was born in missouri but grew up in a broke family constantly moving. He held many small jobs to keep a living and soon started writing poetry. His poems told stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. Langston Hughes' reflections of celebration of African American culture, influence of jazz, and ideas of equality in his literature not only contributed to Modernist writing through its style and ideas, but also used as a political statement at the time.

Langston Hughes's poems, I Too,and The Negroes Speaks of Rivers, illustrates the celebration of African American culture incorporated in Hughes writing. Modernist writing focuses on the break of culture and celebration of African American culture. For example, Hughes poem I Too demonstrates that patriotism is not based on race. Hughes focuses on a darker brother, one who gets sent away when company comes, but eats well and grows strong (Hughes). The words, sent away illustrates how African Americans were treated and degraded by others. Although this is combated by the phrase, eats well and grows strong which portrays the African Americans still grow and can be one who loves America too. Given this information one can realize that through Hughes writing he is depicting African American life but also celebrating all they have accomplished in America. Furthermore, Hughes poem The Negroes Speaks of Rivers, was not only his first mature poem but also is also his most anthologized poem. Written in 1921 for the Crisis magazine The Negroes Speaks of Rivers emphasizes that, I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins (Hughes.) On a figurative level, the poem speaks off the wiseness and hollowness of the African Americans and their culture. Given this information readers can infer that Africans knowledge for centuries emphasized in the poem celebrates them in a more abstract way. Many of Hughes works celebrated African American culture in a very direct way but others in a more abstract way.

Hughes not only impacted celebration of African AMerican culture in his writing but also influenced jazz during this era. He influenced jazz through his poems such as Weary Blues and his essay, Jazz As Communication. Hughes was among the first to use jazz rhythms and dialect to depict the life of urban blacks in his work. In Weary Blues it has a set of two voices, one being the man observing and the other being the Negro being observed singing his blues. The man observing recollects, I heard a Negro play. In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan Ain't got nobody in all this world And put ma troubles on the shelf (Hughes). The words, melancholy tone exhibit the type of sad music the man was playing. Knowing this the reader can infer what jazz music was based around in the Harlem renaissance. Jazz was influenced by not only sadness but also could be upbeat. Not only did Hughes portray the themes of sadness but like in his poem Harlem night Club he illustrates the more upbeat side of Jazz.

Hughes' writing highlights political statements, and influenced modernist writing. From this, he developed a style that celebrated African American culture, influenced jazz, and portrayed ideas of equality. It comes to no shock that because of the hardships of World War I these ideas of questioning society would appear in the writing. For people in the 1920s the writing style as well as society changes in their midst. Although this is not bad because they were introduced to new styles, music, and beliefs. So just as beliefs changed so will the type of writing that they will read.

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The Movie the Color Purple

The movie The Color Purple is about a young ugly uneducated girl name Celie who gives birth to a boy and a girl, both of which are by her father Alphonso. The children are taken from her to avoid Celie's mother finding out about their affair. Eventually Celie's mother dies, and her father continues to rape and abuse her. With so much despair she turns to her sister Nettie for genuine love and happiness. These two girls are inseparable. An older gentleman known as Mister has his eye on Nettie and asks Alphonso to wed her. Alphonso replies, I can't let you have Nettie. She too young. But l tell you what. I can let you have CeIie. She oldest and shouId marry first. She ain't fresh, but I expect you know that. She's spoiled, twice. Celie is ugly but she works hard, and she can Iearn. And God fixed her. You can do what you like. She won't make you feed or clothe it. But Nettie, you flat out can't have. Not now, not never. (Spielberg, 1985)
Alphonso offers Celie instead because he wants to keep Nettie all to himself. Mister reluctantly accepts due to his chaotic household after the recent death of his wife. Celie is separated from her sister and starts a new life as a mother and wife to Mister. She is constantly abused mentally, emotionally, physically, and sexually. One day Nettie shows up and asks to live with Celie and Mister to get away from their incestual father. Mister agrees she can stay in hopes to eventually be intimate with her.

Celie finally finds joy in life again after reuniting with her sister and they are once again inseparable. Nettie starts school and teaches Celie how to read. Eventually Mister makes a move on Nettie, but when she fights him off, he harshly kicks her off his property. Celie is devastated and as the months and years pass by without hearing from Nettie, Celie eventually thinks her sister has died. Shug, a sultry blues singer comes into town. Mister has had an infatuation with the woman for a long time. He allows her to walk in and out of his life freely. Shug and Celie develop a close relationship with one another. She feels bad for Celie when she finds out that she is being abused by Mister when she is not around, so she moves in. She comes across letters from Nettie that Mister has hidden from Celie for many years. This infuriates Celie and she even contemplates killing him. The letters from Nettie mention her moving to Africa and working with a man and woman doing missionary work. She later finds out that their children are in fact Celie's children and their father is not their biological father. Celie eventually stands up to Mister giving her the confidence to leave him and move away with Shug. When her stepfather Alphonso dies, Celie moves back home and inherits his property. Nettie moves back to America with her new family and the sisters reunite after many years. Celie and Mister for once are cordial with one another. This shows great strength and growth of Celie, being able to forgive a man who has done so many horrible things to her.

Cultural Aspects

The movie starts in the early 1900s in Georgia when racism was prevalent. There were also cultural norms in which men were superior to women. Celie had to be a submissive housewife to Mister. Her existence revolved around her husband and his children. Marrying girls at a young age was acceptable during this time, when now it would be considered illegal.

According to Bickley & Szilagyi (2017), Culture is the system of shared ideas, rules, and meanings that influence how the world is viewed, emotional connection to each experience, and how behavior is impacted based on relations to other people. It can be understood as the lens through which we perceive and make sense out of the world we inhabit. (pg. 84) Cultural norms vary based on many factors and conditions such as location, circumstance, race, and sex.

Cultural Model

The Transcultural Assessment Model, developed by Giger and Davidhizar applies to the cultural aspects that are in the movie The Color Purple. Communication, social orientation, and environmental control all impact how African Americans and women were treated during the 1900s. Giger & Davidhizar discuss the importance of communication in relation to culture. It is the link that connects the world through interaction and behavior (2002). Most African Americans during this time, did not know how to read because they lacked a formal education. This created communication barriers, bridging a large gap between whites and blacks. Because women were inferior to men and whites, their voices went unheard. Poor communication skills were common amongst blacks.

Race, gender, family role and function are things that apply to Celie's cultural back ground. As a black woman she had little to no rights and her role in the family was to take care of the children, keep the house clean, and do whatever her husband demanded without any say. In most industrialized countries, women were property of their husbands and/or fathers. After many years of inequality, women now have the same political and economic rights as men. (Fernandez, 2014)

During this time women like Celie had little control over her environment due to the cultural norms during this period. Her environment constrained her to a life of misery while it enabled and contributed to the poor behavior of Mister in how he treated and disrespected women. If there were consequences for domestic violence as there is today, women would not have endured such abuse. Bickley (2017) says culture is ever-changing and always being revised within the dynamic context of its enactment (pg. 83). After many years, Celie and Mister were finally able to communicate effectively, develop mutual respect and appreciate the roles they played in each other's' lives.
Christina Gray

References

Bickley, L. S., & Szilagyi, P. G. (2017). Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (12th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Fern?- ndez, R. (2014). Women's rights and development. Journal of Economic Growth, 19(1), 37“80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-013-9097-x

Giger, J. N., & Davidhizar, R. (2002). The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 185. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.delhi.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=6943153&site=eds-live

Spielberg, S. (Producer), & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1985). The Color Purple [Motion Picture]. United States: Amblin Entertainment.

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The Art of Yoga

Many people have stressful lives and relaxing might mean coming home and sitting on a couch in front of the television eating pizza or falling asleep. Some people go from work to a gym, or a studio to relax. These people achieve their relaxation through the art of meditation, breathing, stretching, and helping them find inner peace. With yoga, people can fight stress and live their life in peace and harmony on a daily basis.

So on Sunday April 8th, 2018, I attended a hot yoga class at 7:00 pm at the Dragonfly Studio. I walked into the small building that is connected to Buffalo Wild Wings, and a liquor store. When I walked into the yoga studio, I was greeted by a young lady working at the desk. She had this big smile and then another young lady came out and greeted me with a warm hello and a big smile. The first lady who greeted me asked me if this was my first time taking a hot yoga class. I replied with a no and asked if it was obvious as I was standing in front of her with no yoga mat or any towels. Other women have walked into the studio for the hot yoga class and had their own yoga mat and towels with them. The receptionist then handed me a form to fill out for reliability as she stated and it was an agreement to respect others in the class. I was then handed a yoga mat that they had in the back. Hot yoga is a form of yoga that is performed in a climate controlled room with heat and humidity that makes the entire room feel like it's in a tropical environment.

When I walked into the room, I was immediately hit with warmer temperature from the class before. I went ahead and placed the yoga mat in an area I found to work for me. The instructor who taught the class was a lovely, energetic woman name Brookyln. The class started some deep breathing poses and followed by I believe it was seven different standing poses, I might have miscounted but I know there were so many of them that were similar to one another. Before we went ahead to the floor pose, we ended the standing pose with what the instructor called was a corpse pose. We stayed in that position for about 4 minutes, maybe longer. The corpse pose was where we laid on our mat as if we were a corpse of just sleeping and with our eyes closed, we focused on our breathing and our self. The class consisted of standing poses, floor poses, breathing exercises (2 different breathing techniques), and one relaxation pose. The class was 90 minutes in an intense temperature such as 105 degrees Fahrenheit. In this yoga class, it was different because there were mirrors all around the room. The instructor throughout the class, constantly told us to focus on our self and to keep our eyes open. We were to keep our selves focused in front of the mirror to help promote our presence and to be mindful. Another thing I noticed about this class that made it different from other yoga classes was that the lights were not turned off or dimmed. The lights remained on and there wasn't any music playing during this 90 minutes session of hot yoga. After class, I immediately asked about the lights and the music, and was told that the lights remain on and the absence of music helps enhance the mindfulness of the movements done by our body and it helps our mind and body connect. Practicing yoga has been proven to improve health physically and mentally.

The heat in hot yoga is been said to help relax the muscle and induce sleepiness. So technically, hot yoga helps to improve sleep. In 2014 there was a study done with a result of 94% of the participants who did Bikram (hot yoga) reported that their sleep habits had improved after a year of engaging in Bikram. In another article done by Harvard Medical School, it was stated that 20% more likely to have a positive image of their own physical and mental health, including a stronger sense of mental clarity, physical fitness, flexibility, and strength (Wei, 2016). Hot yoga has also been known to help participants lose weight. Participants have experienced induced lower body fat and an improved physique. Due to the hot temperature in hot yoga, the temperature helps to elevate the body's heat/temperature and boost the body's energy consumption. This will then cause the body to use more of its energy, causing a result of weight loss. Bikram (hot yoga) focuses on the mind and the body of an individual's development regarding to oneself. Today, it seems that everyone is embracing yoga and what it can provide the participants in the end. Women in the United States are participating more in yoga practices than men are. Yoga has targeted the younger adults between that are still in college or adults between the ages of 18-30. Yoga also targets adults between the age of 35-54 and over 55. It is a mix of age groups but it is said that 71% of those who regularly attend yoga classes have at least one college degree (21 Staggering Yoga Demographics, Brandon, 2015). These yoga participants seem to have an annual household income to participant in yoga. Yoga is not cheap, so whether you are paying for class by class or a yearly membership, yoga is quite expensive. So yoga targets participants who make a good amount of annual household income. Yoga as of today, still is dominated by female. There isn't a lot of male participants in yoga practices. I believe that due to the advertisements of yoga all over America, more females are attracted to this sort of practice. Yoga uses thin, white, and elegant women to sell their practice as well as their products. This type of advertisement creates an ideal image of a woman in the wellness-obsessed culture. It is quite difficult because Yoga teachers today still struggle to balance the practice for both males and females. Since most of the classes are filled with females mostly, females are practicing and their bodies have adapted to the movements. When a male joins the class, the amount of flexibility that a woman in the class can do is not the same as the amount of flexibility a male body can take or do safely without modifications. Our physical features and our bodies are different from one another. Certain movements are not going to be performed with the same amount of power or flexibility on a male body versus a female body. This can cause males to stay away from yoga because they may think that their bodies cannot or is not made for this type of practice.

In conclusion, Bikram (hot) yoga is considered to be a safe healthy practice for participants who practice yoga to improve their health and reduce stress. It is a way an individual can create harmony within themselves. It is another way to physically and mentally connect your body and mind by engaging movements to understand oneself in a way that you have never done before. It is about building a relationship with our self and our inner beauty. Everyone wants to be happy and to find happiness in our self. Everyone should find a lifestyle that creates an environment in our mind that leads us towards a path of happiness and self-developing. Yoga is an experience of turning self-awareness to something beautiful and can create a new self. It is a process of transforming yourself externally and internally. Yoga is an art of improving the quality of your mind by improving your relationship with your mind and body.

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About Yoga History

Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years. Some researchers believe that it may have even been created up to 10,000 years ago. Its history comes from many obscure places, but the main origins humankind has discovered it is through sacred texts. Early writings on yoga were written on very delicate palm leaves, so much of it got destroyed or damaged throughout the years. Yoga's history can be divided into four significant periods of innovation, practice, and maturation (Singleton & Mallinson, 2017). During the pre-classical yoga period, it was developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India, more than 5,000 years ago. In one of the oldest discovered collections of texts containing yoga called the Rig Veda, songs, mantras, and rituals were written out to be used by the Brahmans who were the Vedic priests. Throughout the years, yoga was gradually altered by the Brahmans and Rishis, the mystic seers. They documented their practices in the Upanishads, a collections of text containing over 200 scriptures. These texts incorporated the principle of ritual sacrifice from the Vedas and teachings of the sacrifice of ego through knowledge, action, and wisdom (Singleton & Mallinson, 2017). During the Classical Yoga time period, yoga became a combination of different ideas, beliefs, and techniques that actually conflicted each other. Classical yoga became known as Raja Yoga throughout time and was defined by Patanjali's Yoga-S?»tras. He laid out a path of yoga by splitting it amongst eight different stages toward reaching Samadhi, or enlightenment. Due to this structure he created, Patanjali become known as one of the fathers of yoga and greatly impacted many styles of contemporary yoga (Meet India's 10 most renowned yoga gurus, 2015). After a few centuries passed, the Post-Classical Yoga period came around. Many yoga masters gradually altered the original yoga practice by focusing it more on rejuvenating the body and prolonging the practitioner's life. They believed through physical activity, the yoga practitioner would be able to reach enlightenment more quickly. This technique became known as Tantra yoga. Physical-spiritual connections became a very popular yoga activity because of Tantra Yoga, which eventually led to the development of Yoga in the West, Hatha Yoga (Singleton & Mallinson, 2017). The current time period society is in is called the Modern Period. Through the 1800s and early 1900s, yoga masters among the colonists began to travel to the West. Throughout their journey, they gathered many followers and spread their beliefs. Yoga initially started in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in the West. Swami Vivekananda amazed the attendees with his lectures on the relationship among yoga and religion. He further explained its philosophy, benefits, and different poses. He ended up publishing more than 200 books on yoga, and founded nine ashrams and an immense amount of yoga centers throughout the world. During the 1920s, Hatha Yoga became very popular in India. The first Hatha Yoga school was opened in Mysore in 1924, and the Divine Life Society was founded a couple years later by Krishnamacharya. This society brought yoga practitioners together and produced three key students that would later promote Hatha Yoga around the world. These students were named B.K.S. lyengar, T.K.V. Desikarchar, and Pattabhi Jois (Meet India's 10 most renowned yoga gurus, 2015). B.K. S. lyengar brought light to yoga abroad. Throughout his life, he struggled with diseases that made him physically and mentally weak. Seeking recovery, he turned to yoga and redefined what is now known as ?Iyengar Yoga'. Supposedly, he could perform a yoga pose called the sirsasana, which is the headstand pose, for half an hour. As for Pattabhi Jois, he created Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga from Hatha Yoga. He based it off the ancient text called ?Yoga Korunta'. Many celebrity practitioners, such as Madonna, Sting, and Gwyneth Paltrow, practice this type of yoga. Lastly, T.K.V. Desikachar lectured in the United States about how yoga heals. He also made it known that yoga can benefit every single individual, regardless of age and physical fitness, and can be tailored to the needs of the practitioner (Meet India's 10 most renowned yoga gurus, 2015). In 1947, the first yoga studio to have the greatest impact on Western civilization opened in Hollywood by Infra Devi. Hatha yoga was taught there, thus attracting many Westerners and Indian teachers. They learned from her studio and spread their philosophies and practices throughout various countries. Since this time, Hatha Yoga has branched into several different styles, stressing certain aspects of its original style, but still containing the same philosophies (Singleton & Mallinson, 2017).
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Yoga Meditation and its Effect on the Mind Body

Health is wealth. Peace of mind is happiness. Yoga [and meditation] shows the way (S.V. Saraswati). Mental health is a prominent social issue currently, and our mental state is often overwhelmed with the stresses of various aspects of life such as doing well in school, meeting deadlines, maintaining relationships, and building a better future for ourselves. The mind is a complicated element of our body that enables us to be aware of the world and our experiences, to think, to feel, and is a faculty of our consciousness and thoughts. Good physical health is often times more sought after than good mental health. Its pursuit is seen as normal and physical ailments are regarded as more curable. Good mental health, on the other hand, is not given the same amount of importance and this can result in various mental health issues that are often stigmatized and not addressed in an appropriate manner. We view mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, etc., as weaknesses and a sign of failure when in reality they are ailments that can be addressed through the practice of yoga and meditation. Yoga is a multifaceted system for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing (Yoga Alliance, What is Yoga?). Yoga is commonly known in the form of Hatha yoga, a combination of poses and breathing techniques. Today, millions of people practice yoga to improve the quality of their life in the following ways: fitness, stress relief, wellness, vitality, mental clarity, healing, peace of mind and spiritual growth (Yoga Alliance, What is Yoga?). Overall, yoga is a combination of various methods and guidance for living a healthy and enriched life. On the other hand, meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of consciousness that is totally different from the normal waking state. It is the means for fathoming all the levels of ourselves and finally experiencing the center of consciousness within (Rama, The Real Meaning of Meditation). Yoga and meditation can benefit one's mental state under stress, regulate bodily systems such as the cardiovascular system, and is practiced for one's own spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being. However, a popular misconception is that yoga is simply a form of exercise. Prejudices non-Hindus may have towards practicing yoga and meditation is that they believe that simply engaging in the practice will conflict with their religious and cultural beliefs. The development and science behind yoga and meditation techniques originated at the beginning of human civilization when man first realized his spiritual potential and began to evolve techniques to develop it in the Indus Saraswati Valley civilization back in 2700 BCE (S.S. Saraswati, pg 3). Although the ultimate aim of these techniques is not widely understood in popular culture, one of the many benefits is overcoming all kinds of suffering such as stress, anxiety, etc., through a variety of methods to help human beings cope with mental instability. According to a Harvard Mental Health Letter, yoga along with other self-soothing techniques such as meditation, relaxation, and exercise regulates the mind's stress response systems. When practicing yoga, deep breathing, which is an important aspect of yoga and meditation, sends a message to the brain to calm down and relax. According to Mayo Clinic, meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine and can produce a deep mental state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. An elementary school in Baltimore, Maryland has shown how yoga and meditation can contribute to mental stability, mindfulness, and calmness. Robert W. Coleman Elementary School implemented yoga and meditation techniques to correct its students' behavior rather than send them to detention. The effect of these techniques is clearly evident through the positive feedback received from some of the students at the elementary school. It was found that by going to the Mindful Moment Room, the students [built] an ability to be mindful and calm. And in the face of so much adversity, some of these children are coming out ahead (Bloom, Instead of detention, these students get meditation). Similar to the emotions and feelings we experience in times of danger or during high pressure situations, the kids at Coleman Elementary School often deal with high-stress situations and come to school on high alert. Their bodies' alarm system is switched way on, so they may be primed for fight or flight and not able to sit calmly and pay attention (Bloom, Instead of detention, these students get meditation). Yoga and meditation served to be really beneficial by easing psychological stressors such as anxiety, depression, and pain of these students. Not only do the children at Coleman Elementary experience the positive difference yoga and meditation have brought into their lives but also have done wonders for their learning environment and productivity. According to one student, when the kids come down here, they're all rowdy and goofing around, [however], when they leave the room, they're peaceful and quiet and ready to do their work. Yoga is the science of right living and, as such, is intended to be incorporated in daily life as it works on all aspects of the person: the physical, vital, mental, emotional, psychic, and spiritual (S.S. Saraswati, pg 1). The influence of yoga and meditation on the body ranges from the outermost aspect of a person starting with the physical body to the innermost: spiritual, oneness with God. Besides stress and anxiety, people suffer from other mental instabilities such as phobias, irrational fears, and neuroses. Though yoga and meditation may not be able to cure these issues, these techniques present a proven method for coping with them (S.S. Saraswati, pg 2). Yoga's impact on mental health is not limited to just the mind but both the mind and body. According to Swami Satyananda Saraswati, the gross form of the mind is the body and the subtle form of the body is the mind. This is further explained through this example: emotional tensions and suppression can tighten up and block the smooth functioning of the lungs, diaphragm, and breathing process, contributing to a very debilitating illness in the form of asthma (S.S. Saraswati, pg 11). Therapeutically, yoga and meditation have been successful as they create a balance between the nervous and endocrine systems in the body. A common misconception is that yoga is simply a form of exercise. However, that's not the case as yoga consists of various techniques in which the body is placed in positions that increase awareness, relaxation, concentration, and meditation. Additionally, yoga is in fact something that mixes awareness and concentration with movement. In other words, yoga is moving meditation. Meditation is practiced for the betterment of one's spiritual, emotional, and mental growth. In a meditative state, the brain experiences an increase in activity in regions directly related to decreased anxiety and depression as well as increased pain tolerance. When the brain is in a more relaxed state, one's memory, self-awareness, goal setting, and empathy improves. Physically, the brain also changes in shape and size as a result of the practice of meditation. According to Moffit and Brown, meditators have higher levels of alpha waves, which results in reduced feelings of negative mood, tension, sadness, and anger. Telomeres are protective protein complexes that help reduce damage to our DNA and lower cell death. Telomeres that are shortened in length appear to be correlated to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and cancer (Moffit & Brown, The Scientific Power of Meditation). Meditation often results in significant increases in telomere length. Although meditation has many health benefits, it is not a substitute for medical advice. While working out at the gym exercises the physical body, meditation offers a relaxing workout for the mind. Furthermore, meditation offers promising benefits for the cardiovascular system. Research tells us that meditation can help lower blood pressure, which alludes to the strong possibility of other benefits for the entire cardiovascular system. According to Dr. Kubzansky, evidence seems to suggest that people who endure chronic stress are intoxicating their cardiovascular system. Additionally, results from a report of a compilation of nine studies show that on average, transcendental meditation lowered systolic blood pressure by 4.7 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure by 3.2 mm Hg compared with other approaches (Balaji, Can calming your mind help your heart?). Another benefit is that meditation boosts heart rate variability, which is a positive byproduct, because it is a sign of a healthy heart; a healthy heart normally responds to the body's constantly changing environment. Some non-Hindus may have apprehensions to practicing yoga and meditation because of the presence of a murti (loosely translated as ?idol') of the Hindu deity, Shiva, who is known as the first yogi and some chanting in Sanskrit in yoga studios. They think that these techniques are a covert conversion tool to make one a Hindu. A recent trend is that Mindfulness programs have become popular on K-12 campuses, but in some parts of the country concerns about religious intrusion keep the trend at bay (Wong, Why Schools Are Banning Yoga). Wong observes that a disruption in the trend points towards yoga classes promoting a non-Christian belief system through multiple aspects including the namaste greeting and various postures that have Sanskrit names. Opponents to yoga and meditation techniques tend to believe that the line between yoga's roots in Hinduism and Buddhism and secular practices is often blurry. Furthermore, religious influences such as chanting ?om' and poses with Sanskrit names are inherently tied to yoga and meditation. On the other hand, proponents of such practices focus on the benefits rather than abstaining from the practice because of religious influences. A major benefit is that it teaches children to divert their mind from negative thoughts or emotions. Also, yoga helps to augment kids' working memory, attention span, and cognitive flexibility, which helps students respond to stress in a confident manner and do well in school. In Hindu American Foundation (HAF) 2011 campaign, Take Back Yoga, the main argument is centered around the origins of the practice of yoga being in Hinduism. Vitello found that while some of the sources favored yoga as the legacy of a more timeless, spiritual ?Indian wisdom' and that Hinduism was too ?tribal' and ?self-enclosed' to claim ownership of yoga, others, who are in favor of HAF's Take Back Yoga campaign, believe that yoga was first described in Hinduism's seminal texts and remains at the core of Hindu teaching (Vitello, Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga's Soul). The prejudice or prior belief that non-Hindus often hold against the practice of yoga is that it will put the souls of the non-Hindus at risk of being imperiled by simply engaging in it. On the contrary, the purpose of HAF's Take Back Yoga campaign is merely to have yoga recognized as a practice that has its roots in Hinduism, and not as a mechanism of conversion to Hinduism. Exposure to yoga and meditation has shown that through the regular practice of yoga and meditation, the mind is more relaxed and calm. The practice can leave a person feeling energized with mental stamina to take on the stress of school work, meeting deadlines, maintaining relationships, and working towards building a healthier lifestyle and prosperous future. Overall, yoga and meditation help cope with one's mental state under stress, regulate bodily systems such as the cardiovascular system, and is practiced for one's own spiritual, emotional, and mental health. As B.K.S. Iyengar, a yoga teacher and founder of ?Iyengar Yoga', once said, Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.
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Yoga as an Effective Treatment for Children with Autism

Yoga in modernity is manifested in many forms and has attained a large popular following among those seeking a spiritual or physical respite from hectic and demanding lifestyles. It is most typically known to be a series of poses and muscle control accompanied by breathing exercises. And this is true. However, the modern iteration of yoga is a tradition rooted in millennia old Buddhist practices (Mathews et al.). Only after such a duration of practice and record of successful outcomes for a panoply of physical and mental ailments, has it become an evidence-based, effective treatment for Autsim Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that is frequently looked toward to be incorporated by parents, ESE teachers, and therapists (Radhakrishna et al.). ASD is of unknown origin and is without cure, therefore many traditional and non-traditional treatments are used as approaches to mitigate the stereotypical symptoms. Yoga happens to be one that is increasing in popularity and its origin and purpose in self-awareness and self-knowledge reveal why.

The word yoga means to link with the divine and it is the method through which ancient yogis connected with God. Yoga has a mixture of roots primarily established in India and used throughout Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. At the earliest point in its history, yoga was also known as the path of liberation and was taught by learned instructors to pupils in the forest of Vedic India. During the sixth century BCE, a particular student sought the teachings of yoga. This student came to be known as the Buddha (Mathews et al.). The Buddha then practiced yoga and instilled it as a tenet of Buddhism after his enlightenment, along with additional practices that he himself designed, such as mindfulness, and the other principles as summarized in the Noble Eightfold Path (Rahula).
It should be noted that according to Hanna et.al, Yoga and Buddhism are both characterized by their methods and means for attaining intuitive knowledge through the application of consciousness, leading beyond language and beyond subject or object distinctions. This notion of yoga only partly refers to the currently popular practice of assuming various physical postures, for example, as included in hatha yoga. However, it still involves specific mental practices designed to increase and enhance consciousness and awareness. This increase of mental and physical practices is particularly suited for children with ASD, whose stereotypical symptoms can benefit from becoming more aware of their physical and emotional selves. These practices indeed work to counter this very challenging symptom of ASD, which is the lack of self-regulation.

ASD is a neurological disorder that hinders social communication and behavior regulation. It can be diagnosed at any age, however, it is usually manifested and diagnosed at approximately two years of age. Some stereotypical symptoms include lack of communication skills including complete lack of verbalization in some cases, inability to regulate their own emotions, gross body motor habits such as bouncing or arm flapping, intended to self regulate when the child has not learned appropriate techniques ("NIMH ?» Autism Spectrum Disorder"). Crucially, recent research claims that he does not necessarily direct, primary cognitive issues that cause autistic children to be deficient. However, it is a lack of early social interaction which prevents children from having as many opportunities to socialize and communicate as possible that secondarily causes their stereotypical symptoms, which is one main reason yoga at early intervention may be so effective (Loftin et al.)

Based on the typical symptoms of autism it is a natural conclusion that the benefits of yoga which benefit the general population and typically developing humans would also served as a benefit for autistic children. There are a number of ways in which yoga may help. First he can provide social interaction opportunities in order to grow social communication skills next it can provide self regulation of gross motor movement through controlling of muscles third Ifff can provide emotional regulation threw common mental and respiratory exercises. As follows, much research exists to link yoga to the various clusters of symptoms of ASD. A good summary of the benefits of yoga and the various domains of improvement can be seen in the article, 6 Benefits of Yoga for Children with Autism. In it, Shawnee Hardy names Increased Social-Communication Skills, Awareness and Expression of Emotions, Reduced Anxiety, Reduction in Challenging Behaviors, Increased Body Awareness, and Positive Sense of Self. As follows, much research exists to link yoga to the various clusters of symptoms of ASD.
In an article entitled, Social interaction and repetitive motor behaviors, repetitive motor behavior among students with ASD, including body rocking and hand flapping, is addressed. These stereotypes are visible among children with autism as a strategy for self-maintenance. The study showed that after group therapy and structured group play, these body motor stereotypes decreased. Unfortunately, only three students with autism participated in this study. They were established as identified with autism buy school system personnel. Again, the social interaction monitored included play with typically developing peers. The amount of social interaction experience by these students during their recess time correlated directly with a decrease in their repetitive body motor behaviors. Therefore social interaction per se, along with social interaction with typically developing peers can provide students with autism alternative ways to self-monitor. This will, of course, carryover into structured yoga practice (Loftin et al.). This leads to even more specific studies wherein yoga has shown to be effective.

As a continuation of the social implications of specific yoga practice with youth with ASD, the article, Effects of multimodal mandala yoga on social and emotional skills for youth with autism spectrum disorder: An exploratory study, analyzed how a multimodal Mandala yoga would effect youth with ASD. In the study, five students went to hour long yoga sessions, two times per week. Multimodal Mandala yoga included 26 circular partner/group poses, color and tracing sheets, rhythmic chanting, yoga cards, and games (Litchke et al.). The students were rated on mood and emotional scales both before and after the eight sessions and both rating scales showed improved social and mood measurements. The investigation finished up by establishing that a Mandala yoga program can encourage social and emotional development and advancement for male youth with ASD. It might likewise affect their family, network, and scholarly commitment. It also recommended further studies (Litchke et al.).

Since social interaction is so important regarding quality of life for students with ASD, many studies seek to improve social interactions and social communication. Yet another article provides evidence of the high quality improvement yielded buy yoga regularly being practiced with students with ASD. In this study, six students with ASD participated in yoga along with their typical treatment and another six served as a control group exclusively doing sololy their typical treatment without the yoga. Assessments were taken on nine targeted behaviors before, during, and after the yoga therapy. The conclusion indicated that among the yoga group, social skills, and social communicative behaviors were improved, therefore improving quality of life. This article also makes mention that no single method of complementary and alternative medicine has proven as effective as yoga. Parents are eager to try it because it is effective and provides no negative side effects. Finally, the article discusses yoga's concentration on physiological and psychological processes, respiratory manipulation, postures and cognitive control, and how yoga practice throughout a lifetime will assist children with ASD (Radhakrishna et al.).

The final study with yet more evidence that the thousand-year-old practice is improving the lives of even the most special among us, discusses the effect of a yoga training program on the severity of autism in children with high functioning autism. This study contains 29 children ages 7 to 15. Each child was randomly assigned to the control group or to the yoga group. At the beginning and end of the program the results of the autism evaluation checklist showed significant differences between the two groups, with regards to all scores on a checklist. This is yet another study that shows positive outcomes of yoga as practice in high functioning students with autism. The conclusion of the study sums it up well. Yoga employs structured, predictable patterns and environments which happen to be essential tools for children with autism. In classrooms for children with autism, these tenets of modeled discipline, structured familiarity, and the all important and social self-regulation. It also mentions a sense of self-awareness; an awareness of the body muscles which assists children with autism in controlling their physical tendencies to move rapidly and repetitively. Student paying attention to their breathing and their emotional regulation also occurs through yoga and is beneficial for children with ASD (Sotoodeh et al.).

Study after study shows evidence that this method is obviously successful. Not only does it improve the social interaction and language, it is a good way to help students with ASD become altogether more adjusted. Another excellent facet of yoga is that it works multiple skills at once. As mentioned before, not only is this a language improvement strategy but it also improve social skills, organization, patience, self-maintenance and more. When applied to activities with manual dexterity, structured yoga can also improve motor skills. Students with ASD practicing yoga is a naturally following addendum to the notion of society at large performing yoga and passing that success along to their neural atypical counterparts.

Works Cited

  1. "NIMH ?» Autism Spectrum Disorder". Nimh.Nih.Gov, 2018, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml. Accessed 3 Nov 2018.
  2. HANNA, FRED J. et al. "Recovering The Original Phenomenological Research Method: An Exploration Of Husserl, Yoga, Buddhism, And New Frontiers In Humanistic Counseling". The Journal Of Humanistic Counseling, vol 56, no. 2, 2017, pp. 144-162. Wiley, doi:10.1002/johc.12049.
  3. Hardy, Shawnee. "6 Benefits Of Yoga For Children With Autism - Autism Parenting Magazine". Autism Parenting Magazine, 2018, https://www.autismparentingmagazine.com/creating-inner-peace-the-benefits-of-yoga-for-children-with-autism-spectrum-disorder/. Accessed 3 Nov 2018.
  4. Litchke, Lyn et al. "Effects Of Multimodal Mandala Yoga On Social And Emotional Skills For Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Study". Doaj.Org, 2018, https://doaj.org/article/228f980884df43b88044a9428a526d03. Accessed 3 Nov 2018.
  5. Loftin, Rachel L. et al. "Social Interaction And Repetitive Motor Behaviors". Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, vol 38, no. 6, 2007, pp. 1124-1135.
  6. Springer Nature, doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0499-5.
  7. Mathews, Bejoy et al. "History Of Yoga". Yoga Basics, 2018, https://www.yogabasics.com/learn/history-of-yoga/. Accessed 3 Nov 2018.
  8. Radhakrishna, S et al. "Integrated Approach To Yoga Therapy And Autism Spectrum Disorders". Journal Of Ayurveda And Integrative Medicine, vol 1, no. 2, 2010, p. 120. Elsevier BV, doi:10.4103/0975-9476.65089.
  9. Rahula, Walpola. What The Buddha Taught /Walpola Sri Rahula. Fraser, 1982.
  10. Sotoodeh, Mohammad Saber et al. "Effectiveness Of Yoga Training Program On The Severity Of Autism". Complementary Therapies In Clinical Practice, vol 28, 2017, pp. 47-53. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2017.05.001.
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Life of Pi Analysis

Life in an extreme enviroment requires a sense of hope and the intelligence to use all available resources. In the story Life Of Pi, author Yann Martel describes characters who use hope and resourcefulness in a stranded ocean trying to survive.

The story centers with characters, Pi, and a tiger Richard Parker, who all have hope, even though they're stranded in a ocean after their ship sunk. When Pi saw that his ship was snapped and begining to sink all he could do was hang on a oar. In front of him was an adult tiger and sharks beneath him, and a storm raging about him. Pi noticed that Richard Parker was out of sight so he stills hangs on a oar with sharks prowled but they didn't lounge at him the waves splashed on him but did not pull him off. He looks for his family, a lifeboat, and other survivors anything that could give him hope but he found nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy.

Pi was starting to feel pain in neck, back, and head but he needed to see if there were any other lifeboats. Pi uses everything he can to survive the storm. He founds out that Richard Parker is dead so he said God preserve me! Pi said the only thing that could calm him down was Richard Parker he looks around the horizon for a perfect circus ring for Richard Parker to hide in but he found nothing. Pi finds water and other supplies that he needed to survive and he drunk and drunk until his panic ws gone, his fear was dominated. Survival was at hand. It came to be: Plan Number Seven: Keep Him Alive.

The author effectively conveys the challenge of this extreme environment through details of the characters' reactions. Pi and Richard Parker's hope and resourcefulness will help them survive. Hope and resourcefulness are powerful tools to survive any challenge that life brings you even if it's hard to accomplish work hard to survie it.

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Asthma Management

Asthma is the one of the leading chronic diseases in children. Nearly twenty-seven million people are affected by asthma, and seven million of them are pediatric patients. Many children who are diagnosed with asthma will be prescribed long acting beta agonists, short acting beta agonists, or inhaled corticosteroids. Children and adults with asthma will be given a peak flow meter to be used every day before and after bronchodilator medications to determine the amount of air flow through their lungs. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of these treatments and how well children, or caretakers of children, manage their asthma. According to DePaola, Roberts, Blaiss, Frick, and McNeal (1997), it was found that mothers and children influence each other's perception of the medications, and should both be targeted for intervention. One of the most important steps in the management of asthma is proper education to the children or caretaker. This education may include medications, peak flow meters, or proper use of inhalers.

Literature Review

As stated earlier, some asthma medications include long acting bronchodilators, short acting bronchodilators, or inhaled corticosteroids. Long acting bronchodilators should be used every day, and are used to control asthma. Some examples of long acting bronchodilators include Formoterol, Salmeterol, or Symbicort. Short acting bronchodilators should be used for quick relief or before exercise, and they are also commonly known as rescue medications. They act by quickly opening the airways during an attack, start working after inhalation, and last two to four hours. Some examples of rescue medications include Albuterol, Metaproterenol, and Levalbuterol. Inhaled corticosteroids work by reducing inflammation or reducing mucus production in asthma patients. Examples of steroids include Pulmicort, Qvar, Flovent, etc.

Peak flow meters are very important in the care of asthma patients. A peak flow meter tells of the patient's ability to blow air out of their lungs. It is crucial for proper instruction to be given to caregivers and patients on how to use the peak flow meter. As stated by Paymon, Riley, and Miller (2018), Such interventions allow caregivers to have improved perception of control of their child's asthma and increased confidence when caring for the child. Peak flow meters can also determine how well asthma is being treated or if their condition is worsening. When given a peak flow meter, the patient will be instructed to blow out a fast breath, as if blowing out candles on a birthday cake. This fast burst of air is known as the patient's peak expiratory flow, or PEF. The patient's normal PEF range will be determined and marked on the flow meter by a red, yellow, or green color marker. Based on these color markers, the child or caregiver will know if they should continue current therapy, take a rescue medication, or seek emergency attention. When given the peak flow meter, the child should also be given a diary. The diary's purpose is to chart the PEFs every day and list how the patient is feeling in order for the medical team to determine if the proper management of the patient's asthma is being achieved.

The most common method used to treat asthmatic symptoms is a metered dose inhaler. It is very common that many children are not taught the correct way to use their inhaler, which leaves the child getting little to no benefit at all from their medications. To receive optimal dosage of the medication, the patient must shake or prime their MDI, take in a deep breath, and then hold their breath for at least ten seconds. Many children may have trouble actuating the inhaler and inhaling at the same time, so many are also given a spacer. A spacer holds the medication so that optimal dosage may be achieved. A child using an MDI without a spacer may not be achieving optimal particle deposition into the airways. Benidictis and Selvaggio (2003) state, It is traditionally accepted that particles larger than 5?µm are mostly deposited in the oropharynx and upper airway as a result of inertial impaction; particles ranging from in the 1“5?µm are efficiently deposited in the lower respiratory tract ('respirable' fraction); particles less than 1?µm are inspired and then expired without ever settling on the airway.

Conclusion

Parents, or caregivers, play a crucial role in the management of asthma in pediatrics. It is important to thoroughly instruct the parents and patients all that is needed to know about asthma medications, MDIs, and peak flow meters. They need to be assisted in a management plan and know when and where to go in case of an exacerbation of a pediatric patient's condition. Many pediatric patient's conditions may decline due to improper treatments. This will increase their amount of doctor visits or hospital stays, increasing stress on the patient or family, and lead to further worsening of the patient's condition.

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Asthma Symptoms, Diagnosis, Management & Treatment

INTRODUCTION

It's like trying to breathe through a straw or being a fish out of water. These are just two of the many ways people have described what having an asthma attack feels like. Affecting an estimate of 6 million children nationwide (Zahran et al., 2018), asthma seems to have cemented itself as prevalent disease that warrants plenty of awareness and education in households nationwide. Locally, Asthma in New York City affects about 84,000 children (12 years old and under) with the highest rate being that of our Bronx communities, 8.1% (FIND THIS SOURCE 2 CITE!). This paper will not only aim to provided a further understanding of the types of Asthma, but also examine the risk factors that exist in our local communities and how studies today seek to explain and tackle the elevated asthma rates in the Bronx.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DISEASE

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that can range from mild to life threatening and effects an individual's bronchiole tubes, compromising their ability to breathe. In a normal and healthy state, when a person inhales, the respiratory system is able to seamlessly carry out the necessary steps. Air is able to travel down the lungs and through the bronchiole tubes, where the body uses the mucus in these airways to trap and clear out any particles that might have found their way inside, like pollen or dust. The air would then enter these tiny air sacs called alveoli where the oxygen passes through its' thin walls to the surrounding capillaries and hemoglobin helps move oxygen from the alveoli to the blood, allowing for the circulation of oxygenated blood to the organs. In the case of asthma however, an individual's bronchiole tubes remain in a constant state of inflammation, regardless of the presence of symptoms, which in turn make the airways hyper responsive to any triggers encountered. These triggers can vary from exposure to indoor allergens like dust and cockroaches to those genrally outdoor such as pollen, air pollution or tobacco smoke. Once exposed, the bronchioles become even more inflamed, and cause the mucosa lining of the airways to produce more mucus. The smooth muscle surrounding the bronchioles will subsequently constrict, also known as bronchoconstriction, and significantly decrease the air flow. This obstruction will ultimately leave the person struggling to take full, deep breaths and in more severe cases, can lead to death. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), otherwise known as exercise induced asthma is also another type of Asthma. Although the previously mentioned triggers can also effect exercise-induced asthma, it's the quicker and deeper breaths we take due to the increased demand of oxygen of our body that worsen symptoms of EIB the most (www.afa.org). Since we typically inhale through our mouth instead of our nose while exercising, we are taking in cold, dry air. It's this same air that triggers the bronchoconstriction and can set off the same chain of events physiologically as the allergen induced asthma previously discussed. Any symptoms exhibited that are a characteristic of EIB are not present immediately at the start of the exercise, but while the exercise is ongoing and although it can worsen 5-10 minutes once the completed, an additional 20-30 minutes allows for it resolve itself.

Although there is no known exact cause if Asthma per se, there are multiple risk factors that are believed to strongly influence the likelihood of its development. Exposure to allergens, air pollution (including those due to occupation), smoking, family history, obesity and frequent viral respiratory infections are all recognized by the American Lung Association as risk factors for developing asthma. When looking at an urban population like that of the Bronx, additional risk factors come into play, such as access to medical care, patterns of medical care, psychological stress, socioeconomic status and housing conditions (Eggleston, 2000). In their study, Karen Warman , Ellen J. Silver and Pam R. Wood, compared modifiable risk factors in the Bronx for asthma morbidity in comparison to other inner city children in 7 other studied states (2009). The study concluded that children in the Bronx are more likely than other inner-city kids to be sensitized to exposed household allergens (86% vs. 58%; p<.001) and have worse housing conditions. Asthma has been around since as far back as the 19th century where publications in the latter part seeked to define and understand the pathology. Dr. Henry Hyde Salter was a surgeon who's own constant battle with Asthma drove him to research and ultimately publish his own treatise, where he even recommended black coffee as a treatment for it (Holgate, 2010). With his knowledgeable insight and illustrations of how airways look in asthma as well as the appearance of asthmatic sputum, Dr. Salter was able to contribute to the adopted view that asthma was a distinct disease which had specific causes, clinical consequences and requirements for treatment ( Holgate, 2010). Additional research was also provided by the founding father of modern medicine in Western societies and one of the three founders of John Hopkins Medical School, Sir William Osler, who identified Asthma as a chronic respiratory condition and several factors that worsened manifestations during that time, like the climate, violent emotion, certain foods and cold infection (Holgate 2010).

SYMPTOMS

There are common symptoms that have led general health practioners to quickly identify what can most likely be asthma in children and adults alike and who is having an attack. Wheezing for example, is one of the indicatiors physicians look for when diagnosing patients. ** which is caused by the whistling sound the air makes as it struggles to travel through the narrowed airways. While sometimes not audible from a distance, physicians can identify this with certainty with the help of their stethoscope. Coughing is also another, often dismissed symptom of asthma. The coughing comes about because of the excess mucus production from the mucosa lining in our bronchioles and and the continued state of inflammation they exist in. Lastly, a tightening sensation of the chest which patients have described as if something heavy is on their chest, is attributed to the smooth muscles of the bronchioles constricting. In an asthma attack all these symptoms worsen to the point where there is not enough oxygen being transported to the rest of the organs and death can be the end result.

TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE

Asthma is not a disease that can be passed along from one person to another. Being around an individual with this condition doesn't make a person any more likely to develop the symptoms or diagnosis. On the contrary, asthmatics surrounded by others who might have a common respiratory infection like the flu, pneumonia or a cold, risk contracting that infection which although not entirely understood why, studies have found effects asthmatics much worse with symtpoms lasting longer than those without asthma (Busse WW, Lemanske RF Jr & Gern JE, 2010).

TREATMENT

While the exact cause of asthma is still unknown, the treatment for it has been refined throughout the years in order to devise the most optimal plan not only treat but more importantly prevent. Working with a primary care physician to develop an Asthma Action Plan allows one to clearly outline the steps that need to be taken should should symptoms start to arise and worsen. The action plan essentially contains the following five steps:

  1. Instructions on proper use of asthma meds
  2. Necessary actions when you or your child is has symptoms or a low peak flow reading
  3. Signs of an episode/attack
  4. When to seek emergency care
  5. Emergency contact info In terms of actual medication used to treat asthma, there are two main categories form which doctors prescribed medication from.

The first category is also looked as the primary treatment because they are known as relievers which provide rapid, short-term relief of asthma symptoms to prevent a flare or attack . Reliever or rescue medications can be either short-acting beta agonists, ipratropium or oral and intravenous corticosteroid. The short-acting beta agonists can be taken as inhalers that include albuterol (ProAir HFA, Ventolin HFA, etc.) and levalbuterol (Xopenex) or via a nebulizer were the medication is delivered through a face mask or mouthpiece. Both forms of these bronchodialators aim to reduce the tightness of the airways so we can breathe more comfortably. Like the short-acting beta agonist, ipratropium (Atrovent) is also delivered through an inhaler and although it's more frequently used for cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis, it's also been used to treat asthma attacks. The last of the reliever medications are corticosteroids like prednisone and methylprednisolone, which can be taken oraly or intravenously (www.MayoClinic.org). Although they are meant to provide immediate relief, these medications are not for long term use and it is recommend to seek a doctor if the reliever is being used more frequently than was discussed between a patient and their physician.

Maintaining control of one's asthma goes beyond the immediate relief provided by a resuce medication. It also entails adhering to a daily treatment regimen if required, to help prevent the occurance of an asthma attack. In these instances, long-term asthma control medications, otherwise known as preventative medications are a crucial component to this. Among them are leukotriene modifiers, long-acting beta agonists, combination inhaelrs and theophylline. Both leukotriene modifiers like montelukast(Singulair) and theophylline (Elixophyllin) come in tablet form and help relieve asthma symptoms for up to 24 hours and function as a bronchodilator to relax airways respectively. Combination inhalers like the Advair Diskus and long-acting beta agonist inhalers like Serevent and Foradil are the last two additional options for preventive medications for airway opening. However, some research has shown that long-acting beta agonist should not be used on it's own and instead combined with an inhaled corticosteroid to avoid the risk of having a severe asthma attack (www.nhlbi.nih.gov). For patients who who been diagnosed with exercise indiced asthma, the treatment regimen also includes short and long-acting beta agonists/bronchodilators in addition to mast cell stabalizers (www.aafa.org). When taking these medications, it's important to be aware that these medications are most effective when taken under the suggested time frames when used to treat EIB vs. non-exercise induced asthma. Short-acting bronchodilators for example help prevent symptoms for up to four hours, but must be taken 10-15 minutes prior to exercising. Long-acting bronchodilators must also be taken before any activity, specifically 30-60 minutes beforehand and only once within a 12 hour period. (www.aafa.org) These types of medications are strictly for the prevention of symptoms only and unlike the short-acting bronchodilators, long-acting bronchodilators will not provide any reversal or relief of EIB symptoms. Lastly, mast cell stabilizers are medications that should be taken 15-20 minutes prior to exercising and like the long-lasting bronchodilators will not relieve symptoms once they begin. This group of medication is often prescribed as part of combination therapy where it is combined with short-acting bronchodilators as well.

PROGNOSIS

Although incurable, the prognosis for patients with asthma is generally quite good. There are multiple forms of therapies that doctors can prescribed, whether it's in pill form or an inhaler as well as multiple options of the actual medicine. With the different classes of medications and the options within those classes, there is that flexibility the doctor has to find a prescription ideal for each individual patient whether it's in the form of one medication as monotherapy or with combination therapy instead. Leading a normal life is very much attainable with this condition, and may only sometimes be punctuated by the occasional asthma attack and/or the long-term preventative medicaitons that are taken daily (www.erdwhitebook.org) . Moreover, throughout the years, there has been quite some research done on both excerise induced asthma and allergen asthma that have allowed the public to become more aware and knowledgeable on the subject matter. The NYC Health Department has even launched campaigns in Northern Manhattan, Central Brooklyn and the entire Bronx which are the areas in New York City with the higesht rates of ER visits and hospitalization for asthma. The goal of this campaing is to educate parents on asthma being more than just an episode, but rather a chronic illness that requires every day management (www1.nyc.gov).

FUTURE FOR ASTHMA

Current research in asthma has been focusing more and more on understanding why disparities exist across certain communities as well as racial and ethnic groups in relation to asthma rates and hospitalizations. According to the New York State Asthma Surveilance Summary Report (2013), New York City residents had higher rate of emergency room visits (135.0 per 10, 000 residents) than of New York State overall (54.2 per 10,000 residents). The disparity of this rate was even more pronounced when observing the collected data from the Bronx, which was concluded to have the highest rate of ER visit (231.4 per 10,000 residents) out of NYC and NYS. Researchers now look to use Geographic Information Science, or GIScience to analyze characterisitcs like housing conditions, socioeconomic status, and the air pollution unique to specific areas in NYC and find any correlations . In their study Urban Asthma and the Neighbourhood Environment in New York City, Corburn et al. used GIScience to determine how exactly a child's external environment, particularly their neighborhood, effects their asthma, concluding that it is often a specific combination of factors such as poor housing conditions, outdoor air pollution and noxious land uses that are responsible for the increased incidence of asthma in impoverished neighborhoods (2004). They found that the South Bronx and Morrisania/Blemont neighborhoods were among the highest rates of asthma hospitalizations relative to their population across all others in the city (Corburn et al. , 2004). The findings from this study are important because it gives us concrete facts supported by statistical evidence that show that although Asthma may not necessarily be such a pressing matter nationwide, there are communities where this is still very much a cause for concern. More recently, there is an ongoing branch of a research study at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx looking to also understand why adults of Hispanic and Black/African American descent frequent the ER or are hospitalized more and work to lower those rates. In the PREPARE study, Dr. Elliot Israel will compare the asthma outcomes of two groups of participants, all of whom require some medication for the daily management of their persistent asthma (www.preparestudy.net). While enrolled participants still see their own physician for their asthma management and overall healthcare, the PREPARE study will provide one group with an additional medication, a short acting bronchodilator, and the other will be showed a new to keep their usual reliever and rescue medications on them at all times. Although still in the very early stages of recruitment, the possible findings the Bronx site of this study can obtain is important in determining if approaches like this, with follow-up phone interviews and questionnaires over the 15 month period of the study, make the desired impact of reducing the rates of adults of Latinx or Black/African American descent and minimizing the disparity this disparity that exists among the other racial and ethnic groups.

CONCLUSION

Asthma is chronic lung disease that causes obstruction of the airways. It is a disease that although no exact cause is known, years of research have been able to find and further emphasize the impact of, countless risk factors that do lead to a higher predisposition of developing asthma. Though asthma may often be just thought of as allergen induced, exercise induced asthma is also another common type of this same overarching condition, that finds its' hosts struggling with some of the same symptoms as allergen induced asthma. With how prevalent asthma is, the amount of education and resources made available allow people to get more involved and become their own health advocate, instead of being a bystander to a disease that can be well managed enough for the individual to live their normal life.

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Film “Life of Pi” by Ang Lee

Life of Pi The film, Life of Pi is directed by Ang Lee, but the script was written by David Magee. Ang won Oscar for the best film life of Pi in 2012. The movie is about a boy named Pi. He and his family were on a boat that canted in a storm. The waves were so big that the boat sank. In the boat there was also many animals from the zoo that Pi's family owned. Pi survived and got into a lifeboat. In the boat there is a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengalitiger called Richard Parker. They are stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days. During the trip only, Pi and the tiger survived. The other animals were eaten. No people tend to live with a tiger for 227 days. According to the true world, no people had overthrown it. No people had managed to live with a tiger in the way Pi did. If it had been in the true world, the tiger had killed Pi.Religion to PiIn the time Pi is stranded in the Pacific Ocean he makes reflections about his life, and he also take a spiritual journey. Pi has always believed in Hinduism since he was little, but when he became older he wanted to explorer new religions. Religion has been a part of his life, but what he remembers best is when he was in a Hindu temple. From the temple he remembers the coolers, smells and sounds.

The father of Pi introduced him to Martin, a Catholic priest who showed him that to be a Christian is based on love and faith in God.Pi wanted to explore and learn more about religions, so he studies servals religions. What he learned was that there were many ways to God and that in every religion there is love. Pi has respect for all religions and he does not combine them.The difference between the animal story and the human storyPi tells two stories at the start of the movie, one that is a human story and the animal story. He begins to tell the animal story. He was on a boat with all the animals from the father's zoo. When the ship crashed, he had to flee in the lifeboat where he ended up with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengali tiger. The only one who survived the journey was the tiger and pi. Pi tells in the human story when he lived with his mother, the ship's cook and a injured Japanese sailor. In the human story, the mother was an orangutan, the sailor was a zebra, the hyena was the chef and the tiger were Pi.Pi was called ?«pissing?»When Pi went to St. Joseph's School, he was bullied, and his nickname was pissing.

Pi tried also to skull the school because he was not well there. One day Pi would show what the number pi was. He got up on the board without the teachers permission and he did not care to start calculating it. The number pi is 3,14Pi did not have any good childhood as he had no support from parents or anyone else. He went to school but was bullied. Pi was a boy who liked to investigate and learn about new things. His experience maybe was the reason he could survive alone on the ocean without food and with wild animals. He was also very interested in religions and how they worked, he was very spiritual. That was also a reason that he manages to survive.

References:

Accessed on 31 October 2018 from: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang_LeeAccessed on 31 October 2018 from: https://study.com/academy/lesson/themes-of-science-religion-in-life-of-pi.htmlAccessed on 31 October 2018 from: https://study.com/academy/lesson/religion-in-life-of-pi-analysis-themes-importance.htmlAccessed on 31 October 2018 from: https://www.google.no/amp/s/screenrant.com/life-of-pi-movie-ending-spoilers/amp/Accessed on 02 November 2018 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r--QRjAM0U

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Life of Pi: Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology

The movie Life of Pi shows what Hindu's think of other deities not within their pantheon, while also showing samsara, and the three components of a worldview; ontology, epistemology, and axiology.

In the movie Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee, Piscine Molitor Pi Patel is confronted with multiple different religions. He was born a Hindu. Later, he accepted Jesus, and finally, he added Allah to his collection. Pi did not believe in just one of these religions but he believed in all of them. His belief seems to be misconstrued, instead of converting to a new faith, Pi added these other deities to his 330 million gods. Pi was enticed to Jesus after hearing his story. Pi heard many stories from Hinduism about gods that were strong and powerful like Vishnu or Ganesha but the story of Jesus is simple and kind. This kindness of the priest leads Pi to ask many questions about Jesus, ultimately leading Pi to the faith.

The only problem is that Pi added Jesus to his already massive list of deities to worship. This belief is directly against the Bible as stated in 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Now if Pi had been taught this from the priest, he might have fully converted to the faith. Instead, Piscine continued to live in his Hindu tradition and his Islamic worship while also praying to Jesus. Pi's actions reflect the beliefs of the author, Yann Martel, who wrote Life of Pi. Martel once said, If there is only one nation in the sky shouldn't all passports be valid. This statement is controversial and does not work within most religious standards but this is the lifestyle that Pi chooses for himself within the novel.

The meerkat island scene from the movie symbolizes different parts of the Hindu religion. When the day ends and the night begins the island consumes what is left in the pool. Creation and destruction are represented on the island with the meerkats and the carnivorous pool just as Brahma and Vishnu create and preserve life. Shiva also destroys it. The island also represents Samsara because the island is a cycle of death, life, and rebirth. The island kills the meerkats. The island supports the meerkats' life on the island. The meerkats are constantly being born and killed on the island. The tooth on the island also represents samsara and the struggle to break it. When Pi leaves the island and finds the beach in Mexico. Pi becomes enlightened and breaks samsara to achieve moksha or becoming one with the universe in his own way, which means going back into the world to live his life.

The three components of a worldview are evident throughout the movie. A big point at the end of the movie is Pi's two stories he told the interviewers. His stories have the same essence but they have two different forms. His first story that consists of unlikely events and places has two survivors, Richard Parker and Pi. In the second story, Pi is the only survivor but he tells the story as though he was Richard Parker, the tiger. Piscine tells the stories asking his interviewer which one he believes. The reporter answers with the first one. This shows what the interviewer values, he does not value the more believable story but rather the strange story about a boy surviving with a tiger on a dingy. Piscine's values change through the movie, first, he focused on religion and highly valued it. Later, when on the boat his greatest value was his survival because he neglected to pray while on the ocean. Finally when he came ashore, Pi cared about his family and once again his religion.

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How Meta Fiction Influenced “Life of Pi”

To this day storytelling is the most important tradition humans can have. Family and friends pass down knowledge from generation to generation. Every story contains a lesson that can affect the audience differently in their own way. Stories can teach us about appreciation of other cultures, languages, and religions. They also can offer insights into values and encourage creativity. Yann Martel's novel contains metafiction where versions of Pi's survival compete for the reader's belief and imagination. As the author is wandering through India on his own adventure, he was in search of a theme. He meets an older man who tells him I have a story that will make you believe in God. Life of Pi is about a religious boy whose faith in God saves him from a tragic experience that becomes a story. Pi claims ""The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?"" (Martel 3. 99)

Metafiction usually occurs in fictional stories and is when the story examines the elements of fiction itself. Metafiction can be playful or dramatic but always forces the reader to think about the nature of storytelling and how they are made. This literary device draws attention to the work of imagination, rather than reality, allowing the reader to constantly be aware that the novel they are reading is untrue. The Metafictional frame has an estranged effect, you are always reminded: don't forget, this is only a story I am telling. Throughout the novel Life of Pi, Pi tells two different stories of his survival. This is an example of metafiction because Pi presents the stories both as true but asks which one seems more realistic and which one you would rather hear.

Pi's first story was a fun fictional tale that made the reader believe in strength and willpower of a man trapped in the middle of an ocean with animals. His original story is with a tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan named Orange juice. They all escaped the sinking ship and ended up together in the lifeboat. Throughout the first few days the hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan. Richard Parker then kills the hyena and eventually Pi tames him with a whistle. By the end of the story Pi considers Richard Parker his companion until they reach land in Mexico. Pi's adventure ends once he is finally resting in a hospital bed where he is interviewed. The agents tell Pi that his first story is too unbelievable for them to write about and asks Pi for a more believable story, a story that makes sense. Pi claims ""I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality."" (3.99.224) Pi tells them a second story which is more violent and realistic, exposing the darker side of a man and what survival drove him to do. Pi compares the animals from his first story to the people in the second who were actually on the boat. The hyena represents the cook who gave trouble to Pi's mother from the beginning because he was opposed to her being a vegetarian. The zebra represents the sailor, and Orange Juice represents Pi's mother. Richard Parker stands for Pi himself, and all the lessons Pi's father gave him about animals when he was a child. The second story Pi told, the cook killed the sailor and his mother, then Pi killed him. This story is much more gruesome and leads to the question which story would you rather hear? Pi presents the idea that both stories hold truth, and that truth changes perception of what you've previously read. In both he was stranded for 227 days and was deprived of food and water. He constantly relied on God and his three religions to get him through his survival. Regardless of what story you decide to believe, the same lessons were learned.

Since I was a young girl my family has read to me the three little pigs in many versions which is also an example of metafiction. If you are aware you are a character in a book, you can even escape your own story and make a different reality. In David Wiesner's Three Little Pigs the big bad wolf comes and the pigs get out of their stories allowing the reader to follow the three pigs on their own. In the true story of Three little pigs it's told from the wolf's point of view on why the wolf isn't so big and bad. The wolf speaks directly through the text and claims he was headed to each pigs house for a cup of sugar so he could bake his granny's birthday cake. He claims the huffing and puffing was just coughing and sneezing due to being sick. In the end of the story the wolf speaks from the jail cell claiming he was framed and is innocent. In the other version of The Three Pigs this story is told from the pigs point of view and focuses on the adventures the pigs have with other storybook characters rather then the ultimate goal of overcoming the wolf. Although this version takes out violence like the Life of Pi, they both hold truth. In both stories the pigs built houses out of straw, sticks, and bricks. The ending is the pigs settling in the brick house after they learned their lesson.

Yann Martel's whole argument (a story that will make you believe in God) is that most readers prefer the version of Pi's survival with the animals on the boat. If you choose to believe that story, you are choosing to believe in the impossible by having faith which is God. Asking to choose which story you rather believe in was for the purpose of serving a theological reflection. Whether you are a person who only believes in things that make sense or someone who has an imagination. Either way, there is no correct answer to that question because Life of Pi intentionally leaves it unanswered.

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Asthma and its Effects on those Residing in Boston as Well as the Overall State of Massachusetts

This report covers vital data related to asthma and, its effects on those residing in Boston as well as the overall state of Massachusetts. In this paper, relevant information concerning the condition including epidemiology of the disease, the population at risk/health status (race, age, gender), relevant epidemiology of geographic location (e.g. live, work and/or play), and time variables are incorporated. Material concerning rates, causes, and risk factors are also included. According to study findings, only 1 in 4 Massachusetts adults define their asthma condition as well controlled (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts SENSOR (Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk) Work-Related Asthma, 2007) and, even more children suffer from the condition in the state. This goes to show that this is an exceptionally critical public health matter to address and, that this condition needs to be further investigated to aid in decreasing the amount of asthma related cases.

Source of the data:

Most of the information encompassed in this paper was found using Mass.gov, google scholar, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites. Since this report is focused on asthma in Massachusetts and in particular, Boston (a large urban area within the state), it was crucial to obtain information directly from these government websites. Some search terms used while researching this condition include asthma risk factors, causes, prevalence, and incidence in Boston or Massachusetts. Ultimately, government websites were used as sources since the government has the most up to date epidemiological data and statistics regarding this area.

Descriptive Epidemiology:

Asthma is considered a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. It is a progressive condition with exacerbations and remissions from time to time. Asthma causes the airways to become narrowed due to swelling and excessive mucus production. In turn, asthma negatively affects a person who has the condition by making it extremely difficult to breath regularly. (National Center for Biotechnology Information, Asthma: Symptoms and Diagnosis, 2017)

Person:

It is important to note that worldwide, the extent of occurrence of asthma has been expanding since the year of 1980. This includes the prevalence among all age, gender, and racial groups. Among all states across the nation, the prevalence of asthma here in Massachusetts has been one of the most excessive. Children and Seniors 65 years and up have the most asthma related complications in relation to age in Massachusetts. However, children ages 0-4 have the highest overall rates in the state. Asthma inpatient hospitalization rates were highest in children ages 0 to 4 years old in the Boston area than that of the overall state of Massachusetts. Emergency room visits, and Asthma hospital observation stays were much higher for this age group in Boston as well. Compared to the state of Massachusetts, Boston has significantly higher rates overall. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Health of Massachusetts, 2010) The ages with the highest ED discharges per 10,000 residents in Massachusetts is among the 0-4 age group as well. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Statistics about asthma, 2018)

Figure 3 Age-Specific Rates of Emergency Department (ED) Visits Due to Asthma, Massachusetts Residents, 2009-2013

Data source: CY2011-2013 Massachusetts Emergency Department Discharge Database, Massachusetts Center for Health Information

Throughout the course of 2010, 2013, and 2015 overall, a higher percentage of Black (20%) and Latino (18%) Boston female adult residents had asthma compared to White female adults (14%) and Asian female adults (7%). In 2015, Black residents ages 3-5 had the highest rate of asthma related visits to the emergency department. Statistics displayed that there were 558.8 ED visits per 10,000 residents ages 3-5. Black and Latino residents in every age group had higher rates when compared with White residents of all ages. The age-specific emergency department visit rate heightened by 15% in children aged 3-5 in relation to asthma as well. (Boston Public Health Commision, Health of Boston, 2016) The populations that are most at risk according to race and gender in the Boston area includes the black non-Hispanic race and the female gender. Overall, Boston displays a significantly higher rate of asthma among the female population compared to the entire state of Massachusetts. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Statistics about asthma, 2018)

Level of Control among Massachusetts Children with Current Asthma, 2006-2010

Data source: CY2006-2010 MA Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Asthma Call-back Survey

This pie chart retrieved from the Mass.gov website displays crucial information about the level of control that kids have over their asthma here in Massachusetts throughout the years of 2006-2010. In this specific chart, it is evident that between the years of 2006-2010, 48.0% of the children who had asthma claimed that it was not well controlled, 33.8% of those interviewed in the call-back survey believed it was well controlled, and 18.2% believed that their asthma was very poorly controlled. This data reveals that a lesser amount or percentage of children from this sample in Massachusetts who had asthma thought that it was well controlled during this time-period. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Statistics about asthma, 2018)

Place:

Boston children have higher rates of hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to asthma related complications than children throughout the whole state of Massachusetts. Throughout the 2011-2012 school period, over 15.9 % of children in Boston attending Kindergarten through 8th grade had asthma. This is a significantly larger prevalence than K-8 students statewide which was approximately 11.9 percent. Over 40% of children located in Massachusetts who were 18 and under and had asthma, missed school as well as daycare because of their symptoms from the year of 2006 to 2010. Parents in the area are also affected by asthma in children since typically, if their children miss daycare or school due to exacerbations, parents must miss a day of work to care for them which then disturbs productivity in the community. (The Facts About Pediatric Asthma, 1986) The statewide prevalence of pediatric asthma in the year of 2009 was reported as 10.9 percent (%) and the prevalence of pediatric asthma in Boston was 13.9 percent (%) during that same time-period. By viewing the chart below, it is evident that the prevalence has increased in both areas since 2005. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health,Pediatric Asthma in Massachusetts 20082009, 2012)

According to Mass.gov, work related asthma cases between 1993-2006 was highest among managerial and professional workers. This is since they had accounted for one-third of all cases (n=206, 32.6%). The most frequently reported occupations within this group were nurses and teachers. Operators, repair workers and laborers followed by auditing for 27.1% of cases (n=171) within the same time-period. Technical, sales and administrative workers accounted for 23.0% (n=145) of these work-related asthma cases. Asthma prevalence is known to be higher in urban neighborhoods due to susceptibility to impurities in the air such as pollution and a multitude of other environmental causes. Indoor air pollutants, cleaning products, dusts, chemicals, mold, and solvents are proclaimed to be the main environmental triggers. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts SENSOR (Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk) Work-Related Asthma, 2007)

The above maps from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System display crude rates for the year of 2016. The crude rate, rather than the age adjusted rate, shows the actual number of cases over this year. The two maps display the crude rate for adults who had been told they currently have asthma. One map displays the results for adults within the 35-54-year-old age group, and the other displays the results for adults ages 65 and over in the same year (2016). It is noticeable that adults ages 65 and over had a higher crude prevalence rate (9.212.2%) as opposed to adults who were 35-54 years-old (9.210.7) within 2016 in Massachusetts. (CDC. BRFSS Prevalence & Trends Data, 2018)

Time:

As previously stated, the extent of the occurrence of asthma has been expanding worldwide since the year of 1980. This chart displays this information in a more meaningful way, showing that the prevalence has increased over the years. (Akinbami, O. J., Moorman, J. E., & Liu, X. (2011). Asthma prevalence, health care use, and mortality: United States, 2005-2009)

Data Source: Akinbami, O. J., Moorman, J. E., & Liu, X. (2011). Asthma prevalence, health care use, and mortality: United States, 2005-2009.

This is a fact specifically in Massachusetts since epidemiological statistics displayed in the chart below show that even costs related to the disease have drastically increased from 2002 to 2013 in the state. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Statistics about asthma, 2018)

Figure 2. Total Charges for Hospitalizations Due to Asthma, Massachusetts Residents, 2002-2013

Data source: CY2002-2013 Massachusetts Hospitalization Discharge Database, Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis

Rates:

The most current national and local prevalence and incidence rates available are from 2016. Nationally, children ages 5-14 have the highest prevalence of asthma at 10.1%., women at 10.4%, black non-Hispanic children at 15.7%, and those below 100% of the poverty level at 11.8%. The percent of persons with current asthma who reported having one or more asthma attacks is highest among those who are ages 18 and under at 53.7%. Mortality is highest among women of the black non-Hispanic race over 18 years old. Local data here in Massachusetts displays that 10.2% of adults currently have asthma. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Most Recent Asthma Data, 2018)

Causes and Risk Factors:

While the exact cause or etiology of each individual asthma case may not be known, and no cure exists, asthma can be controlled. Asthma can cause symptoms such as chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, or even sneezing when allergic asthma is the case. (Asthma: Symptoms and Diagnosis, 2017) Symptoms may exacerbate as well, meaning that they become worse and a person having an attack requires immediate medical attention. Different people have varying or different symptoms and, the severity of the disease varies from person to person. The disease may even be deathly or cause disability if a person suffers from an asthma attack without getting immediate medical treatment. Asthma affects individuals differently resulting in differing severity, presentation of symptoms and, responsiveness to treatment (i.e. albuterol and steroid inhalers, respiratory therapy, and breathing treatments/nebulizers). (National Institutes of Health, Chronic Diseases: Asthma and You, 2011)

Asthma prevalence is known to be higher in urban neighborhoods with lower incomes which makes these two factors risk factors for the disease. As previously mentioned, this is due to considerable and extensive susceptibility to impurities in the air such as pollution and a variety of other indoor and outdoor environmental causes. The typical asthma triggers that are due to environmental factors include indoor allergens such as pet dander, rodents, cockroaches, dust mites, and mold and outdoor allergens such as grass, pollen, weeds, florals, and trees. Other outdoor irritants include tobacco smoke, gas, chemical fumes, and various other strong odors. Exposure to things like air fresheners, cleaning products, pesticides, and perfumes/cologne, the common cold, influenza and other illnesses can trigger asthma as well. Stress, extensive exercise, medications/drugs, and food additives may trigger an asthma attack too. Weather conditions including cold air, or extremely dry, wet or windy weather can also have a largely negative impact on a person's asthma and maintaining its stability. (Gautier, C., & Charpin, D,Environmental triggers and avoidance in the management of asthma, 2017)

Data Source: 2006-2007 Massachusetts Adult Asthma Call-back Survey

Conclusion:

When asthma is well controlled, people who suffer from the chronic disease can sleep well through the night, attend school or work, and live normal, or even active lives. It is important to decrease the publics contact to asthma triggers and know factors that put people at risk to asthma. This will in turn prevent the expansion of the disease and allow better control of asthma symptoms. An asthma attack or exacerbation can be prevented by eliminating certain known environmental triggers. It is also crucial to take medication correctly, following a specific care plan, and taking action when symptoms worsen. (National Institutes of Health, Chronic Diseases: Asthma and You, 2011)

Hypotheses:

My research has brought me to hypothesize that environmental triggers play a crucial role in the prevalence of asthma however, it is unknown whether these triggers actually cause the disease. I consider these environmental triggers to be the most probable cause of asthma. The actual cause of the disease is currently unknown therefore, signifies the need for further research of these environmental triggers to determine which specific one produces the largest burden of disease.

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Asthma and its effects on those residing in Boston as well as the overall state of Massachusetts. (2019, Jul 31). Retrieved November 2, 2025 , from
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