Marketing Plan Project: From Bags to Riches Danette Faulkner Dr. Neil Southern Marketing

From Bags to Riches Company was founded in September 2007 in north Mississippi with the goal of creating and marketing hundreds of authentic, exclusive designer bags and jewelry. From Bags to Riches gives access to borrow hundreds of purses and jewelry as often as you like. a) Internal Environment Mission Statement: If you desire an authentic designer handbag, you will love From Bags to Riches.Imagine always having the perfect bag and necklace to match. From Bags to Riches is an internet business that makes high fashion highly affordable by borrowing designer handbags and jewelry to consumers at portion of the retail price.A key element of the internal environment is the power of fashion inspires excitement, confidence, and that â€Å"feel good† vibe every woman gets from wearing something new. We know that when a woman looks her best she feels her best. Our mission is to extend this feeling to every woman on a regular basis by offering high fashion at a highly affordable pric e. b) External Environment From Bags to Riches faces new seasonal trends in ever-changing fashion industry. We are constantly adding new designers and items to our collection so new items appear on a daily basis. We entered during a period of prosperity.A high level of demand for our merchandise is due to celebrity fashion and affordability. The fashion industry operates in a persistent stat of progression, reinvention, and renovation. New styles go out as quickly as they come in. We are regularly clearing out our closets to make room for the hottest new collections from all over the country. Since we rent designer bags through the e-commerce business, we are closely related to technological advances. We use the internet to issue low monthly memberships and no late fees. Our demographic environment would be directed towards millions of women from 16 to 60 year olds.It also includes women who shop on the internet. c) SWOT Analysis Strengths of From Bags to Riches are that they offer the most sought after designer brands at low rental prices. We are able to adapt to technological change and new fashion trends. We have global relationships with all major designers. Our main weaknesses are our financial support, knowledge in the local market and the ability to expand in our current location. The main opportunities identified are technological advancement in product ordering, diversification of products and future expansion to other markets.Our threats include current economic climate and the volume of indirect competition from other designer bags and jewelry companies. II. Marketing Objectives Marketing objectives that are attainable and realistic goals would have to be defined as increasing customer satisfaction by making every individual woman feel fashionable. We would like to use to Product Line strategy to satisfy the main desires and needs of our consumers. Our customers must maintain trust in our company. We take authenticity of our bags very seriously. We want to increase our sales by 75 percent within the next year.We can stimulate adoption by distributing free rental after the first membership purchase. The rental of designer bags and jewelry business is small but growing and I would like to minimize our competition. III. Marketing Strategies a) Target Markets Our target is in women’s fashion market. Demographics include females aging from 16 to 60. Some men maybe included because men would often join to rent nice products for their wives, daughters, and mothers. The average incomes would range from 20,000 to 100,000 per year. Psychographics would be women who spend a lot of time shopping with their family and friends.They enjoy looking nice and are tight spenders. The promotion would be directed at the end consumer or buyer as we attempt to increase customer demand. The media habit used would mainly be the internet and shopping advertisements. Women would frequently read magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Lucky. W omen of all ages will be able to afford expensive jewelry and purses in order to wear to weddings, banquets, proms, or to other dances. b) Positioning the Product From Rags to Riches positions its products as the number one company of designer handbags and jewelry for rent. We never carry fake, faux, or replica bags or jewelry.Our company emphasizes choice and flexibility. We strive to always be responsive to the consumer’s unique needs. Bags can be borrowed for any length of time for a week, month, or more. Our Core Product will be access to name brand purses and high-end jewelry. The Actual Product will be the rental of the purses and jewelry. The Augmented Product will be that we offer a monthly subscription fee, designer recommendation service, and unlimited supply of our products. We will communicate the marketing strategy though intermediaries such as designer agents retail stores and distributors.We will have access to customers by using our vendors. For example, someo ne that buys Gucci purses straight from the manufacturer will be able to save more money by renting a purse for our company instead of paying $400. 00 dollars on the spot for a certain purse. They will be able to exchange purses for new styles. c) Product Strategies In order to be able to meet our sales goals we must be able to give our customers what they want the must by offering different major brands. We will offer Couture bags with are runway worthy handbags and jewelry from the top designers such as Gucci and Rosiblu which cost the most within a month.The is Diva bags which are luxurious, dream bags and jewelry from Louis Vuitton and Charriol starting at ninety dollars a month. Then we offer the Princess, which is a little less costly, and it includes accessories from Burberry and Coach. Last, we offer the Trendsetter fresh, trend-forward small accessories from designers such as Dooney & Burke and Cole Haan. d) Pricing Strategies The combination of high expense and low shelf l ife makes designer apparel affordable to only a few. Our products will remain the same regardless of the amount of produced; therefore, it will be a fixed cost.We will need to estimate the demand by finding out how much of our product does our customer want and how will this change if prices go up or down? When our economy is down the consumers are more interested in lower prices. Our customers will not have to pay the high price for high quality; instead, they will be able to pay a low monthly fee for high quality. The concept of borrowing levels the playing field and allows everyone the opportunity to carry the latest styles and without the cost. The current pricing should work for fashion bags and jewelry. The price must reflect the overall company objectives.A number of factors need to be considered before prices are allocated to each of the products. For instant access to the newest styles of high-end handbags and jewelry, prices will range from $25. 95 a month for three months or $67. 95 for one year. Customers will receive the best value by purchasing the year membership by saving over 55%. e) Promotion Strategies Advertising is the most familiar and visible part of the promotion mix. Product advertising will focus on what our company has to offer. For example: high-end jewelry and purses at half the retail price.Personal selling, public relations, and direct mailing are all good strategies for From Bags to Riches, although they might not be the most effective. We can use sales promotions such as coupons, rebates, and premiums. By offering premiums will help us give something extra to our existing customers. The media must also reflect our objectives. Our position can change over time and provide a number of advantages for our product. By using the unique selling proposition, we can get our direct reason out about our product and show our consumer why it has better quality and how our product qualifies consumers’ needs.Because From Bags to Riches ’ budget is limited, we will keep the message simple, emphasizing how flexible and convenient our product is. By using advertising, we will be able to control what the message will say, when it will appear, and who is will see it. From Bags to Riches will use guerrilla marketing so that we will be able to catch them as a surprise. We can place small messages or coupons for our online store on the back of receipt for retail stores. If we were able to use public relations, it would be low in cost and give us high credibility.With the limited budget, ads in direct mail brochures will be small. Television advertising: From Bags to Riches will purchase a small amount of cable advertising. This type of advertising will be flexible and high impact. It will air on local cable shopping networks directed towards women. Television is a useful means for telling a story or for demonstration purposes. Viewers are often relaxed, which can be a negative because our message needs to be easily understood. It’s not like direct mail, newspaper, and magazine advertisements where you can look back over the information in order to clarify the message.The negative attributes of using television advertising is that it can be high in costs and quickly forgotten. Magazine advertising: From Bags to Riches will advertise in all fashion magazines with some success but this will be an expensive option. By using magazine advertising, we will have a specific target audience and have great image quality. This will show all of the new products for each season. We will also offer discount’s through the magazine subscribers. Lower television advertisements in exchange for magazine advertising can be very beneficial. This will enable us to keep the same budget, while increasing exposure.We will have to use several magazines to reach our target audience. Direct mail advertising: From Bags to Riches will use this to save on cost depending on location, how much we send, and posta ge cost. Direct mail advertising will first emphasize From Bags to Riches’ two key benefits. It will offer a lot of detail towards a certain customer so that it’s personal which is most important to effectively reaching the core target market. By using direct mail advertising, we will be able to receive feedback. Direct mail has a dependable history of generating high-quality leads for entrepreneur business. f) Distribution StrategiesChances are that we have more competitors than we even thought. Primarily From Bags to Riches products will be direct sales through the internet. Our customers will be experiential shoppers because we offer fast shopping and they will be entertained by the hunt. Sales promotion will be a positive incentive to retailers to support our product. It will be the most effective distribution channel because we will be able to sell directly to the end-user. We will be able to distribute our item by using the internet. We can place our URL address with advertisements on clothing, magazine, and shopping websites.We will also identify key promises made by our company. IV. Implementation Strategies The tasks required to implement and monitor each strategy are listed in this section for From Bags to Riches. a) Action Plan From Bags to riches will use the push strategy and have retailers offer our renting process and they can attract their customers to select our product. My company is in its introduction phase so our objective is to create awareness of and push customers to try our product. We will meet with department managers to promote our plan and mission statement. We must set up appropriate times to meet with jewelry and purse designers.Third, we must meet with managers to discuss new trends in clothing and accessories; and how to improve customer feedback. Lastly, we will schedule and promote course for organization. b) Budgets Television advertisement can run between $400. 00 to $3500. 00 depending on airtime and service station. Magazine advertisement can cost at the most $10,000. 00, which would be the most expensive based on which magazines we choose to go with. Mail orders would be relatively cheaper running between $300. 00 to $600. 00 depending on location. We will be able to generate enough money in order to use the best promotions.If these don’t work out or are too costly, we will have to change our direction and switch to something less costly. c) Timing/ Schedules We plan to exceed growth patterns with in 12 months to little over the coming year. We will typically focus on the performance of our shipment to our customers renting our jewelry and purses. We will typically focus on the mechanics of the media, mailing and promotions. Using the cost per thousand method will help to measure our cost effectiveness of our ads and compare promotions at separate publicity rates and will give us a specific cost to deliver our message to over 1,000 people.From bags to riches will continue to en vision where the company is going and where we need the company to be within the next three to five years. We are ultimately reaching for the best customer satisfaction as well generating higher sales. Our company will add three new employees every six to nine months. Office space will expand accordingly. We will have two team leaders to every manager so that manager will have the help they need. Future results for the coming year will be Gross sales: $154,000 Net profit: $12,400 V. Monitoring and Control StrategiesIn order to better serve our customers From Bags to Riches will monitor and control our product. Using the AIDA model will encourage our customers with action, desire, interest, and attention. With database marketing, we can build relationships and learn our customers’ preferences. It can also attract new customers. We need feedback and opinions from our valued customers so that we are capable of serving them to the highest quality of needs. We can evaluate our str ategy by measuring the consumer’s response to sales promotions.We will also be able to evaluate and compare sales performances by area and sales force. a) Research Using market research will help the company understand what exactly the competitors are doing that we aren’t. We can also use online research techniques that can test our customers’ reactions to product ideas, which is faster than other research. We will be able to know what special products, service or pricing offers do the customers get from my competition. By using copy testing method, we can find out if our promotional ads are working for our consumers.This will tell us whether our consumers are receiving and responding to our ads. I will be able to find out needed information to better my sales and my company. I need to ask questions such as how are other companies’ products or services similar to my product and services. The key to winning the target market is to differentiate my company by providing products, services, or solutions that my customers will find more desirable than what’s offered by my competitors. b) Trend Analysis From Bags to Riches will do a seasonal trend analysis to understand the new and upcoming styles for our customers.This will give us an insight to what exactly our customers want and enjoy. Our store image would be luxury and elegance. Our personnel should match the store’s image. At this point, we will be in our growth stage and we will need new and improved advertising to make us stick out from our competition. c) Marketing Audit A Marketing audit will be done annually. This will be helpful for our company and our customers. This can help fix problems we have internally and problems that are outside of the company’s authority. We can reinforce our mission statement and maybe enable us to offer new products.

In what ways television affects Essay

AIM: I propose to find out what children say about how television affects their play. Socialisation is a very important concept in sociology and the role of the mass media is highly debateable. Many sociologists believe that media effects start by setting out an overall relationship between media and its audience. They are often called models of media effects. I will interview the children these interviews will be unstructured. The children will be interviewed separately. Gender will be a comparison I look at to and whether the gender affects whom the children imitate. CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS: The study of Bandura Ross and Ross uses the term of social learning theory to assert that children copy behaviour another example of this is copycat violence found in Hagell & Newburn’s study. In my research will ask the children whether they say they act violently due to the violent content they may have viewed and whether they have chosen to imitate these programs. Hagell & Newburn’s study compared young offenders viewing behaviour with non-offending teenagers. They found the differences were few between the two groups and what they watched, with hardly any having seen the films that were causing the concern at that time. A few members of either group had an interest in a violent output. The young offenders had less access to different media types. Other factors instead of media could have been causing the differences in their behaviour. The other context being analysed is Bandura Ross Ross who looked at whether children learnt behaviour through observation. This is the idea of the social learning theory. Children were made to watch a violent model be aggressive towards a five-foot ‘bobo’ doll. Later the children were given an aggressive arousal and then taken to another room where they were monitored as to how they reacted towards the ‘bobo’ doll, after seeing a model do this. The different concepts are is copycat violence this is violence that occurs as a result of copying what is seen in the media. Catharsis another theory is the process where tension is relieved, for example violence on screen that provides a safe outlet for people’s violent inclination. The final concept is desensitisation some theorists argue that the constant media diet of violence makes them less sensitive to real human suffering. These concepts tie in with the idea children are passive sociologists believe this, children respond easily to everything. This is the reason for watershed on T. V at 9pm because what comes on television isn’t suitable enough for children and there is a fear that the children will imitate this behaviour. (337) MAIN RESEARCH METHOD AND REASONS: The method I will be using is by interviewing the children by asking them to explain the reason for their behaviour. The questions I will ask the children will be questions not only requiring the answers that I need but there will be a series of distracting questions so the children will not know the aim of the questions being asked. Interviews are an advantage because it is better to gather all the information needed for an interview because you get to understand what the interviewee’s true opinions are. Interviews are flexible and can be used in different ways; also the ethical advantage is consent of the participants the theoretical advantage is that at applies to the law of interpretivists (Action theory). You can use empathy to understand their opinions in depth; these methods generate higher levels of validity of these results. They give a general understanding of the problem, there is less pressure on the interviewee and their answers are more spontaneous. Important concepts are uncovered about the information that will help me conclude whether the children imitate what they watch. When interviewing the children I will be asking them which programs they imitate and this will give me an insight into whether there is a pattern with what they watch. The sample I will be using for the interviews are of children from the ages of five to ten years old, because at this stage of childhood where television will be their main interest and there is a large variety if television for children of these ages also this is the age children are most likely to be influenced by the media. The genders of the children being used are varied so I will be using five boys and five girls. The children all come from the Borough of Newham of East London. It is easier for me if the children are living in the same borough there will be an easier access to these children and it will be easier for me and the children. The sample of the children I will be studying is opportunity sampling as the sample depends on whether the adults agree to their children being in the sample. The consent for whether the child will participate will be the decision of the adults. In Bandura’s study he gave the children an aggressive arousal and in this study will not do this as the aggressive arousal means that the children could have acted violently because of the arousal given and not because they were imitating the models behaviour. (425) POTNETIAL PROBLEMS The interviews of the amount of children I will be looking at can be very time consuming. With this study I need to be aware that the sample isn’t appropriate enough to apply to the whole population because all the children are from the same background and all from a similar ethical background and there may be a pattern in their behaviour. The main practical issue is whether the adults will allow their children to take part in the study. These types of questionnaires are basically a conversation dominates by the interviewer. These unstructured interviews may also go off the initial idea of what is being interviewed. Also with the amount of children I will be looking at and the sample of children I will be looking at there will be a lot of activity so it may be difficult to record all of their behaviour. These interviews are more difficult to analyse, and there are less details provided on the concept being asked. Ethical problems are mental harm to the children if they don’t like the questions being asked of them. Right to withdraw will be an ethical issue also because the children may not feel they have the right to leave and stop asking the questions. The final ethical issue is informed consent, which will be coming from the child and not the parents. The children should be able to make the decision but when a child is involved the parents have the consent. Time consumption is a practical issue through finding time to interview ten children. Being able to get the children to understand the question and also to cooperate may be difficult. Likewise another ethical issue is the children may not understand the debriefing. If they don’t understand the debriefing there will be an issue of this ethical guideline and the parents will also have to also be debriefed too.

Political Organization Essay

The band is a relatively small and loosely organized kin-ordered group that inhabits a common territory and that may split periodically into smaller extended family groups that are politically and economically independent. Band is a form of anthropological political system noted for its simplicity. According to common anthropological knowledge, a band usually consists of not more than 30-50 individuals. Bands display an egalitarian form of authority which advocates equality among members and the eradication of hindrances to the doctrine of equality. However, bands often exhibit a weak form of leadership due to the non-existent of rules and written laws the support their leaders. Tribes are loosely-structured anthropological political systems composed of families and other communities which are based solely on kinship. Tribes are the most basic and primitive form of political system. In tribal societies, the elders and the heads of the families are often the ones who lead the tribe. They are usually the ones who are sought for advice and guidance. The main difference between a band and a tribe is the size of the community. Tribes are defined as bigger forms of bands. Chiefdom is a form of anthropological political system that is more complex than both the band and the tribe. A chiefdom, according to common anthropological knowledge is composed of a number of villages under the control of one individual called as â€Å"chief. â€Å" Unlike the headman or headwoman in bands and tribes, the leader of a chiefdom is generally a true authority figure, whose right to make final decisions, give commands, and enforce obedience serves to unite members in all affairs and at all times. Anthropologist, however, argued that such form of anthropological political system is very stable. According to experts, this kind of socio-political organization tends to be prone to a cycle of monumental collapse. In anthropology, the state is a political institution established to manage and defend a complex, socially stratified society occupying a defined territory. A state greatly differs from a band, tribe and chiefdom because of its developed nature. Unlike the other three primitive systems, a state is governed by rules and laws which generates from a just law-making body. States are the governing bodies of nations where sovereignty resides. In order to be recognized as a state, an anthropological political system must meet the four requirements of having a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the capacity to enter relations with other states.

Grace hopper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Grace hopper - Essay Example Because of her personality and a moving effect towards the work that she has done, she was referred to as â€Å"Amazing Grace†. In light of her works, the US Navy destroyer USS Hopper has been named after her. Also the Cray XE6 â€Å"Hopper† supercomputer present at NERSC was named in her memory. Grace Hopper received a PhD in mathematics from the Yale University. She began teaching mathematics at Vassar in the year 1931 and the got promoted to the role of an associate professor 10 years later, in 1941. It was in 1949 that Grace Hopper became an employee of Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation in the role of a senior mathematician where she came in close collaboration with a team that had the task to develop the UNIVAC I. During the early periods of 1950s, this company was bought out by the Remington Rand Corporation (Richard 1981). This was the time when she was still employed with Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation that she came up with her original compiler work whic h was a novelty in those times. This compiler was later on named as the A compiler and its initial version was called as A-0. A conference by the name of CODASYL was held in 1959 which brought together computer experts and geniuses from the related industries and the government. Grace Hopper was appointed as the technical consultant of this committee which essentially laid the basis of COBOL. The new language took some of its ideas from the IBM equivalent by the name of COMTRAN. COBOL aimed to write programmes in a language which was more close to the English dictum than the machine oriented basis. This was the reason why COBOL was seen as the single most ubiquitous business language and is still considered so to this day. As a captain in the Navy, Grace Hopper developed a number of validation software for the new programming language (COBOL) as well as its compiler which was a part of the standardization program that went ahead and helped the entire Navy. During her time at the Har vard University in the year 1947, Grace Hopper along with her associates discovered a moth stuck within a relay. After they had done a small operation, Grace Hopper was able to remark this moth as â€Å"debugging† the system. She brought the term of a computer bug to popularity even though she cannot be credited with coining the same. Also, Grace Hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid (Dickason 1992). Since generals and admirals used to quite frequently enquire her about the long extent of time it took for the satellite communications to revert back, she began handing out certain pieces of wire which used to be nearly 1 foot long. This was due to the measurement done on light that it traveled within one nanosecond. She exclaimed that this length of time in nanoseconds was essentially the maximum speed of signals that might travel within vacuum. She also suggested that signals would travel slowly within the wires that were set up on her part as a visual aid. Grace Hop per’s legacy turned out to be quite a popular one for the women. Since Grace Hopper introduced mathematics as a ‘cool’ and trendy subject, it started to come out just like she envisioned within women in different parts of the world. This is the reason why her name is considered as an inspiring factor within the formation of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This conference is held on an annual basis which brings designers to the fore

Bancfirst Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Bancfirst - Research Paper Example Marketing intermediaries dictated by intermediaries who help close business sales are another micro-environmental factor. Yet another environment is the macro-environment, which is uncontrollable. The business must adapt to these factors, including social, economic, political, legal environment and, in addition, technical environment. Bancfirst is most likely to be affected by factors that influence their client base, such as competition and prospects of growth. Additionally, macro-environment factors, such as the economic environment and legal environment will affect the operations of first bank on a day-to-day basis (Tracy, 12). If there is an increase in consumer income, the demand for the house will go up, and as such, the demand curve shifts to the right. Increase in income thus shifts the demand curve right. Another cause for a demand curve shifting to the right is changes in preference, with the recent high price houses coming with increased comfort and security, making consumers buy more of these sorts of houses. The demand curve for houses has shifted to the right. Finally, the demand curve may be shifted by changes in expectations. If clients expect to have a job for a long time, coupled with increased income, then demand for products will increase and, as a result, the demand curve shifts to the right. The demand curve shifting to the right on houses caused the equilibrium price for houses to rise (Tracy 11). The supply curve for Bancfirst was affected by various factors. Changes in the supply curve occur when product supply is affected by other factors other than its price. Increased technology caused the supply curve to shift to the right, while the number of clients wanting to buy houses caused the supply curve to shift to the right. The price of substitute investments also fell, causing the supply curve to shift to the right. The increase in supply caused the supply curve to shift to the right, thus causing

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 4

Assignment - Essay Example In reality however excellence has a dimension as limited as the companies itself. It means that the organization strives to find the best available practice rather than following market leaders or competitors. This finding the best practices and implementing them will result from an exhaustive self assessment and investigation by the organization itself. The level of excellence that an organization has achieved is generally measured by the results the organization has delivered and is very greatly dependent upon the performance management systems used. Organizational excellence is an overall way in which organizations work from balancing stakeholders interests to the management of profits and prioritizing ones needs without losing control with such operational efficiency that doesn’t lead to doubts about its performance and utilization of resources. The achievement of such excellence has since always been a dilemma with multiple theories based on it. But in a nutshell it should be understood that the means of achieving excellence were always and will always be an item of great interest and research and though unanimity will never be achieved, the best way is to strive hard to question how to achieve it and then implement those solutions with utmost efficiency. What should be remembered however is that in the race of excellence there is no finish line. The business excellence model largely determines how organizations all over the world handle their operations and how decision making takes place. Different parts of the world have different excellence models which are dependent upon the organizational structure in those regions as well as the preferences of customers and the mindset of the employees. Customer focus and logical decision-making, form the core of all models. One of the earliest excellence models is the Deming Excellence model which is based on

Mental Health Treatment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mental Health Treatment - Essay Example Louis in the United States and Christchurch in New Zealand). There is a wide variation in the health care systems in these two countries, they differ in size and also have a varied mix of ethnic groups. It was found that the respondents in the two cities responded in an identical fashion about the reasons for not seeking mental care. Common reasons included â€Å"doubt about the need for professional help† (Wells et al., 1994), and attitudinal factors (like that they can manage without any medical help). Less frequent reasons included, travel distance, cost, etc (Wells et al., 1994). Small or negligible reasons included sociodemographic factors (Wells et al., 1994.) With the help of theoretical models, it has been found that before seeking mental health treatment, help-seeking behavior of individuals goes through several stages. These include â€Å"experiencing symptoms, evaluating the severity and consequences of the symptoms, assessing whether treatment is required, assessi ng the feasibility of and options for treatment, and deciding whether to seek treatment† (Sareen et al., 2007). The barriers to the use of mental health care are mainly of two types: system-level structural factors (financial cost) and individual attitudinal factors (fear of being stigmatized) (Sareen et al., 2007). Sareen et al. ... This study was able to show that respondents of the low-income group in the U.S are more often likely to report a financial barrier when it comes to using mental health care when compared to those in countries with lesser restrictions to service accessibility. Dissatisfaction with the available mental health services was reported more often by respondents in the Netherlands than those in the U.S and Canada. However, contrary to the widely held belief that fear of stigmatization is a major barrier for not seeking care, the study showed that this was an infrequent reason. There was a positive association in younger respondents with â€Å"fear of involuntary hospitalization and concerns about embarrassment from using mental health services† (Sareen et al., 2007). This might reflect a general lack of knowledge regarding mental illness and its treatment amongst youngsters. The use of drugs was associated with an embarrassment on utilizing mental health services. Therefore, this stu dy showed that â€Å"attitudinal barriers to mental health service use are more common than structural barriers across countries with differing health care systems† (Sareen et al., 2007) with the exception that respondents of the low-income group in the U.S are more often likely to report a financial barrier when it comes to using mental health care when compared to the other two countries. In Latin America mental illness is a big burden. Although nationalized health care systems are available in many Latin American countries many barriers to mental health care remains. Saldivia et al. (2004), made a study in the general population of Chile about the utilization of mental health service. The Chile Psychiatric Prevalence Study conducted

Writing for professional practice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Writing for professional practice - Assignment Example Bilby has countless desirability, for guests visiting daily, weekenders and longer-term guests. Recently, the financial value of tourism has totally begun to be respected and treasured. Studies and administration of this resource is currently a foremost apprehension for all stakeholders. According to the argument and controversy over the latest hospital, BRTA has concluded that to carry out an evaluation on tourism in Bilby. The aspects that make Bilby a tourist center include the regional events available in town that make tourist enjoy the Bibly district throughout the entire years, for example, availability of hotels and geographical features. The visitors enjoy the following aspects in the town; walking tour, tours of Agostini’s vineyard, monthly organic farmer’s market, material design special sales, which happen half yearly. Furthermore, other features include the Street life Carnival that occurs every week, and the Autumn Gold Festival that occurs in the month of March during the long weekend. Another aspects that attract the visitors in the society include the film locations fir city stresses country pleasures and the shopping activity. Many shopping sections such as supermarkets and malls have everything necessary to make tourism interesting and captivating. The town is reported to have great natural wonders, for example, the naturally protected in the valley that has magnificent plateaus and mountains overlooking the town. The town council is also reported to have future projects that are planned to be accomplished to improve the tourism department in the town in the future. Some of the plans include; the boardwalks for the graveyard, bird hide observatory over wetlands and further wind farm on Bilby Plateau, extension to the museum and lastly the leisure centre that will create the promotional opportunities (Harris, Williams and Griffin, 2012). Julia Rudd, CEO of the Bendalong Regional Tourism Authority (BRTA) and other stakeholders

Apple Inc Business Organization Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Apple Inc Business Organization - Assignment Example Apple Inc. has international operations which are operated from its California based headquarters. The company is headed by a team of top executives who are responsible for making strategic decisions which affect the company’s future operations. The management of the company and its activities are directed by a group of board of directors. The company’s business operations are divided into various functionalities which include consumer electronics arm, personal computers and software and mobile phones. The business activities are effectively designed into design, manufacturing or development, sales and marketing, development and research. Since the company operates in several markets across the world, it has varying levels of management and organizational or business activities.The strategic environment within Apple’s business environment can be analyzed through the application of Porter’s five forces for competitive advantage of a company. According to Po rter (1985, p. 54), the threat of new entrants into the market poses a significant challenge to the competitive of a company. Since Apple operates in many markets across the world, it is evident that the company is challenged by the new companies which arise in these markets and provide products and services similar to those of Apple. Examples of new entrants into the Apple’s business environment include new mobile phone companies, telecommunication service providers and manufactures of computer systems and mobile phones. which comprise of the services and products that the company provides. The threat of new entrants is more significant when these new operators provide services at a cheaper price than a specific company (Porter, 1985, p. 65). The power of buyers who represent the consumers of Apple’s products is a significant force that determines the company’s strategies for competitive advantage. The information and communication industry as well as the mobile phone and telecommunication sector across the world is very dynamic. This means that the needs of consumers change frequently in relation to their tastes and preferences (Porter, 1985, p. 72). It is in this sense that Apple Inc employs a strategic plan that focuses on fulfilling or meeting the needs of consumers. This is because consumers comprise of the most important stakeholder for any business. Hannagan (2009, p. 43) points out that the power of suppliers play a significant role in defining the business strategies that are employed by a company for strategic advantage within the market. The suppliers of Apple’s raw materials determine its success in production and assurance of quality for its electronic, computing and mobile phone products. It is in this sense that the company is mandated to ensure that in all of its markets especially where its production processes are situated has access to suppliers. More importantly the company ensures that it maintains a positive relationship with its suppliers so that it would maintain their loyalty. In this light, the company is able to become strategically competitive within its business environment by producing the best quality of products and services. Hannagan (2009, p. 29) says that the threat of substitute products within a company’

Questions to Answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Questions to Answer - Essay Example These laws are what are regarded to as common law. When there is incongruity between two parties in relation to the law, then a common law court is obligated to listen to the case and refer to analogous or similar cases that have occurred in the past and incorporate their resolutions in decision making (Pozgar, 2011). In other words, if a judgment had been issued in a similar case in the past, then the judge or arbitrator in this case is required to follow the same logical thinking as the previous case. If there has never been a similar case, then it is the obligation of the judge or arbitrator to form or create a standard model as an example that would be referred to by other judges and arbitrators in future. Pozgar (2011) further notes that having a case to refer to and use it in decision making introduces the concept of impartiality in judgments as issues not covered by other laws in a jurisdiction are awarded similar rulings or verdicts. These common laws are however not permanent as they can be changed depending on the current needs of the society (Pozgar, 2011). According to Pozgar (2011), foreseeability is "The reasonable anticipation that harm or injury is likely to result from a commission or omission of an act" (p. 41). An individual can prevent the occurrence of a damaging incident or event if he or she predicts that the incident will occur on the basis of available information or facts. Having a clear understanding of the facts can help an individual in making decisions that would avert or prevent the occurrence of any harmful incident. In a court of law, a defendant is investigated or questioned with an intention of finding out whether he or she could have prevented injury or harm to a petitioner through analyzing data and information at hand. As an example, take the case of a patient lying to a healthcare practitioner when he seeks a clarification of the patients medical history. If

Violence in the Aztec Society Essay Example for Free

Violence in the Aztec Society Essay â€Å"The dismal drum of Huichilobos sounded again, accompanied by conches, horns, and trumpet-like instruments. It was a terrifying sound, and when we looked at the tall cue (temple-pyramid) from which it came we saw our comrades who had been captured in Cortes’ defeat being dragged up the steps to be sacrificed. When they had haled them up to a small platform in front of the shrine where they kept their accursed idols we saw them put plums on the heads of many of them; and then they made them dance with a sort of fan in front of Huichilobos. Then after they had danced the papas (Aztec priests) laid them down on their backs on some narrow stones of sacrifice and, cutting open their chests, drew out their palpitating hearts which they offered to the idols before them. Then they kicked the bodies down the steps, and the Indian butchers who were waiting below cut off their arms and legs and flayed their faces, which they afterwards prepared like glove leather, with their beards on, and kept for their drunken festivals. Then they ate their flesh with a sauce of peppers and tomatoes.† -Spanish Conquistador, Bernal Diaz (The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice by Michael Harner (1977:46-50)) The Aztecs were a tribe in central Mexico during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. They were located in Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, on an island in Lake Texcoco. The Aztec community was highly advanced for their time period in things such as architecture and mathematics. They developed a complex calendar, irrigation systems, exquisite art, advanced agriculture, canals used in transportation, chinampas (floating gardens), and were the first civilization to require their children to go to school. Yet, they were extremely violent and resorted to barbaric acts. It appears from the Spanish records and archaeological findings that the Aztecs were most definitely a violent society, but were they inherently violent or did they have rational reasons related to non-violence explaining their behavior? The main reason scholars think that the Aztecs were seen as a malicious  group was their ritual of human sacrificing. Spanish records of the Aztecs have been known to exaggerate their descriptions of human sacrificing but archaeological research done in 1960 and 1969 tends to support the conquistadores’ accounts. Headless human rib cages completely lacking the limb bones were found at Aztec sacrificial sites. Although these remains were found, many scholars perceive this as a religious act pertaining to the Aztec’s belief that humans must sacrifice that, which was most precious to them, life, in order to receive in return the sun, rain, and other blessings of the gods that make life possible. Ortiz de Montellano (1978,1990) attributed the Aztec practice of human sacrifice to their belief that the gods required it. He went on to say that the majority of human sacrifice during harvest periods indicated that it was â€Å"a gesture of thanks and reciprocity to the gods ( 1978:614).† The Aztecs often went to war with their neighbors to bring back prisoners for human sacrifice; this was called the flowery wars. Although the Aztecs did take prisoners to be sacrificed, some scholars believe that the flowery wars were not only for obtaining sacrificial victims. Hassig (1990) linked human sacrifice to their unstable economic position. He analyzed the flowery wars as an empire-building strategy that was used to wear down stronger enemies rather than as a deliberate procedure to capture people for sacrifice. Price (1978) and Isaac (1983) similarly thought that the flowery wars reflected the shifting of power between neighboring cities and their inability to conquer the Valley of Mexico (Tlaxcala-Pueblan Valley). Price suggests that the failure of military conquering made human sacrifice an ideal excuse to explain this lack of success. King Moteuczoma characterized the wars as rituals for obtaining captives and as military training for soldiers. This is seen as a strateg ic plan to direct the conquistadores’ attention away from political and military weaknesses in the Aztec civilization. In the mass majority of sacrificial rituals, cannibalism was performed. This often took part during the sacrificing of prisoners of war but also happened during the sacrifice of some of their own people. Harner (1977) rejected anthropological theories hypothesizing that human sacrifice was  caused by the requirement of their religion and gods. He thought that their causes were because of a high population rate that caused protein scarcity. Based on studies of population pressure, Harner (1970) suggested that the big picture of Aztec human sacrifice and cannibalism resulted from demographical and ecological factors. These created protein shortages, population pressure, seasonal crop failures, a lack of livestock, the depletion of wild game in the region, famine, and the environment surrounding the valley was not suitable for farming due to the desertification of the land. The Aztecs had corn and beans to provide protein but since these vegetables could only be grown in certain seasons, they were an insufficient way to get protein. This is what led Harner to believe cannibalism was their only constant and abundant supply of protein. Harner also suggested that the purpose of the flowery wars was to capture prisoners to sacrifice with the intent to consume them. Price, (1978) however, disagreed. She stated that the highest classes of society, who consumed most of the human sacrifices, already had easy access to other meat. Ortiz De Montellano (1978) argued against Harner’s hypothesis as well. He stated that there was a wide range of meat protein available, advances in agricultural techniques, plenty of stored food, and that the Aztecs had a good overall diet. Montellano also suggested other ideas as to why the â€Å"ecological hypothesis† was not true. The first was that the Aztecs were conquering new lands and areas for agriculture, which sometimes provided them with a new source of game to hunt, thus having a larger pool of meat to eat. His second was of the minor availability of the total human protein from sacrifice because the flesh was reserved for the elite, which included great warriors and priests. Montellano’s third was evidence that explained that the bulk of the Aztec’s sacrifices took part during the periods of time in the year when there were plenty of crops and plenty of food to easily sustain them. This means that instead of the Aztecs relying on human meat during the off-season, they practiced cannibalism regardless of their food status. Michael Winkelman (1998) said, â€Å"in comparison to other societies with human  sacrifice, the Aztecs were extreme in several measures: they were the only human sacrifice society in this sample with a high risk of famine; the highest on several measures of population pressure; in the highest category of population density (over 500 persons per square mile); and had the highest levels of overall warfare for land resources. Therefore, their sacrifice and cannibalism may reflect their extreme conditions on many ecological variables.† John M. D. Pohl (2002) stated, â€Å"Aztec sacrifice, once perceived as a ruthless practice committed by a ‘tribe’ seemingly obsessed with bloodshed, is now seen as no more or less brutal than what many imperial civilizations have done.† The Aztecs were not the only people throughout the Earth’s history to have such violent practices. William Prescott (1992) compiled research comparing the Aztecs violent ways to those of other cultures throughout history. According to Prescott’s research, such violent practices were found among the ancient Canaanites, the Celtic people, and the Romans. The Romans had slaves that they condemned to die merely for the purpose of entertainment in the Colosseum. The research also notes the story of Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament, where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for God. While the story was against sacrifice it still shows that it was a known practice. Another biblical story of sacrifice that Prescott mentions is the story of Jepthah. Jepthah pledges that he will sacrifice the first living creature that he saw when returning home if god would give him victory in his upcoming battle. When Jepthah returns home, he is greeted by his daughter and is forced by the bindings of his word to make a burnt offering of his daughter. Prescott’s compilation of research also included the Hindu custom of suttee, which was the suicide of the widow on the funeral pyre of her husband because of the Hindu belief in Samsara. French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1964) described the Aztecs as suffering from â€Å"a maniacal obsession with blood and torture.† However, Harner (1977:51) stated, â€Å"Gruesome as these practices may seem, an ecological perspective and population pressure theory render the Aztec emphasis on human sacrifice acceptable as a natural and rational response to the material conditions of their existence. A materialist ecological  approach reveals the Aztecs to be neither irrational nor mentally ill, but merely human beings who, faced with unusual survival problems, responded with unusual behavior.† The Aztec’s beliefs about the world and how they, as a people, could keep the sun rising and the plants growing and therefore continued life for future generations was also a very powerful force in their commitment to give to the gods the highest honor of human sacrifice. The Aztecs definitely had a violent culture and had some very unorthodox practices, but were their methods any more cruel than nuclear warfare, terrorism, and torture for political reasons? We look at the Aztec’s reasons for their violent actions as insufficient but we do not question our own reasons for the violence we create today. Perhaps it’s in the way we view, interpret, and justify the actions.

Decision to drop atomic bomb Essay Example for Free

Decision to drop atomic bomb Essay The decision was made from the president that they were going to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 6, 1945. They chose to drop the bomb because if they didn’t there would have been more casualties than necessary in the continued fighting in the Asian theater of the war . Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the president at that time, Harry S. Truman, made the right choice. The atomic bomb was definitely a political conflict for the United States and Japan. The event which initiated the ultimate bombing began with Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, according to History.com. When the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, instantly â€Å"Little boy† destroyed 90% of the city, even though it exploded at an altitude of 580 meters. Since the city of Hiroshima only had 298 doctors and 270 of them died, this was rough for the citizens in Hiroshima since the people had no medical help. When they were looking for food and clothes and such it was very rare for them to find the materials they need. However in Nagasaki it was easy to get meds from the naval hospitals out there. Well in September in Hiroshima it was very hard for the people to heal faster because it was so cold and rainy outside for them to fully recover. According to Cacpeaceday. Before dropping the bombs, Japan was refusing to surrender, their emperor insisted on fighting on. Everyone thought that japan had lost but they didn’t know that they refused to surrender and kept fighting. So more and more American’s were dying. The US felt like if they don’t defeat japan soon that they will gain more advantage over Asia or even in japan. Japan ended up shortly surrendering after US dropped two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was occupied by allied powers under the American general, MacArthur. Reference According to ibiblio.com pg. 24. http://cacpeaceday.wikispaces.com/3.+The+impact+and+short+term+effects+of+the+dropping+of+the+atomic+bombs U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey: The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki June 1946

The Human Papilloma Virus and Cervical Cancer in Ghana

The Human Papilloma Virus and Cervical Cancer in Ghana CONTENTS INTRODUCTION HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS Causes Risk factors Prevention Vaccination Screening CERVICAL CANCER Signs and symptoms INTRODUCTION Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are infections that one can acquire from having sexual contact with an infected person. There are over 20 STIs which have been identified including HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, pelvic inflammatory disease, trichomoniasis, syphilis, gonorrhoea, HPV and genital herpes1. According to WHO, more than a million people acquire a sexually transmitted infection a day2. STIs require treatment but there are some such as HIV/AIDS which are incurable and deadly but can be managed to prolong life. Majority of STIs are asymptomatic2 but the infection can still be passed on to partners3. If there are symptoms, they include bumps, sores or warts near the mouth, penis, vagina, or anus, swelling near the penis, skin rash, painful urinations, weight loss, night sweats, aches, pains, fever, chills, jaundice, vaginal or penal discharge and severe itching near genitals4. Infections are spread predominantly, as suggested by its name, through sexual contact, including vaginal, oral, anal sex or even genital touching3. Some ways of protecting one’s self against STIs are; Abstinence from sexual activities Condom usage during sex Limiting the number of sexual partners one has. The more the number of partners one has, the higher the chances of catching an STI. Practicing monogamy. This means a couple should have sex with only each other Careful choice of sex partners. Dont have sex with someone whom you suspect may have an STI. Getting checked for STIs so that the infection is not passed on to others Knowing the signs and symptoms of STIs and looking for them in one’s self and their sex partners. Learning more about STIs to better protect one’s self.4 STIs are classified under bacterial, viral, and parasitic/fungal infections. For the purpose of this paper, the viral group shall be taken into consideration. In general, viral infections involve many different parts of the body at the same time5. Viral infections include; Human Papilloma Virus (HPV): The human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common viral infection. There are about 40 types of HPV that are transmitted sexually through oral, anal or vaginal sex. Genital Herpes: Genital Herpes is caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus. It is in the same family of viruses that cause cold sores around the mouth. Hepatitis B Virus: Hepatitis B or Hep B, affects the liver. It is not to be mistaken with Hepatitis A or C, which are other forms of liver disease. Hepatitis B is easily transmitted not only through sexual activities, but by sharing items like razors, needles and toothbrushes. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV): Human Immunodeficiency virus or HIV/AIDS attacks the body’s immune system, leaving infected individuals unable to fight off other illness. It is transmitted through sexual activities, but also spread by sharing items like razors, needles and toothbrushes. Cervical cancer occurs when there is an abnormal proliferation of cervical cells. These cells gradually develop pre-cancerous changes before turning into cancers. It is one of the most common cancers in women across the world. When pre-cancerous cell changes are detected early, using a method called the pap test, they can be successfully treated to prevent cancers from developing6. Cervical cancers are classified into squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. The focus of this paper is to describe the relationship between one of the viral STIs, the Human Papilloma Virus, and cervical cancer in Ghana. HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS Human papilloma viruses, commonly referred to as HPVs, are aetiological agents of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer7. In humans, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus. It affects about 50% of sexually active people at some point in their lives8. Often, being infected is asymptomatic and the infection may go away without medical treatment. HPV is spread through contact with infected genital skin, mucous membranes and body fluids, and can be transmitted through vaginal, anal and oral intercourse. HPV lives in the epithelial cells of the body hence it usually affects the surface of the skin, vagina, vulva, anus, cervix, penis head, mouth and throat. Over 100 HPV types have been identified and each is referred to by a number9. HPV can be classified into a high-risk or low-risk strains. Not all of the sexually transmitted types cause serious health problems. High-risk HPV strains are known to cause about 70% of cervical cancers8. These are majorly types 16 and 18, but they also include types 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73, and 82. Low-risk HPV strains rarely cause cancers but instead cause warts on skin surfaces. Of the total number of virus types found, about 60 cause warts on hands and feet (A papilloma is a benign tumour derived from epithelium ­). There are about 40 types of HPV that are transmitted through sex. CAUSES HPV infection is caused when the virus enters your body through a cut or abrasion in the epidermis of the skin. The virus is transferred primarily by skin-to-skin contact. Genital HPV infections are contracted through sexual intercourse, anal sex and other skin-to-skin contact in the genital region. Some HPV infections that result in oral or upper respiratory lesions are contracted through oral sex. It is possible for a mother with an HPV infection to pass on the virus to her infant during delivery. This exposure may cause HPV infection in the babys genitals or upper respiratory system3. RISK FACTORS The following are some risk factors inherent in HPV: Prevalence of genital HPV is directly related to the number of lifetime sexual partners, recent changes in sexual partners, marital status, age at which one first had sex, illiteracy, oral contraceptive use, alcoholism, hormonal and dietary factors and immune suppression,(domfeh et al) Age at first sexual intercourse: the age of a person at the time which they first had sex could be an indicator for the number of sexual partners they have in their lifetime. Number of sexual partners. The greater the number of sexual partners one has, the more likely they are to contract a genital HPV infection. Having sex with a partner who has had multiple sex partners also increases the risk. Weakened immune systems. People who have weakened immune systems are at greater risk of HPV infections. Immune systems can be weakened by HIV/AIDS or by immune system-suppressing drugs used after organ transplants. PREVENTION The best way to prevent getting an HPV infection is to avoid direct contact with the virus, which is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact. It is difficult to avoid skin-to-contact with our loved ones in our relationships. Also, in most cases of HPV infection, there are no visible signs for us to know in order to avoid direct skin contact with infected individuals. Correct and consistent condom use is associated with reduced HPV transmission between sexual partners but areas not covered by condoms can still pass on the virus when they come into contact partner’s skin. Regular pap tests, which can detect precancerous changes in the cervix that may lead to cancer are recommended. SCREENING AND VACCINATION CERVICAL CANCER Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by two specific varieties of genital HPV: Types 16 and 18. Once HPV enters an epithelial cell, the virus begins to make the proteins it encodes. Two of the proteins made by high-risk HPVs (E6 and E7) interfere with cell functions that normally prevent excessive growth, helping the cell to grow in an uncontrolled manner and to avoid cell death. Often, infected cells are recognized by the immune system and eliminated. Sometimes, however, the infected cells are not destroyed, and a persistent infection results. As the persistently infected cells continue to grow, they may develop mutations in cellular genes that promote even more abnormal cell growth, leading to the formation of an area of precancerous cells and, eventually, a cancerous tumour. Other factors may increase the risk that an infection with a high-risk HPV type will persist and possibly progress into cancer. These include: Smoking or chewing tobacco (for increased risk of oropharyngeal cancer) Having a weakened immune system Increased parity (for increased risk of cervical cancer) Long-term oral contraceptive use (for increased risk of cervical cancer) Poor oral hygiene (for increased risk of oropharyngeal cancer) Chronic inflammation10 It can take 15 to 20 years for cervical cancer to develop in women with normal immune systems. It takes only about 5 to 10 years in women with weakened immune systems, such as those with untreated HIV infection 9 IN GHANA In Ghana, cervical cancer constitutes about 57.8% of all gynaecological cancers. It is the second most common cancer in women with an estimated incidence of 26.4 per 100,000. It is also the second most common cancer in women aged 15 to 44 years in Ghana. Every year, 3,038 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 2,006 die from it in Ghana (Edwin, 2010; Nkyekyer, 2000; WHO, 2010) The Pap smear and VIA have been observed to have challenges with regards to sensitivity and specificity even though the Pap smear is the gold standard for screening in Ghana. A study conducted at the Ridge Hospital in 2013, 201 women were sampled to be used to determine the prevalence of HPV and the associated risk factors. 1

Responding to Student Writing Essay -- Education, Teaching

Responding to student writing is rife with potential — potential to help students improve their writing, potential to encourage a writer to continue, and potential to make the student feel like a failure. The written text used to responding to student writing, the end notes, the marginalia, is hugely influential to student writing, but largely ignored. John Swales might identify this kind of text as an â€Å"occluded† genres—texts that are produced on a very regular basis in a composition class (including syllabus, assignment prompts, etc), but are largely ignored or viewed as inconsequential. The result of this kind of ignored text is that responses to student writing vary greatly and, when scrutinized, generally demonstrate very little substance and very little direction for the writer. In addition to ostensibly useful feedback such as guidance, praise, and corrections—comments that effectively lead students to improve their writing, the marginal comment s also include negative and seemingly useless remarks ranging from non sequiturs to failure, meanness, and cruelty. In part, the wide range of useless comments occurs because most teachers of writing are never taught how to effectively respond to student papers. Sure, many composition classes are taught by Literature scholars (or others), but writing classes are also taught by Composition scholars who, while versed in theory, oftentimes never learn the practical task of marking up student papers. If teachers of writing have been trained in effective ways to respond to student writing, it may from their experiences as a tutor in the Writing Center. To be fair, the field of Composition has explored many ways to effectively respond to student writing. The problem is that it is that te... ...of Responding to Student Writing; or, Looking for Shortcuts via the Road of Excess.† Across the Disciplines 3 (2006): 21 Jan. 2010 . Horner, Bruce. Terms of Work for Composition: A Materialist Critique. Albany: State University of New York UP, 2000. Johnson-Shull, Lisa. â€Å"Teaching Writing in the Rabbit Hole: The Curious Use of the Non Sequitur as a Staple in Teacher Comments.† Unpublished Manuscript. Rose, Mike. â€Å"Narrowing the Mind and Page: Remedial Writers and Cognitive Reductionism.† College Composition and Communication 39 (1988): 267-302. Sommers, Nancy. â€Å"Across the Drafts.† College Composition and Communication 58.2 (2006): 248-257. Swales, John M. â€Å"Occluded Genres in the Academy: The Case of the Submission Letter.† Academic Writing: Intercultural and Textual Issues. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1996. 44-58.

Magical Realism and Psychology Essay example -- Magical Realism Litera

Magical Realism and Psychology "Magical realism was first used by the art critic Franz Roh to designate the pictorial output of the Postexpressionist period, beginning around 1925" (Leal 120). Later, this term was applied to forms of literature. This type of literature contains characteristics such as real and unreal elements, no hesitation, and hidden meanings. Given these and other characteristics, it is easy to see that magical realism can be applied to things outside of literature, such as psychology. In magical realism stories, the places and things are real and unreal at the same time. Luis Leal states that "what used to be called empirical reality, or the world, seems to have become more and more unreal, and what has long been regarded as unreal is more and more turned to or studied as the only 'true' or 'another equally valid' reality" (153). Brooke-Rose says that the "inversion of real/unreal is perfectly logical" (qtd. in Leal 153). This quote seems to coincide with Faris' statement that the "wonders are recounted largely without comment, in a matter-of-fact way, accepted - presumably - as a child would accept them, without undue questioning or reflection" (177). From class discussion, I have found that there are also many ways to interpret the meaning of magical realism stories. "A dream is a sequence of moving images, based on a significant thought which may be either conscious or unconscious" (Hearne and Melbourne 42). Anthony Stevens says, "from the standpoint of dream psychology, the most extraordinary capacity of the human psyche is it's genius for fabricating images" (176). He states an image becomes a symbol when it is endowed with meaning (176). According to Stevens, "Dream interpretation...is an art,... ...reams. Magical realism has probably become popular due to its ability to transport the reader into a new world and make him or her forget about reality. Works Cited Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Circular Ruins". A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes. Ed. Thomas Colchie, N.Y.: Plume Printing, 1991. 25-29. Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction". Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkison Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham Duke U.P., 1995. 163-190. Hearne, Keith and David Melbourne. Understanding Dreams. London: New Holland Publishers, 1999. Leal, Luis. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature". Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkison Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham Duke U.P., 1995. 119-124. Stevens, Anthony. Private Myths Dreams and Dreaming. Cambridge: Harrard U.P., 1995.

Essay --

Brick Dimensions The size of a standard brick is: 76 mm high x 230 mm long x 110 mm wide. Some bricks are made with different sizes. 50 mm and 90 mm high bricks, 90 mm wide bricks & 290 mm long bricks are manufactured for different structural and aesthetic effect. Larger bricks are often used for more economical laying and as design feature either on their own or combined with smaller bricks. In India, the size of brick is 228 Ãâ€" 107 Ãâ€" 69 mm. Larger Hollow bricks (140 mm w x 90 mm h x 290 mm l) are generally used in cyclonic area to ensure reinforcement and grouting in the wall. Wider (150 mm wide) bricks are used in walls requiring lower sound transmission, greater fire resistance levels & higher load bearing capacity depending on the specific brick properties. Circular Cavities are made in bricks. Its’ benefits are that they aid in firing process, reduce weight for handling, provide better bond for mortar. Clay brick sizes may vary after they are fired but size variation between units averages out when blended properly during laying. In most cases, the length of a brick is about double its width, about eight inches or slightly more so as to ensure proper strength. Brick Strength It is defined as the resistance to load per unit area. The strength of brick is determined by the capability of a construction material doesn’t collapse or fall down under the influence of external forces leading to internal stresses. Engineering bricks have average compressive strength of 59MPa. A common house brick is likely to show a range of 20–40MPa. Strength for adobe specimen mean compressive strength: 1.195Mpa, mean modulus of elasticity: 204.5MPa, Mean strain at peak strength: 11%, Mean Tensile Strength: 0.17MPa Strength of EMR autoclaved bric... ... thermal transmittance can be minimized by 1. Avoiding thermal bridges in the brick, and arranging void perforation in quincunx 2. Extending the perforations of void in tongue and grooved area (Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together) and thereby breaking the thermal bridge. 3. Providing a small gap in the assembly, to improve the bricks conductivity. Drawbacks †¢ The manufacturing of brick emits lots of fluorine which is very toxic in nature. †¢ It also produces electrolytic manganese residue (EMR) which is hazardous to nature. Eco-friendly way One of the research focuses on utility of Expanded polystyrene as a mixture with cement, sand and water and preparing the concrete brick. Which has the average compressive strength of 12.79MPa. te relationship of density and compressive strength is given by correlation fc = 2.43 x ÃŽ ±2.997 x 10-9.

Ambition in Life – Essay

I firmly believe that school is much more than what we understand it to be. Education enlightens a person in the same way a lamp brightens a dark room. But in order to ignite the light of education in a person, a teacher plays the role of the lamp carrier. Through my educational life I've considered education as a process to not only gaining knowledge but also a method of igniting our thoughts, and the process of development of a person starts from his early school age. In the developing country like India where half of the population lives below the poverty line, a movement to give the children their right to equal education is required. Having come across students who dropped out of schools because of lack of interest, I feel the urge to be a part of system where a teacher is not only qualified to teach but who can also be a mentor to the students. Teach for India is one such initiative which is working on motto of ending inequity in education and ideas of educating children beyond the conventional methods of our educational system. I realized that by being a Teach for India fellow not only I will be imparting knowledge to the young ones but will also help them in grooming. So it work not only for education sector it also work for community development. I purposely want to join the fellowship as oppose to working in other education-focused organization are as follow:- 1 . Having received the best education myself, I understood the power of knowledge and the impact it can have on the society. By putting me in the class room of young guns of India , Teach for India provide me the chance to advertise new generation not to make the mistakes which they seems to make in absence of proper resources and guidance. 2 . Prior to and during the two-year Fellowship, Teach For India provides Fellows with adequate leadership training to ensure that they are successful leaders in any field once they complete the Fellowship. 3 . Finally and foremost thing it makes me feel me proud to be a good citizen of India who has contributed to some extent to my motherland.

Human Cloning Essay

Introduction: The possibility of human cloning, raised when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created the much-celebrated sheep â€Å"Dolly†, aroused worldwide interest and concern because of its scientific and ethical implications. The feat, cited by Science magazine as the breakthrough of 1997, also generated uncertainty over the meaning of â€Å"cloning† –an umbrella term traditionally used by scientists to describe different processes for duplicating biological material. Given this information, you may ask, or maybe right now, you are wondering what actually â€Å"cloning† is. Biology defines cloning as the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. However, in Biotechnology, cloning is all about copying DNA fragments to produce a perfect â€Å"clone† of the specimen. Derived from the ancient greek word klon, meaning twig, it refers to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig. In this research paper, my main goal is to make you understand and answer our questions on what cloning really is all about, and how it will affect our lives once it is successfully done. Yes, I have my questions as well regarding the process, and the main reason this is the topic I chose is because the idea seems to be both simple and complex at the same time. As to why, I will be answering that as we dig deeper into the topic. Lastly, before we move to the next part of this very interesting research, you may want to know that â€Å"cloning† does not refer only to a single process. It has it’s own complexities, and there are several processes and methods in which cloning is divided and categorized. And now, into the topic we go. Historical Background: As a scientific and technical possibility, human cloning has emerged as an outgrowth of discoveries or innovations in developmental biology, genetics, assisted reproductive technologies, animal breeding, and, most recently, research on embryonic stem cells. Assisted reproductive techniques in humans accomplished the in vitro fertilization of a human egg, yielding a zygote and developing embryo that could be successfully implanted into a woman’s uterus to give rise to a live-born child. Animal breeders developed and refined these techniques with a view to perpetuating particularly valuable animals and maintaining laboriously identified genomes. Most recently, the isolation of embryonic stem cells and their subsequent in vitro differentiation into many different cell types have opened up possibilities for repairing and replacing diseased or nonfunctioning tissue, and thus possible research uses for cloned human embryos. The German embryologist Hans Spemann conducted what many co nsider to be the earliest â€Å"cloning† experiments on animals. Spemann was interested in answering a fundamental question of biological development: does each differentiated cell retain the full complement of genetic information present initially in the zygote? In the late 1920s, he tied off part of a cell containing the nucleus from a salamander embryo at the sixteen-cell stage and allowed the single cell to divide, showing that the nucleus of that early embryo could, in effect, â€Å"start over.† In a 1938 book, Embryonic Development and Induction, Spemann wondered whether more completely differentiated cells had the same capacity and speculated about the possibility of transferring the nucleus from a differentiated cell – taken from either a later-stage embryo or an adult organism – into an enucleated egg. As he explained it: â€Å"Decisive information about this question may perhaps be afforded by an experiment which appears, at first sight, to be somewhat fantastical. This experiment might possibly show that even nucle i of differentiated cells can initiate normal development in the egg protoplasms.† But Spemann did not know how to conduct such an experiment. Research with frogs fourteen years later encouraged progress toward the â€Å"fantastical experiment.† In 1952, the American embryologists Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King first successfully transferred nuclei from early embryonic cells of leopard frogs to enucleated leopard frog eggs. The â€Å"activated egg† began to divide and develop, became a multicellular embryo, and then became a tadpole. Embryologists in other  laboratories successfully repeated these initial experiments on different species of frogs. But additional experience also showed that the older and more differentiated a donor cell becomes, the less likely it is that its nucleus would be able to direct development. In 1962, the British developmental biologist John Gurdon reported that he had produced sexually mature frogs by transferring nuclei from intestinal cells of tadpoles into enucleated frog eggs. The experiments had a low success rate and remained controversial. Gurdon continued this work in the 1970s, and he was able to produce tadpoles by transferring the nucleus of adult frog skin cells into enucleated frog eggs. Later experiments established that many factors in addition to the intact nucleus are crucial to success. In retrospect, it is surprising that any of these earlier exper iments produced positive results. But despite their low success rates, these experiments demonstrated that the nucleus retained its full complement of genetic information and encouraged later investigators to explore mammalian cloning. The birth of Louise Brown in 1978, the first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), was also an important milestone, because it demonstrated that human birth was possible from eggs that were fertilized outside the body and then implanted into the womb. As for the possibility of cloning animals from adult cells – especially mammals – the work in the intervening years focused largely on the reprogramming of gene expression in somatic cells, the transfer of nuclei taken from embryos in mammals (beginning with mice in the 1980s), and finally the work of Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute with adult nuclei, which led to the birth of Dolly on July 5, 1996. Since then, similar success has been achieved in cloning other mammalian species, including cattle, goats, pigs, mice, cats, and rabbits. The animal cloners did not set out to develop techniques for cloning humans. Wilmut’s goal was to replicate or perpetuate animals carrying a valuab le genome (for example, sheep that had been genetically modified to produce medically valuable proteins in their milk). Others, such as the cloners of the kitten CC, were interested in commercial ventures for the cloning of pets.6 Yet the techniques developed in animals have encouraged a small number of infertility therapists to contemplate and explore efforts to clone human children. And, following the announcement in 1998 by James Thomson and his associates of their isolation of human  embryonic stem cells, there emerged an interest in cloned human embryos, not for reproductive uses but as a powerful tool for research into the nature and treatment of human disease. So what does this mean? Having successfully cloning â€Å"Dolly† the sheep? I will be discussing that as we go further with the research. Let me present to you now some historical data regarding the actually topic â€Å"human cloning†. Here is an actually timeline of cloning processes that has been recorded throughout the past century: Cloning Timeline| 1885| August Weismann, professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Freiberg, theorized that the genetic information of a cell would diminish as the cell went through differentiation.| 1888| Wilhelm Roux tested the germ plasm theory for the first time. One cell of a 2-cell frog embryo was destroyed with a hot needle; the result was a half-embryo, supporting Weismann’s theory.| 1894| Hans Dreisch isolated blastomeres from 2- and 4-cell sea urchin embryos and observed their development into small larvae. These experiments were regarded as refutations of the Weismann-Roux theory.| 1901| Hans Spemann split a 2-cell newt embryo into two parts, resulting in the development of two complete larvae.| 1902| Walter Sutton published â€Å"On the Morphology of the Chromosome Group in Brachyotola magna†, hypothesizing that chromosomes carry the inheritance and that they occur in distinct pairs within a cell’s nucleus. Sutton also argued that how chromosome s act when sex cells divide was the basis for the Mendelian Law of Heredity.| 1902| German embryologist Hans Spemann split a 2-celled salamander embryo and each cell grew to adulthood, providing proof that early embryo cells carry necessary genetic information. This finally disproved Weismann’s 1885 theory that the amount of genetic information in cells decreases with each division.| 1914| Hans Spermann conducted and early nuclear transfer experiment.| 1928| Hans Spemann performed further, successful nuclear transfer experiments.| 1938| Hans Spemann published the results of his 1928 primitive nuclear transfer experiments involving salamander embryos in the book â€Å"Embryonic Development and Induction.† Spemann argued the next step for research should be the cloning organisms by extracting the nucleus of a differentiated cell and putting it into an enucleated egg.| 1944| Oswald Avery found that a  cell’s genetic information was carried in DNA.| 1950| First successful freezing of bull semen at -79 °C for later insemination of cows was accomplished.| 1952| First animal cloning: Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King cloned northern leopard frogs.| 1953| Francis Crick and James Watson ,working at Cambridge’s Cavendis h Laboratory, discovered the structure of DNA.| 1962| Biologist John Gurdon announced that he had cloned South African frogs using the nucleus of fully differentiated adult intestinal cells. This demonstrated that cells’ genetic potential do not diminish as the cell became specialized.| 1962 – 65| Robert G. McKinnell, Thomas J. King, and Marie A. Di Berardino produced swimming larvae from enucleated oocytes that had been injected with adult frog kidney carcinoma cell nuclei.| 1963| Biologist J.B.S. Haldane coined the term â€Å"clone† in a speech entitled â€Å"Biological Possibilities for the Human Species of the Next Ten-Thousand Years.†| 1964| F.C. Steward grew a complete carrot plant from a fully differentiated carrot root cell.| 1966| Marshall Niremberg, Heinrich Mathaei, and Severo Ochoa broke the genetic code, discovering what codon sequences specified each of the twenty amino acids.| 1966| John B. Gurdon and V. Uehlinger grew adult frogs after injecting tadpole intestinal cell nuclei into enucleated oocytes.| 1967| DNA ligase, the enzyme responsible for binding together strands of DNA, was isolated. 1969| James Shapiero and Johnathan Beckwith announced that they had isolated the first gene.| 1970| Howard Temin and David Baltimore each independently isolated the first restriction enzyme.| 1972| Paul Berg combined the DNA of two different organisms, thus creating the first recombinant DNA molecules.| 1973| Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer created the first recombinant DNA organism using recombinant DNA techniques pioneered by Paul Berg. Also known as gene splicing, this technique that allows scientists to manipulate the DNA of an organism – the basis of genetic engineering.| 1977| Karl Illmensee and Peter Hoppe created mice with only a single parent.| 1978| David Rorvik published the novel In His Image: The Cloning of a Man.| 1978| Baby Louise, the first child conceived throughin vitro fertilization, was born.| 1979| Karl Illmensee claimed to have cloned three mice.| 1980| In the case Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the United States Supreme Court  ruled that a â€Å"live, human made microorganism is patentable material.†| 1983| Kary B. Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1983. This process allows for the rapid synthesis of designated fragments of DNA.| 1983| Davor Solter and David McGrath tried to clone mice using their own version of the nuclear transfer method.| 1983| The first human mother-to-mother embryo transfer was completed.| 1983 – 86| Marie A. Di Berardino, Nancy H. Orr, and Robert McKinnell transplanted nuclei of adult frog erythrocytes, thus obtained pre-feeding and feeding tadpoles.| 1984| Steen Willadsen cloned a sheep from embryo cells, the first verified example of mammal cloning using the process of nuclear transfer.| 1985| Steen Willadsen used his cloning technique to duplicate prize cattle embryos. | 1985| Ralph Brinster created the first transgenic livestock: pigs that produced human growth hormone.| 1986| Using differentiated, one week old embryo cells, Steen Willadsen cloned a cow.| 1986| Artificially inseminated surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead gave birth to Baby M. She tried and failed to retain custody.| 1986| Neal First, Randal Prather, and Willard Eyestone used early embryo cells to clone a cow.| October 1990| The National Institutes of Health officially launched the Human Genome Project to locate the 50,000 to 100,000 genes and sequence the estimated 3 billion nucleotides of the human genome.| 1993| M. Sims and N.L. First reported the creation of calves by transfer of nuclei from cultured embryonic cells.| 1993| Human embryos were first cloned.| July 1995| Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell used differentiated embryo cells to clone two sheep, named Megan and Morag.| July 5, 1996| Dolly, the first organism ever to be cloned from adult cells, was born.| February 23, 1997| Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland officially announced the birth of â€Å"Dolly†| March 4, 1997| President Clinton proposed a five year moratorium on federal and privately funded human cloning research.| July 1997| Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, the scientists who created Dolly, also created Polly, a Poll Dorset lamb cloned from skin cells grown in a lab and genetically altered to contain a human gene.| August 1997| President Clinton proposed legislation to ban the cloning of humans for at least 5 years.| September 1997| Thousands of biologists and physicians signed a voluntary five-year moratorium on human cloning in the United States.| December 5, 1997| Richard Seed announced that he intended to clone a human before federal laws could effectively prohibit the process.| early January 1998| Nineteen European nations signed a ban on human cloning.| January 20, 1998| The Food and Drug Administration announced that it had authority over human cloning.| July 1998| Ryuzo Yanagimachi, Toni Perry, and Teruhiko Wakayama announced that they had cloned 50 mice from adult cells since October, 1997.| January 1998| Botechnology firm Perkin-Elmer Corporation announced that it wold work with gene sequencing expert J. Craig Venture to privately map the human genome.| Should be interesting enough, right? So in 1998 there was actually a major advancement in the field of genealogy which took us a step closer towards human cloning. â€Å"The Human Genome†. The genome of homosapiens stored in 23 chromosome pairs, was launched – 30 years after the successful deciphering of the DNA code which was done in 1968. It came as a major boost for the much-aspired practice of human cloning. Even though animal cloning was still in it’s infancy stage, several scientists attempted to clone the human cells. In 2002, Clonaid – a human cloning company founded in 1997, revealed that it had sucessfully cloned humans, and made public a picture of a baby which was allegedly the first clone human, named Eve. The company followed up with more of such revelations, but it was difficult to assess the credibility of these claimsas they refused to undergo a DNA test of the mother and child. More of such claims also surfaced, though none were credible enough. Human Cloning Prohibition Act Just when things were falling in place and we were close to the development of a human clone, a major setback came in the form of the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2009, which deemed cloning unlawful, unethical and an immoral activity. The opposition to cloning of humans came from scientific community, which was not satisfied with the results of animal cloning, and the religious communities, which believe that the cloning of humans is an activity which interferes with human life and procreation. Due to the much-debated ethical issues of cloning, both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning are opposed, and even banned in some countries, today. The fraternity of pro-cloning scientists and researchers though, are hoping that human cloning will be legalized some time soon – after which they can get back to their labs, and continue experiments related to the same. Though the death of various cloned animals has questioned the practice of cloning time and again, each of these experiments has put humans one step towards the seemingly impossible goal of successfully cloning its own kind. Techniques/Methods of Cloning: * Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer The term somatic cell nuclear transfer refers to the transfer of the nucleus from a somatic cell to an egg cell. A somatic cell is any cell of the body other than a germ (sex) cell. An example of a somatic cell would be a blood cell, heart cell, skin cell, etc. In this process, the nucleus of a somatic cell is removed and inserted into an unfertilized egg that has had its nucleus removed. The egg with its donated nucleus is then nurtured and divides until it becomes an embryo. The embryo is then placed inside a surrogate mother and develops inside the surrogate. * The Roslin Technique The Roslin Technique is a variation of somatic cell nuclear transfer that was developed by researchers at the Roslin Institute. The researchers used this method to create Dolly. In this process, somatic cells (with nuclei in tact) are allowed to grow and divide and are then deprived of nutrients to induce the cells into a suspended or dormant stage. An egg cell that has had its nucleus removed is then placed in close proximity to a somatic cell and both cells are shocked with an electrical pulse. The cells fuse and the egg is allow to develop into an embryo. The embryo is then implanted into a surrogate. * The Honolulu Technique The Honolulu Technique was developed by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama at the University of Hawaii. In this method, the nucleus from a somatic cell is removed and injected into an egg that has had its nucleus removed. The egg is bathed in a chemical solution and cultured. The developing embryo is then implanted into a surrogate and allowed to develop. We’re done discussing the historical background of human cloning. And â€Å"cloning† also in the general sense was also, at the very least, has been thoroughly defined. I hope this has been informative enough to shed some light as to how cloning was little by little, brought into the mainstream of scientific breakthroughs. Moving on to the next part, I will now discussed the problems associated with human cloning. Statement of the Problem: The main problem on human cloning is that there has been no advancement to the process since the â€Å"genome†. And even though it was a major advancement, the process remains very inconsistent and very risky in many of it’s aspects, and there had been many issues regarding it. Conflicts about it’s ethical and moral implications are popped out the moment human cloning has been brought into the frontlines of scientific studies. We, as people have different cultures and traditions and these factors greatly influence the advancement of cloning in a far deeper sense. The question is, what exactly are the risks of cloning? Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly inefficient. More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. More than 100 nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce one viable clone. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died young, and many of them were abnormally large. Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long-term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For example, Australia’s first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine a cause of death. In 2002, researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported that the genomes of cloned mice are compromised. In analyzing more than 10,000 liver and placenta cells of cloned mice, they discovered that about 4% of genes function abnormally. The abnormalities do not arise from mutations in the genes but from changes in the normal activation or expression of certain genes. Problems also may result from programming errors in the genetic material from a donor cell. When an embryo is created from the union of a sperm and an egg, the embryo receives copies of most genes from both parents. A process called â€Å"imprinting† chemically marks the DNA from the mother and father so that only one copy of a gene (either the maternal or paternal gene) is turned on. Defects in the genetic imprint of DNA from a single donor cell may lead to some of the developmental abnormalities of cloned embryos. From these information, it gives us the impression that cloning is too risky and many people believe that it is quite impossible to clone a human being when the results of the trial conducted are not very compelling and satisfactory. In fact, in some cases, the thought of cloning a human instills fear on most religious people because of their belief of the Divine and the laws in conjunction with their beliefs. Another question arises, thus creating more conflict and even bigger arguments about the process. Should humans be cloned? Physicians from the American Medical Association and scientists with the American Association for the Advancement of Science have issued formal public statements advising against human reproductive cloning. The U.S. Congress has considered the passage of legislation that could ban human cloning. Due to the inefficiency of animal cloning (only about 1 or 2 viable offspring for every 100 experiments) and the lack of understanding about reproductive cloning, many scientists and physicians strongly believe that it would be unethical to attempt to clone humans. Not only do most attempts to clone mammals fail, about 30% of clones born alive are affected with â€Å"large-offspring syndrome† and other debilitating conditions. Several cloned animals have died prematurely from infections and other complications. The same problems would be expected in human cloning. In addition, scientists do not know how cloning could impact mental development. While factors such as intellect and mood m ay not be as important for a cow or a mouse, they are crucial for the development of healthy humans. With so many unknowns concerning reproductive cloning, the attempt to clone humans at this time is considered potentially dangerous and ethically irresponsible. The problems are quite disturbing and it require lots of critical thinking, analysis, arguments, debates, etc. to point out the quintessence of the cloning problems. I would like to add a personal touch into the next part,  the causes and effects. Causes and Effects: Now, let’s view the concept in a much bigger perspective. At first, I had problems analyzing what may be the real cause(s) of the problems about the cloning process, and what are the implications of human cloning failures. So by gathering more significant information and resources, I was able to cite several causes as well as the effects of the problems I stated in a broad concept. All the talk in recent years about the possibility of cloning human beings has everyone a little unsettled. Even those most enthusiastic about the project speak in cautious, albeit hopeful and optimistic, terms. Most folks aren’t quite sure what to make of the prospect of â€Å"engineering† human beings, although they are a little troubled by the thought, while not a few are very concerned, and some even outraged, over the very idea. It’s good that there is a certain amount of tension in the air over the subject of human cloning, for in many ways it seems we may be about to rush in to something without giving adequate consideration of the ethical, moral, and even spiritual aspects of the proposal. It’s one thing to clone a sheep, or a pig. We’re accustomed to the idea of manipulating the genes and jeopardizing the well being of beasts for the sake of possibly improving the lot of human beings. It’s another thing to be talking about creating new people out of select gene pools for what can often sound like rather elitist purposes. Alarming terms such as â€Å"eugenics† and â€Å"master race† spring to mind. From a Biblical and Christian point of view there are at least three problems associated with the human cloning project. The prospect of engineering new human beings out of existing gene banks raises serious red flags in three important areas. * The hubris of science First is the area of scientific hubris. Following the flood the Lord, surveying the arrogant attempt of fallen men to build a city and tower to celebrate their own technological genius and ability, lamented that, having begun on such a hubristic path, humans would not be restrained to do whatever their fertile—albeit fallen—imaginations might concoct (Gen. 11:6). Modern science has often proceeded on the idea â€Å"if we can do it, we may,  and probably even should.† That kind of thinking has produced many of the marvels and wonders of modern science and technology; it has also contributed to the pollution of the environment, growing stockpiles of hazardous waste, and the threat to the continuation of civilization itself posed by the existence, and growing proliferation of, weapons of mass destruction. It borders on the realm of presumed omniscience, the kind of attitude that says, â€Å"We’re scientists, and we know what we’re doing; we don†™t have to listen to anybody other than ourselves.† Yet such a prerogative surely belongs to God alone. At present a lively discussion is underway over the ethical, moral, and spiritual implications of human cloning. Just because the technology is available—or, at least, nearly available—does not mean scientists should rush to do something the ramifications of which we have not carefully considered through thoughtful, patient discussions in the public square. President Bush was wise, in the summer of 2001, to set the brakes of the engine of the human cloning industry before it accelerated to runaway speed on a downhill curve with disaster as a very real possible outcome. But the pressure on scientists and labs to be â€Å"the first† in scientific discovery has led many technicians to take their research and experimentation to other venues, beyond the reach of Uncle Sam (or Uncle George). Our American culture has, in the past, rewarded the pride-driven efforts of scientists to be the first on their block with some new discovery or other. We award lavish prizes, put people’s faces on the cover of newsmagazines, celebrate them in the schools of the land, and otherwise make every effort to make them household names. What informed American does not know the names of people like Einstein, Pauling, Crick and Watson, and Hawking? Perhaps we should consider coming up with a prize for scientific restraint, awarding those scientists with the Mantle of Wisdom, let’s say, who, after hearing the opinions of sociologists, ethicists, and theologians (among others) determine that their current research project is better off left incomplete. * Human reductionism The second problem area, from a Biblical and Christian perspective, relates to the view of human beings that pervades and drives the human cloning project. Years of animal experimentation in the development of drugs and  treatments have solidified in the minds of many people that humans are just like animals, only a little more complex (all those feelings and stuff). We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we can make this thing work with animals then it’s probably safe, if not outright good, for humans. That’s why we sent monkeys up in space capsules before humans, and why we study lab rats to figure out how to produce happier and more obedient children. I’m not endorsing this practice across the board, mind you, just commenting on its ubiquity and general acceptance as a pathway forapplying the knowledge and technologies of science to questions of human well being. In the minds of many of our contemporaries cloning humans should be no problem once scientists have proven that we can clone animals safely and with beneficial results. But for Christians this is a serious problem, for we understand the Scriptures to teach that human beings are not simply advanced animals; they are the image-bearers of God, and whatever else that means, it is a designation unique to human beings, one that animals do not share (Gen. 1:26-28). As the image-bearers of God certainly we would expect some kinds of deference, some deeper considerations to be given before we apply the fruit of anim al research directly to human beings and communities. The reductionist approach of modern evolutionary science to the question of the nature of human beings has, as recently as the last century, led to human disaster on a massive scale. Tyrants of many stripes, having reduced certain humans to a sub-human level—if only because of ethnic, philosophical, or religious differences—felt no qualms about systematically eradicating those people who had been reduced to sub-human status by their particular worldview. It is not hard to imagine that cloned human beings—for example, some that might â€Å"go wrong† —could be easily disposed of, like lab rats, or that certain types of human beings, because of â€Å"deficient gene pools† (or whatever), might be disqualified from cloning. And, hey, if they aren’t worth cloning for the betterment of humankind, then what good are they? I recall Francis Schaeffer’s chilling observation regarding the straight line from abortion to euthanasia of the eld erly to culling the population for whatever reason: â€Å"If the fetus gets in the way, ditch it. If the old person gets in the way, ditch it. If you get in the way†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Human degradation and devaluation Finally, the problem of human reductionism leads to the degradation and devaluation of human life. If the human being  amounts to little more than a shopping mall of genes, available on demand for the future betterment of the race, then the genes are more important than any individual carrier thereof. There are scientists today who insist that everything about us, everything we think, do, are, aspire to, or become, is determined by our genes. Find the right genes, the best genes, and learn to control and combine them, and you can make life better for someone†¦or for their gene pool. It would be easy to lose sight of the forest (the human person) for the sake of the trees (the genes) in such a situation, and we would be back to classifying people by recognizable gene traits—like color of skin or eyes, shape of skull, ability to reason, or whatever anybody in authority determined to be the desirable traits. People would no longer matter, just traits—just as the young people Hitler rounded up for his breeding camps did not matter as individuals, only as possible conveyors of better genes for the future realization of the â€Å"master race.† Further, the fixation on genes can lead us to believe that things like affections, minds, and consciences—the very stuff of the soul (1 Tim. 1:5)—do not exist, and, thus, need not be taken seriously in seeking to solve problems relevant to the human situation. When everything can be reduced to genes, we don’t need such archaic and useless notions as compassion, self-control, aesthetic delight, forgiveness, love, and the like. All we need are better genes. We’ll figure out how to make those genes available—perhaps in gel caps or chewable tablets—and you’ll be better in no time! And if such â€Å"gene therapies† don’t seem to take hold in you, well then, it’s apparent yo u are beyond help. Your gene pool can’t be improved. We’ll therefore have to rethink your status, what â€Å"class† of human—or subhuman—you might be. And then If human beings are not the image-bearers of God, if they are only animals, to be manipulated, improved, refined, and, yes, cloned, then there is no reason to think that any of those notions of â€Å"humanity,† â€Å"humaneness,† or â€Å"human-kindness,† ideas that had their origins in the days when we thought otherwise about the kind of beings people are, should have any more utility in the brave new world we are creating. Which makes it extremely important that Christians not sit out the current debate about cloning. The hubris of science and the momentum of an evolutionary age are stoking the boilers of the cloning industry, and the engine is building steam for a full-speed-ahead-noholds-barred plunge  over the cliff and into the abyss of postmodern anthropology. For now, the brakes are set. But the present engineer won’t always be in the cabin. The time for Christians to be speaking and working for a change in the consensus of thinking abou t cloning is now, and, as a former president once asked of his cabinet, â€Å"If not us, who; if not now, when?† Let’s now move to the next part. How was I able to gather the information I have provided aside from my personal statements and analysis? How broad is my resource in collecting the data? Furthermore, what are the boundaries and how large, really, is the topic of human cloning is? These questions will be answered shortly as we go into the next part. Scope and Limitations: By now, you should have been enlightened to the significance of this research and a far more interesting idea is that, there are still more to be discussed about the topic. If you thought that the research was still lacking sense, let me share to you more details and let us explore the dark areas covered in this research. Thus, in this part, you should be able to understand the scope of my research, before I wrap this with the limitations naturally set by the topic and also before we form a conclusion to this research. * Arguments for: Some people argue that cloning is the logical next step in reproductive technology. Identical twins are natural clones, so reproductive cloning can be regarded as a technological version of a natural process. If a couple are infertile, why shouldn’t they be able to produce clones of themselves? If a couple have lost a child, why shouldn’t they be able to replace that loved individual with a clone if that is possible? Equally if someone has made a great contribution to science, music, the arts or literature, it seems like a good idea to produce more of them in the hope that we might benefit even more from what would effectively be a much longer working life. What is more, cloning a child could produce a tissue match for treatment of a life-threatening disease. * and against: Others feel equally strongly that human cloning is completely wrong. With the state of the science as it is at the moment it would involve hundreds of damaged pregnancies to achieve one single live cloned baby. What is more, all the evidence suggests that clones are unhealthy and often have a number of built-in genetic defects which lead to premature ageing and death. It would be completely wrong to bring a child into the world knowing that it was extremely likely to be affected by problems like these. The dignity of human life and the genetic uniqueness we all have would be attacked if cloning became common place. People might be cloned unwillingly – we all leave thousands if not millions of cells around everyday as we go about our normal lives shedding skin! Who will control who gets cloned? Companies are already making money storing tissue from dead children and partners until the time that human cloning becomes available. How much scope will there be for unscrupulous deali ngs if human cloning becomes a reality? * The Politics of Human Biotechnology Human genetic and reproductive technologies pose immense challenges for the human future. If used responsibly they offer new ways to treat disease and otherwise improve the human condition. If misused, they could exacerbate existing disparities, create new forms of discrimination and inequality, and open the door to high-tech eugenic practices. In short, biotech tools and practices have the power to promote or undermine individual well-being and public health, to create private fortunes or advance the public interest, and to foster or threaten a just and fair society. New human biotechnologies are being developed very rapidly. Neither the general public nor policy makers are fully aware of the nature and magnitude of the challenges they present. Regulatory oversight is inadequate at both national and international levels. Few civil society organizations have identified the issues these technologies raise as priority concerns. The result is an accelerating stream of technological, soc ial and commercial â€Å"facts on the ground† – new products and industries, cultural icons and images, and concentrations of wealth and influence – that undermines the prospect of democratic governance of human biotechnologies. Contrary to many accounts, however, the genie is not out of the bottle. The most dangerously consequential biotechnologies have yet to be fully developed and marketed. Influential individuals and institutions are beginning to focus on the risks at hand. Responsible scientists acknowledge the need for strong societal oversight. Many countries have adopted comprehensive policies that can serve as models for others. There is no reason that people of different nations, cultures, religions and philosophies cannot work together in support of policies needed to protect our common human future. Appropriate social oversight and regulation need not impede potentially beneficial medical research and applications. The next decade is a window of opportunity during which we can forge understandings and reach agreements on national and international policies that will allow us to reap the benefits and avoid the risks of these powerful biotechnologies. * Human Cloning Animal cloning has produced some remarkable results within the last few years, which has suggested to some that there should be a way to produce a human clone within the next year. Many news articles have appeared recently highlighting the potential to clone a human baby in order to replace a loved one who died as a newborn. Many social, moral, and ethical arguments have been raised in opposition to copying a person. For more details see AMA’s 1999 CEJA Report: The Ethics of Cloning (PDF, 41KB). But perhaps more important is the concern that we do not fully understand the science behind the successes from animal cloning experiments. Animal cloning success (and failure) Dolly, the sheep, was the first successfully cloned mammal (I. Wilmut et al., Nature 1997;385:810). Since 1997, gradual improvements in cloning technology have enabled researchers to generate mouse, cattle, goat, pig, deer, rabbit, cat, mule, and horse clones. While there have been no substantiated evidence for the cloning of humans, recent successes by South Korean researchers in generating stem cells from cloned human embryos (WS Hwang et al., Science 2005) have heightened concerns that this scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility. In spite of recent technological advances, animal cloning remains extremely inefficient. For every 100 experiments only one, two, or if lucky, perhaps three appear to produce a viable offspring in surrogate mothers. While scientific explanations for these failures remain to be defined, many researchers feel they represent nothing more than technical  hurdles that will one day be solved. Even then it’s survival beyond the perinatal period is unlikely. These is no reason to believe that any different outcomes will occur if and when human cloning begins. A quick lesson in cloning technology Before going into the details of why these abnormalities are thought to occur, it is important to have a basic understanding of what in essence happens in order to clone an animal. First, a donor cell is found, which has its original DNA extracted and discarded. Next is the addition of a nucleus from the desired animal that is to be cloned. The third step involves implanting the combined cell into the animal that the donor cell was appropriated from. Understanding the abnormalities This part of the puzzle is as yet unsolved, but theories do point us in some tangible directions. Scientists believe that the resultant cloning abnormalities are not traceable to the donor nuclei, but more likely explanations involve failures in genomic reprogramming. Genomic reprogramming in the natural way prior to embryogenesis (i.e., without cloning technology) involves a stage of development of the sperm and the egg known as gametogenesis, which can take months to years to develop a mature gamete. This process is sped up during cloning, and takes only minutes to hours. The process of configuring the exact state of the inner workings of the cell including such complex processes as methylation of the DNA may not be correct for the development of the embryo. Methylation of DNA and other complex functions are now known to be essential to the correct functioning of each human cell, since they ultimately control gene expression. And thus successful cloning may be dependent upon the donated DNA being correctly altered to the state of an early embryo. It is thought by some cloning experts that failure of the nuclear clones to produce viable offspring is due to inappropriate reprogramming of cells, which leads to unregulated gene expression. Screening tools, do they exist? Because of experience with animal clones, it is reasonable to conclude that future human cloning experiments will have the same high failure rates. The public has heard reassurance that the possibility of performing prenatal  genetic screening exists as a way to control quality. If these groups plan on using current routine prenatal diagnosis for the detection of chromosomal and/or other genetic abnormalities, they will not detect the types of epigenetic disturbances that may occur with cloning. There are no extra tools in the developmental pipeline to help improve detection. Possible reaction to human cloning failures Besides the public outrage that would accompany human cloning failures would in turn hinder science and genetics, research in areas such as embryonic stem cells for the repair of organs and tissues could be negatively impacted. Research is ongoing to develop reprogramming of certain cells to turn into specific tissues types, which could regenerate nerve, muscle, and other cell types, alleviating Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease among other chronic illnesses. The potential benefits of therapeutic cell cloning are enormous, and this research should not be jeopardized with human cloning activities. Legislation Since early 1997 the United States National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) has been looking at the complex issues that surround this controversial subject. NBAC reached a conclusion in 1997, when it reported back to (Former) President Clinton, that a moratorium on human cloning would be advisable. The moratorium, which is supported by the AMA, suggests that no Federal funds be allocated for human cloning. Senator Ben Campbell (R-Co) offered a bill (April, 2001) in the Senate to bar human cloning, which will ban any attempts to clone humans, regardless of whether government or private funds are used to finance the research. If this law is violated, the penalty would be up to ten years in jail and a fine of up to $10 million. An accompanying House bill has been introduced (H.R. 1260) by Rep. Brian Kerns (R-In). White House officials have indicated that President Bush would support legislation outlawing human cloning. Bills Introduced to Congress * H.R.2560 – Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007 * H.R.2564 – Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007 * S. 812 – Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Research Protection Act of 2007 The International Perspective: There is as little consensus among nations as there is among Congress members when it comes to the issue of cloning. In fact, nations are so divided that the United Nations abandoned efforts to create a worldwide treaty on human cloning. Instead, in 2005 the U.N. adopted a resolution aiming to provide guidance to countries attempting to arrive at a position on cloning and stem cell research. Many nations, including the UK, China, and South Africa, have explicitly prohibited reproductive cloning while allowing research cloning. Fewer nations have explicitly prohibited research cloning, which (as of 2006) is allowed in 10 countries. Human Cloning Theories & Further Analysis: (Answering questions why cloning should not be prohibited.) Medical breakthroughs – Human cloning technology is expected to result in several miraculous medical breakthroughs. We may be able to cure cancer if cloning leads to a better understanding of cell differentiation. Theories exist about how cloning may lead to a cure for heart attacks, a revolution in cosmetic surgery, organs for organ transplantation, and predictions abound about how cloning technology will save thousands of lives. You can read about many of the expected medical benefits in the essay â€Å"The Benefits of Human Cloning.† Medical tragedies – Many people have suffered accidental medical tragedies during their lifetimes. Read about a girl who needs a kidney, a burn victim, a girl born with cosmetic deformities, a man who needs a liver, a woman who is infertile because of cancer, and a father who lost his only son. All these people favor cloning and want the science to proceed. To cure infertility – Infertile people are discriminated against. Men are made to feel like they are not â€Å"real men.† Women are made to feel as if they are useless barren vessels. Worse, being infertile is often not considered a â€Å"real medical problem† and insurance companies and governments are not sympathetic. The current options for infertile couples are painful, expensive, and heart-breaking. Cloning has the potential to change the world for infertile couples almost overnight. To fund research – People whose lives have been destroyed or have not been able to reproduce in this lifetime due to tragedy could arrange to have their DNA continued and fund research at the same time. For example: A boy graduates from high school at age 18. He goes to a pool party to celebrate. He confuses the deep end and  shallow end and dives head first into the pool, breaking his neck and becoming a quadriplegic. At age 19 he has his first urinary tract infection because of an indwelling urinary catheter and continues to suffer from them the rest of his life. At age 20 he comes down with herpes zoster of the trigeminal nerve. He suffers chronic unbearable pain. At age 21 he inherits a 10 million dollar trust fund. He never marries or has children. At age 40 after hearing about Dolly being a clone, he changes his will and has his DNA stored for future human cloning. His future mother will be awarded one million dollars to have him and raise him. His DNA clone will inherit a trust fund. He leaves five million to spinal cord research. He dies feeling that although he was robbed of normal life, his twin/clone will lead a better life. Bad parents – Did your parents destroy your life? Were they alcoholic, child-beating molesters? Did you never have a chance? Interest ingly, human cloning allows you the opportunity to participate in choosing the parents for your clone. A Child’s right to be better than its parents – It’s been suggested that parents have a duty to see that their children have better lives than they do. This may mean making our children live longer, helping them to be resistant to cancer, heart disease, any familial diseases, and all the other problems that can be cured using what we learn from human cloning technology. To take a step towards immortality – Human cloning essentially means taking a human being’s DNA and reversing its age back to zero. Dr. Richard Seed, one of cloning’s leading proponents, hopes that cloning will help us understand how to reverse DNA back to age 20 or whatever age we want to be. Cloning would be a step towards a fountain of youth. To make a future couple financially secure – With human cloning you could give a couple in the future both a child from your DNA and the financial assets from your lifetime to start out financially secure instead of struggling as most couples do now. Because you believe in freedom – Freedom sometimes means having tolerance for others and their beliefs. In America, some people believe gun control and some don’t. Some people believe in one religion and others in another. In a free society we know that we must tolerate some views that we don’t agree with so that we all may be free. For this reason human cloning should be allowed. To be a better parent – Human cloning can improve the parent-child relationship. Raising a clone would be like having a child with an instruction manual. You would have a head start on the needs and talents of your child. We are not saying that a clone would be a carbon copy with no individuality. Our talents and desires are genetic, developmental, and environmental. We would have a head start on understanding the genetic component of a cloned child. Endangered species could be saved – Through the research leading up to human cloning we will perfect the technology to clone animals, and thus we could forever preserve endangered species, including human beings. Animals and plants could be cloned for medical purpo  ses – Through the research leading up to human cloning, we should discover how to clone animals and plants to produce life-saving medications. You want your clone to lead the life that was meant to be yours – The Human Cloning Foundation has been surprised by the number of people that write to say that they would like to have a clone so that it may lead the life that was meant to be theirs. Typically, these are people who have suffered some terrible physical or mental handicap and feel robbed of the opportunities they should have had in life. Some see this life as a sacrifice so that the life of their clone may be enriched. To have a better sense of identity – If we had some information about ourselves, perhaps we could sooner or better discovery who we are. A clone would have access to a tremendous amount of information about his or her parent that could greatly help in understanding one’s psyche and physical attributes. All of this information could provide a better sense of identity. Because so many people want cloning – Please read the dozens of essays by people from all over the world in support of human cloning and published by the Human Cloning Foundation. Religious Freedom – At least two religions, the Raelian Religion and the Summum Religion, believe in cloning as one of their tenets. Because of the special relationship that twins ha ve – Twins often have very special relationships. While many people go through their lives never having a special relationship with another person, there are stories of twins in which they are so close they are perhaps psychically connected. More than one person has written the Human Cloning Foundation (including a twin that feels close to her identical twin) that since a clone is virtually the equivalent of an identical twin, they suspect a very special relationship would exist between a clone and its DNA parent. Some twins describe their twin relationship as more wonderful and meaningful any other relationship in  their lives. Economics – Countries that fail to research human cloning will suffer economically. The industrial revolution and Internet revolutions enriched the United States of America. Biotechnology will lead the next economic revolution. Those countries that jump in first will reap the rewards. Those who fail to begin research right away will fall behind. As an example: Japan failed to jump on the Internet bandwagon and is now playing catch-up. Japan has banned human cloning and will probably suffer by falling behind during the biotech revolution. One day in the not too far distant future, Japan may realize its mistake. Gay couples – From one of our readers: â€Å"gay couples go through so much†¦not to mention all the controversy†¦when they decide that they are ready for a baby. People question their right to bring a child that technically isn’t related to them into a lifestyle that falls below societies views of normal†¦..human cloning could allow two gay men to take 23 chromosomes from each male and put them into a single egg to truly have a baby of their own. also two gay women could use this technology to conceive a child of their own using their individual 23 chromosomes.† (To our knowledge the type of reproduction described here has not yet been done, but someday it will probably be possible.) A cure for baldness – From one of our readers: â€Å"But how about the possibility of using cloning technology to get more hair on a balding scalp. For example cloning can be used to get more hair from a few sample hair follicles or grafts from the patient’s head and then grow them†¦.later transplant the grafts where it is needed. This will eliminate the need to do an incision in back of the scalp for donor hair and will literally give the patient MORE hair.† Because the sick will demand it – Those resisting human cloning research will probably find themselves shouted down by the sick and the maimed who desperately need such research. Human cloning technology promises to cure many or all incurable diseases and the moral weight of the dying and infirm will undoubtedly sway the politicians more than the arguments of the healthy, who often remain ignorant of the potential of human cloning, because they have never been motivated by suffering to look desperately for a cure. Hope – On the Charlie Rose television show on February 14th, 2001, three anti-cloners debated against one reporter. The anti-cloners made the case for stem cell research while alleging that cloning itself would not result in any major scientific breakthroughs. It is  likely that the anti-cloners are quite wrong. Learning the process of reprogramming, differentiation, and dedifferentiation is likely to result in just as many medical miracles as stem cell research. The two lines of research go hand in hand and should complement each other. The three anti-cloners came across as people who would destroy hope. The kept alleging that things were impossible. They reminded me of the same types of people who proclaimed that cloning was impossible years ago. Furthermore, they seemed happy and willing to take away the hope of infertile couples and others with severe diseases that human cloning technology might one day lessen their suffering or save their lives. The anti-cloners also seemed to feel that they had the ability to predict the timing and course of science advancement, which history has shown to be folly. Living on through a later-born twin – Some childless people feel that by being cloned by their later-born twin would help them o r their DNA to live on in the same sense that people who have children live on. Alright! So I think I am able to gather credible information/data regarding this research. To wrap things up, human cloning may or may not be limited to the information contained in this research. The best thing to do if you are still skeptical about this research is to conduct your own and compare it with this one, or make this your guide to better understand the human cloning topic. Such a broad topic cannot be summarize in a few pages such as this, if I’m contradicting myself there, you might as well think of it deeply and you may have the answer too, that in it’s own way, really, human cloning may be explained as simply as process of creating copies of actual human beings or as complex as the information presented. Recommendation/Conclusion: This is where I get to share to you my own views, opinions, analysis, criticisms, and other things required to form an excellent conclusion to this brilliant topic. â€Å"Human Cloning† had really piqued my interest and in some way, I cannot have enough of it for myself. My recommendation is that, if you’re not satisfied with this, please do make yourself comfortable by conducting your own research, and making your own research paper about the topic. To make this brief, I really am a skeptic so I am not easily sucked into the gravity or concreteness of the information/data I have acquired. I mean, I do not easily decide whether something should be approved or not. Being a student of course, is both advantageous and disadvantageous in understanding the concept of this topic. But I’m not saying that my understanding is limited only in a short extent. What I mean, is that I cannot give a definite answer to the question I am about to leave. Instead, I can only share to you my ideas about the topic, which, I already did by discussing to you this research in both narrative and informative sort of way. Therefore, I have reached the conclusion that the understanding of the topic is still unequivocally relative to whoever reads this. I choose to let the sense of â€Å"conclusion† flow through the minds of the readers, thus making this conclusion, â€Å"conclusive† based on the understanding of each people who read this research paper of mind. Let me leave to you my final question – â€Å"to clone? Or not to clone?†