L. Chinense Growth Conditions and Artificial Pollination

L. Chinense Growth Conditions and Artificial Pollination INTRODUCTION The genus Liriodendron is a distinctive and valuable hardwood that has great ecological and economic values. It grows fast and the wood is light and soft, so it is cultivated in many temperate mountains of the world for wood production [1-4] and it’s recommended for waste landfill remediation [5]. Its a flowering plant with beautiful leaves and hence used for urban landscaping as it provides shading as well. Besides, the tree genus Liriodendron is valued as materials source for honey production, chemical extracts [6-8], biomass and biofuels [9, 10]. The genus Liriodendron survived from the last Ice Age and was distributed in large geographical ranges of North American and East Asian respectively. Currently it comprises only two morphologically similar species, Liriodendron tulipifera L. and Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.) Sarg. [11]. However L. chinense (Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.) Sarg.) has been regarded as a rare and endangered plant because it occurs in small, isolated and thinly scattered populations [12]. L. chinense was listed in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Plants in China [13], and has currently been classified as a lower risk or near-threatened species (http://www.iucnredlist.org/). In the process of L. chinense sexual reproduction, the low seed setting percentage is a marked trait. After years of statistics, the setting percentage of L. chinense is not more than 10% in natural state, and it is hard to find the seedling in natural environment [14]. In the last two decades, many researchers have conducted studies, such as examining the relative contribution of the pollen fertility and transfer, availability of resources, flower or seed predation and genetics, to find out why L. chinense only produce few seeds [15-18]. Unfortunately, there has been no consistent conclusion. Pollination, as a key event in reproductive process of plants, especially in rare or endangered plant species like L. chinense that have low seed production, is probably one of the weak links in the reproductive cycle. Any barrier occurring between pollen and stigma interaction will lead to low seed production, however, few studies have focused on the pollination in L. chinense. Zhou and Fan ex amined the pollen quality, pollen germination and growth on stigma using fluorochroma method. The results indicated that in vivo the pollen grains can load on about 64% pistils of the gynoecium, but the rate of pollen tube passing the style is low, only 24% [19]. In addition to few pollen tubes passing the style, the pollen tubes may grow twined or in no direction, suggesting that only a smaller percent of the pollen tubes penetrates the micropyle and enter into ovule [20, 21]. These results show that the interaction between pollen and stigma occurs in different phases after pollen grains loading on stigma, and there are different barriers distributed in stigma surface, style and ovule during pollen tube growth. In self-compatible plants, the pollen-stigma interaction comprises six stages between pollen and pistil: pollen capture and adhesion, pollen hydration, pollen germination, penetration, growth of pollen tube through the stigma and style, pollen tube enter into the ovule and discharge the sperm cells [22]. After the pollen-stigma interaction, the nuclei of two gametes fuse to form the zygote. However, in self-incompatible plants, no matter the barriers occurs in which stage of interaction, there is no formation of a viable zygote. Previous studies in L. chinense showed that many pollen grains germinated on pistils of the gynoecium but few pollen tubes could penetrate the pistil style, and most of the pollen tube couldn’t pass through micropyle and enter into ovule. This phenomenon suggests that there might be other factors affecting pollen-stigma interaction in L. chinense. To verify this hypothesis, we conducted a systematic morphological and proteomic analysis on the pistil of L. chinense during pollination. The result provides new insights in the mechanism underlying sexual reproduction in L. chinense. MATERIALS AND METHODS L. chinense growth conditions and artificial pollination The L. chinense plants was grown in Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. During the flowering season, which extends from late April to May, the branches with flower buds which were about to open were cut from the tree and cultivated with half-strength Hoagland’s nutrient solution in greenhouse under 14 h light (400-800ÃŽ ¼molm-2s-1) at 26 ±2oC and 10 h darkness at 20 ±2 oC [23]. The relative humidity was maintained at 60-70% [19]. The flower buds with an opening on top and a probability of opening the following day were chosen and the androecium was emasculated at night before pollination. Artificial pollination was done the next afternoon as follow: Mature pollen grains were harvested from open flowers and then were smeared on the pistils without androecium using a soft brush. This artificially pollinated pistil was cut from the flower 30 minutes after pollination and stored in liquid nitrogen. Similarly, the pistil after 1 h pollination was harvested, sto red in liquid nitrogen. The harvested un-pollinated pistil was stored in liquid nitrogen. All three of these samples were named as S2, S3, and S1 respectively and stored in -80 oC freezer. All three treatments (S1, S2, and S3) were repeated five times respectively. Paraffin section Anthers and pistils were fixed in FAA solution containing 5% glacial acetic acid, 5% formaldehyde, 70% ethanol at room temperature for 24 h. After dehydration and infiltration, the samples were embedded in paraffin and cut into 10- µm-thick sections by Rotary Microtome Leica RM2265 (Germany). Then the sections were sealed by neutral balsam and photographed by Olympus-BX51 (Japan). Gel-based proteomics in L. chinense Protein extraction and 2-DE Proteins of pistils were extracted as previously described [24]. Briefly, 0.25-0.3 g of pistils were ground in 2 ml pre-cooled homogenization buffer which contains 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH7.5), 250 mM sucrose, 10mM EGTA, 1% Triton X-100, 1 mM PMSF, and 1 mM DTT. The homogenate was shifted into a centrifugal tube and centrifuged at 12000Ãâ€"g for 30 min at 4 oC. The supernatant was collected in new centrifugal tube and mixed with 3 volumes cold acetone. The tube was kept at -20 oC at least 2 h, and then centrifuged at 12000Ãâ€"g for 30 min at 4 oC, and the precipitate was collected and washed with cold acetone three times. After centrifugation, the pellet was vacuum-dried. The immobilized pH gradient strips (17 cm, pH 4-7 linear, Bio-Rad, USA) were loaded with 350 ÃŽ ¼l sample buffer containing 800 ÃŽ ¼g sample proteins at room temperature in tray for 16 h. Isoelectric focusing was performed with the PROTEAN IEF system (Bio-Rad, USA) for a total 80000 V-hr. Then the strips were equilibrat ed in equilibration buffer I (6 M urea, 2% SDS, 0.375 M Tris-HCl pH 8.8, 20% glycerol, and 130 mM dithiothreitol) for 15 min and equilibration buffer II (6 M urea, 2% SDS, 0.375 M Tris-HCl pH 8.8, 20% glycerol, and 135 mM iodoacetamide) for 15 min sequentially. After equilibration, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was carried out with 12% acrylamide gels. The 2-DE gels were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB) R-250. Image analysis of 2-DE gels The 2-DE gels were scanned at 600 DPI resolutions with an EPSON PERFECTIONTM V700 PHOTO scanner (Epson (china) Co., Ltd.). The images were analyzed with PDQuestTM 2-DE Analysis Software (Version 8.0, Bio-Rad, USA). Spot volumes were normalized by total spot volumes per gel to avoid experimental variations among 2-DE gels. Comparisons and statistical analysis were performed using the calculated average values of each biological replicate among the three different treatments. The protein spots with more than a two fold change among treatments and that passed a Student’s t-test (P Protein identification by MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS The significant differentially expressed spots were excised from the gel manually, and washed with double distilled water twice for 20 min, then distained with 100 ÃŽ ¼l of 50 mM NH4HCO3 in 50% v/v acetonitrile (ACN) for 1 h until the gel is mostly colorless at room temperature. The liquid was removed and 50 ÃŽ ¼l ACN was added to dehydrate the gel. After drying the gel, 25 mM NH4HCO3 containing 10 pmol trypsin (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) was added to the tube and kept at 4 oC for 1 h, and then it was kept at 37 oC overnight. The proteins were then digested according to the method described before [25]. The peptides were extracted and collected using three kinds of solution (0.1% TFA/99.9% acetonitrile, 0.1% TFA/99.9% H2O, 0.1% TFA/50% acetonitrile/49.9% H2O) from gel spot. The peptide solution was concentrated to 10 ÃŽ ¼l, and then desalted by ZipTip C18â„ ¢ pipette tips (Millipore, Bedford, MA, USA). After trypsin digestion, the protein peptides were dried by SpeedVac. Then pept ides were dissolved in 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid, and then 1 ÃŽ ¼l of the sample solution was loaded on Anchor Chip Standard (Bruker Daltonics Inc, Germany). After the Anchor Chip drying, the matrix solution (20 g/L HCCA, TA 95%) was loaded on point corresponding to the location of the sample to a target spot. Through ultrafleXtreme (Bruker Daltonics Inc, Germany) Operation, the PMF data was obtained. The instrument parameters for MS acquisition were list as follows: laser intensity was 20%-26%, reflector detector voltage was 2438 V. Protein identification using MS/MS raw data was performed with flexAnalysis software (Bruker Daltonics Inc, Germany) coupled with Mascot Server software (version 2.4.01) based on the NCBI protein database and SwissPort database of green plants. The searching parameters were set as follows: peptide masses were assumed to be monoisotopic, 100 ppm was used as mass accuracy, a maximum of one missing cleavage site, and modifications which included Carbamidom ethy and Oxidation were considered. (The timestamp of NCBI protein database is 2011/11/09, there were 949,856 sequences of Green Plants and 5,512,397,590 redundant total sequences in NCBI database; the timestamp of SwissPort 57.15, there were 28,783 sequences of Green Plants and 515,203 sequences non-redundant total sequences in SwissPort). The proteins which scores greater than 42 (NCBI) or 26 (SwissPort) (P Gel-free proteomics in L. chinense Protein extraction The protein samples for iTRAQ were recovered in lysis buffer (30 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.5, 7 M urea, 2 M thiourea, and 4% [w/v] CHAPS) by phenol extraction and methanol/ammonium acetate precipitation as described previously [26]. The protein pellets were resuspended in buffer (7 M urea, 2 M thiourea, 4 % CHAPS and 10 mM DTT) in a minimal volume and protein was quantified using BCA protein assay kit (Pierce, USA). Digestion and iTRAQ labeling About 100 ÃŽ ¼g proteins of each sample per tube were prepared. Then it was reduced by adding DTT to a final concentration of 12 mM and incubated for 1 h at 37 oC. Subsequently, iodoacetamide was added to a final concentration of 50 mM, and the mixture was incubated for 1 h at room temperature in the dark. Then the mixture was transferred to centrifugal units (VN01H02, Sartorius, Germany) and centrifuged at 12,000Ãâ€"g for 20 min, and then the filtrate was discarded. Subsequently, 8 mM urea solution was added into the centrifugal units and centrifuged, repeated this step twice. After that, 100 ÃŽ ¼l dilute buffer (50 mM triethylammonium bicarbonate) was added into the centrifugal units and centrifuged. Then 50 ÃŽ ¼l dilute buffer containing 2 ÃŽ ¼g modified trypsin (Promega) was added into the centrifugal units at 37 oC overnight. The resulting peptides were then labeled with iTRAQ reagents (AB Sciex, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For each time point (i.e ., S1, S2, and S3), each sample was iTRAQ labeled 3 times except S3. (i.e., 113-, 116-, 119-iTRAQ tags for S1 3 replicates. 114-, 117-, 121-iTRAQ tags for S2 3 replicates. 115-, 118- iTRAQ tags for S3 2 replicates.) MS/MS Analysis Then the mixture of labeled peptides was concentrated and acidified to a total volume of 2 mL. Labeled peptides were desalted with C18-solid phase extraction and dissolved in strong cation exchange (SCX) solvent A (25% (v/v) acetonitrile, 10 mM ammonium formate, and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid (pH 2.8). The peptides were fractionated using an Agilent HPLC system 1260 with a polysulfoethylA column (2.1 Ãâ€" 100 mm, 5  µm, 300 Ã…; PolyLC, Columbia, MD, USA). Peptides were eluted with a linear gradient of 0–20% solvent B (25% (v/v) acetonitrile and 500 mM ammonium formate (pH 6.8) over 50 min followed by ramping up to 100% solvent B in 5 min. The absorbance at 280 nm was monitored, and a total of 37 fractions were collected. The fractions were combined into 12 final fractions and lyophilized. A quadrupole time-of-flight (LTQ Orbitrap XL) MS system (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany) was applied as described previously [27]. It interfaced with an Eksigentnano-LC AS2 syste m (Eksigent Technologies, LLC, Dublin, CA) using high energy collision dissociation (HCD). Each fraction was loaded onto an Agilent Zorbax 300SB-C18 trap column (0.3 mm id Ãâ€" 5 mm length, 5  µm particle size) with a flow rate of 5  µl/min for 10 min. Reversed-phase C18chromatographic separation of peptides was carried out on a pre-packed BetaBasic C18PicoFrit column (75  µm id Ãâ€" 10 cm length, New Objective, Woburn, MA) at 300 nl/min using the following gradient: 5% B for 1 min as an equilibration status; 60% B for 99 min as a gradient; 90% B for 5 min as a washing status; 5% B for 10 min as an equilibration status (solvent A: 0.1% formic acid in 97% water, 3% ACN; solvent B: 0.1% formic acid in 97% ACN, 3% water). Database Search and Quantification The MS/MS data were processed by a thorough search considering biological modification and amino acid substitution against non-redundant NCBI green plants 20131014.fasta (1,544,439 contigs) under the Sequest ®algorithm of Proteome Discoverer.1.4 software (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.). Protein function analysis by blast2go software (http://www.blast2go.com/b2ghome) was conducted according to the early literature [28-31]. The search results were passed through additional filters before exporting the data. For protein identification, the filters were set as follows: significance threshold Phttp://mascot-pc/mascot/help/quant_config_help.html); S2/S1 or S3/S1 ratios >2 and

The Changes To The Youth Justice System

The Changes To The Youth Justice System there have been many changes to the youth justice system over the years, having varying effects on youth crime. To discuss whether this statement is true or not, we must look at the many government legislations and initiatives that have tried to lower crime. The twentieth century has seen a huge array of moral panics (defined as an over exaggerated response to a problem, justified or not) due to many social changes, such as alcohol, drugs, pop culture, football, music, film, television and video games; these are all seen as causes to youth crime. The moral panic began with the Mods and Rockers who had expressive subcultures during the 1960s which led to skinheads, lager louts, yob culture, football hooligans, rave culture and todays young offenders and anti social behaviour. The 1970s brought more emphasis on the individuals responsibility, the 1980s brought corporatism where justice specialists had a greater influence on policies and in the 1990s where youth crime has been heavily f eatured in the media and there has been the recognition of sub-criminal activity such as anti-social behaviour. Youths have been seen as out of control in the twenty-first century because of societies strong sense of morality but this has weakened for young people, young people these days are constantly looking for fun and excitement, but youth crime cannot be labelled as a moral panic, according to the Telegraph  [1]  from 2005 to 2008, The number of under-18s convicted or cautioned over violent offences rose from 17,590 to 24,102 which is an increase of 37 per cent, however it could be argued that newspapers such as this are fuelling moral panics. The main changes to the youth justice system began with Labours win in 1997, but the system does have a history. The view on youth justice has changed dramatically since the beginning of the 19h century where children were treated as adults in court, the Reformatory Schools Act 1854 created special institutions to reform children in need of care through education; this was the first major legislation towards tackling youth crime. In 1908 The Children Act was passed which abolished imprisonment of juveniles and separated juveniles from adults and began a more welfare based approach to youth crime, juvenile delinquency had started to rise by the First World War and was seen as a problem, A social commentator in 1917 stated their vulgarity and silliness and the distorted, unreal Americanised view of life must have a deteriorating effect and lead to the formation of false ideals, (cited in Muncie 1999:50)  [2]  . The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 then defined a child to be unde r the age of 14 and a young person between the ages 14 and 18, children under the age of 10 were deemed incapable of doing wrong and exempt from prosecution, this is known as doli incapax and it created a panel of magistrates to deal with youth cases, it also created loco parentis where the courts could act for the parent. During 1948 detention centres were formed, a very early version of todays young offenders institutes and was a more punitive approach. Then came the Young Persons Act in 1969 was an important act and made many changes, it gave a bigger emphasis on the social worker and proposed that offenders under the age of 14 with care instead of punishment, police were also made to make use of cautions, however afterwards, the act was criticised for being too soft as rates of crime began to rise. Because of its many flaws, The Criminal Justice Act 1982 and restricted the use of care and custodial orders, Borstals were replaced with fixed term youth custody orders, new sentence s were created and abolished numerous times afterwards until the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which rid youth custody and replaced it with detention in youth offender institutes. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 brought secure training for those aged 12 to 15, The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 extended community sentences and introduced tagging. Cautioning was revised in the Criminal Justice Act 1998 which restricted the use of reprimands and warnings. Before 1997 figures show that approximately 70% of all crimes were committed by a small number of young men and so with Labours win in 1997, their overhaul of the youth justice system had 3 objectives to deal with Prevent youngsters from falling in to crime, provide the criminal justice system with more sentencing choices and focus sentencing on preventing repeat offending  [3]  . Those aged under 18 are sentenced differently from adults as the criminal justice system believe that they are less responsible for their action s than adults and that sentencing should be used for reform as well as/or instead of punishment, this did change however with the killing of James Bulger by two 10 year old boys in 1993 where the murder was so violent they were tried in an adult court. The case caused a huge nationwide debate on how to handle young offenders; much of this was fuelled by the media. The government began its reform with the 1998 white paper No more excuses A new Approach to Tackling Youth Crime in England and Wales this in turn lead to The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which included: The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales to deal with young offenders and reduce reoffending, the Youth Justice Service for local authorities to tackle crime, Youth Offending Teams which included members from probation, social services, police etc., anti-social behaviour orders, new community orders, local child curfew and others, although this act did cover punishment, welfare, action plans, objectives and performanc e reviews, it has been widely criticised for being too harsh with parenting orders, curfews and ASBOs. There is a clash between ASBOs which exclude offenders and the Youth Offending Teams which has a more inclusionist approach. There have been concerns that most of these efforts do not tackle the root causes of crime nor do they influence good behaviour in youths. However this act has many advantages, there is a strong emphasis on the welfare of the child such as the early intervention and focus on parenting and the parents responsibility to the child, the emphasis on restorative justice illustrates the persistence of welfare principles and the act has led to greater funding for the youth justice system  [4]  .The Home Office website lists the main causes of youth crime as troubled home life poor attainment at school, truancy and school exclusion, drug or alcohol misuse and mental illness, deprivation such as poor housing or homelessness and/or peer group pressure and these are the main areas of concern and focus points of the Youth Crime Action Plan of 2008 which set out the governments goals for the next year. The act led to huge amounts of money being spent on the youth justice system like never before, approximately  £380 million which doubled to  £648.5 million by 2007. Youth courts were established by the Criminal Justice Act 1991 and deal with those aged 10 to 17, Labours plans were to try and keep young offenders out of court and emphasised the use of ASBOs community orders etc., however, the Centre of Crime and Justice studies performed an independent audit of the system in 2007 and found the key priority was speeding up the youth justice process  [5]  resulting in missed targets for Labour. It claims that the majority of the budget was spent of custody and not prevention which is pointless if the government do not want youths in custody. As mentioned earlier, the Youth Justice board was introduced in 1998 and has changed the youth crime system, by trying to help young offenders, for example, accommodation and resettlement, alternatives to custody, education, training and employment and health and has set its self targets to reduce self-reported crime and the amount of children overall in the service, however as the independent audit states: Despite regular commitments made by the YJB to reduce the number of children sentenced to custody, the latest targets have not been met. In fact, at present, performance is deteriorating, with numbers increasing by 8% since March 2003 against a target of a 10% reduction.  [6]  It could be argued that although the creation of the Youth Justice Board was a step in the right direction, it hasnt nearly been as successful as it could have been and is failing. Next are the Youth Offending teams, set up in every local authority in England and Wales and is represented by people from the police and probation to health, education and social services. According to the audit, Labour used budgets from social and health care to fund youth crime prevention which according to the report is vital to keeping youth offending down; youth offending teams are not cut out for the social aspect of youth offending which led to missed targets and overworking. The report also found that youth offending teams can only regulate youth crime and cannot reduce it which should be reformed in policy. Although many changes have been made and a lot of money spent, there is increasing fear of gang and knife crime. To have a clearer view on this, we must look at statistics; the main supplier of these is the OCJS (Offending, Crime and Justice Survey) who in 2006 performed a self reporting offending survey to 10 to 25 year olds. For example Here we can see the proportion of 10- to 25-year-olds committing an offence in the last 12 months, at its highest on 26% of all 10 to 25 year olds are committing crime, which is less than a 3rd of all young people, according to the survey 12 per cent of males aged from 10 to 25 said they had committed an offence designated as serious, eight per cent were classified as frequent offenders, and five per cent as serious and frequent offenders  [7]  . 10 to 25 year olds is a wide area of study which could include thousands of young people, of this of only at the most 12% are committing serious crimes, the statistics could be a lot worse. As stated in the summary: (it surveys people aged) 10 to 25 living in the general household population in England and Wales. The survey does not cover young people living in institutions, including prisons, or the homeless, and thus omits some high offending groups. This is a relatively big omission, if they do not survey the people in prison who have been incarcerated of crimes; they are leaving out quite a vital part of their research. Also, the research is only a study which involves interviewing; they interviewed past interviewees from 2003 and 2004 and used new people. Yet if the survey was for 2005, they would only use new people, they also compare to the 2003 and 2004 surveys, which would suggest they are comparing the same people. As mentioned the survey is predominately made up of interviewing, it does not take police crime statistics into account which could give totally different results. According to the government report- Crime Action Plan: One year on Summary, they have been successful in reducing crime, re-offending fell between 2000 and 2007 by 24% The number of young people in the criminal justice system has gone down, by 9% from 2006/7 to 2007/8, more young people are taking part in their communities than using alcohol and drugs and there had been a 22% fall in sharp object assault. The independent audit however disagrees with this, saying that the aim of reducing young offending in Crime and Disorder act has yet to be achieved and that self reported offending is not declining. In conclusion, I would agree and disagree with changes to the youth justice system have little impact on the youth crimes, in agreement rates of youth offending have declined, theres is a lot more social support for young offenders, there has been the recognition of the causes of crime, with the creation if anti social behaviour orders, less children are kept out of court, the creation of young offending teams and the youth justice board is a huge change from the past and the government has actively tried to reduce youth crime with a much better funded system. However, in some aspects the statement could be true, some people believe that there is too much focus on welfare, and not enough on punishment, New Labour had failed even to mitigate the continuing increased use of custody of young offenders, let alone reverse it  [8]  , The government seem to be focusing more on some areas than others. The independent audit found that the budget for youth crime was taken from education, h ealth and social services which were themselves vital to young offenders; they found that most of the governments targets had been missed; Youth offending teams are failing and cannot work efficiently. As the audit says A decade on from the creation of the YJB and YOTs, and at a time of rising concerns about youth gangs and violence involving guns and knives, the time has come to reappraise the role and purpose of the youth justice system and to consider what it can realistically achieve in addressing youth offending.

Essay --

Personal choices are very important in one’s life. The stories that will be compared are, â€Å"The Use of Force†, by William Carlos Williams and â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else†, by Hernando Tellez. It is how the protagonists deal with a situation and how they use their intellectual thinking to deal with the situation. However, personal choices can change the outcome of a conflict, which will either be insightful or pessimistic. People make their own personal choices in everyday life. If the personal choices are not well-made, the conflict can either have a positive conclusion or negative conclusion. People make their own person choices in everyday life. In William Carlos Williams â€Å"The Use of Force† and Hernando Tellez’s â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else†, the protagonists make their own decisions based on the conflict they are confronted with. Williams and Tellez place the protagonists in an occupation in which both protagonists are met with a new customer. In Williams’ story, the doctor approaches a patient and is concerned about the patient’s illness. He uses his professional manner to determine whether or not the child has a sore throat. Similarly, in Tellez’s story, the barber has a customer come in and is responsible for shaving Captain Torres’ beard. The beginning of both stories shows how both of the protagonists are responsible for performing their tasks to the best of their ability. Moving forward, both protagonists come across with a problem. When the doctor attempts an examination, the patient does not respond coopera tively. The attempt at an examination rapidly escalates into a physical battle because the physician is not able to perform his job. In the same way, when Torres takes a seat, the barber realizes, it is his nemesis. Torres ... ...Tellez’s story ended with an exceptional closure because excellent moves were made by the barber. Williams took the protagonist in a negative route and conversely Tellez took the protagonist in a positive route. Personal choices can change the conflict, either leading to an upright ending or depraved ending. To conclude, personal choices are very significant in one’s life. In â€Å"The Use of Force†, by William Carlos Williams and â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else, by Hernando Tellez, both authors showed how people make their own judgments every day in life. However, the stories were different in certain cases because the decisions made by the individual caused the conflict to either end in an optimistic way or undesirable way. Personal choices are important because they help people solve conflicts, but the person must be careful if there personal choice they create is strong.

Blindness and Sight - Nothing and Blindness in King Lear :: King Lear essays

Themes of Nothing and Blindness in King Lear Many of the passages of King Lear, particularly those between the characters of Lear, Kent, the Fool, and Cordelia, all share a common theme. The theme of nothing, as well as the theme of blindness, echoes throughout the play. King Lear is in many ways about nothing. However, Kent, the Fool, and Cordelia make him more than nothing by serving faithfully, speaking bluntly, and loving unconditionally. The first occurrence of the imagery of nothing takes place between Lear and Cordelia. In this particular scene, Lear asks his three daughters to profess their love for him. When Cordelia is prompted to speak, she replies "Nothing, my Lord" (1.1.87). Here, Cordelia acknowledges that her other sisters are only putting on an act for Lear. Since she truly loves him the most, she cannot bring herself to praise him falsely. Instead, she says "I love your majesty according to my bond, no more no less" (1.1.92-93). In this short dialogue between Lear and Cordelia, the word "nothing" is said four times. What's notable is that each time it is said, it implies a different meaning. The purpose of this repetition is to show the audience its importance in the text and to make the ideas and imagery that go along with the word to be clear. By replying "nothing" when posed with the question of her love for Lear, Cordelia implies that there is nothing left to say since her sisters have already said al l that there is to be said. This particular passage, with its usage of the word "nothing" also takes on its own rhythm compared to the rest of the text. In a later passage between Lear, Kent, and the Fool, this imagery of "nothing" occurs again. In the Fool's first speech, he gives both Lear and Kent a little bit of his own brand of wisdom. To that, Kent replies, "This is nothing, Fool" (1.4.126). The Fool tells Kent "you gave me nothing for't" (1.4.128). The Fool then asks Lear "Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?" (1.4.128) To that, Lear relies, "Why no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing" (1.4.130). These "nothings" that occur again here all seem to have different meanings as well. Kent tells the Fool that his wisdom is nothing, since it seems on the surface to not make any sense. When Kent tells the Fool this, the Fool tells him that it was just free advise, and that he was paid nothing for it.

Transcendentalism :: essays research papers

Although the transcendentalism movement was an extremely long time ago the ideas are still pertinent today. When Henry David Thoreau said, 'Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree or an oak';(247), that he would be telling people to be themselves many generations later.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The transcendentalism movement took place during the early 1800's when America was developing its own writing style. The authors of the time all thought in the same wavelength. Some of them, such as Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson belonged to a transcendentalism club in which they shared their ideas. Thoreau had ideas that he firmly believed in and tried to act upon his ideas. He wanted to live in solitude and be one with nature, so he went to Walden Pond and was semi-secluded from society. Except for a couple of times when he went to the nearby town for things he needed he was on his own. He did well with it, but wanted to move on with his life so he left Walden. After his experience, he decided to write about it in his book, Walden Pond. Thoreau tried to live his life based on his ideas no matter how extreme they may have been.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  These transcendentalists had many ideas that seemed to others to be extremely impractical. The authors thought that they could transform the world through their ideas. One of their main ideas was that we are all true individuals and should not conform to whatever the 'norm'; is. Thoreau tells us to live our own life, whether it be good or bad, it is ours. 'However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it or call it hard names';(247). Also, we should do the morally right thing. We should do what our heart says is right and not always listen to our heads. They also wrote in an optimistic view and their writings were very inspiring.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All of their ideas are relevant today on some level. People are reading Emerson and Thoreau as though they were on the current best sellers list. Not everybody reads the material because they are assigned it, but rather they are using it as a tool to find out how to live their lives. All of our lives we are told to be ourselves and not to go along with the crowd, and that is the same thing Thoreau said over a century ago.

Natural disasters

December 28th 1908 barely three days after Christmas, the Messing earthquake would rock and forever change Italy. The earthquake registered a 7. 2 on the Richter scale. This by far has been one of the deadliest earthquakes In Europe, and for obvious reasons Is recorded as one of the most destructive. Given Italy's history of earthquakes, it's said to be one of the most prone areas In Europe. During that last 2,000 years, more than 400 destructive earthquakes have been documented in Italy and seismic activity varies considerably across the country due o the complex tectonics of the & Lead's). The fact that Italy sits on top of the plate boundary off the African Continental plate, leaves those to believe this was a true cause of the devastating earthquake. The plate Italy is sitting on is actually to this day continuing to push against the ocean floor and causing vertical displacement, in return causing earthquakes.The current population of Messing is somewhere around 242,000. At the t ime of the devastating earthquake the population was around 180,000. The earthquake claimed the lives of over 123,000 people that day and left over 59,000 homeless. A estimation of population for 2050 would be In the area of 279,000. The fact that after the earthquake hit and last for a duration of about seconds, a 12 meter tsunami struck the nearby coastlines which added to the destruction already experienced by Messing. The amount of debris and rubble left behind almost totally engulfed the area.There was no power or running water which as a result required evacuation processes to start. The fact that much of the city was unable to survive in these conditions lead to relief efforts from other countries. Russian sailors stepped in and ultimately some cost their lives due to the aftershocks which buried them amongst the rubble. The British sent two battleships and five cruisers along with a destroyer to the site. The US also was able to step In an support humanitarian efforts by bri ng in food off the Navy ships, and by making make shift hospitals for the Injured.Many residents at this point didn't have to means or funds to pay for all the major repairs needed, so they turned to the government to help. The ending result for Messing was that the ability to bounce back from such a terrible tragedy was not easy when the economy along with uninsured properties were at risk. As a consequence, very few homes and businesses had sufficient enough funds to cover the loss from the earthquake. This definitely but a strain on the rebuilding process for Messing. It was an estimated 60 million Euro for repair cost and rebuilding of Messing, however the true amount is still unknown.With little funding to be had, it was only possible at the time for the government to rebuild a much smaller city. The city as we know it today has fully recovered, but will forever be tragically impacted by the lasting effects. In the aftermath, and In the following year to come, Messing took reci tation to reconstruction and built architecture that would withstand earthquakes of various magnitudes. During this lengthy process of rebuilding, many of the survivors were taken to various parts of Italy until the building process was cargo ship Florida, which were brought into the New York Harbor to start a new life.In the year of 1887 a disastrous flood of the Yellow River in China became one of the world most devastating natural disasters. â€Å"Originating at the Banyan Hard Mountains in Western China, the famous Yellow River runs through several provinces before pouring into the Boohoo Sea†(The). The Yellow River is very prone to flooding based on the fact the river itself is elevated and runs between dyke's above the broad plains around it. The flooding that occurred in September of 1887 was so demoralizing and killed more than an estimated 900,000 people. Thus making it one of the world's most recorded deadliest natural disasters to date.Much of the flooding that occ urred in the 1887 floods, was said to be record spring rains and the melting of snow that allowed the river to topple of the 60 foot levees that had been set in place to help this type of disaster from happening. The heavy water flowing eventually eroded the levees and allowed for the mile wide river to then pour out in the floodplain areas. This barrage is what resulted in over 900,000 deaths. It was also said that the in ability for crops to grow due to flooding also played a huge role to many of these deaths as well. Since there is no international unit which to measure a flood's strength it is usually classified by the extent of the damage done, depth of water left and number of casualties†(Worlds Worst Disaster). The city hardest hit by the flood was said to be the Squeezing in Henna province. Due to the waters of the Yellow River potentially breaking through the dyke's in Handouts which flowed into Squeezing, the flood water spread very quickly throughout Northern China at an estimated 50,000 square mile area.Much of this area was said to be that of swamping agricultural settlements and commercial centers. The population in 1887 was estimated to be a little over 3 million. Today's population is that of 8 million. The projected population for 2050 is said to be around 11 million. With the flood claiming so many lives it is also to be known that there causes were contributing factors as well. Pandemics and lack of basic needs for survival was also a major factor to the death toll. China has since taken measure to secure the river in hopes that the floods never happen again.By this the government have built three damns that control the river and in return is also a source of hydroelectricity for the cities. On the afternoon of November 13th, 1985 the Volcano Nevada del Uric erupted in the city of Rammer, Columbia. The Volcanic eruption itself caused a massive mudflow that would practically whippet the entire city. When the Volcano became active and mo lten lava began to melt the snow and ice a chain reaction started to take place. This formed showers of ash in the air.This specific volcano is located some 5,389 meters above sea level, which puts it to be one of the tallest in Columbia. â€Å"All of these mountains are ice-capped extraneousness and are vulnerable to seismic activity due to lying at the intersection of four fault lines†(Suite). There were several precursors noticed before the eruption in 1985. Pumice fragments were seen at the beginning of the onset of eruption along with the ash. By several hours later the town had started an evacuation and the first signs of the molten rock had begun.When the Lars finally hit the city that dreadful night, the whole town was asleep. This resulted in over 23,000 deaths. The mudflow was rushing down at speeds of 30 help predict their eruptions. Special tools and equipment used are that of seismographs, tilt meters, and geometers and correlation spectrometers. All these tools are able to help find small earthquakes and possible swelling of volcanoes. The population of Rammer during this time was 27,300 which meant that less than one- .NET of the population survived. The population today is zero, as the town never rebuilt.The town today is considered a cemetery for all the people buried among the mud. As the town of Rammer never rebuilt, the efforts taken at the time of the disaster by the government and by the United Nations were of great help. Many people and family of the deceased were extremely upset at the government as the evacuation was not taken seriously. As relief efforts took place a great deal was to be held off till daylight in order to look for the live under buried rubble and mud. Relief efforts eased for well over three months lingering into February of 1986.Much of the deaths were blamed on the government for the cancellation of the evacuation, poor planning, human error and simple a lack of experience. † In fact, $1 billion of the Colombian Gross National Product was used for the recovery†. Though the city of Rammer was a good 74 kilometers away from the volcano Nevada del Uric, it only took a mere two and half hours before the city was completely covered. Since this deadly eruption , the volcano has had very little volcanic activity, however, the lasting effects f Nevada del Uric can still be seen today. Natural Disasters Why do Natural disaster occur : here you can include the reasons why natural disaster occurs. the reasons could be both man made and natural. i said man made because there is a theory called â€Å"Population theory of Malthus † where its stated that if the balance of population exceeds that of food supply many natural disaster would occur. you can google â€Å"Population theory of Malthus† for more details. and the natural ones could be earthquakes on which humans have no control. here you can give examples of earthquakes that frequently hits japan. Advantages of natural disaster: there are some advantages of natural disaster as well. for example with flood comes lots of silts which in turn makes the soil fertile. apart from that any population that faces natural disaster frequently builds a strong survival mentality. for example some countries in the Indian subcontinent gets hit by hurricane, tornadoes etc yet the destruction rate is very low due to their adoption of the environment. Disadvantages; There are psychological, social, economical disadvantages of natural disasters. Psychological could be that people might loose their loved ones, their hard earned property. social disadvantages could be after effects of the event like you know looting, robbery due to want of basic necessities etc. Economic disadvantages could be the spending to reconstruct the damaged infrastructures, damage of crops, damage of properties etc then you can include precautionary measures to better deal with natural disaster. So far thats all I can come up with. if anything else comes in my mind I will edit this answer further Natural disasters December 28th 1908 barely three days after Christmas, the Messing earthquake would rock and forever change Italy. The earthquake registered a 7. 2 on the Richter scale. This by far has been one of the deadliest earthquakes In Europe, and for obvious reasons Is recorded as one of the most destructive. Given Italy's history of earthquakes, it's said to be one of the most prone areas In Europe. During that last 2,000 years, more than 400 destructive earthquakes have been documented in Italy and seismic activity varies considerably across the country due o the complex tectonics of the & Lead's). The fact that Italy sits on top of the plate boundary off the African Continental plate, leaves those to believe this was a true cause of the devastating earthquake. The plate Italy is sitting on is actually to this day continuing to push against the ocean floor and causing vertical displacement, in return causing earthquakes.The current population of Messing is somewhere around 242,000. At the t ime of the devastating earthquake the population was around 180,000. The earthquake claimed the lives of over 123,000 people that day and left over 59,000 homeless. A estimation of population for 2050 would be In the area of 279,000. The fact that after the earthquake hit and last for a duration of about seconds, a 12 meter tsunami struck the nearby coastlines which added to the destruction already experienced by Messing. The amount of debris and rubble left behind almost totally engulfed the area.There was no power or running water which as a result required evacuation processes to start. The fact that much of the city was unable to survive in these conditions lead to relief efforts from other countries. Russian sailors stepped in and ultimately some cost their lives due to the aftershocks which buried them amongst the rubble. The British sent two battleships and five cruisers along with a destroyer to the site. The US also was able to step In an support humanitarian efforts by bri ng in food off the Navy ships, and by making make shift hospitals for the Injured.Many residents at this point didn't have to means or funds to pay for all the major repairs needed, so they turned to the government to help. The ending result for Messing was that the ability to bounce back from such a terrible tragedy was not easy when the economy along with uninsured properties were at risk. As a consequence, very few homes and businesses had sufficient enough funds to cover the loss from the earthquake. This definitely but a strain on the rebuilding process for Messing. It was an estimated 60 million Euro for repair cost and rebuilding of Messing, however the true amount is still unknown.With little funding to be had, it was only possible at the time for the government to rebuild a much smaller city. The city as we know it today has fully recovered, but will forever be tragically impacted by the lasting effects. In the aftermath, and In the following year to come, Messing took reci tation to reconstruction and built architecture that would withstand earthquakes of various magnitudes. During this lengthy process of rebuilding, many of the survivors were taken to various parts of Italy until the building process was cargo ship Florida, which were brought into the New York Harbor to start a new life.In the year of 1887 a disastrous flood of the Yellow River in China became one of the world most devastating natural disasters. â€Å"Originating at the Banyan Hard Mountains in Western China, the famous Yellow River runs through several provinces before pouring into the Boohoo Sea†(The). The Yellow River is very prone to flooding based on the fact the river itself is elevated and runs between dyke's above the broad plains around it. The flooding that occurred in September of 1887 was so demoralizing and killed more than an estimated 900,000 people. Thus making it one of the world's most recorded deadliest natural disasters to date.Much of the flooding that occ urred in the 1887 floods, was said to be record spring rains and the melting of snow that allowed the river to topple of the 60 foot levees that had been set in place to help this type of disaster from happening. The heavy water flowing eventually eroded the levees and allowed for the mile wide river to then pour out in the floodplain areas. This barrage is what resulted in over 900,000 deaths. It was also said that the in ability for crops to grow due to flooding also played a huge role to many of these deaths as well. Since there is no international unit which to measure a flood's strength it is usually classified by the extent of the damage done, depth of water left and number of casualties†(Worlds Worst Disaster). The city hardest hit by the flood was said to be the Squeezing in Henna province. Due to the waters of the Yellow River potentially breaking through the dyke's in Handouts which flowed into Squeezing, the flood water spread very quickly throughout Northern China at an estimated 50,000 square mile area.Much of this area was said to be that of swamping agricultural settlements and commercial centers. The population in 1887 was estimated to be a little over 3 million. Today's population is that of 8 million. The projected population for 2050 is said to be around 11 million. With the flood claiming so many lives it is also to be known that there causes were contributing factors as well. Pandemics and lack of basic needs for survival was also a major factor to the death toll. China has since taken measure to secure the river in hopes that the floods never happen again.By this the government have built three damns that control the river and in return is also a source of hydroelectricity for the cities. On the afternoon of November 13th, 1985 the Volcano Nevada del Uric erupted in the city of Rammer, Columbia. The Volcanic eruption itself caused a massive mudflow that would practically whippet the entire city. When the Volcano became active and mo lten lava began to melt the snow and ice a chain reaction started to take place. This formed showers of ash in the air.This specific volcano is located some 5,389 meters above sea level, which puts it to be one of the tallest in Columbia. â€Å"All of these mountains are ice-capped extraneousness and are vulnerable to seismic activity due to lying at the intersection of four fault lines†(Suite). There were several precursors noticed before the eruption in 1985. Pumice fragments were seen at the beginning of the onset of eruption along with the ash. By several hours later the town had started an evacuation and the first signs of the molten rock had begun.When the Lars finally hit the city that dreadful night, the whole town was asleep. This resulted in over 23,000 deaths. The mudflow was rushing down at speeds of 30 help predict their eruptions. Special tools and equipment used are that of seismographs, tilt meters, and geometers and correlation spectrometers. All these tools are able to help find small earthquakes and possible swelling of volcanoes. The population of Rammer during this time was 27,300 which meant that less than one- .NET of the population survived. The population today is zero, as the town never rebuilt.The town today is considered a cemetery for all the people buried among the mud. As the town of Rammer never rebuilt, the efforts taken at the time of the disaster by the government and by the United Nations were of great help. Many people and family of the deceased were extremely upset at the government as the evacuation was not taken seriously. As relief efforts took place a great deal was to be held off till daylight in order to look for the live under buried rubble and mud. Relief efforts eased for well over three months lingering into February of 1986.Much of the deaths were blamed on the government for the cancellation of the evacuation, poor planning, human error and simple a lack of experience. † In fact, $1 billion of the Colombian Gross National Product was used for the recovery†. Though the city of Rammer was a good 74 kilometers away from the volcano Nevada del Uric, it only took a mere two and half hours before the city was completely covered. Since this deadly eruption , the volcano has had very little volcanic activity, however, the lasting effects f Nevada del Uric can still be seen today.

Factors Motivating Variation

The section â€Å"Factors motivating variation† of Chapter 2 of Introducing Sociolinguistics (Meyerhoff 2006) introduces four social factors that motivated people how to use language. Meyerhoff provides a rough introduction on these factors that would be discussed deeply in latter chapters. The first factor is speakers desire to show how to join in a group and separate from others. That means people use language to identify which group they belong to. Meyerhoff uses the Martha’s vineyard study to explain that vineyarder used different pronunciation to distinguish themselves from summer visitor.The specific linguistic variant is an identification to separate local group and visitor group. The second factor is speakers desire to be valuable in their group. Meyerhoff explains speaker use specific variant to raise their self image in the community, then to establish a positive image in their community. On the other hand, speakers desire to eliminate the negative by avoiding using a variant which their image would be downgraded. These three factors motivate speakers determine how to use language to achieve a â€Å"good† identity in the society.Compare to the other three factors, the final one is focused on the interaction between the speaker and group members. Meyerhoff states the speakers desire to test how in-group members are orienting themselves to those three factors. Communication accommodation theory is introduced to explain this factor in generally. It presents that the speakers depend on audience behaviors to choose the variant. Besides that the speakers will use language to test their hypotheses are workable or not. Therefore, variation is a result after these testing.