Heart and Right Atrium free essay sample

The heart is a hollow muscular organ that pumps blood throughout the blood vessels to various parts of the body by repeated, rhythmic contractions. It is found in all animals with a circulatory system, which includes the vertebrates. The adjective cardiac means related to the heart and comes from the Greek , kardia, for heart. Cardiology is the medical speciality that deals with cardiac diseases and abnormalities. The vertebrate heart is principally composed of cardiac muscle and connective tissue. Cardiac muscle is an involuntary striated muscle tissue specific to the heart and is responsible for the hearts ability to pump blood. The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2. 5 billion times during an average 66 year lifespan, and pumps approximately 4. 7-5. 7 litres of blood per minute. It weighs approximately in females and in males. Structure The structure of the heart can vary among the different animal species. Cephalopods have two gill hearts and one systemic heart. We will write a custom essay sample on Heart and Right Atrium or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In vertebrates, the heart lies in the anterior part of the body cavity, dorsal to the gut. It is always surrounded by a pericardium, which is usually a distinct structure, but may be continuous with the peritoneum in jawless and cartilaginous fish. Hagfish, uniquely among vertebrates, also possess a second heart-like structure in the tail. It is located anterior to the vertebral column and posterior to the sternum. It is enclosed in a double-walled sac called the pericardium. The pericardiums outer wall is called the parietal pericardium and the inner one the visceral pericardium. Between them there is some pericardial fluid which functions to permit the inner and outer walls to slide easily over one another with the heart movements. Outside the parietal pericardium is a fibrous layer called the fibrous pericardium which is attached to the mediastinal fascia. This sac protects the heart and anchors it to the surrounding structures. The outer wall of the human heart is composed of three layers; the outer layer is called the epicardium, or visceral pericardium since it is also the inner wall of the pericardium. The middle layer is called the myocardium and is composed of contractile cardiac muscle. The inner layer is called the endocardium and is in contact with the blood that the heart pumps. Also, it merges with the inner lining of blood vessels and covers heart valves. The human heart has four chambers, two superior atria and two inferior ventricles. The atria are the receiving chambers and the ventricles are the discharging chambers. During each cardiac cycle, the atria contract first, forcing blood that has entered them into their respective ventricles, then the ventricles contract, forcing blood out of the heart. The pathway of the blood consists of a pulmonary circuit and a systemic circuit which function simultaneously. Deoxygenated blood from the body flows via the vena cava into the right atrium, which pumps it through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle, whose subsequent contraction forces it out through the pulmonary valve into the pulmonary arteries leading to the lungs. Meanwhile, oxygenated blood returns from the lungs through the pulmonary veins into the left atrium, which pumps it through the mitral valve into the left ventricle, whose subsequent strong contraction forces it out through the aortic valve to the aorta leading to the systemic circulation. In fish Primitive fish have a four-chambered heart, but the chambers are arranged sequentially so that this primitive heart is quite unlike the four-chambered hearts of mammals and birds. The first chamber is the sinus venosus, which collects deoxygenated blood, from the body, through the hepatic and cardinal veins. From here, blood flows into the atrium and then to the powerful muscular ventricle where the main pumping action will take place. The fourth and final chamber is the conus arteriosus which contains several valves and sends blood to the ventral aorta. The ventral aorta delivers blood to the gills where it is oxygenated and flows, through the dorsal aorta, into the rest of the body. . thus, only in birds and mammals are the two streams of blood – those to the pulmonary and systemic circulations – permanently kept entirely separate by a physical barrier. In the human body, the heart is usually situated in the middle of the thorax with the largest part of the heart slightly offset to the left, although sometimes it is on the right, underneath the sternum. The heart is usually felt to be on the left side because the left heart is stronger . The left lung is smaller than the right lung because the heart occupies more of the left hemithorax. The heart is fed by the coronary circulation and is enclosed by a sac known as the pericardium; it is also surrounded by the lungs. The pericardium comprises two parts: the fibrous pericardium, made of dense fibrous connective tissue, and a double membrane structure containing a serous fluid to reduce friction during heart contractions. The heart is located in the mediastinum, which is the central sub-division of the thoracic cavity. The mediastinum also contains other structures, such as the esophagus and trachea, and is flanked on either side by the right and left pulmonary cavities; these cavities house the lungs. The apex is the blunt point situated in an inferior direction. A stethoscope can be placed directly over the apex so that the beats can be counted. It is located posterior to the 5th intercostal space just medial of the left mid-clavicular line. In normal adults, the mass of the heart is 250–350 grams, or about twice the size of a clenched fist, but an extremely diseased heart can be up to 1000 g in mass due to hypertrophy. It consists of four chambers, the two upper atria and the two lower ventricles. Functioning In mammals, the function of the right side of the heart is to collect de-oxygenated blood, in the right atrium, from the body and pump it, through the tricuspid valve, via the right ventricle, into the lungs so that carbon dioxide can be exchanged for oxygen. This happens through the passive process of diffusion. The left side collects oxygenated blood from the lungs into the left atrium. From the left atrium the blood moves to the left ventricle, through the bicuspid valve, which pumps it out to the body . On both sides, the lower ventricles are thicker and stronger than the upper atria. The muscle wall surrounding the left ventricle is thicker than the wall surrounding the right ventricle due to the higher force needed to pump the blood through the systemic circulation. Starting in the right atrium, the blood flows through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle. Here, it is pumped out the pulmonary semilunar valve and travels through the pulmonary artery to the lungs. From there, oxygenated blood flows back through the pulmonary vein to the left atrium. It then travels through the mitral valve to the left ventricle, from where it is pumped through the aortic semilunar valve to the aorta. The aorta forks and the blood is divided between major arteries which supply the upper and lower body. The blood travels in the arteries to the smaller arterioles and then, finally, to the tiny capillaries which feed each cell. The deoxygenated blood then travels to the venules, which coalesce into veins, then to the inferior and superior venae cavae and finally back to the right atrium where the process began. The heart is effectively a syncytium, a meshwork of cardiac muscle cells interconnected by contiguous cytoplasmic bridges. This relates to electrical stimulation of one cell spreading to neighboring cells. Some cardiac cells are self-excitable, contracting without any signal from the nervous system, even if removed from the heart and placed in culture. Each of these cells have their own intrinsic contraction rhythm. A region of the human heart called the sinoatrial node, or pacemaker, sets the rate and timing at which all cardiac muscle cells contract. The SA node generates electrical impulses, much like those produced by nerve cells. Because cardiac muscle cells are electrically coupled by inter-calculated disks between adjacent cells, impulses from the SA node spread rapidly through the walls of the artria, causing both artria to contract in unison. The impulses also pass to another region of specialized cardiac muscle tissue, a relay point called the atrioventricular node, located in the wall between the right atrium and the right ventricle. Here, the impulses are delayed for about 0. 1s before spreading to the walls of the ventricle. The delay ensures that the artria empty completely before the ventricles contract. Specialized muscle fibers called Purkinje fibers then conduct the signals to the apex of the heart along and throughout the ventricular walls. The Purkinje fibres form conducting pathways called bundle branches. This entire cycle, a single heart beat, lasts about 0. 8 seconds. The impulses generated during the heart cycle produce electrical currents, which are conducted through body fluids to the skin, where they can be detected by electrodes and recorded as an electrocardiogram . The events related to the flow or blood pressure that occurs from the beginning of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next is called a cardiac cycle. The SA node is found in all amniotes but not in more primitive vertebrates. In these animals, the muscles of the heart are relatively continuous and the sinus venosus coordinates the beat which passes in a wave through the remaining chambers. Indeed, since the sinus venosus is incorporated into the right atrium in amniotes, it is likely homologous with the SA node. In teleosts, with their vestigial sinus venosus, the main centre of coordination is, instead, in the atrium. The rate of heartbeat varies enormously between different species, ranging from around 20 beats per minute in codfish to around 600 in hummingbirds. From splanchnopleuric mesoderm tissue, the cardiogenic plates develop cranially and laterally to the neural plates. In the cardiogenic plates, two separate angiogenic cell clusters form on either side of the embryo. The cell clusters coalesce to form an endocardial heart tube continuous with a dorsal aorta and a vitteloumbilical vein. As embryonic tissue continues to fold, the two endocardial tubes are pushed into the thoracic cavity, begin to fuse together, and complete the fusing process at approximately 22 days. The human embryonic heart begins beating at around 22 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period . The first day of the LMP is normally used to date the start of the gestation . The human heart begins beating at a rate near the mother’s, about 75–80 beats per minute . The embryonic heart rate then accelerates linearly by approximately 100 BPM during the first month to peak at 165–185 BPM during the early 7th week after conception, . This acceleration is approximately 3. 3 BPM per day, or about 10 BPM every three days, which is an increase of 100 BPM in the first month. The regression formula which describes this linear acceleration before the embryo reaches 25mm in crown-rump length, or 9. 2 LMP weeks, is: the Age in days EHR+6. After 9. 1 weeks after the LMP, it decelerates to about 152 BPM during the 15th week post LMP. After the 15th week, the deceleration slows to an average rate of about 145 BPM, at term. There is no difference in female and male heart rates before birth. History of discoveries The valves of the heart were discovered by a physician of the Hippocratean school around the 4th century BC, although their function was not fully understood. On dissection, arteries are typically empty of blood because blood pools in the veins after death. Ancient anatomists subsequently assumed they were filled with air and served to transport it around the body. Philosophers distinguished veins from arteries, but thought the pulse was a property of arteries themselves. Erasistratos observed that arteries cut during life bleed. He ascribed the fact to the phenomenon that air escaping from an artery is replaced with blood which entered by very small vessels between veins and arteries. Thus he apparently postulated capillaries, but with reversed flow of blood. The Greek physician Galen knew blood vessels carried blood and identified venous and arterial blood, each with distinct and separate functions. Growth and energy were derived from venous blood created in the liver from chyle, while arterial blood gave vitality by containing pneuma and originated in the heart. Blood flowed from both creating organs to all parts of the body, where it was consumed and there was no return of blood to the heart or liver. The heart did not pump blood around, the hearts motion sucked blood in during diastole and the blood moved by the pulsation of the arteries themselves. Galen believed the arterial blood was created by venous blood passing from the left ventricle to the right through pores in the interventricular septum, while air passed from the lungs via the pulmonary artery to the left side of the heart. As the arterial blood was created, sooty vapors were created and passed to the lungs, also via the pulmonary artery, to be exhaled.

Ethics and the Internet Essays

Ethics and the Internet Essays Ethics and the Internet Paper Ethics and the Internet Paper Essay Topic: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings The Internet and social networking are offering a number of new clinical and ethical challenges for those who provide face-to-face mental health services. These challenges include extra-therapeutic contacts between therapists and their clients, questions about what distinguishes personal and professional activities online, and a lack of clearly developed policies related to our online behaviors and interactions. No form of client communication is 100 percent guaranteed to be private. Conversations can be overheard, e-mails can be sent to the wrong recipients and phone conversation can be listened to by others. But in todays age of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other social media, psychologists have to be more aware than ever of the ethical pitfalls they can fall into by using these types of communication. Its easy not to be fully mindful about the possibility of disclosure with these communications because we use these technologies so often in our social lives,   says Stephen Behnke, PhD, JD, director of APAs Ethics Office. Its something that we havent gotten into the habit of thinking about.   The Monitor sat down with Behnke to discuss the ethical aspects of the Internet for psychology practitioners and how to think about them. Does the APA Ethics Code guide practitioners on social media? Yes. The current Ethics Code was drafted between 1997 and 2002. While it doesnt use the terms social media,  Google or Facebook, the code is very clear that it applies to all psychologists professional activities and to electronic communication, which of course social media is. As we look at the Ethics Code, the sections that are particularly relevant to social media are on privacy and confidentiality, multiple relationships and the section on therapy. The Ethics Code does not prohibit all social relationships, but it does call on psychologists to ask, How does this particular relationship fit with the treatment relationship?   Is the APA Ethics Office seeing any particular problems in the use of social media? Everyone is communicating with these new technologies, but our ethical obligation is to be thoughtful about how the Ethics Code applies to these communications and how the laws and regulations apply. For example, if you are communicating with your client via e-mail or text messaging, those communications might be considered part of your clients record. Also, you want to consider who else might have access to the communication, something the client him- or herself may not be fully mindful of. When you communicate with clients, the communication may be kept on a server so anyone with access to that server may have access to your communications. Confidentiality should be front and center in your thinking. Also, consider the form of communication you are using, given the kind of treatment you are providing. For example, there are two very different scenarios from a clinical perspective: In one scenario, youve been working with a client face-to-face and you know the clients clinical issues. Then the client goes away on vacation and you have one or two phone sessions, or a session or two on Skype. A very different scenario is that the psychologist treats a client online, a client he or she has never met or seen. In this case, the psychologist has to be very mindful of the kind of treatment he or she can provide. What sorts of issues are appropriate to treat in that manner? How do the relevant jurisdictions laws and regulations apply to the work you are doing? Thats an example of how the technology is out in front of us. We have this wonderful new technology that allows us to offer services to folks who may never have had access to a psychologist. At the same time, the ethical, legal and regulatory infrastructure to support the technology is not yet in place. A good deal of thought and care must go into how we use the technology, given how it may affect our clients and what it means for our professional lives. APA needs to be involved in developing that ethical, legal and regulatory infrastructure and needs to be front and center on this. What do you want members to know about using Facebook? People are generally aware that what they put on their Facebook pages may be publicly accessible. Even with privacy settings, there are ways that people can get access to your information. My recommendation is to educate yourself about privacy settings and how you can make your page as private as you want it to be [see further reading box on page 34]. Also, educate yourself about how the technology works and be mindful of the information you make available about yourself. Historically, psychology has talked a lot about the clinical implications of self-disclosure, but this is several orders of magnitude greater, because now anyone sitting in their home or library with access to a terminal can find out an enormous amount of information about you. Facebook is a wonderful way to social network, to be part of a community. And of course psychologists are going to use this, as is every segment of the population. But psychologists have special ethical issues they need to think through to determine how this technology is going to affect their work. These days, students are inviting professors to see their Facebook pages and professors are now privy to more information on their students lives than ever before. Whats your advice on this trend? Psychologists should be mindful that whether teaching, conducting research, providing a clinical service or acting in an administrative capacity, they are in a professional role. Each role comes with its own unique expectations, and these expectations have ethical aspects. I would encourage a psychologist whos considering whether to friend a student to think through how the request fits into the professional relationship, and to weigh the potential benefits and harms that could come from adding that dimension to the teaching relationship. Of course, the professor should also be informed about the schools policy concerning interacting with students on social networking sites. How about Googling clientsshould you do this? In certain circumstances, there may be a good reason to do a search of a client. There may be an issue of safety, for example. In certain kinds of assessments, it might be a matter of confirming information. But again, we always need to think about how this fits into the professional relationship, and what type of informed consent weve obtained. Curiosity about a client is not a clinically appropriate reason to do an Internet search. Lets put it this way: If you know that your client plays in a soccer league, it would be a little odd if on Saturday afternoon you drove by the game to see how your client is doing. In the same way, if youre doing a search, thinking, What can I find out about this person  that raises questions about the psychologists motives? What about Twitter? Again, you first want to think about what are you disclosing and what is the potential impact the disclosure could have on the clinical work. Also, if you are receiving Tweets from a client, how does that fit in with the treatment? These questions are really interesting because they are pushing us to think clearly about the relationship between our professional and personal lives. We all have our own social communities and networks, but we also have to be aware about how we act and what we disclose in those domains, which are more accessible. Someone might say that this technology isnt raising new questions, its raising old questions in different ways. How about blogs? Be aware that when you author a blog, youre putting a lot of yourself into it. Thats why youre doing it. So again, you need to be mindful of the impact it will have on your clinical work. It also depends on what the blog is about. For example, if youre blogging about religion, politics or movies, in this day and age, some of your clients are going to read the material. If you are sharing your personal views on some important societal issue, be mindful of how that might affect the work you are doing. When is the next Ethics Code due out and will it more specifically address social media? The next revision hasnt been scheduled, but if I had to guess, probably in the next two to three years, APA will begin the process of drafting the next code. I can say with a very high degree of confidence that when APA does draft the next code, the drafters will be very mindful of many issues being raised by social media. Its important to think about ethics from a developmental perspective. As our field evolves, new issues emerge and develop. Not all the questions about social media have crystallized yet. We have to make sure that we have a pretty good sense of the right questions and the right issues before we start setting down the rules. Part of that process is exploring where the potential harms to our clients are. We are just defining the questions, issues, the risks of harm to the client and were going to have to let the process unfold. In the meantime, we have to be aware that these technologies are very powerful and far-reaching and bring with them wonderful benefits, but also potential harms. Stay tuned. As his patient lay unconscious in an emergency room from an overdose of sedatives, psychiatrist Damir Huremovic was faced with a moral dilemma: A friend of the patient had forwarded to Huremovic a suicidal e-mail from the patient that included a link to a Web site and blog he wrote. Should Huremovic go online and check it out, even without his patients consent? Huremovic decided yes; after all, the Web site was in the public domain and it might contain some potentially important information for treatment. When Huremovic clicked on the blog, he found quotations such as this: Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings. A final blog post read: I wish I didnt wake up. Yet as Huremovic continued scanning the patients personal photographs and writings, he began to feel uncomfortable, that perhaps hed crossed some line he shouldnt have. Across the country, therapists are facing similar situations and conflicted feelings. When Huremovic, director of psychosomatic medicine services at Nassau University Medical Center in New York, recounted his vignette last year at an American Psychiatric Association meeting and asked whether others would have read the suicidal mans blog, his audience responded with resounding calls of both yes! and no! One thing was clear: How and when a therapist should use the Internet and even whether he or she should are questions subject to vigorous debate. We are just beginning to understand what ethical issues the Internet is raising, says Stephen Behnke, ethics director for the American Psychological Association. To write rules that allow our field to grow and develop and yet prevent [patient] harm at the same time: Thats the challenge. In fact, the tremendous availability online of personal information threatens to alter what has been an almost sacred relationship between therapist and patient. Traditionally, therapists obtained information about a patient through face-to-face dialogue. If outside information was needed, the therapist would obtain the patients consent to speak with family members or a previous mental-health practitioner. At the same time, patients traditionally knew little about their therapists outside the consulting room. Now, with the click of a mouse, tech-savvy therapists and patients are challenging the old rules and raising serious questions about how much each should know about the other and where lines should be drawn. Among the questions under debate: Should a therapist review the Web site of a patient or conduct an online search without that patients consent? Is it appropriate for a therapist to put personal details about himself on a blog or Web-site or to join Facebook or other social networks? What are the risks of having patients and therapists interact online? Neither the American Psychiatric Association nor the American Psychological Association has rules specifically governing therapists online behavior, but ethics advisers with the psychiatric association maintain that online searches are not wrong as long as theyre done in the patients interest and not out of therapist curiosity. Many therapists contend its more important to discuss such questions than it is to dictate behavior. Its not whether a particular application is right or not, says Sheldon Benjamin, director of neuropsychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Its whether you do it mindfully whether you understand how it changes the doctor-patient relationship. To Google or Not to Google Benjamin, 53, swears by his iPhone and enthusiastically tells of sampling the Internet in its infancy. At the same time, Benjamin, who directs psychiatric training at UMass, advocates caution when it comes to mixing the Internet with therapy. He says he has never searched a patients name online and worries that doing so could dilute the therapeutic process by bringing in information from outside the patient-therapist discussion. When patients have asked Benjamin to read their blogs, he has agreed, with one caveat: that he do so during a regular counseling session. Even if you brought me a disability form, Id fill it out in the room with you, says Benjamin. I was taught to make the time with the patient the time when the work is done. Suena Massey takes a different approach. Massey, 35, an assistant professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center, considers Googling a patient a valuable professional tool. One of the duties of a psychiatrist is to corroborate what patients say, Massey explains. To that end, online searches can be helpful when traditional approaches obtaining the patients consent to contact his previous psychiatrist or family members are not available. One such case involved a patient who presented with symptoms of mania, a component of bipolar disorder. The man claimed to be well connected in Washington. After their meeting, Massey typed the patients name into a search engine. Up popped postings suggesting that the mans claims were accurate. In a subsequent session Massey told her patient she had Googled him, and he was okay with it. She ended up treating him for bipolar disorder; had his claims been false, she says, she would have considered his condition to be more severe. Massey says she will warn a patient about her possible use of Google searches if she thinks the patient might have a problem with it. You could almost make the argument that its negligent not to search online when there is public information available and it might help treat a patient, she says. If youre just looking things up out of personal interest, I think most doctors would feel uncomfortable with that. Public vs. Private But what happens when the circumstances are reversed? What happens when a patient seeks information about his therapist online or pursues a relationship with his therapist on Facebook, MySpace or via another social network? Most therapists are not alarmed by the idea of a Google search. I know my patients Google me, Massey says. I think its their right as consumers. Some providers anticipate such searches by maintaining Web sites detailing their professional qualifications. However, there can be problems when personal details are available. Take the case of a man who, after developing romantic and erotic feelings toward his therapist, typed her name into a search engine and found a Web site featuring personal photographs of the therapist, including a bathing-suit shot. The man quit treatment and reported the discovery to Behnkes office. He knew the image of his therapist in her bathing suit was going to be so present to him that he wouldnt be able to concentrate on his psychotherapy, Behnke explained in a telephone interview. There was material on the Internet that had an impact on this psychologists clinical work. Behnke cautions therapists to assume that most clients will conduct online searches, and he urges them to make sure they remain vigilant about what gets posted. Although most therapists say its inappropriate to have relationships with patients via social networks, there is little agreement on whether its okay for therapists to join such sites, and, if they do, just how private their information should remain. For Huremovic, 39, social network abstinence is safest. I have an understanding that if you choose to be a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist that you have to be very private in other parts of your social being, he says. But some therapists, especially younger ones for whom using the Internet is a way of life, dont share this view. For instance, psychologist Stephanie Smith, 35, has a Web site, and she has a presence on Twitter. Smith tweets to market her Colorado practice and to allow colleagues and other interested parties to monitor happenings in psychology. Typical posts provide tips for managing stress, announce a recent studys findings or refer followers to psychology blogs. Smith, who says Twitter has increased traffic to her professional Web site, admits to the rare tweet about her children or celebrity news. Its my style, but I know some people would not be comfortable with her disclosure of nonprofessional information, she says. Smith also has a Facebook account for her personal life. After teenage patients discovered that account and sent her friend requests, Smith enacted a policy forbidding past or current clients from engaging her online. She informs new clients of the policy and obligates them to comply. This is the type of problem that UMasss Benjamin wants to avoid. To me, its a much bigger issue than bumping into a patient in a restaurant, he says. Youre putting out there,Hey, these are my contacts. And someone then wants to enter your social circle. It puts you in a position where you must take a stand. Keely Kolmes, a California psychologist who writes and lectures on Internet ethics, recommends that therapists make clear distinctions between their professional and personal lives online. Younger clinicians get the Net but dont completely understand ethical and boundary issues that can come up, she says. A former computer consultant, Kolmes, who is in her early 40s, goes to great lengths to keep her lives separate. On her personal Facebook account, for instance, she does not use a photo of herself on her profile page and she doesnt make reference to her professional name. She also restricts her public tweets and blogs to news of a professional nature. Still, she recognizes that any online sighting of ones therapist changes the dynamic for a patient. A lot of patients really want to think about you as existing in just that one space [of the therapy room,] and suddenly theyre seeing you on Twitter and blogging, she says. They can see that youre online at night posting things. I realize my choice to do that suddenly shifts my relationship with them.

Culture of the Nacirema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Culture of the Nacirema - Essay Example I personally have not read about any case studies of "primitive" people who are so economically-minded, and a well-developed market system like this is proof for me of how civilized the Nacirema are. A second positive aspect is how well-knit the families are. Every house has a shrine where they cleanse their bodies and everyone enters this room "in succession" (Miner, n.d). Parents openly discuss purification rites with the children (Miner, n.d) and see it of utmost importance to initiate their children. The entire family has a common pursuit, desire to purify the body, which keeps them connected to each other. A third positive aspect is the fact that they put a lot of emphasis in cleansing and purifying the body. They are obsessed with hygiene and appearance, and I find it interesting that they share the belief that most people in developed, modern societies have, that good appearance have an effect on "social relationships," (Miner, n.d). This makes sense since I myself would not b e attracted to people who are unclean and dirty. A fourth positive aspect of the Nacirema is how they have a "listener", who for me is the equivalent of a psychotherapist. The listener simply listens to what his clients tell him about their problems (Miner, n.d). Lastly, it's interesting to see how the entire Nacirema society is neatly distinguished into different social roles; there are medicine men, herbalists, mouth men for example, and they are all highly trained in their own professions. Â  One negative aspect of the Nacirema is that they are a greedy people; they desire gifts at every service rendered and people are not entered into the latipso shrines for treatment if they cannot afford a gift to the healers, no matter how ill they are (Miner, n.d).

Internal combustion engine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Internal combustion engine - Essay Example Since the ports remains open during up word stroke, the actual compression starts only after both inlet and exhaust ports have been closed. So actual compression ratio and the thermal efficiency of the two stroke cycle engine is less than that of four stroke engine of the same dimension. In two stroke cycle engines the number of power strokes per minutes are twice the power strokes of four stroke cycle engine. So the capacity of cooling system used must be higher. The cooling of the engine also presents difficulty as quantity of heat remover per minutes is large. The piston gets over heated due to firing in each revolution and oil cooling of the piston is necessary. In two stroke cycle engine some of the fresh charge is mixed with burnt fuel and exhaust through the exhaust port which causes high fuel consumption. So two stroke cycle engine is not widely used except in the case where size is compact for example light vehicles, scooters, out board motor, motor cycle etc .Large two stroke cycle engine are generally CI engines. Two stroke CI engines are better for slow and moderate speeds.

Discuss critically contemporary international approaches (e.g. World Essay

Discuss critically contemporary international approaches (e.g. World Bank, Financial Stability Board) to consumer credit regulat - Essay Example This reform has been accounted due to the growth in the consumer credits and rise in the numbers of consumer credit institutions1. Contextually, consumer credit is considered as a key driver of economic growth as it is used for the payment of services holding a major proportion of the industrial contribution obtained by any economy in the modern world2. In a general sense, consumer credit is that commodity, which is produced by the private sectors and then sold to the consumers. These regulations are fixed for the sale, available in a wide range of varieties. The most commonly observed regulations in the consumer credit are the price and the interest rates. The information and disclosure regulations are also persistent regarding the debt collection aspects in a particular country, also seemed to be an important aspect to the regulators and legislators as well3. In a recent affair, the European Commission (EC) has denoted the significant role of consumer credit in the growth of nation al economy and also the well being of the consumers and thus, it is seeking to adopt the credit regulation across the country4. The government has further planned to implement the policy of credit regulation across the country so as to regulate strong credit markets all over the nation along with the minimisation of the risk of debt. The strategic approach and aim of adopting the consumer credit regulation along with the objective further differs from one state to another. It can be well understood with the example of both Germany and France, which possess rates at a lower level ceiling along with lower legal maximums. Illustratively, the most stringently market based approach has been adopted by the UK with no rates of ceiling5. The government of the UK had introduced Consumer Credit Act 1974 in its constitution, which focuses on the protection of the consumers and control of traders along with taking due measures to implement the provisions of credit being regulated by the Directo r General of Fair Trading6. In this essay, the major concern has been drawn with the attention towards the critical evaluation of the contemporary international approaches to the consumer credit regulation. The essay has described the concept of consumer credit regulations in respect of the practical case study referrals of World Bank and Financial Stability Board. Defining Consumer Credit Regulation As per the subsidiary legislation of the UK in 2010, the ‘consumer credit regulation’ has been broken into words, viz. Customers and Credit, for drawing a clear understanding of the term. In accordance, consumer is a person who is responding to the trade or business under the regulations of the transaction7. On the other hand, the creditor is that person who has made a commitment to grant credits for performing trade and business. Thus, the consumer credit regulation implies the act that has been developed by the government body for the protection of the consumer and the cr editor performing a trade or business. One of the useful terms that are usually used in the definition of consumer credit regulation is the credit agreement. It is that contract between the consumer and

Haiti Earthquake 2010: Effects and Cost

Haiti Earthquake 2010: Effects and Cost Haiti Earthquake Introduction Earthquakes happen in different parts of the world and they lead to negative consequences including death, destruction of buildings and huge losses in economy. Before studying one of the most important and hazardous natural disasters which took place seven years ago, we have to take into consideration the meaning of earthquakes. As a matter of fact, earthquake is a natural disaster according to which the layers of the earth move or tremble when the crust is ruptured or slipped. In addition, during such rupture across the fault line at which earthquakes happen, a kind of energy provided with elasticity is emitted from between rocks that could be pressured. While these amounts of energy could be stocked throughout years and emitted in less than a second, pressure existed between rocks as well as strain lead to the storage of more quantities of elastic energy causing the increase in the possibility of occurrence of earthquakes. On the other side, when this energy is released, a particul ar type of sound waves named seismic provided with low rates of frequency are spread and distributed across the surface of the earth or among its layers. Surprisingly, more than three million earthquakes happen every year. Nevertheless, people do not feel or notice them. On the contrary, earthquakes which surpass five degrees on the Richter scale are considered as one of the most terrifying and disastrous natural disasters that humans witness their occurrence on the surface of the earth and that could lead to destructive outcomes. (Earthquakes: introduction) Haiti earthquake One of the massive earthquakes that took place in the United States in 2010 was Haiti earthquake. It is worth mentioning that such earthquake occurred along Hispaniola which is a West Indian island. In spite of the fact that such island includes the two states of Dominican Republic and Haiti, the latter country was the most damaged one and the state that struggled more after the negative consequences of the earthquake. While the death toll which was released was not able to determine the numbers of casualties resulted from such chaos, the government of the country mentioned that more than three hundred thousand people were dead. Nevertheless, other resources stated that the real number was smaller than what was announced. In addition, a lot of Haitians were asked to evacuate the area and leave their homes. At 4:53 pm, there was a huge and strong hit by the earthquake. Such hit extended about more than twenty five kilometers along the coast of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Bes ides, the magnitude of the first shock was about seven degrees. Then another two shocks happened whose degrees reached five point nine and five point five. Later, a lot of shocks took place such as the shock that happened on the twenty of January at a small town called Petit Goave which is fifty five kilometers away from Port-au-Prince. As a matter of fact, Haiti did not witness the occurrence of any earthquakes comparing to Haiti earthquake when talking about strength, enormity and degree. (Pallardy, 2016) On the other hand, such natural catastrophe contributed in the death of more than two thousand hundred persons as well as the injuries and homelessness of more than six hundred thousand persons who were struggling in order to survive and in order to search for the primary resources of living so that they could be able to maintain their lives. In addition, the earthquake managed to convert the situations in Haiti upside down on a local, political, economic and environmental scale. As a matter of fact, such earthquake has led to the breakdown of the government there whose ruling of the state was very weak and fragile. As a result of the inability and failure in managing and controlling situations during the occurrence of catastrophes and disasters, the government resorted to the dependence on aids and humanitarian relief from other countries in order to be able to provide people with the resources required for their survival. What the government managed to do is offering those survivor s tents and camps where they could live their transitional life till the occurrence of something new. (The Shockwave That Changed A Nation, 2010) Based on what was mentioned by the Humanitarian Action Plan for the Haitian state three years ago, more than one hundred and seventy two thousand persons were obliged by governmental orders to leave their houses in order to live in more than three hundred camps in 2013. Moreover, services offered to displaced persons such as health and WASH services have witnessed a quick decline comparing to the course of the displacement event of those survivors. On the other hand, there was a high risk, which more than sixteen thousand families who used to live in about fifty camps, had to face. Such risk is represented in the fact that these families could be forced to evacuate the area. In addition to the previous information and data, other eight thousand persons who used to live in camps were subjected to the risk of suffering from floods. According to what was indicated by OCHA in 2014, about one hundred and for thousand persons were remained in the state. Nevertheless, they were obliged to l ive in camps. Furthermore, there was no intention of any kind of relocation programs offered to more than seventy thousand IDPs. Finally, IOM has stated in 2014 that more than eighty thousand Haitians had the ability to survive and live their transitional life in more than one hundred camps in September. (Haiti: Earthquakes Jan 2010) Effect of Haiti earthquake According the statistics, the damage resulted from this Haitian earthquake was ranged between seven and half and eight and half billion American dollars. In addition, there was a decline in the gross domestic product of the state estimated by five point one percent. It is worth mentioning that such earthquake has led to the destruction of the basic airport in Haiti along with a large number of roads and finally the majority of ports. Moreover, the earthquake has resulted in the damage of more than one hundred thousand houses and homes based on what was mentioned by the studies and researches conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank. On the other side, the capital of Haiti named Port-au-Prince was unfortunately hit by the Haitian earthquake. As a result, the government remained paralyzed and did not succeed in eliminating chaos and returning order to the state along with the inability to take in charge of the situation. Besides, almost one of each four servants who used to liv e in Port-au-Prince was found dead. In addition to the previously mentioned information, the earthquake contributed in the damage of more than half of schools and almost sixty percent of the main constructions and establishments in the state. No one can deny the fact that one of the least countries regarding wealth, fortune and economic prosperity in the entire western hemisphere was Haiti. In fact, the majority of public there is considered ultra-poor according to the international statistics and measurements. Furthermore, more than half of them used to live in despicable circumstances of living. On the other hand, a huge percentage of Haitians there work as farmers in order to become the breadwinners of their families. Finally, the earthquake managed to cause a lot of damage since the resistance of the Haitian state against natural catastrophes is weak due to deforestation.   (Amadeo, 2016) Humanitarian relief after the occurrence of Haiti earthquake One of the main international organizations, which had the ability to offer humanitarian aid and relief to the state of Haiti after the occurrence of such destructive earthquake along with attracting the attention of the whole world to the importance of providing people there with assistance so that they could be able to survive, was the United Nations. Thanks to the donations received from certain countries around the globe as well as collaboration between various elements including people, organizations and governmental authorities, the United Nations succeeded in achieving development and improvement in the process of getting Haiti back to life especially after this devastating earthquake happened. Furthermore, the United Nations managed to cooperate with other communities that had the chance to offer donations in order to offer Haitian populations aid and relief on the long term. In addition, the foundation of United Nations contributed in the collection of donations estimated by four million American dollars to help those people to survive and live in normal conditions. As a matter of fact, such donations provided the United Nations with the ability to do the following: First: giving more than one hundred thousand American dollars to projects of solar light. Second: offering the needed resources for life such as fresh water, healthy food and health care as well as shelters due to the donation delivered to the UN which reached three million dollars in order to be able to control and manage risks and hazards in the future. Third: taking part in the process of recycling about twenty percent of the debris resulted from the earthquake. Fourth: offering Haitian people about three hundred thousand job opportunities. Fifth: offering more than two thousand Haitian workers training in the field of development and life recovery. Sixth: supplying the United Nations Population Fund with more than seven hundred thousand American dollars to get resources regarding maternal health along with offering street lights which depend on solar energy in order to provide Haitians especially women and young girl protection, safety and security. Seventh: giving more than two hundred thousand American dollars to the development program related to the UN since such program is considered as a trial in order to help people there get jobs and work so that they could be able to remove debris resulted from the earthquake. (HAITI EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE, 2013) Conclusion In a nutshell, natural disasters are considered as one of the most destructive events that could be faced by any country around the world. In addition, one of these catastrophes that could lead to the total destruction and demolishment of states is earthquakes. Earthquakes happen due to the slippage between layers of the earth. As a result, a lot of damages occur leading to the huge percentage of casualties, demolishment of houses and constructions along with the displacement of many people out of their homes. Thats why countries have to be well prepared for these events in order to prevent their negative consequences as well as protecting people there from any danger or hazard that might threaten their lives. References The Shockwave That Changed A Nation. (2010). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from Haiti earthquake 2010: http://haitiearthquake.web.unc.edu/ HAITI EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE. (2013). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from United Nations Foundation: http://www.unfoundation.org/who-we-are/impact/our-impact/health-data-disaster-relief/haiti-earthquake-response.html?referrer=https://www.google.com.eg/ Amadeo, K. (2016). Haiti Earthquake: Facts, Damage, Effects on Economy. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from The balance: https://www.thebalance.com/haiti-earthquake-facts-damage-effects-on-economy-3305660 Earthquakes: introduction. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from SMS Tsunami Warning: http://www.sms-tsunami-warning.com/pages/earthquakes-introduction Haiti: Earthquakes Jan 2010. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from relief web: http://reliefweb.int/disaster/eq-2010-000009-hti Pallardy, R. (2016). Haiti earthquake of 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/event/Haiti-earthquake-of-2010

Bamboo Growth (Dracaena sanderiana) Essay -- Environment, Lucky Bamboo

This research was conducted to investigate light intensity effects on lucky bamboo vegetative growth in Azad University, Abhar Branch during 2008. The experiment was arranged as a complete randomized block design with 5 treatments (0.75, 1.14, 1.89, 2.29 and 4.09 Â µmol∙m-2∙s-1) in 10 replication. Results showed that 1.89 Â µmol/m-2/s-1 had significant differences from others treatments. The higher level of root number, shoot length and total weight of plants were obtained in 1.89 Â µmol∙m-2∙s-1 reatment. Number of shoot, shoot length and number of leaf per shoot were differ in different nodes and were highest in upping nod. Seedlings characteristics are during the growth time as a crucial factor in determining the ultimate fate of the plants. Therefore should be tried always seedlings have to very good condition. Seedling growth and quality are under influenced by environmental factors including light intensity (Lavendar, 1984). If environmental factors such as light intensity changes, also are under affect other factors and final quality of seedlings (Chaar et al., 1997). Seedling producers with changing and optimizing the light intensity regulated the seedlings growth, development, and plant vegetative quality (Lavendar, 1984). Lucky Bamboo with the scientific name Dracaena sanderiana has owned to Dracaenaceae family. This variety of dracaena does not belong to real bamboos of the Poaceae family. This plant are popular because beautiful leaves and robustness to apartment conditions. This plant is among plants that allowed indirect and low light intensity. So they classified in plants group with low light need (Brown, 2008). Brown (2008) reported ... ...results of this experiment showed that Lucky Bamboo is including Plants that have required too little light intensity. High light intensity can be cause yellowing of leaves. If want of results these experiments have a general recommendation for keeping these plants in apartment thus can say Because the total amount of light produced by sodium lamps with 400 watts at 3 meters distance is equivalent to 19 Â µmol s-1m-2. So use of a sodium or fluorescent lamp with 40 watts can to provide power equal to 1 / 9 Â µmol s-1m-2 for the plant (Barzegar & Yadegari, 2010). As that observed of this experiment the best treatment of light intensity for the optimum growth in Lucky bamboo plant is equivalent energy to 1 / 89 Â µmol s-1m-2. Can also provided light intensity needed for this shade-friendly plant with use a 40-watt incandescent lamp at a three meters distance apartment.