Air Legislation - the Shell Model in Analyzing Human Factors in the Assignment

Air Legislation - the Shell Model in Analyzing Human Factors in the Aviation System - Assignment Example The model is derived from the initial letters of its components which are: software, hardware, environment and liveware. It places great emphasis on the human element and the role they play in the execution of duties and the interaction with other interfaces. Since the human being is mainly the cause of most accidents within the aviation system, the model looks at several factors that interact with the operators to cause system failure and affect performance (Cacciabue, 2004). The major elements in the model relate to hardware, software, the environment and liveware. There are four forms of interfaces. The L-H interface is the interaction between the human operator and the machines in the aviation system. It relates to the match of human characteristics with the equipment and tools such as designing controls to correspond to sensory or designing seats to match the human bodies of passengers. The design of displays and controls should indicate proper information that can be easily understood by people so as to reduce the occurrence of errors. Secondly is the L-S interface whose main role is to provide a link between the liveware and the software. It involves the formulation of software that matches the human users and ensuring that it is possible to implement it. Thirdly is the L-E interface which forms the link between the liveware and the environment. Human operators interact with both internal and external environment and therefore are able to adapt to v arious situations. Lastly is the L-L interface which relates to links between the central human operator and any other person in the system for execution of activities (HELMREICH, 1991). The aircraft in this incident was on route to Lanzarote airport in the Canary Islands from East Midlands the plane which had been subjected to Boroscope Inspections the previous night had not been refitted which resulted to loss of almost all the oil on the flight and the consequential shutdown of both  engines during landing.   The crew had to divert to Luton airport due to loss of oil and oil pressure on both engines.  

Technology in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Essay

Technology in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Essay Example superior to the technologically and intellectually inferior people of the medieval society he wakes up in at the beginning of the story, but in the end the technology that Morgan brings does not have the lasting impact that he had desired: â€Å"Hank Morgan wants to dominate the past with sure-fire knowledge from the future, but all he achieves is a record of events that have no historical consequence† (Mitchell 231). While Twain is critical of the medieval society that doesn’t encourage thinking, he is equally as of critical of many of the modern conventions and technological advances that Morgan brings to the court. One of the first things that Hank considered to be of utmost importance was the newspaper. News used to only travel by messengers and through people talking to each other. Messengers could only reach a limited number of people, and news that traveled from person to person could be highly inaccurate. Newspapers could solve these problems by reaching a large number of people and by remaining the same story as told to everybody, and this was the reason that Hank started the newspaper as one of his first programs. This was the important aspect of information technology that Hank felt he was bringing to King Arthur’s court: â€Å"A newspaper has its faults, and plenty of them, but no matter, it’s hark from the tomb the tomb for a dead nation without it, and don’ you forget it† (78). When considered on its own merits, the newspaper is an effective tool to communicate information to a large number of people. Twain seems to take issue with other aspects of the wa y that the information is communicated. Beyond merely teaching the medieval society about using the printed word as a means of mass communication, he also taught them how to use a journalistic tone in their writing: â€Å"That is a good piece of war correspondence, Clarence; you are a first-rate newspaper man† (Twain 458). The journalistic tone is meant to be a succinct form of

Reporter System Using LuxABCDE

Reporter System Using LuxABCDE La Rosa, S.L., Diep, D.B., Nes, I.F., et al. (2012) Construction and application of a luxABCDE reporter system for real-time monitoring of Enterococcus faecalis gene expression and growth. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78 (19): 7003-7011 Reporter genes are the genes encoding a protein which can be tracked and quantified by microscopy and various biochemical assays. They provide a non-invasive and sensitive method to monitor levels of gene expression, protein localization and to determine the transcriptional and translational regulators of a gene of interest. In this study, Rosa and co-workers have developed a bioluminescence based reporter system using luxABCDE to monitor the growth and gene expression of Enterococcus faecalis. E. faecalis is a nosocomial pathogen reported to be the cause of diseases such as endocarditis, urinary tract infection, bacteremia etc. (Schlievert et. al., 1998) and particularly infects individuals with compromised immune system or suffering from an underlying illness (Mundy et. al., 2000). Several studies have been undertaken to determine the factors involved in the virulence of the nosocomial strains of E. faecalis (Jett et. al., 1992; Chow et. al., 1993; Shankar et. al, 2001). These stud ies involve creating mutants for a possible virulence trait and then comparing them in animal models. There are several advantages of using reporter gene in lieu of traditional methods which usually involve harvesting the infected organ and sample preparation to estimate the level of infection by E. faecalis (Hanin et. al., 2010; Ike et. al., 1984). This traditional method, apart from being time consuming, also requires sacrifice of a large number of animals used in biological experiments. Using reporter genes, although not able to completely replace animal experimentation, will certainly reduce the number of animals required. Another advantage of using reporter genes is that it will enable real time monitoring of spread of infection by imaging the light emitted from the activation of the lux operon which was not possible with the other studies that have been undertaken. Use of lux operon also provides several advantages over other reporter gene based systems used in studies pertain ing to E. faecalis which employ green fluorescent protein (gfp) or firefly- luciferase enzyme (luc). Both gfp and luc require excitation by an external light source and luc also requires the addition of an extraneous substrate- both of these are not required in case of luxABCDE thus providing another advantage to the use of this reporter system. Rosa and co-workers constructed the bioluminescent reporter system by cloning the luxABCDE operon present in pPL2lux into pREG696 as shown in Figure 1. The native luxCDABE operon from Photohabdus luminescens shows poor expression in gram-positive bacteria (Qazi et. al., 2001). Therefore, the genes were rearranged into luxABCDE and translational signals were inserted in front of luxA, luxC, luxE to increase the expression of the lux operon. pPL2lux was originally designed for Listeria monocytogenes and thus carries a listeriophage integrase gene. This plasmid does not work in E. faecalis because of the absence of the required listeriophage sequence. Therefore, a highly expressed Listeria promoter Phelp (for highly expressed Listeria promoter) was cloned into pPL2lux just upstream of the luxA gene and this construct was named pPL2luxPhelp . Similarly, other promoters P32 and P16S were cloned upstream of luxA gene to form pPL2luxP32 and pPL2luxP16S respectively. P32 is another strong pr omoter and P16S is a synthetic E. faecalis 16sRNA promoter with a ribosome binding site (RBS) and an ATG codon fused at its end. These modified pPL2lux plasmids were digested with Xho1 and Not1 and the excised fragment (luxABCDE and the promoter) was cloned into the corresponding sites in pREG696 to form pSL101P32/16S/help. pREG696 has a spectinomycin resistance gene and a segregational stability cassette (axe- antitoxin and txe- toxin) from the multi-drug resistant plasmid pRUM of E. faecium (Grady and Hayes, 2003). This segregational stability cassette enables stable inheritance of the plasmid by killing of plasmid-free cells. All the DNA fragments inserted were sequenced before transferring them into E. faecalis MMH594 by electroporation. Figure 1 Schematic of the construction of pSL101 and its derivatives. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) The stability of pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp was tested by a doing a plasmid stability test. The plasmids were transformed into E. faecalis and overnight cultures were diluted 1,000-fold and grown in nonselective GM17 media. After every 24 hours a fresh culture was inoculated and this was continued for 7 days. At every inoculation, the culture was diluted and plated onto selective and nonselective plates and incubated at 37 °C overnight. Bioluminescence of the resulting colonies was measured and the number of colonies on both selective and nonselective plate was counted to score for resistance to spectinomycin. The stability of these  plasmids was compared to pIL252luxABCDEPhelp which was created by cloning the Phelp luxABCDE cassette into pIL252. This plasmid lacks the axe-txe stability system and is therefore lost after overnight culture with antibiotic selection (Figure 2a). On the other hand, there is no loss of pSL101P32 even after 7 days of culturing in non-selective media and only 30% loss in case of pSL101P16S and pSL101Phelp. This result shows that the segregational stability system is required for stable maintenance of the reporter plasmids in E. faecalis grown in nonselective media. The methodology adopted by the authors to do this experiment has two drawbacks- firstly, plating the culture onto nonselective and selective plates simultaneously may give erroneous results when there are more colonies on the selective plate than on the nonselective plate. To avoid this, the colonies on the nonselective plate obtained after incubation for 16 hours should be patched onto selective plates and then scored for antibiotic resistance phenotype. Secondly, nowhere in the manuscript do the authors mention doing the experiments in repeats. Performing an experiment in duplicates or triplicates is advantageous as it makes the data obtained more reliable. Figure 2 (a) Plasmid stability of pSL101 derivatives in E. faecalis MMH594 (b) Correlation between bioluminescence and number of CFU/ml in E. faecalis MMH594. à ¢- , pIL252luxPhelp; â™ ¦, pSL101P32; à ¢-  , pSL101P16S; à ¢- ², pSL101Phelp. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) After confirming the stability of the plasmids in E. faecalis MMH594, overnight cultures were diluted and grown in GM17 medium and bioluminescence was measured to assess the correlation between light emission and cellular growth. To determine the relationship between CFU number and bioluminescent signal cultures in mid-exponential phase were diluted and viable cell count and bioluminescence was measured. Figure 2b shows that a linear relationship exists between number of CFU and the bioluminescent signal and thus pSL101 reporter system can be used to measure the real-time growth of bacteria. Also, to determine the relation between absorbance and bioluminescence growth of cultures with pSL101 derivatives was measured using a microplate reader by recording the absorbance at 620 nm for 7 hours after 15 min intervals. Bioluminescence of the culture was measured by quantifying the bioluminescent signal captured by an imaging system. The experiment was done in three independent repeats. It was found that during the exponential phase bioluminescence increased because of high metabolic activity of the cells and thus high availability of substrate- flavin mononucleotide (Bachmann et. al., 2007) required for luciferase enzyme (Figure 3). As the cells enter the stationary phase, a decline in the bioluminescence signal was observed corresponding to the decrease in the concentration of the substrate. Similar effect was observed for pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp. In case of the negative control, no bioluminescence was observed which confirms no background. Growth of different strains of E. faecalis was also monitored using the pSL101P16S system to determine its broad applicability. Four strains of E. faecalis differing in their origin (clinical isolate, probiotic strain, laboratory strain and commensal strain) were transformed with pSL101P16S and absorbance and bioluminescence was measured as above. As in the case of E. faecalis MMH594 a good correlation (R2 > 0.94) was observed between absorbance and bioluminescence thus proving that pSL101 system is not limited to a single strain of E. faecalis but can be used for other strains too. Figure 3 Bioluminescence during growth of E. faecalis MMH594 transformed with pSL101 derivatives. Closed symbols represent the bioluminescent signal and open symbols represent optical density at 620 nm. (a) pSL101P32. (b) pSL101P16S. (c) pSL101Phelp. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) E. faecalis is normally found in urine and blood samples of people suffering from diseases caused by this microorganism. It is also commonly found in Therefore, pSL101P16S was used to monitor the growth of E. faecalis in these environments. To measure the growth in milk, Nestle NAN Infant Milk Formula was pre-heated to 37 °C and inoculated with PBS (phosphate-buffer saline) washed probiotic strain Symbioflor 1 and commensal strain E. faecalis 32. Both the strains were lux-tagged with pSL101P16S. Bioluminescence was measured as described above and number of CFU was measured at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 22 hours after inoculation by plating the cultures on GM17 media with spectinomycin. The experiment was done in duplicates. There was no background luminescence detected by milk and for both the strains, a linear correlation (R2= 0.95) between bioluminescence and viable cell count was observed (Figure 4). Similarly, growth of lux-tagged E. faecalis MMH594 and T2 was measured in urine by preheati ng the media at 37 °C and inoculation with PBS washed cells. Although a low level of luminescence was observed in urine, there was a significant increase in the luminescence corresponding to the growth of bacterial strains (Figure 5) as in the case of milk. This experiment shows that the pSL101 system can be used in other growth environments as long as the background luminescence due to media is low. Figure 4 (a) Bioluminescence of E. faecalis strains grown in Nestle NAN Infant Milk Formula. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescnce signal. (b) Bioluminescence and CFU/ml of Symbioflor 1(black triangles) and E. faecalis 62 (gray diamonds) tagged with pSL101P16S and grown in milk. Open symbols represent CFU/ml and closed symbols represent bioluminescence (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) Figure 5 (a) Bioluminescence of E. faecalis strains grown in urine. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescnce signal. (b) Bioluminescence and CFU/ml of E. faecalis MMH594 (black circles) and E. faecalis T2 (gray diamonds) tagged with pSL101P16S and grown in urine. Open symbols represent CFU/ml and closed symbols represent bioluminescence. (Figure reproduced from La  Rosa et. al., 2012) In the next experiment growth of lux-tagged E faecalis was monitored in Galleria  mellonella. G. mellonella larvae can be maintained at 37 °C thus permitting the study of host- pathogen interaction at the human physiological temperature. Also, they have a fairly advanced immune system comprising of phagocytic cells in the blood type fluid called hemolymph. To determine whether the luxABCDE cassette influences the virulence of E. faecalis MMH594, killing of G. mellonella larvae was monitored when infected by wild-type E. faecalis MMH594 and the strain tagged by pSL101P16S. This was done by injecting 10  µl of E. faecalis suspension (in 0.9% saline) into the body cavity of 10 larvae through the hindmost leg. As a control 10  µl of 0.9% saline was injected into another 10 larvae. These infected larvae were grown at 37 °C on 90 mm petri dishes and were examined every 2 hours. It was observed that the infection due to E. faecalis is accompanied by the melanisation of larvae whic h indicates towards the activation of prophenoloxidase (PO) responsible for biosynthesis of melanin and plays a role in the defence reactions against invading organisms (Sugumaran, 2001). From Figure 6a it can be confirmed that the virulence of lux-tagged strain of E. faecalis is similar to the wild type strain. Therefore, the lux-tagged strain was used to visualize the progress of infection in G. mellonella. Figure 6b shows the bioluminescent images of infected larvae captured till 48 hours after infection. The bioluminescent signal was detected immediately after infection and declined after 2 hours. After 4 hours post infection, a peak in the signal was observed and was constant till 24 hours after which all larvae were dead (Figure 6c). To confirm whether the bioluminescent signal corresponds to the growth of E. faecalis the infected larvae were sterilized by 70% ethanol and dissected and transferred into 0.9% saline solution. These samples were vortexed and homogenous mixture of insect and bacteria was serially diluted and plated on GM17 plated with spectinomycin. At each time period, 3 insects were dissected and number of CFU was counted. A drop in the number of CFU was observed 2 hours after infection but this was followed by increase in growth till 48 hours (Figure 6d). This result is in good agreement with the bioluminescent signal measured in the infected larvae and shows that the bioluminescent reporter can be used to monitor the progress of infection by E. faecalis in G. mellonella. Figure 6 (a) Percentage survival of G. mellonella larvae when infected with wild type E. faecalis MMH594 (à ¢- ¡),  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis (X) and 0.9% saline (ââ€"Å ). (b) Bioluminescent images of G. mellonella larvae infected with  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescent signal. (c) Bioluminescent signal measured corresponding to the growth of  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis over 48 hours post infection. (d) Number of CFU  ­of E. faecalis from the homogenous mixture of larvae and bacteria. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) The use of luxABCDE as a reporter for monitoring growth of E. faecalis in animal models has several advantages (as stated earlier). On the other hand, there are certain limitations of this system. Bioluminescence of luxABCDE relies on fatty acid synthesis and thus on the metabolic activity of the cells. Lower the metabolic activity lower will be the bioluminescent signal. Due to this, the pSL101 reporter system designed in this study may not be able to measure the growth of bacterial cells with low metabolic rate. This is especially disadvantageous in case of biofilm formation by E. faecalis in which the cells may have low metabolic activity. Also, the report does not describe the effect of pSL101 derivatives (with P32, P16S and Phelp) on the growth of E. faecalis. Although, it is mentioned that the growth of E. faecalis MMH594 strain with pSL101 is similar to the strain with pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp (data not shown) it is necessary to investigate whether the pSL101 and its derivatives present any metabolic load on the E. faecalis strain. The study shows that the pSL101 derivatives are stably maintained in E. faecalis but the plasmid stability test was done only for duration of 7 days and it is possible that the plasmids may be rapidly lost after this time period. This will prevent the use of the pSL101 reporter system to monitor growth of E. faecalis in other animal models, such as mouse, where long-time monitoring is required. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the stability of these plasmids in E. faecalis over a long time. Additionally, it may be difficult to observe any bioluminescent signal from deep tissues of animal models if the signal is weak, as in the case of low number of E. faecalis cells. In conclusion, a simple and robust reporter system using luxABCDE has been developed to monitor the growth of E. faecalis in animal models. Despite the limitations, this method is non-invasive and will significantly reduce the burden on experimental animals. It can be used to investigate the various genes involved in the virulence of E. faecalis facilitating better understanding of pathogenicity of E. faecalis. References:- Bachmann, H., Santos, F., Kleerebezem, M., et al. (2007) Luciferase detection during stationary phase in Lactococcus lactis. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 73 (14): 4704-4706. Chow, J.W., Thal, L.A., Perri, M.B., et al. (1993) Plasmid-associated hemolysin and aggregation substance production contribute to virulence in experimental enterococcal endocarditis. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 37 (11): 2474-2477. Grady, R. and Hayes, F. (2003) Axe-Txe, a broad-spectrum proteic toxin-antitoxin system specified by a multidrug-resistant, clinical isolate of Enterococcus faecium. Molecular microbiology, 47 (5): 1419-1432. Hanin, A., Sava, I., Bao, Y., et al. (2010) Screening of in vivo activated genes in Enterococcus faecalis during insect and mouse infections and growth in urine. PloS one, 5 (7): e11879. Ike, Y., Hashimoto, H. and Clewell, D.B. (1984) Hemolysin of Streptococcus faecalis subspecies zymogenes contributes to virulence in mice. Infection and immunity, 45 (2): 528-530. Jett, B.D., Jensen, H.G., Nordquist, R.E., et al. (1992) Contribution of the pAD1-encoded cytolysin to the severity of experimental Enterococcus faecalis endophthalmitis. Infection and immunity, 60 (6): 2445-2452. La Rosa, S.L., Diep, D.B., Nes, I.F., et al. (2012) Construction and application of a luxABCDE reporter system for real-time monitoring of Enterococcus faecalis gene expression and growth. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78 (19): 7003-7011. Mundy, L.M., Sahm, D.F. and Gilmore, M. (2000) Relationships between enterococcal virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Clinical microbiology reviews, 13 (4): 513-522. Qazi, S.N., Counil, E., Morrissey, J., et al. (2001) agr expression precedes escape of internalized Staphylococcus aureus from the host endosome. Infection and immunity, 69 (11): 7074-7082. Schlievert, P.M., Gahr, P.J., Assimacopoulos, A.P., et al. (1998) Aggregation and binding substances enhance pathogenicity in rabbit models of Enterococcus faecalis endocarditis. Infection and immunity, 66 (1): 218-223. Shankar, N., Lockatell, C.V., Baghdayan, A.S., et al. (2001) Role of Enterococcus faecalis surface protein Esp in the pathogenesis of ascending urinary tract infection. Infection and immunity, 69 (7): 4366-4372. Sugumaran, M. (2001) Control mechanisms of the prophenoloxidase cascade. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 484 289-298. Nikhil Aggarwal

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight :: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Lines 1372-1453 from The Norton Anthology of English Literature Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous poet who was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. The story was originally written in a Northern dialect. It tells the story of Sir Gawain's first adventure as a knight. This section of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight pertains to the agreement between Bercilak de Hautdesert, the host, and Gawain. Bercilak is to go hunting in the morning, while Gawain sleeps. Upon the return of Bercilak from his hunting trip, he is to give to Gawain all that he has caught. In return, Gawain is to return all that he has won in his "hunt." They make this bargain three times, at the end of each day. The segment begins with Bercilak showing Gawain the fruits of his hunting trip. Gawain returns the fruits of his "hunt" by bestowing on Bercilak a kiss. The source of the kiss given to Gawain remains anonymous. However, Gawain is not aware that Bercilak knows exactly where and from whom Gawain has received his gift. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consists of three hunts, three temptations, and three different animals. It is not by accident that the first day's hunt is for deer. The deer represents the innocence and purity of Gawain as a knight. The lengthy and detailed description of the hunt and the capture of the deer serve to emphasize the symbolism of the deer. The even more detailed description of the slaughter and butchering of the meat further emphasizes the symbolism. It can be inferred that the butchering of the deer is similar to the fate that awaits Gawain when he meets with the Green Knight. The next day's hunt is for a wild boar. The fierce animal is symbolic of Gawain's reactions to the increasing advances from Bercilak's wife. The boar is fierce and much more difficult to catch and kill, just as Gawain is steady in his resistance to temptation. Bercilak is aware that Gawain is resistant to all temptation at this point. Gawain is true to his reputation of a chivalrous, worthy knight. The third day's hunt is for the wily and cunning fox. This is symbolic of the clever way that Gawain resists temptation. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight :: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Lines 1372-1453 from The Norton Anthology of English Literature Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous poet who was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. The story was originally written in a Northern dialect. It tells the story of Sir Gawain's first adventure as a knight. This section of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight pertains to the agreement between Bercilak de Hautdesert, the host, and Gawain. Bercilak is to go hunting in the morning, while Gawain sleeps. Upon the return of Bercilak from his hunting trip, he is to give to Gawain all that he has caught. In return, Gawain is to return all that he has won in his "hunt." They make this bargain three times, at the end of each day. The segment begins with Bercilak showing Gawain the fruits of his hunting trip. Gawain returns the fruits of his "hunt" by bestowing on Bercilak a kiss. The source of the kiss given to Gawain remains anonymous. However, Gawain is not aware that Bercilak knows exactly where and from whom Gawain has received his gift. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consists of three hunts, three temptations, and three different animals. It is not by accident that the first day's hunt is for deer. The deer represents the innocence and purity of Gawain as a knight. The lengthy and detailed description of the hunt and the capture of the deer serve to emphasize the symbolism of the deer. The even more detailed description of the slaughter and butchering of the meat further emphasizes the symbolism. It can be inferred that the butchering of the deer is similar to the fate that awaits Gawain when he meets with the Green Knight. The next day's hunt is for a wild boar. The fierce animal is symbolic of Gawain's reactions to the increasing advances from Bercilak's wife. The boar is fierce and much more difficult to catch and kill, just as Gawain is steady in his resistance to temptation. Bercilak is aware that Gawain is resistant to all temptation at this point. Gawain is true to his reputation of a chivalrous, worthy knight. The third day's hunt is for the wily and cunning fox. This is symbolic of the clever way that Gawain resists temptation.

Academic English Time Allotted: 60 Minutes

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ORIENTAL STUDIES QUESTIONS: 1. Some people believe that success in life comes from taking risk or chance. Others believe that success results from careful planning. In your opinion, what does success come from? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Self-confidence is the most important factor for success in school or at work.Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. 3. Learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 4. You have received a gift of money. The money is enough to buy either a piece of jewelry you like or tickets to a concert you want to attend. Which would you buy? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. 5.Some people think that they can learn better by themselves than with a teacher. Others think that it is always better to have a teacher. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons to develop your essay. 6. If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer. 7. â€Å"When people succeed, it is because of hard work, Luck has nothing to do with success. † Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above?Use specific and examples to explain your position. 8. Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Which point of view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer. 9. Neighbors are the people who live near us. In your opinion, what are the qualities of a good neighbor? Use specific details and examples in your answer.

Have We Become too Dependent? Essay

â€Å"As cities grow and technology takes over the world belief and imagination fade away and so do we.† This is a quote I found written by Julia Kagawa the author of the book, The Iron King. What does this quote say about society? The advancement of technology has helped us progress technologically, but has forced us to regress socially. Before we had the use of advanced technology tools, I remember t the only way of communicating with your friends and family members was to be visiting with them in person or hand writing letters to those distant relatives or friends. Letters and anything sent through â€Å"snail mail† would take weeks to arrive at that person’s house. Previous ways of communication have now been replaced with modern day digital technology. From computers, to Apple Products, and cell phones. Over the past decade, our ways of living have changed drastically. Computers have found their way into our everyday life activities. We trust our computers to help us with our jobs, school work and even with communication. As a society we rely on computers and other available devices to help us get through our everyday life. The question has to be asked are we becoming too dependent on computers and other technological devices? Is this beneficial could it eventually hurt us? Even though in this era advanced technology does benefit us, I think in the long run these technologies will end up inhibiting our progress as a society. Computers have made our lives much easier. They help us manage tasks with their digital calendar feature, budget our monthly spending with finance programs, and communicate with friends and family much more efficiently. Computers have made it easier for someone to communicate with just a click of a button through email. Email is the modern day version of writing a letter. Instead of writing your thoughts, you type them and it gets to its destination in minutes rather than days or weeks. Read more:  Society Dependent on Technology When working in an office setting instead of getting up and talking to someone you can simply tell them through an email, and save the time walking ten feet around the corner. Not only can you send information quicker than ever but technology continues to improve; and there are ways we can communicate face to face while being thousands of miles away. The modern day web cam allows us to communicate with friends around the world; you simply hook up your web cam and download a program such as Skype to help you communicate face to face. Who would have thought that with advancements in technology you would be able to look at your computer and have a face to face conversation with someone miles away? Computers now have built in webcams, making it easy to communicate face to face for many different reasons. For example, students who are sick or are unable to attend school for a long period of time now have opportunities to sit in on instruction from home. With a built in webcam students can Skype their teachers and listen to instruction as they teach. This is extremely beneficial in the educational world. In the work world Skype has also changed many things. Since the webcam enables us to communicate face to face by simply looking at a computer screen employment opportunities have changed. For example, if an applicant lives out of state an employer can do a Skype interview, instead of them flying in and possibly not getting the job. There are also online virtual conferences you can attend via Skype. Computers have changed our ways of communication forever. Not only have computers changed our lives, but another device that we depend on is a cell phone. Cell phones now play a huge role on in our lives. We can communicate with a quick phone call or sms messaging. According to the university of Alberta students report using cell phones for different ways other than communication, like an alarm clock, games for boredom, Picture sending, address book, and mobile entertainment. [ (Nurullah, 2009) ] Sms messaging is a great way for us to communicate with the use of cell phones. We use text messaging when we are too busy to talk, with the family, in class, or even to have a difficult conversation that would be uncomfortable face to face. People use their cell phones to text anywhere anytime it is an easy way to communicate, just with the simple movements of your thumbs. â€Å" Teens from ages 13-17 average 231 phone calls and 1,742 text messages a month† [ (Anita Gurian, 2011) ] The usage of cell phones also allows us to place reminders about school assignments for students, birthdays, appointments on their calendar’s, which is a positive aspect of cell phone use and our technologies. William Ogburn had theories of social change his theories include invention, discover, and diffusion. When relating my social change topic to inventions, it relates to the invention of technology and how it affects the social life on relationships to teens. When Ogburn identified discover he said â€Å"Discover is a new way of seeing reality, as a second process of change.†(Henslin 2010) As you can see the way we communicate today has been a huge social movement. It really makes you realize how our means of communication have drastically changed, due to developments in new technology. In diffusion the invention of technology has spread all over the world. The technologies that we have today do benefit us in this era, but there are also a number of arguments agains t them. For example, â€Å"An effect on Children’s Education† an article I read, states that â€Å"Computer use will replace the time that children and students should be spending doing activities for brain development† in the early years younger children learned using hands on and creative play to develop qualities. When using computers it mainly shows symbols, computers can portray the five senses however children need interactions to actually feel and experience the senses hands on. Another way that technologies are disrupting learning environment is that a lot of school work is done with the use of computers for example quick short assignments are being typed out when they could easily be hand written, this is an issue for kids that are in elementary school learning how to read properly and write. Handwriting is a skill that is absolutely nesecessary for us to have. When a child has to spend a little more time writing information is more easily retained. Computers in the school should only be suitable for long assignments, older adults, or an actual computer learning classes. Furthermore the use of cell phones is having a slight impact on teen education, instead of participating in class you see a lot of students text messaging, listening to music, searching the web ect. With the use of phones in class rooms students can now send pictures of a quiz for example to another student, or instead of passing notes they can message each other answers. Not only have cell phones become a distraction for student during school but they are drastically limiting their social skills. Teenagers prefer to tell their friends something via text rather than in person. It makes it easier to tell someone something difficult through a text because you never have to see them face to face. This is a dilemma in our world because when the younger generations are adults, how are they going to be able to handle face to face communication? This is where the use of cell phones is majorly inhibiting the human race socially. When technologies become the main attraction in a person’s life they have a recognizable change in behavior. Some become lazy and may become antisocial and sometimes one can feel lost without their devices at hand. I have seen this first hand when working as a child care provider with children being able to watch television, play video games, using their phones, or on the computer too long, when it came to that time that they need to stop they throw temper tantrums. With relying on our technology devices too much it is not only a change in behavior but it can also take a toll on their health as well. The human eye is not designed to look at one particular object for hours. When a person is stuck watching there tv, video game, computer, or phone your eyes can become an infected with blurred vision, irritation, eye strain which can lead to an infection. Other effects that can affect your health when using these technologies is weight gain, back problems and also headaches, However it can be argued that these health problems is the fault of the person rather than the technologies. One of the most persuasive argument, nonetheless, is the issue of safety. Stolen information is tremendous issue when using computer devices; apart from sharring personal information such as full names address ect. In society, today people save personal information on their computers and even their phones. There are people who can gain access to your personal files by hacking it in numerous ways. You might be thinking to yourself that I do not save any personal information on my devices, however unknowingly if you ever shop online or loose your phone it is possible for a hacker or someone to gain access to your financial information. Why do we depend on these technologies so much? Not only are there computers or our cell phones, but we use them in the checkout stand at the grocery store, we pay with our credit cards, we use atms to pull money out, even some of our cars use computer chips to run. What is the world going to do if one day something goes wrong and we are then again without technology? Is the world going to know how to function? It is obvious that computers make our everyday life easier, but as we get more remarkably transformed to rely on them we are putting ourselves at risk for the future. In this era we do need the use of computers, but we should learn to not be so much dependent on them as it causes threats for human kind. Works Cited Anita Gurian, P. (2011). Texting and talking: Kids and Cell Phones. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from www.aboutourkids.org: http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/texting_talking_kids_cell_phones Henslin, J. M. (2010). Sociology A down-to-earth-approach. Allyn and bacon. Nurullah, A. S. (2009). The cell phone as an agent of social change . Alberta : David pierce .

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