Utilitarianism and Greatest Happiness Essay Example for Free

Utilitarianism and Greatest Happiness Essay Utilitarianism begins with the work of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), an English political and social reformer. Educated at Oxford, Bentham eventually headed up a small group of thinkers called the â€Å"Philosophical Radicals. † This group, which included James Mill (father of John Stuart Mill, more on him later), was dedicated to social reform and the promulgation of Bentham’s ideas. Bentham based utilitarian ethics on the so-called â€Å"greatest happiness principle,† an idea originally enunciated by Frances Hutcheson (16941746), one of the founders of the Scottish Enlightenment. Put simply, Bentham believed that the goal of ethics was to promote â€Å"the greatest happiness of the greatest number. † Interestingly enough, Bentham went on to say that happiness consists in experiencing more pleasures than pains. That is, Bentham connects the welfare of the greatest number to a hedonistic view that values pleasure over pain. He then constructed what he termed a â€Å"hedonistic calculus† as an objective measure of the value of various pleasures or pains in terms of such categories as â€Å"intensity, duration, certainty, proximity, productiveness, purity, and extent. † Using such quantitative measures, Bentham felt he could calculate the â€Å"happiness factor† of various proposed courses of action. The action promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number in a particular situation would be morally best. Notice two things about Bentham’s approach. First, implicit in his argument is the belief that the only way to measure the moral worth of an action is to evaluate its consequences: Will it produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number or not? Whatever does produce the greatest happiness in a particular situation, Bentham claims, will be morally correct. Second, the contrast to Kant could not be more clear. For Kant, the moral worth of an action lies strictly in the motive for taking the action, never its consequences. Only a good will, properly apprehending its duty through use of the categorical imperative and then acting to fulfill that duty, is capable of performing a morally good action. Bentham himself was an ardent political reformer, arguing tenaciously for a number of, what were for the day, radical views, including equality for women, prison reform, decriminalization of homosexuality, and animal rights. The more philosophical development of his ethical ideas fell to his followers, particularly James Mill and, later, Mill’s son John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). The younger Mill, aggressively educated by his father from ages three to fourteen, grew to be one of the 2 great thinkers of the nineteenth century. In the process, John Stuart Mill considerably refined Bentham’s utilitarianism. Writing in his 1861 essay Utilitarianism, Mill modifies Bentham’s view of pleasure and pain. Bentham had sought to distinguish pleasures and pains quantitatively (e. g., more or less intense, more or less in duration, more or less in extent, etc. ). Mill, by contrast, sought to include qualitative features, arguing, for instance, that the experience an intellectual or aesthetic pleasure (like reading a good book) might be more pleasurable than the physical pleasure of something like a good meal. Mill otherwise seeks to defend Bentham’s basic ideas. In doing so, Mill tries to resolve a conflict in Bentham’s thought. This conflict arises because of a difference between Bentham’s account of (1) hedonism for the individual and (2) hedonism as an ethical theory. An individual acts, Bentham says, solely out of a desire for happiness (i. e. , more pleasures than pains). This account could be termed descriptive in that it claims to explain why a person acts. But according to hedonism as an ethical theory, however, the individual should seek â€Å"the greatest happiness of the greatest number. † This view is not descriptive, but normative because it tells what the individual should do. This conflict leads to two problems. The first is obvious: if each individual is motivated to act to attain personal happiness, then why would that person have any concern to promote the welfare of others? The second is more theoretical: How to get from a descriptive theory of how individuals act to a normative theory of why individuals should all seek â€Å"the greatest happiness of the greatest number. † To solve the first problem, Mill introduces the idea of external and internal sanctions. These sanctions serve for Mill as the bridge between the world of the individual and the larger social universal of which we are all a part. External sanctions, for example, are social rules and laws that reward or punish persons for particular actions. Individuals view these sanctions in terms of their potential for pleasure or pain and adjust their future behavior accordingly. Mill’s view of internal sanctions is different. There, he sounds a bit like Hume, arguing that obeying a moral law produces a feeling of pleasure (and disobeying such a law produces a feeling of pain). Such feelings can, in turn, be can be observed to develop (in some people, at least) into a deep sympathy for others, thus illustrating the operation of the â€Å"greatest happiness principle† from within such persons. For such persons, their own happiness may truly depend on the happiness of others, which seems 3 to show that the individual desire for happiness can be reconciled with the theoretical demand that individuals act for the welfare of all. Why such connection might occur in some individuals rather than in others remains a question. At this point, contrasting Mill with Hume is instructive. Mill argues that, as can be observed, individuals develop a sense of pleasure or pain associated with obeying or disobeying moral laws and that, at least for some, those pleasures and pains become the basis for a sympathetic connection with others. Hume argues that such sympathetic connection is natural. By growing up in a human society, we intuitively learn to associate a feeling of moral pleasure with some acts and moral pain with others. Thus, for Hume, sentiment (or the particular feelings associated with moral or immoral acts) is a normal part of human development; whereas, for Mill, internal sanctions—and the role of the â€Å"greatest happiness principle†can be observed in people’s behavior, but a general theory of why people do this is lacking. Another place where a general theory is lacking is in the second problem described above: How to get from a descriptive theory of how individuals act to a normative theory of why individuals should all seek â€Å"the greatest happiness of the greatest number. † Mill argues here that there is no way to prove such a first principle as the â€Å"greatest happiness principle. † Indeed, he says, â€Å"No reason can be given why the general happiness is desirable except that each person, so far as he believes it to be attainable, desires his own happiness. † Since Mill’s time, utilitarianism has been widely debated, and an interesting distinction has emerged between Bentham and Mills theories. For Bentham, what makes an action right depends upon whether it contributes to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. That is, Bentham focuses on the happiness-producing potential of each individual action. We can call this act-utilitarianism. Mill, to some extent, seems to subscribe to this view, but he also at points takes a position we might call rule-utilitarianism. From this viewpoint, the morality of an action does not depend on whether it actually produces the greatest happiness; rather, what counts is whether the rule that the action exemplifies in fact satisfies the need for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. These two forms of utilitarianism continue to be debated by ethicists today. To illustrate the distinction between these two forms of utilitarianism, consider the following case. Suppose that a person unknowingly carried a deadly, highly contagious disease. An act-utilitarian might argue that we would be justified in killing such an individual to protect society from the disease (and thereby promote the greatest 4 happiness of the greatest number). A rule-utilitarian, on the other hand, might point out that the rule or principle involved in such an act (that we might kill someone when we found it in the best interest of the greatest number) should be rejected because it was, in fact, a dangerous rule and could ultimately lead to diminishing the greatest happiness of all. (Incidentally, you may have noticed that the rule-utilitarians position is reminiscent of Kant. ) In conclusion, the utilitarian viewpoint championed by Bentham and refined by John Stuart Mill has come to be one of the two major schools of ethical thought among academic philosophers in the United States and elsewhere. Its major competition, of course, comes from Kant’s deontological ethics. It is worth mentioning as well that utilitarianism has also had a powerful impact outside ethical circles. Remember that Bentham himself was primarily a liberal political reformer, so it is fitting that politics and public policy are also areas in which reasoning about the â€Å"greatest good for the greatest number† continues to widely practiced.

The Nature Versus Nurture Debate Sociology Essay

The Nature Versus Nurture Debate Sociology Essay Throughout the history of human existence, there have always been questions that have plagued man for centuries. Some of these questions are what is the meaning of life and which came first, the chicken or the egg. Within the past 400 years a new question has surfaced which takes our minds to much further levels. The question asked is whether nature or nurture has more of an impact on the growing development of people. It is a fact that a combination of nature and nurture play important roles in how humans behave socially. However, I believe that nature has a more domineering role in the development of how people behave in society with regards to sexual orientation, crimes and violence and mental disorders. Height, hair color, eye color and sex are just a few examples of ways our DNA has shaped us. But could it be possible that our DNA also affects the way we behave in society. It is possible that genetics affect us is more ways that we may have imagined. Dr. Peter B. Neubaur believes that shyness, eating disorders, obsessive behavior and psychological illness can all be traced back to our genetics.  Sexual orientation  is also believed to be derived from genes in our body which determine what sexual preference we prefer. Violence and other types of crimes can be linked back throughout a persons lineage to witness that other family members have been committed similar crimes without ever meeting one and other. Throughout our lives we have all been influenced by our environment and other outside forces. Our environment may change the way we think, act and behave in life. Since we are all products of our environment, it comes to no surprise that we, as humans, tend to behave in a society the same way others around us behave but at the same time we strive to find who we really are (Schaefer 73). Since birth, humans have always analyzed the world around them. With each day that passes, humans take in more and more information from the outside world. The information which humans obtain through their environment subconsciously influences the decisions people make throughout their daily life (Neubauer 16). On the other hand, our genetics also play a vital role in determining what type of person we are and what will we become.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several decades many people believed that nurture had a more profound impact on the sexuality of humans than did nature. Even the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that sexual orientation was derived from nurture. Freud developed a theory which explains that at birth till the age of four every child is bisexual. When the child reaches the age of around four, he/she begins to learn to withhold their feeling for members of the same sex and start expressing those sexual feeling to members of the opposite sex. Freud proposed the idea that male homosexuality originates when this crucial developmental stage is hindered by some outside force also known as nurture. According to Freud, this can occur when either a chided is raised in a fatherless household or with an overbearing mother figure. However, when this idea was actually tested, it did not fall through as ma ny would expect it would (Steen 185). Since many years after Freuds passing, it has become apparent that nature holds a strong role in the development of sexual orientation of humans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If nurture isnt the cause for sexual orientation then nature must be. According to Grant Steen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, a large study was recently conducted which gathered gay males who have either identical or  fraternal twins  or adopted brothers. The goal of the study would be to see if genetics played a role in twins. At the end of the survey more than half of the  identical twins  of gay men were also found to be homosexuals. At the same time only about 22% of the fraternal twins were found to be gay and only 11% of the adopted brothers were gay. What these statistics show is that DNA plays a very important role in determining sexual orientation. Nature seems to have such a large impact on the sexual orientation of individuals that I feel that nurture has almost little or no effect on whether a person is homosexual or not.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If homosexuality is genetic then there should be a dramatic occurrence of homosexuality with families who have many homosexual relatives than to families in the general public who do not have homosexual relatives. Another survey was conducted in which 114 openly homosexual men were asked questions about the sexual orientation of their relatives. The study showed that homosexuality is indeed strongly clustered in some families; among the brothers of men in this study, the incidence of homosexuality was nearly seven-fold higher than in the population at large (Steen 197).  Homosexuality  can be considered hereditary because families with one gay relative are more likely to have others somewhere in their family lineage. Some skeptics may begin to raise the question that if homosexuality is genetic then there should be a gay gene in our DNA. After many studies, scientists have found that there is at least one gene which is responsible for homosexuality. Though this is not conclusive evidence because scientists still havent unlocked all of the DNA strands, scientists figure that with time and the advancement of technology we one day might be able to actually pin point this gay gene in DNA (Plomin 337).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Reporter  Jeff McMullen  of ABC interviewed  David Reimer  in May of 2000 who fell victim of a botched circumcision when he was only eight months old. The doctors at the time felt that David would be better off living the rest of his life as a girl. The doctors believed that the nurturing of a child and not nature would determine their psychological make-up. David explained to McMullen that throughout his entire childhood he felt out of place. It seemed that even though David grew up as a woman, inside he felt something was wrong. This interview strongly supports the idea that nature plays a vital role in determining sex. No matter how much of an effort was put in to surround Davids environment with feminine characteristics, it would not be strong enough to over come the resilient power of nature. From the time of conception, nature has already planed out many important factors which will effect our lives in so many ways. If nature does control our sexual preferences then it is possible that it could control many other facets of human existence. In the United States about twenty million crimes occur each year and most of the time the criminals are repeat offenders. One may begin to speculate whether society in the United States promotes crimes or are criminals born with the desire to commit these heinous crimes. According to Steen there is evidence from a large study of adopted children which shows that there is a tendency for children to reenact the criminal behavior of their biological parents. So even if a child was adopted and was raised in a house which had no  criminal activities, the child would be more likely to commit the same crimes as their biological parents which they have never met. This obviously disproves the notion that people are taught and raised to commit crimes. The East Coast sniper John Lee Malvo would hide in remote places all along the east coast and would shoot and kill people when the opportunity arose. Doctor Patricia Haensly believes that the DNA of John Lee Malvo differed from most peoples DNA. She came to the conclusion that most criminals are born with the genes that allow them to not think about the actions that they are coming are immoral. This is a very true statement because most people commit some type of crime, granted not murder but more along the lines of littering, but we tell ourselves that its not a problem and forget about it moments later. Murderers may feel the same way about killing as some people feel about littering. Nature also has a strong impact on domestic violence. In the United States over 18% of all homicides involved family members killing each other (Steen 228). This can lead to the deduction that just as the households which have one gay member are more likely to have other homosexually oriented family m embers; households which have one member who commits violent acts are more likely to have other family members who commit similar acts of violence. Sometimes nature cannot explain all the crimes committed in the United States. Some may feel that simply living in such an environment places young people at special risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior (Ferguson 81). For example, if a person is constantly surrounded by crimes and violence, then that person is more likely to commit the same crimes. However it may just be that people who live in bad areas would still commit those same crimes even if they resided in a low crime environment. Never-the-less your environment should not allow youre to commit the same crimes no matter how much crime is going on. If a person keeps committing crimes in a bad neighborhood then it is most likely that the DNA of that person convinces them that it is all right to commit murders. This explains why many people in jails in the United States are repeat offenders. One may begin to wonder if there is more to these criminals than what is on the surface Many mental disorders have been scientifically proven to be heritable. Manic-depression is a trait which is inheritable through family lineage. Many separate studies have arrived at the conclusion that identical twins are more likely to acquire manic-depression than do fraternal twins. In fact four out of every five twins tend to share the same types of mental disorders (Steen 141). One study found that risks of clinical depression are much higher in certain families than in others. Close relatives of those who are depressed are three times more likely to suffer from depression than people who dont have depression in their family history (Steen 147). This further secures the fact that nature plays such a crucial role over nurture in our lives and within our own families. There are some mental diseases such as  schizophrenia  which adults may suffer from which some people believed is cause from various problems in a persons childhood. This leads many so speculate that the roots of schizophrenia extend far back into childhood. Within the past ten years a discovery was made which scientists were able to link a gene on our chromosome to schizophrenia. This schizophrenic gene would be a dominant gene which means that if any person had this gene in their DNA then it is likely that he/she would suffer from schizophrenia. Even though more research needs to be done on the schizophrenic gene, it still provides us information which could one day lead to the solving of schizophrenia and many other devastating diseases (Steen 151). It has become clear that nature and nurture both play very important roles in how humans behave in a society. I feel that nature plays the more domineering role in the foundation of human existence. All though every day we are bombarded with outside forces, it is our internal make up that determines how we would react to our environment. Our environment only adds to what nature has given to us. If we use it in the correct ways then it will be beneficial to society and our selves. However, once the environment starts to turn to the ways of violence and crimes we can only assume that it will only have negative effects from any point you look at it.

The Genetics of Identity and Normalcy (2001-2015)

The Genetics of Identity and Normalcy (2001-2015) This chapter chronicles the fascinating history of discovery in the study of the genetics of identity and normalcy. Key concepts covered: Race assignment of individuals does not carry any general implication about genetic differentiation. Intelligence is heritable. Sex identity is physical; gender identity is psychological. There is strong evidence that sexual orientation and social behavior are hereditary. Epigenetics is the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. Race and Intelligence The desire to categorize humans along racial lines, and the impulse to superpose attributes such as intelligence (or criminality, creatively, or violence) on those lines, illustrate the general theme concerning genetics and categorization. Race Polygenic trees based on the DNA sequencing of people throughout the world have shown that Africans represent the root of the trees. This is interpreted as evidence that humans evolved in Africa, and then migrated across the globe. As humans colonized and settled permanently in various parts of the world, they differentiated themselves into distinct groups called races. Undoubtedly, many of the features that distinguish races, such as skin color or body shape, were adaptive in the local setting. Nevertheless, genomic analysis has revealed that the vast proportion of genetic diversity (85 to 90 percent) occurs within races and only a minor proportion (7 percent) between racial groups. The differences between races are superficial, based on the alleles of a relatively small number of genes that affect external features. So race assignment of individuals does not carry any general implication about genetic differentiation. For race and genetics, the genome is a one-way street. You can use genome to predict where X or Y came from. But, knowing where A or B came from, you can predict little about the persons genome. Intelligence Intelligence has historically been conceptualized as a more or less trait. Is intelligence heritable? Studies of twins do in fact provide strong evidence for the heritability of intelligence. The scores of identical twins reared apart are highly correlated (0.74). In addition, adopted childrens scores are highly correlated with the scores of their birth parents and not with the scores of their adoptive parents. Also significant are findings that heritability can differ between ethnic and racial groups, as well as across time within a single group; that is, the extent to which genes vs environment matter in IQ depends on many factors, including socioeconomic status and education. Sex Identity v. Gender Identity In 1903, Nettie Stevens, a graduate study in Biology under Thomas Morgan, was the first to recognize that females have two large sex chromosomes in the shape of Xs and that males have one of full size X and another that is missing a portion, making it resemble a Y. Later, she corroborated with Edmund Wilson a cell biologist, to discover the XY Sex Determination System. The XY system works like this. During meiosis the male XY sex-chromosome pair separates and passes on an X or a Y to separate sperms; the result is that one-half of the sperm that are formed contains the X chromosome and the other half contains the Y chromosome. The female has two X chromosomes, and all female egg cells normally carry a single X. The eggs fertilized by X-bearing sperm become females (XX), whereas those fertilized by Y-bearing sperm become males (XY). Unlike other pairs of chromosomes in which each member normally carries alleles of the same genes, the paired sex chromosomes do not carry an identical complement of genetic information. The X chromosome, being larger, carries many more genes than does the Y. Sex Identity In the early 1980, a young geneticist in London named Peter Goodfellow (1951- ) began to hunt for the sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome. He intended to use the Botsteins gene mapping technique to narrow down the search to a small region of the Y chromosome. But how could a normal gene be mapped without the existence of a variant phenotype, or an associated disease? But how can you find such a variant? The answer came in 1955 when Gerald Swyer, an English endocrinologist investigating female infertility, discovered a rare syndrome that made humans biologically female but chromosomally male. Women born with Swyer dyndrome were anatomically and physiologically female throughout childhood, but did not achieve female sexual maturity in early adulthood. When their cells were examined, geneticists discovered that they had XY chromosomes in all their cells. The most likely scenario behind Swyer syndrome was that the master-regulatory gene that specifies maleness had been inactivated by mutation, leading to femaleness. In 1989, Goodfellow discovered that a gene called SRY, located in the Y chromosome, was the master-regulatory gene responsible for sex determination. If you turn SRY on, the animal becomes anatomically and physiologically male; turn if off, the animal becomes anatomically and physiologically female. A women with Swyer syndrome is in fact a genetic male, but with the SRY gene (in his Y chromosome) turned off due to mutation. Gender Identity Gender identity is ones innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. Ones gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were several cases of sexual reassignment the conversion of chromosomal male children into females through physiological and social conditioning each troubled and troubling in its own right. Some of them suffered hanuting pangs of anxiety, anger, dysphoria, and disorientation well into adulthood. Others had trouble reconciling her sense of herself as fundamentally female. They might had been converted into women physiologically, but genetically they were still male and exhibiting male behavior in a female body. So they had never really acquired the female gender identity. But to enable more profound aspects of gender determination and gender identity, SRY must act on dozens of targets turning them on and off, activating some genes and repressing others. These genes, in turn, integrate inputs from the self and environment form hormones, behaviors, exposures, social performance, cultural role-playing, and memory to engender gender. This geno-development cascade specifies gender identity. The existence of a transgender identity provides powerful evidence for this geno-development cascade. In an anatomical and physiological sex, sex identity is quite binary: just one gene governs sex identity, resulting in the striking anatomical and physiological dimorphism that we observe between males and females. But gender and gender identity are far from binary. Image a gene call it TFY that determines how the brain responds to SRY. One child might inherit a TGY gene variant that is highly resistant to the action of SRY on the brain, resulting in a body that is antomically male, but a brain that does not read or interpret that male signal. Such a brain might recognize itself as psychologically female; it might consider itself neither male or female, or image itself belonging to a third gender together. Sexual Orientation Social Behavior Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation, or sexual identity, is how one thinks of oneself in terms of to whom one is romantically or sexually attracted the choice and preference of sexual partners. For a while in the 1950s and 1960s, the dominant theory among psychiatrists was that sexual preference was acquired, not in born. In the 1980s, J. Michael Bailey (1957- ), a professor of psychology, conducted a study of sexual orientation using twins. When he looked for concordance of gayness among twins, the results were striking. Of the fifty-six pairs of identical twins, 52 percent were both gay. Of the fifty-four pairs of nonidentical twins, 22 percent were both gay, lower than the fraction for identical twins, but still significantly higher than the estimate of 10 percent gay in the overall population. This study provided strong evidence that homosexuality is hereditary. In 1991, Dean Hamer (1951- ), a researcher at the National Caner Institute, came across Bailys twin study, and began his search for the gay gene. His studies led to the first molecular evidence for genes that influence human sexual orientation. His research groups first paper, published in Science in 1993, reported that the maternal but not paternal male relatives of gay men had increased rates of same-sex orientation, suggesting the possibility of inheritance from the maternal side of the families. A genetic linkage analysis of DNA samples from these families showed that gay brothers had an increased probability of sharing polymorphic markers on a small stretch of the X chromosome, called Xq28, providing statistically significant evidence for linkage to the sexual orientation phenotype. This finding was replicated in two other studies in the United States whereas a study in Canada found contrary results. After nearly a decade of intensive hunting, what geneticists have found is not a gay gene but a few gay locations. But none of the genes in these locations were experimentally linked to homo- or heterosexuality. The long-sought gay gene on Xq28 remains unknown. Social Behavior In 1979, Thomas Bouchard, a scientist in Minnesota, came across an account of twins who had been separated from birth and were reunited at age 30. For these brothers, genes were identical, but they grew up in different environments. By comparing separated-at-birth twins against twins brought up in the same family, Bouchard could untwist the effects of genes and environment. Bouchard began recruiting such twins for this study in 1979. By the late 1980s, he have assembled the worlds largest cohort of reared-apart and reared-together twins. This work became the Minnesota Study of Identical Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA), better known as the Minnesota Twins Project. In this study, he found out that shyness, political conservatism, dedication to hard work, orderliness, intimacy, extroversion, conformity, and a host of other social traits were largely heritable. In the early 1990s, Richard Ebstein, a geneticist in Israel, read Bouchards paper on the separate-at-birth twins. He wanted to identify the actual genes that determined variant forms of behavior. To find such genes, he would have to begin with a rigorous definition of the subtypes of personality that he wished to link to genes. He split out personality into four dimensions: novelty seeking impulsive vs cautious reward dependent warm vs attached risk avoidant anxious vs calm Persistent loyal vs fickle Ebstein was particularly intrigued by one of the subtypes novelty seeker, or neophiles. He began to collect a cohort of extreme neophiles using surveys, advertisements, and questionnaires. He then used molecular and genetic techniques to determine the genotypes within his cohort with a limited panel of genes. The most extreme novelty seekers, he discovered, had a disproportionate representation of one genetic determinant: a variant of dopamine-receptor gene called D4DR. His study was also corroborated by several other groups. D4DR is a human gene, located on chromosome 11. It is (so far) one of the only genes proven to be directly linked to a human personality trait. When the D4DR gene is mutated or elongated, studies have shown that the individual may be more interested in danger, excitement and thrill seeking. Epigenetics In the 1950s, Conrad Waddington (1905-75), an English embryologist, was fascinated in the early development of the fetus and interested in the mystery of how cells can start so simply and then develop specialized functions. He realized that a cells identity must be recorded in some manner beyond its genome for this to happen. He termed the phenomenon epigenetics. The word epigenetics literally means in addition to genes. Epigenetics is the reason why a skin cell looks different from a brain cell or a muscle cell. All three cells contain the same DNA, but their genes are expressed differently (turned on or off), which creates the different cell types. Today, epigenetics is the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. It also refers to external modifications to DNA that turn genes on or off. These modifications do not change the DNA sequence, but instead, they affect how cells read genes. In response to cues from the environment, chemical marks are selectively added to certain genes and erased from others, modulating the expression of the genes in that cell alone. These marks are layered above the genes, leaving a permanent imprint on genes. This genetic memory would ensure that gene expression is locked into place in each cell, enabling each cell to acquire and fix an identity. Hongerwinter The Dutch famine of 1944-45, known as the Hongerwinter (Hunger winter) in Dutch, was a famine that took place in the German-occupied part of the Netherlands during the winter of 1944-45, near the end of World War II. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm areas. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children died of malnourishment; millions survived. People who survived suffered from malnourishment and growth retardation. Children who survived the Hongerwinter also suffered chronic health issues: depression, anxiety, heart disease, gum disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes. In the 1980s, when the children born to women who were pregnant during the famine grew up, they too had higher rates of obesity and heart disease. In the 1990s, when the grandchildren of men and women exposed to the famine were studied, they too had higher rates of obesity and heart disease. The acute period of starvation had somehow altered genes not just in those directly exposed to the event; the message had been transmitted to their grandchildren. Some heritable factor, or factors, must have been imprinted into the genomes of the starving men and women and crossed at least two generations. The factor responsible for the memory could not be an alteration of the gene sequence: the people in the Dutch cohort would not have mutated their genes over the span of three generations. Here, an interaction between the gene and the environment had changed a phenotype (ie, the propensity for developing an illness). Something must have been stamped into the genome by virtue of exposure to the famine some permanent, heritable mark that was now being transmitted across generations. Gurdons Frog Cloning Experiment Our lives begin when a fertilized egg divides and forms new cells that, in turn, also divide. These cells are identical in the beginning, but become increasingly varied over time. It was long thought that a mature or specialized cell could not return to an immature state, but this has now been proved incorrect. In 1962, John Gurdon (1933- ) removed the nucleus of a fertilized egg cell from a frog and replaced it with the nucleus of a cell taken from a tadpoles intestine. This modified egg cell grew into a clone of the adult frog. Gurdons experiment had proved that factors present in an egg proteins and RNA could erase the marks of an adult cells genome and thereby reverse the fate of a cell and produce a tadpole from a frog cell. The idea was controversial at the time, but it later led directly to the cloning of Dolly the Sheep by Ian Wilmut in 1996, and to the subsequent discovery by Shinya Yamanaka that adult cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells for use in medicine. Chromosome Silencing In 1961, Mary Lyon (1925-2004), a former student of Waddington, found a viable example of an epigenetic change in an animal cell. In her biological study of chromosomes on mice, she found out that every paired chromosomes stained with chromosomal dyes looked identical except the two X chromosomes in females. One of the two X chromosomes in female mice was inevitably shrunken and condensed. The actual sequence of DNA was identical between both chromosomes, but the genes in the shrunken chromosome did not generate RNA, and therefore the entire chromosome was silent or inactivated. As nearly all female mammals have two X chromosomes, X-inactivation prevents them from having twice as many X chromosome gene products as males, who only possess a single copy of the X chromosome. How can a cell silence an entire chromosome? In the late 1970s, scientists discovered the epigenetic marker a group of methyl molecules attached to the DNA. Methyl tags were not the only epigenetic marker on genes. In 1996, working at Rockefeller University in New York, a biochemist named David Allis found yet another system of markers. Rather than stamping the marks directly on genes, this system placed its marks on proteins, called histones, that act as the packaging material for genes. Yamanakas Cell-fate Reversal Experiment Shinya Yamanaka (1962- ), a Japanese stem-cell biologies, was intrigued by Gurdons frog cloning experiment the idea that chemical marks attached to genes in a cell might function as a record of its cellular identity. What if he could erase these marks? Would the adult cell revert to an original state and turn into the cell of an embryo? In 2006, Yamanaka succeeded in identifying four genes within the genome of mice that proved decisive in this process. The introduction of these four genes into a mature skin cell of a mouse caused a small fraction of the cells to transform into something resembling an embryonic stem cell. This means that cells from someones skin can be made into stem cells which in turn can turn into any type of tissue in the body, meaning they can replace diseased or damaged tissue in patients. The Origin of Genes At Harvard, a biochemist named Jack Szostak (1952- ) has spent over two decades trying to discover the origin of DNA. In his laboratory, starting with chemical from the early Earth, the planet before life began, he was able to synthesize lifes basic building blocks lipids, nucleotides and amino acids, and assembled them into larger structures such as membranes, RNA molecules and peptides. Szostak believes that genes emerged out of this soup through a fortuitous meeting between these partners.

Most Significant Events of the 1950s-1990s Essay -- American History

During the course of our American History, there have been events that have changed the course of the nation. In the more recent times, our nation has been through the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, and even the Reaganomics. Despite all the turn of events in the American history, our nation has overcome and survived. Civil Rights Movement of 1954 – 1965 The Civil Rights Movement has been a changing point in the lives of countless minorities. The Civil Rights Movement started in 1954 when Linda Brown was denied entry to a school in Topeka, Kansas due to her race, thus creating the Brown v. Board of Education case. The Brown v. Board of Education case helped mark a turning point for minorities and ruled that it segregation in schools was unconstitutional. In 1955, one of the most famous events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement occurred. Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 after refusing to give up her bus seat for a white man. Rosa’s refusal sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. Finally, in 1964, President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to John Simkin, â€Å"The 1964 Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination in public places, such as theaters, restaurants and hotels, illegal. It also required employers to provide equal employment opportunities. Projects involving federal funds could now be cut off if there was evidence of discriminated based on colour, race or national origin.† (Spartacus Educational, 1997) The fight for civil rights has been going on for decades in our nation. During the Civil War, President Lincoln tried to fight to end slavery of African Americans in the south. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, â€Å"Presiden... ...source. Retrieved on August 11, 2008 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcivil64.htm The Watergate Files. August 19, 1974. (Date Unknown) Online Website Resource. Retrieved on August 16, 2008 from http://www.ford.utexas.edu/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=5&page=d The Watergate Files. July 24, 1974 The United States v. Richard Nixon. (Date Unknown). Online Website Resource. Retrieved on August 14, 2008 from http://www.ford.utexas.edu/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=5&page=d Tull, Matthew Ph D., Chronic PTSD in Vietnam War Veterans. (April 3, 2008, Para. 2). Online Website Resource. Retrieved on August 9, 2008 from http://ptsd.about.com/od/ptsdandthemilitary/a/Vietnamlongterm.htm Vietnam War. Vietnam War. (2007). Online Website Resource. Retrieved on August 16, 2008 from http://www.vietnamwar.com/

A Career in Sports Management Essay -- Career Research

Choosing a career is one of the most important decisions a person will make in their life. Most people try to pick the career with the best financial gain and something they would like to do for the rest of their life. Foremost it is wise to see what the job entails. Sport Management is perfect for those who enjoy helping and working with people, especially when dealing with sports. The next part of the decision-making process is looking through the various schooling and training required. Lastly, take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages. Usually with great salaries comes a big responsibility with high stress. â€Å"The sports industry in the U.S. is a $200-billion-dollar-plus powerhouse, with superstar athletes, lucrative endorsement deals, and all the free press an ego can handle† (Lawyue 1). The profession of a sport management professional has a very specific work description, requires specific schooling and training, and comes with a variety of benefits and disadvantages. As time progresses, watching and supporting sports is becoming more and more popular as a main source of entertainment. Many people have found ways to connect their jobs with their passion of sports. â€Å"The multibillion-dollar sports industry offers employment opportunities for management, marketing, and supervisory professionals at all levels of competition† (Sports Management 1). Depending on a person’s interests, there are jobs in professional, amateur, and even school sports. Once a person decides on a sport management career, it needs to be determined which area he or she more specifically wants to go into based on his or her interests and abilities. There is a wide range of groups who employ sport management pr... ...rks Cited Lawyue, Mathew. How to Pick a Sport Management Program. Undergraduate News. Bloomberg Businessweek. 18 Aug. 2012. Web. 18 Sep. 2014. â€Å"Major: Sports Management.† Princetonreview.com. The Princeton Review, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2014. â€Å"Manager.† Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia manager> Paulson, Edward. The Complete Idiots Guide to Starting Your Own Business. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2000. Print â€Å"Professional Sport.† Education-portal.com. MGMT Professions., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2014 â€Å"Sport Management.† Library.semo.edu. Kent Library Research Guide, n.d. Web. 18 Sep. 2014. â€Å"Sports Management.† Careers.stateuniversity.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2014 â€Å"What is Sport Management.† Winthrope.edu. Winthrope, n.d. Web. 15 Sep. 2014.

Salem Telephone Company – Essay

Salem Telephone Company 1. ) Variable and Fixed Costs The variable costs that Salem Data Services incurs with respect to revenue hours are power usage and hourly personnel wages. Power usage is a variable cost because the monthly power expense changes as a result of how much of the computer service is used. The hourly personnel wages are a variable cost as well because hourly workers are required to work when the computer service is operational. The revenue hours change each month and this causes the hourly workers salary to change too.The fixed costs, with respect to revenue hours, are rent and custodial services for the space that is leased by Salem Data Services as well as the computer leases, maintenance, depreciation of the computer equipment and the depreciation of the office equipment and fixtures. Other fixed costs include the salaried staff in charge of operations, the salaried staff that are in charge of the systems development and maintenance, the administration staff and the sales staff, which are also salaried. These are all fixed costs because they stay the same each month and are not affected by the change in revenue hours each month.The last two fixed costs are sales promotion and corporate services. Sales promotion is considered a fixed cost because the expense is not related to the current level of work. This cost was determined by the managers’ estimation of how much they needed to spend in order to acquire new clients. Corporate services are also considered a fixed cost because they not related to the level of work or monthly revenue hours that are generated. Exhibit 1A on the attached worksheet shows the variable and fixed cost breakdown for each month. 2. ) Cost Per Revenue HourFor the power variable cost, the cost per revenue hour is found by taking the power expense for each month and dividing it by the total revenue hours for each month. For January, the power expense is $1,546 and the total revenue hours are 329. The cost per re venue hour is $4. 70 ($1,546/329). For February, the power expense is $1,485 and the total revenue hours are 316. The cost per revenue is $4. 70 as well ($1,485/316). For March, the power expense is $1,697 and the total revenue hours are 361. Cost per revenue is again $4. 70 ($1,697/361).For the hourly personnel, the steps taken above are used to compute the cost per revenue. For January, the hourly personnel wages are $7,896 and the total revenue hours are 329. The cost per revenue hour is $24 ($7,896/329). In February, the hourly personnel wages are $7,584 and total revenue hours are 316. The cost per revenue hour is again $24 ($7,584/316). Finally in March, the hourly personnel wages are $8,664 and the total revenue hours are 361. The cost per revenue hour comes out to be $24 ($8,664/361). The total cost per revenue hour for each is $28. 0 and this is computed by adding the cost per revenue hour for the power expense and the hourly personnel together. These calculations can be fo und in Exhibit 2A on the attached worksheet. 3. ) Contribution Margin Income Statement Exhibit 3A on the attached worksheet shows the contribution margin income statement for Salem Data Services when Salem Telephone usage is 205 hours and the commercial usage is at the March level of 138 hours. The total sales are $192,400 of which $82,000 belongs to sales made from Salem Telephone at a $400 sales price and $110,400 of this belongs to commercial usage at a sales price of $800.The total variable costs are $9,844. 10. This was found by taking the total cost per revenue hour of $28. 70 and multiplying it by the total revenue hours, which were 343 (205+138). The contribution margin is $182,555. 90. This was determined by taking the total sales of $192,400 and subtracting out the variable costs of $9,844. 10. To get the net income, the total fixed costs of $212,939 are subtracted from the contribution margin, which produces a loss of ($30,383. 10). 4. ) Breakeven Point In order for Salem Data Services to breakeven each month, they will need to produce roughly 178 hours.Exhibit 4A on the attached worksheet shows the equation and calculation for the breakeven point. The equation for breakeven point is total sales equals total cost (variable and fixed). The total sales for Salem Data Services was the intracompany sales of $82,000 (205 hours X $800) plus the commercial sales of $800(X). The (X) represents the amount of unknown commercial hours that we are trying to find. The total costs are the cost per revenue hour of $28. 70 multiplied by both the 205 intracompany hours and the unknown commercial hours (X) plus the fixed costs of $212,939.The breakeven point is 40 more hours than Salem Data Services sold in March. Overall, from January to March, the amount of commercial hours sold has increased, but in small increments. Salem Data could reach this breakeven point in a future month if their hours continue to increase, but they will be susceptible to an increase in the ir variable costs and an increase in a couple of their fixed costs, such as sales promotion and corporate services. 5. ) Income Effect Estimation In option 1, Flores has suggested that Wu increase the price to commercial customers from $800 to $1,000.He projects that this will decrease demand by 30%. If this were to occur, the net income would be a loss of ($42,995). Exhibit 5A on the attached worksheet illustrates how this number was determined. Total sales were $178,600, variable costs were $8,656, and fixed costs were $212,939. When the variable fixed costs were subtracted from the total sales, this produced the loss mentioned above. Option 1 would not be a viable option for Salem Data Services because it still produces a negative net income.In option 2, Flores suggested that Wu decrease the price to $600 for commercial customers. Making this change is projected to increase demand by 30%. In this projection, net income will still be a loss of ($34,331). Exhibit 5B illustrates how this number was determined. Total Sales were $189,640, variable costs were $11,032, and fixed costs were $212,939. After the variable and fixed costs were subtracted from the total sales, the effect was a loss. Option 2 would also not be a viable option for Salem Data Services because again it still produces a negative net income.In option 3, Flores has suggested to Wu that increased promotion would increase revenue by 30%, but Wu is not sure how much promotion would be needed. To find how much promotion would be needed, we calculated the effect of the 30% increase. The price in this option remained at $800 for commercial customers. Exhibit 5C illustrates this. The total sales were $225,520, variable costs remained the same as in option 2 of $11,032, and fixed costs were still $212,939. When the variable and fixed costs were subtracted from the total sales, this produced a positive net income of $1,549.Wu should increase the sales promotion expense by this amount to generate positi ve income. This, however, is contingent upon the demand increasing by 30%. 6. ) Based on my analysis, Salem Data Services is a problem to Salem Telephone Company right now because even with a price increase or a demand increase, the company will still produce a loss. If Flores were to close down Salem Data Services, he would save Salem Telephone Company the following costs: Rent| $8,000| Maintenance| $5,400| Power| $1,697| Operations: Salaried Staff| $21,600| Operations: Hourly Personnel| $8,664|Systems Development and Maintenance| $12,000| Administration| $9,000| Sales| $11,200| Sales Promotion| $8,083| Total| $85,644| The custodial services and the expenses for the equipment and depreciation are not included in this list because the custodial services were based on an estimated annual cost per square foot and will still have to be paid for the remaining months of the year. The leases for are noncancelable and will still have to be paid until the lease period is up. The depreciatio n will also still occur while Salem Telephone has the equipment in their possession.Moreover, I did not include the corporate services in this list because I assume that Salem Telephone will still have to collect some accounts receivable and will still try to collect on past-due accounts, even after Salem Data Services is closed. Furthermore, if Flores decides to shut down Salem Data Services, he will have to outsource his computer services to another company and pay the market price of $800 instead of $400, which is currently being paid to Salem Data Services. If Salem Telephone were to use the 205 hours as estimated previously, then the company would have to pay $164,000 (205 hours X $800) monthly to another ompany. This means that Salem Telephone would end up paying $78,356 ($164,000-$85,644) more to another company rather than keeping Salem Data Services in business. My recommendation to Flores would be to keep Salem Data Services open. I believe as Wu does that given time, the company will start to generate a profit. In the meantime, Flores should have Wu keep the price of commercial usage at $800, but try to increase demand by 30% to at least breakeven each month. Once this occurs, then Wu should increase sales promotion to try to obtain more customers and increase commercial usage.

European and Asian continents Essay

The author Jared Diamond in the book Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies writes that the alternative title for his book would probably be a short history about everyone for the last 13,000 years. This topic will explain the author’s main argument as well as cite a passage where he states his points clearly. We will also give two proximate and two ultimate factors to support his claims, ending with an evaluation of his main argument. It should be noted that the main argument the author brings forward in this book has been mentioned quite well in the preface the rest of the book merely acts as a supplement to his main idea. The main argument in this book is summed up clearly in the following question: â€Å"Why did wealth and power become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way? For instance, why weren’t Native Americans, Africans, and Aboriginal Australians the ones who decimated, subjugated, or exterminated Europeans and Asians? † (Diamond p. 13-32,1999) He explains this by saying that the advancements in culture in the European and Asian continents are not due to their moral, intellectual or genetic superiority. Rather the gaps in development are mostly due to the geographical advantages each race had. He says that the earliest civilizations were hunter-gatherers before they eventually developed a system of agriculture. This of course leads to the production of food surpluses such supports larger populations and in effect a larger population necessitates a division of labor. This leads to large societies with ruling classes and supporting classes which in turn becomes a ruling organization. He explains two Ultimate factors which lead civilizations down this path, a large east/west axis and easily domestic able food and animals. â€Å"There were also great differences in the completeness with which suites of crops and livestock spread, again implying stronger or weaker barriers to their spreading† (Diamond p. 176-192, 1999). He says that the early advantages of finding suitable plants to grow and domesticated animals helped certain cultures advance further than others. Genetically geographical areas decide whether certain crops will be wild or domesticated. It also decides the animals that will inhabit the area. â€Å"Most of the wild species from which our crops were derived vary genetically from area to area, because alternative mutations had become established among; wild ancestral populations of different areas†. (Diamond pg 176-192, 1999) For example the Middle East had the best collection of plants and animals suitable for domestication. And as they began to trade they found the importance of using horses and donkeys as transport. In contrast in Africa they had to contend with growing wild plants such as sorghum and yams. Animals such as zebras could not be domesticated and those animals which flourished in one area could not survive in the other. â€Å"South Africa’s Mediterranean climate would have been ideal for them, but the 2,000 miles of tropical conditions between Ethiopia and South Africa posed an insuperable barrier†. (Diamond pg 176-192, 1999) He also says that the east-west axis is certain countries were essential to the advancements of their societies through trade. While the north-south axis of certain countries such as Africa promoted slow diffusion. The title of this book sums up the two proximate factors that lead to the dominance of the Eurasian races and the displacement and subjugation of the Africans, Native Americans and Aborigines. In terms of germs the Eurasians increasing levels of trade and use of livestock increased the number of pathogens they were exposed to forcing immunity among their populace. When they met the indigenous tribes of South America these diseases dwindled their populations to a point where the Europeans could subjugate them. â€Å"As a result, over the course of history, human populations repeatedly exposed to a particular pathogen have come to consist of a higher proportion of individuals with those genes for resistance–just because unfortunate individuals without the genes were less likely to survive to pass their genes on to babies† (Diamond p. 195-214, 1999). The technological progress of these people also depended on food production. The increasing organizational systems and trade with other areas provided them with the tools to develop a writing system of their own. This writing system was essential to the continued technological development of societies. â€Å"Here we have to remind ourselves that the vast majority of societies with writing acquired it by borrowing it from neighbors or by being inspired by them to develop it, rather than by independently inventing it themselves† (Diamond p. 215-238, 1999). After reading this book I found myself agreeing with many of the author’s contentions about our history. It is difficult to conceive that the history of human civilization was decided even before it births. However the argument the author provides not only for the agricultural advancements but also in terms of geopolitical advancements seem as true as they are simple to understand. If I had to point out one fault it would be that the author speaks of competing civilizations in terms of continents rather than individual societies. It is unreasonable to me that all the societies on a continent would follow a singular goal of increasing their footprint upon the earth. Additionally he does not adequately expand his theory to include the society of ancient Egypt, which despite its geographical commonality through several decades managed to go through several periods of dominance and subjugation. However, the book itself is an essential read when taken as a viable theory of the history of human civilization. References Diamond, J. M. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.