Business Financing and the Capital SStructure Assignment

Business Financing and the Capital SStructure - Assignment Example This fact ensures that there is no dilution of the company’s ownership. Second, the company is entitled to pay the amount they borrowed plus a predetermined interest. This implies that the company can budget efficiently on how to repay its debt. It does not have to share the future profits of the company in any case the company becomes successful. The interest paid on the debt that the company takes are taxation allowable expenses. This implies that the interests can lower the amount of tax a company pays resulting to it lowering the overall cost of capital. The process of raising debt finance is simple and easy since the company is not entitled to comply with any securities regulations and laws. Lastly, in debt finance the company does not have to hold periodic meetings to explain their various actions to the debt holders. Despite the many advantages that debt finance has, it also has some disadvantages. First, unlike equity, there must be payment of the debt at some point in time creating obligations to the company. Debt financing also come along with fixed costs which at times can be high. High interest costs increases the risk of insolvency of a company especially on difficult financial periods. Lastly, debt financing require companies to pledge their assets as collateral. Equity financing generates large amounts of money which do not require repayment. What the company has to do is to only share a portion of their profits to the new investors who become part of the company. The company can use this non-refundable money to expand their operations or diversify its business to generate future cash flows. Equity finance also helps the company to maintain a low leverage which would increase its chances of getting debt finance in the future. The major disadvantage of equity financing is that the company has to loose part of the ownership of the company to the new investors and they will have to take part

Jean Piaget: The Four Stages Of Cognitive Theory

Jean Piaget: The Four Stages Of Cognitive Theory Cognitive theory of Jean Piaget includes four stages of development that children move through during which the explanatory behaviors of infants transform into the abstract, logical intelligence of adulthood. There are three important specific characteristics of Piagets theory of which the first one is being a general theory, that is, cognitions all aspects undergo a similar course of change. Another characteristic is that children move through the stages in an invariant sequence. Piaget believed that there is a same order that children follow. Third, the stages are universal. Stages in cognitive theory assume the theory to include all children everywhere (Berk, 2003). Biological concepts are used in a limited way in Piagets theory. However, he stated the importance of genetic and environmental factors on the way that children move through the stages (Crain, 2005). He emphasized that the speed of children while passing those stages is affected by differences in genetic and environmen tal factors. Jean Piaget used the term scheme while explaining human beings organized way of making sense of experience (Mark, 1969). Traill (2008) explains that the term scheme used by Piaget is different from peoples everyday usage of scheme. The term can be any pattern for exploring and learning from the environment and it has three different intellectual structures. Piaget calls first intellectual structures to emerge as behavioral schemes, ones that appear after 2 years as symbolic schemes, and structures that appear after 7 years as operational schemes (Piaget, 1972, as cited in Traill 2008). For instance, dropping scheme of an 8 month old baby and a 25 months of will not be the same, as sooner it will become more deliberate and creative. Toddlers, different from infants, begin to think before acting and Piaget identifies that transition from sensorimotor to cognitive approach to the world which depends on mental representations. (Piaget, 1926, as cited in Berk 2003) Images and concepts are the two powerful mental representations. Especially, the shift from sensorimotor to cognitive approach is accounted for two processes; adaptation, consisting assimilation and accommodation, and organization. Interpretation of new structures into already existing schemes is called as assimilation and modification of existing schemes into adaptation of new experiences is called as accommodation. Cognitive adaptation aims to adjust to the environment and is a result of the equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation (Block, 1982). While trying to grasp an object, a baby is experiencing the assimilation process, while removing an obstacle and grasping an object, a baby now accommodates the scheme (Crain, 2005). During the organization process more complex intellectual structures are combined with existing schemes by children. For instance, after the baby experienced and covered dropping movement, then he/she will relate it with throwing movement as well as understanding the concepts of near and far (Berk, 2003). The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years) Jean Piaget observed his children during their developmental period and constructs the stages based on his observations. His books mostly involve many examples from his dialogues and interactions with his children. The sensorimotor stage consists of six substages. (Santrock, 2004) That stage starts with the use of reflexes from birth to 1 month. Newborn reflexes take important place in sensorimotor stage. According to Piaget inborn reflexes are consisted from first schemes. He states that as children use inborn reflexes and experience assimilation, they desire to put them to active use (Crain, 2005). After one month, children begin to repeat their chance behaviors and primary circular reactions period (one to four months) starts. A baby experiences the thumb sucking by bringing her hand to her mouth by a chance, when the hand falls she wants to get it back and experiences many failures until she gets it back (Crain, 2005). At that example the child organizes the hand movement and sucking which is a kind of circular reaction. Piaget also states that children at that period indicate the first efforts at imitation (Berk, 2003). The next substage is secondary circular reactions and is observed between fourth and eighth months. Infants start to experience motor achievements that encourage them to play attention to their environment. Infants begin to get enjoyment from the response of the environment to their attempts and they repeat their movements that get reaction from their surrounding (Santrock, 2004). Coordination of secondary schemes substage takes place during eight to twelve months. At this stage infants begin to coordinate tow or more actions to achieve simple objectives. In addition with an intentional purpose, babies try to imitate behaviors after watching a person. One may be able to observe a baby at this stage trying to stir with a spoon. In addition, a baby may begin to cry when she sees her mother wearing her coat in order to stop her mother leaving (Berk, 2003). In substage 5, tertiary circular reactions (twelve to eighteen months), children are interested with different outcomes. Piaget had observed one of his children hitting on a table at different rates in order to listen different sounds that he creates (Crain, 2005). It should be noted that all experiences are results of childrens intrinsic curiosity about the environment around them that Piaget emphasizes within his cognitive development theory. The last substage of the sensorimotor period is named as beginnings of thought or internalization of schemes lasting from eighteen to twenty months. During that substage children have the capacity to remember the behaviors that are not present (deferred imitation). Their efforts on imitation also indicate progress and they experiment with actions inside their heads. Besides, children can be observed to engage in make-believe play during that period (Santrock, 2004). Object Permanence: Piaget and many researchers concluded that infants appreciate concepts of permanence objects. Up to four months, children do not make any attempt to an object leaving in front of their eyes. During secondary circular reactions stage children are more able to explore their surrounding and they have a better sense of permanence of objects. At stage four children have the ability to find the hidden objects. If an adult takes a toy behind a box, the baby will look at the behind of the box and find the toy. During the stages five and six children are able to follow displacements and follow invisible shifts (Crain, 2005). Beginnings of Categorization: Before the capability of mental representation children are not able to categorize objects. During the first year of their life, children experience perceptual categorization. For example they can categorize the legs of an animal. Conceptual categorization begins with the end of first year; they are now able to categorize similar characteristics and behaviors. Active categorization period starts with the beginning of the second year. It is stated that sorting objects into two classes can be observed in eighteen months babies. In the second year babies can group two different kinds of objects without grasping them (Berk, 2003). When the observed milestones of research and the description of substages of Piaget are compared from birth to two years, both similarities and differences are seen. There are points that seem to occur earlier than Piaget accepted such as categorization, deferred imitation, and analogical problem solving. Those differences are explained differently from many researchers. Some of the surveys indicate that some children born with different intellectual capacities and some of them with a set off limits which causes those differences. The latter argue the theory of Piaget in terms of biological considerations. The Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years) Preoperational stage is lasting from two to seven ages in which the child is more capable while dealing with the environment. Although the reasoning of child is still unsystematic and illogical, that is the period that children begin to use symbols and rapidly develop representation. One of the important symbols that indicate increase during that period is language (Santrock, 2004). Piaget believed that experience of internal images occurs before labeling words and he did not take language as an important tool in cognitive development of children. Berk (2003) argues that Piaget had misadjusted the role of language in early intellectual development. She proposes that conceptual abilities of children are highly affected from the dialogues of children with adults. Moreover, there are many psychologists that believe as children develop their language ability, they begin to think more logically. Children experience transductive reasoning during that stage which means shifting from one particular to another. Children place two unrelated situations into the same case as if they have a relationship. One of Piagets children had concluded that she hadnt had her nap yet so it wasnt afternoon (Piaget, 1924). Piaget (1924) explains that statement as an example of transductive reasoning, because the child did not catch the understanding that afternoons include many different events and having nap is only one of them. An important milestone of the increase in mental representation is make-believe play during preoperational stage. The differences in make-believe play between sensorimotor and preoperational stage can be clearly observed. By the middle of preoperational stage make-believe play of children indicate real life conditions. In addition, by preoperational stage children begin to engage in sociodramatic play, they coordinate variety of roles and story lines during their play. One of the criticized points of cognitive theory of Piaget is based on the belief of Piaget that play reflects childrens cognitive and social skills, however there are many recent studies indicating the contribution of play on those skills. Especially during sociodramatic play, children interact with their peers longer and they are more cooperative. Many psychologists believed the role of strengthening of make believe play on a wide range of mental abilities and logical reasoning (Berk, 2003). Egocentrism: Piaget stated that children look at their surrounding from their own viewpoint and they ignore perspectives of others. Three-mountains study is one of the famous observations of Piaget explaining egocentric behavior of children at preoperational stage. He had used a model of three mountains and taken a child for a walk around the model in order to give opportunity for the child to look at the model from different view. Piaget had placed the child from one point of the model and placed a toy to another place. The child had been asked what he/she saw while looking at the model and what the toy would be seen while looking at it. All the children could correctly explain what they were seeing, however children at preoperational stage gave the same answer with their own view (Crain, 2005). Studies emphasize on the relation between egocentrism and social communication. Children at preoperational stage, according to Piaget, fail to recognize the needs of their peers during verbal interaction (Rubin, 1973). As they look only from their own view, they are able to understand view of the person interacting with them. They think that they can be seen from everywhere, everybody see and hear them. An adult may observe a child at this period telling that nobody could see him/her while closing his/her eyes with hands. Animism: Piaget (1951) proposes that the child recognizes no limits between himself and the external world and it is expected that the child would see many nonliving and non acting things as living and conscious and he explains this phenomenon as animism. In his book The Childs Conception of World, 1951, he identifies the reason for him to use the term animisim. He accepts that animism was term used for primitive human beings and responds the criticisms by telling that he had used that term as a generic term and emphasizing on the different types of animism in psychological origins (Piaget, 1951). Children at preoperational stage have a belief that objects are alive because they move and grow. For example, a child may tell that there are not any cars on the road, because they are sleeping. Piaget described animism inside four stages. Initially children accepted useful things as living. At this first stage broken or damaged objects were not alive for them. At the second stage, moving objects, whether are moved by an external factor or by themselves, were considered as alive. In stage three, to be categorized as living, things should move by themselves. Lastly, at the fourth stage, adults know that plants and animals are living things only (Moriarty, 2005). Irreversibility: Going through a series of steps and after changing direction is difficult for children at preoperational stage. Another well known experiment of Piaget indicates that problem in a way that there are children shown 16 boxes, 6 of which are yellow and 10 of which are red. When children are asked whether red boxes are more or boxes, children at this stage responds as red boxes and fails to be aware of that both yellow and red boxes are boxes. In his book The Childs Conception of World, 1951, Piaget gives examples about irreversibility. There are dialogues indicating their inability such as, asking a child about her sister, the child responds that she has a sister named A, then Piaget asks the child whether A has a sister or not, the child responds that A has not a sister. (Piaget, 1951) Inability to Conserve: Piaget propounds preoperational childs lack of conservation by applying experiments of liquids and number. He shows two same size glasses to the children and fulls the glasses with water. He asks children which of the water was more. All the children respond that they were equal in amount. Then he puts the water in one of the glasses into a different size glass (wider or taller) and repeats his question. Children at preoperational stage tell that they are now different. They have not the capability to perceive that certain physical features of objects remain same, even their physical appearance changes (Santrock, 2004) Based on experiments of Piaget, at the beginning of seven children begin to give the correct answer to the conservation tests. Before that age children indicates at conservation but not totally achieve it. They give answers like one is more because it is taller and then change their answers the other one is more because it is wider. Besides, irreversibility of the child can be concluded based on the conservation of liquid experiment. The child cannot understand the end result as a reverse of the original one. Jean Piaget also had thought about the failures of children from the linguistic point. Terms such as taller, more, wider takes time to be understood. He suggests ways to overcome that problem and tells adults to apply experiments by using different sentences and establishing questions by using different words within a particular case (Berk, 2003). Piaget experimented conservation of children also with using number. A row of egg cups and a bunch of eggs are given to children and they are asked to take enough eggs to fill the cups. At the first half of preoperational stage children ignored the number of eggs in the cups and they made an equal length with the rows. Children at the second half of preoperational stage made one-to-one correspondence. However, those children failed in the second question. Piaget then brought together the eggs and asked which of them was more and they could not respond that they are still same. Most of them thought that the longer was more in number. Piaget explains that phenomenon as been influenced by their sudden perceptions than by logic (Crain, 2005). Categorization: In coordinating and extending knowledge in cognitive development theory of Piaget, categorization takes an important place. Researchers state that children begin to make similar categorizations and form some categories with the age of two such as animals, plants, and vehicles (Scholnick, Nelson, Gelman, Miller, 2008). Things or objects in all of those categories have differences in perceptual characteristics, so a conflict emerges with the main idea of Piaget that childrens reasoning is governed by the way they see and objects appear. By the age of three children become able to make distinctions between basic and general categories such as furniture versus tables. However, children at preoperational stage are not able to organize objects into classes and subclasses based on their basic similarities and differences (Meadows, 1986). It is argued that Piaget was partly right and partly wrong with his conclusions of preoperational stage. Researchers give simplified tasks for children and preschoolers indicate the beginnings of logical operations, however there are important differences between their reasoning and children at school age. Difficulties were observed in conservation tests, three mountains tests and appearance-reality tests. As opposed to perceptual approaches to solve problems, children rely on increasing effective mental. In order to give an example, research indicate that children who have not the capability to use counting while comparing two groups of objects, do not also conserve number. They begin to find effective solution ways for proms with more objects when they become capable of counting. Piaget states that, as many other psychologists accept, children move through variety of stages of understating, although they do not totally handle conservation up to school years. The Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years) The beginning of concrete operational stage is furnished by logical reasoning. That period is accepted as a major turning point in cognitive development. The time that a child begins to mentally resemble an adult starts with attaining concrete operational stage. A school-aged childs cognitive performance is more evident in terms of concrete operations. For example an eight year of childs response to conservation of liquid test is that the amount has not changed and they are still same. This explanation of the child also indicates the reversibility of the reasoning that the child has now the capability to understand that the reverse is the same with the original. Their ability to achieve conservation tasks indicate their logical thinking (Richardson, 2003). Between ages seven and ten, children take attention on relations between a general and two specific categories within the same case. Their awareness of classification is getting developed. In middle childhood period many children are interested in collections such as coins, rocks, and stamps which show their level of classification. Children in the concrete operational stage are fairly good at the use of inductive reasoning which involves going from a specific experience to a general principle, whereas children at this age have difficulty with using deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. Seriation: Seriation refers to the capability to arrange objects along a quantitative dimension. Ordering sticks from different lengths is one of Piagets tests. Children at five and six years could create series but they made many errors. However, children at concrete operation stage, by starting the shortest and putting the next, indicate a perfect arrangement with an orderly plan. Children between ages seven to eleven have an ability called transitive inference which refers to mentally arrangement of items. Piaget had showed children three stick with different colors. Children had observed that first stick is longer than second stick and second stick is longer than third stick and they had made the inference that first stick is longer than third stick. Children at concrete operation stage mentally integrate three relations at once. On the other hand, preoperational stage children can achieve analogical reasoning by encouragement of an adult (Meadows, 1989). Spatial Reasoning: The ability of understanding space is more developed in concrete operational children. School age children begin to give directions as they gain more advanced space understanding. Children at five or six years indicate difference while representing an object on a persons, in front of them, left or right. Starting from seven age children achieve mental rotations, that is, they can recognize their own frame and of a person in a different direction (Santrock, 2004). While drawing large scale areas their performance indicate important changes representing their development of cognitive skills. In the middle period of concrete operational stage children achieve to place notes showing the location of objects in their classroom. Their capability to use a rotated map is improving and also their map drawing become more accurate. Research indicate that concrete operational thinking has a limitation that while children are reasoning in a logical manner, they are always dealing with concrete knowledge. With abstract information, they cannot catch the achievement (Crain, 2005). When they are given ideas that do not appear in the real world they are not able to indicate the same responds with concrete ones. That can be easily observed from transitional inference that when children are shown the sticks they give the correct responds whether which one is smaller or taller than the others. However, when the questions turned to a more concrete version such as As hair is longer than B, B2 hair is longer than C. Who has the longest hair?, up to eleven years children cannot give the right answer (Richardson, 2003). Jean Piaget believed the importance of rich and appropriate environment for the speed of concrete operational cognitive skills of children. Many research done in small towns or villages represent the lack of rich environment and its consequences on children. Even the easiest conservation tasks are not easily achieved until the age of eleven. On the contrary, many children living in big cities, especially Western nations, have many opportunities in terms of environment and from very young periods of childhood they meet with rich and varied materials. Hence, they easily understand the conservation tasks. The same comparison had done between children receiving a professional early childhood education and the ones that spend their early period at home or street. The conclusions indicate better results of the children continuing a preschool program (Berk, 2003). A survey had been made between Brazilian street vendors and Brazilian economically advantaged children on informal version and Piagetian version of class inclusion test of Piaget. In the informal one, the researcher asks children for the price of two chewing gums which are different. In the Piagetian one, four units of one type (mint) chewing gum and two units of the other (strawberry) one is set aside and the researcher asks In which one do you get more money, whether you sell me the chewing gum with mint or all the chewing gum? The success of two groups children indicates difference that on the informal version of the conservation task street vendors performed better and on the other version economically advantaged children performed well (Ceci Roazzi 1994, as cited in Berk 2003). The Formal Operational Stage (11 Years and Older) The child in sensorimotor period can do things and play with objects, the child in sensorimotor period and concrete operational period can think and make reasoning about those objects. Thinking about propositions and relations different from objects and events is another period. Now human beings are bale to make coordinations of coordinations, in other words, they can combine two different groupings of concrete operations within reversibility by reciprocity (Richardson, 2003). In formal operational stage adolescents do not require concrete things as objects of thought. Adolescents at this stage are capable of deductive reasoning. In order to overcome a problem, they start more generally and think evaluate all possible factors and then proceed to more specific predictions. Piaget used pendulum problem in that stage in which he had showed many strings with different lengths, objects differing in weight, and in order to hang the strings a bar to children. He asked the factors that will affect the speed with which a pendulum swings. Children in concrete operational level made an unsystematic experimentation. The influences of each variable could not be distinguished by them. Adolescents of formal operational stage separate the factors that have the possibility to affect the speed into four groups; strings length, objects weight, the level of force when pushing the object, and how high the object is raised before it is released. At the end they come up to a right conclusion that the length of the string affects the speed (Berk, 2003). They work systematically in terms of all possibilities as a scientist. Cognitive development theory of Piaget is mostly depending on mathematical and scientific reasoning; however he has some speculations on social life of formal operational stage adolescents. Piaget thinks that children between seven and ten live in here and now, whereas at the formal operational stage they start to think about long-term periods. They handle abstract ideas such as justice and love and they start to construct theories for better living world (Inhelder Piaget, 1955, as cited in Crain 2005). Piaget identifies egocentrism again and believes that a new kind of egocentrism is carried by utopian during that period. Piaget takes into account and repeat the forms of egocentrism from beginning to later periods: At the beginning, sensorimotor period, infants have no idea bout the environment around them and they are egocentric, still the objects that they cannot see have no existence on their own. At the next level, preoperational thought, children enter a representative world in terms of language and symbols. They indicate difficulty more than their own view. After a time they become aware of other perspectives and they start to think about concrete objects. Finally, adolescents, formal operational period, meet with a world full of problems and possibilities. Adolescents feel unlimited power in themselves for their thoughts and egocentrism reappears and they are now not able to distinguish self and others abstract views.(Crain, 2005). Teenagers feel that they are at the centre of their environment and they assume that everyone is looking at them. They spend many hours in front of a mirror feeling anxiety for the peoples criticism about them. This is called as imaginary audience. Then with having a thought that everyone is observing them, they start to feel themselves special and unique and this is named as personal fable. Propositional Thought: Adolescents do not need to refer real-life conditions and they are capable of evaluating the logic of propositions. Previously, they were evaluating statements when they were concrete in the real world. Piaget did not give an important role for language in childhood period, but he thought that it was more significant during adolescence. So, verbal reasoning about abstract situations and events is one of the important concepts in formal operational thought. Adolescents thoughts and opinions about abstract conditions and their capacity while expressing those views are demonstration of their propositional thought. Theory and research of Piaget have greatly changed the view at infant action and thought and provided a new way of looking at children (Fischer Heneke, 1996). Evaluation of Piagets Theory Jean Piaget has contributed to the field of child development than many other theorists, as many things he expressed were the first for his time. He was the first to tell that children were different from adults and they are curious and active learners (Berk, 2003). Piaget is the founder of discipline of cognitive development. He was interested in reasoning of children and that ensured the idea of that field would be developmental and should be different from the study of adult thinking. Piagets considerations through the idea about active roles of children on their development can be seen as obvious recently, but it was innovative for his time (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Piaget tried to explain the process development and from that part he was one of the firsts who not only described the theory. Piagets explanations had a major impact about social and emotional developmental theories. By asking many questions about intellectual development of children and creating thousands of resource for that field, he had important contributions for the educators and researchers (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Many studies criticize Piaget for underestimating mental capabilities of children due to his concern with defining the underlying cognitive structure which considered performance of children on a conservation task. Piaget is criticized as assuming that child making mistake in one problem will lack the underlying concepts he was testing. Validity of this assumption is refuted by stating that performance of a child may be influenced by many other factors instead of lack in cognitive skills (Scholnick et all, 2008). Researchers have challenged stage theory of Piaget by asking if intellectual development is at all stagelike. It is proposed that transitions in mental gradually occur and the consistency of a performance of a child in a test would be very little. For instance, problems of concrete operations and problems of formal operations may be achieved in different orders by many children with different abilities. Many theorists believe that cognitive functions are so complex that would be evaluated within a stage manner. For instance, a nine years old child may do well on verbal reasoning tests if he likes to deal with word puzzles and play verbal games, however he may not do well in mathematical reasoning (Shaffer Kipp, 2001). Besides, Piaget ignores cultural differences while claiming that his stages move on the same sequence in all cultures. Children from different cultures are educated differently and a s environment has a direct interaction with cognitive development, cultural differences should be taken into account to get a valid conclusion. Implications for Education Piaget did influence much from Montessori and Rousseau and emphasized on the importance of active learning of children. He believed that learning is a process of active discovery and should be related with the level of the child. The role of educator at giving the child appropriate and rich environment based on childs interests and modes of learning takes significant place in terms of encouraging innate curiosity of children. An environment with rich, variety, and interesting materials will encourage children to discover and become active learners (Crain, 2005). According to Piaget educators should not teach children in a direct way, children should be allowed to construct their own knowledge through experience. Children should be given the opportunities to make mistakes and learn through those mistakes, and look for solution ways. Piaget helps educators to be aware of that, meaningful interactions of children with environment and real activities will enable children to learn. All of those factors are the roots of constructivism which is a Apoptosis: Techniques for Measuring and Observing Apoptosis: Techniques for Measuring and Observing INTRODUCTION   The number of cells within an organism is tightly regulated- not simply by controlling the rate of cell division, but also by controlling the rate of cell death. If cells are no longer needed, they commit suicide by activating an intracellular death program. (Liao, 2008) Apoptosis, is defined by distinct morphological and biochemical changes mediated by a family of cysteine aspartic acid-specific proteases (caspases), which are expressed as inactive precursors or zymogens (pro-caspases) and are proteolytically processed to an active state following an apoptotic stimulus. (Liao, 2008) The aim of this paper is to discuss the techniques for measuring and observing apoptosis, whilst commenting on any limitations reported to date. DISCUSSION The intracellular machinery responsible for apoptosis Kerr, Wylie and Currie (1972) observed controlled cell death that was distinct from uncontrolled necrotic death. They noticed a characteristic, identical sequence of events in many different types of cells and published their observations in 1972 and used the term apoptosis. (Alberts, 2007; Cancer, 1972) In apoptosis, cell shrinkage and membrane ruffling (blebbing) occur, and the cell disintegrates into small membrane-bound apoptopic bodies. Inside the cell chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation occur, which are accompanied by breakdown of the DNA into regular size fragments. On the surface of the cell lipids are rearranged in the bilayer of the plasma membrane with the lipid phosphatidylserine becoming exposed to the outside. (Hancock, 2005) Measuring and observing apoptosis Apoptosis is essentially a morphological state arrived at by a whole variety of different biochemical pathways. Some routes may result in the expression or loss of an antigen but there is no assurance that the same biochemical alterations occur in every cell. The identification of protein markers permits ready detection by conventional immunohistochemistry, which facilitates rapid and confident assessment of apoptosis. (Harrison, 1996) The in situ end labelling and in situ nick translation techniques rely on the presence of DNA strand breaks characteristic of the nuclear implosion and fragmentation seen in apoptosis. Thus, labelling with biotinylated nucleotides and subsequent immunodetection can be used to identity sensitively cells with strand breakage. (Harrison, 1996) Activation of the caspase-3 pathway is a hallmark of apoptosis and can be used in cellular assays to quantify activators and inhibitors of the death cascade by molecular identification. The response is both time and concentration dependent suggesting that multiple pathways play a role in triggering the caspase-3 activation. (Bio Medicine, 2008) TUNEL assay is a technique used for observing activation of the caspase-3 pathway by biochemical verification. The enzyme TdT is able to add nucleotides to the ends of DNA fragments; most commonly, biotin-labelled nucleotides (usually dUTP) are added. The biotinylated DNA can be detected by using streptavidin, which binds to biotin, coupled to enzymes that convert a colourless substrate into a coloured insoluble product. Cells stained in this way can be detected by light microscopy. (Janeway, 2001) The cells with unsuccessful DNA repair may undergo apoptosis; in some cases, false positive labelling may result. TUNEL staining has been reported to give false positive staining in the kidneys of nude and BALB/c mice. In situ localization of activated or cleaved caspase-3 is starting to replace TUNEL as the molecular verification of the apoptotic process. (Hughes, 2007) Extrinsic and Intrinsic signal activation The extrinsic pathway is initiated by ligation of transmembrane death receptors (DR) with their respective to activate membrane-proximal caspases, which in turn cleave and activate effector caspases. A killer lymphocyte carrying the Fas ligand binds and activates Fas proteins on the surface of the target cell. Adaptor proteins bind to the intracellular region of aggregated Fas proteins, causing the aggregation of procaspase-8 molecules. These then cleave one another to initiate the caspase cascade. This pathway can be regulated by c-FLIP, which inhibits upstream initiator caspases, and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), which affect both initiator and effector caspases. (Alberts, 2007; Liao, 2008) The intrinsic pathway requires disruption of the mitochondrial membrane and the release of mitochondrial proteins, such as cytochrome c. Cytochrome c, which binds to and causes the aggregation of the adaptor protein Apaf-1. Apaf-1 binds and aggregates procaspase-9 molecules, which leads to the cleavage of these molecules and the triggering of a caspase cascade. (Alberts, 2007, Liao, 2008) The primary regulatory step for mitochondrial-mediated caspase activation might be at the level of cytochrome c release. The known regulators of cytochrome c release are Bcl-2 family proteins. Members of this family are divided into two main groups, the anti-apoptotic proteins with Bcl-2 and Bcl-Xl as archetypes and the pro-apoptotic proteins such as Bax. The ratio between these different proteins determines the sensitivity of the cell to apoptosis; antiapoptotic proteins inhibit apoptosis by counteracting Bax and Bak, and BH3-only proteins either trigger apoptosis through direct interaction with Bax or sensitize cells to death by inactivating Bcl-2 or Bcl-Xl. (Cartron, 2003; Liao, 2008) RT-PCR primer sets that are specific for genes involved in inducing and regulating the apoptotic response. These primers are specific for genes encoding proteins from the Fas and Fas ligand, Bcl-2 and ICE protein families. The RT-PCR primer sets for studying the apoptotic response are designed to meet several criteria. The primers sets, based on known genomic sequences, amplify a region that spans at least one intron. To distinguish the amplification products from genomic sequences, which are longer than the cDNA products, the primer sets amplify PCR products that are 400 bp to 650 bp in length. The primers are synthesized as 18- to 27-mer oligonucleotides. Each set of primers amplifies only a specific target. (Biomedicine, 2008) Direct measurement using fluorescence resonance energy transfer has shown the interaction between Bax and Bcl-2. (Cartron, 2003) Light microscopy and electron microscopy, including staining, are frequently used to observe the morphological changes of the cells undergoing apoptosis. There are many staining protocols used for identification of apoptotic cells, and the choice varies subject to the laboratory and the tissue being studied. (Wang, 2008) The advantages of Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) are observing in normal environment, observing in nanometre scale resolution, and observing in non-contact mode. (Wang, 2008) CONCLUSION Using morphology, biochemical or molecular methods to identify, localize and quantify apoptosis gives strength to many research studies. The measurement of the level of apoptosis within tissue sections represents only a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"snapshotà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ of one time point during a developmental, physiological or pathological process. Given the rapid nature of apoptosis and its cryptic nature in tissue sections, these measurements may often be underestimates of the actual extent of apoptosis. The ability to measure the levels of apoptosis within living organisms, including humans, non-invasively at repeated intervals over time would facilitate the analysis of apoptosis in many organs as well as tumours. (Hughes, 2007) These investigative techniques have broadened the understanding of disease development and will undoubtedly present real opportunities for novel therapeutic intervention. For example, the gene-driven nature of apoptosis and its modulation by various controlling molecules have provided a basis to develop therapies for selectively protecting or deleting cell populations. (Hughes, 2007)

College Admissions Essay: I Will be the Wind :: College Admissions Essays

I will be the wind    I am a piece of paper. In the beginning I was blank. I could have been anything. A paper airplane, treating my life as a quick high, then being left on the ground, forgotten, had I wasted my childhood on drugs; a story, had I chosen to take my time and develop into a dynamic creature; a crumpled up ball, thrown away seconds later, had I not been loved; I could have been a college essay, had I been created only to be given to someone else. I am a story. As I grew up, I chose which kind I should be. I could have been one written by a child, should I be simple enough; a novel, should I live my life for fun, and die treating life as a game; a complex piece of art, with thoughts that run deep and insightful as the darkest red; I could have been a song, at first catchy and wonderful, soon forgotten by the world. I am a painting. As I continue to grow, I color and change myself. I could be dark greens and purples, should I choose my mood to depress slightly; yellow-orange in some corny sort of false happiness; deformed like a Picasso, beautiful, but almost too complex to enjoy; I could be three-dimensional, rounded, patternless, deep. I am three-dimensional. I am unable to be contained on the paper I was created as. My ink, my paint, my complexity must evolve. I could soon become a tree, to grow, to lend myself to children to play in; an ocean, vast as all eternity, powerful enough to destroy cities at any moment; the air, changing directions at every moment, unpredictable in behavior, but carrying the essence of life; I could soon become a rock, a solid, unchanging, powerfully dense object. Will I be the air? Obstacles in my way, I will move around. Other obstacles I will overcome, and I will take them with me in my whirlwind; they will become a part of my strength. Should I come to a tree, I shall not only uproot it, but I will take it with me, the tree will become a part of me, and I shall be stronger. I will be unpredictable and may change my direction at any moment;

The Urban Heat Island and Its Impact on Heat Waves in Shanghai

Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 DOI 10. 1007/s00484-009-0256-x ORIGINAL PAPER The urban heat island and its impact on heat waves and human health in Shanghai Jianguo Tan & Youfei Zheng & Xu Tang & Changyi Guo & Liping Li & Guixiang Song & Xinrong Zhen & Dong Yuan & Adam J. Kalkstein & Furong Li & Heng Chen Received: 17 December 2008 / Revised: 29 July 2009 / Accepted: 3 August 2009 / Published online: 1 September 2009 # ISB 2009 Abstract With global warming forecast to continue into the foreseeable future, heat waves are very likely to increase in both frequency and intensity. In urban regions, hese future heat waves will be exacerbated by the urban heat island effect, and will have the potential to negatively influence the health and welfare of urban residents. In order to investigate the health effects of the urban heat island (UHI) in Shanghai, China, 30 years of meteorological J. Tan (*) : X. Zhen Shanghai Urban Environmental Meteorology Center, 951 Jinxiu Road, Pudong, Shanghai 200135, China e-mail: [email  protected] com Y. Zheng Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Information Science &Technology, Nanjing 210044, China X. TangShanghai Meteorological Bureau, 166 Puxi Road, Shanghai 200030, China C. Guo : G. Song : D. Yuan Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, 1380 ZhongShan West Road, Shanghai 200336, China L. Li : F. Li : H. Chen Injury Prevention Research Centre, Medical College of Shantou University, 22 Xinling Road, Shantou City 515041, Guangdong Province, China A. J. Kalkstein Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA records (1975–2004) were examined for 11 first- and second-order weather stations in and around Shanghai.Additionally, automatic weather observation data recorded in recent years as well as daily all-cause summer mortality counts in 11 urban, suburban, and exurban regions (1998â₠¬â€œ 2004) in Shanghai have been used. The results show that different sites (city center or surroundings) have experienced different degrees of warming as a result of increasing urbanization. In turn, this has resulted in a more extensive urban heat island effect, causing additional hot days and heat waves in urban regions compared to rural locales. An examination of summer mortality rates in and aroundShanghai yields heightened heat-related mortality in urban regions, and we conclude that the UHI is directly responsible, acting to worsen the adverse health effects from exposure to extreme thermal conditions. Keywords Global warming . Urban heat island . Heat wave . Human health Introduction In recent years, the impact of weather on human health has become an issue of increased significance, especially considering the potential impacts of global warming and an increased urban heat island effect due to urbanization (Kunst et al. 1993; Kalkstein and Greene 1997; Guest et al. 1999; Sm oyer et al. 2000).Warming of the climate system is unequivocal. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) clearly indicates that the updated 100-year linear trend (1906–2005) of global surface temperature is 0. 74 K. The warming trend over the last 50 years has averaged 0. 13 K per decade and 11 of the last 12 years (1995–2006) rank among the 12 warmest years since 1850 (IPCC 2007). A Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 76 warming climate will likely result in an increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves (McMichael et al. 1996; Meehl et al. 2001; Patz and Khaliq 2002). The urban heat island (UHI) has become one of the largest roblems associated with the urbanization and industrialization of human civilization, as the increased temperatures associated with the UHI tend to exacerbate the threats to human health posed by thermal stress. As a result, the UHI has been a central theme among climatologists, and it is well documented in many metropolitan areas a round the world (Oke 1973; Katsoulis and Theoharatos 1985; Balling and Cerveny 1987; Lee 1992; Saitoh et al. 1996; Yamashita 1996; Bohm 1998; Figuerola and Mazzeo 1998; Klysik and Fortuniak 1999; Kim and Baik 2002; Wilby 2003). The UHI experienced by many cities is larger at night than uring the day, more pronounced in winter than in summer, and is most apparent when winds are weak. For example, in Beijing, the difference in mean air temperature between the city center and surrounding fields can be as much as 4. 6 K (Zhang et al. 2002; Song and Zhang 2003). This results in additional hot days in urban locales, which can directly influence the health and welfare of city residents. As UHIs are characterized by increased temperature, they can potentially increase the magnitude and duration of heat waves within cities. Scientists have also discovered that the impacts of heat waves on humans vary among ifferent regions within a city. As early as 1972, Buechley et al. (1972) investigated the relationship between the heat island and â€Å"death island† and found that the mortality rate during a heat wave increases exponentially with the maximum temperature, an effect that is enhanced by the UHI. Clarke (1972) revealed that the nighttime effect of UHIs can be particularly harmful during a heat wave, as it deprives urban residents of the cool relief found in rural areas during the night. Thus, during heat waves, death rates are often much higher in cities than in outlying environs (Henschel et al. 1969; Buechley et al. 972; Clarke 1972; Jones et al. 1982; Smoyer 1998). An epidemiologic study of mortality during the summer 2003 heat wave in Italy also illustrated that those living in urban regions have an elevated risk of death compared to those living in suburban or rural areas as a result of heightened urban temperatures (Conti et al. 2005). Unlike purely tropical regions that remain warm all year round, Shanghai experiences a subtropical climate with cold, dry winters and wet, hot summers, as well as a pronounced UHI (Ding et al. 2002; Zhou et al. 2002). Shanghai has been found to be prone to heat-related ortality (Tan et al. 2004, 2007), although few studies have quantitatively or qualitatively examined the impact of the UHI on the frequency or the intensity of heat waves along with its corresponding impact on heat-related mortality among the urban and suburban populations. Thus, the goal of this paper is to determine the influence of the Shanghai UHI on heat waves and human health within both urban and rural locales. Materials and methods The study was carried out over the region of Shanghai, China, which encompasses approximately 6,300 km2, and contains a population listed as slightly over 18 million in 006. In order to capture the effects of urban areas on local climate, 30 years (1975–2004) of daily maximum temperature were compiled covering only the summer months, defined here as May through October. These data were examined for 11 first- and second-order weather stations (Fig. 1) and were obtained from the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau. The specific sites in this study are: the urban site (XuHui-58367), suburban sites (MingHang-58361, BaoShan58362, PuDong-58470, JiaDing-58365), and exurban sites (ChongMing-58366, NanHui-58369, JinShan-58460, QinPu58461, SongJiang-58462, FengXian-58463).For each year throughout the 30-year research period, we first examined the yearly extreme maximum temperature (the single hottest day in each year), the mean daily maximum temperature in midsummer (defined as July through August), and the number of hot days (defined as days exceeding 35 °C in Tmax) for each of the 11 stations. Simple linear regression was used to discern overall trends in the data, and the statistical significance of these trends was assessed (Table 1). The number of hot days, as well as heat wave duration at urban, suburban, and exurban sites, are listed in Table 2.The UHI intensity is typically de fined as the temperature difference (? T) between the urban (u), suburban (s), and exurban (e) locations. This is described in terms of the difference in daily maximum temperature between the urban center and suburban sites (? Tu-s), and that between urban center and the exurban stations (? Tu-e). The observed values of urban, suburban, and exurban sites were represented by the temperature from the urban site (XuHui station), the average of four suburban stations (MinHang, BaoShan, PuDong, JiaDing), and the average temperature from the exurban stations (ChongMing,NanHui, JinShan, QingPu, SongJiang and FengXian), respectively. The UHI intensity of each site (? Ti) is calculated by the temperature difference between the urban site (XuHui station) and each suburban or exurban site as follows: $Ti ? Tmax0 A Tmaxi While Tmax0 is the daily maximum temperature at the urban site, Tmaxi is the daily maximum temperature at the suburban or exurban site. In order to investigate the diurnal Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 77 Fig. 1 Shanghai within China and the spatial distribution of 11 weather stations across Shanghai variation of the UHI intensity, the temperature difference etween the urban (XuHui), suburban (JiaDing), and exurban (ChongMing, FengXian, JinShan, SongJiang) sites are calculated from automatic weather stations from June through August, 2005–2007. The observed variations in the urban heat island effect have been plotted in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. Here, a â€Å"hot day† is defined as a day with a daily maximum temperature exceeding 35 °C in at least 1 of the 11 sites in Shanghai. Days below this threshold were categorized as â€Å"non-heat days. † Additionally, a heat wave is defined as a period with at least three consecutive hot days. Although this definition is somewhat arbitrary, it was hosen to correspond with the Chinese Meteorological Administration heat warnings, which are issued when maximum temperatures are forecast to e xceed 35 °C. Furthermore, with the assumption that each meteorological Table 1 The rates of increase and linear regression results by year for annual extreme maximum temperature, mean maximum temperature in mid-summer (Jul–Aug), and hot days at urban, suburban, and exurban sites Sites Yearly extreme maximum temperature Mean maximum temperature in mid-summer (Jul–Aug) Hot days Rate of increase (K / year) Urban Suburban Exurban XuHui MinHang BaoShan PuDong JiaDing QingPuChongMing NanHui JinShan SongJiang FengXian R2 p Rate of increase (K / year) R2 p Rate of increase (days / year) R2 p 0. 085 0. 049 0. 066 0. 067 0. 062 0. 051 0. 035 0. 029 0. 013 0. 034 0. 009 0. 389 0. 172 0. 271 0. 204 0. 241 0. 158 0. 090 0. 053 0. 013 0. 076 0. 004 0. 0001 0. 0181 0. 0022 0. 0095 0. 0043 0. 0244 0. 0918 0. 2053 0. 5409 0. 1276 0. 7196 0. 073 0. 051 0. 054 0. 054 0. 049 0. 045 0. 038 0. 028 0. 024 0. 034 0. 020 0. 240 0. 150 0. 136 0. 158 0. 128 0. 112 0. 082 0. 064 0. 042 0. 070 0 . 030 0. 0044 0. 0282 0. 0376 0. 0240 0. 0448 0. 0609 0. 1138 0. 1623 0. 2603 0. 1442 0. 3408 0. 64 0. 29 0. 40 . 34 0. 41 0. 28 0. 10 0. 09 0. 07 0. 20 0. 08 0. 388 0. 168 0. 278 0. 279 0. 272 0. 161 0. 070 0. 074 0. 026 0. 090 0. 036 0. 0001 0. 0197 0. 0019 0. 0018 0. 0021 0. 0229 0. 1427 0. 1305 0. 3817 0. 0952 0. 2950 Statistically significant slopes at 95% confidence level (p ? 0. 05) are in bold Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 78 Table 2 The average number of hot days and the occurrence of different heat wave durations at urban, suburban, and exurban sites in Shanghai (1975–2004) Sites Hot days (days / year) Heat wave duration ?3 days XuHui MinHang BaoShan PuDong JiaDing QingPu ChongMing NanHui JinShan SongJiangFengXian Exurban observation site represents its entire area or district, we classify days in which more than eight of the sites experienced maximum temperatures above 35 °C as â€Å"largescale hot days†, thus covering 59. 6–82. 6% of the total area of Shanghai. The consistency of hot day occurrence among the 11 sites has been plotted in Fig. 5. All deaths recorded between 1998 and 2004 for all regions of Shanghai were obtained from the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These data consist of the daily mortality totals of each district for all causes of death and cover the summer study period.Excess deaths are calculated by subtracting a baseline death rate from the observed daily mortality value. Numerous methods have been identified in the literature for calculating the baseline mortality (Gosling et al. 2009), and here, we adopt a 30-day moving average for the same year (Rooney et al. 1998; Dessai 2002, 2003; Gosling et al. 2007). >10 days 18 12 11 8 9 9 5 2 6 8 2 9 4 8 1 5 4 2 1 3 4 2 5 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Results Warming trends at the urban, suburban and exurban sites As demonstrated in Table 1, there are different linear arming trends in the different areas (city center, suburban, an d exurban areas) of Shanghai over the last 30 years (1975–2004), covering the yearly extreme maximum temperature, the average maximum temperature from July through August, and the number of hot days during the 2 Tu-s 1. 5 1 0. 5 0 May Tu-s ?7 days 39 25 22 18 27 26 9 7 14 21 8 11. 2 7. 4 7. 5 5. 2 7. 6 7. 7 3. 1 2. 7 5. 2 6. 4 3. 7 Heat Island Intensity ( K ) Urban Suburban ?5 days Tu-e June July 1. 4 Tu-e 1. 2 1 0. 8 0. 6 0. 4 y = -0. 001x 2 + 0. 0523x + 0. 1132 R2 = 0. 6951 0. 2 0 1975 October 2. 00 y = 2E-05x 2 + 0. 0411x + 0. 147 R2 = 0. 7704 1979 1983 987 1991 Year 1995 1999 2003 Fig. 2 The variation of urban heat island intensity [in terms of the difference of daily maximum temperature between the urban center and suburban sites (? Tu-s), and that between urban and exurban (? Tu-e) sites] from 1975 to 2004 Heat Island Intensity ( K ) Heat Island Intensity (K) 1. 6 September Month 2 1. 8 August -0. 5 1. 50 1. 00 0. 50 0. 00 May June July August September October -0. 50 M onth Fig. 3 The mean heat island intensity [in terms of the difference of daily maximum temperature between the urban center and suburban sites (? Tu-s), and that between urban and exurban stations (?Tu-e)] by month from 1975 through 2004. Error bars indicate  ±1 SD Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 79 Fig. 4 The diurnal variation of the temperature difference between the city center (XuHui) and suburban(JiaDing), and various exurban sites (ChongMing, FengXian, JinShan, SongJiang) over 24 h in summer (June–August, 2005–2007) summer. Significant trends, using a 95% confidence level (p 35 °C) and the proportion of largescale hot days (>35 °C at eight or more stations) during the five hottest years on record the urban center and the suburban sites (? Tu-s), and that between the urban center and the exurban sites (? Tu-e) Fig. 2). From the 1970s to the mid-1980s, the UHI was much less pronounced, with an average difference in daily maximum summer temperature o f 0. 2–0. 4 K between the city center and its surroundings. However, these temperature differences increased during the period of study, particularly between the city center and the exurban locations. In fact, beginning in the mid-1980s, there is a distinct deviation between the UHI intensities of the exurban and the suburban sites. While the temperature difference of urban-exurban areas rose further to 1. 6 K, differences between the urban and suburban sites remained at approximately 0. K. This disparity is likely due to the rapid expansion of Shanghai into the suburban regions beginning in the mid-1980s. The UHI intensity was strongest in July during the summer months, where the average UHI intensity reached 0. 9 K between urban and exurban areas (? Tu-e), and 0. 6 K between urban and suburban areas (? Tu-s) (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the diurnal variation of the heat island intensity derived from the six automatic weather stations located in the urban (XuHui), suburban (JiaDin g), and exurban sites (ChongMing, FengXian, JinShan, SongJiang) in summer (June through August), 2005–2007, shows that he heat island intensity is more pronounced in the daytime than that in the night (Fig. 4). The highest value in the region of 0. 5–2. 0 K occurs at noon or in the afternoon, corresponding approximately to the time in which the daily maximum temperature is reached. The urban heat island and heat waves As a result of increased temperatures within the urban locales, the UHI may affect the number of hot days as well as the duration of heat waves, potentially increasing the risk of mortality from heat stress. The yearly average number of hot days and the total number of heat waves with different urations over the research period (1975–2004) at different locations in Shanghai are listed in Table 2. Not surprisingly, the largest average value of annual hot days is 11. 2 days per year in the urban site (XuHui), while fewer hot days occur in the exurban sites such as ChongMing, NanHui, or FengXian. Similarly, heat wave duration is also impacted by the UHI, so that the longest duration heat waves (for example, a heat wave with at least 10 consecutive hot days) usually occurred in the urban area. There were five such events at the urban location (XuHui) with only one event recorded t the suburban stations (MinXing, BaoShan, JiaDing). In order to discern whether increasing numbers of hot days are attributable to a regional climate warming or to an expanding UHI, we examined the five hottest years (1978, 1983, 1988, 1998, and 2003) and analyzed the consistency of hot day occurrence among the 11 sites. This was done to 80 determine the frequency of â€Å"large-scale hot days† in the investigation area during these years. Figure 5 illustrates a decreasing trend of the proportion of the large-scale hot days corresponding with an increasing number of hot days. For example, at least 1 of the 11 stations in Shanghai eported a hot day 16 times in 1983, and among these there were 13 large-scale hot days, accounting for 81. 3%. In 2003, however, there were 45 hot days reported but only 29. 5% of these were large-scale hot days. Thus, it seems that the growing UHI increases the number of hot days around the city center, but large-scale hot days are not increasing. This provides strong evidence that the warming is local in nature, caused almost entirely by the UHI, and not as a result of a larger, regional warming pattern. The urban heat island and excess death The relationships between heat and human health are ummarized in Table 3, which illustrates the excess mortality rate, the number of heat waves, and the average maximum temperature for each heat wave from 1998 to 2004 in each region. Population-adjusted excess mortality in each region, along with UHI intensity, has been plotted for each year in Fig. 6. The excess deaths in the central urban region are higher than those in the suburban and exurban sites, which coincide well with heat island intensity, especially in the two severe heat waves in 1998 and 2003 (Tan et al. 2004, 2007). For example, with the 1998 heat wave, the excess mortality rate in the urban area is about 27. /100,000, compared to only 7/100,000 in the exurban districts. Furthermore, a comparison between excess deaths and the spatial coverage of the two heat waves in 1998 and 2003 (Fig. 7) shows that the extent of high temperatures played an important role in the number of excess deaths. In general, the more stations that reported hot days, the higher the number of excess deaths. In 1998, Shanghai experienced long duration, large-scale hot days with more than nine districts experiencing temperatures above 35 °C for nine consecutive days from August 8 to 16. As a result, excess deaths increased sharply with a maximum value of 53 deaths observed on August 16. On the other hand, in 2003, there were frequent hot days, often with a large number of consecutive days, but these heat waves were not often experienced by a large number of stations. Thus, the spatial coverage of the 2003 event was much smaller than that observed in 1998, resulting in fewer deaths. Discussion The urban heat island effect is among the most welldocumented impacts of human activity on local climate. As Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 large-scale climate change continues, the UHI is very likely to exacerbate the warming, resulting in more frequent and ore intense heat waves (Wilby 2003). Research on the UHI has typically focused on tropical or mid-latitude cities for the dual purposes of understanding the dynamics of the energy balance in the urban boundary layer and its application to issues related to urban pollution, energy conservation, and the prevention of heat-related health problems or deaths (Buechley et al. 1972; Smoyer 1998). Here, the comparison between meteorological monitoring stations both inside and around the city of Shanghai revealed the large impact of the urban heat island effect on temperature, heat waves, and human health.The results demonstrate that the meteorological sites (city center and its surroundings) have experienced different degrees of warming over the period of record as a direct result of increasing urbanization and a more pronounced heat island. Additionally, we find that the hottest days (above 35 °C), as well as prolonged heat waves, are more likely to occur in urban locales. The UHI is often referred to as a nighttime phenomenon with the highest values of the UHI intensity occurring between midnight and early morning, especially in winter. This has been documented in the United States, Italy, and eyond (Basu and Samet 2002; de’Donato et al. 2008), highlighting that the major differences between urban and rural areas were measured during the night. However, for Shanghai, our results show that the heat island is often more pronounced in the daytime during the summer, with the highest urban–rural d ifferences ranging from 0. 5 to 2. 0 K at noon or in the afternoon, coinciding with the timing of maximum daily temperature. The increased thermal loads found in urban areas may be a direct factor for heightened levels of human mortality (Clarke and Bach 1971; Jones et al. 1982; Conti et al. 2005).Additionally, previous studies note that virtually all causes of mortality increase during extreme heat waves, including respiratory failure and circulatory system failure from heart attack or stroke. The results of this study demonstrate that heat-related mortality (all-cause deaths above the baseline) is often much higher in the inner city than in outlying environs during heat waves, coinciding with heat island intensity. Inhabitants of urban areas may experience sustained thermal stress both day and night as city surfaces often heat up quickly during the day but are slow to cool at night (Sheridan and Dolney 2003).There is emerging evidence that the urban population shows greater sensit ivity to heat compared to those in rural regions. For example, analyses of the 1995 Chicago heat wave have shown that the relative risk for a heat-related hospital admission in the city was nearly two times higher compared to the suburbs (Rydman et al. 1999). Similar results were found in 2003, where heat wave mortality was greater in 2 20/7– 24/7 36. 1 ?2. 51 2 19/7– 31/7 36. 5 0. 93 4 22/8– 26/8 36. 1 2. 57 4 19/7– 6/8 36. 6 4. 32 2 16/7– 31/7 36. 2 3. 33 Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000)Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000) Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000) Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000) Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000) 2000 2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 3 7/8–17/8 36. 8 27. 30 0 Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100 ,000) Heat waves Longest duration Tmax( °C) Excess mortality rate (1/100,000) 1998 Urban Item Year 36 5. 60 36. 1 6. 39 2 19/7– 31/7 4 28/7– 3/8 2 20/7– 24/7 35. 3 2. 29 3 25/7– 29/7 35. 7 ?0. 89 0 2 8/8– 17/8 6. 9 18. 20 0 MinHang 35. 8 ?0. 23 36. 9 5. 85 3 17/7– 7/30 2 21/7– 29/7 1 20/7– 23/7 36. 8 ?0. 25 1 28/6– 2/7 36. 1 2. 29 0 2 7/8– 15/8 36. 4 18. 99 1 9/9– 11/9 35. 3 0. 40 BaoShan 35. 9 1. 00 36 1. 64 3 20/7– 25/7 2 20/7– 24/7 35. 7 0. 91 2 28/6– 2/7 36. 1 0. 95 1 14/7– 16/7 36. 4 0. 41 4 19/7– 25/7 1 8/8– 16/8 37 15. 82 0 PuDong 36. 2 2. 89 36. 3 17. 39 3 17/7– 1/8 4 19/7– 4/8 1 20/7 – 23/7 36 0. 41 3 28/6– 2/7 36. 2 4. 82 0 1 8/8– 16/8 36. 4 13. 08 0 JiaDing 35. 8 ?0. 57 35. 7 1. 42 2 20/7– 25/7 1 25/7– 29/7 0 0 0 1 8/8– 15/8 35. 9 9. 21 0 ChongMing 0 0 0 0 0 2 10/8– 16/8 36. 2 12. 81 0 NanHu iTable 3 Summary statistics of excess mortality rate and mean maximum temperature in heat waves, broken down by region and year 36. 2 3. 41 0 2 28/7– 30/7 1 21/7– 24/7 35. 4 0. 94 1 29/6– 2/7 36. 1 1. 89 0 1 8/8– 17/8 36. 3 8. 01 0 JinShan 36 0. 22 36. 6 5. 89 2 17/7– 31/7 4 28/7– 3/8 1 21/7– 23/7 35. 9 1. 09 2 28/6– 3/7 36. 4 2. 85 0 2 7/8– 16/8 36. 5 12. 51 0 QingPu 36. 5 ?0. 39 27/8– 30/8 35. 9 0. 00 1 23/7– 25/7 36. 2 1. 56 1 28/7– 4/8 36. 2 3. 16 2 17/7– 31/7 0 0 0 2 9/8– 16/8 35. 8 7. 00 0 FengXian 3 1 21/7– 24/7 35. 8 0. 20 1 29/6– 1/7 36. 1 3. 82 0 1 8/8– 17/8 36. 4 18. 15 0 SongJiang Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 1 Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 82 30 exposure to heat in the city center, resulting in elevated levels of heat-related mortality in urban regions. This study was subject to several limitations. First, many approaches such as absolute threshold temperature (Huynen et al. 2001), relative threshold temperature (Hajat et al. 2002), and synoptic climatological approaches (Sheridan 2002; Sheridan and Kalkstein 2004) can also be used to define heat waves. Although our definition is somewhat arbitrary, it was chosen to correspond with the Chinese Meteorological Administration’s heat warnings, which are ssued when maximum temperatures are forecast to exceed 35 °C. Thus, Chinese residents are more familiar with the definition used here. Second, the effects of the UHI on heat-related mortality are multifaceted, and we did not examine data measuring air pollution, other meteorological factors such as cloud cover or humidity, or the potential impacts of socioeconomic status or other social variables. Therefore, no confounding effects were evaluated. Previous research indicates that human mortality is impacted by both ambient meteorological conditions and atmospheric pollutant levels.The stagnant atmospheric conditions common during heat waves can trap pollutants in urban areas, exacerbating the negative impacts of the heat wave 1998 2000 2001 20 2003 15 2004 10 5 0 -5 3. 5 4 4. 5 Fig. 6 The excess mortality rate and the heat island intensity for heat waves in Shanghai urban regions compared to suburban areas in Switzerland (Grize et al. 2005). Our previous investigation revealed that observed differences in heat-related mortality between two severe heat waves in 1998 and 2003 could be traced to the longevity of the heat; prolonged exposure to heat is more stressful to human health than isolated hot days (Tan et al. 007). Here, we confirm that the UHI serves to enhance the prolonged (a) 1998 20 500 The number of the sites with Tmax? 35 °C The number of the sites with Tmax? 35 °C 16 400 excess deaths 300 8 200 4 100 0 0 9-8 9-12 9-4 8-31 8-27 8-23 8-19 8-15 8-7 8-11 8-3 7-30 7-26 7-22 7-18 7-14 6-28 -200 6-24 -8 6-20 -100 6-16 -4 excess deaths 12 Date (b) 2003 500 20 The number of t he sites with Tmax? 35 °C 16 The number of the sites with Tmax? 35 °C 400 excess deaths 300 8 200 4 100 0 0 Date 9-12 9-8 9-4 8-31 8-27 8-23 8-19 8-15 8-11 8-7 8-3 7-30 7-26 7-22 -200 6-28 -8 6-24 -100 6-20 -4 excess deaths 12 6-16 Fig. 7 The number of excess eaths versus the number of stations reporting hot days during the summers of 1998 (a) and 2003 (b) 7-18 3 7-14 2. 5 7-6 2 7-10 1. 5 Urban Heat Island Intensity(K) 7-10 1 7-2 0. 5 7-6 0 7-2 excess mortality(1/100000) 25 Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:75–84 (Anderson et al. 1996; Piver et al. 1999; Johnson et al. 2005). Air pollution such as ozone and PM10 compound the heat–mortality relationship, and previous research suggests that between 21 and 38% of the excess deaths observed during the summer 2003 European heat wave were attributable to these pollutants (Stedman 2004). However, it remains difficult to separate the impacts of eat and pollution on human health, and it is possible that some of the heightened urb an mortality totals in this study were partially a result of elevated concentrations of airborne pollutants found in the city center. Conclusion There is no doubt that the urban heat island (UHI) has a profound impact on human health. The UHI serves to enhance the intensity of heat waves, which in turn adversely affects human health due to an increased exposure to extreme thermal conditions. As a result, heatrelated mortality is found to be higher in the city center compared to suburban locales. 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Families and house holds Essay

Families and Households (In this essay I will examine and assess the view that, in todays society, the family is losing Its functions. ) Modern family sociology mainly developed In the middle of the 20th century, in a period of stability (for countries like the USA or even Switzerland) or of social reconstruction after the Second world war (as for most other European countries). This development took place under the aegis of the then dominating functionalist paradigm (Parsons & Bales 1955, Goode 1963). Its basic model was that of the nuclear family, a couple of two adult partners living together with their hildren and forming an irreducible group securing fundamental tasks for social and hence societal Integrauon, especially through socialization, a group that functioned In a relatively autonomous way, with little intimate contacts beyond its borders, which made It particularly attuned to the flexibility required by the Industrial society. The internal structure of this family model was mainly organized around two ascribed criteria, sex and age. The role attribution according to the sex of the adult partners – internal tasks for the wife, external tasks for the husband – was said to correspond to expressive vs. Instrumental orientations typical of sexual Identities and was interpreted to be a highly functional way of performing all the necessary contributions to family and societal functioning. The welfare state and other social institutions played a pivotal role as a ‘substitute family’; many functions the family used to perform (see my video on Parsons’ Fit Thesis’) have now been taken over by our welfare state (anyone else hear Charles Murray groan? ). Remember pre- industrialization? – The family performed many educational & caring roles! For example, single parents can perform the economic role through benefit payments nd primary socialization of children can be performed by pre-school / nursery. So on the one hand, from a functionalist and New Right point of view; the family’ Is losing its functions because of their primary concern / focus with the nuclear family. However the evaluation Is that the family Isnt necessarily losing its functions because in whatever format the family’ is found, with external support the key functions Durkheim and parsons Stress. are still performable. Certain functionalist such as Parsons and Dennis say that in our now modern society some functions erformed by the family have been shifted to specialized Institutions that look after certain vital roles. This would include such things as education, as this used to performed by the family who educated their children for the working world. They also claim that now the family has two basic functions left, these are the socialization of children and the stabilization of adult personalities. Changes in the family; Decline In marriage and growth In cohabitation, Remarriage and growth of reconstituted families More births outside marriage, Rising divorce rates, Ageing population. However some other sociologists such as Fletcher and Shorter claim that It Is the opposites and that the family actually sued to ignore such things as the education of their children and the recreational activities were not done. They say that now due to the introduction of the welfare system the family now cares about their Childs health and keeps a closer eye on It. The family still Is responsible for partly diagnosing 1 OF3 introduction of the social service department the family must further care for their child so they are not taken away. There are many different sociologists who look in he families place in todays society and assess the level of function to family has today. From Murdock to parsons, feminist and warm bath theory there is many different views and opinions on this statement. One of the more famous sociologists who looked at the family is G. P. Murdock; he compared over 250 societies and claimed that the nuclear family was universal, that some form of the nuclear family existed in every known society and that it performed four functions essential to the continued existence of those societies. The four functions are Reproduction (where society equires new members to ensure its survival), Sexual (this function serves both society and the individual. Unregulated sexual behavior has the potential to be socially disruptive. However marital sex creates a powerful emotional between a couple), Educational (culture needs to be transmitted to the next generation), Economic (where adult family members show their commitment to the care, protection and maintenance of their dependents by becoming productive workers and being an income). While Murdock’s ideas are a great idea and would make a good society to live in they re also dated seeing as he wrote this in 1949, things have changed a lot since then and the family has moved on, one thing that would have changed for sure since he wrote this is the fact that women can now be the breadwinners in the family it is no longer Just the men that go out to work to help the economy. So according to Murdock then family would be losing its functions because it is not fitting directly into his four main functions. As industrialization grew kinship-based society broke-up which had a direct impact on family structures. Out went the classic extended family and in came the ‘isolated nuclear family as a ‘productive unit’. The term ‘isolated’ comes from functionalist Talcott Parsons who identified the families in modern industrial society as being isolated because it’s not connected to wider kinship relations. Obviously there are kinship relationships between members of a family but the difference for Parsons is these relationships are built on choice rather than obligation (members of pre-industrial had to cooperate in order for the family unit to survive – a relationship built on obligation rather than choice. These pre-industrial family obligations consisted of health-care; education; policing; moral teaching; mployment etc. ) In contrast Parsons identified how in modern industrial times, the family was no longer obliged to carry out these family functions. Instead state institutions such as firms; schools; hospitals; GPs; police and churches took over these obligations. Parsons said this shift from family to state responsibility was a natural outcome of social evolution rather than demise. The isolated nuclear family had evolved from the classic extended family due to a reduction of the functions of the family – particularly with the family ceasing to be an economic unit of production. Functionalists’ argue this change in function of the family comes from the needs of the economic system. Industrialization introduced specialized division of labor. These specialisms mean certain skills are called for in different geographical regions at different times. These social changes meant the isolated nuclear families being freed requirements of modern industrial society. This changing function of the family was evident in the expansion of the railways in the 19th century. The 1851 Census was the first to include detailed classifications of the population by age which provides a enchmark to track the impact of the railways on families, people and places throughout England and Wales. The shift to the postmodern family Unlike Giddens, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, and David Morgan, the American sociologist Judith Stacey believes that contemporary societies such as the USA have developed the postmodern family (Stacey, 1996). She associates changes in the family with a movement away from a single dominant family type. And with greater variety in family relationships. Postmodern families in Silicon Valley Stacey’s claim that the postmodern family is characteristic of the USA is based upon er own research into family life in Silicon Valley conducted during the mid-1980s. Silicon Valley in California is the ‘global headquarters of the electronics industry and the world’s vanguard post-industrial region’ (Stacey, 1996). Usually trends in family life in the USA take on an exaggerated form in Silicon Valley. For example, divorce rates in this area have risen faster than in other areas of the country. Trends there are generally indicative of future trends elsewhere. Most sociologists have tended to argue that higher-class and middle-class families lead the way in new family trends and that working-class families then follow later see, for example, Willmott and Young’s idea of the symmetrical family). Stacey’s research suggests that the reverse might be true with the rise of the postmodern family.