Venus (Research Paper) Essay Example for Free

Venus (Research Paper) Essay Venus is one of the most beautiful and tantalizing heavenly body. It is much closer to Earth than any other planets. Venus is a brilliant object in the night sky and sometimes brighter than any other stars in the heavens. Only the Sun and the Moon outshines her. Like the remaining planets, Venus revolves around the Sun inside the solar orbit of the Earth. Thus, Venus can either be a morning or evening star.1 Her name, Venus, comes from the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus, as a planet, is rather frustrating. She hides herself in a thick white veil of clouds and no one clearly seen her surface.2 The astronomers are force to engage in an extensive effort to uncover secrets of her for they know a little about it. The main purpose of my paper is to show some facts about Venus and also deepen the knowledge of the readers. Venus possesses some features that are nearly the same as Earth’s. One of this is that Venus is closely the same size and weight as Earth. Just a little smaller in diameter and lighter in weight. Its gravity also holds captive an atmosphere about the size of our own.3 Venus internal structure is similar to Earth’s as it is composed of crust, mantle and core. That’s why Venus is often thought of as Earth’s twin. ______________ 1Robert Leo I. Heller, â€Å"Planets Inside the Orbit of Earth,† Challenges to Science (Montreal: McGraw-Hill Book Inc., 1979), p. 402. 2Gerald S. Hawkins, â€Å"Venus and Mars,† Splendor in the Sky (London: Harper and Row Publishing House, 1961), p. 122. 3Mark O. Palin, â€Å"Venus,† The Physical World (Miami: Hunter-Dee Book Inc., 1999), p. 99 But in other ways, Venus appears to be quite different from Earth. First, Venus rotates in a very strange manner. Most of the planets rotate counterclockwise while Venus rotates clockwise or backward. Then, Venus may have atmosphere but it wouldn’t be able to support life as you know like Earth. Its atmosphere is made up of more than 90% of Carbon Dioxide and almost no Oxygen. Her temperature too is high which is 100 times greater than Earth’s and enough to melt Lead.4 Unlike other planets, Venus surface is never seen though many scientists claimed to have a glimpse of it through cloud openings which seems very unlikely because her dense clouds are hundreds of miles deep. 5 Venus, though rotating around the Sun, never experiences day and night because of the thick, ash-like clouds covering it. It is dark for sunlight does not penetrate the clouds. What is the surface of the Venus like? Some astronomers said that Venus’ surface is covered by large mountain ranges and deep swamps. People who don’t know much about Science think that Venus is covered with glowing waters. But, according to Galileo’s old journal, Venus is impossibly covered by water because of its high temperature. The best guess today is that Venus is chiefly a vast and sandy desert. The desert is flat, for wind-driven sand has long ago worn down the hills and filled in the hollows. It is dry, for rain cannot fall on it and it is surely unable to support life.6 ______________ 4Heller, p. 403. 5Roy A. Gallant, â€Å"Exploring Venus,† Man’s Reach for the Stars (New York: Doubleday and Company Inc., 1959), p. 146. 6Patricia C. Lauber, â€Å"Mercury and Venus,† All about Planets (New York: Random House Inc., 1960), p. 56. Venus is mostly covered by volcanic plates because of her high temperature. The surface has been severely fractured and folded by stresses caused by convection of the Venusian mantle because of frequent volcanic eruptions. Radar images indicate that the highlands on Venus have rougher surfaces than Earth’s land forms because its images shows mini magma explosions inside.7 The light emitted by Venus which makes her shine in the dawn or evening possibly comes from the great bolts of lightning or from volcanic eruptions.8 Explorations on Venus cost many attempts in gathering data to prove some existing parts of her. Soviet Union and USSR probes are one of the most eager astronomers in studying the mysterious planet, Venus. Venera 1 or also called Venus 1 is the first probe sent by USSR in 1961. The Venera 1 is said to be a failed mission because the probe only flew past on Venus. This event is said to be a dà ©jà   vu for the second probe, Venera 2, sent by the Soviet Union in 1965, experienced the same miscalculated direction as it flew past on Venus too. The third probe, Venera 3, still sent by Soviet Union in 1965, is also a failed one but it touches the Venus surface because the probe crashes on it. Scientists reported that they had maintained regular radio communication with the 3 failed probes but the signals were lost before it reaches Venus outermost atmosphere.9 ______________ 7â€Å"Venus,† Compton’s Encyclopedia (U.S.A.: Compton’s Learning Company, 1996), 19:408. 8Lauber, p. 54. 9Robert W. Peterson, â€Å"USSR and U.S. Send Probes to Venus,† Space: From Gemini to the Moon and Beyond (New York: Facts on File Inc., 1972), p. 102. Venera 4, a probe sent by USSR in 1967, is the heaviest Venus probe known to have been launched by USSR. As the probe reaches Venus’ atmosphere, it was burned into ashes but luckily a parachute system operated by the USSR’s satellite smoothly descended into Venus’ surface. This probe successfully sent information about Venus to the NASA regarding its atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet might be as high as 22 times the Earth’s and later proved that its atmosphere was mostly composed of Carbon Dioxide. But, Venera 4 stopped sending unexpectedly; it seems that fierce winds and intense heat destroyed the probe. Venera 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all unmanned probes. Alongside of launching the Veneras, Mariner 1, a 3D Venus probe launched by USSR in 1962, veered off-course and was destroyed after launching but Mariner 2, launched in the same year, flew successfully and provided a large amount of data to NASA. Mariner 5 of USSR, launched on 1967, flew within 2,480 miles of the surface of the Venus and collected some information about Venus’ environment and thus, contradicted Venera 4’s collected information.11 Soviet unmanned probes, Venera 5 and Venera 6, reached the planet Venus. Though Venera 5 just stopped in the midst of Venus’ atmosphere, Venera 6 is there to pursue on entering the planet’s atmosphere and it successfully did. Venera 6 sent data about Venus having land forms such as mountain ranges and volcanoes.12 ______________ 10Peterson, p. 103. 11Peterson, p. 104. 12Peterson, p. 211. The USSR’s unmanned spacecraft Venera 7, launched in 1971, was the last probe sent to Venus. Venera 7 is the most successful probe because it sent countless of information about the planet. These are: Venus’ temperature was above normal, Venus’ don’t experience night and day, Venus rotate backward and many information that are helpful in learning the planet Venus.13 Today, NASA is trying to reach Venus again by sending 2 manned probe flyby by using the Apollo program. Meaning, a man will be riding the probe but he is prohibited ongoing outside the probe if he is in the vicinity of Venus’ atmosphere as said in Apollo Program. 14 In these given data, we can say that Venus is not just a mere planet revolving around the Sun, but a planet full of mysteries. It may not awaken our senses but it can poke our curiousity by asking question of what’s and how’s about her. In the science advancement today, more facts will be known about Venus. Powerful radar and other instruments will probe its thick clouds, mapping the surface and timing the rotation. Satellites and rockets will relay back information on what the clouds are made of. Someday, valiant explorers may descend through clouds and start discovering. The more bits and pieces of data we can collect from the planets, the better chances for us of reading our own history. ______________ 13Peterson, p. 258. 14Jeffrey K. Wagner, â€Å"Venus,† Introduction to Solar System (U.S.A.: Saunders College Publishing, 1991), p. 185. BIBILIOGRAPHY Gallant, Roy A. â€Å"Exploring Venus.† Man’s Reach for the Stars. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1959. Hawkins, Gerald S. â€Å"Venus and Mars.† Splendor in the Sky. London: Harper and Row Publishing House, 1961. Heller, Robert Leo I. â€Å"Planets Inside the Orbit of Earth.† Challenges to Science. Montreal: McGraw-Hill Book Inc., 1979. Lauber, Patricia C. â€Å"Mercury and Venus.† All about Planets. New York: Random House Inc., 1960. Palin, Mark O. â€Å"Venus.† The Physical World. Miami: Hunter-Dee Book Inc., 1999. Peterson, Robert W. â€Å"USSR and U.S. Send Probes to Venus.† Space: From Gemini to the Moon and Beyond. New York: Facts on File Inc., 1972. Wagner, Jeffrey K. â€Å"Venus.† Introduction to Solar System. U.S.A.: Saunders College Publishing House, 1991. â€Å"Venus.† Compton’s Encyclopedia. U.S.A.: Compton’s Learning Company, 1996.

The Relationship Between Grammar And Language English Language Essay

The Relationship Between Grammar And Language English Language Essay The relationship between grammar and language helps in understanding the Chomskian principle of transformational grammar. David W. Carroll views grammar as a description of a persons linguistic knowledge. Language is considered to be an infinite set of well formulated sentences and it can be deduced by grammar, like that of mathematics or logic. Hence grammars are the theories of language composed of hypotheses of the structure of some part of the language. Chomsky suggests three criteria about the theory of language. First criterion is known as observational adequacy. It is applied in several levels of language in which grammar defines, what is and what is not an acceptable sequence in the language. At the other level grammar should have rules that generate grammatical sentence. The second criterion is the descriptive adequacy which indicates that grammar specifies the sequence in a language. Grammar should also explain how it relates with sentences which have the same or opposite meaning .The third criterion is the explanatory adequacy. Chomsky views that it is theoretically possible for a number of grammars, all based on different principles to attain the other two forms of adequacy and determines that the best descriptively adequate grammar pertains to the language acquisition in children. He suggests that the child learning a language is presented with samples of the language and must determine the grammar from the samples. Chomsky notes that children choose one particular grammar from the incoming data consistent with a number of grammars. Hence this implies that there are certain innate language constraints enable the child to deduce the correct grammar. The final level of adequacy goes beyond the ability to explain to describe patterns in a particular language; instead, it involves the ability to explain the role of linguistic universals in language acquisition. These theories played a significant role in the development of linguistic theories. Chomsky initially developed transformational grammar because of the descriptive inadequacy of grammar based on phrase structure rules. In transformational grammar, the insight that sentences have more than one level of structure is captured in the distinction between deep structure and surface structure. These are both tree structures, which differ in emphasis. Deep structure is considered as the underlying structure of the sentence that conveys the meaning of a sentence. Deep structures are the output of the phrase structure rules and lexical rules; transformations operate on these and gave rise to the surface structure. Surface structure refers to the superficial arrangement of the constituents and reflects the order in which the words are pronounced. David Carrol refers to three arguments regarding the usefulness of the distinction by considering the following sentence as an example. Ex: Flying planes can be dangerous. The ambiguity in this sentence is called deep-structure as it may be paraphrased as, The act of flying planes can be dangerous or Planes that are flying can be dangerous. This type of ambiguity comes from a single surface structure that is derived from two distinct deep structures. The second reason for the distinction is that some pairs of sentences are similar in their phrase structure but not in their underlying structure. Ex: John is easy to please. (2) John is eager to please. (3) The above sentences, when paraphrased reveal their dissimilarity even though they are apparently similar. John is the object of the deep structure in (2) and the deep structure subject (3). The next set of sentences in active and passive voice is distinct in their surface arrangement but similar in their deep structure. Ex: Arlene played the tuba. (active) The tuba was played by Arlene. (passive) So the active and the passive sentences are considered as two manifestation of the same deep structure. These grammatical relationships posit a second level of structure with a new set of rules called transformational rules. The entire deviation of a sentence is known to be a two part process in transformational grammar. In phrase structure the assumed largest syntactic unit, the sentence is progressively expanded by the application of rules into strings of smaller units, terminating with a combination of lexical items and grammatical elements. The phrase structure is explained with labeled tree diagrams and they are said to be inadequate for a full structural exposition. Therefore phrase structure is incapable of explaining the open ended creativity of a natural language. Upon the output of the phrase structure rules transformation rules are applied. These transformational rules involve not the division of the sentences or its parts into smaller parts, but, the alteration or rearrangement of a structure in various ways. Transformation also reflects parts of the speakers intuitive awareness of relations between sentences of different basic types. The associations of active and passive sentences , positive and negative sentences and statements, commands, and questions rests on native speakers recognition of their semantic relatedness, which is expressed by the relatedness of grammatical structure. The phrase structure rules are said to be useful in generating the underlying tree structure which is referred to as deep structures and secondly a sequence of transformational rules is applied to deep structure and the intermediate structures, ultimately generating the surface structure of the sentence. The transformations apply to the entire strings of constituents where as phrase structure rules apply to only one constituent at a time. These transformations are done by adding, deleting or moving the constituents. David Carroll gives a few transformations and explains how they work. One such transformation is called the particle -movement transformation. From the following two sentences know that they mean the same thing: EX: John phoned up the woman. (4) John phoned the woman up. (5) Here the concern is with the placement of the particle up; in these sentences, the particle may occur either just before or just after the noun phrase. Accordingly, we might write two different phrase structure rules for the two instances, the first might write two different phrase structure rules for the two instances, the first conforming to (PS) VP Æ’Â   V + (part) +NP And the second to (PS) VP Æ’Â   V + NP + (part) The problem with this approach is that it lacks descriptive adequacyit does not reveal the similarity of the two sentences. In this approach, the two sentences are derived from two different phase-structure rules. An alternative approach is to assume that the two sentences have the same deep structure and to apply the particle- movement transformation to (4). The transformational rule looks like this: (T1) V + part + NP Æ’Â   V + NP + part It can be noticed that the transformational rule simply moves the last two constituents of the verb phrase. Phrase -structure rules rewrite one constituent into a series of constituents but transformational rules begin with a series of the constituents and transform them. Then he goes on to explain it considering the following sentences: John phoned up the interesting woman. (6) John phoned the interesting woman up. (7) John phoned up the woman with the curly hair. (8) John phoned the woman with the curly hair up. (9) In each case the particle is shifted around the entire NPtwo words in (5), three in (7), and six in (9). The particle movement is defined in terms of constituents, not words. This condition gives transformational grammar tremendous power to apply to an infinite no of NPs. Instead of stating the number of words which varies from sentence to sentence, it is stated that in terms of grammatical structure it is known as structure dependent. One final property of transformational rules is that it may be blocked under certain circumstances. For example, the particle movement transformation does not work with pronouns: (35) John called them up. (36) *John called up them. These restrictions and transformations would be specified in the description of the rule. The rule would operate under specified conditions but would be blocked when these conditions did not apply. The earliest work shows the inadequacy of context free grammar for the analysis of natural languages. In the 1960s, transformational grammarians concentrated on the relationship between syntax and semantics. Transformational grammar explains certain aspects of language such as deep-structure ambiguity and the limitations of the phrase-structure rules. Transformational grammar has evolved over the decades and there were many changes and alternative approaches that gave rise to other new theories on transformation. The influence of Chomskys revolutionary theories on linguistics and his contributions like Syntactic Structures, Aspects of the theory of syntax, stands out as the most significant development which led to the beginning of various other transformations in grammar and linguistics.

Link Between Obesity and Lack of Sleep

Link Between Obesity and Lack of Sleep Zara J. Damania Abstract This study aims to investigate whether there is a bidirectional relationship between poor sleep quality, high body mass index (BMI) and disordered eating (binge-eating and night-time eating). Participants were a community-derived sample (N= 330) of people recruited through advertisements placed at the Australian National University (ANU) campus and a number of online platforms. An online questionnaire asked participants for their height, weight and recent experiences of sleep and eating. Multiple regression analyses found that: (a) worse overall sleep quality and binge-eating (but not night-time eating) were positively associated with high BMI accounting for a significant 8% of the variability in BMI; and (b) high BMI and night-time eating (but not binge-eating) were positively associated with worse overall sleep quality accounting for 35.6% of the variability in worse overall sleep quality. These results indicate that disordered eating (binge- and/or night-time eating) partially des cribe the association between poor sleep quality and high BMI. Future research could be conducted using objective- rather than self-reported- measures of sleep quality, BMI and eating behaviour to control for inaccuracies that self-reported measures might pose. The Bidirectional Association between High Body Mass Index, Poor Sleep Quality and Disordered Eating This paper investigates whether there is a bidirectional relationship between poor sleep quality, high body mass index and disordered eating. Current research corroborates the association between poor sleep quality and being overweight or obese. Sleep quality is a broad concept that includes: sleep duration, difficulty falling and/or staying asleep and the use of sleep medications (Buysse, Reynolds, Monk, Berman Kupfer, 1989; Krystal Edinger, 2008). This study makes use of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure sleep quality. PSQI is an effective and widely used self-reported instrument that is high in reliability and validity, consisting of questions that are easy to understand and answer (Buysse et al., 1989; Smyth, 1999). PSQI measures subjective sleep quality in seven distinct areas, including: sleep latency and sleep duration (Krystal Edinger, 2008; Smyth, 1999). One of the key interests in this study is the association between PSQ and having a high body mass index (BMI); i.e., being overweight or obese. According to the World Health Organisation’s classification, a BMI of ≠¥25 indicates that a person is overweight and ≠¥30 indicates that a person is obese (World Health Organization, 2000). Empirical evidence corroborates an association between PSQ and having a high BMI (hBMI). For instance, longitudinal studies and studies on large mixed-race and socioeconomically diverse samples found that sleeping less than seven hours and having trouble falling and/or staying asleep was positively associated with hBMI (Gangwisch, Malaspina, Boden-Albala Heymsfield, 2005; Meyer, Wall, Larson, Laska Neumark-sztainer, 2012). Furthermore, empirical findings from cross-sectional studies with mixed-race samples indicate that: obese individuals experience shorter sleep durations compared to non-obese individuals; for every hour of sleep lost th e risk of obesity increased by 80%; and PSQ leads to decreases in physical activity which is consequently associated with hBMI (Cappuccio, et al., 2008; Gupta, Mueller, Chan Meininger, 2002) Very few studies that attempted to explain how PSQ is associated with hBMI found that sleep apnea might mediate this relationship (Yeh Brown, 2014). Sleep apnea refers to sleep disturbance due to continual interruptions to airflow through the nose and mouth on at least 30 occasions during a seven-hour sleep period (Guilleminault, Tilkian Dement, 1976). However, sleep apnea is relatively uncommon in the population (Tishler, Larkin, Schulchter Redline, 2003) while PSQ is more common (Buysse, Reynolds, Monk, Berman Kupfer, 1989). Therefore, it can be inferred that only a small proportion of hBMI individuals with PSQ suffer from sleep apnea and there might be other potential explanations for the association between PSQ and hBMI (Yeh Brown, 2014). Given that no other studies have attempted to further investigate factors that mediate the relationship between PSQ and hBMI, this study attempts to do so by investigating whether disordered eating mediates this relationship. Disordered eating includes both: binge eating and night-time eating. Binge eating (BE) refers to consuming unusually large amounts of food in a relatively short time-span and perceived lack of control over one’s eating behaviour (American Psychiatric Association, as cited in Johnson, Carr-Nangle, Nangle, Antony Zayfert, 1997). This study uses the Binge Eating Scale (BES) a questionnaire that measures whether and to what extent individuals binge eat by inquiring about their eating behaviours and tendencies (Gormally, Black, Daston Rardin, 1982). Whereas, night-time eating (NTE) refers to consuming >25% of one’s caloric intake after dinner and/or after waking up at night, at least twice a week (Allison et al., 2010; Stunkard, GraceWolff). This stud y uses the Night-time Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) to identify whether and the frequency of which participants engage in NTE behaviour (Striegel-Moore, Franko Garcia, 2009). Yeh and Brown (2014) suggest that difficulty falling asleep and shorter sleep durations provide hBMI individuals with more time to eat, consequently leading to weight gain over time. This is in accordance with Andersen, Stunkard, Sorenson, Peterson and Heitmann (2004) and Crispim, Zimberg, dos Reis, Tufik and de Mello (2011) who respectively found that NTE was associated with both PSQ and weight gain in hBMI individuals. Similarly, empirical research has indicated that BE is associated with PSQ and hBMI in obese individuals (Yeh Brown, 2014). In light of both: the lack of research investigating potential mediators of the association between PSQ and hBMI and research indicating that disordered eating is associated with PSQ and hBMI, the present study aimed to determine whether disordered eating (NTE and BE) mediates the relationship between PSQ and hBMI. The hypotheses of this study were: (1) Poor sleep quality and disordered eating will be associated with high BMI; and, (2) High BMI and disordered eating will be associated with higher scores of poor sleep quality. Method Participants Participants were recruited through advertisements placed at the Australian National University (ANU) campus and a number of online platforms. Study inclusion criteria were: being ≠¥ 18 years old and a BMI of 18.5 (normal weight) or more. 678 participants opted to participate in this study; however data from only 330 participants were used because the remaining 348 did not meet the study inclusion criteria or did not complete the study. Of the 330 participants, 107 (32.4%) were males, 223 (67.6%) were females, the ages ranged from 18-87 years and the mean age was 27.42 years (SD=10.36). Procedure Participants accessed the study by clicking on an embedded URL in the advertisement. If they met the study criteria and consented to participate, they responded to an online questionnaire inquiring about: their recent experiences of sleep and eating and height and weight, to calculate their BMI. SPSS statistical software (version 22) was used to perform all statistical analyses. Two standard multiple regression analyses were performed to test the two hypotheses. Materials Demographics including education level were collected. BMI was calculated by computing participants’ weight (in kilograms) over their height (in meters); with a BMI of ≠¥25 indicating overweightness and ≠¥30 indicating obesity. Next, the PSQI assessed seven subjective domains of sleep. An overall PSQI score (ranging from 0 to 21) of >5 indicated moderate to severe sleep difficulties. Overall sleep score has high internal consistency reliability with a Cronbachs ÃŽ ± of .83 (Smith Wegener, 2003). Thirdly, BE was measured using the BES; which consists of 16-items reflecting behaviours and feelings related to eating. An overall BES score (ranging from 0 to 46) of >27 indicated binge-eating and a higher overall score indicated worse binge eating. In this study, BES had high internal consistency with a Cronbachs ÃŽ ± of .92. Finally, NTE was measured using NEQ which consists of 15 questions. An overall NEQ score (ranging from 0 to 52) of >25 indicated NTE behaviour. In t his study, the NEQ showed sufficient internal consistency with a Cronbachs alpha of .73. Results A number of outliers were detected for each of the variables; however, none of these were excluded because they represented clinically relevant cases. Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics of overall sleep quality, BMI, BE and NTE were found to be non-significant (i.e., p); which means that these key variables were normally distributed. Two multiple regression analyses (MRA) were conducted to investigate whether: (a) PSQ and disordered eating (BE and NTE) were associated with high BMI; and (b) whether high BMI and disordered eating (BE and NTE) were associated with higher scores of PSQ. Means and standard deviations of the key variables are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations of Key Study Variables The first MRA found that overall PSQ and BE (but not NTE) were positively associated with high BMI (the dependent variable) accounting for a significant 8% of the variability in BMI, R2 =.080, adjusted R2=.071, F (3,326) = 9.40, p=.000. Examination of the beta weights suggested that BE was the strongest unique contributor to high BMI (see Table 2).Unstandardized (B) and standardized (ÃŽ ²) regression coefficients for each predictor in the regression model are provided in Table 2. Table 2 Unstandardized (B) and Standardized (ÃŽ ²) Regression Coefficients for each Predictor in a Regression Model Predicting high BMI *p The second MRA found that high BMI and NTE (but not BE) were positively associated with overall PSQ (the dependent variable) accounting for 35.6% of the variability in overall PSQ, R2 =.356, adjusted R2=.350, F (3,326) = 59.99, p=.000. Unstandardized (B) and standardized (ÃŽ ²) regression coefficients for each predictor in the regression model are provided (see Table 3). Table 3 Unstandardized (B) and Standardized (ÃŽ ²) Regression Coefficients for each Predictor in a Regression Model Predicting Worse Overall Sleep Quality Night-eating .032 .090* *p Discussion This study aimed to determine whether disordered eating (NTE and BE) explains the relationship between PSQ and hBMI. The first hypothesis was mostly supported by the results which indicated that PSQ and BE (but not NTE) were positively associated with hBMI. The second hypothesis was also mostly supported by the results which indicated that hBMI and NTE (but not BE) were positively associated with PSQ. First, the finding that: there is a bidirectional relationship between hBMI and PSQ is in accordance with empirical research findings and meta-analyses which found that: (a) sleeping less than seven hours, having trouble falling and/or staying asleep was positively associated with hBMI; (b) obese individuals experience shorter sleep durations compared to non-obese individuals; and (c) for every hour of sleep lost the risk of obesity increased by 80%; (Cappuccio, et al., 2008; Gangwisch, Malaspina, Boden-Albala Heymsfield, 2005; Gupta, Mueller, Chan Meininger, 2002). Second, the finding that: BE was associated with hBMI was in accordance with Yeh and Brown (2014) whose meta-analyses also found that BE was positively associated with hBMI. Third, the finding that NTE was associated with PSQ is consistent with those of Crispim, Zimberg, dos Reis, Tufik and de Mello (2011) who found that NTE was associated with PSQ. The findings that did not support the hypotheses of the study included: NTE is associated with high BMI and BE is associated with PSQ. These findings are inconsistent with those of Andersen, Stunkard, Sorenson, Peterson and Heitmann (2004) who found that NTE was associated with weight gain in individuals with hBMI and Yeh and Brown (2014) whose meta-analyses found that BE is associated with PSQ. Overall, these findings mostly corroborate empirical findings and theories which claim that: there is a bidirectional positive association between hBMI and PSQ, BE is positively associated with hBMI and NTE is positively associated with PSQ. However, it is possible that there are alternative explanations for the results of this study and /or potential confounds that might have influenced the results. The first limitation of the study is that the majority of the participants were females, well-educated and of a normal weight. Therefore, it is potentially difficult to generalize these findings to the mixed gendered populations, individuals with and less well-educated populations. Second, these findings are based on subjective self-reported measures of sleep quality, eating behaviour and BMI. This is potentially problematic because individuals might be inaccurate- due to not knowing the responses to particular questions or deliberately lying- in providing response. Lastly, internet acce ss was required to participate in this study; this is a limitation because it excludes individuals who cannot gain internet access easily and/or individuals who are not technologically knowledgeable. Overall, the results of this study implicate that individuals should strive to improve their eating and sleeping habits since they seem to affect each other and that NTE should be controlled because it is associated with PSQ. In light of the limitations of this study, future research could include: mixed-gender samples (with equal amounts of male and female patticipants), using paper-based questionnaires and using objective measures of BMI, sleep quality and eating behaviour rather than subjective/self-report methods. Incorporating these suggestions could provide findings that are: more easily generalizable to the general population and more accurate measures of the key variables in the study. In conclusion, this report investigated whether poor sleep quality and disordered eating (binge-eating and night-time eating) were associated with high BMI and whether high BMI and disordered eating were associated with higher scores of poor sleep quality. The findings indicate that poor sleep quality and binge-eating (but not night-time eating) were positively associated with high BMI and high BMI and night-time eating (but not binge-eating) were positively associated with overall poor sleep quality. These findings provide useful implications for future research and for individuals’ health behaviours.

The Detective Story Genre: Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes Storie

The Detective Story Genre: Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Stories One of the most popular literary forms is the detective genre. The most remarkable detective author of all time is the late nineteenth century writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His most prominent works are the famous Sherlock Holmes stories. These novels and short stories set the standard for the genre. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories can be considered a model for detective fiction because each is centered on a mystery, Sherlock is a brilliant detective, and clues are a prerequisite for success. The very essence of any detective story is the mystery. Unlike murder mysteries, which have a lot in common with detective stories, Holmes's problems are not invariably as severe as homicide. These mysteries are not usually insignificant though, and "Often they have to do with theft or murder" (Adventures). The first mystery may be an important and confusing conundrum, but there is often a more worthy case that presents itself after the first has commenced. This adds a level of intrigue to the tale because "The first story leads towards dissolution, the second towards restoring order" (Horsley). In each adventure, someone has been or is in danger of being wronged by another person, and comes to Sherlock for help. This creates "A clear and unambiguous triangle of characters - the investigator, the victim, and the transgressor" (Horsley). All of this is incorporated into the author's puzzle. Something important and immoral is done in every detective story. Whether the detective is clearing a client of blame or prosecuting someone, he is always on the right side, and working against the wrong. The detective may not always complete his j... ...1 Feb. 2003. http://web12.epnet.com/ Horsley, Lee "Sherlock Holmes - Modernist Thought, Modernist _____Cities, and the Solving Intellect." 31 Mar. 03 _____http://www.crimeculture.com/359/Holmes.htm "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Magill on Literature. EBSCO _____Publishing. 21 Feb. 2003. http://web12.epnet.com/ "Arthur Conan Doyle." Magill on Literature. EBSCO Publishing. 21 _____Feb. 2003. http://web12.epnet.com/ Jenson, Jens Byskov "The Man Sherlock Holmes." 23 Feb. 2003. _____http://sherlock-holmes.hypermart.net/sherlock.html Leadbetter, Claire "Why Were Sherlock Holmes Stories So Popular?" 31 _____Mar. 03 _____http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/8950/holmes/shpaper.htm "The Greek Interpreter." Magill on Literature. EBSCO Publishing. 21 _____Feb. 2003. http://web12.epnet.com/

Androgynous Characters in Thomas Hardys Novels Essay -- Biography Bio

Androgynous Characters in Thomas Hardy's Novels Androgyny may be defined as "a condition under which the characteristics of the sexes, and the human impulses expressed by men and women, are not rigidly assigned" (Heilbrun 10). In the midst of the Victorian Era, Thomas Hardy opposed conventional norms by creating androgynous characters such as Eustacia Vye, in The Return of the Native ; the title character in Tess of the d Urbervilles ; Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure ; and Marty South in The Woodlande rs. Hardy's women, possessing "prodigious energy, stunted opportunity, and a passion which challenges the entire, limiting world" (Heilbrun 70), often resemble men in actions and behavior. Eustacia Vye may be considered androgynous for her passion, rebelliousness, and refusal to accept the confines of Egdon. She exists in a state of untamed romantic emotion and fantasy, and has little concern for the effects of her actions. These characteristics of Eustacia make her less typical of women during the Victorian Era, but the scene in which her androgynous behavior is most evident...

Science and Religion Essay -- History, Witchcraft, Magic

Humans do not engage the world in a neutral way. Instead, we see world through the reality that our culture creates. Without culture, humanity would have to continuously reinvent the wheel, perhaps even literally. It casts a web of reality over us that is inescapable. We are constantly in the grip of our culture. Therefore, it isn’t surprising to find societies with cultures which differ greatly from ours who come to very different conclusions about what reality is. When we are confronted with these differences in world views, we are often quick and confident to assert that our way of life is superior to others. This is behavior isn’t unique to tribes indigenous to foreign lands who believe in so-called â€Å"primitive† religions. It is even true of the Western world’s modern science. Science is another example of the cultural frameworks we use to understand the world around us. If this is the case, then science too must be part of a web of reality created by our culture, and is therefore not superior (nor inferior) to religion, but rather runs parallel to it. However, the Western mind generally recoils from the idea that science does anything but describe reality in hard, empirical detail. As mentioned, since these cultural frameworks envelope us, we often to not regard them as socially negotiated ways of engaging the world, but rather as absolute and unquestioned reality. The same is true of both religion and science. The unquestioned nature of this cultural framework was described by anthropologist Evans-Pritchard in his seminal work, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. In this ethnography, Evans-Pritchard examines how completely encompassing the Azande tradition of magic and witchcraft is to the people.... ...thin the same process. In this way, science seems superior to other methods of engaging the world. However, as we have seen, science has its limitations in describing certain categories of knowledge. It cannot be used to make ethical judgements or learn an ultimate truth. Such areas are outside its scope. In this way, magic and religion provide answers which science cannot. So science is not necessarily superior to religion and magic, neither is it inferior to it. It is another way of engaging the world, one which answers a different set of questions and solves a different set of problems from magic and religion. So long as a cultural framework benefits the society which implements it, it is useful. Furthermore, when these cultural frameworks are as deeply intertwined with everyday reality as is the case with the Azande’s witchcraft, they become necessary.

The Craft Era

The first major era is now referred to as ‘craft’ manufacturing and service ‘shop’ delivery. This system was European in origin and linked to the way in which skills were developed: the apprentice–journeyman– master progression, which led to the creation of guilds of skilled people who sought to control the supply of their speciality, and the consolidation of skill within a subsector of society (as, for example, skills were passed on from father to son). This was noted for low-volume, high-variety products, where workers tended to be highly skilled and quality was built into the very process of operations. It was also appropriate for largely national markets, supplied internally with minimal imports and exports. Some craft manufacturing still remains today, in markets where exotic products and services can control demands through some unique feature or high level of desirability. For instance, some house building, furniture making, clock and watch making are still carried out by skilled craftsmen/women working on a single or few items of output at a time. While the processes and techniques used by these craftsmen/women are highly inefficient, the unique quality of their products commands a premium price, as illustrated by the secondhand value of products such as a Daniels pocket watch or a Morgan car. In the case of Morgan, however, it is a mistake to conclude that the passenger car industry might still be able to employ craft production. Morgan is unashamedly part of a sector that is closer to specialist toys than that concerned with personal transportation. It is also the end of a very thin tail, other parts of which (AC, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, etc. have already been absorbed by volume producers, keen to operate in exotic niches for purposes that are closer to corporate advertising than to income generation. In the clothing industry, one significant sector of the industry – haute couture – is based on the craft production approach. In services, the craft era has also continued – perhaps even more so than in manufacturing. The slower pace of change within services derives from the extent to which customer processing operations can adopt new technologies and new systems. Only services that require little skill at the operating level (such as FMCG or petrol retailing) or processing large amounts of information (such as financial services) are significantly different now from what they were like even 30 years ago. Many services such as hotels, schools, hospitals, hairdressers, vehicle repair and transportation have changed very little, despite new technologies. The mass production era The second major era is known as mass production, although once again its principles were by no means restricted to manufacturing. This system grew in North America to accommodate three principal requirements of the developing giant: the need to export, the need to provide employment for a massive, largely unskilled workforce, and the need to establish itself as a world player, which meant infiltrating other regions with ideas clearly associated with the USA. In short, the Americans could not play by the European rules, so they reinvented the game: innovating by destroying the competitive position of craft production. The system was massively successful and changed the working and buying practices of the world in the first three decades of the twentieth century. In order to sell the standardized products made by standardized operations practices, mass production had to standardize the market requirements too. Fortunately, the market was immature and would do what it was told to do. Thus, mass production reversed the paradigm of craft production: volume was high with little variety. The marketing ploy (and the resultant manufacturing strategy) was exemplified by Henry Ford’s famous declaration, from now on, ‘a customer can have a car painted any colour he likes, as long as it is black! ’ In mass production, workers were typically unskilled. This was the era owing much to the contribution of F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management, whereby workers had very narrowly defined jobs, involving repetitive tasks, and quality was left to ‘quality experts’ at the final stage of the overall process rather than being an integral part of operations at each step (Taylor, 1912). Taylor enabled firms, for the first time, to control costs, times and resources, rather than rely on skilled craftsmen and women to decide what was appropriate. Coupled with the developments made in mechanization and employee co-ordination during the European industrial revolutions, Taylor’s ideas provided an entirely different way of operating. In 1926, Encyclopaedia Britannica asked Henry Ford to christen his system and he called it mass production. He meant ‘mass’ in the sense of large volume production. Perhaps he did not see the other meaning of mass as ‘heavy and cumbersome’, which is what the system turned out to be (in terms of management systems and superstructure), once the market no longer bought what it was told. These principles originating in the 1920s were slow to be adopted in services, but by the 1970s, Ted Levitt, from Harvard Business School, was able to identify the ‘production-lining’ (Levitt, 1972) of service and the ‘industrialization’ (Levitt, 1976) of service. He cited fast food, the automatic teller machine (ATM) outside banks and supermarket retailing as examples of this. Schmenner (1986) coined the phrase ‘mass service’ to exemplify this type of service operation. More recently, the aspects of working life that are typical in this mass production context have been extended to life in general by Ritzer (1993), who refers to it as the McDonaldization of society. The shift from ‘craft’ marketing to marketing in the mass production age is clearly demarcated by the publication of Levitt’s (1960) article in the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Marketing myopia’. In mass production, customers bought what was supplied; producers concentrated on keeping costs, and hence prices, down, and focused on selling to customers through aggressive advertising and sales forces. As organizations were product-led, operations management was relatively straightforward. Mass producing goods at the lowest cost meant minimizing component and product variety, large production runs and scientific management. The success of Ford made this view highly persuasive. In 1909, the Model T automobiles were sold for $950, but by 1916, following the introduction of the assembly line, it had fallen to $345, and three-quarters of the cars on American roads were built by Ford (Bryson, 1994). However, as Levitt (1960) pointed out, Ford was eventually outstripped by General Motors, who were not product-led but market-led. They gave customers what they wanted – choice, model updates, a range of colours (not just black! ). The symbol of this age is the brand. Originally (in the craft era) the brand was a mark on the product, often a signature – for example, on a painting – or symbol, signifying its ownership or origin. But in mass production the brand took on far more significance. It became the means by which one product (or service) could differentiate itself from a competitor’s product (or service). Procter & Gamble set up brand managers in 1931 to sell their different soap products. Later the brand also became a guarantee of product/service quality. Kemmons Wilson’s motivation in 1952 to open the first Holiday Inn hotel was his own disappointment with the ariable standards and sleaziness of the motels he stayed in whilst on a family holiday. The success of delivering a consistently standard level of service resulted in Wilson opening one hotel every two and half days in the mid-1950s. But by the 1990s, brands had come under threat. Markets are highly fragmented, the proliferation of niches makes target marketing more difficult, product and service life cycles are shortening, and product/service innovation is quicker than ever before; increasing customer sophistication has reduced the power of advertising. As a result, a more holistic view of operations management is required, as Crainer (1998) suggests: Companies must add value throughout every single process they are involved in and then translate this into better value for customers. This is because the modern era has brought profound changes in operations management and operations has to be at the heart of successful strategic thinking.