Contemporary Racism Essay Example

Contemporary Racism Essay Example Contemporary Racism Paper Contemporary Racism Paper Dear Mr. Smith, It was a great pleasure speaking with you on the plane ride back to Chicago. However, we didnt get the chance to finish our conversation about minority relations. I disagree with your claim that the playing field is level and if people dont succeed, it is their own fault. Through this letter, I wish to prove to you that racial oppression still persists today through examples of â€Å"Laissez Faire† racism and how you can make a difference regarding this issue. Racial oppression persists today through the legacy of our history. First, individual beliefs on white superiority from the past have passed down through generations, manifesting in the form as white privilege, an example of individual racism in which the perception of race is created from one’s own cultural lens. White privilege is an unconscious and invisible form of racism in which whites do not realize they have racial privileges. They do not ask for it nor choose to keep it but it nonetheless comes with birth and their natural white skin color. Although some may acknowledge race, they may ignore the existing racial hierarchy in society as they naturally enjoy many benefits like economic opportunities. White privilege is important because it labels non-whites as victims, holds white people more accountable, helps whites understand their invisible superiority and integrate into white norms when there should be interracial integration. Second, the self-perpetuating cycle of negative racial stereotyping continues to drive racial oppression. A majority of whites are unaware and ignorant of these persistent negative racial stereotypes that remain in their attitudes. These stereotypes impact behavior subconsciously and are intensified by fear and power, making it into a vicious cycle that is less likely to break and be challenged. Whites enjoy power and may feel threatened when minorities rise in power or threaten them through terrorist attacks, creating instances with racial profiling, hate crimes, etc. This cycle explains why it is difficult for some people to move past racism in his or her lifetime. Lastly, institutional racism demonstrates racial oppression from legacy of our history. Institutional racism is embedded in political, social and economic structure and if its effects are magnified, consequences are widely spread out and repetitive. The intentions of individuals in this case do not matter as it is carried on through society over generations. Such racism provides automatic advantages for whites, who were born to be ahead in the four stages of life including socioeconomic status, education, work, and legacy. This is especially due to the current growing wealth gap as the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, making it difficult for minorities to climb beyond their ascribed status. As people accumulate wealth through inheritance, investments, average family income, and home ownership, etc. minorities as a result have to work harder to achieve the same level of success as whites. The theory of laissez-faire racism encompasses the prominent ideology regarding contemporary racism and was coined by Dr. Lawrence Bobo. This more subtle and hands-off form of racism still continues to highlight the current problem of racial oppression in the United States (US) through the following conclusions. First, available data suggests that the US experienced a positive transformation in attitudes regarding racial relations. Yet, despite this change in attitude, there is no change in behavior and racial discrimination still remains a barrier for minorities in the American institution. As a result, race is used as a device to divide and mobilize voters at the local, state and national levels. In other words, believing the ideology of equal opportunities, personal responsibility and the â€Å"playing field is level† for minorities does not mean discrimination no longer exists. It simply demonstrates the lack of awareness and failure to accept the persisting existence of racial oppression, as society is unwilling to enforce and implement these new attitudes through action. Some examples of racial inequities that persist as a result of laissez-faire racism are evident through home ownership, health disparities and the disproportionate incarceration of young men of color. Although minorities have access to home ownership like everyone else, they still encounter discrimination in their efforts to rent, buy, finance or ensure a home, which has significant financial benefits. Most minorities do not accumulate wealth through inheritance, investments and home ownership like most whites do. As a result, they struggle to secure a house because they are less financially sophisticated. For example, some houses are available for white families and not black families. Banks charge higher interests and are also more reluctant to give loans to those that live in black neighborhoods, also known as the redline area. In addition, although whites want to live in diverse and predominantly white neighborhoods, laissez-faire racism prevents residential desegregation and white flight can still occur. The available medical programs available for society like Medicaid and health care distorts the reality that minority families receive the full medical care they need, creating health disparities between different races. For example, whites live an average of five to seven years longer than blacks. Studies have also shown that people residing in the richest zip codes live up to 90 years and those residing in the poorest zip codes live up to 57 years. Regardless of income, all African Americans suffer higher blood pressure and the women on average have high mortality rates. These health problems are due to environmental factors and the effects of laissez-faire racism. For example, segregated neighborhoods with minorities struggle to attain health care, private amenities and basic resources like healthy food, medicine, medical facilities and doctors. If there are doctors, lack of cultural competence is common in which these doctors, mostly white, can mistake illnesses or oversee an African American exclusive disease. There may also be a language barrier, as doctors may not know how to speak the language and carry negative stereotypes. Health care is available but only for those who are able to afford it. The disproportionate incarceration of young men of color is another example of laissez-faire racism. Although anyone can be caught committing a crime, incarceration rates are much higher for people of color as 80% of the people in prison are African American or Latino. Minorities are easily victims, as those that have the power to sentence punishment like the police and courts consists of mainly whites. For example, the stop and frisk policy gives police officers chance to look up if anyone had possession of any drugs and minorities, and African Americans are especially targeted. Disproportionate incarceration rates occur because blatant racism still exists; there is persistence of negative racial stereotypes; institutional practices or policies have great outcomes and the presence of economic incentives. Disproportionate incarceration can also have negative impacts including stereotyping victims for life, stripping their rights to vote, and banning them to live in public housing, receive welfare payments and public assistance. The statistic that young men with criminal records are more likely to be hired than young black men without criminal records shows that these victims would forever struggle to find mployment opportunities. These impacts influence the community, as there will be fewer positive role models for children and create a sense of hopelessness among these victims in finding a bright future. You mentioned in our conversation that you are interested in using a significant portion of your wealth for a socially responsible purpose. Well, I have sev eral ideas you can consider. In regard to health disparities, you can build better facilities like hospitals and clinics in poor neighborhoods with high minority population. As I mentioned before, these neighborhoods lack basic necessities like food, sanitation and medicine. By building these facilities, you would help this community gain easy access to whatever they need, increase their exposure and awareness to biological education and health and reduce the wealth gap. Another idea is to invest your money on leaders or influential figures who support and promote racial equality. Their popularity and presence through the media can stir sympathy, empathy and transformation insight to understand racial oppression. Depending on your interests, you can invest in a person or an event to increase minority representation in any field including politics, business or the media industry. In politics, you could fund for the political campaigns politicians like senators and representatives who have major roles in policy-making. Or, you could aim even higher and invest in the presidential campaign. Presidential leadership has a strong impact on nature of racism as it can impact laws that are designed to create level playing field. For example, Lyndon B Johnson’s attitude towards the importance of extoling importance of affirmative action and overcoming racial discrimination had a strong impact on society. As the first African American President, Obama instilled faith and hope for African American representation in the high-class society or workforce. The attitudes and values of the president are reflected in his administration, as he would appoint prominent positions like ambassadors and Supreme Court judges to people with similar goals as him. Besides politics, you can also invest in minority singers, movie actors or actresses. Some talented people lack the opportunity to show their talent but you could be their agent and help them gain the attention and representation they deserve. However, you must be aware of the tokenistic fallacy, which guarantees total equality in society if there is an anomaly such as eliminating racial discrimination towards African Americans with Obama as president. Nonetheless, it does help to gain more minority representation in all areas of the workforce as these people in powerful positions can influence others and increase their support and empathy for minorities. My last suggestion is to increase educational programs that promote diversity and provide more chances for people of different races to interact and integrate into one culture. In specific regards to disproportionate incarceration of men of color, you could invest in better education of police officers on race, class and gender dimension of their kind of work, racial and ethnic sensitivity training to reduce street level how officer perceives and how they can not use quotas to get men of color. You can also educate doctors that work in segregated communities about misdiagnosis and medical differences to avoid cultural competence. You can also plan interactive and fun events and activities in less integrated neighborhoods to promote interracial interaction. Such events can include celebrations of Black History Month in October or Asian Pacific Islander Awareness Month in April that all aim to educate society about a culture and its history. By exposing the cultures of different races, you would be able to spread and gain awareness of cultural diversity. Studies have shown that the degree of change in racial values depends on where and what type of community one grew up in. If grew up in a diverse community, then one has a more open-minded attitude. If one grew up in a homogeneous community, attitude is less progressive. Thus, we must aim to create more diverse communities by encouraging interracial interactions. Your efforts will make a great impact, as generations over time will become more open-minded, progressive and diverse. You can promote attitudinal change within a generation and from generation to generation. Racial oppression will diminish over time as people become less racist. In conclusion, I hope my letter informed you more about the current issues of racism that have not yet been fully resolved. You have the potential to make a great difference in the community at large. Consider my proposals and make a smart choice. Best, Helena Wu

Overwhelmed Heres a Great Way to Take Control of Your Job Search

Overwhelmed Heres a Great Way to Take Control of Your Job Search I have a confession to make: I am not naturally an organized person. If left to my own devices, I generally do whatever comes into my head to do at the moment. I am easily sidetracked and have a tendency to think I can do everything without regard to priorities. Sound familiar? If so, and if you are a job seeker, you might be experiencing some overwhelm as you conduct your search. Thankfully, there are tools available that can help. To tackle my lack of focus, for example, I have chosen to participate in a business coaching group where I am forced to create priorities and follow them- at least to some extent! You might benefit from some prioritization tools as well. Let’s say you decide to research companies you might want to work for. First, you’ll read my blog from last week, Top 5 Web Sites for Your Job Search Over the Holidays, and start listing companies that interest you. What’s next? The answer is not Apply to all the jobs and accept the first one that will take me. The answer isn’t even, Do extensive research on the 50 companies on my list. Instead, take some time to prioritize. First, make a list of your top 20-30 companies based on your research. Then get clear about what’s important to you so you can gather further information on the companies that best meet your requirements. Factors to consider: Job Function/Title Industry Commute Salary Benefits Opportunity for Growth Travel Company Reputation Size of Company Products I Resonate With Pick 5-6 of these items that are most important to you and score each of the companies in your list from 1-5 (1 = bad/low, 5 = good/high) on how they match up on each factor. You can make a simple chart to do this: Â   Factor #1 Factor #2 Factor #3 Factor #4 Factor #5 Factor #6 Total Company #1 Company #2 Company #3 Company #4 Look at the total scores and rank the companies from highest to lowest. Then start your information gathering, such as finding contact people at the organizations, with the highest-scoring companies. Concentrate on finding the hiring managers at those top companies and start to discover what challenges the companies are facing and how you can add value. Once you know your first choice, second choice, third choice, etc. you will be in a much stronger position as you approach the companies. You will know what you want so you can focus on that, rather than let the job market dictate your search. And you will reduce overwhelm by taking things one step at a time in a clear, organized way. Do you have methods you use to stay focused in your job search? Please share in the comments! Category:Job SearchBy Brenda BernsteinJanuary 27, 2014

Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring Theory Assignment

Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring Theory - Assignment Example The authors specifically state that nursing is not only a profession but also a discipline. Boykin and Schoenhofer (2010) claim that the Nursing as Caring Theory is a better framework to improve an individual’s understanding of caring as it particularly emphasizes the need of nursing knowledge to increase the care quality and patient safety (p.371). Since this knowledge comes from situations, the Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer consider nursing situation as a key concept of the theory. In actual practice, this theory makes significant contributions to nursing practice, nursing administration, nursing education, and nursing research and development. The Nursing as Caring theory enhances nurses’ knowledge about caring their clients in creative and individualized ways in a situation-specific environment. In addition, as Purnell (2013) purports, this framework assists nursing administrators to develop and implement policies within the organization in order to improve operational efficiency and thereby to achieve higher degree of patient safety (p.371). Evid ently, a clear understanding of personhood contributes notably to nursing knowledge and education. This theoretical framework can be better used by researchers to explore the patterns of caring personality and improve the quality of the care delivered. Since Nursing as Caring is a grand theory, it can be applied to real life situations in collaboration with other nursing theories like Watsons theory of nursing or Orems theory of nursing. Today the growing number of clinical errors becomes a great threat to the medical field, and in most cases the issue is caused by the negligence of caring staff. Here the theory of Nursing as Caring can be applied to improve the situation because this theory greatly emphasizes the virtue of humanness in a caring environment. When humanness is valued greatly and considerable importance is given to care

Linguistics - English relative clauses in dialects of the GB isles Essay

Linguistics - English relative clauses in dialects of the GB isles - Essay Example Herrmann builds her theory will be examined. In part two, I will examine the basic premise upon which Mr. Sag builds his theories. Part three will examine Ms. Herrmanns theory of grammatical construction and part four will examine the commonalities that the two theories have, by paying special attention to the concept of pied-piping. To begin, one must examine the basic premise upon which Ms. Herrmann built her grammatical constructs. In the â€Å"Relative Clauses in Dialects of English,† the author describes an extensive study of the British Isles. She divided the Isles into six broad sections - Central Midland, Central north, Central Southwest, East Anglia, Northern Ireland and Scotland. She concentrated on the prototypical relative clauses, or adnominal clauses, and she compared these clauses across the different dialects of the sections listed above, with an eye towards identifying the features that have become commonplace across different dialects, and also identified how the commonalities and differences across different dialects identified certain dialects as more closely related to Standard English than other dialects. Her study also can identify where different dialects intersect, which is known as dialectical levelling. (Herrmann 22). In the process, she also identified broad characteristics of the various dialects she studied. Central southwest, Central North and Northern Ireland have broad dialectical speech, ie, the speakers in these regions tend to speak in one dialect, while the speakers in East Anglia, Central Midland and Scotland have more heterogenous speech. (Herrmann 24). Central Southwest and Northern Ireland are almost entirely broad speakers. Broad speakers tend towards more non-standard features, which is gradually transforming into traditional features, and these are influencing Standard English as a whole. (Herrmann 22). The basic findings of the study were that the relative particles (zero, that, what

Dealing with stress Essay Example for Free

Dealing with stress Essay One of the greatest sources of stress at work is caused by the innovations that have been created to make work easier. While it is true that there are already so many inventions and technological devices that have been invented to help people accomplish more at work, the result is far from the anticipated goal of allowing people to rest more. The increased capability of performing more work has been off-set by the fact that more and more tasks are placed upon the employees. The fact paced working environment and steady competition has changed the way work is being done and increased the stress levels. When a few decades ago companies only had to contend with local or national competition, the current business environment faces competition from firms and companies all over the world. Another factor which adds to the stress in any working environment, aside from the increased pressure to produce more, is the fact that the stress in the work place negatively affects the health of employees thus causing more absences and adding more pressure to catch up with the work load. It has been suggested that stress can be thought of as resulting from an â€Å"imbalance between demands and resources† or as occurring when â€Å"pressure exceeds ones perceived ability to cope† (Sedgeman 2005). The most common reasons for stress are poor working conditions such as excessive noise or heat and crowded or poorly designed workspaces, a lack of control over work, time pressures, long or inflexible working hours, too much or too little work or responsibility, confusion about duties and responsibilities, including role ambiguity, a lack of variety and interest in job, inadequate training and possibilities for learning new skills, poor work-life balance, difficult relationships with supervisors and coworkers, lack of support from colleagues, isolation from colleagues, organizational confusion, restructuring, and job change. All of these factors contribute to stress at the work place. It is important to note however that the effect or weight of each of these factors differs from person to person. Over the years, there has been more emphasis on job specialization and training. Aside from performing the regular work tasks, employees are also expected and pressured to meet higher expectations and maintain their competitive edge constantly. These factors were not as prevalent in the work place a few decades ago as they are now. There have been a number of studies on the relationship between stress and job performance that show that as the level of work related stress increases the job performance and satisfaction level also changes. Some of the consequences of stress include, job-related consequences such as low performance and absenteeism, emotion related consequences such as irritability and depression which affect work place relationships, and physiological consequences such as high blood pressure and other illnesses. All of these consequences affect the worker’s ability to perform his/her task at work and are also detrimental to the work atmosphere as more irritable people are less likely to contribute to team-related tasks and goals. Absenteeism is also a problem as it directly affects the work output of not only an individual worker but of the team or unit as well. Many techniques have been implemented to reduce worker stress. In a number of Japanese firms, certain activities such as worker exercise programs have been implemented in an effort to keep the employees in better shape. Other workplaces over the world have taken advantage of the technical advances in communications technology and used these to reduce worker stress levels. Some of these programs include the permitting of certain employees to telecommute at least once or twice a week in order to create a more relaxed yet productive working environment. Other programs included involving the families of the workers in group activities and corporate activities. While these have been shown to have mixed effects in relation to coping with stress, these activities have also shown that the most important way of dealing with work related stress lies in showing the employees that their employer cares about their welfare and is instituting programs to deal with such. In the long run, there is really no sure fire method of dealing with stress. There will always be different stress levels and methods of coping with them. The most important thing that remains, however, is that something is done. A proactive stance is still better than anything. References: Bower, J. E. Segerstrom, S. C. (2004). Stress management, finding benefit, and immune function: positive mechanisms for intervention effects on physiology. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 56(1): 9-11 Sedgeman, J. A. (2005). Health Realization/Innate Health: Can a quiet mind and a positive feeling state be accessible over the lifespan without stress-relief techniques? Med. Sci. Monitor 11(12) HY47-52.

Analysis of Langston Hughes Harlem (Dream Deferred) :: Hughes Harlem Dream Deferred Essays

Analysis of Harlem (Dream Deferred) Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Deferred" is basically about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. Hughes probably intended for the poem to focus on the dreams of African-Americans in particular because he originally entitled the poem "Harlem," which is the capital of African American life in the United States; however, it is just as easy to read the poem as being about dreams in general and what happens when people postpone making them come true. Ultimately, Hughes uses a carefully arranged series of images that also function as figures of speech to suggest that people should not delay their dreams because the more they postpone them, the more the dreams will change and the less likely they will come true. In the opening of the poem the speaker uses a visual image that is also a simile to compare a dream deferred to a raisin. The speaker asks the question, "Does it [the dream] dry up / Like a raisin in the sun?" (2-3). Here we can see the raisin, which used to be a moist, taut, healthy-looking grape, has shriveled up to become a raisin. The speaker does not emphasize the appearance of the raisin, so the description isn't as significant as an image as it is as a simile. Why compare a dream deferred to a raisin? Like a raisin, a dream deferred shrivels up and turns dark because the sun has baked it. The emphasis on the sun is important because it stresses time-we measure time by the sun's movement. Like the raisin, the dream has been on hold for a long time-consequently, it has transformed into something very different than it once was. Because they look so different, few people would believe that raisins were once grapes unless they had been told. Similarly, a dream that contin ues to be postponed will go through an evolution as well-it won't be the same as the original.

Zara Market Share

Three generations of Data Management in Decision Support 1. Early 1970s – required a repository of data : sourced from operational system + other data (e. g. external data) – Data was customized for the specific DSS – Application-centric approach : data support a single or a few related applications used to help make the business case for the warahouse – Sprague provided the Data-Dialog-Models (DDM) paradigm 2. Late 1980s Telecommunications, retailing and financial services industries built warehouses to store vast amounts of customer and sales-related data –These industries remain leaders in terms of the size of the warehouses and how the warehouses are used – Data-centric approach : support a variety of applications 3. In 2000 – the movement to real-time data warehousing – changes in the way that warehouse data is used – different : Previous : data aims to understand what had already happened and to predict what would h appen in the future * limit to influence real-time decisions and current operations * Now : real-time data (current decisions and critical business process) such as customer-facing and supply chain applications can be significantly enhanced Real or Right Time ? –Incorrect concept applied to warehousing : real-time = instantaneous – Reason : much of warehouse data cannot be captured and entered into the warehouse in seconds or minutes. * expensive difficult to make real-time * may not be a business need for real-time data – Example : Some source systems, e. g. a legacy COBOL program, is undated once a month Continental Airlines – a leader in real-time business intelligence – won The Data Warehousing Institute’s prestigious Best Practices and Leadership Awards – Real-time data warehouse : provide the data that is required to implement real-time BI – Firms can use BI to affect current decision making and business processes by usin e real-time – Importance : especially for customer-facing applications, e. g. hose found in call centers and check-in processes, help firms become more customer-centric –Terms describe firms use real-time BI : â€Å"real-time enterprise† , â€Å"zero latency organization† – Purpose of real-time BI : * increase revenues and decrease costs => improve profitability – e. g. Continental Airlines * taken a $30M investment in hardware, software and personnel to generate over $500M in revenue, resulting in a ROI of over 1,000% – Firms must overcome both organizational and technical challenges for real-time BI successful – Organizational must be executive : * sponsorship and support * initial and on-going financial support governance processes put in place * BI and data warehousing personnel with the requisite personnel – Technical : * acquire and implement new hardware and software * establish processes and procedures for sup porting and managing real-time data feeds from source systems * data must be quickly transformed and loaded into the warehouse * data must be analyzed and made available to operational systems and personnel – briefly discuss an application that illustrates Continental’s use of real-time BI – focus on the technical issues associated with Continental’s implementation of real-time BI

Methods of Research

Price Scientist conducts research on a daily basis. The purpose of this research is exploration, description, explanation, and application. In the area of criminal Justice things are getting researched all of the time. Take murder for example, the police have to explore to find out what actually happened. They have to describe the events leading up the the murder. They have to explain the facts to try and come up with a suspect. Finally, they have to use the process of application to put it all together so they can make an arrest.When using the different purposes of research it Is important to examine each purpose by Itself because each purpose has Its own different aspect when It comes to research design. The exploration stage Is the first stage that researchers begin with when using research methods. â€Å"This stage is typically done for three purposes: to satisfy the researcher does curiosity and desires for better understand, to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extens ive study, and to develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent studies. (Grossman, 2014) A researcher will use the exploration take of research when they want to find out about something that there is little known about. Take drugs for example; let's say a researcher wants to find out how bad the drug problem is in the United States. There are a couple categories that a researcher may want to explore. Such as; â€Å"how many were arrested for drug sales or possession each year and how many hours per day do drug dealers work and how much do they make? † (Misfield & Babble, 2009) The next purpose of research is description. The researcher explores and then describes what they explored.For example; the U. S. Census, â€Å"the goal of the census Is to describe accurately and precisely several characteristics of the U. S. Population, including race/ethnicity, age, sex, household size, and income. † (Grossman, 2014) The description stage is widely used in the crimina l Justice field. For example; it is used to describe a certain crime problem that a certain city or state may be having. It can be used to measure how much burglary is committed in the city of Joplin, Missouri. The descriptive stage is used to answer the questions what, when, where, and how something happened.The third stage of research is the explanation stage. The explanation stage attempts to describe why something happened. The description and the explanation stages work together. The descriptive stage explains what happened the explanation stage explains why It happened. Take the burglary rate In Joplin the descriptive stage tells you how much burglary Is committed and the explanation stage will tell you why burglary is committed in Joplin. Application research: evaluation and policy and problem analysis. An example would be â€Å"determining whether a program designed to reduce burglary actually had the intended effect. (Maxwell & Babble, 2009) Criminal Justice organizations gather all their research from exploration, description, and explanation in the application process to come up with a conclusion for all their research. There are four different stages of research that the criminal Justice organizations use to find answers to things that are unknown and also to find out the what, where, when how, and why things happen. Most researches that are done contain all four stages of research. For example take auto theft. A researcher would use the exploration stage to learn about the case.

His Story essays

His Story essays In exploring the notion of the individual versus the self, we should notice that in Achebes Things Fall Apart, a community is very important to the survival of the tribe and the people often work together for the betterment of the tribe. There are also individual aspects in the Ibo society. Each person has his own chi, or personal god. Present in Okonkwo's household were the expectations of masculinity that Okonkwo held for his son, Nwoye. In his mind, men and women are two different extremes; men being stronger, tougher and more controlling, while women are meek, thoughtless and easily dominated. In keeping with the Ibo view of female nature, the tribe allowed wife beating. The novel describes two instances when Okonkwo beats his second wife, once when she did not come home to make his meal. He beat her severely and was punished but only because he beat her during the Week of Peace. He beat her again when she referred to him as one of those guns that never shot. When a severe case of wife beating comes before the egwugwu, he found in favor of the wife, but at the end of the trial one of the elders wondered, I don't know why such a trifle should come before the egwugwu. The husband considers his wife as a property. His uncle, Uchendu, noticing Okonkwo's distress, explains how Okonkwo should view his exile: A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. A man has both joy and sorrow in his life and when the bad times come his mother is always there to comfort him. Thus comes the saying Mother is Supreme. Possibly, Umuofia's degrading treatment of women and wives comes from unconscious fear of, rather than reverence for, the unpredictable. The ending reveals that Okonko had not achieved his goals, but instead, by the end of his life, he had become a fail...

Antarctic Icefish Characteristics and Facts

Antarctic Icefish Characteristics and Facts True to their name, the Antarctic Icefish lives in the icy cold waters of the Arctic - and has icy-looking blood to match. Their cold habitat has given them some interesting features.   Most animals, like people, have red blood. The red of our blood is caused by hemoglobin, which carries oxygen throughout our body. Icefishes dont have hemoglobin, thus they have a whitish, nearly transparent blood. Their gills are also white. Despite this lack of hemoglobin, icefish can still get enough oxygen, although scientists arent sure quite how - it could be because they live in already oxygen-rich waters and might be able to absorb oxygen through their skin, or because they have large hearts and plasma which may help transport oxygen more easily. The first icefish was discovered in 1927 by zoologist Ditlef Rustad, who pulled up a strange, pale fish during an expedition to Antarctic waters. The fish he pulled up was eventually named the blackfin icefish (Chaenocephalus aceratus).   Description There are many species (33, according to WoRMS) of icefish in the Family Channichthyidae. These fish all have heads that look a little like a crocodile - so they are sometimes called crocodile icefishes. They have grayish, black or brown bodies, wide pectoral fins, and two dorsal fins that are supported by long, flexible spines. They can grow to a maximum length of about 30 inches.   Another fairly unique trait for icefish is that they dont have scales. This can aid in their ability to absorb oxygen through the ocean water.   Classification Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataSubphylum: VertebrataSuperclass: GnathostomataSuperclass: PiscesClass: ActinopterygiiOrder: PerciformesFamily: Channichthyidae Habitat, Distribution, and Feeding Icefish inhabit Antarctic and subantarctic waters in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica and southern South America. Even though they can live in waters that are only 28 degrees, these fish have antifreeze proteins that circulate through their bodies to keep them from freezing.   Icefish dont have swim bladders, so they spend much of their lives on the ocean bottom, although they also have a lighter skeleton than some other fish, which allows them to swim up into the water column at night to capture prey. They may be found in schools. Icefish eat plankton, small fish, and krill.   Conservation and Human Uses The lighter skeleton of icefish has a low mineral density. Humans with a low mineral density in their bone have a condition called osteopenia, which may be a precursor to osteoporosis. Scientists study icefish to learn more about osteoporosis in humans. Icefish blood also provides insights into other conditions, such as anemia, and how bones develop. The ability of icefish to live in freezing water without freezing can also help scientists learn about the formation of ice crystals and storage of frozen foods and even organs used for transplant.   Mackerel icefish are harvested, and the harvest is considered sustainable. A threat to icefish, however, is climate change - warming ocean temperatures could reduce the habitat that is suitable for this extreme cold water fish.

Final Evaluation about ART Appreciation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Final Evaluation about ART Appreciation - Essay Example Written thoughts differ from oral expressions by their clarity and organization. When people write about arts, they tend to be more accurate in their assessment and appreciation. I believe that I have significantly improved my writing skills during this semester. Considering the fact that all areas of research require writing, I will definitely use these skills further. 3. Were you able to develop your research skills in this course? What was the most helpful information this course gave you in terms of conducting high quality research? How do your skills compare now to how they were when you first started the course? This course gave me many chances to developed research skills and tried to use them all. A lot of assignment required additional research in journals and other academic publications to do assignment. I did my best to find relevant information and use it in my research assignment and I learned where I could find information I needed. Yes, I will continue studying arts because I really feel that I am interested to learn more. It is amazing when one able not only to see art but to understand it as well. This course gave me the opportunity to develop this art understanding. I liked the approach to art promoted by this course. It was relevant to pay attention to formal features and to historical background of each work we studied. This approach was great because it developed deep background knowledge and patience to