In Philbrick's Freak the Mighty, what is an example of bias?

When someone is biased, it means that they hold unreasonable, and possibly hostile, feelings towards others from a specific group of people. Since Kevin and Max are in middle school, Tony D., the one they call Blade because he carries a knife around with him, is biased against the two younger boys. Tony D. is biased mostly because he feels powerful when he can beat up or intimidate younger kids. He perceives that it is easier to pick on Max and Kevin because they look weak and scared. Therefore, Tony has unreasonable and hostile feelings towards these boys for no other reason than that they seem to be easy targets. In fact, Tony D. demonstrates his biased feelings when he gets the two boys' attention before running after them, as in the following passage:

"Hey you! Mutt and Jeff! Frankenstein and Igor! Don't look around, I'm talkin' to you, boneheads. What is this, a freak show?" (29).

Tony D. throws out stereotypical comments to criticize and provoke Max and Kevin, which also define the biases he is drawing from. For instance, Max is large and goofy for his age while Kevin is small and dwarf-like for his. Tony D. uses these differences to single the boys out from "normal" society, which is a very biased thing to do, just to gain power and control over someone else. 

A___ is a particle in the nucleus that is electrically neutral.

The nucleus of an atom consists of neutrons and protons. Among these two particles, protons are positively charged, while the neutrons do not have any charge. In other words, neutrons are neutrally charged. The nucleus is surrounded by the electrons, which are negatively charged particles. The mass of an atom is made up of neutrons and protons, while the electrons are considered mostly massless (their mass is about 3 orders of magnitude less than that of neutrons and protons). Thus, the mass number or atomic mass number of an element is the sum of neutrons and protons in its atoms. For example, the mass number of sodium, with 12 neutrons and 11 protons, is 23. Neutrons do not contribute to the atomic number of an atom, which is same as the number of protons in the atom.

Hope this helps. 

What are orthodontics?

Science and Profession

The term “orthodontics” comes from the Greek words meaning “straight teeth.” It is practiced by a dental specialist called an orthodontist. Orthodontists graduate from dental school and then specialize in orthodontics. To explore orthodontics as a field, one must first consider teeth and the mouth. Ideally, thirty-two human teeth are arranged in appropriate orientations in the dental arches of each jaw. Four incisors are located in the center of each arch; on either side of them are a cuspid or canine tooth, followed by two bicuspids (premolars) and three molars.

The first molar on the side of each jaw is viewed as particularly important to orthodontics. Appropriate tooth development within the jaw and correct tooth eruption enable proper dental health, which keeps teeth in the mouth for most of an individual’s life. They also ensure appropriate mastication of food and good digestive health, as well as self-confidence with an attractive smile.

Teeth are rarely optimally placed in the jaws. One important reason for this is heredity. This facet of orthodontics relates to the teeth and to jaws. The genes that control the size and shape of human teeth and jaws vary considerably. In addition, the genes for teeth and jaws are highly individualized and often poorly related to one another. Hence, it is likely that orthodontic problems caused by tooth-jaw mismatch will occur.

Other aspects of the development of irregular tooth positioning arise from living. In some cases, teeth are damaged by decay, oral diseases, or injury. In others, poor oral habits such as thumb sucking move them out of appropriate positions. In many cases, minor problems may be handled by restorative dentistry, such as filling dental caries (cavities) or placing crowns. Most treatment of poorly positioned teeth, however, is carried out by orthodontists on nearly 5 million Americans per year. The majority of these patients are children, but many adults are presently undergoing orthodontic treatment.

There are several main goals of orthodontic treatment involving the bones of the jaws and the teeth. First, occlusion is improved so that all teeth engage one another properly for chewing and swallowing. Speech patterns are also improved, because almost twenty letter sounds in the English language involve interactions between tooth, tongue, and jaw movements. Another goal is increased resistance to decay and periodontal disease, which cause havoc in mouths where teeth are too close together or misaligned in other ways. The final orthodontic goal is improved appearance, which is for many individuals the primary reason for undergoing treatment.

Most orthodontic problems are termed malocclusions and are caused by defects of teeth or the jaws. Malocclusions are often classified according to the system developed by Edward H. Angle, the originator of modern orthodontics. He developed three classes of occlusion, defined by relationships between the upper and lower first molars.

In normal occlusion (class I), the lower first molars are seen slightly farther forward than their upper counterparts when the mouth is closed. This relationship positions the rest of the teeth for optimum chewing. When the arch length of either jaw is too small for all the teeth to be in appropriate positions, they become crowded. Also, in some individuals bimaxillary protrusion occurs, in which the front teeth of the jaws flare outward. These occurrences are unattractive and lead both to tooth decay and to periodontal disease.

Classes II and III are malocclusions that can be considered together. They are caused by improper positioning in the closed mouth of the lower first molars, either very far back or very far forward. In the first case (class II), the position of the first molars produces buck teeth because of the protrusion of the upper jaw in the closed mouth. The resulting problems are uncosmetic appearance and the ease with which buck teeth can be knocked out. Class II malocclusion is most often attributable to a hereditary size mismatch of the jawbones. Class III malocclusion is often termed crossbite. It causes the lower jaw to be positioned so that the lower front incisors are in front of the upper ones. In some cases, this problem is treated by orthodontics; in others, surgery is required.

The Angle classification system does not include faulty vertical relationships of the jaws, which produce other problems. Examples are overbite, which hides the lower teeth entirely in the closed jaw, and open bite, which leaves a gap between the upper and lower front teeth in the closed mouth. These situations may be asymmetric and make closures lopsided.

Functional malocclusions are also caused by thumb sucking, chewing of the lower lip, or tongue thrusting. With thumb sucking, class II malocclusion may result or be enhanced, or open bite may occur. Chewing the lower lip will cause the upper front teeth to flare outward, and tongue thrusting (often a consequence of mouth breathing because of asthma) may cause open bite, crossbite, or class II malocclusion.

Defects of the teeth themselves occur as well. They are caused by overretention or underretention of the baby teeth and missing or lost permanent teeth. These conditions cause the remaining teeth to drift in the mouth and should be corrected as soon as possible in order to preclude occlusion problems.

Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques

The first stage of orthodontic treatment is an extensive diagnostic procedure that requires several office visits. First, the orthodontist compiles a complete dental and medical history. Then, the patient’s mouth and teeth are examined thoroughly. This effort, accomplished in one visit, leads to a preliminary treatment plan. During the next visit, complete x-rays of the jaws are taken to show their relationship to each other, dental impressions of the teeth and jaws are made, and color photographs of the face and mouth are taken.

On the third visit, the patient is given a comprehensive diagnosis, and a treatment plan is described. At this point, the patient is informed about the problems to be treated, the probable consequences if they are left untreated, the steps to be used and their duration, the results that are expected, and any possible treatment complications. The overall cost of the treatment is also discussed. After agreement is reached, treatment begins and may require up to several years of visits at varied intervals. The process begins with the use of orthodontic appliances worn to move the teeth to new positions. After this, a simpler appliance called a retainer is worn until the bone of the tooth sockets, remodeled by the earlier treatment, is able to maintain the new dental arrangement.

Patient compliance with treatment instructions is crucial. Short-term noncompliance can lengthen the treatment period greatly; extreme noncompliance may completely destroy the endeavor. Most aspects of modern orthodontic treatment are relatively painless. If soreness occurs, it may usually be relieved quickly by combining saltwater gargles, temporary soft diets, and mild analgesics. Soreness caused by the rubbing of metal appliance parts against the inside of the cheeks or lips may be prevented by application of a wax supplied by the orthodontist. Pain that lasts for more than several days should be reported; it can usually be alleviated by an office visit where the orthodontist adjusts the offending portion of the appliance.

Throughout the course of orthodontic treatment, it is recommended that patients keep careful written records of orthodontic instructions and a complete daily record of use of the orthodontic appliance prescribed. The orthodontic appliances also need to be kept clean, stored carefully if removable, and guarded carefully during sports or other physical activities. The teeth must also be kept clean to prevent tooth decay. In addition, hard or sticky foods must be avoided.

The mechanical devices used by orthodontists vary widely. Their purposes are to direct jaw growth, to move selected teeth, to alter the behavior of the jaw muscles, and to maintain the position of the teeth once they have been moved. These appliances operate on two main principles. First, bone growth slows when pressure is applied against it and accelerates when the bone is kept in traction. This is how desired facial bone growth is attained. Second, when pressure is applied to the bone in tooth sockets, bone growth slows on the side to which the pressure is applied. Conversely, the growth of bone is stimulated on the other side of the tooth. This is the principle that generates tooth movement in the mouth. Applied properly, the combination of jaw and tooth treatment achieves results that can be fine-tuned over the treatment period. A lengthy treatment period ensures the minimum amount of pain while this movement occurs.

There are two main categories among the many orthodontic appliances used: fixed and removable appliances. Each category has numerous subcategories, and there are variants within each subcategory. Fixed appliances are firmly affixed in the mouth for the duration of treatment. They are made of metal cylinders shaped to fit snugly around individual teeth and cemented in position. The main fixed appliance types are bracketed appliances, lingual arch wires, habit control appliances, and space retainers.

Bracketed appliances, usually called braces, move teeth and direct growth of bone in the dental arches. Although braces are often disliked by patients on aesthetic grounds, orthodontists view them as an unrivaled means to cause precise tooth movement and directed bone growth. They are made up of several components. First, bands (metal cylinders) are applied around chosen anchor teeth. Then, metal or sturdy synthetic polymer brackets are cemented to each tooth in positions that determine the direction of the force to be applied to it. Next, arch wires are passed across each bracket to the anchor teeth, where they are attached to the bands. Elastic or wire ligatures keep the arch wires in the brackets at all times.

Much of the pressure that engenders tooth movement comes from the shape of the arch wires and their composition. Elastic bands are also used to provide special treatment to a given tooth or tooth group. These bands must be removed before eating and replaced daily. When necessary, external headgear is used to apply pressure to teeth and/or jaws, either pulling them forward or pushing them backward.

Lingual bracketed appliances, a newer device often called “invisible braces,” are fixed appliances attached to the teeth on the inside of the dental arch. They are not externally visible except for the bands on the anchor teeth. Thus, they are advantageous aesthetically. They do not function as well as standard braces, however, and often interfere with normal speech. Other fixed appliances include lingual arch wires, habit control devices, and space retainers.

A wide variety of removable appliances may also be used. They are either entirely or partly removable by wearers. Removable appliances are most effective when worn constantly, but they can be removed at meals and on special occasions. Their use gives much less precise results than fixed appliances, however, and requires the continuous, unflagging cooperation of patients. Active, partly removable appliances put pressure on teeth and jaws. Functional appliances, which are completely removable, alter the pressure created by the muscles of the mouth and so act on the teeth and bones (for example, lip bumpers, which keep lips away from teeth).

Removable habit control appliances and space retainers are used, respectively, to prevent activities such as thumb sucking and to maintain desired spaces between teeth until the new dental arrangements have stabilized. They are specially designed bands, acrylic plates, or combinations thereof. Space retainers exert enough pressure on teeth to keep them in place but not to move them. Special headgear may also be used as an auxiliary to in-the-mouth appliances. In some cases, diseased or extra teeth must be extracted as part of the treatment regimen.

Perspective and Prospects

Orthodontics has changed markedly since its inception. The changes include efforts at making braces more appealing and a changing clientele, evolving from one in which most patients were children to a population having many adult customers. The new direction in producing more cosmetic bracketed appliances arises from several factors.

First is the development of stronger and better synthetic polymer and ceramic replacements for metals, allowing the creation of materials that are less visible and that still produce the unrivaled therapeutic capabilities of bracketed appliances. A second factor is the interest of adults in orthodontic treatment. This discriminating population wishes to appear as attractive as possible, even in braces, and has both the independence of judgment and the monetary power to drive trends toward the use of such materials.

The adult move toward orthodontics in the United States is founded partly on the funding of orthodontic work by entities as diverse as Medicaid for welfare recipients and third-party group dental insurance plans. In addition, the adult public is being made more aware that it is not necessary to live out life with an unattractive smile simply because orthodontic treatment was not attempted in childhood or adolescence.

Considerable research has been carried out in the treatment of problems associated with orthodontics, including the root tip resorption that often halts such treatment. It is hoped that a combination of these endeavors and factors will continue to improve orthodontics.

Bibliography

Doundoulakis, James, and Warren Strugatch. The Perfect Smile: The Complete Guide to Cosmetic Dentistry. Long Island: Hatherleigh, 2003. Print.

Gluck, George M., and Warren M. Morganstein, eds. Jong’s Community Dental Health. 5th ed. St. Louis: Mosby, 2003. Print.

Houston, W. J. B., C. D. Stephens, and W. J. Tulley. A Textbook of Orthodontics. 2nd ed. Boston: Wright, 1992. Print.

Klatell, Jack, Andrew Kaplan, and Gray Williams, Jr., eds. The Mount Sinai Medical Center Family Guide to Dental Health. New York: Macmillan, 1991. Print.

"Malocclusion of Teeth." MedlinePlus, 22 Feb. 2012. Web.

Mitchell, Laura. An Introduction to Orthodontics. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

"Orthodontics: Braces and More." Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, 5 May 2010. Web.

Smith, Rebecca W. The Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery’s Guide to Family Dental Care. New York: Norton, 1997. Print.

What is a quote from Romeo and Juliet describing Juliet's loyalty to Romeo?

There's ample evidence of Juliet's loyalty to Romeo, but the scene that strikes most at my own heart is the one in which Juliet discovers Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt, but she decides to continue to love Romeo anyway.

This part of the story occurs in Act Three, Scene Two, and I believe it to be one of the most dimensional and realistic aspects of the narrative. Here, Juliet is dealing with both the death of a family member (one committed at the hand of another loved one) and the banishing of her husband. She must weigh these two acts and their contradictory nature; she must decide how to properly grieve Tybalt's death AND Romeo's exile without diminishing one or the other while acknowledging these events are inseparably linked. 

Juliet's Nurse reacts to this news very judgmentally, crying out that, "There's no trust, / No faith, no honesty in men." She then wishes that "Shame come to Romeo!" Juliet reacts immediately to this curse, stating,

Blistered be thy tongue

For such a wish! He was not born to shame.

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,

For 'tis a throne where honor may be crowned.

Sole monarch of the universal earth.

Juliet is asserting her total loyalty here by scolding the Nurse for placing blame on Romeo. She reaffirms her belief that, despite what happened, Romeo is still a honorable husband. This quote makes it evident Juliet is prepared to stand by Romeo. 

Who were the main people involved during the Cold War?

The Cold War lasted for more than four decades, so there were multiple players, but any Cold War discussion would be incomplete if it didn't include at least the following individuals:

• Nikita Krushchev — Krushchev was the premier of the Soviet Union from 1958-1964. His major contribution to the escalation of the Cold War might be his role in the provocation of the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

• John F. Kennedy — U.S. President Kennedy was responsible for the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in 1961, which was not effective. However, his role in avoiding conflict during the Cuban Missile Crisis has helped overshadow the failure of the Bay of Pigs attack.

• Fidel Castro — As prime minister of Cuba, Castro was intimately involved in the happenings associated with both the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• Mikhail Gorbachev — As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika (economic and political reform) and glasnost (openness) helped bring a thaw to the Cold War. 

• Ronald Reagan — U.S. President Reagan's Cold War policies weakened the potential advancement of Soviet communism and promoted the spread of democracy and liberty.

What parts of our body need nutrients?

Our body is made up of trillions of cells, each with their own unique purposes and needs. All cells must create energy, make proteins, get rid of waste, and other functions. To accomplish feeding so many cells and removing their waste, our circulatory system (blood, veins, arteries) runs by most cells in the body. Nutrients are carried to (and waste from) all our cells constantly.

As for what cells need nutrients in our body, a good way to be able to tell is if blood runs to the site. This includes almost every part of your body and every single cell except for your outermost layer of skin (epidermis), your fingernails and toenails, and your hair. None of these things bleed when scratched or cut (not including underlying tissue) so we know no nutrients are being fed to those cells by blood. Every other part of the body however does require nutrients in order to survive and carry out daily functions. I hope that answers your question! 

How did Kit's mother and father die in The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

The reader learns about the fate of Kit's parents during a conversation she has with John Holbrook in the second chapter of The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  Holbrook asks Kit about her parents, and she tells him that they both died by drowning.  She explains that their drowning occurred while "on a pleasure trip to Antigua."  Antigua is an island not far from Barbados, where they lived at the time.  Her parents were only married for three years when they died, which indicates that Kit was very young at the time.

Though her parents died by drowning, Kit seems to have no fear of water.  Knowing how to swim was highly unusual for a young woman in Puritan society, yet Kit dives in the water to rescue Prudence's beloved doll in the first chapter of the book.  This shows Kit's independent spirit, but it also shows bravery.  She does not let the fate of her parents dictate her life.

What is a "Hooverville" in the novel Bud, Not Buddy?

In Chapter 8, Bud and Bugs travel to a "Hooverville" where they meet several compassionate individuals who give them food and a place to spend the night. Hoovervilles were shantytowns in the 1930s where poor folks who were unemployed and homeless lived together. The shantytowns were named after President Herbert Hoover, who was unfortunately in office during the Great Depression. Many people blamed Hoover for the dire economic situation, and his named was associated with the numerous slums throughout the nation. Bud mentions that the Hooverville was a massive settlement of raggedy little huts and cardboard houses. After speaking to a man playing the harmonica, Bud learns that there are many other Hoovervilles throughout the country that are home to people with little or no money. Bud meets a girl named Deza Malone, who gives him his first kiss, and he finds out that there is a train headed west in the morning. Overall, Bud and Bugs enjoy their short stay at the Hooverville located in Flint, Michigan. 

Is change inevitable in any business environment?

Change is inevitable for all businesses because of the dynamic nature of the market environment. There are a number of factors that necessitate these changes in the environment which are felt and replicated in all businesses.  For instance, the entry of strong competitors in the market would force existing businesses to review their practices in order to ensure that they remain profitable. The businesses may be required to improve their customer service or reduce prices among other measures to ensure that they remain competitive.

Government policies are also another factor that would lead to changes in business. For instance, the new emission standards in the automotive industry have forced car manufacturers to adopt new manufacturing practices in accordance with the regulations.

Businesses may also be forced to change due to developments in technology. A number of businesses have included E-commerce in their operations taking advantage of opportunities offered by the internet. Businesses gravitate towards new technology because they expect improvements in their operational efficiency and cost effectiveness. Adoption of such technologies may lead to streamlining of the business and changes in its internal and external structures which affect all stakeholders. 

In summary, changes in the micro and macroeconomic factors forces businesses to change in order to survive, adapt or thrive. Thus, businesses have no choice but to respond to changes in the market environment to meet their common objectives, which include profitability and increased shareholder value.

How do speed and velocity help to describe and measure motion?

Velocity describes motion by indicating how fast an object moves and in what direction. Speed is a magnitude of velocity, which indicates only how fast an object moves. Speed shows how much distance is traversed in a given interval of time:

`Speed = (distance)/(time)`

In a general case of motion, when velocity is not constant, an instantaneous velocity is used to describe how fast and where the object is going at a given moment in time. For example, the ball falling down will have a velocity with the magnitude given as a function of time as

`v(t) = 9.8t` (assuming that the gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2, and neglecting air resistance). The direction of the velocity of the ball is downward, which has to be indicated to complete the description of the motion.

If the instantaneous velocity is known, the acceleration of the object can be found as a derivative of the velocity:

`veca(t) = (dvecv(t))/(dt)` .

If the velocity is known, the displacement also can be calculated as the integral of velocity:

`vecs(t) = int _ (t_0) ^(t_f) vecv(t)dt` . Thus, velocity allows one to measure the displacement of the object during motion between the initial, `t_0` ,  and the final, `t_f` , moments of time.

Why did the South have a lot of success in the East?

During the Civil War, the South experienced the most military success in the East. There are some reasons for this. One factor had to deal with the overconfidence of people in the North. In the First Battle of Bull Run, citizens from the North went to watch the battle. They brought their picnic baskets with them, and they expected an easy Union victory. They had to run for their lives when the battle didn’t go as planned. This overconfidence was also seen in the Union troops. The Union troops believed the Union would win many battles easily.

The second reason for their success is that the South had the best general in the war, Robert E. Lee, on their side. General Lee commanded Confederate troops that were stationed in the eastern areas. While the South had General Lee in charge, the Union had a commander that was much less effective. General McClellan often moved his troops so slowly, President Lincoln became upset with him. After the Battle of Antietam, General McClellan failed to pursue General Lee. If he pursued General Lee, the North could have had a decisive victory. His unwillingness to pursue General Lee led to him being removed from commanding his troops.

These factors helped the South do quite well in the battles in the eastern region of the Civil War for several years.

What are the consequences Maycomb's children face in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

Though Scout, Jem, and Dill undertake many devious deeds in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the only consequences they face are lessons learned in life such as the need to respect others. The reason why they face no further consequences is because Atticus is a firm believer in allowing children to grow and learn at their own pace.

Scout, Jem, and Dill particularly behave deviously when they start trying to entice their reclusive neighbor Arthur Radley, whom they call Boo Radley, out of his house. Their devious deeds involve betting each other to touch the Radleys's house, using a fishing pole to try and leave a letter on a window sill of the Radley Place, inventing a game of mockery in which they enact all the rumors and myths they've heard surrounding Arthur's life, and even trespassing on the Radley property to try and get a look at Arthur through a window at night. Although on the night they trespass, they hear Arthur's brother, Nathan Radley, firing shots, they make it off the property unharmed. Hence, the true consequences of their actions don't come until, as they begin to understand Arthur more and more, they realize how disrespectful they have been through their actions and feel remorseful.

They begin to understand Arthur more and more when they begin to realize he is leaving them gifts in the knothole of an oak tree on the Radleys' property and performing acts of kindness such as mending Jem's torn trousers and wrapping Scout up in a blanket as she and Jem stand in front of the Radley gate in the freezing wee hours of the morning as Miss Maudie's house burns. Due to these acts of kindness, the children come to realize Arthur is not the monster they assume he is but rather a very caring and benevolent person.

Jem's sense of guilt for their actions is reflected when he cries once he realizes he has no way of thanking Arthur, of showing kindness in return, because Nathan had sealed up the knothole in the oak tree. Later, Scout reflects on her own sense of guilt as she walks past the Radley Place on her own once she starts the third grade:

I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley--what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering greetings on the end of a fishing-pole, wandering in his collards at night? (Ch. 26)

Scout's remorseful thoughts show us just how much the children feel guilty as a consequence of their actions because they have learned the necessity of being respectful towards others.

How was Aristotle using mathematics to contribute to ancient and modern society?

Many consider Aristotle the first physicist (or at least the first we know of), because he was the first person in recorded history to make significant use of quantitative mathematics in understanding physical phenomena.

His formalization of logic has largely been preserved in modern classical logic, though we now have some expansions such as bivalent logic and Bayesian fuzzy logic. His quantifiers "there exists" and "for every" are the foundation of modern predicate logic, though his other quantifiers involving "essence" and "intrinsic" properties have not fared as well.

His account of empiricism is basically correct as a sort of first stab at the scientific method; he didn't understand statistics or experimental rigor, but his basic idea that we formulate theories and test them with observation was exactly right. This was a radical approach for his time; many other philosophers thought that all truth could be understood simply by thinking about it, without any input from the real world. Where Plato would try to answer a question by thinking about how it should be, Aristotle would actually go out and look. This is probably Aristotle's greatest contribution, though sadly it went underappreciated and underutilized for centuries. (Ironically, much of what held back Medieval science was a perverse admiration for Aristotle's results instead of Aristotle's methods.)

He also had a theory of mathematical ontology that greatly contrasted with Plato's and more closely resembled modern concepts of mathematical ontology. Where Plato imagined some strange concept of "Forms" in some "other world", Aristotle correctly appreciated that mathematical concepts are logical abstractions and generalizations idealized from real phenomena. 

Aristotle also had a theory of physics, which was of course wrong, but not as wrong as a lot of people seem to think. His equations for motion and gravitation, for example, are reasonably accurate approximations under normal conditions of friction and air resistance. Heavy things do fall faster in the real world, as long as you're not in outer space; and most things do stop on their own when you stop pushing them, because they are subject to friction. Aristotle noticed that there were exceptions (such as something launched from a catapult), and tried to come up with ad hoc theories to explain that---and these ad hoc explanations actually worked fairly well.

Similarly, his theory of four (plus one) elements is often mocked today because we have over a hundred elements; but I don't think Aristotle's concept of an "element" was what we call "elements" today. (If he'd consulted even a single metallurgist, they would have told him that gold and bronze aren't made of the same stuff.) I think a better word for it would be phase of matter. With that in mind, "earth, water, air, fire" actually maps quite nicely onto "solid, liquid, gas, plasma"---and recognizing that plasma is a distinct state of matter is actually an achievement modern scientists wouldn't grasp until the 18th century. Aristotle also theorized a fifth celestial element called quintessence, which he thought made up the Sun, Moon, and stars; on that he was just flat wrong, as celestial objects are made of the same stuff as everything else. (Indeed, "celestial" is a relative term; for someone standing on Mars, we are the ones in the sky.)

But overall, Aristotle was one of the most important thinkers who ever lived. Had he not existed, it's hard to say how long it would have been before someone else came along to think of empiricism, logic, and physics. Had it taken long enough, the course of human history could have been radically different---science and technology might have been held back hundreds of years.

What is American about Ambrose Bierce's narrative "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" when it comes to language, characters, and setting? And has...

The setting, the characterization of Peyton Farquhar, and the language of the story convey the author's expectation that his audience has a certain familiarity with this time period in American history (as one might expect, especially since the story was published in 1890, just 25 years after the end of the war), as well as with the details associated with the Civil War and those involved.  He uses specific words, in fact, that anticipate our knowledge as Americans, language that we should be accustomed to hearing in any discussion of this era.

The story takes place in Alabama, one of the states that is considered to be in the deep South and thus much more isolated from northern ideals, especially during the Civil War era because they didn't have all the technology that can contribute to communication then.  Bierce expects his audience to already have some familiarity with what it means to be a plantation owner in a southern state during this period.  

The character of Peyton Farquhar seems to be a sort of quintessential representative of the way of life for which the South believed it was fighting: he owns a plantation, and therefore slaves, and he is a secessionist, meaning that he wants the South (the Confederacy) to leave the Union. Farquhar is "ardently devoted to the Southern cause," willing to do any service to aid it: another signal for readers to access their knowledge about everything having to do with this cause.

As the narrator describes Farquhar, his home, and the events leading up to the crime for which he's being hanged, he continues to paint a vivid picture in terms that Americans should understand: he relies on our knowledge of which color each side wore, the various terms by which the two sides are called, what the conflict between North and South entailed, and so forth.  There's a certain Americanness to the language used, as if Bierce expects his readers to understand without explanation.

The work itself has impacted American culture by presenting such a negative view of war -- often, wars are painted as somehow glorious or they are romanticized -- but also because of its ending and the somewhat sympathetic characterization of Farquhar.  Readers are lulled by Part III, aware and perhaps somewhat suspicious that something strange is going on in terms of Farquhar's perception of his surroundings, but likely not expecting the abrupt end, with his neck snapping in the noose.  Equally as unexpected as the ending is the sympathetic depiction of Farquhar, a Southerner who would have chosen to retain slavery and break up the country.  Usually, these types of characters are presented as villainous in some way, especially by non-Southern authors (and Bierce is from Ohio); however, the narration does encourage us to have some sympathy for the protagonist, especially in Part III.  He thinks, really, only of the safety and happiness of his wife and family, and his determination to return to them at all costs is admirable and understandable.  It is difficult, then, to think of Farquhar as a slave-owning monster when Bierce shows us the better qualities of his heart instead.  He shows us the qualities to which just about any reader can relate.  We begin to feel his desperation and confusion, which makes the abrupt ending feel that much more sudden and unexpected.  The way Bierce disrupts our expectations of both character and plot in these ways has contributed to American culture: we like our twisted endings (think of M. Night Shyamalan's films!) and we enjoy finding out that the bad guy was actually kind of a good guy in the end, or vice versa.  

What is the first major political issue that marks President Jackson’s presidency?

There are two possible answers to this.  One answer is the veto of the Maysville Road bill and the second is Indian Removal.  Indian Removal is definitely the bigger issue, at least as we things today, and it came at nearly the same as the Maysville veto.  However, Jackson did veto the Maysville bill a day before he signed the Indian Removal bill.

The Maysville Road bill would have had the federal government pay for building a road that was wholly within the state of Kentucky.  At this point in history, some people wanted the federal government to aggressively build up transportation infrastructure in the US in order to help the economy grow.  They felt that roads and canals were important to the whole country, even if they were only within one state.  For example, the Maysville Road would have helped goods get to the Ohio River, on which they could be moved between states.  Jackson, however, vetoed the bill because he said that it was wrong (and unconstitutional) for the federal government to fund projects that would only physically exist in one state.  This veto was politically controversial because it limited the power of the federal government and because some people saw it as an excessive use of presidential power.

Indian Removal was also controversial.  The issue at hand was whether the government should take Native Americans from the Southeast and move them out beyond the Mississippi River.  White settlers wanted the lands where the Indians lived in the Southeast.  Therefore, they put pressure on the government to remove the Indians.  Jackson was in favor of removing the Indians, but many people argued against him for various reasons.  Some people opposed Jackson for humanitarian reasons, but more people opposed him for political reasons.  They were generally less interested in acting justly towards Native Americans than with hurting Jackson politically.  Whatever the reasons, this bill was politically controversial as well.

One of these two controversies is likely to be the correct answer.  I would guess that you are expected to say that Indian Removal was the first major controversy in Jackson’s presidency, but you should check your textbook and/or class notes to be sure.

What are the four main personality theories?

The four main types of personality theories are the psychodynamic approach, the humanistic approach, the trait approach, and the social cognitive approach. Let’s take a brief look at each approach individually.

Sigmund Freud is regarded as the father of the psychodynamic approach. Other psychologists who followed a psychodynamic approach include Carol Jung, Alfred Adler, and Erik Erikson. The psychodynamic theory explains behavior in terms of conscious and unconscious forces. For example, Freud proposed that behavior was controlled by the id, ego, and superego. The id seeks pleasure, the superego adheres to rules, and the ego mediates between the two. Many psychologists who subscribe to this theory believe that childhood behavior influences adult behavior.  

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow felt that the psychodynamic approach did not adequately address psychological issues. Their work resulted in the creation of humanistic psychology. This field focuses on the full human and helps the individual have a healthier sense of self, which is called self-actualization.

Gordon Allport was a pioneer in the trait theory of personality. This theory identifies and measures certain personality traits. The degree to which various traits exist determines an individual’s personality. While this theory is easy to understand and is fairly objective, it doesn’t explain why or how traits develop, nor does it explain changes in personality.

Social cognitive theory suggests that individuals learn behavior through observation, modeling, and motivation. One form of this is positive reinforcement where an individual receives a reward for wanted behavior. Albert Bandura is a psychologist who subscribes to this theory.

While these are four of the models of personality theory, keep in mind that there are also other models, such as behavioral and evolutionary. No matter the model, there are also different ways that psychologists approach the overarching theory that is the foundation of that model.

Fiscal policy affects which two parts of aggregate demand directly?

Aggregate demand, as you can see in the link below, is made up of four components.  These components are consumer spending, government purchases, investment, and net exports.  Fiscal policy is made up of two components.  These are government spending and taxes.  I would argue that only one of the components of aggregate demand (government purchases) is directly affected by fiscal policy.  If, however, we have to identify one other component, I would say that it is consumer spending.

Clearly, fiscal policy will affect government purchases in a direct way.  When the government engages in fiscal policy, it increases or decreases its spending.  This means, in part, that it makes more purchases or fewer.  For example, the government might pay more companies to build or maintain roads as part of fiscal policy.  When this happens, the government-purchases component of aggregate demand rises as a direct result of the fiscal policy.

I would argue that this is the only component that is directly affected by fiscal policy.  However, you state that you need to identify two components that are affected.  I would argue that the second is consumer spending.  When the government decreases taxes and increases spending, for example, people have more money available to them.  Because of this, they are able to spend more money and consumer spending will rise.  I would argue that this is not really a direct effect because fiscal policy does not directly increase consumer spending.  However, fiscal policy does affect consumer spending fairly directly.  It does so much more directly than it affects business investment or net exports.  For this reason, I would say that government purchases and consumer spending are the two parts of aggregate demand that are directly affected by fiscal policy.

What does the line "mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" literally mean?

This line literally means that his mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. They are not made of the same material. They do not shine as bright; this can be taken metaphorically as well. But this is the point. Of course, her eyes are literally very different from the sun. Only a person with eyes that emanate heat and fire (literally) could be said to have eyes like the sun.

What does the line mean metaphorically? It was typical to compare a loved one's attributes with beautiful things in nature. But Shakespeare takes the opposite route here. He is respecting his beloved by being honest. Instead of making grandiose comparisons between the sun and her eyes, he is realistic. He ends the poem with the lines:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare. 

In other words, he thinks his love (his beloved) is as rare (strong, important, unique) as any other lover who's been compared with beautiful things in poetry. So, the line in question, literally and metaphorically, means the same thing. Her eyes are nothing like the sun. In the metaphorical negation, her eyes do not shine as brightly, they are not as radiant, and they are not as warm. The speaker wants to make the case that her eyes are warm and bright in their own unique way.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which other man besides Caesar is ambitious?

Apart from Caesar himself, several characters in Julius Caesar are ambitious. Cassius is one of them. He flatters Brutus and convinces him to get rid of Caesar. He is clearly jealous of him, saying to Brutus, “And this man [Caesar] / Is now become a god, and Cassius is / A wretched creature and must bend his body.” Unlike Brutus, Cassius is not driven purely by honor. He knows that a takeover must be brutal. When Cassius gains power, Brutus accuses him of corruption and of having “an itching palm.” Cassius denies this, but his motives seemed venal from the beginning.

Mark Antony is another ambitious fellow. Because Antony has a reputation for partying, Brutus underestimates his ability to focus and manipulate. Brutus also generally assumes that others are like he is, straightforward and noble. He gives Antony a chance to speak at Caesar’s funeral, and Antony uses the opportunity to turn the people against Brutus. He then joins with Octavius to war against the conspirators who survive the commoners’ wrath. Antony reveals great arrogance and disdain for others when he coldly agrees to mark his nephew for death and refers to Lepidus as nothing more than “a property.”

There are also signs of Octavius’s aspirations. In spite of his youth (and Antony’s assertion that he has “seen more days than” Octavius), Octavius still stands up to Antony on occasion. He defends Lepidus and disobeys Antony’s order to take “the left hand of the even field” in battle. He simply tells Antony that he will take the right side and that he  is not trying to cross him. Octavius goes his own way. The young man’s designs become more apparent in Antony and Cleopatra. It is fitting that, in a play about power, ambition drives numerous characters in Julius Caesar, including the titular Caesar.

What is a thyroidectomy?

Indications and Procedures

A thyroidectomy is performed in order to remove thyroid tumors, to treat thyrotoxicosis (whereby the thyroid gland excretes very large amounts of thyroid hormone), to evaluate a mass, or to excise an enlarged thyroid that is causing problems with breathing, swallowing, or speaking.

The thyroid gland
is located at the base of the neck. It is composed of two lobes that straddle the trachea (throat) and a third lobe that is in the middle of the neck. Surgery on the thyroid is usually performed under general anesthesia. The patient’s neck is extended, and an incision along a natural fold or crease is made through the skin, platysma muscle, and fascia that lie over the thyroid. The muscle is cut high up to minimize damage to the nerve that controls it.

The thyroid is then carefully freed from surrounding structures (blood vessels, nerves, and the trachea). One at a time, the upper portion of each lobe is freed to allow identification of the veins that take blood from the thyroid. The veins are ligated (tied) in two places and cut between the ties. The ligaments that suspend the thyroid are cut next. It is important for the surgeon to avoid damaging the superior laryngeal nerve. Once the nerve has been protected, other blood vessels are clamped, tied, and cut. A similar procedure is followed for the lower lobes: ligating and cutting veins, protecting the inferior and recurrent laryngeal nerves, and freeing the remainder of the thyroid lobes.

Four parathyroid glands
, each about the size of a pea, are embedded in the thyroid gland. At least one of these must be preserved since they play a vital role in regulating calcium. Once these glands are identified, the tissue of the thyroid is cut away, leaving the parathyroids intact.

The remnants of the thyroid gland are folded in and sutured to the trachea to control bleeding. A final inspection for bleeding is made. The fascia is sutured closed over the thyroid; any muscles that were cut are sewn back together. Finally, the edges of skin are carefully brought together and sutured with very fine material; occasionally, clips are used. The instruments needed for a tracheostomy are left nearby to cope with any emergency that might occur during the next twenty-four hours.

Uses and Complications

Approximately one week after a thyroidectomy, the patient returns for a postoperative checkup, and sutures or clips are removed. Many, but not all, individuals having this procedure must take a synthetic thyroid hormone to make up for the tissue removed during the thyroidectomy.

Thyroid surgery is not uncommon. In the past, radiation was used to shrink the thyroid, but this procedure led to many cancers and has been discontinued. Laser techniques may reduce the size of the incision, thus reducing the size of the resulting scar in the neck.

Complications that may occur as a result of a thyroidectomy include bleeding into the neck, causing difficulty breathing; a surge of thyroid hormones into the blood, called thyroid storm or thyrotoxic crisis; and injury to the vocal cords, which can result in changes in voice pitch.

Bibliography

Bayliss, R. I. S., and W. M. Tunbridge. Thyroid Disease: The Facts. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Bhimji, Shabir. "Thyroid Gland Removal." MedlinePlus, May 6, 2011.

Burman, Kenneth D., and Derek LeRoith, eds. Thyroid Function and Disease. Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier, 2007.

Doherty, Gerard M., and Lawrence W. Way, eds. Current Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment. 12th ed. New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Kronenberg, Henry M., et al., eds. Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 12th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier, 2011.

Miccoli, Paolo, et al., eds. Thyroid Surgery: Preventing and Managing Complications. Hoboken, N.J.: 2013.

Rosenthal, M. Sara. The Thyroid Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Ruggieri, Paul, and Scott Isaacs. A Simple Guide to Thyroid Disorders: From Diagnosis to Treatment. Omaha, Nebr.: Addicus Books, 2010.

Wood, Lawrence C., David S. Cooper, and E. Chester Ridgway. Your Thyroid: A Home Reference. 4th ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2006.

What is the role of revenge in Hamlet? How is revenge represented? What is its dramatic function in the play?

Revenge is represented as the ultimate destructive force in Hamlet. It draws out the worst traits in the characters seeking it, and has negative consequences on bystanders.

The first act of revenge occurred two months prior to the start of the play, when Claudius poisoned his older brother to be king of Denmark. We never hear the whole story from Claudius, just that he did it for "My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen" (III.3). Claudius was clearly jealous of all that his brother had and plotted revenge to take it all. This revenge act plays perhaps the most important dramatic function, since none of the other revenge plots, with all their resulting tragedy, would develop without this catalyst.

Next, Hamlet vows revenge on Claudius once the ghost reveals the murder plot. Hamlet is not vengeful by nature, and so never directly seeks opportunity to murder his uncle. Yet all the convoluted ways he approaches the task do have negative effects on those around him, thereby furthering the plot. His cover of insanity turns all eyes on him and deeply disturbs Ophelia, which prompts her insanity. Hamlet's odd behavior also causes Polonius to poke his nose where it doesn't belong, which places him behind the arras in his Gertrude's room, which leads to his death. This, in turn, sets Laertes to seek vengeance.

Laertes' revenge looks quite different than Hamlet's, even though it is for the same cause: a murdered father. Laertes is willing to do whatever it takes to gain his revenge on his father's murder, even "cut his throat i' th' church" (IV.7), meaning that unlike Hamlet, Laertes is more than willing to damn his own soul to accomplish his revenge. Ultimately, he gives up his soul and his life. By joining causes with Claudius and rashly rushing to revenge, Laertes ends up being responsible for Gertrude's death in addition to Hamlet's, as he supplies the poison that she inadvertently drinks. 

In the end, no matter the motive for revenge, Shakespeare shows us revenge is never sweet, and definitely never without consequences to the avengers and those around the person seeking revenge. To prove this point further, Horatio, the only main character not caught up in the vengeance, is the only one to survive the play.

In The Great Gatsby, what is the area where George and Myrtle Wilson live known as?

George and Myrtle Wilson live in an area referred to as the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is introduced and described in the opening of chapter two. If East Egg is old money and high class, and West Egg is new money, the Valley of Ashes is industrial and blue collar. 

This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. 

In the Valley of Ashes, everything is covered in a gray haze, including the people. The exception to this is a billboard for a now long-departed eye doctor, Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. 

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. 

The Valley of Ashes is significant because it provides a setting for various scenes in the novel without the distraction of the East Egg/West Egg class distinctions. The Great Gatsby is rife with symbolism, and the scenes that occur in the Valley of Ashes seem to defy class and wealth; an unhappy marriage, an affair, and a death all happen there. 

George and Myrtle must live in the Valley of Ashes, as opposed to East Egg or West Egg, because they, like Nick, don't fit the mold of the others. They are neither new money nor old, and they are neither fully corrupt nor fully moral. 

Can the seed coat protect the seed from diseases?

The seed coat is the hard outer covering of a seed. This outer casing ensures the protection of the seed from temperature and moisture variations and from pathogens. This casing ensures the survival of the seed in adverse conditions and also protects the inner structures of a seed (endosperm and the embryo) from scratching and abrasion. However, this protection against the pathogens is limited, since the pathogens can gain an access to the embryo through the pores in seed coat. 

To better protect the seed, chemical coating of the seed is also practiced. Seeds can be coated with pesticides or fungicides to ensure their protection against pathogens. The seeds can also be coated with fertilizers, nutrients, etc. to ensure higher productivity of the plant. Plant oil based coatings are also available.

Hope this helps. 

I have a specific chemistry question. I have been tasked with removing a coffee stain from denim. I used 100% cotton denim and Dunkin' Donuts...

Please understand that food and beverage products like coffee contain hundreds if not thousands of different individual chemicals in varying proportions so trying to develop a strategy based on a single chemical structure is really oversimplifying the situation.  Having said that, you've made some great observations with real logical thinking.  Cotton fibers and colored organic chemicals have a natural adhesion to each other, thus making stain removal difficult.  Oxidation is a good idea here since oxidizing different atoms in these coffee chemicals will disrupt their color properties and essentially make them become colorless.  This is why bleach is such a popular stain removing agent since it is a strong oxidizer.  But chlorine bleach will remove the denim color as well so an oxygen based bleach should be used here.  If we are talking about removing an acidic compound, then actually using a base would be best since it will neutralize the acid and possibly make the compound more water soluble.  As to your last point about polar groups, water is actually a highly polar solvent so if any of the components of the stain are naturally very soluble in polar solvent they will readily dissolve in the water.

In Tom's opening speech of The Glass Menagerie, what does he reveal about the nature of the play?

Tom immediately assumes the role of narrator, even though he will also be a main character in the play. "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion," he says, promising to be not so much a magician as a creator of meaning and truth via the story. So, we immediately understand that we should be looking for some kind of truth made by the fictional story that will soon play out.

He states the setting directly, taking us to the turbulent 1930's and asserts that this will be a "memory play," with everything being fuzzy, dim, emotional, imaginary, and set to gentle background music. The nature of the play, then, is established as more like the inside of a human mind than an actual theater.

Like the incredibly straightforward narrator that he is, Tom gives us the names of the other characters in the play. But then, like the vague and wistful dreamer that he also is, Tom declares that one character (whom we are told in advance about and can identify later as the "gentleman caller") is not so much a real person but a symbol of "the long delayed but always expected something that we live for." This hint prepares us to watch for this character and pay attention to his symbolic role in the story. We understand even more now that the play will be dreamlike and literary, and that it will make a statement about our long-held expectations.

In sum, Tom's opening speech reveals the symbolic, dreamlike, contemplative nature of this "memory play."

Did World War II set the stage for racial and gender change within American society?

In many ways, World War II set the stage for racial and gender change in American society.

Men who went off to serve the military left behind jobs that needed to be filled.  Women were being asked to fill these vacancies. The iconic image of "Rosie the Riveter" represented how women were an active part of the work force during the war.  Full page advertisements were directed at women asking them if they were doing all they could to help the war effort. The result was a transformation in how women saw themselves. During the war years, Women represented a significant portion of the American labor pool. In addition to this, thousands of women participated in the Armed Services. These positions helped to transform possibilities for women. When the war was over, men returned to the work force. However, women believed that they could be more and do more, reflecting how World War II changed gender roles.

The way that people of color saw themselves also changed as a result of World War II.  African- Americans volunteered for military service.  Many were active participants in the fight against fascism.  They fought for American democracy, even though they themselves were not able to experience its full promises and possibilities because of racial segregation. From a cultural standpoint, African- Americans began to ask the fundamental question of why, if they were good enough to sacrifice their lives for American freedom, should they be denied opportunity in America?  As a result, African- Americans began to start thinking about democracy "at home and abroad." When Truman desegregated the U.S. Armed forces after the war in 1948, it began a new thought process:  If the military could be racially integrated, why not other parts of American society?  In this way, significant racial change was envisioned as a result of World War II. 

Why does Gatsby fail to convince Daisy to leave Tom?

Gatsby fails to convince Daisy Buchanan to leave her husband, Tom, because Tom reveals how Gatsby made his fortune. Daisy tells Tom that she is going to leave him, but then Tom says he found out Gatsby and his crony, Meyer Wolfsheim, purchased a bunch of drug-stores so that they could sell grain alcohol over the counter. This is illegal because the novel takes place during the era known as Prohibition, so it is a criminal activity to distribute or sell alcohol. 

Tom also reveals that Gatsby and Wolfsheim let Tom's friend take the fall on something and go to prison for a month; this friend could, apparently, reveal more secrets about them if Wolfsheim hadn't scared him out of it. Finally, Tom says that "That drug-store business was just small change. . . but [Gatsby's] got something on now that [Tom's friend is] afraid to tell [Tom] about." At this point, Daisy loses her nerve. Nick narrates, "her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone." She must realize Gatsby can never give her the kind of life to which she is accustomed; she would be a criminal's wife, which is clearly unpalatable to her.

In chapter 8 of Animal Farm, when told that the Battle of the Windmill was a victory, explain what Boxer says and what it means.

Boxer does not agree at all with Squealer's contention that the battle had been a victory, for he asks him 'What victory?' Boxer is injured after the battle: his knees are bleeding, he has a split hoof and a dozen pellets are buried in his hind leg. Squealer, who is clearly irritated and surprised by Boxer's cynicism, tells him that their victory lies in the fact that they have successfully driven the enemy (Frederick and his men) off the farm, which he calls 'sacred soil.' 

Boxer, however, does not relent. He tells Squealer:

"But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!"

He is clearly upset and cannot fathom that the wanton destruction of their terribly hard work can possibly be equated with a victory. 

Squealer's response is quite emphatic and it is clear that he wants Boxer to not argue the point and wishes him to shut up and stop asking uncomfortable questions or saying something inappropriate, but Boxer insists on having the final say in the matter and says:

"Then we have won back what we had before." 

Squealer ends their verbal tit for tat by saying that what Boxer has just said is their victory. 

This is the second time that Boxer has actually opposed the pigs and their perception of events. The first was when he challenged their version of events about Snowball being a traitor from the outset.

"I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning," he said finally. "What he has done since is different. But I believe that at the Battle of the Cowshed he was a good comrade."

Snowball was quite upset about Boxer's reaction and told him that Napoleon stated categorically that Snowball had been Jones' agent from the very beginning, even before the Rebellion. Boxer then accepted what was said stating that "Napoleon is always right" and adopting this as another maxim.

Soon after, Boxer was attacked by three of Napoleon's dogs during his purge in which so many animals confessed and were slaughtered, but Boxer fought them off and almost killed one of them.

Boxer has always been accepting of the pigs' version of events up to these two incidents. His response in this second instance is as significant as the previous one in that it shows that he has the ability to stand up to the pigs and question their manipulation and propaganda. As such, he could become a very powerful leader and a force against the pigs.

It soon becomes clear that Boxer's confrontation with Squealer is deemed a threat. The pigs recognize the respect and admiration he receives from all the other animals and know that they would follow him in any action, including fighting Napoleon's dictatorship. It is for this reason that we later read of the contemptible and deceitful manner in which the pigs finally get rid of him.

When Boxer is seriously ill after a hard day's labor, the pigs supposedly call for the veterinarian to take him to the hospital. They, however, sell him to the knacker and have the temerity to buy themselves a case of whiskey with the proceeds.  

In "The Catbird Seat," why didn't Mr. Martin kill Mrs. Barrows in her apartment?

Mr. Martin fully intended to kill Mrs. Barrows in her apartment. While she is mixing drinks in the kitchen, he looks all over for a suitable weapon. He considers several objects but decides that "None of them would do." Mrs. Barrows returns with the drinks before he has had a chance to find a weapon. 

"He had counted on finding one there." Up to that point he had seriously intended to commit the murder in her apartment. Then he changes his mind.

Mr. Martin, standing there with his gloves on, became acutely conscious of the fantasy he had wrought. Cigarettes in his pocket, a drink prepared for him--it was all too grossly improbable. It was more than that; it was impossible. Somewhere in the back of his mind a vague idea stirred, sprouted.

This is when Mr. Martin gets the inspiration to put on an act that will make Mrs. Barrows believe he is a heroin addict and a potential homicidal maniac. She believes him when he tells her he is preparing a bomb to blow up their boss. She becomes highly indignant and insists that Mr. Martin leave her apartment at once.

What follows is more effective than Mr. Martin could have planned. He doesn't have to commit a murder, and he gets rid of the vulgar woman who has been threatening to destroy his precious filing department. Mr. Fitweiler cannot believe her accusations when she goes into his office the next morning. He has known Mr. Martin for over twenty years and knows he doesn't drink or smoke. He certainly wouldn't be shooting up heroin! It is Mr. Martin who is in the catbird seat when it comes to a showdown with Ulgine Barrows. She loses her cool completely and calls their employer an old fool. She has to be dragged out of the office by two strong men, and that is the end of her days at F & S. 

What are the 3 most important events of World War 1?

Different people can have different opinion on this subject.  My picks for the three most important events of WWI are:

Battle of the Marne.  This battle was fought very early in the war, in September of 1914. Up to this point in the war, the German offensive had been wildly successful.  The Germans, using a version of the Schlieffen Plan, had swept through France and looked like they might capture Paris. This would probably have ended the war. At the Battle of the Marne, the French (with some British assistance) counterattacked.  Their counterattack stopped the German advance. This prevented the Germans from winning the war very easily and caused the war to turn in to the famous stalemate of trench warfare.

Battles of Verdun and the Somme. These battles were fought in 1916 and 1917 over long period of time.  Unlike the Battle of the Marne, these battles did not turn the tide of the war. Instead, these battles killed hundreds of thousands of men without making any difference in the war. Both sides essentially stayed exactly where they were before the battles.  These battles are important events because they typify for us the carnage of the war, where so many died for so little purpose.

Entry of the United States into the war. After years of stalemate, the US entered the war in April of 1917.  The US did not really get enough troops to France to make a difference until 1918. By the spring of that year, there were around 1 million American soldiers in France who could be added to the Allied forces.   Their presence turned the war.  The war had been in a stalemate with neither side strong enough to defeat the other. Throwing a million men into the fight on one side tilted that balance strongly, making Allied victory much more likely. Thus, this was the event that led fairly directly to Allied victory.

Has John, the narrator of Cat's Cradle, been transformed by the end of the book? If so, how? How does John compare to Nick, the narrator of The...

I think John is transformed by the end of the novel, although his transformation is not exactly a moral one. In order to understand how John and Nick might compare, you have to understand their function as narrators, and how each relates to the story they are telling.

1. Both characters are telling the story, and are part of the story. Nick and John are alike in that they both function as observers of the action, but their observation also somehow causes the action. Nick, for example, allows his house to be used for the first "date" Gatsby has with Daisy, setting in motion the events that culminate in Gatsby's death; John, similarly, is engaged in writing a book, the research for which leads to the destruction of the earth.


2. Both narrators are essentially chronicling the lives of a group of people who are unknowingly working together towards a common end. In this sense, Tom, Jordan, Daisy, Gatsby, and Myrtle form a kind of Bokononist karrass.


3. Both narrators witness destruction, and live to tell the tale. John is implicitly linked to Melville's Ishmael (Moby Dick), another observer/narrator who lived to tell the story of a terrible tragedy (Vonnegut's first line of the novel, "Call me Jonah," evokes both Melville and the biblical story of Jonah and the whale).

John's transformation, from observer/researcher to active participant in the plot, can be understood in many ways. I like to think of Cat's Cradle as a book about the perils and responsibilities of creativity. The ruthless scientism of Hoenikker is counterbalanced in the novel by the no-less-ruthless anti-logic of Bokononism. The convoluted plot, culminating as it does with the accidental freezing of the earth, is less an environmental disaster than a narrative one. In his movement from observer to participant, John has unintentionally caused the destruction of his story even as he finally becomes a part of it. He stops researching a book about the end of the world, and makes it happen.

Nick also undergoes a similar transformation, and, I would argue, gains a similar perspective on the fiction of which he has been a part. His argument with Gatsby about reliving the past (Gatsby thinks you can) is as much about the uses of fiction as it is about life choices. The famous final line of Gatsby ("So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past") can be used to describe both books, and both characters, each of whom find themselves trapped in books that begin with hope and end with disaster.

What are cytokines?

Cancers treated:
Renal cell carcinoma, melanoma, lymphoma, Kaposi sarcoma, chronic myelogenous leukemia, hairy cell leukemia

Delivery route: Subcutaneous or intravenous (IV) injection

How these agents work: Cytokines are unique in that they bind to individual cell receptors. They can regulate several parts of the immune system by stimulating the production of cellular molecules that can attach themselves to the surface of tumor cells, where they have an antitumor effect. Other cytokines suppress the activity of cells and thus inhibit their action.

Cytokines have more than one mechanism of action, and many aspects of their cellular signaling are being actively researched. They are being investigated for their ability to kill tumor cells and for their potential to act as vaccines or adjuvant stimulants against the development of cancer cells by presensitizing the immune system to kill cancer cells if they develop.

Immunotherapy is still being aggressively studied for mechanisms of action, stimulation, and suppression, and it is believed that it will work in conjunction with other therapies rather than alone. The attractiveness of immunotherapy is the specificity of attacking only cancer cells and not harming normal cells, finding small numbers of cancer cells not identified though other treatment modalities, and using the existing immune system to treat cancer.

The main types of cytokines used to treat cancer are interferons and interleukins. Interferon alfa (IFN-alfa), which enhances immune response to cancerous cells and may also inhibit their growth or survival, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of melanoma, Kaposi sarcoma, hairy cell leukemia, and lymphoma. Interleukin 2 (IL-2), also known as T-cell growth factor, promotes the production of white blood cells and certain antibodies; the synthetic version, known as aldesleukin, has been approved to treat metastatic kidney cancer and metastatic melanoma. In addition, certain hematopoietic growth factors, including erythropoietin, interleukin 11, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, are sometimes used to alleviate side effects of some chemotherapies.

Side effects: Common side effects of cytokine treatment include nausea and vomiting, acute toxicity, capillary leak syndrome, low blood pressure, high cardiac output, liver toxicity, renal toxicity, pulmonary edema, fever, chills, gastric acidity, and infection. Most of the toxic side effects can be reversed. Fever and chills are treated with acetaminophen, and antibiotics are used for infection. Cytokine storm is a syndrome that can occur with the overstimulation of cytokines and can result in severe adverse effects, including death.

Braumüller, Heidi, et al. "T-Helper-1-Cell Cytokines Drive Cancer into Senescence." Nature 494.7437 (2013): 361–65. Print.

Britten, Cedrik Michael, et al., eds. Cancer Immunotherapy Meets Oncology: In Honor of Christoph Huber. Heidelberg: Springer, 2014. Print.

Caliguri, Michael A., and Michael T. Lotze, eds. Cytokines in the Genesis and Treatment of Cancer. Totowa: Humana, 2007. Print.

Dranoff, Glenn. "Cytokines in Cancer Pathogenesis and Cancer Therapy." Nature Reviews Cancer 4.1 (2004): 11–22. Print.

"Biological Therapies for Cancer." National Cancer Institute. Natl. Insts. of Health, 12 June 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

Lee, Sylvia, and Kim Margolin. "Cytokines in Cancer Immunotherapy." Cancers 3.4 (2011): 3856–93. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

What are pancreatic cancers?

Related conditions:
Acinar cell carcinoma, insulinoma, gastrinoma, glucoganoma

Definition:

Pancreatic cancers are malignant tumors occurring anywhere in the pancreas. The pancreas is an organ behind the stomach containing exocrine and endocrine glands. The exocrine glands, where most pancreatic cancer occurs, release digestive juices, which break down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, and neutralize stomach acids. The endocrine glands produce insulin and glycogen, hormones used by the body to metabolize, or break down, sugar to use as energy.

Risk factors: Factors implicated in the development of pancreatic cancer include advanced age, diabetes, cigarette smoking, chronic pancreatitis, and a family history of the disease. About two-thirds of patients who develop pancreatic cancer are older than age sixty-five, according to the National Cancer Society's 2014 statistics.

Diabetes and pancreatic cancer have been linked, but it is not clear whether diabetes is a cause or a symptom of pancreatic cancer. The American Cancer Society reported in 2014 that pancreatic cancer is more common in those who have diabetes, especially in those who have type II diabetes.

According to the American Cancer Society in 2014, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of exocrine pancreatic cancer cases can be attributed to cigarette smoking. The cancer-causing chemicals in cigarette smoke are thought to enter the bloodstream and damage the pancreas, creating a two to three times greater risk among smokers.

The role of diet in developing pancreatic cancer is inconclusive, although diets high in fat and processed meats appear to present some increased risk, and diets high in fruit, vegetables, and fiber appear to protect against cancer. Obesity and lack of physical activity are also risk factors, as is occupational exposure to chemicals and pesticides.

Long-term inflammation of the pancreas, or chronic pancreatitis, is a risk factor, but the majority of people with this condition do not develop cancer of the pancreas without the presence of other risk factors. However, having a family history of pancreatitis at a young age has been implicated in the development of pancreatic cancer years later. Individuals who have had peptic ulcer surgery with a partial gastrectomy (partial removal of the stomach) may be at increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
Helicobacter pylori
infection also has been linked to pancreatic cancer.

According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2013, the National Institutes of Health has estimated that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is increased four to five times for someone who has a first-degree relative with the cancer. Particularly among those with two or more relatives who have had pancreatic cancer, inherited deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mutations are believed to play a part. People of Ashkenazi Jewish descent may be at greater risk because of the presence of an inherited mutation in the breast cancer gene BRCA2 (each individual inherits two such genes, one from the mother and one from the father). However, the presence of one defective BRCA2 does not increase an individual’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer in the absence of other genetic and environmental factors.

Further, individuals with a rare hereditary disease, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, in which affected family members develop polyps from the surface of the intestine, may be at increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Individuals with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) also may be at increased risk of developing cancer of the pancreas.

Etiology and the disease process: Pancreatic cancer occurs when abnormal cells grow in pancreatic tissue. The vast majority of abnormal cells occur in the ducts carrying pancreatic juices from the exocrine glands. Although the exact cause of pancreatic cancer is not known, inherited or acquired changes in DNA are believed to be behind most cases. Many pancreatic cancers are not detected until they are locally advanced and have invaded the vascular system or have spread to lymph nodes. If the tumor blocks the common bile duct and bile cannot be released into the digestive system, the patient’s skin and whites of the eyes become jaundiced and the urine may become darker. The cancer may spread and cause pain in the upper abdomen and sometimes the back.

Incidence: As of 2014, according to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States because it grows aggressively and causes few symptoms in the initial stages. However, it is relatively rare compared with other forms of cancer. About 46,420 new cases were diagnosed in 2014, as compared with 232,670 new cases of breast cancer and 224,210 of lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, rates of pancreatic cancer increased slightly throughout the first decade of the 2000s. The National Cancer Institute reported that the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer was 12.3 per 100,000 men and women between the years of 2007 and 2011, although this type of cancer is more prevalent among men than women. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is higher in the African American population than in other racial or ethnic groups in the United States, probably because of the higher rates of obesity, poverty, cigarette smoking, and type II diabetes in this group.

Symptoms: Many people do not experience symptoms of pancreatic cancer until the tumor has spread to the lungs, liver, or lymph nodes. The majority of pancreatic cancers occur in the head of the organ, creating symptoms associated with blockage of this area closest to the bile duct. One common symptom is jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes resulting from an accumulation of bilirubin in the blood. At least half of those with pancreatic cancer will experience jaundice. Other symptoms include nausea and diarrhea, a swollen gallbladder or liver, pain in the midback, fatigue, a slow metabolism, light-colored stools, and itchy skin.

The smaller percent of pancreatic cancers occurring in the tail of the pancreas often obstruct the vein draining the spleen, resulting in an enlarged spleen and pressure in varicose veins around the stomach and esophagus. An individual may experience this as pain in the midback, pain in the stomach several hours after a meal, blood clots in the legs, and loss of appetite. Tumors or cystadenocarcinoma affecting the hormone-secreting functions of the pancreas, though rare, can produce symptoms of fatigue, dizziness, chills, diarrhea, or muscle spasms.

If the pancreatic cancer occurs in the islet cells, which produce insulin and other hormones, the cells may produce too much insulin, causing the affected individual to feel dizzy and weak and to experience chills, muscle spasms, and diarrhea. This type of endocrine pancreatic cancer is considered highly treatable.

Screening and diagnosis: A high blood level of cancer antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), a product released into the blood by pancreatic cancer cells, serves as a marker indicating the presence of a pancreatic tumor. However, this marker is used only to assess response to therapy and not as a screening test.

Because there is no screening test for pancreatic cancer, people should report any sudden onset of abdominal pain, loss of appetite, or unexplained weight change to their physician. If pancreatic cancer is suspected, the physician will palpate for presence of an abdominal tumor and order blood tests that will indicate changes in blood sugar or the presence of anemia. However, the pancreas is hidden behind other organs and cannot be felt during a routine physical exam. A differential diagnosis should rule out any liver-related causes of jaundice.

If a pancreatic tumor is present, diagnostic tests such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scans, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), a type of X ray, will be ordered to stage the progression of the disease. An ultrasound has been shown to be more useful than a CT scan in detecting the presence of small tumors. A CT scan can be used to guide a needle in obtaining a biopsy. During a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, a form of sugar that is readily absorbed by cancer cells is injected into the patient’s blood to assess the location and spread of cancer cells. A combination PET/CT scan has been found useful in detecting the spread of cancer that surgery cannot remove, for staging, and even for detecting early-stage cancer. ERCP can be used to examine the pancreatic duct while a tissue biopsy is taken to study the cancer cells. An angiogram can be used to show any blockage or impediment of blood flow in vessels caused by the tumor or abnormality of blood vessels to assess the likelihood of removing the cancer surgically.

If surgery such as a laparoscopy is performed, a biopsy may be taken to determine the location and spread of the disease. Laparoscopy is a diagnostic procedure in which an incision is made in the abdomen and a laparoscope, or lighted tube, is inserted to view the pancreas. Alternatively, the physician may choose to perform a laparotomy, a diagnostic surgical procedure in which a large incision is made to examine organs in the abdomen for extent of disease.

Staging for pancreatic cancer is as follows:

• Stage IA: Tumor is confined to pancreas and is no larger than 2 centimeters (cm).





• Stage IB: Tumor is confined to pancreas and is larger than 2 cm.





• Stage IIA: Cancer has metastasized to nearby organs and tissues but not into large blood vessels or to lymph nodes.





• Stage IIB: Cancer has metastasized to nearby lymph nodes and may have spread to nearby tissues and organs but not distant sites.





• Stage III: Cancer has reached blood vessels near the pancreas and may have spread to lymph nodes but not distant sites.





• Stage IV: Cancer, regardless of tumor size, has metastasized to distant organs, and may also be in tissues near the pancreas or in lymph nodes.

Alternatively, some physicians stage the pancreatic cancer on the basis of the likelihood that the tumor can be removed surgically according to the following stages: resectable (can remove entire tumor); locally advanced, unresectable (wherein complete removal of the tumor is not possible); and metastatic (where the cancer has spread and surgery would be undertaken only to relieve symptoms or complications).

Treatment and therapy: The Whipple procedure, or pancreatectomy, a major surgery with a high risk of complications, is used when it is likely that surgery will cure the individual of the entire pancreatic tumor. The head of the pancreas and parts of the stomach and small intestine, bile duct, and gallbladder are removed. After this surgery, the pancreas is still able to produce insulin and digestive juices. A total pancreatectomy involves removal of the entire pancreas, part of the stomach and small intestine, the common bile duct, and the gallbladder, spleen, and nearby lymph nodes.

Palliative surgery may relieve pain and complications associated with the impact of the cancer on digestion, particularly blockage of the bile duct. When surgery cannot remove the entire tumor, during the course of an ERCP, a biliary stent is placed to relieve biliary obstruction and allow vessels to move bile. Inserting an endoscopic or percutaneous biliary stent can relieve jaundice, particularly for those with cancer in the head of the pancreas.

Radiation therapy may be administered five times a week for several weeks or months before surgery, after surgery, or as a primary treatment in conjunction with chemotherapy when the cancer is isolated in the pancreas but cannot be removed surgically.

Chemotherapy alone, particularly gemcitabine, is often used for palliative care of metastatic pancreatic cancer that has spread distally to other organs or body parts. Gemcitabine (Gemzar) has resulted in clinical improvement in some of these patients. The use of erlotinib (Tarceva), which stops signals that instruct cancer cells to multiply, in combination with gemcitabine has proved to be more effective than using gemcitabine alone. However, patients must be healthy and functioning well enough to be able to tolerate the side effects of chemotherapy. Common side effects of chemotherapy treatment with gemcitabine include fatigue, lowered production of blood cells, increased incidence of infection, tiredness, breathlessness, and bruising.

Ongoing clinical trials involve a vaccine for pancreatic cancer that is used to treat existing disease by causing an immune response to the pancreatic cancer.

Prognosis, prevention, and outcomes: The mortality rate for pancreatic cancer based on National Cancer Institute data collected between 2007 and 2011 is 10.9 deaths per 100,000 men and women per year. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology's data for 2013, the overall five-year survival rates for this cancer are 6 percent. The majority of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed when they have already metastasized.

According to the American Cancer Society in 2014, the five-year survival rate following diagnosis for those with cancers of the exocrine pancreas, the most common type, is 12 to 14 percent when the cancer is localized. However, when it has spread to nearby organs and tissues, the survival rate falls to between 3 and 7 percent, and 1 percent when the cancer has spread to distant organs.

Recommendations for preventing pancreatic cancer include health education to reduce tobacco consumption and referring those at increased risk for familial reasons to genetic counseling and possibly genetic testing.

Azmi, Asfar S, ed. Molecular Diagnostics and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer: Systems and Network Biology Approaches. London: Academic, 2014. Print.

Hassan, M. N., et al. “Risk Factors for Pancreatic Cancer: Case-Control Study.” American Journal of Gastroenterology 102.12 (2007): 2696–2707. Print.

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Wiederpass, E., et al. “Occurrence, Trends and Environment Etiology of Pancreatic Cancer.” Scandinavian Journal of Environmental Health 243 (1998): 165–174. Print.

Wolfgang, Christopher L., et al. "Recent Progress in Pancreatic Cancer." CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 63.5 (2013): 318–48. Print.

Yadav, Dhiraj, and Albert B. Lowenfels. "The Epidemology of Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer." Gastroenterology 144.6 (2013): 1252–61. Print.

What is the summary of the book We Fought Back?

Allan Zullo's book "We Fought Back: Teen Resisters of the Holocaust" consists of stories depicting acts of resistance against the Nazis by seven young Jewish people during the Holocaust. Many Jewish people were unable to take up arms and resist the Nazis because they were so suddenly rounded up and sent to concentration camps. However, some Jewish people, especially younger people, were able to escape from their hiding places or ghettos or concentration camps to participate in acts of resistance. These teenagers joined groups of Nazi resisters called partisans, whose methods included guerilla warfare and acts of sabotage against the Nazis. The stories in the book are all based on real personal interviews with seven people who joined the partisans and resisted the Nazis as teenagers.

What are personality rating scales?

Introduction

Personality rating scales represent one approach that is used by psychologists and others to measure scientifically dimensions of personality for purposes of summarizing, predicting, and explaining human behavior. In recent history, there has been considerable research on and application of the use of personality rating scales, typically to measure psychological individual difference dimensions or traits along which people can be ordered, such as extroversion or neuroticism. Traits are consistent patterns in the way individuals behave, feel, and think.

Trait psychology can be considered the theoretical underpinnings for measurements of personality, including personality rating scales. However, the use of rating scales does not provide a sufficient explanation of personality, and there is more to personality than traits. Personality traits must be inferred through measurement, since they are hypothetical constructs that cannot be observed directly, although some trait psychologists, such as Hans Eysenck and Gordon Allport, view traits as “neuropsychic entities.” Support for this view has been provided by neuroscience findings that have suggested a genetic link to the major dimensions of personality traits; however, those findings are still preliminary, with half of the variance, at the most, being attributed to genes, and the environment or the interaction of traits with the environment accounting for the rest. Research into polygenetic influence on personality traits is emerging in light of several null replications of earlier single-gene studies.

Strictly speaking, a personality rating scale is a subset of items that all describe the same personality characteristic, variable, or trait along a continuum, with multiple categories that are assigned a number and can therefore yield a score. For example, in assessing the extent to which the item “cautiousness” describes a person, Likert scales may be used, such as “very much like the person”; “somewhat like the person”; “uncertain”; “somewhat unlike the person”; “not at all like the person.” The rater makes an evaluative judgment by choosing which category along the continuum most accurately depicts the person who is being rated (the ratee). Like physical and mental attributes, traits vary in the population in a continuous and normal distribution (bell-shaped), with most falling within the middle range and fewer lying within the extremes.

Because traits are pervasive across situations, scores on trait measures should be relatively consistent across time, and ratings on scale items measuring the same underlying trait should be in agreement, as should ratings on items assessing different aspects of the same trait, such as test retest and internal consistency reliability, respectively; both represent criteria for scientific soundness of scales set forth by psychometricians.

Personality can be described by rating oneself (self-ratings). Also, persons can be described based on the impressions that they make on others who observe them. Thus, informants rate another person based on their observations and perceptions of the individual that they are assessing. These are referred to as "observer ratings" and can be made by a peer, supervisor, teacher, or counselor. Research has also shown consistency between the different methods of assessing personality, providing support for the scale’s reliability validity (that is, that the scale is measuring the construct that it is intended to measure, an additional criterion set forth by psychometricians to evaluate the scientific soundness of personality assessment measures).

Lewis Aiken noted in 1997 that personality rating scales are included in inventories and may be a part of questionnaires. Both inventories and questionnaires are sometimes commercially labeled as “scales.” Regardless of what form they take and how they are labeled, personality rating scales are widely used in both research and applied settings. Various subdisciplines of psychology—such as personality, social, developmental, educational, school, industrial, clinical, and forensic psychology—rely extensively on rating scales for the scientific assessment of personality for research purposes. They may be used in applied settings, such as medical and health care, to assess behavioral risk factors; mental health treatment, to measure psychopathology; colleges, to assist with vocational guidance; business and industry, to aid in personnel selection; the armed services, to aid in selection of those who are the most fit; and criminal justice, in the area of profiling.

Origin, Development, and History

The foundation for the family of paper-and-pencil methods (of which personality rating scales are members) to obtain scientific information about people, products, or events evolved out of work in a variety of disciplines. Pierre-Simon Laplace and Carl Friedrich Gauss conducted seminal research on probability theory—the bell-shaped, normal distribution now termed "Gaussian distribution"—in the early eighteenth century, which made it possible to infer logically the characteristics of populations (whether physical, mental, or personality traits) from the analysis of sample data. Adolphe Quetelet extended Laplace’s and Gauss’s work to biological and social data, which marked the beginnings of vital statistics, that is, data pertaining to human life. Gustav Fechner’s work in the nineteenth century in the area of psychophysics (subjective mental events) and the mathematical measurement of physical stimuli that gave rise to them produced Fechner’s law, that sensation increases with the logarithmic value of the stimulus. Sir Francis Galton worked in the 1880s with Karl Pearson in the area of statistical methods and also contributed pioneering methodologies in the area of individual differences. The Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, the first formal, self-report, multi-item scale personality inventory that assessed psychoneurotic tendencies, was constructed by R. S. Woodworth in 1918 for purposes of weeding out unfit military personnel in World War I. Other early personality measures constructed in the first half of the twentieth century include the attitude inventories of L. L. Thurstone and his colleagues, the Strong’s Vocational Interest Blank for Men, the Vernon and Allport Study of Values, the Bernreuter Personality Inventory, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

Current Status and Applications

Since 1960, a number of scales have been created to measure traits and to organize them into a coherent structure or taxonomy. This effort was significantly advanced by the successful use of factor analysis in the development of a taxonomy of mental abilities and the use of high-speed computers in psychological research. This increased the efficiency and precision of factor analysis in grouping correlated items into factored scales that purportedly map the personality sphere.

Some have regarded trait systems as the theoretical model and scales and inventories as their application, although not all scales and inventories represent explicit theories. Raymond B. Cattell used an empirical approach in which he defined the “personality sphere” with words in the language that are used by observers to describe behavior. Others, such as J. Paul Guilford and Hans Eysenck, have been influenced by existing theory (Carl Jung’s psychological types) and their own factoring of existing items and scales in addition to the research of others. On the other hand, Andrew Comrey and Douglas Jackson have been less concerned with covering the total domain of personality. Instead, psychometric soundness has been the priority in their development of explicit procedures for item selection, scale construction, and validation in defining sets of primary trait scales that best define those areas of the domain that had been well researched.

These approaches have all yielded different numbers of factored scales: Cattell's has sixteen; Eysenck's, three; Guilford's, thirteen; and Comrey's, eight. A review and critical analysis by Saul Sells and Debra Murphy of the dimensions of personality represented by these factored scales pointed out considerable difference across systems, yet extensive overlap and common content. The differences are partially due to whether lower-order (narrower) or higher-order (more general) factors have been the focus, with Eysenck emphasizing the higher-order ones (that is, the superfactors of psychoticism, extroversion, and neuroticism) and Cattell, Guilford, and Comrey focusing on lower-order or primary factors. Some psychologists hold that separate scales based on the lower-order primary factors have greater richness and predict better than those with two scores that compress all of the information. Further, the utility of the levels may depend on the situation; for instance, for Eysenck’s psychophysiological experiments, the higher-order factors may be better and the primaries may be more suitable in the fields of clinical and personnel.

In attempts to resolve the discrepancies, there have been several investigations of congruences among the personality factor-trait systems, including one by Sells, Robert G. Demaree, and D. P. Will (the most ambitious project ever attempted in personality questionnaire research at that time) in which they administered Cattell’s and Guilford’s items to a sample of 2,500 individuals and factored them in the same analysis. The findings yielded eighteen factors, with five being common to both the Cattell and Guilford systems (emotional stability, social extroversion, conscientiousness, relaxed composure versus suspicious excitability, and general activity). With the inclusion of agreeableness, all but one (openness to experience) of the five broad bipolar dimensions that P. T. Costa Jr. and R. R. McCrae have deemed the Big Five were reflected in their results.

The Big Five are posited as accounting for most of the personality-attributable variation in human behavior, although at least thirteen other non-Big Five factors (six attributable to Guilford, five attributable to Cattell, and two attributable to neither) were extracted in the Sells, Demaree, and Will analysis. The two factors attributable to neither contained items that were similar in content but were dissimilar in terms of the source factors from which they were drawn. Expansion of the Big Five to include traits that are represented by combinations of pairs of factors has been suggested by some.

The research of Jackson and colleagues has yielded results that suggest that there are many dimensions of behavior beyond the Big Five and, further, that the narrower facets, thought to be subsumed under the broader Big Five factors, may provide more accurate behavioral prediction than the Big Five alone.

Further, the review by Sells and Murphy found that “two factors with labels similar to those emphasized by Eysenck, neuroticism and extroversion-introversion, were addressed across all five of the systems (Cattell, Eysenck, Jackson, Comrey, and Sells, Demaree, and Wills), although not exactly in the same manner or in the same terms.” They additionally point out that factor level can be “an artifact of the composition of the variables in the matrix” and that bandwidth of the various factors produced may be more important—that is, the extent to which the factors are very broad (made up of dissimilar items) or very narrow (made up of tautological items) may be more important than factor level in understanding the relationships among these factors.

In the light of the fact that personality factors and their measures are human constructs, research to determine the predictive validity of scales that already exist and those that are developed continues to be critical in assessing their theoretical and practical utility. Furthermore, debates on whether broad bandwidth factors or narrower band components have more predictive and explanatory power can best be served by examining each one’s specific situational utility within a hierarchical framework of the domain that encourages choice of assessment level.

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