Did Shakespeare create a believable love in Romeo and Juliet?

I believe he did, yes, for a few reasons.  First, Romeo and Juliet are both so young; we know Juliet is thirteen, and though we do not know Romeo's exact age, most readers assume that he is also a teenager due to his behavior.  Teenagers have a tendency to feel things really, incredibly deeply, and so Shakespeare's representation of their love as intensely passionate and overwhelming feels very true to life.  Teenagers also have a tendency to lack perspective needed to see that the way they feel today isn't necessarily the way they will feel next week or next year, and everything often feels very immediate and urgent. 

Further, Romeo and Juliet believe that their parents would oppose their match; they talk a lot about the danger Romeo would be in, especially, if he were found in Juliet's garden or bedroom.  It is developmentally appropriate for teenagers to rebel against their parents and to do things to which they believe their parents would object.  Therefore, Romeo and Juliet's intense feelings and their drive to pursue those feelings at all costs, despite anticipating their parents' disapproval, seems very realistic and believable.

How does Romeo find out that Juliet shares his feelings and what does Juliet seem most concerned about during the balcony scene?

Romeo has an idea that Juliet is interested in him in Act I, Scene 5 when they meet at the party. After all, she allows him to kiss her twice within minutes of first meeting. If that were not enough evidence for Romeo he overhears her speak his name as he hides under her balcony in Act II, Scene 2, the balcony scene. She says,

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Here, she not only refers to him as her love, but also wishes that they were not from feuding families. She urges Romeo to give up his name so that they can love each other without problems. 

At first, Juliet is concerned that Romeo might be discovered in the orchard and she warns him that he would be killed if her family found out. She says,

The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.

Romeo assures her that he would rather die than not be loved by her. Juliet is also concerned whether Romeo is really in love with her or is just leading her on. She asks him to swear his love. When he swears on the moon she takes exception because the moon is always changing (an interesting point here is that the audience knows of Romeo's mercurial nature as earlier that day he had been totally infatuated with another girl). She says,

O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

She is afraid that his love may be fleeting and that he will eventually change his mind. She also believes that maybe she has been too forward and wishes she had been more shy, but since her secret is out she pledges her love is not "light", but very serious. She says,

I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard’st ere I was ware
My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discoverèd.

Finally, she thinks maybe they are rushing into things and that they should sleep on it and see how they feel the next day. She says,

I have no joy of this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say “It lightens.” Sweet, good night.
This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

They agree to be married the next day, setting the stage for the tragedy to follow.

What is acne?

Causes and Symptoms

Many skin disorders are grouped together as acne. The two most common are acne vulgaris and acne rosacea. Other acne diseases include neonatal acne and infantile acne, seen respectively in newborn babies and infants. Drug acne is a consequence of the administration of such medications as corticosteroids, iodides, bromides, anticonvulsants, lithium preparations, and oral contraceptives, to name some of the more common agents that are sometimes involved in acne outbreaks. Pomade acne and acne cosmetica are associated with the use of greasy or sensitizing substances on the skin, such as hair oil, suntan lotions, cosmetics, soap, and shampoo. They may be the sole cause of acne in some individuals or may aggravate existing outbreaks of acne vulgaris. Occupational acne, as the name implies, is associated with exposure to skin irritants in the workplace. Chemicals, waxes, greases, and other substances may be involved. Acné excoriée des jeunes filles, or acne in young girls, is thought to be associated with emotional distress. In spite of the name, it can occur in boys as well. Two forms of acne are seen in young women. One is pyoderma faciale, a skin eruption that always occurs
on the face. The other is perioral dermatitis (peri, around; ora, the mouth), characterized by redness, pimples, and pustules. Acne conglobata is a rare but severe skin disorder that is seen in men between the ages of eighteen and thirty.

In acne vulgaris, a disruption occurs in the normal activity of the pilosebaceous units of the dermis, the layer of the skin that contains the blood vessels, nerves and nerve endings, glands, and hair follicles. Ordinarily, the sebaceous glands secrete sebum into the hair follicles, where it travels up hair shafts and onto the outer surface of the skin, to maintain proper hydration of the hair and skin and prevent loss of moisture. In acne vulgaris, the amount of sebum increases greatly, and the hair shaft that allows it to escape becomes plugged, holding in the sebum.

Acne vulgaris usually occurs during
puberty and is the result of some of the hormones released at that time to help the child become an adult. One of the major hormones is testosterone, an androgen (andros, man or manhood; gen, generating or causing), so called because it brings about bodily changes that convert a boy into a man. In boys, testosterone and other male hormones cause sexual organs to mature. Hair begins to grow on the chest and face and in pubic areas and armpits. Musculature is increased, and the larynx (voice box) is enlarged, so the voice deepens. In males, testosterone and other male hormones are produced primarily in the testicles. In girls, estrogens and other female hormones are released during puberty, directing the passage of the child from girlhood to womanhood. Testosterone is also produced, mostly in the ovaries and the adrenal glands.

In both sexes during puberty, testosterone is taken up by the pilosebaceous glands and converted to dihydrotestosterone, a substance that causes an increase in the size of the glands and increased secretion of the fatty substance sebum into hair follicles. At the same time, a process occurs that closes off the hair follicle, allowing sebum, keratin, and other matter to collect. This process is called intrafollicular hyperkeratosis (from intra, inside, follicular, referring to the follicle, hyper, excessive, and keratosis, production of keratin). Keratin buildup creates a plug that blocks the follicle opening and permits the accumulation of sebum, causing the formation of a closed comedo. As more and more material collects, the comedo becomes visible as a white-capped pimple, or whitehead. Closed comedones are the precursors of the papules, pustules, nodules, and cysts characteristic of acne vulgaris. Papula means “pimple,” a pustule is a pimple containing pus, nodus means a
small knot, and the word “cyst” comes from kystis, meaning “bladder,” or in this case a sac filled with semisolid material. Sometimes cysts are referred to generically as sebaceous cysts, but the material inside is usually keratin.

Another lesion in acne vulgaris, called an open comedo, occurs when a sac in the outer layer of the skin fills with keratin, sebum, and other matter. Unlike the closed comedo, it is open to the surface of the skin and the material inside appears black—hence the term “blackhead.” Blackheads are unsightly, make the skin look dirty, and suggest that they are caused by bad hygienic habits. This is not true, but exactly why the material in the sac turns black is not fully understood. Some believe that the natural skin pigment melanin is involved.

Blackheads are usually easily managed and rarely become inflamed. It is the closed comedo, or whitehead, that causes the disfiguring lesions of acne vulgaris. As the closed comedo fills with keratin and sebum, colonies of bacteria, usually Propionibacterium acnes, develop at the site. The bacteria secrete enzymes that break down the sebum, forming free fatty acids that inflame and irritate the follicle wall. With inflammation, white blood cells are drawn to the area to fight off the bacteria.

The comedo enlarges with further accumulation of white blood cells, keratin, and sebum until the follicle wall ruptures, spreading inflammation. If the inflammation is close to the surface of the skin, the lesion will usually be a pustule. If the inflammation is deeper, a larger papule, nodule, or cyst may form.

Clothing, cosmetics, and other factors may exacerbate acne vulgaris. Headbands, chin straps, and other items can cause trauma that ruptures closed comedones and spreads infection. Ingredients in cosmetics, soaps, and other preparations used on the skin can contribute to the formation of comedones in acne vulgaris. Lanolin, petrolatum, laurel alcohol, and oleic acid are among the chemicals commonly found in skin creams, cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, and other preparations applied to the skin. They have been shown to aggravate existing acne in some people and to bring on acne eruptions in others.

It was long thought that fatty foods—such as chocolate, ice cream, desserts, and peanut butter—contributed to acne, perhaps because teenagers eat so much of them. This theory has been largely discarded. Except for specific allergic sensitivities, foods do not appear to cause or in any other way affect the eruptions of acne vulgaris.

Cases of acne vulgaris are classified as mild, moderate, or severe. In mild and moderate acne vulgaris, the number of lesions ranges from a few to many, appearing regularly or sporadically and occurring mostly in the top layer of the skin. Consequently, these cases are sometimes called “superficial acne.” In severe cases, the acne lesions are deep, extending down into the skin, and characterized by inflamed papules and pustules.

Superficial acne, or mild-to-moderate acne vulgaris, is easily managed with the therapies available. The teenager goes through a year to two dealing with “zits.” The problem may be irritating and may cause inconvenience and discomfort, but it is common among teenagers, and little lasting harm is done. With time and treatment, the skin clears and the problem is over.

With deep or severe acne, however, the condition can be devastating, physically and psychologically. In these cases, the lesions may come in massive eruptions that cover the face and extend to the neck, chest, and back. The lesions can be large and deep, frequently causing disfiguring pits and craters that become lifelong scars. The victims of severe acne can suffer profound psychological damage. The disease strikes at a time when most teenagers are especially concerned with being gregarious, popular, and well liked. The chronic, constant disfigurement effectively isolates the individual, however, often making him or her unwilling to risk social contact.

The other common form of acne is acne rosacea, so called because of the “rosy” color that appears on the face. Unlike acne vulgaris, it rarely strikes people under thirty years of age and is not characterized by comedones, although papules and pustules are common. It is predominantly seen in women, although its most serious manifestations are seen in men. The cause of acne rosacea is unknown, but it is more likely to strike people with fair complexions. It is usually limited to the center of the face, but eruptions may occur on other parts of the body.

Acne rosacea is progressive; that is, it gets worse as the patient grows older. It seems to occur most often in people who have a tendency to redden or blush easily. The blushing, whether it is caused by emotional distress, such as shame or embarrassment, or by heat, food, or drink, may be the precursor of acne rosacea. The individual finds that episodes of blushing last longer and longer until, eventually, the redness becomes permanent. Papules and pustules break out, and surface blood vessels become dilated, causing further redness. As the disease progresses, tissue overgrowth may cause the nose to swell and become red and bulbous. Inflammation may develop in and around the eyes and threaten vision. These severe symptoms occur more often in men than in women.

Treatment and Therapy

The majority of acne patients are treated at home with over-the-counter preparations applied topically (that is, on the skin). For years, many of the agents recommended for acne contained sulfur, and some still do. Sulfur is useful for reducing comedones, but it has been suggested that sulfur by itself may also cause comedones; however, sulfur compounds, such as zinc sulfate, are not suspected of causing comedones. Resorcinol and salicylic acid are commonly included in topical over-the-counter preparations to promote scaling and reduce comedones. Sometimes sulfur, resorcinol, and salicylic acid are used singly, sometimes together, and sometimes combined with topical antiseptics or other agents.

While most patients will be helped by the available over-the-counter agents, many will not respond adequately to such home therapy. These patients must be seen by a doctor, such as a family practitioner or dermatologist. The physician attempts to eliminate existing lesions, prevent the formation of new lesions, destroy microorganisms, relieve inflammation, and prevent the occurrence of cysts, papules, and pustules. If the patient’s skin is oily, the physician may advise washing the face and other affected areas several times a day. This has little effect on the development of comedones, but it may improve the patient’s appearance and self-esteem. The physician will also use medications that are similar to over-the-counter antiacne agents but more powerful. These include drying agents, topical antibiotic preparations, and agents to abrade the skin, such as exfoliants or desquamating (scale-removing) agents.

Various topical antibiotics have been developed for use in acne vulgaris, such as topical tetracycline, clindamycin, and erythromycin. One that is often used is benzoyl peroxide, a topical antibiotic that can penetrate the skin and reach the sites of infection in the hair follicles. It is also a powerful irritant that increases the growth rate of epithelial cells and promotes sloughing, which helps clear the surface of the skin. It is effective in resolving comedones and seems to suppress the release of sebum. Because it has a high potential for skin irritation, benzoyl peroxide must be used carefully. Physicians generally start with the weaker formulations of the drug and increase the strength as tolerance develops.

Vitamin A has been given orally to patients with acne vulgaris in the hope of preventing the formation of comedones. The effective oral dose of the vitamin for this purpose is so high, however, that it could be toxic. Therefore, a topical form of vitamin A was developed called vitamin A acid, retinoic acid, or tretinoin (marketed as Retin A). Applied directly to the skin, it has proved highly beneficial in the treatment of acne vulgaris. It clears comedones from the hair follicles and suppresses the formation of new comedones. It reduces inflammation and facilitates the transdermal (through-the-skin) penetration of medications such as benzoyl peroxide and other topical antibiotics. Like benzoyl peroxide, vitamin A acid can be irritating to the skin, so it must be used carefully. When benzoyl peroxide and vitamin A acid are used in combination in the treatment of acne vulgaris, their therapeutic effectiveness is significantly increased. The physician generally prescribes a morning application of one and an evening application of the other.

When large comedones, pustules, or cysts form, the physician may elect to remove them surgically. The procedure is quite effective in improving appearance, but it does nothing to affect the course of the disease. Furthermore, it demands great skill on the part of the physician to avoid causing damage and irritating the surrounding skin, rupturing the comedo wall, and allowing inflammation to spread. The patient should be advised not to try to duplicate the process at home: Picking at pimples could create open lesions that may take weeks to heal and may produce deep scars. Sometimes, the physician will insert a needle into a deep lesion in order to drain the material from it. Sometimes, the physician tries to avoid surgery by injecting a minute quantity of corticosteroid, such as triamcinolone acetonide, into a deep lesion to reduce its size.

The physician may wish to add the benefits of sunlight to medical therapy. Sunlight helps dry the skin and promotes scaling and clearing of the skin, which is probably why acne improves in summer. The physician may suggest sunbathing, but an overzealous patient could become sunburned or chronically overexposed to the sun, thereby risking skin cancer. The beneficial effects of natural sunlight are not necessarily achievable with a sunlamp and, over a long period of exposure, the ultraviolet light produced by some lamps may actually increase sebum production and promote intrafollicular hyperkeratosis.

About 12 percent of patients with acne vulgaris develop severe or deep acne. In devising a treatment regime for these cases, the physician has many options to help clear the patient’s skin, reduce the number and occurrence of lesions, and prevent the scarring that can disfigure the patient for life. Both the topical medications benzoyl peroxide and vitamin A acid are used, singly and in combination, as well as many other topical preparations. Nevertheless, these patients often also require oral antibiotics to fight their infection from within.

It may take weeks for oral antibiotic therapy to achieve results, and it may even be necessary for the patient to continue the therapy for years. Therefore, the physician looks for an antibiotic that is effective and safe for long-term use. Oral tetracycline is often the physician’s choice because it has been proven effective against Propionibacterium acnes, and it seems to suppress the formation of comedones. Oral tetracycline is usually safe for long-term therapy, and it is economical. Other oral antibiotics used to treat acne vulgaris are erythromycin, clindamycin, and minocycline.

Yet in long-term therapy with any broad-spectrum antibiotic, there is always the possibility that the agent being used will not only kill the offending organism but also destroy “friendly” bacteria that aid in bodily processes and help protect the body from other microorganisms. When this happens, disease-causing pathogens may be allowed to flourish and cause infection. For example, prolonged use of antibiotics in women may allow the growth of a yeastlike fungus, Candida, which can cause vaginitis. Prolonged use of clindamycin may allow the proliferation of Clostridium difficile, which could result in ulcerative colitis, a severe disorder of the lower gastrointestinal tract.

If, for any reason, the physician believes that oral antibiotics are not working or must be discontinued, there are other therapeutic agents and other procedures that may be helpful in treating severe, deep acne vulgaris. One medication that is highly effective, but also potentially very harmful, is isotretinoin. As the name implies, isotretinoin (meaning “similar to tretinoin”) is derived from vitamin A, but it is both more effective and more difficult to use. Unlike the topical vitamin A acid preparations, isotretinoin is taken orally. It is highly effective in inhibiting the function of sebaceous glands and preventing the formation of closed comedones by reducing keratinization, but isotretinoin also produces a wide range of side effects. The majority of these are skin disorders, but the bones and joints, the eyes, and other organs can be affected. Perhaps the most serious adverse effect of isotretinoin is that it can cause severe abnormalities in the fetuses of pregnant women. Therefore, pregnancy is an absolute contraindication for isotretinoin. Before they take this drug, women of childbearing age are checked to ensure that they are not
pregnant. They are advised to use strict contraceptive measures one month before therapy, during the entire course of therapy, and for at least one month after therapy has been discontinued.

Estrogens, female hormones, have been used to treat severe acne in girls and women who are more than sixteen years of age. The aim of this therapy is to counteract the sebum-stimulating activity of circulating testosterone and to reduce the formation of comedones by reducing the amount of sebum produced. Estrogens cannot be used in males because the dose required to reduce sebum production could produce feminizing side effects.

Persistent lesions can be treated with cryotherapy. In this procedure, an extremely cold substance such as dry ice or liquid nitrogen is carefully applied to the lesion. This technique is effective in reducing both small pustules and deeper cysts. For patients whose skin has been deeply scarred by acne, a procedure called dermabrasion, in which the top layer of skin is removed, may help improve the appearance.

Although its cause is unknown, acne rosacea can be treated. The topical antiparasitic drug metronidazole, applied in a cream, and oral broad-spectrum antibiotics such as tetracycline have been found effective. It may be necessary to continue antibiotic therapy for a long period of time, but the treatment is usually effective. Surgery may be required to correct the bulbous nose that sometimes occurs with this condition.

Perspective and Prospects

Most acne vulgaris (about 60 percent) is treated at home. There has been significant improvement in the treatment of mild-to-moderate acne vulgaris, so for most of these patients, the condition can be limited to an annoyance or an inconvenience of the teen years. Only recalcitrant cases of acne vulgaris are seen by physicians. Of those cases treated by doctors, the majority are seen by family physicians, general practitioners, and other primary care workers. Severe acne is usually referred to the dermatologist, who is skilled in the use of the more serious medications and the more exacting techniques that are required in treatment.

For at least 85 percent of those experiencing puberty, acne vulgaris is a fact of life. It is a natural consequence of the hormonal changes that occur at this time. It is not likely that any drugs or techniques will be found to avoid acne in the teenage years, as this would involve tampering with a fundamental growth process. It can be expected, however, that in this condition, as in so many others, progress will continue to be made, and newer, more effective, and safer agents will be developed.

Bibliography:

"Acne." MedlinePlus, Mar. 27, 2013.

Ceaser, Jennifer. Everything You Need to Know About Acne. Rev. ed. New York: Rosen, 2003.

Chu, Anthony C., and Anne Lovell. The Good Skin Doctor: A Leading Dermatologist’s Guide to Beating Acne. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

Goldberg, David J. Acne and Rosacea: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment. London: Manson, 2012.

Hellwig, Jennifer, and Purvee S. Shah. "Acne." Health Library, Sept. 10, 2012.

Litin, Scott C., ed. Mayo Clinic Family Health Book. 4th ed. New York: HarperResource, 2009.

Parker, James N., and Philip M. Parker, eds. The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea. San Diego, Calif.: Icon Health, 2002.

Webster, Guy F., and Anthony V. Rawlings, eds. Acne and Its Therapy. New York: Informa Healthcare, 2007.

What has Harper Lee been pointing out about society in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

Harper Lee comments on several aspects of society throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee draws attention to the inefficient, rigid educational system by depicting Scout's negative school experiences in the first and third grade. Lee suggests that a moral education is more useful than the mundane, hypocritical lessons teachers give students.

Harper Lee also comments on gender roles throughout the novel. Aunt Alexandra's traditional views of womanhood contrast greatly with Scout's tomboy personality. The prototypical Southern Belle, who maintains the house and engages in social affairs, is challenged throughout the novel.

Religion is another aspect of society that Lee analyzes. Lee comments on the destructive nature of radical Christianity through the character of Mr. Radley, and portrays the dual nature of hypocritical Christians during Alexandra's missionary circle. Lee suggests that truly moral individuals like Atticus and Maudie live like Christ, rather than simply profess they are Christians.

Most notably, Harper Lee comments on the prejudiced nature of society and the broken justice system. African Americans are viewed with contempt and treated with indignance simply because they are black. Tom Robinson is wrongly convicted, despite the lack of evidence and conflicting testimonies from the Ewells. The majority of Maycomb's community harbors prejudiced feelings which impact the results of the trial. The justice system fails Tom Robinson, and racism remains an issue in Maycomb.

Not only are African Americans viewed with contempt, but so are poor white families. Harper Lee does not fail to address society's caste system which discriminates against less wealthy families throughout the novel as well.

An aqueous KOH solution has a hydroxide concentration equal to 0.02 mol/L. What is the KOH concentration in this solution?

An aqueous solution of KOH has a hydroxide (OH-) concentration of 0.02 mole/L.  The hydroxide ion is the OH- portion of KOH.  When KOH (potassium hydroxide) is dissolved in water is dissociates into its respective ions, potassium and hydroxide.  The ion dissociation is shown in the chemical equation below.

KOH ---> K+ + OH-

We can look at the above equation and learn that one mole of potassium hydroxide produces one mole of potassium cations and one mole of hydroxide anions.  So if we have a solution that is 0.02 mol/L in hydroxide ions, we know that it was originally 0.02 mol/L concentration in potassium hydroxide since they are related to one another on a one to one molar ratio.  The concentration of potassium ions would also be 0.02 mol/L as well.

In Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," does the wall between the neighbors' farms serve a practical purpose?

Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," focuses on the relationship between two neighbors. Every year, the two neighbors meet to repair a wall that exists between their two farms. The speaker of the poem does not seem to see the point of maintaining the wall between his property and that of his neighbor. He states that the wall is not needed where it exists. However, his neighbor sees a value to the wall beyond the practical:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

In these lines, the speaker is focusing on the practical use of the wall whereas his neighbor seems to be thinking of what the wall means to them on a more symbolic level. The wall's real purpose is not to keep things in or out, but rather to tie the neighbors together. It not only creates a bond between them, one of shared responsibility for maintaining the wall, but it also gives them a chance to interact yearly, thus helping them maintain their relationship as neighbors, much as they are maintaining the wall.

What can the reader infer about the McClellan family based on the way their house is programmed in “There Will Come Soft Rains"?

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," we can infer a number of points about the family from the programming of the house.

Firstly, the breakfast prepared by the house suggests that the family consists of two adults and two children. This is also shown by the presence of the nursery and the  "children's hour" which takes place in the evening.

Secondly, the McClellans are completely dependent on technology. The house takes care of the cooking, cleaning and household finances, for example, as well as providing reminders about family events, like anniversaries and birthdays. On one hand, this suggests that the McClellans are a lazy family and prefer to have machines carry out the routine and monotonous jobs of everyday life. On the other hand, however, it is evidence of a family that thrives on a high degree of structure and routine and uses modern technology to achieve this.

Finally, the family is obsessed with protection and self-preservation. They are extremely wary of intruders, for example, as shown by the house's response to a sparrow brushing the window and a cat whining outside. This "mechanical paranoia" acts a barrier between the McClellan family and the outside world which suggests some introversion as well as a strong need for privacy.  

What is thyroid hormone? How does it interact with other drugs?

Calcium

Effect: Take at a Different Time of Day

Two case reports suggest that calcium carbonate interferes with the body’s absorption of thyroid hormone when both are taken at the same time.

A prospective cohort study has validated these case reports. Twenty persons with hypothyroidism stabilized on long-term levothyroxine therapy were included in the trial. Participants were given calcium carbonate, 1,200 milligrams (mg) daily of elemental calcium, for three months. During the period the calcium supplement was taken, thyroid hormone levels in the blood declined. However, after calcium supplementation was stopped, thyroid levels climbed back up, slightly surpassing the levels measured at the beginning of the study. It is thought that calcium combines with thyroid hormone, thus reducing its absorption. To prevent this interaction, one should take thyroid hormone and calcium supplements as far apart as possible.

The thyroid is an important gland that produces thyroid hormone, the proper level of which is crucial to health. The inset shows the location of the thyroid gland.

Iron

Effect: Take at a Different Time of Day

Iron salts (including ferrous fumarate, ferrous gluconate, ferrous sulfate, and iron polysaccharide) may impair the effect of the thyroid hormone levothyroxine, probably by forming a complex with it and decreasing its absorption. To prevent a problem, one should take iron supplements and thyroid hormones as far apart as possible.

Soy

Effect: Possible Harmful Interaction

Soy formula may interfere with the absorption of thyroid medication in infants. In addition, soy may directly interfere with thyroid function. The result may be a need to increase the infant’s dosage of thyroid medication. However, if one stops giving an infant soy formula, the thyroid dosage may need to be decreased. Of course, all changes related to thyroid treatment should be managed by a physician. Based on these findings, persons with impaired thyroid function should use soy (such as soybeans, soy milk, and tofu) with caution.

Carnitine

Effect: Supplementation Possibly Helpful

Persons with an enlarged thyroid gland are sometimes given high doses of thyroid medication to shrink it. However, this treatment can cause unpleasant side effects, including bone loss, heart palpitations, and a feeling of malaise. A double-blind trial suggests that the supplement L-carnitine may safely reduce the adverse effects of this treatment.

Bibliography

Benvenga, S., et al. “Usefulness of L-carnitine, a Naturally Occurring Peripheral Antagonist of Thyroid Hormone Action, in Iatrogenic Hyperthyroidism.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 86 (2001): 3579-3594.

Butner, L. E., et al. “Calcium Carbonate-Induced Hypothyroidism.” Annals of Internal Medicine 132 (2000): 595.

Singh, N., et al. “Effect of Calcium Carbonate on the Absorption of Levothyroxine.” Journal of the American Medical Association 283 (2000): 2822-2825.

A balloon goes upward to 98 m at a speed of 9.8m/s. Then one particle is released from the balloon. What is the time taken by the particle to...

In this case, since the balloon is moving upwards at 9.8 m/s, the particle will also be ejected at the same speed. This particle will travel upwards, reach a maximum height and then start falling downwards.

For the upwards motion, the final velocity will be zero.

Thus, v = u + at 

or, 0 = 9.8 + (-9.8) t

solving the equation, we get t = 1 s.

That is, the particle will travel upwards for 1 second and then start falling down.

During this 1 s, the particle will travel some distance. Using the equation of motion:

v^2 = u^2 + 2as

0^2 = 9.8^2 + 2 (-9.8) s

we get, s = 4.9 m.

Thus the particle will reach a maximum height of 98 m + 4.9 m = 102.9 m before start falling down.

For the downward motion, the initial velocity, u = 0 m/s

Using the equation of motion: s = ut + 1/2 at^2, we get

102.9 = 0 x t + 1/2 (9.8) t^2

solving the equation, we get, t = 4.58 s

Thus, the particle will need a total of 5.58 s (1 s for upward motion and 4.58 s for downward motion).

Hope this helps. 

What does the poem's speaker describe in the first stanza of "The Seafarer"?

The Seafarer, written by Ezra Pound, describes the physical and emotional struggles of being out at sea. The speaker describes having to endure the loneliness of sea-travel as well as the difficult winter weather. He says that the cold numbed his feet. Ice and hail pounded the ship. The only thing he could hear was the rush of waves and occasionally a bird's call.

The speaker remembers feeling quite isolated, describing himself as a "wretched outcast." He envied the lives of those who stay on dry land and longed to return to the warmth and family he might have there. The speaker describes having to sit up on a night-watch to ensure the security of the ship. His hunger, the physical discomfort of the winter sea, and his loneliness were compounded in these dark moments.

Describe the experience of soldiers fighting on the Western Front.

On the Western Front, which was almost entirely confined to France and Belgium, the First World War was generally characterized by trench warfare. This meant that vast armies, Allied and German, huddled in trenches that stretched over hundred of miles and waged a grinding war of attrition against each other. Facing intermittent barrages of long-range artillery, occasional poison gas attacks, and the constant threat of sniper fire, they awaited orders to go "over the top" through machine-gun fire, bomb craters, land mines, and barbed wire in an effort to break through enemy lines. When in the trenches, where they often stayed for weeks at a time, they lived in mud, with rats and lice constant menaces. Not only physical disease, but mental illness, known at the time as "shell shock," plagued soldiers in this new, modern warfare. Soldiers lived through grueling campaigns and offensives that usually only succeeded in moving lines a few miles one way or another. Before 1918, when American troops helped to beat back a desperate German offensive, the war was a bloody stalemate.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that explores racial prejudice; can themes from the novel be connected to the Black Lives Matter movement?

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird explores the theme of racial prejudice in America—a theme that ties directly into the emergence of the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. BLM was in direct response to numerous police killings of unarmed black men and women, which sparked mainly peaceful demonstrations in many communities across the country.

Lee set her story of racial prejudice in the rural Alabama of the 1930s. One of the central episodes of the novel portrays the rape trial brought against the black character Tom Robinson, accused by the 19 year-old Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob Ewell, the sole witness. Rape was a capital crime at that time in Alabama, and though Tom appears to have been framed by the Ewells and exculpated by the lawyering of Atticus Finch, he is convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to the electric chair. He soon after is killed while in custody, shot trying to escape over prison walls.

When Jem asks Atticus "How could they do it, how could they?" his father replies:

"I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it, seems that only children weep."

For unarmed black Americans gunned down by the police today, the same bitter reality seems to prevail many decades after the fictional period setting of Lee's masterpiece about bigotry and racial injustice.

Why does Okeke have trouble sleeping at the end of the story?

Okeke has trouble sleeping at the end of the story because he's in a state of emotional turmoil:

"That night he hardly slept, from remorse—and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them."

He has just received the letter from his daughter-in-law, Nene, in which she begged Okeke to reestablish his relationship with his son, Nnaemeka (Nene's husband), and to meet Okeke's two grandsons for the first time.

Okeke has spent the past eight years in bitterness, refusing to see Nnaemeka, because of his marriage that Okeke doesn't approve of. Now, Okeke is a grandfather who has never met his grandchildren. Despite the cruel words and harsh silence Okeke has always extended to Nene, she has reached out to him with warmth, kindness, and respect, via the letter, and offered him one last chance to connect with Nnaemeka and the young boys.

So you can understand how Okeke feels "the resolution he had built up over so many years falling in," meaning that his harsh feelings toward his son are starting to crumble. He tries to "steel his heart" and avoid thinking about the grandchildren, and he tries to distract himself by humming a religious hymn, but he can't help visualizing the grandchildren and thinking about how he has essentially abandoned them since birth.

In sum, guilt, worry, and the sad realization that he must change are the feelings that are keeping Okeke up that night.

What are statistical significance tests?

Introduction

Psychological researchers make extensive use of statistical methods in the analysis of data gathered in their research. Statistical methods serve two primary functions: descriptive, to provide a summary of large sets of data so that the important features are readily apparent, and inferential, to evaluate the extent to which the data support the hypothesis being studied as well as the extent to which the findings can be generalized to the population as a whole. It is this second function that makes use of statistical significance tests.

Researchers may employ these tests either to ascertain whether there is a significant difference in the performance of different groups being studied or to determine whether different variables (characteristics) of subjects have a strong relationship to one another. For example, in conducting an experiment to test the effect of a particular treatment on behavior, the experimenter would be interested in testing the differences in performance between the treatment group and a control group. Another researcher might be interested in looking at the strength of the relationship between two variables—such as scores on the SAT Reasoning Test and college grade-point average. In both cases, statistical significance tests would be employed to find out whether the difference between groups or the strength of the relationship between variables was statistically significant.

Laws of Probability

The term statistically significant has a specific meaning based on the outcome of certain statistical procedures. Statistical significance tests have their basis in the laws of probability, specifically in the law of large numbers
and conditional probability. Primarily, the law of large numbers states that as the number of events with a certain probabilistic outcome increases, the frequencies of occurrence that are observed should come closer and closer to matching the frequencies that would be expected based on the probabilities associated with those events. For example, with a coin flip, the probability associated with heads is .50 (50 percent), as is the probability associated with tails. If a person flipped a coin ten times, it would not be too startling if he or she got eight heads; if the coin were flipped ten thousand times, however, the observed frequencies of heads and tails would be about 50 percent each. Thus, with large numbers of probabilistic events, the expected outcomes can be predicted with great precision.

Conditional probability refers to the probability of a second event, given that a certain first event has occurred. For example, if someone has already pulled one ace from a deck of cards, what is the probability of pulling a second ace on that person’s next attempt (without replacing the first card)? The probability of pulling the first ace was four (the number of aces in the deck) out of fifty-two (the number of cards in the deck). The second draw has a conditional probability created by what happened on the first pick. Because an ace was drawn first, there are now three left in the deck, and since the card was not replaced, there are now fifty-one cards left in the deck. Therefore, the probability of pulling the second ace would be three out of fifty-one.

Establishing and Testing Hypotheses

Armed with these two concepts, it is now possible to understand how statistical significance tests work. Researchers are always investigating hypothetical relationships between variables through experiments or other methodologies. These hypotheses
can be about how strongly related two variables are or about differences between the average performance between groups—for example, an experimental and a control group. One possible hypothesis is that the variables have no relationship, or that the groups are not different in their performance. This is referred to as the null hypothesis, and it plays an important role in establishing statistical significance. A second possible hypothesis is that there is a relationship between variables, or that there is a difference between the mean (the average value of a group of scores) performances of groups. This is referred to as the alternative hypothesis, and it is the hypothesis truly of interest to the researcher. Although it is not possible to test this hypothesis directly, it is possible to test the null hypothesis. Because these hypotheses are both mutually exclusive and exhaustive (only one can be true, but one must be true), if it can be shown from the data gathered that the null hypothesis is highly unlikely, then researchers are willing to accept the alternative hypothesis.

This works through a conditional probability strategy. First, the researcher assumes that the null hypothesis is true. Then the researcher looks at the data gathered during the research and asks, “How likely is it that we would have gotten this particular sample data if the null hypothesis were true?” In other words, researchers evaluate the probability of the data given the null hypothesis. If they find, after evaluation, that the data would be very unlikely if the null hypothesis were true, then they are able to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. In such a case, it can be said that the results were statistically significant.

Arbitrarily, the standard for statistical significance is usually a conditional probability of less than .05 (5 percent). This probability value required to reject the null hypothesis is referred to as the significance level. This criterion is set at a stringent level because science tends to be conservative; it does not want to reject old ideas and accept new ones too easily. The significance level actually represents the probability of making a certain type of error—of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is in fact true. The lower the significance level, the higher the confidence that the data obtained would be very unlikely if the null hypothesis were true and the observed effects are reliable.

Evaluation of Conditional Probability

Statistical significance tests are the procedures that allow researchers to evaluate the conditional probability of the data, given the null hypothesis. The data from a study are used to compute a test statistic. This is a number whose size reflects the degree to which the data differ from what would be expected if the null hypothesis were true. Some commonly encountered test statistics are the t-ratio, the F-ratio, and the critical (Z) ratio. The probability associated with the test statistic can be established by consulting published tables, which give the probability of obtaining a particular value of the test statistic if the null hypothesis is true. The null hypothesis is rejected if the probability associated with the test statistic is less than a predetermined “critical” value (usually .05). If the probability turns out to be greater than the critical value, then one would fail to reject the null hypothesis; however, that does not mean that the null hypothesis is true. It could simply be that the research design was not powerful enough (for example, the sample size may have been too small, like flipping the coin only ten times) to detect real effects that were there, like a microscope that lacks sufficient power to observe a small object that is nevertheless present.

Differences in Significance

There is sometimes a difference between statistical significance and practical significance. The size of most test statistics can be increased simply by increasing the number of subjects in the sample that is studied. If samples are large enough, any effect will be statistically significant no matter how small that effect may be. Statistical significance tests tell researchers how reliable an effect is, but not whether that effect has any practical significance. For example, a researcher might be investigating the effectiveness of two diet plans and using groups of one thousand subjects for each diet. On analyzing the data, the researcher finds that subjects following diet A have a significantly greater weight loss than subjects following diet B. This is practically significant. If, however, the average difference between the two groups was only one-tenth of a pound, this difference would be statistically significant, but it would have no practical significance whatsoever.

T-Test

Statistical significance tests provide a measure of how likely it is that the results of a particular research study came about by chance. They accomplish this by putting a precise value on the confidence or probability that rerunning the same study would produce similar or stronger results. A specific test, the t-test, can provide an example of how this works in practice. The t-test is used to test the significance of the difference between the mean performance of two groups on some measure of behavior. It is one of the most widely used tests of significance in psychological research.

Suppose a professor of psychology is interested in whether the more “serious” students tend to choose the early morning sections of classes. To test this hypothesis, the professor compares the performance on the final examination of two sections of an introductory psychology course, one that met at 8:00 a.m. and one that met at 2:00 p.m. In this example, the null hypothesis would state that there is no difference in the average examination scores for the two groups. The alternative hypothesis would state that the average score for the morning group will be higher. In calculating the mean scores for each of the two groups, the professor finds that the early morning class had an average score of 82, while the afternoon class had an average score of 77. Before reaching any conclusion, however, the professor would have to find out how likely it is that this difference could be attributable to chance, so a t-test would be employed.

Influential Factors

There are three factors that influence a test of significance such as the t-test. One is the size of the difference between the means. In general, the larger the measured difference, the more likely that the difference reflects an actual difference in performance and not chance factors. A second factor is the size of the sample, or the number of measurements being tested. In general, differences based on large numbers of observations are more likely to be significant than the same differences based on fewer observations (as in the coin-flipping example). This is true because with larger samples, random factors within a group (such as the presence of a “hotshot” student, or some students who were particularly sleepy on exam day) tend to be canceled out across groups. The third factor that influences a measure of statistical significance is the variability of the data, or how spread out the scores are from one another. If there is considerable variability in the scores, then the difference (variability) in the group means is more likely to be attributable to chance. The variability in the scores is usually measured by a statistic called the standard deviation, which could loosely be thought of as the average distance of a typical score from the mean of the group. As the standard deviation of the groups gets smaller, the size of the measure of statistical significance will get larger.

Knowing these three things—the size of the difference of the two groups, the number of scores for each group, and the standard deviations of the test scores of the two groups—the professor can calculate a t-statistic and then draw conclusions. With a difference of mean test scores of five points, fifty students in each class, and standard deviations of 3.5 in the first class and 2.2 in the second, the value of t would be 1.71. To determine whether this t is significant, the professor would go to a published statistical table that contains the minimum values for significance of the t statistic based on the number of subjects in the calculation (more technically, the degrees of freedom, which is the total number of subjects minus the number of groups—in this case, 100 minus 2, or 98). If the computed value of t is larger than the critical value published in the table, the professor can reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the performance of the early morning class was significantly better than that of the afternoon class.

Complex Designs

Many research studies in psychology involve more complex designs than simple comparisons between two groups. They may contain three or more groups and evaluate the effects of more than one treatment or condition. This more complex evaluation of statistical significance is usually carried out through a procedure known as the analysis of variance (or F-test). Like the t-test, the F-test is calculated based on the size of the group differences, the sizes of the groups, and the standard deviation of the groups.

Other tests of statistical significance are available, and the choice of the appropriate technique is determined by such factors as the kind of scale on which the data are measured, the number of groups, and whether one is interested in assessing a difference in performance or the relationship between subject characteristics. One should bear in mind, however, that statistical significance tests are only tools and that numbers can be deceptive. Even the best statistical analysis means nothing if a research study is designed poorly.

Evolution of Practice

Tests of statistical significance have been important in psychological research since the early 1900s. Pioneers such as Sir Francis Galton,
Karl Pearson, and Sir Ronald A. Fisher
were instrumental in both developing and popularizing these methods. Galton was one of the first to recognize the importance of the normal distribution (the bell-shaped curve) for organizing psychological data. The properties of the normal distribution are the basis for many of the probabilistic judgments underlying inferential statistics. Pearson, strongly influenced by Galton’s work, was able to develop the chi-squared goodness-of-fit test around 1900. This was the first test that enabled the determination of the probability of discrepancies between the observed number of occurrences of categories of phenomena and what would be expected by chance.

It was the publication of Fisher’s book Statistical Methods for Research Workers in 1925, however, that popularized the method of hypothesis testing and the use of statistical significance tests. Through his book, Fisher was able to establish the 0.05 level of significance as the standard for scientific research. Fisher’s second book, The Design of Experiments (1935), brought his theory of hypothesis testing to a wider audience, and he believed that he had developed the “perfectly rigorous” method of inductive inference. Among Fisher’s accomplishments was the development of the method of analysis of variance for use with complex experimental designs (the F-test was named for Fisher). Before Fisher’s work, the evaluation of whether the results of research were “significant” was based either on a simple “eyeballing” of the data or on an informal comparison of mean differences with standard deviations. Through the efforts of Fisher and some of his followers, hypothesis testing using statistical significance tests soon became an indispensable part of most scientific research. In particular, between 1940 and 1955, statistical methods became institutionalized in psychology during a period that has been called the inference revolution. Many researchers believed that these techniques provided scientific legitimacy to the study of otherwise abstract psychological constructs.

Problems with Approach

Some problems, however, have arisen with the statistical revolution in psychological research. For example, many researchers routinely misinterpret the meaning of rejecting the null hypothesis. Employing statistical significance tests can only tell the probability of the data, given the null hypothesis. It cannot tell the probability of a hypothesis (either the null or the alternative), given the data. These are two different conditional probabilities. Yet many researchers, and even some textbooks in psychology, claim that the level of significance specifies the probability that the null hypothesis is correct or the probability that the alternative hypothesis is wrong. Often the quality of research is measured by the level of significance, and researchers are often reluctant to submit, and journal editors reluctant to publish, research reports in which there was a failure to reject the null hypothesis. This tendency has led over the years to the publication of many statistically significant research results that have no practical significance and to the withholding by researchers of reports of worthwhile studies (that might have had practical significance) because of a failure to reject the null hypothesis.

Statistical significance tests are valuable techniques for the analysis of research results, but they must be applied correctly and analyzed properly to serve their intended function.

Bibliography

Aron, Arthur, Elaine N. Aron, and Elliot J. Coups. Statistics for Psychology. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

Coolican, Hugh. Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Howell, David C. Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 6th ed. Belmont: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2008. Print.

Kline, Rex B. Beyond Significance Testing: Statistics Reform in the Behavioral Sciences. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2013. Print.

Morrison, Denton E., and Ramon E. Henkel, eds. The Significance Test Controversy: A Reader. New Brunswick: AldineTransaction, 2006. Print.

Rowntree, Derek. Statistics without Tears: A Primer for Non-Mathematicians. Boston: Pearson/A & B, 2004. Print.

Walker, Jeffery T., and Sean Maddan. Understanding Statistics for the Social Sciences, Criminal Justice, and Criminology. Burlington: Jones, 2013. Print.

Ziliak Stephen T., and Deirdre N. McCloskey. The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2008. Print.

Which countries formed the allied side in World War II?

The countries who formed the Allies during World War II (1939-1945) included the major powers of the United States (starting in 1941), the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union (the Soviets had aided the Nazis in the partition of Poland and then joined the Allies after the Germans invaded them in 1941). The Allies were joined by the British Commonwealth countries, including Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Other countries on the allied side included China, Poland (which was defeated by the Nazis in 1939), France (defeated by the Nazis in 1940; later, the Free French fought with the Allies), British India, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The other side, the Axis powers, included the countries in the Tripartite Pact: Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan. They were joined by other countries, including Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. 

A cube that has a length, width and height of 1 meter has a volume of ____.

A cube is a 3-dimensional object that has equal dimensions in all three directions. That is, a cube has the same length, width and height. One can consider a cube to a square in 3-dimensions. Thus, all the faces of a cube are squares.

If a cube has a side length (= length = width = height) of 1 m, we can calculate its volume by using the following equation:

volume = (side length)^3

= (1 m)^3 = 1 m^3

Thus, a cube with a side length of 1 m has a volume of 1 m^3. 

1 m^3 is also equal to 100 liters. Thus, a cube that has a side length of 1 m has a volume of 1 m^3 or 1,000 liters. In other words, it can contain 1,000 liters of water, or any other substance.

Hope this helps. 

Does acceleration increase as gravitational potential energy increases?

Gravitational potential energy can be defined as PE = mgh, where m is mass, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is the height above the surface of the earth. By its very definition, the gravitational acceleration cannot change, but in reality it's a little more complicated.

First, consider that the potential energy as defined in the equation above will increase if either the mass or the height of the object increases, but we cannot alter the value of g, which is just a specific value for acceleration. This is because the force being generated by gravity is a fixed value, and the mass of the object and its height are irrelevant because they're not the factors generating the force. 

However, gravity is an inverse-square force, meaning that it gets exponentially weaker as one gets farther away from its source. This means that something experiencing the earth's gravitational force is going to feel a different degree of acceleration based primarily on its distance from the origin. For example, if astronauts in the space station were experiencing 9.8m/s2 of gravitational acceleration toward the earth, then they wouldn't appear to be floating; they'd look just like they do on the surface of the planet. 

Thus, we can say that on a large enough scale, acceleration will change depending upon height. However, this doesn't take potential energy into account; if we were still using the simplified equation given above, it would appear that acceleration decreases as potential energy increases, which doesn't make sense.

The more complete form of the potential energy equation is very simple to Newton's Gravitational equation; PE = GMm/r. That is to say, potential energy equals the products of the gravitational constant and the masses of the two bodies, divided by the distance between them. From this, you can see that the potential energy will decrease as the value of r increases, which explains why the astronauts actually have very little potential energy.

So, to answer the question directly, we can see that gravitational potential energy will increase as one gets closer to the gravitational origin. Acceleration will also increase, but this is because the gravitational force is increasing as well. Thus we need to acknowledge that acceleration and potential energy change proportionally within a gravitational field, but that this is not a causality relationship, and it doesn't work if you're using the simplified PE = mgh equation. 

What are obesity-associated cancers?

Risk factors: Obesity is primarily caused by poor diet (excessive intake of calories) and physical inactivity. Weight gain may be caused in part by the abundance of readily available high-calorie food choices and the lack of physical exertion in modern lives, psychological factors such as stress or depression, physical conditions such as hypothyroidism, and certain medications including migraine medications and antidepressants.

Etiology and the disease process: Many researchers have studied obesity and its relationship to an increased incidence of certain cancers. It is believed that fat cells in the body produce hormones and other substances that affect cell growth. Obese people have significantly increased levels of these compounds because of the increased number of fat cells, which can have potentially important effects on cellular growth and planned cellular death (apoptosis), perhaps allowing damaged cells to survive and grow into tumors. The roles of estrogen, insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3, leptin, and cytokines, as well as other substances and growth factors, are being examined for their relationship to obesity-associated cancers.

An example of these actions by fat tissue can be found in postmenopausal breast cancer, which is known to have a higher incidence rate in obese women. Estrogen, important in the reproductive cycle, is produced by fat tissue in addition to being produced by the ovaries. After menopause, when the ovaries stop producing hormones, fat tissue becomes the most important estrogen source. In obese women, postmenopausal estrogen levels are 50 to 100 percent higher than in women who are not overweight or obese. As a result, estrogen-sensitive tissues in obese women are overexposed to estrogen stimulation, leading to a more rapid growth of estrogen-receptor-sensitive breast tumors. Researchers believe that the fat cells stimulate surges of hormones, insulin, proteins, and the other substances mentioned above that may, in turn, cause reactions that initiate uncontrollable growth among certain cell types. A 2010 systematic review in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment found that obese breast cancer patients had lower survival rates than non-obese patients.

Incidence: According to the American Cancer Society, the risk of cancer from obesity is similar to the risk from using tobacco. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and affects the entire population, regardless of age, gender, race, or ethnicity. In the United States, obesity has been increasing at an alarming rate. In 1980, about 15 percent of adults were classified as obese; by 2004, that number had more than doubled to about 33 percent, a level maintained over the following decade. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1984–94 and 2009–10, the number of adults classified as severely obese had increased from 2.8 percent to 6.3 percent. A 2013 American Journal of Public Health study found that between 1986 and 2006, overweight and obesity accounted for 5 percent of deaths among African American men, 15.6 percent among white men, 26.8 percent among African American women, and 21.7 percent among white women.

Childhood obesity has been at the forefront of concern because of the staggering numbers of overweight children and the projected long-term health effects. The National Cancer Institute reported in 2012 that between 1988 and 1994, only about 10 percent of American children and youth aged two to nineteen and 56 percent of adults were obese. By 2012, 16.9 percent of children and adolescents were obese, as were 34.9 percent of adults, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey results published in 2014 in JAMA. Overweight and obesity are most common among black and Hispanic women, with the similar patterns seen for children and adolescents in these groups.

Studies have increasingly linked obesity and cancer. Many studies show that the greater the degree of obesity, the stronger the association with cancer. In one study of more than 900,000 adults, the death rates from all cancers combined were 52 percent higher in men and 62 percent higher in women who were classified as severely obese. In another study, obesity links were found in an estimated 51 percent of women and 14 percent of men with newly diagnosed cases of cancer. The studies also show a higher recurrence rate after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer in obese men and an incidence rate of 50 percent and decreased survival rate in obese women with postmenopausal breast cancer.

By applying the levels of overweight and obesity, Graham Colditz, a physician with the Harvard School of Public Health, estimated the number of cancer cases that could be avoided if no one were overweight or obese. His estimates of avoidable cancer cases included 49 percent of endometrial cancers, 39 percent of esophageal cancers, 31 percent of kidney cancers, 20 percent of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, 17 percent of multiple myeloma cases, 14 percent of pancreatic cancers, 14 percent of colon cancers, and 11 percent of breast cancers.

Symptoms: There are no symptoms that are specific to obesity-associated cancers.

Screening and diagnosis: Screening for obesity-associated cancers includes annual physical examinations to calculate BMI and take waist measurements as well as annual laboratory tests, such as serum lipid panel, fasting glucose level, and thyroid function tests. In addition, people can essentially screen themselves by monitoring their own weights. There are no specific tests for obesity-related cancers; testing is done when patients exhibit other symptoms. Staging is specific to the type of cancer that develops.

Treatment and therapy: Treatment for obesity-associated cancer is specific to the type of cancer. However, based on data obtained during various studies, patients must also reduce their weight to avoid the increased risk that obesity places on successful treatment. Patients must set weight-loss goals and obtain assistance from a registered dietitian or weight-loss program for in-depth counseling. Many reputable commercial and community programs exist for obesity treatment. Desirable programs should include diets that meet the United States recommended daily allowance for nutrients, exercise counseling, behavior modification, and provision for long-term maintenance.

The National Institutes of Health guidelines suggest nonpharmacologic treatment for six months and then consideration of weight-loss medication if weight loss is unsatisfactory in those with a BMI greater than 30 or a BMI greater than 27 with associated risk factors. Patients with severe obesity (BMI greater than 40) may also be considered for gastric bypass or gastroplasty procedures.

Prognosis, prevention, and outcomes: Long-term maintenance of weight loss is extremely difficult. If the patient is not motivated, successful weight loss is unlikely. Obesity can be prevented by educating children and adults in healthy dietary habits and exercise requirements, but only if individuals choose to follow the guidelines and do not have physical causes for the excess weight. Weight reduction can have a significant impact on a person’s risk for developing obesity-associated cancers.

"Body Weight and Cancer Risk." Cancer.org. Amer. Cancer Soc., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

Calle, E. E., et al. “Overweight, Obesity, and Mortality from Cancer in a Prospectively Studied Cohort of U.S. Adults.” New England Journal of Medicine 348.17 (2003): 1625–38. Print.

Fryar, Cheryl D., Margaret D. Caroll, and Cynthia L. Ogden. Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Extreme Obesity among Adults: United States, Trends 1960–1962 through 2009–2010. Natl. Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 2012. PDF file.

Giovannucci, E., and D. Michaud. “The Role of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disturbances in Cancers of the Colon, Prostate, and Pancreas.” Gastroenterology 132 (2007): 2208–25. Print.

Masters, Ryan K., et al. "The Impact of Obesity on US Mortality Levels: The Importance of Age and Cohort Factors in Population Estimates." American Journal of Public Health 103.10 (2013): 1895–1901. PDF file.

"Obesity and Cancer." Cancer.gov. Natl. Cancer Inst., Natl. Inst. of Health, 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.

Ogden, Cynthia L., Margaret D. Carroll, Brian K. Kit, and Katherine M. Flegal. "Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012." JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 311.8 (2014): 806–14. PDF file.

Polednak, A. P. “Trends in Incidence Rates for Obesity-Associated Cancers in the U.S.” Cancer Detection and Prevention 27 (2003): 415–21. Print.

Why are countries like North Korea, Somalia, and Afghanistan part of the United Nations? Shouldn't they get kicked out and punished for crimes...

There are two main reasons why the United Nations does not expel countries like the ones you mention.  First, the UN wants to keep as many countries as possible within the organization in hopes of helping them improve themselves.  Second, it would be very difficult to expel most countries.

As you can see in the link below, it is possible for the UN to expel a country.  However, the Security Council has to recommend that the country be expelled.  This is very unlikely to happen.  Let us look at the countries you mention.  North Korea is allied with China, which is a permanent member of the Security Council.  China would almost surely veto any attempt to expel North Korea. Afghanistan’s regime has been put in place and propped up by the US, which is also on the Security Council.  The US would not allow Afghanistan to be expelled.  In order to expel any country, the Security Council would need the unanimous consent of China, the US, France, Great Britain, and Russia.  This is very unlikely to happen.

Just as importantly, the UN does not want to expel countries.  The UN is an organization that is dedicated to improving the world and making it more peaceful.  The organization can only do its job if it engages countries.  If the UN were to expel North Korea, for example, it would no longer have any leverage over that country.  It would have no way to try to influence North Korea and improve its behavior.  Think about this in terms of a child at school who misbehaves.  The school might like to be rid of the child, but then they would lose the chance to have any effect on that child’s life.  If the UN expelled countries that acted badly, it would forfeit any chance of influencing those countries to mend their ways.  Thus, expelling countries would be counterproductive to the UN’s goals.

Who was Anne Frank attracted to in kindergarten?

Anne was attracted to two boys, Appy and Peter Schiff. 

Anne tells her diary the story of her first love.  She met Appy when she was in kindergarten through her good friend Sally.  Appy was more interesting than Sally, but he was not interested in Anne.  Then she met Peter Schiff, who returned her affections. 

One of Sally's cousins was a good-looking, slender, dark-haired boy named Appy, who later turned out to look like a movie idol .... For a long time we went everywhere together, but aside from that, my love was unrequited until Peter crossed my path. I had an out-and-out crush on him. He liked me too, and we were inseparable for one whole summer. (FRIDAY, ]ANUARY 7, 1944) 

It seems like Anne and Peter got along well, and this is a childhood friendship.  It is not really a romance.  They separated when he went to junior high and she was still in sixth grade.  However, Anne mentions it because now she is older and she is actually thinking about boys and love.  She is upset because Peter seemed to forget about her when he decided she was childish.

This morning I realized that nothing has changed; on the contrary, as I've grown older and more mature, my love has grown along with me. I can understand now that Peter thought I was childish, and yet it still hurts to think he'd forgotten me completely. (FRIDAY, ]ANUARY 7, 1944) 

It is interesting that Anne is coming of age at a time when she really doesn’t have many options for boys.  She is locked away in the Annex.  It makes sense that she would think of her childhood romances.  Anne is frustrated by Peter van Daan at first, but the longer she is in the Annex the more she comes to like him.

What is the significance of the character of "Whit" in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men?

Whit's role is small but significant in Of Mice and Men. He is introduced one night in the bunkhouse when he shows a letter that's been printed in a pulp magazine to Slim. His effort to impress Slim and his desire to connect to a "celebrity," someone published in a magazine, shows readers that Lennie and George are not the only men with dreams... nor are they the only men whose dreams are being crushed by the weight of the migrant worker life. 

Whit is described as a young man, but also one whose posture suggests that he has aged prematurely; he carries the weight of his life and job on him at all times. 

A young laboring man came in. His sloping shoulders were bent forward and he walked heavily on his heels, as though he carried the invisible grain bag.

Readers learn that Whit is yet another character who sees Slim as a leader and as someone to admire. It's not a stretch to believe that Whit sees himself as someday possessing the same confidence and leadership as Slim. He shows Slim the magazine--only Slim--and when Slim doesn't make the connection to the name, Whit reminds him that William "Bill" Tenner was also a worker on the farm several months earlier. Through Whit, readers learn that Bill Tenner achieved one of his dreams--to have his letter published in his favorite magazine. Readers can also see a desire in Whit to connect, in however small a way, to Bill's success. 

"That's him," Whit cried. "That's the guy!"
"You think he's the guy wrote this letter?"
"I know it. Bill and me was in here one day. Bill had one of them books that just come. He was lookin' in it and he says, 'I wrote a letter. Wonder if they put it in the book!' But it wasn't there. Bill says, 'Maybe they're savin' it for later.' An' that's just what they done. There it is."

He goes on to say that he was the one who primarily ran the cultivator with Bill. 

"I wonder if Bill seen it," he said. "Bill and me worked in that patch of field peas. Run cultivators, both of us. Bill was a hell of a nice fella." 

When George asks to see the letter, Whit will let him see it, but he doesn't allow George to hold the magazine as he did Slim. This particular detail illustrates that George and Lennie have not yet been fully accepted by the ranch hands, though Whit can't quite resist showing the letter to anyone who wants to see it. 

Whit is an incredibly minor character, but he serves the larger purpose of illustrating the hopelessness with which George and Lennie are living. Unlike the older men like Slim and even Candy, Whit is a young man with a potential future; yet readers know that it's unlikely for Whit to ever be more than exactly what he already is: a worker already bent over with the weight of laboring for someone else's gain. 

What is a character sketch of Gulliver's father?

Gulliver's father was, evidently, a gentleman, as he owned a small estate.  However, he had five sons and so, presumably, all but the first-born would have to make their way in the world because they would not inherit any property.  Gulliver's father seemed to understand this, and so he made provisions to send Gulliver away to school when he was fourteen.  His father tried to support him here but had only a "narrow fortune" and could provide him with but a very small allowance, and, thus, it was necessary for Gulliver to become a doctor's apprentice.  It seems, then, that his father was a man who tried to do the best he could by his sons.  He clearly believed in the importance and value of education since he was willing to exhaust his funds in an attempt to educate Gulliver; however, his inability to support his family (Gulliver is only the third son, so we might wonder what becomes of the fourth and fifth sons when the money has run out) might indicate some poor planning on his part.

Why did Swift make the houyhnhnms look like horses in part 4?

In this section of the satire, Swift is, in part, poking fun at the entirety of the human race and our perception of our own intelligence and feelings of mastery over other animals or even, sometimes, other people.  The horse is a long-domesticated beast of burden that many of Swift's contemporaries felt to be beneath them in terms of intelligence, and so he presents a utopian society in which horses rule in order to turn this common way of thinking on its head.  Unlike human society, the society set up by the Houyhnhnms is peaceful and reasonable, and it is actually the Yahoos, the horribly disgusting and animalistic humanoid creatures, who are the beasts of burden for the Houyhnhnms.  By presenting humans and horses in these ways, Swift encourages readers to reevaluate the way they see themselves and other animals and/or people to see if their perceptions are accurate or merely the common way of thinking.

What are four decisions that Friar Laurence makes in Romeo and Juliet?

Four decisions that the Friar makes in Romeo and Juliet have disastrous impact on the outcome of the play.

First, by agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret, he is essentially defying the wills of two families in order to heal the rift between them.

Second, after Romeo is banished by the Prince, he sends Romeo to Juliet's to say goodbye before his banishment. 

Third, he agrees to give Juliet a poison that would make her appear as if she is dead, so that she can be taken to the tomb and then reunited with Romeo in Mantua. 

And fourth, he decides to send a note telling Romeo of his plan to reunite them, but unfortunately the note never gets delivered due to a quarantined village.

What are natural treatments for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)?

Introduction

In gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), acid from the
stomach splashes upward, or refluxes, and burns the esophagus (the tube connecting
the mouth and throat to the stomach). Normally, a type of sphincter muscle keeps
the upper part of the stomach closed, but various factors may loosen it, allowing
acid to rise more easily. The result is pain in the chest, commonly known as
heartburn. GERD is generally made worse by lying down
because gravity no longer restrains the upward movement of stomach contents. In
infants, the major issue with GERD is not pain but the spitting up (vomiting) of
food or milk.

Certain foods may worsen GERD, and these include alcohol, carbonated beverages, caffeine, chocolate, citrus juices, milk, and peppermint. Cigarette smoking may also increase symptoms. Contrary to earlier beliefs, it does not appear that people with GERD need to cut down on fat intake to help control the disease.

Pregnant women frequently develop GERD because of changes in muscle tone. Also, the connection between obesity and GERD remains unclear.

Treatment for GERD involves elevating the head of one’s bed and using
medications that reduce the acidity of the stomach. In general, more powerful
antacid medications are required for GERD than for ulcers or
gastritis. Drugs in the proton pump category are most
effective. Surgery may be recommended in certain cases.

If left untreated, GERD causes precancerous alterations in the lower part of
the esophagus (a condition called Barrett’s esophagus), which can develop
into esophageal
cancer. Thus, people with GERD are often tested to evaluate
the condition of the esophagus.

Proposed Natural Treatments

Natural antacids, such as calcium carbonate (Tums) or hydrotalcite, may provide short-term relief from GERD. Drugs used to treat GERD tend to deplete the body of certain nutrients, especially vitamin B12
but also folate and various minerals. The use of a multivitamin-multimineral supplement should correct this problem.

Deglycyrrhizinated licorice, a special form of the herb licorice, has shown some promise for the treatment of ulcers. A drug (carbenoxolone) that is similar to ingredients in licorice has been studied for the treatment of GERD, with good results.

However, in these studies carbenoxolone was combined with other ingredients, including antacids and alginic acid. It is not clear that carbenoxolone alone will help GERD, and it is even less clear that licorice itself offers any benefit.

A popular over-the-counter drug for GERD, Gaviscon, contains a substance called
alginic acid. Alginic acid is thought to form a kind of protective seal at the top
of the stomach, reducing reflux. The seaweed bladderwrack
is high in alginic acid. However, there is no evidence that whole bladderwrack can
reduce heartburn symptoms.

Several other natural supplements are often recommended for the treatment of GERD, including aloe vera, antioxidants, artemesia, fresh garlic, marshmallow, and slippery elm, but there is no scientific evidence to support their use. Milk allergy is thought to contribute to GERD in infants. Whether food allergies play a significant role in adult cases remains unclear. The herb carob may be helpful for infant GERD.

Many naturopathic physicians believe that the supplement betaine
hydrochloride can aid GERD by increasing stomach acid. This
sounds paradoxical, because conventional treatment involves reducing stomach acid.
However, according to one theory, lack of stomach acid leads to incomplete
digestion of proteins; these proteins cause allergic reactions and other responses
that lead to an increase in reflux. Again, scientific evidence is lacking.

Bibliography

Holtmeier, W., et al. “On-Demand Treatment of Acute Heartburn with the Antacid Hydrotalcite Compared with Famotidine and Placebo.” Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology 41 (2007): 564–70. Print.

“GERD.” MedlinePlus. US Natl. Lib. of Medicine, 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Givens, Shirley. “Health Risks of Common Acid Reflux Medications.” Life Extension (2016): 41–50. Alt HealthWatch. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Pehl, C., et al. “Effect of Low- and High-Fat Meals on Lower Esophageal Sphincter Motility and Gastroesophageal Reflux in Healthy Subjects.” American Journal of Gastroenterology 94 (1999): 1192–96. Print.

Salvatore, S., and Y. Vandenplas. “Gastroesophageal Reflux and Cow Milk Allergy: Is There a Link?” Pediatrics 110 (2002): 972–84. Print.

Wenzl, T. G., et al. “Effects of Thickened Feeding on Gastroesophageal Reflux in Infants: A Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study Using Intraluminal Impedance.” Pediatrics 111 (2003): e355–59. Print.

What is the incentive theory of motivation?

Introduction

Motivation refers to a group of variables that determine what behavior—and how strong and how persistent a behavior—is to occur. Motivation is different from learning. Learning variables are the conditions under which a new association is formed. An association is the potential for a certain behavior; however, it does not become behavior until motivation is introduced. Thus, motivation is necessary to convert a behavioral potential into a behavioral manifestation. Motivation turns a behavior on and off.

Incentive motivation is an attracting force, while drive motivation is an expelling force. Incentive is said to “pull” and drive to “push” an individual toward a goal. The attracting force originates from the reward object in the goal and is based on expectation of the goal object in certain locations in the environment. The expelling force originates from within organisms as a need, which is related to disturbances in homeostasis in the body. The two forces jointly determine behavior in a familiar environment. In a novel environment, however, there is not yet an expectation; no incentive motivation is yet formed, and drive is the only force to cause behavior. The organism can be expected to manifest various responses until the goal-oriented responses emerge.

Once the organism achieves the goal, the reward stimuli elicit consummatory responses. Before the organism reaches the goal, the stimuli that antedate the goal would elicit responses; these are termed anticipatory goal responses. The anticipatory responses are based on the associational experience among the goal stimuli, the goal responses, and the situational stimuli present prior to reaching the goal. The anticipatory responses and their stimulus consequences provide the force of incentive motivation. Incentive refers to the expected amount of reward given certain behavior.

Though drive motivation and incentive motivation jointly determine behaviors, the importance of each differs for different behaviors. For example, bar-pressing behavior for drinking water by an animal in a Skinner box normally requires both drive motivation, induced by water deprivation, and the incentive motivation of a past experience of getting water. Under special conditions, however, the animal will press the bar to drink water even without being water deprived. In this case, drinking is no longer related to drive. This type of drinking is called nonhomeostatic drinking. Drinking a sweet solution, such as one containing sugar or saccharin, does not require any deprivation, so the behavior to get sweet solutions is based on incentive motivation alone. Under normal conditions, sexual behavior is elicited by external stimuli, so sexual drive is actually incentive motivation elicited from without.

Behavior and Incentives

Two experiments will illustrate how the concept of incentive motivation may be applied to explain behavior. Carl J. Warden of Columbia University conducted a study that is regarded as a classic. A rat was placed in the start box of a short runway, and a reward (food) was placed in its goal box at the other end. The food-deprived animal had to cross an electrified grid on the runway to reach the goal. When the animal reached the goal, it was repeatedly brought back to the start box. The number of times the animal would cross the grid in a twenty-minute period was recorded. It was found that the longer the food deprivation, the more times the animal crossed the grid, for up to about three days without food, after which the number decreased. The animal crossed only about two times with no food deprivation; however, the number increased to about seventeen at three days of food deprivation, then decreased to about seven at eight days without food. When the animal was water deprived, the animal crossed the grid about twenty times to the goal box containing water at one day without water. When the reward was an infant rat, a mother rat crossed about twenty times. A male rat crossed about thirteen times to a female rat after being sex deprived (without a female companion) for one day. A female rat in heat crossed thirteen times to a male rat. Even without any object in the goal box, the animal crossed about six times; Warden attributed this to a “novelty” reward. The reward variable in this experiment was the goal object, which was manipulated to fit the source of the drive induced by deprivation or hormonal state (as in an estrous female). The rat, placed in the start box, was induced by the goal.

Crespi Effect

The second study, conducted by Leo P. Crespi, established the concept of incentive motivation as an anticipatory response. He trained rats in a runway with different amounts of food and found that the animals reached different levels of performance. The speed of running was a function of the amount of reward: The more the food in the goal box, the faster the animal would run. There were three groups of rats. Group 1 was given 256 food pellets (about a full day’s ration) in the goal box; the animals would run at slightly over 1 meter (about 3.28 feet) per second after twenty training trials. Group 2 was given 16 pellets, and their speed was about 76 centimeters (2.5 feet) per second. Group 3 was given only 1 pellet, and the speed was about 15 centimeters (6 inches) per second.

When the speed became stable, Crespi shifted the amount of food. The rats in all groups were now given 16 pellets. The postshift speed eventually, but not immediately, settled to near that of the group originally given 16 pellets. An interesting transitional effect of so-called incentive contrast was observed. Immediately after the shift from the 256-pellet reward to the 16-pellet reward, the animal’s speed was much lower than the group continuously given the 16-pellet reward. Following the shift from the 1-pellet to the 16-pellet reward, however, the animal’s speed was higher than the group continuously given the 16-pellet reward. Crespi called these the elation effect and the depression effect, or the positive contrast effect and the negative contrast effect, respectively. Clark L. Hull and K. W. Spencer, two of the most influential theorists of motivation and learning, interpreted the Crespi effect as evidence of anticipatory responses. They theorized that the goal response had become conditioned to the runway stimuli such that the fractional goal responses were elicited. Because the responses occurred before the goal responses, they were anticipatory in nature. The fractional goal responses, along with their stimulus consequence, constitute the incentive motivation that would energize a learned associative potential to make it into a behavior.

Manipulation of Motivation

Incentive motivation has been manipulated in many other ways: the delay of reward presentation, the quality of the reward, and various partial reinforcement schedules. In relation to the delay variable, the sooner the reward presentation follows the responses, the more effective it is in energizing behavior, although the relationship is not linear. In the case of partial reinforcement, when the subject received a reward only part of the time, behavior was shown to be more resistant to extinction than when reward was delivered every time following a response; that is, following withdrawal of the reward, the behavior lasted longer when the reward was given only part of the time than when the reward was given every time following the response. The quality of the reward variable could be changed by, for example, giving a monkey a banana as a reward after it had been steadily given raisins. In Warden’s experiment, the various objects (water, food, male rat, female rat, or rat pup) placed in the goal box belong to the quality variable of incentive. Another incentive variable is how much effort a subject must exert to obtain a reward, such as climbing a slope to get to the goal versus running a horizontal path.

Intracranial Self-Stimulation

The term “ reinforcer” usually indicates any stimulus that would result in increasing the probability or magnitude of a response on its presentation following that response. When the response has reached its maximum strength, however, a reinforcer can no longer increase it; nevertheless, it has a maintenance effect. Without it, the response would soon cease. A reward reinforces and maintains a response. It is believed that the rewarding effects are mediated by the brain; the mechanism that serves as the substrate of the effects has been studied.

In a breakthrough experiment in this line of study, in 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner reported that a rat would press a bar repeatedly to stimulate certain areas of its brain. (If the bar press resulted in stimulation of certain other areas of the brain, the rat would not repeat the bar press.) Thus, this particular brain electrical stimulation has a rewarding effect. The phenomenon is termed intracranial self-stimulation. The rewarding effect is so powerful that the hungry animal would rather press the bar to stimulate its brain than eat. It has also been shown that animals will press a bar to self-inject cocaine, amphetamine, morphine, and many other drugs. The rewarding effect is so powerful that if rats or monkeys are given access to a bar that allows continuous self-administration of cocaine, they often die of an overdose. It is now known that the neurotransmitter involved in this rewarding effect, as well as in the rewarding effect of food, is dopamine, acting at the nucleus accumbens, a part of the limbic system in the brain. Addictions and drug-directed behaviors can be understood better because of studies related to the brain reward mechanism. This mechanism is defined as the rewarding effect of various stimuli, such as food, cocaine, and intracranial self-stimulation, as related to dopamine activity in the brain. Whether incentive motivation is mediated by the same brain mechanism can also be studied.

Achievement Motivation

In humans, achievement motivation
can be measured to predict what a subject would choose to do given tasks of different difficulty as well as how persevering the subject will be when he or she encounters failure. Achievement motivation is related to past experiences of rewards and failures to obtain a reward, so it becomes an incentive motivation of anticipating either success or failure to obtain a reward. Fear of failure is a negative motivational force; that is, it contributes negatively to achievement motivation. Those people with a strong fear of failure will choose easy tasks to ensure success, and on encountering failure they will give up quickly.

Unless an individual anticipates or believes that the effort will lead to some desired outcome, the person will not expend much effort. Expectancy theory
states that how much effort a person will expend depends on the expected outcome of the effort. If the expected outcome is positively correlated to the effort, the person will work as hard as possible. In a classroom setting, effort can be evaluated from a student’s attendance, note taking, and discussions with classmates or teachers. The expected outcome would be to earn a particular grade, as well as perhaps to obtain a scholarship, make the dean’s list, obtain a certain job, gain admission to graduate school, or gain respect from peers and parents. Unless the effort is perceived to be related to the outcome, little effort will be expended.

If one is expecting a big reward, one would work harder than if the reward were small. An Olympic gold medal is worth harder work than a school gold medal is. Anyone can affect other people’s behavior with proper incentive; behavior can be manipulated to promote learning in students and promote productivity in industry. The way incentive is used to promote productivity distinguishes the free enterprise system based on a market economy from a socialist society of controlled economy which is not based on market force. In a socialist economy, one’s reward is not based on the amount of one’s economic contribution; it is based on the degree of socialistic behavior. One’s political background, in terms of family, loyalty to the party, and “political consciousness,” are the things that matter most. It is difficult or impossible to predict, under this kind of reward situation, what kinds of activities will be reinforced and maintained. The expected outcome of an individual’s effort or behavior is the incentive motivation; teachers and managers must understand it to promote desired learning and production. For example, an employee will be motivated to perform certain tasks well by a pay raise only when he or she perceives the relationship between the effort and the raise. A student will be motivated to study only when he or she sees the relationship between the effort and the outcome.

Relationship to Pleasure

The concepts of incentive, reward, and reinforcement originated with the concept of pleasure, or hedonism. The assumption that a major motivation of behavior is the pursuit of pleasure has a long history. Epicurus, a fourth century b.c.e. Greek philosopher, asserted that pleasure is good and wholesome and that human life should maximize it. Later, Christian philosophers asserted that pleasure is bad and that if a behavior leads to pleasure it is most likely bad as well. John Locke, a seventeenth century British philosopher, asserted that behavior is based on maximizing anticipated pleasure. Whether a behavior would indeed lead to pleasure was another matter. Thus, Locke’s concept of hedonism became a behavioral principle. Modern incentive motivation, based on anticipation of reward, has the same tone as Locke’s behavioral principle. Both traditions involve the concepts of incentive and of reinforcement being a generator of behaviors.

There is a danger of circularity in this line of thought. For example, one may explain behavior in terms of it resulting in obtaining a reward, then explain or define reward in terms of behavior. There is no new understanding to be gained in such circular reasoning. Fortunately, there is an independent definition of the rewarding effect, in terms of the brain mechanism of reward. If this mechanism is related to pleasure, there could also be a definition of pleasure independent of behavior. Pleasure and reward are the motivating force, and anticipation of them is incentive motivation. Because it attracts people toward their sources, by manipulating the sources, the behavior can be predictably altered.

Bibliography

Bolles, Robert C. Theory of Motivation. 2d ed. New York: Harper, 1975. Print.

Comer, Ronald J., and Elizabeth Gould. Psychology Around Us. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.

Crespi, Leo P. “Quantitative Variation of Incentive and Performance in the White Rat.” American Journal of Psychology 55.4 (1942): 467–517. Print.

Deckers, Lambert. Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Environmental. 3d ed. Boston: Allyn, 2009. Print.

Green, Russell. Human Motivation: A Social Psychological Approach. Pacific Grove: Brooks, 1995. Print.

Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. Boston: Houghton, 1999. Print.

Liebman, Jeffrey M., and Steven J. Cooper, eds. The Neuropharmacological Basis of Reward. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

Logan, Frank A., and Douglas P. Ferraro. Systematic Analyses of Learning and Motivation. New York: Wiley, 1978. Print.

Olds, James, and Peter Milner. “Positive Reinforcement Produced by Electrical Stimulation of Septal Area and Other Regions of Rat Brain.” Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 47 (1954): 419–427. Print.

Ryan, Richard M. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Shah, James Y., and Wendi L. Gardner, eds. Handbook of Motivation Science. New York: Guilford, 2008. Print.

Warden, Carl John. Animal Motivation: Experimental Studies on the Albino Rat. New York: Columbia UP, 1931. Print.