What gave the US and the USSR superpower status?

There are at least two different ways in which to answer this.  First, we can say that it was military might that “gave” these two countries their status as superpowers.  Second, we can ask why it was that these two countries had so much more military might than any other country did.

In one sense, the answer to this is obvious.  The US and the USSR had superpower status because they were so much stronger than any other country.  They had larger militaries than most countries.  They had more and better military technology than other countries.  Together, these things meant that they were much stronger than anyone else.

But the more interesting question is why these countries ended up being stronger than anyone else.  First, they were stronger because they were geographically larger and had more resources. The USSR was the largest country in the world.  The United States was one of the largest.  Both countries were blessed with many natural resources.  Second, both countries were less damaged by WWII than other powerful countries had been.  The factories and other infrastructure of the US had been essentially untouched by the war.  The USSR had not been so lucky, but it did have large areas behind the Ural Mountains that had been untouched.  In addition, it was able to take machinery from Germany as part of its share of reparations.  Because these two countries were so much less damaged by the war, they were more able to create strong militaries.   Finally, both of these countries were strongly motivated to become superpowers because each needed to keep up with the other.  The US and the USSR saw one another as mortal enemies.  Therefore, each country knew that it could not let the other get ahead of it in terms of military technology.  This led to an arms race in which both countries built up their arsenals far beyond what any other countries felt they needed to do.

From this, we can see that a combination of factors led these two countries to become superpowers.  They had geographic size and wealth.  They sustained less damage during the war than other major powers.  They were more motivated to become powerful.  Because each had all three factors working for them, they became superpowers.

What is attitude-behavior consistency?

Introduction

Why does John go to see films often? Why will Sue not eat broccoli? Why does Mark read mystery novels? Why does Mary usually wear green? Most people would answer these questions by referring to the attitudes of the person in question. An attitude is defined as a positive or negative evaluation of a person, place, or thing. John goes to films because he likes them; Sue will not eat broccoli because she does not care for broccoli; Mark reads mystery novels because he enjoys them; and Mary wears green because it is her favorite color.

Social psychologists have found that most people routinely explain behavior in terms of underlying attitudes. People tend to believe that attitudes influence and are predictive of most behaviors. Despite these intuitive notions, however, research has suggested that attitudes in general are actually very limited predictors of behavior. There is generally not a high degree of consistency between people’s attitudes and their behaviors; in fact, the extent to which attitudes predict and are consistent with behavior appears to depend on a number of variables, including what type of behavior is to be predicted, how the attitude was formed, what kind of personality the person has, and how easily the attitude can be recalled.

Imagine that a researcher wanted to predict whether people regularly attend religious services. He or she might reasonably ask them about their attitudes toward organized religion, expecting that those with more favorable attitudes would be more likely to attend services regularly than those with less favorable attitudes. If the researcher did this, however, he or she would not be likely to find much correspondence at all between attitudes and behaviors.

The reason for this is that the researcher would be asking about a very general attitude and very specific behavior. For attitudes to predict behavior, both must be measured at the same level of specificity. If the researcher wants to predict a specific behavior, he or she needs to ask about an attitude specific to that behavior. In this example, rather than asking about general attitudes toward religion, the researcher should ask about attitudes toward attending religious services, which would be much more predictive of behavior. Attitudes that best predict behavior are attitudes about that specific behavior.

Sometimes, however, even specific attitudes will not correspond to specific behaviors. Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein’s theory of reasoned action proposes that attitudes toward a behavior are only one influence on behavior, and a second factor to consider is the subjective norm, which refers to individuals’ beliefs about what important others (for example, parents, teachers, or peers) think they should do. For some behaviors, the subjective norm is more important than attitude in predicting behavior. Even though someone might have a positive attitude toward attending religious services, he or she still might not go because of a belief that important others do not think that he or she should go.

Factors in Predicting Behavior

Even in the case of behaviors that are primarily influenced by attitude, there are other factors that determine the extent of that influence. One such factor is how the attitude was formed, which generally is in one of two ways. Attitudes may be based on direct, personal experience with the object or person in question; a person may dislike religious services because he or she attended a few and had a number of unpleasant experiences. Alternatively, attitudes may be based on indirect, secondhand experiences; a person may dislike services because of what he or she has read and heard about them. In general, attitudes based on direct experience are much more predictive of behavior than are attitudes based on indirect experience.

A second factor is the type of person someone is. According to psychologist Mark Snyder, when deciding how to behave in a social situation, some people look to the environment and try to be the type of person called for by the situation; they are known as high self-monitors. If the situation calls for a quiet, introverted person, they will be quiet and introverted. If the situation calls for a loud, extroverted person, they will be loud and extroverted. In contrast, low self-monitors look inside themselves and ask, “How do I feel right now?” They base their behavior on their feelings regardless of what is called for in the situation. If they feel like being introverted, they will be introverted; if they feel like being extroverted, they will be extroverted. As might be expected, low self-monitors display a higher degree of attitude-behavior consistency than do high self-monitors.

A third, and perhaps most important, factor is the ease with which an attitude can be recalled from memory, known as the degree of attitude accessibility. Simply put, the more accessible the attitude, the more likely it is that the attitude will predict behavior. Attitudes based on direct experience tend to be more accessible than attitudes based on indirect experience, and low self-monitors tend to have more accessible attitudes than do high self-monitors. In general, any factor that increases attitude accessibility increases the extent to which that attitude will guide future behavior.

Impact on Politics

One arena in which attitude-behavior consistency is an important concern is politics. Millions of dollars are spent on advertising during a political campaign in an effort to influence attitudes, in the hope that attitudes will then influence behavior. This raises the question of whether this money is well spent—that is, whether attitudes toward political candidates predict voting behavior.

To investigate this question, psychologists Russell Fazio and Carol Williams examined the relations between attitudes toward the two major-party candidates in the 1984 United States presidential election, Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, and various behaviors, such as perceptions of the televised presidential debates and voting. They assessed individuals’ attitudes toward the candidates in June and July of the election year. The presidential debates were held in October, the election in November. As it turned out, overall, attitudes were indeed very predictive of behaviors. Attitudes toward the candidates predicted reactions to the presidential debates, with Reagan supporters believing he was more impressive than Mondale and Mondale supporters believing the opposite. Attitudes also generally predicted voting behavior very well: those supporting Reagan tended to vote for him, and those supporting Mondale tended to vote for Mondale. Although it is impressive that attitudes assessed in the summer months predicted behaviors three and four months later, so far the results may not be very surprising.

Fazio and Williams did not only examine the relations between attitudes and behaviors, however. When they assessed individuals’ attitudes during the summer months, they also measured the accessibility of those attitudes—that is, how easily the subjects could call the attitudes to mind. To do this, they asked participants in their study to agree or disagree with different tape-recorded statements (for example, “A good president for the next four years would be Ronald Reagan”) as quickly as possible by pressing one of five buttons on a computer; the buttons represented “strongly agree,” “agree,” “neutral,” “disagree,” and “strongly disagree.” The computer then recorded how long it took the participants to respond after they heard the statements. Fazio and Williams reasoned that the more quickly people could respond, the more accessible their attitudes were.

Based on the results, Fazio and Williams classified some people as having highly accessible attitudes and others as having less accessible attitudes. When they then reexamined reactions to the presidential debates and voting behavior, they found that attitude-behavior consistency was much higher for those with highly accessible attitudes than for those with less accessible attitudes. That is, those with highly accessible attitudes were much more likely to act in a way consistent with their attitudes than were those with less accessible attitudes. For example, not everyone who agreed in June or July that Reagan would be a good president for the next four years voted for him in November. Those for whom this attitude could easily be brought to mind were much more likely to act on it and vote for Reagan than were those who had the same attitude but could not bring it to mind as quickly. It appears that, for attitudes to guide behavior successfully, they must be easily retrieved from memory.

Frequency of Attitude Expression

Two of the factors that influence the ease with which attitudes can be recalled have already been discussed: how the attitude was formed and whether one is a high or low self-monitor. An additional factor seems to be the number of times the attitude is expressed. In one study, students watched a videotape of five different puzzles and then expressed their interest in each of the puzzles. Some students were asked to express their attitudes once, while others were asked to express them three different times, on three different forms. When they were later asked to rate the puzzles along different dimensions as quickly as they could on a computer, just as in the voting study discussed above, those who had initially expressed their attitudes three times had quicker reaction times than those who had initially expressed their attitudes once, suggesting that repeated attitude expression makes attitudes more accessible. In a follow-up study, after students had seen the videotape of the puzzles and had expressed their attitudes toward them either one or three times, the researchers allowed the students actually to play with the puzzles. Attitudes toward the puzzles predicted playing behavior much better for those who had initially expressed their attitudes three times than for those who had initially expressed their attitudes once. The more often an attitude is expressed, the more accessible it becomes and the more likely it is to influence behavior.

Evolution of Attitude-Behavior Theories

The extent to which attitudes predict and influence behavior is at the heart of social psychology. At its inception, social psychology was defined as the study of attitudes, and although the importance of attitudes has waxed and waned as the field has matured, most social psychologists would still consider them to be a central concept.

In this context, one can imagine the shock that the social psychological community felt when, in 1969, A. W. Wicker published a review of numerous studies examining the relations between attitudes and behaviors that concluded that attitudes generally bear little relation to overt behavior and do not predict behavior well at all. At about the same time, a personality psychologist named Walter Mischel was making similar conclusions about personality traits, noting that in the research he reviewed, there did not seem to be much relationship between people’s personality traits and their behavior.

The reaction to Wicker’s review was mixed. Some called for social psychology to abandon attitudes as a focal point of research, arguing that, since the goal of any field of psychology is to predict behavior, if attitudes could not predict behavior, it would be foolish to spend more time and effort studying them. Others took a more optimistic approach to addressing what became known as the attitude-behavior problem; while Wicker’s review concluded that, on average, attitudes do not seem to predict behavior, in some of the studies he reviewed, attitudes did predict behavior quite well. The question for these researchers, then, was not whether attitudes predict behavior—because in some cases, they clearly do—but rather when and under what circumstances. As a result, in the 1970s and 1980s, considerable research was directed at identifying those factors that seemed to increase or decrease the degree of attitude-behavior consistency. It was these efforts that shed light on the role of direct experience and self-monitoring.

Bibliography

Ajzen, Icek, and Martin Fishbein. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1997. Print.

Elen, Maarten, et al. "The Influence of Mood on Attitude-Behavior Consistency." Journal of Business Research 66.7 (2013): 917–23. Print.

Fazio, Russell H. “How Do Attitudes Guide Behavior?” Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior. Ed. Richard M. Sorrentino and E. Tory Higgins. Vol. 1. New York: Guilford, 1986. 204–43. Print.

Fazio, Russell H., and Mark P. Zanna. “Direct Experience and Attitude-Behavior Consistency.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 14. Ed. Leonard Berkowitz. New York: Academic, 1981. Print.

Manning, Mark. "When We Do What We See: The Moderating Role of Social Motivation on the Relation between Subjective Norms and Behavior in the Theory of Planned Behavior." Basic and Applied Social Psychology 33.4 (2011): 351–64. Print.

Moraes, Caroline, Marylyn Carrigan, and Isabelle Szmigin. "The Coherence of Inconsistencies: Attitude-Behaviour Gaps and New Consumption Communities." Journal of Marketing Management 28.1/2 (2012): 103–28. Print.

Terry, Deborah J., and Michael A. Hogg, eds. Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Context: The Role of Norms and Group Membership. Mahwah: Erlbaum, 2000. Print.

van der Pligt, Joop, et al. “The Importance of Being Selective: Weighing the Role of Attribute Importance in Attitudinal Judgment.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 32. Ed. Mark P. Zanna. San Diego: Academic, 2000. Print.

Van Kerckhove, Anneleen, Iris Vermeir, and Maggie Geuens. "Combined Influence of Selective Focus and Decision Involvement on Attitude-Behavior Consistency in a Context of Memory-Based Decision Making." Psychology and Marketing 28.6 (2011): 539–60. Print.

Zanna, Mark P., E. Tory Higgins, and C. Peter Herman, eds. Consistency in Social Behavior: The Ontario Symposium. Vol. 2. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 1982. Print.

How does Romeo change during Act One?

The biggest change in Romeo's character occurs at the end of Act One, when he encounters Juliet at the Capulet family masque. To this point, he has been sullen and moping, heartbroken over his unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline who the audience does not meet. Rosaline, it seems, has not only rejected Romeo, but has sworn to remain chaste, refusing the attentions of all men. Romeo's cousin Benvolio and his friend Mercutio constantly try to cheer him up, and indeed this is their motive in encouraging him to go to the Capulet's ball in the first place. When he meets Juliet, his demeanor changes immediately. He is smitten with her at first sight, and determines at that moment that he will marry her. So at the beginning of the play, he is lovesick and depressed, and at the end he is again in love, this time for good.

In the book Night, what could Elie have done differently about his father's death?

While there was little Elie could have done to prevent his father's death, given how sick his father was, there was quite a bit that he could have done differently with regard to his reaction.

The text states that Elie did not pray or light candles (p. 106).  Both would have been acceptable; in fact, earlier in the book, the reader is introduced to the Mourner's Kaddish, a prayer said about, and over, the dead.  Elie did not have access to candles, but would have been able to recite the Kaddish had he chosen to.

Elie also did not cry.  He states that it "pained [him] that [he] could not weep," but concedes that he "had no more tears" (p. 106). He also admits that in some way, his dad's passing meant a greater freedom for him.  While he does not want to think that way, contemplating that freedom might have been some of the reason that he was unable to cry.  Thus, Elie has little to no outward reaction to his father's passing.

What are quotes that prove Atticus is a fair person in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Atticus is a morally upright individual who is fair and tolerant throughout the novel. Several scenes depict Atticus as a fair individual. In Chapter 9, Francis calls Atticus a "nigger-lover," and Scout punches him in the face. Uncle Jack quickly grabs Scout and spanks her for hitting Francis. When they arrive home, Scout tells Uncle Jack that he's not fair. She then says,

Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it—you just lit right into me. When Jem an' I fuss Atticus doesn't ever just listen to Jem's side of it, he hears mine too (Lee 54).

Scout's comment about how Atticus listens to both her and Jem's stories depicts his fair personality.

In Chapter 16, Atticus explains to Jem and Scout that Walter Cunningham is still a good person even though he attempted to lynch Tom Robinson. Atticus gives Walter the benefit of the doubt by saying,

Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man. . . he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us (Lee 97).

Atticus easily could have criticized Walter for his behavior, but Atticus is fair and blames Walter's decision to harm Tom Robinson on mob mentality.

What are natural treatments for mental and cognitive decline in the elderly?

Introduction

Alzheimer’s
disease is the most common cause of severe mental
deterioration (dementia) in the elderly. It has been estimated that 30 to
50 percent of people older than age eighty-five years have this condition. Its
cause is not known. However, microscopic examination of the brains of people who
have died of Alzheimer’s shows loss of cells in the thinking part of the brain,
particularly cells that release a chemical called acetylcholine.

Alzheimer’s begins with subtle symptoms, such as loss of memory for names and recent events. It progresses from difficulty learning new information to a few eccentric behaviors to depression, loss of spontaneity, and anxiety. Over the course of the disease, the person gradually loses the ability to carry out the activities of everyday life. Disorientation, asking questions repeatedly, and an inability to recognize friends are characteristics of moderately severe Alzheimer’s. Eventually, virtually all mental functions fail.

Alzheimer’s disease causes the volume of the brain to shrink substantially.

Similar symptoms may be caused by conditions other than Alzheimer’s disease,
such as multiple small strokes (called multi-infarct or vascular dementia), severe
alcoholism, and certain rarer causes. It is critical to begin with an examination
to discover what is causing the symptoms of mental decline. Various treatable
conditions, such as depression, can mimic the symptoms of
dementia.

Four drugs have shown at least modest benefit for Alzheimer’s disease or non-Alzheimer’s dementia: Reminyl, Exelon, Aricept, and Cognex. These medications usually produce a modest improvement in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease by increasing the duration of action of acetylcholine. However, they can sometimes cause severe side effects because of the exaggeration of acetylcholine’s action in other parts of the body.

Principal Proposed Natural Treatments

There are two natural treatments for Alzheimer’s disease with significant scientific evidence behind them: Ginkgo biloba and phosphatidylserine. Huperzine A and vinpocetine, while more like drugs than natural remedies, may also improve mental function in people with dementia. Acetyl-L-carnitine was once considered a promising option for this condition too, but evidence suggests that it does not work.

Ginkgo biloba. The best-established herbal treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is the herb Ginkgo biloba. Numerous high quality double-blind, placebo-controlled studies indicate that ginkgo is effective for treating various forms of dementia. One of the largest studies was a 1997 trial in the United States that enrolled more than three hundred people with Alzheimer’s disease or non-Alzheimer’s dementia. Participants were given 40 milligrams (mg) of either ginkgo extract or a placebo three times daily for fifty-two weeks. The results showed significant but not entirely consistent improvements in the treated group.

Another study published in 2007 followed four hundred people for twenty-two weeks and used twice the dose of ginkgo employed in the foregoing study. The results of this trial indicated that ginkgo was significantly superior to placebo. The areas in which ginkgo showed the most marked superiority compared with placebo included “apathy/indifference, anxiety, irritability/lability, depression/dysphoria and sleep/nighttime behavior.”

One fairly large study of ginkgo extract drew headlines for concluding that ginkgo is ineffective. This twenty-four-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 214 participants with either mild to moderate dementia or ordinary age-associated memory loss found no effect with ginkgo extract at a dose of 240 or 160 mg daily. However, this study has been sharply criticized for a number of serious flaws in its design. In another community-based study among 176 elderly persons with early-stage dementia, researchers found no beneficial effect for 120 mg of ginkgo extract given daily for six months.

The ability of ginkgo to prevent or delay a decline in cognitive function is
less clear. In a placebo-controlled trial of 118 cognitively intact adults age
eighty-five years or older, ginkgo extract seemed to effectively slow the decline
in memory function during a forty-two-month period. The researchers also reported
a higher incidence of stroke in the group that took ginkgo, a
finding that requires more investigation.

In a 2009 review of thirty-six randomized trials involving 4,423 persons with declining mental function (including dementia), researchers concluded that ginkgo appears safe but added that there is inconsistent evidence of its effectiveness.

Phosphatidylserine. Phosphatidylserine is one of the many substances involved in the structure and maintenance of cell membranes. Double-blind studies involving more than one thousand people suggest that phosphatidylserine is an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

The largest of these studies followed 494 elderly persons in northeastern Italy for six months. All had moderate to severe mental decline, as measured by standard tests. Treatment consisted of 300 mg daily of either phosphatidylserine or placebo. The group that took phosphatidylserine did significantly better in both behavior and mental function than the placebo group. Symptoms of depression also improved.

These results agree with those of numerous smaller double-blind studies involving more than five hundred people with Alzheimer’s and other types of age-related dementia. However, the form of phosphatidylserine available as a supplement has altered since the studies described above were performed, and the available form may not be equivalent.

Huperzine A. Huperzine A is a chemical derived from a particular
type of club moss (Huperzia serrata). Like caffeine and cocaine,
huperzine A is a medicinally active, plant-derived chemical that belongs to the
class known as alkaloids. This substance is really more a drug than an
herb, but it is sold over-the-counter as a dietary supplement for memory loss and
mental impairment.

According to three Chinese double-blind trials enrolling more than 450 people, the use of huperzine A can significantly improve symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. However, one double-blind trial failed to find evidence of benefit, but it was a relatively small study. In a review of six randomized, controlled trials, researchers concluded that, on balance, huperzine A is probably of some benefit in Alzheimer’s disease, but the variable quality of these studies weakens this conclusion.

Vinpocetine. Vinpocetine is a chemical derived from vincamine, a constituent found in the leaves of common periwinkle (Vinca minor) and in the seeds of various African plants. It is used as a treatment for memory loss and mental impairment.

Developed in Hungary, vinpocetine is sold in Europe as a drug called Cavinton. In the United States, it is available as a dietary supplement, although the substance probably does not fit that category. Vinpocetine does not exist to any significant extent in nature. Producing it requires significant chemical work performed in the laboratory.

Several double-blind studies have evaluated vinpocetine for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. Most of these studies had significant flaws in design and reporting. A review of the literature found three studies of acceptable quality, enrolling 583 people. Perhaps the best of these was a sixteen-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 203 people with mild to moderate dementia that found significant benefit in the treated group. However, even this trial had several technical limitations, and the authors of the review concluded that vinpocetine cannot be regarded as a proven treatment.

Acetyl-L-carnitine. Carnitine is a vitamin-like substance that is often used for angina, congestive heart failure, and other heart conditions. A special form of carnitine, acetyl-L-carnitine, has been extensively tested for the treatment of dementia; double-blind or single-blind studies involving more than fourteen hundred people have been reported.

While early studies found evidence of modest benefit, two large and well-designed studies failed to find acetyl-L-carnitine effective. The first of these was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that enrolled 431 people for one year. Overall, acetyl-L-carnitine proved no better than placebo. However, because a close look at the data indicated that the supplement might help people who develop Alzheimer’s disease at an unusually young age, researchers performed a follow-up trial. This one-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluated acetyl-L-carnitine in 229 persons with early-onset Alzheimer’s. No benefits were seen here either.

One review of literature interpreted the cumulative results to mean that acetyl-L-carnitine may be mildly helpful for mild Alzheimer’s disease. However, another review concluded that if acetyl-L-carnitine does offer benefits for any form of Alzheimer’s disease, they are too minor to make much of a practical difference.

Other Proposed Natural Treatments

Two small double-blind studies performed by a single research group found evidence that the herbs sage and lemon balm can improve cognitive function in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

One study found that vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol) may
slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, but another study did not. Another,
large study failed to find that the use of vitamin E reduced the risk of general
mental decline (whether caused by Alzheimer’s or not) in women older than age
sixty-five years. Preliminary evidence suggests that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) might
also be helpful for slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Lavender oil used purely as aromatherapy (treatment involving
inhaling essential oils) has been advocated for reducing agitation in people with
dementia; however, people with dementia tend to lose their sense of smell, making
this approach seem somewhat unlikely to work. Topical use of essential oil of the
herb lemon balm has also shown promise for reducing agitation in people with
Alzheimer’s disease; the researchers who tested it considered their method
aromatherapy because the fragrance wafts up from the skin, but essential oils are
also absorbed through the skin; this mechanism of action seems more plausible.
Oral use of lemon balm extract has also shown promise.

Drugs used for Alzheimer’s disease affect levels of acetylcholine in the body. The body makes acetylcholine out of the nutrient choline. On this basis, supplements containing choline or the related substance phosphatidylcholine have been proposed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, but the results of studies have not been positive. One special form of choline, however, has shown more promise. In a six-month double-blind study of 261 people with Alzheimer’s disease, the use of choline alfoscerate at a dose of 400 mg three times daily significantly improved cognitive function compared with placebo. Colistrinin, a substance derived from colostrum, has shown some promise for the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

Bee pollen, carnosine, citrulline, 2-dimethylaminoethanol, inositol, magnesium, pregnenolone, vitamin B1, and zinc have also been suggested as treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. However, there is no reliable scientific evidence to support their use. Elevated blood levels of the substance homocysteine have been suggested as a contributor to Alzheimer’s disease and multi-infarct dementia. However, a double-blind, placebo-controlled study failed to find that homocysteine-lowering treatment using B vitamins was helpful for multi-infarct dementia. Similarly, two studies failed to find benefits in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In another study, a mixture of B vitamins did not improve the quality of life in people with mild cognitive impairment of various causes. Early reports suggested that declining levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) cause impaired mental function in the elderly. On this basis, DHEA has been promoted as a cognition-enhancing supplement. However, the one double-blind study that tested DHEA for Alzheimer’s disease found little to no benefit. Studies of fish oil have failed to find it helpful for Alzheimer’s disease, whether for delaying its onset, slowing its progression, or improving its symptoms.

In a sizable Danish trial, researchers investigated the effects of
melatonin and light therapy (bright light exposure
during daylight hours) on mood, sleep, and cognitive decline in elderly persons,
most of whom had dementia. They found that melatonin 2.5 mg, given nightly for an
average of fifteen months, slightly improved quality of sleep, but it worsened
mood. Melatonin apparently had no significant effect on cognition. Light therapy
alone slightly decreased cognitive and functional decline and improved mood.
Combining melatonin with light therapy improved mood and quality of sleep.

Bibliography

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Freund-Levi, Y., et al. “Omega-3 Supplementation in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease: Effects on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms.” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 23 (2008): 161-169.

Holmes, C., et al. “Lavender Oil as a Treatment for Agitated Behaviour in Severe Dementia.” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 17 (2002): 305-308.

Jia, X., G. McNeill, and A. Avenell. “Does Taking Vitamin, Mineral, and Fatty Acid Supplements Prevent Cognitive Decline?” Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 21 (2008): 317-336.

Kang, J. H., et al. “A Randomized Trial of Vitamin E Supplementation and Cognitive Function in Women.” Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (2006): 2462-2468.

Li, J., et al. “Huperzine A for Alzheimer’s Disease.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2008): CD005592. Available through EBSCO DynaMed Systematic Literature Surveillance at http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed.

Riemersma-Van der Lek, R. F., et al. “Effect of Bright Light and Melatonin on Cognitive and Noncognitive Function in Elderly Residents of Group Care Facilities.” Journal of the American Medical Association 299 (2008): 2642-2655.

Snow, L. A., L. Hovanec, and J. Brandt. “A Controlled Trial of Aromatherapy for Agitation in Nursing Home Patients with Dementia.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 10 (2004): 431-437.

Sun, Y., et al. “Efficacy of Multivitamin Supplementation Containing Vitamins B(6) and B(12) and Folic Acid as Adjunctive Treatment with a Cholinesterase Inhibitor in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Clinical Therapeutics 29 (2007): 2204-2214.

What is the purpose of chapter four in Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild?

In chapter four of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, the author is able to trace the early adventures of Chris McCandless from the time he leaves Atlanta until he "entered Las Vegas with no money and no ID." Much of McCandless's travels at this time were recorded by Chris in a "journal-snapshot album" which he eventually left with Wayne Westerberg. Chris first travels into the Lake Mead area of Nevada before "tramping" through much of California, Arizona and even into the northern canals of Mexico which he paddles through in an aluminum canoe. Along the way he meets people such as "Crazy Ernie" and Jan Burres, who he would stay in touch with for two years. At the end of the chapter, he is back in Nevada.

The main purpose of the chapter is to chronicle Chris's symbolic abandoning of the trappings of civilization and his attempt to seek out a "life...shaped by circumstance." During this period, he sheds most of his important material possessions, including his beloved Datsun when it becomes inoperable after a flash flood near Lake Mead, many of his clothes, a guitar, and several incidentals. Krakauer writes that Chris "saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed unnecessary baggage." Not content with abandoning material objects, Chris also burns all of his money "in a gesture that would have done both Thoreau and Tolstoy proud." Chris apparently relished this carefree life even if for most of the time he was hungry and alone. This content with such a life would later lead Chris to journey into the Alaska wilderness with little more than the shirt on his back. Krakauer uses a quote by James Joyce, describing Stephen Dedalus (from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), to sum up what Chris was like:

"He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wild hearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish water and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight." 

What is the significance of the symbol of the broken cage door in Trifles?

The broken cage door signifies that Mr. Wright brutally snatched the canary out in order to stop its singing. This act symbolizes his invasion of the last refuge Mrs. Wright has from the cruelty of her husband.

Much like the little songbird, Minnie Foster Wright has loved to sing. But, because she lives on a remote farm, Mrs. Wright no longer sings in the choir as she did before she was married. So, when she is able to acquire a canary, Minnie Wright finds solace in listening to its lovely songs. Then, when it is ripped out of its cage and strangled, Mrs. Wright herself probably feels a symbolic strangulation of her spirit as her desperate loneliness overpowers her.

MRS HALE. If there'd been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful--still after the bird was still.

While the broken cage door signifies the brutality of Mr. Wright, as well as his cold inattention to Mrs. Wright's feelings, it also signifies how he has no respect for her property and what she holds dear.

If Snowball ,from Animal Farm, had come back to make a speech for the animals to join his side instead of Napoleon's, what would he have said?

If Snowball had come back to make such a speech, he no doubt would have emphasized how far Napoleon had deviated from the ideals of Animal Farm. Soon after the animal uprising, Napoleon and the other pigs (which in the early stages, we must remember, included Snowball himself) quickly began to give themselves special privileges, which included milk and apples in their mash. By the end of the book, of course, they are indistinguishable from the humans, wearing clothes, walking upright, gambling, and drinking. Snowball would probably have decried all this as contrary to Animalism, which he played a major role in developing after Old Major's death. He also would perhaps have cited his role in the uprising itself, particularly his valor in battle against the humans, both of which Squealer downplayed after Snowball's exile. Perhaps he would have emphasized his role in planning the windmill, a project which Napoleon adopted as his own after opposing it when Snowball proposed it. In sum, he would probably restate his commitment to the ideals of Animalism and suggest that by following him, they might return to the original purpose of Animal Farm.

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, what do the children wear after Mr. Tate finds Miss Tutti and Miss Frutti's furniture in their cellar?

The event surrounding Miss Tutti and Miss Fruitti is discussed in Chapter 27. Their names are actually Sarah and Frances Barber, but because they are Yankees who moved to Maycomb, Republicans, sisters and deaf old maids, they become the brunt of local jokes. Also, the two deaf sisters built a cellar, the only one in Maycomb, and they brag about it too much. So some local children decided to play a trick on Miss Tutti and Miss Frutti after the sisters fell asleep. The kids walked into their unlocked home and moved all the furniture down to the cellar. 

Sheriff Tate was called in the next morning, of course. The sisters declared that they heard Syrians run off with their furniture and demanded that the dogs be summoned to round up the perpetrators. As a result, the children of the town, who normally run around barefoot, all wore their shoes that day as a way to throw the hounds off their scents. The children must have all been barefoot on the night that they moved the furniture down to the cellar, so that wearing shoes would cover up their foot odor and trick the hounds. Scout recounts the following:

"By noontime that day, there was not a barefooted child to be seen in Maycomb and nobody took off his shoes until the hounds were returned" (252).

In Macbeth, Lennox may be said to be extremely careful in his speech. Why is he so cautious in what he says? What, if anything, could be...

Lennox was introduced in Act II, Scene 3, when he came with Macduff to wake King Duncan and was standing outside the King's chamber trying to make conversation with Macbeth when Macduff discovered the murdered body. At that time Lennox's dialogue characterized him as very young and naive. He was obviously starting out in his career as a courtier and soldier. Then he dropped out of sight until Act III, Scene 6. Shakespeare uses this character very adroitly to show that a lot of time has passed and that there have been a lot of changes in the country under Macbeth's rule. Lennox has become much older and wiser. He has learned to talk ironically, often saying the exact opposite of what he means. The effect is to show the audience that Macbeth is a villain and has become a tyrant. Macbeth rules by fear, not unlike Hitler in Nazi Germany, or Stalin in Soviet Russia, or Robespierre during the French Revolution. Macbeth has spies everywhere, even acting as servants in private households. One might estimate that something like eight or ten years have passed since Macbeth murdered Duncan and was crowned king. The whole country lives in fear. Everyone has to watch what he says, because if he says the wrong thing and it gets back to Macbeth, he could disappear and never be heard from again.

In Act IV, Scene 3, Ross, who is newly arrived in England, will describe conditions in Scotland in more explicit language to both Macduff and Malcolm: 

Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave. Where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air,
Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy. The dead man's knell
Is there scarce ask'd for who, and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.

Lennox is only saying, in closely guarded language, what everyone now knows. Macbeth murdered Duncan. He had Banquo murdered by agents and tried to have Fleance murdered along with his father. Macbeth would love to get his hands on Malcolm, Donalbain, and Fleance so that he could have them executed. He would accuse Malcolm and Donalbain of bribing Duncan's attendants to kill him in his sleep, and he is quite capable of accusing Fleance of being responsible for his father Banquo's murder.

Shakespeare frequently uses scenes like III.6 to convey information to his audience. The most important news comes from the unidentified Lord when Lennox concludes his monologue and asks:

I hear Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

The Lord informs Lennox, and the audience, that Macduff is living at the English court with Duncan's son Malcolm, who fled there after his father's assassination. Both are trying to persuade King Edward to help them overthrow the tyrant Macbeth and install Malcolm as King of Scotland. This foreshadows the climax, in which an army of 10,000 English soldiers and Scottish defectors with Malcolm and Macduff in their vanguard invade Macbeth's realm and Macduff kills Macbeth in hand-to-hand combat.

Describe the 105 North Tower in A Tale of Two Cities.

In Chapter 21 ("XXI,") as the men make their way to the cell known as "One Hundred and Five, North Tower," the mood is tense and spooky. They enter the room, and here's the narrator's direct description of the cell and of what the men discover there:

There was a small, heavily-grated, unglazed window high in the wall, with a stone screen before it, so that the sky could be only seen by stooping low and looking up. There was a small chimney, heavily barred across, a few feet within. There was a heap of old feathery wood ashes on the hearth. There were a stool, and table, and a straw bed. There were the four blackened walls, and a rusted iron ring in one of them.

“Pass that torch slowly along these walls, that I may see them,” said Defarge to the turnkey.

The man obeyed, and Defarge followed the light closely with his eyes.

“Stop!—Look here, Jacques!”

“A. M.!” croaked Jacques Three as he read greedily.

“Alexandre Manette,” said Defarge in his ear, following the letters with his swart forefinger, deeply engrained with gunpowder. “And here he wrote ‘a poor physician.’ And it was he, without doubt, who scratched a calendar on this stone...”

So what we know about the cell known as the 105 North Tower is, for certain, that it's a creepy place where someone has been held captive for some time. The most interesting thing about the room is the marks left behind by the prisoner: there were the initials carved into the wall ("A. M.") and the phrase carved below that was "a poor physician." There was also a calendar that was scratched onto a stone, which makes sense: someone imprisoned would be interested in keeping track of the days as they go by, especially if he had nothing else to do.

Beyond those interesting features of the cell, we also learn from the narration that it's a claustrophobic kind of place. There's only one tiny window, and you have to scoot yourself into an awkward position to see out of it; there's a stone screen blocking your view, and all you can see is the sky anyway. There's a fireplace, which kind of sounds nice, but this one is barred up and all ashy. There's furniture, but it's really sparse and basic: just a table and a stool, plus a bed made out of straw (really cheap, really uncomfortable material). And finally, all four of the walls are blackened. Taken together, these details convey an image of a creepy prison cell.

How are the themes of revenge, nemesis, and death interrelated in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Hamlet wants to get revenge on his nemesis, Claudius, for killing his father.

A nemesis is an enemy, but it is usually used to refer to an enemy of a personal nature.  When Hamlet learns that his father was killed by Claudius, he is horrified.  This information comes from his father’s ghost.

Ghost

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET

Murder!

Ghost

Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET

Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge. (Act 1, Scene 5)

Hamlet’s ghost wants Hamlet to avenge his death.  Hamlet is already angry at his uncle for marrying his mother.  It is even worse to learn that he accomplished that by killing Hamlet’s father.  The idea of killing him in revenge makes sense.

Hamlet has a little bit of a hard time getting revenge for his father.  He concocts an elaborate plan, which involves Hamlet pretending he is crazy and trying to get his uncle to incriminate himself by staging a play with a similar plot to the murder of Hamlet’s father.

The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. (Act 2, Scene 2)

That doesn’t really work, if Hamlet expected Claudius to jump up and confess.  Eventually, Hamlet does get revenge on his nemesis, but at great cost.  In a duel with Ophelia’s brother, Hamlet is killed along with his uncle and his mother.  Everyone is poisoned, either by the sword or the drink.  Nothing goes quite as planned, but Hamlet's father is avenged.

In 1984, what were the circumstances that allowed the first conversation between Winston and Julia?

Winston and Julia speak for the first time in Part Two, Chapter One. Winston is at work in the Ministry of Truth and is returning from the lavatory cubicle when he sees a "solitary figure" walking towards him. He quickly realises that the figure is the "dark-haired girl" (Julia) and he notices that her arm is in a sling. Suddenly, as she gets closer to him, she stumbles and falls down, landing on her injured arm and calling out in pain. It is when Winston goes over to help her that the pair have their first conversation:

"You’re hurt?" he said.

"It’s nothing. My arm. It’ll be all right in a second."

Moreover, after Winston has helped her up, he realises that she has slipped a secret note into his hand. It is this encounter and the contents of that note which bring Winston and Julia together.

What is bioterrorism?

Definition

Bioterrorism, or biological terrorism, is the intentional release of bacteria or viruses into a civilian population to harm that population and, thereby, achieve a political or social end.

Biological Agents

Found in nature, biological agents threaten human populations when terrorists engineer these agents for release. The agents are cultivated to make them more resistant to medicines and vaccines and more easily transmitted in a population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States classifies biological terror agents by their likelihood for use by terrorist groups and by their risk to a population. The CDC groups bioterrorism agents into categories A, B, and C.

Category A Agents

Cited as highest priority are category A agents, which are rare in the United States. These agents are easily transmitted and would cause a high death rate and would demand a proactive public health preparedness strategy. A agents include anthrax (Bacillus anthracis ), botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin), plague (Yersinia pestis ), smallpox (Variola major ), tularemia (Francisella tularensis ), and viral hemorrhagic fever filoviruses, such as Ebola and Marburg, and arenaviruses, such as Lassa and Machupo.

Anthrax. An anthrax infection is triggered by B. anthracis, a bacterium
that forms spores, or dormant cells that reawaken under certain conditions. There
are three types of anthrax infection: those that involve the skin (cutaneous), the
lungs (inhalation), and the digestive tract (gastrointestinal). Anthrax does not
spread from person to person. People normally contract an anthrax infection by
handling or ingesting infected animal products. Symptoms can appear within seven
days. For cutaneous anthrax infection, symptoms include the appearance of
nonpainful skin blisters with a black area in the center. For gastrointestinal
anthrax, symptoms are nausea, loss of appetite, bloody diarrhea, fever, and
stomach pain. For inhalation anthrax, symptoms are similar to those of a common
cold: significant chest congestion and shortness of breath.

Botulism
. Spread by the bacterium C. botulinum, botulism is a muscle-paralyzing disease. It is not spread from person to person. People normally contract botulism from infected food or from an infected wound. Infants can contract the disease from the presence of the bacterium in their digestive tract. The food-borne form of botulism has a potential for becoming a public health emergency, as the toxin can contaminate large amounts of food. After ingesting the toxin, symptoms of double vision, dry mouth, slurred speech, and muscle weakness appear. Gradually, paralysis spreads throughout the body. Though most treated persons recover within weeks, untreated persons can die from paralysis of the breathing muscles.

Plague
. Caused by the Y. pestis bacterium, plague originates with rodents and their fleas. Though bubonic plague is transmitted through a rodent or flea bite, pneumonic plague can be transmitted through the air from person to person or through a deliberate aerosol release. Once exposed, a person experiences symptoms within one to six days that include cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, and abdominal pain. Plague is diagnosed through blood, sputum, or lymph-node aspirate sampling and is treated with antibiotics. Untreated, plague results in respiratory failure.

Smallpox
. The two forms of smallpox are V. major, which is severe and most common, and the less common and less deadly V. minor. The four types of V. major smallpox are ordinary, modified, flat, and hemorrhagic. Ordinary V. major, causing 90 percent of known cases, has a fatality rate of 30 percent, according to the CDC. The flat and hemorrhagic types are rare and usually fatal. Humans are the only known carriers of smallpox, and they spread the disease to others through close personal contact. Following an incubation period of seven to seventeen days, an infected person becomes contagious and experiences fever, head and body aches, and a rash of small red spots (first in the mouth and throat, then over the entire body). The last known case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949, and the last known case worldwide was in Somalia in 1977. The Variola virus exists only in science laboratories.

Tularemia
. Tularemiais caused by the bacterium F. tularensis, which is found in rodents and rabbits. A human contracts the disease upon being bitten by an infected tick or fly, by handling an infected carcass, by ingesting contaminated food or water, or by inhaling the airborne bacteria. Appearing within three to five days after exposure, symptoms include spiked fever, chills, headache, diarrhea, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough, and weakness. Tularemia is treated with antibiotics.

Viral hemorrhagic fevers. Filovirus viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs), such as Ebola and Marburg, and arenavirus VHFs, such as
Lassa and Machupo, are known by the CDC as severe multisystem syndrome diseases.
VHFs attack multiple systems of the body, an attack accompanied by bleeding.
Persons experience symptoms of fever, achiness, and fatigue before seeing bleeding
under the skin and from the mouth, eyes, and ears. VHF may progress to nervous
system damage or kidney failure. Initially transmitted from contact with rodents
and their bodily excretions or by mosquito or tick bites, some VHFs (as Ebola,
Marburg, and Lassa) can spread through human-to-human contact. Though there is no
direct treatment for VHFs, the antiviral drug ribavirin is sometimes administered
to persons with a VHF disease.

Category B Agents

Ranked by the CDC as second highest priority, category B agents are moderately
easy to transmit and result in lower mortality rates. B agents include
brucellosis (Brucella
species); epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens
; food safety threats (Salmonella
, Escherichia coli
, and Shigella
); glanders (Burkholderia mallei
); melioidosis (B. pseudomallei); psittacosis (Chlamydophila psittaci
); Q fever (Coxiella burnetii
); ricin toxin from Ricinus communis
(castor beans); staphylococcal enterotoxin B; typhus fever (Rickettsia prowazekii
); viral encephalitis Alphaviruses, such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis,
eastern equine
encephalitis, and western equine encephalitis; and
water-safety threats, such as Vibrio cholerae
and Cryptosporidium parvum
.

Category C Agents

The agents with the third highest priority are those in category C; they
include emerging pathogens. Newly discovered diseases such as nipah virus and hantavirus infections are in category C and are rated according to
availability, ease of production, and potential for causing death.

History of Biological Weapons

At the end of the nineteenth century, scientists discovered a link between microorganisms and the outbreak of illness. They began to understand how diseases are spread through air, food, and water supplies, person-to-person contact, and insect bites. Upon uncovering these facts, scientists rapidly found ways to protect people against the outbreak of several diseases.

By the early twentieth century, some Western governments began to explore the harvesting and use of biological agents for use as weapons. In World War I, Germany undertook the first-known state-sponsored biological weapons program, deliberately infecting the horses and mules of enemy forces. In the 1920s, the French conducted research in biological weapon aerosols, increasing research in the mid-1930s.

In 1942, American biologists Theodor Rosebury and Elvin A. Kabot noted that B. anthracis, in its dormant-spore state, can easily be used as a biological weapon. The spores can withstand disbursement in hot or cold environments. Viewing this pathogen as a potential threat, Rosebury and Kabot recommended the development of an anthrax vaccine. They also described how plague bacillus, if freeze-dried, could also be weaponized in an aerosol. As a result of Rosebury and Kabot’s findings on the potential for use of biological weapons, Allied soldiers were administered antibiotics and vaccines during World War II.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States prompted a surge in support and funding for defense against bioterror threats. This support and funding led to the development of technologies for detecting airborne threats and for treatment of disease caused by bioterror attacks. In Biological Weapons (2005), Jeanne Guillemin writes that the establishment of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003 “far outweighed the diffuse, decentralized domestic preparedness project of the previous decade.”

Threats

The Homeland Security Act of November 25, 2003, incorporated the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which immediately dedicated resources to investigate the
threat of biological terrorism. FEMA concluded that three groups of biological
agents could be used as weapons: bacteria, viruses, and toxins. Though terrorists
may choose biological warfare over other tactics, most known agents are difficult
to cultivate and are quickly destroyed once exposed to dry air and sunlight. For
example, though the airborne spread of plague is possible, Y.
pestis bacteria survive up to one hour only once released. Some
agents, like the smallpox virus, are spread only through human contact, while
others, like anthrax, infect only those exposed to a primary source of the germs.
However, terrorists could choose to release germs that infect animals bred for
human consumption or could choose to contaminate water supplies.

In December 2008, a bipartisan panel commissioned by the US Congress to analyze the threat of unconventional weapons warned that, unless the international community commits to preventive measures and additional security, “it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.” The panel called for the strengthening of international organizations dedicated to preventing unconventional warfare, to improving rapid-response and bioforensic capabilities, to heightening security at research institutions housing biological pathogens, and to forming an international conference on biosecurity. Notably, the report concluded that weaponizing biological agents is extremely difficult and likely outside the range of capabilities for a rogue, non-state-supported group. Before leaving office in January 2009, US president George W. Bush signed an executive order on laboratory biosecurity that established an interagency body dedicated to regulating and overseeing research programs and laboratories.

The warning about the potential for breaching the security of state-sponsored programs relates to lessons learned following events in 2001, when anthrax was spread through an infected powder sent with letters through the US postal system. The anthrax-laced letters were targeted to persons in media and politics, resulting in twenty-two documented cases of anthrax infection. Analysis of the infected letters pointed to the Ames strain, the form grown and studied in the US program. A federal investigation later identified the anthrax source as the laboratory of Bruce Ivins of the US Army research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Federal agencies and politicians continue to incorporate the threat of biological terrorism into national security regulations and policies. The next-generation threat to US security is lax security at labs researching diseases that could be cultivated for biological weapons. In mid-October 2010, Jacek Bylica, head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Centre of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said that the spread of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery, and the chance that terrorists will acquire them are major, significant threats. In November, bioterrorism security concerns were again raised when US senator Richard G. Lugar and Pentagon officials visited Uganda’s ministry of agriculture, animals, industry, and fisheries. Discovered there were research specimens of anthrax and the Ebola and Marburg viruses, stored in an unlocked refrigerator in an unsecured building.

Government watchdogs have also continued to audit the BioWatch program that was put in place by the DHS two years after the anthrax attacks of 2001. The second adaptation of the system has been in place since 2005 and consists of aerosol collectors positioned in thirty cities across the country designed to detect pathogens that could signal the threat of a biological attack. Filters must be manually removed and checked for the presence of pathogens regularly. Because this process has proved time consuming, by 2015 the DHS had proposed instituting a more automated system. However, such plans were put on hold and the system was once again questioned after the Government Accountability Office released a report stating that the costly system had not yet proven its current capabilities and had recorded several false positives since 2003.

Response

In response to the threat of bioterrorism, the DHS works to determine the agents that are easiest to grow and deliberately release and seeks to develop methods for identifying the natural outbreak of a disease from a bioterrorism attack. In 2004, the DHS established the Knowledge Center, which provides a collaborative forum for experts in biological pathogens and political terrorism to share information and assess bioterror threats.

The CDC and the American Red Cross prepare populations for a bioterrorism attack through multimedia educational programs that urge families to store supplies, that show how to detect signs and symptoms of biological terror agents, and that show how to deal with exposure to suspected biological agents, among other topics. According to FEMA, optimal prevention against a bioterrorism attack includes installing a high-efficiency particulate-air filter in furnaces and ensuring that recommended immunizations are updated for all persons.

In preparation for a possible aerosol attack of the pneumonic plague agent or the tularemia agent, national and state health centers have stockpiled antibiotics. The CDC also maintains an antitoxin to treat botulism. Though there have been no known cases of smallpox since 1977, and routine vaccination against the disease has been discontinued, the United States now secures research and treatment stockpiles of the Variola virus. No plague vaccine is available in the United States, but research for such a vaccine continues.

Prevention

A June 2010 report from the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center stated that from 2008 through 2010, government spending to support biodefense programs increased. Bioterrorism prevention and intervention are top priorities, according to Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who, in early 2010, announced a new national health security strategy of focusing resources on first-responder teams and front-line health care. On October 7, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced its investment of $68 million in research projects for the development of vaccines to protect against biological terror. These projects include those looking into a needle-free dengue vaccine, an orally administered anthrax vaccine, and an anthrax vaccine administered with an adjuvant to stimulate the immune system. On November 5, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the HHS awarded Northrop Grumman a one-year contract to develop a biodefense system to allow first-responders to rapidly screen and triage persons exposed to a biological agent.

Impact

Because there have been few incidents of bioterrorism, there is little historical data on its impact. However, scientific predictions about likely effects on populations have led to response strategies and to investment in prevention and detection technologies.

Bibliography

Guillemin, Jeanne. Biological Weapons. New York: Columbia UP, 2005. Print.

Isikoff, Michael. “The Case Still Isn’t Closed.” Newsweek 18 Aug. 2008: 152. Print.

Kron, Josh. “Uganda Seen as a Front Line in the Bioterrorism Fight.” New York Times 11 Nov. 2010: A8. Print.

Markon, Jerry. "A Decade in, DHS Program to Detect Bio-Threats May Not Be Able to Detect Bio-Threats, Auditors Say." Washington Post. Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Miller, Judith, et al. Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War. New York: Simon, 2002. Print.

Rosebury, Theodor. Peace or Pestilence: Biological Warfare and How to Avoid It. New York: McGraw, 1949. Print.

Spiers, Edward M. A History of Chemical and Biological Weapons. London: Reaktion, 2010. Print.

What are pediatric oncology and hematology?

Subspecialties: Pediatric hematology, pediatric radiation oncology, neuro-oncology, ortho-oncology

Cancers treated: Many childhood and adolescent cancers, particularly leukemia, lymphoma, osteogenic sarcoma, rhabdomosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, neuroblastoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, brain tumors, bone tumors, musculoskeletal and soft-tissue tumors, solid tumors of the kidney and liver, tumors of the eye, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and Wilms’ tumor (nephroblastoma)

Training and certification: In addition to having a four-year medical degree from an accredited program and board certification from the American Board of Pediatrics, pediatric hematologists-oncologists have completed three years of postgraduate residency training in general pediatrics and at least three years of fellowship training in pediatric hematology and oncology.

After completing a minimum of three years of successful training, pediatric hematologist-oncologist fellows are eligible to take a certification examination offered by the Subboard of Hematology/Oncology of the American Board of Pediatrics. Once certified, pediatric hematologists-oncologists may further their training by participating in one or more years of clinical or laboratory research.

Pediatric hematologists-oncologists are trained in the basic science and clinical expression of cancer and blood diseases in children and adolescents. They are involved in patient care, medical teaching, and research. They study the etiology of cancer and its evaluation, diagnosis, and management in ambulatory and hospitalized patients. Specific areas of study include chemotherapy, oncology, hemostatis-thrombosis, hematology, sickle cell treatment, neuro-oncology, stem cell transplantation, hematopathology, clinical pathology, blood banking, and radiation oncology. Hematologist-oncologists often focus on treating patients with either cancer or blood disorders, although they receive training in diagnosing and treating both conditions.

Pediatric hematology and oncology clinical practice guidelines, quality standards, and quality assurance measures have been established by these organizations:

• Children’s Oncology Group (COG): A network of research groups, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, with more than two hundred international member institutions that conduct pediatric and adolescent clinical trials to identify cancer causes and introduce new treatments that address long-term childhood cancer survival.





• American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO): A professional association for pediatric hematologist-oncologists. ASPHO established standard requirements for pediatric hematology and oncology programs.





• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): A professional organization of more than sixty thousand pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists that creates clinical practice guidelines.

Services and procedures performed: A pediatric hematologist-oncologist plans and coordinates the diagnosis and treatment of newly diagnosed or recurring malignancies and blood disorders in children and adolescents. The pediatric hematologist-oncologist is part of a multidisciplinary team of pediatric cancer providers whose goals are to provide early detection; accurately diagnose the condition; offer prompt, appropriate treatment to reduce morbidity and improve quality of life and survival; reduce long-term effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy; and provide long-term follow-up. Pediatric hematologist-oncologists are trained and skilled in chemotherapy drug indications and toxicities so they can safely administer these therapies while minimizing side effects.

Related specialties and subspecialties: Pediatric hematologist-oncologists work with a multidisciplinary team that includes the primary care pediatrician and also may include pediatric surgical specialists such as urologic surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and neurosurgeons; diagnostic radiologists; radiation oncologists; infectious disease specialists; pediatric pathologists; pediatric oncology nurses; consulting pediatric specialists; physical therapists; pediatric oncology social workers and other allied health care professionals, such as child-life specialists, educational specialists, registered dietitians, and pharmacologists. Communication between the pediatric hematologist-oncologist and the patient’s primary care pediatrician is essential to ensure the continuum of care.

Laparoscopy and thoracoscopy are among the surgical techniques used by pediatric surgeons to diagnose and treat cancers in children and adolescents. Pediatric surgeons first obtain a four-year medical degree from an accredited program and board certification from the American Board of Surgery, then complete five years of residency training in an accredited general surgery program and at least two years of fellowship training in pediatric surgery. Pediatric oncology surgeons receive additional training in the surgical diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancers.

Diagnostic radiologists capture and interpret medical images for the purpose of diagnosis. They must have a four-year medical degree from an accredited program, must have board certification from the American Board of Radiology or the American Osteopathic Board of Radiology, and must have passed a licensing examination and completed at least four years of residency training in an accredited radiology program.

Radiation oncologists use radiation to treat cancers. In the United States, most of them have completed residency training in their field in a program approved by the American Council of Graduate Medical Education or the American Board of Radiology.

Infectious disease specialists are pediatricians who are experts in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition to having a four-year medical degree from an accredited program and board certification from the American Board of Pediatrics, infectious disease specialists have completed three or more years of residency training and two to three years of additional training in infectious diseases.

Pediatric pathologists are physicians who are experts in the pathology of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors in children and adolescents. They use immunochemistry and molecular techniques to assess malignancies. Pediatric pathologists obtain a four-year medical degree from an accredited program and board certification from the American Board of Pediatrics, then complete three or more years of residency training and one to two years of additional training in pathology.

The Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses provides a certification program for pediatric oncology nurses. The organization also facilitates the professional development of pediatric oncology nurses. Pediatric oncology nurses provide medical care, educate patients and their families, and administer medications. Pediatric oncology clinical nurse specialists are registered nurses with a master’s degree in oncology nursing. They have experience in managing complications of cancer treatment, understand pediatric protocols, and prepare and administer medications, including chemotherapy. Pediatric oncology nurse practitioners are registered nurses with a master’s or doctoral degree.

Bibliography

Altman, Arnold J., ed. Supportive Care of Children with Cancer: Current Therapy and Guidelines from the Children’s Oncology Group. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2004. Print.

American Academy of Pediatrics. “Guidelines for the Pediatric Cancer Center and Role of Such Centers in Diagnosis and Treatment.” Pediatrics 113.6 (2004): 1833–35. Print.

Estlin, Eddy, Richard J. Gilbertson, and Robert Wynn. Pediatric Hematology and Oncology: Scientific Principles and Clinical Practice. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010. Digital file.

Lanzkowsky, Philip. Manual of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. 5th ed. San Diego: Academic, 2011. Print.

Nathan, David G., et al. Nathan and Oski's Hematology of Infancy and Childhood. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2009. Print.

Pizzo, P. A., and D. G. Poplack. Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2011. Print.

Price, Debra L., and Julie F. Gwin. Pediatric Nursing: An Introductory Text. St. Louis: Elsevier, 2012. Print.

Stocker; J. Thomas, Louis P Dehner, and Aliya N Husain eds. Pediatric Pathology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2011. Print.

Organizations and Professional Societies

American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
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http://www.aspho.org and http://www.apon.org, 8735 W. Higgins Rd., Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60631

Children’s Oncology Group
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http://www.curesearch.org, Research Operations Center, 440 East Huntington Drive, Suite 400, Arcadia, CA 91006-3776.

What demonstrates that Scout has a new respect for Aunt Alexandra in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Scout gains new respect for Aunt Alexandra when she follows her aunt's example by composing herself and returning with her to the guests at the Missionary Tea. 

During the gathering in the parlor, Scout is uncomfortable in her dress and nervous about being around so many women as they "trap her with innocent questions," laughing at her responses. The most hypocritical of all the ladies is Mrs. Merriweather. While she speaks in glowing terms of the missionary Brother Hutson who saves souls in Africa, she derogates the people in Maycomb who are "good, but misguided" in their treatment of blacks in the town. Her not-too-subtle insults about Atticus's defense of Tom Robinson as she stands inside the Finch home are clearly disrespectful to Alexandra and Jean Louise.

Then, after Atticus returns home in order to ask Calpurnia to accompany him to the Robinson home because Tom has been shot as he tried to escape, Alexandra becomes emotional. She decries the townspeople who have been "...willing to let him [Atticus] ruin his health doing what they're afraid to do," but Miss Maudie helps her compose herself. Maudie also orders Scout to "stop that shaking."

Aunt Alexandra rose and smoothed the various whalebone ridges along her hips. She took her handkerchief from her belt and wiped her nose. She patted her hair and said, "Do I show it?" (Ch. 24)

Then, Miss Maudie asks Scout, "Are you together again, Jean Louise?" And, together they return to the parlor. Scout narrates, "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." Clearly, Scout has gained a new respect for her aunt.

How are "The Birthmark" and "The Artist of the Beautiful" by Nathaniel Hawthorne related?

These stories are related in terms of their characters; both Aylmer and Owen place their obsession with creating beauty above their concern for the women whose love could have made them happy.  Aylmer cannot simply love and appreciate his beautiful wife, Georgiana, because he becomes obsessed with her one "flaw": the tiny hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek.  Owen cannot simply love and appreciate the only woman who could possibly understand him, Annie, because he is too obsessed with creating his beautiful butterfly.  When she reaches to touch it one day, he grabs her so forcefully that he hurts and scares her. 

Both men are somewhat ethereal in nature: Aylmer is quite spiritual and philosophical compared to his assistant, Aminadab, and Owen is also rather small and given to imagination and fancy, especially compared to the blacksmith, Robert Danforth, and Peter Hovenden, Annie's father.  Further, when Owen learns that Robert and Annie are engaged, he feels that the "angel of his life had been snatched away," just as Aylmer's ill-advised experiment to remove Georgiana's birthmark snatches her away from him, even though his potion does actually work.  Both men are so obsessed with creating something of supreme beauty that it consumes them and leaves them without anything else of value: neither love nor companionship nor happiness.

Does friction depend on the surface?

Yes, friction depends almost entirely upon the surface, or rather, upon both surfaces at the point of their interaction.

Friction is force that resists the relative motion of two bodies that are in direct contact with each other. In more everyday terms, any time two objects are in contact and in motion, such as sliding against each other, anything opposing this motion is friction. Common examples would include the motion of a tire over a road; a less intuitive one is the motion of your feet against the ground. Friction is what makes motion as we experience it in everyday terms possible.

Friction in this context is largely the result of the roughness of the interacting surfaces. Roughness can be thought of as the irregularity of a surface, going all the way to the molecular scale; even a surface that we would describe as smooth in everyday terms is probably irregular at the molecular level. A perfectly smooth object would have, in theory, no friction, and it would be very difficult to interact with except at perpendicular angles.

The more irregular a surface, the more friction we can assume it will generate. Likewise, the greater the irregularities between two surfaces, the more friction they will experience. When it comes down to the actual mechanism of friction, it's largely a matter of those irregular surfaces interacting with each other like the teeth of a zipper - the two objects are essentially bouncing against each other repeatedly, and this motion ends up being tangential to the angle of their relative motion.

What helps power missions to the planets in space?

Missions to other planets are powered by special purpose vehicles called spacecrafts. A spacecraft is a special vehicle designed specifically for travel in space. It may be manned or unmanned. It is designed to carry special equipment tailored to meet the requirements of the voyage and the data it is meant to collect.

When a space mission is approved, a Scientific Working Group works on the essential science components of the space vehicle. Objects in the solar system are in a state of constant motion. Scientists working on the vehicle must therefore carefully work out when to launch the spacecraft and how fast it should travel in order to meet the planet it is travelling towards.

When completed, the vehicle is first tested on ground. If all goes well,the vehicle is launched on a multi-staged launch rocket at a pre-determined date, time and location (barring unfavorable weather changes). Ground control keeps in contact with the vehicle through the deep space network. Further details on the engineering and working of a spacecraft is provided in this link.

When two dice are tossed, what is the probability of the product of the numbers being 12?

A die has 6 faces marked with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. When a fair die is rolled there is an equal probability of any of the 6 numbers showing up.

If two dice are rolled, the product of the numbers that turn up is 12 in the following cases: (2,6), (6,2), (3,4), (4,3). As each of the die can show any of the 6 numbers, there are 6*6 = 36 different possibilities. (The product in many of these is the same, but that does not make a difference in estimating the required probability.)

Of the 36 different options, 4 of them give numbers that have 12 as their product.

This gives the required probability as 4/36 = 1/9.

When 2 fair die are rolled there is a probability of 1/9 that the product of the numbers that turn up will be 12.

Describe in detail 2-3 differences between functionalism and conflict theory

Functionalism and conflict theory are two different accounts of how societies form and are structured, based on different basic assumptions about human behavior.

Functionalism says that human beings are fundamentally cooperative, and will work together to build institutions and achieve mutual goals. The whole society is often conceptualized as like a living organism, with individual people playing a role similar to cells in that organism.

Conflict theory says that human beings are fundamentally competitive, and societies consist of individuals and groups in a constant state of conflict over goals and resources. Society is conceived more individualistically, though often the unit of analysis is some sort of group of people (such as "the working class" or "women") rather than individuals.

Both theories contain valid insights, and both have flaws. Human beings are both cooperative and competitive, and while social structures do serve many useful mutual goals, it is also quite common for different people and groups of people to come into conflict. In general, good sociologists apply insights from both theories rather than maintaining a dogmatic view of one or the other.

One of the most important differences between the two theories is what they say about the economic system and distribution of wealth; taken in their most extreme forms, functionalism would say that the economy is a well-oiled machine that functions optimally and the inequality it creates is necessary for efficiency, while conflict theory would say that the economy is a constant state of class warfare in which different groups of people try to grab a larger piece of the pie for themselves. An extreme functionalist would probably oppose redistribution of wealth as undermining the efficiency of the system, while an extreme conflict theorist would likely demand a great deal of redistribution of wealth as a means of making the conflict more fair.

Another important difference between them is how they view social change. Functionalism actually has a hard time making sense of social change, because if institutions are serving their function, why change them? Functionalists could reply by saying that as the world changes, the institutions needed can also be changed, and societies will make the necessary changes. Or, they might say that change, or at least rapid change, is bad, and should be avoided. Conflict theorists on the other hand have a very clear explanation for social change: Everyone is fighting, and sometimes one side wins and the other side loses. Such victories can be temporary or permanent, partial or total. Societies change as different groups take the upper hand in the fight and impose their own goals on the rest of society. Many conflict theorists believe that rapid social change is necessary, because one particular group (namely, rich, White, straight men) has been winning far too much and other groups should be given their fair share.

What is Hamlets plan, and what excuse does he give for putting on the play before he takes his revenge?

Hamlet wants to ascertain that Claudius is, in fact, responsible for the murder of his father. The plan is to reenact, through the play, a scene that is more or less identical to the way (according to the ghost) King Hamlet was murdered by Claudius. Hamlet hopes that Claudius will react in such a way as to confirm his suspicions. "The play's the thing," he tells himself at the end of Act II, "wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." He even tells Horatio to watch his uncle, saying that 

If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen...

So Hamlet says he wants to be absolutely certain that Claudius is guilty of the crime before he seeks revenge. It is a bit of an elaborate scheme, and one that is certainly in keeping with his rather roundabout way of avenging his father's death. It is pretty obvious at this point in the play that Hamlet is still grappling with the morality of seeking revenge. But the plot works exactly as Hamlet hoped--the King is horrified by the scene, and even leaves, ending the play. Hamlet and Horatio both witnessed the King's reaction, and leave convinced that he was, in fact, the murderer. Even then, however, Hamlet still finds a reason to forestall revenge--in the next scene, he encounters the King on his knees in prayer, and fears that his soul might go to heaven if he is murdered while praying.

2-methylstyrene in dilute H2SO4, how do I know which double bond to open?

There is only one double bond in styrene that is reactive. The double bonds in the benzene ring are not reactive as they are not really double bonds but part of an aromatic system and as such the electrons are delocalized around the ring.

The addition of dilute H2SO4 to styrene follows Markownikoff's rule which states that: In an addition reaction of a protic acid HX ) to an alkene or alkyne, the hydrogen atom of HX becomes bonded to the carbon atom that had the greatest number of hydrogen atoms in the starting alkene or alkyne. The formula of styrene is C6H5CH=CH2. So the hydrogen will add to the CH2 group at the end giving a carbocation intermediate C6H5CH(+)CH3. The anion portion of H2SO4 will then be added to the carbocation center and eventually be hydrolysed to an OH group. The resultiing compound is thus the alcohol C6H5CH(OH)CH3.

How is a club good different from a common good?

When we discuss types of goods in economics, we have to look at two characteristics of those goods.  We have to ask if the goods are rival in consumption.  This means that, if one person consumes the good, there is less of it for someone else to consume.  We have to ask if people who do not pay can be excluded from consuming the goods.  Based on the answers to these two questions, we categorize the goods.  A club good is one that is excludable but not rival.  A common good is rival but not excludable.

A club good is a good that we can withhold from someone who does not pay for it.  An example of this would be a cell phone network.  Companies have technology that prevents consumers from making calls on their networks if those consumers have not paid for the right to do so.  However, a club good is not rival.  Looking at our cell phone example, if I pay a certain company to use their network, it does not prevent you from paying them for the same service.  I do not use up their network in any significant way, so consumption of this type of good is nonrivalrous.

A common good is just the opposite.  There is rival consumption, but we cannot practically exclude people from using the resource.  The classic example of this is fish in the ocean.  If I catch a certain bunch of fish in my net, you cannot catch those same fish.  If we catch too many, they will eventually run out.  In this way, the consumption of the good is rival.  However, if a company owns part of the ocean, it cannot practically prevent people from fishing there.  Only a government has the means to patrol large areas of ocean and prevent people from fishing there if they have not paid for the right to do so.  In other words, the fish in the ocean are nonexcludable.

The difference between these two, then, is that common goods are rival but not excludable while club goods are excludable but not rival.