How do you know for sure that a chemical reaction has taken place?

A chemical change involves changes in the chemical composition of the reacting species. That is, the chemical composition of the material/s before and after the change are different.

The most certain way to know if a change is a chemical change is to determine the chemical composition of the products. However, since that may not always be possible, we can use indirect methods to confirm the chemical change. There are a number of observations associated with a chemical change and if one of them is there, we can be sure that the change is chemical in nature. Here is a small list of such observations:

• Generation of gases or bubbles


• Changes in temperature


• Formation of precipitate


• Generation of odor or smell


• Change in the color of the solution 

If one observes some of these, one can be fairly sure that a chemical change has taken place.

Hope this helps. 

About how many years did Miss Emily stay in her house?

The progress of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is not linear, making it difficult to follow the chronology of events. However, enough clues are given to decipher Emily's age at her death even though it is not stated directly. Emily was about 30 years old when her father died, which was old enough to be considered a spinster in those days. However, "the summer after her father's death" she begins dating Homer Barron, and the townspeople assume they will marry. Then about two years after her father's death, there is a horrible smell around Emily's home that the leaders of the town rectify by putting lime around outside. This corresponds to the murder of Homer Barron, though no one knows it. After that, Emily barely leaves her home, but for some years when she is about 40 years old she gives china-painting lessons in her home. When the new generation of town leadership comes to call on Emily to get her to pay her property taxes, she must be about 60 years old. Then, "daily, monthly, yearly" the townspeople observe her silent home with barely a sight of the mysterious old woman.

Finally she dies in her home, probably around age 72. This can be calculated by the comment that "there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years." When the townspeople open the room, they find the corpse of Homer Barron, which has been there since Emily poisoned him when she was about 32 years old. This shows that after Emily's father's death, she lived in the house about 42 years, and that she lived there for 72 years in all. 

According to the Declaration of Independence, where does the government get the power to govern?

According to the Declaration of Independence, the government gets its power from the people it governs.  The exact language it uses in the second paragraph is "deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."  This means that the people agree to be governed.  Any powers derived, therefore, that are not consented to by the people, are unjust. In a democracy, all government power is intended to be derived this way.  The people set up the form of government, as the Constitution of the United States does.  The people choose those who will be their representatives in government.  The famous line, "Of the people, by the people, for the people," (Lincoln), sums up the origin of power of American government quite well.  In a dictatorship, the power of the government is derived through military control and fear.  King George used both to try to control the colonies, and certainly, the colonies had not consented to the subjugation to authority demanded by him. 

What are cash crops?

Cash crops are grown and produced not for domestic consumption or for trade in internal, local markets, but to be sold on the market. Cash crops were historically very important to the development of the American colonies. For example, sugar was a cash crop produced by plantations on West Indian islands during the colonial period. The entire economy of islands like Barbados was geared toward the production of this crop, and almost every acre of arable land was used to its cultivation. Tobacco in the Chesapeake and rice in the Carolina Low Country played a similar economic role. After the eighteenth century, cotton became as central to the economy of the Deep South as these other crops had been. Like other cash crops, it was purchased by merchants and specialized buyers and sold in distant markets, either in the northern United States, Great Britain, or continental Europe. Of course, all of these crops were cultivated by slave labor, which was deemed essential to making a profit. Today, most farmers produce cash crops, not for local consumption (though this is becoming more common) but for sale on markets far removed from their local economies. Crops like corn, soybeans, and others are grown and sold to large companies who use them to manufacture foods and other items.

How did Benjamin Franklin become an inventor?

Benjamin Franklin dabbled in science and tinkering for many years as a young man.  He was fascinated by scientific research, and he studied it closely.  He invented a stove (called the "Franklin stove"), which had a unique design to use heat more efficiently.  Franklin studied the research of other inventors who had studied efficiently produced heat.  He used his findings to develop his stove.

In the late 1740s, Benjamin Franklin began to focus more on inventions and his studies of science.  To study electricity, he conducted experiments using a Leydon jar.  This tool had been given to him by a friend.  It was in the 1750s that Franklin began to shift most of his focus to the study of electricity.  He conducted many experiments, which eventually led him to his most famous one involving a key on a kite string during a thunderstorm.  This led him to develop the lightning rod.

He continued to be an inventor throughout the rest of his life.  He invented bifocals, swimming flippers, and a version of an odometer.

Franklin never applied for patents on any of his inventions.  He believed that his inventions were created to help people, and that inventors should be generous with their discoveries.

Explain lines 4 and 5 of "The Silken Tent."

This poem was originally entitled "In Praise of Your Poise." The poem on the surface describes the woman the poet loves as a "silken tent." This description allows for the woman to be at once soft and tender and at the same time resolute and unwavering. Thus the tent itself "gently sways at ease" as the woman is able to be kind and flexible in her relationships. She does not have to be prickly, advocating for herself and warding off any assaults. She is able to bend and relent at the right times for the right people. The "countless silken ties of love and thought" allow her to think of others' needs and give accordingly.

However, as lines 4 and 5 point out, this woman has a very firm core: "its supporting central cedar pole." The woman's strong core values make sure that she does not veer too far from what is right and acceptable. She will not bend when it comes to her morals or her inner convictions. The description that this cedar pole, the woman's core being, has "its pinnacle to heavenward" suggests that her religious faith keeps her centered and sure of herself. She doesn't have to base her decisions on her own ideas but has a strong faith that grounds her, giving her confidence in who she is and what she does. 

One could also read this poem as a metaphor where the woman, "the silken tent," symbolizes love itself. In that case, the same ideas apply but describe love rather than an individual woman. In other words, love allows one to bend and give on the little things even as one remains true to core values. Love exhibits the perfect blend of strength and flexibility. 

Why did Abraham Lincoln need to wait for the Union Army to win a battle before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation?

Abraham Lincoln did not officially have to wait for a Union victory to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.  By this, I mean that there was no law or anything like that that said the proclamation could only be issued after a Union victory.  Instead, he felt that he needed to wait for political reasons.  He felt that he needed to wait so that it would not look like he was issuing the proclamation out of desperation.

At the beginning of the war, most people in the North believed that the war was a war to bring the Union back together, not necessarily a war to end slavery.  The Northerners did not want slavery to spread because they did not want to have to compete with slaves for land and work.  However, they generally did not care if slavery continued to exist in the South.  Politically speaking, it was easier for Lincoln to portray the war as a war against secession, not a war against slavery.

By late 1862, however, Lincoln had come to believe that slavery had to be abolished after the war.  For this reason, he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation.  However, the Union army had been doing very badly at the time when he drafted it.  He did not want to release it at that point because he felt that it would look like an act of desperation.  Lincoln feared that it would make the North and his government look weak.  He wanted to wait until the Union was doing better so that it would look like he was freeing the slaves because it was the right thing to do, not because he felt that he had to do it in order to keep from losing the war.

Why were the boys on the plane?

In Chapter 1, Ralph meets Piggy. Ralph tells him that when his father (who's in the Navy) gets leave, he will come to rescue them. Piggy wonders how Ralph's father will even know where they are. Ralph answers that the people at the airport would tell him. Piggy replies, “Not them. Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead.” This suggests that the boys were evacuated (from England) due to the threat and/or reality of a nuclear war. 

This is a key part to understanding the themes of the novel. While the boys are trapped on the island, the exterior world of adults are engaged in a war. This creates two parallel societies: the boys and the adults beyond the island. Golding presents a thought provoking series of questions. For instance, if boys are stranded on an island, will they establish some senses of order and harmony or will they devolve into fighting and warfare? And, even if they do end up devolving into violence, are they more savage than their adult counterparts? The boys might be fighting with spears and rocks but does that make them more savage than the adults who fight with more technologically advanced weaponry? 

What happens to a meal of bread and fried eggs as it travels from the mouth to the stomach of a man?

Mouth/Teeth/Tongue

In the mouth, saliva adds moisture, while teeth tear and grind the bread and eggs into small pieces. The enzyme amylase is found in saliva. Amylase breaks down starches in the food. The tongue condenses the food particles into a ball that can be swallowed.  

Esophagus

Swallowing food closes the epiglottis in the throat so that the windpipe is blocked as the food particles travel by. Food is moved towards the stomach by the contraction and relaxation of muscles in the esophagus. This process is called peristalsis. 

Stomach

Once the food reaches the stomach, chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and enzymes continue to break down the food particles for three to four hours. This turns the food particles into a substance called chyme. The chyme then moves through a valve at the bottom of the stomach and travels to the liver and gall bladder.

How does Macbeth feel about killing the king in Act 1, scene 7?

Macbeth feels ambivalent about killing the king in Act 1, scene 7.  He begins the scene with a lengthy soliloquy in which he outlines the many and varied reasons he has not to kill Duncan.  Duncan is his friend and his guest, a circumstance that ought to require him to shut the door on whomever would do Duncan harm.  Duncan is his king and his kinsman, relationships that ought to secure Macbeth's loyalty, and, finally, Duncan is a good person and just ruler.  Macbeth acknowledges that the only reason he has to go ahead with the plan to kill Duncan is his "Vaulting ambition" (1.7.27), and he actually tells his wife that he doesn't want to go through with the murder anymore.  However, she insults him repeatedly, wounding his pride, and he eventually recommits to the murder.  However, he is presented in this scene as being largely ambivalent -- he needs a lot of convincing to go ahead with killing Duncan.

How did Helen Keller overcome her feelings of helplessness?

Helen Keller was dependent on others before Miss Sullivan came. She was deaf, blind, and struggled to find independence when she was a young girl. When she could not, she became frustrated and threw tantrums. She communicated using a few crude signs, but she felt very limited. Helen described this time in her autobiography, The Story of My Life:  

The few signs I used became less and less adequate, and my failures to make myself understood were invariably followed by outbursts of passion (Chapter III).

When Miss Sullivan arrived to be Helen's teacher, she worked with determination. It took many attempts before Helen learned to communicate using the manual alphabet. When Helen did finally learn the manual alphabet, her world changed. Learning how to communicate with others helped Helen overcome the helplessness she experienced for years. Helen became an independent woman when she was older. She was able to do this because of her strong communication skills.

How would F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby be different if it were told by Gatsby instead of Nick?

It’s hard to know how Fitzgerald would have written things if Gatsby had been the narrator. Nick serves as a kind of moral center for the book. He’s an observer -- someone who can “see through” the pretensions of the other characters and keep the story more or less in line. Nick is the one who sees Tom’s brutishness, Daisy and Jordan’s essential dishonesty, and Gatsby’s idealism. He’s not exactly an impartial observer; Nick is sympathetic with Gatsby, but only up to a point. Lose Nick, and you lose those perspectives.

Maybe one way to think about how the book would be different would be to consider the pivotal scene where Gatsby is telling Nick about Daisy, and Nick makes a remark about how Gatsby “can’t repeat the past.” Gatsby replies, “Why of course you can!” We are meant to see Gatsby’s response as unrealistic, or deluded. But if you take away Nick, the point of this passage simply becomes “of course we can repeat the past.” Gatsby’s story might not be any different, but our understanding and relation to it would totally change. As the narrator, Gatsby would recount, in detail, his quest to win Daisy back; the Daisy we would meet would be an idealized figure; Tom would simply become an obstacle; Jordan would barely register; Myrtle and Wilson would hardly be in the book; his dealings with Wolfsheim would perhaps be less mysterious. In short, our understanding of these characters would be a lot less well-rounded, and our understanding of Gatsby would shift from seeing him as the victim of a morally empty society to seeing him, mostly, as a kind of “stalker.” I don’t think the book would be nearly as good!

What is the difference between phylogeny and taxonomy?

Taxonomy classifies organisms according to specific rules. This results in a hierarchy of organisms based on their characteristics. First organisms are divided into three domains:

• Eukaryota 


• Bacteria


• Archaea

Organisms are then further divided into increasingly more specific categories including: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.

The taxonomic classification of organisms changes as new species are discovered. Advances in the molecular analysis of different organisms can also result in changes in taxonomy.

Phylogeny describes the evolutionary relationships between species or groups of species. The relationships between species or groups of species are often determined based on common genetic and morphological traits. Phylogenetic relationships can be illustrated using a phylogenetic tree. Branch points in a phylogenetic tree represent the divergence of new species from a common ancestor. Phylogenetic trees can be further divided into clades. A clade includes species or groups of species and their most recent common ancestor.

What is the context of the poem "If?"

This is a great question!

Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If, was inspired by Leander Starr Jameson, a military leader who led a failed raid on the Transvaal Republic in 1895. 
 
The poem basically consists of an unknown speaker giving advice to a young boy about how to become a man which is why it's often read at graduation and commencement ceremonies. It's pretty much just 32 lines of life advice. 
 
While the first 3/4 of the poem consists of "if" statements, the last few lines are where the poem's true message is found. 
 
There, Kipling says, "If you can fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,/Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,/And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!" (Kipling, 29 - 32). 
 
When simplified, If isn't really too difficult to understand. The only thing you're required to do is analyze, and understand, the qualities being described in each hypothetical "if" situation.

How long did the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang Di last?

Qin Shi Huang, also known as Shih Huang Di (literally, the first emperor), lived from 259BC - 210BC. The date of his death is certain, but the cause has been the center of some controversy. The two main theories are that he died from sickness or he was murdered. Those who believe that he died from health problems point to his extensive travel throughout the empire, his thousands of concubines whom he had sexual relationships with, and the constant stress of maintaining such a large empire composed of several warring states. There are also several plausible theories that he was assassinated by family members or other powerful officials that aspired to control of the empire. This has been very common throughout history and the assassination of world leaders is still an occurrence in the present day.

Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of a unified China in 221BC after several years of war resulted in all of the Chinese states being unified under the Ch'in. During his reign, Qin Shi Huang instituted several unifying reforms, including the standardization of money, currencies, weights and measures, and cart sizes. The First Emperor also built the Great Wall of China, joining together various stretches of existing barriers to protect the empire from invasions. Along with the building of The Great Wall, the emperor is also known for his death--particularly his tomb at Mount Li with its terra-cotta army.

His reforms also continued to reverberate even after his death. The standardization of coins and measures encouraged trade, which fostered China's relationships with its neighbors. Trade routes across China and Asia developed and the creation of trading posts and colonies meant that China's influence throughout Asia grew in the following centuries.

How has the US changed socially from the 1950's until current times?

The US has changed dramatically since the 1950s in social terms.  The greatest changes have been in race relations, gender relations, and attitudes towards traditional values.  All of these are much different than they were 60 years ago.

Sixty years ago, the United States was definitely dominated by white people much more than it is today.  The white population was larger.  Many African Americans lived in places where they did not have equal legal rights and, at least de facto, lacked the right to vote.  White supremacy over other races was simply assumed to be true by most people.  Most professional and college sports teams were all-white.  White people generally did not listen to black musicians.  Black actors only appeared in subservient roles in movies and television.  Hispanics were essentially invisible.  Today, all of this has changed.  Non-whites have not achieved full equality with whites, but they do have full legal equality.  The US, of course, has a president who is half-black.  Black athletes dominate sports and there are many black entertainers of various sorts.  American society is much more diverse than it was in the 1950s.

Sixty years ago, America was a man’s world.  Women were expected to be subservient to men in almost all ways.  While many women had to work, people felt that the right place for a woman was in the home.  Women were less educated and few women worked in high-status jobs.  Because women had few career opportunities, they generally depended on men economically.  Again, things are much different now.  There is a good chance that a woman will be our next president.  Most people do not think it is acceptable to treat women as “the weaker sex” which would have been commonplace in the 1950s.  Women are generally better educated than men.  Many women are economically equal to their husbands and are therefore not economically dependent.  While there is by no means true equality between the sexes, men and women are much more equal today than in the 1950s.

Finally, the America of the 1950s was very traditional.  This was a time when America was rather straight-laced.  Women wore very conservative clothing and men dressed up to go out to eat or to a movie or sports event.  There was no nudity in movies and suggestive lyrics were absent from songs.  Americans generally accepted authority figures.  Parents did not generally argue with teachers and students certainly did not.  Today, all of this is very different.  The US is a very sexualized society.  Women typically wear much more revealing clothing than ever would have been acceptable in the ‘50s.  Men and women both will wear short pants and t-shirts in almost any situation when the weather allows.  There is nudity everywhere in movies and even on cable TV.  Songs openly refer to sex.  Americans are much less likely to accept the authority of teachers, clergy, police, and other traditional sources of authority.

In all of these ways, the United States is very different today than it was in the 1950s.  

What is Agent Orange? Does it cause cancer?

Exposure routes: Inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, ocular absorption

Where found:
Herbicide mixtures formerly used for agricultural, forestry, and military purposes

At risk: Combatants and civilians exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and their children, workers occupationally exposed to the chemical, and populations exposed through domestic herbicide spraying

Etiology and symptoms of associated cancers: Because epidemiologic data on Vietnam veterans is limited, the health effects of Agent Orange have been studied indirectly in certain populations highly exposed to dioxin or dioxin-tainted herbicides. These studies provide sufficient evidence linking Agent Orange to chloracne, an acnelike skin disorder, and to certain cancers, induced when TCDD activates a protein receptor in target cells. The soft-tissue sarcomas develop from fat, muscle, or deep body tissues and usually appear as a lump. Hodgkin disease (highly curable) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma originate in lymphatic tissue and result in painless swelling of lymph nodes under the skin. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which develops from white blood cells, is often asymptomatic, but later is marked by enlarged lymph nodes. Paternal exposure to Agent Orange may be associated with acute myelogenous leukemia in children. This fast-growing cancer of the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells and results in fatigue, shortness of breath, and increased susceptibility to infection. Limited evidence links Agent Orange to respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma, according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2012. Skin cancer, kidney cancer, and male breast cancer are among other cancers that have been studied among those exposed to Agent Orange and similar herbicides but that the IOM has classified as having insufficient evidence of association.

History: Phenoxy herbicides, including the 2,4,5-T component of Agent Orange, were developed in the 1940s and widely used in agriculture and forestry. Starting in 1960 during the Vietnam War, the United States military sprayed Agent Orange onto lands in Vietnam and Laos. It suspended this activity in 1970, after a study in laboratory animals linked 2,4,5-T to birth defects. Since the 1980s, various groups of Vietnam veterans have filed lawsuits against the makers of Agent Orange. The United States has permanently banned all uses of 2,4,5-T and, consequently, Agent Orange.

"Agent Orange and Cancer." Cancer.org. Amer. Cancer Soc., 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Aug. 2014.

Haberman, Clyde. "Agent Orange’s Long Legacy, for Vietnam and Veterans." New York Times. New York Times, 11 May 2014. Web. 20 Aug. 2014.

Institute of Medicine, Board on the Health of Select Populations. Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2012. Washington: National Academies P, 2012. Digital file.

"Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange." Publichealth.va.gov. US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, 30 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Aug. 2014.

Waskey, Andrew Jackson. "Agent Orange." Encyclopedia of the Veteran in America. Ed. William A. Pencak. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009. 28–32. Print.

What are culture-bound syndromes?

Introduction

In the late 1960s, the fields of psychology and psychiatry developed a particular interest in how cultural factors shape the manifestation of mental disorders. Before that time, some believed that mental disorders were largely universal in their underlying causes and expression. Several decades of cross-cultural research highlighted the limitations of this view by uncovering potentially important differences in the prevalence and expression of certain psychological conditions across the world.

Models

There are two major models of psychological disorders that are limited to certain cultures. The first, a pathogenic-pathoplastic model, presumes that mental disorders across the world are identical in their underlying causes (pathogenic effects) but are expressed differently depending on cultural factors (pathoplastic effects). According to this model, cultural influences do not create distinctly different disorders but merely shape the outward expression of existing disorders in culturally specific ways.

Harvard University’s Arthur Kleinman and some other cultural anthropologists contended that this model underestimates the cultural relativity of mental disorders. In its place, Kleinman proposed the new cross-cultural psychiatry model, which maintains that many culture-bound syndromes are causally distinct conditions that bear no underlying commonalities to those in Western culture. According to this alternative model, non-Western disorders are not merely culturally specific variations of Western disorders.

In some ways, these competing models parallel the etic-emic distinction in cross-cultural psychology. As noted by University of Minnesota psychiatrist Joseph Westermeyer and others, the term “etic” refers to universal, cross-cultural phenomena that can occur in any cultural group. Conversely, the term “emic” refers to socially unique, intracultural perspectives that occur only within certain cultural groups. There is probably some validity to both perspectives. Some culture-bound syndromes may be similar to conditions in Western culture, whereas others may be largely or entirely distinct from these conditions.

Examples

Some culture-bound conditions appear to fit a pathogenic-pathoplastic model. For example, seal hunters in Greenland sometimes experience kayak angst, a condition marked by feelings of panic while alone at sea, along with an intense desire to return to land. Kayak angst appears to bear many similarities to the Western condition of panic disorder with agoraphobia and may be a culturally specific variant of this condition.

A culture-bound syndrome widespread among the Japanese is taijin-kyofusho, an anxiety disorder characterized by a fear of offending others, typically by one’s appearance or body odor. Some authors have suggested that taijin-kyofusho is a culturally specific variant of the Western disorder of social phobia, a condition marked by a fear of placing oneself in situations that are potentially embarrassing or humiliating, such as speaking or performing in public. Interestingly, Japan tends to be more collectivist than most Western countries, meaning its citizens view themselves more as group members than individuals. In contrast, most Western countries tend to be more individualistic than Japan, meaning their citizens view themselves more as individuals than as group members. As a consequence, taijin-kyofusho may reflect the manifestation of social phobia in a culture that is highly sensitive to the feelings of others.

In contrast, other culture-bound conditions may be largely distinct from Western disorders and therefore difficult to accommodate within a pathogenic-pathoplastic model. In koro (genital retraction syndrome), a condition found primarily in southeast Asia and Africa, individuals believe their sexual organs (for example, the penis in men and breasts in women) are retracting, shrinking, or disappearing. Koro is associated with extreme anxiety and occasionally spreads in contagious epidemics marked by mass societal panic. Although koro bears some superficial similarities to the Western diagnosis of hypochondriasis, it is sufficiently different from any Western condition that it may be a distinctive disorder in its own right.

Another potential example is the Malaysian condition of amok. In amok, individuals, almost always men, react to a perceived insult by engaging in social withdrawal and intense brooding, followed by frenzied and uncontrolled violent behavior. Afflicted individuals, known as "pengamoks," often fall into a stupor after the episode and report memory loss for their aggressive actions. Although amok may be comparable in some ways to the sudden mass shootings occasionally observed in Western countries, such shootings are rarely triggered by only one perceived insult or associated with stupor following the episode. Amok, incidentally, is the origin of the colloquial phrase “running amok.”

Psychiatric Classification

The fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV) provided a list of twenty-five culture-bound syndromes, including taijin-kyofusho, koro, and amok. Appearing in an appendix of the fourth edition, this list was the first official attempt by the mental health community to recognize culture-bound syndromes as worthy of research and clinical attention. The 2000 text revision of the DSM-IV (the DSM-IV-TR) added an outline of issues and factors that clinicians should consider when making diagnoses for culturally diverse patients.

Nevertheless, some researchers criticized the DSM-IV’s list of culture-bound syndromes. Some, like McGill University psychiatrists Lawrence J. Kirmayer and Eric Jarvis, argued that some of these “syndromes” are not genuine mental disorders but rather culturally specific explanations for psychological problems familiar to Western society. They cited the example of dhat, a culture-bound condition in the DSM-IV appendix that is prevalent in India, Pakistan, and neighboring countries. Dhat is commonly associated with anxiety, fatigue, and hypochondriacal worries about loss of semen. As Kirmayer and Jarvis observe, many or most individuals with dhat appear to suffer from depression, so dhat may merely be a culturally specific interpretation of depressive feelings.

Other critics charged that DSM-IV’s list of culture-bound syndromes was marked by Western bias and that some well-established psychological conditions in Western culture are in fact culture bound. For example, based on a comprehensive review of the literature, Harvard University psychologist PamelaKeel and Michigan State University psychologist Kelly Klump argued persuasively that bulimia nervosa (often known simply as bulimia), an eating disorder often characterized by repeated cycles of binging and purging, is a culture-bound syndrome limited largely to Western culture. Indeed, the few non-Western countries in which bulimia has emerged, such as Japan, have been exposed widely to Western ideals of thinness in recent decades. In contrast, as Keel and Klump noted, anorexia nervosa (often known simply as anorexia) appears to be about equally prevalent in Western and non-Western countries.

For the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-5), published in 2013, American Psychiatric Association sought to address some of these concerns. While the DSM-5 retains the list of culture-bound syndromes, along with their "idioms of distress" and explanations, in an appendix, it also integrate their symptoms throughout the manual as additions to existing classifications. For example, "offending others," a symptom of taijin-kyofusho, was listed under the diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder. Another modification was the addition of an interview guide with questions about the patient's cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious heritage, which is intended to afford patients an opportunity to describe their condition in their own terms and help clinicians better interpret this information.

Mental health professionals are increasingly recognizing that psychological conditions are sometimes influenced by sociocultural context and that such context must be taken into account in their diagnoses. More research is needed to ascertain how best to classify culture-bound syndromes and integrate cultural influences into diagnostic practices.

Bibliography

Aneshensel, Carol S., Alex Bierman, and Jo C. Phelan. Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. Print.

Kirmayer, Lawrence J., and Eric Jarvis. “Cultural Psychiatry: From Museums of Exotica to the Global Agora.” Current Opinion in Psychiatry 11.2 (1998): 183–89. Print.

Mezzich, Juan E., et al. “The Place of Culture in DSM-IV.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 187.8 (1999): 457–64. Print.

Murphy, Jane M. “Psychiatric Labeling in Cross-cultural Perspective.” Science 191.2431 (1976): 1019–28. Print.

Paniagua, Freddy A.. "Assessment and Diagnosis in a Cultural Context." Culture and Therapeutic Process. Ed. Mark M. Leach and Jamie D. Aten. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.

Paniagua, Freddy A., and Ann-Marie Yamada, eds. Handbook of Multicultural Mental Health: Assessment and Treatment of Diverse Populations. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier, 2013. Print.

Simons, Ronald C., and Charles C. Hughes, eds. The Culture-Bound Syndromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest. Boston: Reidel, 1986. Print.

Sue, Derald Wing, and David Sue. Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice. Hoboken: Wiley, 2012. Print.

Tseng, Wen-Shing. “From Peculiar Psychiatric Disorders Through Culture-Bound Syndromes to Culture-Related Specific Syndromes.” Transcultural Psychiatry 43.4 (2006): 554–76. Print.

Westermeyer, Joseph. “Psychiatric Diagnosis across Cultural Boundaries.” American Journal of Psychiatry 142.7 (1985): 798–805. Print.

What kind of atmosphere does Death describe on Himmel Street in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief?

The atmosphere on Himmel Street is one of desperation and severity.

Death says Himmel Street's name is contradictory and whoever named it must have had “a healthy sense of irony.” This is because “Himmel” means “Heaven,” and Himmel Street definitely is not Heaven. It is a very poor neighborhood, made worse by the poverty and degradation of World War II.

The buildings appear to be glued together, mostly small houses and apartment blocks that look nervous. There is murky snow spread out like carpet. There is concrete, empty hat-stand trees, and gray air (Chapter 1).

Liesel is also nervous when she first arrives because she has lost both of her parents and her brother died on the train on the trip over. She has never been in a car before, and she has never met her foster parents. The whole situation is a recipe for misery.

Throughout the book, Himmel Street and its buildings are often personified, usually as weak and thin.

The shop itself was white and cold, and completely bloodless. The small house compressed beside it shivered with a little more severity than the other buildings on Himmel Street. Frau Diller administered this feeling, dishing it out as the only free item from her premises (Chapter 4).

At one point, the street is described as constantly dark and miserable (Chapter 67). Despite this, Himmel Street is not lifeless. The children play soccer in the street. The neighbors help each other. People do stick to themselves, but they are also just doing their best to survive the war.

Unfortunately, Himmel Street is bombed. Death tells us it seems like no one would want to bomb a street named after Heaven, in the poorest section of town. The bombs were "off target." It was unintentional, but led to the deaths of everyone on Himmel street except Liesel. She was in a basement that wasn't supposed to be deep enough to protect her.

What are drug interactions?

Interactions and Drug Metabolism

Medications and recreational drugs are metabolized in the body into pharmacologically active chemical components; nonpharmacologically active chemical moieties are then excreted from the body. Most medications are either metabolized by the kidney (renal metabolism) or by the liver (hepatic metabolism).

Within the liver and intestines exist multiple enzymes and pathways responsible for breaking down medications. Some of the enzymes that are most commonly involved in drug metabolism are the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes. Of the CYP enzymes, CYP3A4 is most commonly involved in drug metabolism. It has been estimated that this enzyme is at least partly responsible for the metabolism of almost 50 percent of medications. The rate and amount of drug that can be metabolized depends on a number of factors, including the amount of enzyme present and the speed at which these enzymes are working.

When a person ingests multiple medications metabolized through the same pathway, the enzymes may not be able to metabolize all the medications simultaneously, leading to elevated, possibly toxic, levels of the drugs. For example, alprazolam (Xanax) is metabolized through CYP3A4. If a patient taking alprazolam is prescribed clarithromycin (Biaxin) for sinusitis and takes the two medications together, the clarithromycin, a CYP3A4 inhibitor, will effectively slow the breakdown of alprazolam, leading to increased sedation and central nervous system (CNS) depression. If the patient continues to take alprazolam, unaware that drug levels are building up in his or her system, dangerous consequences can occur.

Drug-Food Interactions

In addition to the medications that may interact with one another, drugs also can have interactions with food. Milk and other calcium- and magnesium-containing products can interact with certain medications, including fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro) and levofloxacin (Levaquin). Divalent cations such as calcium and magnesium can bind the antibiotic, keeping it from being absorbed by the body. Citrus juices, especially grapefruit juice, are also known to strongly interact with various drugs.

Another example of drug and food interactions is the heightened CNS depressant effects of alcohol when combined with medications that already produce CNS depressant effects, such as benzodiazepines (alprazolam, or Xanax, and lorazepam, or Ativan) and morphine or morphine derivatives (such as the hydrocodone products Vicodin, Norco, and Loratab and the oxycodone products Percocet and Percodan).

CNS depressant medications and substances, such as alcohol, slow down certain brain processes. This can lead to decreased motor function and coordination, drowsiness, confusion, and respiratory depression. CNS effects are cumulative, which is why the addition of alcohol to the system of a person taking either chronic or recreational (and legal) CNS depressants can be so dangerous. These medications and the resulting sensations can have addictive properties, leading the user to purposely combine the two in an unsafe and potentially fatal manner.

Drug and Herbal Supplements Interactions

Herbal medications are often assumed to be more natural and, therefore, safer than pharmacologically produced medications. The use of these agents has continued to increase, although the exact number of people using supplements is hard to gauge because these agents are available without a prescription (over the counter).

Some of the most popular supplements have serious interactions with common medications. These supplements include St. John’s wort, Ginkgo biloba, ginseng, and garlic. St. John’s wort, which is used to treat many ailments, most commonly depression, is metabolized through CYP 3A4 and 2E1 and, therefore, can be unsafe when used with some anticoagulants, including warfarin, and with some medications used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (including protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors). Ginkgo is commonly used for memory enhancement. There have been numerous reports of bleeding in patients taking ginkgo while also taking anticoagulants, and in patients with clotting disorders.

It is important that patients understand that herbal supplements, although generally safe, can dangerously interact with over-the-counter and prescription medications. Patients should alert their doctors, pharmacists, and other providers about what supplements they are taking to help prevent serious interactions.

Bibliography

"Drug Interactions: What You Should Know." FDA. US Food and Drug Administration, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Izzo, Angelo, and Edzard Ernst. “Interactions between Herbal Medicines and Prescribed Drugs.” Drugs 61.15 (2001): 2163–75. Print.

"Medication Interaction: Food, Supplements, and Other Drugs." American Heart Association. American Heart Assn., 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Saito, Mitsuo, et al. “Undesirable Effects of Citrus Juice on the Pharmacokinetics of Drugs.” Drug Safety 28.8 (2005): 677–94. Print.

Wallace, Allison W., Jennifer M. Victory, and Guy W. Amsden. “Lack of Bioequivalence When Levofloxacin and Calcium-Fortified Orange Juice Are Coadministered to Healthy Volunteers.” Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 43 (2003): 539–44. Print.

Find the equation of a line that passes through the point (-2, 5) and makes an angle of 45° with the positive part of the -axis

Hello!

You haven't specified which axis to consider, x or y, but luckily for the angle of 45 degrees it isn't important:)

But there are still two such lines, one goes 45 degrees up to the right, another goes 45 degrees down.

For the first line, the slope is tan(45°)=1, and the equation is in the form y=x+b. The point (x=-2, y=5) must satisfy this equation, so 5=-2+b and b=7. The final equation is y=x+7.

For the second line, the slope is tan(-45°)=-1, and the equation is y=-x+d, 5=-(-2)+d, so d=3 and the equation is y=-x+3.

What could be included on a poster to illustrate the concept of loss of innocence in Lord of the Flies?

To make a poster showing the loss of innocence in Lord of the Flies, it might be helpful to think of before and after images. When the boys arrive on the island, they seem innocent, but they quickly allow their darker natures to take control. For example, at the beginning of the book, Jack stays his hand and can't kill a piglet that is caught in a thicket, but later he takes enjoyment from killing the sow. The conch is an important symbol in the book that represents how the boys all agree to follow rules. There is a counter image to the conch that occurs in chapter 12 when Ralph is on his own in the forest. He comes across the sow's skull on the stick--a symbol of the depths of depravity the boys have fallen into. He strikes it down and it breaks in two, but he doesn't smash it to smithereens like the conch has been smashed. The island itself changes as the boys change; at first it seems like a paradise with its pink granite cliffs and swimming hole, but by the end of the book, fire engulfs the island. At the beginning of the book, the boys were able to have happy meetings together, but by the end of the book, two boys have been murdered and a third is being hunted. Piggy's glasses in their unbroken state could represent innocence; at the end they are seen broken hanging from Jack's belt, and Piggy can no longer benefit from them because he is dead. To make your poster, think about ways, possibly symbolic, to represent these before and after images. For example, you could find a picture of boys playing on the beach together and then a picture of two graves with headstones or crosses to represent the murdered boys. 

Who were the two apprentices for Amalek in The Bronze Bow?

In Chapter 1, Joel and Malthace climb the mountain and Daniel recognizes Joel. Daniel introduces himself as Daniel bar Jamin, and Joel remembers that Daniel was the apprentice who ran away from the blacksmith, Amalek. Joel tells Daniel that nobody blamed him for running away because Amalek treated his boys terribly. Daniel asks Joel if he can tell him anything about his grandmother, and Joel says that he cannot. Malthace speaks up and tells Daniel that there is an old lady who gets water from the well and people say she lives with a little girl who never comes out of the house. Daniel then asks Joel if he knows a boy named Simon who is six or seven years older. Daniel tells Joel that Simon was also an apprentice bound to Amalek. Joel explains to Daniel that Simon has his own shop now and gets more business than Amalek. Daniel asks Joel if he can send a message to Simon and tell Simon that he is living in the mountains. Daniel fears going back into town because he does not want to get dragged back into Amalek's shop.

Why is Things Fall Apart a suitable title for the novel?

The title Things Fall Apart directly relates to the major themes in Chinua Achebe's novel. The protagonist Okonkwo is first introduced in an environment in which he has truly succeeded. He has worked his way up from a childhood of shame and poverty, caused by his father's inaction, into a role within his society that is considered the epitome of masculinity and power. 

However, as the novel progresses, things do fall apart for Okonkwo. With the arrival of the European colonists and missionaries, his family and culture rapidly deteriorate. His son leaves his family and becomes Christian, adopting a new name. He accidentally kills another man, and he is banished from the village for nine years. Finally, he cannot rally his village around him to rise against the imperialist threat. As such, his entire life falls apart, just like the title. 

Why does Mayella Ewell's gender make her powerless?

Mayella is the oldest daughter in the Ewell family. With no mother, she is forced to assume that role. Having grown up in this family and isolated from the rest of Maycomb in most ways, this is the reality she has been presented with and therefore has accepted. She has learned to live with her father's abuse and feels stuck in this role of being his subservient while also being a mother to her other siblings. In some ways, she feels like she is their protector.

She is lonely and isolated and this is why she reaches out to Tom Robinson. Had she been male, Mayella would not have to fill the role of mother to and protector of the Ewell siblings. She would have had some opportunity to go out and find work. Whether it paid well or not, being a male would afford her more opportunities to get out of that house and its abusive atmosphere. 

As Atticus questions Mayella during the trial, Scout relates some things they learn about her. Her father tends to use their relief money for alcohol. Sometimes he would go off into the swamp for days, leaving her to care for the children. The children were constantly sick because of the dirty living conditions. Being the eldest daughter, it falls upon her to be some kind of mother to her family. She is stuck in this role and that's why she feels powerless. 

How did Germany get involved in World War I?

Germany was involved in World War I. They had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria that was called the Central Powers. Countries formed alliances to help them in case a war began. Russia, Great Britain, and France had an alliance that was called the Allied Powers. As alliance members declared war on each other, the world erupted into war. This led to the start of World War I for Germany and for other countries.

When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a group of Serbian nationals in Sarajevo, the government of Austria-Hungary made a series of demands on the government of Serbia. While the Serbian government tried to meet the demands, they didn’t meet all of them. It was at this time that Austria-Hungary asked Germany if Germany would support them if Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Germany agreed to do this.

After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary. Serbia and Russia had been close allies for many years.  Germany then declared war on Russia. This led France to declare war on Germany, and Germany also declared war on France. It was this sequence of events, followed by a few others, that led to the start of World War I.

Why do water levels rise during a Monsoon?

The term 'monsoon' is commonly used to refer to the extremely rainy season observed in several parts of the world. When the rainfall takes place, the water can either be collected on the paved and hard surfaces and be removed through sewers, result in surface runoff, or it may infiltrate into the ground surface.

Among these pathways, the water that results in surface runoff typically ends up in surface water sources. The infiltrated water reaches the water table and thus the subsurface water sources. In both cases, the rainwater adds to the existing reservoir of water, whether on the surface or below the ground. This additional amount of water causes an increase in the water level. 

The water level increase in the surface sources, such as streams and rivers, is very easily observed and occurs during the time of monsoons and may also cause flooding in some regions. Groundwater, on the other hand, will show an increase in the water level after some time, since it takes some time for the rainwater to reach the water table.

Hope this helps. 

What is a short summary of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens?

David Copperfield’s mother is weak.  After she has her second child, she marries Mr. Murdstone while David is at the house of Pegotty, David’s nurse.  His mother moves in with him.  Both of them relentlessly abuse David’s mother emotionally, culminating in Mr. Murdstone beating David and sending him away to school.  The school is worse than home.  David becomes infatuated with an older boy named Steerforth, who reappears later to "ruin" Emily, Daniel Pegotty's niece.

When his mother dies in childbirth, David is sent to work at Murdstone and Grinby at the age of ten, where he pastes labels on wine bottles.  Poor David is miserable.

No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship; compared these henceforth everyday associates with those of my happier childhood—not to say with Steerforth, Traddles, and the rest of those boys; and felt my hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man, crushed in my bosom. (Ch. 11)

David is a boarder with Mr. Micawber, who is kind but unlucky with money.  He is sent to debtor’s prison, and David goes to find his aunt, Betsy Trotwood.  She is kind to him, and stands up to the Murdstones.

David is sent to a real school, where he stays with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter Agnes.  David gets a job at the law firm Spenlow and Jorkins, hoping to be a lawyer.  He falls in love with Mr. Spenlow’s daughter, Dora.  They marry, and she dies in childbirth.  David later marries Agnes.

David Copperfield is Dickens's most autobiographical book.  He wrote it when he was young and successful, and still had his life ahead of him.  It covers events that were important in his life thus far, including going to work at an early age while his father went to debtor's prison.  However, Dickens still had a lot of living to do, and would revise his life a little in another semi-autobiographical work, Great Expectations.

Describe the mood. How does it shift throughout the story?

The initial mood is set by Mary herself. Her home is "warm" and inviting as she waits for her husband, Patrick, to return from work. There are two glasses waiting for the two of them. She waits with a little anxious anticipation but she is "curiously peaceful." She is very comfortable with the stage and state of life that she's in. She is pregnant and her eyes have a "new calm look." The opening mood is intimate, warm, and peaceful. It indicates a happy family atmosphere. 

Patrick does something "unusual" when he consumes his first drink in one gulp. Then Patrick repeatedly refuses Mary's offer to get him something to eat. He tells her to sit down and at this point, she becomes frightened. So, the mood shifts from peaceful to tense at this point. 

Patrick reveals that he is leaving her. Dahl doesn't provide any concrete details about this. This adds to the suspense of the moment. With that suspense, the tension increases. The tensions reaches a climactic point when Mary hits him over the head with the frozen lamb. It is a violent and morbid image. "She stepped back, waiting, and the strange thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds. Then he crashed onto the carpet." 

After this, Mary begins thinking about how to get away with the murder. The mood remains tense as she goes about putting her plan into action. When the police and detectives arrive, Mary remains calm or pretends to be calm. However, watching or reading the scene, one is probably tense and anxious about Mary's fate. 

In the end, Mary has gotten away with it. The concluding mood is one of a dark, morbid resolution. A reader might even interpret it as darkly comical. 

What do you think President Roosevelt meant when he said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?

Roosevelt meant that fear, lack of confidence in the nation's financial systems, was in part responsible for the collapse of the economy that led to the Great Depression. Roosevelt's inauguration occurred in the midst of one of the worst bank panics of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans withdrew their funds from banks, causing many of them to fail, precisely because they feared the banks were unstable and unsafe places to deposit money. In those days, a person lost all of their money if a bank failed and was unable to meet deposits. Banks in turn feared to extend credit to people who they thought might not be able to pay back their loans. Businesses would not hire new workers if they feared the economy would continue to spiral downward. So the entire economic system was in danger of grinding completely to a halt, and Roosevelt, with this address, argued that the nation's problems could be reduced to "fear." He thus sought, in the early days of his presidency, to reduce this climate of fear. He announced a bank holiday to keep people from withdrawing more funds, which would have led to more bank failures. He delivered the first of his "fireside chats" in which he explained his reasons for implementing the "holiday," thus assuaging the fears of many Americans. With the "Hundred Days" that marked the beginning of the New Deal, he established deposit insurance that protected the investments of Americans and extended loans to businesses to promote more hiring. In this way and many others, he sought to combat the atmosphere of fear and pessimism that he believed lay behind the economic malaise of the Great Depression. 

`int sin^2(pi x) cos^5(pi x) dx` Evaluate the integral

`int sin^2(pix)cos^5(pix) dx`

To solve, apply the Pythagorean identity `sin^2 theta + cos^2 theta =1 ` repeatedly until the integral is in the  form `int u^n du` .

`= int sin^2(pix)cos^3(pix)cos^2(pix) dx`

`=int sin^2(pix)cos^3(pix)(1-sin^2(pix)) dx`

`=int [sin^2(pix)cos^3(pix) - sin^4(pix)cos^3(pix)]dx`

`= int [ sin^2(pix)cos(pix)cos^2(pix) - sin^4(pix)cos(pix)cos^2(pix)]dx`

`= int[sin^2(pix)cos(pix)(1-sin^2(pix)) -sin^4(pix)cos(pix)(1-sin^2(pix))]dx`

`= int [sin^2(pix)cos(pix)-sin^4(pix)cos(pix) - sin^4(pix)cos(pix)+sin^6(pix)cos(pix)] dx`

`int [sin^2(pix)cos(pix)-2 sin^4(pix)cos(pix)+sin^6(pix)cos(pix)] dx`

`=intsin^2(pix)cos(pix)dx-int2sin^4(pix)cos(pix)dx+intsin^6(pix)cos(pix)dx`

To take the integral of this, apply u-substitution method. 

        `u = sin (pix)`

     `du= pi cos (pix) dx`

       `(du)/pi = cos(pix) dx`

`= int u^2 *(du)/pi - int 2u^4 * (du)/pi + intu^6 * (du)/pi`

`= 1/pi int u^2 du - 2/pi int u^4 du + int 1/pi u^6 du`

`= 1/pi*u^2/3-2/pi*u^5/5 + 1/pi*u^7/7 + C`

`= u^2/(3pi) - (2u^5)/(5pi) + u^7/(7pi) + C`

And, substitute back `u = sin (pix)` .

`= (sin^2 (pix))/(3pi) - (2sin^5(pix))/(5pi)+ (sin^7(pix))/(7pi) + C`

Therefore,  `int sin^2(pix)cos^5(pix) dx= (sin^2 (pix))/(3pi) - (2sin^5(pix))/(5pi)+ (sin^7(pix))/(7pi) + C.`

How does the trap-jaw ant's adaption help it avoid becoming the prey of another organism?

Trap-jaw ants are equipped with powerful mandibles that have a spring-loaded mechanism which enables them snap closed at extremely high speeds. This trap-jaw mechanism has evolved several times in various groups of ants, using different structures to achieve the trap-jaw function.

The mandibles are equipped with ‘trigger hairs’ connected to neurons which spur the mandibles into action as soon as they come in contact with the surface of another object. This enables them to capture prey and fight other ants using their trap-jaw.

Trap-jaw ants can also use their powerful jaws to catapult themselves into the air to evade predators. Typically these jaw jumps propel the ants backwards, flipping them upside down and occasionally making it difficult for them to get away soon enough from a hungry predator.

Recently, scientists have discovered that a species of jaw-ants, Odontomachus rixosus, can use their legs rather than their jaws to jump. This leg jumping, which is also perceived as an adaptive trait, has clear advantages. It can enable them to escape from a predator by jumping forwards rather than backwards.

Discuss the juxtaposition of light and dark imagery in "Araby." What is the significance of the contrast?

In "Araby," light seems to symbolize innocence and the hopefulness that attends it, while dark stands for the state of having lost one's innocence and the cynicism that such a state breeds.  When the narrator describes his boyhood, playing outside at night, he describes the darkness of the city streets about him but focuses on the way their "bodies glowed" as well as how Mangan's sister's "figure [was] defined by the light" from the door.  Though they are surrounded by darkness, the children are still innocent and therefore they are characterized by light.  Further, Mangan's sister, the subject of the narrator's young love, is also characterized by light because of his intense hope surrounding his feelings for her and the happy possibilities he associates with those feelings, especially after she speaks with him about Araby.

Though it is late and dark when the narrator finally leaves for the Araby bazaar, and though he is frustrated by his uncle's tardiness and the slowness of the train, he notices the streetlights "glaring with gas," the "twinkling river," and the "lighted dial of a clock."  Again, he is surrounded by darkness but only seems to notice the light because he is so wrapped up in his hopefulness about finding a gift for his love. However, when he gets inside the bazaar, most of the hall is "in darkness" and he goes through the one open stall's "dark entrance," looking at the disappointing wares before moving on.  The bazaar was really only full of English teacups and vases, staffed by a young English woman who seemed more interested in flirting than paying attention to her young customer.  Finally, the "upper part of the hall [became] completely dark," and standing in the darkness, the narrator has an epiphany: that the world doesn't care about him and his love, that love is not what makes the world turn.  Up until now, he was mostly aware of the light, he now becomes very aware of the dark, and he cries to think of his "vanity," that the dark world would make room for his feelings.  Therefore, the contrast between light and dark, and especially how much of each the boy seemed to notice at various moments, helps to develop the theme of the story.  

Why was it a mistake for Tom Robinson to say he feels sorry for Mayella? How will it affect the jury?

Basically, for Tom to say that he felt sorry for Mayella was to violate the unwritten racial etiquette of Maycomb and of the Jim Crow South more broadly. He was rising above his station by saying that he felt sorry for her. Though Mayella lived in grinding poverty and had a seemingly useless father, she was white, and that, in the eyes of many people, made her superior to Tom. Scout immediately perceives that Tom has erred in making this statement, and Gilmer, the prosecutor, immediately seizes upon it by sneering at the very idea that the accused man could feel pity for a white woman. Atticus tries to address it in his closing statement when he describes Tom as a "quiet, humble, respectable Negro who had the unmitigated temerity [nerve, or audacity] to 'feel sorry' for a white woman" (204). Atticus is mocking Gilmer's emphasis on this testimony from Tom, but Scout correctly recognizes that it will not help Tom's cause, and that it risked alienating the all-white jurors.

If the formula for sulfuric acid is H2SO4 would the expected formula for the analogous compound between hydrogen and tellurium (Te) by written the...

The key here is to recognize that the chemical bonding behavior of sulfur and tellurium are quite similar, but not the same. They are in the same group, so they have the same number of valence electrons; in general this means they'll tend to bond in the same ways. But the activation energy to form the same compounds can be quite different, and some essentially never form.

Just as there is sulfur trioxide `SO_3` that can bond with water `H_2 O ` to make sulfuric acid `H_2 SO_4` , there is also tellurium trioxide `TeO_3` . But tellurium trioxide has such a high activation energy to bond with water that it is largely unreactive with it.

There is an acidic compound of tellurium and water, but it is different; it's called orthotelluric acid, and it has the formula `Te(OH)_6` .

Unfortunately, predicting this outcome from first principles would actually be quite difficult; it involves some pretty complicated things about the quantum mechanics of different electron orbital hybridizations.

In To Kill a Mockingbird what are some quotes that show racism?

I like the following quote that has racial implications.  

Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here—they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?"

The quote is from chapter twelve.  The reason that I like the quote is because it squarely puts Scout and Jem on the other side of racism.  The two kids have never been on the receiving end of a racist comment.  They are white children, and even without making racist comments themselves, they hear white people making nasty comments about black people.  This is the first time they have heard and gotten a nasty comment about being white. 

The next quote is probably the quote most often associated with Atticus, his parenting, and his views on racism.  The quote comes from chapter eleven. 

"You aren't really a nigger-lover, then, are you?"

"I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody... I'm hard put, sometimes—baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you."

Atticus is teaching Scout an important lesson about racism.  First, Atticus shows that words do have power, but only if you let them.  He also explains that those negative kinds of words often teach you more about the person saying the insult than it does about the person receiving the insult.  Lastly, Atticus is showing Scout why he is a "nigger-lover."  It's because he is doing his best to treat everybody the same.  Atticus isn't in favor of one race more than any other race.  Atticus is teaching Scout about equality. 

`int_(sqrt(2)/3)^(2/3) (dx)/(x^5 sqrt(9x^2 - 1))` Evaluate the integral

`int_(sqrt(2)/3)^(2/3)1/(x^5sqrt(9x^2-1))dx`

Let's first evaluate the indefinite integral by integral substitution,

Let `x=1/3sec(u)`

`=>dx=1/3sec(u)tan(u)du`

`int1/(x^5sqrt(9x^2-1))dx=int(1/((1/3sec(u))^5sqrt(9(1/3sec(u))^2-1)))1/3sec(u)tan(u)du`

`=int(1/(1/243sec^5(u)sqrt(sec^2(u)-1)))1/3sec(u)tan(u)du`

Now use the identity:`sec^2(theta)=1+tan^2(theta)`

`=int(243/(3sec^5(u)sqrt(1+tan^2(u)-1)))sec(u)tan(u)du`

`=int(81sec(u)tan(u))/(sec^5(u)sqrt(tan^2(u)))du`

`=81int1/(sec^4(u))du`

`=81intcos^4(u)du`

Now let's use the identity:`cos^2(theta)=(1+cos(2theta))/2`

`=81int((1+cos(2u))/2)^2du`

`=81int(1+cos^2(2u)+2cos(2u))/4du`

`=81int(1/4+(cos^2(2u))/4+1/2cos(2u))du`

`=81(int1/4du+int(cos^2(2u))/4du+int(cos(2u))/2du)`

`=81(u/4+1/4int(1+cos(4u))/2du+1/2intcos(2u)du)`

`=81(u/4+1/4int(1/2+cos(4u)/2)du+1/2(sin(2u))/2)`

`=81(u/4+1/4(int1/2du+intcos(4u)/2du)+1/4sin(2u))`

`=81(u/4+1/4(u/2+1/2sin(4u)/4)+1/4sin(2u))`  `=81(u/4+u/8+sin(4u)/32+sin(2u)/4)`

`=81((3u)/8+sin(4u)/32+sin(2u)/4)` 

Now recall that we have used `x=1/3sec(u)`

`=>sec(u)=3x`

`=>cos(u)=1/(3x)`

`=>u=arccos(1/(3x))`

Substitute back u and add a constant C to the solution,

`=81(3/8arccos(1/(3x))+1/32sin(4arccos(1/(3x)))+1/4sin(2arccos(1/(3x))))+C`

Now let's evaluate the definite integral,

`int_(sqrt(2)/3)^(2/3)dx/(x^5sqrt(9x^2-1))=81[3/8arccos(1/(3x))+1/32sin(4arccos(1/(3x)))+1/4sin(2arccos(1/(3x)))]_(sqrt(2)/3)^(2/3)`

`=81[3/8arccos(1/2)+1/32sin(4arccos(1/2))+1/4sin(2arccos(1/2))]-81[3/8arccos(1/sqrt(2))+1/32sin(4arccos(1/sqrt(2)))+1/4sin(2arccos(1/sqrt(2)))]`

`=81[3/8*pi/3+1/32sin(4*pi/3)+1/4sin(2*pi/3)]-81[3/8*pi/4+1/32sin(4*pi/4)+1/4sin(2*pi/4)]`

`=81[pi/8+1/32sin((4pi)/3)+1/4sin((2pi)/3)]-81[(3pi)/32+1/32sin(pi)+1/4sin(pi/2)]`

`=81[pi/8+1/32(-sqrt(3)/2)+1/4(sqrt(3)/2)]-81[(3pi)/32+1/32(0)+1/4(1)]`

`=81[pi/8+sqrt(3)/2(-1/32+1/4)-(3pi)/32-1/4]`

`=81[pi/8-(3pi)/32+sqrt(3)/2(7/32)-1/4]`

`=81[pi/32+(7sqrt(3))/64-1/4]`

In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," what does Mr. Shiftlet discover in the shed?

Mr. Shiftlet discovers "a 1928 or '29" Ford automobile in the shed of Mrs. Crater's property. Mrs. Crater claims the car hasn't run in fifteen years but Mr. Shiftlet says he can get it running. He sleeps in the car while he is fixing things around the place. When he raises the hood of the car he brags about how the car was "built in the days when cars were really built." He tells Mrs. Crater that he just needs some money for a fan belt and the car would run. Sure enough, after walking into town and purchasing a fan belt and some gasoline he is soon seen driving the car out of the shed. All the while, Mrs. Crater is eager for Mr. Shiftlet to marry her deaf daughter Lucynell. She promises Mr. Shiftlet that she will give him the money to paint the car and to take Lucynell to a hotel and buy her a meal if he will marry the girl. They settle on seventeen dollars and fifty cents. Mr. Shiftlet takes the money and the girl in the new car but dumps her at a roadside cafe and takes off in the car to Mobile.

O'Conner suggests throughout the story that Mr. Shiftlet is very much interested in the car. It is one of the things he notices on the property when he first arrives:

Mr. Shiftlet's pale sharp glance had already passed over everything in the yard—the pump near the corner of the house and the big tree that three or four chickens were preparing to roost in—and had moved to a shed where he saw the square rusted back of an automobile.

And again, a little later in the story, he notices the car as Mrs. Crater talks about how she wants Lucynell to be married, but that the man who married her would have to stay on the property:

Mr. Shiftlet's eye in the darkness was focused on a part of the automobile bumper that glittered in the distance.

Even as he claims money is not important and that spiritual matters are what he cares about most, Mr. Shiftlet ends up stealing Mrs. Crater's money and the automobile.

what contrary images of life and death do you find in the poem On killing a tree ?

The poem On Killing A Tree, by Gieve Patel, presents vivid images of the resilience of trees and describes how difficult it is to kill them.

By using so many descriptions of life and juxtaposing them with the darker images of death, Patel is able to explain to the reader that trees take significant effort to kill. They cannot be taken down by "a simple jab of the knife."

It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leperous hide
Sprouting leaves.

This part of the first major stanza describes the flourishing of the tree, how it has been given life by the earth around it. The words such as "grown," "feeding," and "sprouting" all carry positive connotations and create images of life and health. These images are directly juxtaposed with the following stanzas that detail exactly how to take that life away.

The following stanza begins "So hack and chop / But this alone wont do it." The description of the bark "healing" and the green twigs rising from the ground emphasizes the life that exists within the tree, despite trying to chop it down.

The next two stanzas explain that if you want to kill a tree, you must pull it out by the roots.

Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air

This image directly contrasts with the stanza I mentioned above, where the tree is shown flourishing and healthy. At the end of the poem, the tree "chokes" and dies. However, it is important to remember that the images of death and dying still elicit thoughts of life, because how can something die if it never lived?

Hope this helps!

In Chapter 3 of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, what does Atticus mean when he says you never really understand a person "until you climb into his...

In Chapter 3, Atticus notices that something is bothering Scout as they walk onto the porch for their nightly reading session. Scout laments to her father about her rough first day at school and begs Atticus not to send her back tomorrow. Atticus says,

"if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view---until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (Lee 39).

Atticus is teaching his daughter a lesson on gaining perspective. Earlier in the day, Scout assumed Miss Caroline understood everyone's family background from Maycomb, which led to a misunderstanding between Scout and her teacher. Atticus explains to Scout that she needed to take into consideration that Miss Caroline was new to Maycomb, and Scout couldn't expect her to understand everything about the Cunninghams on her first day. Atticus uses the analogy of climbing into a person's skin and walking around in it as a way to explain to Scout how she should look at situations from other people's point of view. His analogy is essentially the same thing as the common idiom, "walk in someone's shoes for a day."

Scout picks up on this lesson rather quickly and begins to develop her perspective as the novel progresses. In Chapter 7, Scout decides to leave Jem alone after he returned from the Radley house and stayed moody for a week. Scout says,

"I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon" (Lee 77).

`int_0^3 x/sqrt(36 - x^2) dx` Evaluate the integral

You need to perform the following substitution, such that `36 - x^2 = t => -2xdx = dt => xdx = -(dt)/2`

Replacing the variable yields:

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = -int_(t_1)^(t_2) (dt)/(2sqrt t) = -sqrt t|_(t_1)^(t_2)`

Replacing back the variable yields:

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = -sqrt(36-x^2)|_0^3`

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = -sqrt(36 - 9) + sqrt(36-0)`

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = 6 - sqrt 27`

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = 6 - 3sqrt 3`

`int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36 - x^2)) = 3(2 - sqrt3)`

Hence, evaluating the definite integral, yields `int_0^3 (xdx)/(sqrt(36- x^2)) = 3(2 - sqrt3).`

Banquo says, "The earth has bubbles as the water has, / And these are of them." What is the significance of this quotation?

Banquo speaks these lines immediately after he and Macbeth have been confronted by the Weird Sisters. They have received their respective prophecies, that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and then king, and that Banquo will father a line of kings. However, when Macbeth attempts to ask how it is that the Sisters know this information or why they've shared it, the witches simply, and inexplicably, vanish (according to stage direction). When Banquo says that the earth has bubbles like water has bubbles, he means just that: that there are bubbles in the earth just as there are bubbles in the water, and he believes that the Weird Sisters have come from one of these bubbles. Otherwise, how could they know about earthly doings and yet be capable of vanishing before their eyes? It helps to show how confused the men are, as well as Banquo's early suspicions of the Sisters and their motives. While Macbeth seems to wholeheartedly believe everything he's heard, Banquo is more circumspect, wondering if they've "eaten on the insane root" and hallucinated the encounter (1.3.87).

In the novel, That Was Then, This is Now, what is a character analysis of Bryon's mother, Mrs. Douglas?

The first thing that I want to point out about Mrs. Douglas is that she is Bryon's biological mother, but she is the mother of two boys in the story.  She is the adoptive mother of Mark.  She adopted Mark after his parents killed each other.  The fact that she is willing to adopt Mark, or anybody, says a lot about her as a person.  She has a caring heart, and she is willing to take on a huge responsibility in order to ensure a better life for another person.  

What I find odd about Mrs. Douglas is that despite her seemingly deep love and care for Bryon and Mark, she seems to have a fairly hands off style of parenting.  She doesn't micromanage Mark and Bryon, which isn't necessarily bad, but she doesn't get overly involved or concerned about what the two boys do at all hours of the night.  She more or less figures that if the boys get into trouble, they had better be able to rescue themselves.  That's just odd considering she is so willing to adopt Mark and various animals.  

The last character trait that I want to mention is her hopeful optimism.  Even after Bryon's and Mark's relationship is destroyed, she remains hopeful that Mark will someday turn himself around and become the good boy that he once was.  

What are attributional biases?

Introduction

For human behavior to make sense, it must be perceived accurately and its causes must be understood. Theories that describe ways in which people make judgments about these causes are called attribution theories. Attribution can be defined as the process by which one gathers information and interprets it to determine the cause of an event or behavior.

Most attribution theories propose models that describe how people collect information and how attributions are formed from that information. Many specific attributions are possible, but generally they can be grouped into two categories: personal and situational. In a situational attribution, the behavior is attributed to external forces or circumstances; for example, someone who trips may attribute the incident to a slippery floor rather than to his or her clumsiness. In a personal attribution, an internal cause, such as the person’s personality, or an internal force, such as ability or effort, is seen as being the cause of the behavior. For example, if David observes Lois making a donation to charity, he may attribute her behavior to her generous personality rather than to some external circumstance. Attribution theories predict and explain the circumstances under which a personal or a situational attribution will be made.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Attribution theories provide logical models of how people gather and use information to form attributions, but people do not always seem to follow a logical process. Researchers have discovered that people frequently fall prey to attributional biases. These systematic errors teach much about human social cognition.

One attributional bias is so pervasive that it has earned the right to be called the fundamental attribution error. Social psychologist Lee Ross discovered that people tend to overestimate the role of personal, internal factors and underestimate the influence of situational factors, thus making unwarranted personal attributions. In an experiment, subjects were given essays supporting a particular position on an issue (in favor of abortion, for example). Despite the fact that the subjects were told that the authors had no choice but to take the stated positions, the subjects rated the authors’ attitudes as being in agreement with their essays.

Two explanations have been proposed for the fundamental attribution error. In 1958, Fritz Heider proposed that people are more aware of persons than situations because persons are the obvious, attention-getting figures, whereas situations are the more easily ignored background. Daniel Gilbert proposed in 1989 that, contrary to what most attribution models propose, people do not initially use information to decide between personal and situational attributions; instead, they initially assume a personal attribution and then revise that attribution to include situational forces only if information that is inconsistent with a personal attribution forces them to do so. Supporting this hypothesis, he has found that if he keeps subjects too busy to use incoming information to revise their attributions, they are more likely to make personal attributions than are subjects who are allowed time to think about the information they are given.

Attributional Biases

The fundamental attribution error is related to the actor-observer bias. Research has shown that the fundamental attribution error pattern is often reversed when people are attributing their own actions; actors tend to overestimate situational factors and underestimate personal ones. This bias leads to situations in which people attribute their own actions to circumstances and others’ often-identical actions to personal factors: “I am late because of traffic, but you are late because you do not care about being punctual.” This bias has been demonstrated in numerous studies; in one, researchers examined letters to “Ann Landers” and “Dear Abby” and found that the letter writers were more likely to attribute their own actions to situational factors and others’ behavior than to personal factors.

Perceivers are often motivated to make a particular attribution. One motivation that may affect attribution is the desire to be correct, which may lead the person making the attribution to interpret ambiguous information as being supportive of an initial expectation or attribution. This bias often takes the form of “seeing” a trait that one associates with another trait. For example, if Glenda has attributed Jennie’s astute decisions to her intelligence, she may also assume that Jennie is exceptionally outgoing, not because she has actually observed that trait, but because Glenda associates being intelligent with being outgoing. This expectancy confirmation bias
is robust; unless the target person behaves in a way that is inconsistent with the assumption, the perceiver is unlikely to test the assumption.

One well-documented motivated attributional bias is the self-serving bias in attributing success and failure. When people succeed, they tend to attribute that success to personal, internal factors, such as ability and effort; however, when they fail, they are likely to attribute the failure to situational, external factors, such as being assigned a difficult task or having bad luck. As its name implies, the self-serving bias is thought to be motivated by a desire to preserve or enhance self-esteem by taking credit for success and denying one’s role in failure.

Another motivated bias is the tendency for observers to blame victims for their situations. This is called defensive attribution, because it has been found to be more likely to occur when the observer is similar to the victim than when the observer is dissimilar, and when the victim’s harm is severe rather than mild. Kelly Shaver, the social psychologist who first discussed this bias, believes that it is motivated by fear. If observers blame the victims rather than their situations, the observers can also believe that they themselves are unlikely to be harmed. This is related to what Melvin Lerner calls the belief in a just world. People are motivated to believe that there is justice in the world and that people get what they deserve. This is comforting, because it leads to the conclusion that if one is good, one will get good outcomes; however, the belief in a just world also leads one to assume that victims deserve their outcomes.

Finally, people may fall prey to a group of biases that are collectively called the generalization fallacy. This fallacy is seen when people overgeneralize information from individual cases and personal experience and ignore more reliable information. One example of this bias is the common belief that air travel is more dangerous than auto travel, when in fact the opposite is true. Because accidents involving airplanes are given greater attention than those involving automobiles, they are more vivid and therefore more memorable than the dangers associated with automobiles. As Heider suggested, vivid figures may be more salient than dull, statistical background information.

Relationship to Conflict

Because accurate attributions help perceivers negotiate complex social environments, attributional biases can interfere with that process. Therefore, it is not surprising that examples of attributional bias are found in situations in which there is conflict. One situation in which the fundamental attribution error and the actor-observer bias are often involved is arguments. If both parties believe that their own behavior is caused by circumstances but the other person’s behavior is caused by his or her personality, they are likely to experience conflict. This can even be seen between nations; for example, each nation may attribute the other’s cache of weapons to an aggressive personality but its own to necessity.

Another area of conflict that may involve attributional bias is stereotyping. Because stereotyping involves assuming the presence of certain traits based on membership in some group, the expectancy confirmation bias has been used as a model for stereotyping. Further, if people act on stereotypes in ways that encourage the targets to behave in certain ways, they may behaviorally confirm the stereotype. For example, if a perceiver believes that all dark-haired men are hostile, he or she may act in ways that prompt hostility from them, thereby confirming the stereotype. Defensive attribution and the belief in a just world may also play a part in stereotyping. In general, stereotypes of minority or less powerful groups are negative. The belief in a just world may lead people to reason that the targets of their stereotypes deserve their poorer outcomes because they have these negative traits. Defensive attributions may add to this by motivating perceivers to overestimate differences between themselves and the target group out of fear that if they are similar, they may receive similar outcomes.

Role in Decision Making and Depression

Researchers who investigate the generalization fallacy are often concerned that falling victim to it may lead to poor decisions. In one study, subjects who were given both reliable statistical information from a large group of car owners and the testimonial of one person tended to weigh the testimonial more heavily than the statistical information. Logically, a testimonial based on one car owned by one person is poorer data than information based on many cars owned by many people. Overreliance on vivid but unreliable data can lead to poor decisions.

Some psychologists believe that the absence of an attributional bias may be involved in depression. People who are depressed do not show the usual self-serving bias in attributing their successes and failures; severely depressed people can even show a reversal of the usual pattern, attributing failure to internal causes (such as lack of ability) and success to external factors (such as luck). In working with these patients, psychotherapists may help them learn to attribute their outcomes in ways that enhance their self-esteem.

Evolution of Cognition Study

In the late nineteenth century, psychology was defined as the science of the mind, and human cognition was at the forefront of early psychologists’ interests. Wilhelm Wundt and his followers relied on introspection for their data; they observed their own cognitive processes and reported on them. Hermann Ebbinghaus taught himself lists of words and tested his knowledge after varying time periods to investigate human memory. Beginning in 1913, however, this early cognitive research was largely ignored in the United States, as John B. Watson redefined psychology as the science of behavior. The main proposition of behaviorism, as this school of psychology is known, is that psychology should use scientific methods of observation and data collection. Behaviorists argue that since cognitive processes are not observable and behaviors are, behaviors are the only proper subject for psychological study. Behaviorism ruled psychology almost exclusively until approximately 1960; although it is still an important force in psychology, it is no longer the dominant force it once was.

As behaviorism’s influence has lessened, cognition has become once again a topic of interest to psychologists. Behaviorism left its mark on cognition in the form of more rigorous experimental methods; introspection has been replaced by objective data collection using groups of subjects. As research methods in cognitive psychology
continue to become more sophisticated, theories that might have been untestable in earlier years have become the subject of research. One indication of the strength of cognition in the academic world as a whole is that many universities have introduced interdisciplinary departments of cognitive science in which psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, linguists, and experts in artificial intelligence study different aspects of cognition.

Attribution played a significant part in the cognitive revolution; Heider’s The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations (1958) was an important early work in social cognition. Attribution is one of the most researched topics in social psychology; in fact, some would argue that it is one of the most influential concepts in the field, especially since it has been found to be useful in applied areas such as health psychology, cognitive psychology, and clinical psychology as well as social psychology. One of the characteristics of the cognitive revolution is an interest in such topics as ambiguity, uncertainty, and the effects of emotion on cognition. This emphasis provides an interesting context for the study of attributional bias and opens new avenues of inquiry for theorists and researchers. Because of this and the applied areas that have adopted and adapted attributional bias, it has become an area of interest in its own right as well as being important for the refinement of attribution theories.

Bibliography

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What are eye infections?

Definition

Eyes are made up of different structures, and all are at risk of an attack from
a range of bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi that can lead to inflammation
and infection. Eye infections are usually diagnosed and
described by the specific part of the eye involved or by the mechanism causing the
infection. Mismanaged or unresolved eye infections are among the leading causes of blindness around the world. The most frequently occurring eye
infection is infectious conjunctivitis, often called pinkeye,
which is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, the mucous membrane that lines the
eyelids. Conjunctivitis can be further classified as bacterial, viral, or fungal.

The eye is made up of a series of complex structures. Some common infections of
the eye structures are blepharitis, an inflammation of the eyelid margins;
scleritis, an infection of the sclera, the white
outside-covering of the eye ball; iritis, inflammation of the iris, the colored
part of the eye; keratitis, inflammation of the cornea, the transparent part
of the sclera at the very front of the eye that covers the lens and iris;
vitritis, an infection of the liquid inside the eye; chorioretinitis, an
inflammation of the retina and its blood vessels; and endophthalmitis, serious
inflammation of the inside of the eye.

Causes

No specific pathogen is responsible for infecting the eyes. The human
body includes a normal amount of bacteria and is exposed daily to viruses, fungi,
and parasites that can cause eye infection and irritation. The most common eye
infection is conjunctivitis, caused by adenovirus, a virus of the common cold.
There are also more than sixty types of fungus that can lead to eye infection.
Leading eye infections are described in the following sections.

Keratitis. Injury to the eye, a weakened immune system, or a lack of oxygen from contact lens wear allows bacteria, fungi or parasites to penetrate the cornea, causing keratitis. Most cases of bacterial keratitis are caused by Staphylococcus, which is found in the normal bacteria in the eyelids, skin, mouth, and nose of more than 20 percent of humans, or by Streptococcus, which is the same bacteria that causes strep throat and is normally found in the mouth, skin, intestine, and upper respiratory tract. This type of corneal infection can occur when the eye comes in contact with a contaminated object or person or if a person is already a carrier of Staphylococcus or Streptococcus and self-infects by touching his or her own eye.

Conjunctivitis. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are
common sexually transmitted infections that can cause conjunctivitis. The
infection can be transmitted to the eyes through direct contact with genital
fluids or through people touching or rubbing their eyes after touching infected
genital areas. These infections usually result in conjunctivitis; however, some
bacteria such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae can penetrate the
protective layers of the eye and cause inner eye infection and serious damage.
Newborn babies whose mothers have chlamydia or gonorrhea are at high risk for
developing severe eye infection.

Herpes simplex virus infection. The herpes simplex
virus, which causes cold sores, can also infect the eye,
leading to ulcers on the cornea. Recurring herpes infection in the eye can cause
major destruction of retinal vessels, leading to vision damage. Chronic herpes
simplex infections in the eye will cause some vision loss in approximately 15
percent of people who have the virus.

Herpes zoster virus infection. Herpes zoster
is a virus that causes chickenpox and can be reactivated, causing shingles later
in life. Eye infections often occur when the eyes are touched after a chickenpox
or shingles lesion has been touched. Like ocular infection by the herpes simplex
virus, herpes zoster can also cause corneal ulcers and can lead to retinal tissue
damage.

Histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis is a fungal
infection of the lungs, which is caused by the inhalation of
spores. These fungal spores can travel through the body to the inside of the eyes,
causing ocular histoplasmosis syndrome. This migration may take years or even
decades. The fungal infection can cause damage to the retina and, more
specifically, to the macula, leading to reduced central vision, similar to macular
degeneration. Histoplasmosis frequently occurs in river valleys around the world,
and it has affected more than 90 percent of people in the southeastern United
States. Most people infected with histoplasmosis have no symptoms, and only some
develop ocular histoplasmosis syndrome. However, histoplasmosis remains a
significant infectious cause of legal blindness for twenty to forty year olds in
the United States.

Endophthalmitis. Endophthalmitis is a serious infection of the
inside of the eye that could lead to blindness. All intraocular eye surgeries,
such as cataract
surgery or injectable treatments for age-related macular
degeneration, carry a risk for endophthalmitis. Typically, the microbial organisms
normally found on the patient’s skin or conjunctiva are transferred into the eye
cavity during the surgical procedure; contaminated surgical instruments may also
be a cause. Once the organisms are inside the eye cavity, inflammation starts to
occur, usually reaching serious levels within about six weeks of the original
surgical procedure. Other causes may be trauma or be bloodstream-related because
of an infection in another part of the body.

Acanthamoeba infection. Acanthamoeba is a single-celled ameba that is commonly found in water and soil. Before contact lens use was common, infection from Acanthamoeba was quite rare. Washing contact lenses with tap water or using a homemade saline solution allows the ameba to adhere to the lens and wait for an opportunity to invade the eye. A tiny scratch or abrasion on the surface of the eye will provide ample opportunity for the ameba to get inside the cornea, multiply, and cause a painful destructive infection called acanthamoeba keratitis.

Trachoma. Trachoma is a chronic and extremely
contagious form of conjunctivitis caused by the microorganism Chlamydia
trachomatis. It is a leading cause of blindness around the world, most
prevalent in developing countries or in disadvantaged populations. If the
inflammation persists and is left untreated, the eyelid may turn inward, causing
the eyelashes to rub on the surface of the eye and leading to the formation of
painful scar tissue, resulting in irreversible blindness.

Cellulitis. Cellulitis is a serious skin infection
that can affect the tissues surrounding the eye. It is caused most usually by a
spread of infection from an adjacent facial wound, eyelid trauma, insect bite,
sinusitis, or tooth infection.

Risk Factors

Eyes are frequently exposed to potential pathogens, therefore making them vulnerable to infection. Certain diseases, behaviors, and environments can increase the risk for these infections. Quite often, an eye infection accompanies another infection, disease, or health condition in the body.

One of the greatest risk factors for eye infection is contact lens wear. Normal
contact lens wear that carefully follows the recommendations for care and cleaning
does not pose a significant risk. Prolonged wear and inadequate cleaning limit
oxygen exposure to the eye and expose the eye to harmful bacteria for extended
periods. Smoking when wearing contact lenses increases this risk, as the smoke
dries and irritates the surface of the eye. Studies have shown that prolonged lens
wear and sleeping with lenses in the eyes increase the risk of infection more than
fivefold and can potentially cause permanent vision loss. If an eye infection does
occur, contact lenses must not be worn until the infection has completely resolved
because the contact lens can cause reinfection.

Contact lens wearers can lower their risk of contracting acanthamoeba keratitis by never allowing their lenses or cases to come in contact with tap water and never wearing contacts when showering or swimming, even in chlorinated pools.

Exposure to ultraviolet light can damage the surface of the eye, making it more susceptible to infection, so proper eye wear outdoors or in tanning facilities is strongly recommended.

A weakened or compromised immune system can lead to increased risk of infection in the eye and elsewhere in the body.

Patients having any type of intraocular surgery are at an increased risk for endophthalmitis or other infection inside the eye. Common intraocular procedures include cataract surgery and injectable treatments for age-related macular degeneration.

Previous skin wounds or infections, or a sinus or tooth infection, may put patients at an increased risk for orbital cellulitis.

Symptoms

Symptoms that occur when an infection is present on one of the outer surfaces
of the eye, such as the conjunctiva or cornea, include redness and itching,
excessive tear production, light sensitivity, mucuslike discharge, eyelid
swelling, pain, and involuntary blinking. A symptom of a serious infection, such
as cellulitis, includes proptosis, which is the displacement of the eyeball as the
infection or abscess pushes the eye in an unnatural direction. Most of
these symptoms are easily visible to others and can be quite uncomfortable.

Infections of structures of the inner eye cavity, such as the retina, optic
nerve, vitreous fluid, or the blood vessels that feed them, are much more
difficult to detect and often cause no pain. Normally, the first symptom for these
eye infections is deteriorating vision, which can often be stopped but not
reversed. A potential symptom of damage to the inner structures of the eye may be
a sudden increase in the amount of floaters, which appear as small bubbles,
strands, or dark spots or specks that slowly fall across the line of vision.

Screening and Diagnosis

The majority of eye infections are diagnosed by clinical evaluation and
observation, although a computed tomography (CT) scan or a
magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) scan may be used to confirm or detect
infections at the back of the eye or in the surrounding tissues. The mucus, or
discharge, from the eye can be collected on a swab and analyzed in a laboratory to
determine what organism is causing the infection.

One should have regular eye examinations, during which a doctor will check for the presence of any infections or damage to the inner or outer structures of the eye. General practitioners can often easily diagnose many common eye infections; however, eye care professionals, such as ophthalmologists and optometrists, have specialized equipment that can carefully examine the structures of the eye. They can recognize various eye infections by the appearance of the eye and by the patient’s medical history, because eye infections frequently accompany a disease or infection (such as a cold) in another part of the body.

Treatment and Therapy

Bacterial eye infections (conjunctivitis or keratitis) are often treated with
broad spectrum antibiotic drops, but more specific antibiotics
are used for infections caused by chlamydia or gonorrhea. More serious infections
such as cellulitis or endophthalmitis may require intravenous antibiotics and a
hospital stay.

Most cases of viral conjunctivitis will improve within a few days without treatment. Viruses such as herpes simplex remain in the body, and ocular flare-ups may recur; they can be managed with antiviral medications.

The majority of fungal infections can be treated with medication; however, infections such as histoplasmosis, which cause damage to the retina and macula, require surgical laser treatments to slow the deterioration of the macula in an attempt to preserve deteriorating vision.

Eye infections that are manifestations of systemic disease, such as
tuberculosis or syphilis, will normally clear up when the entire body is being
treated for the systemic infection. Parasitic infection to the eye structures can
be destructive and requires aggressive treatment with antimicrobial agents or
combinations of topical treatments. Serious cases of keratitis may require
surgical debridement. In some cases, the damage to the cornea requires a
corneal
transplant.

Prevention and Outcomes

To prevent many bacterial or viral eye infections, one should practice good hygiene and safer sex. Washing hands frequently can prevent the spread of organisms that cause infection. Persons with open sores because of shingles, cold sores, or chickenpox, for example, should not touch or treat these sores and then touch their eyes. Children are especially susceptible and should be watched carefully and kept from touching sores, mucus from their nose or mouth, and their eyes. Items such as towels, pillow cases, and cosmetics, which come in contact with eyes, should not be shared. If a family member is known to have an eye infection, it is advised that he or she use separate wash cloths, towels, and bed linens.

Contact lens wearers are particularly susceptible to eye infections and need to wash their hands before they insert or remove their lenses. It is very important that contact lenses are cleaned and cared for as per the manufacturer’s instructions and are not worn longer than advised. Tap water should never come in contact with contact lenses.

Smoking and unprotected exposure to ultraviolet light, such as that from direct sunlight or from tanning beds, can damage the protective layers of the eyes, making them more susceptible to infection.

A person who has had many eye infections could have a sexually transmitted
disease, which is highly contagious and is not easily
detectable until infection is visible. Safer sexual practices, such as condom use,
will reduce the risk of infection; also, one should always keep hands clean and
keep them far from the eyes.

Trauma or scratches make the eye more vulnerable to infection because of damage to the protective layer, making it easier for contaminated foreign bodies to enter the eye. One should take steps to prevent eye injuries by using safety glasses or goggles.

Bibliography

American Academy of Ophthalmology. “Eye Infections.” Provides descriptions and diagrams of typical eye infections. Available at http://www.aao.org/eyesmart/infections.

Bartlett, Jimmy D., and Siret D. Jaanus, eds. Clinical Ocular Pharmacology. 5th ed. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier, 2008. A well-illustrated and descriptive account of diseases of the eye and of surgical and pharmacological treatments. Though aimed at medical professionals, the book is a valuable reference for any interested reader.

Cronau, H., R. Kankanala, and T. Mauger. “Diagnosis and Management of Red Eye in Primary Care.” American Family Physician 81, no. 2 (January, 2010): 137-144. This review article discusses the causes, symptoms, and treatment and referral requirements for patients presenting with red eyes, the cardinal sign of ocular inflammation.

Higgins, Jeffrey. Eye Infections, Blindness, and Myopia. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Biomedical Books, 2009. A description of antibiotic-resistant infections and the treatments for and outcomes of serious ocular infections.

Johnson, Gordon J., et al., eds. The Epidemiology of Eye Disease. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. A university-level text concerning eye disease. Descriptive, well referenced, and richly illustrated with color images.

Mandell, Gerald, and Thomas Bleck, eds. Central Nervous System and Eye Infections. Vol. 3 in Atlas of Infectious Diseases. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1995. Provides a collection of clinical images and illustrations for many infectious diseases throughout stages of development and treatment.

Panjwani, Noorjahan. “Pathogenesis of Acanthamoeba Keratitis.” Ocular Surface 8, no. 2 (April, 2010): 70-79. This review article discusses trends in understandings of acanthamoeba keratitis, the mechanism of infection by this parasite, and treatment options.

Riordan-Eva, Paul, and John P. Whitcher. Vaughan and Asbury’s General Ophthalmology. 17th ed. New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 2008. This well-illustrated textbook is an excellent reference for the serious student who desires detailed information on any aspect of the eye or its diseases.

Seal, David, and Uwe Pleyer. Ocular Infection: Management and Treatment in Practice. 2d ed. New York: Informa Healthcare, 2007. This book is an update of the first edition, published in 1998. Discusses the basic science of ocular infections and the diagnosis and management of ocular disease.