Subjective Well-Being Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Subjective Well-Being - Research Paper Example Corey Keyes notes: â€Å"Well-being has been a paramount concern of thinkers since ancient times as witnessed in much of Greek philosophical writings. It became a topic of scientific inquiry during the 1950s when interest in fostering a better life was facilitated by the Zeitgeist following World War II.† Earlier studies mainly focused on the relationship between subjective well-being and mental health and merely examined the concept of happiness. Marc Hooghe and Bram Vanhouette reveal: â€Å"While local communities apparently have an impact on happiness levels, this is not necessarily the case for subjective well-being. Subjective well-being indicators are strongly influenced by national-level determinants (culture, income level) but it remains to be investigated what kind of community levels can have an impact on subjective well-being.† Even though happiness is an important factor in subjective well-being, it was later discovered that other aspects needed to be includ ed in order to have a more accurate evaluation of the concept. Subjective well-being is not only about the positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction, but it involves other multidimensional factors that contribute to an effective evaluation. The inclusion of these factors makes later research more extensive and reliable because it incorporates new aspects never before considered. These new studies analyzed the social, political, cultural, environmental, economic aspects and other elements that may interfere with individuals’ well-being. A better analysis and understanding of the external factors that turn around individuals’ lives allow a better evaluation of their subjective well-being that takes into consideration all components. The issue of subjective well-being has been around for a long time; however, the scientific research started after World War II. People have always evaluated their

The in efficiency of monopoly Essay Example for Free

The in efficiency of monopoly Essay The monopolist produces a lower output and sells it at a higher price than would a compe ve industry† a) Brie? y explain the equilibrium posi? on of the monopolist. Use your analysis to show what is meant by this statement Monopolies are described as Price Makers, and are therefore the theore? cal extreme opposite of a perfectly compe ve %rm. Like perfectly compe ve %rms the Monopolist will seek to maximize pro%t and produce where MC=MR. The monopolist however faces much less compe on if any and therefore can a+ord to restrict output and charge a higher price. In this way The monopolist can earn abnormal pro%t in both the short and long run. In the long run perfectly compe ve %rms are both alloca? vely and produc? vely e-cient. The monopolist is Alloca? vely ine-cient since they do not produce all units up to the point where the social bene%t gained from the unit is equal to its social cost. They restrict their output in order to keep prices high. They produce where MC=MR regardless of the cost to society in terms of dead weight loss or community surplus. They are also produc? vely ine-cient since they Do not operate on the lowest point of the average cost curve. They operate at the pro%t maximizing output of MC=MR. Unlike a perfectly compe ve %rm the Monopolist faces a downward sloping demand or AR curve and a MR curve that is twice as steep. Regardless of monopoly power they must lower their prices to sell more. If they operate at the minimum point on the AC curve pro%ts may fall as prices will have to be reduced to sell this extra output.

High-Dose Chemotherapies (HDC) and STAMP as Cancer Treatment

High-Dose Chemotherapies (HDC) and STAMP as Cancer Treatment STAMP Since the 1960s, high-dose chemotherapies (HDC) had been successful in curing acute leukemia and Hodgkins disease, but not that successful in curing solid tumors such as lung cancer and breast cancer. Chemotherapists were now wondering whether by increasing the power of the dosage, they could make HDC effective for treating solid cancer. But for most chemotherapy drugs, the dose limit depended on the bone marrow. How can one increase the drug dosage by five or ten times without destroying the bone marrow? Bone Marrow Transplantation In the late 1960s, Donnall Thomas had shown that bone marrow could be harvested from one patient and transplanted back either to the same patient (called autologous transplantation) or into another patient (called allogeneic transplantation). Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation was tricky, often deadly. It could lead to a deadly complication called graft-versus-host disease if the foreign marrow turned and attacked the body of the recipient. Autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT), on the other hand, was less risky. Here, the patients own marrow was harvested, frozen, and transplanted back into his body. STAMP By harvesting and freezing bone marrow, then implanting the marrow after HDC, doctors were theoretically able to break through the limit of toxicity; the so-called red ceiling. It was now possible to give five- or even tenfold the typical doses of drugs. Among the first proponent of this strategy was Emil Frie, who was now the director of Farbers institute. By early 1980s, Fred had convinced himself that a high dose chemotherapy combined with autologous bone marrow transplantation (HDC/ABMT), was the only conceivable solution in cancer therapy. He called this protocol Solid Tumor Autologous Marrow Program, or STAMP. To develop this protocol, Frei recruited William Peters as a fellow at the institute in 1982. By December 1984, 32 women had completed the Phase I study of the regimen, designed to investigate safety. The researchers proceeded with Phase II trials, which showed very promising results. But randomized controlled trials (Phase III) were needed to confirm the benefit of STAMP. In 1985, William Peters left the Faber institute to set up the trial at Duke University in North Carolina. He also persuaded the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) to sponsor a multi-center, randomized controlled trial. AIDS In March 1981, a team of doctors reported eight cases of Kaposis sarcoma in a cohort of men in New York. All eight of the men were homosexual. One of the men was also diagnosed with a rare pneumonia called PCP, which only occurs in humans when the immune system is severely compromised. Between June and August 1981, additional clusters of PCP, cryptococcal meningitis, Kaposis sarcoma, and rare lymphomas were reported in young men in cities throughout America. The common pattern behind all these diseases, aside from their bias towards gay men, was a total collapse of the immune system. A letter in Lancet called the disease gay compromise syndrome. Others called it GRID (gay-related immune deficiency). In July 1982, it was called acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. In January 1983, Luc Montagnier, a virologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, discovered a virus in a lymph node biopsy from a young gay man with Kaposis sarcoma. Montagnier soon deduced that this was an RNA virus that could convert its genes into DNA and lodge into the human genome-a retrovirus. He called his virus IDAV, immuno-deficiency associated viruses, arguing that it was likely the cause of AIDS. Montagniers discovery was corroborated in the spring of 1984 by Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute. Margaret Heckler, the Health and Human Services secretary, made this discovery public in the spring of 1984. We hope to have a vaccine ready for testing in about two years, she said. But AIDS activists, facing an epidemic that was decimating their community, could not afford to wait. In the spring of 1987, a group of volunteers form a group named the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP. Led by a writer named Larry Kramer, ACT UP promised to transform the landscape of AIDS treatment using a kind of militant activism unprecedented in the history of medicine. The Map and the Parachute While William Peters was investigating the efficacy of the STAMP protocol, many oncologists had long assumed that the regimen was so effective that no trial would be needed. By the late 1980s, hospitals and private clinics offering high dose bone marrow transplantation (HDC/ABMT) for breast cancer had sprouted up all around the US, UK, and France. Insurance and Litigation Costs from $50,000 to $400,000 per patient, HDC/ABMT is an expensive therapy. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs), a popular form of health insurance in America, had refused to pay for these therapies because they regarded them as experimental and investigational. However, this would change after the landmark case, Fox v. Health Net in 1993. In 1991, a 38-year-old public-school teacher named Nelene Fox was diagnosed with breast cancer. She requested Health Net, her HMO, to pay for HDC/ABMT to treat her cancer. Health Net declined her request, stating this therapy was an unproven, experimental therapy. Foxs brother, an attorney named Mark Hiepler, took Health Net to court. By the summer of 1992, when Health Net refused yet another request for coverage, Fox went ahead with the therapy on her own. By then she had raised $220,000. On April 22, 1993, less than a year after the therapy, Fox died. Mark Hiepler sought damages from Health Net for delaying his sisters treatment. The crux of his case rested on the definition of the word investigational. HDC/ABMT could, he argued, hardly be considered an investigational procedure if every major clinics in the nation was offering it to patients. On December 28, 1993, a Californian jury awarded Foxs family $89 million. In late 1993, because of the lobbying efforts from a 47-year-old cancer patient named Charlotte Turner, the state of Massachusetts mandated coverage for HDC/BMT for eligible patients within the state. By the mid-1990s, seven states required HMOs to pay for HDC/ABMT, with similar legislation pending in seven other states. Between 1988 and 2002, 86 cases were filed against HMOs that had refused to pay for transplants, of which 47 were successful. Research Misconduct Werner Bezwoda, an oncologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa was one of the most prominent and successful HDC/ABMT therapists. In May 1999, Werner Bezwoda presented his results at the annual meeting of the American College of Clinical Oncology in Atlanta. His results were spectacular: Eight and a half years after HDC/ABMT, 60% of his patients were alive, whereas only 20% survived in the control group. In contrast, the results presented from three other trials in the afternoon were not good. In one study, the researchers found not even a modest improvement, and complication rates considerably higher than the control arm. How do one reconcile these disparate results? In December 1999, a team of researchers flew off to South Africa to take a look at Bezwodas data. Upon arrival, they requested the log books for the 158 patients Bezwoda reported treating. He gave them log books for 58 and said the rest had been lost. The data he gave them was shoddy. Many records had unsigned, handwritten entries and there was no evidence that Bezwoda had randomly assigned patients. There were no records showing that any patients had received the standard treatment. One of Bezwodas purported breast cancer patients was actually a man. The entire thing had been a sham. Bezwodas protocol was completely fabricated and the whole thing was a fraud. A Final STAMP Trial In the summer of 1999, a final trial was designed to investigate whether STAMP might increase survival among patients with metastatic breast cancer. Results came in four years later: There was no discernible benefit. Cancer Undefeated In May 1997, eleven years after the 1986 Bailar-Smith analysis, Bailar was back with another appraisal of the progress on cancer. His article, entitled Cancer Undefeated, depicted the War on Cancer as a dynamic, moving battle against a dynamic, moving target. Between 1970 and 1994, cancer mortality had increased by about 6 percent, from 189 deaths per 100,000 to 201 deaths. Cancer mortality had increased among people over 55, but decreased by the same proportion among people under 55. Death rates from colon cancer, cervical and uterine cancer had decreased, mostly due to earlier detections (colonoscopy and Pap smears). Death rates for most forms of childrens cancer, Hodgkins disease and testicular cancer had also declined. Lung cancer was still the biggest killer, responsible for 25 percent of all cancer deaths. Overall death rates had increased by 6 percent. Death rates among men had peaked and dropped off by the mid-1980s, while death rates among women over the age of 55 had increased by 400 percent. The incidence of lung cancer was highest in people older than 55 and was lower in people under 55.

The Odyssey, by Homer, is an Epic Essay -- Epic Narrative

An epic is a long, episodic narrative poem that recounts the adventures of a historical or mystical hero. Episodic narratives have a larger story broken down into closely connected, but individual and separate sections. Some important qualities that distinguish an epic are unrealistic antagonists, the Gods and Goddesses playing important roles, and a story involving the re-establishment of a proper leader. â€Å"The Odyssey†, by Homer, is an epic because Odysseus (the hero) faces supernatural antagonists, the gods and goddesses play an important role, and Odysseus is being restored as a rightful leader. Throughout the story, Odysseus faces several supernatural antagonists. One of these antagonists is a creature named Scylla. In a daring and dangerous section of the epic, the story mentions, â€Å"He and his crew must pass between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a terrifying monster with six heads. She dwells in a high rocky cave, devouring sailors in ships that pass close by.†(Homer 617) Scylla is a supernatural monster because no large creatures have been identified in the world to have six heads. She is Odysseus’ antagonist because in this particular section, Odysseus must challenge the monster by sailing close by, without losing sailors. However, Scylla devours six of his men, one for each head. Therefore, by losing his men to Scylla, the monster is noticeably an antagonist. Prior to the encounter with Scylla, Odysseus faces a one-eyed monster named Polyphemus. Polyphemus lives in the land of the Cyclops, and Odysseus is eager to meet this â€Å"mountai n king†. An excerpt from the story of the Cyclops Odysseus reports, â€Å"†¦but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies t... ...raits. By learning from his mistakes, Odysseus will be more knowledgeable of how a king would act. The development of leadership traits is the final point that makes â€Å"The Odyssey† an epic. â€Å"The Odyssey†, by Homer, is an epic because Odysseus (the hero) faces supernatural antagonists, the Gods and Goddesses play an important role, and Odysseus is mortal and possesses flaws and imperfections. Odysseus encounters monsters such as the Cyclopes, and Scylla and Charybdis. He interacts with the Gods Zeus and Poseidon. Odysseus is also in the process of gaining leader-like traits such as judgment and cautiousness. â€Å"The Odyssey† is an epic journey full of Odysseus’ quests and adventures. Works Cited Homer. "The Odyssey." Adventures in Reading. Ed. Dorothy Diemer Hendry. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. 599-653. Print.

A Multimodal Learning Strategy Essay

How do you learn best? Do you rely on written instructions that outline details or processes? Do you physically test and try something out to see how it works? Do you learn through observation, by seeing someone else demonstrate? Do you rely on diagrams and visual aids to help you understand? If you answered mostly â€Å"yes† to the above questions, chances are, you have a multimodal learning preference. The majority—approximately 60%– of any population, group, or demographic fall into the category of multimodal learning. Multimodal learning takes from each of the four sensory modalities—the VARK learning style—used for learning information. The VARK learning style was developed by New Zealand educator Neil Fleming (1987) as a model that assesses how different people have different learning preferences. VARK is an abbreviation for visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), and kinesthetic (K)—the four modes of learning strategies that he believed categorized how people learned and gathered knowledge. A multimodal learning strategy is a learning preference that combines two or three out of the four basic learning preferences. Finding out what one’s learning preference is promotes a more effectiveness in learning, as it gears one’s study habits towards their preferred method. Assessing the Method A VARK questionnaire is an effective method in assessing what a person’s learning preference is. A survey of approximately 15 to 16 questions would be given to a group of mixed background profiles, which would later be broken down into categories relating various social categories. The goal of the questionnaire or survey is to come up with a mean score which would be the standard for comparison and action. This score will is used to initiate a joint effort involving varying parties to determine strategies that would enhance learning for the groups (Murphy, Gray, Straja and Bogert, 2004). The VARK Four To better understand what multimodal learning strategies take from, it is important to discuss and differentiate between the four modes of learning strategies (Fleming, 1987). Visual learning styles highly prefer illustrated information over presentations or explanations in word. People who are â€Å"visual† rely heavily on drawings, maps, diagrams, symbols, and the like to gather information and learn. Aural or Auditory learners prefer to gather information that is spoken or heard. These types of learners acquire information best by listening to lectures, talks, discussions—even from e-mails, chats, texts and phone calls. Those with the Read/Write learning style process information best when it is written or displayed as text. The emphasis of this preference not only considers the input (which in this case is reading), it also looks at the output, which is more often than not, also in written form. Kinesthetic learners gain knowledge and information through practice and experience, real or simulated. This â€Å"experiential learning† may involve simulations, demonstrations, case studies and applications. The discussion of each of the four modes of learning preferences gives an idea of how learners with multimodal learning strategies absorb and understand information. Multiple preferences take factors from each of the four learning styles and incorporate them into an interesting formula that varies from user to user. As an example, you may have strong visual and aural preferences, or read/write and kinesthetic. It is also possible for a person to have three strong preferences, while some may also exhibit no particular inclination towards any single preference, and instead would have equal learning strategies in all four (Hong and Milgram, 2000). The multimodal learning style uses at least two types of strategies for learning. Unlike those with single preferences who deduce concepts by using their strategic style, multimodal learners often feel the need to â€Å"counter-check† the facts they obtained from a single set of strategies with the other types of learning styles (Fleming and Bonwell, 2002). Case Study: Myself as a Multimodal Learner I obtained the following scores using the VARK questionnaire found on www. vark-learn. com (Fleming, 2006): V=5, A=1, R=9 and K=7. This shows that I have a multimodal learning preference, with strengths in both Read/Write and Kinesthetic areas. Top R and K scores allow me to learn effectively using a combination of written reference and hands-on experience (Vierheller, 2005). My capacity to gather information would be greatly influenced by references, textbooks, lists, notes and readings. They would likewise be enhanced by using sensory observations, trial and error experiences, and hands-on approaches like computing, field trips and laboratory work. Alternately, I should theoretically be able to produce valuable output by writing information and lists, and by doing a mock-up or by physically recreating experiences and observations. To concur with my test results, I have personally found written information coupled with hands-on testing to be a most effective strategy. Also, while scoring only a 5 on the visual mode, I have always found visual study strategies to be effective in supplementing the information that I am able to collate using my supposed strong styles. The use of pictures, diagrams, charts, symbols and the like provide significant assistance in my personal learning preference. Users like myself, who have a three-dimensional multimodal learning preference have the fortunate advantage of easily adapting to various assessment methods and techniques required. References Fleming, N. (n. d. ) VARK: A Review of Those Who Are Multimodal. Web site: http://www. vark-learn. com/english/page_content/multimodality. html Hong, E. and Milgram, R. (2000). Homework: Motivation and Learning Preference [Electronic version]. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Murphy, R. , Gray, S. , Straja, S. , and Bogert, M. (2004). Student Learning Preferences and Teaching Implication. Journal of Dental Education. 68(8). 860-861. Retrieved from www. jdentaled. org.

William Lloyd Garrison essays

William Lloyd Garrison essays William Lloyd Garrison was one of foremost abolitionists in the United States. Garrison used a nonviolent, journalistic approach to speak out against the evils of slavery. Garrison is most famous for his anti-slavery journal The Liberator. He made his views very clear in the first issue of he journal: I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no!...I am in earnestI will not equivocateI will not excuseI will not retreat a single inchAND I WILL BE HEARD(Garrison)! A combination of William Lloyd Garrisons humble upbringing, passionate involvement in the Abolitionist Movement, and professional associations with other abolitionists contributed to his success as an antislavery activist. William Lloyd Garrison was born in 1805, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His father was a merchant sailor. The Garrison family fell on hard times during Williams childhood; their hardship was due to the Embargo Act passed in 1807. Williams father deserted his family in 1805 and left them penniless. The Garrison family was left to beg for food from the rich families who lived in their area. William was forced to work as a result of his familys poverty. He held odd jobs that included selling wood and homemade candy. William Garrison held several editorial jobs early in his career that prepared him for the time when he created his own paper. In 1818, William became the editor of the Boston-based National Philanthropist after he completed an apprenticeship with the paper. He secured another editorial job with the Journal of the Times located in Bennington, Vermont in 1828. In 1829, he became co-editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation (Baltimore) along with abolitionist Benjamin Lundy. Disaster...