Climate Change And Effects On Hospitality Industry Environmental Sciences Essay

Climate Change And Effects On Hospitality Industry Environmental Sciences Essay This report overall discuss about the global climate change or global warming and its serious impacts on the whole world. In detail it discusses about how global warming is caused, what is the main epidemic for the climate change, its direct effects on the hospitality industry. Further it tells about the latest IPCC report which tells how deep is everyone in water and discusses about the future projected changes. Later this report discuss about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposed by Australian Government where it briefly tells about what is CPRS and its impacts specially on Australian tourism industry. This report also analysed one of the worlds leading 5 star properties in terms of how eco friendly is that property. In the end of the report it discuss about the recent conference held in Copenhagen regarding the global climate change and the new laws and issues that were raised by keeping tourism in focus. Climate change had begun a long time ago, but it knocked the unconsciousness of human mind a bit late when theses changes were at their peak. In other words people actually started to pay serious attention to these changes when they heard from the mouth of scientists, when they saw on T.V. that the meetings were been held all around the world and saw the consequences with their own naked eyes and believed that this is not a joke but is a matter of serious consideration. The change in climate started to occur more than 2 decades ago. Now the question that arises over here is who is responsible for all this and how to cope up with the situation like this? Further this report will discuss about the factors due to which the planet earth is facing devastating changes in its environment, its impact on the innocent people and also on the Australian hospitality industry. Global Warming and its impacts on the whole world This report basically discusses about the changes that are taking place in the earths environment. The term environment refers to features that lie outside the system under consideration and separated from the system by a boundary. The boundary acts as a control on the flows that take place from the system into the environment. This flow could be of anything, it could be the flow of money, pollution or information. But our major concern in this report is the flow of earths ecological system. Now the boundary of our ecological system has become totally semi permeable which was permeable before. Semi Permeable boundary simply means that the boundary is getting thick day by day that it is preventing all the green house gasses such as methane, nitrogen etc. and other invisible radiation to escape, which in turn increasing the temperature of earth constantly resulting in Global Warming. The term global warming is defined as a system of multipliers devised to enable warming effects of di fferent gases to be compared. Global warming is not just about warming of the planet, its also about the imbalance which gets created in the environment. For example over the past few years some irrelevant changes have been seen in few countries such as the place which is supposed to get good amount of rain faced severe drought and on the other hand the places which were meant to be dried got heavily flooded. From the latest research it has been found that the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere has crossed 300ppm which had never happened in 650,000 years. The limit has gone above more than 382ppm where 450ppm being the dangerous sign. The reason is fairly simple i.e. increased pollution in the earths ecological system which in turn has increased the green house effect as well and the increased human activities. Green house gases consists gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs. One thing to be noticed over here is that the major contributor of gree n house gases is carbon and as discussed above the annual carbon emission has grew above 80%. Because of the green house effect the icebergs down in arctic are melting and rising the sea level all around the world, due to which the oceans are getting hotter and hotter by absorbing the huge amount of carbon radiation resulting into hurricanes, typhoons and tornados. The increase in the emission of GHGs is because of increasing human activities day by day. These activities involve the burning of fossil fuels such as crude oil, coal etc. that are limited in quantity and non renewable sources of energy. This means the more the, people more the burning of fossil fuels and more the pollution will be created. Human influences have very likely contributed to rise in sea level, likely contributed changes in the wind patterns leading to storms, typhoons, hurricanes etc. Not only human beings contribute to global warming, animals also contribute such as cows, sheeps etc. They release methane g as which when comes out becomes more poisonous because of the way their digestive system is created. According to recent IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the annual Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk from 2.7% to 8% per decade since 1978, which is an increase of 5.3% resulting in declination of snow and glaciers in both hemispheres. There is a medium confidence that the continuous change in climate is also affecting the agriculture at northern hemisphere such as early spring planting of crops and alternations in disturbance regimes of forests because of inability to adapt changes. As the earth is getting hotter and hotter the amount of water present on the earth is decreasing because of evaporation. Mount Everest which is the source of water for many countries such as India, Nepal, China etc. is losing the ice continuously which is not a good sign. Everything has some negative effects and some positive effects which can be proven by the simple example of melting of ice, good effect is that some countries get water to drink whereas the bad effect is that it also leads to rise in sea level. This is not only affecting human beings its also affecting the natural habitat. Due to global warming the bird babies and other babies are getting born immature and weak and also prior to their actual birth timings. This pollution has also decreased the protective layer which protects from mosquitoes and lots of other deadly infections, the major protective layer is the ozone layer. The depletion in the ozone layer has increased the chances of skin cancer. The movie Six Degrees tells that how does earth changes its form even if the overall temperature of earth just increases by 1 degree centigrade. The increase of 1 degree can result into bushfires that is one of the common things for Australia. Six degrees is the last stage and beyond that earth will no longer exist Future climate changes and its impacts As per the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) in the next 20 years there will be 70% increase in global GHGs with no fossil fuels left. Furthermore there is projected warming of 0.5 degrees centigrade for next two decades even if all the GHGs are kept under control, a further warming of 0.2 degrees centigrade is expected. In the regional areas snow contraction and increase in thaw depth is likely to occur. Increase in frequency of hot extremes, tropical cyclones and increase in precipitation in high latitudes are some of the expected changes. Some of the systems and sectors that are very likely to be affected by the climate change would be terrestrial areas such as tundra, mediterranean type of ecosystems because of reduction in rainfall, coastal and marine areas due to multiple stresses, population living in low latitudes. The most vulnerable part of the world which will be affected would be Asia and Africa because of large population and high exposure to sea level ri se. Effects on Hospitality Industry The hospitality industry is an international industry emerging worldwide. This industry is extremely important for the economy. Climate change can now be seen as a fundamental issue with major influences on tourism. Hospitality industry does not cause any kind of environmental pollution nor does it consume large amounts of non renewable sources and therefore this industry is not in the front line of environmental concern. This industry is made up of vast majority of small operations which intakes minute amounts of energy, water, food, paper etc. but it does add small amount of pollution to the environment in terms of noise, smoke, chemical pollutants. The hotel industry damages the environment by releasing some carbon emissions and CFCs that comes out of the air conditioners and refrigerators, by wasting energy, food, water. These are some of the ways by which the hospitality industry ruins the environment a bit. Now because of this pollution the hospitality industry has also been a ffected. The hotels that rely on the nature itself for example snow, mountains, lakes or oceans etc. will no longer exist because as the temperature is increasing there will be no ice, sea etc. Climate change has a large potential to totally destroy the hospitality and tourism industry. Climate change will heavily have its impact on this industry by changing the destination patterns and by changing the decisions of the industry. Since tourism industry totally depends on natural environment certain types of tourism will get affected such as winter sports, lake and sea, mountain, fishing etc. The coral reef that are present under water have started to dry out, the sea animals have started to die and this will eventually result into less number of tourist which means less profit and less profit is equal to deep loss for the hotel. The reason is people actually want to see natural beauty, they dont to see just the empty ocean. If the local environment near the hotel will not be clean no one will go to that hotel. If a hotel is situated at a location where due to climate change that place is getting heavy rains that place could end up in flood, because of which the tourist would feel unsafe to go there even if the hotel is offering good incentives. Overall it has been seen that the industry is very much vulnerable to bad news or events, this is the only industry which contributes the maximum amount to the countrys GDP. Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Australia is a hot and dry country and has started to face the impacts at a very high speed. In last 12 years the country has experienced 11 hottest years and it is expected that by the end of this century the temperature will rise by 5 degrees, as a result the national treasures including Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu etc. that support the industry will be in danger. Carbon pollution reduction scheme will led industries to pay for the pollution they create from the carbon in other words putting tax on the usage of carbon and this will set a limit on Australias contribution to carbon pollution. This scheme is a cap and trade emissions model created to decline Australias emissions of green house gases. This scheme covers emissions from transport, industrial wastes, overall this scheme will cover 75% of Australias green house gases. This schemes main objective is to reduce green house emissions by between 5 and 15% below 2000 levels by the year 2020 and 60% from 2000 levels by the year 20 50 If all the industries in the country follow this scheme there will be a reduction of 15% for sure. This scheme is the lowest cost way to protect the interests of business and households, it will also motivate the major polluting industries to move towards the cleaner future. The CPRS affects the tourism industry in very much economical way. Tourism industry accounts a total of 3.7% of total GDP and it contributes around 10.5% of total exports of goods and services because of international relations. With the CPRS the real GDP will fall because the emissions price under this scheme act as a tax which as a result will reduce the economic efficiency and the tourism industry will slightly experience a contraction with the general shrinkage of the economy as whole. Moreover this scheme will push up the costs for tourism industry which could make Australia more expensive destination. As the Australian tourism industry is vulnerable to climate change it will influence all the natural assets on which the industry depends and the rise in price of travel and tourism caused by CPRS will further decline the tourist demand. Within this industry aviation is the one which will face a larger consequence from the CPRS as aviation is the core part of Australian tourism industry. The CPRS is going to increase the emission because of the increasing fuel prices. Furthermore the CPRS is expected to affect particularly leisure and regional routes which in turn limits the airlines to pass through cost of carbon. The CPRS will increase the potential for the substitution by increasing the price of domestic aviation. Therefore giving a negative impact on domestic tourism and providing incentives for outbound travel making Australia an importer of tourism and eventually resulting in high risk of carbon leakage. The CPRS will reduce real disposable incomes which will then reduce the do mestic tourism within Australia. Environmental analysis Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas is one of the finest 5 star properties. This property is a resort type of property with natural beauty all around. This property is very serious in regards to environment. According to the primary research this hotel recycles the oil instead of draining it away, which could result into sea pollution. They simply recycle it every time and use it for future purposes. They use CFC free chemicals used to clean toilets, glasses and all. They also use solar energy throughout the hotel which helps them to save a lot of electricity. Since it is a golf resort they actually use electric golf carts instead of using the one which runs with petrol or diesel. From the secondary research it has been found that the water which gets waste, they recycle it and use it for watering the areas such as golf course. They offer guests to use bath towels in order to reduce the detergent amount. Electricity is also reduced by using the CFL bulbs and lights and guests are asked to turn off their lights when not in use. This hotel practise waste minimisation and separate glass, paper and plastic for recycling. Sheraton Mirage has a large swimming pool where it uses the sea water that directly comes there. Copenhagen Conference Recently there had been a conference in Copenhagen in Denmark regarding the global climate change in which all the countries around the world took part. In the conference a lot of suggestion were been given such as if petroleum based economy is converted into sun based economy. This will enable human kind by combining intellect and technology to enable advance human activities. A lot of issues were raised in relation to transport as it emits 870 million tonnes of carbon each year. The UNFCC decided to take necessary actions in two ways, one is by including emissions in national totals and taking it as a purely accounting measure and the other is by setting the target for the two sectors and mandating IMO and ICAO to agree on global sector policies within a limited timeframe. The shipping industry could rise their annual allowances by $ 25 billion. Conclusion The conclusion of this report that comes out is that the whole world is in danger as the global warming is at its peak point. But this is not the end of the world, it can still be controlled if everyone starts to think over it. This is not a joke, its the time to get serious. If the people will take serious action over it such as by adapting new policies which will then help them to cope up with the climate changes. The only recommendation that could be made at this point is that people should start measuring the amount of carbon they use and by recycling the stuff rather than to throw away and by saving the resources as much as they could.

Glucose Transporter 4 (GLUT4) and Diabetes

Glucose Transporter 4 (GLUT4) and Diabetes Insulin and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signal pathways are known to be involved in glucose uptake regulation, but the integration of signals between these two pathways in maintaining glucose homeostasis remains mysterious (1). Insulin stimulates glucose uptake into skeletal muscle mainly via the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) to the plasma membrane (2). Also the exact mechanism involved is not yet fully understood, however, in insulin-induced glucose transport cascade it seems that insulin activates specific protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms (2). In Liu L. Z. et al work, stimulation of insulin conferred a glucose uptake or translocation of surface glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4).Using specific inhibitors to key kinases of both pathways and PKCzeta small interference RNA, it was found that protein kinase C zeta (PKCzeta) regulate insulin-stimulated protein kinase B (PKB) activation and inhibit AMPK activity on dorsal cell surface, whereas in the presence of berberine, PKCzeta controlled AMPK activation and AMPK blocked PKB activity in perinuclear region. The inhibitory effect exerted by PKCzeta on AMPK activation or the arrestment of PKB activity by AMPK still existed in basal condition. Overall, these results are suggestive for an antagonistic regulation between insulin and AMPK signal pathways, which is mediated by the switch roles of PKCzeta. The protein kinase Akt is associated with different cellular processes, including cell proliferation, growth, metabolism and importantly, insulin-regulated transport of glucose into muscle and fat cells. Activation of Akt involves binding of an extracellular ligand to its cognate tyrosine kinase receptor, which lead to activation of PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) and generation of PtdIns(3,4,5)P3. This in turn enables the translocation of Akt to the plasma membrane where it is phosphorylated at Thr308 and Ser473 by PDK1 (phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1) and the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin)/rictor (rapamycin-insensitive companion of mTOR) complex respectively. Once activated, Akt phosphorylates a range of substrates that regulate a variety of key biological processes (3). There are several Akt isoforms, Akt1 function is mainly related to growth and proliferation. On the other hand, Akt2 is more involved in metabolism, and loss-of function mutations in Akt2 have been link ed to Type 2 diabetes (3). Akt has been involved in the insulin-induced expression of GLUT1 in hepatoma cells and GLUT3 in skeletal muscle (4). Insulin-regulated transport of glucose into muscle and fat cells is thought to be mediated by Akt-dependent movement of GLUT4 glucose transporters to the plasma membrane (3). It was found after Tan S. X. study that non-ATP-competitive allosteric Akt inhibitors in 3T3-L1 adipocytes caused a decrease in the Akt signaling pathway simultaneously with reduced glucose uptake, notwithstanding, no such reduction in GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane was seen. This is explained by the fact that minimal amount of Akt phosphorylation is prerequisite for robust GLUT4 translocation, thus a marked reduction in Akt phosphorylation may not necessarily translate into a similar reduction in GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane (3, 5). Additional investigation revealed that the inhibitory effects on glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes of these compounds were independent of the Akt signaling pathway. Moreover, inhibition of glucose transport was also noticed in other cell types such as hum an erythrocytes that are rich in GLUT1 and T-47D breast cancer cells, proposing that these effects are not specific to GLUT4, and that the Akt inhibitors affect glucose uptake in different cell types (3). Alternatively, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signal transduction pathway is a well-known mediator of cell growth, proliferation, and survival signals. Riley J. K. et al studied the Inhibition of the PI3K pathway, and results indicated that inhibition of this pathway cause an induction of apoptosis in both murine blastocysts and trophoblast stem cells. Moreover, the apoptosis induced correlates with a decrease in the expression of the glucose transporter GLUT1 at the plasma membrane (6). Additionally, blastocysts cultured in the presence of the PI3K inhibitor LY-294002 exhibited a reduction in 2-deoxyglucose uptake and hexokinase activity. In rat primary brown adipocytes, insulin acutely stimulated glucose uptake in a PI3-kinase-dependent but p70S6-kinase-independent manner, and Akt represents an intermediate step between these kinases. Therefore, the goal of Hernandez R. et al study was to investigate the contribution of Akt to insulin-induced glucose uptake in brown adipocytes using ML-9, a recently proposed chemical inhibitor of Akt activity (7) and by using Akt protein with dominant-negative activity to block (4). ML-9 treatment of primary brown adipocytes showed a complete inhibition of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and also impaired GLUT4 redistribution from internal membrane to plasma membrane in response to insulin. It was found that ML-9 inhibited Akt activity and Akt phosphorylation at Ser473. Furthermore, results showed that long-term treatment with ML-9 produced down-regulation of the GLUT4 mRNA accumulation, inactivation of Akt, and possibly its translocation to the nucleus (8). Co-transfection with à Ã‚ ªAkt prevented insulin stimulation of GLUT4 promoter activity, suggesting that PI3-kinase/Akt pathway is regulating GLUT4 gene transcription by insulin (4). It is well known that phosphatidylinositol (PI)3-kinase activation mediates GLUT4 redistribution to the plasma membrane, and overexpression of the catalytic subunit of p110 produced GLUT4 translocation and increased glucose uptake (9). Alternatively, inhibition of PI3-kinase (by chemical inhibitors or by microinjection of blocking p85 protein, or by transfection with a dominant-negative mutant of p85) prohibits insulin-induced GLUT4 translocation (10). Two classes of Ser/Thr kinases have been suggested to act downstream of PI3-kinase, and they are Akt/PKB and the atypical protein kinase (PK) C isoforms ÃŽ ¶ and ÃŽ » (PKC ÃŽ ¶/ÃŽ »). It well established that expression of a constitutively active, membrane-bound form of Akt cause a persistent localization of GLUT4 at the plasma membrane and increased glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, yet, it did not promote GLUT4 translocation or glucose transport in L6 myotube(4, 11). Despite the fact proved by in vivo studies that GLUT4 expression in insulin-responsive tissues is under insulin and/or metabolic control (12), experiments performed with cultured fat cells had failed to establish a stimulatory role of insulin in GLUT4 expression (13), and the positive effect of insulin seen on GLUT4 gene expression had only been noticed in the presence of dexamethasone (14). Nevertheless, rat cardiomyocytes showed a direct effect of insulin on GLUT4 transcription (15). Different studies have validated that insulin-stimulated glucose uptake is separated from GLUT4 translocation based on using phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor; wortmannin .Therefore, it can be concluded that GLUT4 translocation and the intrinsic activity of GLUT4 are differentially regulated. Insulin is known to activate p38MAPK, and using SB203580; p38MAPKÃŽ ± and p38MAPKÃŽ ² inhibitors reduce insulin- stimulated glucose uptake without affecting GLUT4 translocation. p38MAPKs are serine/threonine kinases that are activated by several factors such as environmental stressors, inflammatory cytokines, protein synthesis inhibitors, growth factors like insulin and muscle contraction. It has four isoforms; p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ² that are ubiquitously expressed, p38ÃŽ ³ that is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and p38ÃŽ ´ in the lung and kidney (16). Full activation of p38MAPK necessitates dual phosphorylation on residues corresponding to threonine-180 and tyrosine-182 on p38ÃŽ ± catalyzed by dual-specificity MAPK kinases 3 and 6 (MKK3 and 6). p38MAPK inhibitors like pyridinyl imidazole derivatives (SB203580 and SB202190) or azaazulene pharmacophores (A291077 and A304000) have the potential to inhibit insulin-mediated glucose uptake without producing any effect on GLUT4 translocation. As a conclusion, insulin increases the intrinsic activity of GLUT4 via p38MAPK (16). Antonescu, C. N. et al aimed to determine whether p38MAPK is required for insulin- stimulated glucose uptake in L6-GLUT4myc myotubes using a mutant of p38ÃŽ ± (DR-p38ÃŽ ±) resistant to SB203580, dominant-inhibitory mutants of p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ² and siRNA against p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ². The results obtained by these independent molecular methods to interfere with p38MAPK signaling did not interfere with stimulated glucose uptake. Nonetheless, SB220025 was found to inhibit p38MAPK as strongly as SB203580, but again, had no effect on insulin stimulated glucose uptake. So, collectively, it can anticipated that p38MAPK is not involved in insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and that the SB203580-mediated reduction in glucose uptake is a result of SB203580 action on another protein (16). References 1. Liu LZ, Cheung SC, Lan LL, Ho SK, Chan JC, Tong PC. The pivotal role of protein kinase C zeta (PKCzeta) in insulin- and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-mediated glucose uptake in muscle cells. Cellular signalling. 2010;22(10):1513-22. Epub 2010/06/24. 2. Braiman L, Alt A, Kuroki T, Ohba M, Bak A, Tennenbaum T, et al. Activation of protein kinase C zeta induces serine phosphorylation of VAMP2 in the GLUT4 compartment and increases glucose transport in skeletal muscle. Molecular and cellular biology. 2001;21(22):7852-61. Epub 2001/10/18. 3. Tan SX, Ng Y, James DE. Akt inhibitors reduce glucose uptake independently of their effects on Akt. The Biochemical journal. 2010;432(1):191-7. Epub 2010/09/08. 4. Hernandez R, Teruel T, Lorenzo M. Akt mediates insulin induction of glucose uptake and up-regulation of GLUT4 gene expression in brown adipocytes. FEBS letters. 2001;494(3):225-31. Epub 2001/04/20. 5. Ng Y, Ramm G, Burchfield JG, Coster AC, Stockli J, James DE. Cluster analysis of insulin action in adipocytes reveals a key role for Akt at the plasma membrane. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2010;285(4):2245-57. Epub 2009/11/10. 6. Riley JK, Carayannopoulos MO, Wyman AH, Chi M, Moley KH. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity is critical for glucose metabolism and embryo survival in murine blastocysts. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2006;281(9):6010-9. Epub 2005/11/08. 7. Smith U, Carvalho E, Mosialou E, Beguinot F, Formisano P, Rondinone C. PKB inhibition prevents the stimulatory effect of insulin on glucose transport and protein translocation but not the antilipolytic effect in rat adipocytes. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 2000;268(2):315-20. Epub 2000/02/19. 8. Salinas M, Lopez-Valdaliso R, Martin D, Alvarez A, Cuadrado A. Inhibition of PKB/Akt1 by C2-ceramide involves activation of ceramide-activated protein phosphatase in PC12 cells. Molecular and cellular neurosciences. 2000;15(2):156-69. Epub 2000/02/16. 9. Martin SS, Haruta T, Morris AJ, Klippel A, Williams LT, Olefsky JM. Activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is sufficient to mediate actin rearrangement and GLUT4 translocation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The Journal of biological chemistry. 1996;271(30):17605-8. Epub 1996/07/26. 10. Cheatham B, Vlahos CJ, Cheatham L, Wang L, Blenis J, Kahn CR. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation is required for insulin stimulation of pp70 S6 kinase, DNA synthesis, and glucose transporter translocation. Molecular and cellular biology. 1994;14(7):4902-11. Epub 1994/07/01. 11. Kohn AD, Summers SA, Birnbaum MJ, Roth RA. Expression of a constitutively active Akt Ser/Thr kinase in 3T3-L1 adipocytes stimulates glucose uptake and glucose transporter 4 translocation. The Journal of biological chemistry. 1996;271(49):31372-8. Epub 1996/12/06. 12. Berger J, Biswas C, Vicario PP, Strout HV, Saperstein R, Pilch PF. Decreased expression of the insulin-responsive glucose transporter in diabetes and fasting. Nature. 1989;340(6228):70-2. Epub 1989/07/06. 13. Flores-Riveros JR, McLenithan JC, Ezaki O, Lane MD. Insulin down-regulates expression of the insulin-responsive glucose transporter (GLUT4) gene: effects on transcription and mRNA turnover. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 1993;90(2):512-6. Epub 1993/01/15. 14. Hajduch E, Hainault I, Meunier C, Jardel C, Hainque B, Guerre-Millo M, et al. Regulation of glucose transporters in cultured rat adipocytes: synergistic effect of insulin and dexamethasone on GLUT4 gene expression through promoter activation. Endocrinology. 1995;136(11):4782-9. Epub 1995/11/01. 15. Petersen S, Bahr M, Eckel J. Insulin-dependent regulation of Glut4 gene expression in ventricular cardiomyocytes: evidence for a direct effect on Glut4 transcription. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 1995;213(2):533-40. Epub 1995/08/15. 16. Antonescu CN, Huang C, Niu W, Liu Z, Eyers PA, Heidenreich KA, et al. Reduction of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in L6 myotubes by the protein kinase inhibitor SB203580 is independent of p38MAPK activity. Endocrinology. 2005;146(9):3773-81. Epub 2005/06/11.

The Storms of Villette Essay -- Storms of Villette Essays

The Storms of Villette      Ã‚   In Charlotte Brontà «'s novel, Villette, Brontà « strategically uses the brutality and magnitude of   thunder storms to propel her narrator, Lucy Snowe, into unchartered social territories of friendship and love. In her most devious act, the fate of Lucy and M. Paul is clouded at the end of the novel by an ominous and malicious storm. By examining Brontà «'s manipulation of two earlier storms which echo the scope and foreboding of this last storm -- the storm Lucy encounters during her sickness after visiting confession and the storm which detains her at Madame Walravens' abode -- the reader is provided with a way in which to understand the vague and despairing ending.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A long vacation from school precedes the first storm and it is during this vacation, where Lucy is left predominately alone, that the reader feels the full depth and emptiness of Lucy's solitude. She says, "But all this was nothing; I too felt those autumn suns and saw those harvest moons, and I almost wished to be covered in with earth and turf, deep out of their influence; for I could not live in their light, nor make them comrades, nor yield them affection" (230). After a resulting fit of delirium and depression, Lucy attends confession at a Catholic church solely in order to receive kind words from another human being. It is at this low, after her leaving the church, that the first storm takes shape. Caught without shelter, Lucy falls victim to the storm's brute force. She remembers that she "...bent [her] head to meet it, but it beat [her] back" (236). However, though appearing destructive, this overpowering force serves to deliver he r into the hands of Dr. John and his mother, Mrs. Bretton, Lucy's godmother fro... .... We have seen 'what good' can come from a destructive tempest for Lucy and in such fashion, we can only assume that this good will come again. Lucy will be further united to her dear M. Paul and to herself. Brontà « has outlined this as the form to be followed and as readers, we must optimistically obey.    Sources Cited and Consulted:    Books:    Allott, Miriam. Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre and Villette. MacMilan, London; 1973    Brontà «, Charlotte. Villette. London: Penguin, 1985.    Nestor, Pauline. Critical Studies of Jane Eyre. St. Martin's Press, NY; 1992.    Websites:    Cody, David and Everett, Glenn et al. The Victorian Web. Brown University; 1993 http://65.107.211.206/victov.html    Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Litrix Reading Room; 1999. http://www.litrix.com/janeeyre/janee001.htm#1   

The United States and the Normandy Invasion :: World War II History

The United States and the Normandy Invasion The year was 1944, and the United States had now been an active participant in the war against Nazi Germany for almost three and a half years. During this time, numerous battles had occurred which were fought with determination and intensity on both sides. Amongst the many invasions of World War II, there is one day which stands out more in the minds of many American soldiers than the others. That day was June 6, 1944, more commonly known as D Day, part of the invasion of Normandy, known as "Operation Overlord." This operation was the largest amphibious assault in history. It was a day in which thousands of young Americans, who poured onto the beaches of France, matured faster than they would have ever imagined. Little did they know of the chaos and torment that awaited them on their arrival. The attacks on Utah and Omaha were strategically made, and carried out in careful preciseness. The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France began on June 6, 1944, and the American assault on the Utah and Omaha beaches on this day played a critical role in the overall success of the Normandy operation. An extensive plan was established for the American attack on Utah and Omaha Beaches. The plan was so in-depth and complex, its descriptions detailed the exact arrivals of troops, armour, and other equipment needed for the invasion, and where exactly on the beach they were to land. Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defences had to be broken down by a combination of a massive battering by United States Naval ships, and by bombing from the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defences. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline. A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning." Along the fifty-mile front the land was shaken by successive explosions as the shells from the ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs poured down on them from the skies. Through smoke and falling debris German defenders crouching in their trenches would soon faintly see the hundreds of ships and assault craft closing in on the shore.

Our Town Critique :: essays research papers

Through December 5th through the 7th, I performed in Thornton Wilder’s play of Our Town. The only sets or props that the actors or actresses used where folding chairs for us to sit in, umbrellas to hide Emily (Julie Dumbler), and flats on both sides of the stage to hide the people behind them. The reason for the lack of set is so the audience can use there imagination of what the town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire looks like. All the rest of the props that the actors had to use were pan mimed and acted out to the fullest to make it look real. The only other experience with no set was with Miss Henery in Neodesha and it was a disaster so I didn’t know how well this was going to work out. But with the help of our director Peter Ellenstein and the rest of the cast, the pan miming was very successful. Our performance space was a modified thrust stage. The shape of the stage served us well for this play, but the back stage was horrible. All of the chairs that we had to use were folding chairs that made a lot of noise even if you hardly touched one. One neat thing about the play is that all of the sound affects were made by our backstage manager (Lisa Mitchell) or other members of the cast. In exception for the clock chiming at the end of the play. People who have seen the play tell me that it is a very heart moving play. I did not get that feeling because I was always backstage or onstage. Ether way I didn’t get to watch the play so I couldn’t see what was so moving about it. The only humor I got was from lines and the funniest person I heard was Professor Willard (Gary Mitchell). The audience is led through the entire play by the Stage Manager (Cory Venable). He literally talks to the audience between every scene explaining what is going on in the story. I thought Mr. Wilder did a good job in having a Stage Manager do this. The Stage Manager tells and shows us a story a young girl growing up and facing death, even after death . He show us how Emily Webb (Julie Dumbler) first gets to know her future husband George Gibbs (Eric Cole).

Relationship influence relationships Essay

Physical attraction is based on people’s appearances. Often a caring, kind, and affectionate person will go unrecognized among others. Mostly such people find their partners due to physical proximity, â€Å"one’s actual physical nearness to others, in terms of housing, work, school, and so forth.† On the other hand, an attractive person usually would have far more attention from others. Mills had an experiment which showed that â€Å"most important determinant of desire to continue relationship was physical attractiveness.† (1982) However, in Today’s Magazine, the article read : â€Å"according to a new study, [men are] willing to overlook a woman’s body shape and weight if she’s friendly and likeable†. But, consider that the article, if you read it, doesn’t present other important information, such the percentage of people who are in the category, and to what extreme were those studies true: it’s likely that men can overlook minor unattractive traits, but it doesn’t totally disprove the study mentioned above. Even though the point if this study may have changed slightly, it is not a secret that attractive people seem to be more of everything, since with beauty, person seems happy, healthy, successful, interesting, even if it isn’t necessarily so, which is called the halo effect. Another kind of attraction is romantic attraction. It is â€Å"love that is associated with high levels of interpersonal attraction, heightened arousal, mutual absorption (‘with regard to romantic love, the nearly exclusive attention lovers give one another.’), and sexual desire.† Romantic attraction has a â€Å"like scale† and a â€Å"love scale,† that Zick Rubin brought up to measure the â€Å"attitude† towards friends and love partners. In result, love usually included passion and commitment, whereas liking lacked those things. Estimated by these scales, type of attraction can be described by the chosen attitude towards each other, as to what the two people think of each other, and whether they are intimate or not, and so on. Just as there are different reasons for forming our personalities, there are different causes which bring people together. The reason some people choose to date who they date is partially due to homogamy -â€Å"the attraction of people who are alike† and heterogamy – â€Å"the attraction of opposites.† A person may seek to find someone with similar qualities or with the opposite ones to â€Å"balance out.† To some degrees, love may be just a mere excitement. This love (which is also something like secret love) is determined by different situations, such parents’ disapproval, or when fleeing the country with someone. Just as in secret love, those events may lead to feel even stronger attraction. But even if such situations can be an attribute to the relationship, it can also bring conflict. Those relationships can be affected by uncertainty of whether there is any kind of attraction between the two people. (As Kenrick wrote, â€Å"it is sometimes hard to tell the difference among sex, love, and infatuation (1989).† There are also two problems: excitement that adds to attraction and boredom that decreases it; the influenced behavior may not be the cause of attraction. (Homans 1961) Similarly, I am sure there have been times when you’ve known or heard of someone who, for example, embraced everyone he or she was friends with. His or her behavior doesn’t necessarily mean deep attraction, but it may just be a way in culture, personal way of showing friendship, or a habit, or may be the fact that he or she misses his/her girlfriend/boyfriend. Any of those reasons may be the factor, why due to body language, a woman may take such action for affection, or, from another point, a man can misunderstand woman’s â€Å"warning signals†. References Homans, G.C. (1961) Social Behaviour: Its Elementary Forms, New York, Harcourt, Brace and World. Kenrick, D.T. and Trost, M.R. (1989) ‘A reproductive exchange model of heterosexual relationships’ in Hendrick, C. (ed) Close Relationships (Review of Personality and Social Psychology 10) Newbury Park, CA, Sage. Miell, D. & Croghan, R. (1996) ‘Examining the wider context of social relationships’ in Dallos, R. & Miell, D. (eds) Social Interaction and Personal Relationships, Milton Keynes, Open University. Mills, J. and Clark, M.S. (1982). ‘Communal and exchange relationships’ in Wheeler, L (ed.) Review of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol 3), Beverley Hills, CA, Sage

Meiji Restoration

It is a fact that the Meiji Restoration managed to accomplish a great many revolutionary changes, but without a revolutionary level of violence. How did this happen? To understand this, one must know what the Meiji Restoration was and when it took place. It was through the years from 1867 to 1868 that the Tokugawa Era under the great Tokugawa Liasu came to an end with the Meiji restoration, in which the Emperor Meiji moved from Kyoto to Tokyo where the new Imperial Capital was established. However, at the same time, the actual political power was effectively transferred from Tokugawa to a group of small time noblemen, and Japan was forced to enter into treaties with Westerners, in much the same way as any other subjugated Asian nation. (Meiji Period 2002) In short, it can be stated that this period in the history of Japan has been termed a ‘renewal’, in which Japan’s political and social structure became unalterably changed, and because of which Japan launched into its industrialization period. Intended as a strong measure to consolidate power against the shogunate, the samurai and the daimyo, all remnants of the Edo government, Tokugawa lands were seized and placed under the ‘imperial control.’ (Meiji Restoration 2008) The Samurai had to be destroyed, and most Samurai, although they resented the change bitterly, had to comply.   With the Meiji restoration came electricity and wheels in the form of the first ‘rickshaw’ ever. Trains followed soon, as did several other reforms and changes, the most important of which was a semblance of democracy. Education became more important than before, and the nation started progressing in leaps and bounds. People now felt that they too had a say in how the country was to be run, and everywhere, everyone appeared to be satisfied with the advances that their country was making in all fields. (The Meiji Restoration (n.d) The issue here is this, how much influence did western powers have over the Meiji restoration in Japan? Were the radical ideas more in keeping in accordance with the local tenor, or were they drastically different? Why then did the shogunate fall quickly, without really offering any resistance? One of the most important things to remember when studying Japanese history is the fact that one must never consider the class struggles that are generally applied for revolutions of all kinds; instead, one must note that the interests of merchants and the ruling classes became so closely inter connected that anything that hurt one would automatically hurt the other. For example, all big merchants depended upon the interest from loans given to the samurai to survive, and the samurai were customers of the chonin, who felt that their own prosperity was closely tied up with the warrior classes, and this meant that they would not think of attacking the existing feudal system, even if it was unfair to them. As the Meiji restoration progressed, the samurai and the aristocrats stood together, thereby showing the world that the revolution in itself was not at all about a rising class that managed to destroy feudalism, nor was it a democratic revolt that offered greater power to representatives of the working classes of Japan. Researchers state confidently that the Meiji restoration would never have been possible but for interference that Japan received from Western powers, including British, American, French, German and Dutch. It is said that some small bits of advice were also obtained from the workers who had been engaged by the Japanese government in various positions such as pilots, engineers, financial advisers, and university and school teachers, among others. Historians believe that it was the presence of Westerners in Japan that undermined the Shogunate, and that this was one of the reasons why it fell so quickly without resistance. One must remember that the rapid economic growth in Japan during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries had made sure that the country was in a position of being readily transformed into a new social order, and by this time, the ‘absurd’ policies of Tokugawa had become completely foolish and outdated, given the social and political conditions in the country at the time. Nationalism and patriotism and national consciousness had also pervaded the people of Japan, and with the arrival of the Perry expedition, at which point of time the arrival of foreigners was considered an attack on the basic traditional values of Japan, the collapse became imminent, and one can understand that Western powers had intentionally or unintentionally applied pressure on Japan and had paved the way for the reforms about to take place, and for the fall of the Shogunate to happen. At the same time, one must also remember that even without Western influence from the United States, Great Britain and Russia among others, the radical reforms of the Meiji restoration would have been inevitable, and although several of the ideas were indeed shaped by Western influences, local flavors too played a very important role in the Meiji restoration and in the fall of the Shogunate. Therefore, it must be stated that the Meiji restoration is in actuality the result of two important factors: the decay within Japan of her present feudal society, and the pressure applied by Western powers to bring an end to Tokugawa’s outdated regime. (Chung, TK 2007) Works cited Meiji Period (1868-1912) â€Å"History† Japanguide.com (2002) Retrieved on February 25, 2008 from â€Å"The Meiji Restoration† History Text (n.d) Retrieved on February 25, 2008 from â€Å"Meiji Restoration† Wikipedia (2008) Retrieved on February 25, 2008 from Chung, TK â€Å"The Meiji Restoration, Background† The corner of the world (2007) Retrieved on February 25, 2008 from