Meaning of life, Life Essay Example for Free

Meaning of life, Life Essay Suffering is an inevitable part of life. We all live in this big labyrinth of suffering. Th only way out of the labyrinth is death. † To live is to suffer, to survive to find meaning in the suffering. Few peopl e actually commit suicide to liberate themselves form suffering. Most people find meaning or purpo se for their life so that they have the motivation to live on. Some think that suffering make them wis er, some think that suffering is a test of faith, there will be rewards for them in the after life if they c an endure the suffering on earth. Some people couldnt understand but keep going on with their life for their loved ones. Some people keep themselves busy to dodge from the question. My view on this question is that suffering does not make life any more or any less meaningful. Beca use as an atheist, I believe that there is no God, the Universe does not have a divine plan for us. Tha t the existence of life is just purely a miraculous accident. When we die, we stop existing. The time we spend on Earth will not amount to anything in an afterlife in another dimension. Therefore, life i s inherently meaningless, with or without pain and suffering. Human are powerless in the face of m eaninglessness . The only way we can deal with life is to embrace the fact that there is no intrinsic va lue in life. We can only create our own meanings. One can create meaning of life with or without su ffering. But since suffering is an inseparable part of our life, it more or less give us insights on mean ing of life. Dr. Bernard Rieux can best exemplifies my point of view. When the plague got out of control and O ran was placed under quarantine, it didn’t stop the doctor form battling the plague, fighting the war t hat was doomed to fail. At this point, many would wonder what is meaning of of the doctor’s action s when they are all in vain. The answer can be found in a dialogue he shared with Tarrou. Tarrou asked the doctor why he was so committed to fighting the plague if he does not believe in G od. The doctor replied that whether or not God exist is irrelevant and he didn’t have the time to thin k about what waits him in the future and what will come out of his actions. The only thing he knew that there were sick people suffering and they needed to be cured. Even though he admitted that his struggles against death would only be temporary victories and that the plague was what he referred as an†endless struggle†, he said that this was not the reason to give up struggle. From the dialogue, we can see the doctor was aware of the intrinsic meaninglessness of his life, bec ause he said he wouldnt waste time to think about the existence of God and what his action will lea d to him. If he deemed his life has inherent meaning, he should have thought about the above questi ons. Thought he considered that his life is inherently meaningless, the plague gave me the meaning. The meaning lies in the other people. The doctor was fully aware that his attempts at lifting people out of misery is an impossible task as more and more people became infected and die. And there were no effective cure. Basically, his sitti ng around and doing nothing or wearing himself off to save the patients might just possibly lead to s ame outcome. However, the doctor did not stop his work in face of his powerlessness to alter the situation. Becaus e under this situation, he was left with only two choices, ignore it or act on it. There was no third op tion. The doctor chose the later one because he couldnt bear to see people suffer and doing nothing about it. It’s meaningless to battle the unwindable battle against the plague. It was not defeating the plague that gave meaning to the doctor. It was the people gave him meaning. It was his compassion for others that keep him going in times of suffering. From the case of Dr. Rieux and his battle against the plague, we can see similarities in the real worl d. The plague is like the amoral universe, and Dr. Rieux represents all the human beings. We are po werless in face of the meaningless of life, just as Dr. Rieux was powerless in face of the plague. But we do have a choice, we can create meanings for ourselves just as Dr. Rieux has learnt from sufferin g and found meanings in helping people. Winston Smith from 1974 1984 somewhat share some similarities with Dr. Rieux in terms of action upon the unchangeable, though he was not such a noble and heroic person as Dr. Rieux. In his case, the unchangeable was the Big Brother. Winston Smith lived in a state where every moves, every wo rds ands every thoughts he made were monitored by the Party. In the instance of living in an extrem e state where even having disloyal thought against the party is in violation of law. The meaning of li fe for Smith was not to start a revolution and topple the party, and change the system entirely. Thou gh Smith had thought about it and desired it to happen. Deep down he believed that it was impossibl e to achieve the goal and sooner or later he would be arrested by the Party. Nevertheless, he set out t o challenge the limits of the Party. He kept a diary which has† Down with the Big Brother† written o n it over and over again. He had an forbidden affair with Julia. Also he joined the Brotherhood whic h he believe is the enemy of the Party. I think the meaning for Smith did not lie in being the hero. What was important for him was to stay as human as possible. Through the rebellious acts against the Party in his own ways, he got to keep his spirit and his human side. That was the meaning he could find for himself. Despite the fact that he was completely compromised at last when he was brought into Room 101, where he was tortured to an extreme degree and indoctrinated to cure his â€Å"insaneness†. He was com pletely broke and dehumanised. His passionate hatred towards the Big Brother turned into absolute l oyalty and love. He should not be blamed for betraying Julia and not upholding what he believed in the first place in such extreme conditions. After all, he did try to rebel against the Big Brother even t hough deep down he knew he couldn’t do anything to overthrow the Big Brother. Dr. Rieux and Winston Smith resolved the question of meaning through their rebellious acts against the plague and the Big Brother. There are people who find suffering itself reveals the meaning of lif e. Father Paneloux is a good example to illustrate this point of view. In his first sermon addressing t he plague. He said that the plague was a punishment by God. That it was the result of the sin of all c itizens. He criticised the people for not attending church and repenting for their sins. Therefore the p lague was reminder of God’s power and the Oran residents should start to change their habits and st art to fear God again. Unlike Dr. Rieux, who is an atheist, Father Paneloux based his life and work on his christian faith. F rom a Christian point of view, everything happens on earth has purpose and fit into the grand plan o f God. Therefore, it was his job to make sense of the suffering of the plague so that he and the peopl e listening to him will be able to endure and continue to believe in God. From his interpretation of s uffering, the meaning of life for Father Panels was more easily understood than Dr. Rieux and Winst on Smith. The meaning of life was really simple, that is to serve and honour God in his will. Though he changes his view on suffering drastically after witnessing the death of an innocent child. He did not view suffering as a punishment anymore. He said that the reason why a innocent child sh ould suffer was not something that human would necessarily understand no matter how hard they tri ed. They just had to keep in mind that it was God’s will. One must keep his faith and God and find t he good in bad situation. In spite of a changing tone, the meaning for Father Paneloux remained the same- to serve God. To conclude, life itself is inherently meaningless. Not even religion can provide an universal answer to the meaning of life. There are no answers for that and never will be. Suffering does not make one’ s life meaningful. But through suffering one might find meanings in life and live a meaningful life. Wu Ngai Ching, Ivy 20189319 Grade: 21/25 ? 19/25 (due to 2-day late submission) Comments: ?Ivy – In terms of the main thesis of the essay, you’ve done a good job delineating your own atheist view on the meaning of life and drew 3 examples from the 2 works to discuss what m ight be the meaning of life for them. Your argumentation is quite right and your analysis of e ach of their reaciton and thoughts on this difficult question is right on. ?However, you simply â€Å"narrated† through the whole essay without really giving detailed or c oncrete evidences from the book. I wish you could provide some passages or quotes from se veral particular moments in the book to clearly illustrate your point. This is one of the ways t o demonstrate that you’ve actually done the reading, and that is also what we’ve been doing in class – making your point across by providing specific passages/instances in the book as c oncrete evidence. So please remember to do so for your final paper!

Blastocystis Hominis and Colorectal Cancer

Blastocystis Hominis and Colorectal Cancer Blastocystis hominis (B.hominis) is the most common unicellular protozoan parasite that is found in the human gastrointestinal tract (Windsor et al. 2002). The prevalence of B. hominis in both developed and developing countries is reported to be up to 10% and 50% respectively (Wong et al. 2008; Stenzel and Boreham. 1996). On the other hand, B. hominis shows a diverse morphologies which include vacuolar, granular, amoeboid and cyst forms (Zierdt. 1988). Furthermore, B. hominis isolates from human and animals have been reported to exhibit an extensive genetic and karyotypic heterogeneity (Parkar et al. 2010; Stensvold et al. 2009; Tan et al. 2009; Dogruman-Al et al. 2009; Abe. 2004; Yoshikawa et al. 2004). Although many researchers have attempted to identify the pathogenesis of B. hominis in human hosts, however the pathogenic potential of B. hominis has remained controversial as it is present in both symptomatic and asymptomatic individual (Tan. 2008; Garcia. 2007; Tan et al. 2002). The gastrointestinal symptoms that are associated with B. hominis infection include diarrhea, vomiting, anorexia, flatulence, abdominal discomfort and other associated non-specific symptoms. To date, experiments have shown that rats that are inoculated with human B. hominis isolate have demonstrated an elevation in oxidative damage (Chandramathi et al. 2009). Many studies have been done on the genetic and molecular characterization of B. hominis isolates derived from human as well as animal. Recent molecular characterization of Blastocystis isolates suggested that there are 13 subtypes (ST1-ST13) which have been isolated from mammalian, reptilian, avian and amphibian hosts (U. Parkar et al. 2010; Stensvold et al. 2007a; Noà «l et al. 2005, 2003; Yoshikawa et al. 2004b). Recently, many studies have been done to determine the pathogenic potential of different Blastocystis subtypes in human hosts by genotypic analysis as well as molecular characterization of B. hominis isolated from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals (Dominguez-Mà ¡rquez et al. 2009; Eroglu et al. 2009; Jones et al. 2009; Hussein et al. 2008; Tan et al. 2008). Nevertheless, only limited numbers of studies have shown correlation between the different B. hominis subtypes on the pathogenesis in human hosts (Hussein et al. 2008). Infectious agents such as bacteria, virus and parasites, often have an oncogenic potential. The International Agency on Research of Cancer (IARC) has estimated that 16% of cancer worldwide is caused by infection, including parasites. However, there has been no research done on the association between B. hominis infection and colorectal cancer. A recent study has suggested that B. hominis may possess the ability to induce the growth of colorectal cancer cell lines by inhibiting the apoptotic effect of colon cancer cells. Furthermore, the antigens that are isolated from B. hominis were postulated to be able to promote the proliferation of cancer cells via down-regulation of host immune cellular responses (Chandramathi et al. 2010). In general, inflammation is activated by a variety of stimuli such as trauma, bacterial/viral/parasitic infections, endotoxemia and heating (Ley, 2001; Hart, 2002). Inflammation caused by infectious agents such as parasites will cause an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide and superoxide as a consequence of cell mediated phagocyte dependent immune response (Rosen et al. 1995). A persistent and chronic inflammatory response can be detrimental to human host as it can produce a chronic damage by releasing a variety of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines which then leads to mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, neurodegenerative disorder, inflammatory bowel syndrome and atherosclerosis (Kà ¼hn et al. 1993; Perry et al. 1998; Ludewig et al. 2002; Shacter et al. 2002). Several studies have shown correlation between the inflammation that is caused by infectious agents such as parasites and the development of cancer in huma n (Fitzpatrick. 2001). Thus, it is important for us to evaluate the immunomodulation, cytopathic and cellular cytokines responses as a result of B. hominis infection especially in colorectal carcinomas. Since B. hominis is often present in most stool cultures, it is pertinent to investigate the association between B. hominis infection and the development of colorectal cancer in the gastrointestinal tract of infected host system. B. hominis isolated from an asymptomatic individual could facilitate the proliferation and growth of cancer cells and has the potential to down-regulate the host immune response (Chandramathi et al. 2010). However, only limited numbers of studies have shown the cytopathic effects and cellular cytokine responses of Blastocystis hominis infection (Puthia et al. 2008; Long et al. 2001; Walderich et al. 1998). These studies only investigated on Interleukin 8 and Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) which are pro-inflammatory cytokines. We hypothesized that B. hominis infection in human host system has a potential carcinogenic effect and could influence the growth of colorectal cancer cells especially in colorectal cancer patients and that the B. hominis subtypes may exert varying degree of pathogenecity. Therefore, in this study, the differences between the effects of solubilized antigen of B. hominis from both symptomatic and asymptomatic isolates on the cell viability in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs, which represent the immune cells) as well as colorectal cancer cell line was evaluated. Besides that, the gene expression of cytokine, apoptotic mediators, and nuclear transcriptional factors in response to the symptomatic and asymptomatic B. hominis antigen in both PBMCs and colorectal cancer cell was compared. The knowledge and understanding in the association between Blastocystis hominis infection and colorectal cancer as well as the role of various cytokines involved in the tumour progression may provide an insight into prevention and/or development of new immune-therapeutical strategies to combat colorectal cancer. OBJECTIVE The objectives of the present study are:- To study the effects of solubilized antigen of B. hominis from symptomatic and asymptomatic individual isolates on viability of both the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs, which represent the normal immune cells) as well as colorectal cancer cells (HCT 116, colorectal cancer cell line). To investigate the gene expression of cytokine, transcriptional factors and apoptotic mediators such as interleukin 6, interleukin 8, tumour necrosis factor-ÃŽ ±, interferon gamma, nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells, cathepsin B, transforming growth factor-ÃŽ ², and protein 53 upon exposure to B. hominis antigen in both the PBMCs and colorectal cancer cells MATERIALS AND METHODS Sample collection and axenization of Blastocystis hominis B. hominis was isolated from stool samples of symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals. The B. hominis cysts were then isolated from feacal sample using the Ficoll-Paque Technique according to Zaman and Khan (1994). The harvested cysts of B. hominis from both the symptomatic and asymptomatic individual isolates were washed in sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The washed harvested cysts were cultured in Jones medium, supplemented with 10% of heat-inactivated horse serum and incubated at 37 °C in CO2 incubator (Suresh and Smith. 2004). Axenization was conducted after the isolates have been incubated for 2 to 3 days. Isolation of solubilized antigen from symptomatic and asymptomatic cultures The axenic B. hominis species were collected using Ficoll-Paque density gradient centrifugation method and the harvested parasites were resuspended in basal Jones medium without the addition of heat-inactivated horse serum. Then, the harvested organisms were lysed by sonication method and the homogenate was incubated at 4 °C, overnight. The homogenate was centrifuged at 13000xg for 15 minutes at 4 °C after the overnight incubation. The supernatant which contains the solubilized antigen of B. hominis was filter-sterilized and the protein concentration of the antigen was determined using Bradford assay (Bio-Rad, USA). Subtyping of Blastocystis isolates from symptomatic and asymptomatic cultures Genomic DNA Extraction: The genomic DNA of symptomatic and asymptomatic isolates of Blastocystis hominis were extracted from the 3 to 4 days old culture with QIAmp DNA stool mini kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturers protocol. DNA Purity and Concentration: The genomic DNA yields were estimated using measurement of absorbance at 260nm and 280nm using a spectrophotometer. The ratio of absorbance at 260nm to 280nm determines the purity of the genomic DNA yielded. According to the manufacturers protocol, the ratio of 1.7-1.9 indicates that the DNA yields are pure. PCR Typing by STS Primers: The genotype of B. hominis was determined by using PCR amplification with subtype-specific sequence tagged site (STS) primers (SB83, SB155, SB227, SB332, SB340, SB336, and SB337). The PCR reaction mixtures (20  µl of total volume) consisted of PCR buffer, 2.5 U/ µl of Taq DNA polymerase (Fermantas, SB38), 1.5 mM MgCl2, 1.25  µM of dNTPs (Fermantas, RO191), 0.5 pmol of forward primer, 0.5 pmol of reverse primer, and 1.0  µl of the DNA samples. In addition, the PCR conditions were set as follows: one cycle denaturing at 94 °C for 3 min, 30 cycles including denaturing at 94 °C for 30 seconds, annealing at 56.3 °C for 30 seconds, extending at 72 °C for 60 s, , and additional cycle with a 10 min chain elongation at 72 °C. The PCR products obtained were then electrophoresed in 1.5% agarose gel with 1X Tris-boric-EDTA (TBE) buffer. The fragments of the DNA were visualized using UV illuminator under UV light. The fragment sizes of the genomic DNA were confirmed with bands of a DNA ladder (50-1,000 bp DNA markers, Fermentas). Cultivation and collection of HCT116 Human colorectal carcinoma cell line, HCT116, was cultured in 25 cm ³ culture flask containing 5 ml of RPMI 1640 growth medium, supplemented with 5% of FBS, 2mM L-glutamine, 100 U/ml penicillin-streptomycin, and 2.5 ÃŽ ¼g/ml fungizone. The HCT116 cell line was then incubated in a CO2 incubator set at 100% humidity, atmosphere containing 5% of CO2 and a temperature of 37 °C. Prior to the introduction of antigen from Blastocystis hominis isolates, the cells were harvested from the substratum of the culture flask by using 0.25% trypsin-EDTA. The harvested cells were then washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) thrice and resuspended in RPMI 1640 growth medium before introducing the solubilized antigen of Blastocystis hominis from symptomatic and asymptomatic isolates. Isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) PBMCs were collected from fresh human blood sample (12 ml) in sterile EDTA tubes. The PBMCs were then isolated from the blood sample by using Histopaque ®-1077 (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) according to the density gradient centrifugation method (Boyum. 1974). The isolated PBMCs were then washed with PBS thrice and resuspended in 5 ml of RPMI 1640 growth medium, supplemented with 10% of FBS, 2mM L-glutamine, 100 U/ml penicillin-streptomycin, and 2.5 ÃŽ ¼g/ml fungizone in a 25 cm ³ culture flask prior to the introduction of solubilized antigen of Blastocystis hominis isolates. Introduction of the solubilized symptomatic and asymptomatic derived Blasto antigen into PBMCs and colorectal cancer cell line, HCT116 Harvested HCT116 cells (1 x 103 cells per well) in 100 ÃŽ ¼l of RPMI growth medium with 5% FBS and freshly isolated PBMCs (5 x 104 cells per well) in 100 ÃŽ ¼l of RPMI growth medium with 10% FBS were seeded into 96 well plates. After the overnight incubation in a CO2 incubator containing 5% CO2 at 37 °C, Blasto-antigen of B. hominis from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals at final concentration ranging from 0.001 to 10ÃŽ ¼g/ml was added to each well containing the PBMCs and HCT116 cells and were further incubated for 48 hours. Then, the cell proliferation/viability was measured using the MTT assay (Mosmann. 1983). Quantitative Real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (rtRT-PCR) Concentration of symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-antigen that yields the optimal proliferation and inhibition in the preliminary tests (MTT assay) was used to introduce into each culture flask containing PBMCs and HCT 116 cells respectively. For controls, PBS was introduced into both types of cells. After 48 hours of incubation, the RNA was isolated from the PBMCs and HCT 116 cells using Ambion RNAqueous Micro Kit (Ambion, CA, USA). The purified RNA obtained was then used to synthesize complementary DNA (cDNA) using High-Capacity RNA-to-cDNA kit (Applied Biosystems, USA) by the PCR method. Finally, Real-time reverse transcription PCR analysis was performed using inventoried primers (TaqMan ® Gene Expression Assays, Applied Biosystems). In this study, the genes of interest were IL-6, IL-8, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-ÃŽ ±), nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-ÃŽ ºB), interferon gamma (IFN-ÃŽ ³), protein 53 (p53), transforming growth factor be ta (TGF-ÃŽ ²), and cathepsin B (CTSB). The PCR reaction will be prepared according to the protocol that is generated by StepOneTM Software v2.0. Statistical Analysis In order to analyze the real-time RT-PCR gene expressions, the à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  CT value of the treated samples with symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-antigen was compared against the non-treated sample (control with PBS) using the Students t test. A P value of 0.05 was considered to be the minimum threshold of significance. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In the present study, the symptomatic and asymptomatic isolates were genotyped by PCR amplification using the well-known seven sets of STS primers. The extracted DNA of symptomatic isolate showed positive amplification with SB83 and thus determined as subtype 1 (Yoshikawa et al. 2004). Nevertheless, the extracted DNA of asymptomatic isolate did not show any positive amplification with all the seven sets of STS primers that was used in this study. Hence, it is postulated that the asymptomatic isolate may be subtype 8 to 13 which was not amplified by the STS primers used in this study (Dominguez-Mà ¡rquez et al. 2009; Eroglu et al. 2009; Jones et al. 2009; Hussein et al. 2008; Tan et al. 2008). Molecular phylogenetic analysis need to be carried out in order to further characterized the subtype of asymptomatic isolate used in this study (Noel et al. 2005; Stensvold et al. 2007; Yoshikawa et al. 2007). In this study, the Blasto-Ag isolated from both symptomatic as well as asymptomatic isolates have caused an inhibition of PBMC cells proliferation which leads to the speculation that the Blasto-Ag may have caused apoptosis in the immune cells to prevent the propagation of immune cells to combat with the Blastocystis infection. The symptomatic isolate has caused a greater inhibition of PBMCs as compare to asymptomatic isolates. However, the Blasto-Ag mediated PBMCs cell inhibition is contrast to our previous report (Chandramathi et al. 2010). Our previous study showed that Blasto-Ag caused stimulation of PBMCs cell proliferation (Chandramathi et al. 2010). However, the molecular genotyping of the B. hominis isolates used in that study was not carried out. Past studies have reported that there may be a correlation between different B. hominis subtypes on the pathogenesis in human hosts (Dominguez-Mà ¡rquez et al. 2009; Eroglu et al. 2009; Jones et al. 2009; Hussein et al. 2008; Tan et al. 2008). This contrasting result observed in the cell viability of PBMCs may suggest the different subtypes of B. hominis may give different effects on the immune cells. Hence, further investigation is required to investigate the potential pathogenesis of different B. hominis subtypes. In the current study, increase in cell proliferation has been observed in colorectal carcinoma cell line, HCT116 cells upon exposure to antigen from symptomatic as well as asymptomatic isolates. HCT116 cells have shown significantly higher increase in cell proliferation stimulated by symptomatic Blasto-Ag as compared to asymptomatic antigen. The increase in the cell proliferation may further suggest that Blastocystis infection could facilitate the growth of colorectal cancer cells (Chandramathi et al. 2010). It is evident from the present study that symptomatic Blasto-Ag is more pathogenic as compared to asymptomatic Blasto-Ag. Hence, it may be essential to treat the Blastocystis infection in symptomatic colorectal cancer patients for better prognosis. On the other hand, a diverse pattern of cytokine, nuclear transcription factor as well as apoptotic gene expressions were observed upon the stimulation of HCT116 cells and PBMCs by symptomatic and asymptomatic derived Blasto-Ag. In the present study a noticeable up-regulation of Th1 (IFN-ÃŽ ³ and TNF-ÃŽ ±) and Th2 (IL6, IL8 and TGF-ÃŽ ²) cytokines was observed in HCT116 following exposure to symptomatic Blasto-Ag may lead to the speculation that B. hominis has activated the cellular and humoral immune responses in clearing the Blastocystis infection. This is accordance to the previous study that extracellular parasites such as B. hominis would be more effective in counteracted by a combination of Th1 and Th2 cytokines (Daugelat et al. 1996). Nevertheless, a more significant up-regulation of Th2 cytokines as compared to Th1 cytokines observed in HCT116 upon exposure to symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag may lead to the postulation that symptomatic Blasto-Ag may resulting in a Th2- dominated responses and has the potential in weakening the cellular immune response, allowing the progression and growth of an existing tumour cells. On the other hand, HCT116 exposed to symptomatic Blasto-Ag has resulted in a more noticeable up-regulation of Th2 cytokines then asymptomatic Blasto-Ag which may lead to the speculation that asymptomatic Blasto-Ag is less pathogenic than symptomatic derived Blasto-Ag. Furthermore, the up-regulation of TGF-ÃŽ ² in the colorectal cancer cells has the potential role of anti-inflammatory and resulting in host immunosuppression by inhibiting the cell mediated immune responses against the tumour cells (Zou, 2005; Seruga et al. 2008). In addition, it is widely-accepted that humoral immunity is activated by extracellular microbes such as bacteria (Romagnani, 1996). B. hominis, being an extracellular allergen, has triggered the activation of host humoral immune responses which is evident by the significant up-regulation of Th2 cytokines in the PBMCs upon exposure to symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag. Moreover, this results can be supported by the recent finding which shown an elevation of IL6 and IL8 level in the monocytes of healthy volunteers exposed to Leishmania infection (Menezes et al. 2008). In spite of that, an interesting finding has been observed in PBMCs stimulated by symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag, besides activating the humoral immune responses, PBMCs exposed by Blasto-Ag has also triggered the activation of cellular mediated immune response characterized by Th1 cytokines. As described earlier, extracellular parasites may be more effective counteracted by a combination of Th1 and Th2 cytoki nes mediated immune responses (Daugelat et al. 1996). However, the activation of cellular mediated immune responses which is reflected by a significant up-regulation of TNF-ÃŽ ± and IFN-ÃŽ ³ may lead to the speculation that Blasto-Ag isolated from symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individual has the ability in causing extensive inflammatory damage in the host tissue as a result of macrophage mediated responses towards the parasitic infections. In addition, an up-regulation of NF-ÃŽ ºB and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL6 and IL8 was observed in HCT116 stimulated by symptomatic Blasto-Ag. Furthermore, these findings were also observed in PBMCs stimulated by symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag. Nevertheless, HCT116 exposed to asymptomatic Blasto-Ag has exhibited an insignificant down-regulation of NF-à Ã‚ ºB gene expression which then leads to a significant lower expression in IL6 and IL8 as compared to HCT116 stimulated by symptomatic Blasto-Ag. Although the previous reports by Chandramathi et al. 2010 has stated the potential role of asymptomatic Blasto-Ag in causing the up-regulation of NF-à Ã‚ ºB and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL6 and IL8, however, the similar trend was not observed in the current study. As described earlier, different Blastocystis subtypes may have different effects on HCT116 cells as well as causing different gene expression profile in HCT116. To further characterize the gene expression profiles a s well as pathogenic potential of each subtype on HCT116 and PBMCs, more samples on different subtypes need to be recruited for the future study. Apart from this, NF-à Ã‚ ºB is also related to the apoptotic mediator genes namely p53 and CTSB. NF-à Ã‚ ºB has been postulated to play a role in inhibiting the apoptosis; hence it is hypothesized that the down-regulation of NF-à Ã‚ ºB gene expression will lead to the up-regulation of p53 and vice versa (Baldwin, 2001; Chwieralski et al. 2006). Although the recent study has suggested that CTSB may contribute to the cell apoptosis, however the studies have only reported on CTSB-mediated apoptosis in breast cancer cells as well as hepatocytes apoptosis in fulminant hepatic failure (Sandes et al, 2007; Yan et al. 2009). Nevertheless, the possibility of CTSB participation in the apoptosis of colorectal cancer cells has not been investigated. Moreover, there are a number of studies have shown that over expression of CTSB mRNA and elevation of its protein activity have been associated with the invasive and metastasis properties of various cancers (Campo et al. 1994; Yan et al, 1998; Hirai et al. 1999; Sanjeeva et al. 2001). The similar findings were observed in the current study where the HCT116 cells stimulated by symptomatic as well as asymptomatic Blasto-Ag have caused a significant up-regulation of CTSB. The over expression of CTSB in HCT116 cells stimulated by symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag may implicate the potential of Blasto-Ag in causing the invasive and metastasis of colorectal cancer (Campo et al. 1994; Yan et al. 1998; Dora et al. 2003). In the present study, the insignificant down-regulation of p53 gene expressions observed in PBMCs may indicates that the symptomatic and asymptomatic Blasto-Ag may have prevented the PBMC cells to undergo the apoptosis process. The observation of p53 gene expressions obtained was contrary to the expectation. This may be due to the latent effects of the host immunity to down-regulate the apoptotic mediator gene in order to combat with the invasive B. hominis as well as to prevent persistent inflammation which can lead to carcinogenesis. Although the down-regulation pattern was observed, it does not causing a significant effect (0.95 and 0.96 fold decrease respectively). In contrast to PBMCs, stimulation of symptomatic Blasto-Ag in HCT116 has insignificantly down-regulated the gene expressions of p53. The insignificant down-regulation observed in HCT116 stimulated by symptomatic Blasto-Ag may be explained that it could be the reason that HCT116 cells to have low level of NF-à Ã‚ ºB gene expression level (1.34 fold increase). Nevertheless, the down-regulation observed may further suggest that symptomatic Blasto-Ag may has enhance the proliferation and progression of existing tumour besides causing an extensive release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. On the other hand, an interesting finding was observed in HCT116 exposed to asymptomatic Blasto-Ag, instead of causing down-regulation of p53 gene expression, asymptomatic Blasto-Ag has caused an up-regulation of p53 (1.09 fold increase) in HCT116. The findings and observations obtained from the current study are still far to characterize the mechanism of the potential pathogenic role of B. hominis in PBMCs as well as HCT116 cells. However, the current study was able to give an overview of the potential pathogenesis of symptomatic and asymptomatic derived Blasto-Ag in HCT116 and PBMCs. Moreover, the findings also suggest that symptomatic derived Blasto-Ag is more pathogenic as compare to asymptomatic Blasto-Ag. More studies still need to be done on the association of this emerging parasite on the association with the colorectal cancer. CONCLUSION The MTT cell proliferative assay and gene expression profile in this study has shown that the solubilized antigen isolated from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, at a particular concentration, could facilitate the proliferation and growth of colorectal carcinoma while having the ability to induce apoptosis on PBMCs immune cells. Moreover, the cell proliferative assay also successfully reported that antigen isolated from symptomatic individual is more pathogenic as compare to asymptomatic isolates, as it causes a significantly higher increase in cell proliferation of HCT116 colorectal carcinoma cell lines and a significantly higher increase in inhibition of PBMCs immune cells. Moreover, symptomatic isolate of B. hominis has exhibited a more evident increase in the gene expression of Th1 and Th2 cyokines. Hence, there is a vital need to screen colorectal cancer patients for B. hominis infection.

Signs That My Site Hacked Information Technology Essay

Signs That My Site Hacked Information Technology Essay Assume you are the owner of an e-commerce web site. What are some of the signs that your site has been hacked. Discuss the major type of attacks you could expect and resulting damage on your site. Prepare a brief report based on your findings. You are required to propose web site development to one of the IT entrepreneurs in your area. Consider there are two opinions for building the site in-house with existing staff, out sourcing the entire operation. Discuss which options are in the companys best interest and the reason for choosing that opinion. Provide pros and cons for each option. Prepare a report based on your findings. Introduction to Question (1) Hacking used to be defined as One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff. However, this use has been turned around now, to mean that of a cracker One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file. This information is about this second meaning, cracking. Before we begin I would like to point out that hackers HATE crackers, crackers have given them a bad name. The main differences between the two are that hackers try to make things, crackers try to break things. Hackers made the Internet what it is today. Hackers program websites (among other things) and they do not try and harm the work of others as is thought in todays society. However, as the word hacker is now in such popular use that it is thought it means cracker I will use the words hacking and cracking for describing these cracking methods. Define question (1) Hacking is not a simple operation or sequence of commands as many people think. Hacking is a skill. To hack you must change and adapt your approach depending on the obstacles you come across. Hacking is not a specific term; there are many types of hacking. Answer for Question (1) Some of the signs that my site has been hacked: One of the goals for a hacker is to hack a website without alerting the website owner. Months go by, and a website owner hosts a hacked website without knowing the site has been compromised. The website owner may notice some strange occurrences, but here are some hacked signs that alert the owner of a compromised website. Websites that are hacked can spread malware, and the hacker sometimes steals your customers information. The Eval Base64_decode Function at the Bottom of Your Code The Eval function is used to hide code in PHP blogs such as Blogger and WordPress. The base64_decode decodes encoded text that you are unable to read when you view your website code files. The hacker places a redirection code using eval and base64_decode at the bottom of your PHP file, so you are unable to read the hacked code and dont notice the redirection to the hackers web page. If you did not put the functions on your page, then your blog or website has probably been hacked. Drop in Google Search Engine Results Rank If my site is hacked with a redirection to an online pharmacy, the Google algorithm detects a problem and lowers your search engine rank. If you check your rank often, you notice a drop in rank. You can drop several pages and even hundreds of pages in the search engine results. A Red Warning Alert in Google Chrome or Firefox When Google detects a hacked website, Firefox and Chrome use the Google API to show a warning message to users. Instead of seeing your website, the web browser shows a red screen alerting the reader to a hacked website address. Users can hit the back button or proceed to my site. In most cases, the user prefers to click the back button to avoid infecting the computer. The best way to detect a hacked website is enter your domain name into Chrome or Firefox and see if the red warning screen shows. Google Indexes Your Site with Pharmacy Text If your site has been hacked and redirects to a pharmacy, search your domain name with pharmacy text such as Viagra, pharmacy, or meds. Pornographic search phrases are also used to check if your site has been hacked and redirect to adult websites. This type of check gives you a heads up, and lets you know the hackers code is somewhere in your website code. Check the .htaccess File on Your Host Server The .htaccess file is a part of an Apache server host. One web hack is placing a redirect code in the .htaccess file. Open the .htaccess file located on the root of your web host directory. Read through the file and locate any odd website addresses. If you have a website address that is not yours in the .htaccess file, your file has been hacked. These tips help you identify a hacked website. After I fix the hack, I must identify where my site vulnerability is is located. If I do not identify the security hole, you are susceptible to hacks after you go through the trouble of fixing hacked code. The type of attacks I could expect and the damages Password cracking In most of the cases, user passwords are encrypted to protect the privacy of passwords and maintain security of the system. Password cracking is the process of decrypting encrypted passwords. A program that performs cracking is known as password cracker. Some crackers are also capable of disabling password protection system and may cause free access to anyone and the owner will be losing a lot of information in his web site. Ip spoofing IP spoofing is used to commit criminal activity online and to breach network security. Hackers use IP spoofing so they do not get caught spamming and to perpetrate denial of service attacks. These are attacks that involve massive amounts of information being sent to computers over a network in an effort to crash the entire network. The hacker does not get caught because the origin of the messages cannot be determined due to the bogus IP address. IP spoofing is also used by hackers to breach network security measures by using a bogus IP address that mirrors one of the addresses on the network. This eliminates the need for the hacker to provide a user name and password to log onto the network. Hijacking an Authorized Session With the ability to generate the correct sequence numbers, an attacker can take over an authorized session by simply taking over one of the parties to the session. Having inserted himself in the session, the attacker will simply tell the party taken over that the session has ended, while connecting to the other half of the legitimate session and continuing communication, but this time, according to the attackers dictate. Haven taken over a trusted communication channel, the attacker can then probe the network for vulnerabilities. Sequesnce Guessing Every connection between two hosts using TCP contain sequence numbers for both data and acknowledgement. These numbers, used by the TCP protocol to determine out-of-order and lost packets, is one of the facilities of the connection-oriented TCP design, to ensure reliable delivery to the application layer. The sequence numbers are generated pseudo-randomly and an attacker might send spoofed packets to a victim to determine the algorithm generating the sequence numbers, and then use that knowledge to intercept an existing session. RIP Attacks Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Routing attacks is often seen in routers which implemented the original RIP. Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is used to distribute routing information within networks, such as shortest-paths, and advertising routes out from the local network. The original version of RIP has no built in authentication, and the information provided in a RIP packet is often used without verifying it. An attacker could forge a RIP packet, claiming his host X has the fastest path out of the network. All packets sent out from that network would then be routed through X, where they could be modified or examined. An attacker could also use RIP to effectively impersonate any host, by causing all traffic sent to that host to be sent to the attackers machine instead. Buffer Overflows A Buffer Overflow is a flaw that occurs when more data is written to a block of memory, or buffer, than the buffer is allocated to hold. Exploiting a buffer overflow allows an attacker to modify portions of the target process address space. This ability can be used for a number of purposes, including the following: Control the process execution Crash the process Modify internal variables   The attackers goal is almost always to control the target process execution. This is accomplished by identifying a function pointer in memory that can be modified, directly or indirectly, using the overflow. When such a pointer is used by the program to direct program execution through a jump or call instruction, the attacker-supplied instruction location will be used, thereby allowing the attacker to control the process.  In many cases, the function pointer is modified to reference a location where the attacker has placed assembled machine-specific instructions. These instructions are commonly referred to as shellcode, in reference to the fact that attackers often wish to spawn a command-line environment, or shell, in the context of the running process . Conclusion If I cannot connect to my web site or log in to your control panel, I have to contact your web hosting company. The hacker attack has changed your password and I need to get a new one. The hacker might have also changed your email address associated with my account at the web hosting company but this is unlikely because the password and the email information are generally segregated. Anyway, depending on the company policies, a web hosting firm would either send you a new password over email OR revert with what they need to send you a new password (because they need to verify that the new password request is legitimate). In some cases, I might need to send a fax because the hackers have messed up your email too. Introduction to Question (2) Nowadays, it seems like everyone is saying, I want to site. If you want to build a web site and you know what you want, dont know what you want, trying to learn about it then we have information for you. If you already own a website or a webmaster looking for the best and latest information on successful website development, then we have the website builder for you. Also on this site we have articles and free eBooks on every aspect of website development, including internet marketing, home based businesses and affiliate marketing. Define question (2) There are many different routes a web site owner can go for getting all of the content done for his online business. The two directions he could take, whether its hiring in-house or outsourcing to a content creation company, allow for many different options and different ways to get your content project done. The route you take can have effect on a number of things, like quality of the content, your expenses, and the time it will take to get everything done. Since the content will probably be the most important part of your web site, you will want to take all things into consideration before making your final decision. Answer to Question (2) IN-HOUSE WITH EXISTING STAFF Hiring in-house definitely has its own advantages. This is because anytime you have a valuable resource like a team of writers in the Internet industry you are able to accomplish many different things because there are so many ways that you can use content on the Internet (it doesnt always just have to be on-site content). It all really depends on your own companys content needs however. You will be able to train writers and mold their styles to the way you want your content to be written. ADVANTAGES: Gives you Control If design services are part of your business, then keeping it under your control allows you to provide the best services for your customers. This means that if your business sells design services, or depends on a strong, dynamic online presence for the bulk of its revenue, an in-house design team is essential. You dont want to rely on a contractor over whom you do not have complete control to make or break your business. Communicate Better and Save Time Interacting with outsourced talent can be challenging, especially if your contractor is . People under your purview are easier to find and easier to direct, so when you need something done, you can explain it to them in person. Save (lots of) Money You will find that you will save money in the long run by using in-house talent. Even though you will have to make the investment in payroll and infrastructure, over time you get better results and spend less money than you would by hiring an outside firm. In-house design also benefits from the standpoint of project cost. Contractors often will pocket some or all of the difference if they finish a project below cost. If your In-house team completes the project at less cost, that cost savings shows up in your bottom line. DISADVANTAGES Maintenance contract with an external agency Although probably the most expensive approach, maintenance contract with an external agency does provide the best level of service. If the agency provide the right kind of service this can be very much like working with an outsource team. The agency will really get to understand the business, evolve your website on a regular basis and still provide all of the benefits of an external agency. Part time contractors For smaller organizations that cannot afford fulltime in-house staff but who wish to enjoy the benefits that come with that approach, there is the option to take on a part-time contractor. These individuals will probably have 2 or 3 websites they manage on a regular basis but still will be able to work more closely with you than an external agency. Ad-hoc specialists For larger organisations it may sometimes be appropriate to bring in specialists to compliment an existing in-house team. For example specialists in accessibility, usability or design can often work well alongside an in-house team primarily made up of coders. Outsourcing Outsourcing is contracting out the management and development of a process or production to external sources. Many online businesses have found it desirable to outsource their website. While some businesses lack the in-house expertise, others find the logistics of managing the website distracts their attention from their core competencies and some other find it to be cost-effective. In the present scenario of IT, all organizations whether big or small, depend on outsourcing to stay competitive. This is quite advantageous as a wide range of options is available, in the form of experienced reliable companies offering their services. Outsourcing helps a company to focus on its core business more efficiently. Outsourcing Advantages: You can be assured that if you go this route you are leaving all of your content needs in the hands of very well experienced and trained writers writers that have written for the Internet for a long period of time. There will more than likely be a whole team of editors, project managers, and writers and they will have a their system down pat already and will be ready to take on whatever kind of volume you need to push. You will have a faster turnaround time, and therefore you will be able to scale up quite easily. Outsourcing your content will also save you a lot of time and money. Hiring and training in-house writers takes a lot of time and can also be quite expensive. Outsourcing your content to a company usually means you will spend less money because they usually charge less and you wont have to spend money building up your own resources . Disadvantages: One of the major disadvantages is the differences in writing style that you may see. Outsourcing your content means outsourcing to a number of different writers, all of which have their own unique writing style. Since they have already been trained to write a certain way for the Internet, you will have to make sure that the writers will be able to fulfill your standards in terms of style and SEO needs. For example some people may want a double space after each period and some people like the single space approach. It seems like a small problem, but little problems like that can cause a lot of trouble if not worked out before the project gets started. This problem really escalates if you are outsourcing your content to many different freelancers. Language or cultural differences: Struggling to understand your tech support specialist can make a frustrating situation even worse. Unfortunately, many small businesses choose offshore outsourcing as their least-expensive option, while not considering the time and aggravation spent on communication issues. This can be mitigated either by carefully interviewing various offshore firms and giving them a test drive, or by hiring a local firm. The latter may also allow you to have the specialist on-site, which is highly recommended for handling most IT support needs. Not part of the team: Because outsourced IT specialists are there only when scheduled or when you need them to fix a problem, youll spend time bringing them up to speed when issues do arise or when you want them to provide advice on future technology initiatives. Again, there is a solution: Get an outsourced firm involved in your IT needs on an ongoing basis via managed services. Companies best interest The best for my company would be outsourcing because its gives us a saver web-hosting and trusted from virus. Although its not cheap but it would be easy for us because its been maintain and updated always. This could increase our web viewers and customers too. Conclusion Once you have a team of writers, you will always have to find a way to keep them busy or else you will risk losing them. If you dont have the ability to keep a team of writers busy for a substantial amount of time, then hiring in-house writers would prove to be a big waste of time. Your turnaround time will also not be as fast, and you will spend more time dealing with your writers time that probably could have better been spent elsewhere. A good route to go (a route that many companies take) is to hire a few in-house writers as well as outsource content needs that make sense to outsource. The Internet business calls for unique situations and needs, and the route you go with your content creation should definitely be based on these specific needs. One thing to be aware of is that some information technology consultants that you outsource to, will in turn outsource services to their own partners. Look for companies that take final responsibility for your system, no matter whether the y or a partner provided a particular service. This will help make things simpler for your organization, especially at times of stress and concern when you most need things to be easy.

Jackson Hole :: Personal Narrative Writing

Jackson Hole It was going to be the time of our lives. Four buddies of mine and I went out to Jackson, Wyoming to do some of the best snowboarding of our lives. It was our chance to get away from home for a week and have the best time of our lives. The trip out there was extremely boring driving through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Possibly the three most boring states in the country. When we got out there we were all very impressed by the appearance of the city. This was obviously a tourist town. When we found the hotel we were impressed by the huge glass windows and cedar siding. It looked more like the Hilton than a Best Western. We checked in and were shown to our rooms. After bringing in all of our things, we went straight to bed knowing that we had a huge day ahead of us, not knowing how huge it was really going to be. After a great night of sleep we headed out to the world renown mountain of Jackson Hole. It is known for being the steepest mountain on which a ski resort is set up. It is also know for having a great view of Grand Teton, one of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains. We could not have asked for a better day of riding. there was a fresh 14† of snow under our boards and after a little bit of exploring we found some great out of bounds and woods riding. We looked around for a little while longer and Tom spotted a nice hit. It was an untouched field, with three 10-15’ drops which made for great hits. After hiking about a quarter of a mile we made it there. A quarter of a mile does not sound like that much of a walk but it is not as easy as it sounds when you are walking in snow past your knees deep, simply it took almost an hour and a half. We strapped in and took off, making huge carves in all the fresh powder that had probably not been ridden in at least a week. The first hit was coming and Tom shouted â€Å"hit it man,† As Dan and I approached the hit we got some big air. The only problem with riding such fresh snow is that when you land in that amount of fresh powder you sink like a rock.

An Evolutionary Ethical Theory of Social Risks and Opportunities Essay

An Evolutionary Ethical Theory of Social Risks and Opportunities ABSTRACT: Social standards guide us in what to do and what to refrain from doing. But can social — moral or legal — standards be trusted? This paper presents an evolutionary ethical theory that generates trustworthy ethical norms. Each norm is assigned a demonstrable risk, called an ethical risk, that depends on both human behavior and danger to the survival of society. The assigned risk is minimal if and only if everybody obeys the norm. The higher the risk assigned to a norm, the higher the norm’s rank (an empirical quantity depending on the evolutionary status of society). An ordered finite set of ethical risks and ethical norms allows the settlement of ethical problems arising in society. Subsets of existing moral and legal standards all over the world are compatible with norms being elements of these ordered finite sets of ethical norms. Like all standards, ethical norms are often violated. A single violated norm suffices to activate correlations between ris ks, resulting in an ethical conflict. The more often a high-ranking norm is violated, the poorer the society in question. Ethical conflicts can be resolved by responsible persons or groups advancing higher-ranking norms involved in optimization at the expense of lower-ranking norms. Examples are given to support the theory. "Moral predigen ist leicht, Moral begrà ¼nden schwer" (Arthur Schopenhauer) I. The Primacy of an Empirical Ethic of Risks In the West, ever fewer people respect moral standards because the influence of religion is decreasing rapidly. In addition philosophical ethics, "inventing right and wrong" [Mackie], is unable to contribute essentially to the trustability of moral norms,... ...men, Saetze; Stuttgart 1980 Patzig, G.: Ethik ohne Metaphysik; Goettingen 1983 Platon: Saemtliche Werke, Band I; Heidelberg 1982 Popper, K.: Die offene Gesellschaft und ihre Feinde; Tuebingen 1992 Rawls, J.: Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit; Frankfurt 1979 Rawls, J.: Die Idee des politischen Liberalismus, Frankfurt 1992 Schmidt, H.: Zeit von den Pflichten zu sprechen, S. 17, Die Zeit Nr. 41, 1997 Schrader, W.H.: Norm II, Ethik; J. Ritter, K. Gruender (Hg.): Historisches Woerterbuch der Philosophie, Band 6, S. 910; Basel 1984 Sueddeutsche Zeitung Nr. 43 vom 22. Februar 1994 Vorlaender, K.: Immanuel Kant—Der Mann und das Werk; S. 170; Hamburg 1992 Weber, M.: Politik als Beruf; M. Weber, Gesammelte Politische Schriften, J. Winkelmann (Hg.); Tuebingen 1971 Wickert, U.: Der Ehrliche ist der Dumme—ÃÅ"ber den Verlust der Werte; Muenchen 1996

Disease Surveillance

Disease surveillance is defined as the systematic data collection, data analysis and interpretation of the results in order to enable effective planning in the aspect of disease control. It enables infectious diseases to be detected early so that their potential threat to the public is minimized. The threats may be due to cases of food borne infections, bioterrorism and communicable diseases (Lombardo and Buckeridge, 2007). There are several systems and networks that have been put in place in order to help in the surveillance of infectious diseases.Disease surveillance also requires the collaboration of different partners and officials, an effective communication system and reliable laboratory networks in order to be effective. BioSense involves the use of syndromic data derived from different electronic sources. This improves the speed at which disease is detected. It enables outbreaks to be detected early enough before they lead to serious problems. It has been applied in different sectors by the state such as to detect any cases of bioterrorism and other threats that may put the lives of the citizens in danger.This system has been employed by CDC (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Electronic Laboratory Exchange Networks (eLEXNET) is a surveillance system used in food safety. It is a web-based system used in state, federal and even local agencies. It enables the collaboration of both the government and health officials in that the data regarding food safety is shared and therefore the potential risk of a possible outbreak of food borne diseases is detected early enough (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).The other type of syndromic system is the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community based Epidemics (ESSENCE). It relies on data that is got from hospitals, dispensaries and clinics. This data is collected daily and assist in the tracking of the common syndromes found in a particular area. H istorical data is also helpful in this system since it acts as a starting point for the epidemiologists. The officials can also pin point the specific area or region with a high number of a certain syndrome through the use of a geographic information system (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X) is a web based communication system usually used by CDC. It enables the sharing of information with the state, federal and other pubic health officials. It is an effective system since it enables the authorized users to share information and get feedbacks on every issue such as the efforts put in place for the control of infectious diseases (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Food borne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is a system which is designed to respond to any new food borne disease that is of public importance.It also monitors the trend and identifies the specific sources of these diseases. It is a more reliable and an accurate system in the estimation of incidences of these diseases (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) enable keen surveillance of diseases which have either been confirmed or rumored. It is mostly used by WHO in the surveillance of diseases that are of worldwide importance. The information is gotten from different sources such as the media, institutions and health ministries in different countries (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).Other systems that have also been used include Global Public Health Intelligence (GPHIN), Health Alert Network (HAN), Laboratory Response Network (LRN), National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS), National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM), Real Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) and Sexually Transmitted Disease Management Information System (STDMIS) (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).These systems require a number of key factors in order for disease surveillance to be effective. First, the source of data must be reliable to enable the accurate and fast response during surveillance. The data is the baseline for surveillance as seen in all the systems above such as ESSENCE and BioSense. Therefore, surveillance cannot be possible without data. Secondly, effective communication networks which enables the information to be shared with other partners such as the state, federal and public health officials. References Lombardo, J.S. & Buckeridge, D.L. (2007).Disease Surveillance: A Public Health Informatics Approach. New Jersey: John Wiley & sons, Inc. United States Government Accountability Office. (2004). Emerging Infectious Diseases: Review   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of State and Federal Disease Surveillance Efforts. Retrieved on 12th May 2010 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04877.pdf

Cases on Contract Essay

The defendant made the highest bid for the plaintiff’s goods at an auction sale, but he withdrew his bid before the fall of the auctioneer’s hammer. It was held that the defendant was not bound to purchase the goods. His bid amounted to an offer which he was entitled to withdraw at any time before the auctioneer signified acceptance by knocking down the hammer. Note: The common law rule laid down in this case has now been codified in s57(2) Sale of Goods Act 1979. Fisher v Bell (1960) A shopkeeper displayed a flick knife with a price tag in the window. The Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 made it an offence to ‘offer for sale’ a ‘flick knife’. The shopkeeper was prosecuted in the magistrates’ court but the Justices declined to convict on the basis that the knife had not, in law, been ‘offered for sale’. This decision was upheld by the Queen’s Bench Divisional Court. Lord Parker CJ stated: â€Å"It is perfectly clear that according to the ordinary law of contract the display of an article with a price on it in a shop window is merely an invitation to treat. It is in no sense an offer for sale the acceptance of which constitutes a contract.† PSGB v Boots (1953) The defendants’ shop was adapted to the â€Å"self-service† system. The question for the Court of Appeal was whether the sales of certain drugs were effected by or under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. The question was answered in the affirmative. Somervell LJ stated that â€Å"in the case of an ordinary shop, although goods are displayed and it is intended that customers should go and choose what they want, the contract is not completed until, the customer having indicated the articles which he needs, the shopkeeper, or someone on his behalf, accepts that offer. Then the contract is completed.† Partridge v Crittenden (1968) It was an offence to offer for sale certain wild birds. The defendant had advertised in a periodical ‘Quality Bramblefinch cocks, Bramblefinch hens, 25s each’. His conviction was quashed by the High Court. Lord Parker CJ stated that when one is dealing with advertisements and circulars, unless they indeed come from manufacturers, there is business sense in their being construed as invitations to treat and not offers for sale. In a very different context Lord Herschell in Grainger v Gough (Surveyor of Taxes) [1896] AC 325, said this in dealing with a price list: â€Å"The transmission of such a price list does not amount to an offer to supply an unlimited quantity of the wine described at the price named, so that as soon as an order is given there is a binding contract to supply that quantity. If it were so, the merchant might find himself involved in any number of contractual obligations to supply wine of a particular description which he would be quite unable to carry out, his stock of wine of that description being necessarily limited.† Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893) An advert was placed for ‘smoke balls’ to prevent influenza. The advert offered to pay  £100 if anyone contracted influenza after using the ball. The company deposited  £1,000 with the Alliance Bank to show their sincerity in the matter. The plaintiff bought one of the balls but contracted influenza. It was held that she was entitled to recover the  £100. The Court of Appeal held that: (a) the deposit of money showed an intention to be bound, therefore the advert was an offer; (b) it was possible to make an offer to the world at large, which is accepted by anyone who buys a smokeball; (c) the offer of protection would cover the period of use; and (d) the buying and using of the smokeball amounted to acceptance. Harvey v Facey (1893) The plaintiffs sent a telegram to the defendant, â€Å"Will you sell Bumper Hall Pen? Telegraph lowest cash price†. The defendants reply was â€Å"Lowest price  £900†. The plaintiffs telegraphed â€Å"We agree to buy †¦ for  £900 asked by you†. It was held by the Privy Council that the defendants telegram was not an offer but simply an indication of the minimum price the defendants would want, if they decided to sell. The plaintiffs second telegram could not be an acceptance. Gibson v MCC (1979) The council sent to tenants details of a scheme for the sale of council houses. The plaintiff immediately replied, paying the  £3 administration fee. The council replied: â€Å"The corporation may be prepared to sell the house to you at the purchase price of  £2,725 less 20 per cent.  £2,180 (freehold).† The letter gave details about a mortgage and went on â€Å"This letter should not be regarded as a firm offer of a mortgage. If you would like to make a formal application to buy your council house, please complete the enclosed application form and return it to me as soon as possible.† G filled in and returned the form. Labour took control of the council from the Conservatives and instructed their officers not to sell council houses unless they were legally bound to do so. The council declined to sell to G. In the House of Lords, Lord Diplock stated that words italicised seem to make it quite impossible to construe this letter as a contractual offer capable of being converted into a legally enforceable open contract for the sale of land by G’s written acceptance of it. It was a letter setting out the financial terms on which it may be the council would be prepared to consider a sale and purchase in due course. Harvela v Royal Trust (1985) Royal Trust invited offers by sealed tender for shares in a company and undertook to accept the highest offer. Harvela bid $2,175,000 and Sir Leonard Outerbridge bid $2,100,000 or $100,000 in excess of any other offer. Royal Trust accepted Sir Leonard’s offer. The trial judge gave judgment for Harvela. In the House of Lords, Lord Templeman stated: â€Å"To constitute a fixed bidding sale all that was necessary was that the vendors should invite confidential offers and should undertake to accept the highest offer. Such was the form of the invitation. It follows that the invitation upon its true construction created a fixed bidding sale and that Sir Leonard was not entitled to submit and the vendors were not entitled to accept a referential bid.† Blackpool Aero Club v Blackpool Borough Council (1990) BBC invited tenders to operate an airport, to be submitted by noon on a fixed date. The plaintiffs tender was delivered by hand and put in the Town Hall letter box at 11am. However, the tender was recorded as having been received late and was not considered. The club sued for breach of an alleged warranty that a tender received by the deadline would be considered. The judge awarded damages for breach of contract and negligence. The council’s appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. ACCEPTANCE Brogden v MRC (1877) B supplied coal to MRC for many years without an agreement. MRC sent a draft agreement to B who filled in the name of an arbitrator, signed it and returned it to MRC’s agent who put it in his desk. Coal was ordered and supplied in accordance with the agreement but after a dispute arose B said there was no binding agreement. It was held that B’s returning of the amended document was not an acceptance but a counter-offer which could be regarded as accepted either when MRC ordered coal or when B actually supplied. By their conduct the parties had indicated their approval of the agreement.