Qing China and the consequences of the golden age Essay

Introduction The â€Å"Prosperous Age† was a period where Qing China experienced a drastic increase in population, flourishing trade and commerce, and a remarkable level of social and political stability during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. However, its brilliance was overshadowed by its subsequent consequences and China was soon at its breaking point in the 19th century. This essay would then evaluate on the implications of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† and how the long-term consequences proved to be more negative in the 19th century due to a string of crisis, and subsequent problems that continued even in modern China of the 20th century. Negative Unanticipated Long Term Consequences Reversal of Trade Fortunes with Britain During the 18th century, there was mounting European demand for Chinese goods (Hung, 2011). Britain in particular, had strong liking and demand for Chinese goods especially tea. Hence, it led to the outflow of British silver into China, but little inflow of silver back into the British economy resulted in China enjoying a trade surplus (City University HK, 2007) while Britain suffered from a trade deficit. To redress this deficit, Britain began to smuggle and sell opium in China (City University HK, 2007). China’s attempt to prohibit opium then resulted in the Opium Wars and suffered a tragic defeat. The defeat in the Opium War led to the signings of unequal treaties . Upon signing of the unequal treaties, much Chinese marked it as the beginning of a century of shame and humiliation. Although China was never formally colonized, the lack of ability to defend its basic sovereign rights and ability to govern its own country made it look like a like semi-colonized state of Britain. Consequently, the Qing government was seen as weak and inefficient to combat against the foreigners and much Chinese lost faith in the Manchurian Qing government. As a result, this gave rise to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) where violent revolts and attacks were targeted against foreigners as a sign to resist their influence. Boxers,  supported by China, suffered a yet another defeat and were forced to sign yet another unequal treaty: Boxer Protocol, where the reparations drastically crippled the Chinese economy till the mid 20th century (Zheng, 2009). Thus, we can see that the initial trade surplus, a sign of â€Å"Prosperous Age† resulted in British to redress the situation by selling opium to the Chinese led to the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties which greatly weakened Qing China internally and externally in the 19th century. China’s failure to counter foreign influence led to their continued defeat in the Boxer Rebellion at the end of 19th century, where another unequal treaty continued to cripple her till mid 20th century , thereby demonstrating the long term consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† was indeed negative in the long run, especially since the consequences did not confine just to the 19th century but even stretched to the 20th century. Reforms did not keep up with population boom During the â€Å"Prosperous Age†, China’s population tripled from less than 150 million to over 400 million (Perkins, 1969). Civil Service Exam however continued its strict quota for passing (Bentley & Ziegler, 2003) and that meant a lower ratio of scholar to population passes. The frustration of students led to the rise of influential leaders like Hong Xiuquan who sought for reforms which led to the Taiping Rebellion . Coincidentally, the backbone of his rebels were the poor peasants who were forced out of arable lands and were socially upset and frustrated, which was also due to the consequence of the population boom. The consequence of the Taiping Rebellion led to a weakened Qing as they were forced to decentralize power to provincial elites to deal with the crisis and this power was never fully recovered even after the rebellion was suppressed (Sng, 2011). Provincial elites who did not return the power were a growing sign of defiance and could have the possibility of rising up against the imperial court. The unneeded civil unrest caused by Taiping Rebellion also served to exacerbate subsequent crisis like the Northern Chinese Famine (1876-1879) where the government was severely blamed for not providing sufficient aid. The excess unrest and loss of power proved to be detrimental in the 19th century as it  crippled China and the country with no official political bloc stepping up to assist with the problems and crisis. In short, China was in a total disarray and chaotic. Lack of technological advancement Qing China favoured political and social stability over technological innovation which they feared would lead to unsettling changes. Furthermore, the vast population available to firms was a cheaper alternative to increase output, rather than investment of new technologies which was costly (Bentley & Ziegler, 2003). This proved to be adverse in the 19th century when China engaged in wars. In the Opium Wars, the Qing military was no match against the British who utilized better technology to triumph (Tanner, 2010). The first defeat resulted in Treaty of Nanjing which ceded Hong Kong to Britain. Subsequent wars like the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1985) had China suffering a crushing defeat against a more superior and modernized Japanese army. China then ceded Taiwan, Penghu and the Liaodong peninsular to the Japanese. It clearly implied that China could not defend its own sovereign ground and indicated how backward the Chinese army. It questions the right of China to even claim rights over those territories if she could not even defend it properly. The problem gets exemplified into the 20th century when China continued to suffer several defeats to the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War . Even with the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895) which was embraced to modernize China was insufficient. The subsequent defeats to Allied forces in the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese in the Sino-Japanese Wars marred the success of the movement. Especially significant was the defeat in First Sino-Japanese war as for the first time in over 2000 years of history, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan (Johnson, 2010). Coupled with the defeat, China’s international and regional standings were challenged and staged subsequent revolutions that led to other problems and the eventual demise of Qing. Positive Long Term Unanticipated Consequences Building a new foundation based on common people The end of Taiping Rebellion inspired nationalists (Del Testa & Lemoine & Strickland, 2001) to fight for the betterment of Chinese. It was because of the consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† that led to the decisive rise of nationalist to seek for reforms. An example would be the decentralizing of power, which meant many parties would be involved in decision-making process, rather than just the monarch government. This would ensure that concerns are taken into deliberation before decision-making that will benefit majority of the Chinese, rather than the imperial court only. The nationalist dream then culminated in the 1911 Revolution in the early 20th century, where the Qing was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. Nevertheless, the dream of the nationalist was short-lived due to a power struggle within. Even though election was scheduled for 1913, but it soon became clear than Yuan Shikai wanted to establish his own power base. Sun Yat Sen was then forced into exile after he stepped down as head of the newly formed Kuomintang (Foster, 2007). The new government was then monopolized by Yuan and led to decades of political division and warlordism, including monarchy restoration (Blecher, 2010). Therefore we can see that the perceived benefits from the consequence of â€Å"Prosperous Age† in the 19th century did not fully materialize in the 20th century. Monarchy restoration was attempted and defeats the purpose of the promised sharing of power with the people initially. Political and social unrest persisted even with the new government which culminated in the May Fourth Movement (1919). Hence, we can see that China did not become better even with the end of Qing. It would be judgmental to argue that the initial rise of nationalists had resulted in a better China. It would be fairer to argue that the initial rise of nationalists led to more power struggle and dissident movements like the Chinese Warlord Era (1916-1928) as there were no strong political forces to enforce stability and order until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came in 1949. Conclusion Hence, we can see that the consequences of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† proved to be more negative. The severity of the negative consequences shed light on the  crises in the 19th century which crippled China internally and externally. The impact of the consequences was so overwhelming that it even snowballed to the 20th century and further crippled modern China. In contrast, the perceived positive consequences was that it built the foundation but the problem was that the foundation was weak and unstable which in turn led to more problems which culminated in more movements and revolutions. Furthermore, problems like sovereign issues were not solved by reforms or China’s surge in military strength but rather treaties that returned territories to her under imminent conditions . Thus, we can see that the long term consequences were more negative in the 19th century as it continued the crippling of China economically, socially and militarily and as well as set the stage for the movements and revolutions in the 20th century which did not necessary bring about stability and communal power amongst its people until the CCP came into power in 1949. References – Hung, H.F. (2011), Protest with Chinese characteristics: demonstrations, riots, and petitions (p24-26). USA: Columbia University Press – Qian Long Emperor’s Letter to George III, 1793, retrieved from Sanders & Morillo & Nelson & Elleberger (2005), Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past, Volume 2 (p289). McGraw-Hill – Sng, T.H (2011, Oct 4). Size and Dynastic Decline: The Principal-Agent Problem in Late Imperial China 1700-1850. –  City University of HK Press (2007), China: Five thousand years of history and civilization (p109). Hong Kong: City University of HK Press – Perkins, D.H. (1969). Agricultural development in China, 1369-1968. Chicago: Aldine – Bentley & Ziegler (2003). Traditions and Encounters (p724-740). New York: McGraw-Hill – Tanner, H.M. (2010), China: From the Great Qing Empire through the People’s Republic of China 1644-2009 (p77). USA: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. – Del Testa & Lemoine & Strickland (2001). Government leaders, military rulers and political activist (p86). Greenwood Publishing Group – Foster, S (2007). Adventure Guide China (p18-19). Hunter Publishing, Inc. – Blecher, M.J. (2010). China against the tides: restructuring through revolution, radicalism, and reform (p205). Continuum International Publishing Group – Johnson, R.E. (2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches (p267). Cambridge University Press – Zheng, J.G. (2009). Historical dictionary of modern China 1800-1949 (p32). USA: Scarecrow Press

The Jaguar

The Jaguar 1. It implies that the apes admire their fleas and are to lazy tp do anything about them, where as you would think that they would want rid of the fleas because they would surely be bothered by them. 2. The simile gives me a dramatic picture of the parrots as by saying ‘shriek as if they were on fire' gives me the image of the being very load and frantic. 3. The figure of speech in line three is a simile and suggests to me that the parrots were flaunting themselves ‘like cheap tarts', woman who want to attract attention. 4. ‘Tiger and lion lie still as the sun'.This simile gives me a picture of the tigers and lions laying still and not moving very often. 5. The figure of speech used here is a metaphor and gives me an image of an ancient creature that used to live millions of years ago. 6. The word is ‘shriek' because it makes me think of the birds making loud noises. ‘Fatigued with indolence' gives me the impression that the tigers and lions a re very lazy and do not have the effort to do anything. ‘Stink of sleepers from the breathing straw' gives a very strong impression that the animals are very un-hygienic and are not clean. . Most of the animals are very lazy and motionless. 8. The poet uses commas more often to make the reader read quicker and therefor fastening the pace of the poem. The commas are also used to create tension and excitement. 9. The writer says that the jaguar is ‘hurrying and also the he ‘spins' from the cage bars, showing me that the jaguar is very fast paced and frantic. 10. The language technique used is alliteration which is having words beginning with the same letter following one another. 11.I choose the 2nd and 3rd lines from the last verse, these lines suggest to me that the jaguar feels like he is still in the wild and still in control. The poet mentions the ‘wilderness of freedom' to remind us of the wilderness from where the jaguar came. 12. Ted Hughes gives me the impression that he likes the jaguar because the jaguar still acts as if it is in the wild. 13. My feeling on the jaguar is that it still has not given up as the writer tells me that ‘over the cage floor the horizons come' giving me the impression that the jaguar is imagining still being in the wild and free

Law question Essay

Ali had an antique motorbike which he decided to sell. He parked the motorbike on his front lawn with a sign † For sale- RM20,000†³. Ah Chong, who saw the sign, said to Ali that he would be prepared to buy the motorbike for RM15,000. Ali replied that the price is too low and suggested RM18,000. Ah Chong responded by asking if Ali would be prepared to accept payment of the RM18,000 in three monthly instalments of RM6,000 each. Ali replied that he would not. Ali then added,† Anyway I am no longer interested in selling the motorbike to you. † At that precise moment Ali spoke these words, a helicopter flew low overhead and drowned out his words. Ali did not bother to repeat what he had just said and was leaving when Ah Chong quickly agreed to the RM18,000 suggested earlier by Ali. Discuss whether there is a contract between Ali and Ah Chong. Explain whether your answer would be different if the helicopter flying overhead had not drowned out Ali’s words and Ah Chong heard what was said? Assignment Answer In this assignment, I would like to discuss the question above part by part. First of all, from the sentence ,† He parked the motorbike on his front lawn with a sign † For sale- RM20,000†³,† it is said that there was an invitation to trade. Invitation to treat or simply speaking information to bargain means a person inviting others to make an offer in order to create a binding contract. An example of invitation to treat is found in window shop displays and product advertisement. . In another words it is a special expression showing a person’s willingness to negotiate. The issue of invitation to treat was discussed in the case of Fisher v Bell[1961] 1 QB 394 by the English Court of Appeal : 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. †[1]. An offer can be seen from the prescribed text, â€Å"Ah Chong, who saw the sign, said to Ali that he would be prepared to buy the motorbike for RM15,000. † It is stated in Section 2(a) Contracts Act 1950,† when one person signifies to another his willingness to do or abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to the act or abstinence, he is said to make a proposal. † and Section 2(b) Contracts Act 1950,†when the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted :a proposal, when accepted, becomes a promise. † . Both laws were applied when Ah Chong has shown his willingness to make an offer as he would be â€Å"PREPARED† to buy the motorbike for RM15,000. However, a counter offer was made by Ali when instead of accepting or rejecting Ah Chong’s offer, Ali made another offer:† Ali replied that the price is too low and suggested RM18,000†³. Ali’s offer refers to a counter offer. In this situation unless an acceptance is rendered, there is no binding contract between A and B. This situation is stated in Section 6(c) Contracts Act 1950-† by the failure of the acceptor to fulfill a condition precedent to acceptance†. There was famous case known as [2]Hyde v. Wrench, [1840] EWHC Ch J90 where Wrench (D) offered to sell his estate to Hyde for 1200 pounds and Hyde (P) declined. Wrench then made a final offer to sell the farm for 1000 pounds. Hyde in turn offered to purchase the property for 950 pounds and Wrench replied that he would consider the offer and give an answer within approximately two weeks. Wrench ultimately rejected the offer and the plaintiff immediately replied that he accepted Wrench’s earlier offer to sell the real estate for 1000 pounds. Wrench refused and Hyde sued for breach of contract and sought specific performance, contending that Wench’s offer had not been withdrawn prior to acceptance. The question or issue here is if one party makes an offer and the offeree makes a counteroffer, does the original offer remain open? Answer is No because a counteroffer negates the original offer. By making a counteroffer, the plaintiff rejected the original offer and he was not entitled to revive it. So in another words, the parties did not form a binding contract. Then we proceed to the next part where Ah Chong made a mere enquiry to Ali by asking if Ali would be prepared to accept payment of thr RM18,000 in three monthly instalments of RM6,000 each. Then, Ali replied that he would not. On top of that, Ali added that he is no longer interested in selling the motorbike to Ah Chong. Section 5(1) Contract Acts 1950 – A proposal may be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterwards. This particular case [3][3]ROUTLEDGE V GRANT (1828) 4 BING 653 is another example of revocation of an offer : Grant wrote to Routledge offering to purchase the lease of his house. The offer was to remain open for six weeks. Grant then changed his mind about purchasing the lease and, within the six weeks, withdrew his offer. After Routledge had received Grant’s letter withdrawing the offer, he wrote back to Grant, within the six weeks, accepting Grant’s offer. The issue before the court was whether Grant could withdraw his offer within the six week period or whether he was bound contractually given that Routledge had accepted the offer within the timescale. The court held the offer could be withdrawn within the six week period without incurring any liability – if one party has six weeks to accept an offer, the other has six weeks to put an end to it. One party cannot be bound without the other. The case and scenario above convey an useful reminder that until such time as an offer is accepted, the offeror is free to revoke it, even if they have given the recipient a period of time to consider it. When Ali spoke :† I am no longer interested in selling the motorbike to you. † a helicopter flew and drowned his words. And yet, Ali did not bother to repeat what he just said and was leaving when Ah Chong quickly agreed to the RM18,000 suggested earlier by Ali. In this particular moment, Ali rejected Ah Chong’s offer but according to Section 6(a) Contracts Act 1950-† by the communication of notice of revocation by the proposer to the other party†. It states that revocation os not effective until it is received, communicated. In fact, Ali himself reluctant to repeat what he said which is very important and vital in that situation. Here is one similar case, [4]Byrne v Van Tienhoven (1880) LR 5 CPD 344. In this case, Van Tienhoven offered to sell goods to Byrne by letter dated 1 October. On 8 October, prior to acceptance, Van Tienhoven posted a letter revoking the offer. This letter was received by Byrne on 20 October. In the meantime, on 11 October Byrne received the letter and dispatched an acceptance. Was there a contract? To be effective revocation must be communicated. Where post is used for acceptance, acceptance occurs when and where sent. However, this rule does not apply in relation to revocation of offers – thus, if post is used for revocation, communication is only effective if and when it is received by the offeree. As this occurred after acceptance there was a contract formed in this case. An offer was containing a price escalation clause. A counter offer was then made without this clause; it contained a detachable receipt which the company sent back with a notation that they assumed it was on their terms. Thus, the intended message was failed to be received by Ah Chong, the offer has not been revocated. There is a contract between Ali and Ah Chong in this scenario. Section 6(a) Contracts Act 1950 obviously stated revocation must be actually communicated to the offeree before the offer can be treated as effectively revoked. Besides, Section 4(1) Contracts Act 1950-† The communication of a proposal is complete when it comes to the knowledge of the person to whom it is made†. Importance of conveying message has been shown when either offering or revocating an offer. On the other hand, if the helicopter flying overhead had not drowned out Ali’s words and Ah Chong heard what was said, outcomes definitely would be different. As was mentioned earlier, if the intended message was communicated or received by Ah Chong, revocation of the offer will succeed. In conclusion, communication is very crucial when conducting contracts or offerings as the outcomes and consequences can differ easily.

Sexual discrimination in South Korea Research Paper

Sexual discrimination in South Korea - Research Paper Example Sexism also propagates in personal views as well as instances that have an impact in the existence of individuals of another sex. For instance, a person looking for work may encounter discriminatory appointing activities, or if employed, unequal treatment or compensation compared to workers who are of the opposite sex (Macionis and Linda 298). In addition, sexual harassment is also a form of sexism or sexual discrimination. In contrast, sexual harassment is a more emotionally impactive, expressive, and extreme form of sexism. In all the countries of the world, it is illegal to harass an individual because of the individual’s sex. Harassment can entail unwelcome sexual advances, physical or verbal harassment of a sexual form, sexual harassment, and requests for sexual favors. Nonetheless, sexual harassment can also comprise offensive statements about an individual’s sex. For instance, it is unlawful to harass a female member of the population by making unpleasant statements about females in general (MacKinnon 121). The harasser and the victim can be from either sex, or also, the harasser and the victim can be of identical sex. Although laws of different countries do not outlaw cases that are not extremely serious, offhand statements, or restrained teasing, harassment is unlawful when it is extremely severe or frequent that it establishes an offensive or hostile environment or, in an employment situation, when it results in an undesirable employment verdict, for example, the victim being demot ed or fired.

International Transport Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

International Transport Law - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that for anyone who is not familiar with the particularities of international transport law, it may appear strange that it is important to distinguish between the varied modes of transport and establishing laws or regulations. Â  In fact, the peculiarity presented by the contract of carriage is slightly overshadowed by specific legal regimes applicable only to some modes of transport. Similarly, the mandatory rules or regulations of liability have been restricted to matters relating to the carriage such as liability for damage or loss of the goods. It also concerns liability for delay in delivery of goods leaving out issues and matters of greater importance for the end users, such as shipment delay, the failure to perform contractual obligations as well as the right of remuneration for carriers. Conventionally, particular legal regimes, relevant to varied modes of transport, have resulted in some problems in the transport sector. While at the beginning clients would be contented to conclude a particular contract of carriage by ship, air, road, or rail, it is currently owing to the advancement of international carriage of goods, often inappropriate, whether one mode or usage of different modes to move the goods from point to another is used. Therefore, a client may be contented to conclude an agreement where there is an unspecified mode of transport. In this case, it has to be considered whether the contract will have to be carriage sui generis or international convention will have to apply.

Corporate Responsibility in Contemporary World of Industrialization - Essay

Corporate Responsibility in Contemporary World of Industrialization - Coca-Cola Case - Essay Example Developments in social sectors, strong check and balance system of media and public opinion also support in forcing the companies to look into their management, products and staff requirements properly. According to the ethics, it is not only the duty of management to look into the strategy and activities of the organization and eradicate all which can inflict any harm on society and environment, but also every staff member and employee is bound to perform the work of his part to run the company according to the prevailing social and environmental responsibilities. "The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs."   Coca-Cola is one of the most popular brands among all the world-class products and industries at large. Its name, brand, and logo are thought to be the sign of quality and trust. The company has made so many achievements during nearly quarter past century that it was not dependent on even an introduction anymore. It serves as a milestone in the history of modern public beverages and food industry that are popular among people belonging to all age-groups and socioeconomic classes alike. Coca-Cola was introduced in May 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia and in the beginning, the sale was less than its product. (Quoted in the coca-cola company.com). Presently, it is thought to be at the top in respect of sales among the soft drinks, mineral water, and food products of the globe. â€Å"The Coca-Cola experience†, Lin observes, â€Å"offers a fascinating example of the participation of an international business in local and global market development.The pace, accelerated by its preparations for possible accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), global business systems like Coca-Cola may help stimulate economic growth, employment, and tax revenue and reshape corporate responsibility subsequently.†

An issue affecting two or more countries Article

An issue affecting two or more countries - Article Example While CIA provided information from the satellites about abandoned soviet trucks and weapon depots for the Taliban, ISI transferred the information to the men on ground (Coll p. 291) making it possible for the Taliban to conquer Afghanistan with astonishing speed uniting the country for the benefit of Pakistan, United States and Saudi Arabia (Reeve p. 191). After the September 11 attacks, US invaded the Taliban controlled Afghanistan asking all countries to cut off Taliban support. Pakistan ordered the Taliban embassy to be closed in 2001, allied with the US and supported the invasion by providing its forward military bases. The hard war in Afghanistan followed up by a bloody insurgency caused US to lose unprecedented amount of war founds trying to control Afghan territory. Adding to the troubles were lack of understanding of terrain and psyche of the local people. The overwhelming force and technology, while allowed the US to have complete air superiority and highly reinforced milit ary bases in the region, could still not help them achieve actual victory and control over the territory outside their bases. The insurgency caused alot of contention between USA and Pakistan as allies and the US still ended up blaming Pakistan for supporting Afghan Taliban after calling it their top non-NATO ally. This paper compares and contrasts BBC reports and The Washington Post with respect to the US allegations and Pakistani denials. BBC reports Pakistan being accused of playing a double game by the US (Collyns). After interviewing a few prisoners, according to BBC, the US officials concluded that Pakistan was actively supporting Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan for a hidden agenda. This can be seen as a fallacy of composition created from a single point of view being viewed as the resulting aim of country’s net actions. Pakistani ISI has been a powerful element both in the country and in its defense against the enemy powers when it came to proxy wars. The BBC uses th e circumstantial prisoner witnesses to support the accusation by the US officials. While attributing repeated denials to Pakistan in two instances, the report suggests the US accusations overly weighed and further states them as a fact by presenting a BBC documentary to back up the accusations as facts. This strains the neutral point of view of the report which should be there in an international news article fully attributing views to their actual sources and not stating contentions opinions or conflicting truths as facts. Furthermore, in addition to the US accusations, the BBC report itself alleges that Pakistan has helped and harboured Afghan Taliban in its territory stating it as a ‘plain to see’ fact (Collyns). The Washington Post, on the other hand, also attributes accusations to the US and denials to Pakistan but keeps it to that (Leiby). The report can be contrasted with that of BBC’s in a clear cut way. As a clear contrast to the BBC report, this report presents quotations of US accusations in text with conflicting quotations of Pakistani denials making it more balanced and neutral in its point of view. The Washington Post report also uses the BBC report as a reference but puts it in a more neutral way without any presumptions. The BBC excerpts are quoted to tell the US side of the story while the Pakistani foreign minister is clearly attributed to have categorically put

Responsibility for Violation of the Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Responsibility for Violation of the Law - Essay Example George saw Arthur approaching and said to him ‘what are you doing here you nutter.’ Arthur was incensed by this and swung a punch at George which missed George and hit Tony in the face. Tony fell off the bridge and landed on the side of the river not moving. Arthur took out the knife and told George he was going to kill him and moved forward to stab him. George ran off into the path of a bus and was killed instantly. Arthur ran away from the scene and went to Larry’s house to deliver some heroin to him as he regularly supplied him. Larry asked Arthur to prepare a syringe with the heroin which Arthur then gave to Larry who injected himself. Larry immediately had convulsions after injecting himself and fell unconscious. Arthur thought Larry was dead and decided to set fire to the house in case he got the blame. After setting fire to it, he left the house and headed home. He passed the bridge where he had been earlier and saw Tony’s body by the side of the river as no one else had noticed it. He went down to the body and thinking Tony was dead, he pushed the body into the water as he did not want Tony to be found. Tony was in fact still alive and died as a result of drowning in the river. A neighbor of Larry’s noticed the smoke and called the fire brigade and Larry was found dead in the house.   It is likely that since Arthur was acting under the influence of drugs the defense counsel for Arthur would attempt to prove automatism in order to avoid Arthur being charged with murder.  Ã‚  

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Report - Essay Example This objective of mine was built out of Adam’s (2009) relation, which he built between customer satisfaction and customer retention stating that â€Å"There exists an interaction between the desired results and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention.† To the best of my knowledge, workers of a company should define their level of service satisfaction from the view point of customers since customers are the ultimate custodians of services and products from companies. ? How/if those Learning Objectives were accomplished My learning objectives were achieved mainly through the field works and small scale research projects that were organised. This is because these activities brought me closer to both workers of a given organisation and customers of the said organisation. Through the field research, I had the opportunity to interact with both the workers and customers to critically examine from them, factors they look out for to determine service satis faction. ... What I learn from the failure to meet that objective is that there could have been research that I could have done as an individual in terms of understanding the basic reasons why workers would not at all times but the needs of customers first. If indeed I had taken up extra research and part time learning to understand why this phenomenon exists, I would have been in an excellent position of impacting my knowledge and gained skills to the people my group and I went to have personal interaction with during the small scale research. I have therefore learnt to take extra studies and learning outside the time of the module more seriously. ? What else I learnt that was not in my initial objective In my initial objective, I was more particular about undertaking a critique of professional practice in a chosen field rather than concentrating more on my personal strengths and weaknesses and how these could help me become an overall good worker in my future employment positions. However, this module has helped in helping me identify more qualities about myself including my weaknesses, which I need to master to help me become a very good customer-centered employee in the nearest future. Currently, I have come to learn about some basic qualities that should be seen and put to work in me if I want to achieve my future employment aims. Some of these qualities include interpersonal relationship, team work and team spirit, working under pressure, working with very little supervision and taking up challenging tasks. ? Review of my original learning objectives in the light of new experience Reviewing my original learning objective in the light of my new experiences, I can say that I have been put in a better position to realising my

Traditional Media Outlets Essay Example for Free

Traditional Media Outlets Essay Introduction The presence of media as a tool of information dissemination has increased largely because of the technological innovations consistently being introduced not only in advancing the productivity rate of media organizations but also in expanding the capacity of the various media outlets to include a wider range of topics (Hudson, 1986). With this expansion, the subjects incorporated into the mass media has also been augmented (Graber, 1980) such that former topics that were once rarely untouched have now been constantly infused with unceasing publicity such as those that tackle Information and Communications Technology (ICT) . The changes made by mass media are evidently found on a series of notions due to consciousness, certain perceptions on reality and the palpable alterations of the masses’ individual lives concurrent on what had reconstituted by the mentioned technological change (Palmer Young, 2003).   Technological or digital innovation dwelled on to by human beings had been observed to have been conducting a protective bubble of fixed racial, cultural and ethnic identity resulting to a sense of detachment which lies on the physical state of the screen persona as well as with the transcends in the reality of social culture (Barker Petley, 2001). Analysis Such innovations which transcribed on media analysis in accordance with meeting customer or audience satisfaction on the lame side had been a crucial issue of competition as well as with the question of product or service advantage (Orlik, Anderson, Day, Patrick, 2007).   These media offers are considerably getting the â€Å"just† amount of credit for whatever level of service they are able to offer, thus, the viewing masses seem to be unaware of the whole gist of the surfing censure and is actually following the hoax of the concern.   What becomes evidently floating in the scene lately, are the so-called â€Å"alliance† of participating media advertisers and the respective network.    Examples of these ‘participating’ network providers which are sought to be the most persistently visited sites are Google, yahoo, and Amazon Online (Beckwith, 2003). The efficiency catered by these online information providers also power the divergence of other web pages which also serves as an upgrade in the websites’ name.   Ã‚  Consequently, the more surfers sweeping on their site, the more money they are able to generate.   Considerably, a mutual benefit from that of the web provider and the viewer are being fulfilled (Beckwith, 2003). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The exactness of the cost and the revenue generated by the aforementioned sites are but indefinite to be defined, for the reason that the scheme and the flow of the advertising differ dependently upon the ‘season’ or under the discretion of the contemporary society. It would seem quite hard to distinguish which of the sites are assumed to be the most significant or rather the one which is offering the best service for the majority (Beckwith, 2003).   Since that, those who are apt to surf actually depend on what they wish to find.   In addition to that, given the fact that each layer of the society hold different jobs or activity with diverse enthusiasm, it is evident that it is possible to shift sites which then give the argument abstain on conviction with regards to the matter (Seelye, 2005). References: Barker, M., Petley, J. (2001). Ill Effects: The Media/violence Debate. London: Taylor and Francis. Beckwith, S. L. (2003). Complete Publicity Plans: How to Create Publicity That Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement. New York: Adams Media Corporation. Graber, D. A. (1980). Mass Media and American Politics. Political Science Quarterly, 95(4), 701. Hudson, H. (1986). New Communications Technologies: Policy Issues for the Developing World. International Political Science Review, 7(3), 334. Orlik, y. P., Anderson, S., Day, L. A., Patrick, W. L. (2007). Exploring Electronic Media. New York: Blackwell Publishing Limited. Palmer, E., Young, B. M. (2003). The Faces of Televisual Media: Teaching, Violence, Selling to Children. Mahwah N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Seelye, B. K. Q. (2005). AP plans multimedia wire aimed at younger readers (Publication. Retrieved July 14, 2007, from The New York Times: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/14/business/ap.php

Production of Pure Lipases

Production of Pure Lipases Most Rhizopus lipases described in the literature are produced by their host cells in very small amounts, which is not suitable for large-scale industrial applications. Another drawback of working with native microorganisms is that Rhizopus sp. usually produces different isolipases with different biocatalytic properties, which complicates biocatalytic application with unwanted side effects caused by unrelated enzymes (67). Thus, in order to implement more industrial lipase applications, one of the most promising strategies is to produce heterologous lipases in a host microorganism which have the advantages to minimize the complexity of the bioprocess, to facilitate the more economic production of large quantities of pure lipases and to reduce costs (68). Rhizopus species was mainly divided into three groups, including R. oryzae, R. microsporus, R. stolonifer (69). Until now, the lipase genes from all these three groups have been cloned. Consistent with the proposal that many Rhizopus isolates are actually the same organism (69), nearly complete identities were observed in the lipase genes from the genus Rhizopus. In the R. oryzae group, lipases from R. niveus IFO 9759 (70) (71) (72), R. delemar ATCC34612 (73) (74) and R. javanicus (75) have identical amino acid sequences, and the lipases from R. oryzae ATCC 853 (76, 77) (78) and R. arrhizus L-03-R-1(79) differ by only several substitutions. The lipase from R. stolonifer (GenBank No. AAZ66864.1) and R. chinensis (GenBank No. ABN59381.2)(80) were of about 80% amino acid sequence identity to R. oryzae lipase (GenBank No. BAG16821.1) (Fig). Rhizopus lipases are synthesized as pre-pro-proteins composed of signal sequence, prosequence and mature lipase sequence (76) (80). The production of Rhizopus lipases has been performed in Escherichia coli [8], in Saccharomyces cerevisiae [9] and in Pichia pastoris [10,11]. Due to either different protein post-translational modifications affecting the glycosylation pattern of these lipases, or to proteolytic cleavage products arising from the mature, the pro- or the pre-pro-enzyme, the lipases derived from recombinant strains showed different molecular mass and different enzymatic properties compared with those from wild strains (75) (81). E. coli as host When E. coli was selected as a host, overexpression of R. oryzae prolipase (ProROL) and mature R. oryzae lipase (mROL) was achieved by using E. coli BL321, the heat-inducible vector pCYTEXP1 and the preOmpA sequence to achieve secretion into the periplasmic space (77) (76). Both fusion proteins induced by a temperature shift to 42  °C were correctly processed and translocated to the periplasmic space, but both mROL and ProROL accumulated as insoluble aggregates. Furthermore, the enzyme activity of mROL damages cells even at low concentrations, whereas the expression of active ProROL has no toxic effects on E. coli and the amount of purified active ProROL (103 U/mL) is larger than that of mROL by a factor of more than 100(77). By in vitro refolding of the insoluble form of mROL, its prosequence was supposed to support the refolding of mROL in vitro (77). R. delemar lipase was also expressed as inactive and insoluble forms in the cytoplasm of E. coli BL21(DE3) using plasmid vector pE T11d (74). In order to achieve soluble production in E. coli, Di Lorenzo et al. (82) used a reductase-deficient host strain, E. coli Origami(DE3), which greatly enhance disulfide bond formation in the E. coli cytoplasm, and pET-11d as expression systems, yielded correctly folded and active mROL and ProROL only in the cytoplasm fraction. Although the specific activities of mROL and ProROL are comparable, the yield of ProROL (166U/mL) was higher than that of mROL (82). S. cerevisiae as host In contrast to E. coli expression system, eukaryotic expression system (eg. P. pastoris, S. cerevisiae) has the advantage of secretion into the cell culture supernatant, avoiding cell disruption, and post-translational modifications, including glycosylation and disulfide bond formation. Takahashi et al. (78) reported the production of the active R. oryzae lipase (ROL) by S. cerevisiae. When the ProROL gene fused with S. cerevisiae ÃŽ ±-factor signal sequence was expressed in S. cerevisiae using UPR-ICL as a promoter, two forms of ROL, ProROL (46 kDa) and r28ROL (35 kDa) having 28 amino acids of the prosequence, were secreted into the culture medium, but the activity of mROL was not detected in both the medium and cells (78). The N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis revealed that the processed form r28ROL was cleaved by Kex2-like protease in S. cerevisiae at the recognition site KR in the prosequence (78). The independent production of two different molecular forms of ROL was succe ssfully obtained using Kex2-engineered strains of S. cerevisiae (83). The amounts of enzyme secreted were estimated as 78.8 mg/l broth for ProROL and 38.3 mg/l broth for r28ROL. These two forms of ROL exhibited distinct properties. ProROL were more thermostable than the processed lipase r28ROL (83), which was also observed in the case of R. niveus lipase expressed in S. cerevisiae (84). The expressed R. niveus lipase activity in the culture supernatant reached 1600 U/mL, a value equivalent to 0.2~0.3 g lipase protein per 1 liter of culture supernatant (72). The role of the prosequence of ROL was further analyzed in S. cerevisiae. When mROL was co-expressed in trans with the prosequence fused to the pre-alpha-factor leader sequence, the activity of mROL was recovered, suggested that the covalent linkage of the prosequence to the mROL was not necessary for the function (85) (86) . From the expression of the ROL mutants with deletions at the N-terminal end of the prosequence together w ith mROL in trans, the residues from 20 to 37 in the prosequence were essential for the secretion, and those from 38 to 57 were essential for the formation of the active ROL and might play a role as an intramolecular chaperone (86). Apart from extracellular expression, R. oryzae lipase was also successfully displayed on the cell surface of S. cerevisiae with a lipase activity of 350.6 U/L (87-89). P. pastoris as host On the contrary to S. cerevisiae expression system when the prolipase gene from R. arrhizus was expressed in P. pastoris, only the mature lipase attached with 28 amino acids of the carboxy-terminal part of the prosequence was secreted in the supernatant (Niu, Li et al. 2006). Prolipase with complete prosequence was nearly found in the supernatant which may be the result that the activity of Kex2-like protease was higher in P. pastoris than in S. cerevisiae (Niu, Li et al. 2006). Interestingly, expression of the prolipase gene from R. chinensis in P. pastors produced two forms of lipase, mature lipase attached with 27 amino acids of the prosequence (r27RCL) and mature lipase (mRCL) (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). At the early stage of fermentation, the recombinant P. pastors produced only r27RCL, which was gradually degraded into mRCL along with the fermentation, probably processed by serine proteases presented in the culture medium (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). For R. oryzae lipase, r28ROL was als o observed to convert to mature lipase gradually incubated at 0-6  °C for a few days (Sayari, Frikha et al. 2005, Hama, Tamalampudi et al. 2006). It has been reported that the prosequence from R. chinensis lipases was more efficient than that from ROL in the role of facilitating the folding and secretion of an active lipase (Yu, Sha et al. 2013). The activity of the chimeric lipase from R. oryzae by replacing the prosequence with that from R. chinensis reached 4050 U/mL, which was 11 fold higher than that of the parent expressed in P. pastoris (Yu, Sha et al. 2013). mROL activity expressed in S. cerevisiae was not detected (Ueda, Takahashi et al. 2002), whereas mROL was functionally expressed and secreted in P. pastoris (Beer, McCarthy et al. 1998) (Minning, Schmidt-Dannert et al. 1998). The expression of mROL was compared under different regulated promoters (Serrano 2002) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005) (Resina, Serrano et al. 2004), i.e. alcohol oxidase 1 promoter (PAOX), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (PGAP) and the formaldehyde dehydrogenase 1 promoter (PFLD1). Expression of the mature form of ROL under the constitutive PGAP promoter resulted in extremely low extracellular lipase levels (Serrano 2002). PAOX is highly induced during growth on methanol, but tightly repressed during growth of the yeast on most common carbon sources such as glucose, glycerol or ethanol, while PFLD1 allows the design of methanol-free culture strategies, being methylamine a less volatile and flammable inducer. Valero and co-authors (Resina, Cos et al. 2005) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005) successfully expressed mROL in P. pastoris under the PFLD1 promoter using methylamine as nitrogen and sorbitol as carbon source. The productivity under PFLD1 promoter are comparable to the classic PAOX system (Resina, Cos et al. 2005) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005). However, limitationsincurrent knowledgein the regulation of methylamine metabolism in P. pastoris limit thedesignof efficientfermentationstrategies using PFLD1 promoter. The presence of multiple integrated copies of a desired expression cassette has been reported to be an important factor in increasing foreign protein production in P. pastoris (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). The high-level expression of R. chinensis lipase was achieved by optimization of the lipase gene copy number in the host strain P. pastoris (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Among 1, 3, 5 and 6-copy strains, the maximum lipase activity reached 12,500 U/mL in 5-cope strain, which was 6.2-fold higher than that in 1-copy strain (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Maximizing gene copy number sometimes resulted in a decreased final productivity yield (Sha, Yu et al. 2013) or a negative effect on cell growth (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005), which indicated stress effects of Rhizopus lipases overexpression upon P. pastoris cells. Recent transcriptomic-based studies (Sha, Yu et al. 2013) (Resina, Bollok et al. 2007) strongly suggest that heterologous overexpression of Rhizopus lipases in P. pastoris indeed triggers the unfolded protein response (UPR). However, co-expression of certain chaperons could relief the cell stress caused by foreign protein overexpression. The productivity of R. chinensis lipase in P. pastoris was improved by co-expression with ERO1p and PDI (Kumar, Jahan et al. 2013) (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). These two chaperons are involved in the protein disulfide bond formation pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum, thus chaperon co-expression contribute to the relief of the protein overexpression stress in recombinant P. pastoris (Kumar, Jahan et al. 2013) (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Co-expression of unfolded protein response transcriptional factor (Hac1) resulted in about a 3-fold increase in the overall specific productivity of mROL in P. pastoris while the deletion of GAS1, required for the cell wall assembly, achieved 4-fold increase. And the double mutant HAC1/Δgas1 strain yielded about a 7-fold increase (Resina, Maurer et al. 2009). Novel genetic factors enhancing heterologous protei n secretion in P. pastoris have been identified on the basis of transcriptomic analyses (Gasser, Sauer et al. 2007), which give a new insight into engineering P. pastoris for heterologous expression of foreign proteins. Another factor that should be considered for expression optimization is the Mut phenotype. When single copy mROL was expressed in P. pastoris under control of PAOX, the Maximal lipase activity (205U/mL), the specific production rate (qp, 63 U/gbiomass/h ) and the yield of lipase activity per biomass unit (YP/X, 5775U/gbiomass) by Muts strain were 1.37-, 1.29- and 2.34-fold higher than those by Mut+ strain, while the productivity (2246 U/L/h) by Muts strain was 1.34-fold lower than that by Mut+ strain (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). For R. chinensis prolipase expressed in P. pastoris, Muts strain exibited 1.4-fold higher activity than that of Mut+ phenotype (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). Muts is not as sensitive as Mut+ to high transient methanol concentrations which make the bioprocess easier to control and enables scale up. However, Muts phenotype fermentation results in long induction times with low growth rates (Arnau, Casas et al. 2011). Different strategies have been implemented in the production of R. oryzae lipase under the PAOX promoter in P. pastoris Mut+ phenotype, eg. dissolved oxygen control (DO-stat), methanol limited fed-batch (MLFB, control of the substrate concentration close to zero), methanol non-limited fed-batch (MNLFB, maintenance of the substrate concentration at a constant value), as well as temperature limited fed-batch (TLFB). The MNLFB strategy for ROL expression led to 20–30 h reduction in the production time, a 11-fold higher final lipolytic activity, a 13.6-fold higher productivity and a 10.3-fold higher specific productivity compared to the DO-stat strategy (Minning, Serrano et al. 2001). After optimization of methanol concentration, the activity of Rhizopus chinensis lipase reached 2130 U/mL by maintaining methanol concentration at 1 g/L controlled by an on-line methanol analyzer (Wu, Yu et al. 2011). One of the main drawbacks of P. pastoris Mut+ phenotype is the high oxygen demand i n high cell density cultures using MNLFB strategy (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). A TLFB strategy was thereafter applied to solve oxygen transfer limitations (Surribas, Stahn et al. 2007). Barrigà ³n et al. (Manuel Barrigon, Luis Montesinos et al. 2013) compared MLFB and MNLFB strategies for the production of mROL expressed in P. pastoris. Yields, productivities and specific production rate in all MLFB conditions were very low. Best results were obtained by MNLFB strategy at methanol set-point of 3 g/L, under which condition maximum lipase activity, productivity and specific productivity reached 280 U/mL, 5406 U/L/h, 102 U/g/h, respectively (Manuel Barrigon, Luis Montesinos et al. 2013) . Due to low specific growth rate of Muts phenotype, strategies to use mixed carbon sources in the induction phase are applied to improve the expression levels of mROL and to increase the productivity of the bioprocess. Glycerol and sorbitol are both frequently used as co-substrates. When glycerol was used as co-substrate, one of the key advantages is its higher ÃŽ ¼ (0.18 h−1 versus 0.02 h−1) compared with sorbitol. However, when the relation ÃŽ ¼Gly per ÃŽ ¼MeOH was larger than 4, a significant decrease of YP/X, volumetric and specific productivity was observed due to the repression of glycerol (Arnau, Casas et al. 2011). The sorbitol as an excellent non-repressive carbon source avoids the severe decrease of the specific production rate and it permits to achieve higher mROL production (Arnau, Ramon et al. 2010) (Ramon, Ferrer et al. 2007). During the induction stage, the ammonium ion released into the fermentation broth has a deep impact on cell growth and protein expression. In our previous study, the impact of NH4+ concentration on the expression of the R. oryzae chimeric lipase in P. pastoris co-expressed with ERO1p and PDI was investigated (Yu, Lu et al. 2013). Analysis of carbon metabolism and energy regeneration pattern revealed that under the optimum NH4+ concentration of 440 mmol/L more carbon source (methanol) was consumed with surged AOX activity and then the higher energy and amino acid precursors demand for recombinant protein synthesis is compensated for by the TCA cycle. Under the optimum NH4+ concentration the lipase activity reached 12,019 U/mL, which was 1.7-fold higher than that without supplement of NH4+ (Yu, Lu et al. 2013). It was also useful for other recombinant protein expression in P. pastoris by addition of inorganic nitrogen source (Kobayashi, Kuwae et al. 2000) (Zhang, Wang et al. 2008) (Yan g and Zhou 2004).