Panopticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Panopticism - Essay Example Panopticon made discipline more economical and efficient compared to other forms of discipline and further represented power and control due to minimal human operations associated with it. No prisoner would realize that they were being watched from the tower (Foucault 195-200). The panopticon could be operated by anybody and would be used in very many places apart from prison cells. Key words; power, discipline, panopticon, disciplinary It is undeniable that the world would be a better claim when power and discipline is applied in effective gaining of control; this is because panopticon is used to represent discipline and power and further transformation of disciplinary techniques. Concept of panopticism is very evident in the current society where there is devolvement of power and administration services. For instance, a strict spatial partitioning and dividing the town into distinct quarters and every quarter governed by an intendant was the order of the day. Every street was put u nder control of a syndic who would keep it under strict surveillance in such a way that if he left the city he would be convicted to death. Everyone was ordered to stay within and the syndic would lock all the doors from outside before handing over keys to the intendant because no one was allowed to leave on death pain. Just like the panopticim, there are several divisions of administration put in place to reach the citizens at the grassroots level. A federal government for example, has some of its powers transferred to the states and even further in smaller divisions. There is one central power with several branches that everyone looks up to. Idea of plague has been used as a base of creating discipline just like other criminal acts such as terrorism in the current society. Disciplinary mechanism was introduced by the fear of the plague and this act as the origin of all the modern punishment. Visibility from the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon tower is used as a trap. It was pos sible to see every individual including a schoolboy or prisoner being incarcerated but the victims could not communicate with each other. Terrorism is considered as one of the major crimes in the current society and the government has therefore created some divisions such as Afghanistan as some of the hot spots. Sentences related to terrorism are very severe thus causing fear amongst the public. Communication sector is being manipulated just to ensure minimal terror by scrutinizing any form of communication or money transfers. Just like in panopticism, the crowd was put away from this and the tower brought a sense of visibility that represented a functioning authority. Power is believed to be visible though unverifiable as a prisoner would always see the tower but remains ignorant about where is watched or observed. Panopticism concept can be compared with the current Intelligence and correctional facilities used in testing behaviors and capturing criminals. Panopticon is grounded o n the royal zoo at Versailles as it allows to do the work of naturalist and also acts as a laboratory of power. It is laboratory of power because it provides a base in which prisoners and staffs are tested. It is also apparent that the plague afflicted town and the tower depicts change of disciplinary program. FBI has the responsibility of putting suspects on the radar and testing their behaviors or monitoring their behaviors before capturing them. this is a common activity carried out particularly while pursuing terrorists. Panopticism symbolizes the wider police force employed at various stations across the country to maintain law and order in the modern world.The tower

1- Studying Abroad, a Culture Shock. 2- Experience Of Traveling . 3- Essay

1- Studying Abroad, a Culture Shock. 2- Experience Of Traveling . 3- The Harmful of Air Pollution in Red Traffic Lights - Essay Example In his journal (article?), Dr. Kumar is trying to emphasize the importance of studying air pollution as a risk to human beings at the global level and convince the readers about the significance of this health risk at red traffic lights in particular. I think Dr. Prashant uses a good technique writing his paper, which includes pathos, logos, ethos, tons, purpose, and minds audience. And I am going to explain how he does that and where. Dr. Kumar first underlines huge impact of pollution for human health by stating that the World Health Organization has linked air pollution to â€Å"seven million premature deaths every year.† This technique consequently suggests that the paper and the science article are formal and professionally written to engage the readers’ attention. People around the world are not that curious to read about air pollution, however the fact of seven million premature deaths every year will make people want to know how to avoid that, as it made me. The author particularly uses the World Health Organization’s statement as a background information and support to emphasize the importance of his study on the air pollution. Also since Prashant Kumar is a Doctor from the University of Surrey, he got his master`s degree in Environmental Engineering and Management, which gave him more credibility or Ethos in readers’ eyes and made his arguments seem more valid to the audience. The reader is basically any person in our society who is concerned about their health but this article can relate more to the people who are more sensitive to air pollution like senior citizens, pregnant women and children. Pregnant women as an audience will be even more interested as Dr. Kumar emphasizes â€Å"seven million premature deaths every year.† In this way, the author may have been engaged in the emotions of the readers as well, so it can be said that there

Empire of the Wolves (2002) Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Empire of the Wolves (2002) - Term Paper Example This movie is based on a novel by Jean Christophe Grange and tells a story of young idealistic police captain Paul Nerteaux (Jocelyn Quirin) who has just taken over the case of three Turkish women seamstresses in Paris’ Turkish community. Paul decides to get help from retired cop Jean Louis Schiffer (Jean Reno), as he had patrolled the area for over 20 years but is known for his unorthodox methods.            The movie is an investigation about the murders of three women being subjected to an experiment. Though Paul tried to get with Schiffer about the crime he was torn between the judgments of the people about his collaboration on the retired cop who practice the unorthodox way of investigating the crime. Even the doctor in charge of the autopsy has given him warnings about the Schiffer.          The crime was projected in the movie is actually a crime about experimenting with human bodies for new treatment discoveries. It is a form of murder, which is a violation of the law and also a form of violation to medical, or bioethics. What’s so real about this movie is the implementation of the violation of bioethics. In Bioethics, humans should not be part of any technological or any experiments. Experiments should only be limited to a few forms of animals (like mice).   In real life, scientists are truly imprisoned and the license is taken from them if they practice experiments with humans just like in this movie where they use surgeries and implants. In real life, so far, there has been no news about scientists totally doing experiments on humans due to the imposed law about ethics. They are only practicing their findings limited to lab rats, sheep, and other animals. This media product though is not far from impossible to happen in the near future. I say it’s a little bit of advancement of science that violates the law. The investigation by the two cops was a mixture of the orthodox and unorthodox way of doing it. It happens, especially when the officers assigned in such cases are of different principles.

Final Exam on the Politics of the Developing Worlds Essay

Final Exam on the Politics of the Developing Worlds - Essay Example For example, South Africa is a country that has spent years paying the debts that had been borrowed to maintain the apartheid regime (Beaudet, Paul, and Jessica, 84). Another factor that has caused the Third World Debt Crisis is the mismanaged lending of the 1970s, where the oil-exporting countries had a lot of money during this period and they decided to bank such money in the western banks (Bairoch, 127). The Western countries in turn lend the money to the Third World countries for use in implementing major projects, but the loans were prone to increases in interest rates followed by the global recession that was experienced in the 1980s causing low commodity prices for the Third World countries. This in turn affected their ability to service the debts, thus the increased Third World Debt Crisis (Shah, n.p.). ... s, which forms the major exports for the Third World countries, where the export prices of the primary commodities increased by between 20-40% (Bairoch, 123). This meant a good trade period for the Third World countries, since they could manage to balance the imports with the exports, and in turn be left with some more funds which they could apply towards the repayment of the debts owed to the developed countries. However, in the period after the second world war, the terms of trade for the primary goods deteriorated, which meant that the export prices for the primary goods produced by the Third World countries dropped substantially, thus causing the costs of imports for those countries to be higher than the cost of their exports (Bairoch, 126). The consequence is that the balance of trade deficit increased for the countries, since they could not manage to cover the costs of the imports through the exports they made, and thus they had to seek for alternative ways of servicing the def icit, which eventually forced them to turn into borrowing. This has served to aggravate the debt crisis for the Third World countries even further (Shah, n.p.). The oil price rises of 1973 to 1979 had a devastating effect on the economies of the Third World countries. The oil-exporting countries hiked the prices of the oil they exported to other countries in 1973 (Bairoch, 133). The increased prices of the oil had two major effects on the development of the Third World countries, and the consequent increased debt crisis for the countries. First, when the oil prices for the oil were increased, it meant that the Third World countries had to pay more for importing the oil. This meant that the Third World countries would incur more debts, since they could not manage to cover the costs of the

Imperfect Punishments Essay Example for Free

Imperfect Punishments Essay Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dantes Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dantes treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno and Limbo seem to be backwards and these poor people are doomed to suffer misguided punishments. Therefore, despite Dantes best attempts to justly punish each sinner, he makes a few mistakes because he is not God and Dante is unable to unbiasedly judge each sinner. If you were to attempt a journey through Hell, the first unlucky hellions you would encounter are the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno. The residents of this not quite heaven, not quite hell domain were placed here because while living, they chose to neither side with God nor with the Devil. By choosing neither good nor evil, these people sinned because they never chose to live by a set of Christian ideals. The punishment for these sinners is to constantly chase a white flag. The color of the flag symbolizes the blank and empty life the sinners led because they did not choose to follow God. The sinners are also bitten by wasps because in real life, they were never forced into any type of moral decision, so in the Ante Inferno, the wasps sting them and force them to chase the white flag. While the ordeal these sinners face seems entirely appropriate, their physical location in hell, or lack there of, is what makes their punishment wrong. This becomes very obvious when the punishment fo r those in Limbo is considered. Limbo is the First Circle of Hell and it is the final resting place for the people who died before the birth of Christianity or who were never baptized. Notable figures like Moses and Noah are former residents of Limbo, until  Christ granted them a pardon. Virgil resides in Limbo and has been given a temporary leave of absence to guide Dante through Hell because Beatrice, Dantes former love who holds a high place in heaven, is worried that he is headed on the path towards Hell. Dante shows pity for those who are stuck in Limbo because as Virgil describes, Some lived before the Christian faith, so that They did not worship God aright and I Am one of these. Through this, no other fault, We are lost, afflicted only this one way: That having no hope, we live in longing(Canto IV 28-32). Dante is said to be seized with heartfelt grief (Canto IV 33) after hearing this, but no pity is supposed to be felt towards sinners who are receiving just punishments. But how just is it that people who never knew the word of Christ and had no knowledge of Heaven or Hell are sentenced to Hell? It is not a fair punishment to doom those unlucky enough to be born before Christianity to Hell when they were not given a fair chance to learn how to gain entrance to Heaven, especially when you consider that those living in the Ante Inferno were perfectly aware of God and knew the consequences of not living a Christian life. Knowing about God and simply ignoring him seems to be a worse crime than being born before Christ. Perhaps some of the residents of Limbo may have ended up in Hell had they know about Christianity, but some may not have. The people in Limbo were never given the choice to live a life with God, so their punishment and placement in Hell should be less severe than the people who ignored their chance to gain entrance to Heaven. If Limbo and the Ante Inferno could geographically switch positions, Dantes reasonsing and punishments for the two groups would make more sense. The sinners in the Ante Inferno experience what seems to be a greater punishment  than what one would face in Limbo. Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell yet they arent even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must face the fact that by thei r indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell. While Dante may have geographically misplaced these two groups of sinners, he did correctly punish most of the sinners in Hell. For example, the river of blood in which boils everyone / Whose violence hurt others (Canto XII 41-42) describes the perfect punishment for those who were violent while they were alive. The degree of the violence committed also factors into the punishment. Tyrants who slaughtered many people are completely covered in boiling blood, while those who were violent against only a few suffer with blood up to their torsos. This is the perfect punishment because violence is a crime of passion and causes bloodshed. It is appropriate for these sinners to be in boiling blood, which would have been similar to their blood, simmering with rage and passion, while they committed their sin. Being immersed in this disgusting pool of heated blood would be a terrible punishment and it is just that those who commit the crime of violence and murder should suffer this endless tor ment. In order to place the sinners in the appropriate levels of Hell, Dante relies on his personal experiences and opinions about the crimes committed. The little bit that we know about Dante and his life, we learn through the opening scenes of the epic and conversations he has with spirits in Hell. The epic opens with Dante, In dark woods, the right road lost (Canto I 2). This shows the Dante is neither a devout Christian, nor is he a sinner. At his place in his life, being neither good nor bad, Dante would most likely be sentenced to life in the Ante Inferno. Throughout the epic, Dante likens  himself to Virgil, but at the same time appears to know that his work is not quite as good as Virgils. Perhaps by placing himself and the Ante Inferno in a level of Hell less severe than Limbo, Dante may still not be as good of a poet, but he is able to represent himself as a better person morally. This may not seem just to me, but to Dante this is a perfectly reasonable punishment. Dante feels the need to be superior to Virgil and since he was not able to accomplish this in life, he supercedes Virgil in the afterlife. It is also evident that Dante has a personal bias towards those who commit the sin of violence. While venturing through their circle of Hell, Dante says there in that crowd / Were many I recognized (Canto XII 114-115). He mentions that Alexander resides there and that he held Sicily under / For many a sad year (Canto XII 100-101). Dante may have placed such a harsh, yet still just, punishment on the Violent because he is avenging his country and people for the violent crimes committed against them. Alexander was responsible for an innumerable amount of Italian lives during his occupancy of Sicily and Dante is making sure that he is correctly punished for his sins. In life, Dante was unable to stop Alexander from committing his atrocities, but he is able to condemn him in Hell. Had Dante and his country not experienced the terrors of a tyrant, it is possible that without his need for revenge, Dante may have awarded the Violent a lesser punishment. Our personal experiences and feelings are what make us human, but yet they also lead us to biases, which prevent us from being as fair and just as God. It is obvious that those in Limbo who were never given a chance to have their soul saved by Christ should not be doomed eternally to a lower level of Hell than those in Ante Inferno who ignored the chance to save their soul. Yet Dante misplaces these two domains of Hell to put himself in a level nearer to Heaven than Dante will ever be able to acheive. While Virgils literary abilities will always be remembered as better pieces of work, by making Virgil his guide to salvation, Dante will reach Heaven, the ultimate goal of a Christian, while Virgil never will. The punishment of the Violent is a strong statement against those who have brought bloodshed to Italy and reflects Dantes hope for peace in Italy. Dante shows that while these sinners may have dominated the lives of others on Earth, that in hell  the Violent are completely overwhelmed by the blood that they created. Despite Dantes good intentions of creating a Hell where the punishment fits the crime, his opinions cloud his judgement. He uses Hell as a way to punish or degrade those whom he had some sort of a conflict with while alive. It is obvious that I do not agree with all of his ideas about Hell, but then again I am also not a fourteenth century Italian male. A just hell is different for everyone, depending on your own beliefs or lack of beliefs. The only universally just Hell that can be experienced is a Hell of Gods making and hopefully I will never know how his punishments compare to Dantes.

Nature Vs Nurture Twins Studies Psychology Essay

Nature Vs Nurture Twins Studies Psychology Essay This question will simply not disappear. And by no surprise in reality, it asks whether humans are free to behave as they want or whether their actions are encoded in them. In its modern nature, this controversial debate is based on terms of molecular genetics. Is the way we behave depended on gene structure, or is every human formed by his or her environment? (Trefil, 1996, para. 1) Throughout the middle term of the century, Americans religiously put faith in the second of these options. Human beings, we believed, were infinitely improvable, and if people behaved in a bad way, it was because of the environment they were surrounded by. We believed we could fix the environment and could make perfect human beings. On the contrary, evidence proved to be misguided strongly, heretically weak (Trefil, 1996, para. 2). However, times are different now. We have realized that many diseases are backtracked to our DNA, so we have also come to partially understand that genes play an important but not totally exclusive role in finding out our behavior. The proof that altered the perspective of the behavioral-science mainstream came in many shapes. Long studies of animals, rats, and fruit flies proved strong genetic connections on behaviors such as learning and reproduction. More precisely, the large archives of long and thorough studies of twins can show us the significance of genetic factors in mental disorders and a different variety of behavioral traits from the random interests of adolescents to general cognitive ability. These kinds of studies typically observe either identical twin, which share the same kind of DNA, especially identical twins separated and raised in environments different from one another, or at fraternal twins, who share different DNA but were raised in very similar environments (Trefil, 1996, para. 3). We need ask ourselves, what are the differences when it comes in terms of physical, cognitive, social-emotional; and the human developmental stages? B ut before we begin looking at does differences lets get to know a little more about twins and twin studies. Twin studies are a way that scientist and researchers use to study humans when it comes to figuring out what influences and individual the most; is it their genetics or their environment. Twins studies were first performed in 1876 by an English anthropologist Francis Galton (The Library Index, 2010). Francis Galton performed the twins study because he wanted to investigate the extent to which the similarities of twin changes during their developmental process (The Library Index, 2010). Galton like us was also interested in finding out what was more influential in an individuals life their genetics or the environment. A twin study is when the researcher takes both identical twins and fraternal twins and tries to compare and contrast information from both pairs of individuals by running test or just simply by observing the individuals. Identical twins happens about one-third of all births and it is when one ova or egg is fertilized by one sperm (Pekkanen). After the ova and the sperm fertilized the zygote divides and form two different embryos. Identical twins are always the same gender and also they share a hundred percent their genetic makeup. Fraternal twins on the other hand occur when two sperms fertilize two different ova or eggs at the same time. So what happens is that two different zygotes are formed and therefore two embryos are formed (Pekkanen). Fraternal twins share fifty percent of their genes and they can be the same gender or opposite genders; moreover, they are genetically similar to regular siblings (Pekkanen). Why are twins studies so useful when it comes to study the effects of nature and nurture? Twins especially identical twins are the closes we can get to a natural clone of an individual. Because identical twins share the a hundred percent of their genes it is easier to tell whether nurture plays a big or a small role in an individuals life. Fraternal twins are also good to study the effects of nature versus nurture because fraternal twins only share fifty percent of their genes so if any changes occur for example in the same environment then that lets us as researchers know whether nature plays a big role or a little role in an individuals life. Now that we have gotten enough information about nature and nurture as well as twin studies, we can start exploring how researcher have develop all the different theories on what really is that helps shape an individual. Is it nature or is it nurture? Physical Development Our book states that physical development is related to how the brain and the nervous system develops as well behavior development. Also in the physical development it is included the muscles, sensory capabilities and the need for food or a drink. Many factors help shape the physical development in an individual. The genes on an individual are the base line for physical development and then the environment helps shape the person according to what the person allows to come in from the environment. As we know identical twins have the same genes; however, many studies show that identical twins are not physically or behaviorally identical to one another. A lot of factors can help make changes, for example, if the twins do not have the same diets and nutrition then they are more likely to have different heights and even weights (Nature vs. nurture, 2010). Also when identical twins start to grow up they find ways to make themselves different from the other twin. They find ways like cutting their hair differently, wearing different clothing styles, having different friends and like different social activities (Nature vs. nurture, 2010). As for fraternal twins they only share half of their genes, but they also find ways to make sure that they are different from each other. Everyone wants to be an individual and twins are just like everyone else they want to find ways to be individuals and the environment helps with those decision. Cognitive Development Cognitive is related to the thought process and knowledge. When studying the cognitive process of humans many scientist use twin studies to get their results. Since identical twins are the closest the scientist can get to a clone of an individual because they have the same genes; the scientists can study how the environment shapes their intelligence. Also scientists use fraternal twins because they only share half of their genes, so they are just like regular siblings scientists can examine whether their genes shape their intelligence. Cognitive studies have been done for many years. One of the first scientists to study the role of genes in intelligences was Francis Galton (Bryner, 2006). Galtons theory is that parents transfer intelligence to their children. However, now days many scientists believe that genes and the environment work together to help cognitive development on every individual (Plomin, DeFries, 1998). Amy Wax on her article mentions that genes and parents do not just influence their childrens mental abilities, but rather that home environment, culture and peer influence also has an influence in their mental ability. Many scientists do agree with Amy Wax on how genes and environments work together on developing mental ability. However, it is believed that most of the influence does come from genetics and from the interaction with direct family members (Genetics and the,2010). Todays scientists use the IQ testing method to test an individuals intelligence. The IQ test measures an individuals ability to reason and to solve problems (Genetics and the, 2010). The IQ test has different versions of the test that measure different types of intelligence by using reading, comprehensive and mathematical problems. When comparing the results of family members the results are closer together than the scores of random people. Social Emotional Development There are significant discoveries that were made using different research methods to find social and emotional differences in twins. Political and social attitudes, ranging from divorce to the death penalty, were found to have a strong genetic influence in one Australian study. A Swedish study found genes significantly influenced two of the so-called big five personality traitsopenness to experience and conscientiousnesswhile environment had little impact. In contrast, environment influenced agreeableness more than genes did. (The two other traits are neuroticism and extroversion.) Another study, at the University of Texas at Austin, found that personality in identical twins correlated 50 percent and in fraternal twins about 25 percent (Neimark, Cochran, Dossey, 1997). Twins tend to start dating, to marry, and to start having children at about the same time. David Lykken, Ph.D., and Matthew McGue, Ph.D., at the University of Minnesota, found that if an identical twin had divorced, there was a 45 percent chance the other had also. For fraternals, the chance was 30 percent. The researchers think this is due to inherited personality traits. Both optimism and pessimism are heavily influenced by genes, but shared environment influences only optimism, not pessimism, according to a study of 522 pairs of middle-aged identical and fraternal twins. Family life and genes can be equal contributors to an optimistic outlook, which influences both mental and physical health, but pessimism seems largely controlled by genes (Neimark, Cochran, Dossey, 1997). Human Development Stages The first stage of human development is the prenatal stage. When we are talking about the prenatal stage it includes conception to birth. The prenatal stage of development begins once the egg has been fertilized. This happens when the mans sperm is released and meets an egg which then begins the fertilization, when the egg and sperm meet this is known as a zygote. This is the first stage of pregnancy. According to the text Child Development by Robert Feldman twins can also develop at this stage. For twins to occur there has to be a split off of the ovum within the first two weeks of fertilization. If the split off occurs the text states that there are two different types of twins that can occur; the first one is called monozygotic twins. Monozygotic refers to the twins be genetically identical. The second type that could occur if there is a split off is dizygotic twins. Dizygotic twins occur when there is two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm. Once the zygote is form ed, whether it is single or multiple, it will then implant itself into the womens uterus. A placenta will then develop to support the embryo. The term embryo is referred to as the second stage of pregnancy when referring to the baby. The placenta will be the necessary nutrients to the embryo. Then an umbilical cord will form which will be another source for the embryo to get nutrients. The Embryo stage will last from 3 weeks to 8 weeks of pregnancy. The next stage is considered the fetus stage. This stage is from 8 weeks to birth. The second stage of human development is infancy. The infant stage is from the age of one month to one year, although there are variations of definition from the age of one month to the age of three years. To be specific a new born is considered from minutes old to the age of one month. During the infant stage the infant will go through several developmental milestones. According to Child Development text a chart lists some of the stages. It will begin with at approximately three months old the infant should start to roll over, then progress to rolling over. At the age of five months the infant should begin to sit up without needed support, the progress to standing with holding on to something. Next the child should be able to being grasping items using thumbs and fingers, followed by standing alone by about eleven months. Once the infant has mastered standing alone the next stage would be walking around twelve months. The child will progress to grow and develop many gross and motor skills as they develop. (Feldman 130) One thing that many especially parents love about the infancy age would perhaps be watching their personalities develop. During this stage the nature vs. nurture will certainly be scrutinized. Lets say we have identical twins; if one twin is outgoing and always going for the top that he wants while his twin just sits back and kinds just lets things happen around them, the parents might talk about how one has the personality of the mother, while the has the personality of the father. They might also consider a nurture trait while watching their twins play to be something that was learned perhaps by disciplining. If the father is more strict than the mother so when the father is around the children are a little more apprehensive to play freely just out of fear that they might get in trouble by their father; whereas the mother is more loving and allow the twins to explore more and develop more of their personality freely. This could be argued to be a nurture trait between the twins that will vary based on the emotions that they are feeling. Natures vs. Nurture run very close together, but are very distinctive. It is fun to watch and try to distinguish between the two and see who has which traits especially when you have twins. There are several studies such as the Twice the Talent article that have examples of how nurture vs. nature and the process of the human growth and development are all tied into one story. Its all around us every day. Early Childhood development most commonly refers to the time between birth and schooling, at approximately age 3. Many people in the field agree that this developmental period is the most critical and the most liable in any childs development. There has been a lot of research as to whether a childs environment (nurture) or a childs genetics (nature) are most affecting. My preliminary hypothesis is that there is a balance between the two, although it is not half and half. During this time period many amazing milestones are reached. Although according to studies, when it comes to those wonderful milestones of physical development, normal is a relative term, meaning every child accomplishes things at an individualized pace within a very clear time frame. Development includes everything from physical development, where the child starts out unable to roll over and proceeds to crawling, walking and running, to mental development where the child goes from barely expressing more than a few e motions, to speaking complete sentences and telling stories, to brain development specifically. Studies agrees saying, all periods of brain development probably begin within the first years of life. Every child goes through many phases in a comparatively short amount of time. There is a sizable amount of debate as to what is influential to early childhood development. Some people, particularly geneticists, say that nature plays the most important role. These people believe that children inherit a lot of their looks, personality, and skills from their parents and the children will, essentially, turn out to be a combination of their parents. Others say that nurture is the most important. They believe that a parent can control the type of person their child will become by different parenting techniques, interactions and home environments. There is, as in any debate, a middle ground that a lot of people think is how development works, and there is evidence that this may also be accurate . Nature is a quite specific term. It refers to genetic material that controls ones appearance, temperaments, and abilities. These are a preset list that cannot be altered and is inherited from both of the parents. This can include things such as height, eye color, ability to read or learn a language, temper or patience and many, many more. Some of these things such as temper are debated as to whether or not they are part of your internal nature, which makes nature versus nurture an even more complicated debate. One of the earliest signs of genes showing through is the first emotions. Only minutes after being born, babies in the nursery will feel sympathy and empathy for each other and when one starts to cry, others start to cry too They are not taught to do this, its just natural, they barely have had contact with adults. Emotions are essentially pre-programmed (Gable). Everyone is born with the genetic ability to express emotions of a big variety from joy to rage to fear, but they ha ve to be in a situation that brings them out. For example, a baby will not experience rage often. It would probably occur later on in life when the child is older and he or she gets in an argument. Brain and physical development are also essentially pre-programmed. There is a specific pattern that the various parts develop in, which is related to each other exactly. The length of time it takes to go through each developmental phase does vary from child to child but that time amount is often genetically fixed, varying on a week or more scale, depending on the phase. Physical development, which is more influenced by nature than nurture compared to mental development, basically moves from head to toe. First the head and neck gain control so the baby will raise its head while lying on its back. Language is another of the many things affected by nature. Before a baby is even an hour or so old it will recognize his native language and respond differently to that versus other. Babies also have the ability to hear, and thus learn, all the various sounds in any language but unless this is practiced and regularly heard they will lose the ability within the first year in life. An example of this would be a study done on Chinese babies. Babies of various ages and language exposure were tested to see whether they could tell the difference between an r and an l sound which Chinese adults have difficulty with. Babies with regular exposure to English and babies under age one could distinguish one from the other but other older babies had problems. The reason this is significant is that it shows humans are born with the ability to understand a great range of language even if it is not one that will be used and it is a part of your nature, when previously it was thought that all language skills must be taught. Now, Nurture abides of many things. It is the environment the child is raised in, including parenting, early schooling, the home, eating habits, interactions with people and many other things, but excluding genetics. As Sarah Gable says, The way a parent nurtures a baby has a profound effect on how the child develops. Stimulation is a very important part of brain development, which consists of anything that causes the brain to be used, through any of the senses. Without the stimulation the brain has no opportunity to develop, and because the human brain triples in size from one quarter to three quarters its adult size within the first year, its very important that this occurs early in life. Stimulation doesnt have to be anything as complex as piano lessons or vocabulary flashcards though. It can be as simple as hanging a mobile over the crib to give the child something to visually focus on. Vision is a particularly good sense to work on improving, as babies only truly see light, shad ow, and some colors for the first couple of months. By age two the baby usually has 20/60 vision, which continues to sharpen to about 20/25 by age six(Gable). Other stimulation can be anything from playing with new toys to regularly talking to the baby and pointing out people, objects, and other things as you talk about them. This will help the baby learn to make affiliations between speech and objects, which is how they learn the words for things, and also get the first interactions that are important. Gable says, it is also great to expose babies to new places and people, even if it going next door to your friends house with you. The way almost all studies are done with babies most often involve giving a baby a pacifier with instruments inside that can measure how fast and hard they are sucking on it. After the baby is given the pacifier various sounds are played or images are shown and the reactions are observed and recorded. Faster and stronger sucking on the pacifiers occurs wh en the baby is more attentive or astounded. As mentioned before, some of the arguments help both sides of the debate. For instance, although emotions and their reactions are pre-programmed, the situations that bring them out would be categorized as nurture which leads me to believe that nurture may be a bit more important. Also, with the topic of language, the idea that after a year babies start to lose the ability to hear the other phonetic sounds outside of their own native language means that without the regular exposure (nurture) they lose this. Its got to be nature because they are born with the ability, but its nurture because without use they lose it. As twins begin their adolescent years they seek out to establish their own unique qualities. While one teen may be interested in sports the other may be interested in music or art. There has not been a 100% guarantee that those interests have been linked to their genetic makeup or environmental factors. Although behavioral scientists have determined that genes play a role in personality development they havent yet determined how the genes interact in a particular personality trait. There is no gene for music or sports, so with that said environment must play an equal role. As teens begin to explore new friendships, they tend to seek out friends that are somewhat like themselves. One of the twins may be very shy and the other more outgoing. Choosing friends seems to be more on the environmental side of the scale. Some scientists have also believed that genetics contribute to most behavior attitudes but studies still have not shown certain proof. Being around twins, it may seem believa ble that their likes and dislikes can be related to their surroundings. On the other hand, when they are apart, sometimes they do some of the same things without even knowing which may be a part of the gene factor. It seems to be evident that both genetic and environmental factors play an equal part in our twin studies. As scientists continue to study those factors maybe they will come to a conclusion as to which factor is greater. In conclusion, almost everyone in any related field has an opinion as to which is truly more important, nature or nurture. The director of a group called the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, Thomas Bouchard, believes that 70 percent of a persons personality is genetic and 30 percent is due to environment. The director of the Louisville Twin Study, Adam Matheny, however, says it is 50-50. Although in our opinion is that, both nature and nurture are very important. As we have mentioned before, both of the two are affecting to language development and as well as emotions. A lot of physical development is pre-programmed to accompany with brain development and is brought about through nature. Nurture, such as stimulation, is also necessary for the brain to develop though. Even the cases of identical twins are not a perfect example of nature working its secret. If some of the ties happen to be coincidence and some happen to be based on doubtful knowledge of their past, the entire ide a seems less dependable. For example, the fact that the Easterling twins both named their sons James Allen or James Alan is simply naming the child after themselves, and then it might be Allen/Alan because they were told that their birth father was named Alan. The only way we could know for sure is to know more about the connection of all the things that are the same between them both. Since we dont know any context we can only take it as the doubtful information it is. Based on all my given information, I believe that nurture is more important than nature, at a balance of approximately 70 percent of early childhood development being influenced by a persons environment and 30 percent being influenced by genetics. The two are so tied together that you cannot ever fully divide one idea from another.

Concept of Randomness in Statistics

Concept of Randomness in Statistics Part I Introduction Introduction on Freshman Seminar Freshman seminar 1205M offers great opportunities for students to work intimately with professors from the Science faculty on various areas of mathematics. The seminar was targeted to encourage us to open our minds to creative ideas and develop curiosity of influential mathematical theories and various subgroups of contemporary mathematics. In addition to exposure to selected subtopics in contemporary mathematics, we had valuable opportunities to develop our presentation and academic essay writing skills. 1.2 Important roles of Analogy and Intuition The historical development of mathematics is significantly influenced by intuition acquired from real life experience and analogy quoted from various other areas (Harrison Treagust, 1993). Analogy is an extraordinary method in developing new concepts in the history of science. In this module, famous topics in the contemporary mathematics, including geometry, number theory, set theory, randomness and game theory have been discussed. Among all topics, our team worked on Analogy and Intuition of Randomness. In this seminar, various creative analogy ideas and intuition/counter-intuition thinking have been presented based on specific cases in modern mathematics. 1.3 Method on Research and Presentation Our team collected relevant source materials on the randomness, including books, journals, and websites on the Internet. As for presenting applications of randomness, in particular, we focused on the historical development of randomness theory, the simplified key concepts in randomness, the counter-intuitive stories happened, overlapping with other fields in nature, and some significant and influential applications of randomness theory in our daily life. We omitted complicated theories, technical formulas and rigorous proofs. Throughout the whole semester, our team has conducted two informal presentations on randomness. In order to illustrate randomness clearly and intuitively, we adopted various methods: problem solving, in-class quizzes, presentations and attractive stories. Subtopics included: Biology, quantum physics, finance, audio engineering, statistics and so on. Part II Report on Randomness 2.1 Randomness on Communication Theory 2.1.1 Introduction of Noise in Communication Theory In statistics, irrelevant or meaningless data is considered noise (random error). Whereas in communication theory, random disturbance in a signal is called noise. In essence, noise consists of a large number of disturbances with a statistically randomized time distribution. It is assumed that noise signals have power spectral density that is proportional to 1/f^ÃŽ ², where f stands for frequencies of noise. For example, the spectral density of white noise is ÃŽ ² = 0, while pink noise has ÃŽ ² = 1. This special character is widely used for distinguishing among colors of noise. 2.1.2 Laws and Criterions Used to Distinguish Colors and Characteristics of Noise The color names for noise are derived from an analogy between the spectrum of noise and the equivalent spectrum of lights with different visible colors. For instance, if we translate the sound wave of white noise into light waves, the resulting light will be viewed as white color. In electronics, physics, and many other areas, the color of a noise signal is usually understood as some characteristics of its power spectrum. As different colors of noise have significantly different properties. Therefore, each kind of noise requires a specific color to match with it. Start with the most well-known one: White noise, people name different noise after colors. This is in analogy with white color light, which has a flat spectrum of power on its frequency range. Other colors, such as violet, blue, red, pink, are then given to different noises with extremely similar spectrum characteristics. Although most of them have standardized noise patterns with specific disciplines, there are also plenty of noise spectrums with imprecise and informal definitions, like black noise, green noise, brown noise and so on. These below parts were summarized from Wikipedia terms: Noise (electronics) Sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_%28electronics%29 2.1.3 Inner Sources of Noise Thermal noise is generated from the random thermal motion of charges (usually electrons) inside electrical conductors. The amplitude of the signal has a probability density function similar to the Gaussian (Normal) distribution. The amplitude of thermal noise depends on the temperature of the circuit. Shot noise results from unavoidable random fluctuations when the charges (such as electrons) jump over a gap inside the electric circuits. It sounds rather similar to the noise created by rain falling on a tin roof. Flicker noise has a frequency spectrum that falls down into the higher frequencies areas steadily. Burst noise consists of sudden step-like transitions between two or more levels at random and unpredictable times. It sounds like eating popcorn. 2.1.4 Outer sources of Noise Atmospheric noise is the natural disturbance caused by electricity discharges in thunderstorm and other natural disturbances occurring in nature, like disruptions of high-voltage wires. Industrial noises are produced by automobiles, aircrafts and so on. The disturbances are produced by the discharge processes in these operations as well, which is similar to the atmospheric noise. Extraterrestrial noises come from the universe. These noises include: Solar Noise, which is a radiation from the sun due to its intense nuclear reactions and the consequent high temperature, and Cosmic Noise, which are able to transmit its radiation and cosmic rays to almost everywhere. 2.1.5 Classification of Different Colors of Noise This part was adapted and summarized from an online introductory article: â€Å"White, pink, blue and violet: The colors of noise† from the Wired Magazine Science Column, Author: Duncan Geere, Date: Apr. 07, 2011 White noise White noise has a constant power distribution density on its spectrum. It is named after the white color light, which has a flatten frequency everywhere on the spectrum. The term is widely applied in many scientific and technical areas, including physics, audio engineering, telecommunications, statistical forecasting and many other areas. Specifically, White noise is used as a generator for random numbers. In addition, weather forecasting websites also use white noise to generate random digit patterns and simulate real weather.   Pink noise The power density of pink noise decreases proportionally to 1/f. In the past, the term of flicker noise sometimes refers to pink noise, but it will be more appropriate if we strictly apply it only to electronic circuits. Moreover, Pink noise is also used in analysis of meteorological data and output radiation power of some astronomical bodies. Brown noise According to the precise definition, the term Brown noise refers to a noise whose power density decreases inversely proportional to f^2. The density function can be generated from integrating white noise or via an algorithm of Brownian motion simulation. Brown noise is not named after the color brown spectrum, which is distinct from other noises. It can be used in climatology to describe climate shifts. However, within the scientific community, scientists have been arguing about its value for such purposes for a long time.   Blue noise The power density of Blue noise is proportional to frequency. Blue noise has an increasing frequency over a finite frequency range. Blue noise is similar to pink noise, but instead of a decreasing spectrum, we observe an increasing one. Sometimes it is mixed up with Violet noise in informal discussion. Violet noise Violet noise is also known as the Purple noise. The power density of Violet noise is proportional to f^2, which means it increases in quadratic form. Violet noise is like another version of Brownian noise. Moreover, as Violet noise is the result of differentiating the white noise signal density, so people also call it the â€Å"Differentiated White noise†. Grey noise Grey noise is a special kind of white noise process with characteristic equal loudness curve. However, it has a higher power density at both ends of the frequency spectrum but very little power near the center. Apparently, this is different from the standard white noise which is equal loud across its power density. However, actually this phenomenon is due to the humans hearing illusion. 2.2 Randomness on Finance 2.2.1 Brief Introduction to Efficient Market Hypothesis This part was summarized based on an online informal introductory article: â€Å"The Efficient Markets Hypothesis†, Authors: Jonathan Clarks, Tomas Jandik, Gershon Mandelker, Website: www.e-m-h.org In financial fields, the efficient-market hypothesis asserts that stock market prices will evolve with respect to to a random walk. They have the same probability distribution and independent of each other. Random walk states that stocks take a random and unpredictable path. The probability of a stocks future price going up is equal to going down. Therefore, the past movement (or trend) of a specific stock price or the overall market performance cannot be used as the basis to predict future movements. In addition, it is impossible to outperform the entire market without taking additional risk or putting extra efforts. However, EMH proves that a long-term buy-and-hold strategy is the most efficient, because long term prices will approximately reflect performance of the company very well, whereas short term movements in prices can be only described as a random walk. 2.2.2 Historical Backgrounds of Efficient Market Hypothesis This part was summarized based on an online nonprofit educational website: www.e-m-h.org and a research paper: History of the Efficient Market Hypothesis, Nov.2004, Author: Martin, Sewell, Publisher: University College London. Historically, the randomness of stock market prices was firstly modelled by a French broker, Jules Regnault, in 1863. Shortly after, a French mathematician, Louis Bachelier, developed the mathematics of Brownian motion in 1900. In 1923, the famous economist, Keynes clearly stated that investors in financial markets would be rewarded not for knowing better than other participants in the market, but rather for risk taking. After the WWII, the efficient-market hypothesis emerged as an outstanding theory in the mid-1960s. In the 1960s, Mandelbrot proposed a randomness model for stock pricing. Fama discussed about Mandelbrot’s hypothesis and concluded that the market data confirmed his model. In addition, he defined the so-called â€Å"efficient market† for the first time, in his paper â€Å"Random Walks in Stock Market Prices†. He explained how random walks in stock market significantly influence individual stock prices. Later, he introduced definitions for three forms of financial market efficiency: weak, semi-strong and strong. The term was eventually popularized when Burton Malkiel, a Professor of Economics at Princeton University, published his classic and prominent book: â€Å"A Random Walk Down Wall Street.† 2.2.3 Three Major Types of Markets: Weak, Semi-Strong and Strong The three types of EMH were summarized based on an online technical blog: â€Å"The Efficient Markets Hypothesis†, Author: Jodi Beggs, Website: About.com   Weak Form of Efficiency We cannot predict future prices through analyzing prices from the past. And we cannot earn excessive returns by using information based on historical data. In this level, technical analysis is always profitable, as share prices exhibit no dependencies on their past. This implies that future prices depend entirely on performance of companies. Semi-Strong Form of Efficiency Information other than market data is released, such as instant news, companies’ management, financial accounting reports, companies’ latest products. Under such condition, share prices will reflect the new information very rapidly. Therefore, investors cannot gain any excess returns by trading on the public information. Semi-strong-form efficiency market implies that neither technical analysis nor fundamental analysis can produce excess returns. Strong Form of Efficiency   Under such condition, information typically held by corporate insiders is released. Therefore, share prices reflect not only previously public information, but all private information as well. Theoretically, no one can earn excess returns. However, even before major changes are exposed to the public, corporate insiders are able to trade their company’s stocks from abnormal profits. Fortunately, such insider trading is banned by surveillance authorities, like the Securities and Exchange Commission. 2.2.4 Arguments and Critics on Efficiency Market Hypothesis However, critics blame that the theory’s applications in markets results in financial crisis. In response, proponents of the hypothesis state that the theory is only a simplification model of the world, which means that it may not always hold true under every conditions. Hence, the market is only practically efficient for merely investment purposes in the real world rather than other aims. 2.2.5 Interesting Counter-intuitive Stories on Monkeys   The story was adapted from the Forbes Magazine, Personal Finance Column, Author: Rick Ferri, Date: Dec, 20, 2012 In order to verify the Efficient Market Hypothesis and illustrate the theories explicitly to the public, a group of researchers conducted a monkey experiment. They randomly picked up thirty stocks from a one thousand stocks poll and then let a hundred monkeys throw darts at the stocks printing on newspaper. They kept repeating this experiment for five decades, and tracked the results. In the end, to their surprise, monkeys’ performance beat the index by 1.7% per year, which indicates that, there is certain situation where traditional technical analysis cannot even beat randomly-selected portfolios. The results have shocked the whole world by how greatly randomness affects the market stock prices. 2.3 Randomness in Physics and Biology 2.3.1 Application of Randomness in Modern Physics In the early 19th century, physicists use the philosophy of randomness to study motions and behaviors of molecules, and they build models in thermodynamics to explain phenomenon in gas experiments. In the 20th century, when the era comes for quantum mechanics, microscopic phenomena are considered as completely random. Randomness of things like radioactive decay, photons passing through polarizers, and other bizarre quantum effects cannot be explained and predicted with classical theories in the usual way (Scott, 2009). Therefore, physicists propose a new theory, which claims that in a microscopic world, some of the outcomes appear casual and random. For example, when we describe a radioactive atom, we cannot predict when the atom will decay. What only left for us is the probability of decay during a specific given period. In order to solve this mystery, Einstein postulates the Hidden Variable theory, which states that nature contains irreducible randomness: properties and variables work beyond our scope somehow, but they actually determine the outcomes appear in our world. 2.3.2 Application of Randomness in Biology The modern evolutionary states that the diversity of life is due to natural selection. Randomness, an essential component of biological diversity, is associated with the growth of biological organization during evolution (Longo Montevil, 2012). It plays important roles in determining genetic mutation, and the significance of randomness effects appear at different sizes, from microorganisms to large mammals (Bonner, 2013). During this process, a number of random genetic mutations appear in the gene library under both inner and other influences. Although this process is purely random, it indeed systematically leads to a higher chance for survival and reproduction of those individuals who possess these mutations than those without them. This mechanism plays crucial roles in the survivals of animals. Surprisingly, randomness in biology has remarkable relations to quantum physics. Schrodinger proposes his notion of negative entropy as a form of Gibbs free energy, which also behaves similarly to randomness properties in abstract quantum world (Schrodinger, 1944). Part III References Beggs, J. (2014). The Efficient Markets Hypothesis. About. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://economics.about.com/od/Financial-Markets-Category/a/The-Efficient-Markets-Hypothesis.htm Bonner, J. (2013). Randomness in Evolution. Princeton University Press. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9958.html Clarke, J. Jandik, T. (2012). The Efficient Markets Hypothesis. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://ww.e-m-h.org/ClJM.pdf Ferri, R. (2012). Any Monkey Can Beat The Market. Forbes. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickferri/2012/12/20/any-monkey-can-beat-the-market/ Geere, D. (2011). White, pink, blue and violet: The colors of noise. Wired. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-04/7/colours-of-noise/viewall Harrison, A. G., Treagust, D. F. (1994). Science analogies. The Science Teacher, 61, 40-43. Longo, G Montevil, M. (2012). Randomness Increases Order in Biological Evolution. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giuseppe_Longo2/publication/221350338_Randomness_Increases_Order_in_Biological_Evolution/file/60b7d51544f17cb8d8.pdf Schrodinger, E.: What Is Life? Cambridge U.P. (1944) Scoot, J. (2009). Do physicists really believe in true randomness? Ask a Mathematician. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://www.askamathematician.com/2009/12/q-do-physicists-really-believe-in-true-randomness/ Sewell, M. (2004). History of the efficient market hypothesis. Retrieved Mar 30, 2014 from http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/fileadmin/UCL-CS/images/Research_Student_Information/RN_11_04.pdf