The following paper discusses Cherubism, a rare, hereditary disease characterized by enlargement of the jaw bones (maxilla and mandible) on both sides of the face (bilateral) and a deformity in the setting of the eye sockets.
Abstract This essay examines the symptoms of Cherubism, a disease with unusual growths within the jaw and swelling of the face. It also discusses the causes, origins, treatment and future of this disease.
From the Paper ?The facial changes are brought about by overgrowth of fibrous tissue around the jaw bones. The disease starts to appear in the 3rd or 4th year of life and continues to grow until the person affected reaches the age of 15-20. Typically, the disease occurs early, when the afflicted person's primary teeth fall out and are supposed to be replaced by mature teeth. Instead, after the primary teeth fall out, the bone cells do not do their proper job, causing masses of soft tissue to develop in the jaw area. The disease, however, has been known to recede during adolescence. The size of the jaw stabilizes and progressively becomes smaller. In moderate cases, the deformity disappears altogether. Cherubism is a disease that has been around for a long time, yet little is known about the rare disease. Advancements in the study of cherubism are progressing slowly, yet consistently.?
Abstract The following paper provides the reader with facts and information on how sound is produced, its characteristics, the ways in which humans process it and how in turn we can prevent hearing problems by treating infections in the ear and using ear plugs in increased noise levels.
From the Paper ?We are all familiar with the three structural parts of the ear, i.e., the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. In the process of hearing, we already know that it is in the outer ear that sound waves collect and from there are moved to the middle ear by vibrating against the eardrum or tympanum membrane. In the middle ear, these sound waves are changed into a mechanical type of vibration by the tiny bones there. And in the inner ear are special so-called "hair cells" that perceive these mechanical vibrations from the middle ear and trigger an impulse that is send to that specific part of the brain that hears. (GSLC) These ear parts are so organized as to transmit sound waves to the brain. Five steps are, thus, involved in the hearing process. which are the air conduction through the external ear to the eardrum; the bone conduction through the middle ear to the inner ear; the water conduction to the Organ of Corti; the nerve conduction into the brain; and finally, the interpretation by the brain of the message received through the sound waves?.
This paper examines the controversial issue of stem cell transplantation and considers the views regarding the use of stem cells along with the debate that is currently in process.
Abstract This essay discusses the pros and cons of stem transplantation by using rational examination of ideas based on logic and current research rather than emotion. Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum is also used in order to give a basis to the theological arguments.
From the Paper ?The use of human material for extermination is very emotive subject. There are many personal feelings that surround the issues which, are complicated by social conditioning, religious beliefs and personal or societal needs and the personal moral framework. In many countries one of the debates that is currently raging is the use of human stem cells for research.In Germany there is research going ahead, but with imported stem cells and against the wishes of the Green Party and the National Ethics Council, in the United States there is disapproval of the research, and in the United Kingdom the research is approved for the purposes of finding cures for serious currently incurable conditions such as Parkinson's and diabetes."
Abstract This paper examines and compares the basic elements, theories, and methods of cultural ecology and human behavioral ecology and discusses how the articles fit in their respective paradigms and within cultural ecology at large.
From the Paper "In any field of study, researchers operate under paradigms: often unnoticed scientific world-views that shape which data the researcher collects, how he/she collects it, and what conclusions he/she draws from that data. Two paradigms in the field of cultural ecology include classificatory cultural ecology, exemplified by Tappers and trappers: parallel process in acculturation (Murphy & Steward) and human behavioral ecology, as in Optimal diet breadth theory as a model to explain variability in Amazonian hunting (Hames and Vickers). Both of these articles study indigenous Amazonian populations, but each from a different paradigm and thus with different methods and results. Through a comparison of these two articles, this paper will explore the differences and similarities of these two paradigms and how the paradigms the researchers worked under shaped their studies."
A paper which explores the many aspects of stem cell use, concentrating mainly on the scientific aspects and touching on the moral and ethical problems surrounding the science.
Abstract This paper outlines the development of stem cell use from the very beginning to the latest technology. It explains specific cases where the use of stem cells is beneficial to medical problems, and how they are used to cure them. The author also explores the future use of stem cells.
From the Paper "In a case involving mutations, although not cancerous mutations, a fatality occured. In 1989, doctors in China transplanted fetal stem cells into the brain of a man. Two years later the man died suddenly. The doctors discovered that the cells had mutated and formed a clump of cartilage, skin, and hair where brain cells should have grown (Gorman, 2000). Before doctors use stem cells regularly, cases such as these must be researched and solutions for these problems must be discovered."
Abstract The paper shows that despite the many tests being done on animals in the name of medicine, not many are applicable to human beings. The paper covers reasons why experiments should not be carried out on animals - mostly due to the cruelty and inhumanity of the issue. It offers alternative solutions to medical studies such as computer simulation instead of animal vivisection.
From the Paper "There are various experiments that have indicated that animal testing and experimentation do not give the same results as those that may be seen on humans. As humans became more finely tuned and evolved, they lost their resistance and become more susceptible to impurities and infections than animals. To wit: in the1940s, human clinical investigation strongly indicated that asbestos caused cancer, animal studies repeatedly failed to demonstrate this; studies of human patients had already shown by 1963 a strong correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, however almost all experimental efforts to produce lung cancer in animals had failed (Cohen, Kaufman, Ruttenberg, Fano, 1998). "
Tags: Claude, Bernard, research, National, Institute, of, Health
Abstract The paper defines the term ecosystem as an area which includes all the living organisms, their physical surroundings, and the natural cycles that sustain them. It also gives several examples of ecosystems such as forests. The paper then studies the ecosystem of Mono Lake in California. It covers issues such as tools used to study the ecosystem, the biogeography of the area, plants and animals of the area, the food web, water recycling and the human impact.
From the Paper "For at least the last 5,500 years, Paiute Indians have lived off the land and waters of the Mono Basin. Using shallow skimming baskets, Kutzadika"a Paiute women collected kutsavi, the pupae of alkali flies"an excellent source of protein. The arrival of miners and those who supplied them with food, clothing, and other goods brought the peaceful coexistence of the Kutzadika?a with their surroundings to a rapid end.
Settlements of gold miners came and went quickly in the last half of the 19th century. With the collapse of mining in the 1880s, Mono Lake began its irregular career as a resort destination. As late as the 1930s, hotels attracted tourists to the lake by claiming its waters had healing properties. Until the 1950s, excursion boats sometimes ferried tourists to the islands for hiking and picnics."
Abstract This research investigates the ways in which individuals "learn" to see certain objects. Despite our common-sense understanding of perception as being biologically based, in fact a number of experiments have demonstrated that we "learn" to see objects due to situational cues including color. However, not all individuals learn to distinguish objects on a visual basis in the same way due to differences in both perceptual and cognitive abilities. Moreover, some skills that might seem to be cognitively grouped are not. This experiment, in which subjects are asked to arrange objects in a hierarchical fashion, attempts to ascertain the influences that various factors have on the perception of objects.
From the Paper "While we may believe that we perceive different attributes of objects in dependently from one another, this is not in fact the case. For example, the color of an object "bleeds" over into our perceptions of its weight. This is true even when subjects though the subjects in this experiment clearly understood, as do the rest of us, that color and weight are independent properties of each other. Nevertheless, humans have a tendency to conflate color with other attributes even as they simultaneously understand that such attributes are independent of each other."
Tags: experiment, sight, see, cognitive, visual, vision
Abstract The writer of this paper outlines a background to wolves in general and to their presence in the U.S.A. in particular. The paper raises the argument of those for and against the reintroduction of the wolf into the wild. It discusses the issues of their part in the natural eco system as well as their wildness and man's fear thereof.
From the Paper "Wolves (Canis Lupis) have always sat on the threshold of man's life, from the earliest times man and wolf came together and soon the wolf was domesticated into the dog, however there has always been the wolf, that strong noble creature that runs in packs and is the legend of nightmares for farmers, hunters and travellers alike. Yet despite the bad press wolves have had since man became civilized and stopped feeding the wolves his scraps, they have continually been present within our lives, sadly this presence has been diminished."
Abstract The paper defines Alzheimer's Disease as the most common form of dementia, or brain disorder, that affects older people and affects their ability to communicate and act rationally. The paper covers many issues relating to the disease including its discovery, causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Finally, it covers the issue of families living with AD sufferers and the difficulty involved.
From the Paper "Talking to patients about their roles in life and activities helps patients to maintain their self-identity and enhances the quality of life. The roles that family caregivers accept can be overwhelming. They must help the patient with personal hygiene, dressing and housekeeping. In addition, it is important to ensure mental and physical stimulation by ensuring that they have social and physical activities. The overburdened caregiver is susceptible to stress, resentful feeling and psychological problems. It is usually a good idea to seek assistance in providing care and to join support groups. (Hamdy, Mace)"
Tags: memory, neurofibrillary, tangles, apolipoprotein, E, Neuropsychological, NSAID
Abstract This paper discusses the various forms of chemotherapy. The paper describes the different possible side effects of chemotherapy, outlining short term and long term side effects.
From the Paper "Cancer is a disease of the body's cells. Cells in all the tissues and organs of the body constantly grow and divide to swap old and damaged cells and maintain the health of the body. Normally, all cells divide and reproduce themselves in a systematic and controlled manner. In cancer, however, some cells keep dividing without proper control, forming a lump (which is called a tumor). In leukemia, too many white blood cells are formed. Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells (including leukemia's and lymphomas). There are over 50 different chemotherapy drugs and some are given on their own, but often numerous drugs may be combined (this is known as combination chemotherapy). The type of treatment one are given for ones cancer depends on many things, particularly the type of disease one have, where in the body it started, what the cancer cells look like under the microscope and how far they have spread, if at all."
Abstract An examination of the evolution of man from the earliest Australopithecus through to the three branches of the "family tree" to the dead end species of neanderthalensis and finally to modern homo sapiens. Anatomically modern man did not just spring up from nowhere, he comes from a long line of hominids that extends back many millions of years. The author discusses evidence such as tool types including social structures and the development of language.
From the Paper "Other diverse aspects that mark differences between the Australopithecines and Homo habilis are possible social organizations and the aspect of communication through language, however these diverse changes were still beginning and therefore were not as organized or developed as compared to those of Homo sapiens.
The Homo Erectus followed the Handy man it can be seen by the later too types and development of this hominid that new ideas and understandings were being developed which leads archaeologists to realise that as with the evolutionary changes to physiology and skeletal frames the brain case was changing and developing the human mind."
Abstract This paper examines the issues surrounding 'In Vitro' fertilization. It describes what it is medically, who is eligible for this treatment, and the legal ramification of conceiving a child outside the biological uterus. The author writes that IVF often causes birth defects in children.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Infertility and In Vitro Fertilization
Causes of Infertility
Indicators for IVF (in vitro fertilization)
Steps in the IVF Treatment
Positive and Negative Effects of IVF Treatment
Conclusion
From the Paper "In vitro treatment is often used as an infertility treatment because "IVF offers couples who cannot have children naturally" a chance of having a baby? and even though fertilization takes place outside the woman's body, the couple will still experience the process of natural pregnancy and conception, as well as the opportunity to conceive their own child. In vitro fertilization also prevents the problem of custody over a child that usually happens when couples adopt or subsist to surrogacy, wherein the child was conceived in another woman's womb (fertility Confidential 2001). These problems are not only legally demanding, but also emotionally straining to couples that have used these measures to have their own child."
Abstract The paper looks at the influence of the book on the ban of the use of DDT, and how it spurred revolutionary changes in the laws that have been destroying air, land and water of this planet. The initiation of the environmental movement is explored in relation to the book and the development of this movement is traced.
From the Paper "Seldom there have been incidents in the history of mankind that a single book has managed to alter the path of history, but Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson did precisely that. The book forced the ban on the use of DDT, after its publication in 1962, and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws that have been destroying air, land, and water of this planet. The obsessive concern of Carson for the future of this planet and the humanity that has been living for billions of years, echoed forcefully throughout the world, as her expressive book has been influential in the initiation of the environmental movement (2)."
From the Paper "Advances in medicine and biology offer great possibilities for future medical procedures and for entirely new procedures such as genetic splicing to create new forms of life for good or ill. These new possibilities bring with them great responsibility and require that experimentation and development in biology be conducted following ethical precepts. The issues raised are not simple and are not easily answered, making it all the more vital that critical thinking be developed and applied to issues of bioethics. Cloning is only the newest scientific advance to raise such issues, but it is an issue we need to consider carefully and an issue that cannot be decided on the basis of first impressions alone. It raises questions of ethics and morality, and it poses a threat to our sense of self and of our own uniqueness and autonomy. Human cloning is not yet possible.."
