Endocrine disrupting compounds and human fertility Essay

In the past 100 years, humans have introduced several hundreds of new compounds into the environment, which actually have affected the physiology of both plants and animals including humans (Propper, 2005). In most cases these deleterious effects are unintended and it was not predicted before that these compounds could have such effects on organisms. Therefore the actual mechanisms by which these compounds affect physiological functions of other organisms are not yet properly researched. When such compounds affect the endocrine systems they are called endocrine disrupting compounds. These compounds would affect different hormonal pathways and physiological functions such as reproduction, development, metabolism and even the behavior of humans and other animals. The present essay is intended to identify some of the endocrine disrupting compounds that affect human fertility, the mechanism of affecting, to analyze the weight of different evidences available and to analyze the current investigation techniques. Endocrine disrupting compounds have been defined as â€Å"an exogenous agent that interferes with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action, or elimination of natural hormones in the body which are responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis, reproduction, development and/or behavior† (Kavloc et al. , 1996). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has accepted this definition as the most appropriate one in the year 2004. These compounds are capable of interfering with normal signaling mechanisms of the endocrine system. Either they could block or make changes in the synthesis of hormones, or they could mimic some of the endocrine compounds, thereby affecting the target organs. They could also affect the release of these hormones from the concerned glands and its transportation. They could also bind with the specific molecules to which hormone binds. These compounds are usually seen in pesticides, industrial effluents, pharmaceutical compounds, etc. Heavy metals also could induce endocrine disruption. Wastewater effluents from cities as well as from agricultural fields are sources of such compounds. The neuro- endocrine system might also get affected by these compounds causing changes in the reproductive organs and associated behaviors in humans. Most of the researches in this filed are concentrated towards the effect of these compounds on estrogen and other steroids responsible for reproduction (Propper, 2005). According to Caserto et al. (2008) these compounds could affect human heath seriously even when present in very small amounts. This is especially because many such chemicals would be these affecting a single target. There are many studies which reveal that waste water discharge in to natural waters have resulted in the changes in reproductive organs of aquatic fauna. This is because of the presence of 17 beta estradiol, estrogens, androgens, etc, in wastewater. These compounds are highly stable and therefore could not be removed completely from wastewater by various treatment procedures to reclaim the water. Traces of these compounds would be present in the drinking water, which is prepared from these natural waters into which the wastewater has been disposed. Bioaccumulation of these compounds in humans is expected to affect fertility (Falconer, 2006). Wagner and Oehlmann (2009) have conducted a study to determine the level of endocrine disrupting compounds in usual food stuffs of humans and they selected bottled mineral water as one of the sources of this compounds. The effort was taken based on the fact that endocrine disrupting hormones reaches the body of human mainly through foodstuffs. They used estrogen receptor alpha for the identification. They found that the mineral waters in plastic bottles are seriously contaminated with phthalates that are getting leached into the water from plastic bottle. Thus it was proved beyond doubt that endocrine disrupting compounds are present in plastic wares and extensive use of plastic wares to store food would result in increased level of these compounds in the foodstuffs with a deleterious effect on fertility. According to Rhind (2005) there is an urgent need to study the effects of endocrine disrupting compounds on animals. Very little is known regarding the concentration of these compounds in the different tissues of animals, the concentration required to produce a deleterious effect on the animals, effect of prolonged exposure to an single compound, the effects of different classes of compounds, effect of the exposure to more than one compounds at a time etc. With the available information it is possible to establish that the endocrine disrupting compounds in the environment is affecting human health adversely with a high impact on fertility. The effect of these endocrine disrupting compounds on human reproduction is different for different compounds. Compounds such as diethylstilbestrol affect female reproductive system and cause abnormal follicular growth, ovulation, abnormal formation of corpus luteum and the overall maintenance of ovary would be affected. It would also affect the normal sexual differentiation in females. Pregnancy would be affected because of the negative effects on fertilization and implantation of the embryo in the uterus. Another pollutant called dioxin has been reported to cause endometriosis in women, which is a very painful disease that leads to infertility (Crisp et al. , 1998). There are some compounds, which are naturally occuring such as phytoestrogens produced by plant that could mimic the properties of estrogens produced by humans (Caserta et al. , 2008). Natural sex hormones are used extensively for different purposes in farms as well as in urban areas and there is every chance that these would become harmful to non-targeted organisms including humans because of the concentrating effect. There are many evidences, which prove that environmental contaminants are causing problems in female fecundity as well as fertility (Louis et al. , 2006). There are evidences to prove that puberty, menstruation, endometriosis, pregnancy, senescence period for reproduction etc are affected by exposure to these compounds. Diethyl stilbestrol was given to pregnant women during 1950’s to prevent miscarriage. But later on due to the adverse effects of these compounds most of the kids developed abnormalities. Finally the compound was withdrawn from the market. The female child produced in such cases developed menstrual abnormalities, vaginal hypoplasia, sudden abortion, premature delivery, uterine malformation and overall low fertility. If the child is a male, it was found to develop testicular dysgenesis syndrome (Milhan 1992). Maternal exposure during pregnancy and exposure to these compounds present in the mother’s milk during the prenatal period are believed to be the reasons for such defects. This occurs due to the lipophilic nature of these compounds, which in turn gets stored in the adipose tissues of the mother. This is one of the strongest evidences of the deleterious effect of these compounds on human reproductive system. There are reports that state that human sperm production has decreased in the past 50 years. Although accurate evidence is not there, the reasons for this decrease is attributed to the presence of endocrine disrupting compounds in the environment (Crisp, 1998). Leydig cells tumors are increasingly believed to be caused by this factor. Same is the case of prostrate cancer. Studies conducted in Coke-oven workers have revealed that there has been an increase of mortality among them due to prostrate cancer due to occupational exposure to these compounds. However more research is required to find out the actual cause of this cancer, whether it is due to endocrine disruption by any chemicals in the environment.

Digital Espionage

Attacks on sites had been a common occurence ever since the boom of the Internet market, and it is only usual for people to get into the business themselves either legally or ilegally. Since the occurence of these attacks anti-virus companies had been built, adding yet another business into the market. But the level of attacks had been vastly improving, and one example is what happened on Google, one of the world’s leading search engine. On January 12, 2010, Google announced on its blog that it had been attacked. It was said to have occured from mid last year and finished last December.Google stated that over 20 other companies including Adobe and Microsoft, had also been victims. On that same day, US Secretary Hilary Clinton publicly asked for an explanation from the Chinese government. Google became aware of the attack themselves, through their inside sources. According to Newsweek, at the time, they contacted Rafal Rohozinski, CEO of The SecDev Group (a global security and research firm) because the attack was very similar to GhostNet (a large scale cyber spying event last March 2009) and they wanted to know what they could share that might be helpful to their in-house investigation.The attack seems to be emanating from the jurisdiction of China. Google said that the hackers were interested in accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. According to the Financial Times, a person named Ai Weiwei had his two accounts hacked, their contents read and copied. On the others, however, they were only able to view limited details such as the subject line and the creation date of the account. It was said that the attack started when an employee in China click on an infected linked, which was sent through an instant message.The attacker was able to access the person’s computer, and eventually Google’s headquarters in California. It also accessed Google’s Moma, an intenal directory that stores information on each of the em ployees work task. Carlos Carillo, principal consultant of Mandiant (security incident response and forensics firm) was also called in by Google. He said that it was â€Å"definitely one of the most sophisticated attacks I've seen in the last few years†¦ This wasn't something that a 16-year-old came up in his spare time.† He said that they’ve seen similar attacks like this on the government, but never on the commercial space. The level of the attack had certainly been done by a group of experts. Last January 14, 2010, McAfee reported that the attackers had exploited zero-day vulnerabilities and called the attack â€Å"Operation Aurora†. They exploited a hole in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer even if their DEP (Data Execution Prevention) was turned on. The vulnerability affects Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8 on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 R2, as well as IE 6 Service Pack 1 on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.It would be ve ry hard to exploit the flaw on Windows Vista or Windows 7, however, because of its advanced memory protection technology. Zero-day vulnerabilities are those flaws that are unknown to the developer. When the attacker discovers the vulnerability before the developer does, it can prove to be very dangerous. The attacker can either use the vulnerability to copy the information and make a similar program and then sell it to the market, or he can use the vulnerability to directly destroy the program of the developer.As with Google, analysts said that â€Å"China is likely using its maturing computer network exploitation capability to support intelligence collection against the U. S. government and industry by conducting a long term, sophisticated computer network exploitation campaign. † At least 10 to 20 terabytes of data had been taken from Google and other companies. Days after the attack, the exploit had been opened to the public, which are now dangerous to the internet communi ty. Paul Ducklin, Head of Technology (Asia Pacific) from Sophos Lab(developer and vendor of security software and hardware), explained how the exploit on Google was done.The Aurora explot relies on a used-after free bug. The exploit uses java script to control over the browser as it crashes. The exploit has all the usual javascript tricks: heap spray (technique used to facilitate arbitary code execution) and nop sleds (No Operation Execution, meaning to â€Å"slide† the instruction on its final destination) . At the end of the nop sled is the shellcode, (the actual malicious binary code that the hacker wants to execute) and a coming bid which uses javascript events that tricks the browser into misusing memory in the first place.He went to a test server wherein he edited the shellcode, that contains debug breakpoints and he added some human readable text â€Å"WARHEAD† so that if the computer crashed he can visually confirm that it was into the computer’s shellco de. He tried it in IE 6, wherein he put it in the debug controller and only attaching debug to it (the reason for doing so is of course because of the debug breakpoints, so if the exploit actually works, he can track back into the debugger). Then he clicked on Internet Explorer and visited the malicious site.The exploit actually relies on fetching image files. It worked when he tried to see the address on the debugger, â€Å"WARHEAD† came out. Usually, a good anti-virus program can protect internet users from these kind of exploits. In order to fix the IE flaw, Microsoft stepped out of its normal monthly patch cycle to release a patch. The users of IE are now required to run Windows update and click on MS10-002 update to fix it. Meanwhile, Google announced that it would stop censoring its search results in China.David Drimmond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google said â€Å"Users visiting Google. cn are now being redirected to Googl e. com. hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. † Censorship in China had been a rule to maintain the country’s communism. Censhorship prevents unapproved reformist, separatist, â€Å"counter-revolutionary† ideas from organizing themselves and spreading.It also prevents Chinese citizens from discovering or learning more about past and current failures of the Communist Party that could create or inflame anti-government sentiment. They had also intended on blocking foreign government websites to prevent the people from learning alternative systems of governance . What Google did was a risky step because China may stop doing business with Google altogether. And China, is one of the most sought-after market in the world today.Analysts expects China's search market to reach 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) this year. However, in 5 to 10 years, what G oogle did may prove to be advantageous for them. Ben Sargent, an analyst with Common Sense Advisory, a market research company said that â€Å"As a culture, China is much more long-term thinking than most other cultures. No other government takes such long-term views as the Chinese government,† Sargent said. â€Å"So Google is trying to out-Chinese the Chinese in terms of making a really long-term play for young people's hearts and minds in China. â€Å"Google had always been concerned on its position in China, but the country is too big of a market to ignore. As what Rohozinski have said, â€Å"Engagement is better than exclusion. † You can do a lot more for the people if you work from the inside than just standing around and watching. Google went in with their eyes wide open. Sergey Brin(founder of Google), who had been from the Soviet Union understood China on its political views. The cyber spying just gave them the opportunity to make their stand and make the wor ld praise them for it.

Cultural Anthropology Essay

I have read and understand the section in the syllabus (page 6) relating to IWU’s Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my homework submission, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper I understand the possible consequences of the act which could include expulsion from Indiana Wesleyan University. The results of any form of bullying is troubling, the effects on victims and those family members in some cases lead to catastrophic outcomes or a change in which a victim conducts his or her life. In any case, to change the way you live or stop participating in your favorite activities because of who is waiting for you down the street or in school is the best way to fuel and promote the negative behavior of any bully. All bullies feed off of one factor, fear. If they know they control your lifestyle and places fear or shame in your heart then they have accomplishes just what they have been trying to do, control you. What is cyber bullying? Cyber bullying is a new form of aggressions sought out by those individuals looking to embarrass or harm the victim across the World Wide Web by use of social networks, blogs, email, and other devises use for internet reading and sharing. The outcome of this form of bullying is the same as physical bullying, both with their share of outcomes with negative impact. The anthropology process of this study comprised of various groups of young adult grouped by age, gender and sexuality. The number of participants was 20,000 students from the second wave of the Metro West Adolescent Health Survey. This survey is important because it address one of the main areas concerning all parents of victim child suicide. Here are some facts â€Å"15. 8% of students reported cyber bullying, and 25. 9% reported school bullying in the past 12 months. The overlap between cyber bullying and school bullying was substantial: 59. 7% of cyber bullying victims were also school bullying victims, and 36. 3% of school bullying victims was also cyber bullying victims. Non-heterosexually identified youths were far more likely than were heterosexually identified youths†. What is most alarming with these facts are the following. 37. 8% of victims of either cyber or school bully committed self-injury to themselves, 15. 2% had suicide attempts, 30% had thoughts of suicide while 6. 6% suffer an attempt of suicide with medical treatment. It appears that once a child become victim of bullying he/she fails to speak to adults, thus leading to the child feelings of despair that could trigger an emotional psychological breakdown. It becomes increasingly important for parents to play a strong role in their child’s life. We have to become aware of the surroundings that our children choose to associate as hobbies, friends and media networking. Also communication is a strong asset, share with them that it is ok to tell an adult if they are bullied or threaten in any manner. Sexual orientation plays a role in traditional and cyber bullying as well. It statics show that if a child lives a homosexual lifestyle or is bisexual they have a higher risk at becoming victims to both cyber and traditional bullying. The thoughts of suicide also are a bit higher within this lifestyle. Regardless of the ethnicity the numbers are staggering. The authors in this article have several main points that they want to stress, the first of many is to bring about awareness to this world-wide epidemic of bulling that’s taking the lives of our youth. Secondly, to focus on which age groups are mostly the centers of attacks. Thirdly, to find a solution to combat the practices of bullying in our schools and neighborhoods, their intentions are to educate the general public. They wanted to depict differences between cyber bullying and its relationship to school bullying. Understanding the differences between the two could help facilitate and developed a school prevention systems that could aid those that are victimize of this despicable act of behavior. When taking a look at the length of investigative approaches performed by the authors that conduct this study, it obvious to learn of the great effort put forth to gather such information. In the field of anthropology all cultural anthropologists rely on one scientific method for gathering information while studying cultural, fieldwork. Field work is the characteristic of all the anthropological sub disciplines and is a main source for gathering information that deal with different cultures and ethnicities. To have hands on approach and the study of any giving topic the foundationally foot work starts with an investigative approach in all subject matter, ultimately ending with a solid conclusion that is not just opinionated but scientific truth. In conclusion, the authors of the article try to identify a world-wide epidemic that is affecting our children’s social stability and academic performance. By researching the effects of bullying (rather cyber or school-yard) it allows parents to absorb the harsh realities of what their child could endure as an adolescent under extreme pressure. Children of all ages are taking their own lives as a result of being out-casted by peers of the same group, neighborhood, age, sex, and ethnicity. The real question is why? How far does a child have to be push before his/her mind is made up to commit suicide? We as parents need to beware and actively involved with all social activities and friends that our children consider part of their lives.

Queen Elizabeth Rhetorical Analysis of Tilbury Speech

Queen Elizabeth’s speech invigorated the troops and ensured her faith in them and her capability as a leader through the use of repetition, juxtaposition, persuasion, amplification and diction. In the beginning sentence Elizabeth includes herself in the fight by using â€Å"we† thereby establishing a common ground with the troops. She uses emotional argument to instill a sense of nationalism. Elizabeth repeatedly refers to her people affectionately with phrases like â€Å"my loving people† (line 1) or â€Å"my faithful and loving people† (line 5).By complementing the soldiers, asserting nationalism, and giving them a purpose, she inspires them to proudly defend England. Queen Elizabeth reference’s God and country throughout the speech, evoking a strong sense of English patriotism through the use of repetition. The Queen juxtaposes her â€Å"weak and feeble† (line 14) form as a woman, to her strong spirit and bravery, likened to that of a king of England, thus further appealing to the audience’s nationalism. She elevates her status above the oppressing sexism of the times, she suggests that she is as capable of success as any shrewd, hard-stomached king.When speaking of the defense of the county, the Queen proposes that she herself will fight amongst them, Elizabeth repeats â€Å"myself† as amplification of her dedication to her country. Elizabeth places her full trust in her people, denouncing any thought of distrust. Her unwavering trust is a reassurance to her people. She does not feel the need to control and regulate her subjects for fear of rebellion, she gives them the power to defend and protect the homeland. Her people respect her for this and remain loyal to her. The final persuasion is promise of â€Å"rewards and crowns† (line 21) for those concerned with monetary and influential matters.The Queen promises to reward for valour and virtue on the battlefield. The repetition of â€Å"yourâ⠂¬  in the closing sentence serves as an appraisal and importance of the troops. Elizabeth uses the value of trust, nationalism, faith, relation, and material reward as a means to convince her troops to defend their homeland. By assimilating herself as their equal and asserting her willingness to give everything for her country, she makes the idea of dying in battle more comfortable to the soldiers. She gives them a cause, and they rise to the occasion.

Stages in the marketing research processNike Sprint Ahead of the Essay

Stages in the marketing research processNike Sprint Ahead of the competition - Essay Example The opportunities and threat faced by the company and the scope of market research is being discusses in this case analysis. From the day Nike had its ad campaign with top athletes like John McEnroe, the ads created for Nike have been icons in setting standards for creativity. The Nike should not switch its focus from celebrities to its product. The campaigns were very effective with their image transfer approach, they casually transmits the message that how fashionable and trendy a person can become by buying a pair of Nike. Nike became a self-fulfilling image statement: if you want to be hip, wear Nike; if you are hip, you are probably wearing Nike (1). By focusing on the aura and image conveyed by the celebrity, Nike was able to attract those who wanted the image. Also the advertisements from Nike are very intensely inward focused concepts. It does not focus on the product, but has its entire focus on the person who wears it. The success of Nike in the market can be attributed mainly to its understanding of the consumer psyche. During the fitness crazy 1980s, Nike's campaign was totally tuned to the expectations of the consumers. This kind of understanding of the consumer results from market research. The research Nike should be doing now is a lifestyle study of its consumer to check whether a change approach adopted for advertising. The study that has to be done by Nike is of Descriptive in nature. For the research, the design will be as follows: 1. Interest/ theory - to find out various factors that affect the lifestyle of consumers which has an impact on the purchase of Nike 2. Conceptualization - lifestyle study involves identifying the kinds of products/ services consumed and a relationship with the demographic and psychographic factors. 3. Choice of research method - the research methods that can be used are market survey and unobtrusive methods like content analysis carried out longitudinal and cross-sectional across the target markets. 4. Population and sampling - the population for the study will be all the target markets for Nike across the world and the sample of the study can be selected randomly after segmenting the market into target groups 5. Operationalisation - the survey can be carried out online to elicit responses from various target markets globally. The content analysis can be carried out through observation and comparison of the people who buy Nike and their patterns of purchase 6. Date processing and analysis - after the data is collected a comparison and correlation study of the various factors and the lifestyle of consumers and their perception on Nike can be analyzed. Buyer behavior The Customer Focus(R) 2004: Sporting Goods study(2)by Vertis reveals that price and selection motivate consumer purchases more so than quality in case of athletic footwear. The results of the study show that consumers want choices and variety at a good price. A key tool in influencing buying behavior is advertising inserts and Customer Focus can provide guidance on the best way to use media synergistically. According to the survey, female shoppers with young children (ages 6-11) also see quality as less important than price in terms of being a key factor on why they shop at athletic footwear specialty stores. Price, selections are the key factors which play a more important role in deciding the brand and model for purchase. It is evident from the survey that, the consumers of the

Stop. Think. Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stop. Think. Action - Essay Example The study has been supported with the storyline and flowchart, all of which elucidate the tools and techniques I applied to overcome the situation in a creative way. Since I strongly believe in divergent thinking, because of its offering multidimensional alternative solutions of the challenges and problems (Hudson, 1967), I have described its application in my professional life as well as its outcomes in my personal career growth, which has been elaborated in the following lines. I had been appointed as a HR manager at a real estate corporate firm, which could not be regarded as an established organisation at the time of my getting recruited at there. Since the company offered commission-based employment to the professionals, almost 90% of the employees were commission-based sales personnel, who would obtain 30% of the business they had generated for the company. Hence, the company would pay more heed and respect to the personnel, who tend to bring business and finances through clients and customers. Despite the fact that the company had appointed me against the monthly salary, its financial condition appears to be stating that I would also have to carry out some business deals as a real estate agent to ensure my salary to be paid. One of the firm’s directors also indirectly hinted the same that generating payments for the salary-based employees could be challenging for the company. I had got that job after over five and half years of unemployment. Since I had very bitter experience of leading the life of a jobless person, I did not want to lose it at any cost. Besides, I was well aware of the reality that my survival depends upon getting involved into business generating activities. Consequently, I pounced into a divergent thinking plan to escape getting fired at the hands of the management. I developed my personal SWOT analysis, where I regarded my graduate degree in sociology as one of my most

Marketing campaign by Easyjet Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing campaign by Easyjet - Assignment Example Marketing campaign by EasyJet The British airline, EasyJet Airline Company Limited with headquarters at London Luton Airport. It is the largest airline of United Kingdom in terms of numbers of passengers it carries and in terms of its operation in scheduled services domestically and internationally on over 600 routes in around more than 30 countries. Its parent company is EasyJet plc which is listed in London Stock Exchange. It is a component of FTSE 250 Index. EasyJet made a combination of integrated marketing communication strategy to gain competitive advantage over its rivals in the marketing for low cost aviation. EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a successful and great example of European airline. It has made successful e-marketing campaigns. EasyJet launches its website as www.easyjet.com. The web bookings grew from zero to 26 percent of business within a year. Over the period, EasyJet became the first airline making more sales on internet than through normal television reserv ations. It recorded regular online bookings of around 80 percent which is the highest proportion of online sales for any airline in the world. EasyJet became a paperless company holding powerful electronic infrastructure which resulted in low administration costs, more responsive decision making and better management information. EasyJet uses sponsored links when a user uses search engine to research a flight to prompt them directly to visit the EasyJet site by clicking to it. It also send email newsletter to customers to encourage them to click through website for generating sales. It sells flights online to both business travellers and consumers. Customers also get themselves served on easyJet.com through review of frequently... A contribution to the profitability of business is always the ultimate aim of e-commerce. Leading companies, to access it, set an internet contribution target to achieve certain proportion of sales via the channel. When EasyJet launched its e-commerce facility in 1998, it sets an internet contribution target of 30 percent by 2000. To achieve this, they put the resources and communication plan in place and their target was reached by 1999. Assessing business contribution becomes difficult to a company who is not selling its products online. The role of internet to influence purchase should be judged. Contributions of service from e-channels are required to be assessed. The market share should be increased by EasyJet through serving its services to all the government agencies and offices and also focussing on customers who want the services at low prices. For serving the services to customers at low prices company should take some serious steps and should manage the flow of customers o nline rather than the traditional desk system. Elimination of middlemen will not require EasyJet to pay any commission to any travel agencies and agents and this strategy help the EasyJet to reduce its costs and also to serve its customers in a better manner.