The Determinants of Household Poverty in the USA - 1980 Statistics Project

The Determinants of Household Poverty in the USA - 1980 - Statistics Project Example It is the dependent variable in this analysis. Family size is basically the number of people in a single family. The county-level family sizes were obtained by dividing the total number of people within respective counties by the number of households. Large family sizes are known to increase dependency levels, thereby making it more difficult for the breadwinners to invest in productive income-generating ventures and subsequently increasing poverty levels. Urbanization refers to the percentage of the entire population in a county that resides in urban areas. According to Cali and Menon (2009), urbanization has a net poverty reduction effect, since it invigorates business aspirations and income prospects for the population. Unemployment rate is the percentage of the entire population within a locality that is unemployed. Unemployed people tend to have higher poverty levels. Higher unemployment rates correspond to higher poverty levels within a population. Income refers to the median income of all the employed individuals within a county. The higher the average income for a population, the lower the poverty levels within it. Higher income enables workers to live more comfortably since they can meet their needs and obligations more easily. Equally, better-paid people tend to have more room for investing and, therefore, diversifying their earnings to accumulate even higher income. This study aims to establish the individual strengths of each of the independent variables as a determinant of poverty (the dependent variable). Correlation analysis has been used to establish the nature of the relationship between each of the independent variables and poverty (whether positive or negative). Using regression analysis, the independent variables are investigated for their ability to predict levels of poverty within the sample population. This type of analysis also provides the basis for obtaining a predictive model that can be used to project future poverty

Gordale beck Essay Example for Free

Gordale beck Essay In general, there is quite a variety in terms of detected total hardness levels for the different areas of Malham. Notably, from Table 1, it can be seen that the area with the highest total hardness is the Rwer air at Gargrare (with 280 ppm) followed by the Gordale spring (with 230 ppm). In relation to this, the lowest readings were from the Malham cove (180 ppm). Incidentally, upon inspection of the Malham area map in figure 2, these three areas were of the closest in proximity with each other. In terms of calcium hardness, the location that registered the highest reading was the Malham tarn outflow (with 210 ppm) while the lowest was from the Gordale beck (with 110 ppm). The resulting total hardness levels indicate that the waters surrounding Malham range from slightly hard (140 to 210 ppm) to moderately hard (210 to 320 ppm). It is evident that an area having high total hardness is not enough reason to assume that it also has high calcium hardness. This is due to the fact that total hardness is determined by the presence of magnesium and calcium and not calcium alone. In fact, the greater the difference between total hardness and calcium hardness, the greater is the resulting value of magnesium hardness. This is a rather simplistic way of determining the magnesium hardness, but it is efficient since methods for separately analyzing magnesium from calcium are not easily done. Table 3 shows the computed magnesium hardness values, which also brings a possible point of error in getting the readings pertaining to the Malham Tarn outflow. There was definitely an error since it is quite impossible for the calcium hardness to surpass the total hardness. To better understand the main factor affecting hardness, a topographic analysis of a certain location must be done, which in the process, determine what types of rocks are present. In various areas of Malham, there is a difference in amount and occurrence of limestone (Gorman n. d. : 1). The presence of limestone dictates the resulting calcium hardness levels since these are mainly composed of calcite or calcium carbonate which disperses into the surrounding passing water. Take note that calcium carbonate is the one measured in tests for calcium hardness. Other points realized from the resulting data are also present. For one, there is no evident correlation between pH and hardness readings. In relation to this, the pH levels still play a role in the resulting hardness since they partially dictate the degree of solubility, but due to the fact that there are other factors at work it does not greatly influence the resulting hardness level of water. Another point observed is in terms of colour endpoints in titration. All samples were violet for calcium hardness and grey for total hardness. The last point observed from the resulting data is in terms of the relationship between absorption and calcium hardness. Figure 2 shows that there is a direct relationship between calcium hardness and absorption reading. Hence, as the absorption reading increases, so does calcium hardness. This is probably due to the fact that absorption readings are enhanced when there are more suspended particles or substances in water. These particles block light better than water alone, hence the greater degree of absorption. List of References Dartmouth College. (2008) Titration [online lab manual] delivered for Chemlab: The Chemistry 3/5 6 Laboratories on 1 October 2008 at Dartmouth College available from http://www. dartmouth. edu/~chemlab/techniques/titration. html [26 March 2009]

White Blood Cells: Structure and Functions

White Blood Cells: Structure and Functions Often times, our bodies are attacked and battered by infections, diseases, bacteria, and other foreign materials which can cause great harm to our organs and bodily functions. Fortunately God has designed us with a strong and efficient system of defense. Our immune system. Among our many forms of defense within the immune system are the leucocytes, or white blood cells. They act as the bodys guards by patrolling the blood stream, seeking out any invading pathogens, and quickly alerting other leucocytes of the threat or swiftly destroying the threat themselves. In the average adult body, there are normally around seven thousand to twenty-five thousand leucocytes per drop of blood. When an infection is present, this number greatly increases in order to defeat the illness. This increase in leucocyte number is also a sign used by doctors when they look for infections. A constantly large number of leucocytes is a sign of leukemia, a type of blood caner. One who has leukemia can have up to fifty-thousand leucocytes in a single drop of blood. Leucocytes may attack the bodys invaders by either producing antibodies to overpower and overwhelm their target or by surrounding, devouring, and digesting the entire pathogen itself. Unlike regular red blood cells, white blood cells have nuclei, mitochondria, and all other normal cellular structures. Also, because white blood cells have no hemoglobin, they lack the red color of their red counterparts. White blood cells also have a significantly greater size than red blood cells but lack equality in numbers. There are five major types of leucocytes each with a different job. Neutrophils, which make up fifty-eight percent of leucocytes and are one of the bodys main forms of defense, completely ingest bacteria and destroy any cells which have been infected or turned cancerous. Eosinophils, which account for two percent of the white blood cells population, destroy parasites and play a role in allergic reactions. Basophils, one percent of leucocytes population, help with allergic reactions by releasing histamine and heparin. Monocytes, making up 4 percent of the population of white blood cells, turn into macrophages and are designed to phagocytize and digest bacteria and get rid of old, dead, and damaged cells. They are found in the liver, spleen, lymph nodes, lungs, skin, and intestine. Lymphocytes, which make up 4 percent of white blood cells, direct the bodys immune system, identify foreign bodies, and produce antibodies and cells that are specifically designed to target them. Lymphocytes , unlike other leucocytes, are produced in the lymphatic system. White blood cells are found not only in blood, but in the lymphatic system. Most of them are produced in the marrow of the bone but a few, like lymphocytes, are manufactured in the lymph nodes. The cells are rapidly produced because they have a very short life span living only a few days to a few weeks. One disease involving white blood cells is neutropenia. This condition is defined by a significant decrease in the production of neutrophils. Common symptoms of neutropenia include fevers and periodic infections. This disease decreases the bodys chance of successfully defending against an attack and increases its chance of being harmed by invading pathogens. Treatment of this disease includes treatment with antibiotics, granulocyte (white blood cell) transfusions, and treatment with anti-fungal medications to defend against disease, infection, and bacteria. Another deadly illness involving white blood cells is leukemia. This cancer of the blood, and one of the most dangerous of blood diseases, is characterized by a deadly over abundance in white blood cells. Symptoms of leukemia include swollen lymph nodes, high fevers, night sweats, frequent infections, feeling weak or tired, weight loss for no apparent reason, and pain in the bones and joints. Treatment of leukemia includes chemoth erapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplant. The risk in chemotherapy is the reduction of white blood cells raising the risk of serious bacterial and viral infection. Another disease involving leucocytes is agranulocytosis. This disease, far less dangerous that leukemia, is brought on by the destruction of neutrophils. Symptoms include fatigue, sleeplessness, headache, chills, and high fever. Treatments for this disease includes antibiotics, blood transfusions, and injections of fresh bone marrow. Recent studies of white blood cells have given us more incite on the details surrounding their functions. Research has also shown how the leucocytes navigate through the bodys blood stream. According to recent discovery, when organs or tissue are infected with a virus, they send out chemical beacons to the specific leucocytes which register them as a call for help. They then move towards the infected area. Further studies have also shown that white blood cells have the ability to sprout leg-like structures with adhesive points and crawl along the inside of a blood vessel like a millipede to get to an infected area. About ten of these legs attach and detach rapidly. This allows the cell to maintain constant movement along the vessel walls. It also uses these legs to grip the inner walls of the blood vessel to avoid being swept away by the blood stream. When scientists put these legs under further research, they found that they dig themselves into the wall of the blood vessel. This als o suggests that they are used as probes to search for holes and exits in the blood vessels. Scientists believe these legs have many functions such as gripping, moving, and sensing distress signals from damaged tissue. Even though we live in a world full of bacteria and pathogens, we can rest easy because we know that our Creator has designed for our bodies a strong defense against outside invaders. The complex and efficient white blood cells act as soldier cells and spear head our immune system keeping us safe, comfortable, and healthy. Without our white blood cells, we would be quite susceptible to hundreds of thousands of forms of destructive bacteria, lethal diseases, and vulnerable to many potentially deadly infections. Works Cited Page http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/circulatory/blood2.htm http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/white.html www.righthealth.com

Save the Animals :: Wildlife Essays

Save the Animals Ever heard the call of the wild? What about the wolf howling in the distant mountains? For most people the answer is no. This is because the wolf was eradicated from most areas of our country when the white man decided that he wanted to settle the west. Most of the extermination was because ranchers and farmers lost a good deal of livestock to wolves. Wolves were selected for extermination by the US government untill1976 when the government declared the Mexican gray wolf endangered in the lower 48 states. The trapping and killing of wolves was done by private trappers, hunters, or ranchers. After wolves were declared endangered, several private enterprises sought to give the wolf a chance to come back from almost extinction. One of these groups, P.A.W.S., petitioned, debated, and fought for the reestablishment of the wolf into the southwest and other areas of the country where they once roamed freely. These private enterprises achieved their goals, but they still need the su pport of the everyday American. Without their support, the wolf could still become extinct, and then the children of America would never know what it was like to hear the call of the wild. People need to understand that to balance nature, wolves need to be reintroduced into areas where they were once abundant. To claim ownership of this fight, one must understand our planet and its animals. What would our world be like if there were no animals? Animals on this planet are disappearing at an alarming rate. If we do not do something about it, our world will become a barren landscape. A common thread among scientists and naturalists is that we need to preserve animals in their natural habitats. Why? Because they preserve the natural habitats that people love going to. By keeping predators around, they balance out each other. Someone said in regards to cougars coming back into Arizona, â€Å"That’s just too many predators.† Well there is no such thing as too much of anything when it is applied to nature. In this case, â€Å"too many predators† means that the numbers of predators will increase, but nature will balance them out. The predators will have to fight for territory, meaning they will be more spread out; also, they will use each other as prey, and they wil l keep the number of prey animals under control.

Personal Ethnography

What is ethnicity? Ethnicities are the common characteristics of a group of people. As a large multi-national country, China is composed of 56 ethnic groups. My family is Han Chinese. Han people are majority people group in the China, account for 91. 59 of the overall Chinese population according to the Fifth National Population census of 2000. I was born and grew up in China so I would account myself, identify as the full-blooded Chinese. I don not have the complicated ethnic background. However Asian Americans have been in American for over 150 years.My ancestors never leave their homeland motivated by seeking political asylum or dreams of a money in my family history. Therefore, my roots allow me to be classified as Chinese. Mandarin is my mother tongue, all my families speak it and read it. All education is conducted in Mandarin. It does not mean there no problem among the Mandarin speakers all around the China because there are over 600 regional dialects except Mandarin. Older g eneration used to speak regional dialects, like my parents often speak Fukienese with my grandparents.Generally, China’s main religion are Buddhism, this was the only foreign religion to be absorbed into and changed by Chinese culture, contributing in many ways to the country’s cultural development. Buddhism is also my family’s beliefs, we will worship Budda in some festivals. No matter the language or the religion also help to identify me as full-blooded Chinese. Other identifying me as a Chinese by my skin color, hair, eyes, other appearance features, and ask me where I come from. I'm a little bit shy at school, and when I have questions or I need help on my subjects, I hesitate to raise my hand.Since my freshman year I have been like this. I attend every class and turn in every homework or project on time, for this reason, they identified me as an Asian, because of the stereotypes placed on Asians my behavior and attitude contributed to people's reasoning. Ch ina is the oldest civilization in the world and Chinese civilization was built on agriculture. The collective (group-oriented) nature of Chinese values is largely the product of thousands of years of living and working together on the land (Hu, Grove 1) Today, China is a communist government with a socialist ideology and a capitalist economy.Traditional festivals are celebrated in many countries all around the world. China with its long history and predominantly agricultural society has large number of traditional festivals. As Eberhard states â€Å"Few nations have such a multitude of romantic and colorful celebrations as do the Chinese† (Eberhard 31). Also, the family not the individual, is the basic unit in China, all festivals are family festivals rather than church or state festivals. The Chinese New Year was and still the most widely celebrated festival throughout the whole China.It is the time for family reunions, a time for visits with friends, a rest for the hard wor k and all sorts of entertainment. That is so true that The Chinese New year is a big event and it should be my favorite festival. The Chinese New year officially lasts one month, but in that very day everyone tries to be at home, families sit all together at a big table to share a delicious dinner. Kids wear new cloths and wait for pocket money from parents, then we have firecrackers to welcome the New year. Usually, the first day of the New Year is devoted to feasting and visiting relatives.On the second or third day friend visit and exchange good wishes. Food is one of the most significant resources in life. All cultures differentiate themselves through their development and attitude toward food. Therefore, there is a wide variation of food, which often has a lengthy developmental history, that symbolizes diverse cultural attitudes; specific foods, such as pasta for Italians, curry for Southeastern Asians, and pierogi for Poles, serve as a focus for ethnic identity (Hirschberg 57) . As a Chinese, I respect all food, and do care about it.Maybe I could say it is the most distinguished cuisine in this world. Americans like pastas, pizza or meat as entrees, however rice is a basic and important food to us. People in western countries like to use butter, cheese as ingredients, but we use soy sauce and bean curd. We have so many different techniques for cooking food, such as boiling, deep-frying and pickling, but they are not always done in the totally same ways. Take an example of boiling, one is cooking in water makes it continues to boil, and the other one is put the stuff in boiled water and then reducing the temperature.However, although Chinese people share the same culture, some food items a re available in only particular regions. I lived in south China, there are many basins and plains, which help the various harvests of food because of the warm and moist growth environment; rice, green vegetables, and animals are produced. Do not like northern China, most likely are grown for wheat. As the globalization, Chinese and Americans are interacting with each other more. The western traveler must be aware of the different greeting styles that exist in China.The most common greeting among the Chinese is Nihao, which means greetings or good day. We do use direct greetings like â€Å"Good morning†, â€Å"Good afternoon†, or â€Å"Good night†. You may use Nihao either on virtually any occasion regardless of the time of day or the social status of the person you are greeting. And the most conventional way to greet a Chinese is simply to say his or her name, perhaps adding a term of respect. For examples, a girl just back from school may call out â€Å"Baba† (Daddy) when greeting her father.I think you should not greet Chinese with kiss, hug or other physical contact beyond handshaking, these nonverbal forms will not be appreciated. given name while in the United States the reverse is true. Prepare for this paper I sea rched for several materials and look up so many book about the Chinese culture. As a Chinese I still learn lots of new acknowledge that I never know before. For instant, like Chinese New year, I did not know the origin of this festival. I would like to share information with others but I don’t want to make a label with racism or others.Racism will never end unless the word race is not used any more. We must stop separating Chinese, American, and Mexican groups. Works Cited Hirschberg, Stuart, and Terry Hirschberg. Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print. Eberhard, Wolfram. Chinese Festivals. New York: H. Schuman, 1952. Print. Hu, Wenzhong, and Cornelius Lee. Grove. Encountering the Chinese: a Guide for Americans. Yarmouth, Me. : Intercultural, 1999. Print.

‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, dramatic techniques and devices Essay

* Foreshadowing – through the use of devices (see below) or narrative; Friel often hints at what comes later in the play, sometimes sneaky – in the first dialogue for example, Chris says â€Å"When are we going to get a decent mirror to see ourselves in? † – this could be interpreted as Friel showing that the women are blind to the world around them, to their own inner trouble, and just how close their family is to the blink of collapse. It is a good line for Friel to highlight that at this moment in time, everything is as it should be and nothing has crumbled yet, but it will, and the sisters cannot foretell it. * Use of symbolic devices such as the radio (the music foreshadows events in the play, hints at backstory, usually provides a sense of what the women feel inside but cannot express on the outside, used to reference context and ultimately link the women from their microcosm in Ballybeg to the wider world) or the kites (representing escape as a pair, possibly Jack and Gerry, or, when one considers the tortured faces, a foreshadowing of Rose and Agnes’s doomed leave.) * Stage Directions – Friel’s stage directions are highly detailed and this shows that to Friel, every little character and stage detail is important, (takes the opening tableau for example. ) Each aunt has their own, very particular on stage personality, but these are certainly not 2D characters when Friel still leaves some questions unanswered to the audience – e. g; What is going on between Gerry and Agnes? Why is it that Friel wants Agnes to fly up in a passion, ‘on the point of tears’ when Kate is badmouthing Gerry, but the situation between them is never explored in more detail? It makes the false memory concept all the more interesting, as the audience can forget that this is what Michael is supposed to remember as ‘more real than incident’ and ‘both actual and illusory’. * The Unseen Boy – In ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, the narrator is the adult Michael, and Friel chooses also to have the adult Michael reading the ‘boy’s lines, and the aunts must never address the boy. This is a surreal concept, but both helps the audience remember that the whole play is Michael’s memory; â€Å"When I cast my mind back†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ and also foreshadows Michael’s absence and escape later on in the play, or as a boy, his lack of understanding of the situation. Alternatively, it again highlights the surreal concept that Michael can remember things that may or may not have happened as he is not present in those scenes. * The False Memory – â€Å"But there is one memory of that Lughnasa time that visits me most often; and what fascinates me about that memory is that it owes nothing to fact†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The play is largely focused on Michael’s relationship with the memories of his past, as his interspersed blocks of narration illustrate, but there is the question raised that, in fact, did most of the play, where Michael isn’t present, even happen? It is all supposed to be from his memory, so how can he remember something which isn’t true? The ending sets this question further in the audience’s minds when Michael talks about a memory that truly does have no factual ground at all, and you can see elements of this seeping in throughout the play itself, (such as blasts of thirties music or referencing to historical context) and you can see it played out as if peppered with bits of memory that didn’t necessarily happen at those times or in that order. It does have a dream-like quality for these reasons, and only when we wake up do we realise something was strange – I believe this is the effect Friel intended to create for the audience. With memory, we often remember what stands out to us, not necessarily in the right order, but what Michael makes plain at the end is that his version of events is both real and imagined at the same time, and his memories become more true to feelings as they go further from the actual order of events.