Money Laundering Regulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Money Laundering Regulations - Essay Example Money laundering transactions generate assets that are a result of some illegal act such as drug deals or tax evasion. If a money launderer is able to achieve this goal then the criminal will be able to keep the property obtained from their illegal activity and have an apparent legal source for their newly acquired wealth. The purpose of laundering money is to disguise the assets obtained from the criminal activity as assets obtained through legal sources in an attempt to avoid imprisonment. Money that is laundered starts out as cash or as assets that are already in the banking system. Money is laundered through companies that handle large amounts of cash and investments like banks and other business firms that handle investments. Businesses that deal across international boundaries that handle "high valued goods" are prime targets for money launders. Some examples of businesses relevant to this situation are accountants, tax advisors, estate agents, and antique dealers. Terrorist, t ax evaders, arms dealers, and drug dealers among other criminals involve themselves in money laundering. Overseas accounts and electronic funds transfers can be disguised to look like legitimate company transactions and make money laundering disguise easier for criminals. Money launderers also employ experts to help them launder money. For example, a launderer could simply ask someone for permission to use that person's account for deposits in return for a fee. Another scenario is for the money launderer to approach a business and ask them to set up transactions in which a sum of money is regularly deposited in the company's account. The businesses will then send the money back as a fictitious payment for non-existent goods. Although this method is very popular amongst the criminal underworld, there are other ways of laundering money without a business becoming aware of being involved in a crime. For example, the money launderer could place an order for a robot to be manufactured to a specific standard. The company may ask for a 60% deposit with the understanding that the order won't be put through for three months. Before the three months are up the money launderer cancels the order and gets the deposit refunded minus a penalty. The money launderer will always be willing to pay the penalty because although the criminal will want to get as much back as possible, what the criminal really wants is the money back clean. It is important to bear in mind that money laundering is a process rather than a single act. In an effort to expose and analyze this phenomenon it has become common to use a three-stage model, which encompasses an ideal money-laundering scheme. The three stages are as follows: The Placement Stage, which is when cash is received directly from criminal activity, like from sales of drugs. It is first placed either in a financial institution or used to purchase an asset. At this stage the criminal disposes of the physical cash deposits. The Layering Stage is the stage at which the first attempt at concealment or disguise of the source of the ownership of funds takes place. This stage is called the layering stage because it is where the criminals "layer" financial transactions in an attempt to hid the criminal activity.

Alberto Korda Essay Example for Free

Alberto Korda Essay The history of Spanish culture and their historic events have been captured through art for centuries. Photography is one form of art that has documented and symbolized historic events that are still used today as historical documents. A Cuban photographer, Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, also known as Alberto Korda, famously documented the events of the Cuban Revolution. Alberto Korda became the world’s most famous Cuban photographer for his photography, documenting history of the revolution with over 55,000 revolutionary themed photographs. Korda was born in Havana Cuba in 1928. He taught himself about photography with his father’s camera, leading to capturing some of the world’s most famous photographs known today. Korda’s career began shooting photographs at weddings and baptisms, and selling his photo’s as souvenirs at the event after he developed them. In 1953 Korda opened up his own studio with photographer Luis Pierce. When the studio first opened, they were accepting any jobs that they came across from advertising to fashion jobs. Korda’s style of photography was distinctive from the traditional photographers style. Korda was different from the traditional style because he disliked artificial lighting and only used natural light in his studio. Korda was quoted saying that artificial lighting was â€Å"a travesty of reality.† It was Korda’s unique style that helped him become widely recognized in the fashion world photography. He quickly established himself as Cuba’s leading fashion photographer. This unique style of untraditional photography led his business to becoming more then a photography studio, but an art studio. In 1959, Korda hit a turning point in his career, the Cuban Revolution. When the Cuban Revolution began, a newspaper was created which was different from most, in which it had many more photographs than articles documenting the uprising events in Cuba. Korda was sent with a team of photographers from the paper to the United States to document the events while Fidel Castro was visiting the United States in 1959. One of the first monumental photographs taken during the visit was a photo of Castro’s visit to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, photographed by Korda. From then on, Korda became Castro’s personal photographer; following Castro wherever the revolution took him Korda went, traveling throughout Cuba and overseas. On an assignment after the guerrillas defeated dictator Fulgencia Batista, Korda encountered such extreme poverty that changed his life, transforming himself to become a part of the revolutionary cause. Korda said, â€Å"Nearing 30, I was heading toward a frivolous life when an exceptional event transformed my life: The Cuban Revolution. It was at this time that I took this photo of a little girl, who was clutching a piece of wood for a doll. I came to understand that it was worth dedicating my work to a revolution which aimed to remove these inequalities.† The photograph was named La Nina de la Muneca de Palo. One of the images that Korda captured of the leaders involved was of Fidel and Nikita Khrushchev, illustrating the differences in each of them that were obvious in their individual politics. He continued to follow the new Cuban leaders wherever the revolution took them, Korda followed. Fidel returned to Sierra Maestra, in 1959, where the attacks of Fulgencio Batista regime began. Korda would always get himself in front of the uprisings Fidel was leading in order to get the photographs he wanted. Whenever Korda was return home, he would develop the documentary images and give them to the newspaper to print. During the trip to Sierra Maestra, Korda snapped many pictures and named the series of photos â€Å"Fidel Returns to Sierra.† In 1960, Korda captured a worldwide symbol of revolution and rebellion, the iconic image of Che Guevara. The image was taken at a protest rally after a Belgian freighter carrying arms to Cuba was blown up by counterrevolutionaries while being unloaded in Havana harbor, killing more then 100 people. Doctor Ernesto Che Guevara joined revolutionaries to help save lives, but during a historic battle, her took up arms and came a symbolic freedom fighter. This photograph of Che Guevara captured by Alberto Korda is considered to be the most iconic image in human history. Every one of Alberto Korda’s photographs of the revolution was symbols of the revolution. He wanted to help complete the goals that were thought to be what the revolution was about. He dedicated his life to Fidel Castro as an official photographer, a friend, and a personal photographer. Korda did not get paid to be Fidel’s photographer. Korda more recently spoke in Havana and said, â€Å"Life may not have granted me a great fortune in money, but it has given me the even greater fortune of becoming a figure in the history of photography.† Korda had a passion for photography, his country, and the causes of the revolution.

Reporter System Using LuxABCDE

Reporter System Using LuxABCDE La Rosa, S.L., Diep, D.B., Nes, I.F., et al. (2012) Construction and application of a luxABCDE reporter system for real-time monitoring of Enterococcus faecalis gene expression and growth. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78 (19): 7003-7011 Reporter genes are the genes encoding a protein which can be tracked and quantified by microscopy and various biochemical assays. They provide a non-invasive and sensitive method to monitor levels of gene expression, protein localization and to determine the transcriptional and translational regulators of a gene of interest. In this study, Rosa and co-workers have developed a bioluminescence based reporter system using luxABCDE to monitor the growth and gene expression of Enterococcus faecalis. E. faecalis is a nosocomial pathogen reported to be the cause of diseases such as endocarditis, urinary tract infection, bacteremia etc. (Schlievert et. al., 1998) and particularly infects individuals with compromised immune system or suffering from an underlying illness (Mundy et. al., 2000). Several studies have been undertaken to determine the factors involved in the virulence of the nosocomial strains of E. faecalis (Jett et. al., 1992; Chow et. al., 1993; Shankar et. al, 2001). These stud ies involve creating mutants for a possible virulence trait and then comparing them in animal models. There are several advantages of using reporter gene in lieu of traditional methods which usually involve harvesting the infected organ and sample preparation to estimate the level of infection by E. faecalis (Hanin et. al., 2010; Ike et. al., 1984). This traditional method, apart from being time consuming, also requires sacrifice of a large number of animals used in biological experiments. Using reporter genes, although not able to completely replace animal experimentation, will certainly reduce the number of animals required. Another advantage of using reporter genes is that it will enable real time monitoring of spread of infection by imaging the light emitted from the activation of the lux operon which was not possible with the other studies that have been undertaken. Use of lux operon also provides several advantages over other reporter gene based systems used in studies pertain ing to E. faecalis which employ green fluorescent protein (gfp) or firefly- luciferase enzyme (luc). Both gfp and luc require excitation by an external light source and luc also requires the addition of an extraneous substrate- both of these are not required in case of luxABCDE thus providing another advantage to the use of this reporter system. Rosa and co-workers constructed the bioluminescent reporter system by cloning the luxABCDE operon present in pPL2lux into pREG696 as shown in Figure 1. The native luxCDABE operon from Photohabdus luminescens shows poor expression in gram-positive bacteria (Qazi et. al., 2001). Therefore, the genes were rearranged into luxABCDE and translational signals were inserted in front of luxA, luxC, luxE to increase the expression of the lux operon. pPL2lux was originally designed for Listeria monocytogenes and thus carries a listeriophage integrase gene. This plasmid does not work in E. faecalis because of the absence of the required listeriophage sequence. Therefore, a highly expressed Listeria promoter Phelp (for highly expressed Listeria promoter) was cloned into pPL2lux just upstream of the luxA gene and this construct was named pPL2luxPhelp . Similarly, other promoters P32 and P16S were cloned upstream of luxA gene to form pPL2luxP32 and pPL2luxP16S respectively. P32 is another strong pr omoter and P16S is a synthetic E. faecalis 16sRNA promoter with a ribosome binding site (RBS) and an ATG codon fused at its end. These modified pPL2lux plasmids were digested with Xho1 and Not1 and the excised fragment (luxABCDE and the promoter) was cloned into the corresponding sites in pREG696 to form pSL101P32/16S/help. pREG696 has a spectinomycin resistance gene and a segregational stability cassette (axe- antitoxin and txe- toxin) from the multi-drug resistant plasmid pRUM of E. faecium (Grady and Hayes, 2003). This segregational stability cassette enables stable inheritance of the plasmid by killing of plasmid-free cells. All the DNA fragments inserted were sequenced before transferring them into E. faecalis MMH594 by electroporation. Figure 1 Schematic of the construction of pSL101 and its derivatives. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) The stability of pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp was tested by a doing a plasmid stability test. The plasmids were transformed into E. faecalis and overnight cultures were diluted 1,000-fold and grown in nonselective GM17 media. After every 24 hours a fresh culture was inoculated and this was continued for 7 days. At every inoculation, the culture was diluted and plated onto selective and nonselective plates and incubated at 37 °C overnight. Bioluminescence of the resulting colonies was measured and the number of colonies on both selective and nonselective plate was counted to score for resistance to spectinomycin. The stability of these  plasmids was compared to pIL252luxABCDEPhelp which was created by cloning the Phelp luxABCDE cassette into pIL252. This plasmid lacks the axe-txe stability system and is therefore lost after overnight culture with antibiotic selection (Figure 2a). On the other hand, there is no loss of pSL101P32 even after 7 days of culturing in non-selective media and only 30% loss in case of pSL101P16S and pSL101Phelp. This result shows that the segregational stability system is required for stable maintenance of the reporter plasmids in E. faecalis grown in nonselective media. The methodology adopted by the authors to do this experiment has two drawbacks- firstly, plating the culture onto nonselective and selective plates simultaneously may give erroneous results when there are more colonies on the selective plate than on the nonselective plate. To avoid this, the colonies on the nonselective plate obtained after incubation for 16 hours should be patched onto selective plates and then scored for antibiotic resistance phenotype. Secondly, nowhere in the manuscript do the authors mention doing the experiments in repeats. Performing an experiment in duplicates or triplicates is advantageous as it makes the data obtained more reliable. Figure 2 (a) Plasmid stability of pSL101 derivatives in E. faecalis MMH594 (b) Correlation between bioluminescence and number of CFU/ml in E. faecalis MMH594. à ¢- , pIL252luxPhelp; â™ ¦, pSL101P32; à ¢-  , pSL101P16S; à ¢- ², pSL101Phelp. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) After confirming the stability of the plasmids in E. faecalis MMH594, overnight cultures were diluted and grown in GM17 medium and bioluminescence was measured to assess the correlation between light emission and cellular growth. To determine the relationship between CFU number and bioluminescent signal cultures in mid-exponential phase were diluted and viable cell count and bioluminescence was measured. Figure 2b shows that a linear relationship exists between number of CFU and the bioluminescent signal and thus pSL101 reporter system can be used to measure the real-time growth of bacteria. Also, to determine the relation between absorbance and bioluminescence growth of cultures with pSL101 derivatives was measured using a microplate reader by recording the absorbance at 620 nm for 7 hours after 15 min intervals. Bioluminescence of the culture was measured by quantifying the bioluminescent signal captured by an imaging system. The experiment was done in three independent repeats. It was found that during the exponential phase bioluminescence increased because of high metabolic activity of the cells and thus high availability of substrate- flavin mononucleotide (Bachmann et. al., 2007) required for luciferase enzyme (Figure 3). As the cells enter the stationary phase, a decline in the bioluminescence signal was observed corresponding to the decrease in the concentration of the substrate. Similar effect was observed for pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp. In case of the negative control, no bioluminescence was observed which confirms no background. Growth of different strains of E. faecalis was also monitored using the pSL101P16S system to determine its broad applicability. Four strains of E. faecalis differing in their origin (clinical isolate, probiotic strain, laboratory strain and commensal strain) were transformed with pSL101P16S and absorbance and bioluminescence was measured as above. As in the case of E. faecalis MMH594 a good correlation (R2 > 0.94) was observed between absorbance and bioluminescence thus proving that pSL101 system is not limited to a single strain of E. faecalis but can be used for other strains too. Figure 3 Bioluminescence during growth of E. faecalis MMH594 transformed with pSL101 derivatives. Closed symbols represent the bioluminescent signal and open symbols represent optical density at 620 nm. (a) pSL101P32. (b) pSL101P16S. (c) pSL101Phelp. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) E. faecalis is normally found in urine and blood samples of people suffering from diseases caused by this microorganism. It is also commonly found in Therefore, pSL101P16S was used to monitor the growth of E. faecalis in these environments. To measure the growth in milk, Nestle NAN Infant Milk Formula was pre-heated to 37 °C and inoculated with PBS (phosphate-buffer saline) washed probiotic strain Symbioflor 1 and commensal strain E. faecalis 32. Both the strains were lux-tagged with pSL101P16S. Bioluminescence was measured as described above and number of CFU was measured at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 22 hours after inoculation by plating the cultures on GM17 media with spectinomycin. The experiment was done in duplicates. There was no background luminescence detected by milk and for both the strains, a linear correlation (R2= 0.95) between bioluminescence and viable cell count was observed (Figure 4). Similarly, growth of lux-tagged E. faecalis MMH594 and T2 was measured in urine by preheati ng the media at 37 °C and inoculation with PBS washed cells. Although a low level of luminescence was observed in urine, there was a significant increase in the luminescence corresponding to the growth of bacterial strains (Figure 5) as in the case of milk. This experiment shows that the pSL101 system can be used in other growth environments as long as the background luminescence due to media is low. Figure 4 (a) Bioluminescence of E. faecalis strains grown in Nestle NAN Infant Milk Formula. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescnce signal. (b) Bioluminescence and CFU/ml of Symbioflor 1(black triangles) and E. faecalis 62 (gray diamonds) tagged with pSL101P16S and grown in milk. Open symbols represent CFU/ml and closed symbols represent bioluminescence (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) Figure 5 (a) Bioluminescence of E. faecalis strains grown in urine. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescnce signal. (b) Bioluminescence and CFU/ml of E. faecalis MMH594 (black circles) and E. faecalis T2 (gray diamonds) tagged with pSL101P16S and grown in urine. Open symbols represent CFU/ml and closed symbols represent bioluminescence. (Figure reproduced from La  Rosa et. al., 2012) In the next experiment growth of lux-tagged E faecalis was monitored in Galleria  mellonella. G. mellonella larvae can be maintained at 37 °C thus permitting the study of host- pathogen interaction at the human physiological temperature. Also, they have a fairly advanced immune system comprising of phagocytic cells in the blood type fluid called hemolymph. To determine whether the luxABCDE cassette influences the virulence of E. faecalis MMH594, killing of G. mellonella larvae was monitored when infected by wild-type E. faecalis MMH594 and the strain tagged by pSL101P16S. This was done by injecting 10  µl of E. faecalis suspension (in 0.9% saline) into the body cavity of 10 larvae through the hindmost leg. As a control 10  µl of 0.9% saline was injected into another 10 larvae. These infected larvae were grown at 37 °C on 90 mm petri dishes and were examined every 2 hours. It was observed that the infection due to E. faecalis is accompanied by the melanisation of larvae whic h indicates towards the activation of prophenoloxidase (PO) responsible for biosynthesis of melanin and plays a role in the defence reactions against invading organisms (Sugumaran, 2001). From Figure 6a it can be confirmed that the virulence of lux-tagged strain of E. faecalis is similar to the wild type strain. Therefore, the lux-tagged strain was used to visualize the progress of infection in G. mellonella. Figure 6b shows the bioluminescent images of infected larvae captured till 48 hours after infection. The bioluminescent signal was detected immediately after infection and declined after 2 hours. After 4 hours post infection, a peak in the signal was observed and was constant till 24 hours after which all larvae were dead (Figure 6c). To confirm whether the bioluminescent signal corresponds to the growth of E. faecalis the infected larvae were sterilized by 70% ethanol and dissected and transferred into 0.9% saline solution. These samples were vortexed and homogenous mixture of insect and bacteria was serially diluted and plated on GM17 plated with spectinomycin. At each time period, 3 insects were dissected and number of CFU was counted. A drop in the number of CFU was observed 2 hours after infection but this was followed by increase in growth till 48 hours (Figure 6d). This result is in good agreement with the bioluminescent signal measured in the infected larvae and shows that the bioluminescent reporter can be used to monitor the progress of infection by E. faecalis in G. mellonella. Figure 6 (a) Percentage survival of G. mellonella larvae when infected with wild type E. faecalis MMH594 (à ¢- ¡),  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis (X) and 0.9% saline (ââ€"Å ). (b) Bioluminescent images of G. mellonella larvae infected with  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis. The colour scale shows the intensity of bioluminescent signal. (c) Bioluminescent signal measured corresponding to the growth of  ­pSL101P16S tagged E. faecalis over 48 hours post infection. (d) Number of CFU  ­of E. faecalis from the homogenous mixture of larvae and bacteria. (Figure reproduced from La Rosa et. al., 2012) The use of luxABCDE as a reporter for monitoring growth of E. faecalis in animal models has several advantages (as stated earlier). On the other hand, there are certain limitations of this system. Bioluminescence of luxABCDE relies on fatty acid synthesis and thus on the metabolic activity of the cells. Lower the metabolic activity lower will be the bioluminescent signal. Due to this, the pSL101 reporter system designed in this study may not be able to measure the growth of bacterial cells with low metabolic rate. This is especially disadvantageous in case of biofilm formation by E. faecalis in which the cells may have low metabolic activity. Also, the report does not describe the effect of pSL101 derivatives (with P32, P16S and Phelp) on the growth of E. faecalis. Although, it is mentioned that the growth of E. faecalis MMH594 strain with pSL101 is similar to the strain with pSL101P32, pSL101P16S, pSL101Phelp (data not shown) it is necessary to investigate whether the pSL101 and its derivatives present any metabolic load on the E. faecalis strain. The study shows that the pSL101 derivatives are stably maintained in E. faecalis but the plasmid stability test was done only for duration of 7 days and it is possible that the plasmids may be rapidly lost after this time period. This will prevent the use of the pSL101 reporter system to monitor growth of E. faecalis in other animal models, such as mouse, where long-time monitoring is required. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the stability of these plasmids in E. faecalis over a long time. Additionally, it may be difficult to observe any bioluminescent signal from deep tissues of animal models if the signal is weak, as in the case of low number of E. faecalis cells. In conclusion, a simple and robust reporter system using luxABCDE has been developed to monitor the growth of E. faecalis in animal models. Despite the limitations, this method is non-invasive and will significantly reduce the burden on experimental animals. It can be used to investigate the various genes involved in the virulence of E. faecalis facilitating better understanding of pathogenicity of E. faecalis. References:- Bachmann, H., Santos, F., Kleerebezem, M., et al. (2007) Luciferase detection during stationary phase in Lactococcus lactis. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 73 (14): 4704-4706. Chow, J.W., Thal, L.A., Perri, M.B., et al. (1993) Plasmid-associated hemolysin and aggregation substance production contribute to virulence in experimental enterococcal endocarditis. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 37 (11): 2474-2477. Grady, R. and Hayes, F. (2003) Axe-Txe, a broad-spectrum proteic toxin-antitoxin system specified by a multidrug-resistant, clinical isolate of Enterococcus faecium. Molecular microbiology, 47 (5): 1419-1432. Hanin, A., Sava, I., Bao, Y., et al. (2010) Screening of in vivo activated genes in Enterococcus faecalis during insect and mouse infections and growth in urine. PloS one, 5 (7): e11879. Ike, Y., Hashimoto, H. and Clewell, D.B. (1984) Hemolysin of Streptococcus faecalis subspecies zymogenes contributes to virulence in mice. Infection and immunity, 45 (2): 528-530. Jett, B.D., Jensen, H.G., Nordquist, R.E., et al. (1992) Contribution of the pAD1-encoded cytolysin to the severity of experimental Enterococcus faecalis endophthalmitis. Infection and immunity, 60 (6): 2445-2452. La Rosa, S.L., Diep, D.B., Nes, I.F., et al. (2012) Construction and application of a luxABCDE reporter system for real-time monitoring of Enterococcus faecalis gene expression and growth. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78 (19): 7003-7011. Mundy, L.M., Sahm, D.F. and Gilmore, M. (2000) Relationships between enterococcal virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Clinical microbiology reviews, 13 (4): 513-522. Qazi, S.N., Counil, E., Morrissey, J., et al. (2001) agr expression precedes escape of internalized Staphylococcus aureus from the host endosome. Infection and immunity, 69 (11): 7074-7082. Schlievert, P.M., Gahr, P.J., Assimacopoulos, A.P., et al. (1998) Aggregation and binding substances enhance pathogenicity in rabbit models of Enterococcus faecalis endocarditis. Infection and immunity, 66 (1): 218-223. Shankar, N., Lockatell, C.V., Baghdayan, A.S., et al. (2001) Role of Enterococcus faecalis surface protein Esp in the pathogenesis of ascending urinary tract infection. Infection and immunity, 69 (7): 4366-4372. Sugumaran, M. (2001) Control mechanisms of the prophenoloxidase cascade. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 484 289-298. Nikhil Aggarwal

Free Admissions Essay - Healing Old Wounds :: Medicine College Admissions Essays

Admissions Essay -  Healing Old Wounds    Modest one-room houses lay scattered across the desert landscape. Their rooftops a seemingly helpless shield against the intense heat generated by the mid-July sun. The steel security bars that guarded the windows and doors of every house seemed to belie the large welcome sign at the entrance to the ABC Indian Reservation. As a young civil engineer employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, I was far removed from my cubical in downtown Los Angeles. However, I felt I was well-prepared to conduct my first project proposal. The project involved a $500,000 repair of an earthen levee surrounding an active Native American burial site. A fairly inexpensive and straightforward job by federal standards, but nonetheless I could hardly contain my excitement. Strict federal construction guidelines laden with a generous portion of technical jargon danced through my head as I stepped up to the podium to greet the twelve tribal council members. My premature confidence quickly disappeared as they confronted me with a troubled ancient gaze. Their faces revealed centuries of distrust and broken government promises. Suddenly, from a design based solely upon abstract engineering principles an additional human dimension emerged - one for which I had not prepared. The calculations I had crunched over the past several months and the abstract engineering principles simply no longer applied. Their potential impact on this community was clearly evident in the faces before me. With perspiration forming on my brow, I decided I would need to take a new approach to salvage this meeting. So I discarded my rehearsed speech, stepped out from behind the safety of the podium, and began to solicit the council members' questions and concerns. By the end of the afternoon, our efforts to establish a cooperative working relationship had resulted in a distinct shift in the mood of the meeting. Although I am not saying we erased centuries of mistrust in a single day, I feel certain our steps towards improved relations and trust produced a successful project.    I found this opportunity to humanize my engineering project both personally and professionally rewarding. Unfortunately, experiences like it were not common. I realized early in my career that I needed a profession where I can more frequently incorporate human interaction and my interests in science. After two years of working as a civil engineer, I enrolled in night school to explore a medical career and test my aptitude for pre-medical classes.

Beauty Behind The Brushstrokes Essay -- China Culture Art Papers

Beauty Behind The Brushstrokes Chinese calligraphy, the ancient Chinese art of writing, has been around for as long as the history of China. Through thousand of years of evolution, many styles and forms have been developed and established, namely the zhuan, li, kai, xing and cao styles (shu). Different styles express different personalities and are used for different purposes and at different times. But the underlying beauty of Chinese calligraphy, regardless of its style, lies in its expression of thoughts and feelings of the calligrapher and ultimately, the spontaneous response from the viewer's mind. However, these styles, with different degrees of variation in forms, possess varied levels of expressiveness. The different level of expressiveness lies in the varaition of forms and the degree of variation. Zhuan shu and li shu are mainly for official writings and zhuan shu is the precedent of li shu. Li shu follows a certain strict prescription with minimal variations in the writings, and hence it is not very capable of expressing the thoughts and feelings of the calligrapher. However it is not until the materialization of li shu that this ancient form of writing can be considered as an art form with the capability of expressing ones feelings and thoughts, due to its flexibility and indefinite forms. Kai shu evolves from these two precedents and is the most commonly used style today due to its regular forms and legibility. However due to its slightly stricter prescription, it allows fewer variations and hence is less capable of exuding the calligraphers emotions and personalities. But with an injection of "motion" or flow in kai shu, the words become more fluid and indefinite. Such style i s named xing shu, which is more ... ...of thoughts and feelings, which are all merely preludes, lies the climax of the symphony of Chinese brushstrokes- the silent dialogue between human minds and their surroundings. Works Cited S.H Khoo and Nancy L. Penrose. Behind the Brushstrokes: Tales from Chines Calligraphy. Singapore: Graham Brash Pte Ltd, 1993. Jean Francoise Billeter. The Chinese Art of Writing. New York: Rizzoli International Publication, Inc, 1990. A.H Maslow. Towards a Psychology of Being. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1968. Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Why Write?" In Critical Theory Since Plato ed. Hazard Adams. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1971. Best, David. The Rationality of Feeling: Understanding the Arts in Education. London: The Falmer Press, 1992. Abstracted Works of calligraphy Chiang Yee. Chinese Calligraphy. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1938

tupac :: essays research papers

Tupac Shakur was a black African American rapper who lived his life with poverty, violence and drugs. The songs â€Å"â€Å"Hellrazor†Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"Me and My Girlfriend† and the poem â€Å"In the Event of my Demise† reflect the tragedy and pain which was Tupac’s life. All his poetry relies on vivid imagery and violent language to create a very realistic picture of how terrible life can be living in the ghettos of America. The song â€Å"Hellrazor† is a very dramatic song which tells the story of a young black African American male trying to make his way into becoming a â€Å"Gangsta† as he has no other way to support himself. The theme of change is reflected in this song. The song doesn’t really have a straight flowing structure. It rhymes in places but there is no pattern to it. For example: it rhymes in the 1st two lines: -   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Born heartless and mean muggin†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"At 16 on the scene watching fiends buggin† But after that it doesn’t rhyme for further 8 lines. That leaves a very dramatic effort because it reflects the tension and the violence of this song. The song has some very harsh and effective similes. For example: - â€Å"When a nigga gettin' richer, they come to get ya† â€Å"It is like a motherfuckin' trap and they wonder why it's hard being black†. This simile works very well because it uses some really strong emotions and the theme of racism to get the message through. Also the use of very strong language leaves a lasting image on the listener. The song uses plenty of Gangsta slang. Some examples include: - Gat, Loc, 5-0.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is a very memorable song because it is so emotional and tragic. The most vivid lines come when he raps about how a little girl who was killed by a gun. Lines such as:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dear Lord, if you hear me tell me why?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Little girl like Natasha had to die†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"She neva got go see the bullet, just heard the shot†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Her little body couldn't take it, she shook and dropped† This part of the song is very dramatic because of his reference to god and by the way he said that she didn’t even see the bullet coming. It is very hard to forget this song because of its strong language and powerful imagery of the girl being murdered. The song â€Å" Me and my Girlfriend† is a very complicated song. The message that Tupac is trying to get through is not what you see written down on the piece of paper.

Historical cost accounting Essay

Advantages †¢Historical cost accounts are straightforward to produce †¢Historical cost accounts do not record gains until they are realized †¢Historical cost accounts are still used in most accounting systems Disadvantages †¢Historical cost accounts give no indication of current values of the assets of a business †¢Historical cost accounts do not record the opportunity costs of the use of older assets, particularly property which may be recorded at a value based on costs incurred many years ago †¢Historical cost accounts do not measure the loss of value of monetary assets as a result of inflation. Current purchasing power accounting Advantages †¢CPP method adopts the same unit of measurement by taking into account the price changes. †¢Under CPP method, historical accounts continue to be maintained. CPP statements are prepared on supplementary basis. †¢ CPP method facilitates the calculation of gain or loss in purchasing power due to the holding of monetary items. †¢CPP method uses common purchasing power as measuring unit. So, the comparative study is easy. †¢ CPP method provides reliable financial information for taking management decision to formulate plans and policies. †¢CPP method ensures keeping intact the purchasing power of capital contributed by shareholders. So, this method is of great importance from the point of view of the shareholders. Disadvantages †¢CPP method considers only the changes in general purchasing power. It does not consider the changes in the value of individual items. †¢CPP method is based on statistical index number which cannot be used in an individual firm. †¢ It is very difficult to choose a suitable price index. †¢CPP method fails to remove all the defects of historical cost accounting system. †¢The use of general price index for CPP method is questioned. While general price index deals with consumer goods, business is interested in the price movement of producer goods. Current cost accounting Advantages †¢More relevant †¢Provides up to date information with financial markets †¢Takes inflationary adjustments into account. â€Å"Critics have argued market value(current cost) reveals economic realities that are hidden by historical cost accounting. †¢Investors and creditors also prefer the market value accounting. â€Å"the information about the market value at the reporting date, the changes in that value and the components of that change- all provide the investors the valuable information for his decision making.† †¢In F/S, easier to view and determine whether the asset or liability is at risk or not Disadvantages †¢Unreliable   Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Volatile, when market price of an asset and liability is not available, the value is estimated (inappropriate) Continuously contemporary accounting Strengths †¢CoCoA provides information about an entity’s capacity to adapt. Chambers considers such information crucial for effective decision making †¢It solves the ‘additivity’ problem-there is a common basis of valuation (net-market values) so it makes logical sense to add the various asset values together. †¢There is no need for arbitrary cost allocations through depreciation. Weaknesses †¢Not all assets will have a readily determined market price-hence a deal of subjectively will be involved. †¢Some assets can generate income within a particular entity, but have little or no value to anybody else (for example, the case of the blast furnace). The ‘value in use’ of such assets is ignored. †¢It values assets on the basis of the separate disposal of the respective assets. The implication of this is that assets which cannot be separately sold are deemed to have no value-for example, goodwill. This attribute of CoCoA has attracted a great deal of criticism. †¢CoCoA has never had widespread acceptance within the business community and hence there would be numerous obstacles to its implementation. †¢Because CoCoA would represent a radical departure from current methods of accounting, its adoption could cause major social and economic implications. †¢People are used to preparing and reading historical cost accounting reports, hence there would be a need to re-educate them about the strengths and limitations of CoCoA-this might be costly. †¢If an entity does not expect to sell an asset, it is questionable whether the selling price is really that relevant. †¢Tied to the above point, valuing all assets on the basis of selling prices has been criticised if it is considered that the entity is a going concern. †¢Determining the market price of unique assets introduces a degree of subjectivity into the accounting process.