Asthma :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Asthma is a chronic illness that affects many people. Asthma affects approximately 155 million people around the world. The pharmaceutical industry approximates $5.5 billion in sales for asthma medication per year for a condition that is incurable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways. The narrowing of airways occurs due to inflammation and excessive mucous secretion. The constriction of the airway gives rise to common asthmatic symptoms of wheezing, coughing, tightness in the chest, and shortness of breath. The usual form of control for asthma is bronchiodilators and corticosteriods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although, bronchiodilators are used in asthma therapy they have no effect on the inflammatory process. Bronchiodilators are a class of drug that relaxes airway smooth muscle by increasing cAMP and opening potassium channels. Corticosteriods on the other hand are now considered the first line of treatment for patients with severe and chronic asthma. Corticosteriods bind to a receptor in the cytosol, which translocates to the nucleus and binds DNA to activate genes. The main action of corticosteriods is to suppress multiple inflammatory genes, such as cytokines, inflammatory enzymes and adhesion molecules. The effectiveness of the corticosteriod is in most part due to the inhibition of transcription factors, such as AP-1 (activation protein 1), Nuclear factor-b (NF-b), and nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NF-AT), which are required for inflammatory response.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The FcRI is the receptor for the IgE antibody. The FcRI is composed of a  chain that binds the Fc portion of the IgE, the  chain and the  chain together form a tetrameric structure. Due to the fact that release of mediators from mast cells in asthma is IgE-E dependent one approach would be to block the activation of IgE using blocking antibodies that do not result in mast cells. A humanized murine monoclonal antibody directed to the FcRI-binding domain of human IgE (rhuMAb-E25) reduces allergen specific IgE after intravenous administration. RhuMAb reduces early and late responses to inhaled allergen and eosinophils counts from induced sputum.

Individual Assignment and Chart Essay

Curriculum history is important to educators just as the general history of a country is important to historians and politicians. Much can be learned from the successes and the failures of the past. Traditional education in Japan follows societal norms in stressing respect for order and for group goals. The schools stress self-evaluation, hard work, and organization. Schools actively teach morals and values in order to develop individuals of character that will function in society as educated and moral. Japanese formal education in began with adherence to Buddhism and Confucianism. Later, studies in sciences were added, and Japan slowly began to adopt more western styles of education. Briefly, the schools were used as military and nationalistic training grounds during WWI and WWII (Hood, 2001). Over the last fifty years, schools in Japan have been evolving further. After WWII, a call to return to leadership and societal welfare in education was initiated. Schools were strictly centered around community goals and common curriculums. In the 1980s, unfortunately, an increase in youth violence began to worry Japanese citizens about their future. Focus turned to the morals based education of centuries before. In the late 1990s, the cold war era was over. The Ministry felt as if they could relax the six day long weeks and long days (Japan, 2006). Part of this change in philosophy could be due to changes in competition for universities. Previously, competition for admission into Japanese universities was cutthroat, but now, with a reduction in the number of children being born, schools are competing for students (Hood, 2001). In a way, this has given students more power to seek the types of education they most need. In addition, Japan is also loosening its governmental hold on curriculum and allowing from more flexibility in curriculum through site-based decision-making (Komatsu, 2002). Schools are now able to select textbooks from a group of sources. Recently, controversy has arisen as to which history textbooks to choose. In 1997, a group was formed to create and market a revision of Japanese history for incorporation into school history textbooks. This group was primarily interested in revising the presentation of Japan’s execution of militaristic procedures. Unfortunately, even with its widespread promotion efforts, the revised textbook failed to gain a foothold in Japanese schools. Only a few private schools in one small area of Tokyo was willing to give the book a chance (Masalksi, 2002). Not all things in Japan’s educational system are open to change. Before, Japanese teachers had very little autonomy in determining what they would teach even though they held positions of high respect in the community. Now, individual schools and teachers will be able to decide on curriculum issues that best meet the needs of their students. â€Å"The general principle of curriculum organisation is changing from the idea of providing a common education for all children to one of providing different education for various children† (Komatsu, 2002, p. 53). The 2002 Rainbow Plan mirrors the change in philosophy towards more democratic ideals. The government is continuing to relinquish more control to the schools’ local administrations (Japan, 2006). In the future, Japanese education will continue to follow Western trends. One such trend will be in technology and information. While Japan is a world leader in electronics technology, its individual and student use of the internet lags behind. This is primarily because 80% of the internet content is in English. As a result, Japanese students need to be learning both spoken and written English and how to use the internet at younger ages (McCarty, 2000). Clearly, Japanese education will begin to include more intensive English and computer technology classes in early education for its students. Another trend in Japanese education must certainly be increased funding for higher education. Even though the number of teenagers in Japan is lower, over 40 % of them do attend universities. However, government funding for universities is low. Dr. Akito Arima, former Minister of Education, notes that while the United States spends about one percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on educational funding, Japan spends less than half of one percent in the same manner. However, Japan is second only to the United States in the number of students who attend college. The funding for private universities is even lower, even though 75% of college students attend private universities. â€Å"In this respect, one should note the contradiction between the high proportion of people who move on to higher education, and the low public expenditure ratio. This demonstrates that university education in Japan is seriously under-funded† (Arima, 2002). If college education remains under-funded, many secondary students may turn away from it, thinking that it has less to offer than before. If birth rates should rise in the future, this burden will become more pronounced. Funding will definitely have to be initiated in order to keep young students setting college educations as their goal. Ironically, the US and Japan seem to be crossing each other in the middle of the curriculum spectrum. While Japan is recognizing the individuality of each student and allowing him to seek his own educational goals with flexible programs of study, the US is getting much more rigid with the enactment of NCLB and strict state testing plans and pacing guides. One might wonder if the US will notice a similar increase in youth discontent as a result.

How to Calculate a Sample Standard Deviation

A common way to quantify the spread of a set of data is to use the sample standard deviation. Your calculator may have a built in standard deviation button, which typically has a sx on it.   Sometimes it’s nice to know what your calculator is doing behind the scenes. The steps below break down the formula for a standard deviation into a process. If youre ever asked to do a problem like this on a test, know that sometimes it’s easier to remember a step by step process rather than memorizing a formula. After we look at the process we will see how to use it to calculate a standard deviation. The Process Calculate the mean of your data set.Subtract the mean from each of the data values and list the differences.Square each of the differences from the previous step and make a list of the squares.In other words, multiply each number by itself.Be careful with negatives. A negative times a negative makes a positive.Add the squares from the previous step together.Subtract one from the number of data values you started with.Divide the sum from step four by the number from step five.Take the square root of the number from the previous step. This is the standard deviation.You may need to use a basic calculator to find the square root.Be sure to use significant figures when rounding your answer. A Worked Example Suppose youre given the data set 1,2,2,4,6. Work through each of the steps to find the standard deviation. Calculate the mean of your data set.The the mean of the data is (12246)/5 15/5 3.Subtract the mean from each of the data values and list the differences.Subtract 3 from each of the values 1,2,2,4,61-3 -22-3 -12-3 -14-3 16-3 3Your list of differences is -2,-1,-1,1,3Square each of the differences from the previous step and make a list of the squares.You need to square each of the numbers -2,-1,-1,1,3Your list of differences is -2,-1,-1,1,3(-2)2 4(-1)21(-1)21121329Your list of squares is 4,1,1,1,9Add the squares from the previous step together.You need to add 4111916Subtract one from the number of data values you started with.You began this process (it may seem like awhile ago) with five data values. One less than this is 5-1 4.Divide the sum from step four by the number from step five.The sum was 16, and the number from the previous step was 4. You divide these two numbers 16/4 4.Take the square root of the number from the previous step. This is the standard deviation.Your st andard deviation is the square root of 4, which is 2. Tip: It’s sometimes helpful to keep everything organized in a table, like the one shown below. Data Data-Mean (Data-Mean)2 1 -2 4 2 -1 1 2 -1 1 4 1 1 6 3 9 We next add up all of entries in the right column. This is the sum of the squared deviations. Next divide by one less than the number of data values. Finally, we take the square root of this quotient and we are done.