Ethical Issues Of Euthanasia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ethical Issues Of Euthanasia - Essay Example In this modern world, despite the progress that has been made both in science and technology and in particular in the regulations and law field, there is still a lot of controversy and ambiguity over the notion of euthanasia ( the peaceful death). Therefore, this ethical dilemma may impose the legal and ethical risk on health care providers. The legal and ethical aspects of the notion of euthanasia are commonly debated in many countries. Several opinions are offered which are based on the principles of religious beliefs and personal morality. Hence, researchers and scientists are still trying to reach a general consensus on this dilemma that is ethical in nature (Somerville, 2001).In countries that practice the Islamic faith, there are debates and discussions on withdrawing or withholding the life support therapies or giving a patient at the end of life the freedom to choose peaceful death. Healthcare providers have no protection or immunity if they decide to help a patient die based on the Islamic law. Therefore, from the point of view of Islam, a patient has no right to die voluntarily since life is an opportunity to refine the spirit and is a divine trust. Thus, nobody has the right to end a human life by interfering through active assistance (McDougall et al., 2008).Therefore, withdrawing or withholding treatment of a patient is very difficult and can never be universal without considering the social, religious and cultural factors when it comes to decision making.

Chemometric Technique to Determine Rice Types

Chemometric Technique to Determine Rice Types CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1Â  Background of Study Rice (Oryza Sativa) is a type of cereal food in which most people consumes. As acereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the worlds human population, especially in Asia [1]. Rice is perhaps the most remarkable of cultivated crops, for although possessing the roots of a dry land plant, it flourishes in swamps or under irrigation, and in Asia has produced one or more crop annually for centuries (Grist, 1965). Commercially available rice is distributed in different varieties in the market. Classification of product brands and type of products is a very active area for the application of chemometric classification procedures [2]. The use of specific sensors for characterizing foodstuffs or in this case rice is being replaced by a trend to draw on the wealth of information available from the data provided by current analytical instrumentation. The extraction of useful information from an amount of data and the optimum use of this analytical information are important objectives of chemometrics [3]. Since the infrared spectra contain significant information about all the components of a complex mixture, FTIR is a very powerful and general technique for investigating the structure of rice components. In association with chemometric treatments such as principal component analysis (PCA), vibrational spectroscopy allows classification of foods (rice) to be undertaken without any chemical analysis [2]. The main advantage is that no prior information on the sample is needed since the significant information is extracted during statistical treatment. The spectral information will constitute the experimental data which are analysed by PCA and HCA. 1.2Â  Problem Statement Research on rice till this date mostly focused on its genome in order to increase the nutritional values. An example of product that has made it through this kind of research is Golden Rice. There is very little research on focusing in determination of types of rice using combination of spectroscopy and chemometrics technique let alone combination of Infrared Spectroscopy and chemometrics. Due to this, little is known about which or what variables is responsible in the types of rice grouping when pattern recognition is applied. Hence, this research is important in identifying what variable is responsible for the grouping of samples. 1.3Â  Research Objective The aim of this study is to apply chemometric technique to determine the types of rice that will be analyze through Infrared Spectroscopy in order to assess the potential relationship between the element content and types of rice. 1.4Â  Significance of Study This study is important to determine the variables that responsible in differentiation and variety types of rice. With the combination of Infrared Spectroscopy spectra of the samples prior to grouping of samples using pattern recognition, this is a quick method to classify rice compared to the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with pattern recognition or other instruments. 1.5Â  Scope of the Research In this research, type of rice to be samples is based on definition of rice’s type in Malaysia by Padi Beras Nasional Berhad [4]. There are 7 samples to be test which all of them are to acquire at local stores. Analysis of the sample will be done through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and pattern recognition which include Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster analysis. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1Â  Rice in History Humankind progression in term of social and cultural was partly due to the discovery of agriculture. This development gave a massive impact on the way human been living their life by choosing to settle down in one place instead of constantly moving around looking for places with new food sources. Archeological evidence founds all over Asia proposed that rice must be at least eight thousand years old, thus eliminating theory that rice was among the first cereal to be cultivated due to general believed that agriculture first started around the Mesopotamian region in the valley between Euphrates and Tigris [5]. One of these is related to the extraordinary concentration of rice production in a small part of the world. Approximately 90% or more of the world’s rice is produced in the relatively tiny area in south, southeast and northeast Asia which often be refer to as ‘rice country’ [6]. Rice is produced in a wide range of locations and under a variety of climatic conditions, from the wettest areas in the world to the driest deserts. It is produced along Myanmar’s Arakan Coast, where the growing season records an average of more than 5100mm of rainfall, and at Al Hasa Oasis in Saudi Arabia [5]. Rice plays a major role economically, especially in countries where rice is considered as the main food. This is more accurate in most countries in Asia, because not only they consume rice daily, but also Asia is the main producer of rice [1]. Country like China, India and Thailand have long played major role in the development of rice, economically. The success of the crops not only important to the grower, but also affect the community either directly or indirectly [1]. 2.2Â  Types of Rice There are dozens of different ways to classify the scores of types of rice from all over the world, but rice is generally described as being long-, medium- or short-grained [5]. These are some of the most common types youll find in supermarkets andgourmet stores, as well as a few specialty rices that were seeing more and more often. In the world market as well as in Malaysia, much emphasis is placed on grain length and whiteness as a criterion of grade and quality. Other factors such as palatability characteristics (appearance, cohesiveness, tenderness and flavor) also constitute as important considerations in quality grading [4]. In Malaysia, the main varieties of rice found in retail outlets are ordinary local and imported white rice, brown unpolished rice and specialty rice such as fragrant rice, Basmati, parboiled and glutinous rice. The main criteria in the classification are length of grain, content of head rice, content of broken rice and milling degree [7]. 2.3Â  Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) provides specific information about chemical bonding and molecular structure, making it useful for analyzing organic materials and certain inorganic material. It can be utilized to quantitative some components of an unknown mixture. It can be applied to the analysis of solids, liquid and gasses. The term FTIR spectroscopy refers to a fairly recent development in the manner in which the data is collected and converted from an interference pattern to a spectrum [8].When the material under investigation is put into an FTIR spectrometer, it will absorb the radiation emitted and the successful absorption will display the uniqueness or fingerprint of the material under investigation [9]. Samples for FTIR can be prepared in multiple ways depending on its physical state. For solid samples, it will be ground into a fine powder with an agate mortar and pestle with an amount of the suspending salt, which usually be KBr due to it being transparent to infrared radiation. This powder is then compressed through a bench top hydraulic press into becoming a thin pellet which can be analyzed [10]. Another method to prepare solid samples is by dissolving it in a suitable solvent such as methylene chloride and the solution is dropped onto a salt plate. After the solvent evaporates, a thin-solid film of the compound remains on the plate [11]. Meanwhile, liquid samples can be examined directly as a thin film between two sodium chloride plates. 2.4Â  Chemometrics The term chemometrics was coined in the 1970s and is defined as the chemical discipline that uses statistical and mathematical methods for selecting and optimizing analytical and preparative methods, as well as procedures for the analysis and interpretation of data [12]. 2.4.1Â  Pattern Recognition The overall goal of pattern recognition is classification. Developing a classifier from spectral, chromatographic, or compositional data may be desirable for any number of purposes including source identification, presence or absence of disease in a patient or animal from which the sample has been taken, and food quality testing to name just a few [13]. The classification step is often accomplished using one of several techniques that are now fairly well established including PCA, HCA, KNN, statistical and regularized discriminant analysis. Techniques of pattern recognition are applicable to data drawn from virtually any physical process. The data may be qualitative, quantitative, or both which is they may be numerical, pictorial, textural, linguistic, or any combination thereof. Meanwhile, one of the most important and oft-used data analysis methods is the eyeball technique, Subjective assessment of data patterns has long been a method accepted by many traditional data analyzers. Statistical analysis proceeds slowly by hand, more rapidly with hand calculators and can be quite fast with modern computers [14]. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1Â  Samples A total of 7 different samples of rice will be use for this study. All of the samples will be obtain from various supermarkets and grocery stores in Johor Bahru and Seremban area. Various brands and types of rice are selected in order to get as much variation as possible. 3.2Â  Analysis of Sample Spectra of the rice samples will be acquired using (model number) instrument with KBr disc. The wavelength is set up to range from 4000cm-1 to 400cm-1. 3.3Â  Software Chemometrics analysis is the main part in this research as the data obtained from spectroscopic analysis will be analyses so that the important data can be identified and useable information can be deduced from the data. The key to chemometrics is to understand how to perform meaningful calculations on data. In most cases these calculations are too complex to do by hand or using a calculator, so it is necessary to use some software. Three softwares will be use for the data analysis as listed in table below. 3.4Â  Procedures CHAPTER 4 RESULT 4.1Â  Expected Result It is expected that Principal Component Analysis (PCA) will reveal multiple grouping due to different types of rice being used as samples. Furthermore, by comparing the score plot with the loading plot, the unknown variable that causing the samples to be group as it is will be identify. REFERENCES Calpe, C. (2006). Rice: International commodity profile.Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Brereton, R. (2009). Introduction. InChemometrics for pattern recognition(pp. 1-24). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley. Brereton, R. (2002). Intro. InAn introduction to chemometrics: Data analysis for the laboratory and chemical plant(pp. 1-12). New York: Wiley. RICE TYPES IN MALAYSIA. (2011). Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://www.bernas.com.my/index.php/rice-types-in-malaysia Bhattacharya, K. (2011). An Introduction to rice: Its Qualities and Mysteries. InRice Quality a Guide To Rice Properties And Analysis.(pp. 1-18). Burlington: Elsevier Science. Wong, L. C., Emrus, S. A., Bashir, B. M., Tey, J. Y. (2010, June). Malaysian Padi Rice Industry: Applications of Supply Chain Management Approach. In National Rice Conference Swiss Garden Golf Resort Lumut(pp. 28-30). Grist D. H. (1986). Tropical Agricultural Series. Rice, 6, 3-12, Longman Group Limited. Introduction to Infrared Spectroscopy. (2011) Fundamentals of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Second Edition (pp. 1-17): CRC Press. King, PL, Ramsey, MS, McMillan, PF, Swayze, G. (2004). Laboratory Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy methods for geologic samples. Infrared Spectroscopy in Geochemistry, Exploration Geochemistry and Remote Sensing, Mineralogical Association of Canada, Short Course, 57-91. Hauser, Martin, Oelichmann, Joachim. (1988). A critical comparison of solid sample preparation techniques in infrared spectroscopy. Microchimica Acta, 94(1-6), 39-43. Stuart, Barbara. (2000). Infrared Spectroscopy Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Beebe, k.R, Pell, R.J., Seasholtz, M.B. (1998). Chemometrics: A Practical Guide. New York. John Wiley Sons, Inc. 61-65. Lavine, B., Workman, J. (2010). Chemometrics.Analytical chemistry,82(12), 4699-4711. Theodiridis, S., Koutroumbas, K. (2006). Pattern Recognition, Third Edition. Amsterdam, Boston. Academic Press. 1.

My Philippine Identity Essay examples -- Personal Narrative, Identity

My Philippine Identity Identity is the essence of a person which makes him stand out as an individual. There are various factors which help form and evolve a person's persona, and that is what I write about in the follwing essay. We did not think it mattered! Who needed the "right" car, family lineage, the "right" education, domestic helpers--basically the "right" everything? We perceived all of the above as parts of the pretension of the Philippine society, yet it was so easy for us to ignore and dissociate ourselves from it because we were the products of this "right" term. We could deny the class system and insult it because we were luckily born into the advantageous class, and we had these "right elements" accessible to us. If we became tired of the society we could complain about it or excommunicate ourselves, but since we were considered the "privileged class" we could always return and the level of respect would still be there. We were in a no lose situation in this respect. The Philippine society consists of distinct class systems which depend, number one, on the family background of a person, then number two, the socioeconomic level. Which family you come from, whether they are in business, in politics, etc. is very important. People really look at surnames. If you have a revered surname you get some kind of automatic respect, even if you are not a very kind person. Money also matters but if you have just recently encountered your wealth and you do not belong to the right kind of family, chances are you will be considered "nouveau riche." Many of my friends and I used to complain about the materialism of the people, the way we had to act a certain way in front of adults, the social obligations, and how on... ...e harmonious relationships. These reminders which are trying to reach out to us, so that we may all live together in peace, are extra elements which help push us along the road to better relations. In the end though, people must come to terms with racial, societal, or any kind of discrimination in their own time and pace. That is the only instance that they will be able to get their hatred and awkwardness out of their system. In terms of Philippine Filipinos and Fil-Am relations, as of today, I think that the people are ready to accept each other. It is now the right timing for them to get to know their missing link--their other Filipino half. The occurrence in Boston University was, I feel, the beginning of a trend that will reach all the Filipinos in the United States, and make each and every Filipino part of one group instead of two groups that do not get along.

Ethical Analysis

The Consequential Theory contends that the moral rightness of an action can be determined by looking at it consequences. If the consequences are good, the act is right. If the consequences are bad, the act is wrong. In the case of Kent, he believes that the nudity in the Lucky video game is a bad idea. He feels that some people will be really upset about it. However, the Lucky project can also bring in a great deal of revenue for Broadway, and jobs are at stake. In this case, the consequences of putting the Lucky video games on the market would result In higher revenue or net happiness.On the other hand, the fact that they Lucky video game has full nudity as well as graphic violence will upset a lot of people and they might not support the died game. Brad feels that the games are not ready for the U. S. Market; therefore, he has contacted an Internet provider who will take their game and put it on the Net as an adult product. He has also checked out foreign markets and found that the y can sell the machines to the Mexican market if they tone down the violence.The Taiwanese has agreed to the version the Broadway now has and wants them to develop something more graphic in both areas. By reaching out to the foreign market, this act will also produce net happiness on the other hand it can lead teenagers to violence and internet pornography. In my opinion the fact that Kent realized that producing the Lucky video game with full nudity and graphic violence will upset some people and that they should not go through with the product demonstrates ethical behavior on the part of Broadway Corporation.However, the Joint venture with the Taiwanese group, selling of the machines to the Mexican market and using the Internet is unethical behavior on the part of Broadway Corporation. The Deontological Theory claims that actions can be judged ethically good or bad on the basis of absolute moral principles arrived by human reason regardless of the uniqueness of an action, that is, regardless of whether there is net happiness. Brad is willing to selling the video game to the foreign market as well as a Joint venture with the Taiwanese group.Kent feels that the Lucky video game is a bad idea and feels they should not go with the nudity idea. In my opinion, Brad Is willing to market the Lucky video games to the foreign markets and on the Internet with the nudity and graphic violence is unethical on the part of the Broadway Corporation. By doing this, It may contribute to teenage violence and prone. Kent Is thinking of the people that the Lucky video game might set which is ethical on the part of Broadway Corporation.I nee Dental AT ten Lucky peeve Is ten pronto Tanat Broadway corporation will make. The test market results suggested that the nudity and graphic violence increased profitability dramatically. The cost of the Lucky video game will be the video design, development, implementation, and operation. Other costs include site and facility and the shipping of the video games globally. Under the Consequential Theory, the benefit is increased profitability which is net happiness; therefore, the Lucky project is good because of the profitability.Under the Deontological Theory, by selling to the foreign markets and internet, Broadway Corporation saying that it is okay for the foreign markets to sell video games with graphic violence and nudity to the U. S. Markets. The Broadway Corporation should consider taking out the nudity and graphic violence in the Lucky video game. After all their target market is children aged 5 to 12 and teenagers between the ages of 13 to 19 and of this market 75% are male. The Broadway Corporation can end up Jeopardizing their stance in the video market by producing and selling the Lucky video game.

How is the paranormal made to seem normal? Essay

How is the paranormal made to seem normal? ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, a gothic novella, uses lots of realism to try to make the story believable. In ‘Portobello Road’ as well as absolute realism, the conversational style of story telling helps the reader believe. In the stories, different styles of language are incorporated. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ a very formal vernacular is used and journalese and legalese are also used whereas in ‘Portobello Road’ a much more modern vernacular is used and although it is a ghost story, it is set in modern London, in broad daylight. This is unusual because most ghost stories of that era were set in castles, haunted houses and graveyards. The authoress has set an extra task for herself by doing this. Muriel Stark uses documentary evidence, for instance letters, to encourage the reader to believe, as well as telling the story as a friend in a modern, relaxed vernacular. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, although some parts are hard to believe, the majority is easily believable as it contains lots of realism. A large part of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is the melodramatic leap from the mysterious to the paranormal. ‘Portobello Road’ also contains melodrama; Needle is telling the story and the reader has no idea she is dead and then it suddenly comes out of the blue. She mentions her death and then carries on as normal, and the reader sidelines this fact as the story continues. Though there is a lot of melodrama in both of the stories, this is disguised by the realism. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, the author mentions specific places in London, to give a sense of place, which the everyday person would recognise (such as Soho etc). Also mentioned are everyday occurrences such as pea-souper fogs. In ‘Portobello Road’, places are also mentioned (i.e. Portobello Road market, Kent, Edinburgh, Africa). Both stories are also made believable by the main characters presenting the stories to the reader. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Mr Utterson, the lawyer and the person who represents us the reader, tells the story. When he opens the letters, or opens doors, we the reader are right behind him, egging him on. Needle tells the story in ‘Portobello Rd’ and we, the reader, can relate to her. We relate to the fact she has gone through life without a proper job by just earning enough or luckily finding money. She is a drifter who just drifts through life, just like a ghost. We also relate to her bitchiness to Kathleen. When she sees her friend Kathleen ageing and she herself is not, she says, â€Å"Poor Kathleen- I hate to say how she looked.† Though she says this, she is probably secretly enjoying it, as most women would. The environment also plays a big part in both stories, adding to the realism as well as the believability and the understanding. Both are set in London, the capital of the known world, and both mention certain items to their advantage. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ we see Soho and Cavendish Square mentioned, as well as Georgian streets, houses, doors, gas lamps and the chiming of bells, all of which add to the realism. In ‘Portobello Road’, we hear mention of jolly painted villas, Portobello Road market (a most unusual setting for a ghost story), Kent and of foreign countries such as Zimbabwe. Characters also make a huge impact on the understanding and believability of a story. In both of the stories, the authors use the characters to help the reader enjoy and believe their story. In ‘Portobello Road’ we have Needle who shows human emotions and delightful bitchiness to which all of the readers can relate and also uses irony: she says how they all look older and of course ghosts don’t age. Then we have George, who thinks the other characters have changed for the worse and in the end, he pays for the death of Needle by cracking up. All of this also adds to the large amount of realism in the story. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, we have firstly Jekyll, who suffered an emotionally deprived childhood, on which he blames his sins. There are verbal clues to Jekyll, ‘Je kill’ in French and German and in the book hear of a, â€Å"tendency for irregularities†, and â€Å"I concealed my pleasures.† Then we have Mr Utterson, the man who represents us, the reader, and who is a respectable lawyer. We all have evil inside of us, but Mr Utterson controls this evil by effort, conscience and self-discipline. He drinks gin instead of vintage wine and despite enjoying the theatre, does not go. Another character is Enfield, the person who first sparks curiosity and creates a sense of normality and finally Lanyon and Hyde. Lanyon’s death leads to the unfolding of the mystery explained in more documentary evidence. Hyde has an aura of hatred and evil personified as a human who once everybody sees, everybody dislikes. In ghost stories, the monster has never been close to us and where we live, making us feel safe. Bram Stoker brought ‘Dracula’ to Whitby moor, but in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, the monster is not just near us, it is inside of us. There is a moral in both stories; in ‘Portobello Rd’ the moral is that George pays for the death of Needle by cracking up. In ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ the moral is that unrestrained reliance on science could be dangerous, or it is the battle between black and grey. After reading the books, I enjoyed ‘Portobello Road’ more. I found it more easily believable. I think this was because of the modern, conversational language used and the fact that it was nearer my time zone. Viewed in a 19th century context, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is also believable, but I didn’t find it as convincing. I enjoyed both stories and I think the style and the language contribute to these two totally different stories in a big way. After reading both, I have realised we don’t need chemicals to change from good to evil, we all have an evil side, but it is only exposed when encouraged.