Should the United States Return to a Gold Standard Essay

Should the United States Return to a Gold Standard - Essay Example A gold standard system would make it more difficult for the government and Federal Reserve to implement monetary policies. A gold standard system prevents the government firm minting currency notes and coins that can it can endorse. This means that when there is increased demand for cash, the government cannot supply. As a result, the economy goes through reduced growth and more inflation as the value of paper money skyrockets.A gold standard system means the United States is neglecting its ongoing soaring currency rates and distribution problems instead of offering a solution. In a period of economic turmoil, the government and its people should not focus on future likelihoods of forex and currency techniques. Instead, Americans ought to use every tool in the economic and academic arsenal to solve high jobless rates, the piling national debt, nonrenewable sources of energy, and corresponding environmental crises.A gold standard means the government lacks influence over the economy. The government currently prints paper money and mints coins, which is good for an era of intermittent economic crises. This role shows the government can make an effort towards restoring an economy and actually stimulate it. These efforts are reactionary activities that can reinstate the value of the dollar during an economic depression. In a gold standard, the government cannot restore the economy. This means that when a gold standard economy is in a meltdown, the government cannot make any decisions towards improving this economy.

Arc petition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Arc petition - Essay Example However, I could not withdraw the class at the set time by the administration because the first examination that I had with the optician was promising as he assured me that my sight would improve. The result gave me a lot of hopes, and I did not see the need of withdrawing instead I embarked on my studies. Moreover, at the beginning of the semester, my sight was not as poor as it is right now because carry out an experiment and make proper inferences. Before putting my petition, I have extensively discussed my problem with my faculty members and they have promised to give me both the moral and financial support. Furthermore, they have accepted that should my sight improve and I come back to school, they will offer me the classes that I have missed. With the promise of the financial support that I have in the background, I promise that if you let me off the semester and I get the proper medication, I will come back immediately to continue with my studies. I will buy the glasses so as aid my performance in class and I will always be informing the committee members without taking any chance should there be any problem. United States. (1986). FCC record: A comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Federal Communications

Zidovudine for the Prevention of HIV Transmission

Zidovudine for the Prevention of HIV Transmission Introduction Zidovudine is an antiretroviral drug which is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor; it is used as treatment with other antiretroviral drugs against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Additionally, zidovudine can be utilised as a means of reducing the risk of transfer of HIV from a pregnant woman to her child. Furthermore, zidovudine is used in post exposure prophylaxis in order to lower the chance of being infected with HIV in people who have been exposed to the virus. (AHFS Drug Information, n.d.). Name Of Drug, Structure, Formula and Functional Groups Zidovudine is also known as azidothymidine and, in short, AZT (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010). The molecular formula of the compound is C10H13N5O4 (The Merck Index, n.d.) and zidovudine has a molecular weight of 267.25, as calculated using the ISIS ChemDraw package (Cambridge Soft, n.d.). Analysing the compound shows that zidovudine is made up of a thymine group bonded to a 2,3-dideoxyribose group with an attached azide group. Therefore the systematic name of zidovudine is 3†²-azido-2, 3†²-dideoxythymidine (The Merck Index, n.d.), as the oxygen of the hydroxyl group on the 3 carbon of the ribose ring has been removed, giving 3-deoxyribose, and has been replaced with an azide group and the oxygen on the 2 carbon has also been removed. The azide group on the ribose ring is the reason why zidovudine acts as a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (AHFS Drug Information, n.d.). In order for zidovudine to carry out its role, it must be phosphorylated by an enzyme called thymidine kinase; this is due to the fact that reverse transcriptase includes the triphosphates produced into the HIV DNA chain being formed during HIV replication. Consequently, after the triphosphate has been included, 5, 3-phosphodiester bonding in the DNA chain is not possible, because of azide group in the triphosphate, and therefore DNA formation cannot continue (Foye et al, 2008). Formulations and Packaging The generic form of zidovudine is available as hard capsules (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.) in two strengths of 100mg and 250mg (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010). Both strengths are packaged in foil blister packs and plastic bottles and need to be kept in these; they have an expiry date of 2 years from the date of manufacture (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.). Zidovudine is also available under the brand name of Retrovir ® in the form of capsules, oral solution and injection solution (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010). All of the Retrovir ® formulations need to be kept below 30 degrees and in their original outer boxes (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.). The capsules are hard capsules (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.) in strengths of 100mg and 250mg (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010); they have an expiry date of five years from the date of manufacture and are packaged in a blister pack or a bottle (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.). The oral solution consists of a 50mg in 5ml dose (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010) and is packaged in an amber bottle made of glass. The oral solution has an expiry date of two years from the date of manufacture but should be disposed of after the bottle has been opened for one month (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.). The injection solution is available in the dose of 10mg per 1ml and is used for intravenous infusion (Joint Formulary Committee, 2010). It is packaged in a glass vial which is amber or clear in colour. The solution has an expiry date of three years after the date of manufacture however, once opened, it must be used straightaway and any remaining solution disposed of (Electronic Medicines Compendium, n.d.). According to Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference (n.d.), all the formulations of zidovudine need to be shielded from sources of light and need to be kept in air tight containers. Stereochemistry and Conformation As highlighted in the diagram drawn using ISIS ChemDraw (Cambridge Soft, n.d.), zidovudine has a total of three chiral centres and hence zidovudine has eight possible stereoisomers. The 1 carbon of the ribose ring is of the R configuration whereas the 3 and 4 carbons are of the S configuration (Novak et al, 2003). Zidovudine has a specific optical rotation value of +99 ° in water (Merck, n.d.) and hence rotates the plane of polarized light clockwise; consequently zidovudine is optically active (Freeman, 2010). Synthesis Zidovudine was made by Jerome Horwitz in 1964 (Weeks et al, 2010). It can be formed from thymidine, however, this is a costly method and therefore a more cost effective technique is used to make zidovudine on a large scale by using D-Mannitol as the starting compound (Saunders, 2000). The process has been drawn below using ISIS ChemDraw (Cambridge Soft, n.d.) with reference to Top Drugs (2000). In the first stage, a derivative of D-glyceraldehyde is formed from D-mannitol using acetone and a source of protons and refluxing. Lead (IV) acetate is then added. In the second stage a Wittig reaction is carried out and PH3P=CHCO2Et and methanol are added. In the third step hydrochloric acid is added, producing a lactone. In the fourth stage the lactone is protected and the azide group is added on through a Michael addition reaction. The reagents used to protect the lactone are t-Bu(Me)2SiCl, imidazole and dimethylformamide. The reagents for the Michael addition reaction are lithium azide, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid and water. In the fifth stage the lactone is reduced to a lactol at minus 78 degrees using Diisobutylaluminium hydride and dichloromethane. The hydroxyl group is activated to form a sugar intermediate using acetic anhydride and pyridine. In the sixth step, Vorbruggen conditions are adopted and a condensation reaction is performed with the sugar intermediate and silyla ted thymine which produces alpha and beta anomers. The reagents are di-trimethylsilyl-thymine, trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate and EDC. In the seventh step, the silyl protecting group is taken off and the anomers are uncombined to obtain zidovudine. The reagents used in this step are n-Bu4N+F- and tetrahydrofuran (Saunders, 2000). Drug stability: Potential sites of chemical instability and metabolism Zidovudine decomposes greatly in the presence of light because of the azide group and the product formed from the breakdown is thymine. This is because two nitrogen atoms are removed from the azide group, forming nitrene. An insertion reaction takes place and aziridine is made. Water, as a nucleophile, attacks aziridine. The amide anion formed causes the thymine group to be nucleophilically displaced and hence thymine is produced as the degradation product (Dunge et al, 2004). Therefore as zidovudine is mostly affected by light it is advised that the various formulations of zidovudine are kept away from light sources (British Pharmacopoeia, 2010). Zidovudine has a bioavailability of 63%. This is due to the fact that zidovudine undergoes glucuronidation, giving zidovudine glucuronide which is more water soluble than zidovudine due to a sugar group being added, and is renally excreted (Burton et al, 2006). UDP-glucuronyl transferease is the enzyme which catalyses the reaction (Veal et al, 1995). Zidovudine can also be converted to 3-amino-3-deoxythymidine due to the azide group being reduced (Veal et al, 1995); 3-amino-3-deoxythymidine can affect the action of zidovudine against HIV and is possibly toxic (Burton et al, 2006). Lipinskis Rules For Orally Active Drugs According to Clarkes Analysis Of Drugs And Poisons (n.d.) the Log P value of Zidovudine is 0.05 and the molecular weight is 267.25 as calculated on ISIS ChemDraw (Cambridge Soft, n.d.). Zidovudine has a total of two hydrogen bond donor sites and a total of nine hydrogen bond acceptor sites (Lipinski et al, 1997). As a result, zidovudine follows Lipinskis Rules of Five as it has a molecular weight of less than 500, a Log P value of less than 5, there are less than five hydrogen bond donor sites and there are less than ten hydrogen bond acceptor sites (Lipinski et al, 1997). As the Log P value of zidovudine is 0.05 (Clarkes Analysis Of Drugs And Poisons, n.d.) it can be seen that the drug is slightly polar. Zidovudine contains aromatic and large aliphatic regions which are hydrophobic; the polar character arises from the hydroxyl group, an amide region, an ether link and azide group, which are all hydrophilic regions. Therefore as there is a slight imbalance of more hydrophilic groups to hydrophobic groups, zidovudine is slightly hydrophilic and slightly polar and therefore is water soluble and has less affinity to cross the lipid membranes (Bichenkova, 2010). pKa and Ionization State At pH 2, 7.4 and 10 and Solubility According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (n.d.), the pKa value of Zidovudine is 9.68 and hence it is weakly acidic. Using the equation for the percentage of ionization, which has been derived from the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, I am able to calculate the percentage amount of ionization of zidovudine at various pH values. The equation used consists of: % ionization of an acid = 100/ 1 + antilog(pKa pH) (Freeman, 2010). At pH2, the equation will read % ionization = 100/ 1 + antilog (9.68 2). This gives the value 2.0910^-6 %. Hence it can be seen that in the stomach only a very small amount of zidovudine will be ionized and generally it will be largely unionized. The percentage of zidovudine unionized at pH2 is 99.99% and hence as zidovudine is highly unionized at pH 2, it will be absorbed from the stomach. At pH2 2.0910^-6% of zidovudine is ionized as the azide group can be protonated (Chemicalize, n.d.). At pH 7.4 the calculation gives a value of 0.52%. Hence in the blood stream zidovudine will be largely unionized as the percentage of zidovudine that is unionized in the blood stream is 99.8%. In the bloodstream 0.52% of Zidovudine will be ionized as the azide group can deprotonate (Chemicalize, n.d.). As zidovudine is largely unionized at pH 7.4, it can be absorbed from the bloodstream into the CD4 cells where it carries out its role as an antiretroviral (Foye et al, 2008). At pH 10 a value of 67.63% is obtained. Therefore in basic conditions, zidovudine is largely  ionized as the azide group is deprotonated and the amide group of thymine is deprotonated (Chemicalize, n.d.). The percentage of zidovudine unionized in the blood is 32.37%. Zidovudine is absorbed very quickly in the body (Burton et al, 2006) and this can be seen through the fact that zidovudine is greatly unionised in the stomach and blood stream and hence can quickly enter the CD4 cells in the blood (Foye et al, 2008). Conclusion As zidovudine has an azide group it is able to stop HIV replication (Foye, 2008). Zidovudine follows Lipinskis Rules and hence is well absorbed in the body (Lipinski et al, 1997). As zidovudine has a pKa of 9.68, the drug can be absorbed from the stomach as it will be largely unionised in the stomach. This is also the case for the drug in the bloodstream and hence zidovudine can be taken up quickly by the cells and carry out its role as an antiretroviral despite being slightly polar. The bioavailability of zidovdine is limited however by the fact that some zidovudine is glucuronidated and hence is lost; some zidovudine is also affected by the azide group being reduced as the product formed can affect zidovudines role as an antiretroviral and could be toxic (Burton et al, 2006). As zidovudine degrades in the presence of light, the drug is packaged in blister packs or plastic bottles and all formulations of the drug need to be kept out of light and in the packaging they came in (Electr onic Medicines Compendium, n.d.).

Greek and current Religion :: essays research papers

One must honestly ask him/herself what is history? Is it what defines us, or what makes us come to be? Even a more brooding and heavy subject is what is religious history? America is a very religiously diverse place with many, many different types of religions. It is rare where you find a country that has Muslem, Satanism, Catholicism, Mormonism and Buddhism and many more types of religions in the same country. Comparing and contrasting the main religion in America, Christianity, and ancient Greek religion is interesting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As far as festivals and rituals go, they are similar. They celebrated/gathered sixty times a year which is pretty close to how many times churches gather which is fifty-two times a year every sunday. They called their local gatherings deme which literally means parish which is the exact same word we use. They also carefully conduced the ceremony with holy water which we also use to this day. They took the blood of the sacrifice (usually a sheep or lamb) and cleansed the alter with it. We use wine as a substitute for blood. The meat was eaten, just as we do with the bread, which represents the body of christ. And they had gatherings on a large scale where people from all over the Greek world, just as we do today, World Youth Day. And even the buildings are somewhat similar. They had arch entrances, just as some do today such as Notre Dome. However, in their ceremonies they actually sacrificed a live creature where we do in only in a metaphorical sense. And the most obvious difference between modern day religion and Greek religion is Christianity's monotheism and Greek's polytheism. They prayed to the gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Hera) for different things such as good weather for crops, good fortune and good fishing. We pray for forgiveness and such matters that have to do with our higher self.

Interview with a Counselee

This interview was conducted one month after the counseling took place. The counselee was an average high school student who attempted to take suicide by slashing her wrist and cutting her tongue. The counselee informed the author of this paper that she made a suicide attempt due to feelings of abandonment by her family and friends. At present, the student is still undergoing follow-up sessions with the school counselor, and being observed by her class adviser.During the interview, the student showed some mannerisms of biting her fingers, and narrowing her eyes. She and the author (interviewer) sat in front of each other in a small counseling room. 1. When asked about her thoughts and feelings as she prepared for the counseling experience, the student said that she felt a little nervous that the counselor would get mad at her for attempting suicide. She did not want to open up at first because the counselor was unknown to her.Although she often saw the counselor in the school wheneve r she passed by the counseling room and during the orientation for freshmen, she had not come as close to the counselor as that time when she had counseling. Due to unfamiliarity with the counselor, she somehow felt that she could not trust her, and that the counselor would relay her secrets to other people. 2. The counselee also expressed that when she came inside the counseling room, the counselor smiled at her at once, and asked her to sit. The first words that the counselor uttered were, â€Å"How are you?† When the counselor spoke this, the student said she felt appeased that the counselor was not mad at her. She sensed then that the counselor was concerned about her. During the session, the counselor said that she would value whatever the student would share to her, and her feelings are very precious. She also told the student that everything they would talk about would be confidential, and as long as the counselee promises never to do the attempt again, the counselor w ould not inform her parents of what the student shared to her.Because of this, the student said she felt comfortable with the counselor and could not help but to express what she felt and thought that day. In assurance, the counselor said that she could be of help to the counselee if the counselee would allow her to help. In this particular counseling situation, we may note that the counselor was successful in building up rapport between her and the counselee. She did this by expressing that she values the feelings of the counselee (Wexler, as cited in Lambie, 2004 ), and the counselee could trust her with secrets. 3.As regards the obstacles that hindered the counselee from sharing her experience with the counselor, the counselee commented that due to the friendly approach and concern of the counselor, she felt at ease with her. 4. When asked what she learned about the helping/counseling process after undergoing it, the student said that she was very glad that they have a service li ke this in school and through this program she realized a couple of things. First, she realized that some people are concerned about her and she could find a friend among them, such as the counselor and other counselors as well.She also stated that she felt lucky that her school has a friendly and compassionate counselor who would listen to her, without condemning what she did. She also appreciated the fact that the counselor was not grading her for how she performed during the counseling session, and she did not have to be conscious of what she would tell the counselor. In other words, the process made her express her real self and provided her someone whom she felt was concerned. 5.As we can see, the counseling process that took place was of great help to the student. Through the school counseling program, students like the interviewee in this report are given the attention they need. Just like any counseling process, it is very important for every counselor to listen attentively, offer advice when needed, and make the counselee feel comfortable. In the case of the student, we may say that a lot of students nowadays have a different view of counseling unless they have undergone one.The misconceptions expressed by the counselee before the session include imagining the counselor getting mad at her, or relaying her secrets to her parents. These are the same examples of how some students view counseling. However, these misconceptions are proven wrong once they encounter the real counseling experience. Reference Lambie, Glenn. Motivational enhancement therapy: A tool for professional school counselors working with adolescents. Professional School Counseling. Retrieved February 1, 2008, from http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0KOC/is_4_7/ai_n6033401

Psychological research Essay

Eyewitness memory for details of an event can be affected at the registration stage by witness factors and event factors. Witness factors include age, stress and expectations. For example, several studies have shown that children typically give fewer details about an event they have witnessed than adults. Similarly, List (1986) found that older people may also recall less than younger people. In addition, even though a high level of arousal (stress) would increase your level of performance, too much arousal would lower it. That is to say that a very frightened person will start to repress memories and force them to the back of their mind where they can never be retrieved again. Information is lost with the passage of time, which can be explained by the trace decay theory of forgetting. Over time, â€Å"basic† information is retained, especially from a significant event. Much of the detail is lost, and misleading information is typically given after an event if participants are able to recall this new information as if they’d seen it. However, this might only be partial. As with the influence of exposure time on memory, this too was demonstrated by Ebbinghaus (1885). It has also been shown in a naturalistic study of long term forgetting, carried out by Wagenaar and Groeneweg in1990. Seventy-eight survivors of the concentration camp, Camp Erika, were interviewed between 1984 and 1987 about their camp experiences. The information they gave was compared with earlier evidence they had given just after the end of the war. There was general agreement in the later interviews on basic information. All but three of the thirty-eight people who had been tortured by the camp commandant, for example, remembered his name. However, much of the detail had been lost. In conclusion, while basic information may be well remembered over time, details tend to be forgotten. On the whole, storage factors can affect recall. Basic information is often retained, but detailed information is lost over time. Memory can be supplemented by later information. It can be distorted by misleading information, known as the misinformation effect. This can also lead to completely inaccurate information being given. The misinformation effect has been challenged in terms of whether it is the result of memory impairment of the effects of bias in the testing situation.