Discuss the Relationship between form and function in the Seagram Essay

Discuss the Relationship between form and function in the Seagram Building, the Guggenheim Museum and the George Pompidou Center - Essay Example It was designed as the headquarters for the Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram's & Sons" (2007). The International Style in which this building was constructed was extremely influential on American architecture, one of its chief traits being to externally articulate the structure of the building. Mies wanted the structural elements of the building to be visible. This was not practical because of the American fire codes that required structural steel to be coated with fireproof material, "so Mies used non-structural bronze-toned I-beams to suggest structure instead. These are visible from the outside of the building, and run vertically, like mullions, surrounding the large glass windows. Now, observers look up and see a "fake and tinted-bronze" structure covering a real steel structure. This method of construction using an interior reinforced concrete shell to support a larger non-structural edifice has since become commonplace. The interior was designed to assure cohesion with the external features, repeated in the glass and bronze furnishings and decorative scheme." (Wikipedia 2007). Two of the most interesting design features of the Seagram building involve the window blinds in the building itself and the Plaza just outside. Mies disliked the disorderly position of window blinds at various heights, so he designed the blinds in the building to operate fully open, fully closed, or halfway. This allowed the building to keep its orderly form without losing too much function. Mies never intended the area in front of the building to become a gathering place for people, but it did nonetheless. The Plaza is another function of the Seagram Building, as is the Four Seasons Restaurant (Wikipedia 2007). Guggenheim Museum One of the best-known museums in New York City is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, or as it is most commonly known by the locals, The Guggenheim. It was founded in 1937 and serves as a location to house and display modern artwork. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the new and current building in the year 1959 (Wikipedia 2007). "The distinctive building, Wright's last major work, instantly polarized architecture critics, though today it is widely revered. From the street, the building looks approximately like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Its appearance is in sharp contrast to the more typically boxy Manhattan buildings that surround it, a fact relished by Wright who claimed that his museum would make the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art "look like a Protestant barn" (Wikipedia 2007). As far as form is concerned, the viewing gallery within is comprised of a spiral. The downside to its beauty is that the design takes away from the artwork that is displayed. Also, the exhibit areas are difficult to hang paintings in. "Although the rotunda is generously lit by a large skylight, the niches are heavily shadowed by the walkway itself, leaving the art to be lit largely by artificial light. The walls of the niches are neither vertical nor flat (most are gently concave) meaning canvasses must be mounted proud of the wall's surface. The limited space within the niches means that sculptures are generally relegated to plinths amid the main spiral walkway itself. Prior to its opening,

Doctrine of Precedent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Doctrine of Precedent - Essay Example But in due course, to cope with the administration of the colony, the English in Australia, simply acquired almost all of the prevailing British law at their discretion and for their easiest convenience, started applying them according to the call of the circumstances in the colony. Thus, common law of Britain which originated in the thirteenth century based unevenly on Roman traditions became the guiding principles of the current legal system of Australia. The Australian legal system founded on the common law has the elements of trial by jury, adversarial system and presumption of innocence. But as the society became civilized and the living conditions changed, many of the existed laws became incapable to meet the challenging situations and requirements of the people. Hence, legislation was required to formulate new statutes or Acts to meet the varying needs of the people. These legislations were enacted to broaden the living style of the people and also to regulate the society as a whole, to bring in equity of law. However, the laws based on the doctrine of precedent or case laws edge over the statutory laws, because of its simplicity in its application facilitating decisions on a case by the jury. The statement that the current Australian legal system exhibits an increasing reliance on statute law must be analyzed in the above context, and in order to verify its sanctity it is necessary to have a clear picture of the law structure of the Australian legal system. (Robin Banks, 2006, Law Australia, Legal Information Access Centre, (Sydney, NSW), http://www.liac.sl.nsw.g ov.au/hot/pdf/aust_leg_syst_60.pdf. viewed on 9th May, 2009) Classification and Sources of Law Law can be classified into two, as public law and private law. Public law is criminal law and is concerned with matters of the State whereas, private law is civil law pertaining to the matters of individuals. Criminal law is used to suppress criminal offences by punishing the accused. Civil law deals with disputes between individuals Australian law is based on the system of common law and its procedures are (i) the adversarial nature of court proceedings, and (ii) the appeal provisions. The sources of the law are statute law and case law, and they are of equal validity. Statute law known as Act is enacted law made by parliament. Case law is the principles of law arrived at by the judges in court decisions. (Victoria Law Foundation, 2009, Law & Our legal systems, Chapter-1, http://www.rurallaw.org.au/handbook/xml/ch01s02.php, viewed on 9th May, 2009) History of Case Law and the guiding Principles According to Baker, 'A precedent is a decision or judgment of a court, which is used as authority for reaching the same decision in subsequent cases.' (Baker J.H., 1979, An Introduction to English Legal History p. 171, Butterworths, London) However, it should be noted that Australia has a federal structure and that it has a parliament for each state and also has one for the Commonwealth. The Federal system of government was established by the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900. The colonies became states and the states joined to form a Federation. The Law making power is vested with the Federal government as well as the state governments The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty demands that nobody can annul a law promulgated by the parliament, whereas, common law can be changed through

Martin Luther King vs. Malcolm X Essay Example for Free

Martin Luther King vs. Malcolm X Essay Malcolm X Vs. MLK JR Extremist, or peace maker? That is the true difference between the beliefs, and ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both men were African-American civil rights activists during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and both wanted to be accepted for their race, but they wanted that acceptance in very different ways. The two men had very diverse beliefs, Malcolm being a devout Muslim and King being a Baptist clergyman, their religions played a big part in each of their views and how they went about achieving their goals. This is where their ideas differed, and why they wouldnt technically be considered same, or â€Å"fighting for the same cause†. Malcolm X was considered an extremist for a few main reasons, one being that he wanted complete segregation from the white race. He believed that African Americans were so mistreated that they should be completely shut off from the white Americans. In his Declaration of Independence (1964), he states that the â€Å"best solution is complete separation, with our people going back home, to our own African homeland†. He wanted himself, and all other blacks to be sent to their ancestors land of Africa where they could live among other blacks, where they wouldnt be thought of as a lower class, but as equals. Although Mr. X wanted equality for blacks and whites, he still believed that there should be segregation; he wanted both races to be â€Å"separate but equal†. In the sense of violence, X didn’t promote the use of violence, yet he did believe that man should be able to â€Å"defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks†. In the end, Malco lm wanted a place of acceptance, and a place where he could be somewhat at peace with what he considered his own kind. Peace is what brought Martin Luther King power in his speeches to the people of America. Like extremist Malcolm X he wanted acceptance for himself, and all of as hed put it â€Å"brothers, and sisters†. The Kings speeches were very motivational during their time, and so uplifting that its generally believed if not assassinated complete freedoms for African Americans wouldve been accomplished much sooner. King believed he could achieve his dreams and goals of having whites and black living together in harmony and peacefulness through nonviolent protesting and also by educating the public. Martin Luther King wanted acceptance just as Malcolm X did, but they wanted it in two very different ways. King wanted it through peace and unification with his fellow Americans, while Malcolm wanted it through rioting, and force of opposition. It might seem like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X fought for different things for the African American people, but in all reality it comes down to the simplest form of an idea. They wanted acceptance. Without acceptance both causes were completely lost, no matter the arguments made, and the battles fought. Till acceptance was granted, all was lost. Thats why the differences of Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.s differences are what united them, giving them their ultimate similarity.

Comparison of Public Health and Clinical Research Ethics

Comparison of Public Health and Clinical Research Ethics How Does Public Health Research Ethics Differ From Clinical Research Ethics? Zoheb Rafique INTRODUCTION: The field of biomedical ethics arose in late 1960s in the response to some emerging ethical dilemmas and issues of that era. This field for many years focused on dilemmas generated by the high technology medicine, rather than on the issues of the population health and the ethical problems of public health programs. The discipline Bioethics received the initial stimulus from abuses and issues of human subject’s research, also the emergence of patient’s rights movement, and the drama of high technology medicine. The Research involving human subjects has often been a central ethical issue and problem for the biomedicine for at least hundred (100) years now, and particularly since the World War 2. Just as the public health is broad in the scope, the range of the ethical issues in this field is uncommonly wide, and encompassing the ethics in the public health as well as ethics of public health (1). In past twenty (20) years, the research base of the clinical ethics has gaine d tremendous strength appreciably. However the main research opportunities didn’t come under broad heading of the clinical ethics, but instead through the specific programs such as human genome project and end of life movement (2). In this paper, I will discuss the differences between public health research ethics and clinical research ethics. DISCUSSION: The Public health research ethics include ethics regarding the community participation in the research, while the clinical research ethics include the ethics regarding the clinical patient research. This is major difference between these two scenarios, now I will discuss it in detail. Most of the research has focused on the clinical and the experimental medicine (efficacy, safety and the mechanism of action, and also regulatory issues to general neglect of the public health dimensions. The Public health ethics, which is defined as identification, analysis, and the resolution of the ethical problems occurring in the public health practice and also research, and it, has different domains than those of the medical ethics. The ethical concerns in the public health often relate to dual obligations of the public health professionals to apply and acquire the scientific knowledge that aimed at restoring and also protecting public’s health while respecting the individual autonomy. Ethi cs in the public health involves interplay between safeguarding welfare of individual, as in medicine, and the public health goal of protecting public welfare. Some other ethical concerns in the public health relate to need to ensure just distribution of the public health resources. The Public health ethics has broad scope that includes the ethical and the social issues arising in the health promotion and the disease prevention, the epidemiological research, and also public health practice. The main professional roles of the epidemiology are design and the conduct of the scientific research and public health application of the scientific knowledge. This includes reporting the research results and also maintaining and promoting the health in communities. Also in carrying out the professional roles, the epidemiologists often encounter many ethical issues and some concerns that require the careful consideration. Many of those issues have been highlighted and addressed in literature on ethics in the epidemiology and the public health including the ethics guidelines. The Ethical and the professional norms in the epidemiology have also been clarified in the ethics guidelines for the epidemiologists and often the public health professionals. The Ethics guidelines such as those developed for Industrial Epidemiology Forum, International society for the Environmental Epidemiology, and American college of the Epidemiology also provide useful accounts of the epidemiologists’ obligations to the research participants, employs, society, and colleagues (3). The Epidemiologic studies can provide the descriptive data that can lead scientists later to develop some intervention that can result in the reduction in morbidity and mortality; the health education program can be one of the multiple interventions that together reduce the risks and also ill health. The argument here, however, is that the public health programs, studies, or interventions, must be designed with the awareness of relationship between that program and ultimate reduction in the morbidity and mortality. The Public health programs may result in high employment, as well as some less tangible benefits such as coalition building and strengthening of the communities. Today, the public health practitioner use some tools in addition to the epidemiology to register their work, still aiming primarily on community wide, also typically prospective methods and approaches to improve health. In addition, the practitioners investigate the outbreaks, provide health education, conduct contact tracing, and also other preventive interventions, and organize research related to the public health (4). The Public health agencies require the identifiable health information for conducting different public health activities. The increasing number of the functions, including the public health Surveillance, and outbreak and incident investigations and program implementation, and some direct health services, s uch as the clinical public health activities and services and the research, maintenance, and the storage of the personal health information. The Successful execution of all these functions depends on the data quality and the accessibility. Heightened security is very necessary and paramount to maintain the public confidence; also good health care and it depends on the patients providing the accurate and sensitive information to their care providers in a very timely manner. Placing restrictions on the data acquisition, use, and the disclosure also poses some risks, particularly if those restrictions impede acquisition of the key surveillance data, which would otherwise be used to prevent the disease, investigate the causation, and enable the interventions to protect the exposed population. Additionally, electronic data could potentially permit real time public health Surveillance and also can facilitate the faster emergency response (5). Advances in the science, technology and the bi omedical research have pushed the boundaries of Belmont principles and stimulating the need for the communities to be involved in informed consent process. Changes in the Food and the Drug Administration regulations allow the waivers of the informed consent in life threatening emergencies. The rights of the unconscious participants are assumed to be accorded degree of the protection through mechanism of the â€Å"Community Consultation† which requires the prior consultation by the investigators and the institutional review board with the community representatives and public disclosure to affected community both before and after that research (6). Now I will discuss the clinical research ethics, and we will see how it is different from public health research ethics. Taking into account the sound and the increasing emphasis of recent years that the experimentation in man must precede the general application of the new procedures in the therapy, and also there is reason to fear that these requirements and the resources might be greater than supply of the responsible investigators. Medical schools and the university hospitals are increasingly dominated by the investigators. Every young man knows that he will never be promoted to some tenure post, and to a professorship in a major medical school, unless he has proved himself as an investigator. If the ready availability of the money for conducting the research is added to this fact, one can see how great the pressures are on the ambitious young physicians (7). A taxonomy was developed for the clinical ethics research, based on the method rather than the clinical area. This divided research in different terms of whether it used theoretical or any empirical methods. First, we will see the theoretical methods of the clinical ethics research. Philosophy (e.g., How should the decisions on setting the priorities be made legitimate and also fair?). Law (e.g., what practices in setting the priorities in regional hea lth authority might constitute discrimination?). Policy (e.g., what policy should the governments follow in funding the new technologies in medicine?). Now let’s see the empirical methods of clinical ethics research. Social Sciences (e.g., how do the regional health authorities in the developing countries make the decisions on setting the priorities?). Decision analysis (e.g., How do you trade-off considerations of equity and efficiency in the decisions on setting priorities?). Clinical epidemiology (e.g., what are the criteria used to allocate the liver transplant?). Health services research (e.g., how does the delivery of the cardiac surgery vary by patient gender and ethnicity?). Within empirical research (both in ethics and more generally), there is some growing recognition that the quantitative methods alone are not adequate. Since many of the phenomena examined by the ethics researchers are deeply entwined into fabric of professions, organizations, and the human lives, qualitative methods have begun to play an important role. For example, one investigator performed the observational research on how physicians discuss do-not-resuscitate orders and also advance care planning. The role of the qualitative methods is both increasing and broadening to include not only the content analysis but also grounded theory, the ethnography, and the case study designs. When we review the field of the clinical ethics a decade from now, we hope that the focus will have shifted from the ethics courses, committees and the consultants to an understanding on the part of most physicians and medical students that ethics is an inherent and inseparable part of the good clinical medicine. We hope that clinical ethics will have achieved its rightful place at the interstices of relations between the patients who are sick and physicians who profess to be able to heal and comfort them. Clinical ethics has made progress towards this vision in the past some years. The challenge re mains for the research into ethical issues to become a mainstream concern for the funding agencies around the World. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, it is stated that although public health research and clinical research are different from each other, but ethical dilemmas are faced by both and also they are same in many situations. While considering the public health research ethics, the researcher must show respect for community’s culture, also take community input on the protocol development, and ensure that research is useful to community, and should respect the community’s knowledge and the experience, and ensure that the informed consent is correctly taken before starting any of the research (8). While considering the clinical research ethics, two components are most important, the first being the informed consent. The statement that informed consent has been obtained has very little meaning unless the participant or his/her guardian is capable of understanding what is to be undertaken and unless all of hazards are made clear. If these are not known this, too, has been stated. Secondly, there is more reliable safeguard provided by presence of intelligent, informed, compassionate, conscientious, and responsible investigator. REFERENCES: 1. Daniel Callahan and Bruce Jennings. Ethics and Public Health: Forging a Strong Relationship. American Journal of Public Health 2002; Vol 92, No. 2: 169-176. 2. Peter A Singer Et Al. Clinical Ethics Revisited. BMC Medical Ethics 2001; 2:1. 3. Steven S Coughlin. Ethical issues in epidemiologic research and public health practice. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology. BioMed central 2006; 3:16. 4. Nancy E. Kass. An Ethical Framework for Public Health. Public Health Matters. 5. Julie Myers Et Al. Privacy and Public Health at Risk: Public Health Confidentiality in the Digital Age. American Journal of Public Health 2008; Vol 98, No. 5:793-801. 6. Sandra Crouse Quinn. Protecting Human Subjects: the Role of Community Advisory Boards. American Journal of Public Health 2004; Vol 94, No. 6:918-922. 7. Henry K. Beecher. Ethics and Clinical Research. The New England Journal of Medicine 1966; Vol 274, No. 24:1354-1360. 8. C. Weijer and E.J. Emanuel. Protecting Communities in Biomedical Research. Science. Policy Forum: Ethics 2000; Vol 289:1142-1144.

Stress Essay -- essays research papers

Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad depending on the situation which someone is facing. Sometimes, stress can be helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. This type of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, most stress does not fall under that catagory and can become harmful when not managed effectively. This is known as distress and is what most people are referring to when they mention stress. Distress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. Stress can be thought of in terms of stressors and stress responses. Stressors are events that threaten or challenge people. They are the sources of stress, such as having to make decisions, getting married, and natural disasters. Stress responses are psychological, physiological, and behavioral reacti ons to stressors. Anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and muscle tension are all examples of stress responses. You can test your stress by taking many different stress tests or exercise electrocardiography, a test that evaluates the performance of the heart by subjecting it to controlled amounts of physical stress. An example of a stress test would be the B.U. Medical Scholl stress test which I personally scored relatively low on. I attribute this to my paying to my attitude and my he...

Satellite Radio and Howard Stern Essay examples -- essays research pap

Satellite Radio: Will Howard Stern's move make us change the way we think about radio? Howard Stern's plan to move to satellite radio in January 2006 marks a major turning point for the radio industry. Not only has Stern brought the  possibility of subscribing to satellite radio into the minds of the millions in his audience, he has also gotten more people to start thinking and talking about what really distinguishes satellite radio from traditional radio. Satellite radio was first authorized by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1997, seven years after initial applications. The delay in approval was in part the result of protests by the National Association of Broadcasters which charged that the service threatened "traditional American values of community cohesion and local identity." Ironically, as these charges were being made, traditional radio was becoming nationalized through use of more national programming and industry  consolidation under Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting.  The FCC dealt with these issues by restricting satellite radio to only national programming. Essentially this rule minimizes competition with traditional radio stations that only reach local markets and get the majority of their revenue from local advertisers. Despite there currently being very few small, independent, local broadcasters to protect, this remains the most significant regulation on satellite radio.[1] Today there are two main players in the satellite radio business: Sirius and XM. Though Sirius signed Stern, XM is currently the leader in terms of  subscribers. Both companies have neared bankruptcy at various points in their short history, and both have yet to make a profit. By signing Stern for $500 million over five years, Sirius must gain at least one million subscribers to pay this commitment.[2] Clearly satellite radio has a long way to go, but with steady growth and high-profile contracts (not only with  radio personalities, but with car companies who now install satellite radio  equipment in all new cars), the future remains wide open. Satellite radio is subscription-based, commercial-free, and largely unregulated. This last point appears to be the main draw for Stern. Since  the infamous Super Bowl incident this year, there have been calls for significantly expanding FCC indecency re... ...quot; due to his success with radio, books, television, and movies, but whether his kingdom will extend to satellite radio is yet to be seen. Free  speech is one of the key rights Americans have, but this right has always been in some degree of conflict with decency laws. The progressively stringent restrictions on the content of traditional radio have gotten so extreme in the past few years that, perhaps, finally they have gone too far. Listeners will soon wake up to the reality that what they want to hear in the morning has moved and in order to maintain their rights they must move too. If this is the case and audiences truly value "free listening," satellite radio will mark the end of traditional radio as we know it. [1] http://slate.msn.com/id/2097247/ [2] http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/06/news/newsmakers/stern sirius/ [3] see [2] [4] http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2004/10/06/ap1578735.html [5] http://www.forbes.com/business/2004/10/06/cx sw 1006stern.html?partner=rss [6] Telecommunications Act of 1996 Â § 507 [7] Being commercial-free and having a wider selection of programming in many areas are also deemed to be significant advantages of satellite radio.

Anthropological approaches to family and kinship

Family and kinship has been studied under many disciplines; as such the relations between human beings as it regards to their genealogical origins has a varying relationship.Under the discipline of anthropology, kinship regards relations forged through marriage and arising from descent as being sufficiently important in deciding who is a member of which family; this is in contrast to biological disciplines which define relations through descent and mating (where by only people who share genes are related. As such, more people are related as defined by anthropology than by biology. However, the two forms of definition do not exist in isolation to each other; as such, people may be related to each other both by descent and by marriage if they are from a common descent.While families can easily define who are its members since more-often-than-not they know each other in details (for example the different children from each nuclear family), definition of kinship is relatively more challe nging as one moves away for each nuclear family; this complexity is increased when kinship by affinity (marriage) rather that pure consanguinity (descent) is included.Definition of a society through kinship offers a tool for organizing all its individuals into distinct social groups. The most basic of these groups is the family; in this, the definition of relationship is concrete, that is, there is a father, a mother and children. Away from the nuclear family, relations become more amorphous; and some are defined differently in different societies. However, so long as it is defined and known, relationships between persons that can be classified as kinship have been recognized as creating obligations between the involved individuals that are stronger than those that would be seen between strangers.ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHESAmong the earliest researchers to analyze kinship and family from an anthropological angle was Lewis Henry Morgan; this was in the publication Systems of Consangui nity and Affinity of the Human Family of 1871. In this publication, Morgan initiated the use of the term ‘affinity’ to describe a situation where people consider themselves as having kinship despite the fact that they are not biologically related (Trautmann, 2008).As such, groups of people who may have little or no biological relationship can identify themselves as a distinct social group; and use kinship terminology in regards of each other. Such groups share obligations to each other and are bound by a set of expected responses to various events; these bonds are strong despite the fact that some members are approximated only in terms of marriage (Houseman & White, 1998).Kinship systemEach of the groups that can define as a distinct social group is bound by a pattern of behavior that is generally acceptable and/or agreed upon as being normal. These practices govern various events that can and do alter the composition of the society and lay boundaries on what should hap pen and what shouldn’t.These patterns affect marriage in particular; this is in regards to forms of marriage (e.g. arranged vs. non-arranged), restrictions to marriage (between brother and sister, cousins), and which sexual relation is defined as incest. The construct of kinship system is however subject to a wide range of opinions with some of the commentary being inconsistent from one aspect to the other (Read, 2001).This is attributed by the fact that while an anthropologist is usually drawn to study a culture or society that is not his/her own (due to curiosity or novelty), s/he usually carries some of the kinship connotation from his/her system of origin (Wallace & Atkins, 1960).This leads to inconsistency since some definitions are relative from one system to the other; for example,   the title ‘uncle’ may not have the same meaning from system to system; while one may regard an uncle as the â€Å"brother of a parent†, other systems may have a wider bracket to include even cousins of the parents.These inconsistencies have stood in the way of creation of a universal theory of kinship in humans; that there is a similarity among how humans relate to each other if they share such a relationship. George P. Murdock in his 1949 publication Social Structure, compiled sets of data to show that the mutual feelings of kinship originated from a psychological response based on ego and the relations within the nuclear family.