Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish

Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish Free Online Research Papers Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish By: Karwan Omer Siddiq 1. Introduction: This study is designed to analyze a collection of Kurdish euphemistic expressions for death using the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory propounded by George Lakoff. Nevertheless, this is not the only purpose of the study as it examines the corpus items to find out the exact linguistic devices they reveal, and finally discovers the sources of the devices as well. The study is divided into an introduction, theoretical background which covers the definition and classification of euphemism and taboo in addition to introducing Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the conceptualization of death in Kurdish, and finally the seven conceptual mappings over which the corpus examples are distributed which include: death as a loss, death as joyful life, death as a rest, death as a reward, death as the end, death as a journey and death as surrender. 2. Taboo and Euphemism: Definition and Classification Mankind’s failure to come to grips with death has been pervasive in different times and societies. In fact, human beings have traditionally felt reluctant to deal with the subject of death using straightforward terms. Whether owing to superstition, fear, or social respect, the fact remains that when facing death language users try to soften the effect of what they really wish to communicate. To this end, they resort to euphemism, i.e. the semantic formal process thanks to which the taboo is stripped of its most explicit, offensive or obscene overtones. From this viewpoint, euphemism is not merely a response to a forbidden subject; rather it provides a way to speak about the taboo, that is, about the unspeakable, about those concepts banned from public domain and removed from our consciousness. This refusal to speak freely of human mortality is symptomatic of the overall discomfort with the subject of death as a whole (Fernandez, 2006: 101-2). The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemos. Its first use is said to have been in religion because people were afraid of using those words that were considered taboo. Since people did not want to behave in a way that would upset the gods, they used words which they thought would give them good fortune instead. Euphemisms have been traced back to the Indo-European languages and it seems possible that more taboo words existed then than what is the case today. Whichever the case might be, modern languages in general (like Kurdish, English, etc.) contain countless euphemisms dealing with the theme of death. It is claimed that people started using euphemisms because they believed that they would end up in trouble of some sort if they spoke about or used the word death. A theory, which apparently is quite widespread, claims that this belief is what has made death taboo in the majority of the English speaking cultures around the world. (www.wikipedia.com). Whether it is true or n ot that people today are afraid of death and taboos, it is not something that they would admit to openly. Even though such fear is associated with uneducated inhabitants of exotic places, some people carry good luck charms, cross their fingers or knock on wood as a way of protecting themselves (Allan Burridge 2006:203). Euphemisms are often applied when we want to hide something that might be considered as upsetting or distasteful; we do this even if the literal meaning is not really that disturbing. This kind of euphemism is often called doublespeak and is frequently used in politics. According to Gladney and Rittenberg (2005:2) the term doublespeak was invented by William Lutz who was allegedly inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984, where he mentions ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’. One might think that the euphemistic way to talk about death is somewhat peculiar and wonder why it is so taboo to use the ‘normal’ words. Dyer (2006) explains this by claming that if we use other words than death, the healing process after losing a loved one many times becomes more bearable. This claim might sound strange at first, but it is not hard to imagine that it might be a bit easier to handle a loss by thinking that the person has ‘found everlasting peace’. By using euphemisms like this people are able to cope better and even distance themselves from what has happened. Kearl (2006) on the other hand, states that some scholars agree that people are denying death, and the fact that death is inevitable, by using euphemisms. But he also mentions that we have been using these terms for a very long time and sometimes we cannot avoid using euphemisms when we want to explain certain aspects of being human. The fact that death is a taboo based on fear is men tioned by Allan and Burridge (1991:153, 2006:222). People are afraid of losing loved ones and of what happens to our bodies when we die, but there is also a fear dealing with what follows after we are dead. No one or at least very few people have experienced death first hand and therefore the ‘afterlife’ is a huge mystery which makes some of us very scared. (From Allan Burridge 1991:153, 2006:222) The issue whether euphemisms are ‘good or bad’ seems to have been debated back and forth over the years. Back in the 1980s, Gross (1985:203) mentioned that many writers perceived it as if people found it very difficult to ‘look death straight in the face; even more difficult than previous generations. Gross also claims that death had surpassed sex as the most forbidden topic. Allan and Burridge (2006:223) draw a parallel between today’s taboo on death and the way sex was inhibited during the Victorian period. The repression of sex was followed by a very successful pornographic business and the taboo concerning death today is present at the same time as we are overflowed by books and movies depicting murder and cruel death. They state that the difference is the fact that the pornography during the Victorian times was not as open as the topic of death is in the present day. Gladney and Rittenberg (2005:1) claim that there is another thing that many scholars agree on, and it is the fact that when euphemisms are used in a courteous way, without harming others, it is perfectly alright. On the other hand, when people in power use euphemisms it can change how people look upon many big problems in society and cause them to stop caring. They mention how a government can use euphemisms as a way of making the public less sensitive and not reflect too much over the horrors and pain connected to for example war. This is not the best approach since in fact, it has been discovered that people who speak about accidental brutality in an uncaring way are about to accept it (Gladney Rittenberg 2005:1). 2.1 Classification of Euphemisms: According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, many euphemisms fall into one or more of these categories: 1. Terms of foreign and/or technical origin (derrià ¨re, copulation, perspire, urinate, security breach) 2. Abbreviations (GD for goddamn, SOB for son of a bitch, BS for bullshit, TS for tough shit, SOL for shit out of luck or PDQ for pretty damn(ed) quick, BFD for big fucking deal, MF for motherfucker, POS for piece of shit, STFU or STHU for shut the fuck/hell up, RTFM for read the fucking manual /restart the fucking machine) o Abbreviations using a spelling alphabet, especially in military contexts (Charlie Foxtrot for Cluster fuck, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Oscar for What the fuck, over?, Bravo Sierra for bullshit) o Plays on abbreviations (H-e-double hockey sticks for hell, a-double snakes or a-double-dollar-signs for ass, Sugar Honey Iced Tea for shit, bee with an itch or witch with a capital B for bitch, catch (or see) you next Tuesday (or Thursday) for cunt) o Use in mostly clinical settings (PITA for pain in the ass patient) o Abbreviations for phrases that are not otherwise common (PEBKAC for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, ID Ten T Error or ID-10T Error for Idiot, TOBAS for Take Out Back And Shoot) 3. Abstractions and ambiguities (it for excrement, the situation for pregnancy, going to the other side for death, do it or come together in reference a sexual act, tired and emotional for drunkenness.) 4. Indirections (behind, unmentionables, privates, live together, go to the bathroom, sleep together, sub-navel activities) 5. Mispronunciation (goldarnit, dadgummit, efing c (fucking cunt), freakin, be-atch,shoot) 6. Litotes or reserved understatement (not exactly thin for fat, not completely truthful for lied, not unlike cheating for an instance of cheating) 7. Changing nouns to modifiers (makes her look slutty for is a slut, right-wing element for Right Wing) 8. Slang, e.g. pot for marijuana, laid for sex and so on. Notably, there is some disagreement over whether certain terms are or are not euphemisms. For example, sometimes the phrase visually impaired is labeled as a politically correct euphemism for blind. However, visual impairment can be a broader term, including, for example, people who have partial sight in one eye, or even those with uncorrected poor vision, a group that would be excluded by the word blind. 2.2 The Categorization of Taboos: Euphemisms are motivated by different taboos in society. Every culture has its own topics that are forbidden and should not be talked about directly. Stephen Ullman (1962:205) states that taboos are divided into three categories according to the psychological motivation behind them. The first of these categories is fear, which has motivated different taboos on speaking the names of certain supernatural beings. These include God, the Devil and names of certain animals. Ullman (ibid: 206) mentions the weasel as an example. For example in French the weasel is referred to as a beautiful little woman , in Italian and Portuguese as a little lady and in Swedish as a pretty little girl or a young lady. Other examples include bear, tiger and lion, since dangerous animals are often referred to by using euphemistic references. This has been the case in Finland as well with the bear. People have believed that the bear was originally human or half-human. People have also thought that the bear is much more intelligent than humans are and possesses supernatural powers. All these factors have contributed to the fact that Finnish language has a large variety of euphemisms for the bear. The motivation behind the taboo of God might have something to do with respect as well, as Francis Katamba (1994:86) suggests. He states that God could not be referred to by name, which has resulted in expressions such as the Lord, the King of Kings and the All-Mighty. The clearest taboo motivated by fear must be that of the Devil. The euphemistic expressions associated with the Devil are somewhat humoristic and friendly, perhaps to make the Devil seem less frightening and unfamiliar, as for example in: What in the Sam Hill are you doing?† Hughes (2000:44) lists some British English examples such as Old Nick and Lord of the Flies. People also try to avoid direct reference to topics they find unpleasant. Under the category of delicacy fall such topics as death, disease, physical and mental defects and criminal actions. Probably the most natural euphemism related to death would be to pass away, which seems to be appropriate and politically correct in a large number of situations. According to Geoffrey Hughes in A History of English Words death is often referred to as a metaphorical journey in comforting variants and traditional forms such as†¦passing on, going to ones Maker [and] joining the majority (2000:45). Other less-dignified ways of referring to death include to resign ones being, moving into upper management and [being] no longer eligible for the census (Death). The third category in Ullmans discussion on taboos has to do with propriety. The three most common areas in this category are sex, certain body parts and functions and swearing. People find it difficult to talk about going to the toilet, and have invented numerous ways of avoiding direct reference to the topic. Among good friends and acquaintances it may be acceptable to directly ask the location of the toilet or mention the bodily function(s) for which one needs to use it, but in other situations people might ask: Where could I wash my hands? In movies and in television, for example, women often say in a restaurant that they need to go and powder their noses or that they need to freshen up when they need to use the toilet. There are, also a number of different ways to refer to having sex, including to sleep with, go to bed with and make love, as mentioned by Hughes (ibid:45) in the discussion of metaphorical means of avoiding direct reference. When talking about swearing people ofte n use minced oaths. These are expressions based on profanities, but the profanities have been changed to remove the inappropriate characteristics of the original utterance. Among the most common expressions are freaking for fucking, gosh for God, heck for hell and darn for damn (Phrase). 3. The Cognitive Approach: Conceptual Metaphor Theory: In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. prices are rising). A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience. The regularity with which different languages employ the same metaphors, which often appear to be perceptually based, has led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponds to neural mappings in the brain. This idea, and a detailed examination of the underlying processes, was first extensively explored by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their work Metaphors We Live By. Other cognitive scientists study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels analogy and conceptual blending. According to Lakoff and Johnson, There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphors: Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions (e.g., love is a journey). Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand (e.g., love is a journey). A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used to describe analogical reasoning and inferences. A primary tenet of this theory is that metaphors are matter of thought and not merely of language: hence, the term conceptual metaphor. The metaphor may seem to consist of words or other linguistic expressions that come from the terminology of the more concrete conceptual domain, but conceptual metaphors underlie a system of related metaphorical expressions that appear on the linguistic surface. Similarly, the mappings of a conceptual metaphor are themselves motivated by image schemas which are pre-linguistic schemas concerning space, time, moving, controlling, and other core elements of embodied human experience. Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source. For instance, metaphors such as the days [the more abstract or target concept] ahead or giving my time rely on more concrete concepts, thus expressing time as a path into physical space, or as a substance that can be handled and offered as a gift. Different conceptual metaphors tend to be invoked when the speaker is trying to make a case for a certain point of view or course of action. For instance, one might associate the days ahead with leadership, whereas the phrase giving my time carries stronger connotations of bargaining. Selection of such metaphors tends to be directed by a subconscious or implicit habit in the mind of the person employing them. The principle of unidirectionality states that the metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete to the more abstract, and not the other way around. Accordingly, abstract concepts are understood in terms of prototype concrete processes. The term concrete, in this theory, has been further specified by Lakoff and Johnson as more closely related to the developmental, physical neural and interactive body. Finally, to clarify the matter, some examples from Lakoff may serve the purpose: 1. Love Is A Journey Source domain: love Target domain: journey a. Progress in the relationship is forward motion 1. They are at a crossroads in their relationship. 2. This relationship isnt going anywhere. 3 Theyre in a dead-end relationship. b. The relationship is a moving object Relationships, like sharks, have to keep moving to stay alive. This marriage is on the rocks. This relationship has been spinning its wheels for years. Their marriage has really gone off the track. 2. Anger Is Heat Source Domain heat Target Domain anger Shes a real hothead. Anger is heat and body is container for emotions You make my blood boil. Let her stew. She got all steamed up. Hes just blowing off steam. He erupted. He boiled over. She felt her gorge rising. He blew his top. He exploded. I cant keep my anger bottled up anymore His temper flared up. His eyes smouldered with rage. He has a fiery temper. 4. Euphemism and the Conceptualization of Death: A corpus of fifty three samples of Kurdish euphemistic expressions for death has been drawn from mainly from A Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish by Abdulwahab Shekhani (2009:341-5). The expressions obtained from this dictionary can be distributed over a set of linguistic devices or mechanisms employed to substitute the taboos of death and dying in Kurdish. The introductory step of our investigation is to check the corpus items against the linguistic devices in question to reveal the device that is most commonly used in Kurdish to conceptualize death and dying, as shown below: a. The linguistic devices include those that are semantic in nature, such as: 1. Metaphor 2. Metonymy 3. Hyperbole 4. Circumlocution 5. Generic Terms Others are lexical in nature, such as: 1. Learned words 2. Borrowings b. The corpus examples (being translated into English) are distributed over the said devices or mechanisms as follows: Metaphor Amri khwai krd 1- Metaphor Amri khwai bajà ª hà ªna 2- Metaphor ?wa bar rahmati khwa 3- Metaphor ?uya bar dlovanya khudà ª 4- Metaphor 5- Metaphor + hyperbole 6- Metaphor 7- Metaphor 8- Metaphor + hyperbole 9- Metaphor 10- Metaphor + circumlocution -11 Metonymy 12- Metonymy 13- Metonymy 14- Metaphor 15- Metaphor 16- Metonymy 17- Metaphor 18- Metaphor 19- Metaphor 20- Metaphor + circumlocution 21- Metaphor 22- Metaphor 23- Metaphor 24- Metaphor 25- Metaphor + circumlocution 26- Metaphor 27- Metaphor 28- Metaphor 29- Metaphor 30- Metaphor 31- Metaphor 32- Metonymy 33- Metaphor 34- Metaphor 35- Metaphor 36- Metaphor 37- Metaphor 38- Metaphor 39- Generic Term 40- Generic Term 41- Metaphor 42- Metonymy + circumlocution 43- Metonymy 44- Metaphor 45- Metaphor 46- Metaphor 47- Metaphor 48- Metaphor 49- Metaphor 50- ? Borrowing 51- Metaphor 52- Learned word 53- As is clear from the aforementioned examples, metaphors form the majority of the linguistic devices used to mitigate the taboo of death. Statistically, they include 75.47% of the whole corpus. Also within the semantic resources, metonymies constitute 13.20% of the collected corpus, while the remaining resources form negligible proportions. 5. The Conceptual Mappings of Metaphorical Expressions for Death in Kurdish: Within the framework of cognitive linguistics the metaphors observed in the corpus can be analyzed in terms of the cognitive mappings to which they may be assigned. This provides significant information concerning the way in which the taboo of death is actually used, perceived, and mitigated (Fernandez, 2006:113). Allan and Burridge (1991) Bultnick (1998) and Fernandez (2006) have found and explicated a number of conceptual mappings for the consolatory metaphors of death. Here we adopt seven of theses mappings which best serve us to analyze our corpus examples, namely: 1- DEATH IS A JOURNEY 2- DEATH IS A JOYFUL LIFE 3- DEATH IS REST 4- DEATH IS A REWARD 5- DEATH IS THE END 6- DEATH IS A LOSS 7- DEATH IS SURRENDER It is to be noted that the greater number of metaphors view death as a positive event, as a sort of reward in Heaven (Paradise) after a virtuous life on earth. Thus, four out of seven conceptual metaphors referred to conceptualize the domain of death in terms of a domain with positive connotations, namely as a journey, joyful life, surrender, rest, and reward. There are only two sets of correspondences in which death is portrayed negatively: a loss and the end. Thus most of the conceptualizations in the corpus imply a positive value-judgment of death. Here, it is important to note how the positive or negative value-judgment in the death – related mappings depends, as Bultnick (1998:84) explains, on the nature of the source domain. Below are the percentages of metaphorical euphemistic substitutes in each cognitive domain: 1- Death is a loss 30.18% 2- Death is a journey 2.5% 3- Death is a joyful life 4% 4- Death is a rest 15% 5- Death is a reward 10% 6- Death is the end 10% 7- Death is surrender 7.5% Here, the conceptual metaphor Death is a loss has the highest range of substitutions (16) , followed by Death is a journey (13), death is a rest (8) Death is a reward(5), Death is the end (5) , Death is surrender (4), and Death is a joyful life (2), which is the least frequent in the corpus. In what follows, we will explain how the above seven source domains are actually applied to give a euphemistic representation of the taboo concepts of death and dying. To serve this purpose, we will deal with those conceptualizations that refer to the larger number of metaphorical substitutes in the corpus examples. 1- Death is a Loss: The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of loss in over 30% of the corpus date. According to Fernandez (2006:117), this cognitive association has a metonymic basis (the effect of death stands for death) Following Bultnick (1998:44-45), the conceptual basis of this mapping lies in the fact that life is perceived as a valuable object and death is thus seen as the loss of this possession. Therefore, contrary to what happens in the majority of the conceptual mappings observed in the corpus data, the metaphorical alternatives or substitutes arising from this configurative association cannot be said to provide any sort of consolation or relief. In fact, as Allan and Burridge (1991:162) maintain, the conceptual metaphor of death as a loss evokes as â€Å"malign fate†, as an event that human beings cannot control, leaving them powerless in the face of the unavoidable event. Out of the 53 corpus examples, 16 occurrences fall under the cognitive mapping of loss. In the f ollowing examples the death as a loss conceptual mapping is the source of the euphemistic substitution: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – In the first two examples, the focus is obviously on death with the first capable of being interpreted in two ways: the victim is utterly despaired Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target loss Death and by meeting his fate, he gets rid of this state, or the euphemistic substitute is used by a third party speaker in a pejorative dysphemistic manner . Examples (3) and (8) focus on the value of life and represent a sorrowful expression of the act of dying. Examples (3) through to (7) all emphasize the result of death by avoiding to directly mention the act of dying. 2- Death as a journey : The conceptual metaphor which explains death in terms of a journey with a spiritual destination comes second in the corpus in quantitative terms being the source of almost 25% (13 occurrences) of the entire corpus. As Bultnick (1998:31) points out, it is because of this conceptualization (based on the assumption that the dead person is no longer around) that human mortality is conceptualized as a departure from this world in which a basic domain of experience like death is understood in terms of a different and more concrete domain, as a journey, an association which provides the basis for the verbal mitigation of the taboo. The metaphorical mapping transfers different attributes from the source domain of a journey to the target domain of death. Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target domain Journey Death More specifically, it presents different sets of conceptual correspondences as a result of using the knowledge we have about journeys to talk about the taboo of death (Fernandez, 2006: 115): First, the act of dying corresponds to the act of leaving: second, the destination of the journey is an encounter with God in Heaven. Third, the dying person is the one that embarks on the journey. In the examples that follow, the act of dying corresponds to the act of leaving, and consequently the deceased (or metonymically his soul) is obviously the person who embarks on the journey: 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – Here, we clearly observe that all the variants of the metaphorical use of the verb (), which include such verbs as (), (), (), () focus on the act of leaving, on the journey itself, rather than on its conclusion. The final destination of the journey, i.e., the encounter with God in Heaven, is based on the religious belief of a joyful meeting with Almighty God. This notion provides the euphemistic support of expressions such as examples (11) and (12). Notably, examples (9) and (13) stand in contrast to each other: the former, though clearly focuses on the act of leaving as mentioned earlier, is representative of an apparently secular concept of viewing the current world as light , illuminated , and joyful. Consequently, the transferal from life to death can be interpreted as a journey into the unknown. The latter example (13) finds the world as a chaotic scene presenting the human being with nothing but sorrow and grief, and thus death is seen as the final cure to get rid of the sce ne. This latter conceptualization has its origin in a religious belief. Additionally, example (14) again presents a metaphor that corresponds to the person who is capable of embarking on a journey. Thus, the dying person is supposed to have moved, and for this reason considered to be alive (Fernandez, 2006:116). The importance of the concept of movement in this cognitive mapping is beyond doubt. In fact, according to Bultnick (1998:34-38), the conceptual metaphor Death as a Journey is a subdivision of the more general conceptualization Death as Movement. In general, the journey from life to the next world can be achieved in two ways. First, the journey is seen as the result of an action performed by some external agent, someone who helps to bring about departure (leaving). Like provider or Almighty God, or the Angel of death (Israel). The second is when the journey is motivated by an unknown force, as in: 15- 16- 3. Death is a Rest : The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of rest in 15% of the corpus data. The conceptual metaphors listed under this domain conceptualize death in terms of a peaceful rest after an earthly existence. Thus all the metaphors show a positive judgment of death, as in: 17- 18- 19- () 20- 21- According to Fernandez (2006: 121) the underlying notion of all the metaphors included this mapping is based on the fact that a rest, repose, or a sleep are temporary, and therefore, death is also conceptualized as a temporary event. This analogy implies that the cessation on of bodily functions and speech are not automatically identified with the symptoms of physical death, as they are also present in a peaceful sleep. The conceptualization which relates death to a rest or a sleep provides an effective euphemistic reference to the taboo mainly because this association ultimately leads to the denial of death as such: the dying person is no longer dead, but sunk in a comforting sleep. Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain Rest Death 4. Death is a Reward: The domain of death is explained terms of the domain of reward in 9% of the corpus examples. Thus reward is granted by Almighty God to those virtuous human beings who have led exemplary lives. Here death is conceptualized as an event which far from being fearful or harmful involves a sort of liberation thanks to which the deceased will find some hope and consolation (Fernandez, 2006: 122). In the following three examples, the death is figuratively associated with a reward achieved by moral discipline after a life full of good deeds. Hence the cognitive metaphors show an anticipation of Almighty God‘s mercy and blessings upon the victim: 22- 23- 24- The following examples envisage life as wretched and those living on Earth as miserable creatures. So, God Almighty’s reward for the virtuous and the pious is to help them get rid of this sorrowful earthly life: 25- ? Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain Reward Death 6. Death is the End: The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of the end in 9% of the corpus examples. Following Lakoff (1987:275) and by virtue of the SOURCE – PATH – GOAL schema into which our everyday experience may be organized, life can be understood as a process with a starting point, an end point and a time span: â€Å"Complex events in general are also understood in terms of a source – path – goal schema; complex events have initial states (source), a sequence of intermediate stages (path) and a final state (destination)†. Hence, death is conceptualized as the final stage of our lifespan by means of the image mapping Death is the End, which provides the basis for understanding and mitigating death and dying (Fernandez, 2006:123). In the examples below, death is viewed as the end of the process of human life: Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain End Death 26- 27- 28- Furthermore, expressions containing the adjective (/ ) such as ( ), ( ), ( ) can also belong to this cognitive network in the sense that they help to understand human death in terms of finality. 6- Death is Surrender: The domain of death can be explained in terms of the cognitive domain of Surrender in 7.5% of all the corpus data. Certainly, the notion of surrender in the conceptual metaphors below is basically a reflection of the Islamic view to the taboo of death: this is due to the fact that the Kurdish people are predominately Muslims. The term ISLAM itself is derived from the Arabic root ‘aslama’ which means â€Å"to surrender, resign oneself†. In Islam, the fundamental duty of each Muslim is to submit to Allah and whatever Allah wants of them. Thus, this conceptual mapping views death as surrender to Allah’s (God’s) orders and purpose: 29- 30- 31- Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target domain Surrender Death 7 – Death is a Joyful life: The domain of death is explained in terms the cognitive domain of joyful life in only 3.7% of all the examples collected which marks the least frequent domain in the corpus overall. This cognitive domain is based on the religious belief in an afterlife in which the deceased will joyfully expect the resurrection in Heaven flanked by God and the celestial angels (Frnandez, 2006:119). This cognitive mapping transfers the attributes from the domain of a joyful life to the domain of death, as in: 32- 33- When considered closely, these two examples can best be viewed in the light of the metaphor Death is eternal life proposed by Marin Arise (1996: 44) since they exhibit a presupposition that God’s Heaven is where the deceased has surely settled. As Fernandez (2006:119) states, due the fact of joy, life is viewed in negative terms. This conceptualization is particularly reflected in the metaphor ( ). Conceptual Metaphor Source Target domain Joyful life Death 6. Conclusions: 1. This paper contains a collected a corpus of euphemistic expressions of death in Kurdish whose examples have been drawn mainly from the Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish by Abdulwahab Shekhany (2009:341-5). 2. The corpus items have been thoroughly examined against a set of linguistic devices such as metaphors, metonymies, generic terms, etc. As the result, we have concluded that metaphors are presumed to constitute the majority of the euphemistic expressions of death in Kurdish. This fact can be an indication that this particular device best suits the purpose of euphemism. 3. Having confirmed the metaphorical source of most of the euphemistic expressions, we have drawn seven conceptual mappings from Bultnick (1998), Fernandez (2006) and Allan Burridge (1991) and have applied them to the Kurdish expressions within the well-known framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). When analyzed, the corpus data indicate that the category death as a loss constitutes the highest rate of examples in Kurdish (30.18%) whereas the category death is a joyful life contains the least examples (only 4%). This fact explicitly demonstrates the non-religious or secular outlook of the Kurdish individual towards death and dying. 7. Bibliography: Allan, Keith Burridge, Kate. (2006). Forbidden words. Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Allan, K. and Burridge, K. (1991) Euphemism and Dysphemism: language used as shield and weapon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Crystal, David. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fernandez, Eliecer, C. (2006). The Language of Death: Euphemism and Conceptual Metaphorization in Victorian Obituaries. Sky Journal of Linguistics Vol.19, pp 101-130. Gladney, George Albert Rittenberg, Terri L. (2005). Euphemistic Text Affects Attitudes, Behaviour. Newspaper Research Journal. 26 (1) 28-42. Goatly, Andrew (1997). The Language of Metaphors. London: Routledge. Gross, John. (1985). Intimations of Mortality. In Enright, D.J. 1985. Fair of Speech. The uses of euphemism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Holder, R.W. (2003). How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms, Oxford University Press. Hugh, Rawson (1995). A Dictionary of Euphemism Other Doublespeak, second edition. Hughes, Geoffrey. (2000). A History of English Words. Oxford: Blackwell. Katamba, Francis. (1994) English Words. London: Routledge. Lakoff, George Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Leech, Geoffrey. (1981). Semantics. Second Edition. Harmondsorth: Penguin Books. Marin Arrese, Juana. (1996). To die, to sleep. A Contrastive Study of Metaphors of Death and Dying in English and Spanish. Language Sciences Vol.18, 1-2. PP 37-52 Neaman, J. S., Silver, C. G. (1983). Kind words: A thesaurus of euphemisms. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Rawson, H. (1981). A dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. Sekhany, Abdulwahab (2006). Farhangi Idyom la Zmani Kurdi (A Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish. Mukiryani Establishment for Research and Publication. Erbil. Ullman, Stephen. (1962). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell. Appendix He carried out God’s order 1- He carried out God’s order 2- He was thrown at God’s mercy 3- He was thrown at God’s mercy 4- He was thrown at God’s mercy 5- He fell sacrifice to you (the present) 6- God took him back 7- He departed the bright world 8- He fell a sacrifice to you (the present) 9- He reposed (in the cemetery) 10- He was sent off to the unending night of death -11 His pure soul flew off to the vast Heaven 12- He sacrificed his pure soul to Kurdistan 13- His pure soul was called to Heaven 14- He entrusted his pure soul to God 15- His glimpse of life died out 16- The flower of his life faded out 17- He was led into ruin (his life was ruined) 18- He released from earthly sufferings 19- He drank the liquor of death 20- He preferred the boundless Heaven to the cramped Earth 21- He departed the grief – stricken world 22- He put up his tent before the throne of God 23- God, the Savior rid him of his wretched fellow humans 24- He jumped into the other world 25- He made God‘s Heaven his permanent nest 26- He slept under the earth 27- He was hit by the arrow of death 28- He carried his stuff to the graveyard 29- He was relieved of life 30- God disposed of him 31- He was released of life 32- The torch of his life died out by death 33- He has settled in Heaven 34- Death took him young 35- He got mixed with soil at the flower of his life 36- Death came to his rescue 37- He became a guest to the graveyard 38- He bid farewell to life 39- His life ended 40- He perished 41- His life’s book was folded up 42- The death wind flew off his life tree’s leaves 43- His shadow disappeared on earth 44- He fell victim to Israil’s looting 45- His sustenance on earth was cut off 46- He rested in the grave 47- He packed his baggage and headed for the grave 48- He settled in God’s Heaven with the virtuous 49- He headed for the gardens of Heaven 50- ? He discharged his obligation 51- He made his last voyage 52- He lost his soul 53- Research Papers on Euphemistic Expressions in KurdishThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsCapital PunishmentArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)The Fifth HorsemanMind TravelPETSTEL analysis of IndiaBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XHip-Hop is ArtComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Essay

Critical reflection of classroom observations Essay

Critical reflection of classroom observations - Essay Example Lesson aims for the students: The main aim of the lesson was to give the students an opportunity to developskills for generating a conversation more so with a stranger. Specific Skills: By the end of the lesson, the students were expected to generate a general idea of conversation starters through the completion of a specific task. The subsidiary aim of the lesson was to shine light upon the learners on they ought to speak and to learn the appropriate vocabulary for conversing with people under different circumstances. Anticipated Problems & Solutions: As is expected in every lesson, this lesson had its anticipated problems. Pronunciation was the first anticipated problem because the students would have found the new vocabulary in the text hard to cope with. Not only was the new vocabulary posing the problem of mispronunciation, it also had the possibility of making students to slow down in their reading. The students were also expected to present something that they generated from t he task that the teacher gave them. It was therefore expected that some of the students would be shy during the presentation. ... To eliminate the anticipation of the students being shy, the teacher had to make the lesson as interactive as possible and make sure that all the students participated in the activities. Assumed Knowledge: The basic assumption of the lesson was that the students were familiar with the concepts of starting a conversation, especially with a stranger. Materials: Delisle, R. (1997). How to use problem-based learning in the classroom. Alexandria, Va, Asociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Ellis, R. (2009). A typology of written corrective feedback types. Gear, A. (2006). Reading power: teaching students to think while they read. Markham, Ont, Pembroke Publishers. Harding da Rosa, J-M. (2012) ‘Managing your classes’ in English Teaching Professional, issue 82 ,pp 22-24. Harmer, J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th Edition). Hativa, N. (2001). Teaching for effective learning in higher education.Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Hebden, M. & Mason, J. (2003).Classroom organization.English Teaching Professional. Issue 28.Pp 23-5. Jacobs, G. M. and Ball, J. (1996) ‘An Investigation of the Structure of Group Activities in ELT Coursebooks’ in ELT Journal 50/2 99-107. Saginor, N. (2008). Diagnostic classroom observation: Moving beyond best practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Senior, R. (2008) 'Developing Rapport' in English Teaching Professional, issue 54. Tudor, I. (1993) ‘Teacher roles in the learner-centred classroom’ in ELT Journal (1993) 47(1): 22-3. Widdowson, H. G. (1987) ‘ The Roles of Teacher and Learner’ in ELT Journal, 41/ 2 83-8. Wilson, K. (2008) ‘Facilitator Talk in EAP Reading Classes’ in ELT Journal, 62/4, 366-374. Zepeda, S. J. (2009). The instructional leader's guide to informal

Study Topic 5 Valuing your customers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Study Topic 5 Valuing your customers - Essay Example ies need to provide services that correspond to the needs of their customers by getting rid of the gaps between what the customers receives and what they expect (Rhys, Oakley, Power, & Sinka 2008). Hence, the most essential concept in valuation of customers is the organization’s capacity to measure, predict, and influence the business value of their customers (Soman & N-Marandi 2010). This paper is a discussion of how Halo Leisure, manages sport and fitness facilities for the county of Herefordshire in England. They value their customers and this gives them an advantage over other fitness and sport organizations in the country. Furthermore, the paper outlines the measures that could be taken to improve the satisfaction of members in a sports club. The customer care issues addressed in the paper include market research and feedback, the customers’ expectations and experiences, the staffing issues, customer satisfaction, and retention. Market research is used by organizations to inform them of the most appropriate methods or ways to accomplish their aims by offering their services according to the expectations of the customers. According to Bolton & Tarasi (n.d), improved customer care in organizations is aimed at increasing the revenues, the value of the shareholders, and profit margins using certain marketing activities, such as marketing research. Therefore, the organizations need to, critically, understand the value of their customers, which the organizations derives from them and that which the organizations presents to them (Njenga 2010). Therefore, Halo Leisure uses the market research and feedback to attract more customers by delivering services that meet their expectations. For instance, Jon Arget, CEO Halo Leisure, states that the considerable increase in growth and development of an organization is attributed to the changes implemented in the organization according to the needs and wants of customers in certain customer care elements. He affirms

C-myc Monocular Antibody (McAb) on Gastric Cancer Cells

C-myc Monocular Antibody (McAb) on Gastric Cancer Cells Introduction Gastric cancer (GC) is estimated to be one of the most common and frequent malignant tumor of the digestive system. The incidence and mortality of GC have ranked the second among all tumor diseases worldwide [1-5]. However, it ranks in first place in China[6]. Complete surgical resection is still the standard for all patients with resectable GC. It remains highly problematic for the regional and less common systemic recurrences[7]. Recent improvement in surgical technique, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy has increased the survival rate of patients with early-stage, but the patients who have advanced GC are difficult to cure. With more and more research of molecular biological mechanisms known by us, molecular targeted therapies including cell growth, cell cycle, apoptosis and invasion have become a popular tumor comprehensive therapy[8]. Some of single-targeted spots are mainly Human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER-1, HER-2), Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Human epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI), Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI), Human proto-oncogene (c-MET)[9, 10]. However, it needs a huge space to develop the targeted anticancer drugs. An elegant way to accumulate therapeutic agents at the tumor site is their specific antibodies[11]. Oncogenes are well documented to be involved in mediating apoptosis and cell cycle resulting in cancers[12, 13], its activation can play an important role in the progress of cancer. C-myc is an important member of the c-myc family and a master regulator of genes involved in diverse cellular processes in GC[14]. The c-myc is a nuclear transcription factor which centrally regulates cell proliferation, differentiation, cell cycle and apoptosis, once c-myc is activated in vivo or in vitro, it is easy to make the cells far from the normal growth and promote cell malignant transformation to cancer finally[15-17]. It was reported that the expression of c-myc is an important consideration in the biological characteristic of GC [18-20]. The previous studies also have proved that c-myc has tight relation with Brest cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, hematopoietic cancer [21-24]. Currently few da ta exist on the occurrence of the c-myc McAb targeting against GC. In this study, we assessed the effects of c-mycMcAb on the Balb/e2nu/2nunude mice model of GC and the human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells, and tried to investigate the function of c-myc McAbfor targeting against GC. Materials and Methods Preparation of c-myc monocular antibody (McAb) All experiments involving animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University of Medicine. Mice were used in this study from Animal Science Laboratory of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and all effects were made to minimize distress.Thec-myc proteins prepared in E.coliBL21 were used as immunogens.[U1] Before McAb preparation, the c-myc proteins were mixed withequal volume of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). Female Balb/c mice aging from 6-8 weeks [U2]were immunized intraperitoneally with 50 ÃŽ ¼g c-myc proteins (1v:1v) in CFA. The immunization was repeated with the same amount of immunogens[U3] in incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA) at 14d. A final immunization was performed with 100ÃŽ ¼g mixture of c-myc proteinsand IFA at 28 d. Then, the blood was drawn from the caudal vein and serum titers were measured by ELISA at 35 d. A booster injection was given intraperitoneally at the antibody titers of 640,000[U4] tested by ELISA at 35 d. Five days after boost, spleen cells were isolated and mixed[U5] with SP2/0 myeloma cells. When the Hybrid cells grew to 50%, the positive clones were collected by ELISA. The hybridomas processed by Silica gel H was inoculated intraperitoneally into unsexed Balb/c mice. Then, the mice were scarified and the ascetic fluid was collected. The McAb was purified and the concentration was determined by bicinchoninic acid assay (BCA) Protein Assay Reagent Kit. Characteristic Identification of c-myc McAb The subtype of purified McAb was determined by antibody chips according to the manufacturer's instructions (Raybitech Company, USA) and antibody titers were measured by ELISA kit (Cistron Biotechnology, Pine Brook, NJ)[25]. The assay was carried out in 96-well polystyrene plates according to the standard procedures [26]. Briefly, c-myc protein (10ÃŽ ¼g) were loaded onto plate in 0.1 M carbonate buffer (PH 9.6) and reacted with McAb at 37oC for 2 h. After washed, the mixture was monitored with horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated rabbit-anti-mouse IgG (diluted 1:100; Sigma) at 37oC for 1 h. Nonspecific antibody binding sites wereblocked with 2% FCS in blocking reagent for 15min.The OD450vaule was read with a 96-well plate reader. The antigenic specificity of McAb was determined by Western blot. Purified c-myc protein was transferred into E.coil DH5ÃŽ ± and Cells were lysed inice-cold radioimmunoprecipitation buffer (RIPA) for 30 min and centrifuged to collect the supermanant[27]. Cell lysates were blent with 3Ãâ€" loading buffer (6 % SDS, 15 % 2-mercaptoethanol, 30 % glycerol, and 0.3 mg/mL bromphenol blue in 188 Tris-HCl, pH 6.8), heated at 90oC for 10 min, and then separated by 16 % SDS-PAGE. Separated proteins in the gels were electrophoreticaly transferred onto nitrocellulose membrane, boiled in phosphate buffered saline for 4 min, and blocked with 5 % nonfat dry milk for 20 min[28]. After several rinses, the membranes were incubated with c-myc McAb overnight at 4 oC. McAb were detected by HRP-conjugated goat-anti-mouse IgG (50 ÃŽ ¼g/mL) at 22 oC for 1 h. The establishment and treatment of nude mice model of GC Four-to-five-weeks old Balb/c nu/nu mice (body weight was 18 ±1.5g) were purchased for the establishment of nude mice model of GC . The human gastric cancer cell line (SGC-7901) was grown in 10% DMEM (Gibco) supplemented with FCS (100 mL/L), penicillin sodium (100 U/mL) and streptomycin sulfate (100 ÃŽ ¼g/mL), and cultured at a 5% CO2 incubator at 37 oC. Exponentially growing SGC-7901 cells were trypsinized resuspended to make a cell suspension of 2Ãâ€"107 cellls/mL. The nude mouse was injected subcutaneously with the suspension (0.2 mL) into the right and left root. Tumor masses were obvious at 10 d. Mice were randomized into 4 groups including low-dose group, middle-dose group, high-dose group and saline group (10 mice/group). Mice of each treatment group were inoculated intraperitoneally with c-myc McAb weekly (10 mg/kg, 20 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg, respectively), and mice of saline groups were injected with normal saline (0.2 mL) instead. Four weeks after injection, the mice were sacrificed and tumors were examined to calculate the tumor inhibition rates (). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) The procedures of SP immunohistochemical kit (SP kit, Maxim Biotech) were as follows: The tissue of tumors was fixed in 10 % phosphate-buffered Formalin, embedded in paraffin, and sectioned at a thickness of 4ÃŽ ¼m. Tissue sections were deparaffnized, hydrated and washed in PBS. Antigen retrieval was performed by combining the tissue with 10mM citrate buffer (pH 6.0) in a microwave for 10 min. Nonspecific protein bindings of tissues was blocked with 5 % normal sheep serum (NSS) for 10 min. after rinsing in PBS, sections were incubated with c-myc McAb at 4 oC overnight at a dilution of 1:100. Secondary antibody (Carpinteria, goat anti-mouse biotenylated, 1:50 in PBS) was applied at room temperature for 30min after washed, and then HRP-conjugated streptavidin were added. The slides were visualized by diaminobenzidine (DAB) (Dako, Carpinteria, CA, USA) for 5 min and counterstained with hematoxylin for 2 min, terminated, dehydrated, transparentized, sealed and photographed step by step. Negative controls were prepared by replacing primary antibody with PBS. Western blot analysis C-myc McAb (1 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 2 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 4 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, respectively) were added into SGC-7901cells andcultured for 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, for blank controls, the SGC-7901cells were omitted and HFE-145 cells were used instead. Cells were collected and lysed in ice-cold RIPA,and then following sections were mainlysimilar with the procedures of the Characteristic Identification of c-myc McAb. MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay Cells were seeded into 96-well plates (10, 000 cells/well) and cultured at 37 oC in a 5% CO2 incubator after HGC-7901cells and normal gastric cell line HFE-145 were trypsinized. The culture medium was washed with PBS 3 times, and thenc-myc McAb (1 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 2 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 4 ÃŽ ¼g/mL,) were added respectively, 20 mL (5 mg/mL) At the indicated time points (1 d, 2 d, 3 d, 4 d, 5 d), each well were added with 20 mL MTT cultured at 37 oC for 4 h. Then 150 ÃŽ ¼L DMSO was added again to stop the reaction after the supernate were dropped, The plate was read on multiwall plate reader (Thermo Fisher, Basingstoke, United Kingdom) at 570nm. . A dose-response curve was plotted for the HGC-7901cells and HFE-145 cells. Cell adhesion assay Before cell adhesion and migration assays, SGC-7901 cells and HFE-145 cells were serum starved in bascal culture medium overnight. In brief,6-well tissue culture plates were coated with 10ÃŽ ¼g/mL fibronectin and 10 ÃŽ ¼g/mL poly-L-lysine overnight, the wells were washed with PBS-T and blocked with 5 % BSA in PBS-T[29]. SGC-7901cells and HFE-145 cells were released with trypsin to prepare of single cell suspensions. The cells were applied to 6-well tissue culture plates (50 ÃŽ ¼L/well) and incubated at 37oC for 12 h. When cells were grown to approximately 90 % confluence, the c-myc McAb(1 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 2 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 4 ÃŽ ¼g/mL,) were added respectively. Cells were allowed to attach for 2 h, and the culture medium were discarded. Before released with trypsin, cells were washed twice with PBS and 1mM Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA). The formula of was used to calculate the adhesion rates. Cell migration assay Cell migration assays were performed in transwell bicameral chambers as described[30]. Matrigel (Becton Dickinson Company, Bedford) at a dilution of 1:100 were coated with culture medium without serum at 37oC for 30 min in the apical chamber. Cells were released with trypsin, washed ,and resuspended at a final concentration of 5Ãâ€"105 cell/mL in serum-free bascal culture medium (EBM) containing 0.1 % BSA. The suspension (100 ÃŽ ¼L), which were seeded on the upper chamber, were mixed with c-myc McAb (1 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 2 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 4 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, respectively). The lower chamber was filled with 500ÃŽ ¼L mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NIH3T3) which were cultured with RPMI (10mM Hepes, 0.5% BSA, pH 7.4). Migration chambers were incubated at 37oC in 5% CO2 incubator for 72h. After removing stationary cells from the upper side of the membrane with a cotton-tipped swab, migrated cells were fixed and stained with 1% crystal violet. Cells were counted in three fields at a magnification of Ãâ€" 400. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle assays HGC-7901cells and HFE-145 cells were seeded into 6-well plates containing Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) with 10% FCS and cultured at 37 oC in a 5% CO2 incubator overnight. Supernatants were discarded, before c-myc McAb (1 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 2 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, 4 ÃŽ ¼g/mL,) were added respectively and attached for 72 h. cells were fixed with pre-cooled ethanol (75%) and stained with Propidium Iodide (PI, Sigma) in the dark at room temperature for 15 min , after centrifuged at 1,000 rpm and rinses in PBS several times. The cell cycle and apoptosis rates were analyzed by FACS (Elite ESP, Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA). Statistical analyses Statistical analysis was performed using Software version SPSS11.0. All data was expressed as mean  ± SD (standard deviation). Comparisons were made by Student's t-test and comparisons of parameters were made using one-way analysis of variance among 4 groups. A value of P

John Wayne :: essays research papers

Arguably the most popular — and certainly the busiest — movie leading man in Hollywood history, John Wayne entered the film business while working as a laborer on the Fox Studios lot during summer vacations from university, which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies, and dramas. Wayne was cast in small roles in Ford's late-'20s films, occasionally under the name Duke Morrison. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, it was a failure at the box office, but the movie showed Wayne's potential as a leading actor. During the next nine years, be busied himself in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials — most notably Shadow of the Eagle in between occasional bit parts in larger features such as Warner Bros.' Baby Face. But it was in action roles that Wayne excelled, e xuding a warm and imposing manliness onscreen to which both men and women could respond.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1939, Ford cast Wayne as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach, a brilliant Western of modest scale but tremendous power, and the actor finally showed what he could do. Wayne nearly stole a picture filled with Oscar-caliber performances, and his career was made. He starred in most of Ford's subsequent major films, whether Westerns (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The Searchers ); war pictures (They Were Expendable); or serious dramas (The Quiet Man). He also starred in numerous movies for other directors, including several extremely popular World War II thrillers (Flying Tigers, Back to Bataan, Fighting Seabees, Sands of Iwo Jima); costume action films (Reap the Wild Wind, Wake of the Red Witch); and Westerns (Red River). His box-office popularity rose steadily through the 1940s, and by the beginning of the 1950s he'd also begun producing movies through his company Wayne-Fellowes, later Batjac, in association with his sons. Most of these films were extremely successful, and included such titles as Angel and the Badman, Island in the Sky , The High and the Mighty ( my personal favorite), and Hondo. The 1958 Western Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, proved so popular that it was remade by Hawks and Wayne twice, once as El Dorado and later as Rio Lobo.

The city of ember

The city of ember Tobacco Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Cancer of the upper respiratory and alimentary tracts claimed over 23,000 lives in 1989 and 57,000 additional cases were diagnosed. The majority of individuals who fall prey to this type of cancer are males who abuse both alcohol and tobacco. What is the risk you might ask. The fact that the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, lip, tongue, mouth, pharynx or larynx. increases dramatically in people who are heavy users of alcohol and tobacco is substantiated by 30 years of collective research.Studies demonstrate that the risk to individuals dually addicted far utweighs the risk to Individuals who abuse only one substance. This confirmed link between alcohol and tobacco abuse and an increased risk in upper alimentary and respiratory tract cancer makes this type ot disease among the most preventable. The Correlation Between Smoking and Drinking . 1t has been observed that Individuals who drink alcohol have d greater tendency to smoke than non-drinkers. One of the first studies to establish and quantify the degree of association between drlnklng and smoking was reported In 1972.The Investigation compared 130 alcoholic men hospitalized for alcohol withdrawal to 100 non-alcoholic psychiatric utpatients, Ninety-four percent of the alcoholic men smoked one or more packs of cigarettes per day, as compared to only 46 percent of the non-alcohollcs, who smoked one or more packs per day. Another study. which compared male and female alcoholics enrolled In an army drug and alcohol rehabllltatlon program to non- alcoholic army personnel and their relatives, affirmed the smoking-drinking association.The report found that individuals who were alcoholics smoked an average of 49 cigarettes per day, but that the non-alcoholic subjects smoked only 13 cigarettes per day. In addition, the study established a high correlation between the umber of cigarettes smoked and the grams of alcohol consumed by alcoholics, as opposed to a very weak association for the non-alcoholic control group. similar report, 58 percent ot the non-drinkers were non-smokers, but the individuals who were alcoholics did not abstain from smoking.The finding that smokers who did not drink smoked significantly less than smokers who did drink was further substantiated In additional studies. Why Do Many Drinkers Smoke More? Studies released in the late 1950s, correlating heavy coffee consumption with smoking and drinking, suggested that a strong oral drive caused drinkers to smoke ore frequently. However, new evidence suggests that a strong oral drive is not the culprit. In one study, alcoholics who had successfully stopped drinking demonstrated no appreciable Increase In smoking.In tact, some even smoked less with alcohol abstinence. If a strong oral drive was responsible for the drinking-smoking association, one would expect an increase in smoking during periods of alcohol abstinence. An alternative theory claimed that drinkers smo ked more due to just as much as alcoholics who drink in the company of other people dispelled this theory. The most plausible explanation is that drinkers smoke more than non- rinkers due to a greater physiological need for nicotine. Nicotine, the main psychoactive component of tobacco, is a potent chemical.It has a stimulating effect on the nervous system, causing, among other things, increased heart rate and mental stimulation. Once addicted to nicotine, a person may experience tremors of shakiness as blood levels of nicotine decrease to critically low levels. The smoker will crave another cigarette as blood levels reach this threshold to avoid these uncomfortable symptoms. Alcohol apparently causes blood levels of nicotine to fall more rapidly in smokers by activating enzymes in tissues which metabolize drugs. For example, rats pretreated with ethanol cleared nicotine from their blood more rapidly than rats not receiving ethanol.This research, coupled with numerous independent ob servations, strongly suggests that drinkers must smoke more in order to maintain the blood nicotine levels upon which they have become dependent. Why Is There More Cancer Among Alcohol and Tobacco Users? Investigations are under way to find an answer to this question. Laboratory studies have shown that alcohol enhances the metabolism of several tobacco associated carcinogens, including nitrosamines. It is known that tobacco and its smoke contain many classes f chemical carcinogens which must be activated to react with DNA and initiate steps towards carcinogenesis.Important in this activation process are cytochrome P-450 enzymes, which are induced by alcohol in heavy drinkers. Thus, alcohol and smoking are synergistic in increasing cancer risk. Since alcohol increases the metabolism and hence the need for nicotine, it follows that the success of smoking cessation programs will be improved if drinking habits of patients are controlled. Treatment of incipient alcoholism thus becomes a prerequisite for the ultimate success of behavior modification aimed at the elimination of smoking. The City of Ember The City of Ember is a post apocalyptic fantasy about Ember. I was written by Jeanne DuPrau and published in 2003. Ember is a city which was built by people, in the book know as â€Å"The Builders†, they built this city underground to house its citizens for 200 years. They say that the earth is uninhabitable for those years but never specify why. During these years a box with instructions is passed from mayor to mayor but a plague is spreading and the seventh mayor thinks the box may contain a cure so he tries opening it but dies before it is opened. The box was never returned and it is currently missing. It is now year 241 and the towns recourses are dwindling down. The power source is also not doing well because of the generators age it is not producing enough power. Lina and Doon are two graduates of their school and are both assigned jobs they don't like so they decide to switch. When She finds the box and it has the letter in which the escape route is stated. She does not know and before she can find out her sister chews it until their are hole in it. Lina and Doon eventually make a run for it after unraveling the letters meaning. They are amazed to find a whole new world outside of the small world they lived in. When they eventually reach safety in their newly discovered world they throw the directions down to the city they lived in. The book leaves off with Mrs. Murdo, Lina's guardian finding it and it is a mystery from then on. Overall I enjoyed the book because it was suspense filled and all the action that went on made it fun to read. The ending even had suspense and i would definitely recommend this book to others as a fun read but I stress it is not a challenging one. The city of ember The city of ember Tobacco Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Cancer of the upper respiratory and alimentary tracts claimed over 23,000 lives in 1989 and 57,000 additional cases were diagnosed. The majority of individuals who fall prey to this type of cancer are males who abuse both alcohol and tobacco. What is the risk you might ask. The fact that the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, lip, tongue, mouth, pharynx or larynx. increases dramatically in people who are heavy users of alcohol and tobacco is substantiated by 30 years of collective research.Studies demonstrate that the risk to individuals dually addicted far utweighs the risk to Individuals who abuse only one substance. This confirmed link between alcohol and tobacco abuse and an increased risk in upper alimentary and respiratory tract cancer makes this type ot disease among the most preventable. The Correlation Between Smoking and Drinking . 1t has been observed that Individuals who drink alcohol have d greater tendency to smoke than non-drinkers. One of the first studies to establish and quantify the degree of association between drlnklng and smoking was reported In 1972.The Investigation compared 130 alcoholic men hospitalized for alcohol withdrawal to 100 non-alcoholic psychiatric utpatients, Ninety-four percent of the alcoholic men smoked one or more packs of cigarettes per day, as compared to only 46 percent of the non-alcohollcs, who smoked one or more packs per day. Another study. which compared male and female alcoholics enrolled In an army drug and alcohol rehabllltatlon program to non- alcoholic army personnel and their relatives, affirmed the smoking-drinking association.The report found that individuals who were alcoholics smoked an average of 49 cigarettes per day, but that the non-alcoholic subjects smoked only 13 cigarettes per day. In addition, the study established a high correlation between the umber of cigarettes smoked and the grams of alcohol consumed by alcoholics, as opposed to a very weak association for the non-alcoholic control group. similar report, 58 percent ot the non-drinkers were non-smokers, but the individuals who were alcoholics did not abstain from smoking.The finding that smokers who did not drink smoked significantly less than smokers who did drink was further substantiated In additional studies. Why Do Many Drinkers Smoke More? Studies released in the late 1950s, correlating heavy coffee consumption with smoking and drinking, suggested that a strong oral drive caused drinkers to smoke ore frequently. However, new evidence suggests that a strong oral drive is not the culprit. In one study, alcoholics who had successfully stopped drinking demonstrated no appreciable Increase In smoking.In tact, some even smoked less with alcohol abstinence. If a strong oral drive was responsible for the drinking-smoking association, one would expect an increase in smoking during periods of alcohol abstinence. An alternative theory claimed that drinkers smo ked more due to just as much as alcoholics who drink in the company of other people dispelled this theory. The most plausible explanation is that drinkers smoke more than non- rinkers due to a greater physiological need for nicotine. Nicotine, the main psychoactive component of tobacco, is a potent chemical.It has a stimulating effect on the nervous system, causing, among other things, increased heart rate and mental stimulation. Once addicted to nicotine, a person may experience tremors of shakiness as blood levels of nicotine decrease to critically low levels. The smoker will crave another cigarette as blood levels reach this threshold to avoid these uncomfortable symptoms. Alcohol apparently causes blood levels of nicotine to fall more rapidly in smokers by activating enzymes in tissues which metabolize drugs. For example, rats pretreated with ethanol cleared nicotine from their blood more rapidly than rats not receiving ethanol.This research, coupled with numerous independent ob servations, strongly suggests that drinkers must smoke more in order to maintain the blood nicotine levels upon which they have become dependent. Why Is There More Cancer Among Alcohol and Tobacco Users? Investigations are under way to find an answer to this question. Laboratory studies have shown that alcohol enhances the metabolism of several tobacco associated carcinogens, including nitrosamines. It is known that tobacco and its smoke contain many classes f chemical carcinogens which must be activated to react with DNA and initiate steps towards carcinogenesis.Important in this activation process are cytochrome P-450 enzymes, which are induced by alcohol in heavy drinkers. Thus, alcohol and smoking are synergistic in increasing cancer risk. Since alcohol increases the metabolism and hence the need for nicotine, it follows that the success of smoking cessation programs will be improved if drinking habits of patients are controlled. Treatment of incipient alcoholism thus becomes a prerequisite for the ultimate success of behavior modification aimed at the elimination of smoking.

Irish Mythology History and Legacy

Irish mythology is a collection of pre-Christian beliefs detailing the histories and legends of ancient Ireland. These beliefs include descriptions and stories of deities, heroes, and kings measured in four distinct, chronological cycles.   Key Takeaways Irish mythology is a branch of Celtic mythology detailing the legends and histories of ancient Ireland.  It includes four distinct chronological cycles: Mythological, Ulster, Fenian, and Historical.  Ã‚  The oldest of these, the Mythological Cycle, details the supernatural first inhabitants of Ireland, known as the Tuatha Dà © Dannan.  These myths and legends were recorded by Christian monks in the 11th century, and many ancient Irish deities influenced the later canonization of Catholic saints, including St. Patrick and St. Brigid. Irish tales were recorded by 11th-century Christian monks, which helped make Irish mythology the most well-preserved branch of Celtic mythology. In some parts of Ireland, there is still a belief in the Creideamh Sà ­, or fairy faith, that coexists with Catholicism. What Is Irish Mythology? Irish mythology is a branch of Celtic mythology which details the origin stories and deities, kings, and heroes of ancient Ireland. Celtic mythology encompasses the collections of Brittonic, Scottish, and Irish ancient beliefs and practices passed down by oral tradition. Among these, Irish mythology is the best preserved, owing to the Christian monks that entered the tales into the written historical record during the Middle Ages. Ancient Irish myths are measured into four cycles. Each cycle details a group of pre-Christian deities, legendary heroes, or ancient kings, and the four cycles together chronologize the fabled settlement of the Emerald Isle. Mythological Cycle: The first Irish mythological cycle details the arrival and disappearance of the first inhabitants of Ireland, a group of godlike or supernatural people called Tuatha Dà © Dannan. The disappearance of these people gave rise to the Aos Sà ­, more contemporary mythical Irish creatures including leprechauns, changelings, and the Banshee.  Ulster Cycle: The second cycle is thought to have taken place in the 1st century, around the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. It details quests and feats of ancient heroes, specifically in the areas of Ulster, in the north, and Leinster, in the east.  Fenian Cycle: The third cycle recounts the journey of the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his mighty warriors, known as the Fianna.  Historical Cycle: The final Irish mythological cycle, known as the Cycle of the Kings, is the history and genealogy of ancient Irish royals as told by court poets. For centuries, Irish folklore passed through generations by oral tradition, though by the 11th century, they had been written down by monks. As a result, threads of Christianity are present in stories that would have had no notion of Christian faith. For example, the Mythological Cycle refers to the first settlers of Ireland as supernatural, godlike, or skilled in magic but never as gods, deities, or holy entities, though they would have been sacred to ancient people. Irish Mythical Deities   Ancient Irish mythological characters include venerated kings, heroes, and gods. The first cycle of Irish mythology, aptly known as the Mythological Cycle, is comprised of stories outlining the fabled founding of Ireland by the Tuatha Dà © Dannan and, later, the Aos Sà ­. The Tuatha Dà © Dannan disappeared, giving rise to the Aos Sà ­, who existed in a parallel universe alongside venerated ancestors, ancient kings, and legendary heroes. This universe, called the Tir na nOg or the Otherworld, can be accessed on certain occasions at sacred places, including burial mounds, fairy hills, stone circles, and cairns.   Tuatha Dà © Dannan According to legend, the Tuatha Dà © Dannan, or â€Å"People of the goddess Danu,† were supernatural creatures with human forms that were skilled in magical arts. Their story is recorded in the Book of Invasions, one of the texts written by the 11th-century monks. The Book of Invasions detailed how the godlike people descended into Ireland with a thick fog that encompassed the land, and when the fog lifted, the Tuatha Dà © Dannan remained. When the Milesians, the ancient ancestors of the Irish people, arrived in Ireland, they conquered the land, and the Tuatha Dà © Dannan disappeared. Some legends say they left Ireland completely and permanently, retreating to the Otherworld, while others say they blended together with the Milesians, passing some of the magic of the mythical deities into lives of the modern Irish people. Some of the most venerated figures of the Tuatha Dà © Dannan include: Dagda: God of life and death, patriarchLir: God of the sea  Ogma: God of learning, creator of Ogham scriptLugh: God of sun and light  Brighid: goddess of health and fertility  Tree de Dana: Gods of crafts; Goibniu, the blacksmith, Credne, the goldsmith, and Luchtaine, the carpenter Aos Sà ­ The Aos Sà ­, also known as the Sidhe (pronounced sith), are the â€Å"People of the Mounds† or the â€Å"Otherworldly Folk,† the contemporary depictions of the fairy folk. They are widely considered to be the descendants or manifestations of the Tuatha Dà © Dannan who retreated the Otherworld, where they walk amongst human beings but generally tend to live separately from them. The common and contemporary Irish characterizations are rooted in the Aos Sà ­. Some of the most recognizable fairies are:   Leprechaun: A solitary shoemaker known for causing mischief and keeping pots of gold.The Banshee: Similar to the Latin American myth of La Llorona, the Banshee is a woman whose wailing signifies death.  Changelings: A fairy child left in the place of a human child. Sick or disabled babies and children were often thought to be changelings, leading to devastating consequences until as recently as 1895, when Bridget Cleary was killed by her husband, who believed her to be a changeling. The Aos Sà ­ are known to inhabit places from which the Otherworld is accessible, including fairy hills, fairy rings, and notable geographical features like lakes, rivers, hills, and mountains. The Aos Sà ­ are fiercely protective of their spaces, and they are known to seek vengeance on those who enter, intentionally or not. Though the Aos Sà ­ are mythical creatures, there is a strong sense of the Creideamh Sà ­, or Fairy Faith, cultivated by some Irish people. The purpose of Creideamh Sà ­, which coexists with Catholicism, is not necessarily worship, but rather the fostering of good relations. Followers of the Fairy Faith are conscious of sacred spaces, careful not to enter them or build over them.   Christian Influence on Irish Mythology The Christian monks and scholars who recorded ancient Irish myths did so with the bias of faith. As a result, Christian development and ancient mythology significantly influenced each other. For example, Ireland’s two patron saints, St. Patrick and St. Brigid, are rooted in ancient Irish mythology. St. Patrick The most glaring amalgamation of religious practices can be found in the annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday with Catholic roots that almost always features leprechauns in some capacity. Contemporary holidays aside, early Christians in Ireland revered  St. Patrick as a symbol of the triumph of Christianity over paganism. However, particularly in the same medieval texts that outline ancient Irish history,  St. Patrick is not documented as a warrior, but rather as a mediator between Christian and Pagan cultures.   St. Brigid Most people who are familiar with Ireland recognize St. Brigid of Kildare as the second patron saint of the Emerald Isle, as well as the saint of a handful of other stations and vocations, including babies, midwives, Irish nuns, dairymaids. It is less commonly known that the story of St. Brigid is rooted in the legend of Brighid, one of the deities of the ancient Tuatha Dà © Dannan. Brigid was the daughter of Dagda and the goddess of fertility and health, much like St. Brigid. Sources   Bartlett, Thomas. Ireland: a History. Cambridge University Press, 2011.Bradley, Ian C. Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams. Edinburgh U.P, 2003.Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Murray (U. A.), 1825.Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Pantianos Classics, 2018.Gantz, Jeffrey. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin Books, 1988.Joyce, P. W. A Social History of Ancient Ireland. Longmans, 1920.Koch, John Thomas. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2006.MacKillop, James. Myths and Legends of the Celts. Penguin, 2006.Wilde, Lady Francesca Speranza. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland: with Sketches of the Irish Past. Ticknor and Co., 1887.