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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Phrenology Essay Example for Free
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Phrenology Essay After fMRI was first introduced, it has been under criticism that it is not hard science. The most common technique, the BOLD (blood oxygen level-dependent) fMRI, measures the increase in regional cerebral blood flow in response to increased metabolism, which is to be caused from heightened activity of neuron firing (Menon Kim, 1999). Some neurologists believe that this is an indirect way of measuring brain activity, and is not sufficient to support any idea. By many scientists fMRI is often compared to phrenology, a study that once gained popularity in the 19th century. Phrenology is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules (Fodor, 1983). This is similar to fMRI practitioners’ attempts to localize brain structure, matching the divided parts of the brain with certain functions. Judging whether fMRI is a new form of phrenology concerns two points: fMRI’s similarities to phrenology, and fMRI’s significance to be admitted as the ‘new form’. This will also lead to the question of whether fMRI scan is meaningful to be presented as evidence in court. The logic of fMRI is straight-forward. Brain parts that light up to a certain stimulus, is related to the function provoked by the stimulus. The fMRI machine measures increase in blood flow in brain regions. The regions with increased blood flow appear in brighter colors, in red or yellow (Dobbs, 2005). fMRI’s logic of relating higher blood flow and function is similar to that of phrenology, which relates size of lump to function. From this analogy we can say that fMRI can be considered some form of ‘phrenology. ’ Another reason that fMRI is compared to phrenology is for its limitations (Menon Kim, 1999). MRI’s problem rise from the fact that it does not show interactions between parts. It takes a univariate approach to the brain, implying that only one factor is considered as variable. The current fMRI shows voxels’ activity as one sum, meaning that it cannot collect relational or sequential information of brain parts (Dobbs, 2005). Many neurologists believe that brain parts’ interaction is an important aspect, and fMRI’s lack of capacity to do so results in criticism. Compared with the old phrenology, fMRI shares the same view that brains have localized functions. However, fMRI takes a more scientific approach than the old phrenology. Although it has its limitation in presenting spatial information, it does contribute in relating brains structure and the mind’s function. Although the ‘old’ phrenology is labeled ‘pseudoscience’ and no longer acknowledged in the field of science anymore, it has had its contributions. It sparked the idea that mind can be localized, such as language and memory. In the same context fMRI can contribute, only much more than the ‘old’ phrenology. Although fMRI’s blood flow measurement and the actual neural activity do not perfectly correspond with each other (Dobbs, 2005), significant correlation can be drawn from the fMRI scanning. As for the usage as court evidence, I see fMRI scan valuable as evidence, for fMRI does show some level of correlation of parts of brains and certain activity. fMRI should not be criticized and banned from court just because of its possibility of erroneous conclusion (Hughes, 2010). Even witnesses’ testimonies are bound to be wrong, but their testimonies are accepted as evidence. Thus fMRI should be allowed to be presented as evidence in court. However, the juries should be made aware that fMRI scan is an arbitrarily interpreted output, and contain risks of erroneous conclusions. I believe fMRI will gain stronger grounds in the court later in the future though, with the advance of technology as mentioned above. Some compare neurologists with fMRI to molecular biologists with light microscopes (Jaffe, 2004), for the reason that the capacity of fMRI is not sufficient for neurological study. It must be taken into account that later light microscopes evolved to electron microscopes, meaning that also fMRI will offer improved spatial and temporal information in the future. Its potential must be acknowledged, and in the meantime there should be efforts to find complementary analysis methods (Hubbard, 2003).
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Comparing Richard Wrights Native Son and Black Boy :: comparison compare contrast essays
Critiques on Native Son and Black Boy                                                                               Bigger has no discernible relationship to himself, to his own            life, to his own people, nor to any, other people- in this respect,        perhaps, he is most American- and his force comes not from his             significance as a social (or anti-social) unit, but from his               significance as the incarnation of a myth. It is remarkable that,          though we follow him step by step from the tenement room to the            death cell, we know as little about him when this journey is ended         as we did when it began; and, what is even more remarkable, we know        almost as little about the social dynamic which we are to believe          created him.                                                                                -James Baldwin, "Many, Thousands Gone," reprinted in                      Twentieth Century Interpretations of Native Son, 1972       Native Son, though preserving some of the devices of the                 naturalistic novel, deviates sharply from its characteristic tone: a       tone Wright could not possibly have maintained and which, it may be,       no Negro novelist can really hold for long. Native Son is a work of        assault rather than withdrawal; the author yields himself in part to a     vision of nightmare. Bigger's cowering perception of the world becomes     the most vivid and authentic component of the book. Naturalism             pushed to an extreme turns here into something other than itself, a        kind of expressionist outburst, no longer a replica of the familiar        social world but a self-contained realm of grotesque emblems.                           -Irving Howe, "Black Boys and Native Sons," reprinted in                      Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Native Son, 1972      -                                                                            Throughout, the physical description that Wright rushes by us            makes us feel the emotional force of the objects but not see them with     any real accuracy: we are aware of the furnace and storm as poles of       the imagination- fire and ice- in a world of symbolic presences.           Continually the world is transformed into a kind of massive skull, and     the people are figments of that skull's imagination.                                            -Dan McCall, The Example of Richard Wright, 1969      -                                                                            ON MAX'S SPEECH                                                            But Max represents the type of so-called legal defense which the         Communist Party and the I.L.D. have been fighting, dating from             Scottsboro. Some of his speech is mystical, unconvincing, and              expresses the point of view held not by the Communists but by those        reformist betrayers who are being displaced by the Communists. He          accepts the idea that Negroes have a criminal psychology as the book      Â
Monday, January 13, 2020
Critical analysis of Historical Websites Essay
There are many historical databases provided by Universities today. So much so, it is often more likely to find the exact replica of a particular historical document on the web than to physically go to a library expecting to find a book pertaining the same topic. In fact, it has become common practice for many Library officials to even direct students doing research directly to their websites. Historical websites today provide information in almost every form from scholarly abstracts, to old newspaper articles, to actual audio bites of interviews with historical figures. We obviously live in a more advanced era; but just like there were disadvantages in the past deemed ordinary by our ancestors, our children will most likely view the way we operate today as passe. This poses the question, what are our faults? What are the weakness, in the most popular research databases today, that could improved on? How accredited are these sites, should they be, and what bias do they hold? For the purpose of attempting to thoroughly answer these questions, I will analyze four popular, and accredited, historical websites. The historical databases I will be examining are as follows: ProQuest, History Center Resource Group U. S. A. , History Cooperative, and ABC Clio Historical Abstracts and America: History & Life. All of these sites have been approved by Florida State University for substantial sources for historical reference, as well as other University Libraries. For the purpose of testing the websites’ historical value, I came up with three key search terms I would use to judge all four of the websites. These terms are: Aristotle, American Revolution and Al Quada. I chose these terms because I felt they best exemplified a time before the father companies of these sites existed, or they measure the quality of current even efficiency. ProQuest Company is stationed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company’s main focus is in microfilm and electronic publishing. The company was initially founded by Eugene Power under the title of â€Å"University Microfilms in 1938. The company preserved precious British Museum articles on microfilm, as well as published dissertations. In continuous production of publications since 1938, with so many dissertations, ProQuest has been officially declared as the U. S. off-site repository of the Library of Congress. During World War II, University Microfilm assisted the Office of Strategic Service by filming maps and European newspapers. In 1980, the company made the transition from microfilm to storing databases on CD-ROMs. It then went through a nuance of owners and names until finally changing its name to ProQuest Information and Learning in 2001. Upon first viewing the ProQuest database online, I was forced to acknowledge the simplicity of the page. The search bars were easy to use, providing the option of searching through different databases with categories of everything from dissertations, news papers and business articles to interdisciplinary and criminal justice periodicals. They also had database searches provided solely to do research on gender issues, race relations and global news. I’m certain all of these databases provide information on a vast range of subjects dating as far back as 1938, when the company first originated. When I punched in the key word Aristotle, my search found 4451 sources, most of which were news paper articles dated in the present new year. The American Revolution found me 3724 references all ranging from newspapers to dissertations. Finally, Al-Qaeda found me 21543 results. The patterns of these numbers showed me that ProQuest was more bias towards politics and current event in America, even though it’s categorized as a historical database. Also, as I would later find out its results were monumental and almost never ending compared to the results of the other sites. The large majority of ProQuests material comes from news paper articles, which gives it a disadvantage when its compared to other site producing scholarly essays. The fact remains ProQuest has a seemingly endless quantity of reputable sources. ProQuest represents big business in scholarly society, and in that way it drastically contrasts sites like History Cooperative. History Cooperative is a nonprofit humanities resource that provided scholarly historical journals for the purpose of study. This site was established by the combined efforts of The University of Illinois Press, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the National Academies Press. At first glance, I have to say that History Cooperative is the simplest and most vast database I’ve ever seen, second only to Wikipedia, which lacks scholarly accreditation. It appears that History Cooperative provides more access the largest variety of respected American Journals than any of the other sites. I begin my analysis by searching the first key term, Aristotle. Many scholarly essays pertaining to Aristotle’s theories come up. I click on the first link titled Hairy Women and Naked Truths: Gender and the Politics of Knowledge in Aristotle’s Masterpiece, by Mary E. Fissell, to see how relative the article is to my search. I look at the article and find it is more an educated response to one of Aristotle’s literary works than any concrete historical information about the man himself. In light of this, I must acknowledge the source still holds some historical relevance and could be used for more in-depth analysis of the man in a research paper. When I look up American Revolution, I get Wheat, War, and the American Economy during the Age of Revolution, by Brooke Hunter. Again, this is another article that takes a specific part of history and goes in-depth with the topic. Finally, I search for Al-Qaeda searching for it four different ways and only finding results when I type it in as shown. Even then only one article pops up, titled ‘Chaos on the Earth’: Subjective Truths versus Communal Unity in Islamic Law and the Rise of Militant Islam, Indira Falk Gesink. The website overall still proves to be historically relevant, just not up on current events. The site also appears bias in the sense that most of its information comes from authors publishing in journals to display their literary prowess, or attain scholarly recognition. The site didn’t appear to have factually informative information with the student in mind, but more like scholarly interpretations written for the purpose of being viewed by other’s with PHDs. This site is not for someone attempting to find basic information. It has articles that carryout close and critical responses assuming that much is already known about the topic. On these grounds, I do get a very liberal minded nature from the site in the sense that it promotes free thought. Though this leaves room for bias pertaining a particular topic of search, in most cases, except for the Al Qada search, there is a vast amount of sources to counter a bias view. This leaves the researcher free to interpret their own understand from a much more educated and open view of the topic. The History Resource Center: U. S. is a database formed by the Gale Group. Now known as Thomas Gale, the company is run by Gordan T. Macomber and specializes in research and educational publishing for public and academic libraries, schools and businesses. Its full text magazine and newspaper database, Info Trac is the same search tool that powers The History Resource Center: U. S. The site is considered by many respected scholastics to be a reputable source for references on religion, history and social science. The site is also most notably recommended by History Channel. com. When I first search for Aristotle, a long list of about twenty two sources come up the first one being, Aristotle Versus Plato in Ancient Greece. History in Dispute, by Mathew E. Kenney. The American Revolution search produced two-hundred results the first of which was The Impact of the American Revolution on Britain. History in Dispute, by Keith Krawczynski. Finally my search for Al-Qaeda produced ten results, the first of which was Suspected Terrorist Mounir el-Motassadeq Convicted in Germany, February 19, 2003. This was located in a journal titled Historic World events. This greatly impressed me about the website. On top of this, I received no sense of bias while reviewing this web page. All of the articles were heavily referenced, and many had the feel of being analytical while at the same time very informative with the facts. The final site I viewed diverged from the pack completely in its ability to inform. ABC-CLIO was founded in 1953 by Eric Boehm. Its first publication was produced in 1955 the company is mostly known for its main database America: History and Life and their Historical Abstracts database. The company does not a have a long known history pertaining to America, but most of its historical information is American History based. Despite these credentials, Florida State and many other Universities approve of this website as one of their key source of reputable information. The truth is, there was no in-depth analysis done for this page, because it was more of a retail site than an a location for study. When I entered the key terms into the search bars, publications and dissertations were not viewable without buying the entire article. This contrast between the other web pages make one wonder if this is a sign of the past or the future. It also makes me appreciate site like ProQuest and the History Resource Center, for being so efficient, for free. In sum, after comparing these sites, I can’t help but think that ABC-CLIO needs to be put out of business and ProQuest might be leaving the competition behind. The sites that do produce works, are all admirable and respectable in their nature to produce as many knowledgeable sources as possible, even if the views are contrasting. The advancement of ideals like this is the way of the future. It can always be argued that corporations like History Cooperative are valuable because they perform a humanitarian service by being non-profit. It can even be argued that the History Resources Center: U. S. outmatches ProQuest in quality. But, it can’t be denied that ProQuest unfairly out does all of the competition based on the number of sources it produces. This idea of quality verses quantity is a classic debate. But, in the case of ProQuest, it must acknowledged that Quality has a quantity all of its own. Work Cited ABC-CLIO http://serials. abc-clio. com. proxy. lib. fsu. edu/active/go/ABC-Clio-Serials_v4. 2. Accessed Jan 6. 2007 History Cooperative http://www. historycooperative. org. proxy. lib. fsu. edu/ Accessed Jan. 6 2007. History Resource Center U. S. http://galenet. galegroup. com. proxy. lib. fsu. edu/servlet/HistRC/form? origSearch=true&n=10&l=1&items=0&locID=tall85761. Accessed Jan. 7, 2007 ProQuest. http://proquest. umi. com. proxy. lib. fsu. edu/login. Accessed Jan 7 2007.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Graphics in Business Writing, Technical Communication
In business writing and technical communication, graphics are used as visual representations to support the text in a report, proposal, set of instructions, or similar documents. Types of graphics include charts, diagrams, drawings, figures, graphs, maps, photographs, and tables. Etymology: From the Greek, writing Successful visuals integrate substance, statistics, and design to achieve four principles: clarity, precision, efficiency, and integrity. The best visuals give the viewer the greatest number of ideas as quickly as possible in the least amount of space.(John M. Penrose, Robert W. Rasberry, and Robert J. Myers, Business Communication for Managers: An Advanced Approach, 5th ed. Thomson, 2004) Criteria for Effective Graphics Whether hand drawn or computer generated, successful tables and figures have these characteristics (From Sharon Gerson and Steven Gerson, Technical Writing: Process and Product, 5th ed. Pearson, 2006): Are integrated with the text (i.e., the graphic complements the text; the text explains the graphic).Are appropriately located (preferably immediately following the text referring to the graphic and not a page or pages later).Add to the material explained in the text (without being redundant).Communicate important information that could not be conveyed easily in a paragraph or longer text.Do not contain details that detract from rather than enhance the information.Are an effective size (not too small or too large).Are neatly printed to be readable.Are correctly labeled (with legends, headings, and titles).Follow the style of other figures or tables in the text.Are well conceived and carefully executed. Benefits of Graphics Graphics offer benefits that words alone cannot: Graphics are indispensable in demonstrating logical and numerical relationships[. . .]Graphics can communicate spatial information more effectively than words alone.Graphics can communicate steps in a process more effectively than words alone[. . .]Graphics can save space[. . .]Graphics can reduce the cost of documents intended for international readers. . . . As you plan and draft your document, look for opportunities to use graphics to clarify, emphasize, and organize information.(Mike Markel, Technical Communication, 9th ed. Bedford/St. Martins, 2010) Also Known As: visual aids, visuals
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