Critical Thinking Essay

The four keys to a sound decision making are recognizing that the person is actually facing a very important decision. Then it would be followed by consideration of the possible alternatives. After doing so, one will need to evaluate these alternatives and would finally need to act with discipline to be able to choose the best possible alternative. Such decision making process was present in my life during my fourth year in high school wherein I would have to finally pick a college course. My parents want me to become an ordinary businessman. I, on the other hand would want to enter the military school. I weigh between the two alternatives of which would be my best choice. I believe that doing something that I have no enthusiasm would not likely to benefit me. In the end, I chose to persuade my parents into letting me go to the military school instead of the other way around. Knowing what alternative it is that one really wants and believes to be the best. Having an alternative that is proven to work and that would yield more benefit than the other/s is the one alternative that shall be chosen. In my case, I chose what I really want over the alternative of following the advice or the wants of my parents. It serves me well and I am happy that I made such decision. 7. Briefly describe the early decision making years (2-11 years of age) and the adolescent decision making years (12-17 years of age). Now review in your mind your recollections about your life as an adolescent. Ask yourself the following questions .a. Can you identify some ways in which you were influenced by the media as an adolescent? Elaborate. In the adolescence years, most of my decisions were roughly based on how I want others to treat me and see me. Since the adolescence period is a time wherein individuals try to find themselves and create their own identity advertisements have been really influential. One of the things that I remember about being influenced by the media was through promotions of white and lean is handsome or beautiful. As far as I can remember there have been television advertisements that promote being good looking in the concept of having more muscles. Television shows mostly have leading actors who are muscularly built and dressed ruggedly. The view on how to measure success was also influenced by the media. I grew up reading articles about rugs to riches stories and what have inspired this people. I tried to imitate their actions, nevertheless, as far as my character is concerned, I am different person in a different neighborhood with a different capability and attitude in life; although, those stories had got stuck in mind up until today. b. Can you identify one bad habit you formed as a result of poor adolescent decision-making? Elaborate. One bad habit that have formed in me resulting from a poor adolescent decision making would be attempting to rebel from my parents. During those years I felt as if my whole world is being so much manipulated by my parents. I guess, that’s how people usually think when parents started being over protective during those years when everyone else is trying to have a good time. As a usual adolescent I tried to sleep over, drink alcohol, and skip classes, smoke cigarette and marijuana. Those kinds of things seem to be the natural things to do. Then here comes my parents shouting at me telling me to straighten my life or else I would not be receiving anything from them. I felt so sick about how they treat me. It seems like I am still a little baby who cannot decide on his own. Thus, I have decided to run away from home. After a week, I have seen what life is without my parents. I mean, at first it is an overwhelming sense of freedom and success. Afterwards you will find everything lousy. Your life would seem to have no direction and you will realize, â€Å"I should have listened†. c. To what extent did your decisions during adolescence reflect an attempt on your part to gain recognition and acceptance from other adolescents? My decisions during my adolescence reflected my attempts on gaining recognition and acceptance from my peers when I run away from home just to go with them on a road trip. My parents have been so against my friends, since they are the kind of people who indulged on so much smoke and liquor. Disobeying my parents and prioritizing my friends over my studies have been my best attempt for them to accept me. They lived their lives that way and I believed that time that in order for me to have friends, I must try to be like them. It did work, but I then understand that I should just be myself and real good friends would stick with me. 8. The text lists seven steps to sound problem solving. Identify a situation from your own experience where you have applied those steps. List how you applied each and how they impacted your ability to solve that particular problem. I have been able to apply the seven steps of problem solving in my life during my stay hear in Iraq. My goal in being here in Iraq is to serve my country. However, there have been several issues that seem to denote that I am doing something that is wrong. Since, there are so many people who believe that soldiers in Iraq are unnecessary or that soldiers in Iraq are being used by the American government to express its hegemonic capacities. It is not that I do not have faith or trust to the government of America but since I, as a soldier have experience seeing people cursing us on behalf of the American government, I decided to make some research regarding the views of people especially of those who are residing here in Iraq about the American government and how they see it as a threat and why. Depending on the various information and opinion that I have collected in the internet and through other people I have inferred that generally the people with a communist or Marxist background and those who have an affinity or sympathy with the actions and principles of the Jemai Islamia view the United States government as a modern colonizer. I decided that in short term I could talk people out of such idea by presenting them with logical explanation. However, I figured out it would be dangerous since peoples beliefs and philosophy is deeply embedded in their consciousness; a consciousness that was formed by experience and constant reinforcement of ideological beliefs. It would be hard to talk to them and convince them to believe other wise. A long term action I could do is to create blogs or article in the internet that would voice out the interest and opinion of the people who are actually involved in the rehabilitation of Iraq in order to explain better about what is the need for soldiers and America to continue supporting the Iraqi government. In order to do this I have talk about some of my friends and sort of interview them regarding the matter. They believe that it is a good idea to create articles that would voice out our side of the issue. This article would better be available to other people who would like to know a holistic view of the story. The strategy that I decided to apply is to send emails to my friends and relatives to view a discussion panel on the internet. This panel would be focused on the war in Iraq and would generate the views from different people. However, it would be hard to promote the site. So I am still thinking of other strategy. One of my fellow soldier decided that we should create a book that would reflect our experiences here in Iraq. I guess that will be a better alternative. But it would take a long time from now since we don’t have enough time and resources to do a book at the present moment. 9. Provide a personal example for each of the two forms of irrational problem solving. Discuss how these were irrational and what you might have done differently? Thinking irrationally follows from not being able to reason out, it is doing something out of sheer habit or false belief. Egocentric thinking or solving a problem based on selfish or self-centered view often results to negative effect. As when a person is thinking only of personal wants, such wants may not be the same wants that other people like. If so, one would be imposing his wants and others might hate him for that. Also, in problem solving when a person acts according to his emotions he would not think about other people and would only think about a solution that has personal bias. Such solution may not be good for a long term or for a group of individuals and thus, it is more likely to fail than to succeed. If a person is jealous, the person would not think about the reason why things happened, instead the person would view things in accordance to how the person feels things are going. There are certain decisions that might not have been done if jealousy was set aside. Another irrational problem solving is doing what you are told without critically examining the reasons for a certain action. For instance you are told that you should go to church and believe in Christ since you are a child. If you would just believe what others tell you and not think about them in a more critical manner. When you have a problem regarding your religion or someone offered you a counter argument, such things might ruin or shatter your faith, since you cannot reason it out. References Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2006). Critical Thinking. 2nd ed. Person Prentice Hall. Richardson, B. (2006). Theme of the Month: The Tyranny of the â€Å"Fifth Constraint†: Taking Your Thinking Off Autopilot . allPM. com. Retrieved on November 24, 2007. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://allpm. com/modules. php? op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1580&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0.

Palliative Care and Hospice Care: The Principles and Goals They Set Essay

The principles of palliative care and hospice care have similar goals that may often come together in an effort of providing the best care for a patient. Palliative care is holistic care of an individual with a chronic life debilitating condition whereas hospice care is for those with a terminal condition who have been diagnosed with 6 months or less to live. Palliative care usually will begin prior to the hospice care and continues to be joined with hospice care. â€Å"It is important to note that the prognosis-based distinction between palliative care (eligibility based on need, no prognostic restriction) and hospice (eligibility based on a prognosis of living less than six months) is unique to the United States, whereas in other countries the terms palliative care and hospice are largely synonymous†(1) â€Å"The Institute of Medicine ([IOM], 2003) defined palliative care as the total active care of the body, mind, and spirit. The aim of palliative care is to prevent or les sen the severity of pain and other symptoms, and to achieve the best quality of life† (IOM, 2003, p.2) throughout the course of any life –threatening or life-limiting healthcare condition.† (2) In providing palliative care to an individual the possibility of curing the illness still exists. The patient is made as comfortable as possible but has not been given a time frame for death. An â€Å"Interdisciplinary palliative care teams assess and treat symptoms, support decision making and help match treatments to informed patient and family goals, mobilize practical aid for patients and their family caregivers, identify community resources to ensure a safe and secure living environment, and promote collaborative, and seamless models of care across a range of care settings (i.e., hospital, home, and nursing home).†(1) Palliative care begins when an individual’s quality of life has decreased because of their disease process and the prognostic restriction is not available. With hospice care, the illness is terminal. The interdisciplinary team will also assess the patient but will not seek a cure for the condition. Their goal now is care and comfort with the emphasis being comfort. â€Å"Hospice is a movement that offers palliative care to terminally ill patients; this type of care eases pain and suffering and helps a patient die with dignity but does not attempt to cure illness. This care may take place at home or in the  hospital. Some larger communities have a separate facility devoted to hospice care.†(3) With hospice care the individual and family have accepted the imminence of death with a six month period and the care the patient will receive will be based on making sure the patient is comfortable at all times. The facilities that provide hospice care are successful because the dignity and comfort of individual and critically important to both the patient and their family. Hospice care gives support to not only the patient but also to the family during this difficult time. This process of beginning hospice care is often delayed by the patient and patient family because it is makes the phase of dying a reality. Hospice confirms that there is not a cure available for a loved one and makes death more of a reality. Hospice also makes this last phase of dying more acceptable, and provides the spiritual comfort for the patient and their family. Hospice care is not just patient based care, it is family based care. In discussing palliative care versus hospice care we can ascertain that â€Å"palliative care may be appropriate for anyone with a chronic progressive disease when symptom management becomes a challenge.†, but hospice care is palliative care for the terminally ill. The difference in these two types of care and the phase of death an individual is currently experiencing meaning the prognosis of death. â€Å"Hospice care is appropriate when patients and their families decide to forgo curative therapies in order to focus on maximizing comfort and quality of life, when curative treatments are no longer beneficial, when the burdens of these treatments outweigh their benefits, or when patients are entering the last weeks or months of life†(1) References Bonebrake, D., Call, K., Culver, C., & Ward-Smith, P. (2010, June). Clinically differentiating palliative care and hospice. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 14(3), 273+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA231807936&v=2.1&u=lincclin_fccj&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=cb9b3d9659946c2bae4f99e7c40bd81c Kincaid, L., & Labell, L. (2011). Death and Dying: Hospice . Human Growth and Development (Third Edition ed., ). Jacksonville: Florida State College. Meier, D. (2011). Increased access to palliative care and hospice services: opportunities to improve value in health care. The Milbank Quarterly, 89(3), 343-380. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0009.2011.00632.x

Racial profiling against american minorities Essay

Racial profiling against american minorities - Essay Example Racial profiling will not help the policing procedures becomes effective and the insurance practices as well. The paper will enlighten some of us who are not aware that they are committing racial discrimination against the minorities. In this paper you will be able to identify the policing procedures and insurance policies for African Americans differs from the normal citizen of USA. To understand the topic fully it is best to define terms involved in the study. At the end of the paper the reader will agree or disagree on matter involving racial profiling against African American in policing procedures and insurance policies. Racial profiling is one of the most frequently debated topics in the U.S today. Numerous instances and issues have been brought to light especially with regards to the police making undue stops on black motorists. It is basically the practice of targeting African Americans whom they assume are more likely to be involved in criminal activity. Racial profiling happens when the police officials or a private security personnel use a person's race to judge or base a criminal activity. Discrimination which is rooted solely on an individual's colour, nationality etc destabilizes the human rights which everyone is entitled to. The issue in recent days has spread further to focus on Middle ... Racial profiling happens when the police officials or a private security personnel use a person's race to judge or base a criminal activity. Discrimination which is rooted solely on an individual's colour, nationality etc destabilizes the human rights which everyone is entitled to. The issue in recent days has spread further to focus on Middle Eastern characteristics as well. What is termed as racial profiling could probably just be a matter of discretion to some. However the law enforcement officers should not be pressurised with racial profiling background so as to hinder justice and should be able to do their duty for the just and reasonable reason without fear of being attacked for racial profiling. Racial profiling and residential segregation are the basis of collective racism in today's world. The problem has become quite severe in certain states that anti-profiling statutes had to be brought in place to ensure equality in policing procedures and discourage racial profiling. After the 9/11 incident racial profiling had become rampant with Asians and Arabs being stopped by law enforcement officers claiming to investigate terrorist activities. Most of these people have clear criminal records and have never before been charged which makes it a humiliating experience causing tension and racist feelings. One of ACLU's first priorities is the fight against racial profiling and the method of substituting the colour of the skin as grounds

Negotiating employees welfares in a work place Research Paper

Negotiating employees welfares in a work place - Research Paper Example This project topic is focused on Negotiating on behalf of employees of an organization with its Executive Management on the employees’ welfares and conditions of services in the organization. This negotiation is based on a win/win situation where both the management and employees are pursuing a mutual interest of moving the organization to a greater height. Other interest groups in this negotiation are Company Board of Directors, Labor Union, Company employees, Customers and Vendors to the Company. Negotiation is the basic art of bargaining pursuing a mutual beneficial interest among interest groups such as Company Board of Directors, Labor Union, Company employees, Customers and Vendors to the Company. On daily basis everyone negotiates one thing or another. On a private level, individuals bargain with friends, car sellers, landlords, family and managers, among others interest groups. Negotiation formulates a vital segment of the competitive nature of the contemporary life of our social and economic dynamic. Negotiation makes a dynamic process among codependent and self-interested groups with different upbringings, which targets to influence a decision that contents preferences and limitations of the available groups (Defense, 2015). This paper discusses on the real-world, holistic overview of the skills strategies that can be employed and applied to successful negotiations on behalf of employees of an organization, with its Executive Management on the employees’ welfa res and conditions of services in the organization. Negotiations on behalf of employees of a particular organization are core attributes to organization success. There are no organizations that can survive without profitable conventions. Within an organization, negotiation skills can steer to career promotion among the officials involved. There are many stages and strategies of negotiation such as planning, negotiating, creating a contract and performing the contract. Each

Arabic ceramics art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Arabic ceramics art - Essay Example over, most cultures remain principally noted for their ceramics such as Chinese, Greek, Mayan, Persian, Korean, and Japanese cultures as well as contemporary western cultures. Islamic art refers to the art of civilization grounded on the Islamic religion. Arab Muslims launched a series of conquests in the 600s and combined all countries they conquered into a unitary civilization. Initially, Arabs themselves had minimal art; however, amid the conquests, the Arabs came into contact with flourishing ceramic art of Persia, Syria, and Egypt (Savory 89). The blending of the cultural influences yielded a distinctive form of Arabic ceramic art prominent between the years 800 and 1700. Arab artists developed many techniques, the bulk of which remain still in use today. For instance, Arabs engraved pots into a slip, or an earthly coating under the glaze. The engraving mainly displayed religious symbols in calligraphy, and in some instances planted their famed gold stamps right to the exterior of the slip. After the engraving, the ceramic art designers would add many layers consisting of transparent glazes (Ali 106). Another magnificent method that Arabic artists employed in ceramics included encompassed painting with a metallic pigment, mainly on a white or blue glaze (Savory 90). This technique is referred to as luster painting. Luster painting persisted into the early medieval era, with increased designs of animals and humans incorporated into final pieces. Another form of ceramic work emanating from early medieval era encompasses fritware that created pieces resembling Chinese porcelain (Ali 107). All through the late, medieval and late Arabic periods, pottery continued to imitate Chinese designs with ceramic designs becoming more advanced with time. Right from the 8th to 18th centuries, glazed ceramics were a prominent part of Islamic art, especially in the shape of elaborate pottery prominent in dynamic Persian and Egyptian pre-Islamic traditions (Ali 108). The

Maos Cult of Personality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Maos Cult of Personality - Essay Example The following discussion will be concentric upon the cult of personality surrounding Mao Tse Tung and the means by which this cult of personality was able to assist the People’s Republic of China, and specifically the Chinese Communist Party, in solidifying their grip on power during the period of the Cultural Revolution (approximately 1966 to 1976). Further, it is the distinct hope of this student that the following analysis will be beneficial in discussing how the Cultural Revolution was able to take place and the means by which identity was formulated through this particular cult of personality. As a means of framing this particular issue, it must be understood that Mao Tse Tung’s cult of personality was not something that was evident from the time he came into power as the Chairmen of the People’s Republic of China. Although doubtless revered within the Communist Party, and amongst the people of China, there did not exist a mechanism or state-sponsored cult of personality for the leader up until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Essentially, this cult of personality was born out of a direct need. As a direct result of the Great Leap Forward, Chinese industry, the row, and communist identity had been significantly reduced (MÃ ¡rquez, 2010). Whereas the Great Leap Forward had been designed as a means of rapidly transforming the People’s Republic of China into a modern industrialized society, the ultimate end result of this failed policy was mass starvation, economic difficulty, and disastrous collectivized nation that failed to produce the requir ed quotas of goods that leadership demanded. From the information that is thus far been provided, it is clear and apparent that the cult of personality exhibited around Chairman Mao was much more than a lust and desire for emulation and hero worship. Although it is doubtless true that the overall level of power that Chairman Mao, and those within Chinese leadership, exhibited served as a means of corrupting the ultimate message that they hoped to provide to the people, the true nature of Mao cult of personality that has been the focus of this particular analysis is in attempting to reestablish the legitimacy and trust of the people after the horrendous failures that were exhibited in terms of the great leap forward other failed policies of development during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Furthermore, it should also be understood that even though the cult of personality which has been the focus of this brief essay was intended to engage each and every stakeholder within China, the specific focus that it had was on the youth. This was of course done in the understanding that the youth of the nation were those that were most likely to carry on the communist struggle and encourage older individuals to have faith in the process and to promote the ideology and approach that Chairman Mao most wish to have affected. Without the participation and engagement of the youth, is doubtful that the Cultural Revolution, or indeed the cult of personality, could ever have become as powerful determinants in Chinese history as they have become. Â  

535 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

535 - Essay Example But, the site can only be as good as the vendors allow, if they do not have a suitable demo and papers on the site then the site is simply wasting time. Some vendors appear to want the manager looking at their own site which is OK if the manager knows they exist, I can imagine many managers would not have a clue though. Which is why there is a need for the comparison site and a re-think by vendors who do not allow people to see anything useful. The vendors who do have demos on the site vary; again I found it difficult to get a good comparison between SAP and Epicor for example. They both have demos but they were very different. The SAP site showed costs and ideas of the software but not a single screenshot of it in action. Epicor had a great demo which I think all the vendors should follow, it gave me a good idea of the software and how it works and I know I can contact them for more information and costs. So if they all did this then the comparison web site would be very useful to managers of a company and should help sales of the vendor’s products. The main complaint I have about the comparison web site itself is the number of times I had to register my details. The Hotmail account is loading with sales stuff which would irritate me as a busy

The Influence of Computers, Interactive Games, and the Internet on a Essay

The Influence of Computers, Interactive Games, and the Internet on a Childs Multicultural Worldview - Essay Example 332). According to the author of the above article, parents ought to allow children make their own discoveries about other cultures as opposed to trying to make them understand. In a society where multi-culture exists, children have an opportunity to help reduce cases of stereotyping if only parents let them hobnob with other children. However, many times, parents tend to teach children about other cultures and in the process extend the discrimination to them. Teachers play a significant role in ensuring the maximum benefits of these games (Shaw and Linebarger, p.334). While there is a debate as to whether computers affect children negatively, Shaw and Linebarger claimed that there are some applications specifically developed for learning purposes. For instance, edutainment is an application created solely for learning purposes. Console and Apple games are others, which fit, in a similar category. In order for these games to be effective in the learning process, Shaw and Linebarger suggested that â€Å"games used in schools should present authentic challenges, allow exploration of alternative possibilities and consequences, imbue cultural appropriateness, and provide meaning and opportunities for reflection† (p.336). Notwithstanding this suggestion, the challenge has been on how to allow the children use the gadgets on their own. Shaw and Linebarger stated that for these gadgets to be useful, it is imperative for the children to be allowed to explore various cultures without having to worry about reprisal (p.337). The importance of this option is that it allows the children fully understand other cultures. Moreover, their own perceptions towards other cultures are normally challenged thus helping in cultural prejudices. However, in the midst of all these benefits of the games and other computer application lies the danger of children identifying themselves with the cultures in the games. Interestingly, children tend to identify themselves with these

How far does family law allow individuals to engage in private Essay

How far does family law allow individuals to engage in private ordering, and how far should it Discuss with relation to at leas - Essay Example However, this list is not exhaustive and may vary from one jurisdiction to another since family law covers a wide range of social and economic cases in existing and broken households2. The main contentious issue in most domestic cases heard in domestic courts is often of financial nature since, as families and marriages break, there is always the need to settle financial arrangements made while the family was still intact3. In fact, until recently in many countries, there was little, if any enforcement of the private arrangements and rules that surrounded and sought to change the personal or family status of people4. Nonetheless, there existed some kind of private ordering in which people could decide whether to marry or not and whom to marry. What is more, once an individual got married, he or she had to adhere to the enforceable rules of marriage and exit routes such as annulment, separation or divorce. Importantly, there were rules to guide couples in meeting their financial oblig ations on annulment or divorce5. It is also worth noting that even in historical times, the state had the power and mandate to set and enforce family laws6. Thus, by these laws, the state had the power to limit an individuals’ free will and powers to distribute their property upon divorce or a spouse’s death. For instance, in most countries, family law states a spouse’s statutory share of family property upon marriage divorce or annulment7. Similar to the case of marriage, once an individual had a child, the state would have a say in the child’s rights as far as the financial obligations of the parents were concerned. That is, the state set the terms and determined the limited circumstances under which one’s parental rights to a child could be surrendered. However, recent times have reported quite drastic changes with different countries permitting various types of private ordering in different family law situations and cases8. Examples of the area s in which private ordering is allowed in many a country in modern times include marital agreements, separation agreements, open adoption agreements, co-parenting agreements, premarital agreements, agreements9. In other words, currently, a lot of agreements are entered to help arbitrate in disputes if the above events occur. In modern society, people cohabiting or legally married often wish and decide to venture into financial agreements before or during their domestic lives. In general, such agreements are referred to as cohabitation agreements or domestic relationship agreements10. Similarly, upon terminating their domestic relationships for whatever reasons, people may resort to negotiate financial agreements, often called separation or termination agreements11. Private ordering thus refers to the attempts and activities by which parties to a domestic relationship who had entered a financial agreement order their financial affairs without seeking court interventions or solutions. This paper explores the changes and the limits to private ordering in family law, in the process discussing the nature and extent of the changes and their positive developments in a financial perspective. In this regard, the paper explores the role of private ordering in family law in an economic perspective. Historical Background The

Week Four Assignment Essay Example for Free

Week Four Assignment Essay All Americans regardless of their economic standing in the community deserve access to essential and quality preventative, and primary healthcare. Those Americans who currently fall under the â€Å"publicly insured† category (Medicaid), and the medically uninsured, are at similar risk for delayed or non-existent required medical care. Establishing a free, 24 hour accessible Shelby County Primary Care Clinic would eliminate patient medical care delay, and result in large scale overall savings in projected annual medical care costs. (So You Want to Start a Health Center?, 2011) The advantage of free and charitable medical clinics vs. federally funded medical clinics reaches beyond the access to quality care component. Free and charitable clinics are at a financial advantage typically, due to many varying factors. Federally funded clinics fall under the financial responsibility of Federal Government grants, Medicare, state government/Medicaid reimbursement, insurance payers, self-pay, public and private gifts and grants. Free and charitable clinics are financially supported by grants and donations, exclusively. Volunteers provide most if not all primary care, specialty care, dental care and vision care which eliminates a direct savings of 1.28 million for future healthcare costs. (Comparison of Free Charitable Clinics to Federally Funded Clinics, n.d.) The Shelby County community has a longstanding history of community members that struggle to afford basic primary healthcare. Majority of those who reside in this area work non-union, blue-collar jobs that do not provide â€Å"sick† time or the ability to take time off to meet medical needs. Oftentimes, a community member will make just above the poverty level each month to ensure they do not qualify for Medicaid/Medicare, but not enough to afford the standard monthly costs  of medical insurance. Medical issues that could easily be resolved with one or two primary care appointments, end up becoming a medical emergency often times of high expense. The establishment of a 24 hour accessible free medical clinic in the Shelby County comm unity, physically accessible to all, would provide the necessary gap-fill for those who aren’t Medicaid/Medicare applicable. (Why Free Medical Clinics Benefit Everyone, n.d.) Many prepatory considerations must be made in order to ensure the successful establishment and functioning of any free medical clinic. Support of local area hospitals is essential, in order to provide the ancillary services needed such as lab work, radiology/x-rays, and medical providers willing to volunteer both for services provided, and to be members of the respective clinic Board. An acceptable and effective business and strategic plan must be developed and in place prior to the establishment of any free medical clinic. Volunteer staff need to be abreast of all HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations, and the process of credentialing providers, in order to fall under the established medical legal guidelines. A Standard of Clinic Operating Procedures must be created and in place, prior to any clinic operations actually occurring, so all volunteers are educated in the many facets of their job responsibilities and clinic procedures. (OhioFreeClinics.o rg, n.d.) (So You Want to Start a Health Center?, 2011) The result of providing free medical care for those in need is not simply an improved medical and physical state, however important this factor is. The result of preventative care that comes from regular primary care appointments, can eliminate the crowding of emergency rooms for primary care issues such as blood pressure, common colds, asthma (non- emergent) and diabetes (maintenance). When â€Å"standard† primary care issues are managed with education, medication and follow up, patients are stable to live and work without issue. Patients who can afford care are not charged increased amounts to cover for the loss of those who need care, and cannot pay. Businesses avoid losing millions of dollars a year that typically result from productivity loss, due to illness and medical emergency. (Why Free Medical Clinics Benefit Everyone, n.d.) (Kiesel, 2013) Shelby County would not only benefit financially with the implementation of a free medical clinic, but the overall quality of life for those who reside in this county would improve exponentially. Families will no longer have to panic when a  child becomes sick or injured, and does not qualify for Medicaid/Medicare. Businesses do not lose valuable man-hours due to illnesses not treated and managed, resulting in time off work. Pregnant mothers have access to medical care and choices outside of the Medicaid/Medicare system. The positive results coming from this potential endeavor are not just immediate or financial, but continue and expand over time, in the improvement of life in Shelby County as a whole. (Why Free Medical Clinics Benefit Everyone, n.d.) References Comparison of Free Charitable Clinics to Federally Funded Clinics. (n.d.). Retrieved from NAFC: http://nafcclinics.org/sites/default/files/Comparison%20of%20Free%20clinics%20to%20FQHS%202012.pdf Kiesel, L. (2013, December 26). Free Medical Clinics Might Save Millions. Retrieved from The Street: http://www.thestreet.com/story/12176795/1/free-medical-clinics-might-save-millions.html OhioFreeClinics.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from Starting a Free Clinic/A Volunteers in Health Care Guide: http://www.ohiofreeclinics.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/VIHStartingFreeClinic.pdf So You Want to Start a Health Center? (2011, July). Retrieved from NACH: http://www.nachc.com/client/documents/So%20you%20want%20to%20Start-Final%20July%202011.pdf Understanding Health Information Privacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from HHS.gov: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/ Why Free Medical Clinics Benefit Everyone. (n.d.). Retrieved from Friendship Medical Clinic: http://www.friendshipmedicalclinic.org/about /benefit.html

Predicting Effects of Environmental Contaminants

Predicting Effects of Environmental Contaminants 1.1. Debunking some chemical myths†¦ In October 2008, the Royal Society of Chemistry announced they were offering  £1 million to the first member of the public that could bring a 100% chemical free material. This attempt to reclaim the word ‘chemical from the advertising and marketing industries that use it as a synonym for poison was a reaction to a decision of the Advertising Standards Authority to defend an advert perpetuating the myths that natural products were chemical free (Edwards 2008). Indeed, no material regardless of its origin is chemical free. A related common misconception is that chemicals made by nature are intrinsically good and, conversely, those manufactured by man are bad (Ottoboni 1991). There are many examples of toxic compounds produced by algae or other micro-organisms, venomous animals and plants, or even examples of environmental harm resulting from the presence of relatively benign natural compounds either in unexpected places or in unexpected quantities. It is therefore of prime impo rtance to define what is meant by ‘chemical when referring to chemical hazards in this chapter and the rest of this book. The correct term to describe a chemical compound an organism may be exposed to, whether of natural or synthetic origins, is xenobiotic, i.e. a substance foreign to an organism (the term has also been used for transplants). A xenobiotic can be defined as a chemical which is found in an organism but which is not normally produced or expected to be present in it. It can also cover substances which are present in much higher concentrations than are usual. A grasp of some of the fundamental principles of the scientific disciplines that underlie the characterisation of effects associated with exposure to a xenobiotic is required in order to understand the potential consequences of the presence of pollutants in the environment and critically appraise the scientific evidence. This chapter will attempt to briefly summarise some important concepts of basic toxicology and environmental epidemiology relevant in this context. 1.2. Concepts of Fundamental Toxicology Toxicology is the science of poisons. A poison is commonly defined as ‘any substance that can cause an adverse effect as a result of a physicochemical interaction with living tissue'(Duffus 2006). The use of poisons is as old as the human race, as a method of hunting or warfare as well as murder, suicide or execution. The evolution of this scientific discipline cannot be separated from the evolution of pharmacology, or the science of cures. Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, more commonly known as Paracelsus (1493-1541), a physician contemporary of Copernicus, Martin Luther and da Vinci, is widely considered as the father of toxicology. He challenged the ancient concepts of medicine based on the balance of the four humours (blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile) associated with the four elements and believed illness occurred when an organ failed and poisons accumulated. This use of chemistry and chemical analogies was particularly offensive to his contempo rary medical establishment. He is famously credited the following quote that still underlies present-day toxicology. In other words, all substances are potential poisons since all can cause injury or death following excessive exposure. Conversely, this statement implies that all chemicals can be used safely if handled with appropriate precautions and exposure is kept below a defined limit, at which risk is considered tolerable (Duffus 2006). The concepts both of tolerable risk and adverse effect illustrate the value judgements embedded in an otherwise scientific discipline relying on observable, measurable empirical evidence. What is considered abnormal or undesirable is dictated by society rather than science. Any change from the normal state is not necessarily an adverse effect even if statistically significant. An effect may be considered harmful if it causes damage, irreversible change or increased susceptibility to other stresses, including infectious disease. The stage of development or state of health of the organism may also have an influence on the degree of harm. 1.2.1. Routes of exposure Toxicity will vary depending on the route of exposure. There are three routes via which exposure to environmental contaminants may occur; Ingestion Inhalation Skin adsorption Direct injection may be used in environmental toxicity testing. Toxic and pharmaceutical agents generally produce the most rapid response and greatest effect when given intravenously, directly into the bloodstream. A descending order of effectiveness for environmental exposure routes would be inhalation, ingestion and skin adsorption. Oral toxicity is most relevant for substances that might be ingested with food or drinks. Whilst it could be argued that this is generally under an individuals control, there are complex issues regarding information both about the occurrence of substances in food or water and the current state-of-knowledge about associated harmful effects. Gases, vapours and dusts or other airborne particles are inhaled involuntarily (with the infamous exception of smoking). The inhalation of solid particles depends upon their size and shape. In general, the smaller the particle, the further into the respiratory tract it can go. A large proportion of airborne particles breathed through the mouth or cleared by the cilia of the lungs can enter the gut. Dermal exposure generally requires direct and prolonged contact with the skin. The skin acts as a very effective barrier against many external toxicants, but because of its great surface area (1.5-2 m2), some of the many diverse substances it comes in contact with may still elicit topical or systemic effects (Williams and Roberts 2000). If dermal exposure is often most relevant in occupational settings, it may nonetheless be pertinent in relation to bathing waters (ingestion is an important route of exposure in this context). Voluntary dermal exposure related to the use of cosmetics raises the same questions regarding the adequate communication of current knowledge about potential effects as those related to food. 1.2.2. Duration of exposure The toxic response will also depend on the duration and frequency of exposure. The effect of a single dose of a chemical may be severe effects whilst the same dose total dose given at several intervals may have little if any effect. An example would be to compare the effects of drinking four beers in one evening to those of drinking four beers in four days. Exposure duration is generally divided into four broad categories; acute, sub-acute, sub-chronic and chronic. Acute exposure to a chemical usually refers to a single exposure event or repeated exposures over a duration of less than 24 hours. Sub-acute exposure to a chemical refers to repeated exposures for 1 month or less, sub-chronic exposure to continuous or repeated exposures for 1 to 3 months or approximately 10% of an experimental species life time and chronic exposure for more than 3 months, usually 6 months to 2 years in rodents (Eaton and Klaassen 2001). Chronic exposure studies are designed to assess the cumulative toxici ty of chemicals with potential lifetime exposure in humans. In real exposure situations, it is generally very difficult to ascertain with any certainty the frequency and duration of exposure but the same terms are used. For acute effects, the time component of the dose is not important as a high dose is responsible for these effects. However if acute exposure to agents that are rapidly absorbed is likely to induce immediate toxic effects, it does not rule out the possibility of delayed effects that are not necessarily similar to those associated with chronic exposure, e.g. latency between the onset of certain cancers and exposure to a carcinogenic substance. It may be worth here mentioning the fact that the effect of exposure to a toxic agent may be entirely dependent on the timing of exposure, in other words long-term effects as a result of exposure to a toxic agent during a critically sensitive stage of development may differ widely to those seen if an adult organism is exposed to the same substance. Acute effects are almost always the result of accidents. Otherwise, they may result from criminal poisoning or self-poisoning (suicide). Conversely, whilst chronic exposure to a toxic agent is general ly associated with long-term low-level chronic effects, this does not preclude the possibility of some immediate (acute) effects after each administration. These concepts are closely related to the mechanisms of metabolic degradation and excretion of ingested substances and are best illustrated by 1.1. Line A. chemical with very slow elimination. Line B. chemical with a rate of elimination equal to frequency of dosing. Line C. Rate of elimination faster than the dosing frequency. Blue-shaded area is representative of the concentration at the target site necessary to elicit a toxic response. 1.2.3. Mechanisms of toxicity The interaction of a foreign compound with a biological system is two-fold: there is the effect of the organism on the compound (toxicokinetics) and the effect of the compound on the organism (toxicodynamics). Toxicokinetics relate to the delivery of the compound to its site of action, including absorption (transfer from the site of administration into the general circulation), distribution (via the general circulation into and out of the tissues), and elimination (from general circulation by metabolism or excretion). The target tissue refers to the tissue where a toxicant exerts its effect, and is not necessarily where the concentration of a toxic substance is higher. Many halogenated compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or flame retardants such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are known to bioaccumulate in body fat stores. Whether such sequestration processes are actually protective to the individual organisms, i.e. by lowering the concentration of the toxicant at the site of action is not clear (OFlaherty 2000). In an ecological context however, such bioaccumulation may serve as an indirect route of exposure for organisms at higher trophic levels, thereby potentia lly contributing to biomagnification through the food chain. Absorption of any compound that has not been directed intravenously injected will entail transfer across membrane barriers before it reaches the systemic circulation, and the efficiency of absorption processes is highly dependent on the route of exposure. It is also important to note that distribution and elimination, although often considered separately, take place simultaneously. Elimination itself comprises of two kinds of processes, excretion and biotransformation, that are also taking place simultaneously. Elimination and distribution are not independent of each other as effective elimination of a compounds will prevent its distribution in peripheral tissues, whilst conversely, wide distribution of a compound will impede its excretion (OFlaherty 2000). Kinetic models attempt to predict the concentration of a toxicant at the target site from the administered dose. If often the ultimate toxicant, i.e. the chemical species that induces structural or functional alterations resulting in toxicity, is the compound administered (parent compound), it can also be a metabolite of the parent compound generated by biotransformation processes, i.e. toxication rather than detoxication (Timbrell 2000; Gregus and Klaassen 2001). The liver and kid neys are the most important excretory organs for non-volatile substances, whilst the lungs are active in the excretion of volatile compounds and gases. Other routes of excretion include the skin, hair, sweat, nails and milk. Milk may be a major route of excretion for lipophilic chemicals due to its high fat content (OFlaherty 2000). Toxicodynamics is the study of toxic response at the site of action, including the reactions with and binding to cell constituents, and the biochemical and physiological consequences of these actions. Such consequences may therefore be manifested and observed at the molecular or cellular levels, at the target organ or on the whole organism. Therefore, although toxic responses have a biochemical basis, the study of toxic response is generally subdivided either depending on the organ on which toxicity is observed, including hepatotoxicity (liver), nephrotoxicity (kidney), neurotoxicity (nervous system), pulmonotoxicity (lung) or depending on the type of toxic response, including teratogenicity (abnormalities of physiological development), immunotoxicity (immune system impairment), mutagenicity (damage of genetic material), carcinogenicity (cancer causation or promotion). The choice of the toxicity endpoint to observe in experimental toxicity testing is therefore of critical importance. In recent years, rapid advances of biochemical sciences and technology have resulted in the development of bioassay techniques that can contribute invaluable information regarding toxicity mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level. However, the extrapolation of such information to predict effects in an intact organism for the purpose of risk assessment is still in its infancy (Gundert -Remy et al. 2005). 1.2.4. Dose-response relationships 83A7DC81The theory of dose-response relationships is based on the assumptions that the activity of a substance is not an inherent quality but depends on the dose an organism is exposed to, i.e. all substances are inactive below a certain threshold and active over that threshold, and that dose-response relationships are monotonic, the response rises with the dose. Toxicity may be detected either as all-or-nothing phenomenon such as the death of the organism or as a graded response such as the hypertrophy of a specific organ. The dose-response relationship involves correlating the severity of the response with exposure (the dose). Dose-response relationships for all-or-nothing (quantal) responses are typically S-shaped and this reflects the fact that sensitivity of individuals in a population generally exhibits a normal or Gaussian distribution. Biological variation in susceptibility, with fewer individuals being either hypersusceptible or resistant at both end of the curve and the maj ority responding between these two extremes, gives rise to a bell-shaped normal frequency distribution. When plotted as a cumulative frequency distribution, a sigmoid dose-response curve is observed ( 1.2). Studying dose response, and developing dose response models, is central to determining safe and hazardous levels. The simplest measure of toxicity is lethality and determination of the median lethal dose, the LD50 is usually the first toxicological test performed with new substances. The LD50 is the dose at which a substance is expected to cause the death of half of the experimental animals and it is derived statistically from dose-response curves (Eaton and Klaassen 2001). LD50 values are the standard for comparison of acute toxicity between chemical compounds and between species. Some values are given in Table 1.1. It is important to note that the higher the LD50, the less toxic the compound. Similarly, the EC50, the median effective dose, is the quantity of the chemical that is estimated to have an effect in 50% of the organisms. However, median doses alone are not very informative, as they do not convey any information on the shape of the dose-response curve. This is best illustrated by 1.3. While toxicant A appears (always) more toxic than toxicant B on the basis of its lower LD50, toxicant B will start affecting organisms at lower doses (lower threshold) while the steeper slope for the dose-response curve for toxicant A means that once individuals become overexposed (exceed the threshold dose), the increase in response occurs over much smaller increments in dose. Low dose responses The classical paradigm for extrapolating dose-response relationships at low doses is based on the concept of threshold for non-carcinogens, whereas it assumes that there is no threshold for carcinogenic responses and a linear relationship is hypothesised (s 1.4 and 1.5). The NOAEL (No Observed Adverse Effect Level) is the exposure level at which there is no statistically or biologically significant increase in the frequency or severity of adverse effects between exposed population and its appropriate control. The NOEL for the most sensitive test species and the most sensitive indicator of toxicity is usually employed for regulatory purposes. The LOAEL (Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level) is the lowest exposure level at which there is a statistically or biologically significant increase in the frequency or severity of adverse effects between exposed population and its appropriate control. The main criticism of NOAEL and LOAEL is that there are dependent on study design, i.e. the dose groups selected and the number of individuals in each group. Statistical methods of deriving the concentration that produces a specific effect ECx, or a benchmark dose (BMD), the statistical lower confidence limit on the dose that produces a defined response (the benchm ark response or BMR), are increasingly preferred. To understand the risk that environmental contaminants pose to human health requires the extrapolation of limited data from animal experimental studies to the low doses critically encountered in the environment. Such extrapolation of dose-response relationships at low doses is the source of much controversy. Recent advances in the statistical analysis of very large populations exposed to ambient concentrations of environmental pollutants have however not observed thresholds for cancer or non-cancer outcomes (White et al. 2009). The actions of chemical agents are triggered by complex molecular and cellular events that may lead to cancer and non-cancer outcomes in an organism. These processes may be linear or non-linear at an individual level. A thorough understanding of critical steps in a toxic process may help refine current assumptions about thresholds (Boobis et al. 2009). The dose-response curve however describes the response or variation in sensitivity of a population. Biologica l and statistical attributes such as population variability, additivity to pre-existing conditions or diseases induced at background exposure will tend to smooth and linearise the dose-response relationship, obscuring individual thresholds. Hormesis Dose-response relationships for substances that are essential for normal physiological function and survival are actually U-shaped. At very low doses, adverse effects are observed due to a deficiency. As the dose of such an essential nutrient is increased, the adverse effect is no longer detected and the organism can function normally in a state of homeostasis. Abnormally high doses however, can give rise to a toxic response. This response may be qualitatively different and the toxic endpoint measured at very low and very high doses is not necessarily the same. There is evidence that nonessential substances may also impart an effect at very low doses ( 1.6). Some authors have argued that hormesis ought to be the default assumption in the risk assessment of toxic substances (Calabrese and Baldwin 2003). Whether such low dose effects should be considered stimulatory or beneficial is controversial. Further, potential implications of the concept of hormesis for the risk management of the combinations of the wide variety of environmental contaminants present at low doses that individuals with variable sensitivity may be exposed to are at best unclear. 1.2.5. Chemical interactions In regulatory hazard assessment, chemical hazard are typically considered on a compound by compound basis, the possibility of chemical interactions being accounted for by the use of safety or uncertainty factors. Mixture effects still represent a challenge for the risk management of chemicals in the environment, as the presence of one chemical may alter the response to another chemical. The simplest interaction is additivity: the effect of two or more chemicals acting together is equivalent to the sum of the effects of each chemical in the mixture when acting independently. Synergism is more complex and describes a situation when the presence of both chemicals causes an effect that is greater than the sum of their effects when acting alone. In potentiation, a substance that does not produce specific toxicity on its own increases the toxicity of another substance when both are present. Antagonism is the principle upon which antidotes are based whereby a chemical can reduce the harm ca used by a toxicant (James et al. 2000; Duffus 2006). Mathematical illustrations and examples of known chemical interactions are given in Table 1.2. Table 1.2. Mathematical representations of chemical interactions (reproduced from James et al., 2000) Effect Hypothetical mathematical illustration Example Additive 2 + 3 = 5 Organophosphate pesticides Synergistic 2 + 3 = 20 Cigarette smoking + asbestos Potentiation 2 + 0 = 10 Alcohol + carbon tetrachloride Antagonism 6 + 6 = 8 or 5 + (-5) = 0 or 10 + 0 = 2 Toluene + benzene Caffeine + alcohol Dimercaprol + mercury There are four main ways in which chemicals may interact (James et al. 2000); 1. Functional: both chemicals have an effect on the same physiological function. 2. Chemical: a chemical reaction between the two compounds affects the toxicity of one or both compounds. 3. Dispositional: the absorption, metabolism, distribution or excretion of one substance is increased or decreased by the presence of the other. 4. Receptor-mediated: when two chemicals have differing affinity and activity for the same receptor, competition for the receptor will modify the overall effect. 1.2.6. Relevance of animal models A further complication in the extrapolation of the results of toxicological experimental studies to humans, or indeed other untested species, is related to the anatomical, physiological and biochemical differences between species. This paradoxically requires some previous knowledge of the mechanism of toxicity of a chemical and comparative physiology of different test species. When adverse effects are detected in screening tests, these should be interpreted with the relevance of the animal model chosen in mind. For the derivation of safe levels, safety or uncertainty factors are again usually applied to account for the uncertainty surrounding inter-species differences (James et al. 2000; Sullivan 2006). 1.2.7. A few words about doses When discussing dose-response, it is also important to understand which dose is being referred to and differentiate between concentrations measured in environmental media and the concentration that will illicit an adverse effect at the target organ or tissue. The exposure dose in a toxicological testing setting is generally known or can be readily derived or measured from concentrations in media and average consumption (of food or water for example) ( 1.7.). Whilst toxicokinetics help to develop an understanding of the relationship between the internal dose and a known exposure dose, relating concentrations in environmental media to the actual exposure dose, often via multiple pathways, is in the realm of exposure assessment. 1.2.8. Other hazard characterisation criteria Before continuing further, it is important to clarify the difference between hazard and risk. Hazard is defined as the potential to produce harm, it is therefore an inherent qualitative attribute of a given chemical substance. Risk on the other hand is a quantitative measure of the magnitude of the hazard and the probability of it being realised. Hazard assessment is therefore the first step of risk assessment, followed by exposure assessment and finally risk characterization. Toxicity is not the sole criterion evaluated for hazard characterisation purposes. Some chemicals have been found in the tissues of animals in the arctic for example, where these substances of concern have never been used or produced. This realization that some pollutants were able to travel far distances across national borders because of their persistence, and bioaccumulate through the food web, led to the consideration of such inherent properties of organic compounds alongside their toxicity for the purpose of hazard characterisation. Persistence is the result of resistance to environmental degradation mechanisms such as hydrolysis, photodegradation and biodegradation. Hydrolysis only occurs in the presence of water, photodegradation in the presence of UV light and biodegradation is primarily carried out by micro-organisms. Degradation is related to water solubility, itself inversely related to lipid solubility, therefore persistence tends to be correlated to lipid solubility (Francis 1994). The persistence of inorganic substances has proven more difficult to define as they cannot be degraded to carbon and water. Chemicals may accumulate in environmental compartments and constitute environmental sinks that could be re-mobilised and lead to effects. Further, whilst substances may accumulate in one species without adverse effects, it may be toxic to its predator(s). Bioconcentration refers to accumulation of a chemical from its surrounding environment rather than specifically through food uptake. Conversely, biomagnification refers to uptake from food without consideration for uptake through the body surface. Bioaccumulation integrates both paths, surrounding medium and food. Ecological magnification refers to an increase in concentration through the food web from lower to higher trophic levels. Again, accumulation of organic compounds generally involves transfer from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic phase and correlates well with the n-octanol/water partition coefficient (Herrchen 2006). Persistence and bioaccumulation of a substance is evaluated by standardised OECD tests. Criteria for the identification of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances (PBT), and very persistent and very bioaccumulative substances (vPvB) as defined in Annex XIII of the European Directive on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (Union 2006) are given in table 1.3. To be classified as a PBT or vPvB substance, a given compound must fulfil all criteria. Table 1.3. REACH criteria for identifying PBT and vPvB chemicals Criterion PBT criteria vPvB criteria Persistence Either: Half-life > 60 days in marine water Half-life > 60 days in fresh or estuarine water Half-life > 180 days in marine sediment Half-life > 120 days in fresh or estuarine sediment Half-life > 120 days in soil Either: Half-life > 60 days in marine, fresh or estuarine water Half-life > 180 days in marine, fresh or estuarine sediment Half-life > 180 days in soil Bioaccumulation Bioconcentration factor (BCF) > 2000 Bioconcentration factor (BCF) > 2000 Toxicity Either: Chronic no-observed effect concentration (NOEC) substance is classified as carcinogenic (category 1 or 2), mutagenic (category 1 or 2), or toxic for reproduction (category 1, 2 or 3) there is other evidence of endocrine disrupting effects 1.3. Some notions of Environmental Epidemiology A complementary, observational approach to the study of scientific evidence of associations between environment and disease is epidemiology. Epidemiology can be defined as â€Å"the study of how often diseases occur and why, based on the measurement of disease outcome in a study sample in relation to a population at risk.† (Coggon et al. 2003). Environmental epidemiology refers to the study of patterns and disease and health related to exposures that are exogenous and involuntary. Such exposures generally occur in the air, water, diet, or soil and include physical, chemical and biologic agents. The extent to which environmental epidemiology is considered to include social, political, cultural, and engineering or architectural factors affecting human contact with such agents varies according to authors. In some contexts, the environment can refer to all non-genetic factors, although dietary habits are generally excluded, despite the facts that some deficiency diseases are envir onmentally determined and nutritional status may also modify the impact of an environmental exposure (Steenland and Savitz 1997; Hertz-Picciotto 1998). Most of environmental epidemiology is concerned with endemics, in other words acute or chronic disease occurring at relatively low frequency in the general population due partly to a common and often unsuspected exposure, rather than epidemics, or acute outbreaks of disease affecting a limited population shortly after the introduction of an unusual known or unknown agent. Measuring such low level exposure to the general public may be difficult when not impossible, particularly when seeking historical estimates of exposure to predict future disease. Estimating very small changes in the incidence of health effects of low-level common multiple exposure on common diseases with multifactorial etiologies is particularly difficult because often greater variability may be expected for other reasons, and environmental epidemiology has to rely on natural experiments that unlike controlled experiment are subject to confounding to other, often unknown, risk factors. However, it may still be of i mportance from a public health perspective as small effects in a large population can have large attributable risks if the disease is common (Steenland and Savitz 1997; Coggon et al. 2003). 1.3.1. Definitions What is a case? The definition of a case generally requires a dichotomy, i.e. for a given condition, people can be divided into two discrete classes the affected and the non-affected. It increasingly appears that diseases exist in a continuum of severity within a population rather than an all or nothing phenomenon. For practical reasons, a cut-off point to divide the diagnostic continuum into ‘cases and ‘non-cases is therefore required. This can be done on a statistical, clinical, prognostic or operational basis. On a statistical basis, the ‘norm is often defined as within two standard deviations of the age-specific mean, thereby arbitrarily fixing the frequency of abnormal values at around 5% in every population. Moreover, it should be noted that what is usual is not necessarily good. A clinical case may be defined by the level of a variable above which symptoms and complications have been found to become more frequent. On a prognostic basis, some clinical findings may carry an a dverse prognosis, yet be symptomless. When none of the other approaches is satisfactory, an operational threshold will need to be defined, e.g. based on a threshold for treatment (Coggon et al. 2003). Incidence, prevalence and mortality The incidence of a disease is the rate at which new cases occur in a population during a specified period or frequency of incidents. Incidence = The prevalence of a disease is the proportion of the population that are cases at a given point in time. This measure is appropriate only in relatively stable conditions and is unsuitable for acute disorders. Even in a chronic disease, the manifestations are often intermittent and a point prevalence will tend to underestimate the frequency of the condition. A better measure when possible is the period prevalence defined as the proportion of a population that are cases at any time within a stated pe

My Uncle Rubens House :: Personal Narrative Writing

My Uncle Ruben's House Most people can’t locate Galveston, Texas, on a map, and those who can think of a dirty beach and Dr. Pepper’s national headquarters. You could ask a thousand people, and almost none of them would be able to find something special about G-Town, but I can. Galveston is the home of 156 of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was a rumor going around G-town that everyone with a Mexican background was related to the Moreno’s. I spent three weeks every summer, along with Christmas and spring break, at my Uncle Ruben’s house in Galveston. I heard stories all the time about the first encounter I had with him and his house. I was 18 months old when I took my first trip out of New York. As soon as I stepped in the door of my uncle’s two-story home, covered by chipped green paint, my mother’s eight sisters surrounded me, along with her mother, her 18 first cousins, 10 second cousins, and her two aunts, and the most important man in her life, her uncle Ruben. He was the first person to hold me, and legend has it that he nicknamed me Seesaw because my head was huge and it would make me sway left to right, causing me to fall every so often. My Uncle Ruben spent 26 years working two full-time jobs. During the day he worked as a longshoreman, unloading heavy crates from the banana boats. At night he did maintenance work the local gas company. He supported 12 kids, eight of whom were his and the rest nephews and nieces, including my mother. My uncle used to say that it didn’t matter if you were his daughter, his cousin, or his niece, if you were family it was all the same. My uncle’s house sits on the edge of a working-class Mexican neighborhood six blocks away from the beach. In Galveston, the economic differences from neighborhood to neighborhood are extreme. On one side of the island there are huge Victorian mansions separated by big green lawns and perfectly paved driveways. My uncle’s house is not one of those houses; it is marked by a chained-link fence and a dried-out bed of flowers. When looking at the house from the outside, it is hard to tell what kind of family lives there. There are no flags hanging from the windows, but there are toys in the front yard.

the pledge of allegiance Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge Of Allegiance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a man named Francis Bellamy for a children’s magazine called The Youth’s Companion. Mr. Bellamy wanted the flag to fly above every school in America so that children would feel pride and love for their country when reciting the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the recent September 11, 2001 attacks.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge of Allegiance is a solemn oath of allegiance or fidelity to the U.S. I pledge allegiance, has always meant a strong devotion to or a solemn promise of loyalty of a citizen to his or her government. This is nothing but the truth since September 11,2001. More than ever have we all seen the strong devotion and dedication to this great country. In the first few days after the terrorist’s attacks you couldn’t buy an American flag anywhere. Everyone had in some way symbolized his or her strong patriotism, in a visual sense and an emotional sense. It didn’t seem to have the strong feeling that accompanied the strong words until recent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To the flag, a piece of cloth varying in size, shape, color, and design, usually attached to one end of a staff or cord and used as the symbol of a nation, state or organization. Not these days. The flag that we are talking about is not about size, shape and color. A symbol of a nation is closer but doesn’t capture it. What we are clear... the pledge of allegiance Essay -- essays research papers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge Of Allegiance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a man named Francis Bellamy for a children’s magazine called The Youth’s Companion. Mr. Bellamy wanted the flag to fly above every school in America so that children would feel pride and love for their country when reciting the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the recent September 11, 2001 attacks.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pledge of Allegiance is a solemn oath of allegiance or fidelity to the U.S. I pledge allegiance, has always meant a strong devotion to or a solemn promise of loyalty of a citizen to his or her government. This is nothing but the truth since September 11,2001. More than ever have we all seen the strong devotion and dedication to this great country. In the first few days after the terrorist’s attacks you couldn’t buy an American flag anywhere. Everyone had in some way symbolized his or her strong patriotism, in a visual sense and an emotional sense. It didn’t seem to have the strong feeling that accompanied the strong words until recent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To the flag, a piece of cloth varying in size, shape, color, and design, usually attached to one end of a staff or cord and used as the symbol of a nation, state or organization. Not these days. The flag that we are talking about is not about size, shape and color. A symbol of a nation is closer but doesn’t capture it. What we are clear...

St. John’s Wort :: Depression Medicine Medical Plant Papers

St. John’s Wort What is St. John’s Wort? St. John’s Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) is a small plant with bright yellow flowers. Wort is an old English term that means plant. The red spots on the leaves of the plant are symbolic of the blood of St. John after his beheading. The plant is grown worldwide but it grows especially well in parts of Northern California and Southern Oregon (http://www.doctormurray.com/articles/worteditorial.htm). St. John’s Wort has not been well known in the United States until recently. Studies on the medicine have been going on for decades in Europe. German doctors have been prescribing it and the insurance companies have been paying for it. It is available in many health shops in the United States and all across Europe but recently it has been selling out because of its increased popularity. In the United States, manufacturers can’t advertise it as a treatment for depression and doctors can’t prescribe it because the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) won’t allow it. It has to be advertised as a contribution to emotional balance and positive outlook or promoting a sense of balance for people with mild depression, not severe or major depression. St. John’s Wort comes in one of three forms: liquid, capsule, and dried form. (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychologyStJohn.htm) What is the purpose of St. John’s Wort? St. John’s Wort use for depression, insomnia, and anxiety inspired a group of German doctors in the 1980’s to do research on the herb. The findings of their studies brought the group fame in the late 1990’s. A number of studies indicate that St. John’s is an effective treatment for treating mild-to-moderate depression (http://www.mothernature.com/cg/stjohns.asp). St. John’s is quickly becoming the most popular herbal drug in the United States. German physicians prescribed a total of 66 million daily doses in 1994. These German physicians now prescribe St. John’s wort an average of 8 times more than Prozac. These doctors claim that St. John’s wort produces better results in relieving depression, but the medicine does not have near the amount of side effects as Prozac (http://www.doctormurray.com/articles/worteditorial.htm). How does St. John’s Wort work? Originally, scientists thought that the reason St. John’s worked as an antidepressant was due to a substance called hypericin.

Peer Tutoring Final Reflection Essay

My goals in joining peer tutoring were to have an easy term project assignment and spending one hour each week for studying with my friends in an enjoyable atmosphere, but after a couple of sessions, I discovered that peer tutoring was more than that. With peer tutoring, my motivation for studying has increased a significant amount as well as my grades. The program didn’t only provide me academic success, but it also thought me the best studying skills that I will use for a lifetime. Throughout the program, I experienced both being a tutor and a tutee. Both of them have benefited me in different ways. The day I started my first session, I was not aware of the fact that choosing peer tutoring was one of the best decisions I have made in my academic life. During the after school sessions that I have attended, I worked on English, Mathematics, Biology and Physics. When I was a tutor, answering the challenging questions of my peers and going over the subject over and over again made me comprehend the topic better. While explaining them the subject in different ways, I was also reviewing and studying it. For instance, when a friend of mine asked me the similarities and differences of competitive and incompetitive inhibition, I was able to visualize the types of inhibition in a better way. Looking at the other side of the coin, when I was a tutee, I had the chance to observe my friends’ studying methods. For example, while studying with Beste, I learned that making diagrams and lists are very helpful for science branches. Furthermore, it is easier to ask the things that you don’t understand to your friends. You can ask the same thing over and over again without feeling embarrassed. Besides, I’m an auditory learner. When I worked on a subject with my peers, either listening or explaining, hearing the words made it easier for me to learn. To be honest, I have never studied regularly before. Staying after school for peer tutoring at least once a week forced me to study in a routine. After peer tutoring, I was going home with less work to do and feeling content about the work I have finished. Moreover, I didn’t quite know how to study for the exams. Thanks to peer tutoring, I had chance to observe my friends’ studying methods and apply the most suitable one for me to my own life. For example, I learned to review my notes and rewrite them in shorter phrases on flashcards. They were really easy to review before the exams. In addition, I used to study the night before the exam. Peer tutoring taught me to study days before. For example, I started studying three days before my biology exam. Peer tutoring session was on Friday and the exam was on Monday. Thanks to peer tutoring, I got the best biology grade since the beginning of the year. In other words, peer tutoring increased my grades as well as teaching me studying skills that I can use for my whole life. I studied with my friends which was much easier than studying alone. Just like Henry Ford said, â€Å"Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success. † I thank peer tutoring for bringing me and my friends together, keeping us together and making us work together. And eventually, for making us succeed.

Ap Euro Martin Luther Conservative or Revolutionary Essay

Martin Luther was one of the greatest monks, priests, and theological teachers of Germany, along with being the symbol of the Protestant Reformation. He did not start off so religious however. One day he was caught in a frightening and dangerous storm. He prayed to God begging not to be killed, and vowed to become a monk if he survived. He did live, upholding his word to the lord, and joined a monastery. He joined an Augustinian friary in 1505, where he suffered from anfechtung, or spiritual anxiety. He never knew if he was doing enough good works to achieve salvation and gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven, as it was believed by the Catholic religion that it took good works along with faith in order to enter. To take his mind off of his religious worries, he was recommended to a teaching post at the University of Wittenberg. There, he taught theology and was quite popular among his students. Luther suffered from constant constipation, so he often read the bible while on the toile t. One day while doing this a certain passage from the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: â€Å"the just shall live by faith,† which led to Luther’s core belief of sola fide, or faith alone. Through this belief, Luther believed that the only thing needed to achieve salvation was to live by faith alone, which challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s theology that both faith and good works were necessary. Luther shared his beliefs with the people of the Holy Roman Empire, demanding change to the way theology was widely taught. He agreed with parts of the current teachings and was conservative, wanting to keep parts of the religion the same. He kept the sacraments, however reduced the amount of them from 7 to 2. He was also like many Roman Catholic religious figures, anti-Semitic. Lutheranism, as his religion came to be called, became more submissive to the state as well. However Luther also had many revolutionary ideas, which angered those of the RCC. In response to the political problems, he wished to do away with the process of indulgences, which were no more than pieces of paper in his eyes as works had nothing to do with salvation. His nailing of the 95 Theses highly angered the church authorities, as it went against everything they taught and believe. However in his response to the social problem of the Peasant’s Revolt, he told the princes to crush those who rebelled, as social revolution was not his intention. After careful evaluation, Martin Luther has proven to be both a revolutionary as well as a conservative. Luther proved himself time and again of his revolutionary approach to religion. His best example of this was the 95 Theses. Johann Tetzel, a German Roman Catholic priest, was selling an expensive indulgence as a fund-raising idea of Pope Leo X to finance the building of St. Peters basilica. When one of Luther’s parishioners came to confession, he presented an indulgence he had paid for, claiming he no longer had to re pent of his sins, since the document promised to forgive all his sins. Luther was outraged, and wrote up the Ninety-Five Theses, protesting the sale of indulgences, which he proceeded to nail to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg Germany. He did this on a major Catholic holiday, All Saints Day, which struck at the core of the Catholic religion. The most prominent, challenging, and well known was Theses 86 which read â€Å"Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?† He said indulgences did not do what the Church said it did because salvation was granted by sola fide. The ideas in the Ninety-Five Theses quickly spread throughout Europe via the moveable type printing press. Another time Luther engaged in revolutionary actions was at The Disputation at Leipzig. He was invited to participate in the Church-sponsored debate, as the Church wanted a dialogue concerning Luther’s challenges to Catholic doctrine and practices. RCC leaders at Leipzig declared that Luther’s ideas were wrong because the pope and Church traditions could not be wrong. Luther then shocked everyone, denying the authority of the pope and church councils. He declared that the only authority on matters of faith for Christians was the Bible. He said that sola scriptura, or scripture alone, determined the belief of Christians, not the teachings of the Pope. Upon the conclusion of the meeting at Leipzig, Luther was threatened with a papal bull of excommunication, which he burned in protest. Luther also showed revolutionary idea at the Diet of Worms. He was called to attend by Charles V, the recently elected Holy Roman Emperor. At the assembly, Luther was asked if he had written the â€Å"Ninety-Five Theses,† â€Å"The Address to the Christian Nobility,† â€Å"The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,† and other works. Luther accepted the accusations and acknowledged that he had written them, and when asked to recant his ideas or suffer the consequences, he requested a night to think about his decision. When Luther returned the next day, he stood firm when asked if he would recant and proudly declared â€Å"Here I stand, I can do no other.† Luther was then declared a heretic and became a marked man. Troops of Frederick the Elector rescued Luther and took him to safe hiding in Wartburg Castle, where he proceeded to translate the Bible into the vernacular, which was highly against the teachings of the church and very illegal. He also declared that monks and nuns were not obligated to uphold their vows. Luther not only acted revolutionarily towards political religious issues, but towards the social issues of the time as well. The most well known was the Peasants’ Revolt. Some religious leaders twisted and perverted Luther’s ideas to benefit their own causes, with the most prominent being Thomas Mà ¼ntzer. They wrote the â€Å"Twelve Articles†: a petition of peasant demands and sent it to the Swabian League that called upon the Holy Roman Emperor to help the peasantry deal with economic and religious issues. When Charles V ignored the â€Å"Twelve Articles,† preachers led by Mà ¼ntzer stirred the masses to revolt against the nobles. Luther believed the peasants were way out of line, as he was adamantly against mixing religious reformation with political and social revolution. He disassociated himself with Mà ¼ntzer and the revolting peasants. He urged the princes to work together to â€Å"slaughter the swine,† or the peasants. He argued that religious subjects must be subordinate to their secular authorities. Luther proved himself a revolutionary over and over through many acts throughout his religious life. Though Luther was a revolutionary, many of his actions also dictate a conservative approach, wanting to keep some things the same or even go back to the way they used to be. An important message Luther delivered was that good Christians owed obedience to established authority in worldly matters. Lutheranism viewed the state with more respect than other religions did. Lutheranism was much more submissive to the state. He insisted that Christian liberty was an internal freedom, known only to God. Luther wanted the church teachings to go back to how they used to be, based on sola scriptura or scripture alone, without the need of outside interpretation by the pope, bishops, abbots, etc. He was conservative in that he made many alliances with princes who liked his ideas, spreading them to their own kingdoms. He didn’t side with armed rebellions, citing his name, against the nobility in regions of Germany, instead he backed the nobility, telling them to work together to â€Å"slaughter the swine.† He did not want to do away with the sacraments, however he did want to reduce them from seven to two. This showed how he did not want to change all parts of the Roman Catholic religion, only parts. Also, like most religious figures of the time Martin Luther was anti-Semitic. He wanted all the Jewish people to convert to Lutheranism, as he did not believe the Jewish religion was correct in its teachings and beliefs. He restricted the right of private judgement in matters involving conscience, but never denied it. A conservative in the way he did things, Luther was truly a great leader. Luther believed that the only thing needed to achieve salvation was to live by faith alone, which challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s theology that both faith and good works were necessary. Luther shared his beliefs with the people of the Holy Roman Empire, demanding change to the way theology was widely taught. He agreed with parts of the current teachings and was conservative, wanting to keep parts of the religion the same. He kept the sacraments, however reduced the amount of them from 7 to 2. An anti-Semitic, Luther displayed similarities with other religious officials. Lutheranism b ecame more submissive to the state, as Luther believed that in worldly matters religion has to listen to authority. However Luther also had many revolutionary ideas, which upset those of the RCC as it went against the basics of Roman Catholic teachings. In response to the political problems, he wished to do away with the money robbery of the selling of indulgences, which were no more than pieces of paper in his eyes as works had nothing to do with salvation. His nailing of the 95 Theses made the power of the church authorities fluctuate, as it went against everything they taught their followers and everything they had been taught.. However in his response to the social problem of the Peasant’s Revolt, he told the princes to crush those who rebelled, as social revolution was not his intention. He meant to keep the matters of social or political problems separate from religious reform. After carefully evaluating his actions, Martin Luther has proven to be both a revolutionary a s well as a conservative on multiple occasions.

Residential Schools

IntroductionFor years, the aboriginal people have been discriminated in Canada. They were perceived as inferior because their native traditions were very different from the white Canadian traditions. In the 19th century, the Canadian government created mandatory residential schools to assimilate the Natives into English speaking and Christian Canadians. The schools were church-run and government funded. They did so thinking their traditions would diminish or be completely eliminated in a few generations. However, the residential schools affected the Natives and the Government negatively, despite it’s original objectives.The residential schools did not provide the proper education for the Natives. Also, many of them were living under poor condition and got abused which lead to different types of traumas in their  adult lives. To continue, the government`s goals were not reached and they had to apologize to the Natives to try to gain their respect. The impact of poor education The education in residential schoolsThere was a total of 130 residential schools across Canada, and about 150 000 children attended those institutes. The main goal of the schools was for the Natives to learn English and adopt the Christian and Canadian culture. To do so, the children were prohibited to speak their language or practice their culture, or else they would receive severe punishments. Aboriginal residential schools provided an inferior education to students than the general population in the public school system. They focused on training students for manual labor in agriculture, industries and domestic work such as cooking, sewing and laundry work. Over 40 pour cent of the teaching staff had not received any kind of professional training. Many students had to work for the school involuntary and unpaid after class because the school could not run without it.The impactWith such a poor education, students who reached the age of eighteen only had up to a fifth grade education . This caused a lot of problems later on when the government tried to incorporate Aboriginal students into public schools. Many of them struggled to keep up with the adjustment and those who wanted to attend university were often restrained to do so. That incident made it difficult for Aboriginal communities to break the cycle of poverty.Residential school conditionsThe poor conditionsMany students were taken away from their families, and were not able to communicate with their siblings who attended the same school. The students were forced to do labour work during their stay at the school and were fed poor quality food. The food that was given was sometimes rotten, moldy and infested with maggots. As a form of punishment, many of them were sexually, mentally and physically assaulted. Also, some of them were forced to sleep outside in the winter and they were used for medical experiments. Survivors remember having needles pushed into their tongue if they were caught  speaking thei r language.These abuses, along with the poor hygiene, overcrowding and inadequate food and health care, resulted in an outrageously high death toll. In 1907, a study by the government medical inspector P.H Bryce reported that 24 pour cent of the kids died ar the schools and 47 to 75 pour cent of those who were discharged from the schools died months within returning home (http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca).The impactThe negative impact of the residential schools on the Native communities still remains to this day. Even the people who did not attend those schools still share the same millstones as their ancestors. These include domestic violence due to personal trauma and the loss of Aboriginal language, culture and traditions. Some of those who have attended the schools suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome and the effects make it challenging to take part in social, family and professional environments. Many of the children grew up without experiencing a nurturing family life and without the acquaintance and skills to raise their own families.Also, the sense of worthlessness that was implanted in the students resulted to self-abuse. The extremely low self-esteem contributed to a high rate of substance use, alcoholism and suicide. The damage caused by the residential schools has caused intergenerational trauma which is the cycle of abuse and trauma from one generation to the next (http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca).The government’s roleThe government’s main goalThe government believed that the socio-cultural difference between themselves and the aboriginal people was too wide. They described the Natives as a savage, ignorant, uncivilized and in need of guidance group of people. They assumed that by creating residential schools, they would be able to easily assimilate the Natives, â€Å"If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized con ditions,† ( Davin). Their strategy was to rapidly adapt them to mainstream society through education.However, it did not go as intended. In 1950, despite all their efforts to extinguish the Native culture, the government realised that the integration was not working. Regardless all the  damage that was done, their culture was still surviving. It is at that point that the government recognized the devastating effects of the residential schools. Nevertheless, it wasn`t until 1986 that all doors of the residential schools were closed. The government’s apologyIn 1980, survivors of the residential schools started suing the government and churches for all the destruction the residential schools had caused to their individuals and communities. The federal government and churches involved approved to pay collective and individual rewards to the survivors of the residential schools, in 2007. They also promised to the Native culture that they would establish supporting programs to help heal their grief, and to launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is used when a country wants to reconcile and resolve policies or practices, in other words, unify Canada. In 2007, the government announced they would be giving 1.9 billion dollars to the aboriginal people who were forced to attend the schools as a compensation package.They also provided 120 million dollars to the Aboriginal Healing foundation as well as 100 million dollars given by the churches to finance services towards healing initiatives ( www.CBC.ca). On June 11th 2008, a ceremony was held by the House of Common to publicly apologize for the government`s participation and to recognize the negative impact it has done. That apology was left with a wide range of reactions. Some believed that it was a positive step for the government to build a relationship based on mutual respect while others believed that it would not change the government`s connection with th e Aboriginal people. The idea of the residential schools did a lot of harm to the government`s image because many Canadians lost respect towards the government after the truth behind those schools came out.ConclusionTo conclude, residential schools affected the Natives and the Government negatively despite their original objectives in many ways. The residential schools did not provide the proper education for the Natives. Also, many of them got mentally, physically and sexually abused which lead to a cycle of trauma and abuse for the future generations.To continue, the government`s initial goals were not reached and they lost the respect and trust of many  Canadians. Although the government tried to help the Native population financially and through healing support, it is difficult for the victims to leave the past behind. The Aboriginal communities still struggle to adapt to our society, which proves how persistent a nation can be.

Online Dating in India

Introduction: The topic of my dissertation is â€Å"taking online relation offline† . India being a nation of youngest population of the world had have very young history of online dating just a decade old but it still have very promising market which have around 25 million estimated online user base with 200million US $ projected market by 2014(Source: industry estimate by stepup. com) this growth is the result of changed mindset of young middle class who want to live in virtual space, which itself is eased by cheap computers and cheaper and faster internet connectivity.Rising income, access to World Wide Web helped Indian youth to finally come out of that traditional bubble which tell then that fraternizing with any women other than their fiance is wrong. We are now leaving back inhibitions; do not care for social norms and anonymity of cyber space act as icing on this cake of dating. We are using online dating to find new friends and partners on this space as it help us to make our new identity and thus bring out real in us.Today, youths are more interested in finding a likeminded person with whom they can share their life without being judged and talk about fluid topics like movies or fantasies rather than ticking off qualities mostly physical through pre-set list given by their parents. CMC partners exchanged proportionally more self-disclosures and questions than did face-to-face partners. Moreover, the questions they asked were about more personal topics than those the face-to-face partners exchanged.At the same time, the deeper the disclosures and questions used by partners in CMC, the more effective they were rated by their partners, in comparison to those who met in Face to Face discussions (Walther, 1993, pp. 147–148). â€Å"Dating culture in India is evolving rapidly. Changing cultural dynamics like the increase in average marriage age†¦ are shifting the dating paradigm significantly,† StepOut co-founder and CEO Adam Sachs This change in mind set had brought change in dating pattern . here in my dissertation I am trying to cover this WHY and WHAT of changing pattern of cyber dating space. ike all space this cyber space is also a result of confluence of spatial and temporal pattern, but unlike physical space it has compression of time and space boundaries. in cyber space there are no geographical boundaries. in this space we can create our own identity’s which can be different from real one. Here my objective is to study this dating pattern and objectives of my research are as follows: 1. To draw regional profile of the users of these dating sites. 2. To examine if these space supplement real spaces for meeting and dating. 3. To identify the sites where users would like to meet in person. 4.Do users found it safe to date online. To study these objectives I had taken sample size of forty people by random method. All of them are students of age between 20-25. Surveys are done by questionnaire meth od which has both open end and close multiple choice questions. Survey is done online by the help of Google forms and personally by interviews.. I had chosen this topic to highlight the social importance of online dating and its effect on real space dating. My title of this dissertation â€Å"taking online relation offline â€Å"lay emphasis on the study of HOW online relations are taken to OFFLI NE meetings and WHERE they are conducted and WHY. y survey is done on small sample of 40 students randomly selected from social networking site Facebook and online dating site ‘indiandating’ . commercial dating sites become increasingly accepted as a means of forming romantic relationships, more and more couples are meeting online (Rosenfeld, 2010). One industry trade report estimated that almost 25 million unique users around the world accessed an online dating site in April, 2011 alone (Subscription Site Insider, 2011). In India 6 million singles have joined online dating s ervices in India. The market is estimated to be worth $130 million USD in 2012.By 2015 it is estimated India will have 115 million users of dating services. (source:www. onlinedatingmagzine. com) Young India provides large market for online dating services. Some statistics of Indian dating scenario are: oBy 2015 it is estimated India will have 115 million users of dating services. o20 percent of current committed relationship began online. o17 percent of marriages in 2012 began on an online dating site. ? WHY ONLINE DATING: Dating is a form of courtship consisting of social activities done by two people with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse.While the term has several meanings, it usually refers to the act of meeting and engaging in some mutually agreed upon social activity in public, together, as a couple. When we say online dating then it really means dating in cyber space. Online dating (OD) or Internet datin g is a dating system which allows individuals, couples and groups to make contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually with the objective of developing a personal, romantic, or sexual relationship.Online dating services usually provide immoderate matchmaking over the Internet, through the use of personal computers or cell phones. It is a form of dating which is COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (CMC). Here bond created between potential partners takes different path than normal or traditional dating relationship. it is an alternative medium for experiencing new and creative romantic endeavors with few spatial-temporal limits. Online dating promises to offer new possibilities and creativities not found in the real-life world scenario Firstly I would like to define the terms before proceeding further . had use the term dating sites to those web sites that primarily focus on offering the user opportunities to form a new relationship, I had compared this term with co nventional offline dating which denotes various ways by strangers meet each other to form alliance like meeting in some get together, being introduced by some mutual friend, approaching a class mate or coworker . this type of dating pattern had limited success in countries like India where dating is conceived as something un traditional and a trend of west.Here marriages are alliances formed by the family consent with many cases where couples have there their first meeting on the eve of their marriage. It is a country where we cannot hit on a girl or boy in some cafeteria or book shop leave alone the option of bar or pub. Here it is not conductive to use pick-up lines like â€Å"hello, how are things going? I am looking for like-minded people and found u†¦ †but online dating chat rooms allow these lines as ice breakers and even if someone get offended he can ignore that person. verall online research had shown that online daters are more confident then offline daters(sou rce: online dating magazine;2005) A study by BURMASTER (2005) of 3400 adults in Asian sub-continent found that one out of three internet users would opt to go online to meet potential dating partner and that internet is the third most popular mode of getting a date followed by meeting through friend and meeting someone at club or pub. To understand how online dating is better than conventional dating we have to consider three important facilities which are offered by online dating sites.They are : †¢ACCESS †¢COMMUNICATION †¢MATCHMAKING Here access refers to opportunity a user gets to evaluate potential partner which are not easily available in conventional dating. Communication refers to users’ opportunity to use various forms of Computer mediated communication (cmc) to communicate with potential partner before meeting face to face. And matching refers to a sites use of Matching refers to a site’s use of a mathematical algorithm to select potential partn ers for users. Online dating’s these three services had altered the dating landscape all together.As firstly its major element of internet flexible accessibility, creative opportunities and perhaps most importantly, anonymity. These freedoms remove the moral tangles of society and provide a â€Å"free play† . this feature of anonymity make online dating free from the oversight of others and thus do not carry any fear of stigma. The main idea of this dissertation is to provide an insight to the status of online dating in India and do these sites replace the real spaces for meeting and dating (conventional dating). Secondly does the users find it safe to use it and the sites where would like to meet after taking it offline.Ben-Ze-ev(2003) book ‘love online; emotions on the internet’ stated that cyber space provides a private world in which the information that is revealed about a person is the information he wants to reveal. He claims that online disclosure is very prevalent as people feel safer in cyber space than in actual space. He says that shame an important emotion is less common in space which leads to very open behavior of the people. The popularity of online dating is because of Internet’s flexible accessibility, creative opportunities, and perhaps Most importantly, anonymity and new freedoms attending that anonymity.These freedoms remove and disentangle emotions from the moral and social qualms which we in face in the world and thus facilitate a â€Å"free play† with identity and imagination. Today internet dating industry generates revenue of 800$ million in 2008 thus making it forth highest internet industry after online gambling, digital music and online gaming. (Mitchell,2009) Online dating services had altered the dating landscape. in particular online dating, which is becoming important way of finding potential partners had altered both the romantic acquaintance process.For example in online dating person gets a snapshot of potential partner before meeting face to face. He had learned about the person through his profile picture and profile details and other facts before deciding whether to meet them in person or not. Some dating sites also use some mathematical algorithm to find best match based on values, personality, style, interest, race, religion, gender and even pin codes. Though are plenty of places where people could potentially find the love of their life. There are bars, outdoor events, group activities, and even on a park bench as you read your favorite book.Members of the opposite sex are everywhere. They live and breathe among us. However even when surrounded by an incomprehensible number of options that pass us by every day, it can still seem impossible to find that one person that you may want to spend your life with. For a lot of people, online dating websites have become that key instrument in finding the love of their life. Source:http//www. photoillustrationthinks. com Mainly the benefits of all dating are many. In the real world you’d have to go on a large amount of dates to find someone that even slightly comes close to your liking.You may go on a lot of these dates only to realize that you wish you got to know them better before you actually got to meet them. Dates take a lot of time, effort, and money. Going out weekly or even monthly with people you barely know can lead to a lot of wasted and disappointing evenings. When you meet someone online you could move slowly and really get to know each other. You could move from one form of communication to another. Before you actually decide that this is someone you’d like to meet in person, you could move from messaging each other online to instant messaging to talking on the phone.Before going out on a real date and dealing with all of the potential stress involved, get to know someone online. No commitment, it's all about getting to know someone new in a safe environment, at a c omfortable distance without forcing yourself to sit though dinner with someone you have nothing in common with. In Indian scenario though with the help of communication technology world had become a smaller place. We are globalized but it had also increase expectation to perform and communicate in these spaces.We are rooted deep to our traditions but in the same time want to be a part of this large cyber world where there is no inhibitions, moral code of conduct and we have power of anonymity. Today’s youth do not opt for online dating to find someone to have one night stand but they do so to find there soul mate or friend who fulfill their requirement of a friend or partner with the qualities they want (mainly demanded by their family) In this dissertation I am making my all efforts to study the indian dating scenario from a student standpoint. METHODOLOGY: Basically there are four main objectives of this research.They deal with: 1. To draw regional profile of the users of t hese dating sites. 2. To examine if these space supplement real spaces for meeting and dating. 3. To identify the sites where users would like to meet in person 4. Do users found it safe to date online A number of studies have been conducted, both using quantitative and qualitative approaches, to examine the feature of dating which occurs in online environments. They focus on wide range of features, such as the structure and power-dynamics involved in online communities, and how this is facilitated by technology.However, perhaps the most prominent area of inquiry, and the main concern of this paper, is the participant’s view on online dating and how they perceive it when it is taken offline, it also study about how their online identity relates to the everyday offline personality. Method used for collecting samples is: Purposive Sampling: A common strategy for sampling in qualitative research studies, purposive sampling places participants in groups relevant to criteria that fits the research question. Factors that affect sample size include available resources, study time, and objectives.To study this I had collected samples from two sources firstly from online source like Facebook and indiandating. com by the help of Google forms and survey monkey. Out of these forty adult subjects twenty are male and twenty are female belonging to the age group of (20-25) of age and mostly belonging to Delhi. The survey sample is kept short because of prevalence of homogeneous answer of students and also because of shortage of time. They all are student; student sample is chosen as they represent the taste of Indian youth. And they use these sites most.Secondly, ten subjects were again interviewed about their experience of online dating. These ten subjects were chosen from same survey group as they have different experiences and they were ready to share it. Their interviews are transcribed and quoted where they are needed. SURVEY METHOD: Questionnaire method: Survey instrument consist of questionnaire mostly of multiple choice and few being open end questions. They start with enquiry about subject’s sex, age and their occupation. The rest of questionnaire are mixed up to answer the pre-defined objectives. t queried about their preference to date online or in real space or how they assess others profile and decide whom to approach and whom to not. it also collect data about where they want to go out on date and why. An obvious strength is that the research question can be addressed in a relatively short space of time. The questionnaire consist of FACTUAL questions dealing with demographic information, education status or their sex and also some BEHAVIORAL questions dealing with views, opinion ,beliefs and values of the subject. This help to get both qualitative data which helped me to treat the data and check the hypothesis.Interview method: Following questionnaire was used by me to collect data followed by some open end personally interv iewed questions. Which mainly aim at recording subjects experiences of taking online dating offline. These questioned were asked to ten subjects who had admitted dating online and had met potential partner in offline/real life space. There answers are trans scripted to avoid my personal biasness. These subjects were informed that there personal information are used in dissertation. The subjects were also asked about open end questions like ‘what help them to distinguish fake profile from a eal one. ’, ‘why they use online dating or where they would like to meet their potential partner and why. ’ In this following dissertation I had taken subject from two famous dating and social networking sites: Facebook and indiandating. com. I had chosen indiandating . com as it is top ranking Indian dating site catering to the need of whole India. Facebook is also taken even though it is not a dating site but networking site as Indian youth use it a lot to date as there are less chances of fake profile, its free and site itself gives option like ‘people you may know’ so and help in meeting new people.Relevance of study: My dissertation deals with broad canvas of cyber space. Online dating is one of the most important part of it. In Indian context though online dating is not much old still not much work is done on this topic. Ratings of dating sites are not published and net user base is also not know. Material is available only for the sites which have foreign backdrop. Though country has the world's third largest Internet users with over 121 million users (of whom 59% who only access the internet via mobile devices) as of December 2011. 137,000,000 Internet users for June 30, 2012, 11. % penetration, per IAMIA and 62,713,680 Facebook subscribers on Dec 31, 2012, 5. 2% penetration rate. (source: http://www. internetworldstats. com/) still not much research is done to study cyber space by geographers. My study does not deal with region al profile as it is very difficult to trace it in small sample size and quite irrelevant as cyber space compress spatiality. I deal with the hypothesis which state that do these cyber space can replace the real space dating sites and how and why of it. I had also tried to mark out those places where they would like to meet in real space and why.My research aim to know if the reason of using online dating is different among both sex group and do our social cultural traits affect our cyber behavior. My study also aim to find out if these online dating is supplementing real life dating and while concluding I’ll also look at pros and cons of online dating. The rise use of dating sites has been driven by several trends in society. One of these is that people now move around more often for work, distancing themselves from friends and family members who could play matchmakers. Another is that they are living longer, and hence more likely o look for new love later in life. The spread of fast broadband connectivity in many countries has also encouraged people to dabble in online dating. My study is relevant as it is a qualitative research of the online behavior of my subject. It is not based on past trend and neither has it predicted future. It is just an analysis of current dating scenario and how it is taken to real world. Limitation of the study: My research is limited in several ways. First in this dissertation i used a convenience sample that is very small in comparison to vast user base.With small sample size of 40 subjects for questionnaire method and ten for personal interview, a caution must be applied and result should not be universally applied. This small sample size is the result of lack of time to survey. my research is not designed to evaluate the dating scenario of students but to study how and why they bring it offline. All the subjects are student hence my sample also miss a large chunk of online daters who are employed personals ,married coupl es and people above age 25. due to shortage of time the no of interview taken are also less i. . 10 persons and they are transcribed and quoted in examples. Though care has been taken to inscribe personal biasness but at some point I failed to maintain unbiased opinion. LITERATURE REVIEW: My dissertation topic is â€Å"taking online relationship offline† on this topic not much work is done on Indian context. The articles which help me to clear my basics about this topics are : 1. Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science By: Eli J. Finkel1, Paul W. Eastwick, Benjamin R. Karney, Harry T.Reis ,and Susan Sprecher Northwestern University; Texas A;M University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Rochester; and Illinois State University This article deals with information analysis and synthesis focusing on finding and drawing conclusion from it. This article study and check the claim of the online dating sites which claims th at online dating sites had promoted better romantic outcomes than conventional dating’s and online dating sites are fundamentally different from conventional dating sites.This article start with the history of dating in world and how society the arranged marriages still prevalent in parts of Southeast Asia where two individuals are bought together by the intervention of the third person/party who had a relatively broader social network and power to apply judgments. (Ahuvia ;Adelman,1992) It explain that how with the presence of these three elements online dating are superior to conventional form of dating by a. access to potential romantic partners b. communication with potential romantic partners c. atching with compatible romantic partners The overarching goal of this article is to draw upon the accumulated scientific literature on romantic relationships and other psychological phenomena to evaluate (a) whether online dating represents a fundamental rather than an increment al shift in the process of relationship initiation (the uniqueness question) and (b) whether online dating yields better romantic outcomes than does conventional offline dating (the superiority question). this article had outlined the development of dating leading to development of online dating.This historic trend line help us to understand the development of dating and importance of third party intervention. it also explain the changing view of mass about online dating earlier as it was seen something attempted by people who can’t date in real world and were assumed as ‘nerd’ ‘the desperates†and the socially inept (Goodwin, 1990; Orr, 2004; Smaill, 2004;Whitty ; Carr, 2006; Wildermuth ; Vogl-Bauer, 2007). as it was observed that early adapter of this technology â€Å"a little on the shy side or a little on the sleazy side† (Orr, 2004, p. 29). his article had studied slow and steady early growth of online dating and how it get stigmatized befo re but today enjoying its boom days. secondly it deals with the fact that Has online dating fundamentally altered the romantic acquaintance process? this article deals with famous nine step as follows: This article also deals with the issues that how online dating provides superior access, communication and matching then conventional dating. it finally draw the conclusion that Online dating offers access to potential partners whom people would be unlikely to meet through other avenues, and this access yields new romantic possibilities.On the other hand, the heavy emphasis on profile browsing at most dating sites has considerable downsides, and there is little reason to believe that current compatibility algorithms are especially effective. Online dating functions best to the degree that it introduces people to potential partners they would have been unlikely to encounter otherwise and facilitates a rapid transition to face-to-face interaction, where the two people can get a clearer sense of their romantic potential.Though this reading provide guidance to start this dissertation but it do lack in few aspects as it only cover the spatial and cultural settings of western world (America) this article do not deal with the situations and the reasons stating how online relations survive in offline world. But in a nut shell this article had helped in finding that Online dating is now the easiest way to meet other people who are looking to date or looking for a potential relationship.In addition, some key reasons as to why people like online dating are: * Online dating allows people to cast a wider â€Å"dating net† in search for a â€Å"perfect† potential long-term partner or soul-mate. * Online dating allows busy people to better organize and plan their dating life. * Online dating gives shy people a voice since it’s easier for shy people to initially communicate while behind a computer monitor. * Online dating allows people to see if there is ch emistry before going out on a date. Online dating allows people to filter matches, being able to better sort the type of person they want to date based on religion, interests, political beliefs, etc. * Online dating is the way to date now. Everyone knows a couple who met via online dating and people are no longer ashamed to admit that they met online. Other articals like , paper presented at the Identities in Action conference, Mikael Jakobsson and Victoria Popdan (1999) adopt an auto-ethnographic approach, reflecting on the online interaction that resulted in the development of the friendship between the two authors.Looking mainly at discourse conducted through the graphical chat systems of â€Å"Active Worlds† and â€Å"The Palace†, the study addresses two main areas. Primarily, Jakobsson and Popdan examine the more conventional concerns of the portrayal and perception of identity in a text-based reality concluding, rather generally, that some aspects of personality are emphasized whilst others are de-emphasized. They also argue that rather than encouraging identity play, the barrier of online communication encouraged the participants of their study to behave more openly, to more confidently express their â€Å"true elves†. In this way, the authors observe that the technology offered for online communication can serve as â€Å"A mask that shields the person behind it and in this way tends to make the person more open†¦the saying that ‘the mask does not hide, it reveals’ captures this phenomenon very well. † (Jakobsson and Popdan 1999: 5). Result: After completing my survey and by employing statistical techniques manage to draw larger picture of Indian dating scenario represented by my subjects. I had compiled all my results in single excel sheet thus making is easier to study the data.The questionnaire and interview was set up to validate my objectives of the dissertation. Those objectives were: 1. Trace the demo graphic profile of the users of dating sites? 2. To examine if these spaces supplement real spaces for meeting and dating 3. To identify the sites where they would like to meet in person. 4. Do they find it safe to use it and why? To find answer of these objectives I had divided my questionnaire into sub parts 1. Trace the demographic profile of the users of dating sites? The survey is done from the sample size of 40 people twenty male and twenty females.Mostly in there college. With age group of 20-25. The relationship status of the user is kept into consideration and it is found that: Relationship Status Relationship Status Source: survey result from questionnaire. Source: survey result from questionnaire. The work profile of all the subjects is same. They all are students. I had tried to find out why this subject group uses online dating. I survey this by giving them multiple choice questions to determine why they use these dating sites. In my research I had found out thatI had a lso tried to find out that are people while online dating tried to find if people try to find out their potential partner through regional chat rooms so as to find their date which have physical proximity. It shows result as: Conclusion: My first objective which was to know the demographic profile of the clearly explain the status of randomly picked up sample as * Most of them are below age group of 25 * Females are less actively involved in online dating in comparison to their male counterpart but they are more actively involved in keeping track of their old friends. Their age structure shows that as female are moving towards age upper limit their online dating had decreased. Whereas no such trend is found in male section. May because they are mostly single and get married at older age, hence they are looking for their potential dating partner. * It is seen that mostly male chat in regional chat room so that they find it easier to meet offline whereas majority of girls do not use r egional chat room may be because they want to avoid meeting someone they knew and try to keep anonymity. It is also evident from the data that male generally hit chartrooms because they find it easy to express themselves in cyberspace. For example, a male who is conventionally macho in the offline world may more easily drop his bravado in an online environment or vice versa. This may occur partly because the technology mediates discourse and removes the immediacy of peer group judgment, diminishing the pressure for the individual to conform in socially set manners. Males also use online dating to make new online friends rather than tracing the old friends which is more prominent in females. Anonymity attract female more than the male may be it is because our social structure don’t give girls space and freedom to express themselves and to date the person they like without being judged. * Females had also use online dating to meet new persons but lesser then males. This result shows that our society’s social constrain are loosen up in this cyber space. Participants by utilizing the character-based nature of this cyber world to express qualities and physical attributes that they feel they lack in the offline world.Objective two: To examine if these spaces supplement real spaces for meeting and dating Even in current scenario in India it is difficult to approach a stranger in a cafe or club and extend a hand for friendship or to start conversation with pick up line like ‘hey can we be friends? ’ this situation help in emergence of this online dating. In my questionnaire I had tried to find out that is this hypothesis is true or not. In my studies I had found out that 17 girls out of 20 found is easier to socialize in cyber space where as 14 admitted that they had seriously tried dating through these sites. n boys this result are even more positive. Traditionally in India dating is some phenomena which is carried forward by third parties- religious leaders, parents, elderly women and so forth for centauries but they work in small scale and generally introduce person they personally knew. But in online dating one can browse one’s profile at any time without one’s awareness. Rather than meeting potential partners and then slowly learning various facts about them, Users of online dating sites typically learn a broad range of facts about potential partners (and vice versa) before deciding whether a first meeting is desirable.Access to potential partners, tools to communicate with them and to judge the compatibility of potential partner are the service that definitely mark online dating superior to real dating. This online dating space provides chat rooms where people can chat, share pictures videos, play games and can do other loads of things. Though real space also provide us these facilities but they are different in few means. In real world if we go out for date then firstly it will become public affair and in countries like India it is not looked up nicely.Secondly, from male point of view online dating save their expenditure which can be incurred on first dates. From my interview and surveyed data , I had seen that most of the subjects had tried dating online and above fifty percent of them had met offline. People also share personal information’s and issues online as they feel more safer, confident and as the idea of being judged or mis judge is absent. Example: why you use online dating? Ram:† as I can choose any one from the lot according to my mood,if someone is annoying me I can instantly block her profile .I can chat about many topics without being judged and the best part is that it’s my little secret and I can chat with new girls without even getting in knowledge of my parents and my girlfriend. while online dating I can easily hide my negative aspects I can choosen to sound boring or basketball player and even act like total freak or flirt. † Ra jiv: â€Å"I use online dating as I can do it from my home place at my comfort and at my time. I am free to express as I like and act anyway. I entertain myself, increase my social circle and that too without getting out of my comfort zone . hatting apps had helped a lot in making me addicted to it. aaj kal k anoroid mobile apps. Ne to bore hone ka option he nahi chodha. i just love being online all day in chat rooms. flirting and chatting as feel like† From the above interview transcribe we can incur that online space had supplement offline meeting and dating but it has its other side too. From my survey I had also recorded the fact that most of the people dating online are not serious for relationships. Fake identities, spam pages, frauds id’s are very prominent. ource: http://www. cartoonstock. com/stylesheet. css online predators. Case one: Interviewer: did you ever chatted from fake id and why? Alfa_male :† yes I did it many times I m a girl age 23 but I lik e to chat by posing as male. mazza ata hai ladke ban k girls se baat karne mai alag sa and best part to tab hota hai jab she started taking it seriously its very good prank to play on. † source: http://www. cartoonstock. com/stylesheet. css profile pictures also create dillusions. Case two: Interviewer: had you ever came across any fake profile?Sarita: â€Å"ek baar ek ladke se mai milne gayi usse mai facebook pe milli thee,jab usse mall mai dekha I was soo shocked he weight almost 100kg and height was about 5 feet, I don’t want to judge someone on physical criteria but all his pic in Facebook were either close ups or in large group thus making it entirely different person. From that day I had decided that I would never meet someone in person. † There are people who think that it’s fine to date online for fun but we should not get into serious relationships as most of the time people who are dating are not serious.And if we had find the perfect match then we should take it offline as soon as possible. it is noticed that although users can go directly from dating-site-mediated communication to a face-to-face meeting (e. g. , by scheduling a date through the dating site instant messaging system), most users engage in communication outside of the dating site, frequently via personal e-mail accounts, before deciding to meet face-to-face (Day, Hamilton, Hutchins, Maher, ; Vance,2010). Most of the datings that progress to the mutual mediated communication stage meet face-to-face within a month, frequently within a week (Rosen et al. 2008; Whitty, 2008). Conclusion: It is observed in my study that girls prefer online dating over conventional dating for following reasons: * Ignoring an unwanted date request typically would be considered rude in a face-to-face context, but the relative anonymity at this stage of the online dating process renders it a common and frequently inoffensive strategy, along with the use of impersonal, scripted  "no thanks† messages generated by the site (Tong ; Walther, 2011). * Even if in later stage they find someone annoying they can simply remove them. * Have control over their cyber life and identity. Boys also prefer online dating as they have loads of option to choose from. On the basis of my survey I can conclude that do online dating space had enormous potential to supplement real spaces for meeting and dating. These sites in some cases do supplement real spaces for dating as they provide a platform which is safe ,offer anonymity and choices with the comfort of home place but it is also quite a time-consuming and often frustrating activity as dating sites are swarmed up with fake profiles ,bots ,spams ,frauds . Majority of the users said that they hate fake profiles in dating sites.As it is very disappointing to find that all we know about a person in offline space is lie. 40% of the people feel that people are not serious in online dating may be because they have lot of pro file to choose from and their behavior is subjugated by none. One of the biggest dangers of meeting someone online and then pursuing a real-time relationship with them is the fact that the Internet provides a false sense of security. By spending time getting to know someone via email or IM, you might let your guard down more quickly and divulge more personal information than you would in person.In addition, while you are being deeply open and honest, you have no way of knowing that the other person is really who he claims to be. Abundance of dating sites has a dark side. People intuitively think that having more choices will increase the probability of finding a â€Å"better† or â€Å"best† option, but they often find it hard to make any selection at all when faced with too many choices Safety is also an important issue in online dating. Online stalker, frauds, scammers are common concern of online daters.Some people on dating websites try to get to know people on an i ntimate level for the sole purpose of trying to get money from them, pretending they are having a hard time financially or saying they need the funds to schedule a visit. The intimate information you share online, whether photos, sexual practices or any other sensitive matter, can come back to haunt you. The legal system, unfortunately, does not provide much in the way of remedies for online defamation and the Internet has a permanent memory. Even your efforts to protect your own reputation can backfire on you. It pays to be very careful about what you disclose.All such are the reasons why these sites cannot replace real spaces for dating. But can act as a catalyst to supplement dating in real spaces. Initially online scape do provide safe platform to initiate dating with unknown personals who can be our friends. Objective 3: To identify the sites where they would like to meet in person. This objective aims to find out the real tangible spaces and sites where people want to meet whe n they take their online relationships offline. . Online dating has become a very big part of our society in the last few years, and it seems to have taken the place of meeting people in bars.The biggest part to the online dating process is actually meeting a person face to face for the first time. This can be a little nerve-racking and exciting, as it may put you way out of your comfort zone. It is a big decision to decide about the place where one wants to meet other in the real space. As after the secure platform of cyber space where one is going to finally meet people in person. Well it really depends upon the comfort level of that person. There communication online or on phone helps to select best place. Generally it is a place with quite ambience with comfort to communicate freely in public place.In my survey I had tried to find out such places where people generally tend to meet up for their first date. And after what window period they find it comfortable to meet. Survey res ult: Source: surveyed data It is quite visible that choice of sites for meeting first time is quite different between both the sexes. Girls want to opt for the places which are quite but public like coffee shops or movie whereas boys like to go to places where they can indulge in activities os places which are full of action so as to work as ice breaker. ource: http://www. cartoonstock. com/stylesheet. css In my survey I had found that more of male are interested in taking online dates offline and generally to place or the places of their interest. I had also noticed that seventy percent of girls believe in window period before meeting online or even before changing with option of blocking phone no to avoid taking to a person has encouraged women to exchange phone number and hence they talk over phone for a long period before meeting offline. Objective 4: Do they find it safe to use it and whyFirst dates are always fraught with anxiety, particularly blind dates of any kind. Meeting an online friend face-to-face does qualify as a first date, although you have technically been getting to know them or mildly flirting for a while. As you are already nervous, anxious, and excited about meeting this person for the first time. Depending on the time you have vested in getting to know each other online and/or over the phone it depend if people find it safe to use it. According to my survey: Percentage of subjects finding it safe to meet online. Source: surveyed dataAnd when the question is asked for the reason to feel safe online dating the reply are: Ques: why feel safe in online dating? Source: surveyed data Analysis: as the question of online safety arise girls are more concern about it and even more to be confident about the fact they have power and control to choice, reject and block any one they feel like. They also enjoy the quality of anonymity which internet offers but not as much as males do. The factor of online dating sites that they provide us tool of crea ting identity. We can pose, we can act, and we can fake all these options are soo available.This tool is more used and preferred by females then by males as female identity are generally molded and bended in our society. But internet provide them freedom to explore any aspect of their identity. Interviewed reply: Interviewer: why you feel safe to date online and then bring it on real space? Arti: online dating k bahut benefits hai ek toh nobody knows about it so I can chat to anyone I like secondly its soo safe you can easily share anything, here I have the power to provide or deny access to my profile,jab lage risky ho raha hai sab then I can easily quit bas fir profile name changed and I can chat again. Asma : â€Å"arey here I have block option always open. If someone irritate me I just block his access to my profile. Even if I want to meet that person online e then I can cross check his profile on social networking sites as people generally don’t lie over them and when i t came to dating and meeting I just follow my instinct and normal safety code, will meet him in public place within the knowledge of my friends or family on my turf so if anything wrong happen I can quickly use fire exits† Feeling safe online is one of the illusion which internet provide us.In this cyberspace we tend to drop our inhibitions, fear, anxiety, code of conduct and tend to share our personal information. We should to that as it is seen that many times these small peek in our personal real life or our avatars can lead to serious damage to our reputation in real world later in our life. Internet had great memory it never forget anything. source: http://www. cartoonstock. com/stylesheet. css Profile which you have created years back in your teen can cause bad affect in your future life. It can range from ids like [email  protected] co. n or may be some pics of pajama party or may be some dark sites you had googled in past but by mistake you get tagged in it. Cases of online stalking , With 81% adults in India sharing information online once a week, inter personal communication have taken a beating. Intel Corporation’s study, titled Mobile Etiquette revealed a perception of ‘oversharing’ with at least six out of ten adults and teens saying they believe other people divulge too much personal information online. Nearly 44% respondents admitted that they were embarrassed by or regretted something they have shared online. ource: http://www. cartoonstock. com/stylesheet. css online dating is a safe option or not is an argument yet to be resolved but it is been noticed that with limited information on display and by using basic guidelines about online dating we can avoid the pitfalls of the online dating. The online dating world gives you more options, but finding a date online also presents safety hazards. While many members of the online dating sites are honest and well intentioned, others prey on women or don’t present th emselves honestly. There are guys who will think that this is the perfect ption to fix a date with women and then take advantage of her. You need to be careful. There is no scarcity of perverts out there. Even worse, there can be guys who are pretending to be someone they are not. Conclusion: According to the BBC World Service global poll that surveyed close to 11,000 Internet users in 19 countries, India and Pakistan have some of the largest numbers of enthusiasts for online dating. 59 per cent of Indians and 60 per cent of Pakistanis use the Internet to find a potential partner. Online dating saves time and money; it lets you hide your identity and thereby provides safety.As compared to the old and traditional way of finding a mate, online dating is much better and lets you communicate with somebody sitting on the other end of the globe. My thesis as aimed to trace the way how online dating’s are taken offline by Indian youth. my findings shows that most of the people who d ate are single as female move into relationship or marriage their dating activity decreases but male do not show any such trend. Female use dating to be in contact with their friends but male do it to find someone new to date online.These dating actually cannot replace the real dating place but they do supplement real dating space in many ways as if online relation hit the real road then it tends to be successful. These dating sites help in finding people of similar interest, same location , religion or traits easily as online dating provides choice. But this factor also has its bad side attached to it. Abundance has a dark side. People intuitively think that having more choices will increase the probability of finding a â€Å"better† or â€Å"best† option, but they often find it hard to make any selection at all when faced with too many choices.This phenomenon is called â€Å"choice overload. † This abundance may also result in believing one has essentially inf inite possibilities, which may lead some people to question or devalue their current partner. This is called â€Å"trading up,† and may lead to treating one’s dates as commodities. It is inevitable that, in every relationship, there will come a moment of disillusionment. Having an array of potential partners may discourage any sustained effort to resolve conflicts. Though these dating sites sometimes pose as if they had made dating a fun not a serious affair.Some people find that exchange of information online is not safe and majority things that online dating is easy and safe way to express, as with the help of anonymity trait online dating had become a good choice for Indian youth as they want this dating stuff to be kept as secret as it is still not socially admitted. I had found out that dating online is acting as safer option to date but fake profiles ,spams ,online fraud cases had limited the way in which they want to date. These obstacles make dating bit dangero us as it can cause financial, emotional loss together with bad effect on reputation.It is also seen that sites the people decided to meet offline also varies. Girls tend to opt for public places but with quite ambience. So as to feel safe but also to have enough privacy to initiate conversation. Whereas boys opt for restaurant, movies, disc or lounges as they are not much good in initiating conversation they use such places in defense to speak less and enjoy the company. Some of them give reasons that such places give an comfort zone so act as a ice breaker. Girls avoid disc or lounges for first date as they believe to keep it as simple as possible so as to find it easy if date doesn’t go smooth.They like places like coffee shop or restaurant to keep its duration small. Though online dating has many pros to use it ,it also have its part of pitfalls: When you provide information about yourself online, you inevitably take certain risks. Online dating, perhaps because it speaks to our fondest hopes, opens the door to certain vulnerabilities. It can deceive; can offend you sexually, emotionally or financially. But in end it is just a way to find potential partner now its up to us to follow our instinct and use it tool to help ourself in search of true love.. As said by one of my subject: I believe in love at first site.. XO XO