Compare and contrast two developmental approaches to the study of Essay

Compare and contrast two developmental approaches to the study of developmental psychology. You must refer to research and theory in your answer - Essay Example Contrastingly, developmental psychologists who emphasized learning theories, such as Lev Vygotsky, John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura focus on the role of environment more than on the part played by biology. The diverse theories are based on different assumptions, but are similar in some respects (Sigelman & Rider, 2006: 49). The two developmental approaches which are chosen for comparison in this paper are those of Erikson (1902-1994) and Piaget (1896-1987). The similarities and differences between their theories will be examined, including the extent to which nature versus nurture play a part. On the nature side of the nature-nurture controversy, the nativist belief is that human development is determined by innate factors such as genetic endowment and brain maturation. On the nurture side, also known as empirism, development is considered as the result of experience and learning. Although there are some biologically based limits on behaviour and cognition, the â€Å"brains are open, dynamic information processors that are receptive to sociocultural influences† (Kitayama & Cohen, 2007: 528). According to Jean Piaget’s theory, the development of intelligence in children progresses through a series of four stages based on age and concurrent biological changes and maturation. This leads to the child demonstrating a higher level of cognitive functioning at each successive stage, as compared to the previous stage (Videbeck, 2007: 61). The stages of development are not universal, since cultural differences exist. However, the mechanisms that underlie cognitive development are considered to be universal (Pressley & McCormick, 2007: 89). 1. The sensorimotor stage: This extends from birth to two years. The child develops a sense of self, differentiated from the environment, and develops the concept of object permanence. That is, a perception of the existence of tangible objects even

How fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity Research Paper

How fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity - Research Paper Example How fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity? Childhood obesity is a serious/major public health concern and it currently getting a great amount of attention because of its wider economic impacts, as well as the long term consequences on children’s overall health, quality of life, academic achievements and productivity as they turn into adults. Fortunately, latest findings point out that the growth in the proportion of children categorized as obese or overweight has finally leveled off. Nevertheless, rates of obesity and overweight still remain high. â€Å"Almost 35% of children aged 6 to 19 years are overweight and roughly 19% are obese†. Taking health into consideration, the effects of obesity among children include coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, orthopedic abnormalities and respiratory problems. One of the fields of the food industry, which is being held responsible for the prevalence of childhood obesity, is the FAFH – food-away-from-home – sector, in essence, the fast food industry. From the late 70’s till the mid 90’s, the volume of foods consumed away from home went up considerably from 16% to 29%. The eating patterns of children, particularly those in school, have echoed the fast growth of the FAFH industry. In the late 70’s, children obtained roughly 20% of their caloric intake from food FAFH sources. The data obesity surveys conducted from 2003 to 2006 show that food-away-from-home was liable for 35% of children’s caloric intake. A number of surveys have argued that children who take more fast-food have much lower dietary quality are also expected to be obese or overweight. This paper will discuss how fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity. Background Whereas the main motivation of centering on children is the accessibility of geographically explicit information on weight measures for an extremely big sample, children are a significant group to research in their own right. â€Å"Among school aged chi ldren, 6-19 rates of overweight have soared from about 5% in the early 1970s to 16%, in 1999-2002† (Currie et al. 5). These rates are of significant concern provided that children who are obese are most expected to be obese or overweight as grownups and are gradually suffering from illnesses related to overweight when still young. Critics of the fast food sector point to a number of features, which might make fast food less healthy compared to other types of FAFH. These comprise of low time and monetary costs, high calorie levels of signature menu items and large portions. For sure, energy densities for personal food items are normally too high that it would be hard for people consuming them not to go past their normally recommended dietary intakes (Currie et al. 6). A number of consumers might be specifically defenseless. In two randomized practical trials concerning 26 overweight and 28 normal-weight children, Sinclair et al. (2833) contrasted caloric intakes on â€Å"unres tricted fast-food days,† as well as â€Å"no fast-food days.† The researchers found out that overweight children had much higher caloric intakes on â€Å"fast-food days† compared to â€Å"none fast-food days. The main fast food chains are also concerned in aggressive advertising to children. One particular experimental study of children aged three to five years provided them identical pairs of beverages and foods, the only distinction being that some foods were packaged by McDonalds (Robinson et al. 792). Data Sources and Summary Statistics Data for this paper came from three sources: school data and restaurant data. School Data The data on children from this study came from Californian schools from the late 90 and early 2000s up to 2007. The study of mostly 9th graders, which the paper centers on, represents 3.6 million student-year observations. In California, during spring, 9th graders are normally given fitness assessment test,

Properties of Poly(B-amino Ester)s

Properties of Poly(B-amino Ester)s The poly(b-amino ester)s, a class of biodegradable cationic polymers, were firstly  prepared by Chiellini in 198340. These polymers were based on poly(amidoamine)s  developed in 1970 by Ferruti41, that contain tertiary amines in their backbones and  can be synthesized by a simple Michael addition reaction of bifunctional amines  and bisacrylamides. However, the interest over the use of poly(b-amino ester)s rised  significantly after its use as transfection reagent at Langer Lab in 200042. The development  of poly(b-amino ester)s emerged by the need to develop a cationic polymer  for gene delivery with high transfection efficiency and long-term biocompatibility  including hydrolyzable moieties easily degradable into non-toxic small molecule  byproducts. The synthesis of this polymer can easily be accomplished: without  necessity of independent preparation of specialized monomers; the use of stoichiometric  amounts of expensive coupling reagents, or amine protecti on strategies prior  to polymerization42. The main general objective of the work of mentioned research  group was to develop a polymer-based non-viral vector more efficient and less cytotoxic  than other cationic polymers used at that time for this purpose (such as,  polyethylenimine (PEI) or poly(L-lysine) (PLL)). In fact, poly(b-amino ester) approach exhibited a particularly attractive basis for  the development of new polymer-based transfection vectors for several reasons: the  polymers contain the required amines (positive charges to complex genetic material);  readily degradable linkages (by hydrolysis of ester bonds in the polymer backbones  may increase the biodegradability and biocompatibility); and multiple analogues  could be synthesized directly from compounds commercially available (easy and inexpensive  synthesis) allowing to tune polymer properties (like buffering capacity)42. Besides being used as transfection vector, PbAEs has been also applied in others  biomedical areas, such as delivery systems for drugs43;44 or proteins45;46, magnetic  resonance imaging agents47;48, or as scaffold for tissue engineering49;50. Synthesis and main physicochemical properties of poly(b-amino ester)s The poly(b-amino ester)s are easily synthesized by the conjugate addition of a primary  amine or bis(secondary amine) and a diacrylate, in a one-step reaction without  any side product that need be removed through further purification steps. It can be  prepared without solvents, catalysts, or complex protecting group strategies42;51. Depending on the ratio of monomers during the synthesis, poly(b-amino ester)s  can be tailored to have either amine- or diacrylate-terminated chains. An excess of  either diacrylate or amine monomer results in a prevalence of acrylate- or amineterminated  poly(b-amino ester)s, respectively52;53. The synthesis is performed either neat (solvent free) or in anhydrous organic  solvents to mitigate hydrolytic degradation during synthesis42;54. Normally, experiments  using solvents occur at lower temperature and over long periods of time  compared to solvent-free formulations. Table 1.3 summarizes the main reactions for  the synthesis of PbAE and the obtained properties such as molecular weight, polydispersity  index (à ), solvent solubility or yield. The most common solvents used are dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), chloroform  (CHCl3), or dichloromethane (CH2Cl2)57. However, others solvents have also been  used, such as methanol, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) or N,N-dimethylacetamide  (DMA)59;61–63. The solvent used has influence on the final molecular weight of the  PbAE. For example, the use of CH2Cl2 typically yields higher molecular weight  polymer compared to THF42. On the other hand, solvent-free polymerizations maximize monomer concentrations,  thus favoring the intermolecular addition over intramolecular cyclization reaction64. The absence of solvent also allows rising temperature resulting in a higher  reaction rate and a lower viscosity of the reacting mixture, assisting to compensate  the higher viscosity found on the solvent-free systems. The combination between  increased monomer concentration and reaction temperature resulting in a reduction  in the reaction time64. The solvent-free reactions also allows the generation of higher  molecular weight polymers, besides increasing the reaction rate and obviating the  solvent removal step53;64. After polymerization, PbAE can be precipitated, normally in cold diethyl ether,  hexane42, ether65 or ethyl ether58 and/or then dried under vacuum57;65. Frequently, PbAEs are immediately used or stored in the cold conditions (4 _C52;66;67, 0 _C62, or  -20 _C68–70). Some PbAEs should be also kept airproof due to its strong moisture  absorption ability and easy degradation71. Concerning to the biodegradation and biocompatibility, PbAEs have been shown  generally to possess low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility42;52;61;55;72. Different  studies have suggested that PbAEs are significantly less toxic than currently available  cationic polymers, such as, PEI and PLL51;64. Nevertheless, the increase of the  number of carbons in the backbone or side chain is associated to the increase of the  cytotoxicity73. PbAE degrade under physiological conditions via hydrolysis of their  backbone ester bonds to yield small molecular weight b-amino acids biologically  inert derivatives42;51;55;74. Some results revealed that the degradation rate of poly(b  amino ester)s was highly dependent on the hydrophilicity of the polymer, i.e., the  more hydrophilic the polymer is, the faster the degradation occurs75;76. In Table 1.4 are summarized the main characteristic of PbAEs which make them  a promising polymeric non-viral vector for gene delivery. Combinatorial libraries a fast and efficient way to evaluate different poly(bamino ester)s A fast and efficient way to study the relationships between structure and function  in particular material that could be prepared with different reagents is using combinatorial  libraries. Due to promising preliminar results of PbAEs as non-viral vectors,  Langer research group reported a parallel approach for the synthesis of hundreds of  PbAEs with different structures and the application of these libraries to a rapid and  high throughput identification of new transfection reagents and structure-function trends. For this purpose, major contributions have been reported52;53;57;66;67;72;75;77;78  not only exploring the possible structure/function relationships, but also imposing  an assortment of monomers (amines were denoted by numbers and acrylates by latin  alphabet letters) used in order to facilitate cataloging of different PbAEs (Table 1.5  and Tables A.1 and A.2 (Appendix A)). The first initial library screening was synthesized in 2001 by Lynn51. 140 Different  PbAEs from 7 diacrylates and 20 amines were prepared with molecular weights  between 2,000 and 50,000 g.mol-1. From this, polymers C93 (Mw = 3180 g.mol-1) and  G28 (Mw = 9170 g.mol-1) revealing transfection levels 4-8 times higher than control  experiments employing PEI. At same time, it was observed that for transfection efficiency,  high molecular weight was not an important parameter. This work was then  completed in 2003 by Akinc57, where biophysical properties and the ability of each  polymer/DNA complex to overcome important cellular barriers to gene deliver were investigated. As previous experiments, complexes formed from polymers C93 and  G28, revealed higher levels of internalization compared to †naked† DNA, displaying  18- and 32-fold more internalization, respectively. In contrast, the majority of the  polyplexes were found to be uptake-limited. Regarding d iameter and zeta potential,  out of 10 polymer/DNA complexes with the highest internalization rates, all  had diameters lower than 250 nm and 9 had positive zeta potentials. By measuring  the pH environment of delivered DNA through fluorescence-based flow cytometry  protocol using plasmid DNA covalently labeled with fluorescein (pH sensitive) and  Cy5 (pH insensitive) it was possible to investigate the lysosomal trafficking of the  polyplexes. The results demonstrated that complexes based on polymers C93 and  G28 were found to have near neutral pH measurements, indicating that they were  able to avoid acidic lysosomal trafficking. In the same year, Akinc64 studied the  effect of polymer molecular weight, polymer chain end-group, and polymer/DNA  ratios on in vitro gene delivery. For this purpose, 12 different structures were synthesized  based only in two different PbAE (C28 prepared from 1,4-butanediol diacrylate  and 1-aminobutanol and E28 prepared from 1,6 -hexanediol diacrylate and  1-aminobutanol) (Figure 1.6.) These structures were synthesized by varying amine/diacrylate stoichiometric ratios, resulting in PbAEs with either acrylate or amine end-groups and with molecular  weights ranging from 3,350 to 18,000 g.mol-1. Polymers were then tested, using high  throughput methods, at nine different polymer/DNA ratios between 10/1 (w/w)  and 150/1 (w/w). Concerning terminal groups, it was found that amino-terminated  polymers transfected cells more effectively than acrylate-terminated polymers. In  contrast, none of the acrylate terminated PbAEs mediated appreciable levels of  transfection activity under any of the assessed conditions. These findings suggest that end-chains of PbAE have crucial importance in transfection activity. Concerning  molecular weight effect, highest levels of transfection occurred using the higher  molecular weight samples of both amine-terminated C28 (Mw _13100 g.mol-1 and  E28 (Mw _13400 g.mol-1). Regarding the optimal polymer/DNA ratios for these   polymers, it was observed a markedly difference, 150/1 (w/w) for C28 and 30/1 for  E28. These results highlighted the importance of polymer molecular weight, polymer/DNA ratio, and the chain end-groups in gene transfection activity. Moreover, it  has found the fact that two similar polymer structures, differing only by two carbons  in the repeating unit, have different optimal transfection parameters emphasizing  the usefulness of library screening to perform these optimizations for each unique  polymer structure. Meanwhile, in 2003, Anderson52 described, for the first time,  a high-throughput and semi-automated methodology using fluid-handling systems  for the synthesis and screening of a library of PbAEs to be used as gene carrier. A crucial feature of these methods was that all process of synthesis, storage, and  cell-based assays were performed without removing solvent (DMSO). By using these  methods, it was possible to synthesize a library of 2350 structurally unique, degradable  and cationic polymers in a single day and then test those as transfection reagent  at a rate of _1000 per day. Among PbAEs tested, it was identified 46 polymers  that transfect in COS-7 as good as or better than PEI. The common characteristic  among them was the use of a hydrophobic diacrylate monomer. Moreover, in the  hit structures mono- or dialcohol side groups and linear, bis(secondary amines) are  over represented. From data obtained from this library, Anderson67, in 2004, continued  his study developing a new polymer library of >500 PbAE using monomers  that led higher transfection efficiency in the previous studies and optimizing their  polymerization conditions. The top performing polyplexes were asses sed by using  an in vitro high-throughput transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity assays at different N/P ratios. As previously observed, the most promising polymers are based on  hydrophobic acrylates and amines with alcohol groups. Among those, C32 stood  out due to higher transfection activity with no associated cytotoxicity. The efficiency  to deliver DNA was evaluated in mice after intra-tumoral (i.t.) and intra-muscular  (i.m.) injection. The results revealed important differences. While by i.t injection  C32 delivered DNA 4-fold better than jetPEI R , a commercial polymeric non-viral  vector, by i.m. administration transfection was rarely observed. C32 was then assessed  for DNA construct encoding the DT-A (DT-A DNA) deliver to cells in culture  and to xenografts derived from androgen-sensitive human prostate adenocarcinoma  cells (LNCaP). Results showed that DT-A DNA was successfully delivered and the  protein expressed in tumor cells in culture. In hu man xenografts, the growth was  suppressed in 40% of treated tumors. The fact of C32 is non-toxic and it is able to  transfect efficiently tumors locally and transfects healthy muscle poorly turned it as  a promising carrier for the local treatment of cancer. From here, a panoply of results based in PbAE combinatorial library appeared. In  2005, Anderson53, prepared a new library of 486 second-generation PbAE based on  polymers with 70 different primary structures and with different molecular weights. These 70 polymers were synthesized using monomers previously identified as common  to effective gene delivery polymers. This library was then characterized by  molecular weight of polymers, particle size, surface charge, optimal polymer/DNA  ratio and transfection efficiency in COS-7 of polymer/DNA complexes. Results  showed that from 70 polymers with primary structures, 20 possess transfection activities  as good as or better than Lipofectamine R 2000, one of the most effective commercially  available lipid reagents. Results also revealed that, in general, the most  effective polymers/DNA complexes had In 2006, Green79, synthesized, on a larger scale and at a range of molecular  weights, the top 486 of 2350 PbAEs previously assessed52 and studied their ability to  deliver DNA. These PbAEs were tested, firstly, on the basis of transfection efficacy in  COS-7 cells in serum-free conditions, and then, the 11 of the best-performing PbAEs  structures were further analyzed. The transfection conditions were optimized in human  umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in the presence of serum. In this  study, the influence of the factors like polymer structure and molecular weight, and  biophysical properties of the polyplexes (such as, particle size, zeta potential, and  particle stability throughout time) were studied. The results showed that many of  the polyplexes formed have identical biophysical properties in the presence of buffer,  but, when in the presence of serum proteins their biophysical properties changed differentially,  influencing the transfection ac tivity. Concerning to the size, the results  showed that in spite of all vectors condensed DNA into small particles below 150 nm  in buffer, only a few, such as C32, JJ32 and E28, formed small (_200 nm) and stable  particles in serum. C32, JJ32 and E28 revealed also high transfection activity both  in the absence of serum in COS-7 cell line as in the presence of serum in HUVEC  cell line. Moreover, C32 transfected HUVECs in the presence of serum significantly  higher than jetPEI R and Lipofectamine R 2000, the two top commercially available  transfection reagents. The 3 mentioned PbAEs share a nearly identical structure. The acrylate monomers of these polymers, C, JJ, and E, differ by only their carbon  chain lengths (4, 5, and 6 carbons, respectively). Similarly, amines 20, 28, and 32  differ also by only the length of their carbon chain (3, 4, and 5 carbons, respectively). For example, polymers prepared with the same acrylate monomer (C) in which itwas increased the length of the carbons chain of the amine monomer resulted in  an increased transfection efficacy (C32 (5 carbons) > C28 (4 carbons) > C20 (3 carbons))  of these polymers-based polyplexes. Interestingly, this study reinforced C32  as the lead PbAE vector and revealed other potential two, JJ28 and E28, which previously  showedto be poor vectors. On the other hand, C28 and U28, previously  recognized as an efficient transfection reagent, were found to transfect inefficiently  HUVEC in serum. By constructing a new library of end-modified PbAE, the research  was continued78 in order to understand the structure-function relationship  of terminal modification of PbAE in transfection activity. For this purpose, it was  used twelve different amine capping reagents to end-modify C32, D60 and C20. The  choice of these 3 PbAEs was based in their transfection activity: C32, the most effective; D60, an effective transfection reagent with a significantly different structure  from that of C32; and, C20, a poor transfection reagent but with similar structure  to C32 differing only in the length of the amine monomer. The results showed  that some PbAEs-based vectors (C32-103 and C32-117) were able to deliver DNA by  approximately two orders of magnitude higher than unmodified C32, PEI (25,000  g.mol-1) or Lipofectamine R2000, and, at levels comparable to adenovirus at a reasonably  high level of infectivity (multiplicity of infection = 100). Once again, it was  demonstrated that small structural changes influence greatly gene delivery, from biophysical  properties (such as, DNA binding affinity, particle size, intracellular DNA  uptake) until final protein expression. From these 3 polymers assessed, C20 was the  one who transfected cells much less effectively, although it has seen a remarkably  improvement with end-modifications. As expected, C 32-based polyplexes, based on  C32-103 and C32-117, revealed the higher transfection efficiency enhancing cellular  DNA uptake up to five-fold compared to unmodified C32. Interestingly, and in a  general way, terminal modifications of C32 with primary alkyl diamines were more  effective than those with PEG spacers, revealing that a degree of hydrophobicity at  the chain ends is an added value for these polymers. Another interesting fact in terminal  modification of C32 was that at least a three carbon spacer between terminal  amines is necessary to obtain an efficient gene delivery. For example, results showed  that C32-103 transfection efficiency is 130- and 300-fold higher than C32-102 on the  COS-7 and HepG2 cell lines, respectively. As the molecular weight was the same,  this result demonstrated the critical role of the chain ends in transfection activity. In order to better understand the role of the chain ends in transfection efficiency  a new library of end-modified C32 was synthesized by Zugates80 in 2007 using 37  different amine molecules to end-modify the PbAE. In a general way, it was observed  that polymers end-capped with hydrophilic amine end groups containing  hydroxyls or additional amines led to higher transfection efficiency. On the other  hand, terminal-modifications with hydrophobic amines containing alkyl chains or  aromatic rings proved to be much less effective. Concerning to cytotoxicity, terminal  modification with primary monoamine reagents (independently of functional group  extending from the amine, such as aromatic, alkyl, hydroxyl, secondary and tertiary

Essay --

Courtney Peters Essay 1 Rough Draft ENG 308 2/21/14 Donne: The Imprint Left Behind Every writer leaves his mark, his imprint, in his writing; a thumb print left behind the ink if you know how to look for it, and Donne is no exception. The problem is extracting Donne’s imprint, and essence, from the poem, and understanding what that tells us about him. In one poem in particular this stands out, his Holy Sonnet IX, where Donne’s imprint lingers, giving another story behind the text, of his belief in God, but also his inner questioning, and confliction and doubt which come out as contradictions. Behind the text, Holy Sonnet IX, as Donne speaks through his speaker and poem, we come to understand that he is a religious man, though conflicted, which leads to doubt and contradictions, as he resents God in a way, while also just craving for his absolution and for him to forget and forgive his sins and wash them away, sins which weigh on him heavily and he believes taint him. Looking at Donne’s Holy Sonnet IX, you can see where parts of his self are hidden under the text, if you only know how to look and how to interpret what you find. Donne repeats â€Å"I† throughout the poem three times, and while doing so he not only reflects parts of his inner self, but changes his stand point each time. In the first instance of â€Å"I†, Donne writes, â€Å"If lecherous goats, if serpents envious/Cannot be damn’d; Alas; why should I bee?† (3-4). Here he questions God, demanding to know why he should be damned when the lecherous goats, and serpents cannot not be condemned and damned for their sins. The second instance of â€Å"I† however writes, â€Å"But whou am I, that dare dispute with thee/O God? Oh! of thine onely worthy blood,† where he shifts from angrily questioning... ...e forgotten and he is not damned by them. The illusion and imagery emphasize the severity of his desire for God to forget his sins, the sins which he emphasizes by referring to them as â€Å"black sins† utilizing severe language in calling them thus, to further darken the already negative connotation of his sins and their evilness. The allusion speaks of the greatness of Donne’s sorrow, in that he would cry a river, his wish in the end, more than anything, for his sins to be forgotten and him undammed, and his thoughts on sins, that they are black, his darkness, his taint, his embarrassment, indebting him to God who in turn damns him. -- Create a conclusion, short, but sums up: What I mean by Imprint How his imprint shines throu, aka, what we learn of him from: His usage of I His pattern His allusions, imagery, and language Should be one per paragraph for most

Eternal Recurrence by Nietzsche

The theory of Eternal Recurrence, which is also referred as Eternal Return, states that the world has been returning or recurring. This implies that whatever realities our world has in this particular times would be repeated indefinitely yet unknown to all in the same manner that they are represented to the world at this moment (Lowith). According to historical records, the concept or idea of eternal recurrence originated from the ancient Egypt and was later on adapted by the Stoics and Pythagoras. Nevertheless, this principle had been abandoned through the rise of Christianity (Lukacher). It was only when Friedrich Nietzsche reintroduce the thought the scholars began to evaluate its truthfulness or possibilities. The fundamental argument of this theory is that the world is confined in scope and fixed, predetermined or restricted quantity of substances. While matter is considered limited, time exceeds it by being immeasurable and never-ending. The world does not possess staring point or end point whereas matter, that which comprise the world, is consistent in undergoing various changes in terms of its state (Lowith). Moreover, the theory suggests that the number of probable changes that the matter could have is limited and is fixed thus arriving at an assumption that sooner or later the similar state will happen again. The concept of eternal recurrence is fundamental and imperative throughout the works of Nietzsche. According to another philosopher in the name of Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, though advocating the theory of eternal recurrence, did not really argue that such phenomenon has existed or is existent. But what is true on Nietzsche’s philosophy is that he accepts and does not deny the idea of eternal recurrence or eternal return. As Heidegger furthered, Nietzsche regarded the theory or the concept as merely a simple assumption just like how the Christian faith admits the idea of Hell and Angels. The idea of eternal recurrence is manifested through Nietzsche’s published works such as Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Gay Science (Heidegger). But Nietzsche succeeded presenting his full conception on the thought of eternal recurrence on the foremost book. In this writing, the protagonist Zarathustra discovers himself on a mountain and faces two opposite paths. Together with the dwarf they try to work out on the dilemma of the two opposite but eternal paths. Zarathustra asks the dwarf if is it possible that someone has already passed the path yet continues to pass through path in unfathomable times. As he sees the gate, he concludes that it could be the case that everything that is happening in this world have already happened in the past, and is happening in the present time, and would eventually repeat to happen in the future since neither of the paths suggests a beginning nor an end (as both paths are eternal). This spectacle motivated Nietzsche to work on the possibility of eternal recurrence or eternal return. Basically, Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence is simply a hypothesis of what he introduced in his work. No one would really know or confirm if particular things or event shad already happened in the past and just recurring. Hence, it could not really produce or offer concrete or sufficient evidence to say that at some point or truly eternal recurrence exists. In a way, eternal recurrence has some semblance or similarity with the idea of reincarnation (Lukacher). However, in reincarnation, it is not the matter that recurs but the only the soul. Thus, eternal recurrence could not be termed as equivalent of reincarnation. Comparable to what Nietzsche argues about the eternal recurrence principle, Arthur Schopenhauer also has his own idea of eternal recurrence the same way as Nietzsche’s. However, in his idea, the only thing that recurs is the matter in such a way that entities return in their own bodies and not in other bodies as how the tradition of reincarnation suggests (Lowith). It is noteworthy that Schopenhauer does not include time but merely explaining eternal recurrence as a physical concept. The same thing as Henry Poincare suggests in his proof to support the eternal recurrence through Mathematics (known as the Poincare’s Recurrence Theorem). It argues that if a system has a finite level of energy and remains at a finite spatial amount, after a considerable length of time, a system would return to its original state (Lowith). As an analysis of Nietzsche’s theory or concept of eternal recurrence, it is obvious that Nietzsche did not demand absolute truth to his principle for the fact that he did not imply all throughout his discussions and philosophy on the concept of eternal recurrence that it really exists in reality. In effect, he maintained analyzing and reflecting on the concept as simple a hypothesis, a conjecture, a presupposition. Furthermore, it could be the case that Nietzsche understood that there is no way that he could prove his hypothesis for the reason that there would be no entity that would demonstrate the very principle of eternal recurrence. No person would claim that his life and his being recur the same way as they did before. Works Cited Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsche: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same. HarperCollins, 1985. Lowith, Karl. Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. First ed.  Ã‚  Ã‚   University of California Press, 1997. Lukacher, Ned. Time-Fetishes: The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Duke University  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press, 1998.         

On Campus or Off Campus Living

On Campus or Off Campus Living If you are a new student and you want to choose between living on campus and living off campus, here some differences between them which may help you in your decision. The first difference is the cost. Normally, off campus housing is more expensive than on campus housing because of the additional charges. When you live off campus, you should pay for your own Internet access, furniture, and kitchen and bath necessities in addition to the rent, so it is a high initial cost.However, on campus housing does not need most of these charges because they are already paid with the rent. The second difference is transportation. If you live on campus, you can easily walk to your classes, libraries, and cafeterias. You do not have to waste your time and money to ride buses or trains or to drive your car to go to the campus. In contrast, you should ride buses or trains or drive your car to go to the campus when you live off campus which means wasting money and time i n addition to the traffic issues if you are living in a crowded area.On campus housing and off campus housing also differ in privacy. On campus housing usually means a shared bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. It is also means a limited and sometimes not quiet place to study because you share it with others. On the other hand, off campus housing means you own your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen and also means there is a large enough and quiet enough place to study. The other difference is the social life.Living on campus allows you to make more friends and meet more people than living off campus and also keeps you in touch with any activities that happen on campus, while living off campus probably does not allow you to make more friends or keep in touch with most campus activities. All in all, there are many differences between living on campus and living off campus, so when you want to choose between living on and off campus, classify these differences to advantages and disadvantages depending on your situation. After that, choose which is more advantageous than the other. .