Physical Activity and Wellness Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Physical Activity and Wellness - Research Paper Example Since the establishment of the physical activity, several factors influence the level of exercise behaviors of people. Physical activity entails bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure above resting level. Several guiding framework are put in place to aid in understanding the multiple elements at each level. Individual factors are core when it comes to factors influencing a person’s involvement in exercise. The factor is innate to each person and differs from person to another such as a person’s genetic make-up, sex, growth and development as well as socioeconomic status among others. Social factors influence the physical activity of a person as fellow peers encourage one another to participate in exercise regime. Yet another influence is the environmental factor, ones surrounding such as walk paths encourage people to walk to work or shopping centers and even at times just for leisure. To build an environment suitable for physical activity opts to be an objective when setting up settlement units for it supports an active lifestyle. For example, safer streets that support biking, jogging and wider walking causes majority of the population to engage in some form of exercise reducing bad health outcomes. Controlled environment especially at workplace ensures employees access to existing communication channels and networks that improves levels of physical activity at all instances such as encouraging people use staircase instead of use of elevator.

Inspirational Stories Essay Example for Free

Inspirational Stories Essay Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, â€Å"Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet? † The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a â€Å"shoe† for himself. There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself your heart; and not the world. Once there was a king who told some of his workers to dig a pond.  Once the pond was dug, the king made an announcement to his people saying that one person from each household has to bring a glass of milk during the night and pour it into the pond. So, the pond should be full of milk by the morning. After receiving the order, everyone went home. One man prepared to take the milk during the night. He thought that since everyone will bring milk, he could just hide a glass of water and pour inside the pond. Because it will be dark at night, no one will notice. So he quickly went and poured the water in the pond and came back. In the morning, the king came to visit the pond and to his surprise the pond was only filled with water! What has happened is that everyone was thinking like the other man that â€Å"I dont have to put the milk, someone else will do it. † Dear friends, when it comes to help the Religion of Allah, do not think that others will take care of it. Rather, it starts from you, if you don’t do it, no one else will do it. So, change yourself to the way of Allah to serve Him and that will make the difference.

Ilm Al-raml In Islamic And Arabic Culture

Ilm Al-raml In Islamic And Arabic Culture Distant as it may seem, synergizing mathematics with divination systems and religious practices that transcend the realm of rational thought is an almost impossible endeavor. To get a clear understanding of into the nature of amtehatmical knowelegdew Nonetheless, a careful and detailed examination of some Historical Background Ilm Al-raml constitutes an omnipresent divination system in the Arabic and Islamic culture. The literature attributes the Arabic term Ilm Al-raml or ilm Al -khutut to Geomancy. Historically, Geomancy constituted a family of divination systems, including such famous members as Ifa, Fa, Sixteen Cowries (Nigeria and West Africa in general), Sikidy (Madagascar and Comoro Island), Ramalasastra (India), I Ching ( China), Hakata (Southern Africa), ilm al-raml or khutut al-raml (North Africa). According to the most recent historical re-enactments, the Hellenic, Jewish, Persian, African, Indian and Chinese borrowings into the Arabic body of geomancy point to a drafting of the classic, strongly astrological geomantic system in Southern Mesopotamia in an Ismaili context in the tenth century CE. Subsequently, the systems rapid and successful spread over the Islamic and Jewish intellectual world, and hence into Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean region, was largely due to its being preserved in widely circulated treatises. Of these, perhaps the most famous and successful has been the Kitab al-fasl fi usul ilm al-raml) by the Berber sheikh Muhammad al-Zanati (c. 1200 CE) (Van Binsberg , 1996). A careful examination of the binary mathematical structure of both the Southern African four-tablet divination system, and the more directly Arabian-derived forms of geomancy found in the Indian Ocean region led many historians and researchers to hypothesize a series of historical connections. In Arabic Islamic culture, ilm al-raml or sand-science goes back to IdrÄ «s, the Egyptian third Islamic prophet of Allah who came between the prophets Adam and Noah and resided in Egypt during which he undertaken the mission to show people how to write, to sew, to build cities and to use the Science of the Sand(Al-Tokhi,1991). The narrative tells that Idriss was taught this science by an angel sent by Allah and he taught it to his people who were practicing astrology (Tanjjim). Description and interpretations According to the principles of Idrisian facts, all living creatures are made up of four elements: fire, air, water, earth and four results heat, cold, moist, dry, and four directions east, west, south, and north. Also, looking at peoples activities they found that they basically used four major practices: weighing, counting, planting, and farming (Van Binsberg, 1996). Then everything balances on four corners, four figures, four extremities (e.g. the human body), and four elements on which they have built unlimited configurations. Partly rooted in simple chance procedures and random processes (like hitting the earth, throwing tablets, beans, shells etc.), ilm al-raml is a binary system of 16 figures. Each figure is 4 rows high and each row consists of either one dot or two dots. The figures are determined through various methods both ancient and modern. The procedure is called darb al-raml or the forceful hitting of the sand with a stick, in order to produce a random number of dot tra ces or marks which can then be scored as either odd or even. Four figures are created, and a chart is depicted using simple binary multiplication, and is interpreted based on the meanings of each figure. The 4_(number)four binary elements of each figure allow for 24 or 16 different combinations. As there are 4 root figures in each chart, the total number of possible charts equals 16ÃÆ'-16ÃÆ'-16ÃÆ'-16 or 65536. The charts are also interpreted differently. Depending on the nature of the question, ilm al-raml can be considered as one of the most thorough kinds of divination based on only 16 figures which are extremely simple yet with deep connotations. The marks on the ground are interpreted through a process of transformation and elimination, from one horizontal line, with one or two dots (one for odd, two for even), to a four-line symbol, of which there are sixteen 24 configurations (Van Binsberg , 1996, p.5) : With two dots making a line, the above configurations can be written as: More complex procedures may raise this number to any higher power of 2. A written or memorized key (the catalogue) provides the interpretation of each generated symbol and of their combinations. (Van Binsberg , 1996) The origin of this science is the dot and its secret is the odd number. Each of the four basic elements has a dot representation. Knowing that the element fire is lighter than the element air and that air is lighter than water and the water lighter than sand and knowing that the heavy element carries the lighter and not vice versa, so the elements in ilm al-raml follow this order: fire then air then water then sand (Al-Tokhi, 1991). Moreover, they assigned 4 letters from the alphabets to designate each one of the 4 elements. Fire( naar) Air (hawa) Water (maa) Sand (torab) Ù†  (noun) Ù†¡Ãƒâ„¢Ã¢â€š ¬ (haa) Ù†¦ (meem) Ø ª (taa) Originally, the patterns were created when the munajjim or the geomancer traced dots with a stylus across a board of sand or dust. The geomancer then examines and construes the dots, deriving further patterns, and eventually gives an answer or forecast for his client. Ascribed to this pattern of dots are different meanings and interpretations, related to the colors, months, planets, the four elements, the signs of the zodiac and parts of the body. Conditions when using Ilm al-raml To hit the sand, the hitter or geomancer or Al-Darib should be facing AL Qubla (a place in Mecca where the Muslims do pilgrimage) and should be clean and wearing clean clothes. He should pray, read certain verses from the Quran and place an intention to hit the sand seeking an answer to a question in mind. In the Islamic culture, hitting the sand is not supposed to be done in the following times: during storms or rain, at sunset or sunrise. However, it is preferable to be done after sunset until dawn, the best time is during the night. Also, the hitter shouldnt speak to others while performing the act. He should be joyful and content and should start with hitting the sand from left to right saying these words: Tash 4 torbash 4 shaqoor 4 tazan 4. (Al-Tokhi, 1992). Procedure: How it is done The procedure is administered inductively through a set of pre-determined and systematic series of steps that are embellished by the diviners skill to intensify and epitomize the importance of the act. The series of steps constitutes a decision making algorithm that, upon execution, results in an outcome which is interpreted by the diviner as either good or bad. The steps are illustrated in the following example: Step 1: A customer comes to Al-Darib (the diviner or the person hitting the sand), seeking answers or advice on certain questions. The questions can be related to any type of day-to-day affairs such as marriage/divorce; life/death; finding a thief; pregnancy; happiness; profit/loss, etc.. Step 2: To find the answer, Al-Darib, after fulfilling the above mentioned conditions, makes 4 horizontal lines and on each line he designates 4 rows of random number of dots in such a way that each row has less number of dots than its precedent. Below is a demonstration: Then Al-Darib eliminates the dots two by two, if the remaining is a single dot he puts a dot otherwise he puts a dash sign. This concept is what is known in arithmetic as counting modulo 2. (Ascher, 2002) The above figure is called Al-takht (the board in Arabic) and the resulting 4 shapes or configurations are called the mothers from which the other twelve shapes (4 daughters; 4 granddaughters; 2 off springs; 1 arbitrator; 1 judge) are generated (Al-Tokhi, 1992). Each of the sixteen possible configurations is identified by a name, and for each a number of standard interpretations are given in a catalogue or some type of a written manual. These configurations are derived by a special form of juxtaposition, based on the following computational rules: even x odd = odd, i.e. x = ; odd x even = odd, i.e. x = even x even = even, i.e. x = ; odd x odd = even, i.e. x = In any given shape, the four parts designate from top to bottom: Head; chest; waist; legs. The above takhit produced the following four mothers configurations: Step 3: From the four shapes that constitute the mothers' configuration, four other shapes are generated by taking one shape from the mothers heads, another from their chests, a third from their waists and a fourth from their legs. These four configurations constitute the daughters. Juxtaposing the first two mothers then the second two mothers and the first two daughters and the second two daughters will generate the four granddaughters. The same procedure is repeated with every two granddaughters to get the 2 configurations which are called off springs. Juxtaposing the two off springs together will give one configuration and is called arbitrator. To generate the sixteenth configuration, Al-Darib multiplies the last shape with the first mother shape to get the judge. The sixteen configurations generated are shown below: x x x x Interpretation: Each of the sixteen configurations designates a house which holds the meanings on which interpretations are made. The houses are different from the configurations itself. While the configuration or shape is the piling up of 4 layers of dots and dashes, the houses are the locations in which these configurations fall (Al-Tokhi, 1992). The first house represents the life of the client, the second house is the house of capital, the third for the brothers, the fourth for the parents, the fifth for the children, the sixth for disease, the seventh for marriage, the eighth for death, the ninth for travel, the tenth for luxury and fame, the eleventh for hope, the twelfth for enemies, the thirteenth for the asker, the fourteenth for the sponsors, the fifteenth for balance and equilibrium and the last shape is for judgment . The shapes in the sand speak to Al_Darib: When he sees distressful or tragic configurations he pronounces bad news irrespective what the object of consultation is. When he sees a mixed configuration he pronounces middle results. When he sees happy configurations he pronounces good news and success. Kinship relations: A number of researches indicate that the mothers here do not primary stand for a kinship reference, but for fundamental cosmological entities such as planets or elements, However, in hitting the sand, the client has to give the name of his mother and not the father. (Al-Tokhi, 1991). This in turn makes the descent series mothers/ daughters/ off springs distinctly matrilateral. (Van Binsberg , 1996) Calendar: The sixteen shapes or configurations are divided among the days, weeks, months, and years. For the days of the week, the shapes are distributed as follows: Sunday Thurs. night Friday Tues. night Wed Sat. night Wed Fri. night Sat. Wed. night Thurs.Mon. night Tues. Sat. night Sat. rest of days Adopted from Al-Tokhi (1992). Al-usul wa al-wosoul fi ilm al-raml.(Translated from Arabic) Also, the first twelve of these sixteen configurations are identified with the twelve astrological houses and are interpreted accordingly, taking into account the usual correspondences and conventional meanings of the twelve houses, the planets and the zodiacal signs. The planetary and zodiacal associations of each of the sixteen names are listed in the following table: Adopted from Van Binsberg, The Astrological Origin of Geomancy, 1996, p.43. Closure Ilm al-raml in Islamic, Arabic culture is a complex cosmological tradition that is still practiced and is highly popular in most Arab countries today. Although it is highly contextual and mostly spread out among the more underprivileged, poverty stricken people, it is nonetheless highly sophisticated with a systematic set of procedures that underlies its implementation and interpretation. As a divination practice, Ilm al-raml encompasses a range of mathematical ideas that are embedded in the daily life of indigenous people and play an unprecedented role in impacting the decisions they undertake in their everyday encounters. Concomitantly, such an inductive, semiotic system is based on mathematical and probabilistic principles that are constantly proposed as vital in the mathematics school curricula. Introducing students to such cultural practices can help embed mathematics in meaningful and novel contexts and consequently build a more positive attitude toward mathematics.

Technology Is The Seed Of Our Destruction Essay -- Technology, Childre

At an early age children are given toys stimulate their brains. Legos, Lincoln logs, even the game Perfection, teach the young ones what shapes are and what they fit with. But soon Legos will no longer be relevant. Younger generations’ new â€Å"play toys† will be iPads, iPods, and numerous other tech gadgets. Our youth will grow up in a world where technology is always changing; having the mindset that nothing can be done without a smart phone, tablet, or computer. Today’s society is so tied to technology that we are losing grasp on the non-cyber reality. When my mother was dating, boys would come up to her in person and ask her out. There was a rush of adrenaline when doing so; the fear of being rejected, the joy if she said yes. Today boys just shoot over a text that reads â€Å"Hey grl, date?† And some texts are lucky if they contain vowels. What happened to romance? What young girls are growing up to realize only exists in fairytales and romantic comedies. Just like in video games, guys are always trying to find cheats, or short cuts. So it’s never a surprise when guys try to take short cuts to hook up with girls. Having phones with the ability to send pictures and search the web, makes it easier to send and receive risquà © pictures. Society as a whole is too dependent on technology, we are addicted to it. People are on edge when they are not around their phones or computers, because we feel the need to post our every thought and action that we had that day. Who really cares if Joe and Gina are eating at Steak an d Shake and feeling happy? No one! But the fact of the matter isn’t if we care it’s that we know. In the article, â€Å"Children, Technology, Problems and Preferences† is defines this act of sending naked pics or close to na... ...ut a public service announcement will cause the need for research, which will put technology to use and the may become a distraction. Doing homework is no longer about sitting down and getting it done. It is now a test of the fittest, who can go the longest without checking Facebook, tweeting, vining or posting what they just ate to instagram. We need to untie our ties to technology and take our lives back. Works Cited Crispo , Alexander W. "The Age of Electronic Fascination: Can’t Live With it and Can’t Live Without!." 2011.4 n. page. Web. Farber, Barry A., Gavin Shafron, Jaleh Hermandani, Emily Wald, and George Nitzburg. "Children, Technology, Problems, and Preferences." 2012. n. page. Web. Allison, Shelia. "Youth and the (potential) power of social media." 2013. n. page. Web. Menon, Vinay. "Blackberry or Spouse? You Choose." 2013. n.page. print

Application of Biotechnology 1

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. The concept encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human purposes. For thousands of years, humans have used selective breeding to improve production of crops and livestock to use them for food. In selective breeding, organisms with desirable characteristics are mated to produce offspring with the same characteristics. For example, this technique was used with corn to produce the largest and sweetest crops. In the early twentieth century scientists gained a greater understanding of microbiology and explored ways of manufacturing specific products. Biotechnology has also led to the development of antibiotics. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mold Penicillium. It is use to treat bacterial infections in humans. The first use of biotechnology was used in fermentation. Throughout the use of agriculture, farmers have inadvertently altered the genetics of their crops through introducing them to new environments and breeding them with other plants one of the first forms of biotechnology. Applications Biotechnology has applications in four major industrial areas, including health care (medical), crop production and agriculture, non food (industrial) uses of crops and other products (e. g. biodegradable plastics, vegetable oil, biofuels), and environmental uses. Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites contaminated by industrial activities (bioremediation), and also to produce biological weapons. 1. Medicine a. Genetic testing: Genetic testing involves the direct examination of the DNA molecule itself. A scientist scans a patient's DNA sample for mutated sequences. The tests can detect mutations associated with rare genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and Huntington's disease. Gene tests may not detect every mutation associated with a particular condition because many are as yet undiscovered Gene testing is used for: 1. Determining sex; 2. Forensic/identity testing; 3. Newborn screening; 4. Prenatal diagnostic screening. b. Human Genome Project: The Human Genome Project is an initiative of the U. S. Department of Energy. It has helped us to determine the exact chemical sequence that constitutes the DNA in every cell of a human body. It has the following advantages: 1. Doctors could drip droplets of our genes into a biochip to figure out if we have cancer that could kill or a disease that would respond to a particular drug. 2. Scientists could analyse selective genes from parents and could design babies before conception. c. Cloning: Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. It involves the removal of the nucleus from one cell and its placement in an unfertilized egg cell whose nucleus has either been deactivated or removed. There are two types of cloning: 1. Reproductive cloning. After a few divisions, the egg cell is placed into a uterus where it is allowed to develop into a fetus that is genetically identical to the donor of the original nucleus. 2. Therapeutic cloning. The egg is placed into a Petri dish where it develops into embryonic stem cells, which have shown potentials for treating several ailments. 2. Agriculture a. Crop yield: Using the techniques of modern biotechnology, one or two genes may be transferred to a highly developed crop variety to impart a new character that would increase its yield. However, while increases in crop yield are the most obvious applications of modern biotechnology in agriculture, it is also the most difficult one. Current genetic engineering techniques work best for effects that are controlled by a single gene. Many of the genetic characteristics associated with yield (e. g. , enhanced growth) are controlled by a large number of genes, each of which has a minimal effect on the overall yield. There is, therefore, much scientific work to be done in this area. b. Reduced vulnerability of crops to environmental stresses: Crops containing genes that will enable them to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses may be developed. For example, drought and excessively salty soil are two important limiting factors in crop productivity. Researchers have also created transgenic rice plants that are resistant to rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV). In Africa, this virus destroys majority of the rice crops and makes the surviving plants more susceptible to fungal infections. . Reduced dependence on fertilizers, pesticides and other agrochemicals: Most of the current commercial applications of modern biotechnology in agriculture are on reducing the dependence of farmers on agrochemicals. For example, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a soil bacterium that produces a protein with insecticidal qualities. Crops have also been genetically engineered to acquire tolerance to broad-spectrum herbicide. M ultiple applications of numerous herbicides were routinely used to control a wide range of weed species detrimental to agronomic crops. 3. Bioremediation and biodegradation Biotechnology is being used to engineer and adapt organisms especially microorganisms in an effort to find sustainable ways to clean up contaminated environments. The elimination of a wide range of pollutants and wastes from the environment is an absolute requirement to promote a sustainable development of our society with low environmental impact. Biological processes play a major role in the removal of contaminants and biotechnology is taking advantage of the astonishing catabolic versatility of microorganisms to degrade/convert such compounds. Marine environments are especially vulnerable since oil spills of coastal regions and the open sea are poorly containable and mitigation is difficult. In addition to pollution through human activities, millions of tons of petroleum enter the marine environment every year from natural seepages. Despite its toxicity, a considerable fraction of petroleum oil entering marine systems is eliminated by the hydrocarbon-degrading activities of microbial communities.

Contexts that Motivate Learning

Motivational learning can be broken into four contexts. Those contexts are: Practical, Personal, Experiential, and Idealistic. First, the practical context of learning would be learning something because you know in advance it will benefit you. Second, the personal context of learning would be learning something because you want to do it for yourself to accomplish an important goal. Third, the experiential context of learning would be learning something because of past experiences. Finally, the idealistic context of learning would be learning something because you want to explore ideas, theories and concepts to experience the discovery of something new. There are four main contexts that motivate people to learn and everyone has their own reasons. Personal Context of Motivation I decided to return to school for personal reasons. Returning to school is something that I have thought of doing for a very long time. I guess you could just say that I have been very lazy and procrastinated for a long time. I tried to go to college right out of high school but it did not work out. I don’t think I was quite prepared to make that big step. I was headed down the wrong path and decided it was time to do something with my life. I knew it would help me to grow as a person. I now find myself in sort of the same situation. I’ve been a cashier for 18yr and now I work hard every day loading a Goodwill trailer to support my kids I know that without a collage education that most likely will not happen. I also want to be a positive influence to my children and show him how important education is. I want to be a good influence to my son and daughter but most of all I want to better myself as a person. Plus most of all I know in 4 to 5 yr. my fibromyalgia will not be getting any better. By that time my R. A. in my back will be getting bad, I still have 8 yrs. left to support my little girl. I know I can’t do it working on the back of the trailer but maybe be hide a desk for Goodwill I can as a human resource manager