The Pain of Animals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Pain of Animals - Essay Example His position is that humans tend to rationalize their behavior and in doing so justify our mistreatment of certain groups of animals with no thought or concern for their inherent right to life; rather in our selfishness we too often have little regard for their well-being and quality of life. In order to substantiate his position he drew parallels through various instances of how humans either assume animals do not have emotions and can not feel pain or disregard the truth believing the human race is somehow entitled to do as they please in the name of science or sport. Drawing first on the experimentation of insects in the furthering of science Suzuki concedes that somehow that may be justifiable, but then further builds on the examples of experimentations on mice, rats, guinea pigs and other rodents to further both the medical and behavioral sciences and asks us to consider if this is the point at which the line should be drawn morally and ethically. In further defense of his position he talks about how humans are conditioned to have little disregard for the other animals with whom we share the planet. Man at one point, hunted and fished to sustain his own and his family's lives. Somewhere we have gone beyond that. We hunt and fish now not just for survival, but for sport, sacrificing the lives of animals just for our own amusement and pleasure not out of necessity.

Effects of Agriculture Essay Example for Free

Effects of Agriculture Essay The evolution of man through agriculture was expressed thoroughly by Jared Diamond in his article. The transition from a Neolithic way of living to a Paleolithic way of life had many negative effects. Having people settling down to build organized cities and companies meant there would be social inequalities. Women were usually the first targets to social inequality. Having people stay in one area and having them live together in villages created the uprising of epidemic diseases that created a widespread of death in communities. During this time growing their own food did not ensure that they would eat. Farmers that had failing crops would lead to starvation for their families. The change from nomads to farmers and agriculturists was not filled with full prosperity. Social inequalities created the basis for the organization of social classes and positions in every society. Women were the first group to experience social inequality. Women being weaker than men were always subject to doing less rigorous but more labor. While a man would be hunting for game, a woman’s responsibility would be to gather small vegetables and fruit if the man returns with no meat. A woman was expected to clean, nurture the small children, prepare a meal and in most cases hold a baby in her womb. Paleolithic lifestyle from the eyes of a woman suggests that a woman was not entirely pleased with the life she lived. A woman was forced into marriage with unknown knowledge of the man before. A woman craved loved but sometimes didn’t feel it in the relationships she was in. Woman were also forced to stay at home which limited the knowledge a woman can have given that she can’t even go outside. Social Inequality limits the progress of a society and women were a prime example. Epidemic diseases not only killed thousands of people and made populations decreased greatly, but also imbedded the fear of death into the minds of many people. And epidemic disease is a widespread of disease that’s transmitted from person to person. This epidemic will not stop until a vaccine is created. An example was the Black Death that plagued European countries from 1348 to 1350. Another example would be smallpox that devastated many countries and civilizations including Ancient Egypt and countries in Europe. After the Neolithic time period and the rise of agriculture, there was also a rise in epidemic disease. Having people live together in unsanitary areas quickly made people vulnerable to bacteria and other viruses. Having no knowledge of this, people of that time period would spread the bacteria to one another through physical contact which would get each other sick. Having large villages would result in a large percentage of people dying because they aren’t moving due to the end of their nomadic life, and are in one place. Also, having an overpopulated area would create a faster way for an entire civilization to perish. Epidemics in the Paleolithic time period contributed to the first mass deaths during that time period. Having to stop moving around and becoming farmers was a very helpful thing to many peoples’ lives, but that didn’t necessarily mean they had something to eat all the time. Farmers worked very hard on their plantations to ensure they had enough food for the next harvest and enough food to survive the harsh winter to come. The harvest would be successful and could also be the reason why entire families would die. A plantation would fail and lead to starvation for most families due to many environmental reasons. Droughts would occur to limit the water supply of crops. Starting to grow plants during the wrong season would definitely ensure a failing plantation. Insects and animals would destroy the hard work of these farmers by eating what the crops have produced, or just destroying it all together. Animals such as raccoons, wolves, or coyotes would see these plantations as an easy access to food and destroy a season’s hard work. Insects such as locusts would devour all in its path and the crops were an easy target for a large group of locusts. The life of a Paleolithic farmer could be prosperous but could be very harsh at times. There are many things that could contribute to the failure of a person that is living a life of agriculture from the Paleolithic time period. There were many limiting factors to making this an unsuccessful way to live, but social inequality, epidemic diseases, and failing crops that led to starvation stood out the most. It was harsh to live a very open life when being a woman subject to social inequality during this time. Living a filthy unsanitary lifestyle would lead to the death and the rise of epidemics to occur in many civilizations. The failing of a farmer’s crops could destroy his life for that season and ruin his family with just one thing to happen to his plantation. The effects of agriculture had not only a positive alternative of living but a heavy, negative, and devastating effect in the life of farmers of the Paleolithic time period.

Creation and Development of a Film Soundtrack

Creation and Development of a Film Soundtrack Abstract Cinematic environments are created through image, dialogue, music and sound,  but the craft involved in creating an environmental soundtrack often goes  unnoticed by the film viewer. Soundscapes are rarely just background: they are  powerful storytelling vehicles in their own right, of equal importance to the visuals.  This article examines the process of creating an environmental soundtrack for  cinema from the perspective of a sound designer. Particular attention is given to  how sound is created and layered to enhance, embellish and produce the films  narrative. Using contemporary Australian films, notably Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008) and  Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006), the article examines the different challenges in  creating an environmental soundscape for both an animation and a live action film.  The films Avatar (James Cameron, 2009), Little Fish (Rowan Woods, 2005) and The  Magician (Scott Ryan, 2005) are also cited to highlight various approaches to  environmental representation in film sound. While both Australia and Happy Feet  rely on the landscape and environment as integral storytelling components, the  approach to creating their respective soundscapes requires not only natural  recordings, but also the creation of many previously unheard sounds using  synthetic sound design. Keywords: Sound design, Australian film, soundscape, environmental representation,  animation Introduction Soundscapes have the ability to transcend the social and cultural barriers that  sometimes thwart language and even music. Creating an environmental  soundtrack for cinema is as much a technical craft as it is an aesthetic art form.   Often overlooked by the audience, the sounds of the environment in many  contemporary films are based on the synthetic design and recreation of many  settings. Environmental soundscapes are some of the most intricate to create. The  combination of image, dialogue, music and sound help create the overall  soundtrack, however the film viewer is often unaware of the intricacies and  craftwork used in the creation of these aural environments. Furthermore,  narrative of the film is carefully considered in the creation of these environmental  soundtrack elements. This article examines the process of creating an environmental soundtrack for  cinema from the perspective of a sound designer who has worked in the Australian  film industry for over 15 years (Fig 1). The articles focus is on the use of  environmental recordings and sound effects to create a landscape, as opposed to  the use of dialogue and music in the soundtrack. Using two contemporary  Australian films, Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006) and Australia (Baz Luhrmann,  2008), this article examines the different creative process used for an  environmental soundscape for an animation and a live action feature film.   Figure 1: The author at work at Australian Clay Target Association, Wagga Gun Club, Wagga Wagga, Australia. (Photo  courtesy of Tony Turner.) Soundscape Design From earliest societies to contemporary musicians, sound has been an integral  communication component to convey messages, express emotion and to tell a  story. Communication through the use of sound has been significant to human  social evolution. Although spoken language is the predominant form of sonic  communication in our society, other oral and aural methods include rhythm,  melody, percussion, humming, the mimicking of sounds through vocalisations and,  in the modern era, by the recording and creation of music and sounds through the  use of technology. As David Sonnenschein states, [by] giving meaning to noise,  sound becomes communication (2001, p. xix). Through the use of recorded sounds  and the creation of new sounds, the art of sound design has become an important  approach to screen based storytelling. Although landscapes appear to be natural, creative liberty is often given to the  aural representation of these settings as required by the film narrative. While both  Happy Feet and Australia rely on the landscape and environment as integral  storytelling components, the approach to creating their respective soundscapes requires not only natural recordings, but also synthetic sound design and  creation. Whether natural or synthetic, neither approach is less significant than  the other. In this paper my definition of natural recordings pertains to sounds that are created organically through such elements as winds, ice, land mass, water,  animals, vegetation and various other sounds naturally occurring without evidence  of human or industrial influence or activity. Difficulties such as accessibility and noise pollution make our most pristine  locations increasingly difficult to capture sonically. Although not always the  preferred method, synthetic aural environmental design will continue to develop as  a necessary addition to assist in crafting the aural illusion of cinematic  environments. Using a recent trip to Mount Kosciusko as an example (Fig 2), I was  surprised at the amount of noise pollution tainting the sound recordings within the  National Park. Many of these sounds were distant sounds, including small planes  and agricultural sprinklers: however they still managed to appear faintly in the  background of some of the recordings. When used in the context of a film these  edited recordings appear to be natural when first listened to by an audience, but  they are unaware of the use of equalisation, filtering techniques, frequency band  compression and other such technological solutions in eradicating this noise. Th is  processing of the original recordings in turn transforms these natural recordings  to new artificially designed pseudo natural sounding environments.   Figure 2: Yarrangobilly River, Kosciuszko National Park. (Photo courtesy of Caroline Candusso.) When the sound designer commences production on a film, they study the  environmental landscape, location and the period in which the film is set. This  becomes the foundational building block of the soundtrack and determines the  approach to creating the overall narrative for the film through sound. In the film  medium, sound design purposefully communicates to an audience through  recorded and created sounds that augment the onscreen visuals. In contemporary  cinema, dialogue is the primary auditory component used to convey a story,  however the sound ecology of the landscape and the sound effects are of equal  importance. Sound design does not merely replicate what is happening on screen,  it is an additional storytelling component. An example of this occurs in Australia  (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), in the scene where we first learn of the impending attack   on Darwin by the Japanese. Here for the first time a soft, almost whispering of  wind is heard. The plane approach has no engine sounds, only the sounds of the  wings slicing through the air. This was a brief from the director who wanted the  first plane to replicate a shark surfacing with only the fin piercing the water  surface. It is not until the plane is revealed and peels off to the right of screen that  we start to hear the sound of an actual engine, the roar of danger, the sound of an  advancing Zero threat. The sound does not give away the shot before we see the  plane, in fact it adds to the curiosity. The sound of the wind makes the scene even  more menacing and, in this instance, the sound has foreshadowed the action on an  emotional level before the visuals have presented it. In cinema history, advances in sound technology have given filmmakers the  opportunity to take advantage of the creativity of sound and allow it to play an  equally important role as the visuals in storytelling. As George Lucas has noted,  Sound is 50 percent of the movie going experience (2004: online). Hollywood has  increasingly relied on sound to contribute to the contemporary film viewing  experience. Audience expectations of sound place greater emphasis on the craft of  sound design. Approaching the Task of Environmental Sound Creation   With many factors contributing to the use of authentic sound recordings  (including budget, availability of personnel, deadlines etc.), often sounds need to be  fabricated. These sounds may make up the entire soundtrack, or they may only  make up elements of the soundtrack that blend with other recordings of actual  environmental sound. If the soundtrack is created well, it will not appear to be out  of place and the audience will not be aware of any disparities. It is only when the  soundtrack jars that the audience is alerted to the sound and may question the  legitimacy or integrity of the sound sources. A fictitious alien landscape scene, for  example, containing recognisable sounds from our world may elicit a sense of  disbelief. When we see a storm onscreen, we routinely hear thunder; when we see a dog, it  often barks; a door usually creaks; a car might skid when stopping; and explosions  may shake the room. There are many sound clichà ©s consistently used in the  contemporary soundtrack. Through developments in cinema sound technology,  many Hollywood film soundtracks are created to deliver what an audience expects  to hear, rather than represent the actual sounds of the real world. Also sounds are  pared back from all of those that might be in a specific setting to emphasise those  most relevant to the narrative. With the use of high quality speakers with a wide  frequency response, the introduction of the various surround sound formats and  powerful computers with an array of software options, technology is allowing for  greater creativity and flexibility in the soundtrack. The sound designer needs to balance between telling the story using the available  tools, and delivering a soundtrack that is credible for the story and setting. While  the overall soundtrack needs to be treated with careful consideration, so too should  the individual sound components that contribute to it. It is not uncommon for the  sound designer and editors to research the authenticity of various elements within  the film to provide a guide as to the legitimacy of the sounds and the sound sets  required. For example, if we see a shot of the Statue of Liberty, New York and, place of the sound of pigeons, the only birds we hear are kookaburras, the  audience will be distracted from the story, and continuity of the film will be  disrupted.In both Happy Feet and Australia, extensive research was conducted into the  environments and locations of both film settings prior to the editing of any sound.  Particular attention was given to the study of the wildlife, espe cially birds and  insects, and the seasons. Other research investigated the locations on a larger  scale including the weather of Antarctica-which notably does not develop thunder.  Careful sound choice allows the audience to be situated within the depicted  environment. At the commencement of sound post-production, one of the most important  preparatory steps is to read the script or to watch an edit of the film in its entirety.   Depending on the film, the sound team may have the luxury of reading a script  during the film pre-production phase or in other instances a rough edit may be  given to the sound team to view almost immediately after shooting has completed.  In some instances they may be given both. Providing either a script or an early edit  of the film allows for the planning of the dramatic journey of the film, and the  mapping of the narrative dynamics through sound. This can be in the form of  physically drawing a chart or a graph mapping the drama and dynamics of the film  over time. This allows careful designing of sounds to build up to the climactic  scenes in the film, and then to use quiet moments to increase dramatic impact.  Having a graphic representation of the film allows for the nuanced planning of the  soundtrack, which will follow and often assist the onscreen narrative. Depending  on the directors approach to the film, this method can also be helpful for creati ng  juxtaposition between the onscreen drama and the aural drama. Sound has the  power to emphasise or soften a story depending on the directors decisions. Happy  Feet has a scene depicting a leopard seal chasing the central protagonist, Mumble,  underwater. Due to the visual size and menacing teeth of the leopard seal the  original sounds edited for the scene had to be re-crafted to suit the targeted  audience of children. Many of the original growls were replaced by less aggressive  grunts, and more breaths were added to soften the chase and viciousness of the  antagonist. Every film has its own challenges and requires its own approach to the sound  design. Some films are created to imitate reality and often contain sounds of  actual location sound recordings of what the audience is seeing on screen,  recorded on set from the filmed locations. In the films Little Fish (Rowan Woods,  2005) and The Magician (Scott Ryan, 2010) for which I was a sound effects editor,  sound designer Sam Petty aimed to recreate the actual real sound of the locations  in both films. Petty retraced the shots of The Magician and recorded the film  locations throughout Melbourne. On Little Fish I retraced and recorded many of the  film location environments including several locations in Cabramatta, Sydney (Fig  3). Both the Cabramatta train station and the featured shopping mall are central to  establishing the locations within this film. Having to recreate these locations from  either library sounds or unauthentic recordings would have been very time   consuming, and still may not provide the desired authenticity.   It is important to note that the shooting schedule does not generally allow enough  time for the location sound crew to capture many sounds of locations during  filming. The primary concern of the location sound recordist and crew is to capture  the dialogue and the actor performances. The audio post-production crew then  need to seek permissions to re-record after initial filming, which requires further  time and funding that are rarely included in the budget.    In contrast to films like The Magician and Little Fish, many films require the use of  exotic, rare and even previously unheard or fabricated environmental sounds. With  the increase in films based around visual effects, films can be located in fictional  lands with entirely contrived characters and creatures.  Depending on the context of the film, an audience will have preconceived ideas of   what the sounds should be for particular scenes. This is the case even for animated  films that are set in entirely contrived locales. James Camerons Avatar (2009) is a  well-cited contemporary example. No one has physically experienced this mythical  land of Pandora, although we have some sense of what we would expect to hear,  for example, by associating the forest with familiar rainforest, or by the appearance  of certain creatures. The environmental sounds alone comprise many previously  unheard insects, specific and unusual animals, other background animal  vocalisations, and types of vegetation. On occasions such as this it may be necessary to create entirely new sounds for  these new worlds. These original sounds may start their incarnation from the  recordings of sounds from our own world or they may be completely synthesised.   What is important is to keep these new sounds identifiable according to our  current expectations. Some designing techniques for these new sounds may  include the following:   transforming existing sounds through the use of pitch changing,  equalisation, or any number of filtering processes using specific recordings of rare or unusual sounds   pitching or modifying electronics, machinery or vehicles   pitching and combining various animal vocalisations   using synthesis to create new sounds, and others.   Although budget constraints will influence the approach to film sound design, so  too does the availability and existence of-and access to-required sounds. When  creating a sonic environment or landscape for a film, wherever it is set, it is  important to consider what is real to the location, what seems real, and what  sounds the audience expects to hear. In summary, factors determining the  approach to the creation of the environments include whether the location exists in  the real world, whether environmental recordings were made during on-location  filming, whether the storyline is located in a contemporary setting, and whether  funds and safety allow the recording of the location.  This leads to a discussion of two contemporary feature films from the perspective of  a sound effects editor1. Produced on relatively big budgets for Australian feature  films,2 both Happy Feet and Australia included a dedicated atmosphere sound  editor as part of the sound te am. This role is often absorbed by the sound effects  editor on smaller productions and lower budget projects. In both films, my sound  effect creation and editing drove the use of the environment as an integral story  component and, as such, I worked very closely with the atmosphere editors. What  distinguished my role from that of the atmosphere editor was that my contribution  treated the landscape as a character. Working in sound effects, I specifically  designed many sounds for both films with integrated and often highlighted story  elements associated with the environments. These films differ quite considerably and provide contrasting examples of sonic  environment creation. The films are set in remarkable and distinctive locations; Happy Feet is an animated film set in Antarctica, while Australia is a live action film  set in the Northern Territory, Australia.3 Both films pose varying degrees of  complexity in terms of their sonic environmental depictions on screen.  Creating a Sound Environment As with the visuals, the sound for an animated film differs from live action film. With no actual filming on location, all characters are created, all sets are rendered,  and all visuals are designed by animation artists. There is no cinematographer filming actors at an actual geographical location as with a live action film (although  voice acting is recorded for the animators). Sound recordings of the film set  locations are not captured as there is no filming on location.4 Therefore all sound  environments need to be recorded and/or created from the ground up.   1 In this article I focus on the environmental sounds, and a consideration of spot effects is a topic for a further study.   2 According to the International Movie Database (IMDB.com) the budget for Happy Feet was $100,000,000  (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366548/) and $130,000,000 for Australia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455824/).   3 Some scenes were shot in various locations in Northern Territory, northern Queensland and Sydneys Fox Studios.   4 However some animators, notably Australian Yoram Gross, have used filmed bush background for the drawn characters.  See Dot and the Kangaroo (1977) and other work.Screen Sound n3, 2012 128   Happy Feet Millers Academy Award winning Happy Feet tells the story of Mumble, an emperor  penguin who, instead of being able to sing, tap dances. The characters of the film  also included many animated Antarctic animals, primarily penguins. The  combination of an animated remote environment (Antarctica) and animated  animals meant that every sound for this film had to be created.  Through the use of detailed layers of sound, sound design is about creating a level  of believability. It is not just a matter of placing a single sound into a scene and  hoping that the audience believes it. Ambiences in our everyday life are complex,  with chaotic and sometimes even choreographed symphonies, with the land, the  wind, animals, birds and vegetation all playing their tunes within a given space. In  addition to these individual sounds, these acoustic spaces are important in  representing the onscreen landscape spaces.   The challenge of creating such an unpolluted, isolated and dangerous atmosphere  meant that the sound design had to be precise and untainted by unwanted  background noises. As the budget didnt allow for a sound team to travel and  record actual Antarctic locations, climatic conditions and animal activities, we had  to rely on pre-existing sound recordings of Antarctica or recordings made in more  accessible locations such as Thredbo ski resort in Australia and from some  locations in New Zealands South Island.   With many shots depicting the rugged landscape of Antarctica, often the detail  within the sound design can pass unnoticed. If we look specifically at Lovelaces  Pile (Fig 4) the sounds can be unpacked to reveal far more detail than what is  initially heard. Basic element Breakdown of sounds Winds Close up winds (flurries of snow) Distant winds to give sense of space Wind howling through icicles Snow Movements on snow by penguins Melting snow Snow falling off cliffs in the background Ice-land Mass (subtle) Movements of ice Ice cracks and creaks Ice thumps Animals Background penguin vocals near and far Background penguin movement Table 1: Landscape sounds in Lovelaces Pile scene in Happy Feet   From this list the sound editor has 11 possible sets of sounds that may be  deployed to create the environmental backdrop for this scene. This excludes any  character or action related sounds; it is only the ambient background.   Without access to record authentic atmospheres, many of the sounds were  recorded or sourced from other locations in order to imitate the film set. These  would then be reconstructed as the sounds could vary entirely. We were fortunate  that we had some actual recordings of Antarctica for the film. During production,  supervising sound editor and sound designer, Wayne Pashley, sent a mini-disc  recorder to the Antarctic and asked scientists to record sounds whilst doing their  field studies. Unfortunately, the recording quality was not always film worthy as  the scientists are not trained sound recordists. Happy Feet did contain some actual  sounds from Antarctica, although a high percentage of sounds were either non-  Antarctic recordings or studio recordings created specifically for the film.   The animal recordings from Antarctica were used where possible to create an  underlying realistic bed for the film. Some of the successful recorded sounds used  included those of elephant seals, adà ©lie penguins, emperor penguins and even skua  birds. These beds of animal noises gave the background environment a sense of  reality upon which to layer the main characters. The main and featured animals  were often recreated using studio recordings and other sources of sound  recordings.   Some of the successful Antarctic environmental recordings included iceberg  movements, ice winds, and slushy icy water. These were also edited and used  where possible alongside additional created sounds. Again, these realistic  environmental sounds were primarily employed to evoke a believable background  ambience. To emphasise the size and weight of several of the large icebergs,  controlled recording and studio techniques helped create such large masses. This  included close microphone techniques and using dry-ice (liquid nitrogen) to freeze  large objects that we could then record being dragged across the floor. With the  realistic Antarctic recordings serving as our bed, these additional recreated sounds  became the embellishments and the dramatic highlights.   As storytellers in our own right, creative liberty allowed for the reappropriation of  these sounds. At times these sounds would be used only as a bed and then  additional snow, ice and wind elements would be created and embellished to better  represent the onscreen visuals and the unfolding drama. Some of these sounds  came from our own original Foley studio recording sessions using props to design   sounds to be used to highlight onscreen action. An example of the studio  recordings included creating snow for the feet close-ups where the characters  dance on the snow. As we did not have access to snow, we recorded crushed ice,  salt, cereal, sugar, sand and several other props to mimic the sound of snow.  Recording in a studio allowed us to create our sounds specifically for the particular  scene. Throughout the film, the seasons changed over a one-year cycle and we  wanted to represent this as best we could through the changing environment  sounds. We had allocated recording days where we could record specific sounds in  a very clean, precise manner. If we needed more grit in our snow we could just  change the elements we were recording, or if we needed the snow to sound more  wet we could just mix in some more water when required. We were not dictated by  natural resources. The other advantage of having these studio recording days was  that we could rec ord sounds specifically for the big screen. What I mean by this is  that we could record sounds specifically for the surround sound speakers. Using  the close-up of feet on snow as an example, if a character flicked his/her  flipper/foot in close-up, we could record different snow elements for the left, centre  and right hand side of the flipper and have the debris snow crumbles pan back into  the surrounds. This would have been impossible to record with such precision as  an actual performance in real life. By having control of individual sound elements,  we were able to creatively challenge the cinema and screen space to highlight the  environmental immersion.   Australia Set during the Second World War, Australias storyline centres on a cattle drive in  the rugged terrain of northern Australia, as an English aristocrat travels across  harsh environments with her stock. From the opening moments, even before the  first visual images, sound is used to position the audience of Australia. From the  initial fade in from black we begin to hear ethereal singing, native birds, insects,  winds and the gradual swell of string instruments. In these opening scenes, the sounds of different winds, animals and insects  intertwine with an emotional journey across an environmental backdrop that  transforms, as the audience witness the death of Lord Ashley, from above ground  and into the muffled and mysterious murky underwater drones and whale song.  Playing in slow-motion the images show King George (David Gulpilil) telling Nullah  (Brandon Walters) to make yourself invisible as the white fellas are herding cattle  across the river onto the Carney property. Although music is also playing  concurrently with the sound effects, the effects design specifically aims to make  reference to Aboriginal dreamtime. As Lord Ashley is killed and falls to the water  above Nullah with a spear through his chest, the water turns crimson, the sound  hints that Lord Ashley has been killed by the people moving the cattle, the same  people Nullah is also hiding from. Visually it isnt until we see the snakeskin boot  of N eil Fletcher (David Wenham) that we realise that he is the killer.  Although the sounds chosen for this sequence are simple environmental  recordings, what is important is the way in which they have been reappropriated to  form part of the narrative. Through transformation, including pitch and other  manipulation techniques of the original recordings, these evolve into new, unheardof  sounds that yet seem familiar. When designing such delicate sounds, much time was spent experimenting with  the creation of sounds that morph unnoticeably from one sound into another  throughout the opening sequence. Tonal frequencies, recording quality and mixing  techniques were constantly balanced and adjusted to create a single fluid flow of  environmental sounds. At the same time, although continually transforming, the  sounds needed to contain characteristics of the original sound sources, allowing  the audience to connect the aural with the visual. Throughout Australia, designed  sounds are used very subtly. Overall the film uses actual location and natural  sounds to convey the Australian landscape, with the designed sounds being  reserved for scenes with Nullah, the death of Daisy and for King George, as these  relate to the dreamtime and spirituality.   With vast landscapes of Australias Northern Territory depicted through  cinematography, natural sounds are needed to convey the impact of the  environment. Supervising sound editor and sound designer, Wayne Pashley,  retraced many of the original locations in the film during the sound postproduction  phase. Using a Soundfield ST350 ambisonic microphone, Pashley was  able to record in surround sound an entire three-dimensional landscape on  location. Until recently, creating film surround sound was only possible during the  post-production process, but this particular technology allowed for a pristine,  natural recording of the environment. These recordings in surround were then  decoded, edited and used as beds for the atmosphere tracks of the film. Pashley  observed: We also wanted to be true to the landscape of Australia. So often in big  productions like this, the sound design guys just reach for Bush  Atmosphere Number Three [library effect] or whatever, and everything  comes out sounding the same. Also, what you hear is usually completely  unrelated to the environment you see on the screen. We wanted this to be  different. Australia is, I think, the first movie that sounds correct, that gives  a true sense of how this country sounds. (cited in Soundfield, 2008:  online) With many scenes depicting broad vistas, having the atmospheres recorded in  surround from the outset allows the sounds to reflect the vastness of the actual  locations. In sound editing, the atmosphere tracks are often edited from existing  stereo recordings, thus limiting the detail within the acoustic space. In most  instances, artificial reverb is introduced to make the sounds appear to be wider  within the acoustic space. Recording in surround sound reduces the need for and  use of these contrived techniques. All animal sounds for Australia were purposely recorded for the film. Working  remotely and living in regional New South Wales, I was able to record many of the  animal vocalisations of cows and horses for the film at locales situated near where I  live. The cows were particularly challenging to record as they are often difficult to  get close to without them running away. Having the livestock saleyards proved to  be a very convenient way to record cows at close proximity. Also having so many  cows in such a small space allowed the recording of mass group cows to be used in  many of the backgrounds. Situated within a livestock pen meant that the beasts  were particularly vocal, which allowed for high quality recording and performance  and, later, for flexibility in editing their bellows. Conclusion Often overshadowed by dialogue and music, the environmental atmospheric  sounds of a film are often overlooked by audiences. These aural landscapes  comprise either actual recordings or synthetic recordings constructed to  acoustically represent the onscreen locations. Both Happy Feet and Australia rely  on the aural landscape environment as essential storytelling characters within  each film. Based on very distinct locations, the films differed notably in the  approaches to their environmental landscape sound design. In a general  comparison Happy Feet featured far more inauthe

hard :: essays research papers

Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, was a representation of his time. Times were hard for children and adults alike. People who questioned what they were taught, often went through struggles and â€Å"hard times.† Eventually, the people who were looked down were the ones who really helped those in need. Throughout the book, there are many ironic instances. Thomas Gradgrind was a man built on the idea that facts and statistics were the only truth in life and all that was needed to have a healthy and productive life. The only truth to him was his very own vision of the truth. Simple put, Thomas Gradgrind strived for perfection. He strived to be perfect, which is what his philosophy was based on, and he strived to make his children perfect and not to wonder. He raised his children never to wonder, never to doubt facts and to never entertain any vice or fancy. As soon as Gradgrind’s children were old enough to absorb, he was feeding giving more lessons than they could hold. His children were brought up only knowing one way to live and that was the idea that if it is not fact, then it is false. He was emotionaless as were his children because they were brought up only knowing what they were taught by him. Eventually, as Gradgrind’s children became older, what they were taught began to turn sour in their minds. Tom, Grandgrindà ¢â‚¬â„¢s son, began to despise his father and all he was taught and thus began to rebel. He took to smoking and gambling, which eventually led to his downfall. Tom had grown up to become a sycophantic, self-absorbed parasite. He had turned out the exact opposite as hoped. Thomas Gradgrind had raised his children never to wonder, but wondering intrigued them. Gradrgind had observed his children peeking into a circus tent because they were curious as to what was inside. The children were scolded for being curious, but seeds were planted into their minds of how there was more to life than what they had been taught. Futhermore, Tom, a usually well-behaved child, began to rebel after this incident. At first, he was rebelling in his mind, but eventually, after Tom moved out of his father’s house, so began his more visible rebellion. Once more, this is exactly what Mr. Gradgrind had tried to avoid whilst raising his children. When Tom Gradgrind was in serious trouble because of his gambling debts, he confided in his sister, Louisa.

Technology and Healthcare/Services

The world without prison would not have a proper criminal justice system. The law and government uses the prisons for punishment when criminal have committed a crime and other look at prison as a rehabilitate center for criminal that eventually would reunit with the society. People have there own opinion what prison is in that may be the case but people need to no that prison would always be apart of the criminal justice system. This paper will explain the climate of our agency, focusing on the organizational behavior factors that have the most significant influence, such as Leardership in all levels of management, Culture, Systems, Law, and Influential stakeholders, community groups, employees, and other agencies. Leadership structure for a prison. The warden is first in this case and then you have the guards. The administrators have leadership as well which is pretty much being in charge of the inmates in prison. The administrators controls the inmates movements, take actions when rules are broken, punish, and even get rewarded for behavior. Some of the inmates only follow the rule because the fear of the punishment and other just have respect. The leadership role that the warden and guards have was assigned by the government. The inmates in some sense has leadership as well. The inmates have gangs or groups that they put together and have a leader that give them structure. These leaders that create groups/organization and gangs are giving this leadership position because of there ability to lead as a dictate in not a follower. These leaders have the knowledge to design structure for the gang based on loyalty. These leaders made up there own rules and regulations plus a punishment system for the gang members that disobey the rules. But for people to no these are rules inside the jail that prisoner leaders make they still must follow the warden rules. The prison also deals with different cultures that have leaders with there structure of there system as well. The system is structure just the way gangs are structure just a few of these cultures have less violents. This kind of culture gang respect other gang members and also ensure order for inmates. Culture deals with creating numbers of gangs. Everyone is not just a gang banger but as a prisoner being around gangs could force someone to seek for protection through a gang or even just like to assicate with people like them to feel like they belong. These kinds of cultures also keeps a low profile with not involving themselves with other that are not like them most of these groups try to stay positive and productive. You also have perpetuated cultures that have the most up right respect for inmates that been there for many years knowing that they have the wisdom to survive in there they get respect. Inmates that have been in a long time get respect because of the time that is being served other inmates look up to them for being able to survive in such harsh place. The warden also have other systems that inmates must follower such chores that must be shared with other inmates and labor. Now you have the outside groups that can be a factor with structuring gangs in prison from the outside. Some civic groups or non-government organization can play a major role into structuring the gangs because of there interaction with inmates. These kind of outsider could influence inmates thoughts with negative suggestion while teaching them in them programs. These inmates trust these groups to help them cope with life in prison and out to try to stay positive at all times. The government and politician is the only hope for inmates because thats who provide the prisons with funds to have these kind of programs. With these programs can help some inmates that want the help to cope with the problem and make better decisions in life and make beter priosn systems. The results to these programs would be less crime in jail or prison, less aggressiveness, more order, and more peace even better condition in the prison and maybe a possiblity of the authority and the inmates to work together in harmony. This discuss give an overview of the prison look at organizational structure. Interactions which is among the warden, guards, inmates, and outsider showing how hard it is in the prison system of structure and hoping its the same everywhere. Once a person looked deep into considering some different things such as groups and stakeholders could help because they have a major role i within the prison system to help make a successful structure in these kinds of situation. The improvement of organization climate is going to come from the warden and the guards ensuring that they understand and feel the internal system that inmates tryed to created.

Job Satisfaction, Work Attitude Essay

As stated by Black (2001), teachers’ stress is rising due to such factors as greater time constraints, low salaries, excessive work overloads, lack of involvement in decision – making and problems with school disciplines. Teachers suffer, due to in part of to the low-pay-high-cost-of-living gap. Decisions handed from the top down leave teachers feeling like more trainers than educators. Teaching in low performing schools should be a rewarding experience, yet these schools are labelled failures. These are confounded as some educators are seen publicly lambasting others. The education community is on edge. With all the finger pointing and name calling, it is a wonder teacher can push this negativism out of their minds while they turn their full attention on their students (Nichols, 2006). Furthermore, a nationwide survey conducted by the Rural Editorial Service of the University of Chicago reported in July 2006 that job satisfaction depends also such factors as the community’s attitude toward them and the schools, the quality of educational leadership, the amount of responsibility granted to teachers, adequate housing facilities, teacher welfare benefits, and others. In point of fact, there were signal improvements in teachers’ conditions of service throughout the year. New or liberalized retirement plans were authorized by well over half the states, and class registrations were reduced to thirty in Maryland and Arkansas. In the Philippines, one of the major problems in the Department of Education is the shortage of trained and competent teachers. Major reason of this shortfall is that a number of trained teachers turn to other types of employment and some went abroad for greater employment opportunity. Generally, as observed that some teachers are disillusioned, demoralized and confused at being forced to carry out unpopular Government policies, while being constantly blamed for the society’s ills. Some factors might have created dissatisfaction amongst teachers will probably include references to discipline problems created by unruly pupils, class sizes, the introduction of the National Curriculum, and lowered professional status. Additional factors also include level of salaries and benefits, increased work-related pressures, like having too many forms to be filled up, the here and now changes of different proposed programs of the department, the concern over employment security like the most recently problem on the Government Security Insurance System (GSIS) and lessening support for education on the part of political opportunities. As someone who has spent many years working as a schoolteacher at the same time a School In – charge in one of the schools in Davao City, and had continually work closely with teachers especially in the schools in the interland. I have observe that some teachers are somewhat fed up with having to teach children in even larger classes, working in schools which are dilapidated, underfunded and overstretched. Taking in to account that most of these teachers are working away from their home and family and could only go home weekly, or the least once a month due to the distance of the schools they are assigned. However, districts located in the hinterland such as Paquibato, had most number of teacher applicants every year. Reason of this scenario could be the fact that many teachers are applying for transfer to the nearby schools after a one or two years of service and that applicant could be hired easily. Nevertheless, some teachers had tenured in this district up to their retirement period and some had flourished and raised their professional status and positions. The ground for conducting this study is that it is intended to shed light on what influences how teachers feel about their work and profession so that positive job-related attitudes may be cultivated. Theoretical Background The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, a motivation theory, laid the foundation for job satisfaction theory. It is founded in the premise that goals or needs underpin by being the fundamental source of all desires. This theory explains that people seek to satisfy five specific needs in life – physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on (Evan,2010). According to Hackman & Oldham (2007), Frederick Herzberg’s Two factor theory (also known as Motivator Hygiene Theory) attempts to explain satisfaction and motivation in the workplace. This theory states that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are driven by different factors – motivation and hygiene factors, respectively. An employee’s motivation to work is continually related to job satisfaction of a subordinate. Motivation can be seen as an inner force that drives individuals to attain personal and organizational goals. Motivating factors are those aspects of the job that make people want to perform, and provide people with satisfaction, for example achievement in work, recognition, promotion opportunities. These motivating factors are considered to be intrinsic to the job, or the work carried out. Hygiene factors include aspects of the working environment such as pay, company policies, supervisory practices, and other working conditions. However, Path-Goal Theory contends that the leader must motivate subordinates by: (1) emphasizing the relationship between the subordinates’ own needs and the organizational goals; (2) clarifying and facilitating the path subordinates must take to fulfill their own needs as well as the organization’s needs (google. com,2010) Another well-known job satisfaction theory is the Dispositional Theory (Jackson April 2007). Accordingly, it is a very general theory that suggests that people have innate dispositions that cause them to have tendencies toward a certain level of satisfaction, regardless of one’s job. This approach became a notable explanation of job satisfaction in light of evidence that job satisfaction tends to be stable over time and across careers and jobs. Moreover, a significant model that narrowed the scope of the Dispositional Theory was the Core Self-evaluations Model, proposed by Timothy A. Judge in 1998. Judge argued that there are four Core Self-evaluations that determine one’s disposition towards job satisfaction: self-esteem, general self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism. This model states that higher levels of self-esteem (the value one places on his/her self) and general self-efficacy (the belief in one’s own competence) lead to higher work satisfaction. Having an internal locus of control (believing one has control over herhis own life, as opposed to outside forces having control) leads to higher job satisfaction. Finally, lower levels of neuroticism lead to higher job satisfaction (Wikipedia,2010). Evans (2001), gives eight stages progression for a teacher moving from a modest level of job satisfaction towards a higher level of job satisfaction towards which is helpful. These are the following: first is being aware that there is a problem. Being aware that there is an issue, and agreeing what issue is, is by far the most important aspect of seeking to change a situation. Then devising a strategy. Once they know what the issue is that they are addressing they can start work on devising a strategy to solve it. It is followed by effecting the new strategy. It means that once they have decided what to do, they have to start work on implementing this strategy. Fourth stage is awareness of having made changes work. This implies that there is excellent communication in school. Next stage is perception that this is all worthwhile. By this stage everyone needs to start feeling better about the work being undertaken. Then sixth stage is each teacher needs to feel good about his or her own contribution to the scheme of change. In this way, teachers become not only positive about the change programme, but they also see their contribution as being significant. Seventh is a sense of achievement. This comes from the feeling of a job well done. Lastly is job fulfilment and job comfort. By this stage teachers feel good about themselves and about the job and most important about their ability to affect their meaningful way. However, according to Weis, (2010) job satisfaction can also be seen within the broader context of the range of issues which affect an individual’s experience of work, or their quality of working life. Job satisfaction can be understood in terms of its relationships with other key factors, such as general well-being, stress at work, control at work, home-work interface, and working conditions. Stress as defined by Hans Selye, is the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it. It is not nervous tension, but the wear and tear of life. Stress describes the effects of the body’s reaction to pressure. The source of stress, called stressor, may be purely physical, social, or psychological. The mind may interpret it as pleasant or unpleasant. Whatever meaning it gives, the mind sends it via two pathways. One pathway, is known as the subconscious appraisal pathway, is responsible for the physical and emotional reflexes of the body. The other pathway, responsible for voluntary actions, is used for perception, evaluation, and decision – making. In this other pathway, the individual is made aware of the environmental demands. As he perceives his situation, he interprets it according to his previous experiences, value system, self-concept, ego-strengths, attitudes and feelings. Emotions are usually aroused which in turn give color to the person’s interpretation (Fabella, 2008). According to Good Health Handbook, life and stress are interwoven with each other. It depends on how you view life and how stress affects you. Stress is a highly individual phenomenon. It is strange in its own way – because when it occurs it becomes difficult for the body and mind to adjust to the pattern of life. However, Fabella stated in his book, that stress can be minimized and channelled for growth and development, and life can be filled with joy, peace, love and security. He added accordingly, that stress- resilient people have been observed to have a specific set of attitudes toward life- an openness to change, a feeling of involvement in whatever they are doing, and a sense of control over events. He further said that man who places his entire self in the sphere of work neglecting love (family) and play (sports, hobbies, socializing, friendships) decreases his overall adaptability. If he defines his existence in terms of achievement in his work, he will find that if for external reasons (i,e. , poor health) or boredom ( loss of interest or loss of faith in his employer) his work loses meaning, then so will his life. He will become demoralized, confused, and unable to function. Mayo Clinic stated that there is a link between work approach and job satisfaction. Work is often approached from three perspectives. Usually all three perspectives are important for job satisfaction, but one is often the priority: First is, It’s a job. If you approach work as a job, you focus primarily on the financial rewards. In fact, the nature of the work may hold little interest for you. What’s important is the money. If a job with more pay comes your way, you’ll likely move on. Next is, It’s a career. If you approach work as a career, you’re interested in advancement. You want to climb the career ladder as far as possible or be among the most highly regarded professionals in your field. You’re motivated by the status, prestige and power that come with the job. The third is, It’s a calling. If you approach your job as a calling, you focus on the work itself. You work less for the financial gain or career advancement than for the fulfillment the work brings. One approach isn’t necessarily better than the others. But it is helpful to reflect on why work if unsatisfied with the job and are ready to move on. Think about what originally drew on the current job, and whether it may be a factor in lack of job satisfaction. Additionally, the Clinic noted several ways to increase job satisfaction depending on the underlying cause of the lack of job satisfaction. One is by Improving job skills. Keeping abreast to the new strategies and techniques, and by attending seminars. Developing a new project also helps. Working on something one care about can boost confidence. Mentoring a co-worker. Once a job is mastered, it is a becoming routine. Helping a new co-worker or an intern advance his or her skills can restore the challenge and the satisfaction you desire. However, when personal abilities do not match the responsibilities, boredom will attack. Keep in mind that boredom can literally be deadly if a job involves working with machinery or caring for people, much more on dealing with children. If the mind is wandering to the point that a life or the lives of others is put in jeopardy, take action now. Stay positive. Use positive thinking to reframe thoughts about the job. Changing one’s attitude about work will not necessarily happen overnight or increase job satisfaction overnight. Stop negative thoughts. Put things in perspective. Look for the silver lining. â€Å"Reframing† can help find the good in a bad situation. Learn from mistakes. Failure is one of the greatest learning tools, but many people let failure defeat them. Be grateful. Gratitude can help focus on what’s positive about the job.

Shirley Ceasar essays

Shirley Ceasar essays Shirley Caesar also called the First Lady of Gospel, is a well-known gospel singer, activist in the community, and pastor. Although she has accomplished many awards and honors she has worked hard and exhibited a lot of dedication to achieve whatever goals she had set. Caesar was born on October 13, 1938 in Durham, North Carolina. Her parents are James and Hannah Caesar and she was the tenth of twelve children. James Caesar was also known as Big Jim. He was very important in the start of his daughters gospel singing career. At a young age Caesar would listen, observe, and learn from the gospel quartet Just Come Four. Her father was the lead singer of this group and by the impressionable age of ten she was performing solos before their concerts. Around this age was when she received the name of Baby Shirley, the gospel singer. In 1950 a tragic thing happened Big Jim died in his sleep of a fatal seizure. Caesar, for many years, believed that her father had passed away because he had spanked her earlier in the day. With her father gone she was left with her semi-invalid mother to take care of. During this time she joined a troupe led by a preacher with one leg named Leroy Johnson. With this group she traveled through Virginia and the Carolinas as a soloist. Shirley Caesar recorded her first song in November of 1951. The song was called, Id Rather Have Jesus. Caesar led a very busy life traveling to many different places doing what she loved, singing. From about fourteen until about the age of eighteen, she traveled throughout the south with Leroy Johnson. Sometimes she would travel from concerts all night so that she would be able to attend classes the next morning. After graduation Caesar began her college education at North Carolina College in her hometown. She would start out majoring in business education. North Carolina College in now ...

Free Essays on Socratic Irony

In his work, The Concept of Irony, S?ren Kierkegaard discusses Socratic irony. This irony, which sees its beginning in Socrates’ claim to complete ignorance, is present throughout Plato’s dialogues. Socrates then uses this irony to bring his interlocutors to a state in which all content has been emptied from their minds- a state that is altogether negative. This negative aspect, in turn, can be seen as an expression of Socrates’ vanity. However, this vanity was commonly misjudged as greatness and even piety, at times. It will be discussed here how Socrates’ reputation of greatness was earned strictly through this vanity. Through his dialectic, it appeared as if Socrates was always in search for an eternal and objective truth. He always began by claiming ignorance, while his interlocutor claimed to possess knowledge. Socrates would proceed by questioning the other, in a rational manner, in order to try to come to some sort of final truth. However, the truth arrived at was always the same one- that the other was wrong- and the other would wind up in a state in which he realised he knew nothing; this state is also known as aporia. Kierkegaard describes this process of emptying one of all one’s purported knowledge as â€Å"negating.† This negation is achieved through irony, which is actually seen by Kierkegaard as the whole essence of Socrates’ character. Socrates is an ironic and negative character because, in his search for knowledge and truth, he is actually seeking to negate everything, or empty it of its positive content. Thus, it becomes possible for one to equate Socrates wit h irony and with the â€Å"negative.† This negative sees, as its goal, the pursuit to empty all things positive of their content and make them negative as well. The reasons attempting to explain this idiosyncrasy of Socrates are numerous, though his ultimate, ceaseless quest for truth is most popular. In this essay, however, vanity will be cited ... Free Essays on Socratic Irony Free Essays on Socratic Irony In his work, The Concept of Irony, S?ren Kierkegaard discusses Socratic irony. This irony, which sees its beginning in Socrates’ claim to complete ignorance, is present throughout Plato’s dialogues. Socrates then uses this irony to bring his interlocutors to a state in which all content has been emptied from their minds- a state that is altogether negative. This negative aspect, in turn, can be seen as an expression of Socrates’ vanity. However, this vanity was commonly misjudged as greatness and even piety, at times. It will be discussed here how Socrates’ reputation of greatness was earned strictly through this vanity. Through his dialectic, it appeared as if Socrates was always in search for an eternal and objective truth. He always began by claiming ignorance, while his interlocutor claimed to possess knowledge. Socrates would proceed by questioning the other, in a rational manner, in order to try to come to some sort of final truth. However, the truth arrived at was always the same one- that the other was wrong- and the other would wind up in a state in which he realised he knew nothing; this state is also known as aporia. Kierkegaard describes this process of emptying one of all one’s purported knowledge as â€Å"negating.† This negation is achieved through irony, which is actually seen by Kierkegaard as the whole essence of Socrates’ character. Socrates is an ironic and negative character because, in his search for knowledge and truth, he is actually seeking to negate everything, or empty it of its positive content. Thus, it becomes possible for one to equate Socrates wit h irony and with the â€Å"negative.† This negative sees, as its goal, the pursuit to empty all things positive of their content and make them negative as well. The reasons attempting to explain this idiosyncrasy of Socrates are numerous, though his ultimate, ceaseless quest for truth is most popular. In this essay, however, vanity will be cited ...

2)In what ways can French New Wave cinema be considered a product of Essay

2)In what ways can French New Wave cinema be considered a product of its particular moment institutionally, technologically and culturally Your answer should make close reference to ONE or TWO films - Essay Example While French cinema was changing after the Great War, the cinemas across Europe were not in as great transformations. It is perhaps for this reason that French New Wave cinema was and is considered one of the watershed movements of all time in terms of cinematic creation and cinematic experience (Neupert, 2007). In many ways, French New Wave cinema can be seen as a rejuvenation of filmmaking that came about as a reactionary approach to contemporary filmmaking. This paper will look into the French New Wave cinematic movement in order to decipher the various changes introduced by it. In addition, this paper will explore the effects of institutional, technological and cultural factors that made the French New Wave cinematic movement one of the world’s most prominent cinematic transformations. Two French New Wave films, Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows will be analysed in detail in order to meet the objectives stated above. The French New Wave cinematic movement is considered as being influenced by the Italian neo-realistic movement of the same age. In essence, the French New Wave cinematic movement allowed the filmmaking quarters to revisit the basics in order to redefine them. Among other things, cultural and peculiar historical events played a large role in defining how this particular cinematic movement began and progressed. During the Nazi occupation of France, the French cinema became both the tool and the property of the German state. A number of French directors, producers and actors collaborated with the Nazis in order to create new films through the course of the war. After the war ended, these filmmakers and actors were not highly looked upon by filmmaking circles in general. French cinema after the Second World War was looking for change. This change came through as a host of new filmmaking techniques were introduced in tandem with cinematic themes and new faces

The Development of the self Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

The Development of the self - Essay Example Inter-Relationships of Individuals and Surrounding Environment The first concept which is defined is with the inter-relationships of individuals and the surrounding environment. According to the theories of D.W. Winnicott, there is the sense of a true self and a false self. The false self works as a protective mechanism while the true self is out of feeling real or moving into the roots of one’s personality (Malcolm, 138). The mask that is created is one which is easily seen and pronounced when working in various scenarios. When a client first comes into a practice to see me, the same masks and sense of self are easily seen. The environment that is created is one which is professional and which instantly triggers a reaction from those who come in to behave in a professional way. Most clients will be soft spoken the first time that they see me and will avoid direct confrontations or contact. The body language becomes very subtle while trying to manage a straight posture and a b usiness like tone. Most often, the voice is also soft spoken and restricted with the first impressions. The surrounding environment is followed by the one on one interaction which occurs. In the first meeting it is difficult to get a client to speak of specific problems or to be associated with the right type of influence to open up. It is only after speaking with the client about my own relationship to the practice and other confrontations that the client begins to show a different side. The shoulders will also begin to lift when a confrontation occurs. However, as the client moves through a session, the shoulders will drop down, the arms will relax and they will sit more comfortably. At this point, the voice begins to get louder and the individual begins to open up. This creates a sense of the true self, as opposed to the initial false self that was portrayed. An example of a client that has the true and false self in a different scenario is with one who had been in an abusive sit uation. The client wasn’t interested in speaking at first and gave the impression that the only reason why they were in the counseling session was because of a mandate they had to receive assistance. The information presented was given in a soft tone, and the client often spoke slowly. The false self continued with the ideal that the relationship was perfect and they didn’t know why they were there. The interpersonal relationship shifted when I began to speak about other situations or circumstances and began to show the cycles of abuse. The client slowly changed, gathered interest in the conversation and then began to speak of the problems. The reality of the situation was then able to become a part of the counseling practice. This shows how the masks slowly have to come off, dependent on environment and interpersonal interactions. Psychodynamic Theory and Counseling Practice The psychodynamic theory is based on the concept of the unconscious motivation that an individ ual has to be a part of a group or discussion and to work within the counseling practice. To create this specific scenario, there is the need to create a response to allow the individual to participate, even if they are unaware. The behaviors and emotions are the main ways to build a response and create a dynamic

Questions and Answers on Family and Consumer Science Assignment

Questions and Answers on Family and Consumer Science - Assignment Example 2. What are assumptions in the scientific sense? An assumption, in the scientific sense, is a working hypothesis. Before going on with the experimentation, people usually make assumptions first to form a specific structure of an idea. Assumptions are usually several before an experiment begins, and gets reduced towards or by the end of the experiment. Fewer assumptions by the end of an experiment means that there is an increased understanding on the matter. 3. Briefly explain the goals or functions of science. The primary goals of science are description, understanding, prediction, and control. Description is where the phenomena is defined, while understanding is where the occurrence of the phenomena is determined. Prediction is done by forecasting or through hypotheses. Finally, the aim to control a phenomena follows after truly understanding it. The function of science, on the other hand, is to provide a factual reasoning regarding an idea. 4. What is meant by the term â€Å"cumul ative nature of science†? Discoveries in science are interconnected and, to some extent, confirmation of its fundamental principles. This means that rejecting these fundamentals is synonymous to rejecting, and going through another process to understand, several previous successful researches and experiments. This is the cumulative nature of science. 5. Explain the importance of research having a theoretical base? It is impossible to do a research from all perspectives even on a single idea or matter. The theoretical base helps in establishing a standpoint, position, and a procedure on which the experiment will be based (Bryman, 2008, p.17). This means that creating a theoretical base is a step towards a clearer and narrowed research --- excluding other perspectives that might affect the research, while having the rationale for refusing to include these other perspectives. 6. Explain the basic ideas behind Wallace's Wheel. Wallace's Wheel is a good illustration of the concept of how the knowledge base of science develops and grows. It points out how scientific theories and scientific experiments and researches continuously form and mold each other. 7. List and briefly define the categories, or â€Å"parts† of the research process. A typical research process has an introduction, a literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion. The introduction should include information regarding the research such as primary objectives, benefits of the research, and even the researcher's background on the topic. The literature review is an overview of past researches related to the current one. The methodology is where the explanation of the procedure for the research is done. Findings discusses the analysis of the gathered date, and the conclusion is the summary of the whole project. The conclusion also discusses whether the primary objectives were met, and if further researches are suggested (Bryman, 2008, p.33). 8. Explain the difference between basic research and applied research. A basic research is a product of the researcher's interest or curiosity in a concept or idea. The main goal of this type of research is to expand the knowledge. On the other hand, applied research is a product of the need to answer the practical problems about almost anything. The main goal of this type of research is to improve human conditions (Bryman, 2008, p.26). 9. In a nutshell, explain human ecology theory.

Madbury vs Madison and Mc Collough vs Maryland Essay

Madbury vs Madison and Mc Collough vs Maryland - Essay Example Marbury filed a suit before the Supreme Court on its original jurisdiction and prayed for a writ of Mandamus to be passed, ordering Madison to deliver him the signed commission (Levinson and Balkin 3). The questions or legal issues that were to be decided in this case were, whether the applicant had a right to the commission he demanded, whether the country can afford him a remedy and lastly, whether the remedy provided by the court will be in the form of Mandamus (William Marbury vs. James Madison). The case arose out of the dispute between two political parties, which were the Federalists, primarily led by Alexander Hamilton on the one hand and on the second hand the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and others (Levinson and Balkin 3). Jefferson and fellow Republicans were not pleased with the Federalists, who were trying to safeguard their political power by packing the court with their own men before they left their office. The Republicans vowed to fix the wrong which had been done by Republicans (Mountjoy & Mc Neese 27-28). This ultimately led to the battle in the form of Madbury vs. Madison in the US Supreme Court, Now coming to the case of Mc Culloch vs. Maryland, the parties to this suit were Mc Culloch who is the Appellant in this case, whereas, the State of Maryland is the defendant (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The State of Maryland had enacted a statute imposing a tax on all the banks, which were operating in Maryland and were not chartered by the state. The statute provided that all such banks will not have the power to issue note and can only issue them by purchasing the paper to be issued by the state (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The cashier of the Baltimore branch of the second bank of the United States, which was established by the 1816 Act of the Congress, issued bank notes without complying with the Maryland law. Maryland sued Mc Culloch to pay taxes and Mc Culloch contested the constitutionality of the Act (Mc Culloch vs. Maryla nd). The issues, in this case, were whether the Congress had the power to incorporate a bank, even when the power is not specifically stated by the constitution and whether the State of Maryland had the power to tax an institution created by its own power granted by the constitution (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The Supreme Court held in this case that the Congress had power under the Constitution to incorporate a bank, that the State of Maryland did not have the power to tax an institution created by the Congress pursuant to its powers under the constitution and the Act passed by Maryland to levy taxes was unconstitutional (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). Despite the fact that the above two cases are distinct and stretched over two different time period, having different subject matter and facts, the two cases have certain things in common. Firstly, both the cases were on constitutional law and required interpretation of the constitution. Secondly, both cases were initiated in the same peri od of time, which is the early 19th century. Thirdly, both the cases had supreme importance and were landmark cases in the history of the United States, in the sense that both the cases decided important issues.

Financial Checkup Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial Checkup - Assignment Example The figures clearly indicate that I am credit worth as my assets are capable of covering my credit. In addition, it shows that I understand how to manage my debts as I keep the levels of debts below what I really own (Assets).The figures can be helpful when seeking short term credit to handle my short term needs (Eisenberg 69). According to my income and expense statements, the total expense is $2750 while my income is $900.The total loss is $1840.From this figures, my total expense exceed the total income resulting in a loss. This may be attributed to the fact that being a student, there is little time to engage in income generating activities but there is extensive spending due to a number of requirements in the learning institution and my personal needs. However, my income of 900 dollars show that I am capable of managing my time and engage in part time income generating activities , which clearly indicate that I can utilize time as a major resource in making substantive income(Eisenberg 62). My liquidity ratio is 2.92,which is below the recommended ratio of 3.The ratio shows that my liquid assets cannot meet my current expenses by a difference of 0.8.This can be attributed to the fact that as a student, I am bound to spent more than what I hold as liquid assets. However, the figure is comparatively positive compared to other students as it shows that I can meet most of my current expenses using my own cash and cash equivalents. Further, the figure is not alarming as I can still manage to get external source of cash such as pocket money from parents to cover the current expenses that I may be unable to meet on my own (Eisenberg 33).The debt asset ratio is 0.72.This figure is below 1, which clearly indicates that my assets exceed my debts and so I can pay my debts. Further, the figure shows that I am credit worth when borrowing or applying for a loan. My monthly average amount for revolving savings is$417.This average budgeted amount for every moth show

Security in Wireless Protocols Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Security in Wireless Protocols - Essay Example Some of these risks are similar to those of wired networks; some are aggravated by wireless connectivity; some are new. The important basis of risks in wireless networks is that the medium, the atmosphere, is open to all including the malicious intruders. Maintaining a secure wireless network is a continuous task that needs better effort than that needed for other networks and systems (Karygiannis and Owens, 2002). 802.11 standards: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the year 1997 created the first WLAN standard and it was named 802.11. However, soon the disadvantage of using 802.11 came up and it was found that 802.11 only supported a maximum network bandwidth of 2 Mbps. As a result the data transfer was too slow for most applications (Mitchell, 2008). Concerning the security aspect, 802.11 use the shared secret key and this in turn helps a hacker decrypting any of the 802.11 frames. Normally 802.11 dont supply any functions that support the exchange of keys among stations. Because of that, system administrators and users usually use the same keys for weeks and even months together. This gives malicious offenders ample of time to observe and hack into WEP-enabled networks (Geier, 2002). The IEEE 802.11 specification recognized many services to offer a safe operating background. The protection services are offered mainly by the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protoc ol to secure link-level data during wireless transmission between clients and access points. WEP does not provide total security, except only for the wireless portion of the connection. RC4-based stream encryption algorithm is used for confidentiality, verification, and integrity (Karygiannis and Owens, 2002). 802.11b: As the technology advanced IEEE expanded on the original 802.11 standard in July 1999 and created the 802.11b specification. It was found that 802.11b supports high bandwidth up to 11 Mbps when compared to traditional Ethernet. Similar to 802.11, 802.11b

Madbury vs Madison and Mc Collough vs Maryland Essay

Madbury vs Madison and Mc Collough vs Maryland - Essay Example Marbury filed a suit before the Supreme Court on its original jurisdiction and prayed for a writ of Mandamus to be passed, ordering Madison to deliver him the signed commission (Levinson and Balkin 3). The questions or legal issues that were to be decided in this case were, whether the applicant had a right to the commission he demanded, whether the country can afford him a remedy and lastly, whether the remedy provided by the court will be in the form of Mandamus (William Marbury vs. James Madison). The case arose out of the dispute between two political parties, which were the Federalists, primarily led by Alexander Hamilton on the one hand and on the second hand the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and others (Levinson and Balkin 3). Jefferson and fellow Republicans were not pleased with the Federalists, who were trying to safeguard their political power by packing the court with their own men before they left their office. The Republicans vowed to fix the wrong which had been done by Republicans (Mountjoy & Mc Neese 27-28). This ultimately led to the battle in the form of Madbury vs. Madison in the US Supreme Court, Now coming to the case of Mc Culloch vs. Maryland, the parties to this suit were Mc Culloch who is the Appellant in this case, whereas, the State of Maryland is the defendant (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The State of Maryland had enacted a statute imposing a tax on all the banks, which were operating in Maryland and were not chartered by the state. The statute provided that all such banks will not have the power to issue note and can only issue them by purchasing the paper to be issued by the state (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The cashier of the Baltimore branch of the second bank of the United States, which was established by the 1816 Act of the Congress, issued bank notes without complying with the Maryland law. Maryland sued Mc Culloch to pay taxes and Mc Culloch contested the constitutionality of the Act (Mc Culloch vs. Maryla nd). The issues, in this case, were whether the Congress had the power to incorporate a bank, even when the power is not specifically stated by the constitution and whether the State of Maryland had the power to tax an institution created by its own power granted by the constitution (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). The Supreme Court held in this case that the Congress had power under the Constitution to incorporate a bank, that the State of Maryland did not have the power to tax an institution created by the Congress pursuant to its powers under the constitution and the Act passed by Maryland to levy taxes was unconstitutional (Mc Culloch vs. Maryland). Despite the fact that the above two cases are distinct and stretched over two different time period, having different subject matter and facts, the two cases have certain things in common. Firstly, both the cases were on constitutional law and required interpretation of the constitution. Secondly, both cases were initiated in the same peri od of time, which is the early 19th century. Thirdly, both the cases had supreme importance and were landmark cases in the history of the United States, in the sense that both the cases decided important issues.

Security in Wireless Protocols Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Security in Wireless Protocols - Essay Example Some of these risks are similar to those of wired networks; some are aggravated by wireless connectivity; some are new. The important basis of risks in wireless networks is that the medium, the atmosphere, is open to all including the malicious intruders. Maintaining a secure wireless network is a continuous task that needs better effort than that needed for other networks and systems (Karygiannis and Owens, 2002). 802.11 standards: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the year 1997 created the first WLAN standard and it was named 802.11. However, soon the disadvantage of using 802.11 came up and it was found that 802.11 only supported a maximum network bandwidth of 2 Mbps. As a result the data transfer was too slow for most applications (Mitchell, 2008). Concerning the security aspect, 802.11 use the shared secret key and this in turn helps a hacker decrypting any of the 802.11 frames. Normally 802.11 dont supply any functions that support the exchange of keys among stations. Because of that, system administrators and users usually use the same keys for weeks and even months together. This gives malicious offenders ample of time to observe and hack into WEP-enabled networks (Geier, 2002). The IEEE 802.11 specification recognized many services to offer a safe operating background. The protection services are offered mainly by the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protoc ol to secure link-level data during wireless transmission between clients and access points. WEP does not provide total security, except only for the wireless portion of the connection. RC4-based stream encryption algorithm is used for confidentiality, verification, and integrity (Karygiannis and Owens, 2002). 802.11b: As the technology advanced IEEE expanded on the original 802.11 standard in July 1999 and created the 802.11b specification. It was found that 802.11b supports high bandwidth up to 11 Mbps when compared to traditional Ethernet. Similar to 802.11, 802.11b

Elementary School Literature Class Essay Example for Free

Elementary School Literature Class Essay The biography genre allows the reader to learn about the events in the life of a non-fictional character. An example would be the book Rocks in His Head by Carol Hurst. After reading the text, the students may then be required to complete a character biography which would outline personal information about the character, interesting information about him, important dates mentioned in the text, his name, where he lived, and such. a)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fable The fable genre introduces things which are given human qualities as characters. Fables often contain moral lessons. An example of a fable would be Aesop’s fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Students may then be asked to fill out a dissection chart wherein they will have to describe scenes corresponding to the different parts of the story, such as conflict, resolution, moral, etc. b)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fairy Tale Fairy tales are fictional stories which often have magical elements integrated into the story. An example would be Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina. A story map would be one applicable graphic organizer which would require the students to map out the beginning, purpose, conflict, most important moment, and conclusion of the story. c)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Folktales Folktales are stories which are grounded on the cultural tradition of a particular place. The story of Johnny Appleseed is one popular American folktale. A venn diagram may be used to graphically organize the information learned from the story. d)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Historical Fiction Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction. It portrays fictional stories of historical figures or events. An example would be the book The Mary Celeste written by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple. A time line may be used as a graphic organizer in the case of historical fiction stories. e)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Informational Text or Nonfiction Informational texts are non-fiction texts which give the reader current and accurate information regarding a particular topic. Secrets of a Civil War Submarine by Sally M. Walker talks about the disappearance of the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in the Civil War and is a leading example of an informational text. For this purpose, a map may be accomplished by the student plotting out the problem and solution found in the informational text. KWLs are also popular organizers for informational texts. f)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mystery Mystery texts involve the solving of puzzles or crimes by the characters in the text. There are several series which involve mystery plots such as Nancy Drew and Babysitter’s Club. With this genre, charts may be used after the reading of the text requiring students to fill out information regarding the characterization of the hero, the villain, the victim, the crime or problem and the solution. g)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Picture books Picture books provides verbal and visual narratives of the plot and story. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is a good example of a picture book. The text is quite simple and sparse but the blend with the visual narrative makes for better communication of the author’s intention. A character analysis or a plot diagram may be accomplished by the student after reading a picture book. h)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Poetry Poetry depicts a concept or story through a particular form. A famous children’s literature poet is Shel Silverstein. Some of his more popular works are The Missing Piece Meets the Big O and The Giving Tree. Since poems are more complex than story-telling texts, a plot diagram would be a good graphic organizer for students to accomplish. i)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Realistic Fiction Realistic fiction presents fictional characters, plot and settings but depict them in such a way that they could be found in real life. There are many examples of this genre such as Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume. The challenge is for the author to create a story addressing a concern or issue of the target reader audience. Given the purpose of realistic fiction, a character analysis may be completed by the student along with an analogy for what the student would do if they were in the same situation. 7. Design a literature lesson plan to include the following categories: grade, 2 behavioral objectives (Sunshine State Standards), 2 activities, 1 assessment instrument, and 1 follow-up homework assignment. Include the title of the book and its genre. This is a literature lesson plan for a second grade class. One picture book will be used as class reading material, in this case Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, and several wordless picture books will be provided for the students’ activities. One objective of the lesson is to teach students the various character perspectives that may be employed in telling a story and to have the students apply this learning in the activities. Another objective is to have the students exercise and display their creative talents, particularly their writing skills through the creation of their own story. At the beginning of the lesson the picture book will be read to the students. After the reading of the text, the students will be asked to complete a character diagram for each of the main characters involved in the text. They will be asked to map out the descriptions of the characters as well as the activities which the character actually engaged in throughout the story. This will not only allow the instructor to assess the students’ understanding of the story but it will allow for a better platform for discussing how character perspectives can be used in telling a story. The students will thus be asked to engage in an activity of shifting the character perspectives in the book so that the narrative is told from a first, second or third person perspective. This will be done by focusing on particular scenes in the picture book used for storytelling. Having in mind their description of the characters, the students will be asked to change the text corresponding to the scene pinpointed so that it would be in first, second or third person perspective. Further application of the lesson will be engaged in by having the students break off into groups. Each group is to take a wordless picture book. They will then be asked to draw a piece of paper from a hat. The strip of paper will indicate in what perspective the text of the narrative should be told. The students will then be asked to write a simple narrative for the wordless picture book. One line narrations for each picture would be deemed sufficient. The students would be informed that although creativity in formulating the text would be incentivized, what is more important is the proper use of the perspective as well as the grammatical correctness of the work. At the end of the class the students will submit the completed story. Before dismissal, the instructor will make copies of the students’ stories. The stories of the different groups will be switched so that each student is left with a copy of a story completed by another group. As an assignment, the students will be asked to shift the perspective of the story assigned to them. They are informed that they may vary the manner in which the story was told as long as they maintain the same framework for the narrative and as long as they are able to use a perspective other than that which was used.

Effect of Microhardness on Chemical Degradation

Effect of Microhardness on Chemical Degradation Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of chemical degradation media associated with brushing on surface roughness (Ra) and Knoop microhardness (KHN) analyses of different composites. Material and Methods: Eighty specimens were prepared for each composite: Grandio SO (Voco), Amaris (Voco), Filtek Supreme (3M/ESPE), Filtek LS (3M/ESPE). The specimens were divided into four groups according to the immersion in chemical degradation media for 7 days: artificial saliva (control), heptane, 0.02M citric acid, 70% ethanol. The surface of specimens was submitted to 10950 brushing cycles (200g load) in an automatic tooth-brushing machine with abrasive slurry. Surface roughness and microhardness measurements were obtained at baseline, after immersion in chemical degradation media and after brushing. Data were submitted to three-way repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey’s test (pResults: The KHN means for composites were: Grandio (153.5 ±35.9)a, Filtek Supreme (87.0 ± 24.9)b, Amaris (64.5 ±24.5)c, LS (69.0 ±15.3)c; for storage media: artificial saliva (97.3 ±46.7)a, ethanol (93.3 ±49.9)a, citric acid (95.8 ±42.1)a, heptane (87.6 ±36.7)b; and after treatments: after chemical degradation (104.8 ±49.7)a, baseline (93.8 ±42.5)b, after brushing (81.9 ±36.5)c. The Ra results for composites were: LS (0.15 ±0.25)a, Grandio SO (0.19 ±0.24)ab, Filtek Supreme (0.20 ±0.22)ab, Amaris (0.23 ±0.37)b; for storage media: artificial saliva (0.18 ±0.31)a, heptane (0.18 ±0.25)a, ethanol (0.20 ±0.26)a, citric acid (0.21 ±0.28)a; and after treatments: brushing (0.11 ±0.14)a, after chemical degradation (0.23 ±0.32)b, baseline (0.24 ±0.32)b. Conclusions: Brushing after chemical degradation reduced surface roughness values. In general, chemical degradation did not affect composites roughness, but microhardness was significantly reduced. Heptane produced the biggest reduction in composites microhardness. Clinical Relevance: The food-simulating solutions and brushing simulating alter the composites properties, and these alterations are material-dependent. Keywords: composites, chemical degradation, brushing, Knoop microhardness, surface roughness. Introduction Improvements on the composition and mechanical properties of resin-based materials along with increased esthetic demands have resulted in the enlarged use of direct composite restorations in anterior and posterior teeth [1,2]. These improvements provided more strength and durability to the composite restorations under the conditions of the oral environment. Most of the available composites contain a polymer matrix of dimethacrylate monomers, such as Bis-GMA, UDMA, and TEGDMA (organic phase), inorganic filler particles (dispersed phase) coated with a methyl methacrylate-functional silane coupling agent to bond the filler to the organic matrix, a photoinitiator system to allow photoactivation by light units and other minor additions including polymerization initiators, stabilizers and coloring pigments [3-5]. However, the critical oral environment conditions (pH changes or humidity) may increase the composite biodegradation over time [6]. Under oral conditions, dental materials may be exposed either intermittently or continuously to chemical agents present in saliva, food and beverages [1]. Previous studies have shown that some dietary foods and beverages can cause surface degradation of restorative materials [7-14]. Their constituents can soften the organic phase and promotes disintegration of the dispersed phase, altering the surface hardness [1,15]. Besides of chemical environment, the toothbrushing is another condition that influences the longevity of composites restorations in vivo. Although toothbrushing plays an important role in oral hygiene, the effects of abrasion constitutes another important issue on dental materials wear processes, which can result in alterations in surface roughness, loss of contour, staining and plaque retention [16]. There are several types of composites nowadays, such as nanohybrid, nanofill and microhybrid, which have the similar polymer matrix composition. However, the inorganic phase (size, type and distribution of filler particles) are different. Therefore, the effects of chemical degradation liquids and toothbrushing on surface roughness and microhardness of these types of composites must be reported. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of chemical degradation associated with toothbrushing on surface roughness and microhardness of different composites. The null hypothesis tested was that the immersion in chemical degradation media and brushing are not able to modify the surface roughness and microhardness of the tested materials. Material and Methods Specimens preparation Eighty cylindrical specimens of each composite were fabricated (shade A3) using a metallic matrix with 2 mm in height and 3 mm in diameter. A mylar strip was placed over the composite and pressed with a glass plate to provide a flat surface, being removed after curing. The composites were applied in increments of 2 mm and cured on the top surface using LED photocuring unit (Elipar Freelight 2, 3M/ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA) at 1200 mW/cm2 power density, activated for 40 s. After curing, they were stored in individual containers with deionized water for 24 h. Then, they were polished using a sequence of 1200, 2400 and 4000 grit aluminum oxide abrasive disks (Extec, Enfield, CT, USA) in a polishing device (DP-10, Panambra, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil). After polishing, all the specimens were immersed in deionized water at 37  ºC for 24 h. Four direct restorative materials were tested, as described in Table 1. Knoop microhardness measurements The microhardness measurement was performed with a microhardness tester (FM-700, Future-Tech, Tokyo, Japan), Knoop tip, under 25 g load for 10 s. Three indentations were performed 100  µm apart from each other, at the surface of the specimens. The means were determined as Knoop Hardness Number (KHN). Surface roughness analysis The mean surface roughness (Ra) was evaluated using a profilometer (MaxSurf XT 20, Mahr, Goettingen, Germany). The diamond stylus moved 2.5 mm long starting the first measurement 0.2 mm from the lower area of specimen. Three profile measurements were performed for each specimen at intervals of 0.25 mm and a final average was used. The mean Ra values were determined with a cut-off value of 0.8 mm, a transverse length of 0.8 mm, and a stylus speed of 0.1 mm/s. Chemical degradation media immersion The specimens of each composite were randomly divided according to the food-simulated substances tested (n=20). The solutions tested are mediums recommended by FDA (1976) to be used as food-simulating liquids [17]. Heptane P.A. (Synth – Labsynth, Diadema, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil) was used to simulate butter, fat meals and vegetable oils. Citric acid 0.02M (Synth) simulated beverages, vegetables, fruits and candies. Ethanol 70% (Zulu Hospitalar 70% Companhia Nacional de à lcool, Piracicaba, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil) simulated alcoholic beverages and mouthrinses. Artificial saliva was used as control and prepared according to Gohring et al. [18] using 22.1 mmol/l hydrogen carbonate, 16.1 mmol/l of potassium, 14.5 mmol/l sodium, 2.6 mmol/l hydrogen phosphate, 0.8 mmol/l boric acid, 0.7 mmol/l calcium, 0.4 mmol/l thiocyanate and 0.2 mmol/l magnesium. The specimens were kept in individual vials with 2 ml of each solution for 7 days at 37  ºC. After this period, the specimens were washed thoroughly, and stored in deionized water at 37  ºC, for 24 h. The microhardness and surface roughness were evaluated. Brushing protocols Subsequently, the experimental units were subjected to brushing abrasion in an automatic toothbrushing (TB) machine (ODEME Biotechnology – Joaà §aba, Santa Catarina, Brazil) which imparted reciprocating motion to 6 soft bristle toothbrush heads (Sanifill Ultraprofissional, Hypermarcas – Sà £o Paulo, Brazil). This apparatus provides linear brushing movements across the specimens at a speed of 120 cycles per min at 37 °C, with a double pass of the brush head over the surface. The top surface of resin composites cylinders were submitted to 10950 brushing stokes under a vertical load of 200 g with abrasive slurry, simulating one year of clinical situation [19]. The abrasive slurry consisted of fluoridated dentifrice (Colgate Tripla Aà §Ãƒ £o, Colgate-Palmolive, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil) and artificial saliva, in a ratio of 1:3, by weight [20]. Toothbrushes were replaced after the completion of each brushing cycles. After brushing, the specimens were kept in deionized water at 37 ºC, for 24 h. At the end of this protocol, the microhardness and surface roughness was obtained. Statistical analysis This experiment followed a factorial scheme of the 4x3x4 type. The experimental variables under study were composites [Grandio, Amaris, Filtek LS, Filtek Supreme], time [baseline, after chemical degradation (CD) and after brushing (TB)] and the food-simulating media [artificial saliva (AS), heptane (H), citric acid (CA) and ethanol (E)]. The variable responses were the mean roughness measurement value obtained in profilometer, and the average of three microhardness readings. Data were submitted to statistical analysis using the computer software Statistica for Windows (Statsoft, Tulsa, OK, USA). The inferential statistics consisted of three-way repeated measures ANOVA (composites, time, and chemical degradation media), in which the variable time was considered as a repeated factor, followed by Tukey’s test. The level of significance was the conventional value of 5%. Results Microhardness evaluation The mean KHN values of the composites after chemical degradation media are shown in Figure 1. The application of RM-ANOVA showed significant differences for the factors composites (p=0.0001), time (p=0.0001) and chemical degradation (p=0.0001). Grandio SO composite presented the highest KHN values for all times tested. Amaris and Filtek LS exhibited values significantly lower than Filtek Supreme and Grandio SO (Table 2). For the chemical degradation media factor, the immersion in heptane produced the lowest microhardness means, compared to the other tested media (Table 3). Regarding the different times, the microhardness (KHN) values significantly increased after immersion in chemical degradation media and decreased after brushing, compared to baseline means (Table 4). Surface roughness analysis The means of roughness surface (Ra) for the composites are shown in Figure 2. The application of RM-ANOVA showed no significant differences for composite (p=0.034) and time (p=0.626) factors. The roughness means obtained for Amaris composite were significantly higher than Filtek LS. Grandio SO and Supreme exhibited intermediate means (Table 2). For the chemical degradation media, no significant differences were obtained for surface roughness (Table 3). The Ra means after brushing were lower than at baseline and after chemical degradation CD (Table 4). Discussion The chemical environment is one aspect of the oral conditions which has an appreciable influence on the in vivo degradation of composites [21]. Some chemicals substances from food and drinks can lead to surface degradation of composite restorations, resulting in unaesthetic appearance and increased surface roughness, accelerating the wear of dental materials [22,23]. This degradation is mainly due to the softness of composite matrices with exposure to organic acids and various food and liquid constituents [24,25,12]. Previously published studies have reported that acidic conditions show a tendency to degrade glass ionomer cements, polyacid modified composite resins, and composite resins [9,26,10,27,11]. The present study was performed to investigate the Knoop microhardness and surface roughness of four composites, before and after simulating oral conditions. Hardness is defined as the resistance to permanent indentation or penetration [28,1]. It is used to predict the wear resistance of a material and its ability to cause abrasion opposing tooth structure [28]. The composites exposed in food-simulating media can suffer chemical softening, reducing their physico-mechanical properties. Changes in the composite hardness usually occur within the first 7 days after exposure to chemical solutions [21]. Therefore, this study conducted the initial readings of the hardness in the specimens after post-cure [1], and another reading after the exposure period of immersion. In the present study, specimens stored in heptane showed significantly reduction in microhardness, as also observed previously [14,28]. Heptane simulates butter, fatty meals and vegetables oil [14,1] and may damage the resin matrix,[12,28] producing cracks in the interface, and consequently, weakening the material.[14] It is questioned if alcohol-containing beverages may compromise the longevity of composites restorations [29], since it presents the potential of damaging polymers [1,12], by fully penetrating the resin matrix and promoting the release of unreacted monomers [13]. The partial dissolving of the resin matrix may result in the degradation of the filler-matrix interface, thereby impairing the flexural strength and hardness [14]. In this study, the concentration of ethanol solution (70%) was used according to previous [28] but it showed no significant effect in the microhardness of composites. The differences in hardness values compared to previous studies could be related to the surface characteristics of the composites, filler distribution and conversion rate [30]. Furthermore, the period of 24 h of storage before immersion in ethanol may lead to complete polymerization of the composites, reducing the presence of unreacted monomers on the surface [1,14]. The effects of intraoral organic acids, as citric acid, besides producing tooth erosion, can cause surface degradation of composites [9], favoring the breaking of bonds in Bis-GMA molecules of composites [24,11]. Despite of others studies that citric acid reduced the hardness of composites [7,9], in this study no differences were observed in the microhardness of the composites when immersed in citric acid for 7 days. Nevertheless, the period of storage may have been insufficient to promote differences in the mechanical properties of the specimens’ surface [7,14]. Differences in microhardness means among the composites exposed to the tested solutions were found and are related to their composition and particle content [14,29]. Grandio SO, Filtek Supreme and Amaris have similar matrix composition (Bis-GMA, UDMA, TEGDMA), however, differ in size and amount of filler particles (Table 1). The higher resistance of Bis-GMA to the degradation effects of immersion media can be explained by the fact that bis-acryl resin composite materials contain bifunctional acrylates, which cross-link to provide increased mechanical strength and resistance to weakening in the presence of solvents [28,31]. Grandio SO and Filtek Supreme present nanoscale particles, which provide better mechanical resistance compared to hybrid resins, superior polishing than microfilled resins, higher strength and reduced polymerization shrinkage [32]. Due to their nanoscale, these materials showed the highest microhardness values in this study. By the other hand, Filtek LS is constituted of silorane, with quartz and yttrium fluoride as inorganic filler, which increased hydrophobicity and reduced water sorption [33]. Differences in microhardness among Filtek LS and others composite could be attributed to the lower filler content (76% w/w), as observed by Yesilyurt et al. [14]. Therefore, the differences in composites compositions could have contributed to the differences in hardness. After simulated toothbrushing, there was a reduction in microhardness values. This fact may be due to changes on the surface of the resin matrix when immersed in the solutions before brushing. According to a previous study [2], the immersion in food-simulating media increased the exposure of filler particles by softening the matrix. Additionally, toothbrushing can change the surface of composites [2,34,35]. In clinical situation, the consumption of food or beverages occurs before brushing habits, making this association clinically relevant. Although an increase of the composite surface roughness and degradation after brushing have been previously reported,[2] significantly lower roughness means were obtained after brushing in this study. Likewise, previous studies showed that most of composites did not present significant changes by the immersion on chemical degradation media in surface roughness over time [2,9,15]. This study found differences on surface roughness of mycrohybid, nanofill and nanohybrid composites, as results of their differences in their compositions. Filtek LS, myycrohybrid composite, had the lowest surface roughness, probably due to low filler content. Filtek Supreme e Grandio SO had an intermediate smoother texture, whereas Amaris showed the roughest surface. Nevertheless, despite of these initial differences, the immersion in chemical solutions did not interfere in the final surface roughness. However, interaction between immersion in food-simulating media and simulated brushing decreased surface roughness, as observed by Turssi et al. [20] This may be attributed to the reaction of the solutions with the polymer matrix. Toothbrushing after the immersion on food-simulating media resulted in the removal of part of the organic matrix around the loosen fillers [2]. Then, the softened matrix have become mixed with the abrasive slurry, decreasing its abrasive potential [20]. Roughness surfaces of composite favors the accumulation of plaque, gingival inflammation, superficial staining and secondary caries. It is noteworthy that the effect of brushing on the composites depends on several factors, such as the type of toothpaste, type and shape of the brush bristles, the proportion of deionized-water solution, as well as speed and weight applied during simulation process. As these parameters were standardized for all groups, it can be suggested that the surface roughness varies with the size, hardness and percentage of composite particles, as reported previously [20,36]. The different treatments tested resulted in alteration of composite properties, and these alterations were material-dependent; thus, the null hypothesis tested was rejected. The present study is important for guiding the improvements of the present composite resins against the challenges they will face during clinical service. It is also relevant to state that esthetics represents only one of the reasons for composite resin restorations failure. Improvements in other areas such as bonding degradation, material deterioration and ability to prevent caries progression/activity should be also considered. Conclusion According to the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that: The microhardness means of the tested composites were influenced by the material; Toothbrushing reduced Ra values of the materials tested, but the solutions used for chemical degradation did not affect the results. Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.