Community and the Rocky Horror Picture Show :: Rocky Horror Descriptive Essays

Community and the Rocky Horror Picture Show Sex, adultery, rock and roll, and belonging. These are just some of the things that draw teens into The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Friday and Saturday night. Most teens are drawn in by a family connection and there are still others who are simply drawn in by the curiosity brought up by the name of the show alone. I was drawn in because of family and friend ties to the show. Many teens who go find themselves in a place where they feel that they belong. Teens who normally get called â€Å"freaks† go to Rocky because it is a place where they are no longer considered that. Every person that attends Rocky has a certain uniqueness about them that is celebrated at every show. When you go to Rocky, you meet others who are just like you. This helps to build friendships and bonds between the attendees. It also creates an air of family in the theater that goes everywhere with you. Every week there is a random number of virgins, or first timers, chosen to be sacrificed. These sacrifices are all in fun and are seen as a way of passage into the Rocky community. The first time I went, myself and three other virgins were chosen to be sacrificed. Our sacrifice was long, painless, and completely hilarious. In fact I don’t think that it would have been half as fun if I hadn’t had my three closest friends sitting in the audience laughing at me. Out of the four of us chosen only one was a boy and they made him be an ataman. The two remaining virgins and I were placed under a table and left there to our own devices while the cast made a toast to a newly married member. My being chosen to be sacrificed made me feel as if I really belonged there and would never be shunned. I was also very pleased by the fact that I was chosen to be sacrificed by my favorite character, Eddy who was being played by Dustin Martinez that night. After the toast was finished we did our oath and were allowed to go back to our seats and the show began. In the Rocky community everyone is celebrated for who they are. Individuality is something special among the â€Å"Trannies† and it will always be that way. No guy is ever ridiculed or mocked for dressing like a woman and no woman is ever looked down upon for dressing like a man.

Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections in Developing

Introduction: Developing countries are normally defined as those lacking the level of nationwide industrialization, infrastructure and technological advances normally found in Western Europe and North America. The vast majority of countries in Africa, Asia, Central & South America, Oceania and the Middle East fall in this developing category and often face addition challenges in terms of lower levels of literacy and standards of living. Nevertheless, within this broad group, there are various sub-categories, each having different characteristics as well as economic strengths.Indeed some are relatively wealthy oil exporting nations or newly industrializing world economies; a considerable number are middle income countries. At the end of the development scale lie around fifty very poor nations with predominantly agricultural economies, which tend to be heavily dependent on external aid. From a medical perspective, many developing countries are often characterised by significant health and hygiene issues. Indeed it has been estimated that more than 1 billion inhabitants in these countries do not have access to safe water and even less to basic sanitation (1).Around 1. 5 million children in the developing world die per year; diarrhoea is responsible for more than 80% of these deaths (2). One of the reasons for this state of affairs is the low expenditure and budgetary allocation within the poorer countries of the world towards health. Indeed the proportion of annual expenditure for health related initiatives in many developing countries is often less than 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), sometimes less than 0. 1% (3). Healthcare associated infections in developing countriesUnlike more affluent countries, infectious diseases continue to pose a heavy burden of morbidity as well as mortality in developing nations (4). Amongst the more important disease entities are a wide range of respiratory diseases including tuberculosis, various gastrointestinal infections, AID S and HIV plus a spate of parasitic infestations of which malaria is the most significant. However this situation is not limited to ambulatory settings and is equally relevant within healthcare institutions.Deficient infrastructures, rudimentary equipment and a poor quality of care contribute towards incidences of nosocomial infections which have been estimated to be between 2-6 times higher than those in developed nations (5). In many instances, such figures are often guesstimates because surveillance systems are often either non existent or else unreliable. However, the limited studies on prevalence of healthcare associated infections in some developing countries in the world suggest that up to 40% of these are probably preventable (5).This situation appears to particularly severe within intensive care settings where up to 60 to 90 infections per 1000 care-days have been reported; excess mortality rates in more severe infections such as blood stream and lower respiratory infection s approaches 25% in adults and more than 50% in neonates (6). The challenges of infection in healthcare facilities within developing nations is also of a wider spectrum than that normally found in equivalent hospitals in the western world.Numerous publications have highlighted the frequency by which normally community infections, such as cholera, measles and enteric pathogens, spread nosocomially within such institutions (7, 8). In many instances outbreaks are traceable to an index case who would have been inappropriately managed in a background of overcrowding and limited hospital hygiene. Similar cases of transmission have also been reported in the case of respiratory infections including measles (9).Tuberculosis transmission in healthcare facilities is a major occurrence in many African countries as well as parts of Asia and Latin America (10). In many instances this disease is strongly related to the rise of HIV within these same geographical regions and is not uncommonly compli cated by increasing prevalence of multi drug resistant mycobacteria. Blood borne infections are not restricted to HIV alone. Hepatitis B remains a major nosocomial pathogen in many hospitals within the developing world (11).More dramatic and life threatening have been outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers in institutions within several countries in the African continent (12). Hospitals are also liable to healthcare associated infection caused by more conventional pathogens which, just like in their western counterparts, can carry the additional burden of antimicrobial resistance (4). Unfortunately data on the prevalence of resistance in nosocomial pathogens is poorly documented in the developing world. However recent publications suggest that this may be even more common than in developed countries.Recent publications from the Mediterranean region have highlighted proportions of meticillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus to exceed 50% in several countries in the Middle East with r esistance to third generation cephalosporins in E. coli exceeding 70% in some participating hospitals (13). There may be diverse and often complex backgrounds to this epidemiological situation. Factors facilitating transmission and management of nosocomial infections The infrastructure of healthcare facilities in some of the poorer nations often lacks basic requirements for the prevention of transmission of infectious diseases.Inadequate or unsafe water supply together with lack of resources or equipment for affective environmental cleaning is often compounded by significant overcrowding due to inadequate beds to cope with demand (14). There is often lack of strategic direction as well as effective planning for healthcare delivery at both national as well as local levels. A functional sterilisation department is by no means a standard occurrence in every hospital, even in the larger urban institutions.Other areas of concern include poor awareness or knowledge about communicable dise ase transmission amongst healthcare workers and lack of commitment within senior management (15). This is particularly relevant in developing countries where nurses, doctors and patients are often unaware of the importance of infection control and its relevance to safe healthcare (16). Medical practitioners may have a tendency to be heavily committed towards individual patients and disinclined to think of them in groups, a concept which is the antithesis of basic infection prevention and control (17).They are often unaware of risks of nosocomial infections, attributing such possible developments to be natural or inevitable (18). On the other hand, nurses have more intimate contact with patients and are trained to take care of patients in groups. Although this increases the potential to serve as sources of cross-transmission, nurses are likely to more positive towards infection control policies. However this is hindered by the comparatively lower status offered to nurses in the devel oping world and also complicated by a gender bias in environments where emancipation of women has been slow.Attitudes of senior medical staff may further compound the problem through personality clashes, resistance to change or improvement as well as reluctance to work in tandem with other health professionals. Non existent litigation further accentuates lack of accountability at various levels. Furthermore, many patients have limited expectations, already regarding themselves fortunate to have any sort of institutional care and as a result accept a significant degree of morbidity as part of their hospital stay. It must be emphasised that even in the poorer countries, this set of circumstances is by no means universal in all hospitals.It is not uncommon that, even where most of the hospitals in a country lack all these basic requirements, individual institutions (often either private or NGO managed) would be in a position to offer healthcare as well as infection control standards of the highest quality. However it would only be a small minority of patients, often coming from a more affluent background, that would be able to benefit from them. The risks of infection in hospitals within the developing world are not only restricted to the patients who receive care within them.Occupational health is an equally low priority in many of these facilities and, as a result, it is not uncommon for healthcare workers to also be exposed and become infected by pathogens causing healthcare associated infections, including viral hepatitis, HIV and tuberculosis. In such limited resource environments and in situations where medical practice is biased towards intervention rather than prevention, it is not surprising that basic infection control programmes are often lacking, particularly in smaller hospitals in rural areas (18).Even within larger urban facilities, infection control teams, composed of both an infection control nurse as well as doctor, who have been trained and hav e managerial backup are very much in the minority. They are often restricted to academic institutions, heavily funded government or private tertiary care units. Even where present, these teams tend to encounter numerous logistical obstacles including lack administrative, clerical and IT support. Infection control output therefore tends to be significantly variable; policies and procedures are either absent or lack consultation, evidence base or suitable addressing f local needs. Healthcare professionals also face significant challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease (4). Diagnostic facilities are often lacking. Laboratories may be absent or limited as a result of inadequate resources of both a material as well as human resource nature. Trained laboratory scientists are very much in the minority whereas the implementation of quality control programs to ensure validity in the laboratory’s output is not viewed as a crucial.This situation is worsened by poss ible lack of confidence in the laboratory from clinicians who would prefer to undertake treatment blindly, based only on clinical judgement or recommendations from other countries rather than local epidemiology. One reason for this is the lack of feedback of local resistance data (20). This risks inappropriate treatment which would not properly cover local resistance prevalence patterns. Another major factor hindering the treatment of infectious disease is the presence of poor quality antimicrobials, even counterfeit, with little or no active ingredient within the formulation (21).Addressing the challenge It is therefore clear that in order to improve the effectiveness of infection control in many developing countries, a multifactorial set of initiatives needs to be undertaken that are both feasible as well as achievable in this background of economical and social deficits (15). It is essential that infection control teams increase their presence within hospitals in these regions. T hese key personnel must be provided with the necessary training as well as administrative support and facilities in order to deliver the required services.Such teams would be able to identify the major challenges and assess relevant risks through tailored surveillance programmes. Surveillance constitutes a challenge in such environments since it is often time consuming and resource dependent (22). In addition it requires a reasonable level of laboratory support. Nevertheless it is possible using simplified definitions of healthcare associated infections, as suggested by the World Health Organisation, to achieve a surveillance programme even with very limited resources (23).Such initiatives need to concentrate on the more serious infections and document their impact in the respective facility. Trained infection control personnel would also be appropriate drivers to eliminate wasteful practices which siphon resources away from truly effective practices. Dogmas include routine use of d isinfectants for environmental cleaning, use of unnecessary personal protective equipment such as overshoes, excessive waste management procedures which treat all waste generated in the hospital as infectious.Infection Control teams will be able to spearhead cost-effective interventions based on training of healthcare workers to comply with relevant infection control measures related to standard precautions, isolation together with occupational health and safety. It is possible to achieve significant reduction in the prevalence of healthcare associated infections through low cost measures; interventions aimed at preventing cross transmission of infection are particularly effective. There is no doubt that one of the most cost effective interventions in limited resource environments is improved compliance with hand hygiene.The World Health Organisation has indeed designated improvement of health hygiene within healthcare facilities worldwide as a priority and chose this topic for its first Global Patient Safety Challenge under the banner ‘Clean Care is Safer Care’ (6). A comprehensive set of tools have been tested worldwide in pilot hospitals, the majority of which were in developing countries. The emphasis of this initiative focuses on the availability and utilisation of alcohol hand rub for patient contact situations where hands are physically clean.This is made possible through local manufacture of inexpensive, good quality products according to a validated formula. A multimodal strategy requires these alcohol hand rub containers to be available at point of care and for the staff of the hospital to receive adequate training and education in their use. Hand hygiene practices are monitored and feedback on performance regularly provided to the users. Reminders in the workplace sensitise awareness and belief amongst healthcare workers in general.Infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities within the developing world continues to offer n umerous challenges as a result of reduced resources related to socio-economics, infrastructure and human resources. However it is possible to achieve substantial progress even within such challenging circumstances through a programme led by trained and empowered infection control professionals. Such initiatives need to concentrate on low cost, high impact interventions and emphasis on training, backed by interaction and networking with colleagues and societies within the country itself and beyond.References: 1. Moe CL, Rheingans RD. Global challenges in water, sanitation and health. J Water Health. 2006; 4 Suppl 1:41-57. 2. Boschi-Pinto C, Velebit L, Shibuya K. Estimating child mortality due to diarrhoea in developing countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2008;86:710-7. 3. World Health Organization. Implementation of the global strategy for health for all by the year 2000. Eighth report on the world health situation. Volume 6 Eastern Mediterranean Region. Second Evaluation. World Heal th Organization. Regional Office Eastern Mediterranean Region, Alexandria, Egypt; 1996. 4. Shears P.Poverty and infection in the developing world: healthcare-related infections and infection control in the tropics. J Hosp Infect. 2007; 67:217-24. 5. Wenzel RP. Towards a global perspective of nosocomial infections. Eur J Clin Microbiol. 1987;6:341-3. 6. Pittet D, Allegranzi B, Storr J et al. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. J Hosp Infect. 2008;68:285-92. 7. Mhalu FS, Mtango FD, Msengi AE. Hospital outbreaks of cholera transmitted through close person to person contact, Lancet 1984; ii: 82–84. 8. Vaagland H, Blomberg B, Kruger C, Naman M, Jureen R, Langeland N.Nosocomial outbreak of neonatal Salmonella enteritidis in a rural hospital in northern Tanzania. BMC Infect Dis 2004; 4: 35. 9. Marshall TM, Hlatswayo D, Schoub B. Nosocomial outbreaks – a potential threat to the elimination of measles? J Infect Dis 2003; 187 :S97–S101. 10. Mehtar S. Lowbury Lecture 2007: infection prevention and control strategies for tuberculosis in developing countries – lessons learnt from Africa. J Hosp Infect. 2008; 69:321-7. 11. Lynch P, Pittet D, Borg MA, Mehtar S. Infection control in countries with limited resources. J Hosp Infect. 2007; 65 Suppl 2:148-50 12.Fisher-Hoch SP. Lessons from nosocomial haemhorragic fever outbreaks. Br Med Bull 2005: 73: 123-137 13. Borg MA, Scicluna E, de Kraker M et al. Antibiotic resistance in the southeastern Mediterranean–preliminary results from the ARMed project. Euro Surveill. 2006;11:164-7. 14. Borg MA, Cookson BD, Gur D et al. Infection control and antibiotic stewardship practices reported by south-eastern Mediterranean hospitals collaborating in the ARMed project. J Hosp Infect. 2008 PMID:18783850. 15. Damani N. Simple measures save lives: an approach to infection control in countries with limited resources.J Hosp Infect. 2007;65 Suppl 2:151-4. 16. Sob ayo EI. Nursing aspects of infection control in developing countries. J Hosp Inf 1991; 18: 388-391. 17. Meers PD. Infection control in developing countries. J Hosp Inf 1988; 11: 406 – 410. 18. Ponce-de-Leon S. The needs of developing countries and the resources required. J Hosp Inf 1991; 18: 378-381. 19. Raza MW, Kazi BM, Mustafa M, Gould FK. Developing countries have their own characteristic problems with infection control. J Hosp Infect. 2004; 57:294-9. 20. Borg MA, Cookson BD, Scicluna E; ARMed Project Steering Group and Collaborators.Survey of infection control infrastructure in selected southern and eastern Mediterranean hospitals. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2007;13:344-6. 21. Lynch P, Rosenthal VD, Borg MA, Eremin SR. Infection Control: A Global View in Jarvis WR: Bennett & Brachman’s Hospital Infections; 2007. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia. 22. Damani N. Surveillance in Countries with Limited Resources. Int. J. Infect Contr 2008; 4:1 23. World Healt h Organisation. Prevention of hospital acquired infections: A Practical Guide. 2nd ed. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. WHO/CDR/EPH/2002. 12.

Brief historical background of the book of Romans Essay

The book Romans was written probably during the mid to late fifties. Pauline authorship has been the dominating view as to the authorship of the book especially that the book of Romans reflects an exceptional theological understanding that fits to Paul’s credential as writer. First, he was highly educated receiving education no less than Israel’s greatest teacher Gamaliel during his time. Second, His understanding of the divine plan of salvation as also depicted in other Pauline epistles notably Ephesians and Galatians where he discussed about salvation and the divine action towards accomplishing that plan, appropriately fit with the mature theological thought and thorough presentation of the gospel. While there was no specific intended recipient except that it was addressed to the Romans, the letter was addressed to several congregations in Rome with the purpose of promoting Jewish and Gentile unity in the church. The main theme of the epistle was that the gospel proclaims that God acquits both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus on the basis of Jesus Sacrificial death. Brief summary of the context of Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 according to Henry (1985) is the climax of the first major section of the epistle. Henry puts it, â€Å"Chapter 5 of the epistle describes the actual, objective manifestation of the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ† (p. 64). Henry noted that Romans 5:12 to 21 places God’s action of reconciliation in Christ in its ultimate context, the cosmic context. It is in this context that this exegesis of Romans 5: 12 to 17 is anchored. To exegete this passage fully, it is hereby deemed necessary to write in full Romans 5: 12-17. Paul states: 12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. 17For if, by the trespass of the man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (NIV). The passage was full of important and meaningful terminologies that comprise its entire interpretation. Terminologies such as sin, death, law, gift, grace, judgment, condemnation, abundant provisions, and gift of righteousness are words that have important implications not only in the book of Romans, but the entire doctrine of salvation. For instance, the theological notion of sin which the apostle Paul has raised encompassed the entire interpretation of the scripture. This is also the idea that Paul was giving emphasis especially in such terms such as gift, grace, and righteousness. Exegesis of chapter 5:12-17 Paul begins verse 12 with the conclusive word â€Å"therefore† which means that the passage was connected with earlier theological discussion beginning from chapter 1:18 in which Paul cited that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against wicked people whose godlessness entails them to suppress the truth. Paul emphasized that despite they know all about God yet they neither recognized him nor glorify him (v. 19). Because of this utter neglect and deliberate violation of God’s will, Paul says, â€Å"they have no excuse† (2:1). Here, Paul refers to both Jews and Gentiles. In chapter 3, Paul declares that no one is righteous and categorically stated that everyone has sinned and have fallen short to the glory of God (3:23). But chapter 4 deviates from the gloom discussion of sin and its consequence. He now focused on the hope of being able to regain spiritual relations with God through faith, citing Abraham as example. Paul used the word â€Å"therefore† to connect the passage with the above context. But as mentioned earlier, this passage is full of important words and phrases that enable this connection. First of all, Paul mentioned about the entry of sin and death. Obviously referring to Adam, he said that sin and death entered the world through the trespass of the one man. It means that the whole human race was contaminated by the sin committed by Adam through which death becomes the consequence. In order to shed more light on this highly theological discussion, it is important to define sin and death from their original usage in this passage. The law of sin and death The original word used for sin in Romans chapter 5:12 was the noun Hamartia, which occurred 174 time in the New testament and Hamartias while Thanatos for death. According to James Montgomery Boice, the Greek Hamartia and Hamartias means short coming or missing the mark. But Hamartia and Hamartias are just two of several Greek words for sin. The Greek Pesha, for transgression, chata to miss the mark, shagah to go astray, and paraptoma offense, all depicts a deviation from a higher standard or from a state enjoyed originally. The context therefore which Paul has in mind about sin and death goes back to the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve were placed by God. Obviously, this place depicts God’s presence which suggests that Adam and Eve enjoyed a higher state of life. But they deviated from this state by deliberately ignoring God’s command and therefore breach their fellowship with God. While Genesis 1:8 describes this place as a place of sufficiency as all that Adam needs to live were there, yet they departed from the mark which God has set for them. Thus, while everything that God has created adds beauty to this place especially the four rivers and all the animals that were subject to the dominion of Adam depicts God’s concern, provision, and love for his creation, they were were supposedly strictly oblige to obey what God has commanded them. Along with these beautiful creations, was God’s solemn warning for Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree in the center of the Garden as the very time they would eat of it, they will surely die. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve have chosen to disobey God. Thus, right after Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command, they were sentenced to live a difficult life as the ground by which they could get their food was cursed by God. God also pronounced the entry of death into the world when God said to Adam â€Å"by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return† (Genesis 3:19). Along with God’s judgment, they were driven out of the garden. That means, they were cast out from the very presence of God. The issue here is that Adam and Eve lost a higher state of life they enjoyed at Eden. They enjoyed God’s abundant provisions, they enjoyed God’s presence, and they enjoyed their being a perfect creation of God. They were innocent and they must have also been a divine creation. With Adam’s fall, all these were lost. Although God still care for human being even after Adam’s fall, the state of life which they had enjoyed in the Garden was never restored. Besides, the impact of God’s pronouncement that Adam would go back to dust speaks of the physical corruption. That is, of decaying and dying to which the writer of Genesis clearly indicates the hopelessness of man’s condition. While the Bible was silent about how long did Adam and Eve were living in Eden when they committed that regretful decision, after they were driven out, the days of their lives started to be in counting. Humans offended God and justice must be served against them. It is this condition that Paul was talking. Sin corrupted the human being and because of this we are subjected to decay. Thus, sin is defined as â€Å"coming short of the glory of God† (3:23). The consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin therefore was that every human being became sinners subject to all the woes both physical and spiritual with reference to Adam as the fountain of all the woes that sin has introduced into the world. Referring to Adam, Barnes noted, â€Å"Sin entered into the world. He was the first sinner of the race. The word sin here evidently means the violation of the law of God. He was the first sinner among men, and in consequence all others became sinners. † We are subject to the consequence of sin both in the physical and the spiritual world. Earlier, genesis 3 speaks of the consequence of sin in the physical world as the difficulty of life. That is, all the miseries that the world suffers including hunger and poverty, chaos because of unrelenting wars in various part of the world, calamities such as earthquakes, typhoons’, and other manmade disasters, worries caused by economic uncertainties, and all other social problems affecting our society that are in turn affecting us individually. Sin has corrupted the hearts and mind of many people resulting to more crimes, and moral decay contributing more problems that makes life even more difficult. On top of this, death played the worst role in the lives of the human being. The Greek word for death in this passage is thanatos which means a physical death. The Greek thanato implies both the physical and spiritual death. However, the bible did not give any formal definition of the word death. Thus according to Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman, we must infer our understanding of death from a whole range of Biblical statements pertaining to the subject. In doing so, we must be careful to distinguish idiomatic or euphemistic expressions for death, which may not be intended anything more than a person has died, from comments intending to some understanding of what that death involved . Boa and Bowman noted that the Bible often used the words â€Å"expire† â€Å"to breathe one’s last† to â€Å"depart† â€Å"to be no more† â€Å"to be gathered to one’s people or fathers† â€Å"to sleep† â€Å"to lie down with one’s fathers† â€Å"to be cut off from the land† and â€Å"to perish. † While the use of these terms for death may vary in the interpretation, yet death generally means the termination of the physical life. According to the Standard International Bible Encyclopedia, death is a consequence of sin. It stated that in contrast with a long life which has been viewed in the Old Testament as a blessing, death is seen as a disaster. This condition depicts the worse condition of the human being as aside from making life more miserable, life is now uncertain. This clearly illustrated in the following lines, Death, though come into the world through sin, is nevertheless at the same time a consequence of man’s physical and frail existence now; it could therefore be threatened as a punishment to man, because he was taken out of the ground and was made a living soul, of the earth earthy (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). If he remained obedient, he would have returned to dust but have pressed forward on the spiritual development (The International Standard Biblical Encyclopedia. Against this hopeless condition, Paul states that despite the entrance of sin into the world through one man and death through sin which rendered man hopeless as he was incapable of restoring his previous relations with God, Paul now asserts in verse 15 that the God himself has taken the initiative to reach out with men. Pau states, â€Å"But the gift is not like the trespass. † The gift of grace (which shall also be discussed later) of God according to Paul was far greater than all the effects of sin. The Revised English Bible translation clearly made this striking difference between the effect of sin and the gift of grace of God. REB puts it, â€Å"God’s act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam’s wrong doing. For if the wrong doing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. † Here the effect of sin and death in the human being is clearly outweighed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The Law and Grace There were various kinds of law that the ancient Jews held sacred during the Old Testament times. Among them and the most important were the Torah or the ceremonial laws, and the Decalogue which given by God to Moses in Exodus 20: 1-17. While the Torah of the Old Testament presents a more complicated moral admonition that were difficult for state enforcement however, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of theology asserts that the state is silent â€Å"about state enforcement or specifies God rather than the state as the enforcer. † Under this law enforcement, the book of Deuteronomy has various laws and regulations which require strict obedience. While the Decalogue (Greek word for the Ten Commandments) â€Å"represents minimum moral and religious requirements for those covenant relationship with God† it nevertheless demand absolute obedience. Because of this strict demand for obedience, the law has become the stumbling black for the Israelites because these laws were too much for them to obey literally and word for word. Paul say’s the law served as a mirror for sin by which the Israelite can reflect on the holiness of God. The Israelites particularly found it to heavy to obey the law, perhaps not only because the law was intended to be all encompassing, but because of their adjustment from practically secular Egyptian values or laws, they could hardly follow the divine laws. They were miserable with regards to obedience to the law. This lead Paul to conclude in Roman chapter 8, that the law was powerless because it weakened by the sinful nature of the human being. Thus, the law was unable to address the divine requirements instead; it served as the vehicle for sin to dominate mankind. It is in this context that God’s grace through Jesus Christ came into the scene to rescue every human being from the serious consequences of sin which death.

Battle of King’s Mountain

The Battle of King's Mountain Major Ferguson of the Loyalist Militia was tasked with raising and organizing Loyalist units from the backcountry of South Carolina to help prtotect the British General Cornwallis. Ferguson gathered a few Tory units and marched towards Gilbert Town, North Carolina, where he set up a base camp. He issued a command to the opposition forces to lay down their weapons. If they refused he stated he would, â€Å"lay waste to their country with fire and sword. † Patriot militia leaders John Sevier and Isaac Shelby sent word to William Campbell in Virginia to aid an attack on Major Ferguson.Many more more militiamen and local gunmen were rallied by the Patriot leaders. These some 1,400 men became what was known as the â€Å"Mountain Men†. Among these hundreds of men were two traitors who deserted the Patriots and ran off the Gilbert Town to alert Ferguson of the mass of militia converging on him. The Major called for a full retreat to Charlotte, and requested reinforcements for General Cornwallis. The message did not reach Cornwallis until a day after the battle. The Patriot militia recieved word of Ferguson's retreat and urged on to try to catch him.Instead of reaching Charlotte, Ferguson's force camped at King's Mountain where they set camp just west of the mountain's highest point. In a rush to reach the Loyalist regime the Patriots sent over 900 men on horseback throughout the night and the next morning until they reached King's Mountain. The Mountain Men surrounded the camp and attacked. The Patriots formed eight detachments to fully surround the Loyalist camp. British Major Ferguson's force only consisted of Loyalists, not British Red Coats, the majority of which were just rallied days before from South Carolina.The rebel force charged up the mountain screaming and firing their muskets from behind natural barricades. The Loyalists were unaware and were caught off gaurd; Ferguson rallied his troops and led charges down th e hill. Lesser armed, the Patriots retreated to the forest until charging up the hill once again. A pattern formed in the battle in which rebel forces charged up the hill causing a Loyalist charge down the hill. The steep slope of the mountain caused the Loyalists to overshoot and completely miss the charging Patriots, also it became hard to lock on to a target which was in no form and never was in one place.An hour of firing resulting in large losses to the Loyalist force. However, Ferguson felt confident and would not allow a surrender. He continued charging until he was shot off his horse dead before he hit the ground. Eventually the Patriots overwhelmed the leaderless Loyalists and gained a surrender. The Battle at King's Mountain was a decisive victoy for the Patriot army and quite a significant win. There was such an enormous amount of bloodshed mainly because of the Patriots' hunger for retaliation after Banastre Tarleton massacred many continental soldiers. The defeat of Maj or Ferguson helped win the future battle at Cowpens, SC.Ferguson's militia was supposed to help cover General Cornwallis's flank. King's Mountain helped flip thhe momentum in the American south in the favor of the Patriots. The â€Å"Mountain Men† were able to destroy the Loyalists using what is one of the early accounts of â€Å"guerilla warfare†. British led troops were so used to fighting direct battles against lined troops, but the evasive and morphing attack of the Patriots is what decided their fate. The Battle of King's Mountain will forever stand as one of the pivotal battles of America's fight for freedom and of American history.

Academic analytics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Academic analytics - Essay Example adley review acknowledges that benchmarking activities such as student engagement serve as indicators for gauging the institution’s quality (Commonwealth Government of Australia, 2008). Increased competition, accreditation, assessment and regulation are the major factors encouraging the adoption of academic analytics in institutions of higher learning. Although institutions of higher learning gather a lot of vital data that can significantly aid in solving problems like attrition and retention, the collected data is not being analysed adequately and hence translated into useful data (Goldstein, 2005.) Subsequently, higher education leadership are forced to make critical and vital decisions based on inadequate information that could be achieved by properly utilising and analysing the available data (Norris, Leonard, & strategic Initiatives Inc., 2008). This gives rise to strategic problems. This setback also depicts itself at the tactical level. Learning and teaching at institutions of higher education if often a diverse and complex experience. Each and every teacher, student or course is quite different. However, LMS is tasked with taking care of them all. LMS is a t the centre of academic analytics. It records each and every student and staff’s information and results in a click within the system. When this crucial information is added, compared and contrasted with different enterprise information systems provides the institution with a vast array of useful information that can be harvested to gain a competitive edge (Dawson & McWilliam, 2008; Goldstein, 2005; Heathcoate & Dawson, 2005). In order to retrieve meaningful information from institution sources i.e. LMS, the information has to be correctly interpreted against a basis of educational efficiency, and this action requires thorough analysis from people with learning and teaching skills. Therefore, a collaborative approach is required from both the people guarding the data and those who will interpret

Georg Cantor Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Georg Cantor - Research Paper Example Georg had first been private tutored but later went to primary school in St Petersburg before they migrated to Germany. This was as a result of the Russian weather being very unfavourable. Cantor attended local schools and also made friends who would later on be of significance in making and creating theories that would change the world of mathematics. Cantor’s early interest and basis in mathematics formed a crucial step in helping him come up with credible mathematical theories. Cantor was a very good mathematician and was known for his exceptional skills in trigonometry. He entered the University of Zurich where he continued to do well. His study at the University of Zurich was cut short by the death of his father. After receiving a substantial amount of inheritance from his father, he was able to transfer to the University of Berlin where he attended lecturers by influential scholars. He later attended the University of Gottingen where he took mathematical research. In this research he was able to complete his dissertation on number theory. While in Berlin, he was elected the president of the Mathematical Society Berlin Chapter. He was also a member of several teams that met and discussed mathematics as well as how they could come up with Mathematical theories. In the same light Cantor taught at a local girl’s school. At the same time he worked on improving his theory of mathematics and presented his theory again. The Personal life of Georg Cantor was one that was adventurous as at a tender age he played the Violin and his family was very musical. He also came from a mixed family where his mother was of Russian descent and his father German. His Father was also a successful businessman who was involved in the setting up of the St Petersburg Stock Exchange. Cantor was also the first born child in a family of six. Cantor’s work was also heavily criticised and

African American Girls Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

African American Girls - Essay Example While studying the two contradictory family settings of African American girls, it was observed that the girls with father can enjoy healthier life than those who are fatherless. The paper focuses on discussing about two types of African girls, one is the girl with father and another is without father. For the healthy development of the child the presence of father in the family is very essential. In the family setting regarding this issue, the basic characters involved are the girl, her mother, father and sometimes other members of the family such as her siblings and her close relatives. The scope of the paper is African American girl with father and her counterpart, the girl of same race without father. Here also we have to take into consideration the status of the father, that means whether the father present in the family is a biological father of the girl or he is the social father (mother’s second husband) it makes a lot of difference in the girl’s life. While com menting on the relationship of father and daughter especially in African American family, Belgrave Faye states, â€Å"Father-daughter relationship is important in the shaping of a daughter’s body image, self worth, and other self attributes.† The setting in which the relationship of a father and his daughter shapes is the family. It is the centre point from which the personality starts shaping. The bringing up and the behavioural pattern are decided by the family and the overall surrounding he/she gets especially at home. The common view of a healthy family means the presence of both father and mother. If anyone of them is missing, the life of the children gets affected adversely. Our paper basically focuses on the importance of father in shaping the life of the Black American Girls. The study aimed at focusing on the major factors of African American girls’ lives and they are as follows: The physical and mental development of African American girls and the role s of their fathers, in shaping them The second theme was to study the behavioural pattern of African American Women in the presence and absence of their fathers. While studying it was hypothesized that: The African American girls having fathers live healthier life physically and psychologically. The behavioural pattern in African American girls having fathers is more balanced and normal as compared to the girls who are fatherless. African American girls with fathers are brighter academically than the girls without fathers The African American Girls with Fathers: Fathers’ role in the physical activities of their daughters is very crucial in the family. For psychological needs, they rely on their mothers but for physical activities, they get support, encouragement and motivation from their fathers. Taylor et al. (1999) studied African American and Letina middle school girls regarding physical activity and found that African American girls ages 14 – 18 reported biological fathers positively influence their physical activity levels. Bungum and Vincent (1997) also found that fathers are instrumental in physical activity promotion among African American girls. (Tara Blackshear P. 24) In the study of Thompson (2003) it was found that African American girls require additional social support to increase physical activity behaviours, especially from their fathers. The girls are so much close both to their fathers and mothers. When it is a question of spending time with the father, they like to engage in sports activities with their fathers (such as playing sports, attending sports events, or going for any amusement with their father. While engaging with their parents, girls are equally engaged with