An Inspector Calls Essay -- English Literature

An Inspector Calls 'An Inspector Calls' is a play written by JB Priestley in 1945 and set in 1912. Priestley demonstrates his concern with moral responsibility and his beliefs in Socialist values through the character of the Inspector, whom he uses as a mouthpiece throughout the play. He voices his opinions on these issues using this technique, and they are shown by the way the Inspector deals with the Birling family and are exemplified by the obstacles to social harmony in which the Inspector has to face before coming to a suitable and justifiable conclusion. The play was written in 1945 - within a week of World War Two ending - but set in 1912, when Britain still had its Empire and was doing very well financially. The time span between the two dates is Priestley's way of expressing a feeling of urgency he thought necessary to pass on to society after the events of 1945. Although the war had ended, society in Britain in 1945 was still experiencing the hardships that it had brought. New books were printed under the wartime economy regulations, continuing the shortage of paper and therefore resulting in the books being expensive - too expensive for any working class person to purchase. However, in 1912 some things were different. Society did not have the burden of the war hanging over their heads, but life for the poor did not differ much from 1945. Edwardian society was strictly divided into social classes; below the very rich were the middle classes, such as doctors, merchants, shop workers and clerks. After that came the craftsman and skilled workers, and at the very bottom of the social ladder was the largest class of all - the ordinary workers and the poor, many of whom lived below the poverty... .... It is also contradictory to a section of one of Arthur Birling's speeches: "By the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else" which is the complete opposite to what the Inspector is announcing. The passage also anticipates World War One, in the sense that at the very end, the Inspector says "if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish" - this, to the Birlings, is a prophetic statement, but the reader and audience are aware of it as it has already come to pass. To emphasise that idea, the Inspector lengthens the list of words he mentions; instead of just using a comma between "fire" and "blood", he chooses to use 'and', which sensationalises the comment and makes it sound somewhat more important than if he had just normally listed those specific words.

Osteoarthritis Essay

Osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease is defined as a form of arthritis in which one or many joints undergo degenerative changes, including subchondral bony sclerosis, loss of articular cartilage, and proliferation of bone spurs or osteophytes and cartilage in the joint, according to Mosby’s Medical Dictionary (Anderson, 2001). Bullock, on the other hand, defines osteoarthritis as destruction of the articular cartilage and subchondral bone with cyst and osteophyte formation (Bullock and Henze, 2000). Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis affecting more than 20 million people in the country (Shiel, 2008). Osteoarthritis is usually acquired by the elderly (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). In males, there is a greater chance of contracting osteoarthritis before the age of 45, while in females, the greater chance is after the age of 45 (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Osteoarthritis can be called primary osteoarthritis when there is no known cause, or it has an idiopathic etiology and it is called secondary osteoarthritis when it is caused by another underlying disease condition (Shiel, 2008). Risk factors that can predispose an individual to developing this disease condition are an increased age, obesity, previous joint damage, trauma to joint due to repetitive use, occupations that involve carpet installation, construction working, farming and sports injuries, anatomic deformity, and genetic susceptibility (Kaplan, 2007). Osteoarthritis most often targets weight bearing joints at the hips, knees and cervical and lumbar spinal area; it also affects finger joints, most especially those at the proximal and distal regions (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Osteoarthritis occurs when the articular cartilage matrix is depleted thus exposing the basic collagen structure (Bullock and Henze, 2000). Due to the stress of everyday usage of the affected joint, the articular cartilage matrix will try to spread this compression hydrostatically but will fail to do so. This will cause the collagen fibers to rupture and the articular cartilage will flake, fissure and erode (Bullock and Henze, 2000). The exposed subchondral bone will crack and the synovial fluid will enter the cracks towards the marrow, and subchondral cysts are formed (Bullock and Henze, 2000). Since the subchondral bone is already exposed, there will be proliferation of fibroblasts in order to form new bone in this area. The periosteal bone growth increases at the joint margins and at the attachment sites of ligament or tendons and will develop into bone spurs or ridges called osteophytes (Bullock and Henze, 2000). The development of osteophytes will lead to an increase in synovial capsule size which in turn causes limited movement (Bullock and Henze, 2000). Also, osteophyte formation will irritate nerve endings in the periosteum causing pain (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Both the pain and movement limitation causes functional impairment in and individual suffering from osteoarthritis (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Clinical manifestations of osteoarthritis include the symptoms of pain, most specifically joint pain, possibly due to an inflamed synovium, stretching of the joint capsule or ligaments, irritation of nerve endings in the periosteum over the osteophytes, trabecular microfracture, intraosseous hypertension, bursitis, tendonitis, and muscle spasm (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). There is stiffness which is usually experienced in the morning but has a less than fifteen minutes duration and can be lessened with movement (Gardner, 2005). The patient’s functional impairment is due to pain on movement and his or her limited motion is due to the structural changes in the joints and is seen as Heberden’s and Bouchard’s nodes (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Physical assessment for osteoarthritis will reveal tender and enlarged joints (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Diagnostic tests of choice will be an x-ray of the affected area and it will show narrowing of the joint space due to progressive loss of the cartilage (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Osteoarthritis can be managed with conservative treatment, pharmacologic treatment, and surgical management. Conservative treatment involves heat application, weight reduction if obese, joint rest and avoidance of overuse, use of orthotic devices to support the affected joints, and isometric and postural exercises (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Medications to give patients include an analgesic therapy and acetaminophen is the drug of choice, glucosamine and chondroitin can be given too, to improve tissue function (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004). Surgical management involves osteotomy, arthroplasty and tidal irrigation of the knee (Smeltzer and Bare, 2004).

Elephant Evolution Phosphatherium to the Woolly Mammoth

Thanks to a hundred years of Hollywood movies, many people are convinced that mammoths, mastodons and other prehistoric elephants lived alongside dinosaurs. In fact, these huge, lumbering beasts evolved from the tiny, mouse-sized mammals that survived the K/T Extinction 65 million years ago. And the first mammal even remotely recognizable as a primitive elephant didnt appear until five million years after the dinosaurs went kaput.   The Phosphatherium That creature was Phosphatherium, a small, squat, pig-sized herbivore that popped up in Africa about 60 million years ago. Classified by paleontologists as the earliest known proboscid (an order of mammals distinguished by their long, flexible noses), Phosphatherium looked and behaved more like a pygmy hippopotamus than an early elephant. The giveaway was this creatures tooth structure: we know that the tusks of elephants evolved from incisors rather than canines, and Phosphatheriums choppers fit the evolutionary bill. The two most notable proboscids after Phosphatherium were Phiomia and Moeritherium, which also lived in northern African swamps and woodlands circa 37-30 million years ago. The better known of the two, Moeritherium, sported a flexible upper lip and snout, as well as extended canines that (in light of future elephant developments) could be considered rudimentary tusks. Like a small hippo, Moeritherium spent most of its time half-submerged in swamps; its contemporary Phiomia was more elephant-like, weighing about half a ton and dining on terrestrial (rather than marine) vegetation. Yet another northern African proboscid of this time was the confusingly named Palaeomastodon, which should not be confused with the Mastodon (genus name Mammut) that ruled the North American plains 20 million years later. Whats important about Palaeomastodon is that it was recognizably a prehistoric elephant, demonstrating that by 35 million years ago nature had pretty much settled on the basic pachyderm body plan (thick legs, long trunk, large size and tusks). Toward True Elephants: Deinotheres and Gomphotheres Twenty-five million years or so after the dinosaurs went extinct, the first proboscids appeared that could easily be discerned as prehistoric elephants. The most important of these, from an evolutionary perspective, were the gomphotheres (bolted mammals), but the most impressive were the deinotheres, typified by Deinotherium (terrible mammal). This 10-ton proboscid sported downward-curving lower tusks and was one of the largest mammals ever to roam the earth; in fact, Deinotherium may have inspired tales of giants in historical times, since it survived well into the Ice Age. As terrifying as Deinotherium was, though, it represented a side branch in elephant evolution. The real action was among the gomphotheres, the odd name of which derives from their welded, shovel-like lower tusks, which were used to dig for plants in soft, swampy ground. The signature genus, Gomphotherium, was especially widespread, stomping across the lowlands of North America, Africa and Eurasia from about 15 million to 5 million years ago. Two other gomphotheres of this era--Amebelodon (shovel tusk) and Platybelodon (flat tusk)--had even more distinctive tusks, so much so that these elephants went extinct when the lakebeds and riverbeds where they dredged up food went dry. The Difference Between Mammoths and Mastodons Few things in natural history are as confusing as the difference between mammoths and mastodons. Even these elephants scientific names seem designed to befuddle kids: what we know informally as the North American Mastodon goes by the genus name Mammut, while the genus name for the Woolly Mammoth is the confusingly similar Mammuthus (both names partake of the same Greek root, meaning earth burrower). Mastodons are the more ancient of the two, evolving from gomphotheres about 20 million years ago and persisting well into historical times. As a rule, mastodons had flatter heads than mammoths, and they were also slightly smaller and bulkier. More importantly, the teeth of mastodons were well-adapted to grinding the leaves of plants, whereas mammoths grazed on grass, like modern cattle. Mammoths emerged on the historical scene much later than mastodons, popping up in the fossil record about two million years ago and, like mastodons, surviving well into the last Ice Age (which, along with the hairy coat of the North American Mastodon, accounts for much of the confusion between these two elephants). Mammoths were slightly bigger and more widespread than mastodons, and had fatty humps on their necks, a much-needed source of nutrition in the harsh northern climates in which some species lived.   The Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, is one of the best-known of all prehistoric animals since entire specimens have been found encased in Arctic permafrost. Its not beyond the realm of possibility that scientists will one day sequence the  complete genome of the Woolly Mammoth and gestate a cloned fetus in the womb of a modern elephant! There is one important thing mammoths and mastodons shared in common: both of these prehistoric elephants managed to survive well into historical times (as late as 10,000 to 4,000 B.C.), and both were hunted to extinction by early humans.