West Nile Virus Essay example -- Biology

West Nile Virus has emerged in recent years throughout the temporate zones of Europe and North America. Causing a variety of conditions in its hosts, the most serious manifestation of WN virus infection is fatal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in humans and horses, and many birds. History While many forms of encephalitis exist, West Nile Virus was first isolated and identified in the West Nile District of Uganda in 1937. The virus, which was seemingly isolated to North Eastern Africa, became recognized as a cause of severe human meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the spinal cord and brain) in elderly patients during an outbreak in Israel in 1957. In addition to the human victims of this disease, the virus was found Egypt and France during 1960s to have fatal effects within horses. While this disease spread through Northern African and Southern Europe, 1999 marked the first appearance of West Nile Virus in North America, with encephalitis reported in both humans and horses. West Nile in the United States The West Nile Virus first came to the U.S. public's attention following an outbreak in New York in August 1999 where eight patients has contracted ecephalitis from the virus. In the following four years the virus spread to almost all 48 contiguous states. In the United States cases were initially infrequent until 2002, when a massive outbreak occurred in the Mississippi River basin during August and September. As it has spread through the country, nearly 8,500 people have been diagnosed with the virus, which has lead to 189 deaths. The emergence of the new disease has been followed closely by the media and the government. Many areas that have experienced significant outbreaks of the Virus have occured have implem... ...e a much better chance of even avoiding the itch of a mosquito bite. Make sure that you drain standing water around your yard and repair the screens on your windows and doors to keep the bugs from coming in. * Step Three:Help Your Community Control the Disease. While it is relatively easy to control what happens around your home, it takes community effort to help curb West Nile on a city wide level. Help authories by reporting any dead birds that you see, see if your city/town has a mosquito control program that you can help with, or even get together with your neighborhood to clean the local park and remove mosquito breeding areas in public spaces. West Nile Virus is nothing to be afraid of, but it must be taken seriously. The process by which these goals are met are simple, but require you to take proactive measures in your day to day life.

Eng Comparing and Contrasting Literary Forms Essay

Poetry, drama and short story are literary forms that provide readers with entertainment, insight, pleasure, escape and sometimes information. Readers can find satisfaction in any of the three genres because the styles, variations, language and themes cater to everyone’s preference: tragedy, comedy, profanity or just for pleasure. There is a piece of literary work to suit every taste. Poetry, when performed live, gives the words rhythm, music and life. John Updike in his poem Dog’s Death in lines one to sixteen, the rhythm and pattern are not as distinct as in lines seventeen to twenty; where the beats are strong and there is a certain level of intensity leading up to the finale†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Good Dog.† â€Å"Back home, we found that in the night her frame, Drawing near to dissolution, had endured the shame Of diarrhea and had dragged across the floor To a newspaper carelessly left there. Good dog.† (Clugston, 2010) Usually one performer presents a poem to t he audience whereas in drama there are many actors, stage settings and music that combine to create a complete stage production. Drama is written for theatre production. Actors impersonate the characters by reciting the words that are written in the play. For example, Maurya the main character in the play Riders to the Sea, says the closing words to her son before he left home: â€Å"You’d do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the boards†¦for it’s a deep grave we’ll make him by the grace of God.† The actors must also follow the author’s directions. She kneels down and the curtain falls slowly. (Clugston, 2010) Drama and play are written for specific purposes. The poem, when it is performed, is similar to an actor doing a soliloquy in a play. For example Macbeth’s speech: â€Å"I have lived long enough: my way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow; And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.† (Clugston, 2010) This speech is poetry within a play unlike the short story. The author of a short story on the other hand, depends on imagery, symbolism, similes and other literary devices to awaken the reader’s imagination, create the big picture and to pull him/her into that place. Unlike poetry and drama, the short story is not written for performance but for the reader’s pleasure and escape. The plot, setting, theme, point of view, characters, style, the actual story line and the ending of a short story all combine to give the reader a slice of the experience of the specified era. Alice Walker in the â€Å" Welcome Table,† paints a picture of racial segregation in the church in the state of Georgia. She wrote about a black old woman who entered a whites-only church. â€Å"The reverend of the church stopped her pleasantly as she stepped into the vestibule†¦..†Aunty, you know this is not your church?†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Inside the church she sat on the very first bench from the back.† (Clugston, 2010) This picture is of the old woman/main character sitting at the back of the church and the reverend reminding her that she is in the wrong place. In other words she is out of place. Short stories appeal more to the reader’s imagination and senses and are not usually performed unless they are adapted for stage. Reference Clugston, W. R., (2010). Journey Into Literature, San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education Inc.

Who Invented Computer and Video Games

It would be something of a misnomer to attribute the creation and development of video games to any singular moment or event. Rather, the process can be best described as an ongoing evolution, a long and winding journey of advancements with numerous inventors all playing pivotal roles. In 1952, A.S. Douglas wrote his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Cambridge on Human-Computer interaction. As part of the project, Douglas created the first graphics-based computer game: a version of Tic-Tac-Toe. The game was programmed on an EDSAC vacuum-tube computer, which relied on a cathode ray tube display.In  1958, William Higinbotham created the first true video game. His game, titled Tennis for Two, was devised and played on a Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope. Using an MIT PDP-1 mainframe computer, Steve Russell designed SpaceWar!—the first game specifically made for computer play in 1962.In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote Chase, the first video game played on a television set. (Baer, who was then part of military electronics firm Sanders Associates, first conceived of his idea in 1951 while working for Loral, a television company.)In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney  created the first arcade game. It was called Computer Space and was based on Steve Russells earlier game of Spacewar! A year later, the arcade game Pong was created by Bushnell, with help from Al Alcorn. Bushnell and Dabney would go on to become the founders of Atari Computers that same year. In 1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game. Larry Kerecman, one of the first video arcade game operators, wrote:   The brilliance of these machines was that Nolan Bushnell and company took what was computer programming (in Space War) and translated it into a simpler version of the game (no gravity) using hard-wired logic circuits. The printed circuit boards that comprise electronics of these games use integrated circuits called small-scale integrated circuits. They consist of discrete logic chips and gates or gates, 4-line to 16-line decoders, etc. straight out of the Texas Instruments catalog. The shape of the rocket ship and flying saucer even are visible in a pattern of diodes on the PC board. In 1972, Magnavox released  the first commercial home video game console, The Odyssey, which came pre-programmed with a dozen games. The machine had originally been designed by Baer while he was still at Sanders Associates in 1966. Baer managed to gain his legal rights to the machine after Sanders Associates rejected it.In 1976, Fairchild released the first programmable home game console, the Fairchild Video Entertainment System. Later renamed Channel F, the system was one of the first to use a newly invented microchip  by Robert Noyce of the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. Thanks to this chip, video games were no longer limited by the number of TTL switches.On June 17, 1980, Ataris Asteroids and Lunar Lander became  the first two video games to be registered with  the United States Copyright Office.In 1989, Nintendo introduced the popular Game Boy system, a portable handheld video console created by game designer Gumpei Yokoi. He was also known for creating Virtual Boy, Famicom (and NES) as well as the Metroid series.