Our Perception of Beauty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Our Perception of Beauty - Essay Example Nehamas (2005) in his article â€Å"Beauty: Skin-Deep, in the Eye of the Beholder and Valuable?† discusses beauty where he said: â€Å"There is such a thing as the beauty that is only skin-deep.   It is the beauty of appearance, what we call "looking good."   It has little to do with personality, character, wit or morality, and that is because anything that applies to how things look is not a reliable guide to many of their other qualities.† This the kind o beauty that people attributes to contest like the Miss Universe pageant. Psychologically in our minds, we do process the information. Nehamas (2005) said: â€Å"The beauty of appearance -- what we can judge, say, by looking at a photograph of a face -- is something that psychologists have been investigating a lot recently.   In general, they show people photographs of faces and ask them to rank them in terms of their beauty.   Since these are digital photographs, it is possible to combine them into composite photographs.   What seems to be the case is (1) the larger the composite photograph (the more features of individual faces it combines) the more people are likely to consider it beautiful and (2) there is remarkable agreement, both within and between different cultures, about which faces are more beautiful than which.† Nehamas (2005) stated that several hypotheses have been offered to account for these phenomena, and it seems agreed that they have something to do with the likelihood of reproductive success.   Thus, he said that the more features a face combines, the more average it is.   In explaining further, he argued that now it is very counterintuitive to say that the average is what strikes us as beautiful (since the people or works of art we find beautiful usually stand out against their background), but it turns out that average members of groups are less likely to be subject to external evolutionary pressures and more likely to be healthy and survive in the long run (Paraphrasing made). Agreement among different groups produces beauty, that could be passed on to others and media could actually do something about it.  Ã‚  

Genetic reprogramming holds great promise for the discipline of Research Paper

Genetic reprogramming holds great promise for the discipline of regenerative medicine, because of the ability to obtain patient- - Research Paper Example These cells are similar to embryonic cells in that they can differentiate into the various body cells under favorable conditions. The advantage of iPSCs cells over the embryonic cells is that they do not need embryos during production. This makes the technology ethically acceptable. IPSCs cells production involves inserting of stem cell associated genes into specialized somatic cells using viral vectors (Xiong et al 1). Genetic engineers hopefully believe iPSCs cells will initiate the production of cells or tissue from a patient that will repair the damaged tissues. The cells regenerated through induced pluripotent stem cell method are most suitable in restoring damaged cells and tissues. This is because the patient’s immune system will readily tolerate them. This will eliminate the problem of graft rejection exhibited in xenografts or isografts. Elimination of immune suppressive drugs on patients usually does happen. Despite all these seemingly possible setbacks, induced plur ipotent stem cells have proofed to be the future of the regenerative medicine. Patients suffering from cardiovascular disease and other disorders will find cure after the establishment of this technology. Application of iPSCs in treatment of cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease affects the cardiovascular system (the heart and the blood vessels). These diseases include coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, pulmonary embolism among others. The iPSCs technology promises a positive break through to the medicine world (Amit &Joseph112). The ability to induce adult specific cells into stem cell without use of embryo enables clinicians to change other cells from a patient. The body recognizes the cells as self and therefore no rejection can occur. Researchers are successfully modeling many cardiovascular diseases by this technology. The improved understanding of the cardiovascular diseases provides a better treatment in the medicine world. Formation of cardiomy ocytes Reprogramming of somatic cells into iPSCs is by integrating or non-integrating method. The integrating method uses viral vector while the non-integrating method uses a plasmid to deliver the genes. For cardiovascular disease treatment, the most suitable is the non-integrating method. Reprogramming of the fibroblasts of the dermis of the patient produces the iPSCs for use. A method called embroyoid body differentiation turns the iPSCs to revolve into cardiomyocytes (Nelson et al 2). The cardiac cells produced this way show the same characteristics of human cardiac cells although they may differ in morphology. To determine functionality of the iPSCs, cardiomyocytes researchers use molecular techniques such as immunocytochemistry and polymerase chain reaction techniques (Amit & Joseph117). The cardiomyocytes formed from patient cells posses the mutations that cause disease in the patient. These cells serve as the model for the disease and therefore further investigations are pos sible. Modeling of inherited cardiovascular diseases is very important in determining its cure. The iPSCs cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) provide the best model for these diseases. The iPSCs provide insights to concerns of heart repair. This technology is a potential source of cells for repairing the heart and blood vessels. Studies done by Li and co-researchers gave the evidence that induced pluripotent stem cells would provide unlimited resources for transplantation. This form of tissue

Representations of difference in comic books Essay

Representations of difference in comic books - Essay Example In doing so, one considers the range of potential readers and therefore thinks about gender balance to at least reach all kinds of people. Of course profitability is a serious matter to cartoonists and writers because it is not just an expression of their artistic side but it is also their job that should be well-compensated. Minority representation is a social issue that becomes a major concern in comics. It does not only make readers critical of social issues going around them such as feminism, sexism, racism and others which have been the theme of many comic strips that made great noise in the industry. Sometimes, the most daring themes often succeed because of the popularity it can cause from the criticisms it gains from the public eye. Nevertheless, there are laws that often hold back artists in seriously considering their kinds of material otherwise they will be considered pornographic just as it was ruled in 1973 by the Supreme Court that a material is â€Å"considered obscen e if they offended prevailing community standards†. Another important detail to consider in representations is diversity of genre. When genres are determined, it would be easier for writers and readers to identify what is most read. As a medium, some of the benefits of representations are becoming the voice for minorities, discuss on social issues in a catchy manner and educate and encourage children to become more critical of social issues. Comics are interesting because of the cartoonish drawings that attract the attention of readers from children to adults. Therefore it is a medium that one can use to speak to a variety of readers. The images represented and captions written on comics can reflect the environmental circumstances and oftentimes call the attention of readers of different ages who have diverse opinions as shown in â€Å"Say it Loud†. The representations became the voice of Lesbians (Bechdel), racial minorities (Coleman) and feminists (Farmer & Robbins). Although there have been various reactions from readers, there have been a lot who applauded the works of cartoonists who had the courage to speak for the ones they represented. The limitations of representations are interconnected. As mentioned earlier, writers and cartoonists are concerned about gender balance, minority representations and diversity of genre which often limit their decisions. In addition, technological advancements have a great effect on the products because of the use of television and computers which draw the attention of potential readers. There are diverse products that cater to diverse audience which results to a low percentage of possible comic readers. Therefore, the probability is the fear of many cartoonists, that when one starts small, it might stay small (McCloud). There have been tensions that arose among readers and writers about visibility and assimilation. For the artists, perhaps their objective was to create a critical mind in their readers with r epresentations that would appeal to their audiences. However, they have received various reactions. Some enjoyed comic strips while others were able to relate to them because they find that it is their very life that is being represented. Some simply acknowledged the genius of the artists but some had violent reactions. One of the readers of Aaron McGrouder’s is quoted to have said his comic strips are teaching children to become racists. The reader claims to understand the objective of the comic strips for the adult audience but