Thuearth

{draw:frame} TrueEarth Healthy Food Caso n? 2 Grupo 1 09/04/2010 Integrantes: Ariel Alevy Juan Diego Castro Matias Massu Almendra Medina Marcelo Otarola Carolina Rodriguez 1. – ? Por que era exitosa la Pasta Cucina Fresca? ?Como compararia la oportunidad de mercado de la pizza con la de la pasta? Durante los anos ochenta, comenzo a haber un boom de preocupacion por la comida saludable y facil de preparar. TruEarth vio esto y comenzo a realizar estudios e investigaciones sobre los nutrientes que componen las comidas que se encuentran mas frecuentemente en los hogares. Es asi, como lanzo la linea Pasta Cucina Fresca, que son pastas hechas a base de trigo, y con un sabor muy parecido a las regulares, lo que hacia que fuera un buen reemplazo saludable, nutritivo y de buen gusto. Del mismo modo ocurre con el mercado de las pizzas, la gente al estar preocupandose mas por su salud, los niveles de colesterol, la hipertension, etc. Y la forma de prevenirlos o controlarlos, busca comida rica, pero baja en grasas. Por lo tanto, las mismas cualidades de las pastas de Cucina Fresca se pueden extrapolar al mercado incipiente de pizzas hecha a base de grano de trigo. La oportunidad al igual que con las pastas es la idea innovadora de llegar a la preferencia por pizza de la gente que quiere comer rapido sin perder la nocion de preparar una comida, y quiere comer sano. En este momento TruEarth esta en la misma encrucijada que estaba cuando queria lanzar su pasta de trigo. Tiene un producto el cual es facilmente replicable por lo que el primero que lo lance al mercado va a tener una ventaja, y ademas como ya tiene su marca Cucina Fresca en el mercado que esta bien posesionada puede aprovecharla para lanzar la pizza. *2. Usando el modelo de presupuesto del Ex*hibit 5, estime la demanda para la pizza. (Tips: use los datos de la Tabla B y del Exhibit 7, ojo con las diferencias entre los consumidores y no consumidores de Pasta Cucina Fresca†¦ puede ser util un analisis de sensibilidad) 3. – ? Que nos dice el Exhibit 6 sobre como los consumidores ven la Pizza? La gente ve ThuEarth Pizza como un sustituto conveniente con el resto de las pizzas refrigeradas sin embargo lo ven menos conveniente que la pizza para llevar el cual abarca el mayor mercado de venta de pizzas. En cuanto al sabor supera por poco a la pizza refrigerada, sin embargo la pizza para llevar supera a la pizza ThuEarth, por lo que en terminos de gustos quedamos debajo de la pizza para llevar, lo que es una gran desventaja. En terminos de atributos la pizza de TruEarth tiene ingredientes iguales a los de la pizza para llevar, pero por las propiedades que esta tiene la hacen un producto mas atractivo para la gente, al ser saludable. Se estima que la gente que come pizza, en las proximas 10 veces que la consuman, 4 de estas ocasiones seran pizzas TruEarth. 4. – ? Como resultaron los test de concepto para la pizza ? ?Como compara con los de Pasta? En general los test de concepto para las pizzas son favorables, a la gente le agrada la idea de tener una pizza a base de granos y fibra, ya que existe desde hace un tiempo un gran interes, que va en aumento, por la comida saludable. En relacion a las caracteristicas de la comida a un cuarto le parece importante que este hecha de granos, a un tercio de los posibles compradores les importa que sea un producto fresco y con fecha de produccion y vencimiento y a un tercio le parece bueno que tenga un aspecto apetitoso. Cifras muy similares encontramos en las pastas para los mismos aspectos medidos (35,42 y 25% respectivamente. ). En cuanto a la preparacion encuentran con mayor relevancia que todos los ingredientes puedan ser comprados en un mismo lugar, que los aderezos se vendan por separado y que se puedan agregar la cantidad de estos ultimos que ellos deseen. Menos importante encuentran la seleccion de los productos y la facilidad de preparacion. Cifras muy similares encontramos en el mercado de las pastas. Por ultimo el nombre de la marca es importante para ambos segmentos, siendo menos importante el precio del producto para comprarlo. Casi un quinto de ambos segmentos encuentra favorable que existan ediciones limitadas de los productos, para el segmento de las pizzas es favorable que tengan un precio alto, no asi para el segmento de las pastas y ambos grupos consideran favorable en poca medida que tenga fecha de vencimiento. 5. – ? Lanzaria la pizza? Para poder responder esta pregunta es necesario profundizar un poco mas sobre el atractivo que tiene este mercado. Para esto, hemos realizado un analisis de Porter que se presenta a continuacion: {draw:g} FODA: Creemos que siendo TruEarth una empresa grande y ya consolidada dentro del mercado, e independientemente que su producto estrella sean las pastas, esta empresa cuenta con la infraestructura y los conocimientos necesarios para poder producir pizzas utilizando su economia de escala en el proceso, por lo que no tiene grandes barreras de entrada por este lado. Por otra parte, TruEarth fue el primero en lanzar comidas saludables, por lo que posee compradores fieles, a quienes les preocupa su salud y quienes disfrutarian de darse el gusto de una pizza de vez en cuando. TruEarth ya tiene proveedores que lo podrian abastecer en las materias primas necesarias para producir pizzas, que son similares o las mismas que para producir su linea de pastas, por lo que sus costos no subirian mucho. De acuerdo a las tablas existentes, los compradores de TruEarth no son especialmente sensibles al precio y si les interesa conocer su marca y lineas de productos. Existe otra marca que esta compitiendo con ellos y que tambien esta barajando la posibilidad de lanzar una pizza saludable, por lo que TruEarth debe realizar un rapido y profundo analisis para poder tomar la decision de lanzar o no su producto. En conclusion, despues de haber analizado a traves de Porter y FODA, consideramos que TruEarth debe lanzar su linea de pizza.

Advantages of buying a casket now

Death is perhaps the most feared topics of all that people can talk about. Its not that by avoiding it we will thus not die, but most people are superstitious about it and think that by avoiding discussing it then they are driving themselves away from it as possible.The issue goes beyond discussing death and includes preparing for it. Human culture in most societies has it that death is an issue best left to some supreme unknown powers and forces, and any behavior or actions that contravenes this acts in inviting death.Rimpoche (2001) states that the best way to prepare for death in our lifetime is by living life and practicing the vices of life such as patience, love and compassion. It is therefore indispensable to ignore death and considering preparation for its occurrence is as important as living life.Considering preparing for death as building a solid foundation for your death, planning for death today is one of the most important investments one can accord himself. One of the m ajor steps towards this preparation is buying a casket today.Buying a casket today has a lot of advantages that can be foregone if this simple decision is left for another day. Buying a casket involves making choices that depend most on one’s tastes and preferences on such factors as the casket’s color, design and other personal factors. One of the advantages of buying a casket now is to avoid the last minute purchase which is usually influenced by grieving.Most decisions about funeral purchases are made by people when grieving. This affects their choice and in the end what is picked up may not be the ideal casket one would want to be buried in. Further more, purchasing a casket during the grieving period is hindered by time constraints and inadequate variety to choose from.Another factor to consider is that funeral service providers make things expensive just when they know you need them the most and you have very little in terms of choice and options.This can be avoi ded if the purchase is done well before that time comes and that time is now. This is an issue of saving money and is therefore an advantage worth considering. Saving money on the casket can also be achieved by making the choice to purchase the casket now.This is because the purchase will be able to be done from a store of your choice and discounting be discussed. It will also be a big relief to family members or friends who would have to take up the task of finding a casket for you. Every person knows their choice and preference and being able to exercise this is usually given high respect.Having somebody else pick out your casket may be a big task to him, not knowing whether you will be truly happy with the casket or not. Buying the casket yourself today will help in avoiding this situation and at the same time allow one to pick a casket of their choice.The choice for one’s casket is can be done today and the advantages of doing so today are much more than those of postponi ng the task. Prices for most commodities never go down but keep on going up instead. Buying a casket of your choice today can help avoid future expectations in price increases of caskets. It is also an advisable consideration when one wants to make all the preparations concerning their after life.People always make preparations for all events in their lives and so preparing for their death is not a different matter. It is just a phase of life, just like wedding is, and the advantages one derives from buying their wedding gowns way before the wedding day comes are more or less similar to the advantages one would reap from buying their casket today, way before their burial day arrives.People need to realize these benefits and change their casket purchasing habits and plans to save on a lot of costs that would be unavoidable if done otherwise.The place one will lie after their death is as important as the bed they lie today, and just as much as a person loves a certain bed, that it the same way one should love the casket they will lie in. Loving the casket begins with buying it now, for that will ensure you will use a casket of your choice, not an imposed one.Reference.Rimpoche, G., (2001). Good life, good death. New York, U.S.A; Riverhead Books. Â  

Como Agua Para Chocolate

Verbal and Visual Representation of Women: Como agua para chocolate / Like Water for Chocolate By MARIA ELENA DE VALDES Como agua para chocolate is the first novel by Laura Esquivel (b. 1950 ). Published in Spanish in 1989 and in English translation in 1992, followed by the release of the feature film that same year, the novel has thrust this Mexican woman writer into the world of international critical acclaim as well as best-seller popularity.Since Esquivel also wrote the screenplay for director Alfonso Arau, the novel and the film together offer us an excellent opportunity to examine the interplay between the verbal and visual representation of women. Esquivel's previous work had all been as a screenwriter. Her script for Chido Guan, el Tacos de Oro ( 1985 ) was nominated for the Ariel in Mexico, an award she won eight years later for Como agua para chocolate. The study of verbal and visual imagery must begin with the understanding that both the novel and, to a lesser extent, the film work as a parody of a genre.The genre in question is the Mexican version of women's fiction published in monthly installments together with recipes, home remedies, dressmaking patterns, short poems, moral exhortations, ideas on home decoration, and the calendar of church observances. In brief, this genre is the nineteenth-century forerunner of what is known throughout Europe and America as a woman's magazine. 1 Around 1850 these publications in Mexico were called â€Å"calendars for young ladies. Since home and church were the private and public sites of all educated young ladies, these publications represented the written counterpart to women's socialization, and as such, they are documents that conserve and transmit a Mexican female culture in which the social context and cultural space are particularly for women by women. It was in the 1850s that fiction began to take a prominent role. At first the writings were descriptions of places for family excursions, moralizing tales , or detailed narratives on cooking. By 1860 the installment novel grew out of the monthly recipe or recommended excursion.More elaborate love stories by women began to appear regularly by the 1880s. The genre was never considered literature by the literary establishment because of its episodic plots, overt sentimentality, and highly stylized characterization. Nevertheless, by the turn of the century every literate woman in Mexico was or had been an avid reader of the genre. But what has been completely overlooked by the male-dominated literary culture of Mexico is that these novels were highly coded in an authentic women's language of inference and reference to the commonplaces of the kitchen and the home which were completely unknown by any man. Behind the purportedly simple episodic plots there was an infrahistory of life as it was lived, with all its multiple restrictions for women of this social class. The characterization followed the forms of life of these women rather than t heir unique individuality; thus the heroines were the survivors, those who were able to live out a full life in spite of the institution of marriage, which in theory, if not in practice, was a form of indentured slavery for life in which a woman served father and brothers then moved on to serve husband and sons together with her daughters and, of course, the women from the servant class.The women's fiction of this woman's world concentrated on one overwhelming fact of life: how to transcend the conditions of existence and express oneself in love and in creativity. 3 Cooking, sewing, embroidery, and decoration were the usual creative outlets for these women, and of course conversation, storytelling, gossip, and advice, which engulfed every waking day of the Mexican lady of the home. 4 Writing for other women was quite naturally an extension of this infrahistorical conversation and gossip.Therefore, if one has the social codes of these women, one can read these novels as a way of life in nineteenth-century Mexico. Laura Esquivel's recognition of this world and its language comes from her Mexican heritage of fiercely independent women, who created a woman's culture within the social prison of marriage. 5 Como agua para chocolate is a parody of nineteenth-century women's periodical fiction in the same way that Don Quijote is a parody of the novel of chivalry. Both genres were expressions of popular culture that created a unique space for a segment of the population.I am using the term parody in the strict sense in which Ziva Ben-Porat has defined it: â€Å"[Parody is] a representation of a modeled reality, which is itself already a particular representation of an original reality. The parodic representations expose the model's conventions and lay bare its devices through the coexistence of the two codes in the same message† (247). Obviously, for the parody to work at its highest level of dual representation, both the parody and the parodic model must be pre sent in the reading experience.Esquivel creates the duality in several ways. First, she begins with the title of the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, a locution which translates as â€Å"water at the boiling point† and is used as a simile in Mexico to describe any event or relationship that is so tense, hot, and extraordinary that it can only be compared to scalding water on the verge of boiling, as called for in the preparation of that most Mexican of all beverages, dating from at least the thirteenth century: hot chocolate (Soustelle, 153-61).Second, the subtitle is taken directly from the model: â€Å"A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies. † Together the title and subtitle therefore cover both the parody and the model. Third, the reader finds upon opening the book, in place of an epigraph, a traditional Mexican proverb: â€Å"A la mesa y a la cama / Una sola vez se llama† (To the table or to bed / You must come when you ar e bid). â€Å"The woodcut that decorates the page is the typical nineteenth-century cooking stove. The fourth and most explicit dualistic technique is Esquivel's reproduction of the format of her model.Each chapter is prefaced by the title, the subtitle, the month, and the recipe for that month. The narration that follows is a combination of direct address on how to prepare the recipe of the month and interspersed stories about the loves and times of the narrator's great-aunt Tita. The narration moves effortlessly from the first person to the third-person omniscient narrative voice of all storytellers. Each chapter ends with the information that the story will be continued and an announcement of what the next month's–that is, the next chapter's–recipe will be.These elements, taken from the model, are never mere embellishments. The recipes and their preparation, as well as the home remedies and their application, are an intrinsic part of the story. There is therefore a n intricate symbiotic relationship between the novel and its model in the reading experience. Each is feeding on the other. In this study I am concerned with the model of the human subject, specifically the female subject, as it is developed in and through language and visual signification in a situated context of time and place.The verbal imaging of the novel makes use of the elaborate signifying system of language as a dwelling place. The visual imagery that at first expands the narrative in the film soon exacts its own place as a nonlinguistic signifying system drawing upon its own repertoire of referentiality and establishing a different model of the human subject than that elucidated by the verbal imagery alone. I intend to examine the novelistic signifying system and the model thus established and then follow with the cinematic signifying system and its model.The speaking subject or narrative voice in the novel is characterized, as Emile Benveniste has shown, as a living prese nce by speaking. That voice begins in the first person, speaking the conversational Mexican Spanish of a woman from Mexico's north, near the U. S. border. Like all Mexican speech, it is clearly marked with register and sociocultural indicators, in this case of the land-owning middle class, mixing colloquial local usage with standard Spanish. The entry point is always the same: the direct address of one woman telling another how to prepare the recipe she is recommending.As one does the cooking, it is quite natural for the cook to liven the session with some storytelling, prompted by the previous preparation of' the food. As she effortlessly moves from first-person culinary instructor to storyteller, she shifts to the third person and gradually appropriates a time and place and refigures a social world. A verbal image emerges of the model Mexican rural, middle-class woman. She must be strong and far more clever than the men who supposedly protect her. She must be pious, observing all the religious requirements of a virtuous daughter, wife, and mother.She must exercise great care to keep her sentimental relations as private as possible, and, most important of all, she must be in control of life in her house, which means essentially the kitchen and bedroom or food and sex. In Esquivel's novel there are four women who must respond to the model: the mother Elena and the three daughters Rosaura, Gertrudis, and Josefita, known as Tita. The ways of living within the limits of the model are demonstrated first by the mother, who thinks of herself as its very incarnation.She interprets the model in terms of control and domination of her entire household. She is represented through a filter of awe and fear, for the ostensible source is Tita's diary-cookbook, written beginning in 1910, when she was fifteen years old, and now transmitted by her grandniece. Therefore the verbal images that characterize Mama Elena must be understood as those of her youngest daughter, who has b een made into a personal servant from the time the little girl was able to work.Mama Elena is depicted as strong, self-reliant, absolutely tyrannical with her daughters and servants, but especially so with Tita, who from birth has been designated as the one who will not marry because she must care for her mother until she dies. Mama Elena believes in order, her order. Although she observes the strictures of church and society, she has secretly had an adulterous love affair with an African American, and her second daughter, Gertrudis, is the offspring of that relationship.This transgression of the norms of proper behavior remains hidden from public view, although there is gossip, but only after her mother's death does Tita discover that Gertrudis is her half-sister. The tyranny imposed on the three sisters is therefore the rigid, self-designed model of a woman's life pitilessly enforced by Mama Elena, and each of the three responds in her own way to the model. Rosaura never questions her mother's authority and follows her dictates submissively; after she is married she becomes an insignificant imitation of her mother.She lacks the strength, skill, and determination of Mama Elena and tries to compensate by appealing to the mother's model as absolute. She therefore tries to live the model, invoking her mother's authority because she has none of her own. Gertrudis does not challenge her mother but instead responds to her emotions and passions in a direct manner unbecoming a lady. This physical directness leads her to adopt an androgynous life-style: she leaves home and her mother's authority, escapes from the brothel where she subsequently landed, and becomes a general of the revolutionary army, taking a subordinate as her lover and, later, husband.When she returns to the family hacienda, she dresses like a man, gives orders like a man, and is the dominant sexual partner. Tita, the youngest of the three daughters, speaks out against her mother's arbitrary rule but cannot escape until she temporarily loses her mind. She is able to survive her mother's harsh rule by transferring her love, joy, sadness, and anger into her cooking. Tita's emotions and passions are the impetus for expression and action, not through the normal means of communication but through the food she prepares. She is therefore able to consummate her love with Pedro through the food she serves.Tal parecia que en un extranio fenomeno de alquimia su ser se habia disuelto en la salsa de rosas, en el cuerpo de las codornices, en el vino y en cada uno de los olores de la comida. De esta manera penetraba en el cuerpo de Pedro, voluptuosa, aromatica, calurosa, completamente sensual. (57) It was as if a strange alchemical process had dissolved her entire being in the rose petal sauce, in the tender flesh of the quails, in the wine, in every one of the meal's aromas. That was the way she entered Pedro's body, hot, voluptuous, perfumed, totally sensuous. 52) This clearly is much more than communication through food or a mere aphrodisiac; this is a form of sexual transubstantiation whereby the rose petal sauce and the quail have been turned into the body of Tita. Thus it is that the reader gets to know these women as persons but, above all, becomes involved with the embodied speaking subject from the past, Tita, represented by her grand-niece (who transmits her story) and her cooking. The reader receives verbal food for the imaginative refiguration of one woman's response to the model that was imposed on her by accident of birth. The body of these women is the place of living.It is the dwelling place of the human subject. The essential questions of health, illness, pregnancy, childbirth, and sexuality are tied very directly in this novel to the physical and emotional needs of the body. The preparation and eating of food is thus a symbolic representation of living, and Tita's cookbook bequeaths to Esperanza and to Esperanza's daughter, her grandniece, a woman's cr eation of space that is hers in a hostile world. Not only was the film adaptation of Como agua para chocolate written by the novelist herself, but in this case the screenplay represents a return to her original discipline.There are many cinematographic elements in the novel, primarily the numerous cuts and fade-outs of the story in order to feature the cooking. The camera is intrusive and can engulf its subject in a visual language that is unique to the voyeur or can replace verbal referentiality by overwhelming the viewer. For example, the opening shot of the film, filling the entire screen with an onion that is being sliced, plunges the viewer into food preparation in a way that no spoken word could parallel for its immediate effect.Similarly, the numerous close-ups of food being prepared, served, and eaten heighten the dominance of the performance of cooking and eating as both sustenance and social ritual. Contrast these images and this emphasis on the joy, sensuality, and even l ust of eating the Mexican cuisine of Tita's kitchen with the scenes of the monks eating in Jean-Jacques Annaud screen version of The Name of the Rose or the raw meat displayed in the monastery's refractory, where the emphasis is on the denial of the flesh through mortification. Gabriel Axel film Babette's Feast, on the other hand, contains both poles of this opposition between gratification and mortification of the body. The minister's two daughters, who substitute religious practice for living and who eat as punishment for having a body, are suddenly exposed to the refinement of food as art, pleasure, and gratification. ) In the film Como agua para chocolate the preparation of food is expressed visually, and the consummation of eating is seen in the faces of the diners; but it must be also emphasized that there is a full spectrum of effects here, ranging from ecstasy to nausea.Perhaps the major difference between Esquivel's novel and the film version is that there is a visual inter text in the latter that evokes the Cinderella fairy tale by using the ghostly appearance of the mother and making her death the result of an attack on the hacienda by outlaws. In the novel Mama Elena does not die until long after the attack and lingers on in partial madness, convinced that Tita is trying to poison her. By cutting short her death to one sudden violent episode and having her visage return to taunt Tita until the latter is able to renounce her heritage, the film makes Tita the Cinderella-like victim of personal abuse.In the novel the rigidity and harshness of Mama Elena is overwhelmingly sociocultural and not peculiar to Tita as victim. The visual intertext of fairy-tale language creates an effective subtext in the film, bringing out the oppression of the protagonist and her magical transcendence. Instead of a fairy godmother, Tita has the voice of her Nacha, the family cook who raised her from infancy amid the smells and sounds of the kitchen. Instead of a magical tra nsformation of dress and carriage to go to the prince's ball, Tita is able to make love through the food she prepares; she is also able to induce sadness and acute physical discomfort.She is therefore able to keep Pedro from having sexual relations with Rosaura by making certain that Rosaura is fat, foul of breath, and given to breaking wind in the most nauseating manner. Mama Elena's ghost first appears one hour into the film and quietly gains the upper hand, since she threatens to curse the child Tita is presumably carrying. The final confrontation between Tita and the ghost comes ten minutes later: Tita defeats the ghost by revealing that she knows Gertrudis is illegitimate and that she hates Elena for everything she has never been to her.The film's visual language is able to evoke images of provocation, contempt, and abuse that are not in the novel. From the fortieth to the forty-fifth minute of the film, part of Tita's immensurably Cinderellalike duties are enacted. Tita is the only one permitted to assist Mama Elena in her bath and with her dressing. The despotic abuse of Tita by Mama Elena clearly borrows the visual images of the cruel stepmother. The magical intermediary is not a beautiful woman in a ball dress, but rather a wrinkled old woman, the cook Nacha, who had given Tita the love Mama Elena denied her.Nacha's voice and face guide Tita. It is Nacha who tells her to use the roses Pedro gave her for the preparation of quail in rose petal sauce, and it is Nacha who prepares the bedroom for the final consummation of love between Tita and Pedro at the end of the film. Tita's magical powers are all related to food, with the exception of the kilometer-long bedspread she knits during her lengthy nights of insomnia. Tita's cooking controls the pattern of living of those in her household because the food she prepares becomes an extension of herself.The culmination of this process of food as art and communication is food as communion. The transubstantiatio n of Tita's quail in rose petal sauce into Tita's body recalls the Roman Catholic doctrine of the communion wafer's becoming the body and blood of Christ, but on a deeper level it is the psychological reality of all women who have nursed an infant. When the baby Roberto loses his wet nurse, Tita is able to take the infant and nurse him in spite of the fact that she has not given birth.Her breasts are filled with milk not because she wishes she were the mother of the child, but because the child needs to eat and she is the provider of food. The viewer of the film Como agua para chocolate must develop her expressive capacity as she broadens her affective experience. Mexican women–and to some extent Latin American women–seeing the film relive their family history, and this is so not only because of the strong and open cultural links between Latin American women in this century, on which both the novel and film draw, but also and perhaps primarily because of the skillful u se of the parodic model.The intertext of women's magazines and the loves, trials, and tribulations featured in the stories they published is used by Esquivel as a discursive code that transcends whatever regional differences may exist. The social registers, the forms of address, the language of the female domain are somewhat lost in translation, because as in cooking, the substitution of ingredients changes the taste.The representation of women in Esquivel's novel and in the film touches on that deepest reservoir of meaning which is the human body as described, seen, and, on the deeper level, understood as the origin of identity. Women from other cultures and other languages can develop an empathetic relationship with Tita, her cooking, her love, and her life. Men of any culture, but especially Mexican men and Latin American men, have the greatest deficiency in experiencing this film and therefore have the most to learn.They must gain access to some fragment of the expressive code o f visual and verbal images that are the infrahistoric codes of their mothers, wives, and daughters. If they cannot gain access to the expressive system, they will not have access to the affective experience of these lives. The imagery of nourishing the body in both the novel and the film provides us with the means for articulating the experiences of cooking, eating, making love, and giving birth in previously unsuspected ways, and thus allows the male intruder a peek into reality.Women's recuperation of artistic creativity within the confinement of the house, and especially the kitchen and the bedroom, is presented by Esquivel not in an ideological argument but rather by means of an intertextual palimpsest which is the hallmark of postmodern art. 6 I want to conclude with three observations on feminist art in this context. 1) This is not a protest movement; it is a celebration of the space of one's own which may have been hidden from view in the past but is now open to all. ) At the center of postmodernism there is the vesting of creative weight on the reader, and this makes intertextuality a means of providing an interpretive context; in the case of Esquivel that context is our grandmother's kitchen and bedroom. 3) The maturity of feminist criticism has moved beyond the need to go headhunting among the misogynist hordes of patriarchy; the challenge today is to celebrate women's creativity in the full domain of the human adventure, from the so-called decorative arts to the fine arts and science.

Design user interface of interactive systems Essay - 1

Design user interface of interactive systems - Essay Example Keeping in view the stakeholders and the requirements of the proposed system, the first idea for the dashboard design is to consolidate and arrange the required information in a way that it would be displayed on a single screen to inform the user regarding the desired weather conditions. In the first idea it is proposed that the widgets including daily and weekly temperature along with seven days of the week would be shown at the left side bar on the dashboard screen, whereas, the images (sunny, cloudy, rainy) along with location screen would be displayed at the middle and right below corner of the dashboard. And the remaining widgets including the date and location (user input) for determining the weather forecast would be placed horizontally at the top of the screen. In the second idea, it is proposed that all the information would be displayed on the weather forecast image i-e sunny, cloudy or rainy. The information includes: the minimum and maximum temperature of daily and weekly along with each of the upcoming week. Moreover, the user input would also be taken from the same screen of the dashboard. After the brainstorming session and keeping in view the stakeholders and requirements of the system, it has been decided to select the first idea of the dashboard design for developing the Wireframe. The justification for selecting the first idea over the second idea is the simplicity, easy to use (usability), all the contents are separated by sections to differentiate between the user input as well as the output. Whereas, the second idea would contain all the information on the image, therefore, it might cause to confuse the users. The conceptual design tools have helped me out to determine the contents of the design along with their placement. The brainstorming sessions, card sort, semantic networks, and cognitive walk-through tools assist me to determine new widgets for the weather forecast system

Intro to business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Intro to business - Assignment Example This all new process will reduce the cost of production greatly and make this fuel economical for the consumers as well. The shell had in the past suffered from a production stoppage due to the fire eruption at their Bintulu, Malaysian plant in 1997. This resulted in the discontinuity of the Gas to Liquid process because at that time only one plant of the Shell was operational. But now they have developed a new GLT plant that is ten times more in its production capacity, as compared to the Malaysian plant, in Doha, Qatar. By the way it is the world’s largest GLT plant, Shell’s forty years of research has paid back to them in an impressive manner. Qatar has the largest reserves of natural gas in the world as well. Second thing the Shell should use cheap transportation methods in order to make it (fuel) affordable for the people globally. Natural gas is mostly available in the remote areas and it costs a lot to transport the final product from those areas to the reach of the people. The Shell should also switch to the direct production method for GLT. This will help them to reduce their production cost greatly. This reduction in production cost would be then transferred to the ultimate consumers. Over the last forty years Shell has poured billions of dollars in their new GLT technology in order to provide efficient and cost effective fuel alternative to the people. Five year time to judge the success or failure of this project is like a pinch of salt in flour. These sort of projects require sometime to reach the breakeven and also in reaping profits. GLT will be really fruitful for the Shell because of the price hike of petroleum products globally. Moreover they know that they will harvest success as more and more people are becoming conscious to minimize their footprints on the planet

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 25

Report - Essay Example In order to design the spreadsheet model, a graph of cost of silver from both companies during the month and a spreadsheet for each company. From the spreadsheet model, it is clear that the company would order silver Rookstone Company. The company is selected because of relatively low cost. The total monthly cost of silver from Rookstone Company is 113.67 while the total cost of silver from Metal Direct Company is 116.66. The graph illustrates the relationship between the cost of silver and the number of order for the two companies. For example, the cost of silver for four orders is 35.08 from Metal Direct Company and 34.18 from the Rookstone Company. The fluctuation in prices can be explained by the value added tax charged for each order. The attached file provided information in regard to dimensions, weights of materials used. The file also provides information in regard to order, total weight, cost of silver, VAT charged and total cost per month. The data provided shows that there is moderate agreement between management team opinion and industry expert opinion with r=0.5636.the number of trips is the factor which mostly influences the estimated safety when using the transport system. The relationship can be estimated using the model below; Smith and Jones Company provided data on Transport Company with respect to Transport Company which provides a Light Rail Transport system in an urban area. The company is interested to know level of agreement between management team opinion and industry expert opinion in regard to priority in spending. The company also provided survey data to investigate factors which mostly influence how safe customers feel when travelling on the service. In order to determine the level of agreement, spearman’s rank correlation coefficient is used. The options re listed and values assigned in respect to each option as per the two groups.the difference in value of opinion is obtained and then squared. Thespearman’s

Research paper for art ( advertising ) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

For art ( advertising ) - Research Paper Example The essay deconstructs advertising, as it investigates the gap between what is promised and what is actually communicated and provided, using several print advertisements. These advertisements appropriate ideas from High Art and culture by intertextuality, specifically, through using cultural symbols and associations where products do not have denotations alone to represent the actual needs that they can satisfy, but more than that, they connote the fulfillment of various human desires, especially for sex and power. Corporate interests want to use these sexual and violent images to engender that their products are more than things to be consumed, but are signifiers of identities and lifestyles. Advertising mediates meaning by acting on people and framing their attitudes and behaviors. Advertisements act on people by using objects or images that have influence on their emotions and/or cognitions. An example is the Budweiser print ad shown below (Figure 1). The ad contains three, evidently, young women, who may even be considered as under-aged, surrounded with Budweiser beer cans and with Budweiser brand and logo plastered on their swimsuit-wearing bodies and the mat they are on. The youth of these models means that the advertisers target the youth, even when they know that many countries ban drinking alcohol for teenagers. The use of pocket books and CDs also underscore the youth’s interests, as well as their middle-class lifestyle. Jean Kilbourne, in â€Å"Forget the Rules! Enjoy the Wine,† provides other beer and alcohol ads that attract the younger market through familiar animal icons and through appealing to their sense of rebellion and demand for freedom (164). Kilbourne argues that advertisers sell beer by selling rebellion, including women, to target female drinkers. Figure 1 affirms the sense of rebellion in these young women drinking beer as if it is something they can do every

Nursing education in the present-day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Nursing education in the present-day - Essay Example The key to this problem is difference between expectations and reality. The university-workplace transition is, therefore, marked by the students' expectations of the graduate year and the hard reality that they encounter in the workforce setting (Heslop, L. et al., 2001). In response to this perceived gap and in response to the understanding that this will affect the employee satisfaction and employee retention, most of the hospitals developed transition programmes, such as, nurse externship that offered the fresh graduates scope to develop clinical skills enough to enter the formal work force. The conditions that promoted such a plan still exist, and now the authorities having seen the benefits of such transition programmes and having sensed the stresses commonly faced by new registered nurses are stressing on the successful transition of the new graduates to the registered nurse role (Starr, K., and Conley, V.M. 2006). The three factors inherent in special attention to the transition phase of a registered nurse are changes in nursing condition, changing nursing education and healthcare trends, and the reality shock that the new nurses experience. The other agenda was to ease the transition from a student to registered nurse by creating opportunities for the new nurses to acquire basic nursing skill competence and to develop confidence in practice (Allison et al., 1984). The benefits would be immense. If the registered nurses continue to work in the same environment in the second year of practice, the falls and falters of the first year in the phase of transition would enrich the nurses' experience and would allow them to develop a customized strategy for the same environment, if not by experience, at least by...Wellington: Ministry of Health, Published in January 2004 by the Ministry of Health, PO Box 5013, Wellington, New Zealand. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association ( 2000). Teamworking in Primary Healthcare. Realizing Shared Aims in Patient Care. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association.

Gender Normativity in Aurora Floyd; How Variances in Gender Behavior Essay

Gender Normativity in Aurora Floyd; How Variances in Gender Behavior Illustrate Societal Norms - Essay Example It is more likely, however, that Aurora's childhood was the primary influencer of her unfeminine behavior. At the loss of her mother, Aurora was allowed to do anything she pleased, as long as she was happy. Indeed She said what she pleased; thought, spoke, acted as she pleased; learned what she pleased; and she grew into a bright, impetuous being, affectionate and generous-hearted as her mother, but with some touch of native fire blended in her mould that stamped her as original. (Bradden 9) Without the careful training that young girls of the era received, Aurora was unable to succumb to traditional femininity. She read novels with inappropriate content, new of horse racing and betting, spent long days on horseback, and was quick to say what she thought. She was a strong, independent young lady, the exact opposite of what was desired in a woman! exactly the sort of woman to make a good wife. She had been educated to that end by a careful mother. Purity and goodness had watched over her and hemmed her in from the cradle. She had never seen unseemly sights, or heard unseemly sounds. She was as ignorant as a baby of all the vices and horrors of this big world. She was ladylike, accomplished, well-informed. (Bradden 21) Lucy was quiet and calm and good, willing to suffer for her husband and willing to do as she was told. As a model of femininity, she is perfect. There could be no recourse against her. However, it is her very perfection in femininity that makes her less noticeable by the men in the story. While Captain Bulstrode believes she would make an ideal wife, he also ponders the idea that "There are so many Lucys, but so few Auroras; and while you never could be critical with the one, you were merciless in your scrutiny of the other" (Bradden 21). Because she is perfect, it is impossible to fall in love with her, because of an internal fear that the man's own imperfections will be clearer next to her. While she is what should be desired in a wife, it is the wild Aurora that catches men's attentions; with her boldness and imperfection. These two young women represent two very different personalities. Aurora, who has everything, but still maintains the wildness and lower class lifestyle that her mother had, and Lucy, who has modest wealth, but has been raised to be the perfect specimen of femininity. Even their coloring matches the ideals. Aurora is dark haired and dark eyed, and was "a good hater" (Braddon 12). Lucy was fair haired and blue eyed, the Victorian ideal of beauty. Aurora, throughout the novel, acts and does precisely what she wants. However, even she is not able to make all her own choices. By force, she is sent to finishing school in Paris, and then has to endure a woman meant to help polish her when she returns. Lucy, who has the feminine graces, did not have to endure these actions, but instead has to endure the pain of being overlooked by the man she loves, as she can be nothing but

Anatomy & Physiology Essay Example for Free

Anatomy Physiology Essay In this assignment the concept of homeostasis will be explained and the probable homeostatic responses to changes in the internal environment during exercise will be discussed. Homeostasis is simply how the body keeps conditions inside the same. It is described as the maintenance of a constant internal environment. Generally, the body is in homeostasis when its needs are met and it’s functioning properly. Every organ in the body contributes to homeostasis. A complex set of chemical, thermal, and neural factors interact in complex ways, both helping the body while it works to maintain homeostasis. In homeostasis there is the concept of Negative feedback which ensures that, in any control system, changes are reversed and returned back to the set level. There are four different homeostatic mechanisms for regulation these four are the heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature and blood glucose levels. Negative feedback system is made out of receptors to detect change, a control centre to receive the information and process the response and effectors to reverse the change and re-establish the original state. (Anatomy Physiology, 2013) The autonomic nervous system controls the heart and has two branches; the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. When the body is undergoing muscular work, fear or stress the sympathetic nervous system will be active. When the sympathetic nervous system is active it will cause every heartbeat to increase in strength and heart rate. During resting, peace and contentment the parasympathetic nervous system is active and it calms the heart output. During periods of fright, flight and fight the sympathetic nervous system is boosted by the hormone; adrenaline. The nerves of the adrenaline are the cardiac nerves. A special cluster of excitable cells are supplied by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in the upper p art of the right atrium. We call this ‘the peacemaker’ in general terms. A connection of impulses from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves acting on the sino-atrial (‘the pacemaker’) regulates the activity of the heart to suit situations from minute to minute, hour to hour and day to day. The  sino-atrial node sends out a cluster of nerve impulses every few seconds around the branching network of atrial muscle fibres to cause contraction. The impulses are caught by a different group of cells forming the atrioventricular node and relayed to a band of leading tissue made of big, modified muscle cells called Purkinje fibres. In the atrioventricular node the transmission of impulses is delayed slightly to enable the atria to complete their contractions and the atrioventricular valves to start to close. The location of heart valves is on a fibrous figure-of-eight between the atrial and ventricular muscle masses.(Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The lowest part of the brain is the medulla and is located above the spinal cord and is often kno wn as the ‘brain stem’. The two important centres for control of the heart rate are located in the brain stem. These are called the cardiac centres. The sympathetic fibres descend through the spinal cord from the vasomotor centre while the cardio-inhibitory centre is in charge of the origins of the parasympathetic fibres of the vagus nerve reaching the sino-atrial node. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) Baroreceptors are found in the walls of the aorta and they detect changes in blood pressure. If in the arteries a small upward change in blood pressure happens it often indicates that extra blood has been pumped out by the ventricles as result of the extra blood that enters the heart on the venous or right side. When the baroreceptors detect the change they relay the information in nerve impulses to the cardiac centres. Movement in the vagus nerve slows the heart rate down and reduces the high blood pressure to normal. Thermo receptors are receptors that are sensitive to temperature and they are present in the skin and deep inside the body. Also they relay information through nerve impulses to the hypothalamus; this is a part of the brain which activates appropriate feedback systems. During fear, stress and exertion, the adrenal gland releases a hormone called circulating adrenaline. Circulating adrenaline stimulates the sino-atrial node to work faster, therefore boosting the effect of the sympathetic nervous system. The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system when thermo receptors indicate a rise in body temperature to the brain. When the sympathetic nervous system is activated it causes the heart rate to increase. Our rate of ventilation is mainly on ‘automatic pilot’ and do not notice little variations that are the result of homeostatic regulations. We are only voluntarily controlling our breathing  when taking deep breaths, speaking or holding a breath. Breathing rate increase slightly when metabolism produces extra carbon dioxide until this surplus is ‘blown off’ in expiration. Also a period of forced ventilation will decrease the carbon dioxide levels in the body and homeostatic mechanisms will slow or stop breathing until levels return to normal. A period of forced ventilation can be for example gasping.(Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) Internal receptors relay nervous impulses to the brain about the status of ventilation from the degree of stretch of muscles and other tissues when they function as stretch receptors in muscles and tissues. Changes in chemical stimuli are detected by chemoreceptors and they supply the brain with the information. There are to chemoreceptors; the central and peripheral. The central chemoreceptors are located in the medulla of the brain and monitors H+ ion concentration. When H+ ion concentration is increased it causes increase in ventilation rate. Peripheral chemoreceptor’s increas e ventilation when oxygen levels decrease. Peripheral monitors changes in oxygen. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The respiratory system has a dual autonomic supply. The sympathetic causes the bronchial muscle to relax and the parasympathetic causes the bronchial muscle to contract. This causes narrowing in bronchi. Vagus means ‘a wanderer’ and the vagus nerves is so called because it wanders all over, supplying internal organs. Sympathetic nerves emerge from the places where nerves interconnect, to run to the bronchi, these places are called a chain of ganglia.(Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The upper part of the brain is called cerebral cortex; this part of the brain is responsible for voluntary control of breathing. The respiratory centre, also called the involuntary centre is found in the medulla and the pons. Each centre receives information of internal receptors about the state of ventilation. The respiratory pacemaker and the respiratory centre are similar to each other. The inspiratory and expiratory centres are two groups of nerve cells. If one is active the other one is inhibited. The inspiratory centre is actively sending nerve impulses to the nerve to the diaphragm, the phrenic nerve, and the thoracic nerves are sending impulses to the intercostal muscles which cause contraction and the contraction results in inspiration. Inspiration stops when the stretch receptors send bursts of impulses to the inspiratory centre. These bursts of impulses indicate that the chest and lungs are fully  expanded, and the flow of impulses subsides, releasing the expiratory centre from inhibition. The expiratory centre then sends nerve impulses to the respiratory muscles which causes relaxation and expiration. The information that comes from the other internal receptors, for instance the chemoreceptors (which effects the homeostatic regulation) monitors and modifies the cycle. The body predicts the changes before an individual starts the exercise, this is because the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. Also adrenaline is released to rise cardiac output and stroke volume. When arterioles become narrow the blood pressure increases, whereas the arterioles in the muscle relax. The extra oxygen that is needed is received by an increase in blood flow and ventilation rate. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The only animals that can survive in tropical and polar regions of the earth are human beings. This is because the efficient thermos-regulatory homeostatic processes and the use of intelligence (for shelter and clothing), which mean that body temperature changes only slightly. The importance is to keep all the organs and cells at a normal temperature while allowing the periphery to adapt to changing conditions of external temperature. When body temperature is too low the water component of the body will freeze and when body temperature is too high, enzymes and body proteins will be altered or denatured (form will alter). It wouldn’t be possible to live in these conditions therefore homeostatic regulation of body temperature is vital. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The skin plays an important role in regulation of body temperature. It covers the external surface of the body and it actually is the largest organ. The skin, protects the underlying tissues against friction damage, waterproofs the body, protects against ultra-violet radiation, protects deeper structures from invasion by micro-organisms, relays nerve impulses generated from the specialised skin sensory receptors for heat, cold, touch, pain and pressure, therefore informing the brain of changes in the environment and the skin synthesises vitamin D from sunlight acting on the adipose layer. When cells are shed from the surface layers, new cells will form to replace them and this happens continuously. The skin is an important part of our in-built or innate immunity. The skin forms a waterproof layer and a microbe-proof covering. The skin has a major role in the homeostatic regulation of body temperature and is considered to be part of our nervous system; this is  because of his sensitivity. Throughout the body the thickness of the skin will differ, for instance over the eyelids and lips and on the soles of the feet. The skin is divided into an outer thinner layer and a deeper layer. The outer thinner layer is called the epidermis and the deeper layer is called the dermis. The deeper layer covers adipose, areolar, striated muscle and some cartilage and bone. Hair follicles run down into the dermis and produce hairs made of keratin. Sebaceous glands that coat the surface in hairy parts are attached to the hairs that are made of keratin. The epidermis gets penetrated by sweat ducts as they emerge from the actual sweat gland in the dermis. The dermis is connective tissue, most likely areolar in which blood vessels, nerves, sweat glands, elastic and collagen fibres intermingle. In the basal layer we can find co llections of pigment cells, also known as melanocytes and they produce skin colour. Specialised receptors for temperature changes, pain, touch and pressure are formed by nerve endings. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The metabolic processes that take place in the body generate heat. Energy is released during chemical reaction for muscle contraction but some of this energy is released as heat. The body gains some heat from hot foods and drinks and sometimes from the sun’s rays. Most heat is gained of chemical reactions that take place in the liver, the liver is a massive generator of heat but it doesn’t feel hot because the blood distributes this heat around the body.(Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The receptor for heat temperature and cold temperature can be found in the peripheral skin and around the internal organs. These receptors are specially adapted cells with nerve fibres that run up the spinal cord to the temperature control centre in the hypothalamus of the brain. Nerve impulses get send by the hypothalamus to muscles, sweat glands and skin blood vessels. This causes changes that counteract the external changes. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) The parasympathetic nervous system helps the unstriated muscle coats of the skin arterioles to relax, but has no significant role in thermo-regulation. The sympathetic nervous system’s function is to control sweat glands and the calibre of the arterioles. While thermoreceptors tell the hypothalamus in the brain that the temperature is rising, arterioles are expanded to let extra heat reach the surface of the skin and sweat glands get activated by the sympathetic nerves at the same time. When arterioles expand it will increase heat loss by radiation and  disappearance of sweat. When the essential temperature is decreasing (cooling down), the sympathetic is active causing contraction of the arterioles but there is no sweat ‘‘it’s turned off’’. This makes the skin c older to touch and reduces heat loss and therefore it preserves the essential temperature. Essential temperature dominates the peripheral skin thermoreceptors when conflicting information is received is the reason of the colder skin and reduced heat loss. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) An increase in glucose will stimulate the production of the hormone insulin from the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Glucose is produced by digestive enzymes when carbohydrates are broken down. The functions of insulin are to regulate the concentration of glucose in the blood and to increase the passage of glucose into actively respiring body cells by active absorption. Very little glucose is able to pass through cell membranes without insulin expect of liver cells, and so the plasma level of glucose rises. Individuals who have diabetes mellitus, which is caused by a lack of insulin, that are not treated will have high plasma glucose levels and this can lead to other biochemical disturbances. Glucose hardly varies at all in healthy people this is because the liver ce lls that are controlled by insulin convert glucose into liver glycogen for storage. Another hormone, glucagon, from the alpha cells in the islets of Langerhans, is secreted when blood glucose starts to fall as a result of fasting or being used up by respiring cells. The secreted hormone converts liver glycogen back into glucose for release into the bloodstream. These two hormones control the amount of glucose in the blood plasma by negative feedback mechanisms and they both have receptors attached to their islet cells to recognize increase and decrease in plasma glucose levels. Also the conversion of glucose into fat is promoted by insulin and insulin delays the conversion of amino acids into energy. It is important to identify the role of another hormone, adrenaline, in the homeostasis of glucose. Adrenal glands release adrenaline when the sympathetic nervous system is active under stressful conditions, adrenaline acts aggressively to insulin and it dominates it, to adapt glycogen in the liver to glucose. This provides energy for muscles to become active under emergency conditions. After the emergency, insulin will once more become active and store any surplus as before. (Aldworth and Billingham, 2010) In conclusion, the concept of homeostasis is explained and  the probable homeostatic responses to changes in the internal environment during exercise are discussed. In this assignment I will be explaining why homeostasis occurs during exercise and how the body responses to homeostasis during exercise. There are two types of exercise; aerobic and anaerobic. Anaerobic exercise builds muscle, power and strength. When you do anaerobic exercise, your muscles are exercising at high intensity in a short time. This short time is usually not more than about two minutes. Aerobic exercise is done at moderate level of intensity for longer periods (at least 20 minutes). Aerobic is to improve the body’s consumption of oxygen and involves mainly the large muscle groups. Homeostasis is the process by which the internal environment of the body relatively stable even with changes in the external environment. Homeostasis makes it able for the body to adapt to several conditions, for example an average human body temperature is 37 degrees. This varies slightly from individual to individual. When the temperature outside decreases your body will maintain the same temperature. This proves your body has the ability to regulate its own temperature. This is not only with body temperature but there are many other ways in which your body regulates itself, particularly during exercise.In order to maintain its normal state the body must account for and adjust functions inside the body, whenever your body feels a change on the outside. Most of the time people sweat without even thinking of why your body is suddenly dripping in moisture. During exercise, there will be a wide range of effects on the systems within the body. Each system strives to help create enough e nergy to continue exercising, also to help the body recover after exercise. This use of energy has several effects on the body’s homeostasis including increased heart rate, breathing rate and sweat rate.(wiseGEEK, 2015) Homeostasis and exercise must work together within the human body to ensure that the pulmonary, heart and muscle system function properly. Two common forms of exercise are; lifting weights or jogging down the street, these two exercises produce a stress or strain on the body. During movements of the exercise the muscles must react fast, while blood flow and oxygen levels must be redirected to compensate for the extra energy use. If an individual is jogging his breathing rate has to be higher than a person who is resting. If the individual has a lack of oxygen to any vital body system it will result in cellular damage, or injury. The extra oxygen that enters the  jogger’s lungs, which comes through the pulmonary system, helps to return balance to the body. Homeostasis refers to the human body’s balance among all vital li fe systems. When oxygen intake increases, the muscles will produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Adenosine triphosphate is needed for continued muscular movement. The heart is the main muscle that is affected by exercise and homeostasis. During exercise the heart must beat quicker to move oxygen-rich blood out to the skeletal muscles for motion. When the individual slows the exercise, the heart will respond to the change in homeostasis by reducing the pumping action. Until the individual is at rest, the body will continue to change its functions to maintain homeostasis.(wiseGEEK, 2015) The cardiovascular system has chemoreceptors which are located in two places; in the carotid arteries that run through the neck to the brain and in the aortic arch, which is an arterial feature near the heart. Some of the most essential chemoreceptors notice carbon dioxide. When the chemoreceptors sense high levels of carbon dioxide during exercise, the breathing rate and heart rate is going to increase to remove the waste product from the blood. The chemoreceptors work with the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system, since the cardiovascular system ge ts carbon dioxide to the lungs for elimination and the lungs need to work harder to exhale the carbon dioxide. During exercise the blood flow supply routes change within the body. To enhance oxygen supply to the muscle cells, the stress placed across the muscular system requires more blood than normal. The body switches blood normally directed toward digestion or nervous system activities to the skeletal muscles, in response to the exercise and homeostasis requirements. Removing the stress on the muscles will result that the blood flow returns to its normal routes to achieve a resting homeostasis. In relation to exercise and homeostasis, body temperature is an important consideration. During exercise your body’s system for regulating works quicker and harder. Heat production by the body can cause your internal temperature to rise up to as high as 40 Í ¦C. This can possibly lead to fatal complications. Homeostasis occurs during exercise by allowing the body to sweat. Homeostasis occurs by allowing the body to sweat. The lossof sweat from the skin cools the body down, which results in overall temperature balance to allow continued exercise without overheating. During exercise your metabolic rate increases. Heat is produced during  metabolism. An increase in metabolic rate also increases heat production. The change in body temperature during exercise is produced by the action of large muscle groups contracting. The more heat that is produced means the higher the temperature during exercise. Muscles that have enough energy store fat for a short burst of activity, after thisthey rely on increased blood supply to deliver oxygen, blood sugar and other nutrients to produce more energy. The human body burns the sugar in the blood and calls for the liver to supply stored glucose to keep up with energy demands, which causes variation in the blood sugar when exercising. Your muscles start c alling for nutrients, as you warm up, to produce energy. Energy supplies are; glucose that is carried in the blood and delivered to the muscles and free fatty acids, which is a type of lipid that is carried in the blood that provides energy when glucose is decreased. Using energy during exercise assists in balancing high blood sugar and provides fuel at the same time. Energy supply increases at the same time as blood flow to the muscles increases. The muscle cells refer signals to start burning glucose, and more of it is delivered to the cells which lower the blood sugar levels. During exercise the amount of oxygen available in the bloodstream increases, but the body must get rid of carbon dioxide from the blood at the same rate. When the body cells make energy, carbon dioxide is produced as a waste product. The carbon dioxide goes back into the bloodstream and from there it will flow through the veins back to the lungs where the carbon dioxide will be exhaled out of the body. Your breathing rate must continue to stay at a high level, to maintain balance. Now the lungs can expel the extra carbon dioxide being produced by the muscle cells during exercise. When the individual stops exercising and the cells turn back to normal energy needs, there wi ll be less carbon dioxide that is created. This allows the breathing rate to return to normal. In this assignment I’m going to explain the importance of homeostatic within the body. Homeostasis is the control of internal situations: it maintains a constant internal environment by negative feedback. The human cells live and function in a certain temperature which means that they depend on the body environment. The body environment is kept under control by homeostasis and it keeps the condition accurate for cells to function and live. If the cells don’t get the accurate condition they won’t be able to function properly. Certain process such as osmosis and  enzymes will not function correctly. Homeostasis maintains the body’s water and salt balance, if the water and salt balance are in a good condition it will maintain the process of diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion and osmosis is the transport of chemicals such as; oxygen, carbon dioxide and dissolved food .The living cells depend on the movement of these chemicals around the body. The cells in our body are kept alive by chemical reactions; the chemical reactions make the cells do their job. Enzymes speed the chemical reactions up which keep the cell alive and also enzymes ensure that the job is done. Homeostasis is responsible for maintaining a constant body temperature and enzymes work best at particular temperatures which is maintained by homeostasis, therefore homeostasis is very important to cells. (Bbc.co.uk, 2015) Negative feedback makes sure that, in any control system, changes are reserved and returned back to normal state, for instance; keeping a constant body temperature even in a hot or cold environment. Shivering is a reflex which is controlled by the nervous system. Without homeostasis the human body would not be able to function in hot or cold temperature. Shivering is a way to warm the body up, because it generates heat. If an individual is cold, homeostasis occurs and sends signals to the body which causes the reflex of shivering. Sweating is the opposite of shivering. If the body has an absence of sweating, which is also defined as hyperhidrosis, it can affect small and large areas within the body. Sweat is important for the human body because it keeps the human body cool, gets rid of excess body heat and protect from overheating. If an individual is not able to sweat it can be very dangerous, that’s why it is important to maintain homeostasis. Not sweating in whenever the body is hot can lead to serious damages and injuries, such as coma and death. It is important that the human body has homeostasis, because a failure in maintaining homeostasis can lead to death or diseases. For example heart failure can occur when negative feedback mechanisms become overwhelmed and unhelpful positive feedback mechanisms take over. Diseases that can occur from a failure in maintaining homeostasis are; diabetes, dehydration, hypoglycaemia, gout and any other diseases that are caused when toxin gets into the bloodstream. (wiseGEEK, 2015) A failure in maintaining energy balance can result in obesity and diabetes. Obesity is caused when a person overeats. The stomach releases a hormone whic h is called hormone ghrelin. This hormone goes to the  brain and increases a person’s appetite. The answer will come from another hormone which is named Leptin; this hormone is produced by cells in the fat tissue. Leptin goes to the brain and encourages a sense of satiety, or fullness. If the brain refuses to respond to ghrelin, an individual will keep feeling hungry. If the brain refuses to respond to the hormone Leptin, an individual will never be happy from a meal. Therefore a person will keep on eating and a person may overeat and this causes obesity. Homeostasis maintains energy balance. Without homeostasis an individual would overeat. (Biology-online.org, 2015) Homeostasis is also important in fighting viruses inside the body. For example if someone in your environment spread flu when he/she sneezed, your body will be affected. The body needs to fight off the entering virus, which likes living at normal body temperature. At 37á µâ€™ C the virus is able to breed and reproduce/multiply well, this will make the individual more prone to the illness as there is more bacteria to spread it. Although the body wants to maintain homeostasis and a normal temperature, but it would result that the v irus takes over your entire body. Therefore the body temperature rises above the normal range. When the body temperature rises it makes the body an uncomfortable place to live for the virus. In hotter temperature, the virus will slow down and you immune system will be able to attack the virus. Therefore homeostasis is very important, it helps fighting illnesses. If homeostasis would be disrupted an individual would become sick. A failure in homeostasis can result in dehydration. Maintaining water balance is important for good functioning of nerves. The kidney can detect blood pressure and the brain can detect the amount of water in the blood. The brain makes the body ‘thirsty’ when water levels in the body are low, while sending signals to the kidneys to retain more water. Dehydration occurs when there is too little water and it can cause kidney damage, heat cramps, shock, and coma and organ failure. However, when an individual drinks too much water, it can cause hyper hydration. Hyper hydration can lead to weakness, confusion, seizures and irritation. The human body’s weight is more than the half percentage of water. Homeostasis maintains the correct balance of water. (Balance, 2015) Homeostasis has a survival value, because it allows the human body to adapt in a changing environment. It deals with the temperature difference that a human faces when they step out their front door. The body will try to maintain a norm, the desired level of  a factor to achieve homeostasis. But it can only work within acceptable limits. In extreme condition the negative feedback mechanism can be disabled. In these circumstances, death can be caused unless there is medical treatment. (Biology-online.org, 2015) References Aldworth, C. and Billingham, M. (2010).Health social care. Harlow: Pearson. Balance, H. (2015). How Homeostasis Keeps Your System in Balance For Dummies. [online] Dummies.com. Available at: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-homeostasis-keeps-your-system-in-balance.html [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. Bbc.co.uk, (2015).BBC GCSE Bitesize: Why is homeostasis important for cells?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_pre_2011/homeostasis/importancerev1.shtml [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. Biology-online.org, (2015).Physiological Homeostasis Biology Online. [online] Available at: http://www.biology-online.org/4/1_physiological_homeostasis.htm [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. Biologyreference.com, (2015).Homeostasis Biology Encyclopedia cells, body, examples, function, human, process, system, organisms, blood. [online] Available at: http://www.biologyreference.com/Ho-La/Homeostasis.html [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. LIVESTRONG.COM, (2011).The Effects of Exer cise on the Baroreceptor Reflex | LIVESTRONG.COM. [online] Available at: http://www.livestrong.com/article/484396-the-effects-of-exercise-on-the-baroreceptor-reflex/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. Metabolism-metabolic-rate.com, (2015).Details about catabolism and anabolism Metabolism Metabolic Rate. [online] Available at: http://metabolism-metabolic-rate.com/details-about-catabolism-and-anabolism/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. The Classroom | Synonym, (2015).Homeostasis. [online] Available at: http://classroom.synonym.com/rad-results.html?google_kw=Homeostasiscategory=subcategory=School+Subjectsmedia_type=Articlechannel=4449597176google_rt=ChBU8E7IAA3SXQrbO4SvAEfHEgtIb21lb3N0YXNpcxoIltKWAN_kRPQoAVITCOvqm_H8gcQCFQth2wodoyQAXggoogle_page_url=http%3A%2F%2Fclassroom.synonym.com%2Fhomeostasis-fails-19395.html [Accessed 27 Feb. 2015]. wiseGEEK, (2015). wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. [online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com

The Circulatory System In Animals Physical Education Essay

The Circulatory System In Animals Physical Education Essay The role of the circulatory system in animals is the transportation of nutrients and oxygen to every cell that is in an animal organism, and to also remove waste products. The heart, blood vessels and blood are three vital components the body needs to survive. There are also other major roles the circulatory system has which are later discussed. Mammals have a double circulatory system meaning two circuits that blood journeys through; pulmonary and systemic. Pulmonary: Pulmonary circulation is the transportation of blood from the heart, to the lungs, and back to the heart again. The  pulmonary  circuit transports blood to the lungs for it to be  oxygenated  and then transported back to the heart. In the lungs, carbon dioxide is taken away from the blood, and oxygen taken up by the haemoglobin in the red blood cells. Systemic: The  systemic  circuit transports blood around the body to deliver the oxygen and returns  de-oxygenated  blood to the heart. Systemic circulation provides nutrition to all of the tissue located in the organism, with the exclusion of the heart and lungs as they have their own systems.   See below for a diagram of the circulatory system. http://biology-forums.com/gallery/14755_10_09_12_7_22_08_85152044.jpeg This diagram is showing the circulatory system; the pulmonary circuit where it is picking up oxygen from the lungs, and the systemic circuit which is transporting oxygen to the body. Author unknown (Date unknown) Heart: The heart is a muscular pump, when the heart is beating it is pumping blood to the lungs and around your body. The amount of blood pumped can be calculated. Heart rate x stroke volume = cardiac output. Below is a diagram of the heart. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7l_-YD5MdrI/TB5fAiMCw1I/AAAAAAAAAB4/oGM-yqQ64DE/s1600/HumanHeartDiagram.jpg Author unknown (Date unknown) This diagram of the heart is shown from in the front. So the  right  side is shown on the  left. The  left  side is on the  right  side of the diagram. The heart has four chambers. The two  atria  gather the blood. The two ventricles  pump blood out of the heart. Valves  stop the blood from flowing backwards. The  septum  splits the two sides of the heart. The right side of the heart pumps  de-oxygenated  blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. The left side of the heart pumps the oxygenated  blood from the lungs around the rest of the body. Blood Vessels: There are three different types of blood vessel: Arteries Arteries transport oxygenated blood from the heart, except from the pulmonary artery which goes to the lungs where the blood would be deoxygenated. Arteries have thick muscular walls and have small lumen and they contain blood which is under high pressure. Veins Veins transport blood to the heart which is always de-oxygenated except the pulmonary vein which goes from the lungs to the heart where the blood would be oxygenated. Veins have thin walls and larger lumen and they contain blood which is under low pressure. Veins also have valves to stop blood from flowing backwards. Capillaries Capillaries are located in the lungs and muscles, when capillaries are looked at under a microscope they are one cell thick, blood is of very low pressure. The capillaries are where oxygen passes through the capillary wall into the tissues and where carbon dioxide passes from tissues in to the blood. Blood: Animal organisms cant survive without blood. Without blood, organs wouldnt get oxygen and nutrients that they need to live; animals wouldnt be able to keep warm or cool down, fight infections, or get rid of waste products. Without enough blood, animals would weaken and die. The circulatory system works carefully with other systems in animal organisms. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to organisms by working with the respiratory system. The circulatory system assists carrying waste and carbon dioxide out of the organism. The circulatory system also has its part in fighting disease in carrying specialised cells which are made in the organs of the immune system. The circulatory system is responsible for the transportation of hormones. Hormones control vast amount of things such as growth, the reproductive cycle and glucose metabolism. Hormones are produced in one part of the body, such as the brain or the liver, and then must be moved to another part of the body by the circulatory system for them to transport their message. The circulatory systems other main role is to regulate body temperature, if body temperature rises then blood vessels close to the skin increase in size so that more heat is directed in to the air and vice versa if body temperature drops the blood vessels decrease in size so the heat will retain in the body. Factors which can influence transportation and circulation in animals High blood pressure (Essential hypertension) where there is no specific cause. High blood pressure of a known cause (secondary hypertension). Low fluid volume which will also include low blood pressure. Low cardiac output. (Î’-Adrenoreceptor antagonists). Obstruct membrane changes and cardiac output, will cause widening of the blood vessels. Aneurysms, where there is weakening in the artery walls, mainly the aorta. Arteriosclerosis is where the artery walls are hardening and thickening: loss of elasticity which is part of aging. Atherosclerosis which is the process in the progression of plaques in the lumen which is located in blood vessels.   All of these may also be influenced by physiological factors for e.g. diet, exercise, disease, drugs or alcohol, obesity and excess weight. Control mechanisms in animals Self-regulating mechanisms, where biological systems try to uphold stable internal conditions e.g., blood pressure and body temperature, when there are changes in the external environment. Internal environment of any living organism was upheld constant within certain restrictions. Homeostasis is usually achieved through two types of regulating systems: on-off control and feedback control.  Hormones  often play a main role in keeping homeostatic constancy.  Homeostasis is carried out around the whole body; reaches every cell up to organs and systems. Enzymes could not work properly, which means nothing could operate correctly if there is not a constant internal environment this would mean the living organism would die. Every single cell is bathed in a watery solution, which is made by some blood plasma which is allowed to escape out of blood. This will carry away any waste back into the blood. The balance in tissue fluid is vital for the cells and the organism.  There are six things that must be controlled in an organism for good health: Carbon dioxide Additional carbon dioxide must be taken away or else the body becomes too acidic. Carbon dioxide is mainly lost in the air we breathe out, but a minor amount is lost in the urine. Urea Urea is poisonous and must be removed from the organism; this chemical is made when amino acids are digested in the liver. This is a waste chemical and is mainly removed through urine and sweat. Ions Cells can end up swollen, shrivelled or sometimes burst, if the right balance is not kept in ions. Sodium, potassium, hydrogen and phosphate are important ions. These are controlled through how much water is drunk by the organism; some are lost like sodium ions, through faeces and sweat. Sugar There has to be enough glucose for respiration and satisfactory stores of glycogen. When blood glucose levels fall too low the organism will die. Water 70% of body mass is water. Not keeping the right amount of water the organism would die. Temperature Enzymes that control all the chemical reactions in an organism work best at the temperature of approx. 37 degrees centigrade, if the organism was to get too hot or too cold the enzymes would die concluding in the organism to die.

How the heart functions as a pump

How the heart functions as a pump The objective of this essay is to show how the heart functions as a pump in transporting oxygen to the different parts of the body and how reduction in coronary blood flow can impair the cardiac function. The first part of the essay describes the location, structure, electrical activity within the heart and how the heart transports oxygen throughout the body. The second part describes how reduced coronary blood flow in case of a disease can impair blood flow and its treatment. The heart forms an integral part of the cardiovascular system whose primary function is the maintenance of hemodynamic and homeostatic functions such as maintenance of body temperature, transport of nutrients to the cells, removal of waste materials, transport of oxygen and hormones. [8,1] Heart Location The human heart is like a cone shaped organ composed of four different chambers and is located obliquely across the chest midline with its tip behind the fifth left intercostal space. It weighs on an average between 250-350 grams in adults and is approximately the size of a human fist. [2] An average human heart beats on an average of 75 beats per minute and pumps more than 200 million litres of blood in 80 years. [3]. Although the heart is located in the centre of the chest cavity its beating action is felt on the left side of the chest cavity since the most powerful pumping action of the ventricles of the heart takes place towards the base of the heart which is located in the left side of the chest cavity. [2] The figure below shows the location of the heart in the body. Fig1: Location of the Heart [8] Lecture Physiology and Anatomy- Cardiovascular System Alan Richardson; slide no. 8 The heart is enclosed in a multi-layered sac known as Pericardium which protects the heart by reduction of friction and prevents excessive expansion. Between the different layers of the pericardium (visceral and the parietal layers), the pericardial cavity is present which holds about 5-15 ml of Pericardial Fluid that reduces the friction created due to the movement of the heart. [3] The heart wall consists of three different layers Epicardium (outer layer), Endocardium (inner layer) and Myocardium (middle layer). The 2picardium and the endocardium are both made of simple squamous epithelial cells and a thin areolar tissue layer. However the myocardium is the thickest amongst all the three layers consisting of the heart muscles and its thickness in each chamber of the heart depends upon the amount of force generated by which chamber during the pumping action. [3] The figure below clearly shows the various layers of the heart wall. Fig2: Layers of the Heart wall [9] Structure of the Heart The heart is divided into two different halves depending upon the kind of blood (deoxygenated or oxygenated) received right and left halves. The heart consists of four different chambers with an atria and a ventricle on each side. The atria have relatively thinner walls since they only have to pump the blood to much shorter distances than the ventricles. [4].The atria connect to the ventricles by means of atrioventricular valves (tricuspid in the right half, bicuspid in the left half). The atrioventricular valves are connected to the base of the ventricles by chord like structures known as the chordate tendinae that prevent the valves from swinging in the opposite direction and thus prevent the back flow of blood into the atria from the ventricles. [3,5] The two atria are separated from one another by means of a muscular wall known as the interatrial septum. [3] The atria and the ventricles are separated by means of a fibrous connective tissue known as annulus fibrosis, this helps i n giving a skeleton for attachment of the muscles of the heart and help in providing the site of placement of the heart valves. [4] The ventricles are the lower and the larger chambers of the heart. The two ventricles are separated from one another by means of a thick muscular wall known as the interventricular septum. The right ventricle is connected to the pulmonary artery by means of the pulmonary semilunar valve while the left ventricle is connected to the aorta by means of the aortic valve. [3]. On the surface of the heart the heart chambers grooves are marked by fatty layers containing coronary blood vessels these layers are also known as Sulci.[3] Blood Flow in the Heart The deoxygenated blood from the various parts of the body flows into the heart by the pair of vena cava into the right atria. The blood flowing from the upper part of the body relative to the heart is carried by the superior vena cava while the blood flowing from the lower part of the body relative to the heart is carried by the inferior vena cava. [8] The cardiac muscles empty their deoxygenated blood into the right atria by the coronary sinus. The deoxygenated blood is pumped from the right atria into the right ventricles through the right atrioventricular valves (tricuspid valve) upon atrial sytole and ventricular diastole. The blood in the right ventricles is then pumped into the pulmonary artery through the right semilunar valve (pulmonary valve) to the lungs for oxygenation upon ventricular systole. However, during the ventricular systole the semilunar valves do not open unless the pressure generated in the ventricles due to contraction (systole) is sufficient to push open the valves, such contraction is known as isometric contraction. The pulmonary artery bifurcates into two smaller branches the left and the right pulmonary artery (one for each of the lungs). The pulmonary vein from the lungs brings the oxygenated blood from the lungs into the left atria of the heart which then pumps the blood into the left ventricle through the bicuspid valve (mitral valve) during atrial systole and ventricular diastole. The left ventricle pumps the blood to the different parts of the body through the aorta through the aortic valve during ventricular diastole. The hearts muscles are themselves are supplied by oxygenated blood from the coronary artery branches present on the aortic arch. [3] The figure below shows the various chambers of the heart along with the flow of blood within the heart. Fig3: Blood Flow within the heart [8] Lecture Physiology and Anatomy- Cardiovascular System Alan Richardson, Slide no 12 Blood enters the chambers during the diastole (relaxation) phase and is pumped out during the systole (contraction) phase. As a result, the blood is under a higher pressure in the systolic phase than the diastolic phase. The blood pressure is the pressure exerted by the blood upon the walls of the blood vessels.[5] The blood pressure on the walls of the artery in a healthy individual lies around 80mm Hg for diastole and 120mm Hg for systole. [4] The valves of the heart prevent the back flow of blood and thereby only allow the unidirectional flow of blood. [5] The circulation of deoxygenated blood to the lungs and oxygenated blood back to the heart is known as pulmonary circulation while the circulation of oxygenated blood to all the parts of the body and deoxygenated blood from the various parts of the body into the heart is known as systemic circulation.[5] The entire process is displayed in the figure below. Fig4: Systemic and Pulmonary Circulation [10] Electrical Conduction within the Heart and Heart Beat The cardiac impulse trigger is generated by the group of specialised cells which together form the sino-atrial node (SA node). The SA node is present in the right atrium near the point of attachment of the superior vena cava. The cells in the SA node generate the impulses spontaneously as they are capable of spontaneous depolarisation, hence they are said to possess automaticity. [6] Due to these spontaneous impulses the SA node forms the atrial pacemaker. These electrical impulses are spread throughout the walls of the atrium by means of specialised pathways known as the Bachmanns Bundle, thereby causing the stimulation of the myocardial walls of the atria to contract and push the blood into the ventricles. The wave of electrical excitation travels from the atrial walls via specialised pathways called internodal tracts from the SA node to the Atrioventricular (AV) node. The AV node is also composed of similar autorhythmic cells as the SA node and is capable of pacing the heart in case the SA node fails in pacing and is located in the right side of the interatrial septum. However the pacing of the AV node is slower than the SA node and it thus provides the critical delay in the electrical conduction system, preventing the simultaneous contraction of both the atria and the ventricles. The distal portion of the AV node is known as the Bundle of His which then divides into the two bundle branches for spreading the electrical excitation to the two ventricles. The bundle branches are present along the interventricular septum and end at the tip of the heart by further differentiating into numerous small fibres known as Purkinje fibres. The Purkinje fibres are responsible for depolarising the individual myocardial cells of the ventricles. Thus causing the ventricles to contract and push the blood into the pulmonary artery or the aorta. [3] Blood circulation and Transport of Oxygen The blood vessels and capillaries are the pipes which carry blood throughout the body for metabolic, waste and gaseous transport. The blood vessels include arteries, arterioles, veins and venules. Arteries carry the oxygenated blood away from the heart with the Aorta being the largest artery. Since the artery carry blood in jerks and under high pressure they are surrounded by smooth muscles which prevent it from collapsing. The resistance to blood pressure is controlled by the autonomic nervous system which controls the width of the artery (lumen) through which the blood passes (vasoconstriction and vasodilation). The arteries further divide into smaller divisions known as arterioles which carry blood to smaller parts of the body. The arterioles are also covered with smooth muscles and like the arteries also resist any changes to the blood pressure. The arterioles further differentiate into smaller blood vessels known as capillaries which possess an extremely thin wall so as to allow the exchange of oxygen with the individual cells and carbon-dioxide from the cells. Apart from the exchange of gases the metabolic exchange of nutrients and wastes are also possible at the capilla ries. Several billions of capillaries then join together to form the venules which are smaller blood vessels carrying the deoxygenated blood from the capillaries to the veins. The veins are the formed by the integration of millions of smaller venules and it carries the deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The blood in the veins does not flow under considerable high amounts of pressure and hence the walls of the veins are not as thick as those of the artery. The veins join together to form the two vena cavas. [8] The transfer of oxygen from the blood into the cells at the capillaries is explained by the process of diffusion. Diffusion is the process of movement of particles from their region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Thus in the capillaries the oxygenated blood has a higher concentration of oxygen than that present outside the capillaries in the surrounding cells. At the same time there is higher concentration of carbon-dioxide in the surrounding cells than the oxygenated blood in the capillaries. Hence the oxygen from the blood in the capillaries diffuses out into the surrounding cells while the carbon-dioxide from the surrounding cells diffuses into the capillaries. Thus the oxygenated blood from the lungs passes into the heart which pumps it into the aorta which divides into the arteries which further divides into arterioles and then capillaries. The capillaries then exchange the oxygen with the cells and take carbon-dioxide from the cells and rejoin to form the venules which then form the veins which return the deoxygenated blood back to the heart. Thus the heart acts a pump in the entire cardiovascular system which transports the oxygen to the different parts of the body and carbon-dioxide from the different parts of the body. The figure below shows the overview of the cardiovascular system. Fig5: The Cardiovascular System [11] Reduced Coronary Blood Flow and Coronary Artery Disease The heart needs to perform all the time in the body and can never relax, hence the cardiac muscles have a high demand for oxygen and have very limited capacity for anaerobic respiration. [7] The chest pain which is felt in the patient due to the obstruction of the blood flow in the coronary arteries is known as Angina Pectoris. This deposition of the plaque and lipid layers within the coronary blood vessels thereby causing the hardening and narrowing of the blood vessels is known as Atherosclerosis. Due to the obstruction the cardiac cells are deprived of oxygen and start anaerobic fermentation resulting in the formation of lactic acid. The lactic acid formation in the heart stimulates the pain receptors present in the heart. [3] Depending upon the type of plaque formation in the coronary blood vessel the angina might be termed as stable or unstable. [8] Thus with the reduced coronary blood flow the cardiac output of the heart is severely impaired since the muscles of the heart are deprived of oxygen and nutrients resulting in tissue death or myocardial infarction. Hence the heart is not able to pump properly and thus has a reduced cardiac output. Myocardial Infarction causes severe pain and can even cause death to the patient. [6] The blood flow to the target cells can be increased by vasodilation and thereby allowing more blood to flow through them. This can be done by using organic nitrate medications which release nitric oxide (NO) into the blood stream. Medications known as beta blockers (ÃŽ ²) which also cause of the coronary artery vasodilation can also help in the treatment of the condition in the same manner. Apart from medications surgically also the condition of reduced coronary blood flow can be treated by coronary bypass surgery where the atherosclerotic narrowing of the coronary artery is bypassed by a blood vessel which is grafted from any other part of the patients body. There also is the possibility of performing other angioplasty operations such as balloon angioplasty, etc. [7] The therapeutic goals in treating stable angina are to improve the coronary blood flow to the target cells and reduce the cardiac oxygen demand. While in the treatment of unstable angina steps are taken to prevent the occurrence of myocardial infarction Conclusion The heart acts as a muscular pump which pumps blood throughout the lifecycle beating at an average of 72 beats a minute and pumping 200 million litres of blood in 80 years. [3] The cardiovascular system consists of several different components, the pump (heart), an extensive piping network (blood vessels and capillaries) and finally a working fluid (blood). The heart receives deoxygenated blood from all over the body pumps it to the lungs for oxygenation and receives the oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps them to the different parts of the body. The piping network includes arteries, arterioles, veins, venules and capillaries. The capillaries are the site of gaseous exchange where the exchange takes place by diffusion. Reduced coronary blood flow impairs the cardiac output by starving the cardiac cells of oxygen and nutrients carried by the blood.