Role of Genes and Environment in the Aetiology of Schizophre

Role of Genes and Environment in the Aetiology of Schizophre INTRODUCTION Schizophrenia (schiz = splitting; phrene = mind) is generally characterized as the fragmentation of psychic functions (Bleuler, 1950) of which the absolute causes are unknown. It is defined and diagnosed based on Schneider (1959)’s ‘first rank symptoms’ which can be further categorized into positive (e.g. hallucination, delusion, etc.) and negative (e.g. avolition, catatonia, etc.), depending on the described and observed experiences of patients (Andreasen Olsen, 1982). This essay aims to review a wide range of scientific literature and research which attempted to study the influence of various genetic and environmental factors in the aetiology of schizophrenia based on the general assumption that this mental illness is a multifactorial disease and can be viewed as an outcome of gene-environmental interaction (Van Os, Rutten, Poulton, 2008). A case study on the effect of Cannabis use on schizophrenia (Caspi et al., 2005) is analysed in order to justify the signi ficance of gene-environment interaction. GENETIC FACTORS The study of genes and how they contribute to the aetiology of schizophrenia have always been the topics of interest for neurobiologist. Multiple twins studies have shown that identical twins of 100% shared genes carry almost 40 times higher risk than completely unrelated people in developing such mental disorder if one of them was schizophrenic (Kallman, 1946; Cardno et al., 1999). In fact, schizophrenia is a polygenic illness as no single significant schizophrenia gene has been identified and numerous candidate genes such as Dystrobrevin-binding protein 1 (dysbindin), neuregulin 1 (NRG1), Catechol-O-methyltransferase protein (COMT), and Disrupted-in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) are the aetiological factors (Ross et al., 2006). This essay intends to discuss the role of COMT with respect to the ‘dopamine hypothesis’ and dysbindin corresponding to the ‘glutamate hypothesis’. Two neurochemical models have evolved to become important theories accounting for the aetiology of schizophrenia. The dominant one is the ‘dopamine hypothesis’ which pinpointed the association of hyperfunction of dopamine system, critically at D2 receptors, with schizophrenia (Carlsson, 1988) but it is being challenged (Egan et al., 2001) and will be discussed in next section. Another recent model will be the ‘glutamate hypofunction hypothesis’ which suggested that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors dysfunction and deficiency in glutamate production can lead to negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Olney, 1999; Coyle, 2006). ‘Dopamine hypothesis’ challenged: Introduction of inverted â€Å"U† model for COMT as the regulator of dopaminergic transmission COMT gene, being located at chromosome 22q11.2, is involved in the synthesis of dopamine metabolic enzyme and it regulates the dopaminergic transmission across synapses in the prefrontal cortex (Craddock et al., 2006; Tunbridge et al., 2006). Microdeletion of this chromosomal region resulted in Velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) and approximately one third of the patients suffering from VCFS were diagnosed to be with schizophrenia (Murphy et al., 1999), depictingthe significance of COMT in aetiology of schizophrenia via regulation of the release of dopamine transmitters in PFC. Two alleles, valine (Val) and methione (Met), found on COMT are involved in the functional polymorphism which alters the activity of dopamine metabolic enzyme. The relatively lower stability of the Met allele resulted in the lower enzyme activity, which in turn reduced dopamine breakdown and increased the concentration of dopaminergic transmission in the synapses. Consequently, individuals with Met-Met genotype were expected to be more susceptible to schizophrenia (Ross et al., 2006). In contrast, research has challenged the ‘dopamine hypothesis’ by demonstrating that both the patients with schizophrenia and individuals that inherited two copies of Val alleles (with decreased prefrontal dopamine level) exhibited the lowest PFC efficiency (Egan et al., 2001). This leads to the introduction of an inverted â€Å"U† model (see Figure 1) which illustrates the relationship between COMT genotype, PFC dopamine levels and prefrontal activity (Cools DEsposito, 2011). Glutamate hypothesis: Dysbindin as the regulator of glutamatergic transmission Dysbindin gene, being located at chromosome 6p22.3, was identified to have strong association with schizophrenia (Straub et al., 2002). There is a wide colocalisation of this gene with dystrobreyin in both presynaptic and postsynaptic regions of brain such as hippocampus (Benson et al., 2001). The level of dysbindin expression in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) of schizophrenia patients is consistently found to be significantly reduced (Talbot et al. 2004, Bray et al., 2005; Weickert et al, 2008). As a result of knockdown of endogenous dysbindin protein in culture by siRNA, a small interfering RNA, glutamatergic neurotransmission can be reduced. (Numakawa et al., 2004; Talbot et al., 2004). Besides, the reduced expression also significantly suppresses the synaptic transmission of glutamate in Drosophila’s brain (Shao et al., 2011) and reduces the excitation of NMDA as well as the expression of NR1 mRNA in the PFC of mice (Karlsgodt et al., 2011). These findings wel l supported the ‘glutamate hypothesis’ of schizophrenia, which proposed this mental disorder as an outcome of dysfunction of NMDA receptors and glutamatergic transmission. Limitations Although microdeletion of chromosome 22q11.2 increases vulnerability to schizophrenia, it is important to note that there might be other genes on the same location that can account for such illness as COMT is not the only gene in this location. Moreover, in contrast to the glutamate hypothesis’, reduced dysbindin expression in the hippocampus of mice increases NMDA-mediated current and long-term potentiation and increase glutamatergic transmission (Tang et al., 2009). This suggests that ‘glutamate hypothesis’ might not be applicable to the role of dysbindin in all brain areas. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Studies using the approach of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have consistently discovered significant brain abnormalities in schizophrenics such as reduced frontal lobes and cerebral cortex (Andreasen et al., 1986) which affected cognitive abilities. Reduced frontal cortex was later shown to have no correlation with familial influence but with environmental factors (Owen et al., 2012). Although Touloupoulou et al. (2010)’s study has demonstrated that genetic factors can explain the correlation between cognition and schizophrenia, the research also suggested that environmental factors can account for the weak link between them. This essay will then discuss the influence of prenatal and postnatal risk factors as well as childhood trauma in the aetiology of schizophrenia. Prenatal and postnatal risk factors in aetiology of brain abnormalities A meta-analysis has demonstrated the strong correlation between schizophrenia and prenatal or obstetric complications such as below standard birth weight, premature birth and perinatal hypoxic brain damage (Cannon, Jones Murray, 2002). During prenatal stage, deficiency in micronutrients such as folate, iron and vitamin D can interrupt physical development of fetus and result in low birth weight (Brown Susser, 2008). Maternal exposure to infectious pathogens such as herpes simplex virus type-2, rubella, polio etc. can also impact neurodevelopment in fetus and raise the vulnerability of offspring towards schizophrenia. Furthermore, hynoxia (deficiency in oxygen level) during perinatal stage significantly influences the development of gray matter which in turn induces schizophrenia (Opler et al., 2013). Childhood trauma and experiences in aetiology of abnormal functional and structural brain development Positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucination is of strong association with undesirable childhood experiences such as abuse and neglect. Childhood trauma acts as a stressor which adversely alters the dopamine production system in hippocampus. Accordingly, the accumulated effect of abuse can trigger dysregulation of dopaminergic transmission as well as the onset of schizophrenia (Read, Os, Morrison Ross, 2005). The abnormal dopamine level (either too high or too low) is linked with the aetiology of schizophrenia, corresponding to the inverted ‘U’ model (Cools DEsposito, 2011). In addition, childhood abuse can lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) which results in neurodegeneration and significant volume loss in various brain regions and eventually leads to the onset of psychosis (Keightley, 2014). 1316 GENE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION Case Study: COMT genotypes moderates the effect of adolescent cannabis-use on risk of schizophrenia in adulthood Strong evidences have signified the use of cannabis in adolescence as the modest risk factors for schizophrenia. Early use of cannabis is capable of increasing the risk of brain abnormalities and schizophrenia because the brains of adolescents are still under development and brain maturation is extremely susceptible to the deleterious effect cannabis use (Ehrenreich et al 1999; Pistis et al 2004; Pope et al 2003; Schneider and Koch 2003). Nonetheless, this environmental factor alone cannot be regarded as an aetiology of such mental disorder because a vast majority of the cannabis adolescent users do not exhibit schizophrenic disorders in adulthood (Caspi et al., 2005). Hence, the vulnerability of individuals towards adolescent-onset use of cannabis suggests a gene-environment interaction. In fact, COMT gene, as discussed above, is involved in regulating such trait. Individuals who have two copies of Val alleles carry the highest risk of schizophrenia at age 26 if cannabis abuse was f ound in their early stages, followed by Met-Val genotypes and adolescents who inherited Met-Met COMT genotype are least vulnerable to the abuse use of cannabis (Caspi et al., 2005). Thus, this clearly demonstrates the moderation effect of COMT on cannabis use and the gene-environment interaction. CONCLUSION In conclusion, understanding the role of various genes such as COMT and dysbindin in regulating the neurotransmission can help developing adequate medications which effectively tackle the mental illness. Identifying the influence of prenatal and obstetric complications as well as childhood experiences in aetiology of schizophrenia can also effectively prevent the onset of schizophrenia. Last but not least, studying the gene-environment interaction in the case of cannabis use reveals the multifactorial properties and intricate aetiology of schizophrenia. Hence, future research is encouraged to work on such interaction in order to pinpoint the main causes of such mental disorder. REFERENCES Andreasen, N. C., Olsen, S. (1982). Negative v positive schizophrenia: definition and validation.Archives of General Psychiatry,39(7), 789. Bleuler, E. (1950). Dementia praecox or the group of schizophrenias. Oxford/England: International Universities Press. 548. Carlsson, A. (1988). The current status of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology. Cardno AG, Marshall EJ, Coid B, Macdonald AM, Ribchester TR, Davies NJ, et al. (1999). Heritability estimates for psychotic disorders.Arch Gen Psychiatry,56 (162), 8. Kallmann, F. J. (1946). The genetic theory of schizophrenia: an analysis of 691 schizophrenic twin index families.American Journal of Psychiatry,103(3), 309-322. Kety, S. S. R. D., Rosenthal, D., Wender, P. H., Schulsinger, F., Jacobsen, B. (1974). Mental illness in the biological and adoptive families of adopted individuals who have become schizophrenic: A preliminary report based upon interviews with the relatives.Journal of Psychiatric Research,10(2), 154. Ingraham, L. J., Wender, P. H., Kety, S. S. (1991). Characterization of genetically transmitted schizophrenia in Danish adoptees.Schizophrenia Research,4(3), 279-280. Ross, C. A., Margolis, R. L., Reading, S. A., Pletnikov, M., Coyle, J. T. (2006). Neurobiology of schizophrenia.Neuron,52(1), 139-153. Straub, R. E., Jiang, Y., MacLean, C. J., Ma, Y., Webb, B. T., Myakishev, M. V., Kendler, K. S. (2002). Genetic variation in the 6p22. 3 Gene DTNBP1 the human ortholog of the mouse dysbindin gene is associated with schizophrenia.The American Journal of Human Genetics, 71(2), 337-348. Shao, L., Shuai, Y., Wang, J., Feng, S., Lu, B., Li, Z., Zhong, Y. (2011). Schizophrenia susceptibility gene dysbindin regulates glutamatergic and dopaminergic functions via distinctive mechanisms in Drosophila.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,108(46), 18831-18836. Olney, J. W., Newcomer, J. W., Farber, N. B. (1999). NMDA receptor hypofunction model of schizophrenia.Journal of psychiatric research,33(6), 523-533. Coyle, J. T. (2006). Glutamate and schizophrenia: beyond the dopamine hypothesis.Cellular and molecular neurobiology,26(4-6), 363-382. Talbot, K., Eidem, W. L., Tinsley, C. L., Benson, M. A., Thompson, E. W., Smith, R. J., Arnold, S. E. (2004). Dysbindin-1 is reduced in intrinsic, glutamatergic terminals of the hippocampal formation in schizophrenia. The Journal of clinical investigation, 113(9), 1353-1363. Weickert, C. S., Rothmond, D. A., Hyde, T. M., Kleinman, J. E., Straub, R. E. (2008). Reduced DTNBP1 (dysbindin-1) mRNA in the hippocampal formation of schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia research, 98(1), 105-110. Karlsgodt, K. H., Robleto, K., Trantham-Davidson, H., Jairl, C., Cannon, T. D., Lavin, A., Jentsch, J. D. (2011). Reduced dysbindin expression mediates N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor hypofunction and impaired working memory performance. Biological psychiatry, 69(1), 28-34. Tang, T. T. T., Yang, F., Chen, B. S., Lu, Y., Ji, Y., Roche, K. W., Lu, B. (2009). Dysbindin regulates hippocampal LTP by controlling NMDA receptor surface expression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(50), 21395-21400. Egan, M. F., Goldberg, T. E., Kolachana, B. S., Callicott, J. H., Mazzanti, C. M., Straub, R. E., Weinberger, D. R. (2001). Effect of COMT Val108/158 Met genotype on frontal lobe function and risk for schizophrenia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,98(12), 6917-6922. Cools, R., DEsposito, M. (2011). Inverted-U–Shaped Dopamine actions on human working memory and cognitive control.Biological psychiatry,69(12), e113-e125. Opler, M., Charap, J., Greig, A., Stein, V., Polito, S., Malaspina, D. (2013). Environmental risk factors and schizophrenia.International Journal of Mental Health,42(1), 23-32. Gottesman, I. I., Bertelsen, A. (1989). Confirming unexpressed genotypes for schizophrenia: risks in the offspring of Fischers Danish identical and fraternal discordant twins.Archives of General Psychiatry,46(10), 867-872. Toulopoulou, T., Goldberg, T. E., Mesa, I. R., Picchioni, M., Rijsdijk, F., Stahl, D., Murray, R. M. (2010). Impaired intellect and memory: a missing link between genetic risk and schizophrenia?.Archives of general psychiatry,67(9), 905-913. Manoach, D. S. (2003). Prefrontal cortex dysfunction during working memory performance in schizophrenia: reconciling discrepant findings.Schizophrenia research,60(2), 285-298. Owens, S. F., Picchioni, M. M., Ettinger, U., McDonald, C., Walshe, M., Schmechtig, A., Toulopoulou, T. (2012). Prefrontal deviations in function but not volume are putative endophenotypes for schizophrenia.Brain, 138. Cannon, M., Jones, P. B., Murray, R. M. (2002). Obstetric complications and schizophrenia: historical and meta-analytic review.American Journal of Psychiatry,159(7), 1080-1092. Brown, A.S., Susser, E.S. (2008). Prenatal nutritional deficiency and risk of adult schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 34, 1054–1063 Read, J., Os, J. V., Morrison, A. P., Ross, C. A. (2005). Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications.Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica,112(5), 330-350. Van Os, J., Rutten, B. P., Poulton, R. (2008). Gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: review of epidemiological findings and future directions. Schizophrenia bulletin,34(6), 1066-1082. Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Cannon, M., McClay, J., Murray, R., Harrington, H., Craig, I. W. (2005). Moderation of the effect of adolescent-onset cannabis use on adult psychosis by a functional polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene: longitudinal evidence of a gene X environment interaction.Biological psychiatry,57(10), 1117-1127. Keightley, M. L., Sinopoli, K. J., Davis, K. D., Mikulis, D. J., Wennberg, R., Tartaglia, M. C., Tator, C. H. (2014). Is there evidence for neurodegenerative change following traumatic brain injury in children and youth? A scoping review.Frontiers in human neuroscience,8. Schneider, K. (1959) Klinische Psychopathologie. New York/Stuttgart : Thieme Verlag.

NeoMed Tech

Subject line: Describe what went right and what went wrong with this venture. Add in how you would fix the Identified problems, If this was your company. Needed Technologies developed a diagnostic device used for cardiac testing, and is headquartered in Ohio. They developed a CAD screen system to detect coronary artery disease. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio.Needed Technologies was faced with a lot of difficult decisions at the beginning when it came to where their product would best fit and be most successful. They ad developed a technology that could fit Into many markets, but needed to choose a product path and market. Their continued challenges occurred due to the changes In the market direction of venture capital opportunities and the funding available, all due to changes in the economy at that time.Due to the lack of funding, and a continued decline in Venture Capital funding along with a downturn in the economy; I believe had the economic situa tion been different at the time when they needed venture capital funding, the would've faced less challenges. The management team and Board of Directors were selected carefully and all had the experience and the background needed for success In the product market space. Needed Technologies had a strong business plan, and had conducted extensive research in initial planning stages.I believe based on the reading materials in this chapter; they did all the right things in the planning and early development stages. Although Needed Technologies had to contend with big name competitors and major players in the diagnostic and imaging market such as GE Medical and Philips, also located in the Ohio region; their strategy to be headquartered in Ohio was a sound decision. However, they should've investigated further in the opportunity to obtain venture capital funding outside of the Ohio region.Perhaps they could've spent more time studying competitive business cases of companies Like competit or, Heartaches, who specializes In the BEST test. The Heartaches product, although more costly, had seen success and was widely accepted in the Medical field. Despite the added cost of the Heartaches BEST test, they were seeing success in the market. One strategy change I would've considered early on was not applying all resources of their technology into one area.Needed Technologies should've considered applying their initial product development to the technology of screening for drugs, drug delivery applications or detecting cancer. These areas would've possibly allowed for a quick to market product, without the additional approvals, quality standards applied in the medical equipment space, and FDA approvals needed. Bringing a simpler product to market first could've brought in revenue to fund the long-term reduce focus off CAD screen system.The profits from a drug screening or drug delivery product could've assisted in funding their long-term product focus, they missed an opportu nity to develop a quick revenue steam. Defense space, for detection of nuclear weapons, or dirty bombs. With the shift later in Venture Capital funding opportunities, they could've experienced success in this area as well. Bottom-line, they put all their eggs in one basket; they failed to have a backup product to develop a quick revenue stream to further fund their long-term goal.However, without a crystal ball that was a difficult decision. There were clear signs of shifts in investment opportunities, the shift indicted investments being shifted towards Homeland Security, military applications, and protection from various biological and chemical threats. Needed Technologies should shift some of their resources to developing a product to fit into that area, thus allowing them the opportunity to obtain additional venture capital funding, and perhaps developing a profitable product in the Homeland Security space.The revenue stream from this reduce would allow them later to proceed wit h their CAD screen system. There was another area of investment that should've been further investigated, â€Å"Angel Investors†, most of who are Entrepreneurs themselves currently, or at some point in their career. Inviting one of the Angel investors a seat on the board, as well as leveraging the experience they have gained from starting their own company, dealing with the challenges of starting a business, and investigating further Venture capital funding areas.Needed Technologies should've reached out farther than Just the Ohio-based Venture Capital firms, this would've allowed them a broader audience of investors and opportunity. I don't believe holding off for perfection is necessarily wrong, especially when dealing with, and factoring in the value of human life. The Needed Technologies board of directors and upper level management all appeared to encompass strong ethics and while that might be a weakness to others, ethics are important and should never be compromised. T oo many companies take the short cut to success and people get hurt.

Utilitarianism, Deontology and Virtue

Anthony B. FieldingUtilitarian, Deontological, and Virtue ethics The concept of utilitarianism is closely related to the philosophy of consequentialism. Basically this means that the moral and ethical value of a person’s action should be judged by the consequence of that action. Utilitarianism is believed to be the most important of the three ethical theories because it has helped shape our world’s politics, economics, and public policy. This ethical theory explains to us that we can determine the ethical significance by judging the consequence of that act.So basically I understand utilitarianism as; what is good for the majority is just and that happiness is the ultimate goal. An example of my own would be; the utilitarian would say that if six people were trapped on an island, two adult males and four small children with enough food to last two days if they all ate, but if the men did not eat, there would be enough for the children to eat for a week, it is ok for two men to starve to death if it meant that four children would live long enough to be rescued.Bound by our duties, walk the walk, and practice what you preach, the deontologist’s view of ethics. Contrary to utilitarianism, deontology says that there are some things that we should or should not do regardless of the consequence. Law enforcement officers wear a badge of honor ‘To serve and protect. ’ This motto is definitely one that describes deontology. Another popular slogan we hear is â€Å"Be all you can be. † This duty is demonstrated by our U. S. Army. A bodyguard’s duty is to protect his employer to the extent of endangering his own life.Virtue ethics questions how we should live our lives. A person is judged by his character and not by the actions he may uncommonly choose. Character building takes a lot of work. Character is introduced to us at a very young age by many sources, parents, grand-parents and teachers just to name a few. To me, virtue ethics can be confused as ‘do as I say and not as I do. ’ A person that practices virtue ethics may work for a company that sells automatic machine guns, but teach in his home that guns are bad.

Clothing And Identity And Social Class - 1342 Words

Clothing is used to represent both identity and social class in very similar ways. Identity is one of the most compelling and contentious conceptions. Individuals declare who they are through what they wear. One’s appearance reveals their gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age, and personal interests. Expressing yourself and who you are can be challenging to put into words, therefore it is a lot easier to show who you are through the way you dress. For centuries, clothing has been a principal for identifying oneself by occupation, regional identity, religion and social class (Arvanitidou, n.d.). Clothing allows one to transform their social body, however this can create separation or deviation from other social groups which then contributes to the creation of subgroups (Voss, 2008). Fashion and identity is often theorised in terms of sub groups, in which clothing and style are seen as markers of the boundaries of a group (Polhemus 1994, Evans 1997). There are ma ny ways in which people feel the need to express themselves through clothing such as: economic class, religious beliefs, social status and many more. The quote â€Å"Fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statements about their identities† (Bennet, 2005). Subculture groups allow people that share the same interests such as music, style and similar likes and dislikes into specific groups that they will fit into. One of the most important andShow MoreRelatedMen’s Clothing, and How Men Used Their Fashion and Appearance to Construct Their Masculine Identity, as Well as Their Social Class2137 Words   |  9 Pagesjackets, trousers, cravats, ties, and hats that provided plenty of material for asserting or maintaining social status (Delpierre, 1990). This essay focuses on men’s clothing, and how men used their fashion and appearance to construct their masculine identity, as well as their social class. 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Case Study Of Garmin Uses Technology Help Promote...

The sum of many is always greater than the sum of one. Utilizing group think can position the company with a unique innovative idea. Currently Garmin uses technology to help promote collaboration between departments and also offices. There are multiple telecommunication technologies that allow for this to happen. At Garmin we currently utilize virtual teams in order to come together and accomplish multiple goals. These teams are designed in order to save the company on travel costs by giving the ability to work remotely via web meetings or conference calls. Garmin has done a great job of promoting these teams with video conferencing so that you get an understanding of who you are working with. Opportunities for Garmin in order to†¦show more content†¦At this point in my experience with Garmin I would not have any additional recommendations for the company to improve upon it research and development area. With the advancement of technology in the work place many analog tasks have been converted to technology which is aiding the advancement. Through almost all departments of the business technology has emerged as the key factor in future growth. I believe that throughout the proposal my suggestions will aid in the growth of the company in the following ways. Throughout this proposal I have put more ideas on the table. This effort is better than a group of like-minded individuals. I also included varied perspectives from different departments and segments of the business. By including employees, managers, shareholders and customers I have been able to give a clearer picture of the context and potential pitfalls. Working with multiple levels of the organization my proposal gains buy-in support from the primary stakeholders. These primary stakeholders have a lot to gain from increasing the technology impact with the business. In the proposal for streamlining the technology suite for customer service, sales and marketing I believe that this would be fair for everyone. Meaning that he ends result would affect them all the same, giving each respective team more access and nimbleness to share information internally and externally. Within this proposal IShow MoreRelatedConsumer Lifestyle in Singapore35714 Words   |  143 Pages............................ 28 Male Grooming ....................................................................................................................... 29  © Euromonitor International CONSUMER LIFESTYLES IN SINGAPORE Passport II Use of Hair Care Salons, Spas, Nail and Beauty Parlours ..................................................... 30 Chart 11 Chart 12 Value Sales of Beauty and Personal Care Key Categories 2006-2011 ...... 31 Regional Ranking of Per Capita Sales of Mens Grooming

Chandas Secrets-the Stigma of Aids - 1429 Words

Stigma is shown throughout many subjects; obesity, mental illness and the most powerful and worse stigma; the stigma of AIDS. The stigma of AIDS is clearly shown through a powerful story set in the middle of the African HIV and AIDS pandemic. The novel Chanda’s secrets accurately demonstrates the stigma of AIDS by portraying characters blinded by fear, being ashamed, feeling sinful, and living in denial. The stigma is shown through a maturing young girl’s point of view, seeing others and as well as herself confronting the different ‘symptoms’ of the stigma and what steps both she and the other characters took to overcome them. To begin with, being blinded by fear is associated with the Stigma of AIDS. Most people are blinded by fear when†¦show more content†¦Mrs. Tafa did not want Chanda being around Esther because she knew what would be said behind Chanda’s back. She knew what rumours would be spread, what gossip would be exaggerated. She also said this because she did not what the neighbourhood to know she was living next to children who associated with AIDS infected people. This is a method on how the author chose to show that being ashamed is part of the stigma of AIDS. Likewise, sin/feeling sinful is also part of the stigma of AIDS. In small, sub Saharan African villages such as the ones previously mentioned, having such a well known, yet feared disease could begin questions, and judgemental opinions to be made. If a person has the virus, it could send a message that the person has been ‘sleeping around’. To further explain how sin is part of the stigma of AIDS, Mama was thought of as somewhat of a whore/slut by her family, because she had four husbands, when she was originally supposed to marry the man her parents picked out for her. Lilian’s family believes that because she refused to marry Tuelo, a curse was brought upon her. They concluded that her loved ones were dead because she dishonoured the family and ancestors. They believe her children and husbands died as a form of punishment. An example of Mama feeling sinful would be when just as Auntie Lizbet is just about to leave for Tiro and she says to Mama â€Å"as you sow , so you reap sister. The sins are visited uponShow MoreRelatedChandas Secret- Stigma1512 Words   |  7 Pages20th December 2012 Final draft AIDS- The stigma of life Since the invention of medicine, never have human beings needed to face as a big challenge as the present: The AIDS epidemic! When people have HIV virus and it continues to develop seriously, the HIV virus badly damages their bodies’ immune systems, which leads them to the risk for opportunistic infections, meaning they easily get sickness without any protection. In this period, their disease will turn into AIDS, which has taken countless lives

Crisis Communication and Emergency Management †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Crisis Communication and Emergency Management. Answer: Introduction The rise of social media has a great impact on the process through which a customer makes decisions regarding purchases along with making interaction with the brands with the customers with the help of purchases cycle. Most of the organizations understand the concept of promotion using social media. However, few people comprehend the way to make value for particular attribute. In the present study, use of social media in order to manage business is described. Newman (2017) stated that Emirates Group is one of the top global brands with strong corporate culture. The organization has entered through cargo shipping and continuously enhances as well as renews their services in the airline. In addition, the organization manages the requirements of target audience and decision for focusing on diversified market. The company does not provide several places in the USA. However, it focuses on their high-end acquisitions as well as diversification. However, the company does not provide facilities for budget travelers as well as personalized services (White 2016). The company has developed continuously for new generations and advanced airline with the aviation services. The competitor organizations for instance Gulf Air and Eihad are considered as major threats. In present situation, it becomes difficult to manage customers effectively as competence is increasing day by day. Rapid development of information and communication technology helps organizations to communicate with customers and know their demands. However, it becomes difficult to use appropriate social media tool that can provide competitive benefits to the organization. Reaching consensus Social media produces a massive amount of data related to the customers in real time (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson 2014). Through daily activity as well as social listening, related customer data as well as use of information makes the business smarter. On the other hand, it increase brand awareness as well as loyalty. Social ads are considered as one of the most inexpensive ways in order to promote business as well as distribute content. These are powerful in terms of targeting options so that it is helpful to research to right audience. Apart from these, use of social media is helpful to generate higher converting leads. Social media is also helpful for increasing sales as well as customer retention by making regular interaction along with timely service. In addition, use of social media is helpful to provide rich customer experience. A report by Aberdeen Group has shown that the organizations involving in social customer service can gain more profit. Social media such as Twitter is also one of the largest places for an active group of people known as trolls. These people have the sole intention of negatively impacting anyone who is not aligned with their ideals. The queries or the feedback posted by an unhappy customer might be a troller in disguise. They might post various comments on the twitter account page of Emirates Airlines. This will impact the business of the company as not many people are aware of the concept of trolling and might consider the negative feedback from such a person as true (Pearlson et al. 2016). On the other hand, there is immediate future as well as long term to be the best in the projects. There are various process lied in the success of the organization. Knox, Marston and Imort (2016) commented that provided birth to social media. Social media has been used in various context associated with distinctive technologies and the thing for accomplishment. Hajli (2015) stated that the process makes the web-based technologies in order to transform as well as media monologues into the social media dialogues. The social media technology supports democratization of knowledge as well as transforming information from the content consumes to the producers. Hence, people can rely more on the social media in order to learn regarding the events. There are several social media websites like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Google+, LinkedIn, Youtube and Twitter (Siamagka et al. 2015). LinkedIn is used for mainstream social networking sites. On the other hand, Facebook, Orkut, MySpace and Google+ have the purposes for mainstream performance. Wikipedia is used as the open-source online source encloypedia. Managing change Kavanagh and Johnson (2017) stated that various advantages are generally observed as it raises marketing return on the investment as well as development of product quality. The social CRM form has technological standpoint bridges with traditional CRM. Hence, complete picture can be developed when various elements weaved across social media and integrated as the part of operations. Organizations working closely with the customers need to co-create ideas for product service. Kotter 8 step process is helpful to analyze the strategy taken by Emirate Airline. In the first step, it is required to create urgency. For change to happen, it assists the entire organization to work on it. Development of the urgency plan would be helpful to achieve the need of changes. It is important to identify threats and develop scenarios for future. Analysis of the opportunities could be exploited through it. In the second step, it is required to develop a powerful coalition where it is required to convince people that change is essential. Finding effective change leaders in the organization is helpful for the organization. Use of Twitter can be useful to influence people requiring work as a team. In addition, using Twitter is useful for creating vision of change. Communicating the vision as using Twitter is helpful to generate strong competition with others. On the other hand, removing Obstacles as privacy and security issues need to be assessed (Stieglitz et al. 2014). Moreover, creating short-term wins as short-time benefit for using social media for customer management is helpful for the organization. Apart from these, develop on the change of demands and anchor the changes in making corporate culture is required to achieve for implying social media as Twitter for the organization. While adopting social CRM, there are several challenges. The vital part is privacy of the user data. Using social listening tool can only access public data. There are regulations for preventing storage as well as usage of the information. Social media uses the applications for newer channels like micro blogs as well as communities that lead to higher customer association with the organizations as well as brands (Stieglitz et al. 2014). However, the ID of social media requires to be verified for preventing information with the unauthorized persons. It also provides different aspects that look to the readiness for adopting SCM for gaining future opportunity. Planning IS development Customer relation management tool is used for understanding the role of social media in business. In the current context, Emirates Airline has been selected as case study organization. Moreover, as an internal solution Yammer is considered. The use of twitter in customer relation management is described in the study. However, there are several limitations faced by Emirate Airline in using Twitter as customer management tool. The most important limitation is selecting mixed method approach as it can lead to make the process effective. On the other hand, in order to clarify tendency of the process, it is required to make direction of the process (Simon et al. 2015). Cross-functional strategies would be helpful for creation of enhanced shareholder value by making proper relationships with the customers as well as customer segments. CRM is viewed as the strategic management approach concerned with the use of data as well as technology along with the process of integration. Strategic management approach is helpful for diffusion of the knowledge of customers. In order to sum up the attempts for establishing the functions and management of the process, long-term relationship as well as customer exchanges for customer relationship lifecycle would be useful. The perspectives are sales, relationships as well as management activities for differentiating each other in the process. The network perspective includes highest depth of the asset of customers as well as scope of the process (Parveen et al. 2015). It is important to give attention on the perspectives for important interactions between the organization as well as its customers. A holistic approach can be helpful for making cross-functional approach, which is supported by strategies and technologies along with the process involved in the system. There are several advantages of using social media platforms in order to provide beneficial value. Westerman, Spence and Van Der Heide (2014) mentioned that generation of proper market intelligence for current as well as future requirements can be helpful for market orientation. Stemming from the implication of market orientation is one of the approaches for gaining better relationship in marketing principle implied a competitive benefits gained as well as sustained by fulfilling the demands of the customers. Sharing is one of the comparable ideas of information reciprocity where consumer interacting as well as sharing information is encouraged by multiple activities. It leads to a positive effect on the ability of the organization. Sharing SM tools can be helpful to give advantage on the user exchange. Dealing with outsourcing Emirates Airlines has one of the largest customer bases among other competitor airlines that currently dominate the global airlines market. Social media can be used to reach the highest number of customers who use their services (Xu et al. 2016). IBM has signed ten-year technology service agreement with Emirates Airline that is approximately $300 million. In this perspective, it is important to develop effective communication plan that could be achieved with the help of social media. People check their social media accounts more frequently than their email accounts and therefore social media is one of the greatest tool that can be used to promoting a healthy customer-airlines relationship. Emirates Airlines can use Twitter to connect with their customer base to handle their queries and any issues that they might have faced while using the service at Emirates Airlines. The customer can post their queries or issues on the Twitter account page of Emirates Airlines. A select team of experts will attend to such queries and would solve them within a fixed amount of time. Such a technique is useful as most of the time the customer might face technical troubles while calling the company and the calls does not always connect to the right department who would sole the issue (Prpi? et al. 2015). Many times, it has been observed that connecting to the right department to solve a particular issue takes time and the customer might not be able to always afford such time. It onl y takes a few seconds to post a complaint or a query on the account page and therefore it saves a lot of the customers time. Dealing with privacy Twitter has one of the highest user base and therefore it can be safely expressed that most of the customers of Emirates Airlines will be able to sue this tool. Familiarity is one of the best tools that can be used by a company to make a customer comfortable in an unknown environment. Therefore, a customer might be hesitant to call or email to leave a feedback to the company, they would be easily using their Twitter access to do the same. Leaving a few words of feedback on the Emirates Airlines Twitter account page will therefore be beneficial for the customer and for the company. However, several issues like dealing with privacy are one of the major challenges of the organization. Hence, it is required to use DPA principle for using social media in marketing management. The first principle of Data protection principle needs to be processed lawfully. Second principle shall be obtained for more specified process. Third principle shall be adequate, related as well as not excessive related to the purpose of the organization. Personal data in Twitter of Emirates Airline need to be accurate, whereas fifth principle processes personal data. Seventh principle implies technical as well as organizational measures. On contrary, eighth principle help to ensure personal data that should not be transferred out of the nation or territory. Channeling the feedback to the correct department has always been an issue in large companies. Most of the times, the call ends up at the wrong department or the email is lost among a huge stack of other more important emails. Therefore, the tweet on the Twitter holds an individualistic approach and the members at the company see to it that the feedback or the query of the customer reaches the correct department (Wang et al. 2018). The most important factor being understandability of the priority level. Every organization has to deal with different issues every day and it is the responsibility of the managers to segregate the issues based on their priorities and then act accordingly. Due to this segregation, it is seen that most of the time the customers might not be given enough priority (Ngai et al. 2015). However, customers are the source of revenue and must be treated with the highest priority among all other operations and using Twitter will definitely assist in achieving that. Increasing awareness Marketing strategies can be integrated with the Customer relationship management. CRM allows such marketing strategies whereas other marketing tools do not allow it. The company can solve the query or the feedback by the individual customers within a stipulated amount of time and use that to advertise their competency to their existing customers as well as to their potential customers. Shore, Bernstein and Lazer (2015) commented that customers can be reached out and communicated with easily using Twitter. Studies show that people are more open to replying to messages on Twitter than an email that they have received. The human mind works in such a manner that makes answering or getting a directed reply in a group or public chat group as more rewarding. The Social media tools such as Twitter utilize this aspect of the human behavior. The customers of the company will openly share their feedback and reply to messages if it is seen by them that they are being paid attention to. Social media is very easy to use. However, implementing it effectively to serve the objectives of the company might be tough. The people chosen to handle the queries from the social media must be adept and diplomatic in their approach to the different problems that they might face while representing the company on such a huge platform. Additional training might have to be provided to the staff who are not familiar at handling social media and the CRM. Training is an absolute necessity when it comes to handling an important portfolio in a company such as Emirates Airlines whose revenue is entirely dependent on the satisfaction level of their customers. Investing in information Using a CRM with integrated social media like Twitter is more helpful for large companies such as Emirates Airlines, as it aids in minimizing information overload. Information overload generally happens when there are a lot of information to sort through that has arrived through emails. Information overload is one of the factors that affects many companies and creates a situation with poor customer management skills. Emirates Airlines can therefore use this tool for effective customer management as they will not be facing any information overload due to using the social media. All the queries will be viewed and solved by the right person at the company and none of the feedback will get lost in the huge mass of emails. Social media is currently one of the most highly used platform that the people are using to connect with each other worldwide. Twitter is one of the platforms and there are several others such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The following is a list of recommendations for Emirates Airlines: It is highly recommended that Emirates Airlines expand their social media presence from Twitter to Facebook. This is because there might be some users who would be using both of the platforms at the same time. However, the probability of that happening is very low. Most of the users are either on Facebook or on Twitter. Therefore, if Emirates Airlines expand their presence from Twitter to Facebook, then they would be connected with those existing and potential customers who use Facebook only and not Twitter. The company would be able to establish a more stable relationship with the customers on both the platforms. Facebook however also consist of trolls who would be defaming the company on their Facebook page by posting various fake news and socially unacceptable and upsetting comments. LinkedIn is another social media platform that has a lower number of users than Facebook or Twitter. However, all of its users are either corporate executives or business conglomerates. Large business conglomerates mean a large base of potential customers who can be approached to provide airline services. Emirates Airlines will be able to generate a huge number of revenue through targeted marketing strategy using this platform. The users of this platform generally do not use other forms of social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. This is because those platforms might have some content that the LinkedIn users are unwilling to view. Report findings From the above discussion, it can be concluded that social media has an important role for managing customers in efficient way. In the present context, use of Twitter has been evaluated as customer management tool for Emirates Airline. In addition, social media holds unprecedented potential for the organizations in order to get the customers closer and facilitate the increased revue, cost minimization as well as market feedback research. CRM assists business in streaming operation as well as enhance dealing with customers. Nowadays, consumers like to use social CRM in order to share information regarding interests. A suitable training module must be implemented by the company to train its employees in using social media both at a commercial level and at a personal level. This training module can be used to incorporate a subtle marketing as well as customer relationship regime in the company. The employee base and their connections across multiple social media platforms can be used for this purpose. The fundamental tactics behind this strategy is that the employee can partake in their individual attempt to satisfy the customers of the company by redirecting the queries and the feedback to the companys social media pages. It must be advocated that this method will benefit the company and will be serving to achieve the common goals and objectives. However, in dire situations the company can also incentivize the process as that would motivate the employees to work effectively in the situation. Therefore, by using this targeted approach, the company will be able to solve their queries, utilize their valuable feedback and use the opportunity to generate more business leads and a huge business pipeline. LinkedIn provides an added advantage as the platform is devoid of any troller. This is primarily because the platform only allows professionals. References Hajli, N., 2015. Social commerce constructs and consumer's intention to buy.International Journal of Information Management,35(2), pp.183-191. Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017.Human resource information systems: Basics, applications, and future directions. Sage Publications. Knox, P.L., Marston, S.A. and Imort, M., 2016.Human geography: Places and regions in global context. Pearson. Newman, T.P., 2017. Tracking the release of IPCC AR5 on Twitter: Users, comments, and sources following the release of the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers.Public Understanding of Science,26(7), pp.815-825. 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