Challenging Characteristics of Online Learning Essay Example for Free

Challenging Characteristics of Online Learning Essay In online learning there are some challenging characteristics that an online learner need to face during their study periods among them are lack of motivation, stress, bad time management and learning style, computer illiterate, and language barrier. Firstly in lack of motivation, having lack of motivation is one of the characteristic challenges in online learning. If a student has lack of motivation this will make them less interested in their studies and this will drag the online learners down from producing good results in their studies. This is because without any motivation it will affect on how well the online learners do in their work and on when they will want to do their work and this also affects on how long will it take for them to work on the task given and this will automatically make the online learners lose their concentration on their studies. Next is when the online students are having stress during their study periods. Stress is an emotional challenge that the online learner faced in online learning. When one is having stress during his or her study period it is never a good sign because stress can affect both the body and mind. Warnings of stress such as significant changes in the behavior and life patterns can indicate that a person might be having stress. Among the symptoms of stress are the sudden bursts of anger, restlessness and or uneasiness, lack of joy, spontaneity, enthusiasm and or happiness. By having stress the online learner will have difficulty in concentrating on their studies as well as having trouble or problems in making decisions. Then there is time management and learning style. If the students or online learners are not well discipline and cannot manage time in a reasonable manner, he or she will not be able to cope up with their studies, work and personal life. A disorganized person is not going to have a good experience in their online learning. As an online student one need to have a good time management skills. An older student tends to manage their time properly because they have developed better time management skills. Therefore the younger generation of students mostly will have problems in managing their time accordingly. With a bad time management this will influence on the online learner learning skills. This is because with a bad time management the online learner will not be able to cope up with their studies and thus will make them lose their concentration in understanding their learning style. Meanwhile being a computer illiterate is also one of the challenges that people have with online learning. This is because not many people out there who are an online learner are computer literate. Most of the online learners are adults who might not be familiar with the recent technologies and software. Even though there are many computer literate students but not all of them possesses all the necessary skills needed in online learning. Some may still not know on how to use the Microsoft Office Words, Excels, and Power Point features and some online learners might have lack of technical problem solving skills and basic technology literacy skills such as file management. Lastly is the language barrier among the students and their study materials. This is also one of the challenges faced by the online learners in online learning especially in a non – English speaking country like Malaysia. Most of the references retrieved by the online learners online are in English and some of the teaching materials provided for the online learner are also in English. Growing up with a non – English native mother tongue will somehow give trouble for some students to understand their study materials. They will need to take more time than other students to understand their study materials. So these will one way or another lower their self esteem and their confidence in doing the task given to them.

The Mystery of What is Normal Essay -- Normality Family Essays

The Mystery of What is â€Å"Normal† In order to think about whether someone’s family is â€Å"normal† or not, you would have to consider many factors.â€Å"Normal† in what sense of the word?What aspect of the family are we considering the normality?Are we talking about the family’s culture, quality of living, habits, the way that the present themselves, or are we just comparing them to the people next door?Are we talking about the normality of the family at face value or are we asking about the normality of that family which only members of that family have experienced?There are so many definitions of the word â€Å"normal.†Finding a definition of the word â€Å"normal† depends on the person’s definition of what he or she thinks â€Å"normal† means. In the dictionary, it states that the definition of â€Å"normal† is â€Å"Conforming with, adhering to, or constituting a norm, standard, pattern, level, or type; typical.†But the word itself has a wide range of meanings.It can mean: â€Å"what’s accepted,† â€Å"average,† â€Å"just like everyone else,† or â€Å"just not sticking out in the crowd† just to name a few. We all have different perceptions of what the word normal means, and what is considered to be different.This perception is always changing and is affected by everything around us.If you ask a person what is normal one day, and then ask him again in about a month, that person will probably give an entirely different answer.The word normal is, in the most part, has opinionated definition.It varies from person to person, and changes dramatically as each person learns, experiences and accepts new things. Now that that has all been said, how can I consider if my family is normal or not?If the definition of the word normal varies from person to person, my answer to the ... ...â€Å"devil cat?†How many people have a father with an explosive temper?How many people have a mother who is a supervisor in a party plan?I’m sure that every person has a family that has differences that ranges from beliefs to habits to any experience of even the smallest significance. The strongest word that I would use to compare anyone’s family is the word â€Å"similar.†No family is â€Å"normal.†I myself have a hard time using the word â€Å"normal.†The only way that a family could be considered as normal is if every family was exactly alike, and alike in everyway possible.There is no true definition of the word â€Å"normal† in a society where what’s frowned upon one day is commonplace the next, and vice versa. Works Cited Bass, Randal. â€Å"Borders as Barriers: Otherness and Difference.† Bordrtext: Cultural Reading for Contemporary Writers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 205-210

Morals and ethics essay

The topics that are going to be explained include- the abortion policy, Bursas and how society deals with rapes. It will summarized Into a short paragraph for each topic which will Include an extra paragraph for defining laws and how they fit Into society, also a paragraph to explain what morals and ethics and how they have changed through society. The law Is a dynamic thing. Let a complex mechanism evolving from hundreds of years of tradition, culture and values.In general terms, the law can be defined as a set of enforceable rules of conduct with set down guidelines for relationships between people and organisms in a society. Laws change when society does, when a certain law is changed to fit the modern day society, it is a very complicated process in which a law needs to be changed. For example, Australian politician Barry Farrell has changed the law of selling drinks in bars after a certain time. The law states that bars and puns are not allowed to sell drinks after am to reduce people from being injured or even killed.Ethics and morals both relate to â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong† conduct. Ethics Is set by a series of rules provided to an individual by an external source, egg- their profession. Whereas, morals refer to as an Individual's own principles regarding right and wrong. Ethics do not change as a person moves from one society to the next. Morals may change as a person moves from one society to the next. Bursas are an important point towards changing the community over time. The Burk is a fully covered outer garment that Islamic traditions wear to cover up their dies, showing only their eyes.The problem regarding the Bursas is that this tradition has been brought into Australia and worn by Muslim women everywhere, and refuse to take it off. This is why a new law is trying to be enforced to make sure Muslim women take off their Bursas when asked or needed too. The legislation was drafted in response to public outcry about the case of Bur k-weaning mother-of- seven Carnet Matthews, who had a conviction of knowingly making a false statement quashed.Ms Matthews was originally given a six-month Call sentence after being mound guilty of falsely accusing a senior constable of forcibly trying to remove her Burk when she was pulled over while driving in Woodbine in Kidney's southwest in June 2010. She was later found innocent on appeal after the prosecution could not prove she was the woman who signed the statement while wearing the garment. This statement is the main reason why Bursas should be taken off when told of. Abortion is also another significant topic in relate to change in the community.The grounds on which abortion is permitted in Australia vary from state to state. In every Tate, abortion is legal to protect the life and health of the woman, though each state has a different definition. There is now law anywhere in Australia that requires the notification or consent of a woman's sexual partner. There Is also no enforced waiting period or an abortion, except In Western Australia, a minor does not require parental consent or notification. This law Is also very similar to the one about rape. They both are salary In some ways and could not be controlled at sometimes.This law has changed over the last 40 years as back in the sass's, abortions were illegal in omen being bashed and then raped and getting pregnant, they had to change the law because of this. A woman will have to have the pregnancy and live her whole life knowing how her child was brought into the world. Every time she looks at her child it could remind her of that horrible and unforgettable night. Another reason this law had been dropped was because of several gang rapes around Sydney. There was a number of attacks in a matter of weeks involving a group of guys on a girl in 2000.Eight Lebanese men kept approaching two young girls aged 17 and 18 in a car on August 10th, August 12th, a 16 year old girl was walking through a park wh en a 17 year old raped her alongside 12 other men and one had even held a gun against her head, August 30th, a woman was told she was being taken to a house to smoke some cannabis, however she was taken to three different houses where she was raped 25 times by 14 different men, two 16 year old girls were taken by attackers at a local train station, where then three older men raped then repeatedly over five hours. This just goes to show how easy it could be to get pregnant after being raped.This tenement is true, this was happening to people because of the policy. In Conclusion, given the evidence, moral and ethics have changed law in modern society for a number of different reasons. The law regarding the Burk is still being questioned and still has many different ways n how to change or stop the law. Abortion has changed due to young women being raped, because of this the government and communities want this horrible thing to stop. Also, people are generally pleased with the law reg arding abortion as people do not want to see young teens being forced to have and live with a child.

DNA Structure Chains - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1829 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Biology Essay Type Research paper Tags: DNA Essay Did you like this example? 1. Introduction 1.1 DNA Structure DNA is a polymer made of subunits called as nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of a deoxiribose sugar, a phosphste, and a nitrogenous base (Genetics from Genes to Genomes). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "DNA Structure Chains" essay for you Create order Watson and Crick proposed the structure for DNA (shown schematically in Figure 1 a). This is the presence of two polynucleotide strands coiling around a common axis and those strands linked together by a specific hydrogen bond scheme between the purine and pyrimidine bases (Figure 1 b), viz. adenine (A) with thymine (T) and guanine (G) with cytosine (C). The carbon atoms of the deoxyribose sugar are distinguished from atoms of the deoxyribose within the nucleotide base by the use of primed numbers from 1-5. The phosphodieser bonds always form a covalent link between the 3 carbon of one nucleoside and the 5 carbon of the following nucleoside. The consistent orientation of the nucleotide building blocks gives a chain overall direction, such that the two ends of a single chain are chemically distinct. At the 5 end, the sugar of the terminal nucleotide has a free 5 carbon atom and at the other 3 end of the chain, it is the 3 carbon of the final nucleotide that is free (Genetics from Genes to Genomes). In the model, two DNA chains spiral around an axis with the sugar-phosphate backbones on the outside and pairs of bases (one from each chain) meeting in the middle. Although both chains wind around the helix axis in a right-handed sense, chemically one of them runs 5 to 3 upward, while the other runs in the opposite direction of 5 to 3 downward. In short, the two chains are antiparallel. The base pairs are essentially flat and perpendicular to the helix axis, and the planes of the sugars are roughly perpendicular to the base pairs. As the two chains spiral about the helix axis, they wrap around each other spiral about the helix axis, they wrap around each other once every 10 base pairs, or once every 34ÃÆ'†¦ (Genes to genomes). In a space-filling representation of the model, the overall shape is that of a cylinder with a diameter of 20ÃÆ'†¦ whose axis is the axis of the double helix. The backbones spiral around the axis like threads on a screw, but because there are two backbones, there are two threads, and these two threads are vertically displaced from each other. This displacement of the backbones generates two grooves, one much wider than the other, that also spiral around the helix axis. Biochemists refer to the wider groove as the major groove and the narrower one as the minor groove. The two chains of double helix are held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary base pairs, A-T and G-C. Since the overall shapes of the two base pairs are quite similar, either pair can fit into the structure at each position along with DNA. Moreover, each base pair can be accommodated in the structure in two ways that are the reverse of each other: an A purine may be on strand 1 with its corresponding T pyrimidine on strand 2 or the T pyrimidine may be on strand 1 and the A purine on strand 2. In addition A-C and G-T pairs do not fit well together; that is, they do not easily form hydrogen bonds. The DNA molec ule is essentially a polynucleotide or a polymer chain formed by phosphate diester groups joining b-D-deoxyribose sugars through their 3 and 5 hydroxyl groups (Figure 3). The backbone of the DNA molecule thus consists of six single bonds about which rotations can take place (also indicated in Figure 3) giving rise to various possible conformations/structures for the polymeric chain. As mentioned above, the canonical Watson-Crick DNA model is a two-stranded helical structure, in which the two chains are held together by hydrogen bonds between the purine (A,G) and pyrimidine (T,C) bases. There are 10 nucleotides per turn, separated by + 36 rotation and 3.4 ÃÆ'†¦ translation along the helix axis,in each of the two chains and the two chains are aligned in mutually anti-parallel orientations (Figures 1 a and 4) (Manju Bensal) DNA can inter-convert between two well-defined forms, viz. A and B (Figure 2). The molecular structures corresponding to these two forms were later show n to be essentially similar in their handedness, chain orientation and hydrogen bonding scheme. Subsequently it has become clear that the DNA molecule has an enormous ability to undergo structural changes depending on its environment by twisting, turning and stretching, leading to a pantheon of DNA structures6. Several of these structural polymorphs of DNA have now been experimentally characterized using X-ray diffraction, NMR or other spectroscopic studies and are found to vary considerably from the Watson-Crick type structure (Manju Bensal). 1.2 Principle of Agarose Gel Electrophoresis Electrophoresis is defined as movement of small ions and charged molecules in solution under the influence of an electric field (Gel Electrophoresis of Nucleic Acid, A Practical Approach). Agarose gel electrophoresis is a widely used method that separates molecules based upon charge, size and shape. It is particularly useful in separating charged biomolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins (Lab Electrophoresis). Agarose gel electrophoresis possesses great resolving power, yet is relatively simple and straightforward to perform. The gel is made by dissolving agarose powder in boiling buffer solution. The solution is then cooled to approximately 55oC and poured into a mol containing a comb that makes well when solution is polymerised (Lab Electrophoresis). Electrophoresis is carried out in the gels cast either in tubes or as slabs. A number of gel materials have been used successfully, including agar, agarose, and polyacrylamide. Agar and agarose gels are made by heating the gra nular material in the appropriate electrolyte buffer, casting the gels and allowing them to set on cooling. The resolving power of these gels depends on the concentration of dissolved agar or agarose; dilute gels are used for very large DNA molecules and more concentrated gels for low molecular weight DNA (Gel Electrophoresis of Nuclecic Acid, A Practical Approach). Samples are prepared for electrophoresis by mixing them with components that will give the mixture density, such as glycerol or sucrose. This makes the samples denser than the electrophoresis buffer. These samples can then be loaded with a micropipette or transfer pipet into wells that were created in the gel by a template during casting. The dense samples sink through the buffer and remain in the wells (Lab Electrophoresis). A direct current power supply is connected to the electrophoresis apparatus and current is applied. Charge molecules in the sample enter the gel through the walls of the wells. Molecules ha ving a net negative charge migrate towards the positive electrode (anode) while net positively charged molecules migrate towards the negative electrode (cathode). Within a range, the higher the applied voltage, the faster the samples migrate. The buffer serves as a conductor of electricity and to control pH. The pH is important to the charge and stability of biological molecules (Lab Electrophoresis). The rate of migration depends on the size and shape of the molecule, the charge carried. In an electric field at moderate pH, negatively-charged DNA molecules migrate towards the anode. A fractionation is achieved because large molecules move more slowly through the gel than small molecules and selection of DNA within a given size range is obtained by selecting a gel of appropriate pore size. Electrolytes used in electrophoresis generally consist of an aqueous buffer, containing a chelating agent such as ethylenediaminetetractate (EDTA) and a nuclease inhibitor such as sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). A number of factors affect the fractionation of RNA. Increasing the current leads to higher rates of migration, but the flow of current also results in the production of heat, which, if excessive, adversely affects the separation by causing trailing and broadening of the zones. 1.3 Fluorescence 1.3.1 Silver Staining Ethidium bromide staining is the conventional laboratory technique for the detection of DNA. Switzer et al (1979) originally introduced silver staining technique for the detection and analysis of proteins. Currently, silver staining is sometimes used to detect DNA fragments, including short interspersed nuclear elements, VNTR detection, and SNPs in various experiments (Yan-Chung Han et al, 2008). The new method is much efficient and sensitive for polymorphism DNA analysis and the detection of small amount of nucleic acid (Sommerville and Wang, 1981; Boulikas and Hancock, 1981; Goldman and Merril, 1982; and Guillemette and Lewis, 1983) but more versatile silver staining is needed for analysis of complex DNA profiles generated in DNA amplification fingerprinting and DNA sequencing (Anolles and Gresshoff, 1994). The ethidium bromide staining of DNA is time-consuming as they require a lot of preparation and handling of several solutions prior to use and needs expensive and bulky fluorescence imaging equipment. Furthermore, the sensitivity, color uniformity, and storage time of the staining gels are not ideal (Yan-Chuang Han et al, 2008). Moreover, Ethidium bromide used for staining of DNA as a conventional method is a carcinogenic substance and a cost of waster disposal. Many modifications to silver staining method have been reported since the introduction of silver staining method for the analysis of proteins and nucleic acid analysis in agarose and polyacrylamide gels. It has been reported that some procedures used to stain nucleic acids in polyacrylamide gels are not suitable for agarose gels due to differences in the chemical compositions of both matrices. The agarose matrix has the disadvantage of nonspecific depositions of silver ions resulting in high background (Willoughby and Lambert 1983, Peats 1983, and Lasne et al 1983). Those protocols developed in order to reduce the nonspecific stain in agarose gels involve time-consuming pretreatment s teps with K2Cr2O7 or Na2S2O3 (Zalazar et al, 2001). During image development almost all staining procedures reduce silver ion to colloidal silver, which is then deposited in the immediate vicinity of the staining substratum. For optimal image contrast, the level of silver reduction in the gel matrix must be kept to a minimum level. This is performed by appropriate modulation of the speed of the reduction process, which depends mainly on the pH, the absolute and relative concentrations of silver and reducing agents, and the rate constant of the reaction (Anolles and Gresshoff, 1994). Silver staining is also useful for the microarray technology in order to impede the interference of fluorescent label with the hybridisation process. This advantage is achieved by application of silver staining after the hybridization process. Silver staining also eliminates the need of fluorescence imaging equipment in microarray technology by means of using a film scanner. The aims of the pres ent study are to optimize a silver staining protocol performed for a commercially obtained DNA molecular weight marker, in which the procedure is modified. The detection limit of silver staining is investigated and is compared with ethidium bromide staining. Moreover, some of the siver staining methods are varied and are compared with ethidium bromide staining. The silver staining protocol is modified inorder to increase the sensitivity and reduce background staining. After a suitable protocol is optimized DNA are deposited on filter paper at various dilutions and stained with the optimized. This has implications for the development of portable biosensors with label free detection.