Effects of Risperidone in Children with Autism

Effects of Risperidone in Children with Autism   Crystal Branch   ANOVA Article Critique Researchers complied detailed data regarding two groups a sample group and a controlled group of children to study the cognitive effects of risperidone in children with autism and irritable behavior.  Ã‚   The study employed specific measurements designed to determine if children with autism and irritable behavior have an increase of cognitive performance while taking up to 3.5 mg of risperidone.   Recently a few studies have assessed cognitive effects of risperidone in children with severe behavioral disturbance. Gà ¼nther et al. (2006) assessed open-label risperidone in 23 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) and in normal controls matched for age and IQ. This was a multi-site investigation that was conducted at five medical centers. After being assessed at the screen visit, participants who met inclusion criteria for the study were then reassessed with clinical instruments at baseline and weekly for the next 8 weeks.  Ã‚   So, researchers decided to conduct a double-blind placebo controlled groups on their attention span, how well their verbal learning skills are, diminished or improved hand/eye coordination, and spatial memory was evaluated.   Each of the areas was measured before, during and after 8 weeks of participation. All changes in performance were compared by repeated measures ANOVA. Will the use of risperidone in doses 0.5 up to 3.5 mg/day researchers want to know the question what the overall effect the drug has the on cognitive performance of children ages of 5-17 years old, diagnosed with autism and that suffer from irritable behavior. The review will show what was used to assess the variables and statistical methods created to decide if the study produced any valid result. The authors want to know answers through research if there are actually any significant effects the drug actually has on cognitive processing abilities in autistic children that also suffer from irritable behavior that uses risperidone. Through research and study, the authors looked for answers to this question and set a hypothesis they created around their research study. The authors implied that the null hypothesis (Ho) is that there would be no difference between placebo and risperidone (Aman, M. G., Hollway, J. A., McDougle, C. J., Scahill, L., Tierney, E., McCracken, J. T., . . . Pose y, D. J. (2008). The alternative hypothesis (Ha) should indicate that there would be a difference between cognitive performance of the sample group vs the controlled group.  Ã‚   A total of 38 children between the ages of 5-17 years of age were a part of the sample group, these children have been diagnosed with autism and severe behavior disturbance. Any participants receiving psychotropic medicines before the study went through a washout for at least 2 weeks prior to randomization (4 weeks for antipsychotics or fluoxetine). Cognitive assessments were done at Baseline, Week 4 and Week 8. Participants were started at either 0.25 or 0.50 mg with gradual adjustments over the first four weeks. Maximum dose for smaller subjects (15-45 kg) was 2.5 mg/day, whereas the maximum dose for larger participants (45 kg.) could be as high as 3.5 mg/day (1). As protocol requires during this period as in any clinical study, the subjects did not receive any form of their usual treatment so the effects of any current treatments are eliminated or assumed to be eliminated from their system for the benefit of this study.   Instead of immediately stopping and starting any new treatment, there will be a 2-4week time period where the treatment from the first drug is washed out of the patients system. Study participants were male and female children or adolescents, ages 5 to 17 years 2 months, with mental ages 18 months who had autism and severe behavioral disturbance. To be enrolled in the study, participants received a score of 18 on the Irritability subscale of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) (Aman and Singh 1994). In addition, participants must have been rated with a Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) score of 4 by an experienced clinician (CGI-S; NIMH 1985, Arnold et al. 2000), and according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) a lifetime diagnosis of autistic disorder. The diagnosis of autism was based on a clinical evaluation that included a DSM-IV interview with a parent and direct observation of the participants. The clinical diagnosis was corroborated by structured interview with one or more parents acting as informants, using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (Lo rd et al. 1994). This study has several limitations that caution against over-embracing the statistically-significant (and one equivocal) findings. First, given the exploratory nature of this work (there is only one other study of atypical antipsychotics in children with PDDs), we adopted the .05 level for alpha. Had we corrected for multiple comparisons, none of the comparisons would have exceeded alpha. Second, only a minority of our participants were able to perform these tasks. This resulted in (a) small sample sizes and (b) the observation that the testable group had a higher IQ and was older than the untestable group. Despite these obvious limitations, the findings are noteworthy for several reasons. First, autistic disorder is often coupled with a substantial cognitive disability.   Secondly, the significant diversification, indicated by partial eta squared, indicates substantial gains in adaptive skills if upheld by future studies. Next, it is noteworthy to point out that data assembled from various sites under double-blind conditions, which may help to dismiss any individual examiner effects. Finally, the mechanism of any improvement is unknown.

Mahmut Sait

Mahmut Sait Arslan 04 January 2013 The Role Of Religion in A Secular Society According to secularization theory, as societies become more modernized and rationalized, religion will gradually lose it’s authority in social life and governance(Norris & Inglehart, 2004, p. 4). Modernization did â€Å"undermined† lots of accepted beliefs(Holloway, 2011, para. 7). But, by contrast with secularization thesis, there is no significant diminution in people’s religious demands(Kuru, 2011, p. 4). Appearently, not all modernized societies call themselves as â€Å"secular† and not every secular state can completely ignore religion.In this work, I’m going to inspect secular societies and question how religion can take part in their governance, concerning American, French and Turkish examples. Historically, American’s and French have seperated the church and state for different reasons. The establishment of secular state in America was a result of a compromi se between rationalists and evangelists. These groups have agreed on the secular state for different reasons. Thomas Jefferson, one of the America’s Founding Fathers, had foreseen that the secular state would lead to the â€Å"freedom and triumph of the reason†.Oppositely, a famous Evangelist, Isaac Backus had believed that secular state would provide the spread of the religion(Kuru, 2011, p. 84). Because in America’s early years, none of the Protestant churches could provide the majority that is necessary to be legitimized as the official church. So, as the second best choice, they accepted the state to be secular(Kuru, 2011, p. 86). The secularization of the France is rooted in the ideas of Enlightenment. Philosophers of Enlightenment was trying to replace dogmatic values with rational and humanistic ones(Wikipedia, 2009).After the French Revolution, with the abolition of monarchy, the close relation between the French State and Catholic Church finished. Accor ding to Tocqueville, Christianity was the object of aggression not as a religion but as a political establishment. This was because of the cooperation between the monarch and the Church before the revolution(Kuru, 2011, p. 142). The different reasons led to different results in these countries. From the beginning of the 19th century, evangelists have strenghtened the socio-cultural hegomony of the Protestant college. Casanova, 1994, p. 137) Christianism was, in public sense, accepted as semiofficial religion of the U. S. It was also, accepted as a part of the state’s civil law(Kuru, 2011, p. 88). Even Supreme Court of U. S have acknowledged the U. S nation as a Christian nation(Kuru, 2011, p. 91). In this period, state was not neutral against all religions, but neutral amongst Protestant sects. Up till now, there has been ideological conflicts between rationalists and conservative people about the religion. There have been exclusivist and compromiser interpretations of the se cularism.But generally, it hadn’t been understood as hostility against religion. In America, churches are relieved from state’s effect, wheras in France the state is relieved from the Church’s effect. A radical interpretation of secularism which advocates the seperation of not just state and church, but of all kind of values like moral and human values, is hegemonic in France. In other words, eliminating the religion from public life and confining it with the soul of human. Some people even exceed it to create a â€Å"religion of humanity†(Holloway, 2008, para. 12).But, there have been lots of significant deviations from the ideology because of Catholic roots of French public and opposing ideological attempts. French government could easily ignore the religious demands of minorities like Muslims and Jewish. But they pay much attention to the demands of Catholics who form the majority. At the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Turkey had to quot e the Swiss Civil Law because when they tried to make their own law, commission members couldn’t liberate themselves from their religious beliefs(Oguzman & Barlas, 2012, p. 27).But even when quoting they had to make some modifications according to Turkish culture. This was made in the name of being secular and neutral against all beliefs. Putting the history aside, I want to examine the impact of religious law in secular societies’ law system. Human made laws are inspired by lots of different sources like ethics, religion, philosophy, convenances, other law systems etc. These rules have some commonalities because they’re all aimed to establish the ideal society. Concerning this, secular legislatives should concern every law system and utilize them.For example, marriage is, in religious world, concerned as a religious practice. For secular people this mean nothing. But, if we take human nature into the account, inexistence of the institution of marriage could be a threat to the mental and physical health of the progenies(Oktem & Turkbag, 1999, p. 209). So, the legislatives may foresee a religious institution like marriage as necessary for secular reasons. The implementation of the secular law in Turkey has caused many problems because there were some rules which were opposite to the belief and perception of majority of the public like prohibiting headscarves.Ordering a believer not to do what they believe is like ordering somebody to jump off a cliff. Because they’re sure that they will be rewarded or punished according to their loyalty to their beliefs. The secularization thesis promise to be neutral against all religions. But applicating the inhibition of a religious obligation to all members of the society equally, is like prohibiting to sleep under the arch of a bridge for both rich and poor people equally(Kuru, 2011, p. 108). The acceptance of secularism as being neutral, and religiousity as differantiality makes secularists mor e advantagous.To eliminate unequality, chaos and tension states should pay more attention on public demands and trends. Compared to French and Turkish history, there were less religious related slaughters in American history. Without renouncing secularism, Americans could identify themselves as religious. They used secularism not as a tool to restrict and transform the public, but to ensure the freedom of different groups within the society. To be able to equal aginst every belief, each belief system should be approached equally.Like Islam or Christianity, secular people should be concerned as believers, believers of secularism. References Age of Enlightenment. (2009). In  Wikipedia. Retrieved january 4, 2013, from en. wikipedia. org Casanova, J. (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Holloway, D. , (2008). The Secular State and The Oxford Union. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? cs date=01/02/2008 –(2011). A Judge, Secularism, Pluralism and Fundamentalism.Retrieved January 04, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? csdate=01/03/2011 Kuru, A. (2011). Pasif ve D? slay? c? Laiklik: ABD, Fransa ve Turkiye. Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi Yay? nlar?. Norris, P. & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Oguzman, M. K. & Barlas, N. (2012). Medeni Hukuk. Istanbul: Vedat Kitapc? l? k. Oktem, N. & Turkbag, A. U. , (1999). Felsefe, Sosyoloji, Hukuk ve Devlet. Istanbul: Der Yay? nlar?.

“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and “Lord of the Flies” both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil Essay

How do the authors’s show this struggle? In â€Å"the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,† Robert Louis Stevenson presents mans struggle to control his inner evil through Jekyll but the evil comes out in Hyde. Dr Jekyll is a fine upstanding member of the community and Mr Hyde is still Jekyll but he has no conscience and no sense of responsibility and so goes on wild evil rampages, I am going to explore how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde show their evils. Dr Jekyll is a moral and religious man and has a conscience but he is attracted to the violence and freedom of Hyde and for him turning into Hyde is like a drug, he is addicted. Dr Jekyll is in a constant struggle with Hyde for control â€Å"if I am the chief of sinners I am the chief of sufferers also,† which shows the constant torment he is in yet he still drinks the drug. â€Å"Before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of abject terror and despair, as froze the blood of the two gentleman below,† this shows that Jekyll is scared of turning into Hyde and it also gives a picture of the ferocity of Hyde. Jekyll becomes weak from Hyde and eventually Hyde takes over completely â€Å"Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick. He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice,† this shows that Hyde is slowly trying to kill Jekyll. Jekyll decided to kill Hyde â€Å"Utterson, I swear to god Utterson I am done with him in this world,†Ã¢â‚¬ I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde I am quite done with him,† Utterson says to Jekyll â€Å"he meant to murder you,† which shows that Jekyll is good to have got rid of Hyde but Jekyll still takes the potion and Hyde continues his torments and Eventually kills Jekyll. â€Å"God knows I am careless this is my true hour of death and what is to follow concerns another than myself,† that was Jekyll’s final transformation before his death. Edward Hyde is the beast that takes Henry Jekyll over he is a small deformed man â€Å"the man seems hardly human troglodytic shall we say,† â€Å"I read Satan’s signature upon a face,† â€Å"like a monkey,† these all describe Hyde it is like Hyde is a step back in evolution. Hyde is also very fast â€Å"it went so quick,† â€Å"with extraordinary quickness,† these both show the speed oh Hyde so we now that he is animal like and very quick, he is also very savage as he has no conscience â€Å"for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground,† â€Å"really like Satan,† these both show his ferocity, there are also a lot of satanic references to Hyde which suggests that he is the work of the devil. Other people perceive Hyde as being a â€Å"juggernaut,† â€Å"without the bowels of mercy,† â€Å"a spirit of enduring hatred,† which shows that he disgusts them. Hyde hates Jekyll because he thinks he is weak and pathetic but he still fears Jekyll because he knows that Jekyll has the power to cut him off by suicide â€Å"how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide,† â€Å"blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning letters and destroying the portrait of my father,† by doing these things Hyde is trying to demoralise Jekyll because it seems that the weaker Jekyll gets the stronger Hyde gets. As Jekyll gets ill Hyde feeds off his weakness making himself stronger † the powers of Hyde have grown stronger with the sickliness of Jekyll,† this shows that Hyde is very powerful and can force Jekyll to do anything. I think at first Jekyll finds Hyde exciting and adventurous and he loves the feeling of having no conscience. Jekyll and Hyde are like â€Å"polar twins,† being the same yet very opposite. Jekyll also has biblical references because the thrill of Hyde tempts him like the tree in the bible tempts Adam and Eve. This story shows that man has always been evil it is just hidden behind a mask and Hyde pulled this mask from Jekyll revealing the evil inside after all they are the same person. Lord of the Flies is much the same as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because they both deal with mans struggle to control his inner evil, but however in Lord of the Flies it is children who are evil and not adults like in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, so does this show that you are born evil? It certainly challenges the idea that you are born free from sin, as some of the children in Lord of the Flies are from private schools and you would think to be better brought up and you could say somewhat shielded from the world, but the children who were from a public education system behaved better and tried to overthrow to the evil that lay on the island. Lord of the flies shows emotions through its characters, Piggy who represents conscience and logic, Simon who represents Jesus and Jack and Ralph who are the leaders of the two â€Å"gangs† (good and evil). At the beginning of the novel it is hard to differentiate between the â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† people because they have all jus t met each other and are all trying to out do each other in a bid to be popular but does this in itself show that maybe they are all evil? When the two gangs split up and start living separately its like Jekyll and Hyde because its like one gang is Jekyll and the other gang Hyde and as the story goes on the Hyde gang tries to kill the Jekyll gang. Also the Hyde gang use masks when hunting for food â€Å"body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling,† this shows that by putting masks on they are acting like Hyde transforming them from laughter to being â€Å"snarling and bloodthirsty.† â€Å"Jack hid liberated from shame and self consciousness,† this is exactly How Jekyll feels When he transforms in to Hyde because he is liberated from all consciousness and feels free to do whatever he wants. When Jacks gang are wearing these masks they launch attacks on Ralph’s gang, the results of which end up in the death of Piggy, so all conscience and logic is removed and then as all they are removed we see the breakdown of their community and the â€Å"good† gang becomes equally as vicious as the bad gang showing that evil is like a disease that can’t be healed and just keeps spreading. Simon also dies of an epileptic shock and this signifies that as he is the â€Å"Jesus† figure surely all hope and good is lost now, this is like when Jekyll becomes so ill he lets Hyde take over â€Å"he was so frail he only raised a hand to bade him a welcome,† and shows that there is no going back now evil has taken a strong hold on the island and can only get worse, good can no longer triumph over evil. When the navy finally rescues the boys nobody knows what has happened the island and they can only assume that the missing boys were killed in the plane crash. This shows mans naivety and arrogance to think that young innocent boys couldn’t have brutally murdered one boy and left another to die, this reflects Jekyll and Hyde by the way in which nobody realises that a fine upstanding member of the community could possibly be a murderer although it is without his knowing but the boys on the island are young and you could say that without their parents and rules, they can’t differentiate between right and wrong. Jekyll and Hyde was written in the Victorian times and it does challenge the idea of inner evil but good eventually wins because in the Victorian times people were moral and blind to the evil lurking before them and so sin was eventually killed in Jekyll and Hyde. In Lord of the Flies however you could say the evil triumphs which is the case in today’s modern society, but the children are rescued from the evil they have created which you could argue that maybe good triumphs over evil after all. Both authors say that evil is in us and not around us and that without rules evil will show itself more fully. Evil is a tempting attractive power that gives you freedom but if you are truly evil can you be truly happy? We all see evil but can we see our own? Maybe these novels are trying to show us that maybe we should look inside ourselves and see if we are truly evil or is evil just something we use as an excuse to hurt people?

Animal Cloning A Major Form Of Assisted Animal Reproduction

Animal cloning has recently become a major form of assisted animal reproduction. Cloning is used on farms to reproduce the healthiest animals in an effort to increase production of healthy foods. In 1986, Steen Malte Willadsen was the first to publish details about the first mammal born through nuclear transfer cloning. Scientists support this because they believe that the use of cloning is evolutionary and is leaving a positive impact on the world. Although discoveries are still being made with this process, it continues to raise many questions in the public, causing it to become a highly controversial topic. There are many that question the ethics of this practice, and wonder how the laws come into play with its legality. By presenting the facts regarding animal cloning, one can decide how they feel about the topic in terms of science, ethics, and laws. The first argument being made is in support of animal cloning for scientific purposes. â€Å"Application possibilities of cloning in research, industry and agriculture are theoretically almost limitless† (Vajta, 2006). As a whole, the technology used in scientific research is constantly improving and furthering possibilities. Currently, there are two categories of animal cloning: biomedical and agricultural. From a scientist’s perspective, biomedical cloning could improve the understanding of biological expression of genes during development and differentiation, which could benefit the reproduction of human species later on inShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of The Cloning Of Dolly The Sheep1743 Words   |  7 PagesThe cloning of Dolly the sheep from a differentiated adult mammary epithelial cell was a crucial turning point for the revolution of science. It indicated that nuclear reprogramming can completely re-activate genes after being inactivated during tissue differentiation. 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