Active Chemical Ingredients in Topical First Aid Treatments

Active Chemical Ingredients in Topical First Aid Treatments AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ACTIVE CHEMICAL INGREDIENTS IN TOPICAL FIRST AID TREATMENTS AGAINST STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS. Aim The aim of this investigation is to experimentally determine which first aid product and its active ingredients are most effective against Staphylococcus aureus, and to establish how and why the chemical compounds of the active ingredients in each product affected the results. Introduction The idea for this exploration was developed as a result of an experiment and study that were conducted and taught in my medical microbiology class. The specific lesson that caught my interest was focused on the skin flora as well as infection causing bacteria. This, combined with the lab about the effects of specific antibiotics on bacteria as well as my considerable experience with first aid and disaster response skills led me to think about the importance of antibiotics for medication and treatments. I decided that my investigation would concentrate on topical first aid products against the occasionally pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, a member of the skin flora. My choice to pick a ubiquitous bacterium was because I wanted to focus on the more practical implementations of the investigation and could evaluate for myself which first aid product would be most useful in real world applications. Background    This investigation requires background information about the biochemistry or mechanisms of action in specific compounds and the Kirby-Bauer test. These are described below. Kirby-Bauer Test The Kirby-Bauer test or disk diffusion tests allows for scientists to test the antibiotic sensitivity of bacteria. A disk is impregnated with a substance and placed on a petri dish and a zone of inhibition or inhibition zone appears after days or hours after incubation. The inhibition zone represents the area in which the bacteria has stopped growing or has been killed by the antibiotic. The size of the inhibition zone indicates the effectiveness of the antibiotic (the larger the diameter of the zone of inhibition the more effective the substance is). Mechanism of Action in Compounds This investigation focuses on five specific compounds which are active first aid antiseptic or antibiotic ingredients in the products that will be tested. These compounds are: benzalkonium chloride, triclosan, bacitracin zinc, polymyxin B sulfate, and neomycin sulfate. This information will be sectioned into Part A, B, C, D, and E. Part A: Benzalkonium Chloride Benzalkonium chloride is a member of the quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) which are also known as cationic agents/surfactants. Furthermore, quaternary ammonium compounds have positively charged structures. Thus, the cationic zone of benzalkonium chloride disrupts the intermolecular attractions/electrostatic interactions of the negatively charged cell components, destroys the outer membrane, and ultimately kills the pathogen. Part B: Triclosan Triclosan works to inhibit bacterial growth through its mechanomolecular energy. This mechanomolecular energy is as a result of the ether single-bond rotations on the central oxygen atom. Subsequently, the rapid and fluctuating vibratory movements of the bonds in the molecule disrupt bacterial membranes which easily allow the chemical compound to enter the cells membrane. Once triclosan enters the cell membrane, it binds and blocks the active sites of the enoyl-acyl carrier-protein reductase enzyme (ENR) thus preventing the process of fatty acid synthesis. This fatty acid process is critical for building the pathogens cell membrane and its other vital functions necessary for processes like reproduction. Furthermore, at extremely low concentrations, triclosan can develop into a crystalline form by ring stacking, thus interfering with essential enzymes including the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) coenzyme of bacteria. Figure 1: Figure 1 visualizes the two benzene rings and the central oxygen atom in the Triclosan compound. Part C: Bacitracin Zinc Bacitracin has antimicrobial activity primarily because of its ability to bind to divalent metal ions, in this case the Zn ²Ã‚ Ã‚ º cation, resulting in bacitracin zinc. The Zn ²Ã‚ Ã‚ º ion forms a ternary 1:1:1 antibiotic-metal-lipid complex. This means that the divalent metal ion complex can tightly bind to the lipid C‚†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã¢â‚¬ ¦-isoprenyl pyrophosphate molecules of the cell, acting like a bridge between the pyrophosphate and bacitracin zinc. Once the C‚†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã¢â‚¬ ¦-isoprenyl pyrophosphate has been compromised due to its inability to dephosphorylate or remove its phosphate (PO43ˆ’) through the pyrophosphatase enzyme and hydrolysis process, the pyrophosphate can no longer transport lipids into the cell-wall. Subsequently, this inhibits the process of cell-wall synthesis and results in the weakening of the cell wall and ultimately leads to bacterial death. Part D: Polymyxin B Sulfate The mechanism of action of polymyxin B sulfate is similar to that of benzalkonium chloride, in that it is also classified as a cationic surfactant. Therefore, like benzalkonium chloride, polymyxin B sulfate alters the external membrane of bacterial cells. Additionally, because of its positively charged amino group in the cyclic peptide region in the compound, it has an electrostatic attraction for the negatively charged lipopolysaccharide layer of bacterial cells and binds to these specific sites. Once these sites have been compromised, the outer membrane of the bacterial cell becomes destabilized and weakened. Figure 2: Figure 2 visualizes the amino group and cyclic peptide region of polymyxin B sulfate which is the primary mechanism of antimicrobial action within the compound. Part E: Neomycin Sulfate Neomycin sulfate is classified as an aminoglycoside antibiotic which means it has an amino group (-NH‚‚) attached to derivatives of sugar called glycosides. Aminoglycosides are highly positive in charge due to the presence of amino groups and have a high electrostatic attraction for the negatively charged outer surface of bacteria. This electrostatic interaction disrupts the membrane of the bacteria due to the displacement of Mg ²Ã‚ Ã‚ º and Ca ²Ã‚ Ã‚ º bridges and creates temporary openings in the bacterial cell membrane. Subsequently, this process causes intracellular content leakage and further increases the antibiotic intake in the bacteria. Additionally, rRNA molecules of bacteria are highly negative in charge because of the presence of phosphate groups. This negative charge has an electrostatic attraction with the positively charged antibiotic and allows the aminoglycoside to easily bind to the rRNA of the bacteria and thereafter inhibits the process of protei n synthesis leading to bacterial cell death. Prediction The initial prediction is that NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment will be the most effective compared to Bactine Spray and CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray because it is a triple antibiotic and has a greater variety of active ingredients that can kill bacteria. Experimental Procedure and Methodology Variables The independent variables for this experiment are the different first aid products because each product should influence the dependent variable (diameter of inhibition zone). The dependent variable is the size of the inhibition zones because the length depends on what first aid product is used. The controls of the investigation are the incubation time, petri dish, Staphylococcus aureus, method of inoculation, the incubator, and the amount of each drug because they are variables that are kept constant throughout each trial and for each product tested. It is important to maintain the controls throughout all trials so that measurements can be as consistent as possible. Safety and Environmental Ethics It is important to keep in mind the risks and safety precautions before attempting this experiment. These risks include residual bacterial contamination on the skin and burning. It is highly advised to wear gloves or rubber insulator gloves when needed and to wash hands frequently throughout the experiment. Additionally, an environmental ethical consideration must be taken in account because experimenting with antibacterial products can contribute to antibacterial resistance. However, the effects would be negligible due to the small scale size of the experiment. Materials 125 ml of Agar Absorbent bibulous paper Hole puncher Sharpie Ruler (with millimeters) Gloves 12 Petri dishes Incubator @34  °C; set at 4.5 12 strips of Parafilm Forceps Tweezers Large beaker Hot plate Rubber insulator gloves Bunsen burner Strikers Inoculating loop Staphylococcus aureus NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment Bactine Spray CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray Procedure Heat up 125 ml of agar in a beaker filled with water on a hotplate and wait until the agar is clear all the way through. Use forceps and rubber insulator gloves to remove the agar out of the beaker. Pour about the same amount of agar in each petri dish and wait until the agar sets (5-10 minutes). Use isolated Staphylococcus aureus and a heated and then cooled inoculating loop to carefully swab the culture into the 12 petri dishes. Make sure to go in a zigzag motion and cover all areas. Label each petri dish #1-#3: NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment #4-#6: Bactine Spray #7-#9: CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray #10-#12: Control Punch at least 12 holes into absorbent bibulous paper. Soak the disks with each of the drug solutions. Use tweezers that have been heated up and cooled down with water to minimize bacterial contamination. Additionally, each time a different product is being impregnated into the disks, reheat and cool the tweezers to minimize cross-product contamination. Place three disks containing NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment in petri dishes #1, #2, and #3. Place three disks containing Bactine Spray in petri dishes #4, #5, #6. Place three disks containing CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray in petri dishes #7, #8, #9. Leave the remaining three petri dishes with no disks in order to show that the petri dishes have pure cultures of Staphylococcus aureus. Use parafilm to seal all the petri dishes. Flip over all petri dishes and place in incubator at 34  °C on the 4.5 setting (the optimal temperature and conditions for bacterial growth) Measure the diameter of the inhibition zones (including the disk) 48 hours post inoculation with a ruler (in mm) and record data. Repeat all steps for Trial 2 and Trial 3 making sure all conditions are maintained. Results Product Name Table 1: Recorded Length of Inhibition Zones on Staphylococcus aureusà ¡Ã‚ µÃ†â€™ Trial 1  ± 0.5 mm Trial 2  ± 0.5 mm Trial 3  ± 0.5 mm Mean  ± 0.5 mmà ¡Ã‚ µÃ¢â‚¬ ¡ NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment 14.0 17.0 16.0 15.4 14.0 16.0 18.0 12.0 16.0 16.0 Bactine Spray 12.0 16.0 18.0 16.3 16.0 17.0 18.0 16.0 14.0 20.0 CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray 7.0 0.0 8.0 5.2 0.0 8.0 8.0 0.0 7.0 9.0 a- Diameter of zone of inhibition (mm) including disk diameter of 6mm b- Average diameter of inhibition zone after 3 trials for each product *The values that were found to have 0.0mm were petri dishes that had no zone of inhibition *Controls were not included as they only served to show that the petri dishes had pure samples of Staphylococcus aureus and are irrelevant to be included in the processed data Conclusion and Evaluation The objective of the experiment was to investigate the effectiveness of the active chemical ingredients in topical first aid treatments against Staphylococcus aureus. The initial aims of the investigation have been reached. The results of the experiment have suggested that Bactine Spray is the most effective against Staphylococcus aureus followed by NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment then CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray. Thus, the initial prediction was incorrect. Bactine Spray contained 0.13% of benzalkonium chloride and in this investigation had an average length of 16.3 mm for its zone of inhibition (Table 1). According to a study done by Ali Fazlara (a member of the Department of Food Hygiene at Shahid Chamran University) and Maryam Ekhtelat (a researcher at Shahid Chamran University in the Department of Microbiology) found that because Staphylococcus aureus has a highly negative charge on its cell wall due to its slight anionic teichoic acids and peptidoglycan molecules, it allows for the cationic benzalkonium chloride to bind easily to specficically Staphylococcus aureus cell wall and thus block the active sites for essential enzymes to undergo their normal biochemical reactions for the bacterial cell. Therefore, benzalkonium chloride should theoretically be highly effective against Staphylococcus aureus. The data collected seems to support this and underpins the known fact that benzalkonium chloride is bacteriostatic (a chemical agent t hat stops bacteria from reproducing) at low concentrations. The investigation also suggests that NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment was the second most effective against Staphylococcus aureus compared with the Bactine Spray and CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray. The active ingredients within this first aid product are bacitracin zinc (400 units), neomycin sulfate (3.5mg), and polymyxin B sulfate (5,000 units). NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment resulted in an average zone of inhibition diameter of 15.4 mm, as shown in Table 1. The possible reason for why NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment was not as effective against Staphylococcus aureus in this investigation is because of antibacterial resistance to some or all of the active ingredients by the bacteria. Studies have proposed that the isolate primarily found in the United States called USA300 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has been increasingly discovered to have been resistant to neomycin sulfate, bacitracin zinc, and polymyxin B sulfate. In this investigation, it can be suggested that CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray, with a concentration of 0.13% of triclosan was the least effective against Staphylococcus aureus. It resulted in an average zone of inhibition diameter of 5.2 mm according to Table 1. A possible conclusion that can be reached based on the results is the increasingly proven theory that Staphylococcus aureus has a progressively high antimicrobial resistance to triclosan. This is due in part because triclosan was the most common active ingredient in over the counter (OTC) products, which contributed greatly to Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial resistance. As a matter of fact, the FDA banned triclosan on consumer antibacterial wash products because of the health related risks from bacterial resistance. However, some products still use triclosan because it banned to be used in soaps. These conclusions are incomplete and require improvements in order to thoroughly and further confirm the results and achieve consistent values. The addition of more trials would further eliminate any systematic errors that may have occurred such as error when impregnating disks with the products or cross-product contamination. Any instances of random error can be best alleviated by the use of a Vernier calliper (a measuring instrument that is used for measuring diameters) instead of a ruler. The use of a calliper to measure would contribute to higher precision and less measurement uncertainty. Extending the investigation to other normal bacterial skin flora would be interesting to see the extent of the effectiveness of Bactine Spray, NEOSPORIN ® Original Ointment, and CVS Health Instant First Aid Spray on different bacteria. Works Cited   Ã‚   Chittapragada, Maruthi, and Sarah Roberts. Aminoglycosides: Molecular Insights on the Recognition of RNA and Aminoglycoside Mimics. Perspectives in Medicinal Chemistry, 2009. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2754922/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2017. Economou, Nicoleta J., et al. High-resolution crystal structure reveals molecular details of target recognition by bacitracin. 2013. www.pnas.org/content/110/35/14207.full.pdf. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. Fazlara, Ali, and Maryam Ekhtelat. The Disinfectant Effects of Benzalkonium Chloride on Some Important Foodborne Pathogens. IDOSI, 2012. www.idosi.org/aejaes/jaes12(1)12/4.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017. Federal Drug Administration. FDA Issues Final Rule on Safety and Effectiveness of Antibacterial Soaps. U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page, 2 Sept. 2016, www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm517478.htm. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017. Kaya, Deniz. Quarternary Ammonium Compounds. 21 Jan. 2010, Accessed 9 Feb. 2017. Kling, Jim. Antibiotic Ointments May Fuel Resistance and Spread of MRSA. Medscape, 14 Sept. 2011, www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749666. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017. Maxka, Jim. Organic Chemistry Interactive Notes. Organic Chemistry, North Arizona University. Arizona. Reading. McDonnell, Gerald, and A. D. Russell. Antiseptics and Disinfectants: Activity, Action, and Resistance. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 1999. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC88911/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2017. Petersen, Richard C. Triclosan Antimicrobial Polymers. HHS Public Access, 2016. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4893770/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2017. . Triclosan Computational Conformational Chemistry Analysis ForAntimicrobial Properties in Polymers. HHS Public Access, 2015. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394635/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2017. Polymxyin B Sulfate. Digital Photograph. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. Pub Chem. Aerosporin | C56H100N16O17S PubChem. The PubChem Project, pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Polymyxin_B_sulfate#section=Related-Compounds. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. Ramin Khajavi, Morteza Sattari and Ali Ashjaran, 2007. The Antimicrobial Effect of Benzalkonium Chloride on Some Pathogenic Microbes Observed on Fibers of Acrylic Carpet. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences, 10: 598-601. Stone, K. J., and Jack L. Strominger. Mechanism of Action of Bacitracin: Complexation with Metal Ion and C55-Isoprenyl Pyrophosphate. 1971. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC389626/pdf/pnas00087-0326.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb. 2017. Tay, William M., et al. 1H NMR, Mechanism, and Mononuclear Oxidative Activity ofthe Antibiotic Metallopeptide Bacitracin: The Role of D-Glu-4,Interaction with Pyrophosphate Moiety, DNA Binding andCleavage, and Bioactivity. JACS Articles, 2010. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. Unblok Bio Solutions. Ammonium. Unblok Bio-Fix, unblok.co/ammonium/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.

Obsession in Araby of James Joyces Dubliners Essay -- Joyce Dubliner

Obsession in Araby    In James Joyce’s short story "Araby," the main character is a young boy who confuses obsession with love. This boy thinks he is in love with a young girl, but all of his thoughts, ideas, and actions show that he is merely obsessed. Throughout this short story, there are many examples that show the boy’s obsession for the girl. There is also evidence that shows the boy does not really understand love or all of the feelings that go along with it. When the boy first describes the girl, you can see his obsession for her. He seems to notice every detail such as "her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side" (Joyce 548). You do not usually remember every minute detail of someone unless you are very intrigued by them. Also, note the way he describes her hair as "soft rope." This shows the intricate way the boy views her. Another way you can see the young boy’s obsession for the girl is through his actions. Every morning, he waits for the girl to appear, and then he follows her. The way in which the boy waits for the girl definitely shows that he is obsessed with her. The young boy lies "on the floor in the front parlour watching her. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that [he] could not be seen" (Joyce 548). This sounds like spying, and spying on someone usually indicates that you have a fixation with that person. In this case, the young boy does demonstrate this fixation. For instance, while the young boy is following her, this is the way he describes his adventure: "I kept her brown figure always in my eye, and when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning ... ...ights go out, and he is in the dark. As he stands there in the darkness, he sees himself "as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and [his] eyes burn with anguish and anger" (Joyce 551). I think this is when the young boy realizes that his whole trip to Araby was foolish because a gift from the bazaar is not going to make the young girl love him. The young boy finally realizes that everything he has done has been driven by some foolish notion that he thinks is love, but now he knows it is just a pathetic obsession for the young girl. The young boy’s eyes are burning because he feels so foolish about everything he has done supposedly for love, when he finally realizes all of his thoughts, actions, and ideas were just an obsession. Works Cited Joyce, James. "Araby." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.      

“Kindred” by Octavia Butler -Analysis Essay

There are various connections that can be made between the characters within the novel â€Å"Kindred† written by Octavia Butler. The majority of these connections relate to four of the course themes we’ve visited in past few weeks: double consciousness, collective trauma, diaspora, and power relationships. The protagonist, Dana Franklin, traveled between the past and present and in her travels she met a variety of different people, including the enslaved African Americans and their White owners of the 19th century, as well as her ancestors, one in particular is the cause of her time travel. Alice Greenwood and Rufus Weylin both had a peculiar relationship with Dana, as well as with each other. The ties that Dana shared with Alice exemplified the themes of double consciousness and collective trauma, and the ties shared between Dana and Rufus demonstrated the themes of diaspora and power relationships. Alice and Dana had a sisterly relationship, as some of the other characters had commented, Sarah once told Dana after Alice’s passing, â€Å"You and her was like sisters†¦ You sure fought like sisters, always fussin’ at each other, stompin’ away from each other, comin’ back.† Although a brief description, this is a very accurate summary of their relationship. Their double consciousness was first realized when Rufus had pointed out that they were both â€Å"one and the same†, this meaning that they were two halves of the same person. Not only did they look alike, but the line between their roles in the Weylin household were heavily blurred. Alice was the â€Å"love† interest of Rufus while she was alive, although her only use to him was to either sexually abuse her or use her as his personal punching bag. She had once told Dana that whenever she’s around, the mental and physical abuse isn’t as bad as it regularly is. On the other hand, Dana has an immense amount of freedom in comparison to Alice, even to the other slaves. Due to the unspoken set of rules that Dana and Rufus share, he doesn’t try to pursue any sexual relationship with her until the end of the book. As Dana had once said, â€Å"I could accept him as my ancestor, younger brother, friend, but not as my master, and not as my lover.† Alice is openly  spiteful towards Dana because of this, but it is also obvious that the reason why she always comes back to Dana is because, like a sibling, she is used as an outlet for her pain, fear, and hate, and knowing that she could have done more to lesson Alice’s suffering, Dana allows puts her feelings aside and accepts the onslaught of abuse. Both of their relationships with Rufus also lead to their collective trauma as they are both abused by him, and, in different ways, he takes something from them that leave them unwhole. For Alice, he not only rips her freedom from out under her, but he also â€Å"sells† their children, which were the only reasons that she had stayed on the plantation for so long. For Dana, he too took her freedom and the power that she once held over him had vanished completely, but it’s possible that he is also the reason that she there was a short stump in the place of her arm. The relationship that was shared between Dana and Rufus was the most complex relationship of them all. A list of unspoken rules shared between the two had been the foundation of their relationship, as they had both known that one could not live without the other, that if either one of them died, the other is just as good as dead as well. Ever since Dana had first saved Rufus from drowning in the river, she had attempted to instill some morals into the young boy in hopes that he wouldn’t be as corrupt as his father or the other slave owners, as she knew that that was what he would soon become. Although, with each time that she returns to save the boy’s life, he grows older, and he becomes more mature as well as stubborn, not as easily goaded into doing nice things for the slaves, like setting most of them free, or not selling any of them as his father does. Eventually, the reigns of power are no longer held by Dana, and the influence of the 19th century has finally rubbe d off on Rufus for the worse. No longer small and feeble, Rufus has Dana sent to work in the fields, has her whipped, hits her multiple times, and eventually held the barrel of a rifle to her head, though the line is completely crossed when Rufus tries to have sex with Dana, which she responds to with the thrust of a sharp blade in his side. Twice. The scale of power begins tipped towards Dana, then towards Rufus, then for another brief moment back to Dana. Their relationship is also, in a way, diasporic, as Dana is constantly out of  place in the 19th century throughout the entire book. She brings back with her the knowledge of the future, though sparse, as well as new medicines, devices, and ideas, though because of her skin color she is seen as no more than either a â€Å"smart nigger† to the white folks and a â€Å"white nigger† to the blacks; nothing more than a nigger. Even though she wasn’t accepted by most of the other slaves and the whites who held power over her, Rufus, still needed her in many different ways and was very clingy at times, even as he gave his last long and shuddering sigh, he simply could not let go of Dana, both literally and physically, as his hand still grasped her arm in the afterlife. When Dana arrives from the past for the last time, she discovers -excruciatingly painfully- that her arm had somehow meshed and conjoined with the wall of her living room. The exact spot where Rufus had held her in his final moments marked the loss of her arm, â€Å"from the elbow to the ends of the fingers,† It is unknown whether or not Dana’s arm is left in the past, still held between the cold fingers of the dead, as Rufus’ body was believed to be burned to ashes and never found, along with the Weylin estate. Dana’s graphic physical loss shows what slavery truly is outside of popular novels, history books, and dramatized television where the actors practice the pain and suffering that their ancestors dealt with. The loss of her arm shows many different things, like how even though African Americans today have been removed from slavery over time, who they are today was planted and rooted in the past. Also, slaves had constantly suffered from both emotion al and physical abuse at the hands of their owners, yet they were extremely dependent of their owners. Dana is subjected to horrific pain at the hand of Rufus, yet she still feels pity for him when he comes crawling back to her, as he is both her master and her kin-dred, so she alternates between despising him and feeling empathetic towards him. Lastly, Dana’s severed arm is a horrible loss, and it is meant to capture the horror of slavery. It is also significant that she suffers her injury because Rufus hangs on to her. Like Rufus holding onto Dana, the past has a â€Å"hold† on the present, the sacrifices of the past shape the present today. Dana loses an arm which is an important body part, especially for a writer, although she escapes with her life. The slaves of the past had sacrificed skin, bone, and sanity, yet  a lot of them escaped, albeit scarred. Dana’s horrific injury makes all of the sacrifices slaves made painfully real in order to make lives better for generations to come. Part of her lies in the past, and so does part of todays’ generation. In conclusion, the strange relationships that Dana had formed with her ancestors, Alice and Rufus, had in some ways, led to the loss of her arm. Her entire existence was dependent on the two of them having her great grandmother Hagar, and although Alice may have survived without Dana’s influence, Rufus was definitely dependent on Dana as well. Octavia Butler had wanted readers to take with them the reality of how we ar e still deeply rooted within slavery and it still has an affect on us today, even though it had ended over 140 years ago. As Dana had witnessed first hand, slavery has never been a free occurrence, anyone who was apart of it in any way never came out of it as they once were before; they never escaped slavery whole again, but as less of the person than they were before.

The Debate On The Existence Of God - 2437 Words

We live in a world were the idea of a great and powerful God is highly controversial, there is wide scale of opinions as to whether or not God exist. The reasons behind those controversies are numerous, a few of those reasons are: †¢ That people from different religions all argue that their God is better then any other, thus creating numerous ruptures within churches †¢ That certain people rather believe in numerous Gods and worship them all. †¢ That some people would rather believe in reason and science those people often call themselves atheists. I believe in the existence of God but I will discuss arguments that express both the existence of God and none existence of God in order to prove that God really does exist. By visiting and†¦show more content†¦Classical theism philosophers Anselm and Descartes have two similar formulations that created the Anselmian-Cartesian point which is: â€Å"Ordinary things may of course be conceived without conceiving them as existing, but it is because the existence of their natures is contingent, not necessary [†¦] this contingency as a mode of relationship to existence is itself necessary, inherent in the natures, such as entities that if not in this world, then in some other world it’s at least possible.† (Hartshorne, Rees 97). Descartes and Anselm also contributed to the ontological argument where Descartes argument that attempted to prove that God is the cause of our clear and distinct perception, He is perfect in everyway, He does not deceive and His idea i s innate. Anselm’s argument appears to be an a priori proof of Gods existence. It is based on experience and concept. He believes that God is an unsurpassable being; a being that cannot be improved upon. Descartes asked a critical question â€Å"How do I know that I have a genuine idea of perfection rather than a confused or self-contradictory pseudo-idea?† (Hartshorme, Rees 134-135) Descartes attempted to explain this question that God exist in our understanding, the concept of God being an idea in our mind, he also says that God is a possible being and exist in reality. God cannot only exist in our understanding. So therefore, these ontological arguments make it clear that when we can comprehend the existence of God, it will be