The Bubonic Plague in Europe :: essays research papers

The Black Death in Europe 1 Abstract The Black Death in Europe was one of the continents worth natural disasters. The bubonic plague wiped out nearly 60% of the population, causing changes that took many years to recover. The effects of art are astonishing. Every person and social class were affected, the church lost prestige and power, as did the doctors and physicians. Politics changes for a short time and the nobility lost wealth. Fear was wide spread, and people lost trust of their families. No one could escape the carnage this illness brought, if they tried, they succeeded in bringing it with them. The Black Death in Europe 2 Knox (page 15) states that the population losses were staggering, between1347 and 150 nearly 1 to of 3 people where gone. Venetian records stated that the death rates escalated close to 500-600 deaths a day, 60% of Venice’s population was gone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As with medical professions the clergy suffered great losses as well. Theirs was an occupational hazard; entering the home of the sick, doctors were at greater risk of catching the illness themselves. The clergy had to give the dieing their last rights and preside over the burials, this made for their demise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As indicated by Knox (page12) those who were learned hade some ideas about what was causing the disease such poisonous vapors released by constellation alignments. They recommended that no fat meant should be eaten at all and bathing was hazardous, these suggestions only made to make people more vulnerable to the plague. The only real action taken that worked was confinement, cities walled themselves off from incoming ships and would quarantine and ill persons house.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the population losses the labor forse was reduced, there was a greater need for crafts men and skilled laborers. Guilds began opening their doors to other skilled peoples, because when and skilled man died his whole family usually got the plague as well, this mad openings for others. Towns began to advertise higher wages to those artisans and those with skills. If the miller died and the sickens was in his home, then the miller family passed away also, this left none to mill the grain, therefore towns were in need of help.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Black Death in Europe 3 According to Marchione di Coppo Stefani (1370-1380) people looked to the doctors and the clergy for answers and advice, neither had the answers nor the cure. â€Å" In the year of the Lord 1348 the was a great pestilence in the city of Florence.

Reseach on Leukemia

â€Å"LEUKEMIA† CANCER OF THE BLOOD INTRODUCTION â€Å"You have to realize that every well person is a miracle, it takes billions of cells to make up a person, and it will only take one cell to be bad to destroy the whole person†, this quote is from Barbara Bush from one of her past interviews about a daughter she lost with leukemia (Cunningham, 1988). This quote reminded me five years ago, when my niece was diagnosed with leukemia. She does not only have one bad cell inside her body but she has extra 330,000 counts of white blood cells that are not normal.It was summer of year 2008 when my niece who is freshmen in high school was diagnosed with leukemia or cancer of the blood. Leukemia is a cancer that starts in the tissue that forms blood and affects the bone marrow (Anonymous A, 2012). Leukemia is found in white blood cells or leukocytes which characterized by an abnormal increase in white blood cells called â€Å"blast†, they do not fully form as they should and thereby blocking production of functioning blood cells. Unlike normal blood cells, leukemia cells don’t die when they should. They may crowd out normal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.This makes it hard for normal blood cells to do their work (Anonymous A 2012). Experiencing this type of cancer in our family makes me realize how a healthy body is truly a blessing that everybody should appreciate and learn how to take care of. Leukemia may not be the worst cancer we have right now, but many people of all ages suffer from this disease. According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (2012), an estimated 274,930 people in the United States are living with or are in remission from Leukemia and an estimated 44,600 new cases of leukemia are expected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2011.It is also said that leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children and adolescents and is the tenth most frequently occurring type cancer of all races or ethnici ties (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2012). Leukemia is a cancer that has a significant effect on our society, it is a non-sexist or ageist cancer that we should be aware of and be educated more on. BODY I. HISTORY OF LEUKEMIA Leukemia was first observed in 1845 by a pathologist named Rudolf Virchow.He observed an abnormal large number of white blood cells in a blood sample from a patient and called this condition â€Å"Leukamie† in German, which he formed from the two Greek words leukos, meaning â€Å"white† and aima, meaning â€Å"blood†. Ten years after this discovery, another pathologist, Franz Ernst Christian Neumann found that a deceased leukemia patient’s bone marrow was colored â€Å"dirty green-yellow† as opposed normal red colored. This finding helped Neumann to conclude that a bone marrow problem was responsible for the abnormal blood leukemia patients.In 1947 pathologist Sydney Farber believed from past experiments that administering, a folic acid mimic, could potentially cure leukemia for children. In 1962, researchers Emil J. Freireich Jr. and Emil Frei III used combination of chemotherapy to attempt to cure leukemia, the test were successful with some patients surviving long after the tests (Patlak, 1998). II. FOUR TYPES OF LEUKEMIA Leukemia is grouped by how quickly the disease develops (acute or chronic), as well as by the type of blood cells that is affected (lymphocytes or myelocytes) (Anonymous A. 012). Acute leukemia cells increases rapidly and usually worsens quickly than chronic leukemia. There are four main types of leukemia which includes acute lymphocytic leukemia â€Å"ALL†, chronic lymphocytic leukemia â€Å"CLL†, acute myelocytic leukemia â€Å"AML†, and chronic myelocytic leukemia â€Å"CML†. * Chronic lymphocytic leukemia â€Å"CLL† is the most common type of leukemia (Bazell, 2011). It affects the lymphoid cells and usually grows slowly or gets worst slowly. I t is also sometimes referred to as chronic lymphoblast leukemia (Anonymous B, 2012).Most often, people diagnosed with this type of leukemia are over the age of 55, it almost never affects children and more common in men than women. * Chronic myelogenous leukemia â€Å"CML† it is sometimes referred to as chronic myeloid leukemia or chronic granulocytic leukemia. This type of leukemia affects the myeloid cells and usually gets worse slowly. This type of leukemia occurs frequently in adults in their 50’s and is rarely seen in children. CML is also classified into three district phases, the chronic phase, accelerated phase and the blast crisis.Knowing the CML phase plays a large part in determining the type of treatment a patient will receive (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2012). Each phase describes the CML’s progression which determined by the number of blast cells. * Chronic Phase, this phase is made up of patients with fewer than five percent blast in their blo od and bone marrow samples (The Survivors Club Staff, 2012). During this phase, the white cells can still fight infection. Patients in this phase have a very mild symptoms or not noticeable. In most cases, long term drug therapy can control this phase. Accelerated Phase, in this phase, the patients have more than five percent but less than thirty percent blast in their blood and bone marrow samples. Most patients within the accelerated phase suffer from loss of appetite and weight loss and do not respond as well as to traditional treatments. * Blast Crisis Phase or Acute Blast Phase, in this phase the patients has more than thirty percent blast cells and the cancer has spread from the bone marrow to other organs (The Survivor’s Club Staff, 2012). Because of elevated blast in the blood, this means lower than normal number of red blood cells and platelets. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia â€Å"ALL†, this is most common type of childhood leukemia, which accounts for about 3 out of 4 cases of leukemia in children. It usually occurs in children ages 2 through 5 years. This disease also affects adults especially those ages 65 and older. ALL is the most successful treated type of childhood leukemia (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2012). This type of leukemia usually gets worse quickly and sometimes referred to as acute lymphocytic leukemia. * Acute Myelogenous Leukemia â€Å"AML† occurs more commonly in men than women and more with adults than children.The incidence of AML increases with age. This is a kind of leukemia that gets worse quickly and sometimes referred to as acyte myeloid leukemia, acute myelocytic leukemia and myeloblastic leukemia (Anonymous, 2012). III. SIGNS & SYMPTOMS OF LEUKEMIA Like many other cancer, leukemia usually is diagnosed when it is in the accelerated stage because people usually go to the doctor only when they feel sick, and most often than not the symptoms for leukemia manifest when there is already a large amount of b last in the blood.People with chronic leukemia may not even have symptoms until it is in the accelerated phase. Because leukemia is characterized by rapid increase in the number of immature blood cells and by the excessive buildup of relative mature, but still abnormal white blood cells. The crowding of blast in the blood makes the bone marrow unable to produce healthy blood cells which results in lack of red blood cells that carries oxygen, lack of platelets which is important in blood clotting process and lack of healthy white blood cells which are important in fighting infections.When there is lack of platelets in the body this result in easy bruising or bleeding. Lack of red blood cells leads to paleness and fatigue due to anemia. With lack of healthy white blood cells the body is susceptible to infections and this could lead to patient experiencing frequent infection ranging from infected tonsils, sores in the mouth or diarrhea to life threatening infections (Morgan, 2010). Oth er symptoms of chronic and acute leukemia may include fevers or night sweats, weight loss for no known reason, pain in the bones or joints, swelling or discomfort in the abdomen from a swollen spleen or liver.Having the symptoms mentioned above does not necessary mean that a person has leukemia. If a person is experiencing more than one of the symptoms it is best to check with their doctor or a health care provider and do some blood test, only then can the doctor tell if a person has leukemia or not. Ignoring warning signs and symptoms can make a treatable condition terminal. The sooner a person checks with their doctor the better chances they have in fighting any disease. III. CAUSE OF LEUKEMIAThe exact cause of leukemia is not known and there is no known way to prevent this disease. Many doctors seldom know why one person gets leukemia and the other doesn’t (Anonymous A, 2012). However, according to the National Cancer Institute (2011), there are researches which show that certain risk factors increase the chance that a person will get leukemia. Some of the risk factors are radiation, smoking, benzene, chemotherapy, down syndrome and certain other inherited diseases, certain other blood disorders and family history of leukemia.Exposure to a very high level of radiation will make the person much more likely to get AML, CML and ALL. Exposure to radiation can come from atomic bomb explosions, radiation therapy and diagnostics x-rays. Smoking can also increase the risk of AMC. The average smoker is exposed to about 10 times the daily intake of benzene compared to nonsmokers (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2012). Benzene is widely used in the chemical industry and it is also found in cigarette smoke and gasoline, exposure to benzene can increase a person’s risk of getting AMC.Chemotherapy, down syndrome and other inherited disease, certain blood disorder such as myelodysplastic syndrome and family history of leukemia are all linked with increasing t he risk of leukemia. IV. TREATMENT The ability to listen to one’s body is an important first step in finding a problem, so it can be properly diagnosed and treated (Wedro, 2012). The diagnosis of leukemia starts by going to the doctor and having a blood test. If the person is tested positive for leukemia then bone marrow aspiration test might be needed to check for the blood cells that cause leukemia and what type of leukemia it is.People with leukemia have many treatment options these days. According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (2012), chances in surviving this disease is a lot better today than they were 40 years ago. The overall five-year survival rate for leukemia has nearly quadrupled in the past 50 years. From 1960 to 1963, the five-year relative survival rate among whites with leukemia was 14 percent, then it went up to 34. 4 percent from 1975 to 1977 and from 2001 to 2007, the overall relative survival rate was at 56. 6 percent.Treatment of this disease also depends on the type of leukemia, the age of the patient and if leukemia cells were found in the cerebrospinal fluid. Treatment for leukemia can be one or combination of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, biological therapy, radiation therapy and stem cell transplant. * Chemotherapy is probably the most common type of treatment for cancer. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy leukemia cells. A patient may receive chemotherapy by mouth, which are pills that can be swallowed, by vein or tube inserted into the vein.Another way to receive the drug is through catheter where a tube is placed in a large vein in the upper chest and drugs will be injected into the catheter rather than directly into veins. The drugs can also be received into the cerebrospinal fluid by injecting drugs directly into the cerebrospinal fluid * Targeted therapy is another treatment for people with chronic myeloid leukemia and some with acute lymphoblast leukemia. This type of therapy use drugs such as Imatinib (Gleevec) tablets that block the growth of leukemia cells, it blocks the action of an abnormal protein that stimulates the rowth of leukemia cells (National Cancer Institute, 2011). * Biological therapy for leukemia is a treatment that improves the body’s natural defenses against the disease. This is a substance that can be injected directly into the muscle or can be given by IV infusion. * Radiation Therapy or radiotherapy is another treatment for leukemia; it uses high energy rays to kill leukemia cells. Some people receive radiation therapy from a large machine that is aimed at the spleen, the brain, or other parts of the body where leukemia cells have collected.Others may receive radiation that is directly to the whole body. Radiotherapy is a standard treatment for many types of cancer (Anonymous, 2012). * Stem Cell Transplant is the replacement of damaged bone marrow cell with healthy cells. Stem cells that are used for transplants can be taken from bone marrow, from the bloodstr eam, or from umbilical cord blood. This treatment is used to treat the disease that damage or destroy the bone marrow and to restore the bone marrow after it has been destroyed by high doses of radiation and chemotherapy.Stem cells may come from the patient, from identical twin, family member and from other donor. People with acute leukemia need treatment right away and the goal of the treatment is to destroy signs of leukemia in the body and make symptoms go away. Many people with acute leukemia can be cured. (National Cancer Institute, 2011). If a person has chronic leukemia without symptoms, they may not need a cancer treatment right away. When treatment for chronic leukemia is needed, it can often control the disease and its symptoms.Unfortunately, CLL is probably incurable by present treatments as chronic leukemia can seldom be cured with chemotherapy. However, stem cell transplants offer people with chronic leukemia the chance for cure (National Cancer Institute, 2011). With a ll the technology available to us right now and with all the research and studies being done to find a new and better ways to treat leukemia, I’m hopeful that a cure for all types of leukemia will be discovered soon. CONCLUSION Learning you have leukemia or one of your loved ones have this disease can definitely change your live and the lives of those people around you.When we learned about my niece’s condition 5 years ago, there was a dramatic change in our family on how we viewed life and the importance of having a healthy body. My niece Shayna has gone through a lot of test, procedures and treatments because of this disease, it is probably her positive outlook in life and prayer that helped her fight this disease. Although Shayna is still taking Gleevec every day to block the growth of leukemia cells, her doctors already considered her to be in remission.She had normal blood counts for over four years now. In any disease, may it be cancer, diabetes, pneumonia or any life threatening or non-life threatening disease, it is important to listen to your body and do the first step of getting checked by a health care professional. It is also important to take life’s obstacle with a positive outlook and to have faith and hope from your love ones, from your health care provider, from yourself and from God, for all these would help a person deal and survive any disease.

Cold Blood A True Crime Story Essay - 1903 Words

In Cold Blood: a true crime story Truman Capote was a prolific writer during the 1950s, having written many novels, plays, and short stories. â€Å"Truman Capote was one of the most famous and controversial figures in contemporary American literature† (George).One of his most known work is a novel he wrote in 1966 titled â€Å"In Cold Blood†. In Cold Blood is a book written by Truman Capote detailing the murders of the Clutter family, a true story that had happened 7 years earlier in 1959. Capote started his work with an article with The New Yorker. He set with his friends, who included renowned author Harpor Lee, to research what really happened of the murder of four members of the Clutter Family. Capote and Lee traveled to the city and interviewed people from the town about the crime, as well as eventually interviewing one of the murderers themselves. Such extensive research allowed Capote to include intricate details about the story, and so he was able to write about it in a very interesting way th at included insights from the murderers themselves. The novel was praised by many critics, who deemed it as a classic piece of literature to be taught and studied in school. Many others however viewed it as offensive or inappropriate to certain audiences, which resulted in its banning in some schools. The novel includes great details about the victims and their lives as well as details and insights from the killers. After carefully analyzing the novel, is understandable why such aShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Truman Capote s The Novel Cold Blood1563 Words   |  7 PagesReal crime or true story is a recently denomination term used to refer to nonfictional acting of actual crimes, usually murders. There has been little methodical study of the genre; critics and scholars offer contradictory theories about true-crime literature. Although the term and the popularity of the genre are relatively new, factual accounts of crimes are not. True-crime accounts date back as far as the 18th cent ury, and such writers as Edmund Pearson, William Roughead, and Jonathan Goodman describedRead MoreCold Blood : The Trial Of The Century966 Words   |  4 PagesIn Cold Blood verses the Trial of the Century Timelines and storytelling are two of the important aspects of any trial which occurs in the American Courts. The story of â€Å"In Cold Blood† by Truman Capote’s original publication in a four part article in The New Yorker, In Cold Blood was turned into a movie, some would say a documentary of the mass murder, it mirrors the crime O.J. Simpson was accused of in many aspects as being brutal and deliberate but as in both instances the stories appear to bringRead MoreThe Cold Blood By Truman Capote967 Words   |  4 PagesIn Cold Blood Do you think that every crime has to be breathtaking to attract readers` attention? 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In Cold Blood is a non-fiction story based on the murder events of a four-person rich family in Kansas. Capote came across this newspaper article in 1959 and researched this story for five years, becoming very close to the two murderers, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith. Not only did he speak to these real-life murderers, he talked to the townspeople of Holcomb, where the murdersRead MoreCold Blood s Accuracy Of Perry Smith s Childhood1197 Words   |  5 PagesLayne LaChapelle Wilson English 12 December 7, 2015 In Cold Blood’s accuracy of Perry Smith’s Childhood The movie In Cold Blood was made in 1967 on the 14th of December produced by Richard brooks and published by Columbia pictures Inc. This movie is about the Clutter family murder in 1959. The movie focuses mainly on the backstory and build up to the murder and the relationship of Perry and his partner in crime Richard Hickock. The movie opens up on Perry, not much information is given from theRead MoreEssay on A Chilling Perspective in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood1256 Words   |  6 Pagesin Capotes In Cold Blood    Truman Capotes In Cold Blood is the story of Perry and Dick and the night of November 15, 1959. This investigative, fast-paced and straightforward documentary provides a commentary on the nature of American violence and examines the details of   the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers. While reading Truman Capotes novel,In Cold Blood , I spent moreRead MoreTruman Capote and Postmodernism1398 Words   |  6 Pageswell-known for his late-night talk show appearances as for his prose† (Patterson 1). Capote was a literary pop star at the height of his fame in 1966, after he had written such classic books as, Other Rooms, Other Voices, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and In Cold Blood. 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