Sentencing Rationales and Plea Bargaining Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sentencing Rationales and Plea Bargaining - Essay Example One of the reasons why courts exist is to provide justice by ensuring that the punishment an offender is given is proportionate to the crime committed. After claims that unwarranted sentencing occurred in US, the congress decided to ensure justice by coming up with guidelines which were to be used by all courts when it came to criminal sentencing. The Sentencing Act was formulated and passed with the main aim of ensuring that unwarranted disparities which were thought to exist in the judicial systems were eliminated (Stith & Koh, 1993). Retribution which means offering sentencing criminals to serve punishments that are to some extent proportional to the crimes committed plays a major role in sentencing. This is because, the essence of judicial systems is to provide justice and justice means paying a price that is equivalent to the crime committed. The formulation of the criminal sentencing guidelines that have a table with ranges that people who have committed certain crimes should be sentenced clearly shows that retribution forms an extremely strong basis in sentencing. Based on the sentencing guidelines, the crime for which a person is convicted will always form the basic offense level with details of the case further determining the sentence by either subtracting or adding. The alteration in the sentence presented by the base offence depends on the role played by the person and the amount of damage that the person might have caused. For example a robbery will form the base offence with minor details such as whether the person used a gun or shot somebody adding to the sentence while a person who was involved in robbery with violence but played a minor role might end up getting le sser sentence than a person who will be judged to have played a vital role getting a tougher sentence (Stith & Koh, 1993). Plea bargaining is where the prosecutor and the defense counsel come to an

Art of Negotiation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Art of Negotiation - Research Paper Example Matt, in order to develop his business in Australia, needs to avail quality supply of fabrics from Red Star Holding in China. The negotiation between the two is essential from the perspective of Matt, as the delay in the deal could cause bankruptcy. It is important to note that the fabrics used for the purpose of making shirts also cause rashers to the users. In this regard, there is a need for effective negotiation between the two parties. The effective negotiation would only occur if there is a collaborative approach between the two and hence, seeking for a win-win scenario for both.The theory of Integrative Based Bargaining can be applied in the negotiation process between the two parties. By taking into concern this theory, Matt should focus on the goals of each party and hence, consider the negotiation. Matt should negotiate with Red Star Holding by ensuring that the latter promises to deliver fabrics, which do not cause rashes to the users. This negotiation should be as such th at it creates a win-win situation for both the parties. In this regard, Matt should promote the flow of information between the two parties and hence, understands the need of other parties. This would lead towards emphasizing the attainment of common objectives and the minimisation of any sort of difference prevailing between them. In the course of considering the international context of engaging with business partners from China, it can be affirmed that it is essential to consider certain important factors before the negotiation round.

Production of Pure Lipases

Production of Pure Lipases Most Rhizopus lipases described in the literature are produced by their host cells in very small amounts, which is not suitable for large-scale industrial applications. Another drawback of working with native microorganisms is that Rhizopus sp. usually produces different isolipases with different biocatalytic properties, which complicates biocatalytic application with unwanted side effects caused by unrelated enzymes (67). Thus, in order to implement more industrial lipase applications, one of the most promising strategies is to produce heterologous lipases in a host microorganism which have the advantages to minimize the complexity of the bioprocess, to facilitate the more economic production of large quantities of pure lipases and to reduce costs (68). Rhizopus species was mainly divided into three groups, including R. oryzae, R. microsporus, R. stolonifer (69). Until now, the lipase genes from all these three groups have been cloned. Consistent with the proposal that many Rhizopus isolates are actually the same organism (69), nearly complete identities were observed in the lipase genes from the genus Rhizopus. In the R. oryzae group, lipases from R. niveus IFO 9759 (70) (71) (72), R. delemar ATCC34612 (73) (74) and R. javanicus (75) have identical amino acid sequences, and the lipases from R. oryzae ATCC 853 (76, 77) (78) and R. arrhizus L-03-R-1(79) differ by only several substitutions. The lipase from R. stolonifer (GenBank No. AAZ66864.1) and R. chinensis (GenBank No. ABN59381.2)(80) were of about 80% amino acid sequence identity to R. oryzae lipase (GenBank No. BAG16821.1) (Fig). Rhizopus lipases are synthesized as pre-pro-proteins composed of signal sequence, prosequence and mature lipase sequence (76) (80). The production of Rhizopus lipases has been performed in Escherichia coli [8], in Saccharomyces cerevisiae [9] and in Pichia pastoris [10,11]. Due to either different protein post-translational modifications affecting the glycosylation pattern of these lipases, or to proteolytic cleavage products arising from the mature, the pro- or the pre-pro-enzyme, the lipases derived from recombinant strains showed different molecular mass and different enzymatic properties compared with those from wild strains (75) (81). E. coli as host When E. coli was selected as a host, overexpression of R. oryzae prolipase (ProROL) and mature R. oryzae lipase (mROL) was achieved by using E. coli BL321, the heat-inducible vector pCYTEXP1 and the preOmpA sequence to achieve secretion into the periplasmic space (77) (76). Both fusion proteins induced by a temperature shift to 42  °C were correctly processed and translocated to the periplasmic space, but both mROL and ProROL accumulated as insoluble aggregates. Furthermore, the enzyme activity of mROL damages cells even at low concentrations, whereas the expression of active ProROL has no toxic effects on E. coli and the amount of purified active ProROL (103 U/mL) is larger than that of mROL by a factor of more than 100(77). By in vitro refolding of the insoluble form of mROL, its prosequence was supposed to support the refolding of mROL in vitro (77). R. delemar lipase was also expressed as inactive and insoluble forms in the cytoplasm of E. coli BL21(DE3) using plasmid vector pE T11d (74). In order to achieve soluble production in E. coli, Di Lorenzo et al. (82) used a reductase-deficient host strain, E. coli Origami(DE3), which greatly enhance disulfide bond formation in the E. coli cytoplasm, and pET-11d as expression systems, yielded correctly folded and active mROL and ProROL only in the cytoplasm fraction. Although the specific activities of mROL and ProROL are comparable, the yield of ProROL (166U/mL) was higher than that of mROL (82). S. cerevisiae as host In contrast to E. coli expression system, eukaryotic expression system (eg. P. pastoris, S. cerevisiae) has the advantage of secretion into the cell culture supernatant, avoiding cell disruption, and post-translational modifications, including glycosylation and disulfide bond formation. Takahashi et al. (78) reported the production of the active R. oryzae lipase (ROL) by S. cerevisiae. When the ProROL gene fused with S. cerevisiae ÃŽ ±-factor signal sequence was expressed in S. cerevisiae using UPR-ICL as a promoter, two forms of ROL, ProROL (46 kDa) and r28ROL (35 kDa) having 28 amino acids of the prosequence, were secreted into the culture medium, but the activity of mROL was not detected in both the medium and cells (78). The N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis revealed that the processed form r28ROL was cleaved by Kex2-like protease in S. cerevisiae at the recognition site KR in the prosequence (78). The independent production of two different molecular forms of ROL was succe ssfully obtained using Kex2-engineered strains of S. cerevisiae (83). The amounts of enzyme secreted were estimated as 78.8 mg/l broth for ProROL and 38.3 mg/l broth for r28ROL. These two forms of ROL exhibited distinct properties. ProROL were more thermostable than the processed lipase r28ROL (83), which was also observed in the case of R. niveus lipase expressed in S. cerevisiae (84). The expressed R. niveus lipase activity in the culture supernatant reached 1600 U/mL, a value equivalent to 0.2~0.3 g lipase protein per 1 liter of culture supernatant (72). The role of the prosequence of ROL was further analyzed in S. cerevisiae. When mROL was co-expressed in trans with the prosequence fused to the pre-alpha-factor leader sequence, the activity of mROL was recovered, suggested that the covalent linkage of the prosequence to the mROL was not necessary for the function (85) (86) . From the expression of the ROL mutants with deletions at the N-terminal end of the prosequence together w ith mROL in trans, the residues from 20 to 37 in the prosequence were essential for the secretion, and those from 38 to 57 were essential for the formation of the active ROL and might play a role as an intramolecular chaperone (86). Apart from extracellular expression, R. oryzae lipase was also successfully displayed on the cell surface of S. cerevisiae with a lipase activity of 350.6 U/L (87-89). P. pastoris as host On the contrary to S. cerevisiae expression system when the prolipase gene from R. arrhizus was expressed in P. pastoris, only the mature lipase attached with 28 amino acids of the carboxy-terminal part of the prosequence was secreted in the supernatant (Niu, Li et al. 2006). Prolipase with complete prosequence was nearly found in the supernatant which may be the result that the activity of Kex2-like protease was higher in P. pastoris than in S. cerevisiae (Niu, Li et al. 2006). Interestingly, expression of the prolipase gene from R. chinensis in P. pastors produced two forms of lipase, mature lipase attached with 27 amino acids of the prosequence (r27RCL) and mature lipase (mRCL) (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). At the early stage of fermentation, the recombinant P. pastors produced only r27RCL, which was gradually degraded into mRCL along with the fermentation, probably processed by serine proteases presented in the culture medium (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). For R. oryzae lipase, r28ROL was als o observed to convert to mature lipase gradually incubated at 0-6  °C for a few days (Sayari, Frikha et al. 2005, Hama, Tamalampudi et al. 2006). It has been reported that the prosequence from R. chinensis lipases was more efficient than that from ROL in the role of facilitating the folding and secretion of an active lipase (Yu, Sha et al. 2013). The activity of the chimeric lipase from R. oryzae by replacing the prosequence with that from R. chinensis reached 4050 U/mL, which was 11 fold higher than that of the parent expressed in P. pastoris (Yu, Sha et al. 2013). mROL activity expressed in S. cerevisiae was not detected (Ueda, Takahashi et al. 2002), whereas mROL was functionally expressed and secreted in P. pastoris (Beer, McCarthy et al. 1998) (Minning, Schmidt-Dannert et al. 1998). The expression of mROL was compared under different regulated promoters (Serrano 2002) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005) (Resina, Serrano et al. 2004), i.e. alcohol oxidase 1 promoter (PAOX), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (PGAP) and the formaldehyde dehydrogenase 1 promoter (PFLD1). Expression of the mature form of ROL under the constitutive PGAP promoter resulted in extremely low extracellular lipase levels (Serrano 2002). PAOX is highly induced during growth on methanol, but tightly repressed during growth of the yeast on most common carbon sources such as glucose, glycerol or ethanol, while PFLD1 allows the design of methanol-free culture strategies, being methylamine a less volatile and flammable inducer. Valero and co-authors (Resina, Cos et al. 2005) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005) successfully expressed mROL in P. pastoris under the PFLD1 promoter using methylamine as nitrogen and sorbitol as carbon source. The productivity under PFLD1 promoter are comparable to the classic PAOX system (Resina, Cos et al. 2005) (Cos, Resina et al. 2005). However, limitationsincurrent knowledgein the regulation of methylamine metabolism in P. pastoris limit thedesignof efficientfermentationstrategies using PFLD1 promoter. The presence of multiple integrated copies of a desired expression cassette has been reported to be an important factor in increasing foreign protein production in P. pastoris (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). The high-level expression of R. chinensis lipase was achieved by optimization of the lipase gene copy number in the host strain P. pastoris (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Among 1, 3, 5 and 6-copy strains, the maximum lipase activity reached 12,500 U/mL in 5-cope strain, which was 6.2-fold higher than that in 1-copy strain (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Maximizing gene copy number sometimes resulted in a decreased final productivity yield (Sha, Yu et al. 2013) or a negative effect on cell growth (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005), which indicated stress effects of Rhizopus lipases overexpression upon P. pastoris cells. Recent transcriptomic-based studies (Sha, Yu et al. 2013) (Resina, Bollok et al. 2007) strongly suggest that heterologous overexpression of Rhizopus lipases in P. pastoris indeed triggers the unfolded protein response (UPR). However, co-expression of certain chaperons could relief the cell stress caused by foreign protein overexpression. The productivity of R. chinensis lipase in P. pastoris was improved by co-expression with ERO1p and PDI (Kumar, Jahan et al. 2013) (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). These two chaperons are involved in the protein disulfide bond formation pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum, thus chaperon co-expression contribute to the relief of the protein overexpression stress in recombinant P. pastoris (Kumar, Jahan et al. 2013) (Sha, Yu et al. 2013). Co-expression of unfolded protein response transcriptional factor (Hac1) resulted in about a 3-fold increase in the overall specific productivity of mROL in P. pastoris while the deletion of GAS1, required for the cell wall assembly, achieved 4-fold increase. And the double mutant HAC1/Δgas1 strain yielded about a 7-fold increase (Resina, Maurer et al. 2009). Novel genetic factors enhancing heterologous protei n secretion in P. pastoris have been identified on the basis of transcriptomic analyses (Gasser, Sauer et al. 2007), which give a new insight into engineering P. pastoris for heterologous expression of foreign proteins. Another factor that should be considered for expression optimization is the Mut phenotype. When single copy mROL was expressed in P. pastoris under control of PAOX, the Maximal lipase activity (205U/mL), the specific production rate (qp, 63 U/gbiomass/h ) and the yield of lipase activity per biomass unit (YP/X, 5775U/gbiomass) by Muts strain were 1.37-, 1.29- and 2.34-fold higher than those by Mut+ strain, while the productivity (2246 U/L/h) by Muts strain was 1.34-fold lower than that by Mut+ strain (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). For R. chinensis prolipase expressed in P. pastoris, Muts strain exibited 1.4-fold higher activity than that of Mut+ phenotype (Yu, Wang et al. 2009). Muts is not as sensitive as Mut+ to high transient methanol concentrations which make the bioprocess easier to control and enables scale up. However, Muts phenotype fermentation results in long induction times with low growth rates (Arnau, Casas et al. 2011). Different strategies have been implemented in the production of R. oryzae lipase under the PAOX promoter in P. pastoris Mut+ phenotype, eg. dissolved oxygen control (DO-stat), methanol limited fed-batch (MLFB, control of the substrate concentration close to zero), methanol non-limited fed-batch (MNLFB, maintenance of the substrate concentration at a constant value), as well as temperature limited fed-batch (TLFB). The MNLFB strategy for ROL expression led to 20–30 h reduction in the production time, a 11-fold higher final lipolytic activity, a 13.6-fold higher productivity and a 10.3-fold higher specific productivity compared to the DO-stat strategy (Minning, Serrano et al. 2001). After optimization of methanol concentration, the activity of Rhizopus chinensis lipase reached 2130 U/mL by maintaining methanol concentration at 1 g/L controlled by an on-line methanol analyzer (Wu, Yu et al. 2011). One of the main drawbacks of P. pastoris Mut+ phenotype is the high oxygen demand i n high cell density cultures using MNLFB strategy (Cos, Serrano et al. 2005). A TLFB strategy was thereafter applied to solve oxygen transfer limitations (Surribas, Stahn et al. 2007). Barrigà ³n et al. (Manuel Barrigon, Luis Montesinos et al. 2013) compared MLFB and MNLFB strategies for the production of mROL expressed in P. pastoris. Yields, productivities and specific production rate in all MLFB conditions were very low. Best results were obtained by MNLFB strategy at methanol set-point of 3 g/L, under which condition maximum lipase activity, productivity and specific productivity reached 280 U/mL, 5406 U/L/h, 102 U/g/h, respectively (Manuel Barrigon, Luis Montesinos et al. 2013) . Due to low specific growth rate of Muts phenotype, strategies to use mixed carbon sources in the induction phase are applied to improve the expression levels of mROL and to increase the productivity of the bioprocess. Glycerol and sorbitol are both frequently used as co-substrates. When glycerol was used as co-substrate, one of the key advantages is its higher ÃŽ ¼ (0.18 h−1 versus 0.02 h−1) compared with sorbitol. However, when the relation ÃŽ ¼Gly per ÃŽ ¼MeOH was larger than 4, a significant decrease of YP/X, volumetric and specific productivity was observed due to the repression of glycerol (Arnau, Casas et al. 2011). The sorbitol as an excellent non-repressive carbon source avoids the severe decrease of the specific production rate and it permits to achieve higher mROL production (Arnau, Ramon et al. 2010) (Ramon, Ferrer et al. 2007). During the induction stage, the ammonium ion released into the fermentation broth has a deep impact on cell growth and protein expression. In our previous study, the impact of NH4+ concentration on the expression of the R. oryzae chimeric lipase in P. pastoris co-expressed with ERO1p and PDI was investigated (Yu, Lu et al. 2013). Analysis of carbon metabolism and energy regeneration pattern revealed that under the optimum NH4+ concentration of 440 mmol/L more carbon source (methanol) was consumed with surged AOX activity and then the higher energy and amino acid precursors demand for recombinant protein synthesis is compensated for by the TCA cycle. Under the optimum NH4+ concentration the lipase activity reached 12,019 U/mL, which was 1.7-fold higher than that without supplement of NH4+ (Yu, Lu et al. 2013). It was also useful for other recombinant protein expression in P. pastoris by addition of inorganic nitrogen source (Kobayashi, Kuwae et al. 2000) (Zhang, Wang et al. 2008) (Yan g and Zhou 2004).

From Childhood to Adulthood in Updikes A&P Essay -- A&P Essays Sammy

From Childhood to Adulthood in Updike's A&P Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of "A&P," writes from Sammy's point of view, making him not only the main character but also the first person narrator. The tone of the story is set by Sammy's attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammy's thoughts, for he tends to make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of "play." Sammy is no longer a child, but much of what he observes he describes as the play that he did as a child. The way he thinks can also be described as childlike play, in terms of his being disrespectful and needing to show off. Updike demonstrates, however, that Sammy desires to be thought of as an adult, and many of his references are to the type of play that adults might engage in. Sammy, like many adults, does not think in what is considered an adult manner, but Updike uses the plot's climax and conclusion to show that Sammy has learned a tough lesson that will speed up his transition into adulthood. Sammy begins to play from the moment he lays eyes on three girls who enter the A&P one slow summer Thursday evening during the early 1960s. He comes up with a name, based on appearance, for each of the barely dressed girls. He nicknames them as children do to poke fun at one another. Ronald E. McFarland describes how this name-calling "indicate[s] his immaturity and lack of compassion" (99). Sammy makes fun of customers as well: McFarl... ...ammy's case, it is provoked by this incident at the A&P, which he will probably never forget. His "stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be to [him] thereafter" (31). He learns that life is not a game and that people, especially superiors, cannot be "played." Fun is certainly acceptable, but not when it is demeaning or disrespectful to other people. Works Cited Day, Frank. John Updike Revisited. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1998. McFarland, Ronald E. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983): 95-100. Shaw, Patrick W. "Checking Out Faith and Lust: Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' and Updike's 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1988): 321-323. Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.

Heaven Is for Real Essay

Sadness, happiness, excitement, joy, and astonishment are only but a few of the emotions you will endure while reading the book Heaven is for Real, the amazing story of a brave and eccentric little boy named Colton Burpo. In March of 2003, what seemed to be a seemingly typical family trip turned into a terrifying fight for Todd and Sonja Burpo’s little boy’s life. Even after months of injury and illness within the Burpo family, Colton’s incident tops them all. The strength of this little boy, even at the young age of only four, is truly inspirational. This book truly portrays the crazy days, weeks, months, and even years that follow the frightening experiences that this family had to go through. In February of 2003, the Burpo’s decide to take a family outing. The Butterfly Pavilion is their destination of choice, and the family couldn’t be any happier to get away. After Sonja’s miscarriage, Todd’s shatter leg, round of kidney stones, and hyperplasia; a vacation is precisely what they need. The Thursday before they’re to leave, however, Colton isn’t feeling well and had complained of a stomach ache. Their babysitter, Norma, calls Sonja at work to report a plunge in little Colton’s sickness. After a trip to the doctor, the Burpos find that the stomach flu is the cause of Colton’s poor health. They see the fun-filled trip slipping away as soon as it had come, and nobody in the household is content. But, by morning, Colton is up and feeling well again; the Burpo’s then set out on their adventure. They soon made it to the Crawl-A-See-Um right outside of Denver, and the kid’s stop to see the many tarantula exhibits. These draw Cassie and Colton Burpo in like magnets. The kids are easily amazed by the many eight-legged creatures, which shock the children with everything that they do. They soon see Rosie, the spider you can hold in exchange for a sticker. Cassie holds her, but Colton is afraid, so they make their way on through. After visiting the many aquariums, they make their way to the butterfly pavilion. They see a monarch fly by, enjoying the beauty of the beautiful orange creature. Sonja, remembering the kids want to swim, insists they leave. As they walk by Rosie, Todd asks Colton if he wants to try and hold Rosie. Colton is positive that this time, he will do it. He ventures up to Rosie, holds her, and gets a sticker. He leaves feeling triumphant as they leave. After swimming, the Burpos head to the Old Chicago Restraunt in Greeley to eat with Pastor Steve Wilson and his wife. While sitting around the large, round booth, they talk about their churches and enjoy Italian food. Todd and Sonja decide to visit Pastor Wilson’s church the next day, as Rebecca Wilson divides her time between the conversation and coloring with the kids. Colton’s eery quietness isn’t noticed throughout the dinner, until Colton makes a remark about his stomach again. They Burpos decide to cut the dinner short, after Colton and Cassie both decide they aren’t feeling well. Colton’s statement comes true, as he throws up all of that night. Soon the next day, they decide to take Colton to the hospital. â€Å"Could it be appendicitis? † Sonja asks the doctor, fearing for bad news. Colton squirms, afraid of the IV as any kid would be. He assures her that the blood test don’t show this, but they don’t know what has happened. As Colton’s health gets worse, Todd and Sonja worry for their son. Then the worst thing yet happened, the shadow of death. Todd sees it on Colton, and afterwards they decide to take Colton to the Great Plains Regional Medical Center. Calling ahead to let the doctor know, they set out towards the center. Todd and Sonja blame each other throughout the whole trip, but when they reach the center and the doctor has gone to lunch, they’re out of people and reasons to blame. Fifteen minutes later, the doctor comes in and looks over Colton. They perform a CT scan, and send the Burpos into a secluded waiting room. â€Å"I think this is it,† are the only words Sonja can muster out as she cradles Colton’s limp body. Five tiresomely long minutes later, a Radioligist comes out to let them know Colton has a ruptured appendix and needs emergency surgery. They wheel Colton away on a gurney, preparing him for his surgery. He thrashes, screaming for his dad, as they put the IV in his arm. Anger flashes in Todd’s eyes, realizing that he may have waited too long and might not see his son alive again. He rages at God, assuming he is going to take his son before he had the time to even live. After the surgery is over, Todd is asked to come back. All the fear and anger leaves his eyes, when he is told that his son is conscious and has been asking for him. Todd and Sonja are amazed at how much better their son feels, looks, and seems. They are told, seven days after checking into the hospital, that they can take their son home. After packing the mulititude of toys and clothes, they go to leave. The elevators are sliding shut, when they are told they cannot leave. New pockets of infection show in Colton’s CT scan, in his abdomen. Sonja, completely exasperated, has a breakdown. The church comes to pray with Colton shortly after, only praying for one simple thing: gas. They are told that if Colton passes gas, that it would be a good sign. Within an hour, the prayer was answered. Colton felt better the next morning, and doctors were shocked at this miracle. After what seemed like forever, Colton and the rest of the Burpo family can finally go home after this horrific event. After they go home, life seems to go back to normal. It wasn’t until four months after Colton’s surgery, on their Fourth of July trip, that they realize their son has witnessed something extraordinary. On their way, Todd jokingly asks Colton if he wants to go back to the hospital. The response he gets is far from what he expects, however. Colton proceeds to tell him that the hospital is where angels sang to him and he sat in Jesus’ lap. Todd and Sonja laugh it off, thinking Colton had imagined the whole thing. They continue to believe so, until he tells them exactly what they were soing, and where, during his surgery. He also offers more information, spread over the next years. Days, weeks, and months all came with new information. â€Å"Did you know that Jesus had a cousin? Jesus told me his cousin baptized him,† Colton informed his father one night. He tells his dad about a horse that he petted, God’s beautiful eyes and clothes, his crown, and God’s â€Å"markers,† nonchalantly one night, as if he were talking about what he ate for lunch. When Todd realizes that by â€Å"markers,† Colton means the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, he knows that he can’t be making it up. Todd and Sonja are amazed at all the things he knows all of a sudden. The normal nights come often, but the talks about supernatural phenomenons become spaced out. Colton begins to talk about his Pop, who died before Colton was born. He also tells his dad that he knows that Jesus told him to be a pastor, and when he agreed, Jesus was very happy. He also told his mom that he knows he had another sister, but she died in her tummy. He tells her that she looks like Cassie and is dark headed, like Sonja. He also says that she didn’t have a name, because they hadn’t named her yet. When Sonja begins to freak out, Colton explains that she’s okay and that God adopted her. Colton also tells about God’s throne room, and makes one point in particular stand out: God loves the children! After Colby is born, they realize they have to hire a babysitter. They decide in a very mature for her age 8th grader, named Ali. All is well, until one night they come home to Ali crying. When Sonja asks her why, she says that Colton was crying and tells her why. Colton, after being put in bed, tells Ali that he misses his sister that died in mommy’s tummy. When he begins to cry, Ali holds him until he finally cries himself to sleep. This isn’t the only serious thing Colton says about Heaven. One night, while at home, he tells his dad that the angels have wings to fight off Satan. He tells him that there is going to be a battle, and that Todd will have to fight in it. He also tells that he sees the power God sends his dad during church, while he preaches. Todd and Sonja now believe Colton more and more by the passing day. 2007 is the first time that the Burpos told about Colton’s indifferent, to say the least, experience. Todd now found himself with more and more questions about Heaven and what his 4 year old saw. One woman, in tears, approaches and asks if Colton might have seen her stillborn baby in Heaven. He asks the woman that if she believes that God loves her as much as God loves him, and if he loves her living son as much as he loves his living son, then why wouldn’t he love her unborn child as much as his? At this moment, he knew that God had sent him the power to help that woman; the same power Colton had claimed to have seen God shoot down. Years have passed since Colton’s accident, but his story is and will be known for many more years to come. The amazing experiences that this family went through are truly touching, and this book portrays that beautifully. From cover to cover, it’s a book you will not want to put down. Colton’s story is amazing, and as the nurse once told Todd Burpo, â€Å"There has to be a God, because this is a miracle. †

Foreign Aid as a tool for Foreign Policy

Foreign aid is defined as voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another country, at times as leverage to cohorts the receiving country do what the donor country wants. But it may be given as a signal of diplomatic approval, or to strengthen a military ally, to reward a government for behavior desired by the country giving the aid, to extend the donor's cultural influence, or to gain political strength here at home as abroad. According to the USAID website, foreign aid is given through eight different types of monetary assistance. These eight different forms of assistance are agriculture, democracy and governance, economic growth and trade, environment, education and training, global health, global partnerships, and humanitarian assistance. From 1980 to 2008, U. S. total foreign assistance has increased from 9. 69 billion to just over 49 billion in 2008. From the 49 billion spent in 2008 alone, close to 15. 5 billion was spent on military aid while the rest was divided between economic assistance in fields such as agriculture, international development, and other economic growth and trade programs. The largest recipients of the two foreign aid subdivisions, military and economic aid, went respectively to the regions of the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. The country in the Middle East with the highest recipient of aid was Afghanistan, with close to 9 of the 49 billion dollars of aid in the 2008 year alone (USAID, 2013. ) As we can see a lot of our tax payer’s money goes abroad to countries many American cannot find on a world map, but we need to help these countries for the safety of our people, at least in the eyes of every politicians in office. American liberals, as described by Bob Burnett of the Huffington Post, fall between two primary types of camps that determine their views of U. S. Foreign Aid. Idealists and realist camps, focus on the need for international humanitarian aid which is similar to our own domestic welfare on a national level (Burnett, 2006. ) They tend to favor foreign aid as a means to educate and develop relationships through cooperation and financial funding. Other far left liberal groups discourage military spending while encouraging to increase social programs internationally. They believe that poverty stricken countries in need of assistance otherwise known as â€Å"Third World† countries are indebted to other countries which lead to their current status as reported on the Green Party Platform (GPP, 2000. ) As a primary focus to foreign aid and success to developing nations is the assistance to increase food production, availability to clean drinking water, reduction of infant mortality, and improvements toward health by means of the green revolution. Lastly, they utilize terms of humanitarian aid as to be consistent with their egalitarian values. In recent discussion to reform the current foreign aid policy, Democratic representative Howard Berman introduces a reform proposal â€Å"Global Partnership Act of 2012† to replace the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act. This policy would restore budget functions towards the USAID and develop new funding mechanisms focused on innovation, microenterprise development, and rapid humanitarian response, and reduce violence against women (Mungcal, 2012. In addition, this policy would focus on reduction of global poverty, accelerated economic growth, agricultural innovation, advancement in health, combating diseases, global education strategy, gender equality, assistance to persons that have been affected by conflict or disaster, and monitoring/investing towards sustaining upward success and control of financing through government regulations (HR, 2012. ) Thus, they create a more specific rational belief to solve foreign issues utilizing our government system to regulate. When observing the implementers of the USAID they have nearly 2,000 experienced employees (USAID, 2013. Other proposals by liberals represented by the Green Party express international solidarity maintaining peace and security through a global green deal. This particular deal will concentrate finances on universal education, food, sanitation and purified water, health care, and family services for every person on Earth. This particular proposal â€Å"Fund Global Basic Human Needs† would gain funding by retiring the military from our economy and closing all overseas military bases In addition, eliminate the CIA, NSA, and all other covert Warfare in order to reallocate funding towards aid. Lastly, this platform would eliminate debt from poverty stricken countries thus creating emphasizing their egalitarian beliefs (GPP, 2000. ) Another foreign aid announced by President Barack Obama is the Global Health Initiative that would continue to develop from the pre-existing program by President Bush, President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. This continued improving program will expand to other countries instead of only Africa, it would encourage prevention, care, and treatment while strengthening government partnership and invest in research internationally to maximize outcomes (UNAIDS, 2009. In addition, they seek to reduce higher statistics of disease contraction and mortality of women and children while strengthening global health partnerships. Based upon the ideological spectrum of liberal beliefs, through their core value of rationalism they exhibit faith in human reason to solve complex problems that cause poverty in third world countries. By creating regulatio ns, education about health and finances, and encouraging progress towards mutual goals through the Global Partnership Act of 2012, liberals believe that underprivileged countries will progressively develop towards sustainability based upon human rationale. As an egalitarian belief, liberals from the Green Party believe and promote human equality by their party platform of universal health care for every person on the planet which indicates equal treatment by means of education, health, and services. They promote internationalism by means of equal treatments towards other countries and foreign aid reform of the PEPFAR towards all countries instead of the countries within the African continent. Moreover, liberals seek change as soon as possible which led to the speedy approval of PEPFAR and Africa’s request for assistance in regards to immediate medical attention and assistance. Therefore, the liberals utilize the government as a strong feature to decide and guide towards our faith in solving socioeconomic problems internationally while attempting to cultivate foreign governments with their ideology. Lastly, they value their belief of individual liberties and encourage the development of foreign countries so that their citizens will be treated fairly and just by their government. When approaching foreign aid as a contemporary American conservative, they utilize the term foreign policy as opposed to aid as a reference of government action rather than a community decision. They seem to favor foreign policy by means of military and health care; however, the primary goal is to develop relationships with foreign countries to prevent conflicts. Although they discuss creating trade agreements and forming partnerships, they seem to be strategizing in terms of security and protection for America. In regards to funding, conservatives don’t seem to favor the idea of increasing tax spending towards foreign aid and seek to reform due to their subjective views on failed results. Therefore, they view investment towards a flawed foreign policy will lead to more spending in military forces to protect America from unstable countries. Moreover, I feel that conservatives have a strong belief in nationalism and would want to share this system by encouraging other undeveloped countries to conform to our system. As a conservative perspective towards foreign aid, our government allocates tax payers funding towards the Millennium Challenge Corporation or MCC which would utilize a procedural form of selecting certain countries by means of performance while being evaluated by a board and executed by 300 employees (MCC, 2013. The criteria would be based upon whether or not they can compete with other countries in regards to Gross National Income of low or middle class sustaining, improving their quality and performance as a country, or graduating with a year If there are no signs of improvement or potential, they would not be eligible for the next year and be left to thei r own elements. The form of criteria emphasizes a value of elitism on the competitive national level. Basically, if a certain country is not deemed successful due to lack of intellect, strength of its citizens, or ability to overcome poverty then we decline assistance. In another perspective, we can view our system of criteria and success based on the survival of the fittest which is a value of inequality. In addition, the goals of the MCC are to leave the responsibility of the foreign government to facilitate their own success towards growth in health and agriculture, create partnerships, and property rights (MCC 2013. ) We basically leave their government in the faith of the invisible hand to guide their success rather than micro managing their success by means of government. Lastly we encourage property and individual right through the investment policy to reduce poverty. As discussed by James Roberts a researcher for International Trade and Economics, â€Å"MCC's selectivity and associated seal of approval creates powerful incentives for developing countries to uphold democratic and free-market principles, invest responsibly in their citizens, and transition their economies from developing to emerging markets† (Roberts, 2013. ) He encourages a core value of faith in non-human institutions by means of a free market rather than government controlled. In addition, the MCC encourages national accountability towards developing democratic reform and trade policies thus validating their values within nationalism. In a recent proposed foreign aid budget, Josh Riggin reports, â€Å"The long-term budget announced on Tuesday by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan would cut the budget for international affairs and foreign assistance by 29 percent in 2012 and 44 percent by 2016 while increasing the defense budget by 14 percent over the same timeframe† (Rogin, 2011. Basically, he would be increasing the current spending bill on defense of 22 billion to 583 billion for national defense and security while decreasing national affairs from 37 billion to 22 billion. This validates the characteristic of the need to increase spending on defense or authority and stability with conservatives. Moreover, the decrease in foreign aid would be left at the hands of faith in non-human institutions. In a report by U. S. World News, Evan Moore and Patrick Christy claim â€Å"Aid is hard power. It is a weapon the United States uses to strengthen allies [and partners] and, thus, ourselves. (Moore & Christy, 2013. ) In this statement, they value a sense of authority, stability, and order in regards to security with military. However, due to sequestration to cut foreign aid, conservatives believe that it will avoid assistance towards promoting national security and create instability in weak states as well as on a global level. Basically, foreign aid directed towards developing a country will hinder strategic investment with allies in military which is the primary goal. As a statement towards nationalism, Gary Connor publisher of Palestine. Herald-Press, he claims that the U. S spends billions of tax payers’ money every year on foreign aid while we continue to be underfunded on a national level primarily with disaster relief, education, and border security (Connor, 2013. ) His conservative belief opposes internationalism while focusing on America as the priority versus developing countries that may not be contributing to our society. In addition, he emphasizes a sense of elitism in the aspect of the funding that was gained by tax payers should be used towards the tax payers despite the harsh reality underdeveloped countries. As a primary characteristic of a conservative, their primary worries in regards to the foreign aid policy are the unintended consequences. As reported by Thomas Eddlem contributor to The New American publication, â€Å"US foreign aid programs often funded autocratic regimes that have committed human rights abuses and stand against democratic principles† (Eddlem, 2013. ) In other words, American funding towards foreign aid has become the financing for their government to oppress and control opposing voices. Another report claims American aid to Egypt purchases in the last 30 years towards their regime that performs torture and brutality. The challenge to foreign aid is whether or not we have implemented proper authorities to ensure foreign aid given by America’s tax payers are being utilized effectively. Due to the conservatives lack of confidence in the government’s ability to create progressive results using the tax payers money, conservatives state that â€Å"Billions of American dollars from faith-based and other charitable, academic, and humanitarian groups go to the needy overseas every year and have far better results than government ODA† (Roberts, 2013. Although conservatives may seem reluctant to push towards foreign aid, their support through religious charity groups emphasizes a faith in non-human institutions. Contemporary American moderates would approach foreign aid in a collaborative value between conservatives and liberals; however, they would primarily compromise their beliefs to coincide with the current status quo. They would probably continue keep a balance of spending to aid foreign countries by means of finances and health assistance, but to primarily remain conscious as to prevent from leaning towards focus on the government for all assistance and seeking private donations as well. In addition, they would probably continue the traditional USAID form of foreign aid and balance with the new updated approach of the MCC or to combine both of these programs. In recent alternative propositions by the Foreign Service Despatches and Periodic Reports on U. S. Foreign Policy by Dobransky, he considers multiple alternatives in the views of moderates. The first policy would be to maintain U. S. foreign aid by continuing to utilize USAID and the recent version MCC. In the perspective of Americans, both forms of aid have been approved and criticized openly by multiple parties; however, they are both still being utilized and approved by congress as the usual form of application (Dobransky, 2011. The second alternative would be to merge both programs of the USAID and MCC which would primarily cause shared mass information to the public and be able to whittle down flaws and target areas of success to increase efficacy. Moreover, there would be one organization as opposed to two leading groups that oppose each other’s’ views despite a common goal. A proposition brought on by the Green Party that would encourage a global deal to fund tow ards education, food, and other basic needs to every human on this planet by means of American tax payers. Sounds like a truly selfless proposal; however, the majority of Americans would not want to place all resources and hard earned money to the rest of the world. This would probably exhaust America’s budget and would be impossible to ensure that every single person is receiving the same exact treatment. In addition, America would not want to sacrifice closing overseas military bases which would place our country in a higher and much vulnerable state due to weak security. When evaluating the MCC policy, they emphasize a rich value in elitism by means of leaving these countries to their own device. If we are investing in these particular countries by means of our tax payer’s money, we would want to see positive results by means of guidance and American political perspective to decrease poverty and social ills rather than finance countries then leave them to figure out how to succeed. In addition, with the amount billions of dollars spent to aid other countries we can afford to increase representatives of the limited 300 employees of MCC in order to properly work side by side with invested countries. Politicians in America use Foreign Aid as a weapon to achieve what they want from other countries, but they do not really see the real problems that this help causes in poor countries, or at least they act as they do not see it. For example Foreign Aid causes major corruption and even more poverty. The governments in poor countries do not really care about the people and they are not design like the government in the United States. If we follow the history of Foreign Aid, we can see that every time we help a country, we always end up fighting that country at one point or another. Foreign Aid should be limited and the US should hold the countries that received aid accountable for how they use it. Millions of dollars are lost in fraudulent contracts and misuse by the receiving governments, we do not have a saying in how these governments can use our hard earn money. For the US government to continue having the approval of the people in foreign aid help, it needs to fix the requirements for who qualifies to receive foreign aid, and also when to use foreign aid as a tool for foreign policy.