Definition Rewrite – chickennugget246

Posted on March 6, 2023 by chickennugget246

Seat Belts Can Kill

A healthy 49-year-old man instantly died in a car accident. The cause of death was from a seat belt. He suffered deadly compressions where the seat belt injured his neck, chest, and torso. In addition, abrasions and lacerations were found from his upper left shoulder to the front, right side of his body. There were also hematomas of clotted blood found around the muscles of his throat and larynx. According to Fares Najari from “An Immediate Death by Seat Belt Compression; A Forensic Medicine Report – PMC,” the cause of death was the “compression of neck critical elements such as carotid sinus by a three-point safety belt.” A seat belt can indeed be a dangerous piece of equipment used by a driver in an automobile and it can even threaten one’s human life. In “Seat Belt Statistics,” it has been reported that, “in approximately 37,133 cases in 2017 who died in car accidents, 17,452 people were not wearing a seatbelt and 19,681 were wearing a seatbelt.” This clearly shows that more than half of the people died from car accidents while wearing a seat belt compared to people who were not wearing a seat belt. We would assume that wearing a seat belt would save a life or reduce suffering an injury, but actually this is incorrect. Wearing a seat belt causes death and severe injury to an individual. Seat belts must not be that effective after all. In fact, wearing a seat belt increases the likelihood of suffering a severe seat belt injury. We cannot be injured by a seat belt if we are not wearing one. Eliminating the seat belt would produce a more alert driver who could have avoided this accident and saved his life. 

Such seat belt injuries can be seen as abrasions, bruises and cuts. The tremendous force of the seat belt is so incredibly strong, that it will cause more severe injuries to the one wearing it. So, eliminating the seat belt, eliminates this trauma. According to “Seat belt syndrome: Delayed or missed intestinal injuries, a case report and review of literature,” “the use of seat belts is associated with a unique injury profile collectively termed the seat belt syndrome.” This is one of the most severe types of seat belt injury, which occurs when the seat belt restricts the body of the passenger during a collision, causing damage to the internal organs. Even though the seat belt is carefully designed to restrain the upper body of the driver to prevent injury in the event of an accident, the force of that very same seat belt would injure the chest area of the individual. According to “Seat Belt Injuries,” in addition to this area, the most common internal organs affected by wearing a seat belt are the spleen, liver, and bowel. It is possible for a seat belt to tear the colon or diaphragm and even fracture or dislocate the lumbar vertebrae. This type of spinal cord injury would cause the spine to compress causing paralysis or even death. Wearing a seat belt in an automobile, being the driver or a passenger, is potentially harmful. Instead, eliminating the culprit would empower the driver to have the presence, confidence, and diligence to operate the vehicle more safely and cautiously.

An equally important piece of information is that the seat belt could actually prevent the passenger from escaping harm. For instance, if an impact is on the driver’s side of the vehicle, the seat belt could prevent the driver from moving to the passenger side of the vehicle. This could cause the driver to be harmed since the body of the driver would be locked into position on the driver’s side. Why take the chance of putting on a seat belt willingly, when knowingly it could potentially harm you?

Taking control in one’s vehicle, understanding the machine you are in, controlling the vehicle, understanding your environment, and being confident and conscious in your surroundings, are all factors that contribute to the safety on any road or highway. According to “Car Safety Physics – Limitations vs Benefits,” “seat belt use tends to increase risk-taking in drivers. This could lead to an increase in more severe accidents, which, in turn, reduces or mitigates the effectiveness of seat belts.” Therefore, safety in a vehicle is primarily determined by the state of mind by its drivers, not by the type of equipment used in the motor vehicle. Considering a driver of a motorcycle, the motorcyclist does not have any equipment of vehicle safety. There are no seat belts, padding, doors, windows, steel, or any installed air bags. However, notice how cautious and precise they are as they use the proper hand signals while operating the motorcycle. In addition, the driver of the motorcycle must use defensive driving techniques while operating a motorcycle. In the same way, the driver of an automobile should be expected to respect the road, without a seat belt, in order to save lives from deadly seat belt injuries. 

In summary, seat belts are supposed to be designed to protect passengers, not significantly harm or cause the death of a motor vehicle driver. Eliminating seat belts from automobiles would reduce the number of auto accidents by producing drivers that would be more cautious behind the wheel. Putting the operator of a vehicle in control would promote a safer, more determined driver, and in turn, save lives.

References

Al-Ozaibi, L., Adnan, J., Hassan, B., Al-Mazroui, A., Al-Badri, F. (2016). “Seat belt syndrome: Delayed or missed intestinal injuries, a case report and review of literature.” International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. Volume 20. Pages 74-76.

Huecker, MR, Chapman, J. (2022, September 9). “Seat Belt Injuries.” 

Najari, F. (2015, October). “An Immediate Death by Seat Belt Compression; A Forensic Medicine Report – PMC.” National Library of Medicine. Retrieved March 6, 2023.

“Seat Belt Statistics.” The Zebra. (2023, January 31).

Vigodski, V. “Car Safety Physics – Limitations vs Benefits.” Weebly. 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.

Posted in ChickenNugget, Definition Rewrite, Portfolio ChickenNugget | 11 Comments

Definition Rewrite- GoodMusician440

Posted on March 6, 2023 by goodmusician440

Music is a very wonderful thing. It is a universal language that is part of everybody’s lives. People listen to music every single day, and they use it for various things such as performing with instruments or singing or even just listening to it while doing activities such as reading or studying. Places such as stores, sports stadiums, and restaurants also use music for the customers. Music is everywhere. A lot of people love to listen to music. On the contrary, there are some people who don’t really care to listen to that much music. They just don’t enjoy music as much as other people might enjoy. For those who don’t listen to music that much, it may sound kind of counterintuitive, but in a way, it is actually harmful not to listen to that much music.

Here is the thing. A lot of times when we listen to music such as classical, jazz, or even country to an extent, us as humans tend to get that feeling of feeling calm or relaxed, and that is totally normal. That is what must happen! As humans, we have a lot of stress hormones, and as college students, we have a lot of stresses happening such as classes, tests, food, finances, and other things. As a result, these stress hormones are constantly active. By listening to calming music, these stress hormones can actually be calmed simply by listening to calming music. Don’t use music like heavy metal because that can raise up stress hormones by a lot due to its aggressive and hyper nature. By calming the stress hormones, you actually lower blood pressure at the same time because blood correlates with stress. For those with high blood pressure, this is a really good tool to use to lower blood pressure. This is also a good way to avoid heart problems.

Music can also reduce and treat anxiety and depression. When people have anxiety and depression, there is usually a lot of stress built up in their lives that they have to get over. Again, we learned that music can help calm and reduce stress hormones. As a result, music can help people be calm and stop thinking lots of negative thoughts. Most of the music has to be calming or slower music. This is because you don’t want the music to be too uplifting or too aggressive or too fast. You also want that is easier to relate to. Music such as classical and country should be just fine for that.

In addition, music is known for helping people sleep. According to some studies, there were some students who listened to classical music for 45 minutes before they slept, and they reported sleeping really well and waking up way fewer times throughout the night than before. This is also correlated with reducing stress and anxiety. By using music to help sleep better, it can help our bodies rest better and actually regain healthiness overnight. Rest is very important for the body because it can actually help the body recharge itself and the mind so that way, we can be more productive throughout the day as well as actually being safer.  

As I said before, music can also help us be very productive. Many people like to listen to different music while doing their day to day things. Some either like classical, jazz, pop, heavy metal, and others. Coming from a musician myself, I personally like classical and jazz music. The reason why is that I find them really relatable for me because I really like the complex chord progressions and the harmony of the music, but at the same time, the instrumentation is really nice and the dynamics and the music overall sound really pleasant to the ear. Not everyone may like that. Some people might prefer the aggressive sound of heavy metal or simpler stuff like pop or country. 

Music can also help us with our mood and emotions. When we do every day things, we can feel certain kind of ways, mostly happy. This is because when we do the things we love, there is a chemical called dopamine that is released to the brian, and it brings pleasure. When we listen to music, it provides different kinds of levels of dopamine into the brain because of the different genres and moods or feel of the music. The faster and more aggressive the song, the more dopamine there will be, and if there are songs that are a little bit more on the slower side, then there will be less dopamine released. Either way, people will feel tons of different emotions from music. 

Now, there are a couple of big reasons why there are some people who don’t really listen to music all that much, and they do exist in the world. One is that one person might have something called “music anheodina.” It basically means that people don’t really get any drive or pleasure from music. That is a neurological disorder. The other thing is that when we are young, sometimes we are exposed to a certain kind of music often, or even multiple kinds of music, and sometimes, that will dictate what kind of music we are interested in. Sometimes, people might not even be exposed to a lot or even any music, and as a result, they just don’t feel like listening to music all that much like other people do.

Overall, people should definitely listen to more music. Not just because music is really cool and that it is fun and that you all will enjoy it, but also because music is actually really good for you. It can help lower blood pressure and decrease your anxiety and depression levels, and it can even help you sleep. Your moods and emotions will definitely be affected in a positive way by music, and you can even be productive with music. Music is a universal language, and it needs to be used often from every single person.

Posted in Definition Rewrite, GoodMusician, Portfolio GoodMusician, Portfolio SP23 | 2 Comments

Definition – chickennugget246

Posted on March 6, 2023 by chickennugget246

Seat Belts Can Kill

It was a 49-year-old man, seemingly healthy without any underlying disease, who instantly died in an accident due to wearing a seat belt. The individual suffered deadly compressions found around the neck. After medical reviews, multiple bruises were found visible on the left side of this man’s neck, where the seat belt would have been placed while driving. In addition to this injury, there was even more damage found on the torso of the deceased, where abrasions and lacerations started from the upper left shoulder region and traveled diagonally to the front, right side of this individual’s body. In addition to these injuries, hematomas or pools of clotted blood, were also found around the muscles of the left side of the throat and larynx of this victim. The cause of death in this incident was the “compression of neck critical elements such as carotid sinus by a three-point safety belt.” The seat belt worn by the driver was determined to be a vital factor in causing the above injuries to the deceased. Therefore and consequently, a seat belt can indeed be a dangerous piece of equipment used by a driver in an automobile and it can even threaten one’s human life. Eliminating the seat belt, causing a more aware, alert driver, could have avoided this accident and ultimately saved a life. On the other hand, if we keep wearing a seat belt, we will continue to rely too heavily on it, and never improve our ability to be fully alert on the road. 

Such seat belt injuries can occur in many ways and the most common are abrasions, bruises, and cuts. The tremendous force of the seat belt could be so incredibly strong, that it could even cause more severe injuries to the one wearing it. So, eliminating the seat belt could avoid this trauma altogether. Also, fractures on the internal body structure of the vertebrae, soft tissue injury, small bowel perforation, and even the rupture of internal organs, are possible results of safety belt trauma. Some accident-related injuries, while wearing a seat belt, are commonly called “seatbelt syndrome.” This is one of the most severe types of seat belt injury, and it only occurs when the seat belt restricts the body of the one wearing the belt, during a collision, causing damage to any of the internal organs. The fibers in a seat belt can also cause harm to the chest and abdominal areas. Even though the seat belt is carefully designed to restrain the upper body of the driver and help to prevent injury in the event of an accident, the force of that very same seat belt could actually injure the chest area of the individual. In addition to this area, the most common internal organs that could potentially be affected by wearing a seat belt could be the spleen, liver, and bowel. A seat belt could, in a vehicular accident, tear the colon or diaphragm and in some cases could even harm the lumbar vertebrae and could even fracture or dislocate such vertebrae. This type of seat belt injury, a spinal cord injury, could occur when the force of the seat belt actually causes the spine to compress or even fracture. Subsequently, these injuries could cause paralysis or even death. The severity of wearing a seat belt here could actually be deadly. In addition, seat belt injuries could affect the rib cage also in the chest area. The force of the seat belt here could cause rib fractures or damage to the chest wall of the individual wearing the seat belt in the vehicle during a crash or accident. Such injuries could be extremely painful and even result in one experiencing breathing difficulties. Seat belts are supposed to be designed to protect passengers, however, in some situations and in some accidents, these devices can significantly harm, or even cause the death of a motor vehicle driver. In addition, a seat belt that is supposed to restrain a driver in a vehicle, in the case of a severe accident, could also apply such force to the driver that it could cause whiplash, neck sprains, or other neck injuries. Additional injuries from wearing a seat belt could be shoulder injuries due to the force of the seat belt across the shoulder, causing injury to the shoulder or even dislocation of a shoulder. The force of the seat belt could even cause facial injury, such as bruising or even fractures in one’s face. Also, some seat belt injuries could even cause burns on the driver, especially if the seat belt is made of material that is easily flammable in the event of a fire. Again, wearing a seat belt in an automobile, being the driver or a passenger, could be quite harmful. Instead, eliminate the culprit and empower the driver to have the presence, confidence, and diligence to operate the vehicle safely and cautiously. 

Equally important, since the nature and location of impact in a motor vehicle cannot always be forecasted in any given accident, the seat belt could actually prevent the passenger from escaping harm. For instance, if an impact is on the driver’s side of the vehicle, the seat belt could actually prevent the driver from being able to move to the passenger side of the vehicle, causing the driver to be harmed since the body of the driver will be locked into position on the driver side. In the same way, knowing the fact that a seat belt could indeed cause injury to a driver or passenger in a motor vehicle during an unforeseen accident or even an accident waiting to happen, it would be safer if a vehicle would have this piece of equipment removed. Why take the chance of putting on a seat belt willingly, when knowingly it could potentially severely harm you? Taking control in one’s vehicle, understanding the machine you are in, controlling the vehicle, understanding your environment, and being confident and conscious in your surroundings, are all factors that contribute to the safety on any road or highway. “Seat belt use tends to increase risk-taking in drivers. This could lead to an increase in more severe accidents, which, in turn, reduces or mitigates the effectiveness of seat belts.” Therefore, safety in a vehicle is primarily determined by the state of mind by its drivers, not by the type of equipment used in the motor vehicle. The mental state and assurance of the operator of the vehicle is essential in safety precautions. Considering a driver of a motorcycle, the motorcyclist does not have any equipment of vehicle safety. There are no seat belts, padding, doors, windows, steel, or any installed air bags. However, notice how cautious, careful the motorcyclist must be, how precise and exact and careful they are while utilizing proper hand signals while operating the motorcycle. In addition, how defensive the driver of the motorcycle must be in their driving techniques while operating a motorcycle. In the same way, the driver of an automobile should be expected to respect the road, without a seat belt, in order to save these lives from deadly seat belt injuries. 

In summary, eliminating seat belts from automobiles would reduce the number of auto accidents since drivers would become more cautious behind the wheel. Putting the operator of a motor vehicle in the state of mind that they are in control, alert, and aware since no device will be accessible, will promote a safer, more determined driver, and in turn, save lives.

References

“An Immediate Death by Seat Belt Compression; a Forensic Medicine Report – PMC.” National Library of Medicine. 2015. 6 March 2023.

“Limitations vs Benefits – Car Safety- Physics.” Weebly. 2023. 6 March 2023.

Posted in ChickenNugget, Definition, Portfolio ChickenNugget | Leave a comment

Definition-GoodMusician440

Posted on March 6, 2023 by goodmusician440

Music is a very wonderful thing. It is a universal language that is part of everybody’s lives. People listen to music every single day, and they use it for various things such as performing with instruments or singing or even just listening to it while doing activities such as reading or studying. Places such as stores, sports stadiums, and restaurants also use music for the customers. Music is everywhere. A lot of people love to listen to music. On the contrary, there are some people who don’t really care to listen to that much music. They just don’t enjoy music as much as other people might enjoy. For those who don’t listen to music that much, it may sound kind of counterintuitive, but in a way, it is actually harmful not to listen to that much music.

Here is the thing. A lot of times when we listen to music such as classical, jazz, or even country to an extent, us as humans tend to get that feeling of feeling calm or relaxed, and that is totally normal. That is what must happen! As humans, we have a lot of stress hormones, and as college students, we have a lot of stresses happening such as classes, tests, food, finances, and other things. As a result, these stress hormones are constantly active. By listening to calming music, these stress hormones can actually be calmed simply by listening to calming music. Don’t use music like heavy metal because that can raise up stress hormones by a lot due to its aggressive and hyper nature. By calming the stress hormones, you actually lower blood pressure at the same time because blood correlates with stress. For those with high blood pressure, this is a really good tool to use to lower blood pressure. This is also a good way to avoid heart problems.

Music can also reduce and treat anxiety and depression. When people have anxiety and depression, there is usually a lot of stress built up in their lives that they have to get over. Again, we learned that music can help calm and reduce stress hormones. As a result, music can help people be calm and stop thinking lots of negative thoughts. Most of the music has to be calming or slower music. This is because you don’t want the music to be too uplifting or too aggressive or too fast. You also want that is easier to relate to. Music such as classical and country should be just fine for that.

In addition, music is known for helping people sleep. According to some studies, there were some students who listened to classical music for 45 minutes before they slept, and they reported sleeping really well and waking up way fewer times throughout the night than before. This is also correlated with reducing stress and anxiety. By using music to help sleep better, it can help our bodies rest better and actually regain healthiness overnight. Rest is very important for the body because it can actually help the body recharge itself and the mind so that way, we can be more productive throughout the day as well as actually being safer.  

As I said before, music can also help us be very productive. Many people like to listen to different music while doing their day to day things. Some either like classical, jazz, pop, heavy metal, and others. Coming from a musician myself, I personally like classical and jazz music. The reason why is that I find them really relatable for me because I really like the complex chord progressions and the harmony of the music, but at the same time, the instrumentation is really nice and the dynamics and the music overall sound really pleasant to the ear. Not everyone may like that. Some people might prefer the aggressive sound of heavy metal or simpler stuff like pop or country. 

Music can also help us with our mood and emotions. When we do every day things, we can feel certain kind of ways, mostly happy. This is because when we do the things we love, there is a chemical called dopamine that is released to the brian, and it brings pleasure. When we listen to music, it provides different kinds of levels of dopamine into the brain because of the different genres and moods or feel of the music. The faster and more aggressive the song, the more dopamine there will be, and if there are songs that are a little bit more on the slower side, then there will be less dopamine released. Either way, people will feel tons of different emotions from music. 

Now, there are a couple of big reasons why there are some people who don’t really listen to music all that much, and they do exist in the world. One is that one person might have something called “music anheodina.” It basically means that people don’t really get any drive or pleasure from music. That is a neurological disorder. The other thing is that when we are young, sometimes we are exposed to a certain kind of music often, or even multiple kinds of music, and sometimes, that will dictate what kind of music we are interested in. Sometimes, people might not even be exposed to a lot or even any music, and as a result, they just don’t feel like listening to music all that much like other people do.

Overall, people should definitely listen to more music. Not just because music is really cool and that it is fun and that you all will enjoy it, but also because music is actually really good for you. It can help lower blood pressure and decrease your anxiety and depression levels, and it can even help you sleep. Your moods and emotions will definitely be affected in a positive way by music, and you can even be productive with music. Music is a universal language, and it needs to be used often from every single person.

Posted in Definition, GoodMusician, Portfolio GoodMusician, Portfolio SP23 | 1 Comment

Definition Rewrite- Doglover846

Posted on March 6, 2023 by doglover846

Zoos Can Help Prevent Endangered Animals From Going Extinct

Throughout the years the world has been struggling to keep endangered animals from going extinct. We as a community have tried multiple ways to prevent species from going nonexistent. Examples being, protecting the wildlife habitat, nature reserves, and lastly research and knowledge. One of the best ways of keeping this from happening are zoos and nature reserves. Many people have different opinions on zoos and aquariums, however, in Aza Staff’s article, How Zoos and Aquariums Protect Endangered Species states that they, “provide safe habitats, medical care, and a nurturing environment for their animals.” (AZA Staff para 2). Zoos, aquariums and nature reserves help increase the population of different species and protect endangered animals through different research, funding, translocations, conservation areas and breeding. 

As we know the wildlife population has been substantially decreasing day after day. The declining number of species is putting the world into a biodiversity crisis. In spite of that, conservation translocations could help reverse this situation by rehabilitating small populations or allowing new ones to start. Conservation translocation intentionally moves and releases plants, animals, or fungi into the wild in order to save them from extinction. One of the most well known attempts of conservation translocation is Richard Henry’s attempt to save flightless birds back in 1895. He did this by relocating these birds from New Zealand’s mainland to a predator-free Resolution Island in the Fiordland area. Even though his attempt failed, his effort to save the birds led to countless numbers of conservation translocation throughout the world. However, these practices weren’t popular until the 1970’s and 80’s. That is when the amount of conservation translocations started to increase and gained the reintroduction of eminent species. Many zoological organizations have evolved conservation management. This causes them to strengthen and broaden their activities, increasing the result of wildlife population restrictions. With that being said, “species are becoming ‘conservation reliant’ each requiring a variety of conservation approaches for their continued survival,” according to Tania Gilbert and Pritpal Soorae in The Role of Zoos and Aquariums in Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations. 

Zoos have different strategies to prevent extinction of species who aren’t capable of surviving in their own habitats. A strategy that is popular is captive breeding, where animals are being bred outside of their natural habitat in restricted areas such as farms, zoos, and aquariums. The goal of captive breeding is to grow the population enough to the point where it can be controlled and become stable or where the species is healthy. With this, in Saving Endangered Species: A Case Study Using Global Amphibian Declines Emily Croteau makes a claim: “These objectives ensure that populations will exhibit a healthy age structure, resistance to disease, consistent reproduction, and preservation of the gene pool to minimize and/or avoid problems associated with inbreeding.” An example of a successful breeding in captivity would be the black-footed ferret and the California condor. They were species that were near extinction and with captive breeding were able to increase their population. On the other hand, captive breeding can lead to inbreeding. Causes of inbreeding are lower reproduction and growth rates, higher mortality rates and frequency of hereditary abnormalities. To contradict that from happening, zoos try to prevent this by relying on explicit pedigrees to sustain genetic diversity long term. With captive breeding most of the animals aren’t able to return back to the natural environment, however it isn’t impossible. In some cases animals are strong enough to return back into the wild and live their life as they would if they had never left. 

Not only does captive breeding help grow the species population, there are a lot of benefits that come with it. For instance, it can help educate the people about the different animals and their habitats which can create funds for research and shelters. Education and public awareness is important to helping endangered animals because we can learn how to rescue them and raise money towards funds so more research can be done. Zoos and aquariums are major benefits when it comes to raising public awareness by allowing younger individuals to learn and become interested and appreciate wildlife. Most zoos and aquariums contain information about each species, stating where their habitats are, what they eat, how long they live for and different facts about them. Having this information on display gives the people knowledge on their local environments or environments around the world. This can help citizens to acknowledge the fact that they need to protect and clean the environment around them so the animals can live in safer areas. This then can prevent the animal’s population from decreasing. 

In the end, it is going to be a hard and long process for endangered animals to reach a point where their populations will be strong enough to repopulate on their own. There will also be challenges to overcome as well, examples being, “habitat loss, over-exploitation, the impact of invasive species and climate change” (Gilbert, Soorae). However, zoos, aquariums and nature reserves have an enormous role in helping this come true through protected areas, translocations, captive breeding and public awareness. Everyday conservationists are adapting to new changes and challenges, but they can’t do it by themselves. They need exposure and help from the human population. And zoos and aquariums are the best way to get public awareness. Regardless of the incline of endangered species, the slope would be tremendously steeper without the help of zoos and nature reserves. Ultimately, By various forms of study, funding, translocation, conservation areas, and breeding, zoos, aquariums, and nature reserves contribute to the growth of various species and the protection of creatures in risk of extinction.

References

Gilbert, T., & Soorae, P. S. (n.d.). Editorial: The role of zoos and aquariums in … – wiley online library. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/izy.12164

Staff, A. (n.d.). How zoos and aquariums protect endangered species. Association of Zoos & Aquariums. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://www.aza.org/connect-stories/stories/how-do-zoos-help-animals?locale=en 

Croteau, E., & Mott, C. L. (2011). Saving Endangered Species: A Case Study Using Global Amphibian Declines | Learn Science at Scitable. Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/saving-endangered-species-a-case-study-using-19445898/

Posted in Definition Rewrite, DogLover | 3 Comments

Definition- Doglover846

Posted on March 6, 2023 by doglover846

Throughout the years the world has been struggling to keep endangered animals from going extinct. We as a community have tried multiple ways to prevent species from going nonexistent. Examples being, protecting the wildlife habitat, nature reserves, and lastly research and knowledge. One of the best ways of keeping this from happening are zoos and nature reserves. Many people have different opinions on zoos and aquariums, however, in Aza Staff’s article, How Zoos and Aquariums Protect Endangered Species states that they, “provide safe habitats, medical care, and a nurturing environment for their animals.” (AZA Staff para 2). Zoos, aquariums and nature reserves help increase the population of different species and protect endangered animals through different research, funding, translocations, conservation areas and breeding. 

As we know the wildlife population has been substantially decreasing day after day. The declining number of species is putting the world into a biodiversity crisis. In spite of that, conservation translocations could help reverse this situation by rehabilitating small populations or allowing new ones to start. Conservation translocation intentionally moves and releases plants, animals, or fungi into the wild in order to save them from extinction. One of the most well known attempts of conservation translocation is Richard Henry’s attempt to save flightless birds back in 1895. He did this by relocating these birds from New Zealand’s mainland to a predator-free Resolution Island in the Fiordland area. Even though his attempt failed, his effort to save the birds led to countless numbers of conservation translocation throughout the world. However, these practices weren’t popular until the 1970’s and 80’s. That is when the amount of conservation translocations started to increase and gained the reintroduction of eminent species. Many zoological organizations have evolved conservation management. This causes them to strengthen and broaden their activities, increasing the result of wildlife population restrictions. With that being said, “species are becoming ‘conservation reliant’ each requiring a variety of conservation approaches for their continued survival,” according to Tania Gilbert and Pritpal Soorae in The Role of Zoos and Aquariums in Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations. 

Zoos have different strategies to prevent extinction of species who aren’t capable of surviving in their own habitats. A strategy that is popular is captive breeding, where animals are being bred outside of their natural habitat in restricted areas such as farms, zoos, and aquariums. The goal of captive breeding is to grow the population enough to the point where it can be controlled and become stable or where the species is healthy. With this, in Saving Endangered Species: A Case Study Using Global Amphibian Declines Emily Croteau makes a claim: “These objectives ensure that populations will exhibit a healthy age structure, resistance to disease, consistent reproduction, and preservation of the gene pool to minimize and/or avoid problems associated with inbreeding.” An example of a successful breeding in captivity would be the black-footed ferret and the California condor. They were species that were near extinction and with captive breeding were able to increase their population. On the other hand, captive breeding can lead to inbreeding. Causes of inbreeding are lower reproduction and growth rates, higher mortality rates and frequency of hereditary abnormalities. To contradict that from happening, zoos try to prevent this by relying on explicit pedigrees to sustain genetic diversity long term. With captive breeding most of the animals aren’t able to return back to the natural environment, however it isn’t impossible. In some cases animals are strong enough to return back into the wild and live their life as they would if they had never left. 

Not only does captive breeding help grow the species population, there are a lot of benefits that come with it. For instance, it can help educate the people about the different animals and their habitats which can create funds for research and shelters. Education and public awareness is important to helping endangered animals because we can learn how to rescue them and raise money towards funds so more research can be done. Zoos and aquariums are major benefits when it comes to raising public awareness by allowing younger individuals to learn and become interested and appreciate wildlife. Most zoos and aquariums contain information about each species, stating where their habitats are, what they eat, how long they live for and different facts about them. Having this information on display gives the people knowledge on their local environments or environments around the world. This can help citizens to acknowledge the fact that they need to protect and clean the environment around them so the animals can live in safer areas. This then can prevent the animal’s population from decreasing. 

In the end, it is going to be a hard and long process for endangered animals to reach a point where their populations will be strong enough to repopulate on their own. There will also be challenges to overcome as well, examples being, “habitat loss, over-exploitation, the impact of invasive species and climate change” (Gilbert, Soorae). However, zoos, aquariums and nature reserves have an enormous role in helping this come true through protected areas, translocations, captive breeding and public awareness. Everyday conservationists are adapting to new changes and challenges, but they can’t do it by themselves. They need exposure and help from the human population. And zoos and aquariums are the best way to get public awareness. Regardless of the incline of endangered species, the slope would be tremendously steeper without the help of zoos and nature reserves. Ultimately, By various forms of study, funding, translocation, conservation areas, and breeding, zoos, aquariums, and nature reserves contribute to the growth of various species and the protection of creatures in risk of extinction.

References:

Gilbert, T., & Soorae, P. S. (n.d.). Editorial: The role of zoos and aquariums in … – wiley online library. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/izy.12164

Staff, A. (n.d.). How zoos and aquariums protect endangered species. Association of Zoos & Aquariums. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://www.aza.org/connect-stories/stories/how-do-zoos-help-animals?locale=en 

Croteau, E., & Mott, C. L. (2011). Saving Endangered Species: A Case Study Using Global Amphibian Declines | Learn Science at Scitable. Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/saving-endangered-species-a-case-study-using-19445898/

Posted in Definition, DogLover, Non-Portfolio Tasks | 1 Comment

Definition Rewrite – Water

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Water

Facial Recognition Does What Now !?

Ever watch a movie or show where robbers had pulled off one of the biggest heists in history and they’re on the run, then we get a transition to the command centre where the operation is taking place and the officers are on the computers scrambling/mashing the keyboard trying to pinpoint the locations of where they could be hiding out. They usually go through a “deep” scan using their state-of-the-art facial recognition software. We all know that for entertainment purposes, that would be too easy for the program to actually work. Or so we think, I strongly believe that even the latest up-to-date facial recognition software still fails to do the job it was assigned.

A facial recognition program aims to track or attain information about a person to keep track of minorities or groups for advertising, creating laws, or helping the police force. Facial recognition serves multiple purposes depending on the holder’s motives and who they work for. For something like this to fully function it has to have enormous amounts of data stored in its servers/database. The more data it has, the stronger the results come out, but for the data to be reliable it must have data from all aspects/categories that would describe a person. With these external data sets to achieve maximum results you have to include internal factors such as gender, sexuality, and race.

Programs rely on the data they are given but they don’t, they should add. The study conducted by Wenying Wu, Pavlos Patropapas, Zheng Yang, and Panagiotis Michalatos titled “Gender Classification and Bias Mitigation in Facial Recognition” was the testing of an existing database for gender classifications and facial recognition. The purpose of the testing was to determine whether facial recognition programs can determine these kinds of factors so that officials would not offend any of these minority groups’ other parties. The solution to this was to simply add more information to the data set such as adding more people of color and other groups that were represented poorly, they even had their own category for those of other genders, these included gender fluid people, non-binary and gender queer. To no surprise the results showed that the program with more information had sharper accuracy to what a person’s respected group would have them fall under.

Why is this a problem? The problem is that government forces rely on these kinds of programs and for it to be a liability at the same time is a thing that could endanger one’s life. Let’s say that a killer is on the loose and the FBI is using facial recognition to find the person, so they use the person’s picture to try to scan all over the city for anyone that resembles them. They find a match but then they come to the realization of them getting the wrong person, now they had not only ruined or scared someone but they had also misidentified a person who had nothing to do with the crime. Lack of data that goes into these servers are for the most part the same pictures, they rarely have diversity and when they are included it is by a small percent.

You would think an invention that could find you just by having your face on the database would protect you. When in reality it could do more harm than protect. Especially if you are someone of the lgbtq+ community where you are being misidentified or misgendered. An error like this can be an offence/insult to one respected group, that could start a revolt for gender equality or equal rights for one’s identity. it’s the little errors that could start an entire domino effect of people being treated like they are either inferior or looked at as trash.

Say we do add more information about every kind of person from different races, sexualities or gender, will this solve the lack of data? Perhaps, but this won’t stop other factors such as bias to a race or gender, there’s always that one person who thinks whatever they are is superior when compared to others. This is a big problem in facial recognition because one’s personal opinions could slip into programming if someone goes based on what they believe and not what’s right then they could contradict results when used.

Daniel C Wood’s article “Facial Recognition, Racial Recognition, and Clear and Present Issues With AI Bias” claims that “if society works together to work on race and equality then the steps towards AI bias could be changed”. The author opens up the topic of how apps such as Twitter reveal some form of bias towards race. In one case an African American was noticing that he and a coworker were getting their faces cropped out of the picture and when they took it to Twitter, they tried to talk their way out of it along with providing no evidence of there being no racial bias. A power company that runs twitter have these data sets and they allow these kinds of problems to occur and provide no response where they own up to their mistakes, and to also provide a solution that would satisfy both parties. some said the best route to take around facial/race bias would be to take better pictures where the lighting confuses these softwares when its time to record what the persons information may be. This would be a decent idea except for the fact that if the lighting is too bright then their true skin color would not be revealed, except it would be someone of a brighter tone. Can there truly be a solution to end AI bias or is it something that will always remain.

Programs that provide high expectations usually fail, to do what it’s meant to do, so we usually have to deal with it hoping that one day there would be a solution. With this conclusion, it only means that we have to deal with the conflicts of being misidentified or misgendered due to the lack of data feed in these programs’ databases making these programs less reliable by the second.

References

Wu W, Protopapas P, Yang Z, Michalatos P. | Gender Classification and Bias Mitigation in Facial Recognition | Published online July 06, 2020

Daniel C. Wood | Facial Recognition, Racial Recognition, and Clear and Present Issues With AI Bias Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law | May–June 2021, Vol. 4, No. 3

Posted in Author, Definition Rewrite, Portfolio SP23, Portfolio WaterDrop, Waterdrop | 5 Comments

Definition – Water

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Water

Ever watch a movie or show where robbers had pulled off one of the biggest heists in history and they’re on the run, then we get a transition to the command centre where the operation is taking place and the officers are on the computers scrambling/mashing the keyboard trying to pinpoint the locations of where they could be hiding out. They usually go through a “deep” scan using their state-of-the-art facial recognition software. We all know that for entertainment purposes, that would be too easy for the program to actually work. Or so we think, I strongly believe that even the latest up-to-date facial recognition software still fails to do the job it was assigned.

A facial recognition program aims to track or attain information about a person to keep track of minorities or groups for advertising, creating laws, or helping the police force. Facial recognition serves multiple purposes depending on the holder’s motives and who they work for. For something like this to fully function it has to have enormous amounts of data stored in its servers/database. The more data it has, the stronger the results come out, but for the data to be reliable it must have data from all aspects/categories that would describe a person. With these external data sets to achieve maximum results you have to include internal factors such as gender, sexuality, and race.

Programs rely on the data they are given but they don’t, they should add. The study conducted by Wenying Wu, Pavlos Patropapas, Zheng Yang, and Panagiotis Michalatos titled “Gender Classification and Bias Mitigation in Facial Recognition” was the testing of an existing database for gender classifications and facial recognition. The purpose of the testing was to determine whether facial recognition programs can determine these kinds of factors so that officials would not offend any of these minority groups’ other parties. The solution to this was to simply add more information to the data set such as adding more people of color and other groups that were represented poorly, they even had their own category for those of other genders, these included gender fluid people, non-binary and gender queer. To no surprise the results showed that the program with more information had sharper accuracy to what a person’s respected group would have them fall under.

Why is this a problem? The problem is that government forces rely on these kinds of programs and for it to be a liability at the same time is a thing that could endanger one’s life. Let’s say that a killer is on the loose and the FBI is using facial recognition to find the person, so they use the person’s picture to try to scan all over the city for anyone that resembles them. They find a match but then they come to the realization of them getting the wrong person, now they had not only ruined or scared someone but they had also misidentified a person who had nothing to do with the crime. Lack of data that goes into these servers are for the most part the same pictures, they rarely have diversity and when they are included it is by a small percent.

You would think an invention that could find you just by having your face on the database would protect you. When in reality it could do more harm than protect. Especially if you are someone of the lgbtq+ community where you are being misidentified or misgendered. An error like this can be an offence/insult to one respected group, that could start a revolt for gender equality or equal rights for one’s identity. it’s the little errors that could start an entire domino effect of people being treated like they are either inferior or looked at as trash.

Say we do add more information about every kind of person from different races, sexualities or gender, will this solve the lack of data? Perhaps, but this won’t stop other factors such as bias to a race or gender, there’s always that one person who thinks whatever they are is superior when compared to others. This is a big problem in facial recognition because one’s personal opinions could slip into programming if someone goes based on what they believe and not what’s right then they could contradict results when used.

Daniel C Wood’s article “Facial Recognition, Racial Recognition, and Clear and Present Issues With AI Bias” claims that “if society works together to work on race and equality then the steps towards AI bias could be changed”. The author opens up the topic of how apps such as Twitter reveal some form of bias towards race. In one case an African American was noticing that he and a coworker were getting their faces cropped out of the picture and when they took it to Twitter, they tried to talk their way out of it along with providing no evidence of there being no racial bias. A power company that runs twitter have these data sets and they allow these kinds of problems to occur and provide no response where they own up to their mistakes, and to also provide a solution that would satisfy both parties. some said the best route to take around facial/race bias would be to take better pictures where the lighting confuses these softwares when its time to record what the persons information may be. This would be a decent idea except for the fact that if the lighting is too bright then their true skin color would not be revealed, except it would be someone of a brighter tone. Can there truly be a solution to end AI bias or is it something that will always remain.

Programs that provide high expectations usually fail, to do what it’s meant to do, so we usually have to deal with it hoping that one day there would be a solution. With this conclusion, it only means that we have to deal with the conflicts of being misidentified or misgendered due to the lack of data feed in these programs’ databases making these programs less reliable by the second.

Reference

Wu W, Protopapas P, Yang Z, Michalatos P. | Gender Classification and Bias Mitigation in Facial Recognition | Published online July 06, 2020

Daniel C. Wood | Facial Recognition, Racial Recognition, and Clear and Present Issues With AI Bias Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law | May–June 2021, Vol. 4, No. 3

Posted in Author, Definition, Portfolio SP23, Portfolio WaterDrop, Waterdrop, You Forgot to Categorize! | Leave a comment

Definition Rewrite – Oatmealvibes

Posted on March 6, 2023 by oatmealvibes

Violent Video Games Do Not Equal Aggression and Violence

The negative effects on a child’s behavior due to violent video games have been an ongoing topic since video games have become more popular in the 20th and 21st centuries. Games such as Call of Duty, God of War, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill are some iconic video game franchises commonly talked about when it comes to the violence within those games. Many claims such as making kids aggressive or causing children to not care about other’s pain are hot topics when it comes to the discussion of how these games affect children. However, violence in video games doesn’t necessarily have a negative effect when it pertains to a child’s unfavorable behavior.

To start, violence usually stems from social and environmental factors with lower IQ being a prevalence in the frequency of violence. In the journal by David O. Carpenter called Environmental causes of violence, he states that “violence is clearly coupled with poverty, and physical abuse of children promotes later aggression.” The correlation here is that violence and hardship often put onto a child during their early developmental years leads to aggression and violent tendencies later in their life. The strength of early childhood relationships and an unstable neighborhood are also big risk factors when it comes to violent behavior. Low economic status leads to poor academic performance and a lack of positive family support which in turn leads to aggression and violence.

Carpenter references a study done by Kandel et al using Danish men as the subject and he claims, “A higher IQ was protective against risk for serious criminal behavior among Danish men who were at high risk of such criminal behavior.” Having a higher IQ is a protective factor from violent tendencies as a higher IQ is also protective from developing mental disorders as told by Carpenter; “Increased childhood intelligence has been found to be associated with a significantly reduced risk of generalized anxiety disorder.” In another article by Paul G. Nestor called Mental Disorder and Violence: Personality Dimensions and Clinical Features, he asserts that “some mental disorders increase the risk for violence, with higher rates of violence now firmly established most prominently for individuals with diagnoses of substance abuse, followed by cluster B personality disorders, and to a lesser extent, schizophrenia spectrum disorders.” It is found that disorders such as drug and alcohol use, schizophrenia, and personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder have tendencies to lash out in violent ways because of their lack of handle on the world around them.

Violence is often a result of what is happening around us. There is no one cause for violence but many factors that contribute to the onset of aggressive and violent behaviors. Most of the time social factors with the combination of mental illness will lead children down a dark path to violence as they get older. Not being able to get the help they need whether that be mentally or socially can cause a child to feel some resentment and anger toward what is happening around them. Violent video games may draw inspiration from real-life violence but there is no causation to children becoming violent from those video games. Watching a horror movie such as the Halloween series does not make you want to go on a serial killing spree and most viewers have a stressed or upset reaction to the killings, it’s the same with violent video games. Violent children may seek what is happening in their real life and into a digital form as a way to destress and release what is happening to them in real life. Children without a good support system whether that be family or supportive peers, they have no way to get their emotions out other than through their learned aggression or through something much more peaceful as playing a video that may mimic their current situation.

Moving forward, there’s evidence of children playing violent video games where their empathy levels did not change after playing those games. In Long Term Exposure to Violent Video Games Does Not Show Desensitization on Empathy for Pain: An Fmri Study, authors Xuemei Gao, et al. did a study on players who were exposed to violent video games and those who were not. Players were screened before and after playing those games for differences in their brain receptors regarding empathy for the pain of others. Gao states, “The results showed that the perception of others’ pain were not significantly different in brain regions between groups, from which we could infer that the desensitization effect of VVGs was overrated.” This study is important because it shows that playing violent video games, even over a long time period such as in Long Term Exposure to Violent Video Games Does Not Show Desensitization on Empathy for Pain: An Fmri Study does not make you any less reactive to the pain of others in real life.

Ultimately, it’s easy to take violent video games and write them off as one of the reasons a child’s behavior is aggressive and violent but a bunch of real-world factors could be one of the reasons a child flocks to violent video games. Social environments that aren’t positive for the child such as parents being non-existent or a negative source in the child’s life or living in poverty, not being able to afford necessities like food, clothing, and a decent education can cause a seemingly nice child to a child that is full of resentment and aggression towards their life and situation happening around them. More aggressive children could be more interested in violent video games as either a way to destress from their current life or as a way to act on their aggression in a way that doesn’t harm or hurt anybody in real life. Children want to feel seen and heard and with violent video games, they can feel that way. Killing zombies like in Resident Evil or robbing banks in Grand Theft Auto, or even battling gods in God of War could all be outlets for a violent child, not the other way around that a non-violent child turns violent for playing a violent video game.

References
(moved this to the center)

Gao, Xuemei, et al. “Long-Time Exposure to Violent Video Games Does Not Show Desensitization on Empathy for Pain: An Fmri Study.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 11 Apr. 2017.

Ma, J., et al. “Environmental Causes of Violence.” Physiology & Behavior, Elsevier, 14 Sept. 2009.

Nestor, Paul G. “Mental Disorder and Violence: Personality Dimensions and Clinical Features.” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 159, no. 12, 2002, pp. 1973–1978., https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.12.1973.

Posted in Definition Rewrite, OatmealVibes | 7 Comments

Definition-Cleveland Brown

Posted on March 6, 2023 by clevelandbrown03

More Guns Less Crime

As we know America is known for having lots of gun violence in communities and in schools. Most people have argued that we as a country should get rid of guns, and some have argued that we should keep them to protect ourselves and I agree. In fact, I think that having more guns will mean that we have less crime. I will shut down the argument for the side of getting rid of guns by saying that technology has improved so many people can 3D print a functional gun. And I believe that if someone wanted to buy a gun illegally what will stop them? That person will be a wolf among sheep, and nobody can stop a violent crime from happing to them. Now, most people will just say call the police, but first responders take on average 5 to 10 minutes to show up at a crime scene. (What Is The Average Police Response Time in the US? | ASecureLife.com). Most people don’t have the time to even call the police and give them their location if something is happening to them.

Another group of people might use England as an example of a country that has gotten rid of guns, and for that, I say that I say that is not a fair comparison. Here is why America has built some of its foundation on being able to bare arms and protect their land and family. If that right is taken away there will be civil war in our country again. 

Most victims of crime are people who are taken advantage of because they have no way to protect themselves. And the victimizer usually knows this and preys on them because they are seen as weak. An analogy I would use to describe that is wolves don’t hunt wolves they hunt prey they know that they’re stronger than. That’s why I say if everyone has a right to open carry, will be fewer violent crimes. 

If everyone carried, people will feel safe again. I don’t believe that kids should have the same access but I do believe they teach gun safety and know that a gun is for worst case scenario and will have police officers come to the schools once a week and teach the kids proper techniques for how to defend themselves, how to conflict resolve, and hand to hand combat. The legal age for a right to carry should be pushed back to 25 because your brain is fully developed by then. And courts can’t use the defense he is a kid and doesn’t know any better. 

Places that should ban guns are clubs, bars, and any other places where your judgment can be altered. If you misuse your gun the license should be suspended forever in every state and should have a 5-year jail sentence if no one was killed or injured. But if someone is killed or injured then that person should get the time, they would get now for killing someone. A way to prove that my theory is correct is how every country has nukes, but no one uses them because they don’t want their country to get nuked. The same thing on a smaller scale when it comes to the more guns less crime theory, if everyone has guns there will be less crime. Because no one wants to get shot, as a form of retaliation if they are committing a crime against someone. Since 2018, there have been 151 school shootings. “There were 51 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year, the most in a single year since Education Week began tracking such incidents in 2018. There were 35 in 2021, 10 in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.”(School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where (edweek.org).

The Main argument is that if we have more trained armed officers in schools it will stop School shootings.

 If the schools had trained officers with guns to defend the students during times like this I believe that we will cut school shooting down close to zero. 

As a former high schooler, we have drills if someone were to come into the school, but the drill is heavily flawed. If you train the students on where to go if a shooting takes place you are possibly teaching the shooter how to find everyone. Plus most of the time they just close the door and try to pretend that they are not in the classroom at that time, which is also a flawed concept. Because the attacker already knows that students are in school during that time of day, not to mention if it’s a student themselves who is the attacker. 

For this theory to work we would need to place a class strictly for officers who protect schools. This class will teach them how to calm down students who may be fighting, or about to cause serious harm to other students. The class will also teach them how to detain a student without harming them. The problem with this theory is that will the students feel safe? And just like the police, we have today it’s based on the person in charge. For example, I have had security officers in my school and they were all good people and most of them were my football coaches. But I have seen school officers use excessive force on students and abuse their power. (High School SRO accused of excessive force in incident captured on video | WPRI.com). In this article, According to a federal complaint submitted on Wednesday, a former student of Narragansett High School is suing one of the town’s police officers after he claimed to have been hurt in an event seen on the school’s CCTV system in 2018.

Michael Blanchette claimed he was hurt when the school resource officer knocked him to the ground in the school’s corridor. So, the question to be answered is how will trained armed officers prevent school shootings?

References

POST IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT REFERENCES AND LINKS TO YOUR SOURCES HERE.

(What Is The Average Police Response Time in the US? | ASecureLife.com)

(School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where (edweek.org).

(High School SRO accused of excessive force in incident captured on video | WPRI.com)

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