5 Anthropology Essay Topics Interesting Topics to Write about Modern Humans

5 Anthropology Essay Topics Interesting Topics to Write about Modern Humans Neanderthals have always fascinated the imagination of anthropologists and people interested in the history of human race in general – after all, our ancient cousins are the closest thing to another sentient species we’ve managed to discover so far. The fact that there were two closely related yet distinctly different human subspecies on our planet breeds all kinds of questions. What were they like? What was their psychology? Did they have a language? Why did they go extinct? However, although it was a century and a half since the discovery of the Neanderthals, we know precious little about them. Here we have gathered some facts about Neanderthals that you may find interesting and useful for writing your own anthropology essay. Neanderthal Genes Live on in Modern Humans For a long while the general consensus was that anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals did not interbreed at all. However, a number of more recent researches suggest that this was not the case, and most modern non-Africans inherited about 1-3 percent of their genes from Neanderthals, with Asians showing a somewhat higher percentage than Europeans do. Geographically Neanderthals lived across Eurasia, which explains why people of African descent don’t show any traces of their genes. An intriguing fact is that there is little to no Neanderthal DNA on X chromosome, which suggests that biological compatibility between Neanderthals and our human ancestors was extremely weak, and the majority of male hybrids turned out to be sterile. As a result, most of Neanderthal genes were passed through females. Neanderthals Had Bigger Brains Than We Do Contrary to popular belief, cranial capacity of Neanderthals was considerably higher than that of modern humans: 1600 cm3 vs. 1400 cm3 on average. It stands to reason: Neanderthals lived in higher latitudes than anatomically modern humans originally did, and as a result were more massive in general and higher of stature, which usually leads to larger brain size. A question now arises: why did a biologically close species with larger brain capacity and, supposedly greater brain power, go extinct, while we go on? There is no clear-cut answer to this question, but some studies suggest that Neanderthals had to dedicate a much greater percentage of their brain power to controlling their bodies and their vision than we do. In other words, anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals evolved from a common ancestor but their brains evolved along two different trajectories. Neanderthals developed their somatic and visual regions (mostly dealing with body maintenance and visual perception) while AMHs mostly developed other parts of their brain. The most notable of these other parts is parietal lobe, responsible, among other things, for language processing – a crucial ability for long-term development. Neanderthals Most Likely Had a Language For quite some time the prevalent opinion was that Neanderthals were incapable of language and the array of sounds they could articulate was limited to a relatively poor set of guttural grunts. However, this theory became much less popular after the discovery of a Neanderthal hyoid bone in 1983. Hyoid bone is a small bone that connects the muscles of the larynx and the tongue, and more or less makes speech possible. It turned out that not only did Neanderthals have it, but it was also almost identical to the hyoid bone of modern human. In addition to that, recent studies of Neanderthal DNA shows that they possessed the same variant of FOXP2 gene, which is known to have been extremely important for the formation of language. Moreover, many artifacts left by Neanderthals show the degree of sophistication that would have made learning how to create and use them rather difficult without the assistance of some kind of language. It also pays to remember that they lived in extremely harsh conditions: Neanderthals inhabited colder regions of the planet in the times when climate was much colder than it is now in general, were surrounded by dangerous predators many times larger than themselves, and were capable of bringing down an occasional mammoth with nothing more than sharpened sticks and stones. All this requires a level of cooperation that is impossible without a language, although we are extremely unlikely to ever find out what it was like. Human and Neanderthal Genomes are almost 98.8% Similar Neanderthals and AMHs shared a common ancestor, so it is hardly surprising that they were rather similar genetically. However, this small difference was in a number of very important genes. The main difference lies in that Neanderthals lacked some genes connected with behaviors that are present in AMHs. And the reason why our ancestors were better at survival probably lies exactly there. Neanderthals made an emphasis on individual survival and initially their larger size and stronger muscles did the trick. However, they hardly developed socially, while AMHs traded larger size and better eyesight for improved cognitive power, which led to increased ability to work as a social entity and interact between each other. The fact that Neanderthal tools changed very little over the course of hundreds of thousands of years shows that they were resistant to change and innovation. Also, they were lactose-intolerant and lacked genes that in modern humans are associated with hyperactivity, aggression and syndromes like Autism. Neanderthals were not All That Different When all is said and done, Neanderthals, despite a number of notable differences, were still pretty similar to AMHs. There is evidence that they lived in complex social groups, made tools, were able to make fire, built shelters, wore jewelry, produced cave paintings, nursed their sick and wounded back to health, buried their dead, were capable of language and probably could appreciate music and singing. In their case the fact that a species that was isolated from Homo Sapiens for such a long time and developed by itself has so much in common with us socially is possibly even more mystifying than if they were absolutely different. Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, and all that is left of them are a few bones and tools. Yet they are an important part of our history and heritage – and an extremely interesting and mysterious part at that. That’s why it’s a perfect pool of topics for your anthropology essay! References: 1. Schwartz JH, Tattersall I (1996) Toward distinguishing Homo neanderthalensis from Homo sapiens and vice versa. Anthropologie (Brno). 2. Tattersall I (1995) The Last Neanderthal. The Rise, Success and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives. New York: Macmillan. 3. Schwartz JH, Tattersall I (1996) Significance of some previously unrecognized apomorphies in the nasal region of Homo neanderthalensis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 4. Stringer CB, Hublin JJ, Vandermeersch B (1984) The origin of anatomically modern humans in western Europe. In Smith FH, Spencer F (eds): The Origins of Modem Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence. New York: Liss. 5. Coon CS (1962) The Origin of Races. New York: Knopf. 6. Krings M, Stone A, Schmitz RW, Krainitzki H, Stoneking M, Pabo S (1997) Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans. 7. Tattersall I (1998) Neanderthal genes: What do they mean? Evol Anthropol.

Meanings, Examples and Observations of the Word Lexicon

Meanings, Examples and Observations of the Word Lexicon A lexicon is the collection of words- or the internalized dictionary- that every speaker of a  language has. It is also called lexis. Lexicon may also refer to a  stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject or style. The word itself is the Anglicized version of the Greek word lexis (which means word in Greek). It basically means dictionary. Lexicology describes the study of lexis and lexicon. See Examples and Observations below. Also see: JargonLanguage AcquisitionLexemeLexical CompetenceLexical DiffusionLexical-Functional Grammar (LFG)Lexical IntegrityLexicalizationLexical SetLexicogrammarLexicographerLexicographicolatryLexicograpyLexicologyLexisListemeMental LexiconMorphologyVocabularyVocabulary Acquisition Examples and Observations The lexicon of soccer (called football outside of the United States) includes terms such as linesman, friendly match, yellow card, penalty shootout, pitch, result, and draw.The lexicon of a stock trader includes terms such as delayed quotes, futures contract, limit order, margin account, short selling, stop order, trend line and watch list. Words by the Numbers [T]here are currently about 600,000 words in the English language, with educated adults using about 2,000 words in daily conversation. For the 500 most-frequently used words, there are some 14,000 dictionary meanings. (Wallace V. Schmidt, et al., Communicating Globally. Sage, 2007)  The English lexicon grew by 70 percent from 1950 to 2000, with roughly 8,500 new words entering the language each year. Dictionaries dont reflect a lot of those words. (Marc Parry, Scholars Elicit a Cultural Genome From 5.2 Million Google-Digitized Books. The Chronicle of Higher Education. December 16, 2010) Myths of Word Learning If you attend a class on language acquisition, or read any good introductory chapter on the subject, you are likely to learn the following facts about word learning. Childrens first words are odd; they have funny meanings that violate certain semantic principles that hold for adult language and are learned in a slow and haphazard way. Then, at about 16 months, or after learning about fifty words, there is a sudden acceleration in the rate of word learning- a word spurt or vocabulary explosion. From this point on, children learn words at the rate of five, ten, or even fifteen new words a day. I will suggest here that none of these claims are true. They are myths of word learning. There is no reason to believe that childrens first words are learned and understood in an immature fashion- and there is considerable evidence to the contrary. There is no such thing as word spurt, and two-year-olds are not learning anywhere near five words per day. (Paul Bloom, Myths of Word Learning. Weavin g a Lexicon, ed. by D. Geoffrey Hall and Sandra R. Waxman. MIT Press, 2004) Language Acquisition: Grammar and Lexicon In a review of findings from language development, language breakdown and real-time processing, we conclude that the case for a modular distinction between grammar and the lexicon has been overstated, and that the evidence to date is compatible with a unified lexicalist account. Studies of normal children show that the emergence of grammar is highly dependent upon vocabulary size, a finding confirmed and extended in atypical populations. Studies of language breakdown in older children and adults provide no evidence for a modular dissociation between grammar and the lexicon; some structures are especially vulnerable to brain damage (e.g., function words, non-canonical word orders), but this vulnerability is also observed in neurologically intact individuals under perceptual degradation or cognitive overload. Finally, online studies provide evidence for early and intricate interactions between lexical and grammatical information in normal adults. (Elizabeth Bates and Judith C. Goodman, On the Inseparability of Grammar and the Lexicon: Evidence from Acquisition, Aphasia and Real-time Processing. Language and Cognitive Processes. The Chronicles of Higher Education. December 1997) Acquisition of the lexicon and acquisition of the grammar are ... parts of a single underlying process. (Jesse Snedeker and Lila R. Gleitman, Why It Is Hard to Label Our Concepts. Weaving a Lexicon, ed. by D. Geoffrey Hall and Sandra R. Waxman. MIT Press, 2004)

How Can the Photographers Prevent Illegal Publishing of Their Phostos Essay

How Can the Photographers Prevent Illegal Publishing of Their Phostos In the Internet - Essay Example This essay stresses that in the modern world, with the advances of the technology, the infringement of copyright law is taking place not only in the real life but in the World Wide Web as well. In comparison with the real life, where infringing materials can be destroyed and their authors punished, the internet cannot be shut down. Therefore, it is often used for illegal purposes. The materials infringed can be of various characters: be it musical files, films, sound recording or photographs. This research paper will focus on one type of the works, namely works of photographers. This paper makes a conclusion that the study will, therefore, elaborate the copyright law on infringement in different countries and the loopholes attached with it. The different types of infringements will be discussed in the paper. For instance, Primary infringement stands for ‘the copying of a work, making available to the public and adaptation of it’ and secondary infringement involves ‘dealings with infringing copies through acts of importation, sale, or other distribution’. There are a number of stock photo companies on the internet and significantly, a good number of people have been fined for copying and using the photographs from the web without buying them. Earlier researches are also a proof of it. Despite such fines and checks, the illegal usage of images, designs and text goes unabated. This report has looked at the illegal publishing of photos on the internet and the problems that authors of those photos often have to deal with.

Petroleum engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Petroleum engineering - Essay Example Petroleum Engineering is a field of engineering which deals with the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gases. The petroleum engineer’s job begins after a geologist’s exploration of the site, and then the petroleum engineer aims to extract the liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons from the earth’s porous rocks under high pressure. Petroleum engineer should also have a good grip on various other subjects in order to achieve the complete command on the issues such as drilling, geophysics, petroleum geology, well logging, economics of petroleum, reservoir engineering, computer simulations etc (ELC, 2014). Petroleum engineering field was first introduced in 1914 by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers  (AIME) and in 1915 the first degree in Petroleum Engineering was awarded by the University of Pittsburgh. Ever since this discipline has evolved and has helped in exploring Petroleum, and with the help of ever growing technologies involved in this field, this subject has literally changed the face of the earth and economics. (Honeycutt, 2013) Petroleum Engineering is used to explore and produce hydrocarbons. They are usually buried deep underground, or under deep sea, in arctic regions, and even in deserts. A petroleum engineer along with geophysicists is responsible for the exploration, development and depletion of a hydrocarbon reservoir. Petroleum engineering can be sub classified in to petro physical engineering, drilling engineering, reservoir engineering and production engineering. All these areas of specialization have a unique role in the field of petroleum engineering. Drilling engineering is the first step in oil and gas extraction, a drilling engineer is responsible for digging out the subsurface to surface in an optimized fashion. This field deals with the study of the earth to be drilled, the stresses

Genetic Manipulation: Advantages and Disadvantages

Genetic Manipulation: Advantages and Disadvantages Science on the other hand, fills my brain with questions and answers the knowledge that I crave. The theory of evolution does not dismiss there is a God. It is a theory trying to explain the beginning of life, how we evolved. The Old Testament professes to do the same thing, however, the stories are symbolic in their meaning. I am a Roman Catholic, and our dear Pope John Paul II acknowledged evolution as more than a hypotheses. Only the divine soul is untouched by evolution (Jurmain et al. 2010:44). The fact that some fossils are not preserved does not disprove evolution. Many species might not have left fossils. Some organisms just do not fossilize well. The geological record is not perfect. The fossils are not laid out perfectly waiting to be discovered by paleontologists. Chances are it is highly unlikely that an organisms remains will become fossilized, rather than decomposed. For the remains that do become fossilized, their preservation is unlikely due to erosion, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions , etc; Evolution continues to be rejected by some religious conservatives and fundamentalists. A lot of them believe that evolutionary biology ignores that God exists. They state that it does not account for how the world was really created according to the scriptures in the Bible. There have been numerous efforts to block teaching of evolution in U.S. public schools since 1968. The US Supreme Court overturned the first case in Arkansas stating that there could be no law barring the teaching of evolution on the grounds that it breached the separation of church and state as stated in the U.S. Constitution. Fourteen years later the federal courts rejected a statute to teach both creation science and evolution in the public schools. The courts stated that creation science was not actually a science. To try and get around the law of separation of church and state, evolution opponents began to propose the teaching of intelligent design. They stated that it was non religious, and a scientific alternative to evolution. Intelligent design claims that the living world was too intricate to have been made by the workings of natural selection. That some living things were too complex to have been developed by evolution and could have only have been created by an intelligent designer. But, they did not identify this intelligent designer. This presentation again was blocked by a federal district judge who found intelligent design was not a science (Jurmain et al. 2010:44). What can be done to correct this controversy, or should it be corrected? Why? Although I dont agree with the Christian fundamentalists opinion, my answer is, no. Why? It is called the First Amendment. Describe and evaluate some of the positive and negative consequences of genetic manipulation Genetic engineering entails the manipulation of DNA. The tools in this process are very important for the restriction of so called enzymes, which are produce by various species of bacteria. A particular sequence of a chain of nucleotide bases, can be recognized by restriction enzymes. The nucleotide bases that make up the DNA molecule; cut the DNA at that location. Parts of DNA formed in this way are joined using enzymes called ligases(joining of two enzyme molecules to form a covalent bond, accompanied by the hydrolysis of ATP(adenosine triphosphate)) Positive side of genetic manipulation Genetic therapy entails supplying a particular function to a gene, and in turn to cells that are lacking that function. The intention is to correct a genetic disorder or an acquired disease. One type of gene therapy used today is, somatic cell therapy. It is similar to an organ transplant. One or more specific tissues are targeted for treatment by therapeutic genes from the lab or the tissue is removed and replaced with the treated cells and given back to the patient. Researchers have had success with somatic cell gene therapy for the treatment of blood, lung, liver disorders and cancer. Another positive side to genetic manipulation also involves the health industry. The manufacturing of recombinant factor VIII, a blood clotting agent missing in patients with hemophilia A. Practically all of the hemophiliacs who were treated with factor VIII before the mid 1980s contracted AIDS or hepatitis C from viral contaminants in the blood that were used to make the product. Now donor blood is screened for the presence of HIV and the hepatitis C virus. The process now includes inactivating the viruses if they prove to be present. The possibility of a virus contamination is eliminated completely by the use of recombinant factor VIII. Negative side of genetic manipulation Explanation of Cloning: A technique that is a process of several stages. An egg is taken from a donor animal The nucleus is then removed from the egg. The nucleus containing the DNA is taken from the tissue cell of the animal being cloned. The nucleus is inserted into the donor egg cell. The fused egg is then placed in the uterus of a surrogate mother. When that mother eventually gives birth, if all goes well, the baby is genetically identical to the animal that provided the tissue cells that contained the DNA. I understand the potential benefits that genetic engineering has for the future of this world, however, the thought of it getting into the wrong hands terrifies me. My main area of concern is cloning. From the beginning, back in 1997 when I heard on the news about the sheep, Dolly, being cloned in Scotland, my heart sank. There is even talk of people ordering what type of children they want, as if they were ordering from a dinner menu. I knew eventually that people would be cloned. There is evidence they have already. People are desperately waiting for transplants. Why are we not using the clones vital organs? This is something would like answered. Would you agree with your textbook authors when they say: Indeed it would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the most exciting time in the history of evolutionary biology since Darwin published On the Origins of Species? Would you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? Please provide some detailed examples? Yes, I would agree. In my younger days, I worked as a chemotherapy technician in Childrens Hospital, Boston. I worked closely with one little girl who was born without a stomach, preparing parenteral nutrition for her daily basis. Children also dying at a very young age of diabetes. But due to the amazing research done in genetics, and recombinant DNA technology, children have a much better chance of reaching adulthood and leading normal lives. Regarding the field of anthropology, the sequencing of human genes in the Human Genome Project. The progress being made in comparative genomics is terribly exciting. Personally, I cant wait to hear the DNA comparison results of the Neanderthal, modern human, and nonhuman primate. What is natural selection? The theory of Natural selection is actually the key to evolution. It is based on the following processes that include: Biological variation within all species Individuals within a species that have favorable traits are more likely to survive in their environment and produce offspring. The environment of the species determines whether or not a trait is satisfactory or not. Traits are inherited and over a period of time, favorable traits will be passed on generation to generation and become more common in the population. Isolation of a species may lead to the formation of a new species due to inhabiting a different environment and will in turn adapt to that environment. Natural selection only operates on an individual within a population, but it is the population that evolves. Why is genetic variation necessary for the process of natural selection to operate? Genetic variation plays a significant role at the microevolutionary level, producing evolutionary change. Directional evolutionary trends can only be sustained by natural selection. Individuals who carry a particular allele or a combination of alleles will produce more offspring than other individuals with different alleles. The frequency of the new allele in a population will increase slowly from generation to generation. This process is compounded over hundreds of generations for multiple loci, the result being a major evolutionary change(Jurmain et al. 2010:107). What are the sources of genetic variation? Mutations: When there is a change in the DNA molecule that means there is one type of mutation and that multiple genes occur in two or more forms called alleles. If an allele to another allele, or if the gene is altered in some way, a mutation has just occurred. Alleles are, in fact, a direct result of a mutation. The substitution of simply one DNA base for another, a point mutation, can cause a change in an allele. However, to be important to the evolutionary process, the point mutation has to occur in the sex cells. This is so the mutation can be passed on from generation to generation. Examples: No changes in phenotype due to mutations No evidence of a change on the phenotype of an organism due to mutation. Mutation occurred maybe in a stretch of DNA with no function, or perhaps the mutation occurred in a protein-coding region, but ended up not affecting the amino acid sequencing of the protein. Small change in phenotype due to mutations would for example be a single mutation like a cats ear slightly curling back. Big change in phenotype due to mutations This would create some major phenotypic changes. DDT resistance in insects are usually caused by single mutations. A single mutation can also have very strong negative effects on an organism. Mutations that would cause the death of an organism are called lethals. Gene flow Migration is used here to refer to the movement of people. This occurs when the exchange of genes between different groups of migrants interbreeding. It can also occur when an individual(s) move temporarily and produce some offspring in an entirely new population. This way they have left their genetic contribution. An example of gene flow: Happens a great deal in war. When male soldiers are stationed in remote parts of the world and impregnate the native women of that country and then the male returns to his native land. The impregnated native women in the remote country represents the gene flow. Genetic drift is known as the random factor in evolution. The population size is its entire function. Drift only occurs because a population is small. If an allele is rare in a very small population of less than 400 people, there is a very great chance that it will not be passed down to the offspring. Eventually, the allele may disappear entirely. In this instance genetic variability has been reduced drastically. Genetic drift can cause big losses of genetic variation for small populations. An example of genetic drift: The B allele was evidently not passed down to generations of Blackfoot people. There is evidence that present populations are deficient in genotypes that contain the B allele (BB, BO and AB). When the populations became greatly reduced in size, some genes may not have been passed on to the next generation. This phenomenon is referred to as a genetic bottleneck. As a result, genetic variability may have been severely reduced in succeeding generations. Founder effect is a type of genetic drift and is seen in human and non human populations. An example of the founder effect is the Baptist German religious sect that settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. These families didnt marry outside their own religious sect. There has been evidence of some dramatic changes in their gene frequencies. For example; the type A blood in the sect resulted in 60 percent. United States is 42%. It is 45 percent for the sect in West Germany. They also have fewer people with certain recessive traits, such as hitchhikers thumb and attached ear lobes, compared to the U.S. population as a whole. The founder effect helps explain the high frequency of dwarfism and polydactylism (extra fingers) in the Amish of Lancaster Pennsylvania. The colony began when at least one of the individuals carried these traits. Recombination is a source of genetic variation that introduces new gene combinations into populations. For example: Siblings are never genetically identical to either of their parents or to each other (unless they are identical twins.)This is because when organisms reproduce sexually, some genetic à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"shufflingà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  occurs. This brings together a new combination of genes. How is natural selection related to environmental factors? All the evolutionary factors of mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, and recombination, interact to form genetic variation. Genes are then distributed within the populations. There isnt any long term direction to any of the above factors, but for adaptation and the evolutionary process to occur, the gene pool of the population needs to change in a certain direction.Some alleles need to consistently become more commonplace, while other become less common. Natural selection can cause a change in direction in allele frequency relative to specific environmental factors. If there is to be a change in the environment, then the selection pressures will also change, and a shift in allele frequencies is called adaptation. Now if there are long term environmental changes in the same direction, then allele frequencies would also shift very gradually over time. Example:Hemoglobin S (Hbs) which is an abnormal form of hemoglobin that is formed from a point mutation gene, produces part of the molecule of the hemoglobin. If an individual inherits this allele from both parents, he or she will have sickle cell anemia. HbS is a mutation that occurs in all populations occasionally, but the allele in generally rare. HBs, however, is more common in central Africa where it reaches 20% of the population. With the devastating effects of the HbS homozygotes, one would think that natural selection would have acted on eliminating it. But that is not the case. Natural selection has actually increased the frequency of HbS. This is because of the disease malaria. People with one HbS and one HbA allele (heterozygotes with the sickle cell trait) have red blood cells that contain hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S is not a suitable environment for the malarial parasite. So having HbS is beneficial, because it protects that person from malaria. In this instance, malaria is the selective agent. and favors the heterozygous phenotype. In this part of the world, individuals with sickle cell anemia trait have a higher reproductive success than those with normal hemoglobin, because they are more apt to die of malaria (Jurmain et al. 2010:105). Discuss genealogy of the Blue Fugates of Kentucky. Describe Mendelian principle of inheritance as well as a phenotypic effect of an enzyme deficiency. Mendel discovered through his experiments with plants, that the inheritance of traits was not due to blending as he originally thought. He found that specific units (genes) of inheritance were passed down from generation to generation. No matter what trait Mendel selected for the second generation of the plants, it would show a ratio of 3 to 1. This meant that there were 3 dominant genes to every 1 recessive gene. Mendel realized that this 3:1 ratio occurred in later generations as well. He had found the key to understanding inheritance. Mendel came to three very important conclusions from his experiments The inheritance of each trait is determined by units(genes) that are passed on to descendents and are unchanged. An individual would inherit a gene from each parent for each trait. A trait just may not show up in an offspring but could be passed on to their offspring. Mendels observations have been summarized in to two principles: The principle of segregation and the principle of independent assortment. According to the principle of segregation two members of alleles separate from each other in the formation of sex cells (gametes) Half of the gametes carry one of the allele and the other half of the gametes carry the other allele. Principle of independent assortment-Genes for different traits are assorted independently from one another in the formation of sex cells. I feel the principle of segregation applies in the case of the blue Fugates of Kentucky. It was determined that the Fugates inherited an autosomal recessive trait. Both Martin Fugate(heterozygote) and his bride Elizabeth Fugate(heterozygote) had one recessive allele each of this disorder. Since both Martin and Elizabeth were both carriers, there was a 25% chance of their offspring being affected. There is usually a predictable phenotypic ratio of 3:1. The family would marry people who lived close by and this intermarrying continued. The community was isolated, without roads. When the railroad was completed 30 to 40 years later, roads were built and they started venturing out and marrying outside their community. The strain of the inherited blue gene began to disappear. The recessive gene was not likely to find a mate with the same recessive gene. A baby named, Benjy Stacy was born blue, 100 years later. He had the recessive gene from both his mother and fathers side. His blue color, however was only temporary. It was assumed that Benjy had just inherited one gene of the condition, and being a baby had a smaller amount of the enzyme diaphorase, and it built to normal levels as he got older (Jurmain et al. 2010:86-89) and Fugate family literature. Why do we see this rare, phenotypic deficiency? It was first seen in Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. It is a human genetic disease. The gene is located at chromosome 22. In normal people, there is a dominant, allele that is responsible for the production of the enzyme diaphoreses. Normally hemoglobin is converted into methemoglobin(a brownish compound of oxygen and hemoglobin) at a very slow rate. Diaphorase in normal blood, changes the methemoglobin back to hemoglobin. The homozygous children of the Fugate family, lacked the enzyme diaphorase. therefore this conversion could not take place. Therefore, all of their hemoglobin in their body was considered useless. Instead they had a mutant allele that produced an inert enzyme that was unable to reduce the hemoglobin. What is the nature of the evidence supporting punctuated equilibrium? The theory was advanced by two American paleontologists Eldredge and Gould. They agreed that the fossil record was incomplete, but that it could not be incomplete enough to account for the near absence of the gradualistic change from the fossil record. They said that species originate too quickly for the normal geological processes to record the event; a single bedding (a thin layer of sedimentary rock)often compresses more than tens of thousands of years into a thin slice. Speciation usually occurs when small populations cut off from the interbreeding with groups, evolving rapidly in isolation. With fewer people in an isolated population, the favorable mutations spread more readily. A small, isolated, evolving population may become extinct and may not leave a trace of a fossil record. Eldredge and Gould said that if it does remove itself from its isolation, and spread over a much wider area, its likely to be seen in the fossil record as making a punctuational appearance, fully forme d. The nature of the evidence supporting punctuated equilibrium was from the paleontologist, Cheetham. He gathered a large sample of bryzoan fossils from the Caribbean and surrounding regions. He painstakingly classified them into 17 species using 46 microscopic characteristics of their skeletons. Measured their length, dimensions of pores, and all the orifices on the fossils. He then arranged them into a family tree. He analyzed them and split a single species into several species. The abruptness in the tree, appeared more clear to him and stronger than ever. He concluded that through 15 million years of the geological record, these particular species persisted unchanged for 2-6 million years. Then in less than 160 thousand years, split off in to a new species. This new species would coexist continuously with its ancestor species. This was his punctuated result. But this was not proof The morphological differences being used to split the fossil species? What if it really did not mark a separate species, but was just another version of the species? A model of speciation was needed to recognize a new species and support any evidence of punctuated equilibrium. Several biological tests were performed and then he performed a test in genetics. Using a test of protein electrophoresis, he extracted enzymes and analyzed each of the eight morphologically defined species. In every case, the specimen from each species had very similar enzymes. This indicated they belonged to the same genetically related species. Cheetham had passed the fossil species test. His conclusion was that morphology still seems to say how evolution occurred(http://science.jrank.org/pages/5591/punctuated-Equilibrium.html)(Kerr 1995:1421). Would you agree or disagree with this? Why? Many paleontologists still say that many of these studies have their weaknesses. There is overwhelming evidence that speciation is sometimes gradual and sometimes punctuated. It is very complicated, and until there is more proof, I think I would prefer to stick to the middle ground. Theories of Psychopathy | Overview and Analysis Theories of Psychopathy | Overview and Analysis A lot of research has been conducted in the area of aggressive, antisocial, and criminal behaviour (Frick Viding, 2009). Indeed, persistent antisocial behaviour results in human suffering associated with criminal offences, and high economic costs from detaining these offenders to prevent recidivism (Loeber Farrington, 2001). What is Psychopathy? Previous findings demonstrated that over a third of incarcerated offenders have Antisocial Personality Disorder, characterized by pervasive antisocial and exploitative behaviour (Black, Gunter, Loveless, Allen, Sieleni, 2010). However, offenders with psychopathy represent an even greater danger to society. Individuals with psychopathy often use instrumental aggression for personal gain. When compared to non-psychopathic offenders, they tend to commit more serious and violent crimes (e.g. premeditated homicide), are three times more likely to reoffend, and four times more likely to recidivate by a violent offence after being released from prison (Porter, Brinke, Wilson, 2009). Psychopathy is a developmental disorder characterized by antisocial and bold disinhibited behaviours, lack of empathy and remorse, and low anxiety (Hare Neumann, 2008). Previous studies demonstrated that adults with psychopathy all display persistent antisocial behavior across the lifespan with first signs of psychopathy, such as behavioural disturbances and emotional deficits, being evident as early as childhood (Blair, 2013). While the diagnosis of psychopathy is generally applied to adults, some children present with antisocial behavior and core psychopathic traits (comparable with callous-unemotional (CU) traits) such as low empathy, lack of guilt, shallow affect, and callous use of others (Frick Viding, 2009). Although it is important not to assume that children and adolescents with psychopathic traits will exhibit psychopathy in adulthood, the assessment of psychopathic traits and antisocial behavior in youth provides considerable evidence of their persistence over time (Erme r, Cape, Nyalakanti, Calhoun, Kiehl, 2013). Psychopathic Traits in Children and Adolescents Children with conduct disorder and callous-unemotional traits show more instrumental aggression for personal gain, higher prevalence of Antisocial Personality Disorder among their parents, more frequent interactions with the police, and a greater number and variety of conduct problems than children with CD and no psychopathic traits (Herba, Hodgins, Blackwood, Kumari, Naudts, Phillips, in press). While callous-unemotional traits during childhood have been often associated with severe antisocial behavior, children with callous-unemotional traits but no antisocial behaviour frequently show higher levels of other impairments such as increased hyperactivity, low prosociality, and poor interpersonal relationships (see: Frick, Cornell, Bodin, Dane, Barry, Loney, 2003; Barker, Olivier, Viding, Salekin, Maughan, 2011; Rowe, Maughan, Moran, Ford, Briskman, Goodman, 2010). Callous and unemotional traits have been recently added as part of the diagnostic criteria for Conduct Disorder in the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) (Decuyper, Caluwe, Clercq, Fruyt, 2014). Moreover, due to its high predictive validity, CU traits may have independent diagnostic value, even without the diagnosis of conduct disorder (Barker, et al., 2011; Frick, et al., 2003; Viding McCrory, 2012). Evidence of Emotional Dysfunction in Individuals with Psychopathic Traits Previous findings demonstrated that callous and unemotional children show similar emotional deficits as psychopathic adults, such as poor emotion recognition and deficits in emotional empathy (Herba, et al., in press; Blair, 2003; Pardini, Lochman, Frick, 2003). Emotional empathy represents affective reactions to emotional expressions and to verbal descriptions of the emotional states of other individuals. Empathic reactions, which can be evoked by facial expressions, voice tones, body postures, and even script, serve a communicatory function, and are processed by separate neural systems (Blair, 2013). Emotion Recognition Findings Youths and adults with psychopathic tendencies display a significant selective impairment in emotional empathy. While they normally recognize and differentiate between expressions of disgust and anger, their processing of distress cues (expressions of sadness, pain, and fear) is significantly different from healthy youths and adults without psychopathic tendencies (Blair, 2013). Studies demonstrated that distress cues inhibit antisocial behaviour in humans as well as primates by eliciting empathy in observers (Marsh Blair, 2007). Meta-analytic review of the literature shows that while having a normal processing of anger and disgust, individuals with psychopathic traits and persistent antisocial behaviour display poor recognition of certain emotional expressions, particularly fear, as well as reduced recognition of expressions of happiness and sadness, though to a lesser extent (Marsh Blair, 2007; Dawel, O’Kearney, McKone, Palermo, 2012). Blair, Collegde, Murray, and Mitchel l (2001) conducted a study looking at emotion recognition in boys with and without psychopathic tendencies (measured by a Psychopathy Screening Device). Children were shown a standardized set of six emotions (sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise) morphed into different intensity levels and shown in 20 successive frames from neutral to full expression. Results demonstrated that children with psychopathic tendencies made more mistakes in recognizing expressions of fear even when they were presented at full intensity. Moreover, these children also needed more stages to be able to recognize expressions of sadness (Blair, et al. 2001). Similar impaired recognition of sad and fearful expressions is also observed using vocal tones and body poses (Stevens, Charman, Blair, 2001; Blair, Budhani, Colledge, Scott, 2005; Munoz, 2009). Psychophysiological findings A number of studies that looked at psychophysiological responsiveness of individuals with psychopathic traits provided additional evidence towards the idea that these individuals have impaired processing of expressions of distress in others. Children and adolescents with high callous-unemotional traits and psychopathic adults show reduced autonomic responses including heart rate, facial electromyographic responses, and electrodermal responses to fearful and sad expressions and distress cues in others (Blair, 1999; de Wied, van Boxtel, Matthys, Meeus, 2012; Blair, Jones, Clark, Smith, 1997). In addition, youths and adults with psychopathic tendencies also display atypical electroencephalography responses to pain in others (Blair, 2013). Functional neuroimaging findings A new study by Motzkin, Phillippi, Wolf, Baskaya, and Koenigs (2015) provided tentative evidence that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) might play a significant role in regulating amygdala activity in humans. This is not surprising given the substantial amount of evidence, containing lesion studies, demonstrating that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala play a critical role in empathic response and emotion regulation (Blair, 2008; Blair, 2013). Studies of youths with high callous-unemotional traits and conduct disorder, as well as studies of psychopathic adults, showed decreased activation of the rostral vmPFC in response to images of other individuals in pain. (Marsh, et al. 2013; Blair, 2008). Previous fMRI studies also repeatedly demonstrated reduced amygdala activation in individuals (children, youth and adults) with psychopathic traits when they are presented with images of faces expressing fear, or images of others individuals in pain (Blair, 2008; Jones, Laurens, Herba, Barker, Viding, 2009; Marsh, et al., 2007; Munoz, 2009). Moreover, studies consistently reported that lower activity in the amygdala, vmPFC, as well as the anterior insula in response to distress cues are associated with higher severity of psychopathic traits, particularly in children and adolescents (Marsh, et al., 2008; Sebastian, et al., 2012; Marsh, et al., 2013) Structural neuroimaging findings Given the amount of evidence demonstrating reduced activity in vmPFC and amygdala in youths with psychopathic traits and psychopathic adults in response to distress cues, it is worth considering whether structural abnormalities are also observed within these neural regions. A large neuroimaging study conducted by Ermer and colleagues (2013) looked at the structural brain volume in over 200 incarcerated adolescents in a maximum security facility. Their findings demonstrated volume reductions within a large brain structure that centered on the vmPFC and included the amygdala, which is associated with the emotion dysfunction component of psychopathy. Another structural neuroimaging study demonstrated an inverse relationship between the structural volume of amygdala and the severity of psychopathic traits in a large sample (N=296) of incarcerated adults (Ermer, Cope, Nyalakanti, Calhoun, Kiehl, 2012). Summary of existing findings In summary, the aforementioned findings demonstrated that individuals with psychopathy show poor recognition of, and reduced autonomic response to distress cues in others across the lifespan. Functional neuroimaging studies identified various neural structures involved in the processing of distress cues, with the most consistent evidence pointing towards the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. fMRI studies repeatedly demonstrated reduced activity in these brain regions in children and adolescents with callous and unemotional traits, and psychopathic adults in response to facial expressions of fear and sadness. Structural neuroimaging studies provided additional evidence towards the importance of the amygdala and the vmPFC in processing of distress cues, demonstrating volume reductions in these areas in incarcerated adolescents with psychopathic traits, and a significant inverse relationship between the structural volume of the amygdala and the severity of psychopathic traits in incarcerated adult. Current Theories Given this considerable amount of evidence demonstrating emotional dysfunction in individuals with psychopathic traits across the lifespan, several models have been proposed in hopes to shed more light on this impairment. Violence Inhibition Mechanism Previous animal studies suggested that display of emotions of sadness, pain, and fear, also referred to as distress cues, serve an important evolutionary function: when displayed to a conspecific aggressor lead to the termination of the attack (Blair, 1995). Blair (1995) proposed a functionally analogous mechanism in humans referred to as violence inhibition mechanism (VIM). According to Blair, VIM represents a cognitive mechanism normally activated by non-verbal expressions of distress, which predisposes an aggressor as well as a bystander to withdraw from the situation. According to the model, moral socialization takes place through pairing of the activation of VIM by the sad and fearful expressions (Unconditioned Stimulus) of others with representations of the acts that caused this distress (Conditioned Stimulus: moral transgressions, such as an aggressive act towards an individual). As a result, representations of these moral transgressions become triggers for the VIM through classical conditioning. Thus, a normally developing child will initially find pain of others aversive, and then through socialization would learn to dislike the thoughts of acts that cause pain to others, and as a result will be less likely to engage in violent behaviour (Blair, 1995). According to Blair (1995), this mechanism is absent in individuals with psychopathy, which might be due to a specific physiological deficit or lack of early socialization experiences. Due to the absence of VIM, individuals with psychopathy are not negatively reinforced after any action (moral transgression) that results in the display of distress cues in others. Using VIM, one might predict that these individuals who were unable to form US-CS association would show emotional dysfunction, early-onset of violent behaviour, and lack of guilt or empathy post-violence, which all represent core features of psychopathy. The Response Modulation Hypothesis Another concept that has been suggested to explain the nature of emotional impairments in individuals with psychopathic traits looks at psychopathy as a disorder of attention. According to the response modulation hypothesis, individuals with psychopathy fail to recognize and process distress cues in others due to their inability to shift attention to this information when they are engaged in goal-directed behaviour. Given the amount of evidence demonstrating severe emotional processing impairments in individuals with psychopathic traits, it has been suggested that this emotional dysfunction may underpin the deficits seen in psychopathic individuals (Blair, 1995; Frick Viding, 2009). Indeed, previous studies demonstrated pronounced deficits in emotional learning and poor decision making in psychopathic adults as well as youths with psychopathic tendencies. Previous studies on decision-making behaviour in psychopathic adults demonstrated significant deficits underlying aversive conditioning, reversal learning, operant extinction, and passive avoidance learning (Blair, 2013). In an fMRI Study by Birbaumer and colleagues, a sample of ten offenders with psychopathy and ten matched controls was used to investigate the activation of neural structures, skin conductance, arousal and emotional valence in an aversive delay conditioning paradigm where neutral faces were used as conditioned stimuli and painful pressure as an unconditioned stimulus (Birbaumer, Veit, Lotze, Erb, Hermann, Grodd, Flor, 2005). Finding of this study showed inability of psychopathic individuals to learn to differentiate between conditioned stimuli, or show increased skin conductance response to the paired conditioned stimulus. Moreover, fMRI findings demonstrated reduced activity in the limbic-prefrontal circuit (combined of amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and a nterior cingulate) in psychopathic individuals when compared to the matched controls. Another study which used a similar fear conditioning paradigm as Birbaumer and colleagues (2005) further demonstrated deficits in aversive fear conditioning in psychopathic adults (Rthermund, Ziegler, Hermann, Gruesser, Foell, Patrick, Flor, 2012). In this study, psychopathic participants showed lack of a differential startle response and lack of skin conductance towards a paired conditioned stimulus. Moreover, these results cannot be explained by differences in detection threshold of electric shock, or levels of pain tolerance, since there was no significant differences in these measures between the two groups. This study confirms previous findings of impaired ability to form associations between neutral and aversive events in adults with psychopathy. Previous studies in decision-making behaviour and the propensity to learn from punishment in youths with psychopathic traits demonstrated significant impairments in the capacity to associate outcomes (reward or punishments) with stimuli.

Mystery of Free Will and Moral Responsibility

The Mystery of Free Will and Moral Responsibility We all seem to think that we make decisions on our own and have the ability to choose from making different decisions. We do what we want to do because it seems as if we have many options to choose from to be in control of our own destiny. The basic question of the mystery of free will is that, â€Å"Are we able to really make our own decisions or are the decisions we make already predetermined (with it being inevitable of us making that certain decision)? Our futures seem to be undetermined and have an infinite amount of possibilities of which we are able to choose freely among. Think of your life as a garden of forking paths with each path being a certain decision you make that affects your future. However, many philosophers believe that the thesis of determinism threatens this model of free will. If you may know, determinism is the theory that the universe at any point in time is entirely fixed by the state of the universe at a pr ior time, in combination with the laws of nature.So the reason why this threatens the ‘garden of forking paths’ model of free will is that how can we have so many options to choose when determinism has already chosen one for us? This leads us to another central issue, which is: â€Å"Can free will and determinism co-exist? † The two ways philosophers go about considering this question is either with a ‘yes, they can co-exist’ or ‘no, they cannot. ’ If you were to believe that, yes, free will and determinism can co-exist, then you would be considered a compatibilist.Answering no, free will and determinism cannot co-exist, you would be considered an incompatibalist. Peter Van Inwagen, a prominent figure in the philosophy world, created the consequence argument. In his argument, Van Inwagen explains that if determinism is true, then our acts are just a consequence of the laws of nature and events in the remote past. And since it’s no t up to us what went on before we were born nor what the laws of nature are, the consequences of these things (including our present acts) are not up to us (PowerPoint 1, Slide 23).In short, he explains that if determinism were to be true then no one would ever or has ever made a choice on their own about anything. So if no one has power over the facts of the past and the laws of nature and that no one has the power of the fact that the facts of the past and laws of nature entail that only future is possible, therefore, no one has power over the facts of the future. To further demonstrate his reasoning of the consequence argument, Van Inwagen created the No Choice Principle (NCP). In this example, let ‘p’ = â€Å"Plato died long before I was born. † Let ‘q’ = â€Å"I never met Plato. Now, if I have no choice about ‘p’ and no choice about the fact that (if ‘p’ is true, then ‘q’ is necessarily true. Therefore, I have no choice about ‘q’ (PowerPoint 1, Slide 26). How can one have a choice about something that is inevitably going to happen if one has no choice about it happening? Van Inwagen’s consequence argument is based on the NCP. Now, if determinism and free will can co-exist (Compatibilism is true) then the No Choice Principle must be false (Remember, you would have no free will and no choice of ‘q’ happening because it was never in your control to choose so).But, the NCP is not false, therefore the Compatibilism theory is not true and with this being said the free will thesis and theory of determinism cannot co-exist. I believe that free will is incompatible with determinism, but free will exists because the thesis of determinism is false. I choose this opinion because, going to back to the ‘garden of forking paths’ model, if I come across a path with three forks in it I have the ability to not take one or two of those paths and have the ab ility to freely choose which path I would prefer to take.I know that I have the ability to choose because I can take either 3 paths, but I only choose to take the one which I desire most. Determinists may say that I took that path because it was inevitable. Whichever of the 3 paths I took, it would be inevitable that I took it. The reason why I believe in free will and not the coexistence of both free will and determinism, and determinism itself is because there is no way to prove something of happening inevitably in every occasion. Determinists could say that just about anything was inevitable of happening, what’s their proof? Mystery of Free Will and Moral Responsibility The Mystery of Free Will and Moral Responsibility We all seem to think that we make decisions on our own and have the ability to choose from making different decisions. We do what we want to do because it seems as if we have many options to choose from to be in control of our own destiny. The basic question of the mystery of free will is that, â€Å"Are we able to really make our own decisions or are the decisions we make already predetermined (with it being inevitable of us making that certain decision)? Our futures seem to be undetermined and have an infinite amount of possibilities of which we are able to choose freely among. Think of your life as a garden of forking paths with each path being a certain decision you make that affects your future. However, many philosophers believe that the thesis of determinism threatens this model of free will. If you may know, determinism is the theory that the universe at any point in time is entirely fixed by the state of the universe at a pr ior time, in combination with the laws of nature.So the reason why this threatens the ‘garden of forking paths’ model of free will is that how can we have so many options to choose when determinism has already chosen one for us? This leads us to another central issue, which is: â€Å"Can free will and determinism co-exist? † The two ways philosophers go about considering this question is either with a ‘yes, they can co-exist’ or ‘no, they cannot. ’ If you were to believe that, yes, free will and determinism can co-exist, then you would be considered a compatibilist.Answering no, free will and determinism cannot co-exist, you would be considered an incompatibalist. Peter Van Inwagen, a prominent figure in the philosophy world, created the consequence argument. In his argument, Van Inwagen explains that if determinism is true, then our acts are just a consequence of the laws of nature and events in the remote past. And since it’s no t up to us what went on before we were born nor what the laws of nature are, the consequences of these things (including our present acts) are not up to us (PowerPoint 1, Slide 23).In short, he explains that if determinism were to be true then no one would ever or has ever made a choice on their own about anything. So if no one has power over the facts of the past and the laws of nature and that no one has the power of the fact that the facts of the past and laws of nature entail that only future is possible, therefore, no one has power over the facts of the future. To further demonstrate his reasoning of the consequence argument, Van Inwagen created the No Choice Principle (NCP). In this example, let ‘p’ = â€Å"Plato died long before I was born. † Let ‘q’ = â€Å"I never met Plato. Now, if I have no choice about ‘p’ and no choice about the fact that (if ‘p’ is true, then ‘q’ is necessarily true. Therefore, I have no choice about ‘q’ (PowerPoint 1, Slide 26). How can one have a choice about something that is inevitably going to happen if one has no choice about it happening? Van Inwagen’s consequence argument is based on the NCP. Now, if determinism and free will can co-exist (Compatibilism is true) then the No Choice Principle must be false (Remember, you would have no free will and no choice of ‘q’ happening because it was never in your control to choose so).But, the NCP is not false, therefore the Compatibilism theory is not true and with this being said the free will thesis and theory of determinism cannot co-exist. I believe that free will is incompatible with determinism, but free will exists because the thesis of determinism is false. I choose this opinion because, going to back to the ‘garden of forking paths’ model, if I come across a path with three forks in it I have the ability to not take one or two of those paths and have the ab ility to freely choose which path I would prefer to take.I know that I have the ability to choose because I can take either 3 paths, but I only choose to take the one which I desire most. Determinists may say that I took that path because it was inevitable. Whichever of the 3 paths I took, it would be inevitable that I took it. The reason why I believe in free will and not the coexistence of both free will and determinism, and determinism itself is because there is no way to prove something of happening inevitably in every occasion. Determinists could say that just about anything was inevitable of happening, what’s their proof?

Succesful Entrepreneur

Choose any successful entrepreneur in Malaysia or outside Malaysia. Then explain why you choose he/she as a successful entrepreneur and relate it with entrepreneurial competencies. The person that i choose to be the great entreprenure that become the idol to me is Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. He was a great man that motivate us with his success story that inspired and motivated throughout his success in business activities which can make us to be more discipline and working much harder to achieve their dream. That is just the beginning. Now let’s go personally about him. He’s a mysterious man. Where he does not like to show off the luxurious life. For your information, he is easy to get along with other people. He is not the type of people which love to collect luxury car. He has an old model of Proton Perdana and another one is 20 year’s old Mercedes which he used to use it from time to time. Tan Sri Syed Moktar Al-Bukhari is the entreprenure that is so kind and always make a charity work to help other people. He always donate his money and easily to help people especially the poor people and the orphan. Now we go to his background. He was born into a mid- low class family in north of peninsular Malaysia, whose house was without necessities and luxuries. His highest education was only until form five, and he never went to university. A whole lot of his knowledge and experience was gained through his own entrepreneurship experience during his youth time. Due in part his family's mediocre-to-poor background, Syed Mokhtar al Bukhary had to step into the working world in his early life, while pursuing his primary and secondary studies. Syed Mokhtar helped his mother planting and selling vegetables in the market and also selling roti canai. His numeric knowledge was used to help his father in doing daily book keeping. After finishing school, Syed Mokhtar helped his father in breeding cow business but only to see the business washed away by foot and mouth disease. Nevertheless, he took over the business and start over by selling meats. He then move on to packaging the meats and start selling them wholesale. His determination paid off and the business started to take off. what can we see he have become entreprenure when he was small. His idea to run the bussiness rom the small scale business approve that we cannot only depends on a large-scale business to determine the successfull , but depending on the way we done the business with the continuous quality to make sure the business doing well. Now he have prove to us that he can be the best and succesfull business man even he come from the mid low class family, with the determine and hardworking, he can become the great entrepreneur. Characteristic that should be possessed by successful entrepreneur in order to perform entrepreneurial functions effectively have a several factor. One of the factors is initiative. This characteristic has been show by him when he help his father in breeding cow business. He then become the businessman and start over to selling meat. He then move on to packaging the meats and start selling them wholesale. Because of his initiative he he has managed to expand its business to advance from time to time. Al- bukhary Foundation was established in March 1996 as a charitable act to help the poor, support the development of islamic art and culture and promote understanding between civilization. The main objective of Al- Bukhari Fondation is to promote brotherhood among muslims. This foundation is composed of two parts. One section carries out charitable work, while one part of the management of funds from any company in which Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar no interest in it. Until now, al-Bukhary Foundation spent more than RM300 million for religious activities, culture and education. In addition, Yayasan Al-Bukhary only finance poor students. Among the initiatives that are committed to finance poor Muslim students from around ASEAN to study in Malaysia. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar has show some attitude that he is the person that always help people evenly he has no interest in it. In conclusion, he is the one who concern for high quality of work. As an entreprenure, he acts to do things that meet certain standards of excellence which gives him greater satisfaction. What we can see from his attitude is, he is the one of the successful â€Å"bumiputera† that become the excellence and great billionaire and the one who is then become the icon and idol to the Malaysian. Because of his constribution also, many people has been helped by his Yayasan Al –Bukhary can support they life to go on further and then become the person who is excellence like him.