DNA & The Judicial System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

DNA & The Judicial System - Essay Example Evolution of DNA technology to solve criminal cases is not a new phenomenon. Media has extensively popularized the concept of DNA technology and its role in the fight against crime and injustice. This extensive coverage is not just for the mere reason that the technology is relatively new in the judicial system, but because of its peculiar accuracy in convicting or exonerating suspects. Legislation has been a major issue in the application of DNA technology. These stem from incessant use of the technology in data banking to using DNA tests in post-conviction tests. Originally, the test was developed solely for determining paternity of children. Samples taken under clinical conditions were studied for genetic evidence linking parents to children. The maiden time DNA technology made its way into the judicial system was in 1986. Police in England asked a molecular biologist and researcher, Alec Jeffreys to use DNA tests to verify the validity of 17 year old boy in two cases of sexual as sault in the English Midlands. The twist in the test results that proved the boy to be innocent of the offenses, and a later conviction of the real perpetrator using the same DNA test made DNA testing a technology to revere in the judicial system. In 1987, the first DNA-based conviction took place in the United States. Tommy Lee was convicted in Circuit Courts, Florida within the Orange County for rape. The DNA test on samples of semen collected from a victim matched his DNA construct. This did not, however, change the public and judicial mindset did not take immediate effect until a high court ruled in favor of DNA test. In 1989, the state high court of West Virginia ruled in favor of DNA sample tests on a rape case.... The DNA test on samples of semen collected from a victim matched his DNA construct. This did not, however, change the public and judicial mindset did not take immediate effect until a high court ruled in favor of DNA test. In 1989, the state high court of West Virginia ruled in favor of DNA sample tests on a rape case (Lazer, 2010). The first years of the ground-breaking use of DNA in administering justice did not attract dispute and public uproar. This, however, changed as the technique became more widely used by prosecutors. Defense attorneys began challenging and disputing the admissibility of DNA tests as grounds of administering justice. Admissibility of a new technology in judicial system is determined using two universally agreed standards. These are the Daubert Standard and the Frye Standard. The first standard of admissibility, Daubert Standard originates from 1993 case of Daubert v Merrel Dow Pharmaceuticals. The court ruled during this famous legal tussle that evidence and proof must possess enough scientific reliability and validity to be admitted as relevant scientific knowledge which would be used to assist the trier of facts (Yang, 2011). The earlier standard named Frye Standard is based in a 1923 case of Frye v United States. During this important ruling, the court pronounced that in order for a novel scientific technology to be admissible, scientific evidence must be thoroughly established to have acquired general acceptance in the field that it belongs. Considering the two standards of admissibility of technology, it would be level-minded to conclude that DNA technology meets the criteria of determining admissibility. The technology belongs to the field of medicine and clinical practices (Ze-Lian & Drew, 2008). Prior to its usage in the

University education Essay Example for Free

University education Essay Summary: This article is about the various different ideas to influence college students to attend class. Several professors feel that by using the students’ attendance and their class participation as part of their grade that more students would attend class. Studies show that students who attend class are more likely to get higher graduation rates. Some students feel that the information taught in class should also be available online, which results in students not coming to class. The researchers are saying that by the professors pleasing the students, has led to easier classes where students don’t learn as much as they used to. Ultimately, the choice is the students and the ones that show up to class are the ones getting the most information, and higher success rates. Essay: College attendance rates are going down as well as graduation rates. College students wonder why there not graduating or passing their classes. I’ll tell you why several students are failing. Students have a responsibility to show up to class to learn the information taught so they can pass, but if students don’t show up they can’t receive that information. So with students not going to class they don’t receive all the information needed to pass test, exams, and complete homework assignments. Should attendance be a part of the students’ grade? I feel that if the students’ attendance is incorporated into their grade that more students are going to get lower grades. The students are there to better themselves and if they don’t want to show up to class then they are only hurting themselves. The students know that if they don’t attend class then they won’t receive all the information to do well and pass the class. I agree with researcher Marcus Crede that mandatory attendance at the college level is the wrong approach. Professors should influence their students to come to class in other ways than using attendance as part of their grade. The easiest solution to this problem is for the students to attend class. All college students shouldn’t have to be told this because they know what is expected of them and what they have to do to pass. Graduation rates should increase as long as the students attend class and pay attention. Students’ attendance shouldn’t have to be a percentage of their grade, but if that’s what it takes to increase graduation rates then that’s what will have to happen. So if you want to be a successful college student you need to attend class, pay attention, and study for your test and exams. Reflection: I feel that I did a good job explaining the key points of the article in my own words. Also I think that I put all the key points in the correct paragraphs. My weaknesses are repeating myself in different words. Also not explaining my thoughts clearly and easily understood. I used too many of my own thoughts without any examples from the text to explain my thoughts.

Chief Seattle Essay -- Biography History Indians Native American Essay

Chief Seattle When stories are told about the American Indian it is usually the Indians that are looked upon as the heathens. They are portrayed as savages who spent most of their time raiding wagon trains and scalping the white settlers just for fun. The media has lead us to believe that the American government was forced to take the land from these savage Indians. We should put the blame where it belongs, on the U.S. Government who lied, cheated, and stole from the Indians forcing many Indian leaders to surrender not only their tribes but their nation in order to save the lives of their people. Among the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, perhaps the best known may be Chief Seattle. Chief Seattle (more correctly known as Seathl or Sealth) was born sometime between 1786-1790 on Blake Island at the campsite of his ancestors. Blake Island lies south and a little east of Bainbridge Island and west and a little south of Seattle. Seattle was the son of Suquamish leader named Schweabe and a Duwamish woman named Scholitza. He became Chief of the Suquamish, Duwamish, and allied Salish speaking tribes by proving his leadership qualities in a war that pitted his and other saltwater tribes against those of the Green and White Rivers. (1) He was considered to be Duwamish since his mother was the daughter of a Duwamish chief and the line of descent passed matrilineally. This was sometimes the case when fathers died while their son's were was still young and the mother would return to her tribe to raise the children. The Duwamish lived on the Duwamish River and various islands across the P uget Sound. Seattle was married twice, his first wife Ladaila, died after bearing one daughter, Kiksomlo, known as "Angeline". His second wife, Oiahl, had three daughters all of whom died young and two boys, George and Seeanumpkin. (2) In 1792, Captain George Vancouver anchored off Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. Seattle, according to the recollections of various old-timers, often spoke of seeing the ship and being impressed with the guns, steel, and other goods. Seattle was known for his courage, daring and leadership during his youth. Throughout the violent periods, Seattle remained a steadfast and loyal friend of the settlers and encouraged the Indians to remain peaceful. He gained control of six of the local tribes and continued the friendly relation... ... the two teams that didn't have any uniforms. Now I look back and for all I know maybe they couldn't afford any. While I was in high school I remember driving with my friends to the Indian reservations to buy illegal fireworks. I never really gave it much thought beyond the fact that they were places to get illegal fireworks. Anyway, like I wrote earlier "this is just two examples that I have experienced while growing up in Washington State". This class truly has been a learning experience. Works Cited (1) Ells, Myron. The Indians of Puget Sound. University of Washington Press: Seattle, 1985 (2) Jeffers, Susan. Brother Eagle, Sister Sky. Dial Books: New York, 1991 (3) Sturtevant, William. Handbook of North American Indians. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, 1990 (4) Dockstader, Frederick. Great North American Indians. Litton Educational Publishing: New York, 1977 (5) Ruby, Robert. Indians of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1981 (6) Deloria, Vine. Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Double Day And Company: New York, 1977 (7) Schwantes, Carlos. The Pacific Northwest. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1989

English as a second language

Since many years ago in Costa Rica has been implemented English as a second language in educational institutions. Thence, there have been a lot of teachers in order to teach this language to our students during elementary school and high school. However, this goal has been limited and in most cases is not met. This is because many of the teachers do not have basis and rationale for teaching, in many schools across the country many of them do not speak the language or by 50%, do not have good pronunciation, grammar is incoherent and they don ‘t have secretaries skills to teach.Taking this as a starting point we can reach the conclusion of the importance of linguistics and how some of its branches can help teachers improve their classes. Some of these branches that teachers must considered in order to improve their classes are the following: sociolinguistic, phonology linguistic and second language acquisition. All teachers must know how people speak in the society, to understand this topic we have sociolinguistic that is precisely what is responsible for studying the way people speak in a specific society.Sociolinguistic contains many fields which is very important to know because it could help us improve the classes. Why? According with sociolinguistic one of the aspect that it consider is education, the more educated you are the better you speak that is really important; besides, gender is other aspect that you have to dominate especially when you need sort in which we are referring to man or woman, it said women speak better than men, they use more words and sentences it is something we should Consider when you are teaching.In other hands, the idioms should take into account, because we must know that in any region have idioms it means word that simplify a group of words, students must learn about it because may be they will be in contact with foreign people in a Job or they travel to another country.Also, is necessary to know about slang, this is what is known as vulgar vocabulary, as we student usually ask about expressions that they hear, as a teacher we must direct them which of these expressions must use according to the context. In addition, there are phrases that people use to soften the real meaning of a word (euphemism) for example, make love – copulate, teachers should know about these concepts because are synonyms in which is a topic that is taught in Costa Rica ‘s educative system.Race is another aspect very important to know, it determine the way that some people speak a language, for example, if a teacher teach Spanish at USA, especially in a state where most of the people speak Black American English, he or she must know that they reduce vowels, verb to be is deleted, they use â€Å"you was and they was† instead of â€Å"you were and they were†, etc. In order to understand the phrases.Also in sociolinguistic there is an especial meaning which is evolution, this is divided into two categori es nee of them is â€Å"pidgin† (using a language that is not our language is Just to survive) and the other is Creole or native language, this one is very important to take account because here at Costa Rica we have Lemon is a province where most of the people speak Creole from Jamaica, this kind of language is not totally perfect for example; obsolete – me I GU mausoleum – I is good and idiolect – I am good; if a teacher is teaching in Lemon must of knowing interpreter these terms and try to correct them to speak at a correct way.Another aspect teachers must consider is profession, as we know occupations is another topic that needs to be taught at high school, according with professions people use technical words belong to a specific occupations, so teacher must teach to the student how to associate a specific word with an occupation, for example, legal-lower, trauma-doctor.To teach this topic the teacher can use cards, board games combining words adapt ed to occupations related to the profession and the profession name. Phonology study of phonemes-phoneme is the basic unit of sounds (pronunciation, accent, stress); with doubt, if a teacher has enough knowledge about their class will e improved considerably, now days most of the schools in Costa Rica must teach speaking English, to make students acquire a good pronunciation teachers have to emphasize vowel sounds.Also they need to know about diphthongs which is the combination of vowels. There are many kinds of activities to teach vowels especially in school, but the most effective one is audiovisual, fortunately now days the technology is closer to everyone, in most of the schools have video beam, laptops and speakers with these tools teachers can play, songs, videos in order to learn vowel sounds.In other hands, consonants are very important, remember that consonants are divided by two categories mainly which are the following: voiced (vocal cords vibrate) and voiceless (vocal co rds don ;t vibrate), one of the main challenges facing teachers is to get students learn the correctly pronounce the words, so they have to let students know about the differences between consonants; one technique to obtain good results is make students work in groups, where they repeat the words identifying what has vibration and what not.To make easier this teaching the teacher would watch and guide students with the sounds and indicate when are continuant or stop, internal, alveolar-ridge, affricative or fricative and retroflex, certainly not due to give many details about this, but if we can do a little explanation Just let students learn to identify sounds.To end this essay, we must recognize that linguistic is very important and it should be known by teachers to make their lessons better, we know that to teach a second language teachers must know how do people speak in a society determined with all the fields of linguistic, such as, education, gender, idioms, slang, race, evol ution, reversion, it is what we know as sociolinguistic.Also, teachers should implement techniques and activities such as audiovisual presentations to recognize the sounds of the vowels, in the other hand, for recognizing the consonant sounds one very effective technique is group formation where students learn to recognize when the consonants has vibration or not, of course, with the guidance and help of the teacher who must have extensive knowledge of all the implications in the pronunciation of consonants for example when are continuant or stop, internal, alveolar-ridge, affricative or fricative and retroflex.

Law of Xenia

Law of Xenia Xenia, the Greek term for the Laws of Hospitality, The custom in classical Greece and other ancient cultures that, if a traveler comes to a strange town, he can ask for food, shelter, and gifts to help him on his journey. In Greek tradition, the host was considered responsible for his guest's comfort and safety, and a breach of those laws of hospitality was thought to anger Zeus, God of the gods.In the Odyssey there are a few instances in which the law of Xenia is broken, quite a few of those belong in book nine of the Odyssey, in which Odysseus and his men are lured into a Cyclops’ cave in which the owner, Polypheus, is angered and doesn’t care about the law of Xenia. One example in which Polyphemus breaks Xenia is, when he fails in offering Odysseus a drink or some food instead he rudely frightens them and ask them impolitely who they are and what they were doing in his cave.Polyphemus violates the law again when he eats some of Odysseus men, Xenia prohib its the host to make their guest unhappy, much less eat them. Although sometimes hosts disliked their guests and even disliked Xenia, they only followed it in fear of Zeus, Polyphemus son of Poseidon, believed that his father would protect him of Zeus and his wrath, so he broke the law once more by keeping Odysseus and his men inside his cave. He then even proclaimed that he wasn’t afraid of Zeus punishment for breaking Xenia relying on his father, Poseidon.When Odysseus asks for his gift for being the guest at the Cyclops’ house the Cyclops reacts in anger, a common rule of Xenia is to present their guest with a precious gift but in this case he laughs and eats a few more men. At last, Odysseus manages to escape captivity by stabbing the large eye of Polyphemus. The Cyclops infuriated brings a curse upon him; for Odysseus to never reach his land, for the last time violating Xenia by casting a spell on his guests.