After Decades in Institutions, a Bumpy Journey to a New Life by Rachel Article

After Decades in Institutions, a Bumpy Journey to a New Life by Rachel L. Swarns The paper "After Decades in Institutions, a Bumpy Journey to a New Life by Rachel L. Swarns" is an exceptional example of an educational article review. In my mind, Rachel L. Swarns provides a great picture of both the positives and negatives of moving terminally ill patients from state hospitals back into society. While I understand the reason behind it, many older people have lived all their lives in specialized care homes, so they have no knowledge of the outside world. The people that should be moved out of state care could be younger people, say under the age of 30. Patients of this age are more likely to be able to integrate into society because they have more time to do so and have probably only been institutionalized for a few short years. This is not the same case with elder patients, such as Wally Burns, who is 51-years-old. Mr. Burns is at a stage in his life where he will not be able to reintegrate back into the community because he will not know how to handle it. One of the reasons for this is that life is very different from the 60s when Mr. Burns was a young boy. While I can understand why some states are implementing these measures, I feel that the process should be much slower so that time can be taken to help older patients find themselves in society. Patients like Wally Burns require a high level of care, a level of care that may not be met where Mr. Burns will end up.

Effect of Stress on the Immune System Research Paper

Effect of Stress on the Immune System - Research Paper Example Increased stress could make the immune system weaker and could lead to death. Aging Immune System The immune system changes a lot during the aging process. The numbers of cells that are associated with the immune system reduce significantly. The remaining cells may not be able to handle all the immune related responsibilities leading to low immunity. The immune system is comprised of two systems; the Innate Immune system and the Acquired Immune system. Innate Immunity in Aging The innate or natural immune system is made by the bone marrow and the thymus. Scientists have consistently claimed that the size of the thymus reduces in size a person’s age. This is characterized by the loss of the thymus epithelia cells, which are important for the production of immune cells. This leads to a decrease in the number of T cells including the CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ and the B cells. There is an increase in production of the Natural Killer Cells (NK) with the comprehensive cytotoxic function. The decline in especially the CD8+ leads to the vulnerability of bacterial and viral infections. CD95 cells become exhausted as people age and the remaining virgin CD95 cells are replaced by large clonal expansions of the CD28 cells, which lead to less proliferative capacity. Inflammatory cytokines, which are produced by the persistent viral and bacterial infections increase during the aging process. They increase the cases of inflammatory pathogenesis. In fact, most of the elderly have inflammations at some parts of their body.i Acquired Immunity in Aging Acquired immunity is the responsibility of the spleen and the lymph nodes. The spleen produces the B cells which are associated with the production of the antibodies. Aging has been found to alter the expression of the system responsible for the production of these cells. One, there is a decrease in the number of cells produced. Secondly, there is impaired induction f E47 and activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) which are i mportant for class switch recombination (CSR) leading to defects in production of secondary isotopes of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG3, IgE antibodies. Aging has also been associated with the overproduction of the Id2 which regulates the E47 negatively.ii Another theory of acquired immunity change in aging points out that the B cells produce antibodies but they have low affinity. Usually, aging leads to change in isotypes related to production of the various antibodies. At the same time, there are few naive B cells in the elderly people meaning that there not many antibodies that can be produced. The already recruited B cells do not have good memory making it a challenge for them to detect previous pathogens detected in the past. Low affinity and low production of the antibodies cannot detect the pathogens effectively showing that the immune system is weak. The body is therefore unable to respond to infections accordingly. iii Effect of Nutrition on Immunity in Aging The elderly people, especial ly those above sixty years, do not take nutrition seriously. According to Gorczynski and Terzioglu (2008),iv most elderly people lack important nutrients. They claim that most of these people have deficiencies in zinc, iron, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Ubiquinone and selenium. Zinc is important in the activation of the immune system; iron plays a role in oxidative reaction immunity, vitamins are important in the modulation of cytokines and Ubiquinone influences the

Why Some Employers Are Reluctant to Address the Issue on Workplace Term Paper

Why Some Employers Are Reluctant to Address the Issue on Workplace Bullying - Term Paper Example A good complaint resolution scheme should include an option for the employee to talk directly to the bully with or without mediation. On the other hand, if the employee prefers to let the company mediate, he or she should be given the option to request for informal or formal resolution of the issue. An informal process of resolving issues of bullying in the workplace is much faster and less stressful for everyone (Uff, 2006). This approach is usually effective to resolve informal complaints of an employee. Simple incidents of bullying that do not require the company to effect punishments against the employee or employees involved should be resolved through an informal process (Uff, 2006). In most cases, â€Å"an informal resolution process takes the no-blame approach to the issue and both parties are asked to come to an amicable agreement to refrain from committing any acts that constitute bullying towards each other† (Ontario Safety Association For Community and Health Care, 2009).While the informal resolution is quick and does not carry with it certain punishments, a formal resolution process is usually associated with the exhaustive investigation, mediation and giving appropriate punishments against the guilty party (Ontario Safety Association For Community and Health Care, 2009). The formal resolution process usually involve (a) the lodging of a formal complaint, (b) an initial response where the human resource officer or any designated person meets separately with the parties involved in the allege bullying incident, (c) the appointment of an investigator to look into the matter, (d) the appointment of an investigator after the initial meeting with the parties, (e) conduct of the actual investigation, (f) presentation of findings, (g) appeal on the findings and decision of the investigating team, and (h) final resolution (Ontario Safety Association For Community and Health Care, 2009).