Next Plc of UK Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Next Plc of UK - Case Study Example "A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices." (Strategy - Competitive Advantage: Competitive Advantage - Definition. 2008). This has high relevance in the context of the increased competition the company is facing from newly industrialized nations like India, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The report is also intended to provide required recommendations for Next to solve the issues faced by it in the present market. Next Plc is a retail cloth major that is headquartered in England. The company belongs to the clothing market of UK, which is the second biggest textile and clothing market in European Union. The major share of clothing market in UK accounts for the apparels for women, girls and children. "Womenswear is the largest sector within the market in general, clothing for women and children is worth double the market for men and boyswear." (Clothing Retailers Market Assessment: Largest Sector. 2000). Considering the higher boom in the industry the clothing retailers are at a higher growth pace in the market. The clothing market of UK can be split into everyday wear, high street fashion and top end ready to wear. The market players include right mix of departmental stores and fashion retailers. The major player in the industry is Marks and Spencer whose market share is 15% of the overall market. The most influencing governmental regulation for the industry has been the minimum wage. Due to t his regulation that added more on the costing structure, many companies had moved out of UK. The company that is been mentioned in the assignment is Next Plc which is one of the leading cloth retailer in UK. The company was formed in the year 1982 as a new meaning for the fashion industry. "Next plc designs, manufactures, and distributes clothing and home furnishing and accessory items to nearly 330 Next retail stores and through the company's Next Directory mail order sales catalog." (Next Plc: Company Perspectives: Company History. 2008). The company was able to capture a good share of market in a short period of time with their good branding and marketing strategies. The products of Next are characterized by style, quality and value for money. Currently Next has 460 stores in UK and over 100 franchisees outside the country. The company gives higher priority for customer service as a strategy to capture more and more market. Based on the analysis of Next on the basis of Porter's Five Force model, three areas of concern can be identified for the company. The three areas of concern for the company are market penetration, consolidation and product and market development. Market penetration is a cause of concern for the company especially in the present situation of increased competition. The threat of new entrants is higher in the case of cloth industry. And also the increased bargaining power of buyers will contribute to the competition. The strategy to be adopted by the company is increased product promotion. The product range of the company can also be improved on the

The Importance of Creating a Learning Environment in which Diversity Essay

The Importance of Creating a Learning Environment in which Diversity is Respected - Essay Example In order to ensure respect for diversity in learning, teachers must focus and be interested in all students equally. They should employ flexibility in the teaching process for consideration of all students. Additionally, to avoid biased learning outcomes, instructors must utilize curriculum and other resources in which there is a representation of both male and female genders (Standard 52). When there is respect of diversity in the learning environment, a student will be informed and have a better understanding of the dynamics in life, careers, and relationships in the modern world. Students who are exposed to a learning environment where there is respect for diversity are more likely to become good citizens and leaders in the new emerging global community. Therefore, the student develops both academically and socially. Additionally, such an environment boosts the confidence levels of students, raises their expectations about the future, and makes them discover their potential and talents. Similarly, this raises the educational outcomes of students and presents them with an enriched learning experience. Students therefore become productive and culturally literate citizens of their country and the

The Cold War in the 1960s Essay Example for Free

The Cold War in the 1960s Essay LBJ and the Escalation of the War * Credibility * Feb 1965: air strikes started * July 1965: ground troops * Why there was no military victory in Vietnam? * The strength of the enemy * The weakness of the South Vietnamese Government * Guerilla war in Vietnam * Limited war in Vietnam * Search-and-destroy vs. clear-and-hold * The media * A Multitude of Movements Student Rebellions, The New Left, and the counter cultural movement * SDS (1960) and its goals * 1964 UC Berkeley and student rebellion * Cultural radicals: the hippies * The Rise of Feminism * Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique * 1968: the year of upheaval * January: the Tet Offensive and the credibility gap * March: LBJ would not run again for president * April: MLK assassinated * June: Bobby Kennedy assassinated * August: the Democratic National Convention at Chicago became a street fight * Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Nixon, and the 1968 election * The challenge from George Wallace Troubles all around the world * NIXON, KISSINGER amp; DETENTE * Nixon, Henry Kissinger and geo-politics * Sino-Soviet split and the triangular diplomacy * Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I (SALT I) * Nixon’s war in Vietnam * June 1971, Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers * Paris Peace Treaty (1973) * The fall of Saigon (1975) * The Nixon Doctrine * Detente and the limit of US Power.

Cryptography: Types, Methods and Uses

Cryptography: Types, Methods and Uses CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction to Cryptography Cryptography is art of writing and reading the secret information. It is used to send the information between the various participants. It can be used in such a manner so that it could not be seen by the others. Cryptography is used to prevent the information from the attacker. It provides various services as : Integrity checking Authentication Confidentiality In case of integrity checking recipient thinks that the message is alter by the third party or attacker. Hence the user assures the recipient that the message has not been altered by any other source. In case of authentication the identity of the person is check by the user. The user verifies the identity of the person and handle over the right to use the particular data. In case of confidentiality the attacker watch the data carefully when it send from user to recipient. The third party can’t change the data. The message which is in the original form is known as the plaintext. The user encrypted the message before sending to the recipient is known as cipher text. When the cipher text is produces from plaintext, this process is known as encryption. [1]. The reverse process of encryption is called decryption. In the cryptographic systems an algorithm and a key is used. The key is known as the secret value. Cryptography is a field of computer networks which transforms (encrypts) the information (plain text) into an unreadable form (cipher text). And this cipher text can be decrypted only with the help of a secret key. Cryptography acts as a method of keeping the information secret. Cryptography protects the information by using mathematics in science. Electronic security is a major issue as various forms of electronic media and internet are becoming more prevalent. Cryptography is used to secure the data and to prevent the data from various attacks. Cryptography is necessary when communicating over any un-trusted medium. Authentication, digital signatures, e-commerce are major applications of cryptography. Generally in the cryptographic systems it can broadly classified into two systems. Symmetric key systems. Public key systems. In the symmetric key cryptography, single key is used for the encryption and the decryption purpose. The same key is used at the sender and the recipient side. On the other hand, in case of public key system, two types of keys are required. One is the public key and other one is the private key. Public key is known to all but the private key is known only to the recipient of messages uses. One of the techniques used in Cryptography is known as the visual cryptography. It is a cryptographic technique, which allows visual information to encrypt. The data is encrypted in such a way that decryption becomes a mechanical operation. For these kinds of operations computer is not required. Earlier the developers used visual secret sharing scheme. In this scheme the image was broken into many parts. The third party thinks that all these parts are used to decrypt the image. But the n − 1 parts of the image revealed no information about the original image. In this technique each part has its separate transparency. The decryption is performed by overlaying the parts. When all the parts were overlaid, then the original image would appear. Cryptogra phy is the technique, which is used to protect the information from the external viewers. It plays a vital role in security. The public key encryption and decryption is one of the most important types of cryptography. In public key cryptography the key should be unique. There are two ways of key production. The first one is mathematical like AES, DES and the other one is based on the theory of natural selection. The multimedia technology plays an important role in our society. In this case the digital images play a very important role. The digital images are used to fulfil the security and privacy in various applications. Encryption of image plays a very important role; it helps to save the image from the unauthorized attack. Many solutions are providing to save this image; one of the techniques is mask the image data. For the encryption purpose many algorithms are required, such as [2] : DES AES RSA Broadly, Cryptographic systems provide us three types of cryptographic algorithms namely, Secret Key Cryptography (SKC), Public Key Cryptography (PKC) and Hash Functions [3]. The Secret Key Cryptography (SKC) uses a single (same) key for the process of encryption and decryption. The most commonly SKC algorithms used now-a-days include: 1.2 Data Encryption Standard (DES) It was designed in 1970’s by IBM and was ratified in 1977 by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) for commercial use. It is a block cipher that operates on 64-bit blocks employing a 56-bit key and 16 rounds [4]. Although DES has been around long back but no real weakness has been identified. The biggest disadvantage of DES is the 56 bit key size. 1.3 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) It was designed by Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen and was introduced in 1998. The algorithm can use fickle key length and block length. The key length can include 128, 192, or 256 bits and block length can be of 128, 192, or 256 bits [5].AES is a highly efficient and secure algorithm. The drawback lies in its processing as it requires more processing. 1.4 Rivest Cipher (RC) Ronald Rivest developed this algorithm and thus, the name of the algorithm was put after Ronald’s Rivest name. It provides a series of RC algorithms including RC1, RC2, RC3, RC4, RC5 and RC6 [6]. 1.5 Blowfish It was developed by Bruce Schneie and was first published in the year 1993. This block cipher has 8 rounds, having the block size is of 64 bits and the key length can vary from 32 to 448 bits. Blowfish was proposed as a substitute was DES [7]. This algorithm is significantly faster than other algorithms and the key strength is excellent. Blowfish algorithm is apt only for applications where the key mostly remains the same. The Public Key Cryptography (PKC) uses one (public) key for encryption and another (private) key for decryption. The PKC algorithms that are in use today are: 1.6 RSA The RSA algorithm was publicly described in 1977 by Ron Rivest,Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman at MIT; the letters RSA are the initials of their surnames, listed in the same order as on the paper. RSA is a cryptosystem, which is known as one of the first practicable public-key cryptosystems and is widely used for secure data transmission. In such a cryptosystem, the encryption key is public and differs from the decryption key which is kept secret. In RSA, this asymmetry is based on the practical difficulty of factoring the product of two large prime numbers, the factoring problem. RSA stands for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who first publicly described the algorithm in 1977. Clifford Cocks, an English mathematician, had developed an equivalent system in 1973, but it wasnt declassified until 1997. A user of RSA creates and then publishes the product of two large prime numbers, along with an auxiliary value, as their public key. The prime factors must be kept secret. Anyone can use the public key to encrypt a message, but with currently published methods, if the public key is large enough, only someone with knowledge of the prime factors can feasibly decode the message. Breaking RSA encryption is known as the RSA problem. It is an open question whether it is as hard as the factoring problem. The system includes a communications channel coupled to at least one terminal having an encoding device and to at least one terminal having a decoding device. A message-to be- transferred is enciphered to cipher text at the encoding terminal by encoding the message as a number M in a predetermined set. That number is then raised to a first predetermined power (associated with the intended receiver) and finally computed. The remainder or residue, C, is computed when the exponentiated number is divided by the product of two predetermined prime numbers (associated with the intended receiver). Operation of RSA The RSA algorithm involves three steps: Key Generation Encryption Decryption. 1.6.1 Key Generation RSA involves a public key and a private key. The public key can be known by everyone and is used for encrypting messages. Messages encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted in a reasonable amount of time using the private key. The keys for the RSA algorithm are generated the following way: Choose two distinct prime numbers p and q. For security purposes, the integers p and q should be chosen at random, and should be of similar bit-length. Prime integers can be efficiently found using a primarily test. Compute n = pq.n is used as the modulus for both the public and private keys. Its length, usually expressed in bits, is the key length. Compute φ(n) = φ(p)φ(q) = (p − 1)(q − 1), where φ is Eulers totient function Choose an integer e such that 1 e is released as the public key exponent. e having a short bit-length and small Hamming weight results in more efficient encryption – most commonly 216 + 1 = 65,537. However, much smaller values of (such as 3) have been shown to be less secure in some settings. Determine d as d ≠¡ e−1 (mod φ(n)); i.e., d is the multiplicative inverse of e (modulo φ(n)). This is more clearly stated as: solve for d given d.e ≠¡ 1 (mod φ(n)) This is often computed using the extended Euclidean algorithm. Using the pseudo code in the Modular integers section, inputs a and n correspond to e and (n), respectively. d is kept as the private key exponent. The public key consists of the modulus n and the public (or encryption) exponent e. The private key consists of the modulus n and the private (or decryption) exponent d, which must be kept secret. p, q, and φ(n) must also be kept secret because they can be used to calculate d. 1.6.2 Encryption A transmits her public key (n, e) to B and keeps the private key secret. B then wishes to send message M to A. He first turns M into an integer m, such that 0 _ m by using an agreed-upon reversible protocol known as a padding scheme. He then computes the ciphertext c corresponding to c = memod(n) 1.6.3 Decryption We can recover message m from c by using her private key exponent d via computing Given m, we can recover the original message M by reversing the padding scheme.(In practice, there are more efficient methods of calculating cd using the precomputed values below.) 1.7 Enhanced RSA The RSA algorithm based on the variable N which consisting of multiplying each of the P and q, which are relying on that of where to find the variable d, as the variable d is, hence the higher value of n. The variable d increases its size, the higher value of p and q the value of d increases, which means that the algorithm depends entirely on the adoption of the prime numbers because they generate a key d, depending on p and q are already primes numbers. The weaknesses of RSA algorithm when we use two prime’s number are the following points which are used to break the algorithm in most cases. These weaknesses are: (a) Small encryption exponent, if you use a small exponent like e=3 and send the same message to different recipients. (b) Using the same key for encryption and signing. (c) Acting as an oracle: there are techniques to recover the plaintext if a user just blindly returns the RSA transformation of the input. The idea of the new approach is, instead of using two primes numbers to generate a public key and private key, we use three primes numbers with reduced size, generates the variable N Large and the process of analysis of the factors is more difficult than the original algorithm, as well as, increases the ease of generating Public key and private key. The key strength of the RSA depends on the two prime numbers p and q. The process of factorizing of n will lead to gain the values of p and q. It is much easier to find two numbers from factoring n than finding the value of three numbers from n. In this case it is very difficult for the intruder to find the three values from factoring n. 1.7.1 Key Generation in Enhanced RSA (a) Choose three distinct prime numbers p, q and s. (b) Find n such that n = p*q*s.n will be used as the modulus for both the public and private keys. (c) Find the Phi of n, à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¹ (n) = (p-1)(q-1)(s-1). (d) Choose an e such that 1 (e) Determine d which satisfies the congruence relation d*eà ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ º 1(modà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¹(n)) In other words, pick d such that de 1 can be evenly divided by (p- 1)(q-1)(s-1), the Phi, or à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¹(n).This is often computed using the Extended Euclidean Algorithm, since e and à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¹(n) are relatively prime and d is to be the modular multiplicative inverse of e*d is kept as the private key exponent. The public key has modulus n and the public (or encryption) exponent e. The private key has modulus n and the private (or decryption) exponent d, which is kept secret .The encryption equation is c à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¹ me (mod n) and the decryption one is m à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ º cd (mod n). 1.8 Diffie Hellman This algorithm was introduced in1976 by Diffie-Hellman. The Diffie-Hellman algorithm grants two users to establish a shared secret key and to communicate over an insecure communication channel [10]. One way authentication is free with this type of algorithm. The biggest limitation of this kind of algorithm is communication made using this algorithm is itself vulnerable to man in the middle attack [11]. Diffie–Hellman establishes a shared secret that can be used for secret communications while exchanging data over a public network. The following diagram illustrates the general idea of the key exchange by using colors instead of a very large number. The crucial part of the process is that Aand B exchange their secret colors in a mix only. Finally this generates an identical key that is mathematically difficult (impossible for modern supercomputers to do in a reasonable amount of time) to reverse for another party that might have been listening in on them. A and B now use this co mmon secret to encrypt and decrypt their sent and received data. Note that the starting color (yellow) is arbitrary, but is agreed on in advance by A and B. The starting color is assumed to be known to any eavesdropping opponent. It may even be public. 1.8.1 Explanation including encryption mathematics The simplest and the original implementation of the protocol uses the multiplicative group of integers modulo p, where p is prime and g is primitive root mod p. Here is an example of the protocol, with nonsecret values in blue, and secret values in red. Small integers are used for clarity, but actual implementations require using much larger numbers to achieve security. Fig 1.1 Process of Diffie Hellman 1. p = 23 and base g = 5. 2. A chooses a secret integer a = 6, then sends B A = ga mod p A = 56 mod 23 A = 15,625 mod 23 A = 8 3. B chooses a secret integer b = 15, then sends A B = gb mod p B = 515 mod 23 B = 30,517,578,125 mod 23 B = 19 4. A computes s = Ba mod p s = 196 mod 23 s = 47,045,881 mod 23 s = 2 5. Bob computes s = Ab mod p s = 815 mod 23 s = 35,184,372,088,832 mod 23 s = 2 6. A and B now share a secret (the number 2) because 6 Ãâ€" 15 is the same as 15 Ãâ€" 6. Both A and B have arrived at the same value, because (ga)b and (gb)a are equal mod p. Note that only a, b, and (gab gba mod p) are kept secret. All the other values – p, g, ga mod p, and gb mod p – are sent in the clear. Once A and B compute the shared secret they can use it as an encryption key, known only to them, for sending messages across the same open communications channel. Of course, much larger values of a, b, and p would be needed to make this example secure, since there are only 23 possible results of n mod 23. However, if p is a prime of at least 300 digits, and a and b are at least 100 digits long, then even the fastest modern computers cannot find a given only g, p, gb mod p and g amod p. The problem such a computer needs to solve is called the discrete logarithm problem. 1.9 El-Gamal It was developed in the year 1984 by Taher Elgamal. It is an asymmetric key algorithm and is based on Diffie-Hellman key exchange. ElGamal encryption can be described over anycyclic groupG. The security relies upon the issue of a problem inGrelated to computing discrete logarithms [12]. Fast generalized encryption for long messages and data expansion rate are the two biggest advantages of this algorithm [13]. The chief drawback of ElGamal is the requirement for randomness and its slower speed [14]. ElGamal encryption can be defined over any cyclic group G. Its security depends upon the difficulty of a certain problem in G related to computing discrete logarithms. The Algorithm ElGamal encryption consists of three components: the key generator, the encryption algorithm, and the decryption algorithm. 1.9.1 Key Generation The key generator works as follows: It generates an efficient description of a multiplicative cyclic group G of order q with generator g. Sender chooses a random x from (1,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦q-1) He computes h= gx A publishes h , along with the description of G,q,g , as her public key. He retains x as her private key which must be kept secret. Fig 1.2 El-Gamal Algorithm 1.9.2 Example of El-Gamal Algorithm: Fig 1.3 Example of El-Gamal Algorithm. Hash Functions, also known as message digest, are the algorithms that do not use any key. Based upon the plain text, a fixed length hash value is generated.Hash algorithms that are commonly used today include: 1.10 Message Digest (MD) algorithms It produces a hash value of 128 bit from an arbitrary length message. The MD series includes MD2, MD4 and MD5 [11]. 1.10.1 MD5 algorithm The MD5 algorithm was developed by Rivest in 1991 and is an extension of the MD4 message-digest algorithm and is bit slower than MD4. This algorithm results in a 128 bit hash value. It is mostly used in security based applications. MD5 is more secure than MD4 [15]. It is suitable to use for standard file verifications but it has some flaws and therefore, it is not useful for advanced encryption applications [16].

Analysis of G-Protein Coupled Receptor 12

Analysis of G-Protein Coupled Receptor 12 ABSTRACT: G-Protein Coupled Receptor 12 (GPR12) belongs to the orphan GPCR family which is the same of the GPR3 and GPR6. Homology model for the protein GPR12 was generated from the SWISS-MODEL website which showed an all alpha motif with seven transmembrane ÃŽÂ ± -helix interconnected by loops. GPR12 acts through the cyclic Adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway and promotes neurite outgrowth in primary neurons which can be used to slow down the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. The gene of GPR12 is located in the chromosome 13q12.13 for human, 12p11 for rat and 5; 5 G3 for a mouse with the size of 5.6 kbp, 3.4 kbp, and 4.3 kbp. Four current ongoing clinical trials studies on GPR12 was found on clinicaltrials.gov. G-Protein Coupled Receptor 12 (GPR12) belongs to the orphan GPCR family which is the same of the GPR3 and GPR6 (Ignatov et al., 2003a; Ignatov et al., 2003b). GPR 12 family members are constitutively activated and initiate the cAMP signaling cascades (Ignatov et al., 2003a). It is reported that GPR12 promote neurite extension in primary neurons (Ignatov et al., 2003a). The sequence identity of GPR12 is similar to GPCR S1P5 by 34%, GPR3 by 57% and GPR6 by 58% (Ignatov et al., 2003a; Ignatov et al., 2003b). Hence, it is hypothesized that the orphan receptors might share common ligands and also have similar physiological functions (Uhlenbrock et al., 2002; Tanaka et al., 2007). GPR12 has a high binding affinity towards Sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC) (Uhlenbrock et al., 2002). GPR 12 also binds with Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)   with low affinity (Uhlenbrock et al., 2002). GPR12 family members are constantly activated and cAMP downstream signaling cascades initiated (Uhlenbro ck et al., 2002; Ignatov et al., 2003a). This persistent activation promotes neurite extension in primary neurons (Tanaka et al., 2007). GPR12 belongs to the orphan GPCR family which is the same of the GPR3 and GPR6 (Ignatov et al., 2003a; Ignatov et al., 2003b). According to Horn et al., GPR12 belongs to the  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   GPCRs, Class A Rhodopsin-like subfamily with all other Orphan GPCR receptors (Horn et al., 2003). 2.1. Structure: A search was conducted for GPR12 in the RCSB protein data bank to identify the protein structure of G-Protein Coupled Receptor 12. There were no matches found in the search which is shown in figure 1.   Hence, a Homology model for the protein was generated from the SWISS-MODEL website, 27.41% sequence identity was indicated for Cannabinoid receptor 1 (Flavodoxin). Flavodoxin, Cannabinoid receptor one was chosen as the template, and a 3D structural model was generated for GPR12 from the template which is shown in the figures 2a and 2b. The GMQE (Global Model Quality Estimation) and Q-Mean value for the generated protein 0.56 and -4.28. The generated protein showed an all alpha motif with seven transmembrane ÃŽÂ ± -helix interconnected by loops forming four extracellular topological domains and four cytoplasmic topological domains. The alignment of protein sequence between Human GPR12 and GPR12 of other species like mouse and rat showed very less variation which indicates the protein is conserved between these species(UniProtKB; UniProtKB; UniProtKB). The protein alignment is shown in figure 3. 2.2. Pathway: According to Horn et al., GPR12 belongs to the  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   GPCRs, Class A Rhodopsin-like subfamily with all other Orphan GPCR receptors (Horn et al., 2003). GPR12 acts through the cyclic Adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway (Tanaka et al., 2007). Since, GPR12 is an orphan receptor where its natural ligand is unknown (Ignatov et al., 2003a). When the ligand such as S1P or SPC binds to the GPR12, the G-Protein gets activated due to the binding of GTP (Ignatov et al., 2003a). Thus, G-Protein activates Adenylate cyclase which converts the Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into cAMP, and the cAMP activates Protein Kinase A (Ignatov et al., 2003a). The Activated Protein Kinase A activates the cellular reaction such as neurite extension in primary neurons (Ignatov et al., 2003a). [Refer figure 4] 2.3. Gene and Evolutionary aspects of GPR12: The alignment of protein sequence between Human GPR12 and GPR12 of other species like mouse and rat showed very less variation which indicates the protein is conserved between these species (UniProtKB; UniProtKB; UniProtKB). The protein alignment is shown in figure 3. The gene location of GPR12 in the chromosomes locus is nearly the same for human and rat, but it is different in mouse (NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene). The gene of GPR12 is located in the chromosome 13q12.13 for human, 12p11 for rat and 5; 5 G3 for mouse (NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene). The GPR12 gene contains two exons in humans, three exons in rat and three exons in Mouse separating the intron sequence and the evolutionary association of the gene sequence of GPR12 between the species and between GPCR family is shown in figure 5a and 5b (NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene). The GPR12 gene size for a human is 5.6 kbp, for rat it is 3.4 kbp, and for the mouse, it is 4.3 kbp (NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene; NCBI-Gene; Stevens et a l., 2013). GPR12 mutant mice showed an effect in their emotionality was affected due to the mutation in GPR12 which was no significant change   (Frank et al., 2012). GPR12 overexpressed in neurons upregulate cAMP levels and promotes neurite outgrowth in primary neurons which can be used to slow down the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons   disease, Huntingtons disease, etc. (Tanaka et al., 2007). GPR12 is also involved in the regulation of cell survival and cell proliferation which may vary during the diseased condition which causes astrocytes to proliferate at a faster rate and results in inflammation (Lu et al., 2012). A search was done for G-Protein coupled receptor 12 on clinicaltrails.gov website which showed four current ongoing clinical trials studies on GPR12. The studies were different from each other such as Platelet reactivity (ClinicalTrials.gov), Stoke (ClinicalTrials.gov), Metastatic Lung Adenocarcinomas (ClinicalTrials.gov) and Migraine (ClinicalTrials.gov). GPR12 belongs to the  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   GPCRs, Class A Rhodopsin-like subfamily with all other Orphan GPCR receptors. The gene coding for GPR12 is conserved between Humans, Rats, and Mouse which indicates the existence of similar roles and function in these three animals. GPR12 is still in the stages of primary research where its structure, signaling pathways, function, and roles are still waiting to be found. GPR12 has recently assumed to be associated with Neural disorders and diseases. Clinical trials have been successfully conducted for GPR12 for many diseases one of which is depression. References: ClinicalTrials.gov Is There a Transient Rebound Effect of Platelet Reactivity Following Cessation of Dual Antiplatelet Therapy With Ticagrelor a Single Center Prospective Observational Trial. Journal, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02808039?term=G-Protein%2BCoupled%2BReceptor%2B12recr=Openrank=1, January 25, 2017. ClinicalTrials.gov Platelet Reactivity in Acute Non-disabling Cerebrovascular Events (PRINCE). Journal, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02506140?term=G-Protein+Coupled+Receptor+12recr=Openrank=2, January 25, 2017. ClinicalTrials.gov Retrospective Analysis of the Expression of the Neurotensin Receptor by Metastatic Lung Adenocarcinomas (NTS). Journal, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02891733?term=G-Protein%2BCoupled%2BReceptor%2B12recr=Openrank=4, January 25, 2017. ClinicalTrials.gov Ticagrelor Therapy for RefrACTORy Migraine Study (TRACTOR). Journal, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02518464?term=G-Protein%2BCoupled%2BReceptor%2B12recr=Openrank=3, January 25, 2017. Frank, E., Wu, Y., Piyaratna, N., Body, W.J., Snikeris, P., South, T., Gerdin, A.K., Bjursell, M., Bohlooly, Y.M., Storlien, L. Huang, X.F. (2012) Metabolic parameters and emotionality are little affected in G-protein coupled receptor 12 (Gpr12) mutant mice. PLoS One, 7, e42395. Horn, F., Bettler, E., Oliveira, L., Campagne, F., Cohen, F.E. Vriend, G. (2003) GPCRDB information system for G protein-coupled receptors. Nucleic acids research, 31, 294-297. Ignatov, A., Lintzel, J., Hermans-Borgmeyer, I., Kreienkamp, H.-J., Joost, P., Thomsen, S., Methner, A. Schaller, H.C. (2003a) Role of the G-protein-coupled receptor GPR12 as high-affinity receptor for sphingosylphosphorylcholine and its expression and function in brain development. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 907-914. Ignatov, A., Lintzel, J., Kreienkamp, H.-J. Chica Schaller, H. (2003b) Sphingosine-1-phosphate is a high-affinity ligand for the G protein-coupled receptor GPR6 from mouse and induces intracellular Ca2+ release by activating the sphingosine-kinase pathway. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 311, 329-336. Lu, X., Zhang, N., Meng, B., Dong, S. Hu, Y. (2012) Involvement of GPR12 in the regulation of cell proliferation and survival. Mol Cell Biochem, 366, 101-110. NCBI-Gene Gpr12 G-protein coupled receptor 12 [Mus musculus (house mouse)] Gene NCBI. Journal, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/14738, January/25/2017. NCBI-Gene GPR12 G protein-coupled receptor 12 [Homo sapiens (human)] Gene NCBI. Journal, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/2835, January/25/2017. NCBI-Gene Gpr12 G protein-coupled receptor 12 [Rattus norvegicus (Norway rat)] Gene NCBI. Journal, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/80840, January/25/2017. Stevens, R.C., Cherezov, V., Katritch, V., Abagyan, R., Kuhn, P., Rosen, H. Wuthrich, K. (2013) The GPCR Network: a large-scale collaboration to determine human GPCR structure and function. Nat Rev Drug Discov, 12, 25-34. Tanaka, S., Ishii, K., Kasai, K., Yoon, S.O. Saeki, Y. (2007) Neural expression of G protein-coupled receptors GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12 up-regulates cyclic AMP levels and promotes neurite outgrowth. J Biol Chem, 282, 10506-10515. Uhlenbrock, K., Gassenhuber, H. Kostenis, E. (2002) Sphingosine 1-phosphate is a ligand of the human gpr3, gpr6 and gpr12 family of constitutively active G protein-coupled receptors. Cellular signalling, 14, 941-953. UniProtKB GPR12 G-protein coupled receptor 12 Homo sapiens (Human) GPR12 gene protein. Journal, http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P47775, January 25, 2017. UniProtKB Gpr12 G-protein coupled receptor 12 Mus musculus (Mouse) Gpr12 gene protein. Journal, http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P35412, January 25, 2017. UniProtKB Gpr12 G-protein coupled receptor 12 Rattus norvegicus (Rat) Gpr12 gene protein. Journal, http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P30951, January 25, 2017. Figure 1: No structure was found for the protein GPR12 in RCSB Protein data bank. Figure 2a: Side view of the GPR12 structure which was generated by SWISS-MODEL. The protein is showing an all alpha motif with seven transmembrane ÃŽÂ ± -helix interconnected by loops forming four extracellular topological domains and four cytoplasmic topological domains. Figure 2b: Top view of the GPR12 structure which was generated by SWISS-MODEL. The protein is showing an all alpha motif with seven transmembrane ÃŽÂ ± -helix interconnected by loops forming four extracellular topological domains and four cytoplasmic topological domains. Figure 3: GPR12 protein alignment for the species Human, mouse and rat generated from ClustalW. * (asterisk) indicates positions which have a single, fully conserved residue, : (colon) indicates conservation between groups of strongly similar residue properties, . (period) indicates conservation between groups of weakly similar residue properties. Figure 4: GPR12 proteins complete intracellular signaling pathway Figure 5a: Phylogenetic/evolutionary tree of GPCR family members (Stevens et al., 2013) Figure 5b: Phylogenetic/evolutionary tree of GPR12 showing evolutionary difference between human, rat, and mouse   Ã‚   G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPR12) Protein Agonist Antagonist Sphingosine-1-phosphate Suramin Sphingosyl-phosphocholine Table 1: GPR12 agonist and antagonist with structure and name

William Butler Yeats Poems :: poetry, william butler yeats

William Butler Yeats, born in 1865 and died in 1939. Yeats is one of the greatest poets that is well known in the twentieth century. Also a philosophical person, Yeats had developed his own philosophy which states, â€Å"Yeats developed a philosophy that united his interest in history, art, personality, and society. His basic insight was that, in all these fields, conflicting forces are at work. In history, for example, as one kind of civilization grows and eventually dies, an opposite kind of civilization is born to take its place. Similarly, human personalities can be defined as opposites: the creative or subjective person versus the active or objective person.† (Prentice Hall Literature [page 1144 Yeats’s Philosophy]). With this said, Yeats believed that if you believed there was such a thing called a â€Å"soul† you would not only live a life of concentric circles, but indeed there would be this thing we call an â€Å"afterlife†. Thus, explaining Yeat s’s Philosophy, meaning that we will be reborn depending on whether or not of you wanted to live life, or as he states it in Sailing to Byzantium, live the new life like a monument. Critic Richard Ellmann states, that Yeats’s poetry is based on the opposition between â€Å"the world of change† and a world of â€Å"changelessness†. Evidence of this is supported in Yeats poetry, When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming, and finally Sailing to Byzantium. All five of these poems represent change and stability in each poem; however, the change can vary among nature and civilization. In the first text, one of Yeats’s poem, When You Are Old, demonstrates a change in the physical appearance of civilization. An example is as follows, â€Å"When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;† (Prentice Hall Literature [page 1140 lines 1-4]). When You Are Old, by Yeats, describes how a man once young grew old and lost his beauty. As described in the text, one thing that changes is the physical appearance of a human beings face. Related to today’s society we begin to come up with â€Å"cures† to prevent aging, even though we basically drag around a decaying body waiting for our soul to set free, we find ways to prevent everything from sagging and bagging.

Why Should People Choose a Healthy Lifestyle Essay -- Healthy Lifestyl

You are driving in your car when suddenly your stomach rumbles. You are hungry. Do you decide to pick up some fast food or go home and spend the time to make yourself a meal? Let us assume we do not have the time to create our own meal. When you get to the restaurant of your choice, do you park in the closest parking spot to the door or do you simply use the drive-through? What do you choose to eat? Is it something processed and frozen or do you choose something made fresh? After eating your food you decide to go to the mall. You pass advertisements of smiling thin happy models. You need to get to the second floor. Do you take the elevator, the escalator, or the stairs? These are choices we face every day that can impact our lives today, tomorrow, and even further into our future. Children follow our examples. If we are faced with these choices daily so are they. How can we make our lifestyle more healthy not only for ourselves, but also future generations? A more healthy lifestyle i s established through balanced priorities, strong mental health, and good role models. Priorities throughout life whether financial, educational, or physical help to create a longer and more balanced lifestyle. With so many false pictures portrayed around the world through the Internet and social media of how a body should look, it is not surprising that many individuals pay more attention to the weight on the scale, than they do to muscle mass and other factors that may more significantly impact their overall health. Photoshopped billboards and fashion models lead to an impossible expectations unrealistic of how a â€Å"normal† human body should appear. As Natasha Turner said, â€Å"It’s not your actual weight on the scale that matters most for overall healt... ... Student Research Center. Web. 9 Nov. 2015. Kane, Anthony. â€Å"A Parent’s Job As A Role Model.† Healthy Place 2011: n.pag. Web. 14 Nov. 2015. â€Å"Nutrition & Weight Control for Longevity.† (2012): 1-46. Student Research Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. â€Å"Poverty Kills: Health Depends on Wealth.† Huntsville Forester 26 Sept. 2013: n.pag. Student Research Center. Web. 1 Nov. 2015. Richardson, Vanessa. â€Å"A Fit Body Means A Fit Mind.† Edutopi. The George Lucas Educational Foundation. n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. Small, Gary. â€Å"Can Exercise Cure Depression.† Brain Bootcamp Sept. 2010: n.pag. Psychology Today, 2013. Web. 5 Nov. 2015. Tecco, Armand. â€Å"Why is Exercise Important.† Health Discovery, HealthDiscovery.net, 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2015. Turner, Natasha. â€Å"Are You Skinny Fat?† Chatelaine 86.10 (Oct. 2013): n. pag. Student Research Center. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.