The Iran-Contra Affair Essays - IranContra Affair,

The Iran-Contra Affair The tangled U.S. foreign-policy scandal known as the Iran-contra affair came to light in November 1986 when President Ronald Reagan said yes to reports that the United States had secretly sold arms to Iran. He said that the goal was to improve relations with Iran, not to get releases of U.S. hostages held in the Middle East by terrorists (although he later agreed that the arrangement had in fact turned into an arms-for-hostages swap). People spoke out against dealings with the hostile Iranian government all over the place. Later in November, Att. Gen. Edwin Meese discovered that some of the arms profits had been used to aid the Nicaraguan "contra" rebels at a time when Congress had prohibited such aid. An Independent special prosecutor, former federal judge Lawrence E. Walsh, wa appointed to investigate the activities of persons involved in the arms sale or contra aid or both, including marine Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council (NSC) staff. Reagan appointed a review board headed by former Republican senator John Tower. The Tower commission's report in February 1987 criticized the president's passive management style. In a nationaly televised address on March 4, Reagan accepted the reports judgement without serious disagreement. Select committees of the Senate (11 members chaired by Democrat Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii) and the house of representatives (15 members, headed by another Democrat, Lee Hamilton of Indiana) conducted televised hearings in partnership from May to August. They heard evidence that a few members of the NSC staff set Iran and Nicaragua policies and carried them out with secret private operatives and that the contras received only a small part of the money. Former national security advisor John Poindexter stated that he personally authorized the diversion of money and withheld that information from the president. William J. Casey, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who died in May 1989, was implicated in some testimony. His testomony still remained in doubt. Clearly however, the strange events shook the nation's faith in President Reagan and ruined U. S. prestige abroad. Special prosecutor Walsh continued his investigation. On March 11, 1988 Poindexter's forerunner as national security advisor Robert McFarlane pleaded guilty to criminal charges of witholding information from Congress on secret aid to the contras. A year later, Peter McFariane was fined $20,000 and given two years probation. On March 16, 1988, a federal grand jury indicted North, Poindexter, and two other persons on a number of charges including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. The trials were delayed by legal maneuvering that in part involved questions of releasing secret information. In May 1989 a jury convicted North of 3 of the 12 criminal counts he was ultimately tried on. In July the court fined North 150,000 and gave him a three- year suspended sentence. The North convictions were later set aside by a federal appeals court, which found defects in the trial procedure. On April 7, 1990, Poindexter was convicted on 5 counts of deceiving congressional investigators and sentenced to six months in prison. In July 1991, Alan D. Fiers, Jr., CIA chief of covert operations in Central America in 1984-86, admitted that he had lied to Congress and that there had been a CIA Iran-contra cover up. Shortly after, his CIA superior Clair E. George was indicted.

The Discover of Dietary Vitamins

The Discover of Dietary Vitamins Vitamins are a 20th-century discovery. While people always felt properties of some foods were important to health before the opening decades of the 1900s, it wasnt until after the turn of the century that these factors were identified and synthesized. Discovery of Vitamins as a Factor In 1905, an Englishmen named William Fletcher became the first scientist to determine whether the removal of special factors, known as vitamins, from food would lead to diseases. Doctor Fletcher made the discovery while researching the causes of the disease Beriberi. Eating unpolished rice, it seemed, prevented Beriberi while eating polished rice did not.  Hence, Fletcher suspected that there were special nutrients contained in the husk of the rice removed during the polishing process that played a role.   In 1906, English biochemist Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins also found that certain food factors (proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals) were important to growth in the human body: his work led to his receiving (together with Christiaan Eijkman) the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1912, Polish scientist Cashmir Funk named the special nutritional parts of food a vitamine after vita, which meant life,  and amine from compounds  found in the thiamine he isolated from rice husks. Vitamine was later shortened to vitamin. Together, Hopkins and Funk formulated the vitamin hypothesis of deficiency disease, which asserts that a lack of vitamins could make you sick. Specific Vitamin Discoveries Throughout the 20th century, scientists were able to isolate and identify the various vitamins found in food. Here is a short history of some of the more popular vitamins. Vitamin A (a group of fat-soluble retinoids, including retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters)  - Elmer V. McCollum and Marguerite Davis discovered Vitamin A around 1912 to 1914. In 1913, Yale researchers Thomas Osborne and Lafayette Mendel discovered that butter contained a fat-soluble nutrient soon known as vitamin A. Vitamin A was first synthesized in 1947.  Vitamin B (known as biotin, a water-soluble vitamin that helps the body convert carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into energy)- Elmer V. McCollum also discovered Vitamin B sometime around 1915–1916.Vitamin B1 (also known as thiamine, a water-soluble  B vitamin that plays a critical role in energy metabolism) - Casimir Funk discovered Vitamin B1 (thiamine) in 1912.Vitamin B2 (also known as riboflavin, an important role in energy production, cellular function, and metabolism)- D. T. Smith, E. G. Hendrick discovered B2 in 1926. Max Tishler invented methods for synthesizing the essential vitamin B2.Niacin- American Co nrad Elvehjem discovered Niacin in 1937. Folic acid- Lucy Wills  discovered Folic acid in  1933.Vitamin B6 (six compounds which are extremely versatile and primarily work on protein metabolism)- Paul Gyorgy discovered Vitamin B6 in 1934.Vitamin C (ascorbic acid, required for the biosynthesis of collagen)- In 1747, Scottish naval surgeon James Lind discovered that a nutrient in citrus foods prevented scurvy.  It was re-discovered and identified by Norwegian researchers  A. Hoist and T. Froelich in 1912. In 1935, Vitamin C became the first vitamin to be artificially synthesized. The process was invented by Dr. Tadeusz Reichstein of the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich.Vitamin D (promotes calcium absorption in the gut and enable bone mineralization)- In 1922, Edward Mellanby discovered Vitamin D while researching a disease called rickets.  Vitamin E (important anti-oxidant)- In 1922, University of California researchers Herbert Evans and Katherine Bishop discovered Vitamin E in green leafy vegetables.   Coenzyme Q10 In a report called â€Å"Coenzyme Q10 - The Energizing Antioxidant,† issued by Kyowa Hakko USA, a physician named Dr. Erika Schwartz MD wrote: Coenzyme Q10 was discovered by Dr. Frederick Crane, a plant physiologist at the University of Wisconsin Enzyme Institute, in 1957. Utilizing specialized fermentation technology developed by Japanese manufacturers, cost-effective production of CoQ10 began in the mid-1960s. To this day, fermentation remains the dominant production method around the globe. In 1958, Dr. D.E. Wolf, working under Dr. Karl Folkers (Folkers leading a team of researchers at Merck Laboratories), first described the chemical structure of coenzyme Q10. Dr. Folkers later received the 1986 Priestly Medal from the American Chemical Society for his research on coenzyme Q10. Source Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets. National Institutes of Health: Office of Dietary Supplements

The Aspect of Family within Asian Culture Research Paper

The Aspect of Family within Asian Culture - Research Paper Example The analysis of the aspect of family within the Asian culture will focus on the nuclear and extended family, children and up keeping, marriage and divorce, and the respect accorded to parents. Other aspects that are of some importance include the effect of family on business relationships, and some few aspects that will be added in the paper. Asian family culture demands that families stay as close to one another as possible, so it is not uncommon to find completely close knit families in the Asian tradition and cultures (Abazov, 20). Existing literature states that the family is the most important part of the Asian make-up; therefore, considerations for the nuclear family take center stage in every individual’s life. This means that an individual will always consider the immediate family in every action. An example of this fact is the communal activity that each family will engage in together; an analysis of the culture reveals that most families will have communal activities to bring the family together, for example, during meal times; it is not uncommon to find the whole family eating together. As indicated, the aspect of the family in the Asian culture takes priority over all other aspects, which is probably a means of increasing family cohesion and instilling cultural values in the children. Relations in the nuclear family are normally blurred, since an individual is normally expected to have the same consideration for the extended family as the nuclear family. Therefore, it is to be expected that an extended family will live together in complete harmony, and the aspect of the nuclear family is only seen in urbanized areas. An analysis of the Asian family culture also indicates that the Asian culture has a deep rooted sense of respect for all family members, as is indicated by the values taught to children at a tender age (Teng 63). The Confucian system dictates that the sense of respect is instilled in the family values that are taught to children and all other members of the society. In the Asian culture, it is not uncommon to find several parts of the family brought together to honor other parts of the family. The Asian culture reveals that the identity of an individual is focused on the collective rather that the self. This means that an individual will have consideration for the whole society rather than the individualistic aspect. In the Western and American culture, it is common to find individuals with considerations only for the self, however, in the Asian culture, an individual is instilled with the values of the collective society, and therefore, an individual will consider the family before the self. As already mentioned, the Confucian system of family values is entrenched in the Asian tradition, therefore, it is to be expected that an individual will consider all other people before the self. According to Confucian tradition, all families have hierarchies, and every member of the family has a special part to play in the smooth running of the family (Hung and Smith). For example, the father in the house is the undisputed head of the family and is expected to provide for his wife and offspring without fail. The Confucian theory of family values dictates that the family is more important than the individual, so the eldest son in the family also has their own responsibility. For example, the eldest son is expected to have responsibility to the parents, siblings, and finally to the wife and daughters. The previous aspect discussed brings to light another aspect of the Asian