Thomas Wolsey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Thomas Wolsey - Essay Example However, Wolsey was no false-faced upstart, but a highly intelligent fellow. It is reported that, "he took his degree as a Bachelor of the Arts at the very early age of fifteen, which so impressed the scholars at Oxford that he was called the 'boy-bachelor'" (Ridley, 1982, p. 18). Later he also took an M.A. and became a headmaster. True, Wolsey had ambition, and his education, entry into the priesthood, and transitional positions were stepping-stones to a power, but who can fault ambition in a man of humble origins His father sent him to Oxford because he wanted a better life for his son. The law at the time was still skewed against the lower classes. Only a complete fool would not desire to move up in the socio-economic hierarchy, and Wolsey was far from a fool. He never had difficultly impressing his social superiors, beginning with his first patron, the Marquess of Dorset. Even though Dorset died shortly after appointing Wolsey rector, Wolsey had made other powerful friends, and soon became chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury and then the Governor of Calais, giving "Wolsey a wide experience of many sides of government, especially of relations with foreign countries, and a foothold in the government service" (Ridley, 1982, p. 22). In this politically sensitive outpost of English rule, Wolsey had "the opportunity to learn about the problems of many aspects of government administration and to show his efficiency in dealing with them (Ridley, 1982, p. 23). He must maintain the lines of communication between the Crown and those owing allegiance to England in Calais; he must keep an eye on the French military and guard against French spies. These things he did without Henry VIII, who was not yet king. In fact, as a result of his skillful work in Calais, Wolsey became a chaplain in Henry VII's court and worked with those who made foreign policy. He succeeded, on his own, on sensitive diplomatic missions to Scotland, Austria, and the Netherlands, while receiving special dispensations from the Church. Prior to Henry VIII's ascension, Wolsey garnered remarkable power and prestige by navigating his responsibilities and balancing his social connections, for which reasons alone we must discard the idea that his later power and prestige sprung directly from manipulation and deceit toward the King. When Henry VIII came to power, "The accession of a handsome and dashing young king in place of his cautious and money-grasping father was welcomed by the people" (Ridley, 1982, p. 28), but it was the differences between the two kings that allowed Wolsey to rise through the ranks. The old King had been conservative and dedicated to his role as King. The young King was fiscally liberal and immediately began taping the coffers for clothes, jewels, and parties. He resented boring duties and disliked those who advised him to spend more time at them. Wolsey knew how to please the king. While others "urged Henry to preside at Council meetings, as his father had done, and to devote his time to affairs of the state, Wolsey offered to carry out all the work of government while Henry hunted and amused himself[Wolsey] found out what the king wanted, and did it" (Ridley, 1982, p.

Argument A Modest proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Argument A Modest proposal - Essay Example Pretty much the same number of keep on calling themselves, say, Catholics, regardless of an admitted wariness toward its practices, so Smokers remain Smokers in light of the fact that theyve been Smokers for quite a long time, and they know no other way. On the other hand, the fundamental of this paper is to create how smoking is cool in an ironical viewpoint. Smoking is about the figment of flexibility. It is enjoyable to smoke decisively on the grounds that should not smoke, and in the event that you had any sense at all you wouldnt smoke. Much the same as different religions, confidence in the emancipator forces of Smoking must occur among the youthful; past the age of 21, a great many people are not looking for another religion. The individuals who are, are as prone to take up Smoking as whatever else ( Morgan, 2002, 34). The dream of opportunity is most capable among young people of middle school or secondary school age. You discover some mystery zone in the forested areas, or in the island of opportunity that is some smokers auto, and there you smoke, the lit cigarette in your mouth your identification of flexibility and disobedience. The initial 5 or 10 or 20 taste horrendous, or make you sick, yet this is similar to numerous grown-up gained tastes, from pickles to anchovies to liquor. Inside specific circles, Smoking is as infectious as yawning. Somebody lights up a smoke, inside two minutes, all are smoking cigarettes, their lights of opportunity. when not smoking then others are, and you yourself are a smoker, is to be forgotten, as well as to be a negligible inhaler of second-hand smoke, an aloof observer. Maybe it is, be that as it may, inconspicuously, an announcement of refraining, and subsequently a verifiable judgment. The Smokers may think—Why isnt he smoking?—pretty much as some meat-eaters are uncomfortable eating with vegans. The very restraint is an implied

Plato, Crito Essay Example for Free

Plato, Crito Essay In the Dialogue Crito, Socrates employs his Elenchus to examine the notion of justice and one’s obligation to justice. In the setting of the dialogue, Socrates has been condemned to die, and Crito comes with both the hopes and the means for Socrates to escape from prison. When Socrates insists that they should examine whether he should escape or not, the central question turns into whether if it is unjust to disobey laws. Socrates’ ultimate answer is that it is unjust; he makes his argument by first showing that it’s wrong to revenge injustice, then arguing that he has made an agreement with the city’s law for its benefits, and finally reasoning that he should keep to that agreement and accept its consequences. However, the examination in Crito was incompletely and its logic flawed; in making this decision, Socrates has forsaken his life for his ideal of justice. The examination was done in the elenchus, which has the structure that Socrates will start with an assumption and find contradictions to eliminate possible answers; the assumption here is that there are good reasons why Socrates should escape from prison. Socrates starts his argument by first eliminating the public opinion as a reason why he should escape. Socrates observes that concerning a person’s health, only a doctor’s opinion would matter instead of the public opinion; he then draws a parallel of that analogy to justice, that â€Å"We should not give so much thought to what the majority of people will say about us, but think instead of what the person who understands just and unjust things will say † (Crito 48b) While the public opinion would certainly urge Socrates to preserve his life, Socrates discredits it as a reason for his escape. Next Socrates assumes that since only a good life is worth living, and that living a good life is the same as living a just life (Crito 48b), Socrates should escape for his life only if it is just for him to do so. Effectively, Socrates has reduced the question to whether if it is just to disobey the law (by escaping prison and execution) to decide if he should escape. To this question, first Socrates says that he should not revenge injustice. Because doing injustice is bad in any circumstances (Crito 49b), to return injustice just because of having injustice done onto himself would bad also (Crito 49c). Therefore Socrates should not commit injustice just to get even with Athens. Injustice is bad because it harms, and disobedience to the law would harm the city (Crito 50b); so it seems that to disobey the law would be an injustice. But why should Socrates obey the law of the city? Socrates reasons that since the city has done him great benefactions, such as giving birth to his life, taking care of his physical upbringing and his education, and granting him long years of benefits from the legal system (Crito 50e 51c), Socrates owns the state a strong duty of gratitude just as a child would own to his father. One of those duties is to obey the state (like how a child obeys his parents), which always has included the possibility of death such as in times of war (Crito 51b). Socrates should obey the city because he has made an agreement to do so. This agreement is the social contract that he has implicitly accepted and lived under for 70 years. This contract is legitimate because Socrates had a thorough understanding of the legal system (Crito 51e 52a), he did not leave the city when he was given the fair chance all his life (Crito 51 c-e), and that he even has consciously benefited legally from this implicit agreement with law all his life. Therefore it is evident that Socrates has made such a social contract with Athens, which he has been satisfied with so far. It is just for one to keep the agreement he has made, therefore Socrates should keep the agreement made with Athens; and thus he should obey the state and its laws (Crito 53c). Furthermore, Socrates has been given the chance to convince Athens not sentence him to death, and he even could’ve proposed to be exiled that would have the same consequences as if he escapes now; if Socrates had the chance to accomplish thise with legal means when he did not, he would not be justified to do so now illegally (Crito 52c). Following this reasoning, Socrates concludes that he should not escape from prison and his eventual execution. Although Socrates’ commitment to his ideals is admirable, his reasoning is critically flawed. Socrates lacks the definition of justice throughout the discussion of justice. Socrates certainly thinks of justice as something intrinsic and absolute, instead of simply laws imposed by the state; this is evident when he refused to arrest Leon of Salamis by the order of the 30 tyrants (which is an act of disobedience) on the grounds of justice (Apology 32c). Clearly he believes that justice is higher than rulings of sovereignty. But Socrates never made clear what is this virtue that makes justice just; instead, he only vaguely calls some actions just, such as when one keeps an agreement, or behaves well towards one’s parents. It is because of this lack of definition Socrates ends up contradicting himself. For instance, Socrates makes the proposition that one should seek expert knowledge instead of following majority opinion when it comes to justice; this would imply that the justice is not related to the opinion of the majority, as well as that the majority are no expert in justice. If the social contract in the democratic Athens is assumed to be an agreement made between by the majority of the society, then justice is certainly independent from that social contract. But later Socrates argues that he has to obey the state’s laws and keep the agreement made to the state, which implies that justice is to keep the social contract (contraposition of â€Å"not keeping to the contract is unjust†). Furthermore, Socrates assumes that disobeying laws and agreements is unjust. But what is the state? It is no more than a collective of Athenians. Where do these laws come from? The majority opinion of the Athenians (in the case of the tyrants Socrates wouldn’t obey the laws anyways) and the agreements they’ve made. If indeed the laws and agreements the majority of Athenians, it seems that they determine what’s just without knowing what’s just (or else their opinion would matter! ), which would be unacceptable for Socrates. Furthermore, Socrates’ gratitude and duty towards the state does not equate obeying the state; in-fact, if killing Socrates is an injustice that would do Athens harm, then Socrates ought to do whatever that is in his power to prevent being executed by escaping to fulfill his duty of benefiting the city. There is another more fundamental flaw in Socrates’ argument. If he considers justice to be morally independent of laws, then some laws would be just and other unjust. There could be unjust laws, or just laws abused. Socrates never considered these cases of whether he indeed justly deserves the death sentence or not. Therefore to simply obey laws may not necessarily lead to justice. This argument would destroy the whole purpose of obeying laws and not escape from prison. We may speculate, if we have presented these arguments to Socrates, would he be convinced to escape prison? Perhaps not, as Socrates is already 70 and was expected to die soon anyways (the average life span for male was around 40). Dying in the name of justice, instead of old age in a distant place, is definitely more romantic and held more appeal. Furthermore, to live in exile would have no positive effect on his children, it would tarnish his reputation, and such a life in exile will not be enjoyable (Crito 53d – 54d). Therefore, it would be possible that Socrates will still choose to die as a martyr to justice and philosophy.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet in Business

Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet in Business 50 years ago people started using the Internet in the world. With the development of internet, there arisen many accessories by the internet. The Taobao website is one of the commonly used websites in China, Which plays a leading role in Chinese e-commerce industry. People buy products online through Taobao. The Taobao Company made significant profits in recent years. In this report, it is going to display the advantages of using the Internet in Taobaos business. in the first part. In this part, the report mention about the Taobao GDP contribution, new management mode build up and job opportunities provided. In the second part, the report illustrates that the disadvantage of using the Internet in Taobaos business, in this part of view, the report points out the time-wasting, risk in internet shopping and negative impacts of business efficiency. This essay aims to analyze the advantages and the disadvantages of using the internet in Taobaos business. The advantages of using the internet in Taobaos business The first advantage is the GDP contribution by Taobao internet business. According to the online auction statistic from Chinese Network Information Center (CNNIC) in 2006, there were totally 12.27 million internet users in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou which are the top three cities in China. The data which included 3.3 million people who experienced the internet online transactions. It shows that there are huge internet-shopper populations in China, especially for the economic-booming cities. Taobao plays a leading role in e-commerce industry and gain plenty of loyalty customers, most of willing to introduce Taobao to their friends who attempt to go shopping in the internet. Under the large user volume, Taobao gives the reason why it can create GDP increasing. According to the data from 2008 China Online Shopping Report, Taobao occupied 67% of Chinese C2C market in 2005. Furthermore, in 2007, it owned 70.4% of online customers. Taobao could have more than 10 million RMB businesses only in one month. Taobao could bring more than 1 billion RMB to Chinese GDP. As the income, expenditure and output influence the GDP increase, thus, with Taobao development, more GDP increase could be bring. Nowadays, Taobao became an essential part of Chinese GDP increase. Taobao started Chinese internet shopping business model. Hoskins (2002) points out that the internet is absolutely cheaper than other traditional media. The internet market can cover the whole world customer. The internet business may generally replace the traditional businesses. Because Taobao belongs to e-commerce, the communication of the organization is not as same as those companies who operate in a specific space. In order to make communication sufficiently under business operation, Taobao is forced on the three main areas of management. First, Taobao create an online communication tool which is called Aliwangwang for Taobaos buyers and sellers. According to Trites (2008), Aliwangwang, which is ranked as the most satisfied service of Taobao, because the third party is unnecessary for the communications between sellers and buyers? Second, Taobao designed a new feedback system. Li el at. (2007) display that the sellers will give the feedbacks within a period of 14 days, the sellers reputation will be influenced by buyers feedbacks. If a seller got 10% dissatisfied feedback, the system will shut down the booth in two months. (Source: Research on Chinese C2C E-Business Institutional Trust Mechanism: Case Study on Taobao and Ebay.cn, 2007) In the figure 1 which displays above, it is clearly shows that the feedback mechanism in Taobao. All sellers in Taobao have to be evaluated by this feedback data, if any sellers more than 30% negative total negative feedback data, it means they could lost the chance to do business in Taobao. Third, the design of Taobaos website is attractive, the fashionable website design style always catch young peoples eyes, even a part of elder customers are willing to suffer Taobao because the website design style. Taobao divided products into different categories, such as men, women, baby, and electronic products. After click the guild link, the customer can find more details for the selling goods. It is easily and efficiently to find the products what they want. According to China Economic Analysis (2002), China has 7% unemployment rate almost reached the national unemployment rate warming level. Taobao provided job opportunities to the unemployment population. According to Li el at (2009), Taobao provided more than 600 thousands job opportunities. Among 570 thousand people enjoyed the employment chances provided by Taobao. Many sellers in Taobao traded their business as their careers and many of them had better lives depends on Taobao business. Under the stiff competition, there are a large of unemployment people with business vision but cannot find a job in top business companies. They use Taobao to fulfill their dream, some of them have their own clothes manufacturing factory after they started business in Taobao. For example, in 2009, the unemployment in Jiangsu Province located in the south of China has serious unemployment rate which shows 3.09 %. The data from the local government shows that Taobao offered 5.7 million job opportunitie s directly and more than 10 million job opportunities indirectly. Such as the development of Delivery Company, the needs of delivery employee must be increase.(Pan, 2001) The disadvantages of using the internet in Taobaos business Young people spend too much money on Taobao internet shopping. Because the selling prices in Taobao are cheaper than in the other places. According to Pan (2001), pricing has a significant influence for selling goods but with negative coefficient and absolute value. Because buyers cannot identify the goods visually, the high price goods are harder to sell. Beside, Majority of young people cannot afford the high price products which are sold in other shops. For this reason, they prefer to shop at Taobao. Moreover; many sellers on Taobao, who work as part-time, spend too much time on their business. When they concentrate on their Taobao business, their assignments form the company maybe delays. It is difficult to avoid the risks for the seller and buyer on Taobao. Kiang el at. (2009) discovers that the buyers have to accept the high risks for purchasing online. For this reason, this leads to a significant obstacle in internet commercial business. Credit card fraud problems, is caused by people who make business on the internet, are continuously increasing. Only after information flow, capital flow and logistics finished backflow, the business deal could be regarded as a completed transaction (Zhang, 2008). For the sellers risk, they have to responsible for some missing goods, even though the delivery companies compensate 50% of goods price. For customers risk, it is hard to post customers some electronic devices. Meanwhile, this kind of products is easy to be broken down. If the customers discovered the damage of the products, after they receive broken goods, they could not return the goods to the seller. The internet shopping makes the efficiency of Taobao decrease. According to Ray (2002), the organizational effectiveness has a significant influence on recruiting talented people and company development. According to Worthys (1962) organizational structure theory, there are two organization structural performances which are the flat organization structure and the tall organizational structure. Whatever the organization belongs to, the communication is always the important part of organizational development. Taobaos employees are separated in the whole of the world. The communication between employee and superior is difficult that the other companies. Even though when some problems arise, the employees can use the internet to communicate with Taobao headquarters. Because of the long distant, plenty problems cannot be solved immediately. Taobao have no too much hierarchical management level, but personally, it belongs to tall organization structure because the communication hard to tra nsmit to the top manager as fast as possible. For this reason, the organizational effectiveness could be influenced. The talented people could be affected by companys performance. Taobao could loss the technical support from those talent people. Conclusion This essay analyzes the advantages and the disadvantages of using the internet in business. The essay uses Taobao e-commerce website as an example. Based on the data from eight resources, the essay divides the whole article into two parts, the advantages of using internet in business and disadvantage of using internet in business. To analysis the reason why Taobao could rapidly increase in resent year and gain more market share. For positive influences, the first the report shows that Taobao is devoted to increase the Chinese GDP under large internet user number, and then the report analyze the new management mode running and management in Taobao. The last, decrease the unemployment rate in China be point out in the essay and how Taobao plays a key role in this social problems. In negative aspect, many people spend too much time and money on online shopping, because the young people do not how to balance their finance. Besides, internet business brings more risks between sellers and buyers, the report introduce the risk could arise in which aspect. Furthermore, internet business could influence the effectiveness of Taobao, the report analysis the reasons and explain the relationship between the talent people and organization efficiency.

The Protestant Reformation Essays -- European History Religion Papers

The Protestant Reformation Introduction The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century is one of the most complex movements in European history since the fall of the Roman Empire. The Reformation truly ends the Middle Ages and begins a new era in the history of Western Civilization. The Reformation ended the religious unity of Europe and ushered in 150 years of religious warfare. By the time the conflicts had ended, the political and social geography in the west had fundamentally changed. The Reformation would have been revolutionary enough of itself, but it coincided in time with the opening of the Western Hemisphere to the Europeans and the development of firearms as effective field weapons. It coincided, too, with the spread of Renaissance ideals from Italy and the first stirrings of the Scientific Revolution. Taken together, these developments transformed Europe. Causes of the Reformation Many bishops and abbots (especially in countries where they were also territorial princes) bore themselves as secular rulers rather than as servants of the Church. Many members of cathedral chapters and other beneficed ecclesiastics were chiefly concerned with their income and how to increase it, especially by uniting several prebends (even episcopal sees) in the hands of one person, who thus enjoyed a larger income and greater power. Luxury prevailed widely among the higher clergy, while the lower clergy were often oppressed. The scientific and ascetic training of the clergy left much to be desired, the moral standard of many being very low, and the practice of celibacy not everywhere observed. Not less serious was the condition of many monasteries of men, and even of women (which were often homes for the unmarried daughte... ...s did not have to be run by a religious leader or Monarchist and that a person’s life did not have to be centered on religion or the afterlife. If it were not for the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the world we live in now would be a much different place. The Protestant Reformation was a major building block of history, and some would say our country. Bibliography: Works Cited Birch, David. Early Reformation English Polemics. Austria: University of Salzburg, 1983. Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation. London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1989. Rex, Richard. Henry VIII and the English Reformation. London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1993. Scarisbrick, J.J. The Reformation and the English People. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd, 1984. Tyacke, Nicholas. England’s Long Reformation 1500-1600. London: UCL Press, 1998.

Essay --

Cancer is a chief health-related stress that requires sufficient coping. The global problem of cancer continues to increase greatly due to aging and growth of the world population and an increase of cancer-causing behaviours, such as smoking, especially in developing countries (Jemal, Bray, Center, Ferlay, Ward & Forman, 2011). More than 40% of people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime with two-thirds of them living for a minimum of five years. Cancer treatment which includes surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, is often strenuous and can last for months or years. Cancer patients and survivors normally experience decreased quality of life, decreased capacity to perform daily activities, and mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety (Meijer, Roseman, Milette, Coyne, Stefanek, Ziegelstein, and ... Thombs, 2011). Cancer is a disease whereby abnormal cells divide without control and attack other tissues. Families of cancer patients face some degree of depressi on, anxiety, and fear when cancer becomes a part of their lives. They feel helpless and eager to find ...

A Causative Agent of Food-borne Poisoning

Bacillus cereus is an aerobic and facultative anaerobic, gram-positive bacteria causing toxin-mediated food poisoning. Optimum temperature for its growth is 30-37Â °C. However, it can also tolerate a wide range of temperature; some strains can grow up to 55Â °C while others can grow at temperatures as low as 4 to 5Â °C (Microbial Pathogen Datasheets, 2001). Many strains from dairy products are able to thrive at lower temperatures. The minimum pH requirement for growth is 4. 3, while maximum pH is around 9. 3.This bacterial population grows best in the presence of oxygen (Microbial Pathogen Datasheets, 2001). Nevertheless, since this species is facultative anaerobic it also grows well in anaerobic conditions (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). Toxin production has been found to be much lower under anaerobic conditions. Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming micro-organism which occurs naturally in most foods. It causes two different and distinct forms of food poisoning: an emeti c illness and a diarrhoeal illness (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004).Bacillus cereus causes food-borne emetic illness by producing a highly stable toxin that survives high temperatures and exposure to trypsin, pepsin and pH extremes. Bacillus cereus levels in foods associated with emetic form of food poisoning have ranged from 1,000 to 50 billion colony-forming units (cfu)/gram (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). High numbers of bacterial population have been also detected in faecal samples from affected persons. Diarrhoeal illness is mediated by a heat- and acid-labile enterotoxin produced during growth of vegetative cells in the small intestine (Granum, 1994).Four different enterotoxins have been characterized. Two are protein complexes such as non-haemolytic enterotoxin (NHE) and haemolysin BL (HBL) and two are enterotoxic proteins such as enterotoxin T (bc-D-ENT) and cytotoxin K (Lund, DeBuyser & Granum, 2000). The occurrence of the diarrhoeal-type syndrome has be en largely reported in the US and Europe, where the disease has been greatly associated with foods such as meat, vegetable, poultry, desserts and sauces (Giannella and Brasile, 1979).Prevalence of the vomiting type syndrome has been reported in the United Kingdom, Canada and USA, food borne poisoning is commonly associated with the consumption of cooked fried rice (Mortimer and McCann, 1974). Serotyping studies conducted by Taylor and Gilbert (1975) showed that strains from incidents of food poisoning in US and Europe characterised by a longer incubation period and with diarrhoea as the main symptom have provided serotypes 2, 6, 8, 9 and 10, whereas those which caused the rice-associated emetic illness in United Kingdom, Canada and USA were serotypes 1, 3 or 5.Bacillus cereus food poisoning is mostly associated with rice dishes, and sporadically with other food stuffs such as meat, vegetable, pasta, dairy products, sauces, soups and sweet pastries. Bacillus cereus food-borne poisoni ng is also associated with pudding, cream, spices, dry milk, dry potatoes and spaghetti sauces. Bacterial contamination of the food product by the large occurs prior to cooking. Even after cooking the microbial population thrives because vegetative forms can grow over a wide range of temperatures from 25Â °C to 42Â °C and are also capable of producing endotoxins.Endospores have the ability to survive extremely high and low temperatures. When they are allowed to cool fairly gradually, they once again begin to germinate and multiply. Spores are highly resistant to dry heat than moist heat. Emetic toxins are also extremely resistant to heat. They can survive 90 min at 126Â °C, while diarrhoeal toxins are inactivated at 56Â °C in 5 min. Clinical Description Bacillus cereus is widely known as the etiological agent of food-borne poisoning, causing both gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal diseases.Both diarrhoea and emesis can be clearly distinguished by their clinical features. Diarrhoea is provoked by heat-labile enterotoxins, while emesis is caused by a heat-stable depsipeptide toxin called cereulide (Ehling, Fricker & Scherer, 2004). The clinical syndromes associated with the diarrhoeal form of illness are longer incubation about 6 to 24 hours period, very watery diarrhoea (similar to that of C. perfringens), presence of moderate to severe abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting in some patients, duration of illness ranges from a minimum of 20 hours to a maximum of 36 hours.Clinical features associated with the emetic form of illness are shorter incubation period of about 1 to 6 hours, presence of vomiting and abdominal cramps; diarrhoea is not severe and is present in only about a third of affected individuals (similar to poisoning by S. aureus), duration of sickness ranges from 8 to 10 hours. In both types of syndromes, fever is exceptional and disease is usually docile. Bacillus cereus also can cause other diseases such as local skin and wound infectio ns, ocular infections, fulminant liver failure.Invasive disease, including bacteraemia, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, pneumonia, brain abscess, and meningitis are also caused by Bacillus cereus. Ocular involvement includes panophthalmitis, endophthalmitis, and keratitis (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). Apart, it can bring about other infections namely, pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis, in addition to brain and liver abscesses (Drobniewski, 1993). It is a rare cause of endocarditis (Fowler et al. 2005) reported in patients with prosthetic heart valves, rheumatic heart disease, intravenous drug use (IVDU), and in patient with leukaemia.Food Poisoning by other Bacillus species Toxic food poisoning is not only caused by Bacillus cereus, several other Bacillus species have also been implicated in food poisoning incidents. The most important species are B. subtilis and B. licheniformis. These organisms are capable of producing an extremely heat-stable toxin which seems very si milar to the emetic type produced by B. cereus (Kramer and Gilbert, 1989). These species are widely associated with food products like meat, vegetable, flour, pastry, sausage rolls, meat pies and pastries, curries and various ethnic dishes with rice, and stuffed poultry.Bacillus subtilis is associated mainly with meat, vegetables in pastry, poultry products, and occasionally with bakery items such as bread, crumpets, sandwiches, and ethnic meat or seafood dishes. Food poisoning syndrome associated with B. subtilis causes acute onset nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps, incubation range is 2-5 hours, often with diarrhoea. Poisoning due to B. licheniformis shows the following symptoms; diarrhoea is more common than vomiting, incubation period is about 8 hours. Another species which was isolated in high numbers from rice associated with a food poisoning outbreak was B.pumilus. Symptoms were consistent with those similar for food poisoning by other Bacillus species than B. cereus. C. pe rfringens food poisoning produces a heat-labile toxin which caused predominantly lower gastrointestinal (diarrheal) disease about 12 hours after ingestion much similar to the diarrheal type syndrome caused by B. cereus. Case Studies In August 2003, five children of a Belgian family became sick after eating pasta salad. The pasta salad prepared on a Friday was taken to picnic on Saturday. The leftovers had been stored in the refrigerator.The following Monday evening the pasta was served for supper to the children. Since the pasta had an unusual odour three children (aged 14, 10 and 9) did not eat much, they ate very little quantities. After 6 hours the youngest child (aged 7) started vomiting and complained of respiratory distress. She was immediately rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital the other 3 children also felt nauseous and started vomiting. The condition of all the children began to worsen; hence they were transported to the University Hospital in Leuven.Howev er, during transfer, the child (aged 7) had severe pulmonary haemorrhage, quickly followed by coma, diffuse bleeding, and severe muscle cramps. She died within 20 minutes, at 13 hours after the intake of pasta. Autopsy report revealed the presence of Bacillus cereus in her gut content. The other 3 children were kept under treatment for 8 days and they gradually recovered (Dierick et al. 2005). This case elucidated the probable severity of the emetic illness, also stressing on the importance of sufficient refrigeration of cooked food. Some B.cereus strains are known to be sychrotrophic and these strains have the maximum emetic toxin production between 12 and 15Â °C. In the present case, the temperature of the refrigerator where the pasta salad was stored was 14Â °C. This probably allowed B. cereus strains to multiply quickly to attain a count of more than 108 CFU/g in 3 days along with a very high toxin production (Dierick et al. 2005). Food borne poisoning was reported in a milita ry camp in Jurong, Singapore. This food poisoning outbreak involved 19 army personnel who became unwell after breakfast.All these army personnel had been served fried rice by a food stall in a civilian canteen. The illness was characterized by vomiting (89. 5%), abdominal cramps (52. 6%), diarrhoea (47. 4%), headache (47. 4%) and fever (10. 5%) (Tay, Goh & Tan, 1982). The incubation time extended from 13/4 hours to 51/2 hours. Bacillus cereus was detected in the vomitus of the affected soldiers (Tay, Goh & Tan, 1982). This makes it clear that Bacillus cereus is a causative agent for the food borne poisoning resulting in emetic and diarrhoeal illness. This species contaminates food products, especially cooked rice and refrigerated products.It is therefore essential to follow proper cooking and refrigeration methods. Proper cooking and storage of foods, especially rice cooked for later use, will facilitate to thwart food borne epidemics. For the most part B. cereus food borne outbreak is an outcome of eating cooked foods which are cooled slowly and stored the wrong way. Generally food should be stored at temperatures higher than 60Â °C or quickly chilled to less than 10Â °C immediately after cooking. Bibliography Dierick, K. , Coillie, E. V. , Swiecicka, I. , Meyfroidt, G. , Devlieger, H. , Meulemans, A. , Hoedemaekers, G., Fourie, L. , Heyndrickx, M. & Mahillon, J. (2005). Fatal Family Outbreak of Bacillus cereus-Associated Food Poisoning. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Aug. 2005, 43(8), pp. 4277–4279. Drobniewski, F. A. (1993): Bacillus Cereus and related species. Clin Microbiol Rev. 6(4), pp. 324-38. 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In Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens, Doyle MP, ed. Marcel Dekker Inc. New York. pp 21-70. Louisiana Office of PublicHealth. (2004). Bacillus cereus – Toxi-infection. Infectious Disease Epidemiology Section- Infectious Disease Control Manual. Available from: http://www. dhh. louisiana. gov/offices/miscdocs/docs-249/Manual/BacillusCereusManua l. pdf Lund, T. , DeBuyser, M. L. & Granum, P. E. (2000). A new cytotoxin from Bacillus cereus that may cause necrotic enteritis. Mol. Microbiol.38, pp. 254–261. Mortimer, P. R. and McCann, G. (1974). Food poisoning episodes associated with Bacillus cereus in fried rice. Lancet. 1, pp. 1403 – 1405. Microbial Pathogen Datasheets. Bacillus cereus. (2001). May 2001. Retrieved from: www. nzfsa. govt. nz/science/data-sheets/bacillus-cereus. pdf Tay, L. , Goh, K. T. and Tan, S. E. (1982). An outbreak of Bacillus cereus food poisoning. Singapore Medical Journal. 23(4), pp. 214 – 217. Taylor, A. J. and Gilbert, R. J. (1975). 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