Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Correcting Run-On Sentences Proofreading Practice

This exercise will give you practice in identifying and correcting run-on sentences. Before attempting the exercise, you may find it helpful to review how to  correct a run-on sentence with a period or semicolon  and  correcting run-ons through coordination and subordination. The following paragraph contains three run-on sentences (fused sentences and/or comma splices). Read the paragraph aloud and mark any run-on sentences that you find. Then correct each run-on according to the method you think is most effective. When you have completed the exercise, compare your corrections with the following paragraph below it. Run-On Sentence Exercise Why I Had to Get Rid of the Monster Although I am a dog-lover by nature, I recently had to give away my three-month-old retriever, Plato. I had several good reasons for doing so. A few months ago I picked up the dog at the Humane Society as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend. Alas, she dumped me on Christmas Eve I was left to console myself by caring for the dog. Thats when my true misery began. For one thing, Plato was not housebroken. Throughout the apartment he left little mementos, staining rugs and furniture and fouling the air, he would burrow under any newspapers I laid down for him. To make matters worse, his untamed potty habits were supported by an insatiable appetite. Not content with a sack of Kibbles n Bits every day, he would also gnaw at the couch and shred clothes, sheets, and blankets, one night he chewed up a friends new pair of clogs. Finally, Plato simply wasnt happy being cooped up by himself in a small apartment. Whenever I left, he would begin whimpering, and that soon turned into furious barking . As a result, my neighbors were threatening to murder both me and the monster, as they took to calling him. So, after six weeks of life with Plato, I gave him away to my uncle in Baxley. Fortunately, Uncle Jerry is quite accustomed to animal feed, waste, noise, and destruction. Corrected Version of Run-On Sentence Paragraph Below is the corrected version of the paragraph used in the exercise above. Why I Had to Get Rid of the Monster Although I am a dog-lover by nature, I recently had to give away my three-month-old retriever, Plato. I had several good reasons for doing so. A few months ago I picked up the dog at the Humane Society as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend.  Alas, when she dumped me on Christmas Eve, I was left to console myself by caring for the dog.  Thats when my true misery began. For one thing, Plato was not housebroken.  Throughout the apartment he left little mementos, staining rugs and furniture and fouling the air. He would burrow under any newspapers I laid down for him.  To make matters worse, his untamed potty habits were supported by an insatiable appetite.  Not content with a sack of Kibbles n Bits every day, he would also gnaw at the couch and shred clothes, sheets, and blankets. One night he chewed up a friends new pair of clogs.  Finally, Plato simply wasnt happy being cooped up by himself in a small apartment. Whenever I left, he would begin whimpering, and that soon tur ned into furious barking. As a result, my neighbors were threatening to murder both me and the monster, as they took to calling him. So, after six weeks of life with Plato, I gave him away to my uncle in Baxley. Fortunately, Uncle Jerry is quite accustomed to animal feed, waste, noise, and destruction.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Computer Viruses And Its Effects On A Computer System

A computer virus is a malware program that, when executed copies itself into other data files, computer programs, or the boot sector of the hard drive with 95% of viruses doing no more than that. (1)(2). A virus might attach itself to a program such as a word document program. Each time the word document program runs, the virus runs too and it has the chance to reproduce by attaching to other programs. (3) Nowadays, it is extremely important to be aware of viruses because they can cause very dangerous consequences such as identity theft and fraud. When people generally think about computer viruses, they normally think about an attack on a computer system, however, they may not be aware of how common computer viruses are. It can be beneficial to know a few of the different types of viruses, the kind of damage they can cause and methods to protect yourself from them. In this essay, we will be covering when computer viruses first made an appearance and contrasting this to how they are l ike now on social media. Also, we will be covering how they work and what can be done to prevent the growing risks of computer viruses on social media. Computer viruses were first widely seen in the late 1980s, with earlier viruses being pieces of code embedded in a larger, legitimate program such as a spreadsheet program or a game. When the user downloads and runs this program, the virus loads itself into memory then looks for any other programs on the disk. 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I’m going to inform you about what they are, what types there are, and how they can be prevented. Computer virus is the term that defines a class of programs that illegally explore a wide variety of systems. It is a code, anRead MoreEthical And Social Issues Of Computer Viruses And Computer Sabotage1446 Words   |  6 Pages Ethical and Social Issues of Computer Viruses and Computer Sabotage Computer sabotage is a very dangerous form of computer crime. Computer sabotage is described as acts of malicious destruction to a computer or computer resource. 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Computer viruses have the sole intention

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting Free Essays

string(122) " discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by the religious book his wife is reading\." ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AS REFLECTED IN PAINTING: THE CONTRASTING VIEWS OF ECONOMISTS AND ART HISTORIANS [1] Manuel Santos-Redondo Universidad Complutense de Madrid [las diferencias con respecto al Documento de Trabajo disponible en la Web estan subrayadas] 1. Introduction The Moneychanger and his Wife is probably the picture most widely used to illustrate economic activity, and so it is (supposedly) well known by economists, managers, and accountants. The accounting book which appears in the picture is the origin of former AECA (Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration) logotype. We will write a custom essay sample on Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting: or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is a Flemish painting from the early 16th century. Not so many economists are, however, aware that there are two different versions of this picture: one by Quentin Massys, painted about 1514 (now in Paris, the Louvre), and another by Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele, painted in 1539 (now in Madrid, in the Prado). There are significant changes between the two versions. This being the Scholastic period and also the epoch of the commercial revolution in Europe, we would expect this picture to have some sort of economic meaning, and for the changes in the pictures to reflect these changes in economic activity and economic thought. We will argue in this paper that there does exist such a meaning; and that also the very important changes between Massys’s and Reymerswaele’s pictures have much to do with the economic changes in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century. Most art historians have seen in Massys’ and Reymerswaele’s paintings a satirical and moralising symbolism, The Money Changer and his Wife being the representation of greed. Others think that the picture shows economic activity in a respectable way. Flanders at that time was the centre of a flourishing industrial and commercial activity, and also was the centre of a mercantile trade in works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable professions. The second view is the one implicitly shared by economists when choosing this picture to illustrate many books on economics or business. Some scholars have proposed more subtle interpretations. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first aroused the interest of economists in the Spanish Scholastics of â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys’ painting to be an illustration of the intention of Scholastics to make compatible the commercial customs of the time with Church doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys’ painting would mean the money lender working and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by the religious book his wife is reading. You read "Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:" in category "Papers" It is important to notice that, 25 years on, the book in Reymerswaele’ painting is no longer a religious work but an accounting book. But art historians claim that there is still some symbolism in the painting which gives it a moralising and satirical intent. According to them, this symbolism was clear to contemporaries but not to us; or sometimes would have been intentionally difficult to notice for those contemporaries who were not in the same religious group as the painter or his client. For instance, the long, curved fingers of the bourgeois couple allegedly represented avarice. But Reymerswaele painted the fingers of Saint Jerome in the same way , so it must have an aesthetic intention and not a symbolic one. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians of this picture and other similar ones, we shall see that they are consistent with the views that most art historians share about the economy (as Hayek points out in his chapter of The fatal conceit, 1988, â€Å"The Mysterious World of Trade and Money†) rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. My view is that art historians’ prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. When the painters wanted to be satirical and moralizing, they did it in a way that is clearly recognizable by us today. And that this is not the case with the The Moneychanger and his Wife, in either the version of Massys or that of Reymerswaele. 2. Quentin Massys Let us start with Quentin Massys,[2] The Moneychanger and his Wife, dated 1514. Figure 1]. It is probably derided from a lost work by Jan van Eyck, c. 1440. [3] On the table are placed coins, a set of scales, and various other tools of their trade. (â€Å"various other tokens of their wealth†, says the art historian Jean-Claude Frere, 1997, p. 186. This is our first difference in interpretation). The man is wei ghing gold coins with great care. At that time, coins with the same face value varied in the amount of gold they contained (and therefore in their real exchange value), because it was a normal practice to file them down, clip them, or to shake them together in a bag in order to collect the gold dust they produced. So, the moneychanger is simply going about his business, not counting his money as a miser would do. And, if you look at his face, it is not the face of a miser, but the face of a concentrating working man, carefully carrying out his job. His wife is looking at the coins and scales too; but she has a book in her hands. The book is a religious one, an illustrated â€Å"book of hours†. Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, the historian of economic thought who first brought economists attention to the Spanish Scholastics of the â€Å"School of Salamanca†, considers Massys painting an illustration of the intention of the Scholastics to make compatible the commercial practices of their time with the Church’s doctrine on usury. According to her interpretation, Massys painting portrays the money lender at work and, at the same time, discussing with his wife the fairness of a particular commercial deal, helped by consulting the religious book his wife is reading. [4] Many other interpretations of Massys’s work consider this picture as to be a oralizing one, in a much stronger sense than that of Grice-Hutchinson’s view. The Encarta Encyclopedia says: â€Å"In The Moneychanger and his Wife, the subtly hinted conflict between avarice and prayer represented in the couple illustrates a new satirical quality in his paintings. â€Å"[5] (It is curious that t he â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, together with the Encarta article, provides this contradictory explanation: â€Å"The painting remains in the Flemish tradition of van Eyck, with the addition of a profane sense of beauty, sign of a new world†). [6] Another scholar says this about Massys: â€Å"Painters also began to treat new subjects. Men like Quentin Massys, for example, played an active role in the intellectual life of their cities and began to mirror the ethical concerns expressed by humanist thinkers with new paintings that used secular scenes to impart moralizing messages. Vivid tableaux warned against gambling, lust, and other vices. â€Å"[7] At the bottom of the painting there is a circular mirror; we can see the tiny figure of a man wearing a turban. [Figure 2] For some reason, the following is the explanation of the art historian Jean-Claude Frere: â€Å"a side window, under which we can just make out the tiny figure of a thief. He would seem to be spying on the couple as they count their gold, while they would seem to be oblivious to his presence, blinded by their greed†. [8] Let us leave aside the greed and concentrate on the tiny man. Is he a thief? I don’t know. But I’m sure he is not â€Å"spying on the couple as they count their gold†: I am not an art historian, but it seems clear to me that the man is inside the room, he is reading a book and looking out of the window to the street. In think that this is not a casual mistake: it is consistent with art historians’ interpretation. Symbolism, a source of moralistic interpretation My view is that art historians explanation of The Moneychanger and his Wife as a satirical work containing symbolic allusions hidden from contemporary observers, is merely a reflection of their own prejudices concerning certain economic activities. Let us consider the serious arguments supporting the symbolic explanations of paintings of the Flemish Renaissance, in order to be able to judge when a painting has this meaning and when has not. The famous art historian Erwin Panofsky held that the Early Flemish painters had to reconcile the â€Å"new naturalism† with a thousand years of Christian tradition. Based on St. Tomas Aquinas, who thought that physical objects were â€Å"corporeal metaphors for spiritual things†, Panofsky (Early Netherlandish Painting, 1953) maintains that â€Å"in early Flemish painting the method of disguised symbolism was applied to each and every object, man made or natural†. [9] There are other historical sources that point to a symbolic meaning in the painting of Quentin Massys. In his painting Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner,[10] [Figure 3] there is a clearly legible inscription, in French: â€Å"L’avaricieux n’est jamais rempli d’argent†¦ N’ayez point souci des richesses injustes, car elles ne vous profiteront en rien au jour de la visitation et de la vengeance. Soyez donc sans avarice†. This is a paraphrase of the Gospel of St Luke, ch. XII, 15, 21-34; Saint Matthew, ch. VI, 19-21. Jean Cailleux says that the main character in the painting â€Å"est soumis a la parole evangelique. Il est vraiment fidele dans les richesses injustes. Il ne cede pas a la sollicitacion du Tentateur qui, derriere lui, le visage tordu par lavarice et la soif du lucre, lui propose des comptes fantastiques†. 11] Painting and Economic Activity at Flanders We can expect the Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade of works of art. Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of mo neychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. Most Flemish artists were familiar with this world because of their own craft of painting, which was indeed market oriented. Massys was the most important of Antwerp painters of his time; and this means his shop was an example of how artistic production was organized in Antwerp, and formerly in Bruges. It is not at all odd that Flemish painters should portray business people. Massys worked for religious confraternities, and also painted portraits and other profane subjects, sometimes satirical, in response to commissions from humanists and scholars. Frere says that Massys was â€Å"perfectly attuned to the new mercantile conception of art. Antwerp was already established as an active and liberal center for trade in art† (1997, p. 186). Both Antwerp and Bruges had a regulated guild system for painters at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is important to notice not only the art of the painter, but also the evolution of the master’s workshop. At the beginning of the Renaissance, training in a craft took place in workshops regulated by civic authorities: apprenticeship was followed by admission to a guild. By the end of the century, â€Å"workshops had become more like shops nowadays, turning out goods for a flourishing private market accountable to no one. And change came without a defining moment and without artists missing a beat. Workshop assistants had certain preparatory tasks, including grinding pigments, laying grounds, and the transfer of under-drawings. Experienced assistants took on subsidiary passages, including background or stock figures. Assistants also made copies to keep pace with demand, and they had access to the master’s designs once they set up for themselves. Workshop copies ranged from straightforward replicas to transpositions into other media and from large commissions to private, devotional images. â€Å"[12] The conventional portrait of a rich man But this familiarity of artists with a commercial society does not lead them automatically to portray business people in their trade, as â€Å"occupational portraits†: the common way to portray a business man was in a way that showed him as a religious man, or as an intellectual in his house, surrounded by works of art and literature. The best known example is The Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck, but there are many others. In the triptych The Last Judgement, painted in 1480 by the Flemish painter, working in Bruges, Hans Memling, we can see the portraits of Tomaso Portinari and his wife, naked inside the scales; and those of Angiolo Tani and his wife, Catarina Tanagli, kneeling on the floor at prayer. [Figure 4] Both Portinari and Tani were important business men working in Bruges branch of the Medici company. In the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de Medici is portrayed as one of the Magi in Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi, 1459. 13] It was quite common to include the donors’ portrait in a religious scene. Tomaso Portinari and his wife, Maria Baroncelli, were also directly portrayed by Memling, at prayer. [14] (The fact that Antwerp was a rapidly enriched city and lacked a traditional aristocracy, may well have been an important reason for the artist representing economic activity in the portraits of busi nessmen, instead of the traditional â€Å"rich and cultured† portrait). 3. Marinus van Reymerswaele Let us now move on to the other version of the portrait and to a different year. Marinus van Reymerswaele[15] The Moneychanger and his Wife, [Figure 5] painted in 1539, is inspired by Massys. [16] This is the explanation of the painting provided by the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, AECA, which in 1979 chose as the symbol of the association a section this painting. [Figure 6] â€Å"The painting which has inspired our logotype is internationally famous as an image of financial activity during the Renaissance: it shows a scene typical of the counting house of a banker of the period. The subject of the pair of moneychangers shows us a new profession which has appeared in the period, a profession related to the world of finance, taxes and commercial accounts. Reymerswaele adapts the subject of the banker and his wife from Massys’s painting now in the Louvre in Paris. In Reymerswaele’s painting, the bourgeois married couple are seen counting out gold and silver coins, and the husband is weighing them with great care in a small set of scales, since most of them would be clipped or scraped. The coins are probably the product of tax-collection, an exchange of foreign currency or the repaying of a loan. This would imply the use of the abacus which the banker has at his right on the table, and then the setting out of accounts in the accounts book which the wife is holding in her delicate fine hands. â€Å"[17] Compare the explanation of this picture given by the AECA with the moralistic and over-sophisticated explanations of the art historians. The changes Between 1514 and 1539, many things have changed. In particular, the accelerated growth of the economy that stemmed from the discovery and colonization of the New World, and the religious transformation known as Lutheran Reformation. Reymerswaele was himself involved in the Lutheran Reformation. (We know that in 1567, being an old man, he took part in the sack of Middelburg cathedral, and was severely punished (six years of banishment and public humiliation). Reymerswaele specialized in everyday scenes of flourishing Flanders, with great realism, which gives his works a considerable documentary interest. (Paintings by masters of Northern Renaissance realism often recorded official contracts or acts. The Lawyer’s Office, 1545, by Reymerswaele, [Figure 7] is a remarkable example of this practice. Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea). [18] His subjects were businessmen: usurers, notaries, tax gatherers; but what could be seen as â€Å"occupational portraits† are always stressed as moralizing: Another art historian says â€Å"usuriers, changeurs, avocats, notaires, percepteurs d’impots, monde apre et rapace de l’argent toujours plus puissant dans le metropole enrichie. †¦ ] L’art de Marinus [Reymerswaele] presente une accentuation presque caricaturale, qui donne a l’ouvre sa portee moralisante† (Philippot, 1994, p. 173). Puyvelde considers that, in the genre painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele, the realist portrait turns into a caricature of rapacious and greedy businessmen. In Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, he says, â€Å"l’esprit de lucre est plus nettement marque dans les physionomies et les doigts maigres† (Puyvelde, p. 13; we will turn to the fingers latter). The study of the gold coins that appear in the painting shows that â€Å"the coins are mostly Italian and are all of types minted before 1520† (Puyvelde, p. 17). This could mean that the painting is a trial effort done by Reymerswaele, before his first clearly datable painting, Saint Jerome, of 1521. The importance of Puyvelde’s argument is not the exact date, which I cannot dispute, but the fact that Puyvelde considers The Money changer and his Wife closer to a portrait than to a satire, as ompared to later works by Marinus: later in his career, Reymerswaele would have abandoned portraiture and turned to satire and caricature (â€Å"pamphlet†, says Puyvelde). [19] The public appears to have had a preference for satire, and Marinus sought to satisfy the public with pleasant humorous pictures which enjoyed great popularity among collectors of the period. Other paintings contain inscriptions which refer to the taxes charged on beer, wine or fish. In one of the copi es or imitations of The Lawyer’s Office, titled The Notary’s Study, the document the notary is reading has been deciphered: it appears to be a parody of legal slang. Even the signature on the document in French reads â€Å"Notaire infame et faussaire†. [20] Usually museum guides reflect the views of art historians. Referring to Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, a guide to the Prado says: â€Å"In this painting we find all the characteristics of Northern European painters: minute detail, fine quality raw material, an empirical approach to reality, and above all, the naked sordidness with which Van Reymerswaele approaches one of the principal evils of his time: usury, the greater of all possible sins in a commercial society such as Flanders. Corruption and fraud affected all levels of society, even the clergy, producing a critical reaction on the part of writers, theologians and artists. â€Å"[21] Reymerswaele was not the only painter who developed Massys portraits; several other Flemish painters did. Again, there are significant differences in their style, differences which influence the overall â€Å"tone† of the picture either as â€Å"occupational portrait† or â€Å"caricature†. My point is that a common spectator of today can spot the difference. Corneille van der Capelle painted Le Percepteur d’impots et son Garant and Le Percepteur d’impots et sa Femme,[22] [Figure 8] in which we can notice a real, kind portrait of the businessmen, quite far from any caricature. But, even given the very different styles, I find no moral satire in Reymerswaele The Moneychanger and his Wife, as compared to his other works. In Reymerswaele version, the religious book has disappeared. This is an obvious change, since Marinus was a Protestant and wouldn’t have accepted any other religious book for daily reading than the bible. But there is no bible in Marinus painting. Instead, there is a hand-written book, with no illustrations, which seems to be an accounting book. The characters in Reymerswaele painting are most elegant, with luxurious clothes, and long, delicate fingers. This is also thought by some scholars to be satirical: â€Å"Long, curved fingers were, in XVI century, a sign of greed or avarice, so an apparently domestic subject can also be full of moral meaning†. [23] Long, curved fingers and noses use to represent Jews and, by extension, greed or avarice in Christian iconography. It may be important to notice that Jews played an important role in Antwerp’s economic activity. The money market was controlled by the Italian Lombards, and Jews could only act as minor money-lenders. The Jews lent mainly small amounts of money for shorter periods of time to less wealthy people such as butchers and bakers. Scarcity was an excellent situation for Jewish money-lenders. As a consequence, the y had many clients among the common people who probably had great difficulties in paying them back. This fact may have reinforced the strong anti-Semitism prevalent at that time. There were a massacre of Jews in Antwerp in 1350, and then many Spanish and Portuguese â€Å"marranos† came to settle there after 1492 and 1497, expelled from Spain and Portugal. [24] I haven’t fully explored yet the possibility of the satirical portraits being racist or anti-Semitic). But the long fingers can imply other things: they can be an esthetic technique to make people appear more mystical, unmaterialistic, attractive. We could interpret thus the fingers of Reymerswaele’ Saint Jerome, in 1521. [Figure 9] And Saint Jerome transmits you the idea of ascetic sanctity, the antithesis of greed. Although, again, some scholar says that Reymerswaele painting of Saint Jerome is â€Å"stressing the crabbedness of scholarship†. Even if that is correct, it would not be the crabbedness of greed). To me, the long, curved fingers of the moneychanger and his beautiful wife imply simply elegance. This is my personal impression. If I then look at other paintings by Reymerswaele, for instance, the two Tax Gatherers (also The Misers), described by the same scholar as â€Å"exceedingly ugly and covetous†, I don’t need to be his contemporary to notice the satirical meaning. [25] After comparing their clever interpretations with what a spectator sees in these pictures, I would recommend that the meaning of a painting, as given by art historians, not be accepted uncritically: their judgments appear to be based upon certain prejudices, in this case concerning commercial and financial practices, rather than any objective analysis of the painting. 4. Other Flemish â€Å"occupational portraits† If you look at other paintings of the same school, it is easy to find examples of â€Å"good†, non critical or satirical, representation of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers. Adriaen Isenbrant Man Weighing Gold (c. 1518),[26] [Figure 10] is described in this way by Jean E. Wilson: â€Å"This sensitive portrait of a banker or, perhaps, a moneychanger reveals the sitter’s evident pride in his occupation. The portrait also serves as an example of the widening interest in portraiture, which had gradually extended to members of the business sector† (Wilson 1998, p. 196). But another scholar points out that â€Å"the act of weighing coins may allude both to the man’s profession and to his contemplation of higher values, comparable to Saint Michael’s weighing of souls on Judgment Day†. [27] In Hieronimous Bosch’s The Table of the Deadly Sins,[28] 1480, [Figure 11] avarice is shown as a judge who is being bribed. This is completely different from the activity of the banker: what Bosch shows us is not a profit-seeking commercial practice which is therefore sinful, but an act of corruption which would be taken to be immoral equally in a commercially oriented society or in an ideal world described by Scholastic theologians. Another example of an â€Å"occupational portrait† is the Portrait of a Merchant [Figure 12] by Jean Gossaert (c. 1530),[29] thought to be a portrait of Jeronimus Sandelin, a real merchant from Zealand, in Flanders. There is nothing satirical about it: it is a purely â€Å"occupational portrait†. But the National Gallery of Art Brief Guide says this: â€Å"the sitter’s furtive glance and prim mouth are enough to inform us of the insecurity and apprehension that haunted bankers in the 1530s, when the prevailing moral attitude was summed up by the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who asked, â€Å"When did avarice reign more largely and less punished? â€Å"[30] St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus,[31] [Figure 13] is the clear representation of a goldsmith working in his shop and attending two clients: a rich, well-born bridal couple. It seems to be a representation of the goldsmith’s trade, with the excuse of the portrait of a saint (hardly a subtle ploy, since St. Eloy is the patron of goldsmith’s guild). The goldsmith sits behind a window sill extended to form a table, a pair of jeweler’s scales in one hand, a ring in the other. Only his halo suggests that the painting deals with legend. On the right is a display of examples of the goldsmith’s craft. The picture may very well have been painted for a goldsmith’s guild (the one in Antwerp). St. Eligius is the Patron of metalworkers. As a maker of reliquaries he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian West. Eligius (also known as Eloy) was born around 590 near Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clothar of the Franks. Eligius developed a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. It is important to notice that most prominent features in the life of St. Eligius can be seen both as indications of sanctity and the best professional characteristics of a good goldsmith. In the goldsmith’s trade, skills were as important as reliability, as Adam Smith notices in Wealth of Nations: â€Å"The wages of goldsmiths and jewelers are every-where superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity; on account of the precious materials with they are intrusted†. [32] Eligius is praised for both qualities. From his biography, we can see how important this reliability of his goldsmith was, for the king to become Eligius’ protector: â€Å"The king gave Eligius a great weight of gold. Eligius began the work immediately and from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse. â€Å"[33] The portrait Saint Eligius by Petrus Christus is a fine example of the â€Å"occupational portrait†, describing a goldsmith’s shop, the only religious connection being the halo and the fact than the saint is the patron of the guild. The true â€Å"moralizing† pictures of the Flemish School Look at the painting The Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520, [Figure 14] by Quentin Massys:[34] again you don’t need to be a contemporary of his to notice the satirical intention. (It is important to notice that the theme of love between the old and the young was extremely popular in sixteenth century, and we can agree that both the popularity and the moral view has changed on this subject in modern times. The meaning of the painting, however, hasn’t changed at all, because the artist doesn’t paint the old man with tenderness and love and mature elegance, but as undignified uncontrolled, despicable desire). There are other paintings by Marinus which shows a clearly satirical approach, or at least an ugly expression which does not imply pride in the profession: see The Lawyer’s Office, 1545, and The Misers [Figure 15] (also known, in different versions, as The Tax Gatherers or The tax gatherer and his guarantor). This one shows â€Å"two tax collectors, or rather a treasurer, or an administrator with his clerk, the collector with a winking grimace†¦. The treasurer enters in a book the sums received for the taxes†¦ with his right hand counts and weighs the coins†¦ â€Å"[35] Both of them look clearly satirical for a modern observer. 5. Conclusion This paper has compared the rival interpretations provided by economists and art historians of the painting The Moneychanger and his Wife. The painting is seen as an â€Å"occupational portrait†, showing a banker in his office, carefully weighing coins simply because this is one of most prominent features of his trade. It is a clearly secular subject, much more so in Reymerwaele’s version: the religious books in the woman’s hands has been turned into an accounting book. We could expect Flemish painters to be familiar with market oriented economic activity and the money world, because of the society in which they lived. Flanders at that time was the center of a flourishing industrial and commercial world, and also was the center of a mercantile trade in works of art. [36] Both things led to a representation of the professional activity of moneychangers, goldsmiths, and bankers in a way that shows those activities as respectable ones. In the process of reviewing the different interpretations provided by art historians about this picture and other similar ones, we have seen that they are consistent with the views that art historians share about the economic activity, rather than based on any objective interpretation of the painting and history. Thus, while the picture shows commercial and financial activity to be a normal, respectable occupation, most art historians see a moralizing and satirical intention. This paper maintains that art historian’s prejudice towards commercial and financial activity leads them to a wrong interpretation of the paintings. LIST OF ILUSTRATIONS 1. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Quentin Matsys, 1503-1505. 2. The Last Judgement, by Hans Memling, 1480. Portrait of Angiolo Tani and his wife. 3. The Moneychanger and his wife, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1539. 4. Saint Jerome, by Marinus Reymerswaele. 5. Logo of the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration (AECA). 6. Adriaen Isenbrant, Man Weighing Gold, fist half of the sixteenth century. 7. St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, by Petrus Christus, 1449. 8. The Table of Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hieronimous Bosch. 9. Portrait of a Merchant, by Jean Gossaert, c. 1530. 10. The Ill-Matched Lovers, by Quentin Mastsys. 11. The Misers, or The moneylenders, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 12. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Gatherers, 15–, National Gallery, London. [Yamey, p. 52, Plate XVI] 13. Marinus van Reymerswaele, Two Tax-Collectors, 15–, Alte Pinakotheck, Munich. [Yamey, p. 54, 29 XVI] 14. Map of Flanders and Antwerp. 15. The Lawyer’s Office, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1545. 16. Portrait of a Merchant and his Partner, by Quentin Metsys. 17. The taxgatherer and his Wife, by Corneille van de Capelle (Corneille de Lyon? ) BIBLIOGRAPHY Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn (et al. (1994), Les Primitifs flamands et leur temps (sous la direction de Brigitte Veronee-Verhaegen et Roger Van Schoute). Louvain-la-Neuve: La Renaissance du Livre. Benezit, E. (1976), Dectionaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (nouvelle edition, entierement refondue, revue el corrigee sous la direction des heritiers de E. Be nezit). Libraire Grund. Vol. 7. â€Å"Marinus Van Roejmerswaelen† Campbell, Lorne, et al. (1978) â€Å"Quentin Massys, Desiderius Erasmus, Pieter Gillis and Thomas More†. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXX, n? 908, november, pp. 716-724. Cassagnes, Sophie (2001), D’art et d’argent. Les artistes et leurs clients dans l’Europe du Nord (XIVe -XVe siecle), Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. Frere, Jean-Claude (1997), Early Flemish Painting, Paris: Terrail. Friedlander, Max J. (1967) [1929] Early Netherlandish painting. Vol 1, The van Eycks–Petrus Christus, Brussels: La Connaissance, and Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff. Genaille, Robert (1967), Dictionnaire des peintres flamands et hollandais, Paris: Larousse. Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1993) â€Å"Santo Tomas de Aquino en la historia del pensamiento economico†, in Ensayos sobre el pensamiento economico en Espana. This essay, lectured to receive the Honoris Causa Doctorate from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is not in the English version of the same book). Hayek, Friedrich August (1988), The fatal conceit. The errors of socialism, London: Routledge. Chapter 6, â€Å"The Misterious World of Trade and Money†. Mackor, Adri:  "Are Marinus’ Tax Collectors collecting taxes? † Bulletin du Musee National de Varsovie XXXVI (1995; n? 3-4) pp. 3-13. Mackor, Adri: â€Å"Marinus van Reymerswale: Painter, Lawyer and Iconoclast†, Oud Holland 109 (1995) pp. 191-200. Mund, Helene (1994), â€Å"La copie†, in Ainsworth (et al. ) (1994), pp. 125-141. Panofsky, Erwin (1971) [1953], Early Netherlandish painting: its origins and character (2 vols. ) London: Harper and Row. Panofsky, Erwin (1993) [1955], Meaning in the visual arts, Penguin. Philippot, Paul (1994), La peinture dans les anciens Pays-Bas. XV-XVIe siecles. Paris: Flammarion. Puyvelde, Leo van (1957), â€Å"Un Portrait de Marchand par Quentin Metsys et les Percepteurs d’Impots par Marin van Reymerswale†, Revue Belgue d’Archeologie et d’Histoire de l’Art, vol. 26, pp. 3-23. Silver, Larry (1984), The paintings of Quinten Massys with catalogue raisonne, Oxford. Montclair, N. J. : Allanheld Schram. Smith, Adam (1976) [1776], An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Comps. R. Campbell, A. S. Skinner y W. B. Todd. Oxford : Clarendon Press. Van Houdt, Toon (1999), â€Å"The Economics of Art in Early Modern Times: Some Humanist and Scholastic Approaches†, History of Political Economy, 31(0), Supplement 1999 (Economic Engagements with Art, edited by Neil De Marchi and Craufurd D. W. Goodwin, London: Duke University Press), pages 303-31. Vanhoutte, Edward (1997), â€Å"In your seed all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed. Importance and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment†,. Guest-lecture. Lancaster (UK): Lancaster University, 6 february. In . VVAA (1994), El Prado, Barcelona: Lunwerg. Wilson, Jean E. (1998), Painting in Bruges at the close of the Middle Ages. Studies in Society and Visual Culture. Pennsylvania : University Press. Yamey, Basil S. (1989), Art and Accounting, New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ———————– [1] The author wants to thank John Reeder for his useful comments. A previous version of this paper, with the title â€Å"The Moneychanger and his Wife: from Scholastics to Accounting†, is in Internet, [http://www. ucm. es/BUCM/cee/doc/00-23/0023. tm]. [2] Quentin Massys (1465/66 – 1530), also Matsys, Metsys, Metsijs, Massijs. Famous Flemish painter, the founder of the Antwerp school, he was probably born in Leuven, Belgium. He was the main painter of his epoch. [3] Yamey (1989), pp. 24, 45. [4] Grice-Hutchinson (1993), pp. 203-205. [5] â€Å"Massys, Quentinâ₠¬  Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000, . In the same Encarta website, Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, says that Massys painted â€Å"a witty commentary on greed. The banker’s wife pretends piety by leafing through a religious book, while stealing a glance at her husband’s gold. [6] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, . The pages says that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [7] National Gallery of Art (Washington D. C. , USA), 2000, â€Å"Antwerp in the Early 1500s†, . [8] Jean-Claude Frere, Early Flemish Painting (1997, pp. 187-188). [9] Wilson (1998), p. 191; quoted from Panofsky, Early Netherlandish painting, 1953, p. 142. â€Å"Every perceptible thing, man made or natural, becomes a symbol of that which is not perceptible†, says Panofsky (â€Å"Abbot Suger of St-Denis†, 1946, in 1955, p. 161) following Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. 10] Quentin Massys, Portrait of a merchant and his partner (Paris, collectio n M. Cailleux). [11] Puyvelde (1957, p. 5), quoting from Jean Cailleux, Les Richesses injustes, Reforme, Paris, n? 72, 3 aout 1946. In Antwerp, a tax-collector was obliged to have a surety or guarantor, who had the right to supervise the collection of money and its recording. The tax-collector is â€Å"shown as a respectable person, accompanied by his guarantor, malicously rendered with a pronounced scowl†. Yamey (1989, p. 54), confronts this van Puyvelde’s interpretation with other art historians’ view. 12] â€Å"The Boys in the Back Room†, written by John Haber in the Website â€Å"Postmodernism and Art History: Gallery Reviews from Around New York†. The informations refers to the exhibition â€Å"From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting†, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 1999. . [13] Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Italian painter. Procession of the Magi, 1460, Medici Riccardi Palace, Florence. [14] The Triptych The L ast Judgement, now in Gdansk, Narodowe Museum, was painted by Memling (also Memlinc) in 1477. Angiolo Tani is painted in the outside of the wings. Tani had been the head of the Bruges branch of Medici Bank from 1455 to 1465. Tomaso Portinari was his successor in the position. Memling, Tommaso Portinari, 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Maria Maddalena Baroncelli (Mrs. Tomasso Portinari), 1470, tempera and oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For details, see Ainsworth et al. (1994), chapter â€Å"Hans Memlinc†, pp. 462-466. [15] Marinus (Claeszon) van Reymerswaele (also Roymerswaele) is a Flemish painter (c. 1495-1566). He received his first artistic training as an apprentice to an Antwerp glass painter named Simon van Daele in 1509. Known as a painter of genre and satire, Reymerswaele was famous enough to have been mentioned by the Florentin historian Guicciardini and the art historian and painter Vasari. [16] Reymerswaele (or his workshop) made a lot of copies of this subject. Puyvelde (1957, p. 15) claims that the two paintings in the Prado and the one in the Collection of the State of Babiera, signed in 1538 and 1539, are inspired by Massys The moneychanger and his wife. Puyvelde considers that most other copies are inspired by Massys Tax Gatherers. 17] â€Å"El cuadro inspirador del logotipo es conocido internacionalmente como una imagen de la actividad economica del Renacimiento, especialmente de la financiera, ya que en el se muestra una situacion caracteristica de lo que podria considerarse un banquero de la epoca. El tema de la pareja de cambistas pone de manifiesto el surgimiento de una nueva profesion renacentista relacionada con el mundo de las finanzas, de los impuestos y de las cuentas mercantiles. Marinus toma de Quintin Metsys el tema del banquero y su mujer, que se expone en el Louvre de Paris. En el cuadro de Marinus, el matrimonio burges recuenta las monedas de oro y plata y el pesa en una pequena balanza, con gran delicadeza, aquellas, ya que la mayoria de las mismas eran raspadas o recortadas. Posiblemente provendrian de una recaudacion de impuestos, de una cambio de monedas o de la devolucion de un prestamo, lo que implicaria despues controlar o calcular la operacion con el abaco que tiene a su derecha sobre la mesa y a efectuar anotaciones en el libro de Contabilidad que ella tiene entre su bellas y delicadas manos†. From AECA’s Website, 1999. 18] â€Å"Recent research has demonstrated that the documents, which form the background of the painting, refer to an actual lawsuit begun in 1526 in the town of Reymerswaele on the North Sea. The suit arose between three heirs of Anthonius Willem Bouwensz and Cornelius vander Maere, the latter having purchased a salt refinery from the heirs of Anthonius. Difficulties began when Cornelius vander Maere refused to ma ke the initial payment and subsequently had his goods seized. The legal transactions lasted until 1538, by which time the property under dispute had probably been ubmerged or destroyed by storms. Ironically, the court fees still had to be paid. † New Orleans Museum of Art, Information written by Joan G. Caldwell. [http://www. noma. org/MARINUS. HTM]. The Museum owns one of the many versions of the painting: â€Å"Several versions of this composition exist in Munich, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. While the Museum’s version is apparently the last in the series, it is painted with the greatest detail, thus clearly revealing the documents in the lawsuit†. [19] Puyvelde (1957), pp. 7-18; â€Å"le veritable portrait fait place a la caricature de l’homme de affaire rapace† (Puyvelde, 1957, p. 13; also, p. 20). [20] Puyvelde (1957), p. 23. [21] â€Å"Es esta tabla encontramos todas las caracteristicas de los pintores nordicos: el detallismo, las calidad es materiales que se aprecian a la perfeccion, la aproximacion empirica a la realidad, y sobre todo, la sordidez descarnada con la que Van Reymerswaele aborda uno de los principales males de su epoca: la usura, el mayor pecado posible dentro de una sociedad comerciante como era la flamenca. La corrupcion y la estafa afectaban a las capas de la sociedad, llegando al clero y provocando la reaccion de escritores, teologos y artistas†. CD-ROM La Pintura en el Prado, 1996, Editorial Contrastes. [22] Corneille van der Capelle, Le Percepteur d’impots et sa Femme. Jadis Sigmaringen, Pince of Hohenzollern collection. [23] The illustrated book El Prado (Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1994), p. 389. [24] Vanhoutte (1997). [25] â€Å"Web Gallery of Art†, description of the painting The Tax Collectors, 1542 (Wood, 103,7 x 120 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich), : â€Å"The Tax Collectors by Marinus Van Roymerswaele appears to be a deliberate caricature; the painter’s Calvinist background clearly comes through in his depicting the tax collector’s greed with a fierse grimace and claw-like hands, whilst the administrator records the money in the ledger, maintaining his proper distance. Marinus van Reymerswaele was a painter of three themes, all more or less caricatura l. He painted a number of straightforward S. Jeromes, all derived from Durer’s picture of 1521 (Lisbon) but stressing the crabbedness of scholarship. The other two themes are interdependent: two exceedingly ugly and covetous Tax Gatherers and a Banker and his Wife (the banker counting his profits). The Banker is closely related to Massys’s picture of the same subject, and it may be that the Tax Gatherers derive from Massys’s borrowings from the caricatures of Leonardo da Vinci. There are about thirty versions of the Tax Gatherers (the best is in London, National Gallery; another has the date 1552), and what nobody has so far explained is why so many people should want to own a picture of tax collectors (and excessively ugly ones at that) gloating over their imposts. There are also examples in the British Royal Collection and in Antwerp, Berlin, Ghent, Madrid, Munich and Vienna. † The Website says on the Welcome page that â€Å"the comments were compiled from various sources†. [26] Adriaen Isenbrant (? ) Man Weighing Gold, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Friedsam Collection. Adriaen Isenbrant is also known as Hysebrant or Ysenbrant. He was active in Bruges, 1510 – 1551. He was first mentioned in 1510 when he became a master in the Bruges painters’ and saddlemakers’ guild. He was recorded as a stranger, but his native town was not mentioned. Between 1516/1517 and 1547/1548 he was listed numerous times as a vinder or minor offical of the guild and in 1526/1527 and 1537/1538 was a gouverneur or financial officer. Because of the uncertainty, some authorities prefer to use the name Isenbrandt in inverted commas or with or with question mark. See the Website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. , [27] Bauman, G. , â€Å"Early Flemish Portraits 1425-1525†, M. M. A. Bull. XLIII, Spring 1986, pp. 46 f. On the contrary, Wehle, H. B. , and M. Salinger, M. M. A. , A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, 1947, pp. 100 f. , â€Å"identify the sitter as a banker or a money changer and consider the portrait to be purely secular, not a ‘donor’s likeness in a religious ensemble'†. References provided by Sandra Fritz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Catalog. [28] The Table of the Deadly Sins, 1480, by Hier onimous Bosch (c. 1450-1516). Oil on panel, 120 x 150 cm. Prado Museum. Bosch is the name given to the Dutch painter Hieronimus van Aeken. [29] Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1532), Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530. Oil on panel, . 636 x . 475 m Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [30] National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, Brief Guide, in . [31] Petrus Christus (fl. 1444-c. 1470), St. Eloy (Eligius) in His Shop, 1449, oil on panel, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [32] Smith (1976), I. x. b. 18. [33] The Life of St. Eligius, 588-660, paragraph 5. The Life of Eligius, bishop and confessor, was written by Dado, bishop of Rouen (his friend and contemporary). Eligius lived from 588 to 660. The full text is in . [34] Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, 0’432 x 0’630 m. National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. [35] Marinus Van Reymerswaele, The Misers, 1531. Oil on wood. Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, . [36] â€Å"Bruges et surtout Anvers ont donc cree les premiers marches publics consacres a l’art en Occident†, Cassagness (2001), p. 264. How to cite Economic Activity as Reflected in Painting:, Papers

Friday, December 6, 2019

Hepatitis C Essay Example For Students

Hepatitis C Essay Hepatitis C : The Silent EpidemicIntroductionDid you know that over two hundred million people are infected with the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)? Unfortunately it is true, and twenty five thousand more are infected each year. Out of these victims, three are acquaintances of mine. They are why I chose to research this Silent Epidemic. In this paper you will not only learn about the virus itself, but also ways to recognize and prevent it. The goal of this is to prevent the further spread of this disease, and furthermore to make you aware of your options if infected. StatisticsHepatitis C affects approximately 1.8% of the population in the U.S. This accounts for nearly 4 million people. And this number is only growing. It has been estimated that twenty five to thirty five thousand new cases are diagnosed each year. What is the Hepatitis C Virus?As you already know, the cells in the body respond to infection in many ways. One of these ways is inflammation. Hepatitis C is an inflammation of the liver. However, it does not affect the whole liver at once. The silent epidemic sneaks up slowly by causing damage to individual liver cells. This means, HCV progresses slowly over many years. How do you get Hepatitis C There are many risk factors that may lead to the spread the Hepatitis C Virus. In many cases symptoms are not visible until ten or even twenty years after the infection. Since treatments are based on the degree of infection, it is important to find this virus as soon as possible. Are you at risk? Ask yourself the following questions to find out!1.) Have you received a blood transfusion prior to 1992?2.) Have you had any solid organ transplants, such as your heart, liver, or kidney?3.) Are you on long-term kidney dialysis?4.) Are you a member of the healthcare field, in which you have had exposure to blood?5.) Have you ever used recreational drugs? (Needles? Cocaine Straws?)6.) Have you ever had high risk sex? (Anal? Multiple Partners?)7.) Do you have a tattoo or body piercing? 8.) Do you live with, or have regular contact with an infected person? If so, do you share nail clippers, razors, or toothbrushes?If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you are at a risk for having Hepatitis C. So now what can you do?Diagnosing Hepatitis CIf you feel you may have been exposed to Hepatitis C, it is important that you get tested at your earliest convenience. But how do they test for Hepatitis C? Serologic AssaysThe initial testing for Hepatitis C is through a Serologic Assay. This is a blood test that is examined for signs of the virus. There are two types, ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) and RIBA (Recombinant Immunoblot Assay). ELISA is used most frequently. RIBA was created only as a backup test to ensure the results from ELISA were not a false positive. Unfortunately, these tests do not show the degree of infection in the blood. The results form these tests can be either a negative or positive. If the results are positive, you have been exposed to HCV, and more testing must be done. Qualitative HCV TestThe next tests that would be performed is known as a Qualitative HCV Test. This is also a blood test. This test checks f or Polymerase Chain Reactions, which is a specific way of looking for Hepatitis C Viral RNA. This tests shows whether, or not you actually have HCV infecting your system. If you do in fact, have HCV present in your body, it is necessary to properly identify the type. .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .postImageUrl , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:hover , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:visited , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:active { border:0!important; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:active , .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u57044f5846c220e5a17a2eec44060b9e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Pretty Woman Vs. Pillow Talk EssayGenotype TestTo identify the type of HCV in your body a Genotype Tests is performed. There are six different genotypes of hepatitis C. The three major genotypes are 1, 2, and 3. Seventy two percent of infected Americans are diagnosed with Genotype 1. Most others in the U.S. are type 2 and 3. By determining the Genotype, appropriate treatment can be decided upon. Doctors have been educated in the treatments that your genotype will properly respond to. Treatment of Genotype 1 is known to last approximately 48 weeks. Treatments of HCV will be discussed later in this report. Liver Health TestOnce you are officially diagnosed with HCV, there are many Liver Health tests that will help to determine how progressed the virus is. There are two major types of Liver Health Tests. ALTThe first tests is called ALT. ALT measures the level of Alanine Aminotransferase in your blood. ALT is an enzyme which is typically found in excess when the liver is damaged. These cells are produced in the liver and released into the bloodstream when there are too many of them. ALT testing is the most inexpensive way of monitoring the progression of HCV in your body. Liver BiopsyThe second test is known as a Liver Biopsy. A liver biopsy is when a sample is removed form the liver and examined under a microscope by trained professionals. This is a very important test to have performed because it rules out other formed of liver disease. This is done as an outpatient procedure and ultimately will determine the degree of damage to your liver. Liver biopsies are not incredibly painful for the patient. Two patients have helped me to further understand the procedure. A liver biopsy is preformed under anesthesia. There is a sensation of a hard, strong pressure at the spot where the liver tissue is removed. After the test there is not much pain. However, patients are extremely tired after the procedure. Stages of Hepatitis CThere are many stages of HCV. These stages range from initial to chronic, and are determined by a liver biopsy. The initial stage of Hepatitis C is known as acute HCV. Acute HCV occurs within the first six months of infection. During th is stage it is estimated that only twenty to thirty percent of patients experience signs and symptoms of the virus. These symptoms include extreme fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, and jaundice. Some also experience abdominal discomfort, which is typically a sign of an inflamed or tender liver. If the virus is present in the body for more the six months it is considered to be chronic. Once the virus has reached the chronic stage it is important that you be treated as soon as possible. If the virus remains untreated you may end up with cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, or liver cancer. It is even possible that you will die. Stages of DamageThere are four official stages of damage to the liver. These stages are determined by a liver biopsy. The first stage consists of liver inflammation and the presence of lymphocytes. In stage one there is no scarring of the liver. In the second stage fibrosis (scarring) has begun. By the third stage scar tissue begins to bridge. Bridging is when one area of scar tissue connects to other areas of scar tissue. Stage three also is distinguished by the liver reduced ability to remove toxins from the body. Due to this reduced function, jaundice, yellowing of the skin, may become visible. The blood flow through the liver is also greatly reduced during this stage. The fourth and final stage is very serious. By stage four, cirrhosis of the liver has begun. Cirrhosis is defined as the advanced scarring of the tissue. If HCV is not treated by stage four, death may occur. Treatment OptionsHepatitis C is the least known of the Hepatitis viruses. Treatments have just begun to be di scovered. Therefore, options are still not plentiful. Keep in mind there is no vaccination for the Hepatitis C Virus. InterferonInterferon is a protein which is constantly made by the body. Interferon is typically present in the flu. In excess it causes symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, and increased body temperatures (fever). However, when hepatitis is present in the body it destroys these proteins. Therefore, more must be injected to help fight this virus. Interferon helps defeat HCV in three ways. First it attaches to healthy cells, and helps them form becoming infected. Second, it helps the immune system to stop the Hepatitis C Virus from multiplying. Third, it helps the body to get rid of already infected cells. There are two types of interferon. The first type is alpha-interferon. This is injected three times a week. The second type is pegylated-interferon. This type of interferon is only injected once a week. Usually treatment lasts for 24-48 weeks. RibavirinRibavirin is a pi ll which is used along with alpha-interferon. It has been proven that this pill helps the alpha-interferon to work better. Patients who choose to take this pill are prescribed several pills a day. These pills must be take everyday along with regular alpha-interferon injections to positively affect the body. .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .postImageUrl , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:hover , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:visited , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:active { border:0!important; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:active , .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u72e8ef41cd0fdf9395cde92e93d80f6e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Earth Science EssayGoals of treatmentThere are two basic goals of HCV treatment. The first goal is to have a sustained virologic response. This means that the virus will remain at an undetectable in the blood for six or more months after treatment. The second goal is an improved histologic response. An example of this is the decrease of liver inflammation, and the reduction of scarring of the liver. ConclusionHepatitis C is a silent epidemic. There is no vaccination, and no cure. The only way to prevent the spread of this disease is to be aware of your surroundings, and practice a clean way of living. Although there is treatment for Hepatitis C, it is a painful disease in its later stages. If you feel you have been exposed, please, do not hesitate to have yourself tested. The Hepatitis C Virus is, and will remain, a threat to your life.