12.3: Wealth and Culture in the South
During the antebellum years, wealthy southern planters formed an elite master class that wielded most of the economic and political power of the region. They created their own standards of gentility and honor, defining ideals of southern white manhood and womanhood and shaping the culture of the South. To defend the system of forced labor on which their economic survival and genteel lifestyles depended, elite southerners developed several proslavery arguments that they levied at those who would see the institution dismantled.
SLAVERY AND THE WHITE CLASS STRUCTURE
The South prospered, but its wealth was very unequally distributed. Upward social mobility did not exist for the millions of slaves who produced a good portion of the nation’s wealth, while poor southern whites envisioned a day when they might rise enough in the world to own slaves of their own. Because of the cotton boom, there were more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River Valley by 1860 than anywhere else in the United States. However, in that same year, only 3 percent of whites owned more than fifty slaves, and two-thirds of white households in the South did not own any slaves at all (Figure 12.3.1). Distribution of wealth in the South became less democratic over time; fewer whites owned slaves in 1860 than in 1840.
At the top of southern white society stood the planter elite, which comprised two groups. In the Upper South, an aristocratic gentry, generation upon generation of whom had grown up with slavery, held a privileged place. In the Deep South, an elite group of slaveholders gained new wealth from cotton. Some members of this group hailed from established families in the eastern states (Virginia and the Carolinas), while others came from humbler backgrounds. South Carolinian Nathaniel Heyward, a wealthy rice planter and member of the aristocratic gentry, came from an established family and sat atop the pyramid of southern slaveholders. He amassed an enormous estate; in 1850, he owned more than eighteen hundred slaves. When he died in 1851, he left an estate worth more than $2 million (approximately $63 million in 2014 dollars).
As cotton production increased, new wealth flowed to the cotton planters. These planters became the staunchest defenders of slavery, and as their wealth grew, they gained considerable political power.
One member of the planter elite was Edward Lloyd V, who came from an established and wealthy family of Talbot County, Maryland. Lloyd had inherited his position rather than rising to it through his own labors. His hundreds of slaves formed a crucial part of his wealth. Like many of the planter elite, Lloyd’s plantation was a masterpiece of elegant architecture and gardens (Figure 12.3.2).
One of the slaves on Lloyd’s plantation was Frederick Douglass, who escaped in 1838 and became an abolitionist leader, writer, statesman, and orator in the North. In his autobiography, Douglass described the plantation’s elaborate gardens and racehorses, but also its underfed and brutalized slave population. Lloyd provided employment opportunities to other whites in Talbot County, many of whom served as slave traders and the “slave breakers” entrusted with beating and overworking unruly slaves into submission. Like other members of the planter elite, Lloyd himself served in a variety of local and national political offices. He was governor of Maryland from 1809 to 1811, a member of the House of Representatives from 1807 to 1809, and a senator from 1819 to 1826. As a representative and a senator, Lloyd defended slavery as the foundation of the American economy.
Wealthy plantation owners like Lloyd came close to forming an American ruling class in the years before the Civil War. They helped shape foreign and domestic policy with one goal in view: to expand the power and reach of the cotton kingdom of the South.  Rather, they created an identity for themselves based on a world of leisure in which horse racing and entertainment mattered greatly, and where the enslavement of others was the bedrock of civilization.
Below the wealthy planters were the yeoman farmers, or small landowners (Figure 12.3.3). Below yeomen were poor, landless whites, who made up the majority of whites in the South. These landless white men dreamed of owning land and slaves and served as slave overseers, drivers, and traders in the southern economy. In fact, owning land and slaves provided one of the only opportunities for upward social and economic mobility. In the South, living the American dream meant possessing slaves, producing cotton, and owning land.
Despite this unequal distribution of wealth, non-slaveholding whites shared with white planters a common set of values, most notably a belief in white supremacy. Whites, whether rich or poor, were bound together by racism. Slavery defused class tensions among them, because no matter how poor they were, white southerners had race in common with the mighty plantation owners. Non-slaveholders accepted the rule of the planters as defenders of their shared interest in maintaining a racial hierarchy. Significantly, all whites were also bound together by the constant, prevailing fear of slave uprisings.
D. R. Hundley was a well-educated planter, lawyer, and banker from Alabama. Something of an amateur sociologist, he argued against the common northern assumption that the South was made up exclusively of two tiers of white residents: the very wealthy planter class and the very poor landless whites. In his 1860 book, Social Relations in Our Southern States , Hundley describes what he calls the “Southern Yeomen,” a social group he insists is roughly equivalent to the middle-class farmers of the North.
But you have no Yeomen in the South, my dear Sir? Beg your pardon, our dear Sir, but we have—hosts of them. I thought you had only poor White Trash? Yes, we dare say as much—and that the moon is made of green cheese! . . . Know, then, that the Poor Whites of the South constitute a separate class to themselves; the Southern Yeomen are as distinct from them as the Southern Gentleman is from the Cotton Snob. Certainly the Southern Yeomen are nearly always poor, at least so far as this world’s goods are to be taken into account. As a general thing they own no slaves; and even in case they do, the wealthiest of them rarely possess more than from ten to fifteen. . . . The Southern Yeoman much resembles in his speech, religious opinions, household arrangements, indoor sports, and family traditions, the middle class farmers of the Northern States. He is fully as intelligent as the latter, and is on the whole much better versed in the lore of politics and the provisions of our Federal and State Constitutions. . . . [A]lthough not as a class pecuniarily interested in slave property, the Southern Yeomanry are almost unanimously pro-slavery in sentiment. Nor do we see how any honest, thoughtful person can reasonably find fault with them on this account.
—D. R. Hundley, Social Relations in Our Southern States , 1860
What elements of social relations in the South is Hundley attempting to emphasize for his readers? In what respects might his position as an educated and wealthy planter influence his understanding of social relations in the South?
Because race bound all whites together as members of the master race, non-slaveholding whites took part in civil duties. They served on juries and voted. They also engaged in the daily rounds of maintaining slavery by serving on neighborhood patrols to ensure that slaves did not escape and that rebellions did not occur. The practical consequence of such activities was that the institution of slavery, and its perpetuation, became a source of commonality among different economic and social tiers that otherwise were separated by a gulf of difference.
Southern planters exerted a powerful influence on the federal government. Seven of the first eleven presidents owned slaves, and more than half of the Supreme Court justices who served on the court from its inception to the Civil War came from slaveholding states. However, southern white yeoman farmers generally did not support an active federal government. They were suspicious of the state bank and supported President Jackson’s dismantling of the Second Bank of the United States. They also did not support taxes to create internal improvements such as canals and railroads; to them, government involvement in the economic life of the nation disrupted what they perceived as the natural workings of the economy. They also feared a strong national government might tamper with slavery.
Planters operated within a larger capitalist society, but the labor system they used to produce goods—that is, slavery—was similar to systems that existed before capitalism, such as feudalism and serfdom. Under capitalism, free workers are paid for their labor (by owners of capital) to produce commodities; the money from the sale of the goods is used to pay for the work performed. As slaves did not reap any earnings from their forced labor, some economic historians consider the antebellum plantation system a “pre-capitalist” system.
HONOR IN THE SOUTH
A complicated code of honor among privileged white southerners, dictating the beliefs and behavior of “gentlemen” and “ladies,” developed in the antebellum years. Maintaining appearances and reputation was supremely important. It can be argued that, as in many societies, the concept of honor in the antebellum South had much to do with control over dependents, whether slaves, wives, or relatives. Defending their honor and ensuring that they received proper respect became preoccupations of whites in the slaveholding South. To question another man’s assertions was to call his honor and reputation into question. Insults in the form of words or behavior, such as calling someone a coward, could trigger a rupture that might well end on the dueling ground (Figure 12.3.4). Dueling had largely disappeared in the antebellum North by the early nineteenth century, but it remained an important part of the southern code of honor through the Civil War years. Southern white men, especially those of high social status, settled their differences with duels, before which antagonists usually attempted reconciliation, often through the exchange of letters addressing the alleged insult. If the challenger was not satisfied by the exchange, a duel would often result.
The dispute between South Carolina’s James Hammond and his erstwhile friend (and brother-in-law) Wade Hampton II illustrates the southern culture of honor and the place of the duel in that culture. A strong friendship bound Hammond and Hampton together. Both stood at the top of South Carolina’s society as successful, married plantation owners involved in state politics. Prior to his election as governor of the state in 1842, Hammond became sexually involved with each of Hampton’s four teenage daughters, who were his nieces by marriage. “[A]ll of them rushing on every occasion into my arms,” Hammond confided in his private diary, “covering me with kisses, lolling on my lap, pressing their bodies almost into mine . . . and permitting my hands to stray unchecked.” Hampton found out about these dalliances, and in keeping with the code of honor, could have demanded a duel with Hammond. However, Hampton instead tried to use the liaisons to destroy his former friend politically. This effort proved disastrous for Hampton, because it represented a violation of the southern code of honor. “As matters now stand,” Hammond wrote, “he [Hampton] is a convicted dastard who, not having nerve to redress his own wrongs, put forward bullies to do it for him. . . . To challenge me [to a duel] would be to throw himself upon my mercy for he knows I am not bound to meet him [for a duel].” Because Hampton’s behavior marked him as a man who lacked honor, Hammond was no longer bound to meet Hampton in a duel even if Hampton were to demand one. Hammond’s reputation, though tarnished, remained high in the esteem of South Carolinians, and the governor went on to serve as a U.S. senator from 1857 to 1860. As for the four Hampton daughters, they never married; their names were disgraced, not only by the whispered-about scandal but by their father’s actions in response to it; and no man of honor in South Carolina would stoop so low as to marry them.
GENDER AND THE SOUTHERN HOUSEHOLD
The antebellum South was an especially male-dominated society. Far more than in the North, southern men, particularly wealthy planters, were patriarchs and sovereigns of their own household. Among the white members of the household, labor and daily ritual conformed to rigid gender delineations. Men represented their household in the larger world of politics, business, and war. Within the family, the patriarchal male was the ultimate authority. White women were relegated to the household and lived under the thumb and protection of the male patriarch. The ideal southern lady conformed to her prescribed gender role, a role that was largely domestic and subservient. While responsibilities and experiences varied across different social tiers, women’s subordinate state in relation to the male patriarch remained the same.
Writers in the antebellum period were fond of celebrating the image of the ideal southern woman (Figure 12.3.5). One such writer, Thomas Roderick Dew, president of Virginia’s College of William and Mary in the mid-nineteenth century, wrote approvingly of the virtue of southern women, a virtue he concluded derived from their natural weakness, piety, grace, and modesty. In his Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences Between the Sexes , he writes that southern women derive their power not by
leading armies to combat, or of enabling her to bring into more formidable action the physical power which nature has conferred on her. No! It is but the better to perfect all those feminine graces, all those fascinating attributes, which render her the center of attraction, and which delight and charm all those who breathe the atmosphere in which she moves; and, in the language of Mr. Burke, would make ten thousand swords leap from their scabbards to avenge the insult that might be offered to her. By her very meekness and beauty does she subdue all around her.
Such popular idealizations of elite southern white women, however, are difficult to reconcile with their lived experience: in their own words, these women frequently described the trauma of childbirth, the loss of children, and the loneliness of the plantation.
Louisa Cheves McCord was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1810. A child of some privilege in the South, she received an excellent education and became a prolific writer. As the excerpt from her poem “Woman’s Progress” indicates, some southern women also contributed to the idealization of southern white womanhood.
Sweet Sister! stoop not thou to be a man!
Man has his place as woman hers; and she
As made to comfort, minister and help;
Moulded for gentler duties, ill fulfils
His jarring destinies. Her mission is
To labour and to pray; to help, to heal,
To soothe, to bear; patient, with smiles, to suffer;
And with self-abnegation noble lose
Her private interest in the dearer weal
Of those she loves and lives for. Call not this—
(The all-fulfilling of her destiny;
She the world’s soothing mother)—call it not,
With scorn and mocking sneer, a drudgery.
The ribald tongue profanes Heaven’s holiest things,
But holy still they are. The lowliest tasks
Are sanctified in nobly acting them.
Christ washed the apostles’ feet, not thus cast shame
Upon the God-like in him. Woman lives
Man’s constant prophet. If her life be true
And based upon the instincts of her being,
She is a living sermon of that truth
Which ever through her gentle actions speaks,
That life is given to labour and to love.
—Louisa Susanna Cheves McCord, “Woman’s Progress,” 1853
What womanly virtues does Louisa Cheves McCord emphasize? How might her social status, as an educated southern woman of great privilege, influence her understanding of gender relations in the South?
For slaveholding whites, the male-dominated household operated to protect gendered divisions and prevalent gender norms; for slave women, however, the same system exposed them to brutality and frequent sexual domination. The demands on the labor of slave women made it impossible for them to perform the role of domestic caretaker that was so idealized by southern men. That slaveholders put them out into the fields, where they frequently performed work traditionally thought of as male, reflected little the ideal image of gentleness and delicacy reserved for white women. Nor did the slave woman’s role as daughter, wife, or mother garner any patriarchal protection. Each of these roles and the relationships they defined was subject to the prerogative of a master, who could freely violate enslaved women’s persons, sell off their children, or separate them from their families.
DEFENDING SLAVERY
With the rise of democracy during the Jacksonian era in the 1830s, slaveholders worried about the power of the majority. If political power went to a majority that was hostile to slavery, the South—and the honor of white southerners—would be imperiled. White southerners keen on preserving the institution of slavery bristled at what they perceived to be northern attempts to deprive them of their livelihood. Powerful southerners like South Carolinian John C. Calhoun (Figure 12.3.6) highlighted laws like the Tariff of 1828 as evidence of the North’s desire to destroy the southern economy and, by extension, its culture. Such a tariff, he and others concluded, would disproportionately harm the South, which relied heavily on imports, and benefit the North, which would receive protections for its manufacturing centers. The tariff appeared to open the door for other federal initiatives, including the abolition of slavery. Because of this perceived threat to southern society, Calhoun argued that states could nullify federal laws. This belief illustrated the importance of the states’ rights argument to the southern states. It also showed slaveholders’ willingness to unite against the federal government when they believed it acted unjustly against their interests.
As the nation expanded in the 1830s and 1840s, the writings of abolitionists—a small but vocal group of northerners committed to ending slavery—reached a larger national audience. White southerners responded by putting forth arguments in defense of slavery, their way of life, and their honor. Calhoun became a leading political theorist defending slavery and the rights of the South, which he saw as containing an increasingly embattled minority. He advanced the idea of aconcurrent majority, a majority of a separate region (that would otherwise be in the minority of the nation) with the power to veto or disallow legislation put forward by a hostile majority.
Calhoun’s idea of the concurrent majority found full expression in his 1850 essay “Disquisition on Government.” In this treatise, he wrote about government as a necessary means to ensure the preservation of society, since society existed to “preserve and protect our race.” If government grew hostile to society, then a concurrent majority had to take action, including forming a new government. “Disquisition on Government” advanced a profoundly anti-democratic argument. It illustrates southern leaders’ intense suspicion of democratic majorities and their ability to effect legislation that would challenge southern interests.
Go to the Internet Archive to read John C. Calhoun’s “Disquisition on Government.” Why do you think he proposed the creation of a concurrent majority?
White southerners reacted strongly to abolitionists’ attacks on slavery. In making their defense of slavery, they critiqued wage labor in the North. They argued that the Industrial Revolution had brought about a new type of slavery—wage slavery—and that this form of “slavery” was far worse than the slave labor used on southern plantations. Defenders of the institution also lashed out directly at abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison for daring to call into question their way of life. Indeed, Virginians cited Garrison as the instigator of Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion.
The Virginian George Fitzhugh contributed to the defense of slavery with his book Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society (1854). Fitzhugh argued that laissez-faire capitalism, as celebrated by Adam Smith, benefited only the quick-witted and intelligent, leaving the ignorant at a huge disadvantage. Slaveholders, he argued, took care of the ignorant—in Fitzhugh’s argument, the slaves of the South. Southerners provided slaves with care from birth to death, he asserted; this offered a stark contrast to the wage slavery of the North, where workers were at the mercy of economic forces beyond their control. Fitzhugh’s ideas exemplified southern notions of paternalism.
George Fitzhugh, a southern writer of social treatises, was a staunch supporter of slavery, not as a necessary evil but as what he argued was a necessary good, a way to take care of slaves and keep them from being a burden on society. He published Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society in 1854, in which he laid out what he believed to be the benefits of slavery to both the slaves and society as a whole. According to Fitzhugh:
[I]t is clear the Athenian democracy would not suit a negro nation, nor will the government of mere law suffice for the individual negro.  The master occupies towards him the place of parent or guardian. . . . The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer for the wants of winter; will not accumulate in youth for the exigencies of age. He would become an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery.
In the last place, the negro race is inferior to the white race, and living in their midst, they would be far outstripped or outwitted in the chase of free competition. . . . Our negroes are not only better off as to physical comfort than free laborers, but their moral condition is better.
What arguments does Fitzhugh use to promote slavery? What basic premise underlies his ideas? Can you think of a modern parallel to Fitzhugh’s argument?
The North also produced defenders of slavery, including Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor of zoology and geology. Agassiz helped to popularize polygenism, the idea that different human races came from separate origins. According to this formulation, no single human family origin existed, and blacks made up a race wholly separate from the white race. Agassiz’s notion gained widespread popularity in the 1850s with the 1854 publication of George Gliddon and Josiah Nott’s Types of Mankind and other books. The theory of polygenism codified racism, giving the notion of black inferiority the lofty mantle of science. One popular advocate of the idea posited that blacks occupied a place in evolution between the Greeks and chimpanzees (Figure 12.3.7).
Section Summary
Although a small white elite owned the vast majority of slaves in the South, and most other whites could only aspire to slaveholders’ wealth and status, slavery shaped the social life of all white southerners in profound ways. Southern culture valued a behavioral code in which men’s honor, based on the domination of others and the protection of southern white womanhood, stood as the highest good. Slavery also decreased class tensions, binding whites together on the basis of race despite their inequalities of wealth. Several defenses of slavery were prevalent in the antebellum era, including Calhoun’s argument that the South’s “concurrent majority” could overrule federal legislation deemed hostile to southern interests; the notion that slaveholders’ care of their chattel made slaves better off than wage workers in the North; and the profoundly racist ideas underlying polygenism.
Review Questions
The largest group of whites in the South _______.
- owned no slaves
- owned between one and nine slaves each
- owned between ten and ninety-nine slaves each
- owned over one hundred slaves each
A
John C. Calhoun argued for greater rights for southerners with which idea?
- polygenism
- nullification
- concurrent majority
- paternalism
C
How did defenders of slavery use the concept of paternalism to structure their ideas?
Defenders of slavery, such as George Fitzhugh, argued that only the clever and the bright could truly benefit within a laissez-faire economy. Premising their argument on the notion that slaves were, by nature, intellectually inferior and less able to compete, such defenders maintained that slaves were better off in the care of paternalistic masters. While northern workers found themselves trapped in wage slavery, they argued, southern slaves’ needs—for food, clothing, and shelter, among other things—were met by their masters’ paternal benevolence.
Glossary
- concurrent majority
- a majority of a separate region (that would otherwise be in the minority of the nation) with the power to veto or disallow legislation put forward by a hostile majority
- polygenism
- the idea that blacks and whites come from different origins


8.1.6D: Social Exclusion
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Social exclusion occurs when individuals and communities are blocked from rights and opportunities that are available to others.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the causes of social exclusion
Key Points
- Social exclusion is distinct from poverty. Poverty is a distributional outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as the process of declining participation, solidarity, and access to opportunities.
- Unemployment or lack of transportation can be causes of social exclusion.
- The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to such exclusion than others.
- Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in industrialized societies such as the United States.
Key Terms
- equal opportunity : equal opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be given access to opportunities for advancement and treated similarly when competing for jobs, housing, and other resources.
- Social exclusion : processes through which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources that are normally available to members of society and that are key to social integration.
- due process : a legal concept where a person is ensured all legal rights when deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for a given reason.
Social exclusion is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterize forms of social disadvantage. It refers to processes through which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources that are normally available to members of society and that are key to social integration. These include housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation, and legal due process.
Poverty and exclusion are two different concepts. Poverty is a distributional outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as process of declining participation, solidarity, and access. It is quite difficult to measure social exclusion quantitatively, as social exclusion is relative, sensitive, and variable.
The causes of social exclusion vary from country to country, but there are general causes that social scientists have identified. In modern industrialized societies, paid work is not only the principal source of income with which to buy goods and services, but is also the fount of individuals’ identity and feelings of self-worth. Therefore, unemployment is considered a cause of social exclusion. In some circumstances, lack of transportation can lead to social exclusion. For instance, if lack of access to public transport or a vehicle prevents a person from getting to a job, training course, job center, school, or entertainment venue they may be shut out from opportunities.
The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to exclusion than others. Marginalization of certain groups is a problem even in many economically developed countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, where the majority of the population enjoys considerable economic and social opportunities.
Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in industrialized societies including the United States. Growing crime rates may reflect the fact that an increasing number of people do not feel valued or included in the societies in which they live. Socially excluded populations may not benefit from the avenues for income and advancement that are open to others, so they resort to illegal means of obtaining resources.


1: Conjugated Compounds and Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
After you have completed Chapter 1, you should be able to
- fulfillall of the detailed objectives listed under each individual section.
- use the reactions discussed, along with those from previous chapters, when designing multi-step syntheses.
- use the reactions and concepts discussed to solve road-map problems.
- use ultraviolet-spectral data, in conjunction with other spectral data, to elucidate the structure of an unknown compound.
- define, and use in context, the key terms introduced.
You have already studied the chemistry of compounds that contain one carbon-carbon double bond. In this chapter, you will focus your attention on compounds that contain two or more such bonds. In particular you will study the properties of those compounds that contain two carbon-carbon double bonds which are separated by one carbon-carbon single bond. These compounds are called “conjugated dienes.”
To understand the properties exhibited by conjugated dienes, you must first examine their bonding in terms of the molecular orbital theory introduced in Section 1.11 . Then, you must learn how the products of a reaction are dependent on both thermodynamic and kinetic considerations. Which of these two factors is the most important can sometimes determine which of two possible products will predominate when a reaction is carried out under specific conditions. Although we shall not make extensive use of ultraviolet spectroscopy, this technique can often provide important information when conjugated compounds are being investigated. In general, ultraviolet spectroscopy is less useful than the other spectroscopic techniques introduced earlier.
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- 1.10: Additional Problems
- The "Additional Problems" section provides exercises related to conjugated compounds and ultraviolet spectroscopy, enhancing comprehension of concepts like kinetic vs. thermodynamic control, reactivity patterns, and structural analysis. These problems challenge students to apply theoretical knowledge to practical scenarios, reinforcing learning through problem-solving.


2.S: Matter, Energy, & Life (Summary)
Summary
Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass. It is made up of atoms of different elements. Elements that occur naturally have unique qualities that allow them to combine in various ways to create compounds or molecules. Atoms, which consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons, are the smallest units of an element that retain all of the properties of that element. Electrons can be donated or shared between atoms to create bonds, including ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonds. The pH of a solution is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution. Living things are carbon-based because carbon plays such a prominent role in the chemistry of living things.
A cell is the smallest unit of life. Most cells are so small that they cannot be viewed with the naked eye. The unified cell theory states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells, the cell is the basic unit of life, and new cells arise from existing cells. Each cell runs on the chemical energy found mainly in carbohydrate molecules (food), and the majority of these molecules are produced by one process: photosynthesis. Through photosynthesis, certain organisms convert solar energy (sunlight) into chemical energy, which is then used to build carbohydrate molecules. Directly or indirectly, the process of photosynthesis provides most of the energy required by living things on earth. Photosynthesis also results in the release of oxygen into the atmosphere. In short, to eat and breathe, humans depend almost entirely on the organisms that carry out photosynthesis.
Review Questions
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You analyze a sample of carbon and determine that 6% of the carbon atoms in your sample have a mass number (atomic mass) greater than 12, (12 is the normal atomic mass of carbon). Based on these results, which of the following can you reasonably conclude?
- 6% of the carbon sample is a different element
- 6% of the sample is comprised of carbon isotopes
- 6% of the sample is comprised of carbon ions
- 94% of the sample is comprised of carbon radioisotopes
- 94% of the sample contains covalent bonds
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An atom that has an electrical charge due to having a number of electrons unequal to the number of protons is considered a(n)…
- Isotope
- Ion
- Element
- Molecule
- Acid
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The atomic number for the element fluorine is 9 and its mass number is 19. How many neutrons does a normal atom of fluorine have?
- 0
- 9
- 10
- 19
- Impossible to determine with the information given
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Which one of the following is not one of the four major classes of organic compounds?
- Nucleic acids
- Water
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
- Lipids
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You are working as an astrobiologist for NASA and are asked to analyze the first ever samples returned to Earth from Mars. How would you recognize if organic molecules were present in the samples?
- Test for isotopes of carbon
- Look for the presence of hydrogen bonds
- Search for chemicals with carbon to hydrogen bonds
- Analyze the percentage of molecules with covalent bonds
- Measure the pH of the samples
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A micro-organism is viewed through a microscope and is determined to be made of a single cell that lacks organelles. From this information, which of the following can you conclude?
- The organism belongs to Domain Bacteria
- The organism belongs to Domain Eukarya
- The organism belongs to Domain Archaea
- The cell is prokaryotic
- The cell is eukaryotic
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Which one of the following terms describes the complete set of chemical reactions that occur within cells?
- Metabolism
- Cellular respiration
- Calvin Cycle
- Bioenergetics
- Thermodynamics
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Which one of the following is most strongly associated with kinetic energy?
- Atomic force
- Static position in a gravitational field
- Chemical energy
- Movement
- Covalent bonds
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Which one of the following would help remove more CO2 from the atmosphere?
- Planting more trees
- Burning less fossil fuels
- Increase the number of heterotrophs
- Decrease the number of autotrophs
- All of the above.
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Water is essential to life because it has many special properties. Which one of the following is a special property of water?
- It is able to covalently bond to other water molecules
- It is good at dissolving other substances
- It easily heats up.
- It easily cools.
- It has a low surface tension
See Appendix for answers
- What is matter?
- What are elements?
- Describe the interrelationship between protons, neutrons, and electrons, and the ways in which electrons can be donated or shared between atoms.
- What is energy? Describe the two major types of energy.
- Why is it often said that life is “carbon-based”?
- Describe the roles of cells in organisms.
- What is the cell theory?
- Name examples of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.
- How are photosynthesis and cellular respiration complementary processes?
- Why are carnivores, such as lions, dependent on photosynthesis to survive?
Additional Materials:
Attributions
- CK12. (2014). Biology . Retrieved from http://www.ck12.org/user%3AZ3JlZ29yLmRpZXRlcmxlQGhvcml6b25jbGMub3Jn/book/CK-12-Biology/r1/ . Available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. ( CC BY-NC 3.0 ). Modified from Original.
- CK12. (2014). Photosynthesis . Retrieved from http://www.ck12.org/section/Photosynthesis-%3A%3Aof%3A%3A-MS-Cell-Functions-%3A%3Aof%3A%3A-CK-12-Life-Science-For-Middle-School/ . Available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. ( CC BY-NC 3.0 ). Modified from Original.
- OpenStax College. (2013). Concepts of biology . Retrieved from<EMAIL_ADDRESS>. OpenStax CNX. Available under Creative Commons Attribution License License 3.0 ( CC BY 3.0 ). Modified from Original.
- Page attribution: Essentials of Environmental Science by Kamala Doršner is licensed under CC BY 4.0 . Modified from the original with help from Alexandra Geddes.


10.2: Contract Elements
There are three required elements of a contract: offer, acceptance, and consideration. It is important to note that some states and legal scholars expand this list to include whether the subject matter is legal, whether the parties have capacity to enter into a contract, and whether the law requires the contract to be in writing to be enforceable. However, these are best understood as defenses to contract formation, especially in light of the fact that the only elements that all states agree on are offer, acceptance, and consideration.
Offer
All contracts start when an individual or business proposes a deal. It might involve buying or selling goods, performing services, or making an exchange. An offer is a conditional promise to do or refrain from doing something now or in the future. In other words, it is willingness to enter into a contract.
Offers can be formal or informal. In some industries, such as retail and restaurants, offers are often posted on menus, signs, and advertisements. For example, a sign hanging above a cash register listing menu items and their prices is the restaurant’s offer to sell customers those items at those prices.
There are not a lot of legal requirements about what an offer must contain, but there are some things that cannot be a legal offer:
| Type of Invalid Offers | Definition | Example |
| Illusory Promise | No offer exists because there is no duty to perform | “If I decide to buy a new car, I’ll give you my old one.” |
| Pre-existing Duty | A party cannot leverage an existing duty to get more out of someone else | “I agree to teach you business law for $100 even though you have already paid tuition for the course.” |
| Forbearance | An offer cannot be a promise not to pursue a legal claim that is known to be invalid (Note: if the claim is valid, then forbearance may be a valid offer) | “I know the accident was completely my fault but I promise not to sue you.” |
| Past Consideration | An offer cannot be based on past actions | I paint your house. Two months later you say that you will pay me $500 for doing it. If you change your mind and decide not to pay me, I cannot enforce your promise because it was in consideration of a past event. |
Once made, offers can be terminated in a number of ways. An offer that has been properly communicated continues to exist until it:
- Is rejected;
- Is replaced by a counteroffer;
- Lapses or expires;
- Is revoked; or
- Is terminated by operation of law.
Unless it states a specific time, an offer remains open for a reasonable time. A lapsed offer is an offer that is no longer valid because a reasonable time to accept it has expired. An expired coupon is an example of a lapsed offer.
Acceptance
To constitute an agreement, there must be an acceptance of the offer. Legally, acceptance is an implied or express act that shows willingness to be bound by the terms of an offer. To be effective, both parties must understand and agree to be bound by the contract.
Acceptance can be both express or implied. Express acceptance occurs when a party states that they accept the offer. Acceptance may be implied based on the parties’ conduct. For example, a retailer offers to sell a product to consumers for the price listed on the shelf. A consumer may accept that offer by handing the cashier the item and money to pay for it. The consumer does not need to say anything to complete the transaction. But the consumer must do something to accept. Silence, without more (such as handing over payment), is not acceptance. This is because silence may be evidence that the consumer either does not know about the offer or has rejected it.
A common problem in the business community is knowing what constitutes acceptance and what is negotiation. If an acceptance changes, adds, or modifies terms of the offer, it is a counter-offer and no contract is formed. The original party may decide to accept, reject, or propose another offer as a result. Although this sounds straightforward, with today’s fast-paced communications, parties may respond to part of an offer, negotiate various parts of the contract simultaneously, or agree to terms in installments. As a result, there may be confusion about what the full terms of a contract are.
Offer and acceptance form mutual assent , which is also called “meeting of the minds.” This is the parties’ intention to enter into a binding contract on the terms they agreed upon. If parties do not agree on the essential terms, then there can be no meeting of the minds to enter into a contract. This is the basis for many of the defenses to contract formation.
Consideration
Consideration is the bargained-for exchange of something of value that shows the parties intend to be bound by the contract. There are two elements to consideration:
- Something of value
- Is exchanged between the parties.
The “something” that is promised or delivered must be a legal detriment. A legal detriment is giving up a legal or property right.
Consideration may be concurrent or a promise to perform in the future. However, it cannot be “past consideration” based on something that has occurred before the formation of the current contract. In other words, an act or promise made before the current contract is not adequate consideration because it was not given in exchange for the current promise.
When bargained-for consideration is not present, a court may validate a promise based on promissory estoppel. Promissory estoppel is the principle that a promise made without consideration may nonetheless be enforced to prevent injustice if the promisor should have reasonably expected the promisee to rely on the promise, and the promisee actually relied on the promise to his or her detriment. Promissory estoppel is an equitable doctrine used as a substitute for consideration that allows the imposition of contractual liability to prevent unfairness.
To establish promissory estoppel, a party must show:
- A definite promise;
- The party making the promise should have expected that the other party would rely on the promise;
- A reasonable person would have relied on the promise;
- The party relied on the promise and it resulted in a substantial detriment; and
- Basic justice and fairness require that the promise be enforced.


18.3: What are Advanced Placement tests?
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By Shannon Green
What is Advanced Placement?
According the website that sponsors the Advanced Placement Test, www.CollegeBoard.com, "The AP Program is a collaboration between motivated students, dedicated teachers, and committed high schools, colleges, and universities. Since 1955, the AP Program has enabled millions of students to take college-level courses and exams, and to earn college credit or placement while still in high school" (K-12 Services, AP Program Section, 2008, ¶ 4). These classes allow high school students a glimpse at what a college level course would be like.
As we approach the end of 2008, it has become more apparent that a college degree is necessary in order to remain competitive in the job market. One way that high school students can have a head start is by participating in the Advanced Placement classes offered by their high school and by taking the Advanced Placement (AP) test offered by College Board. Depending on the score that is received on the AP test (most often a score of 3 or higher is required) and the selected College, it is possible for a first semester College Freshman student to begin school with college credits already on his transcript.
This article will discuss the basics of the AP Test and explain the benefits that are associated with taking the test. It will also explore the current problems and criticism of the AP Test program.
What are AP Tests?
Advanced Placement (AP) Tests are taken by students who wish to receive college credit before starting college. These tests are given by College Board , the same company that issues the SAT. The AP program offers 37 courses and exams across 22 subject areas. It is even possible to take an AP test without taking an AP class! The tests are graded on a scale of 1-5, and students who received a 3 or higher may be able to receive college credits. The tests are often 60% multiple-choice and 40% free-response. The multiple-choice section is graded by computer and the free-response section is graded by a group of college professors and AP class teachers (AP, 2008, The Grade-Setting Process Section). Once a student has decided to take an AP test, he needs to register at www.collegeboard.com and pay the $86 testing fee per exam he registers to take.
Note
The following is a list of AP Classes and Exams
"Art History, Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Chemistry, Chinese Language and Culture, Computer Science A, Computer Science AB
Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, English Language, English Literature, Environmental Science, European History, French Language, French
Literature, German Language, Comp Government & Politics, U.S. Government & Politics, Human Geography, Italian Language and Culture
Japanese, Language and Culture, Latin Literature, Latin: Virgil, Music Theory, Physics B, Physics C, Psychology, Spanish Language
Spanish Literature, Statistics, Studio Art, U.S. History, World History" (AP, 2008, AP Courses and Exams Section).
Visit this website for more information and to download course desciptions and learn more about the AP Subjects [1]
AP Tests sound great, how does a student get started?
The following is an example of what a typical high school student who wishes to take an AP Test might encounter:
Jimmy wants to take the AP Biology exam because he is hoping to receive college credit before entering into his freshman year at Old Dominion University. Jimmy first visits the AP Test website at www.collegeboard.com. He signs up to take the AP Biology test and pays $86 for the testing fee. He is a good student in his AP Biology class and is hoping that he can receive a grade of 3 so that he can receive college credits before entering college. He has checked the ODU Admissions website at admissions.odu.edu/undergraduate.php?page=APscores and knows that if he gets a 3 on the AP Biology Exam he can get 4 credits that would be equivalent to him taking the following classes: BIOL 108N, 115N, 109N or 116N. If he is able to score a 4 or a 5 on the exam he can get 8 credits for BIOL 115N and 116N! On test day, Jimmy reports to his test center with a couple of No.2 pencils, a pen, and his ID. He opens his exam booklet and answers the questions in the multiple-choice section. Next he moves onto the free-response section and the first question reads as follows:
"Flowering plants have evolved various strategies for fertilization.
a. Describe the process of fertilization in flowering plants.
b. Discuss TWO mechanism of pollen transfer and the adaptations that facilitate each mechanism.
Some species of flowering plants have evolved mechanism to prevent self-fertilization.
c. Discuss and evolutionary advantage of preventing self-fertilization.
d. Discuss TWO mechanisms that prevent self-fertilization." ( AP, Biology, 2008, Sample Questions & Guidelines, Free Response section, p. 4).
After three hours, Jimmy completes his test and a few months later his scores are sent to him, his high school and to ODU. Jimmy was thrilled because he received a 5 on his exam and is going to start his freshman year of college with 8 credits!
Jimmy's exam was a summative assessment of what he learned in his AP course. The above example is good illustration of what an AP exam would test. The exam would require the student to draw on the basic knowledge that he or she would have learned throughout class.
Benefits of the AP Courses and Tests
The example above illustrates one of the major benefits of taking the AP Test, college credit. By receiving college credit, the incoming freshman student may be able to skip the introductory classes and move on to more advanced study. This would allow the student to take more interesting classes as well as classes more focused on his major. If a student received credit for an AP English exam, he may be able to satisfy all of his English requirements with that exam. By not having to take English during his freshman year he can concentrate on classes that are part of his major curriculum. This would be a great benefit to the student, not to mention the financial benefit. On a cost basis, it may be more economical for the student to spend $86 on the test fee and receive 3 college credits than it would be to pay for the 3 credits taking the class at the University.
Another benefit of taking the AP test is the reflection it may have on the student. The Admissions department at ODU may look at Jimmy's AP Test score and the fact that he took AP classes and view him as a student committed to education and academics. This may improve his chances of being accepted into the program. "In applying to colleges and universities with highly competitive applicant pools, students can use AP scores as a way to signal their challenging curriculum. For applicants from schools that grant a grade premium for an AP course, the scores also allow students to boost their grade-point averages" (Oxtoby, 2007, p. 45).
Students who take AP classes and AP tests may also receive additional benefits when they are college students. "Students who take Advanced Placement courses in high school appear more likely to graduate from college within four years and have higher grade point averages in college than similar students who aren't exposed to such classes, according to an unpublished study by researchers in Texas" (Klein, 2007, p. 7).
Does race make a difference?
While it may not seem like a problem, more and more high school students are taking the AP Exam. As a result those receiving a score of 3 or above have slipped and the average score has been down over the past four years (Cech & Holovach, 2008). While not every racial and ethnic group is being negatively affected, such as Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Cech and Holovach report "the percentage of passing exams taken by Hispanic students slipped by 5.5 percentage points over the past fours years, to 43 percent in 2007. This gap would further widen if there was no AP Spanish-language exam. Cech and Holovach quote Mr. Packer from the College Board on this fact. He states that without the AP Spanish-language exam "the percentage of Hispanic students sitting in an AP class and earning a 3 or better drops to 7.5 percentage" (2008, Gaps in Scores Section, ¶ 11). The percentages of passing scores among the group the College Board refers to as black or African-American slipped by nearly 4 points, to just 25 percent" (2008, Gaps in Scores section, ¶ 8).
While test scores still seemed to indicate a disparity among the races, there are some advancements being made. "Through encouragement from federal, state, and local governments, more and more schools are incorporating advanced material into their curricula, so students from all walks of life- not just from elite prep schools- have access to more challenging courses (Oxtoby, 2008, p.45).
Note
To learn more about a program that provides grants to increase the participation of low-income students in AP classes and tests click here [2]
he Downside to AP Classes and Tests
Are we providing a benefit to our students by offering more and more AP classes and exams? Are these classes and tests really preparing them for college? When I was in high school I took an AP Chemistry class because I was planning on entering college as a Chemistry major, my major has since changed by my experience with this AP class did provide me with insight that may affect other students of AP courses. After completing the year of AP Chemistry I decided not to take the AP Exam because I did not feel like I had been able to comprehend the basic skills necessary to achieve a passing score. As a result, I took an introductory Chemistry class my first semester of college. While taking the college level class I realized that my knowledge of the foundations of Chemistry were not strong enough and it would not have been beneficial to me to have taken the AP Exam and received a passing score because I would have struggled in the future Chemistry classes I had to take as a Chemistry major. I realized that I really had not learned enough in my AP class to provide me with the knowledge to be a successful student. My personal incident occurred over 10 years ago, but it may still be happening to students today.
David Oxtoby expands on this point in his article The Rush to Take More AP Courses Hurts Students, High Schools, and Colleges , he states, "Although I applaud the effort to make challenging courses available to growing numbers of high school students, I worry that advanced-placement programs are rapidly becoming the latest way in which schools are "teaching to the test", rather than using creativity to excite and challenge students. Too much of the high school curriculum is turning into a pale imitation of college courses instead of providing the solid foundation students need to build on in the future, and the new pressures associated with these courses are distorting both the high school experience and the nature of the courses being taught" (2007, p. 44). Perhaps the competitiveness of the current student has increased the drive to add more and more AP courses, but what benefit are we providing to our students if we are not providing them with the basic foundations that will prepare them to be successful college students?
Conclusion
There are benefits and draw backs to AP tests and classes. Students can benefit from the exposure to advanced level classes. They can benefit in college by being prepared for a typical college-level class. They can even benefit by receiving college credits before entering a university. This can help them by being able to skip over introductory courses that they are already proficient in and allowing them to start more advanced work in their freshman year. What teachers need to be observant of in teaching AP classes is making sure that we are not just "teaching to the test". We need to make sure that the students are receiving a strong foundation in these classes otherwise they will not be successful college students. Statistically, more and more students are taking the AP tests, but how should we view this statistic when the gap of passing scores is widening between the races? This seems to indicate that while schools are providing AP classes to a wider range of students there is still a disparity among minority students. We as teachers need to make sure that we are preparing our AP students in the foundations of the AP subjects and not pushing them to just "pass the test".
"Admissions offices also need to communicate with schools that an AP label is less important than a challenging and innovative course. Above all, there needs to be more opportunities for colleges and high school teachers to talk with each other about the kinds of high school curricula that best prepare students for college, taking into account the real differences between secondary and post secondary levels of education. The truth is that making our high schools more like colleges will not necessarily help them provide a superior education. Nor will it necessarily provide graduates with a better preparation for success when they encounter true college-level work" (Oxtoby, 2007, p. 46).
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)
1. What high school classes expose students to college-level curriculum?
a. accelarated level
b. advanced placement
c. gifted and talented
d. honors level
2. How many subject areas can a students take an AP test in?
a. 22
b. 30
c. 37
d. 59
3. A student wants to increase her chances of standing out to college admissions. What could help emphasize her commitment to academics?
a. participate in the school play
b. play on a varsity sports team
c. take AP courses and exams
d. volunteer at a charity
4. Joe wants to be a Math major when he enters college. He is already has a very good understand of the foundations of Calculus and is taking an AP Calculus course at his high school. What chould Joe do if he wants to receive college credit for Calculus before entering college?
a. have his teacher write a letter to the Admissions department stating what a great student Joe is in Math
b. receive a perfect score on the Math sections of the SATs
c. sign up for and take the Calculus AP exam
d. tell his ollege calculus professor that he already took the class in high school
- Answer
-
1. b
2. a
3. c
4. c
References
AP (2008). About AP. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html
AP (2008). AP courses & exams. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/subjects.html
AP (2008). Biology. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_bio.html?biology
AP (2008). Sample questions and scoring guidelines. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap08_biology_frq.pdf
Cech, S., & Holovach, R. (2008). AP Trends: Tests soar, scores slip. Education Week, 27(24), 1-13. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from Education Research Complete database.
Klein, A. (2007). Researchers see college benefits for students who took AP courses. Education Week, 26(22), 7-7. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from Education Research Complete database.
K-12 Services (2008). AP Program. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/assessment/ap
Oxtoby, D. (2007). The rush to take more AP courses hurts students, high schools, and colleges. Education Digest, 73(2), 43-46. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from Education Research Complete database.


3.5: Comparing Meiosis and Mitosis
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- Ying Liu
- City College of San Francisco
Mitosis and meiosis, which are both forms of division of the nucleus in eukaryotic cells, share some similarities, but also exhibit distinct differences that lead to their very different outcomes. Mitosis is a single nuclear division that results in two nuclei, usually partitioned into two new cells. The nuclei resulting from a mitotic division are genetically identical to the original. They have the same number of sets of chromosomes: one in the case of haploid cells, and two in the case of diploid cells. On the other hand, meiosis is two nuclear divisions that result in four nuclei, usually partitioned into four new cells. The nuclei resulting from meiosis are never genetically identical, and they contain one chromosome set only—this is half the number of the original cell, which was diploid.
The differences in the outcomes of meiosis and mitosis occur because of differences in the behavior of the chromosomes during each process. Most of these differences in the processes occur in meiosis I, which is a very different nuclear division than mitosis. In meiosis I, the homologous chromosome pairs become associated with each other, are bound together, experience chiasmata and crossover between sister chromatids, and line up along the metaphase plate in tetrads with spindle fibers from opposite spindle poles attached to each kinetochore of a homolog in a tetrad. All of these events occur only in meiosis I, never in mitosis.
Homologous chromosomes move to opposite poles during meiosis I so the number of sets of chromosomes in each nucleus-to-be is reduced from two to one. For this reason, meiosis I is referred to as a reduction division . There is no such reduction in ploidy level in mitosis.
Meiosis II is much more analogous to a mitotic division. In this case, duplicated chromosomes (only one set of them) line up at the center of the cell with divided kinetochores attached to spindle fibers from opposite poles. During anaphase II, as in mitotic anaphase, the kinetochores divide and one sister chromatid is pulled to one pole and the other sister chromatid is pulled to the other pole. If it were not for the fact that there had been crossovers, the two products of each meiosis II division would be identical as in mitosis; instead, they are different because there has always been at least one crossover per chromosome. Meiosis II is not a reduction division because, although there are fewer copies of the genome in the resulting cells, there is still one set of chromosomes, as there was at the end of meiosis I.
Cells produced by mitosis will function in different parts of the body as a part of growth or replacing dead or damaged cells. They may even be involved in asexual reproduction in some organisms. Cells produced by meiosis in a diploid-dominant organism such as an animal will only participate in sexual reproduction.
References
Unless otherwise noted, images on this page are licensed under CC-BY 4.0 by OpenStax.
OpenStax, Biology. OpenStax CNX. May 27, 2016 http://cnx.org/contents/s8Hh0oOc@9.10:1Q8z96mT@4/Meiosis


26.9: America Isn’t All That Great- As Told by Herman Melville
In order to interpret how “Benito Cereno” represents Literature Beyond the Nation, we first have to understand what Literature Beyond the Nation means. I believe that to be Literature Beyond the Nation, there has to be other characters that are not American. There should be some form of immigration/emigration, or at least one character that is American, in order to continue the theme of being able to still identify with American Literature.
Going by that definition, it will be easier to surmise throughout this piece of literature that it is, in fact, Literature Beyond the Nation. The two main themes that I picked out from reading to represent this were American motifs leading to questioning America, and satirical responses to other cultures.
Amasa Delano, through living on this ship with Spaniards and African Americans, learns many things about their lifestyles. He learns that “while long-continued suffering seemed to have brought out the less good-natured qualities of the negroes, besides, at the same time, impairing the Spaniard’s authority over them” (Melville). Delano learns that throughout the suffering that the slaves have gone through, they have other qualities that are more positive than negative qualities. After he learns this, he goes through an entire questioning process of what he thought he’s known about the slaves his whole life. He then slowly begins to question America within his palpable shock of how the slaves are actually caring human beings.
This shock is also obvious in how Delano notices when Benito thanks his slaves, specifically Babo. “Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other” (Melville). Delano comes from America, where they treat slaves horribly, and in turn, do not get to form a relationship with these people like Cereno did with Babo. Delano’s shock is not questionable, but it shows how attached he is to American ideals, and how he begins to understand that maybe they aren’t the best ideals.
Delano clearly feels patriotism for America, because throughout the first half that we read, he continually compares the Spaniards and slaves to America and Americans. His comparisons usually end in his surprise that these people are better than he expected, and he is noticeably swayed to understanding that the Spaniards are apart of us, saying, “I dare say, Spaniards in the main are as good folks as any in Duxbury” (Melville).
Melville’s interpretation of the Literature Beyond the Nations is that of understanding that other nations are equal to your own, with at least one character representing America. So far, Delano has represented understanding that he is equal to the Spaniards, – if not, he is lesser – and that his noticing that has began his questioning of if America is actually as superior as he had imagined previously.


9.6: Childhood Health
Childhood is a pivotal time for growth and development. Most of us can remember experiences during childhood that shaped who we are as adults. Many of the health beliefs and behaviors that we have as adults were first introduced during those early years, and often conditions that begin during childhood (like obesity) tend to persist into adulthood.
Childhood can be characterized in different developmental stages, but is generally considered to be after infancy (above 1 year old) and prior to puberty and the teen years. The term “child” might be considered in some research to be only between 1-9 years (Seabert et al., 2021), or separated between toddlerhood (2-5) years and elementary school ages (6-11). By other definitions it includes everyone up to 14 years old, since after this age is typically considered adolescence. In this section, we’ll go over the leading health issues for American children between the ages of 1-14. We’ll also examine one of the simplest and perhaps most comprehensive ways to improve childhood health: through the public school system.
As of 2022, the National Center for Health Statistics reports that 1.5% of children under 4 and 2.2% of children between the ages of 5-11 are in fair or poor health. Additionally, 8% of elementary school-aged children missed 11+ days of the school year due to an illness, injury, or disability (CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, 2024b). Although it might seem like this indicates that the majority of children in the U.S. are healthy, there are also significant health risks that affect this country’s children more than those of other similar economically developed countries.


9.5: Internal and External Funds (Summary)
We said above that the firm may reduce its total requirement for acquiring funds through the “spontaneous” or “automatic” generation of internal funds.
Internal Funds :
-
Accounts Payable
- If the firm bought supplies and raw or finished inventory etc. under “cash on delivery, or “COD,” terms of sale, it would have to pay for it – with cash! If it has enough cash, it will incur an opportunity costs , because the cash would not be invested. If it had to borrow the money, it would incur an explicit borrowing cost at a rate of interest. However, most firms are provide d with 30- day terms of sale from its suppliers, which amounts to a 30-day free loan, during which time it incurs neither an opportunity – nor an explicit – cost. In this sense, credit terms – Accounts Payable – provide cash flow to the buying firm.
- Although the Accounts Payable will be paid in 30-days , the firm will have on average over the course of the year, 30-days of access to a free source of funds. The firm, more or less simultaneously , pays down the Payables and then re-orders more goods.
-
Addition
s
to
Retained Earnings
- This, clearly, provides a stream of internal funds to the corporation as profits are made and retained .
We also said that, to the extent that internal funding is insufficient to satisfy all the investment needs, it may seek additional funding externally.
External Funds :
- Short-term bank lines of credit
- Short-term bank loans – “notes”
- Long-term (bank) loans – “debt”
- Issuance (sale) of corporate notes or bonds
- Issuance (sale) of equity


1.1: Getting Started
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This section of Chapter 1 provides some important background information that you need to know to make effective use of this book. The whole book will make much more sense if you read this section first!
The Goal of This Book
The primary goal of this book is to help students and researchers learn how to process and analyze event-related potentials (ERPs). My other ERP book (Luck, 2014) focuses on providing a conceptual understanding of ERPs, and the present book focuses on applying those concepts to real data. Theory is important, but there is no substitute for loading up real data—with all its warts and complexities—and figuring out how to go from a gigabyte of raw EEG files to a set of statistical analyses and figures that are ready for publication.
At its essence, this book is a set of data processing and analysis exercises that are wrapped in explanatory text. ERP analysis involves a million decisions, such as whether to filter before versus after artifact rejection and what measurement window to use for quantifying the amplitude of an ERP component. The exercises in this book are designed to give you experience making choices that will lead to the most robust and valid conclusions. In theory, you could read the book without doing the exercises, but that would be like trying to learn painting from a textbook without ever picking up a paintbrush.
I waited until now to write this book because I needed two things: 1) Free software that anyone can use to do the exercises, and 2) a large public dataset with multiple different ERP paradigms. Both are now available. The free software consists of ERPLAB Toolbox and its companion EEGLAB Toolbox , and the large public dataset is the ERP CORE (Compendium of Open Resources and Experiments).
ERPLAB and EEGLAB
ERPLAB (Lopez-Calderon & Luck, 2014) is a Matlab toolbox that my lab produces with a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ERPLAB works in tandem with another NIH-supported Matlab toolbox called EEGLAB , which is developed under the leadership of Arno Delorme and Scott Makeig at UCSD (Delorme & Makeig, 2004). EEGLAB takes care of several important EEG preprocessing steps, and ERPLAB allows you to create and analyze averaged ERP waveforms. The good news is that both of these toolboxes are free. The bad news is that Matlab is not free, and you will need it to run EEGLAB and ERPLAB. However, most institutions provide reduced-cost Matlab licenses, and the student version is even less expensive. Matlab has become the lingua franca of cognitive neuroscience, and it’s well worth the investment.
The ERP Core
The ERP CORE is a set of six classic ERP paradigms that have been optimized to isolate seven widely-studied ERP components (N170, mismatch negativity, N400, P3b, N2pc, error-related negativity, and lateralized readiness potential). Emily Kappenman and I created the ERP CORE to provide a set of “reference” data that could be used by a large set of researchers for a wide range of purposes. The public resource includes the experimental control scripts, data from 40 neurotypical young adults, and the EEGLAB/ERPLAB processing scripts. If you’d like to know how to obtain a robust N400, you can download our N400 experimental control script to see how it’s done. If you’d like to see how to professionally analyze the error-related negativity (ERN), you can download our ERN processing scripts. If you’ve just put together your own EEG recording system and you’d like to see if everything is working, you can run or more of our paradigms and compare your data with our data (including quantitative metrics of data quality).
The ERP CORE is particularly useful for this book because it provides data from many different paradigms, and yet the data are similarly formatted for each paradigm. That way you can see how to process many different types of data, but you won’t have to deal with superficial differences between data sets (e.g., differences in file naming conventions). Although you can download the ERP CORE files directly from the ERP CORE site , you should instead download the data using the links provided within this book for each exercise, which provide a more streamlined set of files.
Scripting
EEGLAB has a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows you to process data by pointing and clicking, and ERPLAB works as a plugin to EEGLAB. Many people use EEGLAB and ERPLAB entirely through the GUI. With the exception of the last chapter, all the exercises in this book use the GUI.
However, you can achieve a lot of additional power and flexibility by writing Matlab scripts , which are text files that specify each processing operation with a line of code. Scripts allow you to automate the EEG and ERP processing steps, which is a huge time-saver (especially when your mentor or a reviewer makes you reprocess all of your data). If you already know how to write Matlab scripts, then you’ll find it straightforward to write scripts with the EEGLAB and ERPLAB routines. If you don’t know Matlab but you have some significant experience in one or more other programming languages, you’ll be able to pick up Matlab pretty quickly (although it has a few quirks that you’ll need to learn).
If you don’t have much programming experience, EEGLAB and ERPLAB provide a good starting point for you to learn. Every operation that you perform in the EEGLAB/ERPLAB GUI corresponds to a line of code, and every time you perform an EEGLAB or ERPLAB operation in the GUI, that line of code is saved to a history . You can grab these lines of code from the history, paste them into a text file, and voila! You have a script!
To get real power and flexibility, however, you also need to learn a little bit about the Matlab programming language. Chapter 11 is devoted to teaching you how to write EEGLAB/ERPLAB scripts. It’s designed for people at all levels of prior programming experience. However, it does assume that you know some basic programming concepts (e.g., variables, loops). If you want to learn scripting—which is an incredibly useful skill—I recommend taking a Matlab course and/or working through one or more Matlab books. I particularly recommend a book called Matlab for Behavioral Scientists (Rosenbaum et al., 2014) and the online Introduction to Programming with MATLAB course from Coursera.
I’ve also provided example scripts at the end of each chapter, showing you how to implement the GUI steps from that chapter in a script. I find that it’s much easier to start with an example script and modify it than to write a script from scratch.
Although the chapter on scripting is the last chapter of the book, you might want to read the first half sooner than that so that you understand the essence of EEGLAB/ERPLAB scripting. The last half of Chapter 11 uses processing steps that are covered in Chapters 2-10, so you should probably save that half until later.
Expected Background Knowledge
This book assumes that you already have some very basic knowledge about ERPs. If you don’t, Appendix 1 provides a quick overview. Here are some things you’ll need to know right away:
Generation of the EEG from postsynaptic potentials in cortical pyramidal cells
- The 10/20 system for electrode locations
- Creating averaged ERPs from single-trial EEG epochs
- Artifact rejection and artifact correction
- ERP peaks and components
All of these issues are briefly covered in Appendix 1 , and you should read about them if they are not already familiar.
If you want additional background, I recommend the first 2 chapters in An Introduction to the ERP Technique (Luck, 2014) or a chapter I wrote for the APA Handbook of Research Methods (Luck, 2012). Or, better yet, you can take my free online course, Introduction to ERPs , which typically takes about 4 hours to complete. The first 2 “chapters” of the online course would be enough to get you started and should take you less than an hour.
Much of the theory behind the analysis approaches described in this book is described in An Introduction to the ERP Technique (Luck, 2014). If you want to become an ERP researcher, you need to understand the reasons behind the recommended processing steps, so I recommend going back and forth between that book and the present book. You’ll see lots of places in the present book where I point you to the relevant chapters in An Introduction to the ERP Technique .
You will also want to consult the online documentation for EEGLAB and ERPLAB if you want to understand some of the options and parameters in the software. There are millions of details about the operation of the software that I didn’t want to repeat in this book.
Read This Now or You'll Be Sorry!
The original heading for this section was “Troubleshooting,” but that sounds way too boring, and I figured many people would skip it. But don’t skip it! This is the most important section of this chapter.
Unless you already have years of experience with EEGLAB and ERPLAB, you’re bound to run into a few problems when you try to complete the exercises in this book. EEGLAB and ERPLAB are professional-strength software packages designed for state-of-the-art research, and the datasets used in the exercises are large and complex. As a result, I can’t foresee every possible problem that might arise on your individual computer, and you’ll probably encounter error messages, results that don’t match what are shown in the book, etc.
When you encounter one of these problems, you’ll certainly be frustrated and you might even be tempted to curse my ancestors. But these problems are actually an important part of the learning process. When you’re analyzing your own data, you’ll run into many of the same problems. In fact, the problems will probably be worse with your own data, because the data used in our exercises have been carefully chosen to avoid many common problems.
So, when you run into a problem, try to look at it as an opportunity for growth. Of course, you might let out a few expletives and need to spend a minute doing deep breathing exercises before you remember that the error message on the screen is actually a gift in disguise. To reduce your blood pressure and help you learn the art of troubleshooting, we’ve provided a Troubleshooting Guide in Appendix 2. I recommend skimming it now and then returning to it when you inevitably run into problems.
Here's a related but more positive piece of advice: Play! I learned the important of playing in science from one of my undergrad mentors, Allen Neuringer. If you simply follow the exercises in this book exactly as written, you’ll certainly learn a lot. But if you want to really understand what you’re doing, you should spend considerable time playing around with things (e.g., the various options in the ERPLAB GUI). For example, there are many things that I say you shouldn’t do, such as applying a high-pass filter to averaged ERP waveforms. But don’t just take my word for it – try it and see what happens.


17 .
Describe how writer Gail Sheehy’s approach in her second book
New Passages
differed from that in her first book
Passages
.
18 .
Describe two ways in which the experience of identity development may vary according to a person’s ethnicity.
19 .
Describe two reasons why the number of adults identifying as Christian has decreased over the last fifty years.
20 .
Identify one potential challenge and one potential benefit of a cross-ethnic friendship.
21 .
Describe what “intergenerational solidarity” means in family relationships.
22 .
Identify two reasons why young adults in rural areas might decide not to attend college.
23 .
Identify one predictor and one outcome each for rapid college completers and marginal college goers.
24 .
Identity one contextual factor and one behavior that predicts a trajectory to a “good job.”
25 .
Identify the characteristics of intimate relationships outlined by Sharabany, and describe the positive outcomes of secure attachment in a romantic relationship.
26 .
Contrast the “high-intensity” and “happy independent” relationship typologies identified by Beckmeyer and Jamison.
27 .
Identify three in-person settings where young adults say they have the best chance of meeting a long-term romantic partner. What do these settings have in common, and why do you think young adults feel they have the most potential for finding long-term romantic connections?


54: What the Ban on Gene-Edited Babies Means for Family Planning (Menke)
By Marie Menke
Technology surrounding the human embryo has moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the reality of difficult decisions. Clinical embryologists fertilize human eggs for the purpose of helping couples conceive. The genetic makeup of these embryos are tested on a routine basis. And today, we no longer ask “can we,” but rather, “should we” edit human embryos with the goal of implantation and delivery of a baby?
As a reproductive endocrinologist, I frequently encounter couples grappling with complicated reproductive issues. If one or both parents are affected by single gene disorders, these couples have the opportunity to first test their embryos and then decide whether to transfer an embryo carrying a mutation rather than finding out the genetic risk of their baby while pregnant. In some cases they may decide not to transfer an embryo that carries the mutation as part of the in vitro fertilization procedure.
These issues seem simple, but carry large consequences for patients. “Should we transfer an embryo affected with our genetic disorder?” “What should we do with our affected embryos if we do not transfer them?” Some patients will opt to skip testing altogether.
Clinical trials of GM embryos banned in the US
House Democrats this year considered, then backed away from, lifting a ban written into the budget of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that bars the approval of any clinical trial or research “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.” The current gene-editing ban prohibits editing the genes inside the cell’s nucleus, as Chinese scientist He Jiankui did. He used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to modify the CCR5 gene in twin girls to give them immunity from HIV.
The current ban also prohibits so-called mitochondrial replacement therapy, or three-parent babies .
Mitochondria replacement therapy, in which mitochondria carrying defective genes are replaced by healthy mitochondria from a third party is more palatable to some as mitochondrial DNA only carries a handful of genes that provide cellular energy production.
These scenarios of a three-parent baby involve transfer of the nucleus - containing the 23 chromosomes - from the egg of the mother with the defective mitochondria into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed but the healthy mitochondria remain. The actual genetic material is changed because there is DNA from two women. However, the DNA has not been cut, pasted or otherwise modified. Although testing the safety of three-parent babies will be allowed in some countries such as the United Kingdom, the U.S. ban includes this procedure.
What is germline editing?
At the heart of the issue is making genetic changes to cells that could be passed on to the next generation. These are called germline cells, and changing them is called germline editing. This brings these questions to the next level, with little information to support these heart wrenching choices.
Germline editing can happen at different phases of fertilization. If we change the genetic makeup of a human egg or sperm, fertilize it, and transfer the resulting embryo into the womb, the result is a heritable genetic modification. Similarly, genetic changes to the embryo itself within the first few days after fertilization will be inherited by the embryo’s offspring. Both of these actions are currently banned.
Is there any DNA that is OK to edit?
Our genetic material is made up of DNA. This DNA is found in two locations within our cells – the nucleus and mitochondria. The DNA, which makes up our 23 pairs of chromosomes, is found inside the nucleus of every cell is a combination of the DNA from the biological mother’s egg and biological father’s sperm. Genes composed from this nuclear DNA provide the basis of most of our biologic functions and appearance including our height, eye color and our overall predisposition to diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These traits are often the product of multiple genes working in tandem. The products of these genes work together throughout our lives, which makes the impact of editing at the embryonic level impossible to predict.
He Jiankui performed gene editing on nuclear DNA. This action provoked calls for regulatory oversight of gene-editing techniques. The concern lies in the long-term effects. In addition to their constant interaction, most of genes in the cell’s nucleus serve multiple functions. “Fixing” one aspect of a gene’s function may therefore result in unintended consequences .
Those diseases caused by a single gene mutation in nuclear DNA are more obvious candidates for gene editing because they are more likely to result in a cure. These include cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and sickle cell anemia.
Are three-parent babies different?
Mitochondrial DNA is located outside the cell’s nucleus and passed down directly from the female egg to the embryo. Genes composed of mitochondria DNA enable mitochondria to produce energy for the whole cell. Mutations in mitochondrial genes have been associated with severe disorders such as Leigh syndrome and mitochondrial complex III deficiency that can affect the brain, kidney and heart.
Just as nuclear DNA modification may remove the risk for single gene disorders, mitochondria replacement therapy would replace these mutated mitochondrial genes with mitochondria from a donor egg – a change that will passed to future generations.
Throughout this discussion, I try to maintain a sense of empathy for those families for whom this could be their only hope of having a healthy biologically related child. I also try to convey that we are at the beginning of a long road that will require a thoughtful approach to anything we do. The technology is here, but we know so much less about its effects than we should.
These editing therapies will permanently change all the descendants of a couple. In some cases it could rid a family of a genetic disease. In others, the unintended effects may be worse than the disease itself. This is the purpose of ethically appropriate research with careful oversight. The ban does not change the need for discussion. If anything, it brings the debate back to the reality of patients seeking care for diseases that currently have no cure.
____________________
Marie Menke is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a reproductive endocrinologist whose research focuses on the effect of obesity and lipids on infertility. Her essay was originally published in The Conversation .