The Romantic Poets,

The Romantic Poets,

The first important expression of romanticism was in the Lyrical Ballads (1798) of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, young men who were aroused to creative activity by the French Revolution; later they became disillusioned with what followed it. The poems of Wordsworth in this volume treat ordinary subjects with a new freshness that imparts a certain radiance to them. On the other hand, Coleridge's main contribution, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” masterfully creates an illusion of reality in relating strange, exotic, or obviously unreal events. These two directions characterize most of the later works of the two poets.

For Wordsworth the great theme remained the world of simple, natural things, in the countryside or among people. He reproduced this world with so close and understanding an eye as to add a hitherto unperceived glory to it. His representation of human nature is similarly simple but revealing. It is at its best, as in “Tintern Abbey” or “Ode on Intimations of Immortality,” when he speaks of the mystical kinship between quiet nature and the human soul and of the spiritual refreshment yielded by humanity's sympathetic contact with the rest of God's creation. Not only is the immediacy of experience in the poetry of Wordsworth opposed to neoclassical notions, but also his poetic style constitutes a rejection of the immediate poetic past. Wordsworth condemned the idea of a specifically poetic language, such as that of neoclassical poetry, and he strove instead for what he considered the more powerful effects of ordinary, everyday language. Coleridge's natural bent, on the other hand, was toward the strange, the exotic, and the mysterious. Unlike Wordsworth, he wrote few poems, and these during a very brief period. In such poems as “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel,” the beauties and horrors of the far distant in time or place are evoked in a style that is neither neoclassical nor simple in Wordsworth's fashion, but that, instead, recalls the splendor and extravagance of the Elizabethans. At the same time Coleridge achieved an immediacy of sensation that suggests the natural although hidden affinity between him and Wordsworth, and their common rejection of the 18th-century spirit in poetry.

Another poet who found delight in the far distant in time was Sir Walter Scott, who, after evincing an early interest in the ancient ballads of his native Scotland, wrote a series of narrative poems glorifying the active virtues of the simple, vigorous life and culture of his land in the Middle Ages, before it had been affected by modern civilization. In such of these poems as The Lady of the Lake (1810) he employed a style of little originality. His work, however, was the more popular among his immediate contemporaries for that very reason, long before the full stature of Wordsworth's more impressive poetry was recognized. Some of Scott's Waverley novels, a series of historical works, have given him a more permanent reputation as a writer of prose.

A second generation of romantic poets remained revolutionary in some sense throughout their poetic careers, unlike Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Scott. George Gordon, Lord Byron, is one of the exemplars of a personality in tragic revolt against society. As in his stormy personal life, so also in such poems as Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812) and Don Juan (1819-1824), this generous but egotistical aristocrat revealed with uneven pathos or with striking irony and cynicism the vagrant feelings and actions of great souls caught in a petty world. Byron's satirical spirit and strong sense of social realism kept him apart from other English romantics; unlike the rest, he proclaimed, for example, a high regard for Pope, whom he sometimes imitated.

The other great poet-revolutionary of the time, Percy Bysshe Shelley, seems much closer to the grandly serious spirit of the other romantics. His most thoughtful poetry expresses his two main ideas, that the external tyranny of rulers, customs, or superstitions is the main enemy, and that inherent human goodness will, sooner or later, eliminate evil from the world and usher in an eternal reign of transcendent love. It is, perhaps, in Prometheus Unbound (1820) that these ideas are most completely expressed, although Shelley's more obvious poetic qualities—the natural correspondence of metrical structure to mood, the power of shaping effective abstractions, and his ethereal idealism—can be studied in a whole range of poems, from “Ode to the West Wind” and “To a Skylark” to the elegy “Adonais,” written for John Keats, the youngest of the great romantics.

More than that of any of the other romantics, Keats's poetry is a response to sensuous impressions. He found neither the time nor the inclination to elaborate a complete moral or social philosophy in his poetry. In such poems as “The Eve of St. Agnes,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and “Ode to a Nightingale,” all written about 1819, he showed an unrivaled awareness of immediate sensation and an unequaled ability to reproduce it. Between 1818 and 1821, during the last few years of his short life, this spiritually robust, active, and wonderfully receptive writer produced all his poetry. His work had a more profound influence than that of any other romantic in widening the sensuous realm of poetry for the Victorians later in the century.

Poetry, Form Of Literature, Spoken Or Written,

Poetry,
form of literature, spoken or written, that emphasizes rhythm, other intricate patterns of sound and imagery, and the many possible ways that words can suggest meaning. The word itself derives from a Greek word, poesis, meaning “making” or “creating.” Whereas ordinary speech and writing, called prose, are organized in sentences and paragraphs, poetry in its simplest definition is organized in units called lines as well as in sentences, and often in stanzas, which are the paragraphs of poetry. The way a line of poetry is structured can be considered a kind of garment that shapes and clothes the thought within it. The oldest and most longstanding genres for classifying poetry are epic, a long narrative poem centered around a national hero, and lyric, a short poem expressing intense emotion. Throughout its long history poetry has relied on evolving rules about what a poem is, with new kinds of poetry building on earlier kinds to create greater possibilities of expression. In the 20th century poets have increasingly used the language of everyday speech and created new forms that break the usual rules of poetry, such as its organization in line units. Yet to surprise a reader and evoke a response, the new has to be seen in contrast to the old, and thus poetry still depends upon a reader’s depth of knowledge about the poetic practices of the past for its effectiveness. Though much poetry is in written form, it usually represents a speaking voice that is not the same as the poet’s. In some lyric poems, this voice seems to speak about individual feelings; in epic poems, the voice seems to speak on behalf of a nation or community. Poetic voices of all kinds confront the unspeakable and push the limits of language and experience. The 20th-century American poet Michael Palmer characterizes this aspect of poetry when he writes playfully, “How lovely the unspeakable must be. You have only to say it and it tells a story.” At its deepest level, poetry attempts to communicate unspeakable aspects of human experience, through the still evolving traditions of an ancient and passionate art.

Poets throughout the ages have defined their art, devised rules for its creation, and written manifestos announcing their radical changes, only to have another poet alter their definition, if not declare just the opposite. “Poetry is the purification of the language of the tribe,” wrote French poet Stéphane Mallarmé at the end of the 19th century. But 20th-century American poet William Carlos Williams, just 50 years later, would call for poems written in a language so natural “that cats and dogs can understand.” Increasingly during the 20th century, poetic language has reflected a response to severe and agonizing circumstances. Romanian-born poet Paul Celan, whose parents were killed in a concentration camp during World War II (1939-1945) and who was himself imprisoned in a work camp, wrote in German, which he viewed as the language of his Nazi tormentors. Much of the difficulty of Celan’s complex, mysterious poems comes from the tension he felt between poetry as a source of beauty and order, and the meaninglessness and violence of his experience. Writing in the language of his oppressors, he dramatized this tension by using fragments, invented words and puzzling statements.

While most poets face circumstances far less extreme than Celan's, other 20th-century writers have also struggled with the many associations language already carries with it. One experimental group, well represented among American and Canadian poets, known as Language poets, seeks to free the word from what they consider to be the constraints of the grammatical sentence, a task they view as a political action against Western culture. While most poets do not criticize language to this extent, many face new challenges in attempting to make the language of poetry reflect the speed, complexity, and confusion of late 20th-century life. 

Shakespeare’s Sonnets,

Shakespeare’s Sonnets, sequence of 154 sonnets by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. Thought to be written between 1595 and 1599, the sonnets are of the English, or Shakespearean, form, which consists of three quatrains and a couplet, with the rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefgg. These sonnets are considered one of the supreme achievements in this form in all of English literature. 

Shakespeare’s sonnets were first collected in book form by the printer Thomas Thorpe, who registered them on May 20, 1609, with the title Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted. Thorpe prefixed to the volume a cryptic dedication: “To the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets Mr. W. H. all happinesse and that eternitie promised by our everliving poet wisheth the well-wishing adventurer in setting forth T. T.” Many attempts have been made to determine the identity of “Mr. W. H.” The two leading candidates are William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.

The sonnets describe the devotion of a person, often identified as Shakespeare himself, to a young man whose beauty and virtue he praises and to a mysterious and faithless Dark Lady with whom the poet is infatuated. In several sonnets the poet accuses his patron of deserting him for a rival poet or charges him with stealing the poet’s mistress, the Dark Lady. The ensuing triangular situation, resulting from the attraction of the poet’s friend to the Dark Lady, is treated with passionate intensity and psychological insight. As with identifying the Mr. W. H. of the dedication, attempts to determine the identities of the youth, rival poet, and mistress have been inconclusive. 

The sonnets are grouped in a rough pattern, loosely linked by subject matter, stylistic device, or theme. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to the young nobleman. In the first 17 sonnets the poet urges the young man to marry and beget children, since his youth will fade. Sonnets 100 to 126 are addressed to him again after an interval of two or three years. Sonnets 127 to 152 are miscellaneous but are mostly addressed to the Dark Lady, who has already appeared in some of the earlier sonnets. The poet’s attitude towards her is lustful, accompanied by occasional pangs of guilt and revulsion. Several sonnets in this sequence (35, 40, 41, 42) imply a liaison between the friend and the lady. The two final sonnets in Thorpe’s edition do not appear to be part of the previous sonnet sequence. Translations or adaptations of a Greek epigram, they evidently refer to the hot springs at the city of Bath, in southwestern England. While some readers accept the sonnets as a literal account of events that actually happened to Shakespeare, most critics view them as semiautobiographical evidence that has yet to be satisfactorily proven.

While the sonnets may provide little conclusive information about Shakespeare’s life, they do provide insight into him as an artist. Like his later plays, Shakespeare’s sonnets are highly metaphorical. The sonnets derive their artistic unity less from the story that runs intermittently through them than from their exploration of the universal human themes of time, death, change, love, lust, and beauty. Shakespeare’s deep seriousness permeates even the most lyrical passages. None of the early readers of sonnets 129 or 146, for example, could have doubted his eventual capacity to write great dramatic prose. 

Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves, A Famous Story,

Ali Baba, 
in folktale, the hero of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in the collection of stories known in English as Arabian Nights. According to the story, Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, is gathering wood in the forest when a band of thieves approaches. He hides and watches them enter a cave that opens when they say the words, “Open Sesame.” After they depart, Ali Baba stands before the cave and gives the command; to his surprise, the cave opens to reveal an enormous supply of gold and treasures. Ali Baba packs some of the gold on his donkeys and returns home. When his brother Qasim, a rich but hardhearted merchant, discovers Ali Baba's new wealth, he demands an explanation. The next day Qasim visits the cave and greedily gathers as much treasure as he can, but forgets the formula for leaving the cave. He is found and killed, and the thieves soon trace him to Ali Baba. They plan to kill him too, but Ali Baba's slave, Murganah, discovers and foils their scheme. In gratitude, Ali Baba frees Murganah and marries her (in some variants of the story, he marries her to his son).

The folktale depicts common themes: two brothers with contrasting characteristics, the rewarding of goodness or contentment, and the punishment of evil or greed. In the early 18th century, French writer Antoine Galland added the folktale to his translation of the Arabian Nights, and the story became popular in Europe. The exact origin of the folktale is uncertain, although it derived from Arab, probably Syrian, oral traditions. The literary version of the Ali Baba folktale is now known throughout the world.

Assets And Liabilities, The Terms Used In Economics And Accounting,

Assets and Liabilities,
terms used in economics and accounting. Assets represent property or rights to property and liabilities are debts owed to others. Assets and liabilities together determine the wealth of an individual, a firm, or a nation.

An entity's wealth is measured as of a specified date and is often listed on a balance sheet, with assets on one side and liabilities and owner's equity on the other (see Accounting and Bookkeeping). However, individuals, firms, and nations have somewhat different assets and liabilities.

An individual's assets might include cash, bank deposits, stocks, rights to future pension payments, and a house and its contents. An individual's liabilities might include, for example, a home mortgage, debt incurred on a car or other personal possessions, or other financial commitments, such as income tax liabilities.

The composition of assets and liabilities for a firm would be different. Included among a firm's assets might be its plant and machinery, its inventories of raw materials or goods in the process of production, or finished goods not yet delivered to customers. A firm's assets should include receivables—debts owed to the firm, perhaps for goods delivered but not yet paid for—and income from any financial assets the firm might have, such as stocks or bonds. Firms will also usually be more valuable than the sum of their assets because they expect to earn income as a result of the existence of the firm as a going concern, a unit producing goods or services for customers. This is commonly defined as goodwill. On the liability side of the balance sheet, the firm will have its financial obligations—debts owed to suppliers or other obligations, such as outstanding tax liability. If the firm has borrowed money from a bank or issued bonds to raise money, these obligations would be listed as liabilities as well.

A nation has still another set of assets and liabilities. A national balance sheet will not simply be the sum of the balance sheets of individuals and firms. A nation's assets also include national capital, such as public buildings (including public libraries, royal palaces, and government offices); publicly owned parts of the transportation infrastructure; or certain natural assets, such as raw material deposits, or national forests. These items may not be included on the balance sheet of any other entity. It is also arguable that since the most important asset of a nation is its labor force, it should be included on the balance sheet in some way. Obligations and liabilities between firms and individuals in the same country will cancel out—one person's liability to pay is another person's asset. But a nation may own assets (physical or financial) overseas, and foreigners may own capital (physical or financial) within a nation. The accounting of a nation's wealth, therefore, should take account of net liabilities to the citizens, firms, and governments of other countries.

Acids And Bases With Their Formulaes , The Generally Opposite Characteristics,

Acids and Bases, 
two classes of chemical compounds that display generally opposite characteristics. Acids taste sour, turn litmus (a pink dye derived from lichens) red, and often react with some metals to produce hydrogen gas. Bases taste bitter, turn litmus blue, and feel slippery. When aqueous (water) solutions of an acid and a base are combined, a neutralization reaction occurs. This reaction is characteristically very rapid and generally produces water and a salt. For example, sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, NaOH, yield water and sodium sulfate: 

H2SO4 + 2NaOH⇄2H2O + Na2SO4

 Early Theories, 

Modern understanding of acids and bases began with the discovery in 1834 by the English physicist Michael Faraday that acids, bases, and salts are electrolytes. That is, when they are dissolved in water, they produce a solution that contains charged particles, or ions, and can conduct an electric current Ionization. In 1884 the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius (and later Wilhelm Ostwald, a German chemist) proposed that an acid be defined as a hydrogen-containing compound that, when dissolved in water, produces a concentration of hydrogen ions, or protons, greater than that of pure water. Similarly, Arrhenius proposed that a base be defined as a substance that, when dissolved in water, produces an excess of hydroxyl ions, OH-. The neutralization reaction then becomes: 

H+ + OH-⇄H2O


A number of criticisms of the Arrhenius-Ostwald theory have been made. First, acids are restricted to hydrogen-containing species and bases to hydroxyl-containing species. Second, the theory applies to aqueous solutions exclusively, whereas many acid-base reactions are known to take place in the absence of water.

III  Bronsted-Lowry Theory

A more satisfactory theory was proposed in 1923 by the Danish chemist Johannes Brønsted and independently by Thomas Lowry, a British chemist. Their theory states that an acid is a proton (hydrogen ion, H+) donor and a base a proton acceptor. Although the acid must still contain hydrogen, the Brønsted-Lowry theory does not require an aqueous medium. For example, liquid ammonia, which acts as a base in aqueous solution, can act as an acid in the absence of water by transferring a proton to a base and forming the amide anion (negative ion) NH2-: 

NH3 + base⇄NH2- + base + H+


The Brønsted-Lowry definition of acids and bases also explains why a strong acid displaces a weak acid from its compounds (and likewise for strong and weak bases). Here acid-base reactions are viewed as a competition for protons. In terms of a general chemical equation, the reaction of Acid (1) with Base (2) 

Acid (1) + Base (2)⇄Acid (2) + Base (1)
results in the transfer of a proton from Acid (1) to Base (2). In losing the proton, Acid (1) becomes its conjugate base, Base (1). In gaining a proton, Base (2) becomes its conjugate acid, Acid (2). The equilibrium represented by the equation above may be displaced either to the left or to the right, and the actual reaction will take place in the direction that produces the weaker acid-base pair. For example, hydrogen chloride (HCl) is a strong acid in water because it readily transfers a proton to water to form a hydronium ion: 

HCl + H2O⇄H3O+ + Cl
-The equilibrium lies mostly to the right because the conjugate base of HCl, Cl-, is a weak base, and H3O+, the conjugate acid of H2O, is a weak acid.

In contrast, hydrogen fluoride, HF, is a weak acid in water because it does not readily transfer a proton to water: 

HF + H2O⇄H3O+ + F
-This equilibrium lies mostly to the left because H2O is a weaker base than F-, and because HF is a weaker acid (in water) than H3O+. The Brønsted-Lowry theory also explains why water can be amphoteric, that is, why it can serve as either an acid or a base. Water serves as a base in the presence of an acid that is stronger than water (such as HCl), in other words, an acid that has a greater tendency to dissociate than does water: 

HCl + H2O⇄H3O+ + Cl
-Water can also serve as an acid in the presence of a base that is stronger than water (such as ammonia): 

NH3 + H2O⇄NH4+ + OH


IV  -Measuring Acid Or Base Strength

The strength of an acid can be measured by the extent to which an acid transfers a proton to water to produce the hydronium ion, H3O+. Conversely, the strength of a base is indicated by the extent to which the base removes a proton from water. A convenient acid-base scale is calculated from the amount of H3O+ that is formed in water solutions of acids or of OH- formed in water solutions of bases. The former is known as the pH scale and the latter as the pOH scale (pH). The value for pH is equal to the negative logarithm of the hydronium ion concentration—and for pOH, of the hydroxyl ion concentration—in an aqueous solution: 

pH = -log [H3O+]


pOH = -log [OH-]
Pure water has a pH of 7.0. When an acid is added, the hydronium ion concentration [H3O+] becomes larger than that in pure water, and the pH becomes less than 7.0, depending on the strength of the acid. The pOH of pure water is also 7.0, and in the presence of a base, the pOH drops to values lower than 7.0.

 The American chemist Gilbert N. Lewis has offered another theory of acids and bases that has the further advantage of not requiring the acid to contain hydrogen. This theory states that acids are electron-pair acceptors and bases are electron-pair donors. This theory also has the advantages that it works when solvents other than water are involved and it does not require the formation of a salt or of acid-base conjugate pairs. Thus, ammonia is viewed as a base because it can donate an electron pair to the acid boron trifluoride, for example 

H3N: + BF3⇄H3N-BF3
to form an acid-base association pair.

Accounting And Bookkeeping, The Process Of Identifying, Measuring And Recording,

Accounting and Bookkeeping,
the process of identifying, measuring, recording, and communicating economic information about an organization or other entity, in order to permit informed judgments by users of the information. Bookkeeping encompasses the record-keeping aspect of accounting and therefore provides much of the data to which accounting principles are applied in the preparation of financial statements and other financial information.

Personal record keeping often uses a simple single-entry system, in which amounts are usually recorded in column form. Such entries include the date of the transaction, its nature, and the amount of money involved. Record keeping of organizations, however, is based on a double-entry system, whereby each transaction is recorded on the basis of its dual impact on the organization’s financial position or operating results or both. Information relating to the financial position of an enterprise is presented on a balance sheet, while disclosures about operating results are displayed on an income statement. Information relating to an organization’s liquidity—namely, how it obtains and spends cash—is shown on a statement of cash flows. These three financial statements provide information about past performance, which in turn becomes a basis for readers to try to project what might happen in the future.

II  History,

Bookkeeping and record-keeping methods, created in response to the development of trade and commerce, are preserved from ancient and medieval sources. Double-entry bookkeeping began in the commercial city-states of medieval Italy and was well developed by the time of the earliest preserved double-entry books, from 1340 in Genoa.

The first published accounting work was written in 1494 by the Venetian monk Luca Pacioli. Although it disseminated rather than created knowledge about double-entry bookkeeping, Pacioli's work summarized principles that have remained essentially unchanged. Additional accounting works were published during the 16th century in Italian, German, Dutch, French, and English, and these works included early formulations of the concepts of assets, liabilities, and income.

The Industrial Revolution of the mid-1700s created a need for accounting techniques that would be adequate to handle mechanization, factory-manufacturing operations, and the mass production of goods and services. With the emergence in the mid-19th century of large, publicly owned business corporations, owned by absentee stockholders and administered by professional managers, the role of accounting was further redefined.

Starting in the mid-20th century, machines—particularly computers—performed many of the bookkeeping functions that are vital to accounting systems. The widespread use of computers broadened the scope of bookkeeping, and the term data processing now frequently encompasses bookkeeping.

III  Accounting Information,

Accounting information can be classified into two categories: financial accounting, consisting of public information, and managerial accounting, consisting of private information. Financial accounting includes information disseminated to parties that are not part of the enterprise proper, such as stockholders, creditors, customers, suppliers, regulatory commissions, financial analysts, and trade associations. Such information relates to the financial position, the liquidity, and the profitability of an enterprise.

Managerial accounting deals with information that is not generally disseminated outside a company, such as salary costs, profit targets, and cost of materials per unit produced. Whereas the general-purpose financial statements of financial accounting are assumed to meet the basic information needs of most external users, managerial accounting provides a wide variety of specialized reports for division managers, department heads, project directors, section supervisors, and other managers within a company.

A  Specialized Accounting 

Of the various specialized areas of accounting that exist, the three most important are auditing, income taxation, and nonbusiness organizations. Auditing is the examination, by an independent accountant, of the financial data, accounting records, business documents, and other pertinent documents of an organization in order to attest to the reasonableness of its financial statements. Businesses and not-for-profit organizations in the United States engage certified public accountants (CPAs) to perform audit examinations. Large private and public enterprises sometimes also maintain an internal audit staff to conduct auditlike examinations, which often are as much concerned with operating efficiency and managerial effectiveness as with the accuracy of the accounting data.

The second specialized area of accounting is income taxation. Preparing an income-tax return by filling out one or more forms entails collecting information and presenting data in a coherent manner; therefore, both individuals and businesses frequently hire accountants to determine their taxes. Tax rules, however, are not identical with accounting practices. Tax regulations are based on laws that are enacted by legislative bodies, interpreted by the courts, and enforced by designated administrative bodies. Much of the information required in calculating taxable income and the amount of tax due, however, is also needed in accounting, and many techniques of computing are common to both areas.

Not all accounting involves for-profit organizations. A third area of specialization is accounting for nonbusiness organizations, such as universities, hospitals, churches, trade and professional associations, and government bodies. These organizations differ from business enterprises in that they receive resources on some nonreciprocating basis—that is, without paying for such resources. They do not have a profit orientation, and they have no defined ownership interests as such. As a result, these organizations call for differences in record keeping, in accounting measurements, and in the format of their financial statements.

B  Financial Reporting 

The traditional function of financial reporting was to provide business owners with information about the companies that they owned and operated. Once the delegation of managerial responsibilities to hired personnel became a common practice, financial reporting began to focus on stewardship—that is, on the managers’ accountability to the owners. Its purpose then was to document how effectively the owners’ assets were managed, in terms of both capital preservation and profit generation.

Once businesses were commonly organized as corporations, the appearance of large multinational corporations and the widespread employment of professional managers by absentee owners brought about a change in the focus of financial reporting. Although the stewardship orientation did not become obsolete, financial reporting beginning in the mid-20th century became somewhat more geared toward the needs of investors. Because both individual and institutional investors view ownership of corporate stock as only one of various investment alternatives, they seek much more future-oriented information than was supplied under the traditional stewardship model. As investors relied more on financial statements to predict the results of investment and disinvestment decisions, accounting became more sensitive to their needs. One important result was an expansion of the information supplied in financial statements.

The proliferation of mandated notes that accompany financial statements is a particularly visible example. Such notes disclose information that is not already included in the body of the financial statement. One of the very first notes identifies the accounting methods adopted when acceptable alternative methods also exist, or when the unique nature of the company's business justifies an otherwise unconventional approach.

The notes also disclose information about lease commitments, contingent liabilities, pension plans, stock options, and the effects of translating foreign currency amounts, as well as details about long-term debt, such as interest rates and maturity dates. A public company having a widely distributed ownership includes among its notes the income amounts that it earned in each three-month fiscal period known as a quarter. It also includes quarterly stock market prices of its outstanding shares of common stock and information about the relative sales and profit contributions of the different operating components that make up a diversified company.

IV  Accounting Principles,

Accounting as it exists today may be viewed as a system of assumptions, doctrines, tenets, and conventions, all encompassed by the phrase “generally accepted accounting principles.” Many of these principles developed gradually, as did much of common law. In recent decades, however, an authoritative body, such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board, has determined standards or rules for accounting principles. Following are several fundamental accounting concepts.

The entity concept states that the item or activity (entity) that is to receive an accounting must be clearly defined, and that the relationship assumed to exist between the entity and external parties must be clearly delineated.

The going-concern assumption states that it is expected that the entity will continue to operate indefinitely.

The historical-cost principle states that economic resources be recorded in terms of the amounts of money exchanged; when a transaction occurs, the exchange price is by its nature a measure of the value of the economic resources that are exchanged.

The realization concept states that accounting takes place only for those economic events to which the entity is a party. This principle therefore rules out recognizing a gain based on the appreciated market value of a still-owned asset.

The matching principle states that income is calculated by matching a period's revenues, such as the amount of merchandise sold, with the expenses (monetary costs) incurred in order to bring about that revenue.

The accrual principle defines revenues and expenses as the inflow and outflow of all assets—as distinct from the flow only of the cash asset—in the course of operating the enterprise.

The consistency criterion states that the accounting procedures used at a given time should conform with the procedures previously used for that activity. Such consistency allows data of different periods to be compared.

The disclosure principle requires that financial statements present the most useful amount of relevant information—namely, all information that is necessary in order not to be misleading.

The substance-over-form standard emphasizes the economic substance of an event even though its legal form may suggest a different result. An example is the practice of consolidating the financial statements of one company with those of another in which it has more than a 50 percent ownership interest.

The doctrine of accounting conservatism applies to a situation in which a company appears to be headed for a financial loss. The accountant confers with management to determine whether this loss is probable or only possible. In cases where the loss is deemed probable, the accountant and management then seek to estimate the likely amount of the loss. If the loss can be estimated, then the negative effect of the loss will be reflected in the company’s financial statement even though the loss has not yet actually occurred.

A  The Balance Sheet 

Of the two traditional types of financial statements, the balance sheet relates to an entity's financial position at a point in time, and the income statement relates to its activity over an interval of time. The balance sheet provides information about an organization's assets, liabilities, and owners' equity as of a particular date—namely, the last day of the accounting or fiscal period. The format of the balance sheet reflects the basic accounting equation: Assets equal equities. Assets are economic resources that are expected to provide future service to the organization. Equities consist of the organization's liabilities, which are its obligations together with the equity interest of its owners. For example, assume that a business owns a building worth $7 million and that the amount left to pay on the mortgage loan is $5 million. On the business’s balance sheet, the building would be considered an asset worth $7 million, the unpaid mortgage loan balance would be considered a liability of $5 million, and the $2-million difference between the value of the building and the outstanding loan would be the business’s equity.

Assets are categorized as current or long-lived. Current assets are usually those that management could reasonably be expected to convert into cash within one year; they include cash, receivables (money due from customers, clients, or borrowers), merchandise inventory, and short-term investments in stocks and bonds. Long-lived assets include the land, buildings, machinery, motor vehicles, computers, furniture, and fixtures belonging to the company. Long-lived assets also include real estate being held for speculation, patents, and trademarks.

Liabilities are obligations that the organization must remit to other parties, such as vendors, creditors, and employees. Current liabilities generally are amounts that are expected to be paid within one year, including salaries and wages, taxes, short-term loans, and money owed to suppliers of goods and services. Noncurrent liabilities include debts that will come due beyond one year, such as bonds, mortgages, and other long-term loans. Whereas liabilities are the claims of outside parties on the assets of the organization, the owners' equity is the investment interest of the owners in the organization's assets. When an enterprise is operated as a sole proprietorship or as a partnership, the balance sheet may disclose the amount of each owner's equity. When the organization is a corporation, the balance sheet shows the equity of the owners (the stockholders) as consisting of two elements. These two elements are the amount originally invested by the stockholders and the corporation's cumulative reinvested income, or retained earnings—that is, income not distributed to stockholders as dividends.

B  The Income Statement 

The traditional activity-oriented financial statement issued by business enterprises is the income statement. Prepared for a well-defined time interval, such as three months or one year, this statement summarizes the enterprise's revenues, expenses, gains, and losses. Revenues are transactions that represent the inflow of assets as a result of operations—that is, assets received from selling goods and rendering services. Expenses are transactions involving the outflow of assets in order to generate revenue, such as wages, rent, interest, and taxes.

A revenue transaction is recorded during the fiscal period in which it occurs. An expense appears on the income statement of the period in which revenues presumably resulted from the particular expense. To illustrate, wages paid by a merchandising or service company are recognized as an immediate expense because they are presumed to generate revenue during the same period in which they occurred. If, however, the wages are paid to process merchandise that will not be sold until a later fiscal period, they would not be considered an immediate expense. Instead, the cost of these wages will be treated as part of the cost of the resulting inventory asset; the effect of this cost on income is thus deferred until the asset is sold and revenue is realized.

In addition to disclosing revenues and expenses (the principal components of income), the income statement also identifies gains and losses from other kinds of transactions, such as the sale of plant assets (for example, a factory building) or the early repayment of long-term debt. Gains or losses that are deemed to be extraordinary—that is, both unusual and infrequent—are so labeled.

C  Other Financial Statements 

A third important activity-oriented financial statement is the statement of cash flows. This statement provides information not otherwise available in either an income statement or a balance sheet. The statement of cash flows presents the sources and the uses of the enterprise's cash by classifying each type of cash inflow and cash outflow according to the nature of the type of activity, such as operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. The statement’s operating activities section identifies the cash generated or used by operations. Investing activities include the cash exchanged to buy and sell long-lived assets such as plant and equipment. Financing activities consist of the cash proceeds from stock issuances and loans and the cash used to pay dividends, to purchase the company's outstanding shares of its own stock, and to pay off debts.

D  Bookkeeping and Accounting Cycle 

Modern accounting entails a seven-step accounting cycle. The first three steps fall under the bookkeeping function—that is, the systematic compiling and recording of financial transactions. Business documents provide the bookkeeping input; such documents include invoices, payroll time cards, paid bank checks, and receiving reports. Special journals (daily logs) are used to record recurring transactions. These include a sales journal, a purchases journal, a cash-receipts journal, and a cash-disbursements journal. Transactions that cannot be accommodated by a special journal are recorded in the general journal.

D1 Step One

Recording a transaction in a journal marks the starting point for the double-entry bookkeeping system. In this system the financial structure of an organization is analyzed as consisting of many interrelated aspects, each of which is called an account (for example, the “wages payable” account). Every transaction is identified by its two or more aspects or dimensions, referred to as its debit (or left side) and credit (or right side) aspects, and each of these aspects has its own effect on the financial structure. 

Depending on their nature, certain accounts are increased with debits and decreased with credits; other accounts are increased with credits and decreased with debits. For example, the purchase of merchandise for cash increases the merchandise account (a debit) and decreases the cash account (a credit). If merchandise is purchased on the basis of a promise to make a future payment, a liability would be created, and the journal entry would record an increase in the merchandise asset account (a debit) and an increase in a liability account (a credit). Recognition of wages earned by employees entails recording an increase in the wage-expense account (a debit) and an increase in a liability account (a credit). The subsequent payment of the wages would be a decrease in the cash asset account (a credit) and a decrease in the liability account (a debit).

D2  Step Two 

In the next step in the accounting cycle, the amounts that appear in the various journals are transferred to the organization's general ledger—a procedure called posting. A ledger is a book having one page for each account in the organization's financial structure. The page for each account shows its debits on the left side and its credits on the right side, so that each account’s balance—that is, the net credit or net debit amount—can be determined.

In addition to the general ledger, a subsidiary ledger is used to provide information in greater detail about the accounts in the general ledger. For example, the general ledger contains one account showing the entire amount owed to the enterprise by all its customers; the subsidiary ledger breaks this amount down on a customer-by-customer basis, with a separate subsidiary account for each customer. Subsidiary accounts may also be kept for the wages paid to each employee, for each building or machine owned by the company, and for amounts owed to each of the enterprise's creditors.

D3  Step Three 

Posting data to the ledgers is followed by listing the balances of all the accounts and calculating whether the sum of all the debit balances agrees with the sum of all the credit balances (because every transaction has been listed once as a debit and once as a credit). This determination is called a trial balance. This procedure and those that follow it take place at the end of the fiscal period. Once the trial balance has been prepared successfully, the bookkeeping portion of the accounting cycle has ended.

D4  Step Four 

Once bookkeeping procedures have been completed, the accountant prepares adjustments to recognize events that, although they did not occur in conventional form, are in substance already completed transactions. The following are the most common circumstances that require adjustments: accrued revenue (for example, interest earned but not yet received); accrued expense (wage cost incurred but not yet paid); unearned revenue (earning subscription revenue that had been collected in advance); prepaid expense (expiration of a prepaid insurance premium); depreciation (recognizing the cost of a machine as expense spread over its useful economic life); inventory (recording the cost of goods sold on the basis of a period's purchases and the change between beginning and ending inventory balances); and receivables (recognizing bad-debt expenses on the basis of expected uncollected amounts).

D5  Steps Five and Six 

Once the adjustments are calculated and entered in the ledger, the accountant prepares an adjusted trial balance—one that combines the original trial balance with the effects of the adjustments (step five). With the balances in all the accounts thus updated, financial statements are then prepared (step six). The balances in the accounts are the data that make up the organization's financial statements.

D6  Step Seven 

The final step is to close noncumulative accounts. This procedure involves a series of bookkeeping debits and credits to transfer sums from income-statement accounts into owners' equity accounts. Such transfers reduce to zero the balances of noncumulative accounts so that these accounts can receive new debit and credit amounts that relate to the activity of the next business period.

V  Regulation And Standards, 

Until 1973 a committee of certified public accountants (CPAs) established accounting principles in the United States. CPAs are accountants licensed by their state government on the basis of educational background, a rigorous certification examination, and in most jurisdictions, relevant practical work experience. In 1973 the seven-member Financial Accounting Standards Board was created as an independent standard-setting organization. Regulations for auditors are promulgated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. United States companies whose stocks or bonds are traded publicly must conform to rules set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal government agency. Tax laws and regulations are administered at the federal level by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and at the local level by state and municipal government agencies. Many countries other than the United States also have systems of accounting standards. The International Accounting Standards Board, based in London, England, exists to achieve international harmonization of accounting principles.

The United States has no standard-setting body for managerial accounting. From 1971 to 1980, however, the federal Cost Accounting Standards Board established accounting rules that apply to contracts entered into by parties that sell goods and services to the federal government. The nongovernmental Institute of Management Accounting administers a certification program, qualifying candidates for a certificate in management accounting (CMA). The Institute of Internal Auditors has a program enabling an accountant to be designated a certified internal auditor (CIA).

A  Accounting Reforms 

At the beginning of the 21st century, the accounting profession in the United States was rocked by a series of scandals. In 2001 the Enron Corporation, a major energy-trading company, acknowledged that its financial statements for nearly five previous years were erroneous because the company had failed to follow generally accepted accounting practices. Instead of the massive profits it had reported, the company revealed that it had actually lost $586 million from 1997 through 2001. The U.S. Department of Justice indicted the CPA firm of Arthur Andersen LLP, Enron’s outside auditor and one of the largest accounting firms in the world. In 2002 a jury convicted Andersen of obstructing justice by shredding documents sought by the SEC.

The Enron scandal was followed in 2002 by another infamous case of accounting fraud involving another prominent corporation known as WorldCom, Inc., a major telecommunications company. The company admitted that it had failed to report more than $7 billion in expenses over five quarterly periods and had actually lost $1.2 billion during that period, although its financial reports indicated that it had been profitable. The vast sums of money involved made it the largest accounting fraud ever. As the year progressed, other major U.S. companies and their accounting firms came under SEC investigation.

The U.S. Congress responded to these accounting scandals by passing legislation that imposed the strictest government oversight of the accounting profession since the 1930s. The new law, known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a five-member board under the supervision of the SEC. The law gave the board the authority to investigate and penalize accounting firms that audit the financial statements of publicly traded companies in a substandard manner. The board was required to set accounting rules and standards with the SEC’s approval and to perform annual audits of any accounting firm that supervises the financial reports of more than 100 public companies. The latter provision was regarded as one of the most important because the accounting profession had been self-policing until the board was created.

Under the law, all accounting firms that audit publicly traded companies must register with the federal government. The oversight board has the power to suspend accounting firms and individual CPAs found guilty of violations and may impose substantial fines against both individual accountants and a CPA firm. The board may also refer cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Observers said the law’s strongest sanction was the ability to suspend accountants who have committed violations from working for publicly traded companies.

The SEC selects the chairperson and the other four members of the oversight board. To insulate the board from influence by the accounting profession, only two members may be CPAs, and the chairperson cannot have been a practicing CPA for at least five years prior to the appointment. All board members must work exclusively for the board, and their terms are staggered over five-year periods.
Other reform measures under the new law required that chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs) of publicly traded companies of a designated size sign statements affirming the accuracy of their firm’s financial reports. Any CEOs or CFOs who “willfully and knowingly” permit misleading information in those reports could face prison terms. The law also prohibited accounting firms from offering many consulting services to clients contemporaneously with a mandated audit. The purpose of this provision was to prevent conflicts of interest. During the Enron scandal, it was revealed that Andersen earned greater amounts of money from providing consulting services to Enron than it obtained from performing auditing services. Some critics asserted that this created an incentive for Andersen to ignore auditing problems.

General Theory Of Relativity,

GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY,
In 1915 Einstein developed the general theory of relativity in which he considered objects accelerated with respect to one another. He developed this theory to explain apparent conflicts between the laws of relativity and the law of gravity. To resolve these conflicts he developed an entirely new approach to the concept of gravity, based on the principle of equivalence.

The principle of equivalence holds that forces produced by gravity are in every way equivalent to forces produced by acceleration, so that it is theoretically impossible to distinguish between gravitational and accelerational forces by experiment. In the theory of special relativity, Einstein had stated that a person in a closed car rolling on an absolutely smooth railroad track could not determine by any conceivable experiment whether he was at rest or in uniform motion. In general relativity he stated that if the car were speeded up or slowed down or driven around a curve, the occupant could not tell whether the forces so produced were due to gravitation or whether they were acceleration forces brought into play by pressure on the accelerator or on the brake or by turning the car sharply to the right or left.

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. Consider an astronaut standing in a stationary rocket. Because of gravity his or her feet are pressed against the floor of the rocket with a force equal to the person's weight, w. If the same rocket is in outer space, far from any other object and not influenced by gravity, the astronaut is again being pressed against the floor if the rocket is accelerating, and if the acceleration is 9.8 m/sec2 (32 ft/sec2) (the acceleration of gravity at the surface of the earth), the force with which the astronaut is pressed against the floor is again equal to w. Without looking out of the window, the astronaut would have no way of telling whether the rocket was at rest on the earth or accelerating in outer space. The force due to acceleration is in no way distinguishable from the force due to gravity. According to Einstein's theory, Newton's law of gravitation is an unnecessary hypothesis; Einstein attributes all forces, both gravitational and those associated with acceleration, to the effects of acceleration. Thus, when the rocket is standing still on the surface of the earth, it is attracted toward the center of the earth. Einstein states that this phenomenon of attraction is attributable to an acceleration of the rocket. In three-dimensional space, the rocket is stationary and therefore is not accelerated; but in four-dimensional space-time, the rocket is in motion along its world line. According to Einstein, the world line is curved, because of the curvature of the continuum in the neighborhood of the earth.

Thus, Newton's hypothesis that every object attracts every other object in direct proportion to its mass is replaced by the relativistic hypothesis that the continuum is curved in the neighborhood of massive objects. Einstein's law of gravity states simply that the world line of every object is a geodesic in the continuum. A geodesic is the shortest distance between two points, but in curved space it is not generally a straight line. In the same way, geodesics on the surface of the earth are great circles, which are not straight lines on any ordinary map. See Geometry; Navigation.

Internet A Global Network , What Are The Uses Of Internet,

Internet, 
computer-based global information system. The Internet is composed of many interconnected computer networks. Each network may link tens, hundreds, or even thousands of computers, enabling them to share information with one another and to share computational resources such as powerful supercomputers and databases of information. The Internet has made it possible for people all over the world to communicate with one another effectively and inexpensively. Unlike traditional broadcasting media, such as radio and television, the Internet does not have a centralized distribution system. Instead, an individual who has Internet access can communicate directly with anyone else on the Internet, make information available to others, find information provided by others, or sell products with a minimum overhead cost.

The Internet has brought new opportunities to government, business, and education. Governments use the Internet for internal communication, distribution of information, and automated tax processing. In addition to offering goods and services online to customers, businesses use the Internet to interact with other businesses. Many individuals use the Internet for communicating through electronic mail (e-mail), for news and research information, shopping, paying bills, and online banking. Educational institutions use the Internet for research and to deliver courses and course material to students. 

Use of the Internet has grown tremendously since its inception. The Internet’s success arises from its flexibility. Instead of restricting component networks to a particular manufacturer or particular type, Internet technology allows interconnection of any kind of computer network. No network is too large or too small, too fast or too slow to be interconnected. Thus, the Internet includes inexpensive networks that can only connect a few computers within a single room as well as expensive networks that can span a continent and connect thousands of computers.
Internet service providers (ISPs) provide Internet access to customers, usually for a monthly fee. A customer who subscribes to an ISP’s service uses the ISP’s network to access the Internet. Because ISPs offer their services to the general public, the networks they operate are known as public access networks. In the United States, as in many countries, ISPs are private companies; in countries where telephone service is a government-regulated monopoly, the government often controls ISPs. 

An organization that has many computers usually owns and operates a private network, called an intranet, which connects all the computers within the organization. To provide Internet service, the organization connects its intranet to the Internet. Unlike public access networks, intranets are restricted to provide security. Only authorized computers at the organization can connect to the intranet, and the organization restricts communication between the intranet and the global Internet. The restrictions allow computers inside the organization to exchange information but keep the information confidential and protected from outsiders. 

The Internet has doubled in size every 9 to 14 months since it began in the late 1970s. In 1981 only 213 computers were connected to the Internet. By 2000 the number had grown to more than 100 million. The current number of people who use the Internet can only be estimated. One survey found that there were 61 million Internet users worldwide at the end of 1996, 148 million at the end of 1998, and 407 million by the end of 2000. Some analysts said that the number of users was expected to double again by the end of 2002. 

II  Uses Of The Internet, 

Before the Internet was created, the U.S. military had developed and deployed communications networks, including a network known as ARPANET. Uses of the networks were restricted to military personnel and the researchers who developed the technology. Many people regard the ARPANET as the precursor of the Internet. From the 1970s until the late 1980s the Internet was a U.S. government-funded communication and research tool restricted almost exclusively to academic and military uses. It was administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF). At universities, only a handful of researchers working on Internet research had access. In the 1980s the NSF developed an “acceptable use policy” that relaxed restrictions and allowed faculty at universities to use the Internet for research and scholarly activities. However, the NSF policy prohibited all commercial uses of the Internet. Under this policy advertising did not appear on the Internet, and people could not charge for access to Internet content or sell products or services on the Internet. 

By 1995, however, the NSF ceased its administration of the Internet. The Internet was privatized, and commercial use was permitted. This move coincided with the growth in popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW), which replaced file transfer as the application used for most Internet traffic. The difference between the Internet and the Web is similar to the distinction between a highway system and a package delivery service that uses the highways to move cargo from one city to another: The Internet is the highway system over which Web traffic and traffic from other applications move. The Web consists of programs running on many computers that allow a user to find and display multimedia documents (documents that contain a combination of text, photographs, graphics, audio, and video). Many analysts attribute the explosion in use and popularity of the Internet to the visual nature of Web documents. By the end of 2000, Web traffic dominated the Internet—more than 80 percent of all traffic on the Internet came from the Web.

Companies, individuals, and institutions use the Internet in many ways. Companies use the Internet for electronic commerce, also called e-commerce, including advertising, selling, buying, distributing products, and providing customer service. In addition, companies use the Internet for business-to-business transactions, such as exchanging financial information and accessing complex databases. Businesses and institutions use the Internet for voice and video conferencing and other forms of communication that enable people to telecommute (work away from the office using a computer). The use of electronic mail (e-mail) speeds communication between companies, among coworkers, and among other individuals. Media and entertainment companies use the Internet for online news and weather services and to broadcast audio and video, including live radio and television programs. Online chat allows people to carry on discussions using written text. Instant messaging enables people to exchange text messages in real time. Scientists and scholars use the Internet to communicate with colleagues, perform research, distribute lecture notes and course materials to students, and publish papers and articles. Individuals use the Internet for communication, entertainment, finding information, and buying and selling goods and services. 
. 

Islamic Fundamentalism, The Faces Of Political Islam Today,

Islamic Fundamentalism, 
diverse political and social movements in Muslim countries of North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, which have as their goal national government based on the principles and values of Islam. Although these movements all seek to restore social justice based on sharia (Islamic law), they differ in the form of government they seek and in how strictly they believe the government should interpret the law.

For many people in the West, the term “Islamic fundamentalism” evokes images of hostage crises, embassies under siege, hijackings, and suicide bombers. But these images hardly present a comprehensive picture. The ranks of Islamic fundamentalists include Muslims who provide much-needed services to the poor through Islamic schools, medical clinics, social welfare agencies, and other institutions. While some Islamic militants try to reach their goals through violence, the majority of Islamic activists work through political parties within the electoral process. At the fringes are those like Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network that engage in a global war of terrorism.

The reassertion of Islam and Islamic values in Muslim politics and society over the past 30 years is often referred to in the West as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. However, the word fundamentalism, which originated in Christianity, can be misleading when it is used to describe Islam or Muslim countries. The conservative monarchy of Saudi Arabia, the radical socialist state of Libya, and clerically governed Iran have all been described as “fundamentalist,” but this description fails to take into account vast differences in their governments and policies. Political analysts prefer to use the expressions “political Islam” or “Islamism” when discussing Islam’s many-faceted roles in current social and political movements.

II  Islam And Politics 

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam originated in the Middle East. Adherents of all three religions are considered to be the children of Abraham. Muslims believe that God, whom they call Allah, sent his revelation first to Moses (through the Hebrew scriptures, the Torah), then to Jesus (through the New Testament of the Christian Bible), and finally to Muhammad (through the Islamic scriptures, the Qur'an). Islam is based on the Qur’an and the example of the prophet Muhammad. Islam’s involvement with politics dates back to its beginnings with the founding of a community-state by Muhammad in the 7th century ad. Under the political leadership of Muhammad and his successors, known as caliphs (see Caliphate), Islam expanded from its point of origin in what is now Saudi Arabia into Islamic empires and cultures that extend across North Africa, through the Middle East, and into Asia and Europe (see Spread of Islam). Islam today claims more than 1.2 billion followers, more than any religion except Christianity.

Islam has exercised considerable political and social influence throughout its history. Early rulers in the Middle East and elsewhere claimed legitimacy for their authority in the name of Islam, and Islamic teachings gave structure to almost every facet of society. But these early Muslim states and empires were not theocracies—that is, governments ruled by or subject to religious authority. There never was a theocratic or clergy-run state in the Middle East until the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

A  The Resurgence of Political Islam 

The causes of Islam's resurgence vary by country and region, but there are several common threads. Among these is a widespread feeling of failure and loss of self-esteem in many Muslim societies. Most Middle Eastern and North African countries achieved independence from colonial rule by the mid-20th century, but the expectations that accompanied independence were shattered by failed political systems and economies and the negative effects of modernization. Overcrowded cities with insufficient social support systems, high unemployment rates, government corruption, and a growing gap between rich and poor characterized many of the newly independent Muslim nations. Modernization also led to a breakdown of traditional family, religious, and social values.

Many Muslims blamed Western models of political and economic development for these failures. Once enthusiastically pursued as symbols of modernity, these models increasingly came under criticism as sources of moral decline and spiritual malaise. Consequently, many countries became disillusioned with the West, and in particular with the United States. United States support for authoritarian Muslim rulers who backed Westernization, such as Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, as well as America’s pro-Israel policy, strengthened anti-Western feelings.

Israel's crushing victory over its Muslim neighbors in the 1967 Six-Day War became a symbol of this sense of failure. After defeating the combined forces of several Arab nations, Israel seized conquered territory from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The loss of Jerusalem, the third holiest city of Islam, was particularly devastating to Muslims around the world.

The Islamic revival has affected both the private and public lives of Muslims. Many Muslims have recommitted themselves to Islam's basic tenets by attending mosque, fasting, wearing Islamic dress, emphasizing family values, and abstaining from alcohol and gambling. Publicly, the revival has manifested itself in the form of Islamic banks, religious programming in the media, a proliferation of religious literature, and the emergence of new Islamic associations dedicated to political and social reform.

As Islamic symbols, slogans, ideology, and organizations became prominent fixtures in Muslim politics in the 1980s, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, Pakistan’s General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, and other government leaders appealed to Islam in order to enhance their legitimacy and authority and to mobilize popular support. Movements in opposition to the government in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other countries did the same.

The most successful Islamic opposition movement culminated in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, Iran inspired antigovernment protests in Kuwait and Bahrain, and helped create Islamic militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah (Party of God) and Islamic Jihad, both of which were involved in hijackings and hostage-takings. These acts, combined with the 1981 assassination of Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat by religious extremists, contributed to the image of a monolithic radical Islamic “fundamentalist” threat to governments in the Muslim world and the West.

Distinguishing between moderate Islamic groups that participate within society and violent revolutionaries is critical to understanding the resurgence of Islam. Many opponents of political Islam have charged that all Islamic movements are extremist groups that seek to “hijack democracy” and manipulate the political system in order to gain power and impose their will. Some experts argue that this type of reaction contributes to the radicalization of moderate Islamists.

B  Beliefs Behind Political Islam 

A number of beliefs and assumptions lie at the heart of the Islamic political revival. The first of these is that the Muslim world is in a state of decline, and the cause of this decline is departure from the straight path of Islam. The cure, therefore, is a return to Islam in personal and public life, which will ensure the restoration of Islamic identity, values, and power. Moreover, Islam is a total or comprehensive way of life as stipulated in the Qur’an, mirrored in the example of Muhammad and the first Muslim community-state organized by Muhammad at Medina, and embodied in the comprehensive nature of the sharia. Thus, the renewal and revitalization of Muslim governments and societies require the restoration or reimplementation of Islamic law, which provides the blueprint for an Islamically guided and socially just state and society.

Although political Islam condemns the Westernization and secularization of society, it does not condemn modernization as such. Science and technology are accepted, but the pace, direction, and extent of change are to be subordinated to Islamic belief and values in order to guard against the penetration of and excessive dependence on Western values.

C  Beliefs of the Radical Minority 

While the majority of Islamic activists seek to work within the system and bring about change from within society, a relatively small but significant radical extremist minority believe they have a mandate from God to carry out God’s will. This extremist minority further believes that because the rulers in the Muslim world are authoritarian and anti-Islamic, violent change is necessary. They seek to topple governments, seize power, and impose their vision or interpretation of Islam upon society.

Radical Islamic movements often operate on the assumption that Islam and the West are locked in an ongoing battle that reaches back to the early days of Islam, a battle that has been heavily influenced by the legacy of the Crusades and European colonialism, and that today is the product of a Judeo-Christian conspiracy. This conspiracy, they believe, is the result of superpower neocolonialism and the power of Zionism (support for a Jewish nation, now the state of Israel). These radical movements blame the West (Britain, France, and especially the United States) for its support of un-Islamic or unjust regimes and biased support for Israel in the face of the displacement of the Palestinian people (see Palestine). Thus, violence against such governments and their representatives as well as Western multinationals is regarded as legitimate self-defense.

Islamic radicals also believe that Islam is not simply an ideological alternative for Muslim societies but a theological and political imperative. Because it is God’s command, implementation must be immediate, not gradual, and the obligation to implement is incumbent on all true Muslims. Therefore, those who hesitate, remain apolitical, or resist—individuals and governments—are no longer to be regarded as Muslims. They are atheists or unbelievers, enemies of God, against whom all true Muslims must wage holy war in the form of jihad.

III  THE FACES OF POLITICAL ISLAM TODAY 

At the beginning of the 21st century, Islam remains a major presence and political force throughout the Muslim world. The question is not whether Islam has a place and role in society, but how best for it to assume that role. While some Muslims wish to pursue a more secular path, others call for a more visible role of Islam in public life. The majority of Islamic activists and movements function and participate within society. A distinct minority are radical extremists who attempt to destabilize or overthrow governments and commit acts of violence and terrorism within their countries.

During the late 1980s and the 1990s Islamic political organizations began to participate in elections, when allowed, and to provide much-needed educational and social services in a number of countries. Headed by educated laity rather than the clergy, these Islamic organizations attracted a broad spectrum of members, from professionals and technocrats to the uneducated and poor. Candidates with an Islamic orientation were elected to high office in several countries. In Turkey, the leader of the Islamist Welfare Party held the office of prime minister from 1996 to 1997. In Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, a founder of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM), served as deputy prime minister from 1993 until his dismissal in a power struggle in 1998. In the first democratic elections in Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of perhaps the largest Islamic movement, the Nahdlatul Ulama, was elected president in 1999. But popular support for him eroded as Indonesia’s economic problems worsened, and he was removed from office in 2001.

The primary concerns of Islamic movements are domestic or national, although international issues also have shaped Muslim politics. Among the more influential issues have been the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem; the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s; the devastating impact of United Nations sanctions against Iraq following the Persian Gulf War (1991) and the consequent deaths of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children; and forceful efforts to suppress Muslims in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Kashmīr. In addition, countries such as Iran, Libya, and Saudi Arabia have sought to extend their influence internationally by supporting government Islamization programs as well as Islamist movements elsewhere.

A review of the current situation in key areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwestern Asia indicates the directions and diverse forms that Muslim politics has taken during recent decades.

A  Tunisia 

Until the late 1980s analysts believed that North Africa, like Turkey, was beyond the reach of any serious challenge from Islamic activism. Tunisia had had one-man rule after gaining independence from France in 1957; Habib Bourguiba served as the country’s president from 1957 to 1987. In 1987 Tunisia’s prime minister Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali seized power from Bourguiba, who had been declared senile.

Ben Ali promised democratization and held parliamentary elections in 1989. Islamic candidates won 14.5 percent of the vote nationwide and a stunning 30 percent in several cities. The Tunisian government responded by suppressing the most effective Islamic opposition movement, Ennahda, through widespread arrests and trials held before specially created military courts. International human rights organizations strongly criticized these repressive actions. The government’s brief flirtation with democratization came to an end as President Ben Ali in 1994 and 1999 won reelection by 99 percent of the vote.

B  Algeria 

Whereas the Tunisian government decapitated the Islamic movement, driving its leaders into exile or underground, in Algeria the military set in motion an escalating spiral of indiscriminate violence and counterviolence. Under its constitution Algeria had single-party rule by the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale, FLN), the group that won independence from France in 1962. A revised constitution in 1989 permitted other political parties to challenge the FLN. That year the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) became North Africa’s first legal Islamic political party.

Led by a university professor, Shaykh Ali Abbasi al-Madani, the FIS flourished as the FLN-led government failed to resolve Algeria’s social and economic problems. Through mosques and an effective social welfare network, the FIS built a national organization and emerged as the strongest opposition party. Substantial support for FIS came from the unemployed, at a time when Algeria’s unemployment rate had surpassed 30 percent, and from socially marginalized youths. But FIS supporters also included small-business owners and prosperous merchants, civil servants, university professors, physicians, lawyers, and other professionals

In 1990 Algeria held local elections, its first multiparty election since independence. The FIS captured 54 percent of the vote, and it scored an even more surprising victory in 1992 in the first round of parliamentary elections. As Islamists celebrated after the elections, the Algerian military intervened and forced the resignation of Algeria’s president. The military arrested more FIS leaders, outlawed the FIS, seized FIS assets, and imprisoned more than 10,000 Algerians in desert camps. These actions led to a protracted civil war in which the majority of Algerians found themselves caught between extremist factions. On one side were hardline military and security forces whose only strategy was the eradication of Islamism; on the other, the equally uncompromising radical Armed Islamic Group.

Brutality and bloodshed continued into the late 1990s and early 2000s. The FIS was excluded from 1997 elections for the National Assembly (lower house of the Algerian legislature), but two other Islamically oriented parties together won 107 of the 380 seats. Presidential elections in 1999 were flawed by the last-minute withdrawal of all six opposition candidates, who charged that the military had rigged the elections.

C Egypt

Political Islam in Egyptian society includes a spectrum of organizations, from radical and violent to mainstream and nonviolent. The Muslim Brotherhood gained strength during the 1970s under Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat and began participating in the political process during the 1980s under his successor, Hosni Mubarak. Radical Islamic organizations, such as Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group (al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya), turned to violence in the 1990s, attacking government officials, institutions, fellow Muslims, Christians, and foreign tourists. Their goal was to destabilize and overthrow the Egyptian government.

The Mubarak government launched a counteroffensive against the radical groups, imprisoning more than 20,000 Islamists, many of them without charge. Military courts not subject to law were created, and laws were enacted to restrict freedom of the press, take control of mosques, and prevent elected Islamists from heading professional associations. The slaughter of 58 foreign tourists at the historic town of Luxor in 1997 seemed to indicate the powerlessness of the government. By 2000, however, the Mubarak government had gained the upper hand and weakened the radical movements.

Despite the government’s apparent success in containing Islamic radicalism, Egyptian society has become more Islamized by moderate Islamists at the grassroots level, however. Young, university-educated professionals preach to middle- and upper-class audiences. Physicians, journalists, lawyers, and political scientists—male and female—speak out and write on issues of Islamic reform, such as pluralism (different beliefs) within Islam, women’s rights, and social justice for the poor. Islamic schools, clinics, hospitals, and social services, as well as Islamic banks and publishing houses, offer an alternative set of institutions and an indirect indictment of the government’s inability to meet peoples’ needs. Elections in 2000 were the first to be supervised by Egypt’s independent judiciary and thus free of the ballot tampering that characterized previous elections. Although the Muslim Brotherhood was banned from participating as a legal party, its members, running independently or with other parties, won 17 of the 444 contested seats in the legislature.

D  Iran 

In 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an aging, white-bearded Muslim cleric came to power in Iran, having toppled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a modern ruler and close ally of the United States. The Iranian revolution was the product of a long, slow buildup of opposition to the shah, who came to power in 1941. In 1953 the shah was forced to flee the country by supporters of Iran’s prime minister, who sought to nationalize Iran's oil industry. But the shah was reinstated within a week with the help of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He maintained a close relationship with the United States and Europe afterward.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the shah used his country's enormous oil revenues to finance a modernization program. But the reforms tended to benefit urban areas and the educated elite rather than Iran's thousands of rural villages. Opponents warned that the shah’s uncritical economic, military, and cultural dependence on the West, referred to as “Westoxification,” threatened Iranian identity, autonomy, and culture.

The Iranian revolution (1978-1979) was supported by a broad-based alliance of religious and political opponents, mobilized under the umbrella of Shia Islam, the dominant form of Islam in Iran. An existing network of clergy, mosques, and seminaries in every city, town, and village provided necessary organization and a means for communication and mobilization of the people. Although the government banned political meetings, it could not close the mosques, where Iranians heard sermons denouncing injustice and oppression. Khomeini, exiled in 1964 for criticizing the shah, became a symbol of the opposition. The shah's military and security forces responded with increased ferocity against opponents. The shah's unyielding stance transformed his opponents into revolutionaries. As a stunned world looked on, the shah's government fell. Khomeini returned from exile, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was born.

Although many Iranians expected the clergy would return to their mosques and seminaries soon after the revolution, Iran became a clergy-governed state within a year. Khomeini sat at the apex of power and served as the final authority on all domestic and international matters. He silenced all effective opposition, secular and religious, and many Iranians fled the country.

After Khomeini's death in 1989, Iran witnessed an expansion of political participation and dissent. Public discussion and debate became more open, and the number of independent newspapers, magazines, and journals grew significantly. But perhaps the most stunning example of increased moderation and pluralism in Iran was the victory of Muslim cleric Mohammed Khatami in Iran's 1997 presidential election.

Widely seen as moderate and progressive, Khatami pursued two major policies: creating a more open and tolerant society at home and promoting dialogue with the West abroad. In January 1998 Khatami proposed cultural exchanges with the United States as a means of breaking down the “wall of mistrust” between the two countries. As a result, Iran and the United States embarked on more open communication and exchange.

In its third decade, the Islamic Republic of Iran is locked in a struggle to redefine its political and economic future at home and abroad. Reformists jockey with antireform forces for political power. In elections in 2000, pro-Khatami progressive candidates gained a plurality of seats in parliament. After this victory conservative forces flexed their political muscle, leading many of Khatami’s key supporters in government to resign. Some government officials were imprisoned, and the judiciary closed down more than 30 reformist newspapers and journals. Conservative clergy retained control of the major institutions of power. Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, expanded his authority to encompass parliamentary affairs and the once independent seminaries. Thus, the significance and impact of President Khatami’s quiet revolution and the future direction of Iran and its posture in international politics remained difficult to fully assess or predict in late 2001.

E  Pakistan 

Pakistan moved toward greater Islamization of state and society under General Zia ul-Haq, the country’s president from 1978 to 1988. A side effect of Pakistan’s Islamization was increased conflict between different religious communities and organizations, especially between the Sunni Muslim majority and the Shia Muslim minority. Although anti-Shia sentiment had existed in Pakistan, the 1990s saw a dramatic upsurge of religious radicalism and violence. Armed with automatic weapons and explosives, militant Sunni organizations fought equally militant Shia organizations.

During this period of religious violence, Pakistan, long regarded as a stable ally of the United States, became a training ground for guerrilla warriors and Islamic terrorists. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and a ten-year Soviet-Afghan War followed. Afghan rebels set up camp in Pakistan, where Muslims from other countries joined them to train as guerrillas. Known as mujahideen, the guerrillas were regarded as freedom fighters in their campaign against Soviet forces, and they received substantial financial and military assistance from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other countries throughout the 1980s. After the war ended with Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, many of the mujahideen returned home to such countries as Algeria, Egypt, and Pakistan. There they contributed to the spread of radical Islam. Others remained in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s military, Islamized under Zia, supported the mujahideen. The military developed close ties with the Taliban (the movement that controlled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until November 2001) and with militant Pakistani groups. So did many of Pakistan’s madrasas (religious seminaries). Pakistan and Afghanistan together supported the mujahideen in their struggle against India in Kashmir, disputed territory claimed by both Pakistan and India.

F  Afghanistan 

Although Afghanistan’s mujahideen succeeded in driving out Soviet occupation forces in 1988 and 1989, their victory did not bring peace to Afghanistan. The rebels ousted Afghanistan’s central government in 1992, but civil war then broke out among factions within the mujahideen. The shared Islamic identity that had served to inspire, mobilize, and unify the mujahideen in their jihad against the Soviet Union was eclipsed by Afghanistan’s age-old tribal, ethnic, and religious (Sunni-Shia) differences and rivalries. 

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A Heart Attack, Also Known As a Myocardial Infarction, How Heart Attack Occurs,

 HEART ATTACK ;
A heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction, usually occurs when a blood clot forms inside a coronary artery at the site of an atherosclerotic plaque. The blood clot severely limits or completely cuts off blood flow to part of the heart. In a small percentage of cases, blood flow is cut off when the muscles in the artery wall contract suddenly, constricting the artery. This constriction, called vasospasm, can occur in an artery that is only slightly narrowed by atherosclerosis or even in a healthy artery. Regardless of the cause of a heart attack, the oxygen deprivation is so severe and prolonged that heart muscle cells begin to die for lack of oxygen. About 1.1 million people in the United States have a heart attack every year; the heart attacks prove fatal for about 40 percent of these people. 

A person having a heart attack typically feels an intense, crushing pain in the chest, especially on the left side. The pain may radiate to the person’s neck, jaw, and left arm. The pain is often similar to an attack of angina, but more intense and longer lasting. Other signs of a heart attack include profuse sweating, nausea, and vomiting. However, heart attack symptoms can vary greatly among people. In one study, about one-quarter of people who had a heart attack felt only mild symptoms and did not seek medical attention, and about 12 percent experienced no symptoms at all.

Some people have gradually worsening bouts of angina before having a heart attack. For others, a heart attack may be the first signal of heart trouble. No matter what a person’s medical history, anyone who experiences symptoms of a heart attack should go to a hospital without delay. Oxygen deprivation can cause permanent damage to the heart within hours or even minutes, so the faster a heart attack patient receives treatment, the better the chance of survival.

What Is Blood Cancer, How It Takes Place. Leukemia,Causes, Diagnosis And It's Treatment...

Leukemia, 

any of several types of cancers that affect blood cells, including oxygen-carrying red cells; certain infection-fighting white cells, such as granulocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes; and platelets, which aid in blood clotting. According to the American Cancer Society, leukemia is the sixth leading cause of cancer deaths among men and the seventh leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Each year in the United States about 31,000 new cases of leukemia are diagnosed and the disease causes an estimated 22,000 deaths. It accounts for about one-third of all cancers in children under age 15.

Blood cells are made in the bone marrow, the spongy tissue in the center of bones. A leukemia begins when an immature blood cell in the marrow, known as a progenitor cell, becomes cancerous, dividing uncontrollably and overriding the body’s normal restrictions on cell division. Over time, the marrow becomes crowded with cancerous cells, all of them descendants of the first abnormal cell. The malignant cells may also accumulate in a patient’s lymph nodes, spleen, and elsewhere. At the time of diagnosis, up to a trillion leukemic cells may be present in the body.

The mass of leukemic cells in the marrow suppresses the production of healthy blood cells, giving rise to the symptoms typical of leukemia. Pale skin, fatigue, and shortness of breath are signs of anemia, a decrease in the concentration of red cells in the blood. Nose bleeds, gum bleeding, a tendency to bruise easily, and pinhead-sized red spots on the skin reflect the decrease in the concentration of platelets in the blood. A lack of functional white cells makes patients with leukemia prone to infection.

Leukemia was first described by European physicians during the mid-19th century. During autopsies, physicians noted cases of profoundly elevated white cell counts—today we know that many of these white cells were nonfunctional leukemic cells—and very low red cell counts. For this reason, the condition was referred to as weisses blut (German for “white blood”). Later, the term leukemia (Greek leukos, “white”; haima, “blood”) was applied to the disease. 

II  TYPES OF LEUKEMIA 

The leukemias are classified by two principal characteristics: the lineage of blood cell that becomes cancerous, and how rapidly the disease progresses. A leukemia is classified as myelocytic or myelogenous if the malignant cells have descended from the progenitors of red cells, granulocytes, macrophages, or platelets. If the leukemic cells have descended from a lymphocyte precursor cell, the leukemia is referred to as lymphocytic.

Myelocytic or lymphocytic leukemia can be acute or chronic, terms that refer to the patient’s life expectancy if the disease remains untreated. Acute leukemias develop rapidly, and without prompt treatment, the suppression of normal blood cell production is so severe that death occurs in a matter of weeks. In the chronic leukemias, patients may survive for several years or more without treatment because the effects of leukemic cells on the structure and function of the marrow develop more slowly and are less severe. In chronic myelocytic leukemia, for example, the leukemic cells can often complete their development and become functional blood cells. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the leukemic lymphocytes do not function normally, but in many cases the abnormal cells do not severely inhibit normal blood cell development.

The four major forms of leukemia—acute myelocytic, chronic myelocytic, acute lymphocytic, and chronic lymphocytic—can be further subcategorized based on the appearance of the malignant cells, the presence of characteristic molecules on their surface, or their stage of development. For example, hairy-cell leukemia is an uncommon type of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in which the malignant cells have fine, hairlike projections on their surface.

Myelocytic leukemia—both acute and chronic forms—can occur at any age, but more than 90 percent of cases occur in adults, and the risk of developing the disease increases dramatically after the age of 50. Acute myelocytic leukemia is the most common form of leukemia in the United States, with 9,700 new cases diagnosed each year. About 4,400 new cases of chronic myelocytic leukemia are diagnosed each year.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia occurs rarely before the age of 45 and increases in incidence with each succeeding decade. Acute lymphocytic leukemia, by contrast, can occur at any age, but about half the cases occur in children under the age of 19, with the peak incidence occurring at about 4 years of age. In the United States, chronic lymphocytic leukemia accounts for about 8,100 new cases of leukemia each year, and acute lymphocytic leukemia, for about 3,200 new cases.

111 CAUSES

In most cases of leukemia, the cause is unknown, but physicians have identified four known causes of certain types of leukemia. Intensive radiation exposure or moderately intense exposure for long periods (see Radiation Effects, Biological) increases the risk of acute and chronic myelocytic leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia, but not chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The high rate of leukemia among Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II dramatically demonstrated the role of radiation in causing leukemia.

Exposure to certain chemicals can also cause leukemia. Workers exposed to benzene over long periods have an increased risk of developing acute myelocytic leukemia. Chemotherapy drugs used to treat breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lymphomas, and certain other cancers also increase a patient’s risk of later developing acute myelocytic leukemia.

Two viruses, human T-cell leukemia viruses (HTLV) I and II, are known to cause T-cell leukemia, a very rare form of lymphocytic leukemia, in humans. However, only a small percentage of people who are infected with these viruses develop cancer. Although virus-related leukemia is rare in humans, it is quite common in other animal species, such as cats, chickens, and mice.

Genetic factors may also contribute to the development of leukemia. Some inherited conditions, such as Down syndrome, increase a person’s risk of developing leukemia. In addition, scientists have identified rare clusters of leukemia in several members of the same family, presumably due to an inherited genetic mutation. 

IV  DIAGNOSIS 

Bone marrow biopsy and blood tests are the primary techniques used to diagnose leukemia. In a bone marrow biopsy, cells are collected through a hollow needle inserted into the outer edge of a hipbone, or a small cylinder of bone containing marrow is removed with a special needle. The marrow sample is examined with a microscope for the presence of leukemic cells. 

Blood tests that monitor blood cell counts—the number of cells of different types in the blood—can also reveal abnormalities characteristic of various forms of leukemia. Patients with acute leukemias nearly always have decreased red cell and platelet counts. In some patients, white cell counts are also very low. In others, a large number of leukemic cells enter the blood from the bone marrow, making white cell counts very high. However, physicians can examine these cells under the microscope to determine that they are abnormal, leukemic cells, not healthy white cells, and that the elevated white cell count is not due to another cause, such as infection. 

Patients with chronic leukemias usually have slightly decreased red cell counts. Platelet counts are usually normal or mildly increased in patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia, and normal or mildly decreased in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Nearly all chronic leukemia patients have increased white cell counts. In chronic myelocytic leukemia, some of these white cells are healthy, infection-fighting cells, but in chronic lymphocytic leukemia the blood contains large numbers of malignant lymphocytes that do not function normally.

Sometimes additional tests, such as staining of cells with various chemical dyes to help doctors examine their appearance, analysis of molecules on the surface of the cells, and analysis of the cells’ genetic material, are performed on leukemic cells collected from the marrow or blood. These tests help doctors determine the subcategory of leukemia, which, in turn, may affect a patient’s prognosis and the approach to treatment. Tests such as chest X rays and examination of the spinal fluid for leukemic cells can help doctors determine how far the disease has spread.

V  TREATMENT 

Treatment of leukemia depends on the type and extent of the disease and is tailored to each individual patient. In general, chemotherapy—the use of drugs that kill rapidly dividing cells—is the mainstay of treatment for both acute and chronic leukemias. In acute leukemias, chemotherapy is very intensive and uses several drugs, either simultaneously or sequentially, in order to kill as many leukemic cells as possible. Antibiotics and transfusions of red cells and platelets help sustain patients whose blood counts are dangerously low because they are receiving intensive chemotherapy.

Sometimes radiation is used to shrink collections of leukemic cells that accumulate in various parts of the body, such as on the lining of the brain and spinal cord in acute lymphocytic leukemia, or within lymph nodes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. If left untreated, collections of cells on the lining of the brain and spinal cord can cause headache, blurred vision, and confusion, and elsewhere in the body can cause swelling and tenderness of the affected area.

Particularly in young patients, if doctors determine that chemotherapy alone is not likely be successful or if patients relapse after chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation may be performed. In this procedure, very intensive total body radiation or very high doses of chemotherapy or both are used. The chemotherapy and radiation are designed to destroy all the leukemic cells in a patient’s body; however, this treatment also destroys the blood-forming system in the patient’s bone marrow. For this reason, healthy stem cells, the cells in bone marrow that enable long-term formation of blood, must then be infused into a patient to replenish the blood-forming system. The stem cells must come from an immunologically matched donor, usually a sibling or other close relative. Formerly, stem cells could only be transplanted from the bone marrow of the donor, and the procedure was known as bone marrow transplantation. Recent advances now make it possible to recover stem cells from circulating blood, making the transplant procedure much simpler and less risky for the donor.

Immunotherapy, though still in the experimental stages, is a promising new approach to treating leukemia. In this technique, highly specific molecules known as monoclonal antibodies are manufactured in the laboratory to target molecules on the surface of leukemic cells. The antibodies are attached to a radioactive substance, then injected intravenously into a patient. This method provides a convenient means of delivering the radioactive substance directly to leukemic cells, where it may kill these cells with minimal effect on healthy cells.

 The goal in treating acute leukemias is to kill enough leukemic cells to produce a remission, meaning that the production of healthy blood cells is no longer suppressed, blood cell counts return to normal, and the patient’s symptoms diminish. At that stage, further therapy is used to try to prolong remission or achieve a cure. About 80 percent of children with acute lymphocytic leukemia are cured. Cure rates in acute myelocytic leukemia are estimated to be about 40 percent in children and somewhat lower in adults. In the chronic leukemias, cures are very infrequent, but today’s chemotherapy regimens have increased the average survival in these patients from about three years to about six years. In elderly patients who develop chronic leukemia, life expectancy may not be reduced at all.