Epidemiology

by | Mar 27, 2018 | Essays

Question 1
1. The following table describes hypothetical age-specific rates of heart disease in India and the United States in 2009. Also included are hypothetical age distributions for the two countries and the entire world population.
Age Group
(in years) % of Population in Age Group Heart Disease Rate per 100,000 person-years
INDIA U.S.A. WORLD INDIA U.S.A.
< 30 60% 30% 50% 50 75
30-55 30% 40% 30% 80 150
> 55 10% 30% 20% 120 400
o Calculate the crude rate of heart disease for each of the two countries. Suppose that you want to compare the rate of heart disease in India to that in the United States. You know that age is an important risk factor for heart disease. Examine the age distribution of each country’s population.
o Should you use the two crude rates to compare the two countries? Why or why not?
o Calculate an age-adjusted rate for heart disease in each country. Use the age distribution of the entire world as your standard.
o Based on these answers, would you say that the age differences between India and the United States account for the entire difference in crude heart disease rates between the two countries? Why or why not?
Question 2

Phthalates are present in many diverse products, including insect repellents, body lotions, perfumes, and food packaging. Because animal experiments suggest that phthalates may have an adverse effect on the male reproductive system, a group of infertility specialists decided to conduct a case-control study on phthalate exposure and sperm abnormalities in adult men.100 cases with sperm abnormalities and 100 controls were identified and enrolled from among patients at their infertility clinic. 30 cases and 10 controls had high urinary phthalate levels; the remainder had normal urinary phthalate levels.
Set up and fill in the two by two table using these data
Use these data to calculate the odds ratio describing the relationship between phthalate levels and sperm abnormalities
State in words your interpretation of this odds ratio
Question 3
1. For this problem, note the following chart:
Age Group
(in years) % of Population in Age Group Influenza Rate per 1,000 person-years
CITY A CITY B CITY C Massachusetts CITY A CITY B CITY C
YOUNG 40% 50% 80% 60% 2 10 30
OLD 60% 50% 20% 40% 70 110 5
2.
3. There are 10,000 individuals in City A, which is located in Massachusetts. Eight young individuals and 420 old individuals develop the flu over the course of a year.
o Use these data to calculate the crude influenza rate per 1,000 individuals per years in City A.
o What is the crude rate of influenza in City B?
o What is the crude rate of influenza in City C?
o Calculate an age-adjusted influenza rate for each of the cities. Use the age distribution for the State of Massachusetts (shown in the table) as the standard.

 

 

 

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Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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