Should capital punishment be brought back in the U.K Essay Example Essay Example

Should capital punishment be brought back in the U.K Essay Example Paper Should capital punishment be brought back in the U.K Essay Introduction When turning on the television, radio, or simply opening the local newspaper, we are bombarded with news of arrests, murders, homicides, serial killers, and other such tragedies. It is a rare occasion to go throughout a day in this world and not hear of these, this could all be stopped if we reintroduce capital punishment into the U.K. First of all, what is capital punishment; it is the most severe of all sentences: that of death. Also known as the death penalty, capital punishment has been banned in many countries. In the United States, an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offences such as murder.There are many methods of capital punishment including lethal injection and the electric chair, hanging and hundreds of years ago there was crucifixion. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason and piracy, and in 1998 it was entirely abolished in the UK. The last people to be hanged in the U.K were hanged at the same time but at different prisons: Peter Anthony Allen at Liverpool and Gwynne Owen Evans at Manchester Prisons. Both were hanged on 13 August 1964. Subsequent people were sentenced to death, but they were all reprieved. It is still an issue because there are many murderers who getting out of prison early for being good and then they are killing again, also if they bring it back some people think that in some cases the wrong person is executed.In this essay I will be arguing for capital punishment to be brought back and in the next section I will explain why using four different reasons.Firstly I think that it is the only punishment for terrorists who kill indiscriminately, for example Timothy McVeigh who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma on April 19th 1995. The Oklahoma bomb killed 168 people including 19 children, and injured more than 500 others.It took rescuers almost six weeks to recover the bodies of al l the victims from the rubble.Timothy McVeigh, a 33-year old Gulf War veteran, was convicted of the attack and sentenced to death by lethal injection after a two-month trial. He was executed at Terre Haute federal prison in Indiana on 11 June 2001. The execution was watched via C.C.T.V by about 30 people including 10 survivors of the bombing and members of the media.The motive for the attack was apparently retaliation against the US Government for the bloody end to a siege near Waco, Texas, in which 82 members of the Branch Davidian sect died.In December 1997 his former army colleague Terry Nichols was convicted of manslaughter and conspiracy and sentenced to life in jail. A third man, Michael Fortier, confessed to knowing in advance about the bombing and was sentenced to 12 years after agreeing to be a key witness for the prosecution.The execution of McVeigh is a good thing because he can now not commit another crime because he is dead. Most of the community or state in this case w ill feel safer with one less criminal, a dangerous criminal, who cannot kill anymore. He has killed over 150 people so I think that if that does not reward a capital punishment sentence then nothing will, he has shown no remorse over the crime and has not apologised to the families of the dead for what he did.I don’t think that he deserves to live, some people who are against capital punishment say that keeping them alive is a just punishment because they have to live with what they have done forever and will have to live with the abuse from people. But I don’t think that this is true because if hey have killed as many people as McVeigh has then I don’t think they will really think about the people who he has killed and it wouldn’t have phased him, if he received abuse from the public then I think the police would have moved him onto a witness protection scheme which will help him get over what he has done and therefore it will not really be a just punish ment.By killing him they have ended his life and ended the chance of him having a family and a successful career which I think is a just punishment for what he has done, if capital punishment was not usedand if he did stay in prison for the whole of his life which would be unlikely, then he would be still alive and may commit crimes in prison, the government is also using a lot of the tax payers money to look after them.Which brings me on to my next reason for bringing capital punishment back; Looking after the prisoners costs money, the taxpayer’s money. This money could be used in education or in medical care to provide for people who deserve it instead of killers who deserve to be dead. Recent research has shown that more money is spent on prisoner’s meals than on school dinners, this shows that the government thinks that the prisoners welfare is more important than the welfare of young children who are the future of this country, the prisoners are criminals who are not doing anything for this country apart from wasting the taxpayer’s money. We cannot risk letting serial killers out of prison when they are â€Å"reformed† or pretend to be because they could go out and kill again, wouldn’t it just be better to kill the murderers?I think it will because they will not kill again and they are not wasting anymore money, it will also stop the prisons being more crowded and having to spend more money on building more prisons, and because the murderers are the most dangerous so the Government won’t have to spend as much money on making the prisons more secure. One case of this is with Ian Huntley who is being accused of killing Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman has been kept in a à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200,000 super cell in a metal hospital while doctors do tests on him to find out if he is fit to stand trial.While in this super cell he has a games console, television and many other things to help him enjoy himself which I think is wron g because the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200,000 could be spent on something useful instead of on a suspected murderer he should just have the basics to live on, he may also be pretending to have psychological problems so he doesn’t go to prison or have to be accused of anything.My next reason for bringing back capital punishment is that it will help the victims get over the loss through retribution.If the offender is kept alive and is being kept alive by the money from tax payers which might be the money of the victim’s family, I think this is wrong because the victim’s family have done nothing to deserve the pain and suffering that they will always have when remembering their family member who was killed by a heartless murderer. If the murderer ever gets released which they probably will then the family will have more hurt to deal with when they see the killer walking free from prison and they are free to live a full and happy life when their son, daughter, father or mother are dead and cannot live their life anymore, it will also make the family not be able to live a free life knowing that the killer is always out there and will probably commit other crimes.Capital punishment does not only lower the murder rate its value as retribution alone is a good reason for handing out death sentences. Some people who are against bringing back capital punishment say that we should think about the killer’s family and how they will have to live without their son, daughter etc. But I think that the killer should have thought about that and he/she should have thought about how the victim’s family will feel before he/she does the crime, it is the killers fault so they should take the punishment and we should not give them a second chance just because their family will miss them, this is also another part of the punishment knowing how your family will feel when you are dead and how they will have to deal with abuse from the public every time they go in th e street.My penultimate point on why we should bring back capital punishment is that in a large number of cases a life sentence is not life it is only about 12-15 years. I think that if the Government didn’t bring capital punishment then they should at least give proper life sentences to murderers and maybe even rapists. Capital punishment should be brought back because if we don’t and there is a murderer who serves 7 out of those 15 years and gets released because they have been good then they will be released and they could kill again and also it will be an injustice to all the family of the victim seeing the killer walking the streets. A recent case of a person who was in a mental hospital for killing people was released and then he killed again so surely it would have been better just to execute him and not risk them killing again.My fifth and final reason for bring back the death penalty is that it deters others from committing the same crime. If it was brought ba ck then I think that most criminals would be deterred from killing because of the death penalty, it will probably bring down the murder rate in Britain, if we get it right and punish the right people then I think it will deter future criminals, we should not let murderers get away with what they have done.They should be punished in the worst possible which is death because they have committed the worst possible crime. If it does not reduce murder rates then at least we have got rid of some of the criminals and they cannot commit another crime. Anyone who kills anyone else without a good reason to then I think they should be executed, anyone who says that the executer is a murderer is wrong because they have a reason to and it is not against the law for an executer to kill a murderer in countries where capital punishment is used.Now I have showed you five reasons why I think capital punishment should be brought back I am going to conclude this essay by reviewing all the reasons why t he death penalty should be brought back and then restate my opinion. I think capital punishment should be brought back because it is the only way to punish international terrorists and maybe deter future ones; it also will save money which can be used in better ways like for education or medical services, it will help the victims family get over their loss, the retribution will help them and they will know the killer is dead and can’t kill anyone else like they did to the family member.My next reason was that life sentence doesn’t always mean life and they could be released and then commit more crimes and my last point was that it will deter other criminals from doing the same crime and therefore lowering the murder rate. Maybe we could have a public vote on whether to bring the death penalty back and then it will be fair, if it is a close result then maybe the Prime Minister should decide, a compromise could be that if a killer does any other crime then they automatic ally is executed, they have had their second chance and they have wasted it.All the reasons above are why I think that capital punishment should be brought back and I hope this happens in the near future. Should capital punishment be brought back in the U.K Essay Thank you for reading this Sample!

Effective Teacher Questioning Techniques

Effective Teacher Questioning Techniques Asking questions is an important part of any teachers daily interaction with their students. Questions provide teachers with the ability to check on and enhance student learning. However, it is important to note that not all questions are created equal. According to Dr. J. Doyle Casteel, Effective Teaching, effective questions should have a high response rate (at least 70 to 80 percent), be evenly distributed throughout the class, and be a representation of the discipline being taught. What Types of Questioning Are Most Effective? Typically, questioning habits of teachers are based on the subject being taught and our own past experiences with classroom questions. For example, in a typical mathematics class, questions might be rapid fire: question in, question out. In a science class, a typical situation might occur where the teacher talks for two to three minutes then poses a question to check understanding before moving on. An example from a social studies class might be when a teacher asks questions to start a discussion allowing other students to join in. All of these methods have their uses and a complete, experienced teacher uses all three of these in their classroom. Referring again to Effective Teaching, the most effective forms of questions are those that either follow  a clear sequence, are contextual solicitations, or are hypothetico-deductive questions. In the following sections, we will look at each of these and how they work in practice. Clear Sequences of Questions This is the simplest form of effective questioning. Instead of directly asking students a question such as Compare Abraham Lincolns Reconstruction Plan to Andrew Johnsons Reconstruction Plan, a teacher would ask a clear sequence of little questions that lead up to this larger overall question. The little questions are important because they establish the basis for the comparison which is the ultimate goal of the lesson. Contextual Solicitations Contextual solicitations provide a student response rate of 85-90 percent. In a contextual solicitation, a teacher is providing a context for the coming question. The teacher then prompts an intellectual operation. Conditional language provides a link between the context and the question that is to be asked. Here is an example of a contextual solicitation: In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo Baggins is attempting to get the One Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it. The One Ring is seen as a corrupting force, negatively affecting all who have extended contact with it. This being the case, why is Samwise Gamgee unaffected by his time wearing the One Ring? Hypothetico-Deductive Questions According to research cited in Effective Teaching, these types of questions have a 90-95% student response rate. In a hypothetico-deductive question, the teacher starts by providing the context for the coming question. They then set up a hypothetical situation by providing conditional statements like assume, suppose, pretend, and imagine. Then the teacher links this hypothetical to the question with words like, given this, however, and because of. In summary, the hypothetico-deductive question must have context, at least one curing conditional, a linking conditional, and the question. Following is an example of a hypothetico-deductive question: The film we just watched stated that the roots of sectional differences that led to the US Civil War were present during the Constitutional Convention. Lets assume that this was the case. Knowing this, does that mean that the US Civil War was inevitable? The typical response rate in a classroom not using the above questioning techniques is between 70-80 percent. The discussed questioning techniques of Clear Sequence of Questions, Contextual Solicitations, and Hypothetico-Deductive Questions can increase this response rate to 85 percent and above. Further, teachers who use these find that they are better at using wait time. Further, the quality of student responses increases greatly. In summary, we as teachers need to try and incorporate these types of questions in our daily teaching habits. Source: Casteel, J. Doyle. Effective Teaching. 1994. Print.

Shakespeare adaptions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Shakespeare adaptions - Essay Example Taking into account the works of Zeffirelli and Luhrmann, it is possible to agree with Tatspaugh and her vision of film adaptations and new approaches to the tragedies of love. Critics underline that modern adaptations of Romeo and Juliet comprise a composite art of story-telling, by which the film maker claims and rewards the attention of his viewers while ensuring that they will be alerted to everything they should know. Alterations may also be justified because of the centuries that stand between Shakespeare and the modern audience. Following Zeffirelli, it is the responsibility of film makers to bridge this gap to the classics and imagine that the author had been able "to write that play today for us" (Zeffirellia 257). So Romeo and Juliet's love-making in the film was appropriately more physical than Shakespeare's circumstances permitted. A movie-maker who seeks a popular audience must also mediate boldly between the original theatrical medium and film: "cinema creates a different chemistry with the audience, a different taste, and the attention of the audience moves so fastfantasy gallops in the audience in movies (Zeffirellia 261)your mind flashes-f lashes-flashes" (263). Dramatization of the timeless conflict between generations allows film maker to attract young audience to the play. Film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet are linked to youth culture and the pedagogical implications of Shakespeare's popularization on film. Popularization has meant the proliferation of representations, on the one hand, and thus an enlargement of what can be legitimately studied as part of the Shakespeare canon. Critics admit that these changes lead to the disappearance of a single, unified Shakespeare whose works. Two reasons make Zeffirelli's success as a "popularizer": costs of filmmaking and power to make audiences laugh and weep. In his approach to Romeo and Juliet, his characteristic accent on youth was of the essence. For his production of the play he chose unusually young principals and cast. Certainly his film draws on similar youth-culture, generation-gap appeals. As he recounts in his Autobiography, the fact that a Hollywood producers teenage son was moved by what he saw of the film in progress was crucial in the producer's decision to fund its completion (Zeffirellib, 228-29). For the most part Zeffirelli seems to let the story tell itself, pausing in places to admire the beauty of the lovers' faces and bodies, but in a compelling away entering into the story's own pace, rhythm, and points of climax, which he emphasizes by lavish use of background music. Deliberately calling attention to a social space, the film makers appropriates Romeo and Juliet as a mirror in which youth might confront the romantic relations and their prevailing social order. Luhrmann attempts to change the "original" staging conditions and portray the play as a modern drama. Romeo and Juliet is no less integrated, but in it the director's hand is less obtrusive. As before he allows his inventiveness several virtuoso displays-the opening brawl, the ball, the duels-all of them handled in his characteristically supercharged, richly textured style. Luhrmann changes em otional gears in mid-course, as he delineates the problems that confront the marriage (Palmer n.d.). Aspiration toward timeliness, although it helps to attract paying customers, need not lead to a cheapening of the original. The film makers have not succumbed to the too-easy updating that can come with

Leadership Strategies regarding Costco Company Essay

Leadership Strategies regarding Costco Company - Essay Example The performance parameters are interconnected based on the flexible leadership model to the human resources and innovation capabilities of the firm based on different situations tom render all round growth. This model thereby tends to gain a tradeoff between the different emerging situations and the performance and productive capability of the firm to help in meeting the changing needs of the different stakeholders and also in enhancing the productivity parameters. Henceforth the flexible leadership theory can also be regarded as a situational leadership model that helps the company to effectively adapt to the specific situations emerging in the external environment (Yukl and Lepsonger, n.d., p.2). . Application of Flexible Leadership in Costco’s Operations The paper would now focus on analyzing the potential to which Costco tends to operate based on the flexible leadership style as evaluated above. Firstly the company is found to operate based on the set up of large number of warehouses in the international market whereby it tends to render products to the consumers at seemingly affordable prices. This strategy of the company reflects that the organization largely follows the flexible leadership approach in meeting the growing needs of the consumers based in international regions. Further this practice also helps the company in enhancing on the dimensions of consumer loyalty. Secondly the company also works based on a centralized decision making approach such that the people working in the different warehouses and retail outlets based in international markets are tightly connected. This process helps in enhancing the administration potential of the concern in... The paper would now focus on analyzing the potential to which Costco tends to operate based on the flexible leadership style as evaluated above. Firstly the company is found to operate based on the set up of large number of warehouses in the international market whereby it tends to render products to the consumers at seemingly affordable prices. This strategy of the company reflects that the organization largely follows the flexible leadership approach in meeting the growing needs of the consumers based in international regions. Further this practice also helps the company in enhancing on the dimensions of consumer loyalty. Secondly the company also works based on a centralized decision making approach such that the people working in the different warehouses and retail outlets based in international markets are tightly connected. This process helps in enhancing the administration potential of the concern in regards to controlling the performance and decision making activities of the people based along international regions to help drive business productivity. Thirdly the company also reflects conducting large amount of market research activities in the international markets to gain potential insight into the changing demand scenario and adjusts its performance parameters accordingly. The management of the company focuses on setting up right strategies to enter the different international markets bearing different characteristics.

Freedom of Press Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Freedom of Press - Term Paper Example Indeed, the political rights, which encompass the right to participate freely in the political process, depend on how freely communication and expression through the electronic and printed media is guaranteed. Freedom of the press also makes political leaders and public office holders to be responsible and accountable to the citizens. Furthermore, the civil liberties that allow for freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, rule of law, and personal autonomy without government control are intrinsically linked to the degree of freedom of the press. Thus, the political stability of any state is strongly dependent on freedom of the press and as a result, freedom of the press is a politically relevant issue. The political rights, which include the right to vote and be voted for, depends on the degree of freedom of the press. The right to vote and be voted for is the distinguishing factor between democratic governments and their undemocratic counterparts. D emocracy involves free, fair and regular contestation for political offices and freedom of the press is an implicit requirement for free and fair elections (Sachs, 2007, 2). For an election to be free and fair, the electorate must communicate and express themselves freely without fear, favor, threats or domination from government and other parties of potential domination. Indeed, freedom of the press ensures free communication and expression that eventually leads to free and fair elections. It is noted that governments that suppress the media are notorious for conducting flaw elections. This was the case with the Iranian government. In fact, the Iranian government aggressively crackdown on the media in the wake of its flaw presidential elections. Furthermore, authoritarian states such as Russia and China notorious for their molestation of journalists in the bid to restricting the flow of information and thereby maintaining the political structure are also excellent examples of state s that conduct flaw elections (Karlekar, 2010, 1). In addition to promoting political rights, freedom of the press ensures that the elected government officials and other public office holders are responsible and accountable to the citizens. This is particularly true in states that have freedom of information legislation, an extension of the freedom of the press. Under this legislation, request can be made of government to make public, information otherwise classified as sensitive or secret. This promotes openness and responsibility on the part of government officials since they will be requested to provide information on how the government is run. Over 85 countries have implemented some form of the freedom of legislation. There is a good-to-excellent correlation between corrupt governments and countries that do not have this form of legislation. For instance, countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway that have some form of the freedom of information legislation (Staples, 2007) have been consistently rated as the world most corrupt-free states. While African and Middle East countries that do not have forms of this legislation have consistently be rated as corrupt states. Thus,

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr German sociologist Max Weber (1968) made the first argument of charismatic leadership that a leader with charisma is able to convince people. He believed that the leadership of charismatic individuals with exceptional quality can size up the situation immediately and lead to a very profound influence on his subordinates. Moreover, charisma is an encouraging factor that leaders are available with the nature of interpersonal attraction, including personality, ability, experience and frustrations. Therefore, this essay is going to discuss the importance of charismatic leadership in two following aspects. The relationship between leaders and followers Jay (1998) noted that leaders charisma is a contagious indictor to help his follows. When a leader is considered to be very attractive, then their subordinates are more willing to take the leaders proposals to work. According to him, charismatic leadership often set an example for their employees in order to lead or influence them, which could disseminate the values and varied expectations according to their own action. Furthermore, Jean (2005) supported an example of how Reverend Martin Luther King Jr affected his followers can demonstrate the importance of charismatic leadership. On 1 December, 1955, Alabama in the United States, a black woman named Rosa Parker refused to obey an order form a bus driver who asked her to give her seat to a white passenger. Then the driver called the police, who arrested her for breaking the bus segregation laws. When the black community heard about that, they were engaged. Already some black people were collecting weapons to fight against whites. Th is matter raised Reverend Martin Luther King Jrs attention; he thought that violence was not the answer and the situation must be corrected. After that, King called a meeting at his church and appealed a mass movement to carry out bus boycott. While the boycott continued, the black leader encouraged his congregation to keep up their struggle and emphasized the need for non-violent action. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. Martin Luther King had played a leading role in the victorious Montgomery bus boycott for civil right. His talent and morality were deeply attracted by the majority of black supports, which made him become a charismatic leader in democratic rights movement. However, Edwin (2008) opposed that charismatic leadership can be a curse so that a leader charisma not always brings the benefit to followers. In his opinion, abusing charismatic leadership may bring a danger or risk to the organization, because it can be not only used for destructive purposes, but also it might be utilized for private purposes, which would result in deception, manipulation and exploitation of others.Leaders want their followers to share the same beliefs and values, which are strong models to employees. If their advocated beliefs and values are not correct, charismatic leadership would take followers into a wrong way, which may cause a disastrous consequence. In Hans (2000) research, Hitler accepted the idea of Benito Mussolini, who was the founder of Fascist Nazism. There were a lot of followers because of his attractive leadership during the World War 2. But he advocated using coercive power of fascist Nazism and guide people toward an extreme misfortune. Perspective of charismatic leadership    Andrew (2009) deemed that charismatic leadership helps entrepreneurs to strengthen and improve their leadership effectiveness.The charisma of a leader on the facet of interpersonal skills can bring big advantages for many reasons. In the first place, employees tend to seek charismatic leaders who they believe. Secondly, people perhaps are always influenced by the personal charm on their leaders because they feel that it will enhance their self-confidence and self-esteem which can produce a pleasurable sensation. Finally, staff wished to work for glamorous leaders who may stimulate their enthusiasm. Another case of Martin Luther King is that his speech of I have a dream deeply motivated black people fighting for civil rights and freedom. On the contrary, Martin (2005) argued that the external environment and situation has undergone tremendous changes, adverse psychological characteristics and values, which have not been expressed before, may happen on charismatic leaders. In another word, their original psychological tendencies have been suppressed due to the growth and expansion of external and inherent constraints. Consequently,various emotions complacency would expand on charismatic leadership in an organization after succeed in hard works. In order to seek compensation after hard works, leaders might often seek some illegal and immoral businesses as a spiritual compensation so that they seize the wealth and pleasure in irregular ways. There are also some leaders losing initiative and enjoying material life after success.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, Tudor and Murray (2006) pointed out that the charismatic leadership also exist dark sides in the organizational management, such as mismanagement in the network of members relationships (especially the staff in grassroots level and managers in supervisory level). Sometimes, leadership transition does not follow the usual practice, which may reflect on a phenomenon that organizational members misunderstand the leaders intent. Besides, charismatic leadership may result in alienation between leaders and employees in an organization. Leaders charisma might be formed a strong leadership and management style so that there would be an opposition among in-group and outside-groups members of the organization, even though the organization is in a tantamount splitting situation. Meanwhile, momentum that may be ascribed in leader charisma did not produce agreement in organizational members who are accustomed working in the traditional slow pace. Consequently, it is a negative effect that they deal with their managers courteously but without sincerity. These actions will certainly have a negative impact on employee performance. Conclusion In short, the charismatic leadership could process a strong charisma in both positive and negative sides. Therefore, grasping the dialectical relationship of charismatic leadership can play a positive role even if there would be some negative effects. Charismatic leaders, who experienced in the formation of overall quality, will have a profound emotional impact on their follows. Subordinates even treat them as an epic hero or model figure so that charismatic leaders should have great power, self-confidence, power, beliefs and moral steadfastness. Furthermore, they are good at setting up ambitious objectives and being examples of their own to express their belief and values in an organization. Bibliography Weber, M. (1968) On charisma and institution building: selected papers, Chicago:University of Chicago Press Conger, J (1998) Charismatic leadership in organizations, USA: SAGE publications, p 20 Darby, J. (2005) Martin Luther King Jr, USA: Lerner Publications Company, pp 24-48 Hollander, E (2008) Inclusive Leadership: The Essential Leader-Follower Relationship, United States of America: Taylor Francis Group, p 88 Slomp, H (2000) European politics into the twenty-first century: integration and division, USA: Praeger Publishers, pp 9-10 Dubrin, A (2009) Leadership: Research Findings, Practice and Skills, 6th edition, USA: South-Western, pp 92 Wood, M (2005) The Fallacy of Misplaced Leadership, Journal of Management Studies [J], 42:6(2005), pp1102-1112 Rickards,T. and Clark, M (2006) Dilemmas of Leadership, United Kingdom: British Library, pp 88-90

Essay --

A. Specific Aims West Nile virus (WNV) was first identified in New York City in 1999 and quickly spread across the US to become the dominant mosquito-borne viral infection in humans in the country. Since its introduction to the US, WNV has been estimated to cause more than 3 million infections resulting in 37,000 confirmed cases of WNV disease in humans, 43% of which resulted in neuroinvasive diseases, and 1,100 deaths3. WNV has also been responsible for declines in certain US avian populations affecting over 100 different species. Avian species that are highly susceptible to severe WNV disease belong to the Corvidae family, including American crows (AMCRs) in which WNV infection is 100% lethal. This high mortality rate has led to the creation of a national surveillance program based on AMCRs in order to forecast WNV transmission to humans4. The genetic and pathological mechanisms to explain the interspecies variability in WNV susceptibility that have caused such large-scale declines in North American bird populations have not been determined. The objective of this proposal is to investigate: a) the antiviral response elicited in three avian species which contribute differentially to the amplification of WNV and have different disease outcomes following WNV infection, b) the differential antiviral induction potential in host cells and the sensitivity to antiviral host responses of three strains of WNV displaying a range of virulence capacities, and c) the role of cellular tropism in the elicitation of the host antiviral response and on WNV replication within host cells. I hypothesize that avian hosts susceptible to severe WNV disease do not mount an effective innate antiviral response that could control viral replication and diss... ...ent bird species. Based on data generated in Aim 1.1 genes identified to contribute to either susceptibility or resistant phenotypes in the type I interferon pathway will also be examined in this subaim. To identify the cell types critical for WNV amplification in each avian species, viral load will be quantified by qRT-PCR for each of the 8 time points. The mosquito cell targeted virus will serve as a control since replication will be unrestricted. Expected outcomes and potential pitfalls. It is anticipated that gene expression within the type I IFN pathway will be differentially expressed between the different inoculation groups and bird species. By limiting viral replication, we might also negatively impact the antiviral response in cell types that are major contributors to the type I IFN pathway thereby altering dissemination and viral replication potential.