Faminism in Anna Karenina

In the closing chapters of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Penguin Books, 2003), Dolly, Anna’s sister-in-law, reveals that â€Å"Whatever way one lives, there’s a penalty. † This is the central message in Tolstoy’s work, a tragedy whose themes include aristocracy, faith, hypocrisy, love, marriage, family, infidelity, greed, and every other issue prevalent among human beings. Anna Karenina is a tragic figure, but she can also be considered a feminist one. Her experiences resonate with female readers because she does the unexpected: she moves against the grain.And with any woman—at least in literature—who accomplishes the unexpected, the inappropriate, she pays the price for it. A Princess, an aristocrat married to Count Alexei Karenin, an important man twenty years her senior, Anna Karenina is a socialite, a respected woman, a wife, and a mother. It seems as if she has it all, until she meets the handsome and charming young Count Alexei Vr onsky. He stirs things in her—physical and emotional—that she has never experienced. This lack of experience in the spaces of love and desire is common—historically—for women.They married who they were told to marry—for money, for titles, and for security. Not for love. Anna Karenina is not in love with her husband. She tolerates him, but secretly she feels repulsed by this rigid, domineering, and paternal man twice her age. Vronsky’s wooing of her endanger s her place in society, her marriage, and even her role as mother. When she succumbs to an affair with him, she does so with open eyes, aware of all that she is sacrificing for the sake of love.And this isn’t the tragedy of the novel, of the situation. The tragedy is that she is a woman in a man’s world: â€Å"It was fate; she was doomed† from the start. And she was doomed because she was a woman acting out on her desires. Paralleled to her brother, Stiva, and his ins uppressible and known womanizing, the novel demonstrates the evident attitudes society had at this time toward men and women acting in similar fashion. Men, the public faces of society, had the power, the voice, and the volition to act in any way they wished.Stiva’s womanizing is something his wife, Dolly, has to suffer silently. She has no power to stop it. She is merely the wife. She goes about her business taking care of the home and her children, knowing that gossip and shame shadow her footsteps. Although infidelity is looked upon as an act of dishonor, society looks the other way when men succumb to its powers. Men continue to keep their marriages, the power in the home—over their wives and children, their jobs, and their place in society goes unvarnished.Even Vronsky, who openly seeks the affections of Anna, a married woman, a mother, and has an affair with her, has eyes rolled at him, but his career is never placed in danger. He does not lose his place in socie ty, his options, his money, or his power. He loves, he takes what he wants, and then when he is done—when Anna becomes too obsessive, too cumbersome an affair—he simply walks away. In the end, he’s lost nothing. He gave up nothing. With women, following their hearts is not so acceptable. It’s a tragedy, as we come to see with Anna.In following her heart, her passions, Anna loses her marriage, which is controlled by Karenin, who kicks her out of their home, but refuses to give her a divorce. In this way, she cannot marry Vronsky. She is forced to become his mistress and live with him in disgrace. When she takes her love out into the public, she is shunned by the same people who once loved her, while everyone shakes Vronsky’s hands. And the most valuable asset that she loses is access to her son, who is told that she is dead. Having lost everything and everyone, the only thing that remains is Vronsky.And she grabs on to him with great force, with des peration, pushing him farther and farther away from her with every aching need she can muster. But he grows tired of her love and confesses to her that â€Å"A man needs his career,† for he still has that fall back on. She has nothing. In losing him, she loses everything, and it is no wonder that she commits suicide. A woman in her day, having lost her place in society, her role as mother and wife, she cannot sustain herself. She gave everything up for love, for passion, for herself, to feed her own desires, but no one gave anything up for her.She dies tragically, while everyone around her continues to move on without her. Today, we can look at a character like Anna Karenina and come face-to-face with a feminist: she is strong, determined, bold, and she fights the patriarchal powers that tell her she cannot have what men are allowed, no matter their place in society. And even though her attempts come crashing around her in the end, resulting in her violent suicide, she had th e courage to act against the norm. This is empowerment. This is a feminist.

Description of Johnny Got a Gun

Description of Johnny Got a Gun Johnny Got a gun is a captivating anti-war book which is politically motivated and takes the role of educating the society on the adverse effects of war on human beings and the whole society. The book written by a U.S citizen, Dalton Trumbo in 1937 and was published by J.B Lippincott company on January 1st, 1939.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Description of Johnny Got a Gun specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is a hardcover book with a print media format and it is available in both hardcover and paperback book covers. The 309 page book was then filmed and produced in 1971. Dalton Trumbo was born in 1905 in Montrose, Colorado. He was the son to Maud and Orus Bonham Trumbo. Not much is said about Trumbo but his book Johnny Got a Gun is set from practical life experiences that feces the society at the time of his childhood. In the anticipation for the world war I, the Americans foresaw its coming and some could see the devastating state that came with wars. In an attempt to evade it, the citizens elect President Woodrow Wilson hoping that he could help protect America from participating the World War I (Center of Military, 1919). Just as any other president would have done, Woodrow supported the war without thinking of its repercussions. From the story, Joe accuses the Government leaders of false claims of propelling their countries to greater economic democracy or security without knowledge on how wars are injurious. In this book, Trumbo unfolds the painful story on the effects of the World War I. It garnered the National Book Awards in 1940 as the best American bookseller. The book resurfaces as one of a kind book which scripted as a leading protest novel after the Vietnam War. It is drafted using Joe Bonham portrayed as a helpless using a maimed soldier who looses both his hands, legs and the head is defaced (Trumbo, 2010, p. 100). Thought then begin flowing through his mind as he quest ions why he had to survive in such a state. He is determined to reestablish his contact with the outside world to be an evidence of effects of war and to talk to the leader about the value of peaceful coexistence and value for human life. Description of Storm of Steel Storm of Steel is a book authored by a German Ernst Junger and it is the best newspaper journals he made during his time as a soldier in the World War I. It is a memoir is great astonishing savagery of power and ashen lyricism that reveals the horrors and fascinations of the World Wars (Sheehan, 1989, p.32). Storms of Steel sets off with the deployment of Junger into the battle field in 1915 and ends when he sustains severe injuries in 1918 and this also marks the end of his career as a soldier.Advertising Looking for book review on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Prior to being first published in 1920, Storms of Steel was revise d several times before the actual date of its publication. The book is less personal and devoid of Junger’s personal life but it spans a series of experiences written in a chronological order, in an unattached, unemotional and with a repetitive style. Compared to other books motivated by the world war, the book takes a different look at war and Junger appears to be glorifying the war. He then excuses this as a novel of praise and for heroic masculinity. Ernst Junger was born in 1895 in Heidelberg, Germany but was then moved to Hanover where he was raised. In 1914, he volunteered into the army and was deployed in France for the war in 1915. He was a brave fighter among the major battles he fought. By 1918, he was incorporated into a stronger storm trooper army which was a new type of army meant to infiltrate into the enemies hiding zones. By the end of the war, Junger was promoted to lieutenant and received many major medals at the age of 23 years. He was shot by a bullet and was badly injured on the chest in 1918 and this marked the end of his career just some months before the end of the war. The book produced was fashioned by the penguin classics producers with 320 pages available in both hardcover and paperback cover. It is categorized as a military and European history during the First World War (Ellis, 2007, p.65). Analyzing the books as history (Book review) In our preview of the two books we begin with the critical analysis of the Storm of Steel where Junger, a Germany author and veteran bases his story on a journal entry he wrote during his time as a soldier in the German army. Originally his work is structured and based on descriptive essay or novel which employs repetition as a style. From the readers point of view we observe that the author is more into describing historical events of which he is part. This makes the novel repetitive as the same activities such as attacks and counter attacks keep reoccurring over and over again. Junger uses f irst person narration of the story where he creates a practical story about his experience during the two World Wars. The novel features no main characters, Junger takes the centre stage in explaining events of his time. The book therefore retains much of its form and originality as a journal article and not as a book because it features realistic and chronological events devoid of symbolism, imagery, sarcasm or irony which are common styles used in the scripting of novels and other pieces of literature to make them captivating.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Description of Johnny Got a Gun specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is in the Storm of Steel that the author uses realistic and straightforward style to give account of his story where he preserves his values as a literary figure. He further detaches himself from the story he narrates by not giving opinioned view of events presenting them as blunt points awaiting the reader’s interpretation. We all see that the book is written at a time of war but it is expressed with a lot of simplicity by Junger’s description of pertinent events as a period of political romanticism marked with a pessimistic view of history. Junger further describes the deterioration of the human conditions caused by the war as the measure of a countries muscle power. As it is clearly illustrated we find this piece of literature so unique with many unexpected twists and turns in events. After the preview of the Storm of Steel, we contrast it with Trumbo’s got a gun basing our arguments on the styles used, the themes and the chronology of events during the times of war. Being that the two books have the same political set up and terror filled background, we get the style used by Trumbo to be very contrasting with Junger’s. Johnny Got a Gun is an anti–war novel expressing events of oppression and protests against the organization a nd involvement of countries in the modern warfare. The author reveals the emergence of an upper class in society who entices the poor into war while they seize the opportunity to amass wealth. He describes the moneyed class as being mindful of themselves and ignoring those who go out to fight for what they call democracy. Comparison of two books The two books are a clear contrast of each other. Looking at their theme exposition, the style and the number of characters the books are different. Trumbo brings to light the unequal bargains brought about by the World Wars and wishes that the world should remain a better place after every one and this is only possible when peace is given priority. The author conveys Joe as a maimed soldier willing to be taken around the world as an evidence of the bad effects of war on human. On the contrast Junger does not lay emphasis on the adverse effects of modern war on human live. He shows contention for everything that life offers and has no time f or complain. The two books also employ different use of characterization. Johnny Got a Gun uses many characters to represent the many view and opinions that are faced in real life while the horrible experiences and consequences of the modern war are symbolized by Joe deformed and amputated body. On the contrast, the Storm of Steel which has the author taking the role of the main character to unveil the story while completely detaching it from emotions and criticism of the effects of modern war.Advertising Looking for book review on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Looking at the two books from their performance on the market, Johnny Got the Gun has won awards for instance the American Bestsellers Awards while the Storm of Steel only exposed Junger into the limelight as a good writer. Trumbo was naturally a writer and took to writing as a way of earning a living while Junger is a German soldier who ventures into writing of journals one of which he modifies to become a novel. References Center of Military. (1919). History of the United States Army in the World War. U.S. Army: Washington, D.C. Ellis, E. (2007). Prentice Hall world history. Toronto: Prentice Hall publishers. Sheehan, J. (1989). German history. Clarendon: Oxford publisher. Trumbo, D. (2010). Komma: after Dalton Trumbos Johnny got his gun. Illinois: Fillip Editions publishers.

National Origins Act

National Origins Act The National Origins Act, a component of the Immigration Act of 1924, was a law enacted on May 26, 1924, to greatly reduce the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States by setting immigration quotas for each European nation. This immigration quota setting aspect of the 1924 law remains in effect today in the form of the per-country visa limits enforced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Fast Facts: National Origins Act Short Description: Limited US immigration by imposing per-country quotasKey Players: US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren Harding, US Senator William P. DillinghamStart Date: May 26, 1924 (enactment)Locations: United States Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.Key Cause: Post World War I isolationism Sentiment in the United States Immigration in the 1920s During the 1920s, the United States was experiencing a resurgence of anti-immigration isolationism. Many Americans objected to the growing numbers of immigrants being allowed to enter the county. The Immigration Act of 1907 had created the Dillingham Commission- named for its chairman, Republican Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont- to review the effects of immigration on the United States. Issued in 1911, the commission’s report concluded that because it posed a serious threat to America’s social, cultural, physical, economic, and moral welfare, immigration from southern and eastern Europe should be drastically reduced.   Based on the Dillingham Commission report, the Immigration Act of 1917 imposed English literacy tests for all immigrants and completely barred immigration from most of Southeast Asia. However, when it became clear that literacy tests alone were not slowing the flow of Europe immigrants, Congress looked for a different strategy. Migration Quotas Based on the findings of the Dillingham Commission, Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 creating immigration quotas. Under the law, no more than 3 percent of the total number of immigrants from any specific country already living in the United States, according to the 1910 decennial U.S. Census, were allowed to migrate to the United States during any calendar year. For example, if 100,000 people from a particular country lived in America in 1910, only 3,000 more (3 percent of 100,000) would have been allowed to migrate in 1921. Based on the total foreign-born U.S. population counted in the 1910 Census, the total number of visas available each year to new immigrants was set at 350,000 per year. However, the law set no immigration quotas whatsoever on countries in the Western Hemisphere. A cartoon showing Uncle Sam putting the Emergency Quota Act (aka the Johnson Quota Act) in place, 19th May 1921. The act limits the annual number of immigrants who can be admitted from any country to 3% of the number of persons from that country already living in the United States according to the census of 1910. MPI / Getty Images While the Emergency Quota Act sailed easily through Congress, President Woodrow Wilson, who favored a more liberal immigration policy, used the pocket veto to prevent its enactment. In March 1921, newly inaugurated President Warren Harding called a special session of Congress to pass the law, which was renewed for another two years in 1922. In passing the National Origins Act, legislators made no attempt to hide the fact that the law was to limit immigration specifically from the countries of southern and eastern Europe. During debates on the bill, Republican U.S. Representative from Kentucky John M. Robsion rhetorically asked, â€Å"How long shall America continue to be the garbage can and the dumping ground of the world?† Long-Term Effects of the Quota System Never intended to be permanent, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was replaced in 1924 by the National Origins Act. The law lowered the 1921 per-country immigration quotas from 3 percent to 2 percent of each national group residing America according to the 1890 Census. Using 1890 instead of 1910 census data allowed more people to migrate to America from countries in northern and western Europe than from countries in southern and eastern Europe. Immigration based exclusively on a national origin quota system continued until 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) replaced it with the current, consular-based immigration system that factors in aspects such as the potential immigrants’ skills, employment potential, and family relationships with U.S. citizens or legal permanent U.S. residents. In conjunction with these â€Å"preferential† criteria, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also applies a per-country permanent immigration ceiling. Currently, no group of permanent immigrants from any single country can exceed seven percent of the total number of people immigrating to the United States in a single fiscal year. This quota is intended to prevent immigration patterns to the United States from being dominated by any one immigrant group. The following table shows the results of the INA’s current quotas on U.S. immigration in 2016: Region Immigrants (2016) % of Total Canada, Mexico, Central, and South America 506,901 42.83% Asia 462,299 39.06% Africa 113,426 9.58% Europe 93,567 7.9% Australia and Oceania 5,404 0.47% Source: US Department of Homeland Security - Office of Immigration Statistics On an individual basis, the three countries sending the most immigrants into the United States in 2016 were Mexico (174,534), China (81,772), and Cuba (66,516). According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, current U.S. immigration policies and quotas are intended to keep families together, admit immigrants with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy, protect refugees, and promote diversity. Sources How the United States Immigration System Works. American Immigration Council (2016). â€Å"1921 Emergency Quota Law.† The University of Washington-Bothell Library.Congressional Record Proceedings and Debates, Third Session of the Sixty-Sixth Congress, Volume 60, Parts 1-5. (â€Å"How long shall America continue to be the garbage can and the dumping ground of the world?†).Higham, John. â€Å"Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism.† New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1963.Kammer, Jerry. The Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965. Center for Immigration Studies (2015).

The Constraint of Global Peace and Security by Military Policies durin Assignment

The Constraint of Global Peace and Security by Military Policies during the Cold War - Assignment Example No country is immune from such situation in the future that can lead to a new round of confrontation and arms race, which in turn can cause an irreparable harm to society and to the world at large. It is a common knowledge that war, nuclear weapon, and its tests are destructive in the international conflict solution. However, no matter what, the idea of superiority and supremacy instinctively makes people fighting and trying to win. During the Cold War, our world faced with such situation, when two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union put at stake the further existing of the whole humanity. In the current paper, based on the facts from the analyzed literature, we will try to present objectively the course of a war, understand the reasons that shaped the situation, and draw the appropriate conclusions. In this respect, the main question of the current paper is how the parties of the conflict finally managed to restrain the military tension during the Cold War. After the fall of the Third Reich, there was no power in Europe that was able to oppose the Soviet Union. Therefore, in many Western European countries increased the influence of the left parties (the Labor Party won the elections in Great Britain in 1945) and the positions of the Communists strengthened. The USSR and the USA were the most powerful and influential countries economically, as well as in terms of military power. These countries were divided by the ideological contradiction, specifical communism against capitalism. The latter led to the obvious hostility in the international relations. The internal situation in these countries was characterized by the active impersonating and search of the enemy. The dissidence was also recognized as a form of subversive activity. Such atmosphere was quite a common situation since it was a characterizing feature of the totalitarian regime... In the United States, such internal tension gave birth to McCarthyism, the persecution of the cit izens, who were suspected in anti-American activities (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob and Von Laue, 2012).     

Critically evaluate the reasons for the recent global financial Essay

Critically evaluate the reasons for the recent global financial crisis, in the light of the articles in reference and other rele - Essay Example There are presently many analyses of the crisis, perhaps the best one appearing as a recent report from the United States Congress. It agrees with most analyses that, at least mark the origins of the crisis as occurring in the United States. and most of these analyses seem to reflect the two points of views that divide the US political system. In general one view would say that the crisis was precipitated by the greed of Wall Street speculators and subprime lenders. The other side would point to the victims of the crisis in the US, the ones who didn't have credit but agreed to take upon mortgages for housing they couldn't afford. The main effort of this report will be to describe how the crisis happened and rapidly spread to the UK, England, and other parts of the world. It will try to understand the corrective policies and measures that have been made. Finally it will address the question of who has responsibility for the crises occurring. Discussion The Setting On the eve of the of the 2007-2008 global economic crisis it is significant that all but a handful of the world's learned economists, despite the gradually accumulating data, could not see the disaster coming (Verick and Islam, 2010). Most of advisors were still under the influence of the 2001-2007 boom. Apparently this boom stood upon a shaky economic foundation that forced even the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to revise their forecasts. To understand the economics feeding this "straw boom", one must review world macroeconomics leading to it. There were two oil crises during the 1970s (Verick and Islam, 2010). The latest one occurred in 1979. This one produced a economic slowdown through the 1980s that especially characterized the developing countries. These countries had their economies more or less influenced by structural adjustment programs (SAPs) controlled by Western developed countries (Verick and Islam). SAPs were rendered by reduced macroeconomic volatility under the wisdom of government directed monetary policy in most of the developed countries. The 1990s can be experienced as low growth among these countries, with the Asian 1998 financial crisis all the more keeping that growth in low wings. The technology dot-com collapse occurred in 2001 and after it settled, the developed countries begin to collect themselves in a period of so-called sustained boom. Economist Robert Shiller is noted for reporting that the US housing boom started in the late 1990s (Verick and Islam, p. 15). This is notable as many commentators have placed blame for the current crises on the US monetary policy which lowered policy interest rates to 1 percent in 2003. The claim is that this effort in effect freed liquidity in US markets, heightening borrowing while creating debt-financed consumption (of housing). The point is that housing prices was on the rise in the US market before 2003. But even by that time, it only became more substantial as an open field for (housing) specula tors. The period from 2002 through 2007 became filled with "robust optimism". Bernard Beneche, a widely respected economist later to be Chair of the US Federal Reserved, termed the period as one of "Great Moderation". Global economic balances were fed by surplus capital from China and other Asian and Middle East countries, primarily into the US housing market, that is, the mortgage debt market. At this time,

Culture, Power and Resistance in the Twenty-First Century Essay - 1

Culture, Power and Resistance in the Twenty-First Century - Essay Example However, the already present culture present in most central and western parts of Europe and North America, as well as other richly concentrated locations, simply witnessed an acceleration in such changes in culture has they were already accustomed towards it. As for the rest of the world, the change was highly volatile in nature. It has been regarded by Hobsbawm 1994, that around 80 percent of the middle ages culture were felt to be gone in the 1960s. Capitalism entails the globalization, the market and liberalization, where capitalist leaders are adamant in creating a true whole global economy. However, they do face opposition who can be supposedly classified as anti-capitalists. Heartfield 2003, states that these critics hold more weight in their standings, to what it may seem to be. They emerged as â€Å"fight backs of those who had been the targets of the neoliberal rollbacks of the eighties†. The declining influence of developed nations as well as the concept of nationalism in developing economies, which gave rise to the anti-capitalist movement. Capitalism has led to a major shift in culture as well as lifestyle. For example, the entire world has witnessed major declines in the agricultural labour force. This not only applies to developed nations, but to developing nations as well. Hobsbawm 1994 says, the population of Spain and Portugal comprised of just under 50 percent within the agricultural sector in 1950, which has then reduced to 14.5 percent and 17.6 percent respectively, within thirty years. Given the nature of capitalism and its free fall freedom in movement, the post war years did create many ‘direct action’ movements or resistances. There were instances of non violent civil disobediences such as the British Committee of One Hundred anti nuclear protestors, the Red Army Faction in Germany. Opposition towards capitalism could also be said to be a form of political terrorism, which was in its nature conspiratorial,

Role of Exercise in Reducing Insulin Resistance

Role of Exercise in Reducing Insulin Resistance By: Pranav Maddali Abstract The major pathway of glucose regulation in the body is via the Glucose Transport System (GTS) in which cells stimulated by insulin cause an upregulation in expression and translocation of a glucose transporter protein, GLUT4, to the cell plasma membrane, resulting in increased glucose transport into the cell. Thus, insulin is directly responsible for regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. However, increased dietary intake and the lack of physical exercise has been implicated in creating a condition known as insulin resistance, whereby the cells fail to uptake glucose in response to insulin stimulation, leading to hyperglycemia and significantly increasing the odds of acquiring insulin-dependent (Type-1) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (Type-2). However, recent studies have shown that skeletal muscles, the major consumer of glucose in the body, possess an alternative mechanism to elicit glucose uptake using GLUT4 instead of insulin stimulation, which is tr iggered by exercise. This review elucidates glucose transport mechanisms in both normal and insulin resistance states and the role of physical exercise in potentially reversing insulin resistance and helping regulate blood glucose levels in diabetic patients. INTRODUCTION Glucose, Insulin, and the Glucose Transport System Glucose is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with fructose and galactose, which is directly absorbed into the bloodstream during digestion. This simple monosaccharide serves as both, the main substrate for energy production as well the precursor to the synthesis of many other carbon containing molecules in the body [1]. In relatively healthy individuals, following a meal, glucose absorbed from the gut during digestion stimulates the release of insulin, a peptide hormone, from pancreatic ÃŽÂ ²-cells. This results in glucose uptake by skeletal muscles and adipose tissues, promptly returning plasma glucose levels to the normal range (approximately 4.4-6.1 mM) [1]. During resting conditions, the absorbed glucose is stored as glycogen in the liver and skeletal muscles, and as triglycerides in adipose tissue [1]. In times of fasting or increased energy demand, these stores are quickly re-converted back to glucose and released into the blood stream, helping maintain homeostatic blood glucose concentrations. By promoting postprandial glucose uptake by muscle and adipose tissues via the Glucose Transport System (GTS) and suppressing hepatic glucose production, insulin is directly responsible for regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body [1-3]. Given that the cell membrane is impermeable to glucose, specific carrier proteins or transporters spanning the cell membrane allow the binding and uptake of glucose across the hydrophobic lipid bilayer. Mammalian cells possess two general classes of these carriers/transporters: 1) ATP-dependent Na+/glucose co-transporters that transport glucose against a concentration gradient and 2) facilitative glucose transporters which work in the direction of the glucose gradient [4, 5]. Following digestion, the Na+/glucose co-transporter transports glucose from the lumen of the intestine into polarized epithelial cells where subsequent facilitative transport of glucose moves glucose out of the intestinal epithelium and into the blood. Given that different tissues have different physiological energy needs, their uptake of circulating blood glucose is mediated by tissue-specific glucose transporter proteins called GLUTs [1, 4]. 14 different GLUTs have been identified in mammalian cells that are further divided into three subclasses on the basis of sequence similarities and biochemical properties, of which   the roles of GLUT1-GLUT4 in the GTS are the most well characterized [6, 7]. INSULIN-MEDIATED POSTPRANDIAL GLUCOSE TRANSPORT During resting conditions, GLUT1/3/5, constitutively localized to the cell plasma membrane, provide low-level of basal glucose uptake required to sustain respiration in all cells [1]. However, during postprandial conditions, high glucose in the blood stimulates the release of insulin from the ÃŽÂ ²-cells found in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. This secreted insulin regulates the uptake of blood glucose in stimulated skeletal muscles and adipocytes by binding to the insulin receptor (IR) on the surface of the cell (Figure 1). Following insulin binding, the ÃŽÂ ²-subunit of IR undergoes autophosphorylation on tyrosine residues activating its tyrosine kinase activity. The activated IR then phosphorylates Insulin Receptor Substrates (IRS-1) which serves as a docking protein for Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), activating it. The serine phosphorylation cascade initiated by PI3K activates PI3K-dependent serine/threonine kinases (PDK), which activates downstream Akt k inase, resulting in the translocation and exocytosis of intracellular GLUT4 vesicles to the cell surface. This upregulation of GLUT4 localization on the plasma membrane results in an increased rate of glucose transport into the cell [1, 4, 5, 8, 9]. The necessity of each of these activation steps has been established by in vitro studies on muscle and adipose tissue that used specific kinase inhibitors or mutant proteins and observed the complete ablation of the stimulatory effect of insulin on glucose uptake in insulin stimulated cells. Furthermore, the translocation of GLUT4 specifically in response to insulin approximately 1% pre- vs. almost 40% post-stimulation, suggests a mechanism of regulation to restrict glucose uptake during low-insulin states [1, 9]. Given that GLUT4 translocation is a critical regulatory site for glucose uptake, abnormal GLUT4 regulation in response to insulin stimulation can have a significant impact on glucose homeostasis in the body. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that mice fed with high caloric diets show significantly decreased glucose uptake in muscle and adipocytes despite stimulation with insulin [8, 10]. Further analysis revealed significant down regulation of PI3K and its downstream substrate PDK in addition to increased expression and activity of Protein Kinase C isoform theta (PKC-ÃŽÂ ¸) in these mice, suggesting impaired insulin mediated signaling and a direct co-relation with high caloric diets (red boxes/arrows in Figure 2) [8, 11-13]. This lack of response to insulin stimulation has long been implicated in the pathogenesis of Type-2 or Non-insulin dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) and is commonly referred to as insulin resistance. INSULIN RESISTANCE FINDING A SWEET SOLUTION The term insulin resistance is used to describe a combination of a lack of insulin-mediated glucose uptake in cells stimulated by insulin and a defect in the ability of insulin to suppress hepatic glucose production; the former commonly attributed to dysregulation of GLUT4 trafficking [14]. Over time, together with reduction in in insulin secretion by the pancreas, these aberrations have been directly linked to causing Type-2 Diabetes mellitus (T2D). Diminished insulin function at sites of insulin action, such as skeletal muscles and adipocytes (insulin resistance) and a decrease in the ability of pancreatic ÃŽÂ ²-cells to secrete insulin in response to postprandial increase in blood glucose levels, are two hallmarks of   T2D [15]. In recent years, Type-2 Diabetes mellitus has emerged as one of the major non-communicable chronic diseases around the world [2]. According to the CDC, that number is currently estimated to be about 26 million in the US alone. Recent epidemiologic data point to excess caloric intake combined with increasingly sedentary lifestyles as factors significantly contributing to this trend [16]. Although both genetic and environmental factors have been implicated in causing these malfunctions, researchers have increasingly suggested that obesity, caused by a chronic imbalance between energy expenditure and energy intake, as one of biggest risk factors for developing insulin resistance and T2D [16]. Given that skeletal muscles constitute approximately 40% of human body mass and have relatively high energy requirements, they account for almost 50-75% of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in the body [17]. Thus, skeletal muscle is considered the most important tissue with regards to insulin-stimulated blood glucose disposal, and correspondingly maintenance of glucose homeostasis, especially during postprandial periods. Interestingly, both in vitro and in vivo studies dating back to as early as 1987 have shown that in muscle cells, stimuli other than insulin can activate the glucose transport system, namely GLUT4 translocation, to a similar magnitude, albeit likely via a separate (insulin independent) signaling pathway [3, 9, 17]. Furthermore, while GLUT4 gene expression was reduced in adipose cells in insulin-resistant states such as obesity and NIDDM, skeletal muscle GLUT4 expression remained normal [9]. This finding prompted the thinking that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is most likely due to alterations in the translocation, docking, or fusion of glucose transporters at the plasma membrane, and not defects at the transcription or translational levels. Additionally, researchers observed that in rodents, various modes of exercise and muscle contractile activity such as running exercises, swimming exercises, contraction of hind limb muscles via sciatic nerve stimulation, or contraction of isolated muscles, caused GLUT4 translocation in these skeletal muscles [18]. Additionally, similar studies published by the Goodyear, Holloszy, and Hargreaves groups over the past three years using human models have demonstrated that a single bout of exercise significantly increases glucose transport by upreguatling both GLUT4 expression and translocation in muscles, adding significant support to the hypothesis suggesting that exercise induced muscle contraction can improve glucose uptake by increasing both GLUT4 expression and translocation, potentially reversing the effects of insulin resistance and T2D [3, 5, 10].      Ã‚   WORKING THE GLUTs EXERCISE INCREASES GLUT4 TRANSLOCATION AND GLUCOSE TRANSOPORT Despite the fact that insulin stimulation and exercise-induced muscle contractile activity induce similar magnitudes of increases in muscle glucose transport via upregulation of GLUT4 vesicle translocation to the plasma membrane, the mechanisms of action of these two stimuli are very distinct [19, 20].Studies using cellular fractionation techniques have shown the presence of two distinct intracellular pools of sequestered GLUT4 vesicles, both containing the insulin-responsive amino peptidase (IRAP) and vesicle-associated membrane protein-2 (VAMP-2) that assist in in regulating endocytosis/exocytosis [20, 21]. However, the contraction stimulated GLUT4-vesicle pool was not recruited during insulin stimulation and the important components of the insulin signaling cascade IR, IRS-1, PI3K, etc., were not phosphorylated or activated by exercise [22-24]. Additionally, Wortmanin, a potent PI3K inhibitor, did not inhibit glucose transport stimulated by muscle contraction as it does the insul in-stimulated pathway, clearly indicating the presence of a distinct pathway [24]. Intracellular calcium, 5AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), nitric oxide (NO), and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38, have been implicated regulating GLUT4 translocation in the exercise-medicated effect, although the exact mechanism of how each of these exerts its influence is currently being explored (Figure 3) [9]. These acute effects of exercise, in conjecture with dietary restrictions and pharmaceutical interventions, can and are currently exploited by individuals and pharmaceutical companies in an attempt find a cure to insulin resistance and T2D. Although the mechanism of how chronic exercise training improves insulin sensitivity is unclear, muscle levels of GLUT4 as well as the activity of glycogen synthase have been shown to be elevated in athletes compared to sedentary controls with muscle GLUT4 expression increasing in individuals who exercise regularly[25]. This likely due to the fact that many genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism (hexokinase, GLUT-4) appear to be jointly upregulated together with mitochondrial enzymes in response to increased muscle contractile activity [10, 18, 19, 22] . CONCLUSIONS The recent drastic increase in the prevalence of T2D has been attributed mainly to decreased levels of physical activity and increased caloric intake. 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