Slurry Wall Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Slurry Wall - Essay Example They provided a low permeability obstacle to contaminant transport. The first slurry wall was built in Italy. Icos built the wall in Italy by using bentonite slurry support as the cut off wall. He went on to construct the first slurry wall for the Milan Metro. In mid 1960s, European contractors introduced the slurry walls in the United States. It was first used in the World Trade Center found in New York, the Bank of California found in San Francisco and the CAN building found in Chicago. Many projects of the slurry wall in the United States are found in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, New York and Boston. Slurry walls are used extensively in the Central Artery/Tunnel project. This project involved many cover and cut tunnels built under the prevailing artery. The technology behind slurry wall centers on specific equipment used to excavate slurry trenches. The mechanical clamshell is the simplest kind of trenching equipment and is put on a Kelly bar. Different contractors have developed particular equipment such as hydromills, hydraulic clamshells or fraise (Mulligan, Yong & Gibbs, 2001). These walls are used in retaining foundations of the wall and retaining control of the wall water. Additionally, they are used as long-lasting basement walls in top down construction method, used as earth retention walls for tunnels, excavations and basements. They are also used in vertical foundation elements with high capacity (Opdyke & Evans, 2005). They are used as cut off curtains, gas barriers in areas with landfills, seepage control, and contaminated groundwater. Moreover, the diaphragms are used in seepage and water control for deep excavations. The construction cost of slurry wall for cut off barriers is much cheaper than construction of diaphragm wall for deep excavations. The alterations arise mostly from the differences in the construction methods. In diaphragm walls, the perimeter of the wall is made panel by

MCH Frameworks Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MCH Frameworks - Research Paper Example The effective being the operative terms that are not enforceable (Battin, Francis, & Smith, 2009).This paper describes children communicable diseases with respect to Life Course Theory, Maternal and Child Health Pyramid of Health Sciences and Health Impact Pyramid. Communicable diseases, especially those that are mostly contagious, take on social significance because their ability to spread often depends on social interactions. Their ethical significance is, therefore, intimately related to the extent, quality, care, and nature with which there is a need to attend to those social interactions among the children. Mostly, children who fell sick always can create challenges and many problems in setting of groups. These setting up of groups can be done in schools. Therefore, children always are demanding a lot of attention from the teachers or nannies who take care of them and those who cannot fully participate in educational activities as well as group. The worst is that children with a communicable disease can spread the illness to other kids. As a result, it is important to the day care providers and educators to control the spreading of communicable diseases by effective, safe, and practical efforts. This is because those who are affected most are school going children since they interact indiscriminately. Control of communicable diseases in day care and school settings is of utmost significance. Provision of safe, healthy environment and comfortable enhance the process of education, facilitates social development and enable kids to acquire healthy attitudes toward organized settings (Pies, Parthasarathy& Kotelchuck, 2009). The Health Impact Pyramid is a graph representation of tiers of influence that might have resulted from public health interventions. Working down the pyramid from its top, the first level of the pyramid includes counseling and education

Organisational Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Organisational Behaviour Essay There are many ways in which different individuals have viewed personality. Robbins et al (2001, p. 99) define it as â€Å"the consistent psychological patterns within an individual that affect the way they interact with others and the situations they encounter†. Another definition provided by Huczynski and Buchanan (2007, p. 138) is that personality â€Å"is the psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristic behaviour patterns, in a stable and distinctive manner†. Personality’s Role in Organizational Behaviour With the abovementioned definitions of personality, there are a numerous reasons as to why this is of great interest when it comes to the study of Organizational Behaviour. One main reason is that job performance and career success are related to one’s personality as many managers have come to believe. Personality assessments or ‘psychometric tests’ are widely used by companies to assess an employee’s personality. A couple of the known approaches to these tests are nomothetic, the basis of the majority of the available psychometrics, and idiographic. The former is more objective and quantitative, which is mostly comprised of multiple-choice questions and hence easier to administer, while the latter rely on heavily on different assumptions about human psychology. (Huczynski Buchanan 2007, p. 137) Types of Personality Assessment Tools Out of the many personality assessment tools available today, the four which will be further discussed will be the DISC Model, Jung’s Personality Type Matrix, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Friedman and Rosenman’s Type A Type B Personalities. There will be an overlay between the mentioned assessment tools and the others that have not been stated. (Richards n. d. ) These assessments aid not only companies when it comes to appraising an employee but also are now available for individuals who want to measure their own capability and learn how to make the most of their strengths. DISC Model The DISC Model originated from Dr. William Moulton Marston’s 1928 book entitled â€Å"Emotions of Normal People†. The term DISC was initially discussed in the book. However, Dr. Marston did not have the intention of creating any sort of assessment tool. It was not till 1972 when researchers from the University of Minnesota developed the abovementioned tool. A number of books have been written and various interpretations on the topic have emerged. Dr. Marston’s idea when he coined the term DISC can be seen as revolving around â€Å"behaviour† and â€Å"situation†. The most generalized outline of the model is as follows. DISC stands for â€Å"dominance†, â€Å"influence†, â€Å"steadiness† and â€Å"compliance†. A person who falls under Dominance and Influence is considered to be generally proactive and extraverted while someone who is under Steadiness and Compliance is somewhat the opposite, reactive and an introvert. Those whose personality is thought to belong to Dominance and Compliance have their focal point to be â€Å"things† whereas that of the people whose personality belongs to Influence and Steadiness is seen as â€Å"people†. (Richards n. d. ) The small connection ends there. A closer look at each of the types could reveal more. An individual who is a type Dominance will have the following attributes. He or she is â€Å"decisive, dominant, self-assured, forceful, task-oriented† and is someone who â€Å"instigates, leads and directs†. His or her main motivation will be the sense of â€Å"responsibility and achievement†. Subsequently, this person â€Å"fears failure and loss of power†. When in a working environment, he or she will have a â€Å"strong focus on tasks† and his or her â€Å"forceful style can upset people†. As for someone who falls under Influence, he or she â€Å"motivates others via influence and persuasion†, â€Å"presents well† and â€Å"inspires others†. He or she possesses â€Å"good communication skills†, as well as the qualities of being â€Å"friendly†, â€Å"affable†, â€Å"intuitive† and â€Å"gregarious†. Recognition and personal approval† are their motivational factors. â€Å"Rejection and loss of reputation† make up their fears. The fact that they emphasize so much on image can result in substance negligence. Anyone belonging to type Steadiness acquires attributes such as â€Å"reliable, depe ndable, process-oriented, listener, friendly, trustworthy, solid, ethical† and â€Å"methodical†. He or she â€Å"finishes what others start and leave† and â€Å"decides according to process†. This person is â€Å"motivated by time, space and continuity to do things properly†. Their fears include â€Å"insecurity and change†. Having this personality type meant that the person depends on the process to such an extent that any signs of changes will be resisted. Lastly, those who are under Compliance are â€Å"painstaking, investigative, curious†, â€Å"correct† and â€Å"detailed†. He or she is a â€Å"checker† and â€Å"decides using facts and figures†. Motivation for them would be â€Å"attention to detail, perfection and truth† whereas fears are â€Å"inaccuracy and unpredictability†. Their â€Å"need for perfection† tends to â€Å"delay or obstruct† them from achieving what is required. (Richards n. d. ) From the above, it can be seen that the DISC model has four main â€Å"type† which describes the certain corresponding personalities. When taking this assessment, one must keep in mind that he or she does not exclusively belong to just one type. This tool identifies the dominant type as well as two supporting types to varying extent which is dependent on the person and the situation. The mixture of the types, dominant and supporting, provides a good illustration of a person’s personality from various perspectives. (Richards n. d. ) Jung’s Personality Type Matrix Carl Gustav Jung, one of the many great personality theorists, is well-known for his work – Jung’s Personality Type Matrix or Jung’s Psychological Types which he derived from the ancient Greek Four Temperaments Model. His approach to this study was from a clinical psychoanalysis perspective. Most of today’s widely used psychometrics, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, have greatly benefited from Jung’s theories. Jung structured his functional types into four. His four functions of the psyche are Thinking and Feeling, which helps us to decide and judge, and, Sensation and Intuition, which helps us to perceive and gather information. He called the first two functions Rational and the other two, Irrational. (Chapman 2010) Thinking is about â€Å"what something is†. It is about â€Å"meaning and understanding†. It involves â€Å"analytic, objective, principles, standards and criteria†. Feeling is about â€Å"whether it is good or not†. It is about â€Å"weight and value†. It involves â€Å"subjective, personal, valuing, intimacy and humane†. Sensation is knowing that â€Å"something exists†. It can also be referred to as â€Å"sensual perception†. It is â€Å"realistic, down-to-earth, practical and sensible†. Intuition is concerned with â€Å"where it is from and where it is going†. It is about â€Å"possibilities and atmosphere†. It involves â€Å"hunches, future, speculative, fantasy and imaginative†. Further explanations on the four functions are as follows: (Chapman 2010) â€Å"Jungs Thinking function is a rational process of understanding reality, implications, causes and effects in a logical and analytical way. It is systematic, evaluates truth, and is objective to the extent that evaluation is based on personal intelligence and comprehension. † Jungs Feeling function makes judgements on a personal subjective basis. It is a rational process of forming personal subjective opinion about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable, etc. , and involves sentimentality and humanity. † â€Å"Jungs Sensation function translates signals from the senses into factual data. There is no judgement of right or wrong, good or bad, implications, causes, directions, context, possibilities, themes, or related concepts. Sensation sees what is, as what it is. † Jungs Intuition function translates things, facts and details into larger conceptual pictures, possibilities, opportunities, imaginings, mysticism and new ideas. Intuition largely ignores essential facts and details, logic and truth. † Based on Jung’s Four Functions of the Psyche, his Eight Personality Types came about by adding â€Å"introversion† or â€Å"extraversion† ‘general attitude types’ to the four superior functions. The characteristics of each of these types are as follows. Extraverted Thinking organizes others, implements, plans, is strategic and analytical. Introverted Thinking seeks elf-knowledge, is theoretical, discovering and contemplative. Extraverted Feeling seeks personal and social success, is sentimental and sociable. Introverted Feeling seeks inner intensity, is self-contained, enigmatic a nd inaccessible. Extraverted Sensation is hard-headed, pleasure-seeking, hands-on and practical. Introverted Sensation is an expert, a connoisseur, detached, obsessive and intense. Extraverted Intuition proposes change, seeks novelty, is innovative and adventurous. Introverted Intuition is aloof, mystical, esoteric, visionary and idealistic. These only refer to the principal functions. Once the auxiliary functions, the less dominant functions, come into the picture, it produces sixteen personality types with more in-depth analysis. (Chapman 2010) It is these final types which directly relates to the next assessment tool – the MBTI. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Isabel Briggs Myers, along with her mother, Katherine Briggs, developed the instrument MBTI in the 1940’s which has been based on Carl Jung’s Personality Matrix. All in all, they established sixteen different and distinctive personality types. These types came about through the interactions among one’s preferences. One may figure out his or her personality type by first deciding on his or her preference in each of the following categories: Extraversion (E), focusing on the outer world or Introversion (I), to prefer one’s own inner world. Sensing (S), all about the basic information taken in or Intuition (N), interpreting and adding meaning to the information. In decision-making, Thinking (T), logic and consistency first or Feeling (F), people and the special circumstances. Structure-wise, Judging (J), getting things decided or Perceiving (P), remaining open in case of new information and options. Once the preference has been made, a four-letter code emerges. It could be ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP, ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP, ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ or ENTJ. Each of these types has a corresponding personality description. With the MBTI instrument, there is no such thing as measuring trait ability or character, instead, it sorts for preferences. The main reason why this instrument is the most popular is the fact that hundreds of studies in the past forty years have proven MBTI to be valid and reliable. (The Myers Briggs Foundation n. d. ) Type A – Type B Personalities The very first time the two types of personality were described was in the 1950’s by cardiologists Meyer Friedman and R. H. Rosenham. With reference to Jung’s Matrix, Type A is a left-sided STJ but Type B is a right-sided NFP. (Changingminds. org 2010) The typing is broadly based on anxiety and stress levels. Type A people enjoy constantly working to achieve goals; the more difficult, the better. Their drive to compete can cause them to create the sense of competition. Failure is one thing they try hard to avoid. They are mostly well-educated. On the contrary, Type B work steadily and do not obsess about not achieving what they have set out to do. They are creative; love to explore new ideas. They are often reflective. Challenging a Type A will be very effective whilst a reflective conversation will work better with a Type B. â€Å"Type A personality has become a household word. † (Sharma 1996) According to Dr. Friedman, there are eight major indicators of Type A Behaviour – two psychological and six physical. The psychological signs are:   â€Å"presence of impatience or easily induced hostility† and â€Å"constant apprehension of future disasters†, where the latter is commonly mistaken as a symptom of an anxiety or depressive disorder. The physical signs are: â€Å"excessive perspiration of the forehead and the upper lip†, â€Å"teeth grinding†, â€Å"indentation of the tongue due to its chronic pressure against the top incisor teeth†, â€Å"tic-like retraction of the upper eye lid†, â€Å"tic-like retraction of the corners of the mouth†, and â€Å"brown coloring of the skin of the lower eyelid†. Type A has generated a huge interest in the medical world as it is highly related to coronary heart disease. Here is an excerpt from Moore’s (2001) article: â€Å"Type A people are achievement oriented, irritable, impatient with delays, and seem to be always in a hurry. †¦ In contrast to type As, type B people are less competitive, and more easygoing than their type A counterparts. †¦ While most people do not fall into the extreme ends of the continuum, there are significant numbers of people who do seem to be far more intense and reactive than others. Type As are not only reactive, they are also achievement oriented and highly motivated to succeed. They enjoy challenge and like to know how well they are doing. †¦ More recent research has demonstrated that the feature of type A behavior that is particularly toxic is hostility. † Scott (2007) mentioned in one of her articles that apart from the fact that those exhibiting Type A personality have a higher ri sk at suffering hypertension and heart diseases, they also suffer from job stress and social isolation. These people are usually in â€Å"stressful, demanding jobs†. They, too, tend to distance themselves from others as they focus on their career more than they do on personal relationships. Many researches do believe that it is the environment that caused certain people to develop Type A personalities. As part of their personality, Type As are able to perform well in the workplace because they are high-achievers. (Larson 2009) This is why they hold increasingly high-powered positions. As a result, they find it hard to relax, they are aggressive, they have the tendency to interrupt and they lose sleep frequently. In an office environment, these characteristics can lead to high levels of success but the same can also lead to Type As own pitfalls. They have emphasis on quantity over quality. They are unable to appreciate their own achievements. However, they make great leaders since they work well under pressure. Character Personality Analysis From the 2006 movie, The Devil wears Prada, the character played by Meryl Streep is Miranda Priestly, the Editor-In-Chief for Runway – a supposedly top New York fashion Magazine. (Huntley 2009) Anyone could easily tell that she exhibits most of, if not all, of a Type A personality. If it were from the DISC model’s perspective, she would fall under the Dominance category while belonging to the typology of Jung’s STJ or the MBTI’s ISTJ. To categorize here in the boss type, she would be the â€Å"tin man† boss with an axe. Her first love would have to be power. She is very career-oriented whose goals and objectives are extremely translucent. For her, â€Å"what is to be done, is to be done†, the word unfeasible does not exist. When in doubt, never approach her as she does not like people boring her with questions of how, what and where. Famous for being unpredictable, she does not care for other’s incompetence and is intimidating to the extent that people cannot even be in the same lift as her. It is rather hard to please or impress her. Career-wise, she is an A+ yet as a person, she fails. With her profession the first priority in her life, she has had a broken marriage, twice, and a distorted family life. Despite that, her most valuable assets to her are her twin daughter who she cares for dearly. She indeed lacks personal life. Tagged as â€Å"the dragon lady†, she rarely shows emotions and strongly believes that life is all about the choices you make. Being the powerful lady ruling the kingdom of fashion, she keeps her staff and the fashion world under her thumb. Her actions indeed speak louder than her words because she can make a top designer recreate a whole collection all over again just by pursing her lips. She draws contentment from other’s misery. Her disbelief in positive reinforcement has led to a high number of assistants quitting. She is the kind of boss who has no room for lazy employees. A perfectionist, she does not care who she steps on when on her way to the top. Not to forget, sleek and slender Miranda always has to have her Hermes scarf on. It can be seen that Miranda’s personality does fit her role to some extent. Due to the nature of her job, her business environment matters a lot. Although she is very dominating, the people under her accept that and submit to her wishes as if left with no other choice. It is all about power at the end of the day especially in a high-powered position like that of an Editor-In-Chief. Many people have come to believe that Miranda Priestly has been based on real-life Editor-In-Chief for Vogue Magazine, Anna Wintour. Topsynergy. com (2003) discussed the personalities that are evident in Anna Wintour. She is a perfect example to be displaying Type A behavior which to some extent is relevant to the position she holds and the competitive industry she is in. Describing Wintour in the words of Topsynergy. com; â€Å"Cautious, prudent, and rather self-contained †¦ approaches life realistically †¦ rarely spontaneous †¦ pragmatic, shrewd, and an excellent strategist †¦ very ambitious, but quietly so †¦ emotionally detached †¦ stern, authoritarian, no-nonsense aspect to her personality †¦ her personal relationships may seem constantly in flux †¦ direct, honest, and to the point some might say excessively so †¦Ã¢â‚¬  There is this contact argument that it is the environment that shapes people’s personality while others believe our personality has to find the kind of environment to which they suit best and perform to their optimum potential. For the latter, the abovementioned psychometric tests help employers, managers and common staff alike to gain insight to any individual’s personality. This is very essential in today’s organizations especially since the level of competition has never been higher.

Effect of Color and Word Length on Memory Performance

Effect of Color and Word Length on Memory Performance Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of color and word length on memory performance. Seventy nine undergraduate  college students from Disted college, aged from 19 to 23 of both male and female genders were recruited for the study. The study  was a 32 mixed method design, There are two independent variables in this experiment which are word length and colors of words,  while the dependent variable is memory performance. Results showed that there was no significant change in colored words on  memory performance, while differences in word length showed a significant increase in memory performance. The results supported  our secondary hypothesis which claimed that participants were more able to remember shorter words than longer words. On the  contrary, our primary hypothesis was not supported. In conclusion, word length may have a positive impact on memory performance. Introduction It is common knowledge that we humans are more attracted to colorful objects like pictures or colored films than black and  white colors. It is also well known that young children, especially babies and toddlers are particularly attracted to shinny and striking  colors. Such instances may have piqued the curiosity of scholars in the old days to answer the question why people are more  attracted to colorful stimulus, sadly for the scholars the capacity to study this topic is not readily available until recent times. Since  ancient antiquity, colors on clothes not only made people look more distinct from one another, certain colors also inspire awe and  shows status and power. For example, in the east Chinese emperors have always wore gold color to signify their status as son of  heaven, while in the west Roman emperors and the aristocrats wear purple so show their status in society. In today’s society, an individual in the academic field is expected to be able to do many tasks, one of the most important skills in  our society is to be able to remember important things. For example, in college we constantly need to remember important terms  andwords, these information that we have learned is to be tested in quizzes and exams. College students that do not have good  attention focus and memory are looked down upon by their lecturers and peers because they mostly under perform in their academic  performance. Fortunately for this type of college students, as time progress more efficient methods of studying and memorizing is  being discovered or proposed. One of these methods is mind mapping, the method of mind mapping basically uses the right side  (color and creativity) together with the left side (words and logic) of the brain to increase memory performance (Astrid, n.d). As such, it can be seen that both color and words could be essential component in memory performance. Working together,  both aspects could be used to aid or test the performance of a students memory capability. Similar to mind maps, word length and  different kind of colors could affect the overall memory performance. Theoretical Framework The human mind has a very complicated way of processing and memorizing information. Among the many theories that  attempted to explain how memory works, Baddeleys working memory model seemed to provide one of the best explanations. This  model was created by Baddely and Hitch to improve upon the rather obsolete multi-store model, they argued that the multi-store  model was too simplified. Their working memory model seeks to explain that short term memory has components/subsystems that  actively manipulates information that it receives (Miyake Shah, 1999). The model has four important components which were the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Central Executive†, â€Å"Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad†, â€Å"phonological loop† and â€Å"Episodic Buffer†. They further elaborated that working  memory was made up of the central executive which controls the operation of two subsystems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad. The final component, episodic buffer was m eant to be a back up store that connects working memory with long  term memory (McLeod, 2008). The working memory model relates to color and word length due to the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the phonological loop. The  visuo-spatial sketchpad stores visual information such as word shapes and colors for a short period of time (Logie, 2002). Our  working memory was very focused on color because colored objects of an items leaves a deeper impression on our memory  (Cercone Learning, n.d). While, some people tend to recall words better when they pronounce it while memorizing, their ability to  recall is affected by the word length, which is stored in the phonological loop (Logie, 2002). Past Literature As time goes by more and more past research was made to address the issue of colored words and word length on memory  performance. Although most research only investigated on colored words and memory performance or word length on memory  performance, their contribution were highly regarded. One such study was made by Mustafar Dzulkifli (2013), their study was  focused on investigating the effect of ground color on memory performance. In their study, they invited 90 undergraduate students ,  age ranges from 19 to 22 to participate in the experiment. They conducted their experiment by using between group design, there  was three groups of participant that were given different treatments. The first group was given red colored background slides, while  the second group was given background slides with no color. The third group was be given background slides that have a  combination of color and no-color background to be shown alternately. Their research results found that most shape with colored  background will be recalled better than shape with non-color background. Another research was made by Campoy (2008) which was made to investigate the effect of word length in short-term memory.   The research invited 50 undergraduate university students. The research was conducted by using two participants in each session in  two different sound-attenuated booths. In the booths the computers shows a stimulus (five-word series study list) presented in block  letters at the rate 300 ms per word. After a delay 3,000 ms, the second sequence (test list) was shown in lower case at the same  speed. Lastly, a question mark was revealed and the participants will press key â€Å"1† or â€Å"2† when they decided the word orders in both  series were different or same. Results revealed that a list of short four-phoneme words were better remembered than a lists of long  six-phoneme words. Among the many past research, there was one research that stands out the most. Research done by Le Castillo (2009) was  meant to investigate on the effects of color and word length on verbal working memory. In this research, 61 business professionals  were invited to participate. The research was conducted by first requesting participants to memorize short words (12 seconds) and  long words (30 seconds), then participants were requested to recall short words within 24 seconds and long words within 60  seconds. Participants was then asked to do demographic questionnaires and include them together with their answer papers. The  results showed that five-syllable words were the most hard to remember, with memory performance difference much more obvious  between Caucasians and none-Caucasians. Description of Study In this study, we were much different compared to past studies because we focused on both length of words and color of words,  as stated in our ERB (refer to Appendix D) Compared to past research like the one done by Huchendorf who mainly focuses on the  effects of color on memory or the one done by Neath Naire that was focused on word length and short term memory, ours were  more complex and in-dept because we analyze both aspects. Among the many studies that was made, our experiment most  resembles the one by Le Castillo. In Le Castillo, one of the main aspects they investigated was the capacity of memory among  sixty one business professionals. Compared to their experiment, our experiment not only was focused on a different sample, which  isthe college student sample, we also have a larger amount of participants which provides us a greater variety of cultural  backgroundand memory capability. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of color and word length on memory performance. Our experiment was  conducted by separating all our participants into two equally large sized group, then the participants were directed to the short word  or long word experiment room to do the experiment. In the rooms the participants were given one minute to attempt to memorize as  many words as they can and then given another minute to recall and write down the words they can remember, participants were  thengiven one minute to cool down and rest before starting the next treatment. In our experiment, we outlined two hypothesis that  waswritten in our ERB. Based on past research by Huchendorf (2007), Le Castillo (2009) and Neath Naire (1995), we  hypothesized that warm colored words is easier to remember than cool colored words and shorter word length is easier to be  remembered than longer word length. Practical Implication of Study An implication of this study was that the finding could be used in class rooms to assist teachers and lecturers in guiding  students. Teachers can use this knowledge to teach students on doing mind maps and teach them to use highlighters to highlight  certain words, the highlighted words will increase the capability of a students memory. Methods Design The experiment was an experimental type research design that was meant to investigate the cause and effect of the  independent and dependent variable. The research have two independent variables and three levels. The independent variables  were words length (single syllable/three syllables) and color of the words (black), warm color (red) and the cool color (green). The  dependent variable was using memory performance of number of correct words recalled. Also, the research is a 32 mixed method  design, the reason the research was using mixed method was because the design contained elements from between and within  subject. Participants There was approximately seventy nine participants that came from different races, the participants were also recruited from the  many different courses of Disted college. Their age range was between 19 and 23 years old while their gender was both male and  female. The students participated the experiment due to their own willingness and initiative. Furthermore, experimenters had  requested permission from the DISTED Student council to obtain lecture schedules to see which class was available and  permissionfrom individual lecturers to recruit students. The participants was recruited through random sampling method ; the  experimenters had approached students around DISTED college cafeteria, library and pre-selected classes. Material The experiment had used two computers and two projectors to depict the different colored and worded experiment slides,  another material was the computer software Microsoft power point, specifically the slides was made using the software. The twenty  words from each of the color worded slides (refer to Appendix B) are retrieved from MRC Psycholinguistic Database, University of  Western Australia, School of Psychology. Other materials include SPSS program to calculate the results output (refer to Appendix  C)and smart phone built in stop watches that was used to time the experiment sessions (timing one minute for memorizing words or  one minute to recall the list of words). Procedure The study was conducted in two classrooms each equipped with a projector, the experiment was conducted across several  sessions with a random amount of participants in each session. The participants were first given a brief explanation about the nature  and purpose of the experiment and then the experimenters requested the participants to sign the consent form (refer to Appendix A). Next, each participant was randomly assigned by counting one and two, it is arranged like that so that both groups would be equal in  number .The first group was asked to remain in the current room, while the second group was brought to the other room by one of the  experimenters. Also, the first group was given a list of shorter words (one syllable) with three different colored treatments ; control  color (black) ,warm color (red) and cool color (green). Similar to the first group, the second group was given the same treatment,  except that the word length was longer (three syllables). The experiment was started when participants were given one minute to remember a list of black colored words from the  projected slides on screen and another 1 minute to write it down on the paper, after that the participants were given one minute to  cool down. Once the participants were ready for the next treatment, the participants was given one minute to remember a list of red  colored words and then another minute to write it down, then the participants were given another minute to cool down before the last  treatment. Finally, the participants was given other minute to remember a list of green colored words and one minute to write it down. Once all the words that can be recalled was written down, the experimenters collected the papers from the participants and the  participants were dismissed. Discussion As seen in the results section written above, our experiments outcome concluded that color of words generally do not affect  memory performance. However, our results also showed that disregarding the length of words, colored words have significant  relationship with memory performance. On the other hand, word length has a positively significant relationship with memory  performance. Among our two hypotheses, the word length and memory performance hypothesis was highly supported by our results. More specifically, our hypothesis that mentioned short words were more easily remembered than longer words. The results of our study was consistent and supported by past literature, research findings by Campoy (2008) and Le Castillo  (2009) were two such examples. Their research results had shown that people found it easier to remember words with less syllables  or phonemes. The consensus between the two past literature and our experiment was that, lesser amount of syllables allowed  working memory to process information faster and more efficiently. However, our experiment was not supported by Mustafar   Dzulkifli (2013). Their results did not coincide with our results on color, they found that shapes with colored background was recalled  better than shape with non-color background. A possible reason on why our results was not the same as some past research was  because, we focused our experiment on both color and word length, instead of just one of it. It should be acknowledged that there was one failed manipulations in our experiment, that particular failure was our colored  wordmanipulation, it is due to this reason that our first hypothesis failed. Also, there was a few confounding variables that might have  affected the experiment. One of the confounding variable was the experiments starting time, the experimenters had noted that there  were some inaccuracies on the timing of some experiment sessions. Another reason was due to the hour we conducted our  experiment. For example, we conducted our experiment on late afternoon, it could be that most participants were weary, fatigued  andfrustrated after a long day in class, such distractions would leave the participants less capable to focus on our experiment. The  third confounding variable was due to temperature, one of the rooms was rather cold while the other was rather warm, it should be  noted that the differences in room temperature could affect the performance of the participants. In order to solve these problems, the  experimenters had taken steps such as adjusting the airconditiong of both rooms to be the same and set timers to start the  experiments simultaneously. Throughout our experiment, we realized certain important things that would prove beneficial for future studies. Experiments  made in future could be improved upon by gathering a larger amount of participants from different age, race and background, doing  so would have given the future experimenters a better represented result based on a more diverse data. Future experiments could  also be improved by using culturally neutral words, the usage of such words would have allowed certain participants to perform better  without a cultural word barrier. Another suggestion was that future experiments could have done their experiments earlier, this is  suggested so that the participants would be able to do the experiment on their peaked performance. The implication of this study was that it would benefit any individual that is in the academic world or the business world. A  studentwould have found this experiment helpful because our results would have assisted them in their academic performance. Our  experiment results would have shown them that making short notes would have made them more efficient in their studies. Teachers  and lecturers could also use our experiment results to form a more effective study materials, study materials that are shorter and  simpler would be more effective for a students studies. Another benefit was that advertising corporations could have used our  experiment results to assist them in creating an attractive and memorable advertisement in the minds of consumers. As a final conclusion, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between word length, word color and memory  performance. The findings showed that participants found it easier to remember words that are shorter and more warm colored or  longer words with cooler color. Further studies should be conducted with a larger sample population.

John Steinbeck :: Essays Papers

John Steinbeck John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas California, shortly after the end of the Civil War. His mother was a schoolteacher in the public school system in Salinas. Steinbeck grew up in the fertile California where he found the materials for most of his novels, and short stories. Steinbeck demonstrated a great imagination, which was kindled by writing at a very early age partly due to his mother, the schoolteacher, whom read to him at a very early at the many great works of literature. During his teen years, Steinbeck played various sports in high school, worked numerous part time, dead end jobs, and wondered around the fertile valley. The lessons, and observations he made while wandering provided much of the material for his later works. Steinbeck entered Stanford University in 1920, and even though he attended the school until 1925, he never graduated. Lacking the desire to acquire a formal degree from the Stanford University, Steinbeck wandered to New York to pursue a writing career. While working on his writing, and while receiving an endless supply of rejection slips, Steinbeck worked odd jobs. The New York American newspaper was where Steinbeck held a job, writing various articles, for some time before the newspaper went bankrupt. The failure of the newspaper and endless supply of rejection letter forced Steinbeck to return to California, broken but still hopeful. Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929, two months before the horrific stock market crash, causing the novel to nearly unnoticed with barely fifteen hundred copies selling. 1930 was a very important year for Steinbeck in two areas. First he married Carol Henning and the newlyweds settled in Pacific Grove, which he often wrote of. There, Steinbeck met Ed Ricketts whose friendship strongly influenced Steinbeck’s works. During the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties Steinbeck knew many people who were considered to be the cross section of society, and shared many of the problems of the times with them. His father like many men, helped is family through the depression with a small house and twenty-five dollars a week. Throughout the depression era Steinbeck wrote of people struggling to make ends meet around the California, Mexico region. One of Steinbeck works, Tortilla Flat, marked a turning point in Steinbeck’s literary career.

Realization of Life :: essays papers

Realization of Life At one point in one^Ã’s life, he will come to some realization, develop a higher understanding of himself, or have an epiphany of some type. This one incident can change a person^Ã’s entire outlook on life including their beliefs and practices. There will be many notable events in one^Ã’s life, but there will be only few incidents in which one will come to a profound comprehension of his life or life in general. These few incidents are what create adversity in one^Ã’s self. The mental unease which comes along with these incidents is not usually long lasting, but embeds a dramatic concept to which one will often refer. A few years ago, I underwent one of these experiences in which I realized that life entailed no inherent meaning, but only that of which I could myself assign to my actions and despite this I must somehow find happiness in my life. One will always perceive life and its events differently. Because of this, two entirely similar events may influence two individuals in the exact opposite directions. Persons can usually be associated with one of the traditional temperaments, which are phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, and melancholic. These temperaments are representative of the four humors; phlegm, yellow bile, blood and black vile respectively. One will view and translate events based upon their own personal temperament. I find myself to be melancholic and in that, I find the most significance in seemingly insignificant events. During my freshman year, I was writing a paper for English Class late one night. I recollect the paper was based on the views of Ernest Hemingway. In my frustration, I asked myself, How important is this paper? This was the first time I had ever asked myself this question. In all the assignments prior to this point I had never questioned their importance. In fact, I surprised myself with the answer. At that moment, I realized that the essay was completely unimportant and would not effect me in the long run. Upon this, I began to exam all the events of earlier in the day. I could not find any real meaning in any of these events. Suddenly and horrifically I came to the assumption that not only my life, but life in general was seemingly meaningless in the scheme of the universe. With this conclusion I came to wonder, is life worth living? Up until this point I had found meaning in my life. In order to live productively, I

Health Care Conditions Essay

As we analyze the factors contributing to health care costs we must find a solution that provides high-quality care for an aging population. Improvements to modern medicine are prolonging life causing a schism between a health care system oriented towards acute care and the increasing chronic care needs of older adults. Studies do show that health care costs for older Americans account for one third of all national health care expenditures. This being said the average expenditure for health care services for adults 65 and over is nearly four times the cost of those under 65. More significant changes need to be considered given the financial crisis our health care system faces. Health care costs are not solely due to longevity; consider increased utilization, new medical technologies, general inflation, fraud, and waste and abuse. This paper will discuss one article to be used in my final presentation on health care for anaging population. Data collection procedures The study on chronic health conditions used a questionnaire presented to study participants by in-person and telephone interview using computer-assisted software. They also used the Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) for age prevalence patterns and to show how chronic condition prevalence varies by age group. The use of the CCHS survey for historical data and comparisons is very appropriate for this study. The use of a questionnaire, while not ideal, is appropriate for the large number of participants. The survey sampled approximately 130,000 people aged 12 years or older. In-person interviews are the most reliable, but the downside to using telephone interviews using computer-assisted software is that participants may go through the questionnaire quickly or skip questions if they are unsure. Identity protection for research subjects Confidentiality is the protection of information that an individual has trusted you with and disclosed to you for a particular reason. Informed consent is a process in which the researcher explains to the participant what steps are taken to keep their information confidential and what would happen if there were a data breach. The participant then has the information needed to determine if this is adequate and whether or not to continue with the project. The article does not discuss the steps taken to  protect the identity of participants. There is no mention of patient record abstraction, personal information collected or informed consent. Reading the article, it is an assumption that the only information collected was the age and number and type of chronic conditions for each participant. Study reliability and validity The reliability of this study, that is, the consistency and repeatability of the measure is high. A question related to the number and type of chronic conditions experienced by each participant is reliable and is measuring one topic. The questionnaire meets face validity – it is a common-sense assessment and the question measures exactly what they want to study. Data analysis procedures To answer the research questions, the researchers used data from the CCHS survey to develop a baseline of the number of chronic conditions within certain age groups. That data was then projected for 25 years based on the target population which was derived from a model of the economic demographic system (MEDS) projection. The hypothesis, â€Å"The expectation is that, as the large baby boom cohort moves into older age categories, the overall proportion of the population with chronic conditions will increase† (Denton & Spencer, 2010), is best answered by projecting the number of people in each age group based on historical data and factoring in immigration, emigration, mortality, and fertility rates. I believe this study is quantitative. It involves randomly selected participants, uses face-to-face and phone questionnaires, the data analysis is statistical and is presented in tables and graphs, and is used to recommend a final course of action. The study design is descriptive, also called observational. Validity is important in descriptive studies; the lower the validity, the more study participants you will need. â€Å"For an accurate estimate of the relationship between variables, a descriptive study usually needs a sample of hundreds or even thousands of subjects.† (Hopkins, 2000) Conclusion In conclusion, the study shows that more than two-thirds of the population over the age of 12 has a chronic condition and 90% of them are over the age of 65. The researchers believe that as the participants move into higher  age groups the prevalence of chronic conditions will increase, which this study proves. The prevalence rate in 2005 is 68.7% and the prevalence rate in 2030 is 71.9% which is an increase of 3.2%. But how does this affect health care utilization and cost? With a modest reduction in the prevalence of chronic conditions, one-third of the projected increase in health care spending could be cut by 2030. In this study, a modest reduction is described as reducing the number of chronic conditions by one. Those with three chronic conditions would be reduced to two, two would be reduced to one, and one would be reduced to none. The strengths of this study are the high reliability and validity of the data recorded from the questionnaires. The data analysis and projections based on the target population, adjusted for emigration, immigration, mortality, and fertility was the best option for this type of study. The weaknesses of the study were the inability to abstract data on chronic conditions from the medical records of the participants, and the exclusion of participants in institutions which resulted in an under-estimation of chronic conditions in older populations. Another weakness noted by the researchers was that there was no record of the severity of the condition. This does not allow for accurate accounts of those cured of the chronic condition during the study period. References Denton, F.T., & Spencer, B.G. (2010). Chronic health conditions: Changing prevalence in an aging population and some implications for the delivery of health care services. Canadian Journal on Aging, 29(1), 11-21. Doi:http://dx/doi.org/10.1017/SO714980809990390 Hopkins, W.G. (2000). Quantitative Research Design. SportsScience, 4(1), retrieved online May 26, 2014 from http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0001/wghdesign.html