Evaluation Questions and Data Collection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection - Essay Example The task becomes formidable when the ultimate objects of the evaluation are latchkey children. An abandoned child lacking the custody and care of the natural parental environment cannot find satisfactory solace and nurture in an attention span of a few hours. Child rearing is a 24 hours job. Since the evaluation is undertaken for children facing deprivation and their neighborhood, the stakeholders cannot but be those largely based in the locality. Thus, the stakeholders comprise the school whose facilities are being used for the purpose of after-school care for the target children, the school authorities, the ministry of education, the parents of the regular students, child psychologists, donors and well-wishers of the school, and all others who have personal interest in the school such as former students. (Report on the causes of poverty and Civil Society Recommendations for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in Montenegro) The first evaluation questionnaire is addressed to the stakeholders in order to get their views to what extent they are prepared to go to fill the gap necessary to restore normalcy in the children's lives. A group discussion is ideal for the purpose of eliciting view from a group of 12-15 individuals representing different segment of the stakeholders. The questionnaire will dwell on personal information to begin with like name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, number of children, and move on to areas of interest like favorite sports, extra curricular activities, club membership. Thereafter, questions addressing the objectivity of the evaluation and seeking information on the stakeholder's personal involvement with any children's organization, local or international and since how long, must be included. One or two direct questions asking if they are ready for adoption must also be included. Since financial needs meet only a part of the deprived child's requirement, questions desiring information on the amount of time the stakeholder is capable of spending with the child or children must also find place in the framework. Undoubtedly, the exercise is intended to not only involve individuals but also the entire community. The issue of latchkey students impacts the entire community because it assumes social implications. The consequence of ignoring deprived children has all too often proved disastrous with criminal elements only too ready to accept them for their own ignoble purposes. (David A. Dzewaltowski et al) Questions for the deprived children The framework to fix questionnaire for evaluation and data collection of latchkey students is complex and challenging for the simple reason no two child are alike. One deprived student may be doing exceptionally well in studies, while another may be normal or mediocre. It is in

Company Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Company Performance - Essay Example It is calculated by getting the difference of the current assets from the value of our stock and any prepayments the company has made. Their total is then divided by the totals for the current liabilities to get the quick ratio (Needles and Powers, 2010). In other words the formula for calculating the quick ratio can be given as, This is the ratio of the company’s current debt to the amount of capital they have invested in the company. This is calculated by dividing the total debt that a company owes their creditors to the amount they have invested in the business (Banjerjee, 2005). It is given by, The company has a total debt ratio of 30.25 in comparison to the industry’s 31.96. This implies that there are other companies that have greater debts than it since their value is less than the industry’s. This ratio is also referred to as the stock turnover and is the ratio of the sales a company makes in a certain trading period to the totals of their inventories. It is calculated by dividing the total number of sales made in the period over the total recording’s of sales made (Clarke, 2002). Thus, it is calculated using the formula, The company has a sales turnover of 3.53 in contrast to the industries 4.15. This means the company is performing dismally when compared to the industry since their indexes are lower (Banjerjee, 2005). It is a measure used in accounting to quantify the effectiveness of a firm in giving out credit facilities along with the collection of debts. It is a ratio that describes the level of activity within an organization (Clarke, 2002). It is calculated using the formula, The company has a receivables turnover ratio of 7.52 which is low compared to the industry’s 19.51. This implies that the company should make a reassessment of their debt collection policies to ensure their money has been collected and is bringing gains to the firm. This is the ratio of the sales the company

Natural product chemistry

Natural product chemistry Introduction Of Natural Product Chemistry In the beginning of organic chemistry was natural products chemistry. For a long period, up to the 1960s the structural studies of natural products served as the principle driving force for the discovery of new chemical reactivity. The introduction of spectroscopic techniques, however, removed much of the intellectual challenge involved in structure elucidation. Furthermore, natural products chemistry suffered a dramatic decline from the mid 1990s when major pharmaceutical companies disinvested in this area and switched to more rational combi-chem approaches. Nevertheless, the improvements in spectroscopic methods have historically stimulated natural products chemistry and the efforts to examine new compounds from unusual organisms rapidly and systematically. Natural products chemistry survived and began to flourish again in recent years also through chemical biology and chemical genetics and the realization that natural product structures often explore structural space unavailable t o combi-chem approaches. As a result, challenges for natural product chemists are not diminishing, they are just changing. Natural product chemistry turned to an interdisciplinary science, where the success of a chemist would only be possible in close collaboration with biologists, pharmacologists, and clinicists. Thus many novel biological activities such as beta-tubulin assembly inhibitors for example, could only have emerged from the natural products arena. Contents Of Natural Chemistry Steroids.- Terpenoids.- Fatty Lipids and Prostaglandins.- Alkaloid.- Amino Acids and Proteins.- Nucleic Acids.- Carbohydrates.- Plant and Insect Growth Regulators.- Phenolic Compounds and Natural Dyes.- Marine Natural Products.- Antibacterials.- Vitamins and Hormones. Natural product A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living organism found in nature that usually has a pharmacological or biological activity for use in pharmaceutical drug discovery and drug design. A natural product can be considered as such even if it can be prepared by total synthesis. These small molecules provide the source or inspiration for the majority of FDA-approved agents and continue to be one of the major sources of inspiration for drug discovery. In particular, these compounds are important in the treatment of life-threatening conditions. Natural sources Natural products may be extracted from tissues of terrestrial plants, marine organisms or microorganism fermentation broths. A crude (untreated) extract from any one of these sources typically contains novel, structurally diverse chemical compounds, which the natural environment is a rich source of. Chemical diversity in nature is based on biological and geographical diversity, so researchers travel around the world obtaining samples to analyze and evaluate in drug discovery screens or bioassays. This effort to search for natural products is known as bioprospecting. Animal sources Animals can sometimes be a source of new lead compounds. For example, a series of antibiotic peptides were extracted from the skin of the African clawed frog and a potent analgesic compound called epibatidine was obtained from the skin extracts of the Ecuadorian poison frog. Screening of natural products Pharmacognosy provides the tools to identify, select and process natural products destined for medicinal use. Usually, the natural product compound has some form of biological activity and that compound is known as the active principle such a structure can act as a lead compound (not to be confused with compounds containing the element lead). Many of todays medicines are obtained directly from a natural source. On the other hand, some medicines are developed from a lead compound originally obtained from a natural source. This means the lead compound: can be produced by total synthesis, or can be a starting point (precursor) for a semisynthetic compound, or can act as a template for a structurally different total synthetic compound. This is because most biologically active natural product compounds are secondary metabolites with very complex structures. This has an advantage in that they are extremely novel compounds but this complexity also makes many lead compounds synthesis difficult and the compound usually has to be extracted from its natural source a slow, expensive and inefficient process. As a result, there is usually an advantage in designing simpler analogues. The plant kingdom Plants have always been a rich source of lead compounds (e.g. morphine, cocaine, digitalis, quinine, tubocurarine, nicotine, and muscarine). Many of these lead compounds are useful drugs in themselves (e.g. morphine and quinine), and others have been the basis for synthetic drugs (e.g. local anaesthetics developed from cocaine). Clinically useful drugs which have been recently isolated from plants include the anticancer agent paclitaxel (Taxol) from the yew tree, and the antimalarial agent artemisinin from Artemisia annua. Plants provide a large bank of rich, complex and highly varied structures which are unlikely to be synthesized in laboratories. Furthermore, evolution has already carried out a screening process itself whereby plants are more likely to survive if they contain potent compounds which deter animals or insects from eating them. Even today, the number of plants that have been extensively studied is relatively very few and the vast majority have not been studied at all. The marine world In recent years, there has been a great interest in finding lead compounds from marine sources. Coral, sponges, fish, and marine microorganisms have a wealth of biologically potent chemicals with interesting inflammatory, antiviral, and anticancer activity. For example, curacin A is obtained from a marine cyanobacterium and shows potent antitumor activity. Other antitumor agents derived from marine sources include eleutherobin, discodermolide, bryostatins, dolostatins, and cephalostatins. The microbial world Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi have been invaluable for discovering drugs and lead compounds. These microorganisms produce a large variety of antimicrobial agents which have evolved to give their hosts an advantage over their competitors in the microbiological world. The screening of microorganisms became highly popular after the discovery of penicillin. Soil and water samples were collected from all over the world in order to study new bacterial or fungal strains, leading to an impressive arsenal of antibacterial agents such as the cephalosporins, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, rifamycins, and chloramphenicol. Although most of the drugs derived from microorganisms are used in antibacterial therapy, some microbial metabolites have provided lead compounds in other fields of medicine. For example, asperlicin isolated from Aspergillus alliaceus is a novel antagonist of a peptide hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) which is involved in the control of appetite. CCK also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and is thought to be involved in panic attacks. Analogues of asperlicin may therefore have potential in treating anxiety. Other examples include the fungal metabolite lovastatin, which was the lead compound for a series of drugs that lower cholesterol levels, and another fungal metabolite called ciclosporin which is used to suppress the immune response after transplantation operations. Venoms and toxins Venoms and toxins from animals, plants, snakes, spiders, scorpions, insects, and microorganisms are extremely potent because they often have very specific interactions with a macromolecular target in the body. As a result, they have proved important tools in studying receptors, ion channels, and enzymes. Many of these toxins are polypeptides (e.g. É‘-bungarotoxin from cobras). However, non-peptide toxins such as tetrodotoxin from the puffer fish are also extremely potent. Venoms and toxins have been used as lead compounds in the development of novel drugs. For example, teprotide, a peptide isolated from the venom of the Brazilian viper, was the lead compound for the development of the antihypertensive agents cilazapril and captopril. The neurotoxins from Clostridium botulinum are responsible for serious food poisoning (botulism), but they have a clinical use as well. They can be injected into specific muscles (such as those controlling the eyelid) to prevent muscle spasm. These toxins prevent cholinergic transmission and could well prove a lead for the development of novel anticholinergic drugs. Traditional Medicine In the past, traditional peoples or ancient civilizations depended greatly on local flora and fauna for their survival. They would experiment with various berries, leaves, roots, animal parts or minerals to find out what effects they had. As a result, many crude drugs were observed by the local healer or shaman to have some medical use. Although some preparations may have been dangerous, or worked by a ceremonial or placebo effect, traditional healing systems usually had a substantial active pharmacopoeia, and in fact most western medicines up until the 1920s were developed this way. Some systems, like traditional Chinese medicine or Ayurveda were fully as sophisticated and as documented systems as western medicine, although they might use different paradigms. Many of these aqueous, ethanolic, distilled, condensed or dried extracts do indeed have a real and beneficial effect, and a study of ethnobotany can give clues as to which plants might be worth studying in more detail. Rhubarb root has been used as a purgative for many centuries. In China, it was called The General because of its galloping charge and was only used for one or two doses unless processed to reduce its purgative qualities. (Bulk laxatives would follow or be used on weaker patients according to the complex laxative protocols of the medical system.[2]) The most significant chemicals in rhubarb root are anthraquinones, which were used as the lead compounds in the design of the laxative dantron. The extensive records of Chinese medicine about response to Artemisia preparations for malaria also provided the clue to the novel antimalarial drug artemisinin. The therapeutic properties of the opium poppy (active principle morphine) were known in Ancient Egypt, were those of the Solanaceae plants in ancient Greece (active principles atropine and hyoscine). The snakeroot plant was well regarded in India (active principle reserpine), and herbalists in medieval England used extracts from the willow tree(salicin) and foxglove (active principle digitalis a mixture of compounds such as digitoxin, digitonin, digitalin). The Aztec and Mayan cultures of Mesoamerica used extracts from a variety of bushes and trees including the ipecacuanha root (active principle emetine), coca bush (active principle cocaine), and cinchona bark (active principle quinine). It can be challenging to obtain information from practitioners of traditional medicine unless a genuine long term relationship is made. Ethnobotanist Richard Schultes approached the Amazonian shamans with respect, dealing with them on their terms. He became a depswa medicine man sharing their rituals while gaining knowledge. They responded to his inquiries in kind, leading to new medicines.[3] On the other hand Cherokee herbalist David Winston recounts how his uncle, a medicine priest, would habitually give misinformation to the visiting ethnobotanists. The acupuncturists who investigated Mayan medicine recounted in Wind in the Blood had something to share with the native healers and thus were able to find information not available to anthropologists.[4] The issue of rights to medicine derived from native plants used and frequently cultivated by native healers complicates this issue. Isolation and purification If the lead compound (or active principle) is present in a mixture of other compounds from a natural source, it has to be isolated and purified. The ease with which the active principle can be isolated and purified depends much on the structure, stability, and quantity of the compound. For example, Alexander Fleming recognized the antibiotic qualities of penicillin and its remarkable non-toxic nature to humans, but he disregarded it as a clinically useful drug because he was unable to purify it. He could isolate it in aqueous solution, but whenever he tried to remove the water, the drug was destroyed. It was not until the development of new experimental procedures such as freeze drying and chromatography that the successful isolation and purification of penicillin and other natural products became feasible. Synthesis Not all natural products can be fully synthesized and many natural products have very complex structures that are too difficult and expensive to synthesize on an industrial scale. These include drugs such as penicillin, morphine, and paclitaxel (Taxol). Such compounds can only be harvested from their natural source a process which can be tedious, time consuming, and expensive, as well as being wasteful on the natural resource. For example, one yew tree would have to be cut down to extract enough paclitaxel from its bark for a single dose. Furthermore, the number of structural analogues that can be obtained from harvesting is severely limited. A further problem is that isolates often work differently than the original natural products which have synergies and may combine, say, antimicrobial compounds with compounds that stimulate various pathways of the immune system: Many higher plants contain novel metabolites with antimicrobial and antiviral properties. However, in the developed world almost all clinically used chemotherapeutics have been produced by in vitro chemical synthesis. Exceptions, like taxol and vincristine, were structurally complex metabolites that were difficult to synthesize in vitro. Many non-natural, synthetic drugs cause severe side effects that were not acceptable except as treatments of last resort for terminal diseases such as cancer. The metabolites discovered in medicinal plants may avoid the side effect of synthetic drugs, because they must accumulate within living cells. Semisynthetic procedures can sometimes get around these problems. This often involves harvesting a biosynthetic intermediate from the natural source, rather than the final (lead) compound itself. The intermediate could then be converted to the final product by conventional synthesis. This approach can have two advantages. First, the intermediate may be more easily extracted in higher yield than the final product itself. Second, it may allow the possibility of synthesizing analogues of the final product. The semisynthetic penicillins are an illustration of this approach. Another recent example is that of paclitaxel. It is manufactured by extracting 10-deacetylbaccatin III from the needles of the yew tree, then carrying out a four-stage synthesis. Use Of Natural Product Ayurveda Chinese medicine Ethnobotany Journal of Natural Products Pharmacognosy Phytotherapy Secondary metabolite During the last few decades, research into natural products has advanced tremendously thanks to contributions from the fields of chemistry, life sciences, food science and material sciences. Comparisons of natural products from microorganisms, lower eukaryotes, animals, higher plants and marine organisms are now well documented. This book provides an easy-to-read overview of natural products. It includes twelve chapters covering most of the aspects of natural products chemistry. Each chapter covers general introduction, nomenclature, occurrence, isolation, detection, structure elucidation both by degradation and spectroscopic techniques, biosynthesis, synthesis, biological activity and commercial applications, if any, of the compounds mentioned in each topic. Therefore it will be useful for students, other researchers and industry. The introduction to each chapter is brief and attempts only to supply general knowledge in the particular field. Furthermore, at the end of each chapter t here is a list of recommended books for additional study and a list of relevant questions for practice. Combined with pharmacological screening, natural products chemistry has always provided highly useful leads for drug discovery. The searches for new biologically active compounds are most often based on hints coming from ethnobotany but there are still a huge number of unstudied plants, not to speak of mushrooms, marine organisms, insects, and microorganisms. There is a wealth of molecular diversity out there, waiting to be discovered and utilized. The central issue of such type of studies, structure elucidation, although often believed to be trivial, is still a process full of adventure, discovery, and even unavoidable pitfalls. Thus structure elucidation has still much to offer, especially when combined with biological tests. Chemistry Central Journal is waiting for your results to publish. Besides the classic studies connected to pharmacological activities, new developments challenge natural products chemists, such as metabolomics, the large-scale phytochemical analysis in the functional genomics era. Metabolomic requires from a natural product chemist brilliant knowledge of modern analytical techniques and chemometry and close collaboration with biochemists and biologists. Chemical ecology, too, could not advance properly without natural product chemistry. Approximately 60% of the worlds population relies almost entirely on plants for medication. However, if phytopharmaceuticals want to be regarded as rational drugs, they need to be standardized and pharmaceutical quality must be approved. For this reason, another important task for natural products chemistry is connected to standardization: to develop proper analytical methods of quality control, to make sure that medicines obtained from natural sources are safe and of reproducible efficacy. The publication of natural product research results in an open access journal is of great importance with respect both to research activities and to effective use of natural resources, removing both price and permission barriers. It is also important to authors, giving them the opportunity to publish their results where they will be most easily accessed by those who mostly need them. Natural Product Chemistry for Drug Discovery provides a comprehensive summary of where natural product chemistry is today in drug discovery. The book covers emerging technologies and case studies and is a source of up-to-date information on the topical subject of natural products. The authors, all experts in their respective fields, provide compelling arguments as to why naturel products should be considered important tools in the drug discovery process. The book will appeal across the board from scientists to professionals, postgraduates and industrial chemists. The case studies selected for inclusion highlight recently marketed drugs and development candidates that have been derived from natural products. These real-life examples show how new technologies, such as advances in screening, isolation, dereplication and prefractionation, have significantly enhanced the discovery process. Introduction Of Synthetic Chemistry In primitive societies, even today, clothes are cleaned by beating them on rocks near a stream. Certain plants, such as soapworts, have leaves that produce sapions, chemical compounds that give a soapy lather. These were probably the first detergents people used. If you look up detergent in a dictionary it is simply defined as cleaning agent. During the last two to three decades, however, the word detergent has tended to imply synthetic detergent, or syndet for short, rather than the older soap. In fact, commercial formulations consist of a number of components, and we shall use the term surface-active agent, or its abbreviation surfactant, to describe the special active ingredients that give detergents their unusual properties. Soap, by this definition, is a surfactant. In fact, it is the oldest one and has been in use for over 4500 years. Some soap manufacture took place in Venice and Savona in the fifteenth century, and in Marseilles in the seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century, manufacture was widespread throughout Europe and North America, and by the nineteenth century the making of soap had become a major industry. As a matter of fact, soap became a detergent in 1907 when a German company put the product Persil on the market. In addition to the carboxylic acid soap, Persil contained sodium perborate, sodium silicate and sodium carbonate. Hence perborate + silicate = PERSIL. Synthetic Surfactant or Soap? You may well ask why soap, which served well for so many years, was eventually displaced. Soaps are cheap and they are manufactured from a renewable source, whereas many of the synthetic detergents are made from petrochemicals. Soaps are also biodegradable; that is, they are readily broken down by bacteria, and thus they do not pollute rivers. However, due to their gelling properties, soaps do have a greater tendency to clog sewerage reticulation systems than synthetic detergents. The grease trap of a non-sewered house was often laden with soap. But the most important reason for the displacement of soap is the fact that, when a carboxylic acid soap is used in hard water, precipitation occurs. The calcium and magnesium ions, which give hardness to the water, form insoluble salts with the fatty acid in soap and a curd-like precipitate occurs and settles, of course, on what ever is being washed. By using a large excess of soap, it is possible to redisperse the precipitate, but it is ext remely sticky and difficult to move. This problem with soap can be demonstrated by a simple experiment in which a concentrated solution of hard-water salts is added to a 0.1% solution of soap and also to a 0.1% solution of synthetic surfactant. The soap precipitates, but the synthetic surfactant remains clear because its salts are water soluble. You may live in an area where the water is extremely soft. But calcium and magnesium ions are present in the dirt that you wash out of your clothes, so that some precipitation still occurs if soap is used, and gradually deposits are built up in the fabric. There are other disadvantages with soap; it deteriorates on storage, and it lacks cleaning power when compared with the modern synthetic surfactants, which can be designed to perform specialised cleaning tasks. Finally and very importantly from a domestic laundry point of view, soap does not rinse out; it tends to leave a residue behind in the fabric that is being washed. A residue gradually builds up and causes bad odour, deterioration of the fabric and other associated problems. Whats the Difference? Whats the difference between a surfactant and soap? In general terms, the difference can be likened to the difference between cotton and nylon. On the one hand, soap and cotton are produced from natural products by a relatively small modification. On the other hand, synthetic surfactants and nylon are produced entirely in a chemical factory. Synthetic surfactants are not very new, either. Back in 1834 the first forerunner of todays synthetic surfactants was produced in the form of a sulfated castor oil, which was used in the textile industry. The development of the first detergents in an effort to overcome the reaction of soaps with hard water provides a good illustration of one of the standard chemical approaches. If a useful substance has some undesirable property, an attempt is made to prepare an analogue, a near chemical relation, which will prove more satisfactory. The petroleum industry had, as a waste product, the compound propylene, CH3-CH=CH2, which used to be burnt off. By joining four of these propylene molecules together and if benzene is attached at the double bond, the resulting compound reacts with sulphuric acid. Then sodium hydroxide is added to neutralise the sulfonic acid and a sodium salt is obtained. The new substance is closely related to an ordinary soap, and is an excellent detergent. Detergent Foam Level The relationship between foaming power and detergency has always been of interest, and foaming power has become associated in many consumers minds with high detergent power. The first liquid detergent on the Australian market was Trix. It was non-foaming, so was soon replaced because of consumer resistance. However, it is generally conceded by detergent technologists that foam height has no direct relationship to cleaning power in ordinary fabric washing systems. In systems where the amount of washing fluid is low, foam may play an important role. The individual foam films tend to take up and hold particles of soil that have been removed from the item, preventing them from being re-deposited and allowing them to be washed or scraped away. Front loading washing machines work by bashing clothes against the side of the tub the high tech version of beating clothes on rocks. Front loaders clean clothes better than top loaders, but only if a low-suds detergent is used, because the suds cushion the impact and reduce the cleaning action. Chemical Characteristics Of Synthetic Chemistry Synthetic detergents dissolve or tend to dissolve in water or other solvents. To enable them to do this, they require distinct chemical characteristics. Hydrophilic (water loving) groupings in their molecular structure, and hydrophobic (water hating) groupings, help the detergent in its â€Å"detergency† action. This detergency depends on the balance of the molecular weight of the hydrophobic to the hydrophilic portion. This is called the HLB value, and can range from 1 upwards. HLB is Hydrophilic-Lypophilic Balance. As the 0HLB value increases, the product can tend towards being a paste or solid. The lower number HLB values tend to be less water soluble, and more oil soluble. The higher the HLB the more water soluble the product. Mixtures of low and high HLB detergents produce good detergents to handle oil, fat and grease, the higher HLB detergent helps solubilise the less water soluble, low HLB detergent into an aqueous system.

Micro Expressions: Detecting Lies in the Face and Eyes Essay -- Facia

Lying has been a problem since societies were first formed. Some people are great liars, others are not. But, whether someone is a good liar or not, one-tenth of a second is all it takes for subtle changes known as micro expressions to appear and disappear from a person’s face. These micro expressions are a sign of emotion. The people who read these micro expressions are human lie detectors. Although. police have machines such as the polygraph test, which measures body temperature and voice tone to help them detect when people are lying, micro expressions are far more reliable. Micro expressions are more useful to police than polygraph tests because, polygraph tests only detect spikes in emotion, there is little scientific evidence about accuracy, and micro expressions are proven to help people further scientific research. In the first place, the polygraph test can only detect spikes in emotion unlike micro expressions. Micro expressions are more useful to police because polygraph tests are unreliable; polygraph tests cannot tell which emotion is being felt by the person, they cannot tell why an emotion is being felt, and micro expressions cannot be controlled by people like polygraph tests can. To begin, polygraph tests cannot tell which emotion a person is feeling. Paul Ekman is one of the few scientists who researches micro expressions. He wrote a book called The Polygraph as a Lie Catcher, in this book he addresses the worldwide debate of whether the polygraph is an accurate lie detector. Ekman says, â€Å"Remember that the polygraph test is not a lie detector. It only detects emotional arousal† (251). The polygraph test cannot accurately detect the specific emotion a person is feeling; someone may be feeling nervous and the po... ...ons. Guliford, 2010. 211. books.google.com. Web. 30 jan. 2014. â€Å"Microexpressions: More Than Meets the Eye.† Talk of the Nation/Science Friday (NRP) (2013): Newspaper source. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. â€Å"Micromovements Hold Hidden Information About Severity of Autism, Researches Report.† newsmedicine.iu.edu. Indiana University, ISUM Newsroom, 2 December 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. â€Å"Polygraph Validity Research.† polygraph.org. American Polygraph Association, 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. Porter, Stephen, and Leanne Ten Brinkle. â€Å"Reading Between the Lies.† People.ok.ubca.ca. N.P. 31 Oct. 2007. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. PDF. Leach, Amy-May, et al. â€Å"The Reliability of Lie Detection Performance.† Law and Human Behavior 33.1 (Feb. 2009): JSTOR. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. Lock, Carrie. â€Å"Deception Detection.† Science News 66.5 (Jul. 31, 2004) : JSTOR. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Extremist Group Essay

Makenssey Brinkman Mr. Feudo English 1 Pre-AP – 6th 22 April 2010 The Dangers of The Extremes Extremist groups go above and beyond to get what they want. They go to extreme measures, even disregarding people’s safety and turning groups against each other to reach their goal. They are a great hazard to mankind. Despite the fact that people have the right of free speech and assembly, the banning of Extremist groups will better society because they promote hate and violence and turn people against each other. Topic Sentence 1) Extremist groups shower hate all over the groups of people who oppose them, and they become relentless in their attempt to do so. (Evidence 1) – â€Å"Anti-choicers harassed [George Tiller’s] patients, day in and day out. They bombed his clinic. They shot him once before. They filed lawsuit after lawsuit and even convinced local prosecutors to launch criminal investigations and trials. † (Analysis 1) – The Extremist pro-li fe group attacked the abortion doctor with hate.By harassing his patients and trying to convince prosecutors to go against him, they set a solid, horrid example for others that do not share the same views as Tiller. These hateful attacks ultimately led to Tiller’s murder by gun at The Reformation Lutheran Church. (Evidence 2) – â€Å"To recruit members and spread its beliefs, the American Front has collaborated with various neo-Nazi and skinhead groups to stage protests and rallies that demonize Jews, blacks, and other minorities. (Analysis 2) – Just to try and get members into the group, the Extremist group staged many protests and minorities put down many minor groups, They promoted hate into the people who listened to and watched them as they did so, and therefore spreading the hate all they could. (Example 3) – â€Å"Anti-Semites and racists have found video-sharing websites, such as YouTube and MySpace Video, an effective means to promote propagand a and hateful material that might not otherwise be seen by the public.Internet users who search video-sharing sites will often find anti-Semitic and racist videos when looking for information completely unrelated to the videos due to misleading tags and titles that extremists attach to the videos when uploading them to the sites. † (Analysis 3) – Extremist group are using the internet to spread hatred of other groups worldwide. By doing so, it makes it even easier for them to promote the hate and then hide the evidence if their website or video is caught. This must be stopped. Topic Sentence 2) Extremist groups use violence in reaching their goals and emphasizing the point they are trying to make. (Example 1) – â€Å"On June 10, 2009, a white supremist who believed it was â€Å"time to kill the Jews† took his gun to the Holocaust museum in Washington, D. C. , and stated shooting upon entering. † (Analysis 1) – In believing he was doing the ri ght thing, this Extremist tried to make his point by attacking the Holocaust victims museum. By attacking this museum, he made a big stand by basically showing with his violence that he supported what happened in the Holocaust. Example 2) – â€Å"[ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna)] has waged a relentless campaign of violence against the Spanish state, targeting politicians, policemen, judges, and soldiers. In 1980 alone, ETA was blamed for 118 deaths, and in 1995 it nearly succeeded in assassinating Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the opposition, now Spain’s prime minister. † (Analysis 2) – The Extremist group ETA is taking their beliefs to an extreme extent. By killing and trying to assassinate a respected leader, they are using the violence to try and scare off and weaken their opposition. Example 3) – â€Å"Since 1977, there have been at least 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery and three kidnappings committe d against abortion providers in North America. † (Analysis 3) – These are solid facts that exemplify all of the violence that have taken place from just one Extremist group. The groups cause pain and suffering in North America, and they feel as though using violence is one of the only ways to get their point across. (Topic Sentence 3) – Along with all the hate and violence that these groups reate, Extremist groups try tearing people further apart with their actions and words. (Example 1) – â€Å"The Kach movement was most famous for its platform calling for the removal of the entire Israeli-Arab population from Israel and transferring them â€Å"elsewhere. †Ã¢â‚¬  (Analysis 1) – The Jewish Defense League is another Extremist group that prizes themselves over all people. By trying to kick the Israeli-Arab population out of their homeland so they can take over, they cause horrible tensions between the people. These tensions would almost most certainly lead to more hate and more violence. Example 2) – â€Å"One man from Brockton, Massachusetts – who told police he had learned on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites – is charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as possible on the day after Obama's inauguration. † (Analysis 2) – By using the internet as a source to get to people, the Extremist groups have given false information and got what they wanted from it. They scared the man into believing that he was in danger, so he decided to take action and go against the other races. (Example 3) –

Private Peacefull

This is a book review on the book â€Å"private peaceful. † This is the best book I have read this year. This book is all about â€Å"innocence and love, courage and cowardice† as it is clearly written on the front of the cover of the book. This is a book about two brothers called Charlie who is the older brother and Tommo who is the smaller brother who go through the good side and the bad side of life because their father has died and other family issues.As they grow up they start to drift apart from each other because of a friend that they both love called molly who starts to gain love for to Charlie therefore leaving poor Charlie alone. Suddenly they have to go to war. So they pack their things say bye to their loved ones and go off to war†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. The book ‘Private Peaceful’ written by Michael Morpurgo is a book that explores the life of Tommo through past and present throughout of his life. The reader is also introduced to Charlie the brother of Tommo and how they are different towards each other. The book is one that also explores the relationship that Charlie and Tommo have.This book tells you how someone is like as a child, and how they are when they are older. An example to me of this would be Charlie. Charlie as a child was completely different to Tommo. Charlie is a very independent person he stands up for what he believes in, basically he is brave. Charlie is responsible to look after Tommo because he is very sensitive and his small brother. Example of this is when Tommo is getting beat up by Jimmy Parsons, Charlie comes to help, in the end Charlie is the one who gets punished but he just accepts it because he is brave, ‘†¦when it’s Charlie’s turn, all you hear are the punches’p24.Charlie is a character that stands up for what he believes in and what he believes was right. It was this believing attitude that made Charlie a man and took him through life. Charlie and Tommo had a really tight relationship when they were young but as time when on it started to fade a little until towards the end of the book when Charlie knew he was going to be punished after his actions. Then it became pretty intense and their relationship that was once strong when they were young became even stronger than it had ever been.An example of this is before Charlie gets shot. â€Å"This is going to be difficult enough without tears. † He holds me an arm length away. ’pg176. The book ‘Private Peaceful’ is one that makes a change on the individual. It is a book that shows how a person is able to change throughout life over a distance of time. It is also a book that tell you how individuals can stay the same, the things learnt in childhood, is able to be carried on into adult life. Tommo and Charlie are examples of this.The author is also trying to make the reader how one mistake can change a relationship so quickly and the change it can have on somebody. The book makes people realise that even though there is often change, it is really about the keeping the relationships with the people you love and using your past to change your future. In conclusion I think that this book is a fantastic book and a very emotional book and maybe a life changing book, for some individuals. For example it tells you to keep your relations tight with the ones you love, and also learn from your mistakes in the past. By Kaiser Saeed

The Most Dangerous Game Essay Essay Example

The Most Dangerous Game Essay Essay Example The Most Dangerous Game Essay Essay The Most Dangerous Game Essay Essay Essay Topic: The Most Dangerous Game Greed can sometimes be caused by desiring money. a better relationship. a better house. life. and other things. All of these have on e thing in common. desiring more than you already have. The older brother in â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† . for illustration. wants to populate with a better brother. so he and his brother battle to populate together. Some people do non recognize they have greed until it’s excessively late. Greed will ever ache people in the terminal. because they refuse to give in. it hurts other people. and it can alter history. In â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† . both Zaroff and Rainsford experience greed because they refuse to give in. In the beginning. Rainsford tries to acquire closer and closer to the border of the boat to see. and finally he falls off. and this is avaricious because he keeps seeking to see more and more. until it finally makes him fall off the boat. Next. when Zaroff meets Rainsford. he says he hunts worlds. because regular animate beings do non confront him with a large adequate challenge. and Rainsford defeats Zaroff and gets to last. This is avaricious because he wants to run more and more. until the point that it hurts him. because Rainsford got off without being harmed. Last. while the Hunt is taking topographic point. Zaroff gets greedy by directing out Ivan to take attention of Rainsford. but so because of this. Ivan gets killed. This is avaricious because he wants to direct every bit much at Rainsford as possible. but what he sends ends up acquiring killed. In â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† . the older brother experiences greed when it hurts other people. The first illustration of the older brother sing greed in this narrative is desiring a brother in better status. but because of this. he thinks less of his brother. and struggles to populate with him. The following illustration of the older brother sing greed was when he forced his brother to touch the casket. and he kept stating him over and over once more to touch it. and the brother eventually did. but so it hurt the younger brother because it made him call. This is avaricious because he wants his brother to make more and more. until it eventually hurts him in the terminal. The last illustration of greed that the older brother experiences was when he was running from his brother in the storm. and so the small brother fell. and when the older brother came back. he realized the small brother had died. This was greedy because his brother didn’t think it would be as terrible of a turnout as it really was. In â€Å"The Sound of Thunder† . Eckels greatly experiences greed and it changes history. First. Eckels wants to travel into the past to run a dinosaur. because he wants to run a immense animate being. but this does non vouch he will come back alive. This is highly avaricious because he wants to run more and more. until he finally changes history by traveling back in clip. The 2nd clip Eckels experiences greed is when he thinks he can easy take down the dinosaur when he sees it. but so because of this he steps off the way. and this is avaricious because he so steps off the way and alterations history because he wanted to run the dinosaur. The last clip Eckels experiences greed is when he steps off the way. he so alters history and alterations it everlastingly. and this is avaricious. because he wanted to run a bigger and better animate being. but so the effects were terrible. Changing history. aching other people. and declining to give in are ways that greed will ever ache you in the terminal. Greed causes many jobs in â€Å"The Scarlet Ibis† . â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† . and â€Å"The Sound of Thunder† . Whenever the people in the narratives experiences greed. they besides experiences the effects. When people experience greed multiple times. they will finally see the effects. This can go on by desiring more than you already have. or desiring person to make something. Every individual will likely see greed in their lives. but if they do non see it multiple times. they may non be presented with the effects.

Do You Need a Teaching Degree to Be a Teacher

Do You Need a Teaching Degree to Be a Teacher SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you have a goal of becoming a K-12 teacher, there are a number of ways to become licensed. Depending on where and what you want to teach, you can pursue a degree from an approved teacher education program or a means of alternative certification. In this article, we’ll cover how and where you can get a teaching degree, as well as which type of certification is best for your situation. Do You Need a Teaching Degree to Become a Teacher? Bottom line: do you need a teaching degree to become a teacher? Well, it’s complicated. Speaking from personal experience, I’m a licensed teacher in the state of Tennessee with endorsements in three subject areas. However, I never got a teaching degree; I received an alternative license through Teach for America. What you need to become a teacher will be dependent on the state you want to teach in and what you want to teach. Some states will allow alternative certifications; some will not. Some will require specialized coursework if you want to teach certain subjects (e.g., upper grades math); some will not. You can find information on your state’s requirements by visiting your state’s department of education website. How to Get a Teaching License If you want to become a teacher at a public school in the United States, you need to obtain a teacher’s license. Each of the 50 states has its own process and requirements for obtaining a teacher’s license. Most states require that you complete some sort of teacher training program (e.g., obtaining a bachelor’s degree in education) and pass standardized tests that prove your mastery of the content you’re teaching. You might also need to have supervised teaching experience, such as working for a year as a student-teacher. Once you obtain your teacher’s license, you’ll likely need to keep your license in good standing by participating in continuing education programs or taking other tests. Types of Teaching Degrees There are a number of different types of teaching degrees. Depending on what you want to teach, you might choose to pursue one of these paths. Associate’s Teaching Degree An associate’s teaching degree is one that you get by completing your associate’s program. An associate’s program usually takes two years and you can complete it at a community college. If you receive an associate’s degree in education, you probably won’t be able to be a full, lead classroom teacher. The vast majority of states require at least a bachelor’s degree for you to be the head teacher. Associate’s degrees qualify you to work as an assistant teacher or to work in pre-K. You’ll take classes on basic principles of education and pedagogy. You might complete an internship in a school, but probably won’t do a full student-teaching semester, as associate’s degree programs are already quite short. Bachelor’s Teaching Degree A bachelor’s teaching degree requires you to complete a four or five year program at a traditional college or university. In a four-year program, you’ll take classes on basic principles of education and pedagogy. You’ll likely also choose to specialize in a specific teaching area, like elementary or high school education. If you decide to be an elementary school teacher, you’ll take more classes on foundational learning objectives. If you decide to be a middle or high school grades teacher, you’ll take classes on how to teach specific subject areas. Most bachelor’s programs require you to do at least one semester of student teaching, if not a full year. They’ll also prepare you to take teacher licensing exams, like the Praxis exams. In most states, obtaining a four-year bachelor’s teaching degree will qualify you to be an apprentice teacher leading your own classroom. Master’s Teaching Degree A master’s teaching degree gives you more specialized training in your field. Most master’s programs are one or two years long. Obtaining a master’s degree can open you to more options in your teaching career. Some teaching fields, like special education, require more training in certain states. Most school districts also offer higher salary levels for teachers with master’s degrees. As part of your master’s degree program, you’ll likely have to do field work. This field work will be different than regular student teaching. You might be conducting research for a capstone project or observing specific programs. Obtaining a master’s degree will qualify you to be a lead teacher in your subject area. Alternative Paths to Teaching If you don’t have a college degree in teaching, you might still be able to be a K-12 teacher. Here are some alternative paths to teaching. Working at a Non-Traditional School If you want to be a teacher but don’t have a teaching degree, you might be able to work at a non-traditional school. While public schools managed by state and local departments of education have strict licensing requirements, schools that manage themselves set their own requirements for hiring teachers. Charter schools and private schools, for instance, often allow candidates with certain skills or experiences to become teachers, even without teaching experience. For instance, if you worked as a biology researcher, you might be allowed to become a science teacher, even if you don’t have any teaching experience. Going Through an Alternative Certification Program Alternative certification programs like Teach for America provide candidates with a nontraditional path to become a teacher. These certification programs work with specific school districts to become a licensing body, just like a college or university. Alternative certification programs have their own requirements and you’ll have to apply to be accepted. Depending on where you are and what program you’re in, you’ll need to complete different types of training. Teach for America, for instance, requires its corps members to complete an intensive summer program. Alternative certification programs work with school districts to help you obtain your license by fulfilling their requirements. Obtaining Subject Matter Expertise Depending on your state and what you’d like to teach, you might be able to get a teaching license by demonstrating subject matter expertise. This path to your teacher’s license is typically for people who want to teach upper-level subjects, like AP biology or calculus. You can demonstrate subject matter expertise through a combination of work experience and education. You’ll need to research your district’s requirements to see if this path is an option for where you want to teach. Teaching Degrees: The Bottom Line The type of teaching degree you’ll need depends on where and what you want to teach. Each state has its own requirements. You can pursue a teaching degree through a traditional program, like a bachelor’s degree at a college or university, or through an alternative means of certification. What’s Next? Getting ready to take the GED?Read our complete guide on GEDs for everything you need to know about this important exam. If you're hoping to attend college but are unsure howto begin the search process, check out this step by step guide for doing college research. If you're looking to get a teaching degree, you may choose to attend community college for a year or two and then transfer to a four-year college. Read our complete guide to transferring colleges to learn more about this process.

A new teenage magazine with the target Essay Example for Free

A new teenage magazine with the target Essay ? The brief was to produce a new teenage magazine with the target audiences of either or both male or female within the target range of 13 to 19 years old. In the process of the production we could working in groups or individually. Working in a group of three produce front page and a double page spread article for the new magazine. In the production each member of the group need to have a minimum of three original pictures. Before staring the production i made a project schedule to with deadline for each sections of the production. To fulfil the brief i started researching similar text. It would best suit me to produce a magazine for male audience hence researched magazines complementing boy’s titles such as TOPGEAR, EVO and MAX POWER. The mise en scene and the conventions of all these magazines had resemblance regards to the design, layout. For example the magazine names where all in bold fonts with use of strong colours representing stereotypical macho man characteristics. Technical codes such as the high angle shots used to denote the power of the cars. All the magazines included vast number of images that consist of Mid shots, Mid Close Up and Mid Long shots of the cars facing the magazine to grab the attention of the readers so that they won’t be bored of reading a long article. The researches into similar text help me to decide some important aspects of the magazine. I carried out a questionnaire and interviews. the questionnaire was give to both males and females. I found that there was a demand for teenage car magazine in the market but my founding’s showed that females didn’t have much of interest in cars. The males where asked if they would or won’t buy the magazine the majority said they would if the magazines contented more of their interests of sex and cars. Whereas female’s lacked interest. in the questionnaire the done most participants were interested customising their cars. And that they find the cost of insurance and fuel to high some when considering to sale their cars. I have chosen my target audience to be male so both of the interviewee i interviewed where males between 16-19 drives. From this i would be able observe the interests and the difficulty first hand. To meet the demand of the targeted audience i have decided to have an article on ways to get cheaper and more affordable insurance. The format that I have decided to adopt is similar to the one of the other Car magazines and as this I found from the interview was preferable by my target audience. I have chosen the name TOPSPEED which follows the stereotype that most male readers want â€Å"fast cars† and â€Å"babes†. I would be reviewing a car that relates to target audience cars that has small engine and cheaper insurance category so that student can financially afford to drive it. The planning involved a subject matter research where the main research was done for Ford Fiesta ST in areas like car specification and it’s stability for young drives using i cold write up the double page spared article. The other area i researched was for student car insurance. This could be used to write up a mini article to help and give advice for getting cheap car insurance. I had never used Photoshop before so the whole process was an opportunity to learn new skill. I got some practise on Photoshop and Publisher before i started the final production. The technical skills that we practised in class include lighting. Regarding lighting, it can be used to create a particular mood. I started off by brainstorming me ideas. Finally deciding on car giving information and review car of a car that is affordable to teenagers as my target market will be more interested in rather than an expensive car that they may have trouble affording. I had descried to review the new Ford Fiesta ST because this would perfectly for my targeted audience since it had a small engine which uses less fuel plus it had i low insurance category meaning lower insurance premium. The Ford Fiesta ST was the sport version denoting speed and boy racers. Regards the design Ford was a very good looking Supermini which would easily grab the attention of the targeted audience. Analyzing the questionnaire cost of insurance was other area where young drivers had difficulties so i had decided to add tip to get cheap insurance. I write up a draft article using the information from the research which i will later improve for a magazine standard. Use this i experiment different layout for front cover and the double page spread and the use of font size different colours so that i had clear idea what work and what doesn’t in a car magazine plus this help with how i want to take the pictures. I experimented with different typeface for the magazine name with different font’s colours and size to see which suits best for the front cover. Before the photo shoot i had to have a miscellaneous paperwork and productions design which includes the location of the shoot which is in Edgware i won’t do any alteration to set design which is the car showroom. The showroom will have a good lighting so there is no need for me to arrange any sort of lighting for the shoot. I could have different action for the cars open doors or turn the wheel sideways will show the wheels properly and give the car character. The miscellaneous paperwork need to be done for risks assessment, equipment book forms, access permission and call sheets to be taken to the shoot location signed and dated by the person give the permission to take the photos The photo shoot was hard to arrange I called up several Ford dealerships to organise a photo shoot but only a couple of the dealership agreed to let me take pictures in there showrooms. The space around the car was limited for that reason most of the pictures i took was close up shoot or mid shoots i wasn’t able to get any long shoot which would have helped show all the outer features of the car. The showroom had too much light i couldn’t take some of the photos that i wanted. The car was parked in way that i could get pictures from back of the car. I wanted to take close up pictures of the speed-o-meter of the car but the staring wheel came was obstruction which i couldn’t get clear picture. The staring wheel was locked which meant i couldn’t turn the wheel sideways which is a convention in must car magazines. I didn’t want the background of the photos i took using Photoshop i cut them out with the Magic wand tool and using the smudge tool smoothen the edges. I did this with most of the photos i wanted to use in the production. i decides to use black background for the red car. This is because the colour of the car would stand out and it strong male on your face colours. When i placed the photos on the cover page over a black background you could still see the ragged edges around the car. To solve this problem i added drop back shadow which covered the edges. I decided to use all caps and with modern but simple bold fonts in white colour that would stand out with black background. I downloaded a font from internet that you could make barcode with it this way i could customize the barcode specifically for my magazine. Inside the magazine for the main headings i used the same fonts as i had on the front cover. Experimenting with the layout I found one that would suit the best for the double page article. I divided the columns into equal sizes with little gaps between to make it easy to read. I give white border around the all the pictures used in the double page spared and place them on top of each other to give it a nice effect. When i improved my draft article and paste it into the columns of the double page spread using auto flow the article was too long and didn’t fit into the area i wanted it. I thought that teens would be bored to read a long article so i decided to shorten it. I decided to have a different colour background for the mini article about insurance. A new teenage magazine with the target. (2017, Aug 02).

Dose Trade with Low-Wage Countries Cause a trade Deficit in the Assignment

Dose Trade with Low-Wage Countries Cause a trade Deficit in the High-Wage Country - Assignment Example This is because; absorption of U.S domestic demand for goods by exporters in china and oil exporting countries has widely suppressed domestic job creation in the U.S. In 2011 and 2010, the increasing U.S trade deficit with China led to 2.8 million jobs displacement in U.S (Bordon, 2011). Other factors that have led to the shrinking of the manufacturing sector include rising technological changes which have increased labor productivity, forcing firms to hire few workers. It is incorrect for the Business and Industry Council to blame imports alone for the international imbalance that have led to manufacturing crisis. Manufacturing crisis refers to the long-run trend of falling employment in the manufacturing sector in the United States. The macroeconomic policies that China has adopted of currency devaluation, increasing U.S dollar holding and, subsidies advancement to a range of industries are the major cause of the high trade deficit. By 2011, China had accumulated $3.26 trillion in foreign reserves in U.S treasuries. In Chinese auto-parts industry, both domestic and foreign owned plants have received $27.5 billion in government subsidies. In 2006, 58.2 per cent of China’s exports were from the foreign firms operating in China. These firms are taking advantages of the subsidy policy and availability of cheap labor in China. China and other low wage rate countries enjoy availability of cheap labor, relative to their counterparts in the US and other developed countries. This is the area where they have a comparative advantage in manufacturing. Undervaluing the Chinese currency, yuan, has expanded the U.S trade deficit hurting the U.S manufacturing and depressing the U.S employment. According to the congress research service report (2008), China’s foreign exchange rates reserves increased from $403 billion to $1.5 trillion between 2003 and 2007.in 2010 the reserves were $3.2 trillion. Lutes argue that, lax U.S financial regulations that have fueled over

Property law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Property law - Essay Example This may require a fee payment to prove the ability. The requirements inform the authority on the types of activities they should do and give them an opportunity to come up with conditions and the limitations. The licensing process is one of the richest retail markets in the world ( Lewicki, Saunders, Minton , & Barry, 2003). However, having a license is not an instant success. It will need good marketing and selling to succeed. It is a cost effective tool for marketing when it is well used. Licensing has three main advantages. First, it means that you have a unique thing, which your competitors do not have. Secondly, it means that you are getting a little better advantage because it is different from the rest. Thirdly, it means that you have something different that you can easily sell to the retailers. Licensing is important to both the licensor and the licensee, to the licensor for example a company that does not want to be involved in the manufacture of some products it can licen se out to any of its partners but retaining its ownership but only get some economic benefit from the royalty income. Licensing out can also help a company expand its operation to other new markets and commercialize its business. It may also be used to get an access to new markets that are not accessible. The licensee may make translation of instruction and labels required to enter a foreign market and to modify the goods to conform to local regulations and rules and the expansion of marketing. To the licensee it makes one reach the market faster, and supply new products with then access of the license and improve its services and marketing after getting a marketing opportunity. Licensing of properties is categorized into; technology licenses, trademark and merchandise licenses and publish and entertainment licenses. Licensing mainly involves trade secrets and patents. The sharia or Islamic law has several sources like the Quran, the Sunna and others. The aspect of property licensin g and protection of property is considered on three aspects: property, contract, and public interest. To establish a law one should be able to point at a verse in the Quran, a tradition or Hadith of the prophet Muhammad. The license under property law Property rights are intangible; they cannot be seen or touched. Due diligence is required before starting on any kind of licensing transaction or agreement. One has to gather enough information on the licensor, the market the market being developed and the legal business environment. Property licensing is therefore the permission given to the licensee by the licensor. It is mainly categorized to patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Property licensing is created by statute; they are created by legislation, which gives the limits and scope of protection of the property. They may vary according to territory for example a patent in U.S.A is enforceable and valid only in the U.S. or it can also be international for example a copyright in a book which is authored in a particular country say England is valid in all Common Wealth countries. The main two categories of property license are hard property rights, which include patents, trademarks and copyrights while the soft property rights include trade secrets, confidential information and know how. A patent is an agreement to license or give a right to a licensee like a manufacturer to sell and use the invention that he has claimed in that patent, and to

Effect of Long-term Deposition of Phosphate and Nitrogen on Lab Report

Effect of Long-term Deposition of Phosphate and Nitrogen on Pphosphatase Activity in Moss - Lab Report Example These plants are very important in the ecosystem as they create a significant buffer system for other plants around them (Speck 1941). Plants from this family can also be a distinct indicator of the quality of the environment surrounding them, as most of them can be sensitive to the moisture present in the atmosphere (Small 1933). Mosses and liverworts contain several secondary metabolites being investigated for various agricultural, phytochemical, and pharmacological products. This experiment was aimed at comparing phosphatase enzyme rate in moss species Hypnumjutlandicum, having received prior treatment of nitrogen and phosphate. Two different hypotheses were tested on two different variables, the nitrogen, and the phosphate. The first hypothesis was that phosphate will increase the rate of the phosphatase activity and the second was that nitrogen would decrease the rate of the phosphatase activity. The test tubes containing different moss sample nutrient treatment were labeled to avoid contamination of the solutions. About 2 cm of each moss sample was placed in each of the labeled test tubes followed by 2.5 ml of deionized water and the contents of the test tubes mixed. A total of 2.5 ml of 10 mm nitrophenyl phosphate (NPP) was then added to the mixture and the stopwatch started to record time. The mixtures were left to stand for thirty minutes at room temperature to ensure that the enzyme substrate does not denature since enzymes have a working optimum temperature beyond which they denature. The test tubes were shaken at an interval of five minutes. A solution of 5 ml of 0.2M NaOH was placed in each of the six labeled test tubes. A pipette was used to draw 0.5 ml of the NPP/moss/ water assay solution into each of the test tubes containing 5 ml of NaOH the test tubes were then shaken for the mixture to combine. A shade of yellow was used as an indicator of a complete reaction.

Equations of Motion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Equations of Motion - Essay Example For any vibration to occur, a restoring force must be in existence. In this respect, a restoring force is identified in a pendulum. The restoring force is applied by the springs as long as Hooke’s law is observed. The restoring force, therefore, is proportional to the extension (e) with the constant (K) as the spring constant. That is force is equal to the extension times the spring constant (f=k e). The number of oscillations per unit time is equal to the frequency. Frequency is measured in units referred to as hertz (Hz). The motion of a simple pendulum is one of the phenomena that can be used to approximate the simple harmonic motion. The motion is sinusoidal and is a demonstration of resonant frequency that is single (Dunwoody, H. 2000). A pendulum is a simple set up in which a string is attached to a small bob. The string is clamped, and when it is displaced, it swings in a to and fro motion. The time that would be taken to complete one oscillation is referred to as perio dic time (T). The periodic time depends on the length of the pendulum and the acceleration due to gravity (g). That is T=2?v (l/g) Where l is the length of the pendulum whereas g is the acceleration due to gravity (g). When a body is vibrating, its potential energy is converted to kinetic energy (Dunwoody, H. 2000). ... This paper explores an experiment of simple harmonic motion by studying a pendulum (Grant, R., 2005). The hypothesis of this experiment is that increasing the length of the pendulum shall increase the periodic time (T) of a simple pendulum. Method Apparatus The instruments and apparatus that were used in this experiment included the simple pendulum, stop watch, meter rule, and protractor. Procedure. The simple pendulum was set up. The setup was made up of three regions. The centre was the pendulum. The length of the pendulum was chosen for the pendulum by using the slider on the left side of the screen. This value was recorded in the data table. The amplitude was raised to about 20 degrees. This value was equally recorded in the data table. The start animation button was clicked, and when the pendulum passed its lowest point, the timer was started. The time taken for the pendulum to complete 10 cycles was taken, and the timer stopped as the pendulum passed through the lowest point on ce again. This time was recorded in the data table. The mass of bob and the amplitude were kept constant. The length of the pendulum was varied and the period of oscillation determined for certain pendulum length. A series of the values for the period were determined through a number of trials. The length of the pendulum was varied so as to determine whether the period of oscillation depends on the length of the pendulum cord. About four trials were done using the same amplitude but changing the pendulum lengths. The results obtained were used to plot a graph of period versus the length and graph of period against the square root of the length. Results. Table 1: A table showing the data collected. Trial Length (m) L2 (m2) Time for 10 oscillations (s) S2

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business Ethics - Essay Example This means that, they should not base on the individual’s clinical decisions on matters concerning the care and prevention of each patient, policy decisions and management of the systems. In addition to that, personal decisions should not be allowed when organizing, managing and paying for a care. As a matter of fact, it is ideal for individuals involved in healthcare system to understand that getting the right clinical decisions needs a wider application of the â€Å"principles of evidence-based medicine.† The systematic utilization of evidence based management helps in improving the significant decisions affecting care in the health plan, hospital, community or nursing home and physician practice. In that case, for evidence -based medicine to be implemented successfully, it needs the evidence-based management support (Fraser, 2007). Evidence-based management widespread application might not be easy or rapid. This is because, its history is torturous and long and achie ving it is becoming extremely harder. Perhaps, most of the managers may conceive the clinical interventions conceptual foundation of evaluation irrelevant. Biology as it is does not possess local variation unlike the way health plan or hospital administrations and physician practices do. ... tioner literature and academic literature on the management of human resource is a perfect cause and indicator of the existing separation between practice and research in management of human resource (Boudreau, 2007). Whatever is passed as† best Practice† in human resource management in most cases is not. In some instances, there exists no evidence validating what are conceived to be practices that are perfect. On the other hand, there are some circumstances there are evidences available to suggest whatever practices are thought to be best are indeed inferior. In summary, human resource management that is evidence-based is not practiced in most of the organizations. As a result, there is underperformance in the organization with respect to principal stakeholders including investors, employees and the community (Lawler, 2007). Situation There exist a conflict between the Chief Executive Officer Mr Mark Willey and the Medical officer Miss Sally Randolph. Both of them work i n American Medical Centre (AMC). Mark Willey has emailed Sally Randolph a message that has completely blurred her vision. She claims that the email that had been sent to her was labelled urgent with an exclamation in red whose subject line was† Evidence-based- Management seminar has been cancelled.† This is because the focus of Mark the CEO had shifted from taking care of patients to profits. The message not only disturbed sally but also other employees such as Richard who had been among the thirty six participants in the evidence-based management workshop that had been performed by sally. His remarks were as follows† I just read the e-mail from Mark and I am really frustrated. Making us middle managers on these task forces won’t change how anyone works.† According to Richard, the medical

Internship monthly report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Internship monthly report - Assignment Example I participated in several activities like; preparing several master programs. I was briefed on the idea before I began doing it. I also took part in the view and price analysis of the Baltimore house project. It was fun as well as challenging as I had to do it on my own and later explain why I thought it was so to the rest. Another challenging activity I did was to participate in a meeting representing one of my supervisors who was on holiday. I had to report to representatives from other departments on issues concerning the Baltimore project plan of the Wing Hong Street project. It was very exciting since I had to contribute to the meeting alone. I gained the essential knowledge concerning the job nature of building and construction. For this second month, I learnt how to co-operate with diverse parties from a customer perspective. I established that problems in communication were the most tricky to address in property management. Junior, Ricardo  M., Josà ©Ã‚  R. Quevedo, Civil Engineer, Jorge  M. Jr, and Paulo  S. Fontoura. "THE NECESSARY BACKGROUND FOR IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING BUILDING DESIGN PROCESSES USING WEB ENVIRONMENTS."  (2007):

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business Ethics - Essay Example This means that, they should not base on the individual’s clinical decisions on matters concerning the care and prevention of each patient, policy decisions and management of the systems. In addition to that, personal decisions should not be allowed when organizing, managing and paying for a care. As a matter of fact, it is ideal for individuals involved in healthcare system to understand that getting the right clinical decisions needs a wider application of the â€Å"principles of evidence-based medicine.† The systematic utilization of evidence based management helps in improving the significant decisions affecting care in the health plan, hospital, community or nursing home and physician practice. In that case, for evidence -based medicine to be implemented successfully, it needs the evidence-based management support (Fraser, 2007). Evidence-based management widespread application might not be easy or rapid. This is because, its history is torturous and long and achie ving it is becoming extremely harder. Perhaps, most of the managers may conceive the clinical interventions conceptual foundation of evaluation irrelevant. Biology as it is does not possess local variation unlike the way health plan or hospital administrations and physician practices do. ... tioner literature and academic literature on the management of human resource is a perfect cause and indicator of the existing separation between practice and research in management of human resource (Boudreau, 2007). Whatever is passed as† best Practice† in human resource management in most cases is not. In some instances, there exists no evidence validating what are conceived to be practices that are perfect. On the other hand, there are some circumstances there are evidences available to suggest whatever practices are thought to be best are indeed inferior. In summary, human resource management that is evidence-based is not practiced in most of the organizations. As a result, there is underperformance in the organization with respect to principal stakeholders including investors, employees and the community (Lawler, 2007). Situation There exist a conflict between the Chief Executive Officer Mr Mark Willey and the Medical officer Miss Sally Randolph. Both of them work i n American Medical Centre (AMC). Mark Willey has emailed Sally Randolph a message that has completely blurred her vision. She claims that the email that had been sent to her was labelled urgent with an exclamation in red whose subject line was† Evidence-based- Management seminar has been cancelled.† This is because the focus of Mark the CEO had shifted from taking care of patients to profits. The message not only disturbed sally but also other employees such as Richard who had been among the thirty six participants in the evidence-based management workshop that had been performed by sally. His remarks were as follows† I just read the e-mail from Mark and I am really frustrated. Making us middle managers on these task forces won’t change how anyone works.† According to Richard, the medical

Tides and Times Essay Example for Free

Tides and Times Essay Time is like an ocean bed with each passing tides brings something new, Tides and Times is an article about the history that affected our generation, people that continue to inspire for as long as we can remember. Fernandez mentioned historical people who shape and influence his life and how any person can make big changes no matter how small his/her accomplished. He state that any person can be part of history, can pass something down to the next generation and should never be ashamed of what we did. Fernandez was saying that change is part of nature and let change be part of our life just people we met change our lives how they affect us and to it to others. Do what you do best be proud of who you are no matter what people say not matter what the situation are. We are not like the people on the books, articles and in the past maybe we can never be like them but what really matter is what we can do in our times to show our spark. The article discuss Jose Rizal about how he was one in a million how he try to avoid revolution at any cost that he was able to fulfill his dreams despite his hardship even at the cost of his life. Even people who wanted to good but ended up failing, Alfred Nobel created the dynamite so that people would fear the power of other countries and stop fighting but only ending up creating more fight between the nations and was named as the merchant of death even after all that Alfred continue to do and search what he could do for mankind. People do great things that no other would do and we record those things in spite of that why? We continue to search for better and amazing things we do it because we are not condiment is because we want to not for us but for the world. Sometimes we do even know that people made a big change in our lives we need to know what did that person do and how did it affects us thousands of people come and go their all part of us.

Romantic relationships and academic grade point average

Romantic relationships and academic grade point average This study will be conducted to investigate whether or not there is an association between involvement in a romantic relationship and academic grade point average (GPA) amongst pharmacy students. METHODS: Pharmacy students in their first, second, and third professional years of the traditional Doctor of Pharmacy program at Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy in Winchester, Virginia will be utilized as subjects for the study. Fourth-year and non-traditional students will be excluded from participation due to limited or no accessibility. By way of convenience sampling, approximately 355 students from the Winchester and Ashburn campuses of the school of pharmacy will be administered a survey at the end of the spring semester. Only students who are present and in class on the day the survey is administered will participate. Based on their responses to the third survey question concerning current romantic relationship and corresponding living status, the students will be separated into groups ranked from least involved to most involved with respect to current romantic relationship status; these groups will be designated single, casual partner, serious partner, and married. After all students have been placed into a group, their GPAs will be analyzed and compared to examine if there exists a correlation between involvement in varying levels of romantic relationships and pharmacy school GPA. We hypothesize that involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on GPA. RESULTS: N/A. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that involvement in a romantic relationship affects pharmacy school GPA. Students who will be or are currently enrolled in a graduate program can use the information from this study to make decisions concerning involvement in romantic relationships and extracurricular commitments. Introduction While there have been many studies on the effect of academic grade point average (GPA) (given a wide range of variables), it is unknown, up to this point, if relationship status affects GPA, and if so, how it affects GPA (positively or negatively). The rationale for this research project is that there have been no previous studies on GPA and relationship status for graduate students currently enrolled in pharmacy school. While limited research has been conducted on GPA and relationship status, there was more focus on adolescents (high school students). Previous limited studies performed on pharmacy students include variables such as test anxiety, time management, test competence, academic competence, and study techniques. The scope of this research project is to study the effects of relationship status on GPA for graduate students in pharmacy school. As a result, the same study can be performed on any graduate school program, not just pharmacy, using the same survey questionnaire. We hypothesize that involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on GPA. Relationship status, in this study, is defined as any one of the following: single; casual partner; serious partner; married. Being in a relationship is defined as all of the latter except: single. Other variables considered in this project (gender, age, year of study, hours dedicated to studying per week, importance of GPA, and hours worked and/or volunteered per week) are needed and help to isolate the effects of relationship status on GPA. While the primary concern of this study is to evaluate if romantic relationship status has any effect on the GPA of students in pharmacy school, it may also be extended to discover if there is a positive or negative effect on GPA dependent on relationship status. If there is no significant difference between relationship status and GPA, then perhaps data collected on other variables might explain a difference. Literature Review Our study is conducted to determine how varying levels of involvement in romantic relationships affect the academic GPA of pharmacy students. There have been many studies that examined the relationship between dating and the GPA of students. Many of the studies were conducted using high school and undergraduate college students. One study was conducted by Phuong T. Pham (2002) at Loyola University. Effects of Romantic Relationships on Academic Performance in College, examined the relationship between dating and academic performance in college. Pham hypothesized that dating while in an undergraduate program would result in a lower GPA. A survey was conducted at Loyola University and after analyzing the results, it was concluded that there was no correlation between academic performance and dating. A similar study was conducted by Matthew E. Kopfler (2003) at Loyola University that looked at the effects of romantic relationships on academic performance of undergraduate students. The hypothesis of the study was that students involved in romantic relationships would not perform academically as well as those who were not involved in romantic relationships. The study was conducted by surveying 75 Loyola undergraduate college students. After collecting the surveys and analyzing the results, Kopfler concluded that there was no impact on GPA if a student was involved in a romantic relationship. Factors that Affect Academic Performance Among Pharmacy Students was a study conducted by Sansgiry, Bhosle, and Sail. This study looked at different factors that might have an impact on the GPA of pharmacy students. Sansgiry et al. used a questionnaire to evaluate factors such as test anxiety, time management, test competence, academic competence, and study techniques and their impact on GPA. This is a very important question to ask since GPA is used as an indicator of academic performance. Most colleges and universities set a minimal GPA that student applicants must meet in order to be considered for admittance into the school. Their study concluded that test competence was an important factor in distinguishing students who will perform well academically from those who will perform poorly. Other factors that include academic competence, test competence, test anxiety, and time management improve as the student advances through the pharmacy curriculum. The two studies conducted at Loyola University derived similar conclusions, that is: the academic performance of undergraduate college students were not affected by involvement in romantic relationships. Our study advances the focus further by investigating how academic performance, as measured by GPA, is affected by involvement in romantic relationships while enrolled in a graduate college program. The study conducted by Sanger et al. is important because it looked at time management and its effect on the GPA of pharmacy students. It was concluded from this study that time management does not have an impact on GPA. Time management was defined as clusters of behavioral skill sets that are important in the organization of study/course load. Time management includes planning in advance, prioritizing work, test preparation, and following schedules. In our study, we will correlate time management with respect to relationship status by examining the amount of time spent with a partner com pared to studying academic material and evaluate if this impacts the GPA of graduate college students. Methodology Participants Second-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students from Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy in Winchester, Virginia (VA) conducted a research study to determine if there exists a link between involvement in romantic relationships of pharmacy school students and their academic GPA. GPA will be the dependent variable of this study and thus the focus of the research. The GPA will subsequently be analyzed and compared with involvement in romantic relationships. Involvement in pharmaceutical organizations, volunteer work, and weekly part-time work will also be considered as future research factors that may have an impact on GPA. The data for the project was gathered at the two separate campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy. The survey was administered at the main campus in Winchester, VA as well as the satellite campus in Ashburn, VA. A survey was selected to be the method of choice to obtain data because of its relative low cost of manufacturing and ease o f administration. Sampling The population under consideration in this study includes all traditional PharmD students who are currently enrolled full-time. This does not include fourth-year and non-traditional students on clinical rotations. Our sample population will include all traditional PharmD students at the Winchester and Ashburn campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy who agreed to fill-out and complete a survey questionnaire within a 10 day period. The researchers agreed that a limit of 10 days is a sufficient length of time to provide for appropriate completion of the survey questionnaires and for adequate collection of responses. The sample will be gathered through a convenience sampling method and will therefore be given to participants present on the day selected by the researchers to administer the survey. Because a control group will not be utilized in this study, convenience sampling is the easiest and most effective method to gather participants. The researchers plan to administer th e survey to approximately 355 participants across the two campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy. Before data is collected, the researchers will obtain approval for the research study from the Human Subjects Review Board at Shenandoah University. This board is the equivalent of an Institutional Review Board. The confidentiality of participants will be ensured for this study as no indentifying information will be collected. Research Design Data will be collected through the use of a survey questionnaire. The survey consists of eight questions designed to gather information about students GPA and their involvement in romantic relationships. The survey was created by the researchers and was designed to allow for quick and easy completion. The survey was administered to the students at the end of the spring semester by the researchers. Administration of the survey at end of the spring semester was chosen in order to allow for the inclusion of first-year students, who by then already received their fall semester grades, in the study. Each survey questionnaire contains the same questions and can be administered without any prior training of the student participant. Each survey question was designed to be a test item for the research study. The survey is attached as an appendix. The first, second, and fifth questions are used to attain demographic information. Gender, age, and year in professional school can all be used as adjuncts in evaluation of the data. The third question is the first critical test item of the study. It inquires into the current relationship and corresponding living status of the survey respondent. This question is intended to be a test item that would group students into categories ranging from least involved to most involved as relating to romantic relationship involvement. Each category was based upon the following answer choices: 1. Single 2. Casual partner 3. Serious partner 4. Married An answer of the respondent to this question is the independent variable and therefore the prime factor for comparison against GPA. Using responses to this question, the researchers will place student participants in their designated groups, compute and compare the average GPAs for each group, and evaluate for any variances in GPA amongst groups. The fourth question was used as a tool to gather information about the dependent variable, student GPA. The researchers decided to use five ranges for the GPA. This will allow for easier collection and grouping of data in a manner that will facilitate efficiency of management and analysis. The sixth, seventh, and eighth questions were placed in the survey to gather additional data about the extracurricular activities of student participants. These responses will be collected and appropriately managed. The data will not be analyzed in this study but will be made available for future research studies. The seventh question was based on a Likert Scale and can be used to evaluate whether or not the motivation of a respondent has an effect on their GPA. Data Collection Our method of collecting data is through a survey. The entire sample population will be asked to complete the same survey within a 10-day period. We have increased the reliability of our study in two ways. The first is by asking all of the participants to complete the same survey. This increases the consistency of the study. The second is by making the survey questions concise and straightforward so that each can be interpreted and understood the same by all respondents. This is critical because all respondents are asked the same questions, and therefore, it is necessary to achieve similar interpretation among respondents. It is important to have reliability because without reliability a study cannot have validity. Reliability is required in order to assess the validity of the measurement instrument. We have established that our study has reliability. We must now determine if it has internal validity. Internal validity is very important in our study because it shows that our survey correctly assessed the effects of involvement in romantic relationships on the academic GPA of pharmacy students. Our study is based on a two-group after only model, and therefore, many of the threats to internal validity do not apply. The history threat does not apply because we do not ask questions regarding past events that might have altered the GPA of a pharmacy student. For example, a student may have a lower GPA than normal because a traumatic event happened right before a big exam. Many of the other threats to internal validity cannot occur in our study because of our study design. Therefore, the internal validity of our study is further substantiated. Only complete survey questionnaires will be included in this study. If all eight survey questions are not answered, that particular survey questionnaire will be thrown out. Data Analysis The pooled variance t-Test will be used because of the two populations (single and in a relationship), as well as the comparison between two means (mean GPA of students who are single and mean GPA of students who answered as being in a relationship). Data will be collected using the eight question survey discussed previously and will be coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Scientists (SPSS) program. The data will be coded corresponding to the answers circled by each participant (for example, if a participant circled the number 1 for the question What is your gender, that would correspond to male and the number 1 would be entered under the gender category for our SPSS data sheet; if they circled a 3 for the question What is your current age range, that answer would correspond to 25 29 and a number 3 would be entered under the age category for our data sheet). All of the data will be entered manually by one person and every fifth entry will be checked agains t that particular survey by a research assistant. Having all data entered into SPSS allows for easy comparison of different factors on GPA, including testing the study hypothesis. The first test performed on the data will be to evaluate the average GPA for respondents of all romantic relationship status groups except the single group. This average GPA will then be compared to the average GPA of those students who fall into the single group. The mean value of GPA for all students who completed a survey questionnaire will also be computed. An alpha level of 0.05 will be set. Our objective is to discover any significant variances in GPA of those who are in romantic relationships versus those who are single. If our P value is less than 0.05 (our alpha value) then there is a significant difference in the mean GPA values for those who are in romantic relationships versus those who are single. In this case, we will reject our null hypothesis: involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on academic GPA. Accordingly, we will examine significant differences in GPA to see whether there exists a positive or negative correlation to involvement in romantic re lationships as opposed to being single. We will also break down the relationship categories to compare and determine if there are any significant differences between the average GPA of each group. For example, analysis will be performed to see if there is a significant difference in GPA between students in serious partner relationships versus those in married relationships. Discussion The null hypothesis of the study states that there is no effect regarding involvement of romantic relationship on GPA. If the resulting P value is greater than or equal to our alpha value of 0.05, we would fail to reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the projected outcome of the study is that there is no effect on involvement in a romantic relationship and GPA. However, if the resulted P value is less than our alpha value of 0.05, then we would reject the null hypothesis. In the latter case, the result would be that there is an effect regarding involvement of romantic relationship on GPA. The main reason for this study is to see if being in a relationship has an effect on GPA for graduate students. As noted earlier, no study has been done on graduate students in terms of relationships and GPA. While a few studies have been done in the past on relationship status and GPA, the studies were conducted on adolescent (high school age) students. It was agreed by all of the researches of this graduate student study that there is quite a big difference between the types of relationships in high school versus graduate school, as well as the courses, course load, and expectations of each student. Quite frankly, there really is no comparison between the two (high school versus graduate school). While this particular study was done on pharmacy school students, the exact same study can be done to any graduate school program, not just pharmacy. The eight questions in the survey are not specific to pharmacy or any other program and, although we are only concerned with relationship st atus (our independent variable) and GPA (our dependent variable), we also asked a series of other independent variable questions. Further tests and comparisons can be made with the other independent variables collected on the survey questionnaire. This is especially helpful if there is no correlation or significant difference between GPA and relationship status. The other independent variables might be able to explain some of the differences between GPA other than relationship status (for instance, if a student works or volunteers regardless of relationship status perhaps some work has no effect but working full time while in graduate school has an effect on GPA). How many of the additional questions to use in the analysis of the GPA versus relationship status is up to the evaluators of this study. Limitations Results from this study should be interpreted with several limitations in mind. First, the study is limited in sample size because only the first through third year students at one pharmacy school were used as subjects for the survey. This small population would inhibit and prevent the generalization of results and findings from the study to other schools of pharmacy. A second limitation of the study is the narrow focus on pharmacy students. This restricts generalizations of study findings and results to other graduate and professional programs (e.g. medicine, law), undergraduate curriculums, and vocational programs. Another study limitation is the use of different levels of pharmacy students: first-year, second-year, and third-year students. This limitation may skew results due to the differences in the degree of difficulty between the distinct years of professional pharmacy study, and this can have an impact on GPA. Generally, the first year curriculum is less difficult and demanding than the second year curriculum, and the second year curriculum is less difficult and demanding than the third year curriculum. Moreover, the difference in the cumulative amount of classes students have completed between their first, second, and third years in pharmacy school can also impact their overall academic GPA. The results of just one semester of completed classes can be skewed and are more volatile to GPA shifts in the next semester than a student who has completed three years of classes. Furthermore, there may be other factors influencing GPA for first year students that the survey does not account for. T his study limitation may discount external factors such as moving to a new city and or state, starting at a new school, making new friends, finding suitable housing, and even living away from their family for the first time. The study does not take into consideration if a person was in a relationship at some point during graduate school and now is not, and vice-versa. The survey questionnaire only seeks information regarding current romantic relationship status. It can be assumed for those who selected married that they have either been married for the duration of graduate school or were in another of the relationship categories and then got married. This aspect points out that people do not get married without first being casual and/or serious partners. For those in a casual partner relationship, one may wonder how long they have been in the relationship. For some third year students, perhaps they have finally taken on relationships because they feel comfortable with their GPA and school to take on more responsibility. For a first year student, classes and program demands are perhaps still not difficult. This suggests they still can have a romantic relationship without significant effects on GPA. Although the survey questionnaire is completely confidential, some students might find a need to over-inflate their GPA. Instead of asking for them to fill in their actual GPA, ranges were provided in the hopes of keeping over-inflation of GPA to a minimum. However, over reporting of GPA can still exist. Conclusions It is the hope of the evaluators that this study will shed some light on trends in GPA and what exactly affects it in order to help and inform incoming graduate students. With this information and correlations (or no correlation), graduate students will be able to make educated choices in terms of relationships and possibly other aspects outside of the classroom as well (for instance, how much time to work without having an effect on GPA). The results of this study should answer some of the myths of graduate school and having a life at the same time.