Racism Of Chicago The 1950 S - 1737 Words

Racism in Chicago: The 1950’s to Today Today we live in a society where it is acceptable for a white and black family to be neighbors, even close friends. This situation has not always been the case. During the 1950’s, the time that the Younger family was living in Chicago, whites and blacks were living completely separate lives and a majority of the blacks were living in poverty. Although there are significant improvements we have made, there are still things that remain the same. Many African Americans in Chicago today are still living in poverty, just like they were over 50 years ago. Two important changes have occurred during these years. Our race relations between whites and blacks have improved tremendously. Today it is completely acceptable for two different colored families to be living next door to each other. The second significant change is not as positive. The homicide rates per 100,000 people have gone up by almost 10 times the amount it was in the 50â€⠄¢s. Many sociologist believe that the cycle of multigenerational poverty causes violence in the mostly black communities, therefore raising the homicide rates. Even though as a city we have improved our race relations there are still problems such as the rising homicide rates and percent of people living in poverty. Racism in Chicago during the 1950’s A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry accurately portrays what it was like for an African American family to be living in the Southside of Chicago in theShow MoreRelatedRacial Feelings Of Chicago, Illinois1643 Words   |  7 PagesRacial feelings in Chicago, Illinois are very similar today to how they were in the 1950s. The Younger family from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the epitome of a lower class, black family during that time. They dealt with the hardships of never having enough money and losing family happiness due to their lack of wealth. Modern-day Chicago can easily be compared to Chicago from the mid 1900s because of the ever-growing amount of poor blacks and the poverty riven African-American neighborhoodsRead MoreThe Red Summer Of 19191038 Words   |  5 Pageskilled than the amount of people being killed in the Chicago race riots. Fighting was happening all over our country. We were killing one another because of the hatred towards racism. à ¢â‚¬Å"The Red Summer of 1919 refers to a series of race riots that took place between May and October of that year. Although riots occurred in more than thirty cities throughout the United States, the bloodiest events were in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Elaine, Ark.† (Retreived from the About Education website : http://afroamhistoryRead More Racism and the American Dream in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun1340 Words   |  6 Pagesplay written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the whiteRead MoreClybourne Park1002 Words   |  5 Pageswas and shows the racial tensions in the 1950’s and 1960’s up until present day. To create this, writer Bruce Norris created a play with only two acts. The first act is based in the late 1950’s and early 60’s right after the war. The second act is based in the same house fifty years apart in the year 2009. By doing this Bruce Norris shows how race is still an important factor in many people’s lives even though racism has supposedly been abolished. Racism is one of the key factors that play a majorRead MoreA Raisin In The Sun Racism1626 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Sun In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, a story about an African American family living in Chicago. The book illustrates what the daily problems of an average black family had to deal with while living in America in the 1950s and their struggle of overcoming obstacles to reach their â€Å"dream†. Hansberry use this novel to address topics such as racism, racial inequality, and racial discrimination. In 1954, many people during that time supported segregation. People perceivedRead MoreBluest Eye1268 Words   |  6 Pagesconsequences that come from racism. In 1950 America, racial discrimination was implied by different skin colors. The Bluest Eye shows ways in which white beauty standards hurt lives of black females, blacks that discriminate on each other and the community’s bias on who you were. Toni Morrison uses the racism of the 1950 s and shows that It is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white ey es. Characters that faced uncomfortable racism include Claudia MacTeerRead MoreHogwarts Research Paper1201 Words   |  5 PagesUniversity of Chicago. Heralded as the American Hogwarts. Acclaimed in the news for its Nobel Prize Laureates. Being a leading school in Math, Science, Business, Law, and among other fields. As a personal dream school of my own, the list of acclaimed innovators harking from UChicago seemed endless while I was doing research about the school. Yet, one name in the expansive list caught my eye, for obvious reasons. Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Junior. Recently deceased in May of 2011, Dr. Wilkins has possiblyRead MoreThe Major League Baseball ( Mlb )890 Words   |  4 Pageshas never happened more than once in any other city or metropolitan area. The latest was in 1989 when Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants played each other. There are four other cities that have two baseball teams, Baltimore-Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco. We can also look at all the superstars that have played for New York; there have been quite a few. The three that are first in my opinion is for those years are Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Willie Mays, and JoeRead MoreA Raisin in the Sun Essay580 Words   |  3 Pagesapartment in Chicago south side 1950s. the place is really crowded, especially with 5 people living in it. There’s only 2 rooms. Travis, Walter’s son sleeps in the living room on a small couch. The kitchen is so small. They have a small bathroom that they have to share with their neighbors.(pg.861)When Ruth finds out she’s pregnant right away she thinks of getting an abortion because she knows theres no place for the baby to sleep. in 1950’s in the south there was a lot of racism you can tell thatRead MoreA Raisin Of The Sun? S Portrayal Of Twentieth Century Racism2141 Words   |  9 Pages A Raisin in the Sun?s Portrayal of Twentieth Century Racism Compared to Racism Today Rebecca Duffy Period E Grade 11 Mr. Joseph Matte April 15, 2016 OUTLINE Thesis: Though the kind of inequality addressed in Hansberry?s A Raisin in the Sun, especially the separation in housing, everyday life, and violent attacks, have largely been eradicated, more verbal forms of racism exist today that differ from the racism in the Twentieth century that was reflected in the play. Introduction Time

What Makes You What You Are Free Essays

string(158) " question for evolutionists is why you would find variation persisting in populations, when selection always reduces diversity in favour of the optimal type\." Personality: What makes you the way you are? – Science News – The Independent At some point in your life, you’ve probably filled in a personality questionnaire (â€Å"Do you see yourself as†¦.? â€Å"), and wondered as you ticked the boxes if there can really be any validity to such a simplistic way of assessing people. Surely the scores just reflect your mood on the day, or what you want the investigator to think. We will write a custom essay sample on What Makes You What You Are or any similar topic only for you Order Now Surely everyone gives the same answer, which is â€Å"it depends†. Or even if the scores measure something, surely it is how the person sees themselves, rather than how they actually are. In a new book, I examine what the extent of the science underlying personality psychology really is. The answer is: more than you would think. While it has always been popular in business and pop psychology, and within academic psychology, personality research has been a poor relation to the parts of the discipline with experiments and hard objective measures. However, this is changing fast. The field of personality is undergoing a renaissance. The reasons for the renaissance are several. Academics now have some really good long-term studies of the same individuals, and it turns out that those brief, simplistic, pencil-and-paper questionnaires have surprisingly useful properties. They produce a wide range of selfdescriptions. The responses are fairly repeatable over intervals of many years. They also correlate quite well with ratings of the person given by their spouse, friends or colleagues. Much more importantly, though, the responses turn out to predict objective events. For example, in a famous cohort of gifted Californian children recruited in the 1920s, and who are elderly or deceased now, personality â€Å"scores† – numerical representations of answers to questions – are significant predictors of life expectancy. In another long-term study, this time of American married couples, the quality and duration of the marriage is predicted by the personality scores of both parties prior to marriage. There are many other examples, with personality scores predicting substance addiction, problem gambling, and the onset of psychological illnesses. Of course the prediction is a statistical one – you can assign odds, not make oracular pronouncements – but this is how it always is in psychology. Humans are such complex systems that you are happy to explain a portion of the variation in outcomes, and never expect to explain it all. In recent years there has been renewed interest in personality assessment. This has been greatly aided by the fact that there is now a consensus on what the key variables are. Its early development, the field was greatly hampered by every investigator having his or her own scales, often using different names and measures for what turned out to be the same thing, or indeed the same names for what turned out to be different things. But over the last 20 years, many studies in several different cultures have shown that much of the systematic variation in personality can be reduced to scores along five dimensions (the â€Å"Big Five†): Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness. It’s important to stress that these are all continuous dimensions. That is, there are no discrete important to stress that these are all continuous dimensions. That is, there are no discrete â€Å"types† of person. Personality dimensions are like height or weight, which vary continuously, not like being a left- or a right-hand writer. Your score on one dimension is independent of your scores on all the others, so there is an almost infinite diversity of different overall profiles possible. If developments within psychology have facilitated the renaissance of personality studies, it is at the interface with biology where the exciting developments are beginning to come. Neuroscientists have shown, mainly using the increasingly sophisticated brain imaging techniques that are now available, that those simple pencil-and-paper personality scores correlate significantly with the size or neurophysiological reactivity of specific regions of the brain. Moreover, these turn out to be the very regions that other types of evidence (evidence from brain damage, for example) would lead us to expect would be involved in that particular area of psychological function. Geneticists, too, are getting involved in personality research. It has recently become apparent that more of the human genome differs from individual to individual, even within our rather genetically homogenous species, than was previously thought. We know this inter alia from the complete sequence of Dr Craig Venter’s genome, which was published earlier this month. About 0. 5 per cent of the genetic information in his maternallyinherited genome is different from his paternally-inherited one. Variant sequences affect nearly half his genes, and it is likely that in many cases those variants will have some functional effect on body, brain or behaviour. In a few cases, we even know which genetic variants have effects on personality. There is a gene that encodes a receptor molecule for the neurotransmitter dopamine, and which contains a repeating sequence whose length varies from person to person. A number of studies have found that the length of this sequence correlates with self-reported extraversion and reward-seeking behaviour. In another gene, the serotonin transporter, individuals with one variant are more likely to develop depressive symptoms in response to stressful life events than bearers of the other version. In a few years, we may be in the position of actually understanding the molecular bases of the differences in nature that we observe between healthy humans. (But note that genetic effects will not turn out to be the whole story; only around half of the variation in personality looks like being heritable, with the rest probably shaped by early environmental exposures and other developmental processes. ) The other group of researchers getting interested in personality is evolutionists. Personalitylike variation has been found in organisms as diverse as fish, mammals and birds. Indeed, Darwin’s whole theory of evolution rests on the observation that individuals vary from one another. Without such variation there can be no natural selection and no evolutionary change. The question for evolutionists is why you would find variation persisting in populations, when selection always reduces diversity in favour of the optimal type. You read "What Makes You What You Are" in category "Papers" In fact, it turns out that there are often multiple optima, even within a single habitat, with individuals of one type doing well under certain conditions, while faring less well than their competitors under others. Thus, nder certain conditions, while faring less well than their competitors under others. Thus, selection rarely narrows the population to uniformity because individuals with different qualities flourish in different contexts. I rather like this as a guiding framework for thinking about personality in modern humans. Rather than imagining that there is some p ersonality profile that is uniformly good to have, let’s assume that all have their strengths and all have their pitfalls. Indeed, the failure of any one profile to dominate the human population attests to their roughly equal fitness in the long run. So, whatever your score on the Big Five, the point is not to try to change it, or fight it. The point is to establish which niche within the complex ecology that is modern society will be a good one for you to ply your trade in, and which of the diverse dangers (social isolation, addiction, depression†¦ ) that lurk in our both beneficent and hazardous habitat are the ones against which you should be most vigilant. This is where self-knowledge comes in, and taking the personality test overleaf can be part of that. Scoring your personality won’t tell you anything you don’t know. It’s based on how you see yourself, so logically it couldn’t. But it can reveal to you how you compare to other people, and can also tap you into a wealth of accumulated psychological knowledge about the strengths and liabilities that other people similar to you have experienced. This is what the questionnaire and the interpretation overleaf are designed to do. Daniel Nettle is the author of Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are (? 12. 99), published by Oxford University Press. To order a copy for the special price of ? 11. 69 (with free P) call Independent Books Direct on 0870 079 8897, or visit www. ndependentbooksdirect. co. uk What kind of personality are you? Take this test to discover the truth Introducing the big five Once you have completed the questionnaire and added up your scores, you should have an indication of whether you score low, medium-low, medium-high, or high on each of the Big Five dimensions of human personality. But what do these scores mean ? Here, I explore the Big Five to examine their effects on our lives. Extraversion This is a familiar concept. High-scorers are fun-seeking and cheerful, but they are not necessarily immediate hedonists; they are often ambitious and hard-working. They are also sexually adventurous and love to be the centre of attention. Low-scorers are not necessarily shy so much as aloof; they can take or leave success, praise and pleasure. The best way to think about this dimension is in terms of response to reward. Society offers certain incentives; money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some people certain incentives; money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some people pursue them full-out, while others have a more muted response and thus won’t work so hard to capture them. The strengths of high-scorers: energy, charisma, drive, the ability to make things happen. The weaknesses: a tendency to get bored, restlessness, infidelity, risky decisions. Strengths of lowscorers: detachment, pursuit of intrinsic goals, prudence, fidelity. The weaknesses: not thrusting themselves forward, not having fun, a flat emotional tone. There is no value-judgement about which of these is better from the point of view of a potential employer or spouse, but is certainly worth being aware of the likely pitfalls and most suitable habitats for your particular level of Extraversion. Conscientiousness Conscientiousness measures how good people are at setting themselves goals and sticking to them. High-scorers are disciplined, efficient and systematic. They can resist temptation and stick to priorities they have set themselves. In most modern occupations, and particularly those where you have to manage your own time and priorities, fairly high Conscientiousness is advantageous. Low-scorers are more likely to get distracted from tasks, renege on plans, and succumb to weaknesses of the will. Indeed, low Conscientiousness is a risk factor for developing addictions of all kinds. Being high in Conscientiousness is not always an unalloyed benefit, though. Sometimes it is indeed important to stick to plans. But at other times it is important to be able to change them on a sixpence. Very high scorers are perceived as grim, pedantic, unspontaneous, even miserly. There is even a name for excessive Conscientiousness – obsessive-compulsive personality disorder – and this is a very socially disabling condition. There are many human activities, including, crucially, social relationships, where it is essential to be able to respond in the moment to your environment as it changes. Highly conscientious people are rigid, often sticking to tasks and plans even when the point of them has been overtaken by events, or when the needs of others around them require spontaneous reorganising of priorities. Thus, if you are very low in Conscientiousness, for the sake of your career, your health, and your wellbeing, you may need to work effortfully at seeing your plans through, and being selfdisciplined. If you are a very high scorer, you may need to learn to be more spontaneous and intuitive, again for the benefits that this will bring in terms of flexibility and improved social relationships. Neuroticism I would like to dispel the notion that Neuroticism is always a bad thing, a kind of pathology, and that the best level of Neuroticism to have is a very low one. The evidence for the prosecution: yes, high-scorers live their lives under the Damoclean swords of depression, anxiety, stress, and disappointment. Whatever the world says about them, they are often uncomfortable in their inner lives, and go through life either with bouts of difficult times, or with a constant vague feeling that something is not quite right. However, if we think logically, negative emotions, such as worry, are always going to be there for a reason. One would not want to be entirely without worry. It would be as damaging to life decisions as the inability to feel physical pain is to peripheral physiology. High Neuroticism scorers can bring to bear enormous powers of deep thought, detailed analysis, novel insight. They care about the details that others can’t be bothered to follow up. Under some circumstances they do well academically. If you are a high-scorer, you may well be a member of a thinking profession such as an academic or a writer. High Neuroticism scorers, then, have hidden advantages. The challenge for them is to find ways to deal with the negative sequels of their personality. Some people respond well to cognitivebehavioural therapy, some to meditation, many to exercise. Low-scorers, too, have disadvantages. You probably don’t suffer much in life, which is good, but maybe you are not thoughtful enough. Maybe you let details go, and don’t think deeply enough about future drawbacks or problems. Maybe you are too carefree or rose-spectacled to see every potentiality. Agreeableness Agreeableness is a dimension of empathy towards others. High-scorers are often found in caring professions such as nursing and counselling.. They have larger-than-average social networks, and their relationships with others are harmonious. They don’t get into fights and are generally slow to anger. By contrast, the very lowest-scorers are sociopaths; they callously use others for their own ends. So far so good. It is better to be well-liked than to be a sociopath. However, in many fields, high Agreeableness reduces occupational attainment. Nice guys really do finish last, and moreover, plenty of our leaders have something of the sociopath about them. Successful artists and executives, though, tend to be rather low in Agreeableness. This means that the high Agreeableness scorer may not be prepared to be hard-headed. You may stay in relationships that do you no good out of empathy for the others involved. Agreeableness is the most sexually-patterned of the Big Five, with – no prizes for guessing – women scoring more highly on average than men. This adds an interesting new perspective on the paucity of women in positions of power. Many of them find it difficult to be callous enough. Should we be encouraging them to be more callous, or trying to change what we reward? Openness Openness is a dimension of imagination. High-scorers make mental associations that go beyond what is given to the senses, or what is logically deducible. They are keen on poetry and the arts, and often have metaphysical or esoteric ideas. Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident that being imaginative in this sense is necessarily useful in life. Low-scorers can be very intelligent and capable, though they will be oriented towards the practical and the soluble. High-scorers will be more able and willing to venture into the domains of the aesthetic. However, they can also develop eccentric, paranormal or even delusional beliefs, and fail to solve simply resolvable practical problems. Neither a high nor a low score is inherently desirable; it is simple a matter of harnessing the strengths that you have. www. independent. co. uk ht:/w. needn. ou/essinepro tp/wwidpnetc. knw/cec/es nlt-htmksyutewyyuae426. tl aiywa-ae-o-h-a-o-r-069hm ht:/o. lfg tp/gog/fS How to cite What Makes You What You Are, Papers

Deflection of an Eccentric Tie free essay sample

Figures and Diagrams/15| | Materials and Method/10| | Results Discussions/45| | References/10| | Total| | School of Engineering Taylor’s University Malaysia 28 September 2012 Table of Contents Abstract3 1. Introduction3 2. Experiment design4 2. 1 Materials4 2. 2 Methods4 2. 3 Procedure4 3. Results amp; Discussion5 3. 1 Tables5 3. 2 Graphs 6-7 3. 3 Discussion of results8 4. Analysis9 4. 1 Guidelines for error analysis9 5. Conclusions amp; Recommendations9 6. References 10 ABSTRACT The aim of doing this experiment is to compare the transverse bending deflection of the tie bar and the theoretical values that obtain from the simplified formula and the exact formula when the eccentricity of the load is 75m, 55mm and 35mm. The experimental values of the deflection of the tie are obtained by reading the results of dial gauge during the experiment. 1. INTRODUCTION Eccentric loading is the pressure directed anywhere on a component other than where the component is designed to accept the force. Sometimes the design of a mechanism or a structure demands that a tension member has to be offset from the line of the pull. This means that the member has to carry combined tension and bending, the latter increasing with the eccentricity of the load. When the load line is going out the middle third of a square tie bar, as in this experiment, the bending moment predominates and bending deflection may be considerable. The more rigorous mathematical solution of an eccentrically loaded tie bar requires some knowledge of differential equation. An approximate solution could be obtained by regarding the tie bar as a beam with equal and opposite couples applied, thus producing circular bending. The experiment provides an exaggerated demonstration of an eccentric tie to make possible a visual appreciation of the problem. It also gives an opportunity to check the order of accuracy that can be achieved by using the simple theory. 2. EXPERIMENT DESIGN Dial Gauge Aluminum Tie Bar Apply Load Figure 1. Eccentric Tie Bar Dial Gauge Aluminum Tie Bar Apply Load Figure 1. Eccentric Tie Bar The experiment is designed as followed. . 1 Materials 1. Eccentric Tie Apparatus 2. Load hanger 2N 3. Weight sets 50N, 20N, 10N and 2N. 2. 2 Methods First, the gauges readings are obtained by calculate the dial gauge at the centre of the eccentric tie apparatus. The dial gauge contain of 100 divisions, to get the central of deflection, is the gauge readings multiply by the sensitivity of the dial gauge which is 0. 01mm. Besides that, the central defle ction also obtains by using the simple formula and exact formula. The comparison between the results will be shown in the form of graph. 2. 3 Procedure ) The apparatus with the greatest eccentric of loading (75mm) was set up and the â€Å"zero† load reading of the dial gauge was noted. b) 90N of load was added in nine increments of 10N, the reading of the central deflection for each increment was recorded in Table 1. c) The above procedure was repeated with the load at 55mm eccentric, and 120Nof load was added in increment of 20N, the results were recorded in Table 2. d) The above procedure with the load at 35mm eccentric was repeated, and 140N of load was added in increment of 20N, the results were recorded in Table 3. 3. RESULTS amp; DISCCUSION 3. 1 Tables Applied Load (N)| End Moment (KN. mm)| Gauge Reading (No of divisions)| Central Deflection (mm)| Central Deflection,? from simple formula (mm)| ? /e| Central Deflection from exact formula (mm)| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0| 0. 00| 0| 0. 00| 0. 00| 0. 000| 0. 00| 10| 0. 75| 79| 0. 79| 1. 28| 0. 017| 1. 26| 20| 1. 50| 289| 2. 89| 2. 56| 0. 034| 2. 49| 30| 2. 25| 321| 3. 21| 3. 84| 0. 051| 3. 69| 40| 3. 00| 411| 4. 11| 5. 12| 0. 068| 4. 85| 50| 3. 75| 513| 5. 13| 6. 41| 0. 085| 5. 98| 60| 4. 50| 618| 6. 18| 7. 69| 0. 02| 7. 08| 70| 5. 25| 719| 7. 19| 8. 97| 0. 120| 8. 15| 80| 6. 00| 821| 8. 21| 10. 2| 0. 137| 9. 20| Table 1: 75mm eccentric Applied Load (N)| End Moment (KN. mm)| Gauge Reading (No of divisions)| Central Deflection (mm)| Central Deflection,? from simple formula (mm)| ? /e| Central Deflection from exact formula (mm)| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0| 0. 0| 0. 0| 0. 0| 0. 00| 0. 000| 0. 00| 20| 1. 1| 147| 1. 47| 1. 88| 0. 034| 1. 83| 40| 2. 2| 300| 3. 00| 3. 76| 0. 068| 3. 56| 60| 3. 3| 448| 4. 48| 5. 64| 0. 102| 5. 19| 80| 4. 4| 600| 6. 00| 7. 52| 0. 137| 6. 5| 100| 5. 5| 730| 7. 30| 9. 39| 0. 171| 8. 22| Table 2: 55mm eccentric Applied Load (N)| End Moment (KN. mm)| Gauge Reading (No of divisions)| Central Deflection (mm)| Central Deflection,? from simple formula (mm)| ? /e| Central Deflection from exact formula (mm)| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 0| 0. 00| 0. 0| 0. 0| 0. 00| 0. 000| 0. 00| 20| 0. 70| 85| 0. 85| 1. 20| 0. 034| 1. 16| 40| 1. 40| 194| 1. 94| 2. 39| 0. 068| 2. 26| 60| 2. 10| 396| 3. 96| 3. 59| 0. 102| 3. 30| 80| 2. 80| 481| 4. 81| 4. 78| 0. 137| 4. 29| 100| 3. 50| 570| 5. 7| 5. 98| 0. 171| 5. 23| 20| 4. 20| 645| 6. 45| 7. 17| 0. 205| 6. 12| Table 3: 35mm eccentric 3. 2 Graphs The results of the experiment are plotted and as shown in the 3 graph above, the eccentricity of load which is 75mm, 55mm and 35mm gave us the different results. The equation that used to calculate the Central deflection is: Simplified Formula ?=ML28EI Exact Formula 3. 3 Discussion of results 1. After compared both theoretical and experimental results, it shows that the values of central deflection is related to the end moment, as the end moment increases, the central deflection also increases. The behaviour of the graph central deflection against end moment also clearly showed that the central deflection is directly proportional to end moment. The results of the central deflection for the experimental values is smaller than the simplified and exact formula, this is because, there might be some errors occur during the experiment. The errors are listed in 4. 1 Guidelines for error analysis. 2. There are significant different between the values obtained from Simplified Theory and the Exact Formula, this is because the eccentricity of the tie bar that used in the Simplified Theory is only considered the applied load. On the other hand, the Exact Formula is considered as a whole depending on the effective load, Young’s modulus, length, and second moment of inertia. Therefore the values that obtain by using the Exact Formula are more accurate. 3. If an error of 10% was allowed (by using a larger factor of safety in design), the experimental results which are after 80N are not adequate, this is because the tensile strength of the tie bar that used in the lab is not that strength. Therefore, the different between the Theoretical central deflection and the central deflection that calculate using Simplified Theory for the heavier loads shouldn’t be ignored. . 0 ANALYSIS 4. 1 Guidelines for error analysis 1. Parallax error might be occurred when reading the dial gauge when taking different results. 2. The load is not applied directly on the normal axis will also cause some error on our results. 3. Slight vibration of the table might also affect the accuracy of the result. 5. 0 CONCLUSION A ND RECOMMENDATION From the experiment, the accuracy of the experimental values is less accurate if compare to the Theoretical values, this is because there might be errors that occurred during the experiment. In order to increase the accuracy of the experimental results, a digital dial gauge with smaller scale and more sensitive should be used and the experiment should we repeated more times to get the average reading. 6. 0 References 1. M. Zaina, S. J. Foster (2005), â€Å"Testing of Concentric and Eccentrically Loaded Fibre-Reinforced HSC Columns†, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW. 2. Hugh D. Young, Roger A. Freedman (2008), â€Å"University Physics with Modern Physics†, 12th Edition, p. 363-370. 3. W. A. Bassali, M. N. Y. Anwar, K. M. Mosleh (1985), â€Å"Deflection of an Eccentrically Loaded and Concentrically Supported Thin Circular Annulus†, Journal of Pure and Applied Maths, 16(2), 189-212. 4. Beer, Johnston, Dewolf 2002. Mechanics of Materials 3rd Ed. (Reference list) 1. http://www. engineeringtoolbox. com/area-moment-inertia-d_1328. html 2. http://www. ecourse. ou. edu/cgi-bin/ebook. cgi? doc=†amp;topic=meamp;chap_sec=09. 3? amp;page=theory 3. http://www. toolingu. com/definition-570240-28512-eccentric-loading. html 4. http://www. freestudy. co. uk/statics/beams/beam%20tut3. pdf

When Bad Things Happen To Good People Essays (598 words) - Theodicy

When Bad Things Happen To Good People There have been many times in life when I have turned to a "God" with problems and wanted answers or solutions and received nothing. When this happens I take the time to reflect and ask myself, "Why, when I do some many good things, do I not receive any answers or solutions to my problems?" The book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, written by Harold S. Kushner, has brought some answers to my problems. This book explained and help clarify why even though I am not a bad person, that sometimes bad things are bound to happen. When Kushner wrote this book I feel that the meaning of his writings were that God does not mean to punish us, he just means to test us and present us with problems and see how we react to them. As put best he wrote, "The God I believe in does not send us the problem; he gives us the strength to cope with it."(127). Kushner makes many references to the bible and his belief in a higher power, "God". I personally may not think there can be one and only one God but I do believe in a higher being or power and I like how Kushner makes sure to point out that he is not calling it the God but "his" God. It shows an almost non-biast opinion and it shows a lot of respect towards all groups of people. I remember one time specifically when my great-grandpa recently passed away I turned to God for answers. Instead of getting an answer I got more problems. My great-grandma and grandma both had strokes, my long-standing girlfriend and I broke up, my parents got split up and divorced, along with all of the other normal problems that go on in live that we, as humans, have learned to expect in everyday life. My belief in one and only one "God" diminished. I felt that there was no one up there looking out for me and then in reading this book answered a bunch of my questions on why "God" didn't give me any specific answers. It showed me that perhaps God has given me the strength to move on and realize that everything will go on and how to cope with everything. Kushner also had a good point in saying that, "Could it be that God does not cause bad things that happen to us?.....but rather stands ready to help them?"(29-30). I agree with what he is saying in this quote. My God helped me through those rough times just like his God helped him through everything that was going on with his son. Even though the person that meant the most to him was suffering of a bad disease, and eventually passed away, he trusted in God and understood what God was doing and that everything that happened was a test and made things better in the long run. He understood and helped me understand that God does everything for a reason and has a "master plan" that he wants each of us to abide by and to follow. This book gave me a lot of insight on life and what everything means to me and what I should expect with life. Even though I do not believe in the same God as Kushner, I still believe that there is a more powerful being up there watching over us and making sure that we are ready to experience an enlightening afterlife. I thought that Kushner did a good job of not offending me in the fact that he had a wider opinion on God and his beliefs and not being narrow-minded about the fact that people are different in their opinions.

Free Essays on Taxes

Taxes2 Taxes From 1763, Americans had only to be convinced that an arbitrary ruler-whether Parliament or King-was violating their inherent rights, to feel that rebellion was justified. This conviction was bred in them by the series of events that occurred between 1763 and 1776. The language used to protest the British Acts was legal, and political. But the primary cause of the Revolution is economics. In theory the colonists accepted the principle that natural laws rather than royal decrees should govern the economy. In practice only the southern colonies were bound to England by the tobacco trade. The New England and Middle Colonies, unable to find markets in Britain, found prosperity by trading outside the empire. Any attempt to stop this trade would lead to rebellion and consequentially ensued. The idea of mercantilism where the channelizing of all trade through England, was a restriction upon economic prosperity of the New England colony. The major cause for revolution within the economic theory is of economic subordination of colonies to England. The Greenville Ministry passed a number of acts, but the main act of provocation to the colonists was the stamp act. The stamp act was protested upon the principle of "no taxation without representation". The stamp act was affecting virtually all the colonists, and restricted economic prosperity, thus it was protested by colonists. The Townsend Acts were also a factor in the economic theory, Sam Adams had said "The parliament was taxing illegally!", most colonists agreed, and a Taxes3 boycott of British goods resulted. When the British passed the Currency act, this left the paper money worthless, and the colonists had to rely (economically) on England for Hard Currency. The ma... Free Essays on Taxes Free Essays on Taxes Taxes2 Taxes From 1763, Americans had only to be convinced that an arbitrary ruler-whether Parliament or King-was violating their inherent rights, to feel that rebellion was justified. This conviction was bred in them by the series of events that occurred between 1763 and 1776. The language used to protest the British Acts was legal, and political. But the primary cause of the Revolution is economics. In theory the colonists accepted the principle that natural laws rather than royal decrees should govern the economy. In practice only the southern colonies were bound to England by the tobacco trade. The New England and Middle Colonies, unable to find markets in Britain, found prosperity by trading outside the empire. Any attempt to stop this trade would lead to rebellion and consequentially ensued. The idea of mercantilism where the channelizing of all trade through England, was a restriction upon economic prosperity of the New England colony. The major cause for revolution within the economic theory is of economic subordination of colonies to England. The Greenville Ministry passed a number of acts, but the main act of provocation to the colonists was the stamp act. The stamp act was protested upon the principle of "no taxation without representation". The stamp act was affecting virtually all the colonists, and restricted economic prosperity, thus it was protested by colonists. The Townsend Acts were also a factor in the economic theory, Sam Adams had said "The parliament was taxing illegally!", most colonists agreed, and a Taxes3 boycott of British goods resulted. When the British passed the Currency act, this left the paper money worthless, and the colonists had to rely (economically) on England for Hard Currency. The ma...

Bouillon vs. Bullion vs. Boolean

Bouillon vs. Bullion vs. Boolean Bouillon vs. Bullion vs. Boolean Bouillon vs. Bullion vs. Boolean By Brittiany Cahoon Dont confuse bouillon with bullionone is a soup ingredient and the other is gold. Both bouillon and bullion come from Old French, and in fact the same root word, boillonwhich refers to the froth on the top of a boiling cauldron. They are pronounced almost the same: Merriam-Webster says that bouillon should be said BOOL-yon, while bullion should be pronounced BULL-yen. But bouillon is a beef broth, like in French cuisine or bouillon soup, and bullion refers to bricks of gold, like in Fort Knox. Thanks to modern technology, we have bouillon cubes: those salty sugar-cube-size morsels that can be dissolved in boiling water for easy soup. But modern technology also gives us Boolean cubes, a graphical visualization of Boolean functionswhich are used in the study of cryptography, for example. If we can assume cubes of bullion make bad soup, I wouldnt risk the Boolean cubes. Here are some quotations from newspapers: CHICKEN FLAVOR GRANULATED BOUILLON , 4-ounce jar (makes 28 cups), 14 cents a pint. Absolutely classic bouillon flavor, not bad for a drink made predominantly of salt and sugar, but little or no relation to chicken. (www.nytimes.com) which operates vaults in London, New York and Zurich there has been a ninefold increase in the number of gold bullion traders in the past five years, with Britons among the most enthusiastic buyers. Most of them, say BullionVault, (www.theguardian.com) Gold Bullion Exchange, accused of bilking investors nationwide of millions of dollars worth of undelivered gold bullion, was stabbed to death today, apparently in an argument over use of his car, police said. (www.nytimes.com) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Definitely use "the" or "a"In Search of a 4-Dot EllipsisWhat the heck are "learnings"?

To Have or To Be by Erich Fromm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

To Have or To Be by Erich Fromm - Essay Example The problem with the â€Å"having† mode is that the greed for money and possession can never be satisfied no matter how much has acquired. People will always use dubious means to get more; including the exploitation of fellow human beings. â€Å"The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind† Fromm, (67). There is always a cut-throat competition among members of society in getting more possession. And when one has acquired a certain amount of riches, he is struck by paranoia. He or she is in a constant state of fear that the property may be stolen or that death may come so soon. Unlike the â€Å"having† mode, the â€Å"being† mode is quite a stationary state in life. Here, man does not really seem to toil for money and other materialistic things of the world. Man is satisfied with the intangible aspects of life such as peace and harmony. He adores love as the only source of joy: â€Å"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problems of human† (Fromm, 70). He can get pleasure without using money. In fact, everything is a source of his happiness, depending on the perception. The individuals in this state are selfless and can freely share whatever little they have. To them, all the worldly things are meaningless and perishable. Therefore, they see no great deal in investing in material things. The problem with the â€Å"being† mode is that an individual may be isolated from the modern society whose most members are in the â€Å"having† mode. Since the pleasure of the people in this mode is free, they may sometime s misuse this freedom. The problem with â€Å"industrial religion† is that it is economic oriented and enslaves its followers by work. According the ancient religion was viewed as matriarchal where; the church was full of unconditional love and mercy. However, the modern churches are viewed as patriarchal; justice is the order of the day. Fromm states, â€Å"The deepest desire of the human

Disability Discrimination & OSHA Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Disability Discrimination & OSHA Laws - Essay Example This would create an undue hardship for the Postal Service. The Postal Service could also claim that Davis is not qualified for the clerk position. Since she is deaf, Davis cannot answer the phone. That is a major requirement of the job. Under the American Disabilities Act, a disabled American must be qualified for the desired position. In the case of Halsey, as defined before by the American Disabilities Act, he is also disabled. The question becomes how disabled is Halsey? He could fail the vision test for a driver’s license, but still see well enough to service vending machines. Coca-Cola Bottling Company hired him as a vending machine serviceperson. Since they hired him, one assumes he was qualified for the job. The issue then becomes if it would be an undue hardship for Coca-Cola to accommodate Halsey. Coca-Cola is a large corporation, with almost unlimited resources. It would not be an undue hardship to provide transportation for Halsey, or even elect to have Halsey to service the vending machines other employees bring back to the Coca-Cola plant. An accommodation could be reached between the two parties. In the case of Whirlpool, Whirlpool knows of the hazardous condition caused by the conveyor belt above the employees’ work station. The wire mesh guard screen was placed to safeguard employees. The company policy is for the employees cleaning the mesh to stand on the wire frames. Not all of the items can be reached by standing on the wire frames, forcing the employees to stand on the wire mesh. Keller has a few options. Keller can stop doing a job he feels is dangerous. He can stop retrieving objects out of reach of the wire frame, due to the dangerous situation. If Whirlpool knows the job cannot be preformed without going on the wire mesh, other safety measures should be put into place. If Whirlpool demands Keller to do the job or else, Keller can call OSHA and become a whistleblower.

Computer-assisted translation Essay Example for Free

Computer-assisted translation Essay A literal translation is a translation that follows closely the form of the source language. Also known as: | word-for-word translation| Literal translation, or directed translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) rather than conveying the sense of the original. (This distinction is valid only when a literal translation does not accurately convey the sense, which is not invariably true.) Literal translation, or directed translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) rather than conveying the sense of the original. (This distinction is valid only when a literal translation does not accurately convey the sense, which is not invariably true. ) In translation studies, literal translation denotes technical translation of scientific, technical, technological or legal texts. [1] In translation theory, another term for literal translation is metaphrase; and for phrasal (sense) translation — paraphrase. When considered a bad practice of conveying word by word (lexeme to lexeme, or morpheme to lexeme) translation of non-technical type literal translations has the meaning of mistranslating idioms,[2] for example, or in the context of translating an analytic language to a synthetic language, it renders even the grammar unintelligible. Term in translation studies Usage The term literal translation often appeared in the titles of 19th-century English translations of classical, Bible and other texts. Cribs Literal translations (cribs, ponies, or trots) are sometimes prepared for a writer who is translating a work written in a language he does not know. For example, Robert Pinsky is reported to have used a literal translation in preparing his translation of Dantes Inferno (1994), as he does not know Italian. [citation needed] Similarly, Richard Pevear worked from literal translations provided by his wife, Larissa Volokhonsky, in their translations of several Russian novels. [citation needed]. Poetry to prose Literal translation can also denote a translation that represents the precise meaning of the original text but does not attempt to convey its style, beauty, or poetry. There is, however, a great deal of difference between a literal translation of a poetic work and a prose translation. A literal translation of poetry may be in prose rather than verse, but also be error free. Charles Singletons translation of The Divine Comedy (1975) is regarded as a prose translation. As a bad practice  Literal translation implies that it is probably full of errors, since the translator has made no effort to convey, for example, correct idioms or shades of meaning. Examples A literal English translation of the German word Kindergarten would be children garden, but in English the expression refers to the school year between pre-school and first grade. Literal translations in which individual components within words or compounds are translated to create new lexical items in the target language (a process also known as â€Å"loan translation†) are called calques, e.g. , â€Å"beer garden† from German â€Å"Biergarten. † Literal translation of the Italian sentence, So che questo non va bene (I know that this is not good), produces Know(I) that this not goes(it) well, which has English words and Italian grammar. Machine translation Early machine translations (as of 1962[3] at least) were notorious for this type of translation as they simply employed a database of words and their translations. Later attempts utilized common phrases which resulted in better grammatical structure and capture of idioms but with many words left in the original language. For translating synthetic languages, a morphosyntactic analyzer and synthesizer is required. The best systems today use a combination of the above technologies and apply algorithms to correct the natural sound of the translation. In the end though, professional translation firms that employ machine translation use it as a tool to create a rough translation that is then tweaked by a human, professional  translator. Pidgins Often, first-generation immigrants create something of a literal translation in how they speak their parents native language. This results in a mix of the two languages in something of a pidgin. Many such mixes have specific names, e. g. Spanglish or Germish. For example, American children of German immigrants are heard using rockingstool from the German word Schaukelstuhl instead of rocking chair. Mistranslations Literal translation of idioms is a source of numerous translators jokes and apocrypha. The following famous example has often been told both in the context of newbie translators and that of machine translation: When the sentence The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Ð ´Ã'Æ'Ã'… Ð ±Ã ¾Ã ´Ã'€, Ð ¿Ã »Ã ¾Ã'‚Ã'Å' Ð ¶Ã µ Ð ½Ã µÃ ¼Ã ¾Ã'‰Ð ½Ã °, an allusion to Mark 14:38) was translated into Russian and then back to English, the result was The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten (Ã' Ã ¿Ã ¸Ã'€Ã'‚, Ð ºÃ ¾Ã ½Ã µÃ'‡Ð ½Ã ¾, Ð ³Ã ¾Ã'‚Ð ¾Ã ², Ð ½Ã ¾ Ð ¼Ã' Ã' Ã ¾ Ð ¿Ã'€Ð ¾Ã'‚Ã'Æ'Ã'…Ð »Ã ¾). This is generally believed to be simply an amusing story, and not a factual reference to an actual machine translation error. [4] Rating Scales for Narrative (open-ended or constructed) Questions Question: secretarial experience 76| Well QualifiedCandidate has extensive independent secretarial/clerical experience (may be more than approximately five years). Candidate has extensive experience dealing with a wide variety of complex issues relative to challenges encountered in the secretarial/clerical work environment. Candidate provides specific details with respect to the diversity of tasks/projects they were involved in, and his/her roles and responsibilities. Candidate’s response is thorough and complete and completely addresses the question. | 543| QualifiedCandidate has adequate independent secretarial/clerical experience (may be approximately three to four years). Candidate has experience dealing with a variety of complex issues relative to challenges encountered in the secretarial/clerical work environment; however, his/her experience is not as thorough as that of the well-qualified candidate. Candidate provides specific details in the same areas described for the well-qualified candidate. Candidate’s response is complete and addresses the question. | 21| Limited QualificationCandidate has limited independent secretarial/clerical experience (may be less than approximately three years). Candidate may have some experience, but that experience is limited or presented vaguely. Candidate may not provide specific details in response to the question. Candidate’s response may not be clear or complete. Candidate’s experience is limited and not at the level required for this position. | Question: social services experience. 76| Well QualifiedCandidate has extensive experience providing professional level social services (may be more than approximately four years). Candidate has experience dealing with a wide variety of issues relative to providing these services. Candidate provides specific details with respect to the services they have provided, the diversity of tasks/projects completed, and his/her role and responsibility. Candidate’s response is thorough and complete and addresses all of the above-outlined areas. | 543| QualifiedCandidate has adequate experience providing professional level social services (may be approximately three to four years). Candidate has experience dealing with a variety of issues relative to providing these services; however, his/her experience is not as thorough as that of the well-qualified candidate. Candidate provides specific details in the same areas described for the well-qualified candidate. Candidate’s response is complete and addresses all of these areas. | 21| Limited QualificationCandidate lacks adequate experience providing professional level social services (may be less than approximately three years), as required for this position. Candidate may have some experience, but that experience is limited or presented vaguely. Candidate may not provide specific details in response to the outlined areas of the question. Candidate’s response may not be clear or complete. Candidate’s experience is limited and not at the level required for this position. | Question: experience working with involuntarily committed individuals in a secured setting 76| Well QualifiedCandidate has extensive experience working with involuntarily committed individuals in a secured setting (may be approximately two years). Candidate has experience dealing with a variety of tasks in this setting, including basic cleaning and maintenance. Candidate provides specific details with respect to the duties performed, diversity of situations encountered, and his/her role in providing service. Candidate’s response is thorough and complete and addresses all of the above-outlined areas. | 543| QualifiedCandidate has adequate experience working with involuntarily committed individuals in a secured setting (may be approximately one year). Candidate has experience dealing with the most important tasks (e. g. , perimeter patrol); however, his/her experience is not as thorough as that of the well-qualified candidate. Candidate provides specific details in the same areas described for the well-qualified candidate. Candidate’s response is complete and adequately addresses the question. | 21| Limited QualificationCandidate lacks adequate experience working with involuntarily committed individuals in a secured setting (may be less than one year), as required for this position. Candidate may have some experience, but that experience is limited or presented vaguely. Candidate may not provide specific details in response to the scope of the question. Candidate’s response may not be clear or complete. Candidate’s experience is limited and not at the level required for this position. | Question: interview experience 76| Well QualifiedCandidate has extensive experience interviewing clients to gather information (may be more than approximately two years). Candidate has experience dealing with a wide variety of individuals in a range of situations and specifically identifies the communication medium (e. g. , telephone, in-person). Candidate provides specific details with respect to the duties performed, purpose of interview, diversity of situations encountered, and his/her role. Candidate’s response is thorough and complete and addresses all of the above-outlined areas. | 543| QualifiedCandidate has adequate experience interviewing clients to gather information (may be approximately one to two years). Candidate has experience dealing with a variety of issues relative to interviewing; however, his/her experience is not as thorough as that of the well-qualified candidate. Candidate provides specific details in the same areas described for the well-qualified candidate. Candidate’s response is complete and addresses all of these areas. | 21| Limited QualificationCandidate lacks  adequate experience conducting interviews with clients (may be less than approximately one year), as required for this position. Candidate may have some experience, but that experience is limited or presented vaguely. Candidate may not provide specific details in response to the scope of the question. Candidate’s response may not be clear or complete. Candidate’s experience is limited and not at the level required for this position. | Question: customer service experience 76| Well QualifiedCandidate has extensive customer service experience (may be more than approximately three years). Candidate has experience dealing with a wide variety of individuals in a range of situations (including communicating with difficult and/or hostile customers/clients). Candidate provides specific details with respect to the duties performed, purpose of customer service, diversity of situations encountered, and his/her role in providing service. Candidate’s response is thorough and complete and addresses all of the above-outlined areas. | 543| QualifiedCandidate has adequate customer service experience (may be approximately one to two years). Candidate has experience dealing with a variety of issues relative to providing customer service; however, his/her experience is not as thorough as that of the well-qualified candidate. Candidate provides specific details in the same areas described for the well-qualified candidate. Candidate’s response is complete and addresses all of these areas. | 21| Limited QualificationCandidate lacks adequate experience providing customer service (may be less than approximately one year), as required for this position. Candidate may have some experience, but that experience is limited or presented vaguely. Candidate may not provide specific details in response to the scope of the question. Candidate’s response may not be clear or complete. Candidate’s experience is limited and not at the level required for this position. | Semantic differential scale http://edutechwiki. unige. ch/en/Semantic_differential_scale#Examples Attitude scale for a web site (S. Kim MacGregor and Yiping Lou) * boring-interesting * meaningless-meaningful * important-unimportant, * informative-uninformative * disorganized-organized * easy-difficult Websites From UPAs web maintenance and design, retrieved April 11, 2011. The XXX association whose web site looks like this is: Unfriendly__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Friendly Amateurish__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Professional Ineffective__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Effective Dull__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Interesting Outdated__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Up-to-date Serious __1__2__3__4__5__6__7 Fun Weak__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Strong This visual design is: Cluttered__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Simple Unbalanced__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Balanced Unpleasant__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Pleasant Delicate__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Bold Confusing__1__2__3__4__5__6__7Clear Self report NURSING EXPERTISE SELF-REPORT SCALE Please circle the answer that best describes you. * 1. I am an: RN Other * 2. My job is: Staff nurse Assistant Nurse Manager Other * 3. Length of time since graduating as an RN: Under 6 months 6 * months to 3 years More than 3 years * 4. Length of time working on your unit:: Under 6 months 6 months to * 3 years More than 3 years * 5. Previous experience in nursing prior to graduating as an RN: Under * 6 months 6 months to 3 years More than 3 years The following is a list of statements about nursing care. Please circle the number that best represents your agreement with the statement. 1. Strongly Agree 2. Agree 3. Unsure 4. Disagree 5. Strongly Disagree * 1. I often know ahead of time that my patient will take a turn for the worse. 1 * 2. I frequently draw on past experiences when making patient care decisions. 2 * 3. Quality nursing care results from strictly adhering to policy and procedure. 5 * 4. When I do patient care, only a few pieces of information stand out as critically important. 2 * 5. I am consciously aware of the process of decision making in patient care. 1 * 6. Emotional attachments get in the way of good nursing care. 5 * 7. When something goes wrong with my patient, I seem to know automatically what to do. 2 * 8. Sometimes I find it difficult to identify objective reasons for certain patient care decisions. 2 * 9. The best way to give good nursing care is to get close to the patient. 2 * 10. I find it time consuming to set priorities in patient care. 5 * 11. I make my best decisions about patient care when I remain objective. 4 * 12. In an emergency, things happen so quickly that I don’t know what to do. 5 * 13. I base my patient care decisions more often on the rules that I learned in nursing school than on my experience in patient care. 5 * 14. It seems obvious to me what things need to be done first for my patients. 2 * 15. I use facts such as lab values and vital signs as my main source of information for making patient care decisions. 5 * 16. I usually require a lot of information about a patient care situation before I am comfortable with making a decision. 4 * 17. I do my best nursing care when I become truly involved with the patient. 1 * 18. I am comfortable with altering standard patient care procedures when I see the need. 3 * 19. Sudden patient care emergencies usually come as a complete surprise to me. 5 * 20. Most often I find myself relying on gut feelings when it comes to patient care. 5 Source: Reprinted with permission from G. Garland, Self-Report of Competence, Journal of Nursing Staff Development, Vol. 12, No. 4, p. 197, 1996, Lippincott-Raven. http://www. research-paper-example. com/nursing-self-report-scale. html http://upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Example_Likert_Scale. svg Administering the thurstone scale Here is the final form. The respondents check only the statements with which they agree. The average ratings by the judges are shown in parentheses. These would not be included on the actual form given to respondents. Note that the more positive statements have a higher weight. This is a scale to measure your attitude toward marijuana. It does not deal with any other drug, so please consider that the items pertain to marijuana exclusively. We want to know how students feel about this topic. In order to get honest answers, the questionnaires are to be filled out anonymously. Do not sign your name. Please check all those statements with which you agree. | ___| 1. | I dont approve of something that puts you out of a normal state of mind. (3.0) | ___| 2. | It has its place. (7. 1) | ___| 3. | It corrupts the individual (2. 2) | ___| 4. | Marijuana does some people a lot of good. (7. 9). | ___| 5. | Having never tried marijuana, I cant say what effects it would have. (6. 0) | ___| 6. | If marijuana is taken safely, its effect can be quite enjoyable. (8. 9) | ___| 7. | I think it is horrible and corrupting. (1. 6) | ___| 8. | It is usually the drug people start on before addiction. (4. 9) | ___| 9. | It is perfectly healthy and should be legalized. (10. 0) | ___| 10. | Its use by an individual could be the beginning of a sad situation. (4. 1) | http://psychology. ucdavis. edu/sommerb/sommerdemo/scaling/enrich/thurstone. html Iba ang Pinoy ni Princess O. Canlas Ang Pilipinas ay binubuo ng ibat ibang lalawigan, at bawat lalawigan ay may kanya-kanyang bernakular. Ngunit iba-iba man ang salita, iba-iba mang lugar ang kinalakihan, iisa lang ang ugat na pinagmulan. Tayo ay Pilipino. Mahirap malaman kung ang isang tao ay Pilipino nga o hindi sa kasalukuyang panahon. Sapagkat ang iba sa atin ay mas nananalantay ang dugong banyaga. At kung minsan pay mahirap ding alamin sa kanilang gamit na wika. May maitim at mayroon namang maputi. May matangos ang ilong at mayroon namang sarat. May matangkad at mayroon din namang pandak. Ngunit isang katangian ang nagbubuklod sa mga Pilipino upang silay makilala mo at masabing: IBA ANG PINOY! Ang pagkakawanggawa ay may taglay na ibat ibang katangian. Sapagkat ang taong mapagkawanggawa ay masasabi ring matulungin sa kapwa, magalang, mabait, mapagbigay, mapagpaumanhin, mapagtimpi, o mapang-unawa. At ang pagkakawanggawang ito ang makikita sa mga Pilipino. Isang katangiang higit sa kayamanan. Mapapansin hanggang sa kasalukuyan na ang Pinoy ay may kusang loob na pagtulong sa mga taong nasa kanyang paligid, kilala man niya ang mga ito o hindi. Sa lansangan, ang mga bata ay tinutulungang makatawid nang matiwasay. Ang matatanda ay inaalalayan sa kanilang paglalakad. Ang maraming dala-dalahan ay tinutulungan sa pagbibitbit. Ang mga hindi sinasadyang mahulog na bagay ay pinupulot upang iabot. Ang mga upuan sa pampublikong sasakyan ay ipinagkakaloob ng mga kalalakihan sa matatanda o sa kababaihan. Pagbibigay ng pagkain sa mga nagugutom. Pagbabahagi sa mga nangangailangan. Pagtanggap sa mga bisita nang may sigla, paghahain ng pagkain kahit kung minsan ay wala ng matira para sa kanila. At minsan namay pag-ako sa mga gawaing naiwan ng iba. At ang lahat ng mga ito ay ginawa ng kusang-loob at hindi napilitan lamang. Iyan ang Pinoy. Likas sa mga Pilipino ang pagkakawanggawa. At ang kalikasang ito ay dapat ingatan at pagyamanin pa. Nababatid ba natin na ang katangiang ito ay nakapagkukubli ng mga pagkukulang na ating nagawa sa mata ng Diyos? Sa iyong paggawa ng kabutihan, maaring may mga pagkakataon na ikay hindi napasalamatan o nginitian man lamang ng iyong tinulungan. At ang iyong ginawa akala moy walang saysay o walang kabuluhan. Ngunit may Isang higit sa lahat ay nakakaalam. At Siya ang tanging makapagsusukli sa iyong kabutihan. Ang paggawa ng kabutihan sa kapwa ay may katumbas na gantimpala sa Panginoon. Ngunit hindi man natin makamit ang biyayang iyon dito sa lupa, makasisiguro tayong sa langit ay ipagkakaloob ng Diyos ang gantimpala. Tayoy mga Pilipino, at nananalantay rin sa ating ugat ang dugong Kristiyano. Ang pagkakawanggawa ay patuloy nating ihandog o ibahagi sa ating kapwa. At hayaang ang ibang bansa ang magsabing, Pinoy ay dakila!

Nike at a Glance :: Essays Papers

Nike at a Glance Society, as we know it today, would not be able to continue without the everyday use of shoes and clothes. This fact alone puts companies such as Nike in a pretty powerful and much needed position. It is very unlikely to go anywhere without seeing the Nike Swoosh somewhere. However, Nike has not always had the reputation that they have today. In fact before 1971, Nike was not even heard of. It was instead known as the Blue Ribbon Shoe Company, which was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. Bowerman was the track coach at the University of Oregon, later to be the birth place of Nike. He knew of Knight through track and field, and they both had the idea of starting and developing a new athletic shoe. Phil Knight in a Stanford research paper said that â€Å"low-priced, high-performance, well-merchandized exports from Japan could replace Germany’s domination of the United States athletic shoe industry.† Knight did not know how right he would later become. In 1962, Knight traveled to Japan and talked to Onitsuka Tiger Company and convinced them that their shoes would have great success in the United States. He came up with a fake store, Blue Ribbon Shoes, which he claimed to own to assure Tiger shoes of his validity. Upon his return, Bill Bowerman and he opened Blue Ribbon Shoes, donating 500 dollars each to the business. The first 200 shoes arrived in December of 1963, from Japan and were met with some resistance. Bowerman and Knight set out to various track meets selling the shoes out of the back of their car. Even though some success came from this, they just could not do it on their own. In 1965 they had to hire Jeff Johnson as Blue Ribbons first full time employee. Johnson knew Knight through track and would prove to be a valuable member of the company. With his help, in 1966, they were able to open the first retail store in Santa Monica, California. The success of this store spawned the opening of another store in Eugene, Oregon in 1968. Bowerman knew however, that the company would have to come up with something new so they could move away from their counterparts in Japan. He did this one day while experimenting with rubber and his wife’s waffle iron.

English As Official Language In United States Essay

Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The United States of America is the melting pot of cultures and values permeated to its â€Å"American† way of life. Along this line, this cultures and values bring with them its languages so unique with each other culture that as such ethnic people grew over times; the language also conquers the different corners of the great American Dream. Now, English language is in a precarious situation whether or not it is still viable to allow it to remain as US’ official language. And since a significant number of US nationals feel comfortable speaking a language other than English, the federal government should reconsider English as the official language of the United States. This paper will examine the evolution of â€Å"English† as an American language. Also, it will explore the dimension of the English Only Movement (EOM) and the Melting Pot Theory in relation to â€Å"English† as an official American language. English Language In 2001, Harrop reported that from the recently concluded 2002 U.S. census revealed that â€Å"49 percent of Hispanics in America are not fluent in English.† As the fastest growing United States’ minority, the Hispanic population represents 12.5 percent of the population. Harrop also revealed that the Hispanic’s legal picture is astonishing as EEOC data revealed that the complaints lodge before it have more than doubled in 5 years and settlements have risen to over $50 million (Harrop, 2001). The United States’ inhabitants have never had any official language to speak of. Over 6 % of United States’ primary school children were instructed in German until the World War I and now over 45 million American nationals still state that their forefathers spoke German. The large scale immigration of the 20th century led to the inhabitance of multilingual people inside the US, thus, around 336 different languages are presently spoken which comprise 176 endemic dialects. Also, more than 47 million American nationals use a language other than English within their homes including 30 million Spanish speakers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When the US Senate voted to select English as the official language and prohibited the use of other languages for federal government orders and services with a vote of 63-34, the US Senate it self was placed in a dilemma as the law barred effectively other languages is the US documents. Thus,     Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe offered an amendment to remedy this problem because it split the Senate along largely party lines, with only nine of the 44 Democrats voting for it, and just one Republican voting against (Cornwell 2006). On the part of former Democratic minority (now Majority) leader Harry Reid, he   identified this amendment as â€Å"racist† whereas Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat of Hispanic origin, described it as â€Å"divisive and anti-American† (Cornwell, 2006). The rationale for these two statements issued by US Senate’s distinguished members hinges on the fact that law passed neglects any provisions for services in languages other than English. This would be a problematic situation for those Americans who cannot speak English fluently. Also, the law in effect would also force new immigrants to have considerable knowledge of English language before they get US nationality. On the historical hindsight, English language was voted out German by a difference of just one vote when it was selected as the official language of the US by Congressmen in the year 1795 (Cornwell 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In protecting the minority’s right on education, the Majority (through the US Congress) passed into law the Bilingual Education Act of 1968. This act protects the immigrants who were limited English proficient and at the same time meet their needs as they assimilate to the American society.   Crawford revealed the law was enacted when the US was the apex of the Great Society and was signed into law by President Johnson without a single voice raised in dissent. In spite of this landmark legislation’s noble aims, the Americans public has spent the past 30 years debating what the law wants to accomplish. Thus, following questions were raised: â€Å"[w]as this 1968 law intended primarily to assimilate limited-English-proficient (LEP) children more efficiently? [t]o teach them English as rapidly as possible? [t]o encourage bilingualism and biliteracy? [t]o remedy academic underachievement and high dropout rates? [t]o raise the self-esteem of minority students? [t]o promote social equality? [o]r to pursue all of these goals simultaneously? These questions were never answered in the Congress’ journals of its proceedings (50).    English Only Movement The English Only Movement (EOM), a movement initiated in the 1980s, is a sequel of the procedure of domestic colonialism which leads to other languages which are spoken by minorities’ demolition. In 1979, a Carnegie Corporation’s report pointed out that â€Å"bilingual education was the preeminent civil rights issue within Hispanic communities† (Penna & Shepherd;   p. 147). Thus, the bilingual education became a key issue that create distress in the Mexican community inside the United States according to different researches carried out by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission ( 1967- 1975). The researches also reveled that the US academic system was thought of as being against the cultural traditions of the Mexican population resulting to a negative effects on the Mexicans including inferiority complexes. It is in this instance that the community traditions and customs’ eradication is no doubt, an abuse of the basic civil rights of these people in regard to community’s linguistic and cultural survival. On the domestic front, the English Only Movement’s amendment in the state of California was a triumph for those who support the use of English as an official language. It gave legal status to an issue that goes against biculturalism and bilingualism. The between 1986 and 1989, voters and legislators in thirty-nine states took into account plans analogous to that of Californian amendment. This led to the appearance of 17 states with English as the official language. The English Only Movement is successful in bringing bilingual education policy to the leading position of national debate that includes questions, the approach of scientific teachings of bilingual education and a federal resolution   that could shed light as to why English should be the official language of the United States.       Melting Pot Theory The current discussion over the bilingualism is hinges on the theory that the United States is an assimilationist society or a form of society embracing many minority groups and culture traditions. And this theory is very old. Though this was the case, there were some exchanging of views forcefully stating that United States is a melting pot, which theorizes that people of various nations settle in America and forced to resemble which means to become an American completely.   Lawmakers Push Official English reported in the Washington Post revealed that the March 14 to 16 poll of 1,007, with a margin of error of three percentage points showed that 63 percent of Americans would like to have their ballots and voting materials only in English as compared to those 35 percent who wanted them printed in English and other languages (Lawmakers Push Official English, A06). The results in this opinion poll adheres to the results of the Myths of the Melting Pot’s study which, though noble as it is, spread all throughout a wrong ideas about languages which are mostly not challenged   nor supported by historical records. In fact, US language policy’s history on the subject– or lack of one – both work at lower consequences than the logical basis for official English language and provide a warning lesson about any actions to restricting languages which are rarely in use. The following are points to ponder in this regard: Unfavorable to the myth, the United States has never been a basic speaking and/or using only one language country. By the period of time, one from eight of permanent inhabitants reported a languages background other than English in 1976, this is variety of nothing new but some skilled persons in languages or study of languages believe that the United States has been the habitant of more persons able to speak two languages than any other nation in the history of the world. As early as 1664, when the colony of the New Netherlands came into possession of British, eighteen different languages were spoken on Manhattan Island, not including the language spoken by the local inhabitants of America which were numbered more than five hundred in North America at the time. Considering the US history, the prevailing federal policy on languages has only maintained tolerance and adjustments. In spite of the language variety in 1787, the famous took no interest to protect or encourage English: United States constituents. Because discussion were held in private and we must depend on James Madison’s informal notes, it is not clear, if any language issues came up during the federal agreement on social behavior in Philadelphia (Farrand 1913). But available facts strongly suggest that our early leaders regarded language laws of any type as a cause of harm to civil freedom from captivity. Recognizing about rarely spoken languages reflected bilingual and non-English – language schools which were ordinary in many districts until the long time period of World War I. In 1710, British missionaries were invited to maintain schools among the Iroquois League of Ally States, with the demand that students should be informed or taught with their national languages. Parts of bible which were translated in Mohawk language were included in the texts used. In 1802, Congress began a yearly devotion of ($15,000) to encourage â€Å"civilization among the old inhabitants (before the arrival of colonists).† This money was devoted to religious schools in which many schools were bilingual. The liberation policy on languages was the best and ideal policy for this country, but it is no upheld especially among people conquered and angry for supposed un-justice; people living in colonies and some racial people. Attitudes of the 19th centuries towards their right of language were considerably less tolerant than say towards speakers of German, French or Scandinavian languages       Conclusion Language is another example of making sure that the class’s position in society prevails. This paper has shown the many ways that minority languages are saved from oblivion in the US. For this reason, it is important to known by the baffling ways in which this is happening.   Official English/English Only’s websites revealed that â€Å"[e]nglish as the nation’s dominant language is no more threatened at the turn of the 21st century than it was at the turn of the 20th. To the contrary, it is all the other languages that are endangered – and would soon die out, if not for the replenishing effects of immigration† (Official English/English Only, n.p.). English as an official US language has been an issue for decades by which some influential groups/people have been trying to restrict other languages and promote English Language.   On the other hand, this policy has not been accepted nor approved by the majority of Americans as it is discriminatory to other equal language. This idea is not hidden. Making English as the US official language is the agenda of White Americans – it also unveils the approach of White American as they don’t want more immigrants from the third world countries. It will be discriminatory to other language and this moved, if ever, is contrary to the hope and aspirations why this country was founded and continued to be strong. Works Cited Cornwell, Rupert. May 20, 2006. At last, America has an official language (and yes, it’s English) Independent, The (London) James Crawford. Language Politics in the U.S.A.: The Paradox of Bilingual Education. Journal Social Justice. Volume: 25. Issue: 3. Year: 1998. Page Number: 50 Maureen E. Harrop. Managing a Non-English-Speaking Workforce – Hispanic Americans – Brief Article – Statistical Data Included. Modern Machine Shop, Nov, 2001   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3101/is_6_74/ai_79900955   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Accessed, April 21, 2007 Lawmakers Push Official English; Bills Tied to Immigration Reform. The Washington Times. Publication Date: April 3, 2006. Page Number: A06. Official English/English Only . n.d. http://www.elladvocates.org/englishonly.html   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Accessed, April 21, 2007 David Penna and George W. Shepherd Jr. Racism and the Underclass: State Policy and Discrimination against Minorities.Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: New York. Year: 1991. Page Number: 145.   

Criminal Justice Budget Essay

Harris County, in Houston Texas, contains a pretty large population, and a large majority of that population classified as home owners. Harris county’s geographic size is considerably large, with a population estimate exceeding 3,935,855 peoples in 2007 (US Census Bureau, 2009). Furthermore, the percentage of Caucasians is around 73. 6%, with the Black population consisting of 18. 9%, Native Americans exceeding . 6%, Asian persons around 5. 5% and lastly the Hispanic population being around 38. 6% (US Census Bureau, 2009). The land area per 200 square miles is 1,728. Harris County’s current federal spending budget for the year of 2007 is around 21, 152, 659. When determining a budget for Harris County, one important aspect to consider is the county’s retail sales, which is around 39,358,036, displaying the current of industry and economic growth. The federal government spent over 19 billion dollars in 2003 on the war on drugs, at a rate of about 600 dollars per second (www. drugsense. org). The total amount of money spent on the war on drugs at the federal level is about 4,258,600,939, while at the state level 6,536,936,825, totaling over 10,800,600,300 dollars (www. drugsense. com). The failed war on drugs has not stopped drug usage, on the contrary, it has made criminal cartels rich by illegalizing drugs, thus giving them a product to sell, and increased not only the availability and potency of drugs, but, also their rate of usage across the country. For example, after the US has spent over 500 billion dollars to fight drugs, cocaine is now as cheap as it was when kingpin Escobar died and more heavily used, furthermore, methamphetamine, which was barley even a problem in the years following 1993, is now used by over 1. 5 million Americans and is proven to be more addictive than crack (Wells, 2007). The war on drugs has put over 500,000 people behind bars for drug crimes with no discernable effect on the drug trafficking industry, if anything; it has grown (Wells, 2007). When preparing a budget for Harris County, the most important thing that could be done is ending the failed war on drugs, which would save tax payers an estimated 12 billion dollars or more a year. Furthermore, instead of focusing a majority of the states federal budget on building more prisons begin building more universities, and residential communities. I find it interesting to note that the annual cost to tax payers in California to keep and maintain their prisons is around 10 billion per year, if this spending trend continues; California will be spending more on prisons than on universities (Abramsky, 2007). In ending the war on drugs, with the billions that would be saved, tax cuts, business incentives, and an overall increase in the standard of living for the community. Furthermore, instead of building prisons, states could build real, industry that produces’ real goods. References Wells, Ben (2007) How America Lost the War on Drugs Rolling Stone retrieved on March 16, 2009 from http://www. rollingstone. com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs Abramsky, Sasha (2007) Prison Crisis: Will California Spend more on jails than Universities? Rights and Liberties retrieved on March 16, 2009 from http://www. alternet. org/rights/65868/? page=entire US Census Bureau (2009) State and County quick facts The US Census Bureau on March 16, 2009 from http://quickfacts. census. gov/qfd/states/48/48201. html Unknown Author (2009) Drug War Clock Drug Sense retrieved on March 16, 2009 from http://www. drugsense. org/wodclock. htm

Khrushchev and the 1956 hungar essays

Khrushchev and the 1956 hungar essays The overlapping crises in Hungary and Poland in the autumn of 1956 posed a severe challenge for the leaders of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU). After a tense standoff with Poland, the CPSU Presidium (as the Politburo was then called) decided to refrain from military intervention and to seek a political compromise. The crisis in Hungary was far less easily defused. For a brief moment it appeared that Hungary might be able to break away from the Communist bloc, but the Soviet Army put an end to all such hopes. Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian revolution, and a degree of order returned to the Soviet camp. Newly released documents from Russia and Eastern Europe shed valuable light on the events of 1956, permitting a much clearer and more nuanced understanding of Soviet reactions. This article will begin by discussing the way official versions of the 1956 invasion changedand formerly secret documents became availableduring the late Soviet period and after the Soviet Union disintegrated. It will then highlight some of the most important findings from new archival sources and memoirs. The article relies especially heavily on the so-called Malin notes, which are provided in annotated translation below, and on new materials from Eastern Europe. Both the article and the documents will show that far-reaching modifications are needed in existing Western accounts of the 1956 OFFICIAL REASSESSMENTS BEFORE AND AFTER 1991 The advent of glasnost and new political thinking in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev led to sweeping reassessments of postwar Soviet ties with Eastern Europe. As early as 1987, an unofficial reappraisal began in Moscow of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Initially, these reassessments of the 1968 crisis did not have Gorbachevs overt endorsement, but the process gained a...

Identifying the Most Common Hardwood Trees

Identifying the Most Common Hardwood Trees Hardwoods or broadleafs  are trees  classed as angiosperms or plants with ovules enclosed for protection in an ovary. When appropriately watered on good fertile sites or fed  in the landscape with a special tree fertilizer mix, these ovules will rapidly develop into seeds. The  seeds then drop from trees as acorns, nuts, samaras, drupes and pods. Hardwoods have either simple or compound leaves. Simple leaves can be further divided into lobed and unlobed. Unlobed leaves may have a smooth edge (such as a magnolia) or a serrated edge (such as an elm). The most common North American tree is the red alder. It has oval-shaped leaves and a reddish-brown bark. They can grow as tall as 100 feet and are found mostly in the western United States and Canada. Difference Between Hardwood and Broadleaf Broadleaf  trees can be evergreen or they can persist in dropping their leaves over the entire  winter. Most are  deciduous and lose all their leaves over a short annual fall drop. These leaves can be either simple (single blades) or they can be​ compound with leaflets attached to a leaf stem. Although variable in shape, all hardwood leaves have a distinct network of fine veins. Here is a quick leaf identification key of the common hardwoods in North America. Hardwood: Trees with broad, flat leaves as opposed to coniferous or needled trees. Wood hardness varies among the hardwood species, and some are actually softer than some softwoods.Deciduous Perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year.Broadleaf: A tree with leaves that are broad, flat and thin and generally shed annually. Difference Between Hardwood and Softwood The texture and density of the wood a tree produces puts it in either the hardwood or softwood category. Most hardwood trees are deciduous trees, which lose their leaves annually, like elm or maple. Softwood comes from a conifer (cone-bearing) or evergreen trees, such as pine or spruce. Ron Biedenbach / EyeEm / Getty Images The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate, giving the wood its greater density. Most Common Hardwoods Unlike the conifers or softwood firs, spruce and pines, hardwood trees have evolved into a broad array of common species. The most common species in North America are oaks, maple, hickory, birch, beech and cherry. Forests, where a majority of their trees drop leaves at the end of the typical growing season, are called deciduous forests. These forests are found worldwide and are located in either temperate or tropical ecosystems. Deciduous trees, like oaks, maples, and elms, shed their leaves in the fall and sprout new ones every spring Common North American Hardwood List Here are some of the most common hardwood trees found in North America, along with their scientific names. ash  - Genus  Fraxinus  beech  - Genus  Fagus  basswood  - Genus Tilia  birch  - Genus  Betula  black cherry  Ã‚  - Genus  Prunus  black walnut/butternut  - Genus  Juglans  cottonwood  Ã‚  - Genus  Populus  elm  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Ulmus  hackberry  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Celtis  hickory  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Carya  holly  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  IIex  locust  - Genus  Robinia  and  Gleditsia  magnolia  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Magnolia  maple  - Genus  Acer  oak  - Genus  Quercus  poplar  Ã‚  - Genus  Populus  red alder  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Alnus  royal paulownia  Ã‚  - Genus  Paulownia  sassafras  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Sassafras  sweetgum  - Genus  Liquidambar  sycamore  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Platanus  tupelo  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Nyssa  willow  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Salix  yellow-poplar  - Genus  Liriodendron japatino / Getty Images

Best practices in Critical Thinking and Decision Making Essay

Best practices in Critical Thinking and Decision Making - Essay Example It involves gathering of information, analysis, evaluation and application of the information obtained in the process of critical thinking, and finally arriving at a final decision. According to Carter (1973), â€Å"Critical thinking is thinking that proceeds on the basis of careful evaluation of premises and evidence and comes to conclusions as objectively as possible through the consideration of all pertinent factors and the use of valid procedures from logic.† Decision-making is a process where the individual arrives at a solution to a given problem by evaluating information. A decision can be arrived at through analysis, discussions and debates. A review of the process of critical thinking and decision making makes it clear that a quality decision cannot be arrived at without critical thinking. In the absence of critical thinking, entire details of a situation may not be available and the best solution may be hard to find. Decision making involves balancing of quantitative and qualitative data and using our judgment to make the right choice. It is here that critical thinking helps. Critical thinking puts our knowledge of a particular situation or problem into a proper perspective. It helps us to understand the subject by filling the gaps in information and revealing the significance of the assumptions we have made about the subject. When there are many options available to us it is difficult to choose. A final and informed decision can be arrived at when we have a full understanding of the subject. Critical thinking helps you to do just that by providing us with the consequences and implications of various options. Critical thinkers use the power of reasoning to dissect complex problems and make things simple. Critical thinking contributes towards avoiding mistakes and making one aware of opportunities available. Critical thinking requires practice. It is not mere thinking. To be a

Analyzing and Reporting Results Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analyzing and Reporting Results - Essay Example The objective was to produce a forceful story which would bring in or introduce the latest product, THE 2014 CLA coupe. The objective was to not only get in the public talking but also to start getting the public to pay attention and get engaged (Daimler, 2013). The CLA will be having a class that would not be comparable with others. As the car is another version of the CLS, therefore this one would also appeal and attract to the target customer groups that have a unique approach or non-conformist approach. The advertising campaign therefore places the car as an extraordinary vehicle as mentioned by Mr. Anders-Sundt Jensen. Mr. Anders-Sundt Jensen is the Head of Brand Communications at Mercedes-Benz Cars (Daimler, 2013). This tool is used by the Mercedes Benz Company to evaluate the effectiveness of the advertising campaign in terms of how much target market respond to the advertisement campaign, and how they perceive the brand, do they perceive the brand according to the company’s perception. And the brand is presenting some uniqueness or not.   According to Ace Metrics, an self-governing analytics corporation which measures the effectiveness of advertising campaign, â€Å"Soul† scored the uppermost of any automotive commercial and joined for the 4th highest score on the whole for all advertisements on the Super Bowl,† stated the Mercedes-Benz press release. As mentioned, there are number of statistical analysis methods that can be used. However BevCo should use moving average as the statistical tools. In the beverage industry, the sales are seasonal and therefore exponential smoothing moving average should be used in order to reduce the impact of seasonal variation and other irregularities (Hyndman, Koehler, Ord, and Snyder, 2008). Daimler. (2013). Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class establishes new segment: Sleek as they come. Retrieved May 31, 2013 from

Questionaire Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Questionaire - Assignment Example The team is up against so many difficulties including lynch mobs of white people, arrest and near riot. Despite all those obstacles, the team finally manages to win a debate against a Harvard team that had a myriad of advantages. Cultural identities are constructed by human beings as a direct result of the experiences undergone by certain people or groups as well as the beliefs held by a specific group of persons. Through experiences and beliefs, people form attitudes that skew them towards associating with people from one culture or their own culture. Universally, people or groups of people have fears they harbor about certain cultures, hence making it difficult for them to associate. These fears lead to stereotypes which fuel cultural conflicts as people differ over worldviews and national cultures. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/social_darwinism_and_class_essentialism_the_rich_think_they_are_superior.html the key theme here is social Darwinism, where the rich have the thought that they are superior to others. 3. Most of us have experienced privilege in some form (race, gender, age, looks, social class, status, etc.). What is privilege? Give examples describing how someone benefitted from privilege and how another has â€Å"lost out† because of someone else’s privilege. You may use personal or observed examples, but do not use hypothetical ones. According the Merriam Webster online dictionary, privilege is defined as a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others. People may get privileges based on race, political inclinations as well as employment affiliations. In my own experience, I have seen a white man served first though he was at the rear end of the line while the others get to wait. In another instance, I witnessed a senior government official get away with over speeding without even a ticket due to his position. Finally,

Effect of Social Networks on Teaching Methods

Effect of Social Networks on Teaching Methods ABSTRACT Background. Research on social networks in schools is increasing rapidly. Network studies outside education have indicated that the structure of social networks is partly affected by demographic characteristics of network members. Yet, knowledge on how teacher social networks are shaped by teacher and school demographics is scarce. Purpose. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which teachers work related social networks are affected by teacher and school demographic characteristics. Method. Survey data were collected among 316 educators from 13 elementary schools in a large educational system in the Netherlands. Using social network analysis, in particular multilevel p2 modeling, we analyzed the effect of teacher and school demographics on individual teachers probability of having relationships in a work discussion network. Conclusions. Findings indicate that differences in having relationships were associated with differences in gender, grade level, working hours, formal position, and experience. We also found that educators tend to prefer relationships with educators with the same gender and from the same grade level. Moreover, years of shared experience as a school team appeared to affect the likelihood of teacher relationships around work related discussion. INTRODUCTION Relationships among educators are more and more regarded as an important element to schools functioning, and a potential source of school improvement. Educational practitioners and scholars around the world are targeting teacher interaction as a way to facilitate knowledge exchange and shared teacher practice through a variety of collaborative initiatives, such as communities of practice, professional learning communities, and social networks (Daly Finnigan, 2009; Hord, 1997; Lieberman McLaughlin, 1992; Wenger, 1998). The growing literature base around these concepts suggests that relationships matter for fostering a climate of trust and a safe and open environment to implement reform and engage in innovative teacher practices (Bryk Schneider, 2002; Louis, Marks, Kruse, 1996; Coburn Russell, 2008; Penuel, Fishman, Yamaguchi, Galagher, 2007). Social network literature asserts that relationships matter because the configuration of social relationships offers opportunities and constraints for collective action (Burt, 1983, Coleman, 1990; Granovetter, 1973; Lochner, Kawachi, Kennedy, 1999). For instance, the extent to which an organizational network supports the rate and ease with which knowledge and information flows through the organization may provide it with an advantage over its competitors (Nahapiet Ghoshal, 1998; Tsai, 2001). While social network studies have mainly concentrated on the consequences of social networks for individuals and groups, less attention has been paid to how social networks are conditioned upon individual characteristics and behavior (Borgatti Foster, 2003). A developing set of studies in organizational literature is focusing on how attributes of individuals such as personality traits affect their social network (e.g., Burt, Janotta Mahoney, 1998; Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 2001; Madhavan, Caner , Prescott, Koka, 2008), how individuals select others to engage in relationships (Kossinets Watts, 2006; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001), and how organizations enter into alliances with other organizations (Gulati Gargiulo, 1999). These studies offer valuable insights in potential individual and organizational attributes that may affect the pattern of social relationships in school teams. Attributes that are especially worth investigating for their potential to shape the social structure of school teams are demographic characteristics (cf. Ely, 1995; Tsui, Egan, OReilly, 1992). Demographic characteristics are more or less constant elements that typify teachers, their relationships, and schools based on socio-economic factors such as age, gender, teaching experience, and school team composition. Several network studies have suggested that networks are at least in part shaped by demographic characteristics of individuals, their dyadic relationships, and the network (Brass, 1984; Heyl, 1996; Ibarra 1992, 1995; Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). For instance, several studies reported that relationships among individuals with the same gender are more likely than relationships among individuals with opposite gender (a so-called homophily effect) (Baerveldt, Van Duijn, Vermeij, Van Hemert, 2004; McPherson, Smith-Lovin Co ok, 2001). These studies, however, seldom purposely aim to examine the impact of demographic characteristics on social networks and consequently only include few demographic variables of network members. Insights in the extent to which social relationships are formed in the light of multiple individual and organizational demographic characteristics are limited, and even more so in the context of education. We argue that such groundwork knowledge is crucial for all those who aim to optimize social networks in support of school improvement and, ultimately, student achievement. This chapter aims to examine the extent to which social networks in school teams are shaped by individual, dyadic, and school level demographic variables, such as teachers gender and age, school team composition and team experience, and students socio-economic status. We conducted a study among 316 educators in 13 Dutch elementary schools. Results of this study were expected to increase insights in the constant social forces that may partly define teachers relationships in their school teams, and discover potential tendencies around, for example, homophily and structural balance. Based on a literature review of social network studies that include demographic variables in a wide range of settings, we pose several hypotheses on the extent to which demographical variables at the individual, dyadic, and school level may affect teachers social networks. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Individual level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Social network literature has suggested various individual demographic characteristics to affect their pattern of relationships, and as such social networks as a whole (Heyl, 1996; Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). Following these suggestions, we will first review how individual level demographic characteristics may affect teachers social networks. We focus on the individual demographics gender, formal position, working hours, experience at school, age, and grade level for their potential influence on teachers patterns of social relationships and school teams social network structure. Gender. The likelihood of having relationships in a network may be associated with gender (Metz Tharenou, 2001; Moore, 1990; Stoloff et al., 1999; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). Previous research has indicated that gender affects network formation (Burt et al., 1998; Hughes, 1946; Ibarra, 1993, 1995, Moore, 1990; Pugliesi, 1998; Van Emmerik, 2006) and that, in general, women tend to have more relationships than men (Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 1998). These differences are already found in childhood (Frydenberg Lewis, 1993) and continue to exist through life (Parker de Vries, 1993; Van der Pompe De Heus, 1993). In various settings and cultures, both men and women were found to use men as network routes to achieve their goals and acquire information from more distant domains (Aldrich et al., 1989; Bernard et al., 1988). Following these findings, we hypothesize that male teachers will have a higher likelihood of receiving more relationships than female tea chers, and women will send more relationships than men (Hypothesis 1a). Formal position. Previous research in organizations (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Moore, 1990) and education (Coburn, 2005; Coburn Russell, 2008; Daly Finnigan, 2009; Heyl, 1996) suggests that the formal position of individuals may be related to their relational activity and popularity. For instance, Lazega Van Duijn (1997) found that lawyers were more often sought out for advice when they held a higher hierarchical position. Research has indicated that the network position of an organizational leader is important in terms of access and leveraging social resources through social relationships as well as brokering between teachers that are themselves unconnected (Balkundi Harrison, 2006; Balkundi Kilduff, 2005). In line with these studies, we expect that principals will be more sought out for work related discussions than teachers. We also expect that principals will report to be involved in more relationships than teachers, since they depend on these relationships to gather informat ion and convey knowledge, plans, and expertise to support student learning and monitor the functioning of teachers and the school. Moreover, principals are reported to occupy a strategic position in the flow of information between the district office and teachers and relay important policy and organizational information from the district office to the teachers (Coburn, 2005; Coburn Russell, 2008). Therefore, we hypothesize that principals have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving relationships (Hypothesis 1b). Working hours. In addition, the number of working hours that an educator spends at the school may also affect his/her opportunity to initiate and maintain social relationships. Recent research suggests that the relationship between network embeddedness and job performance is related to working hours (Van Emmerik Sanders, 2004). In line with this finding, it is hypothesized that educators who work full time will have a higher probability of sending and receiving relationships than educators with part time working hours (Hypothesis 1c). Experience at the school. Another demographic characteristic that may affect an individuals pattern of relationships is seniority, or experience at the school. The previously mentioned law study (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997) indicated that senior lawyers had a higher probability of being sought out for advice than junior lawyers. Besides having more work experience, a perceived network advantage of senior lawyers may be that they have built more strong, durable, and reliable relationships over time, and therefore have access to resources that are unattainable for more junior lawyers. Accordingly, we hypothesize that educators who have more experience in their school team have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving work discussion relationships than educators who have less experience in the school team (Hypothesis 1d). Age. Network research in other contexts found age differences in relation to the amount of relationships that individuals maintain (Cairns, Leung, Buchanan, Cairns, 1995; Gottlieb Green, 1984). In general, these studies suggest that the amount of relationships that people maintain tend to decrease with age. However, with increased age, experience at the school also increases together with the amount of relationships based on seniority (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997). In concordance with the latter, we hypothesize that age will positively affect the probability of work related ties, meaning that older teachers are more likely to send and receive work related relationships than younger teachers (Hypothesis 1e) Grade Level. Within schools, formal clustering around grade level may affect the pattern of relationships among educators. The grade level may to a certain extent affect the amount of interaction among educators since grade level teams may have additional grade level meetings and professional development initiatives are often targeted at the grade level (Daly et al., in press; McLaughlin Talbert, 1993; Newmann, Kings, Youngs, 2000; Newmann Wehlage, 1995; Wood, 2007; Stoll Louis, 2007). Dutch elementary schools are relatively small compared to U.S. elementary schools, and are often divided into a grade level team for the lower grades (K 2) and a grade level team for the upper grades (3 6). The amount of relationships that teachers have, may partly be defined by the requirements of and opportunities provided by their grade level team. We may expect that teachers that teach upper grade levels send and receive more relationships than teachers that teach lower grade levels because o f the increasingly diverse and demanding curriculum in the upper grades combined with intensified student testing and preparation for education after elementary school. These conditions may require more work related discussion of upper grade level teachers than of lower grade level teachers. As such, we expect that teachers that teach upper grade levels have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving relationships than teachers that teach lower grade levels (Hypothesis 1f). Dyadic level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Dyadic level demographics are demographics that typify the relationship between two individuals. Dyadic level effects give insights in network homophily. Network homophily is arguably the most well-known social network concept that often explicitly focuses on demographic characteristics of network members. The concept of homophily, also known by the adage birds of a feather flock together, addresses similarity between two individuals in a dyadic (paired) relationship. Homophily literature builds on the notion that individuals are more likely to develop and maintain social relationships with others that are similar to them on specific attributes, such as gender, organizational unit, or educational level (Marsden, 1988; McPherson Smith-Lovin, 1987; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001). Similarly, individuals who differ from each other on a specific attribute are less likely to initiate relationships, and when they do, heterophilous relationships also tend to dissolve at a faster pace than homophilous relationships (McPherson et al., 2001). Homophily effects result from processes of social selection and social influence. Social selection refers to the idea that individuals tend to choose to interact with individuals that are similar to them in characteristics such as behavior and attitudes. At the same time, individuals that interact with each other influence each others behavior and attitudes, which may increase their similarity (McPherson et al., 2001). This is a process of social influence. In addition, individuals who share a relationship also tend to share similar experiences through their relationship (Feld, 1981). Homophily is related to the concept of structural balance. In the footsteps of cognitive balance theory, structural balance theory poses that individuals will undertake action to avoid or decrease an unbalanced network (Heider, 1958). Over time, people tend to seek balance in their network by initiating new strong relationships with friends of friends and terminate relationships with friends of enemies or enemies of friends (Wasserman Faust, 1997). As a result from this tendency towards structural balance, relatively homogenous and strong cliques may be formed that give the network some stability over time (Kossinets Watts, 2006). Structural balance and network homophily may have also have a negative influence on individuals social networks as the resulting network homogeneity and pattern of redundant relationships may limit their access to valuable information and expertise (Little, 1990; Burt, 1997, 2000). In this study we focus on two types of similarity that may define teachers relationships, namely gender similarity and grade level similarity. Gender similarity. A dyadic attribute that may affect teachers patterns of social relationships is the gender similarity between two teachers. Several studies have shown that work and voluntary organizations are often highly gender segregated (Bielby Baron, 1986, McGuire, 2000; McPherson Smith-Lovin, 1986, 1987; Popielarz, 1999; Van Emmerik, 2006). This gender homophily effect already starts at a young age (Hartup, 1993; Cairns Cairns, 1994; Furman Burmester, 1992). In the context of education, Heyl (1996) suggested an effect of gender homophily on interactional patterns among teachers, indicating that for men and women relationships with the opposite gender are less frequent or intense than relationships among men or relationship among women. In line with this suggestion, we hypothesize a homophily effect for gender, meaning that educators will prefer same-gender relationships over relationships with teachers of the opposite gender (Hypothesis 2a). Grade level similarity. Another dyadic attribute that may shape the pattern of teachers relationships is the grade level. In the Netherlands, schools are relatively small compared to the Unitesd States, with often only one full time or two part time teachers per grade level. Commonly, Dutch school teams are formally divided into two grade level levels representing the lower (onderbouw, often K-2 or K-3) and upper grades (bovenbouw, often grades 3-6 or 4-6), which are often located in close physical proximity. Recent research suggests that teachers who are located closely to each another are more likely to interact with each other than with teachers that are less physically proximate (Coburn Russell, 2008). Moreover, most schools have separate breaks for the lower and upper grades, and some schools hold additional formal meetings for the lower/upper grades to discuss issues related to these grades. Since shared experiences are argued to result in greater support among individuals (Fe ld, 1981; Suitor Pillemer, 2000; Suitor, Pillemer, Keeton, 1995), these organizational features will increase the opportunity for teachers from the same grade level to interact relative to teachers from a different grade level. Therefore, we hypothesize a homophily effect for grade level, meaning that teachers will more likely maintain relationships with teachers from their own grade level than with teachers that teach the other grade level (e.g., lower or upper level) (Hypothesis 2b). School level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Although teachers can often choose with whom they interact, the social structure of their schools network is partly outside their span of control (Burt, 1983; Brass Burkhardt, 1993; Gulati, 1995). Just as individual relationships may constrain or support a teachers access to and use of resources (Degenne Forse, 1999), the social structure surrounding the teacher may influence the extent to which teachers may shape their network so as to expect the greatest return on investment (Burt, 1992; Flap De Graaf, 1989; Ibarra, 1992, 1993, 1995; Lin Dumin, 1986; Little, 1990). Because of the embeddedness and interdependency of individuals in their social network, relationships and attributes at a higher level will affect lower-level relationships (Burt, 2000). As such, demographic characteristics at the school level may affect teachers patterns of relationships. We pose that the following school level demographic characteristics affect teachers pattern of social relationships: gender ratio , average age, school team experience, school size, school team size, and socio-economic status of the schools students. Gender ratio and average age. Above and beyond the influence of individual demographics on the tendency to form relationships, there may be aggregates of these individual demographics at the level of the school team that may affect teachers tendency to form and maintain relationships. Research in a law firm demonstrated that above the influence of individual level seniority, a lawyers position in the firms network was in part dependent on the ratio of juniors to seniors in the team (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997). For school teams, a compositional characteristic that may affect patterns of relationships is gender ratio, or the ratio of the number of female to male teachers. In a school team with a high ratio of female teachers (which is not unusual in Dutch elementary education) male teachers have fewer options for homophily friendships with same-sex peers than women. Therefore, male teachers in such a team may have a lower tendency to maintain relationships in general and a higher propens ity towards relationships with women than men in school teams with relatively more male teachers. Research confirms that the gender composition of a team may significantly affect gender homophily, with the minority gender often having much more heterophilous networks than the majority (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001). Therefore, we expect that the gender ratio of the school team will shape teachers social networks. In line with previous empirical work suggesting that women tend to have more relationships than men (Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 1998), we expect that teachers in school teams with a high female ratio will have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving ties than individuals in teams with relatively more male teachers (Hypothesis 3a). Along the same lines, if we expect that age will increase the likelihood of sending and receiving relationships, then increased average age of a school team may also enhance the probability of relationships. Therefore, we hypothesize that average age is positively related to the probability of ties (Hypothesis 3b). Team experience, school size, and team size. Prior research has indicated that individuals are more likely to reach out to others with whom they had previous relationships (Coburn Russell, 2008). Given the time and shared experiences that are necessary for building relationships, we may assume that the number of years that a school team has been functioning in its current configuration, without members leaving or joining the team, may affect teachers lilelihood of maintaining relationships. Therefore we include school team experience as a school level demographic that may positively affect teachers patterns of relationships (Hypothesis 3c). Other school demographics that may affect teachers inclinations to form relationships are school size (number of students) and team size (number of educators). Previous literature has suggested that the size of organizations and networks is directly related to the pattern of social relationships in organizations (Tsai, 2001). In general, the amou nt of individual relationships and the density of social networks decrease when network size increases. As such, we may expect a lower probability of relationships in schools that serve more students (Hypothesis 3d) and schools with larger school teams (Hypothesis 3e). Students socio-economic status. Social networks can be shaped by both endogenous and exogenous forces (Gulati, Nohria, Zaheer, 2000). An exogenous force to the school team that has been demonstrated to affect schools functioning is the socio-economic status (SES) of its students (Sirin, 2005; White, 1982). We argue that the socio-economic status of the children attending the school may influence the probability that teachers will form relationships. For instance, teachers perceptions of the urgency for communication and innovation may be dependent on the community surrounding the school. Typically, schools that serve more high-needs communities are associated with greater urgency in developing new approaches (Sunderman, Kim Orfield, 2005), which may relate to an increased probability of relationships among educators. Therefore, we hypothesize that teachers in low SES schools will have a higher probability of having relationships than teachers in high SES schools (Hypothesis 3f). METHOD Context The study took place at 13 elementary schools in south of The Netherlands. The schools were part of single district that provided IT, financial, and administrative support to 53 schools in the south of The Netherlands. At the time of the study, the district had just initiated a program for teacher development that involved a benchmark survey for the monitoring of school improvement. We selected a subsample of all the district schools based on a team size of 20 or more team members, since trial runs of the p2 estimation models encountered difficulties converging with smaller network sizes and more schools. The original sample consisted of 53 schools that, with the exception of school team and number of students, did not differ considerably from the 13 sample schools with regard to the described demographics. The context of Dutch elementary schools was beneficial to the study in three ways. First, the school teams were relatively small, which facilitated the collection of whole network data. Second, school teams are social networks with clear boundaries, meaning the distinction of who is part of the team is unambiguous for both researchers and respondents. Third, in contrast to many organizations, school organizations are characterized by relatively flat organizational structures, in which educators perform similar tasks and job diversification is relatively small. Often, educators have had similar training backgrounds, and are receiving school wide professional development as a team. Therefore, despite natural differences in individual characteristics, teachers in Dutch elementary school teams are arguably more comparable among each other than organizational employees in many other organizations, making demographic characteristics possibly less related to differences in tasks or task-rel ated status differences. Sample The sample schools served a student population ranging from 287 to 545 students in the age of 4 to 13. We collected social network data from 13 principals and 303 teachers, reflecting a response rate of 94.5 %. Of the sample, 69.9 % was female and 54.8 % worked full time (32 hours or more). Educators age ranged from 21 to 62 years (M = 46.5, sd = 9.9 years). Additional demographic information is depicted in Table 1 and 2. Instruments Social networks. We assessed the influence of demographic variables on a network that was aimed at capturing work related communication among educators. The network of discussing work related matters was selected because it is assumed to be an important network for the exchange of work related information, knowledge, and expertise that may affect individual and group performance (Sparrowe, Liden, Wayne, Kraimer, 2001). Moreover, according to the previous analysis into network multiplexity (see Chapter 1), this network appeared to be an instrumental network with relatively small overlap with expressive networks. We asked respondents the following question: Whom do you turn to in order to discuss your work? A school-specific appendix was attached to the questionnaire comprising the names of the school team members, accompanied by a letter combination for each school team member (e.g., Ms. Yolanda Brown = AB). The question could be answered by indicating a letter combination for each colleague who the respondent considered part of his/her work discussion network. The number of colleagues a respondent could indicate as part of his/her network was unlimited. Individual, dyadic, and school level attributes. We collected demographic variables to assess how individual, dyadic, and school level attributes shape the pattern of social relationships among educators. At the individual level, we examined the following individual attributes: gender, formal position (teacher/principal), working hours (part time/full time), number of years experience at school, age, and whether a teacher was teaching in lower grade or upper grade. At the dyadic level, we included similarity of gender and similarity of grade level (lower/upper grade). At the school level, we investigated school size, team size, gender ratio, average age, years of team experience in current formation, and students socio-economic status (SES). Data analysis Testing the hypotheses Since our dependent variable consisted of social network data that are by nature interdependent (relationships among individuals), the assumption of data independence that underlies conventional regression models is violated. Therefore, we employed multilevel p2 models to investigate the effect of individual, dyadic, and school level demographics on having work-related relationships (Van Duijn et al., 2004; Baerveldt et al., 2004; Zijlstra, 2008). The p2 model is similar to a logistic regression model, but is developed to handle dichotomous dyadic outcomes. In contrast to a univariate logistic regression model, the p2 model controls for the interdependency that resides in social network data. The model focuses on the individual as the unit of analysis. The p2 model regards sender and receiver effects as latent (i.e., unobserved) random variables that can be explained by sender and receiver characteristics (Veenstra, et al., 2007). In the multilevel p2 analyses, the dependent variable is the aggregate of all the nominations a team member sent to or received from others. A positive effect thus indicates that the independent demographic variable has a positive effect on the probability of a relationship. We used the p2 program within the StOCNET software suite to run the p2 models (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Van Duijn, Snijders, Zijlstra, 2004). This software has been recently modified to fit multilevel data (Zijlstra, 2008; Zijlstra, Van Duijn, Snijders, 2006). We make use of this recent development by calculating multilevel p2 models for our data. The social network data in this study have a three-level structure. Network data were collected from 13 schools (Level 3) with 316 educators (Level 2) and 11.241 dyadic relationships (Level 1). To examine the influence of individual, dyadic, and school level demographics on the likelihood of having work related relationships we constructed two multilevel models. In the first multilevel model, the effects of individual and dyadic level demographics on the possibility of having relationships were examined. In the second multilevel model, school level demographic variables were added to the model in order to explain the additional effect of school level demographics on the possibility of having relationships, above and beyond the effects of individual and dyadic level demographics. For the multilevel p2 models, we used a subsample of the 13 schools with a team size of 20 educators or more. We selected this subsample of 13 schools from a larger sample of 53 schools to reduce computing ti me and to examine schools that were more comparable in network size. Still, each model estimation took about six hours of computing time. How to interpret p2 estimates In general, effects in p2 models can be interpreted in the following manner. Results on the variables of interest include both sender effects and receiver effects, meaning effects that signify the probability of sending or receiving a relationship nomination. A positively significant parameter estimate can be interpreted as the demographic variable having a positive effect on the probability of a relationship (Veenstra et al., 2007). For instance, a positive sender effect of formal position with dummy coding (teacher/principal) means that the position with the upper dummy code (principal) will have a higher probability of sending relationships than the position with the lower dummy code (teacher). To assess homophily effects, dyadic matrices were constructed based on the absolute difference between two respondents. For example, the dyadic relationship between male and female educators would be coded as a relationship between educators with a different gender because the absolute difference between male (dummy variable = 0) and female (dummy code = 1) is 1. Smaller numbers thus represent greater interpersonal similarity in gender. The same procedure was carried out for grade level differences. To facilitate the interpretation of the models, we labeled the dyadic parameters different gender and different grade level. A negative parameter estimate for different gender would thus indicate that a Effect of Social Networks on Teaching Methods Effect of Social Networks on Teaching Methods ABSTRACT Background. Research on social networks in schools is increasing rapidly. Network studies outside education have indicated that the structure of social networks is partly affected by demographic characteristics of network members. Yet, knowledge on how teacher social networks are shaped by teacher and school demographics is scarce. Purpose. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which teachers work related social networks are affected by teacher and school demographic characteristics. Method. Survey data were collected among 316 educators from 13 elementary schools in a large educational system in the Netherlands. Using social network analysis, in particular multilevel p2 modeling, we analyzed the effect of teacher and school demographics on individual teachers probability of having relationships in a work discussion network. Conclusions. Findings indicate that differences in having relationships were associated with differences in gender, grade level, working hours, formal position, and experience. We also found that educators tend to prefer relationships with educators with the same gender and from the same grade level. Moreover, years of shared experience as a school team appeared to affect the likelihood of teacher relationships around work related discussion. INTRODUCTION Relationships among educators are more and more regarded as an important element to schools functioning, and a potential source of school improvement. Educational practitioners and scholars around the world are targeting teacher interaction as a way to facilitate knowledge exchange and shared teacher practice through a variety of collaborative initiatives, such as communities of practice, professional learning communities, and social networks (Daly Finnigan, 2009; Hord, 1997; Lieberman McLaughlin, 1992; Wenger, 1998). The growing literature base around these concepts suggests that relationships matter for fostering a climate of trust and a safe and open environment to implement reform and engage in innovative teacher practices (Bryk Schneider, 2002; Louis, Marks, Kruse, 1996; Coburn Russell, 2008; Penuel, Fishman, Yamaguchi, Galagher, 2007). Social network literature asserts that relationships matter because the configuration of social relationships offers opportunities and constraints for collective action (Burt, 1983, Coleman, 1990; Granovetter, 1973; Lochner, Kawachi, Kennedy, 1999). For instance, the extent to which an organizational network supports the rate and ease with which knowledge and information flows through the organization may provide it with an advantage over its competitors (Nahapiet Ghoshal, 1998; Tsai, 2001). While social network studies have mainly concentrated on the consequences of social networks for individuals and groups, less attention has been paid to how social networks are conditioned upon individual characteristics and behavior (Borgatti Foster, 2003). A developing set of studies in organizational literature is focusing on how attributes of individuals such as personality traits affect their social network (e.g., Burt, Janotta Mahoney, 1998; Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 2001; Madhavan, Caner , Prescott, Koka, 2008), how individuals select others to engage in relationships (Kossinets Watts, 2006; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001), and how organizations enter into alliances with other organizations (Gulati Gargiulo, 1999). These studies offer valuable insights in potential individual and organizational attributes that may affect the pattern of social relationships in school teams. Attributes that are especially worth investigating for their potential to shape the social structure of school teams are demographic characteristics (cf. Ely, 1995; Tsui, Egan, OReilly, 1992). Demographic characteristics are more or less constant elements that typify teachers, their relationships, and schools based on socio-economic factors such as age, gender, teaching experience, and school team composition. Several network studies have suggested that networks are at least in part shaped by demographic characteristics of individuals, their dyadic relationships, and the network (Brass, 1984; Heyl, 1996; Ibarra 1992, 1995; Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). For instance, several studies reported that relationships among individuals with the same gender are more likely than relationships among individuals with opposite gender (a so-called homophily effect) (Baerveldt, Van Duijn, Vermeij, Van Hemert, 2004; McPherson, Smith-Lovin Co ok, 2001). These studies, however, seldom purposely aim to examine the impact of demographic characteristics on social networks and consequently only include few demographic variables of network members. Insights in the extent to which social relationships are formed in the light of multiple individual and organizational demographic characteristics are limited, and even more so in the context of education. We argue that such groundwork knowledge is crucial for all those who aim to optimize social networks in support of school improvement and, ultimately, student achievement. This chapter aims to examine the extent to which social networks in school teams are shaped by individual, dyadic, and school level demographic variables, such as teachers gender and age, school team composition and team experience, and students socio-economic status. We conducted a study among 316 educators in 13 Dutch elementary schools. Results of this study were expected to increase insights in the constant social forces that may partly define teachers relationships in their school teams, and discover potential tendencies around, for example, homophily and structural balance. Based on a literature review of social network studies that include demographic variables in a wide range of settings, we pose several hypotheses on the extent to which demographical variables at the individual, dyadic, and school level may affect teachers social networks. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Individual level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Social network literature has suggested various individual demographic characteristics to affect their pattern of relationships, and as such social networks as a whole (Heyl, 1996; Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). Following these suggestions, we will first review how individual level demographic characteristics may affect teachers social networks. We focus on the individual demographics gender, formal position, working hours, experience at school, age, and grade level for their potential influence on teachers patterns of social relationships and school teams social network structure. Gender. The likelihood of having relationships in a network may be associated with gender (Metz Tharenou, 2001; Moore, 1990; Stoloff et al., 1999; Veenstra et al., 2007; Zijlstra, Veenstra, Van Duijn, 2008). Previous research has indicated that gender affects network formation (Burt et al., 1998; Hughes, 1946; Ibarra, 1993, 1995, Moore, 1990; Pugliesi, 1998; Van Emmerik, 2006) and that, in general, women tend to have more relationships than men (Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 1998). These differences are already found in childhood (Frydenberg Lewis, 1993) and continue to exist through life (Parker de Vries, 1993; Van der Pompe De Heus, 1993). In various settings and cultures, both men and women were found to use men as network routes to achieve their goals and acquire information from more distant domains (Aldrich et al., 1989; Bernard et al., 1988). Following these findings, we hypothesize that male teachers will have a higher likelihood of receiving more relationships than female tea chers, and women will send more relationships than men (Hypothesis 1a). Formal position. Previous research in organizations (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Moore, 1990) and education (Coburn, 2005; Coburn Russell, 2008; Daly Finnigan, 2009; Heyl, 1996) suggests that the formal position of individuals may be related to their relational activity and popularity. For instance, Lazega Van Duijn (1997) found that lawyers were more often sought out for advice when they held a higher hierarchical position. Research has indicated that the network position of an organizational leader is important in terms of access and leveraging social resources through social relationships as well as brokering between teachers that are themselves unconnected (Balkundi Harrison, 2006; Balkundi Kilduff, 2005). In line with these studies, we expect that principals will be more sought out for work related discussions than teachers. We also expect that principals will report to be involved in more relationships than teachers, since they depend on these relationships to gather informat ion and convey knowledge, plans, and expertise to support student learning and monitor the functioning of teachers and the school. Moreover, principals are reported to occupy a strategic position in the flow of information between the district office and teachers and relay important policy and organizational information from the district office to the teachers (Coburn, 2005; Coburn Russell, 2008). Therefore, we hypothesize that principals have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving relationships (Hypothesis 1b). Working hours. In addition, the number of working hours that an educator spends at the school may also affect his/her opportunity to initiate and maintain social relationships. Recent research suggests that the relationship between network embeddedness and job performance is related to working hours (Van Emmerik Sanders, 2004). In line with this finding, it is hypothesized that educators who work full time will have a higher probability of sending and receiving relationships than educators with part time working hours (Hypothesis 1c). Experience at the school. Another demographic characteristic that may affect an individuals pattern of relationships is seniority, or experience at the school. The previously mentioned law study (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997) indicated that senior lawyers had a higher probability of being sought out for advice than junior lawyers. Besides having more work experience, a perceived network advantage of senior lawyers may be that they have built more strong, durable, and reliable relationships over time, and therefore have access to resources that are unattainable for more junior lawyers. Accordingly, we hypothesize that educators who have more experience in their school team have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving work discussion relationships than educators who have less experience in the school team (Hypothesis 1d). Age. Network research in other contexts found age differences in relation to the amount of relationships that individuals maintain (Cairns, Leung, Buchanan, Cairns, 1995; Gottlieb Green, 1984). In general, these studies suggest that the amount of relationships that people maintain tend to decrease with age. However, with increased age, experience at the school also increases together with the amount of relationships based on seniority (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997). In concordance with the latter, we hypothesize that age will positively affect the probability of work related ties, meaning that older teachers are more likely to send and receive work related relationships than younger teachers (Hypothesis 1e) Grade Level. Within schools, formal clustering around grade level may affect the pattern of relationships among educators. The grade level may to a certain extent affect the amount of interaction among educators since grade level teams may have additional grade level meetings and professional development initiatives are often targeted at the grade level (Daly et al., in press; McLaughlin Talbert, 1993; Newmann, Kings, Youngs, 2000; Newmann Wehlage, 1995; Wood, 2007; Stoll Louis, 2007). Dutch elementary schools are relatively small compared to U.S. elementary schools, and are often divided into a grade level team for the lower grades (K 2) and a grade level team for the upper grades (3 6). The amount of relationships that teachers have, may partly be defined by the requirements of and opportunities provided by their grade level team. We may expect that teachers that teach upper grade levels send and receive more relationships than teachers that teach lower grade levels because o f the increasingly diverse and demanding curriculum in the upper grades combined with intensified student testing and preparation for education after elementary school. These conditions may require more work related discussion of upper grade level teachers than of lower grade level teachers. As such, we expect that teachers that teach upper grade levels have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving relationships than teachers that teach lower grade levels (Hypothesis 1f). Dyadic level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Dyadic level demographics are demographics that typify the relationship between two individuals. Dyadic level effects give insights in network homophily. Network homophily is arguably the most well-known social network concept that often explicitly focuses on demographic characteristics of network members. The concept of homophily, also known by the adage birds of a feather flock together, addresses similarity between two individuals in a dyadic (paired) relationship. Homophily literature builds on the notion that individuals are more likely to develop and maintain social relationships with others that are similar to them on specific attributes, such as gender, organizational unit, or educational level (Marsden, 1988; McPherson Smith-Lovin, 1987; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001). Similarly, individuals who differ from each other on a specific attribute are less likely to initiate relationships, and when they do, heterophilous relationships also tend to dissolve at a faster pace than homophilous relationships (McPherson et al., 2001). Homophily effects result from processes of social selection and social influence. Social selection refers to the idea that individuals tend to choose to interact with individuals that are similar to them in characteristics such as behavior and attitudes. At the same time, individuals that interact with each other influence each others behavior and attitudes, which may increase their similarity (McPherson et al., 2001). This is a process of social influence. In addition, individuals who share a relationship also tend to share similar experiences through their relationship (Feld, 1981). Homophily is related to the concept of structural balance. In the footsteps of cognitive balance theory, structural balance theory poses that individuals will undertake action to avoid or decrease an unbalanced network (Heider, 1958). Over time, people tend to seek balance in their network by initiating new strong relationships with friends of friends and terminate relationships with friends of enemies or enemies of friends (Wasserman Faust, 1997). As a result from this tendency towards structural balance, relatively homogenous and strong cliques may be formed that give the network some stability over time (Kossinets Watts, 2006). Structural balance and network homophily may have also have a negative influence on individuals social networks as the resulting network homogeneity and pattern of redundant relationships may limit their access to valuable information and expertise (Little, 1990; Burt, 1997, 2000). In this study we focus on two types of similarity that may define teachers relationships, namely gender similarity and grade level similarity. Gender similarity. A dyadic attribute that may affect teachers patterns of social relationships is the gender similarity between two teachers. Several studies have shown that work and voluntary organizations are often highly gender segregated (Bielby Baron, 1986, McGuire, 2000; McPherson Smith-Lovin, 1986, 1987; Popielarz, 1999; Van Emmerik, 2006). This gender homophily effect already starts at a young age (Hartup, 1993; Cairns Cairns, 1994; Furman Burmester, 1992). In the context of education, Heyl (1996) suggested an effect of gender homophily on interactional patterns among teachers, indicating that for men and women relationships with the opposite gender are less frequent or intense than relationships among men or relationship among women. In line with this suggestion, we hypothesize a homophily effect for gender, meaning that educators will prefer same-gender relationships over relationships with teachers of the opposite gender (Hypothesis 2a). Grade level similarity. Another dyadic attribute that may shape the pattern of teachers relationships is the grade level. In the Netherlands, schools are relatively small compared to the Unitesd States, with often only one full time or two part time teachers per grade level. Commonly, Dutch school teams are formally divided into two grade level levels representing the lower (onderbouw, often K-2 or K-3) and upper grades (bovenbouw, often grades 3-6 or 4-6), which are often located in close physical proximity. Recent research suggests that teachers who are located closely to each another are more likely to interact with each other than with teachers that are less physically proximate (Coburn Russell, 2008). Moreover, most schools have separate breaks for the lower and upper grades, and some schools hold additional formal meetings for the lower/upper grades to discuss issues related to these grades. Since shared experiences are argued to result in greater support among individuals (Fe ld, 1981; Suitor Pillemer, 2000; Suitor, Pillemer, Keeton, 1995), these organizational features will increase the opportunity for teachers from the same grade level to interact relative to teachers from a different grade level. Therefore, we hypothesize a homophily effect for grade level, meaning that teachers will more likely maintain relationships with teachers from their own grade level than with teachers that teach the other grade level (e.g., lower or upper level) (Hypothesis 2b). School level demographics that may shape teachers social networks Although teachers can often choose with whom they interact, the social structure of their schools network is partly outside their span of control (Burt, 1983; Brass Burkhardt, 1993; Gulati, 1995). Just as individual relationships may constrain or support a teachers access to and use of resources (Degenne Forse, 1999), the social structure surrounding the teacher may influence the extent to which teachers may shape their network so as to expect the greatest return on investment (Burt, 1992; Flap De Graaf, 1989; Ibarra, 1992, 1993, 1995; Lin Dumin, 1986; Little, 1990). Because of the embeddedness and interdependency of individuals in their social network, relationships and attributes at a higher level will affect lower-level relationships (Burt, 2000). As such, demographic characteristics at the school level may affect teachers patterns of relationships. We pose that the following school level demographic characteristics affect teachers pattern of social relationships: gender ratio , average age, school team experience, school size, school team size, and socio-economic status of the schools students. Gender ratio and average age. Above and beyond the influence of individual demographics on the tendency to form relationships, there may be aggregates of these individual demographics at the level of the school team that may affect teachers tendency to form and maintain relationships. Research in a law firm demonstrated that above the influence of individual level seniority, a lawyers position in the firms network was in part dependent on the ratio of juniors to seniors in the team (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997). For school teams, a compositional characteristic that may affect patterns of relationships is gender ratio, or the ratio of the number of female to male teachers. In a school team with a high ratio of female teachers (which is not unusual in Dutch elementary education) male teachers have fewer options for homophily friendships with same-sex peers than women. Therefore, male teachers in such a team may have a lower tendency to maintain relationships in general and a higher propens ity towards relationships with women than men in school teams with relatively more male teachers. Research confirms that the gender composition of a team may significantly affect gender homophily, with the minority gender often having much more heterophilous networks than the majority (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, Cook, 2001). Therefore, we expect that the gender ratio of the school team will shape teachers social networks. In line with previous empirical work suggesting that women tend to have more relationships than men (Mehra, Kilduff, Brass, 1998), we expect that teachers in school teams with a high female ratio will have a higher likelihood of sending and receiving ties than individuals in teams with relatively more male teachers (Hypothesis 3a). Along the same lines, if we expect that age will increase the likelihood of sending and receiving relationships, then increased average age of a school team may also enhance the probability of relationships. Therefore, we hypothesize that average age is positively related to the probability of ties (Hypothesis 3b). Team experience, school size, and team size. Prior research has indicated that individuals are more likely to reach out to others with whom they had previous relationships (Coburn Russell, 2008). Given the time and shared experiences that are necessary for building relationships, we may assume that the number of years that a school team has been functioning in its current configuration, without members leaving or joining the team, may affect teachers lilelihood of maintaining relationships. Therefore we include school team experience as a school level demographic that may positively affect teachers patterns of relationships (Hypothesis 3c). Other school demographics that may affect teachers inclinations to form relationships are school size (number of students) and team size (number of educators). Previous literature has suggested that the size of organizations and networks is directly related to the pattern of social relationships in organizations (Tsai, 2001). In general, the amou nt of individual relationships and the density of social networks decrease when network size increases. As such, we may expect a lower probability of relationships in schools that serve more students (Hypothesis 3d) and schools with larger school teams (Hypothesis 3e). Students socio-economic status. Social networks can be shaped by both endogenous and exogenous forces (Gulati, Nohria, Zaheer, 2000). An exogenous force to the school team that has been demonstrated to affect schools functioning is the socio-economic status (SES) of its students (Sirin, 2005; White, 1982). We argue that the socio-economic status of the children attending the school may influence the probability that teachers will form relationships. For instance, teachers perceptions of the urgency for communication and innovation may be dependent on the community surrounding the school. Typically, schools that serve more high-needs communities are associated with greater urgency in developing new approaches (Sunderman, Kim Orfield, 2005), which may relate to an increased probability of relationships among educators. Therefore, we hypothesize that teachers in low SES schools will have a higher probability of having relationships than teachers in high SES schools (Hypothesis 3f). METHOD Context The study took place at 13 elementary schools in south of The Netherlands. The schools were part of single district that provided IT, financial, and administrative support to 53 schools in the south of The Netherlands. At the time of the study, the district had just initiated a program for teacher development that involved a benchmark survey for the monitoring of school improvement. We selected a subsample of all the district schools based on a team size of 20 or more team members, since trial runs of the p2 estimation models encountered difficulties converging with smaller network sizes and more schools. The original sample consisted of 53 schools that, with the exception of school team and number of students, did not differ considerably from the 13 sample schools with regard to the described demographics. The context of Dutch elementary schools was beneficial to the study in three ways. First, the school teams were relatively small, which facilitated the collection of whole network data. Second, school teams are social networks with clear boundaries, meaning the distinction of who is part of the team is unambiguous for both researchers and respondents. Third, in contrast to many organizations, school organizations are characterized by relatively flat organizational structures, in which educators perform similar tasks and job diversification is relatively small. Often, educators have had similar training backgrounds, and are receiving school wide professional development as a team. Therefore, despite natural differences in individual characteristics, teachers in Dutch elementary school teams are arguably more comparable among each other than organizational employees in many other organizations, making demographic characteristics possibly less related to differences in tasks or task-rel ated status differences. Sample The sample schools served a student population ranging from 287 to 545 students in the age of 4 to 13. We collected social network data from 13 principals and 303 teachers, reflecting a response rate of 94.5 %. Of the sample, 69.9 % was female and 54.8 % worked full time (32 hours or more). Educators age ranged from 21 to 62 years (M = 46.5, sd = 9.9 years). Additional demographic information is depicted in Table 1 and 2. Instruments Social networks. We assessed the influence of demographic variables on a network that was aimed at capturing work related communication among educators. The network of discussing work related matters was selected because it is assumed to be an important network for the exchange of work related information, knowledge, and expertise that may affect individual and group performance (Sparrowe, Liden, Wayne, Kraimer, 2001). Moreover, according to the previous analysis into network multiplexity (see Chapter 1), this network appeared to be an instrumental network with relatively small overlap with expressive networks. We asked respondents the following question: Whom do you turn to in order to discuss your work? A school-specific appendix was attached to the questionnaire comprising the names of the school team members, accompanied by a letter combination for each school team member (e.g., Ms. Yolanda Brown = AB). The question could be answered by indicating a letter combination for each colleague who the respondent considered part of his/her work discussion network. The number of colleagues a respondent could indicate as part of his/her network was unlimited. Individual, dyadic, and school level attributes. We collected demographic variables to assess how individual, dyadic, and school level attributes shape the pattern of social relationships among educators. At the individual level, we examined the following individual attributes: gender, formal position (teacher/principal), working hours (part time/full time), number of years experience at school, age, and whether a teacher was teaching in lower grade or upper grade. At the dyadic level, we included similarity of gender and similarity of grade level (lower/upper grade). At the school level, we investigated school size, team size, gender ratio, average age, years of team experience in current formation, and students socio-economic status (SES). Data analysis Testing the hypotheses Since our dependent variable consisted of social network data that are by nature interdependent (relationships among individuals), the assumption of data independence that underlies conventional regression models is violated. Therefore, we employed multilevel p2 models to investigate the effect of individual, dyadic, and school level demographics on having work-related relationships (Van Duijn et al., 2004; Baerveldt et al., 2004; Zijlstra, 2008). The p2 model is similar to a logistic regression model, but is developed to handle dichotomous dyadic outcomes. In contrast to a univariate logistic regression model, the p2 model controls for the interdependency that resides in social network data. The model focuses on the individual as the unit of analysis. The p2 model regards sender and receiver effects as latent (i.e., unobserved) random variables that can be explained by sender and receiver characteristics (Veenstra, et al., 2007). In the multilevel p2 analyses, the dependent variable is the aggregate of all the nominations a team member sent to or received from others. A positive effect thus indicates that the independent demographic variable has a positive effect on the probability of a relationship. We used the p2 program within the StOCNET software suite to run the p2 models (Lazega Van Duijn, 1997; Van Duijn, Snijders, Zijlstra, 2004). This software has been recently modified to fit multilevel data (Zijlstra, 2008; Zijlstra, Van Duijn, Snijders, 2006). We make use of this recent development by calculating multilevel p2 models for our data. The social network data in this study have a three-level structure. Network data were collected from 13 schools (Level 3) with 316 educators (Level 2) and 11.241 dyadic relationships (Level 1). To examine the influence of individual, dyadic, and school level demographics on the likelihood of having work related relationships we constructed two multilevel models. In the first multilevel model, the effects of individual and dyadic level demographics on the possibility of having relationships were examined. In the second multilevel model, school level demographic variables were added to the model in order to explain the additional effect of school level demographics on the possibility of having relationships, above and beyond the effects of individual and dyadic level demographics. For the multilevel p2 models, we used a subsample of the 13 schools with a team size of 20 educators or more. We selected this subsample of 13 schools from a larger sample of 53 schools to reduce computing ti me and to examine schools that were more comparable in network size. Still, each model estimation took about six hours of computing time. How to interpret p2 estimates In general, effects in p2 models can be interpreted in the following manner. Results on the variables of interest include both sender effects and receiver effects, meaning effects that signify the probability of sending or receiving a relationship nomination. A positively significant parameter estimate can be interpreted as the demographic variable having a positive effect on the probability of a relationship (Veenstra et al., 2007). For instance, a positive sender effect of formal position with dummy coding (teacher/principal) means that the position with the upper dummy code (principal) will have a higher probability of sending relationships than the position with the lower dummy code (teacher). To assess homophily effects, dyadic matrices were constructed based on the absolute difference between two respondents. For example, the dyadic relationship between male and female educators would be coded as a relationship between educators with a different gender because the absolute difference between male (dummy variable = 0) and female (dummy code = 1) is 1. Smaller numbers thus represent greater interpersonal similarity in gender. The same procedure was carried out for grade level differences. To facilitate the interpretation of the models, we labeled the dyadic parameters different gender and different grade level. A negative parameter estimate for different gender would thus indicate that a