PISOS DE ADOQUIN PEATONAL Essays - , Term Papers

PISOS DE ADOQUIN PEATONAL DESCRIPCION.- En los sitios en donde se indique adoquinamiento Peatonal en los planos, se lo hara mediante la utilizacion de adoquines de colores del tipo llamado peatonal con un alto minimo de 6 centimetros del tipo Hormipisos , Ecua- adoquin ,Tiger o similares. PROCEDIMIENTO.- Para su ejecucion debera previamente compactarse el terreno sobre el cual va a ir asentado mediante la utilizacion de aparatos vibradores mecanicos. Posteriormente a la compactacion se colocara una base de arena nivelada de 3 centimetros de alto. Se colocaran los adoquines perfectamente nivelados y alineados, asentandolos mediante golpes con un mazo de madera o caucho, dejando las juntas que especifique el fabricante uniformes .. Una vez terminada su instalacion se realizara un empore de arena y se compactara mediante un compactador mecanico liviano sin despostillar los adoquines. El color de los adoquines sera escogido por la fiscalizacion tratando de unificar con los utilizados en los colegios Replicas. MEDICION Y PAGO .- El pago del rubro se lo hara en metros cuadrados.

Brain essays

Brain essays Your brain's right and left side have distinctly different ways of looking at the world. The left side of the brain controls the right side of your body and, in essence, is logical analytical, judgmental and verbal. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and leans more to the creative, the intuitive. It is considered more with the visual and emotional side of life. Most people, if they thought about it, would identify more with their left side of the brain. As you read, your left side of the brain is sensibly making connections and analyzing the meaning of the words, the syntax and other complex relationships while putting it into a "language" you can understand. Meanwhile, your right side of the brain is providing emotional and even humorous cues, decoding visual information and maintaining an integrated story structure. While all of this is going on, the two sides are constantly communicating with each other across a connecting fibre tract called the corpus callosum. There is a certain amount of overlap but essentially the two hemispheres of the brain are like two different personalities that working alone would be somewhat lacking and overspecialized, but when functioning together bring different strengths and areas of expertise to make an integrated whole. So, when trying to find out what side of the brain Richard uses more often, he had to take different types and styles of tests. These tests consisted of; an alert scale of cognitive style test, a multiple intelligence self-assessment test, and a brain dominance indicator test. As the results came back, it is understood that Richard's brain is more left-sided than right-sided. Also, he is very bodily kinesthetic intelligent and interpersonal intelligent. Richard is going into the business field, and most people in the business field are left-brained and have interpersonal intelligence, meaning, yes, Richard is going into a field that he will be...

Cheating in sports Essay Example for Free (#2)

Cheating in sports Essay The topic that I am researching is â€Å"Cheating in Sports†, from illegal drugs use, gambling, to federal indictments, NASCAR, all types and its impact economically and socially on society. Because millions and millions of dollars are won and lost in the world of sports, as well as the social impact it has with the public/society. So the questions that come to mind are, why do we care and identify with our teams so much? What is the appeal, what do we find so admirable about winning in a sporting game? Where do we draw the line when it comes to cheating in sports? Why as a society do we place such a high emphasis on winning in sports! Narrative Hook #1 – Is society’s obsession with winning jeopardizing the integrity of sports? This hook draws readers in and creates interest because it immediately captures their attention by asking the reader to consider societies role in possibly jeopardizing sports integrity. Readers can relate because every society in the world has some type of sports team, either, locally, or nationally they relate to, from the young to the old. Also, the majority of most people are not, were not athletes or involved in sports as a profession or employment or even at the amateur and recreational level. Most people (society) are fans of a particular sport and follow it, whether closely or as a casual interest. Narrative Hook#2 – Who is to blame, the athlete, the sport, the public for the wide spread cheating in sports? This hook draws and captures readers’ interest because it now specifically looks at several possibilities to consider and that most people will fit into. Depending on their own personal position, as an athlete, or former, involved in a sport as an employee, recreationally, or just a fan, they can relate on a personal level as it pertains to cheating in sports. I ask though, who is to blame, the athlete? How do you tell a young kid who’s family has been living in poverty, and has the chance to earn millions and change their lives by taking a little blue, white, pill that will give him a competitive advantage and possibly make that dream come true! When millions upon millions are at stake, a Super Bowl, a World Series and your team has the tapes of the opposing teams plays, or the signals of the pitcher, and it can mean the difference of being crowned the victor or not, what stops you, the coach, owner, to not cross that line, or should we say who stops you? That World Series winning home run, or that kick-off returning touchdown to win the Super Bowl, or that last round knockout by the underdog to win the match for the championship, what if you found out they all were the result of cheating? Would it make a difference, or would it not? Week 4 Significance of the purpose statement is multifaceted. It is to provide the goal or intended outcome of a study (in this scenario). Sets the objective, based on the need or problem and then particular or specific questions are developed (research questions) focusing on a single concept (phenomenon) or idea. The overall intent of this grounded theory study is to understand the ethical and economic impact that cheating in sports has on athletes and society. This will focus on exploring the experience of the fans (society), individual athletes and sports organizations. Conducted with individual interviews via phone or in person, at sporting events, sports organization, both professional, collegiate, high school, and recreational in the Charlotte and surrounding region, as well as various internet sites. At this stage in the research, the impact that cheating has in sports will generally be defines as the economic gain and the short term ethical effects on society and athlete. Fellow classmates, as I worked on developing my purpose statement, my challenge was what and how to narrow down to a single phenomenon. There is much to consider! I am trying to connect the dots of a few things. How cheating by some athlete effects the ethics of others to cheat, when they can see the competitive gain and possible financial as well! Then there are the fans, society, and how it impacts them, and their perspective of the individual athletes, their specific team and finally the sports organizations! As I stated last week, to the fans, does it make a difference, if their favorite athlete was caught, or their team? Is the problem with the athlete, or is it with us? In the reading it does state, that in a qualitative study, â€Å"advance a single phenomenon, recognizing that the study may develop into an exploration of relationships or comparisons among ideas†. So, I ask your help, should I just state, that my single phenomenon is maybe just the ethical aspects of cheating, or just the economical and additionally, should I focus on just one specific group, the athlete, society, sports organizations or leave as is with the thought that as stated above it will develop into other relationships or comparisons that can be expounded on in the research? Cheating in sports. (2017, May 31).

Mission Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mission Statement - Essay Example The style of the company itself is to work with the energy present throughout our value chain and the passion of individuals within the organization to give our clients exactly what they demand. The researcher then presents the beliefs of company's team, such as belief that without passion and energy, no work and no task can ever be satisfactory and for that purpose, belief that all partners and stakeholders should have the same level of energy and the same level of commitment as the company do when it comes to making sure that the clients are satisfied and that there is no gap between what the company promise and what the company deliver. The researcher then analyzes several fields of business to fully describe values that are important to the company. Such values presented make improving the reputation of the business a primary focus of the company and it includes continually finding ways in which the team can serve their clients better. The issues and values mentioned in the essay add together as a mission of the successful company which drives the business forward and gives the company strength to remain in the race. In effect, it makes them the best company to do business with since such team not only speak their mission clearly but also live it and stand by it when it comes to making business decisions and looking at the competition with the right attitude. In conclusion, the researcher states that the energy and passion of the company and it's employees feeds into the mission they have developed.

Analyze Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado Essay

Analyze Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado - Essay Example In addition, he did not even perceive the smile paused to him (Poe and Gary, 45). This is because he ventured into insult after the good things done to him thus he felt there was a chance for revenge. Fortunate was a respected and feared man his pride mostly came with connoisseurship in wine. This was caused with the many old varieties of wines he knew though few Italians had the true virtuoso spirit. For most part, his passion is adopted to ensemble the time and chance to practice imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. Fortunate is suffering from superiority complex because he believes he is the most sophisticated person (Poe and Gary, 45). This is because he has wide knowledge with vintage win from all over the world. He uses this trait to make his friends feel they are inferior (Poe and Gary, 45). He is also very inquisitive since he keeps on asking many questions. Even though he is provided with answers, he is not quite satisfied with these answers. This character makes him appear as a doubtful

Evaluate Assessment Activities Essay Example for Free

Evaluate Assessment Activities Essay Describe, use and evaluate two different assessment activities used to check the learning of either individuals or a group of learners. Analyse the purpose of assessment and produce a written justification of your chosen assessment method. Use an extract from your teaching practice portfolio and reflect on how your feedback has informed your learners progress and achievement and how feedback from others has informed your own professional practice. Introduction In my first year at College I have delivered Entry and Level 2 Motorvehicle Maintenance and with no previous experience of this course assessment was something I leant on the job so to speak. Initially it was games and questions and answers followed by tests which were mainly practical. As the year progressed I then started doing formal practical exercises (observed assessments), Web based exercises and finally multiple choice exam style questions. The Entry level course is assessed purely by portfolio (questions and answers plus job cards) but the Level 2 course has a summative exam element. These are spread over the year and total 5. The two I am going to discuss are the observed assessments and job card creation. Job card creation The first assessment method I will discuss is the completion of job cards. As part of the course (either group) the learners all complete practical tasks in the workshop. Indeed this is one of the highlights for them as they are not an academically based group on the whole. Each practical task is designed to reinforce the theory element that was covered in the previous lectures. During the practical we (staff) make sure the learners understand what they are doing and its relevance to the topic in hand. We also check they make notes to help with job card completion. Differentiation is also practised, not in the task itself but the bike they are given to work on. Some are easier than others for given jobs. Once the task has been completed and the workshop cleared up and all tools put away etc. (i. e. there is a break from the original task in hand) they all have to complete a job card to reflect what they have been doing. During this time I keep a close eye on what they are writing and often challenge them on various facts. I found ome learners struggled to remember what they had just done even with the help of notes whilst others completed the task almost unaided. During this task the results of assessing learning really became obvious. It was interesting that for the most part it was always the same learners that has the same problems. Over the year they did become better, some more than others. There were some however who had hit their ceiling with what we might consider these ver y simple tasks. Fortunately the course demands a very formative assessment approach and this final task of completing the job cards is almost a formality and not something you can fail at. The bulk of the course assessment was done actually during the practical task. This was more the case for Entry level learners than the Level 2 learners. Level 2 learners had to complete similar tasks etc. but were slightly better at completing job cards. Again this was not something they could fail at. If it was not right they simply adjusted it until it was. For the learners this task was not one they relished as almost exclusively they are kinaesthetic learners with an aversion to both reading and writing and often listening. This was consequently quite a hard task for the learners but a necessary one as the course demanded it as evidence of their learning. It did open the opportunity for discussion however and lots of them learnt a lot during these sessions. There was also an element of team work as for the most part they worked in groups doing the workshop tasks. As the year progressed and reflecting on my teaching portfolio, without exception all my learners improved and in some cases gained the confidence and desire to help others which was very encouraging. Interestingly this was the less able helping those that may have missed a session etc. A great boost in self confidence for them and the class generally. As the teacher from this whole workshop process I was able to differentiate between those likely to be technician material, those who may make fitters and those who were not going to make it in the field. With the benefit of hindsight these impressions are accurate so far. Observed assessments This is for the Level 2 learners only and involves carrying out a practical task on a motorvehicle under near exam conditions i. e. no talking to other learners in the room etc. They could talk to the teachers and ask some questions. This was a particularly instructive task for us the teachers as the learner is suddenly on his/her own rather than in a group as they had been in the normal workshop sessions. As the teacher we had few surprises with the performance of the learners but there were one or two early on. These were mainly because it was possible during the workshop sessions to take a back seat and let your group do most of the work. Because of this they were unsure when it came to their assessment which is only to be expected. Whilst most learners completed the tasks correctly there were a few problems as expected. Going back to my ethic of trying to treat them as adults I tried to relax them whilst doing the task and relieve the usual stress associated with this type of task. This was mainly around failure either in the task or to complete in the allotted time. I spent a lot of time reassuring them that if it didn’t work out it was not a problem, we would just do it again after some more practice. In the early assessments the learners looked as though they were treading on glass but as the year progressed and they relaxed and began to know our boundaries it became an enjoyable exercise for them. For the teacher again it provided a wealth of information on their progress, knowledge and confidence and gave us discussion material for both the learners and parents evening. These tasks gave the learners an opportunity to show their knowledge and expertise and consequently progress through the course curriculum. There was no learning from one student to another of course but there was a good competitive spirit around success and time keeping. The purpose of assessment ‘Assessment is a measure of learning, at a given point in time’ [ ]. Taken on its own this is rather insular so it should be noted that the assessment process is a ‘a two way process’ [ ]. This means that the teacher should take on board feedback from the assessment process and where necessary modify their teaching practices to improve the overall learning experience. At its simplest this is for planning further teaching and assessment. There are several methods of assessment, some of them formal e. g. observations, tests, exams etc. and some are informal e. g. questions and answers, quizzes etc. and finally there are initial, formative and summative assessments. In these early days of the course it seemed logical to use the above assessment methods as they were contributing directly towards the outcome of the course and its evidence based criteria. The college choice of examining board (City and Guilds) has left me very little scope for alteration of the assessment methods I have outlined. Looking forward though I plan to make the job cards a lot easier to complete which will aid in hitting the City and Guilds targets whilst going some way towards removing the dependence on reading and writing especially the English element. I have other plans to re-introduce this though with research based homework as the functional skills elements must not be neglected. Feedback from my learners on my initial attempts has been very encouraging. So, whilst my aim is to follow on what Dr Patrick Geoghegan says ‘the students could test themselves in a non-intimidating way that could be fun’ [ ] I realise there is a way to go but we have made great strides this year and next year will be better. Certainly, this year has been a steep learning curve for both the learners and teachers but we are progressing together and it is looking promising on the progression from one level to the next. I was observed by my supervisor and during the catch up session later received feedback about my teaching session. The most interesting point for me was the level of the lecture. It was a seemingly simple subject on exhaust systems but during the lecture the class and I got into an interesting discussion which veered off into the speed of sound through different temperature gases and so on. The feedback was simply to keep the lecture on track. To this end I have now started to pre-empt little diversions like this with additional slides either at the end or in a separate presentation. This way I can cover these points at a later time or at the end if appropriate. Separating these out also means when I put my presentations on Moodle I can only put up the core show and keep some back for differentiation purposes. Conclusion Good assessment techniques particularly formative ones can be embedded into the lesson and almost unnoticeable to the learners. There are of course the more formal techniques which are more obvious e. g. QA, tests etc. For myself I have been using a large range of assessment techniques some of which I did not even realise I was doing at the beginning. During the year the assessment process has been an interesting learning curve for both myself and my learners. I have involved them as much as I can and some of the feedback from them has been very insightful and consequently fed back into the process. Finally, feedback to the learner from assessment should always be as constructive as possible. This is supported by the following quote ‘assessment feedback †¦. should always be constructive’ [ ]. Bibliography Books Ann Gravells and Susan Simpson, planning and Enabling Learning in the Lifelong Learning Sector, 2008 Susan Wallace, Teaching and Supporting Learning in Further Education, Learning Matters, 2001 G Petty, Teaching Today, Nelson Thornes, 2009 Websites Geoghegan P M (2006) Hot potatoes formative assessment, in Every Student Matters Activities for Engaging and Widening Participation in Higher Education: A Preliminary Collection, Higher Education Academy Ireland Blending assignments and assessments for high-quality learning http://www. enhancementthemes. ac. uk/themes/IntegrativeAssessment/IABlendingInclusivity. asp

Using Childrens Books to Make Theory Accessible :: Graduate Admissions Essays

Using Children's Books to Make Theory Accessible I am a GSI for an undergraduate education course called "Current Issues in Education." This course, required for Education minors, is offered to help students think through and become involved in educational practice. In it, we look at how education impacts people's lives, their visions of society, and their social relationships. Over the course of a single semester we address deep educational questions that have no easy answers and that are subject to great debate within the territory of educational theory and practice. The problem I am addressing here is a straightforward, yet recurring one: How can students learn to read and think critically about deep theoretical issues and learn to clearly articulate their position, even to a layperson not familiar with their subject? This is an important skill for all students, but especially for future educators, who will be challenged to make subject matter clear to their own students one day. The teaching method I implemented to address this issue was to have students divide into teams and create a children's book that reflects the issues and concepts of one of the topic areas of the course. Each group was thus challenged to convey complex theoretical issues in simple and practical terms through developing a story (either fiction or non-fiction) that included a plot and illustrations. In addition, each group wrote a short paper to accompany the book that explained the significance and symbolism of the images and ideas employed. When I presented the assignment to the class, reactions were mixed. Some students thought it sounded like a challenge that might turn out to be fun; some thought it sounded too simplistic; others were surprised by such a wild idea. Each week, a student group presented its book to the rest of the class, allowing time for questions and comments. The response became enthusiastic, as presenters and their peers exchanged feedback and educated each other in terms with which they felt comfortable. One student wrote in her final class evaluation, "At first I thought the [children's book] assignment sounded tedious, but after my group and I finished ours, I realized what a great learning experience it was for us. It forced us to use simple language our brothers and sisters could understand, but it got across important ideas about multiculturalism, which is a complicated topic." By answering each other's questions and presenting the books to their classmates, we were able to assess the strateg y as a class and determine that it was helpful as a learning tool.

Deception Point Page 27

The gaping hole in the ice now looked like a small swimming pool in the middle of the habisphere. The surface of the two-hundred-foot-deep pool of melted water sloshed for a while against the icy walls of the shaft and then finally grew calm. The waterline in the shaft was a good four feet beneath the glacier's surface, the discrepancy caused by both the removal of the meteorite's mass and ice's property of shrinking as it melts. Norah Mangor immediately set up SHABA pylons all around the hole. Although the hole was clearly visible, any curious soul who ventured too close and accidentally slipped in would be in dire jeopardy. The walls of the shaft were solid ice, with no footholds, and climbing out unassisted would be impossible. Lawrence Ekstrom came padding across the ice toward them. He moved directly to Norah Mangor and shook her hand firmly. â€Å"Well done, Dr. Mangor.† â€Å"I'll expect lots of praise in print,† Norah replied. â€Å"You'll get it.† The administrator turned now to Rachel. He looked happier, relieved. â€Å"So, Ms. Sexton, is the professional skeptic convinced?† Rachel couldn't help but smile. â€Å"Stunned is more like it.† â€Å"Good. Then follow me.† Rachel followed the administrator across the habisphere to a large metal box that resembled an industrial shipping container. The box was painted with military camouflage patterns and stenciled letters: P-S-C. â€Å"You'll call the President from in here,† Ekstrom said. Portable Secure Comm, Rachel thought. These mobile communications booths were standard battlefield installations, although Rachel had never expected to see one used as part of a peacetime NASA mission. Then again, Administrator Ekstrom's background was the Pentagon, so he certainly had access to toys like this. From the stern faces on the two armed guards watching over the PSC, Rachel got the distinct impression that contact with the outside world was made only with express consent from Administrator Ekstrom. Looks like I'm not the only one who is off-the-grid. Ekstrom spoke briefly with one of the guards outside the trailer and then returned to Rachel. â€Å"Good luck,† he said. Then he left. A guard rapped on the trailer door, and it opened from within. A technician emerged and motioned for Rachel to enter. She followed him in. The inside of the PSC was dark and stuffy. In the bluish glow of the lone computer monitor, Rachel could make out racks of telephone gear, radios, and satellite telecommunications devices. She already felt claustrophobic. The air inside was bitter, like a basement in winter. â€Å"Sit here, please, Ms. Sexton.† The technician produced a rolling stool and positioned Rachel in front of a flat-screen monitor. He arranged a microphone in front of her and placed a bulky pair of AKG headphones on her head. Checking a logbook of encryption passwords, the technician typed a long series of keys on a nearby device. A timer materialized on the screen in front of Rachel. 00:60 SECONDS The technician gave a satisfied nod as the timer began to count down. â€Å"One minute until connection.† He turned and left, slamming the door behind him. Rachel could hear the bolt lock outside. Great. As she waited in the dark, watching the sixty-second clock slowly count down, she realized that this was the first moment of privacy she'd had since early that morning. She'd woken up today without the slightest inkling of what lay ahead. Extraterrestrial life. As of today, the most popular modern myth of all time was no longer a myth. Rachel was just now starting to sense how truly devastating this meteorite would be to her father's campaign. Although NASA funding had no business being on a political par with abortion rights, welfare, and health care, her father had made it an issue. Now it was going to blow up in his face. Within hours, Americans would feel the thrill of a NASA triumph all over again. There would be teary-eyed dreamers. Slack-jawed scientists. Children's imaginations running free. Issues of dollars and cents would fade away as petty, overshadowed by this monumental moment. The President would emerge like a phoenix, transforming himself into a hero, while in the midst of the celebration, the businesslike senator would suddenly appear small-minded, a penny-pinching Scrooge with no American sense of adventure. The computer beeped, and Rachel glanced up. 00:05 SECONDS The screen in front of her flickered suddenly, and a blurry image of the White House seal materialized on-screen. After a moment, the image dissolved into the face of President Herney. â€Å"Hello, Rachel,† he said, a mischievous glint in his eye. â€Å"I trust you've had an interesting afternoon?† 29 The office of Senator Sedgewick Sexton was located in the Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building on C Street to the northeast of the Capitol. The building was a neo-modern grid of white rectangles that critics claimed looked more like a prison than an office building. Many who worked there felt the same. On the third floor, Gabrielle Ashe's long legs paced briskly back and forth in front of her computer terminal. On the screen was a new e-mail message. She was not sure what to make of it. The first two lines read: SEDGEWICK WAS IMPRESSIVE ON CNN. I HAVE MORE INFORMATION FOR YOU. Gabrielle had been receiving messages like this for the last couple of weeks. The return address was bogus, although she'd been able to track it to a â€Å"whitehouse.gov† domain. It seemed her mysterious informant was a White House insider, and whoever it was had become Gabrielle's source for all kinds of valuable political information recently, including the news of a covert meeting between the NASA administrator and the President. Gabrielle had been leery of the e-mails at first, but when she checked out the tips, she was amazed to find the information consistently accurate and helpful-classified information on NASA overexpenditures, costly upcoming missions, data showing that NASA's search for extraterrestrial life was grossly overfunded and pathetically unproductive, even internal opinion polls warning that NASA was the issue turning voters away from the President. To enhance her perceived value to the senator, Gabrielle had not informed him she was receiving unsolicited e-mail help from inside the White House. Instead, she simply passed the information to him as coming from â€Å"one of her sources.† Sexton was always appreciative and seemed to know better than to ask who her source was. She could tell he suspected Gabrielle was doing sexual favors. Troublingly, it didn't seem to bother him in the least. Gabrielle stopped pacing and looked again at the newly arrived message. The connotations of all the e-mails were clear: Someone inside the White House wanted Senator Sexton to win this election and was helping him do it by aiding his attack against NASA. But who? And why? A rat from a sinking ship, Gabrielle decided. In Washington it was not at all uncommon for a White House employee, fearing his President was about to be ousted from office, to offer quiet favors to the apparent successor in hopes of securing power or another position after the changeover. It seemed someone smelled Sexton victory and was buying stock early. The message currently on Gabrielle's screen made her nervous. It was like none other she had ever received. The first two lines didn't bother her so much. It was the last two: EAST APPOINTMENT GATE, 4:30 P.M. COME ALONE. Her informant had never before asked to meet in person. Even so, Gabrielle would have expected a more subtle location for a face-to-face meeting. East Appointment Gate? Only one East Appointment Gate existed in Washington, as far as she knew. Outside the White House? Is this some kind of joke? Gabrielle knew she could not respond via e-mail; her messages were always bounced back as undeliverable. Her correspondent's account was anonymous. Not surprising.

Abducted by a UFO: prevalence information affects young children’s false memories for an implausible event Essay

SUMMARY This study examined whether prevalence information promotes children’s false memories for an implausible event. Forty-four 7–8 and forty-seven 11–12 year old children heard a true narrative about their ï ¬ rst school day and a false narrative about either an implausible event (abducted by a UFO) or a plausible event (almost choking on a candy). Moreover, half of the children in each condition received prevalence information in the form of a false newspaper article while listening to the narratives. Across two interviews, children were asked to report everything they remembered about the events. In both age groups, plausible and implausible events were equally likely to give rise to false memories. Prevalence information increased the number of false memories in 7–8 year olds, but not in 11–12 year olds at Interview 1. Our ï ¬ ndings demonstrate that young children can easily develop false memories of a highly implausible event. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Both recent studies (e.g. Pezdek & Hodge, 1999; Strange, Sutherland, & Garry, 2006) and legal cases have demonstrated that children can develop memories of events that never happened, so-called false memories (Loftus, 2004). A well-known legal case is the ‘McMartin Preschool’ trial in which several teachers were accused of ritually abusing hundreds of children across a 10-year period (Garven, Wood, & Malpass, 2000; Garven, Wood, Malpass, & Shaw, 1998; Schreiber et al., 2006). Some of the children recalled extremely bizarre, implausible events such as ï ¬â€šying in helicopters to an isolated farm and watching horses being beaten with baseball bats. The charges against the teachers, however, were eventually dropped; videotapes of the investigative interviews indicated that the children were suggestively interrogated and many experts concluded that the children’s memories were almost certainly false. Controversial cases like the McMartin trial have inspired researchers to investigate how children develop false memories of implausible experiences (Pezdek & Hodge, 1999; Strange et al., 2006), yet the precise antecedents of implausible false memories are still ill-understood. The question we ask here is whether prevalence information—that is, details about the frequency of a false event—is a potential determinant of children’s implausible false memories. *Correspondence to: Henry Otgaar, Faculty of Psychology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. E-mail: henry.otgaar@psychology.unimaas.nl Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. H. Otgaar et al. What do we know about the role of prevalence information in the development of false memories? Mazzoni, Loftus, and Kirsch (2001) describe a three-step process that explains how false memories are formed. According to this model, three conditions must be satisï ¬ ed to create false memories. First, an event has to be considered plausible. Second, the event has to be evaluated as something that genuinely happened. Finally, images and thoughts about the event have to be mistaken as memory details. Consider, now, just the ï ¬ rst stage of Mazzoni et al.’s model (event plausibility) and how prevalence information might affect perceived plausibility. Recent experiments have shown that prevalence information enhances the perceived plausibility of implausible events (Hart & Schooler, 2006; Mazzoni et al., 2001; Pezdek, Blandon-Gitlin, Hart, & Schooler, 2006; Scoboria, Mazzoni, Kirsch, & Jimenez, 2006). Mazzoni et al. (2001) asked undergraduates to read false newspaper articles describing demonic possession. The articles implied, among other things (i.e. a description of what happens in a typical possession experience), that possessions were more common than people previously thought and after reading the articles participants were more likely to believe they had witnessed a demonic possession in the past. Other studies investigating the role of prevalence information in eliciting false beliefs have produced similar striking effects (Hart & Schooler, 2006; Mazzoni et al., 2001; Pezdek et al., 2006; Scoboria et al., 2006). What we do not know, however, is whether prevalence information inï ¬â€šuences the development of false memories (stage 3 of Mazzoni et al.’s model) and not just false beliefs per se. This is an important issue in the false memory literature because several authors have argued that memories and beliefs, although related, are deï ¬ nitely not the same (Scoboria, Mazzoni, Kirsch, & Relyea, 2004; Smeets, Merckelbach, Horselenberg, & Jelicic, 2005). Moreover, the effect of prevalence information has only ever been tested on adults’ beliefs. To date, no study has examined whether prevalence information affects the generation of children’s false memories. What do we know about event plausibility in the development of children’s false memories? In short, research has produced interesting but varied results. Early studies showed that children were more likely to create false memories of plausible than implausible events (Pezdek & Hodge, 1999; Pezdek, Finger, & Hodge, 1997), and researchers suggested that it may be difï ¬ cult to implant false memories of an implausible event (i.e. receiving a rectal enema). In contrast, one recent study shows that children will falsely recall both plausible and implausible events to a similar extent (Strange et al., 2006). Three different explanations might account for these mixed ï ¬ ndings. First, Strange et al. presented children with a doctored photograph of the false event whereas Pezdek and colleagues used false descriptions. Doctored photographs might be considered an extreme form of evidence -one that is very difï ¬ cult for children to refute. It is probable, then, that the doctored photographs skewed the children’s plausibility judgments which in   turn caused them to develop false memories for the plausible and implausible event at a similar rate. Second, Strange et al. compared false events that were either plausible or implausible whereas Pezdek and colleagues (1997, 1999) contrasted false events that differed in terms of script knowledge (i.e. description of what typically occurs in an event). Speciï ¬ cally, they compared a high script knowledge event (i.e. lost in a shopping mall) with a low script knowledge event (i.e. receiving a rectal enema). However, the exact relation between script knowledge and plausibility is not clear (Scoboria et al., 2004). Third, the two false events used in Strange et al.’s and Pezdek et al.’s studies differed with respect to valence. Strange et al.’s events were positive (i.e. taking a hot air balloon ride and drinking a cup of tea with Prince Charles), whereas Pezdek and colleagues implanted false negative events in Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. children’s memory (i.e. lost in a shopping mall and receiving a rectal enema). Studies have shown that valence affects the development of children’s false memories (Ceci, Loftus, Leichtman, & Bruck, 1994; Howe, 2007). Since plausibility, valence and script knowledge seem to play a role in the development of false memories, the false events used in the current study were matched on these factors. To examine whether prevalence information can lead children to develop full-blown false memories of plausible and implausible events, and to examine developmental differences in the development of false memories, we adapted the false narrative procedure (e.g. Garry & Wade, 2005; Loftus & Pickrell, 1995; Pezdek & Hodge, 1999; Pezdek et al., 1997), and exposed some 7–8 year old children and some 11–12 year old children to one true description and one false description of past experiences. Previous studies have shown that these age groups differ developmentally with respect to suggestibility and false memory formation (e.g. Ceci, Ross, & Toglia, 1987). The true description described the child’s ï ¬ rst day at school. The false description was either plausible and described almost choking on a candy, or implausible and described being abducted by a UFO. Half of the children in each group also received prevalence information in the form of a newspaper article. The article suggested that the target false event was much more common than the children probably thought. Our predictions were straightforward: based on the prevalence literature with adults, we predicted that children who heard false prevalence information would be more likely to report false memories than children without false prevalence information. With respect to the role of event plausibility, two predictions can be formulated. Based on studies by Pezdek and colleagues (1997, 1999), we would predict that regardless of prevalence information, plausible events would elicit more false memories than implausible events. However, based on a recent study by Strange et al. (2006), we would expect that plausible and implausible events are equally likely to elicit false memories. Finally, because younger children are more suggestible than older children (for an overview see Bruck & Ceci, 1999), we expected that younger children would be more likely to develop false memories than older children. METHOD Participants The study involved 91 primary school children (48 girls) from two different age groups (n  ¼ 44, 7–8 year olds, M  ¼ 7.68 years, SD  ¼ 0.52; n  ¼ 47, 11–12 year olds, M  ¼ 11.64 years, SD  ¼ 0.53). Children participated after parents and teachers had given informed consent. All children received a small gift in return for their participation. The study was approved by the standing ethical committee of the Faculty of Psychology, Maastricht University. Materials True narratives True narratives described children’s ï ¬ rst day at school. This event was chosen because it was a unique event that had happened to all children at age 4. Children’s parents were contacted by telephone to obtain the following personal details about each child’s ï ¬ rst school day: the family members or friends who escorted the child to school, and the teacher’s and school’s name. These details were incorporated in the true narratives. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. An example of a true narrative was: Your mother told me that when you were 4 years old, you went for the ï ¬ rst time to the elementary school. The name of the elementary school was Springer and it was located in Maastricht. The name of your teacher was Tom. Your mother took you to school. False narratives False events were selected from a pilot study. In that study, 49 children (M  ¼ 8.02 years, SD  ¼ 1.20, range 6–101) rated the plausibility and valence of 29 events on child-friendly 7-point Smiley scales (anchors:  ¼ implausible/negative,  ¼ plausible/positive) with bigger smiley faces referring to more plausible/more positive events. Speciï ¬ cally, children had to indicate how likely the events were to happen to them (e.g. ‘How likely is it that you almost choke on a candy’?; i.e. personal plausibility; Scoboria et al., 2004) and how pleasant the events were for them (e.g., ‘How pleasant is it that you almost choke on a candy’?). To ensure that they understood the events, all children rated two practice items. Furthermore, 19 children (M  ¼ 8.74 years, SD  ¼ 1.05, range 7–10) were instructed to report everything they knew about each event and the total number of idea units served as our measure of children’s script-knowledge about the events (Scoboria et al., 2004). Based on their ratings, we selected two events, almost choked on a candy and abducted by a UFO. These events were equal in terms of valence (Mchoking  ¼ 1.65, SDchoking  ¼ 1.48, MUFO  ¼ 1.94, SDUFO  ¼ 1.98, t(47) < 1, n.s.) and script knowledge (Mchoking  ¼ 1.11, SDchoking  ¼ 0.99, MUFO  ¼ 0.74, SDUFO  ¼ 1.05, t(18)  ¼ 1.20, n.s.), but differed in terms of plausibility with mean plausibility ratings being higher for the choking event (M  ¼ 5.86, SD  ¼ 2.02) than for the UFO event (M  ¼ 1.63, SD  ¼ 1.75, t(47)  ¼ 10.07, p < .001). Age did not correlate with plausibility, valence and script knowledge for the two events ( ps > .05). Children’s parents conï ¬ rmed that their child had never experienced the false events. The false narratives were: Almost choked on a candy: Your mother told me that you were at a birthday party when you were 4 years old. At this party you received a bag of candies. When you were at home again, you were allowed to have one candy. Your mother saw that you turned blue and she panicked. Then she hit you on the back and the candy came out. Abducted by a UFO: Your mother told me that when you were 4 years old, you were abducted by a UFO. This happened when you were alone outside. You mother was inside the house. Then she suddenly saw through the window that a UFO took you. False newspaper articles For the true and false events a newspaper article was fabricated describing that the event took place quite frequently when participants were age 4. These false newspaper articles were similar in appearance to a local newspaper. Moreover, to personalize the newspaper articles, we included the children’s hometown in the articles. The newspaper articles were 1 Because the age range of our pilot sample did not completely overlap with the age groups of our study, we conducted a 2 (pilot group: younger vs. older children)  2 (event: UFO vs. choking) ANOVA with the latter factor being a within subject factor to examine the effect of age on plausibility judgments. No signiï ¬ cant interaction emerged ( p > .05) indicating that age did not have an impact on the plausibility ratings of our two events. Therefore, the plausibility ratings of our pilot sample can be extended to the older group of our study were randomly assigned to the plausible or implausible event and to the prevalence or no prevalence information condition. Each child was interviewed individually twice over seven days. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed. During the interviews, one true narrative and one false narrative were read aloud, with the latter always being presented in the second position. The procedure of the interviews was similar to that used by Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay (2002). At the start of Interview 1, children were told that we were interested in their memories for events that had happened when they were 4 years old. Children were instructed to report everything they remembered about the events. In the prevalence information condition, they were told that to help them remember the events they would be provided with a newspaper article. Subsequently, the interviewer read out the article to the child. Children who did not describe details of the target event were told that ‘many people can’t recall certain events because they haven’t thought about them for such a long time. Please concentrate and try again’. If they still did not recall any details, the interviewer made use of context reinstatement and guided imagery. The purpose of these retrieval techniques was to take the children mentally back to the scene of the event. Speciï ¬ cally, children were told to close their eyes and they were asked to think about their feelings, who was with them, and about the time of the year. After this, children were asked again to recall any details about the event. If they still did not come up with details, the next narrative was presented or the interview was stopped. At the end of Interview 1, children were asked to think about the events every day until the next interview and they were instructed not to talk with others about the events. Parents were asked not to discuss these events with their children. Interview 2 was similar to Interview 1. At the end of Interview 2, they were debriefed using ethical guidelines for false memory research with children (Goodman, Quas, & Redlich, 1998). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION An extensive number of children were extremely surprised during the debrieï ¬ ng when they were told that the false event did not happen to them. For example, one 8-year old child responded ‘It really did happen’ where another one said ‘I really can remember seeing the UFO’. After the debrieï ¬ ng, 39% (n  ¼ 13) of the children remained absolutely conï ¬ dent that they experienced the false events. We debriefed these children until they understood the events were false. Together, these ï ¬ ndings suggest that the false memories in this study were not the result of children falsely assenting or trying to please the interviewer. True events True memories were categorized as either remembered or not remembered. To be categorized as remembered, children had to report at least two of the three personal details correctly. Children’s true recall was near ceiling. They remembered 88 (97%) events at Interview 1 and 89 (98%) events during Interview 2, x2(1)  ¼ .07, n.s. False events For the false events, two independent judges classiï ¬ ed each memory report as no false memory, images but not memories or false memory according to criteria used by Lindsay, Hagen, Read, Wade, and Garry (2004). If a child attempted to recall the false event, but did Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 23: 115–125 (2009) DOI: 10.1002/acp Prevalence information, plausibility, and children’s false memories not have any memory of the event or did not report any details that were beyond the false description, the report was categorized as no false memory. A report was judged as an image when children speculated about details and described images related to the false events. For example, one child reported: ‘I think I almost choked on a candy on the birthday of Mauk. I am not sure. It was not a pleasant feeling’. To be classiï ¬ ed as a false memory, children had to indicate that they remembered the event and provide details beyond those mentioned in the narrative, but related to the narrative. To give an example of a detail, one child stated that he remembered being taken to the UFO through a blue beam of light. If children stated that they thought the event and/or certain details could have happened, then this was not scored as a false memory. Furthermore, to minimize the effect of demand characteristics, direct responses to interviewer prompts were not classiï ¬ ed as a false memory. The following dialogue from Interview 2 illustrates a child’s false memory of the UFO abduction. Child: ‘I saw cameras and ï ¬â€šashes and some people in the UFO’. Interviewer: ‘How many people did you see’? Child: ‘Approximately nine or ten’. Interviewer: ‘What kind of people’? Child: ‘People like me, children’. Interviewer: ‘What else did you see’? Child: ‘I saw some people and also some blue/green puppets were passing’. Inter-rater agreement for classiï ¬ cation of the memory reports was high; k  ¼ 0.92 for Interview 1 and k  ¼ 0.94 for Interview 2. Collapsing across the conditions, at Interview 1, 33% (n  ¼ 30) of the children developed a false memory. Thirty per cent (n  ¼ 9) of these children assented to the false events immediately, that is prior to guided imagery and context reinstatement. Thirty-six per cent of the children (n  ¼ 33), with 67% (n  ¼ 20) immediately assenting, ‘remembered’ the false events at Interview 2, x2(1)  ¼ 26.61, p < .001, Cramer’s V  ¼ 0.54. Some of the children who rejected the false events at Interview 2 indicated, despite the explicit instruction at Interview 1, that they had discussed the false events with their parents. The increase in false memories over time is in line with previous studies with adults and children (e.g. Lindsay et al., 2004; Strange et al., 2006; Wade et al., 2002). Furthermore, 10% (n  ¼ 9) of the children were classiï ¬ ed as having an image of the false events at Interview 1. At Interview 2, this percentage decreased to 7% (n  ¼ 6), x2(1)  ¼ 58.53, p < .001, Cramer’s V  ¼ 0.80. Recall that the primary question in this study was whether prevalence information boosts the likelihood of plausible and implausible false memories. Table 1 shows the percentage and number of children who reported false memories as a function of interview and condition. To examine the role of age, event type, and prevalence information in the development of false memories, we conducted a logistic regression analysis with the dependent variable being false memory (0  ¼ no false memory/images, 1  ¼ false memory). In this analysis, we only focused on ‘genuine’ false memories and did not collapse across false memories and images. Although non-parametric methods, such as logistic regression, often lack the statistical power to detect interactions (Sawilowsky, 1990), there are four important points to note about these data. First, the only signiï ¬ cant interaction found was an Age  Prevalence information interaction at Interview 1. Prevalence information enhanced the development of 7–8 year old children’s false memories but not 11–12 year old children’s false memories, and this effect occurred at Interview 1 (B  ¼ 2.16, SE  ¼ 0.96, Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dakosaurus - Facts and Figures

Dakosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Dakosaurus (Greek for tearing lizard); pronounced DACK-oh-SORE-us Habitat: Shallow seas of Eurasia and North and South America Historical Period: Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (150-130 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 15 feet long and 1,000-2,000 pounds Diet: Fish, squids and marine reptiles Distinguishing Characteristics: Dinosaur-like head; primitive rear flippers About Dakosaurus Like its close relatives Metriorhynchus and Geosaurus, Dakosaurus was technically a prehistoric crocodile, even if this fierce marine reptile was more reminiscent of the mosasaurs that appeared tens of millions of years later. But unlike other metriorhynchids, as these sea-going crocodiles are called, Dakosaurus looked like it was assembled out of the bits and pieces of other animals: its head resembled that of a terrestrial theropod dinosaur, while its long, clumsy, leg-like hind flippers pointed to a creature only partly evolved beyond its terrestrial origins. Overall, it seems unlikely that Dakosaurus was a particularly fast swimmer, though it was clearly just speedy enough to prey on its fellow marine reptiles, not to mention assorted fish and squids. For a marine reptile, Dakosaurus has an unusually long pedigree. The type species of the genus, initially mistaken for a specimen of Geosaurus, was named way back in 1856, and before that scattered Dakosaurus teeth were mistaken for those of the terrestrial dinosaur Megalosaurus. However, the real buzz about Dakosaurus began in the late 1980s, when a new species, Dakosaurus andiniensis, was discovered in the Andes Mountains of South America. One D. andiniensis skull discovered in 2005 was so large and fearsome that it was dubbed Godzilla by the excavating team, one paleontologist going on record as saying that this dinosaur-like reptile represented the most drastic evolutionary change in the history of marine crocodiles.

The State of Human Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The State of Human Nature - Essay Example Hobbes identified and discussed two paths that human nature takes and, no matter the striving and effort put into one or another, the human being and its glory or fall resides in what he called ethical egoism. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this matter by looking at two examples: one given by Michel Montaigne and the other, more recent and representing a deeply disturbing moment in history, by Primo Levi. The ethics and moral values of humans seem to diminish, if not vanish, when it comes to two important processes that set into motion the dynamics of humanity; be it the natural condition that Hobbes discusses, that of the man dealing with no artificial political or religious bodies of governance, a man who has to create a cult for the Self in order to survive, or the condition in which the mechanisms of power punish or reward the individual, man proves to be fundamentally violent and able to start the metamorphosis of everything that once was considered moral value. In 'De Cive' Hobbes concludes that: " I obtained two absolutely certain postulates of human nature: one, the postulate of human greed by which each man insists upon his own private use of common property; the other, the postulate of natural reason, by which each man strives to avoid violent death."1 The transformations do not completely erase the cognitive capacities of the individual, but reinforce in a very dangerous way for the society the Delphic principle 'nosce te ipsum', which can push the individual into a world of absurdity in which reasoning is as well transformed and all meaning becomes corrupt. Michael Montaigne's aim in his essay 'On Cannibals' is a very complex one and it is that of proving that no matter the time or the social circumstances, human nature developed its fundamental values and constantly fought to adjust morality to whatever its interest was. The problem of the pain or pleasure generated by a government like mechanism, which in Hobbes opinion triggers the egotistic behavior, is seen by Montaigne as something which occurs in those of us who have a very strong desire to be better than others, desire that is destructive for the rest of the society, and, this sort of action loses touch with the original selfishness, degenerating thus; we all are barbarians, some are transformed by these inner happenings into more barbaric people. For Montaigne both the cannibal who lives in a natural state of no law and reasoning, who and the cannibal who adhered to a moral barbarism as part of an artificial structure, if we are to put it in Hobbes terms, are guilty of seeing as barbarian, as a threat "whatever is not his own practice".2 When it comes to the questions related to the similarities and differences between the cannibal and the barbarian withholding some moral values, the last one represents the society contemporary to Montaigne, mainly seen in terms of political dispute and greed for power just like in Hobbes case; both philosophers found their theories on the sort of violence generated by self conscious people who end up acting as violent beings who are in fact too weak and fall under the influence of their own edacity. Montaigne's argument stands valid and is a confirmation of Hobbes's thesis that humans act only in their own advantage. Montaigne states that: "I conceive there is more barbarity in eating a man alive, than when he is dead; in tearing a body limb

Sustainability in chemical engineering Research Paper

Sustainability in chemical engineering - Research Paper Example Sustainable chemistry is the â€Å"chemistry that contributes to securing the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs† (Christensen, 2009). Chemical Engineering is a course or program that plays a significant role in sustaining a society through manufacturing products and making processes for a better environment. Chemical Engineering contributes to sustainability through green chemistry. The terms ‘green chemistry’ and ‘sustainable chemistry’ are used interchangeably (Hardy, 2004). The purpose of green chemistry is to eliminate or reduce the risk of chemical hazards which in turn obviates the need to establish expensive exposure controls and prevents accidents leading to environmental incidents. Research in green chemistry is directed at alternative feedstocks, reagents and catalysts, environmentally benign solvents, and making of recyclable chemical products. This is achieved by giving bio-based feedstocks preference over petroleum-based sources. For example, the important intermediaries of commodity chemicals’ production; adipic acid, catechol, and hydroquinone can be produced from glucose as a raw material instead of benzene (Abraham, 2005, p. 168). While recycling increases the overall production, the cost of production is reduced because waste materials are used rather than getting disposed off. The importance of clean air, clean water, and safe environment highlights the significance of green chemistry. Chemical engineering has contributed to the increase of sustainability by introducing a range of efficient and productive systems including the large lake bio-complexity systems, systems dynamic modeling and ecological engineering and restoration. Sustainable development is based on the approach to service systems and industrial products’ manufacturing. Companies like General motors and HP are using â€Å"design for environment† techniques