Quasi-experimental Design :: Research methods and statistics

I. Jackson (2012), even-numbered chapter exercises, p 360. 2. The recommended design for this type of study is a non-equivalent control group post-test only design. 4. If a study is confounded, the researcher is not absolutely certain that changes in the dependent variable were caused by the manipulation of the independent variable, or some other uncontrolled variable. In a non-equivalent control group post-test only design, any differences observed between the two classes may be due to the non-equivalence of the groups and not to the injection of quizzes. No pre-test measures were given to establish equivalence. Another confound that may impact the results of this study could be the testing effect. Repeated testing may lead to better or worse performance. Changes in performance on the test may be due to prior experience with the test and not to the independent variable. In addition, repeated testing fatigues the subjects, and their performance declines as a result (Jackson, 2012). Because the professor is interested in determining if the implementation of weekly quizzes would improve test scores, an experimenter and/or an instrumentation effect may also affect results. In a single group post-test only design, possible confounds include the lack of a comparison group and the absence of an equivalent control group. Once again, a testing and an experimenter effect could also contribute to changes in test performance. 6. A single-case design is used when: 1. Only one person is measured. 2. The researcher does not want or need to generalize the results to a population. 3. The researcher believes it is unethical to withhold treatment to one group. 8. A multiple-baseline design differs from a reversal design by attempting to control for confounds through the introduction of treatment at differing time intervals to a few different people, to the same person in different situations, or to the same person across different behaviors. Reversal designs attempt to control for confounds by reversing the baseline and treatment conditions one or more times to assess the impact on behavior (Jackson, 2012). 2. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of quasi-experiments? What is the fundamental weakness of a quasi-experimental design? Why is it a weakness? Does its weakness always matter? Quasi-experimental designs are experimental designs that do not provide for the full control of extraneous variables. Primarily, the absence of control in this design is due to the lack of random assignment to groups. Quasi-experimental research designs are used in the study of cause and effect by manipulating the independent variable.

DSL Technology :: Technology Computers Internet Essays

DSL Technology Introduction The accelerated growth of content rich applications and online gaming, which demand high bandwidth, has changed the nature of information networks. High-speed communication is now an ordinary requirement throughout business, government, academic, and home office environments. Internet access, telecommuting, and remote LAN access are three of the clearly defined services that network access providers are offering now. These rapidly growing applications are placing a new level of demand on the telephone infrastructure. In particular, the local loop portion of the network (i.e., the local connection from the subscriber to the local central office) has become a challenge for telephone companies. Historically, this local loop facility has been provisioned with copper cabling which cannot easily support high bandwidth transmission. This environment is now being stressed by the demand for increasingly higher bandwidth capacities. Although this infrastructure could be replaced b y a massive rollout of fiber technologies, the cost to do so would be insupportable in today's business models and, more importantly, the time to accomplish such a transition is unacceptable because the market demand exists today! Telephone companies are already faced with growing competition and unprecedented customer demands A new category of companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), has emerged in this market as providers of data services. Traditionally ISPs have used the telephone company infrastructure. However, thanks to deregulation, they now have direct access to the physical cable plant. ISPs will be formidable competitors in this quest for the customers. Network service providers around the world fill this moment with great potential for remarkable success. A new technology called high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) has emerged onto this scene. xDSL, which encompasses several different technologies, essentially allows the extension of megabit bandwidth capacities from the service provider central office to the customer premises on a customer by customer basis over the existing copper cabling, without the need for massive infrastructure replacement and at very reasonable costs. These new xDSL solutions satisfy the business need to provision the network in a fast, cost effective manner, while preserving the infrastructure and allowing a planned migration into newer technologies. xDSL has the ability to meet the customer demand for high bandwidth right now, at costs that make sense. xDSL is a group of emerging Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem technologies for supporting high-rate traffic transmission over POTS lines. X stands for asymmetric in ADSL, rate adaptive in RADSL, high-speed in HDSL, and very high speed in VDSL.

Argumentative Essay: Gun Control Does Not Reduce Crime :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Americans are faced with an ever-growing problem of violence. Our streets have become a battleground where the elderly are beaten for their social security checks, where terrified women are viciously attacked and raped, where teen-age gangsters shoot it out for a patch of turf to sell their illegal drugs, and where innocent children are caught daily in the crossfire of drive-by shootings. We cannot ignore the damage that these criminals are doing to our society, and we must take actions to stop these horrors. However, the effort by some misguided individuals to eliminate the legal ownership of firearms does not address the real problem at hand, and simply disarms the innocent law-abiding citizens who are most in need of a form of self-defense. Â   To fully understand the reasons behind the gun control efforts, we must look at the history of our country, and the role firearms have played in it. The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States makes firearm ownership legal in this country. There were good reasons for this freedom, reasons which persist today. Firearms in the new world were used initially for hunting, and occasionally for self-defense. However, when the colonists felt that the burden of British oppression was too much for them to bear, they picked up their personal firearms and went to war. Standing against the British armies, these rebels found themselves opposed by the greatest military force in the world at that time. The 18th century witnessed the height of the British Empire, but the rough band of colonial freedom fighters discovered the power of the Minuteman, the average American gun owner. These Minutemen, so named because they would pick up their personal guns and jump to the defense of their country on a minute's notice, served a major part in winning the American Revolution. The founding fathers of this country understood that an armed populace was instrumental in fighting off oppression, and they made the right to keep and bear arms a constitutionally guaranteed right. Â   Over the years, some of the reasons for owning firearms have changed. As our country grew into a strong nation, we expanded westward, exploring the wilderness, and building new towns on the frontier. Typically, these new towns were far away from the centers of civilization, and the only law they had was dispensed by townsfolk through the barrel of a gun. Crime existed, but could be minimized when the townspeople fought back against the criminals. Eventually, these organized townspeople developed police forces as their towns grew in size. Fewer people carried their firearms on the street, but the firearms were always there, ready to be used in self-

Organizational Behavior in Garment Industry Essay

In contention with the economic health of a country like Bangladesh, it’s due to the garments sector of the industrial enterprise in Bangladesh that’s keeping the country’s economy stabled and in intended direction. The garment industry of Bangladesh has been the key export division and a main source of foreign exchange for the last 25 years. At present, the country generates about $5 billion worth of products each year by exporting garment. The industry provides employment to about 3 million workers of whom 90% are women. Two non-market elements have performed a vital function in confirming the garment industry’s continual success; these elements are (a) quotas under Multi- Fibred Arrangement1 (MFA) in the North American market and (b) special market entry to European markets, Bangladesh’s industrial base, which has remained stagnant over the past two decades, is very narrow, contributing to about 11. 5 percent of the GDP (BBS, 2001). Within this narrow industrial sector, however, the ready-made garments (RMG) industry has flourished as its most dynamic sector. Five basic models have been developed on which â€Å"garments industry† organizational behavior is based. Autocratic Model: This is the most common model on which most garments factories are based. Here the managers or the leaders are firmly in control, and obedience is considered to be a virtue. All decisions come from the management and the rest just follow the instructions. Custodial Model: Here the management acts as a custodian of the welfare of its employees. They are provided money and security, and the employees in turn follow the diktats of the organization. The orientation is towards providing security, and less towards providing them an opportunity to be independent and leaders Supportive Model: As is evident from the name, here the emphasis is on support being provided by the managers to the employees. Here the employees are encouraged to improve their performance, and they are awarded recognition for their achievements. This results in an overall improvement, since a good result is praised and rewarded. Collegial Model: Here the emphasis is on partnership between all parts of an organization. Self-discipline and responsibility are encouraged and employees are encouraged to achieve the goals that they set for themselves. Teamwork is emphasized. The System Model: Managers and employees don’t see the business only rather they work together for the better product for society, environment, etc. Limitation: Bangladesh garment industry still now is not that much developed. When we prepare the report in Delta Composite they don’t even have their garments profile. We found so many difficulties in searching information. Foreign buyers English is not that much clear. There are many code names in garments industry that is very important for production process, and we have memorized those codes. In garments factory most of the employees doesn’t have any educational background they do their job only with experiences. Scope: During preparing our report we have got chances to visit many buying house, supervise many production process, & completed many sample program. This report gives a narrative overview of the delta composite knitting industries Ltd. and its operation Organizational Behavior Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people as individual or as groups act within organizations. Goals of organizational behavior There are some goals of organizational behavior which are as follows: Describe: The first goal is to describe, systematically how people behave under a variety of conditions. Achieving this goal allows managers to communicate about human behavior at work using a common language. Understand: A second goal is to understand any people behave as they do. The managers would be frustrated if they could talk about behavior of their employees, but not understand the reasons behind those actions. Predict: The managers would have capacity to predict which employees might be dedicated and productive or which ones might have absent, cause problem. And thus the managers could take preventive actions. Control: The final goal of OB is to control and develop some human activity at work. Since managers are held responsible for performance outcome, they are vitally interested in being able to make an impact on employee behavior, skill development, team effort, and productivity. Managers need to be able to improve results through the actions they and their employees take, and organizational behavior can aid them in their pursuit of this goal.

African American Population Essay

At the beginning of each decade in the United States a census is taken to determine the population (Gale, 2008). While the 2000 census states that the African American population makes up 13% of the American population. And predicts it will stay the same percentage until the year 2050. The African American population will reproduce and contribute to the world as other majority and minority groups. So why wouldn’t this group grow as a population. African American Growth The African American population has been growing in America since they were involuntarily brought here. From 1492 to 1820 the African American population grew to 9. 5 million in the west alone (POPULATION, 2000). In 1900, there were 8. 8 million African Americans in the United States, representing 11. 6% of the total population. Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population percentage declined, reaching a low point in 1930 when the population was only 9. 7% of the United States population (Gale, 2008). Since 1930, the African American population has grown at a faster rate than national averages (POPULATION, 2000). Over four centuries the African American population has become less rural and concentrated than it was in the nineteenth century (POPULATION, 2000). African Americans do not have to endure slavery. The group has also gained the same rights as other minority and majority groups. The United States Department of Commerce The Department of Commerce expects growth in the Black population. The United States Department of Commerce expects the Black population to make up 16 percent on the American population, by the year 2050 (Black Collegian, 2002). The Department Economic and Statistic Administration will examine effect of the 2010 census and the black population. The Administration will concentrate on the finances of the Black population and any other new aspects to review. The census Bureau The 2000 census states that the African American population makes up 13 percent of the American population (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). The census also predicts that the African American population will continue to make up only 13 percent in the year 2050 (Census, 2000). The Almanac suggests that African American are ranking lower than any other group in all categories. The almanac reference income gaps between African Americans and other races. The Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander populations are expected to maintain their shares of the population in all series (U. S. Census Bureau, 2008 and 2009). A population that is having children and playing a major to the world as all other populations cannot stay the same for a period of 50 years. The encyclopedia of population stated that African American population growth increases much faster than statistics assume. The Department of Commerce predicts the African American population will rise to 16 percent in the year 2050. While the Census Bureau predicts that there will be no increase in the African American population in the year 2050 with out giving details of why this prediction is accurate. African American have endured a great struggle in America. They have over came many obstacles and they will overcome this one also. References POPULATION. (2000). In Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Retrieved from http://www. credoreference. com/entry/galeus/populationSmith, M. (2001). Ed. ). (1993). Black Collegian. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-Text]. : . Retrieved March 31, 2010Year, from com220. Encyclopedia of population (Ed. ). (2003). African American population History. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-Text]. : . Retrieved March 26, 2010Year, from com220. Boyle, K. (2010). The Promise land: The making of African America. Retrived from New York Times book review. Table 1 Type the table text here in italics; start a new page for each table [Insert table here] Figure Captions Figure 1. Caption of figure [Figures – note that this page does not have the manuscript header and page number].

“No Sugar”: analysis of the play Essay

One people One land that’s how the whites saw it back in the early 19 hundreds of the Australian settlement. They didn’t recognise the aboriginal people to be as people, to them they were but cheap labour. The Australian drama â€Å"No Sugar† gives us an insight into this through the lives of a few aboriginal people. The play shows how aboriginal people lose their way and become more reliant on the white man and how the whites used this position of power of them. One cannot survive unless one has ones’ purpose. To aboriginal people their purpose was unrecognised due to the destruction of their past. Which meant that their purpose was lost and without that they faded away with help by the white man. The play is set in the 1929 in Western Australia, in a small settlement called Moore River. The story behind the play is about an aboriginal family and how they work to gain their purpose and fight to survive. This is well characterised and through it’s characters we are able to see the theme to the play that one must have ones’ purpose in order to survive. Characters like Jimmy Munday and Joe represent the stronger aboriginal, the side that stands up to the white man, the side that don’t step back but take a few steps forward. Their courage and willingness to gain their purpose is passed on to the other aboriginal people throughout the play and help bring the aboriginal closer. The theme of the play is a very powerful one as it asks the viewer to think and question himself or herself on to what is their own purpose and how could they achieve their purpose if they have not found it. One has to have ones’ purpose in order to survive. For the aboriginal people their survive was weakened for the fact they had no purpose but to server and live like the whites had showed them how. In settlements or on the street not giving them the right to vote the rights whites had because the white people were afraid of them. They thought that if we let one we would have to let them all and if one can do a white persons job better then a white man. Then  Aboriginal people would takeover and white people were afraid of aboriginals having power over them. They enforced laws that weren’t set for the white man. Laws that made sure there could only be one power and that was white and not black. We’ve seen this racial hate, this black against white throughout history. The American civil war, the apartheid in South Africa and now we see it in our own country a place we call free. The aboriginal people saw different they saw only the lines of hate, the lines of white power over black, the segregation that blinded people to think that everything was moral ok. When in fact people were being used as cheap labour and weren’t given a choice, for if you did not accept you were cased into gaol. I believe that the message to the play is true and that one has to have ones’ purpose in order to survive otherwise one lose everything. For the aboriginal people they lost their way. The way of the dreamtime, the stories that used to be past on to generation to generation was been forgotten and that only the elders knew of the stories, the poems and the songs. The elders were fading away and each time one passed a story or a song was forgotten and without these the aboriginal people lost their purpose and turned to the white man to find a new purpose but all they found was lies.

The Devil and Tom Walker and Rip Van Wrinkle

â€Å"The Devil and Tom Walker† and â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† by Washington Irving are two very similar yet different stories. Both of these stories talk about the American Dream and how one can want it but be disappointed when one gets it. Tom and Rip both have wives that are turning points in the stories. They both nag so much that it drives them to crazy things. The imagery in these stories gives a real feel for the scenery and how it interacts with the stories. Van Winkle and Tom both get what they wanted but once they achieve it they find that it is not what they want and regret their decisions.The message in these stories is be careful who you interact with they may not be who one wants them to be. The American Dream is to gain a great deal of wealth no matter the circumstances. Tom Walker and his wife are all about the Dream and Rip Van Winkle is wants his version of wealth to just fall into his lap. To Tom and his wife wealth is heaps and heaps of gold or money. Tom ’s wife â€Å"avarice was awakened at the mention of hidden gold, and she urged her husband to comply with the black man's terms and secure what would make them wealthy for life. (Washington Irving). She is so willing to do anything to get gold that she would even make a deal with the Devil. Tom makes the deal with the Devil and he becomes a slave trader. That is a horrific job, selling other human beings, but he still made a lot of money. Tom achieves the American Dream but not in the way he wanted to. He thought he would just obtain wealth, but he had to work for the money. To Rip Van Winkle wealth is not having your wife nagging you and getting to be happy. He leaves to the mountain so he can get away from her.He thinks he will get away from her for a while but he gets stuck sleeping for twenty years. Van Winkle achieves the Dream but he realizes that he doesn’t want the dream. In both of these stories Rip Van Winkle and Tom Walker achieve the American Dream but th ey realize it is not what the believed they wanted. Tom and Rip are very similar and different. First of all â€Å"Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not even fear the devil. Tom is a man who doesn’t easily get frightened. On the other hand â€Å"Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with the least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. † He is a man who is happy with life and would rather starve than work for money. They are similar in their troubles though. Rip Van Winkle wants to get rid of his wife and so does Tom Walker.Tom and Rip both regret their decisions at the end of the stories. Tom regretting making the deal with Old Scratch and Rip regretting helping the hiker on the mountain because he loses his wife and â€Å"many of his former cronies†. Next we have the husband wife relationship in both cases. Now Rip was sort of a say nothing do nothing when it came to his house and wife. His wife would bad mouth him and yell at him, but Rip wouldn't do much of anything. He would just go off and sleep not worrying about anything. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family†¦ He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence†. If his wife wouldn’t nag him, Rip Van Winkle would go on and live life in perfect satisfaction.Every time Rips wife would ask him to do something, he would just shrug it off all day and everyday. She would talk all day and if Rip a ctually attempted to help or do what she said he would get bad mouthed and it would produce more chaos in his house than there was before. Now Tom and his wife on the other hand would battle to the death. Tom would yell and scream so his wife might agree with him. â€Å"Many and bitter were the quarrels they had on the subject, but the more she talked the more resolute was Tom not to be damned to please her.At length she determined to drive the bargain on her own account, and if she succeeded, to keep all the gain to herself†. They had verbal and physical battles all the time. The more she argued the more Tom would not want to do whatever she wanted him to do. In this case the more she wanted Tom to make the deal with Old Scratch the more he did not want to do it. Tom would hide money and so would his wife wouldn’t get rich with him. In both of the stories the wife husband relationship would be a turning point in both cases.In â€Å"Rip Van Winkle†, his wife ver bally abused him so much that he just left and went to the mountains to get away from her constant nagging. In â€Å"The Devil and Tom Walker†, Tom’s wife basically makes Tom make the deal. She tries to make the deal but Old Scratch kills her and that is what seals the deal for Tom. When he finds his wife’s apron and her organs, he goes and makes the deal. These wives are the reason for the bad that happens to Tom Walker and Rip Van Walker. The scenery shows great imagery.One can tell â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† is set in a fantasy world right away by the way Irving sort of zooms in on the scene, first he tells of the mountains and then the town â€Å"When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. † When the weather is fair the mountains are blue and purple, and they show their outlines against the sky.The fog gathers on the mountains as hoods and the sun rays light up the mountains. He then zooms in on the town, then you find yourself in a room with Rip Van Winkle and his wife. In â€Å"The Devil and Tom Walker† the Washington Irving gives describes the inlet where Old Scratch is found. â€Å"On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge, into a high ridge on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. † There is a dark grove where the water rises right up to the gigantic oaks.In both of the stories you get the feeling of something supernatural is going to happen. Washington Irving use imagery suitably for each story. Both Rip Van Winkle and Tom Walker get what they want. In Rip’s case he wanted to get rid of his wife and his jobs . He goes to the mountain to escape from his wives verbal abuse and he basically gets a new life. In Tom’s case he wants money and doesn't want his wife. He meets the Devil, and the Devil wants to make him a deal. The deal is to give Old Scratch Tom Walker’s soul and Old Scratch will make Tom wealthy.Tom wants to make the deal with Old Scratch, but he doesn't want to do it for his wife to get rich with him. When she goes and tries to make the deal with the Devil, she gets murdered by Old Scratch and that makes Tom seal the deal with him. In the end, Tom is held up to his end of the deal, his soul. The message in these two stories is be careful who you interact with. Rip was climbing the mountain to get away from his nagging wife. He saw a man that â€Å"bore on his shoulder a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and assist him with the load.Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alac rity†. This man wanted Rip to help him with a keg and normally Rip doesn’t help people but he randomly helped this man. If he wouldn’t have helped the man, Rip may have never fallen asleep in the mountains for twenty years. Tom interacted with Old Scratch, the Devil. Tom was just taking a short cut and found the Devil on an Indian burial ground. The Devil wanted Tom’s soul and did whatever he could to get Tom’s soul. Tom got sucked in by the money that he could have and agreed to the Devils deal.If Tom hadn’t been so greedy, he may never have been so frustrated to call upon the Devil and might still have been able to live a longer life. These stories give great contrast and comparison. The American Dream shows that what you want isn’t always what you think you want. Their wives drive these stories and make Tom and Rip do their crazy things. The imagery in these stories shows how important the scenery is to the stories. Getting what you want isn’t always the best thing for you. Tom and Rip find that out the hard way.