Thursday, January 30, 2020

Reactivity Series Investigation Essay Example for Free

Reactivity Series Investigation Essay Experiment on Metals Aim-To find out which of these metals will be most reactive with hydrochloric acid,and plan an investigation to test it out. The Metals given:Calcium,Aluminium,Iron,Magnesium and Zinc. Prediction-I predict that the metal will be the most reactive with hydrocholoric acid is calcium because calcium is in Group 2 which is the alkaline earth metals in the periodic table and because calcium is at the extreme left side of the periodic table and as you go across a period,the element change from reactive metals on the left to non reactive metals on the right. On the extreme right of the periodic table is the noble gases. Also calcium is Group 2 which is the alkaline earth metals and they are part of the reactive metals which is Group 1 and 2. Also out of all of the metals given calcium reacts more faster with air and creates a sparkling sight and can damage your eyes creating calcium oxide in word equation it is Calcium+Oxygen equals calcium oxide. In chemical equation it is 4Ca +O2 equals 2 Ca2o. Calcium also reacts more than zinc,aluminum,iron and magnesium with water and much more violent and quicker creating vapour and moves much faster than the other metal and creates a vigrous sizzling sound and fizzing in water and dissloves much faster than the other metals. The alkaline metals get more reactive as you go down the group and calcium is further down than magnesium so therefore it must be more reactive than magnesium. Calcium is in group 2 in the periodic table which is more reactive than iron and zinc in the transistion metals section of the periodic table which is not very reactive because transisiton metals are the metals they use to build structures or making things since they have high melting points and high densities. Calcium is in group 2 and is the more reactive out of all the metals is because group 2 metals in the periodic table have low melting points than the transition metals which iron and zinc belong to and The poor metals which aluminium belong to and they also have low low densities than the other metals. The next most reactive metal I think will be Magnesium because magnesium is higher in the group 2 than calcium and therefore less reactive than calcium and much more reactive than iron,zinc and aluminium because when magnesium react with oxygen it is more reactive than Iron or zinc or aluminium as we test it out when burning it. The magnesium sparkled producing a white light and turned into another substance which can damage your eyes if you look at it directly without any protective glass whereas the iron and zinc and aluminium didnt react as violent as this because they didnt turn into another sunstance but they did change colour. The end result of the magnesium reacting with oxygen is magnesium oxide that is in word equation magnesium+oxygen equals magnesium oxide. The chemical equation is 4Mg+O2 equals to 2Mg2O. The other reason I think magnesium is more reactive than the other metals apart from calcium is because magnesium reacts more violent than iron, zinc and aluminium in water much faster than them. The word equation for this reaction is Magensium+water equals Magnesium hydroxide+hydrogen gas and the chemical equation is 2Mg+2h2O equals 2MgOH+H2. So if calcium and magnesium acts violently with water and oxygen it will act more violently with dilute hydrocholoric acid. Equipement: -1 Gas syringe -1 Stop clock -5 Conical flask -Delivery tube -Powders 0. 5g -1 Bunsen Burner -1 heat proof mat -1 gauze mat -1 tri-pod -Top pan balance -Hydrocholoric acid -1 Spatula -5 petri-dishes -1 Clamp stand -A box of Matches -A Splint -1 measuring cylinder -Sticky labels -1 thermometer -1 bung Plan-First of all collect all the equipment on the equipement list. Then get all the different powders which aluminium powder,magnesium powder,calcium powder,iron fillings and zinc powder. After getting all the powders get a spatula and the top pan balance. Then plug in the top pan balance and weigh the mass of each powder to 0. 5g using the spatula and the petri dish to put the powder in other wise it will be everywhere. The reason we are using the plastic petri-dish is because they have less mass than beakers which we have to do calculations. The petri-dishs mass is not only 0. 1g whicle beakers will be a lot heavier and therefore we have to take away beakers mass from the powder and beakerss mass. After weighing all the different powders put them in the pertri-dish and put sticky labels on them writing what each metal are so we dont get mixed up with the metals e. g. Suppose to test aluminium but got zinc powder. After putting the labels on the powders we are going get the measuring cylinder and measure hydrocholic acid which is 15cm3 and after we measured it we are going to put it into a conical flask. Repeat the measuring of the hydrocholic acid and putting it into the conical flask till all the 5 conical flasks have 15cm3 of hydrocholic acid. Then get the clamp stand and put the gas syringe in or set up the gas syringe make sure it doesnt fall off. Then bung the delivery tube to one of the conical flask so we can fit the delivery tube onto the top of the syringe where the gas enters the syringe. Then we reset the stop clock if we have to and put the calcium powder in the conical flask and when it is in the conical flask we quickly start the stop clock. Then after 10 seconds we are going to take our reading and record so we will do a reading every 10 seconds. For very powder we are going to test for 2 minutes and so every powder will have 12 readings because there is 12 10 seconds in 2 minutes. So we are going to do calcium poder first and then magnesium.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Intertextual Exchange in Carmilla, Dracula and the Historian Essay exam

â€Å"Writers seldom duplicate their influential precursor(s); rather, they often work within a certain framework established by other writers or generic conventions, but vary aspects of it in significant ways.† (Clayton, 155). Sheridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, Bram Stoker’s, Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s, The Historian, clearly engage in this intertextual exchange, as evidenced by their use of narrative structure, striking character parallels and authors choice of language. Published in 1872, Le Fanu relates the story of Carmilla from a first person point of view, through four distinct perspectives. The first narrator, an unnamed assistant to Doctor Hesselius, prefaces the story as correspondence of scholarly interest between the Doctor and an â€Å"intelligent lady.† Introducing the story in this manner lays the initial framework for believability. The doctor’s academic interest signifies scientific validity; whereby, the woman’s intelligence implies rationality. Subsequently, Le Fanu presents the second narrator, the aforementioned young woman, Laura, who provides the bulk of the account to follow. Born in Styria, Laura is described as being of English descent, but having â€Å"never saw England† (87). Residing with her father and two governesses, she is socially isolated and motherless, with negligible paternal involvement. Laura epitomizes vampire literature’s prototypical victim. Moreover, foreshadowing her successors, Laura begins her strange tale with the words, â€Å"I am now going to tell you something so strange that it will require all your faith in my veracity to believe my story. It is not only true, nevertheless, but truth of which I have been an eye-witness† (91). Laura’s appeal to believability, based upon personal testimony, augmen... ...es her unconventional treatment. Second, Van Helsing is reminiscent of the occult expert, Doctor Hesselius. Both men engage in study of the supernatural as a hobby outside their medical profession. Finally, Van Helsing is a resonance of Baron Vordenburg. Like the Baron, Van Helsing places great value in his books and papers for knowledge of the supernatural; moreover, he is responsible for confirming Lucy’s undead state and educating the other men in how to stake her; and, it is Baron’s governing principles of the vampire which foreshadow Van Helsing’s characteristics of the enemy, Dracula (344). Works Cited Clayton, Jay, and Eric Rothstein, eds. Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1991. Print. Williams, Ann, ed. Three Vampire Tales: Complete Texts with Introduction. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2003. Print.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Best practices in achieving a customer-focused culture (Article Critique) Essay

This paper seeks to prepare a critique of the article entitled â€Å"Best practices in achieving a customer-focused culture† by Bartley, B. et al. (2007). The nature of the critique to be applied is literature critique and an evaluation on the authors’ ideas, methods and results. The framework to make the evaluation is to whether the conclusions are supported by evidence, whether the methodologies and assumptions used have basis, whether statements made are consistent with premises laid down by the authors and whether the authors could accomplish their purposes in making the paper. 2. Analysis and Discussion 2. 1 On aims, methodology and approach of the research article The aims of Bartley, et al (2007) in writing the article â€Å"Best practices in achieving a customer-focused culture†, include the following: to provide practical insights into how organizations can become more customer-focused and to share with the researchers and organizations a framework that can be used to research â€Å"customer focus culture†. These two aims can be assessed to depend also on the validity of the results or conclusions of their paper. They also aimed to assess an organizations’ level of customer focus; to describe how New Zealand’s first consortium approach to benchmarking was managed so that others interested in planning a consortioun study can learn from experience. To assess the level of customer focus in an organization requires the use of a framework or hence the success and validity of such assessment will depend on the validity of the model. Describing the the approach to benchmarking could be assessed whether it has provided sufficient information to convinve readers that the researcher have applied the necessary means to accomplish their purpose. Bartley, B. et al (2007) explained that the study involved the use of the benchmarking body which was conducted by member organizations from the New Zealand Benchmarking Club (NZBC) and facilitated by a doctoral student from Massey University’s Centre for Organizational Excellence Research. Their methodology involved the need to conduct an extensive literature review to help them in identifying national and international best practices in customer focus. They also developed a survey that was completed by 32 potential best practice organizations, and selecting seven of these organizations for best practice list. Conducting such a literature review for the purpose used appears logical because the works of previous researchers were considered and analyzed to get the common characteristic of those that were successful with customer focus. It appears that researchers indeed have used sufficient number of researchers whose works appear mainly in academic journals signifying previous publication and this observation must lend some degree of confirmation of the literature review conducted by the authors. 2. 2 On literature review made by authors The authors asserted to have found a framework for the examination of customer-focused culture via the literature review made. It may be noted that the study included only a survey of 32 potential best organizations as identified by the reseachers and they may not necessarily represent the broader characteristics of other organizations in New Zealand and even in the world. They have indeed accepted a limitation of their study that benefits would have been gained if the study has extended to a larger international group. The limitation of the samples use is material into the validity of the survey on whether they represent the real value of customer focus culture to the organizations. In discussing the background of the study, Bartley, et al (2007) cited the the strong link between an organization’s culture and its performance which they claimed to have been widely recognised by practitioners where they cited the work of Basch (2002) and academics where they cited the work of Kotter and Heskett (1992). If organizations desire to have enduring relationship and loyal customers, they must be equipped with an effective customer-focused culture which will make it easier for these companies to have successful product and service delivery. To support their statements they cited the works of Macaukay Clark (1998) and Martin (1992). For the authors customer-focused culture was almost as good as survival in the long-term. These findings from literature review prompted the authors and the the 18 organization-members of the NZBC to asks for the componets and charateristics of a good customer-focused culture. For which reason, NZBC was formed by the Massey University’s Centre for Organizational Excellence Research (COER) in partnership witht the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation to achieve the ambitious vision of becoming world-class performers of its members and to adopt excellent business practices within New Zealand. To measure the improvements by club members, they have agreed on a criteria for excellent performance on annual basis. See Figure 1 of their report and is made part of Appendix 1 of this paper. It appears that their agreement on criteria of performance excellence was just not a result of a tests or even a previous study. By merely agreeing and not conducting any test which are the factors there is basis the criteria may be just based on opinions. The results of their literature review resulted to their having identified six characteristics of organizations having performance of good to best practices. Bartley, B. et al. (2007) made use of same six characteristics as an analytical framework. They found the importance of leadership and used the works of Brooks, 1997; Whitely, 1991, Galreath and Rogers, 1999 which found that customers drive organizational direction and actions, to support the characteristic. They also included listening as characteristic where the views of customers are actively sought to have ease of contact/conduct of business where they cited the works of Scheuing (1999) and Plymie (1991). Bartley, B. et al (2007) also included analysis and understanding using the works of Brooks (1997) and Wikstrom (1996) which found that need to understand customer expectations. Further included is integration and deployment where the authors cited the work of Martin (1992) which could the need to act upon customers’ expectations. Still include is is people after citing the work of Kennedy, et al, (2002) which determined that customer-focused culture is understood and integrated in the whole the organization. They also included the need to review and improve where they cite the work of Alam and Perry (2002). The fact their literature review is supported by published works of other researchers on the basis of being mainly taken from academic journals and other published works, will lends some degree of validity of the summary of characteristics made as part of their analytical framework. 2. 3. On submitted figures as support to analysis Based on literature review made by the authors, they asserted the requirement for organizations to have customer focus culture must be made. Since the purpose is better performance for the organization whether financial or otherwisel, customer focused culture must be present in the whole organization. Bartley, B. et al (2007), did argue about the proven connection between customer focus and performance of organizations in individual and operational areas as in terms of service quality, customer and employee satisfaction and well as profitability citing the work of Appiah-Adu and Singh (1998) and Agarwal et al. (2003). The researchers had set six categories from which its decided which is the most effective way for its members organizations to improve and they stated to have voted to which customer focus issues were most important. Bartley, B. et al (2007) detailed which were the most important customer issues but they did not show what were the other choices of the respondents in the survey aside from those listed in Table I in the their presentation, which is not part of Appendix 4 of this paper. In the absence of the list of other choices, an inference of a predetermined result of survey may asserted and which will cast dount at to validity of the surbvey. Moreover, the nature of questions asked were neither presented nor discussed and it could be that the questions asked from respondents are leading and which again which cast doubt to result of the survey. Bartley, B. et al (2007) also argued that the decision to work on the study was supported by the results of club’s annual assessment against criteria for performance excellence. They stated that the resulst are shown in Figures 2 and 3 which are considered as Appendices 1 and 2 in this paper. Upon deeper investigation, it may be found that Figure 2 had it horizontal axis for customer focus results while the horizontal axis has financial and market results. This graph in Figure 2 would mean that independent variable was customer focus results while the dependent variable was the financial and market results. Since Figure 2 shows a signifant relationship of two variable as shown by graph, the researchers are saying the the higher customer focused results the higher would be the financial and market results. Since they did not show how they segmented each variable it would appear that the had measured the degrees of customer focus results in the vertical axis and that every increased in the same would give higher results of financial and market results which are not also explained in detail. In other words, in terms of the segmenting the degree of customer focused results the following question remain answered: How much additional degree of customer focused result would produce additional higher financial and market result? The graphs as shown in Figure 2 may seem to answer by merely viewing the same but from the minds of this reseacher , the results could in questionable because of the failture to define the meaning of degrees of customer focused resutls. Would it mean more time given to the customer? Moreover the financial and market resutls in the vertical axis or what may be called as dependent variable in Figure are not also explained. How come that financial and market resutls are combined? If it is financial it may be referring to profitability. Since profitability of the respondents may be best measure by the amount of dollars earned per amount or quantityf of customer focused results, it is difficutl to contemplate how the researchers have mixed financial and market resutls together. Does market resutls imply increased revenues in dollars and increase in market share? In the absence of a clear explanation the result of the researchers work could remain questionable and may lack the validity and use for decision making purposes. Figure 3, which is considered Appendix 3 in this paper, also uses confusing variables in the graph by making this time, horizonal axis to represent the Customer and market focus as independent results and making the vertical axis to represent the customer focused results. If Figure 3 is related to Figure 2, it would appear what was previously assumed as independent variable has now become a dependent variable. Since the researchers did not explain the graph, the most logical inference to find consistency with the what they have concluded is to assume that the more that respondents would have to increase customer and market focus, to have higher of the degree of customer focused results, which as explained earlier were not explained how were they segmented into degrees to afford appreciation of change in the degree. In other words, the confusion is not clarified by redundantly using a variable without explaining the composition and significant of each degree or level of focused results. As in Figure 2, the use of Figure 3 did not help to support the claim of the researchers and that their conclusion could utmost be considered as surmises or conjectures without sufficient evidence. In addition, the use by researchers again of the customer and market focus as the independent variable appears to be predetermined because of their failure to show convincing proof that it was the most influential among the criteria for performance excellence under Figure 1 of their paper, which is Appendix I of this paper. They have of course asserted that the choice of the customer and market focus as most controlling contributor was based on the response of the respondents in the survey. As to how much more important the criterion to other criteria was not also explained; hence it is possible that the results of the claim of increased profitability because of the criterion of customer and market focus may not be safely be taken with high level of confidence, statistically speaking.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Analysis Of The Movie The Night - 1673 Words

Pamela was the name given to her at birth by her mama which was her mama’s. That was thirty-eight years ago. Now a former prostitute from Miami, Pamela could barely remember her mother or the last time anybody truly loved her. She had left South Beach three days before the outbreak intent on visiting her friend Melinda who was staying with her father at his place in Elmira, NY. But, after having arrived a day early and not wanting to be a burden. Pamela decided to make a stop at the Ramapo Valley resort just outside of Monticello for the night. Melinda, who had also been a former working girl, had left Miami six years earlier when she had chosen to turn her life around by getting clean. At the time, a local pimp†¦show more content†¦When Melinda had awoken from her coma to find her father sitting bedside holding her hand, she broke down sobbing uncontrollably at the sight of him. The two of them then went on to talk for several hours, ultimately laying to rest whatev er problems they had. Although six years has passed since Melinda had left Miami, she and Pamela had managed to remain friends, albeit sporadic until Pamela herself had decided to retire from the lifestyle. Now a billing specialist for a local clinic. While part timing it as a nanny for a wealthy couple’s two children on weekends. Pamela finally has her life in order. After having just arrived back home from her shift at the clinic, a letter sent from Melinda sat in Pamela’s mailbox asking if she would like to come up and visit. It was early into the evening of Thursday, April 28th when Pamela sat patiently in the waiting room of Rampo Valley’s new spa, Oo-la-la, when she’d first heard about the acute sickness that was sweeping throughout the Boston and New York metropolitan areas. News of the outbreak was being broadcasted from a television that hung in the corner of the room as she sat dismissively flipping through an old issue of Cosmo while waiting fo r her name to be called. She had asked the attendee in the spa just how close they actually were to the greater New York City area after hearing the story. The