Catching up

Catching up Wow. The last few days have been absolutely insane. You see, once I found out that all of my finals were crammed into the first two days of finals week, I thought- YES! Ill get out of here way early. So I told my mom to come Tuesday night and bring me home Wednesday morning. Yeah, that wasnt necessarily the best idea. I didnt leave myself very much time for packing or doing dishes or eating orwell, lots of things. But now, its all almost over. I finished all my finals (passing them is an entirely different story- I have this suspicion Ill be taking 18.03 again next semester), and have packed up just about everything I dont need to get ready tomorrow morning. So what final details of my freshman year havent I told you about yet? Well first off, we had floor elections a couple of weeks ago, and Im the new Conner 2 webmaster (or webmistress, as Sam likes to say). Im pretty excited about this, because web design is cool. I used to be pretty good at it, but then I stopped learning new stuff and forgot a lot of old stuff. Im really looking forward to working with it again- its one of those things I like to do forwhats the word? Oh yeah, fun. To tell the truth, it can be a really frustrating hobby- (Oh my God, whered the page go? The whole thing is gone! I have 500 lines here and Im missing one damn quotation mark that destroyed the entire page!!!), but I find it really rewarding at the same time. I mean, Im not exactly the worlds most creative person, so its pretty cool to look at a page I created and take pride in itsartisticnature. Right. In other news, I chose a major! Its an awesome choice that doesnt have a number. Its called undesignated. I know, I know, Ive been telling everyone that Im Course 2, but thats mostly just to have something to say. And its still in the running for actually becoming my major. The truth is that I never REALLY knew what I wanted to major in. I knew I was interested in MechE but I really wanted to think about it before I decided. So I went through my choice of major process the same backward, idiotic way I did my choice of college process- process of elimination. (I kid you not.) I made a list of all 20 some odd majors here at MIT and slowly crossed them off, one by one as I decided against them. I think Course 1 was the first to go- I had an internship at a civil and environmental engineering firm last year, and I found it pretty boring, personally. Some others stuck around awhile longer- 6 and 9 almost made it to the top three. Brain and Cognitive Sciences are SO COOL. But in the end I decided that I was never going to go on to become some kind of research scientist and actually USE the stuff I learned in Course 9. Course 6 stuck around too because Ive never known any programming beyond TI-Basic (yes, in 10th grade I programmed my graphing calculator to do such fun things as solve quadratic equations for me and automatically find reference angles) and Im really interested in learning. But major? In Course 6? Nah. I couldnt really see myself dedicating all of my undergrad years to it. Besides, there were other things I found far more interesting. Like physics. I really, really love physics. Which is weird, because I used to really, really hate physics. Ready for a great physics nerd story? So my high school competes in the New Jersey Science League competitions. Basically, we send a bunch of people to another school for the afternoon where we all take a 50-minute multiple choice test in the appropriate subject- there are beginner and advanced levels of each of bio, chem, and physics. (The advanced level corresponds to the AP course.) Sophomore year I was in regular physics, and I was never good enough to be invited to science league competitions. This was sad, but not too sad. I used to get over 100 on all the exams in that class, but I hated physics anyway. it was complicated. Anyway, junior year I took chemistry, and my chemistry teacher invited anyone who was interested to join the team. Well I wanted to know what I had been missing out on all this time, so I signed up. On our way to the very first competition, we began having a conversation about science SAT subject tests, and I mentioned my super-awesome 790 on the Physics SAT II. Dr. Christoe, the AP physics teacher, exclaimed, Laura! I never knew you were good at physics! (This is the same teacher who taught me for a year in Principles of Engineering, which was basically glorified physics. Thank you, Dr. C.) So now Dr. Christoe has this idea in his head that Im going to take the Physics II test (based on the AP class, remember) for him. Mrs. Lyons, the chem teacher, told him he was out of his mind. So I took the chemistry test and had a grand time at my first ever NJSL competition. During the days leading up to the next competition, Dr. Christoe was nervous, because he couldnt scare up enough students in his class who wanted to take the test. So he asked me if Id like to do it. I again told him he was crazy- I was in Engineering Physics, which, despite being the hardest class I ever took in my life, was not at the same level as the calc-based physics he wanted me to do. (I was only in precalc at the time.) But he kept insiting, and eventually as we were boarding the bus to head off to the competition, the decision was made that I would take the physics exam. The AP students spent the bus ride briefing me on all I needed to know for this unit and wished me good luck. I thought this was rather a waste of everyones time, but I was starting to like physics by now, so I gave it my best shot. Tangent story- it turns out that I learn math through physics far better than I could ever learn math through math. There was one question on this exam that I vaguely understood- but I had no idea how I was supposed to calculate the answer. So I made up my own weird method of calculation based on my physical understanding of the problem and hoped that I had managed to get the right answer by random chance. As it turns out, I did get the problem right. On the bus ride back, Garret (now MIT 08, actually) explained to me how to get the answer. He started by drawing an integral symbol on the page, and I stopped him right there. I had only ever seen that symbol before, and it scared me. I showed him how I solved the problem- and it turned out that I had basically derived the long-hand method for taking an integral without ever knowing what an integral was. Through physics, anything is possible. =D Anyway, back to my story. So weve all now taken the test and are waiting for the results. They always announce the top 2 individual scores in each test, as well as the school with the highest overall score. They started with Bio I, which High Tech didnt compete in. But in Bio II, we had the top 2 high scores and the top overall score. Same in Chem I. And Chem II. And Physics I. So far, we had swept all of the categories. They announced Phil as the high scorer in Physics II, which was no surprise. But now we were all anxious. I crossed my fingers and hoped that Garret or Liddy had placed second- then we would sweep the entire competition, which would be pretty sweet, I think. Unfortunately, neither Garret or Liddy placed second. I did. It was the most surreal moment ever. All of the High Tech students went crazy- not only had we won every category, but the final victory came from some poor girl not even taking the class she was testing for who was only able to solve the problems by making up her own math. To answer your question- yes. I felt pretty badass. =) I spent 4 years playing high school field hockey and never had a moment of victory quite like the physics competition I won my junior year. Yeah. Im a huge dork, and I love it. Wow Ive gotten off track. The point is, I clearly love physics. It holds a special place in my heart. But major in it? And do what? Go into more physics? I just didnt really see it. What about Course 2, which I was so eager to try out here? And then came the wild card- Course 16, which is just unbelievably cool. What do you do for a living? Oh, you know. Rocket science. So that leaves me with a tough choice- Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or Aero/Astro. Whats a girl to do? Well, I pre-registered for Unified, which is the introductory-really-hard-kicks-everyones-you-know-what class for Course 16, as well as 2.001, the intro class for Course 2. I decided to hold off on Course 8, because I know I probably wont major in it. If anything, Ill take it as a minor or maybe major in 8b, which is the flexible major with far fewer requirements. I basically have all the time in the world to take physics classes, but if I decide to be Course 16 after NOT taking unified as a sophomore, my life will pretty much suck. So in the end, I have no idea what Im doing. I cant decide and I probably wont decide until I absolutely have to. But at least I have some general ideas- a good starting point to start thinking about all this seriously. Well, thats it for me as a freshman. Im heading home tomorrow morning, and looking forward to an awesome, relaxing summer as a lifeguard. Coming soon- responses to questions. I absolutely, positively promise! (Im typing this in the Athena cluster and dont have my half-finished answers at hand- a million apologies.) Also coming soon- more info about Burton-Conner, inspired by questions and emails. And maybe even some introspective ponderings about completing my first year at MIT.

What Is a Weighted Score or Grade

After youve finished taking a test, and your teacher hands back your test with a grade youre certain is going to take you from a C to a B on your final score, you probably feel elated. When you get your report card back, however, and discover that your grade is in fact still a C, you may have a weighted score or weighted grade in play. So, what is a weighted score? A weighted score or weighted grade is merely the average of a set of grades, where each set carries a different amount of importance. How Weighted Grades Work Suppose at the beginning of the year, the teacher hands you the syllabus. On it, he or she explains that your final grade will be determined in this manner: Percentage of your grade by category Homework: 10%Quizzes: 20%Essays: 20%Midterm: 25%Final: 25% Your essays and quizzes are weighted more heavily than your homework, and both your midterm and final exam count for the same percentage of your grade as all of your homework, quizzes and essays combined, so each one of those tests carries more weight than the other items. Your teacher believes that those tests are the most important part of your grade! Hence, if you ace your homework, essays and quizzes, but bomb the big tests, your final score will still end up in the gutter. Lets do the math to figure out how the grading works with a weighted score system. Student Example: Ava Throughout the year, Ava has been acing her homework and getting As and Bs on most of her quizzes and essays. Her midterm grade was a D because she didnt prepare very much and those multiple-choice tests freak her out. Now, Ava wants to know what score she needs to get on her final exam in order to get at least a B- (80%) for her final weighted score. Heres what Avas grades look like in numbers: Category averages Homework average: 98%Quiz average: 84%Essay average: 91%Midterm: 64%Final: ? To figure out the math and determine what kind of studying efforts Ava needs to put into that final exam, we need to follow a 3-part process. Step 1: Set up an equation with Avas goal percentage (80%) in mind: H%*(H average) Q%*(Q average) E%*(E average) M%*(M average) F%*(F average) 80% Step 2: Next, we multiply the percentage of Avas grade by the average in each category: Homework: 10% of grade * 98% in category (.10)(.98) 0.098Quiz average: 20% of grade * 84% in category (.20)(.84) 0.168Essay average: 20% of grade * 91% in category (.20)(.91) 0.182Midterm: 25% of grade * 64% in category (.25)(.64) 0.16Final: 25% of grade * X in category (.25)(x) ? Step 3: Finally we, add them up and solve for x: 0.098 0.168 0.182 0.16 .25x .800.608 .25x .80.25x .80 – 0.608.25x .192x .192/.25x .768x 77% Because Avas teacher uses weighted scores, in order for her to get an 80% or a B- for her final grade, shell need to score a 77% or a C on her final exam. Weighted Score Summary Many teachers use weighted scores and keep track of them with grading programs online. If youre unsure about anything related to your grade, please go talk with your teacher. Many educators grade differently, even within the same school! Set up an appointment to go through your grades one by one if your final score doesnt seem right for some reason. Your teacher will be glad to help you out! A student who is interested in getting the highest possible score he or she can is always welcome.

Mental Illness And The Black Community Essay - 1180 Words

Introduction Mental illness is and has always been a serious topic. But it has not always been taken as serious in the black community. From my research, scholars and medical professionals in the field of mental health spoke on the fact that mental illness is a stigma in the black community and the conversation of this is not happening. There are many factors that contributed to this. Factors such as the distrust of medical professionals, mis-diagnosis, socio-economical factors and so much more contribute to the reason the black community is missed when it comes to mental health. I also discovered the inside factors that were culture, religion, mis-education, and family reliance. This also becomes why it is a stigma or why it’s not talked about amongst everyone in the community. Background Statistics state that mental illness is estimated to be higher in blacks than in whites. One of the contributing factors to why blacks aren’t being cared for when they have a mental i llness is because of the stigma that mental illness doesn’t exist within the community. According to Plowden (2006), â€Å" African American men often differ in their presentation of depression and are often misdiagnosed. African American men are at greater risk for depression, but they are less likely to participate in mental health care.† This is due to theShow MoreRelatedMental Illness And The Black Community1194 Words   |  5 PagesConversations regarding mental health can often be a difficult topic to discuss openly. The Huffington Post provided readers with the opportunity to understand mental illness and intersectionality in the article, 4 Black Women Writers Get Honest About Mental Illness and Race. This article provides a different perspective on mental health as it looks at mental illness through the intersectionality of race and gender. 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Marketing †Converse Case Study Free Essays

Converse Case Study Creating a marketing strategy isn’t always about taking a hands-on approach and facilitating how consumers should think of a certain brand. Converse All Stars took an alternative route, a â€Å"stand-back approach† giving its customers control over marketing its shoe brand. As a result, Converse delivered a customer-brand relationship where the needs, wants and demands of its customers were met by a pair of All Star Chucks. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing – Converse Case Study or any similar topic only for you Order Now The needs, wants and demand of customers is a major customer and marketplace concept. Human â€Å"needs† are states of felt deprivation that could be of a physical need like for food and clothing, social need like for affection or individual needs like for learning or self-expression. Wants are forms of needs that are derived from cultures and individual personality (i. e. specific types of food like Asian, American or Mexican are specific wants for food). Demands of customers are also factored in when customers’ wants are supported by their ability to make purchases. Relating this to the Converse case study, Converse’s customers demonstrated a physical need for clothing or shoes in this case as well as an individual need for self-expression, and their wants were derived from Converse’s simple, affordable and classy style and â€Å"no-brand† brand, a specific culture and type of personality that consumers affiliated with Converse. Converse’s culture of self-expression became the reason why it was wanted and thereby demanded by consumers who had buying power. Converse understood this concept well as it was able to capture value from its customer by enabling them to customize and individualize their pair of Chucks, thus creating a market offering that became an integral part of Converse’s marketing success. How to cite Marketing – Converse Case Study, Free Case study samples

Securing Data and Handling Spillage Events Essay Example For Students

Securing Data and Handling Spillage Events Essay INTRODUCTION: ? In today’s world, Data Spill is such an event that the highly unlikely or impossible happens. Data Security is known as shielding an organized body of related information, also called as database security. ? It is known as Data breach, when the secure information is exposed to the environment that is not trusted. It is occurring repeatedly at many places and the count goes on. ? The apprehension is this data breach leads to a huge loss to the organization in all aspects. One of the worst data spill is, Sony’s Play Station Network in the year 2011. The impact affecting 77 million Play Station Network accounts hacked. ? In the same year, another major data leak happened to RSA Security leading to close to forty million employee records stolen. ? In 2008, Heartland Payment Systems faced data loss when their 134 million credit cards broke through SQL inoculation when asked to install a spyware on their systems. WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED BEFORE? ? Many organizations had gone through these disasters, dropping their reputation and financial.

Parasitic Flatworms Essays - Parasitology, Digenea, Helminthiases

Parasitic Flatworms INTRODUCTION Imagine going to the doctor for a simple check up. Sure you've had some minor problems- indigestion, lack of energy, weight loss, and a bit of gas- but that's not out of the ordinary....or is it? In most cases you would be correct...but today is your unlucky day. The doctor has just informed you that you have a tapeworm parasite. PARASITIC CHARACTERISTICS By definition, a parasite is an organism that lives either in or on another organism. Infected organisms that are carrying a parasite are called host organisms- or hosts. This parasitic relationship can vary from benign to harmful- and sometimes even fatal. There are two main types of parasites: endoparasites and exoparasites, however endoparasites will be the focus of this paper, and flatworms in particular. Endoparasites are parasites that live inside the host organism. Endoparasites that inhabit vertebrates or invertebrates live off the nutrients in the food host organisms eat as well as the tissue of the host. These parasites not only live in the cavities of hollow organs but can also live within the tissue. Endoparasites can range from microscopic in size to 25 feet or more in length. Many worms are antiparasitic. Some live in the host's digestive tract feeding off the host's blood. Others, such as trichinosis, enter the host through the digestive tract and then migrate throughout the body tissue. Most microscopic worms secrete toxins into the hosts blood stream which then circulates and often causes damage to surrounding systems and tissue. The life cycle of endoparasites is as varied as the parasites themselves. Some parasites are permanent fixtures in a host's body, while others only live within the host for a limited amount of time. For example, parasitic worms can live within a host for up to 30 years! The host not even being aware of this fact because there are little or no symptoms of the invasion. Not only are life cycles varied for parasites but the number of hosts they live in are as well. Sometimes parasites live in only one host for their entire life- known as autecious - while others change hosts- known as heteroecious. In relation to the life cycle of parasitic worms, there are also different reproductive methods. Many parasites do not reproduce within their host, or reproduce to a limited degree. They are more likely to reproduce eggs that enter another host before they develop in the final host. These parasites just use their fist host as an intermediatory step in completing their life cycle. The species schistosoma ( Refer to Figure 1 ) from the class trematoda is an example of such a parasite. These parasites go through a life cycle in which they use an invertebrate, usually a snail as an intermediatory host. ( Refer to Figure 1a ) FLATWORM CHARACTERISTICS Flatworms from the phylum Platyhelminthes, are parasites that live within the intermediatory host but usually complete their sexual maturity within a vertebrate. They are broken into three major classes: Turbellaria, the most primitive, free-living class that resides either in or on a host, they generally live in a marine environment. Trematoda which is the small parasitic flatworm ( most of which are called flukes) has disk like suckers which attach to the outside or internal organs of their host, and the class Cestoda which consist of the parasitic flatworm known as the tapeworm. ( Refer to Figure 2 ) Tapeworms have no true digestive tract, therefore they live inside the digestive tract of vertebrates and some invertebrates, absorbing food through their body wall. They latch onto the walls of their host's digestive tract with suckers and hooks, located at their head, which is called a scolex. The phylum platyhelminthes are one of interest when discussing parasitic flatworms that in fect vertebrates and invertebrates. INFECTION Humans and animals are in continuous contact with microorganisms, because of this relationship there are numerous ways in which infection of flatworms can occur. Organisms that transmit parasites are known as vectors. Some vectors transmit parasites when they are eaten by the hosts. An example of this would be a flea eaten by a dog or cat. When the animal eats the flea, the immature form of the tapeworm emerges from the fleas body and later develops

Definition of Impressment of Sailors

Definition of Impressment of Sailors Impressment of sailors was the practice of Britains Royal Navy of sending officers to board American ships, inspect the crew, and seize sailors accused of being deserters from British ships. Incidents of impressment are often cited as one of the causes of the War of 1812. And while it is true that impressment happened on a regular basis in the first decade of the 19th century, the practice was not always viewed as a terribly serious problem. It was widely known that large numbers of British sailors did desert from British warships, often because of the severe discipline and miserable conditions endured by seamen in the Royal Navy. Many of the British deserters found work on American merchant ships. So the British actually had a good case to make when they claimed that American ships harbored their deserters. Such movement of sailors was often taken for granted. However, one particular episode, the Chesapeake and Leopard affair, in which an American ship was boarded and then attacked by a British ship in 1807, created widespread outrage in the United States. The impressment of sailors was definitely one of the causes of the War of 1812. But it also was part of a pattern in which the young American nation felt like it was constantly being treated with contempt by the British. A press gang of the Royal Navy at work. Getty Images   History of Impressment Britains Royal Navy, which constantly needed many recruits to man its ships, long had a practiced of using press gangs to forcibly recruit sailors. The working of the press gangs were notorious: typically a group of sailors would go forth into a town, find drunken men in taverns, and essentially kidnap them and force them to work on British warships. The discipline on the ships was often brutal. Punishment for even minor violations of naval discipline included flogging. The pay in the Royal Navy was meager, and men were often cheated out of it. And in the early years of the 19th century, with Britain engaged in a seemingly endless war against Napoleons France, sailors were told that their enlistments never ended. Faced with those horrendous conditions, there was a great desire for British sailors to desert. When they could find a chance, theyd leave the British warship and find escape by finding a job aboard an American merchant ship, or even a ship in the U.S. Navy. If a British warship came alongside an American ship in the early years of the 19th century, there was a very good chance that British officers, if they boarded the American vessel, would find deserters from the Royal Navy. And the act of impressment, or seizing of those men, was seen as a perfectly normal activity by the British. And most American officers accepted the seizing of these fugitive sailors and did not make a major issue out of it. The Chesapeake and Leopard Affair In the early years of the 19th century the young American government often felt that the British government paid it little or no respect, and really did not take American independence seriously. Indeed, some political figures in Britain assumed, or even hoped, that the United States government would fail. An incident off the coast of Virginia in 1807 created a crisis between the two nations. The British stationed a squadron of warships off the American coast, with the purpose of capturing some French ships which had put into port in Annapolis, Maryland, for repairs. On June 22, 1807, about 15 miles off the Virginia coast, the 50-gun British warship HMS Leopard hailed the USS Chesapeake, a frigate carrying 36 guns. A British lieutenant boarded the Chesapeake, and demanded that the American commander, Captain James Barron, muster his crew so the British could look for deserters. Capt. Barron refused to have his crew inspected. The British officer returned to his ship. The British commander of the Leopard, Captain Salusbury Humphreys, was furious and had his gunners fire three broadsides into the American ship. Three American sailors were killed and 18 were wounded. Caught unprepared by the attack, the American ship surrendered, and the British returned to the Chesapeake, inspected the crew, and seized four sailors. One of them was actually a British deserter, and he was later executed by the British at their naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The other three men were held by the British and finally released five years later. Americans Were Outraged When news of the violent confrontation reached shore and began to appear in newspaper stories, Americans were outraged. A number of politicians urged President Thomas Jefferson to declare war on Britain. Jefferson chose not to enter a war, as he knew that the United States was not in a position to defend itself against the much more powerful Royal Navy. As a way of retaliating against the British, Jefferson came up with the idea of imposing an embargo on British goods. The embargo turned out to be a disaster, and Jefferson faced many problems over it, including New England states threatening to secede from the Union. Impressment As a Cause of the War of 1812 The issue of impressment, by itself, was not cause for war, even after the Leopard and Chesapeake incident. But impressment was one of the reasons given for the war by the War Hawks, who at times shouted the slogan Free Trade and Sailors Rights.