Reliability and Validity Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reliability and Validity - Assignment Example For the diagnosis to be termed accurate, the features identified have to be same every time if the test is to be termed reliable. This is measured by a correlation between the two test outcomes over all the participants. This method expresses the generalisability of the test scores over different test occasions by assessing stability of the test outcomes (Hempel, 2005). Hempel (2005) explains that this method of testing reliability varies with the type of tests, i.e. ability or traits and attitudes or states assessment. In both cases, repetitive responses based on previous memory is a high possibility thereby giving incorrect measures of reliability. Secondly, the traits tend to change with time, and this would depict low reliability measure, which is again incorrect (Garb, 2002). In such cases, the time period between the tests needs to be recorded appropriately in order to obtain accurate reliability measure. In case of validity, the test should be able to measure what is intended to be measured with minimum or no possibilities of change in behaviors. Reliability of the test decides the amount of correction and incorrect decisions that are made as an outcome of the test. Therefore, reliability is necessary for confirming validity. At the same time, validity of results obtained from this method is higher when the time gap is minimal; however, this minimum time varies with situation or behavior being

Importance of Language on Literacy Development of Deaf Child

Importance of Language on Literacy Development of Deaf Child A relationship between language and text needs to be established to become literate. What specific challenges may deaf children face in forming this relationship? How may such skills be developed in deaf children? As there is an increasing number of deaf children being identified and amplified at an earlier age and with the quality of this amplification improving, the expectation that these children develop at a similar rate academically to their hearing peers has become more explicit. Sadly, this is not always the case. In this essay, I will be focusing on the challenges deaf children face when obtaining literacy skills and how the relationship between language and text can be developed. Being literate is much more than the ability to decode print into words. Connie Mayer (2007) stated that Writing systems have evolved to encode spoken language, and even the one major system that has appeared to be an exception, Chinese, turns out to be a more complex case, based generally on spoken language morphology and phonology. This means that to become literate, an individual most first have access to the language that is being decoded, which for some deaf children is one of the first obstacles they will face in the development of their literacy skills. There is a vast amount of research available that discusses how childrens abilities to learn reading and writing is influenced by their early experiences in life. Goberis et al. (2012) investigated the complex language of hearing, hard of hearing and deaf children using a pragmatics check list. They discovered that a hearing child acquires the ability to use complex language, including basic syntax and age appropriate vocabulary in socially appropriate situations between the age of 3 and 4 years old. Sadly deaf and hard of hearing children acquired these skills much later in life, even when strategies had been put in place and these then cause challenges in writing and abstract conversational dialogue. Swanwick and Watson (2007) looked at how book sharing can positively impact a deaf childs literacy and language development and noted that both oral and signed parents created a shared interaction that allowed for sharing meaning and attention between parent and child in a physical setting that allowed for closeness. When parents are using BSL to share stories, the child is often placed opposite the adult to ensure they can see the signs, where hearing and oral story tellers usually sit adjacent to one another, which allows for a better listening position. Swanwick and Watson observed that parents using oral English tended to stick to the written story and explored the vocabulary and sounds through turn taking and interacting, where the parents using BSL did not always follow the text and retold the story using their own signs without using voice or lip patterns. Their focus was to share the actual story rather than sharing the written text and the parents were ensuring children unde rstood the story cognitively by asking the children to repeat the signs used. Parents who used oral English emphasised the actual written text and thus focussed on the active listening skills of the child, which means the focus was on the literacy and language skills, instead of the story. This study shows that the parents of these children had a view and approach towards their childs literacy development but were not always focussing on all aspects when sharing a text. However, it is important to note that the parents involved in this study were all very involved in their childs early literacy development and results might have been different if the participants came from a background where oral retelling took priority over sharing written text or households where parents do not recognise the potential value of childrens picture books. As a teacher of the deaf, it is crucial to support and encourage parents to discuss a range of linguistic skills including pragmatics, syntax, graph ophonical knowledge and semantics but most importantly to encourage a love of reading by repeating favourite books, which Sulzby (1993) stated builds a rich vocabulary and by singing nursery rhymes and clapping games with repeated patterns to further develop early language skills or to attend reading and story activity groups at a local library or play group. There is plenty of research that shows that shared reading or interactive story book reading has a huge impact on childrens early literacy development and show the benefits of these social interactions around stories and text, allowing the child to understand that text and language are connected. (Yaden, Smolkin, Conlon, 1989) Frequent and effective shared reading during the first 6 years of a childs life aids the development of vocabulary, labelling, and oral and written abilties. Crain-Thorensen, Dahlin and Powell (2001) also proved that parents and caregivers use more complex language when book sharing and thus children get the opportunity to be exposed to new vocabulary which they might not encounter in their day to day life. Justice et al. (2005) conducted a study regarding parents sharing books with hearing and deaf children and concluded that storybooks can provide a wealth of new vocabulary for children. She noted that deaf children responded less to implicit questions than hearing children and showed that parental scaffolding was a key element in word recall for deaf children, where joint attention was more important for hearing children. This shows that the parents of deaf children had to ensure they were building on their childrens prior knowledge to ensure they understood the language and vocabulary in the story told. She concluded that shared reading, retelling and discussing stories are paramount for early reading development. When sharing a book, the opportunity should be used to take turns discussing vocabulary, events and characters in the book and ensuring that both explicit and implicit questions are asked, suitable to the childs current abilities. The First Steps Viewing Map of Development shows that literacy acquisition is a linear process that develops a childs use of texts, understanding of the context, understanding of conventions and development of the use of a range of strategies to extract meaning from print. Williams (2004) mentions that deaf children progress at a similar level as hearing children in their development of early reading and writing, however several cases studies, such as Traxler (2000) and Marschark, Lang Alertini (2002) showed that a high percentage of deaf children graduated with a considerably lower literacy ability than their hearing peer, suggesting that their learning trajectories later changed drastically. One must consider, though, that recent advances in audiological equipment and management might show different results in more recent longitudal studies. Reading requires a combination of several complex skills. Adams (2001) stated that to learn to read one must be have a context processor to be able to interpret the text, a semantic processor to understand the meaning of words, an orthographic processor to be able to recognise and identify the letters and spellings and a phonological processor to identify the speech sounds, which requires adequate audiological amplification or access to other abilities such as cued speech. When it comes to emergent reading, one of the first skills a child must master is recognizing the letters of the alphabets and knowing that these letters are linked to 44 sounds in the English language, which then in turn can be put together to form words. Hearing children and those with early adequate amplification will begin to recognize certain letters and sounds in their own names and some keywords they might have been taught through rhymes or songs. To aid this early process, the child should be encouraged to say the phonemes in the word and then repeat them to see if they can hear which word it makes. It sometimes helps if the adult repeats the sounds so the child can focus on hearing the word. Another strategy is finding familiar letter patterns in words to aid with blending, such as cat, pat, mat, sat. This could also be turned into a little game where the initial sound is changed to see how many real and nonsense words can be made. Kyle and Harris (2011) noted that hard of hearing and deaf children cannot hear all these sounds, despite using audiological equipment and thus other strategies are needed to support them. Visual phonics is one of the strategies that can be used to help deaf and hard of hearing children to learn phonics by combining handcues and written symbols to aid phonetic awareness and decoding skills. Shared reading has also been shown to aid the development of phonological awareness in both hearing and deaf children, especially where parents take the time to point out sounds children are familiar with and getting them to recall and blend familiar sound patterns. Once the initial recognition of print and understanding of the alphabet and their related sounds has been formed, the child should, through frequent exposure to written words in signs, shared books, labels, etc,. be able to recall an increasing number of high frequency words and words that can be blended phonologically. The focus of reading activities then shift towards understanding that text carries meaning, rather than simply reading word for word. Reading books for the children at this skill level generally have smaller print and more complex sentence structures and fewer illustrations. Kyle and Harris (2010) conducted a longitudal study to investigate reading and spelling abilities of emergent deaf children. They found out that at first, deaf children applied a whole word strategy to reading, however after 2 years of learning they were using a more alphabetic reading strategy based on phonological representations derived from speech reading skills. However, hearing children applied this alphabetic ability based on speechreading from the first year of reading, hence different reading strategies were applied by hearing and deaf children. This made them conclude that If the information derived through speechreading is incorporated into underlying phonological representations, which in turn are used to support the phonological judgments required to complete phonological awareness tasks, then it is plausible that speechreading could be a strong initial predictor of reading in both deaf and hearing. In addition, for the deaf children, speechreading could essentially act as a marker or proxy for the quality of the underlying phonological representations (Kyle and Harris, 2010, p.14) Unfortunately, the deaf and hearing children in this study were picked by their class teachers and thus their reading abilities were not always as closely matched as initially intended. In a study by Bouton et al. (2011) it was discovered that children with cochlear implants greatly benefited from learning cued speech. Cued speech shows a hearing child hand movements near the mouth to clarify lip and mouth movements so they can have a visual aid to better grasp lip reading. Bourton et al. found that cued speech improved the CI childrens performance in reading tasks and phonetical awareness, compared to CI children who had not been exposed to cued speech. Additional research into the link between cued speech and phonetical awareness, spelling and reading abilities is required, however it does show that offering a CI child additional support through cued speech can have a positive impact on their language and literacy development. Once children have mastered the word attack skills they are then faced by longer and more complex texts which require a greater understanding of the world and fewer illustrations as prompts. At this stage, young readers will need to comprehend a huge variety of phrases and clauses to understand the meaning of the text and recognising that text can come in a variety of different genres and serve different purposes. To support deaf childrens understanding, it is important that as a teacher of the deaf, a variety of strategies are offered to ensure the child fully understand the texts they are working with. These strategies include giving the child the opportunity to retell the story in his/her own words, sequencing key elements of the text, discussing characters and settings and ensuring the child understand the vocabulary by clarifying and offering synonyms or visual representations. The child should be given the opportunity to ask and answer questions and to predict what might happen next. Another strategy is linking the key elements of the story with their own personal experiences or other stories familiar to the child, to allow the child to expand and comment on what has been read. Once the child becomes a fluent reader, the focus shifts from being able to read to understanding the text and utilising it for further personal development. With this also comes the realisation that reading have a multitude of functions, such as reading for pleasure, deriving information, receiving instructions and interacting with a multitude of devices and multimedia platforms. Sadly, the transition from emergent to fluent reader does not always happen as smoothly as desired for deaf children. Geers and Hayes (2011) conducted a study with early implanted deaf adolescents to see if they managed to keep their academic trajectory in literacy skills at a consistent level with their hearing peers and to investigate to what degree the childs phonological skills and family characteristics influenced their literacy development. Geers and Hayes discovered that early implanted children who were classed as age related in their phonological awareness in preschool, managed to make age appropri ate progress compared to their hearing peers as adolescents with good audiological management and family support, however they did not perform as well on spelling and expository writing and they discovered that the development of phonological awareness is crucial to literacy success. Due to an increasing number of children being implanted prior to 12 months of age thanks to the Infant Screening Programme, it would be interesting to repeat this study with a cohort that was implanted sooner in life. Being literate does not simply comprise of being able to read print. Reading and writing have often been said to go hand in hand and develop linearly. Mayer (2010) noted that there has been considerably little research in the implications of deafness on writing development and most of the research that has been published focusses primarily on spelling rather than writing composition. It is clear that children learn that writing carries meaning and that it is a useful tool for communication. There is debate about the multitude of strategies available for teaching reading and writing, for example phonological approaches or visual orthographic strategies. Simply learning how to spell words is not sufficient to become literate. The English language has a complex system of syntax and grammar. Cormier et al (2012) investigated the impact of age of acquisition of a signed language on grammatical abilities in deaf children. He noted that successfully acquiring a language, signed or oral, is crucial to developing grammatical awareness of that language and successfully acquiring a second language, i.e. BSL or English depending on L1. Grosjean (2001) also commented that bilingual education is a deaf childs best chance of acquiring good literacy skills in both signed and written/spoken languages, however it is important to note that it is the parents right to choose the preferred communication method for their child. Miller (2005) also found that elementary children were able to find meaning in sentences by using the meaning of the actual words in these sentences but lacked the ability to process syntactic information. These studies show that a greater focus needs to be on the acquisition of grammatical awareness and syntax to ensure that deaf children get a greater understanding of the complex language structures in written texts. Further developing a childs spoken language will aid their abilities to produce more complex written sentences and therefor reduce the amount o f baked sentences, e.g. using the same sentence starters over and over again such as I like or I can. To ensure an adequate support programme is put in place for the deaf child, it is paramount that the teacher of the deaf thoroughly assesses the current reading and writing skills and language abilities, both receptive and expressive, of the child and has a good understanding of the support the child receives at home and in the class room. The childs specific characteristics, attitudes to learning, preferred learning styles and personal, social and emotional development and their strengths and weaknesses are all crucial in a whole child approach towards progress. The teacher of the deaf should work together with parents, schools and other agencies to ensure the best strategies are put in place for the child. Goberis et al. (2012) suggested that parents should target specific language skills at home using natural, day to day opportunities and the teachers should be given strategies to practise in the class room environment. It must be stressed that speech intelligibility does not give a clear picture of the childs actual language abilities and time should be spend finding out where the strengths and weaknesses lay, especially when it comes to pragmatic language skills, grammar and vocabulary. Some of the strategies to put in place to further develop language could be following instructions and then allowing the child the opportunity to give instructions too to further develop the childs theory of mind. The child should be encouraged to provide instructions that are clear and have sufficient information for the other person to follow. This coul d be scaffolded by adding picutres at first so the child can have a visual representation prior to building the sentences. Playing playground games or very easy board games are a great way to develop instructional language as a set of rules must be followed to be successful. The child could also be encouraged to explain the game to a peer with the help of an adult. Goberis et al. (2012) also states that it is important to encourage deaf children to answer why questions and ask them to consider options or discussing cause and effect of certain behaviours. They must also develop the recognition that other children might have a different point of view and talkinga bout other childrens likes and dislikes will allow them to further develop their pragmatic skills and allows them to develop their theory of mind. Categorization is also an important step in language development. Playing sorting games or guessing games can help the child build these categories in their minds. It is also impor tant for them to learn that not all statements are true and they must consider whether the information given to them is factual or not. References: Alvord, S ; Adams, W ; Barker, R ; Garner, B ; Rosengren, K ; Shaver, G, (2001), Relationship between WRAML and NEPSY subtest performance and reading acquisition in early elementary school children , Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vol. 16(8), pp.773-787 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Bouton, S., Bertoncini, J., Serniclaes, W. and Cole, P. (2011) Reading and reading-related skills in children using Cochlear Implants: Prospects for the influence of cued speech, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Vol. 16(4), pp.458-473 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Cormier, K., Schembri, A., Vinson, D. and Orfanidou, E. (2012) First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British sign language, Cognition, Vol.124(1), p.50-65 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Crain-Thoreson, C., Dahlin, M.P. and Powell, T.A. (2001) Parent-child interaction in Three conversational contexts: Variations in style and strategy, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2001(92), p. 23. discussion 91-8 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Geers, A.E. and Hayes, H. (2011) Reading, writing, and Phonological processing skills of adolescents with 10 or more years of Cochlear implant experience, Ear and Hearing, Vol.32(1 Suppl), pp.49S-59S [Peer Reviewed Journal] Goberis, D., Beams, D., Dalpes, M., Abrisch, A., Baca, R. and Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (2012) The missing link in language development of deaf and hard of hearing children: Pragmatic language development, Seminars in Speech and Language, Vol.33(4), pp.297-309 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Grosjean, F. (2001) The right of the deaf child to grow up bilingual, Sign Language Studies, 1(2), pp.110-114. Justice, L.M., Meier, J. and Walpole, S. (2005) Learning new words from Storybooks, Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, Vol. 36, pp.17-32 Kyle, F.E. and Harris, M. (2011) Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginning deaf and hearing readers, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Vol. 16(3), pp. 289-304. Marschark, M., Lang, H., Albertini, J. (2002). Educating deaf students: From research to practice. New York: Oxford University Press Mayer, C. (2007) What really matters in the early literacy development of deaf children, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, , Vol. 12, No. 4 (FALL 2007), pp. 411-431 Miller, P. (2005) Reading comprehension and its relation to the quality of functional hearing: Evidence from readers with different functional hearing abilities, American Annals of the Deaf, Vol. 150(3), pp. 305-323 Perfetti, C.A. (2000) Reading Optimally builds on spoken language: Implications for deaf readers, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Vol. 5(1), pp. 32-50 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Sulzby, E., Edwards, P. A. (1993). The role of parents in supporting literacy development. In B. Spodek O. N. Saracho (Eds.), Language and literacy in early childhood education (pp. 156-177). New York: Teachers College Press. Swanwick, R. and Watson, L. (2007) Parents sharing books with young deaf children in spoken English and in BSL: The common and diverse features of different language settings, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Vol. 12(3), pp. 385-405 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Traxler, C.B. (2000) The Stanford Achievement test, 9th edition: National Norming and performance standards for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5(4), pp. 337-348 Williams, C. and Mayer, C. (2015) Writing in young deaf children, Review of Educational Research, Vol. 85(4), pp. 630-666 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Yaden, D.B., Smolkin, L.B. and Conlon, A. (1989) Preschoolers questions about pictures, print conventions, and story text during reading aloud at home, Reading Research Quarterly, 24(2), p. 188.

The ECommerce Environment of Singapore Essay -- GCSE Business Marketin

The ECommerce Environment of Singapore Geography The Republic of Singapore is located in southeast Asia, south of Malaysia and northwest of Indonesia. The island measures a total of 637 square kilometers with a coastline 193 kilometers long. Singapore is generally comprised of lowland areas with a central plateau in the middle of the island. Its elevation ranges from the Bukit Timah, (166 m.), to the Singapore Strait which is at sea level. Its climate is tropical and wet. Precipitation occurs on 40% of all days, (70% of days in April). Singapore's two biggest natural recourses are its fishing industry, and its deep water ports. Singapore is also a focal point for most Southeast Asian sea routes. History Singapore was originally settled by Great Britain in 1819 as a port of call. The British used Singapore to extend their territories in Indonesia. It remained under British rule until 1941 when Japan bombed and captured Singapore. After three years of Japanese rule, British forces returned to the island. By this time Singapore was longing for self-government. Singapore realized its need for independence in 1959 holding its first general election. The new, independent Singapore was voted into the United Nations in 1965. On December 22, 1965, Singapore became a republic electing Yusof bin Ishak as its first president. Infrastructure In Singapore's short life as a republic, it has developed a sound infrastructure. In the way of transportation, Singapore has a total of 105 kilometers of railways used for commercial and personal transportation. It has also built over 3,000 kilometers of highways, 2,936 of which are paved. Singapore also boasts a 67 kilometer mass transit system with 42 stations. The mass transit system is the preferred means of travel in Singapore due to the fact that only one of every ten people own an automobile. Singapore produces 28 billion kilowatts of electricity annually. One hundred percent of Singapore's electricity is produced by means of fossil fuel. An estimated 97% of all residents live in households with electricity and running water. Singapore's leading industries include: electronics, petroleum refining, oil drilling equipment, rubber products and rubber processing, processed food and beverages, ship repair, entrepot trade, biotechnology, and financial services. Technological Infrast... ...panding Connections Singapore's current US connection of 45 Mbps is growing everyday. Local internet providers have begun expanding their connection speed and size through the use of satellite links. It is estimated that in the next ten years the number of internet connections in Singapore will almost be double what it is today. Summary Electronic Commerce is changing the way business is conducted today. Singapore has positioned itself to become a major part of the E-business trend. Developing technology, government support, and growing internet awareness make Singapore an ideal environment in which E-commerce can thrive. Lee Yock Suan sums up Singapore's E-commerce environment by saying ,"We want to be plugged into this global development, and position Singapore as an international E-commerce hub." References WWW.Singstat.gov 202.42.217.232/ WWW.Geography.com.sg WWW.TheStandard.com Rajakru, Dang Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol 26, 1996, p. 3-27 The state, family and industrial development: the Singapore case. Graham, Mark Industry Week, vol 249 no 7, 2000,p. 37-40 Singapore lures technology: it's clean, green -- and a powerful machine.

Pschology Module 27: Thinking, Language and Intelligence The Availability Heuristic Essay

Availability Heuristic: A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that comes to mind. When you are trying to make a decision, a number of related events or situations might immediately spring to the forefront of your thoughts. As a result, you might judge that those events are more frequent and possible than others. You give greater trust to this information and tend to overestimate the probability and likelihood of similar things happening in the future. Examples After seeing news reports about people losing their jobs, you might start to believe that you are in danger of being laid-off. You start lying awake in bed each night worrying that you are about to be fired. After seeing several television programs on shark attacks, you start to think that such incidences are relatively common. When you go on vacation, you refuse to swim in the ocean because you believe the probability of a shark attack is high. After reading an article about lottery winners, you start to overestimate your own likelihood of winning the jackpot. You start spending more money than you should each week on lottery tickets. Availability heuristic influences our decisionns and judgments by remembering something that shapes our impression to make these decisions and lead us astray in our judgments that makes information pop into our minds. Availability heuristic leads us to fear the wrong things and we shouldn’t always fear everything. Four influences that feed fear and cause us to ignore higher risks 1. We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear (Confinement and heights, and therefore flying) 2. We fear what we cannot control (We can control a car by driving but not a plane) 3. We fear what is immediate (Teens are indifferent to smoking’s toxicity because they live more for the present than the distant future) 4. We fear what is most readily available in memory (Availability Heuristic) (Scary, vivid images like 9/11 cause our judgments of risk, we remember and fear natural disasters like hurricanes tornados and earthquakes that kill people instantly)

Business Explore

The rise of integrated reporting and increased investor focus on extra-financial factors are part of a new global attitude toward business. One example of this trend is provided by research from Ceres, an advocacy organization for sustainability leadership, into the evolution of sustainability practice in companies (Ceres, 2014; Ceres & Ramani, 2015). To understand what makes some companies more useful when it comes to delivering sustainability performance without sacrificing mission, Ceres focused its studies on how boards and directors provide oversight for sustainability. Their research discovered that by making both executives and governing boards formally accountable for sustainability performance, organizations can face the increasing pressure to deliver on sustainability and maintain social mission. Governance practices can provide a framework for building mission into the DNA of organizations. To take this inquiry further, more research is needed to capture current learning across sectors and to identify mission-supportive governance practice as it evolves. Sharing this information with budding social entrepreneurs, MBA students and investors, to increase their understanding of governance as a solution to mission challenges, could help develop more sophisticated attitudes toward the role of governance across the sector. Additionally, more research into Mission monitoring that makes use of metrics and enables governing boards and managers to evaluate mission alongside financial performance and deliver oversight and accountability in both areas is needed. Investor engagement is another area where more research could be beneficial. As the sector continues to expand into the mainstream, new investors will be joining the boards of growing social entrepreneurships and exerting their influence. More work on how the leaders of these organizations can create proactive strategies to identify investors who align with the mission and negotiate favorable terms for mission preservation would be welcome. More research into how investor behavior, and the impact that has on mission preservation, could yield clues as to why so many businesses find mission pushed to the margins as they grow. There is also room for developing practical resources to help social entrepreneurships establish effective investor engagement and communication strategies. As the sector matures, finding the right people remains challenging for organizations in the hectic scaling stage. More extensive use of skills matrices—and matrices developed especially for mission-driven businesses—could help. A specialist referral service, online skills bank or recruiting agency could be established to connect organizations with appropriate candidates.

Wentworth Medical Center Essay Example

Wentworth Medical Center Essay Example Wentworth Medical Center Paper Wentworth Medical Center Paper Essay Topic: Medical In this case we looked at data from a long-term study of individuals 65 years of age or older, sociologists and physicians at the Wentworth Medical Center in upstate New York investigated the relationship between geographic location and depression. A sample of 60 individuals, all in reasonably good health, was selected; 20 were residents of Florida, 20 were residents of New York, and 20 were residents of North Carolina. From the data collected we could know that the higher test scores indicate higher levels of depression. The descriptive statistics of the data collected are as following: GROUPSSIZESUMMEANSAMPLE VARIANCE FLORIDA2088.504.423.81 NEW YORK20131.536.583.95 NORTH CAROLINA20137.096.852.31 For the second part of this study, we considered the relationship between geographic location and depression for individuals 65 years of age or older who had a chronic health condition such as arthritis, hypertension, or heart ailment. A sample of 60 individuals with such conditions was identified. 20 were residents of Florida, 20 were residents of New York, and 20 were residents of North Carolina. The descriptive statistics of the data are as following: GROUPSSIZESUMMEANSAMPLE VARIANCE FLORIDA20284.7114.2415.88 NEW YORK20313.1515.669.82 NORTH CAROLINA20321.0116.0512.79 In both of the two tables above, we found that the residents in Florida shows the lowest mean scores than either of the other states, implying that the level of depression is lowest than others. Compare these two tables, we found that the depression mean scores and variance of health individual is far lower than the individuals with chronic health problem. First, we determine if there is any difference in depression means for the three states within the health individuals, we have conducted the following hypothesis test, with the level of significance 0.05: H0:  µ1 =  µ2 =  µ3 Ha: Not all are equal where:  µ1= population mean of depression scores in Florida  µ2= population mean of depression scores in New York  µ3= population mean of depression scores in North Carolina We use Analysis of Variance to determine whether the observed differences in the three sample means are large enough to reject H0. SSDFMSFF CRITP-VALUE TREATMENT70.75235.3710.543.160.00 ERROR191.38573.36 TOTAL262.1359 The sampling distribution of MSTR/MSE is an F distribution with numerator degrees of freedom equal to 2 and denominator degrees of freedom equal to 57. From the ANOVA table above, we found that the p-value for this test is equals to 0 which is less than the level of significance of ÃŽ ±=0.05. As a result, we reject H0 and conclude that the means of the three depression levels between difference states are not equal. For further test, we need to determine where the differences occur. We use Fisher’s LSD procedure to make three pairwise comparisons: Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 H0:  µ1 =  µ2H0:  µ1 =  µ3H0:  µ2 =  µ3 Ha:  µ1 ≠   µ2Ha:  µ1 ≠   µ3Ha:  µ2 ≠   µ3 where:  µ1=population mean of depression scores in Florida  µ2= population mean of depression scores in New York  µ3= population mean of depression scores in North Carolina We use the level of significance of ÃŽ ±=0.05. The value of LSD in this case is equals to 1.16. We only reject null hypothesis when test statistic |xÌ„i xÌ„j| LSD. The calculated results are as following: Test StatisticLSD Test 12.151.16 Test 22.431.16 Test 30.281.16 The difference between the mean for population 1 and population 2 are greater than LSD, which means we can reject null hypothesis and conclude that the mean for population 1 is not equals to population 2. Similarly, with the difference between the sample means for population 1 and 3 is 2.431.16, we can also reject null hypothesis. But in test 3, the difference between the sample means for population 2 and 3 is 0.280.05). As a result, we could not reject null hypothesis, and conclude that there is no difference between the mean of depression levels of the individuals who had a

Butterflies and Moths, Order Lepidoptera

Butterflies and Moths, Order Lepidoptera The name Lepidoptera means â€Å"scale wings.† Take a close look at the wings of these insects and you will see overlapping scales, like shingles on a roof. The order Lepidoptera includes butterflies and moths and is the second largest group in the insect world. Description The scaly wings of Lepidopteran insects come in two pairs and are often quite colorful. To identify a specific butterfly or moth, you will usually need to look at the colors and unique markings on the wings. Insects in this group have large compound eyes. Above each compound eye is a simple eye called an ocellus. Adult Lepidoptera has mouthparts formed into a sucking tube, or proboscis, which is used to drink nectar. The larvae, commonly called caterpillars, have chewing mouthparts and are herbivorous. Butterflies and moths can be differentiated by looking at the shape of their antennae. To find out more, read Differences Between Butterflies and Moths. Habitat and Distribution Butterflies and moths live in a variety of land habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Their distribution is dependent on their food source. Habitat must provide the appropriate host plants for the caterpillars, and good nectar sources for the adults. Major Families in the Order Nymphalidae - brush-footed butterfliesPapillionidae – swallowtailsHesperiidae – skippersSaturniidae - giant silk mothsLymantriidae - tussock mothsNoctuidae - loopers, owlet moths, and underwings Species of Interest Danaus plexippus, the monarch butterfly, is the only butterfly in the world to migrate in two directions.Ornithoptera alexandrae (Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing) is the world’s largest butterfly, with a wingspan of up to 12 inches.Bombyx mori is no longer found in the wild. The Silkworm moth has been bred in captivity for thousands of years.Actias luna, the Luna moth, is one of the most beautiful and colorful moths. It is a common moth in the eastern U.S.