Tuesday, April 28, 2020
The Landlady Essay Example For Students
The Landlady Essay In the short story The Landlady, Roald Dahls use of foreshadowing prepared readers well for the end of the story. He used hints such as describing the outside of the bed and breakfast, giving details of the entry and the bedroom, and also telling the readers about the living room. To begin, Dahl used the outside of the bed and breakfast as a use of foreshadowing. The sign was described to be distinctive. It was portrayed to be luring the boy inside. Dahl used the opening of the door as a hint also. He explained that the woman debouched the door open, which would foreshadow that she was abnormal. The woman also had cheap rent at her bed and breakfast. This would draw potential customers in for her awkward service. With these details, he already made the reader believe the woman and the place were creepy. We will write a custom essay on The Landlady specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Next, Dahl moved onto the entry and bedroom setting to give hints to the events to come. The bed had a hot water bottle in it. This was meant to make the lady seem like she was waiting for someone soon, since the bottle was still warm to keep the bed heated. There was also the guest book that had only two other entries. One was Chris Muholland and the other was Gregory Temple. These names sounded familiar to the boy and led to his curiosity of who they were. When the boy remembered where he saw the names before, which was in the newspaper claiming they were missing, it revealed that the men were in the bed and breakfast before they went missing. This made the reader believe that something was discerning about the situation. Dahl finally summed up the story by conveying an image of the living room. He described a dog and a parrot first. It turned out the animals were stuffed, and the lady taxidermies them herself. At this point in the story, the hints are coming together that not everything is adequate about the place. Her hands were said to be pale, as if they might be lifeless. Dahl used this to explain that she might have gotten discoloration in her hands from using chemicals in her work that she does. The tea was finally used as a clue. The lady gave the boy some tea that tasted of bitter almonds. The use of this information declared that something was in the tea to make it have an odd taste. These clues helped the reader realize that the boy was not going to be leaving that place again. Roald Dahl used good hints in this story to foreshadow the ending. Some clues were easy to catch, others you had to think about, but thats what made the story appealing. It breaks it down well by letting you think at the beginning, and then having it all come together in the end. He used his techniques well, and used foreshadowing well through the entire story.
Friday, March 20, 2020
Remembering the Murder of Shanda Sharer
Remembering the Murder of Shanda Sharer Few crimes in modern times caused more public horror than the grisly torture and murder of 12-year-old Shanda Sharer at the hands of four teenage girls on Jan. 11, 1992 in Madison, Indiana. The callousness and brutality exhibited by the four teenage girls, ages 15 to 17, shocked the public then, and it continues to be a source of fascination and revulsion as the subject of dozens of books, magazine articles, television programs, and psychiatric papers.à The Events Leading to the Murder At the time of her murder, Shanda Renee Sharer was the 12-year old daughter of divorced parents, attending school atà Ourà Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic school in New Albany, Indiana, after transferring the previous year from Hazelwood Middle School. While at Hazelwood, Shanda had met Amanda Heavrin. Initially the two girls fought, but eventually became friends and then became entered into a youthful romance.à In October of 1991, Amanda and Shanda were attending a school dance together when they were angrily confronted by Melinda Loveless, an older girl that Amanda Heavrin had also been dating since 1990. As Shanda Sharer and Amanda Heavrin continued to socialize through October, the jealous Melinda Loveless began to discuss killing Shanda and was observed threatening her in public. It was at this point, concerned about their daughters safety, that Shandas parents transferred her to a Catholic school and away from Amanda. The Abduction, Torture, and Murder Despite the fact that Shanda Sharer was no longer in the same school as Amanda Heavrin, Melinda Loveless jealousy continued to fester over the next few months, and on the night of Jan. 10, 1992, Melinda, along with three friends- Toni Lawrence (age 15), Hope Rippey (age 15), and Laurie Tackett (age 17)- drove to where Shanda was spending the weekend with her father. Just after midnight, the older girls convinced Shanda that her friend Amanda Heavrin was waiting for her at a teenage hangout spot known as the Witchs Castle, a ruined stone home in a remote area overlooking the Ohio River. Once in the car, Melinda Loveless began to threaten Shanda with a knife, and once they arrived at Witchs Castle, the threats escalated into an hours-long torture session. It was the details of the savagery that followed, all of which came out later in testimony from one of the girls, that so horrified the public. Over a period of more than six hours, Shanda Sharer was subject to beatings with fists, strangling with a rope, repeated stabbings, and battery and sodomy with a tire iron. Finally, the still living girl was doused with gasoline and set ablaze in the early morning hours of Jan. 11, 1992, in a field alongside a gravel county road.à Immediately after the murder, the four girls had breakfast at McDonalds, where it is reported that they laughingly compared the look of the sausage to that of the corpse they had just abandoned.à The Investigation Uncovering the truth of this crime thankfully did not take long. Shanda Sharers body was discovered later that same morning by hunters driving along the road. When Shandas parents reported her missing in early afternoon, the connection to the discovered body was quickly suspected. That evening, a distraught Toni Lawrence accompanied by her parents arrived at theà Jefferson County Sheriffs officeà and began to confess the details of the crime. Dental records quickly confirmed that the remains discovered by the hunters were those of Shanda Sharer. By the next day, all the involved girls had been arrested.à The Criminal Proceedings With compelling evidence provided by Toni Lawrences testimony, the four girls involved were all charged as adults. With a strong likelihood of death penalty sentences, they all accepted guilty pleas in order to avoid such an outcome.à In preparation for sentencing, defense attorneys spent considerable effort assembling arguments of mitigating circumstances for some of the girls, arguing that these facts reduced their culpability. These facts were presented to the judge during the sentencing hearing. Melinda Loveless, the ringleader, had by far the most extensive history of abuse. At the legal hearing, two of her sisters and two cousins testified that her father, Larry Loveless, had forced them to have sex with him, although they could not testify that Melinda, too, had been so abused. His history of physical abuse to his wife and children was well documented, as well as a pattern of sexual misconduct. (Later, Larry Loveless would be charged with 11 counts of child sex abuse.) Laurie Tackett was raised in a strictly religious household where rock music, movies and most other trappings of normal teenage life were strictly forbidden. In rebellion, she shaved her head and engaged in occult practices. It was not entirely surprising to others that she could have participated in such a crime.à Toni Lawrence and Hope Rippey had no such troubled reputations, and experts and public onlookers were somewhat baffled at how relatively normal girls could have participated in such a crime. In the end, it was chalked up to simple peer pressure and a thirst for acceptance, but the case continues to be a source of analysis and discussion to this day.à The Sentences In exchange for her extensive testimony, Toni Lawrence received the lightest sentence- she pleaded guilty to one count of Criminal Confinement and was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years. She was released on December 14, 2000, after serving nine years. She remained on parole until December, 2002. Hope Rippey was sentenced to 60 years, with ten years suspended for mitigating circumstances. Upon later appeal, her sentence was reduced to 35 years. She was released early on April 28, 2002 from Indiana Womens Prison after serving 14 years of her original sentence.à Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett were sentenced to 60 years in the Indiana Womens Prison in Indianapolis. Tacket was released on Jan. 11, 2018, exactly 26 years to the day after the murder.à Melinda Loveless, the ringleader of one of the most brutal murders in recent time, is due to be released in 2019.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
How to Conjugate the Verb Stare in Italian
How to Conjugate the Verb 'Stare' in Italian ââ¬Å"Stareâ⬠is used to talk about all things, from how youââ¬â¢re doing to where youââ¬â¢re at in Italy, so itââ¬â¢s best if you feel comfortable using this word in all its forms. Whatââ¬â¢s more, itââ¬â¢s an irregular verb, so it doesnââ¬â¢t follow the typical -are verb ending pattern. Below, youââ¬â¢ll find all of its conjugation tables as well as examples, so you can become more familiar with using stare. Definitions of Stare To beTo stayTo remainTo standTo be situatedTo liveTo be about to Stare in Italian Itââ¬â¢s an intransitive verb, so it does not take a direct object.The infinito is ââ¬Å"stare.â⬠The participio passato is ââ¬Å"stato.â⬠The gerund form is ââ¬Å"stando.â⬠The past gerund form is ââ¬Å"essendo stato.â⬠Indicativo/Indicativeââ¬â¹ Il presente io sto noi stiamo tu stai voi state lui, lei, Lei sta loro, Loro stanno Esempi: Sto bene, e tu? Iââ¬â¢m good, and you? Maria sta buttando la pasta, ti fermi a pranzo con noi? Maria is about to cook pasta, are you going to have lunch with us? Il passato prossimo io sono stato/a noi siamo stati/e tu sei stato/a voi siete stati/e lui, lei, Lei à ¨ stato/a loro, Loro sono stati/e Esempi: Sono stata a Bologna ieri sera. I was in Bologna last night. Marco e Giulio sono stati davvero carini! Marco and Giulio were extremely nice! Lââ¬â¢imperfetto io stavo noi stavamo tu stavi voi stavate lui, lei, Lei stava loro, Loro stavano Esempi: Che stavi facendo? What were you doing? Stavamo per partire quando ci ha chiamato Giulia. We were about to leave when Giulia called us. Il trapassato prossimo io ero stato/a noi eravamo stati/e tu eri stato/a voi eravate stati/e lui, lei, Lei era stato/a loro, Loro erano stati/e Esempi: Ho vissuto in Italia per 12 anni e non ero mai stato a Roma. I lived in Italy for 12 years and I had never been to Rome. Ero stato anche allââ¬â¢aeroporto, ma era gi partita. I also was at the airport, but she had already left. Il passato remoto io stetti noi stemmo tu stesti voi steste lui, lei, Lei stette loro, Loro stettero Esempi: Nel 1996, stetti a Londra per due settimane. In 1996, I stayed in London for two weeks. Stettrero ospiti a casa di Sandra durante il loro soggiorno a Milano. They stayed at Sandraââ¬â¢s during their stay in Milan. Il trapassato remoto io fui stato/a noi fummo stati/e tu fosti stato/a voi foste stati/e lui, lei, Lei fu stato/a loro, Loro furono stati/e This tense is rarely used, so donââ¬â¢t worry too much about mastering it. Youââ¬â¢ll find it only in very sophisticated writing. Il futuro semplice io starà ² noi staremo tu starai voi starete lui, lei, Lei star loro, Loro staranno Esempi: Sà ¬, infatti, lui à ¨ malato, perà ² star bene fra un paio di giorni. Yes, in fact, he is sick, but he will be better in a couple of days. Starà ² pià ¹ attento, te lo prometto. I will pay more attention, I promise. Il futuro anteriore Io sarà ² stato/a noi saremo stati/e tu sarai stato/a voi sarete stati/e lui, lei, Lei sar stato/a loro, Loro saranno stati/e Esempi: Ho dimenticato di prenotare i biglietti? Sarà ² stato davvero stanco ieri sera. I forgot to book the tickets? I must have been really tired last night. Dovââ¬â¢era Giulia a sabato? Sar stata con suoi amici. Where was Giula on Saturday? She must have been with her friends. Congiuntivo/Subjunctiveââ¬â¹ ï » ¿Il presente che io stia che noi stiamo che tu stia che voi stiate che lui, lei, Lei stia che loro, Loro stiano Esempi: Non so perchà © lui stia qua. I donââ¬â¢t know why he is here. Non penso che tu stia preparando abbastanza piatti. I donââ¬â¢t think youââ¬â¢re preparing enough dishes. Il passato io sia stato/a noi siamo stati/e tu sia stato/a voi siate stati/e lui, lei, Lei sia stato/a loro, Loro siano stati/e Esempi: Penso sia stato meglio cosà ¬. I think it was for the best. Credo proprio che siano stati accompagnati in taxi allââ¬â¢aereoporto. I really think they had been taken by taxi to the airport. Lââ¬â¢imperfetto io stessi noi stessimo tu stessi voi steste lui, lei, Lei stesse loro, Loro stessero Esempi: Non pensavo che lui stesse alla festa. I didnââ¬â¢t know that he was at the party. Pensavo che stesse a dormire a casa tua. Sarei stato molto pià ¹ tranquillo! I thought she was sleeping at your place. I would have been a lot more relaxed! Il trapassato prossimo Io fossi stato/a noi fossimo stati/e tu fossi stato/a voi foste stati/e lui, lei, Lei fosse stato/a loro, Loro fossero stati/e Esempi: Se quel giorno fossi stato con lui, non sarebbe stato cosà ¬ triste. If I had been with him that day, he wouldnââ¬â¢t have been so sad. Se fossimo stati amici in quel periodo, ci saremmo divertiti un sacco! If we had been friends during that time, we would have had so much fun! Condizionale/Conditionalââ¬â¹Ã¢â¬â¹ Il presente io starei noi staremmo tu staresti voi stareste lui, lei, Lei starebbe loro, Loro starebbero Esempi: Se io abitassi in Italia, starei meglio. If I were to live in Italy, I would be better. Se aveste finito i vostri compiti a questââ¬â¢ora stareste al mare! If you had finished your homework, by this time you would be at the seaside! Il passato io sarei stato/a noi saremmo stati/e tu saresti stato/a voi sareste stati/e lui, lei, Lei sarebbe stato/a loro, Loro sarebbero stati/e Esempi: Sarei stata contenta se lui mi avesse regalato dei fiori. I would have been happy if he had given me some flowers. Non sarebbe stato possibile senza lââ¬â¢aiuto di Giulia. It wouldnââ¬â¢t have been possible without Giuliaââ¬â¢s help. Imperativo/Imperativeââ¬â¹Ã¢â¬â¹ Presente stiamo sta/stai/saââ¬â¢ state stia stiano Stai zitto! Be quiet (informal)! Stia attenta! Pay attention (formal)!
Sunday, February 16, 2020
What were the violent techniques that (dictator of choice) used to Essay
What were the violent techniques that (dictator of choice) used to consolidate his power To what extent was he successful - Essay Example Finally, it is vital to identify the impact Fidel Castro dictatorship had on the people of Cuba. Fidel Castro a military general came into power 1959 after staging a coup de tat to over throw the then president of Cuba Fulgencio Batista (Thomas 16). Since then, Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for almost 50 years until he handed power to his brother in 2006. The fact that Fidel Castro held on to power for close to 50 years is evidence enough that he was a dictator (Thomas 19). One characteristic of a dictator is that he or she refuses to give up power for others to rule despite the fact that the county, which they rule is not a monarch system. Monarchies are the only form of government that rulers are allowed to rule for such a long time since power is mostly passed on to others only after death. Even after death power is left upon heirs or close members of the family. Evidence that Fidel Castroââ¬â¢s rule was dictatorship is the fact that his leadership was based on autocracy. This is a characteristic of dictator ship where rulers declare themselves sole rulers of a nation without any formal body to check on their power. This means that they can make decisions that affect the nation as they wish without consulting anybody especially the legislature. Another characteristic of dictators is that they have totalitarian governments. This is where they have firm control of the media controlling on what they broad cast. For example, Fidel Castro controlled the media to make sure that nothing negative about him was announced. The use of secret police and military units to spy on citizen is another form of a totalitarian government which is used by all dictators (Thomas 58). For example, Fidel Castroââ¬â¢s rule was characterized by such units to the point that people were even scared to discuss negative aspects of his government due to the fear of b eing arrested by these secret police and military
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Marketing Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Marketing Research Paper - Essay Example The answer lies in the cultural sensitivity of coke on how it position its product to its market at a given time and cultural context. To illustrate, we are going to take the old coke commercial at; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ0FRW1W3yA&feature=related. At a first glance, the commercial seems banal and corny which is typical of old commercials. It may even seem meaningless because all it has are just singing of scantily clad woman and sets of men. But if we observe closely on its message, this is where cokeââ¬â¢s cultural sensitivity lies that made it appealing to all ages. Its value proposition was ââ¬Å"valueâ⬠with coke being ââ¬Å"bigâ⬠that every time the consumers in that era buy coke, they get more because coke got ââ¬Å"bigâ⬠. Their enticement was basically consumers get more with the same price and taste and this is aligned with the cultural preference of people towards value during that time. If the same message will be used today as a value propos ition to push coke in the market, it will surely fail because the preference of the market is different. In those times, people were not yet conscious of the sugar content of coke that could make an individual fat by drinking it excessively. In those times, coke is a delicious soda drink only that the purchasing power of the consumers are not yet as powerful compared today because it was the time of early industrial era where people does not earn much. So, value mattered to them for a delicious drink and health does not yet matter. Thus, coke attacked the cultural vulnerability of its consumers to position itself to its prospective market. Now let us move fast forward and observe its new commercial coke zero at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BxDcn3Jw0c. The commercialââ¬â¢s pathos, or emotional persuasion, albeit lacking in ethos or logic, is very powerful because it appeals to the prevailing social desirables such as sexiness, being cool, in addition to its great tast e without the sugar. We can also observe that the new social desirables already changed especially with the necessity of being with a special ââ¬Å"someoneâ⬠. Coke managed to fill the modern age emotional vacuity by associating itself with an attractive girl who is helplessly attracted to a guy who prefers coke zero. Albeit the approach lacks logic or ethos, coke knew that the audience will overlook it in lieu of the stronger rhetoric of its pathos. Another strong case for capitalizing on the cultural context of a given society is its need to look good in order to become socially acceptable and desirable. Virginia Slims cigarette appeals to this cultural need to be beautiful and advertizes its product as a panacea that could fill that need. Virginia Slims cigarette may not explicitly state this in their advertisements but the use of attractive women who are beautiful by the standard of western society exudes the rhetoric of aesthetic appeal that is connected to filling a need for pathos or emotional fulfillment. The cigarette maker knows that in western culture, particularly America, being loved or desired has the pre-requisite of being physically beautiful in order to attract men. Such, it capitalizes on using womenââ¬â¢s image as models which are considered to be beautiful during its particular era thatâ⬠act as archetypes of beauty and confidence, but also set a standard for such traits, which most women feel
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Experiment on Effect of Music on Driving Performance
Experiment on Effect of Music on Driving Performance Research shows that listening to music is mostly common in an automobile (Wikman et al., 1998). Moreover, compared to other activities that might cause a distraction, there is a popular misconception that listening or singing to music while driving on the road causes little-to-no-risk (Dibben and Williamson, 2007). Several types of research and experiments have studied the effects of music on the performance of the operator in different controlled environments and under different conditions (Beh and Hirst, 1999; Baldwin and Coyne, 2003). On one hand, research has continuously supported the idea that under certain conditions, listening to music does increase alertness by countering sleepiness when driving (Braitman et al., 2008; Bellinger et al., 2009; Brodsky and Kizner, 2012). Experiments have also shown that music played close to a persons comfort volume level (72 Dba for male and 66 dba for female ) will induce faster reactions to signals (Turner et al., 1996). On the other hand, listening to music accompanies several behaviors that take the drivers attention. These include changing songs, scrolling to a playlist, fine-tuning a radio station, and swapping CDs which directs the drivers eyes away from the road and leads to single-handed driving (Horberry et al., 2006). Listening to music while driving might also have another drawback as it will cause less auditory acuity for the sound of the music caps road noises (e.g. sirens, horns, vehicle warning signs) (Consiglio et al., 2003; Brodsky and Slor, 2013). This would considerably decrease the operators overall awareness of a situation (Lee et al., 2012). Additionally, momentary loud peaks in music disrupt vestibulocochlear control leading to a decrease in the reaction time of the driver thus increasing the risk of collision (Wikman et al., 1998). An important note is that previous research showed that some music genres like Pop, rock, and dance contain more frequent peaks in the tracks than o ther genres like classic, vocal, and rap (Hughes et al., 2013). Moreover, research has shown that the drivers perception of moving objects can be altered based on the pace of the background music (Brodsky, 2001). Furthermore, research done at the University of Negev in 2012 showed that although drivers that listened to their favorite music songs had elevated positive moods and enjoyed the trips, they exhibited more steering inaccuracies, aggressive driving patterns, and traffic violations compared to drivers that listened to songs they are not familiar with (Brodsky and Slor, 2013). A lot of research have considered effects of music based on its familiarity with the driver (Cummings et al., 2001), loudness (Ayres and Hughes, 1986), and pace (Iwamiya, 1997). Music genres are mainly categorized into Pop, Rock, Dance, hip-hop, and Rap (ÃÅ"nal et al., 2012). This categorization is based on the most popular music for individuals aged between 16 to 30. To our knowledge, there is no research that tests whether the effects of different types of music genres on driving performance(Oron-Gilad et al., 2008). The aim of this study is to test if there are any different effects of genres of music on the driver performance. The objective is to set the genres that enhance the drivers performance and the those that predict the worst outcome.(Ho and Spence, 2005; McEvoy et al., 2006) In this research, we seek to study the effects of the 5 different genres presented earlier on driving performance while controlling all other effects of in-cabin music like volume, familiarity, pace, and tempo. Hypothesis 1: Given that Pop, rock, and dance music have more peaks/climaxes than other music genres, we predict that they will have a negative effect on the performance. Hypothesis 2: On the other, we predict that listening to hip-hop and rap will have a positive outcome when it comes to the drivers performance. The proposed project will be a multivariate experimental design. The first independent variable in this study is the type of music the driver is listening to. These include 5 different genres compare to a control situation, which is when the driver is not listening to any music. 20 popular tracks (4 for each genre) will be chosen to be played during the experiment. The tracks will be chosen from a website called Grooveshark (Grooveshark.org) which contains top charts from each genre. The choice of tracks is very important to this experiment since as mentioned above the pace/beats per minute (BPM) of a song, and familiarity does affect the driving performance, thus all the tracks were chosen should have 120-125 BPM rate and should popular so that every participant will know one of these three tracks. The second independent variable will be the type of incident the driver must respond to. For the current study, a simulated world of the roads in London was created. The setting is intercity roads and highways. Incidents that the participant will face were designed specifically to mimic the possible scenarios that a London driver would experience (National Survey, 2016) they are characterized by 2 groups : Highway incidents Traffic Pileup Car following Monotonous driving Intercity Road incidents Car coming from the left violating the giveaway rule Parked car suddenly driving off Intersection crossing The dependent variables will be mental effort value and the driving performance. The former will be assessed using The Rating Scale Metal Effort (value from 0 to 150 where 0 indicates no effort and 150 indicates extreme effort) (Zijlstra, 1993) at different intervals during the study . In a series of studies by Zijlstra demonstrated that the scale is sensitive to changes in task load and correlates well with physiological changes based on task difficulty. Therefore, the scale is a valid and reliable measure for subjective ratings of mental effort, and an indicator of workload and information processing during the driving task. Throughout the experiment, the driving simulator will log relevant driving performance indicators during a series of 6 incidents that the participants will undergo them twice, once with no music as a control and another while listing to different music genres. More detailed description of the performance indicators will be mentioned in the measurement description. The experiment requires 85 participants that should have the following requirements: Participants should be between 18 and 65 years old A valid driving license for more than 6 months No hearing deficiencies Not persecuted by traffic court Participants will be selected to ensure a representative sample of the population in London. The ratio gender and age should be statistically similar to the drivers in London. According to the national transport, survey done in 2010, the gender ratio was 58% males and 42% females, and the mean age was 40 years. Finally, upon completion of the study, the participants will be rewarded a 20Ã £ amazon voucher. All participants will be given a detailed information about the experiment prior participation and will be asked to sign a consent form. This document will include the risks and potential benefits, information about the researcher, and ERGO contact information. Also, the consent form will inform the participants that they have the right to drop out of the study at any stage, and withdraw their data after the study have been completed with no negative impact on them. The study will only be conducted with the approval of the ERGO committee at the University of Southampton. Finally, the participants will be each given a number that will be used in all data logging, questioners, results, and reports so that participant confidentiality is preserved. All soft data will be kept on a secure hard drive and all hard copy data will be kept in a locked cabin under the supervision of the principal investigator. Participants will go through all highway and intercity incidents twice (6 incidents as a control with no music, and another 6 with different music genres playing in the car). When the participants arrive, they will be debriefed and then guided through consent form. Once the participants agree to join the study, they sign the consent form. After that, they will undergo a 3-minute online Hearing deficiency test designed by the Royal institute of Deaf People (www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk) to check for any hearing deficiencies. If they pass the test they will go through a 10-minute training session in the driving simulator so that they will get to know the driving simulator. If the researchers observed any participants having simulation-sickness they would exclude from the experiment at this point. Moving on, the participants will choose 5 songs (one from each genre) that they are familiar with, and they will be informed that they should respond with a single value from 0 to 150 when a research asks them about their mental effort during the driving task. At this point, the participants will be asked to go through the 12 different scenarios with a 5-min break between each 6 incidents. The scenarios will be generated in a random order for the different participants using randomgenerator.org. Such that everyone gets a different sequence of the scenarios with different music genres. Avoiding the effect of sequence on the outcomes. To achieve a controllable environment a couple of measures will be taken. Firstly, the only songs played to the participant are the ones he/she chose before he started the driving simulation.Secondly, the music will be played at a moderate sound level throughout the experiment (72 Dba for male and 66 dba for female ) to exclude any effects of the different volume levels on the drivers performance. Thirdly, road noises simulated road noises will not be played during any of the tests because the research is solely interested in the effects of different music genres on driving performance. A pilot study will be conducted prior to the main study to ensure all the information given to the participants are clear. In addition, a pilot study will allow the researchers to address any possible factors that might affect the outcome and thereby produce a non-replicable result. The pilot will be made up of 10 individuals who will go through the whole experiment and afterward sit with the researchers and address their concerns in a focus group. The feedback will be taken into consideration and the study procedure will be adapted to try to avoid any problem that might arise during the data collection phase. Each incident will last 2 minutes, so each participant will be in the car simulator for an average of 40 minutes (including a 5-minute half-time). Including the debriefing talks, 10-minute training session, consent form, hearing test, and music selection music selection the whole experiment should last an average of one hour for every participant (Strayer et al., 2003; Sheller, 2004; Patel et al., 2008) The experiment will be done in the Southampton University Driving Simulator (SUDS) with a 135-degree field-of-view which contains a Jaguar XJ saloon vehicle linked to the STISIM Drive simulation software, it has an interactive driving simulator with three driving displays supporting a 135-degree driver field-of-view (University of Southampton Driving Simulator, 2016). 1000 Watt Panasonic speaker was used to play the background music that was linked to an iPod. A digital sound level meter was also used to measure the loudness of the music and keep the loudness level on 72 Dba for male and 66 for female participants. To measure driver mental effort the researchers will use The Rating Scale Metal Effort and will log the values on an excel sheet. For the hearing deficiency test, the researchers will use the online hearing deficiency test. For the driving performance monitoring, the SUDS will record specific values for each tone of the 12 of scenarios. The research will use relevant indicators used in other driving simulator experiments that test driver performance because of their effectiveness to portray the overall driver performance in each of the designed incidents.(ÃÅ"nal et al., 2012) Traffic Pileup: Mean minimum headway which is the time needed for the following car to reach the lead car. Absolute minimum headway time. Car following: Mean speed while following the car Standard Deviation of speed Monotonous driving: 2.a 2.b Car coming from the left Maximum deceleration Minimum velocity Maximum Break percentage Parked car suddenly driving off Time to contact the moving car 4.a 4.b Intersection Crossing Distance to the approaching car when the driver crossed the intersection The results will be analyzed using the MANOVA analysis. The two dependent variables will be mean values on the driving performance and mental efforts. The output of those will be compared across the 12 different scenarios. In addition, interactions between dependent variables will be analyzed (in the MANOVA analysis). Bonfornni posthoc tests will allow pointing where the exact difference is between the different scenarios. Finally the . SPSS version 24 will be used for analysis. References Ayres, T.J. and Hughes, P. (1986) Visual acuity with noise and music at 107 dbA. Journal of Auditory Research. Baldwin, C.L. and Coyne, J.T. (2003) Mental workload as a function of traffic density: Comparison of physiological, behavioral, and subjective indices Proceedings of the Second International Driving Symposium on Human Factors. 19-24. Beh, H.C. and Hirst, R. (1999) Performance on driving-related tasks during music. Ergonomics, 42 (8), 1087-1098. Bellinger, D.B., Budde, B.M., Machida, M., Richardson, G.B. and Berg, W.P. (2009) The effect of cellular telephone conversation and music listening on response time in braking. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 12 (6), 441-451. Braitman, K.A., Kirley, B.B., Mccartt, A.T. and Chaudhary, N.K. (2008) Crashes of novice teenage drivers: Characteristics and contributing factors. Journal of Safety Research, 39 (1), 47-54. Brodsky, W. (2001) The effects of music tempo on simulated driving performance and vehicular control. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 4 (4), 219-241. Brodsky, W. and Kizner, M. 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Journal of experimental psychology: Applied, 11 (3), 157. Horberry, T., Anderson, J., Regan, M.A., Triggs, T.J. and Brown, J. (2006) Driver distraction: The effects of concurrent in-vehicle tasks, road environment complexity and age on driving performance. Accident Analysis Prevention, 38 (1), 185-191. Hughes, G.M., Rudin-Brown, C.M. and Young, K.L. (2013) A simulator study of the effects of singing on driving performance. Accident Analysis Prevention, 50, 787-792. Iwamiya, S.-I. (1997) Interaction between auditory and visual processing in car audio: simulation experiment using video reproduction. Applied human science, 16 (3), 115-119. Lee, J.D., Roberts, S.C., Hoffman, J.D. and Angell, L.S. (2012) Scrolling and driving how an MP3 player and its aftermarket controller affect driving performance and visual behavior. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 54 (2), 250-263. Mcevoy, S.P., Stevenson, M.R. and Woodward, M. (2006) The impact of driver distraction on road safety: results from a representative survey in two Australian states. Injury prevention, 12 (4), 242-247. National Survey (2016). Department of Transport. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/8933/nts2010-02.pdf. Oron-Gilad, T., Ronen, A. and Shinar, D. (2008) Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) while driving. Accident Analysis Prevention, 40 (3), 851-860. Patel, J., Ball, D.J. and Jones, H. (2008) Factors influencing subjective ranking of driver distractions. Accident Analysis Prevention, 40 (1), 392-395. Sheller, M. (2004) Automotive emotions feeling the car. Theory, culture society, 21 (4-5), 221-242. Strayer, D.L., Drews, F.A. and Johnston, W.A. (2003) Cell phone-induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving. Journal of experimental psychology: Applied, 9 (1), 23. Turner, M.L., Fernandez, J.E. and Nelson, K. (1996) The effect of music amplitude on the reaction to unexpected visual events. The Journal of General Psychology, 123 (1), 51-62. ÃÅ"nal, A.B., Steg, L. and Epstude, K. (2012) The influence of music on mental effort and driving performance. Accident Analysis Prevention, 48, 271-278. University of Southampton Driving Simulator (2016). Available from: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/research/facilities/driving_simulator.page. Wikman, A.-S., Nieminen, T. and Summala, H. (1998) Driving experience and time-sharing during in-car tasks on roads of different width. Ergonomics, 41 (3), 358-372. Zijlstra, F.R.H. (1993) Efficiency in work behaviour: A design approach for modern tools. TU Delft, Delft University of Technology.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Situation Evasion
Situation evasion in Johnson Pharmaceuticals By:Course:College:professor:Date:There are different types of situation leadership models with each having its own set of clearly defined principals that govern it. For a management to choose which set to use it must be aware of the variables that internally exist in its organization; the work force and policies to follow. Even as this developments crop up the organizations must be careful to infringe the rights of the workers or breach any direction that was stipulated in their work contracts (Lindsay-2014). External factors like new government policies and stiff competition from competitor organize also initiates the situation leadership skills protocol among its management. The status quo of how and when activities of an organization are done usually makes a sharp shift to keep up with the dynamics of the wakeup call. Organizations risk being shut down if they become non compliant to state regulatory laws or risk being kicked out of the business by competitors if they don't keep up with the development pace. When and if a company is forced or willingly decides to initiate the situation leadership protocol, it must analyze the variables to enable it pick the most effective model. Among factors to consider is size of management board compared to size of normal employees, the relevant skills that the workforce posses and the motivation levels among its workforce. Before that the organization must prioritize the tasks it wants to do and write down specific timeframes for each, depending on the urgency the priorities must always be narrowed down to three for easy execution and assessment. This was the exact position the Johnson Pharmaceuticals was in a few years back when the food and drug agency (FDA) was all over their backs for it to comply with the new policies and standards of production. Johnson Pharmaceuticals has an array of companies that produce disease and curative drugs in addition to the other medical cosmetic products. Due to the urgency of the policies to be implemented, compliance of the new laws had to be made the top priority in all its vast industries by default. To be efficient and curb total market dominance by its competitors the company made customer satisfaction its second and last priority at that time. Every manager in the vast organization was tasked in choosing which situation model to deploy as each had company had different markets and a specific competitor to conquer. Failure to comply meant revocation of its ISO certificate and eventual closure and failure to curb competition would mean losing customers, being thrown out of business and eventual shut down. If the two courses were not prioritized at the same the tumbling down of the organization was as sure as death (Lindsay-2014). The variables in complying with the new FDA policies were not as diverse and daunting as the variables around customer satisfaction. Language of communication, delivery time, product uniqueness, consistency in delivery, perfection of services and quality product are among the universal variables around customer satisfaction topic. A complete analysis on them will draw a conclusion that most of them are external and efficiency would only be ascertained if the customer base is retained if not increase and if the management would get feedback from customer on their product and service delivery. Either way, the task had to be done. Question 1 The situational leadership style used by the CEO of company A was the DIRECTIVE style of situation handling. As explained in my introduction; a manager must take note of the job skills and motivation levels of his workforce. The work force in company A low amount of skills and low amount of motivation required for the task ahead. To counter this, the management had to deploy high motivation actions and high structuring actions (Lindsay-2014). The actions were meant to add more skills to the workforce and motivate it into doing the job. Here the CEO had to put his hands in the job to show his lot that the job can be done. The dynamics of this kind of situation model are that the management has to make all the policies and decisions; this is meant to reduce psychological pressure on the workforce. It has a single communication pathway where the workforce only report back to the management.The CEO of Company B used the DELEGATING style of situation management. This style is used when the workforce requires low amount of structuring and low amount of motivation skills. In this scenario the workforce is usually equipped with the basic skills on the job and there are high motivation levels among them. This is the simplest type of situation handling as the workforce is experienced and it knows what is required from them. The management usually makes the policies with the help of workers; assign specific instructions to them then the workers later communicate the progress up the management ladder. Question 2 The delegating style is deduced to have an advantage over the latter as there are fewer variables in it. Only praise for motivation is required to keep the spirits of the workforce (Lindsay-2014). If the two styles were used in a short timeline within the two companies then delegating would still take the day because experience reduces the timeline in which tasks are normally done. Question 3 It would be very surprising if the directing style outdid the delegating style in performance. This would mean that there was serious information breakdown on the information path and imply that there is a big managerial problem in company B. Other critics may argue that the workforce in directing style was eager learn and was responsive to the little motivation or many the management in it was more supporting than the workforce in delegating style (Lindsay-2014). Well, the statement may hold water but then likelihood of that is very low. ReferencesA book by Evans, J.R and Lindsay, W.M written in 2014,Managing for quality and performance (9th edition)Cengage learning.
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