Requirements: each entry must be at least 125 words.

Homework #1

4^th Entry – Rationalization.  Consider Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  A common (mis)interpretation of the poem is that it’s about taking the nontraditional path.  However, it seems to be more about a poem about rationalizing one’s actions, as described in the video below.  After reviewing the video, comment on this tendency of humans to rationalize actions.  Why would this narrator tell a story where he/she clearly alters events? 

Embedded Video Player: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

HOMEWORK #2

5^th Entry – Creative Nonfiction: In the preface to nonfiction (p. 2803 of your text), the editors tell us that creative nonfiction illustrates that “no direct duplication of reality is possible in language, that all writing is affected by the author’s point of view” (Baym et al, 2014, p. 2803).  Do you think that is true?  Can there such a thing as a truly reliable narrator?  Consider the excerpt from Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying that you read this week as you prepare a response to this question.  How is this point made (or not) in Danticat’s writing?

Clinical Trial

Between 2004 and 2007, the National Institutes of Health conducted a STEP vaccine clinical trial—Phase IIB “test-of-concept” study.

The STEP study is the name of a clinical trial to test an experimental human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine. The STEP study enrolled 3,000 participants at sites in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the United States. The study was designed to test an HIV vaccine, which aimed to stimulate production of immune system T-cells that can kill HIV-infected cells.

Based on its first evaluation of vaccine efficacy, the findings showed there were 24 cases of HIV infection among the 741 volunteers who received at least one dose of the investigational vaccine compared with 21 cases of HIV infection among the 762 volunteers who were vaccinated with the placebo. In volunteers who received at least two vaccinations, there were 19 cases of HIV infection among the 672 volunteers who received the investigational vaccine and 11 instances of HIV infection among the 691 volunteers who received placebo. The study investigators of the vaccine trials have decided to cease immunizations and are contacting study volunteers to inform them of the developments.

Reference:

National Institutes of Health (2007). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
           Diseases: Immunizations are discontinued in two HIV vaccine trials.
           Retrieved from http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2007/
           Pages/step_statement.aspx

Using the Internet, research further on STEP study and STEP vaccine clinical trials and its parameters.

Based on your research, understanding, and above information, answer the following questions:

• Prior to beginning this study, how would you have described the risks and benefits of the study to participants?
• What are the ethical issues surrounding this study at the beginning and when the decision was made to terminate the study?
• ZERO Plagiarism, cited reference

Assignment 2: LASA 1: Personal Power, Communication and Effective Persuasion

The purpose of this assignment is for you to think about personal power type and how it can influence our ability to negotiate, communicate and persuade others during a negotiation.

In this assignment, you will write a research paper (5-6 pages) which will examine communication techniques, the use of power, and how the concepts of effective persuasion are applied to a specific situation.

Consider a scenario you have experienced or observed which involved a negotiation, persuasive techniques and balance of power. This could be a situation you experienced at work, home, school, shopping for a big ticket item or even negotiating at a yard sale or flea market.  You may also choose a video clip found on the Internet which involves a negotiation as the basis for this assignment. There is a link to a sample video scenario in the webilography entitled: Workplace Communication.

Describe the scenario you are using as the basis for this assignment. The scenario must include elements of negotiation, persuasive techniques, and balance of power.  If your selected scenario does not contain certain elements, then use what you have learned from your studies in this course, along with your research, to expand the scenario to include these elements. Provide a rationale for your choices.  If you are using a video, please include the URL in your description.

Describe what you believe to be the top three communication issues presented in the scenario.  Explain your choices.

Identify the sources of power used in the negotiation and explain whether the sources of power were perceived or real. Use examples to justify your response.

Describe the relative balance of powers between the parties in the scenario.

Assume you were the mediator in the chosen scenario and recommend strategies which might reduce the conflict between the parties.

List and describe the top 5 factors you believe should be considered when building an effective negotiation strategy.  Explain your rationale for choosing the factors you included.

Discuss how persuasion differs from negotiation and describe how each was used in the scenario. Explain if persuasion or negotiation was more effective in the scenario. Justify your response.

Use the following file-naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M3_A2.doc.

Extra Solar Planets Lab

1. There are two types of planets in the solar system, terrestrial planets (like the Earth) and gas giants (like Jupiter). How do the mass, radius, and densities of these planetary types differ?
2. Let’s say you discover a planet that’s 50 times the mass of the Earth.Even without visiting the planet, what might you presume about the planet (what will its general characteristics be)?
3. How do the distances from the Sun differ for terrestrial and Jovian planets?
4. Go to the Web site for the Extrasolar Planet http://exoplanet.eu/  Look through the page. How many planets have been discovered to date?

                        Click on the “Catalog” icon. Choose Candidates detected by Radial Velocity from the pull down Planet menu.  Look through many of the discoveries.  Are these planets similar in mass or are they all very different? (Note that masses are given in Jupiter Masses, thus a 1 value is equal to Jupiter’s mass.)

The masses of the planets detected by radial velocity seem to flucuatte greatly. They are not all similar.

                        Why do we mainly see only mass values?  (Think about the Radial Velocity detection method and what information it gives us about a planet.)

                        Choose Candidates detected by “Transiting Planets”.  Do these planets seem to be any different from the “radial velocity” planets?

                        Why do we see both mass and radius on many of these?  (Talk about the detection method.)

                        Click on the Diagrams button from the very top nav bar. You will see scatter plots or histograms of the properties of the candidates (for example, the numbers of objects in given ranges of mass).Select the Histogram Plot mode (near top right).  Select various properties to plot from the pull down menu and observe the results (e.g. orbital period, planet radius, planet mass, etc.). You don’t need to change any other settings.

Answer the following questions:

1.      Are most of the planets found using this method more massive or less massive than Jupiter?  Note again that the unit “MJ” means “Jupiter masses”.

2.      Do most of these planets have orbital periods that are shorter or longer than a year?

3.      Are most of the planets closer to or farther from their stars than the Earth is to the Sun?

4.      Now select the Scatter plot mode (top right).  Here you can look at the relationship between different planetary and stellar parameters for ALL planets that have been found.Inspect (see question below) the plot for PLOT 1: “Semi-Major Axis” versus “Planetary Mass,”;  using a linear scale for both axes (change the range of the x-axis to better see the data in certain areas of the plot, like min= 0, max = 10, and then max = 5, max = 2, and so on). 

PLOT 2: “Semi-Major Axis” versus “Orbital Eccentricity,” choose x-axis min= 0, max = 10;

PLOT 3a: “Planetary Mass” versus “Planetary Radius” choose x-axis min= 0, max = 5, notice that our Jupiter would be found at (1,1) on the plot.  How are these planets different from our Jupiter? 

PLOT 3b: keeping the variables the same, change the x-axis min= 0, max = 1, these are all the planets equal to or smaller than Jupiter.  How do these planets compare to the ones in our Solar System?

PLOT 3c: keeping the variables the same, change the x-axis min= 0, max = .1, these are all the planets similar to Earth-size, Earth would be at the point (.003,.09), very near the bottom left corner.  How do these planets compare to the terrestrial planets in our Solar System?

5.      Do you notice any patterns or clumps? What does this tell us about the planets we’ve found?  Describe patterns for each plot listed above, be sure to label your answer to each plot.

6.      Research what the “Habitable Zone” is for a star and define it in your own words(provide your reference).

a.       Where is the Habitable Zone in our own Solary System?

b.      What kind of life would we expect to be in this “Habitable Zone” around other stars?

c.       What would it take for life to survive outside of a planet’s Habitable Zone? Explain. (What physical processes might be going on?)

d.      Are there places in our own Solar System outside the Habitable Zone where we theorize life might exist?  Explain, try to be specific in your locations.

                        Write a summary that includes a short comparison between the properties of the planets in our Solar System that you studied above to the properties of the extrasolar planets you studied here.  What conclusions can you draw about Earth-sized planets, are they rare or numerous?

Make sure to include all references.