Interest in Public Health Free Essays

The pursuit of a satisfying and meaningful career is my ultimate goal and a master of public health degree is a stepping stone along the path to a future career. For me, it is also a responsibility I owe to myself. My university education exposed me to a number of public health issues. We will write a custom essay sample on Interest in Public Health or any similar topic only for you Order Now While at university, I was affiliated to an anti AIDS club whose increased emphasis was placed on behavioural change to prevent the risk of STDs, HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. I particularly joined this club so I could make an impact on fellow students and prevent the spread of the virus as I had lost a lot of my close relations to HIV/AIDS. It was from this point that my interest in public health arose. During my fifth year of university education, I proposed to conduct a research on the role of physiotherapy in patients HIV/AIDS patients but could not conduct the named research due to funding difficulties and ethics issues. Nevertheless, I still picked on another public health topic ‘the prevalence of complaints of arm, neck and shoulder among office workers who use computers’ and I earned myself an award as the best graduating student in Research. The findings of the study further prompted me to make a difference and prevent preventable illnesses, thus considered public health research as a career. My work experience as a physiotherapist is within the field of public health and has developed my disease identification, treatment and to a lesser extent preventive skills. I am currently engaged in community (outreach)programmes for HIV/AIDS patients. My role in this activity, is to identify and mobilise patients who are on Anti retro virus drugs who have residual effects (weak limbs) of ARVs and other people in the community who might actually need physiotherapy services. Though this integration of physiotherapy services with HIV/AIDS activities at the hospital is still in its infancy stage, as a department we have achieved an increase of 30% in the number of patients captured in the community and are actually accessing our services. What about the rest of the 70% ? we could still do better. Personally, being the overseer of the physiotherapy aspect of the HIV/AIDS programme I have earned a great deal of insight on issues pertaining to . However, each time we embark on the usual community visits and find cases that could have been prevented, I feel challenged and to some extent motivated to do more than I am already doing because currently our main emphasis is on the curative aspect of disease rather than prevention and primary care . in addition, I as diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism in 2009 and I realise that I am not able to meet the physical demands of my current job and would want to contribute to population health at an administrative level. My participation in the programme confirmed my budding interest in preventive medicine and improved quality of care. I am drawn to public health because of its unbounded solutions to health problems. I am in search of public health skills develop and be able to contribute positively towards the health of the community and society at large. In addition, I feel that my current degree alone, is not offering me adequate career opportunities, in which case gaining a further qualification particularly master of public health, will provide me with new career options and advance my prospects immensely. After I complete the master of public health programme, I will have acquired problem solving skills, locating and using information effectively and analytical thinking skills. In view of this, I intend to join an Non Governmental Organisation dealing in public health issues and possibly work in a rural area as that is where the bulk of the work is to be done. Currently I am studying for a certificate in HIV/AIDS management, I believe the certificate and the master of public health coupled together will help me perform better in my future job role as I would like to be involved in the devising of programmes focused to prevent and provide quality health care especially in HIV/AIDS related projects. How to cite Interest in Public Health, Essay examples

Rhetorical mode free essay sample

Rhetorical modes are methods for effectively communicating through language and writing. Complete the following chart to identify the purpose and structure of the various rhetorical modes used in academic writing. Provide at least two tips for writing each type of rhetorical device. NOTE: You may not copy and paste anything directly from the textbook or a web site. All information included in this assignment must be written in your own words. Rhetorical Mode Purpose – Explain when or why each rhetorical mode is used. Structure – Identify the organizational method that works best with each rhetorical mode. Tips – Provide two tips for writing in each rhetorical mode. Narration Narration is used to tell stories. Narrative writing typically progresses in chronological order. A plot summary can help with organization. Keeping the human senses in mind can help keep details strong. Illustration An essay that clearly demonstrates and supports a point through the use of evidence. We will write a custom essay sample on Rhetorical mode or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The thesis should be at the beginning, the supporting evidence in the body of the paper. Should use a wide variety of words and phrasing. The evidence should be appropriate to the topics and the audience. Description To make sure your audience is fully immersed in the words on the page by using sensory details. Spatial order, depending on the writer, descriptions could go from top to bottom or left to right. Avoid empty descriptors if possible. Use spatial order to organize your descriptive writing. Classification To break the broad subject down into smaller, more manageable and more specific parts. Organized by breaking it down into subcategories. Choose topics you know well when writing this type of essay. Make sure you break down your topic at least 3 different ways. Process analysis The purpose is to explain how to do something or how something works. In chronological order, step by step instructions on how something is accomplished. Always have someone else read it to make sure it makes sense. Always use strong details and clear examples. Definition The purpose is to simply define something. It is organized by context, the circumstance, conditions, or settings in which something occurs or exists. Clearly define what you’re writing about. Make sure everything is organized. Compare and Contrast The purpose is to highlight the similarities between two or more similar objects while contrasting highlights the differences between two or more objects. It is organized by introduction, body, and conclusion. There should be advantages and disadvantages. Use comparing and contrasting to find likes or differences. Comparisons focus on similarities and contrast focuses on differences. Cause and The purpose is to answer why are things like this? What is the effect, or result, of this? What is the cause of this? Explain how one event leads to another. Make a list of causes and prioritize them according to their significance on the effect. Put causes under main categories and explain them if you find too many interrelated information. Persuasion The purpose is to convince, or persuade, the reader that the opinion, or assertion, or claim of the writer is correct or valid. It is organized by intro, body, and conclusion. Remember to enter their world, provide the reader with compelling evidence. Write a 100- to 150-word paragraph explanation that demonstrates why compare and contrast is the appropriate rhetorical mode for the topic you chose in Week Two. Compare and contrast is the appropriate rhetorical mode for the topic I chose because I have two of the similar objects that will be compared and contrasted and also the differences of the two. I will be comparing and contrasting the two methods of losing weight, which are diet and exercise or diet pills. In the process of me comparing and contrasting the two I will be learning a lot about what I am in the process of doing which makes this project so interesting to me. I am sure there is going to be a lot of similarities and differences.

Eviews Illustrator free essay sample

Windows, Word and Excel are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Corporation. Professional Organization of English Majors is a trademark of Garrison Keillor. All other product names mentioned in this manual may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Quantitative Micro Software, LLC 4521 Campus Drive, #336, Irvine CA, 92612-2699 Telephone: (949) 856-3368 Fax: (949) 856-2044 web: www. eviews. com First edition: 2007 Second edition: 2009 Editor: Meredith Startz Index: Palmer Publishing Services Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Regression is the king of econometric tools. Regression’s job is to find numerical values for theoretical parameters. In the simplest case this means telling us the slope and intercept of a line drawn through two dimensional data. But EViews tells us lots more than just slope and intercept. In this chapter you’ll see how easy it is to get parameter estimates plus a large variety of auxiliary statistics. We begin our exploration of EViews’ regression tool with a quick look back at the NYSE volume data that we first saw in the opening chapter. Then we’ll talk about how to instruct EViews to estimate a regression and how to read the information about each estimated coefficient from the EViews output. In addition to regression coefficients, EViews provides a great deal of summary information about each estimated equation. We’ll walk through these items as well. We take a look at EViews’ features for testing hypotheses about regression coefficients and conclude with a quick look at some of EViews’ most important views of regression results. Regression is a big subject. This chapter focuses on EViews’ most important regression features. We postpone until later chapters various issues, including forecasting (Chapter 8, â€Å"Forecasting†), serial correlation (Chapter 13, â€Å"Serial Correlation—Friend or Foe? †), and heteroskedasticity and nonlinear regression (Chapter 14, â€Å"A Taste of Advanced Estimation†). A First Regression Returning to our earlier examination of trend growth in the volume of stock trades, we start with a scatter diagram of the logarithm of volume plotted against time. EViews has drawn a straight line—a regression line—through the cloud of points plotted with log ( volume ) on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal. The regression line can be written as an algebraic expression: log ( volume t ) = a + bt Using EViews to estimate a regression lets us replace a and b with numbers 62—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares based on the data in the workfile. In a bit we’ll see that EViews estimates the regression line to be: log ( volume t ) = – 2. 629649 + 0. 017278t In other words, the intercept a is estimated to be -2. 6 and the slope b is estimated to be 0. 017. Most data points in the scatter plot fall either above or below the regression line. For example, for observation 231 (which happens to be the first quarter of 1938) the actual trading volume was far below the predicted regression line. In other words, the regression line contains errors which aren’t accounted for in the estimated equation. It’s standard to write a regression model to include a term u t to account for these errors. (Econometrics texts sometimes use the Greek letter epsilon, e , rather than u for the error term. ) A complete equation can be written as: log ( volume t ) = a + bt + u t Regression is a statistical procedure. As such, regression analysis takes uncertainty into ? account. Along with an estimated value for each parameter (e. g. , b = 0. 017 ) we get: †¢ Measures of the accuracy of each of the estimated parameters and related information for computing hypothesis tests. †¢ Measures of how well the equation fits the data: How much is explained by the estimated values of a and b and how much remains unexplained. †¢ Diagnostics to check up on whether assumptions underlying the regression model seem satisfied by the data. We’re re-using the data from Chapter 1, â€Å"A Quick Walk Through† to illustrate the features of EViews’ regression procedure. If you want to follow along on the computer, use the workfile â€Å"NYSEVOLUME† as shown. A First Regression—63 EViews allows you to run a regression either by creating an equation object or by typing commands in the command pane. We’ll start with the former approach. Choose the menu command Object/New Object†¦. Pick Equation in the New Object dialog. The empty equation window pops open with space to fill in the variables you want in the regression. Regression equations are easily specified in EViews by a list in which the first variable is the dependent variable—the variable the regression is to explain, followed by a list of explanatory—or independent—variables. Because EViews allows an expression pretty much anywhere a variable is allowed, we can use either variable names or expressions in our regression specification. We want log ( volume ) for our dependent variable and a time trend for our independent variable. Fill out the equation dialog by entering â€Å"log(volume) c @trend†. Hint: EViews tells one item in a list from another by looking for spaces between items. For this reason, spaces generally aren’t allowed inside a single item. If you type: log (volume) c @trend you’ll get an error message. 64—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Exception to the previous hint: When a text string is called for in a command, spaces are allowed inside paired quotes. Reminder: The letter â€Å"C† in a regression specification notifies EViews to estimate an intercept—the parameter we called a above. Hint: Another reminder: @trend is an EViews function to generate a time trend, 0, 1, 2, †¦. Our regression results appear below: The Really Important Regression Results There are 25 pieces of information displayed for this very simple regression. To sort out all the different goodies, we’ll start by showing a couple of ways that the main results might be presented in a scientific paper. Then we’ll discuss the remaining items one number at a time. A favorite scientific convention for reporting the results of a single regression is display the estimated equation inline with standard errors placed below estimated coefficients, looking something like: The Really Important Regression Results—65 log ( volume t ) = – 2. 629649 + 0. 017278 ? t , ser = 0. 967362, R = 0. 852357 ( 0. 89576 ) ( 0. 000334 ) 2 Hint: The dependent variable is also called the left-hand side variable and the independent variables are called the right-hand side variables. That’s because when you write out the regression equation algebraically, as above, convention puts the dependent variable to the left of the equals sign and the independent variabl es to the right. The convention for inline reporting works well for a single equation, but becomes unwieldy when you have more than one equation to report. Results from several related regressions might be displayed in a table, looking something like Table 2. Table 2 (1) Intercept -2. 629649 (0. 089576) 0. 017278 (0. 000334) — (2) -0. 106396 (0. 045666) -0. 000736 (0. 000417) 6. 63E-06 (1. 37E-06) 0. 868273 (0. 022910) 0. 289391 0. 986826 t t 2 log(volume(-1)) ser — 0. 967362 0. 852357 R 2 Column (2)? Don’t worry, we’ll come back to it later. Hint: Good scientific practice is to report only digits that are meaningful when displaying a number. We’ve printed far too many digits in both the inline display and in Table 2 so as to make it easy for you to match up the displayed numbers with the EViews output. From now on we’ll be better behaved. EViews regression output is divided into three panels. The top panel summarizes the input to the regression, the middle panel gives information about each regression coefficient, and the bottom panel provides summary statistics about the whole regression equation. 66—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares The most important elements of EViews regression output are the estimated regression coefficients and the statistics associated with each coefficient. We begin by linking up the numbers in the inline display—or equivalently column (1) of Table 2—with the EViews output shown earlier. The names of the independent variables in the regression appear in the first column (labeled â€Å"Variable†) in the EViews output, with the estimated regression coefficients appearing one column over to the right (labeled â€Å"Coefficient†). In econometrics texts, regression coefficients are commonly denoted with a Greek letter such as a or b or, occasionally, with a Roman b . In contrast, EViews presents you with the variable names; for example, â€Å"@TREND† rather than â€Å" b †. The third EViews column, labeled â€Å"Std. Error,† gives the standard error associated with each regression coefficient. In the scientific reporting displays above, we’ve reported the standard error in parentheses directly below the associated coefficient. The standard error is a measure of uncertainty about the true value of the regression coefficient. The standard error of the regression, abbreviated â€Å"ser,† is the estimated standard deviation of the error terms, u t . In the inline display, â€Å"ser=0. 967362† appears to the right of the regression equation proper. EViews labels the ser as â€Å"S. E. of regression,† reporting its value in the left column in the lower summary block. Note that the third column of EViews regression output reports the standard error of the estimated coefficients while the summary block below reports the standard error of the regression. Don’t confuse the two. The final statistic in our scientific display is R . R measures the overall fit of the regression line, in the sense of measuring how close the points are to the estimated regression line 2 in the scatter plot. EViews computes R as the fraction of the variance of the dependent variable explained by the regression. (See the User’s Guide for the precise definition. 2 2 Loosely, R = 1 means the regression fit the data perfectly and R = 0 means the regression is no better than guessing the sample mean. Hint: EViews will report a negative R for a model which fits worse than a model consisting only of the sample mean. 2 2 2 The Pretty Important (But Not So Important As the Last Section’s) Regression Results We’re usually most interested in the regression coefficients and the statistical information provided for each one, so let’s continue along with the middle panel. The Pretty Important (But Not So Important As the Last Section’s) Regression Results—67 -Tests and Stuff All the stuff about individual coefficients is reported in the middle panel, a copy of which we’ve yanked out to examine on its own. The column headed â€Å"t-Statistic† reports, not surprisingly, the t-statistic. Specifically, this is the t-statistic for the hypothesis that the coefficient in the same row equals zero. (It’s computed as the ratio of the estimated coefficient to its standard error: e. g. , 51. 7 = 0. 017  § 0. 00033 . ) Given that there are many potentially interesting hypotheses, why does EViews devote an entire column to testing that specific coefficients equal zero? The hypothesis that a coefficient equals zero is special, because if the coefficient does equal zero then the attached coefficient drops out of the equation. In other words, log ( volume t ) = a + 0 ? t + u t is really the same as log ( volume t ) = a + u t , with the time trend not mattering at all. Foreshadowing hint: EViews automatically computes the test statistic against the hypothesis that a coefficient equals zero. We’ll get to testing other coefficients in a minute, but if you want to leap ahead, look at the equation window menu View/Coefficient Tests†¦. If the t-statistic reported in column four is larger than the critical value you choose for the test, the estimated coefficient is said to be â€Å"statistically significant. † The critical value you pick depends primarily on the risk you’re willing to take of mistakenly rejecting the null hypothesis (the technical term is the â€Å"size† of the test), and secondarily on the degrees of freedom for the test. The larger the risk you’re willing to take, the smaller the critical value, and the more likely you are to find the coefficient â€Å"significant. † Hint: EViews doesn’t compute the degrees of freedom for you. That’s probably because the computation is so easy it’s not worth using scarce screen real estate. Degrees of freedom equals the number of observations (reported in the top panel on the output screen) less the number of parameters estimated (the number of rows in the middle panel). In our example, df = 465 – 2 = 463 . The textbook approach to hypothesis testing proceeds thusly: 1. Pick a size (the probability of mistakenly rejecting), say five percent. 2. Look up the critical value in a t-table for the specified size and degrees of freedom. 68—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares . Compare the critical value to the t-statistic reported in column four. Find the variable to be â€Å"significant† if the t-statistic is greater than the critical value. EViews lets you turn the process inside out by using the â€Å"p-value† reported in the right-most column, under the heading â€Å"Prob. † EViews has worked the problem backwards an d figured out what size would give you a critical value that would just match the t-statistic reported in column three. So if you are interested in a five percent test, you can reject if and only if the reported p-value is less than 0. 05. Since the p-value is zero in our example, we’d reject the hypothesis of no trend at any size you’d like. Obviously, that last sentence can’t be literally true. EViews only reports p-values to four decimal places because no one ever cares about smaller probabilities. The p-value isn’t literally 0. 0000, but it’s close enough for all practical purposes. Hint: t-statistics and p-values are different ways of looking at the same issue. A t-statistic of 2 corresponds (approximately) to a p-value of 0. 05. In the old days you’d make the translation by looking at a â€Å"t-table† in the back of a statistics book. EViews just saves you some trouble by giving both t- and p-. Not-really-about-EViews-digression: Saying a coefficient is â€Å"significant† means there is statistical evidence that the coefficient differs from zero. That’s not the same as saying the coefficient is â€Å"large† or that the variable is â€Å"important. † â€Å"Large† and â€Å"important† depend on the substantive issue you’re working on, not on statistics. For example, our estimate is that NYSE volume rises about one and one-half percent each quarter. We’re very sure that the increase differs from zero—a statement about statistical significance, not importance. Consider two different views about what’s â€Å"large. † If you were planning a quarter ahead, it’s hard to imagine that you need to worry about a change as small as one and one-half percent. On the other hand, one and one-half percent per quarter starts to add up over time. The estimated coefficient predicts volume will double each decade, so the estimated increase is certainly large enough to be important for long-run planning. More Practical Advice On Reporting Results Now you know the principles of how to read EViews’ output in order to test whether a coefficient equals zero. Let’s be less coy about common practice. When the p-value is under 0. 05, econometricians say the variable is â€Å"significant† and when it’s above 0. 05 they say it’s â€Å"insignificant. † (Sometimes a variable with a p-value between 0. 10 and 0. 05 is said to be â€Å"weakly significant† and one with a p-value less than 0. 01 is â€Å"strongly significant. †) This practice may or may not be wise, but wise or not it’s what most people do. The Pretty Important (But Not So Important As the Last Section’s) Regression Results—69 We talked above about scientific conventions for reporting results and showed how to report results both inline and in a display table. In both cases standard errors appear in parentheses below the associated coefficient estimates. â€Å"Standard errors in parentheses† is really the first of two-and-a-half reporting conventions used in the statistical literature. The second convention places the t-statistics in the parentheses instead of standard errors. For example, we could have reported the results from EViews inline as log ( volume t ) = – 2. 629649 + 0. 017278 ? t , ser = 0. 967362, R = 0. 852357 ( – 29. 35656 ) ( 51. 70045 ) 2 Both conventions are in wide use. There’s no way for the reader to know which one you’re using—so you have to tell them. Include a comment or footnote: â€Å"Standard errors in parentheses† or â€Å"t-statistics in parentheses. † Fifty percent of economists report standard errors and fifty percent report t-statistics. The remainder report p-values, which is the final convention you’ll want to know about. Where Did This Output Come From Again? The top panel of regression output, shown on the right, summarizes the setting for the regression. The last line, â€Å"Included observations,† is obviously useful. It tells you how much data you have! And the next to last line identifies the sample to remind you which observations you’re using. Hint: EViews automatically excludes all observations in which any variable in the specification is NA (not available). The technical term for this exclusion rule is â€Å"listwise deletion. † 70—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Big (Digression) Hint: Automatic exclusion of NA observations can sometimes have surprising side effects. We’ll use the data abstract at the right as an example. Data are missing from observation 2 for X1 and from observation 3 for X2. A regression of Y on X1 would use observations 1, 3, 4, and 5. A regression of Y on X2 would use observations 1, 2, 4, and 5. A regression of Y on both X1 and X2 would use observations 1, 4, and 5. Notice that the fifth observation on Y is zero, which is perfectly valid, but that the fifth observation on log(Y) is NA. Since the logarithm of zero is undefined EViews inserts NA whenever it’s asked to take the log of zero. A regression of log(Y) on both X1 and X2 would use only observations 1 and 4. The variable, X1(-1), giving the previous period’s values of X1, is missing both the first and third observation. The first value of X1(-1) is NA because the data from the observation before observation 1 doesn’t exist. (There is no observation before the first one, eh? The third observation is NA because it’s the second observation for X1, and that one is NA. So while a regression of Y on X1 would use observations 1, 3, 4, and 5, a regression of Y on X1(-1) would use observations 2, 4, and 5. Moral: When there’s missing data, changing the variables specified in a regression can a lso inadvertently change the sample. What’s the use of the top three lines? It’s nice to know the date and time, but EViews is rather ungainly to use as a wristwatch. More seriously, the top three lines are there so that when you look at the output you can remember what you were doing. Dependent Variable† just reminds you what the regression was explaining— LOG(VOLUME) in this case. â€Å"Method† reminds us which statistical procedure produced the output. EViews has dozens of statistical procedures built-in. The default procedure for estimating the parameters of an equation is â€Å"least squares. † The Pretty Important (But Not So Important As the Last Section’s) Regression Results—71 The third line just reports the date and time EViews estimated the regression. It’s surprising how handy that information can be a couple of months into a project, when you’ve forgotten in what order you were doing things. Since we’re talking about looking at output at a later date, this is a good time to digress on ways to save output for later. You can: †¢ Hit the button to save the equation in the workfile. The equation will appear in the workfile window marked with the icon. Then save the workfile. Hint: Before saving the file, switch to the equation’s label view and write a note to remind yourself why you’re using this equation. †¢ Hit the button. †¢ Spend output to a Rich Text Format (RTF) file, which can then be read directly by most word processors. Select Redirect: in the Print dialog and enter a file name in the Filename: field. As shown, you’ll end up with results stored in the file â€Å"some results. rtf†. †¢ Right-click and choose Select non-empty cells, or hit Ctrl-A— it’s the same thing. Copy and then paste into a word processor. Freeze it If you have output that you want to make sure won’t ever change, even if you change the equation specification, hit . Freezing the equation makes a copy of the current view in the form of a table which is detached from the equation object. (The original equation is unaffected. ) You can then this frozen table so that it will be saved in the workfile. See Chapter 17, â€Å"Odds and Ends. † 72—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Summary Regression Statistics The bottom panel of the regression provides 12 summary statistics about the regression. We’ll go over these statistics briefly, but leave technical details to your favorite econometrics text or the User’s Guide. We’ve already talked about the two most important numbers, â€Å"R-squared† and â€Å"S. E. of regression. † Our regression accounts for 85 percent of the variance in the dependent variable and the estimated standard deviation of the error term is 0. 97. Five other elements, â€Å"Sum squared residuals,† â€Å"Log likelihood,† â€Å"Akaike info criterion,† â€Å"Schwarz criterion,† and â€Å"Hannan-Quinn criter. † are used for making statistical comparisons between two different regressions. This means that they don’t really help us learn anything about the regression we’re working on; rather, these statistics are useful for deciding if one model is better than another. For the record, the sum of squared residuals is used in computing F-tests, the log likelihood is used for computing likelihood ratio tests, and the Akaike and Schwarz criteria are used in Bayesian model comparison. The next two numbers, â€Å"Mean dependent var† and â€Å"S. D. dependent var,† report the sample mean and standard deviation of the left hand side variable. These are the same numbers you’d get by asking for descriptive statistics on the left hand side variables, so long as you were using the sample used in the regression. (Remember: EViews will drop observations from the estimation sample if any of the left-hand side or right-hand side variables are NA— i. e. , missing. ) The standard deviation of the dependent variable is much larger than the standard error of the regression, so our regression has explained most of the variance in og(volume)—which is exactly the story we got from looking at the R-squared. Why use valuable screen space on numbers you could get elsewhere? Primarily as a safety check. A quick glance at the mean of the dependent variable guards against forgetting that you changed the units of measurement or that the sample used is so mehow different from what you were expecting. â€Å"Adjusted R-squared† makes an adjustment to the plain-old R to take account of the num2 ber of right hand side variables in the regression. R measures what fraction of the variation in the left hand side variable is explained by the regression. When you add another 2 right hand side variable to a regression, R always rises. (This is a numerical property of 2 2 least squares. ) The adjusted R , sometimes written R , subtracts a small penalty for each additional variable added. â€Å"F-statistic† and â€Å"Prob(F-statistic)† come as a pair and are used to test the hypothesis that none of the explanatory variables actually explain anything. Put more formally, the â€Å"F-sta2 A Multiple Regression Is Simple Too—73 tistic† computes the standard F-test of the joint hypothesis that all the coefficients, except the intercept, equal zero. Prob(F-statistic)† displays the p-value corresponding to the reported F-statistic. In this example, there is essentially no chance at all that the coefficients of the right-hand side variables all equal zero. Parallel construction notice: The fourth and fifth columns in EViews regression output report the t-statistic and corresponding p-value for the hypothesis th at the individual coefficient in the row equals zero. The F-statistic in the summary area is doing exactly the same test for all the coefficients (except the intercept) together. This example has only one such coefficient, so the t-statistic and the F-statistic test exactly the same hypothesis. Not coincidentally, the reported p-values are identical 2 and the F- is exactly the square of the t-, 2672 = 51. 7 . Our final summary statistic is the â€Å"Durbin-Watson,† the classic test statistic for serial correlation. A Durbin-Watson close to 2. 0 is consistent with no serial correlation, while a number closer to 0 means there probably is serial correlation. The â€Å"DW,† as the statistic is known, of 0. 095 in this example is a very strong indicator of serial correlation. EViews has extensive facilities both for testing for the presence of serial correlation and for correcting regressions when serial correlation exists. We’ll look at the Durbin-Watson, as well as other tests for serial correlation and correction methods, later in the book. (See Chapter 13, â€Å"Serial Correlation—Friend or Foe? †). A Multiple Regression Is Simple Too Traditionally, when teaching about regression, the simple regression is introduced first and then â€Å"multiple regression† is presented as a more advanced and more complicated technique. A simple regression uses an intercept and one explanatory variable on the right to explain the dependent variable. A multiple regression uses one or more explanatory variables. So a simple regression is just a special case of a multiple regression. In learning about a simple regression in this chapter you’ve learned all there is to know about multiple regression too. Well, almost. The main addition with a multiple regression is that there are added right hand-side variables and therefore added rows of coefficients, standard errors, etc. The model we’ve used so far explains the log of NYSE volume as a linear function of time. Let’s add two more variables, time-squared and lagged log(volume), hoping that time and timesquared will improve our ability to match the long-run trend and that lagged values of the dependent variable will help out with the short run. In the last example, we entered the specification in the Equation Estimation dialog. I find it much easier to type the regression command directly into the command pane, although the 74—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares method you use is strictly a matter of taste. The regression command is ls followed by the dependent variable, followed by a list of independent variables (using the special symbol â€Å"C† to signal EViews to include an intercept. ) In this case, type: ls log(volume) c @trend @trend^2 log(volume(-1)) and EViews brings up the multiple regression output shown to the right. You already knew some of the numbers in this regression because they appeared in the second column in Table 1 on page 65. When you specify a multiple regression, EViews gives one row in the output for each independent variable. Hint: Most regression specifications include an intercept. Be sure to include â€Å"C† in the list of independent variables unless you’re sure you don’t want an intercept. Hint: Did you notice that EViews reports one fewer observation in this regression than in the last, and that EViews changed the first date in the sample from the first to the second quarter of 1888? This is because the first data we can use for lagged volume, from second quarter 1888, is the (non-lagged) volume value from the first quarter. We can’t compute lagged volume in the first quarter because that would require data from the last quarter of 1887, which is before the beginning of our workfile range. Hypothesis Testing We’ve already seen how to test that a single coefficient equals zero. Just use the reported tstatistic. For example, the t-statistic for lagged log(volume) is 37. 89 with 460 degrees of freedom (464 observations minus 4 estimated coefficients). With EViews it’s nearly as easy to test much more complex hypotheses. Hypothesis Testing—75 Click the button and choose Coefficient Diagnostics/Wald – Coefficient Restrictions†¦ to bring up the dialog shown to the right. In order to whip the Wald Test dialog into shape you need to know three things: †¢ EViews names coefficients C(1), C(2), C(3), etc. numbering them in the order they appear in the regression. As an example, the coefficient on LOG(VOLUME(-1)) is C(4). †¢ You specify a hypothesis as an equation restricting the values of the coefficients in the regression. To test that the coefficient on LOG(VOLUME(-1)) equals zero, specify â€Å"C(4)=0†. †¢ If a hypothesis involves multiple restrictions, you enter multiple coefficient equations separated by commas. Let’s work through some examples, starting with the one we already know the answer to: Is the coefficient on LOG(VOLUME(-1)) significantly different from zero? Hint: We know the results of this test already, because EViews computed the appropriate test statistic for us in its standard regression output. 76—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Complete the Wald Test dialog with C(4)=0. EViews gives the test results as shown to the right. EViews always reports an F-statistic since the F- applies for both single and multiple restrictions. In cases with a single restriction, EViews will also show the t-statistic. Hint: The p-value reported by EViews is computed for a two-tailed test. If you’re interested in a one-tailed test, you’ll have to look up the critical value for yourself. Suppose we wanted to test whether the coefficient on LOG(VOLUME(-1)) equaled one rather than zero. Enter â€Å"c(4)=1† to find the new test statistic. So this hypothesis is also easily rejected. Hypothesis Testing—77 Econometric theory warning: If you’ve studied the advanced topic in econometric theory called the â€Å"unit root problem† you know that standard theory doesn’t apply in this test (although the issue is harmless for this particular set of data). Take this as a reminder that you and EViews are a team, but you’re the brains of the outfit. EViews will obediently do as it’s told. It’s up to you to choose the proper procedure. EViews is happy to test a hypothesis involving multiple coefficients and nonlinear restrictions. To test that the sum of the first two coefficients equals the product of the sines of the second two coefficients (and to emphasize that EViews is perfectly happy to test a hypothesis that is complete nonsense) enter â€Å"c(1)+c(2)=sin(c(3))+sin(c(4))†. Not only is the hypothesis nonsense, apparently it’s not true. 78—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares A good example of a hypothesis involving multiple restrictions is the hypothesis that there is no time trend, so the coefficients on 2 both t and t equal zero. Here’s the Wald Test view after entering â€Å"c(2)=0, c(3)=0†. The hypothesis is rejected. Note that EViews correctly reports 2 degrees of freedom for the test statistic. Representing The Representations view, shown at the right, doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know, but it provides useful reminders of the command used to generate the regression, the interpretation of the coefficient labels C(1), C(2), etc. and the form of the equation written out with the estimated coefficients. Hint: Okay, okay. Maybe you didn’t really need the representations view as a reminder. The real value of this view is that you can copy the equation from this view and then paste it into your word processor, or into an EViews batch program, or even into Excel, where wi th a little judicious editing you can turn the equation into an Excel formula. What’s Left After You’ve Gotten the Most Out of Least Squares Our regression equation does a pretty good job of explaining log(volume), but the explanation isn’t perfect. What remains—the difference between the left-hand side variable and the value predicted by the right-hand side—is called the residual. EViews provides several tools to examine and use the residuals. What’s Left After You’ve Gotten the Most Out of Least Squares—79 Peeking at the Residuals The View Actual, Fitted, Residual provides several different ways to look at the residuals. Usually the best view to look at first is Actual, Fitted, Residual/Actual, Fitted, Residual Graph as illustrated by the graph shown here. Three series are displayed. The residuals are plotted against the left vertical axis and both the actual (log(volume)) and fitted (predicted log(volume)) series are plotted against the vertical axis on the right. As it happens, because our fit is quite good and because we have so many observations, the fitted values nearly cover up the actual values on the graph. But from the residuals it’s easy to see two facts: our model fits better in the later part of the sample than in the earlier years—the residuals become smaller in absolute value—and there are a very small number of data points for which the fit is really terrible. 80—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares Points with really big positive or negative residuals are called outliers. In the plot to the right we see a small number of spikes which are much, much larger than the typical residual. We can get a close up on the residuals by choosing Actual, Fitted, Residual/Residual Graph. It might be interesting to look more carefully at specific numbers. Choose Actual, Fitted, Residual/Actual, Fitted, Residual Table for a look that includes numerical values. You can see enormous residuals in the second quarter for 1933. The actual value looks out of line with the surrounding values. Perhaps this was a really unusual quarter on the NYSE, or maybe someone even wrote down the wrong numbers when putting the data together! Grabbing the Residuals Since there is one residual for each observation, you might want to put the residuals in a series for later analysis. Fine. All done. Without you doing anything, EViews stuffs the residuals into the special series each estimation. You can use RESID just like any other series. after Quick Review—81 Resid Hint 1: That was a very slight fib. EViews won’t let you include RESID as a series in an estimation command because the act of estimation changes the values stored in RESID. Resid Hint 2: EViews replaces the values in RESID with new residuals after each estimation. If you want to keep a set, copy them into a new series as in: series rememberresids = resid before estimating anything else. Resid Hint 3: You can store the residuals from an equation in a series with any name you like by using Proc/Make Residual Series†¦ from the equation window. Quick Review To estimate a multiple regression, use the ls command followed first by the dependent variable and then by a list of independent variables. An equation window opens with estimated coefficients, information about the uncertainty attached to each estimate, and a set of summary statistics for the regression as a whole. Various other views make it easy to work with the residuals and to test hypotheses about the estimated coefficients. In later chapters we turn to more advanced uses of least squares. Nonlinear estimation is covered, as are methods of dealing with serial correlation. And, predictably, we’ll spend some time talking about forecasting. 82—Chapter 3. Getting the Most from Least Squares

Association between Respiratory Diseases and Dust events in United Arab Emirates

Abstract The proposed study aims at establishing if there is a relationship between dust events and respiratory diseases in United Arabs Emirates. This is will help bring to light the prevalence rate of respiratory diseases in the region as well equip relevant stakeholders with vital information concerning dust and its effects on human health.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Association between Respiratory Diseases and Dust events in United Arab Emirates specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Existing literatures draw association between dust storms and respiratory diseases. Mixed research approach will be used in the study. Both questionnaires and records from hospitals will provide the researcher with the desired data. Before the study begins, the researcher will get approval from Independent Regulation Board from the collage as well as obtain informed consent from the subjects. Introduction and problem statement The study seeks to establish the association between respiratory diseases and dust events in the United Arab Emirates. It is worth noting that UAE is in a region where dust storms occur regularly. Ideally dust is composed of very tiny solid particles floating in the air. This is capable of getting past the lung’s natural defense and build up resulting in serious health complications (Qiu, Zou Zhan, 2006). Scholars have tried to link dust events and incidences of respiratory diseases. Research shows that when an individual is exposed to air pollutants, they are at higher risk of contracting respiratory related illnesses for instance asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer as well as allergies. Since UAE is in a dry region, the greatest pollutant is dust caused by wind and storms. This poses a great danger particularly to children, teenagers, infants, asthmatic individuals, pregnant women, healthy adults who exercise vigorously in the fields, people sufferin g from cardiovascular diseases and the elderly in the society. In the United States of America, a study carried out in 6 cities considered to be the most polluted by dust concluded that residents from these cities were at higher risk of being hospitalized as a result of respiratory illnesses. Similarly majority died due to lung cancer as compared to others residing in cities that are less polluted. Additionally children in these areas were 5 times more likely to suffer from low lung functions. It is worth noting that dust events can worsen health conditions of people who suffer from respiratory related diseases (Host et al., 2008). World Health Organization has shown that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a global health issue and is one of the major causes of chronic morbidity and mortality in the entire world (Kanatani et al., 2010).Advertising Looking for proposal on environmental studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn Mo re It is ranked sixth as a leading cause of death globally. Since it is one of the respiratory diseases caused by air pollution, it is estimated that it will continue causing death as well as increase prevalence of respiratory diseases in the coming years (Brunekreef Forsberg, 2005). Significance of the study The proposed study is of importance as it will evaluate whether or not the relationship between dust events and respiratory diseases exists. The findings will be significant to various stakeholders such as institutions of higher learning, individuals, health organization, and ministry of public health among others. It is worth noting that the findings will make those individuals who thought there was no relationship between dust events and respiratory diseases think twice and take necessary preventive measures. Similarly, health sector in UAE will embark on a campaign to educate people on how to avoid being victims of dust events related diseases. Similarly the government wi ll develop policies aimed at reducing dust events particularly those caused by human activities. This will help reduce the frequency of dust events. Not carrying out this research will clearly depict that the association between respiratory diseases and dust events in the UAE will not be brought to light. This will mean that there will be no action taken to save the lives of the vulnerable population. Scope of the study The scope of the study is to establish the relationship between respiratory diseases and dust events in the UAE. Similarly issues relating to the types of respiratory disease individuals suffer from, prevalence rate and how best to curb the situation are all of interests in this study. Based on this, recommendations will be brought forth to help guide the relevant bodies on the way forward in dealing with the menace. The study will take place in the UAE. Aims and objectives and research questions The aim of the study is to investigate the association between dust eve nts in UAE and respiratory diseases. The specific objectives are; To find out the association between respiratory diseases and dust events among the UAE population. To establish the prevalence rate of respiratory diseases in UAE. To establish the strategies that can be adopted to curb respiratory diseases in the UAE. Research questions Is there a relationship between respiratory diseases and dust events among the UAE population? What is the prevalence rate of respiratory diseases in UAE? What strategies can be adopted to curb respiratory diseases in the UAE? Literature review Most of the Asian part is either arid or semi arid. This has made the soils dry and loose; this coupled with the fact that winds are more prevalent makes it possible for dust to be carried out from the ground and deposited elsewhere resulting in air pollution. In Middle East the Shamala winds originate from Turkey, Iraq as well as Saudi Arabia. As the wind gain momentum across the Gulf of Arabia dust are ki cked up.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Association between Respiratory Diseases and Dust events in United Arab Emirates specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Numerous studies have linked dust events and the high rate of respiratory diseases. In one study carried out by Kwon, et al., 2002 investigating the effect of Asian dust on daily deaths in South Korea between 1995 and 1998. He established that the relationship between dust events and deaths from heart diseases was strong. Additionally individuals suffering from respiratory diseases are susceptible to dust events in Asia. Similarly another study carried out in Taipei revealed that there was a higher specificity in associating dust effects with respiratory deaths. It is worth noting that a study carried out by Lei, et al., 2004 using rat model examined the inflammation markers in the lung as well as peripheral blood after the animals were exposed to dust stor ms particles. The outcomes revealed that dust has the potential of increasing lung inflammation as well as injury in pulmonary vein in those rats deemed to be hypersensitive (Peng et al., 2008). According to Chen et al., 2004 dust events tend to impaired human visibility leading to accidents. Biologists have shown that people who live in areas prone to dust events breathe in particles which float in air. Luckily not all these particles get their way through human nose. However smaller particles usually get their way through the nose reaching the lungs. Human respiratory systems have cilia and mucus which help trap dust. In case dusty air reaches the alveoli it is the responsibility of macrophages to remove the dust. Additionally lungs can produce protein to neutralize dusty air. In situations where the dust escapes all these mechanism of purifying air, then there are a number of diseases man will suffer from depending on whether the dust is organic or inorganic (Kanatani et al., 201 0). For instance inorganic dust leads to asbestosis, silicosis, coal pneumoconiosis among others. On the other hand, organic dust results in farmers’ lung, sewage sludge disease among others. It is worth noting that particles which are less than 10 microns in diameter might contain dust, smoke, silica, soot enter human lung and cause these problems. Interestingly dust events can impair animals’ health, corrode buildings as well as impair growth in vegetation (Husar et al., 2001). According to Abdelkarim et al., 2011 changes in weather conditions which are characterized with dust events exacerbate chronic lung diseases particularly in those individuals deemed to be suffering from asthma. A study on children suffering from respiratory diseases in this region showed that the prevalence rate among children aged between 6 and 19 years stood at 13.0% (Choi et al., 2011).Advertising Looking for proposal on environmental studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Asthma in the region has been known to be responsible for higher morbidity rate as well as high rate of absenteeism in schools. Other causes of respiratory diseases in this region include cigarette smoking, genetic history of illnesses such as asthma, low birth weights among others (Wang et al., 1997). It is worth noting that the relationship between dust events and respiratory diseases in UAE is not well documented. Methodology Mixed research approach will be used to guide the study. Thus both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection will be utilized. Data which show the number of patients suffering from respiratory diseases will be collected from health care centers and hospitals in UAE. As suggested by Beiske, 2002 this will allow the study to have exact number of individuals who sought medical attention as a result of suffering from respiratory diseases. It will also allow me to establish the prevalence rate of respiratory disease in the region (Ko et al., 2007). Additionally questionnaires will be distributed to patients who are in hospitals or have recently been discharged. Questionnaire covers a large population at a time as they would be distributed to different participants at a time and be collected later or at the same day depending on the willingness of the respondent in addressing the questions, due to it being standardized they are more objective, data collected from questionnaire are easy to analyze, due to familiarity with the tool, respondents will not be apprehensive, it is also very cost effective compared to face to face interviews and the tool also reduces bias (Robson, 2007). According to Malig Ostro, 2009 the major problem with questionnaires as a tool of data collection is that there is tendency of respondents to forget vital information, they may answers the questions superficially when it is a long one, to counter this I will develop a short but very inclusive questionnaire, due to standardization, there is no room for explanation incase respondents misinterpret or do not understand the questions. The collected data will be analyzed using SPSS version 12.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics will be done. Ethical issue Before starting the study, I will seek approval from the University’s Independent Regulation Board. Similarly I will seek personal informed consent from the participants (Robson, 2007). Study time line References Abdelkarim, W. et al., (2011). Respiratory disorders in the Middle East: A review. Respirology, 16(5): 755–766. Beiske, B. (2002). Research methods: Uses and limitations of questionnaires, interviews, and case studies. Manchester: University of Manchester Publishers. Brunekreef, B. Forsberg, B. (2005). Epidemiological evidence of effects of coarse airborne particles on health. Eur. Respir. J., 26(1), 309–18. Chen, Y. et al., 2004. Effects of Asian dust storm events on daily mortality in Taipei, Taiwan. Environ Res., 95(3), 151–155. Ch oi, H, et al. (2011). Asian dust storm particles induce a broad toxicological transcriptional program in human epidermal keratinocytes. Toxicol. Lett., 200(1), 92–99. Host, S, et al. (2008). Short-term associations between fine and coarse particles and hospital admissions for cardio-respiratory diseases in six French cities. Occup. Environ. Med., 65(1), 544–51. Husar, B. et al. (2001). Asian dust events of April 1998. J. Geophys. Res., 106(2), 18317-18330. Kanatani, K. et al. (2010). Desert-dust exposure is associated with increased risk of asthma hospitalization in children. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 182(2), 1475–1481. Ko, F. et al. (2007). Temporal relationship between air pollutants and hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Hong Kong. Thorax, 62(1), 779–784. Kwon, H. et al., (2002). Effects of the Asian dust events on daily mortality in Seoul, Korea. Environ Res Sec A., 90(1), 1–5. Lei, Y. (2004). Effects of Asia n dust event particles on in ammation markers in peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage in pulmonary hypertensive rats. Environ Res., 95(2), 71–76. Malig, J. Ostro, D. (2009). Coarse particles and mortality: evidence from a multi-city study in California. Occup. Environ. Med., 66(4), 832–839. Peng, D. et al. (2008). Coarse particulate matter air pollution and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among Medicare patients. JAMA, 299(22), 2172–2179. Qiu, Z., Zou, K. Zhan, C. (2006). Research on impact of dust event frequency on atmosphere visibility variance: a case study of typical weather stations locating in the dust route to Beijing. Environ. Sci., 27(1), 1046–51. Robson, C. (2007). How to do a research project: A guide for undergraduate students. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Wang, X. et al., 1997. Respiratory impairments due to dust exposure: a comparative study among workers exposed to silica, asbestos, and coalmine du st. Am J Ind Med., 31(1), 495-502. This proposal on Association between Respiratory Diseases and Dust events in United Arab Emirates was written and submitted by user Guillermo Larson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Best ACT Prep Books 2019

Best ACT Prep Books 2019 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips There are numerous â€Å"Best ACT Books† lists out there. But we think most of them aren’t very good or thorough, so I’ve tried to write a much better guide here. You’ll learn which books are absolutely critical for your ACT prep, which focus on improving individual sections, and which you'll need if you're aiming for a top score. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to use these top-notch ACT prep books for effective studying. This guide is pretty detailed, so here are some quick links you can use to jump around to different topics. That said, I recommend reading the whole article if you can! What's Better About This Guide to the Best ACT Books? Who Is This ACT Prep Books Guide For? Critical ACT Prep Books Best ACT Books by Subject Best Additional Books for Top ACT Scorers Best All-in-One Book for Less Motivated Low Scorers Other Free Resources for ACT Prep Is Using ACT Prep Books the Best Option for You? What’s Better About This Guide to the Best ACT Books? Because your ACT score is important for getting into collegeand you’ll probably spend a good amount of time studying, it’s important you get the right advice. Follow the wrong advice, and it might be too late to improve your score before you need to apply to college. You'll need to vet the advice you get (including ours) before deciding on your ACT prep plan. As you read each article in your research, ask yourself:why should I trust this person online giving me advice? To be transparent, here’s why we believe our ACT prep books guide is better than others online: I explain in detail why good books are good and what each book's flaws are.You probably haven’t heard of some of the books we recommend because they're either newer or less well known. By contrast, most other ACT book guides just list a few books without much rationale about what makes them worth buying. I believe it’s important to target your weaknesses and where you need to prep.I’ll point out books that are best for training specific sections, and books that are better depending on whether you’re scoring high or low. Other guides tend to assume all students are the same. I don’t get paid for promoting these books over others. I’ve studied dozens of books for ACT prep, and these are the books I'd be using if I myself were prepping. Other sites, such as about.com and reviews.com, are often paid to adjust their rankings and get kickbacks from publishers. I like to think that I know what I’m talking about.I scored a perfect 36 on the ACT and have worked personally with thousands of students prepping for the ACT. I’ve worked with students of all levels, from those scoring below 12 to those aiming for 34+. Other writers don't always have the expertise needed to differentiate between ACT prep books and thus recommend books as an afterthought (and you can probably tell). One important disclaimer: I’m co-founder ofPrepScholar, an online ACT prep program. I believe we’ve built the best prep program available. Itdiagnoses your strengths and weaknessesand gives you a structured all-in-one program, combining the best aspects of the books below, so you know exactly what you need to study at every point in your prep. However, I want to stress that you don’t need a program to excel at the ACT. In fact, writing this guide might lose us some customers if you decide you don’t need a program at all. But if you'd rather not have to manage 10 books and would prefer an integrated, complete program with the greatest chance of raising your ACT score,check out our comprehensive ACT program. No matter what you ultimately decide, if you’re serious about ACT prep like I think you are, keep on reading. Who Is This ACT Prep Books Guide For? First, this guide is for students who are serious about ACT prep.You must be motivated to get a high score, and you need to be willing to put in hard work. Getting through these books will take dozens of hours, simply because the ACT covers so much material. If you plan to study just five hours or so,your choice of book won't make much difference. You should focus your time mainly on taking an ACT practice test and reviewing your answers. With such a short amount of prep time, your score won’t go up much- and you shouldn’t expect a miracle. Buying high-quality ACT prep books is the first and easiest step of ACT prep. You'll need to put in serious work to actually get the score improvements you want. We'll explain below the best ways to use ACT prep books. Secondly, this guide is for students who want to improve their scores by more than 2 points. To make consistent improvements at this level, you need more than just tricks. You need to understand the contentbeing tested- the underlying math concepts and grammar rules- rather than just ineffective "tricks" that make you feel like you've learned something when you actually haven't. Now, if you’re looking to improve by only 1 point, you might be able to do that simply by retaking the test, especially if you’ve taken the ACT only once. Overall, as long as you’re serious about score improvement and want quality ACT books to study with, this is the guide for you. The Best ACT Prep Books of 2019 We’re going to divide the best ACT books into a few categories: Critical Books: These are absolute must-have books for your ACT prep, no matter your skill level or weaknesses. Subject-Specific Books: These are the best books to use for the ACT sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. Books for Top Scorers:These books are challenging and guaranteed to push you over the top. Books for Low Scorers and Low Motivation: If you want to study for only a handful of hours and improve your ACT score by just a little bit, these are the best books to use. That said, we don't recommend putting such little time into your prep! Critical ACT Prep Books These must-have books are what I believe everyone should have, regardless of your current score or what you need to improve. This category is extremely hard for books to qualify for. In fact, there are only two ACT books out of the dozens I’ve tested that I think are worth buying. TheOfficial ACT Prep Guide 2019-2020 We’ve written at length about theimportance of official ACT practice questions. The ACT is weird and tests concepts in ways you’ve never seen in school before. This means that you need to train with realistic questions so you can learn the patterns of the ACT. Official ACT practice tests released by ACT, Inc., are the gold standard for ACT practice questions. Each test contains real questions given to students at previous test administrations. The quality of official questions is far better than those written by unofficial sources such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review. This particular prep book, informally called the "Red Book," is by far the best source of ACT practice tests. Pros It has the best set of ACT practice tests you can get anywhere, period. The book's five full-length practice tests offer a sufficient amount of practice for most students. Since each test takes at least four hours to complete and review, that's already 20 hours of material! Includes 400 additional practice questions. Answers for each question are available in the book. Cons You can get the same number of official practice tests for free online (although these don’t have answer explanations). Answer explanations in the book are not particularly helpful for self-learning. Most explanations say something like this: â€Å"A is wrong because A is wrong. B is correct for these reasons.† They don't show you how to solve the question from step one, which is what most students need; you need to understand yourself well to be able to learn from your mistakes. Five tests isn't enough for ambitious students. You'll need to supplement your prep with other free practice tests or the official online ACT program, which is good only for the extra test it offers. It doesn’t provide other instructional material. If you’re bad at algebra, you can’t rely on this book alone. You're really only buying it for the tests, and ACT, Inc., knows this. Taking practice tests without learning strategy isn’t going to improve your score, and the book doesn’t provide guidance on how to do this effectively. Most of thisbook is identical to the 2018-19 edition (except for the extra practice test), so if you already ownthat book, it's probably not worth buying this newest version. ACT Prep Black Book, Second Edition This is the only other critical book I recommend for ACT prep. Just using theBlack Bookalone, you’ll likely need supplemental help as I explain below. But what it does have is so good that I believe every student using ACT prep books in their studies should read it. What you’ll get from the Black Book is a way to think about the ACT.But what does this mean? Here are a couple of examples of what you'll learn: The ACT is designed to be a predictable, standardized test. It needs to test basic concepts so that it can be administered nationwide to all students, but it also needs to be difficult, so it distorts the questions in weird ways. Every answer must be unambiguously correct, or else students would complain that their incorrect answers are correct. This means that your strategy should be to rule out all incorrect answer choices, which is especially important on ACT Reading. Some of the concepts in this book were things I understood intuitively back when I took the ACT, but the author here articulates them in a crystal clear way. It’s influenced the way that I think about teaching our students at PrepScholar. Of all books on the market, this book aligns most closely with my personal philosophy on the ACT and how to succeed on it. Pros It offers a very lucid take on the ACT. The ideas in it will change your view on the ACT and hopefully motivate you to work harder, knowing that any student can excel on the test. It contains practical strategies that are more helpful than those in most other ACT books; you don't simply learn to rely on tricks. The book doesn’t assume that all students are the same. It offers a few alternatives for strategies, and then suggests that you try them out to see which one works best for you. It offers a solid set of answer explanations for the hardest questions in the Official Guide (see previous book). The author breaks down the best way to approach each question in a straightforward way. Cons This book requires a ton of self-discipline and insight to use effectively. Because you’re learning from your mistakes and no one is there to guide you, you need to be self-driven to experiment with different strategies and find out which one works best for you. For some students, following a set of straight guidelines could be less confusing. Question explanations are based on the old third edition of the Red Book. If you don't have that book, large parts of this book will be either difficult to use. Most question explanations cover the hardest questions in the Red Book. These serve as good examples for how to think generally about ACT questions, but if you’re scoring at the 8-26 score level on a section, these questions can be pretty confusing. The fundamental content is lacking. If you’re weak in algebra, for example, this book alone will not help you master the subject area. I believe more in recognizing your weaknesses and, throughfocused prep and specific practice questions, mastering that skill. This book is more about teaching an approach to prepping for the ACT. Its English and Science sections are not as strong as its Reading and Math sections are. This is largely due to the nature of the English section, in which it’s less about understanding how the test works and more about mastering grammar rules. Best ACT Books by Subject Beyond the critical books above, you’ll most likely need supplemental help on specific sections. This section discusses the best books for ACT English, Math, Reading, and Science. These books all follow my prep philosophy: Divide ACT content into skills, and get focused training on those skills. Use realistic, high-quality questions to prep effectively for the ACT. Cover only what you need to know- not advanced material that's not on the ACT. Best ACT English Prep Book The best way to excel at ACT English is to understand the grammar rules and how they appear on the ACT. You also need to do a lot of focused practice questions to make sure you learn the patterns of the ACT. That’show we designed our online ACT prep program to teach you grammar. My recommendation for best ACT English book is The Complete Guide to ACT Englishby Erica L. Meltzer. The book is fantastic at distilling grammar into exactly what you need to know for the ACT; you won’t have to learn any arcane grammar concepts that won't appear on the test. As for the rules thatare tested, Meltzer presents them all clearly and covers the essential foundations for those who want to brush up on basic grammar knowledge. Pros This book articulates grammar rules clearly and accurately. It covers only what you need to know for the ACT and cuts out extraneous material. Practice questions use a realistic ACT-passage format. They're also all grouped by topic so you can get repeated practice with the same skill. Cons It's a bit pricey for a book that covers just one ACT section (around $30). Testing a single grammar skill in this format can be misleading practice for the real test. For example, if you know the section is focusing on subject/verb agreement, you might be biased toward recognizing that error on a practice quiz but not on the actual test. Best ACT Math Prep Book My philosophy on ACT Math is thatthe best way to significantly improve your math score is to learn the underlying math content. Learning some simple strategies like plugging in answer choices can get you a little progress, but you’ll quickly run into a ceiling if you have gaps in your underlying math skills. Ultimately, you need to learn algebra, geometry, and number theory to be able to do well on the ACT. Your best bet, therefore, is to find a book that can bothteach you math content in an organized wayand give you practice problems to test individual skills. For these reasons, I recommend theUltimate Guide to the Math ACTby Richard F. Corn. This is a well-written ACT prep book that forces you to buckle down on your weakest math areas. Pros Its lessons teaching math concepts are clear and helpful. They stay focused on math you need to know for the ACT and don't dive into any irrelevant topics. The book divides math into more manageable sub-topics. For example, algebra is divided into solving equations, FOILing, word problems, etc. This division into smaller skills lets you concentrate on and attack specific points in your prep. It contains higher-level strategies on how to prep effectively. Cons Answer explanations are lacking. They show you why an answer is correct but don't teach you how to recognize the problem and solve it. Though high quality, questions could be more creative. The ACT has a host of questions that are unique and unusual, and having this variety is important to mastering the test. The book doesn't distinguish by difficulty level. On the ACT, the hardest questions are much more challenging than the easiest questions. If you're scoring in the average score range, you don't actually need to know how to solve the hardest 20% of questions. Trying to understand these can be a waste of time when you should instead build your fundamental skills. If you’re struggling with ACT math concepts at a basic level (say, scoring 16 or below), I recommend that you supplement your work withKhan Academy, a free online program that offers an engaging way to train your most basic math skills. Note that it's not customized for the ACT specifically, so this program alone won't be enough for your ACT prep. Best ACT Reading Prep Book In my experience with thousands of students, ACT Reading is the most difficult section to improve. It uses logical reasoning skills that aren’t as easy to master as math concepts and grammar rules are. It’s very important to figure out what types of Reading questions will be asked and how you can approach these questions in a systematic way. My recommendation for best ACT Reading book is once again by Erica L. Meltzer: The Complete Guide to ACT Reading.This book dissects the ACT Reading section by both question type and skill. Meltzer does a great job teaching the core of what the question is asking and how to work with the passage to arrive at the correct answer. Of all writers, Meltzer aligns most closely with my philosophy of drilling questions skill by skill to recognize patterns. Pros It offers a great breakdown of the Reading section on a skill-by-skill level.You'll get some of the most helpful strategies for every Reading question type. The book has lots of realistic, high-quality passages and questions.Meltzer uses passages extremely similar to those you’ll see on the ACT. It contains useful strategies on skimming and how to approach Reading passages. Cons For a book that covers just one section, it's a bit pricey ($30). The writing style is dry and clinical, like an academic textbook. I personally prefer this- cut out the fluff- but it can be quite dense for the average student. Its lack of creative page layouts and tendency to use a lot of text on large pages can get tiresome. BestACT Science Prep Book Despite the fact that many students find the Science section to be the most challenging part of the ACT, until recently there were no books specifically dedicated to helping you on ACT Science. At PrepScholar, we know all the tricks for making ACT Science easier, so we decided to compile them into a book. Because it's the only book on the market specifically dedicated to ACT Science, we made sure to make The PrepScholar Guide to ACT Science exceptional.This bookcovers every topic, skill, and question type you'll see on ACT Science, which means that nothingon this section will come as a surprise on test day. Most importantly,this bookalsoincludes all of our best ACT Sciencetest-taking tricks.Many students get tripped up ontheScience section because it's so different from the science tests they've taken in school. However, this book shows you how to identify all the tricks inACTScience and learn how toavoid getting fooled by them. Pros The book contains a complete breakdown of every type of passage and question type you'll see on ACT Science. It includes a list of every science fact you could be tested on, so you're only studying the science you need to know. It also containsmultiple strategies for tackling Science passages so you can choose the method that works best for you. It has lots of expert test-taking tips and strategies. Cons There's no final quiz or exam section at the end of the book. To fully practice everything you've learned from this book,we recommend takingfull-length Science sections. Best Additional Books for Top ACT Scorers Looking at the list above, you can see that you already have your work cut out for you. With nine full-length practice tests and five books at your disposal, you'll be studying for well over 80 hours. If you go through all of your practice using the guidelines we recommend, you’ll likely make huge improvements. If you still want additional practice, though, I recommend Barron’s ACT books- especially if you’re aiming for a near-perfect score. I remember using these books during myown prep in high school, and while Barron's questions are inferior to those in official ACT practice tests, they’re a solid backup source to use if you've finished everything else above. Pros These books offer a lot of content.With Barron's you get thousands of practice questions and detailed lessons with several examples. They're extremely thorough, covering every nook and cranny you need to know. You can be confident that very little is tested outside of what’s contained in these books. Cons Topics can sometimes be too difficult than what you need to know for the ACT. Some questionsget unrealistically hard in a way you’d never see on the actual test. If you’re not an ACT expert, you won’t be able to detect when this happens and might end up wasting time studying content that doesn't ultimately matter. The books often lack clear direction on what’s important and what's not. For example, a grammar rule that appears once every test gets the same number of pages as a grammar rule that appears eight times every test. Again, this is the flip sideof being thorough. As a result, these aren't the books to use if you have limited study time. Not all of their strategies are good.For instance, I have mixed feelings about the reading advice in Barron's ACT 36 (pictured above). Best All-in-One Book for Less Motivated Low Scorers My recommendations have so far been for the ambitious student who really wants to improve his or her score. But I know some students just want to put in five hours, get some exposure to the test, and then take the ACT and forget about it. I personally believe that for most students, improving your ACT score is thebest way to improve your chances of college admission. If you feel like you don't want to put in much effort to studying for the ACT, I strongly suggest reexamining your approach. That said, if you’re stuck in the mindset of simply getting the ACT over with, the book I recommend isKaplan’s ACT Prep 2019. It’s an all-in-one book that covers all four sections and contains practice questions and tests. It doesn’t excel at any of what it’s doing, but it covers the most important bases. It also tends to have more reasonable content than other all-in-one books, such as the ACT book by The Princeton Review. I'll be honest: I don’t love this book. I don’t even really like it. To be frank, I don’t recommend it if you seriously want to improve your ACT score and are willing to put in study time. But if you just want a single source that can do an OK job and is easily digestible, this is the best book out there. Pros It covers all four ACT sections and has a total of three full-length practice tests (two of which are online). At about $17, this book is pretty affordable in terms of the breadth it covers. It offers some helpful, basic strategies that can get you a few easy points if you get stuck answering questions. Cons Practice questions tend to be unrealistic. They often don’t phrase questions the way the ACT would, and they don’t test concepts the right way, either. Questions also don’t trick you in the same ways the real test does. The strategies are not very helpful once you move beyond a 24-score level on a section. Other Free Resources for ACT Prep More important than buying ACT prep books is knowing how to use them effectively. The more books you have, the more important it is to understand how to build a unified study system. We've written thorough guides to walk you through your ACT study plan: 5 Strategies That Will Get You 4+ Points on the ACT How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer When Should You Take the ACT? Best Test Dates Is Using ACT Prep Books the Best Option for You? There are a lot of ACT prep methods available to you, and book studying is only one of them. Just to explore all of our options, let's quickly examine whether studying with ACT books is right for you. People who choose to study with books do so for different reasons. Some do it for cost reasons. As I noted above, the best ACT books can get expensive. If you buy all of the top books, you'll be spending around $200. This is already close to the cost of ouronline ACT prep program, which goes beyond books by guiding your studies step by step and motivating you to put in the time. Others study with books because they're self-motivatedand like teaching themselves. If this isn't you, books can be a disappointing way to spend your time- and you probably won't improve, either. By far one of the most important ways to improve your ACT score is to study your mistakes and learn from them. If you can't do this reliably, you'll need extra help to get started. We've written a free guide tocompare other methods of ACT prep. Click the image below to download this guide so you can compare the different methods and see which one is best for you. What's Next? Understanding your ACT target score is critical.Get started by reading ourstep-by-step guide to figuring out what ACT score you need to aim for. Check out our industry-leading online ACT program. We've designed it to cover all of the advantages of ACT books and tutors- and more- at an affordable price. Featuring in-depth strategy lessons and thousands of practice questions, our program uses content from the leading books. We even include the Official ACT Prep Guide above as part of your program. Beyond that,our programacts like your personal tutor. It guides you step by step through what you should be working on at every moment to best improve your score. It customizes to your strengths and weaknesses, and then gives you focused practice so you learn the patterns on the ACT. Furthermore, it motivates you to study so that you put in enough time. There's a 4-point guarantee, too- meaning that if you don't improve your score by 4 points or more, you get all of your money back!

Marketing research - social media audit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing research - social media audit - Essay Example Additional products and services include Safaricom Mail and Safaricom shops. In March 2007, Safaricom Company, in collaboration with Vodafone Group Services Limited, via Vodafone Marketing S.A.R.L., launched the M-PESA services (Mobile Money Transfer Services). Based on its advancements in terms of growth and service provision, the Company has signed agreements with other companies i.e., Vodafone International Holdings B.V. it is worth noting that one of its major achievements was realized in 2009 (two years after its establishment), when it realized a100 percent interest in Packet stream Data Networks (http://www.safaricom.co.ke/about-us/about-safaricom/our-history-heritage). WHAT: Safaricom begun as a department of the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation based on an analogue ETACS networks and later upgraded to GSM in 1996. On 3 April 1997, Safaricom Limited was integrated as prescribed in the Companies Act under the category of private limited liability company, and alt ered into a public company on 16 May 2002, with limited liability. WHO: Safaricom Company is faced with a stiff competition for Airtel, Essar-yu, and Orange companied. Although they apply different strategies, their targeted market is one. WHY: Following its good reception by the market and effective management, Safaricom Company has come up with a range of services and products such as financial aid initiatives, charity foundation, communication support, customer care services, advisory services, flashback services, ‘kipokezi’ services, mobile internet connectivity, e.t.c. KEY WORDS Safaricom limited (Current name of the company since the year 2002) Safaricom Kenya (Fundamental name of the company) Safaricom Foundation (Its branch that is tasked by major charitable activities to the communities) ‘M-Pesa’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service where subscribers can send and receive money via their mobile phones as long as they are within the pro ximity of the service coverage, i.e., East Africa). ‘M-Shwari’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service aimed at promoting local business operators i.e. SMEs). ‘Okoa Jahazi’ (Safaricom being the sole provider of this service. ‘Okoa jahazi’ is a Kiswahili term that means advance acquisition of airtime that is paid upon toping up the line). Bob Collymore (Safaricom CEO) Mobile application providers (these applications are mentioned in the executive summary covered above) Mobile Money Transfer Services provider (in addition to the ‘M-Pesa’ services covered above, pay bill services, and buy airtime/top up services are also provided). COMPANY ANALYSIS AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Competition intensity within any industries is not an issue that is based on luck. Competition has its foundation on the underlying industries’ economics and proceeds well beyond any other established competitors within a defined market. Not all in dustries have equal potential while competing for market coverage. Companies differ basically in their definitive profit potentials as the collective strength of the forces of competition differs; the forces range from intense in industries like paper, tires and steel, where no firms earn spectacular returns, to relatively mild in industries where high returns are common. Initiating

Hakkasan Restaurant Company Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hakkasan Restaurant Company - Assignment Example Autocratic leadership is where by the leader is the final determinant of a decision and others under him or her do not have the capability to make or object the decision. For routine and effectiveness in the organisation or company, this style is better preferred as it ensures that employees do what they are told to do for the benefit of the company (Vector Study, 2012).Charismatic LeadershipA charismatic leadership style is basically more involving as the leader in place is more enthusiastic in his work and also toward the other employees (Vector Study, 2012).Democratic Leadership or Participative LeadershipA democratic leadership style is basically an instance where the leader makes the final decision for the team members after they have participated in an involving decision making process. Thus employees feel in better placed in the organisation’s decision making process thus better results in output (Vector Study, 2012).ConclusionThe described leadership styles make work a t the organisation easy to handle and the employees feel that they are part and parcel of the organisation. But in the need that strategic decisions have to be made then the leader is prone to implement the use of Autocratic style for convenient and steady decision making that will not be up for revision. For the charismatic leadership style, employees need motivation from the top notch and from each other. Restaurants are work places where employees work extra hard so as to satisfy the customers.