Assignment 1 (Last Update: 28 Feb) Introduction Download the code for this assignment here and then unzip the archive. This assignment uses python 3. Do not use python 2. You can work on the assignment using your favourite python editor. We recommend VSCode. Post any questions or issues with this assignment to our discussion forum. Alternatively you may also contact your TA directly. Search Assignment Problem 1: DFS-GSA In this part of the assignment you are going to implement - a parser to read a search problem in the file parse.py, and - Depth First Search (DFS) - Graph Search Algorithm (GSA) in the file p1.py Both these python files have already been created for. Do not change anything that has already been implemented. Our autograder relies on the existing code. From the terminal you may run python p1.py 1 to test if your code passes the first test case. yiqun@Yiquns-MacBook-Pro a1 % python3 p1.py 1 Grading Problem 1 : ----------> Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 FAILED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 PASSED Test case 3 PASSED Test case 4 PASSED Test case 5 PASSED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 PASSED Test case 3 PASSED Test case 4 PASSED Test case 5 PASSED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 PASSED Test case 3 PASSED Test case 4 PASSED Test case 5 PASSED Test case 6 PASSED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 PASSED Test case 3 PASSED Test case 4 PASSED Test case 5 PASSED Test case 6 PASSED Test case 1 PASSED Test case 2 PASSED Test case 3 PASSED Test case 4 PASSED
BIO 370 GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR WRITING ECOLOGY PAPERS It is important that you write well, both as citizens and as scientists. These papers are a large part of your grade. Please read this entire write-up before writing your first paper, and refer to it for other papers. The papers should be a maximum of six double spaced pages (four is better, if possible) with 1 inch margins. Most of the length of your reports will be the results and discussion sections. The report should include a brief 1-2 paragraph introduction (the purpose of the study and hypotheses to be tested), a paragraph of methods, the results, a discussion, and references. Most of the work in the reports will be yours, but if you draw upon the work of others, be sure to reference them with an in text citation (e.g., Pearson et al. 2012) and at the end of the paper use the format for the references from the journal Ecology: Pearson, D. E., Y. K. Ortega, and S. J. Sears. 2012. Darwin's naturalization hypothesis up-close: Intermountain grassland invaders differ morphologically and phenologically from native community dominants. Biological Invasions 14:901-913. Some time ago, when Bill Bradshaw taught Ecology 370, he asked his teaching assistants to come up with helpful comments for students based on their experience of grading reports. Laurel Pfeifer-Meister and Bitty Roy edited their anonymous comments and added to them. Please read through this each time you prepare a report. It will aid in organizing your thoughts and help your grade. SOME GENERAL STYLE GUIDELINES • All reports must be internally consistent: conclusions must come from the results that you state, the results must be the product of your stated materials and methods, and the introduction should present your hypothesis in a way that shows the relevance of your study to the field of ecology. • Your report must be typed (figures should be in computer graphics; Excel graphics are fine). • Spelling and grammar, in addition to format, count in your grade. • When putting your paper together, watch for these common errors: 1. The word “data” is plural (sing. datum). “This data is meaningless” is therefore incorrect. It should read, “These data are meaningless". 2. Know when to use the word “less” and the word “fewer” . 3. Make sure your verbs and subjects agree in your sentences. 4. The word “comparison” and “correlation” are often confused. Make sure that you are aware of the difference in meaning of these words. 5. Places where we collect data are SITES, not SIGHTS, and a habitat that receives little rainfall is DRIER, not DRYER, than one that is very wet. 6. Remember that when you type a scientific name for an organism, it should be in italics font, with the genus capitalized and the species in lower case (e.g., Pinus contorta for coast pine). 7. i.e. and e.g. are always followed by a comma when used in a sentence. To understand why, remember that "for example" is followed by a comma. “For example, there were fifteen trees per quadrat.” • The text of your paper, which describes what you did, should be in the past tense. It’s not what you will do, but what you did. • Avoid using passive voice by being direct in your writing. Use "we found" instead of "the research found". You did the work! • If you use terms that may be unfamiliar to people outside our field (e.g., adiabatic cooling) include a brief, clear definition. INTRODUCTION •In your Introduction, make sure you answer such fundamental questions, such as: “Why were you sampling lichens?” “Why is it reasonable to assume that size should be correlated with fitness?” Your Introduction should answer these questions by presenting the purpose of your study in the context of the ecological background you introduce. You should explain WHY you did your study. In other words, introduce ecological theory relevant to your experiment, and then be sure to introduce YOUR experiment (including the hypotheses to be tested). • The introduction to your paper must include background information that indicates why your study is relevant to the field of ecology. This part of the paper is the place to include an introduction to any theories that are germane to the questions being asked. • The background information should enable the reader to understand why your question (that you were trying to answer by doing your experiment) is interesting and important, given the current state of knowledge in the relevant area (e.g., how successional theory applies to dune communities). It should also help the reader to understand the meaning of your results, and why you drew the conclusions you did, when you present these things later in your paper. • The Introduction section can be distinguished from the Discussion in that it is more general in terms of the biological information presented, and serves to set the overlying theme of your paper such that anyone reading it can understand the specifics that you emphasize in the Discussion in light of your Introduction. MATERIALS AND METHODS • The materials and methods section must include enough information so that another person could duplicate your field study and analysis. You must be specific about such details as site, sampling procedures, and criteria used to include specimens. • Make sure that you make some initial statement about what you were trying to sample, e.g., “We sampled tree density and diversity at seven sites.” Do not jump right into a discussion of how randomization was achieved. Simply state that x was randomized. Also don’t include irrelevant details, such as how you copied over your data sheet. You must also include a description of the methods you used to analyze your data (including statistics). Explain the approaches used in the data and statistical analyses. Also tell me how the measurements you took in the field corresponded to estimates of density, diversity, equitability, etc. A sure sign of a complete Materials and Methods is that anyone could repeat your study just by reading this section. RESULTS • The results section must include the results of statistical analyses that are relevant to your conclusion and must not include irrelevant data and analyses. State your probability levels and the results of statistical tests. This section is the place to be specific about your hypotheses. • If you choose to examine less than the entire database, establish your reasons for your choice ahead of time. Don’t examine the data for statistical significance and delete the non-significant data. • Minimize redundancy. • Do not simply refer to a figure or a table (e.g. “Table 1 shows the elevation and tree species for all 7 sites” . Highlight those aspects of the figure or table that you will discuss in the aptly named Discussion (e.g., “Juniperus occidentalis is only found at sites 1, 2, and 3 (Table 1)”.). • Do not interpret your results here-- state them (in words). If you did a regression analysis, report the outcome--positive correlation? Negative correlation? Significance? Use a combination of words and numbers (e.g., t = 4.38, df = 5, P < 0.05). Refer to the appropriate figure. Do not include pages of calculations either. • You shouldn’t discuss any non-significant patterns, but you should mention non-significant results. For example, "We found no significant correlation between density and rainfall (t = 1.23, df = 5, P > 0.05)." And don’t put in irrelevant figures, no matter how fascinating they may be. • Tables and Figures Tables have titles that go at the top and figures have legends that go at the bottom. Like your Results, your figures and tables should be understandable in isolation through their associated legend. DISCUSSION • The main purpose of the Discussion is to interpret the results and explain how they relate to the background provided in your Introduction and to the purpose of the study. The Discussion should briefly summarize results (and state whether or not your data supported or refuted the null hypotheses) and then put them in the context of ecological theory. This is where you answer the questions posed in the Introduction, and give the answer some meaning. It is ok if your hypotheses are not supported. Some small amount of redundancy with Results is not a big problem, and can serve to stress key points. The bulk of this section, however, should be interpretation of these points. You must discuss the ecological implications of your statistical results. This is not easy, but it is necessary for a good paper. You should try and suggest plausible ecological reasons for the observed patterns and cite literature to support your reasoning. We went into the woods hoping to detect some ecological patterns, not significant statistics. The statistics are merely a tool with which we can get an idea of the “strength” of the patterns in question. • The discussion section is a discussion of the results you provided in the results section. This is not the place for introductory theory; however, it is the proper place for your conclusions. • DON’T fall back on “insufficient” information as a means of rationalizing your lack of Discussion. If you weren’t going to even speculate on the meaning of your Results (which is fine to do as long as you state that this is actually what you’re doing), you wouldn’t be writing the paper to begin with. I understand the frustration involved in feeling like you’re making generalizations or uninformed conclusions, but remember that all Ecological studies start with ignorance, questions and pilot experiments, and build from there. REFERENCES Any time you make a statement that is not common sense or common knowledge, you must cite a reference for that statement. Throughout your report, you need to describe and discuss your work in the context of what other scientists have done and said. In the Literature Cited, you must tell the reader where the article or book was published from which you gleaned information (and to which you referred). References contain an alphabetical list of all scientific references you used in writing the report by the last name of the author or (if there are multiple authors) first author. Please emulate reference style from the journal Ecology (http://www.esajournals.org/toc/ecol/current). A typical literature cited might read like so: Funk, J.L. & P.M. Vitousek. 2007. Resource use efficiency and plant invasion in low- resource systems. Nature 446:1079-1081 Stutchbury, B. J. M., E. S. Morton, & W. Edwards. 1998. Extra-pair mating system of a synchronously breeding tropical songbird. J. Avian Biology 29:72-78. Wright, W.G. 2000. Evolution of mechanisms of sensitization: Experiments in a model lineage. Bioscience 50:883-894. Notice that these are from scientific journals and contain the year of publication, journal name, journal number and pages where the article is found. When you are referencing them in the text, they would be cited as followed: • Invasive species have recently been shown to be more efficient than native species at using limiting resources (Funk and Vitousek 2007). • Tropical songbirds typically display synchronous breeding (Stutchbury et al. 1998). • Wright (2000) conducted an extensive view of the neurology literature and concluded that … Books are cited in a similar fashion, except you include the publisher (and editor if citing a book chapter). Smith, T. M. and R. L. Smith. 2012. Elements of Ecology. 8th edition. Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA. D'Antonio, C. M., C. Malmstrom, S. A. Reynolds, and J. Gerlach. 2007. Ecology of Invasive Non- native Species in California Grassland. Pages 67-83 in M. R. Stromberg, J. D. Corbin, and C. M. D'Antonio, editors. California Grasslands Ecology and Management. University of California Press, Berkely and Los Angeles, California. Good references often make a field report. If you use references only because you are required to do so and not in order to understand the topic, you might be in trouble. References that are highly relevant to your study can help you: 1) justify your experiment, 2) put it into proper context, and 3) explain your results. Very few ecologists are able to write good Introductions and Discussions without good references to back them up.
PSYCH2410 ASSIGNMENT Assignment Description For this assignment, you will write a 1.5-page, single-spaced paper analyzing one of the empirical readings assigned in class that includes a study. Use 12 pt Times New Roman font and normal (2.54 inches top, bottom, left, and right) margins. Anything reasonably beyond 1.5 pages (60% of the 2nd page or more) will not be read or marked. If your assignment is shorter than 1.5 pages but addresses all the components, you will not be penalized. A list of which papers you can select for this assignment include: • Poole, K. L., Saigal, S., Van Lieshout, R. J., & Schmidt, L. A. (2020). Developmental programming of shyness: A longitudinal, prospective study across four decades. Development and Psychopathology, 32, 455–464. • Almas, A. N., Degnan, K. A., Walker, O. L., Radulescu,A., Nelson, C. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Fox, N. A. (2015). The effects of early institutionalization and foster care intervention on children's social behaviors at the age of eight. Social Development, 24(2), 225–239. • Kieras, J. E., Tobin, R. M., Graziano, W. G., & Rothbart, M. K. (2005). You can't always get what you want: Effortful control and children's responses to undesirable gifts. Psychological Science, 16(5), 391–396. • Cole, P. M., Bruschi, C. J., & Tamang, B. L. (2002). Cultural differences in children's emotional reactions to difficult situations. Child Development, 73, 983–996. • Yanaoka, K., Michaelson, L. E., Guild, R. M., Dostart, G., Yonehiro, J., Saito, S., & Munakata, Y. (2022). Cultures crossing: The power of habit in delaying gratification. Psychological Science, 33, 1172–1181. • Hassan, R., & Schmidt, L. A. (2024). How biology shapes the development of shyness within specific contexts: A longitudinal, cross-lagged investigation. Developmental Psychology, 60, 2178–2188. • Boeve, J. L., Beeghly, M., Stacks, A. M., Manning, J. H., & Thomason, M. E. (2019). Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to assess maternal and infant contributions to mother-infant affective exchanges during the Still-Face Paradigm. Infant Behavior. and Development, 57, 101351. • Borairi, S., Plamondon,A., Rodrigues, M., Sokolovic, N., Perlman, M., & Jenkins, J. (2023). Do siblings influence one another? Unpacking processes that occur during sibling conflict. Child Development, 94, 110–125. • Bowker, J. C., Fredstrom, B. K., Rubin, K. H., Rose-Krasnor, L., Booth-LaForce, C., & Laursen, B. (2010). Distinguishing children who form. new best-friendships from those who do not. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 707–725 • Ladd, G. W. (1990). Having friends, keeping friends, making friends, and being liked by peers in the classroom: Predictors of children's early school adjustment? Child Development, 61, 1081–1100. • Paulus, M., & Moore, C. (2014). The development of recipient-dependent sharing behavior. and sharing expectations in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 50, 914–921. • Malti, T., Gasser, L., & Gutzwiller‐Helfenfinger, E. (2010). Children's interpretive understanding, moral judgments, and emotion attributions: Relations to social behaviour. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28, 275–292. • Gülgöz, S., Edwards, D. L., & Olson, K. R. (2022). Between a boy and a girl: Measuring gender identity on a continuum. Social Development, 31, 916–929. • Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities. Pediatrics, 137, e20153223. Your goal is to critically engage with the paper and connect it to key themes in developmental psychology. Instead of summarizing the paper, you will complete the following tasks: Assignment Sections 1. Link to an Enduring Theme in Developmental Psychology: Choose one of the enduring themes in developmental psychology (from Chapter 1 of your textbook) and explain how the empirical reading you selected illustrates this theme. Use specific evidence or examples from the paper to make your argument clear. o Themes to choose from: How do nature and nurture together shape development? (Nature and nurture) How do children shape their own development? (The active child) In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous? (Continuity/discontinuity) How does change occur? (Mechanisms of change) How does the sociocultural context influence development? (The sociocultural context) How do children become so different from one another? (Individual differences) How can research promote children’s well-being? (Research and children’s welfare) 2. Identify and Describe a Conceptual Criticism: Go beyond surface-level criticisms (e.g., "the sample size is small; the sample is not generalizable") to provide a thoughtful and well-reasoned critique of the study. Consider the paper's conceptual framework, the research questions, or its broader implications. For instance, you might evaluate whether the study's methods align with its theoretical claims, question the assumptions underlying the study, or explore limitations in how the findings were interpreted. 3. Propose a Follow-Up Study or Extension: Design a follow-up study or an extension of the research that addresses one of the criticisms you raised in Section 2. Your proposal should include: o A brief description of the research design (e.g., participants, methods, procedures). o How the proposed study addresses your criticism. o How the follow-up study connects to a different enduring theme in developmental psychology than the one you discussed in Section 1. Note: You do not need to summarize the paper; assume your audience is familiar with the study. Tips for Success • Be specific and detailed: Avoid vague statements. Use evidence from the study to support your claims. • Think critically: Your conceptual criticism and follow-up study should demonstrate depth of thought and an understanding of developmental psychology themes. • Proofread: Ensure your paper is well-written and adheres to formatting guidelines. This assignment challenges you to think critically about research and connect it to foundational themes in developmental psychology, developing your analytical and synthesis skills. Rubric (Out of 100 Points) Content (75 Points) • Link to an Enduring Theme (25 Points): o Clearly identifies and accurately links the study to one enduring theme o Provides specific evidence from the study to justify the link • Conceptual Criticism (25 Points): o Goes beyond surface-level issues to provide a thoughtful and relevant criticism. o Critique is conceptually grounded, logical, and well-explained • Follow-Up Study or Extension (25 Points): o Thoughtfully designs a follow-up study or extension that addresses a raised criticism o Clearly links the proposed study to a different enduring theme, with justification. Clarity and Organization and Writing Quality (25 Points) • Ideas are presented in a clear, logical, and coherent manner (10 points) • Writing is concise, professional, and free of grammatical errors. (15 points) • Proper APA format is used, including a title page (10 points)
Statistical model Suppose we have a random i.i.d. sample X = (X1, . . . , Xn) from the shifted Cauchy distribution Cauchy(θ) with density f(x|θ) = f(x − θ) (θ ∈ R), that is, We are interested in estimating the location parameter θ. Arranging the values X1, X2, . . . , Xn in ascending order, consider the order statistics X(1) < X(2) < · · · < X(n) . Since the Cauchy distribution is continuous, with probability 1 there are no ties in the observations, so all the inequalities may be presumed to be strict. The sample median Mn is defined as the value separating the order statistics into two “equal parts”; more precisely, if n = 2k + 1 then Mn = X(k+1), so that X(1) < · · · < X(k) < Mn = X(k+1) < X(k+2) < · · · < X(2k+1). If n = 2k then the usual convention is to set Mn = 2/1(X(k)+X(k+1). In this practical, you will consider the following four estimators of the parameter θ: The MLE is the maximiser of the log-likelihood, i.e. where The coefficient 2/n in the estimator (modified sample median) is explained with the help of Theorem 9.3 in the lecture notes (cf. formula (9.26)) and by the fact that Fisher’s information in this model is given by (see Appendix 2 below) Task The objective of the practical is to explore and compare the asymptotic properties of the four estimators above (where analytical calculations may not be possible). To this end, use computer simulations to verify if these estimators are consistent (i.e., ˆθ n approaches the true value θ as n → ∞) and also to assess their accuracy by evaluating, for different values of the sample size n, their mean squared error MSEθ(ˆθn) = Eθ((ˆθn − θ) 2) and the coverage probability Pθ(|ˆθn − θ| ≤ ε), say for ε = 0.1 and ε = 0.05. Specific guidelines and questions to address: 1. Fix a certain value of θ and simulate your Cauchy samples from Cauchy(θ) using the R command rcauchy. 2. To visually verify consistency of estimator ˆθn = ˆθ(Xn), one method is to sample the values X1, X2, . . . , Xn sequentially and to plot the sequence of resulting values ˆθn as a (random) function of n ∈ N. What behaviour of such a plot would you expect for a consistent estimator? 3. When assessing the quality of the estimators, the sequential approach may be too computationally demanding, so it is recommended to confine oneself with some representative (increasing) values of the sample size n, say n = 10, 100, 500, 1000, . . . 4. To evaluate numerically the mean squared error and the coverage probability (for a given sample size n), make use of the Monte Carlo method (based on the Law of Large Numbers), according to which the expected value E(Y ) of a random variable Y can be approximated by the sample mean Y m = (Y1 + · · · + Ym)/m of a (large) i.i.d. sample Y = (Y1, . . . , Ym) from this distribution: In practical applications, the number of replicates m should be large enough so that any two different estimation runs would yield reasonably close approximate values. 5. To illustrate the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method, plot the log-likelihood function e(θ|X) as a function of parameter θ for several different values of n (and with the corresponding sample values X1, . . . , Xn fixed). This can be done using the R function plot, but first you will have to define the function e(θ |X) using suitable R commands. Is there always a unique root of the likelihood equation e'θ = 0? 6. To calculate MLE numerically, it is recommended to use the R command optim; note however that it minimises a given function. 7. Summarise your findings by drawing the conclusions and recommendations.
Midterm Assignment: Developing and Launching a Fictional Product Objective: The goal of this assignment is for you to apply the marketing principles and strategies learned in class to develop a comprehensive plan for launching a fictional product. You will also engage with a marketing professional(s) to gain insights into real-world marketing practices and integrate those insights into your strategic decisions. Part 1: Product Creation Create a fictional product that you will launch as part of your marketing plan. This product should solve a problem or address a need in the market. Requirements: 1. Product Name: Choose a unique and catchy name for your product. 2. Product Description: Provide a clear and detailed description of the product. What makes it unique? How does it differ from existing products in the market? 3. Target Market: Briefly define the audience you intend to reach with this product. Consider demographics, psychographics, and behaviors. 4. Key Features and Benefits: What are the core features of your product? How will it benefit your target market? Be specific. What is the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that differentiates your product from the competition Part 2: Marketing Strategy Develop a comprehensive marketing plan for launching your product. This should address each of the following marketing fundamentals: 1. The 5 P’s of Marketing (Product, Place, People, Promotion, Price) For each of the 5 P’s, outline your strategy and how it relates to your product launch. Be sure to discuss: o Product: Detail product features, branding, packaging, and what makes it unique in the market. o Place: Where will your product be sold? Consider distribution channels (e.g., online, retail, partnerships, social media/influencers). o People: Identify your target market, including customer personas, behaviors, and the specific segment of the market you are focusing on. o Promotion: Describe the promotional strategies and tactics you will use to launch the product (e.g., advertising, public relations, social media, influencers, events). o Price: Set a price point for your product. Discuss your pricing strategy and justify why this price is appropriate for your target market. 2. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) o Segmentation: How did you segment your market? Consider factors like demographics, geography, psychographics, and behaviors. o Targeting: Which segments will you target, and why are these the best fit for your product? Be specific in identifying key characteristics of your target market. o Positioning: How do you want your product to be perceived in the marketplace? What unique value proposition will you highlight to differentiate your product from competitors? 3. Marketing Tactics and Implementation o Provide a brief outline of your marketing tactics for the first 6 months of the product’s launch. o Include digital and traditional marketing approaches, as well as any specific channels you will use to reach your target audience. Part 3: Interview with a Marketing Professional One of the most valuable ways to learn about marketing is to hear from professionals who have experience in the field. Instructions: 1. Find a Marketing Expert: Identify a marketing expert in your life, network, or through outreach (e.g., cold calling or emailing professionals in the marketing field). This could be someone in your personal network, a professional mentor, or someone you reach out to via LinkedIn or other platforms. 2. Conduct an Interview: Ask the marketing expert about their career and what they have found to be most successful in marketing. You can ask questions such as: o What are the key elements of a successful marketing strategy? o What is the most important thing to consider when launching a new product? o What are pitfalls of certain strategies to consider? 3. Reflect on Insights: Throughout your submission, highlight key insights you learned and how these insights will influence your marketing strategy for the fictional product you’re launching. Be sure to discuss specific advice or strategies shared by the professional and how they align with the concepts you’ve learned in class. Deliverables: 1. Written Report: Your full marketing plan, including the product description, the marketing strategy (5 P’s, STP), and insights from the interview. Your report should not exceed 10 written pages or 20 slides. All other formatting is at your discretion. Refer to the Criteria for Successful Submissions in the syllabus for guidance on a high-impact plan. Due Date: The written report is due on March 4th.
PROCTECH 4IT3 & SEP 6IT3 Internet Technologies and databases Assignment 1: Build your personal webpage Due: March 3, 2025 1 Objective In this assignment, you will create a publicly accessible personal webpage using GitHub Pages. In Lab 1, you built a static HTML-based resume webpage and deployed it on the 4IT3 server. However, since this server is not publicly accessible, you cannot share your webpage with potential employers. This assignment will guide you through hosting your webpage using GitHub Pages, ensuring it is accessible to everyone. You may reuse and enhance the content from Lab 1, but it is recommended to add more personal details, such as an expanded biography, portfolio, or additional sections. 2 Requirements Your webpage should: 1. Follow GitHub Pages’ deployment guidelines. 2. Contain at least the information from your Lab 1 resume webpage, with recommended improvements. 3. Be publicly accessible through a GitHub Pages URL. 4. Be neatly designed and functional on both desktop and mobile browsers. 5. Demonstrate proper usage of HTML, CSS, and optional JavaScript. enhancements. 3 GitHub and GitHub Pages Setup To complete this assignment, follow these steps: 1. Create a GitHub Account (if not already done): Go to https://github.com/ and sign up. 2. Create a new repository: Click New in the top-right corner, name your repository (e.g., yourusername.github.io), and ensure it is public. 3. Clone the repository: Use Git or GitHub Desktop to clone the repository to your local machine. 4. Add your webpage files: Copy your HTML, CSS, and other necessary files into the repository folder. 5. Commit and push your changes: git add . git commit -m "Initial commit for personal webpage" git push origin main 6. Your webpage will be available at https://yourusername.github.io/ 4 Submission Instructions Submit the following: • The URL of your GitHub Pages-hosted personal webpage. • The GitHub repository link containing your source code. These should be submitted as a comment in the Dropbox submission section. 5 Grading Criteria Your assignment will be graded based on the following: • Correctness (40%) - Does the webpage load correctly? Is it accessible via GitHub Pages? • Content (30%) - Have you included a well-structured personal introduction? • Design and Layout (20%) - Is the webpage visually appealing and responsive? • GitHub Usage (10%) - Have you correctly set up version control and deployed your webpage? 6 Resources • GitHub Pages Documentation: https://pages.github.com/ • GitHub Guide for Beginners: https://guides.github.com/
Math 3650 - Pricing Project – Spring 2025 1. You are an actuarial student working in the life product development area of Storrs Life Insurance Company (SLIC). Storrs Life has been selling a 10-year Yearly Renewable Term Insurance (YRT) product for some time now and has a considerable record of company experience for this product. You have an excel file on Husky CT which contains our current pricing assumptions and YRT premium rates for a male age 50 non-smoker. On this file you will find our best estimate mortality rates, the Statutory mortality rates, and the current YRT premiums that we charge a male age 50 non-smoker. All other best estimate assumptions-such as face amount, are the same as those we used in class for a male age 45 non-smoker. You should build these assumptions into your model to produce a pricing model for a male age 50 non-smoker for our current YRT product. These are the premium rates and assumptions for the YRT product we currently sell and we are not intending to change them at this time. However, as discussed below, you will still need to perform. sensitivity tests on several key pricing assumptions in order to complete your assignment. 2. Storrs Life major competitors have introduced Level Premium Term life products, and the popularity of this design has been cited as a cause for the declining sales numbers at SLIC. One key competitor in particular is selling the Level Premium product at a price of $3.68 per thousand of face amount for males age 50 who are non-smokers. Now you are being asked to write a report justifying your opinion as to whether or not Storrs Life should begin to sell a level premium term product, and, if so, at what premium rate per $1000 (for this assignment, just for a male non-smoker at issue age 50). You will do this by comparing the risks of selling a Level Premium Term product with the risks of selling the YRT design. You must submit a report discussing your sensitivity and scenario tests performed on the key risks incurred in selling these policies. In particular, since the actuaries at Storrs Life are already familiar with the YRT product, but your company has never sold a level premium term design, you must discuss which risks are key risks and discuss significant differences in the key risks of these two products, as determined by your testing. Your discussion should contain an explanation of the underlying reasons that cause these differences. You should also discuss the risks that are the same or similar between the two products and describe these risks. 3. Storrs Life’s pricing goal is a minimum Risk-Adjusted IRR of 15.0%. The target IRR is based on distributable earnings including the allocation of Benchmark Surplus. Your decisions should be based on this Risk-Adjusted IRR profitability measure. Note: Storrs Life has an opportunity cost of capital of 13%. If you choose to also discuss the net present value of your results, you should calculate the NPV using an interest rate of 13% (not 15%). 4. You must perform. sensitivity tests and at least one scenario test for both products. You may also include Break-even tests. (If you do, Break-even tests should be based on the 13% Opportunity Cost of Capital, not the hurdle rate of 15%). You must perform. sensitivity tests on the following four key assumptions: average size face amount, earned interest rate, mortality rates and lapse rates. For lapse rates, you should perform. two sets of sensitivity tests- one where you change only the first-year lapse rate, and a second sensitivity test for which you change only the renewal lapse rate (years 2-9 lapse rate). Your objective is to compare the risks inherent in the level premium term design to the risks that Storrs Life is already accepting by selling the YRT product. Therefore, it is essential that you identify any risks that are significantly different in the two designs. (That is identify and explain assumptions that affect one policy significantly more or differently than the other). These assumptions need special attention in your report, and you should explain these differences as best as you are able. In fact, based on your results and analysis you may even decide to price the level premium term product using different assumptions than we use for the YRT product. If you do this, be sure to explain your reasoning. 5. For both products, you should perform. at least one scenario test- changing two related, or dependent variables on which you previously performed sensitivity tests. Explain why you think these two assumptions are related to each other. That is, explain why a change in one assumption would cause you to believe the other assumption would change in the direction and magnitude you tested. IMPORTANT NOTE: It is NOT acceptable to perform. a “scenario” test in which one assumption is the first year lapse rate and the other related assumption is the year 2-9 lapse rate. These may very well be related, but this is not a true scenario test. It is really a different lapse rate sensitivity test. Therefore, no credit will be given for the scenario test portion of the project if you do this. If you want to do this test, in which first year and renewal lapse rates are affected together, then do that as part of your sensitivity tests on lapse rates! 6. On or before the due date, you must send me via email an EXCEL file with your base line pricing results for both the YRT and Level Premium Term policy and a WORD or pdf file with your report. You will find it helpful to create two EXCEL worksheets - one for your YRT pricing and one for your Level Premium policy. (Simply make a copy of your worksheet in the same workbook, and use one copy for level premium and one for YRT). This will make it easier to compare sensitivity and scenario tests. Name your files with your lastname first-something like lastname 3650 model or lastname 3650 report. (e.g. Schneider model). If I included your first name as the name of the EXCEL template that I had previously emailed to you, please include your first name after your last name (e.g. Schneider_Scott 3650 model) 7. This project is due on Thursday, March 13, 2025 by the end of our class time. You must send me an email with your excel files and your written report by that time. This is a strict due date. No projects will be accepted after class ends on March 13, 2025. NO EXCEPTIONS! Your models were expected to be working by class time on Thursday, February 20, 2025. This is Day 4 of our project class work. To help you check that your models are fully working, you should send me, by email, the results of your sensitivity tests for a male age 50 non-smoker. Please send the sensitivity test results to me by the end of the day on Thursday February 27, 2025. (These tests should be based on the initial pricing assumptions provided on Husky CT and used in class). Be sure to tell me what level premium rate you used. If you do this, I will review the sensitivity test results you performed (in the order I receive them) and let you know of any errors. This helps to ensure that you base your reports and findings on properly working models. No analysis is required at this time- just a simple table of some results for me to check. If I find errors, I’ll help you correct them-but only if you turn in these results by February 27. As for working with others, you are all subject to the Code of Conduct for Candidates (SOA) and Code of Professional Ethics for Candidates (CAS). Any and all violations of these codes of conduct will be reported to the SOA and/or CAS. Violations of the UConn academic code will also be reported to the appropriate parties at UConn. Here are the rules for what is and what is not allowed on this project: You must build and run your own model using the unique template previously sent to you. If you have only one or two minor issues with your model, (for example, you can’t match one of the calculations, like net investment income) then you may work with current classmates to get your models working properly. Also, if you run a sensitivity test and get what appears to be an incorrect or strange result, you may ask a current classmate if they are getting the same result for the change you are testing. However, if you encounter several issues with your model, then you may NOT ask another student to let you copy or use their model. In that case you need to ask me for help. You may NOT consult with former students who are not currently taking this class for any kind of help, assistance or guidance about the project or your pricing model. And you certainly cannot use a former student’s model or template. You must run and discuss your own sensitivity and scenario tests - not copy a model or results from somebody else. Keep in mind that if someone asks you for help and you give them your model or let them copy your results then you are also in violation of the Actuarial Codes of Conduct. You may not discuss this with other faculty members or actuaries to get advice on what to run, or for help explaining results. This is your work, and your analysis. When in doubt, ask me for assistance. I will be glad to discuss your thinking with you, just like you would have discussions with your manager at work. Finally, as daunting as it may sound, have some fun with this. It’s as close as I can come to replicating what you will really be doing on the job as a pricing actuary. So, enjoy it!
Guidance on preparing a poster– due 13th March 2025. You will be assessed on: · The layout and design of your poster; and whether it is clear. · Your knowledge and understanding of the topic – Is the topic relevant? Are your points well supported from the literature? Have you critically engaged with the literature? What are you being asked to do? The question guidance says: Develop a health promotion initiative for use with postgraduate students. This might be related to any pertinent health issue e.g. diet, exercise, stress, emotional support/mental health. This initiative should be targeted at the micro level. In developing this initiative, students should focus their efforts on a specific cohort of students. The poster must include one power point slide and is in keeping with what you might present at an academic conference. This exercise is designed to take you through the stages of the development of a health promotion intervention and while this will necessarily be on a very small-scale basis, the exercise should promote learning related to a systematic approach to such an endeavour. When referring to evaluation you can talk about how you will evaluate the intervention. So – what is your topic? – what is an issue you think affects postgraduate students? The guidance says it is to be at the micro level and a specific cohort of students – who do you think is affected by this issue? MPH students at UofG? International students at UofG? Part-time students? Female students? Can you clearly outline the context and justification: which postgraduate students are the focus; why this issue; how might this fit with national/local policy; data to justify your proposed intervention (only include what is relevant). If you don’t have specific data for postgraduate students on the extent of the issue you could use data from a similar population, like undergraduate students or a non-academic adult population - but acknowledge that this isn’t the same thing to show you know this. Choose a programme planning model to help you be systematic in how you develop this intervention. If it makes sense each of the steps in your chosen planning model can be one ‘box’ of your poster. Write about this as if you have hypothetically planned, implemented, and evaluated your intervention: 1. Did you scope the issue? 2. Did you develop potential interventions and test them? 3. How did you implement the program? 4. How did you evaluate the change process? - in this case talk about how you will evaluate the intervention as you haven’t actually done it 5. Was there follow up? In terms of the intervention – You can make up your own intervention, but it could also be one that is already happening in UofG. In this case you want to show how the intervention can be adapted to fit your target group. This helps you be evidence-based as you are taking an existing intervention and adapting it or finding ways to encourage your target group to use it or know about it. Make sure you cite the intervention if it is already in use elsewhere. Use language from the module/application of theories and concepts (as appropriate) – eg who are key/primary/secondary stakeholders? What behaviour change approach is used and why? What approach to evaluation will be used - process? Outcome evaluation? Develop your poster on a powerpoint slide and upload it. You might have a table or logo for a campaign or picture on it somewhere to make it look attractive. A critical approach should be taken – use evidence and justify your choices. If you are building on an existing intervention, what might be changed to better fit your chosen population? These are just suggestions – there isn’t only one right way to develop the poster. You can work on developing your own writing style. rather than fitting into someone else’s approach. Further guidance Think about how a poster at a conference might look like. NHS Scotland has some examples from of eposters a conferences: NHS Scotland eposter examples - https://my.ltb.io/#/showcase/nhs-scotland-eposters Formatting guidance: · The poster should include text, images/graphics and references (a minimum of 5). · The poster should be created electronically. · You may decide to use a software package (e.g. PowerPoint) to do this. · Any images should be referenced, ensuring that you have permission to use them. · The word count for your poster is 300-500 words (+ 10%), excluding your references. This assessment will be graded using Schedule A of the University of Glasgow’s Code of Assessment. Markers will consider the following aspects of your poster: • Has the student clearly stated the topic and related issue? • Appropriateness of the chosen topic - has the student provided a sound rationale for why this issue is important? • Collaborators - Has the student identified what stakeholder(s) were involved in delivering the intervention? • Impact - What were the implications? Was there conflict or issues with implementation? • Supporting literature – is the poster supported with appropriate evidence? • Clarity of message – does the poster get its message across in a clear and logical manner? Additional poster design advice Additional poster design advice is available from a Google search – see for example https://www.ncl.ac.uk/academic-skills-kit/assessment/academic-posters/ https://gla.sharepoint.com/:p:/s/Research_Services/EVi8NjBAE1BGmkDYmVhWdqYBuA3crpGY9KWGloectqmVuQ?e=yi593a Briggs, DJ 2009, ‘A practical guide to designing a poster for presentation’, Nursing Standard, vol. 23, no. 34, pp. 35-39.
ARCH1201_2025 Brief for PROJECT 1: POSITIONING PART 1 – ANALYSIS (pp. 1-7) PART 2 - INITIAL DESIGN CONCEPTS (p. 8) PART 1 ANALYSIS: SITE/CONTEXT | PROGRAM | PRECEDENTS Individual and group work 10% 1.1 ANALYSIS: SITE AND CONTEXT Looking/Observing/Recording/Researching Kent Street, , Millers Point and The Rocks. Project Site: Tennis Court Project site in Kent Street Aim The aim of this assignment is to study the urban character of Kent Street and how the project site of the existing tennis court relates to its immediate context within the area between the Observatory Hill and Central Barangaroo. Following Aldo Rossi’s urban analysis of permanence and alterations, you are encouraged to analyse the urban system of this part of Millers Point to identify the built forms and the open spaces which either followed permanence or alteration. The project site and context analysis are critical parts of the design information. This will become the basis against which design decisions are continuously tested and evaluated. This analysis needs to have a clarity of intent, interpretation and critical evaluation with conclusions: why is the analysis relevant to your project? Method Visit the Tennis Court Project site in Kent Street walking down the Agar steps from the Observatory Hill ideally before the first tutorial in week 1. Alternatively, in small groups of 3-4 students within your tutorial group meet after the tutorial time at the Observatory Hill at the Round Pavilion for detailed site analysis and inspection. Please bring a camera and a good notebook to record your walk through the larger context to the project site following Gordon Cullen’s The Concise Townscape (1971). From the Observatory Hill, observe Millers Point in relation to the Rocks, Sydney bridge and the Harbour. Walk down the Agar Steps toward the project site in Kent Street. Take notes and sketches of your approach to the project Site and what you see in the context. Include people, objects and trees. From the project site of the tennis court, walk along Kent Street on the south and north directions for a few hundred meters to understand the nature of the streetscape. Then cross Kent Street and walk towards High Street and contemplate Barangaroo from above to grasp the sense of the place. Produce individual sketches in plan, sections and small perspectives. Prepare a rough plan and a rough section of the site and context to use during your walk Locate on your drawings the sequence of buildings and urban spaces that you experience in your walk Buildings defining an urban space or buildings in space – for example analyse the Observatory buildings within the space of the Observatory Hill or observe how the buildings define the edge along Agar Steps. Take notes related to the character of the facades of the public buildings like the corner café and the private buildings along the Agar Steps and how they interact with the public space. Buildings defining the street – for example the established relation of the sequence of terrace housings along Kent Street versus the relation of the detached housing, (free standing villa after the corner café’) and the alteration along Kent Street of the recent Langham Hotel by Philip Cox or the other shops and pubs along the street. Terrace House – take notated sketches related to the consistent three-dimensional template with specific dimensions in width, length and height and a typical floor plan. This is usually a linear long site that varies in length with a site width from the narrowest of approx. 4 meters to the widest of approx.10 meters. Record any alteration on this pattern or any contemporary addition to the typical terrace house. Terrace House – take sketches of the architectural vocabulary by observing the location of entrance door, the terrace/deck enclosed within the volume of the building or built over the sidewalk, material used to build the Terrace House and the elements of doors, windows and roof, the type of windows and details of the front façade. Project site – the tennis court in Kent Street - analysis and evaluation in site plan and site sections including materiality, sense of open space, climate and environmental aspects. Note: If visiting the site, take care travelling to and from Kent Street, Millers Point and while you are sketching and taking photographs on site. We recommend you visiting the site during the day and in small groups. Submission requirements Submit to your tutorial group a series of notated sketches, hand drawings and computer drawings as appropriate for the context and the site. Component Details Plan GROUP Prepare a drawing at the scale 1:500 of this urban sequence tracing the relation between the building forms of public buildings, commercial and private houses and their relationship with the voids of streets, sidewalks, public spaces, small gardens public ground floor with public activities if appropriate. Sections GROUP Prepare two critical sections/elevations (scale 1: 1000). One longitudinal section/elevations along Kent Street and one cross-section from the Observatory Hill to Central Barangaroo and Sydney Harbour. Perspective INDIVIDUAL Prepare a sequence of five small perspectives following the example from Gordon Cullen’s “The Concise Townscape”, Architectural Press, London, p.17. Project site INDIVIDUAL Tennis Court in Kent Street with Terrace House, Cliff, Agar steps (scale 1:200). Diagrams, sketches and computer drawings INDIVIDUAL Prepare a series of small diagrams exploring the environmental and physical context of the project site, including but not limited to sun access and shadows. 1. 2 Analysis: Site Environmental conditions Group work – Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Prepare an annotated site plan (drawing at the scale: 1:200) defining building heights and open spaces with an overlay of vegetation mapping. Illustrate summer and winter solar path and overshadowing in relation to the site though graphic diagrams. Collect seasonal climate data (summer and winter) from the nearby Bureau Of Meteorology station- Observatory Hill/ Fort Denison (summertime peak temperature and humidity, wind rose diagram, prevailing wind speed and direction) or use Climate Consultant, https://www.sbse.org/resources/climate-consultant and obtain air quality data from nearby station (NSW department of planning, industry & environment) to represent the outdoor environmental quality (which can be illustrated using annotated analytical diagram/s). Define Local climate classification/zone and use ‘Climate Consultant’ to explore passive design features for Sydney. Assessment Criteria Evidence and ability of assessing the project site and context conditions and their significance for your Project through notated graphic diagrams and drawings 1.3 Analysis: Program Group work – Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Aim The aim of this task is to analyse the initial area requirements for each activity included in the main part of the project: residential and public space and assess and/or change the brief according to your revised brief and narrative. Who are the residents and visitors of the design components? Method Produce a series of notated diagrams which discuss the initial requirements. These diagrams should show how activities can be integrated, shared or separated according to a degree of privacy and/or open to more public activities either inside the Terrace House or in the Public Space. Assessment criteria Evidence and ability of analyzing, critically evaluating the project program and proposing appropriate area requirements for the Project. 1.4 Analysis: Precedents of houses and public spaces Individual/Group work Aim Aim of this task is to research, critically analyse and represent selected precedents questioning: What can we draw from the analysis of the selected examples? How can we use them for our design strategy? Historical Terrace House, Modernist example, Sydney and International Contemporary examples, public spaces. Precedents provide general design principles and exemplary planning organization of a certain design quality. The discussion requires you to argue (compare and contrast) architectural decisions you find relevant to our project and relevant to the site and context not personal preferences. The intent is to stimulate a broad awareness of planning organization, its articulation of interior spaces for specific activities connected to open spaces. Most importantly question how the selected precedents are useful for our site and for our brief. See below the selected precedents. Submission requirements Submit in studio on A3 sheets black-and-white, a series of drawings (notated sketches and computer drawings as appropriate) including an exploded axonometric drawing to represent the articulation of spaces and activities in your selected precedents. Method Describe the planning organization and the general design principles of the selected precedent stating how those criteria are appropriate to the project site through the following diagrammatic and notated drawings: • Parti diagrams to reduce the complexity into a simple and precise series of lines which represent the organizational idea behind the project (main circulation / relation between solid and void / building in relation to the open space / geometry/ construction system • Critical analysis of floor plans to evaluate the relation between spaces and activities and investigating their relation with the outside open spaces (balcony, garden, terrace, courtyard - entrance, movement, activity) • Critical analysis in section to evaluate the vertical circulation through the building and investigating the relation between interior and exterior spaces including a study ofpassive design i.e. natural ventilation, natural light, thermal comfort Assessment criteria Evidence and ability of investigating the selected precedents through graphic analysis of notated diagrams, plans, sections and exploded axonometric which discuss the precedents’ design qualities and their relevance to your Project. PART 2 - INITIAL DESIGN CONCEPT - TESTING DESIGN IDEAS 10% Individual work Aim The aim of this task is to explore THREE conceptual organization strategies for the design components of the terrace house and the public space within the constraints and opportunities of the project site and context and based on the analysis of site, brief and precedents. Students are encouraged to: • Consider basic massing/volumes for the terrace house • Explore minimal design interventions for the public space and the role of the existing changing facilities for the tennis court the existing vegetation and the surrounding cliff and Agar steps • Develop a design proposal as a clear organizing framework based on site analysis including solar orientation and wind, brief analysis and precedents analysis Questions to be addressed Design idea Question Massing How does your initial design for the Terrace House fit in its immediate context? What is the relationship of the terrace house and the public space with Kent Street, the existing vegetation, the cliff and Agar Steps? Movement How do you imagine users/visitors entering and exiting the initial design for the Terrace House? What is the relation between the street and the access to the two residencies (family and couple of professionals) in the Terrace House? Inside/Outside Where is the courtyard/garden/rooftop in your Terrace House? Passive design Orientation to achieve solar heating/cooling and natural ventilation. Can you explore at this scale the initial thoughts of natural ventilation, natural light and thermal comfort? Submission requirements : Annotated two-and-three-dimensional diagrams; sketches and drawings in plan and section and study models to communicate your design ideas Assessment criteria Evidence of ability to: Explore three conceptual organization strategies demonstrating how each strategy responds to: 1. Project site analysis, 2. Project program analysis 3. Lessons drawn from the precedents
Introduction to Operating Systems CS-GY6233 COURSE OVERVIEW This course introduces basic issues in operating systems. Topics: Threads, processes, concurrency, memory management, I/O Control, and case studies. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this course, students should be able to: ● Understand modern operating systems structure ● Apply process management concepts, and be able to design, implement and evaluate multiprocessing(or multithreading) systems ● Apply memory management concepts, and be able to design, implement and evaluate virtual memory organizations. ● Understand file systems and I/O mechanisms. ● Understand multiprocessor architectures, and be able to design and evaluate the performance of multiprocessor operating systems. ● Apply real-time system scheduling mechanism. ● Design system protection and security concepts. COURSE STRUCTURE This course is conducted entirely online, which means you do not have to be on campus to complete any portion of it. You will participate in the course using Brightspace located at https://brightspace.nyu.edu. LEARNING TIME RUBRIC Learning Time Element Asynchronous* / Synchronous** Time on Task for Students (weekly) Notes Lecture (Active Module) Asynchronous 2 - 3 hours Video and interactive text format. Expect quizzes throughout the module. Discussions Asynchronous 0.5 hours Students discuss the instructor’s questions for each lesson. Reading & Research Synchronous 2.5 hour Students find related readings ( online journal articles) and work on their research presentations. Labs Asynchronous 1.5 hours Students will program operating system algorithms presented in active learning and readings *Asynchronous learning is defined as any non-realtime student learning, such as recorded lecture, podcast, interactive module, articles, websites, etc. This also includes any student-to-student or faculty-to-student communication that may happen with an asynchronous tool, such as discussion board, chatroom, e-mail, text, etc. **Synchronous learning is defined as any real-time student-to-student and/or faculty-to-student learning, such as a live webinar session or other video/audio communication service. COURSE COMMUNICATION WEEKLY VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS The Teaching Assistant (TA) will be available for weekly virtual office hours by appointment. To schedule an appointment with your TA, or to ask any questions about the course content, please email them. REQUIRED TEXTBOOK Modern Operating Systems (4th or 5th Edition), ISBN-978-0133591620 , Prices Range from $100 (Used) to $183.28 New Hard Cover) You can access NYU’s central library here: http://library.nyu.edu/ You can access NYU Tandon’s Bern Dibner Library here: http://library.poly.edu/ COURSE OUTLINE Module Topic Book Reading Online Quizzes Labs/Assign ments 1 Introduction MOS 1 2 C Programming Language Hello World/ 3 Processes and Threads MOS 2 1 CPU Scheduling 4 Memory Management – Paging and Segmentation, Page Replacement MOS 3 2 Memory Managemen t 5 FileSystems MOS 4 Virtual Memory Managemen t 6 Input/Output -Disk Configuration, Disk Scheduling MOS 5 3 Disk Scheduling 7 Deadlocks MOS 6 4 8 Virtualization and the Cloud MOS 7 9 Multiple Processor Systems MOS 8 10 OS Security MOS 9 5 11 Linux Case Study MOS 10 12 Android Case Study MOS 10 Quizzes All of the active learning modules contain knowledge checks to assess your understanding of the material. You can take these as many times as you like and are not part of your grade. Some of the active learning modules have a paired quiz in Brightspace. This quiz can be taken as many times as you like and the grade from the last take will be used. Assignments In the first half of the course, students will work on programming assignments to implement operating system algorithms covered in the active learning modules and readings. Discussions Brightspace will have threaded discussion topics where you can interact on lectures, assignments, or the related research project. Students are expected to respond to each discussion prompt and reply to two fellow students' responses. Research Each student will pick a specific, applied technical problem related to the material in the course. The student will then hypothesize a solution to the problem. Using tools such as google scholar, the student will research-related articles, hypothesize a solution and gather initial evidence. Each student will write-up their results as a 2 page extended abstract and will create a recording of their presentation of these materials to other students. GRADING Quizzes: 44% Discussions: 6% Labs & Assignments: 30% Research Presentation: 20%
BIO 370 GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR WRITING ECOLOGY PAPERS It is important that you write well, both as citizens and as scientists. These papers are a large part of your grade. Please read this entire write-up before writing your first paper, and refer to it for other papers. The papers should be a maximum of six double spaced pages (four is better, if possible) with 1 inch margins. Most of the length of your reports will be the results and discussion sections. The report should include a brief 1-2 paragraph introduction (the purpose of the study and hypotheses to be tested), a paragraph of methods, the results, a discussion, and references. Most of the work in the reports will be yours, but if you draw upon the work of others, be sure to reference them with an in text citation (e.g., Pearson et al. 2012) and at the end of the paper use the format for the references from the journal Ecology: Pearson, D. E., Y. K. Ortega, and S. J. Sears. 2012. Darwin's naturalization hypothesis up-close: Intermountain grassland invaders differ morphologically and phenologically from native community dominants. Biological Invasions 14:901-913. Some time ago, when Bill Bradshaw taught Ecology 370, he asked his teaching assistants to come up with helpful comments for students based on their experience of grading reports. Laurel Pfeifer-Meister and Bitty Roy edited their anonymous comments and added to them. Please read through this each time you prepare a report. It will aid in organizing your thoughts and help your grade. SOME GENERAL STYLE GUIDELINES • All reports must be internally consistent: conclusions must come from the results that you state, the results must be the product of your stated materials and methods, and the introduction should present your hypothesis in a way that shows the relevance of your study to the field of ecology. • Your report must be typed (figures should be in computer graphics; Excel graphics are fine). • Spelling and grammar, in addition to format, count in your grade. • When putting your paper together, watch for these common errors: 1. The word “data” is plural (sing. datum). “This data is meaningless” is therefore incorrect. It should read, “These data are meaningless". 2. Know when to use the word “less” and the word “fewer” . 3. Make sure your verbs and subjects agree in your sentences. 4. The word “comparison” and “correlation” are often confused. Make sure that you are aware of the difference in meaning of these words. 5. Places where we collect data are SITES, not SIGHTS, and a habitat that receives little rainfall is DRIER, not DRYER, than one that is very wet. 6. Remember that when you type a scientific name for an organism, it should be in italics font, with the genus capitalized and the species in lower case (e.g., Pinus contorta for coast pine). 7. i.e. and e.g. are always followed by a comma when used in a sentence. To understand why, remember that "for example" is followed by a comma. “For example, there were fifteen trees per quadrat.” • The text of your paper, which describes what you did, should be in the past tense. It’s not what you will do, but what you did. • Avoid using passive voice by being direct in your writing. Use "we found" instead of "the research found". You did the work! • If you use terms that may be unfamiliar to people outside our field (e.g., adiabatic cooling) include a brief, clear definition. INTRODUCTION •In your Introduction, make sure you answer such fundamental questions, such as: “Why were you sampling lichens?” “Why is it reasonable to assume that size should be correlated with fitness?” Your Introduction should answer these questions by presenting the purpose of your study in the context of the ecological background you introduce. You should explain WHY you did your study. In other words, introduce ecological theory relevant to your experiment, and then be sure to introduce YOUR experiment (including the hypotheses to be tested). • The introduction to your paper must include background information that indicates why your study is relevant to the field of ecology. This part of the paper is the place to include an introduction to any theories that are germane to the questions being asked. • The background information should enable the reader to understand why your question (that you were trying to answer by doing your experiment) is interesting and important, given the current state of knowledge in the relevant area (e.g., how successional theory applies to dune communities). It should also help the reader to understand the meaning of your results, and why you drew the conclusions you did, when you present these things later in your paper. • The Introduction section can be distinguished from the Discussion in that it is more general in terms of the biological information presented, and serves to set the overlying theme of your paper such that anyone reading it can understand the specifics that you emphasize in the Discussion in light of your Introduction. MATERIALS AND METHODS • The materials and methods section must include enough information so that another person could duplicate your field study and analysis. You must be specific about such details as site, sampling procedures, and criteria used to include specimens. • Make sure that you make some initial statement about what you were trying to sample, e.g., “We sampled tree density and diversity at seven sites.” Do not jump right into a discussion of how randomization was achieved. Simply state that x was randomized. Also don’t include irrelevant details, such as how you copied over your data sheet. You must also include a description of the methods you used to analyze your data (including statistics). Explain the approaches used in the data and statistical analyses. Also tell me how the measurements you took in the field corresponded to estimates of density, diversity, equitability, etc. A sure sign of a complete Materials and Methods is that anyone could repeat your study just by reading this section. RESULTS • The results section must include the results of statistical analyses that are relevant to your conclusion and must not include irrelevant data and analyses. State your probability levels and the results of statistical tests. This section is the place to be specific about your hypotheses. • If you choose to examine less than the entire database, establish your reasons for your choice ahead of time. Don’t examine the data for statistical significance and delete the non-significant data. • Minimize redundancy. • Do not simply refer to a figure or a table (e.g. “Table 1 shows the elevation and tree species for all 7 sites” . Highlight those aspects of the figure or table that you will discuss in the aptly named Discussion (e.g., “Juniperus occidentalis is only found at sites 1, 2, and 3 (Table 1)”.). • Do not interpret your results here-- state them (in words). If you did a regression analysis, report the outcome--positive correlation? Negative correlation? Significance? Use a combination of words and numbers (e.g., t = 4.38, df = 5, P < 0.05). Refer to the appropriate figure. Do not include pages of calculations either. • You shouldn’t discuss any non-significant patterns, but you should mention non-significant results. For example, "We found no significant correlation between density and rainfall (t = 1.23, df = 5, P > 0.05)." And don’t put in irrelevant figures, no matter how fascinating they may be. • Tables and Figures Tables have titles that go at the top and figures have legends that go at the bottom. Like your Results, your figures and tables should be understandable in isolation through their associated legend. DISCUSSION • The main purpose of the Discussion is to interpret the results and explain how they relate to the background provided in your Introduction and to the purpose of the study. The Discussion should briefly summarize results (and state whether or not your data supported or refuted the null hypotheses) and then put them in the context of ecological theory. This is where you answer the questions posed in the Introduction, and give the answer some meaning. It is ok if your hypotheses are not supported. Some small amount of redundancy with Results is not a big problem, and can serve to stress key points. The bulk of this section, however, should be interpretation of these points. You must discuss the ecological implications of your statistical results. This is not easy, but it is necessary for a good paper. You should try and suggest plausible ecological reasons for the observed patterns and cite literature to support your reasoning. We went into the woods hoping to detect some ecological patterns, not significant statistics. The statistics are merely a tool with which we can get an idea of the “strength” of the patterns in question. • The discussion section is a discussion of the results you provided in the results section. This is not the place for introductory theory; however, it is the proper place for your conclusions. • DON’T fall back on “insufficient” information as a means of rationalizing your lack of Discussion. If you weren’t going to even speculate on the meaning of your Results (which is fine to do as long as you state that this is actually what you’re doing), you wouldn’t be writing the paper to begin with. I understand the frustration involved in feeling like you’re making generalizations or uninformed conclusions, but remember that all Ecological studies start with ignorance, questions and pilot experiments, and build from there. REFERENCES Any time you make a statement that is not common sense or common knowledge, you must cite a reference for that statement. Throughout your report, you need to describe and discuss your work in the context of what other scientists have done and said. In the Literature Cited, you must tell the reader where the article or book was published from which you gleaned information (and to which you referred). References contain an alphabetical list of all scientific references you used in writing the report by the last name of the author or (if there are multiple authors) first author. Please emulate reference style from the journal Ecology (http://www.esajournals.org/toc/ecol/current). A typical literature cited might read like so: Funk, J.L. & P.M. Vitousek. 2007. Resource use efficiency and plant invasion in low- resource systems. Nature 446:1079-1081 Stutchbury, B. J. M., E. S. Morton, & W. Edwards. 1998. Extra-pair mating system of a synchronously breeding tropical songbird. J. Avian Biology 29:72-78. Wright, W.G. 2000. Evolution of mechanisms of sensitization: Experiments in a model lineage. Bioscience 50:883-894. Notice that these are from scientific journals and contain the year of publication, journal name, journal number and pages where the article is found. When you are referencing them in the text, they would be cited as followed: • Invasive species have recently been shown to be more efficient than native species at using limiting resources (Funk and Vitousek 2007). • Tropical songbirds typically display synchronous breeding (Stutchbury et al. 1998). • Wright (2000) conducted an extensive view of the neurology literature and concluded that … Books are cited in a similar fashion, except you include the publisher (and editor if citing a book chapter). Smith, T. M. and R. L. Smith. 2012. Elements of Ecology. 8th edition. Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA. D'Antonio, C. M., C. Malmstrom, S. A. Reynolds, and J. Gerlach. 2007. Ecology of Invasive Non- native Species in California Grassland. Pages 67-83 in M. R. Stromberg, J. D. Corbin, and C. M. D'Antonio, editors. California Grasslands Ecology and Management. University of California Press, Berkely and Los Angeles, California. Good references often make a field report. If you use references only because you are required to do so and not in order to understand the topic, you might be in trouble. References that are highly relevant to your study can help you: 1) justify your experiment, 2) put it into proper context, and 3) explain your results. Very few ecologists are able to write good Introductions and Discussions without good references to back them up.
Before starting, review the overall goals of the project: Objective: Implement a simple 10-bit processor on an FPGA using SystemVerilog. Key Features: 10-bit data bus architecture. 1024×10 RAM module for both program and data storage. Register file with various addressing modes. Multi-stage ALU for arithmetic and logical operations. Output system using three 7-segment displays and LED indicators. Debounced input handling for reliable physical switch/button operation. Step 2: Set Up Your Development Environment Hardware Check: Ensure you have an FPGA development board with at least: 10 input switches. 2 push buttons (one for clock control, one for peek functionality). 4 seven-segment displays. An LED strip for visualizing the data bus state. Software Installation: Install your preferred FPGA development tools (e.g., Quartus, Vivado, etc.). Set up a SystemVerilog simulation environment to test your design before loading it onto the FPGA. Project Files: Create a new project and add the following modules: top_level_10bit.sv ram_1024x10.sv outputlogic.sv Organize your files and ensure your project settings match your target FPGA. Step 3: Implement the Top-Level Module (top_level_10bit) Clock Management & Debouncing: Write the logic to clean up the raw clock signal and button inputs. Ensure that the clock signal is used to drive the processor on its negative edge. Data Bus Coordination: Integrate the data bus that connects the processor’s components. Manage high-impedance states to prevent conflicts on the bus. Control Flow & I/O Handling: Create a finite state machine (FSM) to control instruction execution. Connect the inputs (clock, peek, switches) to their respective modules. Route outputs to the 7-segment displays and LED indicators. Instruction: Task: Write and test the top-level integration logic that ties together all submodules. Hint: Use simulation to verify that signals are correctly routed and synchronized. Step 4: Develop the RAM Module (ram_1024x10) Memory Specification: Define a memory array with 1024 locations, each 10 bits wide. Write & Read Operations: Synchronous Write: Ensure data is written on the clock’s active edge. Asynchronous Read: Allow immediate data retrieval when a valid address is provided. Instruction: Task: Implement and test the RAM module functionality using simulation. Hint: Write test benches to check both write and read operations under different scenarios. Step 5: Create the Output Logic Module (outputlogic) Display Outputs: Map data values to three seven-segment displays (DHEX0, DHEX1, DHEX2). Display the current timestep (THEX_Current_Timestep). LED Indicators: Use an LED array (LED_B_Data_Bus) to show the state of the data bus. Implement an LED (LED_D_Done) to indicate the completion of an operation. Instruction: Task: Code the output logic ensuring that display and LED updates occur in sync with the processor operations. Hint: Verify correct mappings by simulating changes in internal registers and bus states. Step 6: Integrate and Test the Full Processor Module Integration: Connect the top-level module with the RAM and output logic modules. Ensure all control signals and data paths are correctly interfaced. Simulation and Debugging: Simulate the entire design to validate the processor’s behavior. Check the debouncing logic, clock synchronization, and data bus management. Use the peek button functionality to inspect internal register values during simulation. Instruction: Task: Perform comprehensive testing of the integrated system in simulation before proceeding to hardware. Hint: Create test cases that simulate typical operations and edge cases. Step 7: Load the Design onto the FPGA Synthesize the Design: Use your FPGA development tool to synthesize the complete design. Verify that there are no synthesis errors or timing violations. Programming: Load the bitstream onto your FPGA board. Connect the FPGA board to your computer and power it up. Instruction: Task: Transfer the design to the FPGA and ensure that all input/output connections are secure. Hint: Double-check your board’s documentation for any specific configuration requirements. Step 8: Operate and Evaluate the Processor Manual Clock Control: Use the Clock_Button to step through instructions manually. Observe how the processor advances through its execution cycle. Input Data: Utilize the Raw_Data_From_Switches to provide instructions and data. Verify that the system responds as expected. Monitor Outputs: Watch the seven-segment displays (DHEX0, DHEX1, DHEX2) for real-time data output. Check the LED indicators: LED_B_Data_Bus: Monitor the state of the data bus. LED_D_Done: Confirm when operations are completed. Use the Peek_Button to review internal register values. Instruction: Task: Run through several test scenarios on the FPGA to ensure that the processor operates correctly. Hint: Document your test cases and any issues you encounter, then troubleshoot accordingly. Final Notes and Tips Clock Edge: Remember that all operations are synchronized on the negative edge of the clock. Debouncing: Ensure debouncing is robust to avoid false triggers from the physical buttons. Modularity: Keep your design modular to facilitate debugging and potential future expansions. Documentation: Maintain clear documentation of your design decisions, test results, and any modifications.
The goal of this assignment is to introduce OpenMP, MPI, and barrier synchronization concepts. You will implement several barriers using OpenMP and MPI, and synchronize between multiple threads and machines. You may work in groups of 2, and will document the individual contributions of each team member in your project write-up. (You may use Ed Discussion to help you find a partner.)To get started, review the readme.md located in the attached zip file. Read the assignment description carefully before you begin. Start early, because you will be running performance experiments. You will need time to do the experiments and create a write-up after you finish coding. Most of the points for this assignment will come from the experiments and write-up, so you’ll want enough time to do a good job. Also, there are limited resources for running experiments and if everyone waits until the last week then there will be a lot of contention for these resources. (You are solely responsible for finishing on time – too much contention for experimental resources is not an excuse for a late submission, so start early!)When you’re submitting the project, please make sure you adhere to the directory structure mentioned in the readme. Refer to this linkLinks to an external site. on how to create a group submission on Gradescope.Project 2 zip file: project2.zipWe’re sorry but Markdown View doesn’t work properly without JavaScript enabled. Please enable it to continue.
MGT 105 Extra Credit Assignment Background and Introduction For the nearly two decades that I have been teaching college courses, many students have come to me to ask career advice. My initial advice is for students to begin researching the various options. Students research industries, companies, and various roles within organizations. After performing the research, I ask students to complete a SMART goal-setting exercise and an internal SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Please consider completing the goal-setting exercise and internal SWOT analysis sometime in the near future if you didn’t already do so in my MGT 103 course. Once a student has identified a path, the student is eager to gain employment. Often, however, the student is not prepared for the interview process. Specifically, the student lacks a cover letter, resume, and the skills necessary to succeed in an interview. Cover Letter and Resume A resume is a personalized marketing document. There are a number of ways to prepare a resume and if you ask ten people to critique your resume, you will often get ten very different observations and suggestions for improvement. In general, resumes have your contact information, academic experience (often with relevant courses cited), work experience, skills/interests (computer software, foreign languages spoken, hobbies, etc.). You can Google resume building and view some samples, if you desire. The key is that you are comfortable with what is placed on the resume so don’t just blindly follow a model. Also, use action words to describe your responsibilities in the jobs you held and activities in which you participated. If you are targeting a job in an entry level position, your resume should fit to one page. No need to list references, those will be asked of you if the employer is interested in your hiring. A cover letter is used in situations when you are applying for an existing job without the benefit of a referral or introduction, either through an internet job posting or emailing/mailing a resume into a company with the hope that the company is hiring. You may Google a cover letter to see the general composition of the document. In order to complete this task, you should address the letter to the company that you wish to work for next and for a fictitious role for which you are likely to target. The main key to a cover letter is to keep it concise and not to make any grammatical errors. Interview Preparation If your cover letter and resume are successful and you obtain an interview, proper preparation is required in order to land the job. I suggest students do two things before attending the interview (not counting the obvious logistics of finding the location, wearing the right clothes, bringing extra copies of their resume, etc.). First, I suggest students prepare a “strength list” (at least 10 things) on the left side of a piece of paper and then list their experiences (jobs, classes taken, volunteer work, sports teams, etc.) on the right side of the paper. Then, they just simply have to connect the strengths with the “supporting” experiences. This accomplishes the important “proof” of claims that students often make about their strengths. Also, by using a number of different experiences to justify their strengths, students can present themselves as being diverse and talented in many different ways. Second, I suggest students prepare answers to the standard interview questions listed on the next page (each response should be four or five sentences which equates to about 20 to 30 seconds of talking time, no more, and no less). Standard Interview Questions: 1. What are your three greatest strengths? 2. What three areas about yourself do you consider things that you need to improve? 3. Describe a situation in a job, class, sporting competition, etc. when you faced adversity and how you were able to overcome it. 4. What did you like best about a memorable job, class, or sport that you held/participated in and how did it impact your life in a memorable way? 5. How does working in a team improve your individual performance? Give an example from a job, class, or sport. The Assignment Your assignment is to prepare ONE file (PDF form, NO GOOGLE DOCS) that includes a cover letter, resume, strength list, and responses to the standard interview questions. The document should be reasonably grammatically correct, although I will not be marking it or grading it for grammar. This assignment is for you, not for me, so I will simply read it to make sure it was drafted in accordance with the requirements. You should keep a copy for yourself, refer to it often, and amend it as life becomes clearer. Successful completion and timely submission will earn you 5 points of extra credit. The assignment is all or nothing – partial extra credit will not be awarded. If you earn the extra credit, the 5 points will be added to your final exam score 24 hours after the final exam is initially graded and posted. There will not be any additional extra credit opportunities that will be made available to you during the quarter!
Java Lab 12: Memo Mania Fall 2022 This lab will re-use your solution to the Lab 11 project. Create a new project, Lab12, and copy your code into it, using the same package structure. When the problem says to change or replace some existing code, you should comment out the old line and add the new line, just in case you have to revert. 1. Add a static factory method in NoteCollection: Note createNote(type, name, body, from, to), where type is one of the concrete note types. Change every constructor in the Note hierarchy to package private. Use createNote( ) in main( ) in the places you previously new'd up notes. Make sure it all works. 2. In Note, add a getter for the body field and add abstract getters for the to and from fields (this is not a great solution, but go with it). Then add regular getters from the to and from fields in Memo and a getter for today in TimedMemo. Create a class called NoteDisplayer that contains the following static methods: void displayNote(Note note) – simply prints note's toString. void displayNoteFancy(Note note) – display the Note as shown in the figures using the getters above instead of toString. Think about how to handle the today field for TimedMemo and PoliteTimedMemo. void displayErrorMessage(String errorMessage) – display an error message. In main, find the places that notes are displayed and replace them by displayNote, except for the "display all notes" option – use displayFancyNote for that. Find all the error message println's and replace them with displayErrorMessage. What pattern is being used, and what are its parts? 3. This problem is practice with the Builder method, but just for the PoliteTimedMemo class. Following the pattern outlined in the notes: - create a public static Builder class *inside* the PoliteTimedMemo class; - since all four parts will be required, Builder needs only a default constructor; - create four methods in Builder, one each for the four fields name, body, from, to; the return type for each should be Builder, and each should return this; - create a build( ) method in Builder that returns a new PoliteTimedMemo with this as the parameter using the next method; - add a private PoliteTimedMemo constructor taking a Builder as a parameter; it should set this's fields base on the parameters fields. In addition, increment noteCount and set noteNumber to it. Now test the Builder: in NoteCollection's factory method, replace the call to new PoliteTimedMemo to one using the PoliteTimedMemo.Builder, calling the four methods (in any order – you should test it with different orderings to check that it works) and build( ). Was it worth it? Seems like a lot of trouble!
CMGT 507 Information Management Week 8 Instructions for Individual Assignment 2 Before running the analysis, weight data by running the following syntax: weight by fweight. Problem 1. How do the following variables impact consumers’ monthly spending on online purchases (Q770, in dollars): Internet experience (Q210, in months), number of companies/brands followed on Twitter (Q820), age (Age), and number of adults living in the household (Adult)? Run the analysis, and complete the following tasks: 1) cite the R Square value and interpret it in the context of the problem (i.e., how much variation in the dependent variable is explained by the model); 2) cite the p-value in the ANOVA table and determine whether there is a significant linear relationship for the model; 3) pick ONE independent variable with a significant p-value and explain the significant finding in the context of the problem; and 4) pick ONE independent variable that has a significant impact on the dependent variable, and discuss its marketing implications. Problem 2. How do the following variables predict the likelihood of Internet users friending brands on social media (Friending): Internet experience (Q210, in months), monthly spending on online purchases (Q770, in dollars), age (Age), and gender (Gender)? Run the analysis, and complete the following tasks: 1) determine whether the model is statistically significant or not; 2) cite Exp(B) and p-value of ONE independent variable that is an significant predictor, and explain the significant finding in the context of the problem; and 3) pick ONE independent variable that has a significant impact on the dependent variable, and discuss its marketing implications.
Writing Assignment ECO339H 2024/25 Announcement #1 The Writing Assignment is on Friday October 25, 2024. In it you will be asked to describe and explain a graph from our class notes, or from the textbook in one of the chapters we have covered. It is important that you have access to the textbook for this assignment. You may refer to the textbook and class notes as you prepare your answer. However, you should not view the notes you have taken in class, or BGLRS, describing the figure as a sufficient basis for your answer. You will need to provide context of why the figure is interesting or important, and you will need to define any economic terms that you use. You will have a total of 1 hour and 25 minutes to complete the assignment. The allocation of time is: 1. 15 minutes to review the assigned figure in the textbook and the accompanying text. 2. 1 hour to compose your description and explanation of the figure 3. 10 minutes to upload your completed assignment to Quercus and to Crowdmark. Your description and explanation of the figure should be 400 words maximum. Any text beyond 400 words will not be marked. It is easy to check your word count in most word processing software, but 400 words is approximately one page, double spaced. This assignment is intended to help you develop your ability to communicate economic terms and analysis using words rather than diagrams and math. One way to get in the right frame of mind is to imagine you are explaining the figure to a colleague at work who has not taken any economics courses. They can follow a detailed argument, but do not have any prior knowledge of economic terms. To help you understand what is expected, below I provide an example response based on a figure from Varian’s intermediate microeconomics textbook. A few things to notice: You need to provide context for why the figure is interesting or important. Your lecture notes, the lecture summaries and the textbook should help. You need to explain in words any economic terms that you use. You may need to define and use some economic terms that are not explicitly part of the figure (note here the concept of elasticity is used to explain why the figure is important even though the elasticity of demand is not used or demonstrated in the figure). You should not make explicit references to the figure. You will be graded on whether your interpretation of the figure is correct, whether you provide compelling context for why the figure is interesting or important, on how you define any economic terms you use and on the clarity of your writing. The grading will take account of the fact that this is a timed exercise, and you have a maximum of 400 words (imagine this is an open book midterm question and you have 60 minutes to construct your answer). Here is the example. It is a figure which demonstrates what happens to a firm’s revenue when they change their price and face a downwards sloping demand curve (e.g., a monopolist). This example response is 389 words: "Will raising the price of a good you sell raise total sales revenue? If the demand curve for your product has a negative slope, the answer is not straightforward. A negatively sloped demand curve means when you raise your price consumers will buy fewer units of your product (and when you lower the price they will buy more). If the demand for the good you sell is negatively sloped, when you raise your price there are two effects on your sales revenue: 1) you will sell fewer units of your product and the revenue on those units will be lost, and 2) you will gain higher revenue on the units you continue to sell due to the higher price. The overall effect on your total sales revenue will reflect the sum of these two effects—which is bigger? For example, if the revenue effect of (1) is bigger, your total sales revenue will fall. How do you know when the effect of (1) or the effect of (2) is bigger? The elasticity of demand can help. The elasticity of demand is a measure of how responsive your consumers’ purchases are to changes in the price of your good. The elasticity tells you something about how big the revenue losses will be from effect (1) of raising your price. If the demand for your good is “inelastic”, then the revenue loss by effect (1) will be less than the revenue gain by effect (2) and raising your price will increase total sales revenue. Inelastic demand means that the change in the number of units consumers buy in response to a change in the price, is smaller in percentage terms. For example, a 10% increase in price leads to less than a 10% decrease in the quantity bought. The other possibility is that the demand for your product is “elastic”, in which case your total sales revenue will fall. This means that the change in the number of units consumers buy in response to a change in the price, is larger in percentage terms. For example, a 10% increase in price leads to more than a 10% decrease in the quantity bought. Therefore, by knowing the elasticity of demand for your product at your current selling price, you can predict how changes in your product price will affect total sales revenue."
21-259: Calculus in Three Dimensions Lecture #3 Spring 2025 Planes The “direction” of a plane in R3 is somewhat more difficult to describe than the direction of a line in R3. In fact, at first glance, it seems like there are two directions for a plane. Thus, the idea of using a point in the plane and a single vector that lies in the plane is insufficient for describing it completely. However, since a plane really spans two directions, and there are only three independent directions in R3, a single vector can be used to describe a plane. Definition: A vector n is a normal vector to a plane if it is orthogonal to all vectors that lie in the plane. Examining the figure on the left, we see that a normal vector n must satisfy the relationship n · (r − r 0) = 0 where r 0 is the position vector of a given point (x0, y0, z0) on the plane and r = 〈x, y, z〉 is the position vector of any other point (x, y, z) on the plane. If we write n = 〈a,b,c〉, then we have n ·(r −r 0) = 〈a,b,c〉· (〈x, y, z〉 − 〈x0, y0, z0〉) = a(x − x0)+b(y − y0)+c(z − z0) = 0. This gives us two ways of representing the plane: Vector Equation: n ·(r −r 0) = 0 Scalar Equation: a(x − x0)+b(y − y0)+c(z − z0) = 0 The scalar equation is also known as the point-normal form. of the equation of a plane. The scalar equation is what we most commonly use to represent a plane. In fact, any single linear equation in x, y, and z, such as 3x − y + 2z = 4, represents a plane in R 3 . If you are given a scalar equation, it is very easy to spot the normal vector, as all you need to do is look at the coefficients of the variables. Also note that if n is normal to a plane, then so is −n, or any other nonzero scalar multiple of n. Example 1. Find the scalar equation of the plane passing through the point (3,−1,7) with normal vector n = 〈4,2,−5〉. Example 2. Determine if the planes 3x −4y +5z = 0 and −6x +8y −10z = 4 are parallel. Example: Can a plane contain skew lines? Now, sometimes you are not given a point on the plane and its normal vector. Nevertheless, with enough information you can find a point and normal and find the equation of the plane. — If you are given a point in the plane and two vectors v 1 and v 2 that lie in the plane (are parallel to the plane), then a normal vector can be found by computing v 1 × v 2. — If you are given two points P1 and P2 and a single vector v in the plane, then you can find another vector in the plane by finding the vector from P1 to P2, provided it is not parallel to v, and then find the normal using the cross product. — If you are given three noncollinear points in the plane, you can find two nonparallel vectors in the plane, and then find the normal using the cross product. Example 3. Find an equation of the plane that contains the point (2,0,3) and the line x = −1+ t, y = t, z = −4+2t. Example 4. Find an equation of the plane that contains the line x = −2+3t, y = 4+2t, z = 3− t and is perpendicular to the plane x −2y + z = 5. Example: Is it possible to find the equation of a plane if you know the symmetric equations of two intersecting lines that lie in the plane? How would you find the plane equation? Two planes in R3 are either parallel, or they intersect in a line. If they are parallel, then their normal vectors are also parallel, so the equations of the plans can be written as ax +by +cz = d1 and ax +by + cz = d2. If they intersect, then their normal vectors (call them n1 and n2) will have an angle θ between them where 0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2. Then, since the angle between n1 and n2 is the same as the angle between the two planes, we have that the acute angle between two planes satisfies But what about the line of intersection L? How can we find it? Recall that we need a point on the line and a direction vector v. One of the things you can see in the figure on the above right is that the direction vector v of the line must lie in both planes. So we know that v must be orthogonal to n1 and n2. To find a point on the line L, we know that the point must be on both planes. We also know that the line must pass through at least one of the coordinate planes x = 0, y = 0, or z = 0. A direction vector of the line of intersection of the planes with normal vectors n1 and n2 is given by v = n1×n2. A point on the line can be found by setting one of the variables in the plane equations to 0 and solving both equations for the remaining variables. Example 5. Find the line of intersection of the planes 2x −4y +4z = 6 and 6x +2y −3z = 4. With a working knowledge of planes, several distance problems can be addressed: — Find the distance between a point and a plane. — Find the distance between two parallel planes. — Find the distance between two skew lines. All of these problems actually reduce to the first one - finding the distance from a point to a plane. For example, to find the distance between two parallel planes, you can just take a point in one plane and find how far that point is from the other plane. To find the distance between skew lines, find parallel planes that contain the two lines (if they are skew, then this is possible). Looking at the figure on the right, if Q(x1, y1, z1) is any point in the plane, and r is the vector , then the distance from the point P to the plane is the (absolute value of the) scalar projection of r onto the normal vector n. Now we know that n = 〈a,b,c〉 and r = 〈x0 − x1, y0 − y1, z0 − z1〉, and that The distance D from the point P(x0, y0, z0) to the plane ax +by +cx +d = 0 is Example: If two lines are skew, how can you find two parallel planes containing those lines? Example 6. Find the distance between the parallel planes 10x +2y −2z = 5 and 5x + y − z = 1. Example 7. Find the distance between the skew lines
