Self-Regulation and graduate students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Self-Regulation and graduate students - Essay Example The research scope is based on The McClelland theory (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, p. 15). This identifies the presence of nAch - need for achievement, nAff - need for affiliation, and nPower - need for power in themselves and in others to be able to create work environments that are responsive to respective need profiles. The aim of this project is to establish what components of the common graduate student's internal and external environment and how this may impact their ability to self-regulate in the learning environment, based on the graduate student's perspective. This can be considered important because, while anyone can read about motivation, understand the actual environment that supports internal motivation can lead to a better understanding of how to create a self-regulated learning environment. The final results will allow for an environmental perspective on the forces that guide the graduate student towards self-learning or away from it. Understanding how the internal and external environment impacts the graduate student's capability to be a self-regulated learner can assist in developing stronger methodologies and resources for the graduate student. McClelland's theory describes three different types of personalities and the techniques that motivate them. "A high-need achiever will prefer individual responsibilities, challenging goals, and performance feedback, a high-need affiliator is drawn to interpersonal relationships and opportunities for communication. The high-need-for-power type seeks "influence over others and likes attention and recognition" (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, p. 15). The need for achievement is defined by Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn as, "the desire to do something better or more efficiently, to solve problems, or to master complex tasks" and is commonly referred to as "nAch" (2003). McClelland has developed his Theory of Acquired Needs. He states that amongst our needs is the need for affiliation (nAFF). The need for affiliation is "the desire to establish and maintain friendly and warm relations with others." Need for Achievement (as internal motivation) Bruce Tuckman at the The Ohio State University presented his Tripartite Model of Motivation for Achievement: Attitude/Drive/Strategy* to the Symposium: Motivational Factors Affecting Student Achievement - Current Perspectives. Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston, August 1999. He presents the need for achievement as the following: "a model of motivation for achievement that includes three generic motivational factors that influence outcome attainment : (1) attitude or belief about one's capability to attain the outcome; (2) drive or desire to attain the out

Thesis paper Outline Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Paper Outline - Thesis Proposal Example As stated by Barner and Rosenwein, â€Å"[d]emocratic values are in essence participatory values. At the heart of democratic theory is the notion that people should get involved in the process of governing themselves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Barner & Rosenwein 1985, 59). Thus far, studies on performance appraisal in public organizations have been focused on fundamental issues such as the nature of these principles, their interpretation and significance, and their evolution and function over time. There has also been agreement among political theorists, such as Jurgen Habermas, on the essence of citizenship participation in democracy, and it has been asserted by Max Weber (as cited in Riccucci 2007) that theory should contribute more to the knowledge of how democratic principles like extensive participation or high involvement develop and evolve in highly industrialized nations, such as the United States. Nevertheless, it is important to mention here that its widespread implementation in the United States throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s was intended primarily to facilitate genuine democratic governance (Graham, Noe, & Branch 2006, 953). Practically, it was designed to promote involvement by minority groups and the poor that have been excluded from the governance and decision-making process. It is due to these issues raised above that the researcher is persuaded to study the relationship between the accountability of, transparency of, and quality of public services in performance-based organizations (PBOs) and citizenship participation in the performance appraisal of public personnel. Which features, if any, of PBOs’ processes are more vital for the enhancement of public personnel performance that reinforces democratic principles of greater citizenship participation? Addressing these questions appropriately may expand our understanding of the function of public organizations in democratic societies. As stated by Pateman, the theory of participatory democracy emphasizes the

Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects

Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects A Critique on  Determining Attributes to  Maximize Visibility of Objects Muhammed Miah Gautam Das Vagelis Hristidis Heikki Mannila Vidisha H. Shah 1. Summary of the published work Das, Hristidis, and Mannila (2009, p. 959) discussed about the ranking function and top k retrieval algorithms that helps user (potential buyers to search for the required product from the available catalog. The problem is how a user (potential seller) should select attributes of new tuple that the product stands out from the other available products. So there are several formulation that were developed by the author and few that are already in practice. According to authors, to run a query(search) keywords are entered on basis of which search is conducted (p. 959). The query anserwing system may return all the values that fulfill the condition it is also called as unranked retrieval or Boolean retrieval, or can rank the answers and return top k values known as ranked retrieval or Top-k retrieval. The example given by the author is objects can be ranked on the attribute based on price or based on relevance. The example and a problem related to it is described by the author. A user wants to classify an ad to rent an apartment in an online newspaper (p. 959). The given ad (tuple) has various attributes like number of bedrooms, location and so on. The cost factor is also involved in any ad so accordingly attribute that will provide better visibility should be selected. To understand which attributes provide better visibility we can built it on basis of previous sellers recommendation (tradition technique) or an argument by which we can view the ranking function buy which we can understand which attribute will lead to high ranking score. Example adding an attribute swimming pool can increase the visibility, or a catchy title or indexing keywords (for an article). Let D be the database of some product that has been advertised already (competitor). Author is considering that the database can be a relational table or a text document (p. 960). If database is a relational table then each tuple i n the table is a product and every column is an attribute related to the product. If database is a collection of text document then each document contains data regarding a specific product (ad). The set of queries or search conditions that have been executed in past by the user is stated as Q. therefore Q is the â€Å"query log† or â€Å"workload†. The query log is the record of the queries that have been used buy the potential buyers in the past. So the query could be like SQL query or query based on key word that will return a tuple from D(database). The problem given by the author is when a D(database), Q(query log), new tuple t and integer m are given determine best m attributes for tuple t such that when the shortened version of the tuple t with m attributes is inserted in d then the number of queries from Q retrieving tuple t is maximized (p. 960). In this paper variant of m is also considered that is when m is given by the user or when m is not mentioned. In this paper author has consider several variants like Boolean (unranked retrieval) (P 960), categorical variant, text and numeric data variant and conjunctive and disjunctive query semantics. Budget variant is also considered where in if m is not given the objective of maximizing the visibility is achieved keeping m minimum. No- budget variant is also considered where value of m is not given and the only aim is to gain maximum visibility of the object and for that all possible attributes can be added. In the preliminaries section author describes that for the given database D it contains tuples {t1, t2,†¦.tm}. Each tuple t has various attributes { a1, a2,†¦. an}. Tuple t will have either value 1 or 0. 0 implies that the attribute is absent and 1 implies that the feature is available. Tuple Domination means that if a tuple has all attributes value 1 that that tuple dominates. Tuple compression of t which has m attributes. It retains all 1’s in m and converts rest all attributes to 0 (p. 961). In Conjunctive Boolean with query log(CB-QL) variant the problem definition stated by the author is when a Q with Conjunctive Boolean retrieval semantics, tuple t, and integer m are given then have to compute compressed tuple with m attribute with maximum visibility(p. 961). For this problem author uses NP-Completeness Results and derives the Theorem that the decision version of CB-QL problem is NP-hard. Author explains various algorithms for Conjunctive Boolean with query log (p. 961). First is Optimal Brute Force Algorithm. As stated earlier that CB-QL is NP-hard so during worst case optional algorithm will run in polynomial time. The problem can be solved by a simple. This problem can be solved by simple brute force algorithm. So can be called as Brute Force-CB-QL which will consider all the combination of all m attributes of the tuple t such that the combination will satisfy to achieve maximum visibility among Q. In Optimal Algorithm Based on Integer Linear programming an ILP framework CB-QL can be described as follows, new tuple t be a Boolean vector has various attributes {a1,a2,†¦an}. Q be the query log and S be the total number of queries in query log. So the task is to This integer linear formulation is attractive unlike other general IP solvers, ILP solvers and are also usually more efficient(p. 962). According to author in Optimal Algorithm that is Based on Maximal Frequent Item Sets according to the author this algorithm is based on Integer Linear Programming, but this has certain limitation so author says it is impractical if there are more than few hundred of queries in the Q query log. The author has develop an alternate approach for the same which scales large query logs very well (p. 963). This algorithm is called MaxFreqItemSets-CB-QL, for this author has defined the frequent item set problem, Complementing the Query Log, Setting of the Threshold Parameter, Random Walk to Compute Maximal Frequent Item Sets, Complexity Analysis of a Random Walk Sequence, Number of Iterations, Frequent Item Sets at Level M _ m, Preprocessing Opportunities, The Per-Attribute Variant. Author says in Greedy Heuristics algorithm becomes slow for large query logs when maximal frequent item set based algorithm has better scalability then the IPL based algorithm (p. 964). So author has developed suboptimal greedy heuristic for solving CB-QL. The algorithm consist of ConsumeAttr-CB-QL computes the number of times each attribute appears in Q. Using this top m attributes that have highest frequency is computed. The algorithm ConsumeAttrCumul-CB-QL first selects the attributes from the query log Q that has occurred maximum times and then finds the attribute that occurs second highest in the Q, and so on. The algorithm ConsumeQueries-CB-QL picks the query with minimum number of attributes first, and then selects all attributes specified in the query. In next section author explains problem variant for text data. In the text database there is a collection of documents, and each document consist a data of a particular ad (p. 965). The problem definition for text data is that query is a set of keywords and have to retrieve top-k documents via query specific scoring functions and make the document maximum visible. According to author text database can be directly mapped into Boolean database (p. 965). So the algorithm and the working can be made similar to that of Boolean Data but author says that there is a problem with attribute selection for text data is NP-complete. It can convert it into Boolean considering each key word as a Boolean attribute. So according to author since text database can be converted to Boolean database in the algorithm for text data the are two issues firstly to view each text keyword as a Boolean attribute in query log Q, and none of the optimal algorithms are feasible for text data (p. 965) . Second issue is that in text data the scoring functions that are used takes account of the document length and leads to decrease the score if keyword has low frequency. In the next section author has described about the experiments that were conducted and there results. For this experiments system that was used had following configuration P4, 1 GB RAM, 3.2- GHZ processor, 100 GB HDD, Microsoft SQL Server 2,000 RDBMS. Algorithms were implemented in C# Language, for backend RDBMS and connectivity was done using ADO. 2 data sets were used for Boolean data and publication titles were used for text data experiments. 185 queries in query log were created for the experiments, 205 distinct keywords were created by other students. The experiment worked well for Boolean data CB-QL where top m attributes were given and had maximum visibility for 185 queries. Individual experiments were done to calculate the execution time of each algorithms of CB-QL. Various statistical data is given by the author that gives how individual algorithm runs under various workload. Various similar experiments were done for text data also and its algorithm and similar statistical d ata is given by the author (p. 965). In the next section various other problem variants for Boolean data, categorical and numeric data are considered. In that author has first explain Conjunctive Boolean-Data (CB-D) in which author describes its problem definition for maximum visibility given D(database), Q(query log), t (new tuple) and m(integer). For the given problem definition complexity results for CB-D and its algorithm are given by the author (p. 967). Then next variant considered is Top-k – Global Ranking (Tk-GR) and Top-k – Query-Specific Ranking (Tk-QR) and in that author considers Top-k retrieval using Global and Query-Specific Scoring Function. Then problem definition for Tk-GR and Tk-QR is stated by the author and then its complexity and algorithm for the same are given(P.968). Next variant considered by the author is Skyline Boolean (SB) where skyline retrieval semantics are considered then problem definition for SB then its complexity and algorithms are discussed. In the similar way remainin g variants Conjunctive Boolean—Query Log—Negation (CB-QL-Negation), Maximize Query Coverage (MQC), Categorical and Numeric Data are discussed by the author(P. 969). In conclusion author describes that how the best attributes for the problem can be selected from the data set given query log. Author has presented variants for many cases like Boolean data or categorical or text data and numeric data (p. 972). And has showed that even though the problem is NP complete the optimal algorithms are feasible for small inputs. Author has also presented greedy algorithms that can produce good approximation ratio. 2. My Opinion on published work The use of internet and network has increased tremendously and with that the data available on network has increased but the main problem is information to knowledge conversion that is finding data that is useful to the user, over spam. The algorithm discussed by the author can be used to improve the visibility of the document. In the paper author has not just given algorithm for Boolean type data but also text data and other variant that is the algorithm can be used for real time data that is in various forms. The main focus of the author is on potential seller and what all attributes should be added to maximize the visibility of the advisement or the document on the web so that the potential buyers can view that document in first few options, but this can be used other way round to and using this spam can be created, a document that is a fake document that has various attributes which are not true but are added added to gain maximum visibility, which should not be even displayed in the given category. The author makes assumption about the competitors or say other advertise, and assumptions about the users preferences are made as well. The queries in the query log where written by random students and not according to what actual users want, so there is no guarantee that this will work equally well in real time environment and will actually maximize the visibility with real time users and on real network. As given by the author in every problem definition of every variant that given D database and given Q query log but in real time for many application neither D(database) nor Q(query log) is available for analysis so user have to make assumptions about the competitors and users (potential buyers) need and there after have to decide the Top-k attributes from the subset of all the attributes that will help the user to achieve maximum visibility with minimum number of attributes. In the paper the author has given various variant by which the visibility of the object can be maximized in various cases and has various optimal algorithms and greedy algorithm. Optimal algorithm gives optimal outputs but works well for small inputs only as and when the size of input increases the algorithm does not work well. Greedy algorithm produces approximate results that can be seen from the experiments done by the author with various variants. According to Ao-Jan Su, Y. Charlie Hu, Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, and Cheng-Kok Koh Page rank of any document or advertisement is not only depended on the attributes but also on key words in host name, the key words in the URL, HTML header so with the selection of proper attributes in the document user also needs to keep a check on above mentioned factors also to maximize the visibility of the object.(2010, P. 55) Angelica Caro has given a table of Data quality and visibility rankings for Spanish university portals. In which author has given DQ* ranking, Visibility ranking, Partial visibility rankings in terms of Site, Links and Popularity, Distance* where *DQ means data quality and *Distance between the data quality and visibility rankings. Teal numbers indicate the portals that are relatively close in both rankings. So from the result given by the author it is seen that there is not a precise order that is the data quality of a site can be ranked 1 but visibility is 19 because it is based on other factors also like its popularity, links, sites and distance. So even if the DQ is not very good but it is popular or it has many incoming links can lead to improve the overall ranking of the page and thereby maximizes the visibility of the page. The statistic of the site that has ranks first in visibility is data quality is 5 visibility is 1 site 1 links 1 popularity 3 distance 4 so it can be seen that to gain maximum visibility we cannot just depend on attributes of the data that is not just data quality but there are various other factors that is required to be considered to improve visibility of the object, that is not considered in the paper by the author.(2011, p. 46). References Ao-Jan Su, Hu, Y.C., Kuzmanovic, A., Cheng-Kok Koh (2010). How to Improve Your Google Ranking: Myths and Reality.2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference onWeb Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT),1, 50-57.doi: 10.1109/WI-IAT.2010.195 Caro, A., Calero, C., Moraga, M.A.(2011). Are Web Visibility and Data Quality Related Concepts?.Internet Computing, IEEE, 15(2), 43-49.doi: 10.1109/MIC.2010.126 Miah, M., Das, G., Hristidis, V., Mannila, H. (2009). Determining Attributes to Maximize Visibility of Objects.Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on,21(7), 959-973.doi: 10.1109/TKDE.2009.72

herody Essay on Homers Odyssey: Odysseus and the Heroic Cycle :: Homer Odyssey Essays

Odysseus and the Heroic Cycle in Homer's Odyssey "The hero with a thousand faces" written by Joseph Campbell, describes the path a person takes as he journeys through the heroic cycle. Throughout the Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus is portrayed as a hero. Odysseus fulfils the requirements of the Heroic Journey. "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonderâˆÂ ¦The hero comes back from his mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons upon his fellow man"(J.C.30) Odysseus accomplishes the heroic cycle through the steps of Departure, Fulfillment, and Return. Odysseus departure from Troy is the beginning of his long heroic adventure. "What of those years of rough adventure, weathered under Zeus?"(895) This quote depicts the rough times Odysseus will have on his journey, but also reveals that Zeus will watch over him. "The call to Adventure signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknownâˆÂ ¦"(58) Odysseus will cross the threshold and go places no one has returned from before. On the island of the Cyclops Odysseus exhibits his abilities, as he developed a plan to escape the Cyclops' cave. "âˆÂ ¦I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows. The Cyclops had a great club which was lying near one of the sheep pens;âˆÂ ¦ I went up to this club and cut off about six feet of it;âˆÂ ¦ lastly I brought it to a point myself, charring the end in the fire to make it harder. When I had done t his I hid it under dung, which was lying about all over the caveâˆÂ ¦"(book IX) Odysseus has this plan and utilizes it. He and most of his men escape the cave unharmed. This symbolized the escape from the "belly of the whale". Throughout his journey, Odysseus receives some help from supernatural powers, which aid him to fulfill the heroic cycle. Aeolus, the god of winds Presents Odysseus with a bag, filled with all the bad winds. "âˆÂ ¦When I said I must go, and asked him to further me on my way, he made no sort of difficulty, but set about doing so at once.

American Art Project Essay

Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull Artist John Trumbull (1756-1843) of Lebanon, Connecticut painted the Declaration of Independence, which was hung in 1826. The painting is of a moment on June 28, 1776 when the first draft of the Declaration was presented to the Second Continental Congress, less than a week before the document was officially adopted (Architect of the Capitol website). The elegance of the room, the importance of the event, and the displayed captured British flags seemingly portray a moment of triumphant victory and success. I believe Trumbull was successful in portraying this in his effort to capture a legendary moment in American history. Part of Trumbull’s success possibly stems from the fact that he did not attempt to recreate accuracy of the scene painted. He instead thrived to attain preservation of the images of the Nation’s founders. There are men in the painting who were not present in the actual event, but were signers of the document. For this reason, I believe the message of the painting is the importance of the event to American history. Adopting the Declaration of Independence as an official document was a major step towards American freedom. Another clue is that the painting is often mistaken for the actual signing of the Declaration, which didn’t take place until over a month later. The artist’s intentions shown in the painting seems to affect the interpretation gained today, which shows that the artist was able to clearly depict the painting’s victory and triumph. Embarkation of the Pilgrims, Robert Weir The painting, Embarkation of the Pilgrims (1843) is considered to be Robert Weir’s (1803-1889) most famous work. It depicts the Pilgrims on the deck of the ship Speedwell on July 22, 1620 before they departed from Delfs Haven, Holland for North America, where they sought religious freedom  (Architect of the Capitol website). This journey must have been one of the many that populated the new land in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The message in the painting portrays fear, hope, and new beginnings. In the painting, the people are in prayer and looking upward. This makes me believe that they were entrusting God with whatever was next for them, or wherever their path was taking them. The article paired with the painting points out the city on the right side that the Pilgrims are leaving. This city is the Pilgrims’ home; it was all they knew. The fact that is included in the picture could show that the Pilgrims feared the change, or represent the significance of the change. The fear of such a big move could explain the armor that was included in the painting. The Pilgrims had a need for protection from the unknown in the New World they were journeying to. The rainbow in the picture depicts their faith in God and His promise. They were leaving everything behind in search of religious freedom. Though they were in never ending prayer with a strong need of protection, their faith needed to be strong in order to actually go through with the journey. Landing of Columbus, John Vanderlyn The Landing of Columbus was painted by John Vanderlyn (1775-1852). The painting shows Christopher Columbus and members of his crew at the first landfall of their expedition to find a westward route from Europe to China, Japan, and other uncharted countries. The landing on the beach shown, in the West Indies, marks the beginning of the adventure that Columbus would be known of for the rest of all time. He is standing with his hat at his feet, sword towards the ground, flag in his hand and head held high as if he is declaring the land as Spain territory with much optimism about the future. The hat on the ground and flag mostly point towards claiming the land with the idea that wherever you lay your hat is home. His crew members do not seem to share the same optimism as Columbus, and appear sick and discouraged. The man behind him seems to have a look of disapproval on his face, while others seem fairly unhappy. In the background, there are more people who look to be in a state of rejoicing at the feel of land, an understandable gesture after being on the ship for so long. The Indians on the far right are standing behind trees as if they are hiding from the newcomers. I believe this may be out of fear, as they are unfamiliar with  the crew who, pictured in the painting, sport weapons. Commissioned in June 1836 and installed in January 1847, this painting leaves an unclear message full of mixed emotions among a hopeful sailor, his not so optimistic crew, and territorial Native Americans. Surrender of General Burgoyne, John Trumbull John Trumbull (1756-1843) of Lebanon, Connecticut also painted the Surrender of General Burgoyne, an event that took place at Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777. It was a â€Å"turning point in the American Revolution† that â€Å"prevented the British from dividing New England from the rest of the colonies.† It was also the â€Å"deciding factor in bringing active French support to the American cause.† The painting, hung in 1826, pictures General Burgoyne handing over his sword in surrender with only one other member of the British Army among countless men of the American militia. To me, this shows America’s strength and victory compared to Britain’s weakness and loss. Despite their victory, General Gates declines the sword and is pictured directing Burgoyne to the tent, displaying America’s humble hospitality and good sportsmanship. America’s flag is flown high, blowing in the wind among a background of receding gloomy clouds and clear blue skies. This can be interpreted as a mark of hope in new beginnings for America due to their victory in the war against the throne. The content of this picture leads me to believe that the message is something similar to this: â€Å"Despite Britain’s numerous efforts, including taxation and war, America still stands while maintaining her bearing as a humble, yet free nation.† William Allen – Ohio William Allen was born in North Carolina on December 27, 1803. He moved to Ohio at the age of sixteen after his parents’ death in hopes of making a future for himself. His life from that point portrays ambition, determination, and success, which makes him a great choice for representation of Ohio. He studied at the Chillicothe Academy for two years before studying law with Colonel Edward King. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio at the age of 21. The Jackson democrats of Allen’s district nominated him as a congressional candidate in a Republican district, which he won. He served one term in the House of Representatives, lost the reelection, and  was appointed by the governor to finish out a term as a United States Senator for Thomas Ewing. He was reelected to this position for a second term. In 1873, William Allen was elected governor of Ohio. He died in his estate on July 11, 1879 after only serving one term. Throughout his career, Allen was a strong supporter of the United States territorial rights in Oregon, favored the incorporation of Texas, was not shy about his point of view towards Abraham Lincoln, and was an anti-war Democrat. James A. Garfield, Ohio James A. Garfield was the twentieth President of the United States before dying within six months. Born November 1831 as the youngest of five children, Garfield was the last president to have been born in a log cabin. He grew up influenced by religion, and finished his studies just under the age of 30. He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859, and was admitted to the bar in 1860. During the Civil War, Garfield fought tooth and nail for his officer commission and worked his way through the ranks to major general. From 1863 to 1880, he was a representative in the House for nine consecutive terms, and served on the Military Affairs Committee, as well as the Ways and Means committee. Although he was elected to Senate in 1880, he never served due to his presidential election. Garfield’s presidency was short lived after he was shot July 1881 on his way to Williams College to deliver a speech. Over the next few weeks, Garfield became extremely sick due to infection. On September 19, 1881, President James A. Garfield was pronounced dead after suffering a massive heart attack, a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia. Reviewing his career and achievements, one finds that he became someone major despite his childhood shortcomings and setbacks. He is also a great candidate for Ohio, as his determination increased his ability to go far. Although he finished school later than others, he continued his studies well into his career. References Niehaus, C. (1886). James A. Garfield. Retrieved 25 Apr 14, from http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/national-statuary-hall-collection/james-garfield. Niehaus, C. (1887). William Allen. Retrieved 25 Apr 14, from http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/national-statuary-hall-collection/william-all

Crimes of the Heart: A Case Study on Cardiac Anatomy Essay

Tiffany is worried about her newborn son. Ever since she brought Caleb home from the hospital it has been so hard to get him to eat and he seems to be breathing too hard all the time. At his one month check-up, the nurse tells her that Caleb has only gained one pound since he was born and Tiffany breaks into tears. Dr. Baker checks over Caleb in the exam room, taking extra time feeling and listening to his chest. After the exam Dr. Baker says, â€Å"When I listen to Caleb’s heart I hear an extra sound called a murmur. I want to use an echocardiogram and an ECG to get a good picture of all the parts of his heart.† After a full day of tests, Tiffany meets with Dr. Baker in his office. He explains, â€Å"After a careful review of all the information, I have discovered that Caleb has a hole in the heart muscle wall between his right and left ventricles. We call it a ventricular septal defect. That is probably why he has been so irritable and hard to feed. The hole is not very big, but he will still need to have surgery to repair it.† Although the thought of her tiny son having surgery is terrifying, Tiffany is relieved to know why things have been so tough at home. Short Answer Questions: 1. Caleb has abnormal heart sounds that tipped the doctor off to a problem. a. Name the normal sounds of the heart and indicate what causes these sounds. The two major sounds that are heard in a normal heart beat sound like â€Å"lub dub†. The â€Å"lub† is the first heart sound, commonly termed S1, and is caused by turbulence caused by the closure of mitral and tricuspid valves at the start of systole. The second sound, â€Å"dub† or S2, is caused by the closure of aortic and pulmonic valves, marking the end of systole. (STETHOGRAPHICS.COM) b. In relation to the normal heart sounds, when would you expect to hear the abnormal sound Dr. Baker heard? Explain your answer. When a valve is stenotic or damaged, the abnormal turbulent flow of blood produces a murmur  which can be heard during the normally quiet times of systole or diastole. (MED.UCLA.EDU). In relation to the systole and the diastole a murmur can be detected between the quiet times between the two. Normally, a murmur is a blowing, whooshing, or rasping sound heard during a heartbeat. (NIH.GOV)That is what Dr.Baker probably heard when doing the examination. 2. The defect in Caleb’s heart allows blood to mix between the two ventricular chambers. Due to this defect would you expect the blood to move from left-to-right ventricle or right-to-left ventricle during systole? Explain your answer based on blood pressure and resistance in the heart and great vessels. It goes left to right during systole. The difference is normally, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, travels to the right ventricle, and then is pumped into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes into the left ventricle, and then is pumped out to the body through the aorta. But when an infant has ventricular septal defect it still allows oxygen-rich (red) blood to pass from the left ventricle, through the opening in the septum, and then mix with oxygen-poor (blue) blood in the right ventricle. (ROCHESTER.EDU) but instead when systole occurs the blood gets mixed because of the septum therefore heart needs to pump harder to ensure that enough blood with oxygen reaches the body. 3. When an echocardiogram is performed, the technician color-codes oxygenated blood (red) and deoxygenated blood (blue). a. In a healthy baby, what color would the blood be within the right and left ventricles, respectively? Right ventricle: deoxygenated (blue), Left ventricle: oxygenated (red) b. In Caleb’s heart, what color would the blood be within the right and left ventricles, respectively? Left ventricle: oxygenated (red). Right ventricle: will have mixed blood so it will be red and blue because the opening between the two ventricles has an effect similar to a connection between the atria: When the more powerful left ventricle beats, it ejects blood into the right ventricle and pulmonary circuit. (A&P book pg. 677) 4. What happens to Caleb’s systemic cardiac output as a result of his  ventricular septal defect (VSD)? Explain your answer. Caleb will produce lower cardiac output because a left-to-right shunt at the ventricular level reduces LV output by the amount of the shunt because of this the body’s compensatory mechanisms will increase intravascular volume because of this lowered cardiac output until LV end-diastolic volume is sufficient to pump both a normal cardiac output and the proportionate left-to-right shunt. (AHAJOURNALS.ORG) 5. Based on the location of Caleb’s defect, what part of the conduction system might be at risk for abnormalities? Well since Caleb has a hole in his heart muscle wall these parts of the conduction system might be at risk for abnormalities the SA node, AV node, bundle of His, bundle branches, and Purkinje fibers. (NIH.GOV 2) WORKS CITED STETHOGRAPHICS.COM http://www.stethographics.com/main/physiology_hs_introduction.html MED.UCLA.EDU https://www.med.ucla.edu/wilkes/Physiology.htm NIH.GOV http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003266.htm A&P book pg. 677 ROCHESTER.EDU http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P01829 NIH.GOV 2 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/anatomyvideos/000021.htm AHAJOURNALS.ORG