Deception Point Page 33

â€Å"Advanced stages of lymphoma,† the doctors explained. â€Å"Rare in people her age, but certainly not unheard of.† Celia and Tolland visited countless clinics and hospitals, consulting with specialists. The answer was always the same. Incurable. I will not accept that! Tolland immediately quit his job at Scripps Institute, forgot all about the NBC documentary, and focused all of his energy and love on helping Celia get well. She fought hard too, bearing the pain with a grace that only made him love her more. He took her for long walks on Kingman Beach, made her healthy meals, and told her stories of the things they would do when she got better. But it was not to be. Only seven months had passed when Michael Tolland found himself sitting beside his dying wife in a stark hospital ward. He no longer recognized her face. The savageness of the cancer was rivaled only by the brutality of the chemotherapy. She was left a ravaged skeleton. The final hours were the hardest. â€Å"Michael,† she said, her voice raspy. â€Å"It's time to let go.† â€Å"I can't.† Tolland's eyes welled. â€Å"You're a survivor,† Celia said. â€Å"You have to be. Promise me you'll find another love.† â€Å"I'll never want another.† Tolland meant it. â€Å"You'll have to learn.† Celia died on a crystal clear Sunday morning in June. Michael Tolland felt like a ship torn from its moorings and thrown adrift in a raging sea, his compass smashed. For weeks he spun out of control. Friends tried to help, but his pride could not bear their pity. You have a choice to make, he finally realized. Work or die. Hardening his resolve, Tolland threw himself back into Amazing Seas. The program quite literally saved his life. In the four years that followed, Tolland's show took off. Despite the matchmaking efforts of his friends, Tolland endured only a handful of dates. All were fiascos or mutual disappointments, so Tolland finally gave up and blamed his busy travel schedule for his lack of social life. His best friends knew better, though; Michael Tolland simply was not ready. The meteorite extraction pit loomed before Tolland now, pulling him from his painful reverie. He shook off the chill of his memories and approached the opening. In the darkened dome, the melt water in the hole had taken on an almost surreal and magical beauty. The surface of the pool was shimmering like a moonlit pond. Tolland's eyes were drawn to specks of light on the top layer of the water, as if someone had sprinkled blue-green sparkles onto the surface. He stared a long moment at the shimmering. Something about it seemed peculiar. At first glance, he thought the gleaming water was simply reflecting the glow of the spotlights from across the dome. Now he saw this was not the case at all. The shimmers possessed a greenish tint and seemed to pulse in a rhythm, as if the surface of the water were alive, illuminating itself from within. Unsettled, Tolland stepped beyond the pylons for a closer look. Across the habisphere, Rachel Sexton exited the PSC trailer into darkness. She paused a moment, disoriented by the shadowy vault around her. The habisphere was now a gaping cavern, lit only by incidental effulgence radiating out from the stark media lights against the north wall. Unnerved by the darkness around her, she headed instinctively for the illuminated press area. Rachel felt pleased with the outcome of her briefing of the White House staff. Once she'd recovered from the President's little stunt, she'd smoothly conveyed everything she knew about the meteorite. As she spoke, she watched the expressions on the faces of the President's staff go from incredulous shock, to hopeful belief, and finally to awestruck acceptance. â€Å"Extraterrestrial life?† she had heard one of them exclaim. â€Å"Do you know what that means?† â€Å"Yes,† another replied. â€Å"It means we're going to win this election.† As Rachel approached the dramatic press area, she imagined the impending announcement and couldn't help but wonder if her father really deserved the presidential steamroller that was about to blindside him, crushing his campaign in a single blow. The answer, of course, was yes. Whenever Rachel Sexton felt any soft spot for her father, all she had to do was remember her mother. Katherine Sexton. The pain and shame Sedgewick Sexton had brought on her was reprehensible†¦ coming home late every night, looking smug and smelling of perfume. The feigned religious zeal her father hid behind-all the while lying and cheating, knowing Katherine would never leave him. Yes, she decided, Senator Sexton was about to get exactly what he deserved. The crowd in the press area was jovial. Everyone held beers. Rachel moved through the crowd feeling like a coed at a frat party. She wondered where Michael Tolland had gone. Corky Marlinson materialized beside her. â€Å"Looking for Mike?† Rachel startled. â€Å"Well†¦ no†¦ sort of.† Corky shook his head in disgust. â€Å"I knew it. Mike just left. I think he was headed back to go grab a few winks.† Corky squinted across the dusky dome. â€Å"Although it looks like you can still catch him.† He gave her a puggish smile and pointed. â€Å"Mike becomes mesmerized every time he sees water.† Rachel followed Corky's outstretched finger toward the center of the dome, where the silhouette of Michael Tolland stood, gazing down into the water in the extraction pit. â€Å"What's he doing?† she asked. â€Å"That's kind of dangerous over there.† Corky grinned. â€Å"Probably taking a leak. Let's go push him.† Rachel and Corky crossed the darkened dome toward the extraction pit. As they drew close to Michael Tolland, Corky called out. â€Å"Hey, aqua man! Forget your swimsuit?† Tolland turned. Even in the dimness, Rachel could see his expression was uncharacteristically grave. His face looked oddly illuminated, as if he were being lit from below. â€Å"Everything okay, Mike?† she asked. â€Å"Not exactly.† Tolland pointed into the water. Corky stepped over the pylons and joined Tolland at the edge of the shaft. Corky's mood seemed to cool instantly when he looked in the water. Rachel joined them, stepping past the pylons to the edge of the pit. When she peered into the hole, she was surprised to see specks of blue-green light shimmering on the surface. Like neon dust particles floating in the water. They seemed to be pulsating green. The effect was beautiful. Tolland picked up a shard of ice off the glacial floor and tossed it into the water. The water phosphoresced at the point of impact, glowing with a sudden green splash. â€Å"Mike,† Corky said, looking uneasy, â€Å"please tell me you know what that is.† Tolland frowned. â€Å"I know exactly what this is. My question is, what the hell is it doing here?† 39 â€Å"We've got flagellates,† Tolland said, staring into the luminescent water. â€Å"Flatulence?† Corky scowled. â€Å"Speak for yourself.† Rachel sensed Michael Tolland was in no joking mood. â€Å"I don't know how it could have happened,† Tolland said, â€Å"but somehow this water contains bioluminescent dinoflagellates.† â€Å"Bioluminescent what?† Rachel said. Speak English. â€Å"Monocelled plankton capable of oxidizing a luminescent catalyst called luceferin.† That was English? Tolland exhaled and turned to his friend. â€Å"Corky, there any chance the meteorite we pulled out of that hole had living organisms on it?† Corky burst out laughing. â€Å"Mike, be serious!† â€Å"I am serious.† â€Å"No chance, Mike! Believe me, if NASA had any inkling whatsoever that there were extraterrestrial organisms living on that rock, you can be damn sure they never would have extracted it into the open air.†

Tropical Rainforests - Harbors of Diversity

Tropical Rainforests - Harbors of Diversity Biodiversity is a term biologists and ecologists use to describe natural biotic variety. The numbers of animal and plant species plus the richness of gene pools and living ecosystems all make for sustained, healthy, and diverse ecosystems. Plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, bacteria, and fungi all live together with non-living elements like soil, water, and air to make a functioning ecosystem. A healthy tropical rainforest is the worlds most spectacular example of a living, functioning ecosystem and the ultimate example of biodiversity. Just How Diverse are Tropical Rainforests? Rainforests have been around a long time, even on a geological scale. Some existing rainforests have evolved over 65 million years. This time-enhanced stability has in the past allowed these forests greater opportunities for biological perfection. Future tropical rainforest stability is now not so certain as human populations have exploded, rainforest products are in demand, and countries struggle to balance the environmental issues with the needs of citizens living off these products. Rainforests by their very nature harbor the greatest biological gene pool in the world. The gene is a basic building block of living things and every species is evolved by various combinations of these blocks. The tropical rainforest has nurtured this pool for millions of years to become the exclusive home for 170,000 of the worlds 250,000 known plant species. What Is Tropical Rainforest Biodiversity? Tropical rainforests support higher land area units (acres or hectares) of biodiversity when compared to temperate or arid forest ecosystems. There are some educated guesses by experts that tropical rainforests on our planet contain about 50% of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species. The most common estimate of the size of total rainforests amount to approximately 6% of the world’s land area.   While tropical rainforests around the world have many similarities in their climates and soil composition, each regional rainforest is unique. You will not find precisely the same species living in all the tropical rainforests around the world. For example, the species in African tropical rainforests are not the same as the species living in the tropical rainforests of Central America. However, the different species play similar roles within their specific regional rainforest. Biodiversity can be measured on three levels. The National Wildlife Federation lists these levers as:1) Species diversity - being  the sheer variety of living things, from microscopic bacteria and fungi to towering redwoods and enormous blue whales.  2)  Ecosystem diversity  - being tropical rainforests, deserts, swamps, tundra, and everything in between.  3)  Genetic diversity  - being the variety of genes within a single species, which give rise to the variations that cause species to evolve and adapt over time. Two Fantastic Rainforest/Temperate Forest Comparisons To comprehend just how marvelous this biodiversity is, you have to make a comparison or two: One study in a Brazilian rainforest found 487 tree species growing on a single hectare (2.5 acres), while the US and Canada combined only have 700 species on millions of acres.There are approximately 320 butterfly species in all of Europe. Just one park in a Peruvian rainforest, The Manu National Park, has 1300 species. Top Biodiverse Rainforest Countries: According to Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com, the following ten countries are home to the most biodiverse tropical rainforests on Earth. The United States is included only because of Hawaiis protected forests. The countries in order of diversity are: BrazilColombiaIndonesiaChinaMexicoSouth AfricaVenezuelaEcuadorPeruUnited States

The California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush was a remarkable episode in history sparked by the discovery of gold at Sutters Mill, a remote outpost in California, in January 1848. As rumors of the discovery spread, thousands of people flocked to the region hoping to strike it rich. In early December 1848, President James K. Polk confirmed that quantities of gold had been discovered. And when a cavalry officer sent to investigate the gold finds published his report in a number of newspapers that month, gold fever spread. The year 1849 became legendary. Many thousands of hopeful prospectors, known as Forty-Niners, raced to get to California. Within a few years, California transformed from a sparsely populated remote territory to a booming state. San Francisco, a small town with a population of about 800 in 1848, gained another 20,000 residents the following year and was well on its way to becoming a major city. The frenzy to get to California was accelerated by the belief that gold nuggets being found in stream beds would not be found for long. By the time of the Civil War, the gold rush was essentially over. But the discovery of gold had a lasting impact not only in California but on the development of the entire United States. Discovery of Gold The first discovery of California gold took place on January 24, 1848, when a carpenter from New Jersey, James Marshall, spotted a gold nugget in a mill race he was building at the sawmill of John Sutter. The discovery was purposely kept quiet, but word leaked out. And by the summer of 1848 adventurers hoping to find gold was already starting to flood into the area around Sutters Mill, in north-central California. Up until the Gold Rush, the population of California was about 13,000, half of whom were descendants of the original Spanish settlers. The United States had acquired California at the end of the Mexican War, and it might have remained sparsely populated for decades if the lure of gold had not become a sudden attraction. Flood of Prospectors Most of the people seeking gold in 1848 were settlers who had already been in California. But confirmation of the rumors in the East changed everything in a profound way. A group of U.S. Army officers was dispatched by the federal government to investigate the rumors in the summer of 1848. And a report from the expedition, along with gold samples, reached federal authorities in Washington that autumn. In the 19th century, presidents presented their annual report to Congress (the equivalent of the State of the Union Address) in December, in the form of a written report. President James K. Polk presented his final annual message on December 5, 1848. He specifically mentioned the discoveries of gold in California. Newspapers, which typically printed the presidents annual message, published Polks message. And the paragraphs about gold in California got a lot of attention. The same month the report by Col. R.H. Mason of the U.S. Army began to appear in papers in the East. Mason described a trip he had made through the gold region with another officer, Lieutenant William T. Sherman (who would go on to achieve great fame as a Union general in the Civil War). Mason and Sherman traveled into north-central California, met with John Sutter, and established that the rumors of gold were entirely true. Mason described how gold was being found in stream beds, and he also ascertained financial details about the finds. According to published versions of Masons report, one man had made $16,000 in five weeks and showed Mason 14 pounds of gold he had found in the previous week. Newspaper readers in the East were stunned, and thousands of people made up their minds to get to California. Travel was very difficult at the time, as argonauts, as the gold seekers were called, could either spend months crossing the country by wagon, or months sailing from East Coast ports, around the tip of South America and then onward to California. Some cut time from the trip by sailing to Central America, crossing overland, and then taking another ship to California. The gold rush helped create the golden age of clipper ships in the early 1850s. The clippers essentially raced to California, with some of them making the trip from New York City to California in less than 100 days, an astounding feat at the time. Impact of the California Gold Rush The mass migrations of thousands to California had an immediate impact. While settlers had been moving westward along the Oregon Trail for nearly a decade, California suddenly became the preferred destination. When the administration of James K. Polk first acquired California a few years earlier, it was generally believed to be a territory with potential, as its harbors could make a trade ​with Asia possible. The discovery of gold, and the great influx of settlers, greatly accelerated the development of the West Coast.

Video games conquering new markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Video games conquering new markets - Essay Example The first primitive computer and video games were developed in the 1950s and 60's and ran on platforms such as oscilloscopes, university mainframes and EDSAC computers. The earliest computer game was created in 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_games) Other than conventional media sector, the digital technologies have given new spurt to a most exciting entertainment industry- video gaming industry. There is lot of reasons which helped the video gaming industry. The fast growth of technology, globalization and liberalization of market, increasing level of stress in life and working conditions, self imposed house arrest life style, weakening social relations, increasing individuality and privacy consciousness are all helped the emergence of gaming industry in the world. People, especially children have been looking of new means spend their leisure time. Technology has offered them lot of comfort in their homes. At the same time, gaming provides more possibilities to enjoy the pace of the moving world. They have been longing for a long time a channel to link their imaginations, dreams, passions and story tales with reality. The emergence of video gaming offered them an opportunity to realise this dream with technological support. Als o emergence of other digital enterprises such as broadband, telecommunication, internet and cables has also worked as a catalyst for the gaming industry. With markets grown beyond nationalities, gaming has also got a global look. The gaming industry is now looking forward lot of market potential in emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil. The emergence of internet and networking into a global platform offers considerable prospect for gaming industry....There has been demands for censorship in video games. Video and computer games are periodically criticized in the media by some parents' groups, psychologists, religious organizations, and politicians for the level of violence, cruelty, and crime that some games allow players to act out, and often glorify. Examples are common, including Mortal Kombat and its sequels, a series of fighting games by Midway. Since 1992 the series has rewarded players for beating up an opponent with martial arts moves, and then for executing a graphic "Fatality" move. Considering the fears of these groups video game industry have started voluntary rating systems, such as the ESRB rating system in the United States and the PEGI rating system in Europe, that are aimed at educating parents about the types of games their children are playing, or wish to play. Some games such as the Grand Theft Auto series are rated as "Mature" or "Adults Only" in the US, or given a "Certificate 18" rating in the UK. There would be notes in the packaging that these games should not be sold to children. If a parent or legal guardian buys a mature game for a child and the parent/legal guardian gives permission to a child to play said mature game, it is by the parents' choice and is not considered an offence.

Discussion 4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Discussion 4 - Assignment Example This also involves identifying gender’s role whose mainstream consideration is attributed to sexuality factors. The human sexual behavior is composed of diverse motivations, ranging from sexually-generated interests to behavioral classifications. For instance, the gender factor involves sexual drives and preferences, and the unique cultural interventions have explored advances in cultural range, which hence create substantial amount of sexual orientations (Johnson, 2004). The school of thought fostered by Suzanne LaFont (2003) illustrates that variations among sexual classes have diversely created sub category for minority sexual groups. Lack of moral obligations and the sheer interest for defining sexual orientations that provide a different biological taste has been incorporated into the human sexuality potentials. The rate and range of sexual preference has changed with time and this focus provider a critical reflection of gender connectedness between changing behaviors and changing societal values. The US interpretation of gender provides a conclusive approach or reproach to emerging sexual categories which are then incorporated into new social process (Zhou et al., 1995). The critical variation of sexual and gender factors including gays, transgender and intersex have been viewed as the new constituents of gender and the interpretation hence outweighs the traditional perception of gender. However, other cultures outside the U.S. underline the traditional classification of

Transformer Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Transformer Assignment - Essay Example A simple way to remember it is the Left Hand Thumb rule. If we grasp the conductor in our left hand with our thumb extended in the direction of current (from –ve to +ve), our finger will point in the direction of magnetic lines of forces. When two or more current carrying conductors are placed parallel to each other in a way that the direction of current is the same in all of them, as shown in Figure 2, then the magnetic lines of forces aid each other to combine and strengthen the magnetic field further. If the two conductors so placed have current flowing in opposite direction then the magnetic lines oppose each other to deform and weaken the magnetic field. The magnetic field around the conductor exists at points along the length of the conductor. When the conductor is wound in the shape of a coil, as in Figure 3, then magnetic field around each turn of the coil is aided and strengthened by the fields of adjacent turns in the coil. The resultant is a magnetic field resembling a bar magnet with one end as North and the other as South of the magnet. When the direction of current is reversed it causes the direction of magnetic field to be reversed. If we grasp the coil with our left hand with our fingers pointing in the direction of current, as in Figure 4, the thumb will point in the direction of magnetic field. Conversely, to what we have discussed till now, if a conductor is placed in a magnetic field and there is a relative movement between the field and the conductor, an electromotive force (emf) is induced in the conductor. This effect is called electromagnetic induction. Both of these phenomenons, of creating a magnetic field and then utilizing electromagnetic induction form the basis of transformers. At one end alternating current (AC) is passed through a coil, this gives rise to a magnetic field which spreads out and subsides with the same frequency as of the AC applied. This changing magnetic field in fact is a replacement to moving

Romantic relationships and academic grade point average

Romantic relationships and academic grade point average This study will be conducted to investigate whether or not there is an association between involvement in a romantic relationship and academic grade point average (GPA) amongst pharmacy students. METHODS: Pharmacy students in their first, second, and third professional years of the traditional Doctor of Pharmacy program at Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy in Winchester, Virginia will be utilized as subjects for the study. Fourth-year and non-traditional students will be excluded from participation due to limited or no accessibility. By way of convenience sampling, approximately 355 students from the Winchester and Ashburn campuses of the school of pharmacy will be administered a survey at the end of the spring semester. Only students who are present and in class on the day the survey is administered will participate. Based on their responses to the third survey question concerning current romantic relationship and corresponding living status, the students will be separated into groups ranked from least involved to most involved with respect to current romantic relationship status; these groups will be designated single, casual partner, serious partner, and married. After all students have been placed into a group, their GPAs will be analyzed and compared to examine if there exists a correlation between involvement in varying levels of romantic relationships and pharmacy school GPA. We hypothesize that involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on GPA. RESULTS: N/A. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that involvement in a romantic relationship affects pharmacy school GPA. Students who will be or are currently enrolled in a graduate program can use the information from this study to make decisions concerning involvement in romantic relationships and extracurricular commitments. Introduction While there have been many studies on the effect of academic grade point average (GPA) (given a wide range of variables), it is unknown, up to this point, if relationship status affects GPA, and if so, how it affects GPA (positively or negatively). The rationale for this research project is that there have been no previous studies on GPA and relationship status for graduate students currently enrolled in pharmacy school. While limited research has been conducted on GPA and relationship status, there was more focus on adolescents (high school students). Previous limited studies performed on pharmacy students include variables such as test anxiety, time management, test competence, academic competence, and study techniques. The scope of this research project is to study the effects of relationship status on GPA for graduate students in pharmacy school. As a result, the same study can be performed on any graduate school program, not just pharmacy, using the same survey questionnaire. We hypothesize that involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on GPA. Relationship status, in this study, is defined as any one of the following: single; casual partner; serious partner; married. Being in a relationship is defined as all of the latter except: single. Other variables considered in this project (gender, age, year of study, hours dedicated to studying per week, importance of GPA, and hours worked and/or volunteered per week) are needed and help to isolate the effects of relationship status on GPA. While the primary concern of this study is to evaluate if romantic relationship status has any effect on the GPA of students in pharmacy school, it may also be extended to discover if there is a positive or negative effect on GPA dependent on relationship status. If there is no significant difference between relationship status and GPA, then perhaps data collected on other variables might explain a difference. Literature Review Our study is conducted to determine how varying levels of involvement in romantic relationships affect the academic GPA of pharmacy students. There have been many studies that examined the relationship between dating and the GPA of students. Many of the studies were conducted using high school and undergraduate college students. One study was conducted by Phuong T. Pham (2002) at Loyola University. Effects of Romantic Relationships on Academic Performance in College, examined the relationship between dating and academic performance in college. Pham hypothesized that dating while in an undergraduate program would result in a lower GPA. A survey was conducted at Loyola University and after analyzing the results, it was concluded that there was no correlation between academic performance and dating. A similar study was conducted by Matthew E. Kopfler (2003) at Loyola University that looked at the effects of romantic relationships on academic performance of undergraduate students. The hypothesis of the study was that students involved in romantic relationships would not perform academically as well as those who were not involved in romantic relationships. The study was conducted by surveying 75 Loyola undergraduate college students. After collecting the surveys and analyzing the results, Kopfler concluded that there was no impact on GPA if a student was involved in a romantic relationship. Factors that Affect Academic Performance Among Pharmacy Students was a study conducted by Sansgiry, Bhosle, and Sail. This study looked at different factors that might have an impact on the GPA of pharmacy students. Sansgiry et al. used a questionnaire to evaluate factors such as test anxiety, time management, test competence, academic competence, and study techniques and their impact on GPA. This is a very important question to ask since GPA is used as an indicator of academic performance. Most colleges and universities set a minimal GPA that student applicants must meet in order to be considered for admittance into the school. Their study concluded that test competence was an important factor in distinguishing students who will perform well academically from those who will perform poorly. Other factors that include academic competence, test competence, test anxiety, and time management improve as the student advances through the pharmacy curriculum. The two studies conducted at Loyola University derived similar conclusions, that is: the academic performance of undergraduate college students were not affected by involvement in romantic relationships. Our study advances the focus further by investigating how academic performance, as measured by GPA, is affected by involvement in romantic relationships while enrolled in a graduate college program. The study conducted by Sanger et al. is important because it looked at time management and its effect on the GPA of pharmacy students. It was concluded from this study that time management does not have an impact on GPA. Time management was defined as clusters of behavioral skill sets that are important in the organization of study/course load. Time management includes planning in advance, prioritizing work, test preparation, and following schedules. In our study, we will correlate time management with respect to relationship status by examining the amount of time spent with a partner com pared to studying academic material and evaluate if this impacts the GPA of graduate college students. Methodology Participants Second-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students from Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy in Winchester, Virginia (VA) conducted a research study to determine if there exists a link between involvement in romantic relationships of pharmacy school students and their academic GPA. GPA will be the dependent variable of this study and thus the focus of the research. The GPA will subsequently be analyzed and compared with involvement in romantic relationships. Involvement in pharmaceutical organizations, volunteer work, and weekly part-time work will also be considered as future research factors that may have an impact on GPA. The data for the project was gathered at the two separate campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy. The survey was administered at the main campus in Winchester, VA as well as the satellite campus in Ashburn, VA. A survey was selected to be the method of choice to obtain data because of its relative low cost of manufacturing and ease o f administration. Sampling The population under consideration in this study includes all traditional PharmD students who are currently enrolled full-time. This does not include fourth-year and non-traditional students on clinical rotations. Our sample population will include all traditional PharmD students at the Winchester and Ashburn campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy who agreed to fill-out and complete a survey questionnaire within a 10 day period. The researchers agreed that a limit of 10 days is a sufficient length of time to provide for appropriate completion of the survey questionnaires and for adequate collection of responses. The sample will be gathered through a convenience sampling method and will therefore be given to participants present on the day selected by the researchers to administer the survey. Because a control group will not be utilized in this study, convenience sampling is the easiest and most effective method to gather participants. The researchers plan to administer th e survey to approximately 355 participants across the two campuses of the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy. Before data is collected, the researchers will obtain approval for the research study from the Human Subjects Review Board at Shenandoah University. This board is the equivalent of an Institutional Review Board. The confidentiality of participants will be ensured for this study as no indentifying information will be collected. Research Design Data will be collected through the use of a survey questionnaire. The survey consists of eight questions designed to gather information about students GPA and their involvement in romantic relationships. The survey was created by the researchers and was designed to allow for quick and easy completion. The survey was administered to the students at the end of the spring semester by the researchers. Administration of the survey at end of the spring semester was chosen in order to allow for the inclusion of first-year students, who by then already received their fall semester grades, in the study. Each survey questionnaire contains the same questions and can be administered without any prior training of the student participant. Each survey question was designed to be a test item for the research study. The survey is attached as an appendix. The first, second, and fifth questions are used to attain demographic information. Gender, age, and year in professional school can all be used as adjuncts in evaluation of the data. The third question is the first critical test item of the study. It inquires into the current relationship and corresponding living status of the survey respondent. This question is intended to be a test item that would group students into categories ranging from least involved to most involved as relating to romantic relationship involvement. Each category was based upon the following answer choices: 1. Single 2. Casual partner 3. Serious partner 4. Married An answer of the respondent to this question is the independent variable and therefore the prime factor for comparison against GPA. Using responses to this question, the researchers will place student participants in their designated groups, compute and compare the average GPAs for each group, and evaluate for any variances in GPA amongst groups. The fourth question was used as a tool to gather information about the dependent variable, student GPA. The researchers decided to use five ranges for the GPA. This will allow for easier collection and grouping of data in a manner that will facilitate efficiency of management and analysis. The sixth, seventh, and eighth questions were placed in the survey to gather additional data about the extracurricular activities of student participants. These responses will be collected and appropriately managed. The data will not be analyzed in this study but will be made available for future research studies. The seventh question was based on a Likert Scale and can be used to evaluate whether or not the motivation of a respondent has an effect on their GPA. Data Collection Our method of collecting data is through a survey. The entire sample population will be asked to complete the same survey within a 10-day period. We have increased the reliability of our study in two ways. The first is by asking all of the participants to complete the same survey. This increases the consistency of the study. The second is by making the survey questions concise and straightforward so that each can be interpreted and understood the same by all respondents. This is critical because all respondents are asked the same questions, and therefore, it is necessary to achieve similar interpretation among respondents. It is important to have reliability because without reliability a study cannot have validity. Reliability is required in order to assess the validity of the measurement instrument. We have established that our study has reliability. We must now determine if it has internal validity. Internal validity is very important in our study because it shows that our survey correctly assessed the effects of involvement in romantic relationships on the academic GPA of pharmacy students. Our study is based on a two-group after only model, and therefore, many of the threats to internal validity do not apply. The history threat does not apply because we do not ask questions regarding past events that might have altered the GPA of a pharmacy student. For example, a student may have a lower GPA than normal because a traumatic event happened right before a big exam. Many of the other threats to internal validity cannot occur in our study because of our study design. Therefore, the internal validity of our study is further substantiated. Only complete survey questionnaires will be included in this study. If all eight survey questions are not answered, that particular survey questionnaire will be thrown out. Data Analysis The pooled variance t-Test will be used because of the two populations (single and in a relationship), as well as the comparison between two means (mean GPA of students who are single and mean GPA of students who answered as being in a relationship). Data will be collected using the eight question survey discussed previously and will be coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Scientists (SPSS) program. The data will be coded corresponding to the answers circled by each participant (for example, if a participant circled the number 1 for the question What is your gender, that would correspond to male and the number 1 would be entered under the gender category for our SPSS data sheet; if they circled a 3 for the question What is your current age range, that answer would correspond to 25 29 and a number 3 would be entered under the age category for our data sheet). All of the data will be entered manually by one person and every fifth entry will be checked agains t that particular survey by a research assistant. Having all data entered into SPSS allows for easy comparison of different factors on GPA, including testing the study hypothesis. The first test performed on the data will be to evaluate the average GPA for respondents of all romantic relationship status groups except the single group. This average GPA will then be compared to the average GPA of those students who fall into the single group. The mean value of GPA for all students who completed a survey questionnaire will also be computed. An alpha level of 0.05 will be set. Our objective is to discover any significant variances in GPA of those who are in romantic relationships versus those who are single. If our P value is less than 0.05 (our alpha value) then there is a significant difference in the mean GPA values for those who are in romantic relationships versus those who are single. In this case, we will reject our null hypothesis: involvement in a romantic relationship will have an effect on academic GPA. Accordingly, we will examine significant differences in GPA to see whether there exists a positive or negative correlation to involvement in romantic re lationships as opposed to being single. We will also break down the relationship categories to compare and determine if there are any significant differences between the average GPA of each group. For example, analysis will be performed to see if there is a significant difference in GPA between students in serious partner relationships versus those in married relationships. Discussion The null hypothesis of the study states that there is no effect regarding involvement of romantic relationship on GPA. If the resulting P value is greater than or equal to our alpha value of 0.05, we would fail to reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the projected outcome of the study is that there is no effect on involvement in a romantic relationship and GPA. However, if the resulted P value is less than our alpha value of 0.05, then we would reject the null hypothesis. In the latter case, the result would be that there is an effect regarding involvement of romantic relationship on GPA. The main reason for this study is to see if being in a relationship has an effect on GPA for graduate students. As noted earlier, no study has been done on graduate students in terms of relationships and GPA. While a few studies have been done in the past on relationship status and GPA, the studies were conducted on adolescent (high school age) students. It was agreed by all of the researches of this graduate student study that there is quite a big difference between the types of relationships in high school versus graduate school, as well as the courses, course load, and expectations of each student. Quite frankly, there really is no comparison between the two (high school versus graduate school). While this particular study was done on pharmacy school students, the exact same study can be done to any graduate school program, not just pharmacy. The eight questions in the survey are not specific to pharmacy or any other program and, although we are only concerned with relationship st atus (our independent variable) and GPA (our dependent variable), we also asked a series of other independent variable questions. Further tests and comparisons can be made with the other independent variables collected on the survey questionnaire. This is especially helpful if there is no correlation or significant difference between GPA and relationship status. The other independent variables might be able to explain some of the differences between GPA other than relationship status (for instance, if a student works or volunteers regardless of relationship status perhaps some work has no effect but working full time while in graduate school has an effect on GPA). How many of the additional questions to use in the analysis of the GPA versus relationship status is up to the evaluators of this study. Limitations Results from this study should be interpreted with several limitations in mind. First, the study is limited in sample size because only the first through third year students at one pharmacy school were used as subjects for the survey. This small population would inhibit and prevent the generalization of results and findings from the study to other schools of pharmacy. A second limitation of the study is the narrow focus on pharmacy students. This restricts generalizations of study findings and results to other graduate and professional programs (e.g. medicine, law), undergraduate curriculums, and vocational programs. Another study limitation is the use of different levels of pharmacy students: first-year, second-year, and third-year students. This limitation may skew results due to the differences in the degree of difficulty between the distinct years of professional pharmacy study, and this can have an impact on GPA. Generally, the first year curriculum is less difficult and demanding than the second year curriculum, and the second year curriculum is less difficult and demanding than the third year curriculum. Moreover, the difference in the cumulative amount of classes students have completed between their first, second, and third years in pharmacy school can also impact their overall academic GPA. The results of just one semester of completed classes can be skewed and are more volatile to GPA shifts in the next semester than a student who has completed three years of classes. Furthermore, there may be other factors influencing GPA for first year students that the survey does not account for. T his study limitation may discount external factors such as moving to a new city and or state, starting at a new school, making new friends, finding suitable housing, and even living away from their family for the first time. The study does not take into consideration if a person was in a relationship at some point during graduate school and now is not, and vice-versa. The survey questionnaire only seeks information regarding current romantic relationship status. It can be assumed for those who selected married that they have either been married for the duration of graduate school or were in another of the relationship categories and then got married. This aspect points out that people do not get married without first being casual and/or serious partners. For those in a casual partner relationship, one may wonder how long they have been in the relationship. For some third year students, perhaps they have finally taken on relationships because they feel comfortable with their GPA and school to take on more responsibility. For a first year student, classes and program demands are perhaps still not difficult. This suggests they still can have a romantic relationship without significant effects on GPA. Although the survey questionnaire is completely confidential, some students might find a need to over-inflate their GPA. Instead of asking for them to fill in their actual GPA, ranges were provided in the hopes of keeping over-inflation of GPA to a minimum. However, over reporting of GPA can still exist. Conclusions It is the hope of the evaluators that this study will shed some light on trends in GPA and what exactly affects it in order to help and inform incoming graduate students. With this information and correlations (or no correlation), graduate students will be able to make educated choices in terms of relationships and possibly other aspects outside of the classroom as well (for instance, how much time to work without having an effect on GPA). The results of this study should answer some of the myths of graduate school and having a life at the same time.