Explain some of the reasons for a decline in union membership over the past sixty years.
Current Union Challenges
The labor movement is currently experiencing several challenges, including a decrease in union membership, globalization, and employers’ focus on maintaining nonunion status. As mentioned in the opening of this section, the United States has seen a steady decline of union membership since the 1950s. In the 1950s, 36 percent of all workers were unionized,
[1]
as opposed to just over 10 percent today.
Claude Fischer, a researcher from the University of California Berkeley, believes the shift is cultural. His research says the decline is a result of American workers preferring individualism as opposed to collectivism.
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Other research says the decline of unions is a result of globalization and the fact that many jobs that used to be unionized in the manufacturing arena have now moved overseas. Other reasoning points to management and that its unwillingness to work with unions has caused the decline in membership. Others suggest that unions are on the decline because of themselves. Past corruption, negative publicity, and hard-line tactics have made joining a union less favorable.
To fully understand unions, it is important to recognize the global aspect of unions. Statistics on a worldwide scale show unions in all countries declining but still healthy in some countries. For example, in eight of the twenty-seven European Union member states, more than half the working population is part of a union. In fact, in the most populated countries, unionization rates are still at three times the unionization rate of the United States.
[3]
Italy has a unionization rate of 30 percent of all workers, while the UK has 29 percent, and Germany has a unionization rate of 27 percent.
In March 2011, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker proposed limiting the collective bargaining rights of state workers to save a flailing budget. Some called this move “union busting” and said this type of act is illegal, as it takes away the basic rights of workers. The governor defended his position by saying there is no other choice, since the state is in a budget crisis. Other states such as Ohio are considering similar measures. Whatever happens, there is a clear shift for unions today.
Globalization is also a challenge in labor organizations today. As more and more goods and services are produced overseas, unions lose not only membership but also union values in the stronghold of worker culture. As globalization has increased, unions have continued to demand more governmental control but have been only somewhat successful in these attempts. For example, free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have made it easier and more lucrative for companies to manufacture goods overseas. For example, La-Z-Boy and Whirlpool closed production facilities in Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio, and built new factories in Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor and less stringent environmental standards. Globalization creates options for companies to produce goods wherever they think is best to produce them. As a result, unions are fighting the globalization trend to try and keep jobs in the United States.
There are a number of reasons why companies do not want unions in their organizations, which we will discuss in greater detail later. One of the main reasons, however, is increased cost and less management control. As a result, companies are on a quest to maintain a union-free work environment. In doing so, they try to provide higher wages and benefits so workers do not feel compelled to join a union. Companies that want to stay union free constantly monitor their retention strategies and policies.
The Unionization Process
There are one of two ways in which a unionization process can begin. First, the union may contact several employees and discuss the possibility of a union, or employees may contact a union on their own. The union will then help employees gather signatures to show that the employees want to be part of a union. To hold an election, the union must show signatures from over 30 percent of the employees of the organization.
Once the signatures are gathered, the National Labor Relations Board is petitioned to move forward with a secret-ballot election. An alternative to the secret-ballot election is the card check method, in which the union organizer provides the company with authorization cards signed by a simple majority (half plus one). The employer can accept the cards as proof that the employees desire a union in their organization. The NLRB then certifies the union as the employees’ collective bargaining representative.
If the organization does not accept the card check method as authorization for a union, the second option is via a secret ballot. Before this method is used, a petition must be filed by the NLRB, and an election is usually held two months after the petition is filed. In essence, the employees vote whether to unionize or not, and there must be a simple majority (half plus one). The NLRB is responsible for election logistics and counting of ballots. Observers from all parties can be present during the counting of votes. Once votes are counted, a decision on unionization occurs, and at that time, the collective bargaining process begins.
Once the NLRB is involved, there are many limits as to what the employer can say or do during the process to prevent unionization of the organization. It is advisable for HR and management to be educated on what can legally and illegally be said during this process. It is illegal to threaten or intimidate employees if they are discussing a union. You cannot threaten job, pay, or benefits loss as a result of forming a union. The Figure below includes information on what should legally be avoided if employees are considering unionization.
Obviously, it is in the best interest of the union to have as many members as possible. Because of this, unions may use many tactics during the organizing process. For example, many unions are also politically involved and support candidates who they feel best represent labor. They provide training to organizers and sometimes even encourage union supporters to apply for jobs in nonunion environments to actively work to unionize other employees when they are hired. This practice is called
union salting
. Unions, especially on the national level, can be involved in corporate campaigns that boycott certain products or companies because of their labor practices. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), for example, has a “Wake Up Walmart Campaign” that targets the labor practices of this organization.
Strategies Companies Use to Avoid Unionization
Most organizations feel the constraints of having a union organization are too great. It affects the cost to the organization and operation efficiency. Collective bargaining at times can put management at odds with its employees and cost more to produce products and services. Ideally, companies will provide safe working conditions, fair pay, and benefits so the employees do not feel they need to form a union.
When a union vote may occur, most organizations will develop specific strategies to encourage employees to vote “no” for the union. Some of the arguments that might be used include talking with the employee and mentioning the following:
Union dues are costly.
Employees could be forced to go on strike.
Employees and management may no longer be able to discuss matters informally and individually.
Unionization can create more bureaucracy within the company.
Individual issues may not be discussed.
Many decisions within a union, such as vacation time, are based on seniority only.
Organizations such as Change to Win are in the process of trying to increase union membership. This organization has four affiliated unions, with a goal to strengthen the labor movement. Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, United Farm Workers, and Service Employees International Union are all unions affiliated with this organization.
[7]
The next few years will be telling as to the fate of unions in today’s organizations.
The Impact of Unions on Organizations
You may wonder why organizations are opposed to unions. As we have mentioned, since union workers do receive higher wages, this can be a negative impact on the organization. Unionization also impacts the ability of managers to make certain decisions and limits their freedom when working with employees. For example, if an employee is constantly late to work, the union contract will specify how to discipline in this situation, resulting in little management freedom to handle this situation on a case-by-case basis. In 2010, for example, the Art Institute of Seattle faculty filed signatures and voted on unionization.
[4]
Some of the major issues were scheduling issues and office space, not necessarily pay and benefits. While the particular National Labor Relations Board vote was no to unionization, a yes vote could have given less freedom to management in scheduling, since scheduling would be based on collective bargaining contracts. Another concern about unionization for management is the ability to promote workers. A union contract may stipulate certain terms (such as seniority) for promotion, which means the manager has less control over the employees he or she can promote.
Working with Labor Unions as Management
First and foremost, when working with labor unions, a clear understanding of the contract is imperative for all managers. The contract (also called the collective bargaining agreement) is the guiding document for all decisions relating to employees. All human resources (HR) professionals and managers should have intimate knowledge of the document and be aware of the components of the contract that can affect dealings with employees. The agreement outlines all requirements of managers and usually outlines how discipline, promotion, and transfers will work.
Because as managers we will be working with members of the union on a daily basis, a positive relationship can not only assist the day-to-day operations but also create an easier bargaining process. Solicitation of input from the union before decisions are made can be one step to creating this positive relationship. Transparent communication is another way to achieve this goal.
Key Takeaways
The reasons for the decline are varied, depending on whom you ask. Some say the moving of jobs overseas is the reason for the decline, while others say unions’ hard-line tactics put them out of favor.
Besides declining membership, union challenges today include globalization and companies’ wanting a union-free workplace.
To form a union, the organizer must have signatures from 30 percent of the employees. If this occurs, the National Labor Relations Board will facilitate a card check to determine more than 50 percent of the workforce at that company is in agreement with union representation. If the company does not accept this, then the NLRB holds secret elections to determine if the employees will be unionized. A collective bargaining agreement is put into place if the vote is yes.
Companies prefer to not have unions in their organizations because it affects costs and operational productivity. Companies will usually try to prevent a union from organizing in their workplace.
Managers are impacted when a company does unionize. For example, management rights are affected, and everything must be guided by the contract instead of management prerogative.
Exercise
Visit the National Labor Relations Board website. View the “weekly case summary” and discuss it in at least two paragraphs, stating your opinion on this case.
Do you agree with unionization within organizations? Why or why not? List the advantages and disadvantages of unions to the employee and the company.
Gerald Friedman, “Labor Unions in the United States,” Economic History Association, February 2, 2010, accessed April 4, 2011,eh.net/encyclopedia/article/friedman.unions.us.


4.1: Modular Programming
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Overview
Modular programming is a software design technique that emphasizes separating the functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect of the desired functionality. [1]
Concept of Modularization
One of the most important concepts of programming is the ability to group some lines of code into a unit that can be included in our program. The original wording for this was a sub-program. Other names include: macro, sub-routine, procedure, module and function. We are going to use the term function for that is what they are called in most of the predominant programming languages of today. Functions are important because they allow us to take large complicated programs and to divide them into smaller manageable pieces. Because the function is a smaller piece of the overall program, we can concentrate on what we want it to do and test it to make sure it works properly. Generally, functions fall into two categories:
- Program Control – Functions used to simply sub-divide and control the program. These functions are unique to the program being written. Other programs may use similar functions, maybe even functions with the same name, but the content of the functions are almost always very different.
- Specific Task – Functions designed to be used with several programs. These functions perform a specific task and thus are usable in many different programs because the other programs also need to do the specific task. Specific task functions are sometimes referred to as building blocks. Because they are already coded and tested, we can use them with confidence to more efficiently write a large program.
The main program must establish the existence of functions used in that program. Depending on the programming language, there is a formal way to:
- define a function (its definition or the code it will execute)
- call a function
- declare a function (a prototype is a declaration to a compiler)
Program Control functions normally do not communicate information to each other but use a common area for variable storage. Specific Task functions are constructed so that data can be communicated between the calling program piece (which is usually another function) and the function being called. This ability to communicate data is what allows us to build a specific task function that may be used in many programs. The rules for how the data is communicated in and out of a function vary greatly by programming language, but the concept is the same. The data items passed (or communicated) are called parameters. Thus the wording: parameter passing . The four data communication options include:
- no communication in with no communication out
- no communication in with some communication out
- some communication in with some communication out
- some communication in with no communication out
Program Control Function
The main program piece in many programming languages is a special function with the identifier name of main. The special or uniqueness of main as a function is that this is where the program starts executing code and this is where it usually stops executing code. It is often the first function defined in a program and appears after the area used for includes, other technical items, declaration of prototypes, the listing of global constants and variables and any other items generally needed by the program. The code to define the function main is provided; however, it is not prototyped or usually called like other functions within a program.
Specific Task Function
We often have the need to perform a specific task that might be used in many programs.
General layout of a function in a statically-typed language such as C++, C#, and Java:
<return value data type> function identifier name(<data type> <identifier name for input value>) { //lines of code; return <value>; }
General layout of a function in a dynamically typed language such as JavaScript and Python:
function identifier name(<identifier name for input value>) { //lines of code; return <value>; } def function identifier name(<identifier name for input value>): //lines of code return <value>
In some programming languages, functions have a set of braces {} used for identifying a group or block of statements or lines of code. Other languages use indenting or some type of begin and end statements to identify a code block. There are normally several lines of code within a function.
Programming languages will either have specific task functions defined before or after the main function, depending on coding conventions for the given language.
When you call a function you use its identifier name and a set of parentheses. You place any data items you are passing inside the parentheses. After our program is compiled and running, the lines of code in the main function are executed, and when it gets to the calling of a specific task function, the control of the program moves to the function and starts executing the lines of code in the function. When it’s done with the lines of code, it will return to the place in the program that called it (in our example the function main) and continue with the code in that function.
Program Layout
Most programs have several items before the functions, including:
- Documentation – Most programs have a comment area at the start of the program with a variety of comments pertinent to the program.
- Include or import statements used to access standard library functions.
- Language-specific code such as namespace references or function prototypes.
- Global or module-level constants and variables, when required.
Key Terms
- braces
- Used to identify a block of code in languages such as C++, C#, Java, and JavaScript.
- function
- What modules are called in many predominant programming languages of today.
- function call
- A function’s using or invoking of another function.
- function definition
- The code that defines what a function does.
- function prototype
- A function’s communications declaration to a compiler.
- identifier name
- The name given by the programmer to identify a function or other program items such as variables.
- modularization
- The ability to group some lines of code into a unit that can be included in our program.
- parameter passing
- How the data is communicated in to and out of a function.
- program control
- Functions used to simply subdivide and control the program.
- specific task
- Functions designed to be used with several programs.


7.2: Is there a "hidden curriculum"? Where is it hiding?
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by Aubrey W. Bibbs, Jr.
Learning Objectives
1. Reader should be able to recognize various types of hidden curriculum/character education.
2. Reader will be able to identify reasons for implementing a hidden curriculum/character education into an existing curriculum.
3. Readers are expected to distinguish the differences between the goals associated with hidden curriculum/character education from those of a traditional/formal curriculum
Introduction
The Random House College Dictionary (1988) defines curriculum as: “the aggregate of courses of study given in a school, college, etc” (p. 328). The term “hidden curriculum” comes from the concept that such an aggregate of courses is comprised of a curriculum which is both formal and informal, also known as written or directed curriculum and unwritten or undirected curriculum respectively. Formal curriculum is traditionally an explicit lesson plan, either produced by the individual teacher or created by the school/school district intended to address intellect and/or vocation, and teach lessons in areas of study such as: mathematics, science, reading, writing and art. Informal curriculum, commonly referred to as hidden curriculum, due to its implicit nature, addresses behavioral and character aspects of life which include, but are not limited to: social responsibility, personal relationships, competition, respect for authority and time management. These aspects are taught by such methods, techniques and procedures as class bells, restroom passes, dress codes, classroom etiquette, class rank charts, etc.
The general consensus is that hidden curriculum has the potential to teach, stimulate and foster good or bad lessons, behavioral pattern and character traits respectively. Some educators feel that hidden curriculum is creating more negative repercussions for students and society, than it is positive results. John Taylor Gatto (1992) expressed his concern during a speech by stating, “…these are the things you pay me to teach. 1. CONFUSION…2. CLASS POSITION…3. INDIFFERENCE…4. EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY…5. INTELLECTUAL DEPENDENCY…6. PROVISIONAL SELF-ESTEEM…7. ONE CAN’T HIDE…” (p. 2-12). His main argument was that hidden curriculum was “dumbing us down” (Gatto). This was a popular sentiment echoed throughout school systems and communities in the U.S. over the past thirty to forty years.
Teaching Character
Recently, in the past ten to fifteen years, there has been a collective effort by parents, educators and politicians alike for schools to look into placing more focus on areas of hidden curriculum such as, character education; also referred to as value education or moral education intended to help students “to acquire certain character strengths: sound judgment, a sense of responsibility, personal courage, and self-mastery” (Ryan & Bohlin, 1999, p. 207), and realize both the individual benefit and the benefit to the greater good of society when they “internalize these lifelong habits” (p. 207). This movement was brought on by obvious indications that our nation's youth was lacking sufficient moral fiber as demonstrated through “frightening statistics about youth homicides and suicides and by soaring numbers of teen pregnancies“ (p. xiii), staggering high school drop out rates and gang affiliation. As a result of the movement to create formal programs which propagate positive outcomes by focusing on the potential that hidden curriculum has to influence character development, the term “hidden curriculum” has become synonymous with character education. Another point presented by advocates for character education is that a value/moral driven curriculum was deemed a necessity by our nation’s founding fathers, such a Thomas Jefferson, who believed that formally teaching virtue early on was integral to the ultimate success of our nation and its established structure (Lickona, 1991).
Note
“To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society” (Lickona, 1991, p. 3).
Criticism
One would be hard pressed to find a teaching philosophy, idea or technique that was introduced without some form of criticism, skepticism or opposition. So, despite concerns from educators in regards to the countless challenges that students face beyond the scope of academics, an air of skepticism still lingers among many. Taking into consideration the enormous pressures placed on educators to create and implement lesson plans in accordance with No Child Left Behind legislation, consequently forcing many teachers to make drastic adjustments to their preexisting curricula and teaching styles; many educators find it unfeasible to introduce and implement a character driven curriculum while simultaneously maintaining a traditional academic driven curriculum (Allred, 2008, November). Another source of pessimism stem from claims that character education “amounts to imposing particular values or personality traits on young people or crude manipulations of children by dominant powers in their lives” (Ryan & Bohlin, 1999, p. 140). Simply put, some educators feel that character education is nothing short of “brainwashing” (Ryan & Bohlin, p. 140) children. Aside from fear of a decline in academic standing, failing to meet academic benchmarks or indoctrination, educators are open to and optimistic about employing a curriculum that encompasses both academic advancement and character development.
Character Education Programs
There are dozens of character education programs in practice today, making it unfeasible to discuss each one individually. Instead, an overview of some of the key overlapping points from the numerous character education programs currently in use is a more practical approach. Most programs adopt a curriculum centered on a structure that promotes a synergy among the individual student, community and society. Essentially, these programs expect to teach students to make positive decisions not just for self benefit, but for the well being of others. Due to the nature of such programs and their goals, they are often divided into components or levels. Some programs consist of more components than others (components within components), but essentially share three similar components: the school, the family and the community. Additionally, these programs rely heavily on a philosophy that encourages students to use a three division cycle of self-reflection in order to develop good character habits. This cycle is comprised of a continuum of moral knowing/thoughts/thought, moral feeling/feelings/emotion, moral actions/actions/response. Supplemental lessons/techniques common to character education programs include: leading by example, moral literature, storytelling, and cooperative learning to name a few.
Positive Action, a character education program which has been widely used in the state of California for over five years is an example of a program that has successfully incorporated a synergistic structure in its lesson format combined with a self-reflecting philosophy in efforts to build good character traits and behavior while maintaining, and in many cases improving academic standards. In fact, “it was recognized as the only program in the nation to simultaneously improve academics and behavior in character education” (Allred, 2008, November, p. 27) by the U.S. Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse.
Note
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of a master…Nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue" (Ryan & Bohlin, 1999, p. 220).
Conclusion
Hidden curriculum, more specifically, character education has been revered by many as an essential educational element since the birth of our nation and the development of our nation's educational system. Despite mild criticism, character education has an abundance of benefits on an individual, communal and societal level having both immediate and long term pay outs. Additionally, taking inventory of the moral issues associated with our nation’s teenage demographic couple with evidence that character education has the ability to simultaneously instill strong morals and values, creating good character and improve academic performance is proof positive that there is an ever present need for a curriculum that incorporates character education into traditional academic driven education.
References
Allred, C.G. (2008, November). Improving academics, behavior and character. Leadership , 38(2), 26-29. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from Education Research Complete database.
Gatto, J.T. (1992). Dumbing us down . Philadelphia: New Society.
Hagee, A. (2003). Educating the heart . Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press.
Licona, T. (1991). Educationg for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility . New York: Bantam Books.
Ryan, K., Bohlin, K.E. (1999). Building character in schools: Practical ways to bring moral instruction to life . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ryan, K., Bohlin, K.E. (1999). Preface. Building character in schools: Practical ways to bring moral instruction to life . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ryan, K., Bohlin, K.E. (1999). Appendix. Building character in schools: Practical ways to bring moral instruction to life . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Stein, J., Hauck, L.C., SU, P.Y. (Eds.). (1988). Curriculum. The Random House college dictionary (Revised ed.). New York: Random House.


5.7: Community Efforts to Increase Physical Activity
The low level of physical activity among Americans is a major contributor to the burden of chronic disease. This burden is costly in terms of quality of life and economic resources needed to provide medical care. Like life in other modern societies around the world, life in the United States requires very little daily physical activity. The amount of physical activity we do is largely a matter of personal choice and the environmental conditions under which we live. So far, little progress has been made in meeting our national health objectives for physical activity.
Based on a careful review of the science, the Physical Activity Guidelines provides essential guidance to help Americans achieve the health benefits of regular physical activity. However, providing guidance by itself is not enough to produce change. Action is necessary. Regular physical activity needs to be made the easy choice for Americans.
To accomplish this goal, public health research suggests the use of a “socio-ecologic” approach. This comprehensive approach involves action at all levels of society: individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy.
What Can Communities and Government Do to Help People Be Active?
Actions by communities and government can influence whether regular physical activity is an easy choice. Communities can provide many opportunities for physical activity, such as walking trails, bicycle lanes on roads, sidewalks, and sports fields. Organizations in the community have a role to play as well. Schools, places of worship, worksites, and community centers can provide opportunities and encouragement for physical activity.
Involve Many Sectors in Promoting Physical Activity
Interventions to improve access should also include outreach that increases awareness of the opportunity to be active.
Policies and programs that support street-scale design principles and practices that promote physical activity. For example, these types of policies and programs use crosswalks, sidewalks, traffic calming, and other safety measures to make it easier and safer for people to choose active transportation.
Policies and programs that support community-scale design principles and practices that promote physical activity. Community-scale design includes zoning that facilitates bicycling and walking by allowing schools, housing, and businesses to be built near one another.
The following list identifies relevant sectors and illustrates roles they play in promoting physical activity. The division of functions in the community into the following sectors does not use mutually exclusive categories. These sectors were chosen simply to illustrate how parts of the community have a role to play in promoting physical activity. Some communities may use different names and divisions of functions.
- Parks and recreation. This sector plays a lead role in providing access to places for active recreation, such as playgrounds, hiking and biking trails, basketball courts, sports fields, and swimming pools.
- Concern about crime can deter people from outdoors recreation. Law enforcement can promote a safe environment that facilitates outdoor activity.
- Urban planning. The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends both street-scale and community-scale design principles to promote physical activity. Urban planners have a lead role in implementing design principles to promote physical activity.
- Transportation. The transportation sector has a lead role in designing and implementing options that provide areas for safe walking and bicycling. Mass transit systems also promote walking, as people typically walk to and from transit stops. Programs that support safe walking and bicycling to school help children be more physically active.
- Education. The education sector takes a lead role in providing physical education, after-school sports, and public access to school facilities during after-school hours.
- Architecture. Architects and builders can design and construct buildings with active options, such as access to stairs. Campuses should allow pedestrians pleasant and efficient methods of walking within and between buildings.
- Employers and private organizations. Employers can encourage workers to be physically active, facilitate active transportation by supplying showers and secure bicycle storage, and provide other incentives to be active. Private and faith-based organizations can support community physical activity initiatives financially or by providing space for programs. Health and fitness facilities and community programs can provide access to exercise programs and equipment for a broad range of people, including older adults and people with disabilities. Local sports organizations can organize road races and events for the public. Senior centers can provide exercise programs for older adults.
- Health care. Health-care providers can assess, counsel, and advise patients on physical activity and how to do it safely. Health-care providers can model healthy behaviors by being physically active themselves.
- Public health . Public health departments can monitor community progress in providing places and opportunities to be physically active and can track changes in the proportion of the population meeting the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans . They can also take the lead in setting objectives and coordinating activities among sectors. Public health departments and organizations can disseminate appropriate messages and information to the public about physical activity.
Find out steps you can take to encourage your employees to take the stairs and increase their physical activity while at work at StairWELL .
Use this Walkability audit tool to determine how safe and attractive the walking environment is at your work site.
Implement a Fitness Promotion program at your workplace (e.g., develop signs to post by elevators encouraging people to take the stairs, get permission to post the signs, observe to see if anyone reads the signs and actually uses the stairs; start a noontime walking club, develop a walking route that is timed and measured for distance, recruit club members; launch a campaign to get people to park in the far end of the parking lot).
Sources
Source: The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Office of Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines /


It’s Friday afternoon rush hour. Lisha calls her son and asks him to get dinner started. She makes a mental note to remind her daughter to check that her uniform and water bottle are clean and ready for her game tomorrow. She also sets a reminder to make a follow-up oncology appointment for her dad next week. Maybe she can reschedule that client meeting and leave work early to do that next Thursday? Life is busy, some days feel overloaded with scheduling and communication, and Lisha is tired. But Lisha is grateful that her family can pull together to get through busy weeks like this one, and the last one, and probably the next one. Maybe next year, she can afford to take her family on that big vacation she dreams about in her nonexistent free time. Like many people in middle adulthood, Lisha has a lot on her mind.
As one of the longest stages of lifespan development, how does love and family life evolve and adapt to the changes encountered during middle adulthood?
Are there individual, group, or environmental variables that promote health, happiness, and satisfaction amid these changes?
What is the “sandwich generation”?
Does all this change and responsibility lead to the dreaded “midlife crisis”?
In this chapter, you'll learn what current research says about these questions and more.


14.9: Trends in Accounting
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8. What major trends affect the accounting industry today?
The post-SOX business environment has brought many changes to the accounting profession. When the public accounting industry could no longer regulate itself back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it became subject to formal regulation for the first time. This regulatory environment set higher standards for audit procedures, which actually helped public companies fine-tune their financial reporting procedures, despite the added costs and labor hours needed to comply with SOX. Once again the core auditing business, rather than financial advisory and management consulting services, became the primary focus of public accounting firms. The relationship between accountants and their clients has also changed, and the role of chief audit executive has taken on more visibility in many large organizations. In addition, the FASB has made slow but steady progress in making changes related to GAAP, including a separate decision-making framework for users and preparers of private company financial statements. 8 There are several other important trends that may affect the accounting industry over the next several years, including cloud computing services, automation, and staffing challenges.
Cloud-Based Services
The internet and cloud technology continue to disrupt many industries, including accounting, and clients expect their accountants to be up to speed on how financial data and other accounting information can be entered, accessed, and discussed in a very short period of time. For the most part, gone are the days when accountants and their support staff spend hours manually inputting data that gets “re-hydrated” into standardized accounting and financial statements, and reams of paper generate a company’s weekly, monthly, or yearly reports.
According to recent research, cloud-based accounting firms add five times more clients than traditional accounting firms because businesses expect their accountants to be able to use technology to create the company’s financial picture in real time, while assisting them in decision-making about where to go next in terms of profitability, sales, expansion, etc. In addition, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of small and medium-sized companies use cloud-based accounting software, which helps them synthesize the information they collect for their many important financial statements. This use of computerized accounting programs offers many opportunities to accountants to shift their focus when it comes to attracting and retaining business clients. 9
Automation
In addition to cloud-based services, automation will continue to play an important role in the accounting industry, particularly in auditing services, where the manual gathering and inputting of information can be an inefficient and sometimes inaccurate process. Being able to automate this process will help generate complete sets of data that will improve the overall details of the auditing process. In addition, accountants who can use a client’s data files from their business operations and import this information into a tax or accounting software package will streamline the overall accounting process and lessen the tedious work of data entry. 10
Staffing Challenges
As these and other disruptive technologies change the focus of accounting work, the challenge of hiring the right staff to use these new tools intensifies. With accounting processes becoming automated and less time-intensive, some accounting firms are becoming more connected to their clients and increasing their advisory services when it comes to daily business operations. This change in approach will likely have an impact on the type of experienced employees accountants hire in the future. In addition, because most services are now cloud-based and financial data is available rather quickly, businesses are apt to change accounting firms faster than in the past if they are unsatisfied with the services they receive. Accountants have a great opportunity to expand their business portfolios and increase their client list by leveraging technology as part of their overall corporate strategies. 11
MANAGING CHANGE
Attracting and Retaining Millennial CPAs
Much has been written about millennials, the population segment born between 1980 and 2000. As the older baby boomer generation continues to retire, millennials now make up the largest group in the U.S. labor force. This group will continue to shape the workplace over the next few decades.
Businesses and other organizations cannot ignore this group and their expectations about employment. To be successful, today’s accounting firms—whether Big 4 firms or small and mid-sized businesses—need to understand what makes millennials tick, what is important to them, what makes them look for new opportunities both within and outside the organization—and how to retain them.
Global accounting services company PwC recently partnered with several other institutions to conduct a two-year generational study about the attitudes of millennial employees. Key findings suggest that millennials want flexibility in their work lives that leads to an enjoyable work-life balance, appreciation for the work they accomplish, challenges that will help them grow in their careers, and continued support from employers. As a result of this study, PwC made several changes to its own work environment to attract and retain millennial workers, including flexible schedules, relaxed dress codes, greater communication at all levels of the company, and a renewed commitment to transparency within the organization.
PwC is not alone in shifting its organizational culture to address some of the issues millennials say are important factors for them within the work environment. For example, Baker Tilly, another top accounting firm, recognizes that more than half its workforce consists of millennials who have helped shape the company’s approach to work. The themes of flexibility and trust permeate the company’s culture, which reinforces employees’ motivation to be engaged in work that is meaningful, satisfying, and helps them develop as individuals.
Here are some other strategies accounting firms might employ to keep their 30-something employees from jumping ship:
- Initiate onboarding activities quickly: Although training accounting professionals takes time, companies should engage and train new employees quickly to immerse them in organizational culture and assign them work they view as meaningful.
- Assign mentors from the start: Millennials want to know their work makes a difference, so what better way to get them involved right from the start than to make sure they are connected to mentors who can guide their work and career path.
- Support a flexible approach to work: Some millennials are in the prime of their career, and many may also be juggling a family life that requires a lot of their time. Companies need to remember that millennials like being productive, although they may not think a long workday equates to a productive one. The use of cloud-based technology encourages employees to do their work in a productive atmosphere that may not take place in the office.
Recognizing generational traits of millennials not only demonstrates commitment on the part of the company, but also helps keep these employees engaged and involved in their work.
Critical Thinking Questions
- Do you think a shift in thinking when it comes to managing millennials is a smart strategy? Why or why not?
- Will accounting firms be required to rethink their billing strategies to address millennials’ insistence on a more flexible approach to work? Explain your reasoning.
Sources: “Workforce of the Future: The Competing Forces Shaping 2030,” https://www.pwc.com , accessed August 11, 2017; Hitendra Patil, “The 7 Experiences Millennials Want from Your Firm,” http://www.cpatrendlines.com , accessed August 11, 2017; “Millennial Accountants Don’t Want a Corner Office with a View,” https://www.rogercpareview.com , April 24, 2017; David Isaacs, “Voices: Confessions of a Millennial CPA: The Most Productive Generation,” https://www.accountingtoday.com , April 20, 2017; Teri Saylor, “How CPA Firms Are Evolving to Meet Millennials’ Desires,” http://www.journalofaccountancy.com , March 6, 2017.
CONCEPT CHECK
- How has the relationship between public accounting firms and their clients changed since SOX became law?
- Describe how cloud computing and automation are changing the accounting industry.
- What are some of the challenges encountered by accounting firms when introducing new technologies into their workflow process?


10.10: Interviewing Prospective Employees
- Describe the information a retail manager wants to get from interviewing a prospective employee
In our previous unit, we started to talk about interviewing prospective employees and the different types of interviews we may use. Let’s expand now on those types of interviews.
Have you ever gone into a job interview and there were four people at a conference table with a list of questions? This is called a structured or planned interview. In this type of interview, you will be asked the same questions, in the same order as all other applicants for the position.
This type of interview allows the hiring committee to:
- Learn a wide range of information about each candidate.
- Experience a calmer interview setting since the questions are predetermined.
- Collect the necessary information in a uniform way, so it alleviates missing an important question.
Learn More
Check out this article for more information about structured job interviews .
The opposite of a structured interview is an unstructured interview. In this type of interview, the candidate comes in, and the questions are not structured and are unordered. There may be one or more interviewers in this process.
There are some good points and negative points to this type of interview as well. This type of interview allows the hiring committee to:
- Ask additional questions after one question is answered, potentially leading to more useful information about the candidates skills for the position.
- Create a more relaxed interview setting similar to having a conversation.
- Complicates, unfortunately, collecting reliable of information as the structured interview since each person is asking different questions. Thus, bias may play into the process.
As an interviewer, it is your job to determine if an applicant has the appropriate education, skills and experience to complete the tasks required of the position. Personality may also be an important component especially in the retail setting. If, for example, you are hiring for a clerk position, where the employee will have constant contact with the public, this person may need different skills than someone hired for the stockroom. The biggest goal of the interview process is to insure that the person you hire can perform the functions of the position effectively and efficiently.
Contributors and Attributions
- Interviewing Prospective Employees. Authored by : Freedom Learning Group. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution


 Their population is also mysteriously declining, so getting a handle on their numbers and migratory patterns is important. They are partially migratory, with some going from the southern US and Mexico up to the northern US and Canada, while some stay put. The main question here is to use messy data to get some sort of idea of how fast they are moving at any given time.
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\(\begin{array}{rcccccccc} \text{day} & 0 & 10 & 10 & 15 & 20 & 20 & 25 & 35 \\ \text{miles} & 0 & 10 & 45 & 165 & 75 & 200 & 105 & 200 \end{array}\)
\(\begin{array}{rccccccc} \text{day} & 40 & 50 & 50 & 65 & 70 & 80 & 80 \\ \text{miles} & 310 & 220 & 380 & 405 & 305 & 425 & 445 \end{array}\)
The goal is to fill out a new table with the velocity or derivative of the killdeer at any given time. Since you don’t really know which killdeer is which, this velocity will represent some sort of average or aggregate velocity for the three killdeer.
\(\begin{array}{rccc} \text{approximately day} & 20 & 40 & 60 \\ \frac{\text{miles}}{\text{day}} & & & \end{array}\)
What are some different ways you can do this? Talk about it as a group, and then work towards filling in the second table. Do the birds seem to be getting faster as time passes, or slower?
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Same type of question with a new setup. The goal is to figure out a rough speed of migration (just one number this time). There are three areas: Mexico, Oklahoma, and Montana, and you have rough esimates for the abundance in each of the three areas during both the non-breeding and breeding seasons. For simplicity, assume all the killdeer stay within these three areas (even though that is clearly false). How can you figure some sort of average velocity of the killdeer in this case?
\(\begin{array}{lr} \text{Mexico, $1500$ miles north of the equator} & \text{Abundance} \\ \text{Day 0 (non-breeding)} & 970 \\ \text{Day 150 (breeding)} & 260 \end{array}\)
\(\begin{array}{lr} \text{Oklahoma, $2500$ miles north of the equator} & \text{Abundance} \\ \text{Day 0 (non-breeding)} & 150 \\ \text{Day 150 (breeding)} & 420 \end{array}\)
\(\begin{array}{lr} \text{Montana, $3200$ miles north of the equator} & \text{Abundance} \\ \text{Day 0 (non-breeding)} & 0 \\ \text{Day 150 (breeding)} & 540 \end{array}\)
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Look at the excel spreadsheet entitled
“Killdeer abundance data”
, with data taken from the eBird data repository.
Click here for a cool visualization of this data.
Use the data in the spreadsheet to create a best guess average velocity during the time period starting with the non-breeding season and ending with the breeding season (roughly January through June). The final answer is just that one number, but there is a lot of data to sort through to get there!
Data source: Fink, D., T. Auer, A. Johnston, M. Strimas-Mackey, O. Robinson, S. Ligocki, B. Petersen, C. Wood, I. Davies, B. Sullivan, M. Iliff, S. Kelling. 2020. eBird Status and Trends, Data Version: 2018; Released: 2020. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. doi.org/10.2173/ebirdst.2018


16.10: Electrolytic Cells and Electrolysis
Make sure you thoroughly understand the following essential ideas.
- In electrolysis, an external power source supplies the free energy required to drive a cell reaction in its non-spontaneous direction. An electrolytic cell is in this sense the opposite of a galvanic cell. In practice, the products of electrolysis are usually simpler than the reactants, hence the term electro- lysis .
- Transport of ions in the electrolyte in response to the potential difference between the electrodes ("drift") is largely restricted to the regions very close to the electrodes. Ionic transport in the greater part of the electrolyte is by ordinary thermal diffusion— the statistical tendency of concentrations to become uniform.
- When an aqueous solution is subjected to electrolysis, the oxidation or reduction of water can be a competing process and may dominate if the applied voltage is sufficiently great. Thus an attempt to electrolyze a solution of NaNO 3 will produce only H 2 and O 2 .
- A large number of electrolysis processes are employed by industry to refine metals and to produce both inorganic and organic products. The largest of these are the chloralkali industry (chlorine and "caustic"), and the refining of aluminum; the latter consumes approximately 5% of the electrical power generated in North America.
Electrolysis refers to the decomposition of a substance by an electric current. The electrolysis of sodium and potassium hydroxides, first carried out in 1808 by Sir Humphrey Davey, led to the discovery of these two metallic elements and showed that these two hydroxides which had previously been considered un-decomposable and thus elements, were in fact compounds.
Electrolysis of molten alkali halides is the usual industrial method of preparing the alkali metals:
| Na + + e – → Na (l) | E° = –2.71 V |
| Cl – → ½ Cl 2 (g) + e – | E° = –1.36 V |
| Na + + Cl – → Na(l) + ½ Cl 2 (g) | E° = –4.1 V |
Ions in aqueous solutions can undergo similar reactions. Thus if a solution of nickel chloride undergoes electrolysis at platinum electrodes, the reactions are
| Ni 2 + + 2 e – → Ni(s) | E° = –0.24 V |
| 2 Cl – → Cl 2 (g) + 2 e – | E° = –1.36 V |
| Ni 2 + + 2 Cl – → Ni(s) + Cl 2 (g) | E° = –1.60 v |
Both of these processes are carried out in electrochemical cells which are forced to operate in the "reverse", or non-spontaneous direction, as indicated by the negative for the above cell reaction. The free energy is supplied in the form of electrical work done on the system by the outside world (the surroundings). This is the only fundamental difference between an electrolytic cell and the galvanic cell in which the free energy supplied by the cell reaction is extracted as work done on the surroundings.
A common misconception about electrolysis is that "ions are attracted to the oppositely-charged electrode." This is true only in the very thin interfacial region near the electrode surface. Ionic motion throughout the bulk of the solution occurs mostly by diffusion, which is the transport of molecules in response to a concentration gradient. Migration— the motion of a charged particle due to an applied electric field, is only a minor player, producing only about one non-random jump out of around 100,000 random ones for a 1 volt cm –1 electric field. Only those ions that are near the interfacial region are likely to undergo migration.
Electrolysis in aqueous solutions
Water is capable of undergoing both oxidation
\[H_2O \rightarrow O_{2(g)} + 4 H^+ + 2 e^– \;\;\; E^o = -1.23 V\]
and reduction
\[2 H_2O + 2 e^– \rightarrow H_{2(g)} + 2 OH^– \;\;\; E^o = -0.83 \;V\]
Thus if an aqueous solution is subjected to electrolysis, one or both of the above reactions may be able to compete with the electrolysis of the solute. For example, if we try to electrolyze a solution of sodium chloride, hydrogen is produced at the cathode instead of sodium:
| H 2 O + 2 e – → H 2 (g) + 2 OH – | E =+0.41 V ([OH – ] = 10-7 M) | |
| Cl – → ½ Cl 2 (g) + e – | E° = –1.36 V | |
| Cl – + H 2 O → 2 H 2 (g) + ½ Cl 2 (g) + 2 OH – | E = –0.95 V |
[This illustration is taken from the excellent Purdue University Chemistry site ]Reduction of Na+ (E° = –2.7 v) is energetically more difficult than the reduction of water (–1.23 V), so in aqueous solution the latter will prevail.
Electrolysis of salt ("brine") is carried out on a huge scale and is the basis of the chloralkali industry.
Electrolysis of water
Pure water is an insulator and cannot undergo significant electrolysis without adding an electrolyte. If the object is to produce hydrogen and oxygen, the electrolyte must be energetically more difficult to oxidize or reduce than water itself. Electrolysis of a solution of sulfuric acid or of a salt such as NaNO 3 results in the decomposition of water at both electrodes:
| H 2 O + 2 e – → H 2 (g) + 2 OH – | E =+0.41 V ([OH – ] = 10 -7 M) | |
| 2 H 2 O → O 2 (g) + 4 H+ + 2 e – | E° = -0.82 V | |
| 2 H 2 O(l) → 2 H 2 (g) + O 2 (g) | E = -1.23 V |
Electrolytic production of hydrogen is usually carried out with a dilute solution of sulfuric acid. This process is generally too expensive for industrial production unless highly pure hydrogen is required. However, it becomes more efficient at higher temperatures, where thermal energy reduces the amount of electrical energy required, so there is now some interest in developing high-temperature electrolytic processes. Most hydrogen gas is manufactured by the steam reforming of natural gas.
Faraday's laws of electrolysis
One mole of electric charge (96,500 coulombs), when passed through a cell, will discharge half a mole of a divalent metal ion such as Cu 2 + . This relation was first formulated by Faraday in 1832 in the form of two laws of electrolysis :
- The weights of substances formed at an electrode during electrolysis are directly proportional to the quantity of electricity that passes through the electrolyte.
- The weights of different substances formed by the passage of the same quantity of electricity are proportional to the equivalent weight of each substance.
The equivalent weight of a substance is defined as the molar mass, divided by the number of electrons required to oxidize or reduce each unit of the substance. Thus one mole of V 3+ corresponds to three equivalents of this species, and will require three faradays of charge to deposit it as metallic vanadium.
Most stoichiometric problems involving electrolysis can be solved without explicit use of Faraday's laws. The "chemistry" in these problems is usually very elementary; the major difficulties usually stem from unfamiliarity with the basic electrical units:
- current (amperes) is the rate of charge transport ; 1 amp = 1 C/sec.
- power (watts) is the rate of energy production or consumption; \[1 W = 1 J/sec = 1 volt-amp; 1 watt-sec = 1 J, 1 kW-h = 3600 J.\]
A metallic object to be plated with copper is placed in a solution of CuSO 4 .
- To which electrode of a direct current power supply should the object be connected?
- What mass of copper will be deposited if a current of 0.22 amp flows through the cell for 1.5 hours?
Solution
- Since Cu 2 + ions are being reduced, the object acts as a cathode and must be connected to the negative terminal (where the electrons come from!)
- The amount of charge passing through the cell is
(0.22 amp) × (5400 sec) = 1200 C
or
(1200 C) ÷ (96500 c F –1 ) = 0.012 F
Since the reduction of one mole of Cu 2 + ion requires the addition of two moles of electrons, the mass of Cu deposited will be
(63.54 g mol –1 ) (0.5 mol Cu/F) (.012 F) = 0.39 g of copper
How much electric power is required to produce 1 metric ton (1000 kg) of chlorine from brine, assuming the cells operate at 2.0 volts and assuming 100 % efficiency?
Solution
- moles of Cl 2 produced: (10 6 g) ÷ 70 g mol –1 = 14300 mol Cl 2
- faradays of charge: (2 F/mol) × (14300 mol) = 28600 F
- charge in coulombs: (96500 C/F) × (28600 F) = 2.76 × 10 9 C
- duration of electrolysis: (3600 s/h) x (24 h) = 86400 s
- current (rate of charge delivery): (2.76 × 10 9 amp-sec) ÷ (86400 sec) = 32300 amps
- power (volt-amps): (2.0 V) × (32300 amp) = 64.6 kW
- energy in kW-h: (64.6 kW) × (24 h) = 1550 kW-h
- energy in joules: (1550 kW-h) × (3.6 MJ/kW-h) = 5580 MJ (megajoules)
(In the last step, recall that 1 W = 1 J/s, so 1 kW-h = 3.6 MJ)
Industrial Electrolytic Processes
For many industrial-scale operations involving the oxidation or reduction of both inorganic and organic substances, and especially for the production of the more active metals such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, and aluminum, the most cost-effective reducing agent is electrons supplied by an external power source. The two most economically important of these processes are described below.
The chloralkali industry
The electrolysis of brine is carried out on a huge scale for the industrial production of chlorine and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). Because the reduction potential of Na + is much higher than that of water, the latter substance undergoes decomposition at the cathode, yielding hydrogen gas and OH – .
|
anode
reactions |
2 Cl – → Cl 2 (g) + 2 e – | -1.36 V | i |
|
4 OH – → O 2 (g) + 2 H 2 O + 4 e – |
-0.40 V | ii | |
|
cathode
|
Na+ + e – → Na(s) | -2.7 V | iii |
|
H 2 O + 2 e – → H 2 (g) + 2 OH – |
+.41 V | iv |
A comparison of the E° s would lead us to predict that the reduction ( ii ) would be favored over that of ( i ). This is certainly the case from a purely energetic standpoint, but as was mentioned in the section on fuel cells, electrode reactions involving O 2 are notoriously slow (that is, they are kinetically hindered), so the anodic process here is under kinetic rather than thermodynamic control. The reduction of water ( iv ) is energetically favored over that of Na + ( iii ), so the net result of the electrolysis of brine is the production of Cl 2 and NaOH ("caustic"), both of which are of immense industrial importance:
\[\ce{2 NaCl + 2 H2O -> 2 NaOH + Cl2(g) + H2(g)} \nonumber\]
Since chlorine reacts with both OH – and H 2 , it is necessary to physically separate the anode and cathode compartments. In modern plants this is accomplished by means of an ion-selective polymer membrane, but prior to 1970 a more complicated cell was used that employed a pool of mercury as the cathode. A small amount of this mercury would normally find its way into the plant's waste stream, and this has resulted in serious pollution of many major river systems and estuaries and devastation of their fisheries.
Electrolytic refining of aluminum
Aluminum is present in most rocks and is the most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust (eight percent by weight.) However, its isolation is very difficult and expensive to accomplish by purely chemical means, as evidenced by the high E° (–1.66 V) of the Al 3 + /Al couple. For the same reason, aluminum cannot be isolated by electrolysis of aqueous solutions of its compounds, since the water would be electrolyzed preferentially. And if you have ever tried to melt a rock, you will appreciate the difficulty of electrolyzing a molten aluminum ore! Aluminum was in fact considered an exotic and costly metal until 1886, when Charles Hall (U.S.A) and Paul Hérault (France) independently developed a practical electrolytic reduction process.
The Hall-Hérault process takes advantage of the principle that the melting point of a substance is reduced by admixture with another substance with which it forms a homogeneous phase. Instead of using the pure alumina ore Al 2 O 3 which melts at 2050°C, it is mixed with cryolite, which is a natural mixture of NaF and AlF 3 , thus reducing the temperature required to a more manageable 1000°C. The anodes of the cell are made of carbon (actually a mixture of pitch and coal), and this plays a direct role in the process; the carbon gets oxidized (by the oxide ions left over from the reduction of Al 3 + to CO, and the free energy of this reaction helps drive the aluminum reduction, lowering the voltage that must be applied and thus reducing the power consumption. This is important, because aluminum refining is the largest consumer of industrial electricity, accounting for about 5% of all electricity generated in North America. Since aluminum cells commonly operated at about 100,000 amperes, even a slight reduction in voltage can result in a large saving of power.
The net reaction is
\[\ce{2 Al_2O_3 + 3 C \rightarrow 4 Al + 3 CO_2} \nonumber\]
However, large quantities of CO and of HF (from the cryolite), and hydrocarbons (from the electrodes) are formed in various side reactions, and these can be serious sources of environmental pollution.


Part III - Preparing and Delivering the Speech
The final unit focuses on the practical aspects of speech preparation and delivery. It covers library research for gathering credible information, structuring and outlining a speech effectively, and presenting remotely in virtual settings. The book also emphasizes the importance of using language thoughtfully to connect with global audiences.
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- 3.1: Library Research
- This page outlines the library research process, detailing how to develop research statements, select keywords, and identify suitable materials and databases. It emphasizes transforming topics into research questions, finding key concepts for searches, and using diverse materials like books and journals. The chapter also addresses source evaluation, credibility assessment, and provides guidance on proper citations in MLA or APA style to prevent plagiarism.
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- 3.2: Structure and Format- Outlining the Speech
- This page provides comprehensive guidance on crafting and delivering effective speeches, outlining key elements such as defining purposes, structuring an introduction, body, and conclusion, and properly citing sources. It emphasizes the importance of audience engagement, using techniques like questions and storytelling, and supporting main ideas with evidence and expert testimonies. A well-organized outline is crucial, alongside practicing for confidence.
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- 3.3: Presenting Remotely
- This page highlights the significance of remote presentations, particularly amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing necessary skills and differences between formats. It outlines the advantages, such as broader reach and cost-effectiveness, alongside challenges like audience disengagement and tech issues. Effective remote presentations require clear messaging, audience connection, and attention to technical quality.
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- 3.4: Language and Speaking to a Global Audience
- This page emphasizes the vital role of language in communication, distinguishing between verbal and non-verbal elements while highlighting cultural influences. It stresses the responsibilities of public speakers to use clear, respectful language and avoid obscure or technical jargon. Key concepts include the denotation and connotation of words, figurative language, and the importance of delivery aspects such as timing and eye contact.


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An Overview of Blood
Learning Objectives
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Name the fluid component of blood and the three major types of formed elements, and identify their relative proportions in a blood sample
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15.1: Composition of Blood
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This page explains blood tests, particularly hematocrit, which measures the percentage of red blood cells (RBCs) in a blood sample after centrifugation. It details the composition of blood, including the buffy coat of white blood cells and platelets and plasma. Normal hematocrit values are 36-50%, with females averaging 41% and males 47%. Additionally, it notes the proportion of plasma, which makes up about 59% of blood volume in females and 53% in males.
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15.2: Exercises
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This page provides exercises on hematocrit and blood cell identification, including tasks such as identifying hematocrit components, matching substances to locations, and completing a transfusion compatibility table. It also involves preparing a blood slide for microscopy to accurately draw different blood cells (erythrocytes, thrombocytes, leukocytes), while documenting their magnification, epithelial type, tissue source, and functions.
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15.3: MODELS- Blood, Histology
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This page covers blood composition and histology, detailing components like plasma, buffy coat, red blood cells, white blood cells (both granulocytes and agranulocytes), and platelets. It emphasizes the significance of blood types and the associated antigens and antibodies in the ABO and Rh systems. Additionally, it highlights the necessity of understanding safe practices for blood donation and transfusion between different types.


13.3: Theory of Planned Behavior
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was built by Icek Ajzen on a prior theory (Theory of Reasoned Action, first proposed by Martin Fishbein and Ajzen), which describes how an individual might intend to make a behavioral change. This intention is essentially the decision made by the person to “do the thing” right before they do it - intention immediately precedes the behavior. The TPB model involves 3 factors that influence intention: behavioral beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Behavioral beliefs are those ideas that we hold internally about the behavior; like whether or not it is effective at giving us the desired outcome (McKenzie et al., 2017). As a hypothetical example, if someone believes that exercise is an effective way to improve their health, they are more likely to start a fitness program. Conversely, if they believe that exercise is ineffective, too hard, takes too much time, not worth the effort etc., they probably won’t. These beliefs may be founded in scientific evidence, personal experience, or something else entirely, but they are highly influential on someone's readiness to change a behavior.
The second component of the TPB is the subjective norms of that person’s social circle. These social norms may influence the beliefs that the person has about the behavior, and vice versa (McKenzie et al., 2017). These social norms can also be “positive peer pressure” to engage in healthy behaviors. Using our previous example, if most of a person’s family and friend circle are regular exercisers or involved in sports, they will think of physical activity as the “norm”. Evidence suggests that children and teens are far more physically active when parents are supportive. This support might include role modeling an active lifestyle, taking them to sporting practices and games, verbally encouraging them, or even just active play (Su et al., 2022).
Lastly, in order for a person to change a behavior they need to have “perceived behavioral control”. That is, they need to have the belief that they can change that behavior, they have what it takes. This may include actual behavioral control - meaning the skills, resources, and environment needed to change the behavior - but even if the actual control is there, if the person doesn’t believe they have control over their behavior they are not likely to change it (McKenzie et al., 2017). This concept is very similar to self-efficacy, presented in other models of behavioral change (below). If our hypothetical person believes that exercise improves health, and those around them exercise also, but they don’t believe they’ll ever be able to stick with a fitness program themselves, this alone may prevent them from exercising. See Fig. \(\PageIndex{1}\) for a diagram of the TPB.
The TPB has been successfully utilized in several experimental and quasi-experimental studies aiming to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, change traffic safety behaviors (like seat belt wearing in cars or helmet wearing while riding a bicycle), increase safe-sex behaviors, reduce alcohol and drug use, and even improve behaviors at work (like ergonomics and stress reduction). Practitioners can use techniques like providing information, persuasion, skill development, planning, social encouragement, goal setting, motivation, self-monitoring, modeling, and others to help people change their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs - thus increasing their intention to change. Some strategies work better to help a person increase their motivation, which leads to intention. Other strategies might work better after the person has expressed an intention to change; they have the motivation already and now just need the tools (actual control) to reach their goals (Steinmetz et al., 2016).


4.9: Damped Resonance
View Damped Resonance on YouTube
We now solve the dimensionless equations given by (4.8.5) , (4.8.6) and (4.8.7) , written here as \[\label{eq:1}\overset{..}{x}+a\overset{.}{x}+x=\cos\beta t,\] where the physical constraints of our three applications requires that \(\alpha > 0\). The homogeneous equation has characteristic equation \[r^2+\alpha r+1=0,\nonumber\] so that the solutions are \[r_{\pm}=-\frac{\alpha}{2}\pm\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\alpha^2-4}.\nonumber\]
When \(\alpha^2 − 4 < 0\), the motion of the unforced oscillator is said to be underdamped; when \(\alpha^2 − 4 > 0\), overdamped; and when \(\alpha^2 − 4 = 0\), critically damped. For all three types of damping, the roots of the characteristic equation satisfy \(\text{Re}(r_±) < 0\). Therefore, both linearly independent homogeneous solutions decay exponentially to zero, and the long-time asymptotic solution of \(\eqref{eq:1}\) reduces to the non-decaying particular solution. Since the initial conditions are satisfied by the free constants multiplying the decaying homogeneous solutions, the long-time asymptotic solution is independent of the initial conditions.
If we are only interested in the long-time asymptotic solution of \(\eqref{eq:1}\), we can proceed directly to the determination of a particular solution. As before, we consider the complex ode \[\overset{..}{z}+\alpha\overset{.}{z}+z=e^{i\beta t},\nonumber\] with \(x_p=\text{Re}(z_p)\). With the ansatz \(z_p=Ae^{i\beta t}\), we have \[-\beta^2A+i\alpha\beta A+A=1,\nonumber\] or \[\begin{align}A&=\frac{1}{(1-\beta^2)+i\alpha\beta}\nonumber \\ &=\left(\frac{1}{(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2}\right)\left((1-\beta^2)-i\alpha\beta\right).\label{eq:2}\end{align}\]
To determine \(x_p\), we utilize the polar form of a complex number. The complex number \(z = x + iy\) can be written in polar form as \(z = re^{i\phi}\), where \(r =\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\) and \(\tan\phi = y/x\). We therefore write \[(1-\beta^2)-i\alpha\beta =re^{i\phi},\nonumber\] with \[r=\sqrt{(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2},\quad\tan\phi=-\frac{\alpha\beta}{1-\beta^2}.\nonumber\]
Using the polar form, \(A\) in \(\eqref{eq:2}\) becomes \[A=\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2}}\right)e^{i\phi},\nonumber\] and \(x_p=\text{Re}(Ae^{i\beta t})\) becomes \[\begin{align}x_p&=\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2}}\right)\text{ Re}\left\{e^{i(\beta t+\phi)}\right\}\nonumber \\ &=\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2}}\right)\cos (\beta t+\phi).\label{eq:3}\end{align}\]
We conclude with a couple of observations about \(\eqref{eq:3}\). First, if the forcing frequency \(\omega\) is equal to the natural frequency \(\omega_0\) of the undamped oscillator, then \(\beta = 1\) and \(A = 1/i\alpha\), and \(x_p = (1/\alpha ) \sin t\). The oscillator position is observed to be \(π/2\) out of phase with the external force, or in other words, the velocity of the oscillator, not the position, is in phase with the force. Second, the value of \(\beta\) that maximizes the amplitude of oscillation is the value of \(\beta\) that minimizes the denominator of \(\eqref{eq:3}\). To determine \(\beta_m\) we thus minimize the function \(g(\beta^2)\) with respect to \(\beta^2\), where \[g(\beta^2)=(1-\beta^2)^2+\alpha^2\beta^2.\nonumber\]
Taking the derivative of \(g\) with respect to \(\beta^2\) and setting this to zero to determine \(\beta_m\) yields \[-2(1-\beta_m^2)+\alpha^2=0,\nonumber\] or \[\beta_m=\sqrt{1-\frac{\alpha^2}{2}}\approx 1-\frac{\alpha^2}{4},\nonumber\] the last approximation valid if \(\alpha << 1\) and the dimensionless damping coefficient is small. We can interpret this result by saying that small damping slightly lowers the “resonance” frequency of the undamped oscillator.


11.9: Summary
Humans are part of the ecosystems in which we live, and have developed immense power over harnessing the capacity of those ecosystems to support modern life. Yet, we are still at the mercy of the environment, and the impact of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat on our health. The earth is not an indestructible home or infinite resource, and its ability to support life is highly dependent on the effect that humans have on it. Our health is intricately connected to the health of the soil, air, water, plants, microbes, insects, and animals with whom we share this planet. It behooves us then to consider the environmental impacts of every action we take - to preserve our ecosystems and support the health of all living things across the globe.


4: Motion in Two and Three Dimensions
To give a complete description of kinematics, we must explore motion in two and three dimensions. After all, most objects in our universe do not move in straight lines; rather, they follow curved paths. From kicked footballs to the flight paths of birds to the orbital motions of celestial bodies and down to the flow of blood plasma in your veins, most motion follows curved trajectories. In this chapter we also explore two special types of motion in two dimensions: projectile motion and circular motion. Last, we conclude with a discussion of relative motion. In the chapter-opening picture, each jet has a relative motion with respect to any other jet in the group or to the people observing the air show on the ground.
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- 4.1: Prelude to Motion in Two and Three Dimensions
- Consider the Red Arrows, also known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic team of the United Kingdom. Each jet follows a unique curved trajectory in three-dimensional airspace, as well as has a unique velocity and acceleration. Thus, to describe the motion of any of the jets accurately, we must assign to each jet a unique position vector in three dimensions as well as a unique velocity and acceleration vector.
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- 4.2: Displacement and Velocity Vectors
- The position function is graphed as a vector from the origin of a chosen coordinate system to describe the position of a particle as a function of time of a particle moving in two or three dimensions. The displacement vector gives the shortest distance between any two points on the trajectory of a particle in two or three dimensions. Instantaneous velocity is graphed as a vector that gives the speed and direction of a particle at a specific time on its trajectory in two or three dimensions.
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- 4.3: Acceleration Vector
- In two and three dimensions, the acceleration vector can have an arbitrary direction and does not necessarily point along a given component of the velocity. The instantaneous acceleration is produced by a change in velocity taken over a very short time period. Instantaneous acceleration is a vector in two or three dimension which can be found by taking the derivative of the velocity function with respect to time.
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- 4.4: Projectile Motion
- Projectile motion is the motion of an object subject only to the acceleration of gravity, where the acceleration is constant, as near the surface of Earth. To solve projectile motion problems, we analyze the motion of the projectile in the horizontal and vertical directions using the one-dimensional kinematic equations for x and y.
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- 4.5: Uniform Circular Motion
- Uniform circular motion is motion in a circle at constant speed. Centripetal acceleration is the acceleration pointing towards the center of rotation that a particle must have to follow a circular path. Nonuniform circular motion occurs when there is tangential acceleration of an object executing circular motion such that the speed of the object is changing. An object executing uniform circular motion can be described with equations of motion.
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- 4.6: Relative Motion in One and Two Dimensions
- When analyzing motion of an object, the reference frame in terms of position, velocity, and acceleration needs to be specified. Relative velocity is the velocity of an object as observed from a particular reference frame, and it varies with the choice of reference frame. If two reference frames are moving relative to each other at a constant velocity, then the accelerations of an object as observed in both reference frames are equal.
Thumbnail: The Red Arrows is the aerobatics display team of Britain’s Royal Air Force. Based in Lincolnshire, England, they perform precision flying shows at high speeds, which requires accurate measurement of position, velocity, and acceleration in three dimensions. (credit: modification of work by Phil Long).


7.0: Introduction to Analytic Geometry
The Greek mathematician Menaechmus (c. 380–c. 320 BCE) is generally credited with discovering the shapes formed by the intersection of a plane and a right circular cone. Depending on how he tilted the plane when it intersected the cone, he formed different shapes at the intersection–beautiful shapes with near-perfect symmetry.
It was also said that Aristotle may have had an intuitive understanding of these shapes, as he observed the orbit of the planet to be circular. He presumed that the planets moved in circular orbits around Earth, and for nearly 2000 years this was the commonly held belief.
It was not until the Renaissance movement that Johannes Kepler noticed that the orbits of the planet were not circular in nature. His published law of planetary motion in the 1600s changed our view of the solar system forever. He claimed that the sun was at one end of the orbits, and the planets revolved around the sun in an oval-shaped path.
In this chapter, we will investigate the two-dimensional figures that are formed when a right circular cone is intersected by a plane. We will begin by studying each of three figures created in this manner. We will develop defining equations for each figure and then learn how to use these equations to solve a variety of problems.


12.7B: Brachial Plexus
The brachial plexus is formed by the four lower cervical spinal nerves and the first thoracic spinal nerve.
- Describe the brachial plexus
Key Points
- The nerve bundles of the brachial plexus pass through the cervico-axillary canal to serve the axilla (armpit), brachium (arm), antebrachium (forearm), and hand.
- The brachial plexus provides cutaneous (skin) and muscular innervations for the upper limbs, excluding the trapezius muscle and an area of skin near the axilla that are innervated by the spinal accessory nerve and the intercostobrachial nerve, respectively.
- The brachial plexus is divided into roots, trunks, divisions, cords, and branches.
Key Terms
- spinal accessory nerve : A nerve that controls specific muscles of the shoulder and neck.
- axilla : The armpit, or the cavity beneath the junction of the arm and shoulder.
- brachium : The upper arm.
Formation and Distribution
Right brachial plexus : The right brachial plexus with its short branches, viewed from the front.
The brachial plexus is a network of nerve fibers that run from the spine that are formed by the ventral rami of the lower four cervical and first thoracic nerve roots (C5–C8, T1).
The brachial plexus proceeds through the neck, the axilla (armpit region), and into the arm. It is a collection of nerves passing through the cervico-axillary canal to reach the axilla and innervate the brachium, the antebrachium, and the hand.
The brachial plexus is responsible for cutaneous and muscular innervation of the entire upper limb, with two exceptions: the trapezius muscle is innervated by the spinal accessory nerve (CN XI) and an area of skin near the axilla is innervated by the intercostobrachial nerve. Lesions on the brachial plexus can lead to severe functional impairment.
Branches and Divisions
The brachial plexus is divided into roots, trunks, divisions, cords, and branches. There are five terminal branches and numerous other preterminal or collateral branches that leave the plexus at various points along its length. Its structure includes:
- Five roots: The five anterior rami of the spinal nerves, after they have given off their segmental supply to the muscles of the neck.
- These roots merge to form three trunks: The superior or upper (C5–C6), the middle (C7), and the inferior or lower (C8, T1).
- Each trunk then splits in two, to form six divisions: The anterior divisions of the upper, middle, and lower trunks and the posterior divisions of the upper, middle, and lower trunks.
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These six divisions will regroup to become the three cords. The cords are named by their position with respect to the axillary artery:
- The posterior cord is formed from the three posterior divisions of the trunks (C5–C8,T1).
- The lateral cord is the anterior divisions from the upper and middle trunks (C5–C7).
- The medial cord is simply a continuation of the anterior division of the lower trunk (C8, T1).
- Most branches branch from the cords, but a few branch directly from earlier structures. The five on the left are considered terminal branches.
Brachial plexus : Diagram of the brachial plexus and its branches.


30: Transwell migration and invasion assay
Summary
Transwell migration and invasion assays are used to determine if cells can move through a porous membrane (migration assay) or both the membrane and an extracellular matrix (invasion assay). Invasiveness is a characteristic feature of more advanced transformed cells, as it is necessary for metastasis.
Also known as
Boyden chamber assay, modified Boyden chamber assay
Samples needed
A plate of confluent cells in a monolayer
Method
A chemoattractant is placed in the lower chamber of a cell culture plate. The cells are placed on top of a porous transwell membrane alone for the mobility assay or one covered with extracellular matrix for the invasion assay. Following an incubation period that is specific to the cell type, cells that have crossed the membrane will be stained and counted [1] .
Controls
The transwell migration and invasion assays are nearly always used to compare mobility and/or invasiveness of cells +/- a treatment, intervention, or genetic difference. Therefore, the usual mock treatment controls apply.
Interpretation
This figure shows that B16F10 melanoma cells only cross the transwell membrane when the liquid in the lower chamber is cell medium that has been “conditioned” by NIH3T3 cells. (NIH3T3 are immortalized mouse embryonic fibroblasts.) This means that in a different cell culture dish, NIH3T3 cells were grown in cell culture medium, then the medium only (not the cells) were placed in the lower chamber for the transwell assay. This “conditioned” medium will now contain any proteins and chemicals secreted by the NIH3T3 cells. The results show that the NIH3T3 conditioned medium contains a chemoattractant that promotes migration of the melanoma cells across the transwell membrane. Note that because there is no extracellular matrix used to coat the transwell insert, this is considered a migration assay and not an invasion assay.
Image Descriptions
Figure 1 image description:
Schematic and example data from a transwell migration assay. Panel A shows the schematic. The lower chamber is about halfway full of liquid containing a chemoattractant. The upper chamber rests on top, with the bottom of the upper chamber submerged in the liquid in the lower chamber. The cells are in the upper chamber. Panel B shows two images of cell stains. The image with chemoattractant shows more cells that that without. Panel C is a column graph showing between 200-300 cells per 100x field with chemoattractant and almost none without. ↵
Thumbnail
"EMT and vimentin in confined spaces.jpg" ↗ by Leggett et al. is licensed under CC BY 4.0 ↗.
Description: Transwell (Boyden Chamber) assay for migration through confined pores.
Author
Katherine Mattaini, Tufts University
- Justus, C. R., N. Leffler, M. Ruiz-Echevarria, and L. V. Yang. 2014. In vitro cell migration and invasion assays. JoVE :e51046. [Return to Method section] [Return to Figure 1]


6.1: Conceptualization
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Conceptualization is the mental process by which fuzzy and imprecise constructs (concepts) and their constituent components are defined in concrete and precise terms. For instance, we often use the word “prejudice” and the word conjures a certain image in our mind; however, we may struggle if we were asked to define exactly what the term meant. If someone says bad things about other racial groups, is that racial prejudice? If women earn less than men for the same job, is that gender prejudice? If churchgoers believe that non-believers will burn in hell, is that religious prejudice? Are there different kinds of prejudice, and if so, what are they? Are there different levels of prejudice, such as high or low? Answering all of these questions is the key to measuring the prejudice construct correctly. The process of understanding what is included and what is excluded in the concept of prejudice is the conceptualization process.
The conceptualization process is all the more important because of the imprecision, vagueness, and ambiguity of many social science constructs. For instance, is “compassion” the same thing as “empathy” or “sentimentality”? If you have a proposition stating that “compassion is positively related to empathy”, you cannot test that proposition unless you can conceptually separate empathy from compassion and then empirically measure these two very similar constructs correctly.  Our definition of such constructs is not based on any objective criterion, but rather on a shared (“inter-subjective”) agreement between our mental images (conceptions) of these constructs.
While defining constructs such as prejudice or compassion, we must understand that sometimes, these constructs are not real or can exist independently, but are simply imaginary creations in our mind. For instance, there may be certain tribes in the world who lack prejudice and who cannot even imagine what this concept entails. But in real life, we tend to treat this concept as real. The process of regarding mental constructs as real is called reification , which is central to defining constructs and identifying measurable variables for measuring them.
One important decision in conceptualizing constructs is specifying whether they are unidimensional and multidimensional. Unidimensional constructs are those that are expected to have a single underlying dimension. These constructs can be measured using a single measure or test. Examples include simple constructs such as a person’s weight, wind speed, and probably even complex constructs like self-esteem (if we conceptualize self-esteem as consisting of a single dimension, which of course, may be a unrealistic assumption). Multidimensional constructs consist of two or more underlying dimensions. For instance, if we conceptualize a person’s academic aptitude as consisting of two dimensions – mathematical and verbal ability – then academic aptitude is a multidimensional construct. Each of the underlying dimensions in this case must be measured separately, say, using different tests for mathematical and verbal ability, and the two scores can be combined, possibly in a weighted manner, to create an overall value for the academic aptitude construct.


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6.1: Introduction to Confidence Intervals
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In conducting inferential statistics, we are interested in understanding facts about a population without studying the entire population. From our work with sampling distributions, we know that we cannot expect a sample statistic to equal the population parameter. Instead, we estimate the population parameter by developing an interval estimate, called a confidence interval, based on the sample statistics and the sampling distribution.
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6.2: Confidence Intervals for Proportions
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When we compute a confidence interval for a proportion, we first collect a random sample from our population, compute the proportion of that sample in order to estimate the proportion of the population. We recognize that our one sample's proportion is not likely to be the same value as the population's proportion, that the sample's measure will differ from that measure of the population. So, to determine the likely amount of error in a randomly chosen sample, we use our sampling distribution co
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6.3: Confidence Intervals for Means (Sigma Known)
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When you compute a confidence interval on the mean, you compute the mean of a sample in order to estimate the mean of the population. Clearly, if you already knew the population mean, there would be no need for a confidence interval. However, to explain how confidence intervals are constructed, we are going to work backwards and begin by assuming characteristics of the population. Then we will show how sample data can be used to construct a confidence interval.
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6.4: Confidence Interval for Means (Sigma Unknown)
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Having developed a construction technique for confidence intervals for mean with σ known, we now drop our simplifying assumption and address the common case when we do not know much about the population; i.e. we do not know the population mean or population standard deviation. We must know that the sampling distribution of sample means has either a normal parent population or the sample size n is greater than 30. Now we create our confidence intervals when population parameters are unknown.
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6.5: Confidence Intervals for Variances - Optional Material
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We now have a method of constructing confidence intervals for variances which is quite different from the forms for means and proportions. The sample statistic is no longer the center of the interval. Critical values still play an important role in the construction of the interval, and computing these critical values is the last aspect of construction that we need to hammer out. In the section on sampling distributions of sample variances, we introduced the CHISQ.DIST accumulation function.