Journal Assignment #1

     In chapter 20 in the Technical Communication book, the chapter talks about the differences and types of definitions, descriptions and instructions. Everyone might already know the differences between these three topics, but using them in a sufficient way is what makes people’s writings really pop out. For the topic on definitions, this is one’s chance to really explain what they are exactly talking about. Maybe they can even add a picture to get their point across; however, definitions are very important. This is what the reader needs to really get an understanding of what the writer is trying to convey to them. In addition, the writer doesn’t want to make the definition too hard to understand, because anyone could be reading their piece. For the topic on description, this goes into detail of the physical or operational features of the object or process. This is very important, because this helps the reader create an image in their mind of what the writer is trying to explain. Thus, aiding the reader of what it could be. For the topic on instructions, this helps the reader comprehend how the object or process works. This part tends to be followed by graphics, and it is to make it so the reader could actually control the object, or carry out a process, which improves their ability to take in of what they’re reading.

     It is difficult to put out a story when there is so much uncertainty going around. There might be rumors here and there, but until one has actual facts, then a story can’t be made. Recently, Venturebeat accepted the rumor about the Nintendo Switch being based on Nvidia’s Tegra X1, which includes a GPU that w based on second generations Maxwell technology. Ever since April, it was found out that Nvidia tech was part of the Nintendo NX. Then in July, Nintendo had an event in Frankfurt HQ where they help a demo in front of vast crowd. After this demo, stories went flying out. In this essays story, it was assumed that this release would allow Nintendo to go from Tegra X1 to Tegra X2 applying Pascal technology and using a FinFET processor production technology. Although, Nvidia declared that the custom processor is the same as the GeForce gaming graphics cards’. With all these claims, there are rarity and disagreements about the Switch. While some of the part are true, there are things like the actual speed of the CPU and GPU that are too vague to seem to be true. While referring to the clock speeds, it is assumed that Nintendo will use the sam 20nm as shield, but that has yet to be unconfirmed. However, there are two additions on the performance of the console. While it is in mobile form, it isn’t as skillful as compared to when it is in the dock and attached to and HDTV. Also, it was also stated that there is not a second GPU or another hardware in the actual dock, even though it was strongly suggested that there would be one. The battery life and power are not an issue, and thus make it so the GPU can run a lot faster. What is also good is that the machine’s memory in the dock form and controller form doesn’t hinder the gamer’s play. It stays consistent throughout the game. Even though there are some differences of what happened in the rumors, this is a time to see if Nintendo can finally challenge Microsoft and Sony again.

     When dealing with hydrogen, it is always a problem of either making it and spreading it, which causes harm to the planet. By creating a more efficient “engine” for cars, a team from Georgia Institute of Technology made it so we can skip the hydrogen hassle while helping the planet. This new “engine” converts natural gas into hydrogen in any place, but at the same time it is catching the carbon dioxide in the air. If this new invention was used world wide, then it could attach to a natural gas line from anywhere, and fuel the car in a earth-friendly way that is also pleasing the oil companies. This new “engine” is called the CO2/H2 active membrane piston (CHAMP) reactor. It is similar to a regular engine, but this time methane and steam go through a cylinder when the piston goes down, and then it goes up and constricts the mixture of a temperature about 752 F. Thus, causing a catalytic reaction that creates the H2 and CO2 needed. Compared to the industrial made engine, this “engine” creates lower temperatures, so it can be used for household or commercial activites. Making hydrogen is highly expensive and extremely flammable, but this type of machine would have a huge favor on the natural gas lines that a large number of homes already have. It is pretty simple to hook it up and then create the hydrogen that is demanded. Not only would it power the fuel cell car, but also be a backup home fuel cell battery. It is seen as so powerful, that is would be equivalent to Tesla’s Powerwall and home charger, but instead it would be in the form of hydrogen. The machine has yet to be perfected yet, and the researchers have not talked about how efficient their system is, but there has yet to be another commercial tech yet for storing it permanently. Although, even if the device was accessible today, EV tech had already won if it comes to efficiency and pollution. In addition, the world would most likely already have cheaper, faster charging and higher capacity batteries by the time CHAMP devices are completely made.

Response to Journal Assignment #1

For this semester, this was the first annotation I had to do. I never really did annotation as in depth as journal assignment #1, so it didn’t come out as good as my more recent annotations. The annotations in this assignment are decent, but they could be better. I focused more on creating a summary, because I didn’t really understand what an annotation was. I feel like I should have talked to my professor more on how to annotate articles, so I would not have been as lost as I was for this assignment. However, with the practice I have done with I believe that this was a good start

Technical Description

Incubators

In biology, an incubator is a machine that can grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures. It can preserve the temperature, humidity and other circumstances like carbon dioxide and oxygen content of the atmosphere inside of the instrument. The 19th century is when incubators started to become popular, and the first one was just a simple bell jar and a candle. During the late 1960s, actual CO2 incubators were developed; this was when New Brunswick Scientific (NBS), located in Edison, NJ, initiated a span of incubators that included the Psychrotherm, the first refrigerated incubator shaker, the Model G25 large-capacity console-style incubator shaker, and the G76 water bath shaker. All of these models can still be seen managing in labs around the world to this day. Later in 1984, SHEL LAB launched the innovative general purpose incubator, which became an extremely popular product. This incubator presented an exclusive warm air-jacket design, heated outer door, and five strategically placed heating elements to bring uncompromising temperature to a constant pace, with no hot spots. As years went by, new and more high-tech incubators were being advanced into the modern world. With all these new advancements, the incubators were being categorized for different purposes and thus created for different scientists.

Figure 1: File:Bacteriological_incubator.jpg

Every incubator tends to look a bit different; however, they generally have the same design and function. It is a box-like chamber with racks inside of it to keep the material steady. On the outside of the incubator, there is a control panel to manage the climate inside of it, and it also can be set on a timer for how long one wants the climate to act a certain way. On the door of the incubator, there is a handle on it, which sometimes can have a lock if the person testing wanted to make sure that no one touched his or her experiment. The door could either have a window to show the inside or it, or it could just be a plain, simple door. These incubators can come if different sizes, but they generally tend to be the size of a small oven.

Incubators in biology are generally used for food/beverage testing, microbiology, egg/fish/insect hatching, yeast growth, pharmaceutical testing, etc. The reason these are all used inside an incubator is due to the fact that they either grow a certain species or have bacteria/fungi grow on them. Also, the one conducting the experiment needs a specific type of climate to get the results that they need at a faster pace. Inside of the incubator is a nice, warm, dark growth chamber that can make it favorable for species to grow. Usually, the temperature stays between 20-25 C and 30-35 C in order to grow the bacteria and fungi  respectively in the various test media incubated. The experiment sometimes needs a sterile testing of finished products, bio-burden research for organic matter and in-process bulks. The extent of handling these incubators may vary, but the fundamental requirement of this machine is to provide a controlled temperature environment. 

Incubators are extremely important to the scientific world. With the help of the advanced technology, it has made testing more accurate and faster to develop. They grew popular along the years as science did, and now one can find them in every laboratory. This machine is immensely essential if one wishes to test with certain cultures, because it can make the exact environment the culture needs in order to grow. It still amazes people that these oven-looking chambers can create a climate inside of them, and hopefully they can do much more in the near future. 

Work cited:

“Incubators and Microbiology Incubators.” Labcompare. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2017. <http://www.labcompare.com/General-Laboratory-Equipment/132-Incubators-and-Microbiology-Incubators/>.

Rodrigo, Allen, Susan Alberts, Karen Cranston, Joel Kingsolver, Hilmar Lapp, Craig McClain, Robin Smith, Todd Vision, Jory Weintraub, and Brian Wiegmann. “Science Incubators: Synthesis Centers and Their Role in the Research Ecosystem.” PLOS Biology. Public Library of Science, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. <http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001468>.

Response to Technical Description

For my first paper, I thought I did really well until I got my grade back. However, after reading the professor’s comments, I see why I did not do as well as I thought I did. My topic was a good choice, but I could have picked a more specific incubator. In addition, I could have gone more into depth and talked about each part of the incubator with more detail. This teaches me that I can not sugar coat my way through a paper that requires me to explain everything. I must go into exact detail no matter how long it may be.

 

Professor’s comments:

It seems like you could have gone over a specific type of incubator just to narrow it a little bit more. One thing that you do say is that there is a lot of different purposes for each of the different incubators, but I’m not too sure you went over all of them. I also wanted you to go over the process a little bit more. You say it is used for food testing, but I wanted you to actually walk me through what it is like to test food for an incubator. Tell me what the person does and give me a step by step process. You go over what it looks like, but one of the the things that I wanted to see was you look at the individual parts of the incubator. What exactly is the heat source made of and what holds it together? Is it electric powered or not? I feel like you skimmed over a lot of the important things that go into an incubator. As a result, I feel like there are a lot of missed opportunities.

Lab Report

How Music Affects Cats Behavior

Abstract:

Music is known to have an affect on people’s emotions. The beats and melodies change how we feel, but could it affect a cat the same way? This experiment was created to see how cat’s react to different types of music. Each cat was exposed to a vacuum cleaner and different genres of music each day to find out which genre calmed them down the most. With the result made over the past couple of days, it was concluded that classical music calms down cats the most.

Introduction:

It has be found out that music can aid in decreasing the destructive actions conducted by animals. By conducting this research on dogs in shelters, it was found that soft music actually made the animals more relaxed and there was les barking. [1] This soft music has also been found that it can reduce stress in cats. The reason animals get agitated is due to the fact that they are in an environment or experiencing something that isn’t natural to them. It also has to do with animals are more sensitive to sound than humans are. If there experience music that is soothing, like classical music, then they will become more relaxed and less upset.[2]

Method and Materials:

In order to test the hypothesis, multiple materials were needed. The materials that were used were 5 cats, one vacuum cleaner, a stopwatch, a CD player, one classical music CD, one pop music CD and one heavy metal CD. The independent variable is the type of music, the dependent variable is the time it takes for the cats to calm down, and the constants are the use of the vacuum cleaner, age of the cats and gender of the cats. With the permission of 5 cat owners, experiments were conducted on these cats for four days. For the first day, each cat will be brought into a room separately where it is exposed  to the vacuum cleaner for five minutes. Then, the stopwatch is started and the cat will be recorded of its restlessness until it calms down. That is when the stopwatch is stopped and the time is recorded into the table. The same procedure is conducted on all cats. For the next day, each cat is exposed to the vacuum cleaner again for five minutes, but they are also exposed to classical music afterwards. The time taken for the cats to calm down was timed and recorded in the table. The same procedure was repeated for the 3rd day, but pop music was played instead of classical music. The same procedure was repeated for the 4th day, but heavy metal music was played instead of pop music.

Results:

Cats Without Music Classical Music Pop Music Heavy Metal Music
1 12 minutes 6 minutes 9 minutes 18 minutes
2 11 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes
3 13 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 19 minutes
4 14 minutes 4 minutes 11 minutes 22 minutes
5 12 minutes 5 minutes 12 minutes 21 minutes

Table 1 → This table shows how long it took for cats to calm down in minutes.

By looking at the results, it shows that classical music was able to calm down the cats faster than any other method. The heavy metal made the cats more upset, while the pop music didn’t have a huge affect in calming down the cats.

Discussion:

The results show that classical music is able to calm down cats faster than pop music or heavy metal music. When there was no music playing at all, it took about 12 minutes averagely for all the cats to calm down. When there was classical music playing, it averagely took about 5 minutes for the cats to calm down. After the pop music, it took the cats averagely about 10 minutes to calm down. While for the heavy metal music, it averagely took 20 minutes for them to calm down. Thus, proving that classical music actually calms down cats the fastest.

Conclusion:

The hypothesis that was being tested was that classical music makes cats calm down faster. This type of music is highly recommended by animal experts to decrease agitated or destructive behaviors by animals. For example, hyperactivity or frequent barking. There are more CD’s now that are available that specialize in the relaxation of cats and dogs. To do further research in this area, the next experiment could have dogs instead of cats in their procedure.  

Work Cited:

[1] Manning, Sue. “Music reduces pet stress in shelters.” Smithsonian Tween Tribune. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.

[2] “How Music Can Solve Cat Behavior Problems.” The Spruce. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.

Response to Lab Report

For my science classes, I have written multiple lab reports, but I never had to write one for English before. This being the case, I was not exactly sure what to write. Also, I never had to make up a whole experiment before. I was a little lost with this paper, so I was not sure what I exactly needed. However, after reading my professor’s comments, I see that I missed a lot of detail. I needed to be more organized and think more outside the box. For lab reports, I need to always ask questions, specify and explain in detail the purpose of everything in the experiment.

 

Professor’s comments:

This was interesting for an experiment, but I thought that you could have done a little bit more with the study. The first thing that I noticed immediately was that you were missing some sources for some of the info, especially in the intro in regards to facts that actually does show this. I think stating the importance would be good too, and I wasn’t sure what exactly the hypothesis was here. I get what was being tested, but what were you expecting. I just really wanted a lot more in the discussion in terms of branching questions. Why classical, what about that do you think would cause cats to calm down. Conversely, why was the metal music so destructive? Thinking about these questions would have improved things tremendously. Why did you use a vacuum cleaner? Also, did you tell me the age and gender of the cats? That seems important, and then tell me why you chose that particular specifications. That’s the main point here, the experiment was good, but more analysis and depth was needed. The conclusion does hint at this, but you could have expanded more.

 

 

Applying for a job

Johanna Frick

Engineering Student                                                                                         401 W 130th St

Phone: 914-316-0728                                                                                 New York, NY 10027

Email: johannaifrick@gmail.com

 

Objective

I’m searching for a position that would further advance my current problem-solving and communication skills, and also help me pursue more knowledge in the engineering field. In addition, I seek for a position that will provide me with new skills that can be used in the future.

 

Education

  • New Rochelle High School
  • September 2012 to June 2016
  • High School Regents Diploma
  • City College of New York
  • August 2016 to present
  • Biomedical Engineering major

 

Skills

  • Familiar with Microsoft Office and Excel
  • How to handle and organize data bases/ marketing
  • How to use resources efficiently
  • Team building, handling conflicts

 

Work Experience

  • Gemelli Pizzeria
  • June 2015 to present
  • Customer service
  • Handled all the problems customers in dire situations

 

Volunteering/ Clubs

  • Montefiore Hospital
  • September 2015 to June 2016
  • Organized paperwork and handled patient’s’ machines
  • The Key Club
  • September 2014 to June 2016
  • Community service
  • National Honor Society
  • September 2015 to June 2016
  • Serves to recognize those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

 

 

Dear Hiring Manager,

 

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Engineering role at your company. After reviewing your job description, it’s clear that you’re looking for a candidate that is extremely familiar with the responsibilities associated with the role, and can perform them confidently. Given these requirements, I am certain that I have the necessary skills to successfully do the job adaptly and perform above expectations.

 

I am an adaptable college student (3.1 GPA, Biomedical Engineering) currently attending City College of New York. During the course of my academic career, I also managed to accrue nearly 2 years of work experience. I had the privilege of working for Gemelli Pizzeria in a counter girl/ waitress role in my free time, where I learned valuable professional skills such as customer communications, conflict resolution, and customer satisfaction. In both my academic and professional life, I have been consistently praised as hard-working by my professors and peers. Whether working on academic, extracurricular, or professional projects, I apply proven problem-solving, teamwork, and research skills, which I hope to leverage into the Engineering role at your company.

 

After reviewing my resume, I hope you agree that I am the type of competent and competitive candidate you are looking for. I look forward to elaborating on how my specific skills and abilities will benefit your organization. Please contact me at 914-316-0728 or via email at johannaifrick@gmail.com to arrange for a convenient meeting time.

 

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Johanna Frick

Response to Applying For A Job

For this exercise, I had to act as an unemployed engineer who was applying to four different engineering companies. I liked this exercise, because I never had a real interview before. It was able to challenge me on the spot of how to make myself be someone a job would want as an aspect to their company. Due to not having a resume, this was my first time creating one, which was pretty fun. However, it was hard to point out my good qualities and all the meaningful things I have done throughout my years in school, but I had help from other classmates who had an idea of what a resume should look like.

 

Journal Assignment #2

Resume:

Johanna Frick

Engineering Student                                                                                          401 W 130th St

Phone: 914-316-0728                                                                                 New York, NY 10027

Email: johannaifrick@gmail.com

Objective

I’m searching for a position that would further advance my current problem-solving skills, ability to use resources efficiently, and also help me pursue more knowledge in the researching field. In addition, I seek for a position that will provide me with new skills that can be used in the future.

 

Education

  • New Rochelle High School
  • September 2012 to June 2016
  • High School Regents Diploma
  • City College of New York
  • August 2016 to present
  • Biomedical Engineering major

 

Skills

  • Familiar with Microsoft Office and Excel
  • How to handle and organize data bases/ marketing
  • How to use resources efficiently
  • Team building, handling conflicts

 

Work Experience

  • Marina Grille
  • July 2014 to August 2014
  • Customer service and waitressing
  • Gemelli Pizzeria
  • June 2015 to present
  • Customer service
  • Handled all the problems customers in dire situations

 

Volunteering/ Clubs

  • Montefiore Hospital
  • September 2015 to June 2016
  • Organized paperwork and handled patient’s’ machines
  • The Key Club
  • September 2014 to June 2016
  • Community service
  • National Honor Society
  • September 2015 to June 2016
  • Serves to recognize those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

 

Cover Letter:

Dear NYU School of Medicine,

 

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Researching and Development role at your company. After reviewing your job description, it’s clear that you’re looking for a candidate that is extremely familiar with the responsibilities associated with the role, and can perform them confidently. Given these requirements, I am certain that I have the necessary skills to successfully do the job adaptly and perform above expectations.

 

I am an adaptable college student (3.1 GPA, Biomedical Engineering) currently attending City College of New York. During the course of my academic career, I also managed to accrue nearly 2 years of work experience. I had the privilege of working for Gemelli Pizzeria in a counter girl/ waitress role in my free time, where I learned valuable professional skills such as perceptive, conflict resolution, and customer satisfaction. In both my academic and professional life, I have been consistently praised as hard-working by my professors and peers. Whether working on academic, extracurricular, or professional projects, I apply proven problem-solving, teamwork, and research skills, which I hope to leverage into the Researching and Development role at your company.

 

After reviewing my resume, I hope you agree that I am the type of competent and competitive candidate you are looking for. I look forward to elaborating on how my specific skills and abilities will benefit your organization. Please contact me at 914-316-0728 or via email at johannaifrick@gmail.com to arrange for a convenient meeting time.

 

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Johanna Frick

Response to Journal Assignment #2

This assignment was kind of challenging for me, because I had to think about the good qualities of myself and put them on paper. In my opinion, it is hard for people to point out all the good things about them, especially when these good qualities need to get one a job. I never had a real resume before, and not a cover letter, but this was a good experience for myself. This resume and cover letter need more of a hook to help me stand out, but for a first time I believe it came out well. It helped me see what I need to do in order to improve my future resume.

Journal Assignment #3

Nuclear Waste

In the United States, more than 20 percent of its electricity is composed from nuclear power plants. However, due to the action of nuclear fission, which is needed to make this broad supply of energy, it is creating a considerable extent of high level radioactive waste. Due to this, there is more than 30,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that has emerged from U.S. commercial reactors; also, including first class nuclear weapons such, for instance uranium and plutonium. As a result of the increase of this waste, there will have to be a couple power plants that need to be closed down. To avoid the depletion of such a critical essential energy, a protected and efficient area is needed to take care of this waste. The purpose of this paper is to vindicate if Yucca Mountain is a sufficient location for a nuclear waste dump. In addition, if I believe it does not meet the requirements of an acceptable space, then I will propose other opportunities for the storage of nuclear waste. This suggested review will talk about the budget and environmental conditions of a national storage facility. It will also consist of my approach of collecting data, a record for determining this proposal, and my accomplishments.

 

 

Sources

 

  1. Current-Argus, Maddy Hayden Carlsbad (N.M.). “Nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository reopens.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 04 Jan. 2017. Web. 16 May 2017. This article is about an underground nuclear waste dump opening up for the first time in years. It includes interviews from the workers who are employed at the vicinity and how they are happy to finally start working again. Also, it talks about how the place was shut down due to a leakage, and that it cost a couple million due to damages and hurt employees. This source is relevant to my study, because it includes an underground nuclear waste dump that is similar to Yucca Mountain and can be used in comparison. This source can accomplish the employment side and financial side of my proposal. It would help explain the economic aspects in a positive and negative way due to employment and money.
  2. DiChristopher, Tom. “The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, a political hot potato, is back.” CNBC. CNBC, 16 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 May 2017. <http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/16/the-yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-dump-a-political-hot-potato-is-back.html>. This article is a about Donald Trump asking Congress to approve $120 million to restart the nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain. It includes a more political approach to this aspect and how people have been going out of there way to avoid any funding or restarting of the Yucca project. In addition, it talks about Nevada not having a say in being a dumping state for the nuclear waste. They aren’t happy with these plans and want to stop being a garbage for these projects. This source is relevant to my study, because I’m am proposing if Yucca Mountain should even be a nuclear waste site to begin with. Also, it accomplishes the political and financial side of my study and how it affects the nation nationally.
  3. Singman, Brooke. “Trump administration to revive Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan.” Fox News. FOX News Network, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 May 2017. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/27/trump-administration-to-revive-yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-plan.html>. This article talks about the history of Yucca Mountain and why is was shut down in the first place. It dates back as much as 3 decades from now and how people are very against the restart of this site, especially Nevada residents. However, Trump is trying his best to get this site back in motion, but it is costing money and causing backlash towards the White House. This is relevant towards my study, because it is describing the history of Yucca Mountain and why is was shut down. It accomplishes the background information of the Yucca mountain for my proposal.
  4. Bailey, Ronald. “Trump Administration Is Right: Open the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.” com. N.p., 29 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 May 2017. <http://reason.com/blog/2017/03/29/trump-administration-is-right-open-the-y>. This source is more approachable to reopening the Yucca Mountain site. This too has history about Yucca Mountain, but it is about why it was opened in the first place. This is relevant towards my proposal, because I need articles on both sides to not be biased in my research. It accomplishes both views from both sides and helps give more background information of why Yucca Mountain was opened.
  5. Conca, James. “A Nuclear Waste: Why Congress Shouldn’t Bother Reviving Yucca Mountain.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 03 May 2017. Web. 16 May 2017. This article talks about how nuclear waste should be transferred else and not Yucca Mountain. The writer gives information of how the nuclear waste really isn’t high-level and that the government is just wasting money by trying to reopen Yucca Mountain and using that as a dump. There are other solutions to dispose of this non high-level waste in different areas without harming nor spending unnecessary things. This is relevant to my proposal, because it gives a different view and different location about the nuclear waste matter. It accomplishes my idea of relocating the waste if I believe that Yucca Mountain is deemed unfit to be a nuclear waste dump.

 

Response to Journal Assignment #3

 

This assignment was to help me start my research proposal paper, and it was not that challenging. Since I had practice from journal assignment #1, I was able to understand how to write annotated bibliographies with ease. Also, for choosing my topic I made sure it was something I am actually interested about. This is so I would not get bored or tired from all the research I had to do about this topic. Researching is not a difficult task for me, since I have to put forth some research for every class throughout school. I don’t believe I had any weakness at all when it came to this assignment, since I had already practiced how to research and annotate.