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Effectiveness Of Using Different Channels Featuring Emarketing Marketing Essay

Marketing » Effectiveness Of Using Different Channels Featuring Emarketing Marketing Essay

Effectiveness is the adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result. There are different channels for communication which may be effective to consumers as Television; Magazines, Radio and more, but nowadays internet is becoming the most important and effective tool. Belch (2009) Television Advertising and other tools are paid, expensive tools form of non-personal communication which means that there is no opportunity for immediate feedback, therefore before the message is sent, and the advertiser must consider how the audience will respond to it. As Blackeman (2007) believe that Television advertising can bring the product or service’s story to life, set a mood, demonstrate a use, create a memory, initiate a trend or define a style. As for the Magazine advertising concentrates on the creation of an image or mood through visual and verbal relationships. However, Radio advertising we are exposed to it everywhere because radio had the distinction of being one of the few media vehicles that can be used to reach the targeted audience close to the time of purchase.

Traditional off-line marketing similar to the promotional mix tools that is used to accomplish an organization communication objectives which comprise advertising, direct marketing, sales promotional, Publicity and public relations, personal selling and all these tools costly as compared to Internet marketing or e-marketing which already exist in the promotional mix tool . With traditional off-line marketing the company can only reach a small chunk with each campaign, and may target its buyers in a specific town or city through newspapers, local TV channels, local trade magazines, Banner ads on the streets, etc. Each time it runs a new campaign, it ends up spending more money. With most large or even small businesses, money is tight, and spent with the highest thought and care. Marketing can either swallow up hard earned resources with little effect or can drive a business farther than imagined, depending on the execution. Marketing business on the internet is in many ways simpler and arguably much less expensive than more traditional marketing media, but has its own set of considerations.

Source: Internet World Stats – www.internerworldstats.com; September 30, 2009.

Moreover, using different marketing channels featuring E-marketing will demand more evaluation for the whole marketing communication campaign and highlighting the importance of e-marketing.

Marketing can be considered as one of the most important element foundation successful business creation. Perhaps because of its complex applications, marketing has been defined in a variety of ways. The marketing concept was first promulgated in the late 1950's. The importance of marketing concept incorporates oft-repeated elements such as: customer orientation; integrated marketing efforts; and consequential profitability. In terms of managerial perspective in marketing, Kotler (1972) is the only pioneer as he adopted the concept, when he proposed a generic concept of marketing concerned with how transactions are created, stimulated, facilitated, and valued. Sheth, Gardner and Garrett (1988) on the other hand, believe that the main purpose of marketing is to create and distribute values among the market parties through the process of transactions and market relationships.

Furthermore, the American Marketing Association has defined marketing as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives (Hills, 1994).

However, with the introduction of new technologies especially the Internet, marketing ways have been changed greatly. Its impact cannot be denied and can be said to have revolutionized business. The Internet provides an effective interactive on-line tool that allows business processes to be aligned with growing demands for increased speed and efficiency at lower cost.

The aim of this paper is to define e-Marketing and to review certain factors associated with it including e-marketing strategies, identify the advantages and disadvantages of marketing through the internet, give suggestions on how on-line marketing communications can be most effective to certain types of industries (if any), particular cultural considerations and assess the difficulties faced by e-marketing, etc.

The development of the Internet gave rise to a more recent marketing strategy known as on-line or electronic marketing. E-marketing is a powerful tool used by different business organizations around the world. It is defined as the process of achieving marketing objectives through the use of electronic communications technology. Smith and Chaffey (2001) suggest there are five broad benefits, reasons or objectives of e-marketing. This framework of 5 Ss is useful since it presents a comprehensive range of objectives. Marketers will decide whether all or only some will drive e-marketing:

Sell – Grow sales (through wider distribution to customers company can’t service off-line or perhaps through a wider product range than in-store, or better prices)

Serve – Add value (give customers extra benefits on-line: or inform product development through on-line dialogue and feedback)

Speak – Get closer to customers by tracking them, asking them questions, conducting on-line interviews, creating a dialogue, monitoring chat rooms, learning about them

Save – Save costs - of service, sales transactions and administration, print and post. Can the company reduce transaction costs and therefore either make on-line sales more profitable? Or use cost-savings to enable the company to cut prices, which in turn could enable to generate greater market share?

Sizzle – Extend the brand on-line. Reinforce brand values in a totally new medium. The Web scores very highly as a medium for creating brand awareness, recognition and involvement.

E-marketing is also known to be the on-line marketing strategy utilized by different company whose objective is to be the best company in their field. In different countries worldwide, more and more business firms have been using e-marketing strategy in order to be competitive. From books, foods and beverages, automobiles and other products and services, various companies, irregardless of their company sizes, are trying to survive by means of e-marketing strategy. Aside from being a promotional medium, the internet is a tool for marketing communications promotional mix as well. Due to its interactive nature, the internet marketing is an efficient method used in communicating with the consumers nowadays more than other promotional traditional tools compared to the Belch (2009) Advertising as it is a valuable tool for building company or brand equity as it is a powerful way to provide consumers with information and influence perception, Direct marketing it is a way in which organization communicate directly with target consumers to generate a response and a transaction, Sales Promotion are marketing activities that provide extra values to the sales force and can stimulate immediate sales, Publicity/Public Relations as for publicity it refers to non-personal communications regarding an organization, product, service or idea not directly paid for in addition to the Public Relations purpose is to establish and maintain a positive image of the company among its publics. Finally, with the Personal selling it’s a form of person to person communication in which a seller attempts to assist or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company’s product or service or to act on an idea. As for the interactive/internet marketing it allows for a back and forth flow of information whereby users can participate in and modify the form and content of the information they receive in real time, as it allows users to perform a variety of functions such as receive and alter information and image plus making purchase besides through the internet marketing companies can advertise online, have a direct marketing with customers through mails or online communication, offer sales promotion on web sites and can have a PR which evaluates a public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organization or individual through the internet in order to earn public understanding and acceptance and in conclusion, Personal selling which involves direct contact between buyer and seller as this interaction gives the marketer communication flexibility . Belch (2009) Companies afterward started to concentrate on designing web-related strategies and employing interactive agencies that will facilitate their development of specific company web sites as part of their integrated marketing communication strategy. All there can have a great different impact and value to the advertising campaigns using E-marketing as their main tool of communication.

On-line marketing is considered to be the most comprehensive marketing communication strategy that every company wants to implement and apply. At present, people, particularly those in the business field, is likely to engage them within the trend of rapidly growing technology so as to stay competitive.

Also, online branding or E-branding, Chernatony and Christoudoulides (2004) said that mainly the frequency with which an ad is served impacts brand awareness. Regularity also impacts whether or not an association between a message and a brand is made by a consumer. Thus, aspects of company brands should be emphasized in online branding.

Moreover, it is only recently that the term “corporate brand” has appeared and has captured many academics attention, as it is claimed that research is now shifting from product to company branding, Hatch and Schultz, (2001) The Company and its corporate and product brands can help to substantiate the credibility of the firm’s corporate image Dowling, (1986). Corporate brand differs from product branding as it stresses the importance of brand values.

Upon surfing the internet, various companies have put up their official sites on-line for customers and potential consumers to view. On-line or e-marketing is the latest marketing approach for any company who wants to effectively market its products and services. In addition, e-marketing enables the company to be known worldwide since more and more people are able to access information resulting from the internet. Within the business world, where competition is strict, internet marketing is one essential marketing strategy applied by most companies.

While e-marketing had been applied in order marketing goods local and internationally, this strategic option has also been used effectively by business operators in order to communicate with their customers. One common technique based on e-marketing is electronic mailing; through this tool, companies can send in letters to the clients in order to obtain useful information in line with their specific product needs or preferences. This techniques has in fact been realized an effective instrument for driving revenues as well as obtaining customer retention and loyalty. While direct mailing techniques use the telephone, fax or send posts to gain information, e-mails offer lower contact costs.

However, without the provision of customer control, direct and e-marketing approaches can affect customer relations. For instance, direct e-mailing can be considered by other consumers as unwanted communication; as users do not have the control as to how this unwanted communication can stop, customers are often left motivated. Moreover, this issue often delayed others from filling up on-line forms or replying to company e-mails. Hence, it has been suggested that marketers should provide sufficient information about themselves; users should also be informed of the purpose for the data collection, how the information will be used and in what ways they could control the use of their personal information.

Fortunately, measuring marketing effectiveness is very easy to begin in the internet space. Site statistics reports are readily available on-line and virtually real-time, providing information such as: actual number of mouse clicks, unique visitors, and/or repeat visitors, geographic location, time of day, etc. all naturally collected, compiled and presented so that you can know exactly who/where/when/how often, and even how long the potential customers are visiting each portion of your site. Such site statistics packages are available through the Web-site developers or can be found by on-line search and usually a small subscription fee.

Sell – Grow sales (through wider distribution to customers company can’t service off-line or perhaps through a wider product range than in-store, or better prices)

Serve – Add value (give customers extra benefits on-line: or inform product development through on-line dialogue and feedback)

Speak – Get closer to customers by tracking them, asking them questions, conducting on-line interviews, creating a dialogue, monitoring chat rooms, learning about them

Sizzle – Extend the brand on-line. Reinforce brand values in a totally new medium. The Web scores very highly as a medium for creating brand awareness, recognition and involvement.

For the experimental research, around three to four Web sites or Companies will be selected, to assess more fully practices and policies in accessibility support within different e-marketing, with practical study (e.g. via system testing using industry normal specifications) and research activities to gain user perspectives on system usability (e.g. via questionnaires or interviews); universities will be chosen to reflect leading facilities (e-learning and blackboard). Oracle Company that enables technology services for marketing, Human Resource, sales and all business activities will be used in our research to demonstrate the effectiveness, activities of using e-marketing or internet marketing for example one of the systems we will cover in our thesis paper is the Oracle’s Siebel Email marketing enables organizations to take advantage of the superior economics of e-mail, while building customer trust, respecting their preferences, and creating profitable relationships trust, respecting their preferences, and creating profitable relationships. Besides, we will use another multinational company Vodafone which perform several e-marketing activities in order to construct superior online channels for higher customer satisfaction and stronger customer loyalty. As they delivered new interactive online tools, comparison tools and micro sites leveraging Vodafone brand, duties, product and services for excising customers. All these activities will be mentioned into great extent details and information in the final thesis paper, which will facilitate in establishing the importance of E-marketing nowadays.

The main purpose of this thesis is to find out the effectiveness of Internet marketing or e-marketing as one of the marketing mix where we will try to answer the questions such as:

What makes the e-marketing communication strategies different from traditional methods?

Are companies using e-marketing more direct to customers?

What are the communication tools or mediums that companies use?

Is marketing through the internet an effective means of building a brand or getting new customers?

Is on-line marketing less costly than off-line marketing?

Is on-line marketing faster to implement than off-line marketing?

March to April Design Research Surveys Questionnaires approved with the Supervisor

April to June Collect Data (Start SPSS) Preparation Framework

Analysis& Interpretation of the Data to come up with the proposed suggestions

The importance of developing an effective e-marketing strategy is indicated by Michael Porter (2001) who has said: ‘The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology – companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive – but how to organize it.’

An e-marketing strategy is needed to provide consistent direction for an organization’s e-marketing activities that integrates with its other marketing activities and supports the overall objectives of the business.

For many companies, the first ventures into e-marketing or Internet marketing are not the result of a well-defined, integrated Internet strategy; rather, they are a response to competitors activities or customers demand.

After a site has been in existence for a year or so, marketing staff and senior managers in a company will naturally question its effectiveness. This is often the point at which the need for a logical Internet marketing strategy becomes apparent. As a result, the starting point to e-marketing strategy is when a company that has an existing site and it is reviewing the current site and its effectiveness with a view to future improvements. And as a motivated tool for the thesis that the in Internet revolution has changed the way companies do their business and communicate to their customers. As Internet penetration rates continue to increase world-wide and Egypt is not an exception, therefore, e-marketing as a new innovative marketing approach will benefit.

Source: Internet World Stats – www.internerworldstats.com; September 30, 2009.

Literature Review (References)

Chaffey, D. (2002). E-business and e-commerce management. Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Harlow, UK.

Dave Chaffey, Fiona Ellis-Chadwick, Richard Mayer and Kevin Johnston

(2006). Internet Marketing: Strategy Implementation and Practice – Third Edition. FT Prentice Hall.

Hills, G.E. (1994). Marketing and Entrepreneurship: Research Ideas and Opportunities. Quorum Books, Westport, CT.

Kotler P. (1972). "A Generic Concept of Marketing." Journal of Marketing

Michael J. Baker (2003). The marketing Book Fifth Edition. Butterworth Heinemann.

Porter, M. (2001). Strategy and the Internet - Harvard Business Review. March 2001, 62-78.

Sheth J. N., Gardner, D.M. and Garrett, D.E. (1988). Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Christodoulides, G. and de Chernatony, L. (2004), “Dimensionalising on-and offline brands composite equity”, Journal of Product and Brand Management

Smith, P.R. and Chaffey, D. (2001). eMarketing eXcellence: at the heart of e-Business. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, UK.

Hatch, M.J. and Schultz, M. (2001), “Are the strategic stars aligned for your corporate brand?”, Harvard Business Review,

Dowling, G.R. (1986), “Managing your corporate images”, Industrial Marketing Management,

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effectiveness

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Comparisons Among Different Search Engines Marketing Essay

Today, the person who has more information on his hand is more powerful. To have versatile knowledge we need to have versatile information with us and for that we need to have a strong search engine. We have many search engines available around us. For some specific search criteria one search engine can give better search results than others. Based on the search criteria it needs to identify which search engine has better results. So, a comparison among these search engines can be demanded. In our report to find this comparison we have used both qualitative and quantitative method. Our analysis has made a clear distinction about the performance of these search engines which have been measured based on some search criteria. The ultimate result has proved that Google is pioneered for searching for most of the search criteria while others are a bit lagging behind. Again most of the search engines produce better results for Boolean and keyword based searching.

Keywords: Search Engine, Keyword Search, Metadata Search, Precision, Recall

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Structure of the Paper 1

Background 1

Description of the Research Area 2

Problem Definition 2

Research Questions 2

Goal 2

Objectives 2

Method 3

Method Discussion 3

Limitations 4

Extended Background 4

Search engines and basic search techniques 5

Truncation (Wildcards) 6

Boolean search approach 6

Keyword based search 6

Metadata search 6

Language search 7

Precision Vs Recall 7

Data collection 8

Prepare Search Queries 8

Calculate precision and recall 9

Analysis 11

Discussion 14

Conclusion 15

Introduction

Structure of the Paper

This paper has been structured according to the following manner.

Setting query criteria

Search query results and find their relevancy in different search engines

Observing the precision and recall of the search results with the different factors

Making comparison among different search engines based on above observations

Background

We have many search engines available. The popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, Windows live search, AOL, Ask, AllTheWeb, and AltaVista etc. Searching information in the web using these search engines is a common practice among human in the modern web based society. Now-a-days, we cannot live without searching information as it is the key of power and knowledge. It is not possible to acquire versatile knowledge for a single person. But according to the necessity human can ask for the knowledge while they are connected with internet and have a search engine in front of them. So, information mining or searching in the web is a regular practice. Human have their own preference for choosing search engines. So far various reports show that Google is the most favorite and used search engine worldwide [1, 2]. Other general purpose search engines are not being used as widely as Google. As an example based on US Internet usage 71.9% volume of search ratio belongs to Google[3]. Other search engines have obviously lower search ratio. All of these search engines are keyword based search engines[3]. They search documents matching with the given keywords in queries. They have different algorithms for searching and indexing the resultant pages or documents. That is why getting the most relevant search results for the same queries differ from search engine to search engine. The searching queries may be formed in multiple ways for the same topic. Thus even the results may vary within the same search engine for these differently formed queries. A clear observation of the relevancy of search results for these queries can be considered for tabling the comparisons of these search engines. The differently formed queries can be categorized according to the keyword based search, Meta data search, language based search, searching with wildcards etc.

A clear finding out of the strength of these search engines need to be addressed. So, our research area is about defining comparisons among different keyword based search engines.

Description of the Research Area

So far many researches have been conducted on finding various measurements regarding search engines. Mostly evaluation of the search engines have been done based on finding the precision and recall of the search results. Besides performance of search engines based on queries regarding metadata (e.g. image search), different languages, semantic search etc. has been measured [4-6].

It needs to define a transparent comparison among these search engines to identify their performance level. Depending on the relevancy of the retrieved documents for the differently formed query set the comparisons can be captured. The approach will be an experimental effort. For this experiment the most general purposed and keyword based search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing (Windows Live Search) and Ask will be used.

Problem Definition

There are many online free search engines available throughout the world. They are ranked by their number of hits. Number of hits or human preference does not indicate the performance level. Depending on the performance issue a comparison within these search engines should be made.

Research Questions

Which search engines retrieves comparatively most relevant documents for the first several hits? Analyzing and answering this question we will measure the proficiency of the search engines and thus this question will be indicated as our research question.

Goal

The goal of this study is to make comparison among various search engines.

Objectives

The objectives of this paper refer to the ways that indicate how the goal of this research has been achieved. The following indications identify the means of achieving the desired goal.

Literature study and review in terms of query searching via search engines

Defining the query categories covering different search criteria

Evaluating the query search results

Observing the evaluation of query search results

Method

The method of this research is the combination of both qualitative and quantitative approach. Since our goal is to compare the search engines on the basis of some key search criteria, we have used inductive reasoning logic. Observing the consequences from the search results that are based on the set search criteria, we will infer the existing antecedents. From these antecedents we will generalize the observations that will draw the comparison among the search engines.

Method Discussion

The qualitative approach of this research convey the literature study and review for articulating the proper reasoning in terms of indicating comparison criteria among different search engines. The quantitative part of this paper is for evaluating the different query results. On the basis of these query results the comparison will also be indicated. This quantitative analysis will draw the performance of different search engines indicating the precision and recall of the query results. This quantitative approach can be discussed according to the following steps.

Firstly, the queries will be classified for performance measurement of the search engines.

Secondly, the relevant documents for the set queries will be retrieved from the search engines.

Thirdly, the precision and recall for the retrieved documents will be measured by the following formulas:

Formula 1: Precision Finding Formula[7]

Formula 2: Recall Finding Formula[7]

Fourthly, the precision–recall curves will be drawn to evaluate the performance of different search engines.

Finally, analyzing these curves for various search engines under different classification criteria the comparisons will be depicted as a generalized format.

Finding the existing antecedents from the precision-recall curve for various search criteria the comparison will be generalized and thus the inductive reasoning will also be maintained.

Limitations

The number of retrieved documents in first several pages for a specific query may vary for the time span due to their frequency of hits and search engines’ internal algorithms. So, a variation of analyzed results may occur time to time.

Extended Background

In this chapter we will discuss about the theoretical background of this research. The important keys and terminologies related to the topic for understanding it will be described here based on some prior studies by different authors or relevant sources.

Search engines and basic search techniques

Search engine is the engine for information retrial from a wide collection of sources. According to the Webopedia definitions search engine is “a program that searches documents for specified keyword and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found”[8]. The top most search engines ranked by U.S. searches for August 2009 are Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ASK etc.

Figure 1: Top ten search engines for August, 2009 [2]

The frequency of searching by Google is the highest and has a quite handsome difference than others. Although these differences show the level of human interaction with the specific search engine, it cannot conclude their performance level.

Search engines search information from web using hyper text transfer protocol (http) and return us the most relevant documents they find in the World Wide Web according to their strength. There are many techniques to get better search results from web. But all of them are not appropriate for all search engines [9].

“The ability to support advanced search options of native database interfaces, utilize Boolean, wildcard and proximity operators, and allow field searching are also significant functions”[10].

The variation of the search results can be observed using these functions. In this paper we have considered the following search techniques for building up search queries.

Wild cards

Boolean search approach

Keyword based search

Besides we will evaluate search engines with considering queries with different language and metadata respectively.

Query with Bangla language

Query for image searching (Metadata searching)

Truncation (Wildcards)

Truncation can be used for searching the documents related with truncated matched words. The asterisk (*) symbol is generally used for truncation and it is called wildcards. As example- if we truncate a word like “matern*”, it will bring all the documents where this pattern can be found in words (e.g.: maternal, maternity etc.). Wildcards can give more relevant results enhancing the effectiveness of search mechanism [11]. We can include some conditions for getting extended collection of information when we are roaming around the search queries.

“The ability to express typed conditions with wildcards is very useful to the users and it is necessary not to restrict the expressive powers of users’ queries against the object views of Web data sources”[12].

This is why we considered wildcards for forming queries and checking through selected search engines.

Boolean search approach

Presently the search queries that we use for information retrieval is mostly based on natural language form. But queries can also be formed using Boolean operators like AND, OR and NOT. The keywords joining with the AND operator will be retrieved in the resultant documents. The documents containing any of the keywords will be retrieved that are joined with OR operator. NOT operator will discard those documents where the NOT adjacent keyword will not be present.

Keyword based search

Keyword is the major or explanatory word of a query. Most of the search engines do the searching based on the keywords. Keywords are the most important key of searching information. As many keywords we can include in our searching, as much possibility it grows to find the most relevant documents.

Metadata search

Metadata refers the data that gives information about the data. So, metadata gives the data about data. Image, video, audio etc. are such type of data that are not self explanatory. We cannot search them according to their content. As a result, to identify their content we need to provide information about their contents. These data are basically the file objects. Files have their additional attributes like file type, created date, owner, title etc. Providing the information of these attributes we can search these data or files by the search engines. To get the most relevant data it requires specifying this information as accurately as can be done.

So searching these file objects to evaluate the search engines is another approach of this paper.

Language search

We have huge collection of information in the web in different languages. The search performance of the search engines can also be evaluated considering the queries in different language format. As an experiment in this paper we have considered the Bangla language.

Precision Vs Recall

We will find out the precision and recall from the query results. Precision is the fraction of retrieved documents that are relevant whereas recall is the fraction of relevant document that have been retrieved[13]. The query results will be plotted for getting the precision-recall curve that will guide us to find out comparatively better collection of retrieved documents by various search engines. The following figure shows the quality of precision-recall curves for retrieved documents.

Figure 2: Precision-Recall Curve’s Quality

The curve with red color has bad retrieval of documents. The blue curve has average retrieval and the green curve has a very good retrieval of documents. Theoretically the dotted curve has the best retrieval as it returns all the available documents where every one of them is relevant. But, in reality it is not possible.

“If an algorithm always retrieves all documents in a document base, it has one hundred percent recall. However, it presumably has lower precision … Precision at a certain point of recall indicates how much garbage readers have to wade through until they know they have found at least half of the interesting documents.[14]”

The characteristics of our analyzed curves will be measured according to this quality oriented precision-recall curves.

Data collection

Data collection has been conducted by browsing through different search engines for some specific search criteria. The first retrieved 30 documents for each query and each search engine have been enlisted as the preliminary experimental data. Manually checking each document the relevancy has been found. Based on the relevant documents and total retrieved documents the precision and recall has been calculated.

Prepare Search Queries

The preliminary and most important task of this data collection part is to set the search criteria and their sample queries. We have discussed earlier that there are different search techniques available for finding documents and according to these techniques we set our search criteria on six categories. These search criteria are as follows.

C1: Query with formal communicative words (including stop words )

C2: Query with Boolean search

C3: Query with based on keyword search

C4: Query with other language (Bengali)

C5: Query with wildcards

C6: Query focused on metadata search

For these six search criteria or categories (C1…C6) we have defined six queries (Q1…Q6) that belong to these categories. The defined queries are as follows.

Q1: What are the maternal health problems in the rural area of Bangladesh?

The, in, of -> stop Words

Q2: Maternal AND (Health OR Problems) AND (Rural AND Bangladesh)

AND, OR -> Boolean Operators

Q3: Maternal health problem rural Bangladesh

All the words are keywords

Q4: ??????? ?????? ????

Bengali words substitute to “risk during maternal period”

Q5: matern* health problem in Bangladesh

*= wildcards; matern* should retrieve all the words containing ‘matern’ (e.g.: maternity, maternal etc.)

Q6: Location of KTH Kista Campus Sweden

These query is for image search module of search engine (e.g.: http://images.google.com/ )

Table 1: search criteria and their adjacent sample queries

Calculate precision and recall

The set queries have been experimented for retrieving documents through the target search engines. The precision has been calculated with the regular difference of each 5 documents. As example, within top 5 documents we have found the number of relevant documents. Again, for next five documents that means within 10 documents we have found the total number of relevant documents. In this manner we have searched up to 30 retrieved documents.

So, for 30 documents with regular distant of 5 documents 6 precision points can be gained as follows.

Precision points = Nord top5/5, Nord top10/10, Nord top15/15, Nord top20/20, Nord top25/25, Nord top30/30

[Nordtop[n] = Number of relevant documents for top n retrieved documents]

All the relevant documents cannot be retrieved by a specific search engine. We can get some common retrieved and relevant documents for several search engines. For finding out the recall the set of relevant documents will be the summation of all the relevant documents found by the selected search engines. Since for each search engine we have considered the first 30 documents as experiment, we have found all the relevant documents within the first 30 documents of each search engine.

So, for each search engine we can again get 6 recall points for the regular distant of 5 documents as follows.

Recall points= Nordtop5/Rdoc, Nordtop10/Rdoc, Nordtop15/Rdoc, Nordtop20/Rdoc, Nordtop25/Rdoc, Nordtop30/Rdoc

[Nordtop[n] = Number of relevant documents for top n retrieved documents

Rdoc = Number of total relevant documents]

Below we have enlisted the detail precision (P) and recall (R) value for the search engines Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask with respect to the set queries (Q1…Q6).

Google

Top 5

5/5

5/54

4/5

4/67

5/5

5/70

4/5

4/14

4/5

4/47

4/5

4/16

Top 10

8/10

8/54

9/10

9/67

9/10

9/70

7/10

7/14

5/10

5/47

7/10

7/16

Top 15

12/15

12/54

14/15

14/67

14/15

14/70

9/15

9/14

9/15

9/47

9/15

9/16

Top 20

17/20

17/54

18/20

18/67

19/20

19/70

9/20

9/14

9/20

9/47

10/20

10/16

Top 25

19/25

19/54

23/25

23/67

22/25

22/70

9/25

9/14

10/25

10/47

13/25

13/16

Top 30

22/30

22/54

27/30

27/67

26/30

26/70

11/30

11/14

12/30

12/47

16/30

16/16

Table 2: Found precision and recall in Google for the queries (Q1...Q6)

Yahoo

Top 5

3/5

3/54

4/5

4/67

3/5

3/70

1/5

1/14

5/5

5/47

Top 10

6/10

6/54

9/10

9/67

6/10

6/70

4/10

4/14

10/10

10/47

Top 15

8/15

8/54

12/15

12/67

8/15

8/70

12/15

12/47

Top 20

11/20

11/54

17/20

17/67

11/20

11/70

13/20

13/47

Top 25

16/25

16/54

21/25

21/67

15/25

15/70

18/25

18/47

Top 30

18/30

18/54

26/30

26/67

17/30

17/70

20/30

20/47

Table 3: Found precision and recall in Yahoo for the queries (Q1...Q6)

Bing

Top 5

3/5

3/54

3/5

3/67

3/5

3/70

1/14

3/5

3/47

0/2

Top 10

4/10

4/54

8/10

8/67

8/10

8/70

4/10

4/47

Top 15

5/15

5/54

12/15

12/67

11/15

11/70

4/15

4/47

Top 20

10/20

10/54

17/20

17/67

16/20

16/70

4/20

4/47

Top 25

14/25

14/54

22/25

22/67

19/25

19/70

6/25

6/47

Top 30

16/30

16/54

25/30

25/67

22/30

22/70

8/30

8/47

Table 4: Found precision and recall in Bing for the queries (Q1...Q6)

Ask

Top 5

1/5

1/54

4/5

4/67

5/5

5/70

3/5

3/14

2/5

2/47

Top 10

5/10

5/54

6/10

6/67

8/10

8/70

5/10

5/14

4/10

4/47

Top 15

8/15

8/54

9/15

9/67

13/15

13/70

7/15

7/14

8/15

8/47

Top 20

9/20

9/54

9/20

9/67

17/20

17/70

7/20

7/14

10/20

10/47

Top 25

11/25

11/54

9/25

9/67

20/25

20/70

7/25

7/14

10/25

10/47

Top 30

14/30

14/54

10/30

10/67

24/30

24/70

8/30

8/14

10/30

10/47

Table 5: Found precision and recall in Ask for the queries (Q1...Q6)

Analysis

Figure 3: Precision-Recall Curves for query q1-q5 (experimented on Google)

For query one (q1) we have fair amount of retrieval. Out of first 30 documents we got 22 relevant documents. So, we have high precision. But out of total 54 relevant documents we had only 22 relevant documents that ensure a lower recall.

While searching with Boolean expression (q2) we have got a very good amount of retrieval. Out of first 30 documents we got 27 relevant documents that ensure a high precision. But the number of total found relevant documents are 67 that imply a lower recall.

Keyword based search (q3) also resulted a good precision with lower recall.

Query four (q4) was about searching with Bengali language. For this special search Google returned a very bad precision with high recall. Out of total 14 relevant documents it returned 11 of them whereas it only returned 11 relevant documents from 30 retrieved documents.

Searching with wildcards (q5) retrieved a wide collection of documents. Both the precision and recall are lower for this case. It returned only 12 relevant documents out of 47 relevant documents.

Figure 4: Precision-Recall Curves for query q1-q3, q5 (experimented on Yahoo)

Here we have plotted precision-recall curves for query q1, q2, q3 and q5. Query with Bengali language returned a limited amount of documents. It returned only 9 documents where only three were relevant.

According to the graph Yahoo has returned higher recall for q1. It produced comparatively lower precision.

For Boolean search (q2) Yahoo has returned higher precision and medium recall. Out of 67 relevant documents it retrieved 26 of them.

Yahoo has very bad recall for keyword based search (q3). Out of 70 documents it retrieved 17 of them.

For wildcard searching (q5) Yahoo has average precision-recall quality curve. Out of 47 relevant documents it retrieved 20 relevant documents.

Figure 5: Precision-Recall Curves for query q1-q3, q5 (experimented on Bing)

Again, for the search engine Bing we have got four curves. Query with Bengali language did not return a single document.

Bing has produced lower recall for q1. Out of 54 relevant documents it retrieved only 16 of them. However q2 has higher recall and precision. For q3 we have medium precision but lower recall. Out of 70 relevant documents we have only 22 of them.

Query with wildcards (q5) for Bing has returned a very poor precision recall curves.

Figure 6: Precision-Recall Curves for query q1-q5 (experimented on ASK)

For search engine ASK we have got five curves. Query (q4) with Bengali language returned only 30 documents and among these documents we have only 8 relevant documents. So, it has lower precision. Since we have in total 14 relevant documents for q4, it results a very high recall rate.

According to the figure the search result for q1 has a very lower precision and its recall is also lower because out of 54 relevant documents it only retrieved 14 of them.

Boolean search (q2) for ASK has resulted poor precision-recall curves. Only 10 relevant documents were retrieved out of 67 relevant documents.

For keyword based (q3) search the resultant precision-recall curves is fair. It has higher precision and medium recall.

Searching with wildcards (q5) for search engine ASK has returned a very lower precision as well as lower recall since we have got in total 47 relevant documents where only 10 of them were retrieved.

Discussion

Generally for a query, a search engine retrieves many documents relating with the given terms in the query and most of the time we check first couple of pages to get our desired answers. Many relevant documents can be found in the deeper pages of search results. Since it is not possible for a human to go through all the pages, we picked first 30 documents from each search engine and thus we accumulated our set of relevant documents from total of 120 documents. Since we may have many relevant documents in the deeper of the resultant pages, the analyzed recall will not give us accurate points to be plotted. Rather it may give us a generic idea about the resultant curves.

The search results on the set search criteria evaluate the considered search engines. For evaluating these search engines we have considered a scoring system. The scoring system defines the quality of the precision of the curves. According to the system the ‘scoring rage’ will define the range of relevant documents and the ‘scoring quality’ will define the quality of precision.

Scoring Range (no of relevant documents)

Scoring Quality (for precision)

Very few retrieved documents

Undefined

<10

Very Poor

10-14

Poor

12-19

Fair

20-24

Good

25-30

Very good

Table 6: Scoring System for determining precision quality

Now According to this scoring system the quality of precision for the search results and the corresponding search engines can be found in the following table.

Search Criteria (Query)

Natural Language Search (Q1)

Good

Fair

Poor

Boolean Search (Q2)

Very Good

Poor

Keyword Based search (Q3)

Very Good

Fair

Good

Search with Bengali Language (Q4)

Poor

Undefined

Very Poor

Search with Truncation (wildcards) (Q5)

Poor

Good

Very Poor

Poor

Metadata Search (Q6)

Fair

Undefined

Table 7: performance determination for various search engines

The precision-recall curves determine that for search criteria one Google has the best quality curve.

For Boolean search Google also produce the best precision recall curve. For this case, Yahoo and Bing also produce very good quality curves.

Again Google is pioneered for keyword based searching. It produces very good precision-recall curve respect to other pioneered ASK and Bing.

For query with Bengali language we couldn’t plot the precision and recall points for Yahoo and Bing as they could not find enough documents. Yahoo in total retrieved 9 documents and only 2 of them were relevant. Again, Bing only retrieved 2 documents and one of them was relevant. For this special case Ask had very lower precision. Although Google produces poor precision, it retrieved lots of documents.

While searching with truncation approach (using wildcards) Yahoo got better results than Google and other search engines. Although for this case the quality of precision-recall curves is not good for all of the search engines, Yahoo got slight better results than others.

The last search criteria were on metadata search. The probability of getting an object (image, video) on searching increases depending on the information provided against it. For this searching Google produced fair precision-recall curve. All other search engines could not find any relevant items.

The overall observation depicts that the Boolean search works best for information searching. All selected search engines produced good results for Boolean search except Ask. Then the keyword based search also works fine for information retrieval. It is applicable for all search engines, since search engines generally search documents on basis of keywords.

During searching we have also observed the following compatibility issues for targeted search engines. The tick symbol (v) denotes that the observed phenomenon is supported by the search engines. The cross symbol (X) denotes that it is not supported by the search engines.

Auto Suggestion

Spelling Suggestion (tried: Animol)

Stemming

computation

Truncation

Compute*

Google

Yahoo

Bing

ASK

Table 8: General phenomenon supported by the search engines

Conclusion

Our analysis showed the precision and recall of the query results. These have been made based on the relevancy of the search results. Defining the quality of curves we have got the performance of search engines for various search criteria. The results show that Google has better performance for all the search criteria except truncation. For truncation Yahoo produces comparatively better results. Besides comparatively all the search engines have good performance regarding Boolean and keyword based searching.

Every search engine has their own mechanism of indexing the web pages so that they can be optimized for searching. If these mechanisms change, search results can be varied. Again better hits can give a page better preference of being shown within first few results. So, the relevancy for the specific query and search engine can also be varied time to time. Again, due to less hits a relevant page can go down of the search results.

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Mcdonaldization And Chickfila Is It Really Different Marketing Essay

McDonald’s has been touted as a symbol of American ingenuity as well as the beginning of a segment of the restaurant industry that has transformed not only American society in many ways but has also edged its way into other cultures throughout the world. Over the last several decades, people began to question whether McDonald’s business model was actually a good thing; it had become indicative of America’s excesses as well as representing a society based on materialism and convenience rather than more traditional values of quality and uniqueness. Conversely, most people are comforted in knowing that when they enter a McDonald’s restaurant they will nearly always get the exact same product that they are able to purchase at another store. McDonald’s is perceived as the first real fast food restaurant chain but in reality it is one of the first drive-thru restaurants while other companies like Chick-fil-A have roots at nearly the same time. Chick-fil-A was begun in 1947, and the McDonald family opened it’s first drive-thru in 1948. Chick-fil-A captured its own niche when it became the first restaurant in 1967 to open up a store in a shopping mall (The Chick-fil-A Story 2010). McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A essentially were created based on two very different business models. McDonald’s seeking to maximize profits through standardization, streamlining operations and efficiency. Chick-fil-A in contrast saw a market niche but created a company that held profits behind providing a quality product and service and doing the right thing. Is the Chick-fil-A, values based management model superior to the profit-based McDonald’s and if yes, can it be replicated without a religious component?

The concept for McDonald’s, as revolutionary as their food delivery process was and the success that has been achieved because of its consistent delivery of food and service, has never been about the food or service to the customer beyond ensuring they return. The McDonalds were already very successful financially, the McDonald’s concept known today was a means of eliminating the worst headache of the drive-in business, hiring and retaining competent car hops. “It was designed to increase the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales.” (Schlosser 19) People were not delighted to have to get out of their vehicles to go get their food but the prices and quick service were very appealing and finally provided a place where anyone could afford to take their family to dinner. Hanging in Chick-fil-A’s stores is one of Truett Cathy’s philosophy that food is essential to life therefore make it good (Lofton 3). Cathy did not set out to make a lot of money but to operate his own business providing something that people needed and doing it well. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, is credited with “inventing” the boneless chicken breast sandwich. It was only after it opened its first shopping mall location in suburban Atlanta that the company essentially found an untapped market. The business has since grown to more than 1,430 locations and is the second largest fast food chicken chain in the United States (The Chick-fil-A Story 1). The company remains a family owned privately held company that is currently run by Cathy’s son although Truett continues nearing 90 to report to the office daily (Lofton 3). Both chains grew during the same time period but while McDonald’s growth has been highly aggressive and resulted in its symbolizing America throughout the world, Chick-fil-A’s growth has been slower and perhaps higher quality as the company seems able to earn as much operating in six days as others do in seven.

McDonald’s has a fairly standard franchise arrangement with each store owned and operated by the franchisee. In exchange for actually owning the franchise, the operator must make a significant financial commitment, generally $500,000, which cannot be borrowed. The down payment is generally 25% of the purchase price of the restaurant and the remaining balance can be financed over a period not to exceed seven years. Non-borrowed assets can be derived from “cash on hand; securities, bonds, and debentures; vested profit sharing (net of taxes); and business or real estate equity, exclusive of your personal residence.” (Purchasing Your Franchise 1) With that type of investment, one assumes that the properties will be run well just to recoup and pay off the loan. One of the tenets of capitalism and free societies is the notion of ownership and its impact on one’s attitude, the effort one is willing to put into making a venture succeed. Even lenders are more willing to take on clients with less than stellar credit histories if they are willing to put enough money down on the vehicle because having made an investment in it they will be more inclined to make the vehicle payments if they have financial problems. Viewed from that perspective, the rather unusual franchise arrangement that Chick-fil-A has structured seems more like it would attract those not willing to make a sacrifice but the success of its managers suggests that it is superior to the investment required at McDonald’s. For a $5,000 investment, someone is a self-employed independent business owner subleasing the restaurant, with 15% of gross sales going to corporate, and 50% of profits the franchise fee (Lofton 3). Operators are guaranteed $30,000 annually but most earn six figures, with average operators taking home approximately $170,000, and exceptional locations earning as much as $400,000 annually (Deliver. Building an Organization That Creates Promoters 46; Schmall 1).

Another exceptional factoid about Chick-fil-A is that its operator turnover is 5% and its hourly employees, 60% compared to an industry average that is 107% (Schmall 1). Why does Chick-fil-A manage to do so well in those six days of the week? Because the business is more than a job, employees are treated like family and profits are not put before doing the right thing. Rosabeth Moss Kanter in Super Corp indicates that the new paradigm for highly successful, vanguard businesses, centers on innovation, profits, growth, and social good (Kanter 2009). Chick-fil-A is a vanguard company because it is innovative, has experienced steady and managed growth, and it was doing social good before other businesses recognized that it looked good. Profits flow because it delivers a good product efficiently and also because consumers are aware that the company is different. Merely closing its doors on Sunday may be somewhat frustrating if you have a yen but most people like the fact that the company puts principles before profits. Values-based management is only beneficial when a company puts its money where its mouth is and acts on what it says it believes. Cathy’s business was established because he believes that serving one of the necessities of life is in itself important. One of the eleven dos and don’ts in his 2007 book “Be kind to people. Courtesy is very cheap but brings great dividends.” (Cathy 2007, 1) The corporate mission hanging in every Chick-fil-A store includes that their purpose is to glorify God. It is the only national food chain that closes Sunday and Cathy stresses that one does not have to be a Christian to work for the company but they ask their employees to observe “‘biblical principals because they work.’” (Schmall 1) Chick-fil-A chooses its operators and other employees very carefully because they really want people to sign on for life when they start working for the company.

Truett’s five steps to successful business include climbing with care and confidence (measured growth, doing things right before moving ahead); creating a loyalty effect (employee’s are the company); never lose a customer (treat everyone like they are the most important person in the world); put principles and people ahead of profits (more than selling chicken, give back to the community); and closing on Sunday (“Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business.”) (Cathy(a) 2004, 1) Cathy promotes the employee behavior he requires by funding or sponsoring foster homes, school clothes to the Department of Social Services, a summer camp for children, juvenile diabetes research, and college scholarships since 1973 totaling more than $23 million thirty years later (Brief: Eat Chicken Tonight 1; Cathy(a) 2004, 1; Grants/Contracts 1). Corporate staff lunched together for years, including Cathy, because families eat together and get to know each other (Miller 42). The company also recognized when it had grown to a level that required finding leadership important because the old way of finding the right type of people and promoting that talent was not going to staff all of its stores. Unlike other companies, Chick-fil-A entered into serious study about the type of people that were good leaders in order to find a means of attracting them (Miller 43). Customers find the company’s sense of humor, particularly its cows, very appealing (Bingham & Galagan 36). Chick-fil-A is voted the top or one of the top drive-thru restaurants repeatedly (Chaudhry 1993, 24; Chaudhry 1994, 48; Consumer’s Choice in Chains 19; Thomson 60). This year, Chick-fil-A is reporting its 42nd consecutive year of growth; can this be attributed to ethical business practices alone? The answer to that question is no, and deals with how a company that is not motivated by profits keeps making them.

Chick-fil-A’s business succeeds because of its simplicity and its principles but it is also employs cutting edge business practices. By hiring and retaining quality employees, Chick-fil-A makes sure the company provides an experience for each customer, whittling the 10,000 operator applicants to 100 annually (Emmerich 62; Lomasney 10). In late 2007 it was working with Bank of America to implement a cash-management technology that would simplify cash procedures and facilitate quicker access to funds (Cash Cow for Chick-fil-A 166). The company continually tracks customer preferences by conducting surveys and really listening to feedback (Chicken 62). Parents appreciate the character-building children’s meal “toys” as well as the child-friendly food (Focus on the Family 1; Kids Menu Winners 44). Chick-fil-A was one of the first in a spate of quick-service chains expanding to breakfast (A.M. Awakens QSR Sales 13). One of the most extraordinary things about Chick-fil-A is the intense customer loyalty the company achieves. Every year, loyal customers wear cow suits on Cow Appreciation Day, rabid fans wait for the new Eat Mor Chikin calendars, fans love anything with the cows, the company sponsors sports at all levels, and promoted contests during major sporting events (Amour Amour 14; Chick-fil-A Cows Spoof 1; Chick-fil-A, Dr. Pepper 1; Collier 1; Higgins 10; Killian 10; Kramer 6; Reaching Out to NASCAR 1). When Foundry Agency was signed to design and build Chick-fil-A’s website it concentrated on the core strengths of the food, the people, and the company’s outreach program (Chick-fil-A Taps Foundry 1). Facebook has also been a source of branding for the company (Morrissey 40). Chick-fil-A is one of a few unique companies that have turned customer loyalty into company promotion (Sraeel 8). Cathy’s idea that every customer should be treated with kindness and respect seems to have paid off.

Company problems have been limited to one suit brought by a Muslim employee that was fired for refusing to participate in a Christian-based prayer and people who believe that a business should not promote religious ideology (Ruggless 1). Supporters note that they appreciate the paternalistic nature of the management team and believe that the same people that accuse Christians of hypocrisy are criticizing the chain for walking the walk (Stone 16). Deron Boyles (2005) also authored a journal article analyzing the Character Education program that is funded by Chick-fil-A and brings religious and biblical references indoctrinating students in an unhealthy way (45). On the surface, the lawsuit seems a problem but refusing to participate in the prayer was a choice because he could have in his mind, replaced what was said about a supreme being with his own beliefs. The company does not require following the faith just embracing principals espoused by all of the major world religions anyway. Customers/fans are offended by the suggestion that Chick-fil-A is a cult while others are free to voice that opinion. It’s success suggests that few care about the religious practices of the company and its employees because they like the food, the people and the way they feel when they patronize a Chick-fil-A – like they matter. Although other companies are operating with values-based management philosophies it is not clear whether the success enjoyed by Chick-fil-A could be duplicated in another company without the religious component. And yet Banco Real, IBM, Proctor & Gamble, Publicis Groupe and Southwest Airlines all seem to have achieved what Chick-fil-A has without the religious overtones and guidance (Kanter 1). In a highly competitive industry, however, the company continues to differentiate itself and one of the reasons is because of its open conviction to the religious precepts embraced by the company’s founder.

At one time McDonald’s could claim quality as a core competency and one of McDonald’s greatest strengths. A great deal of effort was put into finding the best beef, for example, at the best price and to have it delivered in stores so that it would always if cooked as prescribed, produce the same burger no matter where someone dined. Employees were taught friendly service, but the fact that McDonald’s is based primarily on profits shows as it has declined over the years. With independent owners, the control that corporate has over store performance is questionable and generally while people continue to eat at McDonald’s particularly if they have small children, its consistency is what still wins it customers because no matter how poor or surly the service, that Quarter Pounder does taste the same. Another pinnacle of earlier McDonald’s eras was getting a value, but that is where it truly differs from Chick-fil-A because they provide a value to customers while also operating and offering the customer values. McDonald’s does have some managers and owners that began working at McDonald’s as teens but by and large, McDonald’s has one of the highest turnover rates in the industry while Chick-fil-A’s is very low. Similarly Southwest Airlines that also concentrates on choosing the right employee for the job also has a low turnover rate and has succeeded by providing good quality service, value, and a pleasant, usually humorous experience for the customer. The company has a superior product and employees, efficient delivery and unhurried growth. If it continues to adhere to its core competencies, which cannot really be abandoned because they are supported by the values-based management, Chick-fil-A will remain at the top of the food chain because it also will continue to innovate and utilize new technology. Acting with intent and care, and glorifying God seem to be working.

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The Distance Slaters Travel In Different Temperatures Biology Essay

Biology » The Distance Slaters Travel In Different Temperatures Biology Essay

Introduction: The Slater Porcellio Scaber is an Arthropod and is a member of the biological class Crustacea. The Slater has a flattened segmented body and 7 pairs of legs. The Slater is nocturnal and feeds on dead plant matter and vegetables. The Slaters I collected were found in dark and damp places with a temperature of 17.4 degrees Celsius in a gully behind bark on rotting trees and under rocks. The Slaters I found were clumped together as this is a method of conserving water in warmer temperatures or in regions of low humidity. Water loss can lead to desiccation as can the exposure to light so the Slaters I found were unexposed to light. This is due to Slaters being negative photo taxis as exposed to light Slaters can suffer desiccation (“Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying” quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccation.) This is because Slaters do not have a waterproof waxy cuticle to keep water/moisture inside there body. Also Slaters lose more water than other Arthropods because their lungs are located on the abdomen and during respiration water is a product which can be lost via a small pore on the outside of the body. Due to losing water more rapidly than other Arthropods Slaters have physical and behavioural adaptations to maximise and maintain their water intake in order to avoid desiccation.

A structural adaptation Slaters have is a pair of uropods. Slaters are able to absorb water through uropods. The uropods are located on the posterior of the insect. To obtain the water the Slater will squeeze the uropods together and touch it against the surface with water on it. Capillaries located inside the uropods ‘suck’ the water up and into the anus.

Slaters are able to absorb water directly through their exoskeleton. However this is only possible in regions of high humidity.

A behavioural adaptation is in hot or dry conditions the Slater is able to release a body odour that attracts other Slaters. The Slaters then clump together as a form of defence to prevent loss of water. They do this because they need to reduce their surface area and for a lone Slater this is not possible. Reducing surface area means reducing the area in which water is lost via diffusion through the exoskeleton due to the lack of the waxy cuticle.

Slaters are nocturnal. Although this is also to avoid predators such as birds, frogs, some beetles and some spiders it is also to avoid sunlight which can lead to water loss and desiccation. Also at night the temperature would be a lot cooler than during the day. Slaters may have developed this behavioural adaptation because being active during the day would lead to significantly more water loss than when they are active at night. A large loss of water can lead to desiccation.

My investigation is based on whether the temperature in which the Slaters live in naturally benefits their survival or not. As warmer temperatures can lead to water loss and for Slaters this can lead to desiccation. I have designed an experiment to measure the activity levels of Slaters by measuring the distance they travel (in cm) at different temperatures (5 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees Celsius, 15 degrees Celsius, 20 degrees Celsius, 25 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius). The results from this experiment will allow me to determine whether or not Slaters have increased or decreased activity levels in warmer or cooler temperatures. Results will allow me to make a conclusion on whether the temperature in which they live in naturally plays a vital role in the survival of Slater populations. I would expect to see in my experiment Slaters covering a larger amount of distance in the warmer temperatures. I am expecting to observe this behaviour because the Slaters will be trying to avoid these warmer temperatures in order to prevent water loss which could then lead to desiccation.

Aim: To determine whether Slaters (Porcellio Scaber) have an increased/or decreased activity levels in different temperatures measure by the distance they travel in a set amount of time. Using the results make a conclusion on whether temperature plays a vital role in the Slaters survival as a population in their natural environment by reducing the risk of desiccation.

Hypothesis: I think the Slaters will cover more distance in the warmer temperatures (e.g. 20°C, 25°C and 30°C) as an attempt to find an escape to a cooler temperature. This is because in warmer temperatures more water is lost and excessive water loss can lead to desiccation. I think that in the cooler temperatures the Slaters will not cover as much distance because they will not be trying to avoid the temperature as desiccation would occur at a significantly slower rate in colder temperatures.

Equipment List:

Lux meter

Data logger with humidity measure attachment

Ice cream container

Thermometer

Stop watch

Sharpie

String

Boiling water (depends on the temperature you are trialling)

Ice water (depends on the temperature you are trialling)

200 similar sized Slaters (Porcellio Scaber)

Paper (to line the bottom of the ice cream container with)

Cello tape

Question: To measure how temperature affects Slaters activity levels by the distance they travel in a set time. With the results make a conclusion on whether the temperature in which they live in naturally benefits their survival.

Gather 200 similar sized Slaters. Slaters need to be of similar size as larger Slaters may be able to cover further distance than smaller Slaters are able to. Keep Slaters in a tank outside (out of direct sunlight) that replicates their natural environment. Also during the experiment we want to replicate their natural environment as much as possible (e.g. light intensity and humidity). This is to ensure the Slaters respond to the changes in temperature and not other factors.

Collect a sharpie, string, measuring instrument, thermometer, lux meter, humidity meter, boiling water( depends on the temperature), ice water (depends on the temperature), data logger, ice cream container.

Line the bottom of an ice cream container with a sheet of white paper. Ensure you use the same size container for all of the trials during your testing. As a change in size may change the Slaters movement and then it would not be a fair test. Also ensure container is same height as if the container were to be not as high for some temperatures in your experiment the Slater may spend the 2minutes trying to climb out and not moving around the container in response to the temperature.

When carrying out the experiment make the room as dimly lit as possible. This is to prevent the Slaters from moving in response to bright light and not temperature. As Slaters are negative photo taxis (move away from light) having the experiment in a bright room will cause the Slaters to move in response to the light as they will be trying to move away from it. Light is a controlled variable so measure the light intensity using a lux meter before every trial and every change in temperature. Take 5 readings and calculate an average. You must take 5 readings to obtain the average as light intensity is constantly changing so by taking 5 readings and calculating an average you will be getting a more accurate light intensity measure rather than if you were to just use one reading as your light intensity. Also the humidity of the room is another controlled variable. Measure humidity using a data logger with a humidity measurer attachment after every trial and change in temp just to ensure it remains fairly constant (within 10% difference in the humidity readings). We must keep the humidity level as constant as possible as different humidity levels may cause the Slaters to act differently and we want a response form the Slaters due to temperature to which they are exposed to and not humidity levels.

To obtain cooler temperatures (e.g. 5 and 10 degrees Celsius) cool down the inside of the ice cream container by placing it in a water bath containing ice water. Once the temperature has reached the desired coolness and has remained at the desired temperature for 5minutes you are ready to start testing. Measure temperature using a thermometer. Ensuring the temperature maintains the same for 5minutes means when you start the testing it won’t start changing. This is important because if the temperature were to increase or decrease during the testing the Slater would respond to the change in temperature and not to the original temperature which is the one we are testing the Slaters activity levels on.

Place a randomly picked Slater in the ice cream container. (Do not get the Slater from the tank you are keeping it in until you are ready to start the testing). Measure the Slater using a ruler to check it is between 1-1.5cm. The Slaters used for testing must all be between 1-1.5cm because if you were to use smaller Slaters and larger Slaters for the experiment you may receive different results as the larger Slaters may be able to move faster so they could cover a larger distance in the 2minutes. Wait for 2minutes to allow the Slater to adjust to its new environment. If you were to start timing straight away the Slaters response may not be due to the temperature but due to its new surroundings.

After the 2minutes ensure the temperature is still constant. Now start a timer for 2minutes and as the Slater moves around the ice cream container draw a line behind it and line the path it takes. Make sure you do not follow the Slater with the sharpie too closely as it may respond to the sharpie following it and not the temperature. Leave about a 10cm gap between sharpie and the Slater.

Once the 2minutes is up remove the Slater and place in a separate tank to the other Slaters that replicates its natural environment. We don’t want to use the same Slater for the trials as this would not be a large enough sample size to represent a population.

Using a piece of string follow the lines (the path the Slater took) around the piece of paper that lined the bottom of the ice cream container. You may need to use cello tape to keep the string in place along the Slaters path. Once you have the length of string with the distance the Slater travelled in the 2minutes measure it using a ruler and record in a results table. A large amount of distance=high activity levels. A low amount of distance=low activity levels.

Now you are going to repeat the trial again so measure the temperature to ensure it is still constant. You may have to add more ice to the water bath to cool it down to the desired temperature again. Once the temperature is constant again and has remained constant for at least 5minutes you are able to repeat the trial again for 9 more Slaters. Each temperature you test you must have a sample size of Slaters of at least 10. This is because a large sample size will mean more accurate and reliable results that can represent a whole population of Slaters.

For each different temperature you test (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 degrees Celsius) repeat the same method but to heat up the inside of the ice cream container place the container in a water bath full of hot/boiling water and have the room well heated.

For each temperature use 10 Slaters and each temperature must be trialled 3 times (so 30 similar size Slaters will be used per temperature overall). This is to ensure accurate and reliable results as the sample size must be able to represent a whole population.

Record all results in a table. Remember between each trial and sets of testing record light intensity and humidity to make sure the two controlled variables remain as constant at possible. Also remember to measure temperature before each Slater is tested to make sure it is still at the desired temperature.

With results work out averages from each temperature (using the averages from the 3 trials per temperature). Use the averages to make a conclusion whether Slaters benefit their survival in their natural environment by living in the temperature they live in.

Light intensity: You must maintain a constant low light intensity throughout the testing. Because Slaters are negative photo taxis we want the room as dark as possible whilst performing the experiment so the Slaters respond to the temperature and not to the light intensity.

Humidity: You must maintain a constant humidity reading throughout the testing. You want the Slaters to respond to temperature and not humidity levels.

Perform testing at roughly the same time every day: Because Slaters are nocturnal we must perform the testing if done on different days at roughly the same time. If you were to perform some trials during the evening this is when the Slaters are normally active so if you had done the rest of the tests during the day your results would not be accurate.

Perform testing in same container: Make sure the container is the same length; width and height (preferably keep it the same container throughout the whole testing process). If the container were to change the Slaters may act differently. If the container were to be not as high as the original the Slaters may spend the 2minutes trying to climb out the container and not moving around the container in response to temperature.

Use similar sized Slaters for the testing and the same type of Slater: Make sure all the Slaters you use in your testing are between 1-1.5cm in length. Check this by measuring them with a ruler before you start the testing. The Slaters used for testing must all be between 1-1.5cm because if you were to use smaller Slaters and larger Slaters for the experiment you may receive different results as the larger Slaters may be able to move faster so they could cover a larger distance in the 2minutes. Also make sure you are using the right type of Slater as there are many different types found in New Zealand. You are using Porcellio Scaber, this Slater cannot roll into a ball and it is a little bit blue in colour so it is easily recognisable.

Temperature

Average Distance in cm the Slaters Travelled in the 2 minutes.

5°C

10°C

15°C

20°C

25°C

30°C

1.92cm

11.98cm

23.08cm

65.20cm

83.21cm

95.86cm

As seen on the table the Slaters travelled a very little amount of distance in the 5°C with an average distance of 1.92cm and as the temperature increased so did the amount of distance the Slaters travelled. All the measurements of distance shown are final averages from the 3 trials per temperature.

Conclusion: My aim was to determine whether Slaters have an increased/or decreased activity levels in different temperatures by the distance they travel in a set amount of time. In conclusion from the results of my experiment it shows that as the temperature increases so does the Slaters movement. This is shown by the distance in cm Slaters travelled in the 2minutes. For 5°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 1.92cm. In 10°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 11.98cm. In 15°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 23.08cm. In 20°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 65.20cm. In 25°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 83.21cm and in 30°C the Slaters travelled an average distance of 95.86cm. Therefore my hypothesis was correct with my assumption that the Slaters would cover more distance in the warmer temperatures.

Discussion: The purpose of my investigation was to determine whether Porcellio Scaber have increased/or decreased activity levels in different temperatures. A trend was seen in the results I obtained. As the temperature increased by 5°C the Slaters movement increased by 10-20cm with the exception of the temperature change from 15°C to 20°C. The difference of the Slaters movement between the two temperatures was 42.12cm. From the results of my experiment it was clear the Slaters preferred the temperatures between 10°C and 15°C. 5°C was too cold for the Slaters and they moved a very minimal distance (average of 1.92cm). This is because as Slaters are cold blooded and are not self heating so they take in the temperature of their environment. In the cold temperatures Slaters cannot move quickly as particles are denser and thus move slower and enzymes cannot catalyze reactions as quickly in the cooler temperatures. If the Slaters were to live in a cold environment such as 5°C they would struggle to move especially away from predators and it would take them longer to find food as they could not travel as fast. This would be a disadvantage to the survival of Slaters as they would be more likely caught and eaten by predators and they may not be able to find enough food for them to survive as they would be moving very slowly. The other extreme is in the warmer temperatures the Slaters covered a large amount of distance. In 5°C on average the Slaters travelled 1.92cm and in 30°C on average the Slaters travelled 95.86cm. The difference of 93.94cm between the two temperatures for the Slaters movement is a significant difference. In the warmer temperatures (e.g. 20°C, 25°C and 30°C) the Slaters all covered a large distance. This is due to the Slaters trying to find an area that is cooler to escape the heat. Heat causes particles to move more rapidly as they become less dense. Therefore diffusion occurs at a more rapid rate in warmer temperatures and Slaters lose water via diffusion through their exoskeleton. This can then lead to desiccation. Desiccation is the dryness resulting from the removal of water. Slaters are more prone to desiccation than other arthropods as they lack a waxy cuticle on their exoskeleton. The waxy cuticle which is found on other arthropods prevents water loss. Slaters also lose water through respiration as water is a product of the chemical reaction. Also the Slaters lungs which are located on the abdomen open to the outside of the body via a pore. This means Slaters will lose a greater amount of water from their respiratory surfaces than other Arthropods. From my experiment part of my aim was to find out whether temperature plays a vital role in the Slaters survival as a population in their natural environment. From my results of my experiment I have come to the conclusion that temperature does play a vital role in the survival of Slater populations. Optimum temperature for Slaters would be around 15°C because the Slaters were still able to move at a rate and cover a suitable amount of distance (23.08cm) in the 2minutes that would allow them to escape from predators. At around 15°C the Slaters would not have to be concerned of excessive water loss which could lead to desiccation. The jump of the distance travelled by the Slaters between 15°C and 20°C (42.12cm) shows that when the temperature is around 20°C the Slaters start trying to escape and search for an area cooler in temperature so this would not be an ideal temperature as they would be prone to desiccation in this temperature.

Evaluation: My results and conclusion from my experiment are valid because I made sure my method was reliable by controlling any factors that the Slaters could respond to if they were to change. The steps I took to make my experiment a fair test to ensure valid results are:

When I collected the Slaters from the gully and put them into a tank I made sure that the tank replicated their natural environment as much as possible by placing pieces of bark off the tree I found them on in the tank. I also added leaves, dirt and other plant debris. Also each day I added some water into one corner of the tank and also gave the Slaters vegetables such as potatoes to eat. The reason I kept the tank the Slaters were in as similar to their natural environment as possible and fed them is because I did not want the Slaters to become stressed or deprived of food and water as this could have significantly changed my results.

During the testing I controlled light intensity by measuring the light intensity using a lux meter after every trial and before every change in temperature. I also kept the room as dark as possible because Slaters are negative photo taxis which means they move away from light. If I were to perform the testing in a room well lit up the Slaters would respond to the light and temperature not just the temperature which is the only factor we want the Slaters to be responding to in order to receive valid results.

I also controlled humidity levels by measuring humidity before after every trial and before every change in temperature to ensure it remains relatively constant. I tested the humidity levels using a data logger with a humidity reader attachment. The reason for controlling humidity is if the humidity were to change for different temperatures the Slaters may respond to the humidity level but temperature is the only factor we want the Slater to be reacting to.

I performed the test at roughly the same time of the day if I was doing trials on different days. I did this because Slaters are nocturnal which means they are active at night. If I were to perform the testing in the evening the Slaters would already be more active in their natural environment so than if I were to perform the testing during the day so this could cause my results to be unreliable. To eliminate this from happening I ensured that I performed the testing midday-early afternoon as this means that all the Slaters I would have used for testing would be displaying the same activity levels at that time of the day in their natural environment.

During my experiment I used the same size container to perform the testing in. This is important because if I were to change the height of the container the Slaters may spend more time trying to climb out than moving around the container in response to temperature. In the bottom of my container I made sure I used the same surface for all the trials (sheet of plain white paper). If I were to not use paper on the bottom the Slaters may find the surface slippery and not be able to move naturally which could lead to inaccurate results.

During my testing I made sure that when I was dotting/lining the path the Slaters took around the bottom of the container I did not follow them too closely with the pen. I left around a 10cm gap between the sharpie and the Slater. I did this because if I were to line the path the Slater took directly behind the Slater as it moved the Slater may become frightened and try to avoid the pen so it would be moving in response to the pen behind it following too closely and not the temperature.

Another way of ensuring I obtained valid results from my experiment is if I started testing but found the Slater was acting abnormally I did not use the results from that experiment. If I were to use the results from the trial it may make my mean a lot smaller or a lot larger than what it really should be. An example of not using Slaters that act abnormally is I started to test one of the Slaters in 25°C and very quickly I noticed it had 2 legs missing which affected they way it moved and it was not covering the same amount of distance all the other Slaters had in 25°C. So I placed the Slater back into the set up tank and chose another Slater to use for the testing. If I were to use this Slaters results it may have brought down the average distance travelled for 25°C.

The Slaters I used for the testing were all between 1-1.5cm in length. I measured the Slaters I used for the testing because I had to make sure they were all similar in length. This is because if I were to use a large Slater for one test it may be able to cover a larger distance than smaller Slaters are able to. Having the same sized Slaters means that in a constant temperature they should all be able to cover equal amount of distance.

Another way of ensuring I had valid results was I made sure the Slaters got used to the environment before I started testing. I did this by leaving the Slater in the cooled down or heated up ice cream container for 2minutes before I started timing and recording its movement. I did this because if I were suddenly to grab a Slater from its natural environment and place it in an ice cream container and start timing straight away the Slater may respond to all the factors in its new surroundings and not to just the temperature.

For each temperature I tested 10 Slaters and I then repeated that 2 more times so in total I used 30 Slaters per temperature over 3 trials per temperature. So overall I used 180 Slaters for my experiment. I used such a large sample size because I needed to perform a test with enough Slaters so that it could represent a population of Slaters. If I had not of used such a large sample size I may have had inaccurate results as only a few Slaters cannot represent a whole population. If I had used a few Slaters they may have had a disease or not be acting normally due to a change in environment that consists of far less Slaters than what they were used to. This would of affected their natural behaviour because they would not be able to clump together to reduce water loss as there may not be enough Slaters for this to work. If I had then chosen to go ahead with my experiment using only a small sample size my results would be invalid and not be able to represent a whole Slater population. I also repeated my trial per temperature 3 times. I repeated my trials 3 times per temperature using 10 Slaters per trial because repeating the experiment multiple times verifies that your results are accurate and consistent. If I had only used 10 Slaters per temperature and not repeated this 2 more times I may have inaccurate results because some of the Slaters used may have displayed unusual reactions to the temperatures which would have resulted in my final averages being inaccurate. But because of having a large sample size and trialling the experiment 3 times if one Slater had not moved as far or too far in the 2minutes it would not affect the averages or have very minimal effect.

Because of all the precautions I took to ensure my test was a fair test I am positive my results are valid which lead to a valid conclusion.

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The Effect Of Different Concentrations Of Enzyme Biology Essay

In this experiment, I am going to determine the effect of different concentration of enzyme catalase on the rate of reaction of decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Normally, hydrogen peroxide is produced naturally in human or plant cell. Hydrogen peroxide is the by-product of respiration. As an oxidizer, it will decompose to form oxygen and water. The chemical equation for the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is 2 H2O2 ? 2 H2O + O2. The reaction is speeded up by the presence of enzyme, namely catalase which is used in this experiment. This mechanism is important in living organisms’ cells and body system particularly in human. This is because the corrosive characteristic of hydrogen peroxide may damage the wall of liver where it is largely produced during cellular respiration process. When it is present in high concentration, it is an aggressive and powerful oxidizer, whereby it is unstable and also hazardous as it will corrode many substances including human skin. Therefore, concentration of hydrogen peroxide in the cell should be constantly regulated. When hydrogen peroxide is used for the purpose of experiment, this highly corrosive material should be kept in a container made up of non-reactive material such as glass. However, at low concentration, hydrogen peroxide can be used as disinfectant and antiseptic for medicinal uses.

C:\Users\User\Documents\yap in\bio report\enxyme\Hydrogen_peroxide_files\120px-Wasserstoffperoxid.png C:\Users\User\Documents\yap in\bio report\enxyme\Hydrogen_peroxide_files\120px-Hydrogen-peroxide-3D-balls.png

Diagram 1 : Chemical structure of hydrogen proxide, H2O2

In this context, catalase, a teramer of four polypeptide chains is made up of over 500 amino acids long. It is also categorised as globular protein in which the polypeptide chain is highly folded into a compact spherical shape. There is also active site available to bind to the hydrogen peroxide substrate to form enzyme-substrate complex. It is further adapted with four porphyrin heme groups to react with hydrogen peroxide. Besides, the enzyme catalase is known to be one of the enzymes that possess a high turnover number. Its turnover number can be up to 600 000 whereby one molecule of enzyme catalase can catalyse the decomposition of 600 000 molecules of hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water at body temperature. This reaction is known as catabolic reaction as the hydrogen peroxide molecule is broken down into oxygen and water which are comparatively smaller. Sometimes, catalase also uses hydrogen peroxide to oxidise toxins including Phenols, Formic Acid, Formaldehyde and Alcohols. In this experiment, potato is chosen to be tested due to the presence of catalase in it. However, other organisms such as fungi or yeast can be used as well as they are producers of enzyme catalase.

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Diagram 2 : The structure of catalase

Enzyme is used to speed up the rate of reaction by lowering the activation energy of a reaction. Activation energy or free energy of activation, is the initial investment of energy for starting a reaction – the energy required to contort the reactant molecules so the bond can break for a reaction to occur. Enzyme functions as biological catalyst in many chemical reactions that occur inside our body. For example, saliva secretes enzyme amylase which catalyses the hydrolysis of carbohydrates in the mouth. Not only does enzyme play an important role in maintaining efficient function of body system, it is largely used in industrial field as well to speed up the production rate. For example, protease is commonly used in biological detergent for domestic washing and rennin is used in manufacture of cheese. For an enzyme to carry out its function effectively, active site should present on the surface of the polypeptide chain. An active site is a groove or pocket formed by the folding pattern of the protein. This active site has particular chemical composition and electrical charges on the amino acids, which make up the specificity of the enzyme, in which it allows only certain substances to bind to it. When the substrates bind to the active site, here the working mechanism of enzyme starts. The binding of the substrate to the active site bring the substrates closer and thus aids in bond formation in anabolic reaction. In catabolic reaction, the active site may distort the shape of substrate to break its bond. When the products are formed, the substances no longer fit into the specific shape of the enzyme and will leave the active site of the enzyme. The enzyme is free to bind to another substrate and catalyse another reaction. The enzyme is not altered at the end of reaction.

C:\Users\User\Documents\yap in\bio report\enxyme\Enzyme_files\450px-Induced_fit_diagram.png

Diagram 3 : The working mechanism of enzyme

As enzyme contains specific shape and charge on its active site, its activity is easily affected by the changes in the surrounding conditions. Generally, different pH, temperature, concentration of substrate or concentration of enzyme has a large impact on its efficiency in carrying out its function. Whenever the changes in surrounding such as change in pH or temperature alter the bonding between the R group of the amino acids in the polypeptide chain which form the active site, the shape of active site will change and thus the substrate will no longer bind to the site. At this point, the enzyme is said to be denatured. On the other side, when the temperature or pH is optimum for the reaction, the rate of reaction is the highest. Although the optimum pH and temperature may vary from one another, optimum temperature for most enzymes functioning in human body system is often 37 ºC. However, the presence of inhibitors or cofactors may alter the enzyme activity as well. In this experiment, the effect of enzyme concentration is chosen to be investigated on the rate of reaction catalysed by enzyme catalase. An increase in enzyme concentration will increase the active site available and thus increase the rate of reaction until it reaches maximum velocity when all active sites of the enzyme molecules are engaged.

Do different concentrations of enzyme affect the rate of reaction?

To investigate the effect of different concentrations of catalase on the rate of reaction to catalyse the decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide

To determine the presence of catalase on the rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide.

To develop effective experimental skills throughout the experiment

To determine the effect of different concentrations of enzyme on the enzyme activity

The higher the concentration of enzyme, the higher the rate of reaction until a maximum velocity is reached.

Use a water displacement technique to determine the volume of oxygen gas evolved

Calculate the rate of reaction by using the gradient of the graph

Freshly mashed or blended potato, 3.0 % hydrogen peroxide solution, buffer solution (pH 6.5), distilled water

Boiling tubes, graduated tubes, 500 ml beaker, weighing balance, spatula, delivery tube, stop watch, measuring cylinder, dropper, rubber bung, weighing dish

Variable

How the variable is determined

1. Manipulated

Concentration of catalase

By using different mass of blended potato at 1g, 2g, 3g and 4g. Different masses of blended potato indicate the difference in concentration of catalase in its content.

2. Responding

The volume of oxygen gas released

By recording down the reading on the graduated tubes at 30 seconds interval.

3. Constant

Volume and Concentration of hydrogen peroxide

By using buffer solutions at pH 6.8 throughout the experiments

By using the same volume and concentration of hydrogen peroxide, which is 2.5cm3 of 3.0 % hydrogen peroxide throughout the experiment

1 g of the freshly prepared or blended potato is transferred into a boiling tube.

5 cm3 of buffer solution is added into the tube and it is swirled to mix the substrate.

A graduated tube is filled with water to the brim.

It is placed carefully into a beaker of water. One end of the delivery tube is placed into the graduated tube with the other end with rubber bung ready to fix with boiling tube.

2.5 cm3 of hydrogen peroxide solution is measured and it is added into the boiling tube containing the potato and buffer solution.

The tube is immediately closed with a rubber bung connected to the delivery tube. A stopwatch is started by one member of the pairs in conducting this experiment.

The volume of gas released is measured for every 30 seconds for 5 minutes or until the gas evolution stops.

The experiment is repeated using 2g, 3g and 4g of freshly blended potato.

The results obtained are recorded in a table.

Graphs for volume of gas released against time is plotted for each concentration or amount of enzyme used.

The initial rate of reaction for each concentrations of enzyme used are worked out.

Time /s

Volume of oxygen gas collected at potato with mass of

1 g

2 g

3 g

0.8

8.6

12.8

3.5

14.0

19.0

4.8

18.0

22.2

120

6.0

21.2

24.8

150

6.8

23.4

30.8

180

7.6

25.0

38.6

210

8.2

27.0

48.0

240

8.4

29.8

58.8

270

8.5

33.2

70.8

300

8.7

34.4

83.6

Table 1: The volume of oxygen gas collected at 30 intervals with different mass of potato.

Formula 1 : The mean value of the date obtained

Formula 2 : The initial rate of reaction

1g of blended potato

78-24 = 54

4.5 -1.2

= 3.3

Expected line

2 g of blended potato

17 – 6

=11

3g of blended potato

4g of blended potato

0.0611

0.2895

0.6579

0.7000

Based on the above experiment, the effect of different concentrations of enzyme on the rate of reaction is successfully determined. Five graphs are plotted based on the results obtained in the experiment to show the data in a clearer way and provides a better mean for analysing. The results show that the rate of reaction is increased by an increase in enzyme concentration. In this experiment, potato is used as source of catalyse. The first four graphs showing oxygen gas evolved against time are drawn based on respective mass of blended potato used. The initial rate of reaction is measured from each graph by obtaining the gradient of the graph. A predicted line is drawn on each graph. Generally, the longer the time taken, the higher the volume of oxygen gas evolved. In the beginning, all graphs show an rapid increase , the speed is the slow down as some of the substrates are converted to products. For the substrate at 1 and 2 g of bended potato used, the maximum volume of oxygen gas evolved has reached within 300 seconds and a plateau is obtained. This is because the reaction has completed for all substrates. Theoretically, the maximum volume of oxygen gas released should takes a shorter time as compared to 1g and 2 g of potato as more active site are offered. However, In the 3 and 4 g of blended potato which react, the maximum volume of oxygen is unable to be obtained within 300 seconds. This is probably due to some errors conducted throughout the experiment, particularly due to the vigorous and rapid reaction and in the process of changing the graduated tube. The errors will be discussed later. The initial rate is taken because the rate of reaction is rapid as the collision between the substrate and enzyme is the highest. The rate of reaction may not be reliable to be compared between data if readings are taken in the middle of the experiment because some reactions have reached the maximum rate. The initial rate of reaction for hydrogen peroxide with 1g, 2g, 3g and 4g of blended potatoes are 0.0611, 0.2895, 0.6579 and 0.7000 cm3/ s respectively.

The initial rate of reactions for all the experiments are then compiled into the fifth graph. This shows a clearer picture on the effect of concentration of substrate on the rate of reaction. Initially, there is an increase in the rate of reaction when the mass of blended potato increases. This is because the increase in the concentration of enzyme offers more active site for the binding of substrate. Then, the slope of increasing line becomes less steep with further increase in concentration of enzyme. This is because the active site has been occupied by the substrates or it is said to be saturated whereby the increase in substrate has no further effect on the rate of reaction. Theoretically, the graph should reach a maximum velocity where the plateau occurs in the graph. However, in this experiment, the plateau is not shown because most probably the concentration of enzyme is not high enough to bind to all the 3.0 % of hydrogen peroxide substrate.

However, throughout the experiment some errors might occur in which the real values may not be obtained. Firstly, there is a high tendency for the reading obtained from water displacement method to be inaccurate especially when the volume of oxygen gas evolved are too much that the first graduated tube is fully filled with oxygen gas and when the delivery tube has to be transferred to the next prior-prepared graduated tube. The delivery tube transferring process may consume some time particularly if a rubber delivery tube is used instead of a glass delivery tube. This will cause some of the oxygen gas to escape into the water during the process. Next, parallax error may occur as well when the reading is taken from the graduated tube on the volume of oxygen gas evolved. This is because oxygen gas is a colourless gas, in which its level is not so clearly seen on the calibration of the graduated tube. To minimise the errors, the experiment is repeated twice and the mean reading is obtained. To further increase the accuracy of the results, a piece of white paper can be placed behind the graduated tube to make the reading easier. Next, the possible error is greater if the experiment is carried out individually. This is due to the human limited ability to record the reading and at the same time watch over the time. Inaccuracy may arise. In this case, a pair work is preferred in this experiment as one of the members times and the other one record the readings obtained. Next, when the mashed potato is poured into the boiling tube from the weighing dish, some potato may be left in the weighing dish. To minimise this error, a few drops of distilled water can be used to rinse the weighing dish to ensure there is no residue left.

Consequently, there are a few precautions that ought to be taken to increase the accuracy of the results obtained. For each experiment, the potato used must be freshly mashed or blended. If the potato is prepared in a container, the lid of the container should be kept closed after the desired mass of blended potato is scooped out for each and every experiment. The preparation of blended potato in a beaker which is exposed to the air should be prevented because oxidation will occur and this may affect the activity of enzyme catalase in it. Changes in surrounding such as temperature may also induce changes in the enzyme. A blended potato is used instead of discs of potato so that it will react easier. Its viscosity should be reduced so that it is easier to use. Next, hydrogen peroxide has to be stored in an opaque container as it breaks down quickly when exposed to light. The lid of the container that contains hydrogen peroxide solution should be kept closed after each desired sample is taken out using a dropper as the oxygen in the surrounding air may oxidise its content and causes the results to be inaccurate. A buffer solution is used to ensure the pH is kept constant throughout the experiment. The buffer solution of citric acid sodium phosphate solution which has a pH of 6.8 is used because this is the optimum pH for the enzyme catalase. Furthermore, a water bath is preferable as the surrounding temperature may change throughout the experiment. In addition, as the rubber bung of the delivery tube should be of the same size as the boiling tube to ensure all the opening of the boiling tube containing enzyme and substrate is fit tightly, it should be pushed and twisted with care. It should also be checked from time to time to ensure there is no leakage of product in gaseous form to the surrounding. Besides, the other open end of delivery tube should be placed in water all the time for the bubble of gas to form and rise to its surface. The presence of air bubbles ensure that the rubber bung is still in contact with the boiling tube unless the substrate and enzyme has completely reacted. To fix the graduated tube in place, a retort stand and clamp can be used. Besides, the boiling tube containing reactants and enzyme ought to be swirled throughout the experiment to ensure the substrate and enzyme react. This may increase the rate of collision between the reactants and enzymes and thus fasten the time taken for the reaction to complete.

Throughout the experiment, some safety measures should be abided by. As the substrate used in this experiment which is hydrogen peroxide is highly corrosive, rubber glove should be used to protect the skin. After the hydrogen peroxide is used, it should be disposed off and not to be returned to stock bottles as any contaminants may result in decomposition and explosion may occur. The blended potatoes have to be handled carefully as well as it will irritate some people’s skin. A lab coat should be put on. The glass wares and the delivery tube used should be handled carefully as they are fragile.

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The hypothesis is accepted. The presence of enzyme increases the rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide. When the concentration of enzyme increases, the rate of reaction increases until a maximum velocity is reached.

The species of potato

Different species of potato may contain various concentration sof catalase

The age of potato

An older potato may have lower concentration of catalase

The freshness of potato

The concentration of catalase may vary in different potatoes which are stored in different ways before experiment. Storage at high temperature may cause the enzyme to denature

Part of potato used

Different parts on the potato may have different amount of catalase.

The effect of temperature on the enzyme activity

The effect of different concentrations of substrate on the enzyme activity

The effect of pH on the enzyme activity

The effect of concentrations of enzyme on activity of other type of enzyme such as amylase on starch

The effect on the rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide by using different concentration of fungi as the source of catalase

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