Identification of Clostridium difficle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Identification of Clostridium difficle - Essay Example 3-4). Diarrhoea cases associated with C. difficle have been increasing in the contemporary world. In addition, increased resistance has been identified. It is also a major cause of hospital-based infection. Specifically, this infection affects the inner linings of the colon and produces toxins, which can lead to serious inflammation as well as diarrhoea. During the 2000s, this infection used to be treated using antibiotic fluoroquinolone to which the infection developed resistance. In the developed nations, C. difficle is a key cause of infectious diarrhoea. It is mostly spread in poor healthcare settings. The infection has not only become more prevalent in today’s world but also gotten harder to treat. Bearing in mind that the infection emerged several decades ago, many diagnostic methods have been developed since the earliest times of its discovery. Some of these methods are effective while others have been ignored due to inconsistencies. This diagnosis incorporates a wide history of recent antibiotic therapy, diarrhoea development, or any other indication of acute colitis (Planche & Wilcox, 2011, p. 3). In addition, the diagnosis is also based on the demonstration of an infection by toxigenic C. difficle. This is usually done through the detection of toxin A or B within stool samples. Pathogenesis leads to the production of toxin while the toxin strains are responsible for the production of toxin A, also known as enterotoxin or toxin B, cytotoxin. The diagnostic methods can be divided into several subsections that include laboratory methods, antigen detection methods, and nucleic acid amplification methods (McFarland, 2011, p. 431-432). The laboratory methods include culture Aga r media, enriching pores, CCN test, and selective media. The antigen detection methods, on the other hand, include GDH Assays while the nucleic acid amplification methods include PCR Assays and LAMP Assays. Although there may be many diagnostic

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

Assignment - Essay Example The only goals they need are how to conform to the traditional, typical place of females within that society. You are a girl so you can only become and wife and mother, any other aspirations are unrealistic, foolish, and in some cultures, blasphemous in the eyes of some faiths and philosophies. Women have been discriminated against throughout history for a number of societal, philosophical, traditional, and religious reasons; they are at the mercy of highly patriarchal environments. In some locations of the world the key element that deprives most women of realizing their greatest potential is the lack of education. Women, it is believed, do not need to be educated and are often legally not allowed to be educated in many cultures in the world even today. The human rights violation represented by denying education to female citizens literally cripples and impedes their quality life from the day they are born to their day their life ends. This essay will prove the potential human rights violations with a long list of negative side-effects related to denial of female education throughout the world Lack education maintains female disadvantage in the labor force, disadvantage economically, confines them to their society’s defined gender roles, and is a distinct violation of the individual human rights of women. Education is the most valuable tool and greatest means to positive opportunities in the future, hence its denial to women have led to serious quality of life concerns. Firstly, understanding some of the history of gender inequality reveals just how common discriminations against girls and women truly are. It some ways the denial of female education may be the oldest of all human rights violations. Then by delving further in to how the lack of female education contributes directly to the inequality in the labor force, as foundational and higher education dictate the quality of employment and incomes they are able to earn.

David M’Naughten Essay Example for Free

David M’Naughten Essay David M’Naughten hails from Scotland. He earn his living by being a wood cutter. He hardly can make both ends meet and develop hatred to the Prime Minister of Great Britain in the year 1843. To M’Naughten, the Prime Minister was the cause of his personal and financial sufferings due to the failure of the former to run the British government well. In an attempt to get even with the Prime Minister, M’Naughten attempted to kill the leader. M’Naughten was not successful because his ploy was thwarted by the secretary of the Prime Minister and instead killed the secretary and afterwards attempted to murder the Prime Minister. During the trial, nine witnesses testified that M’Naughten was an insane and the jury acquitted him, finding him â€Å" not guilty by reason of insanity † ( pbs. org. n. d. The Right/Wrong M’Naughten Test†. Paragraph 1) Reporter Bill Mears of CNN Washington in 2006 reported â€Å"There was little doubt that Eric Clark, then 17, shot and killed a police officer six years ago in Flagstaff, Arizona. And prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the killer had some degree of mental illness he was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who believed he was being constantly watched by aliens from outer space†. â€Å"Teen shot and killed police officer he thought was an alien†, 1st paragraph). Eric Clark believe that the police who accosted him was an alien from outer space who came here to get him, and so, Eric shot and killed him. Eric was found guilty of first degree murder three years after the fatal shooting. Eric defense lawyers entered a plea of not guilty due to insanity. It took three years of deliberation by Arizona court whether Erick will be jailed or sent to mental rehabilitation center while serving the sentence. The court Arizona court ruled Eric to languish in jail for life. Based from the two court decisions just mentioned, it appears that there is sort of disagreement among the different U. S. legal courts as to the legal definition of insanity and its acceptance as legal defense in court. This essay will trace the development of insanity as legal defense from its origin up to what it is in today’s legal battle. Evolution of insanity defense As early as 1581, insanity defense has been well considered in Anglo-American law and a legal treatise was enacted saying that â€Å"If a madman or a natural fool, or a lunatic in the time of his unacy do [kill a man], this is no felonious act for they cannot be said to have any understanding will â€Å" ( pbs. org. n. d. â€Å"A Brief History of Insanity Defense†, paragraph 3 ). There was no available record of court proceeding from the date of treatise enactment up to 17th century. Three hundred years later, the British court elaborated the treatise and gave rise to the â€Å"wild beast test† ( 4th paragraph ) which emphasized that â€Å"If a defendant was so bereft of sanity that he understood the ramifications of his behavior no more than in an infant, a brute, or a wild beast, he would not be eld responsible for his crimes ( 4th paragraph). In other words, if the defendant lacks sanity and cannot comprehend the outcome of what he did, as his ( defendant) mind is that of infant or a wild animal, then the defendant is not liable for the crime committed. The codification of this British â€Å" wild beast test† was put at stake in 1843, in the case of David M’Naughten as outlined in our introduction. Queen Victoria was not impressed with the decision of the court and requested a review of the case with a panel of judges. The resulting decision was â€Å"that a defendant should not be eld responsible for his actions if he could not tell that his actions were wrong at the time he committed them â€Å" (The Right/Wrong M’Naughten Test†. Paragraph 3). This was also mentioned in the research of Chiacchia ( 2001) and law. jrank org. n. d. ) This became the basis of the insanity defense in England and adopted by American courts and legislatures for more than 100 years without any modification. Up to 1998, 25 states including the District of Columbia adopted this Right/Wrong M’Naughten Test†. According to legal critics, the M’Naughten test has one major rawback. While the rule focus on the ability to distinguish right from wrong (which is cognitive in nature), it failed to consider the unstoppable desire that was the dominant feeling before and during the consummation of the crime. This resulted to modification of the M’Naughten rule by adding a provision called irresistible impulse ( â€Å"Irresistible impulse†, 1st paragraph). The added provision in effect will absolve a defendant who can distinguish between right and wrong but unable to stop the crime due to his uncontrollable desire to consummate it to get even with the victim. A number of tates adopted the M’Naughten modification and coined another name as â€Å" policemen in the elbow test† (1st paragraph). The name clearly highlight the intense desire to consummate the crime as even if there is police authority around to witness, the defendant will do it. In 1950, advances in psychiatry and psychology as a science was very noticeable. In the light of the advances, legal critics saw the M’Naughten rule as too rigid and antiquated. In 1954, an appellate court discarded the M’Naughten and â€Å" irresistible impulse â€Å" test in favor of a more scientific and medically based insanity test. This became the basis of the Durnham â€Å" Mental Defect† rule. In Durnham v. United States, The U. S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia ruled that a defendant is not guilty † if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or mental defect. (â€Å" The rise and fall of the Durnham â€Å"Mental Defect† rule, 1st paragraph). The decision was considered as within the demand of the times and a major breakthrough in American legal system as it exemplify the replacement of moral considerations with a more neutral and scientific evidences reflective of the advances of psychiatry and psychology ( â€Å" The rise and fall of the Durnham Mental Defect† rule). Legal experts claim that the Durnham rule is vague and difficult to apply. According to the experts, the term â€Å"mental defect† is very broad and they were concerned that due to its vagueness, more and more defendants will be acquitted than before. The confusion arises over the interpretation of â€Å" mental disease or defect† clause. Will mental defect mean only psychosis or any of the minor mental disorder found in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM). Critics were concerned of the possibility that defendants will use alcoholism and other ental disorder with antisocial behavioral symptoms as defense of their crimes. Also, it is not clear where the burden of proof is; that is whether it’s up for the court to determine the mental defect or the burden lies with the defendant and the psychiatrist as professional witness. Another disagreement is that the Durham test inadvertently grant too much influence to the psychiatrist and psychologist as to the result of the court trial. Twenty two states rejected the Durham test in 1972 and a panel of judges considered the Model Penal Code Test of the American Law Institute ( A. L. I. as eplacement (pbs. org. n. d. ). The A. L. I. standard is intended to soften the M’Naughten with the â€Å"irresistible impulse† by introduction of medical and psychiatric evidence requirement. The A. L. I. standard, rule â€Å"that a defendant will not be held criminally responsible if at the time of the behavior in question as a result of a mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. (pbs. org. n. d.  A Brief History of Insanity Defense, â€Å"The A. L. I. Standard†, 1st paragraph). In ddition to requiring the defendant to show proof that at the time of the consummation of the crime, there is absolutely no understanding as to the nature of the act ( as in M’Naughten test), a certification from a psychiatrist or psychologist is needed to attest to the fact that the defendant lack â€Å" substantial capacity† ( paragraph 2, line 4 ) to understand the right f rom wrong together with the irresistible impulse consideration. Under the A. L. I. tandard, the act of serial killers whose mental defect manifests only during the act of killing and shows normal mental behavior before and after he consummation of the act can lead to his/her conviction. In 1998, 22 states used the A. L. I. rule while 26 used the M’Naughten version regardless of the irresistible impulse clause. It is also provided in the A. L. I. standard, the provision for due process and equal protection concerns for those who were acquitted by reason of insanity for automatic and indefinite confinement to assess and treat their mental disorder and check their dangerousness potential to society periodically. If found during the evaluation that further confinement is no longer needed, then the defendant can be eleased. By early 1980’s all state legislatures except for 10 has reformed their laws incorporating the provision for periodic review. In 1981, a test for stability of the A. L. I. standard ensued. John Hinckley, Jr. , a Washington police officer and secret service agent shot then U. S. President Ronald Reagan and his press secretary James Brady. Hinckley claimed during the trial the following: that he was trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was infatuated. He later described the incident in a letter to The New York Times as the greatest love offering in the history of the world. At one time Miss Foster was a star and I was the insignificant fan. Now everything is changed. I am Napoleon and she is Josephine. I am Romeo and she is Juliet (pbs. org. n. d. A Brief History of Insanity Defense, â€Å"After Hinckley† , 1st paragraph). Hinckley was acquitted by the jury of 13 assault, murder and weapon counts and moreover, ruling him not guilty by reason of insanity. This resulted to a great American public uproar that call for thorough review of the insanity defense strategy and plugging loopholes in the justice system that allows an obviously guilty man to escape punishment. Senator Dan Quayle claimed that the insanity efense allowed pampering of criminals by allowing them to kill without conscience. The psychiatric and legal professional group called for the modification instead of total abolition of the insanity defense resulting to legislation called â€Å" The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984† ( 3rd paragraph). The act is a stricter version of the M’Naughten rule. The Cornell University Law School in 2006 released the following information related to a more stricter version ( article 17, Insanity defense, U. S. Code Collection, 1st paragraph) (a) Affirmative Defense. — It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under any Federal statute that, at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense. (b) Burden of Proof. — The defendant has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence The burden of proof now is with the defendant and not with the prosecution. The defendant in order to qualify for the insanity defense must show proof that the disorder is severe. The volitional test that excused a defendant who lacked the capacity to fight the â€Å" irresistible impulse† was eliminated, in effect going back to the M’Naughten â€Å" right/wrong â€Å" standard of the 19th century. The influence of psychiatric testimony was effectively limited and more stricter procedure on hospitalization and release of those acquitted was put into effect. Thirty states adopted â€Å"The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 † while the three states of Montana, Utah and Idaho abolished completely the insanity defense strategy. In the year 2000, a provision to â€Å"The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 † was enacted nd 20 states instituted it. The provision is called â€Å" Guilty But Mentally Ill â€Å" or GBRI ( Chiacchia. 2006. Insanity defense, â€Å" Guilty but mentally ill†, 1st paragraph, line 2. ). Under the GBRI, the defendant can be sentenced guilty although he is legally insane. The convicted will be jailed and his mental illness will be checked by the government periodically. The criticism of GBRI lies on the fact that very few jail institution can actually look at the mental state of the convicted insane. Examining the success of using the insanity defense in this modern time, Chiacchia ( 2001 ) eported ( â€Å" Insanity defense statistics, 2nd paragraph) that: Successful NGRI defenses are rare. While rates vary from state to state, on average less than one defendant in 100-0. 85 percent-actually raises the insanity defense nationwide. Interestingly, states with higher rates of NGRI defenses tend to have lower success rates for NGRI defenses; the percentage of all defendants found NGRI is fairly constant, at around 0. 26 percent It shows from the statistics that the chances of acquittal using the insanity defense is very slim, considering that practically every loop hole in the American jurisprudence has been effectively ealed with the adoption of â€Å"Guilty But Mentally Ill† provision. Summary and Conclusion It is now a known fact that the insanity defense dates back in 17th century in Great Britain with the acquittal of David M’Naughten. The M’Naughten Right/Wrong Test underwent five modifications from 17th century up to the present time. A number of celebrated cases involving rich families and big political figures as victims in the past three centuries resulted to acquittal of the defendants in the light of the different legal interpretation of insanity defense among states. The acquittal of John Hinckley, Jr. who shot then U.  S. President Reagan and killed his press secretary in 1981 was the strong force that caused widespread public clamor for reviewing and unification of interpretation of the insanity defense strategy. At present, all states except for three ( Montana, Utah and Idaho which scrapped the insanity defense in its entirety) enacted the M’Naughten rule with modifications centered on the burden of insanity proof on the defendant. Twenty states enacted â€Å"The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 † with provision for Guilty But Mentally Ill, shutting the loopholes.

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) Experiment

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) Experiment Abstract Artificial neural networks (ANNs) is applied for prediction of product selectivity in biological sulfide removal. An experimental setup is constructed for investigation of biological sulfide removal in a fed batch bioreactor. In this process, sulfide is biologically converted into elemental sulfur and sulfate by the bacterium Thiobacillus thioparus. In addition, thiosulfate is produced in a side reaction. The effect of various parameters (dissolved oxygen, concentration of bacteria and sulfide load) is investigated on the types of products. The main product is elemental sulfur at low dissolved oxygen or at high sulfide loads and also more sulfates are produced at high dissolved oxygen. At high concentration of bacteria, sulfur and sulfate selectivity are increased, and thiosulfate selectivity is decreased. By using gathered experimental data, an artificial neural network model is developed to calculate the selectivity of products at different operating conditions. The comparison betw een proposed ANN model and the experimental data demonstrates a great precision of the model. Introduction Hydrogen sulfide as an extremely toxic gas is emitted by many industries such as oil, gas and petrochemical industries [1]. It has potential for the damaging nervous system at low-dose exposures. Furthermore, sulfide is highly corrosive and has a very unpleasant odor. The threshold limit value for air 0.5–10 ppbv [2], natural gas 4 ppmv [3] and for fresh or salty water fish is 0.5 ppm [4]. In the recent years, biological sulfide removal at ambient temperature and pressure has been investigated as an alternative to the conventional methods. A review on the bacteria of the sulfur cycle was discussed by Tang et al which contributes to a better understanding of the process [7]. Also, a review of the biological removal of H2S from gas streams was studied by Sayed et al [8]. Several microorganisms, namely sulfur compound oxidizing bacteria (SOB), are capable of oxidizing H2S at ambient temperatures and pressures. Different types of bioreactors are used for biological sulfide removal, the more common types are: bioscrubber, biotrickling filter, and biofilter. In the last two processes, the H2S-containing gas passes through a moist, packed bed of particles, which are coated by microorganisms. The biotrickling filter, and biofilter are proper for low sulfide capacity, which the sulfide is mainly converted to sulfate [8]. In the case of biological H2S removal from natural gas, the bioscrubber is more preferred. In a bioscrubber, H2S is washed from the natural gas stream by an alkaline such as NaOH (Eqs. 1 and 2) in a gas absorber, then the rich alkaline solution is sent to an agitated bioreactor where the sulfide ions (HS) are converted to elemental sulfur or sulfate (Eqs. 3 and 4). The produced elemental sulfur is separated by sedimentation [8-11]. Production of elemental sulfur is preferred since it is less harmful than sulfate. Furthermore, hydroxyl ions, consumed in the absorption of H2S in the alkaline liquid, are regenerated upon oxidation of sulfide to elemental sulfur (Eq. 3). Also, elemental sulfur is easily separated by sedimentation. In addition to the biological reactions, dissolved sulfide can react with S0 to produce polysulfide ions (), according to Eq. 5, and ions are abiotically oxidized to S0 and, according to Eq. 6 [12]. Teder [13] has shown that the chain length of polysulfide ion (Sx2-) increases with increase of temperature (x = 5.0 at 25  °C and x = 6.5 at 80  °C). At moderate alkaline conditions, the average chain length of polysulfide (x) varies from 4.6 to 5.5 [12-15]. The product selectivity in the biological sulfide removal process depends on different parameters such as bacteria concentration, sulfide load to the bioreactor and dissolved oxygen [*** Roosta]. This study investigates the applicability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the prediction of the biological sulfide removal performance in a fed batch bioreactor. Materials and Methods In this study, Thiobacillus thioparus (DSMZ 5368) was used as sulfur oxidizing bacteria for producing elemental sulfur in the biological sulfide removal process.In this regards, a bioreactor with total volume of 3.8 liter operated under fed batch conditions was used, as shown in Figure (1). During all experiments, the temperature was controlled at 30 ±0.3  °C, and the pH was controlled at 8 ±0.2 using 1N HCl and 1N NaOH solutions. Dissolved oxygen (DO) as a manipulated variable was changed between 0.5 and 6 ppm and controlled using nitrogen and oxygen injection. The bioreactor was charged with 2000 cc of the medium inoculated with biomass. After stabilizing of the temperature in the bioreactor at 30  °C, feeding of the sulfide solution was started. The concentration of sulfide was determined based on the methylene blue method proposed by Trà ¼per and Schlegel [16], by using a spectrophotometer (Zeiss) at 665 nm. The sulfide solution was injected to the bioreactor by an infus ion pump (JMS OT-701), after calibration of the pump. During the experiments, the sulfide solution is applied at different flow rates (between 1.5 and 23 ml h-1) to achieve different HS load (between 0.5 and 4.0 mmolL-1h-1). The flow rate of recirculating gas was adjusted to 15 L min-1 and was spread by a diffuser; this caused a good mixing of the broth. The concentration of sulfur compounds were measured during the process. In this regards, the total concentrations of sulfide (HS and polysulfide) were determined based on the methylene blue method [17]. The concentration of polysulfide was determined based on Teder [14] method. The concentration of sulfide (HS) is the difference between total sulfide concentrations and polysulfide concentration. The concentration of sulfate was determined via the turbiditimetry method at 420 nm [17], and the thiosulfate concentration was determined via the methylene blue method at 760 nm [18]. Finally, the concentration of elemental sulfur is calculated by the mass balance on sulfur. The present study investigates the effect of operating variables: dissolve oxygen (DO) value (0.5 – 4 ppm), HS load (0.5 – 4 mmol L-1 h-1) and optical density (OD) of bacteria (0.4 – 0.6) on the sulfide removal and product selectivity. ANN Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) with different structures has been proven to be universal function approximators. The major advantage of ANN model is to be constructed without detailed information about the underlying process. ANNs as black box modeling tools have already been used for many applications in industry, business and science [19]. Since in white box modeling approaches, the model of development is based on the information of mechanistic and relevant equations and detailed knowledge for a specific system is usually not directly available, most efforts in the white box modeling approach are devoted to revealing all relevant mechanisms and quantifying these mechanisms correctly. This usually requires an extensive research program (including experiments, which can also be very time- and money-consuming). Here a compromise must be made in order to save time and money. Therefore, white box models often have limited accuracy, because in developing the models, minor mechanisms are neglected and only the major mechanisms are taken into account. The major advantage of the artificial neural networks is that they can be constructed without the need of detailed knowledge of the underlying system. One of the applications of artificial neural network models is to map an input space to an output space and function as a look-up table. Thus, in recent years, artificial neural networks have been applied to biotechnology and biochemical engineering researches [20-27]. In this study, a Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network is utilized in order to develop an appropriate model for the prediction of products selectivity. MLP This type of network consists of an input layer, an output layer and one or more hidden layers (Figure 2). The number of neurons in the input and the output layer depends on the number of input and output parameters respectively. However, the hidden layer may contain desired neurons. All the layers are interconnected as shown in Figure (2) and the strength of the interconnections is determined by the weights associated with them. Each input of neurons (p) is weighted with an appropriate (w), the sum of the weighted inputs and the bias (b) forms the input to the transfer function (f). Neurons can use any differentiable transfer function f to generate their output (n) and is given as: Multilayer Perceptron networks often use the log-sigmoid transfer function (Eq. 8); however, other functions are commonly used. In this work, one hidden layer was chosen for the networks (as shown in Figure 2), and the optimum neuron numbers for hidden layer was calculated. By using Bayesian regularization back propagation, the MLP neural network was trained. This training method updates the weight and bias values according to the Levenberg- Marquardt optimization [28]. It minimizes a combination of squared errors and weights, and then determines the correct combination so as to produce an artificial neural network that generalizes well. Training was carried out until the mean absolute relative error (MARE) which represented by Eq. 9, was minimized. When the training was terminated, to avoid over learning, the error of test and training data were calculated. As illustrated in Figure (2), the inputs of the proposed networks are DO value, bacteria OD and HS load, and the outputs are elemental sulfur, sulfate and thiosulfate selectivity. To choose the best network structure, different configurations of MLP networks were trained and tested. Network parameters such as: numbers of hidden layers, numbers of neurons in each hidden layer, transfer functions and training algorithm were studied in this attempt. Eventually, the network structure that produced the smallest error for testing and training data was determined. The needed experimental data were measured at different DO values, bacteria ODs and HS loads, and comprise 300 observations. Using the random selection method, 75% of all data (225 data sets) were assigned to the training set, while the rest of the data were used as the validation set. Results and Discussions A part of the obtained experimental data are shown in Table (1). According to the results, increasing of bacteria OD leads to more sulfur and sulfate selectivity, but leads to decrease of thiosulfate selectivity. Although, by increasing DO value, sulfate and thiosulfate selectivity increase, and sulfur selectivity decreases. In addition, increasing sulfide load leads to increase of elemental sulfur and thiosulfate selectivity, and decrease in sulfate selectivity. After many attempts, the best ANN obtained is a MLP with one hidden layer. The optimum number of neurons in the hidden layer is 15 neurons as shown in Figure (3). The transfer function of the first layers is a hyperbolic tangent sigmoid (Eq. 9) and that of second layer is a positive linear function. The parameters of the ANN structure are shown in Table (2). As shown in Figure (4) the ANN model has been able to capture all the features of the system reasonably and can be used for estimating the product selectivity within the range in which it has been trained. Figure (4a) compares the results of applying the training data and Figure (4b) compares the applying test data to the MLP with experimental data at different conditions. The correlation coefficient (R2) value of the ANN model is near to one, which indicates a good accuracy of the ANN model. The relative error between experimental data and calculated values, for verification data are illustrated in Figure (5). As seen in this figure, mean absolute relative error (MARE%) for sulfate, sulfur and thiosulfate selectivity are 4.4, 1.77 and 0.23% respectively. The results show that the proposed model is in a good agreement with experimental data which ANN did not observe in the training phase. Conclusion In biological sulfide removal, elemental sulfur production should be maximized to save more hydroxyl ions. Thus, the prediction of product selectivity is essential in the design of the biological sulfide removal system. An artificial neural network based model was developed for the prediction of product selectivity as a function of DO, OD of bacteria and HS load, in the biological sulfide removal system. The best architecture of the MLP network was obtained by trial. Application of the proposed ANN model for training and test data indicates that it can predict the product selectivity with a considerable accuracy.

Educational Goals and Philosophy :: Education Teaching Teachers Essays

Educational Goals and Philosophy It was not until middle school that I began distinguishing those of my teachers who motivated and inspired me from those who simply went through the motions of teaching. It was also about that same time that I began envisioning myself as an educator -- one who not only impressed his students with the mastery of content but also impressed upon his students the need to perform at the highest academic level possible. When you really think about it, an education is simply an instrument with as many uses that an individual can come across; however, it is also something that is taken for granted by so many. Educating our youth and society is essential to the survival of the human race, and making sure that all children not only receive a full, well-rounded education but also take nothing for granted is a serious challenge for today's educator. I possess that inner desire to make a difference; I hold myself in that light hoping to inspire and motivate generations of students to come. T o accomplish this dream, though, I will need much more than sheer desire and determination. In fact, any hopeful educator must subscribe to philosophies and strategies ranging from teaching styles to discipline, from motivational techniques to leadership. In the following text, I will attempt to touch on all of these issues and also spend some time discussing such topics as educational reform and mainstreaming in the classroom. First, I should focus on what philosophies I will adhere to as an educator. At best, I can describe my philosophy as a combination of the well-established, almost timeless philosophies of idealism and realism. The idealist in me views discipline the same as do other idealists. Handling student misbehavior and misconduct is a personal issue that I will handle with the student privately. Only after several of these attempts fail or the misconduct is so severe will I involve a third party such as parents or administrators. Another similarity I have with the idealist point of view is their passion for teaching. It's an almost indescribable feeling, but I just cannot wait to have my own classroom. Looking at things from a different point of view, I identify very much with the realist philosophy in terms of the sharing and gaining of knowledge.

Essay --

The film Kinsley was an interesting film to say the least. I must admit that I was a little uncomfortable at times while watching this movie. The study that was conducted by Alfred Kinsey was something that I believe the people of society are interested in but are conditioned to pretend like we are not. His finding in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male put many people at ease because I think inside everyone is very curious about what everyone else is doing. This is because we all have the desire to be normal and fit in with society. But as Kinsey found the sexual behaviors of males could not be further from what society thinks is normal. But what is normal really? I myself had this certain view about sexual behavior and there were certain things that I believed to be normal. But because of this movie my eyes are now open to the truth about sex. I think that for society sex is a very touchy subject and because of this people are oblivious to everything about sex. Different cultures have different views on sex and how it is suppose to be done. From the time we are young the culture tha...

Descriptive Example Essay

While working in a fine dining restaurant, I got to sample some of the best foods I’ve ever tasted in my life. Working in a restaurant of any kind is hard work from start to finish. I used to say, â€Å"If I’ve walked one step today, I’ve walked a thousand.† My feet would feel like they were going fall off. Heavy plates, customer satisfaction and perfection of plate presentation were all stresses that a server would have to deal with in a night, just to name a few. I have to say though that one of the things that made it all worthwhile was a meal made especially for you by the Chef. It didn’t matter how tired he was after his night, our Chef showed his appreciation to us by feeding us something off menu, something creative. He would come out of that kitchen just as proud as a child at what he created, no matter what it was. He never made anything less than perfect. I will never forget the kitchen with something that was so heavenly, so decadent that the memory of it is engraved in my memory forever. The aroma hit us before we ever saw it, intoxicating. I assumed that it smelled so beautiful because I was famished. Then we saw it, simultaneous gasps came from all of the servers. He called it Boursin Stuffed Filet, short name that was not short on character. This was not just any filet mignon, this was art. A 12 ounce grilled filet perfectly juicy, stuffed with Boursin Cheese, wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. Resting atop creamed potatoes and topped with a demi glace and grilled asparagus. Sounds simple? Looks can be deceiving. The moment I cut into mine it was like an out of body experience. The filet was 12 ounces of the finest cut of beef tenderloin available anywhere. It is the opinion of any great Chef that a filet be prepared rare, as was this one; perfectly blue-red in the core and brazed at its perimeter. When you cut into it the Boursin, a soft cheese similar to cream cheese with a light hint of garlic, oozed out to mingle with the creamed potatoes. With every bite you had the smokiness of the applewood smoked bacon with a hint of creamy garlic. The demi glace and asparagus rounded everything out with an elegant richness which cannot be described but only experienced. I took my time with every decadent bite, knowing that our Chef truly did love food.  How else could someone create magic with simple ingredients found in every grocery in the city. That experience still haunts me to this day. I don’t believe anything can live up to it. That Boursin Stuffed Filet will always be an apparition o f what food can be.