The Determination Of The Presence Of Coliform Bacteria From Selected S

The Determination Of The Presence Of Coliform Bacteria From Selected Sources By Means Of The Most Probable Number (Mpn) Method Abstract Coliform bacteria are good indicator organisms for the presence of pathogenic bacteria due to their realtionship with these pathogenic bacteria, their relative ease of determination by simple methods, and by their occurrence in large quantities in human feces. The MPN method used in this experiment is one of the prescribed techniques for the determination of these coliform bacteria from the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater as prescribed by the EPA. It consists of three stages, each of which necessitates a positive result for the previous stage. The first stage (presumptive test) determines the gas-producing coliform characteristic during lactose-fermentation. The second stage (confirmed test), determines the gram-reaction and also the lactose fermentation abilities of the organism, while the last stage (completed test) determines the endospore presence to determine if the organisms in the sample indeed are coliforms. The number of coliforms or bacteria pre sent is readily seen with the use of a special table and then the statistically estimated numbers are determined. The samples, however, did not produce positive results for the presence of coliforms. Enventhough there was a large MPN value for one of the samples, about 1100 MPN per 100 ml, the sample still tested negative in the last stage. It is therefore suffice to say that the samples did not present any health risks for humans. Future researchers should, however, device or perform other more specific procedures due to the fact that there might have been still coliforms present but these may have been negated by possible endospore-forming relatives. Introduction Human health has always been a hard condition to preserve and the detection and control of pathogens in the environment have been the very key to the success of the human race. Although microbial pathogens are relatively few in comparison to the total number of microorganisms, their detection have been made easy with the use of indicator organisms. Indicator organisms give researchers the benefit of making good assumptions on the presence of pathogens before the pathogens multiply in distressing numbers. For a microbe to be accepted as an indicator organism, it must be present in human feces in large amounts so much so that the presence of these bacteria in a given sample would already point to human fecal contamination. It was reasoned that the largest amount of pathogens was present in human feces, and thus, the indication of the entry of large amounts of human waste, from healthy persons or not, already indicate a great risk (NCSU). Also, indicator organisms must be present wherev er and whenever the pathogen organisms are present. More importantly, these indicator organisms must be easily detectable in samples and tests for the measurement of their numbers must be simple enough (Tortora et al. 1995). Coliform bacteria fit all the requirements and are even safe to handle in the laboratory. Coliform bacteria are gram-negative and non-spore/endospore forming bacteria, which include aerobes and facultative anaerobes, and when incubated at 35?C with lactose in the media, will evolve gas (CO2) within 48 hrs, like Escherichia, Klebsiella, Citrobacter and Enterobacter (NCSU). They are also prevalent in the colon and intestinal tract (but not all groups are present) of warm-blooded mammals, including man (Anderson et al. 1998). They are also related to pathogenic bacteria in that a large number of these coliform bacteria usually imply the presence of some pathogenic bacteria (Frank). These characteristics of coliform bacteria already suffice the conditions outlined for these organisms to be classified as indicator organisms. They occur in large amounts in human feces, in fact, humans excrete billions of these coliforms (called fecal coliforms). They are present whenever and wherever the p athogen organisms are present. More importantly, their presence is easily detected as their characteristics are easily tested with the use of simple procedures like gram-staining, endospore-staining and lactose fermentation tests. These principles and procedures now form the basis and the rationale for the methods by which this experiment was conducted. Actually, the use of coliform bacteria as indicators of the presence of pathogenic bacteria is not new already. It as been established since 1880, and because of their reliability as indicator organisms, the

Holocaust Memorial essays

Holocaust Memorial essays Located close to lively South Beach is one of the most haunting pieces of art I have ever seen. The deeply moving Holocaust Memorial in Miami is an art installation that combines the senses of sight, sound and a vivid array of emotions. The structure itself is a walled circle within a semicircle. Within the circle resides the main body of the work, a 42-foot bronze sculpted arm and hand reaching up to God. The wall surrounding the inner circle stands about 10 feet tall. The circle is connected to the outer semicircle by a long corridor. You must walk through the outer area to reach the corridor that leads to the arm. Along the outer semicircle are various other sections of the exhibit, including life-sized bronze sculptures of the Holocausts victims and a long stretch of etched shiny black granite blocks. The etched granite along the outer semicircle contains two things. First a multi paneled history of the Holocaust including such things as European maps denoting number of lives vanquished per region and stories of struggling victims, such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Poland. The other blocks of granite contain thousands of names of victims as submitted by their loved ones. The enclosed corridor leading from the outer part of the exhibit to the main sculpture within the circle shrinks as you walk through it. The hallway is filled with the music of children singing in Hebrew. At the far end of the hallway, there is a sculpture of a life-sized little girl reaching out to you, in agony, for help. You will have to walk right past her to enter the main area of the work. Within this circular area paved in pink stone, are the life-sized bronze sculptures of dozens of human beings. Some on the ground near death, some walking hand in hand, all emaciated and in anguish as their detailed bodies and expressions show. Other victims are actually climbing the 42-foot reaching h ...

Expressing a Specific Quantity In French

Expressing a Specific Quantity In French This is the second part of my lesson on French quantities. First, read about  du, de la and des, how to express  unspecific quantities in French,  so you follow the logical progression of this lesson. So now, lets take a look at specific quantities. 1 - Un, Une = One and the Numbers This one is quite easy. When you are talking about a whole item, use: un ( masculine word) to say one. Ex: Jai un fils (I have one son).une ( feminine word) to say one. Ex: jai une fille ( I have one daughter).a cardinal number, like deux, or 33678  Ex: jai deux filles (I have two daughters). Note that un and une are also indefinite articles in French, meaning a/ an in English.   2 - More Specific Quantities = Expressions of Quantity Are Followed by De or D ! This is the part that usually confuses students. I hear these  mistakes several times a day during my Skype lessons. Its definitely one of the most common French mistakes. Expressions of quantity are followed by de (or d), never du, de la, de l, or des. In English, you say I would like a little bit OF cake, not a little bit SOME cake dont you? Well, its exactly the same thing in French. So, in French, after an expression of quantity, we use â€Å"de† or â€Å"d† ( word starting with a vowel). Ex: Un verre de vin (a glass OF wine, NOT DU, you do not say â€Å"a glass some wine†)Ex: Une bouteille de champagne (a bottle of champagne)Ex: Une carafe d’eau (a pitcher of water – de becomes d’ vowel)Ex: Un litre de jus de pomme (a liter of apple juice)Ex: Une assiette de charcuterie (a plate of cold cuts)Ex: Un kilo de pommes de terre (a kilo of potatoes)Ex: Une botte de carottes (a bunch of carrots)Ex: Une barquette de fraises (a box of strawberries)Ex: Une part de tarte (a slice of pie). And do not forget all the adverbs of quantity, that also specify quantities : Ex: Un peu de fromage (a bit of cheese)Ex: Beaucoup de lait (a lot of milk).Ex: Quelques morceaux de lards (a few pieces of bacon). Note that in spoken French, this â€Å"de† is very much glided, so almost silent. OK, now that I made this very clear, I am going to confuse you even more†¦ bear  with me. You could say je voudrais un morceau du gà ¢teau au chocolat. Why? Because in these cases, you are running into another French grammar rule: the du here is not a partitive article, meaning some, but a contraction of the definite article with de, de le du.   It makes sense when you stay focusses on the context: Je voudrais du gà ¢teau some cake, I dont care how much.Je voudrais un morceau de gà ¢teau a piece of cake.Je voudrais un morceau du gà ¢teau au chocolat a piece of the chocolate cake, this specific one Im looking at right now, not the strawberry cake next to it, but that chocolate cake (Imagine Cookie Monster, it will help)†¦ BTW, you say un gà ¢teau AU chocolat because its made with chocolate and other ingredients, not just chocolate. The chocolate is a flavor, but there is also flour, sugar, butter. Youd say un pà ¢tà © de canard because its a way to prepare the duck. Remove the duck and youre left with only spices. But I digress...So now, for the last part of this lesson, lets see what happens when the quantity is zero, and with adjectives of quantities.

Life and work of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Essay

Life and work of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Essay Example It was amazing that Tchaikovsky was not even a professional musician. The Great Russian composer had education in a particular career as a civil servant. Pyotr was born from a family that had a long military experience. His father who was mostly of Russian ethnicity worked as an engineer in the Department of Mine. All the parents were trained in arts including music, which was very important especially considering that they lived in a very remote region. At the age of six, Tchaikovsky was already fluent in French and Germany through the help of the teacher who was hired to teach Tchaikovsky elder brother Nikolai and a niece of the family (Burt 2001, p. 410 -411). At age of four, Pyotr took piano lessons where he proved to be an intelligent pupil who could clearly read music proficiently within three years. His parents were very helpful and engaged a tutor and buying him musical instruments such orchestrion. However, the parents changed their mind in around 1850 and sent him to Imperi al School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg maybe because they grew insensitive towards musical gift for their son and perhaps lack of better musical career in Russia at that time. Pyotr’s father also became broke and may have wanted Pyotr to remain independent as soon as possible. Music career was considered to be a very low career in Russia (Kavanaugh 1996, p.50-51). The fact that both Tchaikovsky’s parents schooled in Saint Petersburg, they felt it important to take their son to The School of Jurisprudence which they felt would prepare their son for a career as a civil servant at the age of 10 and this made him board for two years. It forced him to stay almost 1,300 km away from his family and later begun a seven year course of studies after his two years in preparatory school. Separation of Tchaikovsky from his mother made him have an emotional suffering that affected him for the rest of his life and was further increased by his mother’s death in 1854. Tc hikovsky mourned his mother for the rest of his life as he termed it the â€Å"crucial event† and claimed that it was vivid to him. His mother’s loss also made him to make his initial stern composition called a waltz in her memory. The father thought it wise to take his son back to school so that his mind can be occupied with academic work which later made Tchaikovsky made lifelong friendship with fellow students Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard. Music greatly unified them and they maintained an extracurricular activity where they habitually attended the opera. Tchaikovsky further went ahead with his piano lessons by the help of an instrument maker Franz Becker who made several trips to the school. In 1855, Tchaikovsky father employed Mr. Rudolph Kundinger as a private teacher who suggested to his father that Pyotr did not have any future as a musician but later confirmed that his decision was based on his negative experience as a musician. Tchaikovsky’s fat her remained receptive about music career and did not know what to do about it making him to advice his son to finish school and try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.

The U.S. Labor History in the 20th century Essay - 2

The U.S. Labor History in the 20th century - Essay Example It would seem that high unemployment and a bleak economic outlook would discourage workers from uprising. However, worker solidarity will prevail over fears of economic outcome. During good economic times, the capital is benefiting more than the worker is. This puts the capital in a position of authority and the attendant perks that come with it. There are political considerations, a favorable judiciary, and enforcement techniques that discourage organization. Business has law enforcement and the system to back up their position. When difficult times hit with the economic downturn beginning in 1932, the unions were able to become more solidified. Union members were able to speak for the unemployed and disadvantaged and gained more interest and support. It was the direct connection between the union and the working class that was able to mobilize the unions during the depression. The Cold War decade of the 1950s brought about greater cooperation between workers and management which was more likely due to conciliatory attitudes than worker satisfaction. The unions had made strides through the ability to organize in the 1930s and the war effort of the 1940s. However, the post-war period brought about some dissatisfaction among the public for the head of the AFL-CIO, John Lewis. A successful strike in 1943 at the height of the war had sparked public outrage that he had broken the war efforts no-strike policy. This anger would not be forgotten when Congress overrode Truman's veto of the Labor-Management Relations Act, known as the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The Labor-Management Relations Act set the stage for union activity during the 1950s. It severely limited the union's ability to organize and strike. Business was pushing for greater productivity at the expense of the workers. Strikes were generally short-lived, local, and quickly suppressed. The closed shop was outlawed and companies would move plants to locations that were less labor-friendly.  

Irish Housing Policy Essay Example for Free

Irish Housing Policy Essay The legacy of anxious tenant and the battle for security of tenure continues to educate much political debates and imagery around housing. The longing to be free of landlordism usually is the primary factor for owner occupation at any cost. Many people view Irish as a conservative race by nature. In the field of housing, unique features have developed over the years which make Irish different from other European states. One of these features is the longing to own one’s own home. Successive regime have acknowledged this natural tendency towards this type of tenure and the need of providing it by introducing measures structured to encourage home ownership over the years. Irish housing policy has been greatly controlled by developers and house building companies since the 60s. This is still same today because possession of riches, properties, land and housing is not extensively divulged (O’Connell, 2007). Evolution of Irish Housing Policy Current Irish housing policy has been struggling to tackle the economic development of the past ten years. The upsurge of the economy since the mid 90s resulted to a fast growth in demand for housing mainly in the major cities, with a belated growth in housing development/production. Between 1993 and 2001, the real economic growth was approximately 8% per annum (Norris and O’Connell 2002). Irish emigrants returning home hunted housing in the thriving economy and the pace of new household establishment rose due to absence of emigration in the history of Ireland state. This led to a flourishing housing market and housing price inflated by 20% per year. All this unanticipated development occurred without a rational housing policy suitable for a modern industrializing nation. House builders and developers were left to address the new phenomenon (Norris et al 2007). Politicians complained of the rising prices which were excluding part of the population from accessing housing. This led to development of measures and plans for allowing access to those excluded from the market. One of the key responses of the government was the 2003 partnership agreement which had pledged to provide some ten thousand affordable housing units for low economic group who could not afford housing in the market. This was done by coordinating housing developer and market to develop cheaper units for sale. The state offered assistance through local government and provided subsidies of some state land (Norris and O’Connell 2002). The establishment of social housing policy in Ireland has mostly been seen as a responsibility of the domineering class to integrate the poorest of the low economy into the national community. Attempts to address social segregation of many Ireland population which finds it roots from historical residualisation of social housing have birthed another development and building chances instead of any real resource distribution (O’Connell, 2007). However, the 21st century Ireland housing policy is mostly dealing with housing equity, affordability, mortgage securitization and seasonally horrors of homelessness. The year 2000 was marked with increased social housing construction but this failed to recapture the relative output seen before the 80s. To this end, a number of policies have been formulated and introduced with mixed accomplishment. The first and immediate reaction to drops in social housing was a changing towards housing allowances for private renters (rent supplement) as a way of accommodating low economic households. Though this was structured as a short term housing support, the number of claimants and duration of claiming increased and the scheme became a parallel housing arrangement (Norris et al 2008). Doubts on the efficacy of this scheme and the poor quality of houses rented to claimant made the government to respond by announcing a new Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) in 2002. The local government was made responsible for administration of rent supplement claims and take long term lease from private renters for letting to these households. This was aimed at reducing rental costs and improvement of the quality of accommodation. Social housing reduced its role as a means towards home ownership in the 90s. This led to difficulties in home purchasing and the government came up with schemes to enable the poor householders to purchase their own house. These schemes included the affordable housing scheme, the shared ownership scheme and the mortgage allowances. Between 1991 and 2002, 29% home owners availed themselves for the schemes but there was a question of the sustainability of the scheme due to high mortgage arrears (Norris et al 2007). In 2003, 38% of home owners in the shared ownership scheme had over 3 month arrears (Norris O’Connell 2002). Conclusion Severe economic recession and related political predicament which has hit Ireland in the recent years has made future social housing prediction difficult. However, the mood of latest housing policy changes is an indication of likelihood of expansion of state intervention in the housing system. There has been a radical increase of private rented sector regulation as well as mainstream social housing production (Cowan 2006).

Religion Essay -- Character Analysis, Daja, Nathan

William Hazlitt, a British writer during the early 1800’s once said, â€Å"Prejudice is the child of ignorance.† During the eighteenth-century, the time period in which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote his play, Nathan the Wise, there was much religious prejudice displayed throughout Europe, specifically against the Jewish and Muslim populations. For instance, Ronald Schechter notes, â€Å"eighteenth-century writers typically portrayed Jews as greedy moneylenders, [and] depicted Muslims as violent despots and servants of the despots† (4). Many people perceived Christianity as the only true religion; however, Lessing challenges these notions of Christian superiority throughout his play. One way he does this is by not portraying the Christian characters as any better or worse than the characters of different religions; in fact, the Patriarch is characterized as a despot, similar to how eighteenth-century writers portrayed Muslims. Furthermore, he tries to illustrate that not one religion be it Christianity, Islam, or Judaism is greater than the others, but rather all religions are ultimately equal in the eyes of God. From factors such as characters’ portrayal, the play’s audience is able to grasp Lessing’s overall view of Christianity, which is also his main message throughout—â€Å"Christians do not have a monopoly on religious truths† (Schechter 10). In Lessing’s play there are four Christian characters and two of the four, Daja and the Patriarch, are portrayed negatively. Daja, a Christian servant of Nathan and his stepdaughter Recha, is characterized as â€Å"one of those fanatics who imagine they know the universal and only true path to God† (111). Although she tries to be a devout Christian, she betrays Nathan by revealing his secret regarding ... ...sides† (118). Although this is only a stage direction and not an actual line from the play, it nonetheless has a major impact on the play. The fact that all characters, representing each of the three religions, come together in the end exemplifies what the author is trying to portray throughout. As Ronald Schechter notes in the introduction, â€Å"The play does not end with the various characters tolerating each other. It ends with them embracing each other [†¦]† (20). Having the play conclude this way conveys Lessing’s thoughts on religion. Lessing does not think of Christianity as any better or worse than Judaism or Islam, rather â€Å"practitioners of different religions can please God equally† (Schechter 16). And until that higher, experienced judge comes down to rule which religion is better than the others, all religions should be thought as equal in the eyes of God.