Identification of unknown Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Identification of unknown - Lab Report Example We were provided with number coded 24- hour broth culture containing a mixture of any two bacteria (gram +ve or gram –ve), 1 EMB plate, 1 blood agar plate, several inoculating loops and TSA slants. Other materials (mediums and reagents) required were requested from the laboratory technician depending on the type of tests that were to be carried out to facilitate in identifying the unknown bacteria. There were several tests to be carried out to identify the unknown bacteria. On receiving the less than 24 hours broth culture which contained two types of bacteria (G +ve and G- ve), I prepared a stock culture for culture purification. Labelled the bottom of blood agar plate (nonselective medium) with my identification codes, then chose one of the unknown culture, opened the petri dish carefully without placing the top of dish down on the bench. I used the inoculating loop to gently swipe across an area of the bacteria to transfer from the dish to the loop and gently made three successive streaks of the bacteria onto the agar surface of the labelled plate. Incubated the plate at 35o C for almost a week, I kept checking it regularly until single colonies had grown. Then I made a subculture of a single colony on TSA slant, incubated it at 35o C after good growth, I removed from the incubator and stored at room temperature. After acquiring the individual colonies, I performed a gram stain test using EMB (eosin Methylene blue) and lactose agar plate. Collected bacterial colony from and streaked on the EMB plate and waited for some days to observe the result. The unknown bacteria was Gram negative. With G –ve result I had to carry more tests: Oxidase test, Lactose fermentation test, Indole test, Bile Esculin test, Motility test, Methyl Red -Voges Proskauer test, and Lysine decarboxylase test. Oxidase test: Obtained a liquid culture stock of my gram

Antimicrobial Agents in Microbiology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Antimicrobial Agents in Microbiology - Essay Example Usually sterilization is attained through physical agents such as heat, radiation, etc.; however, few chemical agents are also employed to destroy spores. These are known as sterilants. Disinfection involves the utilization of a chemical agent usually referred as disinfectant or a physical process to demolish vegetative pathogens except bacterial endospores. These disinfectants are also mostly employed to kill microbes on the surface of inanimate objects as the concentrations employed to disinfect surfaces are very high and might be toxic to animal tissues. Disinfection processes also eliminate the destructive productions of microorganisms such as toxins from the surfaces. Examples include 5% bleach solution, immersion of thermometers in iodine solution and boiled food utensils (Talaro & Talaro, 1999, p. 358). Sepsis can be defined as the growth and development of microorganisms in living tissues such as blood. The asepsis thus refers to any particular practice that helps in preventing an infectious agent from entering into sterile tissues and cause infection. The commonly employed aseptic techniques include sterilization methodologies that help in the exclusion of all microorganisms to antisepsis. Moreover antiseptics are chemical compounds that can be directly applied to skin surface as well as on mucous membranes, surgical incisions, and wounds to inhibit or destroy vegetative pathogens. Examples include the preparation of skin with iodine compounds before surgical incisions and utilization of a germicidal soap for washing hand. Decontamination involves limiting the microbial organisms to minimum to prevent spoilage and infection. These techniques are utilized in breweries, restaurants, food industries and dairies such as cleansing utensils with a sanitizer (either detergent or soap). Air sanitization is done in hospitals, laboratory installation and veterinary clinics using ultraviolet lamps (Shimeld & Rodgers, 1999, pp.77-79). Parasites either

Solyndra, California based solar panel company Essay

Solyndra, California based solar panel company - Essay Example It is one of the companies, given assistance by the government in order to counteract the Chinese efforts towards the manufacture of green technology. The company went bankrupt in august 2011. Cynics are using the bankruptcy of the company to prove that the country is not ready for solar energy. Before filing for bankruptcy, the company was given five hundred and thirty five million dollars from the economic stimulus package (Department of Energy). Due to its current status, the manufacturing company is up for sale. The federal loans were part of the Obama administration stimulus program. The company used a new technology called copper indium gallium celenide (CIGS), in the manufacture of cylindrical panels, while competitors were using silicon. At first the company recorded high profits, but with plummet in silicon prices, and increase in prices of the materials they were using, started making losses. This situation was made worse by Chinese companies that produced solar panels at s ubsidized prices, due to low costs of production, thus flooding the market with cheaper products. The costs of manufacturing solar panels using CIGS was expensive to maintain in the end, leading to increased losses. Consequently, the company shut down its operation, and all employees were laid off. There are several laws that apply in this situation. One of them is the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This bill was passed into law by congress and signed by President George. Bush in 2008. It is an attempt to curb energy problems by providing incentives and loans towards cleaner energy alternatives. It has many provisions including subsidies for wind and solar energy production, to reduce environmental pollution. The loan provided by the federal government was guaranteed by the above act towards cleaner energy production mechanisms. The company later filed for bankruptcy two years after the bailout (Solyndra, 2011, 12). The managers of this company are likely to get millions of dollars in t ax breaks, due to provisions in the above act. The question is whether the government ignored the red flags and funded a company which could be a fraud from the beginning. The other is the American Recovery and Reinforcement Act of 2009. Sit was approved by congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2009. Its main aim is to save jobs including those in the â€Å"clean† energy industry. It draws from the Keynesian theory, which argues that during recession, the government should increase public spending, due to a decrease in private spending. Under the energy provision, the act allocated around eight and a half billion dollars for subsidies towards green energy solutions. Milton Friendman was an American economist and a noble price winner who advocated for a free capitalist economy where the government has little or no control over the businesses. As such, there are no constraints. This is was an opposition to the existing Keynesian government policies (Friendman, 1980 ). He was also of the opinion that a person can do whatever they please as long as they do not break the law. He widely promoted the stockholder theory. Basically, this theory is for the opinion that a company’s main obligation is to its stakeholders. As such a business or an organization should work towards maximized profits as long as they do not break the law. This is because the stakeholders have the most to lose from the bad decisions made by business managers. Because of this, a business will in the long run

Developmental Stages Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Developmental Stages Paper - Essay Example The acquisition of counting things along with language opens new avenues for sophisticated social and intellectual interaction, while at the same time supplying the scaffolding more sophisticated levels of reasoning about the abstract concepts and ideas that are conveyed most effectively in words or in numbers. Close interconnections exist among processes of social domains of child development. Not only do tests of children's cognition and moral reasoning take place in social settings, but the topics that exercise the growth of intelligence are social to be a very important degree. As toddlers attachment brings about special social relationships with particular people, a process that will have lasting significance for intimate relationships throughout life. During childhood, intimate bonds to parents and familiar caregivers continue to exert a major influence upon the offspring's psychological development. However, with the young child's transition out of the family into primary school, parental social influences are joined in a direct or indirect manner by social influences from the child's peer group. One reason for this might be the effective learning due to competitive significance on which the parents are counting. When peers or other children outside the family, all of about the same age associate with one another in the classroom during and after school, the child's goal in the peer's company may appear to be nothing more than sheer enjoyment. Here comes the concern of classroom environment, as this is the stage where the child feels comfortable in learning directly from their peers. Psychologically he is driven by various kinds of learning and other competitions with his peers, which escorts him towards a healthy psychological and learning development. The classroom tends to be a whole learning myriad for the child where he ethnographically aims to achieve the views and perspectives, beliefs and values of all other peers and those involved in the particular sociocultural practice or institutional context of the classroom. These broad aims are often difficult to achieve in early childhood studies in a standalone environment that are of necessity limited in terms of time and resources but the classroom environment offer opportunities and circumstances where the child feels more appropriate to learn theoretically and practically various approaches. Classroom is the best example of social interaction where the child learns, grows and develops out of nothing. From the neo-Piagetian perspective, social interaction is treated as a catalyst for autonomous cognitive development. Thus, although social interaction is considered to stimulate individual cognitive development, it is not viewed as integral to either this constructive process or to its products, increasingly sophisticated mathematical conceptions. Vygotskian perspectives, on the other hand, tend to subordinate individual cognition to interpersonal or social relations. In the case of adult-child interactions, for example, it is argued that the child learns by internalizing mental functions that are initially social and exist between people. In recent years, several attempts have been made to

Benefits of Waiting to Go to College after High School Research Paper

Benefits of Waiting to Go to College after High School - Research Paper Example It has been observed that after completing high school education, a student may wait for some time before joining the college for undergraduate studies. This waiting has a number of advantages to the student and the responsible members of the family. Firstly, the college education is increasingly becoming expensive. The tuition fee and other expenses in these institutions are far much higher than the expenses in high school education. After struggling to finance the child’s education right from Kindergarten all the way to the high school, and given the harsh financial climate that currently rocks the globe, it may be cumbersome to have the child proceed to the  college education. If the student proceeds to college with the financial difficulties, then he or she will not receive the quality of education that is desirable. In such difficult situations, it may be asserted that one does not need to attain a college education to become mature or get a good job.The financial const raints will translate into psychological problems to the student who will not be able to concentrate on the studies. The student may not access some learning materials that are useful for the studies but are purchased on the individual basis. Taking some time before joining college then provides an individual with a humble time to have financial preparation for the college expenses. Organs like the US military service provide the high school graduate a good opportunity to work as they pursue the  college education.

Western Classcial Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Western Classcial Music - Essay Example At the time when he left his country due to the ongoing revolution he gave his first ever concert of piano as well as the Etudes Op 10 which established his genius talent (Jonson 49). After going on to Germany and then Austria in his quest of establishment as musician he finally found his base at Paris where he then spent major part of his life. Despite his Nostalgia for Poland, his homeland, he enjoyed an immense success in Paris. He was said to be at the heart of growing Romanticism, the aspirations of whom he had perfectly adhered. Western classical music falls into three categories, of which Chopin was an integral part of the second, romantic and classical in the nineteenth century. In the instrumental classic western music Piano and the Violin occupied the highest ranks. Chopin has piano in all of his compositions which made him very important in the history of western classical music. Frederic Chopin was born on 1st March 1810 near Warsaw at Zelazowa-Wola, his birth date on his birth certificate although was written as 22nd February 1810. His father had French origin where as his mother was Polish, he was the third child. His first musical teacher was Czech musician, Adalbert Ziwny. He got into one of the first colleges in Warsaw with support of Prince Antoine Radziwill, who was a music composer himself and aimed to protect talents of artists. His protection and musical abilities opened gateway for Chopin into high end Polish circles (Ellis 746). At college he learnt theory regarding his art from the director of conservatoire in Warsaw as well as an experienced musician, Joseph Elsner. He was perfectly trained by the time he left his hometown to go to Vienna in 1829, where the debuted as pianist. Chopin had his own style and individuality which made him stand out especially in the variation set on La ci darem; these stirred the attention of Robert Schumann. When he left Vienna in 1831 his intention was to go to London, but instead

Alfalfa hay yield prediction using yield monitor data and satellite Research Paper

Alfalfa hay yield prediction using yield monitor data and satellite imagery - Research Paper Example These variables can be used as yield indicators upon which crop growth models are based (Clevers et al, 1994). Accurate yield estimation relies on the availability and quality of actual crop status data. Satellite images provide a spatial resolution in spectral bands and offer coverage cycles. A number of studies have used such satellite images for monitoring of crop development (Watz et al, 1996) a characterization of natural vegetation (Saiz et al,1996). Information about the crops can be obtained from Vegetation indices (Tucker, 1979). These are functions that measure crop reflectance in terms of spectral analysis. Studies support the fact the use of Vis from the sensors were effective in determining the spatial variation and phonological changes in vegetation, though there are several Vis defined the most commonly used VI is the NDVI(normalized difference vegetation index) (Schowengerdt,1997). Techniques to improve the use of NDVIs are being developed, for example to normalize mu lti-temporal NDVs derived from NOAA AVHRR data for atmospheric effects. (Potdar et al, 1999). The reason for the variations was the low correlation coefficients. (Groten, 1993, Sharma 1993, Rosema, 1998) The main goal of agricultural crop management is to guarantee food resource for its population. Crop yield prediction ahead of harvest time and involving large regions is important for all countries. Crop yield prediction entails the application of crop growth models and crop yield models. Despite advances in crop yield prediction models, the applicability of such a model is limited to particular crops, cultivation practices, and growing conditions (Gommes, 1998). In addition, there is recognition that an integral part of predicting yield lies in accurate identification of growing sites and measurement of crop sown area, prior to using VI based methods for predicting crop growth and yield (Gommes , 2001). Thus, the goal of our study was to validate the prediction model as per NDVI w ith actual yield. In fact, early research has revealed the need to obtain better spectral signatures for predicting growth and yield of crops (Sonia ,1999, Sonia et al ,2002). This is because no single model of prediction has proven satisfactory in all conditions. For example, models like CERES (Larrabee et al, 1985), WOFOST (Diepen et al,1989) and EPIC (Williams et al, 1984), is limited due to the fact they were targeted towards specific research methods. The leading crop simulation models have been deemed to complex for wide acceptable forecasting purposes (Gommes, 1998). Remote Sensing has been used to furnish input data for models. Spectral vegetation indices correct the atmospheric and soil spectral effects on remotely sensed data.(Broge et al,2002)(McDonald et al ,1983)(Tucker,1979)(Tucker et al, 1985)(Tucker et al, 1991)(Unganai et al, 1988)(Williams, et al, 1991). This Vegetation Index (VI) is a measure of total green biomass at any given time has been related to crop yield (Potdar et al, 1993). The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be computed from red and near infrared reflectance data available from LANDSAT-TM, SPOT, ARTEMIS, NOAA-AVHRR satellite images (Heilkema et al, 1990). The NDVI derived