Animals in Native American Myt essays

Animals in Native American Myt essays In Native American myths, animals are used to represent many things. Primarily, I feel that the use of animals in these myths are to teach us lessons. They act as humans while still dwelling in the animal world. They speak and interact with each other while thinking as a human would. The Native Americans had a great respect for animals. This is why it is animals that are the main characters in their stories and not humans. In the myth Rabbit Fools Alligator, the lesson is the struggle between strength versus intelligence. It shows us that being deceived can come at any cost no matter how innocent they may seem. The rabbit represents the smaller, seemingly weaker of the two, but shows the alligator trouble by surrounding him with fire and burning him. Native Americans told these myths so that humans could learn through them and relate to the issues at hand. In another story, The Underground Panthers, the idea of animal-human interaction plays a very important role. The panther tells the hunter that they are both looking for the same thing and that they should do it together. The hunter begins to understand the panthers life and when he is put back into human society, he dies. He could only survive living with the panthers. In these stories, animals symbolize human nature and are there to teach lessons and prove points. They also show that animals and humans can come together and strive for the same needs. We are all similar creatures and all come from nature. Humans can learn valuable lessons from observing how the animals live and flourish. The conclusions about Native American Culture based on their animal myths are that the Native Americans have a great respect for animals, that they share common threads, possess similar traits and are a part of human nature in how we work and live our everyday lives. Humans can learn from them in that we can see ourselves through these stori...

Free Essays on The Sin Is In Living

The Sin is in Living The title of the poem â€Å"Living in Sin,† alone makes the mind race. Naturally the thought that comes to mind is the idea of an unmarried person and premarital sex. Most often sin is related to being ungodly. However, the perception that should be gathered after reading this poem is that a title is just that, a title. The speakers wants the reader to acknowledge that life is not about sin in a sexual sense. The sin is not loving and living with someone you are not married to, but in living with someone you do not love. The speaker is a woman. She is expects much more out of life, but receives much less, leaving her truly disillusioned with the life she is currently living. The speaker believes that she should not have to work at a situation that is meant to be. When the poem first begins the reader is immediately drawn to the fact that she the speaker is meant for a different life. â€Å"She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love† (1-2). In believing the studio would keep itself she admits that she had the illusion that no work would be required. Her relationship should be effortless. She is now coming to the realization that she must work to keep the dust off the furniture of love. Nothing seems to be easy for her in this relationship. She is reminded of this when she looks through a dirty glass pane and listening to the drip of the faucet. â€Å"Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime† (3-4). The speaker wishes for the faucet not to drip, and for the windows to be clean. This is the life that God has chosen for her not the one she would have chosen for herself. This is not the life the speaker would have chosen for herself. â€Å"A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl† (4-5). The plate of pears and the Persian shawl insinuates the life the speaker feels she was destined for a life with money and prestige. â€Å"Not that... Free Essays on The Sin Is In Living Free Essays on The Sin Is In Living The Sin is in Living The title of the poem â€Å"Living in Sin,† alone makes the mind race. Naturally the thought that comes to mind is the idea of an unmarried person and premarital sex. Most often sin is related to being ungodly. However, the perception that should be gathered after reading this poem is that a title is just that, a title. The speakers wants the reader to acknowledge that life is not about sin in a sexual sense. The sin is not loving and living with someone you are not married to, but in living with someone you do not love. The speaker is a woman. She is expects much more out of life, but receives much less, leaving her truly disillusioned with the life she is currently living. The speaker believes that she should not have to work at a situation that is meant to be. When the poem first begins the reader is immediately drawn to the fact that she the speaker is meant for a different life. â€Å"She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love† (1-2). In believing the studio would keep itself she admits that she had the illusion that no work would be required. Her relationship should be effortless. She is now coming to the realization that she must work to keep the dust off the furniture of love. Nothing seems to be easy for her in this relationship. She is reminded of this when she looks through a dirty glass pane and listening to the drip of the faucet. â€Å"Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime† (3-4). The speaker wishes for the faucet not to drip, and for the windows to be clean. This is the life that God has chosen for her not the one she would have chosen for herself. This is not the life the speaker would have chosen for herself. â€Å"A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl† (4-5). The plate of pears and the Persian shawl insinuates the life the speaker feels she was destined for a life with money and prestige. â€Å"Not that...

International business Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

International business - Literature review Example These capabilities have changed the potentials open to the multinational firm in the strategic management of its businesses. This review of literature explores the implications of international business strategy within the context of Nokia Corporation, a multinational corporation which has seen phenomenal growth but an almost rapid decline in the last decade. Its business is situated in the digital mobile telecommunications industry, which is characterized by rapid technological innovation and intense international competition. Inquiry into the interplay of environmental changes and the corresponding positioning of the multinational corporation against its competitors may yield new insights into the strategic management of international businesses not encountered in localized businesses. 2. International Business Strategy To better understand the implications of the published reports and literature on Nokia’s global strategy and its local strategy in China, a brief survey of t he existing theoretical discussion on international business strategy is warranted. ... The word international which encompasses these concepts pertains to activities that cross the borders between nation-states; nation-states here is a combination of nation qualified by its country-level economic and sociocultural variables, and state which refers to the political attributes such as national sovereignty and national laws (p. 55). Given this starting point, international management is taken to mean â€Å"the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the organization, which individuals (managers) use to achieve an organization’s goals, when the organization is involved in cross-border activities or functions outside its nation-state† (Eden, et al., 2011, p. 56). Likewise, international business may be defined as â€Å"business that crosses national borders, that is, it includes the comparative study of business as an organizational form in different countries, cross-border activities of businesses, and interactions of business with the int ernational environment† (Eden, et al., 2011, p. 58). International business may be differentiated from international management in the sense that international business refers to organizations pursuing a specified goal through a cross-border undertaking for profit, while international management is the process of stewardship over an organization involved in cross-border activities, whether for profit or not, for as long as the goals are met. Finally, international strategy is the field of management that deals with â€Å"the major intended and emergent initiatives, including cross-border initiatives, taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of domestic and/or foreign resources to enhance the performance of firms in the international environment† (Nag, et al., 2007,

Apple Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Apple - Case Study Example free sharing and downloading found application in the way P2P services functioned. This raised the popularity of such services where it was possible for users to share their favorite albums free of cost. When compared to subscription services that charged a fee for their services, the P2P services provided the users with flexibility as well as a range of choice. Q3) I feel that P2P services would grow in popularity though companies like Apple can minimize the impact using iTunes by flexible licensing, stricter control over sharing by encoding the iTunes music etc. My prediction for iTunes is that it is better equipped to deal with the threat of piracy and free downloads because of the way it is marketed as well as the concept itself. Q4) The greatest threat to Apple is from the â€Å"me-too† clones that can usurp its market share and derail its sales in the way it is marketed. As happened in its software venture, Apple faces the real possibility of its unique approach towards its products being copied by rivals and marketed at a lower price as well as in a generic manner (as opposed to the niche way in which Apple markets its

Research Paper look for Cognitive development in adolescents

Look for Cognitive development in adolescents - Research Paper Example It is said that teenagers display their true character when they are comfortable and have less fear of punishment and reprisal from their parents. This is most probable when with their friends and confidants. In addition to that, the paper is going to base its interpretation based on the observations that are to be made at a cinema hall that couples up as a fast food and snack outlet. II. Description of Setting The observation took place at a popular fun zone just opposite the main highway junction that leads to various places. This zone experiences a high traffic of youngsters who converge to have fun in the movies, boutique and food court where some grab a quick pizza or French fries as they socialize. The main building faces the front of the zone and has frontal balcony where people can sit and have coffee while watching everything and everyone below. The majority of the population on a normal weekend mid-morning consists of teenagers who range from the age of thirteen to about nineteen. Because of the security of the place and the openness, it is presumed that parents can let the teenagers interact on their own without having much interference. This creates a perfect setting for research because one can observe the happenings without interfering with them. The timing is also important because in the morning, the teenagers are highly energetic but as the noon approaches, there is a lower energy display among the youngsters. The study timing was from about 11 a.m. to about 2 p.m. in the afternoon. III Observation of the Adolescent Group Number of adolescent males and females It is observed that the number of female teenagers were almost double than that of younger boys. It was also observed that more females came in pairs or as larger groups while the younger teenage bouts came with fewer or smaller groups than their female counterparts. Approximate age of adolescents or range of ages Most of the youngsters at the court were approximately in their late teens. It was hard to estimate their ages because some of them might have been in larger bodies than their actual age. It was also observed that younger teenage boys (10-13) were more than their female counterparts. However, they seemed to be in a company of someone older. Pre-pubescent or post-pubescent The prepubescent were not as much in number as their fellow counterparts especially in their teenage years. However, those who were present seemed to be very excited and were characterized by frequent fights cries and intolerable to some extent. It was also noticed that both the male and female kids at this ages were being watched by their guardians who were at the line on the food court or seated next to the o bservation table. It was observed that their interaction with other totally new counterparts was quite fact and it was not long before they began playing and causing trouble for everyone. The post pubescent teenagers on the other hand were more composed in behavior but seemed restless in their own way as Fieldman (2008) also writes. Frequent pacing up and down the fun zone was one off their favorite pastime. The fifteen year old boys were hanging

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.

Rational Decision Making Model Essay -- Decisions Rationality Essays

Rational Decision Making Model Abstract What is a decision? The word decision can be defined as, â€Å"the act of reaching a conclusion or making up one's mind† (American Heritage, 2000). Essentially, a decision is a choice that an individual or a group of people makes. A decision can be a single action, an entire process, or even just a single spoken word or gesture. Decision-making is one of the defining characteristics of leadership. Making decisions is what managers and leaders are paid to do, and is an integral part of their day’s duties. The affects of decisions can range from minor in consequence to life or career threatening. Regardless of the consequences, it is important to understand when a decision needs to be made and the best way to make it. This paper will focus on the Rational Model for decision-making. The first section will describe the Rational Model for decision-making. It will identify all the steps of the Rational Model and what they entail. The second section will detail a recent job-related issue I was involved with. I will discuss the issue and show how the Rational Model of decision-making was effectively utilized to reach a decision. Decision Making Model – The Rational Model A decision is a solution chosen from among alternatives. Decisions must be made when a person is faced with a problem or an issue that needs resolution. Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action (ideas or alternatives) that will solve a problem and resolve any issues. Decision-making models provide people with a method for making decisions. There are numerous decision-making methods people utilize today. Some are meant to be all encompassing, meaning they can be utilized in many different environments. Others are specific to issues or industries, such as technology, psychology, and mathematics. Regardless of the problem, there is usually a decision-making process that is best suited for any situation, and it is up to us to find it. The Rational Model Definition   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, the Rational Model of decision-making, â€Å"requires comprehensive problem definition, an exhaustive search for alternatives, and thorough data collection and analysis. According to this model, information exchange and communication are unbiased, and accurate decision alternativ... ...ch a decision. One of these models is the Rational Model. The benefit of utilizing the Rational Model to reach a decision is that it is easier to justify and defend a decision, due to the complexity and the thoroughness of the processes involved. The Rational Model is useful for developing a strong business case for why a specific course of action should be considered anytime a major business, or even personal decision must be made. References American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, The (4th ed.). (2000). Houghton Mifflin.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Retrieved June 26, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://dictionary.reference.com/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  search?q=decision Penn State Univ., School of Information Sciences and Technology. (2003, February 21).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Information Processing and Decision Making. Retrieved June 26, 2005 from the World   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Wide Web: http://solutions.ist.psu.edu/rd/projects/110_2003/courses/110/content/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  02_05_01.html University of Houston Victoria, The. (2005, June). Problem Solving. Master of Business   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Administration New Student Orientation. Retrieved June 26, 2005 from the World Wide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Web: http://www.uhv.edu/bus/new/orientation/creative.htm