Oxidation Reduction Reactions

8. 07 Work File: Oxidation Reduction Reactions 1. What is the difference between an oxidizing agent and a reducing agent? The oxidation number (overall charge of the atom) is reduced in reduction and this is accomplished by adding electrons. The electrons, being negative, reduce the overall oxidation number of the atom receiving the electrons. Oxidation is the reverse process: the oxidation number of an atom is increased during oxidation. This is done by removing electrons. The electrons, being negative, make the atom that lost them more positive 2. When first learning to balance equations, we learned that the number of atoms of each element in the products and reactants must be equivalent. What are some additional factors that must be taken into account when balancing equations for redox reactions? Some additional factors that must be taken into account when balancing equations for redox reactions are: dividing the equation into an oxidation half-reaction and a reduction half reaction, multiplying each half-reaction by an integer such that the number of electrons lost in one equals the number gained in the other, and combining the half-reactions then cancel. 3. What are half reactions? A half- reaction is simply one which shows either reduction OR oxidation, but not both. 4. What two aspects of the half-reaction equations must be balanced? Oxidation and reduction charges 5. For the equation Ag + NO3 – ? Ag + + NO (Note: This reaction takes place in an acidic solution. ) Step 1: What substance is reduced? NO3 Step 2: What substance is oxidized? Ag Step 3: What is the half reaction for oxidation? Ag ? Ag+ + 1e- Step 4: What is the half reaction for reduction? (NO3)- +4H+ +3e- ? NO + 2H2O Step 5: What is the net balanced equation? 3e- + 3Ag + 4H+ + NO3? 3Ag+ +NO+ 2H2O+ 3e- Step 6: What is the reduced equation? 3Ag + 4H+ + NO3 —> NO + 2H2O + 3Ag

The accreditation process for criminal forensic laboratories Research Proposal

The accreditation process for criminal forensic laboratories - Research Proposal Example Probably one of the most significances advances in forensic technology evolved from one of the most significant tragedies of our history: the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, 9/11. "After the terrorist strikes, 21,741 remains were recovered. So far, 11,989, or 55 percent, have been identified. More than 1,100 of New York's 2,750 victims have not been identified because many of the remains were too badly compromised by heat and time . . ." (Frasier). Today, years after the attack, identification of victims through DNA technology is still going on. Much of this work is being done at a private lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan called Gene Codes Corp. Gene Codes Corp's founder and CEO, Howard Cash calls his work, "the most important thing I'll ever do in my professional life" (Detroit Free Press). Cash's company has also worked to identify victims of the tsunami in Asia, and the London subway bombings. "Cash and his colleagues created software they called MFISys (pronounced EM PHASIS), for mass fatality identification, for the 9/11 project. It compared data from three types of DNA tests on 20,000 partial human remains to the DNA from more than 3,000 cheek swabs of victims' kin and 8,000 personal effects. They updated the software nearly 140 times . . ." (detroit free press). In June of 2008 another victim of the attack has been identified through remains recovered in the past two years in and around Ground Zero, according to the AP. "Examiners made the identification in the past two days after retesting remains from the original recovery effort following the attacks on the World Trade Center" (Frasier). The use of forensic DNA technology is considered critical to the execution of justice in today's world. Both the science of DNA and the lens through which forensic science has been scrutinized have evolved since it was first used to identify a suspect in the rape and murder of two young women in Leicester, England in the mid 1980's (Presley, 1999). Soon after its landmark use in Europe, DNA technologies have become more sophisticated and more widely used in forensic settings in the United States, yet it was decades after its first admission in court that the laboratories responsible for the analysis of the evidence were accredited by a professional organization. For these reasons, the use of DNA technology has been at the heart of the push for accreditation for all criminal forensic laboratories and while these practices became standard in the courtroom relatively early in their history, they were not without controversy. In fact, it was the controversy which initially led to the accreditation process. In an article in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Paul Giannelli wrote about the 1989 Supreme Court case "People V. Castro". This case was one of the first to criticize DNA evidence as it was presented in court. What was successfully argued in this particular case was the " . . . DNA evidence testing laboratory failed in its responsibility to perform the accepted scientific techniques . . ." (Giannelli, 2006). It is important to note that the science of DNA technology was not called into question; it was the methods used by the laboratory that resulted in the conviction being overturned. Over half a century before the Castro case, another legal decision,

Cause and Effects Diagram Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cause and Effects Diagram - Research Paper Example The nature of programming is such that it is quit complex with so many concepts and programs. In addition, it consists of several pieces of details connected together. Thus, programmers when developing a new corporate website must have the capacity to pay attention to the tiny details involved in programming and development. Similarly, good memory and the ability to abstract play a crucial role as some of the specific skills that programmers should have. Programming entails a lot of information that needs to be remembered. For example, there is the syntax language with a set of functions prewritten that require to recall and identify the parameters that they would take, as well as the variables and functions associated with them in a particular program. Hence, one needs to have a good memory in order to remember all that stuff and more, as well as their applications. On the other hand, ability to abstract is the most imperative skill in programming, which involves compartmentalizing information into little black box. This technique performs useful tasks, but keeps away some details such that a programmer does not have to remember them all the time. In programming activities such as website development. There are several issues that arise during the process; thus, effective problem solving skills comes in handy when such circumstances arise. Another skill is knowledge of programming languages. This is important because one cannot perform a website development without the knowledge of programming languages (Dudley & Butte , 2009). However, this does not mean knowing all the languages, but knowing just one or two of the programming languages is appropriate in achieving a perfect website development. Knowing programing languages allow programmers to evaluate where a language should be applicable, and where a particular language should not be applicable. New things come up in the information and technology field, which requires advancements in our knowledge, skills, and abilities. Therefore, a good programmer must be open and ready to learn new technology in order to enhance his skills and stay on top of the game despite the changing world. Similarly, entrepreneurial skills highly apply in this field because of the opportunity to grow and expend businesses. Entrepreneurial skills among programmers helps them to see beyond the functions of mere development, and incorporate certain features that may enhance business operations (Brian, 1999). Finally, in the category of personal skills social skills and even social networking skills play a crucial role in programming. Working as a tem to develop a new website, members need have social skills in order to help them understand the issue. Naturally, humans are social beings, and this is one of the factors that improve team performance and leads to success of the development. In addition to the individual skills, there are team skills that programmers must ensure they utilize towards the as developing a successful corporate Web site. This involve manage development time, which ensures that the development everything that you need is according to the stipulated time schedule. In addition, the programmers must

Self Organizing Maps (SOM) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Self Organizing Maps (SOM) - Research Paper Example The performance of ANNs is better than that of traditional methods of problem solving. This enhances a comprehensive understanding of the human cognitive abilities. From the available learning algorithms and neural network architectures, the SOM forms the most popular SOM. They use data visualization techniques by Teuvo Kohonen to reduce data dimension using self-organizing neural networks. The data visualization problems attempt to handle problems that are beyond human visualization for high dimensional data. SOMs act as a non-parametric network containing combination of data spatialization and abstraction, hence used in visual clustering. SOM is among the most popular methods of neural networks for use in cluster analysis. This occurs due to topology preserving and self organizing nature for SOM. The SOMs act as abstract model for topographic mapping. Modeling and analysis of mapping enhance understanding of perception, encoding, recognition and processes received and beneficial to the machine-based recognition of the patterns SOM possess prominent visualization properties. Developed from the associative memory model, SOM uses unsupervised learning algorithm characterized by simple computational form and structure enhanced by the retina-cortex mapping. The self-organization nature act as a fundamental process of pattern recognition, and allows learning the intra- and inter-pattern relationships for the stimuli without potential bias. SOM may provide the topologically preserved mapping to all the output spaces from input. Though the computational form proves to be simple, most aspects related to the algorithm must be investigated (Zhang et al 2010, p. 6359). 2.0 Basic principles of SOM The Kohonen self-organizing map encompasses a neural network, and various characteristics similar to the working of the human brain. Basically, SOM avails some classificatory resources that are organized based on patterns available for classification. The single layer of the neu ral network consists of neurons within n-dimensional grid. The grids allow the definition for the neighborhoods in the output space rather than the input space. The input and output spaces constitute the main SOM. This can also be performed through the use of tools that map vectors within the input space to output the space that preserves topological relations in the output space (Yang et al 2012, p.1371). SOM use unsupervised competitive learning and attempts to conform to the available input data. The SOM nodes act as inputs and contain some principle SOM features. Topological relationship between inputs is preserved after mapping into the SOM network. This pragmatically represents the complex data. SOMs use vector quantization in data compression processes. The SOMs offer an appropriate means of representing the multi-dimensional data in the lower dimensional space using one or two dimensions. This enhances visualization and understanding of data in low dimensions. Therefore, SOM s facilitates manipulation of complex data, especially in visualization of large quantities of data in an

How Managers Measure Organizational Effectiveness Research Paper

How Managers Measure Organizational Effectiveness - Research Paper Example own to cover the facets of organizational performance combined with the internal performance outcomes, which are directly influenced by the results of the effort (Zhou, Hong & Liu, 2013). The determination of the organizational effectiveness is thus an essential role of every organization in the 21st century that is driven by the desire to succeed and achieve the internal goals of the business. At the time an organization is formed, the managers must secure a continuing supply of resources from the organization’s environment. This will enable the business to operate continuously and achieve long and short-term goals. In this paper, a discussion of the important approaches that managers use to determine the initial mix of resources to adopt during the creation of the business will be discussed. The measure of organizational effectiveness is an essential process for any startup organization that desire to grow and enter new markets. As a result, either a number of tools have been developed for the measurement of effectiveness theoretically or empirically which make up part of the entire process of effectiveness determination. The judgment of performance in an organization is influenced by the group willing to determine the effectiveness, performance and the ability of the organization to achieve its objectives. Three approaches have been developed for the determination of effectiveness of an organization and can be utilized in the measure of new businesses whose operation parameters are still limited (Guest & Conway, 2011). In measuring the organizational effectiveness through the determination of the external resource approach, the ability of a business to secure, manage and control the valuable resources and skills from the external environment is measured. In resource based view, the firm’s ability to effectively utilize the available resources is measured to determine the likelihood of profitable performance in the future. In this approach, two assumptions

Drinking Water and Sanitation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Drinking Water and Sanitation - Research Paper Example The lack of safe drinking water has led to a number of diseases and deaths, especially among infants. A number of goals have been set over the years with various ten year milestones. These milestones have been beset with various challenges. However, there has been some amount of success. Various strategies including the promotion of breast-feeding to reduce mortality in infants have been used as a means of dealing with the effects of the problem. Introduction Drinking water and sanitation are two important factors in the lives of human beings. Water is required not only to drink but also for personal hygiene, the preparation of meals and to ensure that our surroundings are clean. Some people do not have access to piped water and therefore depend on other sources such as rivers and streams. This water is not treated and in a number of cases is exposed to various factors in the environment. Among these factors are the way we carry out various activities including disposal of industrial and household wastes. In addition to that, there is the problem of inadequate and improper sanitary conveniences which also have implications for the supply of safe water. Over the years a number of goals have been set. However, they have not been fully realized due to various challenges that affect these efforts. Previous Goals and Achievements The period 1981 – 1990 was designated as ‘The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade’ by the United Nations (Cairncross 1992). During that period the aim was to increase the supply of water and hygienic toilets so that more people especially the poor could have access to these necessities (Cairncross 1992). A number of organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank were involved in this effort. Since then the drive for the improvement in the quality of life has continued as some of the targets were not achieved. In fact, Cairncross (1992) points out that a lot more needs to be done in order to facilitate efforts to make safe water and proper sanitation available to all people. Risk of Inadequate Drinking Water and Sanitation The problems that arise from inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation are far greater than the problems of war, terrorist attack and weapons of mass destruction but they receive less attention (Bartram et al, p. 810). The lack of proper sanitation and waste disposal facilities can lead to waterborne diseases including malaria, schistosomiasis and legionellosis (WHO). This is a serious problem as it results in the death of approximately 3900 children everyday and therefore threatens the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) (Bartram et al 2005). The developing countries are more at risk as microbial organisms which cause diseases are normally found in drinking water in these areas (Ashbolt 2004). The situation is worst in places like Africa and Asia where a substantial portion of their people live in condit ions of extreme poverty. Sequelae and mortality are the result as the body becomes less capable of providing immunity against diseases that are endemic (Pond 2005). Diseases associated with the intestines are generally more severe because of the high levels of mal-nutrition as well as the non-existence of strategies in these countries to deal with these types of problems. The traditional methods of filtration and chlorination continue to be used. However, these are not 100% effective as there are some chlorine resistant pathogens (Ashbolt 2004). The Millennium Development Goals According to Bartram et al (2005) 40% of the world population does not have access to a pit latrine and almost 20% do not have access to

US moving to IFRS. (International Accounting) Essay

US moving to IFRS. (International Accounting) - Essay Example   Albrecht affirms that the best way to determine the viability of adopting a new course of action is by use of incremental analysis in which the benefits of the change should outweigh its cost. The decision of the US moving to IFRS has triggered a lot of debate, with many participants narrowing its effect to the various parties. Among them are the investors whose protection is included in the SEC mission. According to Albrecht two key elements defining financial markets under the U.S. GAAP are the low cost of seeking capital and the highest ROIs as compared to other markets in the world. This has to a major extent been attributed to the good rules that have been developed, challenged and shaped for several years, which has led to â€Å"bright lines† in reporting unlike in IFRSs where managers can manipulate numbers. If the adoption occurs the U.S. companies may experience a reduction in market value in stocks and bonds to unknown levels. According to Parks the cost of adoption could be approximately $32 million per company. In fact British Petroleum CEO said that for his company $100 million was spent for the first year and roughly $150 million for the second and third year. This is a huge cost against revenue and it’s likely to affect the profit margins and consequently returns on investment. Finally on the costs, in the U.S investors and accountants will need to learn how to read and interpret the financial statements prepared using IFRSs. This will need resources in terms of money and time to cover millions of these people. The benefits to investors will be an expected reduction in audit fees whose effect will be felt as years pass by, as auditors will have to take corporate numbers at face value. Based on this analysis the cost are more tangible and seem to outweigh the benefits hence the move would not really benefit the