Catalytic Converters :: essays research papers fc

Catalytic Converters   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Notice when a vehicle drives by nowadays, that it is so much quieter than those loud oldies that pour out the blue smoke. Ever wonder just what is underneath a vehicle that makes the new ones so much cleaner. It is called a catalytic converter. The main function of a catalytic converter is to decrease pollution emitted from a vehicles exhaust. The concept behind this is to add a catalyst and force a reaction between the automobile's exhaust and oxygen in the converter. To see just how this happens let's look inside of a catalytic converter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A catalytic converter is made up mainly of a mufflerlike chamber which contains porous, heat-resistant materials coated with either platinum or palladium. These materials are known as catalysts. A catalyst is an element which although causing a reaction to occur, does not change at all during the reaction. This is the idea behind a catalytic converter. The carbon monoxide gas and hydrocarbons emitted from the engine will travel along the exhaust system until they reach they catalytic converter. There it comes into contact with the described catalyst. This forces a reaction between the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons with the oxygen inside the converter creating products of carbon dioxide and water vapor. The reaction which occurs inside the converter is as follows:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main compounds involved are carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons (compounds of hydrogen and carbon), as well as oxygen. When these three are combined with the provided catalyst, a reaction occurs as above. During the reaction the oxygen splits apart the carbon monoxide and the hydrocarbons and allows them to combine with its elements forming the aforementioned products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The catalytic converter first made an appearance in vehicles in 1975. The government of the United States of America had established a law controlling auto emissions. There was one minor detail that was outlined in the use of a catalytic converter, however. There must only be the use of lead-free gasoline. The reasoning behind this was that if a leaded gasoline was used the lead would cover the platinum and palladium pellets rendering them ineffective and thereby ceasing the reaction to exist. Phosphorus had much of the same effect on the pellets so the gasoline must contain minimal amounts of it as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A catalytic converter can be located in every new vehicle today, unless the vehicle runs on diesel fuel. In case you were interested in finding the catalytic converter nearest you, you may want to take a look under the nearest vehicle. It looks like the muffler only it is a little bit larger and more to

Treating Spasticity - Oral Medications and Surgery :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Treating Spasticity - Oral Medications and Surgery Spasticity a disorder of muscle function that causes muscle tightness or spasm. It is the involuntary movement (jerking) of muscles, which occurs when there is damage to the central nervous system. This damage may result from a traumatic brain, injury stroke, tumor, cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis (1). Symptoms may include hypertonicity (increased muscle tone), clonus (a series of rapid muscle contractions), exaggerated deep tendon reflexes, muscle spasms, scissoring (involuntary crossing of the legs), and fixed joints (2). Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of stiffness or tightness of muscles, or it may be so severe as to produce painful uncontrollable spasms of the extremities, usually of the legs. It may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints and can also cause low back pain (3). Some people find that spasticity is so severe or frequent that it disrupts their life. Health care professional suggest a number of things to calm or stop spasticity: range-of- motion exercises, stress management, prescription drugs, physical therapy regimens, and or surgery. Each offers some help, but treatments like medication and surgery bring complications. The patient is forced to decide if decreasing spasticity is worth the side effects from drugs or loss of some movement and feeling from surgery. Many people who have spasticity take few, if any, medications to control their spasticity (4). While spasticity cannot be cured, some of the problems associated with spasticity can be cared for in a number of ways. At this present time, there are several medications and surgical methods that are used to help treat spasticity. In most cases, treatments consist of combinations of different medications, implantation devices, and surgery. The investigation of this paper deals with a comparison of the oral medications being used by patients and the numerous surgical procedures available to treat spasticity. The use of oral medications for treatment of spasticity may be very effective. Benzodiazepines, baclofen, dantrolene sodium, and tizanidine are the most widely used agents for reduction of spasticity. The challenge is to establish a treatment plan that will strike a vital balance between improved function, patient satisfaction, and possible side effects. At high dosages, oral medications can cause unwanted side effects that include sedation, as well as changes in mood and cognit ion (5). Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are the oldest and most frequently used oral agents for spasticity related to spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and cerebral vascular accident.

Girl, Interrupted and Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder remains a very misunderstood psychological condition. This is unfortunate because it is a very serious condition that requires proper and effective treatment to reverse. Thankfully, there have been inroads made in providing clear presentations of the condition to the public. One such way the condition was brought to the public’s attention was through Angelina Jolie’s performance of a character suffering from BPD in the film Girl, Interrupted. In a way, the title of the film is very appropriate.When someone suffers from BPD, their entire life becomes interrupted. While the film infers interrupted represents the interruption of life due to a stay in a mental hospital, the character’s life has always been interrupted. This is due to the extreme stress that BPD places on a person’s life and how it interferes with the ability to create positive relationships. In particular, the Lisa Rowe character that Angelina Jolie plays displa ys the worst traits of severe mental illness.Rowe is extremely belligerent, unresponsive to treatment, and seemingly has an anti-authority attitude. This, ultimately, undermines any progress she may otherwise achieve through her psychiatric treatment. In a way, Lisa uses her condition as a perverse form of empowerment. She is diagnosed a sociopath and this would infer that she has little care what others think of her. Of course, it would also infer she does not worry about the feelings of others. This is why she acts in such a belligerent manner towards other members of the staff.While her actions do nothing towards improving her condition, it does allow her life to be a little easier in its own somewhat demented way. One of the most interesting aspects of this character is the bizarre â€Å"love/hate† relationship she has with the institution. While she repeatedly escapes the institution, she consistently returns to it. Granted, it is not always be her own choice but it woul d seem that at certain times she prefers residing in the institution. Now, why would this be?It would seem that while Lisa resents her captivity, she enjoys the semblance of security that it provides. Lisa suffers from a serious psychiatric condition. And, true, her condition is made worse due to her own actions. She knows she cannot survive in the â€Å"real world† so she only experiences it in small doses. This is why she is repeating entering and exiting the institution. While this may provide her with short term relief, it thoroughly undermines any potential progress she could achieve if she ceased her errant and erratic behavior.Yet, she continues her cycle of independence mixed with dependence that does little for improving her condition. In a way, she is the person who is interrupting her own life with her own egregious behavior. Of course, Lisa’s mental illness is clearly the reason for her erratic behavior. However, it is her responsibility to take the necessa ry steps to seek to improve her condition. However, she refuses to do this and opts instead to partake in essentially anarchist behavior that does nothing to improve her condition.As such, it becomes difficult to sympathize with her plight since she is so self-centered and self-absorbed. In light of this, there is certain sympathy present with the character. However, such sympathy can only go so far if she is unwilling to do what is necessary to help herself. In actuality, only she can improve her condition and through the bulk of the film she seems resistant to do this. Bibliography Mangold, James, Dir. Girl, Interrupted. Perf Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. 2000. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2001. Kaysen, Sussana. Girl, Interrupted New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Women Are Better Manger

Women are Better Managers? Yes The New York Times set off a minor tempest in the blogosphere with an interview a week ago with Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer for the Elle Group, publisher of the fashion magazine Elle. The headline: No Doubts: Women Are Better Managers. You can imagine the reaction. The article was part of a regular Sunday feature, The Corner Office, in which some exec spills the secrets to their success in a question and answer format. Author Adam Bryant at one point asks Smith to share her observations on men vs women as managers. Her response:In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational thinkers. Men love to hear themselves talk. I’m so generalizing. I know I am. But in a couple of places I’ve worked, I would often say, â€Å"Call me 15 minutes after the meeting starts and then I’ll come,† because I will have missed all the football. I will have missed all the â€Å"what I did on the golf course. † I will miss the four jokes, and I can get into the meeting when it’s starting. Have to admit, loved the part about coming into the meeting 15 minutes late so she can miss the sports talk and the four jokes.The interview was on the Times web site’s most-read list for over a week, and garnered more than 300 comments. The paper revisited the issue this past Sunday in its Room For Debate blog, asking several experts about the differences between men and women as managers. Alice Eagly, chairman of the department of social psychology at Northwestern University, warned about overgeneralizing based on gender, but then made this observation: Women are less â€Å"bossy,† probably because people dislike bossy women even more than bossy men. As a result, female managers are more collaborative and democratic than male managers.Second, compared with men, women use a more positive approach by encouraging and urging others rather th an a negative approach of scolding and reprimanding them. Third, women attend more to the individuals they work with, by mentoring them and taking their particular situations into account. Finally, there is the matter of getting the job done efficiently. Most managers, male and female, get their work done in a timely way, but some do not. When you find one of those barely functioning managers — that is, someone who avoids solving problems and just doesn’t get the job done, that person is more likely to be a man than a woman.Why? Perhaps because a woman would be fired or demoted more quickly for poor managing. Over at the web site for Workforce Management, editor John Hollon laments the whole subject, saying In my long career, I’ve discovered only one clear truth about men and women as managers. It’s this: You simply can’t make a blanket judgment about the quality of managers by their gender. Anyone who tries to do so is foolish and shortsighted, an d perhaps hasn’t worked for enough different kinds of managers—male or female—to figure that out. So what do you think? Do women make better managers? Or are some of them just too outspoken?

Nursing Documentation in the Age of the Electronic Health Record Research Paper

Nursing Documentation in the Age of the Electronic Health Record - Research Paper Example Deficiencies in nursing recording have forced the stakeholders to implement interventions aimed at improving healthcare documentation. Healthcare providers need to determine the best approaches for incorporating the elements of nursing into Electronic Health Records. Electronic documentation ensures long-term preservation and storage of records, which promotes evidence-based nursing care (Busch, 2008). Capturing nursing’s independent contributions to patient care requires proper comprehension and application of standardized terminologies that reflect the uniqueness of the healthcare systems. Correct use of standardized terminologies benefits the nursing profession through enhancing communication among the nursing stakeholders, increasing visibility of nursing interventions and facilitating assessment of nursing competency. The Focus of Documentation of Patient Care Information recording is a critical part of medical endeavor. Busch (2008) maintains that medical care requires c ontinuous flow of information before and after each task to maintain continuity of care. The tasks in the medical care are interdependent and build on one another to achieve the goals of nursing practice. Nurses have the responsibility of managing and implementing the plans of the medical team for the patient through recording the progress towards the outcomes. Nurses collect the patient’s information during diagnosis and record the same in files kept in the hospitals. The objective of collecting this information is to enable the nurses to trace the medical history of the patients during diagnosis in order to help them identify genealogical and chronic diseases. Future nurses for patients will also need this data for understanding the earlier medicine and its effects on the patient over time. Lack of documentation may lead to lose of crucial information required by both the nursing organization and the patients (Azari, Janeja & Mohseni, 2012). Practicing nurses, therefore, ne ed to be educated to the necessity of documenting care using standardized nursing languages in this era when sectors are rapidly embracing electronic documentation. Documentation in healthcare focuses on enhancing communication and continuity of care among the nurses and other healthcare professionals involved in the profession. Communication between the nurses and the nurses and among doctors cannot be possible, unless there is proper documentation. Doctors do not meet physically to discuss the progress of patients in most cases; documents are sent from one section of the hospital to another for the intended provider to act appropriately (Busch, 2008). Proper documentation stimulates the process of communication in the hospital, which ensures that the healthcare stakeholders achieve their objectives. Another focus of medical documentation is ensuring evidence for future reference. There are cases where doctors give incorrect medication to patients. These patients may develop compli cations, which may lead to legal liabilities. The courts of law require the records to serve as evidence for incorrect treatment disseminated. Documentation ensures that these records are available whenever required. Additionally, proper documentation leads to recording of data that is crucial for research and education (Ripley, 2009). Practicing students of medicine and nursing can refer to these documents when there is a need to link theoretical knowledge to practical knowledge. Documentation,

GRNS402 Carbon Farming Initiative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

GRNS402 Carbon Farming Initiative - Essay Example Carbon absorbed by plants is stored in plant tissues which are then consumed by animals (Cameron, 2011). Carbon in plant tissues can also be taken to the soil through decomposition when plants die. Carbon is stored in soils in the form of organic matter. This is a compound combination of compounds of carbon containing decomposed plant tissues and animal tissues and carbon that is associated to soil minerals Carbon dioxide that has currently led to change in climate are resulted from agricultural activities (Kimble, Lal & Follett, 2002). Carbon however can also be stored for a long term in the soil through the process of soil carbon sequestration. In carbon farming, the main aim is to remove carbon that is available in the air and convert them to plant material. The farming practice is successful when there is more gain of carbon from the atmosphere that results from enhancement in land management and conservation to exceed loses (Kimble, Lal & Follett, 2002). Conservation tillage is a process that can be used to minimize manipulation of the soil for production of crops. Practices included in this aspect are mulch tillage, cover cropping and crop rotation. Forests are also play an important role in sequestering carbon in the soil on farms (Bates, 2010). Carbon Farming Initiative enables farmers and those that manage firms to make recognitions of carbon through keeping carbon or reduction of gas released on land from greenhouse. The credits obtained credits can be traded to individuals and productions with the desire to balance their releases (Swingland, 2003). Rules governing carbon farming have changed. The changes in the sector have been integrated with Emission Reduction Fund. In the changes, there are activities that can be carried out in farming as brought out under the Carbon Farming initiative (Cameron, 2011). The activities fall

O'Brien and Szeman Critical Insight Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

O'Brien and Szeman Critical Insight - Essay Example O’Brien and Szeman The concepts of O’Brien and Szeman show that there is a direct correlation between cultural expressions and the new possibilities within contemporary art. This begins with the understanding of techniques that are used with art and how this is beginning to transform. The first concept is related to ideas of language. In popular culture, this is beginning to transform, break down and alter into new expressions and ideologies. The approach taken is one which is defined specifically by new expressions that are combining disciplines. The idea of language is one which begins to move into concepts of how language can be expressed in visual arts, multimedia, dance and other concepts. Integrating this into artistic forms and developing a sense of hybridity allows individuals and the languages to move forward with specific concepts and to create a sense of understanding that moves outside of the traditional ideas of language and into something that is understoo d within popular culture. O’Brien and Szeman continue this concept with the ideas of signs, representation and discourse. The ideas of hybridity and ways in which these theories turn into new expressions lead into different areas of exploration. ... Instead of creating a representation that is based on a medium, the medium becomes a tool that is used with the representation or discourse that is being expressed. With this concept, one is able to combine different types of artistic works to move a step further with the representations that are being created. Critical Insight The concepts which are associated with O’Brien and Szeman are one of the leading changes that are occurring within the arts create questions based on how the popular culture and contemporary art turn into hybrid and interdisciplinary approaches. The concepts of hybridity that come from the main tools recognized by the two authors are only one of the components that are a part of creating interdisciplinary approaches to art. This is further transformed with ideas and representations which are based on exploration. The idea of exploration with the mediums and the arts as well as popular culture, is one of the defining points of art work. Without this, art ists wouldn’t be able to create and express what is needed. The tools discussed then become a way to experiment and interchange the ideas of discourse, signs or language used with the techniques that are related to O’Brien and Szeman. The main concept which is associated with the theories is one which is based on ideas of expression and creation. The most important challenge that is created is one that is based on how art can move forward in both terms of experimentation and in popular culture. Using techniques, such as certain mediums, as well as combining this with different concepts of practices, is one that is now becoming secondary. The question which is being