177 research outputs found
Evaluation of survival and recovery characteristics of bifidobacteria as indicators of fecal pollution of water
The examination of aquatic environments for bacterial indicator organisms has proven to be a useful and well-established practice for the purpose of monitoring microbiological water quality. An ideal indicator of fecal pollution should be present in sufficient density to allow detection, present simultaneous with pathogen(s), incapable of aftergrowth in external aquatic environments, easy to enumerate, and exclusively of fecal origin. Unfortunately, none of the indicator organisms presently in use today meet all of these requirements. Bifidobacteria show promise as indicators of fecal pollution in water with the additional ability of potentially distinguishing between fecal pollution of human and animal origin. In laboratory microcosm experiments, the survival of the bifidobacteria population was indirectly proportional to the temperature at which the microcosm was stored. In mixed microcosm studies with E. coli, the survival of the bifidobacteria population was considerably less than the E. coli population. The recovery of bifidobacteria from constructed wetlands receiving primary treated sewage was monitored using published selective media (YN6, BIM25, and BIM50 agar). In the influent and wetland samples, there was approximately a 2 to 3 log reduction of bifidobacteria, while fecal coliforms exhibited a 4 to 5 log reduction. Results indicate the YN6 medium lacks the desired sensitivity and selectivity to effectively enumerate bifidobacteria. Studies addressing the recovery of bifidobacteria from the wetlands with modified bifidobacteria enumeration media were mixed to unsuccessful
Factors that influence elementary school teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of visually impaired children in Turkey
There is a scarcity of research on inclusion of visually impaired children in Turkey. Specifically, a gap exists concerning the attitudes of elementary school teachers towards the inclusion of visually impaired children in mainstream schools. This paper uses data from two questionnaires, leveraging the responses of 253 teachers from rural and urban areas. The results demonstrate that elementary school teachers commonly hold positive attitudes towards the inclusion of visually impaired children and that teachers’ initial and in-service training about inclusion positively influenced their attitudes. Our findings are in contrast with earlier research which argues teachers do not hold positive attitudes to inclusion, and highlights that a key barrier to inclusion stems from elementary school teachers feeling unprepared to teach visually impaired children. We conclude that greater post-qualification training is required to enable teachers to operationalize different approaches that facilitate the inclusion of visually impaired children
The Ontology of Cognitive Systems
In this thesis, I shall explore the theoretical and empirical expositions regarding the
causal mechanisms of cognitive growth. I shall do this in order to determine if
biological epistemic theories of cognitive systems can be justified.
It will be necessary in this thesis for me to adopt a multidisciplinary stance from
Philosophy and Psychology. It will try to investigate from these two perspectives what
it means to be a cognitive creature. However, I shall argue, if taken singularly, each
standpoint fails to provide an adequate account of cognition that is necessarily based
on adaptive, evolutionary constructs.
During this thesis I will primarily focus on the major arguments in Philosophy that
show a tight coupling between language, cognition and rationality. More specifically I
will examine in detail Donald Davidson’s holistic account of what it is to be a rational,
cognitive creature. I will show in the thesis, through comparative experimental
evidence, that the causal mechanisms of cognitive growth, and thus thought may not
be language. Consequently, Philosophical arguments that are based on tight
relationships of thought and language will not be able to deliver a true account of
cognition. I will demonstrate that Davidson’s philosophy has suffered from not being
able to ground his philosophical perspectives on the relationship of language,
cognition and rationality within an empirical programme and consequently it makes
fundamental errors. Davidson’s account does not take on board the recent (and not so
recent) empirical based work on primates which show the possible mechanisms of
cognitive growth, which are independent of language.
Similarly, I will also show that Psychology, which does provide us with the means to
deliver an empirical account of cognition, due to its history based on Behaviourism,
does not have the right causal mechanisms nor language to talk about the nature of
complex cognition. I will show how Associationistic Psychology mischaracterises
what it is to be cognitive and consequently, like philosophy, cannot deliver an accurate
ontology of cognition.
I intend in this thesis to provide a bridge between the two schools by adopting a
comparative psychological approach. By using this comparative perspective, a more
accurate theory of cognition may be possible and one that is not contaminated by
language or any other cultural symbolic systems. I aim by the end of the thesis to be in
a position which will hopefully allow modification of Davidson’s condition on
possessing beliefs, a creature must have beliefs about beliefs. This modification will be
based on an evolutionary account of what may or may not eventually turn out to be the
precursors of higher cognitive states
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