Writing in Biology - Section 1

For my thesis I am writing about the treatment of mental health in prisons in America. America has a mass incarceration issue and I am arguing that proper mental health treatment in and out of prison would reduce the amount of inmantes and reduce re-incarceration rates. About thirty percent of prisoners have a serious mental illness that may or may not be treatment while in prison, but contributed to their arrest. The prison healthcare system is not universal across the country. Even federal prisons have varying levels of treatment they offer. Many prisons are understaffed and under resourced to provide acurate treatment. Other prisons neglected to adopt Obama's prison reform plans, and do not keep record of prisoner's psychiatric records, which makes proper treatment impossible. In my thesis I argue that proper treatment and transition programs back into society with adequate resources such as councelors and treatment facilities, would reduce the recidivism rate in the United States. 

Fluorescence microscopy is a useful tool in the world of bioimaging. I am currently in the BIO-477H course Bioimaging, and one of our experiments was to work with cells tagged with fluorescent molecules called fluorophores. Fluorophores produce fluorescent light and fantastic, colorful images, but caution must be taken when imaging with fluorescence. A phenomena known as photobleaching occurs when fluorophores are exposed to fluorescent light of high intensity or for a prolonged time period. This occurs because the fluorophore absorbs the photon of the receiving light, goes to an excited state, and releases a photon when it returns to the ground state. The emitted photon is what we perceive as "fluorescence". When fluorophores are exposed to high intensity fluorescent light, the fluorophore is modified covalently and remains in an excited state, losing the ability to return to ground state and release a photon. Thus, the fluorophore no longer fluoresces. Strategies such as using neutral density filters, and using a shutter to help take the photos reduces the fluorophore's exposure to fluorescent light and result in better images.

A Nikon Inverted Optical microscope at 40x magnification was utilized throughout all experiments. For studying the rate of photobleaching of DAPI stained nuclei, we set the exposure time 600 ms and a previously untouched area of cells was exposed to constant fluorescent light for 5 minutes. During those 5 minutes, 31 photos were automatically captured at 10 second intervals and the results are visualized by Figure 1. The brightness of each nuclei clearly decreased and the images blurred overtime as evident in Figure 1.

We repeated this process to capture the rate of photobleaching of fluorescein stained tubulin. Once we located an unbleached area of cells, we set the exposure to 2,000 ms and begun the time lapse video. Figure 2 represents the specimen over the course of 5 minutes of constant exposure. The decrease in intensity in Figure 2 seems more evident than in Figure 1, clearly exhibiting effects of photobleaching.

Finally, we captured evidence of photobleaching of rhodamine stained F-actin. We initially set the exposure time to 8,500 ms, but found that it was difficult to visualize those results. Therefore we completed the experiment again with a lower exposure time of 7,500 ms. Figure 3 visualizes the results from the second trial of photobleaching the sample. Figure 3 reveals a more rapid decrease in intensity as picture B and C look relatively similar, unlike those time points from Figure 1 and Figure 2. 

Going off of my last draft, I am interested in the mechanisms involved in developing intense allergies to foods that peopole were previously not allergic to. I have witnessed this affect in two friends of mine. One began having allergies at the age of 20 and the allergies increased dramatically as to what activated a reaction. Eventually her food sources were limited to rice, chicken, and broccoli for most meals. Another friend of mine had been drinking beers since her late teens and suddenly developed an allergy to it that in just months became deadly and he had to cut it out of his life. 

After doing some shallow level research I found that early onset allergies are more common than you miight think. As it turns out, especially in recent years the number of people who go to doctors for allergies never experienced before or get their first allergy diagnosis in adulthood is rising. Speculated reasons could be climate change. Due to a changes in the environment, the reproduction cycles of plants are changing and not subtly. The pollen seasons are changing and elongation and pollen of trees an plants may be produced for a longer portion of the year because the cold doesn't last as long. 

Other reasons for adult onset allergies is constant exposure. A body can take years to become allergic to something it is constantly put in contact with, like a chemical to factory workers, or with the case of my friend his stomach and beer. The cause of the allergies is an intense and inappropriate immune response to an allergen in the body. Over stimulation of the immune system by the same compound for very long periods of time can increase the likelihood of becoming allergic to it.  

Colino, Stacey. “The Truth About Adult-Onset Allergies.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 11 Apr. 2018, 11:35am, health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/2018-04-11/the-truth-about-adult-onset-allergies.

Action potentials are the way in which neurons send and recieve signals. Neurons can be connected directly through gap junctions, which transmit electrical impulses as a form of transmiting information. Neurons can also communicate through chemical signals over the synapse between two neurons. The chemical signals are packaged in vesicles at the axon terminal (neuroproteins are made and packaged in the ribosomes), and sent across the small gap between neurons. The chemical vessicles bind to receptors at the post-synaptic neuron's dendrite. The molecules are taken up by the post-synaptic neuron and elicite an inhibitory, or an excitatory response. The post- synaptic neuron can have an action potential if the stimulus is enough to make the post-synaptic neuron reach threshold. Once threshold is reached, an action potential must occur because action potentials are all or nothing. After the action potential occurs, there is a period of time when a second action potential cannot occur. The absolute refractory period is when the GPCRs are locked and the channels cannot open to depolerize the cell. Once the cell is hyperpolerized enough, the GPCRs will uncouple so that the cell enters the relative refractory period. A second action potential can occur during the relative refractory period if the signal is strong enough. 

When kids are about three years old, they are able to understand depth perception and visual illusions. If a researcher places a toy in a bucket, the baby will reach inside the bucket to retreieve the toy. The baby also understands quantity. If a resercher has grahm crackers and places one in a backet and two in a seperate bucket right next to each other, the baby will immediately go to the bucket containing two grahm crackers.  The baby doesn't understand the representation of quantity using numbers, but does understand that one bucket contains more than the other. Similarly, when kids get a little bit older (3-4) they are able to count to ten. This does not mean anything however, just that they can remember a series of words. When a researcher points to two pictures and asks which picture contains a certain number of dots, the child has no idea which is which. The kids are able to memorize a pattern, but don't understsand the meaning of the words. 

Photobleaching is an unavoidable phenomenon in fluorescent microscopy that occurs when a fluorophore in a fluorescently labeled specimen forms a covalent bond with another molecule. As a result the fluorophore can no longer decay to its original state and emit a photon. In this lab we tested for the rate of photobleaching under various conditions and with three types of fluorescent stains: DAPI, fluorescein, and rhodamine. The intensity of nuclei were calculated over varying exposure times and were analyzed. We concluded that the use of an automatic shutter and excitation filters greatly reduced the rate of photobleaching for all fluorescent stains. Our data also suggested that DAPI photobleached at the lowest rate compared to the other fluorophores. Overall, fluorescent microscopy is an efficient way to visualize specific targets given that proper precautions are taken to prevent photobleaching.

Lastly, we chose to identify the green architecture already present around our focal bodies of water as a measure of the importance of green architecture in local construction projects. The hydrological environment of urban areas is markedly different from natural catchments, and is generally characterised by faster runoff process, shorter travel time for rainwater, and increased runoff volume (Sokac, 2019). Green rooves have served as the primary method employed to attempt to bring the hydrologic characteristics of urban environments closer to their natural counterparts (Cook, 2007). However, even though green rooves are often used to control runoff, their effectiveness has not been intensively researched (Berndtsson, 2010). Thus, we aim to document sustainable architecture structures around local small aquatic ecosystems: firstly in order to have another indirect measurement of their integrity, and secondly so as to determine whether or not local construction projects follow the trend of a growing importance of green building apparent in the construction market as a whole (Ahn & Pearce, 2007). 

One way of addressing a potential lack in flora diversity around local small aquatic ecosystems has been to plant non-invasive, sustainable species as per the recommendations of the EBVs employed by GEO BON (Haase et al., 2018). In order to remedy deficiencies in the matter economy, ILTER’s EI framework has suggested that sustainable ecosystem conditions could be reestablished by reducing excess runoff and subsequently abnormal levels of nutrients and other molecules like phosphate, nitrate, and ammonia (Haase et al., 2018). Green architecture has been used as a way of bringing an aquatic ecosystem closer to its natural hydrological conditions by creating structures that reduce anthropogenic impact on ecosystem hydrology (Cook, 2007). Some of these sustainable architecture developments include: green rooves, green streets, permeable paving, and the use of bioretention/ biofiltration materials and spaces (Cook, 2007; Davis, 2009). As these methods have been previously applied to reduce anthropogenic effects on ecosystem integrity, they are good candidates for potential ways of ameliorating the health of local small aquatic ecosystems.

Medical anthropology encourages people to look at medicine from many different perspectives. Instead of relying solely on symptoms and treatment of those symptoms, medicine should consider the human side of illness, and take into the people or persons affected by it. Modern medicine is becoming increasingly personal, both technologically (treatments and evaluations based on the individual’s genes) and emotionally with a strive towards better practitioner-patient relationships. It is important to realize every person experience illness differently and as such treatment (regardless of its form) should cater to the individual and consider their emotions, environment, and personal characteristics. This unfortunately does not always happen in the modern world and individuals can feel lost the complex medical world. It is important to take into account the affects of family, society, religion, and culture on an individual's medical history and future. 

Genetic mutations are often associated with negative effects; however, not all genetic mutations are bad. The negative effects associated with genetic mutations include diseases like cancer, and are responsible for many genetic diseases, and in rare cases can happen without a genetic predisposition to do so. The random, non-inherited, genetic mutations are the ones that can play a big positive role in evolution and directly lead to speciation. For example, a mouse living in a sandy environment would mostly be a light tan color to blend in with the sand to avoid predation. Say a nearby volcano erupts and the hardened magma changes the landscape from light sand to dark rock. Surviving mice adapted for the sandy environment would stick out to a bird of prey flying overhead, and would not survive long. On the other hand, a mouse with a random mutation for black fur color would have a better chance of surviving and passing on the genes for black fur. Mutations can have effects that hurt you or help you, and should not be lumped under just one category.