Drafts

In the cross between unknown 1alpha and the known mutant ade1a and ade2a, the expectation was that barring mutation outside of the adenine pathway, the only reason why the unknown alpha1 would be red was because there is either a mutation in ade1, which would cause the cell to be pink, or ade2 which would cause the colony to be a deep red shade. Since unknown alpha 1 had a pink shade, the expectation was that it would have a mutation in ade1, and therefore in the cross between ade 1a resulted in a diploid colony that was pink, while complementation happens with ade2a and resulted in a white diploid colony. This did not happen. Instead  the cross with ade1a resulted in a white colony while a cross with ade2a resulted in a red colony, as seen in figure 1 and indicated in table 1. When the cross with the known mutant was transferred to the MV plate, the expectation was that the cross between unknown alpha 1 and ade2 would grow well and the cross with ade1 would grow poorly since the cross with ade 1 lacks complementation. Again the result did not support the expectation. The cross with ade1 grew well on the MV plate while the cross with ade2 grew poorly as shown in figure 2 and table 2. The expectation for the crosses of unknown alpha 1 was that both of the diploid colony would grow well. However, all three of the colonies grew well on the MV+adenine plates, as shown in figure 3 and table 3. 

In the crosses between the known mutants and unknown alpha 2, the expectation for the crosses on the YED plate was that since unknown alpha 2 was pink, similar to unknown alpha 1, the cross with ade1 would produce a pink diploid colony where cross with ade2 would result in complementation and as a result, have a white diploid colony. The result went against the expectations. The cross between unknown alpha 2 and ade 1a resulted in an white colony whereas the cross with ade2a resulted in a pink diploid colony as shown in figure 1 and table1. When the cross was transferred to an MV plate, the expectation was that the cross with ade1 and unknown alpha 2 would grow poorly while the diploid cross with ade 2 would grow well. The results partially reflected this as both of the diploid cross with both ade1 and ade2 grew well, as shown in figure 2 and table 2. In the MV+adenine plate, the expectation was that both of the resulting diploid crosses would be a small white colony. The resulting two diploid cells were able to grow on the MV+adenine plate which was expected (figure 3, table 3).

The goal of this experiment is to determine the characteristics of the unknown mutants. 

In this experiment, Yeast cells with unknown mutation that was made using UV light was crossed with other unknown mutant cells and other known mutants in order to characterize the unknown mutant cells. In this experiment, I crossed the unknown mutant colonies with known mutant colonies on an YED plate and then replicate the colonies on a MV plate and a MV+adenine plate. Using the unique characteristics of the different plates and the understanding of complementation, I analyzed the data to characterize the unknown mutants. 

RESULTS

    In the experiment that I conducted, in order to know the genotypes of the unknown haploid yeast cells, the unknown yeast cells were crossed with known mutant yeast cells used in previous experiments and with each other on an YED plate. Then the resulting plate was copied onto a MV plate and an MV+adenine plate. In general, the control was expected and there some crosses such as unknown alpha1 x ade 2a that produced a visible mutant, but the majority of the crosses resulted in complementation and as a result did not have a visible phenotype that could be seen in the YED plate. However, there were some mutation that was seen when a seemingly normal colony was transferred into an MV or MV+adenine plate.

Since I want to become an optometrist, I wanted to discover what would happen if you placed a paper over a lense that was shining the image on a screen. The image becomes dimmer. This is becase the paper is covering half the numeber of photons that are coming in through the lens, making the image less bright. Blocking a portion of the lense reduces the number of phtons that are refracted by the lens, which relates to the intensity of the image. Intensity related to brightness which explains the dimmer image. Lenses are very cool to learn about. There are many different kinds of lenses, convergent and divergent. These lenses change the placing of the image, as it could be virtual or real, depending on the type of lens. 

Traits such as hair color, freckles, and certain diseases can be passed from generation to generation. You recieve one copy of a gene from your biological mother, and one copy of a gene from your biological father. alternative forms of a gene are called alleles. The genes inheited can form either dominant or recessive phenotypes. The dominant phenotype is defined as the phenotype that results from the heterozygous gneotype. It is 2/3 likely that you will have the dominant phenotype, and 1/3 likely you will have the recessive phenotype. The dominant phenotype is not stronger or better than the recessive, it is more likely because it is haplosufficient: one copy of the dominant allele is sufficient for the dominant phenotype. 

In the experiment run, cyclohexanol was dehydrated using phosphoric acid and heat as catalysts to form the produce cyclohexene and produced a 40% yield.  The dehydration reaction utilizes 1 mole of the alcohol to produce 1 mole of the alkene.  To determine the purity of the product, infrared spectrometry and gas chromatography was used.  If the product was pure, there would be peaks at around 3000-27000 cm-1 which indicate a carbon bonded to a hydrogen.  In addition, there will be a peak at about 1700 cm-1 indicating the carbon double bonded to another carbon.  In the IR, both these trends were seen.  Importantly, there was no peaks in the stretch before the 3000-27000 cm-1 band which would have indicated the presence of an alcohol group.  The alcohol is found in the starting material and a sign of a pure product and complete reaction would be its removal in the product.  In gas chromatography, the product was injected into the column where it is heated and is pushed through the column with helium.  The lower boiling product will move quicker through the column and have a longer retention time.  In the results of the gas chromatography of the sample, only one peak was found indicated a single product as 100% of the area of the results can be found under the curve indicating a pure product.  Based on the results testing the purity of the cyclohexene product, the sample is pure.   

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.