Drafts

For a 60 years, scientists have deduced that medical therapy is not a generalized treatment. This is due to the widspread side effects in patients who undergo therapy, with treatment rarely ending in success. Undoubtedly, there was much to be discovered about the relationship between host genetics and response to treatment for diseases. However, it is this drawback that has lead to modern day’s focus on Personalized medicine (PM). Disease therapies are now fine-tuned and specialized, reducing the rate of failure to almost zero. Though this medical model is not necessarily new, technological and computational advances have allowed PM to increasingly gain attention within the last decade. Current research on personalized medicine has created opportunities for both the patient and healthcare providers in the pharmaceutical sector.

To add, the PM approach costs less, and is more efficient than the traditional medical care process. This is because of its ability to individualize, creating more space for the budget by reducing the large amounts spent on Clinical trials (CT) traditionalluy used with other techniques. PM focuses on the DNA of the patient to treat disease. There are new advances which will gain public’s understanding of the human body and expand the market. Scientists have been researching our genome and focusing on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) through the development of genetic analysis tests. These tests, or genetic kits made available to the public, are in the first stages of many.

Over 60 years ago, scientists had began speculating that medical therapy should not be considered a generalized treatment. Too often would patients respond with varying side effects, with treatment rarely ending in widespread success. Undoubtedly, there was still much to be discovered about the relationship between host genetics and response to treatment for diseases. However, it is this drawback that has lead to modern day’s massive limelight on Personalized medicine (PM). Disease therapies can now be fine-tuned at the patient level, reducing the rate of failure to virtually zero. Though this medical model is not necessarily new, technological and computational advances have allowed PM to rapidly gain attention within the last decade. Current research on personalized medicine has opened a plethora of possibilities for both the patient and for healthcare providers in the pharmaceutical sector.

Additionally, the PM approach is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional medical care process because of its individualization, and can create more space for the budget by reducing the large amounts spent on Clinical trials (CT). At the core of PM’s ideology is the individual, represented by their DNA. There are new advances which will revolutionize the public’s understanding of the human body and expand the market. Scientists have been researching the genome and focusing on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): the gateway to good health and longevity, through the development of genetic analysis tests. Though genetic kits are still in the first stages of infancy, the possibilities are endless.

T cells are synthesized in the red bone marrow of the body. When a T cell receptor is created, it has the potential to differentiate into a helper T cell or a Cytotoxic T cell. Helper T cells help carry out interactions involving pathogens and cytotoxic T cells kill the pathogens. If the T cell receptor becomes a cytotoxic T cell, it will carry a CD8 protein which recognizes class I MHC cells.  Once the T cell divides to become cytotoxic T cells , they run around in the periphery and kill our own abnormal cells. If the T cell differentiates to become a Helper T, they will carry CD4 proteins and recognize class II MHC's. Upon activation they divide and produce memory cells. They also regulate and coordinate an immune response. In addition, the T-helper cell activates / turns on the B cell. B cell divides and as a result we get lots of other cells. Plasma cells that secrete antibodies. T cell helps turn on the B cell which helps make antibodies and memory cells. 

An economic analysis might seem like a rather uninteresting perspective to the antebellum era. However, the economic pressures that divided, yet united Northern and Southern America can not be overlooked. Early 1800s both North and South relied on farming. In the north, close family units worked together on a small subsistent farm with only a local trading economy available. In the South the farms were larger due to the climate and crops grown. Around 1810 the capitalist economy in the North started to take hold and break down the small family units. Woman began to move to the cities to work in factories and send back pay checks to the family. There was a sudden emergence of an unskilled labor, working class in the north. With the introduction of the cotton gin, the south underwent a smiliar explosive economic expansion. The number of cotton that could of been produced exponentially increased by 1840 and therefore the number of slaves required to operate such large operations increased as well. Even though the international slave trade was disbained in 1808, the upper south started to sell slaves to the lower south due to over crowding and industrailization in the upper south. Both the North and the South looked West as a means of economic expansion. The North needed the West to be strictly a free labor system so as to not compete with slavery. However the South wanted to move West with slaves in order to keep expanding their current reality. This results in the basis for initail conflict between the north and the south. 

Our bodies require the formation of proteins at all times - whether it's for cellular function or intercellular function or it is needed for an organ in general. All systems in our body need protein to function. The process involves two parts to it: transcription and translation. Transcription is the process by which the DNA transfers its information to an mRNA, while translation is the process by which mRNA helps to create the protein. During transcription, DNA unwinds and mRNA nucleotides (cytosine, guanine, adenine and uracil) align along the sense strand according to the base-pairing rule. One the strand forms, it is transported out to the ribosome subunit where translation takes place. There are tRNA nucleotides floating around in the cytoplasm. They bind to amino acids and transport them to the same ribosomal subunit where the mRNA is waiting to br translated. The tRNA align the corresponding amino acids and form a polypeptide chain. Then the tRNA leaves and the polypeptide chain is either transported within the cell or out of the cell via exocytosis. Most of the time the chain is transported to the Golgi body for modification. Once done, they are packaged into vesicles and transported out via exocytosis. 

Facial recognition science is a very interesting and is a field relatively little known by the public. Firstly, research of facial recognition by humans has been performed, and the question asked was "What kind of biases are there that determine ability to recognize faces and identify their characteristics?". Susan Mason examined how age corresponded to ability to identify faces and recall names connected with the faces based on age similarity between the subject and the example. She found that people were more likely to recall the names and recognize faces as familiar of people who were similar in appearance to themselves, namely age being a factor in facial similarity between subject and example. This means that older people recognized and recalled the names of other elderly people in the experiment more often than they did younger people, and vice versa for younger people. (Mason)

Now this is all relative to the human ability, but with modern technology we no longer have to rely on the human capacity. Software has been developed to interpret faces and characteristics, identify key features, and assign a name and gender to a face. There are draw backs to this unperfected science, however. University of Colorado Boulder's Lisa Marshall published an article examining the ability and inability of this technology. Many different softwares are coming out that are able to accurately identify age and gender, amoung cisgendered people. That is, born females and males that identify with their gender are categorically matched to their genders more than 95% of the time. However, when the aoftware attempts a gender identification for trans and nonbinary gendered persons, the data does not look as good. This idea of rendering the gender identify of an individual by a photo completely falls apart when their characteristics and identity do not align for the software. (Marshall)

Mason, Susan E. (1986) Age and gender as factors in facial recognition and identification, Experimental Aging Research, 12:3, 151-154, DOI: 10.1080/03610738608259453

Marshall, Lisa. “Facial Recognition Software Has a Gender Problem.” CU Boulder Today, University of Colorado Boulder, 9 Oct. 2019, www.colorado.edu/today/2019/10/08/facial-recognition-software-has-gender....

A well-documented indicator of climate change effecting the ecosystems is flowering times of plants. Earlier flowering times have resulted from the changing climate and one of the species affected by this phenomenon are cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon, native to Massachusetts. The increase in global temperature has changed the phenology of this species which has left it vulnerable. This has major implications to cultivators of cranberries whom have been largely used to sustain a growing population of people. This change in phenology can be seen using the documented times of cultivators spraying flowering cranberry bud with fungicides. Ultimately, cranberry flowering times is a well-documented event that casts insight on how climate change can affect flower phenology and crop yield of a major food source in the North Eastern United States.

It is amazing as to how much information can be packed into our genes. Starting from our physical traits to having the ability to perform higher cognitive functions, it is all governed by our genes. The more you dig deeper into the structure of the gene, the more impossible it seems. DNA exists in the form of a helix and then it is further coiled to pack a great amount into a nucleus. The helix consists of two strands that run parallel to one another, but in opposite directions. One strand is known as the sense strand and the other one is anti-sense strand. Sense strand is usually used for mRNA transcription when making proteins. Each strand is made up of a series of nucleotides: cytosine, guanine, thymine and adenine. Each nucleotide is attached to a phosphate group and a deoxyribose sugar. The nucleotides have specific structures that are similar to one another: cytosine and thymine are the pyramidine bases, while adenine and guanine are the purine bases. The nucleotides have a base pairing rule through which they pair to one another on the two strands: adenine pairs with thymine, and cytosine pairs with guanine. DNA is also self-replicating. When in need of new strands, DNA helicase (an enzyme) breaks the bond between two strands and free nucleotides make new bonds with the two old strands. This process gives rise to two new sets of DNA strands. DNA then forms its helicase again. The process is much more complex and involves other factors. 

Recently, one of my teammates got a concussion as she tripped and fell and banged her head against a hard couch. This resulted in her having a moderate concussion in which she needs to be absent from school for a week and refrain from any physical acitvity. I wanted to to focus my writing on concussions today as it is something I have not done much research on. Concussions are brain injuries that result in a temporary loss of brain function. It alterates your brain function, and sometimes the patient will not be aware of what day it is, at severe cases what year it is. A concussion can affect many things such as memory, reflexes, balance, speech and muscle coordination. More  than 300,000 concussions are sport related, usually being Hockey or Football. Additionally, it is very common in soccer as they can bonk heads with another player, or even on the ground after a hard fall. Symptoms include headaches, an inconsistancy of thoughts, and difficulty looking at a screen. Unfortunately, concussions are hard because once you get a single concussion, you are prone to get another one very easily. Thankfully, rest is key, and doesn't need any further medications. Recurrent concussions can however be unsafe, and can result into Chronic traumatic encelphalopathy, also known as CTE. 

Microtubules in plant cells are responsible for a series of structures and processes absent from animal cells. In plant cells, microtubules stack at the cell cortex as parallel loops. These loops act as the tracks on which cellulose synthase moves while it synthesizes cellulose microfibrils. As such, the cellulose microfibrils are produced parallel to the cortical microtubules. Disrupting either of these processes results in isotropic growth. Next, during cell division, cortical microtubules will accumulate into a band around the nucleus known as the preprophase band (PPB). The PPB dissolves before spindle assembly leaving behind division markers that label where the cell plate will join the cell wall. Lastly, microtubules play another important role in plant cell division during the formation of the phragmoplast. The phragmoplast is a complex of microtubules, actin, and vesicles that is generated after nuclear separation and serves as the cytokinetic mechanism of plant cell division. To generate the cell plate precursor to the cell wall that will eventually divide the new plant cells, microtubules are arranged parallel to one another pointing towards the region demarcated by the division markers. Along the microtubules are transported vesicles containing callose that will fuse to form the cell plate, growing it until it reaches the pre-existing cell wall. This mechanism generates a precursor cell wall made of callose that will eventually be replaced with cellulose. Additionally, the formation of the cell plate involves production of primary plasmodesmata due to the presence of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The ER blocks the cell plate in certain areas generating holes in the cell wall that will become the primary plasmodesmata between the newly divided cells.