Writing in Biology

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disease of the retina that affects 1 in 3,500 people and is one of the leading causes of blindness. It was first discovered and diagnosed by According to an NHGRI article “Learning About Retinitis Pigmentosa” (2013), the disease can be diagnosed at age of 10 in most cases. There are different stages of retinitis pigmentosa. Generally, one of the first common signs is the degeneration of the rod cells. This causes the patient to lose their peripheral vision and acquire tunnel vision. On the other hand, some patients’ first symptoms of retinitis pigmentosa include lose of central vision. In both instances, the progressive cone and rod breakdown causes disruption in color perception, night blindness, peripheral and/or central vision. Because of the variability presented by retinitis pigmentosa, not all patients experience these symptoms during their lifetime, and not all patients become completely blind. Unfortunately, this disease cannot be corrected with corrective lenses and there are no known cures (Learning, 2013).

“Learning about Retinitis Pigmentosa.” National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), 27 Dec. 2013, www.genome.gov/13514348/learning-about-retinitis-pigmentosa/#al-5.

For our poster research project, we decided to count the flies, spiders and spider webs in various Morrill rooms. And see if there is any correlation with that data and how far away it is from the Morrill Greenhouses. Collecting the data was a difficult task because of the various parameters that need be taken into account when going from windowsill to windowsill. Sometimes we would walk into a room and come face to face with certain questions that we have not considered when visiting previous rooms. For instance, there are different kinds of windowsills, some windows are open and some aren't, some windows don't even have window sills. Some were very dirty and some of them we weren't able to come near due to tables being in the way. All in all, we tried our best and would make sure to include that in our paper if we were to write one.

My educational background has thoroughly prepared me for a Physician Assistant program. Currently, I am completing a comprehensive Undergraduate Program in Biology and English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In particular, my studies of upper level human physiology and neurology have prepared me immensely for PA school's more intensive curriculum. I hope that the skills I acquire from this graduate degree will supply me with the opportunity to work in the medical field as a Physician's Assistant and I am eager to contribute my enthusiasm and passion about medicine to the medical world. I am certain that my resume, which I have enclosed, will give you a greater understanding of my qualifications for this program. My experience as an Emergency Medical Technician has also provided me with critical and invaluable experience about the medical field and has made me certain that PA school is the path for me.

I am very interested in pursuing a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies at Northeastern University. After review of several different PA school programs and discussions with medical professionals, I have come to the conclusion that Northeastern University has a top tier Physician Assistant program due to its duration and options available within the program. It is ranked 20^th in the nation and has been running since 1971, making it one of the most experienced programs in the nation. The small class size is also very important to my me. I am also interested in the dual degree and certificate programs Northeastern offers, specifically, the PA/MPH pathway as I am very interested in public health.

Most of their time not spent hunting is spent foraging or resting, the former of which is done both on land and in the canopy, while the latter is only on land. Their dentition is largely unchanged from their black bear relatives, with grinding molars and premolars suited for eating fruits and plants, and large canines used for killing prey. The jungle bear has larger canines than its black bear counterpart. Due to the extremes of the island of Madagascar, such as cyclones or other extreme weather, the jungle bear will sometimes have to resort to insects as their main source of protein. If the larger vertebrates are less abundant, they will navigate the island until they find suitable food.

    Esters are known for their distinctive odors and are commonly used for food aromas and different fragrances. They are made by the food industry to mimic natural flavors of fruits and flowers which in turn lower product costs. The original combination of the reactants produced a strong, unpleasant smell likened to that of alcohol and body odor combined. The final product smelled like artificial banana flavoring. Other smells in the room included pineapple and cherry.

After having created a working map for our genomic DNA, identifying our gene of interest and doing extensive research on its possible functions, we needed to perform several experiments to find out more about our gene. The purpose of this lab was to use a reverse genetics approach to explore our Brachypodium distachyon gene of interest and its function by experimenting with mutant and wild type samples. We effectively worked from the mutant phenotype to explore the gene’s function. In doing so, we took several approaches to examine the phenotype, genomic DNA, phylogenetic relationships, and histology of the samples to identify the gene’s possible functions.

We performed a DNA extraction with the same protocol that we previously followed. We then used this extracted DNA, the PCR primers we ordered, and a PCR program we made which followed typical protocol to run a PCR reaction. PCR requires multiple, ordered cycles of denaturation, annealing and extension, of which different temperatures and time periods are used. The denaturation step melts the DNA, causing the DNA to split into single strands. The annealing step then lowers the temperature enough for the primers we selected to bind to the now single stranded DNA at a specific location in the sequence. The extension step then allows polymerase to add dNTPs to the growing complementary strand, effectively adding complementary strands starting from our primers.  This cycle must be run continually for many cycles to amplify our gene’s DNA. After the PCR reaction we ran a 1% Agarose gel electrophoresis to confirm that it was successful and that our DNA was amplified. This allows us to compare bands of PCR product DNA to molecular weight standards to identify our DNA and PCR primer in the gel. We then cut out the band we had identified as our amplified DNA and purified it. This gave us extremely pure DNA for our gene which we then sent to a lab to be sequenced.

Did you ever notice that certain phrases used on a daily basis could carry so many different meanings depending on the situation and the intonation of the phrase? In South Korea, the phrase “yuh boh sae yo” is used on a daily basis. Yuh boh literally translates to husband or wife in English so only married couples use this term in Korea. So if you were married, you’d call your wife or husband yuh boh instead of their name. This is where it gets interesting because the phrase yuh boh sae yo can be said to anyone and not just to your husband or wife. It is quite weird to me after thinking about this phrase that people who are single say this term as well when the literal translation of yuh boh is for married couples only. Also, this phrase is said by any gender and any age regardless of what social position they hold in South Korea so it can be said by anyone.

    In South Korea, when you first pick up the phone, people answer the phone by saying “yuh boh sae yo?” which in this case would mean “hello, who is this?” Or “hello, how are you?” Also, when you are talking on the phone and you say “yuh boh sae yo” several times repeatedly, it means that you can’t really hear the person in the other line so it would mean something like “hello? hello?! I can’t hear you.” This is where the intonation comes in place with this phrase. Depending on how you say it, in what situation you say it, and with what kind of tone you are saying it with makes this phrase have a completely different meaning. And I mean completely different as the person saying it knows what they mean but the person that hears it doesn’t really know the exact meaning sometimes. You have to almost guess what they mean when they say this phrase to you but to native Korean speakers, it is usually understood without saying what they mean.