Henry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Henry - Essay Example On approaching, he sees that the new owner of the hotel, which has been occupied up since World War II, is carrying boxes from the basement that contain personal items-clothing, photos, diaries and wedding memorabilia that belonged to Japanese families who had earlier been evacuated to internment camps during the war. Henry is taken back to his childhood by these small items, with a strong pull of memories though he tries as much as he can to resist it (Ford 308). This opening scene shows us to Henry present life, which gives the framework for the story in this Jamie Ford’s debut novel. This frame story suddenly leads the reader to the story line in 1942at Rainier Elementary school. Henry was just twelve years old and is under a scholarship. In this school, he is the only Chinese the rest are all whites. Henry’s father who is a Chinese and immensely proud of sending his son to a white school, do not at any time expect or allow anybody to be mistaken on Henry’s nationality. In the national consciousness, the events of Pearl Harbor are still fresh and Henry’s father is passionately against the Japanese and so he always sends Henry to school with a shirt with a button declaring ‘I am a Chinese’. This is the first moment of many depicts Henry’s already difficult relationship with his father (Ford 112). The tension between Henry’s American perspective and his father’s traditionalism Chi nese values is one of the major themes in the novel. He is struggling to live with his father. His life as a Chinese in an all-white school seems to be smooth, but the button provokes teasing by several of his class bullies, and his work-study job serving lunch becomes part of the day he dreaded the most. He arrives in the kitchen one day and finds a young Japanese lady, Keiko Okabe, also assigned for same shift. Being the only Japanese student in the school also, Keiko

Compare the powers of the federal government under the Articles of Essay

Compare the powers of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation to the powers of the federal government under the United States Constitution - Essay Example The US constitution gave powers to the federal government over issues of the national concern while the state government handled the issues of domestic concern. Regardless of that the Articles are not widely used, it is still a part of the United States constitution and still used from time to time to complement the United States Constitution. Although the Articles were the perfect constitution drafted, it still has some similarities with the U.S. constitution. First, both of them are federal U.S. documents. The central government is still the one in charge of the value of money and not the states. Both constitutions have defined term limits for the different offices in the government and they can borrow coins and set up a federal post office. The documents have a provision that can allow the government to establish an army and declare war on other countries and does not allow one state to enter into war by itself (Vile 34). However, as stated earlier, Article of Confederation had its flaws but the constitution came along and ratified the problems. As provided by the Articles, the federal government had very little power to make or enforce laws. Nine out of thirteen states needed in order to pass the laws. Only the states could have the privilege to create and operate courts. However, under the Constitution, the federal government is able to enforce and interpret the laws. Only fifty percent plus one vote and the signature from the president is required to pass laws. The executive branch headed by the president chooses the cabinet that checks on power of judiciary and legislature. The Article of Confederation allowed the federal government to borrow and spend funds, but it had not power to raise or level taxes of any kind (Vile 55). It also had no power to control trade agreements among the states or internationally. Each state entered into its

Effects of Cor and US on Taxol Production of Taxus x Media

Effects of Cor and US on Taxol Production of Taxus x Media SUMMARY OF PROPOSED RESEARCH INCLUDING KEY GOALS For scientifically qualified assessors: Taxol is a natural diterpenoid alkaloid first isolated from the inner bark of pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia (Wani et al., 1971) and widely use in the pharmaceutical industry as the antitumor agents. However, low taxol content, high cost of extraction and the destruction of yew trees spark a major environmental controversy and cause a problem to fulfil its growing demand. The application of plant tissue culture technique has appeared as an eco-friendly method and feasible approach for commercial supply, but the production rate of this secondary metabolite are still very low. Only 10% of taxol secreted in the extracellular medium of T x media suspension cultures (Wickremesinhe and Arteca, 1993). These problems prompted a great effort to discover and identify the alternative means to enhance the mass production of taxol in plant cell cultures. In this study, elicitation using coronatine (Cor) and ultrasound (US) will be used for synthesis and transport of taxol. Cor is a toxin produced by Pseudomonas syringae and can act as a plant growth regulator and stimulates the defence mechanism in plants. Meanwhile, Low-intensity US is a physical or mechanical stimulus that can enhance the cellular transporter activity and trigger the pathway of defence-related secondary metabolites. It is hypothesized that the taxol accumulation in Taxus x media culture is higher than control (unelicited) and single treatment after treated with Cor and low- energy US. The experiment will use two-stage suspension culture and longitudinally young stem as the explant. The effect of these two elicitors on biomass production and taxol production will be analysed. At the end of this study, it is expected that the taxol production and cell growth will show positive result after elicited with Cor and low-energy US. This study will be a significant endeavour in enhance the release of taxol through elicitation approach. For lay readers: Secondary metabolites are chemicals produced by plants and do not have any physiological functions, but use as flavour, food colours, fragrances and pharmaceutical study. Taxus species are one of the medicinal plants that can produce natural anti-cancer agents known as taxol. However, over exploitation of natural sources of taxol from bark, stem, roots and needles put yew trees as an endangered species. Besides, the low yield and slow growth of yew trees limit its potential as a viable source of taxol. Thus, it is important to find alternative method to increase the taxol production in Taxus sp. The production of taxol from Taxus x media can be greatly enhanced through elicitation. Elicitation is a method to stimulate the gene expression of enzymes responsible for the synthesis of secondary metabolites. The substance used in stimulating the production of exuded compound is called elicitor. Elicitor is formed inside or outside of plant cells and imitate as a stress to activate the pla nt defence systems and cause qualitative and quantitative changes in the secondary metabolite content. Two elicitors that will be used in this study are Coronatine (Cor) and low-energy ultrasound (US). Plants use Cor to build defensive compounds and as growth regulators. US, on the other hand can stimulated the cell membrane permeabilization and encourage the release of taxol to culture medium. Plant cell cultures will be used to retrieve the secondary metabolite on demand by maintain the growth of plant cells in aseptic condition with appropriate supply of nutrients. It is expected that the accumulation of taxol treated with elicitors is higher than the untreated culture. This study will provide a good understanding about the effect of elicitors in activate the chemical defence system in plants and directly stimulate the production of taxol. RESEARCH Outcomes / Products What is the proposed outcome of your project: It is expected that all treatments will give significant increase of taxol accumulation when compared with control. Combination between Cor and US exposure will improve the extracellular and cell-associated taxol production. The expected taxol production from the treatment of both Cor and US is 20 to 50% higher than control. Elicitation of Taxus x media using Cor and US also will enhance the cell growth. The use of suspension culture will be one of the reasons that improve the accumulation of taxol and can be a good strategy for the continous production of taxol. Why is it important? Taxol is well known anti-cancer drug derived from natural source of Taxus species. However, direct extraction from yew trees has subjected them as an endangered species. On the other hand, the process of extraction and purification of taxol is also time consuming and not economically feasible. Thus, plant tissue culture is a promising approach to obtain this secondary metabolite. However, one of the main problems in increase the taxol production is instability in the synthesis of secondary metabolite. In order to maximize the yield of taxol, the combination of biotic and abiotic elicitor can be a good strategy. Besides, the elicitation approach is also more economical beneficial compare with other methods such as precursor feeding, phytohormone regulation and biotransformation. US is a simple but effective elicitor while Cor is expected has the similar biological activity as methyl jasmonate (MeJA), the most common elicitor used in stimulate secondary metabolites. The results from th is study can provide a fundamental understanding of the effects of US in combination with Cor on the production of secondary metabolite and plant cell culture. Understanding how Taxus x media cell culture react with these two elicitors can provide a a beneficial in link the growth rate with the production of taxol. DETAILS OF RESEARCH PROJECT Introduction and Background: Taxus species are medicinal plants and members of the Taxaceae family that can produce taxol, a chemotheraphy drug used widely in cancers treatment. FDA approval of taxol in 1992 and a series of success of taxol in clinical test for various cancers led to massive demand for this active substance. The increase of demand was expected since taxol also useful to combact non-canceorus disorders, such as polycystic kidney disease (Woo et al., 1994). However, it is difficult to perform large-scale culture because of the difficulty to gain this active compound from natural source. Three mature, century-old yew trees would produce only 1 g of taxol. It is estimated that about 10 tons of bark or felling of 3000 trees was needed to yield 1 kg of purified taxol to treat 500 cancer patients. Besides, the natural source of taxol from yew trees is only about 0.01% to 0.06% (Sung et al., 2005). All these concerns have prompted extensive efforts in find the method that can increase the mass productio n taxol. Taxus x media is choose for this study since it is good starting materials for the taxol production via biotechnological technique. Besides, the amount of taxol produce by this cultivar is the highest among other Taxus species (Table 1). The elicitation approach has been one of the most promising strategies in improve the mass production of taxol and other secondary metabolites in cell cultures (Roberts ND Shuler, 1997). The idea of using elicitor arise from the defence pathway utilize by plant in deal with environmental stress, pathogenic microorganisms, insects and higher herbivorous predators by stimulate the production of offensive chemicals like secondary metabolites. One of the most commonly studied and effective biotic elicitor is methyl jasmonate (MeJA). However, the report that Cor resemble the biological activity of the jasmonic acid gives an idea that the mode of action between these two compounds could be similar. The chemical structure of Cor is more stable than MeJA because of the rigid cis-orientation in its bi-cyclic skeleton. This lead to the higher levels of induction in the production of secondary metabolites by plant cells treated with Cor when compare with those treated with natural JA. Although Cor stimulated paclitaxel production with less efficiency than MeJA, it resulted in higher paclitaxel excretion to the liquid phases of culture medium. Besides that, there are not many reports about the influence of Cor on the production of secondary metabolite in plant cell suspension culture. Table 1: Content (wt %) of selected taxanes in different species of Taxus plants (Lin Lidong, 2003) The combination of biotic and abiotic elicitor had synergistic effects to taxol production in many reports. Thus, it is expected that the combine use of Cor with a physical stimulus like US might increase the yield of taxol in the Taxus culture. Generally, the abiotic elicitors use in experimental studies is chemical agents, heavy metals and biochemical agents like polysaccharides and organic acid. The use of US to biotechnology is relatively new and not many reports can be found on the effects of US in increase the useful secondary metabolites. This simple and effective elicitor can activate cells or enzymes and induced plant defence metabolism by ultrasonic waves. High intensity US waves can bring detrimental effect to cells, enzymes and other biological materials. Meanwhile, low intensity US waves can change the cellular metabolism, improve the mass transfer of reagents and enhance the release of intracellular products from cultured cells by increase the membrane permeability. The use of US will not disrupt the culture process and allow continuous use of cell’s biosynthetic capacity (Kilby and Hunter, 1990). US deserve an extensive research regarding its effects in plant secondary metabolite due to its wide application in biological field. The combination of Cor and US has great prospect and economic benefits in enhance the taxol production at low cost. Until now, there is no study or information about the effect of Cor and US and their combination on the Taxus species. Work which has led up to the project: The production of taxol using cell cultures were first reported by Christen et al., in 1989. Cell suspension cultures can emit secondary metabolites into growth medium. For instance, the production of resveratrol in the medium was higher than in the cell (Zamboni et al., 2009). Work by Kajani et al., in 2010 on Taxus baccata L cell culture showed that 74.9 % of total taxanes was exuded to growth medium (5. 584 mg/ L). Roberts et al., in 2003 reported that suspension culture of Taxus canadensis secreted more than 90% of the total taxol to the medium after treated with cell wall enzymes. Cell culture of Taxus chinensis emitted 90% of the total paclitaxel in medium with chitosan (Zhang et al., 2007). Komaraiah et al., in 2003 reported that up to 70% of the plumbagin in Plumbago rosea cell culture were released into the medium. Taxol accumulate at high level (1.5 mg/L) in the second phase of growth Previous research by J. Wu and L. Lin in 2003 on the application of US as a physical stimulus and MeJA in increase the mass production of taxol in Taxus chinensis becomes a fundamental reference for this study. Their study showed that the taxol yield was increased about 1.5- to 1.8-fold with 2 minutes US exposure once or twice during a 4 week culture period. Meanwhile, the total taxol after treated with MeJA increase about 5-fold. The percentage of extracellular taxol and cell-associated taxol also showed significant increase. The taxol production from combination between US and MeJA treatment was 20 to 50% higher than each of the treatment used alone. Another research by Wu and Lin in 2002 found that low energy US can play a role as abiotic elicitor to trigger the plant defence responses and induce the production of plant metabolite in cell cultures. Apart from that, US also can increase the cell membrane permeabilization to increase the efficiency of intracellular product release. In their previous study, they found that the combination of US stimulation and in situ solvent extraction in a Lithospermum erythrorhizan cell culture led to 2 to 3-fold increases in the yield of shikonin. Tamogami and Kodama reported in 2000 that Accumulation of flavonoid phytoalexins in rice occurred when treated with Cor. This shown that the effect of Cor on flavonoid production was greater than that of JA or its precursor, 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA). Cor also gave positive result in the alkaloid production in Eschscholzia californica cell cultures (Haider et al., 2000). The previous work by also showed the greater increase in the accumulation of glyceollins, the phytoalexins of soybean (Glycine max. L.), in soybean cell suspension cultures after treated with Cor. Besides, the effect of Cor in induced the phytoalexin productin was greatly better when compared with JA and MeJA. (Fliegmann et al., 2003; Lauchli et al, 2002). Aims of the project: To study the biological and synergistic effects of Cor and US on the taxol production of Taxus x media cell culture. (d) Experimental design and methods to be used in investigating this problem: Cell culture establishment Approximately 1.0 cm long section of longitudinal young stem of Taxus x media will be wash with distilled water and soak in 70% (v/v) ethanol for 30 to 60 seconds. After that, the stem will be surface sterilized by immersion in 1.5% sodium hypochlorite with a few drops of Tween 20 for 20 to 30 minutes. After sterilization, the explants will be rinsed 3 times with sterile distilled water. Next, the longitudinally halved stem sections will be placed with the inner cut surface in contact with the solid Gamborg’s B5 media to induce calli. The media supplemented/ fortified with 3.0% sucrose (w/v), 0.8% agar (w/v), 1 mg/L 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 0.5 mg/L 6-Benzyladenine (BA), at pH 5.5. All of the cultures will be placed in darkness at 25oC for 25 days. To obtain a homogenous callus, several subcultures of calli will be done every 3 weeks. The snow, friable and massive callus will be used as the inoculums for cell suspension culture. Cor treatment The same media without agar will be used for cell suspension culture. About 10 g of fresh weight of callus will be used as the inoculums and inoculated into 300 mL conical flasks containing 100 mL liquid growth B5 medium and placed on orbital shakers (120 rpm) at 25oC in darkness. 1 uM Cor will be added to the shake-flask culture on day 7 post inoculation since the Taxus cell culture is expected to be in the middle of a rapid growth phase, which is usually a favourable time for elicitor treatment in most plant cell cultures. 3) US treatment An ultrasonic cleaning bath will be used to sonicate the cells in Erlenmeyer flasks from the shake-flask culture (Lin et al., 2001). The bath will had a fixed frequency of 38.5 KHz and variable power levels. The bath temperature wwill be maintained at 25 ±0.5oC. The culture will be sonicated at level 2 US power (corresponding to 13.7 mW/ cm3 in the culture) once (on day 5, 9, or 16) or twice (day 5 and day 9) for 2 min each time (total US energy of each exposure = power x period = 1.64 J/cm3). The US power and exposure period will be selected based on the study by Lin et al., (2001) and Lin and Wu in 2002. Determination of cell density The cells in the shake-flasks will be separated from the medium by filtration through a Whatman filter paper under vacuum. The wet cell mass will be rinsed thoroughly with deionized water and then dried at 50oC in an oven to constant weight. Taxol extraction and determination The taxol content in powdered dried cell and medium in the culture flasks will be extracted by methods previously described by Wu and Lin (2003). The dried cells will pulverized and suspended in 10 mL methanol, filtered and air-dried. After that, the cells will be re-dissolved in dichloromethane: water (1:1, v/v) followed by centrifugation at 5000 rpm. Dichloromethane phase will be collected, air-dried and re-dissolved in 100  µL methanol (HPLC grade) and filtered passing through a 0.45  µm syringe filter, before being injected to HPLC. The taxol content in the extract solution will be quantified by HPLC system, equipped with a C-18 column of 25 x 4.6 mm dimension. Taxol will be eluted with a linear gradient of acetonitrile and water (45: 55, v/v)/ at a flow rate of 1 mL/min with UV detection at 227 nm. Identification of taxol will be accomplished by comparison of retention times with authentic standard. Statistical analysis The results will be analyzed statistically by one-way ANOVA analysis and Duncan multiple range tests. The data will be presented as the mean value  ± standard deviation (SD) of three independent experiments.

The Madina Collection of Islamic Art at the LACMA Essay example -- ess

The Madina Collection of Islamic Art at the LACMA Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced recently that it had acquired â€Å"the remarkable Madina Collection of Islamic art. The collection contains works of various media dating from the late 7th through 19th centuries from the vast areas that comprise the Islamic world, from Southern Spain to Central Asia† (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). While the museum already had quite an extensive collection of Islamic art, this particular exhibit truly adds the collections as a whole. The Madina Collection of Islamic Art   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first item to be examined is a bowl from the 14th century, from either Egypt or Syria (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It is ceramic, fritware and is underglazed-painted (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It is 10 and  ¾ inches in diameter. The design is very symmetrical and incredibly colorful in its green and cream along with black lines. Without knowing what the design symbolizes one could imagine that it is very much an Islamic design, and appears to be religious or spiritual in content. There is a Mandela presence to the design, with very strong lines and striking elements. http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record&key=8533   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next piece to be examined is cup from the 13th century, from Greater Iran. This cup is â€Å"Silver, gilded, chased and punched† and measures â€Å"3 7/8 x 4 5/8 in. (9.84 x 11.75 c...

The Shadow of Hate

The Shadow of Hate The documentary remarks on the origins of race and how it has affected history and its people. There has been a history of intolerance in America against the â€Å"them†, the others. â€Å"Them†, being the different, the unknown. It is clear that people are afraid of the unknown because of the uncertainty it brings thus they immediately label anything different as â€Å"them†. The ultimate concept I was able to derive from the documentary was that race is an idea created by society to further certain people; whether it be on a political, social, or economical aspect.The Shadow of Hate accounts the troubling relic embedded in our country, which is the overwhelming prejudice that has occurred in America for centuries. Quakers, Native Americans, and the Japanese-Americans are a few groups that have been significantly affected by whites’ obsession and preoccupation to remain â€Å"superior† to the rest, the â€Å"them†. The doc umentary even brings forth current tensions that cause rifts between our cities and communities.I found alarming how Thomas Jefferson, one of our nation’s own Founding Fathers and the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence, owned slaves and wrote how the blacks were â€Å"inferior to the whites†. The man who wrote â€Å"All men are created equal†, was the man who lived by exactly the opposite of his own words. Learning of how the slave trade became popular in America only deepened my view of people’s skewed perception of blacks. Since matters in Europe were settling down, less Europeans felt the need to relocate to America where they would pay for their voyage through servitude.When the indentured servants from Europe became scarce, it caused a labor shortage therefore farmers turned to the Atlantic slave trade where they traded goods in return for slaves. Trading people for materials expresses their view of how slaves were merely â€Å"mate rials† needed for their farms. Slaves were not people, they were objects, and why? Because of their skin color. Something as shallow as a color has affected so much of our history. The same goes for the Native Americans. They were moved to and fro, in their own land.They observed as their land was being taken away, not allowed to say anything. Those that did, were silenced. Americans took advantage of them by forcing them to assimilate and to become â€Å"civilized†. The Americans took away their cultural identity and rushed them into a culture completely unknown to them. I do find this to be one of the most tragic occurrence of prejudice in our nation. The Native Americans once had such a rich culture with unique clothes, music, and food; only for them to be stripped of them.Most Native Americans cooperated with the Americans and converted to Christianity, earned an English education, and learn to farm. They began own land and some even owned slaves. This I find troubl ing because I feel this gave the Native Americans a false sense of superiority and not only that, but having a minority enslave a minority makes no moral sense in my view. Eventually, with Jefferson’s support, the Native Americans assimilated and little by little, signed away their land until they were left with practically nothing (gave away over 90% of their land).The Native Americans very much tried to become part of the American culture, yet they were once again relocated as dictated by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. A quarter of them died on the journey alone in 1838. This is why I also find the Native Americans’ history of prejudice so disheartening– because they attempted to assimilate into American culture, and they did, yet they were once again abused and forced to move from their own land again. The other examples of prejudice such as when the Mexican soldier to served in the U.S. army was not allowed a proper burial at first, foreshadowed the next fe w decades of prejudice America would experience. I gained a lot from the film, learning of how warped people’s views were of blacks and other races. Educated scientists such as Agassiz, Morton, and Nott all agreed that any race that was not white, was inferior. Agassiz and other scientists even pooled together all research to conclude that blacks were a different species in â€Å"Types of Mankind†.It is alarming that educated scholars once processed information this way and truly believed they were correct. It is dangerous when educated people believe they are correct on anything and then publish because many people will read their work and believe that the writer/researcher must be correct because he/she is educated. Skin color was not the only aspect Americans based their racism upon, religion also took an important role in our country’s history with prejudice. Leo Frank was subjected to peoples’ hatred because of his religion.I find that the song state d in the documentary reflects how casually people, even children, expressed their hatred. Even at a young age, children learn a lot from their surroundings and they would objectify people based on their religion. â€Å"Little Mary Phagan went to work one day, little did she know the Jew would take her life away† was the song little kids would sing to as they danced in a circle and played around. I feel that this reflects how casually dominant prejudice appeared in society at the time.The fact alone that whites invented this â€Å"White Mans Burden† reflects their obsession with believing they are superior. An extra ego-booster for them was when they took control of Guam, Mexico and the Philippines after their victory against Spain in 1898. They felt that it was just another opportunity for them to tell other people of other cultures what to do, how to dress, how to speak, what to believe etc. America emerged as the most prosperous country and most powerful empire in th e world at the 20th century, once again, reinforcing their preoccupation with superiority.

Mythology Character Chart

He hates Odysseus, tried to kill Odysseus in a big storm. Preventing him from going home. Athena Goddess of war and marriage Daughter of Zeus She's crushing on Odysseus, trying to help save him, Hermes Messenger God Speaks with Odysseus and gives him the herb and tells him how to escape Circe. Aphrodite Goddess of love Hyphenates The god of metal-working Sculpts sculpture of O with Athena. Ares The war-godPuts mortals In pain. Artemisia The goddess of the woods Alerter Odysseus' daddy Odysseus goes to visit him when he returns. Auricle Odysseus' mom/nurse The first one in the house to know Odysseus has returned. Amuses A servant on Odysseus estate. Swineherd, shepherd of pigs. Very kind, understanding and generous. Philatelist Athena disguised to guide Toolmakers Helps Toolmakers. Mutinous Suitor Mutinous leads the campaign to have Telesales killed. Rheumatics Odysseus Main character Son of AlerterGreek Leader of Trojan war Got captured by Calypso on his way home. Penelope Odysseus' wife Telemeters Odysseus' son Wants the suitors out, but can't fight them, because he's insecure about fighting. Melanesian Melanoma Nester King of Pylons Tries to help Telesales sends him to Postmistress Nester's son King of Laceration Helen The most beautiful woman in the world. The cause of the Trojan War Polymorphous (Cyclops) Terrifies Circe A witch Calypso A strong sea-nymph Traps Odysseus on her island, kept him as a love-slave.