End Project (-jw)

1 am.

Paper is done, Presentation is done.

First page:



It only gets better.

Next step for you, come see my presentation (and those of my classmates.) For anyone not already familiar with the dates of our presentations, continue reading.

I am partial to the May 14th date, as that's when I'll be delivering my presentation. Here is the information for that:

May 14th @ the Loft 10:00 am - 12:00 pm 3233 East Speedway Boulevard

Josh
Angelynn
Clarice
Samone

Also, check out

May 11th @ The Poetry Center U of A 6:00pm - 8:00pm Dorothy Rubel Room 1508 E. Helen Street

Zobella
Nicole
Sierra
Dany


May 16th @ the U of A College of Sciences 6:00pm - 8:00pm 1040 E. Fourth Street

Joseph
Andrew
Gabriel
Jayanth

May 17th @ the U of A College of Sciences 6:00pm - 8:00pm 1040 E. Fourth Street

Agustin
Greg
Clover
Rita


See you there.

Remember, class, the end of the project is really just a segue to the rest of our lives.

Final week

I have finished my experiement. After I repeat it to make sure the results are consistent I will be done with the Riehle lab. In between protocols I am taking pictures of the lab for my presentation and writing up my final product.

My experiement is testing the gene activity of AKT in one of the transgeneic lines of mosquitoes. AKT is a protein that is involved in regulating lifespan, reproduction and metabolism. In my first experiement the transgene lit up nicely in the gel, which means that the transgene is indeed active. Experiements that might follow up my research would be reproductive studies(counting the eggs, seeing which ones are viable) and lifespan studies(sticking them in a cage and seeing how long they live compared to wild type mosquitoes). If the changes in lifespan and reproductive capabilities are significant, the transgene might be used in the mosquitoes that will be released into the wild.

My final product is going to be an easy to understand summary of my research. This will include an abstract, easy to understand proceedures, and results. Hopefully even a bio noob will be able to understand what is going on and why it is important to the research at the Riehle lab.

Next week will be my last week in the lab. During this week I will be DNase treating my RNA samples, making cDNA, running PCR, and doing a gel. After that I'm done!

The Big Crunch

Hello Everybody,

I just finished coding all point-by-point summaries of all table tennis matches that I observed from the 2010 World Table Tennis Championship. Since I had to code the server, direction, court, and game progression (who won the point) for all 1,826 serves. This process took, as expected, a really long time. For the last month, I have been coding all these point-by-point summaries, which is the reason why I haven't posted in a while.

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that after confirming all the data with these point-by-point codes, there are only very slight changes in the overall results of the data. The winning probabilities for serving to either the left or right side are still the same, which is great news. When controlling for Ad and Duece court, there are slight changes to that hypothesis, but I would stress that the difference is VERY slight.

Now, for this to be a comprehensive study, I have to test for the equality of winning probabilities for each player in each match with distribution statistics such as the chi-squared statistic (P-Value), the run test, and the joint statistic test (a combination of the previous two). The bad news is that in an individual table tennis match, there aren't very many serves for any one player (on average, only about 35 per match). It is likely that these statistics will reject the null hypothesis in more matches than expected. However, I can do an Empirical CDF test, which tests for uniformity of P-Values. If I have a uniform distribution of P-Values, I believe that it would okay to assume an equality of winning probabilities. Of course, there aren't enough serves in any individual match to say whether or not there is an asymptotic distribution, which is what the confirmation statistics assume. But studies like these, especially high school studies, are never perfect.

So now it is a big crunch. A big crunch of numbers and a big crunch of work to have a good paper by next Friday. I'll be sure to work hard, because I don't want my presentation to be like a black hole singularity.

Jayanth

'Keep Calm and Carry On.' /Angelynn

Yes, so I haven't posted too recently as I haven't been doing much other than scrambling for my final product (problems, problems, problems..)! Consequently, this will be a short blurb too.

So what have I been presenting to..well..almost everyone I meet?

The prompt is:
Create an artistic piece (ex. poem, prose, sketch, drawing, etc.) that expresses what you believe is 'contemporary art' and a 'contemporary art museum'. This piece should be something that can fit or be fitted into a book/album, though it does not necessarily have to be 2-D (be as creative as you'd like).

Basically, I want to know what you think those two phrases are and what you associate with them. There are no criteria for the final piece. All these pieces will ultimately be compiled into a book/album.

The issue here is the time factor. Initially, I wanted to create a program and host it at MoCA that reached to the youth about contemporary art and the museum. Unfortunately, I found out two weeks ago that this would not work, as all the events that take place at the MoCA have been in development for a while, since MoCA operates on a curatorial model (which basically means my plan is premature and has not had the time and work put into it for it to be something of good quality!).

So like any normal student, I panicked a tad. Brainstorms over brainstorms, after several calls to a few good and amazing friends (Rapatan, Isom and Andrew--hurrah!), I settled on one idea. I still wanted something interactive, creative and visual..artsy. I am putting together a mini book/album of a collaboration of pieces that address the prompt above. And between these pages, I will have bits of my writing of my experiences and what I learned from them.

Hopefully, everything will eventually fall into place...soon. I'm finding it terribly difficult to gather enough participants, seeing as it is so close to exam season, and students everywhere are up to their necks with the work! However, as to those who have contributed or will soon be contributing their part, I am truly appreciative and cannot thank you enough! (You have no idea.)

Dankeschön,
Axk

P.S.: Can't believe it's nearing mid-April already.. This is crazy.

Temporini's Just Sittin' and Writin'

Howdy,
As my not-so-interesting title proclaims I've spent these last few weeks just sittin' and writin'. Now, I know y'all have heard me say this before, but I love it. I really do. I could sit and write about the social climate in 1976 Argentina or the undertones of racism and elitism involved in a military takeover for weeks. But unfortunately, I have a lot more to write about and a lot less time than I would like to spend on each topic. So where am I at right now? Well, I have translated all my data and have constructed a simple outline, and I've been writing for about a week, just filling in my outline. Its going pretty well. With all the notes and information that I have (products of long hours of research and expertly conducted interviews) there really isn't a whole lot for me to do. I just have to put all my notes together, add a few literary flourishes once in a while ("variegated and diffuse") and the paragraphs just come together. I like to think of it as like when you're reading a book, you read what the author tells you, but your mind constructs the story. I take all the facts that I have and I use them to construct a story. Its really interesting to see how everything is taking shape, and its just cool to put all my notes together and draw connections and to reread what I've written and try to make sound more professional. It really is just fun. Anyways, that's all I really have for now. I finished one of my sections of my paper and am looking forward to start working on the next one, though I really do need to think about starting to limit the scope of my product.

Goodbye for now,
Agustin

Things that get the heart pounding

Almost getting hit by crazy Guatemalan micro-bus drivers? My arm got acquainted with the side mirror. Unfortunately, that is the most exciting part of my weekly update...
Traveling last week was exhausting yet invigorating. Minimal sleep, bumpy bus rides, Mayan ruins, the "most beautiful lake in the world" (supposedly Lake Atitlan, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced), and a noisy hostel found me completely ready to return to Nebaj and set back to work. So that is exactly what I have done.
Yesterday, I completed the first version of an informational pamphlet (in English) for Soluciones Comunitarias. The general intent is to provide English-speaking inquisitors with an idea of how the Micro-Consignment works, where SolCom operates in Guatemala, how it was founded, and a brief description of the products/services it provides. This will be particularly useful to give to the slew of Peace Corps volunteers and other NGOs who want to know how they may be able to coordinate with SolCom. Also, with a conference coming up at the end of the month centered around the use of the Micro-Consignment model, as hosts it would be nice to have pamphlets to give our guests. Currently, the pamphlet is being reviewed by other members of the team and then I will make changes as necessary.
This morning, I began to work in updating descriptions of hikes offered by the tourism office that SolCom manages in Nebaj. With a fairly steady flow of travelers and backpackers (many European), the "Guias Ixiles" office (Ixil Guides) aims to keep travelers in the region for an extra couple of days, thus causing them to contribute to the local economy. A problem, however, is that the descriptions are vague and none are in Spanish, so I will provide new descriptions for hikes that I have done and translate other descriptions to English.
While I was in the SolCom office in Antigua, I found "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" by C.K. Prahalad. The title seemed relevant to my project so I have borrowed it and commenced to read it. The general assertion is that Multi-National Corporations should adapt their business practices to include "the Bottom of the Pyramid," which Prahalad defines to be the four billion people in the world who live on less that two dollars a day. By lowering prices of products and packaging them differently (single-serving for example), the private sector could provide the poor with products that range from shampoo to construction materials. Indeed, significantly lowering prices would decrease the profit margin per item sold, but considering the sheer volume of commerce amidst four billion people, the ventures would still be in the best interest of firms. Prahalad also addresses the difficulties in distribution to rural communities which makes the discourse interesting for me as I am every day gaining personal experience in that department. In fact, tomorrow I believe I will be traveling to Canilla (four hours away...) to observe the training of new entrepreneurs in that region and will return on Thursday.
Completely unrelated: next week is Holy Week and I might have the opportunity to travel to Antigua again to view the festivities. It is said to be the largest celebration of the season in the world, but that also means a HUGE CROWDED CITY, and I'm not sure if I wish to deal with that and the six hour trip each way. I guess we will see what happens! I'm sure Nebaj gets pretty festive as well.

The Not-So-Dulcet Tones Which NEPA Sings

Though I have the slightly grotesque feeling of resembling a member of the paparazzi searching desperately for scandals among the celebrities, I have to admit I've discovered some juicy gossip about the National Environmental Policy Act. Through the interviews I've been conducting with the thirteen people I work with over at HEG, it's been much easier to see some of the nuisances that come up more regularly inside NEPA:

1. First, it seems that companies that are supposed to be working with businesses such as HEG to make sure they are complying with all environmental regulations when conducting a project, find it easier to pay a fine for breaking the regulations than to file all the many reports required and to pay a private company to do the research and data collection for the project.
2. In addition, the efficiency of NEPA is sometimes severely lacking. Many companies spend much time investigating projects without relevance to the environment while those projects that require attention are ignored, often due to piece-of-juicy-gossip-number-one.
3. Last, consistency between the several different documents that play a role in NEPA is not always existent, due to the several different agencies that serve to complete these documents, and the several different approaches there are to the documents' completion.

However, there seems to be one thing about NEPA that is mentioned over and over again by those involved in the agency's workings, and that is that the mere existence of NEPA has been one huge step forward toward a point of harmony between the earth and humanity, and it's hard not to see their point. NEPA had a huge impact on many federal agencies and private companies alike, forcing them to take the environment into consideration whether they wanted to or not, allowing it to permeate into our everyday thought processes. Still, NEPA was created in 1969, almost 50 years ago, and has undergone little improvement since. Can it really be said that we are making progress when we have been more or less at a stand still in terms of revolutionary environmental policy since then? The last major step we took toward sustainability as a country was during the time of the Kyoto protocol in the 90s, in which Clinton signed a treaty promising to limit America's contribution to global warming, but did not turn it over to Congress to be ratified. In other words, it appears that the U.S government is still taking a proverbial 50-year nap from work on policy but for occasionally throwing money at cleaner energy resources without any evidence that it is being spent productively. Still, though the government may have pushed the environment to the side, the progress that the general population of America has made toward sustainability and a true green movement is huge, and has impacted not only the way we live our everyday lives but also the way that businesses react to our demands, producing more and more companies willing to invest in greener practices. All in all, the major question at hand is whether or not it can be said that we are where we should be in the timeline of environmental regulation, and if I can avoid the ever-present temptations of procrastination, I may just have an answer by April 29!

On the other hand, very early on Thursday morning I leave for one crazed week of last-minute college visits and will most likely be coming back to spend a few more days up in the dreaded Phoenix, so forgive me if it is a while until my next post. Until then, be good.

- Sierra

Plan C - Dany Joumaa

Last time we talked, I mentioned two compounds -- Eu(Tta)3TPTZ and Eu(DBM)3TPTZ. I'd like to report that the fate of these compounds are still pending, the reason being that we have yet again begun work on an alternative method of synthesis that involves Eu(Hfac)3TPTZ. Unlike the previous two methods wherein we added the Tta and DBM ligands first and the bulky TPTZ ligand last, we instead attempted to add the bulky ligand first and the smaller ligands last. Hopefully this will allow us to yield a product that is crystalline (and mostly pure). If we can make this method work for one version of the compound, it is our hope that we can make it work for the other two versions (Tta and DBM). We're in the process of removing byproducts now.

On the calculation side of things, I found out that two calculations I just ran yesterday -- one on Hfac and the other on acac -- both failed. The former failed because I didn't choose the right "basis set." You can think of a Basis set like a dictionary -- it prescribes how different atoms interact with each other on a fundamental level, chemically and electrostatically. When you choose the wrong basis set, the computer basically has no clue how to process your molecule, and either provides inaccurate data or crashes entirely. In my case, the computer crashed. The other calculation failed because the computer apparently could not find the appropriate input file (what a sad excuse). Unfortunately there's no way for me to have the computer check the syntax and the logic of my input script before it runs, which essentially means that I have to wait a day or more to find out that I omitted a tab or, in the case, find that my input file... didn't exist.

Oh well. Such is the situation.

Sorry I couldn't go to the fashion show or Angelynn's TPYO performance. I'm too busy being a hermit. I'm sure both were quite awesome to see, though.

All the best,
--Dany.

Photos!

This is QIAcube. It basically takes mosquito tissues and turns them into RNA. Inside is a centrifuge, dozens of pipet tips, and 4 solutions(RPE wash buffer, RW1 buffer, 70% ethanol solution, and water).

Gel eletrophoresis machines! After we have lots of DNA from PCR we can see if our gene of interest is active in our samples by using these machines.

This is one from inside the insectery. The large cages in the upper right are large containment cages. They contain a specific transgenic line of mosquito. The upper left and middle right shelves are holding oviposition cages. The scientific word for egg is "ovum". The cages are specially designed for mosquitos to lay eggs on them. The bottom shelves have rectangular containers filled with a litre of water. The larvae mature into pupae in these containers.

The last post this side of the Hemisphere...

So... yes, this will be my last post from France. Just saying it makes me quite sad. Although I did so much in this span of two and a half months, the time literally fly by me, and I didn't see it go. That is the sign of good time and fun, but man, when it comes time to go, you begin to think of so many things you could have done or wanted to do. Well, all I can say for sure is that my return here is set in stone.

So, the final week has been quite interesting. What Bianca had me do was make another pre-culture of the bacteria that I had created and grown, and then make of these bacteria. This was for the movie that we would make. Now the idea of the movie was super exciting, and so when the day came, I was hopping off walls and stuff. We packaged the bacteria and some glass slides, and headed over to Orsay Ville, a small town not far from Paris. There, we came to the university campus of Paris 11, one of the many public universities of Paris. And man, the campus was absolutely beautiful. There was nature all around us. You could literally walk out of a class and get lost in the great expanses of forest on campus. Anyway, we finally got to the building Bianca was searching for and climbed four flights of staris, and then we finally found Marta! Yay! She is working on bacteriophages (which are, as we all know, viruses that insert their Dna into bacteria and use the host to create new bacteriophages) and she has a microscope that gets 100X lens. Most microscopes, or the ones I'm used to working with anyway, have at most, 40X magnification. On this microscope, we could see individual bacteria. How cool is that. So, after showing us how it worked, and the many things that shouldn't-happen-if-not-it-will-break, I began the long, long process of sitting there and taking the pictures. Every five minutes, I had to stop what I was doing (drawing, daydreaming, the likes...) and take a normal picture, which captured the fluorescence of the green bacteria (the red fluorescence was too weak too capture on the filters) and then take a brightfield picture: Brightfield is a mode on the camera where the camera captures everything, so its not based on filters that capture a specific type of light. Anyway, its not that taking the pictures took a long time or anything, its just that I had to do it every five minutes, for three hours. So I guess it wasn't so long, but it was becoming uncomfortably hot in the room, and I was beginning to become impatient. Marta was so great, periodically checking on me to see if I needed help with anything. Finally, I acquired the pictures, and headed back to the lab (it was around five in the afternoon.). I downloaded them onto Bianca's computer, and then went through them, just to see them. Awesome stuff, really. It was definitely worth the wait. On Friday, I decided to stay home and work on my comic. And this weekend was a blur. I did so many fun things, but I tell just one story. At my aunt's house, they have a garage that is very big, and they wanted me to spray paint, or tag, anything I wanted on that wall. Then, they realized how much it would stink, and so they closed up a corner of the garage and gave me a 15 by 12 fabric sheet on which to do my work. It was an amazing experience, creating something on such a big scale. I have pictures, and even a movie, which, if you speed it up, is actually not so boring. I will definitely get it to you guys as soon as possible.
So, from France, This is Clover, signing out. Gonna miss my peoples here! Peace.
Clover

Hello from... Tucson (jw)

I am way overdue for a blog post. In my defense, however, the past few weeks have been less interesting than the ones before.

I write this one not from LA, but from my house, in Tucson.

Since I came home three weeks ago, I've come to a new portion of my project. I've done the hands-on internship, I've done the majority of the reading, and now I get to put it all together. Usually I like to write the paper first, then make the presentation an abridged and more exciting version of the paper, but I might steer away from that method here. The presentation, which is tentatively scheduled to be Friday, May 13th at the Loft Theater, will be to a cheering crowd of hundreds, so I will try to perfect it as much as I can, and concisely describe my invaluable experiences and what I've learned.

The actual construction of the paper and the presentation has been, as my classmates can hopefully relate to, a bit slower than I had hoped, but it will surely come together in no time at all. I suppose I will keep the blog updated with any new developments on that end.

Lastly, on my penultimate day in Los Angeles, I got to sit down with a frequent collaborator with Muse. Even though he's acted in a handful of Muse films, he's more famous for another line of work (one about which I won't go into detail here). I had lunch with adult film actor Ron Jeremy. I thought he might provide an original point of view to my project's topic. He did have some interesting ideas, and I was fascinated to find that his ideas about art and film generally echoed everyone else that I talked to, even though they had been in the more straightforward film industry.

One thing he said really stuck out, and although it ties in specifically with his industry, pornography, it rings true in general: "What's the difference between erotica and porn? The lighting." Ha... Ha... Ha... This quotation does speak to the potentially varied intentions in producing a film, and how nuanced these interpretations of intent can be. For example, is the producer of multi-million dollar 3D blockbuster x producing for the same reason as the little guy who pours every paycheck into his indie film's budget? (Rhetorical question, but the answer is no.)

Although my final presentation will not address the subject of pornography, Mr. Jeremy's insights were greatly appreciated, and I'll be able to apply his thoughts to the film industry as a whole.

Finally, an image from my lunch with Ron to brighten an otherwise relatively dull blog post. Enjoy!


I miss the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, but it's great to be home, and I've enjoyed seeing those of you, my classmates and peers, that I've seen. Final draft due in two weeks? No big deal! Let's get workin, class of 2011!

Greetings from the Boroughs

Hello Everyone!!

I have been so busy running around New York-
taking pictures of recycling bins, street art, kids playing in parks, LEED buildings, and the like; taking note of the way public transportation fits into the inter-workings of a city, the spring plants that push through the cement, and the way pedestrians can rule in an urban setting.
I am learning how to study people and place. The way to learn about how a place works is by listening to and watching the people.
Yesterday, a taxi driver from Ghana was talking with me about public transportation. In a heavy accent, he told me "I do this because it is better for the world." He continued to explain that the beauty and strength of New York's transportation resides in the collective positive attitude toward taxis, buses, and subways. He continued, "I see everyone taking this taxi- wealthy and poor people." Cultural perspectives- that is one piece of the greater puzzle.
Today I started noticing street art. There are a series of 5ft colorful flowers painted on the walls of construction projects. The artist signs the pieces "Random Act". To me, this Random Act of kindness is a reminder. A reminder that it is spring, flowers are in bloom, every new building is replacing nature. I asked four different friends who live in the neighborhood if they have noticed the flowers. None of them knew what I was talking about. So maybe, they are a reminder of our intrinsic ability to ignore the life around us.

More observations later.

-Zobes

I Erase Books

oh no! Not book erasing! But yes. When pages are printed (especially on our tempermental printer Bertha), often there are extra splotches of ink in the form of ghosting or little marks. Ghosting is the lighter image of words right next to their double. ghosting. So, I spent a good three hours with a white eraser, making said errors disappear or at least fade. But that left my mind free, so I could talk with my fellows! And the convorsations that we get into are so refreshing and deep (frivilous at times as well) and just great. Like the misconceptions that surround feminism. Since Kore Press is feminist, the definition of feminism is close to everyone's hearts. And, in its most basic form, the form that my collegues (and I, I think) embrace is that women should have equal opportunities with men. Sure there are crazy man-hating feminists, but that is not an accurate representation about all feminists. And I sewed together some chapbooks! Making a bunch of folded pages into a book! Cool stuff. I'm chugging right along in my own short story that I'm going to make into a chapbook for my final project. How does the title "Seperated Wars" sound? ~Samone

Renegade Posting

Hey folks - I have enjoyed following your SRP exploits via the interweb, though most of the science projects are a tad over my head. I just wanted to post here to send out my warmest congratulations to you all on the college admissions front. You are a stellar group and it was a privilege to share some class time with you last year. Remember, no matter where you end up in school next year, the most important thing is always to ask yourself: "What would Jackson do?"

Edging Toward Success - Dany Joumaa

A /lot/ has happened this week. I don't trust myself to remember everything, but here it goes.

On Monday, I started my day by checking on a calculation I did on a molecule called acetyl acetone. I got to design this molecule before sending it off for calculation in a pretty slick program called ECCE:


(excuse the low-res photo; Blogger does things which I do not understand)

Working with this program is, admittedly, the most fun I've had on this project thus far. You basically have the ability to craft any molecule you could possibly think of and run it through a supercomputer in order to determine its bond angles, bond lengths, interactivity with other molecules, and so fourth. I've probably mentioned it before, but I will again: it allows you to play God.

While that sounds fun and all, there is still work to be done. Long story short, the form of acetyl acetone (acac) that I input into the supercomputer is unfortunately not in its most energetically stable state. The most stable state of acac (at room temperature, anyway) is in a form that involves a hydrogen bond that mimics a five-member ring. In other words, instead of putting in the thing on the right, I put in the thing on the left, depicted in the picture below:

The configuration on the right is what actually happens in real life at room temperature. I didn't figure this out until I compared the output of my earlier calculation with actual X-ray crystallography data. That being said, I now have to figure out how to represent the structure on the right in a form that computers can understand. It isn't as easy as simply entering it into the program due to a couple phenomena, namely electron delocalization and electron pushing, so I'll need to find another way. A good portion of the remainder of my week will be spent doing exactly that.

Now, onto the lab work. A lot has happened here since Monday as well. We arrived in the lab to find that Eu(Tta)3(H20)2, the other molecule I was working on, had not recrystallized at all since we last left it in the lab. When we took it out of the freezer, it appeared to be a honey-like thing that wasn't terribly useful. Nonetheless, we moved forward with reacting it with TPTZ, a final ingredient to the concoction that increases the quantum yield (efficiency) of the luminescence of the compounds. We let it react for a little over two days to get a final product, which we've split into two portions for two different recrystallization methods. One method involves placing a tissue over the ampule that contains the compound and allowing it to evaporate slowly. The other involves concentrating the solution by letting evaporate quickly to half its volume, then allowing for it to finish its recrystallization in a refrigerator. Seeing as how we've been having so much difficulty obtaining pure product from our reactions in general, having two reaction vessels has allowed us to have a "Plan A" and "Plan B" for recrystallization. This is a good thing.

As far as Eu(DBM)3TPTZ is concerned, after letting its solvent evaporate, we obtained an oily yellow substance that didn't really yield any crystals. (Remember: obtaining crystals is important because crystals are much more likely to be free of impurities from side-reactions than are anything else.) So, we've decided to dissolve it in acetonitrile (which is like acetone, except one-half of it is a triple-bonded nitrogen instead of a methyl group) and layered it with ethanol as an antisolvent. Ethanol doesn't really dissolve the Eu(DBM)3TPTZ compound, which is a good thing -- by forcing Eu(DBM)3TPTZ into a solid form, it wouldn't be difficult to filter it out and from there separate it using a filtration method. After all, that's the compound we want.

I think that's everything. Of course, I'll probably remember something I didn't mention a couple hours from now. But either way, I'm beginning work on writing my eventual lab report. There's a TONNN of theory in comparison to procedural matters, but what with the fantastic preparation I've had with Mr. Mathews and Mr. Lee in writing lab reports, I'm not worried at all.

All the best,
--Dany.

Back in Antigua

I have a couple hours before I begin traveling again, so this seemed like the perfect time to blog. First, a brief description of my plans for the next couple of days, which are not really related to my project, but are exciting nonetheless. Tonight, around 6:30, I will depart Antigua for Flores, Peten, a bus ride that will take about nine hours meaning I will arrive in the morning (hopefully getting some sleep on the ride. Didn’t get much last night). I will then have a full day in the national park of Tikal, which houses the most famous Mayan ruins in the world and a fascinating array of wildlife such as howler monkeys, quetzals, and maybe even a jaguar. I will stay in the night IN the park and then have the next morning to explore as well. Thursday afternoon, I will have a few hours in Flores and then get back on a night bus bound for Antigua to arrive Friday morning. I’m not entirely sure what I will do with Friday and Saturday (which is the Shakira concert!), but I’m sure they would not be wasted even if I just wandered Antigua some more. Now, on to some more project related stuff.

In the past couple of days, I have attended the monthly meeting for Soluciones Comunitarias. The main subjects of the meeting: preparing for the Micro-Consignment conference at the end of this month, the coming of Social Entrepreneur Corps students in the summer (a bunch of college students), and the creation of a 2011 directory of Entrepreneurs and communities that have had campaigns. Most of this was just house-keeping business and relatively uninteresting, but I did gain some good information from two side discussions. The first was a Skype call with Greg Van Kirk (one of my “bosses”). Items included in his agenda:

1) Making more offices in Guatemala (such as in Nebaj and Xela) to make it less necessary to travel to Antigua all the time

2) Something to do with Vision Springs (the providers of the glasses we sell) changing their system. The entire meeting was conducted in Spanish, so unfortunately I didn’t catch everything and have yet to have an opportunity to ask someone to fill in the holes. It’s on my list of things to do…

3) A potential new product- vitamins for babies to promote growth. Considering malnutrition is not rare in Guatemala, this idea was well received

The second side discussion regarded carrying 10 Watt home light kits by Quetsol (a play on words since the Quetzal, a colorful bird, is the national symbol of Guatemala and the name of the currency). Currently, Soluciones Comunitarias offers small solar lamps, but this new product would allow people to further illuminate their homes and charge a cellular phone. In many regions of Guatemala, such as Xexac where I participated in a campaign last week, electricity is exceedingly difficult to get to homes, and many people simply go without light at night and must go to stores to pay to charge their cell phones. In fact, I was able to speak up during the meeting to provide my “opinion from the field” about the idea of a home solar kit because of my experience in Xexac. Again, I want to mention that the entire meeting was in SPANISH.

Last week, my gave me a folder of the electronic form filled with articles about how Micro-consignment distinguishes itself from micro-finance and all that good stuff. Beginning to wade through them, I feel confident that the “Bibliography” section of my research paper just tripled.

The last of my college acceptances came in: no dice on Stanford and Yale but Penn came in on the affirmative. I found out IN THE MIDDLE OF NO-WHERE. I wasn’t in Nebaj at the time, but actually doing a three day trek through rural Guatemala as part of my job of updating our tourist office in Nebaj. It’s a rough life… J

'Enthused' Is Sierra's New Favorite Word

You know, once the endlessly long list of various federal agencies involved in the NEPA process has been burned into your brain as it has for me, it is impossible to avoid seeing the names all over town. Arizona Dept. of Transportation, Game and Fish Dept., Pima County Wastewater Reclamation Dept. and the Bureau of Land Management, to name a few, can be seen all over the place if you're looking. Their roles in not only Tucson, but Arizona as well, have a huge impact on the general population whether we notice it or not, and NEPA does its best to continue this in the realm of environmental compliance. At the end of every Environmental Assessment, public comments on the proposed project must be printed and taken into account when it comes to decide whether to grant permission for the project. Some form of public outreach and notification is required for every project in order to ensure that we all have an opportunity to make our opinions heard, and not for nothing. Otherwise, I'm almost done with my Sustainability and Greening! It's taken a lot of time and discussion, but it's been very fun applying all I've learned about the factors that are looked at, how they are analyzed and how their impacts are measured. It looks like I've actually learned some stuff! My next section should be much easier, which means I can finally get back to work on my own editorial!

Sorry for the shortie, but CONGRATULATIONS to everybody for all their splendid acceptances! So happy.

- Sierra

Way Overdue after a Busy Week

Well its been a hectic week with colleges and a entirely new assignment that was given to me as my list is almost complete.

As an intern, I have learned that my main job is to do everything the people who work here don't really want to do. I don't mind the busywork, it gives me something to do and also helps the company. Its not mindless chores, its just time consuming, but also interesting knowing the outcome of my work.

My new assignment is to create a ridiculously long list of drugs for an iPhone app that will document medication and remind people of their medication schedule. This list is at the moment 11279 drugs long, and basically says what the app will recognize. The problem was the list was up to date only to October 17, 2007. So it was up to me to update it, remove trademarks and eliminate drugs that are administered only once. Its a rather tedious but an overall useful job. This work will allow the people who use the app to have their drugs recognized on a comprehensive scale.

As for the original list, it is basically complete. The final product looks at all drugs and reports what each drug does, its brand name, the number of reports of QT prolongation and Torsade de Pointes (as well as the statistical strength for each), the molecular formulas, 2-D and 3-D molecular structures, Chirality, half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC-50) as well as the techniques to find the IC-50s and sources.

I am almost finished, and now I have been integrated into the office, so I perform any minor tasks they wish for me to complete.

PS If you have not heard I have been accepted to Harvard.

In the final stages....

So, I wake up this morning, and BAM, realize that I have... until next Friday in this land of paradise. It seems that time seems so much more shorter when looking ahead. My brain has not stopped working, even in sleep I say, and I am constantly thinking about the myriad of things left to do in my hometown. Its very stressful, and it doesn't help when people say, "Oh man, I have to see you before you go!" That just reminds me, and I'm having a hard time getting over it right now. One of things that consoles and excites me is that when I return to Tucson, my other hometown, I get to see all my friends and family!

Had a very bust week last week, and it was magnificiently capped off by an experiment that I had to do myself again. Except, this time it wasn't a simple transformation of plasmid into bacteria, but a dilution of four different kinds of bacteria, the mixing of each kind of bacteria with another, and then that process multilied by two, because we wanted to mix the strains in a fifty-fifty proportion, and a twenty-eighty proportion. I must admit, I didn't have any confidence in my ability to do this experiment, but after a lot of confidence boosting comments from Elisa and Bianca, I decided to give it a shot. And... guess what. It worked. I was very happy with my work, and I have now added some swagger to my step as a walk through the halls of the building. So, what did we exactly last week? Well, we did the dilution, and then we took each different dilution and proportions and deposited them onto an agar plate, where we could see the combination of red and green bacteria grow. We also deposited them on agar on a 96 well plate, which is the plate we would take to the licroscope. We had wild type (that's the type of bacteria) green and red, and then delta NrdR red and green. When we took it out of the oven and put it under the fluorescent light, I think I jumped five feet in the air in excitment (which is completely possible, ask anyone in my class). There were different patterns of color where the bacteria had grown, and they formed... its very hard to describe, so that's why pictures of these bacteria are going posted as soon as I finish this post. Me and Bianca then decided to take it to the micorscope, where we took other pictures. What we saw both got us excited, and really just astounded me. Bacteria are really beautiful. And again, I'll post pictures of that so you can appreciate bacterial beauty too. So, anyway, we decided to do it again, just to see how it turned it out a second time. That when they told me to do it by myself, and then lo and behold, I come today, and they look as pretty as they did the first time.
So, the plan for this coming week. We're gonna make a bacterial MOVIE, son! That's right, we are gonna go to a lab with a special microscope, where we will be able to take pictures of the growing bacteria every three minutes and see the formation of these little beauties. Can't wait, seriously looking forward to this part.
So, nothing new except for the fact that my legs got ravaged by a rusty barbed wire fence when I tried to show and jump over it on uneven ground.. That was really cool. But yeah, nothin' new.
Unitl next time, this is Clover Powell, saying good night and good luck.

My own mosquitoes!

This week I was given my own transgenic line of mosquitoes. I raised them and put them into cages based on the presence of the transgene VgMryAsAkt in their genome. The females and males were sorted into seperate cages as well. They were bloodfed and then put into even smaller containers. The bloodfed, transgeneic, female mosquitoes are placed in different cages with different "post bloodmeal" times labled on the cages. We want to do experiments on how the transgene effects the reproductive capability of the mosquitoes; thus we do dissections at different times after the bloodmeal to test the different tissues for the activity rates of different proteins.

I've also been doing insectery work such as counting eggs, setting up cages, and organizing the mosquitoes.

Now that I have all the techniques down I am ready to start actually collecting data that can be used in the lab. For the next few weeks I'll be dissecting tissues, preping RNA from the tissues, making cDNA from the RNA, running PCR, and finally running gels to see what effects the transgene has on the mosquito.