Leap Day!

Today is such a special today because it only comes ever four years! It is amazing to me how, if we didn't have this day, our whole calendar system would be wrong.

Class today was very good! I loved Tanya's topic on the origin of world war II. I had no idea that's where it all started from, but then again I don't know my history very well. And her handout was very intriguing with the symbol at the top of the page.

Oscar's presentation was excellent! The immigration problem the US is having is not getting any better and most of the people our age are not informed about all the issues. Commercials are played on television, utilizing the pathos appeal, are urging us to stop immigrants from crossing the Mexican border. They want our support for the wall dividing the borders, volunteering for "Border duty", and anyother crazy things against the people coming over. I really enjoyed Oscar's talk about this because he informed the class about all the steps involved in coming over here legally. I had no idea how difficult it was to get this process done properly. The fact that some illegal immigrants pay taxes makes this issue a little better but the majority of them dont.
This topic is very debatable and causes many heated conversations. But I believe that this issue needs to be talked about more and have all of the true details released.

Class this week

I have really enjoyed listening to everyone tell about the topics they chose for their papers. So far everyone has had a different idea. The visuals have been great, especially the power points. Jessica's visual of the HPV warts was very effective, it really helped her get her point across.

It was disappointing on Monday when so many people were not prepared. They might have not been ready because of the weekend or the schedule change. Plus, the flu is going around and so many people are out for that. Getting caught up can sometimes be hard when your not totally over the bug. There are so many different strands of the flu that getting a flu shot doesnt necessarily help.

I hope to see more diversity from the boys who have yet to present. Most of the girls have chosen a topic relating to health, maybe the boys will bring an entertaining aspect to the classroom.

CVS illustration

Change can sometimes be good

Class today was great. I loved bringing my laptop and being able to work on the task at hand then and not have to wait til I got back to my room or the library. Usually if I do not do an assignment right after class it wont get done until the day before its due. But today in class I found many articles and scholarly journals in an instant and I have most of my research done (as far as sources go). I would like to be able to do this more often. I am a visual learner and if Mrs. Bowels can show me how to do something I believe I would enjoy the class much more.

The article I found today talks about pregnacy loss after having had a chorionic villus sample. This article mentioned that the demand for early prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities is expected to increase. One of the main reasons for this risky process is to find out if the baby will have abnomalities that are hereditary. But because of this very invasive procedure, some couples opt not to know. In the end it comes down to the couple and their decision they have discussed with their doctor. Counseling is crucial when making this choice.

Articles and Journals

I have come to love the research databases online at our library website. They have been much more helpful for me on this assignment than the last. There have been many articles written about chorionic villus sampling because it has been such a hot topic amongst pregnate women. The million dollar question for these ladies is,"Am I better off not knowing?" For some, it is yes but others who have had family histories of diseases cannot. With the advance in technology the rate of miscarriages should drop, allowing for more discoveries.

The Proquest database I used to research CVS gave me 6 very helpful journals. They came from four different scholarly journals: American Family Physician, Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy, Ultrasound Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Hospital Doctor. These journals each mentioned information that will be very useful when compiling all information needed to write this paper.

CVS- not the grocery store!

I have changed my mind again about my research topic. My problem was narrowing my subject down in order to focus on one aspect of gene therapy or genetic engineering. CVS stands for chorionic villus sampling and it is a procedure performed on pregnate women who maybe concerned about their soon to be child. CVS is basically the removal of a small piece of tissue (chorionic villi) from the uterus during early pregnancy to screen the baby for genetic defects. This biopsy may indicate more than 200 disorders including Down syndrome, Hemoglobinopathies, and Tay-Sachs disease, which is a disease that causes damage to your nervous system. Many couples chose this procedure to find out if a family disease has been passed down to their innocent child.

Even though this type of test has many benefits numerous women do not take it because of the risk of miscarriage. There is only a 2% chance of fetal loss but to some women that is something they don't wany to risk.

Some other useful websites I found are baby center , march of dimes, American Pregnancy Association, MayoClinic, and Web MD.

Heart disease

Some people say smoking is a major killer in America, the person next to you might say it is strokes. For women, our worst nightmare is heart disease. This is the 3rd leading cause of death among women aged 25-44 and the 2nd leading cause of death among 45-64 aged women.

Heart disease has increased as obesity has increased which causes higher blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes. All of these factors contribute to heart disease but there are no certain symptoms. Some signs to watch for may be pain or dis comfort in the chest and other areas of the upper body, shortness of breath, and a feeling of throwing up.

But, like most diseases, heart disease can be monitored by taking care of you body and the proper medication. Exercise, eating right, and psycologically health can make all the difference. In some families, this disease is hereditary but every member may not get it.

This is yet another possible research topic because it really hits home for me. My grandfather has had many heart problems and my maternal grandmother has had a few heart-related problems.

Possible Research Topic

Finding a research topic that is not overused or too contraversial is pretty hard. But I chose a topic that really interest me, the human body. I am fasinated by genetic and heredity, how they all work together and can have so many different outcomes. Science is advancing to where they can go in and find mutated genes and correct them, or erase them. This type of science is called gene therapy, a type of medicine for abnormal or mutated cells.

Gene therapy is only a temporary solution as of now with the available technology. Some of the main problems facing the progress of this therapy is getting access to affected tissues and manipulating the human genome. Because genomes interact with other genomes it is hard to say that the gene that is inserted would be accepted by all.

The website I found was very informative. It only gives a general overview of the whole process but it also tells the pros and cons of gene therapy. The future of this medicine is very promising as advancement in technology continues. I may decide that gene therapy is going to be my research topic. Finding enough information and educational journals will be one of my deciding factors.

Synthesis

The cause of the low housing market can be found in Andrew Laperriere's "House of Cards" article because it informs the reader about the bank loans and tendencies of the borrowers. He tells how people do not have to provide verification of income or have a down payment for these housing loans. Many people are taking the "lower rate" loans in hopes to purchase a newer house or get out of the finacial burden they were in by refinancing. In Grant McCracken's "The Evocative Power of Things" society is always trying to advance to bigger and better things. McCracken also says that the pull on these worldly goods is getting to be more powerful because we have more access to easy money as we can see in Laperriere's article. The subprime loans he mentions can sometimes be used to consolidate credit card bills. This is a pull of the world because the majority of items purchased with credit cards are possessions we do not need, impulsed buying. But these loans are available to almost anyone that has credit already established. Customers do not have to go through a background check or credit history in order to qualify for these loans. Americans may be getting these risky loans because of their displaced meaning with consumer goods, trying to fix one problem with another.

Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers

I could not believe that I was able to find a few more articles about the seemingly forgotten Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers. Digging through article after article that mention nothing about the actress rather the jewlry designer, I finally found websites that told about this legendary performer's history. Entertainment Insiders provided an obituary that said Mrs. Rogers died of complications of a series of strokes and lung cancer at the age of 70. Filmbug goes on to say that Mrs. Rogers relationship with producer Irwin Allen helped her get roles in many of his disasterous films. The Memory Alpha Database mentions Elizabeth's involvement of the television series Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, and The Waltons. Even though she was a texan, she passed away in Tarzana, California.


Elizabeth Rogers. February 5, 2008 from http://www.filmbug.com/db/202461

Elizabeth Rogers. February 6,2008 from http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Elizabeth_Rogers

Obituaries. February 5, 2008 from
http://www.einsiders.com/features/columns/nov04obituaries.php

Critique

I have discovered that it is very hard to find an article about Elizabeth Rogers without having to pay for a subscription. Learning about different search engines and different methods of searching are still not helping me uncover Elizabeth's past.

Fortunately, I was able to find a website with a list of Mrs. Rogers' film appearences. One aspect of this website that I really appreciated was the year of the show's production. Elizabeth was mostly in television series long before the time I was even thought about. I am not a fan of old television shows so having these production years helped me put together a timeline of her appearences. There was also a section on the website that listed when the episode of t.v show she was in will be showing next on TVLAND. The only thing I wish this website had done differently is include a complete biography of Mrs. Rogers. This would have enabled me to utilize their information even more!

Elizabeth Rogers (1). February 1, 2008 from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0736861/