Dna Sequencing Essay - 1043 Words

DNA Sequencing: Algorithms that Convert Physical to Digital EFFECTS: DNA sequencing, specifically with small â€Å"nanopore† sequencers, have the potential to advance medicine by increasing scientific knowledge of diseases and improving medical diagnosis in remote areas. The leading sequencer today is the MinION, which is an incredible 10x3x2cm and only requires a USB connection to a computer [5]. The MinION currently can sequence viral and bacterial genomes, but will expand to include full human genomes. The MinION’s size and capabilities allow it to target the microscopic source of ailments outside of the laboratory and in a greatly reduced amount of time. Soon after its deployment in 2014, the MinION was used to sequence a salmonella†¦show more content†¦A 100mV voltage is applied across the protein, which draws the DNA through the pore. When a DNA nucleotide is in the pore, a sensor records the change in current as an event [1]. This change in current is stored in a FAST5 file type, which stores metadata and the events [7]. The FAST5 data files then undergo â€Å"base calling†--correlating one of the four nucleotides in DNA with each event--in Amazon Cloud with a software called Metrichor or with offline open-source software called Nanocall [7]. To reduce error rates, base calling algorithms are based off the Viterbi algorithm, which determines the most probable â€Å"path† based upon surrounding measurements. In the case of base calling, the surrounding 5 or 6 nucleotides are examined, 5 having 1024 combinations and 6 having 4096 combinations [9]. While using 6 nucleotides doubles the analysis time, it improves the accuracy of base calling [5]. After base calling, the all analyzed events are compiled into a single complete sequence. This sequence is then compared to sequences in databases such as What’s in My Pot (WIMP) or 16S, which match the sequenced DNA to a specific species [8]. Because of the high speed of the input and base calling, usually species identification is done in real-time [8]. c. CONCERNS: In the realm of DNA sequencing, two main security concerns could threaten the computer systemsShow MoreRelated Human Genome Project Essay3161 Words   |  13 PagesHuman Genome Project Essay The Human Genome Initiative is a worldwide research effort that has the goal of analyzing the sequence of human DNA and determining the location of all human genes. Begun in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome project was originally planned to last 15 years but now is projected to be complete in 13 years. This project was started to find the 80,000 - 100,000 human genes and to determine the sequence of the 3 - billion chemical bases that make up human DNA. The information generatedRead MoreThe Human Genome Project1460 Words   |  6 PagesGene Essay Assignment: The Human Genome Project A genome is the complete DNA set of an organism. These DNA molecules are made up of two strands. 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By preventing the spread within the host the number of AIDS-related infections decreases.3 The fi ndings from the Antiretroviral TherapyRead MoreThe Implications Of The Human Genome Project On Human Health1853 Words   |  8 PagesThe Implications of the Human Genome Project on Human Health: Focus on Cancer research Abstract: This essay investigate the implication of the Human Genome Project on human health, focusing on cancer research, the consequences faced by the Human Genome Protect and further examine how far science has come in liking genetic factors to human diseases. The paper outlines how the launch of the project has aided disease researchers with information needed to link genomes to human diseases and also findRead MorePeter Nielsen: Designing a New Molecule of Life576 Words   |  3 Pagesscientific and medical breakthrough. In this essay you will read a summary of Peter Nielsen’s article and the research he has done with this molecule. Peter Nielson, along with many other scientists, have spent years creating and experimenting with a synthetic molecule called peptide nucleic acid (PNA). PNA is an artificial polymer that has many similarities to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). It has the same storing features as DNA and RNA while being built on a protein basedRead MoreIndi Native American Captive Asian Elephants742 Words   |  3 Pages 2011). In these blood samples the white blood cells were isolated and two groups were established as WS and CB (Lei et al. 2011). The second method used was DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing of mtDNA and nuclear genes (Schmitt et al.2011). DNA was extracted using chloroform, amplified samples were electrophoresed, DNA sequencing was performed and everything was deposited in GenBank (Louis Jr. et al. 2011). Haplotype numbers were analyzed afterwards. The final method was the micro satelliteRead MoreEndosymbiosis and evolution of Organelles Essay16 31 Words   |  7 Pages Endosymbiosis is important as it enables us to understand the evolution of eukaryotes from the common ancestor. This essay will focus on: the early evolution of our eukaryote ancestor during Precambrian period, plastids origin along the algae family due to second endosymbiosis; discuss the evidence that supports the theory, including further examples of endosymbiosis. The theory, as discussed by Lynn Margulis, states that mitochondria originated from ÃŽ ±-proteobacteria bacterium which wasRead MoreEssay on Evolution925 Words   |  4 PagesEssay on Evolution There are many mechanisms that lead to evolutionary change. One of the most important mechanism in evolution is natural selection which is the differential success in the reproduction of different phenotypes resulting from the interaction of organisms with their environment. 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History of British Theatre Free Essays

The earliest forms of theatre in Britain were the religious ritual performances of the native Britons. The first theatre in Britain that we may recognize as such was that of the Romans. While we know a great deal about the Roman theatre its effect on Britain seems to have been limited – theatres were small and not particularly numerous (and may have been used for sports, gladiatorial contests and other mass spectacle entertainments more than for classical theatre). We will write a custom essay sample on History of British Theatre or any similar topic only for you Order Now The ruins of a Roman Theatre in St. Albans still remain as a tourist attraction in Britain today. After the Roman pull out the chief performances in Britain came from travelling bards, or Scops, who provided entertainment to crowds at feasts, at events, or in nobles’ courts, usually in the form of epic poetry. Caedmon’s Hymn and the saga of Beowulf are two of the very few surviving stories that were performed during that time. Organized theatrical performance would soon supplant the Scops, thanks in large part to the spread of Christianity and the rise of the trade guilds in British towns. In the churches the liturgy was increasingly dramatized throughout the Middle Ages, with the architecture of the Churches themselves being used to great effect, with choirs of â€Å"angels† being flown in from the lofts and other spectacular special effects. Soon plays like â€Å"Everyman† were being written by anonymous priests who recognized the power theatre had to convey the Church’s teachings to the masses. And though the church dramas played an important role in nurturing mediaeval drama (and a very important role in developing the playwriting talents of the clergy) a much more immediate and visceral theatre was being forged outside of the churches in the mediaeval towns, in the form of the Cycle Plays. The Cycle Plays were given at the feast of Corpus Christi, and were performed on wagons that could be pulled to several different stations throughout a town. Over 40 individual plays could make up a cycle, with the shows beginning early in the morning and ending as darkness fell. The plays were anonymously written (probably by clergymen) and were dramatizations of the major events of the Bible. After the Cycle Plays waned in the later Middle Ages the wagon-based performances remained, with troupes of actors travelling from town to town performing in courtyards, taverns and wherever else they could secure a paying audience. These travelling players were likely the first taste of live theatre for a young boy from Stratford-upon-Avon named William Shakespeare. The years between Shakespeare arriving in London up until the closing of the theatres in 1642 can easily be called the Golden Age of British drama, for Shakespeare and his contemporaries composed a body of work during that time unequalled in British (and arguable world) theatrical tradition. The plays of the English Renaissance are unrivalled in their rhetorical might. They are, at their best, compelling stories of individual struggle and grand national narratives. But in 1642 the Puritans banned all theatrical performances in the heat of misguided religious fundamentalism. Until the Restoration in 1660 theatre went underground, performed in secret and devolving into less sophisticated entertainments. There is comparatively little written about the British theatre of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries for good reason – next to the Renaissance what came after is of vastly inferior quality, almost always concerned with financial success more than any artistic, aesthetic or literary merit. There are exceptions – Sheridan was a playwright of some note, and John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera a seminal moment in the birth of British musical theatre. But no one could even come close to rivalling Shakespeare until the last years of the 19th century, with the arrival of the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. His plays are too polemical to supplant Shakespeare’s universality, but they did sweep away the centuries of mediocrity moving realism onto the English stage. The rise of Naturalistic drama dove-tailed perfectly with the rise of the director as the creative head of play production. With the passing of The Theatres Act in 1968 British Drama was finally freed from the last shackles of the past, when the powers of the Lord Chamberlain to license all plays was abolished. With the birth of the Royal National Theatre in 1963, the discovery of the remains of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and the widespread embrace of theatre by Britons in the 20th and 21st centuries the conditions are ripe for another Golden Age of British drama in the years to come. The White Bear theatre The White Bear Theatre Club is a fringe theatre venue, established in 1988 in the White Bear pub in Kennington. It is run by Artistic Director Michael Kingsbury. Theatre practitioners who have worked at The White Bear include Joe Penhall, Hugh Allison, Mark Little, Emily Watson, Tamsin Outhwaite, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Vicky Featherstone, Torben Betts, Lucinda Coxon, Adam Spreadbury-Maher (Associate director 2008 – 2009) and Chris Loveless (Associate Director, 2009 – ). It is said to be one of the most interesting fringe theatres due to its small size and the intimacy of the acting space. Previous productions include: Bodyclock (Time Out Critics Choice), Cosi, Dracula (A new musical by Alex Loveless adapted from the original story by Bram Stoker), Life’s A Dream, Feathers, The Return of the Soldier, The Card Index, Spin and I Only Want To Be With You. The theatre has been described by London review magazine Time Out as ‘Fringe Theatre of the first order, The White Bear must be saluted for staging such work’ and Michael Billington from The Guardian was quoted as saying ‘Fringe theatre at his best. ‘ The White Bear has received numerous awards including Time Out Best Fringe Venue, Peter Brook Empty Space Award for Best Up and Coming Venue, Carling London Fringe Awards for Best Actor and Best Production. Southwark Playhouse Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community. The theatre quickly put down strong roots in Southwark, developing an innovative, free at source, education programme. It has worked closely with teachers, Southwark Borough Council, businesses and government agencies to improve educational achievement and raise aspirations. This programme is in great demand and attracts substantial funding each year. The theatre’s primary objectives are †¢ to produce high quality, cutting edge theatre in both traditional and non-traditional theatre environments †¢ to offer a fully resourced and wholly integrated education and community programme, providing opportunities for people of all ages in Southwark to engage with the borough’s rich heritage and cultural potential to support the work of emerging theatre practitioners and companies by providing a well-equipped venue at an affordable cost, with appropriate resources and guidance †¢ to intertwine the artistic, education and community programmes so that fresh insights and opportunities are offered to broad sectors of users within the Southwark community The Drill Hall With a national a nd international reputation, The Drill Hall is the local theatre and arts centre for Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia in London’s West End. Since 1977, The Drill Hall has produced, developed, nurtured and supported over 10,000 artists and productions. We have toured award-winning shows and events all over the world. Through our highly praised education programme we tackle homophobia and bullying and tour to schools, work with teachers, run youth theatres specifically for LGBT young people and have an artist-development programme. Our community theatre troupe, The Drill Hall Darlings, is now in its fourth year. It always welcomes new members and performs at The Drill Hall throughout the year. We have a wide-ranging workshop programme, a free Sure Start drop-in for local children under five and their families, and a regular programme of shows and storytelling for 7 to 11-year-olds. The Drill Hall is a major hub for the arts and media communities, providing some of the most sought after central London rehearsal facilities and radio and television recording spaces. We also offer low-cost meeting space for local community groups. The Drill Hall is one of The Theatres Trust’s new Ecovenues. Through this prestigious scheme we aim to make The Drill Hall more ‘sustainable’. Alexander Grant It is quite easy to make a case for Alexander Grant’s being the greatest male dancer ever produced by a British company. He was a character dancer of infinite variety: technically strong enough to dance Symphonic Variations in his younger days, but remembered principally for the huge number of roles he created (particularly for Ashton), and for the new life he gave to characters he took over from others. For several years in the 70s, Grant directed the Royal Ballet’s educational group, Ballet for All, and in 1976 he left the company for a seven year stint as director of the National Ballet of Canada. These days he is still occasionally to be seen on stage with ENB, and he also coaches and produces – he was responsible for the recent successful Scottish Ballet revival of Fille. A close friend of Ashton’s, he is still an irreplaceable source of information and advice. But his name conjures up, for those who saw him, spectacular dancing – with no trace of ‘look at me’ – and above all the wonderful range of characters he brought to life before our eyes. How to cite History of British Theatre, Papers

A public life Essay Example For Students

A public life Essay Joseph Papp was the most powerful and  infuential man in the American theatre, dominating his world through the force of his own dazzling paradoxical personality. For him, there was no contradiction in the diverse roles he chose to play. An idealist had to be a pragmatist, for how else would he able to bring his ideals into practice? It was natural that Papp, the preeminent figure in the nonprofit theatre, should become the producer of the longest running Broadway musical of all time. More than anyone, he was the bridge between those two traditionally anthithetical camps, the institutional and the commercial theatre and proved that for continuing coexistence one had to nature the other. Appropriately, Papps funeral was held in one of his theatres. Mournes spoke of him as a friend, father figure, mentor and boss, as a man of principle who never shied from confrontation. After his death, some of the artists who owed their entire careers (or at least the advent of their careers) to him lined up to carp at the fact that he had not given them the theatrical equivalent of academic tenure. Amid all the tributes, there were pockets of criticism, including what may have been the first instance of a paid obituary notice that was less than fully celebratory of the deceased. The Dramatists Guild said that with the death of Papp, its playwright members had sustained a grave loss, then added, in equivocation, He was impulsive, mercurial and grandiose, but he was a generous and loving promoter of our plays wherever he found them. I think Papp would have smiled at that notice, at the critical but an especially at that misspelling. Papp was mercurial in the extreme. In what may have been an attemppt to articulate his philosophy of theatre, he once said, I can bend, backtrack, switch directions, do this or that, whatever is necessary in order to survive. My tactics, out of necessity, keep changing, but my direction has never changed: new plays, new audiences. His legacy endures in the plays and playwrights he introduced, in the actors whose careers he encouraged and in the commitment to theatre that was his hallmark. Fiercely partisan, he stood up for the principles he believed in and for the plays he produced. In his extraordinary career, he found himself on both sides of the firing line as sharpshooter and as target. A favorite role was as critic of the critics and as self-appointed ombudsman, badgering and even banning reviewers when he felt they had been negligent in their responsibility. He could be self-defensive and self-destructive. In pursuit of a populist theatre, he acted as a radical in art and in politics. For him, theatre was a necessity, an instrument of social as well as cultural enhancement. He invented free Shakespeare in the park, a concept that was imitated in cities around the country and he drew many of our finest actors to challenge themselves in classics. In so doing, he brought Shakespeare to generations of theatregoers, although he never did fulfill his goal of creating an American approach to Shakespeare. His career was filled with grand schemes: a black and Hispanic classical company, the Festival Latino, a repertory ensemble that would allow for name actors to perform plays for short seasons (one of several dreams that never reached fruition). In his last years, he began a cycle of the complete Shakespearean canon. In its first life, his company was an actors theatre devoted to the works of that one playwright. But at the Public Theater, the company became a playwrights theatre, as Papp discovered writers like David Rabe and Wallace Shawn, and adopted others like John Guare, David Henry Hwang and David Hare and gave them a continuing platform for their work. After a play failed, he would ask the playwright what play he wanted to do next and then he woudl produce it, sometimes without ample regard for the works artistic merit. Similarly, a directors failure would be followed by an opportunity for redemption with another production. Papp banked on the development of careers, and with encouragement often came artistic accomplishment. He was surrounded by controversy and criticism, for what he did and for what he chose not to do. Though the New York Shakespeare Festival was the major American theatre of its time, it never produced a play by Tennesse Williams or Arthur Miller. Other significant younger writers appeared irregularly; Papps encounter with Sam Shepard, for one, was disastrous. Many of our best women writers have never had a play produced at the Public. But the theatre did present controversial works by Caryl Churchill, Ntozake Shange and Elizabeth Swados, and the Public was Vaclav Havels home in exile. Papps critical blind spots could change with the seasons, and his choice of plays was not as exclusionary as it might have seemed. His eclcticism ran from Arthur Wing Pinero to Miguel Pinero. In his theatre as in his life, he was an ardent advocate for civil and human rights, and he supported his positions through the plays he produced. He championed theh role of minorities in the theatre, crosscasting plays before that policy was generally accepted. Even when there was an urgent need for money, he rejected grants on moral grounds, and he was the first to demonstrate for free speech and against eradicating theatrical landmarks. With his natural flamboyance, he became a highly visible and therefore vulnerable figure on the theatrical landscape. The actor side of Papp could play to the grandstands, media-dramatizing his case. In the most literal sense, he was an opportunist. When he was attacked, he attached back. When he was struck by a financial crisis, he would announce an expansion. Defeat was not a word in his vocabulary. He was never at loss for ammunition; his mouth was his most effective weapon, turning failure into a psychological victory. Despite his eminence, he regarded himself as an underdog, and during his brief foray onto Broadway with a season of new plays, he boasted of his playwrights as renegades. Ironically, he became an insider, a producer who could have transformed Broadway, had he chosen to do so. He learned to use himself as a selling point, and became his own best spokesman and fund-raiser. Papps portrait, looking like a Tammany politician, would appear in advertisements for his theatre. In one daring performance venture, he did a one-man cabaret show, singing Depression songs like Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and directly confronting his disarmed critics. As always, Papp sang and danced to his own tune. Informally and never for attribution, his people referred to him as the Godfather, a title that was not necessarily intended to be pejorative. Rewarding the faithful, punishing the faithless and the cowardly, shunning at least for a time dissidents, he was responsible for everything, including art, that emerged on stage at the Shakespeare Festival. In terms of his personal decision-making, he was not so far removed from the old Hollywood studio chiefs. Just as a self-perpetuating tycoon selected and cast movies according to his wishes, Papp decided what he wanted to do and when he wanted to do it and when he had to cut his losses. As a working director and playwright manque he could step in and assume control of an individual project. He would have preferred to write his own reviews. Where the Hollywood moguls were entrerpeneurs and, for the most part, not distinguished in matters of taste, Papp was a man of artistic sensibility and social conscience. He was shrewd, strong-willed and singleminded. He could also be sentimental. One never knew what he might do next: a cutting-edge experiment by Mabou Mines or a revival of a nostalgic Broadway comedy (Cafe Crown). He might close a show before it opened, fire a director and take over the staging, or extend the run of a play in the face of negative notices. Once had suddenly, closed a play on opening night, before my favorable review was printed in the next days newspaper. He agonized before taking over the theatre at Lincoln Center, and then when his work was on an upswing (matching innovative directors with classics), he surrendered his position and, in typical fashion, made it sound like a positive step. Papps mood was a variable as the weather in Central Park. A clear sky could rumble into a storm, but, as in the park, the performance continued. To him, theatre was not a business. He was a patron of the arts. There was always a double meaning in his concept of free Shakespeare. It was his conviction that theatre should be as public as libraries. One should be able to check out a production, as, in his youth, he could check out a book from the library in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At the same time, he wanted to liberate Shakespeare from textbook traditionalists and elocutionary Englishmen. Papp was not a theatrical visionary like Stanislavsky or Grotowski. His theatre was not influential in the sense of the Comedie Francaise, the Moscow Art of the Berliner Ensemble. He created no new acting style, and, in the long run, the plays he produced could not be considered a body of work. However, as an institution, the Shakespeare Festival was our most important theatre. It preceded the burgeoning of the regional theatre movement, which brought about the decentralization, fragmentation and enrichment of the American theatre. As the New York equivalent of a regional company, the Shakespeare festival presaged the rise in New York of other, similarly intentioned organizations, inlcuding the Manhattan Theatre Club, Circle Repertory Company and Playwrights Horizons. When Papp was on top of several spheres, having spread his producing wings to encompass Broadway and Lincoln Center as well as Off Broadway and Central Park, I wrote, Without him, there would be a vast emptiness in the American theatre, and posed the question, Who would do all those plays, fill all those stages, employ all those actors? With Papps death, one suddenly realized how many evenings, how many hours had been spent in his theatres how much, in fact, he had determined the very course of theatre in his lifetime. Mel Gussow is a theatre critic for the New York Times. This article is based on material from a forthcoming book on Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival. What Gives My Life Meaning EssayTHOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE   The day i walked into joseph papps office last March, he was talking David Greenspan out of directing Congreves The Way of the World with an all-male cast. When JoAnne Akalaitis phoned to intercede on Greenspans behalf, the cantankerous Papp upbraided her, declaring, Im not some sort of far-out pseudo-liberal! That exclamation might come as a surprise to those who know Papp and his causes how he has fought tirelessly for the inclusion of minorities in theatre, battled Jesse Helms in the National Endowment for the Arts controversy, and would have actively protested the Persian Gulf War had his health been better. But Papp had been going through a period of intense self-examination: He was trying to pass on his knowledge of the theatre to Akalaitis, and thus was having to think about things he had previously done on instinct. What seemed to emerge were a number of precepts that suggested Papp the Producer had quite a different set of ideals from Papp the Liberal. Q: This season you gave each of your associate directors including Greenspan a theatre with the understanding that theyd have artistic freedom in using it. Are you reneging on that? A: If I see us headed for disaster, Im going to stop it. I have a responsibility. I am an anti-censorship person, but Im also in the position in which Im saying, No, you cant do this. The New York Shakespeare Festival is an institution, not just a couple of guys and girls Off Broadway doing a show. . . .You have to be conscious of the fact that you have a $14-million-a-year operation that weve cut down to $12 million. Once I say to somebody, This is your theatre, its a relative statement. We finance it, but Im not a corporation or a foundation. Im an artistic person, so there are aesthetics in this institution. Its a delicate balance. Only someone of my experience can possibly walk that kind of tightrope. You dont practive democracy in the theatre. In arranging the New York Shakespeare Festival so it can eventually go on without you, why did you choose JoAnne Akalaitis? We have different aesthetics in a certain sense, but in terms of the way we look at life, were pretty close. I didnt want to get a duplicate of me. But I wanted somebody interesting, provocative and somebody who loves theatre. She has a single agenda: the theatre. You referred to your painful cutbacks. How worried are you about the future of the festival? Im worried, but I feel strong because of the artistic changes that are taking place. Ill lose some and gain some, but my gains will be better because they have a cutting edge on them. The directors are anything but conventional. There are at least 10 others I couldve chosen. I didnt make a mistake with any of them. Im extremely happy. You once said that if the New York Shakespeare Festival ever went down, youd rather have it die with a bang than a whimper. Now Im in a totally different frame of mind. I dont want to see this place to go down on any kind of scale. There would be a huge gap withou this institution. Have you always been a fighter? Ive been this way all of my life. I dont know if youd call that a fighter. I just hold onto things. I dont like to be pushed around, particularly on fundamental issues that affect our democratic system. Sometimes over the past few years, your role as a spokesman for various causes seemed to eclipse your life as a theatre producer. I was finding it more interesting to fight for freedom of expression than to put on plays. It was a more direct way of dealing with things. I spent months on the NEA situation because I was getting bored with the theatre. But I dont say that now. There have been many rumors about your health. Are they true? I dont know why people are so interested in somebodys health. I could say my health is nobodys business. But if Im dying, youll know it. Its not like Im some old king thats dying and making bum decisions. Nonetheless, do you ever feel any parallels with King Lear these days? No. He was crazy. Mymind has never been clearer.