Diabetes :: essays research papers

DIABETES In 1921, Canadian researchers isolated insulin from dog pancreases and discovered that the hormone is essential to controlling blood sugar. Given by injection, insulin reversed wasting in diabetic children and extended their lives. Dramatic as its effects are, however, insulin isn't a cure for diabetes. People with the disorder must monitor their blood sugar closely and take insulin injections to reduce the risk of nerve damage and heart, kidney, and eye disease. In a small percentage of these people, insulin injections fail to keep blood-sugar concentrations from fluctuating wildly. Scientists and patients agree that the ideal diabetes treatment would control patients' blood-sugar concentrations without requiring them to take insulin. One long-sought option is transplantation of pancreatic cell clusters, called islets, that make insulin. Though the approach is simple, it has succeeded in only a small fraction of the attempts. This year, however, a Canadian team announced 11 consecutive successes--islet transplants that permitted the recipients to stop taking insulin. Although there are still questions about the long-term safety and efficacy of this treatment, there's a sense of excitement among researchers. In Toronto at the June meeting of the Endocrine Society, David M. Harlan of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda noted, "Islet-cell transplantation, which has long been promising, appears poised to fulfill its promise." Affecting 1 million people in the United States, type I diabetes arises when a patient's immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. While a pancreas transplant effectively cures the diabetes in most cases, the procedure is difficult and expensive and few donor pancreases are available. Physicians can transplant just the insulin-producing cells in a less taxing process that doesn't require major surgery. For the past 25 years, they've tested procedures in which they inject the cells into the major blood vessel flowing to the liver. The cells can take up residence there. After the procedure, patients must take immunosuppressive drugs. Overall, just 8 percent of people given islet-cell transplants have improved their ability to control blood-sugar concentration enough to stop taking insulin. They concerns and problems that they have been dealing with in the past are those of the transplant wiping out your immune system or even blowing your diabetes out of proportion and making the diabetic very sick. The case with the immune system wiping out would have the same similarities as someone with the disease, AIDS. This is the first study that allows the diabetic the ability to not be on insulin and not have to take pills to help the immune system.

Theme of Love in Joyce’s Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young

Theme of Love in Joyce’s Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses    A central theme in James Joyce’s works is that of love: what is it, and how can we discuss it? Joyce could not bring himself to use the word ‘love;’ when Nora asked him if he loved her he could only say that he "was very fond of her, desired her, admired and honored her, and wished to secure her happiness in every way; and if these elements were what is called love then perhaps his affection for her was a kind of love" (Ellmann 6). One can read Molly Bloom’s "Oh, rocks. Tell us in plain words" as Nora’s answer to Joyce’s intellectual, complicated answer (Joyce, Ulysses 64). Perhaps as a result of Joyce’s own concern and questions about love, many of his characters are also confused and looking for a definition of love. There are many kinds of love discussed in Joyce’s works, including love for ideals, family, friends, God, and most importantly, husband and wife. This paper will explore the theme of love in Joyce’s work and show that love is a basic concept in life; characters unsure of this concept need to find a concrete definition before they can be comfortable. To do this I will analyze characters from Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses, using the Greek ideals of agape; spiritual love, storge; familial love, philia; the love between friends, and eros; sexual love. Godlike Love: Agape Ulysses opens with Buck Mulligan calling Stephen a "fearful jesuit" and mocking church rituals as he shaves (Joyce, Ulysses 3). The two main characters of this novel, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom have each fallen from their respective faiths. They both suffer for their religious affiliations; Bloom is excluded and h... ...me to terms with the part of love that is comprised of forgiveness. Stephen is yet doomed to wander in search of the meaning of love, but Bloom has found an incomplete definition, at least of eros.    Works Cited Burton, John. "ClassicNote." GradeSaver. http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/ulysses/. July 5th, 2000. Dibattista, Maria. First Love. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, 1991. Ellmann, Richard. Joyce in Love. Cornell University Library. Ithaca, NY. 1959. Joyce, James. Dubliners. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Portable James Joyce. Harry Levin, ed. Penguin. 1976, New York. Ulysses. Vintage, New York. 1961. Lockett, Joseph. "Four Loves, No Loves." http://www.io.com/~jlockett/Grist/English/ulysses.html Valente, Francesca. "Joyce’s Dubliners as Epiphanies." The Modern Word. http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/paper_valente.htmls

Brain Cell Transplants

For decades the wonders of science have miraculously improved and given hope to the unfortunate individuals of the world. From stem cell research to cloning, there is not a day that goes by that there is not a lab that is not full of eager scientists working hard in effort to find a cure for some of the millions of illnesses that are present today. There are many disabled children living throughout the world today. In fact, they make up quite a large portion of the world.From mental illnesses, to physical disabilities, there are thousands  of different types of diseases that strike newborns and children every day. Causes attributed to such illnesses can be anything from hereditary reasons to environmental. Fortunately, we have our magnificent scientists striving to help these children. In August of 2000, scientists began developing brain cell transplants to treat the damage caused by a stroke. The procedure appeared to benefit some patients. What this means is that their is, in fac t hope for children with mental disabilities, because a stroke causes mild to sever brain damage.Rehabilitation plays an important role once the brain cell transplants have taken place. And, not all patients will show signs of improvements. This is an ongoing study that is still being worked on and has much room for improvement. In the laboratory, scientists have actually developed a process which uses several to transform cells called LBS-neurons into mature brain cells or neurons. The regular LBS-neurons originate from human tumor tissue composed of embryonic like cells. This is a long way from looking through a magnifying glass!