Lactase Enzyme Essay Example for Free

Lactase Enzyme Essay This lab will examine the specificity of an enzyme (lactase) to a specific substrate (lactose). Students will observe the actions of the enzyme and how shape is important to enzyme reactions. Background information: Lactose, the sugar found in milk, is a disaccharide composed of glucose and galactose (both six-sided sugars). Sucrose, ordinary table sugar, is also a disaccharide composed of fructose and glucose. Glucose is a six-sided sugar and fructose is a five-sided sugar. Lactase is an enzyme that breaks lactose down into galactose and glucose. Lactase can be purchased in pill form by people who are lactose intolerant. These people lack the enzyme, lactase, and cannot break down the sugar lactose into its component parts. Although lactose is similar to sucrose, lactase will break down only lactose because of the shape of the sugar. In this lab, you will see lactase break lactose down into galactose and glucose. You will also observe what happens if the shape of lactase is changed due to heating. Materials/ resources: * Lactase tablets: these can be bought in any drug store or grocery store. Fifteen milliliters of milk: any milk will work. Water: used for dissolving the lactase tablet, dissolving the sucrose and boiling the lactase. * Sucrose: five grams per group. * One hundred milliliter graduated cylinder/ten milliliter graduated cylinder: measuring water and enzyme amounts. * Three four hundred milliliter beakers: used for dissolving the lactase tablet, dissolving the sucrose and boiling the lactase. * Five test tubes: these tubes hold the different solution mixtures. * Test tube rack: hold the test tubes. * Marking pencil: mark the test tubes so that confusion does not occur. * Clock * Hot plate with a Pyrex test tube for denaturing the enzyme. Glucose test strips: these strips can be found in any drugstore. Stirring rod: helps to mix up the lactase tablet in the water. Lab procedures: 1. Gather the materials. 2. Label the test tubes with the following labels: 0 A. Test tube with skim milk and enzyme solution. B. Test tube with skim milk and water. C. Test tube with skim milk and denatured enzyme solution. D. Test tube with sucrose solution and enzyme solution. E. Test tube with sucrose solution and water. 3. In test tube A add two milliliters of skim milk and one milliliter of enzyme solution. 4. Time for two minutes and test for glucose with the glucose test tape. Record this data in table 1. If there was glucose present mark a ‘+’ in the table. If glucose was absent, mark a ‘-’ in the table. 5. In test tube B add two milliliters of skim milk and one milliliter of water. 6. Repeat step 4. 7. In test tube C add two milliliters of skim milk and one milliliter of denatured enzyme solution. 8. Repeat step 4. 9. In test tube D add two milliliters of the sucrose solution and one milliliter of enzyme solution. 10. Repeat step 4. 11. In test tube E add two milliliters of the sucrose solution and one milliliter of water. 12. Repeat steps 4. Results: Glucose Presence in the Following Solutions| Type of Solution| Positive or Negative Glucose Result| Test tube A: milk and enzyme solution| Â  | Test tube B: milk and water| Â  | Test tube C: milk and denatured enzyme solution| Â  | Test Tube D: sucrose solution and enzyme solution| Â  | Test Tube E: sucrose solution and water| Â  | | Conclusion and Questions: 1. Diagram and describe the lactose and lactase reaction (may need to research this). 2. Why did the enzyme react to lactose but not to sucrose? 3. What happened when the enzyme was boiled? 4. Another way to affect the enzyme is by lowering the pH of the solution. However, lactase is supposed to be able to work in the stomach. Would lowering the pH of the enzyme solution affect the enzyme? Why or why not? 5. What type of reaction is this? Dehydration or hydrolysis? Content to be covered in conclusion paragraphs: It should explain the general conclusions of the lab. May refer back to background information to help explain the conclusion of the lab. Should refer back to the GENERAL data in the results. Restate the purpose and state whether the hypothesis was correct or not and why. Clearly state and explains how at least THREE errors may have occurred in the lab. Also explains common pitfalls a person SHOULD avoid.

Medieval Torture Essay -- essays research papers

Torture (Latin torquere, â€Å"to twist†), in law, infliction of severe bodily pain either as punishment, or to compel a person to confess to a crime, or to give evidence in a judicial proceeding. Among primitive peoples, torture has been used as a means of ordeal and to punish captured enemies. Examination by torture, often called the â€Å"question,† has been used in many countries as a judicial method. It involves using instruments to extort evidence from unwilling witnesses. In ancient Athens, slaves were always examined by torture, and for this reason their evidence was apparently considered more valuable than that of freemen. A free Athenian could not be examined by this method, but torture may have been used occasionally in executing criminals. Under the Roman Republic only slaves could be legally tortured, and as a general rule, they could not be tortured to establish the guilt of their master. Under the Roman Empire, however, by the order of the emperor, torture was frequently inflicted even on freemen to obtain evidence of the crime of laesa majestas (â€Å"injured majesty,† or crime against a sovereign power). The statesman Cicero and other enlightened Romans condemned the use of torture. Until the 13th century torture was apparently not sanctioned by the canon law of the Christian church; about that time, however, the Roman treason law began to be adapted to heresy as crimen laesae majestatis Divinae (â€Å"crime of injury to Divine majesty†). Soon after the Inquisition was instituted, Pope Innocent IV, influenced by the revival of Roman law, issued a decree (in 1252) that called on civil magistrates to have persons accused of heresy tortured to elicit confessions against themselves and others. This was probably the earliest instance of ecclesiastical sanction of this mode of examination. During the Middle Ages the influence of the Roman Catholic Church contributed to the adoption of torture by civil tribunals. The Italian municipalities adopted torture early, but it did not appear in other European countries until France legalized its use in the 13th century. Ultimately, torture became part of the legal system of every European nation except Sweden and England. Although torture was never recognized in the common law of England, it was practiced by exercise of the royal prerogative. In the American colonies torture was illegal; the few instances of its use were in ... ...nclose the head. Some resembled iron masks, with holes for mouth, nose and eyes. The victims mouth was clamped shut by an iron band passing under the chin and a flat piece of iron projected inside her mouth. This mouthpiece was sometimes armed with a short spike. The whole contraption was fastened round the neck with a heavy padlock. Branks were not only used to punish nagging wives. Any women found guilty of malicious gossip and slander, abusive language or breaches of the peace were silenced in this way. The branks were also padlocked on women convicted of witchcraft and condemned to die at the stake - but for a different reason. They prevented the unfortunate creatures for screaming horrible curses on their tormentors. References Medieval Punishment - Torture and Executions in Europe - 1100-1600 -- Cy Stapleton Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers: A History of Torture and Its Instruments by Geoffrey Abbott Reissue edition (July 1995) Trafalgar Square The Book of Execution: An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution by Geoffrey Abbott Reprint edition (August 1995) Trafalgar Square Torture by Edward Peters Expanded edition (December 1996) University of Pennsylvania Press

Cutting Weight in Combat Sports

Cutting Weight in Combat Sports Indira Moores Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School Contents Cutting Weight in Combat Sports3 Cutting Weight in General3 Effects of Extreme Weight Cuts4 Effects on Growth and Development5 Proper Techniques5 Effects on Performance6 Average Cuts7 Prevention of Weight Cutting8 Conclusion8 Works Cited10 Cutting Weight in Combat Sports It is a known fact that to be a competitor at an elite level, one must work hard and make sacrifices. There are many examples of hard working athletes shown through the media.Most of these examples, however, tend to focus on a select few professional sports like hockey, football, basketball and amateur sports like figure skating and track and field. Many other sports, are sometimes recognized as being an elite level, but are not nearly as understood because they do not get the exposure from the media, that more ‘popular’ sports do. A lot of combat sports, including wrestling, fall in to this category. Wrestling gets a l imited media exposure compared to more popular sports, and as a result, is not well understood.For example, at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Canada earned its first gold medal by wrestler Carol Hyun at weight 49 kg. Yet wrestling was generally not covered extensively over most television networks, (Yardly, 2008). Because combat sports aren’t generally media-popular sports, they are often not understood, which leads to some misconceptions. For instance, they are viewed as more violent compared to other contact sports such as hockey or football, or that it requires less training, (Bina, 2011).However, one of the biggest misconceptions, and the one I am choosing to focus on is that cutting weight, in a sport such as wrestling, is an unhealthy component of the sport with detrimental consequences. That’s not to say that there aren’t extreme examples of dangerous and reckless weight cutting with dire consequences. However weight cutting, when monitored and execut ed properly, is just another example of hard work and sacrifices that must be made within the sport. Cutting Weight in General Most combat sports are divided into weight classes. This gives athletes the advantage of competing against someone who is relatively their own size.Rather than having a 190 pound athlete compete against a 130 pound athlete. The competitors attend a weigh- in session in which the athletes are weighed and are grouped in to the listed weight class. This is where the concept of cutting weight comes in. Instead of wrestling someone your own size, why not lose weight and wrestle somebody who is smaller? This thought process has become very popular in recent years with wrestlers, especially in North America. Cutting weight is known as the process of losing a lot of weight in a short amount of time.If it is only a few pounds, losing the weight is fairly easy, but if the athlete is trying to drop multiple weight classes in a few days that is when issues arise. Unfort unately, the small amount of attention from the media that wrestling receives is mainly focused on the most extreme cases and negative cases, where athletes refuse liquids for hours, food for days and wear multiple layers of clothing to sweat out the weight. In some cases athletes are dressed in sweat suits and sit in steam rooms at ridiculously high temperatures in attempts to lose the weight.The media has brought the attention to the deaths and the injuries instead of focusing more on the good of the sport. When the process of cutting weight is only viewed in such a negative way, it’s easy to assume that it can be very detrimental to anyone’s body. Effects of Extreme Weight Cuts These extreme cases that the media has focused on are, of course, very unfortunate. These cuts have very harmful effects on the body. First of all, there is the obvious fact that the body is being dehydrated. Dehydration alone, causes the body to be tired and sleepy, causes the body to have a ard time concentrating and can be easily stressed, (Matheney, 2010). An athlete is also more prone to being injured when they are dehydrated, (Matheney, 2010). Dehydration causes the organs in the body to work harder to continue their bodily functions. Examples of this are the heart and the kidneys. The heart pumps blood all over the body after it has been oxygenized. Without the necessary amount of water in the body, the heart has to pump stronger and more often, causing it to be over worked. The kidneys filter waste products from the blood stream and without water it cannot filter properly.As a result, dehydration can cause kidney and heart failure. There are also reports of harming the liver during the process of cutting weight, (McAllister,2011). Aside from the physical effects, there are some mental effects on the body as well. Refusing foods and liquids days before a weigh in can increase an athlete’s risk of an eating disorder. Although, it is not necessarily because of the media and pressures to look a certain way, it is caused by the pressures of the team, coaches and themselves to weigh a certain weight.There is also the possibility of hormone imbalances which cause mood swings and depression in athletes, (Matheny, 2010). Effects on Growth and Development Younger, maturing athletes who cut large amounts of weight are more likely to experience hormone imbalances, which is caused by under nutrition. As a result the body’s growth hormone gets altered, which may cause permanent growth impairment if it is repeated over many seasons of wrestling, (Cochan, 2011. ) Any dietary restrictions in children who compete can also be harmful.Children, especially those who compete in intense levels of physical activity need a variety of nutrients. Since they are still growing and developing, many fats and carbohydrates are needed to keep the body fueled. If not, dietary restrictions may also reduce protein nutrition and muscular performance, (Health Can ada, 2011). Proper Techniques Although cutting weight will never be considered something extremely healthy, there are methods of cutting weight that do less harm to the body. People can cut weight properly over a long period of time through dieting and water manipulation.A simple low carb diet can help anybody two to three pounds per week. As long as the diet is still feeding the body the necessary nutrients, like water, only a small and necessary amount carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals, it will still have enough energy to exercise intensely and slowly lose weight, (Landry, 2009). For example, after an intense workout or practice, eating a fruit would benefit the body. The simple sugars are carbohydrates that help replenish muscles after being worked very hard. This can be consumed instead of a calorie-high and carb-loaded protein drink.Another way losing weight that is less harmful to the body is known as water manipulation. Athletes are able to â€Å"trickâ₠¬  their body into thinking that it is consuming more water, then it actually is. For example, in the week leading up to the weigh in, for two days an athlete will drink eight litres of water. He or she will let the body adjust to this enormous amount of water being consumed. Naturally, the body will rid the excess water. After the two days, he or she will cut down to four litres, which is still a large amount.The body is still taking in more water than necessary, and is still ridding a large amount. This can help an athlete lose from 5-7 pounds in the days leading up to a weigh in. Effects on Performance After being dehydrated for an extended period of time, the body takes a prolonged time to rehydrate. According to The Wrestler Diet, by Roger Landry and others, the body intakes â€Å"only about two pints [of water] per hour, and takes up to 48 hours for the water balance tissue in your muscles to be restored,†. Different bodies, however, react differently.Athletes who have been dieting responsibly and are used to competing may be more familiar with restoring their bodies before a tournament. Ioannis Barbas did a study on twelve Greco – Roman wrestlers and how they recovered from the average weight cutting process during the tournament. Through his study he discovered a number of things like which matches in the day were the hardest for most athletes – that being the fourth match- , when the athletes found themselves most tired and so on. He did this by recording performance measurements, muscle damage assessments, and blood sampling before and after every match.He also found that these wrestlers were able to overcome weight loss routines before tournaments and preform very well and up to their usual abilities. Another factor that may affect the performances of combat sport competitors may be improper diets. Other professional and amateur sports that do not focus on weight have the advantage of consuming many high calorie and high carb f oods that would fuel the body with necessary nutrients during their competition. Meanwhile, athlete who are concerned about their weight are restricting these types of foods so he or she can make the desired weight class.In other words, these athletes are not getting proper nutrients, which may affect the athlete’s performance, (Smith). However, if the athlete loses the weight responsibly and avoids dehydration as much as possible, the recovery should be maximal. If an athlete has been dehydrated for a short period of time, and rehydrates with water and electrolytes after the weigh in the negative effects should be minimal, (Barbas, 2010). Average Cuts The average amount of weight that is cut by athletes strongly depends on the sport, and the level of competition.For example, professional UFC fighters are going to cut more than a rookie high school wrestler. Professional UFC fighters are known to cut anywhere from 20 to 45 pounds, (Wong, 2010). This is an extremely large amou nt, but most of it is done over a long period of time and carefully, considering this is what they do as a profession. High school and university level wrestlers could drop a simple five pounds to 15 pounds over time, (McAllister, 2011). Prevention of Weight Cutting With the number of deaths and injuries that have occurred from athletes cutting weight, there had to be changes made.The consequences of cutting weight are very extreme, yet many athletes continue to do so in a very reckless way. In the United States, collegiate wrestling competitions have changed the weigh in date from the evening before the competition, to the day of the competition. This helps reduce the chance of athletes cutting weight by giving them less time to recover after dehydration and starvation. The less time to recover, the less likely the athlete will perform well, and therefore an athlete is less likely to cut. The NCAA has also recently taken many steps to reduce the chances of athletes cutting weight.T hey have banned competitors of practicing in a room that is hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit, self – induced vomiting, and extensive fluid and/or food restrictions, (Loma, 2010). Another common restriction that has been made is the banning of sauna suits. This is a decent compromise to athletes because the act of weight cutting can still be done, but in a much less dangerous way. Sauna suits are very dangerous and can easily overheat an athlete. Conclusion Cutting weight is an unhealthy part of combat sports. Nonetheless, it is a part of the sport.Unfortunately, the small amount of attention the media gives to these combat sports, such as wrestling, tend to be more negative and focused on extreme cases of athletes cutting large amounts of weight. As a result of the lack of attention, the sports are not thoroughly understood, particularly the concept of cutting weight. Cutting weight does have detrimental effects on the body, especially young, growing children. But if it is e xecuted properly, then the negative effects are negligible. If athletes do monitor their weight cutting process over time and very carefully, they will be able to compete near their fullest potential.If cutting weight, and other misconceptions about combat sports had more exposure, it would be understood that cutting weight is just another part of the sport that demonstrates hard work and extreme sacrifices. Works Cited Barbas, I. , (Nov 27th, 2010). , Physiological and performance adaptations of elite Greco-Roman wrestlers during a one-day tournament. , Retrieved from http://www. fila-official. com/images/FILA/documents/stages/2010/Barbas_physiological_performance_adaptations_gr. pdf on Feb 20th, 2012. Bina, A. , (Feb 2011). , Why is College Wrestling Unpopular? Retrieve from

What Was Chinas Cultural Revolution

Between 1966 and 1976, the young people of China rose up in an effort to purge the nation of the Four Olds: old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Mao Sparks the Cultural Revolution In August 1966, Mao Zedong called for the start of a Cultural Revolution at the Plenum of the Communist Central Committee. He urged the creation of corps of Red Guards to punish party officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. Mao likely was motivated to call for the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in order to rid the Chinese Communist Party of his opponents after the tragic failure of his Great Leap Forward policies. Mao knew that other party leaders were planning to marginalize him, so he appealed directly to his supporters among the people to join him in a Cultural Revolution. He also believed that the communist revolution had to be a continuous process, in order to stave off capitalist ideas. Maos call was answered by the students, some as young as elementary school, who organized themselves into the first groups of Red Guards. They were joined later by workers and soldiers. The first targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches, and mosques, which were razed to the ground or converted to other uses. Sacred texts, as well as Confucian writings, were burned, along with religious statues and other artwork. Any object associated with Chinas pre-revolutionary past was liable to be destroyed. In their fervor, the Red Guards began to persecute people deemed counter-revolutionary or bourgeois, as well. The Guards conducted so-called struggle sessions, in which they heaped abuse and public humiliation upon people accused of capitalist thoughts (usually these were teachers, monks, and other educated persons). These sessions often included physical violence, and many of the accused died or ended up being held in re-education camps for years. According to the Maos Last Revolution by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, almost 1,800 people were killed in Beijing alone in August and September of 1966. The Revolution Spins out of Control By February of 1967, China had descended into chaos. The purges had reached the level of army generals who dared to speak out against the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, and Red Guards were turning against one another and fighting in the streets. Maos wife, Jiang Qing, encouraged the Red Guards to raid arms from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), and even to replace the army entirely if necessary. By December of 1968, even Mao realized that the Cultural Revolution was spinning out of control. Chinas economy, already weakened by the Great Leap Forward, was faltering badly. Industrial production fell by 12% in just two years. In reaction, Mao issued a call for the Down to the Countryside Movement, in which young cadres from the city were sent to live on farms and learn from the peasants. Although he spun this idea as a tool for leveling society, in fact, Mao sought to disperse the Red Guards across the country, so that they could not cause so much trouble anymore. Political Repercussions With the worst of the street violence over, the Cultural Revolution in the following six or seven years revolved primarily around struggles for power in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. By 1971, Mao and his second-in-command, Lin Biao, were trading assassination attempts against one another. On September 13, 1971, Lin and his family tried to fly to the Soviet Union, but their plane crashed. Officially, it ran out of fuel or had an engine failure, but there is speculation that the plane was shot down either by Chinese or Soviet officials. Mao was aging quickly, and his health was failing. One of the main players in the succession game was his wife, Jiang Qing. She and three cronies, called the Gang of Four, controlled most of Chinas media, and railed against moderates such as the Deng Xiaoping (now rehabilitated after a stint in a re-education camp) and Zhou Enlai. Although the politicians were still enthusiastic about purging their opponents, the Chinese people had lost their taste for the movement. Zhou Enlai died in January of 1976, and popular grief over his death turned into demonstrations against the Gang of Four and even against Mao. In April, as many as 2 million people flooded Tiananmen Square for Zhou Enlais memorial service—and the mourners publicly denounced Mao and Jiang Qing. That July, the Great Tangshan Earthquake accentuated the Communist Partys lack of leadership in the face of tragedy, further eroding public support. Jiang Qing even went on the radio to urge the people not to allow the earthquake to distract them from criticizing Deng Xiaoping. Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976. His hand-picked successor, Hua Guofeng, had the Gang of Four arrested. This signaled the end of the Cultural Revolution. After-Effects of the Cultural Revolution For the entire decade of the Cultural Revolution, schools in China did not operate, leaving an entire generation with no formal education. All of the educated and professional people had been targets for re-education. Those that hadnt been killed were dispersed across the countryside, toiling on farms or working in labor camps. All sorts of antiquities and artifacts were taken from museums and private homes and were destroyed as symbols of old thinking. Priceless historical and religious texts also were burned to ashes. The exact number of people killed during the Cultural Revolution is unknown, but it was at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Many of the victims of public humiliation committed suicide, as well. Members of ethnic and religious minorities suffered disproportionately, including Tibetan Buddhists, Hui people, and Mongolians. Terrible mistakes and brutal violence mar the history of Communist China. The Cultural Revolution is among the worst of these incidents, not only because of the horrific human suffering inflicted  but also because so many remnants of that countrys great and ancient culture were willfully destroyed.