ally way

My daughter has had chalazia in the past (doesn't seem like a chronic problem, but she has had them before.) She is going to be a junior bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding in a week and, as luck would have it, she got a chalazion a few days ago. We've put warm compresses on it for 4 days but it's still there. Her pediatrician phoned in a prescription for eyedrops but he said they may not help all that much (she may not have an infection but just a blocked oil gland.) I was told there's not much else to do besides what we're already doing but if anyone has a good idea that might help it go away, I'd really appreciate it. My daughter is a bit young for makeup, but I'm wondering if some makeup technique could reduce the look of the bump in pictures.

I am doing a Biology paper using the NCBI website. What I'm trying to do is show how the IgG and IgE immunoglobins evolved from an ancient IgY molecule from chickens. I've read a few papers from scientists who researched this. They say that IgG and IgE are probably an offshoot of this simpler Ig molecule. How do I prove this? I ran a Nucleotide BLAST search aligning two sequences to see how much they have in common. One was Gallus gallus immunoglobulin superfamily, member 1 and the other was Homo sapiens Fc fragment of IgE, low affinity II. Between the two, there were only 3 places that matched and they were 15, 11, and 11 base pairs long. The E values were 1.1, 1.1, and 0.3 I've tried various other comparisons of IgE and IgY sequences but none give a really good result. The journals say that this is their finding, though. Is this match enough to establish an evolutionary relationship? Any advice on how to more efficiently use the NCBI BLAST would be much appreciated! Thanks!

I've had this really uncomfortable sensation of numbness in my trapezius muscles and shoulders lately. It is sometimes painful (a tension type pain) but it's the numbness that really bothers me. It is worse when I lie down but it persists all day. It is difficult to sleep because the sensation is so annoying. I have a spinal schwannoma between T3 and T4 (or T2 and T3, I forget), but the nerves that might get pinched in that area wouldn't affect this area, right? I had MRI's done a year ago and at the time, the neurologist didn't see any nerve entrapment or involvement. Would a pinched nerve show on the MRI? The numbness was bad last year, got better for a while, but is getting worse now. Wondering if there are any exercises I could do that might relieve this feeling.

I have to determine what species of unknown bacteria I have for my micro class. I can't seem to find anything that fits. Here's what I have so far: It is catalase (+), oxidase (-), methyl red (+), ferments lactose, maltose, glucose, sucrose, and mannitol (it was acidic and produced gas), did not digest gelatin. bile esculin turned black, citrate (+), SIM all negative, urease (-), and appears to be a facultative anaerobe. On a plate, the colonies grow quickly and look slimy (but I haven't successfully done a capsule stain yet). Colonies are a creamy white color. On starch, there is a "halo" effect when iodine is added. Hemolysis of blood agar looks like gamma or alpha, hard to tell. Anyway, according to my book, it looks like a Shigella or Klebsiella species, but my instructor posted a sheet telling where to find these bacteria and this doesn't seem to fit the lung/resp. tract thing. I know Klebsiella CAN cause pneumonia, but the lungs and resp. tract are not a normal place it would be found, right? If anyone can offer me some advice about additional testing or what kind of bacteria this might be, I'd appreciate it!

I really need to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've looked at recipes on the web and see many for baked coconut shrimp. I really would prefer not to fry since it's healthier, BUT since I'm entertaining, I want to make sure it will come out good. Weigh in with your opinion. If you're the type who enjoys healthier foods (like whole grain pasta, brown rice, etc.) please mention that. It's not that I don't trust the opinions of healthy eaters, it's just that they tend to have different tastes than the average joe.

I have a Nikon D70s that my dad-in-law gave us when he upgraded his camera. I know very little about photography and cameras, but I know this is a decent camera and should take good pictures even on the auto setting. I have taken really great photos in natural light/shade, but in all other settings, the pictures come out horribly! In brighter sunlight, everything gets terribly washed out and the display says [E] which I think is an error warning? Indoors, if it's low light and I have to use the flash, the color looks dull, unnatural, and kind of bluish plus all the subjects look really shiny. I've played around with the white balance using what I think are the appropriate settings, but it only helps a little. Aside from taking a photography class or just reading the manual, can someone with photography experience tell me what is the best way to correct these color issues with my camera?

I was thinking about painting plates as a birthday party activity (but at home, not at a pottery studio like Color Me Mine.) I've been looking at ceramic bisque online, but I was wondering if you could just paint on a white ceramic dinner plate or is ceramic bisque different than a finished plate. Also, do the plates need to be fired to be food safe or is there another way to do it? I read something about using underglaze and a clear overglaze on top of it, but does that still need to be fired or does the overglaze protect you from the underglaze? If it's too much trouble, maybe we'll just paint something that isn't used for food, but I still want to make sure it's non-toxic.

Also, any ideas of the cost of firing ceramics? Where is the best place to do this?

Everything I've read on the internet says that styes and chalazia are not contagious. However, in the past month, all three of my kids have had them. My oldest daughter had 2 styes, one in each eye. She did compresses and Vigomox eyedrops for a week and they disappeared. A week later, my youngest daughter developed a chalazion that got pretty big for a while, but is now shrinking. Last week, my son developed a chalazion also. It is still growing and probably will take a while to resolve if it's like my daughter's. The opthalmologist said chalazia are not contagious, and he said it wasn't a viral infection. Strange coincidence?

Almost exactly a year ago, my daughter had a strange case of mycoplasma pneumonia. Normally the disease is not severe, so she had been given the wrong antibiotic for over a week before finally being hospitalized, as her symptoms suggested a different type of bacteria. By the time her fevers dropped and she was feeling better, her upper lobe of her right lung had slightly collapsed. Even with chest PT and lots of inhaled meds, it didn't open up so they sent her to a children's hosp. for bronchoscopy. There was a mucous plug and some granulomas(?) which made them suspect something similar to TB but all TB tests came back negative. She's recovered since then and seems mostly normal, so we began seeing her regular pediatrician for follow-ups. Her one year follow up x-ray showed she still has a little bit of atelectasis and some haziness in the same region of her lung. He suggested more chest PT and keeping her on her Flovent inhaler for 3 more months. I'm not worried about this, but I am wondering if we should be seeing a pulmonologist, or is this the type of thing our pediatrician should be able to handle? At what point should we expect this lung to completely open up? If it doesn't, is it a big deal? She doesn't have breathing difficulties (except that she did get a little wheezy this past week when she was sick with cough and cold). She does not have asthma. Thanks for your help.

We are receiving a free baby grand piano from my parents' church (they have another and don't need this one.) It is a Knabe built around 1933 and the finish apparently is pretty awful. I'm not sure how much work is actually needed to bring the piano to a satisfactory condition. I'm sure, with it being so old, it needs new strings and some other new parts. Unfortunately, we don't have the money right now to restore it properly. My dad says a man at the church (who does amazing wood work as a hobby) thinks he can refinish it for us. I don't feel that's a good idea even though he's a craftsman. Wouldn't it be more prudent (and protect its value to just wait and have a piano expert do the job?) And does anyone know about how much that would cost? Thanks.

I have a small (2.5 cm) cyst on my right ovary. I have to pee so often, it feels like I'm pregnant (I'm not). When I pee, not much comes out. And when I'm done going, I still feel the urge to go. I've had UTI's before and am very familiar with them. This feels different, more like when a baby in utero is pressing on the bladder. But the cyst is so small. Could it really cause that much pressure? I'm wondering if there is a different reason I might be feeling this way. Any ideas? Thanks.

I have a small complex cyst on my ovary that was discovered in March. The doc put me on Ortho cyclen and wanted to see if it would go away on its own. Four months later, the cyst is still there but appears to be "less complex" than it was before. I know complex cysts seem to be more worrisome than simple ones; does this development of the cyst mean it's heading in the right direction? The cyst has grown about a cm since the last ultrasound but is still small (now about 2.5 cm). I don't see my gyn until next week so I'm hoping someone can tell me a little bit about this.

I just finished a college physics class with 81.4% of the possible points. I thought I had done well as it was a tough class. I found out that I got a C because the majority of the class did well. However, the professor failed to take into account that half of the class dropped out before the end. My grade was being compared to those who were already excelling and most had taken physics before. (Before the class thinned out, I was doing better than the average.) From my past college experience, it seemed that teachers graded on a curve to help out those who might be struggling with a difficult course. It seems like this time, the curve didn't benifit anyone, but penalized average/good students. Can any college profs or teachers tell me if I'm just being whiney or if it's not fair. By the way, this is community college, not university.

I'm looking for a cut of beef that can be sliced really thinly across the grain so that it's tender and not tough. I might use skewers to cook it on the barbeque. What kind of beef do fastfood Teriyaki restaurants use and how do they slice it thinly? Any advice would be appreciated!

My daughter has had a high fever (103-106.5) for the past 7 days. She has always run high fevers (my other 2 kids never have had high fevers like that). Tylenol helps for a while but the fever always comes back. We found out she has pneumonia and were given Augmentin which she has been taking for 3 days. Her fever is lower (102.5) but still won't seem to go away. She feels miserable most of the day and I'm wondering how long until the antibiotics will kick in. Usually, with antibiotics, she feels better the next day. Not this time.How long should I wait before asking the dr. if the med is working?

our 5 mo old chicken looks "rooster-ish" with prominent wattle and comb. it has a stately posture, stretching it's neck and standing tall. but, it never crows; rather it makes clucking noises. it has not laid eggs. it is not very aggressive. it will sometimes peck at us, but mostly because it mistakes us (our skin or clothing) for food (like a bug or something.) it seems to be on the small side. it is our only chicken so i don't know how it would react to other chickens.