Writing in Biology

We completed a time analysis budget using Jwatcher to indicate when certain behaviors occurred in different contexts. We watched the same 48 minutes and 55 seconds of videos that was used to create the sequential analysis and the behavior tables. We observed the behaviors of only the foals. We observed behaviors and grouped them into five categories that we defined as comfort, locomotion, grooming, feeding, and playing. Comfort included behaviors that comforted the horse, such as tail waving. Locomotion were behaviors that involved the foal moving to a new location. Grooming included bevaiors such as licking or any cleaning of the foal. Feeding was defined by behaviors where the horse fed and playing involved interactions with other foals. These behaviors were defined by the context of who was involved, either alone, including the mare, or including another foal. We used jwatcher to record when each behavior occurred and the context of each behavior. We used the data to analyze the proportion of time the foals spent doing each behavior in each context and the amount of behaviors done in each category in each context. We used a bar graph to display our results.

The healthcare field has always interested me since a young age. The science classes I had taken in grade school have always been a priority to me due to my drive to explore the field. My father is a doctor and that may have influenced my interest path due to my exposure to the medical field at such an early stage in my life. I am a biology major and hope to eventually go to school to become a Physician Assistant. I aspire to be a Physician Assistant because I strive to make a difference in people’s lives everyday. By being a PA, I would be doing something I enjoy while helping people. Due to my focus in the medical field, I enjoy the classes such as anatomy and physiology, public health, and microbiology. Yet, ecology can play a role in the medical field in many ways that are not as obvious as one may think.

Crispr/Cas9 has come into the spotlight due to recent research, where it has been found to be a possible new tool in genome editing. The possibilities are endless in what can be done with controlled genome editing but to begin the journey on deeming it a successful option further research on humans must occur.

     The Crispr/Cas9 mechanism essential is comprised of two parts. The regulatory part of the system is a RNA guide which is programmed to sequence to match a desired DNA sequence. The RNA guide is then bound to Cas9, a protein that has the ability to make double stranded DNA breaks. When the two are together, they essentially search through the DNA looking for the programmed sequence, and once the RNA binds to the DNA, Cas9 can make the cut. The cut in DNA allows for the ability to correct mutation, insert new genes, or remove certain genes from the human genome.

It's interesting that the centrosome cycle can simultaneously occur with the other processes of replication. When I think about all of these different processes, it becomes difficult to picture all of these different proteins acting simultaneously with one another to complete massively complex procedures. Also, this is happening across millions of cells at the same time and the overall orchestration is hard to picture.

    These processes must occur in a sequential order. If they somehow began too early or in the wrong order, the consequences within the cell would be devastating. For example, if M-phase began before S-phase was complete, the resulting daughter cells would be deprived of a number of chromosomes and become destined for cell-death. Perhaps overregulation of specific cyclins could lead to something like this.

It's fascinating that the entire set of 23 chromosome pairs can be copied during S phase. Thinking about all of the components that must be produced to facilitate this replication is complicated. For instance, in order for the DNA to wrap up into chromosomes, the quaternary histone protein and all of its substituents must be synthesized and present. In addition, all of the chromosomal arrangement must be orchestrated by a large number of proteins and chemical interactions must occur. Overall, the entire process is a lot to think about.

    The interactions between CDKs and cyclins are extremely important to the cell cycle and highly organized. Since different phases of the cell cycle are dependent on the levels of cyclins, and consequently CDKs, there must be a large number of them. In addition, they must be produced at critical and specific moments throughout. The amount of involved proteins must be relatively high.

These processes must occur in a sequential order. If they somehow began too early or in the wrong order, the consequences within the cell would be devastating. For example, if M-phase began before S-phase was complete, the resulting daughter cells would be deprived of a number of chromosomes and become destined for cell-death. Perhaps overregulation of specific cyclins could lead to something like this.

Morgan horses at the Hadley Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts were observed in order to generate an ethogram in which various behaviors, bouts, and states could be analyzed. For the purpose of this project, we focused specifically on the foals and their interactions with other foals and their mother. Their fathers were not present at the time and so many behaviors could not be observed in which a foal may exhibit in the presence of its father. This project was conducted under the idea that we would be able to organize and categorize the foals behavior into tables which would then allow us to run a reliability test, time budget analysis, and a sequential analysis. These tests would help further understand the horses intention and even allow us to predict what behaviors the horse exhibits in a certain sequence. After coming through 180 minutes of footage of the horses, their behaviors were recorded by multiple group members, cross analyzed, and sorted accordingly. In total, 62 behaviors were observed and they spanned through five distinct categories. After obtaining a reliability test across 10 minutes of footage and focusing on several distinct behavior types and bout, we reached a peak reliability range of  35-50. The time budget analysis showed that feeding behaviors along side the foals mother are most prevalent whereas play behaviors exhibit the lowest proportion of time. Thus, we concluded that the foals exhibit unique behaviors depending on their environment, if they are alone or not, and who they are in the proximity of.

 

In this lab, 1-propyl propionate was synthesized through the esterification of 1-propanol and propionic acid to get a percent yield of 19.81%. The product was assessed for smell and analyzed using IR spectroscopy. The smell of esters is usually something fruity and is a stark contrast to its alcohol and carboxylic acid components, which typically have an unpleasant odor. The carboxylic acid and alcohol are the reactants in the mixture, with the sulfuric acid serving as a catalyst. The reactants create an ester and water in a process known as Fischer esterification. This is a seemingly simple reaction where the carbon and hydroxyl group bond is broken in the carboxylic acid and a new bond is formed between that carbon on the carboxylic acid and the carbon chain bonded to the hydroxyl group on the alcohol. Protonation of the carbonyl carbon of the carboxylic acid makes it a better electrophile which undergoes 1,2 addition by the alcohol and a proton from the alcohol is transferred to a hydroxyl group. 1,2 elimination leads to a protonated ester before it is later deprotonated.

There might be a cure for tuberculosis with a short treatment that’s better than the traditional one we have now. Tuberculosis (TB) has been treated with antibiotics since the discovery of streptomycin since 1943. According to a published study in Nature Medicine almost ten million of patients with active tuberculosis are diagnosed every year, that could benefit from this new treatment. 

In a new analysis of the University of California in San Francisco (UCFS) suggests that a more accurate therapy might be more effective, when treating tuberculosis. Scientists of UCSE concurred that the past failures in finding a new treatment was due to patients being treated the same way, without knowing the stage of TB. In the new study, the patients were stratified into three categories of the disease such as, minimal, moderate and severe. During, the four months treatment it showed that the treatment was highly effective for 47% of the patients with the disease. However, the four months were not effective for patients who had moderate or severe TB. The study shows that a stratified medicine approach can be applied in a feasible way to achieve shorter treatment for many patients with TB. With this unique approach leads to a low treatment for patients with a more serious state of the disease, or excessive treatment for patients with the less advanced disease, as they receive their medications that could harm them.

There might be a cure for tuberculosis with a short treatment that’s better than the traditional one we have now. Tuberculosis (TB) has been treated with antibiotics since the discovery of streptomycin since 1943. According to a published study in Nature Medicine almost ten million of patients with active tuberculosis are diagnosed every year, that could benefit from this new treatment. 

We rewatched the videos and choose a 5 minute period and 10 behaviors that occurred in that time frame for a reliability analysis. One group member watched the 5 minutes worth of video and used Jwatcher to indicate the times at which each behavior took place. This member rewatched the same five minutes of video and used Jwatcher to indicate the times at which each behavior occurred a second time. The reliability was determined between the two data sets and we redid the indication of when each behavior occurred until the reliability was above 65%. A second group member watched the same 5 minutes of video and indicated when behaviors occurred using Jwatcher. This was redone until there was above a 65% reliability between the first and second group member.