Drafts

Upon comparing the two figure panels, multiple differences in the photographs became apparent. For the replicated figure B, the photograph shows more of the right side of the stair railing. The angle at which the stairs are photographed is slightly more straight-on than in the original photograph. This suggests that the picture was taken a different angle than the original image. Another observed difference is in the replicated figure C. The photograph shows a thumb, as well as more of the background behind the spiderweb. The UMass ID card also appears to be smaller in the replicated image. From this difference, it is inferred that the photograph was taken from farther away in the replicate photo, thus, showing part of the student’s hands and more of the background behind the spiderweb.

Multiple differences in the image lighting were observed between the two figure panels. In the replicated figure B, the tree and staircase has shadow lines and sunlight beams throughout the picture, whereas the original photo shows no shadows. Figure B is also has more vibrant, saturated colors throughout the photograph, unlike the original photo which looks more dull. The factor that is most likely creating these differences would be the time of day that these pictures were taken. The sun is highly noticeable in the replicated figure panel, whereas the sun in the original pictures looks less harsh. The weather also could be a factor affecting the picture quality, as the original pictures were taken on an overcast, cloudy day. The exposure of the lighting   The replicated figure C, has a darker look to it. The tree in the background looks dark and shadowed, and the rest of the background to the right of the tree is extremely bright. This is most likely due to the camera exposure and focus.

Researchers find it really difficult to identify how emotions developed throughout evolution. It was initially theorized that emotions were learned throughout development, and they were not innate feelings. This means that once stimuli connected an experience with a feeling, they were paired together and created an emotion towards a specific situation. To test these theories, a 9-month old patient in a study was tasked with playing with different objects. These objects included fluffy animals, masks, dolls and more. The patient played with these animals and expressed no distinct or obvious emotion towards any specific object. This disconnect was called the neutral stimuli; the patient did not connect any object to a specific feeling. For the second round, the baby was exposed to a loud noise. As predicted, the loud noise startled the patient and they began to cry. This stimulus is unconditioned because the patient was not exposed to it before, but still was frightened by it. To tie the two together, now the patient was exposed to the same objects accompanied by a loud noise. When the baby reached out for one the objects that initially didn’t scare him, a loud noise would go off, and the baby would be frightened. This taught the baby to associate the loud scary noise with the harmless animal. This indicates how humans can learn emotion through association.

In terms of antidiabetic properties, metformin is typically used to combat type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is thought to decrease the hepatic (relating to the liver) production of glucose and increase the sensitivity to insulin as well as use of glucose by peripheral tissue. In addition metformin has been shown to successfully combat polycystic ovarian syndrome, which results in metabolic disorders due to the development of insulin resistance(Ikhlas, et al.). The anticancer properties of metformin were first discovered when researchers realized that cancer patients who were on metformin showed less mortality than other diabetic cancer patients on different drugs to deal with their diabetes (Ikhlas et al.). Mechanistically, metformin targets a number of important players in cancer pathway, but specifically the inhibition of mTORC1 via AMPK independent and AMPK dependant pathways.

    Activated AMPK causes the p53 to become active. This then induces cell cycle arrest at G1/S phase, simultaneously upregulating pro-apoptotic genes including p21 and Bax. In addition Foxo3a, a tumor suppressor that affects genes including Bim, bNIP3, and Bcl-xLon are activated by AMPK as well. Furthermore, lipogenesis (acetyl CoA is converted to fatty acids) is inhibited (Ikhlas, et al.). AMPK finally leads to the inhibition of mTORC1, which is a huge player in proliferation and cell growth via its control of autophagy, translation of mRNA and metabolic effects (Ikhlas, et al.).

The very first thing I did to find out where to get my pictures, was look up where spiders like to make their webs.  This led me to begin my search in my backyard which is the trees next to the mahar lecture hall, I looked in the volleyball court next to Newman center and the bulletin board by the entrance of mahar. I then looked in the trees and found a few webs and used a measuring tape to compare the size of each web.  I then used the camera app on the iPhone to compare how each web looked in through the camera lens initially without any effects. This allowed me to select the best web for the assignment.

To get the two pictures I had to set some things up for a background and have a friend there.  I first looked at the spider web through the camera lens and noticed the green grass was too light of a background so I had a friend hold up a dark purple folder behind the web.  This allowed for the camera to pick up the web way better. I found the best angle to capture the web at, then I took pictures with the flash and no flash to find out which looked best and chose no flash as it did nothing.  I then pulled the measuring tape to about one foot and held it perpendicular to the camera just below the web so the image shows the size of the web. I then snapped a few pictures. To get the picture of the setting I backed up about twenty feet and used the camera app to focus on the tree with the spider web then snapped a few pictures of the tree and its surroundings.

The next step was to edit the photos to allow for the best presentation of the pictures.  I downloaded the free app Photoshop express onto my iPhone and uploaded the pictures to the app.  I also at this time found a map of umass on the umass website. In the photoshop app I used the pen editing effect to draw a circle around the area I searched and put a dot/line on the area where the tree with the web is.  I then clicked on the make collage choice and selected the three images. I arranged them to allow for the map to be displayed with the map key and for the picture of the web to include the ruler. I then downloaded the collage to my camera roll and emailed it to myself from my iPhone.  

 The rise of our cranium came in steps. First, a chondrocranium formed in cartilaginous fishes like lampreys and hagfishes. A chondrocranium is essentially a brain pan; a sheet of cartilage on which the brain and associated cranial nerves rests and branches out throughout the body. As can be expected, there was not much protection of the vital organs in these being and that didn’t come until the formation of a dermatocranium. A dermatocranium was the first bony skull and is also referred to as a neurocranium. Early dermatocrania consisted of just six different bones known as the parietal, post-orbital, squamosal, quadrate, jugal, and quadratojugal. The fusion of these bones articulated with jaws, vertebrate, and other bony structures to protect the vital aspects of the central nervous system like the brain and the spinal cord. A third crania arose in fishes and it is referred to as a splanchnocranium. This is the bony (or cartilaginous depending on fish) structure that supports the gills and other thoracic structures. The splanchnocranium evolved into our axial skeleton over time and is now only prevalent in fishes and marine mammals. 

Did you know that animals other than Homo sapiens can communicate via facial expressions and hand gestures? In fact, it is a common occurrence; species like dogs, cats, horse, and primates use a variety of mechanical techniques to communicate emotions and give off signals. The above groups of animals all use facial expression to signal emotion. For example, wolves position their ears to signal alertness, submissiveness, and aggression as well as barring their teeth and furrowing their brows. If you see a wolf or dog with its teeth showing, its brow furrowed, and its ears forward, you best start running because that animal is aggressive and ready to attack. This behavior is seen in horses, felines, and primates alike. Unlike the other groups, primates use a wide variety of hand gestures, 64 to be exact. Primates have 64 special hand gestures and 22 familial hand gestures that can be used to give signals about threat warnings, food source, shelter, etc. Since 22 gestures are seen throughout the primate family, it is hypothesized that different primates can communicate with each other. For example, a chimpanzee can use these gestures to communicate with an orangutan. In conclusion, animals communicate much like us.

This is demonstrated in Table 1 when the number of dyed food vacuoles within each cell increased as the time periods got larger. This was also proven in Graph 1 because the curve of the average number of dyed food vacuoles within each cell increases as the time advances. This reveals that the feeding rate of the tetrahymena increases as time progresses. After collecting all of the data, the average number of dyed food vacuoles per cell within each time period was able to be calculated by finding the mean. In addition, the standard deviation was able to be calculated for each time interval. This determines how far away the data was from the mean. Most of the standard deviations were relatively low numbers, showing that the data was accurate.

When a signal binds to a receptor, it undergoes a conformational change that leads to the desired effect on the cell it is attached to. Based on what we have learned about protein folding and the chemical interactions at the different levels of structure, I believe that these conformational changes that happen to receptors are similar. For instance, if the ligand that binds to a receptor contains a lot of negatively charged amino acid residues, it could repel certain parts of the polypeptide comprising the receptor. This would cause it to physically shift and take on a new conformation.

I wonder if the number of signals that meet at an integrator can vary? If there was say ten signals bound to an integrator versus 20, would there be a more rapid response? Or maybe there is a threshold that needs to be reached in order for the integrators to perform its function?

An example of this is how epinephrine travels through the blood and binds to a number of different cells in the body. For instance, the resulting signal cascade and effect epinephrine has on cardiac tissue is much different than epithelial tissue. Because of this, epinephrine (adrenaline) has a huge variety of different functions within the body.

Something that is interesting about receptor binding sites and their corresponding ligand binding partners is that shape plays a massive role. Similar to how a block fits into hole on a child's toy, each receptor has a specific binding site shape that corresponds with the signal that is meant to bind it. This ensures that molecules that fit into the binding site are the only thing that can bind. This goes hand-in-hand with ways that drugs interact within the body. Biochemists and pharmacologists design drugs to mock that shape of the binding partner of a given receptor to elicit a specific response within the cell and consequently the body.

I'm also a little confused by this concept, but I do know that tyrosine kinases are fundamental molecules that perform signaling transduction in a massive number of cellular pathways. It has the ability to transfer phosphate molecules, which are crucial units of energy within the cell. But I think that SH2 and SH3 are able to modify the activity of a receptor and consequently result in a more specific signaling cascade after something like a growth factor binds.

The Figure is made up of 3 panels which were put together with Inkspace. These panels allow the viewer to not only see the web, but also the surrounding area, and a map that shows where the web can be found. The first of the 3 panels is the web, as that was the main subject of the figure. Due to both the web picture and the environment picture being taken as vertical pictures, they were placed side by side while the map which was in the horizontal position was placed underneath. All of the panels were lined up at the corners to create a seamless presentation. In order to make which panel is which obvious to the viewer labels were placed. These labels were made in Inkspace. The different photographs included corners of different colors, so it was important to include a background to the letter labels. The background color that was chosen was white, so the black, uppercase, Arial font letter could stand out very well. For strictly aesthetic purposes the surrounding background that was chosen was circular and the opacity was put to 178 to allow some of the background of the photograph to show through. We read left to right so it was decided to put the labels in the top left hand corner of each panel. The map was the largest of the 3 panels, and takes up more of the figure than the top two panels combined. Once all of the panels were put together the largest side of the figure- which runs vertical was put to 1200 pixels.  

Homeostasis can be interrupted by either 1) an external change, leading to an internal change, or 2) just an internal change. This internal change leads to loss of homeostasis, which leads the organism to attempt to compensate. The compensation either 1) fails which leads to death, or 2) succeeds, which leads to homeostasis.