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You certainly do not have to be a physicist to know of gravity. Gravity is not some obscure concept mentioned only in the lingo of die-hard astronomy fans, like a “quasar" or a "red giant." Gravity is a concept known by toddlers and astrophysicists alike. From a young age, we learn that when we throw a ball up, it must come back down. We learn that if we slip on the monkey bars, gravity will bring us hurtling toward the ground. And sadly, we learn that we cannot fly. These lessons are all thanks to gravity.  But while anyone and everyone recognizes that gravity exists, it is likely that far fewer people have pondered where gravity comes from. Few have likely asked themselves, “what really IS gravity?" That is where physicists come into play, and the answer is not quite as simple as the concept itself. 

In every living organism, structure plays a large role in the function of certain things. Proteins make up nearly all living organisms, so understanding the structure of proteins can help us understand the overall structure and function of us and other living things. Proteins have four levels of structure: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. Primary structure is the sequence of amino acids, which are linked together with peptide bonds. Secondary structure are structures the sequence of amino acids often form into. Proteins usually have alpha helices and/or beta sheets. Alpha helices are helices, similar to the structure of DNA. Beta sheets are flat structures that can run parallel or antiparallel. Usually, the two middle sheets are parallel and the two sheets on the outside are antiparallel to those. The bonding that is involved in secondary structure is hydrogen bonding Tertiary structure is the overall fold of a single polypeptide chain. Quaternary structure is the folding of two or more polypeptide chains, subunits, that function together. The bonds that are involved in tertiary/quaternary structure are the noncovalent bonds.

Ponds are freshwater bodies of water found all over the world. These ponds host all types of organisms ranging from unicellular organisms to multicellular organisms such as fish and frogs. In ponds, groups of living things depend on the water environment and each other for their own supplements and survival (Rejesh, 2017). If a pond has more "evenness" when it comes to diversity, it's system is going to be stronger, and better equipped for survival. By evaluating pond water samples from different ponds on The UMass Campus, we should see which pond is most diverse and therefore better equipped for survival. To test what pond has a higher Shannon Diversity Index, we gathered pond water samples from two locations. We counted the organisms, identified and classified the species, charted the numbers, and then calculated which pond had higher diversity.

Although ecology is not typically thought of as a subject in the medical field, it can play a role in environmental medicine. This uses environmental science, environmental pathology, and the knowledge of relationships between organisms and the environment to study the individual’s physical, mental and emotional responses to them. Although this may not directly relate to my path in the medical field, it is an important topic that may affect many other branches of the field. Without ecology, we would not be able to study the environmental, or other organisms, effects on human health.

While collecting data, intra-personal reliability analysis was conducted as to maintain a high level of accuracy. Similar to the Time budget analysis (Figure 1 and Figure 2) a subset of behaviors was derived from the original list in order to best capture data in as few keystrokes as possible. Between a series of tests, multiple reliability tests were conducted in order to elevate the overall original score of 30 to a high of 50. This means that during the scoring process, we were able to successfully line up the correct timestamp and behavior 32 out of 63 times. When the tests were broken down in order to see the reliability of each behavior; feeding behaviors scored 41, play behaviors scored 44, grooming scored 19, communication scored 21, and locomotive behaviors scored 18.

    Once the reliability scores were assessed, we used the selected behaviors to conduct a time budget analysis (Figure 1). Compared are the proportions of time spent Feeding (53%), Playing (8%), Grooming (16%), Communicating (9%), and Locomoting (13%). Behaviors were analyzed over a 10 minute span and organized in order to gauge which set of behavior is more prevalent over the monitored time span. Such results are indicative of the foals selective behavior when in its homeostatic environment. After the original time budget analysis was conducted, it was important to us to see what the break down of the behaviors were like when the foal was in the presence of its mother, when it was with another foal, and when it was alone (Figure 2). Focusing on the feeding behaviors and communicative behaviors, we observed that feeding took up a larger proportion of time, the foal seldom fed with other foals, and chose to feed more with its mother. Conversely, we observed that the foal primarily decided to communicate with its mother as opposed to other foals or sending signals by itself.

CRISPR/Cas9 has been getting attention recently due to research that found it to be a possible new tool used in genome editing. The research surrounding CRISP/ Cas9 has the potential to change the world of controlled genome editing. New studies are observing if the genome editing can be deemed as a successful option for further research on humans.

     The CRISPR/Cas9 mechanism is comprised of two parts. The regulatory sector of the system is an RNA guide which is programmed to create a sequence that matches the 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 RNA regulatory sector binds to the Cas9 protein, they search through the DNA to find the programmed sequence that matches the RNA sequence. When the RNA sequence binds to the DNA's complementary sequence, Cas9 can make a cut. The cut in DNA allows for the DNA to be edited. Mutations can be corrected, new genes can be inserted, or certain genes can be removed from the human genome.

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.

In nearly every living species, temperature influences physiological and biological processes in the body. Spiders are ectothermic organisms, meaning they are unable to regulate their body temperatures relative to their environment. Because of this, changes in temperature can have a large impact on their metabolic rate and overall activity (Barghusen et al). It has been found that even winter active spiders will make less effective webs or no webs at all at temperatures 2° colder than the temperature they are accustomed to. Having a less effective, or no, web greatly reduced feeding, which could be detrimental for spiders (Aitchison 1984). Since web production is a large part of spider activity and survival, we decided to focus our project on how varying temperatures influence web production. Past research has found that spiders in lower temperatures tend to use less spiral silk than spiders in warmer temperatures (Vollrath et al). Our project focuses on how temperature influence the weight of webs.

Some fish species reproduce through a method of parthenogenesis called gynogenesis, in which a female will produce an already fertilized and viable egg. This method may be observed in Poeciliopsis monocha and Poeciliopsis lucida. Normally there is a breeding population of diploid fish of each of these species. However, there is also a triploid population of female only monocha-lucida-lucida fish (MLL). These fish produce triploid MLL eggs. Oddly enough, even though there is no genetic transfer between egg and sperm, a diploid lucida sperm is still required in order to activate the MLL egg. Once activated, this egg will develop into a female MLL adult. The fish that comes from this egg is always a triploid female, a genetic clone of its mother and all the fish in its lineage before it.

Nowadays there are genetic investigations that identifies any risk of diseases. By doing this, it allows for people to select a better medication and to be able to get a better personalized care. Gathering this genetic information, it facilitates doctors to choose a better medicine and the correct dose with less side effects for the patient. In many countries around the world the study of genetics in their population successfully identified the risk of developing hypertension. Another example is an indication of surgeries that reduces the risks after finding that a patient may have any mutation in the genes that may develop into breast cancer.

Currently it exists many genetic tests for the diagnosis of many diseases and with the help of new technology, it accelerates great findings to be able to catch diseases early and  hope for treatment.