Perfect Paragraph

Putting up a finished project onto a poster board to present has been a part of science forever. Some things constitute a good poster while others bad, and some combination land most posters in between. A scientific poster can be viewed as good to different people for different reasons, like the opinion of the article or the subject matter being discussed. These are important but also some things across the board that make a good poster.  Such as, the title must sum up the experiment is an understandable way. The bear minimum requirement for the title should be that, but a good title will also intrigue the reader and almost trap them into wanting to read the rest. The title “ Using zebrafish larval models to study brain injury, locomotor and neuroinflammatory outcomes following intracerebral haemorrhage [version 2; referees: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]” is a basic title, just getting the point across, barely simplifying it. Compared to this title, “Are we aiming to miss in translational autoimmunity treatments?[version 1; referees: awaiting peer review]”, which involves the reader and tries to grab their interest with a question.  Another important aspect of a poster is the display of the data, if it is hard to see or make sense out of, the reader is more inclined to lose interest. Having the entire project be displayed in such a manner that someone who has no clue on the subject can generally figure it out is the aim. This means using words that are not unique to the field of study or if used explaining them in everyday terms. Another good key for quality posters is length, if the poster is too long it can scare readers away and if too short make them not see the point in the project. Many good things contribute to the quality of posters, these are just a few.

Our RESEARCH DESIGN was modeled after a paper that studied spider web production in terms of web mass and temperature. Fruit flies were dropped into the web with a relatively complex apparatus that was beyond the scope of our project, so our inverted cup and straw apparatus will serve as a practical substitute. The methods we will follow also closely resemble Barghusen’s paper. We will run the experiment over the course of five days because six days gave indicative results in one of the papers we studied (Barghusen et al). In that paper, a temperature gradient was created using Aluminum pans and a hot plate. Our experiment will create a similar temperature gradient using styrofoam boxes and a heat lamp for the warm condition and ice for the cold condition. The Barghusen paper found that web mass was significantly lighter in the colder conditions, so we expect similar results.

Another famous experiment that supports General Relativity is the deflection of light by the sun. Previous theories of gravity held that light would not be affected by gravity since it has no mass. However, Einstein thought otherwise. His Equivalence Principle predicts that light will curve in the presence of a gravitational field. The principle states that the effects of a gravitational field are the same as the effects of those in an accelerated frame of reference. Gravity would cause a person in a gravitational field to accelerate with g, the acceleration due to gravity. However, if the person’s frame of reference were to be accelerated at g when they were not in a gravitational field, all of the effects on them would be “equivalent” to how they would be in a gravitational field. Thus, in essence, a gravitational field can be created. Now, if a person was in the accelerating frame of reference and was to shine a beam of light out into an inertial reference frame of space, it would appear as though the light is curving downward since the particles of light emitted earlier would be lower than those emitted as the acceleration proceeds higher. And since this accelerated reference frame is equivalent to a gravitational field, the same thing would apparently happen in a gravitational field; light would curve. But according to classical physics, the force due to gravity is mass times acceleration… so how would light be affected since it has zero mass? And the curvature of spacetime explains this problem perfectly since light doesn’t need mass to follow the curve of spacetime. Thus, according to Einstein, light is deflected by gravity.

Overall, the percent yields were high and the melting points were close to the literature values, suggesting a good return on product and a relative purity in the samples. The first recrystallization experiment used a set amount of acetone, 1 ml for every 50mg of crude product from the isolation. As a result, the percent yield was the lowest of the experiment. If the experiment were to go about obtaining the purest samples, this stage of the experiment should have been conducted by using the minimum amount of acetone necessary to dissolve the product. This would have given a higher percent yield and may also have given a better purity and thereby a closer match for melting point. In the end, the identity and purity of the products were assessed for what they were, and the product after both recrystallization steps was identified as trimyristin and the product after the hydrolysis and acid addition was identified as myristic acid.

While reading the scientific posters, I noticed three positive and negative characteristics of a poster that authors should pay attention to when creating posters. Firstly, researchers should avoid overlapping textboxes or images on the poster in order to keep the text easy to read. Positioning the text incorrectly makes it difficult to read and is distracting to the reader. Instead of overlapping sections, the text boxes and images should flow in an organized order. I noticed a few posters that had text boxes scattered randomly on the poster. These authors should have created distinct margins for each text box and visual on the poster. Having distinct rows and columns makes the poster easier to follow.

Similarly, another common mistake to avoid on posters is having too much text. Including text boxes on a poster is necessary in moderation; however, long blocks of text can be boring to look at and make the reader uninterested. Rather than writing long paragraphs of text, the author should add images or graphs to break up the text. Visuals can make the research easier to understand and give flow to the poster while still adding valuable information. Additionally, the text boxes should be limited in length so that the reader can easily follow the author’s work.

Lastly, authors should avoid creating a poster with only black and white text and visuals. The first impression of a poster is very important in telling whether a reader will be interested in the poster or not. That being said, a dull poster does not catch the eye of the reader. A poster with colors and visuals make it interesting to look at and creates a fascinating first impression. Colors are important because they can be used to highlight different paragraphs or characteristics on a poster. This type of color coding is a useful tool in highlighting areas of a poster to help with organization. It is also important to note that while colors are important, neon colors and confusing patterns should be avoided as this can be distracting. A balance of visuals and color can enhance the poster; this tactic could be as simple as making the background of the poster a light color. 

Each environment chamber will consist of a styrofoam box with a lid, allowing for access to the enclosures and insulation of temperature. A thermometer will be attached to each environment chamber to monitor temperatures and ensure they are constant. The room temperature chamber will have not have any additional materials. The other two environments will have modifications that allow for the control of temperature above and below room temperature (See Figure 2). For the cool condition, an additional layer of plastic will be placed above a layer of ice. The layer of plastic will have a hole in it to allow for replenishing of ice. Melted ice will drain from a hole at the bottom of the environmental chamber into a receptacle. The ice will ensure that the chamber will maintain a cold temperature for the enclosures within to be subjected to. We will determine the ideal interval for changing the ice to ensure constant temperature prior to beginning the experimental procedure. For the warm condition temperature chamber, a heat lamp fixed above the box will maintain it at 25°C. Like the cool condition, we will determine how far to place the heat lamp from the temperature chamber for a constant temperature prior to the introduction of the enclosures.

The aim of this experiment was to use wild type and mutant strains of Chromobacterium violaceum to explore N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) based quorum sensing in Gram negative bacteria. AHLs are signal molecules produced by Gram negative rods. They regulate antibiotic synthesis, expression of virulence genes, biofilm formation, and several other cellular activities. Two genes are responsible for AHL mediated gene regulation. One encodes a transcriptional regulatory protein (R gene), and the other encodes the enzyme AHL synthase (I gene). The presence and proper functioning of these two genes is essential for the target genes to be transcribed. AHL synthase produces AHL molecules, which are classified by their side chain length and molecular structure. AHL synthases differ between each genus of bacteria, and produce AHL molecules that are slightly different from each other. Most regulator proteins that bind AHL molecules are specific for a certain AHL structure, but some can bind more than one type of AHL. This can create the phenomenon of cross-communication between different species of bacteria. This experiment was done to explore quorum sensing in Gram negative bacteria and determine if different species of bacteria could communicate with C. violaceum.  

A-site: the ribosomal site most frequently occupied by aminoacyl-tRNA. The aminoacyl-tRNA in the A-site functions as the acceptor for the growing protein during peptide bond formation.P-site: the ribosomal site most frequently occupied by peptidyl-tRNA, i.e. the tRNA carrying the growing peptide chain. The P-site is also referred to as the puromycin-sensitive site. Puromycin is an antibiotic which shows similarities with a part of aminoacyl-tRNA. When puromycin is present in the A-site, the peptide can be linked to puromycin via a peptide bond. Thus, peptidyl-tRNA in the P-site is located in the puromycin-sensitive site. E-site: the ribosomal site harboring deacylated tRNA on transit out from the ribosome.

            When creating a poster, it is important to keep in mind that you must visually attract someone to it and draw them in. As seen from the examples, this can be done with bright colors, pictures, and diagrams. From the posters I looked at, most of them were laid out in such a way that my eyes were able to flow from one section to the other without being bogged down by too many words and too much information. Positioning of data is important while constructing a poster. If the data is too cluttered, the reader might get overwhelmed and lose interest in what is being presented. While having enough data on the poster is crucial, leaving some negative space is just as important so that the eye is not constantly bombarded with information and can relax between sections. I also observed the limited amount of lines per section. The authors of several posters seemed to limit themselves to just a few lines of text so that it seemed easy to read and comprehend. These factors are important to keep in mind as they would prove beneficial when constructing a poster of my own.

            Conversely, I noticed some details on the example posters that should not be replicated. For example, several posters were very drab and unappealing. They were only designed in black and white and lacked any sort of visual aid. Bogging down the poster with only text and data tables can make the poster a little intimidating to those who don’t quite understand what you are talking about. It also gives the appearance that the information on the poster will be difficult to grasp as you’d have to constantly bounce between tables and text so you can grasp the information being presented. I also noticed that some posters write in paragraphs rather than short two to three sentence blurbs. To be honest, I didn’t even read the paragraphs while looking at the poster because I thought it would take up too much time. Paragraphs can be daunting to an outside reader due to the high concentration of information and the amount of time it takes to read through it all. Lastly, I noticed that several posters had their titles the same size and font as the text in the body of the poster. Without the title being any different than the rest of the poster, there is no visual context as to what is being presented. Instead, it is easy to glaze over the title and move on to something else that come across as more appealing and interesting based on the title alone. Such factors like the ones discussed above should be avoided as they would not contribute to the presentation of a well-laid out poster.

In this lab, trimyristin was obtained through extraction and recrystallization. Following the outcome of trimyristin, hydrolysis was performed to obtain myristic acid. Two recrystallizations were completed to ensure the purity of the product and compare the products between the two recrystallizations. The amount of crude product that was obtained through extraction was 0.33 grams and resulted in a percent yield of 33%. After the first recrystallization, the amount of product obtained was 0.208 g and resulted in a percent yield of 20.8%. The melting point of the first recrystallized product was 53-54℃. This is a relatively low melting point compared to the melting point of the Trimyristin compound, 56-57℃, due to the impurities that still remain. The impurities may be present because the mixture may not have fully separated before extraction or recrystallization may have not been completed. The amount of product obtained after the second recrystallization is 0.075 g and resulted in a percent yield of 7.5%. The melting point of the second recrystallized product was 57-59℃. This melting point is higher than the melting point of the first recrystallized product because it is purer due to the additional recrystallization. The amount of myristic acid obtained after hydrolysis was 0.07 g and resulted in a percent yield of 38.88%. The melting point of the myristic acid product was 51-52℃. This is a relatively low melting point compared to trymistrin due to the addition of a carboxyl group through hydrolysis and acidification. The percent yields for all products were lower than expected. This could be due to lost product through evaporation when heating or transfers between glassware. An additional cause of low yield could be from over-washing the filtrate with solvent, ultimately losing some product.