mlabib's blog

The alcohol industry has been growing exponentially, as college students and young adults are asking for more and more. This industry has been alive for as long as our whole family lineage has been alive for. In fact, alcohol has been around Before Christ. The Babylonians worshiped a wine goddess as early as 2700 B.C. In Greece, one of the first alcoholic beverages to gain popularity was “mead”, a fermented drink made from honey and water. Greek literature is full of warnings against excessive drinking. This shows us that alcohol has been around for a very long time, but when did it become an epidemic?  Alcohol is a psychoactive substance with addictive properties, just like nicotine. As above, we can see that it has been widely used in many cultures for centuries. This substance not only has detrimental physical health effects to the individual, but it has psychological effects, and can harm other people such as family members, co-workers and strangers. In fact, alcohol is now the 3rd leading preventable cause of death in the United States, with an estimated 88,000 people dying from alcohol-related causes every year. 

Pink eye very common especially here at the University of Massachusetts. This means that the information on the poster is useful. It is pertinent and important. I do however think that there is too much information and too much writing for a poster. I believe if they condensed it a little more, it will make it more interesting for the readers and will attract their eyes more. I do however think that the visuals are a great addition to the poster. Adding the Figure with the normal eye vs the eye infected with pink eye is very good for individuals looking at the poster who are very visual like myself. Lastly, the Figure that shows the difference of antibiotics is very colorful and is very stagnant to people of our everyday life. Colors attract people!! It is also a very reliable source as there are doctor references, and Cairo University put in the left corner.

A 2017 study found that non-smoking adults were four times more likely to start smoking traditional cigarettes after only 18 months of vaping, which includes “juuling.” On October 16, 2019, an article has been posted online stating a mother has filed a lawsuit against Juul as her 18 year-old son has died in his sleep. The mother has stated in the article that her son had started using the Juul at age 15, which is an age that tobacco should not even be in question. He had used it so often that he would have mood swings if he did not have it. Already, this is a major sign of a psychological downside.  Less than a year after he began vaping, the teen was hospitalized three times for breathing and lung complications — and hospital staff gave him nicotine patches because he was “so addicted to Juul,” the suit says

 I wanted to introduce the Juul, a new innovative, cheap E-cigarette which packages nicotine salts from leaf tobacco into one-time use cartridges. It has become so popular that it is now about 68% of the $2 billion e-cigarette market. The Juul is a long rectangular device in which it easily chargeable, just with the addition of a USB port into your laptop or your wall adapter. The Juul had an insane market when it was first released, but the company had made it with the intention to help smokers stop using a traditional cigarette. Switching to Juul e-cigarettes reduced smokers’ risk to cigarette toxins at similar levels to quitting entirely, according to results from a clinical trial.

This industry has been alive for as long as our whole family lineage has been alive for. The Babylonians worshiped a wine goddess as early as 2700 B.C. In Greece, one of the first alcoholic beverages to gain popularity was “mead”, a fermented drink made from honey and water. Greek literature is full of warnings against excessive drinking. This shows us that alcohol has been around for a very long time, but when did it become an epidemic?  Alcohol is a psychoactive substance with addictive properties, just like nicotine. As above, we can see that it has been widely used in many cultures for centuries. This substance not only has detrimental physical health effects to the individual, but it has psychological effects, and can harm other people such as family members, co-workers and strangers. In fact, alcohol is now the 3rd leading preventable cause of death in the United States, with an estimated 88,000 people dying from alcohol-related causes every year. 

Among all bioindicators, lichens have been identified as a useful plant to monitor the level of pollution in the environment. The purpose of this study is to observe the species diversity of lichens in different settings and use it as an indicator for air pollution. They can be used in two ways to monitor air pollution: 1) grouping the species of lichens present in a specific area 2) measuring the morphological changes or the accumulation of pollutants in the lichens. Ultimately, lichens are very significant to our everyday world as they provide a means to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through photosynthess into oxygen, which humans need to survive. For this study, our specific aim is to compare the air pollution when lichens are present among different levels of urbanization.  The first method will be applied to correlate the diversity of lichens to the air quality. It is imperative to pay close attention to the environment now more than ever, and so any step to detect and control a problem must be taken to find and implement a solution. 

While studying for my Biology 287 class, which is introduction to Ecology, I have realized a lot of predators have broad diets. Most predators eat prey in relation to their availability without showing a preference for any particular prey species. While the preferences of many species are fixed, others frequently switch prey item. Switching usually results in the consumption of prey at a rate disproportionate to the prey's occurrence. A predator, like a lynx will be specific if it eats tat species more often than would be expected based on that prey's availibility. That is why it will choose the snow hare bunny. They are considered specialists. Same goes with the coyote. This constitutes 60-80% of the coyotes diet. Some predators concentrate teir foraging on what ever prey is most plentiful, which to me makes the most sense. The more they fill you up the better! In a research conducted, guppies were given fruit flies that float on the water surface or worms that sink, and they chose the one that is more abundant. They will switch to either, whichever is most abundant. 

While studying for my Biology 287 class, which is introduction to Ecology, I have realized a lot of predators have broad diets. Most predators eat prey in relation to their availability without showing a preference for any particular prey species. A predator, like a lynx will be specific if it eats tat species more often than would be expected based on that prey's availibility. That is why it will choose the snow hare bunny. They are considered specialists. Same goes with the coyote. This constitutes 60-80% of the coyotes diet. Some predators concentrate teir foraging on what ever prey is most plentiful, which to me makes the most sense. The more they fill you up the better! In a research conducted, guppies were given fruit flies that float on the water surface or worms that sink, and they chose the one that is more abundant. They will switch to either, whichever is most abundant. 

As I have an exam tomorrow, while I was studying, I have realized a lot of predators have broad diets. Most predators eat prey in relation to their availability without showing a preference for any particular prey species. A predator, like a lynx will be specific if it eats tat species more often than would be expected based on that prey's availibility. That is why it will choose the snow hare bunny. They are considered specialists. Same goes with the coyote. This constitutes 60-80% of the coyotes diet. Some predators concentrate teir foraging on what ever prey is most plentiful, which to me makes the most sense. The more they fill you up the better! In a research conducted, guppies were given fruit flies that float on the water surface or worms that sink, and they chose the one that is more abundant. They will switch to either, whichever is most abundant. 

When I had finished reading “At the Full and Change of the Moon”, I had an array of thoughts, and did not know where to begin by expressing them in a response paper. I began thinking closely of the characters and realized Marie Ursule reminds me of my mother, as she would do anything for the security of her daughter, and Bola reminds me of myself as she been through a lot and is handed a series of unfortunate events. This mother-daughter connection helped me with my response as Marie Ursule sees such promise in her daughter’s eyes, that she can see any promise, is an undeniable sign of hope but one that acknowledges the pain and suffering bound up with hope. This reminds me of my mother’s sufferings, as I was the second Mariam born in the family, as the first Mariam passed away when she was four, but my mother still sees promise in me and has hope for me. This hope and prosper is shown in the passage on page 44 when the narrator says “Marie Ursule had seen in her child’s eyes, the sea, and the journey to be made that melts the body. She had seen the child in the sea.” Marie Ursule sees through her child as any mother would. She knows Bola more than Bola may think, and even with her death, she will always be watching her and her every move. It would be false of me to point this out in an analysis because ultimately, without Marie Ursule and her intentions, Bola and Bola 2 would have never could experience the world like no other, without slavery. And … “Marie Ursule saw water in the child’s eyes. So much water she dabbed it away...” These two small but significant quotes show that Marie Ursule had the best eye for her daughter. Metaphorically, she used water as “tears” as Marie’s past has indirectly haunted Bola, but it was but the sea, in Bola’s eyes. This definitely relates to me as my sister’s passing haunts me indirectly, as I have never met her, but because I live in the present, it is but my current existence of the “second Mariam” that I can truly see.