Blogs

The Methods project provides evidence of phytophagy on the University of Massachusetts campus. Students on campus are found organizing in Harvest, one of the markets on campus. In this market, students collect different types of plants into plastic or recyclable boxes. These plants vary by day but typically spinach, kale and romaine lettuce leaves can be observed in this market. At certain times of the day, students will enter Harvest and collect large amounts of leaves for consumption. Factors that are controlled in this project; of time of day, type of market, area of market, area of consumption and vocal consent.

The infection spreads when enough uninfected mosquitoes are feeding on infected birds, song birds to be specific. At that point, there are so many infected organisms in one area that it spreads to other populations. The type of mosquito that spreads Triple E also spread West Nile. It is called the Culiseta melanura and feeds exclusively on birds. Once it becomes cold and frost occurs, the virus dies down until it becomes warmer and feeding cycles continue. Climate change plays a factor in this cycle as the weather is not as constant. Due to the cold and warm fluctuations in weather, a virus that should have died at a certain time of year continues to pass through organisms. Controlling such virus becomes more and more difficult as the understood life cycle of these virsus’s changes and adapts per year.

HelenBranswell, Helen Branswell, et al. “What to Know about EEE, a Mosquito-Borne Virus on the Rise.” STAT, 25 Sept. 2019, www.statnews.com/2019/09/23/what-to-know-about-eee/.

To diagnose Triple E, there are different methods to confirm if the virus is a patient's symptoms. A spinal tap may be conducted where a portion of spinal fluid is removed and identified to see if there is any virus in the fluid. Blood can also be drawn to see if high amount of antibodies are in the blood. An MRI or CT can also be conducted to see if brain swelling is observed, signaling signs of encephalitis. When a patient is identified to have EEE, the patient will be put into the intensive unit and in some cases put into a medically induced coma. The treatment includes lowering swelling in the brain and treating potential seizures. Majority of the deaths linked to triple E come down to swelling and pressure in the brain. This is the most important sector to regulate with a patient to ensure the encephalitis is under control. There is a vaccine for horses with EEE but not for humans.

“Eastern Equine Encephalitis: Causes, Symptoms and Prevention.” LiveScience, Purch, www.livescience.com/eastern-equine-encephalitis.html.

The cause of Triple E comes down to the movement of mosquitos. The female mosquito is the one that becomes infected and carries the virus. Birds tend to inhabit their environments of marshlands and swampy areas. Birds carry this virus but do not have any symptoms when they are infected. Mosquitos bite them then can pass the virus to mammals such as horses or humans. The virus was first identified in a horse in 1933. When the virus is in the bloodstream, it duplicates and can sometimes enter the brain barrier where it causes encephalitis. It cannot pass from person to person or animal to person. The group that is most at risk are people older than 50 and younger than 15; or those with weaker immune systems. 

“Eastern Equine Encephalitis: Causes, Symptoms and Prevention.” LiveScience, Purch, www.livescience.com/eastern-equine-encephalitis.html.

Triple E is a viral infection originally caused by a virus picked up by mosquitoes when they bite it a bird. The infection is then carried from horses to humans through mosquito bites. A large majority of people that interact with the infection will not have symptoms or if they do express themselves, it will resemble flu like symptoms. The other 5% that interact with the virus will have severe symptoms such as encephalitis. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain that can be life threatening in cases of Triple E. The swelling can cause seizures and confused thinking.

“Eastern Equine Encephalitis: Causes, Symptoms and Prevention.” LiveScience, Purch, www.livescience.com/eastern-equine-encephalitis.html.

The title of the poster my lab partner and I created was, "Qualifying the Effect of Microscope Properties and Techniques". In a series of experiments we learned how to properly use a research quality light microscope. The experments were geared towards the technical ascepts of the microscope. This involoves the use of filters, shutters, and adjsuting numerical aperature when capturing images. There were also a variety of methods we practiced in order to capture a high quality image. These methods included setting up Kohler illumination, use of fluoroescent microscopy, and properly using an oil immersion lense. All these various experiments came together to encapsultate our main objective of qualifying the effect of microscope properties and techniques in order to create a high quality image.

The primary goal of this project is to explore replication in a scientific setting. Studies in the scientific community are considered valid only if replicability is possible. Studies are replicable if they include detailed methods sections that explain exactly how to follow their own procedure. This type of writing may be challenging as assumptions must not be taken into account and there must be a balance of detail to the length of methods. This project seeks to explore these issues and make note of how to properly write replicable methods sections.

The secondary goal of this lab is to distinguish clearly between differences and inferences. Coming to a conclusion about two different pieces of data may be quick and easy for some, however, defining what a difference and inference is, may not be. For example, if two different fonts are used in two figures the difference would not be the different fonts. Rather the difference in the lettering style of the text itself. This is the observable difference. The inference then becomes ‘the fonts are different’. This statement requires previous knowledge of different font styles. This project helps explain the difference versus inference issue through the results and discussion section where the differences are kept to the results and inferences to the discussion.

Capturing evidence of phytophagy on the UMass campus offered a process to learn about how to create a perfect figure and follow others’ methods. The focus of my figure was a leaf found on a large bush in the rooftop garden of the John W. Olver Design Building. I chose this specimen due to its convenient location and obvious signs of phytophagy. In addition factors were more easily controlled since this is a privately maintained garden therefore the bush would not be destroyed. I also considered controlling the time of day, zoom, perspective, and quality of photos taken of this example of phytophagy so that it can be replicated accurately.

We use our sight to get information from our surroundings and process it. Our eye sight develops over time to become clearer and more acurate with colors. Babies, when they are a few months old, have 20/800 vision, which is terrible. The fraction means that if an object is 20 feet away, it looks like it is 800 feet away. Pretty early in development, babies are able to recognize faces because of a facial pettern. They mostly see light and shaddows with very blurred color, but they see the pattern of a face, and see best from about six inches away. The faces of their caregivers are the ones babies recognize first because they see them so often. Over time babies gain better eye sight and can see clear shapes and colors at about 1 years old, but will not develop adult-like vision until about 4-6 years old. 

The auditory template model describes how male birds learn to sing and was developed by Peter Marler through his experiments on chaffinches. First, he observed that males were only sensitive to songs during two periods: following hatching and during their first spring after hatching. Additionally, he discovered that the chaffinches weren’t sensitive to any song, only the songs of their conspecifics. Through further experimentation, he also determined that males who were deafened produced more abnormal songs than males who were deprived of a tutoring song. From these data, Marler hypothesized that male chaffinches possess a crude template that they match to conspecific songs during their sensitive period, and that they later refine these songs by listening to themselves sing. This process of song learning is known as the auditory template model. Though this model explains the way some birds learn how to sing, recent experiments have produced data that do not fit this model. Experiments with white-crowned sparrows showed that even though male hatchlings do not learn heterospecific song when tutored by a speaker, they do learn heterospecific song when tutored by a heterospecific male. This seems to counter the idea of a pre-encoded crude template that serves to filter out heterospecific song. Other song learning modalities, such as in the marsh wren and European robin seem to counter the auditory template model. Marsh wrens are sensitive to songs from ten days after they hatch to their first spring, and like chaffinches, have a descending ability to learn songs the older they get. However, unlike chaffinches, if marsh wrens learn a lot of songs before winter they will be less ready to learn songs in the following spring, and vice versa. Indigo bunting prove to be another kind of exception to the auditory template model. The indigo bunting has no species-specific song and forms groups that share a repertoire that changes from year to year. It has also been shown that indigo bunting males can switch groups and will learn new songs to better fit in with their new neighbours. Though the auditory template model has proven accurate for some species, the many variations in song learning have shown that it is hardly ubiquitous among all bird species.