asalamon's blog

For the longest time, blood typing seemed to be a simple area of genetic inheritance from parents.  The individual got one alllele from mom and one allele from dad and their phenotype was formed from there.  Blood type is a codominate trait which is composed of three different alleles O, A and B.  Both A and B are codominant to eachother while O is recessive to both A and B.  Therfore, if an individual has the alleles O and B, they would have a type B blood.  If an individual had the A and B allele, they would have type AB blood.  These alleles determine the type of sugar which is attached to the red blood cells.  Antigens recognize only these types of sugars in the blood as beeing good.  If an individual with type B blood had A sugars in their blood, their body would attack them as foreign.  This is a key concept in blood transfusions between individuals.  If an individual was given a blood type that did not match theirs, they would have a major immunological response.  The Bombay pheonotype puts a wrench in this simple pattern of inheritance.  This is an example of recessive epistasis where if an individual possesses two of the recessive alleles for the bombay gene, they will expressive the bombay phenotype and have type O blood, despite the alleles inherited from their parents.  The Bombay phenotype codes for a substrate which the sugars from the A and B allele bind two.  Without the substrate, the A and B sugars will not bind and they will exhibit type O blood.  With this understanding, no more parents will get blamed for stepping out when they did not.

In humans, the X and Y chromosomes are sex chromosomes of an individual.  The presence of a Y chromosomes often indicates the individual is biologically male (although there can be some variation in this expression).  It is key to note the difference between gender and sex.  Gender is a socially constructed concept about how an individual should be expressing their identiy.  Sex is a biological determination and in no way determines the gender of the individual.  Between the X and Y chromosomes, there are regions known as pseudoausomal regions.  These regions have contain homolgy between the X and the Y chromosome which allow for their pairing during mitosis and meosis and have gotten shorter as time passed.  In the Y chromosom, there are male specic regions (MSY) which is a nonrecombining region.  The sex determining region (SRY) of the Y chromosome controlas main development.  At about 68 weeks in utero, the testes determinign factor is activated on the Y chromosome and testes form in the individual.   The Y chromosome has been largely conserved throughout the evolution of humans therefore it is often used in haplotype studies.  It is found that 10% of the population have gotten their Y chromosome from Ghenghis Khan.

Osteology, the study of bones, is often used in both a forensic and bioarcheology contect.  One key area of study in osteoolgy is the trama a person suffered from throughout their life.  Because osteology only deals with bones, there are likely some sufferings that go missed during this analysis.  For example, if a person was stabbed but the knife did not come in contact with any bones, this trauma would be missed in osteologic analysis of the individual.  Traumas to bones can be identified in three different timing ranges, premortem, perimortem or postmortem.  Premortem traumas occur before the person died.  These traumas would often show signs of healing the the rough formation of bony tissue to heal the bone or the smoothing of this tissue indicating the injury had time to heal properly before the individual died.  Traumas that occur perimortem, at the time of death, show no signs of healing.  One type of trauma that can only occur perimotem is a hinge fracture.  Postmortem traumas vary in their appearance with how long the bones have been exposed to the elements.  Breaks in the bone will often appear lighter than the rest of the bone and depending how dry the bones are will look like the bone shattered.

To improve the results of the lab, both the methods of the lab and analysis of the product should be improved on.  First, the reaction turned black indicating something did not react as expected.  This could be due to the rapid heating of the reaction.  As a result, the temperature at which the reaction proceeds should be lowered.  In addition, less sulfuric acid should initially be added to the reaction.  Sulfuric acid is only a catalyst, but it is also a volatile substance.  By starting with two drops instead of four, it allows the reaction to gently start.  After the reaction has proceeded and if there is little water collection, then more sulfuric acid could be added to increase the rate of the reaction.  In addition, a longer reflux time should be utilized to ensure the complete reaction of the reagents.  Finally, during the analysis of the results infrared spectrometry should be done of both starting materials so the final product has something to be compared to.  Both carboxylic acids and alcohols have overlap with the presence of an OH broad band and carboxylic acids and esters are close together.  By doing a comparative analysis on all three compounds, a better supported result can be concluded.  Both these alterations can improve the yield of the experiment and the analysis of the pure product. 

Another area osteology can cover is the trama a person suffered from throughout their life.  Because osteology only deals with bones, there are likely some sufferings that go missed during this analysis.  For example, if a person was stabbed but the knife did not come in contact with any bones, this trauma would be missed in osteologic analysis of the individual.  Traumas to bones can be identified in three different timing ranges, premortem, perimortem or postmortem.  Premortem traumas occur before the person died.  These traumas would often show signs of healing the the rough formation of bony tissue to heal the bone or the smoothing of this tissue indicating the injury had time to heal properly before the individual died.  Traumas that occur perimortem, at the time of death, show no signs of healing.  One type of trauma that can only occur perimotem is a hinge fracture.  Postmortem traumas vary in their appearance with how long the bones have been exposed to the elements.  Breaks in the bone will often appear lighter than the rest of the bone and depending how dry the bones are will look like the bone shattered.

Osteolgoy, the study of bones, can reveal a lot about how an individual lived their life but there are also many limitations to the kind of information that can be produced by osteology.  For example, when aging a skeleton, the most tool in age determination is the ossification or fusion of growth plates in the bone.  Each bone in the body has one or more centers of ossification which happens during a particular age range in a human's life.  By analyzing an assortment of bones, an approximate age of an individual can be determined only if the bones are still maturing.  Once all the bones are ossified, around the age of 27 when the S1 suture closes, determining the age gets mroe difficult and less precise to narrow down.  From here, the breakdown and wear and tear of the bones are used to determine age.  One of the most useful bones to have with this type of age determination is the ox coxa which contains both the aricular surface and public symphysis which gives an relatively accurate range of the individual's age.  

    Based on the rubric of the PROJECT, the poster selected has several areas of the poster that could be improved in the design, organization and writing of the poster.  In the design on the poster, the colors selected are very appealing to the eye and allows for both the black and white text of the poster to be presented well.  Another  in the design of the poster is 

    One major area in the organization of the poster which does not flow for me is the giant text box in the middle of the poster which seems to hold the conclusions of the study.  After reading the introduction, aims, and methods, the giant box seems out of place.  In addition, the text was just as large of the title which distracts from the flow of the poster. 

In the evolution of childbearing in humans, there is a conflict that occurs both between the mother and father of the child but as well as between the mother and child.  In order for a fertilized egg to be implanted, it has to "shout" loud enough to the mother so the uterine lining is not shed.  This is done by pushing itself further and further into the uterus while releasing hormones as well.  Once the fetilized egg is implanted, another battle begins between the mother's and father's genes to decide how large the baby will grow in the uterus.  The mother would want to keep the baby small to limit her personal investment while the father wants the baby to grow as large as possible to increase its change of survival.  The conflict between the mother and fetus is also brought to light because only half the DNA of the child is the mother's.  

To start the lab, turn the hot plate on (225 °C) and weight out nutmeg (1.002 g) into a microscale round-bottom flask (RBF).  To the RBF, add tert-butyl methyl ether (TBME 3 mL) and 2-3 boiling chips.  Attach the black plastic connector to the RBF as well as the air condensor column.  Using the three-prong clamp, lower the RBF into its appropriate hot well on the aluminum block of the hot plate and allow the mixture to gently boil.  If the solution boils too violently, lift it up slightly out of the aluminum block to avoid bumping.  After 10 min, remove the flask from the heat and allow the solids to settle at the bottom of the RBF.  While the solid settles, set up a microscale filtration system using a glass pipet and small wad of cotton. Below the pipet, place a tarred Erlenmeyer flask. With a clean pipet, remove the solution from the RBF, holding the RBF at a slight angle, and allow the liquid to drain through the filtration apparatus.  If the solution becomes stuck in the filtration system, attach a pipet bulb to the top of the filtration pipet and gently squeeze it to create pressure.  Be sure to remove the pipet bulb before releasing the pressure on it.  After all the liquid has been filtered, add TBME (2 mL) to the RBF and warm briefly (2-3 min) with the column reattached.  Again, let the solids settle and filter the solution as done previously.  In the fume hood, warm the filtered solution in the Erlenmeyer flask using body temperature and pass air over the top to evaporate off the TBME.  The resulting solid will be crude trimyristin.  After letting the crude trimyristin to dry (5 min), determine its mass (0.484 g).  For every 100 mg of crude product, use 1 mL of acetone during recrystallization.  During the first recrystallization of crude trimyristin, acetone (5 mL) was used as the solvent.  The resulting crystals were white and powdery. The melting point (54-55 °C) and mass (0.163 g) of the first recrystallized trimyristin.  For the hydrolysis of trimyristin, set aside some of the first recrystallized trimyristin (0.061 g) into a clean RBF.  To the flask add NaOH (2 mL, 6 M), ethanol (2 mL, 95%) and boiling chips.  For 45 minutes, reflux the solution on the hot plate (250 °C).  While the hydrolysis is being refluxed, perform a second recrystallization using the remaining trimyristin (0.102 g) with the same methods as before.  The final mass (0.066 g) and melting point (57 °C) of the second recrystallized produce was determined.  When the 45 minutes of refluxing was a complete, allow the solution to cool in the RBF to room temperature (rt).   Once cooled, add the solution to a 50 mL beaker containing water (8 mL) then drop-wise add HCl (2 mL, 6 M).  The addition of HCl should cause myristic acid to precipitate out. If a gelatinous solid forms, the mixture needs to be stirred more and more HCl should be added if it does not break up.  On ice, cool the beaker for 10 min with stirring.  Using a vacuum filtration, collect the solid and wash it three times with ice cold water.  Allow the solid myristic acid to dry at least overnight the determine the melting point (54 °C) and mass (0.035 g).

The purpose of the experiment is to study the interactions between leaf miners and three different species of elm trees (Ulmus americana, Ulmus parvifolia, and Ulmus minor).  Using the random sampling of fallen leaves from the different species, the number of leaf mines tunnels can be averaged.  In addition, the survival rate would be determined by factoring the number of aborted leaf mines as well. From this information, it is the goal of the study to determine if there is a preference for the species of Ulmus that the leaf miners lay their eggs. In addition, the data would be used to determine if there is any correlation with the survival rate of the leaf miners with the species they were hosted in.