mpetracchi's blog

Figure 17.

Panel A Dif

Shadows

• Time of day picture taken

Size of images/ stretching

• Different cameras store pictures in different sizes so they won't be exact across phones. Maybe specific measurements were given that stretched the photos

Angles of pictures

• Getting an exact match of distance and from what angle you took the picture is hard to communicate.

Font/ font size

• One of the panels has a different label font because they forgot to change it. Size of fonts are different

Unaligned

• Maybe the methods said to have a certain height/width which didn’t allow the image to fit right. Forgetting to scale it down

Panel B Dif

Shadows

• Time of day picture taken

Size of images/ stretching

• Different cameras store pictures in different sizes so they won't be exact across phones. Maybe specific measurements were given that stretched the photos

Angles of pictures

• Getting an exact match of distance and from what angle you took the picture is hard to communicate.

Font/ font size

• One of the panels has a different label font because they forgot to change it. Size of fonts are different

Panel C Dif

Shadows

• Time of day picture taken

Size of images/ stretching

• Different cameras store pictures in different sizes so they won't be exact across phones. Maybe specific measurements were given that stretched the photos

Angles of pictures

• Getting an exact match of distance and from what angle you took the picture is hard to communicate.

Font/ font size

• One of the panels has a different label font because they forgot to change it. Size of fonts are different

Panel D Dif

Shadows

• Time of day picture taken

Size of images/ stretching

• Different cameras store pictures in different sizes so they won't be exact across phones. Maybe specific measurements were given that stretched the photos

Angles of pictures

• Getting an exact match of distance and from what angle you took the picture is hard to communicate.

Font/ font size

• One of the panels has a different label font because they forgot to change it. Size of fonts are different

Different flower

• Both were similar but not the same one. Describing exactly what to photograph is hard when your trying to pick out 1 element from many

Overall Dif

Image layout

Image sizing

• The panels used on one figure are larger than the other, which may have happened due to lack of instruction 

Image spacing

• Distance between the panels may have been changed manually and not noted or not properly aligned

Skeletal muscles are a large grouping of cells with the intended purpose of contraction and relaxation. These two motions are what allows animals to move. Skeletal muscles are composed of myosin and actin filaments compacted into a small area known as a sarcomere. This sarcomere is the contractile unit of the cell. A strand of sarcomeres is known as a muscle fiber, a group of muscle fibers is called a fascicle, and fascicles make up a skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscles are actively controlled by the brain. When an organism wants to move their brain fires signals known as action potentials down a system of nerves to reach the muscle. The nerves connect to the muscle and when the action potential reaches this point the action potential is potentiated along the sarcolemma of the muscle. The sarcolemma is the muscle cells storage and transport system. Eventually while moving across the muscle, the action potentials travel down t-tubules, which activate voltage-gated ion channels. These channels open calcium stores to be released into the muscle.The calcium reaches the sarcomere and binds to troponin, a portion inhibiting myosin from binding to actin. Binding calcium to troponin causes a conformational change and exposes the active sites on actin. Myosin heads on the myosin are where contraction actually occurs. In there off state they are bound to an atp, which can be broken and release energy stored in the bonds activating the myosin head. In this state the myosin head can bind to the exposed sites on actin and pull/contract. At the same time the ADP and P molecules still attached release. Returning the myosin head to ‘rest’ requires an ATP to bind changing its conformation and decreasing its affinity for the binding pocket.

I have chosen Spanish bullfighting as my public event and it shares many similarities and differences with the death pits of Ur. Both are spectacles set before a public audience to show might. They are both considered the heritage of their civilization, that is, they are a part of the culture. Also, they both happen to revolve around cruelty of some kind. It’s interesting how both events are separated by so much time, yet some form of cruelty remains present. Maybe our interest in violence could be understood better by studying ancient civilization? Although they share some similarities, there are plenty of differences as well. The royal graves were the result of human sacrifice, which does not happen in Spanish bullfighting (however sacrifice of some kind does). Also, Spanish bullfighting is a spectacle not meant to incite fear anymore. It’s a public event enjoyed by the masses, who willingly attend. This is opposed to the death pits as those were made to inspire terror in anyone who saw it.

    As I previously mentioned the death pits of Ur were made to terrorize the commoners. This way the elites in power could demonstrate their might and keep everyone in check. There was no overthrowing the government if they could kill all the people in the death pits. It's no wonder the elites enacted such an event as the motive was very strong. Keep themselves in power by squashing any sign of a rebellious hope. Now with bullfighting, the intentions are slightly different. The public event is not meant to insight terror, rather provide entertainment. And it is continued to be enacted because if a politician were to deny it, public backlash may remove them from power. Therefore politicians must also carry out this ritual in order to stay in power, however, the severity of the event is arguably lesser than Urs’.

Dickson argues that Woollley’s interpretation of the tomb and its contents being a ‘snapshot’ of the way of life in UR is wrong. He says we must not look at these tombs as a sample of life in UR, rather a ‘public transcript/record’ of how political elites wanted UR to be seen. Dickson says the burials don’t show the “tensions, ambiguities and social conflicts that must surely have existed in the city” and therefore we cannot trust that this was their way of life. Dickson adds, ‘just how dominant and durable a ruling order can be depends on how far it convinces others — and itself — of its right to rule and its ability to rule’ (Colley 1992, 193) implying that these tombs may have actually been ritual to impose the government's power, specifically through divinity. The kinds of artifacts found in the tomb and the fashion in which the people were displayed may indicate that the event was part of a numinous ceremony. Therefore a show of the governments divinity and ultimately their strength as a way to keep people in line.

Biome 2

    From the temperature - precipitation data collected by the probe in location 2, I believe the biome to be a temperate shrubland. The average annual temperature is 14.4 °C (even though the line is plotted entirely between 16 °C - 18 °C) and the total annual precipitation is 51.8 cm. Throughout the course of 1 year, the temperature stays steady while the precipitation changes seasonally. The dry seasons are short, span the end-of-March to June and mid-April to the end-of-September, and cause droughts in both occasions. On earth, temperate shrublands, such as Gerona, Spain, tend to have a ~15 °C range of temperatures with one dry season during the summer months. Although there is no temperature variation and two dry seasons this biome still matches a temperate shrubland. One such example on earth is Gerona, Spain. The average yearly temperature is 16.7 °C and the average rainfall is 74.7cm. Only 2 °C and 20 cm away from the novel biome. Similar peaks of high rainfall on both the novel biome and Gerona, Spain are observed throughout the year. For these reasons, I believe this is a temperate shrubland.

    Temperate shrublands have unique characteristics that set them apart from other biomes. The latitude on earth where they are found tends to be between 30 ° - 40 ° North and South of the equator, which is where I would expect this novel biome to be. At this latitude, Ferrell cells are most likely the air pattern present which drives tropical air masses toward the poles and polar air masses towards the equator. These assumptions are based on earth's biomes and climate and therefore may not perfectly describe a novel biome. Two dry seasons are not commonly found. It may be that for this planet revolving around its sun happens quicker and therefore seasonal change could happen more frequently in a years time. This could explain multiple dry seasons. As for plants found here, there are a few possibilities. Sclerophyllous shrubs are most likely present. They thrive in dry/wet climates due to their tough leathery leaves and ability to grow in dry soils. During droughts, they continue to photosynthesize at lower rates in order to preserve water. Evergreen trees may also be found in this biome. They also rely on wet/dry climates and can specifically grow in infertile soils produced by the drought. Their use of evergreen leaves reduces water loss, lowering the nutrient cost of living. Grasses could possibly grow in this region as well. Although they may require a greater amount of rain, water-retentive adaptations could allow them to inhabit this biome. Fires often take place every 30 - 40 years in the shrublands and many kinds of grass could survive this event because of their underground nutrient stores. Sclerophyllous shrubs and evergreens will most definitely be found in this region, with the possibility of grasses.

Based on the temperature - precipitation graph collected in this location I interpret the biome to be most similar to a desert. The probe's measurements report the average annual temperature to be 28.1 °C ranging from 26 °C - 30 °C monthly and the annual precipitation to be 27.8 cm ranging between 2.0 cm - 2.5 cm monthly. Both temp. And precip. show little change throughout the year. My reasoning for this classification has to do with the major drought present year-round. I can infer this because the temperature is consistently higher than the precipitation, which is low and therefore produces a drought. These key factor set a desert apart from all the other biomes. Also, a classic desert on earth would typically experience a large temperature difference from 10 °C - 30+ °C during the year and on average less than a centimeter of rain every month. Although this new biome may seem different, when plotted on the triangle graph containing all 9 biomes, it still falls under the desert section.

     A desert classification narrows the possible latitude and plants of this biome. On earth, deserts are normally found near the 30 ° North and South latitudes from the equator. Assuming the planet is similar to earth the location of this biome should be near or on this coordinate. With little to no water and intense heat, the types of plants that could survive in this environment must be specialized to retain water. Therefore, plants found here are likely succulents, such as cacti and desert shrubs. These plants are able to live off of little water due to their water storage abilities and withstand heat. Succulents on earth are accustomed to hot/cold seasonal shifts and even lesser rain, so the plants found in this biome may have evolutionary differences when compared to earths’ plants. They may transpire more in order to deal with the constant high temperatures throughout the year.

Figure 1. Sea otter sleep habits. Sea otter's prevent drifting by holding hands while sleeping. "Aquário de Vancouver / Vancouver Aquarium" flickr photo by Marcio Cabral de Moura https://flickr.com/photos/mcdemoura/15292902106 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license.

I recently looked at an orange juice bottle and noticed a small label that said, 'From concentrate with vitamin C', which made me wonder how is this different than juice straight from a fruit. Upon researching the topic I realized there wasn't much of a difference and the reason why juices are from concentrate or not is due to transport. Both processes begin with raw fruit sent through a juicing machine to remove the skins or peels. Now there are two options. First, the juice could be immediately pasteurized, a process where the juice is heated to kill any pathogens, and eventually packaged and shipped. This process is very simple, however, the juice may not be able to last very long in transit. This is where option 2 becomes beneficial. The juice can be extracted, then run through a second extractor to remove the water content. With no water present in the concentrate, the volume is much smaller and can now be transported to a second location, ideally closer to an intended market. In that second location, the concentrate has water re-added. Now it can be pasteurized and packaged for sale. Unless the seller intentionally adds more to the juice such as added sugar or vitamin C the juices are identical and neither is necessarily better or worse for you. 

Once all three of the images have been gathered I opened google drive, clicked on the new media icon, and hovered over the tab labeled more. A second menu popped out to the side including google drawings. I opened the program which has an empty workspace with a checkerboard pattern in the center workspace. From here I imported the three images from before into the workspace by dragging and dropping them in. I oriented them left to right as follows: Close up shot, distant shot, map. The workspace itself is 10 inches across and the figure should fit that space exactly. I made the close-up image 2.7 inches wide by 3.61 inches tall, the distant shot 2.7 inches wide by 3.61 inches tall and the map is 4.6 inches wide by 3.61 inches tall. Overlaying the map image, I circled the approximate area where the leaf was found by clicking the 'shape' icon and adding a circle. I selected the border color icon and changed the color to red. I selected the arrow icon and added an arrow pointing towards the circle starting from the bottom right of the map. The figure looks as follows. Three images left to right including a close-up shot, distant shot, and map and a red circle identifying where the plant was found with an arrow pointing towards it. Export to a .png file by clicking ‘file’, then ‘download’, and select ‘PNG image (.png)’.

In order to get the best results possible I will attempt to control as much as I can in my descriptions. One important thing I can control is guiding the person to the proper plant and taking a picture from the proper angle. I will do this by describing the path they need to take from a set landmark to the intended location. Once there, I plan to instruct the person on what angles to use when taking pictures, especially for the ‘distant shot’. This one will require more detail because it can be very easy to step back and take a photograph of the plant with a completely different background. Likely, my instructions will include some directionality and some description of what to fit in the background. Another basic thing I can control is when to take the photograph. It is important they do so at a similar time of day to match the shadows. A third factor I can control is how the final figure will be constructed. Careful instructions will be written for each step, beginning from the software used to the final touches.