mpetracchi's blog

  Once all three of the images have been gathered open google drive. Click on the new media icon and hover over the tab labeled more. A second menu should pop out to the side. Select google drawings. A file should open revealing an empty workspace with a checkerboard pattern. From here import the three images from before into the workspace. They will be oriented left to right as follows: Close up shot, distant shot, map. The workspace itself is 10 inches across and the images should fit that space exactly. The close-up image is 2.7 inches wide and 3.61 inches tall. The distant shot is also 2.7 inches wide and 3.61 inches tall. The map is 4.6 inches wide and 3.61 inches tall. On top of the map, circle the area where the leaf was found by clicking the 'shape' icon and adding a circle. Select the border color icon next to the fill icon and change the color to red.  Approximate where the plant may be found in this area. Select the arrow icon and add an arrow pointing towards the circle starting from the bottom right. The figure should look as follows. Three images left to right including a close-up shot, distant shot, and map. The map should have a red circle identifying where the plant was found with an arrow pointing towards this circle. The figure image is now complete. Export to a .png file by clicking ‘file’, then ‘download’, and select ‘PNG image (.png)’.

        The following question was recently posted as a writing prompt in my anthropology disscussion section, If you could go back in time and prevent early humans from developing agriculture would you? I would not. To preface my argument, there is much evidence that points to early farming communities having very poor health and lower lifespans, compared to their hunter-gatherer counterparts. These seem like terrible things, so why not get rid of it? Even though agriculture may have harmed human health in the short term, we now have the available technology to learn from our mistakes and improve. On such example is golden rice. Many recent reports of global malnutrition have concluded that the diets of many poor countries consist of primary rice, in some cases up to 100% of a diet. Unfortunately, even though these people receive calories, they don't get other important nutrients. One of which being pro-vitamin A.  Without it people can lose their eyesight, worsen their health and eventually die. A swiss professor and a team were able to insert the gene for Beta-carotene production into grains of rice which codes for pro-vitamin A. This rice could save millions of people and the same could be done for other nutrients. Also one of the important factors that should be highlighted is that even the best hunter-gatherers had an average lifespan of 26 years while humans today live on average to 79 years with agriculture and everything it has allowed us to do. This includes cities, medicine, and engineering. I stick to my answer, however, I feel the question is very subjective because for some people the hunter-gatherer lifestyle may seem more appealing and would choose to prevent agriculture. This is to say that neither answer is right or wrong. Instead it's an opinion on a hypothetical situation.

Bodily processes in animals are controlled hormones secreted by the endocrine system, which reach target areas and relay ‘messages’ through either the hemolymph in invertebrates or blood in vertebrates. Some of these processes include the regulation of metabolism, growth, and fertility(). Understanding these processes and how altering them changes outcomes in model organisms is useful to vicariously understand of. Testing on humans can have many ethical problems, so model organisms are therefore used in laboratories instead of humans. Drosophila Melanogaster, also commonly known as a fruit D. Melanogaster, is one such model organism. They are versatile so a variety of testing can be done on them, they are inexpensive to culture, they have short lifespans, they produce many external offspring at one time, and their life cycles have been extensively mapped. The hormone which will be tested on D. Melanogaster in this lab is a juvenile hormone. It has been found to be present in D. Melanogaster mainly during the larval and pupal stage and the effects it has are what our group aims to determine.

D. Melanogaster begins their life cycles as eggs laid by adult females on fruits and are ovoid in shape. Every stage is regulated with hormones that regulate every process that occurs. Once the egg stage is nearing completion it begins the larval stage which can further be broken down into three instars separated by molting events. At the first and second instar, the larva consumes until molting, at which point it increases in size and grows for the next stage. Once at the third instar it consumes until ready to pupate. The third instar larva leaves their area of consumption for a drier environment at which point they cease moving and harden their cuticle, a thin outer layer of the larval body. The pupa remains in this stage until larval tissues have been broken down and are ready to enter the next stage, Adulthood. At Adulthood D. Melanogaster begin the mating process in which a male inseminates a female with sperm which the female stores for egg laying at a later time.

The ‘monito del monte’ (Dromiciops gliroides) will need to shift its range to cooler climates, given a change in its regional climate. Organisms live in climates which precisely fit their ecological needs, whether it be for sunlight, elevation, precipitation, etc. For this reason when climates change the organism must adapt by moving away to a new area with a climate similar to the previous one. According to the given research, ‘Monito del monte’ (Dromiciops gliroides) lives in the southern region of Chile near the Andes mountains in neighboring forests. If temperatures rose enough that D. gliroides would be forced to move it has 2 options. 

First is to move south. In the southern hemisphere the equator will become warmer and every latitude following, towards the south pole, will see an increase of average temperature. As a quick example of one may expect to see, if a species lives at given latitude A in the southern hemisphere at 17 °C and overtime the average recorded temperature rises to 20 °C the species will be forced to move south to latitude B where the previous average was 14 °C, but shifted to 17 °C. Unfortunately, a large species migration may not always be possible and what could occur is the species living far north will simply die out while the same species in the south begin to thrive. Also a few degree change may not seem significant, but it could ruin the survival rates for many primary produces which rely on temperature. A large increase in plant deaths would offset the food sources for primary consumers and then the entire community.  

School work

Go to first class

Finish class walk around 

Next class in same hall

Do some homework

Meet with Grad Lab TA

Do homework

Food

Go to frank/eat

Go to Worcester/eat

Go to hamp/eat

Morning/night routine

Wake up to alarm

Check phone

Get up from bed

Drink water

Go to the bathroom

Get changed

brush teeth

Do some HW if I have any

Get my school stuff

Shower

Get changed

Sleep

Leisure

Go to gym

Hang out with friends

Hang out

travel

Head out to bus stop

Get off bus by fine arts center

Wait for bus

Go back to apartment

Drive to campus

Drive back to apartment

Paragraph for morning/night routine

On a daily basis I wake up at 9:30 AM to my alarm and turn it off. Then I check my phone for any emails or messages I should be responding to, mainly school emails or friends and family. Once I'm ready, I get up from my bed and stretch a bit before standing up. From here I go to the kitchen and drink some water because I get thirsty at night. I go to the bathroom and then back to my room to get changed. If I had missd any work in from last night I try nd get some done during this time. My stuff school is generally sprawled out on my desk so I pack it up in my bag. Now I'm ready to go out to the bus and go to school. Having this routine prepares me for the day and anything I may come across. When my day has concluded I make sure to shower and clean myself up before bed. I leave the shower and get changed for bed. From here I try and fall asleep quick to get the most amount of time sleeping

The articles Smart behavior of true slime mold in a labyrinth and Monophagous leaf‐mining larvae of Stigmella (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae) on birch: patterns and differentiation in exploitation of the host have many similarities and differences in their approach to writing a scientific article. 

Informative paragraphs in the introduction are similar. Both articles begin fairly broad and give basic information that leads the reader toward a more in-depth understanding of the subject and what the article is ultimately about. Each article approaches this task differently. The Smart behavior of true slime mold is written in colloquial terms and may be easier to read for someone who is not scientifically oriented. The use of the first person 'we' , and how a question was asked open-endedly 'What sort of behavior could be expected?' are examples. This style is not very common in scientific writing and not present in the Monophagous leaf‐mining article. The Monophagous leaf‐mining article uses passive voice and no first person. It stays focused on the facts. However, this is not to say that the final product of one or the other doesn't achieve what it set out to do. 

Both articles use a level 1 header and some text before the introduction in order to give background information on the study. Both articles have sub-sections and use level 2 headers for their sub-sections. In the Smart behavior of true slime mold article, the subsections give a basic description of what the section will be on, almost like a topic sentence. The Monophagous leaf‐mining article uses a scientific subsection style consisting of an introduction, methods, etc. Both achieve a similar premise of describing what the following section is about by different means. The subsections in Smart behavior of true slime mold usually begin with introductory sentences which give the reader a basic overview of what will be discussed, while the Monophagous leaf‐mining sections immediately introduce the content and skip the 'fluffy' introductory sentences. In both articles, the subsections are used to introduce the new content to continue the flow of the paper. They both follow logical schemes which lead the reader to a final conclusion.

The scientific articles Smart behavior of true slime mold in a labyrinth and Monophagous leaf‐mining larvae of Stigmella (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae) on birch: patterns and differentiation in exploitation of the host have many similarities and difference in their written styles. Both articles use a level 1 header and have some text before the introduction which give background information on the study. Both of the articles use level 2 headers for their sub-sections and both articles have sub-sections. These subsections explain what the following section will be about. In the Smart behavior of true slime mold article, the subsections give a basic description of what the section will be on. The Monophagous leaf‐mining article uses a traditional sub-section style consisting of an introduction, methods, etc. Both achieve a similar premise of describing what the following section is about. The sections in Smart behavior of true slime mold usually begin with an introductory sentence which gives the reader a basic overview of what will be discussed, while the Monophagous leaf‐mining article begins each section by jumping straight into the content and skipping the 'fluff'. In both articles, the sub-sections are used to introduce the new content to continue the flow of the paper. Again They both contain figures and descriptions of those figures. At the end of the articles, both papers have a reference section written in a similar fashion in alphabetical order. The way the informative paragraphs are written, in the introduction, are similar as well. Both articles begin fairly broad in the beginning and give basic information that leads the reader toward a more in-depth understanding of the subject and what the article is ultimately about. However, each article approaches this task differently. The Smart behavior of true slime mold is written in more colloquial terms and is easier to read for someone who may not be very scientifically oriented. Examples of this are the uses of the first person 'we' and how a question was asked open-endedly 'What sort of behavior could be expected?'. This style is not very common in scientific writing and not present in the Monophagous leaf‐mining article. However, this is not to say that the final product of one or the other doesn't achieve what it set out to do. They both follow logical flow schemes which lead the reader to a conclusion and are organized in their own ways from broad to precise. The Monophagous leaf‐mining article does this in a writing style many consider proper scientific writing.

How are plants classified? It’s a fairly straight-forward question one might assume would produce a straight-forward answer, but in fact there are many grey zones. There are four basic criteria that allow scientists to classify an organism as a plant. First, the organism in question must have a cell wall that uses cellulose. This cell wall provides mechanical strength, a protective barrier, an expandable frame, and exoskeleton for turgor pressure changes, and is made of cellulose. The second criteria is the cell must be able to store starches. Specifically store them in organelles known as plastids. These plastids may be for only storage production or can actually produce certain chemicals depending on the type of plant. The third criteria is the organism must contain both plasmodesmata and phragmoplasts. Plasmodesmata are channels which connect adjacent cells protoplasts to one another. The protoplast of a plant cell is the fluid in the cell similar to the cytoplasm in an animal cell. Phragmoplasts mediate cell separation during mitosis. They provide the scaffolding needed that allows a clean separation to occur properly. The fourth and final criteria to be classified as a plant is the organism must undergo photosynthesis and contain chlorophyll a and b. Each type of chlorophyll absorbs a different wavelength of light. Many organisms are able to fit one two or three of these criteria and some all. Ultimately it comes down to the scientist's interpretation of the organism. Some believe that only land plants should be considered while others believe some green algae should be included as they do meet all the criteria.

The study of the climate, specifically winds and precipitation, has helped me understand more about the earth and why it is we experience what we do. It all begins with the sun’s solar radiation reaching the earth. Between 30 degrees North and South, known as the tropics, is where the sun’s solar radiation hits its most direct. It varies due to the tilt of the earth, with the equator in the dead center. At the equator, the rays heat the surface and produce pockets of warm air, which rise due to a lower density than the cool air around it. This rise in warm air creates a low-pressure zone. As the air pocket increases in altitude, its heat is transferred to the surrounding air and the carrying capacity of water in the previously warm air decreases. This causes the formation of water droplets and clouds. For this reason, the equator experiences a lot of precipitation. Once the air has cooled it is carried north and south from the equator until 30 degrees North and South where it cools and falls. This process is known as subsidence. At these latitudes, there is high pressure and therefore no clouds or precipitation. This specific rotation of air near the equator is known as a Hadley cell. There are two more cells known as Ferrell, and Polar cells. Ferrell cells are an intermediate between Hadley and Polar cells and occur between 30 and 60 degrees. Above that is where the polar cell exists. These wind patterns help us determine what are known as prevailing winds; winds that are observed consistently and can be used to make predictions on the climate at any given location.  When looking at a map of the earth, these winds always point towards either 0 or 60 degrees latitude and away from 30 and 90 degrees latitude. This is because at 30 and 90 degrees there are pockets of high atmospheric pressure generated by the subsidence effect, and fluids tend to flow from high to low pressure, therefore away from 30 and 90 degrees. 

Near the campus pond, on the side opposite the library by the water's edge there are many lawn weeds in the grass. These plants are very abundant in this area. So many in fact I cannot even begin to count them without losing track. The area in which they are found receives a moderate amount of sunlight, however, it appears the majority of them grow under some shade. It is likely they prefer this. They have a leafy base of about 10 to 15 leaves and a few small stalks, 3-6, protruding from the center of the base. The leaves are very rugged. They start fairly skinny near the base and open up as they reach the tips. The end broadens out, but they still end at a point. The edges of the leaf do not have any kind of serration or ridges. However, on many of the plants, the leaves have had some sort of damage done to them. Most likely from small insects eating away at them, but they are in an area where other students could trample them and produce similar tearing. Compared to the leaves from class these are much rougher on both sides. Many leaves have discolorations like white and black streaks across the tops and bottoms. The stalks have a firm stem. About 2 cm from the bottom of the stem seeds can be found which are present until the tip of the stem. These seeds are very densely packed leaving no room for the stem to be visible without moving them apart. They point upward. The seeds are held by some sort of connecting piece which also seems to provide protection. This connecting piece is a small group of leaves somehow attached to the seed capsule. Removing a seed from the stem requires little force. When it comes off the connecting piece remains attached to the seed, but can be removed easily. The actual seed is within another shell. Upon further inspection, the seed capsule contains multiple seeds instead of one. The seed capsule also contained some liquid which enclosed the seeds, possibly water. The seeds are a light green color and are very small compared to the size of the seed capsule.