nkantorovich's blog

After the initial freakout of the blob, it was understood that this yellow organism was a type of slime mold. It is a brainless organism that has the ability to be decisive and solve mazes. It is not a fungus or an animal or any characterization from our present understanding of the animal kingdom. It is called physarum and is a quite common organism. It is one giant cell with many nuclei within. Fluids can flow throughout the body of this organism as it does not have any barriers between the walls of this organism. It uses peristalsis type of rhythmic contractions that moves fluid and information across the body. They are not sure which signalling molecule is used to pass the information around. It has a ton of sexes. 

There was a recent publication about this mysterious new organism called “ the blob.” Scientists do not know if it is a fungus or an animal. All that is known is that it is capable of learning and adapting to challenges presented to it. The scientists tested its ability to adapt by conducting different experiments to try and understand how it moves. They placed salt in front of it, which it does not like, and watched how it stalled and learned how to get around it. It gain intelligence and experience the more challenges it takes on. If one blob is morphed with another, it will pass on its knowledge to the other one.

The statement is “Biodiversity offsetting is when losses to biodiversity in one place are compensated for by creating "equivalent gains" in another.” The persuasive statement is written in one paragraph. This statement uses different forms of ethos as it has pieces of credibility that appeal to audience based on the speakers authority. The logos can be observed as there are examples in the statement that appeal to reason. There is not any examples of pathos as this statement is not appealing to the emotions of the audience.

We will align the grid along the same line as the pushpin and repeat this step moving upwards until we reach the 1 meter push pin mark. We will count the amount of lichen in the grid. The grid has 100 squares and we will count how many times the certain lichen appear in those squares. The data will be recorded in this order, (Tree 1: Sugar Maple, Lichen: crustose 20/100, foliose 50/100, fruticose 10/100). Once each tree is identified with lichen and all of the data is recorded, we will remove the flags from the plot. This process will be repeated in the southwest forrest area. All of the data will then be recorded in an excel spreadsheet and saved for later analysis. 

Flags will be placed at these points to outline the area of the plot. When the plot is identified, we will record how many trees are in the area. Shrubs will not be included in this recording, a shrub will have a diameter of less than 10 inches and a height of less than a meter. A list of tree types will be provided with images to aid in identification. The trees will be identified and recorded on the sheet provided. After tree identification, we will then measure out 1 meter from the ground each tree on the north facing side of the tree. The north facing side can be identified using the compass. A push pin will be placed at the top of the measured out 1 meter height.

Before we begin, there are tools that we will be needing. These tools include; 2 measuring tapes, plastic flags, a clipboard with a piece of paper, a pencil, a compass and a metal grid and push pins. These tools can be collected from the ecology department at UMASS. After collecting all of the tools, the experiment can begin. There are two sites that will be used to collect the data. The first location will be in the woods behind Orchard Hill dormitories. The other location will be in the woods behind Southwest dormitories. A map is provided below with the exact locations of these woods.In addition, we will use photos of specific trees and lichen to aid in identification. We will pick a location in these woods and measure out a 4 x 4 meter plot . This plot will be measured using the measuring tape.

I have always been interested in the ways in which dolphins communicate. I spent some time looking into this topic to try and learn more about their communication methods. Dolphins and whales have similar forms of communication. They both create sounds, make physical contact and use body language. They also use echolocation, as a way to navigate underwater. This sense also allows them to hunt efficiently. The way echolocation works is incredibly interesting. They use sound waves that bounce off other objects to get an understanding of their surroundings. The waves that bounce off lets them build an image in their mind of what they are looking out. Dolphins have a more advanced form of echolocation which gives them the ability to hunt in murky water or find food under the sand.

1: Salvoro, Cecilia, et al. “Performance of Four Models for Eye Color Prediction in an Italian Population Sample.” Forensic Science International: Genetics, vol. 40, 2019, pp. 192–200., doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.03.008. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.03.008

2:Denton Bobeldyk, Arun Ross, "Analyzing Covariate Influence on Gender and Race Prediction From Near-Infrared Ocular Images", Access IEEE, vol. 7, pp. 7905-7919, 2019.

doi:10.1109/ICB2018.2018.00026

When deciding on a topic for my research proposal, I began with going to the Umass Amherst Libraries page. While on this page, I thought about the different kinds of projects that I could construct. I wanted to choose a topic that I would be able to replicate and write a methods for. I decided to search for eye colors in populations. I thought it might be interesting to do a proposal project analyzing the percentage of certain eye colors in the Umass population. I searched through the given options and looked for an article that had a literature review. I chose an article called, “A pupil center detection algorithm based on eye color pixels differences.” I felt that this topic would be relevant to my research proposal. I clicked on the link and was directed to a page on the Umass libraries with the entire article.

Abstract. Plants adapts to varying climates based on their varying geographical locations. Photosynthetic rates sometimes vary among plants within a habitat, and across habitats... [and are]...correlated with species composition, habitat preference, or growth rates (Guerevitch, 2006). An experiment is conducted to determine the effects of latitude and elevation on vegetation patterns of Vaccinium vacillans. The density of Vaccinium vacillans is measured in 11 4x4m plots within three sites: Mt. Norwottuck, Amherst, Massachusetts,  Plum Creek, Amherst, Massachusetts and at Deer Brook, Swanton, Vermont. Each site is varying in latitude and elevation. It is predicted that a widespread, common species will show parallel changes in abundance as elevation increases and as latitude increases in New England.