nskinner's blog

Chickens cluck and squawk at various times throughout the day. The technical term for this clucking and squawking is chicken vocalization. Those who work with chickens, live with chickens, or keep them as pets swear that you can tell when they are happy and content just by listening to them. This concept is being investigated by some researchers from the University of Georgia. To do this they are conducting experiments where they use small flocks and record the vocal reactions to stressful situations. Realizing what sounds indicate unhappy chickens can create markers for identifying farms that need improvement. The overall health and happiness of a chicken matters when it comes to growth since unhappy or stressed chickens can have stunted growth. Stunted growth means loss of production for farmers since they profit by each pound of chicken they sell. Farms also use expensive detection equipment such as ammonia detectors to detect unsanitary conditions for the birds. Researchers are hoping the study of chicken vocalizations and creation of algorithms to detect unhappy noises might save money for chicken famers. A few microphones and the use of these algorithms would be cheaper than the ammonia detectors. Overall, the study of chicken vocalizations may be useful to farmers, but may also prove helpful for people who keep chickens as pets that just want to keep their chickens happy

One of the easiest things to grow in your garden are potatoes. Potatoes grow best in full sun in lightly loose well drained soil. They prefer a pH of about 5-7. Once you find a location, you simply pick the type of potato you would like to grow and leave them out in the sun for a few days. Since planting is generally done in the spring you should not have to worry about overheating your potatoes. After being exposed to the light they should start sprouting. You then make trenches in rows about 6-8” deep. You can cut the potatoes in half and lay them in the trench about 12-15” apart. It is best to only cover the potatoes with about 4” of soil at first to allow them to grow and establish, then as they grow fill in more soil until eventually you have a mound over the potatoes. This will generally happen over the course of a week or more. In most cases, if you just plant the potato halves and just mound them over, they will still grow. You should keep your potatoes well-watered, usually about 1-2 inches of watering a week. The foliage should grow and flower, then in the fall the leaves will start to yellow. Once they start to yellow, discontinue watering. The potatoes can be harvested about 2 weeks after the leaves yellow and die back. To harvest the potatoes, you can use a shovel, pitchfork, etc to dig them up. Be careful not to damage the potatoes when digging.

Phytophagy is the act of consuming plants. This can be done in many ways and evidence of this is all around us. Right here on campus at the University of Massachusetts, phytophagy is present in the form of insects consuming leaves. On a warm sunny day in fall around 4:00pm on a Friday I left the BCRC room in Morrill Science Center III south by taking a right down the hallway. At the end of the hallway I took a left and then a left again through a big heavy door into the stair well that has the walls painted with various themes of science. I walked to the bottom of the stair well and opened the door to a new hallway where I took a left. I went through a set of doors, down a short set of stairs and through the last set of doors finally stepping outside. I walked down the side walk to the left and then went down the first set of stairs on the right. I walked down the short set of stairs and crossed the crosswalk located at the bottom of the stairs. I was sure to look both ways before crossing the street and made sure no cars where coming. Once across the street I walked across the east lawn heading towards the library tower. At the edge of the campus pond there are two granite benches. The bench on the left is located between two trees. The tree on the right in-between the two benches has a small shoot growing from the base f the adult tree. Halfway up this shoot is a leaf that has three large wholes in the center of the leaf almost in a clover shape. It also has two smaller holes towards the apice of the leaf one on each side of the main venation of the leaf. On the left side of the leaf there is a series of holes in what looks like a “cancer ribbon” shape. In my left hand I held the leaf and a ruler on the inches side to show that the leaf is approximately 2 inches long which is approximately 5 centimeters. I held the leaf and measured it with the stem to the left and the apice to the right. I took the picture with my phone.

The Melospiza georgiana, more commonly known as the swamp sparrow, resides in sedge swamps that include cat tails, tussocks and various shrubs. Swamp sparrows eat insects and seeds and can be found foraging on mud at the edge of the water, as well as flying from shrub to shrub; often shrubs are no more than 1.5-2 meters high. They can be found in New England year-round and breeding occurs sometime between April and June.

 Male swamp sparrows singing attracts females to mate. Males will attract a mate to a territory that to which he claims. The male will chase out any intruding males within his territory, often with the help of his female. During the spring months, swamp sparrows can be observed gathering materials for nest making, copulating, and foraging within their territories. Swamp sparrows tend to build their nests off the ground in a low growth shrub. They cover their nest with grasses to camouflage it. With the nest being a little higher than ground level, there’s plenty of room for the water level in the swamp to rise and fall as precipitation occurs. Swamp sparrows usually lay between 4-5 eggs in a nest. Only females incubate the eggs while the male brings food to the female.

After the eggs have hatched, usually after 12-13 days of incubating, both males and females will feed the young. The young are altricial, meaning they are extremely vulnerable, unable to walk, fly or feed themselves. The young may leave the nest after about 10-13 days after hatching. Swamp sparrows may have up to two broods during a season.

Figure 1. Swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana). Swamp sparrow perching in wetland habitat."Swamp Sparrow" flickr photo by dmoon10751 https://flickr.com/photos/birdnerds/41768202082 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

To draw blood from a canine patient from the cephalic vein you must first gather the supplies you need to collect the samples. You need isopropyl alcohol, a syringe and needle combination; usually with a 22g needle, and the proper tubes to put the sample in. Second, put the patient in proper restraint. A technician should be holding the patient and occluding the vein of either one of the front legs. The technician drawing the blood should then wet the area over the cephalic vein with isopropyl alcohol. With gloved hands you should then be able to feel the cephalic vein by tapping and rolling your finger over the area where the vein should anatomically be; which is usually half way between the paw and the elbow on the cranial side of the leg. You should then uncap your needle. While holding the leg in your non-dominant hand you should use your dominant hand to insert the needle, bevel up, into the vein. A flash of blood should appear in the hub of the syringe. You should then gently and slowly pull back the plunger of the syringe; blood should fill the syringe. Once you have the desired amount, which for most dogs is usually going to be about 3ml, you can place gauze over the area where the needle had entered the skin quickly after removing the needle from the skin. The person restraining the dog should then take over holding the gauze and applying pressure to stop the bleeding. The technician that has just drawn then blood should recap the needle using a one hand technique for safety and remove the needle from the syringe. You should then uncap the desired tubes to place the blood in and plunge the blood slowly into the tube. Replace the cap to the tube.By removing the cap of the tube rather than piercing the tube you avoid hemolysis of the sample. If the tube requires inversion, invert the tube as needed. You then should dispose of the syringe and needle in a sharps container. At this point most patients can now remove the gauze from their leg. If there is still bleeding, you can apply a pressure bandage for about 10 minutes.  

It seems that every year at the start of a new semester there is a cold that gets circulated throughout the entire school community. The common cold usually consists of congestion, cough, sore throat, rhinorrhea, and low-grade fever. Most common colds are caused by rhinoviruses and often caused by contaminants on the hands rather than airborne aerosols. The cold is usually caught 1-2 days after being exposed to the pathogen. Common colds typically are resolved within a week but not before reaching a peak at about 3-4 days after becoming symptomatic.

            Not smoking, being exposed to preschool at a young age, drinking red wine, and reducing physiological stressors can all help prevent an individual from contracting the common cold. Surprisingly, after conducting a fair amount of research it has been discovered that vitamin C intake does not seem to help reduce the length of colds. In some studies, daily vitamin C intake, especially natural intake through diet rather than supplementation, seemed to decrease the amount of colds a person caught during cold season.

            The common cold has been a bit of a mystery when it comes to treatment. Still to this day, the only real treatments are treating the symptoms rather than the virus itself. Antihistamines are used to reduce sneezing. Anti-inflammatory (NSAID) medications, like ibuprofen, are used to help decrease inflammation and pain in areas like the throat or sinuses. Nasal decongestants can be used to help with congestion. So remember, as the first semester of school goes on, wash your hands.  

Kombucha is a fermented tea, usually black or green tea, that has a very low alcohol content of less than 0.5% alcohol by volume. In many cases, it is used for supplemental or medicinal purposes and due to the low alcohol content is commercially sold in many grocery and convenient stores. Kombucha is fermented with several different species of yeasts and acid bacteria such as such as Bacterium xylinum, Bacterium xylinoides, Bacterium gluconicum, Saccharomyces ludwigii, Saccharomyces apiculatus varieties, Schizosaccaromyces pombe, Acetobacter ketogenum , Torula varieties , Pichia fermantans (Gharib, 2009). Research has shown that the organic acids, enzymes, and vitamins produced by the fermentation process have some health benefits. Kombucha may aide digestion, avert cardiovascular disease, reduce inflammation, aide in immune support and even divert some forms of cancer. Overall, kombucha is a new health fad that has some research to support its health benefits.

Gharib, Ola Ali. "Effects of Kombucha on oxidative stress induced nephrotoxicity in rats." Chinese Medicine, vol. 4, 2009, p. 23. Gale OneFile: Health                      and Medicine, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A213497834/HRCA?u=mlin_w_umassamh&sid=HRC.... Accessed 17 Sept. 2019.

The Melospiza georgiana, more commonly known as the swamp sparrow, resides in sedge swamps that include cat tails, tussocks and various shrubs. Swamp sparrows eat insects and seeds and can be found foraging on mud at the edge of the water as well as flying from shrub to shrub; often shrubs are no more than 1.5-2 meters high. They can be found in New England year-round and breeding occurs sometime between April and June.

 Male swamp sparrows sing which attract female mates. Males will attract a mate to a territory that to which he claims. The male will chase out any intruding males within his territory, often with the help of his female. During the spring months, swamp sparrows can be observed gathering materials for nest making, copulating, and foraging within their territories. Swamp sparrows tend to build their nests off the ground in a low growth shrub. They cover their nest with grasses to camouflage it. With the nest being a little higher than ground level, there’s plenty of room for the water level in the swamp to rise and fall as precipitation occurs. Swamp sparrows usually lay between 4-5 eggs in a nest. Only females incubate the eggs while the male brings food to the female.

After the eggs have hatched, usually after 12-13 days of incubating, both males and females will feed the young. The young are altricial, meaning they are extremely vulnerable, unable to walk, fly or feed themselves. The young may leave the nest after about 10-13 days after hatching. Swamp sparrows may have up to two broods during a season.

Morning Routine: 8am-10am

• I woke up
• I grabbed my dogs’ leash and put her collar on and walked my dog
• Brushed teeth
• Fed all my pets
• Made a cup of coffee and drank coffee
• Replaced the seat to my bike
• Showered
• Got dressed for work
• Made myself a lunch to bring to work.

Errands 10:00am-10:20am

• Drove to PetSmart.
• Stopped at PetSmart along the way.
• Purchased bird seed at PetSmart

Work Routine 10:20am-8:45pm

• Drove to work
• Clocked in at work
• Started to look at appointments on my schedule
• Saw several appointments
• Took lunch
• Saw more appointment
• Cleaned the hospital treatment area
• Drove home

Nightly Routine 8:45pm-11pm

• Showered again
• Ate dinner
• Wrote for about 30 minutes for this class.
• Watched Netflix
• Went to bed

My morning routine starts with waking up and ends with getting ready for work. In between those activities are various things that I need to get done every morning as well some as to-do list activities that get done occasionally. On Thursday morning this week I woke up naturally without an alarm clock at about 7:00am. I brushed my teeth. The first thing I do every morning after brushing my teeth is grab my dogs’ collar and leash and put them on her and take her for a walk. I then go back inside with her and take her leash off. I feed her, my cats, my birds, and lastly my tortoise. I then made a cup of coffee from a pot of coffee that was already made by someone else and drank it. Once I finished my cup of coffee I went out to my garage and replaced the seat to my bike with tools that were located in the garage. I then went back into my house and showered. After showering, I got dressed in my scrubs for work. It then packed my lunch by grabbing a tuber ware of left overs out of the fridge and putting it in my work bag.