Drafts

In this draft, I will be writing about whether the chicken or the egg came first. The debate comes down to the topic of evolution. Bird eggs that we recognize today (the amniotic egg) came about not by chickens but by the ancestors that lived before its time. The evolution of an amniotic egg came from the movement of water-reproducing organisms to land-reproducing organisms. As animals began to live on land, time brought upon genetic mutations that resulted in two almost-chicken organism. These cross between these two organisms is what created the modern chicken. As the modern chicken populated in species, these chicken produced what we know as chicken eggs. So in reality, the chicken is what came first, but the evolution of an amniotic egg came way before the modern chicken almost 340 million years ago. Depending on what kind of egg is in question, “the safest bet is to say the egg came first.”

https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/which-came-first-chicken-or-egg

In almost any type of near-shore climate, whether it be polar, temperate, or tropical, kelp forests can be found. Kelp are large brown algae, with specialized tissues designed to live underwater. They require a rocky substrate present to which the kelp can use its holdfasts to root itself and begin growing. When large quantities of kelp bunch up in dense patches, the area can be called a kelp forest. The dense brush provides a unique habitat to a diverse selection of wildlife including sea urchins, lobsters, mussels, abalones, other kinds of seaweeds and sea otters.

These organisms form a symbiosis with kelp, helping regulate its growth and destruction making this a very dynamic ecosystem. Sea urchins and sea otters are key regulators of this biome on opposite ends of the spectrum. Sea urchins are omnivorous bottom feeders that eat away at any vegetation or dead animals in their path, kelp being a major source of this diet. Although it may seem counter-productive that sea urchins regulate this biome by destroying matter, they actually play a key role. Without their grazing the kelp would grow continuously without any means to stop and eventually would form a forest so dense, light could not pass through and photosynthesis in the deeper areas would cease. Simultaneously, if too many sea urchins are allowed to graze the kelp forest would be destroyed. This is where sea otters come in. These marine mammals dive down into the kelp forests in search of their food sources, clams, mussels, and most importantly, sea urchins. One species regulates another species that regulates another. Without the sea urchin, the kelp forest may overgrow, without the sea otter the forest may be decimated. All are important in maintaining a homeostatic environment that benefits all the parties present, including the rest of the community of wildlife. 

Animals can decode several meanings from signals about self including: parent-offspring recognition, kin recognition, mate recognition, stranger/individual recognition, competitive status, motivational status, genotypic & phenotypic quality, and aposematic colouring. Parent-offspring recognition is especially apparent in colonial bird species such as bank swallows and emperor penguins. Both species need to leave the nest to get food for their offspring, and when they return, they locate their nests based on their chick’s calls. Kin recognition is present in birds as apparent through incest avoidance behaviour. Great tits will recognise the calls of their fathers and avoid mating with birds who have an identical call as this avoids the possibility of incest. Tadpoles will secrete a hormone that other tadpoles recognise as belonging to their kin and will form groups with similar genomes. Mate recognition has been shown to occur in bird species who have to return to a nesting site. In some species of gulls, males will return to nesting sites first and emit a call which their mates will recognise. Song birds have been shown to recognise different individuals. White-throated sparrow males can recognise whether a neighbour emits a call from a familiar border or if it has moved to a new location and threatens to encroach on his territory. In the former case, the male will respond weakly to the neighbour relative to his response to a stranger from the same location. In the latter case, the male will respond just as strongly to the neighbour in the new location as to a stranger from that same location. Competitive status is an important message to decode in dominance hierarchies. In house swallows, dominant males will have more black feathers on their head and chest than submissive males. Motivational status often has to do with level of aggression or sexual motivation. In canids, different facial expressions will give a receiver different information about the likelihood that the canid’s next action will be aggressive or submissive. In hook-tipped moths, male caterpillars will emit sound from different places on their bodies to ward off other males. Signals also communicate genotypic and phenotypic quality as in the springbok’s stottering behaviour. A springbok stotters by jumping up and down to highlight the black and white stripe on his flank. In doing so, the springbok not only signals to the predator that he has been detected but also tells them he is healthy and that it will take great effort to capture him. Lastly, aposematic colouring has to do with how poisonous or venomous a creature is. Bright, contrasting colours often indicate that an animal will be inedible or produces lethal toxins. For example, the hooded pitohui has bright orange and black feathers to signal that it produces batrachotoxin that will kill the predator that tries to eat it.

The observational differences between the original and replicated figure can be broken down into three sectors: formating of the figures, mechanics of the photography and subjects in the figure. The formating in the figures were generally similar but a clear difference can be observed. The sizing and capitalization of the lettering is different in both figures. The original figure consists of uppercase and uniformed sized letters. While the replicated figure consists of different sizing and alternating casing of the letters. The photographs in the figure are also in different shapes and formations. The original figure has each photograph oriented into a square. The replicated figure has the photographs oriented into rectangles.

It is well known that the Boston location is often far ahead of the curve when it comes to the level of available health care and emergency medicine. As a part of the emergency response in the state, I have been able to see the exposed side of the requirements and process of becoming a first responder EMT, and have had contacts with other state EMTs. Disucssing with other EMTs has shown the differences in expectations in areas across the country and exposed the underlying causes. Firstly, Massachusetts EMT are required to pass a vigurous state practical exam that include five basic skills: splinting, long-board, medical, trauma, and KED. Next, all Maschusetts EMTs have to be nationally certified by a 80-120 question exam that can take up to four hours to complete. These two hurdles combined yield a strong professional and well training EMT fully capable of fullfilling their duty and following the protocol. While other states' EMTs are not lacking in these skills, it's a more facilitated process elsewhere to obtain the same certifications for the job. Most of the other states do not require the national certification. The reason behind this is the educational opportunity. If the national exams were required for other states, a significant amount of the emergency medicine working force would not be able to work because they often cannot pass the test. This is combined with the fact that most state protocols are much more limited than the enforced national protocol, giving EMTs less responsibility and fewer abilities on-shift. In Massachusetts however it is true that the national protocol is the limiting factor in what EMTs can perform, with the state protocol giving many abilities on the job. This is all due to the opportunity for advanced EMT education in our state in comparison to that available in other states. 

People in the scientific field hold different levels of knowledge. It is true that in order to gain extreme knowledge in a single subject, time is the only real factor that can allow and determine the amount of things you know. Knowledge takes dedication to time and subject, and also it requires interest. No one will ever know the most about something they hate the most. And so when one is invested in a subject or field of interest, their time and efoort will be precisely focussed on that subject, providing them with the ability to gain master os the topics in the field of study. Everyone however understands the limits to the possibilities of gaining expertise in a single field: time available and opportunity for education. At younger ages, you require more basic levels of education and can only achieve higher more specific and in depth knowledge after rising in the tiers of academia. You will know more in college than in high school, and more in graduate school than in undergrad, etc. Age is therefore often linked with wisdom. The older you are, the more deeply you know about your interests and the greater level of mastery you have over the subjects. This is the traditional way of ageism against the younger generations though because the older generations put down the youth for lack of knowledge and understanding due to their age and lack of experience in the world. This is very inaccurate however because age does not determine intelligence and younger people can achieve a high level of specific knowledge if they study highly specific topics. This causes a problem for older generations who mastered their field decades ago and let their knowledge plateau and stopped seaking to self-improve. The younger generation plows past them learning the newest theories and discoveries, sometimes culminating in a more education younger generation that older generations do not accept. 

Phytophagy can be seen almost anywhere around us. I found mine in the Durfee Conservatory on the UMass Amherst campus. The subject was a plant with long green leaves. Every single leaf was pristine clean with no other patches, holes etc. except one leaf. This specific leaf had three patches in a trianglular orientation. The patches did not have specific shape - they were irregular. They did not occupy space on the entire leaf, but were big enough to be visible They were located about two-thirds from the bottom and on the underside of the plant. This was an evidence of phytophagy because it usually means that it had been attacked by a fungus or bacteria causing the discoloration. The brown patches were slightly lighter around the borders and got darker as they got closer to the center of the each patch. 

Panel A

Panel marker A is in the lower left-hand corner in Figure 1 while in Figure 2 it’s in the upper left-hand corner. The size of the letter in Figure 1 is larger and centered while the marker for Figure 2 is smaller and off-center. The image in Figure 1 is upright while the image in Figure 2 is sideways. The lighting in Figure 1 is brighter whereas the lighting in Figure 2 is darker. The leaf in Figure 1 is green and attached to a tree while the leaf in Figure 2 is brown and on the ground. The camera angle in Figure 1 is slightly downward while the angle in Figure 2 is directed straight downward.

Panel B

Panel Marker B is in the lower left-hand corner in Figure 1 while in Figure 2 it’s in the upper left-hand corner. The size of the letter in Figure 1 is larger and centered while the marker for Figure 2 is smaller and off-center. The image in Figure 1 is upright while the image in Figure 2 is sideways. The lighting in Figure 1 is brighter whereas the lighting in Figure 2 is darker. The size of the arrow in Figure 1 is skinny and long while the arrow in Figure 2 is short and wide. Lederle and the PSB are in the background of Figure 1 while Hotel UMass is in the background of Figure 2. The arrow in Figure 1 points upward, while the arrow in Figure 2 points downward.

Panel C

Panel marker C is in the lower left-hand corner in Figure 1 while in Figure 2 it’s in the upper left-hand corner. The size of the letter in Figure 1 is larger and centered while the marker for Figure 2 is smaller and off-center. The circle identifying where the plant was found is circular in Figure 1 and Ovular in Figure 2. The circle in Figure 1 is located in the upper-middle portion of the map, while the circle in Figure 2 is located in the lower left-hand corner of the map. The arrow pointing towards this circle is black in Figure 1 and red in Figure 2. Figure 1 includes landmarks such as the ISB, Hotel UMass and Hasbrouck while Figure 2 does not. Figure 2 includes landmarks such as the PSB, part of Lederle and part of Northeast Residential while Figure 1 does not. 

The find an example of phytophagy on campus, I tried to find a tree that was distinct and easy to locate. I used a tree that was right next to an intersection of two roads, and was not near other trees so that it was obvious which tree it was. I tried to make the leaf I photographed obvious by leaving paint on the leaf so that it would stand out among the other leaves on the tree. I used incskape and included the exact X and Y coodinates, and the width and height of the pictures so that the person replicating could have the same dimentions in their figures. I also included the zoom and the fartherest landmarks on the map so that the maps could have the same zoom and boundaries included. There are differences between the original and the replicate that can be explained by different times of day, different weather, different perspective of the pictures. The formatting differences can be explained by using different computer programs to make the figures.
 

A lab technique in genetics is insitu-hybridization. Insitu-hybridization is used to locate a specific gene in an organism. This technique uses a label to find an mRNA sequence because the mRNA does not leave the cell. The DNA is the same in every cell in the body, so highlighting the DNA would not tell you which cells express a certain gene. The proteins created by the mRNA sequence leave the cells, so this would not acurately tell you which cells are responsible for expressing that gene. Scientists use this method to locate tissues that produce a certain gene, this can be used for different medicines in research. There are other methods that can locate gene expresion, such as using immune cells with radioactive labels. This method does not target the exact cell that the gene is produced in, because the immune cells link onto the protein produced. Both are very useful methods of locating genes and gene expression of protiens.