malberigi's blog

The many B vitamins found in beer, including B9 and B12, are all derived from the starch by which the drink is fermented.  Normally beer is made from malted barley, cereals, hops, yeast, and water, and provides others minerals to the body such as magnesium, potassium, and silicon.  It has been researched, though not intensely, the health benefits of beer especially in comparison to other forms of alcohol.  A beer, on average, will have less calories and sugar than a mixed drink of similar alcohol content.  Beer also provides protection against heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions in the same way red wine does.  Beer has also been studied to prove that it can reduce the risk of developing kidney stones by an incredible 40%.  Although there are many health benefits involved with the consumption of beer, these conditions change once the drink as been abused over a period of time.

Vitamin B6 (pyridozine) naturally occurs in many foods such as poultry, meats, fish, starchy vegetables, and non-citrus fruits.  People also may choose to take a dietary supplement containing the B6 vitamin in order to satisfy their daily needs.  Vitamin B6 is incredibly important for more than 100 enzyme reactions involved in metabolism.  Healthy levels of vitamin B6 contributes  largely to the production of hormones such as serotonin and norepinephrine, which influence mood.  Vitamin B6 also assists with the conversion of carbohydrates in food into glucose for storage and ATP.  Most importantly, however, this key vitamin helps control levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood.  This amino acid is largely associated with heart disease, although more reasearch is needed to determine exactly the two are interrelated. 

Corals live in nutrient poor waters and have certain zones of tolerance to water temperature, salinity, UV radiation, opacity, and nutrient quantities. Scleractinian corals build skeletons of calcium carbonate and when the coral polyp dies, this skeleton remains incorporated in the reef framework.  Scleractinian corals are in the Phylum Cnidaria, and they receive their nutrient and energy resources in two ways. They use the traditional cnidarian strategy of capturing tiny planktonic organisms with their nematocyst capped tentacles, as well as having a obligate symbiotic relationship with a autotrophic microalgaes known as zooxanthellae.  Zooxanthellae live symbiotically within the coral polyp tissues and assist the coral in nutrient production through photosynthetic activities. These activities provide the coral with fixed carbon compounds for energy, enhance calcification, and mediate elemental nutrient flux. The host coral polyp in return provides its zooxanthellae with a protected environment to live within, and a steady supply of carbon dioxide for its photosynthetic processes.  This symbiotic relationship between polyps and zooxanthellae can be disturbed by anthropogenic impacts including overfishing, increased sedimentation and nutrient overloading.

Brain morphogenic protein (BMP) is involved in dorsal ventral patterning in most animals and dictates gene expression.  There are two antagonistic molecules that work to determine dorsal and ventral sides of an organism.  In insects, DPP is located on the dorsal side and SOG is located on the ventral side.  In the vertebrates, the dorsal side is chordin, and the ventral side has BMP4.  In hemichordates, BMP is located on the dorsal side and anti-BMP like molecule is located on the ventral side.  It makes them initially look like an insect.  BMP is secreted from the top of the neural tube and Shh is secreted from the bottom of the neural tube (floor plate)

When a bird hears a song, cells in the bird’s brain alter their biochemistry to alter gene expression and protein production that reshape cells in the learning center.  Allowing the bird to now do things it couldn’t before being exposed to the song.  One of the genes that contributes to these changes is ZENK which codes for a protein ZENK.  The ZENK protein is produced when a bird hears a song and is a transcription factor that regulates other genes influencing the way neurons interact with other neurons which can alter a bird’s behavior.

Vasopressin is a neurotransmitter that synapses on V1a receptors in the brain that provide the prairie vole (PV) with positive feedback for its monogamous mating behavior.  This V1a receptor is encoded by the avpr1a gene, which contains more DNA material in the PV than in the meadow vole and might account for more abundant V1a receptors in the prairie vole brain.  In order to test this hypothesis, the researchers inserted extra copies of the avpr1a gene into male PVs to see if more V1a receptors were produced.  The male PV with extra receptors did form stronger relationships with females, even if they had not previously mated with them proving this genes significance in PV monogamy

Set up:

About 1,000 frog embryos at the early cleavage stage

GFP injection

Label one half of the embryos with GFP, the other half will be unlabeled

Procedure: 

After one half of the embryos have been labeled with GFP, let all of the embryos grow for 6 hrs until blastula stage is reached (multicellular).  The non-injected embryos’ animal pole would be removed and cultured alone to serve as a control.   The recombination will be of the GFP vegetal mass (endoderm) and the non-labeled animal cap (ectoderm).  The mesodermal tissue will be discarded.  The embryos will then develop for two days until the neurulation stage is reached.

Results:

At the neurulation stage, the non-recombinant embryos’ animal pole would give rise to the surface ectoderm, which is expected.  The recombinant embryos would have a GFP labeled epidermis AND GFP labeled notochord.

Conclusions:

Because both the ectoderm and the mesoderm are labeled with GFP, it suggests that the animal pole cells that would usually become ectoderm derivatives were induced to also become mesoderm derivatives.  The GFP labeled ectoderm and notochord indicates that the vegetal endoderm is what induces the ectoderm.

Posters looked at:

Study of water binding capacity, pH, chemical composition and microstructure of livestock meat and poultry

Human whole genome sequencing on Oxford Nanopore PromethION

The CINSARC signature predicts clinical outcome in multiple cancer types

Poster Do's:

• Include color
• Include figures, with figure labels 
• Include charts and graphs for modeling data, making it easier to read
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines to break up information and make it easier to read
• Use of large font 
• Not too large blocks of text, multiple smaller blocks
• Title should contain the essential amount of words
• Begin with abstract or introduction in upper left hand corner
• Authors names and references are included
• Clearly convey information in a short amount of time

Poster Don'ts:

• Large blocks of text 
• Small, illegible fonts
• Figures or images without labels
• A long, non-concise title
• No pictures or graphical representations of data
• Blocks of numbers
• Lack of headings or defined sections
• Too much color
• No authors or references
• Too long to read in under 5 minutes

Propanoic acid (0.98 mL, 13 mmol), 3-methyl butanol (1.2 mL, 11 mmol), boiling chips, and concentrated sulfuric acid (four drops) were added to a round-bottomed (rb) flask.  The mixture was refluxed for 45 minutes, while water was removed from the reaction via condensation collection in the side arm.  The product was washed with water (1 mL).  The solution was then backwashed with aqueous sodium bicarbonate (1 mL) and aqueous sodium chloride (1 mL).  The product (1.24 g, 8.6 mmol, 78%) that had an apple-like odor was dried with CaCl₂ pellets, and then tested using infrared spectroscopy.

Isopentyl propionate, an ester, was synthesized using the method Fischer esterification, with the reagents 3-methyl butanol and propanoic acid.  Using 11 mmol of alcohol and 11 mmol of acid would theoretically yield 11 mmol of ester.  The carboxylic acid, propanoic acid, was used in slight excess (13 mmol) to ensure it reacts completely with the present alcohol.  The water formed in the reaction was removed from the solution using a distillation tube to ensure the reagents reacted completely.  Removing water would pull the reaction towards the products based on Le Chatelier’s principle.  Any remaining water was removed via backwashing and a drying agent, CaCl₂.  This procedure left a product expected to be isopentyl propionate, which was obtained in a 78% yield.  This could be due to inaccurate draining of the bottom layers from the tube.  Draining of the water back into the reaction could also account for the unreacted carboxylic acid stretch from 3535.52 cm^-1 to 3124.68 cm^-1 found in the IR results (attached at the end of this report).  The other impurities in the solution are not thought to be either of the reagents, acid or alcohol, due to the IR results.  The IR results are indicative of a C-H alkyl stretch at 2958.80 cm^-1.  There is a C=O ester stretch at 1739.79 cm^-1.  The third prominent peak, at approximately 1188.15 cm^-1, indicates there is a C-O stretch.  The isopentyl propionate had an odor characteristic of apple or pear when experimentally wafted.