crmckenzie's blog

• First we counted the live arthropods, dead arthropods, webs, and cracks present on each window sill in two separate trials and created a table to quantify our data. The first trial took place on Tuesday, April 17th, and the second trial took place exactly one week later on Tuesday, April 24th.

• With the help of Professor Brewer, we were able to obtain the distance from all four window sills to the reptile room using Google Earth Pro. This program produced a 3D model of the Morrill II and Morrill IV South building.

• Using the arrows and ruler tool, the distance was measured. Because the reptile room was on the 5th floor, we had to take distance from all 4 different floors (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th).

• Next we created four line graphs comparing Trial 1 and Trial 2. These graphs, Figures 1-4, respectively, are called Dead Bugs Versus Distance from Reptiles, Live Bugs Versus Distance from Reptiles, Floor Number Versus Distance from Reptiles, and Spider Webs Versus Distance from Reptiles. Figure 5 was created to put all the data together in one table.

The relationship between the distance from the reptiles to arthropods can be explained by other studies done in the past. An example of a phenomenon that explains this relationship is the luxury effect, which is strong particularly for lizards. Luxury effect displays links between urban biodiversity and sociology-economics (Litwhiler 2016). Studies have shown that factors such as climates and environmental factors play a key role when it comes to living organisms, and reptiles are no exception (Lee and Lim 2016). There are other factors that cause less arthropods, such as foot traffic. Since the first floor being the floor has the most traffic, it will have the least number of arthropods or signs of arthropods, as compared to the 4th floor that doesn’t have as much foot traffic. Since foot traffic causes a disturbance of other living organisms, there are less arthropods present. By critically observing and counting up the numbers of the arthropods and how they contain different physical features whether they be live or dead, we can observe and study how the relationship of the two affects each other.

Welcome! In our experiment we examined the relationship between the number of arthropods on window sills in Morrill IV South and their distance from the reptile room, which is located on the secret fifth floor of the Morrill II building. Two different times, once last week and once this past week, we checked the window sills that look over the bridge connecting Morrill IV North to Morrill IV South on the first, second, third, and fourth floors. We were looking for live and dead bugs and also signs that they had been there, which include wings, webs, and cracks. We then used Google Earth Pro to measure the distance from each of these window sills to the reptile room. We used the luxury effect and foot traffic to explain our results. As you can see by our graphs, we generally found more of these bugs and signs on the upper floors, which are closer to the reptile room and have less foot traffic.

Thyroperoxidase attaches iodine to tyrosil residues. When TSH stimulates the thyrocite it also triggers an endocytoic catcher of material that brings it into the cell that fuses with a lysosome carrying various enzymes that cleave and fold thyroglobin so as to bring the tyrosil residues together. Thyroid hormone is a diphenyl ether with four iodines and iodines are negatively charged atoms. The outer ring is away from the amino side and the inner ring is closer. When these are unattached, T4 is converted to T3. Clinically, if you have thyroid disease, T4 and T3 are not the only things the doctors look at. They also look at reverse T3 which is produced by this unattachment.

TRH (Thyrotropin) stimulates TSH release from the pituitary and TRH (Releasing Hormone) “controls the set point” around which negative feedback occurs. Individual variants of thyroid hormone is 10% in comparison to the rest of the population. TSH is a glycoprotein hormone with two subunits, an alpha and a beta. Pure samples of LH FSH and TSH were taken to figure out the subunits. There were subunit switching experiments and alpha is common, but beta requires specificity. Thyroid glands have thryocites that surround ‘juicy centers’ that store the precursors to thyroid hormones. When TSH binds to the receptor and activates the entire mechanism, the production of thyroglobulin is increased. This is then packaged into vesicles where it is released into the colloid.

The complexity of regulation of genes provide a lot of variability in symptoms. Transporter brings T4 into cell, T3 transported into a nerve cell where it binds to nuclear receptor. Nerve cells do not have the ability to convert T4 to T3, glial cells do this converting and the nerve cells have to take up the T3 that they have converted. If T3 does not get into nerve cells, there will be severe muscular deficiencies. Cell specificity of steroids depends on the presence of a receptor: for example, there must be an estrogen receptor for a cell to be affected by the presence of estrogen. The gene that codes for TRH is relatively small, and there are five copies of it in its precursor. When cut, the intervening pieces of protein become available. TRH mRNA is more plentiful than the TRH peptides.

Genetic defects in alpha receptor have normal thyroid hormone levels. They found this by screening many people as they did not know what to look for. Cardiovascular problems are common, so this could not have been used as a screening tool for someone with alpha receptor defects. The hypathalmic-pituitary-thyroid hormone pathway is very sensitive to hormone defects. T4 is the most abundant hormone in the blood, however T3 is the biologically active form. T4 is transported actively across the cell membrane into the cytoplasm and the receptor is already bound to DNA in the un-liganded form. The symptoms of thyroid disease are variable; two people with this disease are likely to have very little symptom overlap.

My educational background has thoroughly prepared me for a Physician Assistant program. Currently, I am completing a comprehensive Undergraduate Program in Biology and English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In particular, my studies of upper level human physiology and neurology have prepared me immensely for PA school's more intensive curriculum. I hope that the skills I acquire from this graduate degree will supply me with the opportunity to work in the medical field as a Physician's Assistant and I am eager to contribute my enthusiasm and passion about medicine to the medical world. I am certain that my resume, which I have enclosed, will give you a greater understanding of my qualifications for this program. My experience as an Emergency Medical Technician has also provided me with critical and invaluable experience about the medical field and has made me certain that PA school is the path for me.