jngomez's blog

In 2004 there was a high demand for humanities in foreign relations when an issue was made calling for National Foreign Language Capabilities. The reason they released this issue was becasue they wanted people who studied how other cultures work and understanding their ways of thinking. Acknowledging humanities as a key aspect in the government helps us understand our nation and the value we hold and support. Another reason humanities holds a key value in our society is in awareness of surroundings during meetings, conferences, and group projects. I feel a key characteristic to hold is understanding others which is a key idea in humanities since during meetings, conferences, or group projects we must respect others even if we don’t agree with their ideas.  Circling around to the idea of being open-minded.

For our experiment we choose to analyze and present the correlation between temperature in celsius versus number of arthropods present. When referring to number of arthropods present we took into account living and nonliving arthropods. The buildings we decided to examine were situated right on campus and available to all peers and faculty. These buildings were Morrill III versus Morrill IV South and access to these buildings and rooms to examine windowsills was no problem. They are positioned opposite from each other at each end of the Morrill building complexes. It has been known that when temperatures are warm the attraction of arthropods is high. So we decided to support this notion and take data for ourselves. We collected data during the afternoons around 2-4 for two weeks and had slightly different numbers each time. Factors that could have contributed to this was the warm and cold weathers that fluctuate throughout the weeks. The reason we choose these buildings was because of Morrill III close proximity to the Morrill Greenhouse and Morrill IV being close to the Reptile Exhibit which is a highly warm environment. We want to support that having high temperatures will mean an increase in arthropods present in the windowsills. As you can see in our data the trend is that when there was a high temperature recording there was also a high number of arthropods present.  

HA1 is mating type a with an ade mutation resulting in mutant deficit for adenine biosynthesis. HA2 is also a mating type a with an ade mutation which also makes it mutant deficit for adenine biosynthesis (1). The color of yeast strains through growth will vary depending on the type of media utilized that lack the ade gene function. To see if yeast colonies formed we used adenine biosynthesis. Adenine is known to produce a red color, so we analyzed yeast cells to see if they changed color. If they did not have the ADE gene function, then this meant they lacked the red pigment. It is known that mutations in ADE1 and ADE2 result in the accumulation of metabolic intermediate like AIR and CAIR that result in a red color. This marks the change in color of the yeast mutant cells colonies (1). YED media has all the nutrients necessary for a yeast cell to grow and thrive. This media has a tiny amount of adenine that help adenine-requiring (ade) strains. However, ade mutants are known to grow well in this particular media having a red pigment that is due to the accumulation of and intermediate in the adenine biosynthesis pathway. The MV media has the minimal number of things that are required to help in the growth of wild-type yeast cells. This media lacks adenine which means that ade mutants are not able to grow. (1)  

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a unicellular eukaryotic fungus also known as budding yeast, has two forms in which it can be in: haploid or diploid. Haploid form exists as one of the two mating types which is MATa or MAT and when together form diploid. In haploid form they can only survive in optimal nutrient-rich surroundings. When the diploid forms are in starvation, however, they can sporulate and become haploid once more with the production of ascus which protects the four haploid spores. When nutrients supply is restored then germination of the ascus and spores will occur. If not, then the ascus will remain intact until a favorable environmental condition is meet. Diploid and haploid yeast cells have the ability to undergo budding which is essentially cell division in yeast. (1) In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the start of meiosis is controlled and regulated by mating type and nutritional conditions. This all occurs in MATa or MAT cells in nitrogen depletion media (Kassir et al. 2003). HB1, HA0, HA1, and HA2 were the haploid strains used with each containing its own characteristics. HB1 is mating type  with an ade mutation making it mutant deficit for adenine biosynthesis. HA0 is mating type a containing no mutations and has the ability to synthesize adenine.

There was even a high demand in 2004 for humanities in foreign relations when an issued was made calling for National Foreign Language Capabilities. This is due to the fact to wanting to understand how other cultures work and understanding their ways of thinking. Acknowledging humanities as a key aspect in the government helps us understand our nation as well and what we value and support. Humanities capture the essence of a society as stated meaning the suffering, passion, and worries people hold.  Another reason humanities holds a key value is in awareness of surroundings during meetings, conferences, and group projects. I feel a key characteristic to hold is understanding others which is a key idea in humanities since during meetings, conferences, or group projects we must respect others even if we don’t agree with their ideas. Then we must know why they think a particular way. Circling around to the idea of being open-minded.

The main task of humanities as stated in the article is, “to promote understanding of other cultures ways of living and to emphasize the importance of every human life, which is something that should never be devalued.” I think this is a key sentence to take away and that is being open-minded about the stuff that surround you and being creative to make a change in a problem that is presented. The way students are taught today requires them not to use their senses and just memorize facts. That shouldn’t be the case because that means limiting their way of thinking. Arts are building a visual experience where all senses are employed and the creation of creative solutions. There is not just one single solution but an infinite amount.  Humanities holds a significant value outside the school system and that is in our government and positions held there. Even an important position of being the president of our nation. Our previous president, Barack Obama, even took courses for 2 years at a liberal arts college which aided him in maturing and comprehending the world and that’s all due to a rounded education that emphasized on humanities.  Humanities can be applied in foreign relations and diplomacy. 

The author states this because humanities studies value has decreased and not much know the value it holds to our society and nation as a whole. Most believe that is has no value in our educational system like other courses like science and math do. This has been demonstrated through vast cuts in the educational system to humanities and arts studies. They feel that subjects like science and math are more significant and applicable in life due to the advancement in technology which has shifted the mind from liberal arts studies to technological advancement. Essentially, what has led the contemporary society to devalue the humanities is the shift of focus and thought to science, math and technology because they deserve more attention and are practical. Unlike, humanities and arts which is thought to be not worth much of their time. However, arts and humanities still play vast roles in the government and understanding the world as a whole that is comprehending diverse sets of cultures that surround us and being open-minded.  

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the life cycle of yeast, its genetics aspect, investigate the different types of gene complementation through genetic crosses, as well as analyze ultraviolet radiation treated yeast cells. This was observed through either a rich medium known as YED media or a minimal media known as MV media. Yeast was examined through its life cycle of going from haploid to diploid to its haploid form again. During this experiment, the haploid strains that were utilized were HB1, HA0, HA1, and HA2. One haploid strain that was able to proficiently synthesize adenine was HA0. The reason being because it has no mutations in ADE genes versus the others which did contain ade mutations. The objective is to see whether complementation is observed and how the genetic crosses come into play. Analyzing the ade gene mutations they contain and how it contributes to growth of colonies of yeast cells. 

The creature that exhibits the most exotic spikes is a trait that draws a female’s attention. Males compete for females that they wish to mate with by using their spikes and claws to obtain a female’s attention. This species is known to communicate through sound. In particular, they make a call which sounds like a whistle and squeal. They love the social life and prefer to not be solitary and not interacting with others of their kind. These organisms climb trees and make a home within the canopy and tall emergent trees. Their coat color of brown resembles that of tree bark and this trait gives them the ability to camouflage on ground floors as well as life above ground. 

Most of the time they love to climb trees and hang from them almost like a 3-toed sloth and will stay there for a duration of about 6 hours until they need to find food again which they are able to either in the trees or below ground searching for insects like grasshoppers, beetles, or butterflies. They exhibited convergent evolution to hedgehog line given similar features but being able to climb. I have concluded to give this organism the genus species name, Spica exhibuit meaning spike climber because of its ability to climb and the spikes it exhibits posteriorly.