Drafts

The bar graphs in Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 show similar patterns in the periphyton populations found in the three locations between week one and week two. Location 1 had the least amount of periphyton with an average of 13.66 the first week and 17.67 the second week. Location 2 had the most with an average of 94.01 week one and 79 week two. And the third location falls in the middle with an average of 20.33 week one and 54.33 week two.

The pie charts in Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 show the distributions of the different types of periphyton found at the three locations. The distributions for location 1 are similar between both weeks with the difference of no oval periphyton found the second week. Location 2 shows more equal diversity between thin clear rectangles, small rectangles and slivers in the first week than in the second week where the majority is thin clear rectangles. And for location 3 there is a shift for less thin clear rectangles and more small rectangles and slivers.

• Comparative anatomists have discovered numerous intermediates between this most primitive type of eye and the vertebrate eye, such as: eye cups; pinhole eyes; camera-type eyes with a single lens; reflecting mirror eyes; and compound eyes with numerous ommatidia, all of which lends support to Darwin’s theory.

• A monophyletic origin for the eye is supported by the observation that all metazoans share the same visual pigment, rhodopsin

• The observation that Pax 6 homologs of both mammals and insects are essential for eye morphogenesis led to the idea that Pax 6 might be the universal master control gene for eye morphogenesis and evolution

• The protein-coding regions of Pax 6 are highly conserved in evolution, as are some of the regulatory sequences in the promoters and enhancers.

Women in African societies are in a subordinate class, with little to no education and are assumed to only take care of the home and food. In rural settings, women often work 10 to 12 hours a day. Because their husbands are often away working for small wages all day, they must provide all of the food and childcare. In the urban setting a woman’s role is different. Educated women can find success in entrepreneurial endeavours, but self-employment is almost the only time they will be working outside the service sector. Even with an education most women won’t find work other than that of a cleric or a secretary. Uneducated women are often restricted to unskilled low wage jobs such as making clothing.

Another example given by the book is Linda Barnes’ study of acupuncture in the American city of Boston. What she has found is that among the many schools of acupuncture, there are different views of what it treats and what it is used for. Most European practitioners view it as a treatment for the spirit, while others view it as a form of religious and physical healing. It is most often used in conjunction with, rather than in place of, western medicine. The effectiveness of the treatment is variable, with some claiming that it helps the healing process without fixing symptoms, while others claim it to be an effective treatment for nausea, back pain, and even asthma.

This experiment examines Morrill buildings III and IV located in the University of Massachusetts, Amherst which are situated at opposite ends of each other. Arthropods thrive where there are plants or where the environment is warm. Temperature and attraction of arthropods to warmer temperatures is the relationship that will be examined. In this experiment, we aim to observe the distinct types of living or nonliving arthropods. Window sills were chosen and recorded in the Morrill III and Morrill IV buildings. Signs of arthropods present or signs that arthropods were once in the environment were taken note of. Visible signs of arthropods previously inhabiting include wings and dead arthropods. Our dependent variable will be the number of living or nonliving organisms present along the windowsills observed versus environment temperature in Celsius. Understanding the type of environment the arthropods thrive in will be a key feature and main take away.     

The temperature which changes the data of graph 2 from other graphs could be due to recording the temperature when the window was open. The number of arthropods found could have been disturbed by the wind blowing the remains of arthropods away before the data was collected. This is because the windows could have been opened or closed by the public many times throughout the time period the data was collected. There are also chances that arthropods could have been removed by the janitors that clean the buildings.

Yeast can reproduce both sexually and asexually. The two mating types of haploid yeast are MATa and MATα. Each mating type produces unique pheromones that facilitate mating by allowing cells to sense nearby mating partners and grow toward them. Each of the haploid mating types are capable of being maintained indefinitely if kept seperate. If the two separate mating types encounter each other they may fuse, and produce a diploid cell through a process called conjugation. Conjugation is the sexual process by which haploid cells of the opposite mating type form a diploid zygote. Once the diploid state is formed, it can also be maintained indefinitely, given sufficient nutrients. If the conditions are not adequate the diploid cell will undergo meiosis, or sporulate, and produce four haploid spores known collectively as an ascus.

We collected periphyton by allowing them to grow on glass slides. We took three microscope slides and sandwiched them together using rubber bands with poster board in between; this allowed room for water to run through and periphyton to grow on the slides. The contraptions were put into three spots in Sylvan stream roughly 100 meters apart. Two sets of slides were placed in each location; they were tied to a string attached to a stick in the ground next to the stream to secure them. The slides were submerged roughly 12 inches under the water.

We collected one set of the slides from each location after one week. We counted different species in a 2 mm diameter circle from all 9 slides under a microscope; the different species were put into five categories based on their shape which include, slivers, small tinted rectangles, small clear rectangles, large rectangles, and ovals. We collected the second sets after two weeks and performed the same counting technique for the slides.

We created two different types of graphs to display the data. We created a bar graph for each location showing the average number of species found on each slide. And we created a pie chart that shows the average proportion of each species at the three locations.

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.  

The film Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, and Under the Skin, directed by Jonathan Glazer, both employ various aspects of sexuality intertwined with an extraterrestrial being to create fear, and do so while incorporating a powerful female character and breaking down traditional gender roles. Scott’s film utilizes an ambivalent gendered monster, known as a xenomorph, who preys on the crew of the Nostromo, a space vessel. On the contrary, Glazer’s alien is a seemingly human female, who seduces vulnerable men in Scotland. Although both creatures act to advance their own motives, isolation works as a humanizing factor in Under the Skin, but does not have the same effect in Alien. As a result of this, the strong female character in Under the Skin is the alien herself, whereas this position in Alien is fulfilled by a crew member who is determined to lead, Ripley.