Drafts

At the top of the panel are the two pictures of the plant taken from the greenhouse. The measurements taken are added to the picture by using a photo editor to draw a reference line with these measurements included. These lines are necessary to give the reader a perspective of the magnitude and size of the flower and plant. The origin map was made on an app called Inkscape and occupies the bottom half of the figure. The map is constructed by starting off with a blank world map, with the individual countries given. From there, the countries that were previously researched are colored in on the blank map. These three figures are put into a 1200 x 1200 pixel google slide, serving as the figure constraints. Each figure was labeled with a unique letter. The final multipanel figure consists of three figures, one picture of the entire plant, one close-up of a flower, and a origin map of the plant.

At the top of the panel are the two pictures of the plant taken from the greenhouse. The measurements taken are added to the picture by using a photo editor to draw a reference line with these measurements included. These lines are necessary to give the reader a perspective of the magnitude and size of the flower and plant.

Podos states that his findings were consistent with the proposed vocal constraint hypothesis, which essentially states that as beak size changes, various levels of beak mobility will in turn change song quality and sound. His data suggests that the change in sound was correlated to both beak size as well as mass, however he later presented contrary evidence for the mass’s effect on this. He then proposes that several factors, including resource changes leading to beak size adaptation, as well as cultural evolution and various acoustic environment. Finally, he suggests that the importance of prezygotic isolating mechanisms (mating songs) are indirectly influenced by adaptive diversity of beaks. This particular experimental group is powerful as there is a high number of species within a relatively small area and opportunity for hybridization. Despite this, there has been rapid speciation and he believes that his songs help ensure “correct” mating occurs.

Owens, Casey, et al. “Fecal Microbiota Transplantation and Donor Standardization.” Trends in Microbiology, vol. 21, no. 9, Sept.2013, pp. 443-445., doi:10.1016/j.tim.2013.07.003.

http://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology/fulltext/S0966-842X(13)00133-9

News

The article goes into detail on the process of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) and the reason that they are so beneficial to treating certain diseases in the colon. The article specifically goes over Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) which causes diarrhea, bloating, bloody stool, and ulcerative colitis. In the past this was treated with only antibiotics, however, it had a slight chance of reoccurring in patients. Patients who have multiple cases of reoccurring CDI are advised to get an FMT. The article mentions that 81% of reoccurring patients that were treated with one FMT recovered from CDI compared to 31% recovery in patients that were just treated with vancomycin for CDI. The actual procedure for the transplant is very easy usually doctors can do it at the end of a colonoscopy, or they insert a tube through the mouth or nose and transplant it in the small intestines. The part of the procedure that is complicated is obtaining the fecal microbiota.

Feces can either come from a close family member or friend or they can come from an unknown donor. The donor must be screened for any infectious diseases such as hepatitis A and B, HIV, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and syphilis this is to ensure that the patient does not contract anything from the transplant. The FMT is so important to treating people with CDI because it helps to reestablish beneficial and essential microbiota that the antibiotics would have removed. This makes fighting off any residual C. difficile much easier for the patient and is why there are higher rates of recovery than just treating patients with an antibiotic.

Plants extract nutrients from the soil in order to survive. Not all nutrients are alike however. Some nutrients are water soluble, while others are not. Some nutrients are charged and thus difficult to move around in the soil. These factors can make it difficult for the plant to get these nutrients from the soil. Luckily the plant has deceloped ways in order to extrac to these pesky nutrients from the soil. One major way plants extract difficult nutrients from the soil is by guided root proliferation. The roots simply grow towards nutrients once the zone they occupy has been depleted. Another way that plants can extract nutrients from the soil is by excreting H+ ions into the soil. These H+ ions help to break down the nutrients and make them more soluble/easier to move. These methods have greatly helped in the plant's survival by gather all necessary nutrients. 

Mycorrhizae is a fungus that grows on the roots of plants. The mycorrhizae helps plants absorb water and nutrients more effectively in exchange for some carbohydrates from the photosynthesizing plant. There are two main types of mycorrhizae: ectomycorrhizae and endomycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhizae is characterized by its inability to penetrate the plants roots. The ectomycorrhizae sits on the oustide of the roots of woody plants to help with water and nutrient absorption. Endomycorrhizae however do penetrate the plants root systems. They form arbuscules that are able to pierce the roots of the plants to allow for a more direct exchange of materials. Because of this, endomycorrhizae are able to form on more green vegetative plants.

The main question that came up to my mind is, how does temperature impact water potential? I did some research and found that at high temperature, water potential decreases as evaporation occurs. However at low temperature, water potential becomes negative instead of increasing. As the humidity of the air surrounding the plant rises, it will make the transpiration rate to fall. This means that epidermis that has to do with plants can prevent loss of water and increase the water potential. Stomata can close at high temperature so that the plants can prevent excess water loss or to conserve water. It will open back up to naturally allow some water to evaporate out without losing it all. Plants are very interesting, I actually went to the conservatory for the first time in three years of being here today and I loved everything about it. The scent was aromatic and it was very warm in there probably to keep the plants at the temperature that it needs to be in.

I went to Morrill III building and entered the greenhouse. I was walking through the greenhouse observing the variety of plant species that surrounded me. However, my attention was drawn to a particular plant species.  It stood out form all other types of plant species. It was a red plant. I usually see my mom always buy this type of plant around Christmas time. It reminded me of family and unity. It had such a vibrant color and stood out to me from all the other plants.  I immediately decided to choose this as my figure to illustrate to others. 

Today in class, I learned about pressure and water potential and how humidity can impact water movement in plants. Learned lots of new formulas including the transpiration rate and the different potentials that occur in the plants. It was very interesting to learn that as tension of water increases, the volume of the stomata decreases. I would think that as one increases, the other will also increase but it was not true. There are so many cool facts about plants and its function and ability to go through the process of photosynthesis. I am glad I learned how water transport works in plants using its stomata and different leaf cross-sections.

The initial question presented at the beginning of the article pertains to the evolution of flight in regards to evolutionary advantage during the intermediate stages. There are two rival theories; the”tree down” hypothesis as well as the “ground up” hypothesis that support conflicting ancestral behavior that eventually transitioned to modern flight. Dial’s interpretation of his data, specifically the correlation between the WAIR facilitating movement on coarse surfaces, such as tree bark, as well as the change in the birds’ center of gravity while performing WAIR, both support the ground-up hypothesis as these qualities seem to be an escape mechanism for terrestrial birds. In addition, Dial goes on to suggest that proto-birds, such as archaeopteryx, had bone structure to support antero-posterioral movement, which is ideal for the movements necessary for WAIR utilization. Furthermore, he proposes that wing-angle adjustment used for varying levels of incline could have also been used as a tool for controlled descent and body manipulation while in mid air, which could have also contributed to the eventual evolution of flight.