Blogs

    Every once in a while, I will look through home decor and interior design. Recently, the rustic mediterranean aesthetic has become the trend and in almost every type of design in this category, there exists a pile of old books stacked up in some corner of a room. The idea is that the books are supposed to fill in “empty” space by giving the space meaning.
    Yet all of these books are books with worn down spines, all with covers in earthy tones with white, gold, or black texts. These books that are supposed to add “depth” to a room when in my personal opinion, add a “shallowness” instead.
    The reason why I believe so is because I believe the people who put these kinds of texts in their houses for an aesthetic, have no idea what the books are about; let alone what the title of the books even are. I believe books only add a depth into your library when you have read the book and know what the books lying in your house are about. I would much rather see books like Calvin and Hobbes lying around knowing that whoever’s house it is, knows how much Calvin hates his babysitter--or have a marketing book lying around and they can discuss viral marketing schemes or the importance of word of mouth marketing with me.
    If I were to pick up a novel in someone’s house and it reads “Amadeus and the Python”, I’m going to have questions. I find it ironic that if I pick up an object that’s supposed to make you look smarter and more sophisticated, you respond otiosely with “oh I just bought those because they look nice, I don’t read”.

Blood flows throughout the body in order to supple the organs with nutrients and oxygen. In order for that to happen the blood has to be pumped. The heart does the pumping of the blood to ensure the organs receive the blood. Blood enters the heart through the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava. From the vena cava the blood flows into the right atrium. There is a right atrioventricular valve that is between the right atrium and the right ventricle to prevent the blood from flowing into the ventricle. When there is enough pressure in the right atricum the right atrioventricular valve opens and the blood rushes into the right atrium. In order from the blood to get oxygenated the blood then leaves the right ventricle by the pulmonary semilunar valve which directs the blood to the pulmonary trunk. The pulmonary trunk leads the blood to the lungs where the blood is oxygenated. From the lungs the blood enters the right and left pulmonary veins into the left atrium. There is a left atrioventricular valve that prevents the blood in the atrium from flowing into the ventricle. When there is enough pressure built up by the blood in the left atrium the left atrioventricular valve opens and blood flows into the left ventricle. From the left ventricle the blood flows through the aortic semilunar valve and into the ascending aorta. From the aorta the blood goes to all parts of the body.

Chediak-Higashi Syndrome patients must cope with coagulation and difficulties in mobility. Since the immune system does not function properly in this disease, blood clotting occurs frequently in the patient, which results in bruising, and weakness in the limbs as well as trouble walking and maintaining stability. Usually when an individual bleeds, the platelets and fibrins in the blood would form a “gel-like mass” (Wedro) to stop the blood. However, the function of the immune system, mainly the white blood cells, are mutated in Chediak-Higashi Syndrome. Therefore the platelets and fibrins are also defective, because these substances are part of the immune system. With defected platelets, blood cannot be stopped properly, so patients will have bruises appear all over their bodies. Or, in some cases, the bleeding itself does not stop. A blood clot varies in severity based on which part of the body it occurs. If it is in the limbs, the results are numbness, pain, swelling, or change in color. Complications with the limbs does not correlate with death. However, when lungs, the heart, and other primary organs are affected by the blood clot, then the patient will demonstrate serious seizures, and this can potentially lead to death if the treatment is too late (Wedro).

With a basic understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of diagnosing in psychology, I do think diagnosing people is a good idea but to be cautious when doing it. Diagnosing someone is a serious thing to do because when someone is diagnosed, it can consume their life. Being sure the diagnosis is accurate is so important. Considering things such as family history, substance usage, side effects of drugs, and their health is all so important. Also, using different techniques for diagnosis such as clinical interviews, questionnaires, etc are helpful and important. People like to receive help (in most circumstances) when they are diagnosed and diagnosing them can overall be beneficial for them. In conclusion, I do think diagnosing people is important but to be cautious when going about it.

          A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is inundated by water, either permanently or seasonally. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other landforms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil. A hydric soil is defined by federal law to mean "soil that, in its undrained condition, is saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during a growing season to develop an anaerobic condition that supports the growth and regeneration of hydrophytic vegetation.” Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, and are home to many species of migratory and resident birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, insects, and plants. In addition, they benefit us by storing floodwaters, filtering pollutants, and serving as a carbon sink. The southeastern region of the United States specifically was once home to expansive wetlands, but the Mississippi River Delta and coastal Louisiana have been disappearing at an astonishing rate. Since the 1930s, Louisiana alone has lost over 2,000 square miles of land, an area roughly the size of Delaware. Many factors have contributed to this collapse, including the construction of levees, dams, oil and gas infrastructure, shipping channels and canals, as well as the addition of invasive species. Furthermore, many researchers cite climate change and the resulting rise in sea levels and worsening storms as major contributors.

Recrystalization is the process by which a solid compound is purified. Often times, solid compounds will contain impurities that are insoluable and therefore, removal requires the entire compound to be dissolved and then recrystalized. This is done by finding the best solvent for the compound, one that has low solubility at low temperatures, and high solubility at high temperatures. This means that when the solvent is near or is boiling, only then will the compound begin to disolve. One a compound is disolved with the proper solvent, cooling is allowed to happen at room temperature for crystals to form. If there is no crystal being formed, the container may be scratched so that the compound has a place to "cling" onto. Further crystal formation is induced by cooling the solvent in an ice bath. Once the largest amount of crystals are formed, the compound is then vacuumed to remove any solvent. To remove and residue of impurities, an ice cold solvent of minimal amount is poured onto the crystals. The yield of pure compound is naturally less than that of the original sample.

A health official came in and spoke with my class today. She spoke on the importance of vaccination, outbreak protocols, what diseases must always be reported, and how many diseases are currently affecting Massachusetts. For the most part Massachusetts has a relatively high vaccination rate as schools require children to be vaccinated prior to enrollment. The only way around this is with religious or medical exemption. Currently Massachusetts is seeing a wave of people claiming that their religion bars them from receiving vaccination. Some areas are seeing up to 20% of people go unvaccinated. This is very troubling and potentially very dangerous. With that many vulnerable people and outbreak is only waiting to happen. The health official didn’t know what to make of this religious exception trend, however speculation is that anti-vaxxers are creating false statements to avoid vaccination. She also talked about the trouble of tracking down the cause of outbreaks and who may have been exposed to an outbreak. They have to track down everyone and confirm that they are either immune, don’t have the disease, or they are quarantined. It takes a lot of people and a lot of time to complete all of these tasks. That is why many infectious diseases, if even suspected to be found, must be immediately reported by law in order to avoid a public health crisis.

Based on the article and Mayr’s definition of a species, I think that it is correct to say that coyotes (Canis latrans), wolves (Canis lupus), and dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are separate species. The article does mention that in the past, and certainly today, that all three species have the ability to breed with one another, but in Mayr’s definition there is an emphasis on “interbreeding natural populations.” In his article Kays says the last recent account of wolf and coyote mating took place a hundred years ago and was due to low numbers of wolves in the Great Lakes area, maybe caused by overhunting which would not be a natural occurrence. This forced both species to interact in order to try and repopulate. The same occurred between dogs and coyotes as coyotes began moving east but could not find others and instead bred with feral dogs. Kays also states that while interbreeding can happen, its not preferred between each of the species, that they rather be exclusive within their own group. Based on that, I think its safe to call coyotes, wolves, and dogs their own species.

According to a clinical trial, the combination therapy of ribociclib and letrozole increased the likelihood of progression free survival to 63% in the first 18 months in comparison to 42% with letrozole alone (3). Palbociclib and letrozole in combination slowed progression of the cancer by 26.1 months compared to 7.5 months with letrozole alone. Letrozole is ineffective in premenopausal women since the main source of estrogen is from the ovaries and not the peripheral tissues (4). The logic behind these combination therapies is that if more growth and survival pathways are blocked in tumors, they will have more difficulty with proliferation. Clinically, side effects of these CDK 4/6 inhibitors seem to be less severe than those of chemotherapies (3). Diarrhea is more common in abemaciclib than ribo- and palbociclib, while neutropenia is most associated with palbociclib. Fatigue is more common in abema- and palbociclib than ribociclib. However, patients are able to switch which CDK 4/6 inhibitor they are taking based on the side effects they experience.

Most people are under the assumption that plants move water actively. Moving the water actively would require an output of energy, however, plants actually move water passively. A good way to picture this is imagining a paper towel slowly soaking up water. To regulate the water though, energy needs to be expended. It’s thought that leaves constantly transpire but the stomata regulate this. Stomata, in greek, means mouths and its essentially the pores of the plant and how the plant allows water to leave. A stoma opens when the solute potential is negative and the turgor pressure is high. A stoma then closes when the solute potential is approximately zero and turgor pressure is low. The plant essentially wants water to leave and bring CO2 in. It creates a balance between the conservation of water and photosynthesis.