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Poster activity

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:28

The writing in this poster is good and focused but maybe a bit too concise. The writing is not in paragraph form and some additional info may be needed in some sections. I do not see and grammatical errors and the word count is certainly reduced well. The language is very scientific and makes sense for the topic being discussed. The poster is very informative but maybe a bit too packed with info. It draws you in but there is just so much going on that it's hard to get through all of it. All the data seems to be presented correctly and has all the necessary copyright information. The graphics also are nicely colored and are high resolution. This poster overall is very good, it's just a bit packed and is not in paragraph format.

 

Evolution Question

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:16

Although it still remains in an elementary state, the study of human eugenics is an area of science with arguably the most life-changing potential. Scientists in the “pros and cons of genetic engineering in humans” article refer to the crispr-cas9 technology as mankind’s way of playing god, which is certainly a valid claim. With such advanced technology arising, scientists question, in terms of scientific advancement, when do we as a people raise the white flag and say that enough is enough? Can such advancements lead to our downfall as a species? As this technology becomes more readily available we thereby obtain the ability to end natural selection as we know it. There will be absolutely nothing ‘natural’ about it. In other words, if it becomes lawful to “create the perfect baby”, which eventually grows into “the perfect human” who can avoid nearly all hardship, we directly threaten our ability as humans to comfortably survive on Earth.

 

Evolution Question of the Week

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:16

As awful as it sounds, just as it is natural in the wild to see animals hunt, it is also natural to see those same animals die; whether it be through capture or disease; in order for the circle of life to continue, animals must come and die. Now, we as humans can be very fortunate that our intelligence has evolved; so that we have learned how to preserve our species. However, allowing the expansion of crispr-cas9 technology on an unregulated spectrum could have some dramatic effects. For example, in a preliminary phase, scientists are looking to different species of lobsters and jellyfish especially at their telomerase nucleotides. As it stands right now, lobsters are essentially biologically immortal and unaging. While it would in some ways advantageous for humans to never show signs of aging, this would result in more moral and ethical issues that society would have to deal with; Such as, how much do these treatments cost? Who could afford them? (ect.). Also thereby alluding to a larger economic gap; a major problem present U.S society.

 

Ethogram final Paragraph

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:14

Further research may be necessary in order to completely understand the behavioral tendencies of foals. There seems to be variation in the category of play behavior depending on the context of who the foal is with. More research needs to be done on the difference in behaviors between foals in the presence of their mother, compared to with another foal. Perhaps a study should be conducted, as well, in which foals of different breeds interact with one another to interpret the variation in behavioral categories among different breeds. The most crucial element of the future research  on this topic is sample size. It is essential to study the behaviors of enough horses, of all ages, breeds, sexes, and domestication to fully compare or contrast. Dahl et al. (2018) introduced a new tool in capturing enough data through bio-logging via inertial sensor techniques, which eliminates the necessity to record hours and even days of footage. This could be extremely helpful in the future of the study of horse behavior.

 

Ethogram Discussion

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:14

There is plenty of support in the results showing a difference in behavior based on who the foal is in contact with, or physically close to. Foals spend a considerable amount of their time displaying feeding behaviors and grooming behaviors (Figure 1). These two types of behaviors are seen very often in all contexts: alone, with mother, and with foal. However, when comparing these two behavioral types between foals alone and foals with other foals, it is clear that foals spend substantially more time feeding and grooming when they are alone, rather than with another foal (Figure 1). It can be hypothesized too, that foals will perform more feeding behaviors when in the presence of the mother as well, because nursing will also play a role in the feeding category. The foals also spend much of their time doing observational displays, such as surveying, sniffing, rotating ears, and standing still. These behaviors are very common in all contexts but more specifically when they are alone (Figure 1). Out of the three categorized individual bouts scored the playful bout, the bucking bout, and the standing still bout, the standing still bout occurs most often when the foal was alone with a proportion of 0.05. The playful bout occurs slightly less at 0.02. The foals spent the least proportion of time in the bucking bout at 0.01 (Figure 1).

 

Poster activity

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:12

The poster I have decided to review is titled “DIFFERENCES IN SPATIAL CONSERVATION PRIORITIZATION: A MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS IN THE NEOTROPICS”. I would say the design for this poster is attractive because it has a lot of useful diagrams and figures. Also everything is spaced out well. The pictures are lined up well and all the fonts make sense. There are also many different colors on this poster that make it more attractive. All the sections are on this poster and labelled clearly with the right information underneath it. Also all the sections are in order wither top to bottom or right to left which makes this poster very easy to follow. Important info is clearly labeled and put in bold so it’s easy to find.

 

significants PP

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 11:52

The significance of this study is to show what effect the different burial depths do to germination of the Silybum marianum. The experiment that we are used to base our project on used an entirely different kind of plant from a different region. Also this paper is from 1999 so the data could be outdated. So, by doing this experiment now with a plant from New England we can see if the results are similar to the plants from the great lakes. That way we can compare these plants to see if they react the same to the different depths of germination. We can learn more about the fauna of New England and also learn more about this family of plants. Another important thing would be to find out if the change of the Earth Since 1999 has changed the results of this experiment at all.

significants

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 11:49

The significance of this study is to show what effect the different burial depths do to germination of the Silybum marianum. The experiment that we are using to base our project on used an entirely different kind of plant from a different region. Also this paper is from 1999 so the data could be outdated. So, by doing this experiment now with a plant from New England we can see if the results are similar to the plants from the great lakes. That way we can compare these plants to see if they react the same to the different depths of germination. This way we can learn more about the fauna of New England and also learn more about this family of plants. We can also find out if the change of the Earth Since 1999 has changed the results of this experiment at all.

Ethogram Observations

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 11:47

After collecting data of the observed behaviors and placing them into behavioral categories, we concluded the categories to be normal, innate behaviors of young foals. Each behavioral category is seen multiple times in the total 48 minutes and 55 seconds of footage and a total number of 65 individuals behaviors were documented. The playful behavioral category had 11 specific behaviors performed by the foals that were described and documented (Table 1). The aggression category shows 9 different behaviors of the foals (Table 2). The feeding behavioral category had a total of 10 unique foal behaviors (Table 3). Locomotion behavioral category of the foals had a total of 7 behaviors (Table 4). The grooming behavioral category had the most classified behaviors with a total of 15 (Table 5). The affection behavioral category had the least amount with 3 behaviors (Table 6). The behavioral category of observation had a total of 8 behaviors listed (Table 7). By weeding through the repetitions and similarities of the collected behaviors, we were able to formulate a well organized set of tables and learn about the constant signals that Morgan horses use to communicate.

 

Ethogram

Submitted by rdigregorio on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 11:46

The first part of the Ethogram project had us closely analyze the everyday behaviors of a small group of female Equus caballus (Morgan horses). After observing the horses for a total of 48 minutes and 55 seconds, we recorded the many different behaviors of two female foals (aged 2 to 4 months) with two mares at the Umass Amherst Equestrian Center in Amherst Massachusetts during late summer. To record these behaviors, we captured the still images of these behaviors and recorded the time that the behavior took place in the results tables. Seven individual behavioral categories were derived. The individual behaviors were described in greater detail and, based on what the behavior fell under, put into behavioral category tables.

 

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