Writing in Biology

There were control factors I had to consider when writing my methods. The first was the day of the week and time of day, due to Durfee Conservatory only being open Monday through Friday from 10AM to 4PM. The location of the photographer, orientation of the camera, and framing of the subject were also relevant factors, due to the various angles from which my species could be captured, necessitating that I be specific about where the photographs were taken from and how they were taken in order to ensure the replicate images would be as similar as possible. In addition, the particular digital program I used to create the figure needed to be relayed because so many of the details involved in the production were specific to inkscape, and would likely not carry over to a different program. Within the editing software, I had to control for the size, color, and placement of all of the components of the figure, including the photographs, the labels, the arrows, and the background.

The methods section of a scientific article allows researchers to determine the validity of a study based off of replicability. When developing an experiment, certain factors that may affect the replicability of a study should be controlled in an effort to minimize discrepancies between iterations. The Spring 2019 methods project in Dr. Brewer’s Writing in Biology class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst attempts to practice and develop these skills, as well as distinguish between observation and inference through the examination and replication of a multi-panel figure illustrating an interspecific interaction.

Modern horses have evolved to be adapted for environments very different to those the first equines lived in, and horses as we know them today look nothing like their earliest ancestors did when they first appeared. The first horse-like creature lived in North America and Europe about 54 million years ago, during the Eocene. Unlike modern horses, Hyracotherium boreale (also called Eohippus) was adapted for life in the woodlands and forests that dominated the Eocene. Hyracotherium was much smaller than the modern horse, and it had an arched back and raised hindquarters, a short snout, and a small cranium. It had short legs that ended in padded feet, four-toed forefeet and three-toed hind feet, and a functional hoof on each toe. Hyracotherium was a browsing animal that fed on shrubs, leaves, and branches, as evidenced by its low-crowned teeth and distinctive molars that were designed for grinding.

During the Oligocene, environmental changes occurred that started to change the local flora, and so about 33 million years ago Mesohippus bairdi appeared. Although also a forest browser, Mesohippus had a longer face and snout than Hyracotherium did, and had developed premolars that were more complex and had defined cusps. Mesohippus had three toes on both its fore and hind feet, as the fourth toe previously found on Hyracotherium was reduced to a vestigial nub, and unlike Hyracotherium Mesohippus had longer legs and a relatively straight and stiff spine that enabled it to run over hard ground.

The destination of the cattails at UMass Amherst was at the campus pond in the center of campus. To obtain the picture, a student visited the UMass pond during daylight hours and walked down the grassy hill that leads to the pond from North Pleasant Street. The part of the pond where the width is the smallest was approached. This area is past the gravel path that runs along the side of the pond. From about 15 feet away from the pond water border, picture ‘A’ (Figure 1) was taken from shoulder height of the student, with a camera, of a cluster of about 15 cattail plants. The cattail is shown in the center and the background shows the pond water and other tall, yellow, string-like grass that surrounds the cattail and then the edge of the pond makes up most of the foreground.

          In James Cameron's film, Avatar, an alien tribe on the distant planet of Pandora fights the human invaders bent on mining their forest home. In The Nature of Things episode, titled the Real Avatar, the indigenous people of the Cordillera del Condor area of Peru face a similar predicament, as they fight against the Peruvian government and private mining and oil interests to defend their home, in an effort to preserve both biodiversity and their traditional way of life. Though there had been a previous agreement between the tribe and the government to establish a protected conservation area, the election of a new president, Alan García, led to the passage of new laws to open that land to privatization and development in the name of profit. These decrees disregarded the prior promises made to the indigenous people, and instead granted access to corporations, including a Canadian mining company and an American oil company, whose extraction activities threaten to pollute the area. The mountain range where many of these private development projects are meant to take place are comprised of a portion of the Amazon Rainforest, and also act as the sources from which rivers flow. The local tribes rely on these ecological features, traditionally viewing their environment as a living thing which provides for them and which they must protect. 

Bone marrow derived cells are cells that originate from the bone marrow.  Cancer cells can release chemical signals that, upon reception by bone marrow derived cells, may recruit these cells as pro-tumor factors that help tumor growth and metastasis.  A crucial step to tumor metastasis is angiogenesis.  Once a tumor gains access to the blood stream, it can shed cells into circulation and they can implant in other places in the body and start new tumors.  One example cited by McAllister and Weinberg is that in mouse models of melanoma, lymphoma, lung carcinoma, and mammary carcinoma, the secretion by tumors of the inflammatory cytokine granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) recruits pro-tumor cells from the bone marrow into the blood stream.  It was also found that these bone marrow cells had distinct sets of genes that promote angiogenesis.  Another study cited by McAllister and Weinberg showed that the secretion of osteopontin by tumor cells induced pro-tumorigenic function in bone marrow cells by recruiting them to the tumor microenvironment.  The secretion of growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor-A by tumor cells also recruits bone marrow derived cells to the tumor microenvironment and elicits pro-tumorigenic function that aids in angiogenesis. 

Fibroblasts, generally, are cells that synthesize extracellular matrix and collagen, thereby providing the structure for animal tissues.  Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are often present in the tumor microenvironment and have been implicated in angiogenesis.  The authors cite a study in which CAFs released CXCL12 into the bloodstream in a breast tumor xenograft model.  CXCL12 can recruit bone marrow derived cells to the tumor microenvironment. 

Pre-metastatic niches are essentially pre-determined cites that have no implanted tumor cells yet, but have been tagged with markers that will allow tumor cell localization and metastasis.  A study cited by McAllister and Weinberg showed that tumor-derived VEFG-A and P1GF could recruit bone marrow cells not only to the tumor sites, but also to the lungs, which in this case was tumor free at that point but later gained tumor cells.  Upon implementation of these bone marrow derived cells, the lung fibroblasts upregulated expression of fibronectin, thereby recruiting more bone marrow cells. 

Bright, colorful and lively is what I would describe the building if I was ever asked. The John W. Olver Design building that is located at 551 N Pleasent St. is one of my all time favorite buildings to study. The high ceilings, colorful walls and bright lights give the building a very "Ikea" feel to the building. The modern architecture is based off of new and innovative technologies of construction and embrases a sense of minimalism. 

The original figure was screenshotted with no space around the image. The replicate figure has a white border around the entirety of the figure. This could have been caused by taking a larger screenshot. The screenshot may have also captured part of the white microsoft word document, and therefore it could have resulted in the white boarder and white space above the textboxes. The original layout was also much smaller than the replicate layout. This could be due to an increased pixel count in the replicate figure. The original figure had a pixel count of 600, while the replicate figure had a pixel count of 1200. This could have caused the increased size of the figure when it was uploaded.