Writing in Biology

Ethograms serve as useful tools to objectively categorize the behaviors of a species. Early ethologists such as Tinbergen, Lorenz, Frisch, Whitman, Craig, and Huxley utilized ethograms to record the frequencies of instinctive behaviors that occur under specific circumstances (Matthews 2009). These provide a database of behaviors for future researchers to check and further supplement with their own data. There are two different types of ethograms: species and experimental. The species ethogram describes all known behaviors for the given species, whereas the experimental ethogram focuses only on behaviors relevant to the hypothesis being tested.

Losses, as a result of invasive species arise when there are decreases in agricultural yield, loss of biodiversity, and/or increased spending on herbicides and pesticides used to control the invasive population. With greater knowledge on the invader's impact, we could potentially pinpoint the source of greatest loss and manage the associated problems accordingly. This research could perhaps be crucial in protecting our food sources, our local environments, and reducing the uses of herbicides and pesticides.

Rifamycins are a group of antibiotics that kill bacterial cells by inhibiting RNA polymerase. These antibiotics are widely used to treat tuberculosis, a disease that kills almost 2 million people worldwide each year. The structures of bacterial and eukaryotic RNA polymerases are sufficiently different that rifamycins can inhibit bacterial RNA polymerases without interfering with eukaryotic RNA polymerases. Recent research has demonstrated that several rifamycins work by binding to the part of the bacterial RNA polymerase that clamps onto DNA and jamming it, thus preventing the RNA polymerase from interacting with the promoter on the DNA.

         The bio-archeological dataset from Radovic et al. comprises cranial pathology measurements and cranial age assessment for 113 individuals from four Mesolithic-Neolithic sites in the Danube Gorges, Serbia. One of the characteristics the data quantify is the surface wear of left mandibular molars. The occlusal surface of each molar is divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant received a surface wear score, in which low values indicate no or little wear and high values indicate substantial tooth wear. We are interested in whether there is a difference in the mean tooth wear of the first quadrant of molar one and the first quadrant of molar three. The null hypothesis is that there is no difference in the mean tooth wear between the first quadrant of molar one and the first quadrant of molar three, and the alternative hypothesis is there is a difference in the mean tooth wear between the first quadrant of molar one and the first quadrant of molar three because first molars erupt much earlier than third molars and thus experience many more years of wear. The method of analysis chosen was a two-sample t-test. The t-value was 8.7324, meaning the difference between the group mean values is large relative to the amount of variation in the groups. The p-value is 1.042e-15, meaning there is a less than 5% chance of getting the observed result, or a more extreme result, if the null hypothesis is true, which means the data does not support the null hypothesis. In conclusion, there is a significant difference in the mean surface wear of the first quadrants of molars one and three.

          The bio-archeological dataset from Radovic et al. comprises cranial pathology data and cranial age assessment for 113 individuals from four Mesolithic-Neolithic sites in the Danube Gorges, Serbia. The data quantify the surface wear of left mandibular molars. The occlusal surface of each molar is divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant received a surface wear score. Low values indicate no or little wear and high values indicate substantial tooth wear. We are interested in whether there is a difference in the mean tooth wear of the first quadrant of molar one and three. The null hypothesis is that there is no difference in the mean tooth wear between the first quadrant of molar one and the first quadrant of molar three, and the alternative hypothesis is there is a difference in the mean tooth wear between the first quadrant of molar one and the first quadrant of molar three because first molars develop much earlier than third molars and thus experience many more years of wear. The t-value is 8.7324, meaning the difference between the group mean values is large relative to the amount of variation in the groups. The degrees of freedom are 198, meaning the sample size is 200. The p-value is 1.042e-15, meaning there is a less than 5% chance of getting the observed result, or a more extreme result, if the null hypothesis is true, which means the data does not support the null hypothesis. In conclusion, there is a significant difference in the mean surface wear of the first quadrants of molars one and three.

ELISA will also for HK2 and PKM2, as these should be downregulated if the Ginsenoside 20(S)-Rg3 treatment worked. Since ovarian cancer metastasizes so quickly and mutates in unpredictable manners, we would biopsy each site of metastasis for the primary tumors, and each new metastasis as well. The microenvironment of each individual tumor has the possibility to be different, and the biopsies will aid us in understanding if CAFs, immune cells, or other social microenvironment based cells are becoming amplified. The biopsy results from distant metastatic sites will also provide insight into what kind of mutations the cancer is undergoing.

The documentary focuses on how homo sapiens were able to adapt to multiple environments in various locations without becoming extinct. They had incredible features to withstand harsh climates and tough living conditions and eventually pass their genes to future generations. Our earliest ancestors lived in hot, dry climates in Africa while later on, others lived in isolated freezing temperatures up to -40 ℉. Moreover, certain groups of homo sapiens adapted to live in dry lands with little access to water while others lived by the ocean and depended on sea animals for survival. Homo sapiens acquired valuable skills to allow the creation of sophisticated tools for hunting and consumption of nutrient rich foods, which together expanded the capacities of the brain. Over time, human brains expanded and become capable of performing more complex tasks. The findings of Lucy show how much smaller our brains were when the species first appeared. Paleontologists and archaeologists from around the world have found groundbreaking evidence through fossils and genetic DNA sequencing to find that there are overlapping similarities between the different groups such as Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo Sapiens.

The Anas platyrhynchos behavior will be characterized according to an ethogram developed using elements from Mason (2013) and Welsh (2017). The nine behaviors are: (1) locomotion on land (walking); (2) locomotion on water (swimming); (3) locomotion in air (flying); (4) resting/comfort on land (sleeping, loafing, body maintenance); (5) resting/comfort on water (sleeping, loafing, body maintenance); (6) feeding in water (7) feeding on land (8) alert (cessation of activities, upright posture) (9) aggression (chasing, pecking, other aggressive behavior). At their assigned time, every day for the two week period of April 7, 2019 to April 21, 2019, each group will stand at the minuteman statue on the west side of the pond and capture a 10 second video in landscape mode using a long range video camera borrowed from the DuBois Library. The frame of view will continuously shift while capturing the video so a 180 degree view of the campus pond is obtained. The groups will watch the video and assign one of the behaviors above to each Anas platyrhynchos present in the video.

There will be nine observational conditions: (1) ‘time of day’ recorded as 6:00, 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00; (2) ‘weather’ recorded as either ‘sun,’ ‘clouds,’ or ‘precipitation; (3) ‘temperature’ recorded to the nearest degree Celsius by the Wadsworth control service at UMass Amherst. (4) ‘number of humans passing per minute’ will be recorded by standing at the minuteman statue on the west side of the campus pond and counting the number of humans passing by in either direction in a one minute timeframe; (5) ‘number of Branta canadensis’ will be the number of visible Branta canadensis when standing at the minuteman statue; (6) ‘day of week’ will be recorded as ‘Mon’ ‘Tu’ ‘Wed’ ‘Thu’ ‘Fri’ ‘Sat’ ‘Sun,’ (7) ‘number of Anas platyrhynchos’ will be recorded as the number of visible Anas platyrhynchos observed when standing at the minuteman statue; (8) ‘location’ will be the quadrant in which the majority of Anas platyrhynchos are located on the pond or on land and will be recorded as either ‘A’ the northwest, ‘B’ the northeast, ‘C’ the southwest, or ‘D’ the southeast; (9) ‘fountain’ will be recorded as ‘on’ if the pond fountains are on, or as ‘off’ if they are off. Each of the nine groups will be assigned a time of day (6:00, 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:00, or 22:00), and will collect data for each condition at that time of day for the two week period of April 7, 2019 to April 21, 2019.