Drafts

In order to determine the power of an experiment, the experiment must be conducted several times. If the experiment is successful or shows similar results the majority of the time, the experiment would have a great power. Initially, before conducting an experiment several or dozens of times, the initial experiment must be well thought out. An experiment should have a high (if cost is an issue, then reasonable) amount of replicants. All experiments will have an experimental noise which will cause variation, but if there is an alarming amount of variation in the initial experiment, there is something wrong with the experimental design, there could be another variable interfering in the experiment which isn’t realized, etc. A simple experimental design has more power than a very complex one. The P-value cutoff should be around 0.05, meaning that the majority of the time, the experiment is accurate and the results are more easily proven. Finally, an experiment which shows a strong treatment effect will have greater power than an experiment which does not. 

Jasmonic Acid is the hormone released in plants when they experience damage from herbivores in order to induce defenses. Although damage to plants often results in fewer or less attractive flowers or fruits, recent work has shown that jasmonic acid also induces nectar productions in some systems. When a caterpillar eats a part of a leaf, the plant will produce jasmonic acid to repair itself after the tissue is lost. Simply cutting a leaf will not induce jasmonic acid production because there is an enzyme in the saliva of the caterpillar which induces the production of jasmonic acid. However, spraying jasmonic acid on the plant will increase the production of jasmonic acid, but will not affect the tissue negatively. 

Giving-up density is a theory where animals will leave a place they can feed when the costs of staying in the area are higher than the benefits. An observational study that could be done to measure this is placing 10 feeding stations for a small animal with many predators, perhaps a bird feeding station, in the middle of meadows where predators can easily spot them, and place 10 feeding stations near shrubs. After an appropriate amount of time, measure the amount of food left at each of the stations to see what the giving-up density for birds in that area is. 

It was found in an observational study that women taking hormone replace therapy for treating menopause had a lower than average incidence of coronary heart disease. This belief led to an experiment in which women were randomly assigned hormone replacement therapy. But what was found in the experiment was that women randomly assigned to hormone replacement therapy actually had an increased rate of heart disease. The reason the women from the first study had a lower incidence of heart disease was because they were from a higher socioeconomic status and therefore had access to better health care. 

In a 6-year observational study conducted by Thompson and Cunningham (found in 2002 Nature), it was found that the Greyamoth benefits the Lithophragmaflower by pollinating it only when other pollinators are present. The moth lays its eggs on the flowers and the larvae eat the seeds of the flower, but when other pollinators are present, it provides competition for the moth so that there are not an excessive amount of moths pollinating the flower. In short, the nature of an interaction (mutualism or antagonism) depends on who else is in the community.

A proposed study with subjects experiencing some degree of neuropathy may require a smaller sample size. This study did not have a supervised control group meaning that the exercise group received more face to face time with the investigators and they received information from a qualified physical education instructor. The study also did not include any resistance exercise and the subjects that were tested showed no signs or symptoms of DPN. Measured motor and sural sensory nerves using a Medelec MS 928 Neurostar. Measured the nerve conduction velocity as well as the nerve action potential amplitude. Vibration perception threshold was tested by using a Biothesiometer and the vibration amplitude was increased until the patient could feel it.

Schizophrenia can be described as a disorder which leads the victims to have faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feeling, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships, and difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is just his or her thoughts.  “Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the world population. In the United States, about 2.5 million people have this disease, about one in one hundred people. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 13 and 25, but often appear earlier in males than females.” (Bellenir) Two types of symptoms for this disorder are positive and negative. Symptoms for this disorder include hallucinations, disorganized speech, agitation, as well as disorganized behavior. (Schizophrenia Symptoms) There are a few types of schizophrenia these are paranoid schizophrenia, disorganized schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia, residual schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder.

Most species of birds evolved in isolation called allopatry under certain conditions. Isolated islands of habitats on continents set a similar stage for speciation of bird populations that they occupy. Sister populations that were separated and isolated geographically space diverge from each other. Divergence can either be slow or rapid. Conspicuous patterns of geographical variations are the result of divergence and it can also be random which follow adaptation to different habitats and can results from sexual selection.

Land mammals have different forms of stances. The main three catagories are plantigrade, digitigrade, and unguligrade. Plantigrade means that animal's heal touches the ground as it moves and usually indicates an ambulatory or walking way of movement. Examples of plantigrades are bears, apes, and humans. Digitigrades are animals that stand on their toes or digits when the walk like cats and dogs. They are usually more of a cursorial or running motion. Lastly unguligrades are animals that move on their hooves or toenails, featured in cursorial moving animals like horses and deer. 

The Hill Reaction, used in the 1930s, used Spinacia oleracea to discover that chloroplasts separated from plants containing their thylakoid membranes will still continue to create oxygen, so long as they are given light and an appropriate electron acceptor in place of NADP+. Normally chloroplasts need to use NADP+ as an electron acceptor, but using a centrifuge to separate the chloroplast from the thylakoid membrane, NADP+ is lost.  In our Hill Reaction experiment we chose to compare the effects of using purple light vs. normal light on the effect of photosynthesis. Plants absorb both red and purple light waves, however because purple wavelengths are shorter, they emit a higher frequency and contain more energy (Different Wavelengths of Light Affect on Photosynthesis Rates in Tomato Plants). Light is normally at 600 nm, while purple is at 400 nm and has higher absorbance. Using purple light rather than normal light should mean the absorbance process will take longer. The presence of purple light will cause there to be a higher absorbance level in the chloroplasts in experimental group in comparison to the control group which will have lower absorbance levels exposed to natural light. If correct, then the spectrometer will detect that the solution in the cuvette will reach 0 absorbance at a slower pace than it did with natural light, but not by a large margin. If incorrect, the spectrometer will show the solution reach 0 absorbance at either a quicker pace than our control group or a much more elongated rate.