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Epigenetics

Submitted by afeltrin on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 17:49

In “Trauma Permanently Affecting DNA?,” I found it so intriguing that trauma, regardless of it being short-lived or continual, can permanently alter your DNA. Epigenetic gene expression is different from other kinds of inheritance due to it being solely a change in the phenotype of the gene, not the genotype. So, the underlying gene sequence is not affected; molecules will sit on the DNA and change the way in which RNA is made from DNA. This, in turn, changes the way proteins are made, leading to change in mood, behavior, and stress responses. A common example of an epigenetic change is methylation, which is the addition of a methyl group onto DNA. Other forms of inheritance directly alter the DNA gene sequence, in contrast with epigenetics.

Week12 Draft2

Submitted by mqpham on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 17:35

In this experiment, we are testing the effect of a legume’s mass on oviposition preferences of the female bean beetle, specifically lima beans, black eye peas, and mung beans. Our control will be the mung bean group, on which the parental beetles were laid. Knowing that the beans on which they are laid will be the only food source for the larvae’s development, it must be necessary on the female’s part to lay eggs on beans that provide enough sustenance for better fitness of the offspring. Therefore- if the oviposition preferences of the female bean beetles are determined solely by the mass of the beans, then there would be an equal number of eggs per equal mass of beans, however, there would be a significantly greater number of eggs on individual beans that weigh more. We predict to find an equal number of eggs in each petri dish containing equal mass of beans, but on individual beans that weigh more, there would be more eggs overall. In other words, there should be more eggs per lima bean than black eyed pea or mung bean, and more eggs per black eyed pea than mung bean.

Ductus Deferens

Submitted by alanhu on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 16:24

The function of the muscular layer of the ductus deferens is to assist in ejaculation. During ejaculation, the smooth muscle would contract, which would create pulsating contraction waves. The contractions would propel the sperms from the ductus (vas) deferens to the urethra. The innervation of the testicular vessels extends from L2. There are postganglionic axons that are in the lumbar and sacral regions. Splanchnic nerves carry the signal through the inferior mesenteric plexus, aortic plexus and hypogastric plexus to the pelvic organs. The pelvic organs would include the muscular layer of the spermatic cord. The arterial blood that supplies the spermatic cord is received from the long testicular arteries. The long testicular arteries branch from the aorta in the superior abdomen.

Macroevolutionary Changes Among Crinoids

Submitted by afeltrin on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 16:16

This article aims to search for macroevolutionary consequences from the predation of crinoids. It is hypothesized that sea urchins preyed on crinoids, leading to evolutionary change. The scientists observed Mesozoic skeletons of crinoids in search of bite marks from echinoids. These bite marks would show up as trace fossils remaining on the skeletons long after death. Their results showed that as the Mesozoic period gradually progressed, the occurrence of bite marks on crinoids increased. Additionally, there were more bites present on sessile crinoids than motile crinoids. Their data showcased a strong positive correlation between increasing sea urchin diversity and the frequency of bite marks. Scientists hypothesize a potential arms race between predation pressure and defenses displayed in prey. As predation increases, prey are left to develop stronger defenses for survival. So, it is plausible that crinoids increased defenses involving their motile abilities.

Explosion of SAT

Submitted by tokiokobayas on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 16:08

    For the longest time, Asian Americans, Asian Australians, Asian Europeans, and all of these mixes of Western and Eastern heritages felt underrepresented by the media. There were very few Asian actors who spoke fluent English, and spoke their mother tongue as well. These groups of people felt very underrepresented by the media, and for a while there were no outlets that allowed these groups of people to talk and relate with each other. There were very few examples that come to mind during that time (early/late 2000s), such as Nigahiga, Wong Fu Productions, Kevjumba, who were all on Youtube. There was this bubbling of an underground identity that was waiting to explode, and that is where SAT, or rather Subtle Asian Traits comes in. Back in the last quarter of 2018, there was a Facebook group called Subtle Asian Traits that was a private group that was curating memes and relatable content from this identity that these people could relate to. Because the group was private and you needed someone in the group to add you into it, it sort of became this exclusive online club where people could join and relate to one another. Eventually, the group blew up and suddenly, all of these people who felt underrepresented had an outlet to go to that allowed them to feel connected and represented. This group was an outlet that was needed for a lot of people, which is what lead to the virality of the Facebook group.

Bird Communication

Submitted by angelinamart on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 13:15

    Most birds use 5 to 14 different vocal structures to produce a song. The experiment was done with the Chaffinch of Europe and was found that there was 12 different sounds all used for different purposes: territorial, mate, predator, etc. In songbirds, it is not unique if a bird species have individualized songs, 100 call patterns, or a very complex song that characterises that bird specie. Syntax, phase, pitch are all calculated by these birds and the combination of them turns into a song to communicate with one another. For example Black-Capped Chickadees have a distinctive alarm call that yells “dee-dee-dee.” The number of times Chickadee calls “dee” correlates with how dangerous the predator is. So the more alarm you hear, it is more likely the predator is an owl or a hawk.

 
 

Songs

Submitted by angelinamart on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 13:13

The songs produced by each birds are diverse. Some can be short and high note, other can be long note. Frequency and amplitudes can be studied by creating a graph to visually study the sound of the birds. The higher amplitude it is, the louder song is produced by the bird.  The difference between a song and a call is that songs have patterns, syllables and phrases where a call is a short simple sound. Calls are used for multiple situations for defense, conversation and other uses where calls are mostly used to attract mates. Most songs are similar to human songs. Each bird has their very own type of call and vocalization to attract mates. Based on the tempo and frequency is what attracts neighbors and predators. Sound travels much farther distance so using that physical property, birds can communicate with a larger range of birds. Not only the vocalization produced by the bird itself, but also the environment can affect how the bird is heard by others. Some birds like Great Tits that live in the urban area adapted a vocalization that will not be erased from the traffic noise caused by human activities and other loudness.

 
 

The Impact of the Pyramids of Giza on Egypt’s State Society

Submitted by afeltrin on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 13:11

Ultimately, the four factors that were imperative to Egypt’s success as a state society are the intensified agricultural production, the creation of writing and systems of record-keeping, the rise of monumental architecture, and the organization of hierarchy into discrete social and political classes. The agricultural production soared being near the Mediterranean Sea, leading to labor specialization and, as a result, a more complex state society in Egypt. The introduction of writing and a record-keeping system led to an increase in trading and the ability to track an individual’s hours worked, if they got paid, and if they were scheduled to work or perform labor. The physical building of the pyramid built the social and political hierarchies, with the lower class working on building the pyramid, while the highest class would not actually work on it; they would just be buried inside it. Without these four factors, Egypt would not have flourished as such an important city, and we may not have ever had the formation of the pyramids.

Refraction and Reflection

Submitted by lgarneau on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 13:09

The slope is 1.01 and the intercept is approximately 0 (-6.03E-3). The relationship between the angles should be that they are either equal or very close in value. According to Snell’s law the sines of the angles should only differ by the two different indices of refraction. One index being air (1) and the other index should be very close to 1 as the difference between the values of sin incident and refraction should be the other index of reflection.

Draft 4/16

Submitted by lpotter on Tue, 04/16/2019 - 11:50

The conclusions that are drawn from these results is that SSV developed an escape mutation whenever a dip in the bacterial population of Sulfolobus was shown. This means that at any of these instances the SSV was able to mutate to again be able to kill Sulfolobus. On the graph when there was more diversity and distribution within the immune systems of Sulfolobus the bacterial cells were significantly less susceptible to SSV infection. The conclusion relating to the Sulfolobus and SSV having a mutualistic relationship is something that I have never seen nor thought about before. The SSV uses host machinery to create and secrete a toxin that kills healthy uninfected cells. The conclusion as to why infected cells are immune to the toxin is that the SSV provides infected cells with an antitoxin keeping them safe. This relationship is considered mutualism because the bacterial cells essentially want to be infected in order to survive. A conclusion about P. aeruginosa infections in humans with chronic CF is that each human is an island population that host the P. aeruginosa and a phage with an anti-CRISPR system which has ways of making CRISPR immunity less effective.

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