Drafts

    Traditional scolding from Asian parents is very scary. Of course these methods are not only done by Asian parents, but from a traditional cultural standpoint Asian parenting have similar themes. Hitting your children for example is very common, and most of the time they will hit the children with whatever is available. Whether the parents are in the kitchen and they’re hit with a wooden spoon, or if the mother is in the bedroom and you get hit with the bedroom slipper, or if you’re outside and you get hit with the broom. Negative reinforcement is very common, and most of the time the children are belittled in hopes that the belittling will cause the child to want to prove the parents wrong. The supportive aspect is a lot less prevalent, and instead the parents will consistently belittle the kids in order to try and get them to “overcome” the belittling to become stronger. It’s very interesting that this exists, because in recent times, Western psychology dictates that the best way to raise a child is through positive reinforcement. There doesn’t seem to be as much of a focus on child psychology in Asian countries, but it’s becoming a more prevalent problem that is slowly gaining more attention.

    Swearing is considered taboo and bad habits, yet is it beneficial to swear? There has been recent studies done that show that swearing actually releases endorphins, and actually reduces stress. Swearing has even been proven to reduce pain through the release of endorphins as well, as well as triggering the fight or flight response and increasing rate heart. This reduction in pain perception and feeling better afterwards is a big benefit from swearing, yet societal standards say to not swear in order to “be polite”. Will this perception eventually change? For example, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you could not say the words “b**ch” or “sh*t” on air. That perception is changing as in recent years, and it’s now allowed to say both of those words on television. It’s interesting because it seems that the stigma behind these words are slowly fading, but other words are beginning to come about with heavier negative connotations and a new “age” of swear words are coming about. It’s interesting to think as to whether or not the release of endorphins might actually decrease by saying the same swears, between older and younger generations. An experiment could even be performed, and see if pain perception is relieved more in older generations when saying swear words that hold a heavier meaning to them.

In a study performed by Falcone et al the caloric expenditure of aerobic and resistance exercises were compared. Subjects completed 4 different exercise interventions at different intensities for 30 minutes each. The four exercises consisted of weight training (squats, chest press, shoulder press, and seated row), treadmill running, stationary cycling, and a hydraulic resistance machine. Three were 9 participants whom were all male and between the ages of 18-35. Subjects were asked to consume the same food 48 hours before each session (12).

The purpose of this experiment was to gain insight on how climate affects vegetation of the shrub Vaccinium vacillans. Different latitudes and elevations were manipulated in order to determine the role they play in growth. Latitude and elevation both impact the amount of sun light a plant receives and ultimately impacts the temperature that a plant grows in. The further a species is from the equator, or the greater the latitude, the less direct sun it receives. Oppositely, the higher the elevation the greater the amount of direct sunlight received (Gurevitch 2006). For this experiment, it was hypothesized that within a region, the vegetation at high elevation will resemble the vegetation at high latitudes. Furthermore, it was predicted that a widespread, common species will show parallel changes in abundance as elevation increases and as latitude increases in New England. 

This finding relates to the types of neurons and cortexes of the brain we have learned about this semester. The study involves mirror neurons and the cingulate cortex, two concepts we haven’t learned about in this course. However, we have learned about oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and other types of neurons in the brain. We have also learned about the visual cortex, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex, but not the cingulate cortex. The link between brain and behavior is a third way the article relates to topics discussed in this course: the brain (mirror neurons) influence this behavior of the rats (freezing and empathy). I hope we are able to learn more about mirror neurons and the cingulate cortex before this course ends, as well as more about the biological basis of empathy.

    Additional studies about mirror neurons are needed to see if they are located in other cortexes of the brain besides motor and cingulate. Although rat’s brains are similar in structure and function to humans, more studies are needed to identify additional biological empathy links in human brains. Exploring the limbic system further to elucidate the biological bases behind emotional behaviors may serve as a crucial element in diagnosing and understanding psychiatric disorders in the future.

The final product smelled like apple, which is different from the malodourous starting reagents. This is characteristic of esters which are often fragrant like fruit. The final product was tested under IR spectrometry, which showed that the product was the expected ester, with peaks at 2959.9 1/cm and 2873.09 1/cm. There was a lack of the broad peaks as seen with alcohols and no peaks showing signs of water as water is also a product of the reaction. This means that the product was successfully dried. The experiment could be improved if more time was allowed for the reflux and careful manipulation of the apparatus to avoid bringing water into the flask.

In the article “I Feel You: Emotional Mirror Neurons Found in the Rat,” published in Current Biology and from neurosciencenews.com (https://neurosciencenews.com/emotional-mirror-neurons-rats-11066/), the researchers found that mirror neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex respond to pain experienced by others. This article interests me because although I have learned about empathy in social psychology, I have not viewed it from the biological perspective. It is fascinating to be able to pinpoint a neuronal link to this complex social phenomenon and I hope we are able to uncover more of these links within my lifetime.

    In this study, researchers speculated that the cingulate cortex contains mirror neurons and that this is the reason why we feel pain seeing the pain of others. To examine this, researchers observed rats who were watching other rats receive an unpleasant stimulus. Rats tend to freeze when scared to avoid being detected by predators, and the researchers observed this behavior when rats watched other rats receiving this unpleasant stimulus. Upon inspection of the cingulate cortex, it was found that the observing rats activated the same neurons as the rats that received this stimulus, supporting this mirror neuron speculation. The researchers also administered a drug to these observing rats that suppressed the activity of these cingulate cortex cells and found that the rats no longer froze. This was an important find as previously, mirror neurons had only been found in the motor system.

In the study, “Migratory Reed Warblers Need Intact Trigeminal Nerves to Correct for a 1,000 km Eastward Displacement” by Dmitry Kishkinev and colleagues, Eurasian reed warblers were manipulated to gain information on which cues and sensory mechanisms are used to determine east-west direction, or latitude. Specifically, the ophthalmic branch of the terminal nerve (V1) of these birds was investigated. The nerve contains magnetic senses but little is known about how it functions, so the goal of this experiment was to determine if V1 could be used by Eurasian reed warblers to determine east-west position. To test this, the warblers were captured during spring migration at Rybachy in the Eastern Baltic and displaced 1,000 km to Zvenigorod. A control group was tested, using Emlen funnels, in Rybachy and Zvenigorod. Once displaced, two experimental groups were separated into those that had undergone a V1-section operation or those that had undergone a sham section operation, and the mean group direction was determined for each group using Emlen funnels. The warblers had access to natural day length, natural celestial cues, and local odors.

          The first case study Pearce offers in Honduras was the one I found most disturbing. Berta Caceres an indigenous environmental activist who opposed dams, mines, and other development projects, was assassinated in her home in 2016 by armed intruders after years of threats to her life. It is believed that her murder was retaliation for her organizing against the Agua Zarca dam project on the Gualcarque River in village of Rio Blanco funded Desarrollos Energéticos SA. Associates of the energy company and special forces from the Honduran government are thought to be responsible. The idea of a government being so corrupt and beholden to private interests that they participate in the assassination of one of their own citizens is frightening and infuriating. Other activists had also faced violence, according to Pearce, including being shot at by government soldiers during protests and even attacked with a machete by pro-dam families who claim activists are hindering economic development. This situation and the situation in Israel in which soldiers callously interfere with Palestinians obtaining clean water were a saddening reminder of how commonplace state violence is around the world.

The design of the poster is visually appealing. Each section is enclosed by a box, making it very organized overall. The colors draw my attention but not so much that it is distracting. The headings are all blue and have the same font size and type. This adds to the organization of the poster. However, I also notice that under the some of the headings the text is bolded while the text under other headings is not. This detracts from the organization making it confusing to follow. The content of the poster is presented in a very succinct way. The bullet points make it more digestible to the readers. The figures are also clearly labeled and informative. The bold text in parts of each figure legend draw my eye to specific parts of it so I know where to look first. The tables are also nearly arranged in columns and provide a different way to represent data. Overall the poster is well constructed with only a few mishaps pertaining to design.