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Despite the study having many positive findings it is lacking many important aspects. These gaps are important to the study and can make it unreliable. First, there are no control subjects to compare the DPN subjects to (no non-diabetic subjects or diabetic subjects without DPN). Therefore it is not a randomized study with a placebo present. The participants are all older individuals with a wide range of diabetes duration (12.2 years). The authors also do not define what stage of neuropathy the patients are experiencing at any point in the study. Also, there is no specific regimen on what equipment is used for exercise training. Although it is a supervised exercise intervention, the subjects are allowed to choose from a variety of options and are only encouraged to utilize different equipment. A nerve conduction study is used to test conduction velocity, motor action potential, and amplitude, but no significant changes were found. Lastly, skin biopsies are used to test intraepidermal nerve fiber density and epidermal axon branching. 

The first step in genotyping adult zebrafish generally is fin clipping. Like the name probably already indicates, it involves clipping the fin of the zebrafish specimen. However, some important protocols must be observed to do so optimally, with as little distress and mortality as possible. First, a water bath is set up to contain 200ml of system water i.e. water used to fill up the fish tanks. To this bath, about 15ml of tricaine should be added. This will anaesthetize the fish, temporarily rendering the fish immobile and unconscious, making the clipping process easier and causing the fish less distress. If the fish does not stop moving when placed in the bath, more tricaine can be added, no more than 10ml. Too much tricaine can kill the fish. When the fish is finally floating sideways in the bath, unconscious, a razor blade should be used to carefully amputate roughly half the caudal fin. Again, living tissue must not be cut, as this will cause the fish to bleed. Bleeding may lead to infection or, worse, death. The clipped fin should be placed in a tube, labelled properly, according to the tank the fish was obtained from and the crosses done to obtain the fish. The fish can, then, be returned to fresh system water. The fish should regain consciousness and become mobile again in about 5 minutes. If this is not the case, then, the fish is probably dead, due to some error in fin clipping. The fin tissue obtained can then be taken to the lab and DNA extracted from it. Subsequent genotyping steps will follow once DNA is extracted.

The average A260/280 ratio of 2.05 for the untreated samples is consistent with RNA, indicating presence of RNA in these samples, as expected.  The average A260/280 ratio for RNase treated samples was 1.60, while the accepted ratio for pure DNA is approximately 1.8.  This is slightly low to be convinced that the RNase treated sample is pure DNA.  The 260/230 ratio average of 0.60 for RNase treated samples further justifies the impurity of the samples, because a pure nucleic acid should have a 260/230 ratio that is higher than the 260/280 ratio [7].  On the gel, the consistent presence of bands slightly above the 10,000 base pair marker indicates the presence of genomic DNA in the samples.  In the RNase untreated samples, the fields of discoloration below the 500 base pair marker indicate the presence of RNA.  The RNase treated samples did not show these fields, indicating that the RNase worked to degrade the RNA to small enough lengths such that it was unnoticeable on the gel.  Although the RNA did not appear on the RNase treated gel, small RNA fragments were still in the solution even after RNase treatment because nothing was done to remove them.  This fact likely helps to explains the NanoDrop results indicating impurities for the RNase treated samples, although it is possible that there were additional cellular components left over as well.  The calculated amount of nucleic acids extracted was 15,720 ng.  The gel indicated the presence of both DNA and RNA in the untreated samples of the extract, and NanoDrop measurements indicated impurities that include RNA and possibly other cellular components.  Therefore, the actual amount of genomic DNA extracted from B. distachyon is likely far less than this value. 

The rate of photosynthesis is primarily limited by light level and carbon uptake. However, resource availability and competition can also limit tree growth. Trees need water and nutrients in order to grow. Specifically, trees need nitrogen and phosphorus in large amounts. These nutrients are often needed in greater quantities than available in soil. Nitrogen, which is needed for growth, reproduction, and photosynthesis, exists in organic and inorganic forms. Trees can only uptake two major inorganic forms, nitrate and ammonium. Therefore, trees have to rely on nitrogen-fixing organisms in order to obtain the large quanity of nitrogen necessary for survival. Likewise, phosphorus can exist in organic and inorganic forms and is not always available for uptake by the tree. Phosphorus binds tightlyto particles in the soil that make it hard for the trees to access, so trees also have to rely on water flow in order to receive most of their phosphorus. They can also get it from microbial activity or decomposition of microbes or other organisms. In addition to nutrients, soil composition effects the amount of water a tree can access.  Large soil particles hold a greater amount of water than coarse soils. Since nitrogen is taken up by roots mainly through bulk transport, particle size can limit the amount of water and minerals taken up by trees. Soil also effects tree growth through cation exchange capacity. A soil that has a large cation exchange capacity is able to attract and hold ammonium, reducing the amount of nitrogen leached from the soil. 

   I believe that substance free dorms are a good idea but unfortunately, they are a bit misguided. In the article about UVM it talks about the students making the judgement on their own is not enough and I disagree with that point. Kids that are going to college are there to learn. Not just academic learning in their classes but also learn how to interact socially and live their lives on their own. If students are told to do something and how to do it in every form of their life, they won’t learn how to conduct themselves without guidance. People need to live and learn. As a person, you learn from good and bad situations in your life. Students need to learn how to drink and stay away from things that will impact their education and lives. If students are controlled like this in college they will not know what to do with themselves when they get into the real world.

Transpiration is the process by which moisture is carried through plants. Water is carried from the roots to small pores (stomata), where it changes to vapor and is released to the atmosphere. In simpler terms, it is the process by which water evaporates from plant leaves. Transpiration is a regulated process and it offers insight into how much water is needed for an individual plant to survive. Transpiration can be calculated by multiplying the conductance by the force. Conductance is 1/resistance, where resistance is the sum of resistance from the stomata and boundary layer. The force, represented by deltaC/deltaX is the change in the concentration gradient. Factors such as wind can impact the boundary layer resistance and will make the transpiration rate increase.

Chediak-Higashi Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused from a mutation in the chromosome. Patients affected with this disorder have barely no immune system due to the defect in the neutrophil, a type of white blood cell responsible to consume bacteria through phagocytosis. The whole immune system including lysosome, an organelle in the cell, and the neutrophil is incapable to dissolve the consumed bacteria, so as a result, patients have a higher rate of susceptibility to infections. Another distinguishable symptom is a physical characteristic of albinism. Patients lack not only a sufficient immune system, but also pigmentation. They have fair skin, close to creamy white, and silver streaked light hair. Since they do not have enough pigmentation, they must take extra care to be exposed under UV light. If patients with Chediak Higashi Syndrome are diagnosed early and receive proper treatment, they can live an ordinary life. However, if the treatment fails, the patient will face a stage called the acceleration phase where the disorder becomes lethal within 30 months.

Vaccines are very important to the general well being of the public. I have recently been doing a research project on the many outbreaks caused by pertussis, better known as whooping cough. It is a scary disease that can be easy transmitted. Everyone can contract pertussis, but primarily infants are the ones who are horribly affected by it or even killed. Vaccines against pertussis have recently been changed to a DTaP vaccine. This vaccine employs the use of acellular pertussis which means that only part of the bacteria is present within the vaccine. The vaccine used to be DTwP, which used the whole cell. This vaccine lead to many public scares in different nations with major epidemics following the decreased rates of vaccinations. Unfortunately we are still seeing cases of pertussis in many regions of the world. This may be due to the fact that the DTaP vaccine is slightly less effective than the DTwP vaccine, additionally we are seeing a new wave of anti-vaxxers. People have begun refusing vaccines unaware of the damage that they may cause to those around them. The way that most infants get sick from pertussis is by someone close to them that exposes them to the disease. The way to protect infants and people that can’t, for whatever reason, be vaccinated is to get vaccinated yourself and create a herd immunity. This has effectively eradicated diseases in certain regions of the world but many are still vulnerable.