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Sean Nash

Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica - 4 views

  • there is a lack of observational data on the behavior of plants
  • Observational research allows the researcher to establish baseline activity and response levels of the subject
  • Perhaps the first study of learning in plants was a habituation experiment reported by Pfeffer (1873) using the sensitive plant Mimosa. In this experiment, repeated mechanical stimulation of leaflets led to a decrease in sensitivity
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  • the question naturally arises as to whether Mimosa can discriminate between stimuli. This was answered in the affirmative by Holmes and Gruenberg (1965) whose experimental design included a drop of water and finger touch as stimuli
  • the results suggest that Mimosa can discriminate between stimuli
  • Thomas performed an experiment on classical conditioning in Mimosa that took advantage of the finding that, under field conditions, the leaflets of Mimosa slowly drop as dusk approaches and slowly rise at dawn (personal communication). In the experiment, the CS was turning on the light in the growth chamber and the US was touching selected leaflets. Thomas found that leaflets in the paired condition showed conditioning compared to a light only or alternating stimulation condition. This finding should be replicated with controls for pseudoconditioning.
  • Given the importance of the Gagliano et al. (2014) experiment and the failure to replicate some previous experimental results it is critical that the Gagliano et al. (2014) results be repeated by an independent laboratory.
  • In addition to Mimosa, habituation has been found in the carnivorous plant Drosera (sundew
  • Applewhite (1975) cites an experiment by Darwin reportedly showing habituation in the passion flower (Passiflora gracilis). During this experiment, when Darwin mechanically stimulated the passion flower tendrils, the tendrils no longer responded after 54 h of training.
  • Abramson et al. (2002) investigated the use of bioelectrical potentials as a method to explore plant behavior.
  • In an interesting article, Karpinski and Szechynska-Hebda (2010) discuss the intellect of plants from memory to intelligence. By studying recall, the researcher investigates a host of independent variables and that are solidly anchored to a set of dependent variables. This study focused on recall at the cellular level rather than as an externally observable behavior. The discussion of plant learning at various levels, from cellular to organismal and from different scientific fields is exactly what is advocated for in this article
  • There is also interest from behavioral scientists seeking to determine whether the similarities and differences in learning found among invertebrates and vertebrates could also be found in plants (Warden et al., 1940; Applewhite, 1975; Abramson et al., 2002; Guiguet, 2013).
  • The majority of early plant studies used the Sensitive plant (M. pudica). Mimosa has much to recommend it for learning studies. They are easy to maintain, much is known about its natural history, and they have a visible leaf closure response to external stimuli. However, there are drawbacks in the use of Mimosa, for example, it takes about 15 min for a leaf to recover (Holmes and Gruenberg, 1965) and not much is known about its genome in contrast to model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana whose entire genome is known.
  • In the following section we will focus on methods to develop studies utilizing habituation, sensitization, and classical conditioning techniques. Instrumental and operant conditioning will not be covered because at this time there are no Mimosa studies in these areas; although one can envision a situation where the opening and closing of a leaf can be detected electronically. Once detected, the response would produce a consequence such as an airpuff or changes in light intensity.
    • Sean Nash
       
      The remainder of this comprehensive article is to outline the main lines of research in this area:
  • Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica
    • Sean Nash
       
      This well-compiled article does a really nice job of outlining the history of study regarding plant behavior. It also suggests model organisms for study. Mimosa is a favorite of mine as their response is VERY rapid and quite visible for a plant! There are all sorts of feasible project ideas that could arise from this area of research.
Gannon Suarez

Physicists build circuit that generates clean, limitless power from graphene: Researche... - 0 views

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    ""An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors," said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery."
Sean Nash

Large Data Sets - Society for Science - 1 views

  • Locate a data set that interests you, see how others students have used large data sets in their research, and learn about current scientific studies fueled by big data.
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    Another really solid pathway into project development is the examination and study of already existing large data sets. I have seen excellent projects that didn't even require students to generate their own data. Instead, they utilize already existing data to answer questions others may not have posed before in relation to that data set. At the very least, becoming familiar with these lines of research can help you discover a line of research that is most compelling to you!
Sean Nash

How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation - 0 views

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    This makes me think of my Mom and her struggle with migranes. She would benefit from a simple iOS app that helps her track symptoms & potential triggers in a way that could easily be shared with her doctor.
Sean Nash

Race car drivers tend to blink at the same places in each lap - 4 views

  • The world goes dark for about one-fifth of a second every time you blink, a fraction of an instant that’s hardly noticeable to most people. But for a Formula One race car driver traveling up to 354 kilometers per hour, that one-fifth means almost 20 meters of lost vision
  • People are often thought to blink at random intervals, but researchers found that wasn’t the case for three Formula drivers.
  • the drivers tended to blink at the same parts of the course during each lap, cognitive neuroscientist Ryota Nishizono and colleagues report in the May 19 iScience
    • Sean Nash
       
      Interesting. So, do we do the same thing while driving around town? Could you design a method to record eye blinks as people drive known routes around town? We could simultaneously use the Arduino Science Journal app on the iPhone to also correlate physical data in a moving car like acceleration/deceleration, motion in X, Y, Z directions, etc. I wonder if we could find a correlation in everyday driving that could help from a safety perspective?
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  • He was surprised to find almost no literature on blinking behavior in active humans even though under extreme conditions like motor racing or cycling
    • Sean Nash
       
      OK, now this SCREAMS: "potential research idea."
  • Nishizono and colleagues mounted eye trackers on the helmets of three drivers and had them drive three Formula circuits
  • Where the drivers blinked was surprisingly predictable, the team found. The drivers had a shared pattern of blinking that had a strong connection with acceleration, such that drivers tended not to blink while changing speed or direction — like while on a curve in the track — but did blink while on relatively safer straightaways.
    • Sean Nash
       
      What sort of implications does this have for driving in key, known, busy interchanges in KC? Could we potentially provide data to show certain stretches of highway need more signage, etc? That could have civil engineering implications.
  • “We think of blinking as this nothing behavior,” he says, “but it’s not just wiping the eyes. Blinking is a part of our visual system.”
  • Nishizono next wants to explore what processes in the brain allow or inhibit blinking in a given moment, he says, and is also interested in how blinking behavior varies among the general population.
    • Sean Nash
       
      While the "brain" part might move beyond our feasibility, the potential of finding real correlations to driving patterns or routes is a completely different spin-off and one that could have really practical suggestive applications for city planners, etc.
elijahjenkins

Fluorine-based new drug synthesis at lightning speed -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

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    Researchers synthesize fluorine-based compound via rapid biphasic (gas and liquid) mixing.
katherine-medina

In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Safety of Amygdalin as a Cance... - 0 views

  • ]. Approximately 80% of all medications approved by the FDA in the last three decades have been derived from natural sources
  • Transdermal drug delivery is a promising route for cancer treatment compared with the oral route due to its low side effects and improved efficacy and selectivity
  • All ALN formulations containing DDP exhibited a higher percent of EE and smaller particle size and PDI than those that did not have DDP at the molar ratio investigated.
    • katherine-medina
       
      If I am to do my research project over the affects of amygdalin patches on cancer, I will need to keep this section of text in mind.
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  • The optimum ALN gel formulation reduced mean relative carcinoma volume (MCV) at a higher rate (p < 0.05) compared with free amygdalin solution and free tamoxifene suspension.
  • that the optimum ALN gel formulation reduced mean relative carcinoma volume (MCV) compared with the DMBA control.
    • katherine-medina
       
      reduced carcinoma in comparison to control group
  • . The value of the zeta potential indicated a negative surface charge, which is considered advantageous for transdermal drug delivery and for electrostatic stabilization due to the electrostatic repulsions between vesicles
    • katherine-medina
       
      Good to note.
  • 3. Materials and Methods3.1. MaterialsAmygdalin was attained from Nature’s Only Choice Company (Tbilisi, GA, USA). Sigma Aldrich (Agitech Company, Cairo, Egypt) provided Tween 60, Span 60, cholesterol, 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a] anthracene (DMBA), triethanolamine, and dihexadecyl phosphate. Carbopol 934, methanol, acetone, and chloroform were attained from Corner-Lab Company (Cairo, Egypt).
  • Histological examination of the oral tamoxifen suspension treated group (Figure 7C) revealed the presence of hyperkeratosis and acanthosis in the surface epithelium of the epidermis with signs of a diffuse inflammatory response and edema in the dermis and sub-cutaneous tissue.
  • Histological examination of the optimum ALN gel treated group (Figure 7F) showed clearly healed skin with normal covering epithelium and marked improvement in all signs of the epidermis and dermis that were better than those of the oral amygdalin solution. These results confirmed the effectiveness of amygdalin loaded niosomes gel as a cancer therapy in vivo.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Cool, so they tested and confirmed that ALN gel does work to treat cancer of the skin.
  • Histological examination of the optimum ALN gel-treated group (Figure 8B) showed clearly healed skin with normal covering epithelium.
  • The group treated with plain niosomes gel showed MCV nearly similar to that of the DMBA control group.
    • katherine-medina
       
      SO the niosome gel doesn't do much.
  • The optimum ALN gel enhanced the permeation of amygdalin into deep skin layers and showed significant anti-tumor activity compared with oral tamoxifen.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I think that Amygdalen could be one of my research topics for this upcoming year.
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    A really cool study that showed that Amygdalin in a gel form can prove to be very sucsessful at healing tumors from the epidermis.
Sean Nash

Low-dose radiation from A-bombs elongated lifespan and reduced cancer mortality relativ... - 1 views

  • individuals
    • Sean Nash
       
      These "individuals" could just as easily be plants of lower invertebrates (as model organisms at this level). This is fascinating to me. There is no doubt that we would be limited in our ability to work with ionizing radiation, but that's not to say a project couldn't be developed along these lines. I never cease to be amazed at what a motivated student can resourcefully come up with when their passion for a particular line of research is so high.
katherine-medina

https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2962278/v1/95a4813e-7c91-423d-8608-d3e697f79... - 0 views

    • katherine-medina
       
      A. Besides, the results implied that these stilbenes effectively inhibited the levels of adhesion and virulence genes and downregulate the production of -hemolysin. This study showed that stilbenes from pigeon pea have anti-Staphylococcus potential, and they also inhibited bacterial proliferation, biofilm formation, and key gene expressions related to adhesion and virulence of MRSA.
    • katherine-medina
       
      "Over the past few years, bacterial biofilm has aroused wide attention. And the biofilm can be called sessile microbial community where cells are attached to the surface or to other cells and can embed themselves in a protective extracellular polymeric matrix." This is a pretty interesting piece of information.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Moreover, as an ethnological herb, pigeon pea is adopted in traditional medicine for its treatments of diabetes (Al-Saeedi and Hossain 2015; Talukdar 2013), hepatic-disorder (Ghosh et al. 2006), necrosis of femoral head (Luo et al. 2009), measles (Nwodo Page 4/20 et al. 2011) and osteoporosis HUH that is really interesting considering the amount of pigeon peas I have had in arroz con gondules.
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    • katherine-medina
       
      Additionally, the epidermis was the external barrier of the body and thus HaCaT (human keratinocyte) was used to investigate the cytotoxicity of these stilbenes. As a result, these compounds had no discernible harmful effects on HaCaT at concentrations of 1/4 of their MIC, and their IC50 on HaCaT were 9.58 ± 0.22, 12.76 ± 0.31, 18.38 ± 0.41 µg/mL, respectively. Hence, the maximum concentrations of these stilbenes were set at 1/4 MIC in the follow-up research It is quite remarkable that pigeon peas are that effective.
    • katherine-medina
       
      The growth cures suggested that 1 MIC and 1/2 MIC of these compounds had remarkable inhibitory effects on the MRSA growth. Wow
    • katherine-medina
       
      It is incredibly important that the article states this, "However, current researches barely reveal the anti-MRSA biofilm ability of stilbenes from pigeon pea." This makes me want to learn more and more about how pigeon pea polyphenols work mostly because it is a very unexplored area of biochemistry.
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    This article is about three different stilbenes in pigeon peas that were found to fight against MRSA.
Sean Nash

MyCo Planet - About Us - 0 views

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    Local KC company growing edible fungi - bring in a rep to tell us about what they do - potential source of future research projects
Sean Nash

Mysterious Underwater Acoustic World of British Ponds Revealed in New Study | Current S... - 3 views

  • The previously hidden and diverse underwater acoustic world in British ponds has been revealed by a team of researchers at the University of Bristol.
    • Sean Nash
       
      So... my immediate thought is: How cool would it be to do this here? One thing we DO have: PONDS. See if this *sounds* interesting. Get it? ;)
  • Acoustic monitoring has been shown to effectively survey birds and monkeys in rainforests, and marine mammals in the oceans. However, freshwater environments have remained largely unexplored despite their diverse soundscapes.
    • Sean Nash
       
      BOOM. Again, "relatively unexplored" is super exciting verbiage to me. Acoustics. Hydrophones. Is this feasible? Is the equipment affordable? If not, could we borrow one? Dig into it. What are the possibilities?
  • analysis of the audio files revealed clear daily acoustic activity cycles in each pond
    • Sean Nash
       
      Aside from the exploratory surveys you would do just to see "what's out there" and assess what we CAN learn from listening to a pond, you could make it experimental by comparing ponds you've assessed the health of by other means. In other words, do acoustic comparisons between two ponds correlate with what you find by doing a macroinvertebrate sampling? I really LIKE the possibilities in this one!
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  • Typically, a nocturnal chorus is made by aquatic insects that compete to attract mates by producing strange scratching sounds as they rub their genitals against their abdomens. During the daytime, however, aquatic plants dominate the underwater orchestra with rhythmic whining and ticking sounds produced as tiny oxygen bubbles are released by plants respiring in the hot sun.
  • Using this acoustic method, the presence of species, and a determination of ecological health, can be inferred simply by listening to the natural world without disturbing the environment or harming the plants and animals within it.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Here is the obvious value proposition if you could work this out.
  • Publication: Jack A. Greenhalgh, et al., Diel variation in insect-dominated temperate pond soundscapes and guidelines for survey design, Freshwater Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1111/fwb.14092.
    • Sean Nash
       
      BEST THING YET: Here is the FULL TEXT of the actual research paper!
Sean Nash

Microwaving an insecticide restores its mosquito-killing power - 2 views

  • Heating an insecticide can give it new life.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Wait, what? Do say more.....
  • Microwaving the insecticide deltamethrin rearranges its crystal structure but doesn’t change its chemical composition. The rearrangement renews deltamethrin’s ability to kill mosquitoes that have become resistant to the insecticide, researchers report April 21 in Malaria Journal.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Hmmmm... something similar to this smells like: feasibility.
  • The microwave worked just as well, but Kahr cautions that people shouldn’t use the same microwave for heating food and insecticides.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Ha! No kidding??
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  • insecticide resistance is a growing problem
  • It is encouraging that heated insecticide killed highly resistant mosquitoes, says Hemingway, who directs the Infection Innovation Consortium, a public-private effort to find new ways to combat infectious diseases. But, she says, “this is not something we can take and use that tomorrow.”
    • Sean Nash
       
      OK.... this is how you can find an opening (not saying THIS ONE is necessarily, but, when you see language like: "we can't really do it just yet," that is a screaming opportunity to see what we MIGHT be able to add to that.
  • It’s not certain that the heat-treated deltamethrin would retain its more potent crystal structure through the net-making process.
  • Kahr’s team is working on incorporating the heat-treated crystal into nets.
  • “There are all kinds of social and cultural things that you could propose from a scientific perspective that wouldn’t be welcomed by a community of homeowners.”
    • Sean Nash
       
      Again... this reads: "potential research opportunity."
  • Kahr and colleagues previously discovered that heating deltamethrin changed its crystal structure, which let it work faster
Sean Nash

Taurine slows aging in mice. Will it ever work for people? - 1 views

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    Interesting bit on the potential benefits of taurine in the diet. Don't rush out and start an energy drink habit, but if you've had one, you likely know the unique taste of this chemical. There are a ton of things mentioned in this short article. Perhaps dig into what we already know about biochemical pathways of taurine...
Grant Reed

Study Finds Carrying Pollen Heats Up Bumble Bees, Raising New Climate Change Questions - 3 views

  • This new understanding of active bumble bee body temperatures raises questions about how these species will be impacted by a warmer world due to climate change.
    • Grant Reed
       
      Trying out the highlight feature. This might be an interesting research topic.
Sean Nash

Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology - 3 views

  • Your source for the latest research news
    • Sean Nash
       
      You'll want this resource...
Hannah Herrera

Growing blood stem cells in the lab to save lives -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

  • Hematopoietic stem cells
  • bone marrow is damaged and no longer able to produce healthy blood cells
  • Though cytokines were once believed to be indispensable for ex vivo HSC growth, the research team hypothesized other new approaches as suitable alternatives.
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  • ompound called UM171,
  • specific polymer, improved the results by supporting long-term HSC expansion.
ryleighnyp

Electrical grounding technique may improve health outcomes of NICU babies -- ScienceDaily - 2 views

  • "What we can conclude is that a baby's autonomic nervous system is able to sense the electrical environment and it seems as though a baby is more relaxed when grounded,"
  • redesigning incubators to ground babies and cancel out the electrical field
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    I think a possible research idea could be redesigning NICU incubators to allow for less electromagnet interference with the babies with the use of grounding.
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    Interesting, for sure. Two things... the actual measurements they made on children (skin tests, etc.) are a no-go for us. I'm not sure what our model system could be for checking the electrical outputs of whatever design changes were made. We would need to know a lot more about the current setup in NICUs. There is no doubt a lot of design in how things are currently set up. Essentially: why things are set up the way they are right now? You would have to know every variable currently considered, and then look for spots where simple changes can be made. Second thing: go back to the ISEF categories in Engineering and check out how those projects look at the national level. Just go get a feel. Engineering is a bit different from typical "hypothesis testing" seen in most natural sciences. Very cool, but different. Give it a look.
Sean Nash

Satellite Monitoring of Biodiversity Moves Within Reach | Current Science Daily - 2 views

  • Data for the study came from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The network uses standardized methods to collect biodiversity and Earth observation data across the United States which are then made publicly available. NEON imaging spectrometer data collected from research flights have a pixel size of 1x1 meter.
    • Sean Nash
       
      I wonder if any of the imagery they have is: 1. Accessible by us, and 2. Available for our area. If so, it might be as simple as doing plant diversity surveys to look for ground truth in our area (young forests & grasslands) between what is REALLY on the ground here, vs. what the satellite imagery shows.
  • Biodiversity monitoring from space possible via satellite
  • The reflectance of plants is determined by their chemical, anatomical and morphological characteristics, which are important for interactions among plants and with their environment. “Plants with similar traits, as well as closely related species, therefore tend to have similar reflectance spectra,” explains Schweiger.
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  • Spectral diversity calculated in forests with closed canopies and large individual trees matched plant diversity determined on the ground better than spectral diversity calculated in open landscapes dominated by small herbaceous plants and grasses.
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