Endangered Species, More then We Think

Hannah Schramm

Endangered Species, More then We Think

The idea of giraffes being more then one species was talked in this article. It explained that with the involvement of DNA research on animals, scientist found that there are in fact four distinct species of giraffes. Scientist first did the research on the giraffes to increase the amount of help giraffes get on the endangered species act. Knowing that there are in fact four different species means that the populations of giraffes are increasingly small. With the size being smaller compared to what they wanted. Scientists hope that much more involvement will be made to get the giraffes off the endangered list. They also found that the species in fact do not interbreed in the wild. The four different kinds of giraffes are located in different areas of Africa keeping the species separate.

            With the knowledge of the giraffes we now know that the breading in zoos to bring the giraffes population up could be harming it. The idea of increasing the population of giraffes with the breeding could result in the giraffe species not keeping the species that have just been found. With this finding the way we look at and try to help giraffes will change. Zoos will have to do research before breading the giraffes so they do not intermingle the different species that are living now. Making it more time consuming to the zoos that want to increase the populations.  This one change though will help the species and make it so all the different species will thrive.

The research into endangered species could make us find more animals. We could see how many species of animals there really are on planet earth. Finding the different kinds of animals would make it possible to save more animals that are alive before they die off. Doing the research while we have the time will make it so we can keep the animals as they are in the wild without making them different. The whole point of the endangered animals list is to keep the species alive. If we do not do the proper research into the animals different species could die off. It is a good thing we found out about the giraffes in time before they were all lost.

THE HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF HIV/AIDS:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK, "THE CHIMP AND THE RIVER" by DAVID QUAMMEN

Being a gay man, I have always had a fascination with AIDS: the epidemic that hit the gay communities in the late seventies, the stories of the heroes and villains that came out of it and the sociopolitical movement it help push forward that humanized the LGBT community. AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome is caused by the HIV virus, this is widely known knowledge but what isn’t widely known and what wasn’t officially known until about 2007 was the origin of the virus, one that has killed over 39 million people worldwide.

What makes AIDS/HIV so socially and politically charged, especially in the U.S., is its connection and relevance to the male homosexual communities of mainly San Francisco, New York City and Miami when the virus was identified and labeled in the early 1980s. Since its “birth” into the public eye, the virus has been plagued by many misconceptions and slanderous accusations such as: being labeled by politicians and religious people as a curse on the gay community for being homosexuals, how the virus is transmitted, and the infamous “patient zero”. These myths and lies, while some being respectively reactionary to a deadly virus, have caused a lot of grief, rejection, prejudice and ignorance that have affected many people involved with the virus. The sad reality is the fact that ignorance, led by the socially and politically charged lies, to this day masks the reality about AIDS and the HIV virus.

The reality is that since its appearance in the gay communities in the late 1970s, scores of doctors, virologists, biologists, phylogeneticists etc… have meticulously studied the HIV virus and leaned not only the way it attacks the cells of the body but the origin and nature of the virus. In David Quammen’s book, “The Chimp and the River”, Quammen tells the history of AIDS/HIV virus, from how it was identified to the origin of the virus itself. This book brings to light the realities of the virus, information that could have toppled the hurtful lies about the virus and saved many people in the process. 

The book focuses on three main scientific points of the virus: First, the early days of identifying the virus, second, the different mutations of the virus and where they come from, and finally the actual origin of the virus. The book starts with the scientists Michael Gottlieb and Alvin Friedman-Kien, Dr. Gottlieb was an assistant professor at the UCLA Medical Center in California while Dr. Kien was a dermatologist in New York. At roughly the same time, about a month apart, these doctors noticed a strange pattern of infections in a handful of their patients, infections that should normally and easily be fought off by any healthy adult. All of the patients were homosexual men and over the next six months died. Further cases spread up over the next few years and a few teams of doctors raced to identify the cause of these deaths. The book states that in the early 80s there was only one known human retrovirus called human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) and many raced off in that direction. As a result, the virus was wrongfully identified as HTLV-III/LAV because scientists thought it was another strand of HTLV. It wasn’t until 1983 that the virus was labeled as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and identified as the virus that cause AIDS, which was itself identified the year before.

Once the virus was labeled, scientists quickly realized that there were two main groups of the HIV virus (HIV-1 and HIV-2 respectively) and that these groups had multiple strands of the virus, all slightly different from each other. They also realized that HIV was very similar to SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) the retrovirus found in many species of primates. Like HIV, SIV has multiple strands or groups that infect different primates. Quammen (the author) explains how the different subdivisions of HIV and SIV were discovered and how they are related to each other.  HIV-1 is the more virulent (aggressive and lethal) virus and contains 4 different subgroups: M, N, O and P. Groups M-O come from the SIVcpz that is in chimpanzees, whereas group P (which was identified recently) comes from the SIV in gorillas. On the other hand, the HIV-2 group is less lethal and virulent but contains the first subgroup to be both identified and connected to SIV. The subgroups are labeled A - H and resemble the SIVsm found in sooty mangabey monkeys.

While the different subgroups of viruses were being identified, other scientists were trying to figure out how the HIV virus came to be, how it crossed over from a primate to a human (called spillover) and then spread throughout the world. As stated in the previous paragraph, the group HIV-1 is the group that contains the strand of virus that caused the AIDS epidemic we all know about. The subgroup is labeled as HIV-1 group M (for “Main”) without this group, there would be no epidemic and millions of deaths. Quammen explains that scientists looked at two important factors to find the origin of the virus. First were the mutations of the virus’ DNA that happen in DNA replication that they took from samples of infected people and primates. Looking at the number of mutations tells the scientists how long the virus has been in a host; the more mutations the longer the virus has been in a host. Second, was the ability to compare the HIV-1 M virus to the SIVcpz found in chimpanzees, when scientists had identified that the HIV-1 M virus came from chimpanzees they set out to find what tribe of chimps had the virus first. Using feces of chimps and a lot of trekking through African jungles, a group of scientists lead by Beatrice Hahn located the geographical origin of the whole pandemic by finding a tribe of chimps with the most mutated SIVcpz that infallibly resembled HIV-1 M, and that was Southeastern Cameroon. 

The boom goes on to explain how even SIV came to be and then fictionally accounts how the first bushman got infected while cutting up an infected chimp in Cameroon through a cut on his hand and then slowly spread it throughout the world. Through the DNA mutation analysis, scientists believe that this man was infected as early as 1908 and say it is soundly accurate, give or take a couple years. I truly loved this book, AIDS was and still is an epidemic that plagues our world and has affected many people in the LGBT culture that I heartily identify with. I have seen the effects of AIDS and even watched as someone was told they have tested positive for HIV. The knowledge that this book contains makes the virus that less scary, less of an unidentified monster lurking in the dark and I wish that these scientific facts could have been identified sooner than 2007 because I feel this knowledge would have softened the pain of many men and women and lessen the guilt and stigma that comes with being HIV+.

Written by Cory Martin

How Does the Zika Virus Affect Pregnant Women?

Kierstin McCoy

How Does the Zika Virus Affect Pregnant Women?

            As I sat down to begin writing this blog post, I thought back over the many articles I had read, and it seemed an impossible task picking just one recent scientific development to discuss. Biology and many other fields are moving quickly into the future with discoveries and new topics and it is easy to get wrapped up in your screen while engrossed in the newest finds. In order to help myself narrow down the field of topics, I decided to pick something that I could relate to. This blog post will discuss the Zika virus and my reaction to the new information that I learned throughout this process.

            Anyone with even a tiny bit of interest in what is going on in our society has at least heard of the Zika virus, but how many actually know what it does to the body? I’ll be completely honest when I say that I had no idea what effect it has on humans, and more interestingly, pregnant women. I read the article “Generation Zika” by Dina Fine Maron. It was published on the Scientific American website on October 4, 2016, so it is a very recent article written within this month. Zika was found in the United States in July 2016, and already there have been 808 pregnant women infected with the Zika virus. This number is important because pregnant women who are infected, can pass the disease onto their unborn baby. The virus’s effect on adults is usually minimal, with symptoms including fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). However, when a fetus becomes infected, the virus can cause many different birth defects and that is why Zika is so dangerous. Babies affected by this virus have been born with microcephaly (an extremely small head), total or partial hearing loss, vision loss, joint deformities or serious neurological damage. What is worse, some of these women did not know that they were infected until their child had major damage after birth! All of this information was fascinating and brand new to me, and it concerns me that I did not know how serious this virus could be. Are there others who do not know the affect that this virus can have on unborn babies? I hope that if nothing else, I can inform some of my classmates about the dangers of Zika.

            This article was not only enjoyable to read, but very informative; it opened my eyes to this virus and how easy it is to be oblivious to modern day issues. I had no idea how serious this could be, or that in places like Puerto Rico, as many as 1 in 4 people may become infected. That makes the break-out in America seem like nothing, but it raises a lot of thoughts and worries. My older sister is pregnant with her first child, and I cannot help but think of her and my future nephew as I research this topic. The concluding sentence of this article has resonated with me ever since I read it, “for children born with Zika-affected abnormalities in the current generation, crucial answers about the virus and how to stop it will have come too late.” Scientists are working hard to find a way to stop this virus, but those who have been born with the effects of Zika will live with the results all their lives.

            

Brain circuit that drives sleep-wake states, sleep-preparation behavior is identified

             Scientists at Stanford University of Medicine have identified a brain circuit that is indispensable to the sleep-wake cycle. This same circuit is also in direct correlation, or a key component, to the reward system in our brain. Until this study no known connection has been proven to be in existence between these two functions.

It makes sense that the reward system, which motivates goal-directed behaviors such as fleeing from a predator and searching for food, is connected to our sleep-wake cycle. How can you look for food if you are asleep? Unless you are a very skilled and disciplined sleepwalker, you can’t. Furthermore, it will be a lot easier to get out of bed if you are excited about your day.

Reward circuitry system’s are similar no matter what animal you look at whether it be a human, fish, or bird. There is one chemical that plays a key role in this system; that chemical is called dopamine. The part of the brain called the VTA (ventral tegmental area) is the origin of numerous dopamine producing nerve fibers that run to different parts of the brain. A lot of these fibers go to a part of the brain that is implicated in generating feelings of pleasure in anticipation or response to obtaining a desired object. Due to the fact that, if this nerve is shooting dopamine throughout your brain, which in turn activates the reward system within your brain,  it will excite you and make you more goal driven keeping you awake to achieve that desired goal and not allowing your body to go to sleep. It was said before by Eban-Rothschild:

"In part due to existing technical limitations, earlier experimental literature has unearthed little evidence for the connection (between dopamine and the sleep-wake cycle) and, in fact, has suggested that this circuit probably wasn't so important."

But still the scientists and Stanford University of Medicine decided to test the hypothesis and experimented on mice. They monitored and measured their dopamine levels. The activity and levels of the dopamine-producing nerve cells emanating for the VTA rose upon waking and stayed elevated when the mice were awake. Conversely, this activity of producing dopamine dropped when the mice transitioned to sleep and remained at low levels during their slumber. Activating this dopamine secretion to the brain was enough to wake the mice from sleep and keep them awake for long periods of time. On the flip side, when they would suppress the nerve cell activity from producing during the typical wake period of the mice’s 24-hour cycle, the mice would fall asleep and stay asleep through the presence of arousal triggers such as: delicious high-fat food, a female, and even fear-inducing fox urine.

Then they tried an experiment with putting the mice in a new cage. Usually when mice are put in a new cage they will explore it. The mice that did not have their VTA suppressed did just that. But the mice that had their VTA suppressed stayed awake for 45 minutes. They spent this time building a nest and not just a quick nest, but they were careful and made sure it was satisfactory. But then the scientist took their nest and put it in a new cage then put the VTA suppressed mice in it. Those mice would walk right up to the nest and fall asleep. They knew that stimulating the brain’s dopamine would increase goal directed behaviors such as obtaining food and sex seeking. Eban-Rothschild commented:

“...the new study shows that at least one complex behavior is induced not by stimulating, but by inhibiting (hindering or restraining), this very circuit. Interestingly, this behavior -- nest building -- is essential to a mouse's preparation for sleep."

This is the first finding of a sleep-preparation starter site in the brain and it is likely we humans have it too. And if we are disrupting this preparation by, for example, reading emails or playing video games which not only give off light but more than likely charge up our dopamine level, it is no wonder why we are having trouble getting to sleep.

This article shows that to have better sleep we need to be aware of our dopamine levels. They affect us and will either help us stay awake or help us become tired and doze off. If they are high or hard to control, there are plenty of drugs to counter that. But along those lines, to get better sleep and not have our sleep-wake cycle become disoriented, we need to use that sleep preparation time to allow our body to get ready to rest and not do things that will cause our dopamine levels to go up right before we go to bed. This will inhibit our sleep.

This article is interesting because it is relevant to me. I never feel that I get a good night’s sleep. I am always exhausted and do not want to get out of bed. In fact, it is due to this feeling in the morning that I am late to work on a few occasions. I love my beauty sleep. I want my beauty sleep. I want to wake up in the morning feeling like sleeping beauty, like I just got all the sleep I needed to tackle the day. For that to happen, I have found out a couple of things that could help me and potentially anyone else that reads this article. One habit we all need to change is that of doing homework or typing up articles on a computer late at night. We should try to be more alert and ready during our awake cycle then prepare for our sleep cycle and not just try to jump right into it.

Written by: Joshua B.

Source: September 5, 2016, Biology News Net, “Brain circuit that drives sleep-wake states, sleep-preparation behavior is identified”

"Brain circuit that drives sleep-wake states, sleep preparation behavior is identified"

   In this article medicine scientists from the Stanford University found a brain circuit that they think is necessary for the sleep-wake cycle. They also think this brain circuit can help behaviors that help living things to survive, including reproduction. The scientists said they knew there was a connection between certain behaviors such as getting away from predators or finding food to the sleep cycle and now they have been able to pinpoint it. They say that this can help them to create drugs that will treat people with insomnia and other sleep disorders in order for people to get a better sleep at night. This will help unlike other sleep helping drugs that entirely shut down the brain to keep the brain functioning like normal. They state that 25-30 percent of Americans are in some way affected by a sleep disorder and this influences other neuropsychiatric disorders making them worse. What helps this new brain circuit is dopamine. The VTA is where most dopamine-secreting nerve fibers go, creating a feeling of pleasure. There are many drugs that stimulate the dopamine but they also keep users awake in the night. In this article they also discussed an experiment that was made on mice to test the brain circuit and sleep habits of the mice.
   In my opinion I think the article was very insightful and furthered my knowledge on sleep habits as well as the fact that there is a connection between the sleep-wake cycle affecting everyday behaviors. I find it interesting that they decided to test their new brain circuit theory on mice to see if it actually was accurate.
   I chose this article because I was intrigued by what they had to say concerning sleep habits and behaviors. I like to learn about how the brain works and how living things do certain mental processes. Also I am majoring in behavioral sciences so this applies to what I am going into and studying as a whole.
This article is very relevant to today's world because it discusses that a number of American's are affected by sleep disturbances which affects their behaviors. For them to have found a way to help diminish that would be great for the society as well as help further science exploration on the brain circuits.

-Abigail Y. 

Artificial Intelligence Software Improves Quality of reading Mammograms

An artificial intelligence software, developed by researchers at Houston Methodist, reliably interprets mammograms, helping doctors make a quick, yet accurate prediction of breast cancer risk. According to a study published in CANCER (AUG 29), the software works about 30 times faster than a human and has about a 99% accuracy as it translates patient charts into diagnostic information. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12.1 million mammograms performed annually in the United States. The American Cancer Society (ACS) shows that fifty percent of those mammograms yield false-positive results. The current broad range is 3 to 95 percent cancer risk. When women fall in between these two numbers, they are recommended for a biopsy. The ACS estimates that of the 1.6 million breast biopsies performed annually in the nation, twenty percent are unnecessary due to false-positive results.  Of the artificial intelligence software Stephen T. Wong, Ph.D., P.E., and chair of the Department of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering at Houston Methodist Research Institute said, “This software intelligently reviews millions of records in a short amount of time, enabling us to determine breast cancer risk more efficiently using a patient’s mammogram. This has the potential to decrease unnecessary biopsies.” It can take up to 70 hours to manually review 50 charts. It takes the software a few hours to review 500.

I found it interesting to know that there really is research still going on today and we are making progress on that research. You often think that now-a-days there is nothing else we can do. We learn so much in school and it seems that everything has already been done, we often times don’t realize that there is still so much out there that we can accomplish and this is one of them. 

I didn’t know that so many mammograms showed false-positive results which then leads to unnecessary biopsies. That right there shows how much we can improve things and this development is another step closer to doing so. It'll improve the time used to review the charts and get results back to patients, the inaccurate results, and so much stress caused to families during times like these. 

Jaydon R.