Inside Air Quality: Week Dos

Hi again! It's ya girl Aurea back at it again talking about Air Quality.

So for week two, we've done some pretty cool stuff:

1. Handsome Dan

Okay, so, is your lab cool enough that you get to have a photoshoot with a campus celebrity, Handsome Dan? If you guys don't know, Handsome Dan is the official bulldog to represent Yale Bulldogs!



We had a photoshoot with him because one of the people in our lab, Colby, has been working on making a portable air quality monitor and we attached it onto Handsome Dan.

2. Crumb Rubber Experiments

So, basically crumb rubber is usually used in playgrounds, under soccer turfs, etc. Our lab has mostly been looking at non-combustive materials and their effect on our health and the environment. People usually think that the main reason for everything is carbon–which is true. However, the Gentner lab has been looking at non-traditional sources of bad compounds. We took a look at crumb rubber because these are where children are mostly playing in.

Procedure:

a) Get a clean jar.
b) Weigh crumb rubber and then put it in the jar.
c) Put the jar inside heater oven.
d) Connect various tubes–zero air, and standards (tubes that we made last week).
e) Set the temperature to 20 C.
f) Leave tube on for about 10 minutes.
g) Change tubes with a different standard.
h) Repeat E-G, but in different temperatures (30, 40, 50, 60).
i) Put tubes inside freezer.
j) Take tubes out of freezer to put inside the Mass Spectrometer.

Hypothesis: At different temperatures, different compounds will appear.

Once we get the data from the Mass Spectrometer*, we begin to look at the different compounds that are found inside the crumb rubber. After looking at the crumb rubber, we've found out about the various harmful compounds that are inside the crumb rubber. There are some carcinogens, which are not great, especially since this is where kids play in!

Anyway, that's the gist of how this week has been. I'll catch you later!

Aurea

*Mass Spectrometer- an instrument that uses ion analyzation which sends data to a computer that shows various peaks that symbolizes different compounds. 

Inside Air Quality : First Week

Hiya! It's ya girl Aurea back again. I'm a bit late to talk about my first week so here's a little recap on what we've been doing:

1. Lab Work
So far, we've been cleaning tubes, knots, and labeling tubes that will be used to collect data. They're called QTXB tubes where air flows through and the less volatile compounds that are inside the air are caught first, then more volatile compounds are caught on the latter end.

 
Paula putting on some labels!

2. Reading
I didn't really expect much reading for this internship. However, I also recognize that since I just barely got out of high school, I have no idea about the content that I should know in order to understand the data that we have. I read about the instruments that we have in the lab like the Mass Spectrometer. I also read about the goal of the research that our lab is doing.


Paula putting in that work on reading!

3. Field Site
We went to visit the field site out in the border of Guilford and Branford. This is where last year's interns, Amir and Ethan, worked on a lot! We saw the things that they built, which was really cool. At the same time, we learned about the different equipments that are used to measure different harmful compounds in the air.

(Fun Fact: When California had a wildfire last year, we also had a spike in Black Carbon. Also, there's a power plant somewhere along the coast of Connecticut that's not used as often. However, everytime that it is used, we get data of Black Carbon spikes, so we can tell when the plant's open.)

  
More pics in the field site!

Well, that's all I have for you today. Catch ya later,
Aurea

Rubber!

This past week in the lab, we've been experimenting with crumb rubber and mulch rubber, which are commonly found in turfs and playgrounds--often in 90+ degree heat.

We have been doing "jar experiments," where we place a small sample of either crumb rubber or mulch rubber in a weigh boat, and then we place that weigh boat in a large glass jar. The jar goes in a machine that will bring the temperature up to 50ºC and then back down to 20ºC over and over again, which is meant to simulate the different days that the rubber would be exposed to the summer heat. During this process, we have been attaching small QTBX tubes, which have four layers of increasing absorption, and the particles that are emitting from the rubber will get stuck in the tubes.

After experimentation, we have also been doing data analysis, which involves a lot of googling of strange compounds; we use a program that will take the data collected from the jar experiments and show us visually the results: the structure of each compound detected, the chemical formula, and much more. We have been comparing these results to that of a blank/standard tube and seeing which compounds are out of place, and also comparing the two samples to each other and seeing similarities between the different rubbers.

So far, we have found several alarming compounds being emitted from these rubber samples, which include: a food additive that is dangerous to ingest, a paint/solvent that is harmful to skin that's used on children's toys; and a couple carcinogenic compounds, one of which is also used in food.

I'm excited to continue research and see what else we discover in these samples!

A concept: BUG LIFE

Hello all,

7/22/19

ENTOMOLOGY!
WHAT FUN STUFF!

I have been thinking about a topic for my poster: metamorphism.

In the entomology lab, we have been catching certain bugs, mostly butterflies and dragonflies.
Metamorphism is a topic we have briefly touched upon.
I want to explore more of it by researching it and asking more questions on the topic.

We have seen cocoons of certain butterflies and are currently raising luna caterpillars.

Hopefully I can expand on this topic, so then I can have it as my poster topic.

BUGS OUT!
-Nadia 

What's Going On Here?? A quick summary of my lab's work

The Iwasaki Lab at Yale is an immunobiology lab, but the project I’m working on has far-reaching applications. My mentor, Daniel Kim, is a PhD student investigating the hypothesis that Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid are biologically relevant antagonists for the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor.

Okay- what do any of those words mean? The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) is a protein found in cells that controls the rate at which certain segments of DNA are transcribed into RNA. AhR agonists increase the transcription rate, and AhR antagonists decrease the transcription rate of the target genes. A LOT of AhR agonists are known, but not many antagonists. This brings up the question- if there are so many agonists and no antagonists to balance them, why aren’t we always suffering from AhR over-expression? The symptoms of over-expression include anemia, birth defects, skin pigmentation, peripheral neuropathy, and immunodeficiency.

Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin with two known tasks: DNA creation and fatty acid oxidation. Both of these tasks are driven by one part of the Vitamin B12 molecule, but the other main part- which just happens to have a piece that could potentially bind to AhR- isn’t well understood. Vitamin B12 deficiency has a long list of symptoms, including anemia, birth defects, skin pigmentation, peripheral neuropathy, and immunodeficiency. Sound familiar?? It’s the same symptom list as AhR over-expression. Although these symptoms are well-known, however, it isn’t understood WHY or HOW Vitamin B12 deficiency leads to these effects.

So the hypothesis is that Vitamin B12 (and Folic Acid) are actually AhR antagonists. In order to test this hypothesis, the lab is running both in vivo (in living mice) and in vitro (in human cell lines in the lab) experiments. The in vivo experiments with the mice are aimed at determining whether the addition of Vitamin B12 and it’s separate components can rescue mice from the negative symptoms of AhR over-expression. The in vitro experiments are able to analyze the expression of AhR in the presence of an agonist plus Vitamin B12 and its components.

Woah! That was a lot of science. And trust me- it gets a lot more complicated! What’s even cooler about these experiments is that they have the potential to completely change the way we think about Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, and AhR. It’s possible that in the future, textbooks will be totally re-written to accommodate these ideas and results! If you want to learn more about these experiments, reach out to me. There’s a lot more I didn’t cover here that is absolutely fascinating, and I’m always looking to share information!

First Week!

The first week of the internship is over!

I had no idea what to expect going into the first day, and so when we arrived at the lab, I was very glad that they gave us another tour and explained the basics of what they do.

We were given several readings to do to introduce us to the mass spectrometers and other equipment that is used in the lab, and after we had worked our way through those, we were tasked with labeling tubes for future experiments. I think we labeled over 150 tubes in total!

My favorite part of this week, though, was a mini field trip that we took to the field site in Guilford! After renting a Zipcar for a few hours, we drove up to the beautiful place on the water where the trailer with all the machinery that measures the different components of the air is located. We calibrated some machines and learned about the various elements in the air and what they do.

I'm looking forward to conducting jar experiments and (hopefully!) visiting the field site again in the next couple weeks!

First Few Days

What’s in my head the first few days of my internship?

This summer I’ll be working with Daniel Kim, a PhD student at Yale, on an ongoing project of his. I’ll be helping with a variety of experiments using techniques in molecular analysis, human cell lines, and animal research.

I began my internship a few weeks ago, and so far it’s been a pretty steep learning curve. After completing my training, I spent the first week catching up on the experiments and getting adjusted to the lab. There’s definitely a lot to get used to! I’m learning the protocols and techniques from scratch, which is difficult, but thankfully I’m in a great learning environment.

So far, I’m really enjoying working with the mice. This involves intraperitoneal injections (inject into lower abdomen), oral gavaging (insert into stomach through esophagus), blood drawing, anesthetizing, euthanizing, and dissecting the mice. I anticipate that most of my work this summer will be centered on the in vivo mouse experiments, which I’m looking forward to.

In general, I have a lot to learn and get used to. I’m very optimistic that this placement will be great for me, and am looking forward to the work ahead.

What Makes A Good Research Poster?

A few things to think about when creating a research poster:


1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Consider who will be reading/viewing your poster. Will they be familiar with the topic, or have no background knowledge? How much time will they be able to spend with your poster? What kind of terminology are they familiar with? All of these questions are essential to ask before you begin to write any text. It's also important to think about how you will be interpreting your poster. Sometimes it works to only include essential, pared down info on the poster and more details in a supplementary packet, or delivered verbally.

2. COLORS AND PICTURES ARE YOUR FRIEND

Most interns won't have a ton of data to display, but you will be working in some very interesting labs with cool equipment and specimens. That's what we want to see! Colors and images help make your poster visually interesting.


3. FONT SIZE

Honestly this should be #1. It is not worth it to cram 20 paragraphs of size 10 font onto a poster. Nobody is reading that.

4. HAVE A TOPIC/THEME

Pick something interesting or personal to focus on in your poster, don't just describe in blank terms what you did for 6 weeks. The audience wants to see why your research is fascinating, what you learned from it, and how it inspired you.


Of course, there are many other things that make a poster great, but these are a few things to keep in the back of your mind. Yay research!!

Girl Meets Bug World

Folks (thunder clap)

Today was the first day of the entomology internship and it was a really great experience. Kieran and Larry were really great people to ask questions to. Once we got to the lab, Kieran showed us the ropes of how to catalog. It was a lot of steps to go through but once you get the hang of it, you would be cataloging moths in no time.

When something came up such as not being able to read some of the cursive scientific words, I would ask Larry who would help me out.

In the beginning, I asked a lot of questions but it was good to ask them then rather than waiting and making a mistake.

Plus it was cool to see the different sizes and colors of moths rather than looking at brown small moths you see in New Haven.

So that's it. It was nice and easygoing day.

Finally, to celebrate the nice and humid summer weather, here is a song by Jon Kuwada called Cherry Cola

First Day Of The Bug Life ;)

-Nadia  

Hello all,

I am so elated to say that we have completed our first day of internship.
YAYYY!

Today we did cataloging moths into the program "emu". At first, it was confusing and hard to follow but eventually we got the hand of it! I actually found it relaxing to do because it was quiet and I was able to focus.

We went to the food trucks down the street for lunch today, we already have so many lunch plans for the following days.

I cannot wait for other days where we get to do more work.

First Day!!!

09 July 2019

Today, we officially started our first day at the entomology lab! We learned how to catalog specimen, find where they came from, who collected it, etc. Kiran and Larry helped us get used to the system very quickly. 

As I was cataloging all the specimen, I didn't notice the variation of moths that there were. I went through about one and a half drawers of moth specimen and many of them were unique. Even though today was long and the learning process was new, it was very fulfilling! I can't wait to continue this for the rest of the week.

Adira Ahmad Rizal

first day

today was my first day in the entomology internship and it definitely felt long, however, also went by very fast. Most of what we all did was just entering the information on the bugs in the cases into EMu an online database. While i may never want to touch another keyboard again, it wasn't as bad as i though it would be, but i am excited to hopefully do something different tomorrow. I am also proud of myself for finishing over a case and a half of bugs within the time of working.

Poster Review

05 July 2019

Today, we reviewed and looked at many different science research posters. Some were done by people with PhDs and have been researching a certain topic for years. Some were also done by EVO students like myself who did a summer internship. We narrowed down what makes a poster good and what we can include in our final projects at the end of the summer. 

1. Simplicity- keeping the poster simple with less wording makes it concise and easy for other viewers to read. It helps them understand the essentials of your research. 
2. Intros, Methods, Data, and Conclusions- all the posters that we reviewed had these columns/sections that were titled these in order for the audience to follow along what you researched. 
3. Pictures- gives the audience a visual of the work you did.
4. Explanations- if there are big words, you should explain it because you can't expect everyone to understand that particular word. 

I hope I can follow these notes in order to make the perfect research poster at the end of my summer!

Research Posters: Fun Stuff

Hello all,

Research posters are the topic of today's post. As we are about to start our internship, we need to start thinking about our posters that we will establish at the end of this journey.

But what is it that will make research papers "good"?

First of all, to have a poster be considered good is to have it be comprehensible. That's the whole point: to have other people look at your poster and gain an understanding of what you have learned.

Remember that the poster is an overview of what had research. There is no need for the all of the data and information that you collected, just put the major ideas into it. Therefore, it should not look cluttered and hard on the eyes.

White space can be helpful, it is accepted to use it. But at a moderation, you would not want it to look empty. 

Images and Graphs are needed as well. They can help guide and give extra information to the poster. Also, it can help with aesthetics of the posters, making it look more professional.
Those are my tips for making a good research poster!

Hasta Leugo! 
-Nadia

What Makes a Good Research Poster?

Research posters are a commonly used way of conveying information about a research project that you've worked on.

There are many methods that people use in order to create a research poster, but there are certain techniques that tend to work better than others!

For instance, text that is clear and easy to read has a huge advantage over text that's small; people will likely lose interest and walk away from posters that they can't read!

Another key element of a good research poster is blank space. When designing posters, many people feel the urge to fill every space on the paper with information; however, this can actually be harmful to the design. A poster that is completely full of info and has no room to breathe will appear overwhelming to your audience. Instead, allowing larger margins and having more space between blocks of text will free up your poster and appear much more inviting.

A final idea to keep in mind when designing a research poster is that your audience may not be aware of all of the scientific knowledge that you've learned while researching your topic! In order to appeal to a large variety of visitors, make sure that the content on your poster will match your audience, and specify/define terms that may not be commonly known.