Effects of Drug Abuse on Domestic Violence (Lab Report Sample)

Daphnia Reproduction Research Report
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Abstract
The rate of the amount of eggs produced by daphnia when treated with various neurotransmitters will be investigated. The study of the reproduction of eggs by the daphnia is critical in both the society as well as the crustacean industry. The findings of this report may be advantageous to a common fish farmer who may obtain new ideas of increasing fish food. The researcher realized that previous studies indicated that daphnia reproduces seasonally. However, none of the previous research had attempted to investigate how Daphnia can be manipulated so that they breed throughout the year. This fueled the need to have this issue addressed. Eighteen pregnant daphnias were treated with various neurotransmitters, and the rate of eggs release was observed. The findings of the research showed that Epinephrine, when used with other neurotransmitters, increased the rate of eggs release. Even though the other neurotransmitters failed, the research was significant because it paved the way for more investigation on this aspect.
CHAPTER ONE
Daphnia Reproduction Research Report
Introduction
Statements of purpose
The purpose of this research is to monitor the rate of reproduction of Daphnia through testing for the amount of the resting eggs produced when various neurotransmitters are introduced into the daphnia.
Daphnia is aquatic organisms that live in fresh waters such as lakes, ponds, and rivers. According to the previous studies conducted on these organisms, it is clear that they are significant organism because they provide nutrients to fish and another water organism. More so, they are vital in the decomposition of bacteria, algae and yeast since they feed on them (Ebert, 2005). They play an imperative ecological food chain role in the water bodies hence if they extinct, we can have adverse effects on the web chain and ecological balance.
The researcher developed interests in the determination of reproduction of the daphnia following the observations that most of the freshwater bodies are turning salty due to various human activities such as irrigation and industrialization. The researcher found this challenging because if these very useful organisms can only survive in fresh water bodies then they are likely to become extinct any time soon. As a way of addressing this problem, the researcher opted to find out ways in which the rate of reproduction of Daphnia can be improved by testing for the amount of the resting eggs produced when various neurotransmitters are introduced into the daphnia.
Background information
Daphnia also known as the water flea belongs to the crustacean’s family, and they live in fresh water bodies. They have a transparent outer covering that enables the observation of the internal such as heart and resting eggs. They are very vital in the field of research because researchers are able to observe their circulatory and reproduction systems. Daphnia’s reproduction cycle consists of both sexual and asexual phases (Ebert, 2005). They reproduce asexually to increase the population growth when conditions such as food abundance are favorable.
Parthenogenesis is used during the asexual reproduction phase of daphnia’s reproduction cycle, and it is defined when an unfertilized egg develops into an adult Daphnia (Green, 1954). Parthenogenesis process proceeds in cycled manner. To increase their size, Daphnia has to shed the outer covering first which puts about 2-20 eggs into the brood chamber. When the juvenile Daphnia is ready to be released, the mother prepares for the next shedding stage (Green, 1954). However, when parthenogenesis conditions are not met such as food deficiency, they reproduce through sexual reproduction to enhance the genetic variation across the Daphnia population and to increase their survival rates (Ebert, 2005). The sexual reproduction occurs when eggs are released from the females, and they hatch into the male that fertilizes the egg and are put back in the female’s brood chamber later.
Under favorable conditions, Daphnia reproduces by amictic parthenogenesis the ad to the production of genetically identical offspring that build up a population of females only. The population can be continued for several generations resulting in an exponential growth of clonal lineages (Kami, Nicholas & Vett, 2012). During the times when the conditions are unfavorable for instance when there is overcrowding, food shortages, change in day-length or presence of predators, the Daphnia switches to sexual reproduction (Schòn, Martens& Dijk, 2009). The males are reproduced parthenogenetically while females adopt the production of sexual eggs. One female may produce diploid amictic eggs at first and later it may produce two meiotic haploid eggs that need to be fertilized (Wurdak, Wallace & Segers, 1998). Once the haploid eggs are fertilized, they are encapsulated in an ephippium, a chitinuous membrane that is secreted around the brood pouch of the female carapace.
The development of the eggs is enclosed at the blastula stage, and the eggs eventually go to diapauses. The enclosed dormant eggs can withstand extreme weather conditions such as digestion, freezing and drying (Schòn, Martens& Dijk, 2009). They can also remain potential for a long time upto 159 years. The dormant eggs hatch the next season when the conditions are favorable where the chances of survival will be maximized (Schòn, Martens& Dijk, 2009).
Hypothesis
H0: If neurotransmitters can increase the amount of resting eggs produced by Daphnia, then it is possible to maintain high population of Daphnia throughout the seasons because it will become possible to help these organisms to adapt to the unfavorable conditions while reproducing as if it was during the favorable conditions.
H0: There exist a strong relationship between the concentration of the neurotransmitters used and the number of eggs released by the daphnia.
H1: There is no relationship between the concentration of the neurotransmitters used and the number of eggs released by the daphnia.
H0: The type of neurotransmitter used to treat daphnia affects the number of eggs released.
H1: The type of neurotransmitter used to treat Daphnia does not influence the number of eggs released.
Significance of the study
The results of this research will be importance to the community especially those people who deal with fish rearing. They will learn new ways of increasing the food for their fish during the seasons when the rate of reproduction of Daphnia is low.
Critical Predictions
It is expected that after treating the daphnia with different neurotransmitters, their reproduction rate will be monitored at a fixed time of three minutes. Water serving as a control variable will not have an effect on the reproduction rate of the eggs. When the daphnia are exposed to caffeine; their reproduction rate will be elevated instantly. The addition of the essential neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine and dopamine will stimulate and increase the total number of the mature eggs. However, when serotonin and glutamate neurotransmitters are used, the rate of the resting eggs will be decreased significantly. The results will be presented in tables, and different graphs that go along with each test performed.
CHAPTER TWO
Research Design
Materials Apparatus
* Serotonin, Epinephrine, Oxytocin, glutamate, and Caffeine. All in 0.1 Molarity.
* Eighteen pregnant Daphnias are the primary model system used in the experiment
* Water: control
* Caffeine
* Different neurotransmitters: acetylcholine, dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin
* Six Petri dishes
* Dissecting microscope
* Pipette
* Concentration: the highest concentrations are required for each neurotransmitter
* Volume: one milliliter is needed for each trial, a total of six milliliters is needed for all of the different neurotransmitters
Procedure
The study was conducted with eighteen Daphnia all of which were pregnant. The selected daphnia were particularly significant for the study of rate of production of resting eggs because all of them had already existing resting eggs hence addition of treatments enhanced the rate of production of the resting eggs under different conditions. The experiment was run with all the neurotransmitters each 1.0 M. Acetylcholine and Dopamine were used as stimulants while glutamate and serotonin were used were used as inhibitory neurotransmitters. Water was used as the control while caffeine acted as a stimulant. Each of the Daphnia was tested three times with each of the different neurotransmitters each at a maximum time of three minutes per trial. The time allocated for each test with various neurotransmitters and other variables will be adequate to observe the rate of the release of the resting eggs from the Daphnia under the dissecting microscope.
Previous experiments have shown that Acetylcholine slowed the heart rate in humans and other animals by the parasympathetic nervous system through the activation of the cell surface receptor in the pacemaker (sinoatrial node) that is known as the acetylcholine muscarinic receptors (Nuffield Foundation,2012). The reduced heart rate is linked to the decrease in the rate of ejection of the blood from the heart that is adequate to maintain the body functioning while at rest. This in turn conserves energy in the heart under conditions where its supply is reduced (Schwarzenberger, Christjani & Wacker, 2014). In this experiment, acetylcholine was used to slow down the rate of Daphnia’s heart so as to observe the induced effect on the release of resting eggs.
The previous studies on the impact of caffeine on humans indicate that it increases the amount of cAMP in the sinoatri...