LAST BLOG

What was your favorite topic this semester? Why?


My favorite topic this semester was the sexual health part because it reminded me of how important it is to be safe with relationships and what the dangers of coitus are.

What was your least favorite?


My least favorite topic was the immune system, because it was extremely complicated for me and hard to comprehend

What would you change about this class if you could?


I think there needs to be more of an emphasis on experimental design, because most students aren't quite sure how to write up labs and what defines variables and such.

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment in physiology this year?


My biggest accomplishment was probably the fact that I learned a lot about dissections and bones and muscles, which are a huge part of my (hopefully) future profession, as a developer and designer of prosthetic limbs.

BOW Nutritional Disease

BOW Find a nutritional disease, i.e. scurvey Describe the cause of the disease, the symptoms and a treatment. Include a picture and references




Goiter

Cause:
  -iodine deficiency
  -selenium deficiency
  -thyroiditis
Symptoms:
  -increased appetite
  -weight loss
  -heat intolerance
  -hypo/hyperthyroidism
Treatment(depends on type/cause):
  -radioactive iodine exposure
  -small doses of Lugol's Iodine/KI solution
  -thyroid supplements
  -thyroidectomy


Sources:
http://www.iodinenetwork.net/Learning.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/goiter/DS00217
http://www.thyroid.org/patients/patient_brochures/goiter.html

BOW Disease Awareness

BOW What disease have you become more aware of because of class? What behaviors have you changed?


I have become very aware of some more basic diseases such as bone breaks and cuts. Now that I know how they work, I can apply that knowledge to my experience as a Boy Scout. When I teach first aid at meetings, not only can I explain to younger scouts the processes the body undergoes upon injury, I also can explain the exact purpose of each remedy and how it plays into the body recovering, as well as when the professional doctors take over.

BOW Explain the difference between the cell mediated and the humoral immune systems.


Humoral immune response occurs when circulating antibodies recognize foreign antigens. This triggers the activation of the complement system. Cell mediated response occurs when T-cells recognize an antigen as foreign. This causes an increase in the clones of that particular type of T-cell and also causes T-cell migration into that site. This takes more time than humoral response.





Sources
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Comparison_of_humoral_and_cell_mediated_immune_response


http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Differentiate_between_Humoral_mediated_immune_response_and_cellular_mediated_immune_response

BOW 9 Pathogen

Find an example and a picture of each type of disease/pathogen: bacteria, virus, prion, genetic, environmental and invertebrates


Bacterial: Staph infection

Viral: Smallpox

Prionic: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Genetic: Hemophilia

Environmental: Asthma

Invertebrates:Babesiosis

Finish your epidemic simulation
Do a screen capture of your settings and data and in your blog explain which is more critical to the impact of a disease contagiousness or lethality

I beleave that the contagiousness of a disease is more critical because while some diseases may be highly fatal, it wont have as much of an effect if it cannot spread. Compared to less lethal disease that could spread more, where everyone is sick and there are no people left to take care of the ill, the situation is much worse.


Sources:
http://starmap.causeway.co.uk/epidemic.asp
http://www.asthmatreatmentreport.com/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/bio_smallpox-pics.htm
http://www.staph-infection-pictures.com/staph-infection-pictures.php

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse_photogallery.html

BOW 8 Action Potential

Go to http://thevirtualheart.org/CAPindex.html
Click on ions
Run the regular action potential and the cardiac potential compare and contrast what is happening in each


In the regular neuron action potential, the membrane current gradually becomes larger and once it reaches a maximum, decreases accordingly. In addition, the membrane voltage climbs quickly and decreases fairly gradually. However, in cardiac cells, as action potential is generated, membrane current quickly spikes and stays constant until the end of the process, while the membrane voltage spikes and stays high through until the end.

Source:
http://thevirtualheart.org/CAPindex.html

BOW: Thinking/Body nerves

BOW 
PART 1
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/thinker_quiz/What are the implications in terms of how you study? In terms of potential careers?


According to the quiz, I am a logical mathematical thinker, or one who learns and solves problems using rationality and enjoys understanding patterns. This means that I should study more of a cause-effect relation in my work and it should make more sense to me when things have a backing or logical support. As far as potential careers go, I should aim to be a physicist, engineer, scientist, etc.

PART 2
Now go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index_interactivebody.shtmldo the nervous system challenge. Write three things you learned about how your body is "wired".


1. The vital organs and direct sensory structures generally connect directly to the brain
2. The parts of the body used less are usually connected to lower sections of the spinal cord
3. Skeletal muscles can connect to various places, but arm muscles generally connect to the cervical portion while leg muscles connect to the sacral portion.






Sources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/thinker_quiz/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index_interactivebody.shtml