Micaiah Achtymichuk’s 3^rd blog: Tuesday; March 30, 2010 3/3.

What we did today: in today’s class we…

• Did a pop quiz on the cell cycle.
• Discussed the yesterday homework questions.
• Talked about mitosis technology- cloning/ in vitro fertilization.
• Labeled microphotographs of cell division,
• Read and discussed cell aging (pages: 562- 563 and 570.)
• Drew a stick figure diagram of IVF vs. Cloning.
• Finished the day with an assignment on the cell cycle and cancer cells.
• (Onion root tip assignment can be found here: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.htm)

(IVF & Cloning diagram)

Thoughts about the material:

I found the Section on the cell clock very interesting, and I attempted to find more information on this Mechanism.

Above and beyond:

On my quest to find answers to my question I was side tracked by an interesting article about the connection between circadian rhythm (a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of living entities) and cell division within organisms, so I posted it instead. The study focused on Bacteria.

"We looked at how the biological clock controls when bacterial cells divide -- in bacteria, there's a period of four hours where the cells are not allowed to divide -- and we identified the structural changes in a key protein that controls this action."

The scientists probed cell division in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus.

“They found that the timing of cell division, patterns of gene expression and compaction of the chromosome are controlled by the circadian clock. What was unknown was precisely how the circadian clock in bacteria controlled cell division. Using time-lapse microscopy, Golden and her colleagues discovered that the clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC in bacteria control the action of a key protein called FtsZ, preventing it from going to the middle of the cell and forming a ring necessary for cell division. After four hours has elapsed, the clock proteins allow FtsZ to move toward the center of the cell and change structurally to form this ring.

"This complex of proteins is at the heart of the bacterial clock controlling cell division," said Golden. "There are two cycles, the cell cycle and the circadian cycle, that need to mesh for organisms to function. What we learned from this study is how these two cycles with different timing periods interact, and that the mechanisms that control the timing of cell division in bacteria are different than they are in eukaryotic cells."

Golden added that knowledge of the mechanisms of how organisms from bacteria to humans control the timing of their cell division and other processes has application to many human problems resulting from disorders in the circadian clock.

The Full article can be found here: (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100218125154.htm)

Sarah M. Blog #2 Wed. March 25, 2010 3/3

What we did today

• Wrote our reproductive system unit test (yay for babies)
• Will write the written response on friday

About the material

It's very interesting to learn about all of the stages that an embryo goes through in order to become a fetus.  It's also interesting to know all of the things that can go wrong, like cleft pallets and spina bifida.  It's a bit of a miracle that an egg gets fertilized by a sperm, that the egg attaches to the right spot in a woman's body and then that the baby is born without problems, because a lot of things can go wrong.  It's amazing to know that most of the development happens within the first three months and after that its just fine tuning and getting bigger.  There are many questions associated with this unit and one i was wondering what causes a woman to have a C-section.

Above and Beyond

I went to the website http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/240_1031.asp and found out that there are many reasons why a woman might require a C-section instead of a normal birth.  Some of the reasons include:

• The woman has already had a c-section in another pregnancy or other surgeries on her uterus.
• The baby is too big to pass safely through the vagina.
• The baby's buttocks or feet enter the birth canal first, instead of the head. This is called a breech position.
• The baby's shoulder enters the birth canal first, instead of the head. This is called a transverse position.
• There are problems with the placenta. Placental problems can cause dangerous bleeding during vaginal birth.
• Labor is too slow or stops.
• The baby's umbilical cord slips into the vagina, where it could be squeezed or flattened during vaginal delivery
• The woman has an infection like HIV or genital herpes.  
• The woman is having twins, triplets or more.
• The baby has problems during labor that show it is under stress, such as a slow heart rate
• The woman has a serious medical condition that requires intensive or emergency treatment (such as diabetes or high blood pressure).
• The baby has a certain type of birth defect.

Aaron. Second blog. Tues, March 23 3/3

Class Reveiw:
Block 1:
Quiz on reproductive technology

Most of the class was a type of lab in wich we checked out many different contraceptives.
We ID them found how each works and there relative effectivness. (some crazy stuff)

Block 2:
We got time to work on test tickets
we watched THE birth movie in all its glory.

Thoughts on Material:
The most effective contraceptives seemed to be the hormonal ones like the pill or the shot. There also seemed to be a lot of variables involved as to if you used them properly. For this reason I think the ones that people can't mess up on like a shot or ring are the most reliable. Since the idea has come up in class before i thot id also check out if I could find any examples or results from men on birth control.

Above and Beyond:
The stats comparing all of the technologies were the same as what we thought. The most common by far was the pill for usage. Technologies like the uterine T implant, implant, and shot were the most effective for the reasons I mentioned above. They didnt leave room for human error. Every type boasted good stats when in perfect usage, the problem seemed to always be the people using them. I got this info at www.gutmatcher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html . 

The second question's search took me to some odd places if you will and I didnt want to keep searching. The most I got was that it would have similar effects as if a female took steroids, just reversed.

Carrie Kibblewhite, Blog #2, March 24 2010, 3/3

What we did today...

- Wrote a brief quiz
- Finished the scary movie
- Got some study questions handing out

Thoughts About The Material...

I didn't know that humans have one of the most dangerous births, I thought that ours would be the safest because we are always surrounded by doctors and such. It doesn't make sense that human babies have the biggest head but the mother has a smaller pelvis, you would think that evolution would have fixed that over time. This got me wondering, just how many high risk pregnancies are there in a year?

Above and Beyond...

I followed this site https://merck.com/mmpe/sec18/ch262/ch262a.html and found these statistics,
- Perinatal mortality rate in offspring is 11.5/1000
- Deliveries: 6.7/1000 are fetal
- 4.8/1000 are neonatal (age < 28 days)
The most common causes of death are congenital malformations and preterm delivery.

Brock Groenewegen, Post #2, March 22 2010, 3/3

Review of the Class:

1. Reviewed last semesters diploma marks

2. Marked Investigation C & D questions

3. Worked on practice diploma questions

4. Discussed reproductive technologies from slide show

·      Abortions

·      In Vitro Fertilization

o       Drawbacks of both

Thoughts about the Material:

            I personally found this information quite dry and uninteresting, but I can understand the complexity of reproduction, pregnancy, birth and the various technologies involved with each. I can also understand how some things, like how the female body knows when to go into labour, when the baby is ready to come out, or what prevents the uterus from pushing the baby out before it is ready, are still an enigma to scientists today.

Additional Insight:  

            I did some follow up on the question posed above “how does the female body know when to go into labour,” and I could not find any information regarding said question, but I did find some interesting information on how to cause contractions to start. Several ways include; acupressure, herbs, and even nipple stimulation. To read more, follow http://howtoinducelabor.weebly.com/.

Meagan F-L, March 16, Blog #2, 3/3

Today in class we:

• Reviewed the worksheet we recieved yesterday
• reviewed the questions on page 529 that were assigned (4, 5, 7, 8)
• reviewed the hormonal control inquiry lab on page 527 (a-k) and took it in for marks
• we finished up the hormonal control portion of our studies
• we worked on the hormonal control flowchart that he handed to us
• we created a HOTFF chart on the hormones involved in pregnancy in the female body
• REMINDER: Female reproductive quiz tomorrow! (the 17th)

About the material:

I think that it's really interesting that only a handful of hormones are responsible for the development and care of a baby, from embryo to fetus and finally to birth.  The order of development was very interesting, especially in how the face devlops.  Who knew that before we were born we had eyes on the side of our heads?  (its just good that they aren't anymore...otherwise your mom really could say that she has eyes on the back of her head, or elsewhere).  When learning about menstruation, a question rose up that questioning why women that are living in the same area will have their menstrual cycles line up (i'm sure that the guys who are stuck in a house full of women would like to know as well...haha).  I wanted to know if there was a real explanation for why this happens.

Above and Beyond:

According to http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2429/does-menstrual-synchrony-really-exist , women's menstrual synchrony is believe to be caused by pheromones in the air that cause a hormonal cue in another woman through the sense of smell.  Some scientists believe that this is not probable because every women's cycle can last for different periods of time.  However, they can't ignore the fact that when women live together in groups there is a tendency for their cycles to synchronize.  The latest argument is that they are caused by pheromones.

I believe that I am justified in recieving a 3/3 for this assignment because I did the required work for all three specified marking categories.

Casie's #2, Thursday, March 18 3/3

Recap

• Slide Show of fetal devolopment, and some issues linked to pregnancy.

Some Thought?

• most material we have covered about pregnacncy and development is awarness based as opossed to memory of parts and functions.
• Eye opener to see how majority of development occurs the first 9 weeks of development, and is very interesting to actually be able to see real photos of the progression of fetal development
• It is an important unit because it makes us more aware of the ethical issues involving reproduction and guides us toward having our own educated opinions of what we consider the beginning of life and what is classified as right vs wrong.
• I find it is a nice change from pure memorization, and encourages more critical thinking on our part.

Addition to Thought...

While watching the slide show many questions come to mind on the many things that can go arye during pregnancy. One on which we touched on was FAS.  This is a disorder that occurs when alcohol is consumed during pregnancy. Alcohol crosses the placential barrier and can stunt fetal growth, create distinctive facial stigmata, damage neurons and brain structure and cause other physical, mental, and behavioural issues. Surveys in the US show that up to 30% of pregnant women report having some amount of alcohol during pregnancy. This is a major issue in the western world, and is the #1 birth defect that can cause numerous forms of retardation, and yet it is preventable. The main effect of FAS is permanent central nervous system damage, especially to the brain. This creates an array of cognitive and functional disabilities including poor memory, attention deficiets, impulsive behaviour, and poor cause/effect reasoning. this is a major issue for our society in that so many complications in education, and integration into the work force take much more time, effort, and money that could be used in research or prevention of disorders that are not preventable. The best way to prevent this disorder from occuring at such high rates is education of the population in human reproduction, and pregnacy through courses such as ours, Bio 30. Until people realize the effect that they have on their babies is so great, there will likely be no change in the trend.  No amount of consumption has been accepted as safe.


www.cps.ca/english/statements/fn/cps96

www.wickepedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_syndrome

Kira Beukeboom Blog #2 Thursday, March 11, 2010 3/3

overview of class:
-went over our endocrine system exam
-read an article about a fifteen year old girl who had no vagina but got pregnant when she was stabbed in the stomach
-we began reviewing the female reproductive system and wrote some notes on it

thoughts and opinions on material:
   I think the reproductive system unit is amazing because its unreal how every one of us began as a single cell. the female body is incredible in its ability to concieve and grow a whole new human inside of it. i think it may be difficult to learn how all the different hormones cause the female reproductive system to do what it does but it'll be interesting. The reproductive system is an amazing thing and I would think it would be able to withstand lots of stresses but if there is to much stress on the female body will that prevent it from functioning properly or at all? has there ever been a case of conjoined triplets?

above and beyond:
   Studies have shown that women with prolonged disorders like bulemia or anorexia can become sterile. When women starve themselves their menstral cycle eventually stops and if they do this for a long period of time they will eventual become sterile (http://www.freeessays.cc/db/39/pko90.shtml). In third world counties or generally where there has been famine there is often cases of women becoming sterile because of long lasting starvation. There has only been two recorded cases of conjoined triplets but others of triplets where only two of the three are conjoined:
-Unidentified (Sicily, Italy, 1834) 3 boys born with a single torso, two hearts, two stomachs, two lungs & three heads. The case was profiled in Gould & Pyle's Curiosities of Medicine.
-Unidentified (Samsun, Turkey, 1955?) Three heads, two pairs of arms, two pairs of legs; lived for 2 hours. On autopsy four lungs, three livers, three brains, two hearts and two kidneys were found. Information appeared in Sexology Magazine in 1955, they cited the Journal of the American Medical Association for the information.
-There have been 43 sets of triplets born with 2 conjoined. Only 6 of those sets have all three surviving, 17 sets I have no stats on, and the rest had one or both conjoined babies die.
http://www.skewsme.com/img/conjoinedbabies_b.jpg

Courtney Caines Blog #2 March 15 2010

Review of the Class:
- Male Reproductive System Quiz
- Recall of Oogenesis
-Talked about menstration
-Talked about Castor Semenya the track star who is a hermaphrodite
-Homework: pg 529 #4578
                    pg 527 a-k

Thoughts on the Material:
I enjoyed learning about this section. It is very interesting to know how the body does this whole thing to help humans procreate. We learned about menstration and how females get ready for pregnancy. Its fascinating what your body does and you dont even realize it.  I was very interested in learning about Castor Semenya. She is a hermaphrodite. Her ovaries are actually testes. So she has never menstrated.   How could that happen? What causes this to happen? Did she still keep her medals as a track star?

Above and Beyond:
Although i enjoyed the class today i was still very interested to know how Castor Semenya became a hermaphrodite. I still am not sure how that would happen.  I used this website
http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2009/09/report-caster-semenya-intersex-internal-testes-and-no-ovaries.html this website talked about the fact that she had testes, and she also had no ovaries and no womb. i used this website
http://reproductivesystem.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_hermaphrodite to find out what a hermpharoite is. I hermaphrodite is some one with bothe male and female parts. this can occur from high levels of male hormones with a female fetus within the womb.

Jesse Reimert 1st Blog Mon. March 8 3/3

Rewiew of Class

• Start New Unit: Human Reproductive System
• Handout on male reproductive system
• Talked about invetro pregnacy
• Other animal reproductive cycles

Thoughts About Material

This new unit seems like it will be fairly easy.  I hope there isn't anything too complex but it should be pretty straght forward.  It is going to be really interesting learning about all the different parts of the human body. Human anatomy is going to be sweet. It is also going to be different to learn about all my own body parts because you can't see some of them.  It's weird that some animals have such short reproductive cycles and I look forward to finding out why.

Above and Beyond

 Some other species take alot longer than humans to reproduce, such as elephants.  Once an elephant becomes pregnant she carries the calf for 21-23 months.  This is an advantage because the fetus has more time to develope and thus be stroger and not as fragile once it's born.  Elephants also have some of the same characteristics as humans like going through menapause and reaching sexual maturity.  There is more interesting info if you go to the following link.

http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/Life_Cycles/Adult/adult.html

Micaiah Achtymichuk’s 2^nd blog: Wednesday- March 10^th, 2010. 3/3

What we did today...

(Block 1)

·       We did the multiple choice and numerical response for the unit test on the Endocrine system.

·       After completing MC we worked on any uncompleted work/ tickets to the test/ male reproductive system worksheets.

(Block 2)

·       We completed the written response/short answer component for the Endocrine system.

·       After completing we worked on any uncompleted work/ tickets to the test (Mr. Blankies, HOTFF Charts...) and male reproductive system worksheets.

·       AND that is Wednesday biology double block in a nut shell folks.

Thoughts about the material:

·       After discussing the amount of sperm produced by a human male daily and amount contained in the average ejaculation, it wonder how a verial male and female could fail to achieve pregnancy...

Above and beyond (Meta- cognition):

Both women and men have hormonal cycles which determine both when a woman can achieve pregnancy and when a man is most virile. The female cycle is approximately twenty-eight days long, but the male cycle is variable. Men can ejaculate and produce sperm at any time of the month, but their sperm quality dips occasionally, which scientists guess is in relation to their internal cycle.

Furthermore, age also plays a role, especially for women.

Although women can become pregnant at any time during their menstrual cycle, peak fertility occurs during just a few days of the cycle: usually two days before and two days after the ovulation date. This fertile window, varies from woman to woman, just as the ovulation date often varies from cycle to cycle for the same woman. The ovule is usually capable of being fertilized for up to 48 hours after it is released from the ovary. Sperm survive inside the uterus between 48 to 72 hours on average, with the maximum being 120 hours (5 days).

These periods and intervals are important factors for couples using the rhythm method of contraception.

So at this answers at least part of the equation...

I got my information here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility#Human_fertility) and i found a video about the subject here... (http://www.discoverychannel.ca/Showpage.aspx?sid=16698)

Jeff Smith for the class of Tuesday, march 9th. 2nd blog 3/3

Review of class:
-began with formative quiz on second half of the endocrine system
-marked and reviewed answers for tomorrow's Unit final
-began new notes on the reproduction and development unit. specifically the male reproductive system
-were given ticket to test for male reproductive system.

Thoughts on the material:
The material in class today is very interesting. I find myself becoming intrigued with the information we're covering so far in this unit. As we learn more about our bodies and what makes them tick i find myself becoming more diligent in doing homework and getting to know my material!-who knew. One fact that i found particularly interesting was that there are so many obstacles and counteractions by the male body on the way to becoming pregnant. The environment inside the female body is very acidic..perhaps it shows through to their attitude at times? and the male body must secrete fluids from the prostate gland and cowper's gland to neutralize the acidity of the female body and provide a plausible way to get to the egg in the female reproductive system.

Above and Beyond:
With all the new information in this day of classes, it seems that a poor little sperm has little chance of actually making it all the way to the egg and being the one who actually gets the fertilizing done. Mathematically, if 500000000 sperm cells are delivered in an ejaculation, the probability of any given single cell to be the one who actually fertilizes the egg is2.0x10-9! very small percentage chance!

Sarah Milewicz's First Blog. Wed. March 3rd, 2010 3/3

Review of class

• Quiz 1 on the endocrine system
• Marked quiz
• Unit exam on endocrine system Wed. March 10
• Looked at more ES diploma style questions
• Went over notes sheet about hormones that affect water and ion balance
• Received another handout about our body`s reaction to stress

Thoughts about the material

We looked the other day at how things can go wrong with your endocrine system.  If there is too much of one hormone produced or too little.  I was wondering how often it occurred that people had too much or too little of a certain hormone, specifically TSH because we`ve been looking at goiters and other symptoms associated with an under or over active thyroid.

Above and Beyond

I found on http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/underactive_thyroid.html that about 19 in every 1,000 women and 1 in 1,000 men in the UK, will develop hypothyroidism at some point in their lives and on http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/overactive_thyroid.html i found out that about one in 500 men and one in 50 women in the UK, will develop hyperthyroidism at some point in their lives.  Hyperthyroidism seems to be more common to happen than hypothyroidism, but neither seem to be too common excpet for hyperthyroidism in women.

Aaron. First blog. Mon, March 1 3/3

Reveiw of Class
- went over N.S unit exam numeric response and short answer

 Recap:
- low blood sugar and insulin HOTFF
 -Cortisol HOTFF
 -Hormones associated with adrenal medulla

Started Hormones affecting metabolism- 15.3

We finished class with time to work on test tickets.

Thoughts on Material:
I found myself questioning how thyroid hormones regulate metabolism and found that this was not covered, just that they did. Also knowing someone whose had a goiter I was wondering what was the actuall swelling. Is it a build up of hormones or is it the gland itself? Dealing with the recap in class and insulin, i think trying to regulate yourself with needles if you have diabetes would be very hard. In todays worl I'm surrprised that there isnt a better solution (other than the pump) like a transplant.

Above and Beyond:
I checked out www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_hormone#Function to find the function of thyroxing but I was unable to find a good source on how thyroid hormones work but i did learn that T3 is 3-4 times more potent than T4.

As far as the goiter I found some great stuff at www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-117220/Goiter?q=goiter. The main cause is Iodine defficiency and the thyroid grows in order to increase surface area to get more iodine. Eating food like cabbage and broccoli can also worsen this problem. Goiters caused by diseases seem to be brought on by simple swelling from overstimulation. 

The idea of a pancrease transplant faces problems like rejection, infection, and are not recomended (along with beta cell implants) unless the patient is also having kindney transplant. The kidney transplant is a common and simple operation for diabetics facing complication associated with their disease. While at it, it is relatively easy and un-invasive to perform the pancrease implant although it is seldom performed. There is also the ability to transplant a partial pancrease from a living donor. www.faqs.org/faqs/diabetes/faq/part3/section-14.html

Carrie, Blog #1. Tuesday, March 2/10. Mark 3/3

What we did today...


1. Pop quiz
2. Finished the hormones related to metabolism
3. Worksheet on hormones realted to water balance
REMINDER..
Quiz tomorrow on blood sugar and metabolism hormones and our Unit exam is next wednesday.

Thoughts About The Material...

I never realized just how many homrones there were invovlved in our body. What I never knew was that you could produce a growth hormone out of bacteria by inserting human genes. I thought that the only way you could get hormones was chemically, like insulin injections, and naturally. I didn't think you could make grow then using bacteria out of common things such as banana's, I was just wondering if they had some major side effects, like if they caused pospubescent hyperproduction?

Above and Beyond

I followed this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone#Side-effects and found out that rhGH can cause an increase in the risk of diabetes, if used for training it can cause growth at a younger age, increase in colon and prostate cancer as well as joint swelling joint pain, carpal tunnel and less sleep.