Unit 5 Reflection

There are many organs in the body that each regulate unique functions using hormones specific to itself. In Unit 5, we explored the major(ly packed) organs of the digestive system- see http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-digestive-system-lab.html- and also the wide range of hormones and their effects on counteracting conditions adverse to homeostasis.

Fasting State Poster

For example, we focused on the concentration of glucose in the blood, AKA blood sugar, and how it was affected by the diet that people consumed. See: http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2015/10/blood-pressure-virtual-lab.html
We differentiated it into three states: the Fed State, where a meal was just eaten; the Fasting State, where a meal has not been consumed for a few hours; and the Starvation State, in which the body's cells undergo autophagy, breaking down its proteins into energy sources in a desperate attempt to keep the cell functioning.





States occur in response to the concentration of blood sugar in the bloodstream. Since humans' blood sugar levels must be constantly maintained, as long as nutrients from the digestive system are anticipated, the pancreas will release insulin, which basically functions as a signal to remove glucose from the circulatory system as fast as possible. It signals a storage of glucose as a glycogen polysaccharide inside the liver and increase the intake of glucose by the body's various cells (mostly fat and muscle though) through promotion of a specific membrane protein, called GLUT-4. Usually GLUT-4 is stored inside the cell on a vesicle membrane, but in the presence of insulin, the vesicle fuses with the cell membrane and thus disseminates its proteins into the surrounding lipid bilayer. Now, when the blood sugar level decreases to a point where it is too low, the pancreas releases glucagon instead. Glucagon causes the stored glycogen polysaccharides to be broken down in the process of glycogenolysis for glucose, which can then be used for cellular respiration and, thus, energy. These ups and downs are simply represented on the left as double ringed, negative feedback loops.


I had a tough time in this unit memorizing all of the different organ, substance, and process names, and thus couldn't fulfill my objective of scrabbling together a nine hour sleep schedule. However, I have made progress on my SMART goal of studying, and have eliminated a few weaker strategies (e.g. outline format).
see: http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2016/01/smart-goals.html
I really would like to know why many organs have almost unintelligible, unrelated names, and why not change them, like the GLUT-4 protein. The number four seems to correspond with the affinity the integral transport protein has for insulin, and the GLUT portion is reminiscent of glucose-transferring protein. Just a thought.

Well, time to study for my AP Bio test tomorrow as well. Have a nice day!

The Digestive System Lab

Digestive Organ Model

Digestive Organ	Material Used	Approximate Length (cm)
Mouth	red ribbon	12.2
Esophagus	gold ribbon	39.5
Stomach	purple ribbon	14.6
Small Intestine	white string	731.52
Large Intestine	blue ribbon	182.88
TOTALS	-	990.70 => 9.9070m

Questions
1. We took approximate measurements of our own digestive systems and used lengths of string or ribbons to create a crude model representing its length. It was interesting to see how much longer the small intestine was, even longer than all of the other sections put together. I would assume that that length makes the food take longer to pass through the small intestine, and thus allows more nutrients and material to be absorbed from the food.

2. height = 6' 0" = 72 in. = 1.8288 m.
ratio of height to length of digestive system- approximately 1 : 5.4
Since my digestive system is about five and a half times longer than my height, I can only assume it has been folded, squeezed, and stuffed to stay inside my belly.

3. I would think that food particles would take possibly a day or two- from 24 to 48 hours- from the moment they are swallowed to the time when they are finally excreted, varying based on posture and level of activity. However, I am surprised to learn that it actually takes, on average, "53 hours total transit time, from eating to elimination in stool" (Picco). I think that the horrendously long time that our digestive system takes to work is for completely sanitizing and breaking down swallowed food, absorbing as much of the nutrients as possible, and then packaging it (ewww) so that it can be removed efficiently.

4. Digestion is the breakdown of ingested foods and material into forms that the body is then able to manipulate and absorb nutrients from. Digestion involves the mouth (saliva), stomach (digestive enzymes), small intestine, and large intestine, while absorption occurs only in the small and large intestines.

5. How do stomach enzymes and acids break down the many different kinds of food we eat?
Are we born with DNA coding that is specific for each food / molecular substance?

SMART Goals

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound Goals

I will work towards managing my time to attain a nine hour sleeping time for an entire week (10pm bedtime), pushing through homework, sports practices, and planning out studying times. I plan to use the google calendar app to completely plan out my week, and also giving me more experience in learning how quickly I work for specific subjects and assignments, making future estimations more accurate.

I will also create a studying plan that works the most efficiently for myself, through experimenting with different formats and mediums: electronic, paper on a clipboard, outline style, diagram based, chicken scratch notes, etc. This will be implemented throughout the semester and be measured through test and temp-check scores.

Sheep Heart Lab Videos

Walkthrough / Tutorial Video

Heart Cycle Extra Credit Video

Sheep Heart Dissection Lab

Questions
1. What is the purpose of the pericardium?
It is the outermost layer surrounding the heart, like a sac. It serves to protect the heart

2. Observe the blood vessels connecting to heart. How do arteries differ from the veins in their structure?
Veins are smaller. Arteries carries blood away from the heart and vein bring blood to the heart.

3) What function do you think the auricle serves?
The auricle flaps are placed inside the left and right atrium to increase the capacity of the atria.

4) Q: Observe the external structures of the atrias and ventricles. What are the differences?

A:The walls of the ventricles are thicker and more muscular than those of the atria. The right ventricles is the depository for deoxygenated blood from the right atrium. The job of this ventricle is to pump the blood to the lungs so that it can obtain oxygen. The left ventricles is the powerhouse of the heart.

6) (Draw a) picture of the tricuspid valve, including chordae tendineae and the papillary muscle.

7) Why is the “anchoring” of the heart valves by the chordae tendineae and the papillary muscle important to the heart function?
When the heart contracts, the pressure on the valve flaps by blood is counteracted on by the chordae tendinae, anchoring the flaps closed. This keeps blood from flowing backwards through the circulatory system.

8) Using pictures / words, describe what you see after making a cut from the pulmonary veins to the left atrium.

From top to bottom of picture
- bicuspid / mitral / left atrioventricular valve
- chordae tendinae
- papillary muscles

9. What is the function of the semi-lunar valves?
The semilunar valves stop blood from flowing back into the heart from the pulmonary artery and aorta.

10. Valvular heart disease is when one of the heart valves does not work properly. Improperly functioning heart valves can lead to regurgitation, which is the backflow of blood through a leaky value. Ultimately this can lead to congestive heart failure, a condition that can be life threatening.
a) If the valve disease occurs on the right side of the heart, it results in swelling in the feet and ankles. Why might this happen? 
heart disease on the right side of the heart damages the inferior and superior vena cavas, thus blocking the path of blood back to the heart. The pressure will eventually build and cause the veins to expand to compensate.

b) If the valve disease occurs on the left side of the heart, what complications would you expect to see?
Fatigue, soreness, or, in extreme cases, death of tissue that is not able to acquire oxygenated blood due to damage to the pulmonary vein, on the left side of the heart.

11. Using pictures / words, describe what you see after opening the cut from the anterior aorta wall to the apex of the left ventricle.

green - aortic semilunar valve
red     - chordae tendinae (bicuspid valve) [the strings]
white  - papillary muscle (bicuspid valve) [the lumps of muscles, base of chordae tendinae]

12. Describe how the left and right sides of the heart differ from each other.
The left side of the heart receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it to the rest of the body through the aorta, and thus its myocardium is larger and thicker than the right side, which receives deoxygenated blood from the body, and only has to pump it a short way to the lungs.

13. Draw and label all structures visible in the interior of the cross-section.

1) Right Atrium
2) Tricuspid Valve
3) Right Ventricle
4) Left Arium
5) Bicuspid Valve
6) Left Ventricle
7) Chordae Tendinae
8) Papillary Muscles
9) Interventriclar Septum

Unit 3 Reflection

        This unit was mainly focused on, what I feel to be, the memorization and understanding of the circulatory system. The circulatory system, also sometimes called the cardiovascular system, is the system that is an umbrella category for the main organs regulating blood flow, and the blood's functions. The first organ that comes to mind is probably the heart, because it is the main, shall we say, checkpoint of the blood stream, and also functions as a pump, which creates the flow of blood throughout the body. As its myocardium layer contracts, it creates pressure (using valves) which then immediately dissipates with the movement of blood through its channels, such as arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and then veins back to the heart.
        In these channels, atherosclerosis can occur. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of plaque on the walls of these channels, caused by excessive amounts of LDL (low-density lipoproteins). This buildup can cause sections to be blocked off, and if the blockaded section is important enough, like the coronary artery to the heart, essential organs may be damaged and eventually die, killing the organism in the process. That is the true root of heart diseases and even strokes.

Heart Chalk Walk Video

        To maintain and manage my personal cardiovascular health, I will workout with more cardiovascular exercises, and eat less saturated / trans fats, to keep the LDL in my bloodstream low. What I wanted to delve deeper into this unit was how these fatty deposits actually made their way into the bloodstream, as we have only covered the lungs and how it injects oxygen into the red blood cells.
        This unit was filled semi-new terms, and thus I spent more time than usual studying notes and the like. Even after this though, the sections I knew were the most complex, and least discussed, were on the test itself (like the type of test used to diagnose specific cases). I should begin studying earlier and review notes and what activities were done in class every other day, at least.

Monday Wellness (Tuesday 11/3) Reflection

Usually the people that go to a conference, seminar, or other type of presentation as audience members are the ones that expect to learn. The irony is that the host- in this case the presenter(s)- have most likely learned more about themselves, in aspects such as work ethic, time management, and organizational methods, and the topic in question than any audience members engaged in passive listening.
During the initial stages of our planning, we were mainly focused on getting a topic that would be the most supported by scientific evidence, because of the 40 minute lecture time that was given to us to fill. The thing is, when we factored in the “commonality” portion of the assignment- where the topic chosen should be either “something you already do to feel well or something that you are interested in learning more about” (from the instructions)- there were very few options that had, by itself, a multitude of effects that could be easily backed up with scientific facts. Thus we switched our criteria to a topic most relatable to the current unit, and also had connections to other aspects of life. In summation, we chose “relatability”, like the Relate and Reviews you have us do in class to increase our absorption of the material, as our main motivator for choosing jump rope.
Jumping rope, and just jumping in general, has many interesting and often overlooked qualities. It was remarkable how a single exercise was able to demonstrate three organs that could adapt to the stress that was placed upon them: the heart, the lungs (specifically the diaphragm), and bones. The heart becoming larger through cardiovascular exercise is honestly something that didn’t expect. Upon further research, though, I was stopped in my tracks with unanswered questions (like: can the heart grow big enough to be a problem as it is surrounded, in part, by the lungs?) because of the restrictions on scientific papers. One of the most important points, though, that I may not have emphasized sufficiently, is the improvement in coordination that jumping rope can do for your efficiency and precision of movement. The habit of staying on your toes is one I frequently neglect, and thus feel the effects of the most, as a badminton and ultimate frisbee player.
      After the presentation concluded and I looked up to the clock to confirm the time, I was demoralized at only just reaching the thirty minute mark. During run throughs of our presentation (with my double lecture), we averaged at around thirty five minutes without any people responding to our questions, so I naturally assumed that we would break the 40 minute margin during the actual presentation. Unfortunately, I spoke too quickly under stress and cut down the time by a substantial margin. All in all, I feel that the live presentation deserved a 9 / 10 or maybe even a 8.5 / 10.
Initially, there were some activities and secondary engagement tools that I planned to incorporate, but during the week prior to our presentation, we quickly realized that it would be near impossible to develop them to the point where they would look professional during the actual presentation, and thus had to cut them out. This included a jump rope activity demonstrating the “talk test” where we would have split the class into two teams, and provided them with questions from Unit 3, as a review for the test.