Tuesday, December 4, 2012

BOOK REVIEW

Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: FSG Classics, 1997. ISBN 978-0-374-53340-3
$15.00

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman argues that the cultural differences between western civilization and the Hmong hilltribe people led a young girl with epilepsy into a vegetative state. The author does a good job at supporting her argument with evidence which include several interviews of people involved in this tragedy. The author achieves the stated purpose of the book by giving a detailed storyline explaining the events leading up to the young Hmong girl’s, Lia Lee, vegetative state. The cultural differences between western medicine and the Hmong society created misunderstandings between the Lee’s, the Hmong family, and the staff at Merced Medical Center in Merced, California.
In the organization of this book, it is broken down into 19 chapters, with notes on the source, bibliography, acknowledgements, and an index at the end. The book begins by describing the Hmong hilltribe people from Laos, Southeast Asia. This community is small and migrated to the United States in 1980 when they were driven out of southeast asia by the Chinese. The author traveled to Merced, California when she was hearing about all these misunderstandings between the hospital staff and their Hmong patients due to extreme cultural differences. In Chapter 1, she goes into detail about the traditional customs of giving labor in the Hmong community and how Lia’s, the Lee’s first child born in the United States, labor was so much different than their first 12 babies. In the Hmong culture, women gave birth in their one room huts and pulled the baby themselves out of the womb. The mother, Foua, wouldn’t make a noise and the father, Nao, would cut the umbilical cord and tie it with a string and bury the placenta under their hut. The Hmong had several different kinds of remedies they would use for medicine. A shaman was a person who could interact with the unseen world and negotiate with spirits to heal the person’s soul. The Hmong also believe in the dab, a bad spirit, in which they would take superstitious precautions to make sure there soul wasn’t taken by the dab. The author states how the Hmongs belief that when someone is sick, they can be healed through the soul, was the hardest difference between the medical staff and the Hmong patients to overcome. When Lia had her first seizure, by the time she had gotten to the hospital it had stopped, because of the language barrier and the staffs lack of Hmong speaking staff, the Lee’s couldn’t explain to the medical staff what had happened. Lia was discharged a few hours later and the medical records stated that Lia was diagnosed with pneumonia. A few months later, It took Lia actually seizing when she arrived at the hospital to get the correct diagnosis. In one of the Fadiman’s (1997) interviews, a doctor at the hospital stated that he believed Lia’s outcome would've been totally different if the doctors could have gotten her on the correct medicine right off the bat (p. 101).  

To the Hmong, people with epilepsy “experienced s “experienced powerful senses of grandeur and spiritual passion during their seizures and powerful creative urges in their wake” (Fadiman 1997 p.28). The author explains how they believe epileptics have a special connection with spirits which was a blessing. This belief and their language barrier made it extremely difficult for the Hmong to keep track of all the medication they were suppose to administer to Lia and what time of day to do it. The storyline takes a sad turn when the hospital called DCFS because they claimed that Lia’s parents weren’t doing their job as parent’s at taking care of their child. Lia was put into foster care for 6 months until the court finally came to the conclusion that Lia’s parents didn’t understand the medication regimen. In the end, it took one seizure lasting 2 hours that forced Lia into a vegetative state. It was only then, that the doctors let Lia’s parents take their daughter home and practice the medicine that they were familiar to.
In this book, the author did a great job at supporting her thesis of the cultural differences being the underlying cause of Lia Lee’s ultimate vegetative state. Her interviews with the medical staff and others involved in the tragedy really make the story come to life and the reality of western medicine practice. The author does an excellent job explaining the Hmong culture because it is so unique and different for majority of the readers. The author refers to specific vocabulary used in the Hmong community and makes sure she defines them in a clear, precise way. Anne Fadiman paints a picture of the Hmong lifestyle before and after they were forced to migrate to the United States. The great detail Fadiman uses illustrates the extreme differences of the two cultures wonderfully which helps support her thesis.
There were few weaknesses this book. The book does a good job of defining the different Hmong culture, however, fails to define any medical terms used in the book. Most the time it wasn’t that important to know what the terms meant, but if you are not in the medical field, these aspect of the book were difficult to understand. The medical terms used were confusing but they weren’t important in the overall theme, as long as you understood that the treatments were far from anything the Hmong culture were use to.
Overall, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is an eye-opening book about medical practice in the western civilizations. The cultural differences between the Hmong and western civilizations clash which drives a young Hmong child into a vegetative state for the rest of her life. This book reminds you that it is important for medical professionals to compromise with patients with difficult cultures yet still keep in mind that the duty of your job is to heal people. This book opens the mind to different medical practices and that maybe the way western medicine is practiced isn’t perfect and necessarily the only way healing can be done. I would recommend this book to anyone who's a medical professional or interested in the medical field.



Laura Esche

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Chapter 13: The Peripheral Nervous System and Reflex Activity


                The peripheral nervous system contains all the neural structures outside the brain and spinal cord. This includes the sensory receptors, peripheral nerves, associated ganglia, and motor endings. The peripheral nervous system provides links to and from the external environment.
                Sensory receptors are a big portion of the peripheral nervous system; they are special structures to respond to stimuli. The activation of sensory receptors results in the depolarization that triggers impulses to the CNS. The understanding of these stimuli, sensation and perception all occur in the brain. It is important to remember with sensory receptors is that is isn’t necessarily important where the information is coming from, but more so where the input goes in the brain is what is important. All the receptors can be classified by their type of stimulus.
a. Mechanoreceptors-  respond to touch, pressure, vibrations, stretch, and itch
b. Thermoreceptors- responds to change in temperature
c. Photoreceptors- responds to light energy, for example the retina
d. Chemoreceptors- responds to chemicals, for example, smells, taste, and also changes in blood chemistry
e. Nociceptors- sensitive to pain-causing stimuli
Not only can receptors be classified by stimulus type, but they can also be categorized by their location.
1.       Exteroceptors (outside the body)- these type of receptors respond to stimuli arising outside the body, these are usually found near the body’s surface. They are sensitive to touch, pressure, pain, and temperature, this classification includes the special sense organs.
2.       Interoceptors (within the body)- these receptors are found in internal viscera and blood vessels. These are sensitive to chemical changes, stretch, and temperature changes.
3.       Proprioceptors- these receptors respond to degree of stretch of the organs that they occupy. These are found in the skeletal muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and connective tissue coverings of bones and muscles. It helps to think of these receptors as “advising” the brain of one’s movement. Because of these receptors, is why you know where your legs or arms are for example without even looking at them. But on the other hand, you make “know” where certain organs are in your body because you have studied diagrams but your brain can’t really distinguish exactly where they are.

Check back next week for a book review on "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman and also key points of chapter 14 in your anatomy book!




Word Count: 360 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Chapter 12: The Central Nervous System


                This week we’re discussing the central nervous system in more detail. The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. A vocabulary word you may want to be familiar with is cephalization. This is the evolution of the brain and how the elaboration of the anterior portion of the central nervous system, it also increases in neurons in the head and the highest level of this is shown in the human brain.
                The brain is composed of wrinkled, pinkish gray matter. The adult brain structure is broken up into 3 surface structures, the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. These structures are further broken down into smaller categories; this can get confusing to understand so I am going to try and break it down, also you can find a handy diagram on page 429 of the text book that gives you a good visual of the structures of the brain.
1.     1.  Prosencephalon (forebrain)
a.       Telencephalon- contains the cerebrum: cortex, white matter and basal nuclei (derived from the lateral ventricles)
b.      Diencephalon- contains the thalamus, hypothalamus, and epithalamus (derived from the third ventricle)
2.     2.  Mesencephalon (midbrain)
a.       Mesencephalon- contains the brain stem and the midbrain (derived from the cerebral aqueduct)
3.    3.   Rhombencephalon (hindbrain)
a.       Metencephalon- contains the brain stem and pons (derived from the fourth ventricle)
b.      Myelencephalon- contains the medulla oblongata (derived from the fourth ventricle)

The two cerebral hemispheres are the biggest structure of the brain and most likely what you think of when you think of the brain. The brain contains ridges which are referred to as the gyri. The cerebral hemispheres contain shallow grooves called sulci. Lastly, it contains contain deep grooves called fissures. The fissures divide the large regions of the brain. The sulci divide the hemispheres into five lobes; frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and insula.

The cerebral cortex is make of superficial gray matter and this portion of the brain accounts for 40% of the mass of the brain. The main function of the cortex is that is enables us to be aware of ourselves, sensations, to communicate, to remember, and also to initiates voluntary movements. There are three types of functional areas are: Motor areas (control voluntary movements), sensory areas (conscious awareness of sensation), and association area (integrates diverse information). You need to be able to identify these areas on the brain and on page 434 there is a diagram with these areas as well as other structures of the brain that you need to know.
Word count: 414

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Chapter 11: The Nervous System


                The nervous system has a lot of information involved! It is the master controlling system of the body. Its major functions are monitoring stimuli, interpreting sensory input, and responding to stimuli.  It is broken down into the Central Nervous System which is the brain and spinal cord and the Peripheral Nervous System which is the nerves outside of the central nervous system.
The PNS has two functional divisions which include the sensory (afferent) division and motor (efferent) division. The afferent division is further divided sensory afferent fibers (carries impulses from the sensory receptors to CNS) and visceral afferent fibers which transmit impulses from visceral organs. The motor division transmits impulses from the CNS to effector organs and is also divided into two main parts, one, is the somatic nervous system which is the conscious control of the skeletal muscles and the automatic nervous system which regulates the activity of smooth and cardiac muscles as well as glands.
The nervous system is also broken up into two different cell divisions: neurons and neuroglia. Neurons are excitable cells that transmit electrical signals. Neuroglia, or glial cells, are the glue and support for neurons.  Other functions of the Neuroglia include: segregating and insulating neurons, guide young neurons to the proper connections, and promote health and growth. There are multiple types of glial cells that we are responsible for knowing.
1.       Astrocytes- these cells are the most abundant and versatile of all the glial cells and are highly branched.  These cells cling to neurons and their synaptic endings and covers capillaries. There major functions include: support and brace neurons, anchor neurons to their nutrient supplies, guide migration of young neurons, and control the chemical environment of the cell.
2.       Microglia- these cells are small, ovoid shapes with spiny processes. These types of cell act as phagocytes that monitor the health of neurons
3.       Ependymal- these cells range in shape from squamous to columnar. These function for lining the central cavities of the brain and spinal column
4.       Oligodendrocytes- these cells are branched cells that wrap CNS nerve fiber.
The nervous system has a ton of information and large vocabulary words. I wouldn’t waste time on making notecards for every single bolded word, I would check back at the end of the chapter to do the review quiz and go over the summary points!

Word Count: 391

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Chapter 10: More on the Muscle system!


This week we are discussing chapter 10 goes into greater detail about the muscles as an organ.  Muscles have four functional groups: prime movers, antagonist, synergists, and fixators.  The prime movers are also known as agonists and provide the major force for creating muscle contractions. The antagonist opposes a particular movement. The synergists add force to a movement and also reduce undesirable or unnecessary movement.  Lastly, the fixators are synergists that immobilize a bone or also the muscle’s origin. An example of these functions would be flexion of the arm. In this scenario, the bicep brachii would be the prime mover or agonist and the tricep brachii would be the antagonist.

Also, there are several types of arrangements that muscles can be in which make them function in different ways. First, parallel are fascicles that run parallel to the long axis of the muscle, a good example of this is the Sartorius which is one of the main muscles of the quadriceps.  Then we have the fusiform, which is spindle-shaped muscle, an example of this type of muscle would be the biceps brachii. The pennate arrangement are short fascicles that attach diagonally to the central tendon running through the length of that muscle, an example of this would be the rectus femoris, also found in the quadriceps.  Next, convergent are when the fascicles converge from a broad origin to a single tendon insertion; this looks like the pectoralis major muscles. Lastly, the circular arrangements are when the fascicles are arranged in rings, such is the muscle around your mouth called the orbicularis oris.

The majority of chapter 10 has a ton of diagrams of the muscles and their names. For the test, try and focus on not only where they are located, but also their function because there will be a little description in the exam question that might give away the muscle even if you don’t know exactly what the diagram is pointing to. Also, remember muscles and their agonist and antagonists. Another helpful study tip for this section is flex or extend the muscle being discussed so you can know the movement and an idea of where the location is on you actual body. These tips helped me for studying for the exam so I hope that it helps you! Check back next week for more study tips!

Word Count: 390

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Chapter 9: The Muscle System


Chapter 9 is all about the Muscle System. This chapter can be a lot of memorizing! It helps me to remember the skeletal system; a lot of the names of muscles have the name of the bone in it! Prefixes such as sacro, myo, and mys all mean flesh aka muscle! So, during your exam you can use process of elimination by finding words you are already familiar with!

 There are 3 types of muscle tissues: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. My blog this week is going to focus on these 3 types and break down there different characteristics. But first let’s talk a little bit about their similarities. Skeletal and smooth muscle cells are elongated and called muscle fibers. Actin and myosin are two kinds of myofilaments that are used in muscle contractions. There are also similar terminologies used in all muscle types. Sarcolemma is the muscle plasma membrane and sarcoplasm is the cytoplasm of a muscle cell.

Skeletal Muscle Tissue- This type of muscle tissue has striations and its voluntary. It can contract extremely fast but it also tries easily. This type of tissue is responsible for overall body movement. It is very adaptable and can handle a wide range of forces. Each muscle is a distinct organ with muscle tissue, blood vessels, nerve fibers, and also connective tissue.

Cardiac Muscle Tissue- Is found only in the heart, what a surprise being called cardiac muscle! This type of tissue is also striated like skeletal muscle.  This type of muscle tissue is involuntary (you don’t have to consciously make your heart pump). There are 54 sinoatrial nodes rhythmicity control and acts of the pacemaker in the heart. The central nervous system controls the rate of the heart pump.

Smooth Muscle Tissue- This type of tissue is found in the walls of hallow organs: stomach, urinary bladder, respiratory passages. This muscle’s main function is to force food and other substances through the internal body channels. This type of tissue is striated and is also involuntary, much like cardiac muscle tissue.

There are four main functional characteristics of muscle tissue: excitability/irritability (ability to receive and respond to stimuli), contractility (ability to shorten forcibly), extensibility (the ability to be stretched or extended), and elasticity (ability to recoil and resume the original resting length).

The muscle system can be a lot of information! So I suggest reviewing the muscles a little each day so when it comes to studying for the test, the muscle memorizing will already be done! 


Word Count: 415

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Chapter 8: Joints


                This week I am going to go over Chapter 8 from our book which is all about joints! Joints are articulations with the bones of the skeleton and are the weakest part of the actual skeleton. The main functions of the joints are to give the skeleton mobility and also hold the skeleton together, two very important aspects in anatomy and physiology! Joints can be classified into 3 functional classes; Synarthroses, Amphiarthroses (slightly movable), and Diarthroses (freely movable). There are also three types of fibrous structural joints…

1.  Sutures- This type of joints occurs in the skill between the different bones. It is made up of interlocking junctions that is completely filled with connective tissue fiber. This connective tissue fiber helps bind these bones extremely tightly together but yet still allow growth during youth. In the middle age when the skull bones fuse together they are then called synostoses.

2. Synarthroses- these joints are when bone is connected by a fibrous tissue ligament. These types of joints are immovable. Examples of these types of joints are the tibia and fibula in your leg as well as your radius and ulna in your forearm.  The joint between the tibia and fibula don’t move the skeleton however, they still articulate together in order to support each other.

3. Gomphoses- This fibrous structural joint is better described with the name “peg-in-socket.”  An example of this joint is like a tooth and the way it articulates with the alveolar socket. Remember that the fibrous connection in this joint is the periodontal ligament.
Next, I want to discuss the differences between the two types of cartilaginous joints; synchondroses and symphyses. Synchrondroses is a plate of hyaline cartilage brings the bone together. I like to use the root word chrond- to remember that it means cartilage. An example of the synchrondroses cartilaginous joint is the epiphyseal plate of children. This joint in the bone is made of hyaline cartilage so the bone has room to grow outside of the womb. Another example is the joint between the costal cartilage of the first rib and the sternum. Next, the Symphyses cartilaginous joint is when hyaline cartilage covers the bones where they meet and is fused to an pad of fibrocartilage. An example of symphyses joint is the intervertebral joints and also the pubic symphysis of the pelvis. This type of joint is tricky to visualize, I like to picture it almost like a sandwich. You have your fibrocartilage sandwiched by two pieces of hyaline cartilage and then that is sandwiched by 2 bones.
Check back next week for review on chapter 9!



Word count: 435

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Chapter 6: The Skeletal System


Welcome back! This week we are focusing in on the skeletal system which is discussed in GREAT detail in Chapter 6 of our Anatomy & Physiology book.  Bones are classified by the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton.  Then, they are further broken down into different classifications by their shape (long, short, flat and irregular bones).  The main functions of the skeletal system are support, protection, movement, mineral/growth factor storage, and blood cell formation.
There are a lot of different types of bone markings, bulges, depressions, and holes that are used for muscle, ligament, and tendon attachment, as joint surfaces, and lastly conduits for blood vessels and nerves. There are a bunch of names for there are different markings, I would recommend making notecards of all these terms for the test because these marking names seem like easy exam questions that you don’t want to miss! Here is a list of all the vocabulary that you should make sure you have memorized!

  • ·         Process- any bony prominence
  • ·         Tuberosity- rounded projection
  • ·         Crest- narrow, prominent ridge of bone
  • ·         Trochanter- large, blunt, irregular surface
  • ·         Line- narrow ridge of bone
  • ·         Tubercle- small rounded projection
  • ·         Epicondyle- raised area above a condyle
  • ·         Spine- sharp, slender projection
  • ·         Head- bony expansion carried on a narrow neck
  • ·         Facet- smooth, nearly flat articular surface
  • ·         Condyle- rounded articular projection
  • ·         Ramus- arm-like bar of bone
  • ·         Meatus- canal-like passageway
  • ·         Sinus- cavity within a bone
  • ·         Fossa- shallow, basin-like depression
  • ·         Groove- furrow
  • ·         Fissure- narrow, slit-like opening
  • ·         Foramen- round or oval opening through a bone


If you memorize these terms, it will be easier to be able to point out certain markings on specific bones during the exam. If you look at the structure that is being asked to identify, you will have these terms memorized and could use process of elimination to figure out the correct answer!

Next, I am briefly going to discuss the 2 different types of bone texture. The first is compact bone. This texture of bone is found right on the inside of the articular cartilage of the bone. It is mostly there for protection. The second texture of bone is spongy bone. This is like honeycomb of trabeculae foiled and it contains red or yellow bone marrow. It is located in the center of the bone.

Remember to keep reviewing and reading for more studying tips and key points from the book!


Word count: 390

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Chapter 5; The Integumentary System


Hey guys! 

This week we are going over chapter 5 which is all about the integumentary system! 

First, lets talk about the skin, I would consider this a pretty important aspect of the integumentary system! The skin has 3 major regions that you need to remember...

  1. Epidermis- the outer most protective shield of the body! Structurally, the epidermis is made up of keratinized (proteins) stratified squamous cells. There can be four or five layers of these cells.
  2. Dermis- this is the middle region of the skin structure. This middle region makes up the majority of the skin. It is very tough and a leathery texture. This is made up of mainly fibrous connective tissue.
  3. Hypodermis- You might see this called superficial fascia, as well. This is is your deep subcutaneous tissue skin. This is not “technically” part of the skin but it helps in the protection of the body, much like the epidermis and dermis.

Next, the chapter goes into detail about skin color. There are 3 different pigments that contribute to your skin color!

  1. Melanin- responsible for yellow to reddish and brown-black pigment. This is a polymer made of amino acids. This is the time of pigment you think of when you get tan. When our skin is exposed to sunlight, melanin builds up and this causes our skin to darken visibly. Caucasians have little melanin because they are fair skinned.
  2. Carotene- this is a yellow to orange pigment found in certain plant products (carrots).Carotene can be converted into Vitamin A which is important for normal vision as well as epidermal health
  3. Hemoglobin- is the reddish pigment responsible for the pinkish hue of the skin. Since Caucasians are fair skinned because they have little melanin, the epidermis is pretty much see-through and this allows for the hemoglobin to show through.

Your skin color can tell you important things about your health;
  • Jaundice (yellowish cast)- this usually signifies a liver disorder
  • Blanching (Pale)- during fear, anger, and other types of emotional stress some people become pale. Also, this could be a sign of anemia or low blood pressure
  • Bronzing- a bronze metallic appearance of the skin is a sign of Addison disease. 
  • Bruises- reveals when blood has escaped from the circulation and clotted beneath the skin


I hope this quick breakdown of the integumentary system helps you understand the basics of chapter 5!

Word count: 398

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Chapter 4: Tissues


Welcome back, students! This week we are going to go over the basics of Tissues in the human body! There are 4 main types of tissue; Epithelial, connective, muscle, and nerve. 

First, lets talk about Epithelial tissue. There are 3 types of Epithelial tissue; Cutaneous, mucus and serous. The cutaneous type is the tissue of your skin. The mucus tissue is the type of tissue that lines your viscera for example your digestive and respiratory track . Serous is the membrane sound in you ventral body cavity (remember the ventral body cavity is the cavities that house your organs). The main functions of the epithelial tissue is to supported by connective tissue, contains no blood vessels but supplied by nerve fibers, and regenerative. It is important that Epithelial tissue is regenerative because this function rapidly produces more skin cells if you ever get a cut or scrap. 

Second, Connective Tissue is the most abundant and widely distributed out of all the different types of tissue. There is proper connective tissue which is dense tissue and there is special tissue. The connective special tissue are the blood, cartilage, and bone tissue. The main functions of this tissue is support, protection, insulin and transportation. These special tissues have special cells chondroblasts for cartilage, osteoblasts for bones, and hematopoietic stem cells for blood. 

The muscle and nerve fiber are the least abundant type but that does not mean they arent important! Nervous tissue has branched neurons with long cellular process and support cells. Nervous tissue transmit electrical signals from sensory receptors and effectors (what we learned about a few blogs back!). Muscle tissue has two different types, skeletal and cardiac. The skeletal tissue is long with multiple nuclei. This particular tissue initiates and controls the voluntary movement in the body. The Cardiac muscle tissue is branchy with only one nucleus and also has interlocking discs that work as gap junctions. The function of the cardiac muscle tissue, as you may of guessed, pumps blood into the circulation. This type of tissue is found on the walls of the heart.

I hope this breakdown of the different types of tissues makes reading or rereading chapter 4 in the Human Anatomy and Physiology book!

Good Luck on your first semester exams!


Word Count: 375

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Chapter 3: The Cell Cycle


This week, we are going to go into detail about the cell cycle (Mitosis) which is discussed in great detail in chapter 3! 

1. Interphase
    Cells in the human body are most of the time in this phase. This phase is when a cell is going through its normal routines and functions. This phase is not considered part of Mitosis. Genetic material in this phase is in the form of chromatin. The nucleus looks like its normal self here, the nucleus is visible (at least under a microscope). Even though the cell is going through its normal routine, the DNA is being replicated and preps for actual Mitosis.

  1. Prophase
    Prophase is a long stage and often divided into early and late prophase.
Early- Chromatin forms sister chromosomes attached by the centromere. Spindle fibers are starting to be formed. 
Late- In late prophase, the nuclear envelope starts to break up and the spindle fibers that were formed earlier in prophase start to attach to the chromosomes. Also, the centrioles are heading to opposite polls of the cell.

When you look under the microscope at prophase, you can tell it apart because the nucleus looks like it has several holes in it. Also, sometimes the chromosomes look like little squiggles in the inside of the cell.

  1. Metaphase
   In metaphase, the centrioles are at their opposite ends of the cell and the chromosomes are lined up on the metaphase plate. (That is easy to remember, during metaphase chromosomes are lined in the center of the cell on something that looks like an equator). In looking at this stage under a microscope, you can see the sister chromosomes all lined up in the center of the cell, for me, metaphase is the easiest phase to point out under a microscope because it is the most unique.

  1. Anaphase
    In this stage, the centromeres of the sister chromosomes are pulled apart simultaneously and you can see chromosomes being pulled to opposite sides of the cells from the spindle fibers toward opposite centrioles. 

  1. Telophase
    When the chromosomes are stopped moving is when telophase starts. It helps me to think of telophase as the opposite of prophase. Here, the chromosomes condense and turn back into chromatin. The nuclear envelope starts to reform around the chromosomes. Telophase is hard for me to point out in the microscope because it looks similar to other phases. It helps me to look for a cleavage furrow, it looks like siamese twin cells, they are still connected but you can still see the 2 separate  cells. 

  1. Cytokinesis
   Mitosis ends with the split of the cytoplasm to form 2 identical cells

I hope this breakdown of the cell cycle helps you remember certain phases and also help you during lab practical!


Word count: 437

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Chapter 2: Part 2


       The second part of the chapter continues to go into depth on chemistry. There are several other key aspects of chemistry that are important when learning about anatomy and physiology. First, let us go over what polar and nonpolar covalent bonds mean. Nonpolar covalent bonds have electrons that are shared equally.  This produces electron balance, which means that no side of the molecule is charged. An example of a nonpolar molecule is CO2. Polar covalent bonds are when the electrons are shared unequally, which means the atoms in the bond can have different charges. This creates something called a dipole. A dipole means one side of the molecules electronegative and the other side is electropositive.  An example of a polar molecule is water, H2O. Polar and nonpolar molecules are important in anatomy and physiology when learning about different parts of the cell.
      A great example of how polar and nonpolar molecules work is the cell membrane. When looking at a cell membrane up close it has a bilayer, two layer, and membrane. This membrane is made up of phospholipids which have a polar and nonpolar side.  The inside of the bilayer is nonpolar and the outsides are polar. This is important for the cell because it allows cells to work well with water in the cell and outside of the cell. Molecules need to pass through the cell membrane in order to feed the cell and also get things out of the cell.


The second thing I am going to discuss is different reactions.


Synthesis Reactions           A+B-àAB
  • ·         Taking small molecules and making them big
  • ·         anabolic reaction
  • ·         always involved bond formation


Decomposition reactions   ABà A+B
  • ·         breaking down a molecule into smaller molecules
  • ·         catabolic reaction
  • ·         reverse of synthesis


Exchange reactions           AB+ CàAC + B
  • ·         AKA displacement reaction
  • ·         Involving both synthesis and decomposition
  • ·         Example: ATP transfers its terminal phosphate group to glucose

Oxidation reactions
  • ·         AKA Redox reactions
  • ·         Food fuels are broke down for energy
  • ·         Involve exchange reaction between reactants
  • ·         If the products added a Hydrogen is it called a Reduction
  • ·         If the products gave a Hydrogen it is oxidize
     A mnemonic device I use to remember which reaction is reduction or oxidation is
           LEO SAYS GER
    Lose an electron= oxidized
    Gain an electron= Reduction


Tune in next week for Chapter 3 review!

word count: 362







Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Chapter 2: Basic Chemistry (Part 1)


Chapter 2 in the Human Anatomy & Physiology is all about chemistry! This isn’t always everybody’s favorite topic so I am going to break down the chapter into 2 blogs because it has A LOT of information! Hopefully this post helps break down the basics of chemistry and is helpful for studying!

First, let’s go over the definition of matter. The authors define matter as anything that has mass and occupies space. Matter can be found in 3 different states, solid, liquid, and gas. All matter is composed of elements, substances that can’t be broken down into simpler substances, and these elements have different chemical and physical properties. Atoms, which make up elements, are what give these elements their physical and chemical properties. It helps me to look at the periodic table when discussing elements because it has pretty much everything you need to know about them right on the table!

periodic_table.gif





As you can see, the diagram shows you a few different parts. The element symbol is the abbreviation of the element name, which for this diagram is C.  The atomic number of carbon is 6. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons the element has in the nucleus. This is important for finding out how many electrons and neutrons there are in an element! Lastly, the atomic weight of the element is located usually on the under the element name. The atomic weight is the average mass of the element.

Now that we’ve gone over a little about the different parts of the periodic table, I want to discuss a little about the different types of chemical bonds. An Ionic bond is when atoms gain or lose electrons and comes charged, but the number of protons remains the same. A covalent bond is the sharing of 2 or more valence shell electrons; this allows each atom to fill its valence shell. Lastly, hydrogen bonds are an attractive bond or force between an electropositive hydrogen and another electronegative atom from another molecule. Remember about hydrogen bonds is that they are not a true bond!


I hope this basic overview of chemistry from the first part of chapter 2 is helpful! Check back next week for chapter 2: part 2!



Word Count: 371


Thursday, August 30, 2012

Chapter 1: The Human Body: An Orientation

In chapter 1, Marieb and Hoehn of our Anatomy and Physiology book, the author goes over the basics about anatomy and physiology. They stress how anatomy and physiology go hand in hand. They state the definition of anatomy as “the study of structure of body parts and their relationship with one another.” The author continues by defining physiology as “the study of the function of different body parts.” The main point of the definitions of anatomy and physiology is that they work off each other. The structure of a body part reflects on what the function of that body part would do.  After the basic summary of what this book and chapter is about, the authors go into describing the different levels of structural organization. There is chemical organization, which are atoms, molecules, and organelles. There are cellular systems which are cells and Tissue which are groups of similar cells. Next, organs which contain 2 or more types of tissue, organ systems which are organs working closely today. Lastly, Organismal which are all the organs working together. Here is a diagram to visually understand the levels of structures. 


http://www2.lbsdk12.com/science/Anatomy/anatomyunit101.html

Human are multicellular in order to function, these cell depend on organ systems in order to survive.    Body cells are interdependent on each other which basically means that one system can’t work alone, if one thing changes then things in other systems will also have to change. The body also likes to keep homeostasis or balance in its environment, such as its internal temperature. In order to keep this homeostasis environment the body has receptors, a control center, and effectors. The receptor is a senor and its job is to monitor the environment of the body and respond to different stimuli. The receptors bring the information to the control center which determines the set point at which a variable needs to be maintained. After the control center receives the information from the receptor it determines what needs to be done to maintain balance in the body. Once it decides what needs to be done, the control center tells the effectors what needs to be done. The effector is usually a muscle or a gland which acts upon what the control center ordered them. The response the effector makes either reduces or stimulates stimuli. This is either a negative (reduces) or positive (stimulates) feedback. Negative feedback is much more common that positive feedback. Negative feedback is when the response given off reduces or shuts off the original stimulus. This is when the stimulus reaches its set point such as body temperature. Once the body researches its set point, the normal body temperature, the control center tells the receptors to stop producing the stimuli that is increasing the body temperature. Positive feedback is very rare, it is when the control center wants the response to speed up or enhance the stimuli because it isn’t doing enough. Such as giving labor, the exaggeration the production of oxytocin in a pregnant female gives a woman extreme contractions she needs in order to deliver the body. People wouldn’t be able to function if there was a lot of positive feedback. Referring back to the giving labor example, the contractions would keep getting bigger and bigger and the cervix would never go back to the normal size after the delivery.

http://www.tokresource.org/tok_classes/enviro/syllabus_content/1.1_Systems/index.htm

Here is your summary of key points for chapter 1 in the anatomy and physiology book! Hope this helped your understanding of chapter 1, or at least another review of the information to help the memorizing.