Drafts

A simple endocrine loop is one that involved one hormone and maintains homeostasis. Most loops are stimulated by a humoral stimuli, or a change in interstitual fluid. An example of a simple endocrine loop is the parathyriod hormone. When there is a decrease in blood calcuim, the parathyroid glad acts as a sensor and control center, recognizing the change and signalling to an effort tissue. The signal is the release of the parathyroid hormone, which effects the bones, kidneys, and digestive tract. In the bones, osteoclasts break down bone and release calcium. The kidneys and digestive tract increase calcium reabsorption. Calcium levels increase in the blood until the normal level of blood calcium is achieved. A complex endocrine loop uses multiple hormones and has varied responses. For example, thyroid hormone is released when the body needs to increase metabolism. The signal goes to the hypothalamus which produces thyroid releasing hormone, which stimulates the anterior pituitary gland. The anterior pituitary glad then relases thyroid stimulating hormone which stimulates the thyriod gland to release thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone stimulates every cell in the body with a receptor for thyroid hormone to increase metabolism, heat generation, and growth and devlopment. 

    For as long as I can remember I love cafes. I go often in order to study, and I find the smell of coffee very relaxing and stimulating. It’s in my opinion one of the most perfect places you can go to in order to study. For the longest time I enjoyed going to Cafe Nero, because my friends always recommended it. The interior is nice enough that I can get my work done, but from the countless times I’ve gone, I have never had a drink there that I’ve enjoyed. Yet even though I had never gotten a drink I liked, I still ended up going because my friends have always said “Cafe Nero is great”. Then for the first time yesterday, I went to a cafe that a lot of my friends have always said wasn’t good, and for a while I have actually avoided. Yet the drink I ordered was fantastic, the ambience was nice, and I got a lot of my work done. I was pleasantly surprised that I had been avoiding this place this entire time all because of verbal marketing, and would most likely have never have gone to if I wasn’t in dire need of a place to study the other day.

What comes to mind when you think of death? At what point will you say a human being is dead. Right off the bat, I'd expect you to say that death is when the heart of the human stops beating and pumping blood through the body. If you did say that, then you aren't wrong but some scientists might object to the entirety of that definition. These days, the term "brain dead" has become more common in clinical settings. Being brain dead simply means the absence of cerebral activity. Neurological examinations, like pupillary reflex examination, have to be performed to ascertain that the patient is indeed brain dead. At this point, the patient is gone beyond redemption, though their heart can be kept active by artificial means. As such, we may expand on the definition of death to encompass the components of brain death. A patient in brain death usually still have viable organs, which can serve in transplantation. While these patients are gone, their organs may be used to give other patients a fighting chance at survival.

I know this isn’t exactly science related but it is related to physics and it was a test that I did. It was on calculating fall damage in fortnite. In fortnite you can building stairs, walls, floors, and pyramids. For my test I used walls to calculate fall damage. The first test I did was three walls up, I walked straight off the side, no fall damage. The first time I experience fall damage was from 3 and ⅔ wall height. The way I got ⅔ of a wall was by using my ability to edit the wall, you can break it into thirds. This first damaging fall dealt 11 damage, which isn’t too significant considering you get 100 health. When you jump from 5 walls high you start to experience significant fall damage, at this height I was dealt 49 fall damage. Jumping from 6 walls high deals 99 fall damage. A death fall would be from 6 and ⅓ walls high. I had a lot of fun figuring this out. I went into playground mode and got a lot of items that I could use to heal before I did the experiment. If anyone does this again and gets different numbers I would be curious to find out what they are.

A ECG is way to measue electrical signal in the heart. This measurement produces a PQRST graph. The P wave represents atrial depolarization by the SA node. The signal is then delayed, and atrial depolarization is complete before the QRS complex. At the QRS complex ventricle depolarization begins at the apex and atrial repolarization occurs. Following this, the ventricle depolarization completes. At the T wave, ventrical repolarization occurs. Then at the plataeu ventrical repolarization is completed. The electrical signal is important because it leads to contraction which in turn create pressure that moves blood. Therefore, depolarization of the SA node is important to keep a normal heart rate. If there was a problem with spontaneous depolarization of the SA node, the AV node would control the heart rate. This would cause a lower heart rate. 

Apoptosis is a crucial cellular function that can become misregulated in cancers, along with cell growth and proliferation. It can be activated in multiple ways throughout the cell, but is mainly characterized by two pathways: intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic pathway is activated in response to cellular stress, which then affects the mitochondria either by swelling through pores or increasing permeability of the membranes (Kroemer et al. 2007). Second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases (SMAC) proteins are then released into the cytoplasm, which deactivate inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), allowing the caspases involved in apoptosis to become active (Fesik and Shi, 2001). The extrinsic pathway of apoptosis is activated in response to external signals, which bind to receptors of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) families. The binding of these ligands to their receptors can activate caspases and indirectly activate transcription factors involved in the inflammatory response and cell death (Adler 2007).

Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new species arise. Although the definitions of what a species is does vary, the mechanisms by which these differences among species arise is consistent. Two types of speciation are sympatric and allopatric speciation. In sympatric speciation, a single species diverges to become two distinct species due to sexual preferences, a separation by a reproductive barrier, or polyploidy. Over time, a single area may have a population experience distruptive selection. For example, a group of beetles that breed within flowers of a plant, but if the plant has a mutation and produces a new colored flower, one that would attract certain beetles, the separation and preference causes the species to diverge. This is an example of pre-zygotic, behavioral isolation. In allopatric speciation, a separation, a geographic barrier between a once united group may cause the species to diverge. For example, in a pool that dries up and creating smaller pools, the fish that were once together are now separated geographically. Over time, the fish will exert a preference for their own kind if re-united. This too, is an example of speciation of a single species, now separated by preferences due to evolution.

“Some opponents of active euthanasia do not oppose it morally but worry that if doctors have the power to kill patients, they may use it too freely. Thus, much of the opposition to active, voluntary euthanasia comes from the fear that, if it is legalized, it will be abused. (1)” Giving a doctor far too much power and control gives humans a large sense of vulnerability. Doctors already have a control over other’s lives; euthanasia would not be any different. For euthanasia a patient must be the one to decide what will happen to them as well as have to sometimes undergo a psychological test to ensure that their decision is definite. “Advocates of physician-assisted suicide insist that it is inherently voluntary. The doctor prescribes the lethal medication, but the patient must choose to swallow the pills. (1)” Both of these versions it is the patient who is the one who desires to end their life and who makes the ultimate decision in going through with the process. These people are willing patients who have gone through a life that will not get any better, usually having an incurable disease.