Drafts

I could help them figure out whether or not it was typical "middle age forgetfulness" by suggesting they should have a neuropsychological evaluation. They are the most common way to diagnose major NCDs. The tests are extensive clinical reviews which assess learning and memory. I could even adopt my own version of this if my family member is unwilling to get evaluated. I could ask questions about their day or questions about things that they definitely should remember. Although this is not as reliable, it is a good indicator if they should actually get professionally evaluated or not.

Although both antigen types present as attractive targets for the development of cancer-eradicating immunotherapies, expression of TAAs in normal cells can trigger central and peripheral tolerance mechanisms that ultimately lead to selection of T cells with low-affinity receptors. Attempts to combat this effect through targeting of TAAs via high-affinity T cell receptors have been found to result in severe toxicities due to normal tissue destruction (Parkhurst et al. 2011). Unlike TAAs, tumor-specific neoantigens are not subject to central or peripheral tolerance and lack the ability to destroy normal tissues since their mutations arose from the tumor itself (Lu et al. 2016). Due to this key difference in the development of these antigens, the researchers will use tumor-specific neoantigens for the identification and subsequent targeting of pancreatic cancer cells through immunotherapy.

Researches had found neurons in the amygdala which are known as “stimulation neurons”. The stimulation neurons allows animals to stimulate and predict decision making processes of others. Researchers hypothesized that the dysfunction of the neurons would lead to a disrupted social cognition. Meaning that people with autism would have likely have less active neurons. While people with overactive neurons would have social anxiety. With this knowledge, researchers have a more specific direction for studying how the stimulation of neurons have an effect on people.

The hypothesis that body temperature stays constant after exercise was not supported due to the differences found in the mean and the data that wwas shown on the graph. The graph shows for the majority of the time that at rest the body temperature is higher than after a minute of exercise. This is consistent with what others have found in published papers (1.) Body temperature is higher at rest and tends to cool down during exercise since sweat is being produced in order to cool the body. Which means that the temperature reading after exercise will be lower than before it. There could have been errors with the way people were taking their temperature, there could have been inconsistencies on where they were positioning the thermometer. For a clearer picture of thermoregulation, a better thermometer would be use that would be better at picking up the exact temperatures to create more accurate and consistent data.

The activity of regulatory enzymes is controlled by internal signals that reflect the conditions in a particular cell. Internal signals include substrate availability, cofactor availability, activators/inhibitors, and feedback inhibition. On the other hand, the activity of regulatory enzymes are also controlled by external signals that provide information about conditions in the organism. External signals include activators/inhibitors and hormones, which usually mediate the phosphorylation or dephosphorylation of pathway components. Hormones are chemical signals produced in response to specific conditions and distributed throughout an organism via the bloodstream. They are the primary method of regulation used to control metabolic reactions. Hormones interact with target cell receptors in order to alter the behavior of the cell. Only cells with receptors for a hormone response, and receptor proteins are specific, interacting with one or a few hormones. The same hormone can cause different responses in different cells, even if it interacts with the same receptor. Hormones binding to cell membrane receptor proteins function via a amplification mechanism.

When marine mammals dive into deep, high pressured waters, they experience an increase in dissolved nitrogen gas in their bloodstreams. The dissolved gas poses a threat because if divers ascend too fast, it can lead to a phenomenon known as the “bends,” whereby gas bubbles form inside the body and can potentially cause decompression sickness. Fortunately, marine mammals have special lung architecture that creates two different pulmonary regions to combat high-pressure depths. They have a compressible chest that limits the amount of nitrogen gas that can be absorbed. The authors of the review article suggest that the physiology of diving mammals is poorly understand, and that there are more cardiorespiratory mechanisms that provide a better explanation for their ability to dive deeply. The results of the paper showed that many marine mammals can withstand levels of nitrogen gas that would normally cause decompression sickness 50% of the time. The authors also hypothesized that parasympathetic stimulation helps limit lung perfusion, which is a necessary for diving to great depths. They propose that stress can interfere with this process which might explain failure of a normal dive response. Overall, these findings are significant because they offer a new perspective on the physiological and respiratory adaptations that enable cetaceans to dive at great depths. 

I am doing a project for my outbreak class and I chose to look at tuberculosis or more commonly known as TB. What I didn’t know is that TB is a top 10 global cause of death and it has been for quite some time. TB is also becoming more of an issue, not because more people are getting it, it is because TB is becoming resistant to the majority of the drug that treat it. This has become a huge problem around the globe. One example that I looked into was the spread of drug resistant TB in Russia. It has become a huge problem because of Russian prisons. People are kept in poor conditions and in close quarters. Then when people contract TB they aren’t treated properly or given drugs for the full amount of time. This allows the TB to build resistance to the common and most available drugs to treat it with. Now the TB once it is has become resistant to drugs takes a lot longer to treat and a lot more of a strict regimen of taking drugs. This is not followed frequently in prisons due to lack of higher level drugs and lack of coordination from within the prison system.

There are various reports that mentions the response of stomatal conductance to CO2 levels but not many for mesophyll conductance. Since there are limited understanding for mesophyll conductance, Mizokami has been studying this subject from different prospective. From his past case study, he has found that mesophyll conductance is independent from stomatal conductance however, this did not support the influence of ABA and intercellular CO2 levels on the mesophyll conductances (Mizokami et al., 2017). Therefore, to answer the question whether or not decrease in the intercellular CO2 concentration decreases the mesophyll conductance, the first experiment was done (Mizokami et al., 2017). It was examined by comparing the mesophyll conductance responding to instant increase in the intercellular CO2.  Three pots of A. thaliana plant, the wildtype Col-0, mutant ost1, and mutant slac1-2 were placed into a chamber that has an ambient CO2 of 390μmol  . After the plant adjusts to this condition, then the ambient CO2  was switched to 780μmol . The measurements for mesophyll conductance was taken every thirty minutes for two hours and plotted on a graph (Mizokami et al., 2017).

Acyl-CoA is formed in the cytoplasm by acyl-CoA synthetase. Once acyl-CoA has been formed and transported into the mitochondria by carnitine acyltransferase it cannot be transported out of the matrix. Acyl-CoA is then used to carry out the next step of fatty acid oxidation which is beta oxidation. Beta oxidation consists of sequential cycles of four reactions in which electrons are transferred to FAD and NAD+. These four reactions are catalyzed by various different enzymes as carbons are removed as acetyl-CoA. Unsaturated even chain fatty acids are those that require additional enzymes to oxdize as they contain double bonds. These unsaturated even chains vary based on the postion of double bonds and have a small decrease in energy yield for each of the double bonds. There is a reduction in energy yield because fatty acids with double bonds are less reduced or more oxidized than saturated fatty acids therefore yield fewer ATP per carbon molecule. The end result of beta oxidation is the formation of acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA is then used in the citric acid cycle. 

In this lab, isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid were reacted using the process of esterification to produce an ester, isopentyl acetate. The starting materials were reacted using conditions specific to the reaction being performed and some of the target product was obtained in 25.6% yield. The method in which this reaction took place was esterification, where water was removed to force the reaction to move toward its products, an ester and water. The products were analyzed by observing the odor and infrared spectroscopy (IR). The odor of the product appeared to be banana-like, closely resembling the smell of the candy banana Runtsⓡ. This smell is indicative of an ester, specifically isopentyl acetate.