Research Question: Does a diet such as low fat and low cholesterol really help lower LDL? Hypothesis: It may or may not. Early research sometimes suggested not eating eggs would help lower cholesterol. This resulted in limits for how many eggs one should eat, if any. Determine if a low fat and low cholesterol diet really works with the study outlined below .
Compare two groups of patients: one group eliminating foods which may alter LDL levels and one which continues on with their usual diet before diagnosis of the high LDL levels. Foods to be considered are eggs, 2% milk, full fat cheeses, typical meats consumed by the participant . A patient history should be completed to rule out factors that can impact the results such as persons who have a familial history of abnormal levels of fats or abnormalities in metabolism of lipids or lipoproteins. It will be important to choose patients for both groups who have been eating a regular diet and have been consuming 2% milk, whole eggs, and fats such as regular butter or margarine and typical meats in typical quantities . Once the information is gathered, patients should be matched for BMI, sex, age, and LDL, HDL, cholesterol and triglyceride level.
One group will eat a balanced diet but only consume products such as egg white substitutes, low fat unsaturated margarine, low fat cheese, 1% milk, and lean meats for a period of three months. A second group will eat as usually to act as a control group. If at the end of the three month study there are statistically significant differences between the level of LDL in the group who limited unhealthy fats, and the group who continued to eat the same diet, we could say that it may be possible that a low fat diet as described for this study does seem to help participants improve their LDL levels over individuals who did not lower these fats.
One of the most frequently referenced characteristic separating living things from non-living things is whether they can independently reproduce. If an organism cannot reproduce independently, it fails one test for being a living organism which most scientists agree is a vital characteristic of living beings. Scientists agree that bacteria are living beings and that they do reproduce independently with prokaryotic cells by a simple process called binary fission where bacteria executes a copy of itself exactly again and again. The genetic material never changes.
Though a virus is said to be non-living, it has some characteristics of living things, and there are two main characteristics of viruses that seem to fuel the ongoing debate about whether a virus is living or not. First, a virus needs a host cell to spread disease or replicate, it cannot carry on those activities without help from the host cell that it has invaded. This first characteristic does seem to support the non-living theory. A primary reason the living versus non-living debate continues even among scientists is the fact that viruses do contain their own genetic material, viral RNA and DNA. Also viruses actively participate in attacking their host cells, which can make it seem like they are making an independent decision to go attack a host, but in reality this seems to be more like a genetic instruction.
A virus basically tricks the host cell into reproducing the virus . See a visual summary of a virus attacking a host cell here: http://www.student.chula.ac.th/~54370205/virus%20replication.html
Learning Activity 2
Abstract
A heritable connective tissue disorder, the classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome indicates skin hyperextensibility, fragile, soft skin, wound healing with formation of atrophic scars that is delayed, bruising tends to happen easily, and generalized joint hypermobility. Composed of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type I and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type II, these are different only in phenotypic severity but form a continuum of clinical findings. 50% of patients with a clinical diagnosis of classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome show signs of mutations in the COL5A1 and the COL5A2 gene, encoding the α1 and the α2-chain of type V collagen, respectively. For patients with molecularly characterized classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the disease is caused by a mutation leading to a nonfunctional COL5A1 allele and resulting in haploinsufficiency of type V collagen. Most of the mutations that have been discovered up until now have resulted due to a reduced amount of type V collagen in the connective tissues available for collagen fibrillogenesis. Although interfamilial and intrafamilial phenotypic variability has been observed, no genotype-phenotype correlations were viewable. In the present there is no treatment for this syndrome but some preventive guidelines are at disposal.
The above abstract describes a prospective study that looks at genetic characteristics of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a spectrum disorder, with patients that have like genetic abnormalities being very different in terms of phenotypical expression of Ehlers-Danlos . Phenotype refers to the observable physical abnormalities, in this case things like how stretchy skin is from patient to patient or the degree to which patients have hypermobility of joints. The abstract mentions a plan to try to prevent the disease but states that no treatment for the actual causative factor, a problem with either the COL 5A1 or COL 5A2 gene exists. Each of the COL genes codes for production of a defective form of type V collagen.
Based on the information in the abstract, I would expect that genotyping of each patient will be conducted to see if each patient has abnormality of the COL 5A1 or COL 5 A2 gene, both, or neither one. Only patients with only one of the two genetic abnormalities would seem to be useful in further study of these patients. Then an attempt would likely be made to collect, compile, and compare the phenotypes of each patient. This may be an early step to better defining the true nature of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and aid in developing treatments. Since genotype information on patients with any form of this disease have not been studied in much detail, should patients emerge with both genotypes or neither genotype there could be additional research conducted in future studies to learn more about the characteristics of the disease, including looking for another common genetic mutation in those patients who have neither abnormality. If a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is found to be common to all patients with neither of the above abnormalities, it could result in identifying additional genotypes that can be tied to Ehlers-Danlos. Which leads to my final opinion: This study seems reasonable, and may result in some useful new information about Classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Categorizing patients by their genotype will allow researchers to then look for specific features of the phenotype of each patient, and perhaps associate some of the observed characteristics of phenotype with the genotype. This could also just as easily result in little to no useful information because no one knows at this point whether the phenotype features are able to be correlated with genotypes. The abstract is quite effective, but it is written at a level that requires a significant background in biology and clinical research to be able to interpret it. There are also several other non-classic forms of Ehlers-Danlos.
Glycogen storage disorders comprise a whole category of diseases that are caused by the absence of an enzyme critical in the successful transition of glycogen to glucose and glucose to glycogen. They are called glycogen storage disorders because the conversion of glucose to glycogen and glycogen to glucose is how products of carbohydrate metabolism is used as glucose or stored as glycogen for later use in the liver.
Glucose is the main fuel in the blood stream it is how we get the energy for our cells to carry out the activities of life .
Disorders of Carbohydrate metabolism are available at this link: http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/children's-health-issues/hereditary-metabolic-disorders/disorders-of-carbohydrate-metabolism
Learning Activity 3
Cellular respiration actually has several alternative forms which makes it quite different from photosynthesis. Chemically the processes are traditionally closely related and diagrams exist that show these processes as part of a cycle. They are similar when only oxygen and carbon dioxide are involved, and the organisms being discussed are mammals and green plants. It is a good introductory presentation for children in middle school science.
For more advanced students, it is a very narrow definition of respiration. As we have learned more about organisms beyond green plants and mammals, we have come to realize cellular respiration is not really this limited.
Extremophile bacteria which live in places that are very inhospitable to both mammals and green plants are still engaging in a kind of cellular respiration in which they process things like methane gas, very toxic if you happen to be human or a green plant, in lieu of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
One of the best challenges to traditional thinking about how cellular respiration works are classes of bacteria known as extremophiles. These bacterial live in ultra-hot and ultra-cold places thriving in temperatures that can be as high as 113 degrees Celsius or as low as 0 degrees Celsius. Temperatures are not the only unlikely environments some of these species of bacteria live in. Other environmental differences include places with pH levels that are too acidic or too basic for most forms of life. Still other species live in environments with very high levels of sodium chloride or table salt the very same ionic compound that can cause animal cells to shrink and shrivel in an environment with too much salt, by drawing all the moisture out of animal cells. For the right extremophile bacteria, super salty conditions are just right. Still other bacteria live inside of rocks at very high pressure as great at 700 atm.
Yet all the extremophiles have a form of respiration, every living cell takes in some form of food and uses some process to turn it into energy via a series of chemical reactions. All living things need to maintain their own proper homeostasis, or living conditions within a certain acceptable range, usually quite a narrow range. It seems that the old definition of cellular respiration and photosynthesis is way too narrow.
While this idea is a popular topic today in cell biology, Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk could have told you all of this long ago after they encountered a silicon based form of life that looked like silvery rocks, the Horta. Of course these ideas were the brain child of Gene Roddenberry who has contributed many things via his science fiction that are now scientific reality.
Learning activity 4
Historically, cancer treatment has been something of a hit and miss proposition. If someone presented with breast cancer for instance, almost all patients with a certain group of breast cancers would be treated with Tamoxifen. While Tamoxifen does have a high success rate overall about 24 per cent of women treated with Tamoxifen still died within 15 years. This means that there is still a lot of room for improvement in breast cancer outcomes.
One of the most promising developments in cancer treatment strategies is the use of personalized medicine to match a patient based on their own response to cancer drugs. There are often dozens, or sometimes even hundreds of options for drugs to treat cancer, but patients with the same kind of cancer and the same variety of tumor cells may still have wildly different responses to the same drugs. What works wonderfully for one patient may do nothing at all to help another patient.
Better strategies emerge often and one new device being testing at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of technology is a device no bigger than a single grain of rice that has microscopic amounts of up to 30 cancer drugs on it. The device is implanted into tumor tissue and scientists observe which of the drugs are most effective in the specific patient.
One very important issue in reproduction is avoiding chemical exposure that may affect normal development of a fetus. Cigarette smoke is particularly dangerous for a developing human fetus. To make their products as addictive as possible as possible and to impart other desired qualities such as evening burning, many more deadly chemicals are in commercial cigarettes than those already present in tobacco.
Cigarettes contain about 40 known carcinogens, or agents that cause cancer. When a woman smokes, this effects the fetal DNA through, among other things, epigenetics, or turning on of alternate instructions in DNA that will result in altered, and sometimes harmful, changes in how cells in the developing fetus form. There are potential lifelong consequences that can affect development of various structures in the fetus, leading to functional and behavioral problems that may show up immediately as birth defects or lurk for years until they lead to the development of cancers and other harmful conditions.
Obviously the best solution is for women who are pregnant to stop smoking cigarettes but this is often easier said than done. Especially for women who are planning on becoming pregnant, or are already pregnant and smoking, providing as many resources as possible for these mothers to stop smoking may well prevent significant health problems for their children.
Learning Activity 5
Lifestyle choices have been demonstrated to relate to the chances of developing various types of cancer .
One example of a lifestyle choice that can help reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or limiting it to a form that is less likely to make a fatal outcome likely is regular mammograms for women. While having a regular mammogram, along with a program of self-examination for any lumps or other breast tissue changes noted by a patient herself greatly reduces advanced breast cancer and death from breast cancer substantially ("Nine out of ten cancers are caused by lifestyle, not genetic factors", 2015).
Women who choose not to pay attention to these important preventative health measures really leave themselves open to great misery by refusing to participate in screening processes that may be a bit uncomfortable while risking serious suffering if they should develop breast cancer that is not promptly detected.
In what ways might genetically engineered organisms pose a threat to the health and safety of human populations? What kinds of safeguards exist to reduce this threat?
Genetically modified organisms are frequently encountered in foods. A genetically engineered contains one or more genes from another organism inserted into the genes of another organism.
Genetically modified organisms or GMO’s started out with the best of intentions. Growing tomatoes that would ripen in transit, allowing them to be picked before fully ripened then shipped to retailers where they would, in theory, ripen in transit, and arrive at the market as though they had been picked locally that day.
Learning Activity 6 -Favorite Creature
One of my favorite species is the hydra, a small freshwater jellyfish that is about 0.4 inches (10 cm) in length with unique characteristics including how they reproduce, their ability to regenerate tissue, and their simple structure which facilitates observation of these tiny animals by students and researchers.
Hydra usually reproduce by budding, a slow but constant process yielding one new offspring one new hydra every two days. The mechanism for budding is simple, a branch grows off one of the hydra’s stinging appendages, and simply detaches as a new hydra. . View an animation of a hydra reproducing by budding at the following link: http://makeagif.com/PG7sgH
The ability to switch reproduction methods to sexual reproduction involving more than one individual where one hydra releases male gamete cells that find nearby hydra with egg cells to fertilize as well as the process where one individual hydra serves as both male and female by forming simple reproductive structures is stunning. Even more amazing is the way in which hydra can regenerate tissue structures, a way of extending the lifespan of an individual hydra. That brings forth this important question of great interest to researchers. Does a hydra really ever die? As of this writing, the answer to that question remains to be found.
Learning Activity 7
China has made a wise choice to encourage couples to limit their family to one child. Resources in China have been meager for many people for decades, perhaps centuries under the Communist government. Everyone benefits, even people outside China, when people have no more children than they can realistically provide good care for. Since China offers those parents limiting family size to one child benefits for a better quality of life such as better nutrition, better health care, better education for women, and perhaps better quality of life for women, the benefits of the one child per family seems to benefit everyone on a nuclear family level.
However, the natural resources the country has cannot realistically support all the citizens of China today. As the population decreases in the future, having enough food, land, clean water, and adequate living space per person to maintain a cleaner environment due to less pollution being produced by more manufacturing and industry in areas too small to recover environmentally from the impact is an investment for future generations. At a global level, we have learned from events like the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, once a catastrophic environmental disaster happens, the immediate area will be seriously impacted, but through air, water, soil, and the food chain, most man-made disasters expand beyond the local area over time.
For the United States to adopt a one child per family policy like China seems unlikely. We do have a vast number of parents who have more children than they can realistically afford, but unfortunately many religious organizations still see people having as many children as they can as a way to increase their influence. Some fundamentalist religious groups in the United States, do not only oppose abortion, a cause of constant political debate, many even oppose birth control. The United States has a policy for strictly limiting the Federal government’s influence on matters of personal freedom. There is a lot of debate today about where Federal government should defer to individual state and local governments.
References
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