Essays on Neural Tube

What do you believe is the greatest achievement that the health care industry has made from both the patient and provider perspectives? Why? In the past decade, there has been significant improvement in the maternal and infant health with respect to the healthcare industry. The rate of neural tube defects and infants born with heritable or metabolic disorders have reduced owing to new diagnostic and treatment modalities. In the early 1990’s, the US government led to the implementation of folic acid fortification in all cereal grains that were termed as enriched. This movement led to the reduction of ...

Article Review

Scholl, Theresa and William Johnson. Folic Acid: Influence On The Outcome Of Pregnancy. The

Folic acid has considerable impact on pregnant women and the improvement of fetuses. According to Scholl and Johnson, folic acid is an extremely crucial supplement that all pregnant women require for the purposes of maintaining the well-being of the fetus during its growth and development. The article captures the importance of folic acid by noting that it prevents the fetus from developing what the authors refer to as neural tube defects, promotes healthy growth of the fetus, as well as aiding in the prevention of ...

Literature Review on Fracking

Introduction The extraction of natural gas has been seen the much-needed reprieve in the face of increased energy demands globally. The natural gas present unexploited energy reserves that can be used to meet the energy deficits in the countries where there are natural gas deposits. Its extraction requires the use of advanced technologies. Fracking the main technology used in the exploitation of natural gas from the rocks beneath the earth’s surface where it is trapped. The biggest proportion of the new wells for the exploitation of natural gas (90%) utilizes hydraulic fracking as the technology of choice. While ...

Myelomeningocele is a very severe form of spina bifida among fetus. It is a condition where the spinal cord fails, making it a very delicate procedure during surgery of a fetus. This is in the sense that it can impact the nervous system, kidneys, bladder, muscles and bones. The only safe and recommended way of treating myelomeningocele is carrying out a surgery on the fetus after birth (Mitchell, et. al., 2004). During delivery of the fetus, the safest and recommended way of carrying out a cesarean section delivery on a pregnant woman is through open fetal surgery, that involves ...

Background about the development of a bird

The development of a bird from an egg is the complex and speedy process which takes 21 days from the moment the embryo forms. The developments are facilitated by among other factors the presence of pores (about 7,000 of them) on the egg's surface. The pores allow transfer of gasses (oxygen diffuses in while carbon dioxide and water vapor diffuse out) through the shell (Gilbert). Before the egg is laid, it is fertilized; the living cells divide and grow wile segregating into groups. During incubation, the first sign of an embryo appears at 13 to 16 hours after ...

Spina bifida is neural tube defects that are caused by ecological and hereditary factors that are not yet fully understood. There is no known cure yet for Spina Bifida condition, the damaged nerve tissue cannot be replaced. Some surgical interventions depend on the severity of the disease. In the worst case scenario, if the severe conditions are detected earlier through ultrasound, abortion is recommended. Folate, also called folic acid is a B group vitamin that can prevent most neural tube defects. The recommended dose for the women who are planning to become expectant is 0.5 mg every day for a ...

The decrease in world’s petroleum and oil supply has led the nations to look for alternate sources of energy. As a result of this short-supply, unconventional gas reserves are gaining importance as alternative source of crude oil, where the unconventional gas reserves are estimated to contribute to 45% of the US gas production by the year 2035. Large-scale extraction of unconventional natural gas has resulted in the development of new and untested extraction technology such as hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, which is expected to develop rapidly in the next few decades near human settlements and pose a health hazard (Adgate, ...

Introduction

Cells are independent units of life. However, when a cell becomes part of an organism, it becomes part of a tissue and organ system. Cells in a tissue are joined to each other and to the extracellular matrix (ECM) by cell junctions. There are three kinds of cell junctions: Occluding junctions, anchoring junctions and communication junctions. Occluding junctions occur in the epithelium where the adjacent cells are so tightly sealed together that even small molecules cannot pass. Communicating junctions allow the exchange of chemical and electrical signals between cells. Anchoring junctions are the ones which attach a cell either to its neighbor or ...

Abstract

Neural tube defects are a common occurrence in many pregnancies. Some of them have fairly minimal consequences and in fact, many children born with these defects lead normal lives. Spina bifida is one of these defects and is indeed one of the most common. The defect emanates from the failure of the neural tube to close properly leaving an opening. This paper aims to look at this defect from several perspectives including a brief description of the disorder, clinical presentation, pathophysiology, the usual age of onset and relevant ethnic and cultural risk information. The paper will also look at the genetic ...

1) What blood test would you order and why? (1 point) - Quantitative hCG blood test: measures serum beta human chorionic gonadotropin levels (US FDA, 2013) - Above normal hCG values: determines if patient is having a normal pregnancy and the number of fetuses as well as gestational age, or if amenorrhea is due to hydatidiform mole, choriocarcinoma, or ovarian cancer (Ratcliffe et al., 2008; US FDA, 2013) - Below normal hCG values: indicates ectopic pregnancy, fetal death, incomplete abortion, or threatened spontaneous abortion (US FDA, 2013) 2). What is her estimated date of confinement (EDC) ...

Embryonic stem cell is a crucial factor in the developmental process of a multicellular organism. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are derived at early stages during development and eventually give rise to all type of tissues and organs in an animal. The ES cell lines have three properties consisting of self-renewal, primary chimera formation and pluripotency [1]. Pluripotency, a key feature of ESCs, refers to the capacity of a cell to differentiate into several different types of tissues [2]. An array of cellular factors play important role in maintaining pluripotency and determining cell fate in the developmental pathway. Negative effects on these factors may ...

Spina bifida is a birth defect involving the incomplete development of the spinal cord or its coverings. Normally, it occurs towards the end of the first pregnancy a time when both sides of the embryo’s spine do not succeed to join together thereby resulting in an open area. There are also cases when the other membranes or the spinal cord may push through this opening in the back. This condition however is detectable before the baby is born and it can be treated right away. It is the most common of a group of defects known as neural tube defects which ...

Spina bifida is a neural tube defect in which the neural tube fails to close in early fetal life. It is diagnosed using fetal ultrasound and elevated α-fetoprotein levels. It can range from an entirely asymptomatic bone malformation or it can be severe and debilitating. Due to an imperfectly closed spinal column, the contents of the column spills out and this can lead to a hydrocephalus. In fact, there are three different types of spina bifida: spina bifida occulta, meningocele, and myelomeningocele. It is the most common disabling birth defect in America. Worldwide it occurs in 1 in 1000 live ...