Flip-Coin

This quick sketch represents the genetic traits of the 16-year-old daughter of the sampled couple 

	Allele(s) from Mother	Allele(s) from Father	Genotype	Phenotype
Sex of child:	XX	XY	XX	Female
Face shape	R	r	Rr	Round
Chin Shape (I)	v	v	vv	less prominent
Chin Shape (II)	R	r	Rr	round
Cleft chin
Skin color	ABcD	aBcd	AaBBccDd	Medium Brown
Hair type	C	c	Cc	Wavy Hair
Widow’s Peak	w	w	ww	absent
Eyebrows (I)	b	B	Bb	bushy eyebrows
Eyebrows (II)	N	N	NN	not connected
Eyebrow color	h	H	Hh	same as hair
Eyes distance apart	e	E	Ee	average distance
Eyes size	E	E	EE	large eyes
Eyes shape	a	a	aa	round
Eyes slant	H	H	HH	horizontal
Eyelashes	L	L	LL	long
Eye color	Abcd	ABcD	AABbccDd	light brown
Mouth size	M	m	Mm	average
Lips	L	L	LL	thick
Protruding lower lip	h	H	Hh	slightly protruding
Dimples	D	D	DD	dimples
Nose size	n	N	Nn	average
Nose shape	R	r	Rr	rounded
Nostril shape	R	r	Rr	rounded
Earlobe Attachment	F	F	FF	free
Freckles on checks	f	f	ff	freckle-free
Hair color	ABCD	abCD	AaBbCCDD	dark brown

Genome # 11

ANON2; BULN2

Summary

The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the nerve growth factor family. It is induced by cortical neurons, and is necessary for survival of striatal neurons in the brain. Expression of this gene is reduced in both Alzheimer's and Huntington disease patients. This gene may play a role in the regulation of stress response and in the biology of mood disorders. Multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been described for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2009]

Cell Cycle Mitosis Lab

Journal questions:

1. Based on your data and observations, what are some of the differences between normal cells and cancer cells?
   
   Cancerous cells seem to have fewer cells in Interphase than normal cells, if the sampling for this lab is any indication. Those cancerous cells also seem to have more cells in the prophase, metaphase, and anaphase than normal cells. All three of the cancerous cells in this lab (lung, stomach and ovary) had one cell in the slides that was in the telophase whereas non of the corresponding normal cell slides had a cell in the telophase.
   

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2. When studying cell division in tissue samples, scientists often calculate a mitotic index, which is the ratio of dividing cells to the total number of cells in the sample. Which type of tissue would have a higher mitotic index, normal tissue or cancerous tissue? Explain.
   
   Cancerous cells would have a higher mitotic index than normal cells because they exhibit a higher rate of dividing cells than normal tissue cells.
   

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3. Different types of normal tissues in the human body have different mitotic indices. From the following list, which normal tissues would you expect to have the highest mitotic index: muscle, skin, kidney, or lung? Explain your answer.
   
   Because various tissues of the body are replaced or renewed in cycles that are not identical, we see different mitotic indices; the mitotic index is a measurement of the cell division and that reveals the cycles inherent to that tissue group. Our skin regenerates more quickly than kidney tissue or muscle tissue for example. Because of this shorter life cycle, we would see a higher mitotic index for skin cells.

Review of other Blogs

After clicking to view a few blogs, my first impression is that I am ever the person who loves writing. I love learning and playing with ideas as well as writing to provide and exchange understandings. One observation is that we all do process information differently and respond differently even in the shared context of reading the written assignment instructions. Our answers reflect this; no two responses were alike!

I loved the way that Melanie's blog used blue color on the font to ease readability. No question it is organized and easy to grasp what information she provided in response to the assigned questions. In general, I appreciate that each blog has different color schemes and images.

I find that I wish I knew how to adjust and create Ariel as the default font. I am constantly highlighting and selecting Ariel because it defaults to a serif font such as Times New Roman. If I wasn't fighting this, I might have managed to spend time and adopt Melanie's font color decision which lends so much to both readability and organization of information.

Brain Tricks

After visiting http://braintricks.org/index.php , I lost at least 20 minutes of my life trying without success to figure out the visual clue for why moving one section of an image changed the number of people (drawn in caricature) from 12 to 13 or 13 to 12. Our visual center and its inherent processes are fascinating in their implications. Can we trust that we are seeing what really is there, and is there a there? Given quantum mechanics and the phenomena that what is seen depends on vantage point and whether you are looking at "it" or not suggests that no two people possible can share the exact same view. That's right, two people standing right next to each other watching a parade will each have different observations and will relate them differently as well. This means a lot when law enforcement interviews people who "witness" a crime. 

Well, on to the assignment.... I scored 100 percent correct on the color blindness test, http://braintricks.org/test_score.php. 

I then did the color perception test which asks people to look at the center cross. I quickly was able to see the green dot phasing or cycling through each position on the "clock" face, creating a ghostly green glow around each of the previously magenta dots. In the time I allowed, I was not able to see only the green dot or to have the magenta dots disappear altogether.

 

Having seen this before, I gravitated to see how quickly I would find the hidden human face in the image above. Do you see it?  Did you see it right away or was it a delayed response? I found it quickly. 

My next choice was the audio test that asked for use of a headset. I put on a headset and discovered that the references for left and right were  not congruent with my experience so I flipped the headset so that what was on one ear was now on the other and in fact, the references in the audio track were congruent. When the barber said he was positioning the clippers or the electric razor next to the right ear, that is where I heard it.

Forming a hypothesis about why I may see something that isn't there, the brain can be fooled to not see something that is there due to a structure in the brain so perhaps there is a structure that similarly explains why I may see something that isn't there. Sometimes a brain injury accounts for people who do not see a full face when looking at others.

Since a hypothesis must be tested, I will suggest that I can see something that isn't there due to the image staying on my retina longer, as when a person shifts their eyes and quickly the image of what they were gazing at persists for a moment or two longer. I imagine that this is a standard tactic in movie making cinematography to fool us into believing that a person was stabbed or fell off a cliff.

I could test this by staring intently, as I did in the above illusion test, at a particular object--my cell phone--and then quickly shifting my eyes to the space on the table near the cell phone and see if the ghostly image of my cell phone will appear. To form a theory, I would have to do this under controlled conditions, allowing for others to perform the test and then measuring their responses as well before determining if the evidence supports my hypothesis. 

I have wondered about the ability of law enforcement to train themselves to be observant as they drive by, scanning for the unusual, the patterns that suggest crime, or the ability to elicit accurate information and assessment of that information for problem-solving duties. Sometimes I test my observation skills. I am beginning a new career in Asian medicine which relies on various skills, including powers of senses such as smell, vision, and touch to provide clues to the practitioner. Becoming aware of the sensory impressions literally at our fingertips as well as the scents that people carry and the sounds and sights that constantly are in our environments is a valuable exercise. it is not hard for people to smell if another has recently smoked a cigarette or eaten a meat sandwich or to detect the scent of their personal care products and cologne. It can be hard to train one's attention on one sound when another sound is more strident, or louder. It can be hard to find the right pressure to detect nuances in someone's pulse but using our senses and respecting the statements that people make about their experience of reality is what we work with. If they say they feel pins and needles in their legs, and we do not see any, well, we take in that information and seek other inputs as we work with people to resolve their concerns.  

Conversely, trusting what we see that is not seen by others has value as well. Each of us has acuity that can vary according to genetics, awareness and state of alertness, and training or acceptance of sensory perceptions. Training oneself to not allow the brain to filter in ways it may choose to on an automatic basis is a challenge, but can deepen one's practice and yield interesting options. 

Sheep Brain dissection

1. The brain of the sheep when compared to the human brain is similar in having delineated structures such as the cerebellum, the pineal gland and thalamus, and the sheep's brain even has hemispheric lobes with ventricles. The orientation of the sheep's brain is much more elongated than for that of a human brain. Another difference, which may take a moment to fully appreciate, is that the size of the olfactory bulb is much larger in the sheep's brain. As a herd animal, sheep survival often relies on the ability to detect the scents of predators. The sheep brain is also lacking the characteristic folds and large size of the human cerebrum, which explains why, so far, sheep are not hired at call centers to resolve problems that require complex language skills and decision making.
2. The "dura mater" is the outermost layer of the membranes or meninges that protect the brain and also encases the spinal cord. Its outer side rests against the skull itself while its inner side is next to the arachnoid meninges. The dura mater part is the slick, gray lining wrapped about the brain that is only slightly opaque and seems to act like cellophane to keep the moist brain tissues moistened with cerebrospinal fluid which serves "as a liquid shock absorber around the brain and spinal cord." [Johnson, Michael D. Human Biology Concepts and Issues. 2014. Print] 
3.  The bumps of the cerebrum, which are known as "gyri" and the grooves, which are termed "sulci" create a larger surface area while maintaining the most compact profile possible. Accordion folding is a natural design that engineers are adopting to enable storage of greater amounts of data. Brain tissues in this region process memories, reasoning, and perform higher functions that require or derive from this anatomical design. 
4.  Dark spider web tissues clinging to the surface structures of the sheep brain are part of the blood vessel network that provide a nourishing level of oxygen to the brain, which is vital for the functions that support life. The interior brain tissues are bathed not in blood but in cerebrospinalfluid (CSF) that circulates and can be found in the ventricles. This helps to regulate the brain in such a way that typically, but not always, keeps blood-borne pathogens and drugs from interfering with brain function.
5.  Examining the dissection of the sheep brain allows us to compare and think about the role of the pineal gland. In the sheep, like the human, this endocrine gland serves to regulate sleep patterns.Melatonin is a hormone that this gland can make or secrete so that humans and mammals get sleepy and can then perform a number of rejuvenating tasks during sleep. People who work the graveyard shifts are fighting their pineal gland's native intelligence that guides us for rest at night and alertness during the daytime hours. The pineal gland works in concert with other endocrine glands to regulate sex drive and other important functions. Flouridation of water in the drinking water supplies is reportedly having an adverse affect on human pineal glands. Research suggests a causational link between flouridation and calcification of the pineal gland in humans, which obviously lessens functionality. While one can certainly find reasons to support flouridation and it was originally propagated as a way to reduce dental caries in children, calcification of the pineal gland is no small risk.  There are a number of indications that radiation from cell phone use is also playing a role in diminished pineal gland function and disturbed sleep patterns. While our species will evolve and adapt to environmental influences over time, individual organisms will suffer in terms of function according to their genetic or constitutional predispositions and their exposure to environmental influences.

Adeloye M.B., B.S., C.P., F.R.C.S, Adelola and Felson M.D., Benjamin, “Incidence of Normal Pineal Gland Calcification in Skull Roentgenograms of Black and White Americans” American Journal of Roentgenology November 1974. Web. 5 April 2014 http://www.ajronline.org/doi/abs/10.2214/ajr.122.3.503


     6.    Ventricles are cavities or spaces within an organ such as the brain or heart through  which fluids are circulated. 

     7.     The cerebellum structure of the brain sits like a rock outcropping above the brain stem region at the back or base of the skull. Dancers, runners, and every person who enjoys fine motor skills can thank this part of their brains for providing us with balance and abilities to exhibit graceful, fluid and rapid physical movements. Alcohol has an adverse effect on this function, and the uncoordinated and sloppy movements so characteristic of people who have had too much to drink attest to the important job the cerebellum does for us.

     8.    The Thalamus and the Hypothalamus each perform important functions. They are neighbors in the center of the brain; the thalamus is larger and receives sensory information that it relays to the cerebrum. The hypothalamus actually is located under the thalamus and similarly monitors sensory signals such as what we see, smell, taste or hear. If our bodies feel cool or warm, the hypothalamus is going to be involved in modulating for homeostasis. When we recognize a hunger pang or sensation of being thirsty, the hypothalamus has been active.

     9.   The spinal cord, which is protected by the spinal column of bone vertebrae discs, has nerve tracts or bundles of axons on its outer borders. The mylenated wrapping for this is called white matter. Western science has alternately termed the non-mylenated structures of the spinal cord ( the neurons and neuroglial cells near the center of the spinal cord) as gray matter.  

   10.     I think I am very much surprised that my revulsion for anatomical dissection images has quietly abated. My revulsion for the sensory impressions of formaldyhyde however, is still strong and I do appreciate being able to observe and learn about brain structures without that assault on my senses.

Histology Dissection Lab

 Nervous System Histology and Dissection Lab

Peripheral Nerve Histology (Microanatomy)

The differential staining in Slide 1 shows the different layers in peripheral nerve. Connective tissue stains blue. Outside the nerve, loose connective tissue combined with adipose cells is called epineurium. The next layer of connective tissue, denser and ensheathing different bundles of nerve fibers is called perineurium (dark Purplish-­blue in the slide). Delicate connective tissue called endoneurium surrounds each nerve fiber and appears as delicate blue fibers. The nerve fiber itself stains pink and is seen as a cylinder in the center of myelin with a lighter pink stain. The nerve fiber is labeled A (for axon) and the myelin is labeled M. A Node of Ranvier (R) is also visible.

1. Western science developed using Latin as the language root for terminology to create classification systems. Using just the three terms in bold in the paragraph above, we see a prefix of epi-, peri-, and endo- used to describe the structural elements in the slide of a nerve fiber. This coding system is helpful and consistent to describe the intricate structures of anatomy so that scientists, healthcare professionals and students can have a common naming convention and simplify complexities by establishing or seeing patterns. In this slide, the "epineurium" denotes the uppermost or outermost layer resting "upon" the other layers; the "perineurium" term--which means around--is used to describe the tissue that surrounds each nerve fiber, and "endoneurium," which uses the Latin prefix of "endo" means "within" or "inside," so we can clearly learn that something labeled as "endoneurium" is referring to the interior portion of a structure. 

2. Looking at the way that nervous tissue and muscle tissue is bundled, we can say that muscle fibers are ensheathed into fascicles like the strands of twine may be bound to create a rope or cable--except the fibers are sheathed without the braiding quality we can see in ropes and cables. One can also imagine that each fascicle contains strands of muscle fibers similar to the box of spaghetti pasta noodles. The fascicles provide a structural support that protects from injury and actually contributes to the movement process.

Nerve tissues are bundled, though their structure differs considerably from muscle tissues. Nerve tissues or "axons" are bundled in a myelin sheath that enables swift relay of electrical impulses to muscle tissues. Acting like an insulator, bio-electrical impulses can travel efficiently with this shield, thus saving the body's energy by not needing the active transport process (ATP) to do their work. 

3. The dark blue and purplish ares on the slide are the perineurium or the connective tissue that is around the nerve fibers.

 

 A. Node of Ranvier, indicated on the slide above by white gaps in intervals in between Schwann cells along an axon; these are unmyelinated spaces, that is, not covered by the insulating sheath., where the axon is exposed.

  B. Axon- represented by the deeper mauve pink with an elongated smooth appearance are the section of the neurons which carry electrical impulses, or bio-electric messages to the terminals where they inform muscles cells.

  C. Myelin Sheath is represented by the textured pink boundaries to either side of the axons described above. This sheath is generated by the Schwann cells along the axon.

  D. Endoneurium is the structure that is represented by blue fibers in the diagram above. The  endoneurium is the loosely connective tissue matrix that holds the neurons and blood vessels in formation inside the myelin sheath.  

Slide 3 Question:
To diagnose a nerve disease, what could the lipids tell you?

The lipids stained by the dye indicate health of the myelin sheath that can be damaged. If  a view of these lipids show deformities, gaps where the insulating blanket doesn't quite cover the neurons, this could indicate onset of multiple sclerosis.

Fasicles shown in diagram to left are like the casing on a sausage, holding the neurons in packages.

Perineurium represents the white boundary zones which have a denser quality that the interior tissues.

Endoneurium, which refers to what is inside, is what surrounds the neurons-the loose matrix located inside the fasicles.

Axons are the superhighway lane that is labeled on the above diagram.

Myelin Sheath, labeled above, is again what protective barrier the Schwann cells produce to increase the speed of electrical impulses.