Chewing Lab

This lab showed that chewing different types of food uses different jaw muscle activity for each type of food.  Before the experiment took place I had an idea in my head of how things were going to turn out.  I personally thought that eating the taffy or beef jerkey was going to make the jaw muscle activity go crazy because of how chewy it is.  I was completely wrong because after we did all of our tests, the results showed that for me, taffy and beef jerkey had the least amount of jaw muscle activity out of all four types of food.  The foods we chose to test were an apple, beef jerkey, taffy, and a pickle. The apple and pickle go together because they were 2 types of food that you had to open your mouth really wide to take a bite. Jerkey and taffy could also be put into a "chewy group." You don't have to open your mouth really wide but sometimes with those types of food your jaw starts hurting because you have to chew so much.

The graph shows that for Karen the food that received the least amount of activity was the apple.  For the food that received the highest amount of activity was the pickle. Her number for the pickle was 1.7239 which was considerably higher than the rest of her numbers. Karen was halfway opposite from me because when I ate the apple it had the second most amount of activity. The food that received the lowest amount of jaw muscle activity for me was the taffy. I think this is because when I chew taffy I don't have to open my mouth very wide and that had a lot to do with the muscle activity.  The food that received the highest amount of activity for me was also the pickle, my number was even higher than Karen's, it was 2.2045.  Karen and I decided that foods that force you to open your mouth really wide to take a bite and open your mouth when chewing results in high jaw muscle activity. On the other hand, things like taffy and gum do not force you to open your mouth wide when taking a bite or chewing so that results in lower jaw muscle activity.

This lab was very interesting and even though there were a lot of numbers involved, it was not confusing.  And on the plus side we got to eat!

Bone Fractures

Nondisplaced: bone ends retain their normal position

Displaced: bone ends are out of normal alignment

Complete Fracture: bone is broken all the way through

Incomplete/Greenstick: bone is not broken all the way through.

One side of the bone breaks and the other side bends.

Linear: the fracture is parallel to the long axis of the bone

Transverse: the fracture is perpendicular to the long axis of the bone

Compound (open): bone ends penetrate the skin

Simple (closed): bone ends do not penetrate the skin

Comminuted: bone fragments into three or more pieces; common in elderly

Spiral: ragged break when bone is excessively twisted; common sports injury

Depressed: broken bone portion pressed inward; typical skull fracture

Compression: bone is crushed; common in porous bones

Epiphyseal: epiphysis separates from diaphysis along epiphyseal line;

occurs where cartilage cells are dying

After looking through my notes about bone fractures I found a pattern. For every fracture there seems to be an opposite one. For example the opposite of nondisplaced is a displaced fracture and the opposite of a complete fracture is an incomplete fracture.  Learning the different types of bone fractures has been the most interesting thing for me to learn so far this year. I understand all of the fractures now!

Organization of the Body

Organization of the body:  It all starts off at the chemical level.  In the chemical level, atoms combine to form molecules.  Molecules then associate in specific ways to form organelles.  Organelles form tissues.  (Forms 4 different types of tissue: epithelium, muscle, connective tissue, and nervous tissue.) Tissues then form organs.  An organ is a discrete structure composed of at least two tissue types that performs a specific function for the body.  Organs work together to accomplish a common purpose make up an organ system.  Many organ systems that work together make up the organismal level.  The organismal level represents the sum total of all structural levels working together to promote life!

Tissue Research article

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1107/features/body.htm


Bob Langer and Joseph Vacanti- The Fathers of the Field of Tissue Engineering.
Replacement Parts: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first "neo-organ" and burn victims and patients with sever skin sores or ulcers can now be thankful.  It is amazing how not too much farther in the future we will be able to have custom-made hearts, livers, breasts, etc.,  and having these could be solutions to some of the most life-threatening illnesses.  


Imitating Life:  In order to produce biologically useful tissues like cartilage and heart valves, tissue engineers have to pay very close and special attention to the physical environment in which cells grow.  Advances in tissue engineering replicates the idea of the circulatory system giving each individual cell in a tissue access to nutrients and a means of waste removal.  

   

This picture was really interesting because it is a real mouse that was able to grow an ear.  Before I finished reading the paragraph I was wondering how the immune system didn't reject the human tissue.  I then found out that the mouse was specially bred to lack an immune system that might reject the human tissue.

Forces of Nature: Dr. Gail Naughton created a container called a bioreactor.  It simulates conditions inside a healthy body, including putting physical stresses on cells as they grow.  Stonger natural tissue is the result.  It makes sense why this bioreactor was created because a little petri dish was not as effective as the bioreactor is.  According to Naughton, valve materials grown in the reactor have double the mechanical strength and secrete more important structural proteins, like collagen and elastin, than do those grown in a petri dish.  Overall it sounds like the bioreactor is a lot more effective and it will help out our society in many ways.  The bioreactor encourages the growth of blood vessels very well but in a petri dish it was always difficult to get tissue-engineered cells to orient themselves just right.

Free Fall:  It was interesting reading about how NASA scientists came to a conclusion that tissues grow more naturally in the weightlessness of space.  Just like Dr. Gail Naughton did, the NASA researchers designed their own bioreactor.  But there was a little bit of a difference because NASA's bioreactor kept growing cells in perpetual free fall and they found out that this was very effective. 

Life in 3D:  Many people in the United States are on a waiting list for an organ transplant, but there are just so many people in need and there is a shortage of donor organs.  If this technology works in the future then there will be less rejections and the people who could benefit from a stronger heart or a better kidney would be able to get help before it is too late.  If they can treat a disease early on there will not be as much need to grow entire hearts in the lab and that is what they are hoping for in the future.

Lab Tested, Vatican Approved:  The picture of the mouse that I posted earlier in this blog announced the new field of tissue engineering to the public.  Tissue engineering is a new technology that is both natural and straightforward.  It does not require the controversial use of embryonic stem cells.

This was actually a very interesting subject to read about.  I never thought that we would be growing human tissues in the lab.  Tissue engineering is going to help thousands of people in the United States and I would have to say everyone is happy about this new technology.

Medical Terms

        There are many different things you can talk about when you are going over the organizational levels of the body.  But mostly I'm going to focus on the planes and sections of the body.  In anatomy the body is usually sectioned along a flat surface called a plane.  Sagittal, frontal, and transverse are the most known.  The first plane I'm going to talk about is the sagittal plane, it is a vertical plane that divides the body into right and left parts. A sagittal plane that lies exactly in the midline is the median plane or midsagittal plane. Other sagittal planes that do not lie in the midline are known as parasagittal planes.  Frontal or coronal- divides the body into anterior and posterior parts. (Anterior is the forward part of the body for example the face and nose.  Posterior is the back of the body for example the butt.) Transverse or horizontal is also known as a cross section.  It divides the body into inferior and superior parts. (Superior is up. Inferior is down towards the feet.)  The last one is an oblique section. It cuts the body diagonally.  Other terms to know are superficial and deep.  Superficial means on the surface and deep means within.   Medial means toward or at the midline of the body; on the the inner side of. For example the heart is medial to the arm.  Lateral is the opposite of Medial.  Lateral means away from the midline of the body; on the outer side of.  An example of lateral would be: the arms are lateral to the chest.  Intermediate is like medial and lateral put together.  The definition of intermediate is between a more medial and a more lateral structure.  Another directional term is proximal.  Proximal means closer to the origin of the body part or the point of attachment of a limb to the body trunk.  An example would be: the elbow is proximal to the wrist.  The opposite of proximal is distal.  Distal is farther from the origin of a body part or the point of attachment of a limb to the body trunk.  An example would be: the knee is distal to the thigh.   The last thing to know when putting the body in planes or sections is the anatomical position.  The anatomical position means that body erect, feet slightly apart, palms facing forward, and the thumbs point away from the body.  

Human Epithelia

Simple Squamous Epithelium ^

Characteristics: Single layer of flattened cells with disc-shaped nuclei and sparse cytoplasm.

Examples: Present in the kidney glomeruli, lining of heart, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and serosae.

Simple Cuboidal Epithelium ^
Characteristics: single layer of cube like cells with large, spherical central nuclei.
Examples: Present in kidney tubules, ducts and secretory portions of small glands, and ovary surface.

Simple Columnar Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Single layer of tall cells with oval nuclei; many contain cilia
Examples: Small bronchi, uterine tubes, and some regions of the uterus

Pseudostratified Columnar Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Single layer of cells with different heights; some do not reach the free surface.
Examples: Male sperm- carrying ducts (nonciliated) and trachea (ciliated)

Stratified Squamous Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Thick membrane composed of several layers of cells
Examples: Forms the external part of the skin's epidermis (keratinized cells), and linings of the esophagus, mouth, and vagina (nonkeratinized cells)

Stratified Cuboidal Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Rare in the body, typically 2 cell layers thick
Examples: Swear and mammary glands

Stratified Columnar Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Limited distribution in the body
Examples: Pharynx, male urethra, lining some glandular ducts

Transitional Epithelium ^
Characteristics: Several cell layers, basal cells are cuboidal, surface cells are dome shaped
Examples: Lines the urinary bladder, ureters, and part of the urethra

Homeostasis Lab