Thursday, May 26, 2011

CSB #8: The Effect of Different Exercise on Heart Rate BY: ZABIN BASHAR, VIKRAM CHARI, and ERIC HOLT

Background Info: Our project tested heart beat rate after doing physical exercise. Heart beat rate was measured after standing in place for a minute, walking in place for a minute, and running in place for a minute.

Why we chose this topic: We were curious to figure out how various daily activities affected our heart rate. In addition, after watching the video on heart attacks we were concerned about how each activity plays a role in our heart rate, and how we can take care of our hearts in the long-run.

QUESTION: Does physical exercise increase a person's heart beat rate? Does the physical intensity of the exercise have a positive correlation with heart beat rate.

HYPOTHESIS: We think that physical exercise increases heart beat rate. The more intense the activity, the higher the heart beat rate will go.


METHODS: We first measured a person's heart rate for 1 minute using Vernier's Hand-Grip Heart Rate Monitor. During this one minute, we would either stand, walk, or run in place. Make sure to rest for a few minutes before doing another run of the experiment. After Logger Pro finished collecting data on our laptops, we examined it.



HOW TO HOLD THE HEART GRIP MONITOR


VARIABLES: The intensity of the exercise was the independent variable and the dependent variable was the heart rate.

DATA AND GRAPHS



Leo's heart rate while running



















Matthew's heart rate while walking

Zabin's heart rate while standing (Went from 84-94 beats per minute)

Eric's heart rate while standing

Vikram's heart rate while running

Vikram's heart rate while standing

Vikram's heart rate while walking in place

Zabin's heart rate while running



Zabin's heart rate while walking
Eric's heart rate while running



Eric's heart rate while walking in place












Although the values on the tables are not readable, the points on the graphs show that their is an increase in heart rate when exercising. In addition, the faster we moved, the steeper the slope of the graph was. Therefore, we can conclude that the physical intensity had a positive effect on heart rate.

PHYSIOLOGY ASPECT: Cells transport oxygen and energy using blood. The more intense an exercise becomes, the more oxygen and energy is necessary for your body. So, blood needs to be shipped out much faster. In order to ship blood faster, the heart must pump blood out faster. Therefore, heart rate goes up. Since running in place required the most energy, the heart rate went up the most.


FUTURE ADDITIONS:
When planning this experiment, we also thought about testing the CO2 emissions during exercise. However, we did not have time and ended up doing only heart rate. So, if we repeat this experiment again, we will add that variable.


Thanks to Leo Yu and Matthew Huang for also contributing data sets.
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Sunday, May 8, 2011

CSB: New Gene Disorder


Vocab:
Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20

Summary:
The Undiagnosed Diseases Program has discovered a new disease. The program relies on teams of specialists who use the most advanced tools of medicine and genomics to try to figure out the causes of diseases that have baffled doctors. This disease is caused by a genetic mutation. What it does is not allow your body to get rid of calcium, which then clogs up arteries, similar to cholesterol. One of the first reported cases was Louise Benge's. Her symptoms were difficulty with walking and hands always hurting. Her doctors were baffled by this because no one had ever seen anything like this. After some X-rays they could see the arteries were clogged, but they did not know why. Then the Undiagnosed Diseases Program got the case. Eventually they figured out that it was a genetic mutation. All of her siblings had the same problem so they looked in the gene pool. Neither of the parents had it, so it was recessive. They then found it on a gene that was not working. This gene produces extracellular adenosine, which contains the amount of calcium in the body. So because they did not have this, the calcium took over. Currently they are attempting to make a cure for this problem. Some suggestions are using a drug that lowers the calcium producing enzyme, alkaline phosphatase. It is good to see that our systems are doing their jobs, finding diseases. If we did not have these in place some pretty terrible things could take place. Hopefully in the future Ms. Benge can live out her life without the calcium deposits. I hope the cure comes out soon and we can have a solution to yet another disease.

Sources:
Kolata, Gina. "Medical Detectives Find Their First New Disease." The New York
Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2011. 03/health/03disease.html>.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.daviddarling.info/images/calcium.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/calcium.html&usg=__CjV-cjULIS5wcN6DxURmkwGIS0Y=&h=282&w=420&sz=31&hl=en&start=0&sig2=0VjK0LcqBpQcfZaV5dz27w&zoom=1&tbnid=B93wNa8xNSxs9M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=200&ei=ZI3RTfrFIIuCsQOgjfnvBw&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCalcium%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D697%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=282&vpy=87&dur=4977&hovh=184&hovw=274&tx=158&ty=113&page=1&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
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Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Mysterious Fear of the Sea


Vocab:
Chondrichthyes - Class of animal, Greek meaning cartilage and fish.
Shark Fin Soup -Is a popular soup item of Chinese cuisine usually served at special occasions such as weddings and banquets
Summary:
From the time humans started using the water there have been shark attacks. Although the chance of being attacked by one of these great predators is slimmer then being struck by lighting, people still fear the almost impossible. Sharks have been on Earth for 400 to 450 million years, they obviously have experience. The only thing that has changed in the sharks are the species. Sharks are a member of the class of Chondrichthyes. Humans have a thought in their head that every shark is a huge brute, but in fact we our larger then 80% of all sharks, and 50% is between 1/2 a foot and 3 feet. Obviously, none of these small ones would ever pose a threat. The thing that makes a shark famous are its rows and rows and rows of bladed teeth that can cut through almost anything. Some sharks are known to have up to 400 teeth in their mouth at one time. They need all these teeth, because, as you could imagine, cutting through fat and bone is not always the best for our teeth. The sharks have the same problem, except they can have reinforcement teeth. To me the most fascinating thing about sharks is their 6th sense, electro-sensation. "Sharks can locate nearby life forms through special organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini. Located about the mouth and eyes, these organs enable sharks to read the weak electrical aura of another creature even when it is buried in the sand." I believe this is what really sets sharks apart from all other ocean predators. They can sense things moving without seeing or hearing them. That would be equivalent to us being able to know were an invisible person was. These wondrous creatures keep our ocean ecosystem in order, and without them things would really be out of whack. Sadly humans are not helping. Every year a whopping 6 people die from shark attacks. Lets just multiply that number by 2 MILLION and we have the number of sharks that die per year from humans. Sharks are mainly killed for their fin, for shark fin soup, but are sometimes just caught in a net. I believe humans should really look out for these creatures because of their great value and importance in the marine ecosystem.

Source:
Bachleda, F. Lynne. "Dangerous Wildlife in California & Nevada." Science
Reference Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.

detail?vid=9&hid=14&sid=7a76d4ef-4a85-4316-87fc-a359d1e2a9e7%40sessionmgr13&bdata
=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=sch&AN=18652621>.
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

New Diabetes Drug


dapagliflozin - The new diabetes drug
(The picture is it)

Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has just released a new drug, dapagliflozin. The Food and Drug Administration has just accepted it along with the European Medicines Agency. Originally the drug was created in 2007 but it has taken a while for it to be accepted. This drug help type 2 diabetes only. Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease determined by the body's insulin resistance or the dysfunction of beta cells in the pancreas. This leads the higher sugar levels in the body. This disease is very serious and over 285 million people have it world wide. This new drug, instead of putting in insulin in the body, puts "sodium-glucose cotransporter," in other words helping to break down glucose. I like this new look on diabetes. I believe that this could actually work because no one has tried it before. Even if it does not work it is reassuring to know scientists are thinking about new ways to stop things.

"FDA Accepts NDA For Type 2 Diabetes Drug Compound Dapagliflozin ." RTT News.
N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2011. .

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Monday, January 10, 2011

CSB4: Alcohol


JUST SAY NO
By Eric Holt
Definition:
depressant - a drug that when used will make you feel good at first, but then put you in a slump later
alcohol - a drink/drug that acts as a depressant

Summary:
Throughout all human history there has been alcohol. Sadly it is only recently that humans have realized the full effects of this drug. Obviously having one or two drinks once your an adult is not a problem, but when you have about 5 or more things get serious. Drinking to much alcohol can lead to both short term and long term affects. A short term affect would be a hangover or passing out, both bad. However, the long term affects are much worse. The liver gets affected by this most of all. The livers job is to get rid of all poison in the blood stream, alcohol being one of them. However, the liver can only get rid out a small amount at a time, so when large amounts are consumed it takes a long time to get out of your blood system. A healthy liver can handle about 1 drink every half an hour. When you exceed this limit is when the liver starts becoming diseased. Some signs of liver problems are if it enlarges, but this is more of a sign to say stop for a while. If these habits continue then people may get alcoholic hepatitis, were most of their liver cells have died off. This causes major problems such as constant fevers, and belly pains. That isn't even the worst. If continued after this the entire liver will become useless permanently. This will lead to poison being able to go about your body anywhere. This could lead to people forgetting their family, friends, etc. almost like a mental illness. Also, as blood flow is slowed down in the liver it can cause death. It causes death by making the esophagus to bleed. If not worked on immediately people will die from this. Unless everyone wants to die a painful bleeding death then they should learn about alcohol and its problems.

Why: I chose this article because I am concerned about alcohol and how people handle it. I believe the world will be safer if people know more about the drug. Right now people drink freely, but once they learn the fatal affects their minds will change.

Questions:
How many people die from alcohol reasons per year?
How many drinks should people be allowed to have every day?
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