20 Time Final Post

TED Talk:

I thought my TED Talk went relatively well, although I felt myself speaking faster than I had practiced. I always remind myself to slow down but I guess my anxiety always takes over. I also forgot the cite one of my sources during my speech, but at least all the content was there. I would give myself an A for meeting most of the requirements in presentation but all the requirements on paper.I worked hard preparing for the talk and honestly felt prepared. I've grown by practicing public speaking and it's always a good reminder to how I  old improve my speech skills. 

I enjoyed listening everyone's presentations be a use there was something new to learn from everyone. The variety of topics made to hard to fall asleep even with dim lights. 20 Time was a worthwhile experience and I learned a lot about all sorts of topics. 

20 Time Reflection

Reflection: 

I chose this project to help myself and others because I personally struggle with drinking enough water daily. I drink water before school and after school, but that hardy adds up to the recommended 7 cups a day. My goal was to design an aesthetic water bottle that would help solve the dehydration epidemic. My initial plan was to first figure out what kinds of functions I could fit into the bottle to make it multifunctional and unique. Then, I would find out what is needed to make those parts and how to integrate it in a way that is ergonomic and practical. 

I thought this project went smoothly, no real hiccups or anything. The only obstacle was blogger and trying to find information about the technology I was planning to use. Although information is very accessible  today, it was still difficult to find wholesale prices of materials and to understand how things like Bluetooth work. Maybe I just wasn't well versed in the tech language. Otherwise, the project took mostly just brainpower to hash out the details, which wasn't to hard once I got rolling. The water bottle is finished and I will not be continuing it past Anatomy and Physiology. I never really planned to make an actual bottle, but the plan on how to make one is all set and done. 

The most concrete thing I learned was a little bit about how Bluetooth works. Besides that, i now know that being an entrepreneur is hard! Perhaps the hardest part of the project was starting it. Everything I thought up of had already existed in some form or another. Even  this water bottle project had already been done in many forms, some more advanced than others. I changed my original plan of being super innovative and original to just trying to differentiate my product from other water bottles that supposedly reminded it's user to drink. My research skills improved because of all the extensive searching I had to do in order to differentiate my product. If I did this project again, I would probably shy away from creating products and focus more on a service or self improvement topic. In the end, my bottle ended up being pretty expensive and definitely not accessible to everyone. I would've liked my project to be more relevant and helpful to people all around the world and not just the well-off. I'm probably not going to continue this challenge, simply because the design is basically done and I don't have any plans to actually produce the product. In addition, my bottle is very much a first world product, but I know many people who can't afford the bottle have dehydration problems too.

I would give myself full credit for this project as I met all the deadlines and dedicated a lot of time toward researching. My blogs alone don't show the hours I've spent brainstorming just to be able to write my first blog. Blog posts 3 and 4 better show concrete evidence of my research. I stayed on task during the class time allocated toward 20 Time and I think I did a great job working on and finishing this project. I have already posted pictures of the prototype design I sketched out, so I will link the page here.

TED Talk Outline:

1. why I chose the project
2. give scary facts
3. talk about my process
4. drink water guys.

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit was primarily about the muscular system, although we started off learning about the synovial joints and movements. There are many types of synovial joint movements, but the main categories are gliding, angular, rotation, and "special" movements, which can only occur at certain joints. The types of joints that allow these motions are planar, hinge, pivot, condyloid, saddle, and ball and socket. 

Synovial Joints
http://www.mananatomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/synovial_joints_scheme.jpg

Then we moved on to the muscular system, starting with the characteristics of muscles and how they are classified. Muscles serve to move bones, maintain posture, stabilize joints, and generate heat. In order to perform these actions, muscles have to have certain properties, which are contractibility (ability to shorten), extensibility (ability to elongate), and elasticity (ability to recoil). Muscle tissue is made of a different levels of fascia and muscle fibers. There is facia around each muscle fiber, fascia that wraps around bundles of fibers, and facia that surrounds the entire muscle. Each muscle has a side of origin and a side of insertion. The origin side is immovable so the insertion side can move toward the origin when contracting. Each muscle serves multiple roles depending on what type of movement it being made. There are the prime movers that cause the desired action, the antagonist that relaxes in response to the prime mover contracting, the synergists who reduce unnecessary movements, and fixators that stabilize the origin of the prime mover. Muscles are names based on a number of things: direction, size, shape, action, number of origins, and location.

Muscles contract by increasing the area that is overlapped between sarcomeres, which are sections of a myofibril aka thread of muscle fiber. Sarcomeres are composed of two types of protein filaments: actin and myosin. When a muscle is triggered by an electrical impulse, the fibers of each sarcomere slide together, making the muscle shorter. The shortening of a muscle is known as a contraction. We read an article that explained what happens physically to sarcomeres when a muscle is stretched.

Sarcomere
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55831769e4b0e3dcc327b2c3/t/57e5b3eb2994ca98e2ee6e76/1474672050384/Sarcomere

There are three types of muscle twitch fibers that serve different purposes: slow twitch, fast twitch a, and fast twitch b. slow twitch is highly dependent on oxygen and stores little glycogen, but it is also slow to fatigue so it work well for exercises of long duration, like marathons. Fast twitch fibers are more anaerobic and quick to fatigue, to they are better suited for activities that require short bursts of energy. Genetics play the largest role in determining how much of each fiber a person has.

20 Time has been going relatively smoothly; I've learned a lot about other things unrelated to anatomy and physiology. It's a good break to work on 20 Time during class. My new year's goals are being accomplished steadily--I haven't gotten back into a consistent exercise schedule yet but I am exercising more.

H2OnTHeGo (post4)

Previously I've said that I couldn't figure out how Bluetooth worked, this time around, I've decided that would be my next project.
Basically, Bluetooth is a technology that allows for the transmission of information between devices over a short distance using radio waves, once device being the "master" and all connecting devices being "slaves". For reference, a master device is often a phone and slaves are things like GPS, radio, ect. A group of synchronized devices is referred to as a piconet, where they all share a frequency hopping pattern determined by the master device. In my case, the bottle cap would be the master and the bracelet would be the slave device.
There's a bunch of technicalities that I don't think anyone would be interested in, but the gist of it is that each device needs to have sensors (usually located on the battery) that can send and receive the signals being sent at the particular frequency the master device sets. In application to my water bottle, sensors will have to be placed on the battery in cap as a strip and on the coin batteries in the silicon bracelet.
As a side thought, it would seem that the bracelet wearer would have to be near the bottle in order for them to remind the user to drink at the same time, so in order for the product to be practical the two parts of the bottle should run more separately than dependently.

Setbacks were minimal this time because information is so widely available over the internet! Yay! Although the tests were sometimes hard to read because of all the tech-y terms that I did not know. The terms were easy to search up though, so that was fine.
Looks like the project is coming to a close. Thanks for reading :)


Information from:
https://www.bluetooth.com/what-is-bluetooth-technology/how-it-works
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-how-does-bluetooth-work/

What Happen's When You Stretch

Relate and Review:

As we've learned in our notes before, muscle fibers are made of myofibrils, which are in turn constructed of multiple sarcomeres. Each sarcomere has over lapping parts with one another. When a muscle contracts, the area that overlaps increases, essentially shortening the muscle. The reading talks about the counter of that, which is when the muscle is being stretched, muscle fibers are pulled to its full length and disorganized fibers are realigned. Proprioreceptors in the muscle (the primary ones being the stretch receptors) relay messages to the nervous system that triggers the stretch reflex, which is the muscles initial resistance to stretching. However, If you hold a stretch long enough, the proprioreceptors will start to decrease its signaling, which allows the muscles to slowly lengthen. Another cause for relaxation is when tension due to contraction exceeds a certain threshold and causes a lengthening reaction. A lengthening reaction is when a muscle is inhibited from contracting, therefore forcing a relaxation. In the muscle unit, we learned about how often muscles are paired together so that when one contracts, the other has to relax (ie. biceps and triceps). This is called reciprocal inhibition--when the bicep contracts, the triceps are inhibited from contracting.

Quotes:

• "This realignment [when you stretch] is what rehabilitates scarred tissue back to health" (1). So then if you get a large cut, is it important to stretch it to prevent or reduce scarring? I think people would be interested to learn about how to not scar.
• "The muscle spindle contains two different types of fibers which are sensitive to change in muscle length and the rate of change in muscle length" (2). It never ceases to amaze me how cells can record such minute things. The rate in which a muscle is lengthening? That's amazing. 
• "In [a sit up] the back muscles also contract [in addition to the stomach muscles]" (3). That's pretty counter intuitive and a little hard to picture, but it really shows how the body is way more complex than an average person will ever know. Learning about how muscles cooperate could really make exercising more efficient. 

No More Runner's Knee!

For this project, I attempted to redesign the knee joint, which is formed by the femur and patella, in order to prevent runner's knee, or patellofemoral pain syndrome, caused by the wearing down or disalignment of the kneecap. In order for me to know what part of the joint to redesign, I started the project off with perusing the internet for information about how and why runner's knee occurs. Once I found sufficient information, I brainstormed ways to protect the kneecap or keep it in place so that pain can be reduced or prevented.

The joint I am redesigning is the patella, which lies between the femur bone and the tibia. The bottom of the patella is attached to the tibia (shinbone) by the patellar tendon (which is actually a ligament) and to the quadriceps by the quadriceps tendon from the top ("Patellar Tendon Tear"). The quadriceps and tendons work together to straighten the knee as well as support any other movements made by the leg. One of the common reasons why runner's knee occurs is because the muscles around it are not strong enough to support the kneecap. Quadriceps and hamstrings are important for lessening the pressure on the knee and for keeping the kneecap in place ("Runner's Knee"). There is a specific groove on the femur where the kneecap is supposed to slide, so as you can imagine, if the knee cap moves out of alignment, both the cartilage on the femur and tibia can be damaged by the rubbing together of bones ("Patella"). Patellofemoral pain syndrome occurs when the patella rubs on the femur underneath it and leads to other problems. When the cartilage wears out, the shock absorption abilities of the knee decreases, furthering the degradation of the patella and surrounding bones ("Runner's Knee"). However, the damage done to the cartilage on the femur is not what actually causes pain--there are no nerves or blood vessels being damaged there. What causes the pain is what follows as a result of damaged cartilage or excessive stress on the knee the bone underneath and surrounding soft tissue can be damaged ("Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome").

The reason this syndrome is nicknamed runner's knee is because the repetitive running motion naturally causes the motions that the condition often stems from: more friction in the knee area, tightening of hamstring and calf muscles, disalignment of kneecap, ect. Of course non-runners can feel the symptoms of patellofemoral pain syndrome too if they lack proper exercise or suffer from biomechanical problems of their bones, so everyone should be aware of this problem.

brown-bone, tan-cartilage/tendons,
blue-bursae, red-muscle

increased cartilage, increased bursae size,
modified femoral groove not shown

If the joint could be redesigned, to keep the kneecap in track, I would deepen the femoral groove so that there would be less wriggle room and perhaps increase the synovial fluid around the knee to reduce friction and rubbing together of bones. The size of the bursae can't increase too much though because inflammation of the synovial membrane causes another problem, synovitis, that is also painful (Biel). I would also make the cartilage on the femur and patella thicker and cover a larger area so that there is more cartilage to go through and more shock could be absorbed.

I came up with this design after contemplating how to prevent the patella from dislocating and how to lessen the inevitable wear-and-tear of bones. Since, to some degree, bones cannot be entirely protected from wearing down, the best solution would be to make the joint slide as smoothly as possible to make the bones last as long as possible, hence increasing the amount of lubrication. Increasing the size of the bursae that holds synovial fluid helps with this. Increasing the thickness of cartilage also helps prolong the life of the bone by giving more cushion before the patella impacts the femur underneath it. The added coverage of cartilage decreases the chance that the patella will rub on the femur as well because if the patella is dislocated, at least the dislocation may still place the kneecap on the part of the femur that has cartilage.

However, the anatomy of the bone is the way it is now because evolution has found that it works, so it would be no surprise if my redesign of the joint ran into some problems. As I mentioned before, the inflammation of the synovial membrane causes a painful condition called synovitis (Biel). I would expect increasing bursae size to increase lubrication would create similar effects as the inflammation of synovial membrane might. In addition, extra cartilage thickness might result in too much cushion and make the knee less stable because cartilage is softer and squishier than the spongy bone or compact bone that lies underneath.

To prevent runner's knee  realistically with what we have now, strengthening and stretching the hamstring, calf, and quadriceps muscles will help provide needed support to the patella. If you already have runner's knee, it is important to avoid downhill slopes and other knee bending activities to alleviate stress until the knee is properly healed ("Runner's Knee").

This assignment was pretty cool because it really brought together all the information we've been learning for the past month about joints, bones, and muscles. We were also forced to think beyond just facts in order to redesign the joint and use information to work with our creativity, so I thought this project was a nice close to this unit.



Works Cited
Biel, Andrew. Trail Guide to the Body: How to Locate Muscles, Bones and More. Boulder, Colo: of Discovery, 2008. Print.

"Patella." Healthline. Ed. Healthline Medical Team. Healthline Media, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 May 2017.

"Patellar Tendon Tear." OrthoInfo. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 May 2017.

"Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome." Sports Injury Clinic. Virtual Sports Injury Clinic, n.d. Web. 07 May 2017.

"Runner's Knee." Runner's World. Runner's World, n.d. Web. 07 May 2017. 

Chicken Dissection Analysis

In this lab, we explored the major muscles of a chicken through dissection in place of an actual human body. Starting with the main body and ending with limbs, we sliced and peeled away skin and identified muscles as they were uncovered. We could feel the contraction and relaxation of the muscles when you flexed or extended the wing. Muscles are the ones that perform an action, where as the bone they are attached to give structure to the body and hold the muscles in place. Tendons attached muscles to bones. For example, the biceps and triceps are attached to the humerus bone by tendons. The biceps flex to bring the lower arm as the triceps relax.  Usually, a muscles has an end that does the contracting and an end that doesn't move. Tendons of the origin of a muscle fixes the muscle to the bone on the side that does not move, while tendons of insertion move as the muscle moves (aka the side that contracts). While chickens and humans share many of the same muscles, like deltoids and quadriceps, the muscles of a chicken have been altered to maximize the parts that humans like to eat. Chicken breasts are proportionally much larger than that of a human as are their leg muscles like the gastrocnemius.

Pectoralis Major - pulls the wing ventrally for flight

Pectoralis Minor - underneath the pec major, pulls shoulder down and forward

Trapezius - pulls shoulders back and shrugs shoulders

Latissimus Dorsi - extends the wing/arm

Deltoid (top left of the red pin) - raises the arm

Biceps (blue) & Triceps (yellow) - they work together to extend and flex the arms

Flexor carpi ulnaris - flexes hand

Brachioradialis - pulls hand back

Sartorius - crosses legs

Biceps femoris (inferior to pin) - flexes leg

Semimembranosus - extends thigh
semitendinosus- just anterior to semimembranosus, also extends thigh

Quadriceps - flexes/extends lower leg, group of four muscles

Gastrocnemius - extends foot and flexes lower leg

tibialis anterior - flexes foot, muscle that causes shin splints

peroneus longus - extends foot

Unit 7 Reflection

Unit 7 was on the skeletal system, including types of bones and joints and structural aspects of bone. We first learned about some of the disorders of the bone, including degenerative ones like arthritis and rickets and structural ones like scoliosis and kyphosis. Then we moved on to bone remodeling, which explained the physical characteristics of bone as well as its function. Bone density is important because dense bones equates to a stronger body support system. Osteopororis is inevitable, but leading a healthy lifestyle can certainly slow bone loss down. One of the ways we keep our bones fresh and strong is through bone remodeling. Osteoclasts strip away bone tissue and replenishes the blood with calcium. Osteoblasts rebuild the bone by secreting collagen. 

http://images.test.obesityhelp.com.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/13819011_xl.jpg

Next we moved on to bone fractures and repair. Repairations include fibers reconnecting the bones and bone replacing cartilage. 

http://www.bonedisease.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bone-fracture-causes-and-definition.png

The last sections was on joints. Joints can be classified by their mobility and how two bones are joined. Synarthroses are immovable joints, amphiarthroses have limited movement, and diarthroses hare filly movable joints. Structurally, there are fibrous, cartilagenous, and synovial joints. The typical joint you would think of is synovial synarthroses, such as he knee and elbow.

As for my new year's goals, I am running semi regularly with my friends now, but i still need to do my fill of resistance training. I just got a three month gym membership so hopefully I make the most out of that before summer starts! My diet is doing okay--I don't really think it's especially bad or great right now. I've cut junk food but I still like my carbs. 

20 Time is going smoothly, my project is essentially done but there's always more I can finess. 

H2OnTheGo (post3)

Hi friends! Thanks for visiting my progress report again :)

To further my project, I've been researching the price of raw materials and pieces of technology that are needed to create one bottle. Some considerations and notes:

• Since the bottle has moisture sensitive technology, the water bottle cap needs waterproofing.

• The water bottle set will be comprised of a bracelet and a water bottle, with the bracelet connecting to the bottle via magnet.

• The bracelet is primarily silicon, adjustable by disc magnets to fit all wrist sizes. Its function is to remind the wearer to drink water periodically; keep the reminder with the person as opposed to solely on the bottle.

• Reminders will come from bottle itself and the bracelet.

Cost of materials per bottle:
bluetooth chips - (receiving and sending) - $5
glass thermos bottle - $4
stainless steel - $0.06
thermocouple (measures temperature) - $2
processor - $6
touchscreen back-glow display - $7
silicone rubber - $0.10
plastic - $0.20
disc magnets (6) - $0.48

cost per bottle: $24.84

Because the cost is around $25, the price of the bottle should be around $90 to make adequate profit.

Finding the base cost of materials was actually pretty difficult--I ended basing my costs off of what I saw on wholesale websites that were kind of sketchy.
The accessibility of information needed to accurately calculate the costs was a bit of a set back, but I just averaged out what I saw and estimated the best I could. The only actual setback is HOW HARD BLOGGER IS TO USE. The pictures in post2 really screwed up my blog formatting. I just have to deal with it and do the best I can to make my posts un-ugly.

Through this project, I've learned that I am maybe not cut out for engineering because I could not figure out of the life of me how bluetooth works and how to make it, though I did manage to find some components needed to build it.

Owl Pellet Lab

In this lab, we dissected an owl pellet and looked for bones to guess what kind of animal was eaten by the owl. There was a packet with pictures of bones for voles, moles, ect. to compare our findings to.

The rodent in our pellet was a vole. The skull was the main giveaway because voles have their teeth grouped at the back of the jaw rather than it being spread out and all three skulls that we found matched that. It also had elongated front teeth that could only belong to a mole or vole. The leg bones also matched those of a vole.

The anatomy of this rodent was similar to one of a human in that it had all the basic bones like a femur and a skull. There was a ball-and-socket joint that we found connecting the hip to the leg bones, which humans also have. The placement of the skeletal bones itself was similar to a human skeleton: head, spine, arms, legs. The most obvious difference is the shape of the skull. Clearly, humans don't have long front teeth like voles do and our teeth are also evenly spaced throughout our mouths. The skull was also much more oval and long than a human skull (the posterior of the skull was broken off but you could still tell). The voles had a group of 4 teeth in the front and the rest were a the back of the jaw. Voles also have tails-we found a bunch of little bones that we couldn't piece together-but humans don't, unless you count the tailbone as one. 

Unit 6 Reflection

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This unit was about the brain and our senses. We first started off with the anatomy of the brain and brief overview of what role each part of the brain had. Then, we learned more specifically about the two hemispheres and lobes. The left hemisphere is more detail and fact oriented while the right looks at overall context more. The brain is very malleable and has the ability to reorganize itself to heal from damage or in response to new experiences. Next we touched on all our senses--sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell--and the specific receptors that are used to sense stimuli. For example, we have thermoreceptors to sense heat and propioreceptors that sense pain. In order for receptors to send signals to the brain, there need to be neurons, which we learned about next. The neural system is organized into the PNS and CNS, each playing an important role in interpreting messages and sending out tasks for motor neurons.

http://climatereview.net/ChewTheFat/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CNS-vs-PNS.jpg

Readings in this Unit:

"How to become a Superager" by Lisa Barret

This article was about how some older people are able to maintain their brain capability to equal those of younger people in their 20s. She calls those people "superagers". Physically, regular agers' brains degrade after a while of dissuse, The only way to keep the brain at it's peak is to engage it in solving challenges or performing difficult tasks. In our brain lecture we talked about how neurons that fire together, wire together, but here we learn that the opposite is also true. If neurons are not fired, they become disconnected. 

"FIt Body, Fit Brain, and Other Fitness Trends" by Gretchen Reynolds

Reynolds talks about how we can keep our brains in tip-top shape and also explains why each method is necessary. Exercise is linked to brain fitness: improvements in thinking and an increase in the number of neurons. Weight training is particularly important because it leads to fewer lesions in the brain's white matter, which is needed to pass messages to varying parts of the brain. Interestingly enough, in a study about twins, the twin with larger calves had a healthier brain that the twin with punier calves, directly supporting how important weight training is for the brain. Based on lectures, we know why white matter is essential to brain function ( it is full of neurons). If physical and mental exercise helps us in keeping our white matter and increasing the number of neurons in the brain, clearly exercise is something every person should be motivated to do.

"How We Get Addicted" by Michael D. Lemonick

Addictions are defined as "repetitive behaviors in the face of negative consequences", the desire to do something you know is bad for you. Scientists are now able to develop a better understanding of how addictions affect the brain. They found out that drugs stimulate the same brain functions that allowed our ancestors to survive. Exposing ourselves to drugs creates a salience overdrive that creates uncontrollable craving. The reason we are not ALL addicts is because we have a reasoning part of our brain that can tell us that the consequences of addiction are not worth it. The reasoning part of the brain is mostly the prefrontal cortex. As we learned early on in this unit, the brain has many different parts all in charge of different functions. The cortex is involved in making judgements and plans and can override cravings.

Senioritis is hitting me 100% full force and my academic aggression for this class is faltering. I don't do anything unless I have to anymore: I don't cut and paste my notes in until it's due, I take many "breaks" from work. As far as strengths, at least I'm maintaining decent grades and still doing the work for my classes. I also haven't skipped any school even though I have been tempted, so I'll consider that an achievement.  

Based on the previous paragraph, I think it is clear that my goal of staying motivated is on it's way to failure. However, I am maintaining a healthier lifestyle these days. I go running with my friends on a weekly basis and I watch what I eat (can't do that overcarbsumption stuff!). I get adequate sleep, although whether it's because I can't physically stay up anymore like I used to or if it's because I actually want the health benefits of enough sleep is unclear. Go me.

Reflex Lab

In this lab, we conducted multiple experiments to test our reflexes and reactions times. A reflex is an automatic response to a stimulus--often the reaction happens with out a signal being processed by the brain. Instead, the signal is passed to the spinal cord for a faster response to the stimuli. In the first experiment, we tested the reaction of the iris to light. One partner covered her eyes for 2 minutes and then the other partner shined light onto the eye after the 2 minutes. We observed that the pupil constricted in the bright light and dilated when it was dark. The eye adjusts the amount of light that enters the eye to enable us to have optimal vision in all conditions.

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In the second experiment, we tested the knee jerk reflex by hitting the knee with a knee hammer and observing whether the leg shot up or not in response. Then we performed the same procedure after doing 30 squats to see if the reflex was heightened or slowed. We saw that the reflex was faster and more prominent after the squats, maybe because the blood was pumping and the neurons were more sensitive after exercise.

https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/62/141362-004-BB0AD15A.jpg

In the third experiment, we tested the blink reflex. A clear sheet was help in from of our faces and a cotton ball was thrown at the face. The person behind the plastic blinked without fail each time the cotton ball was thrown. The body does this because the eyes are a very important part of the body and should be protected from incoming objects to prevent damage.

For the fourth experiment, the plantar reflex was tested. A pen was dragged along the sole of someone's foot. In response to the stimulus, the toes scrunched up. This happened for both partners. If the nervous system is damaged, the toes would have spread apart and up. Perhaps this reflex is to protect the foot from too much damage if you step on something by lifting most of the foot away from the ground.
In the fifth and final experiment, we tested our reaction time for when we are focused vs. unfocused. One partner held a meter stick and the other put her had near the bottom of the ruler. The first partner drops the ruler and the second is supposed to catch it. The inches in which partner 2 catches the meter stick was recorded and translated into a time measurement to approximate how fast the reaction time was. For the unfocused version, the same experiment was performed except the person catching the ruler was not texting at the same time. My average reaction time when focused was 0.11 seconds while my unfocused time was 0.193. Caroline's times had a similar pattern, her first average being 0.13 and the second being 0.2 seconds. The distracted response time was slower because the brain is now multitasking and had to split the focus between two things. 

H2OnTheGo (post2)

So far, I've drawn up concept designs and did a little research about

    how the electronic parts of my bottle

will work.

The bottle will be a sippy cup type mechanism for convenience. Currently, tech savvy bottle all have a screw off cap, but based on some friends I questioned and what I've observed, people prefer not to have to expend the energy to actually screw off and on caps.As shown flip off part of the cap will show things like the current temperature and time.An extra possibility is to add a detachable infuser because people will more willingly drink flavored water and the plastic it would take to make the infuser would cost very little. My infuser design is also unique and new in that it is deconstructable for easy cleaning.

The bracelet will be a silicon band that gradually flattens at the ends to where the disc magnets will be placed to make the band adjustable-fits all sizes. A button off to the side of the body will enable the user to turn on and off the auditory reminder to drink water. The four water droplets will glow through the silicon covering. Based on the temperature sensor in the bottle cap, the number of glowing droplets will change--one being drink an average amount of water, four being water intake should be increased by a lot (maybe 2X or something like that).

There will be a silicon strip in the middle part of the glass bottle for grip.

I haven't really had any setbacks so far, Next, I plan to research the costs of materials.

Brain Dissection

In this lab, we made cuts into the brain so that we could observe the many parts of the brain by looking at cross sections. We saw how the brain was physically divided into the left and right hemispheres and identified various other parts like the cerebellum and thalamus. In the cross section of the cerebrum, we were able to differentiate white matter from gray matter. The brain shares some similarities to the heart in that his had a protective layer around it that held the brain together, called the meninges.

Question 1: Take a picture with your pins in place. Draw a detailed sketch of the brain and label each of the structures.

drawing of the whole brain from the left side

whole brain viewed from left side

Question 2: What is the function of each of these structures?

• Cerebrum-integrates the messages received in the brain
• Cerebellum-motor control
• brain stem-controls basic functions like breathing, digestion; filters sensory information

Question 3: What is the function of myelin in a neuron?

The myelin insulates and increases the speed of nerve impulses in the neuron.

Question 4: Picture and drawing of cross section with labels.

drawing of cross section along the medial plane

cross section of brain along medial plane

Question 5: What is the function of each of the structures you pinned in step 8?

• thalamus- sorts data, autonomic activities, maintains consciousness
• optic nerve- connects eye to brain for sight
• medulla oblongata- controls heartbeat, breathing
• pons- contains bundles of axons that connect parts of the brain with one another
• midbrain- connects nerve impulses from cerebrum to spinal cord, medulla, and pons
• corpus callosum-connects right and left hemispheres of the brain with nerves
• hypothalamus- maintains homeostasis

Question 6: Make a detailed drawing of your cross section and take a pic.

drawing of ca cross section of the cerebrum

cross section of cerebrum

Sheep Eye Dissection Analysis

http://www.biographixmedia.com/human/eye-anatomy.jpg

On the exterior of the eye, there are rectus muscles that helps the eye turn. The white of the eye, which is actually really tough, is the sclera. 

When a person sees, light first passes through a hard shell called the cornea. It helps focus light and protects the eye against the dust and other particles. The iris, which is behind the cornea, controls the amount of light that enters through the pupil and hits the lens. Between the lens and the cornea is the aqueous humor, a liquid that maintains the pressure of the eyeball. The light is bent by the lens to focus the light onto the retina at the back of the eye. Ciliary muscles alters the curve of the lens to help focus the light. In the retina, rods and cones detect color and gray scale to send messages to the brain. Where the optic nerve starts, we have a blind spot where there is a lack of rods and cones. Under the retina is the choroid that supplies the eye with blood. The optic nerves and blood vessels funnel together at the back of the eye. Visual messages are then sent to the brain. Vitreous humor in the main cavity of the eye ball maintains the shape of the eye.

Power Hour Reading: Drunk Tank Pink

Name of Book: Drunk Tank Pink

Name of Chapter: "Weather and Warmth"

Summary: Scientists have been noticing trends in human behavior in response to weather and have been trying to explain it since perhaps before the 1800's. In Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter, it is revealed that according to various experiments and observations made in the last century, warmth has the power to excites the brain and body, making the heart beat faster and encouraging testosterone levels to rise in males. Depending on the situation, the induced excitement can be interpreted in many different ways: from arousal to rage. An experiment conducted in Arizona found that road rage escalated when the temperature rose. Looking through history, tropical regions tended to participate in more civil conflicts (207-208).
Although rising temperatures can cause a bard sort of excitement, sunshine and warmth has also been linked again and again to physical and emotional well-being. Harry Harlow discovered that baby monkeys valued warmth more than nourishment (212), and another experiment found that students who held heated therapeutic packs felt less lonely (as opposed to those who held cooled packs) (213). On the sunshine aspect, exposure to light plays a large role in the release of melatonin, which basically signals the body that it is time for sleep. During the winter or when the clouds hang heavy, the absence of light prolongs the release of melatonin, making people feel less energized. In contrast, summer weather causes a "summer high", in which people generally feel more elated and relaxed (215-219).

Thesis: Weather and temperature alters animal behavior. In Alter's words, "Summertime War, Wintertime Love".

The reading is pretty credible-- all of the authors claims are backed up by examples or research. I liked the part of the book where he Alter explained why sunny weather makes us feel good. I've often noticed that waking up to blue skies and yellow sunshine improved my mood for the rest of the day, or at least for the rest of the morning, although I never really know why. Now I know!

A Woman Perpetually Falling

Cheryl is one of few people who have lost their sense of balance. Ever since being prescribed an excessive amount of gentamicin to treat an infection, her inner ear structures have been damaged, including her vestibular apparatus. The vestibular apparatus is the organ that gives a person his sense of space and orientation through the movement of fluids. Since she lost all sense of balance, she could no longer stand without falling, sometimes losing touch of even the ground. Bach-y-Rita, a well qualified neurologist, developed a helmet that would help replace the vestibular apparatus and transmit signals to the brain via tongue. Sensory signals now bypass the damaged vestibular apparatus to go straight to the area of the brain that processes balance. Amazingly, the longer the helmet is worn, the longer the "residual effect" lasted, meaning she could stay balanced without the help of the device. Long term use also eventually makes permanent adjustments to the brain so that the residual effect last longer every time. The amazing ability of the brain to take over the jobs of damaged brain parts proves the plasticity of the brain.

"[Cheryl] suffers from mental fatigue, as well, from being on constant high alert. It takes a lot of brain power to maintain an upright position--brain power that is taken away from such mental functions as memory and the ability to calculate and reason" (5). Her pain doesn't just stop with her loss of balance--everything about her life is damaged as a result. What is living if she can't do anything beyond trying to stay sane? Most of us take being able to stand for granted, but what she and others like her go through daily reminds the rest of us that we really should be grateful for even the small things.

"...It did keep up. Over the next year Cheryl wore the device more frequently to get relief and build up her residual effect. Her residual effect progressed to multiple hours, to days, and then to four months. Now she does not use the device at all and longer considers herself a Wobbler" (10). The capability for the brain to find new ways to compensate for damages sensory parts is truly mystifying. It can re train itself to bypass the vestibular apparatus and still process the sense of space and orientation--it seems like the brain can do more things than it can't.

"...my father had had a huge lesion from his stroke and that it had never healed, even though he recovered all those functions" (23). This time, it wasn't just a missing sensory organ. 97% of the nerves in that father's cerebral cortex and spine were destroyed. Because this cortex is mainly responsible for control in movement, he had become paralyzed. Pedro (the father), was somehow able to regain his ability to move even though the main processor for movement was permanently damaged. This just further proves how plastic the brain is in it's ability to reorganize and recover lost functions.

Clay Brain

We made two models of the human brain: one of the left hemisphere along the sagittal plane and one of the right cerebral hemisphere. In order to accurately portray all the parts of the brain correctly we googled a couple images and pieced the parts together. Then we used Play-Doh to to model the parts on a piece of card board.

Missing Brain Parts

Missing an entire portion of the brain sounds catastrophic--and even more so when that part of the brain contains 50% of the brain's neurons--but a woman the age of 24 proves just how adaptable the brain is. Usually those with missing cerebellums die at a young age, but this woman has lived with relatively few problems for her condition. She could not speak properly until age 6 and didn't walk until 7, but other than dizziness and nausea, her body functions normally. The cerebellum is thought to have a role in motor and speech control but mostly control voluntary movements, so it is amazing that she is living with such minor problems. Doctors say that the cortex probably took over those roles.

If someone had their corpus callosum severely damaged or removed, the brain would have little or no connection between the left and right hemispheres. Surgeries on removing the corpus callosum have been done to treat severe epileptic seizures, so it is clear that people can live without this part. However, damage to the corpus callosum could result in a lack of will to move or speak, called akinetic mutism. Separating the left and right brain can also lead to split-brain syndrome, where the patient's body will act differently on the left and right side because of the brain's inability to cohesively communicate to control the entire body at once. There really is no other part of the brain that can take ovre the role of the corpus callosum because it physically connects the two hemispheres.

20 Time Project: H2OnTheGo (Post1)

20% Time is a personal project in which individuals or pairs have time to work on something that interests him/them. 20% of the time in a typical class once a week is dedicated to this.

To begin, I asked myself, "What are some day-to-day problems I face?" After long deliberation, I finally realized that I don't drink enough water. Especially during  week days, I drink maybe half the amount of the daily recommendation of 7 cups a day. At school, I'm often occupied with work or friends and I forget to drink regularly. I keep my water bottle in my backpack, so it's even harder to to remind myself to drink. For my project, I am attempting to end chronic dehydration--primarily in the United States. Drinking enough water is a crucial step to maintaining health. Dehydration can cause fatigue, high blood pressure, kidney disease, headaches ect.; simply drinking water is a easy solution anyone is willing to take--so as long as they remember to. That's where my idea comes in. 

H2OnTheGo is a water bottle that reminds the user to drink on an hourly basis. In addition to time reminders, it will recommend an increase in water intake in accordance to the surrounding temperature. For example, if it's a hot day, the temperature sensors in the bottle will indicate the user to drink double his normal amount. Most of the technological elements will be located in the cap of the bottle.

This projects will require me to do some research about how much technology like bluetooth chips or temperature sensors cost and how small each element can be in order to fit all of it into a cap. My goal will be to design an ergonomic glass thermos bottle with a sturdy waterproof cap that holds all the required technology. I will decide later what functions will be included and what should be cut based on cost and consumer tastes. Progress can be measured in the steps taken to produce a plausible plan for the creation if this product.

From here on out, I will be working on the design of the glass bottle, color schemes, waterproofing, technology, and whatever else necessary for the completion of the H2OnTheGo water bottle.

Unit 5 Reflection

http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/digestive-system.html

In Unit 5 we learned out the functions of the digestive, endocrine, and lymphatic systems. 

The digestion system does 6 things: ingests food, secretes enzymes and acids, mixes the food, digests, absorbs, and defecates the waste out once the nutrients have been stripped. The entire digestive tract is essentially a very long tube the wraps around itself, connecting the mouth to the anus. Once food is chewed in the mouth, it takes on the name "bolus". After leaving the stomach, the bolus is termed " chyme". Protein digestion starts in the stomach, while carbohydrate breakdown begins in the mouth with the mechanical grind up of food by the teeth but also the secretion of amylase. Most of the food gets digested and absorbed in the small intestine. Accessory organs like the liver and pancreas delivers bile and enzymes to the small intestine to aid the digestion. Any left over food is dried out in the large intestine in preparation for defecation and water is absorbed to rehydrate the body.

In the fed state, the absorbed sugars will mostly be processed for storage. When the body enters fasting state, the stored glucose will be released into the blood to keep the fuel supply up. In addition to sugar, the body will begin to rely more on fats for energy so that the majority of glucose can be saved for the brain and red blood cells to use. If meals are not eaten for 4-5 days, muscles will solely rely on fats and the brain on ketone bodies until proteins become the only source of available energy. This stage is called the starvation state. Too much protein consumption results in organ failure, and eventually, death.

https://fwcdscience.wikispaces.com/Membrane+Proteins--Receptors

The endocrine system is responsible for secreting hormones that control various actions in the body. Steroid hormones can diffuse through cell membranes to affect cells directly, while nonsteroid hormones need to connect to cell receptors on the surface of cells to initiate a signal cascade. We have many different glands all responsible for producing their own specialized hormones. Among those are the pituitary gland, posterior lobe, anterior lobe, thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. The pancreas is a particularly important gland that secretes insulin and glucagon, which as we learned before, are very important in maintaining blood sugar levels and health.

The lymphatic system is responsible for immunity, lipid absorption, and fluid recovery. Like blood vessels, there are lymphatic vessels that run through the body that collect cellular waste and traps foreign substances to be destroyed by immune cells. 

I think this unit was pretty successful--I learned more about how I should take care of my body and why it is essential to keep the body healthy. I didn't really have any setbacks this units; it went smoothly.

A lab we did for this Unit was looking at how long our digestive system is based on the lengths of other parts of the body. It was surprising to look at how much tubing can fit into your body.

I want to further research the reading we did on resistance training being beneficial and even necessary for metabolism rates. If learn about how I should effectively work out to maintain appropriate type II muscle, I can still have decent muscle mass when I age and live an even more fulfilled life as a result.

My new year's goals was to start running on the weekends again and not slack off on work as a second semester senior. I actually have ran a couple times since the year started, but unfortunately, have not entirely succeeded in keeping myself motivated to work. I'm still doing fine in my classes, but I know I'm not spending as much time as I could on work. I've also watched out for my diet a little more and stayed away from eating unhealthy foods and overcarbsumption.