Immunity

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Immunity

The main drama in the struggle of AIDS takes place in our immune system. From the moment that the body is infected by the first HIV virus, a battle of epic proportion begins in the immune system. The HIV is fighting to kill the immune system, and the immune system is fighting to kill the virus. The battle will continue for the remainder of the patient’s life.  In order for you to understand this battle, you will need to know more about the immune system, which is covered in chapter 3.

Before the class next week, you should read the chapter to learn about the major components of the immune system. Te two major themes that I want to focus on are Innate Immunity and Adaptive Immunity. Each of you should read about both, but select only one of these topics to write about. 

Option 1: Innate immunity innate is a general name for the non-specific immune responses that provide the body’s first and second lines of defense against invading pathogens. This part of the immune system is not damaged in AIDS, while the adaptive immunity is. It might be helpful to educate AIDS patients on the innate immune system to help them understand what is going on in their bodies, and how to make the most of it. 

For this discussion, choose one example of innate immunity to focus on. Choose one aspect that was particularly interesting to you. Do some research to find out a little more about it. Here is a list of examples, but you can think of other ones as well:

      a. describe one type of chemical barrier that the body puts up to keep a pathogen from penetrating the outer wall. Inder what conditions is it released? How does it work?

      b. one part of the inflammatory response such as non-specific phagocytosis. Tell us how that works. You’d probably fined it helpful to watch this video: 

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/human-anatomy-and-physiology/introduction-to-immunology/v/inflammatory-response (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

      c. Tell us how an AIDS patient can work with his/her non-specific pathways to help them work to their optimal capacity, in light of the fact that his adaptive immune system is not working. For example, how can he work with his inflammatory response to get optimal benefit?  

Option 2 – Adaptive Immunity: 

In Chapter 3, we also learned about the adaptive immune response. This systems used a special class of white blood cells known as lymphocytes to attack specific target antigens that the body has seen in the past. This involves B-cells, T-helper cells and T-killer cells. It is these pathways that are disrupted in AIDS.

For this discussion, choose one example of adaptive immunity to focus on. Choose one aspect that was particularly interesting to you. Do some research to find out a little more about it. Here is a list of examples, but you can think of other ones as well:

Cell-free antibodies are large protein molecules that are released by B-cells as a part of the Humoral Response, which is one arm of the Adaptive Immune Response.  There may be millions of B-cells in the body at birth, and each one has been programmed during development to produce a different unique type of antibody molecule that will recognize a single antigen in it’s lifetime. As such, our bodies have the ability to recognize almost any invading pathogen with at least one type of these antibodies. When our body recognizes a pathogen, it will begin to amplify the B-cell that makes the type of antidody that can recognize it. This will launch a whole body defense, against the pathogen.  

a. Describe the primary immune response, which is what happens the first time that the body recognizes an invading pathogen.  Explain what happens to the single B-cell that makes antibodies against that pathogen. How long does after infection does it take for the immune response to knock down the infection?

b. Describe the secondary immune response, which is what happens when the same invading pathogen is involved in a re-infection of the body. Since there are now thousands of dormant B-cells that recognize the antigens on the pathogen, how is the immune response enhanced? How quickly does that occur. compared to the first encounter with that pathogen?

c. Describe how a vaccine works. Which how does the vaccine replace the primary response? When the pathogen enters the body for the first time in a person who has already been vaccinated, does it encounter a primary immune response or a secondary immune response? Explain. 

d. There is a second arm of the adaptive immune response known as “Cell-mediated Immunity” which is mediated by using T-cells, rather than B-cells. There two types of T-cell responses, one with the T-Helper cells and one with cytotoxic T-cells.  T-Helper cells are the T-cells with the CD4 receptor on the surface, through which the HIV particles enter the cell. It is the T-Helper cells that are killed in AIDS.  The second type of T-cell response is with a different type of T-cell, T-killer cells, also known as cytotoxic T cells or CD8+ cells. Here’s the question: If AIDS kills only the T-Helper cells, why are both the humoral (B-cell) and cell-mediated responses (T-cell) pathways knocked out? 

 

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History of Epidemics in the Old World

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We’re going to build on the Module 2 assignment “History of Epidemics in the Old World” to look at typical epidemics that we see in more recent times. We’re going to add onto the same template some of the more recent epidemics. Hopefully you will be alert enough to notice how the trends have changed in more recent years.  


Below you will find a list of epidemics that have affected the world population in more recent times, for example, since 1900. Choose 5-6 of these epidemics for further research. There are many to choose from, you can include as many as you wish, as long as you find at least 5.
– Cholera
– Spanish Flu (Influenza 1918-1919)
– H1N1
– Leprosy
– Diphtheria
– Ebola
– Dengue fever
– Measles
– Typhus
– Yellow Fever
– Tuberculosis
– Legionnaires
– Malaria
– Polio
– Whooping Cough
– TB
– Chicken Pox
– SARS
– Lyme Disease
– Scarlet Fever




2. Build your chart on the Excel template:  Chart Epidemics in the New World.xlsxPreview the document .


Fill in the spaces with information that you find on the internet to give a historical perspective to the impact that these more recent epidemics may have had on the affected populations. If you can not find the information, type  “unkn” in the cell, but it will be reflected in your grade if you use the “unkn” option excessively. It may be easier to find information of the more recent epidemics, so you probably won’t have many blank cells. 

 

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make observations and discriminate between scientific and pseudoscientific explanations

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 Addresses course outcomes 1-4 

         -recognize and explain how the scientific method is used to solve problems

  • make observations and discriminate between scientific and pseudoscientific explanations
  • weigh evidence and make decisions based on strengths and limitations of scientific knowledge and the scientific method
  • use knowledge of biological principles and the scientific method to ask relevant questions, develop hypotheses, design and conduct experiments, interpret results, and draw conclusions

 Before attempting this assignment, you might want to revisit the Scientific Method Tutorial in the Science Learning Center under the Course Content area. 

While living on the former US Naval Air Station Keflavik in Iceland in 2002 (and teaching for UMUC), I began ecology experiments on growing trees in the barren landscape in collaboration with Iceland Forest Research.  Results of these experiments were published in a paper by Riege & Sigurgeirsson in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research in 2009.  I believe this paper serves well for your general biology assignment to trace and critique the scientific method in a primary research article.

 Please do not worry that I take offense at any criticism of the article. When these manuscripts are first submitted to journals, the reviewers rake the authors through the coals and usually require major revisions before the journal will accept the article for publication.  So scientists have thick skin about heavy criticism – the good news is that the critique and revision makes the final product much stronger.

Please read and study the original paper, assigned in Week 3, then submit a 2 page review of the article that answers the following questions:

For one of the experiments in Riege & Sigurgeirsson –

  1. What was the hypothesis of this experiment? (Reminder: Hypothesis is a statement.) What question(s) was (were) the investigator asking?

 2. Which is the control group? Why?

 3. Which is the treatment group? Why?

 4. Did the researchers follow the scientific method in their experimental design?  Explain. 

5. Do you think that there may be any possible biases or other problems in this experiment?  Explain.

6. Based on the data, was the hypothesis supported, and what can you conclude from this experiment?

 

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Population of interest

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Resources: The Course Textbooks

Write a 700 to 1050 word study guide based on a peer reviewed empirical research article (you can use one from your week 1 or 2 assignment, if you like, as long as it is peer reviewed and empirical).

Explain/define the following terms/concepts, and how the article exemplifies each of them:

  • Population of interest
  • Sample of participants (or “subjects”)
  • Independent variable(s)
  • Dependent variable(s)
  • Types of study designs
  • Internal validity
  • Threats to internal validity
  • External validity

Use headings for each of these topics in the paper.

Cite the article, the textbooks and your other sources as appropriate throughout your assignment, and provide references, in proper APA formatting.  Use only credible sources of information.

 

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Explain Incentives and Coercion

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Explain Incentives and Coercion

Develop a 1 slide PowerPoint Presentation, with detailed speaker’s notes, that explains the various ethical considerations for research as discussed in our textbooks.  If particular ethical considerations do not apply, then you should discuss why not. So writing about ethical considerations and risk for patient falls won’t address it.

 

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Differences between asymmetrical, radial symmetry and bilateral symmetry.

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Imagine you have been asked to teach a small group of your peers about animal organs.

Create 10 multiple-choice questions to test knowledge of the structure and function of animal organs.

Address the functions of each of the following concepts in your test.

  • Differences between asymmetrical, radial symmetry and bilateral symmetry.
  • Differences between endotherms and exotherms.
  • Definition and examples of epithelial tissue. (provide one example)
  • Definition and examples of connective tissue. (provide one example)
  • Definition and examples of muscle tissue. (provide one example)
  • Definition and examples of nervous tissue. (provide one example)
 

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Yoshinori Ohsumi

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I want a page of a Nobel Prized Scientist “Yoshinori Ohsumi”‘s major achievements,  (NOT a list of awards but a discussion on his/her science or what he/she has done for science); C) a description of the Nobel Prize winning research (behavior) he/she carried out and its scientific (biological/medical) background; D) the major impact of his/her work to biological sciences, particularly to modern genetics/molecular biology; and E) your personal reflection after doing research on the scientist. 

 

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Unit 7 Assignment Instructions

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Unit 7 Assignment Instructions

Western Heights Hospital (WHH) is an 1125-bed, 5-hospital academic healthcare system servicing central and western Massachusetts. WHH is the only designated Level I Trauma Center for adults and children in the area and is home to New England’s first hospital-based air ambulance and the region’s only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Center.

WHH launched a 5-year strategic plan with a fundamental goal of a system-wide move from a predominately paper environment to an electronic one. Phase I included implementation of an EHR system consisting of order entry for all laboratory, radiology, and patient care orders. Additionally, clinical documentation was implemented, including admission assessments and all nursing flow sheets. The nursing informatics counsel, a 25-member group of nurses representing all disciplines, developed the clinical content. The clinical content was custom built using both free text and structured data entry fields within the application.

Three months after go-live, hospital leadership is reporting that it is unable to report on various state and federally mandated quality measures. These measures track healthcare quality based on national standards, are compared to nationally accepted benchmarks, and are used to plan ways to improve quality. Leadership has communicated that the reports generated by the system are incomplete and are putting the hospital at financial risk due to lower reimbursement rates.

Clinicians are eager and excited to continue to develop content in the application. However, the project’s program manager is proposing a stabilization and optimization approach and does not want to go forward with content development until the issue of reporting has been assessed and addressed.

Assuming that you are the clinical content manager and lead all reporting efforts, what approach would you take to address the reporting problem? Create a flowchart outlining the process you would take from determining the problem to finding a solution. Then, detail these steps in a 2–3 page paper, citing references as appropriate in APA format.

 

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How is the concept of cultural encounter treated in the short story “The Distant Past”?

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The student’s work should be presented in an ESSAY of around 500 words.

Referencing:

The essay should include a list of references (print and electronic) at the end in addition to in-text referencing as per the requirements of the Harvard Referencing System. Proper referencing is a serious academic requirement and skill and will be rewarded accordingly.

Writing and Discussion Topic:

Cultural encounters can prove to be very enriching to all those involved, yet could prove very confusing and disrupting. In most cases these encounters lead to a conflict of values, both at the individual and societal levels. Explore how cultural encounters are manifested in literary works, specifically short stories from An Anthology of Short Stories from Five Continents, with particular reference to “The Distant Past” by William Trevor.

In the process of answering the TMA, you should make sure to include the below five sub questions:

1)  How is the concept of cultural encounter treated in the short story “The Distant Past”?

2) Is the author, William Trevor, aware of the cultural encounter theme? How does he manifest that awareness?

3) Are the main characters, mainly the Middletons, aware of the cultural encounter theme? What clues do they provide of such awareness?

4) How does the Friday visit to town highlight the theme of cultural encounter in “The Distant Past”?

5) How does the usage of “contrasts” (present versus past, now versus then) throughout the short story help in highlighting the theme of cultural encounter?

Guidance on Addressing the Topic:

Before you embark on writing the essay, you need to read carefully Book 3 Cultural Encounters in order to familiarize yourself with the topic at large and make use of the skills presented in the book when writing your essay. You are strongly advised to consult sources on the topic and widen your knowledge of the topic under consideration, but it is of the utmost importance to document any words or ideas that are not your own. Once you have the material ready, it is advisable that you follow the steps (1-5) indicated in the section above to avoid omitting sub-questions. Although the topic is most relevant to Unit 3, you should demonstrate your knowledge of the complexity of the concept of cultural encounters as presented in the all the units to draw lessons and examples from them if need be, and not model your treatment solely after a particular treatment appearing in a single unit.  

 

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