Discussion Topic

Josh has been slightly overweight since grade school, but, as he progressed into the junior high years, his weight grew worse; by the time he graduated high school, he was considered obese. At 20 years of age, Josh has been diagnosed as prediabetic with metabolic syndrome. He has come to the dietitian’s clinic for a consultation.

“I get really discouraged,” Josh says. “It’s not like I never have will power, and at times I have starved myself for days and spent long afternoons on the treadmill while watching TV. But then I get so hungry that once I start eating I can’t stop. At other times, I work hard at dieting and exercise for so long, but I’m so big that I can’t see any difference. Of course, the stares when I go out in public are depressing, and then I just give up and think, ‘What’s the use? I can’t ever escape my own body,’ and then I give up and turn to comfort food. It’s very discouraging. I feel like I’m living inside my own personal prison.”

On further intake, the nutrition nurse learns that Josh has very tense relationships with his four older brothers, who have sometimes bullied him. “Even when we get along, they make jokes about my size,” he says.

Josh reveals that when he was small, he was not overweight, but he was also not very athletic like his older brothers. He felt separated from them by the fact that he had no interest in or talent for the athletics his brothers constantly engaged in at home.

“Plus I was just a lot younger, and when they’d tease me, I’d cry and my mom would comfort me with treats. As I got heavier when I was older, they’d criticize me for everything I put in my mouth, and if I didn’t eat, they’d sometimes try to be supportive, sometimes indifferent, and at other times, my second oldest brother would say, ‘I know as soon as we’re not looking you’re gonna binge, aren’t you.” It wasn’t my intent, but then when he’d say that, I’d be so angry, I’d do it. The more I did it, the more they harassed me, and it turned to anger on their part as I started to get fat. It just sort of skyrocketed from there. I hate this. I feel so trapped by my own compulsions.”

The text says, “Health is the merging and balancing of physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual dimensions, and environmental dimensions.”

a. Food, of course, is in the physical health dimension, but how might other dimensions be affecting Josh’s food choices?

b.  One of the reasons Josh has often “failed” in the past is that he “starves” himself for long periods and then binges out of intense hunger pangs. The nurse starts to discuss healthy snacking strategies, but he says, “Stop right there. Snacks have been my whole problem. Running to treats out of depression. No, snacks are what make people fat. They make me fat. I want a diet that limits me to three meals a day, or maybe even just two.” How might the nurse counsel Josh?

Please describe the overall mechanism for DNA polymerase function as discussed in class. What is the role of conformational changes in insuring substrate specificity? Do DNA polymerases share a universally conserved mechanism?

3)   In enzyme kinetics why does the initial reaction rate (vo) resemble the steady state in living cells?  

4)   Also, in enzyme kinetics the Km value is an indicator of enzyme binding efficiency, is a low or high Km value indicative of better efficiency in living cells? Why?

5)   Consider competitive inhibitors. Why does their presence raise the Km value?

Define genetic testing, list potential barriers to genetic testing, what is the greatest potential barrier to genetic testing and why?

You must respond to the 2  discussion promp. Make sure you address the question that was posed to you. In your post, you must include information from at least two references . 200 word requirement for each.

Do you think it’s important for you and your partner to get tested together before being intimate? If so, why?

Do you think everyone is honest about their STD results and how can we encourage people to be more honest/open? We have so many statistics that show up on test results and lab data, but how many of these people do you think go infecting other people without being honest?

You perform the disk diffusion test to test the antimicrobial drug resistance characteristics of a strain of Salmonella typhi. The ciprofloxacin disk produces a 15 mm zone of inhibition. Why exactly is the zone 15 mm and not 16 mm or 14 mm? Compare and contrast the components of the agar 14 mm away from the disk and the components present at 16 mm away from the disk.

PART ONE 1-5

1. In the cross AaBb X aaBb, what are the gametes for AaBb?

2. What is the genotype of a white-eyed male fruit fly?

3. Suppose you count 40 green tobacco seedlings and 2 white tobacco seedlings in one agar plate. do your results show that both parent plants were heterozygous for the color allele? Explain your answer.

4. Suppose that students in the laboratory periods before you removed some of the purple and yellow corn kernels on the ears of corn as they were performing the Experimental Procedure. What specific effects would this have on your results?

5. In the cross AaBb X aaBb, what are the genotypic (not phenotypic) results for this cross (be sure to include numbers of each)?

PART 2 6-10

6. In the cross AaBb X aaBb, what are the gametes for aaBb?

7. Suppose you count tobacco seedlings in six agar plates, and your data are as follows: 125 green plants and 39 white plants. What is the phenotypic ratio?

8. If a cross results in 90 long-winged flies to 30 vestigial-winged flies, what are the phenotypes of the parents?

9. If you count 52 purple rough corn kernels and 50 yellow smooth corn kernels, how many purple smooth corn kernels should you expect to count? How many yellow rough corn kernels should you expect to count? Explain your reply. (Hint: Remember our calculated ratios from the activity in class. How would you turn those ratios into actual counts?)

10. If offspring exhibit a 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratio, what are the genotypes of the parental (P) generation?

What do we know about the relationships that have low confidence? 6. What about the ones with high confidence?

a. In what ways are living agnathan fish not representative of the anatomy and ecology of the most primitive vertebrates?

b. How are hagfish “degenerate” early vertebrates?

We would like to align two DNA sequences: (v) C G A T A C T, and (w) G A T T C G T :

i) s(i, j) = 1.5 if vi = wj (matches);

ii) s(i, j) = -1.0 if vi != wj (mismatches);

iii) d = 0.25 (indels: insertions or deletions).

What would be the maximum alignment score? Explain how you get the result.

White eye is a recessive X-linked mutant in fruit flies. A wild type male is mated to a white-eyed female. What is the probability that an F1 son will be white eyed?

A. 0

B. 0.25

C. 0.5

D. 0.75

E. 1.0

unusal circumstances in immunohematology:

Cw

LW Antigen

V, VS deletions

• What is happening genetically? How is it inherited?
• Will this cause a type discrepancy? What will the results look like?
• How can you resolve the discrepancy (if any)?
• Are the any special Transfusion considerations? i.e.: does the patient have to receive a certain type? If so, what are they and what happens if the wrong type is transfused?