Two sample answers to the chicken paper
Our last in class text review questions
For your own interest - a Nature article on breast milk
Final exam review sheet
Two evening quiz times next week:
Wednesday (April 27) and Friday (April 29) evenings
You only need to take one of these - the lowest of your five quiz scores will be dropped
Urinary anlysis data
Respiratory lab data
Check out our new A&P YouTube channel
Blog guidelines and sign-up sheet
Looking for a peer-tutor for this class? - click here

Reading/listening assignments
For Wed, April 27th
Review and read ahead in the notes to determine which parts of the male and female anatomy are homologous
Take notes on the following questions:

  1. What hormone stimulates the maturation of the ovum inside the follicle?
  2. What hormone induces ovulation?
  3. What hormones stimulate growth of the endometrium?
  4. What hormonal changes cause menstruation?
  5. List three functions of estrogen.
Read the following review of a recent paper on sex determination in chickens and submit the following response through Angel by 1 am Wed morning, April 27th (here is the pdf of the article if you have trouble accessing with the link above):
  • Write an approximately 400-500 word response that explains the significance of the new paper summarized by Barske and Capel. Your response should include an explanation of how sex determination in chickens differs from that of humans. Be sure not to quote or borrow text from the paper. Synthesize this information into your own writing. (20 points)

For Wed, April 20th
Read this article from Nature on a new sports ban for women with unusually high testosterone levels

For Mon, April 18th
South Park sex education with Mr. Mackey
Review urinary system and nephron function - prepare for text review
Bring your questions about the lab practical

For Fri, April 15th
The journal Nature recently published a wonderful supplementary section on nutrigenomics, the modern study of nutrition that considers how individual genetic make-ups influence how our bodies metabolize and use the nutrients in our food, and how what we eat can affect the genetic information we pass down to our children (epigenetics). For our discussion on Friday read the following articles. Both of these articles should be accessible on any AU campus computer. Email me if you cannot access them and I will send you the pdf.
  1. An introduction to nutrigenomics
  2. Current research on diet-related diseases

For Mon, April 11
You will be working together in groups to diagram the mechanisms used by the renal tubule to reabsorb molecules from the urine and concentrate urine. To prepare for this work, take notes on the following before Monday’s class:
  1. What mechanism that we saw last semester is used to move glucose and amino acids from the urine back into the blood of the peritubular capillary?
  2. The ascending limb of the nephron loop pumps out salts and is impermeable to water, while the descending limb does not pump salts and is permeable to water. How do these observations contribute to the nephron loop’s ability to concentrate salt towards its tip in the medulla?
  3. What mechanism concentrates the urine as it passes through the collecting duct?
  4. How does the hormone ADH adjust the collecting duct’s ability to reabsorb water?

For Mon, April 4
Bring your questions about exam material for review
Look ahead at the urinary system lecture notes
Bring a hard copy of your urinary lab data analysis to class

For Fri, April 1
We will continue to look at how the blood carries and delivers both O2 and CO2. To prepare for class review the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve and the reaction between CO2 and H2O that we covered on Monday, and take notes on the following thought questions.
  1. CO2 reacts with H20 in the red blood cells to produce HCO3- and H+ ions. The HCO3- leaves the red blood cell through the chloride shift and H+ ions are removed by binding to hemoglobin. Why does the removal of these two ions allow more CO2 to enter the red blood cell?
  2. The binding of H+ ions to hemoglobin changes the binding characteristics of O2, and changes the shape of the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve. This curve “shifts to the right”. Does that mean O2 will bind more strongly or less strongly to hemoglobin in the presence of H+ ions?
  3. Considering your answers to questions 1 and 2 above, how does the presence of CO2 in systemic tissues affect the unloading of O2 from the blood?

For Wed, March 30 - No class meeting
We will not be meeting for class on Wednesday because of the URCA student research symposium. Your assignment for the day will be to answer the following questions on two presentations - one oral presentation and one poster presentation. You can choose any science presentations, but try to pick two that have some relation to the anatomy or physiology we have covered this year. While you will only be writing up one oral presentation, I encourage you to stay for the entire session that you attend (they are each one hour long). You can find the schedule for the symposium here (be sure to check out Dr. Greene in the video). A pdf showing all of the abstracts for talks can be found here.

Answer the following questions for one oral and one poster presentation and submit them on our Angel page by 1 am on Thursday, April 7th. You should write about 500 words for each presentation. Your responses do not have to be separated by question number, but instead you can write a narrative that includes the information requested below. For the poster presentation ask the student presenting the poster to provide answers about their research:
  1. Give the name of the presenter and title of the presentation.
  2. What big question is being addressed by this research?
  3. What was known about the topic being presented before the research was done?
  4. What was the hypothesis of the study?
  5. Describe one major finding from the research?
  6. Did the researcher answer their question?
  7. What was done well and what could have been done better during the presentation?

For Fri, March 25
These are the thought questions that you will need to answer and turn in next Monday. For now, use these as a guide as you prepare for Dr. Beall’s visit on Friday, and use the opportunity of her talk to get the answers you need.
  1. What changes to the blood and respiratory system have allowed some human populations to adapt evolutionarily to high-altitude hypoxia (this point is not directly addressed in the paper, but will likely be discussed in Dr. Beall’s talk)?
  2. What path does oxygen take from the air we breath to our systemic tissues, and how can this path be altered to adapt the system to high-altitude hypoxia?
  3. What hypothesis regarding the ability of Tibetan highlanders to maintain high oxygen delivery to their systemic tissues is tested in this study? (how do the authors think the Tibetans do this?)
  4. According to Figure 1 A and B what do Tibetans do better than sea level humans? What do panels C and D of this figure tell us?
  5. What are three effects of NO that could be adaptive to Tibetan highlanders?
  6. What is the significance of this paper? What does it add to what was already known about adaptation to high altitude hypoxia?

For Wed, March 23
Dr. Cynthia Beall from Case Western Reserve University will be our guest in class this Friday to talk about her research on how humans have adapted evolutionarily to the hypoxic conditions at high altitudes. She will be focusing on the Erzurum et al. 2007 paper you received in class. To prepare for Friday’s guest lecture I will be posting some thought questions for both Wednesday and Friday. You do not need to hand these in, but take notes and be prepared to discuss them in class.
  • What observations were made about the cardiovascular physiology of Tibetan highlanders prior to this study?
  • What hypothesis regarding the ability of Tibetan highlanders to maintain high oxygen delivery to their systemic tissues is tested in this study (how do the authors think the Tibetans do this)?
  • According to Table 1, do Tibetans make up for the low oxygen content of the air they breath by increasing hemoglobin concentrations in their blood? How does the oxygen content of Tibetan blood compare to that of sea level humans?
  • According to Figure 1 A and B what do Tibetans do better than sea level humans? What do panels C and D of this figure tell us?

We will save the other data in this paper for Friday.

For Mon, March 21
Bring any questions you have about the lab practical
Be ready to review the respiratory lab thought questions
Read the abstract and introduction of the Erzurum et al. 2007 paper handed out in class today.
  • You can also access it here.
Look over Monday’s material on the respiratory system and be ready to discuss the following questions:
  • What keeps the lungs from collapsing inside the pleural cavities?
  • What force brings air into the lungs?
  • What gas is most abundant in the air we breath? Which is least abundant? How do these concentrations compare to those in the lungs? Why the difference?

For Wed, March 15
For your own interest - a history of Edward Jenner and vaccination

For Mon, Feb 28
Listen to this podcast completing the heart lecture and starting blood vessels
Look over the list of blood vessels you received last week - review them in your textbook and cadaver CD
  • Which vessels branch off of the aorta?
  • What are the major vessels moving blood to and from each organ?
  • Which vessels are paired and which are unpaired?
Watch this video on the use of the sphygmomanometer
Be ready to review for the exam

For Mon, Feb 21
Review the cardiac cycle
Check out this tutorial and your cadaver CD animations

For Fri, Feb 18th
Listen to this podcast completing the blood lecture and starting the heart lecture - it is also in the regular podcast stream. It is best to download this file and listen to it in iTunes or Quicktime.
Review blood flow through the heart with this video

For Thur, Feb 17 - Online Quiz
  • The quiz will be available on Angel from 6 pm to 1 am Thursday evening
  • You will have 30 minutes and can use your book and notes
  • The quiz must be taken individually and no discussing it with other students

For Mon, Feb 14th
Read over the blog assignment guidelines and sign up for a week
Read this blog post on blood cell formation
  • Use the information in this post to review the concept of stem cells
  • How does the research described in this post change our textbook’s description of how blood cells form?

For Mon, Feb 7th
Review endocrine histology from last week’s lab - we will review it together in class for the practical
Think about the following:
  • How does the hypothalamus control each side of the pituitary? (there are two different mechanisms)
  • How does thyroid stimulating hormone and thyroid hormone interact to control thyroid hormone production?

For Mon, Jan 31
Prepare for quiz in lab covering all material since start of the semester
Listen to this podcast on synesthesia
Think about the following:
  • How do the functions of the inner and outer hair cells differ?
  • What are the different types of equilibrium monitored by the inner ear?
  • What structures are used for each type of equilibrium?

For Fri, Jan 28
Review ear anatomy and the structures responsible for balance

For Wed, Jan 26
Review the dark current and how light causes ganglion cells to signal the brain
What mechanism closes the rod sodium channels?

For Mon, Jan 24
Bring a hard copy of your 2-point discrimination data to lecture and lab
Review eye anatomy and look ahead to ear anatomy to prepare for lab

For Fri, Jan 21
Read the graphic novel handout on the eye
2-point discrimination data analysis due on Angel by 1 am

For Wed, Jan 19
Read The Pain Perplex in Atul Gawande’s Complications (Amazon link) and be prepared to discuss it
Read about people in Pakistan who cannot feel physical pain

For Fri, Jan 14
Add your 2-point discrimination data to this google spreadsheet

Biotechnology resources
Technology Review from MIT
Bio Ohio
BioEnterprise
Ashland SEE-STEM mediasite
Medical Innovation Summit

Science literature resources
ISI citation database
Pubmed
Ohio Link Electronic Journal Center

Online Journals
BioMed Central
Journal of Experimental Biology
Molecular Vision
Nature - full free access on campus
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Public Library of Science