Matt is a 21 year old male who is 6’1” tall and weighs 250 pounds. Maria is a 19 year old female who is 5’8” and weighs 140 pounds. Matt has a family history of diabetes mellitus. Matt and Maria are close friends and do most things together. On this given day, they were heading out very early in the morning to eat breakfast so that they could get to UCF for their classes before the parking lots filled up. On their way, they stopped at IHOP for breakfast and Matt had the Chicken & Waffles for breakfast, Banana Crepes with Nutella, and one cup of coffee. Maria had BaconTemptation Omelette, a side of Buttered toast, and a 16 oz. of Tropicana Premium Orange Juice.

After their morning classes they met up again for lunch. This time they went to Burger King for a quick bite before heading back to an afternoon in the library. For lunch, Matt had the Whopper w/ cheese, a Dr. Pepper (medium) and a side order of the 9 piece Chicken Nuggets. Maria had the Bacon and cheese crispy chicken sandwich w/o mayo, and a side order of large French fries, and a Coke (large).

They studied until late into the afternoon. On the way home they decided they did not have time to cook, so they stopped at Subway to pick up dinner. At Subway Matt had 12″ Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, a bag of Lay’s classic chips and a Coca Cola (21 oz. with no ice). Maria selected the 6″ Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt, a Chocolate Chip Cookie and yet again, a Sprite (21 oz. with no ice)

Well into the evening’s feature movie on TV, they both decided that a pizza would be just the right thing to have to finish off the evening. They ordered a 12 ‘’ Medium Pan Pizza: Meat Lover’s Pizza from Pizza Hut. They each had three slices along with a glass of water (they wanted to save the remaining slices for lunch the following day).

The movie ended and they drifted off to bed to rest up to face yet another day tomorrow as UCF students.

This is a typical day for Matt and Maria. Other than their usual study, eat and sleep routine, they do manage to get to the gym about 3 days a week. At the gym they usually manage to get in a good 2.5 miles run at an average of 4.26 mph on the treadmill during each visit.

Assignment 1:

Your responsibility for this report is to:

Determine if Matt and Maria are about the correct weight based on their height. To do this, you can compare their BMI to published medical tables related to ideal values.

Evaluate their diet to determine how many calories they both managed to consumed on this particular day. (Keep track of where you find the information, for we will revisit this data later in the semester for a more detailed analysis).

Being that this is a typical routine for Matt and Maria, would you expect them to be heavier or lighterat the end of one year and by about how many pounds? You might need to consider their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) in determining the total caloric expenditure.

Would Matt’s eating lifestyle affect his chance of having diabetes mellitus?

Discuss the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus and comment on the statement that eating too much sugar causes diabetes.

Essay due date: This essay is due at your Week #6 laboratory session. Prepare and submit a hard copy to your instructor, but before the time of your scheduled lab session, submit your essay file into the “SafeAssignment” folder designated for your lab section on Blackboard.

General introduction and background: Increased emissions of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution have led as predicted to increased global average temperatures, with complex local dynamics (the climate effects are not uniform). There are countless examples of animals and plants changing their migration, timing of life cycle events, and distributional ranges as climate has warmed, especially over the last 50 years. For this essay you will explore how one species, genus, family, order or class of organism has been, or is predicted to be, affected, ecologically or evolutionarily, by climate change. Ecological changes include changes in population size, geographic range, exposure to predators, herbivores, competitors or parasites, life history traits (reproduction or longevity) and role in ecological communities. Evolutionary changes include genetic changes in behavior, form or physiology in response to climate shifts. Living organisms’ ability to adapt will affect their persistence and ecosystem function (as agricultural pests, keystone species, etc.). There are several ways these questions have been addressed; observational studies (such as correlations between population or individual performance in warmer and cooler years), indirect inferences of historical abundance, laboratory or field experiments of the effects of temperature or CO2 levels, simulation models that include different effects of climate variables. For this essay you will investigate either ecological or evolutionary change/s in the face of climate change.

Your objective in developing this essay: Write a full two-page essay (three page maximum, of a concise, information-filled essay) focusing on the question of how a single species or higher taxonomic group of organisms has been affected by recent warming.

Topics can include:

Changes in breeding date in birds vs timing of food availability (focus on one species or species pair, this is sometimes called the ‘mismatch hypothesis)

Changes in reptile (turtles) nesting behavior under changing temperatures

Changes in species migratory patterns

Changes in response to invasive species

Changes in species range (historical record for trees is often good)

Biotic (interactions) vs abiotic (temperature, seasonality) effects on species

Be sure that the information you provide is fully documented with references cited in proper format (see below).

Developing your topic: The 2006 science commentary by Bradley and Holzapfel is a good introduction that everyone should read to understand the topic. I include some other recent reviews of the subject that you can use if they are helpful. Select only one of the above topics to explore, or choose another with the help (and go-ahead) of your instructor, and focus on one or two examples (species). If you are fortunate, you may find some “primary” literature, which is an article appearing in an edited journal, where the article has been “peer reviewed.” Google Scholar is a good place to start, but be careful because it is loaded with “old” material, much of which may not be relevant. Web of Science (qc librarydatabases) is the search engine used by most organismal biologists to search the primary literature.

Be careful in your use of websites and the information they contain, as many are not reliable and even-handed, particularly with sensitive issues.

Questions to address when reading primary literature:

Is this an experimental or theoretical (modeling) study

If it’s a model, how reasonable or well founded are the assumptions?

How might adding an experiment help?

Is this documenting a change that has happened or predicting a change?

What might be an alternative explanation for any change?

Developing the story for your essay: Look over the “rubric” that is posted to Blackboard and use it as a guide as to how the essay will be graded.

Preventing a Brave New World

To complete your sixth essay, please write a three- to five-page (900-1,500 word) response to the following question:

In “Preventing a Brave New World” (pp. 331-343), Leon Kass concludes that reproductive and therapeutic cloning of human embryos is unethical. What are the exact steps in Kass’s argument for this conclusion? What is your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this argument?

Please ensure that your essay addresses each component of the question assigned question and that your answer is well- organized, uses excellent, college-level prose, and makes judicious use of textual evidence.

Answer the following Checklist Exercise from Ch. 17 of
Microbiology: Principles and Explorations: Distinguish
between active and passive immunity. Give examples of
each.

Active immunity
Passive immunity

Answer the following Checklist Exercise from Ch. 17 of
Microbiology: Principles and Explorations: Distinguish
between innate and acquired immunity. Give examples of
each.

 

Answer the following Checklist Exercise from Ch. 17 of
Microbiology: Principles and Explorations: Distinguish
between cellular and humoral immunity.

Cell-mediated immunity

In your own words, briefly explain what happens in a
primary immune response. Be sure to incorporate the following terms
into your explanation: antigen, B-cell, antibody, plasma, and
memory cell.

 

In your own words, briefly explain what happens in a
secondary immune response. Incorporate the following terms in your
explanation: memory cell and antibodies.
 

In your own words, briefly explain why a secondary
immune response is much faster than a primary immune
response.
 

In your own words, briefly explain what the difference
is between active and passive immunization. Incorporate the
following terms in your answer: vaccine, antigen, attenuated,
primary immune response, antibodies, serum, and immediate
immunity.

 

Answer the following Checklist Question from Ch. 17 of
Microbiology: Principles and Explorations: What are some
hazards of vaccines?

 

Respond to the following question from Ch. 17 of
Microbiology: Principles and Explorations: If you were
born without T cells, would you have normal B cell functioning? Why
or why not?