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The Infant Airway Microbiome Linked to Childhood Asthma
By Shivani Kamal, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ’17
Author’s Note:
“I am pursing a career in pediatrics and wanted to familiarize myself with new research regarding health and development of children. I was amazed at the advancements of medical technology which allow us to understand diseases and create potential cures, previously never thought possible. My purpose for writing this review is to show scientific audiences the most current research on how bacteria in the respiratory microbiome has an impact on asthma. Recently, much research initiated by the Human Microbiome Projects (HMP) proved that the bacteria living on and inside humans contribute to the health and disease of the body. This review is meant to educate scientists on the most recent information on development of childhood asthma and prompt others to conduct future research on preventative treatments for the disease.”
What is Myasthenia Gravis?
By Shubhang Bhatt, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, ’15
Author’s Note:
“What is Myasthenia Gravis?” aims at informing the readers about the mechanism of action, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of Myasthenia Gravis. Fatigue and muscle weakness is something that today’s working population has learned to ignore, and this has prevented MG from early detection. Proper treatment is necessary for this potentially life-threatening condition. I decided to write about this topic after reading a case study for one of my internships. I hope the readers will look out for signs like the drooping of eyelids, muscle weakness, and difficulty in swallowing for the early detection of this rare autoimmune disease.”
Human Health and Safety Impacts of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin Consumption
By Danielle Kassatly, Genetics and Genomics, ’16
Author’s Note:
“This piece aspires to encourage consumers to critically interpret the scientific facts presented in everyday advertisements. Our society assumes that rBST and many other synthetic chemicals are detrimental to health, this essay emphasizes the importance of challenging fallacious argument in order to fairly evaluate the use of rBST.”
Blood pressure monitoring and antihypertensive treatment for dementia prevention: A Review
By Holly Lam, Human Development, ’16
Author’s Note:
“I wrote this literature review as an assignment for UWP104F (Writing in the Professions: Health). We were able to choose any health problem of our interest and review current research pertaining to that topic. I chose to write about dementia particularly because it affects my grandmother. To this day, my family and I do not know how she went from being a fairly healthy 40 year old woman to being a person with Alzheimer’s disease. During my research, I came across an abundance of literature pertaining to the relationship between dementia and the blood supply to the brain. The notion of hypertension being a potential indicator of later dementia captured most of my interest given that it is relatively common in the US compared to other countries. What we can learn about the link between blood supply and the brain may give us a better understanding of dementia as well as insight for prevention.”
Winter Seminar 2016: “Science Journalism and Editing: The Aggie Transcript”
The Aggie Transcript is offering its first-ever seminar on science journalism and editing in Winter Quarter 2016! Please see the flyer below for more information.
To read more about the course description, the goals of the seminar, course assignments and grading criteria, please visit the link and click “Seminar Schedule: Winter 2016”
Link: http://fys.ucdavis.edu/student/#frs-schedule
What is HIV?
By Connie Chen, Microbiology, ’16
Scope
This article was inspired by a friend who is an International Relations and Economics major. She was interested in the science behind HIV and AIDS because she only knew about the stigma carried with being infected with HIV and that it is an incurable virus. After talking to my friend for a few hours, I realized that many people don’t know too much about HIV besides how it spreads and that there is no current cure. My friend was amazed by how complicated HIV was and hopes that future policies about HIV and AIDS will have more background information rather than going with public opinion about the virus. The overarching goal of the paper is to inform the reader about what HIV and AIDS is, what HIV does to the human body, and what treatments are currently available. I hope that you, the reader, will be able to carry out some form of conversation about HIV and AIDS after reading this article.
The Future of Surgery
By Nicole Strossman, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ’17
What do you picture when you think about surgery? Most likely, you imagine a person having their body cut open, and then a surgeon performing what is necessary to fix the problem, whether that be removing a damaged organ or tissue, repairing damages internally, or performing some other procedure. In all of these cases, it is expected that the doctor makes a cut large enough so that he or she can see what is inside of the body and operates. However, a new method of surgery takes a radically different approach. Laparoscopic surgery, also called minimally invasive surgery, Band-Aid surgery, or keyhole surgery, is a relatively new surgical technique that is revolutionizing the surgical field. Traditionally, surgery is performed by making a large incision in order to directly view and operate on the tissues, organs, and other structures of interest inside of the body. In contrast, with laparoscopic surgery, a series of small incisions, typically of .5 cm to 1.5 cm, are made along the abdomen. (more…)
Case Report: Sjogren’s Syndrome
By David Ivanov, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2015
Sjogren’s syndrome, like other autoimmune diseases, can be difficult to diagnose definitively, and often relies on a handful of signs and symptoms that can vary substantially from case to case. The only signs considered markers for Sjogren’s are anti-SSA and anti-SSB antibodies, and while anti-SSB is more specific, elevated levels of anti-SSB are actually less common in patients with Sjogren’s syndrome than anti-SSA, leading to some ambiguity in diagnosis.
A seventeen year old female patient presented with a large, soft, sublingual cyst on the left side of the floor of her mouth. While she reported no pain, the cyst was first spotted about a year earlier, and had been growing steadily. Visible swelling was observed on the left side of her face under her jaw line. Surgery was performed to remove the cyst, and an adjacent salivary gland was removed as well. The otorhinolaryngologist took a tissue sample, and histology confirmed a benign growth. The surgeon ordered a blood panel to evaluate antibody levels that might indicate an autoimmune disease. The patient’s serum was negative for rheumatoid factor, anti-SSB antibodies, and anti-nuclear antibodies. However, she was positive for anti-SSA antibodies, with a level of 50 U/ml. Bacterial cultures were negative for oral infection, and an X-ray was negative for sarcoidosis. Patient was discharged after surgery with no medications indicated, as she was not experiencing any other symptoms.
Data Reproducibility: The Chink in Science’s Armor
By Christopher Fiscus, Biotechnology, 2015
Science is an additive discipline in which each novel contribution builds upon the breadth of existing scientific knowledge and acts as a launch pad from which to pursue further study. The scientific community is currently in the midst of a crisis: many studies are not reproducible, meaning that results cannot be adequately verified by other scientists. According to estimates, approximately 75-90% of preclinical studies published in high-impact journals, such as Science and Nature, cannot be replicated (Begley and Ioannidis 2015). This lack of reproducibility undermines science as a vehicle for human progress as it means that new research avenues are being pursued based on presumptive hypotheses and unverifiable findings. The result is a widespread waste of resources, a loss of public trust in the scientific establishment, and a reduced applicability of science as a tool to better the quality of human life. Potential solutions to this crisis include improving researcher training, employing more rigorous peer review, and increasing the transparency of scientific literature. (more…)
What is LASIK?
By David Ivanov, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2015
LASIK, or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, is a surgical procedure commonly used to correct for visual defects or lack of visual clarity. Commonly referred to as laser eye surgery, LASIK is a type of surgery that is used to alleviate visual loss associated with common defects of the eye, such as myopia (nearsightedness), hypermetropia (farsightedness), and astigmatism. Astigmatism, like near and far-sightedness, can be caused by the irregularity in shape of the cornea that leads to blurred vision. For all three cases, corneal remodeling via LASIK can be performed (Thomson, 2015).
The cornea is the outermost layer of the eye, the transparent part that one can touch, and upon which contact lenses are placed. It is responsible for most of the focusing power, and thus is a common culprit in visual defects of the eye. The cornea focuses the light reflected into the eye, through the lens and onto the the retina at the back of the eye, which senses light and converts it to nerve impulses, and transmits the resulting image to the brain for processing. This then produces the image that we ‘see’. While the retina is the part of the eye that is light-sensitive and is responsible for transmitting the image to the brain, the cornea, along with the lens, must focus light reflecting off of three dimensional surfaces so that they strike onto the anterior, or front part of the retina. Without this precise focusing of light rays directly onto the retina, the brain generates a blurred image (NKCF 2014).