Jeff+Harding

Biology 111

Post #11 =__Strep Throat __=

 Strep throat is caused by Group A // Streptococcus // bacteria. It’s the most common bacterial infection of the throat. Strep throat is most common in children between the ages of 5 and 15, although it can happen in younger children and adults. Strep throat is most common in the late fall, winter, and early spring. The infection is spread by person-to-person contact with nasal secretions or saliva, often among family or household members.  Symptoms usually begin suddenly, and can include:
 * Fever that begins suddenly and is often highest on the second day
 * Red throat, sometimes with white patches
 * Sore throat
 * Headache
 * Stomach ache
 * Nausea
 * Chills
 * General discomfort, uneasiness or ill feeling
 * Loss of appetite and abnormal taste
 * Tender, swollen lymph nodes in the neck
 * Difficulty swallowing
 * Difficulty swallowing

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; vertical-align: baseline;">Remedies that may help: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; vertical-align: baseline;">National Center for Biotechnology Information, Initials. (2010, June 10). // Strep throat //. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001663/
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Drink warm liquids. Honey or lemon tea is a time-tested remedy.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Gargle several times a day with warm salt water (1/2 tsp of salt in 1 cup water).
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Drink cold liquids or suck on popsicles to soothe the sore throat.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Suck on hard candies or throat lozenges. This is often as effective as more expensive remedies, but should not be used in young children because of the choking risk.

Post #10 =__<span style="color: #ff00d6; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Kangaroo Pocket __=

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">More properly known as a marsupium, the kangaroo pouch provides a place of shelter for the young after they are born. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The newborn will crawl into the kangaroo pouch and remain there until developed and strong enough to function independently.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The pouch is simply a fold of hide or skin that makes it easy for the mother to transport and protect the young. A nipple is also concealed in the pouch, so the joey may nurse while safely protected close to the mother. The pouch leaves the hands of the mother free to forage and to defend her young.

wiseGEEK, Initials. (2003). // What is a kangaroo pouch pocket? // . Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-kangaroo-pouch-pocket.htm

Post #9 =__ Giant Panda __=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** Common Name: ** Giant panda

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> **Scientific Name:** //Ailuropoda melanoleuca//

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> **Location:** Southwest China (Gansu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan Provinces) to the east of the Tibetan plateau.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> **Population:** Less than 2,500 mature in the wild

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world’s most threatened animals. Today, the giant panda's future remains uncertain. As China's economy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> continues rapidly developing, this bamboo-eating member of the bear family faces a number of threats. Its forest habitat, in the mountainous areas of southwest China, is increasingly fragmented by roads and railroads. Habitat loss continues to occur outside of protected areas, while poaching remains an ever-present threat. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">By 2005, the Chinese government had established over 50 panda reserves, protecting more than 2.5 million acres - over 45 percent of remaining giant panda habitat – protecting more than 60 percent of the population. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Even though they are protected in some places, bamboo, the panda's primary source of food, only grows at an elevation above sea level of between 550 and 3,400 yards. A pair of breeding pandas needs a minimum of around 7,400 acres to support them. Much of the lower elevation land has been claimed for agriculture so remaining habitats are now confined to above 1,500 yards, but this area too is now under pressure from human activities.

World Wildlife Fund, Initials. (n.d.). // Giant panda //. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/giantpanda/panda.html

Post #8 =__ The Paduang __=

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The Paduang attract many a lot of attentions on account of their long-necked women. A tradition of beautifying women by adding brass rings to their necks has been preserved largely for generating tourism. Even though the neck appears supper elongated, its actually the collarbone which has been displaced and the neck didn’t stretch at all.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Some said that the custom might have come to prevent the women to leave the village and marry in other tribes, or to be taken as slaves by the Burmans, because the collar made them ugly to other tribes. The Pa Dong being a small tribe, women are not allowed to marry outside the tribe. But the oldest lady who wore the ring since she was five said that it was the tradition.

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ThailandSelection.com, Initials. (2005). //Long-necked paduang (or padong) tribes//. Retrieved from http://www.thailandselection.com/attraction/Long-Necked-Paduang-Tribes.html

Post #7 =__ Freshwater Jellyfish __=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Freshwater jellyfish or Craspedacusta sowerbyi belongs to the phylum Cnidaria. Unlike their marine counterparts, freshwater jellyfish do not like currents and tides and prefer standing water such as freshwater lakes, reservoirs,, water-filled gravel pits, rock quarries, algae-filled ponds, and rivers. This is why they are not usually seen in fast flowing streams or rivers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> The freshwater jellyfish are very delicate and somewhat flatter than their marine counterparts. Almost 99% of their bodies are made of water. They grow to about 25 mm in diameter in size. The body of the freshwater jellyfish is transparent and has a whitish or greenish tinge. They can have as many as 400 tentacles at the margins of their bodies. The tentacles have a number of nematocysts, which are capable of injecting venom into a prey to kill or paralyze it. However, their nematocysts are not powerful enough to break into human skin so humans don't feel any from a freshwater jellyfish sting.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Freshwater jellyfish go through the polyp and the medusa stage. However, the polyps themselves are capable of forming "frustules" which move freely in the water, although very slowly. After a few days of free floating, the frustules attach themselves to a suitable substrate and become polyps themselves

Pattern Media, Initials. (2001-2011). //Jellyfish species//. Retrieved from http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/jellyfish-species-list.html

Post #6 =__<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 100%;">Tree Man __=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Here’s a really interesting case of a man named Dede that has an affliction caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers. Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Because of his rare genetic fault the virus was able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Dede is now 35, he was fired from his job, his wife left him, and to be able to raise his two children he was force to join a local "freak show" just to make ends meet. media type="youtube" key="DStwXsmZ3OE" height="349" width="425" align="center"

Moore, M. (12, November 2007). //s tree man 'who grew roots'//. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1569156/Tree-man-who-grew-roots-may-be-cured.html

Post #5 =__ Sloth __=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Sloths are extremely slow-moving mammals found in the rainforest canopies of Central and South America. Most sloths are about the size of a small dog and they have short, flat heads. Their hair is grayish brown but, at times they look grey-green in color because they move so slowly that tiny camouflaging algae grow all over their coats. Sloths are super slow, and if caught on land they have no chance to evade predators, such as big cats, and must try to defend themselves by clawing and biting. Even tough they can’t travail fast on land, they are decent swimmers.media type="youtube" key="ndMKTnSRsKM" height="329" width="540" align="right"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Sloths are identified by the number of long, prominent claws that they have on each front foot. There are both two-toed and three-toed sloths. Their huge hooked claws and long arms allow them to spend most of their time hanging upside-down from trees. Since they have a slow metabolism, they need very little food. They eat fruit, leaves, buds, and twigs. Sloths also sleep upside-down and sleep 15 to 20 hours every day. Even when awake they often remain motionless. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">A really cool advantage that sloths have is that they have extra neck vertebrae that allow them to turn their heads some 270 degrees.

National, Geographic. (2011). //Three-toed sloth//. Retrieved from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/three-toed-sloth/

Post #4 __** Kiwi Brid **__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">When many people hear the word kiwi they think of the fruit, but the type of kiwi that I’m talking about is a flightless bird which has hair rather than feathers and a long snout like appendage which is used for sucking up insects and other food items like fruits. The kiwi bird lays large eggs which c  <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 27px;">an be up to half the weight of the bird that laid it. media type="youtube" key="QYYpQVAWqRc?rel=0" height="312" width="512" align="right" <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 27px;"> The kiwi bird has a very keen sense of smell which means that it does not have too much trouble finding tasty treats to eat like grubs or fallen fruit from the trees. They are very fast runners and difficult to spot in the wild which is one of very few advantages that the kiwi bird has.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The kiwi bird has suffered terribly from the effects of ground predators introduced by colonizers and has become much rarer, although they now have a protected status in many of the National Parks across the country. The deforestation process has also contributed to their demise in that it destroys their habitat.

KiwiBird.org, Initials. (2010, December 10). // The new zealand kiwi bird //. Retrieved from []

Post #3 =__ Tsunamis __=

Tsunamis can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large amount of water, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteorites or landslides into the water or below its surface. In deep oceans, tsunamis might have wavelengths as long as several hundred kilometres and reach speeds of up to 720 kilometres per hour. Yet the waves may be less than a metre tall, letting them pass unnoticed beneath ships at sea. media type="youtube" key="-DSSssHxm4Y?fs=1" height="351" width="432" align="left"

When these waves enter the shallower water close to the shore, their speeds drop and their heights increase dramatically. W hen tsunamis hit into the shore, they can flood up to two kilometres inland, sweeping people out to sea, flattening buildings and toppling trees.

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If you’re wondering, Can tsunamis hit Canada!? Well yea they have. On March 27, 1964, a large earthquake in Alaska triggered a tsunami that caused damage all the way to California. It pounded Vancouver Island shorelines, causing several million dollars of destruction to the community of Port Alberni.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 2px; line-height: normal;">CBC News, Initials. (2009, September 29). //What are tsunamis?//. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/09/29/f-tsunami-forces-of-nature.html

Post #2 =__ Apoptosis __=

If a cell is infected or damaged or even just have reached the end of their functional life span they often enter a program of controlled cell suicide called apoptosis. During the process cellular agents chop up the DNA and fragment the organelles. The cell shrinks and it becomes lobed (“blebbing”), and the cell’s parts are packaged up in vesicles that are engulfed and digested by specialized scavenger cells. Apoptosis must perform this way so it can prevent any neighboring cells from suffering damage from dying cells.

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Reece, J, & Campbell, N. (2009). //Biology eighth edition//. San Francisco, CA : Pearson Education Inc.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; text-align: left;">Post #1  __<span style="color: #00ebe9; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;">Your flab may be helpful after all __ The first thought that comes to most people’s heads when talking about belly fat usually isn’t a good thing. But flab may contain enough stems cells to repair a dam aged heart. Research teams reported the results from clinical trials in which heart patients were treated with stems cells derived from their own fat. Many scientists have great hopes for stem cells because of their ability to turn into every specialized cell in the body. In theory, they could be used to fix diseased organs. Scientists have been trying to isolate a sufficient supply of stems cells from the tissues of adults. And, based on research, it now appears that fat could be a viable option. The findings were presented in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. In two different trials, one involved 27 patients who could barely function because they suffered from advanced heart disease, and the other Involved 14 patients who had just experienced massive heart attacks. Each patient underwent liposuction to remove belly fat – about enough to fill a can of pop. The fat was put though a special stem-cell extracting machine. The stem cells – numbering about 20 million – were then injected into the patient’s damaged heart muscle. The primary goal of the research was to test the safety of the procedure before progressing to larger trials. In each study, some of the patients received a placebo that lacked stem cells. Those who received the real treatment didn't suffer serious side effects and even showed signs of improved heart function. In the case of the heart-attack patients, the amount of damaged, or scarred, heart muscle shrank substantially within six months of treatment.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 2px; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Taylor, Paul. (2010, November 19). Your flab may be helpful after all. //Globe and Mail//, []