A.+Homeostasis+and+Chemical+Aspects

__** Application **__
Christine - In nursing our goal is to maintain homeostasis. We regulate this by taking the patients temperature, blood pressure, pulse, oxygen level, and other labs to see if the patient is at normal levels. If the patient's vitals are not in the normal range then we must intervene to make sure that they do go back to normal. This might include administering drugs or therapies in order to get the patient to reach homeostasis and then maintain it as well.

Meagan- As OTAs, we need to maintain homeostasis with our clients. We need to get their bodies back to functioning to what was "normal" for them. Homeostasis helps the patients achieve their regular life-style. OTAs need to understand the mechanisms that go along with homeostasis because we need to bring them as close as we can to stability, balance, and equilibrium. If a patient's body is not in homeostasis, that may change how they are acting which will affect how they behave. We as OTAs need to recognize this and help the patient. Having the flu reminds me of homeostasis. Our bodies are trying to find that equilibrium while it is fighting the infection. We have spells of coldness and then hotness as we go through fevers. These fevers are our bodies way of trying to accomplish homeostasis and bring us back to our "normal" functioning.

Kalli- Homeostasis is a huge part in any type of life, including human life. As an OTA, my main goal is to provide my patients with the opportunities provided to access and maintain homeostasis while returning them to the life the patients had before their injury. DNA may play a large part in the lives of some of our patients' and may be the cause of the diseases that limit the patients that we work with on a daily basis. As an OTA, I will work with patients in order to regain their ability to do the activities they have done all their lives using processes relative to positive and negative feedback. These processes will help the patients regain their independence and confidence in living a normal life.

__ **Content Summary** __
This unit is over homeostasis, positive and negative feedback, atoms to molecules, chemical bonds, pH, carbohydrate digestion, types of lipids, protein structure, DNA, and RNA.
 * Unit Overview**

1) HOMEOSTASIS Homeostasis is the state of dynamic constancy of conditions within the body. Homeostasis in a general sense refers to stability, balance or equilibrium. Homeostatic regulation involves three parts or mechanisms: 1) the receptor, 2) the control center and 3) the effector. The receptor receives information that something in the environment is changing. The control center or integration center receives and processes information from the receptor. And lastly, the effector responds to the commands of the control center by either opposing or enhancing the stimulus.
 * Three major concepts**

//**Negative feedback**//: a reaction in which the system responds in such a way as to reverse the direction of change. Since this tends to keep things constant, it allows the maintenance of homeostasis.

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//**Positive feedback**//: a response is to amplify the change in the variable. This has a destabilizing effect, so does not result in homeostasis. Positive feedback is less common in naturally occurring systems than negative feedback.



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Information came from [|http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Human_Physiology/Homeostasis#What_is_Homeostasis.3F]

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2) NONPOLAR AND POLAR COVALENT BONDS

Covalent Bond- two or more atoms share pairs of valence electrons


 * Nonpolar covalent bonds**- a bond between 2 nonmetal atoms that have the same electronegativity and therefore have __equal__ sharing of the bonding electron pair



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 * Polar covalent bonds- a ** bond between 2 nonmetal atoms that have different electronegativities and therefore have __unequal__ sharing of the bonding electron pair

3) DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism.

DNA bases pair up with each other, A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. Each base is also attached to a sugar molecule and a phosphate molecule. Together, a base, sugar, and phosphate are called a nucleotide. Nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. The structure of the double helix is somewhat like a ladder, with the base pairs forming the ladder’s rungs and the sugar and phosphate molecules forming the vertical sidepieces of the ladder.

An important property of DNA is that it can replicate, or make copies of itself. Each strand of DNA in the double helix can serve as a pattern for duplicating the sequence of bases. This is critical when cells divide because each new cell needs to have an exact copy of the DNA present in the old cell.



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__ **Essential Question/Case Study** __
What are enzymes? What role do they play in human physiology? Enzymes are biological catalysts, made up of mainly proteins, that speed up the rate of chemical reactions without changing themselves or the reaction. Throughout human physiology, enzymes alter the shape of active sites in order to encourage the binding of specific substrates, catalyze specific chemical reactions, and produce specific products. If enzymes did not help with these functions, our bodies would not be ever changing and would always look the same no matter how much time had gone by. More importantly, if our bodies had no enzymes we would die.

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