River Clean Up Service Project

Over the past weekend, a group of Saratoga students went to the San Tomas Aquino creek and picked up trash. We worked in pairs with a trash and recycling bag to sort the things we found and grabbers to help us pick them up. Carolyn and I spent the majority of our time in one area with a lot of tangled bushes where chip bags, plastic bags, and junk food wrappers were trapped. Being cautious of the poison oak that was around, we used our grabbers and reached into those hard-to-reach spots and removed all the liter. It was sad to see how much trash (from humans!!) laid around near the park, and it made me want to spend the whole day there picking every piece of plastic I saw. Unfortunately, the three hour cleanup was cut down to a mere 45 minutes and we did not get to spend too much time moving around to another area and look for trash. Here's some pictures of the nasty human liter we found stuck in bushes and buried near the creek:

 Overall, this experience reminded me of how much we harm the environment and should find it part of our duty to give back by trashing responsibly and always keep in mind how each piece of consumption we invest in goes to the environment somehow. In the future, I want to participate in a longer cleanup session and possibly organize my own clean up with some friends in different areas. Each time I picked up a piece of trash, it felt satisfying to remove the pollution that harms the creatures that live near the creek and was just a nice Saturday morning activity to participate in. I hope this organization continues to remind people like me that our environment is precious and we should do everything in our power to treat it well.

 

Unit 8 Reflection

     This unit, we examined the muscular system focusing into the synovial joints, muscle classification, the way muscles work, major muscles, and muscle fibers. Our joints have various types of movements and connections that allow it to move in certain motions. Angular movements allow our limbs to flex away and towards our body. One example is Rotation, which occurs when a bone revolves around its own longitudinal axis. When we exercise, we utilize the various motions of angular joints, which in turn benefits our muscles since joints and muscles are closely related. Correctly using our joints is important because it is essential for proper joint and muscle health. We choreographed a synovial dance to better understand the movements, unfortunately I did not videotape our dance, but we used each of the terms during each of the movements to help us memorize and internalize the movements and their respective names. We also did a research project, where we re-designed a new joint that would better prevent injuries. If you want to see how I re-designed the ankle joint, click here! 

     We have three different types of muscles: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth. At the microscopic level, muscles contain excitability receiving and responding to various stimuli. For example, connective tissue holds muscle fibers together and fascia surrounds the entire muscle. There is consistent nerve and blood supply, which demands and uses a great deal of ATP. Muscles also work in opposition, where one muscle contracts while the other relaxes. For example, when the biceps brachii flexes, the triceps brachii relaxes. Each one of our muscles follows this contraction/relaxation rule. There are 40 superficial muscles divided into 12 regions on the anterior side and 27 superficial regions divided into 7 regions on the posterior side. They are organized by size, shape, action, number of origins, and location. Each one of those muscles plays a specific function for the body, for example: the gluteus maximus extends and rotates the thigh laterally and brings leg in line with the body. We took our understanding of muscles to a deeper level through the chicken dissection which helped us see the muscles in real life and see the opposition rule take place. The chicken's muscles allows us to compare them to the muscles in the human body. Click this link to see a detail recap of the lab: Chicken Dissection. 

Muscles have a very complex way of contracting involving very specific steps, here's the rundown:

1. Nerve sends impulse to the muscle fibers.
2. Ach activates the action potential on the muscle, and opens the sarcosplasmic reticulum.
3. Ca2+ ions are released from the sarcoplsmic reticulum and into the cytoplasm. 
4. The ions then bind onto the TT complex that is now exposed and wraps around the actin filaments. 
5.  ATP attaches onto the binding site at the myosin crossbridge. 
6. ATP split into ADP and P which causes the myosin head to move forward.
7. The P falls off and the myosin head attaches itself to the binding site on Actin.
8. ADP fals off and the myosin head retracts back to its resting position and pulls the actin forward simultaneously. 

This process is repeated until all of the calcium is removed from the TT complex, and this intricate cycle only describes one of the myosin fibers moving along the actin. There are bunches of these fibers per muscle, and we have around 650 muscles within the human body.  

Lastly, we examined muscles fibers and how they facilitate and respond to different types of exercise. We have 3 different muscle fibers: slow twitch fibers, fast twitch fibers a, and fast twitch fibers b. Slow twitch fibers are slow oxidative, meaning they are highly depend on a steady supply of oxygen and contains low storage of glycogen. These muscles are mostly seen in long distance athletes and exercise such as marathons. Fast twitch fibers a are fast oxidative, meaning it contracts fast and is moderately dependent on oxygen. They fatigue quickly and appear red/pink in color and are better suited for short distance exercise. Fast Twitch fibers b are fast glycolytic meaning they contain high levels of glycogen, yet a low oxidative capacity. Due to their lack in oxygen, they fatigue quickly and appear pink/white in color. These muscles are usually seen in athletes who participate in sprints or very short term exercises. 

I'm still curious about what kind of exercise generates hypertrophy/hyperplasia. I'm assuming cardio exercise would most likely initiate a growth in cells, while weightlifhting would cause a growth in muscle cell size. Still curious to how our muscles make that choice and the distinction. 

In these past few weeks, I have gained exponential progress for my 20 time, as I have collected 377 pads/tampons for homeless women! I got really proactive with asking people to donate and I'm really excited to donate them to Sacred Heart Community Service and see how these products will benefit the women who use the facility. I have become more productive with my study habits, as I have found a new method of writing down and defining all the terms on the study guide and going through the notes to make sure I truly understand everything has helped me understand the material more effectively. 

More Effective Joint: Sprained Ankle

     The ankle is composed of many different bones and joint, with ligaments connecting them to each other, that bind and work together to allow us to walk and move our feet. There are ligaments surrounding the ankle and they act to stretch and allow the ankle to move up and down or side to side. Because it is able to do this, the ankle is namely called a subtalar joint. After investigating more into ankle injuries and where the damage is sourced and what is affected, I have proposed a newly designed ankle that will minimize rolled ankles and decrease the number of injuries. If you're interested in how this super-ankle can prevent sprains and resist impact, keep on reading!

The ankle is located at the bottom of the tibia and fibula: bones that make up your lower leg. The “true ankle” consists of three bones: the calcaneus, talus, tibia, and fibula. These three joints are responsible for the up-and-down motion of the ankle. The calcaneus is the cuboidal structured bone at the back of your foot, making up the rounded portion of your ankle. The talus makes up the lower portion of the ankle joint; the tibia and fibula are part of the lower leg, the tibia being the larger bone. Among these bones in your ankle, there are ligaments that connect them to each other. When walking, the talus takes on the entire weight of the body primarily, then trasnfers the half of the weight to the calcaneus.

Here is an overview of the commonly torn ligaments during an ankle sprain or injury. The three ligaments that make up the lateral ligament complex is the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), the calcaneofibular ligament (CFL), and the posterior talofibular ligament (PTFL). THis complex gives the ankle lateral stability when walking, running, or jumping. The anterior talofibular ligament is located between your fibula and tibia, stretching across the upper region of your foot. The ATFL connects the fibula to the metatarsals, stretching sagittally across the foot. The calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) connects the middle of the calcaneus to the base of the fibula. The posterior talofibular ligament (PTFL) attach between the backs of the tibia and fibula. Lastly, the deltoid ligaments connect the tibia to talus/calcaneus providing medial stability. The underside of the talus and the top of the calcaneus forms the subtalar joint, allowing the ankle to move side-to-side. The ankle works like a hinge joint giving it the ability to move up (dorsiflexion) and down (plantarflexion).

A tendon connects a muscle to a bone. Beginning at the fibula and stretching down around the top of the calcaneus are the peroneals, ending towards the tarsals is the peroneus brevis tendon; the longer tendon, peroneus longus tendon lies underneath the PBT. The most popular and commonly known tendon in is the Achilles tendon, attaching the calf muscles to the calcaneus. This allows us to going onto our tippy toes and is critical for walking and engaging the muscles in our lower leg.

There is a nerve that passes over the middle of the top of the foot, one along the outer edge of the ankle, and the tibial nerve which runs behind the medial malleolus. These nerves provide the foot with sensation and allow the foot to better control the muscles surrounding it. Arteries supply blood and oxygen to the foot joint. The artery located over the superior face of the foot is the dorsalis pedis and the artery behind the medial malleolus is the posterior tibial artery, which transmits other smaller vessels to the interior of the ankle joint.

Often when an ankle injury occurs, the ligaments located on the outer edge of the ankle stretch beyond their capacity and tear. During dance, the body is everted to its full capacity, as the core, and limbs are highly engaged and actively moving. When one does a leap, the leg comes back down with the ankle facing the initial impacts. If landed incorrectly or at a strange position, the ankle may roll and the ligaments tear causing a painful sprain and the ankle to turn inward. Ankle sprains, causing the foot to turn in are common in sports such as soccer and football since your legs are rapidly moving.

Most common, the three ligaments(anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), the calcaneofibular ligament (CFL), and the posterior talofibular ligament (PTFL) in the lateral ligament complex tear during a rolled ankle. As seen by the picture below, the red marks indicate where the tear would take place.

Most common, the three ligaments(anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), the calcaneofibular ligament (CFL), and the posterior talofibular ligament (PTFL) in the lateral ligament complex tear during a rolled ankle. As seen by the picture below, the red marks indicate where the tear would take place. Since these ligaments on the lateral side of the ankle often tear during injury, my proposal for the new ankle is to thicken the fibers in each of those ligaments, making them sustain more impact that they usually do. The ligaments will also be more elastic, allowing them to stretch farther during an impact and resist snapping. By increasing the thickness of the ligaments and increasing their tolerance for sudden impact, the ankle may appear thicker in size, however this will still benefit the foot because it gives more cushion and catches some of the injury's impact. 
     Along with the thickening the ligaments, there will also be a layer of fat added below the calcaneus, underneath the metatarsals and tarsals. This will give the foot more stability when doing everyday motions such as walking, but will greatly benefits athletes because it also prevents the ankle's joints from receiving the impact and instead transfers it to the added fat. The new fat will be called "calcaneotarsal filament."
     Finally, the ankle's talus and base of the tibia and fibula will be able to rotate 360 degrees. This motion will allow the ankle to smoothly move along any disturbances of turning in or turning out, giving the ankle more relaxed momentum to resist any injuries that may cause it to twist abnormally. 

     I arrived at this new design because I noticed a repetition of broken ligaments during a rolled ankle. Not only were they usually ligaments, but the ones that tore were always located on the lateral side of the ankle. Also, the ankle was usually turned inwards during an sports injury, therefore I decided that adding a rotating cuff into the talus and base of tibia and fibula would allow the ankle to resist that impact of turning in. I had some issues with adding in the new layer of fat into the bottom of the ankle since it would be impossible to add any kind of material into joints and bones, however, it fit the requirements of increasing protective cushion in the ankle. It was interesting to go through the process of looking deeper into the ankle, as it is often said that studying the dysfunctions of our body helps us understand the normal functions. And it is true! I was fascinated about the various ligaments in the ankle and how precisely each one was located. Seeing that injuries often caused the lateral side of the ankle to break, shows how important it is to be mindful of where our foot placement is. When we participate in various activities such as dance, soccer, football, or any kind of sport, our ankle is under a large amount of impact and we can decrease the risk of injury by always landing either toes first, or (keeping) the knees bent so that the impact distributes up the leg and isn't all located in the ankle.    

Works Cited: 

“Anatomy of the Ankle.” Southern California Orthopedic Associates, www.scoi.com/specialties/anatomy-ankle. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Fisher, Stuart James, editor. “Foot and Ankle.” OrthoInfo, American Academy of Orthopedic Sciences, 2017, orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00524.

FootCare MD, editor. “Ankle Sprain.” American Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Society, Bone and Joint Initative, 2017, www.aofas.org/footcaremd/conditions/ailments-of-the-ankle/Pages/Ankle-Sprain-.aspx.

Johnson, Josh. “Ankle Sprain.” My Ankle, edited by British Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society., General Medical Council, 2013, myankle.co.uk/conditions/ankle-sprain/. Accessed 5 May 2017.

“A Patient’s Guide to Ankle Anatomy.” Where Does It Hurt, Houston Methodist Leading Medicine, 2017, www.houstonmethodist.org/orthopedics/where-does-it-hurt/ankle/ankle-anatomy/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Tortora, Gerald J., and Bryan Derrickson. Introduction to the Human Body. 7th ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2007. The Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology.

What Happens When We Stretch

Relate and Review: 

Our muscles are stretched by elongating the sarcomeres, increasing and decreasing the area of overlap between the myofilaments. When the muscle is enlongated to its full extent, the sarcomeres are fully stretched and collagen fibers in the connective tissue align themselves along the tension. When a muscle is stretched, some fibers elongate, but others do not move and stay at rest. Proprioceptors give us the ability to sense our body's position and movement, detecting changes to our physical movement. When our muscle contracts, tension is transferred to the golgi tendon organ. It is important to stretch for long periods of time because the muscle "habituates" to the new length, allowing your muscles to gradually increase in length over time. When I stretch for color guard, each muscle stretch us held for around 30 seconds to 1 minute, sometimes even longer. We also stretch the muscles in different ways: for example, when we stretch our legs we'll bend over with our feet pointed and stretch over with our feet flexed to stretch different muscles. The reason we become more flexible is through the persistent stretching of the same muscles consistently, giving more elasticity to the fibers and habituating our muscles to the new length. It is more difficult to stretch a contracted muscle, therefore stretching for a prolonged period of time helps the muscle relax when being stretched. 

Quotes: 

"One of the reasons for holding a stretch for a prolonged period of time is that as you hold the muscle in a stretched position, the muscle spindle habituates (becomes accustomed to the new length) and reduces its signaling."

• When we stretch in color guard, the goal is to become more flexible and warm up our muscles for the physical activity ahead. We often push the stretches a little further, and this will eventually accustom the fibers to be longer. This results in a longer muscle and more flexibility. We usually hold our splits for at least 2 minutes, in order to get effective stretching and truly elongate those muscle fibers, resulting in a larger and more elastic muscle. 

"Just as the total strength of a contracting muscle is a result of the number of fibers contracting, the total length of a stretched muscle is a result of the number of fibers stretched -- the more fibers stretched, the more length developed by the muscle for a given stretch."

• Both contraction and stretching is controlled by muscle fibers creating a parallel reactions in our muscle, increasing the contracting fibers and increasing the stretch fibers help our body adjust to the physical activity we assert onto it. I understood that stretching your muscles overtime makes you more flexible, but I was not aware of the individual fibers that are extended. 

"The muscle spindle records the change in length (and how fast) and sends signals to the spine which convey this information."

• Our nervous system plays a role in remembering the changed length of our muscles when we stretch by sending a signal to the spinal cord, which then sends it to the brain. This recorded measurement plays a role when our muscles habituate and keep that new stretched length. This signal also triggers the stretch reflex to resist the change and cause the muscle to contract; this function prevents the body from injury and maintain the tone of the muscles.   

Chicken Dissection Analysis

In our chicken dissection, we observed the exterior and interior parts of our chicken, paying attention to how the muscles, tendons, and bones help the chicken move. First, we peeled off the skin on the breast and made an incision down the midline of the pectoralis major in order to expose the pectoralis minor underneath. The pectoralis major allows the bird to fly by pulling on its wing when it contracts. As seen in the picture below, the pectoralis minor is directly under the pectoralis major and it pulls the wings dorsally when flying.

Pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, orbicularis shaped
muscles that make up the chicken´s breast

The trapezius muscle and latissimus dorsi
which is a depressor for the chicken´s wing

Next, we flipped the chicken over with the posterior side facing up, peeled off the skin, and observed the trapezius and the latissimus dorsi. Looking at the picture, you can see the trapezius runs from the backbone to the shoulder, which allows the chicken to pull their shoulder back. The lattissimus dorsi are distal to the chicken's back, stretching form the spine to an origin of a wing.

Deltoid: piriformis muscle on top of shoulder 

We then detached the wings from the chicken and observed the movement in the deltoid, biceps brachii, and triceps humeralis. Similarly in humans, the deltoid located at the top of the shoulders helps to raise the upper arm (or wing). Attached below on the upper arm, the biceps brachii flexes the arm with a concentric contraction, shortening the muscle. As the biceps brachii contract, the tripceps brachii, located on the inferior side of the arm relaxes. When one contracts the other relaxes and vice versa. The femur is the bone underneath these two muscles with its origin at the deltoid and its insertion at the humerous. When the biceps brachii contracts, the insertion point (humerous) moves closer to the origin (deltoid). The flexor carpi ulnaris runs from the bottom tip of the humerous (elbow) across the ulna towards the far end of the chicken's hand.

Brachioradialis: Largest muscle on lower wing,
located on the lateral side of hand, same side as the radius.
Flexor carpi ulnaris: On posterior side of wing,
from "pinky" to elbow

Biceps brachii and triceps brachii located on
the anterior and posterior sides of the
chicken's upper wing

While observing the upper wing, we discovered that by twisting the humerous, the wing flexes back and forth demonstrating extension and flexion.

Check out the video below to see the movement!

Since these chicken's were raised to be eaten as meat, their thighs and calves are very disproportionate, often making the muscles on their calves much larger than their quadriceps. Shown below is the sartorius and quadriceps femoris. The sartorius is located down the front length of the thighs and allows both chickens and humans to cross their legs. The quadripceps femoris, located on the inner thigh is made up of 4 different muscles that flex and extend the lower leg. In humans, it is known as the rectus femoris and the muscle helps to extend the knee joint and is crucial for walking/running/jumping. 

Sartorius and Quadricep femoris: located on
the thigh to help with crossing of legs and
extension of lower leg

  The illiotibialis, seen in the picture to the right is covers
 the majority of the thighs and
allows for extension and flexion of the leg

The biceps femoris is a part of the hamstring group, and allows the bird to flexes its leg. In humans, we exercise and use this muscle when doing leg curls. The semimembranosus is inferior and medial to the biceps femoris and extends the thigh. The semitendinosus is anterior and medial to the semimembranosus, on the interior region of the thigh muscle. 

Peroneus longus: Maximus muscle on drumstick side
of leg.
Tibilais anterior: Major muscle to peroneus longues
Runs along tibia in front area of lower leg, flexes foot 

The biceps femoris is a part of the hamstring group, and allows the bird to flexes its leg. In humans, we exercise and use this muscle when doing leg curls. The semimembranosus is inferior and medial to the biceps femoris and extends the thigh. The semitendinosus is anterior and medial to the semimembranosus, on the interior region of the thigh muscle. 

Biceps femoris: yellow pin
Semimembranosus: green pin
Semitendinosus: white pin
(picture courtesy of Shreya's group) 

Gastrocnemius: attached to Achilles tendon, extends foot
and flexes lower leg