Last n Final...at last....

Ok ppl, this is my last post for this blog. i hav to rush up my written report by tuesday. so let me make this last post short n sweet.

through this assignment, i understand more about cow's digestive system. i guess the only thing i m not satisfied about that is whether its four "stomachs" r actually stomachs or digestive compartments.

and as for how twins are formed, i am also able to understand quite clearly through the videos i collected. now, another i also found out tat the government could use to their advantage(tat is to encourage more babies) by encouraging ppl to go for IVF. since IVF has more chances of producing twins, wont the number of babies increase if every couple went for IVF?

well, i have to go now. i wan to thank the ppl reading my blog(if there r any in the first place) and hopefully when i grow up, i might become a specialist in one of those area n post my findings on another blog...

byebye ^^

26/7/08
Saturday

Yahoo answers giv the most understandable things....

So this is my last info post. tomorrow i will have to warp everything up. mastery review is just next week and i wont hav time to post any mor posts. so on this second last post, i would like to share with u my "best answers" from yahoo answers.

For the difference between the cow's digestive system and the human's digestive system:
Actually cows do NOT have four stomachs. They have a four compartmented digestive system but have one true abomasum ..which like our stomach has pepsin and HCl. The rumen and reticulum are predigestive bacterial vats where carbohydrates and other food constituents are metabolized by bacteria under anaerobic conditions ( fermented ). This means that the dietary protein is altered in composition to more favor bacterial protein ( lower bilogical value than sayy soy or alfalfa ) and dietary carbohydrates are entirely converted to acetic , propionic and butyric ( plus a few other ) volatile fatty acids. The cow must make all her glucose from propionate at the tissue level. The bacteria and protozoa in the rumen and the reticulum ( a somewhat smaller vat on the downside of the rumen ) can digest materials we cannot like cardboard , whole cottonseed, etc etc . Another compartment called the omasum ( many plies ) absorbs a large amount of water coming from the rumen/reticulum with the bacterially digested mass before that mass enters the true stomach or abomasum..where partial digestion of the bacterially altered proteins and fats begins. Afte the abomasum the mass enters the small intestine and functions much like our system does .

And for how twins are formed:
Twins can be monozygotic (identical) where one sperm fertilises an egg wheich then splits and develops separately. They are identical because they inherited the same genes from the same sperm and egg.
Alternatively, fraternal (non-identical) twins occurs when two eggs are released and are fertilised by different sperms. They can be of opposite sexes since the sperm carries the X or Y chromosome determining if the fotus will be male or female. Fraternal twins are no more likely to be alike than other siblings, it is simply two pregnacies occuring at the same time.

Less frequently three or more eggs may be fertilised leading to triplets or other multiple births.

IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) treatment for couples having trouble conceiving leads to multiple births.
1. The female is given hormonal treatment to bring about multiple ovulation (release of eggs from the ovary).
2. The eggs are collected using a fine tube.
3. Eggs are added to sperm from the partner or donor in a nutrient medium and allowed to incubate at 37oC for several days.
4. The pertri dish is examined under the microscope to look for presence of embryos (a tiny ball of cells formed by division of fertilised eggs)
5. Several embryos are implanted in the womb of the female at the time of the month when her womb is most developed for a potential pregnancy.
6. Unused embryos are frozen for use if the first attempt at IVF is unsuccessful.

If two or more of the implanted embryos successfully implant in the female's womb then it will lead to multiple births.

so a big ty for those who helped me answer my questions. tomorrow would then really be the last post. (wont have much to say in it though)

23/7/08
Wednesday

Twins r miracles....nah! with the help of science!

here i am back with the topic: how r twins formed. sadly, as i have to submit my written report by next monday, i have to conclude both topics by this week. now on with the blog!

after reviewing the data i hav, i was thinking just how special twins r. occuring in 1% of all pregnancies, it seems like a miracle beyond miracles.

how wrong was i. by surfing the web, i found out tat twins can be formed at a higher chance during IVF. most IVF embryos r likely to developed into twins. thus if a couple wish to have twins, they r better off going through IVF.

i had also found a detailed explaination on my yahoo answers. going to summaries tat in the next post. till then, bb!

21/7/08
Monday

ready for the finale.........NOT!

like i said in my last post, i m done with all my background research for this question. n i also decided to stick with that cows have four stomachs.....cause tats what all the website r saying. need mor reliable sources before i can safely say tat the four stomachs r actually digestive components.

anyway, in the following week i would be summarising n finishing this question. all tat is left now is making a table n wait to hear wat ppl know about this question on yahoo answers.

look forward to the finale next next week!

17/7/08
Thursday

almost done....wait! a new fact????

k i m also done with all the research i need for this topic. by next week i should be able to summarise my results. all i have to do next is to wait for more answers from yahoo answers. i think i should not go to more websites as it might cause me to get messy with all the data. so research stops here................WAIT!!!!! wats this? someone say that Actually cows do NOT have four stomachs. They have a four compartmented digestive system but have one true abomasum ..which like our stomach has pepsin and HCl.(dunno wat the last few words mean though)

oh dear...so they r not actually stomachs but r digestive compartments? hmm...need to find out more on these "compartments", though it wont really affect my entire question as regardless of wat they r, they still do the same thing cause they r afterall the same objects, just with a different name.

16/8/08
Wednesday

Back to the cow!

ok, now its time for me to go back researching about the cows digestive system. since my last post on the topic, i only know the digestion process. still, little is known about the four stomachs. today i wen to find out more about them. this is wat i got from the website which i think is the easiest to understand.

Ruminant animals, such as the dairy cow, have four stomach compartments called the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen is the largest and can hold up to 40 gallons of digesta and contains billions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and other organisms. The bacteria can digest fiber allowing the dairy cow to consume grass, forages, and fibrous by-product feeds that humans or monogastric animals cannot do effectively.

The abomasum is the stomach compartment similar to the human stomach.

btw, i post my both my biojournal questions on yahoo answers. so if u know anything, i hope u can help enlighten me. thx.

here's the links:
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080714054351AA7LJv9&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHzJbxmF.M_QgWK_etHl6S2w5ZW4lOCg7Bomw--&paid=asked&msgr_status=
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiXFZHhKIW.ulU4Q_ZDytqs95Qt.;_ylv=3?qid=20080714053603AA76vdA

14/7/08
Monday

its hard to get things off the internet...

k, i was looking for a video to help me understand further on how thing r formed. did the same thing with my other topic to find out about the digestive system. down side, there was none on youtube for this topic. on the up side, i managed to find a clip on the formation of twins at a certain website. now on the downdown side, i was unable to download n upload it to the blog due to some unknown error....sad...

anyway here's the url to the website
http://pennhealth.com/health_info/animationplayer/twins.html

now all u have to do is to let the video do the talking...

pity i cant download it....

10/7/08
Thursday

Twins actually varies?

well, regarding my previous post, i decide to not research on how r they delivered. but i can tell u tat most multiple births r usually delivered through c-section due to the risks involved(not sure wat they r though) this part of the research is still quite unsuitable for me. but if i hav the chance when im older, i would definitely look more into the topic.

anyway back to business. i m sure we all what twins r. but i nvr thought tat twins r split into a few categories. anyway here's the info i got off the web.

Identical twins are caused by one egg being fertilized by one sperm. Sometime after fertilization, the egg splits into two genetically identical halves. Identical twins are always of the same sex. They share 100% of their genes, and are in reality, natural clones.

Fraternal twins are formed when two eggs are released by the mother, and each egg is fertilized by a different sperm. Fraternal twins can be of the same or opposite sex. They share up to 50% of their genes, and are no more alike or different than any two siblings would be. It is also possible for fraternals to be of different races or parentage, or to be conceived at different times, resulting in a large weight difference at birth.

There is a third type of twinning that scientists are looking into, called polar body twinning, or "half identical" twinning. This occurs when the mother's egg splits before fertilization and then each half is then fertilized by a sperm. This may explain why some fraternal twins (such as the Olsen twins) look as alike as some identicals, but it hasn't been proven that it occurs, or that it would produce viable twins.

Conjoined twins form exactly like identical twins, but at some point during the stage where the single egg splits, the process stops, and the twins develop attached to one another. This occurs in about 1 out every 100,000 to 200,000 live births, but 60% of conjoined twins are either stillborn or lost in utero. Females are conjoined more than males, at a ratio of 3:1, and they are more likely to occur in India or Africa than China and the USA.

amyway, off for more research!

9/7/08

Wednesday

since when can fungi reproduce sexually???

oops...it seems tat i had made a big mistake. so far only very few fungi can reproduce sexually and they are not really considered sexual reproduction and the process is very complicated. so it seems i have to change my question again.....hmm....wat about how are two or more babies formed and how are they delivered? ya i can do tat, just tat maybe the videos i find may be not suitable for minors(and me), so i will try to find videos suitable for all.

now lets go!

p.s. forgot to update last week's research due to sch event, but u can bet on it tat i will work doublely hard on my research for the posts to come...

8/7/08
Tuesday

CHIM CHIM CHIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, there's still no videos on the cow's digestive system, even the pictures found seems to be only in a samll amount. well, at least i got one naming the four stomachs and got some info of its digestion process though its not very detailed....


As for the digestion process, here are the few steps

1. The cow tears and chews the food briefly then swallows. She'll eat for more than six hours a day.
2. The food passes into stomach #1 to soften. When the food passes into stomach #2, it mixes and softens more into what is called cud.
3. When Ms. Cow feels full, she burps up a small amount of cud to chew it again. She'll chew her cud for eight hours each day.
4. When the cow swallows again, the cud passes into stomachs #3 and #4 where it is digested further and nutrients are absorbed.
5. Digested food passes through her intestines where more nutrients are absorbed. Waste materials exit the cow as manure.

woah, and according to the source, a cow had to chew at a rate of 50 times per minute. In one day, she move her jaw more than 40,000 times!
Tough life it must have....

2/7/08
Wednesday

Listening better than reading...

Firstly, i decided to split the research into one week for each question. So this week, i would be studying on the differences between a cow's digestive system and a human's digestive system.

Of course, the first thing i had to do is to find out more on the human digestive system. Mind u, it is not just covering our primary sch stuffs. anyway i went to wikipedia and OMG! all the words were greek to me, i dont even understand half of wat its saying. then i thought, wat if i go look for a video presentation, maybe it would be easier to understand.....

And it sure was! i enclose this post with that video tat i found on youtube.

Enjoy! ^^

30/6/08
Monday

This is worst than deciding my secondary school!

well, here's with my second entry and i had to make a choice of 2 out of 5 topics to research on. being given 1) Digestion, 2)Transport in Living Things, 3) Sexual Reproduction, 4) Issues on Sex, 5) Ecology and Nutrient Cycles in the Ecosystem, i am totally spoilt for choice! Now, which one should i pick? After thinking about it for a day n a night n a day n a night n a day again, i remembered how curious i was about the system tat keeps life going. thus i narrowed it down to 3 topics: digestion, transport in living things n sexual reproduction. still in the end, i decided to go with digestion and sexual reproduction.
Next, i had to think of something to reseacrh related to these 2 fields. the question on digestion was rather easy to think of. as i was drinking fresh milk at that time, i remembered tat a cow has 4 stomachs, so how will the digestion process be different from a human digestion process? and as for sexual reproduction, i nearly ran out of ideas when i suddenly ask myself: can a fungi reproduce sexually? after confirming that they actually can with my sci teacher, i made up my mind.

Now, i offically declare that my 2 research questions shall be:
1) What are the similarities n differences between a cow digestive system and a human digestive system?
2) How can a fungi reproduce sexually?

Those decisions r certainly harder than chosing my secondary sch.....

26/6/08
Thursday

Lets get on with the journal!

When i first learnt that we had to do biojournals again, I was like "what? not again!" However, when i learnt that not only is there less work this time, but even that we had to write it in a blog form, i totally had no more objections! Writing my biojournal in a blog is way better than the lame old "research and copy down in your exercise book" method. So, lets get on with the journal!

25/6/08
Wednesday