Steph

WEEK 2



**About two or three weeks ago I had a really interesting experience babysitting an autistic thirteen year old. It really made me think how lucky we all are, however it also sparked my interest of why people living with autism are the way they are. Also, after watching the movie about Temple Grandin, it was easy to see how intelligent people with autism are they just have a more difficult time reaching their full potential because of the way autism affects their brain. While Temple's case was somewhat less severe, the girl I babysat for has a pretty severe cause but depsite the severity all people with autism are similiar in that they know what they want to say, it is getting it out and interacting socially that remains a huge issue for them. So for this week I wanted to focus on autism after reading an artical about how fever during pregancy can more than double the risk for autism in a child. The results are based on data from a large, case-control investigation known as the Childhood Autism Risk from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study. Another recent study based on CHARGE data found that mothers who were obese or diabetic had a higher likelihood of having children with autism. Eventually, the final question posed was if inflammatory factors play a role in the development of autism? ** **The video below is something I was showed and is just a basic video to help better undertsand autism. I believe with the continuation of research and finding of new causes, like fevers during pregnancy, we can find a cure to autism. ** media type="youtube" key="AbeyIG7Fz8s" height="315" width="420" align="center"

WEEK 3 After teaching the little headstart kids about ponds, Idecided to make my page this week about an ecological topic, somewhat realted to ponds: eutrophication. Earlier in the year when we learned this it interested me because of the negative feedback loop of the good nutrients actually eventually causing a lake to die, quite ironic. Therefore, I researched the issue further to see what has been happening lately in regards to eutrophication.

Over the last fifty years, eutrophication has become one of the top leading causeof decreased water quality. The two leading causes of it are hypoxia, which is the depletion of oxygen in water, and dangerous algal blooms. The World Resources Institute's website was extremely helpful in giving an update to all of this need to know info and explained eutrophication causes especially well in the following:  // "The rise in eutrophic and hypoxic events has been attributed to the rapid increase in intensive agricultural practices, industrial activities, and population growth which together have increased nitrogen and phosphorus flows in the environment. The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) found that human activities have resulted in the near doubling of nitrogen and tripling of phosphorus flows to the environment when compared to natural values." //As well, some major impacts of eutrophication include: coral reef damage, low dissolved oxygen/formation of hypoxic zones, shift in phytoplankton species composition, and loss of subaquatic vegetation. No definite solutions have been proposed yet, however people believe that policymakers should look more broadly at agricultural, energy, land use, and public health policies and design policies to mitigate nutrient pollution.

Cycle of sources of eutrophication:  This week I found a really interesting article on new testing that could help spot genetic disorders in the fetus. Researches new method was a process in which they reconstructed the genome of the fetus using parental DNA. What makes this such a great discovery is that no invasive measures were needed and thus is a big step towards the future of a low risk way to help identify genetic disorders in early development. Dr. Jay Shendure said, "A test based on the new technique could detect the roughly 3,000 conditions known as Mendelian disorders, each of which are the result of a single mutated gene." Shendure and her colleagues used the fathers saliva and a blood plasma sample from the mother to reconstruct the fetus genome and sequenced the regions of DNA they were aiming for with about 98.2 % accuracy. This leads to the hope that many diseases can now be tested for noninvasively. As well, the most accurate information from these tests arrived a bit later in pregnancy so researchers are aiming towards trying to do testing earlier on in the pregnancy. Another positive result of the new techniques is that as they improve, they can help detect where new mutations are arising within the fetus to cause genetic disorders rather than the mutations inherited from parents. Ultimately, I believe this is a huge step foward in the right direction and could be super beneficial in the future! media type="youtube" key="6B5Gd3m68Fc" height="315" width="560" align="center"
 * WEEK 4**