T-b-a-blr-blog - Untitled

12.3.17

When your teacher said they’re going to post a study guide but they don’t qq

Music mood: Rubber Human - Mili

Dose Dependent effects of Dopamine mnemonic

Simplified version of Dopamine’s dose-dependent MAJOR effects:

low doses - activates D1 receptors (Gs) - vasodilates renal blood vessels*

med.doses - activates B1 receptors (Gs) - increases heart rate/contractility etc..

high doses - activates A1 (Gq) - vasoconstricts,

*increased renal perfusion, GFR, also vasodilates mesenteric and coronary vessels 

source: http://reference.medscape.com/drug/intropin-dopamine-342435

Hi optom! I'm very new to the studyblr community and it's my first term of university. I was a straight A student in high school and i am not performing well in my classes. In fact... I'm doing terribly. About a B to B- average. I know I'm probably not the first to go through so I've been trying to find posts that help students cope with this. Resources. Helpful tips. Is there a tag you can recommend? Any posts that you've encountered/wrote that I could peruse? Thank you very much for any help!

Hey there, thanks for asking. This is actually a very common problem experienced by people as they progress from high school to university. 

The problem is that mediocre study techniques and a combination of natural ability may have gotten you straight As whilst in high school, but it’s just not going to cut it in university. Cracking down on yourself and sitting down for more hours isn’t going to make your grades much better; it’s just doing more of the same mediocre studying. 

So you basically need to read up on good studying techniques and actually apply them to your studies. 

Everything You Need to Cover To Succeed As A Student

I actually have a web directory of all my study tips which already lists all these links.

So because the problem you have at its base is most likely that you’re using high school level techniques to tackle university-level problems, you’ll need to find resources on all areas related to good studying. For some of these areas, I have a related post, but for the more generalised topics like procrastination, I haven’t yet put one out because if I do, I want to be certain that the post will be unique, useful and practical. 

Without further ado, here’s a list of all the tags/areas you should work through and evaluate whether you need to change your current study habits if you want to be a 4.0/HD student at university. 

Firstly, have a read of my recent answer about 20 Things You Can Do To Prepare for University, and click through to any of the parts of my 15-Part University 101 Series. 

Time management

Organisation (see Part 3 Studying and Part 8 Four Secrets from University and Part 11 Adapting to Uni Studying which covers how you can manage university workloads on the whole and specific changes to your studies you should make)

Motivation

Discipline / Staying Focused

Procrastination (see post by @samsstudygram​)

Study Methods (I’ve got one on the Blank Paper Method and the Cornell Method)

Exams (I’ve got a multi-part series in the works)

Study Materials (see Part 2 of my University Series for some tips)

Studying from Textbooks (see Part 12 How To Study From Textbooks in Uni which deals with this specifically)

Self Care (you can see my tag here of my own + useful curated posts)

Spaced Repetition (use Anki!)

Study Space (I have a masterpost with tips here)

Hope that helps! If you have a specific question about any areas then let me know! 

Pizza heaven! Quick and easy! Recipe up on blog: www.studydiaryofamedstudent.wordpress.com

11.19.17

2 more days until break

Music mood: Mili - Miracle Milk

Eukaryotes of microbiology

[17 Dec 2017] (i thought i’d posted but it’s not appearing? ):) so sorry for the lack of original posts all these months! school has been so tough & i’ve just completed my mid-sem assessments & it’s finally my break! can’t wait to unwind and catch up on my sleep ;-;

Schematic of gram positive diplococci (Streptococcus pneumoniae): Note that the diplococci are lancet shaped

Innate Immunity - intro

First line of defence + first to act

A primitive response (exists in animals and some plants)

Non-specialised and without ‘memory’

Consists of:

Physical barriers (eg skin and mucosa//tight junctions, airflow)

Chemical barriers (eg enzymes, lung surfactant, antimicrobals)

Soluble mediators of inflammation (eg cytokines)

Microbal defence (eg commensal competition, secreted antimicrobals)

Cells (eg phagocytes)

Receptors to recognise presence of pathogen/injury - results in inflammation

Soluble Mediators

Complement Proteins

liver-derived 

circulate in serum in inactive form

activated by pathogens during innate response

functions include lysis, chemotaxis and opsonisation

Auxiliary Cells

Mediate inflammation as part of the immune response. The main auxiliary cells involved in the immune response are Basophils, Mast cells and Platelets.

Basophils 

Leukocyte containing granules 

on degranulation release histamine + platelet activating factor

causing increased vascular permeability and smooth muscle contraction

also synthesise and secrete other mediators that control the development of immune system reactions

Mast Cells

Also contain granules 

However they are not circulating cells - found close to blood vessels in all types of tissue especially mucosal and epithelial tissues.

rapidly release inflammatory histamine but this is IgE dependant so not innate

Platelets 

normally function in blood clotting

also release inflammatory mediators

Cytokines and chemokines

Produced by many cells but especially mØ (macrophages), initiate inflammatory response and act on blood vessels 

interferons - antiviral protection

chemokines - recruit cells

interleukines - fever inducing, IL-6 induces acute phase proteins 

IL-1 - encourages leukocytes to migrate to infected/damaged tissue

as does tumour necrosis factor (TNFa)

Acute phase proteins

Liver derived proteins 

plasma concentrations increase (positive acute-phase proteins) or decrease (negative acute-phase proteins) in response to inflammation

called the acute-phase reaction 

triggered by inflammatory cytokines ( IL-1, IL-6, TNFα)

help mediate inflammation ( fever, leukocytosis, increased cortisol, decreased thyroxine, decreased serum iron, etc)

activate complement opsonisation 

Inflammation 

Cells

Cytotoxic Cells

Eosinophils/natural killer cells, cytotoxic T cells

kill target via release of toxic granules 

dendritic cell derived IL-12 helps activate NK cells

Phagocytes

mono-nuclear = long-lived; polynuclear = short-lived

engulf, internalize and destroy 

phagosome forms around microbe

enzyme filled with lysosomes fuses to form phagolysosome

organism is digested

fragments are either ‘presented’ or exocytosed

phagocytosis requires recognition of microbe via receptors for

PAMPs (pathogen associated molecular patterns - eg flagella or capsule) - recognised by toll-like receptors 

activated complement

antibody

The innate immune response primes for the adaptive 

B-cells are primed by activated complement

Th1 cell differentiation needs pro-inflammatory cytokines

Slime mould