destini romero M3A1

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University of Colorado, Boulder *

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1113

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Biology

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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3

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The Case of the Murdered Midwife Part I: The Investigation It’s your first day shadowing a detective, and already it’s been interesting…if you can call the murder of a young woman interesting. You’ve been trying to detach yourself by reading the file, but you have interviews later this morning and you’re nervous. Going back to the file, you jot down some notes on what you know so far. Meleea was a 35-year-old nurse midwife with over ten years’ experience delivering babies both in hospitals, as well as in homes when risk for complications were low. She was healthy; her only medical condition was an allergy to bee stings. The body was discovered by her boyfriend when he came over for a planned dinner. The dinner – spaghetti – was laid out, but no cooking had begun. There was also a plate of cupcakes, with a bite out of only one of them. The boyfriend said Meleea had not mentioned feeling unwell when they spoke earlier in the day. She was, however, tired, and understandably upset about a long birth she had assisted with where a mother had died in childbirth. The medical examiner did not have results yet, so you sketch out some questions you have for the interviewees. 1. Who would you interview, and what would you ask? BOYFRIEND: where were you when Meleea was home? Who made the cupcakes? When did you last hear from her? Have you been fighting lately? COWORKERS OR FRIENDS: how was maleea at work? Has she been acting any different? Were there any other love interests in her life? Did she seem happy? Who would want her dead? FAMILY: What was your relationship with her? Did she say she had any concerns about someone? Has she mentioned someone making her feel weird in the past? 2. Do you have any hypotheses about what happened to Meleea? Write at least one or two possibilities. I am curious on if she somehow choked on the cupcake she bit, maybe went down the wrong way and she couldn’t get water or cough it up alone. I am also wondering if there was an unknown food allergy that might’ve caused her death. Part II: The Medical Examiner’s Report You now have the medical examiner’s (ME) report. The ME believes she died of asphyxiation. You read that there were no marks on the body, including bee stings. She was healthy, but tissue analysis showed some bizarre results. There was tissue death, but not only that, microscopic analysis showed mitochondrial damage. In addition, there were high levels of oxygen in all tissues examined. 1. Based on the above, what cellular process might have been interrupted? Support your answer with the information above and knowledge gained in
this module. Cite sources using APA Style. The cellular process that would’ve been affected is cellular respiration, this will cause the cells to not be able to function due to the blockage of oxygen. 2. Are there any conflicting pieces of information in the above? If so, what are they? How could she have died from asphyxiation if she had oxygen in the tissues. If there was lack of oxygen, the tissues would be dead and the cells would’ve not been able to function properly resulting in death. Part III: Analysis of Metabolites The ME’s report also has a note at the end. She suspects poisoning based on the below results. Metabolite Level Compared to Normal (High, Normal, or Low) Oxygen High NADH High NAD+ Low Pyruvate Normal Glucose Normal Acetyl CoA Normal ATP Low ADP High 1. What is the role of each of the above metabolites in cellular respiration? OXYGEN: Has high energy electrons after they get taken from glucose NADH: carrier derived from Vitamin b3 and Niacin. NAD+:Carrier that has the oxidized form and can accept electrons PYRUVATE: end product of glycolysis GLUCOSE: used to make energy ACETYL COA: carries carbon atoms from the acetyl group to the Tca cycle and helps with energy ATP: energy currency for cells and stores energy ADP: formed when the phosphate groups of atp are lost, its converted to atp. 2. Which of the above are abnormal? Which are normal? Its abnormal for high levels of oxygen, NADH, ADP, low is NAD+ and ATP. Normal is pyruvate, glucose, and acetyl coa 3. Based on your answers to the first two questions, what part of cellular respiration do you believe was interrupted? I think it was the citric acid cycle that was interrupted due to the ATP being low which means that none of the other functions were not happening. The levels are high due to the oxidative stage and low because it needs to remove electrons causing the citric acid cycle to fail.
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