Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Finishing up the semester

Looking back at the semester I have mixed feelings. For one i feel bad because i didn't give my best in my academics and i wasted so much time. I could have done so much better.
But then again i am thankful because this experience made me humble. If i were an A student this semester, I might have been very conceited. I might have not gotten so close to the teachers because i wouldn't have gone to see them. Overall I would say this semester was in a sense a blessing to me. Man can not see only the physical gains that one can get but he has to also be able to see other gains as well.
This semester I was able to see how God works through people and despite my shortcoming he fills in for what i lack.
However, I have to learn from this experience and give my best next semester. This way i won't be a fool. For a fool does not learn from his mistakes.
-I need to gain good study habits
-make plans and follow them
-have friends hold me accountable to what I have planned to do.

These are some of the things that i need to do in order not to repeat the mistakes i have done this semester.

dictionary

ampulla - Latin, "flask." The segment of the mammalian oviduct, distal to the uterus and near the ovary, where fertilization takes place.

chorion - An extraembryonic membrane essential for gas exchange in amniote embryos. It is generated from trophoblast and extraembryonic mesoderm (somatopleure). The chorion adheres to the shell in birds and reptiles, allowing them the exchange of gases between the egg and the environment. It forms the embryonic/ fetal portion of the placenta in mammals.

decidua - The maternal portion of the placenta, made from the endometrium of the uterus.

morula - Latin, "mulberry." Vertegrate embryo of 16-64 cells;, precedes the blastula or blastocyst stage. Mammalian morula occurs at the 16-cell stage, consists of a small group of internal cells (the inner cell mass) surrounded by a larger group of external (tropoblast) cells.

nodal vesicuar parcels (NVPs) - Small, membrane-bound particles in the mammalian embryo that contain sonic hedgehog protein and retinoic acid. Secreted from the node cells under the influence of FGF signals, Ciliary flow carries the NVPs to the left side of the body, delivering paracrine factors for the establishment of left-right asymmetry.

paralogues - Each member of a gene family, which is homologous to the others (that is, their sequence similarities are due to descent from a common ancestor and are not the result of convergence for a particular function).

progenitor cells - Relatively undifferentiated cells that have the capacity to divide a few times before differentiating and, unlike stem cells, are not capable of unlimited self-renewal. They are sometimes called transitamplifying cells, since they divide while migrating. Both unipotent stem cells and progenitor cells have been called lineage-restricted cells, but progenitor cells are usually more differentiated than stem cells.

rhombomeres - Periodic swellings that divide the rhombencephalon into smaller compartments, ech with a different fate and different associated cranial nerve ganglia.

spina bifida - A congenital defect resulting from failure to close the posterior neuropore, the severity of which depends on how much of the spinal cord remains exposed.

trophoblast - The external cells of the early mammalian embryo (i.e., the morula and the blastocyst) that bind to the uterus. Trophoblast cells form the chorion (the embryonic portion of the placenta). Also called trophectoderm.


Reference:
Definitions from : Developmental Biology Ninth Edition by Scott F. Gilbert