CSB#8- Heart Rate with Different Exercises by Lekha Chirala and Sriram Somasundaram

     We are testing the heart rate after 30 jumping jacks, 20 pushups, 35 sit-ups. The control is the heart rate while the person is just sitting and has not done any exercise. Question: Which exercise increases the heart rate the most? Hypothesis: If heart rate is tested after 30 jumping jacks, 20 pushups, and 35 sit-ups, then jumping jacks will raise the heart rate the highest. By finding this kind of exercise we can tell which type gets your body running. This could be useful in warmups. We can test our question because exercise increases heart rate. Heart rate is related to physiology because it is the speed at which blood gets pumped through the heart. Physiology is the function of living systems and the heart is a function, therefore, heart rate is related to physiology.

      The materials we used were the Vernier hand-grip heart rate monitor to record the heart rate of the test subject (in BPM or beats per minute), logger pro to serve as an interface to record the values from the heart rate monitor, a go link to connect the heart rate monitor with the laptop, a test subject to complete the different exercises and then be tested for their heart rate, and a laptop to show the values collected from the heart rate monitor.

     After the test subject completed a type of exercise, and then we would record their heart rate using logger pro and the hand-grip heart rate monitor. We made them wait for about three minutes before doing the next task, so that their heart rate would return to normal.

     The type of exercise (pushups, jumping jacks, and situps) was the independent variable and the dependent variable was the heart rate. The control experiment was testing the heart rate after doing no exercise. Overall, jumping jacks brought the heart rate up the highest, which was 135 BPM (beats per minute) followed by the pushups with 127 BPM, situps with 121 BPM, and control heart rate with no exercise with 79 BPM. Our data shows that jumping jacks rose the heart rate up the highest (135 BPM). This is because jumping jacks require movement from lost of body parts, which requires lots of oxygen and energy. To transport oxygen and energy to cells the body uses blood. If tissues and muscles need more oxygen and energy, then blood needs to arrive faster or in other words the blood flow needs to be rapid. To increase the blood flow the heart needs to pump blood faster, and that is why the heart rate or the pumping rate is faster in exercise. Jumping jacks require the most movement, whereas pushups and situps are focused on certain parts of the body and do not require as much energy to actually jump, so it increases the heart rate the most. Our hypothesis was that 30 jumping jacks would raise the heart rate the most, and our hypothesis is supported by our data and graphs.



Data and Graphs: The pictures are an example of the graphs of one test subject.

Average heart rate after 30 jumping jacks – 135 BPM

Average heart rate after 20 pushups - 127 BPM

Average heart rate after 35 situps - 121 BPM

Average normal heart rate - 79 BPM

People involved in this experiment were Steven Wang, Sophia Shatus, Eric Yu, and Sriram Somasundaram.

CSB#7 - Synthetic Blood Transfusion Saves a Life

Until an incident that occurred in Australia, blood substitutes have been utterly ineffective. The reason for blood substitues is that sometimes the exact blood type is not available to the patient, but substitutes cover all blood types. Additionally, in certain places where cold storage is not available blood substitutes are a really feasible option. Tamara Coakley landed at a hospital in Melbourne in a very harmful state. She had been hit by a car and had a fractured skull, collapsed lungs, and a damaged spinal cord along with other traumatic injuries. Additionally, she had lost tremendous amounts of blood and could not send oxygen effectively to her tissues. On top of that, Coakley's religion prevented blood transfusions, however, synthetics were allowed. HBOC201, "a hemoglobin-based oxygen-carrying synthetic containing a molecule derived from cow plasma" was administered into Coakley's body. Coakley survived with the synthetic blood transfusion against all odds. HBOC201 does not need cross-matching (blood compatibility) or storage in cold temperatures, and it will not expire for up to three years.
This could be a feasible option for blood loss patients in third world countries or on the battlefield. These places cannot get the required blood (the right type) in time to save the patients, but synthetic blood covers all blood types. Many hospitals that are far away from blood banks also have similar problems as they cannot find blood with the same type as the patient. This synthetic blood, which can be used for all blood types, solves that dilemma. Synthetic blood transfusion needs way more research than just one success, but Coakley's result is a huge breakthrough in the alternative blood field. I believe that more research in this field will prove to be very beneficial in the future. Some questions that I have are if HBOC201 has any side effects and if it can be mass produced effectively.

Citation:
Dillow, Clay. "Transfusion of Synthetic Blood Saves Woman's Life." Popular Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2011. .