Dilution and Absorbance of Blue Dextran, Heart Rate - Lab Report Example

Report Lab Student’s Name Course code and name Instructor’s name Learning Institution City, State Date of submission Part A Title: Dilution and absorbance of Blue Dextran Introduction Blue Dextran is due used commonly during biomedical practical activities (Berenson, 2011). In this experiment serial dilutions were obtained and the absorbance of these dilutions was performed using a spectrophotometer and a microtitre reader. Methods The experiment involved the use of 24 test tubes to which 2ml of purified water was added while a series of double dilutions from ½ to 1/128 were performed. 1% Blue Dextran was added to the first test tube in each series. In other consecutive wells in row B 100µl of each ¼ dilution was used. The process was continued until row H was reached. The absorbance of the wells in microtitre was examined using a microtitre plate reader. The 630nm filter was selected before reading the dilution series. Spectrophotometer was used to record the wavelengths of the colors generated by various solutions and the results were recorded. Graphs were plotted to show changes in absorbance rates. Results From the results of spectrophotometer, the following wavelengths were obtained for various solutions: A 1.817, B 1.013, C 0.488, D 0.286, E 0.181, F 0.124, G 0.093 and H 0.061. These results were graphically presented as shown below. Figure 1. wavelengths of various solutions of Blue Dextran The results were used to construct graphs of absorbance versus wave length for Dextran solution. It was found that absorption was lower for solutions with lower wavelengths and higher for solutions with higher wavelengths but above a wavelength of 650nm, there was a drop in absorption rate. When an extinction coefficient plot of absorbance at 630nm versus concentration, c (g ml-1) was drawn, a straight line was obtained. Discussion and Conclusion The above experiment shows that the absorption n of Blue Dextran is low at lower wavelengths and high at higher wavelengths but the maximum wavelength of high absorption is 630nm. Below this wavelength, the absorption rate is lower. The limitation of the experiment is that there may be errors during the process of taking readings using the spectrometer which can have an impact on the accuracy and precision of the outcome of the experiment (Winnick & Short, 2014). Part B Title: Heart rate and body characteristic relationship Abstract The problem investigated is whether there is a relationship between heart rate and body characteristics such as age, BMI and percentage fats in the body. This is because there has been the need to understand when the level of heart rate should be elevated and when it should be diminished while performing exercises. The study involved measuring body characteristics and coming up with a correlation between these characteristics and heart rates. The most important result was the correlation between these characteristics and heart rates which resulted into acceptance and rejection of hypotheses related to the research question. Introduction Heart functions have been associated with a number of factors. For instance, it has been associated with the energy requirements of the body and the level of activities a person takes part in. this is because the rate of heart beat increases when there is the need for energy in various parts of the body and reduces when there is low energy demand in various parts of the body (Freeman, Garite, Nageotte & Miller, 2012). It has been necessary to determine the relationship between heart rate and other characteristics of the body. This has resulted into an experiment in which various body characteristics were used to determine this relationship. In this study, an experiment was conducted to determine the relationship between heart rate or exercise level and body characteristics such as: % fats in the body and basal metabolic rate (BMI). The results of the experiments were analyzed and discussed. Through correlation analysis, it was found that there is a relationship between heart rate and characteristics such as Body fat Percentage, body Weight, Age and BMI. Aims and the Research Question This experiment was aimed at finding the impacts of body characteristics such as age, BMI and percentage fat on heart rate. The research question was: is there a relationship between heart rate and body characteristics? Hypothesis: There is a positive correlation between heart rate and age, BMI and percentage fats in the body. Methods The study involved measuring body characteristics such as age, weight, height and percentage fats in the body and finding the relationship with heart rate. During the study, 53 students were involved. The body characteristics that were measured included age, body weight, body height, body mass index (BMI), percentage fat in the body and HR Index. During the process of measuring body mass index, the formula BMI= body mass (kg)/height (m2) was used. During the process of measuring percentage fat in the body, skinfolds at triceps and subscapular locations was used. For young women, the formula used was: body fat % = 0.55Tricepts + 0.31 subscapular + 6.13. In order to find the percentage fats for men, the formula: Body fat % =0.43 tricepts + 0.58 subscapular + 1.47 was used (Walters & Byl, 2008). Response to heart rate was measured by subjecting the participants to warm up exercise at a workload of 100watts on a Monark ergometer. Heart rate was measured by checking wrist or arteries in the neck at rest, end of exercise and 1 minute after the exercise. Heart function index (HFI) was calculated using the formula HFI = (resting HR + end exercise HR + recovery HR at 1 min -200) /10. The data was entered into an excel file and various characteristics such as descriptive statistics and correlations calculated. Descriptive characteristics of these variables such as mean and standard deviation were measured and recorded. This was followed by computing Pearson correlation between these variables and the results were presented and discussed. Finally, a conclusion was made with regards to the research questions. Results The descriptive statistic of the participants showed that the mean age was 24.7 and SD 8.0, the mean body weight was 70.8 and SD 12.2, the mean body height was 1.7m and SD 0.1, the mean BMI was 23.4 and SD 3.2, the mean % fat was 16.8 and SD 5.8 and finally the mean HR Index was 12.4 and SD 3.9. these results are summarized in the table below.   Age BW BH BMI Body Fat % HR Index Mean 24.7 70.8 1.7 23.4 16.8 12.4 SD 8.0 12.2 0.1 3.2 5.9 3.9 Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of participants Pearson correlations between variables was calculated and it was found that there was a positive correlation between most variables except the correlation between heart rate and BMI, heart rate and Age, heart rate and body weight which showed negative correlations. These results are summarized in the table below. % Body fat Heart rate BMI Age Body weight % Body fat 1 .372** .459** .004 .213 Heart rate .372 1 -.050 -.251 -.145 BMI .459 .459** 1 .155 .837** Age .004 -.251 .155 1 .156 Body weight .213 -.145 .837** .156 1 Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2 tailed). Table 2. Pearson correlation among variables Discussion and Conclusion When age was compared with heart rate, it was found that there was a negative correlation of -.251. This implies that the older a person is, the lower the heart rate. This is based on the fact that older people are less likely to take part in activities that involve the expenditure of energy compared with the younger people (Hjemdahl, Steptoe & Rosengren, 2011). Consequently, their heart rate is lower compared with the heart rates for younger people (Bonate, 2011). When body weight was compared with heart rate, it was found that there was a negative correlation between body weight and heart rate of -.145. This implies that people with high values of body weights have low heart rates compared with people who have low body weights (Mama, 2009). This is because people who have high body weights are less likely to take part in activities that results into expenditure of energy compared with those of low weight (Kraemer, Fleck & Deschenes, 2011). Consequently, their energy demand is low which results into low heart rate. There was also a positive correlations between BMI and hear rate. This implies that people who have high BMI are more likely to have high heart rates compared with those who have low BMI (Safar, Levy & Struijker-Boudier, 2003 ). This is based on the fact that those who have high BMI require additional energy to supply in the body to facilitate physiological processes compared with those who have low BMI (Macfarlane et al., 2010). Another inference that can be made from the study is that there was a positive correlation between percentage body fat and heart rate. This implies that people who have high body fats content are likely to have a high heart rate compared with people who have low percentage body fats contents (McArdle & Katch, 2009). Thus, it can be concluded that heart rate is influenced by age, BMI, % fat in the body and body weight (Physical Best & National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2011). These results into the recommendation that heart rate should be controlled by ensuring it is not subjected to conditions which results into high activity (Steptoe, Freedland, Poole & Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, 2010). This is because; it can be subjected to heart failure as a result of fatigue which can result into destructive outcome to the affected person (Summerfield, 2011). Therefore, it is recommended that in order to take care of one’s heart, the weight should be regulated, percentage fats in the body should be kept to a minimum and BMI should also be maintained to a low value Goroll, A. H., & Mulley, A. G. (2009). References Berenson, G. S. (2011). Evolution of cardio-metabolic risk from birth to middle age: The bogalusa heart study. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1451-9 Bonate, P. L. (2011). Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling and simulation. Springer Science + Business Media. Retrieved from http://download.springer.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/static/pdf/450/bok%253A978-1-4419-9485-1.pdf?auth66=1413380662_52aa2979791b0d0b454a3aab5e069e56&ext=.pdf Freeman, R. K., Garite, T. J., Nageotte, M. P., & Miller, L. A. (2012). Fetal heart rate monitoring. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=c3wylMlV-QEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=Fetal+heart+rate+monitoring&ots=PJf5Q-5cdR&sig=DQZRWhA4tZiwcesQVP0fAIx5uK8#v=onepage&q=Fetal%20heart%20rate%20monitoring&f=false Goroll, A. H., & Mulley, A. G. (2009). Primary care medicine: Office evaluation and management of the adult patient. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Hjemdahl, P., Steptoe, A., & Rosengren, A. (2011). Stress and cardiovascular disease. Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag London Limited. Retrieved from http://reader.eblib.com.au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/(S(5tsk3h4xm3vta04p5hpvheob))/Reader.aspx?p=884451&o=96&u=Y%2bI6XM1ClDdqPeGUzkTKgQ%3d%3d&t=1413380213&h=FCCDE23733ED880ED1E67DF556BB8942E1C78398&s=15982880&ut=245&pg=1&r=img&c=-1&pat=n&cms=-1&sd=1 Safar, M. E., Levy, B. I., & Struijker-Boudier, H. (2003). Current perspectives on arterial stiffness and pulse pressure in hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Circulation, 107(22), 2864-2869. Steptoe, A., Freedland, K. E., Poole, L., & Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (U.S.). (2010). Handbook of behavioral medicine: Methods and applications. New York: Springer. Kraemer, W. J., Fleck, S. J., & Deschenes, M. R. (2011). Exercise physiology: integrating theory and application. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RWP3JQfvHGEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=Exercise+physiology:+Integrated+from+theory+to+practical+application&ots=6hxp1amWr_&sig=zObEKZ7__vHcGMK24GTvpBVT5iU#v=onepage&q=Exercise%20physiology%3A%20Integrated%20from%20theory%20to%20practical%20application&f=false Macfarlane, P. W., van Oosterom, A., Pahlm, O., Kligfield, P., Janse, M., & Camm, J. (2010). Comprehensive electrocardiology. London: Springer. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ls4NYZ2_eRIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=Comprehensive+electrocardiology&ots=K7qJ-nrN_V&sig=d06v1n_ApSd08ELamTG_uUjs1yc#v=onepage&q=Comprehensive%20electrocardiology&f=false Mama, S. K. (2009). The relationship between body image and physical activity in african american women. ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. McArdle, W. D., & Katch, F. I. (2009). Exercise physiology: Nutrition, energy and human performance. Philadelphia, Pa; London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Physical Best (Program), & National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2011). Physical education for lifelong fitness: The physical best teacher's guide. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Steptoe, A., & Freedland, K. E. (2010). Handbook of behavioral medicine: Methods and applications. New York: Springer. Summerfield, L. (2011). Nutrition, exercise, and behavior: an integrated approach to weight management. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9VsKAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR4&dq=Nutrition,+exercise,+and+behavior:+An+integrated+approach+to+weight+&ots=8M83lVMnF1&sig=sIW2JeT7dw9whd5pN3u7MLesgr0#v=onepage&q=Nutrition%2C%20exercise%2C%20and%20behavior%3A%20An%20integrated%20approach%20to%20weight&f=false Walters, P., & Byl, J. (2008). Christian paths to health and wellness. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Winnick J. P., & Short, F. X. (2014). Brockport physical fitness test manual: A health-related assessment for youngsters with disabilities. Read More