Marie+P.

=**__Wkipost #3__-Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (NCL...it will be referred to as this for the rest of this wikipost)**=

NCL, also known as battens disease can affect many people at many different ages but typically begins during childhood. This disease is one of the most common neurogenetic storage diseases and has a prevalence of 1 in 12,500 in some places. Patients with this disease have a shortened life span. This disease not only affects humans, it can affect dogs too.



This is a sample of a moderate ans a severe version of the disease and how it affects the brain

Infantile NCL is an inherited disorder and it affects the nervous system for the most part. This condition begins during infancy and affects children's intellectual and motor disability. The people that have this condition rarely develop the ability to sleep or walk, they often experience muscle twitches, seizures,or vision impairment.Some of the other symptoms are an unusually small head and a progressive loss of nerve cells in the brain. The symptoms will progress as time goes on and children with this disease do not survive past childhood. ==

In this picture, you see a child who looks very weak and is in a wheelchair, this would be the affect of not being able to have any motor control.

**Diagnosis:**
It is important to properly diagnose NCL (or Batten's disease) since there are many different types and this can be done a couple of different ways. It is essential to get prenatal or pre-symptomatic tests done so that you can find out which type it is. To test for the more common forms of Batten's, there is carrier, prenatal and pre-genetic embryo (IVF) testing available.



This is a brain of someone who had NCL during their life.

There are no treatment for this as is, but there are symptoms that may be controlled or reduced with medications. Seizure can be controlled with anti-convulsion medication, and as other problems arise they will be treated accordingly. Physical and occupational therapy are also helpful to allow patients to retain function as long as possible.



This is a brain scan of someone with batten's disease.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CzdRN9llR8 (video link as my widget is not showing up) This video shows the story of a boy's battle with battens

**Other Information:**
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/conditions/C1850451/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/conditions/C0268281/ http://www.bdsra.org/ http://www.nathansbattle.com/

**Sources:**
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/infantile-neuronal-ceroid-lipofuscinosis http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1178391-overview http://www.beeforbattens.org/battens-disease.php http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2013/0211-effective-treatment-for-late-infantile-batten-disease-developed-by-mu-biomarin-researchers/


 * __Wikipost #2-__ Evolution: Darwin's Finches **

During his travels, Darwin discovered many species, one of which was finches, In his travels, Darwin had discovered many species of finch that were all closely related but were still different at the same time. Although he did not it at the time, these birds were very important in his studies. He found these birds on the Galapagos Islands in 1835 and he later found them to be helpful in his principle of natural selection. == = = These are some of the finches that have evolved from a common finch to survive in their environment. Each of these different finches had a common ancestor and as their environments changed, they had to change and evolve as well to continue on their journey of life.

Darwin had noted that up to 13 species of finch had evolved from this common ancestor.



This shows some of the different beak shapes. Some are smaller than others and some are thinner than others. These different beak shapes help them survive in their different environments. They have each evolved in different ways so that they may use their beaks for different foods that each bird would consume depending on what was available to eat at the time.

Every finch that Darwin discovered was a descendant of the common south american mainland. As time went on, they evolved so much as time went on and now look very different than the original finch, having a variety of colors, beak shapes, and sizes.

**The Island:**
Throughout Darwin's travels, he stopped at many places, but one of the places he traveled was the Galapagos Islands. This is where he found his the finches he used to make his famous principle of natural selection, He visited all these islands and discovered different environments on each island. Due to different environments on each island there are different food sources for each bird.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasHAcVNq1E (I don't think my widget is working, here's the link) media type="custom" key="25822110" **For More Information go to the following:** http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/darwins-finches-and-natural-selection-in-the-galapagos http://darwin200.christs.cam.ac.uk/pages/index.php?page_id=g7 http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/08.24/31-finches.html http://www.savegalapagos.org/galapagos/charles-darwin.shtml

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_02.html http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/tis2/index.php/evidence-for-evolution-mainmenu-65/53-darwins-finches.html http://www.livescience.com/32409-whats-so-special-about-darwins-finches.html http://www.terindell.com/asylum/jason/darwin.html

=**__Wikipost #1-__ Genetics: Twins**=

Normally, when you hear the word twins, you would automatically think of two people who share the same birthday or look identical. Today, let’s look a little deeper than that. How do our genetics affect the likelihood of having twins? There are two types of twins, identical twins (monozygotic) and fraternal twins (dizygotic). Although they are both affected by genetics, they are created differently.



In this picture you can see how each twin is created. The identical twins are created when one sperm fertilizes one egg and the fertilized egg, or the ovum splits in two to create twins with the same genetic material. The fraternal twins are created when the woman releases two eggs and one sperm fertilizes each egg. The twins in this case are two genetically unique people, more like siblings, just born at the same time.

Some of the factor that increase your risk of having twins:
Advancing age of the mother: when women get to the ages of 30 and 40, they have increased levels of oestrogen which means that their ovaries are stimulated to produce more than one egg at a time. Number of previous pregnancies: The odds are higher for a woman to conceive twins if she has had a larger number of pregnancies. Heredity: if the woman is a fraternal twin, has already had fraternal twins or has a sibling that has had fraternal twins, she is more likely to conceive fraternal twins. Assisted reproductive techniques: some of these assisted reproductive techniques stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs, and most time the fertility drugs used to do this release more than one egg per ovulation.

Identical twins:


This picture show how identical twins share many things, such as looks, attitudes, fears and many other things.

Even identical twins separated at birth show very similar attitudes, likes, fears, etc. even though they have had very different upbringings. There have been many cases of twins that have been reunited after living very different lifestyles and have learnt many things they share in commonalities.



Although twins have a lot of commonalities, there is still a chance that their upbringing has made them different as shown in this picture. The diet that each girl kept has affected their personal appearance.

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This is the story of two twins who were separated at birth.

Conjoined Twins:
In some cases, there are identical twins that come out conjoined, this is rare and only happens once in 200,000 live births. There is no guarantee that the conjoined twins will survive but some do. This event happens when an ovum does not fully separate, it begins the separation process, but stops before it is completed forming a conjoined fetus



These are some of the ways that twins are conjoined but there are also some twins that come out differently, each case unique.

For more info go to the following:
Questions: [] Caring for Twins: [] Predictions: [] More: [|http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/what-causes-twins.aspx#close]

Sources:
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