Backroads of Oregon

Unfortunately I did NOT remember the camera today, but I promise to bicycle these roads again and post some pics because what I saw is just too pretty for words. Andrea found the route on "map my ride" and I jotted it down this morning before riding with her to school. The area around Hillsboro and Forest Grove supports a slew of ag operations, from CSAs to vineyards, hazelnut groves, and rose gardens. Best of all, these are nestled between Mt. Hood on one side and the Coastal Range on the other. It's really picturesque, and it reminds me a bit of the roads I cycled in Provence (minus the cool Roman fountains and such, of course).

Fun with PowerPoint

Our teachers do try to avoid death by powerpoint...but some afternoons we definitely look like this:

My favorite quotes of the day from Dr. Pedemonte (Prof. teaching our physiology primer):

1) "It's a little wing of bat and eye of newt" - when describing treatments for pulmonary problems

2) "I can tell you when you don't want to say oops....is when you're suturing someone's face"

Animals!

I was working in the "Great Northwest" exhibit this morning at the zoo when I came across this goat doing its goat thing and being all cute. Check it out:

Speaking of cute...Last week Andrea took a shakey-cam video of the Chi out on our balcony. We planted grass for her in a little pot (she needs to graze daily). Awwww...

Baseball game at PGE Park: Beavers vs Grizzlies

Andrea and I went to see a minor-league baseball game at PGE Park in Portland on Friday with a couple of her classmates from Pacific. The Portland Beavers played Fresno's Grizzlies. It was a balmy evening with not a cloud to be seen in the sky. The concessions stands had a "dollar dog" special so we grabbed a couple and found our seats. The stadium was pretty empty when we arrived (the Beavers are playing their last season: PGE Park is in the process of changing into a soccer stadium). The night kicked off with a cheerleader performance by the Aloha Warriors (local high school) and comic posturing from the Beaver mascot. Then a local talent performed the national anthem beautifully. It gave me goosebumps!

PGE Park baseball (sent from Andrea's phone)

I guess the Beavers are known for being "the losing-est team in the minors" and they didn't let us down... By the 7th they were down 4 runs and it was getting late so we left. Still, it was my first experience seeing a game and I think it was magical! We would've stayed, but I had to work Saturday...

Strafed by a robin

As you know, I ride my bike to school every day. I do so for several reasons:

1) good exercise

2) it's a nice way to wake up in the morning

3) it's faster for me than taking the MAX

There are several things to be aware of to stay safe. Such as:

1) always watch out for sharp objects in the bike lane

2) wear high visibility clothing so that all the cars know you are there

3) garbage trucks can be problematic since they have to stop in the bike lane in order to do their thing

4) (this may be the most important) ALWAYS assume that a school bus is going to do something stupid right in front of you

Keeping these things in mind ensures that I arrive safe and sound at the health professions campus every morning.

Enter the robin....

"Do I look dangerous?"

Definition of a particular robin's flying style from wikipedia: "strafing is the practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft". Here I was riding along minding my own business when a robin almost flew directly into my head. And so I'm then thinking - what about the high-vis jacket, backpack, helmet? Certainly it saw me, I am very hard to miss....hmmm. Planned attack? Perhaps.

The week of Physiology

It's been a busy week in the PA school world. We had our first big exam this past Friday (yes, I passed) and I pretty much spent every waking minute studying physiology. The only way I can think of describing it is learning a semester's worth of material in 2 weeks and then taking a cumulative final. Plus doing homework and studying for other classes...hmmm. To aid in my understanding and memorization I found a physiology coloring book! It is very helpful when my brain is full and I still feel compelled to study. Kadie likes it because we can carry on a conversation whilst I am coloring.

some of these diagrams really saved my bacon on the test

Next week looks like this: start a new 2 week phys unit, trip to the Portland Art Museum for an exercise in observational skills, write-up several SOAP notes for clinical history class, do a bunch of homework in Evidence Based Medicine, and I have a shadowing rotation at the Essential Health Clinic one evening after school. Ya!

I have now been in school for one month, and I have to say that I definitely picked the best program! My teachers are amazingly dedicated. They stay late and take time out of their day when we have questions. It is simply a wonderful program.

More elephant pics

Charismatic MEGA-fauna

What's more MEGA than an Asian Elephant? What could be more charismatic than a pygmy version of the aforementioned Asian Elephant who gently lifts a banana from your hand and gracefully lies down for her bath to let you scrub her back? And by "you" I mean me. That's right, Naturalists went behind the scenes at the zoo today at the elephant exhibit and got to feed, caress, and bathe Chendra, a female Asian Elephant from Borneo!

Chendra let all the Naturalists scrub her down, then we fed her bananas!

Keeping out the Cuckoos

The nefarious Deiderick Cuckoo

Southern Masked Weaver with nest

Really, when you think about the animal world, there are no "villains" or "heroes". Animals do what they need to do to survive. Sometimes (think hyena) that means stealing food, killing other animals, or (as in the cuckoo's case) making someone else raise their young. I don't think it's possible to be entirely impartial in some of these cases, personally. So, let me lay before you the case of the piratical cuckoo and the ridiculously skillful Southern Masked Weaver and you tell me what you think:

The masked weaver bird, a resident of Africa, is in the Finch family. Its bill, sort of like a Leatherman, can be used for many things: cracking open seeds, catching bugs, cutting through tough-skinned fruits, and...you guessed it, weaving! The male weaver bird uses soft, pliable grasses or leaves to build an elaborate spherical nest with an underside entrance. First, he strips all the leaves off a branch so snakes can't sneak up on him. Then, he starts by weaving a circle. Next he works downward to create the proper shape. Finally, the male hangs below the nest and sings to attract females.

Females get to pick and choose among a throng of potential mates, inspecting the quality of each one's work before they commit. If the female approves she "furnishes" the nest, lining it with soft feathers and grasses and just tweaking the fung shui, adding that special "je ne sais quoi". She will then mate with the chosen builder, and raise the family alone. (The male, after mating, immediately sets out to build another nest and troll for more females, leaving her to attend to the details of parenting.)

Why would a bird use precious time and energy to build such an elaborate nest?
Enter stage left, the Deiderick CUCKOO (evil entrance tune: dun dun duuuuunnnnnn!)
As a "nest parasite" the Cuckoo would love to lay its eggs in some unsuspecting weaver's nest. Then, after the cuckoo babies hatch, they push the weaver's chicks out of the nest (infanticide! oh, ahem...I mean they're narrowing the competition for resources...) and start crying loudly for food, which the weavers will exhaust themselves to bring for the growing monster, or uh fledgling.

Ya ya, the cuckoos are just doing their thing.

Fortunately, weavers are not entirely defenseless! They build their intricate woven homes with entrance holes just small enough to deter cuckoos. Some even add long entrance tubes to stop the cuckoos from sneaking in. Eggshell pigments may also be a means for weavers to pick out foreign eggs: because egg colors vary from female to female among weavers, cuckoos' eggs usually don't match weavers' and the weavers will evict the eggs they don't recognize. (Why they don't know their own chicks is another story...)

Golden Dart Frog or cool things you learn in PA school

Golden Dart Frog - no, this is not a photo from the Oregon Zoo...

The other night as I was studying something, I think cell physiology, Kadie read this story about the golden dart frog -

Go to here to read a funny story: http://animalreview.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/golden-dart-frog/

Long story short, she was laughing so hard she almost fell out of her chair. I started to read the story and immediately saw the potential for a study aid. We started and finished cell physiology last Friday and today went through a semester of muscle physiology in 3 hours! It is an extremely fast pace, but I find it easier to understand and remember how everything works if say, I can relate it to a neurotoxin from a frog. The way this neurotoxin works (again this is simplified for the non-science major peeps) is that it disrupts sodium gated channels in cells. The cell backstory: all cells tightly control their internal environment. In order to function properly, cells control how much of certain ions are on the inside (eg: sodium, potassium etc). The sodium ion is important in regulating membrane potential, depolarization of which is how cells propagate action potentials (allowing a muscle cell to contract). Back to the neurotoxin: by disrupting the sodium channels the cells can no longer propagate action potentials to their neighbors and effectively become paralyzed. This is bad. So, if your muscle cells become paralyzed you stop breathing. Period.

PA school is sooooo cool.

More on the African Painted Dog

Ok. Big ears, patchy colored, big teeth: there's some resemblance...
Spotted Hyena (above) compared with Painted Dog (below)

In my recon around the painted dog exhibit, I've noticed that many people hurry through without reading the signs, point at the dogs and say "Look, hyenas!" and move on after maybe snapping a photo or two with Jr. in front of the dogs.

Is it really important for people to know which animal is what? Yes, it turns out that education is part of conservation! And we're talking about the differences between a critically endangered species (painted dogs) and one that's doing just fine (hyenas). NOTE: in Africa where these species share territory with each other and with humans, many people blame the dogs for killing livestock when most livestock losses are actually due to hyenas! More on that later...

I'm going to cover a few of the many ways these species differ. First of all, even though they might look similar at first glance, hyenas are more closely related to the cat family than canines. When you compare their coats between photos, you see the hyena's coat is tan with black spots, while the painted dogs have a patchy pattern (unique to each individual) of tan, white, black, and brown. Hyenas are also MUCH bigger! They stand about 3ft tall at the shoulder and weigh from 110-190 lbs, while the dogs are only about 2ft tall and weigh about as much as a healthy lab retriever (35-80 lbs). Hyenas have short, bushy tails. Dogs have longer tails, tipped in white.

Aside from physical differences, they also have very different social dynamics. Female hyenas are larger than males, and they lead the pack. Female dogs are smaller than males, and packs are led by an alpha (dominant) pair. The alpha dogs breed, and other pack members help care for the young, bringing food for mother and pups and watching the little rascals while mama gets a break once in a while. When prey is killed, the pack allows the youngest to eat first, then older members get a turn (if there's food left over). It's a very cooperative style of raising young. Hyenas are more competitive: every female of breeding age is liable to breed in a pack, and when a kill is made it's "every hyena for itself".

Painted dogs are great hunters (see previous post), so they only need to spend about 3 1/2 hours a day at it. But hyenas compete with the dogs for the same foods, and are not above thieving a hard-earned meal. Because of the dog's tight social bonds and "stand together" behavior, they are often successful at driving off hyenas that try to steal their food. However, if there are more than 4 hyenas trying to snatch their lunch, the odds are against the dogs.

As I mentioned earlier, painted dogs are critically endangered: there are fewer than 5,000 left in the wild and their habitat is being whittled down and divided up as people expand their activities. Groups like Painted Dog Conservation have been working with local landowners in Africa to dispel some of the myths around these animals, providing classroom education as well as camps for kids. Zoos assist in efforts to save endangered species by contributing resources to organizations like this, maintaining the genetic reservoir in captive animals, and spreading info to the public.

If you want to learn more about Painted Dogs, check out this really neat book: Running Wild: Dispelling the Myths of the African Wild Dog, by J. McNutt and L. Boggs

Zoo Week 2

Painted dogs are among the most successful hunters in the Serengeti: they get 75-80% of whatever they decide to chase. Compare that with lions, who only catch what they try for about 15% of the time. The key is teamwork: painted dogs hunt in packs, relay-style, wearing out their prey over long distances. They are amazing long-distance athletes who can also do shorter burst of up to 37 mph. Plus, they are cute.

African Painted Dog

During week 2, we Naturalists (there are now 6 of us) have been researching and writing thematic talks, looking for visual aids and trying to come up with fun, hands-on learning tools. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will get radios and learn how to use them. Ho boy!

On the way through the zoo today I had time to snap a few photos. Enjoy!

How many zebras are in this photo?

Gerenuk: "I am watching you with my prey eye."

Gerenuk are funny African grazers that get up on their hind legs and reach the leaves just below giraffe height when browsing. They weren't showing off today, though.

If I was a goat....I'd want to hang out on top of a barrel. Ya.

genetics, genetics, and more genetics!

Here we go....week 2 of PA school! This week is all about genetics. Yesterday morning was our primer, where we reviewed many of the genetic concepts that we learned in undergrad science classes. By the afternoon we were moving ahead into uncharted territory. We drew out some pedigrees (diagrams of relatives and their associated illnesses) from true case studies. My favorite was the pedigree for the blue people from Kentucky. It becomes a bit awkward when you have to connect a consanguineous relationship (hooking up with a close relative) between different generations. The people really were blue... The case demonstrated inheritance of a recessive gene. Example (just to clarify - the details are somewhat made up for simplification, but you will get the general idea): you are blue and you marry someone who is not blue. You then have some kids, lets say 7, and 4 are blue. Now, some of your blue kids marry some non-blue relatives and they have non-blue kids, but the kids are carriers of the gene that causes blueness (technically they are carriers of the allele - a different version of the gene - that causes a variation in a particular enzyme that affects the blue trait to be expressed, blah, blah, blah). Your non-blue grandkid marries a non-blue other person (who is probably related somehow, but maybe not) and whabam!! Your great-grandkid turns out to be blue. See how fun this is?

More genetics - The zorse! and no, this is not from the Oregon ZOO...

Basil Tree and Bushtit

Pesto is in order, I think.

Bushtit: it's not a bad word.

Naturalist Notes: Week One

It's been a busy week! I'm in basic ZOO training for the first 2 weeks: meeting everyone, learning my way around, reading up on all the animals, prepping talks and meeting the zookeepers for each section. On Wednesday we all got to go meet keepers and see animals behind the scenes. I forgot the camera but next week I'll have another chance when we tour the "Predators of the Serengeti", and the "Bears" exhibits with keepers. Meanwhile, here are a couple pics from yesterday:

Nothing like a good head scratching first thing in the morning

(Amur Leopard)

Saturday: the first day the sun's been out since I started.

Giraffes don't like the cold/wet.

Each Naturalist chooses 4 different topics (one from each zone in the zoo) and writes up a program to give. We have access to all kinds of neat props: pelts, skulls, posters, craft materials, etc. I'm starting with Gray Wolves, African Painted Dogs, Weaver Birds, and Amur Tigers as topics and trying to come up with themes for each. It's fun learning about all these beautiful critters!

Themes might be:

• Hyena or Painted Dog? They might look similar at first glance, but they're really very different.
• The Amur Tiger is the biggest cat and it faces some big challenges.

I love getting to walk around with the more experienced Interpretive staff, because they have so many neat stories about the animals. Yesterday in the Asian Elephant exhibit Charis (the head of the ed. dept. and a 25 yr veteran at the ZOO) was showing us the jaw bone of an elephant--I didn't realize they only have 4 teeth at a time! Each tooth is about a foot long and weighs about 10 lbs. Imagine being a dentist for an elephant... Speaking of which, there is an awesome video at the zoo website of Tusko (male elephant) getting worked on. He had a vertical fracture in his tusk and they had to do an extraction. Now THAT is a drill!

First day of class and a Monday cooking extravaganza

Today was the highly anticipated first day of PA school! In a way it is a big relief to be starting classes, although having to take the first assessment this Friday is a bit scary. One of the professors gave each of us the book "Ten Years of Medicine and the Arts; 100 selections from Academic Medicine". The book contains essays regarding the art of medicine. Very cool. There will also be a field trip to the Portland Art Museum in July to learn better observation skills. We have been fitted for our white coats and received a groovy medical kit:

Contents:

a blood pressure kit, a 3M Cardiology III stethoscope, an otoscope/ophthalmoscope set, two tuning forks, a percussion hammer, ECG calipers, goniometer, eye chart, pen light, tape measure, and some other stuff that I do not recognize...

All these things plus the equipment bag!

Today was also Kadie's first day of work (more on that later, preview: they have meerkats and hippos are really big) so we spent much of yesterday cooking up a storm. Here are some pics:

Pepperoni pizza with basil

Sri Lankan sweet potatoes w/cardamom and chiles

Veggie soup stock