BME100 s2014:T Group13 L1

BME 100 Fall 2013	Home People Lab Write-Up 1 | Lab Write-Up 2 | Lab Write-Up 3 Lab Write-Up 4 | Lab Write-Up 5 | Lab Write-Up 6 Course Logistics For Instructors Photos Wiki Editing Help
OUR TEAM Name: Avery A. Witting Name: Sarah Jane McBryan Name: Mikaela S. Hall Name: Daniel K. Saunders LAB 1 WRITE-UP Independent and Dependent Variables The independent variable is lipopolysaccharide (LPS) dosage because we are changing the amount of milligrams for each group. The dependent variable is the inflammatory protein Inflammotin as measured by ELISA because that is the physiological feature we want to affect. Experimental Design Groups Our experiment will consist of 6 groups. One group will be a control, which will receive a placebo instead of LPS. The five experimental groups will receive varying levels of LPS: 2 mg, 4 mg, 6 mg, 8 mg, and 10 mg. The purpose of giving various levels of the drug is to show how dosage levels below 10 mg affect the inflammation. The group that receives placebo will be a negative control, while the group that receives 10 mg will be a positive control. Increasing the doses by a constant amount allows for clear viewing of the results. Age For the purposes of this study, will define elderly as above 65 years old. Number of subjects per group Each group will contain 10 subjects. Subject Selection We will coordinate with doctors' offices to advertise the study during regular check-ups with elderly patients. We will exclude potential subjects that have pre-existing cardiovascular or hormonal conditions, are on any other medications, are smokers, and anyone with known allergies to LPS. The subjects will be assigned to each group randomly. Those experimenters that are involved in assigning subjects to groups will not be involved in administrating the LPS. This is to help ensure the study remains double blind. Sources of Error and Bias There are several sources of error that can occur once the LPS is administered to the test subject. One source of error that can occur is when a test subject's diet affects the LPS, either by helping the drug be effective or hindering the drug to be ineffective. Another source of error that can occur is the activity level of the test subject. The activity level can influence inflammation, thus skewing the results. The final source of error that can occur is when a test subject has an unknown condition. Based on what the unknown condition is and how severe it can be, it will affect the effectiveness of the LPS and the inflammation that occurs within the test subject. To help our data be more valid and reliable, our group will institute controls for each source of error to prevent them from occurring. For correcting diet, we will administer a caloric intake that each test subject must follow based on their gender and weight. To correct for the activity level of each test subject, we will mandate that twenty to thirty minutes of light exercise be done. An example of this would be going for a light jog for twenty minutes. To correct for the test subject having unknown conditions, we put them through a program previous to administration of the LPS. This will aid in keeping prospective test subjects out of our experiment who will skew the data.