#5 What I Learned Today

Professionalism and Ethics I

Today's lecture focused on theoretical aspects of ethics. Some philosophical viewpoints were studied, including:

• consequentialism: judging actions to be right or wrong based on the end results
• deontologicism: judging actions based on inherent characteristics or principles, and not on end results
• utilitarianism: action is right if it does more good than any alternative action (ie. the greatest good for the greatest number)
• value theory: to decide on an action based on looking at both good and harmful aspects
• virtue theory: to decide on an action based on one's specific inherent moral values

We also looked at the differences between codes and oaths. Codes are standards that guide a health practitioner into making certain decisions, while oaths are public, ethical statements that one volunteers to follow.

Examples being the American Dental Association Code of Ethics, and the personal oath that my class recited at our white coat ceremony.

Biochemistry

In Biochem, we finished up our introduction to carbohydrates and moved onto reviewing the steps in carbohydrate metabolism.

We started by looking at glycolysis. Simply, it is the conversion of glucose into pyruvate, which results in the net release of energy in the form of 2 ATP and 2 NADH. A number of enzymes are needed to complete the process. As well, two molecules of ATP are necessary in the initial steps of molecule rearrangement. Both the first and last step of glycolysis are reversible, while the middle steps are reversible. Wikipedia has a good summary of all the steps.

Also, another important side reaction that is necessary for glycolysis to occur is 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate formation. It helps maintain the activity of phosphoglycerate mutase, which is an enzyme found in the mid-stage of glycolysis.