BIOH12008 ASSESSMENT ITEM 1 T2 2012 ESSAY TOPIC Recent unpublished research has suggested a possible reason why 1% of the human population report chronic low intensity abdominal discomfort (especially 1-2 hours after a large meal), often show slight anaemia, occasional elevated white blood cell counts and even slight vitamin deficiency, despite an apparently healthy diet. Clinical examination, including examination of the villi in the small intestine, has been inconclusive. It has often been reported that people with this condition appear to have a high density of villi per square millimetre, so there is no sign of sprue. More recently, however, the clinical physiologist Dr Esme Higgenbotham has reported clear differences in the villi of people with this condition, compared to healthy individuals. Affected individuals have 1.5 times the number of villi per square millimetre and when examined these villi appear elongated and extremely crowded together. Higgenbotham wrote ‘This difference in structure may be sufficient to explain these low-level symptoms. I have provisionally called the condition ‘Crowded Villi Syndrome or CVS.’ Normal jejunum Crowded Villi Syndrome jejunum (a) From your knowledge of normal and abnormal physiology, please argue why Crowded Villi Syndrome might cause the symptoms of low intensity abdominal discomfort (especially after large meals), slight anaemia, occasional elevated white blood cell counts and even slight vitamin deficiency. (b) Please speculate on the long term implications of this condition on the health of affected individuals. Suggested essay length – 2000 words. Notes on the Essay Topic What style of referencing do we use for this assignment? Referencing is HARVARD style http://www.cqu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/14032/Harvard-Referencing-guide-2012.pdf Why is referencing important? What, why and how to reference properly. Referencing is important to avoid issues of PLAGIARISM. Please read these documents carefully to avoid any such issues. http://www.cqu.edu.au/about-us/service-and-facilities/referencing How many reference sources do I need? Because there is no information available on CVS, you will need to reference materials regarding the normal anatomy and physiology of the small intestines. You will need a minimum of TWO different resources. You may use the recommended text and the study guide, but if you use the study guide you will need to have a third reference source. What sort of reference sources can I use? Text books, peer-reviewed journal articles, government or medical documents or web sources. Please, do NOT use Wikipedia, ask.com, askjeeves, yahoo answers etc etc. These are not peerreviewed, reputable resources. ANYONE can add to these web sites, and the information might be incorrect, and you will lose marks if you use any of these! Do I really NEED to write 2000 words on this essay? Generally, you need to submit an essay of 2000 words +/- 10% (so 1800-2200 words). You won’t actually be penalised for having way fewer words; however, if you do fall far short of this recommended word length, it is highly likely that you will miss key information and therefore lose marks for insufficient explanations. You also won’t be penalised for going way over the word limit; however, if you do go very much over the word limit, it is highly likely that you are waffling somewhat, and the information is either repeated or unnecessary, and won’t get you any extra marks. Basically, the word limit is there to guide you on the appropriate level of detail required to score well on this assessment.