Nasal passageway: Difference between revisions
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==Description of Nasal Passageway== | ==Description of Nasal Passageway== | ||
=== | ===Location of the Nasal Passageway=== | ||
The walls of the nasal passages are coated with respiratory mucous membranes which contain innumerable tiny hair-like cells that act to move waves of mucus toward the throat. Dust, bacteria, and other particles inhaled from the air are trapped by the mucus in the nose, carried back, swallowed and dropped into the gastric juices to nullify any potential harm they might do. | |||
The organs of smell are made up of patches of tissue (the olfactory membranes) about the size of a postage stamp and located in a pair of clefts just under the bridge of the nose. Most air breathed in normally flows through the nose but only a small part reaches the olfactory clefts, enough to get a response to an odor. When a person sniffs to detect a smell, air moves faster through the nose, increasing the flow to the olfactory clefts and carrying more odor to these sensory organs. | |||
===Physical Conditions?=== | ===Physical Conditions?=== | ||
Revision as of 21:11, 26 August 2008
Description of Nasal Passageway
Location of the Nasal Passageway
The walls of the nasal passages are coated with respiratory mucous membranes which contain innumerable tiny hair-like cells that act to move waves of mucus toward the throat. Dust, bacteria, and other particles inhaled from the air are trapped by the mucus in the nose, carried back, swallowed and dropped into the gastric juices to nullify any potential harm they might do.
The organs of smell are made up of patches of tissue (the olfactory membranes) about the size of a postage stamp and located in a pair of clefts just under the bridge of the nose. Most air breathed in normally flows through the nose but only a small part reaches the olfactory clefts, enough to get a response to an odor. When a person sniffs to detect a smell, air moves faster through the nose, increasing the flow to the olfactory clefts and carrying more odor to these sensory organs.
Physical Conditions?
What are the conditions in your niche? Temperature, pressure, pH, moisture, etc.
Influence by Adjacent Communities (if any)
Is your niche close to another niche or influenced by another community of organisms?
Conditions under which the environment changes
Do any of the physical conditions change? Are there chemicals, other organisms, nutrients, etc. that might change the community of your niche.
Anything that might irritate a human's nose, like air pollution, smoke, pesticides, etc., may cause swelling and blockage of the nasal passageways which will lead to bacterial growth and infection. The trapped mucus within the nasal will create a breeding ground for bacteria. (I'm unsure if this is an answer to the question. If it's not, you guys can delete it.)
Who lives in the Nasal Passageway?
Which microbes are present?
You may refer to organisms by genus or by genus and species, depending upon how detailed the your information might be. If there is already a microbewiki page describing that organism, make a link to it.
A common bacteria that lives in the human nose is the Staphylococcus aureus (anyone know how to make that go to the other website? thanks Jac.), often referred as staph. It is carried either on the skin or in the nose of healthy people, but 25% - 30% of the population is populated in the nose. Well Staph is growing, it will not cause any infection, until the bacteria can enter a wound.
Are there any other non-microbes present?
Plants? Animals? Fungi? etc. Normal: Hopefully, no plants, animals, or fungi live in the nasal passageway.
Do the microbes that are present interact with each other?
Describe any negative (competition) or positive (symbiosis) behavior
Do the microbes change their environment?
Do they alter pH, attach to surfaces, secrete anything, etc. etc.
Do the microbes carry out any metabolism that affects their environment?
Do they ferment sugars to produce acid, break down large molecules, fix nitrogen, etc. etc.
Current Research
Enter summaries of the most recent research. You may find it more appropriate to include this as a subsection under several of your other sections rather than separately here at the end. You should include at least FOUR topics of research and summarize each in terms of the question being asked, the results so far, and the topics for future study. (more will be expected from larger groups than from smaller groups)
References
Edited by Jacinda Chen , Wayne Chen , Josephe Dalidi , Jennifer Hao , Rutu Kothari , Nidhi Patel , Natividad Rodriguez , Prudencio Sy, students of Rachel Larsen
