MCAT Studies: Amino Acids

Amino Acids

Chart division of amino acids based on properties:

Acidic	Basic	Polar	Nonpolar
Aspartic acid  Glutamic acid	Lysine*  Arginine?  Histidine*	Serine  Cysteine  Tyrosine  Threonine*  Asparagine  Glutamine	Glycine  Alanine  Valine*  Leucine*  Isoleucine*  Phenylalanine*  Tryptophan*  Methionine*  Proline

* Essential amino acids, (Arginine is debated).

PVT TIM HALL - Essential Amino Acids

Aspartic acid, Asp (D)

• Acidic → if deprotonated, (-) charged side chain
• Aspartate = deprotonated aspartic acid

Glutamic acid, Glu (E)

• Acidic → if deprotonated, (-) charged side chain
• Glutamate = deprotonated glutamic acid

Lysine, Lys (K)

• Basic → if protonated, (+) charged side chain
• Cationic @ physiological pH

Arginine, Arg (R)

• Basic → if protonated, (+) charged side chain
• Cationic @ physiological pH

Histidine, His (H)

• Possible Basic → if protonated, (+) charged side chain
• Possible acidic → if deprotonated, (-) charged side chain
• Side chain close to physiological pH → "His goes both ways," Acid/Base

Glycine, Gly (G)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aliphatic side chain → Only H atom as side chain

Alanine, Ala (A)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aliphatic side chain → Methyl side chain 

Valine, Val (V)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aliphatic side chain → Isopropyl side chain
• V similar in shape to isopropyl 

Leucine, Leu (L)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aliphatic side chain → isobutyl side chain

Isoleucine, Ile (I)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aliphatic side chain → secbutyl side chain
• Not sure why this one was called iso when sec would have been a more appropriate side chain name.

Phenylalanine, Phe (F)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aromatic side chain → phenyl
• Easy to remember this one: alanine structure + phenyl group

Tryptophan, Trp (W)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Aromatic side chain → indole side chain

Methioine, Met (M)

• Nonpolar → hydrophobic
• Sulfur containing amino acid
• Thioether side chain
• Related to the start codon AUG → codes for methionine

Serine, Ser (S)

• Polar → hydrophilic
• Hydroxyl side chain

Cysteine, Cys (C)

• Polar → hydrophilic
• Sulfur containing amino acid
• Thiol side chain

Tyrosine, Tyr (Y)

• Polar → Hydrophilic
• Aromatic side chain → Phenol

Threonine, Thr (T)

• Polar → hydrophilic
• hydroxyl side chain

Asparagine, Asn (N)

• Polar → hydrophilic
• Amide side chain
• Amide derivative of aspartic acid

Glutamine, Gln (Q)

• Polar → hydrophilic
• Amide side chain
• Amide derivative of glutamic acid

Proline, Pro (P)

• Nonpolar → Hydrophobic
• Unique b/c covalently bonded to nonpolar side chain
• Has α-amino group

I will need to really mesh these structures together and test out what works best for memorization.

So far the 4 easiest to remember are aspartic acid, glumatic acid, glycine, and proline. The acids have the almost the same structure, but missing one extra carbon (w/ hydrogens). Glycine has only the H atom for its R group, while proline has a unique pentagon ring. 

Old attempts for keeping records for transactions. New attempts for money management, back to software

 When going through the Google Drive files, I found the old files that I used to keep track of transactions. I will post them here so that I can keep these memories. Plus, I get to reminisce on the embarrassment of having such mediocre financial record tracking. 

First up is the expenditure tracking:

Month (Interval from 1st of the month to the 1st of the next month (not included the 1st of the 2nd month)	MET	$0.99 store	Chinese Supermarket	Target	Keyfoods	Eating Out	BC	Home improvement	Transportation	Entertainment	Total
February 2016	11.88	5.4	56.85	19.2	0	31.5	20.91	5	15	20	185.74
March 2016	28.67	0	0	0	0	28.5	0	0	5	0	62.17
April 2016	14.47	0	0	20.79	0	65.31	1	0	0	0	101.57
May 2016	0	7.62	26	42.95	0	12.49	4.7	0	0	0	93.76
September 2016	0	0	0	76.3	15.89	29.5	155.12	0	0	0	276.81
October 2016	0	2.94	7.46	110.28	0	60.62	2.01	5	9	0	197.31
November 2016	0	1	3.25	112.09	0	53.82	20.83	0	0	0	190.99
December 2016	0	6.25	6.23	49.91	0	57.8	0	0	0	0	120.19
February 2017	8.98	24.42	5.49	205.64	16.09	16.85	54.4	0	0	0	331.87
March 2017	0	0	47.16	0	8.16	16.84	4.5	0	0	0	76.66
April 2017											0
May 2017											0
											0
											0

Expeditures
Month (Interval from 1st of the month to the 1st of the next month (not included the 1st of the 2nd month)	MET	$0.99 store	Supermarket	Target	Food vendor	Fastfood	BC	Home improvement	Transportation	Total
November	19.98	15.11	12.05	0	11	12	10.57	20	5	105.71
December	13.15	0	0	25.21	5	0	15.49	0	0	58.85
2015 Totals	33.13	15.11	12.05	25.21	16	12	26.06	20	5	164.56

As seen above I spent too much time trying to separate the expenditures based on company name.

My other obsession at the time was trying to figure out the best "deal" that I would be getting when buying from different stores. I tried to use net weight vs price to avoid the fancy sales tags that the stores like to put on their stuff. The problem was that I never had the excel chart hand when actually going shopping and in the end, I never actually used it much beyond self-confirming my own purchases.

	MET Foods			Top-oldest Bot-present	Only for weight priced items
DATE	Item	Company name	Quantity	Price ($)	Price per weight ($/lb)	(solid) Net Weight (g)	Price per mass ($/g)	(liquid) Volume (mL)	Price per volume ($/mL)	Sale?
	Eggs (1 dozen)	NELM Jumbo	1	3.29						NO
	Baking Soda box	Arm & Hammer	1	1.09		454	0.0024			NO
	Tilapia	Store brand	1 - Set	3.00	6.00					NO
	Chicken Tights	Perdue	1 - Set	3.72	2.09					NO
	Yogurt	Layog	$5	$3						YES - 5 for $3
	Chips	Herr	1	2		184.3	0.0109			NO
	Canned Corn	Del Monte	1	1.89		432	0.0044			NO
	Mandarins	Cuties	1	2.99		1360	0.0022			YES - 1 for $3
	WholeGrain Bread	Wonder	1	2.29		567	0.0040			NO
	Donuts	Entenmann's	8	2.99		439	0.0068			YES
	Soda	Pepsi	2	3.10				2000	0.00155	YES - 2 for $3
	Honey Ham	Budding	1	3.49		255	0.0137			NO
	Turkey Breast	Budding	1	3.49		255	0.0137			NO
	Brocolli	None	2	1.98	0.49					YES - 1 bunch for $1
	Pineapple	Store brand	1 - container	2.48	3.3	340.1943	0.0073			NO
	Onions	Onions	1 - bag	4.99		4535.92	0.0011			NO
	Potatos	Idaho	1 - bag	2.99		2270	0.0013			NO
	Basa Fillet	Store brand	1 - Set	3.84	4.99	349.2661	0.0110			NO
	Italian Sausage	PREMIO	1 - Set	3.99		453.592	0.0088			NO
	Banana	Dole	1 - Bunch	$1.52	0.69	1002.439	0.0015			NO
	Penne Rigate	Vitale	5 - bags	5		453.592	0.0110			YES - 5 for $5
Started Fri 4/8/16	Mushrooms	Giorgio	1 - box	1.99		227	0.0088			NO
4/8/2016	Spaghetti Sauce	White Rose	1 - Jar	1.99		673	0.0030			NO
4/8/2016	Chicken Legs	Perdue	1 - Set	3.7	2	843.6818	0.0044			NO
4/8/2016	Chicken Thighs	Perdue	1 - Set	3.43	1.29	1206.556	0.0028			NO
4/8/2016	Pork Chops	MET Brand	1 - Set	3.36	2	766.5711	0.0044			NO

The sad part is that I still struggle with managing money well. I am trying not to rely on using software to keep track, but when I use handwritten records the accuracy is all over the place. Currently going back to electronic records because paperless has become king for a lot of billing platforms.

Two possible software to try out is

- You need a Budget → Bought the program via Steam, but have not utilized it fully yet.

- Quick books → Heard this program's name through a lot of business-oriented people. It would be great to learn, but I have yet to see how it could help a salaried employee like me.

- Mint → New subscription-based service for money management (Hard pass if possible I hate subscription-based stuff)