All About Cod (Grade 2/Lower Primary)

Designed for use in the second grade classroom, this activity will help students learn to summarize data in a table and a bar graph, practice addition and subtraction in the context of a word problem (story), and solve word problems involving money

All About Cod (Grades 3-5/Upper Primary)

Lesson plan All About Cod for Grades 3-5. Aligned with TN Math Standards and includes individual plans for Grades 3, 4, and 5

“Leveling Up” In Your Favorite Video Game Math Modeling Activity (Middle School)

In this activity, students will write linear equations that represent their situations and determine the intersection of their lines. The students will also graph their equations and discuss potential flaws

Cathepsin K-deficient osteocytes prevent lactation-induced bone loss and parathyroid hormone suppression

Lactation induces bone loss to provide sufficient calcium in the milk, a process that involves osteoclastic bone resorption but also osteocytes and perilacunar resorption. The exact mechanisms by which osteocytes contribute to bone loss remain elusive. Osteocytes express genes required in osteoclasts for bone resorption, including cathepsin K (Ctsk), and lactation elevates their expression. We show that Ctsk deletion in osteocytes prevented the increase in osteocyte lacunar area seen during lactation, as well as the effects of lactation to increase osteoclast numbers and decrease trabecular bone volume, cortical thickness, and mechanical properties. In addition, we show that Ctsk deletion in osteocytes increased bone parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) and prevented the decrease in serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) induced by lactation, but amplified the increase in serum 1,25-dyhydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)(2)D]. The net result of these changes is to maintain serum and milk calcium levels in the normal range, ensuring normal offspring skeletal development. Our studies confirm the fundamental role of osteocytic perilacunar remodeling in physiological states of lactation and provide genetic evidence that osteocyte-derived Ctsk contributes not only to osteocyte perilacunar remodeling, but also to the regulation of PTH, PTHrP, 1,25(OH)(2)D, osteoclastogenesis, and bone loss in response to the high calcium demand associated with lactation

Canine distemper outbreak modeled in an animal shelter

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a highly contagious virus that can cause outbreaks, specifically in crowding situations, such as an animal shelter, in which a large number of susceptible dogs are brought together. Introduction of this virus into a shelter can have devastating effects, potentially resulting in shelter canine depopulation. Motivated by recent outbreaks in Tennessee, a mathematical model was constructed to find relevant factors that could assist in preventing or reducing outbreaks. A system of ordinary differential equations was derived to represent the spread of CDV through susceptible, exposed, infected and recovered (S–E–I–R) classes as well as a vaccinated (V) class. Our model was adapted to represent a local Knoxville shelter. The effects of various control methods, both preventative and corrective, on disease spread were investigated