Mix and Match: Promoting Interdisciplinary Teaching, Learning, and Community through Classroom-Level Partnerships

Developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Mix creates interdisciplinary learning experiences for students by developing partnerships between existing courses, and between existing courses and other learning opportunities. UBC Mix connects faculty members interested in making their courses more interdisciplinary, and facilitates the creation of shared learning activities that mix” students together. The UBC Mix project provides a model for facilitating interdisciplinary teaching and learning within existing courses and programs at colleges and universities

Numerical simulation of the stochastic dynamics of inclusions in biomembranes in presence of surface tension

The stochastic dynamics of inclusions in a randomly fluctuating biomembrane is simulated. These inclusions can represent the embedded proteins and the external particles arriving at a cell membrane. The energetics of the biomembrane is modelled via the Canham-Helfrich Hamiltonian. The contributions of both the bending elastic-curvature energy and the surface tension of the biomembrane are taken into account. The biomembrane is treated as a two-dimensional sheet whose height variations from a reference frame is treated as a stochastic Wiener process. The lateral diffusion parameter associated with this Wiener process coupled with the longitudinal diffusion parameter obtained from the standard Einsteinian diffusion theory completely determine the stochastic motion of the inclusions. It is shown that the presence of surface tension significantly affects the overall dynamics of the inclusions, particularly the rate of capture of the external inclusions, such as drug particles, at the site of the embedded inclusions, such as the embedded proteins.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, to appear in physica

The multiple faces of self-assembled lipidic systems

Lipids, the building blocks of cells, common to every living organisms, have the propensity to self-assemble into well-defined structures over short and long-range spatial scales. The driving forces have their roots mainly in the hydrophobic effect and electrostatic interactions. Membranes in lamellar phase are ubiquitous in cellular compartments and can phase-separate upon mixing lipids in different liquid-crystalline states. Hexagonal phases and especially cubic phases can be synthesized and observed in vivo as well. Membrane often closes up into a vesicle whose shape is determined by the interplay of curvature, area difference elasticity and line tension energies, and can adopt the form of a sphere, a tube, a prolate, a starfish and many more. Complexes made of lipids and polyelectrolytes or inorganic materials exhibit a rich diversity of structural morphologies due to additional interactions which become increasingly hard to track without the aid of suitable computer models. From the plasma membrane of archaebacteria to gene delivery, self-assembled lipidic systems have left their mark in cell biology and nanobiotechnology; however, the underlying physics is yet to be fully unraveled

NATO and the INF controversy : nuclear weapons, deterrence, and the Atlantic Alliance

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) controversy was one of the most intense intra-Alliance debates experienced by NATO. The depth of the dispute, especially between the US and the European NATO members, threatened the very unity and cohesion of the Alliance itself. The INF controversy was the result of two factors: first, the establishment of strategic parity by the Soviet Union which brought into question the credibility of the US security guarantee to Europe; and second, the widening gap in the political and strategic interests of the US and its European allies. These factors combined to produce the two central--and conflicting--forces at work during the INF debate. The Europeans sought strategic reassurance, in the form of theatre-nuclear systems, to restore the integrity of the seamless web of deterrence. The divergence of political and strategic interests between the US and Europe, however, meant conflict over the posture and character of any new force. In the interests of preserving the unity of the Alliance, these problems were "solved" in typical Alliance fashion; through compromising to a consensus. The December 12 decision was based on erroneous and outdated conceptions of the significance of nuclear weapons for deterrence in Europe. What NATO planners, and many western analysts, have failed to recognize is the diminishing effectiveness of US nuclear weapons in maintaining effective deterrence in Western Europe. Deterrence in Europe is not primarily dependent on US nuclear forces and the threat of deliberate nuclear escalation they imply. Rather, deterrence in Europe should be understood as a compound product of many risk factors. Henceforth, thinking about NATO's deterrent requirements must recognize the limited utility of successive deployments of US nuclear forces as a deterrent. Greater reliance must be placed on the deterrent value of other risk factors which exist in the European theatre, most notably the increasingly powerful and discriminating capabilities of the French and British nuclear forces.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat

Arsenic, cadmium and neuron specific enolase (ENO2, γ-enolase) expression in breast cancer

Abstract Background Neuron specific enolase (ENO2, γ-enolase) has been used as a biomarker to help identify neuroendocrine differentiation in breast cancer. The goal of the present study was to determine if ENO2 expression in the breast epithelial cell is influenced by the environmental pollutants, arsenite and cadmium. Acute and chronic exposure of MCF-10A cells to As+3 and Cd+2 sufficient to allow colony formation in soft agar, was used to determine if ENO2 expression was altered by these pollutants. Results It was shown that both As+3 and Cd+2 exposure caused significant increases in ENO2 expression under conditions of both acute and chronic exposure. In contrast, ENO1, the major glycolytic enolase in non-muscle and neuronal cells, was largely unaffected by exposure to either As+3 or Cd+2. Localization studies showed that ENO2 in the MCF-10A cells transformed by As+3 or Cd+2 had both a cytoplasmic and nuclear localization. In contrast, ENO1 was localized to the cytoplasm. ENO2 localized to the cytoplasm was found to co-localized with ENO1. Conclusion The results are the first to show that ENO2 expression in breast epithelial cells is induced by acute and chronic exposure to As+3 or Cd+2. The findings also suggest a possible link between As+3 and Cd+2 exposure and neuroendocrine differentiation in tumors. Overall, the results suggest that ENO2 might be developed as a biomarker indicating acute and/or chronic environmental exposure of the breast epithelial cell to As+3 and Cd+2.</p