Co-Adventurers in Discovery: Collaborative Research Between Undergraduate Students and Faculty

There are many opportunities available beyond the classroom for undergraduate students to engage in cutting-edge scholarship. Some of the opportunities include study abroad, internships, and independent study. We strongly suggest that students experience such programs. Independent study courses can serve not only to sharpen the student’s engagement skills with the open-ended questions of current research, but also to enhance his or her own relationship with faculty. In this article we share the experiences of a biology student and a mathematics faculty member coming together as co-adventurers learning from each other about the mechanisms and mathematics involved in cardiac arrhythmia through collaborative mathematical modeling research. Biology and mathematics have a long history of an explosive synergy that enriches and extends both fields (Cohen, 2004) (Reed, 2004), and this synergy led us to the fruitful journey reported here. As there is no end in sight for opportunities to engage in such multi-disciplinary student-faculty collaborative research, we encourage everyone to take advantage of such opportunities

Co-Adventurers in Discovery: Collaborative Research Between Undergraduate Students and Faculty

There are many opportunities available beyond the classroom for undergraduate students to engage in cutting-edge scholarship. Some of the opportunities include study abroad, internships, and independent study. We strongly suggest that students experience such programs. Independent study courses can serve not only to sharpen the student’s engagement skills with the open-ended questions of current research, but also to enhance his or her own relationship with faculty. In this article we share the experiences of a biology student and a mathematics faculty member coming together as co-adventurers learning from each other about the mechanisms and mathematics involved in cardiac arrhythmia through collaborative mathematical modeling research. Biology and mathematics have a long history of an explosive synergy that enriches and extends both fields (Cohen, 2004) (Reed, 2004), and this synergy led us to the fruitful journey reported here. As there is no end in sight for opportunities to engage in such multi-disciplinary student-faculty collaborative research, we encourage everyone to take advantage of such opportunities

1-Methyl-3-(naphthalen-1-yl)-3,3a,4,9b-tetra­hydro-1H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazole-3a-carbonitrile

In the title compound, C22H18N2O2, the pyran ring of the chromene unit is fused with an isoxazole ring, which adopts an N-envelope conformation with the N atom lying 1.3291 (14) Å from the mean plane of the remaining ring atoms [maximum deviation = 0.341 (2) Å]. The dihedral angle between the isoxazole and chromene units is 43.74 (8)° and that between the iosxazole ring and the naphthalene ring system is 58.82 (8)°. In the crystal, the molecules are linked by weak C—H⋯π inter­actions

1-Methyl-3-p-tolyl-3,3a,4,9b-tetra­hydro-1H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazole-3a-carbonitrile

In the title compound, C19H18N2O2, the dihedral angle between the mean planes of the fused chromeno and isoxazole units is 43.71 (7)°. The isoxazole and pyran rings exhibit envelope and half chair conformations, respectively. The crystal packing is stabilized by inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions

A Cardiac Arrhythmogenesis Model: Spiraling Out of Control

Arrhythmic Sudden Cardiac death accounts for up to 5 million cases per year across the world. Cardiac arrhythmia is an abnormal activity in the heart that can lead to sudden cardiac death resulting from ventricular fibrillation. The electrocardiogram (ECG) reading during an arrhythmia indicates rapid contractions of the heart. This phenomenon is due to the development of a re-entrant circuit of electrical activity that repetitively stimulates the heart. The heart presents a spatio-temporal complex system, where the tissue biophysics and structure leads to reaction diffusion type models. These models portray the re-entrant wave patterns observed during arrhythmia. Fibrillation is characterized by the break up of a single spiral wave formed during tachycardia into multiple waves of electrical activity. We will use our model to better understand the mechanisms that lead to fibrillation and can halt fibrillation. Moreover, various factors such as sexual hormones may facilitate arrhythmogenesis. Female sex hormones may lead to a prolonged Action Potential Duration (APD). This prolongation of APD allows for L-Type calcium channels to recover their excitability while the membrane remains in the depolarized state. The resulting current may lead to an extrasystole, which yields a re-entrant pattern that triggers the arrhythmogenesis. Thus, we will also consider the role of female sex hormones in the model

NSU\u27s Top Models: Zombie Attack Heartbeats

Models have a wide array of real life applications ranging from engineering to economics. In biological science, it is a biologist\u27s aim to give verifiable predictions. This is where they use Mathematics as a technique to aid their discoveries. This study observes two Mathematical models that will give a representation of some aspect of real world phenomena. In effect, these models are simplified versions of systems that are well known. In order to create a Mathematical model, the assumptions on which the model will be based must be stated. These assumptions will describe the relationships among the quantities to be studied. The assumptions previously made will be formulated to derive equations relating to the described quantities. These equations will be analyzed to make predictions about the described quantities. This study will utilize two Mathematical models that follow these criteria: one from epidemiology and one from cardio-physiology. The group will focus on applying the modified SIR model from epidemiology to zombie proliferation and on Zeeman non-linear oscillator model of the cardiac cycle. The modified SIR model can be used to predict different scenarios of zombie outbreaks. The Zeeman non-linear oscillator model can be used to predict effects of high blood pressure and adrenaline

Diverse Spectroscopic Studies and First-Principles Investigations of the Zinc Vacancy Mediated Ferromagnetism in Mn-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles

A systematic study on the room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in undoped and Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by the coprecipitation method has been reported. The neutral and singly ionized zinc vacancy defects exhibited in the results of photoluminescence (PL), micro-Raman spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies are found to be of ferromagnetic origin in bare ZnO, and it has been confirmed that Mn²⁺ ions substitutionally enter at Zn²⁺ sites in wurtzite ZnO. The results of positron annihilation and coincidence Doppler broadening measurements corroborate the Zn vacancies and their clusters. It is observed that in Mn:ZnO, the magnetic ordering is changed from ferro- to paramagnetic because of interacting adjacent Mn–Mn ions. The higher saturation magnetization of 565 × 10^–3 emu/g is explained by a quasi indirect exchange mechanism based on the interaction of bound magnetic polarons formed by the Zn vacancies (<i>V</i>_Zn) and nearby Mn ions. Further, first principle calculations reveal the magnetic centers in nonmagnetic ZnO with <i>V</i>_Zn and the stable ferromagnetic ordering in Mn:ZnO at the optimum distance of Mn–Mn ≈ 3.26 Å