Elongation of oestrous cycle in the guinea-pig following subcutaneous or intra-uterine administration of indomethacin.(33/657)

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Understanding biology through intelligent systems. (34/657)

A report on the Tenth International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB), Edmonton, Canada, 3-7 August 2002.  (+info)

But are they learning? Getting started in classroom evaluation. (35/657)

There are increasing numbers of traditional biologists, untrained in educational research methods, who want to develop and assess new classroom innovations. In this article we argue the necessity of formal research over normal classroom feedback. We also argue that traditionally trained biologists can make significant contributions to biology pedagogy. We then offer some guidance to the biologist with no formal educational research training who wants to get started. Specifically, we suggest ways to find out what others have done, we discuss the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, and we elaborate on the process of gaining insights from student interviews. We end with an example of a project that has used many different research techniques.  (+info)

Glucose transport in cultured animal cells: an exercise for the undergraduate cell biology laboratory. (36/657)

Membrane transport is a fundamental concept that undergraduate students of cell biology understand better with laboratory experience. Formal teaching exercises commonly used to illustrate this concept are unbiological, qualitative, or intricate and time consuming to prepare. We have developed an exercise that uses uptake of radiolabeled nutrient analogues by attachment-dependent animal cells cultured on multiwell trays. This system can readily be manipulated within a typical 3-h laboratory period to yield reproducible, biologically relevant, quantitative data regarding key aspects of membrane transport. Each 24-well tray of cultures allows a group of two to four students to compare eight conditions in triplicate. If different groups of students test different conditions or different types of cells, data can be shared for an even broader experience. The exercise is also readily adaptable for open-ended student projects. Here we illustrate the exercise measuring uptake of the nonmetabolizable glucose analogue [(3)H]-2-deoxy-D-glucose. Students successfully tested the effects of competing sugars, putative inhibitors of the GLUT1 transporter, and changes in cell physiology that might be expected to affect glucose transport in epithelial cells and fibroblasts. In this exercise students find the nutritional and medical implications of glucose transport and its regulation intriguing. They also learn to handle radioisotopes and cultured cells.  (+info)

A knowledge representation view on biomedical structure and function. (37/657)

In biomedical ontologies, structural and functional considerations are of outstanding importance, and concepts which belong to these two categories are highly interdependent. At the representational level both axes must be clearly kept separate in order to support disciplined ontology engineering. Furthermore, the biaxial organization of physical structure (both by a taxonomic and partonomic order) entails intricate patterns of inference. We here propose a layered encoding of taxonomic, partonomic and functional aspects of biomedical concepts using description logics.  (+info)

An approach to object-relational mapping in bioscience domains. (38/657)

Object-relational mapping (mapping object-oriented software systems to relational databases) remains a challenging undertaking because of the inherent differences between these two technologies. Effective application of this technique in biomedical informatics applications can provide robust, adaptive solutions but requires careful attention to specific issues in the bioscience domain. Mapping from a single, fixed, stably defined object to a table is straightforward, and several standard patterns have been described for mapping inheritance trees to tables. However, mapping becomes more problematic when it involves complex, evolving inheritance trees, sparse, dynamic attributes, or associations and aggregations whose requirements and definitions change frequently during development. All of these seem to be inherent, inescapable facts in the development of biological information systems. Here we describe modifications of the basic patterns of object-relational mapping that are being applied to two systems in ongoing collaborations between biomedical investigators and informaticians. In this approach a small set of objects for each entity collaborates to provide the usual required services of an object-relational implementation including query capacity, transaction management, object relationships (associations, aggregation, composition, many-many relations) and persistence functions. This set of objects also allows dynamic attributes for a selected set of entities by merging an entity-attribute-value approach for data storage with the object-relational approach to managing relationships among objects. Templates are used for class generation to allow flexibility and synchronization of schema/object during design evolution, facilitating changing persistence strategies across the whole system for testing and development. The entity-attribute-value details as well as all database access are encapsulated in a persistence layer which would allow change of this layer to a conventional storage model, if the design evolution is stabilized or for performance requirements, with no change to the domain or presentation layers.  (+info)

Enhancer trap expression patterns provide a novel teaching resource. (39/657)

A collection of Arabidopsis enhancer trap transposants has been identified for use as a teaching tool. This collection serves to assist students in understanding the patterning and organization of plant tissues and cells, and will be useful in plant anatomy, morphology, and developmental biology courses. Each transposant exhibits reporter gene expression in a specific tissue, cell type, or domain, and these lines collectively offer a glimpse of compartments of gene expression. Some compartments correspond to classical definitions of botanical anatomy and can assist in anatomical identification. Other patterns of reporter gene expression are more complex and do not necessarily correspond to known anatomical features. The sensitivity of the beta-glucuronidase histochemical stain provides the student with a colorful and direct way to visualize difficult aspects of plant development and anatomy, and provides the teacher with an invaluable tool for a practical laboratory session.  (+info)

Undergraduate basic science preparation for dental school. (40/657)

In the Institute of Medicines report Dental Education at the Crossroads, it was suggested that dental schools across the country move toward integrated basic science education for dental and medical students in their curricula. To do so, dental school admission requirements and recommendations must be closely reviewed to ensure that students are adequately prepared for this coursework. The purpose of our study was twofold: 1) to identify student dentists' perceptions of their predental preparation as it relates to course content, and 2) to track student dentists' undergraduate basic science course preparation and relate that to DAT performance, basic science course performance in dental school, and Part I and Part II National Board performance. In the first part of the research, a total of ninety student dentists (forty-five from each class) from the entering classes of 1996 and 1997 were asked to respond to a survey. The survey instrument was distributed to each class of students after each completed the largest basic science class given in their second-year curriculum. The survey investigated the area of undergraduate major, a checklist of courses completed in their undergraduate preparation, the relevance of the undergraduate classes to the block basic science courses, and the strength of requiring or recommending the listed undergraduate courses as a part of admission to dental school. Results of the survey, using frequency analysis, indicate that students felt that the following classes should be required, not recommended, for admission to dental school: Microbiology 70 percent, Biochemistry 54.4 percent, Immunology 57.78 percent, Anatomy 50 percent, Physiology 58.89 percent, and Cell Biology 50 percent. The second part of the research involved anonymously tracking undergraduate basic science preparation of the same students with DAT scores, the grade received in a representative large basic science course, and Part I and Part II National Board performance. Using T-test analysis correlations, results indicate that having completed multiple undergraduate basic science courses (as reported by AADSAS BCP hours) did not significantly (p < .05) enhance student performance in any of these parameters. Based on these results, we conclude that student dentists with undergraduate preparation in science and nonscience majors can successfully negotiate the dental school curriculum, even though the students themselves would increase admission requirements to include more basic science courses than commonly required. Basically, the students' recommendations for required undergraduate basic science courses would replicate the standard basic science coursework found in most dental schools: anatomy, histology, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, and immunology plus the universal foundation course of biology.  (+info)