Retention and progression of engineering students with diverse mathematical backgrounds

There are increasing concerns about the mathematics abilityof students entering higher education. This situation appearsto be as a result of the perceived lowering standards of A Levels,a reduction in entry requirements on some courses with a strongmathematical component and the wide-ranging educational backgroundsof many of the students. With Additional Student Numbers (ASN) funding, a pre-sessionalcourse has been introduced at Loughborough University as a collaborationbetween the Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching andLearning (engCETL) and the Mathematics Education Centre (MEC),also a designated Centre for Excellence. The 4 day, residential,pre-sessional course targets engineering students with diversemathematical backgrounds just before the start of the firstyear of their degree course. Due to possible gaps in their mathematicalknowledge, students with non-traditional mathematics backgroundsare at risk of struggling in traditional lectures where a certainlevel of knowledge is assumed. The pre-sessional course, calledFlying Start, aims both to reinforce the need for mathematicalcompetency and to raise awareness of and to encourage studentsto engage with the support facilities available to them oncethey start at University. The main constituents of the FlyingStart course are mathematics and engineering key skills workshops.Flying Start was introduced in 2003, growing from a pilot of11 Electrical Engineering students to 24 students from Electrical,Manufacturing and Materials Engineering in 2005. Following eachcourse, the performance of the Electrical Engineering studentsis monitored throughout the first year. This article examinesthe Flying Start students’ academic performance in lightof their mathematical background and their uptake of the additionalsupport on offer. Student feedback suggests that the pre-sessionalcourse offers the additional benefit of aiding the studentsin their transition into higher education. The implicationsof the feedback and the student performance data are also discussed.     

Electronic concentration of negatively-charged molecules on a microfabricated biochip

Various conditions leading to successful electronic concentration of negatively-charged molecules, notably oligonucleotides, on a microfabricated biochip have been studied. Tests on two chip designs have been performed. In the first generation biochip, which consisted of 12 electrodes 5 mm apart, fluorescent molecules were attracted to a positively-biased electrode leading to electronic concentration. In the second generation biochip, which consisted of eight electrodes 250 μm apart, much faster concentration rates were observed due to reduction in electrode spacing. These results are significant to design a pathogen detection biochip based on DNA hybridization assisted by electronic concentration.     

Evaluation of two new gadolinium chelates as contrast agents for MRI

Two new gadolinium chelates were investigated for potential use as tissue-specific contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. In vitro measurements of stability constants, octanol/water partition coefficients and relaxation times in solutions of water and human serum albumin (HSA) were performed with each new chelate and compared with gadolinium-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid, Gd(DTPA). Biodistribution studies and magnetic resonance imaging in rats were used to evaluate the new chelates in vivo. The stability constants (log K) of gadolinium-N,N″-bis(3-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-pyridylmethyl)diethylenetriamine-N,N′,N″-triacetic acid, Gd(DTTA-HP), and gadolinium-1,7-13-triaza-4,10-16-trioxacyclooctadecane-N,N′,N″-triacetic acid, Gd(TTCT), were determined to be 23.65 and 18.07, respectively. These can be compared to a literature value of 22.46 for Gd(DTPA). Octanol/water partition coefficients for both complexes showed they were more lipophilic than Gd(DTPA). Gd(DTTA-HP) exhibited a smaller relaxivity in water but a larger relaxivity in 4% HSA than Gd(DTPA). Gd(TTCT) exhibited a lower relaxivity than Gd(DTPA) in both water and 4% HSA. Both complexes showed similar biodistributions to Gd(DTPA) no carrier-added concentrations. Gd(DTTA-HP) had a greater percent change in signal intensity than Gd(DTPA) on T₁-weighted spin-echo images in the heart, liver, and kidney. Percent change in signal intensity for Gd(TTCT) was lower than Gd(DTPA) in heart, liver, and kidney.     

Modeling the complexity of genetic networks: Understanding multigenic and pleiotropic regulation

Molecular genetics presents an increasingly complex picture of the genome and biological function. Evidence is mounting for distributed function, redundancy, and combinatorial coding in the regulation of genes. Satisfactory explanation will require the concept of a parallel processing signaling network. Here we provide an introduction to Boolean networks and their relevance to present-day experimental research. Boolean network models exhibit global complex behavior, self-organization, stability, redundancy and periodicity, properties that deeply characterize biological systems. While the life sciences must inevitably face the issue of complexity, we may well look to cybernetics for a modeling language such as Boolean networks which can manageably describe parallel processing biological systems and provide a framework for the growing accumulation of data. We finally discuss experimental strategies and database systems that will enable mapping of genetic networks. The synthesis of these approaches holds an immense potential for new discoveries on the intimate nature of genetic networks, bringing us closer to an understanding of complex molecular physiological processes like brain development, and intractable medical problems of immediate importance, such as neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, and a variety of genetic diseases.     

A molecular mechanics analysis of molecular recognition by cyclodextrin mimics of α-chymotrypsin

The method of molecular mechanics is used to investigate the structural and electrostatic features of molecular recognition by β-cyclodextrin and capped β-cyclodextrin models of α-chymotrypsin. Since capped β-cyclodextrin has been shown to be the more effective biomimetic catalyst, these features of molecular recognition can be interpreted in terms of the relationship between molecular structure and catalytic function. Calculations in vacuo show that the addition of an N-methylformamide “cap” substituent to each glucose unit appears to change the relative orientation of some glucose fragments from that found in the X-ray structure of the β-cyclodextrin macrocycle. These results indicate that certain structural components of molecular recognition, such as the orientation of the secondary hydroxyls and the related orientation of the caps, may be implicated in the catalysis. In addition, the electrostatic component of molecular recognition was investigated by the analysis of molecular electrostatic potential maps calculated in planes parallel to the average plane of the glycosidic oxygen atoms. The results indicate that the addition of the caps to the β-cyclodextrin macrocycle subtly alters the pattern of the maps in each plane. However, the general qualitative features of electrostatic recognition by β-cyclodextrin and capped β-cyclodextrin are similar.     

Neuronal store-operated calcium entry pathway as a novel therapeutic target for Huntington's disease treatment

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by a polyglutamine expansion within Huntingtin (Htt) protein. In the phenotypic screen we identified a class of quinazoline-derived compounds that delayed a progression of a motor phenotype in transgenic Drosophila HD flies. We found that the store-operated calcium (Ca(2+)) entry (SOC) pathway activity is enhanced in neuronal cells expressing mutant Htt and that the identified compounds inhibit SOC pathway in HD neurons. The same compounds exerted neuroprotective effects in glutamate-toxicity assays with YAC128 medium spiny neurons primary cultures. We demonstrated a key role of TRPC1 channels in supporting SOC pathway in HD neurons. We concluded that the TRPC1-mediated neuronal SOC pathway constitutes a novel target for HD treatment and that the identified compounds represent a novel class of therapeutic agents for treatment of HD and possibly other neurodegenerative disorders.     

Pyrolysis mechanisms of thiophene and methylthiophene in asphaltenes

The pyrolysis mechanisms of thiophene in asphaltenes have been investigated theoretically using density functional and ab initio quantum chemical techniques. All of the possible reaction pathways were explored using B3LYP, MP2, and CBS-QB3 models. A comparison of the calculated heats of reaction with the available experimental values indicates that the CBS-QB3 level of theory is quantitatively reliable for calculating the energetic reaction paths of the title reactions. The pyrolysis process is initiated via four different types of hydrogen migrations. According to the reaction barrier heights, the dominant 1,2-H shift mechanism involves two competitive product channels, namely, C(2)H(2) + CH(2)CS and CS + CH(3)CCH. The minor channels include the formation of CS + CH(2)CCH(2), H(2)S + C(4)H(2), HCS + CH(2)CCH, CS + CH(2)CHCH, H + C(4)H(3)S, and HS + C(4)H(3). The methyl substitution effect was investigated with the pyrolysis of 2-methylthiophene and 3-methylthiophene. The energetics of such systems were very similar to that for unsubstituted thiophene, suggesting that thiophene alkylation may not play a significant role in the pyrolysis of asphaltene compounds.     

Multivariate analysis of emission decay matrices for distinguishing ground state heterogeneity and excited state reactions of tryptophan

The amino acid tryptophan displays emission solvatochromism, an emission maximum that shifts with solvent polarity, which is often used in protein studies to indicate local environment hydrophobicity. Use of tryptophan solvatochromism in time-resolved protein studies has traditionally been complicated due to the undescribed photokinetics that result in a characteristic multiexponential emission decay. For the first time, by application of the photokinetic matrix decomposition (PMD) multivariate curve resolution method to time-resolved emission decay (TRED) data, a distinguishment between ground state heterogeneous (GSH) and excited state reaction (ESR) type photokinetics of tryptophan in solution is made possible. It is found that molecular tryptophan displays two emission spectra that decay independently, suggesting GSH type photokinetics, one at 347 nm with a lifetime of 0.5 ns and one at 363 nm with a lifetime of 3.1 ns. When tryptophan is incorporated into a peptide, mastoparan X, the data similarly contain two emission spectra that decay independently, but are shifted in wavelength. Photobleaching experiments confirm that the PMD method is sensitive to tryptophan emission quenching, and therefore may be applied to determine the photokinetics of tryptophan that occur in proteins. Future applications of PMD analysis of tryptophan TRED data as a bioanalytical tool for further characterizing dynamic protein processes are discussed.