When students make the transition from one curriculum to another, with significant overlap of content, the challenge is not so much to impart new information but rather to tap into students' existing knowledge base. The purpose of this study was to determine if achievement in an external examination that requires analysis could be enhanced by the…

Plants defend themselves against pathogens via the expressions of disease resistance (R) genes. Many plant R gene products contain the characteristic nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains. There are highly conserved motifs within the NBS domain which could be targeted for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cloning of R…

A laboratory experiment designed as part of an upper-level undergraduate analytical chemistry course is described. Students investigate two popular soft drinks (Red Bull Energy Drink and sugar-free Red Bull Energy Drink) by NMR spectroscopy. With assistance of modern NMR prediction software they identify and quantify major components in each…

A study presented on the effect of parenting on stress response and other behaviors show that animals exposed to a high degree of nurturing show a blunted response to stress. Molecular mechanisms responsible for these differences in the adult offspring as well as the molecular mechanisms by which epigenetic effects are propagated from one…

The stochastic simulation of chemical reactions, specifically, a simple reversible chemical reaction obeying the first-order, i.e., linear, rate law, has been presented by Martinez-Urreaga and his collaborators in this journal. The current contribution is intended to complement and augment their work in two aspects. First, the simple reversible…

The [Co(4-pyrimidinolate)[subscript 2](H[subscript 2]O)[subscript n]] species, which can be easily and selectively prepared by simple addition of aqueous solutions of the 4-pyrimidinolate organic ligand to Co(II) acetate (or nitrate) aqueous solutions (n = 4, 6) or by controlled heating of the hydrated phases (n = 0), proved to be versatile…

Within the historical context of the development of chemistry, Avogadro's hypothesis represents a fundamental concept: It allowed Avogadro to explain Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes and it allowed Cannizzaro to establish a more accurate set of atomic mass values. If students are going to understand the concept of relative atomic masses and…

Mitosis and meiosis are essential for the growth, development, and reproduction of organisms. Because these processes are essential to life, both are emphasized in biology texts, state standards, and the National Science Education Standards. In this article, the authors present their methodology for teaching mitosis by having students produce…

We present a toy model of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in (1 + 1) dimensions. The QED model is much simpler than QED in (3 + 1) dimensions but exhibits many of the same physical phenomena, and serves as a pedagogical introduction to both QED and quantum field theory in general. We show how the QED model can be derived by quantizing a toy model of…

We give a systematic development of the theory of the radiation field of an accelerated charged particle with reference to an inertial reference frame in flat spacetime. Special emphasis is given to the role of the Schott energy and momentum in the energy-momentum balance of the charge and its field. It is shown that the energy of the radiation…

This paper focuses on the use of scaling aspects for understanding transport processes with reaction in catalytic pores and pellets. The idea is to identify a systematic up-scaling approach in the learning process to help students with several concepts related to the transport-reaction process and the mathematical description associated with them.…

In the framework of Noether's theorem, a distinction between Lagrangian and dynamical symmetries is made, in order to clarify some aspects neglected by textbooks. An intuitive setting of the concept of invariance of differential equations is presented. The analysis is completed by deriving the symmetry properties in the motion of a charged…

This article describes how to establish a primary tissue culture, where cells are taken directly from an organ of a living animal. Cardiac cells are taken from chick embryos and transferred to culture dishes. These cells are not transformed and therefore have a limited life span. However, the unique characteristics of cardiac cells are maintained…

The formation of many forms of long-term memory requires several molecular mechanisms including regulation of gene expression. The mechanisms directing transcription require not only activation of individual transcription factors but also recruitment of transcriptional coactivators. CBP and p300 are transcriptional coactivators that interact with…

The guided-inquiry approach is applied to the reactions of sodium borohydride and phenyl magnesium bromide with benzaldehyde, benzophenone, benzoic anhydride, and ethyl benzoate. Each team of four students receives four unknowns. Students identify the unknowns and their reaction products by using the physical state of the unknown, an…