Nobel-Thoughts

Back to school tips: How to write a research paper

2011-08-15T12:42:00.001-04:00

Classes are starting and it has been a while, hasn’t it? You’re now busy getting back into the swing of things, but while you’ve been away, you may have forgotten some vital information about how to write a research paper. There may also be some key components of writing papers with which you’ve always struggled. Here are some back to school tips to keep in mind while starting your first research paper this school year to help create your best work.
Brainstorm!
The best way to write a great research paper is to choose a topic in which you’re genuinely interested. Many professors allow you to choose your own topic, and if not, you can generally choose your own direction to take it. Often, students will choose a topic that seems easy as opposed to one they find interesting. Unfortunately, you’ll find that you quickly run out of steam researching those “easy” topics. Choose something you’re truly passionate about, narrow it down from a broad idea, and get to researching! Check out these ideas on where to look when brainstorming research topics from the post, “How to Find Research Paper Topics from Everyday Life,” from the Smart Students Conference blog. Or head straight to Questia.com to look at our research topics page backed with millions of sources.
Establish goals.
This massive paper may seem daunting when it is first assigned but this is your chance to get a head start on things and establish goals. Pace yourself and allow time to do your paper justice. Outlines are a great way to stay organized. A good place to start for help on your research paper outline format is collegeessaytips.org. A 15 page paper spread out over a few weeks is no sweat if you set realistic goals and timeframes for yourself. (Planning to leave everything for the last minute is not a plan; you’ll hate yourself for it later.)
Put honesty first.
While developing your research paper, try not to forget that the more tech-savvy you become, the more experienced your professors get, too. They’ve seen it all by now, so don’t try to outsmart them by taking short-cuts and not doing honest, well-developed research. Choosing credible sources for your research paper is the only way to succeed. Consider submitting your finished paper to writecheck.com, a website that reviews papers for plagiarism, before you hand it in. There are many ways for professors to check whether or not your work is your own and the consequences could involve you failing the assignment, the class, or in extreme cases even being expelled from your university. It’s never worth it.
Double check citations!
With the variety of ever-changing writing styles, it can be hard to get your Works Cited or bibliography page in order. It’s always better to ask your professor for guidance than to fall victim to unconscious plagiarism, which can still get you into trouble if you’re not careful. According to the article “The Effects of Repeated Idea Elaboration on Unconscious Plagiarism,” individuals also have a tendency to repeat information without remembering or giving credit to where they got it from originally. This is why it’s important to keep your sources and notes well-organized. Questia helps you to do both these things with highlighting and notes, source folders, and citation help.
Don’t set yourself up to fail.
In an article called “It Was Just That I Was Afraid,” author Rebecca D. Cox addresses students’ fear of failure and the huge impact this can have on your self-esteem and overall performance. Simply because your professor assigns you what seems to be an impossibly long research paper does not mean that you are doomed to fail. Your professors want you to succeed and are usually quite eager to help. Don’t be afraid to take on something extraordinary just because it may require some hard work.
Staying on top of your research papers always makes life easier. With these five back-to-school research paper tips, you’ll quickly be on your way to a stress-free semester with results you’ll be happy with.

Reference

Canadian Nitric Oxide Society (CNOS)

2010-06-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

The 6th Canadian Nitric Oxide Society (CNOS) Conference will be held in Conron Hall, University College, University of Western Ontario on June 10-11th, 2010. This will be an exciting meeting on the cutting-edge research on the biochemical properties and physiological roles of nitric oxide. Dr. Dennis Stuehr from the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio will be giving the keynote lecture.

visit the website

2010-04-15T20:46:00.000-04:00

گاهی وقت ها خودت ارزش کارت رو میفهمی و استاد راهنمات نه.
بعضی وقت ها استاد راهنمات ارزش کارت رو می فهمه و خودت نه.
!گاهی وقت ها هم نه خودت ارزش کارت رو میفهمی نه استاد راهنمات

Will Humans Succeed in Correcting Nature's mistakes?

2009-11-15T11:56:00.000-05:00

In picture, Shinya Yamanaka, the investigator who is famous for generated induced pluripotent stem cells. He is the one that most scientists believe he will be granted a Nobel Prize in near future.

Eye vs Microscope

2009-10-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

I asked, why the picture that I can see on the microscope is much better than the one showing on the monitor? Is it because of the low quality of the camera built on the microscope?

-No, That's because so far no one could design a camera to see better than your eyes!...maybe in future.

A Nobel Prize Winner Family

2009-10-09T00:52:00.000-04:00

A scientist family from grand mother to mother and grand children.
I am impressed by achivments of this family and how they dedicate themselves for conducting science. Marie Curie, now the grand mother of this family win two Nobel prizes, her housband Peirre Curie did also win a Nobel prize. Their daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, continued their research and shared a Nobel prize with her husband. Now their children Helen and Peirre are good Scientists as well. Wonder if the genes of science and Nobel winning passed through the grand children to the grand grand children. Here comes the family in a few pictures.

Young Irene Joliot-Curie

Young Irene Joliot-Curie with her husband Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie

The grandchildren of Marie, Helen and Pierre

Hard Work

2009-08-18T18:21:00.000-04:00

It is hard to define what is "hard working". "Hard work" feels different for different people. Stay with a regular basis work hours and make it your habit. Make sure you have accomplished something during your day time and have the feeling that you proceeded in your goals toward to your project.

From the quotes of my supervisor Q.F

Fellowship for Women in Science

2009-08-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

L'Oreal will give fellowship to 15 best women scientist round the word who are from countries with less scientific equipment. Ms. Shiva Seyed Forootan from Iran, won this award in 2003 to continue her research in Molecular Biology of University of Liverpool. She plans to investigate the potential of using a molecular marker as a tool for early diagnosis of prostate cancer.

When is good to lay eggs?

2009-08-08T12:48:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting news about finding a photo-receptor protein responsible for understanding changes in day's length. Being able to distinguish the winter, spring and summer days help birds to lay egg at the time which is safe for the babies and also at the time that enough food is around to feed them. Researchers of the University of Oxford found out a photoreceptor in the hypothalamus of birds. Hypothalamus regulates reproduction system. This receptor was first discovered back in 97 in Salmon eyes and was called "vertebrate ancient opsin (VA opsin)". This shows conservation of this protein, and it will be amazing if any mammalian lab group reports existence of the homologue of this protein in mammals.
The article on this discovery can be found in this issue of Current Biology.

Wnt signaling in early cardiac specification and differentiation.

2009-08-07T14:47:00.000-04:00

(A) Cross-section of the trunk of a post-gastrulation mouse embryo depicting how various Wnt ligands and Wnt antagonists impinge upon early cardiac mesoderm specification. Dorsal is uppermost. Green tube represents the notochord, the green bottom layer represents the early definitive endoderm, blue indicates the neuroectoderm, red indicates precardiac mesoderm and yellow represents splanchnic mesoderm. Wnt1 and Wnt3a are expressed in neuroectoderm, while Wnt11 and others, including Wnt2a and Wnt2b (not shown), are expressed in precardiac mesoderm. Wnt antagonists crescent and Dkk1 are expressed in the underlying definitive endoderm and inhibit canonical Wnt signaling in the precardiac mesoderm. (B) Studies in ES cells (yellow) show that activation of Wnt signaling prior to, or around the same time as, cardiac mesoderm specification results in increased cardiac differentiation of cardiac myocytes (red), whereas later Wnt signaling activation inhibits cardiac differentiation significantly (Naito et al., 2006). (C) A model showing how Wnt signaling is important for cardiac induction but is inhibitory to later cardiac differentiation. This control could be partly due to the effects of Wnt antagonists secreted from the underlying endoderm.

Wnt Signalling Pathways

2009-08-07T14:43:00.000-04:00

Wnt signaling cause stabilization and nuclear accomulation of B-catenin.
Loss of B-catenin expression cause a dramatic decrease in the number of IsL 1+ cardiac progenitor cells. Also this subsequently will cause loss of more SHF structures. (Note that Isl 1 is expressed specifically in SHF cells).

Induction of B-catenin expression cause an increase in the number of IsL1 cells.
Cardiac ISl 1 expansion (Both specification and prolifferation) is related to Wnt-B-Catenine canonical pathway.

In ChIP assay B-catenin directly binds and regulates Isl1 promoter.

Deleting B Catenin of Myocardial and vascular smooth muscle (by Cre method) or only myocardial cells will result in reduction in the number of Isl1 cells; but expression level of Isl1 is not changed. This appears to be the effect of a dramatic reduction in the proliferation of Isl 1 cells in ORF.

Heart development in mice

2009-08-07T12:36:00.000-04:00

Picture A shows an embryonic heart on the day 7.75-8.0, Picture B shows day E8.0-8.5, Picture C shows day E9.5 and Picture D shows E12.5, and at E late embryonic/postnatal stages is shown.
Red shows First Heart Field (FHF) and Blue shows Second Heart Field (SHF).
In A cells in FHF migrate from the lateral sides to the ventral side and form a tube like structure. In C you can see migration of cells in SHF from the OFT (out flow tract) from both anterior and posterior sites to the heart.

Picture taken from Development 135, 789-798 (2008)

MY PROJECT

2008-06-12T12:19:00.000-04:00

HOX proteins function in drosophila.

HOX proteins function is regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation.

My project is focused on understanding PP2A role in dephosphorylation and activation of HOX proteins specificly, SCR and UBX. PP2A, a major serine theronine phosphatase, was sugessted as a an enzyme regulating SCR function by dephosphorylating and activating SCR. SCR is nessesory for formation of salivary glands and sex combs.

Methods that I used for testing effect of PP2A on dephosphorylation of HOX proteins.
transgenic flies and generating deletion in B" subunit.

the results that I got. B' subunit is not required.

Testing functional redundance of this subunit.
testing if PP2A has a role in development aspects of fruit fly.

2007-10-06T13:17:00.001-04:00

First post