Feb. 1 Journal Club

We have been working on stable isotopes in Ecology for our last two meetings. This afternoon, one of our senior math students presented his poster on his meta-data analysis of stable isotope data for mammals. He is looking at some of the assumptions in the models currently used in diet reconstruction. We also discussed a paper by Dr. Boecklen and one of his former graduate students- the punch line is that Oryx in NM clearly have a diet richer in C3 plants (relative to their S. African counterparts, who have a diet richer in C4 grasses). This diet expansion may contribute to the success of the Oryx in NM.

We also enjoyed green enchiladas (and rice and beans)- we didn't get a chance to take a vote, but as there were no leftovers, I think they were a hit!

On a side note, we needed some zesty enchiladas to keep us warm during an unseasonable cold spell- we have snow flakes in the air and its predicted to get down into the single digits (oF) for the next two nights- see the students bundled up as we waited for journal to start!

Exam Week Enchiladas

While this was a regular journal club week, we decided to forgo a journal article and simply enjoy a break from studying and some enchiladas from Si Senor. We had a guest (family member) join us, and we were happy to spend an hour relaxing!

Here are the fruit fly ratings of the enchiladas (where 5 is high and 1 is low):
Average rating: 3.54
Number of 5's: 2
Number of 4's: 2
Number of 3.5's: 3
Number of 3's: 4
Number of 2's: 1
Number of 1's: 0

Some of the comments:
"its the sweet taste of the end of the semester"
"kick-free"
"nice balance of flavors"

Now that you have taken a green chili enchilada break, get back to studying for finals ;)

Our first meeting of the new year is (tentatively) scheduled for Tuesday, January 18th. Keep an eye out for our new location in the Math department.

Hope everybody has a wonderful break!!!!

November Math Bio

We had a "two for one" journal club on the 2nd. One paper was about reading scientific papers (for our new students), then we started to look at a Wolbachia paper. We continued to discuss the Wolbachia paper and model at our next workshop. The students worked to dissect some of the equations in the paper- and we learned about the importance of "hidden 1's".

Our green enchiladas were from Habaneros (yes, back to green), and were devoured in short order. The average dipteran rating was 4.0 (on a 5-point scale, where 5 flies is the highest rating). Some of the comments included:
"chick-a-licious"
"very chicken-y"
"moderately spicy"
"not spicy enough"
"too spicy"
"perfect spice"
"good flavo(u)r"

As you can see, we have a range of tastes and tolerances for the green chile!

Here is a link for Habarenos, in case you'd like to form your own opinion:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/196/1441245/restaurant/Habaneros-Fresh-Mexican-Food-Las-Cruces

October Professional Development Workshop

Our two senior students were kind (brave?) enough to share their draft personal statements for peer review. We had looked at suggestions for writing strong personal statements, so we had these in mind as we reviewed for our Math Bio seniors. They both got constructive feedback, and will be able to use this to revise their statements before their applications for grad school are submitted.

October Journal Club and Welcome Reception

We welcomed our new Math Bio students with a journal club and *red* enchiladas- yes, RED. As you can see from the reviews, red is just not as popular with the Math Bio group here at NMSU. So while we will go back to green in the future, it was good to have tried something different!

Stable Isotope Workshop

Dr. Boecklen presented an introduction to stable isotopes in ecology on Tuesday (June 1). We learned about two important aspects of stable isotope analysis (and the associated math): diet reconstruction and dietary changes (aka isotope incorporation dynamics). As we discussed the diet reconstruction, we looked at a number of equations that would allow us to solve for dietary components. The one that we are still contemplating, and will be looking at in our next journal club, is the mixing model approach. We will be paying particular attention to the some of the assumptions of this model.

And of course the "bottom line" is to always pay attention to the number of equations and the number of variables that you have (this will not be news to the math crew!).

Looking forward to our paper and discussion in two weeks- stay tuned. Oh- and we'll be sampling and reviewing enchiladas- yum...

Summer Orientation

We had our summer orientation session on Tuesday, May 18th. We (of course) served enchiladas. I am sure you are wondering where the photo-documentation of said enchiladas is....well, it didn't happen this time. BUT, by now you have a very good idea of what green chile enchiladas with chicken look like (see any previous post!). The enchiladas were from Si Senor this time, and there seemed to be a wider range of fruit fly rankings than usual. The average was 3.4 fruit flies (out of a possible 5), the range was from 2 to 4.5, the variance (based on my back of the napkin calculation) was 0.64, giving a standard deviation of 0.8. How about that for some Math Bio summary of the fruit fly rankings of Si Senor's enchiladas? In general, people liked the cheese quotient (high), but wished for a little more heat: "bam it up a notch".

We also had good fun mocking the delicious, Canadian and magnetized water (I'll let you guess which of those properties made us laugh the hardest. Shouldn't be too hard, eh?)

And of course we reviewed the summer schedule, expectations and logistics. Our three RE-1 students will be working in labs, attending workshops and journal clubs, doing lots of reading, and working on developing a formal plan/timeline for what they need to do (and when) for their next steps (graduate school, medical school etc.).

The last week of the summer will feature student presentations, the post-test (part of our assessment and evaluation plan) and the BBQ. So stay tuned for updates over the summer!