Math/Stat 750
Introduction to Interdisciplinary Consulting

Fall 2003 - Matthias K. Gobbert and Nagaraj K. Neerchal

Class Presentations of the Consulting Projects

This page can be reached via the homepage of the Scientific Computing and Statistical Data Analysis Lab at http://www.math.umbc.edu/~gobbert/scsdal.

Program for Day 1

Tuesday, December 02, 2003, 10:00 a.m., MP 401

Session chair: Matthias K. Gobbert

  1. 10:05-10:15
    An Algorithm for Locating Amino Acid Residues in Proteins
    Samuel G. Webster
    Client: Dr. Mauricio M. Bustos, Department of Biological Sciences, UMBC
    Proteins are molecules composed of linear sequences of amino acids. Each protein possesses its own unique, intricate, three-dimensional structure that determines its functionality. Very often, amino acids that are far apart in the linear sequence are found next to each other in the protein. The goal of molecular biologists is to correctly identify these amino acids and then alter the structure of the protein. I have designed an algorithm that extracts a 3-D volume element from a protein and returns all amino acids that lie within the element. Additionally, the linear sequence with the highlighted amino acids is returned.
    Project mentor: Matthias K. Gobbert

  2. 10:20-10:30
    Analysis of Nursing Behavior in Mother/Calf Dolphin Pairs
    Karen L. Osborne
    Client: T. David Schofield, Manager, Ocean Health Programs/MARP, National Aquarium in Baltimore
    It is suspected that there is a difference in nursing and other care-giving behaviors between experienced dolphin mothers and inexperienced, e.g., first-time dolphin mothers. Quantifiable differences in the occurrence of certain behaviors can be identified as playing an important role in the survivability of the calves. Behavioral data was provided on three dolphins and their calves, for a 10-week time period. The assumption is that the frequency data provided follow a Poisson distribution, and that these counts are potentially influenced by dolphin and time. A Poisson regression model was fit to the count data using these variables, and appropriate tests were developed to determine if the differences were significant.
    Project mentor: Nagaraj K. Neerchal

  3. 10:35-10:55
    Statistical Analysis of Proteomics Data
    Ravi Siddani and Alex Sverdlov
    Client: Dr. Brian P. Bradley, Department of Biological Sciences, UMBC
    An important application of proteomics is comparison of 2D gel images of protein mixtures taken from several treatment groups. These images can be coded as binary 30X30 matrices, with 1 indicating the presence, and 0 the absence, respectively, of a protein in a gel. Two statistical methods, a permutation test, and a cluster analysis have been implemented to see whether gels taken from 6 treatment groups have different structures. Distributions of permutation test statistics and the corresponding p-values were obtained for each pair of treatments under consideration. Clusters of gels showing the differences between treatment groups were obtained. The results are consistent for the two considered methods.
    Project mentor: Nagaraj K. Neerchal

Program for Day 2

Thursday, December 04, 2003, 10:00 a.m., MP 401

Session chair: Nagaraj K. Neerchal

  1. 10:05-10:25
    Lameness Index in Dairy Cattle
    Minglei Liu and Yanping Wu
    Client: Dr. Uri Tasch, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UMBC
    A team led by Dr. Tasch developed a Reaction Force Detection (RFD) system to predict the lameness of cows, which is a very important issue for the dairy industry. The objective of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the RFD. In the project, a cutoff point is chosen for the predicted lameness index which minimizes misclassifications, and the various associations among the lameness and ralted variables are demonstrated by variety of plots and tables.
    Project mentor: Nagaraj K. Neerchal

  2. 10:30-10:40
    Using a Fourier Method to Solve a Convection-Diffusion Equation
    Zhibin Sun
    Client: Dr. Andrew Tangborn, Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    For a particular kind of partial differential equation, the convection-diffusion equation with periodic conditions, we can use a Fourier method, which is implemented by FFT, to transform it into a system of ordinary differential equations. These are solved using the Crank-Nicolson scheme for time-stepping. We will see that this Fourier method works well for certain problems, whose frequency is in the range of the Fourier expansion. The results of experiments show that the method is effective.
    Project mentor: Matthias K. Gobbert

  3. 10:45-10:55
    A Finite Difference Solution of a One-Dimensional Non-Linear Reaction-Diffusion System with a Fast Reaction
    Ana Maria Soane
    Client: Dr. Thomas I. Seidman, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, UMBC
    A chemical process involving three reactive species is modeled by a non-linear system of three reaction-diffusion equations in one spatial dimension. The problem is challenging numerically, because one reaction is much faster than the other one. Mathematical analysis and numerical results exist for the steady-state system. The goal of this project is to solve the time-dependent system numerically, to confirm the intuition on the system's behavior. After discretizing in space using finite differences, implicit time stepping is used. Results both for the steady-state problem and for the transient problem will be shown.
    Project mentor: Matthias K. Gobbert

Copyright © 2003 by Matthias K. Gobbert and Nagaraj K. Neerchal. All Rights Reserved.
This page version 1.2, November 2003.