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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Investigating How Calcium Diffusion Affects Metabolic Oscillations And Synchronization Of Pancreatic Beta Cells, George Eskandar, Jennifer Houser, Ellen Prochaska, Jessica Wojtkiewicz, Teresa Lebair, Bradford E. Peercy, Margaret Watts, Arthur Sherman May 2016

Investigating How Calcium Diffusion Affects Metabolic Oscillations And Synchronization Of Pancreatic Beta Cells, George Eskandar, Jennifer Houser, Ellen Prochaska, Jessica Wojtkiewicz, Teresa Lebair, Bradford E. Peercy, Margaret Watts, Arthur Sherman

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Diabetes is a disease characterized by improper concentrations of blood glucose due to irregular insulin production or sensitivity. Coupled in islets of Langerhans within the pancreas, β-cells are responsible for the production and regulation of insulin based on changes in glucose levels. Using the Dual Oscillator Model (DOM), we will examine how calcium handling between individual pancreatic β-cells affects the synchronization of metabolic oscillations within electrically coupled islets. Calcium permeability was implemented into the DOM, and numerical solutions of the system were obtained via MATLAB using a modified ordinary differential equation solver for stiff systems and the Automatic Differentiation for …


Spontaneous Calcium Release In Cardiac Myocytes: Store Overload And Electrical Dynamics, Amanda M. Alexander, Erin K. Denardo, Eric Frazier Iii, Michael Mccauley, Nicholas Rojina, Zana Coulibaly, Bradford E. Peercy, Leighton T. Izu May 2016

Spontaneous Calcium Release In Cardiac Myocytes: Store Overload And Electrical Dynamics, Amanda M. Alexander, Erin K. Denardo, Eric Frazier Iii, Michael Mccauley, Nicholas Rojina, Zana Coulibaly, Bradford E. Peercy, Leighton T. Izu

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. One cause of heart arrhythmia is calcium (Ca2+) mishandling in cardiac muscle cells. We adapt Izu's et al. mathematical reaction-diffusion model of calcium in cardiac muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes implemented by Gobbert, and analyzed in Coulibaly et al. to include calcium being released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), the effects of buffers in the SR, particularly calsequestrin, and the effects of Ca2+ influx due to voltage across the cell membrane. Based on simulations of the model implemented in parallel using MPI, our findings aligned with …


How Infectious Was #Deflategate?, Megan Eberle, Eric A. Eager, James Peirce May 2016

How Infectious Was #Deflategate?, Megan Eberle, Eric A. Eager, James Peirce

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

In mid-January 2015 the National Football League (NFL) started an investigation into whether the New England Patriots deliberately deflated the footballs used during their AFC Championship win. Like an infectious disease, the initial discussion regarding Deflategate grew rapidly on social media sites in the days after the release of the story, only to slowly dissipate as interest in the NFL waned following the completion of its season. We apply a simple epidemic model for the infectiousness of the Deflategate news story. We find that the infectiousness of Deflategate rivals that of many of the infectious diseases that we have seen …