Special REU Presentations
Computational Modeling of the Thyroid Hormones Homeostasis and Its Manipulation by Chemicals
Kai Bartlette
This summer, I attended an REU program in Modeling and Industrial Applied Mathematics at North Carolina State University. During my 11-week stay, my research team focused on developing a model to show how the drug propylthioracil (PTU) inhibits hormone production in the thyroid gland. Propylthiouracil is usually a treatment for hyperthyroidism. To describe the interaction between propylthiouracil and these hormones, a thyroid hormone production model was created adapted from Ekerot et al. comparing thyroid hormones in dogs. A physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was then created to provide a basis for concentration equations. After solving the differential equations for drug concentrations in each organ, a dynamic model for thyroid hormone production was created by connecting the thyroid model to the PBPK model.
The Plus-Minus Weighted Davenport Constant
Benjamin Wright
This 2014 summer, I was part of a team investigating the plus-minus weighted Davenport constant of finite abelian groups in an REU program at Fairfield University. The plus-minus weighted Davenport constant of a finite abelian group, G, is the least natural number, k, such that every sequence of length k in G has plus-minus weighted zero sum subsequence. In this talk, I will introduce the general bounds on the plus-minus weighted Davenport constant, describe the experience and process of working on the problem, and present the results of our work at Fairfield. There will certainly be no time for humorous anecdotes in this talk.
