Project 1 Report Issues

1. Project 1 Report Issues Anthony E. Butterfield CH EN 4903-1 “I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. “ ~ Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)

2. Planning • Make use of your team. • Someone should analyze your data as you go. • Decide who is doing a formal and who is doing a memo report today. • If you haven’t already, start writing the 2nd report now. • Introduction, Theory, Table of Nomenclature, equipment details…

3. Planning II • Calculations (error or otherwise) • Humans have better things to do. • Do them once, put it in an appendix, write a program, and let silicon do the rest. • Use the rubrics. • Don’t try to fill pages up with unneeded information. • Do your experiments with attention to collecting the needed information.

4. Introduction • References. • Show the reader that you’ve studied the background of your topic. • Use the Library Databases and/or Google Scholar. • In remaining projects, your intro should have at least two references to peer-reviewed journal articles relevant to your project. • Start broad and make sure you address the point of your work.

5. Reporting Data • Units! • Confidence intervals and levels. • Only need to state level once, if you stick with it. • Significant figures. • Scientific notation. • Bad = 0.00000432492 • Good = 4.32e-6 ± 2e-8 V

6. Reporting Data • Quantify wherever you can. • Write the remaining reports without words like “good” or “bad” unless you’ve put a number to your judgment. • The reader wants numbers and they will judge for themselves: How good? How hot? How long? How close? Public domain image from Wiki Commons

7. Materials and Methods • Much more detail needed to fulfill rubric and professional requirements. • Chemicals are materials too. • List manufacture, purity, lot numbers… • Your appendix is not a vital organ. • Do not rely on the appendices for inclusion of equipment and materials information needed to repeat your work.

8. Figures • Each figure needs a title and caption below it that explains them sufficiently. Figure 18.1. Hypothetical Model for ncdBidirectionality. A schematic of a ncd motor domain interacting with a microtubule is shown, with the neck region also depicted in order to show two possible different power strokes based on the neck region orientation at attachment. For both positive (conventional) and negative power strokes, the hypothetical measurement of xAT is also shown in the x-y plane. These measurements correspond to the finding in our data analysis. D represents ADP attached to the motor domain, T represents ATP, and T* represents ATP or some mid or full step towards the hydrolysis of ATP to ADP and release of ADP from the motor domain. In both cases the motors begin free in solution (a). They then attach to the microtubule (b). From there, ADP is lost and the motor more strongly attaches. Once an ATP arrives, the lever arm, during both positive and negative power strokes, moves to a midpoint of the power stroke, which may involve a y-axis component in the swing of a protein arm (c). In this way, the motor may be seen to take either a positive or negative power stroke based on its initial conditions, approximately 100 ms before detachment. Furthermore, both the positive and negative power strokes merge into the same proposed protein structural midpoint. From there the motor completes its stroke only by orientating the lever arm towards the minus end of the microtubule (d), from which point the motor releases from the microtubule and the cycle may begin again (e).

9. Figures • Label subplots (e.g. Figure 11.1a, 11.1b, 11.1c…). Figure 11.1. Syntactic Characterization Results. a) Equilibrium displacements b) Terminal displacements c) Interevent displacements d) Y-axis displacements.

10. Figures • If you resize, watch theFont Size! • Figures are intellectual property too; give credit. • If you scan out of a text, you must give reference. • If you copy from a group member, credit that person. • Teach yourself to make informative, and aesthetic figures. • A free alternative to Adobe Photoshop: • Gimp • A free vector-based alternative to Adobe Illustrator: • Inkscape

11. Miscellaneous • “Data are” not “Data is”. • Page numbers. • Use section breaks in Word (for example). • Credit sources of equations. • You are, in a way, telling a story of nonfiction (NPR Segment). • (Exposition – Action – Resolution, Synthesis) =(Introduction – Methods, Results – Conclusions). • Make sure you know what information belongs in which section. • Capitalize proper nouns: “The viscosity found using Equation 12, is shown in Table 3.”