Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Texts

As a supplement to material in the class notes, there is a required text for the course: Costanzo, Linda S. Physiology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 2002. ISBN: 9780721695495. This is a basic reference for the material to be covered.

An alternative text is recommended for students desiring a more comprehensive reference: Berne, R. M., and M. N. Levy. Physiology. 5th ed. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 2003. ISBN: 9780323022255.

Quizzes

There are three quizzes. Each quiz will count 15% of the final grade for the course.

Final Exam

There will be a final examination, which will count 35% of the course grade.

Home Problems

A total of 10 home problem sets will be assigned. Periodic home problem sets will be assigned. Problem sets will be posted on the web site; no hard copies will be handed out. Students are expected to do the problems and hand in their solutions, which will be reviewed and returned. Performance on homework will count 10% toward the final grade. Please hand in your best effort on time (before the answers are provided). But remember, there is an enormous difference between a partially successful attempt, and no attempt at all! You get a zero for no homework, but will get up to 50% of full credit even if late.

Laboratory Exercises

There are 6 laboratory exercises in the course, each lasting approximately 3 hours, except where noted. (Lab 3 consists of three individual sessions.) These include:

Lab 1: Anatomy of the Heart

Lab 2: Electrophysiology of the Frog Heart (write-up required)

Lab 3: Mammalian Circulation: (write-up required)

• Orientation Discussion (Orientation discussion takes 3 hours)
  
  
• Laboratory (Lab is a day-long activity)
  
  
• Discussion of Results (Discussion of results takes 3 hours)

Lab 4: Pulmonary Modeling

Lab 5: Life-saving Cardiovascular Technology: Case Presentation

Lab 6: Graduate Student Symposium and Dinner

This course includes two animal labs (Labs 2 and 3). The first demonstrates cardiac electrophysiology and the second focuses on cardiovascular hemodynamics and control. These laboratory experiences are of great importance to the objectives of the course, and teach both complex physiology and also experimental technique. They cannot be replaced by textbooks or mathematical simulation. All students are expected to participate in these labs.

Laboratory Reports

Lab reports are required for laboratory exercises. We expect the lab reports to be written neatly and concisely. Each student submits a report, although a group may collaborate in data analysis. The standards by which we judge the lab reports are based upon:

• Adequate, clear record of your experimental procedures. It is not necessary to repeat material already described in the hand-outs!
  
  
• A brief but accurate description of your experimental results. Explain and show what you measured in lab, and make note of any problems, difficulties, or characteristics in the data that may be useful later in making interpretations (noisy signals, instabilities, etc.). Copies of actual data should be included whenever possible. You may make a (xerox) copy of the data (only) from your partner's notebook and include the copy in your notebook.
  
  
• Succinct discussions of your results. Use the literature to help you interpret what you measured. Think hard about what happened, and then write the number of words necessary to convey your interpretation.

Please record the names of those you worked with in each experiment.

Reports are due not later than one week after your lab period (unless otherwise established by the staff), and should be handed in to the teaching assistant.

Late reports are unacceptable, except in emergency situations for which arrangements have been worked out in advance with the teaching assistant. In some experiments, the lab staff will want to look at your data before you leave the laboratory to be sure that you got something reasonable with which to work. Note: Lab reports are required in order to complete the course and are worth 10% of the final grade. Every year one or two students forget this point and end up getting "incompletes" for grades. Don't be one of them!

Grades

In summary, the final grade will be assessed on the following basis:

Course Ethics

Homework Exercises

Homework Exercises are designed primarily to help you to learn. You may do them alone, or you may work with others. You may make use of all available reference material. If you work together with other student(s) you should formally recognize that fact in writing. For example, "This problem was solved jointly by myself and ______________." This policy is completely consistent with all scientific writing, and recognizes joint efforts. Note that collaboration on homework does not in any way detract from your own credit. On the other hand, undeclared collaboration is not ethical.

Laboratory Reports

Each student must submit his/her individual write-up. Data should be duplicated. Group discussions of results are encouraged. Your report should indicate the composition of your research group.