BIOL398-01/S10:Class Journal Week 3

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Kristoffer Chin

Week 3 journal Entry

Week 3 Assignment Page

Lab Reflection

  1. The Purpose of the assignment was to better understand the techniques in searching science articles through specific search engines. These search engines helps find a a reliable source rather than using a generic one like Google. THe enginges used were PubMed, Google Scholar and, ISI Web of Knowledge. The assignment also helped exercise reading and imporving analysis on scientific journal articles to become a critical reviewer.
  2. Prior to the assignment, I already had some experience in using the PubMed search engine along with Google Scholar and ISI Web of Knowledge. That part was easy, but I did have a difficult time finding a review article. I am more used to finding primary sources rather than review articles and this helped me with that. I am learned how to actively read a scientific journal through outlining it and taking time rather than rushing.
  3. I understood the assignment pretty well, but I do not really understand the need for review articles. I know that they can help with accompanyment in reading the primary source, but I alwasy thought it is better to read that instead of a review.

--Kristoffer T. Chin 00:06, 8 February 2010 (EST)

Salomon Garcia

  1. The purpose of this assignment was to get used with using the database and finding relevant information on HIV-1.
  2. The important aspects that I learned from this assignment was how to use pubmed, being my first time and all it was an interesting experience. Especially when so many different articles showed with the search.
  3. For the most part I understood everything from this assignment, the only part where I had some problem was when it came to the article of Markham, to interpret the stats that is to be presented to the class even though we noticed many significant aspects and characteristics that are relevant and hard to explain.

Angela Garibaldi

  1. The purpose of this assignment was to practice reading through a scientific journal article on a topic that we have little knowledge of in order to get in the habit of looking up terms we do not know in order to better understand the experiment that was conducted and its importance. It was also meant to teach us how important it is to understand the tables and figures that convey data and to look at the paper and the data with a critical eye.
  2. I learned that it is important to look up terms I don't know immediately because it really helped to understand what was being explained. I also learned that in some papers the author tries to fit as much information into one sentence in the most concise way possible which means that it can sometimes be really unclear and takes a lot of time to decipher. However, I found that it is these sentences that seem to be the most important to understand because they pack so much information in even though it was very frustrating at times.
  3. I understand the assignment pretty well although I would like to spend more time learning the immunological mechanisms involved in fighting viruses. I also couldn't find seroconversion as word in the biological dictionaries and had to go to an outside source. Angela A. Garibaldi 23:46, 7 February 2010 (EST)

Alex George



J'aime Moehlman

  1. What was the purpose of this assignment? The main purpose of this assignment was to be able to navigate a research database and search for an article or topic that we are interested in. It also helped us learn how to analyze someones research.
  2. What did I learn from this assignment (head, hands, heart)? I learned how to properly analyze and summarize a research article. I also learned how to use the PubMed database in order to find something specific that I was looking for. This assignment was actually really helpful and I think that studying HIV over the course of this class is going to be something I really enjoy.
  3. What did I not understand (yet) about this assignment? This assingment was pretty straight forward, the only thing I can think of that I don't quite understand fully is how to use google scholar or the ISI research database.

J'aime C. Moehlman 22:37, 7 February 2010 (EST)

KP Ramirez

  1. The purpose of this assignment really reinforced how bioinformatics is used in the scientific community. Biological databases like PubMed serve as the forefront for new developments in studies on diseases and genomics. This session allowed everyone in class to practice actually using the databases, including specifying the searches and relevance.
  2. From this assignment I learned how to navigate through databases and analyze research articles. It was also a good experience to use the ISI Web of Knowledge that is utilized at LMU. We began to understand more about HIV-1 through our article including background information as well as how it attacks the CD4 T cells in the body. This was the introduction to our first large assignment.
  3. What I didn't understand (yet) was figures 3-4 in the article. But other then that this assignment went very well.

Individual week 3

Michael Piña

  1. What was the purpose of this assignment?
    • The purpose of this weeks assignment was to begin familiarizing ourselves both with biological databases and scientific literature.
    • With my head, I got quite a bit of practice going through a primary source. Often times I find myself skimming through these types of articles because I have hard time trying to decipher through the information that is presented because its so densely written. Allowing myself to take time with the article and summarize it in my own words allowed for greater absorption of the material.
    • With my hands I learned how to navigate myself through PubMed and how to better narrow down my searches to find something thats more relevant to what I'm looking for.
    • With my heart I learned that I am not as fast with reading through articles as I would like to be and it is something that I would like to improve upon in the future.
    • I didn't completely understand the methods section of the article, though I believe that I got the gist of it.

Individual Week 3

Janelle N. Ruiz

  1. What was the purpose of this assignment? The purpose of this assignment was to get us to start thinking about HIV and what we already might know about the virus, what we do not already know, and what we would like to know. It also allowed us to become comfortable with online databases such as PubMed.
  2. What did I learn from this assignment (head, hands, heart)? I learned how to navigate the online database Web of Science, which I have never used before (never even knew it existed). I also learned that it is useful to use more than one database for a give search. It was interesting to see the vast differences in interest among my classmates in terms of which review articles they selected. I got some indight into the diversity of our class in terms of background and interest.
  3. What did I not understand (yet) about this assignment? I did not understand the last in-class question as well as I should have and had to ask for help from Kevin.

Janelle N. Ruiz 22:59, 7 February 2010 (EST)

Janelle N. Ruiz Assignment 3

Bobak Seddighzadeh

  3. What did I not understand (yet) about this assignment? The assignment is very clear for the most part. What I did not understand though was Table 1. I didn't understand how the non-progressors had some of the smallest CD4 T cell count. That seems counterintuitive.

Amanda Wavrin


Ryan Willhite

  1. What was the purpose of this assignment?


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